Wow, I never noticed that. Vol. 19

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

Viserys and Daenerys coud actually have had a more peaceful and happy life in Essos if Viserys wasn't insane and had given up on the Iron Throne and hadn't met Illyrio Mopatis. 

Jon Arryn had stopped the sending of assassins and Robert went to focus on something else until the marriage pact with the Dothrakis, meaning that the assassins that Viserys saw were fakes sent by Illyrio or Varys, or simply the result of Viserys' paranoia which would add another layer to the tragedy of the Targaryen children. 

[Springwatch]

Barristan's last chapter ends with the Shavepate bursting into council like this:
 

Quote

Ser Barristan was on his feet at once. "What is it?"

"The trebuchets," the Shavepate growled. "All six."

Galazza Galare rose. "Thus does Yunkai make reply to your offers, ser. I warned you that you would not like their answer.

They chose war, then. So be it. Barristan felt oddly relieved. War he understood. "If they think they will break Meereen by throwing stones--"

"Not stones." The old woman's voice was full of grief, full of fear. "Corpses."

That I remembered. But there's another quote from Tyrion's chapter I never noticed before, observing Yezzan in his council:

Quote

Nor would he consent to returning Meereen's hostages by way of trebuchet, as the sellsword Bloodbeard had proposed.

Wow. Suddenly the first quote swims into focus. Looks like Dany's hostages are dead. Daario is dead. The Dornish knights' mission to save them is not happening. The Tattered Prince is still not going to get Pentos. Everything changes.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Springwatch
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[Corvo the Crow]

Jon/Waymar similarities were given several times over the years and what I'm about to say, I've noticed a part of it and posted it long ago but as I said, only a part of it.

I've previously mentioned:

Royce is a matronymic surname originating from Rose. 

Redforts of The Redfort becoming vassals of House Royce after Andal Invasions and Boltons of Dreadfort becoming vassals of Starks after the Andal Invasion(in some places it says shortly before AI, in some they become vassals cause of AI)

Domeric of Dreadfort being a squire in... The Redfort.

So parallels were to be established between Houses Royce and Stark, especially because Waymar was reminding of us Jon. 

But I've only just noticed this Bronze Yohn Royce, named Yohn, similar to Jon and carrying the matronymic surname Royce. Who is associated with Roses? Lyanna, mother of Jon.

So perhaps we shouldn't only draw parallels between Stark and Royce, but perhaps also Jon whose mother was a Rose and Yohn Royce.

 

[Seams]

I think a passage from ASoS could be an important clue for us in understanding the literary function of flowers in ASOIAF.

Catelyn is listening to her father's apparent delusional ramblings during his final illness. The key comes near the end, where Catelyn remembers a woman with a flower name who could re-sole (soul?) shoes.

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There was a smell of death about that room; a heavy smell, sweet and foul, clinging. It reminded her of the sons that she had lost, her sweet Bran and her little Rickon, slain at the hand of Theon Greyjoy, who had been Ned's ward. She still grieved for Ned, she would always grieve for Ned, but to have her babies taken as well . . . "It is a monstrous cruel thing to lose a child," she whispered softly, more to herself than to her father.

Lord Hoster's eyes opened. "Tansy," he husked in a voice thick with pain.

He does not know me. Catelyn had grown accustomed to him taking her for her mother or her sister Lysa, but Tansy was a name strange to her. "It's Catelyn," she said. "It's Cat, Father."

"Forgive me . . . the blood . . . oh, please . . . Tansy . . ."

Could there have been another woman in her father's life? Some village maiden he had wronged when he was young, perhaps? Could he have found comfort in some serving wench's arms after Mother died? It was a queer thought, unsettling. Suddenly she felt as though she had not known her father at all. "Who is Tansy, my lord? Do you want me to send for her, Father? Where would I find the woman? Does she still live?"

Lord Hoster groaned. "Dead." His hand groped for hers. "You'll have others . . . sweet babes, and trueborn."

Others? Catelyn thought. Has he forgotten that Ned is gone? Is he still talking to Tansy, or is it me now, or Lysa, or Mother?

When he coughed, the sputum came up bloody. He clutched her fingers. ". . . be a good wife and the gods will bless you . . . sons . . . trueborn sons . . . aaahhh." The sudden spasm of pain made Lord Hoster's hand tighten. His nails dug into her hand, and he gave a muffled scream.

Maester Vyman came quickly, to mix another dose of milk of the poppy and help his lord swallow it down. Soon enough, Lord Hoster Tully had fallen back into a heavy sleep.

...

"He was asking after a woman," said Cat. "Tansy."

"Tansy?" The maester looked at her blankly.

"You know no one by that name? A serving girl, a woman from some nearby village? Perhaps someone from years past?" Catelyn had been gone from Riverrun for a very long time.

"No, my lady. I can make inquiries, if you like. Utherydes Wayn would surely know if any such person ever served at Riverrun. Tansy, did you say? The smallfolk often name their daughters after flowers and herbs." The maester looked thoughtful. "There was a widow, I recall, she used to come to the castle looking for old shoes in need of new soles. Her name was Tansy, now that I think on it. Or was it Pansy? Some such. But she has not come for many years . . ."

"Her name was Violet," said Catelyn, who remembered the old woman very well.

"Was it?" The maester looked apologetic. "My pardons, Lady Catelyn, but I may not stay. Ser Desmond has decreed that we are to speak to you only so far as our duties require."

ASoS, Catelyn I

Is the information about Violet a clue about all women with flower names? Or just he purple ones? (Thinking also of Renly's imprisoned violet members of the Rainbow Guard, Ser Parmen Crane.)

Could also be a clue about smallfolk. Soon after this, Catelyn meets Jeyne Westerling, whose mother is considered lowborn but who has the power to use herbs in potions. (I'm remember Egg in the Dunk & Egg stories musing about learning about potions made with plants that the smallfolk could teach to him.)

Also significant is that Hoster confuses his wife, Catelyn and Lysa in his chatter - or that Cat suspects he is mistaking them for each other. I would not be surprised if these river women all have a power over rejuvenation, like the flow of a river that causes something to float down stream and emerge for a new use at the Quiet Isle. In my current re-read (listening to audiobooks) I am noticing that Catelyn seems to care about the passage of time in a way that other characters do not. 

But I'm not sure about a soul/sole wordplay pair. Feet and shoes are such complex imagery in ASOIAF. We hear a lot about feet. I guess souls exist in the thinking of Westeros residens, but it doesn't seem to be a major tenet of religions in ASOIAF. Maybe the significance is not about "new souls" but about the shoe symbolism.

Septon Meribald is associated with oranges and bare feet and he tells a powerful story about the effect of war on the smallfolk who are forced to fight. Catelyn is also religious and there are several points where she bemoans the tragic outcomes of war. The only shoe thing I can think of with Catelyn is that Theon lifts her out of the boat  when they arrive at Riverrun so she won't get her feet wet. 

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Theon Greyjoy vaulted over the side of the boat and lifted Catelyn by the waist, setting her on a dry step above him as water lapped around his boots.

AGoT, Catelyn XI

I just searched on shoes and feet in Catelyn's POVs. The shoe references are mostly to horse shoes (and there are only four of them) and the feet references are mostly about other people "getting to their feet" except for the first one:

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A thousand years of humus lay thick upon the godswood floor, swallowing the sound of her feet ...

AGoT, Catelyn I

Catelyn has no feet after they are swallowed by the godswood. They finally reappear at the Red Wedding, just as she suspects that something is not right about the way people are acting at the feast.

I'm still trying to sort this out, as you can see. I think Violet looking for old shoes is a helpful hint, though. I'm just not sure what the hint is. 

• Flowers? (Tansy, Pansy, Poppy, etc.)
• Violet? (And, perhaps, purple, lavender and plums?)
• Shoes?
• Soles and souls?

[Seams]

Remember how Jaime described himself as having shit for honor as his slop bucket spilled in the dungeon at Riverrun?

Back to back chapters in ASoS:

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"Not treason. Never treason. I love His Grace as much as any man. My own niece is his queen, and I remained loyal to him when wiser men fled. I am his Hand, the Hand of the King, how can I be a traitor? I only meant to save our lives, and . . . honor . . . yes." He licked his lips. "I penned a letter. Salladhor Saan swore that he had a man who could get it to King's Landing, to Lord Tywin. His lordship is a . . . a man of reason, and my terms . . . the terms were fair . . . more than fair."

"What terms were these, my lord?"

"It is filthy here," Lord Alester said suddenly. "And that odor . . . what is that odor?"

"The pail," said Davos, gesturing. "We have no privy here. What terms?"

His lordship stared at the pail in horror. "That Lord Stannis give up his claim to the Iron Throne and retract all he said of Joffrey's bastardy, on the condition that he be accepted back into the king's peace and confirmed as Lord of Dragonstone and Storm's End. I vowed to do the same, for the return of Brightwater Keep and all our lands. I thought . . . Lord Tywin would see the sense in my proposal. He still has the Starks to deal with, and the ironmen as well. I offered to seal the bargain by wedding Shireen to Joffrey's brother Tommen." He shook his head. "The terms . . . they are as good as we are ever like to get. Even you can see that, surely?"

ASoS, Davos III (speaking with Alester Florent in the dungeon at Dragonstone)

Followed by:

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"You cannot come with me," Jon said, cupping the wolf's head in his hands and looking deep into those eyes. "You have to go to Castle Black. Do you understand? Castle Black. Can you find it? The way home? Just follow the ice, east and east, into the sun, and you'll find it. They will know you at Castle Black, and maybe your coming will warn them." He had thought of writing out a warning for Ghost to carry, but he had no ink, no parchment, not even a writing quill, and the risk of discovery was too great. "I will meet you again at Castle Black, but you have to get there by yourself. We must each hunt alone for a time. Alone."

The direwolf twisted free of Jon's grasp, his ears pricked up. And suddenly he was bounding away. He loped through a tangle of brush, leapt a deadfall, and raced down the hillside, a pale streak among the trees. Off to Castle Black? Jon wondered. Or off after a hare? He wished he knew. He feared he might prove just as poor a warg as a sworn brother and a spy.

ASoS, Jon III

I think Jon is sending away his honor - a "pail" streak - when he sends away his direwolf. He has tipped over his bucket. He is about to break his celibacy vow with Ygritte and he can't have both honor and hot lust at the same time. 

I suspect this is like Jaime having gold armor (he was wearing when he killed Aerys) and white armor, and later having horses named Honor and Glory. 

[Seams]

My re-read continues.

In ASoS/Bran II, Meera tells her story of the little Crannogman at the God's Eye and the feast and then the tourney with the mystery knight. About forty pages later, in Sansa III of ASoS, Sansa finds herself trapped into marrying Tyrion. 

At one point in the post-wedding feast, I believe Joffrey refers to Sansa as a she-wolf, and this caused me to reflect on the parallels with Meera's story.

What if Tyrion is the little Crannogman in the Sansa chapter? Or maybe Sansa is both the crannogman and the she-wolf?

Instead of a tourney after Sansa's wedding, there is a dance. Sansa doesn't dance with Tyrion but instead with Ser Garlan Tyrell, who we know was the mystery knight at the Battle of the Blackwater. Instead of the three wolf brothers in Meera's story, Sansa's chapter gives us references to three Tyrell brothers: Willas (who Sansa planned to marry - there may have been a symbolic marriage between them because I think that's how fantasy magic works in ASOIAF), Garlan and Ser Loras. 

Ser Garlan speaks kindly to Sansa, acknowledging her tears (which she tries to hide), and also praises Tyrion as a good husband.

Margaery dances with Joffrey at the feast. Maybe she plays the role of the justice-seeking maid that was played by the she-wolf and/or the mystery knight in Meera's story. Tyrion stands up to Joffrey, threatening to geld him, when Joffrey threatens to strip Sansa for the bedding. But Tyrion backs down and pretends he was joking. Tywin says they can dispense with the bedding.

Earlier in Sansa III, Joffrey had threatened to marry Sansa to Ilyn Payne, who is the King's Justice. Between the Meera story and the Sansa/Tyrion wedding, there is a Dany chapter where she has a conversation with Ser Jorah:

Quote

"Some kings make themselves. Robert did."

"He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice . . . that's what kings are for."

ASoS, Daenerys III

I think this cluster of chapters is giving us hints about the nature of justice: what happens when the three squires are unkind to the little crannogman, hope for a just outcome for Sansa and/or Tyrion in the lion's den, and Dany's exploration of justice and punishment for the slavers of Astapor. 

[Corvo the Crow]

 

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Like so much else, heraldry ended at the Wall. The Thenns had no family arms as was customary amongst the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms, so Jon told the stewards to improvise. He thought they had done well. The bride's cloak Sigorn fastened about Lady Alys's shoulders showed a bronze disk on a field of white wool, surrounded by flames made with wisps of crimson silk. The echo of the Karstark sunburst was there for those who cared to look, but differenced to make the arms appropriate for House Thenn. -ADWD Jon X

Really, Jon, do you think so? 

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This time it was warriors who came forward. And not just one hundred of them. Five hundred, Jon Snow judged, as they moved out from beneath the trees, perhaps as many as a thousand. One in every ten of them came mounted but all of them came armed. Across their backs they bore round wicker shields covered with hides and boiled leather, displaying painted images of snakes and spiders, severed heads, bloody hammers, broken skulls, and demons. A few were clad in stolen steel, dinted oddments of armor looted from the corpses of fallen rangers. Others had armored themselves in bones, like Rattleshirt. All wore fur and leather.

There were spearwives with them, long hair streaming. Jon could not look at them without remembering Ygritte: the gleam of fire in her hair, the look on her face when she'd disrobed for him in the grotto, the sound of her voice. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she'd told him a hundred times. - ADWD Jon XIII

 

I think this further supports my theory that Val's(sister to a "wise woman", Dalla) Weirwood face pin was a heraldic device and possibly the warrior witch Morna's Weirwood mask (a Weirwood face), connecting them both to KotLT, through a possible female line. 

[Corvo the Crow]

Poor Waymar was destined to die 

 

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A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

...

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.

 

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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.

....

"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.

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

On 12/7/2022 at 7:36 PM, Corvo the Crow said:

Cressen is a powerful Mage able to teleport, or at least do something akin to Luke Skywalker's force projection.

At least Cressen isn’t milking the gargoyles on Dragonstone.

[Seams]

Thoros of Myr and The Hound are offering important clues to the Azor Ahai / Lightbringer story:

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The shifting flames painted Sandor Clegane's burned face with orange shadows, so he looked even more terrible than he did in daylight. When he pulled at the rope that bound his wrists, flakes of dry blood fell off. The Hound's mouth twitched. "I know you," he said to Thoros.

"You did. In mêlées, you'd curse my flaming sword, though thrice I overthrew you with it."

"Thoros of Myr. You used to shave your head."

"To betoken a humble heart, but in truth my heart was vain. Besides, I lost my razor in the woods." The priest slapped his belly. "I am less than I was, but more. A year in the wild will melt the flesh off a man. Would that I could find a tailor to take in my skin. I might look young again, and pretty maids would shower me with kisses."

"Only the blind ones, priest."

ASoS, Arya VI

We know that Thoros uses a flaming sword and that he somehow has the power to resurrect Ser Beric. 

We know that the Hound's face was burned by his brother. 

If I'm not mistaken, this is a conversation between a smith (Thoros) and the night. (See the chapter where The Hound escorts Sansa from the Hand's tourney for clues to his identity as the night.) The non-sequitor about losing his razor is a reference to Azor Ahai. 

Usually I associate head-shaving with Targaryens trying to hide their distinctive hair. But it also makes them egg-like and one always wonders when or whether the egg will hatch.

Arya's description of Thoros now: "That can't be Thoros of Myr. Arya remembered the red priest as fat, with a smooth face and a shiny bald head. This man had a droopy face and a full head of shaggy grey hair." We've established that shaggy and sharp are paired opposites in ASOIAF so Thoros has somehow migrated from sharp to shaggy. Does the change from shaved to shaggy mean that he has hatched?

Maybe being the first over the wall at Pyke was a way of hatching? That would fit with the Humpty Dumpty symbolism, too - the egg falling from the wall and breaking.

Thoros also says, "Do you deny that House Clegane was built upon dead children? I saw them lay Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaenys before the Iron Throne. By rights your arms should bear two bloody infants in place of those ugly dogs." I associate the murder of the infant Aegon with the Humpty Dumpty symbolism because of the Aegon/Egg equation and because they always describe his head being dashed against a wall.

What does it mean that he lost his razor in the woods? Here's a wordplay idea: "Wald" is the German word for woods, and I suspect that House Frey, with its many Walders and Waldas, is a symbolic forest. "Frey" is also a homonym for "fray," which is a synonym for "melee." Thoros and the Hound have engaged each other in three melees and (so far) Thoros has always won with his flaming sword. So maybe Thoros loses his razor in the woods (Wald) because he has used up his magic in three melees (frays/Freys) with the Hound. (We also saw Yohn Royce beat Thoros at the Hand's Tourney when the flames on the trick sword guttered out.)

Now The Hound engages Ser Beric in single combat and (technically) wins. Maybe Ser Beric represents the bad steel sword tricked up with wildfire. The Hound hates fire but he manages to beat Ser Beric. In addition to Thoros letting his hair grow shaggy after losing his razor, "hatching" in the victory at Pyke, and using up his magic in three melee victories, maybe the tourney defeat by Yohn Royce sets up the mojo for The Hound to be the victor in the trial by combat. We don't notice that Thoros has lost power because he still manages to resurrect Ser Beric after the Hound kills him.

But we soon learn that Ser Beric has given his last kiss to Catelyn Stark to create Lady Stoneheart. (Notice the references to the vain heart and to kisses in the Thoros dialogue with the Hound.) 

And here's the thing: Catelyn was killed by the Freys. Is this part of the melee and woods (fray and wald) symbolism, too? Maybe the woods/Walders killing Catelyn is similar to the symbolism of Thoros losing his "razor" in the woods. She worries about having her hair cut and she ends up with white hair (although the overall color Brienne describes is grey, like the hair of Thoros). 

I've wondered whether there is a wordplay parallel in Thoros and "roots" but perhaps also Roose. This ASoS interlude with Thoros wishing he didn't have droopy skin as well as Catelyn's "ragged strips" of facial flesh also seem to allude to the flaying habit associated with the Boltons. 

Another idea: What if The Hound is R'hllor? The opening line in that boxed excerpt, above, says his face is painted with orange shadows. There are descriptive passages where the flames of Melisandre's fires cast shadows (even though her emphasis is on the light of fire, a lot of the imagery around her focuses on the shadows created by the fire). Or maybe he is the Great Other.

Note: I think it's significant that the Hound enters this scene bound with a rope. Ser Duncan the Tall uses a rope for a sword belt. There are other significant ropes in the series but I think The Hound is a sword in a rope in this scene, like the sword of Dunk.

[Corvo the Crow]

 

 

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Old snow cloaked the courtyard, and icicles hung down like crystal spears from the terraces and towers. The Eyrie was built of fine white stone, and winter's mantle made it whiter still. So beautiful, Alayne thought, so impregnable. She could not love this place, no matter how she tried. Even before the guards and serving men had made their descent, the castle had seemed as empty as a tomb, and more so when Petyr Baelish was away. No one sang up there, not since Marillion. No one ever laughed too loud. Even the gods were silent. The Eyrie boasted a sept, but no septon; a godswood, but no heart tree. No prayers are answered here, she often thought, though some days she felt so lonely she had to try. Only the wind answered her, sighing endlessly around the seven slim white towers and rattling the Moon Door every time it gusted. It will be even worse in winter, she knew. In winter this will be a cold white prison.

This makes me think, who else was beautiful? 

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"No more than I did," her aunt said. "Jon Arryn was no dwarf, but he was old. You may not think so to see me now, but on the day we wed I was so lovely I put your mother to shame. But all Jon desired was my father's swords, to aid his darling boys. I should have refused him, but he was such an old man, how long could he live? Half his teeth were gone, and his breath smelled like bad cheese. I cannot abide a man with foul breath. Petyr's breath is always fresh . . . he was the first man I ever kissed, you know. My father said he was too lowborn, but I knew how high he'd rise. Jon gave him the customs for Gulltown to please me, but when he increased the incomes tenfold my lord husband saw how clever he was and gave him other appointments, even brought him to King's Landing to be master of coin. That was hard, to see him every day and still be wed to that old cold man. Jon did his duty in the bedchamber, but he could no more give me pleasure than he could give me children. His seed was old and weak. All my babies died but Robert, three girls and two boys. All my sweet little babies dead, and that old man just went on and on with his stinking breath. So you see, I have suffered too." Lady Lysa sniffed. "You do know that your poor mother is dead?"

Though Lysa was on the luckier side that she had one son at least, and two stillborns. Jon Arryns previous two marriages only had one stillborn in one and not even that in the other.

I'm willing to bet that sweet Robyn was conceived not in the Eyrie, but King's Landing. 

 

 

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Someone pointed out that "valonqar" can be translated as "second son" as well as "younger brother", which is funny considering that Tyrion is with the Second Sons now.

[Hugorfonics]

4 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Someone pointed out that "valonqar" can be translated as "second son" as well as "younger brother", which is funny considering that Tyrion is with the Second Sons now.

He grinned. "I was born a second son. This company is my destiny."

[Corvo the Crow]

I have quoted these two numerous times, and remember even reflecting on the light(pun!) but wow how have I never noticed THAT part.

 

Famous encounter of the bravest knight the Watch has ever seen.  "He came to us from White Harbor Runestone, and never failed in his duty. He kept his vows as best he could, rode far, fought fiercely. We shall never see his like again."

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.

The pale sword came shivering through the air.

Ser Waymar met it with steel. When the blades met, there was no ring of metal on metal; only a high, thin sound at the edge of hearing, like an animal screaming in pain. Royce checked a second blow, and a third, then fell back a step. Another flurry of blows, and he fell back again.

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.

 

 

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Emmett kicked his legs out from under him. Dolorous Edd planted a foot on his back to keep him on his knees as Emmett shoved the block beneath his head. "This will go easier if you stay still," Jon Snow promised him. "Move to avoid the cut, and you will still die, but your dying will be uglier. Stretch out your neck, my lord." The pale morning sunlight ran up and down his blade as Jon clasped the hilt of the bastard sword with both hands and raised it high. "If you have any last words, now is the time to speak them," he said, expecting one last curse.

Moon runs along on Waymar's blade, the sun on Jon's. 

[Corvo the Crow]

A small thing I noticed while searching material for a thread

 

Brides wear their father's cloaks to their wedding. So let's take a look at Alys' wedding. Jon acting a lord and father was something I have myself pointed out several times over the years, even giving this marriage as an example, but have never noticed this I think. 

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“Till his blood is boiling.” Her maiden’s cloak was the black wool of the Night’s Watch. The Karstark sunburst sewn on its back was made of the same white fur that lined it.

Alys, wearing her maiden's cloak, a black wool of Night's Watch. She's been adopted into the Watch with Jon as her father, who is also the head of house since he is the LC of the Watch. She has become a sister to the black brothers. There are also more layers to this, in absence of a father, a brother or other male relative can fill his place, even thougn no blood relation, Theon as Ned's ward fills that role for fArya as he would be the closest thing to a relative Arya would have, Jon the black brother is an actual relative of hers on her father's side, so by rights and tradition he should be the one giving her even without the adoption.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Corvo the Crow

[Corvo the Crow]

@Craving Peaches You may like this one

Beric is all about justice, Stoneheart is about revenge. Beric died for Stoneart to raise. When justice dies there is only vengeance, I guess.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Corvo the Crow

[Craving Peaches]

1 hour ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Beric is all about justice, Stoneheart is about revenge. Beric died for Stoneart to raise. When justice dies there is only vengeance, I guess.

Agree. I think this will be further reflected in the Red Wedding 2.0. I think loads of innocents will die to really drive home the point that vengeance =/= justice.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

1 hour ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Beric is all about justice, Stoneheart is about revenge. Beric died for Stoneart to raise. When justice dies there is only vengeance, I guess.

But surely Beric knew what would happen when he gave his life for Catelyn?

[Corvo the Crow]

9 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Agree. I think this will be further reflected in the Red Wedding 2.0. I think loads of innocents will die to really drive home the point that vengeance =/= justice.

Oh, I was more about the consequences of lack of justice, since you are studying law but yes agree.

5 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

But surely Beric knew what would happen when he gave his life for Catelyn?

But surely Beric can be excused on accounts of him being brain dead seven times over?

[Craving Peaches]

9 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Oh, I was more about the consequences of lack of justice, since you are studying law but yes agree.

Oh, if you want that I will make a new thread 

Have to be a bit later though as I have studying to do...