Who is the 3EC?

[Morte]

Brynden Rivers.

[Beren_One_Hand]

Bran. Whenever the 3 eyed crow “speaks” to Bran in his dreams it is always in italics. Martin uses italics for thoughts, therefore Bran is speaking to himself as the 3 eyed crow. I believe it is an older Bran in the future reaching out to his past self through the weirnet.

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, Bael's Bastard said:

Brynden Rivers. There is no support for the idea that it is anyone else. 

There is. The 3EC is, most likely, based on characters from British mythology, such as Morgana le Fay (which means Morgan the Fairy); water fairy Nimue, the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legends (she's the one who has binded wizard Merlin to a tree in a cave; probably, it's how Bloodraven ended up in that cave - Shiera set him up); and Irish goddess Morrigan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morrígan

In ASOIAF there's House Morrigen, and their castle is Crow's Nest. This can't be a coincidence. GRRM obviously knows British mithology, and uses it in his books.

Morrigan is a queen of phantoms and a Battle Crow. Shiera Seastar is a shadowbinder Quaithe, so she is sort of like queen of phantoms, same as Morrigan. Shiera is bloodrelated to Bloodraven, and in ASOIAF there's a saying, that "The crow is the raven's poor cousin." <- maester Aemon said this to Jon in AGOT. Shiera is Bloodraven's younger half-sister, so if he is a raven, then she is a crow. And he is a raven, not a crow. Because his nickname is Bloodraven, his mother's family (Blackwoods) is from Raventree's Hall, and he is warging into ravens, not crows, in the Childrens' cave. Also name Morgana is translated from Old Welsh as "Sea-born", and Shiera's name is Sea-star. And there's also wildling witch Morna, who is wearing a wooden mask, same as Quaithe, so Morna's name and her mask is a clue, that Quaithe is Shiera Seastar. And there's another, less obvious clue - Walder Frey's fifth wife, Alyssa Blackwood (Bloodraven's relative thru his mother's side), had a daughter named Morya, so it's one more connection between Bloodraven and a woman with Mor/Sea-name.

So Bloodraven is not the 3EC, but there are clues in the books, that him and the 3EC are bloodrelated, same as crow and raven in the saying "The crow is the raven's poor cousin".

[Bael's Bastard]

You should consider writing your own fantasy books, considering pretty much every theory you post is completely detached from anything in the books, other than peppering them with names of characters in the books. GRRM may be influenced by many different sources, historical or fictional, but he is writing his own story, not just regurgitating others, let alone amateur interpretations of those stories.

[The BlackBear]

Ethan Carter III obviously

[Legitimate_Bastard]

Bryndren Rivers, for now. Soon to be Bran.

But who was it before Brynden?

That is what I want to know.

I think the 3ec is some sort of incarnation of the OG's. Go ahead and laugh!!

[The Fattest Leech]

2 hours ago, Megorova said:

There is.

There isn't.

2 hours ago, Megorova said:

The 3EC is, most likely, based on characters from British mythology, such as Morgana le Fay (which means Morgan the Fairy); water fairy Nimue, the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legends (she's the one who has binded wizard Merlin to a tree in a cave; probably, it's how Bloodraven ended up in that cave - Shiera set him up)

Except, based directly on works from GRRM in the past, what you claim here is categorically untrue. GRRM has used Morgan Le Fay, by name, in another story, and Melisandre is basically a rework of this same character with a name change. Over his own writing career, GRRM has developed and used a Bloodraven character that he likes to rework and reuse often, and I can tell you that large bit of inspiration for Lord Brynden Rivers is Lord Byron. But even still, GRRM is not rewriting Byron as a 1:1 character.

I am not sure if you think GRRM is so unoriginal that he can't craft his own stories or not, because you often make it sound like GRRM is just repeatedly plagiarizing other authors at whim... and barely disguising it.

 

[The Fattest Leech]

17 hours ago, Aline de Gavrillac said:

The number three has a very strong connection to Daenerys Targaryen and a weak connection to Bran Stark. 

17 hours ago, Aline de Gavrillac said:

The 3 eyed raven is a thing of the weirwoods and northern lore.  It is not an Eastern myth.  Therefore, I will have to say it is connected to Bran.  Brynden Rivers.  

Who? I checked the books and I couldn't find any 3 eyed raven

[The Fattest Leech]

23 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

So... Who is the 3EC?

 

Euron.

No, wait, Gilbert Farwynd.

No, wait... Howland Reed.

Hot Pie.

Am I getting closer?

Yes, just japing around . Serious talk now:

I guess I would have to put in a vote that the 3EC is Brynden Bloodraven Rivers. Bran is in training to be the next Sea Lord, the next three-eyed crow.

I do like the idea that three-eyed crow could just be a title for the old gods god/force/fifth element/whateve's. Maybe this is another case of different regional name for the same being?

Funny story (no, it isn't). A long time ago in a forum far, far away, @Prince of the North (I believe) had to give me a few clouts in the ear, setting me straight on who... 

Spoiler

Maynard Plumm actually is. I soooo wanted Maynard to be a loyal Raven's Tooth, but nope, that moonstone was working just too hard to deny it any further

 

[Leo of House Cartel]

1 hour ago, The BlackBear said:

Ethan Carter III obviously

Nah, it was EC1, or EC2  

To the OP, I'll go with Rivers, as someone else being revealed the 3EC might feel a bit shoe horned in as we head into the final 2 books.

Unless the 3EC is actually some "big bad" character who leads the Others, I really couldn't see it being anyone besides Brynden.

I do like the idea of a time travelling Bran, but don't know if such elements would really fit with the story.

Shiera Seastar, while certainly a character I'd love to see explored further, is another one I'd find odd being revealed as the Three Eyed Crow - always felt that her being behind the red laquered mask of Quiathe was more likely, if we go by the logic that BR's partner in crime followed him into dues ex machina territory, but even that's an idea I'm not yet fully behind.

Perhaps the "Him" referenced by Euron? Mr. Greyjoy is the "Crow's Eye", after all, and there is that "tall tower" remark, which certainly hints at a Bran parallel. A cool idea, one which would certainly up the stakes of the Iron Born arc, but I can't go for it just yet, as we really don't have anything solid to sink our teeth into.

How about something ridiculous like the Three Eyed Crow being revealed to be an actual crow? Like one of the birds who have a Singer inside of them? 

 

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, Leo of House Cartel said:

Shiera Seastar, while certainly a character I'd love to see explored further, is another one I'd find odd being revealed as the Three Eyed Crow - always felt that her being behind the red laquered mask of Quiathe was more likely,

Shiera Seastar could be both - Quaithe and the Three-eyed Crow.

1 hour ago, Leo of House Cartel said:

Perhaps the "Him" referenced by Euron? Mr. Greyjoy is the "Crow's Eye"

Euron could be Shiera's spy, that's why he is Crow's Eye.

In this two scenes, it's possible, that the ghost kings with Dany, and the shadow in a woman's form with Euron, is Shiera-Quaithe-3EC with a glass candle in her hands:

"Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. "Faster," they cried, "faster, faster." She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. "Faster!" the ghosts cried as one" - AGOT, Dany IX.

"He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire." - TWOW, The Forsaken, Aeron I.

Also in the same chapter - "the priest saw that it was not Urri but Euron, the smiling eye hidden. He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible."

And this could be hints, that Shiera Seastar is a shadowbinder, and a user of blood magic (so Euron's blood eye (who is the Crow's Eye) is a clue, that point to Shiera, who is the 3EC):

" "You've known queens and princesses. Did they dance with demons and practice the black arts?" "Lady Shiera does. Lord Bloodraven's paramour. She bathes in blood to keep her beauty." - The Sworn Sword.

The Mystery Knight - "Through the rain, all he could make out was a hooded shape and a single pale white eye. It was only when the man came forward that the shadowed face beneath the cowl took on the familiar features of Ser Maynard Plumm, the pale eye no more than the moonstone brooch that pinned his cloak at the shoulder. ... This close, there was something queer about the cast of Ser Maynard's features. The longer Dunk looked, the less he seemed to see."

<- doesn't it looks similar to Mance's/Rattleshirt's shadow-glamour, created by Melisandre, and casted on him thru ruby bracelet? Mel used ruby bracelet, Shiera used moonstone brooch. In both cases, the one, who is wearing magic artefact, is not the one, who has casted that magic.

And this is a clue, that Quiathe was present in Drogo's tent, when Dany was giving birth to Rhaego:

ADWD, Dany X: " "Quaithe?" Dany called. "Where are you, Quaithe?" Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight. "Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "

AGOT, Dany IX: "Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. "Home," she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame." <- Smiling stars in the daylight sky could be Quaithe, and the stars suddenly were gone, and instead of them appeared great wings and fire, because Quaithe took off her "starlight mask" and Dany saw, that Quaithe is a dragonseed/Valyrian, and that she has mismatched eyes, blue and green (like opal, tourmaline, amethyst and jade eyes of ghost kings). And those ghost kings, that had blue and green eyes, cried as one, because they are ONE person.

It's my interpretation of those elements from the books, so I could be wrong. But I won't be surprised, if in later books it will be revealed, that Quaithe is indeed Shiera Seastar, and the 3EC, and that she was with Dany in AGOT, when Dany was giving birth to Rhaego (that's why Rhaego is actually alive, because Shiera, who was Mirri Maz Duur's teacher at Asshai, has saved him).

Just because it's more obvious, that Shiera Seastar is Quaithe, it doesn't mean, that she also can't be someone else, such as the 3EC. One doesn't exclude the other.

4 hours ago, Bael's Bastard said:

You should consider writing your own fantasy books, considering pretty much every theory you post is completely detached from anything in the books

I'm not writing fan-fiction, my theories are based on clues given in the books. Just because you and majority of other readers don't see those clues for what they are, doesn't mean, that I'm making them up. Though I could be wrong. We'll see

[kissdbyfire]

@JNR, I think the heart tree and the 3EC are dream manifestations of OG and BR. I don’t think that just because Bran sees both the tree and the crow, that it rules out anything/anyone. 

The main argument I see being used to support the idea that Bloodraven is not the 3EC is the bit you quoted where BR seems to not remember/understand what Bran is asking him. I have to say, I have never had any issues w/ that scene whatsoever, and it’s never made me doubt that Bloodraven is the 3EC. Here’s why...

“Are you the three-eyed crow?” Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
“A … crow?” The pale lord’s voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. “Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood.” The clothes he wore were rotten and faded, spotted with moss and eaten through with worms, but once they had been black. “I have been many things, Bran. Now I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams.”

<snip>

“Most of him has gone into the tree,” explained the singer Meera called Leaf. “He has lived beyond his mortal span, and yet he lingers. For us, for you, for the realms of men. Only a little strength remains in his flesh. He has a thousand eyes and one, but there is much to watch. One day you will know.”

 

I find his hesitation perfectly natural. Same goes for his foggy memory... He should be dead, but he had to wait, he had to linger... and it’s being hooked up to the heart tree that allows him to do so. 

So, I don’t really see anything that would make me think he isn’t the 3EC. And again, as with so much else, there’s room to question this only because that’s how Martin rolls. And why we love him.

 

[Clegane'sPup]

2 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

setting me straight on who Maynard Plumm actually is.

The regular uniformed disinterested in buying extra material readers of the saga (five books published) have no idea that the magical Maynard of the short stories may actually be BR/Brynden Rivers.

[kissdbyfire]

@Megorova, I know we have talked about this before, but... you just make assumptions upon assumptions and run w/ them as if they’re fact. They’re not. And for the most part, not only all of them require copious amounts of mental gymnastics, but it’s diffcult to even understand why you thought of that in the first place. 

Either you will be the only person on the planet to get things right, or you will be way, way off for the most part. As of right now, I lean towards the latter.

[The Fattest Leech]

10 minutes ago, Clegane'sPup said:

The regular uniformed disinterested in buying extra material readers of the saga (five books published) have no idea that the magical Maynard of the short stories may actually be BR/Brynden Rivers.

I secret eyed the last bit. Sometimes it slips my mind that not everyone has been there yet. 

[Clegane'sPup]

19 minutes ago, Clegane'sPup said:

The regular uniformed disinterested in buying extra material readers of the saga (five books published) have no idea that the magical Maynard of the short stories may actually be BR/Brynden Rivers.

Martin hit main stream with HBO.

6 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I secret eyed the last bit. Sometimes it slips my mind that not everyone has been there yet. 

My point is darling, ASOIAF is not a stand alone tale.

[kissdbyfire]

15 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I secret eyed the last bit. Sometimes it slips my mind that not everyone has been there yet

Godspeed to them all! I sooooooo adore D&E!

And true story, the whole Maynard Plumm bit had me so psyched it was ridiculous.

[Clegane'sPup]

5 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

And true story, the whole Maynard Plumm bit had me so psyched it was ridiculous.

Not joking round.

I am asking, you think martin's short stories that were combined into the KotSK have no relevance to the story proper?

 

[kissdbyfire]

12 minutes ago, Clegane'sPup said:

Not joking round.

I am asking, you think martin's short stories that were combined into the KotSK have no relevance to the story proper?

 

No. I think there are many tidbits in the D&E stories that “fit” nicely into the main saga. Clues, and bits of information, that sort of thing. But I still think that when all is said and done, they won’t be necessary for the reader to puzzle things out.  

[Clegane'sPup]

10 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

No. I think there are many tidbits in the D&E stories that “fit” nicely into the main saga. Clues, and bits of information, that sort of thing. But I still think that when all is said and done, they won’t be necessary for the reader to puzzle things out.  

Jolly good chap. Guess all readers need of martin is that he finishes the saga.

Honestly,

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

The main argument I see being used to support the idea that Bloodraven is not the 3EC is the bit you quoted where BR seems to not remember/understand what Bran is asking him. I have to say, I have never had any issues w/ that scene whatsoever, and it’s never made me doubt that Bloodraven is the 3EC. Here’s why...