Certain mistakes

[Lady Blackfish]

I believe so, Sarella.

In AGOT: "The left side of his face was a ruin."

Then in ACOK: "When she emerged, Sansa walked on the Hound’s left, away from the burned side of his face." (Implying that the right is the burned side.)

[Zoë Sumra]

This is probably a retcon rather than an actual mistake.

In ASOS Ellaria is cited as the mother of two of the Sand Snakes. In AFFC we learn that actually she is the mother of four of them (Elia, Obella, Dorea and Loreza).

[Strong_Belwas]

I believe so, Sarella.

In AGOT: "The left side of his face was a ruin."

Then in ACOK: "When she emerged, Sansa walked on the Hound’s left, away from the burned side of his face." (Implying that the right is the burned side.)

It could simply be a POV thing. If i'm in front of someone who is burned on his right side, it is the left side for me. What is the context of the first quote? Is it someone talking or looking at him?

In the second quote, he specifically mentions the hound's left side.

It might be a mistake, but there is a possible explanation.

[hackhamster]

It could simply be a POV thing. If i'm in front of someone who is burned on his right side, it is the left side for me. What is the context of the first quote? Is it someone talking or looking at him?

In the second quote, he specifically mentions the hound's left side.

It might be a mistake, but there is a possible explanation.

For all of these, especially "Ye Olde 8-9 vs 2 Winters Discrepancie", a theory which requires unsubstantiated Northern vs Southern ideas of what makes a REAL winter, Maesters calling out only the big BIG Winters, the behavior of peasants, the timing of planting and harvest cycles, et al to explain a gaffe in the first half of the first book in the series, I prefer to use House's Razor, a variation of Occam's which goes like:

The simplest explanation is almost always, 'somebody screwed up'.

It is a indication of our dedication and devotion to George's work that we pore over it like Old Testament scholars examining the Dead Sea Scrolls, teasing out all of his inconsistencies, errors, and downright blunders, but this obsession leads us to where we create intricate rationales the equivalent of beautiful crystal celestial spheres, our evidence such as it is spinning in complex epicycles about the axis of the belief that George is perfect in all ways. This rather common behavior is stated in Crabtree's Bludgeon as:

No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated.

By the way, I can't wait for a color-blind POV, where all the horses and eyes are gray!

[Balerion the Cat]

In AGoT, Catelyn leaves King's Landing at a certain moment, and Tyrion leaves the Wall quite after. They meet at the crossroad inn.

You can assume Catelyn made a LOT of things on the way (shopping in Duskendale, slot machines at the Isle of the Faces casino, etc.) but still there is something wrong in the timing.

[Ran]

Chapters are not in fact necessarily in chronological order. George has noted this previously

[Szar]

With regards to the whole winter thing: Gared might not know it's been winter a lot of times since he was "half a boy".

He's at the Wall. Short and/or mild winters probably go unnoticed -- and the last hard winter could conceivably be 20 years before the last one.

It doesn't have to be a mistake at all.

[Balerion the Cat]

Chapters are not in fact necessarily in chronological order. George has noted this previously

Yes, I know, but if you time them with some occurences (i.e. Tyrion stops in Winterfell and receive some news - so such events already occured, etc.) those chapters showed a very difficult timing.

[Ran]

As far as I can tell there's no information in the Bran chapter with Tyrion in Winterfell that has anything to do with Catelyn's arrival or departure from King's Landing, actually, so you can't really time them in relation to one another. Tyrion's visit to Winterfell would have taken place about a month prior to Catelyn's departure from King's Landing,

[Balerion the Cat]

As far as I can tell there's no information in the Bran chapter with Tyrion in Winterfell that has anything to do with Catelyn's arrival or departure from King's Landing, actually, so you can't really time them in relation to one another. Tyrion's visit to Winterfell would have taken place about a month prior to Catelyn's departure from King's Landing,

Of course I trust you...

I remember I had a different impression, something related to "A happened before B", "B happened before C", "C happened before D", so "A happened before D"... But maybe it is likely I don't remember well, so I'll check and let you know if I still find such an occurence. It could even be some problem of translation: I have red the books both in Italian and in English, but I remember I noticed this thing at the first read, so in Italian.

And, yes, we had quite a lot of translation problems in the Italian version.

[CloudFlare]

(Also the fact that in Game of Thrones Tyrion was practically doing acrobatics while later in the series even everyday physical activities prove stressful and draining for him, but that was a deliberate choice on Martin's part, IIRC).

Why? To show that Tyrion is deteriorating physically?

[Valar_Morghulis]

I'm an editor by trade, so this thread makes my little nitpicky heart sing.

The aforementioned scene where Jaime cups his hands to his mouth to shout has always really bothered me, especially since the amputation has just recently occurred and we have been treated to so many descriptions of how much it hurts and how clumsy he is without it. (Also, IIRC, Jaime actually still is wearing his dead, rotting hand around his neck at this point.)

Just a couple more little things:

- After Theon returns to Winterfell, he is in Ned and Catelyn's bedroom, having just enjoyed the mattress mambo with Kyra, when he receives word that Asha and her men have come to the castle. He then nudges Wex "with the toe of his boot" to wake him up, before getting dressed and going to the hall to meet his sister. This bugs me because even if you assume he has some kind of weird fetish where he likes to leave his boots on during sex, he would still have to follow the "pants first, then shoes" rule.

- On several occasions (at least in my paperback editions), the Halfhand's name is spelled Quorin a couple of times, rather than Qhorin. Similarly, oatcakes are occasionally referred to as oakcakes.

- At some point (forgive me, I don't have my books with me), either Ned or Jon is thinking about the direwolves, and refers to Lady as "Lady's Shade."

Thanks for letting me get these off my chest!

[iheartseverus]

- At some point (forgive me, I don't have my books with me), either Ned or Jon is thinking about the direwolves, and refers to Lady as "Lady's Shade."

But, 'shade' is another word for spirit or ghost or 'presence' on earth of someone who has died.

[Valar_Morghulis]

But, 'shade' is another word for spirit or ghost or 'presence' on earth of someone who has died.

True, and I do realize that -- but even assuming it was meant that way, the word "shade" should still not be capitalized as if it is part of her name.

[The Boar of Gore]

I don't know if this counts as a mistake but at the beginning of the series Tyrion needs a special saddle to ride around on, but he seems to have no trouble riding around everywhere later on - when he leads the sortie from King's Landing for instance. I suppose his special saddle might have been put on a horse already by Pod, but then where did it come from anyway? Did Tywin bring it with him in the baggage train when he invaded the riverlands? Did Tyrion have it sent specially from Casterly Rock? And wasn't he riding in the Mountains of the Moon where he couldn't possibly have had his special saddle?

[Lord Mord]

Is it possible that "need" is a somewhat ambiguous term in this case, that it is not literally a sine qua non?

Also, I will ask again: is it known if there will be corrections to any of these in later editions?

[Guest Other-in-law]

And wasn't he riding in the Mountains of the Moon where he couldn't possibly have had his special saddle?

Huh? He was riding his own horse, that Jaime gave him as a name day present in the mountains up until it died. No reason they couldn't have transferred it to a different horse, and he kept that same saddle from then out.

The different horses would be the bigger problem, but these sort of details could be taken care of off screen by petty functionaries who are given instructions. Having a new saddle made, certainly, though training a new horse would need more hands on time by Tyrion. The flip side of it would be him having to continue to manage with a horse that he doesn't have as much control over, as he must have returning from the mountains and at the Green Fork.

[cybroleach]

True, and I do realize that -- but even assuming it was meant that way, the word "shade" should still not be capitalized as if it is part of her name.

I love how a higher case 's' is your big issue with the books.

Another mistake i picked up was again in the Hand's Tourney with house Frey had Ser Emmon and Ser Jared competing. Yet Lord Walder tells us Ser Jared was too old to compete in the tourney LAST year for Joff's name day (which by extention should apply to his 60 year old brother as well).

[Valar_Morghulis]

I love how a higher case 's' is your big issue with the books.

The upper-case "s" is by no means a "big issue" for me, but as I said, I'm an editor, so I get paid to notice inconsistencies, misspellings, etc.

Anyway, this isn't Martin's mistake, but I was listening to the audiobook version of ACoK the other day, and in one of Catelyn's chapters, Dotrice reads the same line twice. It made me think I had finally lost my mind.

[Roughspun]

Jaime cupped his "hands" but by that time he only had one hand.

Would “he cupped his hand to shout” be ok or does that sound odd to native speakers?