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What if Sam finds a glass candle


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He's already come across one, since he's with Marwyn. 

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When Sam hesitated, one of those hands grabbed him by the arm and yanked him through the door. The room beyond was large and round. Books and scrolls were everywhere, strewn across the tables and stacked up on the floor in piles four feet high. Faded tapestries and ragged maps covered the stone walls. A fire was burning in the hearth, beneath a copper kettle. Whatever was inside of it smelled burned. Aside from that, the only light came from a tall black candle in the center of the room.
The candle was unpleasantly bright. There was something queer about it. The flame did not flicker, even when Archmaester Marwyn closed the door so hard that papers blew off a nearby table. The light did something strange to colors too. Whites were bright as fresh-fallen snow, yellow shone like gold, reds turned to flame, but the shadows were so black they looked like holes in the world. Sam found himself staring. The candle itself was three feet tall and slender as a sword, ridged and twisted, glittering black. "Is that . . . ?"
". . . obsidian," said the other man in the room, a pale, fleshy, pasty-faced young fellow with round shoulders, soft hands, close-set eyes, and food stains on his robes.

 

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Yah but what if he does learn how to use it?  Wonder where he will dial into?  Euron?  Quaithe?  Dany?  Marwyn?  Another room in the Citadel?  How many of these things are there?  

hehehehehe...just thought of Dany having one of her hot and bothered dreams then Sam pops in her head.   You know, I might like to read that exchange.  

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I dont see Sam burning anything down because he gets his hand on a glass candle.

IMHO, it would be more likely that Sam goes to the library and tries to find ALL the info he can before jumping in the deep end and try's to light a candle.

p.s. OP, Thank you for a future what if! I really do not like the what if the story is changed posts, e.g. what if Ned goes to the wall vs losing his head.  I think that is fan fiction and should not be part of a book discussion. We should be having a discussion on what our interpretation of how the story will unfold going forward or what we think how a past event may influence others going forward. All via book canon. Just like an "in person" book club would do. (Book clubs discuss the story and its implications, they do not rewrite the story.)

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11 hours ago, maesternewton said:

Does a glass candle even burn?

Glass Candles seem like Asoiaf's version of the Palantír.

"No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning.  ADWD Daenerys III

I was looking for the quote where Lewin tells Bran about trying to light a candle to gain the VS link in his chain, but this works as well.  

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10 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

"No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning.  ADWD Daenerys III

I was looking for the quote where Lewin tells Bran about trying to light a candle to gain the VS link in his chain, but this works as well.  

I think Quaithe was speaking figuratively. This is a primitive world where most sources of light involve some type of flame. So if a long narrow object produces light, it's natural that they would think of it as some kind of candle, and its light as some kind of flame.

I agree with The Other Wolf that Sam is a cautious person who likes to gather knowledge before doing anything risky. Of course, with Marwyn gone, his candles are now in the hands of "The Sorcerer's Apprentices" ... not an ideal situation.

We really know very little about the candles' capabilities. From the dialog in Feast chapter 45, it seems clear that they can be used for long-distance surveillance and communication. I don't think there's any evidence that they can do anything else, except light up a dark room.

Marwyn did warn Sam to "say nothing of prophecies or dragons, unless you fancy poison in your porridge" (my favorite line in the whole story; where can I get that T-shirt?).  So he won't sign up for the course in Higher Mysteries. He'll act like a good little freshman, but he'll spend a lot of free time in the library, searching for Higher Solutions. And he'll probably find some.

(P. S. I also agree with Wolf that "what-if" topics should be about the future of the story, not about changing things that already happened. Fortunately, it's usually easy to spot these topics by their titles, and to ignore them. But if the admins were to create a separate forum for that kind of discussion, I wouldn't complain.)

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21 hours ago, Aebram said:

We really know very little about the candles' capabilities. From the dialog in Feast chapter 45, it seems clear that they can be used for long-distance surveillance and communication. I don't think there's any evidence that they can do anything else, except light up a dark room.

(P. S. I also agree with Wolf that "what-if" topics should be about the future of the story, not about changing things that already happened. Fortunately, it's usually easy to spot these topics by their titles, and to ignore them. But if the admins were to create a separate forum for that kind of discussion, I wouldn't complain.)

You know, this reminded me of Maester Aemon speaking about Stannis' Lightbringer not being warm.  It lights up but no heat.  So I am extrapolating these candles must get warm...maybe?  Here is the other quote I dug up that specifically goes to burning:  

It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years.   ACOK Daenerys  V

However, Maester Luwin's description of the candle lighting test doesn't indicate anything but a hunk of glass.  No wick, specifically.  Luminescence  (light bulbs, monitors, etc.) is also described as burning, wonder if that is what the burning refers to.  How are they lit?  

Agree with this small minority here digging real possible scenarios that could happen, might happen over the silly stuff that cannot be written better than it already has been.  It's fun to get ideas, but in the end it's only fun.  

A glass candle in Sam's (eventually learned) hands could be a game changer for a lot of story.  He would need someone else to speak to., at least I think he would.   Marwyn?  Who?  

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