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Acrophilia #20: Breakers of Chains


Dolorous Gabe

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Just crawled out of bed (9 am Saturday here) and thought I'd try some more and realised the games up! Quite a relief really I doubt I would have got anywhere. The fact that I didn't work out exactly when it ends in my time zone is Indicative of despair, I think!

I don't think I could have got fewer correct. Even the last, I had Ned and Drogo as my last two possibles and went for Drogo.

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I kept being told to pay closer attention to the words, and I did - or tried to. And in the end it wasn't helpful. Fingernails, no matter how long, are not claws. Animals like tigers and lions and bears have claws - it's a very specific term.  That's why I discarded Aerys from consideration as soon as I thought of him.

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2 minutes ago, honeyed chicken said:

I kept being told to pay closer attention to the words, and I did - or tried to. And in the end it wasn't helpful. Fingernails, no matter how long, are not claws. Animals like tigers and lions and bears have claws - it's a very specific term.  That's why I discarded Aerys from consideration as soon as I thought of him.

HC, my friend, I'm sorry you are frustrated. It's a hard game.

Official definitions of claw are much broader than you are suggesting. I'm pretty sure most descriptions of dragons would use the term claw.

And if you prefer to see claw as a potential reference to a blade, the clue works in that sense too.

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8 hours ago, Julia H. said:

Ah, so it was your clue I complained so much about! I should have seen the answer, but I didn't.

The reason is that my main mistake in this round was seeing metaphors in places where things were told plainly and honestly. This clue is a case in point. I was sure that the claw had to be a weapon - a sword. So I started with Jaime, who received a cool sword as a gift after losing his sword hand. Quite absurd. Then I realized that this guess had to be abandoned, so I went with Joffrey and his various swords. I also considered Cersei and Stannis, went through the Claw Island references, briefly thought of Longclaw, but never seriously considered the option that claw might be 'nail'. Aerys actually crossed my mind because one of my initial mini theme ideas for this group was "generations", and Aerys was before Robert. But Aerys had no absurd story with a sword that I could recall, so I dropped him immediately. :lol: 

The way our preconceptions can blind us to the truth... 

I did the same with several other clues for quite a while, until I realized that the literal meaning was the way to go. This realization never came with regard to the first clue. 

Anyway, I really like the clues of this round. Most of them were puzzles leading to a light-bulb moment. :cheers:

well other than the crab claws that they ate at the wall, I could not find literal claws.Although I used a search of ice and fire it did not show up Aerys. Or maybe I did ignore it. I thought 'claw' might be standing in for a clawed animal e.g. bird, dog, lion, cat, but mainly I looked for absurdity and was thinking of public absurdity. I would probably not have described Aerys as absurd but the whole thing as just psychotic. So I looked at Stannis and Proudwing being mocked, but mainly at Alliser Bowen bringing Other's rotted 'claw' to court and his whole mission being dismissed as absurd. Can't remember what other useless notions I had.

 

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7 hours ago, Castellan said:

 

well other than the crab claws that they ate at the wall, I could not find literal claws.Although I used a search of ice and fire it did not show up Aerys.

No, probably not many literal claws. What I meant is that 'nail' for claw is more literal, less metaphorical than 'sword' (and nail would probably bring up Aerys, but I never checked). I may not have expressed myself precisely when I said literal. Basically, I was looking for swords and metaphorical animals everywhere where I shouldn't have. This particular clue kept reminding me of The Rains of Castamere, therefore I kept returning to the idea of lions.  

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#3 is the clue I was farthest off on - mainly because I was thinking of a different definition of "imprinting". I was so fixated on the imprinting as something ducklings (for example) do with their parents at birth, I didn't even think of the print part. So my prelim guess was Daenerys whose dragons might well have imprinted on her. Second was Sam Tarly teaching his ravens to say "Jon Snow" (or was it "Lord Snow"?) - which is neither kind of imprinting.

That's a case where I should have paid closer attention to the word - and maybe even looked it up.

 

Re Julia H on clue #1, above - I looked up Joffrey's sword as well - especially the one Arya threw in the river. And I was disappointed to recall that it was Lion's Tooth, not Lion's Claw. But then that would have been a proper name, right?

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1 hour ago, honeyed chicken said:

#3 is the clue I was farthest off on - mainly because I was thinking of a different definition of "imprinting". I was so fixated on the imprinting as something ducklings (for example) do with their parents at birth, I didn't even think of the print part. So my prelim guess was Daenerys whose dragons might well have imprinted on her. Second was Sam Tarly teaching his ravens to say "Jon Snow" (or was it "Lord Snow"?) - which is neither kind of imprinting.

Yes, playing with the different meanings of words is part of the fun (and challenge) of this game. Just think of bond in an earlier clue.

1 hour ago, honeyed chicken said:

Re Julia H on clue #1, above - I looked up Joffrey's sword as well - especially the one Arya threw in the river. And I was disappointed to recall that it was Lion's Tooth, not Lion's Claw. But then that would have been a proper name, right?

Yes, I also noted that Joffrey's sword was a tooth, not a claw. But then I also thought of Widow's Wail, the sword Joffrey receives on his wedding day. He brags about the "heroic" deeds he is going to do with it - only to use the sword to destroy a book (another wedding gift). The book is "Lives of Four Kings". Ironically, his own royal life ends on the same day. 

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My initial thought on #3 was Bran either learning from BloodRaven or taking over the mind of others. Then I thought of Sansa learning the game from Littlefinger and decided that must be it. You could almost call that a hobby (more than my Bran idea) and people glorify the possibility there, including that she'll betray him so it fits the temporary part as well.

My prelims guaranteed it wrong, though, so I kept looking and eventually a printing press stamping things came up in some synonym example on Google and it clicked. Definitely an example of a clue with many reasonable answers but once the correct character came to mind ... it was obviously that character.

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On 2/29/2020 at 10:09 AM, honeyed chicken said:

I kept being told to pay closer attention to the words, and I did - or tried to. And in the end it wasn't helpful. Fingernails, no matter how long, are not claws. Animals like tigers and lions and bears have claws - it's a very specific term.  That's why I discarded Aerys from consideration as soon as I thought of him.

Fingernails could well be claws, you were quite right to pursue this line. I kept thinking it might refer to a scene where a man was astounded by the wounds he got from his lovers 'claws' but could not find such a scene. Everybody's lover was moderately clawed. What with talons in the other clue I became an expert on everyone's hands and nails. 

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11 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

My initial thought on #3 was Bran either learning from BloodRaven or taking over the mind of others. Then I thought of Sansa learning the game from Littlefinger and decided that must be it. You could almost call that a hobby (more than my Bran idea) and people glorify the possibility there, including that she'll betray him so it fits the temporary part as well.

My prelims guaranteed it wrong, though, so I kept looking and eventually a printing press stamping things came up in some synonym example on Google and it clicked. Definitely an example of a clue with many reasonable answers but once the correct character came to mind ... it was obviously that character.

Yes I had Sansa. May have ended up with nothing there after prelim. Sansa conforms to survive in KL and does it again with Petyr and by TWOW we are wondering if 'Alayne' is a temporary persona or not. Likewise, how loyal is Arya to the house of black and white? I tried but could not think of a more basic meaning, all I could think of was someone addicted to tattooing! Couldn't remember anyone actually printing something (with a block). Maybe by the end of this game I will have remembered how to solve clues.

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9 hours ago, Castellan said:

Fingernails could well be claws, you were quite right to pursue this line. I kept thinking it might refer to a scene where a man was astounded by the wounds he got from his lovers 'claws' but could not find such a scene. Everybody's lover was moderately clawed. What with talons in the other clue I became an expert on everyone's hands and nails. 

Aerys ripped his wife's back repeatedly with his long nails, iirc. I think Barristan Selmy at one point remembers seeing and being horrified by her wounds.

I thought of Aerys several times while working this clue, but never seriously considered him as the potential answer (much like Jalabhar Xho in an earlier round).

 

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9 hours ago, honeyed chicken said:

Aerys ripped his wife's back repeatedly with his long nails, iirc. I think Barristan Selmy at one point remembers seeing and being horrified by her wounds.

I thought of Aerys several times while working this clue, but never seriously considered him as the potential answer (much like Jalabhar Xho in an earlier round).

 

I must have been too horrified by her thighs looking like they had been chewed by a wild animal to take account of her back.

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4 hours ago, honeyed chicken said:

Or maybe I got it confused?

 

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.

You remembered the clawing, I remembered the chewing, though I got the site wrong.

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ROUND THREE RESULTS

 

2 - Crowned insurgent. Boar assassin.

Author: rocksniffer 

Clues: 8/8 = 16

Mini-themes: 3/3 = 3

Theme: 4 points

Fave votes: + 5 from the host = 5

Overall: 28

 

3 - Dutiful imprinting soon becomes hobby. Temporarily?

Author: Julia H. 

Clues: 7/8 = 14

Mini-themes: 3/3 = 3

Theme: 4 points

Fave votes: rocksniffer = 1 + 5 from the host = 6

Overall: 27

 

4 - Disobedience is sewn before he’s truant.

Author: Castellan 

Clues: 4/8 = 8

Mini-themes: -

Theme: -

Fave votes: Julia, SNA, SWMBO, HC = 4 + 5 from the host = 9

Overall: 17

 

5 - Disturbing insight stuns brother: hellish talons!

Author: honeyed chicken 

Clues: 5/8

Mini-themes: -

Theme: -

Fave votes: + 5 from the host = 5

Overall: 15

 

6 - Cringe. Indecent brotherly assailant.

Author: Set Not Appearing 

Clues: 7/8 = 14

Mini-themes: 3/3 = 3

Theme: 4 points

Fave votes: FBird = 1 + 5 from the host = 6

Overall: 27

 

7 - Dextrous, intrepid, spunky, bloodletting heroine tabulates.

Author: She Who Must Be Obeyed

Clues: 8/8 = 16

Mini-themes: 3/3 = 3

Theme: 4 points

Fave votes: E_His = 1 + 5 from the host = 6

Overall: 29

 

8 - Pushy help wrought outrageous exit. Thankfully brought insight.

Author: Fragile Bird 

Clues: 8/8 = 16

Mini-themes: 3/3 = 3

Theme: 4 points

Fave votes: Castellan = 1 + 5 from the host = 6

Overall: 29

 

9 - Crural injury by animal.

Author: Eternally_His

Clues: 4/8 = 8

Mini-themes: 1/3 = 1

Theme: -

Fave votes: + 5 from the host = 5

Overall: 14

 

 

STANDINGS

 

1  Julia H.    32 + 27 = 59

1  She Who Must Be Obeyed 30 + 29 = 59

    Fragile Bird   27 + 29 = 56

    Ser Not Appearing   25 + 27 = 52

    rocksniffer   21 + 28 = 49

    Castellan    26 + 17 = 43

    honeyed chicken   20 + 15 = 35

    Eternally_His   17 + 14 = 31

 

She Who Must Be Obeyed has drawn level with Julia H. but there is a chasing pack within ten points and a sleeping giant who could come to life at any moment.

 

R4 clues coming soon.

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ROUND FOUR CLUES

 

So, an old school round of Acrophilia here. Neither wiki nor maps will be helpful for finding this theme. You must use other forms of research.

I have added a bonus clue. There are no points for working this character out but it might help with finding the theme, so it is valuable to your research.

It may be worth noting that the first character is first for a reason.

You have a prelim for the clues and a prelim for the theme. You also have a yes/no question to use. There will be a favourite clue vote at the end of the round. The bonus clue will not be included in the prelims.

 

1 - Was forgettably married, got lamentably married.

2 - “Grumkins?” commented father’s “bastard” disingenuously.

3 - Gushingly champions fledgling boyish “dragon”

4 - Worthy. Frosty mane. Grieved lovely maiden.

5 - Waited, fought manfully, gone. Legatees merry.

6 - Girl corruptor for balancing dragons.

7 - Brother. Rambler, knows roads.

8 - Got cocky. Found bird’s discipline.

9 - Guarded cripple faces bastards’ dissatisfaction.

 

Bonus clue

Wild friendly mountaineer generously leaves meal.

 

Theme???

 

You have a week. Monday 9th March at 10pm UK time is your deadline.

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