Podrick Payne, a Greyjoy/Targaryen/Blackfyre/Stark/???

[Nevets]

Podrick's name saved him not simply because he was highborn, but because his name was Payne.  Ser Ilyn lost his tongue because of a remark he made about Tywin that angered King Aerys.  It appears that Tywin has looked out for Ilyn since.  Ilyn's current job as King's Justice was a favor to Tywin from Robert.

It essentially costs him nothing to spare the life of Ilyn's young cousin.  I doubt anyone would care that Ser Lorimer's 12 year old underling is being spared.

As for Tyrion, he may not be a knight, but he is a lord.  As such, he needs a body servant and page.  He had one, but he got killed in the Vale.  Podrick needed a job, so it was a good fit.   While he may call himself a squire, in reality he was closer to a page.

In any event, any knowledge of motive on the part of Tywin or Kevan likely died when they did.

[TheLastWolf]

On 7/6/2020 at 3:38 AM, Seams said:

The hedge knight for whom Pod is a squire, Ser Lorimer, was hung for stealing a ham... 

It is also a parallel to Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Ser Duncan was his second squire) dying.

And also Here Pod was Tyrion's squire and Tyrion left him. 

[Seams]

7 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

It is also a parallel to Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Ser Duncan was his second squire) dying.

And also Here Pod was Tyrion's squire and Tyrion left him. 

Ser Arlan died of a chill, though, and Ser Lorimer was executed. I don't see clues that would link them, but there may be details I am just not recalling at the moment.

When I see a single-use character like Lorimer the Belly, however, I am often tempted to try an anagram. I suspect that GRRM sometimes hides wordplay clues in these narrowly-focused characters who seem to have no long-term role to play. (Place names sometimes also work as anagrams.)

The solutions that interest me most with Lorimer work when you add "Ser" to his name: Ser Lorimer the Belly. Possible anagrams I see are:

• smelly rebirth or eel
• lo ere smelly rebirth
• be the Lollys merrier

Tywin is associated with bad smells (long before the scenes where his dead body stinks up Baelor's Sept). Because Lorimer steals Tywin's food, it seems appropriate that the clue hidden in Ser Lorimer's name might involve smell.

Eels come up at key moments in ASOIAF - Eel Alley, The Hour of the Eel, a bar in White Harbor called the Lazy Eel. Davos eats lamprey pie while imprisoned in the dungeon at Dragonstone and nicknames one of his jailers lamprey. Arya is given half of an eel pie by an unwashed character who could be part of the "smelly rebirth" theme.

I include the Lollys possibility among the solutions because Pod and Bronn are linked for a time when they both serve Tyrion. Both save Tyrion's life in battle. Bronn ends up marrying Lollys, which puts him in the position of controlling the food supply for King's Landing. Ser Lorimer is executed for stealing from Tywin's food supply. There could easily be wordplay on marry / merry. Several characters can be linked to the name Merry.

But there could be many other possibilities or clues in Ser Lorimer's name, or none at all.

[TheLastWolf]

On 7/2/2020 at 3:45 PM, TheLastWolf said:

Or Alysanne Stark could be how Pod got the wolf blood in him. I think that Old Nan was Alysanne Stark and all of Dunk's descendants (CLEGANES,WENDA/MERIS CAFFEREN,BRIENNE and HODOR) came through her.

Quoting myself, see this thread 

https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/157312-old-nans-identity-and-her-unrevealed-secrets/

 

[TheLastWolf]

On 7/2/2020 at 3:45 PM, TheLastWolf said:

….Ser Bonifer Hasty and Rhaella Targaryen could have had a daughter who might’ve been passed off as a stillbirth to the Mad King. She could have been given to that chandler and could have married that lesser Payne and had Pod. She might not have run away, but could be one of the women whose identity is still a mystery till ADWD.

So let's forget everything about Pod's identity..... For the moment. 

What do you think about Baelor Butthole's possible child by Rhaella? 

Since @Megorovahad done so much research about 3EC,BR,Shiera/Quaithe, Dunk descendants etc she must atleat have spotted some hints...... Or so I hope. 

[Megorova]

6 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

possible child by Rhaella? 

I don't believe that Rhaella ever cheated.

Also there is no need for additional dragonseeds (known and secret) in the story, because there are already a lot of them:

Dany, Jon, Rhaego, fAegon, Varys, Barristan Selmy, Brienne, Hodor, Clegane Bros, Meris/Wenda, Brown Ben Plumm, Petyr Baelysh (thru the Bastard of Harrenhal/first Lord Whent); {Arya, Sansa, Bran, Rickon, Robert Arryn, Edmure Tully} thru Minisa Whent; Shella Whent (if she is still alive), Wynafrei Whent (married with a Frey); Bloodraven, Shiera Seastar, Martells (because current Martells are, most likely, descendants of Aliandra Martell and Drazenko Rogare from Lys); Stannis, Shireen, Gendry and other bastards of Robert Baratheon (because current Baratheons are descendants of princess Rhaelle Targaryen); the Black Pearl of Braavos and her siblings and parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and multiple cousins (descendants of Aegon IV); and other people who are descended from Aegon IV's multiple bastards; [House Plumm, House Hightower, House Penrose, House Longwaters] <- all of them descended from marriages/unions with Targaryen princesses; House Velaryon, House Celtigar <- Valyrians that migrated to Westeros with Targaryens prior the Doom.

What would be the point of bringing one more dragonseed into the story? What for? We already have Rhaella's daughter as the main character of the series, and it's Dany.

[TheLastWolf]

On 7/16/2020 at 12:51 AM, Megorova said:

What would be the point of bringing one more dragonseed into the story? What for? We already have Rhaella's daughter as the main character of the series, and it's Dany.

The amount of dragon seeds you have listed are far more than I expected. Pod will just be one more. And a lot of yours are speculation, so is mine. 

On 7/16/2020 at 12:51 AM, Megorova said:

don't believe that Rhaella ever cheated.

Cheating on Aerys isn't cheating. He was a complete sadistic bastard. 

On 7/16/2020 at 12:51 AM, Megorova said:

Dany, Jon, Rhaego, fAegon, Varys, Barristan Selmy, Brienne, Hodor, Clegane Bros, Meris/Wenda, Brown Ben Plumm, Petyr Baelysh (thru the Bastard of Harrenhal/first Lord Whent); {Arya, Sansa, Bran, Rickon, Robert Arryn, Edmure Tully} thru Minisa Whent; Shella Whent (if she is still alive), Wynafrei Whent (married with a Frey); Bloodraven, Shiera Seastar, Martells (because current Martells are, most likely, descendants of Aliandra Martell and Drazenko Rogare from Lys); Stannis, Shireen, Gendry and other bastards of Robert Baratheon (because current Baratheons are descendants of princess Rhaelle Targaryen); the Black Pearl of Braavos and her siblings and parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and multiple cousins (descendants of Aegon IV); and other people who are descended from Aegon IV's multiple bastards; [House Plumm, House Hightower, House Penrose, House Longwaters] <- all of them descended from marriages/unions with Targaryen princesses; House Velaryon, House Celtigar <- Valyrians that migrated to Westeros with Targaryens prior the Doom.

Do me a favor and list only those alive later. All I can say is Whoawhoa 

And BONIFER HASTY HAS SOME IMPORTANCE and the only way I could think of was a hidden dragonseed via Rhaella. @Megorova

Meanwhile Pod has a lot of other theories 

[R2D]

On 7/6/2020 at 3:41 AM, Seams said:

This may or may not be relevant.

In the previous post, I noted that Pod has a sty on his eye, which means his eye lid is inflamed.

When Qyburn is healing Jaime after his arm was amputated, he notes that Jaime has an inflamed cut near his eye.

I think of eye references as sword references because of the eye / Ice / eisen wordplay.

So, like Jaime, Pod has a flaming sword (inflamed eye).

Please explain this 

[TheLastWolf]

12 hours ago, R2D said:

Please explain this 

Yeah, I didn't get that clearly too. 

@Seams if you would please entertain us

[Seams]

On 7/27/2020 at 3:04 PM, R2D said:

Please explain this 

Sorry. I worry I have belabored this idea so many times that people are sick of it. I will try to explain in a nutshell.

I believe GRRM uses puns and wordplay as part of his structure and system for organizing the books. For example, one of the obvious puns is on "heir" and "hair," and helps the reader to recognize the initial conflict over the king's heirs being recognized as bastards because of their hair.

But there is complicated and rich wordplay around this series of related words:

ice / eyes / Ei / Eisen

The first two words are in English. The next are German words: Ei means "egg" and "Eisen" means "iron." This is a central bit of wordplay that GRRM has used to link important symbols - eyes, swords, eggs and iron.

The Stark family sword is Ice, of course. When Catelyn looks at Ned's bones laid out at Riverrun, she notices the absence of his sword and his eyes.

There are also characters with eyes like ice - Roose Bolton and possibly the blue eyes of the Others.

The symbolism is greatly enriched if you accept the link to eggs. There are very significant moments when characters eat or destroy eggs or give them to another character. Of course, dragon eggs are the magical seeds from which traditional Targaryen weapons of mass destruction are hatched.

The possibilities are endless, once you start to look at eyes and ice and eggs and iron in relationship to each other: Bloodraven's a thousand eyes and one, the three-eyed crow, Dany's three dragon eggs, the Iron Throne. If weapons, power, visual perception and hatching or eating eggs are linked, how is the family with the Ice sword linked to the family with the egg weapons?

I mentioned Pod's inflamed eye (called a sty) and the inflamed cut near Jaime's eye because we know we are supposed to be searching for a flaming sword. Melisandre claims that Stannis has it but Maester Aemon says the sword is not right. Thoros of Myr uses a trick to set his own sword on fire.

When two linked (through Brienne and/or Ser Ilyn) characters have inflamed eyes, this seems to me like a clear signal from the author that we should put them into the category of possible parallels for Azor Ahai - a guy with a magical flaming sword.

But Dany's eggs hatch when she gets the magical combination just right in a flaming funeral pyre - is this a similar instance of a flaming "Ei"? Instead of an inflamed eye or a flaming sword, the weapons are dragon eggs in fire.

I have never been a believer that GRRM is going to unveil a single Azor Ahai figure who will save the day (or even just kill his/her spouse) with a magic sword. I think that a number of characters will reenact the major symbols from that story in different variations on the themes.

[Megorova]

21 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Do me a favor and list only those alive later.

Everyone in that list ARE alive, except several of Robert Baratheon's bastards. I didn't included in my list those dragonseeds, that are already dead, such as Robert Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, maester Aemon, Lysa Tully, Catelyn Tully (who is still present in the books, but only as a zombie Lady Stoneheart <- she wasn't in my list).

Possibly, Shella Whent is dead. Though, it is equally possible that she is still alive, and is in hiding. She's not as old as Walder Frey, or Old Nan, or the Ghost of High Heart, thus, if she didn't got killed, then it's more than likely that she still lives.

Shiera Seastar is alive, she is Quaithe. Rhaego is alive, he was kidnapped by Khal Pono. Quentyn and Oberyn Martell died, but there are other Martells who are still alive, and they are dragonseeds, because their ancestors were Drazenko Rogare (Valyrian husband of Aliandra Martell) and Princess Daenerys Targaryen (wife of Maron Martell). All Sand Snakes are also dragonseeds.

This is the complete list (all of them are alive, except the Mountain):

1. Dany,
2. Jon (even if he is dead, it's only temporarely),
3. Rhaego (with Khal Pono, either with his Khalasar or at Vaes Dothrak),
4. fAegon,
5. Varys,
6. Barristan Selmy,
7. Brienne,
8. Hodor,
9. Clegane Bros (the Mountain became Robert Strong, not sure whether he is somehow alive, or whether he is a zombie like Lady Stoneheart; but the Hound is alive),
10. Meris/Wenda,
11. Brown Ben Plumm,
12. Petyr Baelysh,
13. Arya (Braavos),
14. Sansa (The Vale),
15. Bran (at the cave of the Children of the Forest, with Bloodraven),
16. Rickon (Skagos),
17. Robert Arryn (The Vale, still alive for now),
18. Edmure Tully (imprisoned by Freys), and his wife is pregnant, so there's going to be one more,
19. Shella Whent (could be alive, there's no reason for her to be dead; if she was seized or killed by Tywin's people, it would have been reported to KL or Harrenhal, thus, most likely, she is still alive, and successfully avoided being captured),
20. Wynafrei Whent (married with a Frey);
21. Bloodraven (with Bran, still alive for now),
22. Shiera Seastar (either she's still in Essos, or could be that she already went to Westeros, on the same ship as Sam and maester Aemon),
23. Doran Martell,
24. Arianne Martell,
25. Trystane Martell,
26. Obara Sand,
27. Nymeria Sand,
28. Tyene Sand (she is blond, same as Elia's Aegon, because Oberyn and Elia were carriers of Targaryen dragonseed blond-genes (inherited from Drazenko Rogare and Daenerys Targaryen); they themselves were dark-haired, but they were carriers of dominant dark-hair alleles and recessive blond-hair alleles, as result of that they had dark hair, but some of their children from combination of their parent blond-gene and additional blond-gene from their second parent (who also was a carrier of blond-gene, like Rhaegar) are blond-haired (like Tyene, and Elia's Aegon (who is dead)), and some children are dark-haired, like Rhaegar's Rhaenys (dead) and majority of Oberyn's children),
29. Sarella Sand (posing as Alleras at the Citadel),
30. Elia Sand,
31. Obella Sand,
32. Dorea Sand,
33. Loreza Sand,
34. Stannis,
35. Shireen,
36. Gendry,
37. Mya Stone,
38. Edric Storm,
39. Bella (one of Robert's bastards, she's at Stoney Sept, alive); there were 11 more of Robert's bastards (not including little Barra, that was killed on Cersei's order), it's likely that not all of them were in King's Landing, so Cersei didn't got all of them;
40. the Black Pearl of Braavos (and her siblings and parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents and multiple cousins (descendants of Aegon IV));
41. and other people who are descended from Aegon IV's multiple bastards (Ambrose Butterwell married with a Frey-girl, he wasn't too old to have children; then there's also Mya and Gwenys Rivers, Bloodraven's sisters; Mya, most likely, married back into Blackwood family, and Melantha Blackwood (wife of Stark) and Betha Blackwood (wife of Aegon V) were possibly her daughters, thus all current Starks are her descenandants; same as current Blackwoods), House Blackwood - Lord Tytos Blackwood,
42. Brynden Blackwood,
43. Hoster Blackwood,
44. Edmund Blackwood,
45. Alys Blackwood,
46. Bethany Blackwood,
47. and Tytos has two more brothers and a sister, brother 1,
48. brother 2
49. sister,
50. and one of Blackwoods married with Walder Frey (his fourth wife, she was born already after Mya and Gwenys' generation, so if my theory is correct, that Mya, who was Aegon IV's bastard-daughter, married back into Blackwood family, and brought there her dragonseed-genes, then all Blackwoods that descended from her, are also dragonseeds), and she gave birth to five of Walder's children, all five are still alive - Lothar Frey (he's alive and married and has four children -
51. Tysane,
52. Walda,
53. Emberlei,
54. Leana),
55. Jammos Frey (he's married and has three children -
56. Big Walder,
57. Dickon,
58. Mathis),
59. Whalen Frey (he's married and has two children -
60. Hoster,
61. Merianne),
62. Morya Frey (she's married and has three children -
63. Robert,
64. Walder
65. and Jon),
66. Tyta Frey,
67. [House Plumm] Lord Philip Plumm, and his three sons -
68. Dennis,
69. Peter,
70. Harwyn <- they are descendants of Viserys Plumm, who was actually Aegon IV's bastard,
71. [House Hightower], princess Rhaena Targaryen married with Garmund Hightower, who was Lord Hightower's third son. She had with him six daughters. Based on what modern day Hightowers look like, it seems likely, that at least one of those six girls married into House Hightower, with her first cousin, son of Garmund's older brother. There are 11 Hightowers, alive. Alerie Hightower is silver-haired, Lynesse Hightower is golden-haired. So it's likely that Hightowers did inherited some of dragonseed genes from princess Rhaena. One Hightower - old Lord Leyton.
72. Two Hightower - Baelor Hightower.
73. Malora Hightower.
74. Garth Hightower.
75. Alerie Hightower (married with Mace Tyrell, and they have 4 children -
76. Willas Tyrell,
77. Garlan Tyrell
78. Loras Tyrell,
79. Margaery Tyrell),
80. Leyla Hightower.
81. Denyse Hightower (married and has a son -
82. Denys Redwyne).
83. Alysanne Hightower (married and has a son -
84. Alys Ambrose).
85. Gunthor Hightower.
86. Humfrey Hightower.
87. Lynesse Hightower (eleven Hightowers in total, and their children).
88. House Penrose, Lord Ronnel Penrose married with princess Elaena Targaryen, and they had four children, two sons and two daughters. Current Lord Penrose is still alive. His son was castellan at Storm's End, that guy who was killed by one of Melisandre's shadows.
89. [House Longwaters] <- descended from bastard-child of Elaena Targaryen and Alyn Velaryon. Rennifer Longwaters, chief undergaoler of the Red Keep. Alive.
90. House Velaryon, Monterys Velaryon and his bastard-uncle -
91. Aurane Waters,
92. House Celtigar (descendants of Valyrians, same as Targaryens and Velaryons), Adrian Celtigar, current Lord of Claw Isle, still alive.

Ninety two carriers of Targaryen genes + how many survived out of Robert's eleven unnamed bastards. Out of those 92, 29 are confirmed dragonseeds, known descendants of Targaryens, and the other 63, such as members of House Hightower, Blackwood, Plumm, Frey (thru marriage with a Blackwood), and Duncan the Tall's possible descendants, are potentially carriers of dragonseed-genes (that's if Mya Rivers married back into Blackwood family; and if one of six half-Targaryen/half-Hightower girls also married back into Hightower family; and if I'm right with that theory about identity of Duncan's descendants). 

Brown Ben Plumm is Aegon IV's 3-times or 4-times great grandson. And even though since then into his family's gene-pool were added other non-dragonseed genes, whatever amount of Targaryen blood he still has, that amount is still enough for Dany's dragons to recognize Ben as their kin. Princess Elaena Targaryen (who is an ancestor of House Longwaters and House Penrose), and Princess Rhaena's six half-Hightower daughters, were Aegon IV's first cousins. They were from the same generation as Aegon, so their current descendants, all those Hightowers (11 of them, and their 6 children) have approximately same amount of Targaryen blood as Brown Ben Plumm. Same thing with members of House Blackwood, and children and grandchildren of Walder Frey and his Blackwood wife (if current Blackwoods are descendants of Mya Rivers, Aegon's daughter).

Those 63, for now not yet confirmed dragonseeds, potentially have the same (or in some cases even higher) amount of dragon-DNA, as Brown Ben Plumm.

The complete list - 103 dragonseeds in total (with inclusion of Robert's bastards, those that were not confirmed as dead).

[Jaenara Belarys]

On 7/28/2020 at 11:00 AM, Megorova said:

Shiera Seastar is alive, she is Quaithe. Rhaego is alive, he was kidnapped by Khal Pono. Quentyn and Oberyn Martell died, but there are other Martells who are still alive, and they are dragonseeds, because their ancestors were Drazenko Rogare (Valyrian husband of Aliandra Martell) and Princess Daenerys Targaryen (wife of Maron Martell). All Sand Snakes are also dragonseeds.

 

Drazenko didn't get a child from Princess Aliandra, so far as I know. Shiera Seastar....I've seen a few fanfics (fanfics, but still) that say that Quaithe is Elissa Farman. Why would Khal Pono keep Rhaego alive? 

[Mister Smikes]

My own suspicion is that between Podrick Payne and Edric Dayne, the latter is the more significant character.  The main significance of Podrick Payne is to ensure that when Edric Dayne next shows up, readers will not be sure who he is, and will suspect he is Podrick.  This in turn may help sow confusion about the identity of the tall warrior in whose company he is.

On 7/2/2020 at 3:15 AM, TheLastWolf said:

Pod squiring for Brienne is very, very similar to Egg (Aegon V Targaryen) squiring for Dunk (Ser Duncan the Tall). And if Brienne is one of Dunk’s descendants as many believe (incl. me), GRRM could have planned Pod to be Egg’s descendant (I mean a dragonseed).

Here's one thought where I suspect you may be indirectly on point, in the sense that Edric and his True Knight will also echo Dunk & Egg.

[Hippocras]

Wow, so many odd and out of nowhere ideas on this thread!

I think, given that Tyrion specifically made note of the fact that Pod's back story was full of holes and ambiguities, it is likely true that there is SOMETHING more to who Pod is than we currently know, and not just because he's a Payne and the story of the Paynes is also full of holes. The ambiguities Tyrion brought attention to were related to his mother, father, and life until he met Tyrion.

So we know there must be something still to learn about him, which makes space for all kinds of crackpot ideas. But as far as evidence and hints go, nothing at all suggests wolf blood. Nothing at all suggests he's Ironborn. And nothing connects him to Varys or to Blackfyres in the specific sense. As to other, non-blackfyre Targ ancestry that possibility certainly exists, and the most likely route is via House Plumm - ie. Elaena Targaryen. After all, the likelihood of families from the Westerlands having inter-married is extremely high. All it takes is one Plumm daughter marrying into House Payne for Paynes to have some Targ blood.

But I am curious why, with all the other ideas listed in the OP, House Lannister was neglected? Tywin obviously felt he owed a great deal to House Payne and why that is was never explained in a convincing way - after all, Aerys cutting out Illyn's tongue wasn't Tywin's fault. All we know is that whatever his actual debt was, it supposedly provoked him to spare Podrick's life in a way that was really quite out of character for Tywin. And yet, Pod was clearly not treated all that well by his own family. So it seems unlikely that House Payne, Ilyn included, would have been all that distressed if Tywin had gone through with executing Pod. Which begs the questing of why Tywin REALLY spared him.

To me, the reason he did not want to execute Pod after learning who he was is almost certainly because he believed Pod to be KIN, but he used his ambiguous debt to House Payne as a cover story because he did not want to explain WHY he believed Pod to be kin.

Adding related comments below to improve discussion:

 

  

On 7/6/2020 at 1:17 AM, Nevets said:

Podrick's name saved him not simply because he was highborn, but because his name was Payne.  Ser Ilyn lost his tongue because of a remark he made about Tywin that angered King Aerys.  It appears that Tywin has looked out for Ilyn since.  Ilyn's current job as King's Justice was a favor to Tywin from Robert.

It essentially costs him nothing to spare the life of Ilyn's young cousin.  I doubt anyone would care that Ser Lorimer's 12 year old underling is being spared.

As for Tyrion, he may not be a knight, but he is a lord.  As such, he needs a body servant and page.  He had one, but he got killed in the Vale.  Podrick needed a job, so it was a good fit.   While he may call himself a squire, in reality he was closer to a page.

In any event, any knowledge of motive on the part of Tywin or Kevan likely died when they did.

  

On 7/6/2020 at 12:08 AM, Seams said:

GRRM includes in the series a number of babies and children who narrowly survive when they should have died or been killed. Many of those children have secret identities. (Jon Snow, Arya, Gendry and Robert's other bastards, fAegon, Gilly and Dalla's babies, probably Ser Duncan the Tall, etc.) It would not surprise me at all if Pod has a twist like that in his background

 

[TheLastWolf]

10 hours ago, Mister Smikes said:

Here's one thought where I suspect you may be indirectly on point, in the sense that Edric and his True Knight will also echo Dunk & Egg.

Interesting alt. Only time will tell 

7 hours ago, Hippocras said:

Wow, so many odd and out of nowhere ideas on this thread!

The conservatives called me, crackpot, tinfoil, and whatnot. Refreshing response. Thank you. I wonder why I stopped posting these kind of threads. 

And your following text is really interesting, tho I wouldn't care for another (possible incest baby) Lannister 

[Mister Smikes]

3 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Interesting alt. Only time will tell 

In the meantime, since you all are thinking so hard about Podrick Payne, maybe you can help me add to my list of Podrick/Edric parallels.  Here, again, is the list (I just added ##13, 14 and 15):

1) Each have suspiciously similar names;

(2) Each is about 12 years old;

(3) Each is very shy;

(4) Each has lost his father (and possibly his mother);

(5) Each has served as squire for a Lord;

(6) Each has loyally stood by his Lord, in a riverside battle involving fiery missiles;

(7) Each has saved his injured Lord, by pulling him from a river;

(8) his Lord was the loser in a trial-by-combat, due to the prowess of Clegane.

(9) Podrick knows Dornish heraldry, and so (presumably) does Edric;

(10) Each has lost the lord he squired for;

(11) Each was last seen in the Riverlands, with the Brotherhood Without Banners;

(12) The whereabouts of both are currently unknown;

(13) each is associated, directly or indirectly, with a coat of arms that includes a shooting star against a purple backdrop (In Edric's case this refers to his own coat of arms; in Pod's case, it refers to the shield employed by a warrior he squired for).

(14) each has a more-famous cousin, who served the Iron Throne, and who wielded a legendary greatsword against Ned Stark.

I'm also tempted to add the following:

(15) each was present in a cave when a Lannister-aligned warrior, accused by Lady Stark, was tried before the BwB, and given the opportunity to prove innocence by the sword. (That is, Edric was present for the trial of Sandor; Podrick was present for the trial of Brienne).

However, the latter is more of a Brienne/Sandor parallel.  I have a larger and even-more impressive list of Brienne-Sandor parallels, which I can also list, except I don't want to hijack a Podrick thread.  But to make a long story short, my suspicion is that Brienne and Sandor are being set up to be confused with each other.  Which further leads to the suspicion that Edric and Sandor will end up in each other's company, and the Edric/Podrick parallels are part of this common scheme of confusion.

My guess is that a mystery knight will appear, with a shy 12-year old boy as his (her?) squire; and that GRRM intends to mislead us, or at least keep us guessing, as to who these mystery persons truly are.  And there's about to be a tournament in the Vale.

11 hours ago, Hippocras said:

I think, given that Tyrion specifically made note of the fact that Pod's back story was full of holes and ambiguities, it is likely true that there is SOMETHING more to who Pod is than we currently know, and not just because he's a Payne and the story of the Paynes is also full of holes. The ambiguities Tyrion brought attention to were related to his mother, father, and life until he met Tyrion.

Consider, that if Podrick is set up to be a blank slate, whose story is full of holes, then a mystery-squire of a mystery-knight can reveal  any number of things about himself, or have information revealed about him, without the reader necessarily realizing he is learning about Edric and not about Podrick.

As for the real Podrick, I don't think we'll ever learn any more secrets about him.  I think the poor kid was hanged by that monster Stoneheart, and that is the end of him.

[Hippocras]

14 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

Consider, that if Podrick is set up to be a blank slate, whose story is full of holes, then a mystery-squire of a mystery-knight can say any number of things about himself without the reader necessarily realizing he is talking about Edric and not Podrick.

As for the real Podrick, I don't think we'll ever learn any more secrets about him.  I think the poor kid was hanged by Stoneheart, and that is the end of him.

No. There is simply no reason for GRRM to WRITE Tyrion having specific thoughts about how Pod's story didn't make sense and was full of holes if those holes were never meant to be filled in, eventually.

Look, if a character doesn't need a particularly strong backstory to be what they are and do what they do that is fine. Their story is simple and a bit vague AND DOESN'T GET A MENTION. I don't claim to know what we will learn about Pod when the time comes, but the simple fact that GRRM bothered to write about how Pod's story was weak indicates that there is more detail to come, and that it has some kind of significance.

[Mister Smikes]

43 minutes ago, Hippocras said:

No. There is simply no reason for GRRM to WRITE Tyrion having specific thoughts about how Pod's story didn't make sense and was full of holes if those holes were never meant to be filled in, eventually.

I thought I just suggested an alternate possible reason.  But fine.  It's okay if you ignore what I say and we just talk past each other.

But if Pod's backstory counts as a loose end, then this series has a HUGE number of loose ends.  I don't know if you're expecting too much in expecting them ALL to be resolved.  How is this one even high on the list?

Anyhow, if my guesses turns out to be correct, i would consider that a reasonable resolution to the loose end that is Pod Payne.  One possible theory addressing the mystery, such as it is.

In the meantime, maybe you could provide the Tyrion quotes which establish a hanging mystery which my solution does not address.  The only hint of mystery I recall is Tyrion's suspicion that Tywin gave him Podrick as a joke.

 

[Seams]

35 minutes ago, Hippocras said:

GRRM bothered to write about how Pod's story was weak

I agree with you. The word "weak" may be ironic here, though. The literary clues indicate that Pod will be the one to kill Ser Robert Strong (Gregor Clegane). 

Pod = a kind of seed case. 

"Strong" is a key word that comes up frequently: "Stark" is the German word for "strong," Sweetrobin likes to be told that he is strong, King Robert was associated with the word "strong." 

Jon Arryn's dying words were, "The seed is strong." 

It's complicated, but I think the death of Ser Gregor (and his possible replacement by Ser Loras) will signal the return of balanced summer / winter seasons for Westeros. This link leads to explanations of Ser Gregor as a "green" character and an explanation of "the boy who lives" characters. (Hint: think about the death of plants at harvest time but the survival of seeds to be planted in the next growing season.)

[Mister Smikes]

9 minutes ago, Seams said:

I agree with you. The word "weak" may be ironic here, though.

What quote does this refer to?