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Wow, I never noticed that. Vol. 19


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20 hours ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

This comes from hindsight and five books.

The description of Waymar's sword gives away what the Other is looking for. 

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. (Prologue, AGoT)

The moonlight is running cold along the metal.

Description of Lightbringer from the Jade Compendium;

"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 Lighbringer was never cold to the touch, but warm as Nissa Nissa had been warm." (Jon III, ADwD 10)

This is what the Other is looking for. Waymar's sword is cold. Just like Stannis's Lightbringer is. The real Lightbringer should be a warm sword. The Others cannot stand against against Lightbringer/dragonsteel.

Honestly, I'm not so sure that there isn't a little more to this.

After all, the next line is:

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.

So we know it changes temperature, and this change seems to be related to the wielder or situation the wielder is in.

I would suggest that the cold/hot nature of the sword is a reflection of the wielder and not inherent to the magic sword itself.

And that, the Red Sword of Heroes is one and the same blade as the original Ice.

Hesperus is Phosphorus (greek names for the morning and evening star, both of which are in reality the planet Venus, love. Also, a very relevant phrase in philosophy relating to the semantics of proper names which reminds me of the chapter titles), the morning star (lucifer in latin, meaning lightbringer) and the evening star (vesper, "the west", future form: vesperos, at least reminiscent of "westeros" if not an inspiration) are one and the same.

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2 hours ago, Mourning Star said:

After all, the next line is:

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.

The reason I didn't post the rest of the quote is because Waymar Royce wasn't in battle. So even if he was wielding Lightbringer, the sword wasn't gonna be burning fiery hot. I'm assuming that the Other knew exactly what sort of sign he was looking for before he engaged, backed off, got his brothers to join him in the fight.

2 hours ago, Mourning Star said:

And that, the Red Sword of Heroes is one and the same blade as the original Ice.

I think the sword has gone by several names. I think there's a really interesting passage in the text that associates the Red Sword with sacrifice and Ice.

That night she lay upon her thin blanket on the hard ground, staring up at the great red comet. The comet was splendid and scary all at once. "The Red Sword," the Bull named it; he claimed it looked like a sword, the blade still red-hot from the forge. When Arya squinted the right way she could see the sword too, only it wasn't a new sword, it was Ice, her father's greatsword, all ripply Valyrian steel, and the red was Lord Eddard's blood on the blade after Ser Ilyn the King's Justice had cut off his head. (Arya I, ACoK)

The concept of the Red Sword is introduced nine chapters before we find out the story about the Red Sword of Heroes, or Lightbringer. 

Gendry called the comet the Red Sword and compared it to the blade still red-hot from the forge. What happened after Azor Ahai finished making his blade for the third time? He sacrificed Nissa Nissa. When Arya looks up, what she sees Ice, covered with her father's blood. 

I have more on this here, if you are interested.

The way GRRM wrote this is really interesting.

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On 3/4/2022 at 7:11 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

The reason I didn't post the rest of the quote is because Waymar Royce wasn't in battle. So even if he was wielding Lightbringer, the sword wasn't gonna be burning fiery hot. I'm assuming that the Other knew exactly what sort of sign he was looking for before he engaged, backed off, got his brothers to join him in the fight.

Wait what? 

Waymar Royce died fighting, so I would definitely say he died in battle.

The other Others didn't come to finish Royce off until after he was defeated, disarmed, and blinded, up until that point they seemed to honor the fight as a 1v1 duel. I guess you are saying a duel isn't a battle, but that doesn't seem a reasonable semantic line to draw here, to me.

On 3/4/2022 at 7:11 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

I think the sword has gone by several names. I think there's a really interesting passage in the text that associates the Red Sword with sacrifice and Ice.

That night she lay upon her thin blanket on the hard ground, staring up at the great red comet. The comet was splendid and scary all at once. "The Red Sword," the Bull named it; he claimed it looked like a sword, the blade still red-hot from the forge. When Arya squinted the right way she could see the sword too, only it wasn't a new sword, it was Ice, her father's greatsword, all ripply Valyrian steel, and the red was Lord Eddard's blood on the blade after Ser Ilyn the King's Justice had cut off his head. (Arya I, ACoK)

The concept of the Red Sword is introduced nine chapters before we find out the story about the Red Sword of Heroes, or Lightbringer. 

Yes. I think they are the same sword, and all Valyrian Steel is an imitation (including the "new" Ice) of the original magic sword. One could even see how it's only a small step from there to average steel being an imitation of Valyrian Steel.

Mind you, the last time the Others were rumored to exist, the men of Westeros didn't have steel at all. They may or may not even have had iron, and are said to have primarily used bronze.

It is no surprise then that the Others would be wary of a man raising a sword of a new material against them if they were defeated by a special sword last time. Even further I would argue they are right to worry, although they should be concerned with Valyrian steel not just mundane steel.

On 3/4/2022 at 7:11 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

Gendry called the comet the Red Sword and compared it to the blade still red-hot from the forge. What happened after Azor Ahai finished making his blade for the third time? He sacrificed Nissa Nissa. When Arya looks up, what she sees Ice, covered with her father's blood. 

Because the original Red Sword of Heroes, Lightbringer, was the same sword as the original Ice. It is the Sword that Slays the Season.

"It is the sword that slays the season," he replied, and soon after the white raven came from Oldtown bringing word of autumn, so doubtless he was right. -Clash of Kings, Bran I

To be honest, I'd be surprised if Nissa Nissa doesn't end up also being the corpse bride of the Night King.

On 3/4/2022 at 7:11 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

I have more on this here, if you are interested.

The way GRRM wrote this is really interesting.

It is certainly interesting! As is your nicely written piece there. I don't know that I agree with all of it, but I enjoyed it.

The connections between the prologues is interesting. As is that between comet and sword.

I would suggest the prologues alternate between ice and fire, and start as Dante started, in a dark wood where the easy way was lost (and I would predict the story will end as he did, recognizing "The love that moves the sun and the other stars.").

The first line of each book is below:

Game of Thrones, Ice:

"We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”
“Do the dead frighten you?”

Clash of Kings, fire:

The comet's tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a wound in the pink and purple sky.

Storm of Swords, ice:

The day was grey and bitter cold, and the dogs would not take the scent.

Feast for Crows, fire:

 “Dragons,” said Mollander. He snatched a withered apple off the ground and tossed it hand to hand.

Dance of Dragons, ice:

The night was rank with the smell of man.
The warg stopped beneath a tree and sniffed, his grey-brown fur dappled by shadow. A sigh of
piney wind brought the man-scent to him, over fainter smells that spoke of fox and hare, seal and stag,
even wolf. Those were man-smells too, the warg knew; the stink of old skins, dead and sour, near
drowned beneath the stronger scents of smoke and blood and rot. Only man stripped the skins from
other beasts and wore their hides and hair.

Edited by Mourning Star
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46 minutes ago, Mourning Star said:

Wait what? 

Waymar Royce died fighting, so I would definitely say he died in battle.

I thought this had potential to come back and bite me because I wasn't sure I had expressed properly what I was trying to say. So take two.

"The reason I didn't post the rest of the quote is because Waymar Royce wasn't in battle in that moment. So even if he was wielding Lightbringer, the sword wasn't gonna be burning fiery hot because he wasn't fighting."

Lightbringer allegedly burns fiery hot in battle, which Waymar wasn't doing at that point. 

I did notice the ice to fire, fire to ice transitions with the prologues. But for me it was more about where the chapters are taking place.

AGoT -- north of the Wall (ice), ACoK -- Dragonstone (fire), ASoS -- Fist of the First Men (ice), AFfC -- Oldtown (fire, because of the Hightower that's literally compared to a flaming sword), ADwD -- North of the Wall (ice)

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It is certainly interesting! As is your nicely written piece there. I don't know that I agree with all of it, but I enjoyed it.

Thank you! I definitely appreciate that. 

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  • 1 month later...

In the ongoing game of who-are-Dunk’s-descendants, I was reading The Mystery Knight and noticed this line:
 

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"Where are you going, ser?"

"To my bed, to sleep. I’m drunk as a dog.

I checked the search engine, and sure enough, this line has only appeared one other time:

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Clegane reeled and almost fell. "Gods," he swore, "too much wine. Do you like wine, little bird? True wine? A flagon of sour red, dark as blood, all a man needs. Or a woman." He laughed, shook his head. "Drunk as a dog, damn me.

It might not mean anything. Or it could be another one of George’s many clever hints :P

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  • 3 months later...
On 3/4/2022 at 6:54 AM, Mourning Star said:

Aka. Ice!

Please explain. 

I came here today because I re-read this

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Four hundred years old it was, and as sharp as the day it was forged. The name it bore was older still, a legacy from the age of heroes, when the Starks were Kings in the North.

(AGoT Ch 2 Catelyn I)

I had not noticed before how out-of-place the Valyrian sword was in the black pool by the ancient weirwood. 

Nor had I noticed there was at least one earlier Ice, that there might be an Ice in one piece still. 

Eddard's Ice was forged about 130 BC, before Daenys the Dreamer foresaw the Doom of Valyria, before the Targaryens had left Valyria, but after Dragonstone had been built as the Westernmost outpost of Valyria. 

Was Ice a gift from Dragonstone (or from Valyria) to the King of Winter? Was it a commission because Ice Eyes or Bran the Breaker had broken the family sword? 

The transaction shows us that at least one King of Winter had some kind of non-violent contact with Valyria, or at least Dragonstone. And that the Valyrians were willing to arm him.

--

On Ser Waymar's interaction with the Others, the Other approached Ser Waymar with a drawn longsword, at front guard or short guard. It is unclear if the blade was out before Ser Waymar warned "Come no farther". 

Waymar's own stance is an extraordinary choice: holding his sword in both hands, high over his head. As if he was preparing to be a ritual sacrifice.

We know from various comments about 'drawn steel' that in Westeros, that is a signal that you are intending to fight. Robb displayed a bare sword on his lap when Tyrion asked an audience with him, to show him the enmity between their families. In Braavos simply carrying a sword was a sign you were prepared to fight any bravo you came across.

The Others understood Waymar was issuing a challenge, and did him the courtesy of having only one of them answer his challenge. The shattering of Royce's sword seems to signal that the sport is over, and all the Others gather around to stab him with their longswords, rather than leave his dispatch to the one who fought him. Stabbing seems an odd way to use a longsword, and the frenzied way they do it, shredding his cloak, seems an inefficient as well as inelegant way of killing him. But that is how they do it.

We know the Ice that was melted down to make Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail is not Dawn. The swords co-exist, and perhaps they met at the Tower of Joy in the red sands of Dorne.

I suppose it is possible that Dawn was an earlier Ice. The old Kings of Winter in the crypt at Winterfell have swords of iron across their laps, so old that all that is left of some of them are a red line of rust. Admittedly, none of the last dozen Lords of Winterfell have a statue with Ice across its lap. They swords they rest with are not so fancy.

Osha took Eddard's sword, forged after his death by Mikken on Bran's command. Meera took Lord Rickard's, Bran took Uncle Brandon's. (Incidentally, while Bran claims that Eddard had the statues of Lyanna and Brandon made because he loved them, that only Lords and monarchs were really entitled to statues. But I think Brandon was the Lord of Winterfell in the short time between his father dying and his own death.  That statue is clearly in defiance of Aerys Targaryen, second of his name. 

King Robert protests Lyanna's presence in the crypt, but Eddard insists she belongs there. Perhaps because both Robert and Eddard know she was briefly the Queen of the realm. Although Robert would rather not acknowledge as much.)

Hodor took a "much older" sword, that also seems to be much larger. Well spotted with rust, but we don't know which statue it was taken from. Lady Dustin notices a sword missing when Theon is guiding her past Beron Stark who ruled in Bloodraven's time. But Theon doesn't remember the name of the king the sword came from, and it might not have been the sword removed by Hodor - When Rickon had learnt that Robb was going to war he and Shaggy had gone to the crypts, and when Gage and Mikken found him

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Rickon had slashed at them with a rusted iron sword he’d snatched from a dead king’s hand,

(AGoT Ch53 Bran VI)

I doubt a four-year-old would be able to snatch or slash with a sword as heavy as the one Hodor took. There is no mention of returning the sword to the statue, or of the part of the crypt Rickon was in when he weilded it.

The swords in the crypts are generally described as longsword, and iron. Nothing indicates they are at all fancy. There are several indications they are all rusty. Eddard's sword had Mikken's mark, so I guess we could assume the swords were all castle-forged. The Starks having the history they do, we can be sure even their ghosts' swords have a honed edge, less decoration and more decollation than a southern ceremonial sword. But none so fancy that a later ancestor would covet it. No Valyrian steel (likely no steel at all).

If a former Ice lay in the crypts, it would not have a milky translucent blade, or generate heat, or be engraved with magical runes, nothing that would tempt anyone to take it rather than another of the scores of rusty iron longswords around it.

Meera complains that Rickard's sword is heavy, but she doesn't exchange it for another. She is shorter than Osha, who wears the newest sword on her back. Osha knew Mikken and Gage, who would be sharing his wood supply with the forge. She might even have seen the sword forged. I am guessing it was longer and heavier than Meera's, and that Hodor's was the heaviest and largest of the four they took. Bran's sword might have been smaller and lighter than Meera's, but Meera knows her Royal protocol too well to choose before the prince or to ask her liege to swap. Bran's sword is likely Mikken's too. Hodor's sword is the only one we hear of after they leave the crypts. Bran sees Meera often using her trident, net, and helm, but not her sword. He never mentions his own sword, either. Perhaps Hodor carries all three, like a pack horse. 

I guess there is no reason a former Ice would not be a plain looking iron sword. It is implied the nine black iron longswords on the crown of winter that Torren ceded to Aegon share symbolism with the swords in the crypt that keep the dead from walking. 

On the other hand, the iron swords of the Wildlings (and the bronze of the Thenns) have not done much to stop the dead from walking, and the Others' armor is impervious to iron, and they can shatter iron blades.

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On 8/7/2022 at 12:58 AM, Walda said:

Please explain. 

I came here today because I re-read this

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Four hundred years old it was, and as sharp as the day it was forged. The name it bore was older still, a legacy from the age of heroes, when the Starks were Kings in the North.

(AGoT Ch 2 Catelyn I)

I’m suggesting that this comment by Cat could be read as telling us that Ned’s Valyrian Steel Ice is not the original sword of house Stark.
 

I’m suggesting that the original sword was actually Dawn.

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Some interesting detail about Last Kiss receivers:

- Before his first resurrection, Beric's body was pulled out from the Red Fork's waters;

- Catelyn's dead body was pulled out from the Green Fork's waters;

Does it mean that the next Last Kiss receiver's body will emerge from the Blue Fork's waters? Number three is crucial in GRRM story and I do believe Undead Catelyn at some point will pass the kiss to another person, similar how Beric passed his to her.

The question is who it will be?

Notably the Oldstones located at Blue Fork of Trident.

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  • 2 months later...

I know that a literal reading would indicate that the bumps in the road are mountains. In GRRM's deliberate use of vague phrasing, however, this could be a description of Cersei's mode of travel:

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He had never been a patient man, Robert Baratheon. "That damnable wheelhouse, the way it creaks and groans, climbing every bump in the road as if it were a mountain … I promise you, if that wretched thing breaks another axle, I'm going to burn it, and Cersei can walk!"

Ned laughed. "I will gladly light the torch for you."

(AGoT, Eddard II)

If Cersei is like a Mountain that Rides, this gives her a connection to this:

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By then Ser Gregor Clegane was in position at the head of the lists. He was huge, the biggest man that Eddard Stark had ever seen. Robert Baratheon and his brothers were all big men, as was the Hound, and back at Winterfell there was a simpleminded stableboy named Hodor who dwarfed them all, but the knight they called the Mountain That Rides would have towered over Hodor. He was well over seven feet tall, closer to eight, with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees. His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs, and the lance he carried looked as small as a broom handle.

(AGoT, Eddard VII)

By the end of ADwD, we know that Ser Gregor will be re-named Ser Robert Strong and will become Cersei's champion. 

From a literary analysis perspective, I think we may be seeing Cersei's dragon here. In order to "hatch" her dragons / to give birth to the Stallion that Mounts the World, Dany had to eat the heart of a stallion. Khal Drogo's horse was also part of the sacrifice in the pyre. At the Hand's Tourney, Gregor beheads his own horse because it was distracted by Ser Loras's mare in heat. That act by Ser Gregor may be related to these details:

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She sent it into a gallop, and now the Dothraki were hooting and laughing and shouting at her as they jumped out of her way. As she turned to ride back, a firepit loomed ahead, directly in her path. They were hemmed in on either side, with no room to stop. A daring she had never known filled Daenerys then, and she gave the filly her head.

The silver horse leapt the flames as if she had wings.

(AGoT, Daenearys II)

Yet every night, some time before the dawn, Drogo would come to her tent and wake her in the dark, to ride her as relentlessly as he rode his stallion. He always took her from behind, Dothraki fashion, for which Dany was grateful; that way her lord husband could not see the tears that wet her face, and she could use her pillow to muffle her cries of pain. 

(AGoT, Daenerys III)

As a child, Cersei had fantasized about marrying Rhaegar and becoming a dragon rider. Rhaegar knighted Ser Gregor, which I always find intriguing. Ser Robert Strong is massive like Khal Drogo. Perhaps the missing head is less important if you live in the Red Keep, where dragon heads have been stored. Qyburn brought Ser Robert Strong to life, and his laboratory is in the dungeon near the dragon skulls. Ser Gregor also burned the face of Sandor, which is something a dragon might do. 

I think there may also be some magic related to Ser Gregor's skull going to Dorne, where Queen Rhaenys and Meraxes disappeared long ago. Perhaps Dorne has some special ability to harness dead dragon magic.

And speaking of Meraxes, this is probably relevant to Robert's remark about the broken axles on Cersei's wheelhouse. There are also some important moments involving axes in ASOIAF, including Lord Commander Mormont giving a special axe to Craster shortly before they die together. 

The remark about burning the wheelhouse with Cersei having to walk as a result also ties into Dany and Viserys: the older sibling is forced to walk behind the khalasar after he attacks pregnant Dany during their trip through the desert.

We are always trying to figure out the meaning of the prophecy for Dany: three heads, three fires, three mounts, three treasons. But Dany seems to be the mount for Khal Drogo, and we suspect that she is the "stallion" that mounts the world. 

For awhile now, I have seen the yin/yang relationship between the stallion that mounts and the mountain that rides. If I'm right about Ser Gregor being a symbolic dragon for Cersei, apparently each of these figures can have a "rider" who manipulates them, perhaps similar to Dunk as a puppet in the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms stories.

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My instincts tell me that this passage contains a ton of foreshadowing, except some of the hints have already played out:

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Ser Rodrik tugged at his whiskers. "Poison, well … that could be the dwarf's work, true enough. Or Cersei's. It's said poison is a woman's weapon, begging your pardons, my lady. The Kingslayer, now … I have no great liking for the man, but he's not the sort. Too fond of the sight of blood on that golden sword of his. Was it poison, my lady?"

Catelyn frowned, vaguely uneasy. "How else could they make it look a natural death?" Behind her, Lord Robert shrieked with delight as one of the puppet knights sliced the other in half, spilling a flood of red sawdust onto the terrace. She glanced at her nephew and sighed. "The boy is utterly without discipline. He will never be strong enough to rule unless he is taken away from his mother for a time."

"His lord father agreed with you," said a voice at her elbow. She turned to behold Maester Colemon, a cup of wine in his hand. "He was planning to send the boy to Dragonstone for fostering, you know … oh, but I'm speaking out of turn." The apple of his throat bobbed anxiously beneath the loose maester's chain. "I fear I've had too much of Lord Hunter's excellent wine. The prospect of bloodshed has my nerves all a-fray …"

(AGoT, Catelyn VII)

Catelyn is initially discussing Jon Arryn's death with Ser Rodrik, and which Lannister might have been responsible for murdering him. Readers eventually learn that Lysa and Littlefinger were responsible (although there could be some debate about whether Pycelle prevented his recovery by sending away the Arryn maester and administering additional poison at Cersei's request). But we also know that Lannisters were responsible for pushing Bran Stark off of a tower, hoping that it would look like a natural death. And Lysa will also be pushed off of a tower (although her death is a murder attributed to Marillion). 

But the sawdust in the puppet knight was my motive for highlighting this passage. I think it relates to this Dunk & Egg moment that is a turning point in The Hedge Knight and in the Targaryen succession:

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As for the matter of these puppeteers, by the time Aerion is done twisting the tale it will be high treason. The dragon is the sigil of the royal House. To portray one being slain, sawdust blood spilling from its neck . . . well, it was doubtless innocent, but it was far from wise. Aerion calls it a veiled attack on House Targaryen, an incitement to revolt. 

The Hedge Knight

My latest guess about the meaning of the sawdust in the dragon is that Aerion was angry that Tanselle exposed the secret that there is "tree blood" inside of dragons. 

So what does it mean that Robert "Sweetrobin" Arryn is delighted to see tree blood coming out of battling knights? Unlike Aerion, would this Robert have a motive to celebrate the hidden tree blood within a battling knight? He is a Stark cousin, so maybe he is on Team Stark, and Starks worship trees. But Catelyn is a devout follower of the new gods: presumably her sister was raised in the same faith. So Sweetrobin is probably not a tree worshipper. (We are even told that there is no weirwood tree in the rocky soil at the Eyrie.) 

My tentative guess at Sweetrobin's "delight" over the red sawdust is that he is a symbolic version of Bran, who is a tree worshipper and who will eventually ingest Weirwood paste that seems to have veins in it. We hear Catelyn speculating about how the Lannisters would make a murder (attempt) look natural, and then immediately see a knight (Bran's lifelong ambition) cut in half - we know that Bran's spine is broken in the fall from the tower. How interesting that Bran has been taken away from his mother and perhaps may be in training to become strong enough to rule. Readers also eventually learn that Bran will never walk again but he will fly. Sweetrobin wants lots of stories about the Flying Knight, his favorite hero. 

Lysa Arryn was originally supposed to be betrothed to Jaime Lannister but the plan was undermined when Jaime joined the kings guard. But these kinds of pairings remain significant on a symbolic level in ASOIAF - we know that Sansa feels butterflies in her tummy after contact with Joffrey, for instance, and this is a symbolic pregnancy, even if she never literally slept with him. (Keep in mind Sansa having flying babies.) I think Jaime is a symbolic father of Sweetrobin (there can be more than one for a certain Celtic hero and in GRRM's fictional world) and probably helps to explain the question of whether the boy would be fostered with Stannis (Jon Arryn's plan) or the Lannisters (Robert Baratheon's plan). This again strengthens the implied reference to the Lannisters pushing Bran off the old keep and to the death of Lysa through the Moon Door. Bran's fall starts him on the path to flying and to meeting Bloodraven on the weirwood throne; Lysa's fall means that she can no longer site on the weirwood throne at the Eyrie and that throne is now clearly intended for Sweetrobin. 

Maester Colemon strikes me as important here because of his "lemon" surname, and the motif of lemon cakes associated with Sansa and Sweetrobin, as well as Dany's yearning to find a lemon tree. Lysa wanted to push Sansa out of the Moon Door but Sansa survives and become the guardian of Sweetrobin, symbolically breast-feeding him and teaching him to love lemon cakes. 

Interesting that Colemon also foreshadows the Red Wedding by remarking that the prospect of bloodshed has his nerves "a-fray." 

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5 hours ago, Seams said:

If Cersei is like a Mountain that Rides, this gives her a connection to this:

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By then Ser Gregor Clegane was in position at the head of the lists. He was huge, the biggest man that Eddard Stark had ever seen. Robert Baratheon and his brothers were all big men, as was the Hound, and back at Winterfell there was a simpleminded stableboy named Hodor who dwarfed them all, but the knight they called the Mountain That Rides would have towered over Hodor. He was well over seven feet tall, closer to eight, with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees. His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs, and the lance he carried looked as small as a broom handle.

(AGoT, Eddard VII)

Expand  

By the end of ADwD, we know that Ser Gregor will be re-named Ser Robert Strong and will become Cersei's champion. 

5 hours ago, Seams said:

As a child, Cersei had fantasized about marrying Rhaegar and becoming a dragon rider. Rhaegar knighted Ser Gregor, which I always find intriguing. Ser Robert Strong is massive like Khal Drogo. 

I've long thought Cersei's arc is a kind of parallel to Dany's in some aspects, especially in terms of waking or riding dragons. Drogo initially "mounting" Dany like a stallion, without feeling or foreplay, recalls Robert's approach to his sex life with Cersei, something she describes in some detail to Ned. Dany is initially glad because not facing Drogo while he takes his pleasure from behind means he will not see her tears. This seems important because "the dragon does not weep." Later she gets one of her handmaids to coach her in the art of love and wins Drogo over to gentler and more fulfilling love play which both enjoy. There is no more weeping on her part, which might be an important element on the path to owning her dragon blood. Cersei too learns to deal with Robert's advances:

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I can scarcely bear for him to touch me, and I have not let him inside me for years. I know other ways to pleasure him, when he leaves his whores long enough to stagger up to my bedchamber.

The difference here is it's not based on mutual pleasure or love. She satisfies him and finds gratification elsewhere. Ser Gregor is another extreme of Strong King Robert - a brutal rapist who goes as far as killing his victims. The Dothraki too engage in this behaviour. It's kind of fitting that Cersei masters Clegane in his undeath.  

Cersei also "wakes" the ancient Alchemists' Guild. She initially ordered them to resume producing wildfire and she later relishes the burning of the Tower of the Hand with the substance. Her walk of shame / or atonement also reminds me of Dany's "wake the dragon" dream. Like Dany in the dream, the journey is arduous, and  Cersei also reaches the symbolic "red door," in Cersei's case the Red Keep. They share other symbols too - the shaved hair/hair burned off, nakedness, bare feet. At the Red Door, Dany becomes a dragon and flies, Cersei is scooped up by Ser Gregor, now Robert Strong. Cersei is by no means chastened after the experience. We can expect her to crank up that fiery aspect in the future. 

The "walk of atonement" generally appears to be connected to waking or releasing dragons (walk / wake?). Baelor the blessed is another example. His walk of penance to Dorne ends with the release of Aemon the Dragonknight from a cage suspended above vipers. Here we find echoes of Gregor's release from the poison inflicted by Oberyn the Viper. Aerys too undertakes a walk of penance, becomes ever more fond of using wildfire and finally expects to rise as a dragon amindst the flames of King's Landing. Viserys punishment of having to walk behind the Khalasaar is another kind of "walk of atonement." He constantly threatened Dany with "waking his dragon." He gets to ride in the carts meant for the old and infirm, oblivious to the shame attached this mode of transport. This riding in the cart rather reminds me of Cersei riding in the wheelhouse and of course Viserys shares the gilded head with Robert Strong. 

Is Robert Strong a symbolic dragon? I'm not sure. Perhaps he is what one becomes when waking the dragon fails (perhaps symbolised by the molten crown / gilded head). I don't think Viserys of the golden crown ever woke his dragon, unless his death is meant to be seen as a sacrifice to wake one of Dany's dragons. Also of note is the attempt to poison Dany, a point in which she differs from Ser Gregor. 

Edited by Evolett
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Another thought: a mountain, or in this case a volcano, a mountain like the fourteen flames of Valyria or Dragonmont on Dragonstone, is a home for dragons, it's where  they reside when left to their own devices. We suspect Nettles to have settled somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon with Sheepstealer. Maybe a "mountain" like Gregor could be a preferred vessel for a dragon soul. Drogo pays homage to the mount known as the "Mother of Mountains" near Vaes Dothrak.

Perhaps giants or larger than average men are good receptacles for fiery souls. Doesn't the Titan of Braavos spew fire? The Umbers are from Last Hearth, the symbolical "last warm place" before the Wall. And I keep getting  back to Falyse Stokeworth who Qyburn probably used in his experiments and revival of Gregor. Stokeworth suggests a substance that is easily kindled to build a fire. 

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