Bran is a hero: or, GRRM's color codes

[sweetsunray]

1 hour ago, SaffronLady said:

The old griffin seems to be headed down the path of the fool instead of the hero, true.

All the wrong Dr. Weird's will turn out to be fools.

But he's a fun example

• He was a Hand
• He was a leader of the Golden Company => a golden hand
• He was believed to be dead =>a ghost
• He wears a wolf cloak => which makes us think of grey/white Starks
• But his wolf cloak is a red one => the wrong wolf
• He saves "fool" Yolo (Tyrion) from drowning => hero, but that's not how it's supposed to go
• He acquires greyscale => grey ghost
• His hand and fingers are showing signs => becoming a grey hand
• Greyscale => leads to madness, losing mind => losing your mind = fool

[sweetsunray]

1 hour ago, SaffronLady said:

I'll admit one major motivation of mine in starting this thread is I'm tired of seeing Bran being called king of the White Walkers. He's willing to forgive Theon, saying he will sucumb to "Tully Madness" and suddenly become some Saturday afternoon cartoon villain isn't even a joke, just plain annoying. Color codes just make it more obvious his plot isn't headed that way.

He's a knight of the mind, a far better one than any maester... a "master mind" of the "game of heroes" (rather than game of thrones).

In the "game of heroes" one must make sure "not to lose your mind"

Yeah, some people enjoy making a boy of 8 or a girl of 10 into monsters. Some do so purely out of spite, because deep down they do know where this is headed, but wish for another outcome. Others argue "trope conversion", which basically means they too know where it is headed. They seem to just like for a boy of 8 who is going through "coming of age arc in empathy" and recognize to have a hero arc to turn out "surprise!" to be the villain.

The color codes, the themes, the subtle but profoundly deep magic, George being a fanboy of a four colored weird superhero, nature fighting back in defense, his physical limitations, and the choice of fight (against the Others), the maturing empathy. He will make mistakes. Some of his efforts will have ghastly results, and these will teach him "less is more" and only make him more merciful.

 

[sweetsunray]

BTW I was rereading Arianne I of tWoW and then two sad things jumped out: Valena Toland rides a red horse and has red hair, and her younger sister has red hair too. House Toland has a place in my heart with their backstory how their sigil ended up being a green dragon eating its tail on a golden field. They even mention the story to Arianne. I will mourn the death of these girls. 

Their news about krakens being drawn to blood and dead bodies floating at the broken arm suggests that while Dorne is looking at KL and SE, sending spears and defenses away from Dorne is a massive mistake when the Kraken Euron is on his war path.

Edited September 9, 2023 by sweetsunray

[Kal-L]

5 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

I think Jon Con will burn down King's Landing, as explained here:

https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/161265-will-jon-connington-burn-down-kings-landing/

Damn, it didn't take long for it to derail into an "Arya's madness" thread

More seriously, I agree about Jon Connington burning down King's Landing, and I don't think it will be an act of madness but to the contrary a cold and thought act committed out of what it will perceive to be a necessity. I also do believe he will cause Tommen's death, officially ending up Robert's line.

[Craving Peaches]

38 minutes ago, Kal-L said:

More seriously, I agree about Jon Connington burning down King's Landing, and I don't think it will be an act of madness but to the contrary a cold and thought act committed out of what it will perceive to be a necessity. I also do believe he will cause Tommen's death, officially ending up Robert's line.

I think it could go either way. It could happen as you say but I also think there is a possibility that the sound of the bells and bad associated memories, combined with the toll of knowing that he's going to die of Greyscale takes, means that he could have a sort of psychotic breakdown.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Craving Peaches

[sweetsunray]

A unique Bran moment that is Dr. Weird related is his coma dream. He gets a view of stuff happening or "looming" around his family, but his vision pans out to encompass the known world, with dragons flying in Asshai and then the heart of winter. And then he's told "now you know why you must live".

It compares to Dr. Weird getting the mission to fight demons from now on, but in relation to Only Kids are Afraid of the Dark it compares to Dr. Weird sensing a disturbance "his demon sense" and then racing to the other side of the world to discover the demon Saagael.

BTW I completely agree that the writing style of this early-early story is cringe (too many adjectives that try to emphasize how evil Saagael is for example). But Dr. Weird has a fun "trick up his sleeve".

There are two other characters that I can relate to such potential visions: Melisandre and Dany. Mel did see something and it brought her to Dragonstone, and her goal is to fight great evil. Strange how that led her to Dragonstone instead of North, right?

Dany has all sorts of dream and visions: dragon dreams, HotU, some dream against ice armored army at the Trident, etc. Dany's dragon dreams are not this Dr. Weird like "I sense new evil, let's investigate and confront it". They are about having her bring dragons back into the world, and have way more parallels to Saagael in his otherwordly tower lamenting when someone will finally bring him in the world. She does get visions of an ice armored army at the Trident, but she doesn't do much with that. And the HotU is mostly about her, not about discovering the evil in the north or Asshai.

Edited September 10, 2023 by sweetsunray

[SaffronLady]

On 9/10/2023 at 5:07 PM, sweetsunray said:

But Dr. Weird has a fun "trick up his sleeve".

I suppose you don't mean the sun-spear?

More importantly, with how many dreams there are in ASOIAF, do you have any dream analysis threads that you would recommend folks checking out?

[Sandy Clegg]

On 9/11/2023 at 4:25 PM, SaffronLady said:

More importantly, with how many dreams there are in ASOIAF, do you have any dream analysis threads that you would recommend folks checking out?

I think we need a new Tower of Joy reread/analysis thread. I feel that this is where George put so much effort into building this central mystery, that it just has to contain some things we've yet to uncover.

[SaffronLady]

3 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

I think we need a new Tower of Joy reread/analysis thread. I feel that this is where George put so much effort into building this central mystery, that it just has to contain some things we've yet to uncover.

Are the old ones closed already?

[SaffronLady]

A little observation on JonCon, following sweetsunray's previous analysis.

The colors of House Connington are Red and White. The entire structure of their arms is also very yin-yang, so I think TWOW would be interesting in showing whether JonCon rides the red griffin (aka dies) or rides the white griffin.

And well.... I have no idea what the white griffin hints at. It seems a stretch for him to turn into a wight this far from the Wall.

[sweetsunray]

15 minutes ago, SaffronLady said:

A little observation on JonCon, following sweetsunray's previous analysis.

The colors of House Connington are Red and White. The entire structure of their arms is also very yin-yang, so I think TWOW would be interesting in showing whether JonCon rides the red griffin (aka dies) or rides the white griffin.

And well.... I have no idea what the white griffin hints at. It seems a stretch for him to turn into a wight this far from the Wall.

Don't forget that JonCon's fake identity at Essos had a "red wolf" as symbol

[SaffronLady]

12 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Don't forget that JonCon's fake identity at Essos had a "red wolf" as symbol

I am agog, I am aghast. JonCon has been strapped to a red steed.