Wow, I never noticed that. Vol. 19

[Seams]

Link to the previous collection of text-based observations: Wow, I never noticed that. Vol. 18.

This topic has a history dating back to January 6, 2013:

	host	started	ended	pages	comments	First comment (paraphrased)
1	assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar	January 6, 2013	January 18, 2013	22	432	Jon and Sam are related by marriage.
2	Lady Green	January 29, 2013	November 28, 2013	29	578	Dany was w/ Drogon when Khal Jhaqo finds her.
3	Winter’s Knight	11/28/2013	3/21/2014	22	430	Cersei probably lied that Robert told Joff “a king must be bold.”
4	coil	3/21/2014	5/13/2014	22	429	Catelyn has a thought foreshadowing stone heart.
5	Angalin	5/13/2014	7/4/2014	25	495	Wun Wun kills Ser Patrek b/c he was trying to steal Val.
6	The Amethyst Empress	7/4/2014	8/18/2014	23	441	the annoying Frey toddler in The Mystery Knight is Walder Frey
7	Rhaenys_Targaryen	8/19/2014	10/25/2014	21	403	Kevan was mourning at Tywins bed
8	Jon Weirgaryen	10/25/2014	12/31/2014	20	398	all the Robin Hood jokes associated with the BWB
9	Jon Weirgaryen	12/31/2014	1/23/2015	21	402	Renly asked Ned if the picture of Margaery looked like Lyanna because he thought he could convince Robert to marry her.
10	Lost Melnibonean	1/23/2015	3/18/2015	23	447	Two veiled red and black images in Daenerys VIII, ADwD.
11	Rhaenys_Targaryen	3/18/2015	5/4/2015	21	405	Aegon the Dragonbane was the 7th Targaryen king, and during his reign the last dragon died ,giving another importance to the number 7.
12	Rhaenys_Targaryen	5/4/2015	7/31/2015	25	491	Lemurs in Qohor may symbolize fAegon.
13	Rhaenys_Targaryen	7/31/2015	3/7/2016	24	473	Reply to lengthy post from previous thread; multiple topics.
14	Isobel Harper	3/7/2016	12/6/2016	24	474	Motives of Aurane Waters.
15	Lost Melnibonean	12/6/2016	10/10/2017	22	422	Symbolism of creatures in mud flats of Braavos.
16	Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn	10/10/2017	6/19/2018	34	676	People such as Catelyn and Beric are not married to avoid marriage relationship to dead people.
17	Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn	6/19/2018	5/10/2019	24	471	Words Daenerys and Targaryen have 3 syllables.
18	Seams	5/15/2019	9/20/2021	26	501	Rats in Dany chapters in ACoK & ASoS.
19	Seams	10/10/2021

Links to previous threads in this series:

Spoiler

 

 

[Seams]

A wordplay observation:

wings / swing and words / sword.

Dark wings, dark words. 

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

[Hugorfonics]

Margaery Tyrell was weeping in her grandmother's arms as the old lady said, "Be brave, be brave." Most of the musicians had fled, but one last flutist in the gallery was blowing a dirge.

 

That's hysterical. The audacity of this guy! Like, the king was just murdered and this flutist has the nerve strum a little funeral tune. Wasn't he scared that's inappropriate? Or is it the most appropriate thing?

Musicians are crazy 

[WhatAnArtist!]

6 hours ago, Hugorfonics said:

Margaery Tyrell was weeping in her grandmother's arms as the old lady said, "Be brave, be brave." Most of the musicians had fled, but one last flutist in the gallery was blowing a dirge.

 

That's hysterical. The audacity of this guy! Like, the king was just murdered and this flutist has the nerve strum a little funeral tune. Wasn't he scared that's inappropriate? Or is it the most appropriate thing?

Musicians are crazy 

My head-canon says that this musician had secret Stark sympathies, and was doing this as a tiny bit of personal retribution for the Red Wedding.

[Walda]

Thanks Seams, for the great OP, and what an intriguing play on swords!

*

Quote

Any act can be a prayer, if done as well as we are able. Isn’t that a lovely thought?Remember that the next time you do your needlework.

(ASoS Ch 22 Arya IV)

Quote

Every night Arya would say their names. “Ser Gregor,” she’d whisper to her stone pillow. “Dunsen, Polliver, Chiswyck, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei.” Back in Winterfell, Arya had prayed with her mother in the sept and with her father in the godswood, but there were no gods on the road to Harrenhal, and her names were the only prayer she cared to remember.

(ACoK Ch26 Arya IV)

Way ahead of you Lady Smallwood.

[Adam Targaryen]

After Sigorn and Alys’ wedding in A Dance with Dragons, when Jon has gotten a letter from Cotter Pyke about how he and several others at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea are setting off their ships to save the wildlings at Hardhome:

”The fish course was next, but as the pike was being boned Lady Alys dragged the Magnar up onto the floor.

[From the way he moved it was plain that Sigorn had never danced before, but he had drunk enough mulled wine so that it did not seem to matter.]”

The sea voyage from Eastwatch to Hardhome is next, but Cotter Pyke (”pike”) will be killed by wights and become boned (turn into a wight skeleton). As this happens, the noble forces of the North/the Night’s Watch/the Seven Kingdoms - represented by Lady Alys here - will nonetheless manage to drag some wildlings up onto the floor, I. E. rescue them with the boats and take them back to Eastwatch and into the fold of the Seven Kingdoms.

[Furthermore, from the way the wildlings act, it will be plain that they have never ”danced”, I. E. taken part in Seven Kingdoms’ politics before, but they will still have a go at it due to having drunk mulled wine - which might represent the faith of R’hllor or something...]

 

 

[Seams]

On 12/2/2021 at 5:36 PM, Adam Targaryen said:

After Sigorn and Alys’ wedding ....

[Furthermore, from the way the wildlings act, it will be plain that they have never ”danced”, I. E. taken part in Seven Kingdoms’ politics before, but they will still have a go at it due to having drunk mulled wine - which might represent the faith of R’hllor or something...]

Very nice! I think all wedding feasts in ASOIAF are highly allegorical and probably foreshadow things to come. 

Jon makes spiced wine according to Jeor Mormont's recipe before he finds the obsidian cache. Arya makes mulled wine for Roose Bolton at Harrenhal, iirc. I think there is significance in the unity of fruit, spices and wine - maybe something to do with the elements needed for spiritual rebirth. 

Edit to add:

This excerpt from Dany's wedding feast seems like a "mummer's" version of the Robert / Rhaegar / Lyanna dynamic:

Quote

The warriors were watching too. One of them finally stepped into the circle, grabbed a dancer by the arm, pushed her down to the ground, and mounted her right there, as a stallion mounts a mare. Illyrio had told her that might happen. "The Dothraki mate like the animals in their herds. There is no privacy in a khalasar, and they do not understand sin or shame as we do."

Dany looked away from the coupling, frightened when she realized what was happening, but a second warrior stepped forward, and a third, and soon there was no way to avert her eyes. Then two men seized the same woman. She heard a shout, saw a shove, and in the blink of an eye the arakhs were out, long razor-sharp blades, half sword and half scythe. A dance of death began as the warriors circled and slashed, leaping toward each other, whirling the blades around their heads, shrieking insults at each clash. No one made a move to interfere.

It ended as quickly as it began. The arakhs shivered together faster than Dany could follow, one man missed a step, the other swung his blade in a flat arc. Steel bit into flesh just above the Dothraki's waist, and opened him from backbone to belly button, spilling his entrails into the dust. As the loser died, the winner took hold of the nearest woman—not even the one they had been quarreling over—and had her there and then. Slaves carried off the body, and the dancing resumed.

Magister Illyrio had warned Dany about this too. "A Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is deemed a dull affair," he had said. Her wedding must have been especially blessed; before the day was over, a dozen men had died. (AGoT, Daenerys I)

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Seams

[Corvo the Crow]

Not something from the books, but here it goes. Warning,

 spoilers on Dune series and a speculation on the origins of Starks.

Spoiler

Having watched Dune a couple of weeks back -which I must say didn't impress me at the very least, the 1984 movie was much better except for props,effects etc- something struck me: It was discussed/pointed out long ago that dune was an inspiration for some aspects of the ASOIAF series, the great houses with their thousands of years of history, the maesters and mentats (I think the bene gesserits also), sapho coloring the mentats lips just as the shade of the evening does and other things that I can't recall right now... and perhaps, in addition to all these, also the Others, which came back and the Thinking Machines that returned towards the end of the series? If so, could the Starks, the most likely "protaganist house" of the series, were in league with the beginning and even descended from them just as the founder of House Atreides, Vorian Atreides, descended from Cymek Agamemnon and later turned against the thinking machines?

 

 

 

 

 

[Corvo the Crow]

Melisandre talks about daggers in the dark in the below two quotes...

Quote

"You are wrong. I have dreamed of your Wall, Jon Snow. Great was the lore that raised it, and great the spells locked beneath its ice. We walk beneath one of the hinges of the world." Melisandre gazed up at it, her breath a warm moist cloud in the air. "This is my place as it is yours, and soon enough you may have grave need of me. Do not refuse my friendship, Jon. I have seen you in the storm, hard-pressed, with enemies on every side. You have so many enemies. Shall I tell you their names?"

 

"I know their names."

"Do not be so certain." The ruby at Melisandre's throat gleamed red. "It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel. It was very cold."

"It is always cold on the Wall."

 

GRAVE need, you say?

 

Quote

"Daggers in the dark. I know. You will forgive my doubts, my lady. A grey girl on a dying horse, fleeing from a marriage, that was what you said."

"I was not wrong."

"You were not right. Alys is not Arya."

"The vision was a true one. It was my reading that was false. I am as mortal as you, Jon Snow. All mortals err."

Just how mortal are you, my lady?

 

[The Bard of Banefort]

In The Sworn Sword, Dunk describes the fire in Wat’s Wood as “the sun rising in the west.” Possibly just a coincidence, but it brought me back to Mirri Maz Duur’s prophecy.

[Corvo the Crow]

Quote

 

The Others made no sound.

Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness

The Lord Commander reached up to pinch its beak shut, but the raven hopped up on his head, fluttered its wings, and flew across the chamber to light above a window. "Grief and noise," Mormont grumbled. "That's all they're good for, ravens. Why I put up with that pestilential bird … if there was news of Lord Eddard, don't you think I would have sent for you? Bastard or no, you're still his blood. The message concerned Ser Barristan Selmy. It seems he's been removed from the Kingsguard. They gave his place to that black dog Clegane, and now Selmy's wanted for treason. The fools sent some watchmen to seize him, but he slew two of them and escaped." Mormont snorted, leaving no doubt of his view of men who'd send gold cloaks against a knight as renowed as Barristan the Bold. "We have white shadows in the woods and unquiet dead stalking our halls, and a boy sits the Iron Throne," he said in disgust.

"What gods?" Jon was remembering that they'd seen no boys in Craster's Keep, nor men either, save Craster himself.

"The cold gods," she said. "The ones in the night. The white shadows."

 

"Will you take me? Just so far as the Wall—"

"We do not ride for the Wall. We ride north, after Mance Rayder and these Others, these white shadows and their wights. We seek them, Gilly. Your babe would not be safe with us."

 

So, probably nothing but Above, several quotes where the "Others", are described as white shadows. They are also known as white walkers, cold gods and cold shadows. Below, ghost is mentioned as a white shadow.  Below, Patchface singing.

Quote

"Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool," said Patchface, jangling. "Oh, clever clever clever fool." He began to sing. "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." He jerked his head with each word, the bells in his antlers sending up a clangor.

"The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," the fool sang on, swinging his head and making his bells clang and clatter. Bong dong, ring-a-ling, bong dong.

 

Over the clatter of knife and plate and the low mutter of table talk, he heard Patchface singing, ". . . dance, my lord, dance my lord," to the accompaniment of jangling cowbells. The same dreadful song he'd sung this morning. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." 

He knew the phrase, some prayer of her faith. It makes no matter, I have a faith of my own. "Only children fear the dark," he told her. Yet even as he said the words, he heard Patchface take up his song again. "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord."

 

 

 

Nothing interesting, we all know the shadows talked about here are the Others, and they came to dance.

Quote

 

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night's Watch.

The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat he dared to hope.

Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere.

Again and again the swords met, until Will wanted to cover his ears against the strange anguished keening of their clash. Ser Waymar was panting from the effort now, his breath steaming in the moonlight. His blade was white with frost; the Other's danced with pale blue light.

 

 

Below, Jon at Alys' wedding and while wildlings coming under his protection.

Quote

 

"You could dance with me, you know. It would be only courteous. You danced with me anon."

"Anon?" teased Jon.

"When we were children." She tore off a bit of bread and threw it at him. "As you know well."

On and on the wildlings came. The day grew darker, just as Tormund said. Clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon, and warmth fled. There was more shoving at the gate, as men and goats and bullocks jostled each other out of the way. It is more than impatience, Jon realized. They are afraid. Warriors, spearwives, raiders, they are frightened of those woods, of shadows moving through the trees. They want to put the Wall between them before the night descends.

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon.

 

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then an Other. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon.

 

I remember posting Ser Waymar's dance and the snowflake dance but don't remember ever connecting these two to Patchface's song, so I thought I'd post again.

 

 

[Tucu]

2 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

So, probably nothing but Above, several quotes where the "Others", are described as white shadows. They are also known as white walkers, cold gods and cold shadows. Below, ghost is mentioned as a white shadow.  Below, Patchface singing.

 

Nothing interesting, we all know the shadows talked about here are the Others, and they came to dance.

 

Below, Jon at Alys' wedding and while wildlings coming under his protection.

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then an Other. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon.

 

I remember posting Ser Waymar's dance and the snowflake dance but don't remember ever connecting these two to Patchface's song, so I thought I'd post again.

The WWs, Ghost and the Kingsguard are described multiple times as "white shadows". Not sure exactly what it will mean but I always look for references to "white shadows". Ghost protects Jon and the KGs protect the king; the WW are protectors of what?

Quote

Joffrey was galloping at his side, whey-faced, with Ser Mandon Moore a white shadow on his left

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His two white shadows were always with him; Balon Swann and Mandon Moore, beautiful in their pale plate

Quote

Dany glimpsed Ser Barristan sliding closer, a white shadow at her side

Quote

Finally he rolled over the side and lay breathless and exhausted, flat on his back. Balls of green and orange flame crackled overhead, leaving streaks between the stars. He had a moment to think how pretty it was before Ser Mandon blocked out the view. The knight was a white steel shadow, his eyes shining darkly behind his helm. Tyrion had no more strength than a rag doll. Ser Mandon put the point of his sword to the hollow of his throat and curled both hands around the hilt.

The last one is when Mandon attacks Tyrion.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Tucu

[Corvo the Crow]

4 hours ago, Tucu said:

The WWs, Ghost and the Kingsguard are described multiple times as "white shadows". Not sure exactly what it will mean but I always look for references to "white shadows". Ghost protects Jon and the KGs protect the king; the WW are protectors of what?

 

Good catch!

[Corvo the Crow]

@Seams you may also be interested in this.

 

Quote

For all her talk about wanting to be mistress of her seat, Selyse Baratheon seemed in no great haste to abandon the comforts of Castle Black for the shadows of the Nightfort. She kept guards, of course—four men posted at the door, two outside on the steps, two inside by the brazier. Commanding them was Ser Patrek of King's Mountain, clad in his knightly raiment of white and blue and silver, his cloak a spatter of five-pointed stars. When presented to Val, the knight sank to one knee to kiss her glove. "You are even lovelier than I was told, princess," he declared. "The queen has told me much and more of your beauty."

"How odd, when she has never seen me." Val patted Ser Patrek on the head. "Up with you now, ser kneeler. Up, up." She sounded as if she were talking to a dog.

It was all that Jon could do not to laugh. Stone-faced, he told the knight that they required audience with the queen. Ser Patrek sent one of the men-at-arms scrambling up the steps to inquire as to whether Her Grace would receive them. "The wolf stays here, though," Ser Patrek insisted.

Jon had expected that. The direwolf made Queen Selyse anxious, almost as much as Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun. "Ghost, stay."

They found Her Grace sewing by the fire, whilst her fool danced about to music only he could hear, the cowbells on his antlers clanging. "The crow, the crow," Patchface cried when he saw Jon. "Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh." Princess Shireen was curled up in a window seat, her hood drawn up to hide the worst of the greyscale that had disfigured her face.

The crow is, obviously, Jon. The white would be, I assume, is Ghost. Also note that Ghost stayed back at the door while Jon crossed it, so when "under the sea" Jon will be Ghost. Could the steps Jon climb to reach Selyse also have a meaning, I'm not sure.

Also worth noting are those who are present or mentioned: Wun Weg Wun Dar Wuun, Val, Jon, Ghost and Ser Patrek of the King's Mountain. When Jon the assassination happens, these are also either present or mentioned. Jon hears a scream and thinks of Val, runs to Hardin's tower, where she dwells, and there he sees the guard of the door, Wun Wun, smashing the guard of Selyse's door, Ser Patrek and Ghost, being locked away, has again "stayed".

[Loose Bolt]

5 hours ago, Tucu said:

The WWs, Ghost and the Kingsguard are described multiple times as "white shadows". Not sure exactly what it will mean but I always look for references to "white shadows". Ghost protects Jon and the KGs protect the king; the WW are protectors of what?

I assume that WW  are only puppets of some kind of mastermind(s). Or their real leaders are controlling them like wargs/greense'ers do with their own "puppets". So only way to really eliminate Army of Death would be to wipe out those masterminds and their ability to control their slaves.

[Tucu]

17 minutes ago, Loose Bolt said:

I assume that WW  are only puppets of some kind of mastermind(s). Or their real leaders are controlling them like wargs/greense'ers do with their own "puppets". So only way to really eliminate Army of Death would be to wipe out those masterminds and their ability to control their slaves.

The WWs are also called watchers (like the NW) in the AGoT prologue. In The Watcher and in the Captain of the guards Areo Hotah repeats expressions like this 4 times:

Quote

Serve. Protect. Obey. Simple vows for simple men. That was all he knew

Then in The Queensguard Barristan thinks this:

Quote

The first duty of the Kingsguard was to defend the king from harm or threat. The white knights were sworn to obey the king's commands as well, to keep his secrets, counsel him when counsel was requested and keep silent when it was not, serve his pleasure and defend his name and honor. Strictly speaking, it was purely the king's choice whether or not to extend Kingsguard protection to others, even those of royal blood. Some kings thought it right and proper to dispatch Kingsguard to serve and defend their wives and children, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins of greater and lesser degree, and occasionally even their lovers, mistresses, and bastards. But others preferred to use household knights and men-at-arms for those purposes, whilst keeping their seven as their own personal guard, never far from their sides.

So we have a white shadow repeating the serve, obey and protect vows mentioned by Areo. Simple vows for simple men.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Tucu

[LynnS]

5 hours ago, Tucu said:

The WWs, Ghost and the Kingsguard are described multiple times as "white shadows". Not sure exactly what it will mean but I always look for references to "white shadows". Ghost protects Jon and the KGs protect the king; the WW are protectors of what?

The last one is when Mandon attacks Tyrion.

Black crows and white crows, what could they have in common?  Shadow is both a noun and a verb.

- an inseparable companion or attendant (noun)

- follow and observe someone closely and secretly (verb)

Jon is dressed in black and his white shadow is Ghost.  The black brothers in the prologue of GoT are secretly observed and followed by white shadows.  The WWs are also brothers - black brothers and white brothers.  Who do they serve or who were they meant to serve?

 

 

 

[Tucu]

15 minutes ago, LynnS said:

Black crows and white crows, what could they have in common?  Shadow is both a noun and a verb.

- an inseparable companion or attendant (noun)

- follow and observe someone closely and secretly (verb)

Jon is dressed in black and his white shadow is Ghost.  The black brothers in the prologue of GoT are secretly observed and followed by white shadows.  The WWs are also brothers - black brothers and white brothers.  Who do they serve or who were they meant to serve?

Related piece of wisdom from an unlikely source:

Quote

You are fighting shadows when you should be fighting the men who cast them," Daario went on

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Tucu

[Corvo the Crow]

Quote

 

"As you will. Tell me, Theon, how many men did Mors Umber have with him at Winterfell?"

"None. No men." He grinned at his own wit. "He had boys. I saw them." Aside from a handful of half-crippled serjeants, the warriors that Crowfood had brought down from Last Hearth were hardly old enough to shave. "Their spears and axes were older than the hands that clutched them. It was Whoresbane Umber who had the men, inside the castle. I saw them too. Old men, every one." Theon tittered. "Mors took the green boys and Hother took the greybeards. All the real men went with the Greatjon and died at the Red Wedding. Is that what you wanted to know, Your Grace?"

King Stannis ignored the jibe. "Boys," was all he said, disgusted. "Boys will not hold Lord Bolton long."

 

Whoresbane was given command of old men, not the boys. Funny when considering his story...

[Corvo the Crow]

On 12/28/2021 at 5:17 PM, Tucu said:

The WWs, Ghost and the Kingsguard are described multiple times as "white shadows". Not sure exactly what it will mean but I always look for references to "white shadows". Ghost protects Jon and the KGs protect the king; the WW are protectors of what?

The last one is when Mandon attacks Tyrion.

This could be relavent.

Quote

In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life. Proud Martyn Cassel, Jory's father; faithful Theo Wull; Ethan Glover, who had been Brandon's squire; Ser Mark Ryswell, soft of speech and gentle of heart; the crannogman, Howland Reed; Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. Ned had known their faces as well as he knew his own once, but the years leech at a man's memories, even those he has vowed never to forget. In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.

They were seven, facing three. In the dream as it had been in life. Yet these were no ordinary three. They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

"I looked for you on the Trident," Ned said to them.

"We were not there," Ser Gerold answered.

"Woe to the Usurper if we had been," said Ser Oswell.

"When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were."

"Far away," Ser Gerold said, "or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells."

"I came down on Storm's End to lift the siege," Ned told them, "and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them."

"Our knees do not bend easily," said Ser Arthur Dayne.

"Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him."

"Ser Willem is a good man and true," said Ser Oswell.

"But not of the Kingsguard," Ser Gerold pointed out. "The Kingsguard does not flee."

"Then or now," said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.

Ned's wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three.

"We swore a vow," explained old Ser Gerold.

"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.

"No," Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends." As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.

"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.

"I promise," he whispered. "Lya, I promise …"

"Lord Eddard," a man echoed from the dark.

 

Kingsguard, but not only are they not described as shadows, but we are specifically told that they aren't shadows. Though not white, the grey wraiths that were Ned's companions once are the shadows here.