Wow, I never noticed that v.17

[Seams]

5 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Copper is shiny and nice to look upon but not worth much.

You just pointed out that Melisandre's hair is copper color, too. The "worth" may not be in terms of monetary value but symbolic meaning.

[Corvo the Crow]

2 hours ago, Seams said:

You just pointed out that Melisandre's hair is copper color, too. The "worth" may not be in terms of monetary value but symbolic meaning.

Nice catch. Her glamours for example fabulous to look upon but too costly for the price she pays(they take too much effort she was relieved when Jon killed Mance of Bones)

[Universal Sword Donor]

8 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Oh it's not him who brings it up, but should Ned be talked to about such things of little value as coppers when he has a third of the realm to manage?

But perhaps it's also one of those idioms George made up.

Idiom is my take

[Tagganaro]

Just noticed this beauty in ADWD when Jon is touring the tunnels and reviewing rations with Bowen Marsh.  Jon says to Bowen in reply to him saying we should go on winter rations:

Quote

"If we must.  We'll cut each man's portion by a quarter."

Of course as we know later on, Jon's "portion" is cut in quarters, one of which is Bowen Marsh.  

[The Sleeper]

On 6/27/2018 at 7:14 PM, Lollygag said:

I have my doubts as to whether it's fire magic at all. Beric in the weirwood roots, that a Ned proxy was spontaneously resurrected who later was compelled to raise Ned's wife against all logic. Why would R'hllor want to raise Starks (or Stark proxies) who keep the old gods? Weirwoods are red and white, Ghost is red and white, Mel is red and white, Bloodraven is red and white, the Ghost of High Heart is red and white...I'm not sure what's going on, but the connections are odd.

 

ACOK Prologue

 

"Maester," said Lady Melisandre, her deep voice flavored with the music of the Jade Sea. "You ought take more care." As ever, she wore red head to heel, a long loose gown of flowing silk as bright as fire, with dagged sleeves and deep slashes in the bodice that showed glimpses of a darker bloodred fabric beneath. Around her throat was a red gold choker tighter than any maester's chain, ornamented with a single great ruby. Her hair was not the orange or strawberry color of common red-haired men, but a deep burnished copper that shone in the light of the torches. Even her eyes were red . . . but her skin was smooth and white, unblemished, pale as cream. Slender she was, graceful, taller than most knights, with full breasts and narrow waist and a heart-shaped face. Men's eyes that once found her did not quickly look away, not even a maester's eyes. Many called her beautiful. She was not beautiful. She was red, and terrible, and red.

 

 

 

ASOS Jon XII

 

Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre's. He had a weirwood's eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one.

 

 

 

ASOS Arya IV

 

Beside the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled black cane. Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground. When the wind gusted it blew about her head in a fine cloud. Her flesh was whiter, the color of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.

 

 

 

 

 

On 6/27/2018 at 7:54 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

A year ago, I would have argued that the power that animated Beric and Catelyn came from the Old Gods. Now I am not so sure. 

The one who raised Lady Stoneheart is Arya. She extracted an oath from Beric to be reunited with her mother and as Nymeria fished her out of the river for Beric to find. As Thoros refused to give the kiss of fire, Beric had no other way to keep his oath but to pass his fire on.

"Rise and live and run with us"

[Corvo the Crow]

Some Ned&Ashara

 

Quote

 

"My father was Ser Arthur's elder brother. Lady Ashara was my aunt. I never knew her, though. She threw herself into the sea from atop the Palestone Sword before I was born."

"Why would she do that?" said Arya, startled.

Ned looked wary. Maybe he was afraid that she was going to throw something at him. "Your lord father never spoke of her?" he said. "The Lady Ashara Dayne, of Starfall?"

"No. Did he know her?"

"Before Robert was king. She met your father and his brothers at Harrenhal, during the year of the false spring."

 

Quote

"It has a name, does it?" Her father sighed. "Ah, Arya. You have a wildness in you, child. 'The wolf blood,' my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave." Arya heard sadness in his voice; he did not often speak of his father, or of the brother and sister who had died before she was born. "Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her."

 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

3 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Some Ned&Ashara

I don't get what the two quotes have to do with each other.

[Lollygag]

8 hours ago, The Sleeper said:

 

The one who raised Lady Stoneheart is Arya. She extracted an oath from Beric to be reunited with her mother and as Nymeria fished her out of the river for Beric to find. As Thoros refused to give the kiss of fire, Beric had no other way to keep his oath but to pass his fire on.

"Rise and live and run with us" 

I love this. Also a great example of be careful what you wish for.

It leaves an interesting implication that Beric as whatever he is is strangely compelled to literal orders and that Arya wouldn't get her real mother back, wouldn't want this mother back, and wouldn't want to see her mother back if it meant she suffered may not even factor into his needing to keep the oath. Hmmm.

[Lost Melnibonean]

17 hours ago, The Sleeper said:

 

The one who raised Lady Stoneheart is Arya. She extracted an oath from Beric to be reunited with her mother and as Nymeria fished her out of the river for Beric to find. As Thoros refused to give the kiss of fire, Beric had no other way to keep his oath but to pass his fire on.

"Rise and live and run with us"

Which is an especially interesting take on it since Arya is learning to give the gift of death, not life. 

[fire&blood]

On ‎6‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 9:28 AM, Lollygag said:

Reminds me of the grey-green sentinels and the soldier pines. The grey-green sentinels especially get mentioned along with weirwoods.

I was going to say the same thing.

[Corvo the Crow]

Victarion... his thoughts of himself and "his" achievements

Quote

 

"Rodrik has no daughters, only books. Hotho will be his heir, and I will be the king." Once he had said the words aloud, they sounded true. "The Crow's Eye has been too long away."

"Some men look larger at a distance," Asha warned. "Walk amongst the cookfires if you dare, and listen. They are not telling tales of your strength, nor of my famous beauty. They talk only of the Crow's Eye; the far places he has seen, the women he has rapedand the men he's killed, the cities he has sacked, the way he burnt Lord Tywin's fleet at Lannisport . . ."

"I burnt the lion's fleet," Victarion insisted. "With mine own hands I flung the first torch onto his flagship."

 

The reality

Quote

 

"Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet, and a fearsome warrior. I have heard them sing of him in the alehouses."

"During my lord father's rebellion, he sailed into Lannisport with my uncle Euron and burned the Lannister fleet where it lay at anchor," Theon recalled. "The plan was Euron's, though. Victarion is like some great grey bullock, strong and tireless and dutiful, but not like to win any races. No doubt, he'll serve me as loyally as he has served my lord father. He has neither the wits nor the ambition to plot betrayal."

 

[Dohor]

I wonder if this was intentional, but it's a great pun anyway:

She turned her back on him, her skirts swirling. I cannot bear to see his face. (ASOS Daenerys VI)

[Walda]

I was thinking of all the people the White Walkers had killed. And I realised that really, we have only seen them kill two people.

Waymar Royce.

Quote

Then Royce’s parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar’s fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red.
The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.
Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. “For Robert!” he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other’s parry was almost lazy.
When the blades touched, the steel shattered.
A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking, and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers.
The watchers moved forward together, as if some signal had been given. Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk. Will closed his eyes.

(AGoT, Prologue)

Ser Waymar dies on his knees. And Will rises from his knees, sword in hand when wighted Waymar kills him.

Quote

 Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.
... Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.
His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.
The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.
The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.

(AGoT, Prologue)

While words like 'butchery' and 'sliced' imply Waymar was dismembered, it is clear he has feet to stand on, hands to strangle, and a head where it should be to look down on Will and see him.

Small Paul is also killed by a stabbing sword, in spite of slicing language. He dies sliding up a sword and tries to strangle his killer, a bit like Waymar (if we accept that Will killed Waymar by failing to warn him of the White Walkers). He also drops the weapon his is holding and falls to his knees, a bit like Will.

Quote

the Other was light as snow on the wind. It slid away from Paul’s axe, armor rippling, and its crystal sword twisted and spun and slipped between the iron rings of Paul’s mail, through leather and wool and bone and flesh. It came out his back with a hissssssssssss and Sam heard Paul say, “Oh,” as he lost the axe. Impaled, his blood smoking around the sword, the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell. The weight of him tore the strange pale sword from the Other’s grip.

Everyone else is killed by wights, wights from the bodies of men killed by other wights, human and animal, or by men, or misadventure, or animals. Not by White Walkers with their blue glass swords.

Except perhaps the wildlings that Will observed, two propped up against a rock, one up a tree, most fallen, one fallen with an iron axe close at hand (swords, iron double-headed axe, not typical wildling weapons, except the bows). We still don't really know what killed them. The presence of the Others was not in itself enough to freeze Will in the tree, like the wildling far-eyes. 

Later, wighted Small Paul

Quote

His fumbling fingers finally found the dagger, but when he slammed it up into the wight’s belly the point skidded off the iron links, and the blade went spinning from Sam’s hand. Small Paul’s fingers tightened inexorably, and began to twist. He’s going to rip my head off, Sam thought in despair. His throat felt frozen, his lungs on fire. He punched and pulled at the wight’s wrists, to no avail. He kicked Paul between the legs, uselessly. The world shrank to two blue stars, a terrible crushing pain, and a cold so fierce that his tears froze over his eyes. Sam squirmed and pulled, desperate … and then he lurched forward.
Small Paul was big and powerful, but Sam still outweighed him, and the wights were clumsy, he had seen that on the Fist. The sudden shift sent Paul staggering back a step, and the living man and the dead one went crashing down together. The impact knocked one hand from Sam’s throat, and he was able to suck in a quick breath of air before the icy black fingers returned. The taste of blood filled his mouth. He twisted his neck around, looking for his knife, and saw a dull orange glow. The fire! Only ember and ashes remained, but still … he could not breathe, or think … Sam wrenched himself sideways, pulling Paul with him … his arms flailed against the dirt floor, groping, reaching, scattering the ashes, until at last they found something hot … a chunk of charred wood, smouldering red and orange within the black … his fingers closed around it, and he smashed it into Paul’s mouth, so hard he felt teeth shatter.

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

Sam tried to stab Small Paul, like the Other had, but his blade was not sharp enough to cut through the mail. Now it is Sam that is trying to clutch at his throat, the way the Other did when the obsidian dagger was stuck there. But it is Small Paul that ends up with a fire in his throat.

I never noticed before, Sam grabbed the ember that was enough to burn Small Paul's face right up, but the ember does not burn Sam's hand. Did the warlocks of Qarth make Sam fireproof? Is there Targaryen blood in the Tarlys or the Florents? Or did GRRM intend to imply that the part of the coal that Sam grabbed was unburnt, hence his hand was insulated from the heat (while wights are as flammable as kindling?) Or perhaps he simply never thought of Sam's hand, and if he had, it would have burnt?

Also never really noticed that Small Paul got his raven, and could feed it after all

Quote

on one shoulder hunched a raven, pecking at his cheek, eating the dead white flesh.

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

or how Lark forshadowed it

Quote

“It’s a raven,” said Chett. “It eats corpses.”
Lark grinned. “His, might be?”

(ASoS, Prologue)

And a final thing I had not ever noticed before:

Quote

all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood.

(AGoT, Prologue)

The White Walkers are faceless. Or rather, Blue eyes. Eyes without a Face. (I'll stop with the '80's song titles now.)

[Tucu]

25 minutes ago, Walda said:

I was thinking of all the people the White Walkers had killed. And I realised that really, we have only seen them kill two people.

Waymar Royce.

(AGoT, Prologue)

Ser Waymar dies on his knees. And Will rises from his knees, sword in hand when wighted Waymar kills him.

(AGoT, Prologue)

While words like 'butchery' and 'sliced' imply Waymar was dismembered, it is clear he has feet to stand on, hands to strangle, and a head where it should be to look down on Will and see him.

Small Paul is also killed by a stabbing sword, in spite of slicing language. He dies sliding up a sword and tries to strangle his killer, a bit like Waymar (if we accept that Will killed Waymar by failing to warn him of the White Walkers). He also drops the weapon his is holding and falls to his knees, a bit like Will.

Everyone else is killed by wights, wights from the bodies of men killed by other wights, human and animal, or by men, or misadventure, or animals. Not by White Walkers with their blue glass swords.

Except perhaps the wildlings that Will observed, two propped up against a rock, one up a tree, most fallen, one fallen with an iron axe close at hand (swords, iron double-headed axe, not typical wildling weapons, except the bows). We still don't really know what killed them. The presence of the Others was not in itself enough to freeze Will in the tree, like the wildling far-eyes. 

Later, wighted Small Paul

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

Sam tried to stab Small Paul, like the Other had, but his blade was not sharp enough to cut through the mail. Now it is Sam that is trying to clutch at his throat, the way the Other did when the obsidian dagger was stuck there. But it is Small Paul that ends up with a fire in his throat.

I never noticed before, Sam grabbed the ember that was enough to burn Small Paul's face right up, but the ember does not burn Sam's hand. Did the warlocks of Qarth make Sam fireproof? Is there Targaryen blood in the Tarlys or the Florents? Or did GRRM intend to imply that the part of the coal that Sam grabbed was unburnt, hence his hand was insulated from the heat (while wights are as flammable as kindling?) Or perhaps he simply never thought of Sam's hand, and if he had, it would have burnt?

Also never really noticed that Small Paul got his raven, and could feed it after all

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

or how Lark forshadowed it

(ASoS, Prologue)

And a final thing I had not ever noticed before:

(AGoT, Prologue)

The White Walkers are faceless. Or rather, Blue eyes. Eyes without a Face. (I'll stop with the '80's song titles now.)

The WW are shadows ("white shadows") like the shadows created by Mel and they are faceless like the shadows in Ned's ToJ dream.

Cheeky GRRM tells us this through Daario:

Quote

"You are fighting shadows when you should be fighting the men who cast them" 

 

[Seams]

3 hours ago, Walda said:

I never noticed before, Sam grabbed the ember that was enough to burn Small Paul's face right up, but the ember does not burn Sam's hand. Did the warlocks of Qarth make Sam fireproof? Is there Targaryen blood in the Tarlys or the Florents?

 

3 hours ago, Tucu said:

The WW are shadows ("white shadows") like the shadows created by Mel and they are faceless like the shadows in Ned's ToJ dream.

Cheeky GRRM tells us this through Daario:

"You are fighting shadows when you should be fighting the men who cast them" 

I think you've picked up on an important detail, with Sam able to pick up the ember and not experience a burn. I know everyone hates the "fat pink mast" interlude but I believe GRRM's goal was to compare Sam to a mast, specifically a stiff mast with the resulting wordplay on mastiff, the nickname for Marwyn. I'm afraid it also links back to Theon's hunt for missing Starks after he takes Winterfell:

Once under the trees, the stony ground and fallen leaves made the trail harder to see, but by then Farlen’s red bitch had the scent. The rest of the dogs were close behind, the hounds sniffing and barking, a pair of monstrous mastiffs bringing up the rear. Their size and ferocity might make the difference against a cornered direwolf.

(Clash, Theon IV)

In the Stannis / Davos arc, Melisandre burns the wooden gods from the Dragonstone sept that were carved from the masts of boats that brought the Targaryens to Westeros from the old country. I'm not sure how the pieces fit yet, but there is something about the Targaryen heritage, the burning masts and Sam, the stiff mast.

Of course, many masts burn at the Blackwater and the mast snaps off of the ship carrying Tyrion and Penny and Ser Jorah. I think Theon may also be in the mix here, not only because he loses his own fat pink mast to Ramsay's torture, but because (he says) he probably conceives a baby with the captain's daughter on his crossing to Pyke. This is similar to Sam having sex with Gilly during the voyage to Oldtown.

Tucu's point about the shadows seems both spot on and related to the burning of the mast gods by Melisandre. The shadow babies aren't the only shadows with which she concerns herself - I think she likes fire because it casts shadows at night, which brings us back to her big ceremony to burn the masts / gods at Dragonstone. Recall, too, that she stages Stannis removing the flaming sword from the burning effigy (while wearing a glove) to try to reinforce the message that he is Azor Ahai. Maester Aemon later asks questions about the magic sword claimed by Stannis and determines that it is not the magic sword Melisandre would have everyone believe it to be.

So who has the real magic sword? I suspect it is one or the other of the dragonglass daggers possessed by Jon and Sam. Or maybe both. My bet would be on Sam, who we know is the Slayer.

I also think Davos will cast the third shadow, like Ser Galladon of Morne unsheathing the Just Maid sword only three times. Or he may already be the third shadow.

[Alexis-something-Rose]

4 hours ago, Tucu said:

The WW are shadows ("white shadows") like the shadows created by Mel and they are faceless like the shadows in Ned's ToJ dream.

It's unfortunate that we don't have everything that Maester Aemon tells Sam.

"Come with me," said Sam. "Maester Aemon's woken up and wants to hear about these dragons. He's talking about bleeding stars and white shadows and dreams and . . . if we could find out more about these dragons, it might help give him east. Help me." (Sam III, AFFC 26)

[Tucu]

1 hour ago, Widow's Watch said:

It's unfortunate that we don't have everything that Maester Aemon tells Sam.

"Come with me," said Sam. "Maester Aemon's woken up and wants to hear about these dragons. He's talking about bleeding stars and white shadows and dreams and . . . if we could find out more about these dragons, it might help give him east. Help me." (Sam III, AFFC 26)

The shadow theme runs deep in the books. We have the white shadows, the shadows in Mirri's ritual, Mel's shadow assassins, the shadows in Ned's ToJ dream and the Undying being described as blue shadows. We also have Ghost described as a white shadow (and belonging to the trees). Then there are Rhaegar and the KGs shades in Jamie's dream all armoured in snow like the white shadows.

There is also Patchface's rhyme: " The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord. The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord"

Not sure where GRRM is going with all these, but I am partial to the books being a ghost story more than a dark lord story.

 

[Lollygag]

AGOT Daenerys I

"Regal," Magister Illyrio said, stepping through an archway. He moved with surprising delicacy for such a massive man. Beneath loose garments of flame-colored silk, rolls of fat jiggled as he walked. Gemstones glittered on every finger, and his man had oiled his forked yellow beard until it shone like real gold. "May the Lord of Light shower you with blessings on this most fortunate day, Princess Daenerys," the magister said as he took her hand. He bowed his head, showing a thin glimpse of crooked yellow teeth through the gold of his beard. "She is a vision, Your Grace, a vision," he told her brother. "Drogo will be enraptured."

"She's too skinny," Viserys said. His hair, the same silver-blond as hers, had been pulled back tightly behind his head and fastened with a dragonbone brooch. It was a severe look that emphasized the hard, gaunt lines of his face. He rested his hand on the hilt of the sword that Illyrio had lent him, and said, "Are you sure that Khal Drogo likes his women this young?"

"She has had her blood. She is old enough for the khal," Illyrio told him, not for the first time. "Look at her. That silver-gold hair, those purple eyes … she is the blood of old Valyria, no doubt, no doubt … and highborn, daughter of the old king, sister to the new, she cannot fail to entrance our Drogo." When he released her hand, Daenerys found herself trembling.

"I suppose," her brother said doubtfully. "The savages have queer tastes. Boys, horses, sheep …"

"Best not suggest this to Khal Drogo," Illyrio said.

 

ADWD Tyrion II

"Dothraki neither buy nor sell. Say rather that her brother Viserys gave her to Drogo to win the khal's friendship. A vain young man, and greedy. Viserys lusted for his father's throne, but he lusted for Daenerys too, and was loath to give her up. The night before the princess wed he tried to steal into her bed, insisting that if he could not have her hand, he would claim her maidenhead. Had I not taken the precaution of posting guards upon her door, Viserys might have undone years of planning."

 

[Lost Melnibonean]

On 7/4/2018 at 11:46 AM, Walda said:

I was thinking of all the people the White Walkers had killed. And I realised that really, we have only seen them kill two people.

Waymar Royce.

(AGoT, Prologue)

Ser Waymar dies on his knees. And Will rises from his knees, sword in hand when wighted Waymar kills him.

(AGoT, Prologue)

While words like 'butchery' and 'sliced' imply Waymar was dismembered, it is clear he has feet to stand on, hands to strangle, and a head where it should be to look down on Will and see him.

Small Paul is also killed by a stabbing sword, in spite of slicing language. He dies sliding up a sword and tries to strangle his killer, a bit like Waymar (if we accept that Will killed Waymar by failing to warn him of the White Walkers). He also drops the weapon his is holding and falls to his knees, a bit like Will.

Everyone else is killed by wights, wights from the bodies of men killed by other wights, human and animal, or by men, or misadventure, or animals. Not by White Walkers with their blue glass swords.

Except perhaps the wildlings that Will observed, two propped up against a rock, one up a tree, most fallen, one fallen with an iron axe close at hand (swords, iron double-headed axe, not typical wildling weapons, except the bows). We still don't really know what killed them. The presence of the Others was not in itself enough to freeze Will in the tree, like the wildling far-eyes. 

Later, wighted Small Paul

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

Sam tried to stab Small Paul, like the Other had, but his blade was not sharp enough to cut through the mail. Now it is Sam that is trying to clutch at his throat, the way the Other did when the obsidian dagger was stuck there. But it is Small Paul that ends up with a fire in his throat.

I never noticed before, Sam grabbed the ember that was enough to burn Small Paul's face right up, but the ember does not burn Sam's hand. Did the warlocks of Qarth make Sam fireproof? Is there Targaryen blood in the Tarlys or the Florents? Or did GRRM intend to imply that the part of the coal that Sam grabbed was unburnt, hence his hand was insulated from the heat (while wights are as flammable as kindling?) Or perhaps he simply never thought of Sam's hand, and if he had, it would have burnt?

Also never really noticed that Small Paul got his raven, and could feed it after all

(ASoS, Ch.46 Samwell III)

or how Lark forshadowed it

(ASoS, Prologue)

And a final thing I had not ever noticed before:

(AGoT, Prologue)

The White Walkers are faceless. Or rather, Blue eyes. Eyes without a Face. (I'll stop with the '80's song titles now.)

Maybe Sam was wearing gloves? And maybe only one end of it was charred and still smoldering?

[Corvo the Crow]

 Hoster Tully was a restless man in his prime, always travelling and taking Cat, who was his heir for many years, with him also.

Quote

There is an inn at the crossroads up ahead," Catelyn told him. She had slept many a night there in her youth, traveling with her father. Lord Hoster Tully had been a restless man in his prime, always riding somewhere

But apparently not his unwed brother since he isn't mentioned as a part of these travels. So the Blackfish must have stayed home then. Same also applies forMinisa Whent, who gave her cheekbones to Catelyn according to Blackfish, who remembers her very well.

Quote

A Clash of Kings - Catelyn I

"Yes . . . but there is less and less sense to the things he says. He talks of his regrets, of unfinished tasks, of people long dead and times long past. Sometimes he does not know what season it is, or who I am. Once he called me by Mother's name."

"He misses her still," Ser Brynden answered. "You have her face. I can see it in your cheekbones, and your jaw . . ."

"You remember more of her than I do. It has been a long time." She seated herself on the bed and brushed away a strand of fine white hair that had fallen across her father's face.

 

Curiosly, Hoster has brown hair

Quote

Hoster Tully had always been a big man; tall and broad in his youth, portly as he grew older. Now he seemed shrunken, the muscle and meat melted off his bones. Even his face sagged. The last time Catelyn had seen him, his hair and beard had been brown, well streaked with grey. Now they had gone white as snow.

 

Whereas Tullys are known for their Auburn, including Blackfish

Quote

The years have not improved it, I fear," Brynden Tully said, but when he lifted off the helm, Catelyn saw that he lied. His features were lined and weathered, and time had stolen the auburn from his hair and left him only grey, but the smile was the same, and the bushy eyebrows fat as caterpillars, and the laughter in his deep blue eyes. 

 

He has also been more of a father to the Tully children than Hoster was

Quote

Nonetheless, during all those years of Catelyn's girlhood, it had been Brynden the Blackfish to whom Lord Hoster's children had run with their tears and their tales, when Father was too busy and Mother too ill. 

 

Conclusion, Tullies are Blackfishes bastards with Minisa Whent. Blackfish didn't marry because the woman he loved was married with his brother.