Another Look at Dany's HOTU visions

[Damon_Tor]

On 2/20/2019 at 3:18 PM, Megorova said:

I think, that the beautiful woman in that vision is 7K, and four little men are Stannis, Renly, Joffrey and Balon. But Robb was not among them. That's because out of five kings from the War, he was the only one, who went into war to save/avenge his family, not to get crown or Iron Throne. And also in Dany's visions he was depicted in the next room, he was the king with wolf's head, in the scene of Red Wedding. So four out of five kings were shown to Dany in first room, while the fifth king was in the next room. That scene is about War of four kings, excluding Robb.

If memory serves, Dany entered the house of the undying during a time when only four Kings had declared. If I recall correctly, it would have been Rob, Stannis, Renly and Joffrey. Balon declares later.

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, Damon_Tor said:

If memory serves, Dany entered the house of the undying during a time when only four Kings had declared. If I recall correctly, it would have been Rob, Stannis, Renly and Joffrey. Balon declares later.

It doesn't matter, what time was it outside of the House, and what was going on at that time in Westeros, who had already declared and who didn't, because what Dany saw, was a scene from the future, the otcome of the war - Robb killed on the Red Wedding, and 7K ravaged/raped by the war/4kings.

[The Commentator]

On 2/20/2019 at 2:12 AM, Wolfkin said:

While doing a reread I found this:

. . . the day he {Aerys} burned his mace-and-dagger Hand, Jaime and Jon Darry had stood at guard outside her bedchamber whilst the king took his pleasure. "You're hurting me," they had heard Rhaella cry through the oaken door. "You're hurting me." In some queer way, that had been worse than Lord Chelsted's screaming. "We are sworn to protect her as well," Jaime had finally been driven to say. "We are," Darry allowed, 'but not from him."

Jaime had only seen Rhaella once after that the morning of the day she left for Dragonstone. The queen had been cloaked and hooded as she climbed inside the royal wheelhouse that would take her down Aegon's High Hill to the waiting ship, but he heard her maids whispering after she was gone. They said the queen looked as if some beast had savaged her, clawing at her thighs and chewing on her breasts. A crowned beast, Jaime knew.
~aFfc, Jaime II

I'm not sure if this fits with the rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands like a servitor: 

But I could only come up with 3 pyromancers (not 4) that Jaime had mentioned: Rossart, Garigus, Belis (unless Aery's himself would be included) 

Too far off? Not enough textual evidence? 
I know there are many that think the 'beautiful woman' is Dany, and the rattish little things are the shades of the Undying, but she doesn't recognize herself as the 'beautiful woman'?
I'm new at posting theories, as I've mostly just asked questions, so please be gentle with your replies. Thank you
 

The visions are given in reverse chronological order.  The woman and the dwarves is a glimpse of the future.  This woman is, so far, not recognized by Dany. It’s not Queen Rhaella.  It could be the future of Sansa or Cersei.  

[TheSeason]

Cersei is the beautiful naked woman sprawled on the floor to be ravished.

In the House of the Undying Ones, Martin reveals to the reader the details and conclusions of the prophecy of ice and fire, that we might know what happens before it does. The major players in the prophecy of ice and fire are the liondragons/lying dragons (Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion; bastard children of Aerys II and Joanna Lannister, reared by Tywin Lannister and believing him to be their sire) and the true and trueborn dragons (Dany, Aegon, Jon Snow). Therefore, in the House of the Undying Ones, the visions we see pertain to these people, although oftentimes certain events of other characters greatly foreshadow and thereby mirror the prophetic destiny of these six (e.g., Robb Stark at the Red Wedding is often mistaken for Jon Snow at the Feast of the Dead revealed in the House of the Undying Ones because the Red Wedding is foreshadowing for Jon Snow’s upcoming Feast of the Dead).

This scene of the beautiful naked woman is a culmination of Cersei’s dragon dreams about her fate, as revealed to her by Maegi Spicer in the “Valonqar” prophecy. During that prophecy, Maegi Spicer is indeed speaking to Cersei as a “child of three,” just as the Undying Ones do to Dany in the House of the Undying Ones; that is, the prophecy given to Cersei equally applies to Jaime and Tyrion (who we see symbolically go with her to the maegi’s tent in the characters of Melara Hetherspoon and Jeyne Farman, who represent Jaime and Tyrion respectively). Jaime and Tyrion also have dragon dreams about their upcoming fateful meetings with their true and trueborn dragons too. The Iron Throne features largely in Cersei’s dragon dream in particular during her Feast/Dance arc. Tyrion provides us some additional information that brings the entire prophecy together for the reader.

 

We learn the fate of the three liondragons/lying dragons in Cersei’s dream of Maegi Spicer prior to the start of the dream at all, in a quote that is often clipped from the remainder of the scene but is just as important, giving quite a bit of expositional foreshadowing:

 

Spoiler

Cersei VIII, Feast

As night fell over the Red Keep, Jocelyn kindled a fire in the queen's hearth whilst Dorcas lit the bedside candles. Cersei opened the window for a breath of air, and found that the clouds had rolled back in to hide the stars. "Such a dark night, Your Grace," murmured Dorcas.

Aye, she thought, but not so dark as in the Maidenvault, or on Dragonstone where Loras Tyrell lies burned and bleeding, or down in the black cells beneath the castle. The queen did not know why that occurred to her. She had resolved not to give Falyse [Tyrion] another thought. Single combat. Falyse [Tyrion] should have known better than to marry such a fool [Sansa, who she believes helped him poison Joffrey]. The word from Stokeworth was that Lady Tanda [Ned Stark] had died of a chill in the chest, brought on by her broken hip. Lollys Lackwit [Sansa] had been proclaimed Lady Stokeworth [Lady of Winterfell], with Ser Bronn [Tyrion] her lord. Tanda dead and Gyles dying. It is well that we have Moon Boy, or the court would be entirely bereft of fools. The queen smiled as she lay her head upon the pillow. When I kissed her cheek, I could taste the salt of her tears.

She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death.

So, herein we find Cersei thinking of her fate and that of her brothers, come unbidden upon her. She will die weeping, locked in a tower cell (the Maidenvault) by a Targaryen king newly come to the throne (Baelor the Blessed=Aegon VI, blessed and anointed by the Faith of the Seven, as Cersei hopes for Tommen to be during her Feast/Dance arc).

We have coded references to the reason for Cersei’s demise (according at least to her), Tyrion, her brother. Foremost, we are reminded that Tyrion escaped the Black Cells. He went into the Black Cells convicted of regicide, a kinslaying kingslayer (like his brother Jaime), for the murder of Joffrey. He would have been convicted at a kangaroo court trial, but instead chose single combat, eventually winning Oberyn Martell for a champion because Cersei chooses Ser Gregor Clegane to be her champion (thereby putting in motion both of their fateful arcs).

She believes Tyrion poisoned Joffrey, her eldest son and false king, at his own wedding to Margaery Tyrell. Tyrion was claimed at his trial to have done so alongside his wife, Sansa Stark (who he took to wife in hopes to claim Winterfell, which everyone believes to be up for grabs). Joffrey was poisoned because Tyrion married Sansa in some ways (Littlefinger and the Tyrells both hoped to “free” Sansa of Tyrion so as to claim her for bride, for Robert Arryn/Harry the Heir/Baelish himself or for Willas Tyrell, which the Lannister thwarted with their shotgun wedding with Tyrion). He was also poisoned because Joffrey married Margaery Tyrell, however, and the Tyrells likewise wanted to “free” her of a lifetime saddled to that brute (thus, Garlan the Gallant, who does the deed, may feel he is righteous in his act and even in keeping his silence at Tyrion’s trial, by “gallantly” liberating two maidens in dire straits from tyrants; and, remember, Tyrion’s reputation precedes him in Westeros in all the wrong ways, so Garlan would have little reason to believe Tyrion intends to treat Sansa well, let alone that he is another “Lannister tyrant” holding her captive to claim her inheritance!). 

Then we come upon Maegi Spicer, where we learn that this fate was prophesied. We learn:

Spoiler

Cersei VIII, Feast

She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death.

The crone's tent was dark, with a tall peaked roof. She did not want to go in, no more than she had wanted to at ten, but the other girls were watching her, so she could not turn away. They were three in the dream, as they had been in life. Fat Jeyne Farman hung back as she always did. It was a wonder she had come this far. Melara Hetherspoon was bolder, older, and prettier, in a freckly sort of way. Wrapped in roughspun cloaks with their hoods pulled up, the three of them had stolen from their beds and crossed the tourney grounds to seek the sorceress. Melara had heard the serving girls whispering how she could curse a man or make him fall in love, summon demons and foretell the future.

In life the girls had been breathless and giddy, whispering to each other as they went, as excited as they were afraid. The dream was different. In the dream the pavilions were shadowed, and the knights and serving men they passed were made of mist. The girls wandered for a long while before they found the crone's tent. By the time they did all the torches were guttering out. Cersei watched the girls huddling, whispering to one another. Go back, she tried to tell them. Turn away. There is nothing here for you. But though she moved her mouth, no words came out.

Lord Tywin's daughter was the first through the flap, with Melara close behind her. Jeyne Farman came last, and tried to hide behind the other two, the way she always did.

The inside of the tent was full of smells. Cinnamon and nutmeg. Pepper, red and white and black. Almond milk and onions. Cloves and lemongrass and precious saffron, and stranger spices, rarer still. The only light came from an iron brazier shaped like a basilisk's head, a dim green light that made the walls of the tent look cold and dead and rotten. Had it been that way in life as well? Cersei could not seem to remember.

The sorceress was sleeping in the dream, as once she'd slept in life. Leave her be, the queen wanted to cry out. You little fools, never wake a sleeping sorceress. Without a tongue, she could only watch as the girl threw off her cloak, kicked the witch's bed, and said, "Wake up, we want our futures told."

When Maggy the Frog opened her eyes, Jeyne Farman gave a frightened squeak and fled the tent, plunging headlong back into the night. Plump stupid timid little Jeyne, pasty-faced and fat and scared of every shadow. She was the wise one, though. Jeyne lived on Fair Isle still. She had married one of her lord brother's bannermen and whelped a dozen children.

The old woman's eyes were yellow, and crusted all about with something vile. In Lannisport it was said that she had been young and beautiful when her husband had brought her back from the east with a load of spices, but age and evil had left their marks on her. She was short, squat, and warty, with pebbly greenish jowls. Her teeth were gone and her dugs hung down to her knees. You could smell sickness on her if you stood too close, and when she spoke her breath was strange and strong and foul. "Begone," she told the girls, in a croaking whisper.

***

Go, the dreaming queen thought, hold your tongue, and flee. But the girl did not have sense enough to be afraid.

"When will I wed the prince?" she asked.

"Never. You will wed the king."

Beneath her golden curls, the girl's face wrinkled up in puzzlement. For years after, she took those words to mean that she would not marry Rhaegar until after his father Aerys had died. "I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her.

"Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." Even then she would not stop, willful child as she was. She still had one more question due her, one more glimpse into her life to come. "Will the king and I have children?" she asked.

"Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you."

That made no sense to Cersei. Her thumb was throbbing where she'd cut it, and her blood was dripping on the carpet. How could that be? she wanted to ask, but she was done with her questions.

The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."

"What is a valonqar? Some monster?" The golden girl did not like that foretelling. "You're a liar and a warty frog and a smelly old savage, and I don't believe a word of what you say. Come away, Melara. She is not worth hearing."

"I get three questions too," her friend insisted. And when Cersei tugged upon her arm, she wriggled free and turned back to the crone. "Will I marry Jaime?" she blurted out.

You stupid girl, the queen thought, angry even now. Jaime does not even know you are alive. Back then her brother lived only for swords and dogs and horses . . . and for her, his twin.

"Not Jaime, nor any other man," said Maggy. "Worms will have your maidenhead. Your death is here tonight, little one. Can you smell her breath? She is very close."

"The only breath we smell is yours," said Cersei. There was a jar of some thick potion by her elbow, sitting on a table. She snatched it up and threw it into the old woman's eyes. In life the crone had screamed at them in some queer foreign tongue, and cursed them as they fled her tent. But in the dream her face dissolved, melting away into ribbons of grey mist until all that remained were two squinting yellow eyes, the eyes of death.

The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat, the queen heard, but the voice did not belong to the old woman. The hands emerged from the mists of her dream and coiled around her neck; thick hands, and strong. Above them floated his face, leering down at her with his mismatched eyes. No, the queen tried to cry out, but the dwarf's fingers dug deep into her neck, choking off her protests. She kicked and screamed to no avail. Before long she was making the same sound her son had made, the terrible thin sucking sound that marked Joff's last breath on earth.

She woke gasping in the dark with her blanket wound about her neck. Cersei wrenched it off so violently that it tore, and sat up with her breasts heaving. A dream, she told herself, an old dream and a tangled coverlet, that's all it was.

 

01.   The liondragons will rule “for a time;” Cersei will be queen and mother only bastards / Jaime will be kingsguard dragonknight but betray his vows to his kings / Tyrion will be Hand of the King but fail in his faith and service

02.   “Another” dragon who is “younger and more beautiful” will come to replace them: Aegon is “the younger and more beautiful dragon king” (with Margaery likely his wife and mother of his child!), a true king with trueborn heirs / Jon Snow is “the younger and more beautiful dragon knight,” a true knight who keeps his oaths / Dany is the good egg /the good queen / Nissa Nissa (mother of dragons) who already has her own “bear” Hand of the Queen (Jorah Mormont), a good true Hand and loyal

03.   The liondragons will lose “all [they] hold dear,” which means: Cersei will lose her crown and her children / Jaime will lose his sword hand and his freedom /Tyrion will lose his post and his power

04.   The liondragons will suffer for the crimes: Cersei will “drown in her tears” for her lost crown and children / Jaime will lose all hope of “honor and glory” and redemption (he breaks his oath to Catelyn Tully never to take up arms against Tully or Stark, which was his “last hope” as he himself notes, and fails to meaningfully aid Sansa in returning home or to safety—he sends Brienne on a wild goose chase), and will lose his freedom, become a captive in the Riverlands yet again / Tyrion will wander in exile a nobody, conniving to return to power and prestige, and become the monster he presumes everyone thinks him to be

05.   After suffering their losses and humiliations, the liondragons will die at the hands of the Valonqar (which means Bad(Rotten) Egg/Bad Hand (of the Queen/King)!): Cersei is thrown from a tower window by Jon Connington, Aegon’s Hand of the King; Jaime is cut down by Lady Stoneheart/Brienne in trial by combat, found guilty of all crimes, acting as Hand of the King in the Riverlands for an unwitting King of the North and the Trident, Jon Snow; Tyrion is killed by Jorah Mormont on Dragonstone.

 

Notes: Melara Hetherspoon (Jaime’s stand-in in the dream) inquires about marrying Jaime, but is told that marriage is not in her future (and, indeed, as a kingsguard dragon knight, Jaime takes an oath never to marry; Cersei even has some sort of hand in this arrangement, convincing him to forsake Casterly Rock for her). Cersei tries to control Melara tugging upon her arm (Jaime’s sword arm, which she presumes she can use to fend off any “younger and more beautiful” dragon come to cast her down and take all she holds dear), but is rebuffed (Jaime rebuffs Cersei’s pleas to defend her in Feast) instead. Jaime wriggles free of her (ironic, that he becomes a captive again in doing so) grasps to his arm (his sword arm, which he uses early in Game to “defend” Cersei’s honor by throwing Bran from the Broken Tower of Winterfell, and which he loses in Storm to the Brave Companions, his father’s own wild dogs of war! “Fair” recompense for his crimes, one might think, as he told Bran Stark to “take [his] hand” whilst extending his sword hand, thereby become cripple himself… except he goes on to raise his golden hand against Houses Stark and Tully, breaking his oath to Catelyn Tully Stark in doing so, and losing any hope of redemption thereafter; Melara has a chance to escape Maegi’s tent with her life, after all, but “turns back” as Jaime does—he could keep going forth down that lonely hard dark road, but “turns back” to Cersei in heading into the Riverlands to defend her and her throne, thereby “freeing” himself of her influence by far too late to be of any worth to himself. It's Melara’s inquiry about marrying Jaime what “angers” Cersei, and thereby the reason she kills her, as Maegi Spicer tells her “your death is here tonight… very close” and suggests she can “smell her breath” as if they were to kiss. Jaime “turns back” to his death upon King’s Landing, “wriggles free” of Cersei in the Riverlands too late, and has already set in motion the means by which he will be judged and killed by an “angry” woman, Lady Stoneheart, for “sending” her “his regards” at the Red Wedding, and for continuing to break his oaths to her by “taking up arms” against Tully and Stark for Cersei, his lover and twin sister.) Tyrion, meanwhile, in Jeyne Farman “hangs back” from the twins as always, and never even makes it into the tent to hear his morrows—fleeing instead (to Essos and into exile, chasing after dragons!), whereupon she later marries one of her brother’s bannermen and has many children, living a quiet and peaceful life—which is exactly what Cersei presumes Tyrion to be enjoying in his exile whilst sending his “rats” to her in King’s Landing to make her life miserable, plotting the deaths of her children and her. Tyrion, however, comes to his lowest point in the series—drunken, abusive, raper, suicidal, chaotic and meanspirited in his cunning—although he does many vile things in his reign as acting Hand of the King and since the start of Game. He’s obsessed with the peaceful fortnight he lived with his first wife, Tysha, always wondering “where do whores go” (to brothels, with their daughters, to follow in their wretched footsteps, apparently!) and rejects any sort of happiness that Penny might offer him because she’s an ugly dwarf like him. He becomes a fool, capering for the amusement of others, and seeking vengeance for being made so long hand-in-hand with his escape to power and freedom, trying desperately to climb back to the former heights of his glory… which he thinks was unfairly snatched away from him and without gratitude for his many contributions (although his successes in politics and even his loyalty to his king and queen regent are questionable). He dreams of peace and “eating olives” in Meereen (at Dany’s right hand as her premier advisor) but may die before ever tasting it. He’s too busy chasing frightful dragons and frightful vengeance, fancying himself the “cleverest” one of the three (or of them all) and yet partaking in the same dangerous activities and ambitions, reaching higher and farther than he should to grasp at things what were never meant to be his in the first place.

The three liondragons go seeking the sorceress to learn their morrows, promised three questions apiece so as to lay on the line themselves all they hold dear. Cersei gets all three (crown, children, Jaime), Jaime gets one but actions and exposition hint at others (sword, freedom and control of to use it as he will, and Cersei) and Tyrion gets none so his desires must be pieced together elsewise whole cloth (position and power and prestige, ruling Casterly Rock as its rightful lord, wife and children and peace). They each make their own beds to lie wretched upon, but take no responsibility for it, blaming some other. For example:

Spoiler

Cersei VII, Feast

Cersei did not care to think about Senelle. She repaid my kindness with betrayal. Sansa Stark had done the same. So had Melara Hetherspoon and fat Jeyne Farman when the three of them were girls. I would never have gone into that tent if not for them. I would never have allowed Maggy the Frog to taste my morrows in a drop of blood. "I would be very sad if you ever betrayed my trust, Taena. I would have no choice but to give you to Lord Qyburn, but I know that I should weep."

"I will never give you cause to weep, Your Grace. If I do, say the word, and I will give myself to Qyburn. I want only to be close to you. To serve you, however you require."

Taena here plays the role of a rat in Cersei’s court pretending to be a mere meek mouse, bowing and scraping to her whim, slavishly devoted to her (as Cersei wishes everyone to be), which is another important facet of Cersei’s damnation arc (out of the three liondragon damnation arcs), as we shall soon see.

We learn more of liondragon’s arc through visions and dragon dreams, especially their own, with other tidbits thrown in.

Spoiler

Cersei I, Feast

She dreamt she sat the Iron Throne, high above them all.

The courtiers were brightly colored mice below. Great lords and proud ladies knelt before her. Bold young knights laid their swords at her feet and pleaded for her favors, and the queen smiled down at them. Until the dwarf appeared as if from nowhere, pointing at her and howling with laughter. The lords and ladies began to chuckle too, hiding their smiles behind their hands. Only then did the queen realize she was naked.

Horrified, she tried to cover herself with her hands. The barbs and blades of the Iron Throne bit into her flesh as she crouched to hide her shame. Blood ran red down her legs, as steel teeth gnawed at her buttocks. When she tried to stand, her foot slipped through a gap in the twisted metal. The more she struggled the more the throne engulfed her, tearing chunks of flesh from her breasts and belly, slicing at her arms and legs until they were slick and red, glistening.

And all the while her brother capered below, laughing.

His merriment still echoed in her ears when she felt a light touch on her shoulder, and woke suddenly. For half a heartbeat the hand seemed part of the nightmare, and Cersei cried out, but it was only Senelle. The maid's face was white and frightened.

For Cersei, her dragon dream sequence is:

01.   Cersei dreams of herself seated high upon the Iron Throne, ruling in her own right, with the courtiers but colorful mice in silk below, bowing and scraping to her whim.

02.   Suddenly, Cersei realizes she’s naked on her throne (is stripped of power and prestige by the High Sparrow and her own uncle, Kevan, with the walk of atonement!) and the courtiers are all laughing at her. Suddenly, her brother Tyrion is below, a capering court monkey, mocking her nakedness. She tries to cover herself and cannot. She tries to flee and cannot.

03.   As she tries to flee, the Iron Throne begins “eating” her alive, “rejecting” her (according to the legend) and bites her in the breasts and the legs, tearing away chunks of her flesh as she yanks and yanks to free herself. Tyrion is still capering below and the “mice” are still laughing with him during her torment.

Is it not possible, then, that what we see in the House of the Undying Ones is the culmination of this dragon dream sequence? Cersei does manage to yank herself free of the Iron Throne’s twisted barbs, but topples naked from the throne as she does and sprawls about on the floor, whereupon Tyrion and his “rats” what once pretended to be meek mice in silk, bowing and scraping, descend upon her to have their vengeance, ravishing her.

We do know Tyrion dreams of “raping his sister” and has done so for a long time. We do know that Tyrion is capable of rape, even of those he ought to be protecting from harm—we have Tysha, his own wife, who he rapes in vengeance when thinking her a lying “whore” who tricked him into marriage and humiliated him; we see him rape a whore in Essos, vomit because he’s so drunkenly distraught and yet then proceed to do it again.

Spoiler

Daenerys IV, Clash

In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing.

We’re seeing Cersei fallen from her throne and ravished by the consequences that Tyrion set in motion for her. The “servitor” who brings Dany shade is a dwarf, like Tyrion (Cersei’s capering monkey fool brother, who she presumes to be the Valonqar).

But why are they rattish?

Well, we do know that throughout Feast/Dance, Cersei grows paranoid of Tyrion on the loose in the walls of the Red Keep. She claims to hear “rats” scrabbling in the walls day and night. She’s so distraught by these rats (who are actually Varys’s “mice;” more on this later) that she burns down the Tower of the Hand, where once Tyrion ruled as Hand of the King for King Joffrey, the king she believes he killed! During the burning, she has tears on her cheeks (Jaime notes) and watches the fire as adoringly as Aerys II once did (Jaime notes). Yet, she still hears the “rats” in her walls following the burning.

Spoiler

Cersei I, Feast

She imagined Tyrion creeping between the walls like some monstrous rat. No. You are being silly. The dwarf is in his cell. "Take hammers to the walls. Knock this tower down, if you must. I want them found. Whoever did this. I want them killed."

 

Cersei III, Feast

"If any of them were hiding in the tower, we would have found them. I've had a small army going at it with picks and hammers. We've knocked through walls and ripped up floors and uncovered half a hundred secret passages."

"And for all you know there may be half a hundred more." Some of the secret crawlways had turned out to be so small that Jaime had needed pages and stableboys to explore them. A passage to the black cells had been found, and a stone well that seemed to have no bottom. They had found a chamber full of skulls and yellowed bones, and four sacks of tarnished silver coins from the reign of the first King Viserys. They had found a thousand rats as well . . . but neither Tyrion nor Varys had been amongst them, and Jaime had finally insisted on putting an end to the search. One boy had gotten stuck in a narrow passage and had to be pulled out by his feet, shrieking. Another fell down a shaft and broke his legs. And two guardsmen vanished exploring a side tunnel. Some of the other guards swore they could hear them calling faintly through the stone, but when Jaime's men tore down the wall they found only earth and rubble on the far side. "The Imp is small and cunning. He may still be in the walls. If he is, the fire will smoke him out."

"Even if Tyrion were still hiding in the castle, he won't be in the Tower of the Hand. We've reduced it to a shell."

 

Tyrion II, Dance

"Age makes ruins of us all. I am still in mourning for my nose. But Varys …"

"In Myr he was a prince of thieves, until a rival thief informed on him. In Pentos his accent marked him, and once he was known for a eunuch he was despised and beaten. Why he chose me to protect him I may never know, but we came to an arrangement. Varys spied on lesser thieves and took their takings. I offered my help to their victims, promising to recover their valuables for a fee. Soon every man who had suffered a loss knew to come to me, whilst city's footpads and cutpurses sought out Varys … half to slit his throat, the other half to sell him what they'd stolen. We both grew rich, and richer still when Varys trained his mice."

"In King's Landing he kept little birds."

"Mice, we called them then. The older thieves were fools who thought no further than turning a night's plunder into wine. Varys preferred orphan boys and young girls. He chose the smallest, the ones who were quick and quiet, and taught them to climb walls and slip down chimneys. He taught them to read as well. We left the gold and gems for common thieves. Instead our mice stole letters, ledgers, charts … later, they would read them and leave them where they lay. Secrets are worth more than silver or sapphires, Varys claimed. Just so. I grew so respectable that a cousin of the Prince of Pentos let me wed his maiden daughter, whilst whispers of a certain eunuch's talents crossed the narrow sea and reached the ears of a certain king. A very anxious king, who did not wholly trust his son, nor his wife, nor his Hand, a friend of his youth who had grown arrogant and overproud. I do believe that you know the rest of this tale, is that not so?"

"Much of it," Tyrion admitted. "I see that you are somewhat more than a cheesemonger after all."

 

Furthermore, she suspects Tyrion might be or have agents in Dorne, where Myrcella is currently in danger—in a strange land amongst enemies, where Tyrion sent her, ostensibly to protect her! Myrcella, we know, is nearly crowned in Dorne (To crown her is to kill her, Illyrio tells Tyrion, when he considers plotting this very thing.) and certainly is maimed (by Gerold Dayne, who may have poisoned his blade, just as Oberyn poisoned his spear in the trial by combat against Gregor Clegane; is it not possible Gerold Dayne is “the most dangerous man in Dorne” because he’s just triggered warfare by slaying Myrcella even with a half-fallen strike?)

Finally, there is Tommen, married to Margaery Tyrell, Joffrey’s widow. This would not have happened without Tyrion’s courtly intrigues, either. Tyrion failed to dispatch with Petyr Baelish when acting as Hand of the King despite knowing him to be treacherous and spreading corruption in the court of his king. Instead, he actually empowers Littlefinger even more. Although the Myrcella-Robert Arryn betrothal falls through (because Littlefinger keeps the secret, unlike Pycelle), Tyrion gives Petyr Baelish other opportunities to win favor at court, which he succeeds at doing by negotiating the Joffrey-Margaery marriage alliance (which saves King’s Landing from Stannis’s invasion on the Blackwater, when Lord Renly/Garlan the Gallant rides to route the Lannister enemies alongside Loras Tyrell (Renly’s lover) and Tywin Lannister, making Margaery Queen in want of a new king!). Baelish becomes Lord of Harrenhal and High Lord of the Riverlands due to Tyrion’s empowerment, which then enables him to marry Lysa Arryn and gives him power in the Vale. From the Vale and with his allies, the Tyrells, Baelish plots the murder of Joffrey (for which Tyrion takes the blame, requesting the trial by combat, bringing us back again to the quotation above involving Sansa Stark and Margaery Tyrell), absconding with Sansa in the process (the Lannisters’ only true hope to hold and control the North, as they fully intend to take it back from the Boltons and fArya). Because Joffrey is murdered at his wedding to Margaery (facilitated by Tyrion!), Tommen becomes king and marries her in his place. Cersei does everything in her power to protect Tommen from the Tyrells as she failed to do Joffrey, shattering their already fractured alliance. He’s vulnerable to the Tyrells (when Aegon lands) and has not even been anointed by the Faith of the Seven (which Aegon shall be) to empower him amongst the smallfolk (who adore House Tyrell but loathe House Lannister); the High Sparrow further imperils Tommen when he takes Kevan’s advice on how to break Cersei’s already limited power as queen regent (the walk of atonement, leaving her “naked” upon her throne—gowned and crowned, she was a queen; and my crown, Cersei thinks when the septas shave her head for the walk, watching her golden hair fall to her feet, just as Tommen’s crown rolled from his head at Tommen’s funeral in the Great Sept of Baelor!).

Let us not forget, the reason there is a High Sparrow at all is because Cersei dispatched with the High Septon that Tyrion appointed, distrusting his faithfulness to the crown, suspecting him to be another of Tyrion’s rats.

 

Who else might be one of Tyrion’s “rats” pretending to be meek “mice” bowing and scraping before her at court until her comeuppance comes in full? Who are the “servitors” or Tyrion’s vengeance upon his sister? It’s important to note that in Cersei’s prophecy dream given by Maegi Spicer above, the hands, “thick hands, and strong” choking the life from her and the floating face of Tyrion Lannister are not attached to each other. The hands strangle her from the mists, Tyrion’s face floats leering above them. The hands are reaching out to her through him, but they are not literally his hands.

Varys

Varys testified at Tyrion’s first trial for regicide, helping to convict him of Joffrey’s murder, but he also (with Jaime’s “threat” as “motivation” and excuse) freed him from the Black Cells after he was found guilty of Joffrey’s death in trial by combat (perhaps rightly, ironically, via dereliction of duty!). Varys aids and abets in his escape across the Narrow Sea to Illyrio’s manse, where he meets the man who sends him onward to young Aegon, so as to aid in effecting the Targaryen Restoration, throwing down the usurping House of Lannister, on the promise of Casterly Rock and ruling power, which he covets and craves, having felt weak, worthless, unwanted, and utterly powerless most all of his life.

Meanwhile, back in King’s Landing, Varys dwells at the bottom of a well and still skulks in the tunnels, sending his “mice” to “scrabble” in Cersei’s walls day and night (contributing to her paranoia and delusions), whilst doing everything in his power to sow discord and chaos in her camp, killing important people holding the Lannister dynasty up on its usurped throne, hoping to effect a power struggle and political and social situation beneficial to Aegon and the death of House Lannister.

 

Aegon

Tyrion swiftly “discovers” Aegon’s identity on the Shy Maid when sailing the Sorrows. He then convinces Aegon that ought to sail straight to Westeros to raise himself up by his bootstraps (giving him what he believes is bad advice) that he might meet Dany as a King and an equal, a true dragon, instead of as a beggar and a boy. He furthermore saves the boy’s life from Stone Men what otherwise would have killed him.

 

Jon Connington

Tyrion nearly drowned on the Sorrows, but was saved by Jon Connington solely because he’d just saved Aegon’s life from the Stone Men. This rescue gives Jon Connington greyscale and an unprecedented urgency to see Aegon placed upon the Iron Throne and secure in it from any and all threats. Thus, he’s happy to sail straight to Westeros without Dany and her dragons, with only the Golden Company to support them, and seek Westerosi friends in Dany’s place (House Martell and Dorne, who have and may have gotten killed Myrcella; House Tyrell and the Reach who will turn on Tommen to have Margaery become a Targaryen Queen on the Iron Throne; the Faith of the Seven, who will anoint him king, giving him the support of the smallfolk—who have recently been armed by Cersei as the Faith Militant—warrior knights and smallfolk both included—so will be capable to participate in a riot with unprecedented violence (unlike the riot against Joffrey on the day Myrcella sailed for Dorne on Tyrion’s command)). Furthermore, he’s anxious to see Aegon secure in that throne no matter the cost (the Lannister children), having “learned” from Tywin Lannister himself how thrones are won (on the backs of women and children—Elia Martell, Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaenys, raped and murdered; Rhaella and Viserys plus unborn Dany, forced to flee into exile on pain of death). What’s more, he’s keen to prove he’s “matured” since his rash and “idealistic” days of youth, when he failed to burn the entire town during the Battle of the Bells, thereby killing Robert Baratheon and the rebellion, which is what Tywin Lannister would have done (according to Toyne and Tyrion, both in conversation with JonCon). He will not be “foolishly” merciful this time around, but stern and successful (and war criminal too, if that’s what it takes).

 

Others:

 

Margaery and House Tyrell

House Tyrell, empowered by Tyrion during his reign as acting Hand of the King, will continue their conniving for the Iron Throne, no matter who sits it, even if it means killing kings and children (child kings: Joffrey and Tommen) in order to achieve that goal, just as Tywin Lannister removed the threat to Robert Baratheon in order to prove his loyalty to the new king and win a crown for his daughter.

 

Petyr Baelish

Also empowered by Tyrion during his reign as acting Hand of the King, who was rewarded for bringing House Tyrell and the Reach into the fold, although both these factions later conspired to kill the king they’d saved (Joffrey) for their own reasons (including Sansa Stark, Tyrion’s wife by shotgun wedding in order to steal her inheritance for himself as a consolation prize, having been denied Casterly Rock in no uncertain terms).

 

House Martell and Sand Snakes (Oberyn’s Avengers)

Also empowered by Tyrion during his reign as acting Hand of the King, which ultimately brought Myrcella to Dorne to be Trystane’s bride (where Arianne crowned her and killed her), and which ultimately brought Oberyn to King’s Landing in return to secure a place on the Small Council for House Martell (which a Sand Snake is due to fill now Oberyn had died and cannot do so in Doran’s place), whereupon he participated in both Tyrion’s kangaroo court trial (as a judge and expert on poisons) and trial by combat (as a failed champion and expert on poisons). Along the way, he suggested crowning Myrcella to cause strife with House Lannister (which Arianne eventually ran with, likely informed of her father and uncle’s prior conversations by a Sand Snake cousin) and Tywin Lannister’s death and humiliation (getting justice for Elia and her children), as well as Tyrion taking refuge in Dorne.

The avenging Sand Snakes, his children, are so “appalled” to learn of Cersei’s plot to kill Trystane (crying “Halfman! Halfman!” to signify Tyrion’s involvement, since Cersei believes simultaneously that Tyrion has taken refuge both in Dorne and as a rat in the Red Keep’s walls!) that they want to kill Tommen instead. One of them, sent to King’s Landing as a Small Council member and a septa in hiding with the Faith of the Seven, may succeed in doing so or taking part in a plot to do so, or may simply contribute in convincing House Tyrell and the Faith of the Seven/High Sparrow to abandon the sinking Lannister flagship for Aegon’s (with whom House Martell has implanted Arianne so as to verify identities and determine whether war is warranted).

 

The Golden Company

Tyrion, in giving Aegon his “bad” advice to fly straight to Westeros to claim it as king without his dragon, that Dany might come chasing after with all her dragons to aid him in his hour of need in the restoration of their dynasty, empowers Aegon to claim the Golden Company from Varys and Illyrio’s control, where he lands them in the Stormlands on Cersei’s doorstep (and Tommen’s claimed ancestral seat! It cannot be understated the importance of the loss of Storm’s End for House Lannister, as was the loss of Winterfell, the Stark ancestral seat, during Robb’s campaign). At Storm’s End, Arianne and the Dornish will come into play in camp Aegon, sealing Myrcella’s fate if her coffin has not already been nailed shut by Gerold Dayne, and eventually Tommen’s too.

 

Maegi Spicer’s prophecy for the liondragons is in keeping with the legend of Azor Ahai and the forging of Lightbringer (its three attempted forgings including the slaying of a lion) and the slaughter of the beast, as well as the prophecy of ice and fire, which includes “a white lion ran through grass taller than a man” revealed in the House of the Undying Ones when Dany asks for further clarification to understand the prophecy given to her (and is awarded with more visions to make sense of the prophecy, giving the reader a chance to decipher the chapter and all its foreshadowing).

Spoiler

Davos I, Clash

"Burnt," said Salladhor Saan, "and be glad of that, my friend. Do you know the tale of the forging of Lightbringer? I shall tell it to you. It was a time when darkness lay heavy on the world. To oppose it, the hero must have a hero's blade, oh, like none that had ever been. And so for thirty days and thirty nights Azor Ahai labored sleepless in the temple, forging a blade in the sacred fires. Heat and hammer and fold, heat and hammer and fold, oh, yes, until the sword was done. Yet when he plunged it into water to temper the steel it burst asunder.

"Being a hero, it was not for him to shrug and go in search of excellent grapes such as these, so again he began. The second time it took him fifty days and fifty nights, and this sword seemed even finer than the first. Azor Ahai captured a lion, to temper the blade by plunging it through the beast's red heart, but once more the steel shattered and split. Great was his woe and great was his sorrow then, for he knew what he must do.

"A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. 'Nissa Nissa,' he said to her, for that was her name, 'bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world.' She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

 

Jon III, Dance

"His Grace is not an easy man. Few are, who wear a crown. Many good men have been bad kings, Maester Aemon used to say, and some bad men have been good kings."

"He would know." Aemon Targaryen had seen nine kings upon the Iron Throne. He had been a king's son, a king's brother, a king's uncle. "I looked at that book Maester Aemon left me. The Jade Compendium. The pages that told of Azor Ahai. Lightbringer was his sword. Tempered with his wife's blood if Votar can be believed. Thereafter Lightbringer was never cold to the touch, but warm as Nissa Nissa had been warm. In battle the blade burned fiery hot. Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame."

Clydas blinked. "A sword that makes its own heat …"

 

Daenerys IV, Clash

A white lion ran through grass taller than a man.

The prophecies in a song of ice and fire are all iterations or elaborations of the same prophecy—the prophecy of ice and fire, which the reader is following unfold in real time.

[Alexis-something-Rose]

On 5/28/2019 at 8:35 AM, Damon_Tor said:

If memory serves, Dany entered the house of the undying during a time when only four Kings had declared. If I recall correctly, it would have been Rob, Stannis, Renly and Joffrey. Balon declares later.

Renly is dead by the time Dany enters the HotU and Balon has already sent Asha, Vic to invade the north. He's already declared, he just doesn't spread the news.