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New information in FaB and it's implications for the novels/novellas


Maia

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On 12/30/2018 at 6:33 PM, The Coconut God said:

That would be me. :D Here's the link if anyone is interested in reading the whole thing.

This is very interesting - maybe the fire parasites were only even able to develop as far as they did in Aerea because she was "blood of the dragon"? But either way it is quite unclear how the maesters could have kept the things alive for several decades. Maybe something like that could have been obtained in Asshai, though... Who knows what is in the Shadowlands, after all?

Also, the whole notion of younger dragons becoming smaller is a bit doubtful now that we know that a lot of them were quite young when they were killed during the Dance. For all we know some of them could have grown as large as Balerion, given enough time. Syrax, in particular, was said to be quite big and she was, what, 30 and change at most?  Also, we now know that dragons of the same age can be rather diverse - some are brawny, some are more lanky, some prefer sheep, others prefer fish and like to dive, etc.

Only the dragons who are going to hatch after the Dance are likely to be truly stunted, IMHO.

Anyway, there are a couple of interesting dwarf foreshadowings in FaB - first the fool Turnip(?) trying to mount the Iron Throne and severely injuring himself, while Tyrion didn't have any such problems. And second, Mushroom allegedly attempting to mount Silverwing and getting his pants set on fire for his effort - IIRC a lot of people had said that it would be flat out impossible for Tyrion to even try because of his dwarfism :P .

It is also quite interesting that "cruel" winters can be relatively short, like the one of 59 - 60 AC and still exact terrible toll on the North if the Autumn harvests fail - what does it presage for the North in the series, which was both exceptionally unprepared - IIRC many lords were setting aside less than quarter of the last harvest back in ACoK, is still in grip of war and with no Autumn to speak off? IMHO, the perspectives are very grim indeed.

 

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On 11/30/2018 at 2:44 AM, The Sleeper said:

"When the hammer shall fall upon the dragon, a new king shall arise, and none shall stand before him.”

This particular prophesy was told about Hugh th Hammer, yet we do have such an instance in the main series where this occurred both figuratively and literally, Robert's hammer fell on the ruby dragon on Rhaegar's breastplate. Robert ascended more of less uncontested after that.

Like most prophecies in the series they are general enough that they could be fulfilled multiple times over.  I think this one is going to be fulfilled 3 times. 

  • 1st - Hugh
  • 2nd - Robert
  • 3rd - Gendry

The name Hugh the Hammer is a clue - Ned wanting to pay for Ser Hugh's armor is what led him to find Gendry

Ulf the White - Norse word for "wolf" is "ulf" - so White Wolf (Jon).

Textual clues for bulls vs. fire in the main story is also a clue: "Through the slits of his helm, the Bull’s eyes shone with reflected fire.” (Arya, ACOK). Rhaegal eats a bull when Quentyn comes to see the dragons. Vermithor eats a bull when Jaehaerys is threatening Rogar (who is described as muscled like a bull) Sidenote: I dont think its a coincidence that Gendry's warhammer has a very large stag sigil on it, for the show

My guess from all of this is that Dany kills Gendry because she thinks she needs to kill a Baratheon, and this angers Jon so much that he rises as king.

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5 hours ago, Maia said:

This is very interesting - maybe the fire parasites were only even able to develop as far as they did in Aerea because she was "blood of the dragon"? But either way it is quite unclear how the maesters could have kept the things alive for several decades. Maybe something like that could have been obtained in Asshai, though... Who knows what is in the Shadowlands, after all?

That's something I considered for sure, but ultimately I thought it would have been too difficult for the maesters to maintain multiple generations of worms if that was the case (not impossible, but quite a stretch). There's always the possibility that the eggs of these creatures are like dragon eggs and can survive for decades or centuries before hatching. In that case, the only requirement would have been to recover some from Balerion or Aerea, but it would also imply a limited supply.

6 hours ago, Maia said:

Also, the whole notion of younger dragons becoming smaller is a bit doubtful now that we know that a lot of them were quite young when they were killed during the Dance. For all we know some of them could have grown as large as Balerion, given enough time. Syrax, in particular, was said to be quite big and she was, what, 30 and change at most?  Also, we now know that dragons of the same age can be rather diverse - some are brawny, some are more lanky, some prefer sheep, others prefer fish and like to dive, etc.

Only the dragons who are going to hatch after the Dance are likely to be truly stunted, IMHO.

Yes, only the younger dragons were stunted. That's why I assumed they only infected them after the Dance already culled a big chunk of their population, basically sealing the extinction rather than causing it in its entirety. This scenario would work fairly well with the limited supply approach (though there is a chance they could have gotten more after each dragon died).

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