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[Pre-ADwD Spoilers] Bran 1 - Spoilers for ADWD


Angalin
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I get quite a sinister vibe from this chapter, but I really like where the Bran story is going. Does anyone else think that Hodor getting used to being warged by Bran is a little creepy? Especially after the way that warging another human is put across by Varamyr.

Worried that Bran chapters will start having every other word be "Hodor?" That would be funny. Plus Hodor talking like a normal person. I remember Bran talking about how he could be a great fighter to Maester Luwin, to which the maester replied, "No Bran, when a knight fights his arms and legs must be as one." When Bran first "warged" Hodor I got excited and remembered that quote.

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Sounds like a great chapter. Come on now George, finish the book already, I really want to read this myself.

Things that struck me from this summary:

* The Last Greenseer ha? So there are likley no more Children of the Forest left, except for this one? That's a big shame on the one hand, and on the other hand it makes this one being the last extra poignant. Bran will have to do their job.

* Summer & Bran. Still love the interplay between Stark and Wolf.

* Coldhands is Benjen Stark. This has always been my opinion, this chapter summary reinforces that belief. It's not Bloodraven. I think it is someone who has recently passed away, he seems to be a ranger as well. I think Benjen might well be hiding his face because he doesn't want Bran to know what became of him, because revealing his face might not serve any purpose, or Bran's references to him as a monster have made him decide not to show him the monster is actually his beloved uncle.

* It feels like people in this group are going to die in ADWD, whether that be Hodor or the Reeds, or both.

On the size of the Direwolves, I think we can say they are about fully grown by now. Summer was still injured.

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Got it...CH did not have the burning blue eyes so he's very much not just a "rouge wight"

Does anyone else hoping to learn more of the Others through CH or the 3EC? I just find it kind of odd that Martin would have a purely evil force in these novels (even the Lannisters have good traits) considering his tendency to shy away from pure villains and heroes that are so typical in a lot of fantasy writing.

Also, the Others seem to be shaping up to be a pretty important part of this story and Mel being at the wall screams out to me that there will be some sort of fire vs. ice battle going down with possibly the Great Other facing off against R'Holler. I would love it if Martin twisted it such that the Others weren't all bad and that eradicating them would not benefit Westeros because of upsetting the balance between ice and fire, or something along those lines.

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Waymar Royce is wearing black ringmail when he is wightified in AGOT. He also has one eye destroyed. So even if CH has but one eye, it wouldn't mean conclusively that he is BR.

My own belief would be that regardless of a wights former identity, they are now merely an autobot controlled by a foreign entity. And that entity may be capable of reading the former memories of the bodies they inhabit.

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RE: glowing blue eyes...

All my books are lent out atm, but someone should maybe check back and see if the glowing blue eyes thing really relates to the number of actual remaining eyeballs a creature still has as a wight.

Seems to me, in a magical world, the glowing blue phenomena may continue to emanate from wherever a creatures eyes may once have been, as a representation of the Others control over them, whether that creature still has any remnants of actual eyeballs left or not. Certainly we have seen plenty of skeletonified wights so far, with likely nothing but dried out empty eye sockets in their skulls. Did they have two glowing blue eyes still? Did it matter? Were they still wights if they didn't?

Without conclusive testaments one way or the other, then whether CH has two glowing blue eyes or one doesn't say anything about his identity. He might well be Bloodraven with one glowing blue remnant of an eyeball, and one glowing blue empty socket, or he could be Benjen with one glowing eyeball and one non-glowing empty eye socket. Either way, we still won't really know who he used to be until George tells us.

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I'm in the "Benjen = Coldhands" camp. One possible reason for his refusal to reveal himself: he just doesn't care anymore? He is dead, after all, and he may retain some knowledge of who he used to be; but that might be irrelevant at this point.

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The issue here is that CH's eyes do not, in fact, glow blue, as Sam reports to Bran in A Storm of Swords.

Well, its true that Sam does not report that CH's eyes do, in fact, glow. Whether they don't, in fact, glow, remains to be seen. :P

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Whether they don't, in fact, glow, remains to be seen.

No, it doesn't. Sam's line about Coldhands, quoted in an earlier post, is clear on the subject. The quote only makes sense if Sam is saying that Coldhands has some qualities in common with wights (i.e., pale skin and cold hands), but does not have others (i.e., glowing blue eyes and the lack of speech).

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You're right, of course. And I remembered that a few seconds after I posted, but was too caught up in the orgasmic parsing of minutiae to pussy edit.

Is there any solid canonical proof that CH's eye doesn't glow red?

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Spoiler chapters always seem to raise more questions then they answer, and make the wait for the book worse. Every time I read one I swear its the last time, alas I don't seem to have the self control when I see somethings been posted.. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the write up though - I know it must be hard to try to take in and enjoy the chapter while also scribbling it down for the rest of us ;)

As far as the identity of CH/3EC, I agree GRRM seems to have left the chapter purposely undefinitive. Although I suppose its possible its just some unknown exNW brother, it seems likely from the pains he's taken to hide the face/identity that it will be someone we know.

Aaargh! The intrigue! The frustration! :thumbsup:

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is this chapter complete? i always felt that spoilers given by GRRM are not finished, that he just reads half of the chapter etc. Am i right?

It is. There have only been two I believe, where I he read (or released) a portion: Davos 2, and the chapter titled 'Reek.' Davos was just the beginning, while Reek seems to have been skimmed down in different parts, while keeping the overall structure of the chapter.

There is, of course, The Mystery Knight, but that's a short story, so I'm glad he only read a bit.

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I distinctly recall that George has read half of the second Davos chapter,

SPOILER: Davos 2
taking place at White Harbor
but I admit I'm not sure where the report for it is located.
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