[ADWD Spoilers]A Host of Small Matters

[Ran]

At least in that version of the family tree, yes.

[Kalbear]

Anyone else get that the 'fragrant seneschal' of Quaithe's prophecy was the ship bearing Tyrion to Meereen that sank?

I got the impression that that wasn't seen in this book. And I kinda think that it's hinting not at the ship or the guy, but at Varys - especially now that Varys is backing Aegon's play and Dany appears to be somewhat incompetent and foolish.

[Ran]

Illyrio's more of a seneschal than Varys, surely. Can't recall if he's perfumed. But Quaithe's prophecy is clearly not entirely right, much as Melisandre's aren't -- they are images and they have to be interpreted. When she prophesized, all of these things were set in motion... but then after ward, some of the details changed.

I expect Reznak is the one being warned against, anyways. I find his not being arrested as originally agreed suspicious. As others have said, he may be the Harpy, and the one who tried to poison Dany (and Hizdahr?)

[jurble]

I dreamt last night that Daario was the Harpy. Didn't really make any sense to me, but whatever, my dreams have spoken.

[Lord Varys]

Well, Jaehaerys being Egg's third son would be another contradiction to the appendix of AGoT. Well, since the changes made concerning Viserys II and years passing between Rhaenyra's and Aegon's II birth, that would not mean that much, but it would at least annoy me...

I always thought the dwarf woman was Jenny's mother, but apparently that's not the case. Still, I wonder who that damned Jenny was, and why she meant that much to the ghost of High Heart.

[Skadhi]

I got the impression as well that Theon has been castrated which kinda sucks.

As for Quaithe's prophecies I am almost as sick and tired of them as Dany.

It's pretty clear who everyone is except:

The Dark Flame which I agree with Werthead is Moqorro.

The Perfumed Seneschal. If the perfumed seneschal really turns out to be just a perfumed seneschal . . . well I'm sorry but that's just idiotic.

ESPECIALLY after Martin names the ship the fragrant steward. I think it's pretty apparent that the ship is what the prophecy is referring to. Likely that means that Dany should "beware" at least who is ON it and at this point the only characters of worth from it are Penny, Tyrion, Mormont, and Moqorro.

Could the "perfumed seneschal" be Varys? He's always been referred to as "powdered and perfumed", smelling like lemons or lilacs, and so on. If it is Varys and he wants to put Aegon on the throne, then Dany has every reason to be wary of him.

Just thinking out loud. :) Varys is the only one I'd consider "perfumed" and "seneschal."

[Lord Varys]

Varys is perfumed, yes, but all those warnings/prophecies seemed to refer to people surrounding Dany now. Be wary of Varys would be no use to her now, since he hangs around in KL and she can't do anything about him.

Reznak is the much candidate here. He would be damned obvious, I agree, but, well, the other guys coming to her were obvious as well, so I don't see that much riddles here.

Especially as Varys may be perfumed, but he is not a seneschal.

[Alsace]

I don't think Wyman is dead yet but It seemed to me he went to the wedding prepared to die. He didn't bring any hostages and he knows the Boltons/Freys suspect his loyalty if not already prepared for betrayal. He probably killed the Freys that were with him and then served them as pie which he ate as well and the scene above seemed he was intentionally being provacative as opposed to when he was at White Harbour. The cannibal bit doesn't seem like the actions of a sane person to me (assuming he did serve the Freys up as pie). I think he went to the Bolton et al prepared to do as much damage. I'm interested in what happened after he left with his levy's with the Frey levy's. I don't think that was coincidence on Roose's part.

Wait wait wait.

Why do we think he served the Freys up as pie? I mean, awesome revenge for what happened to Wylis, but what's the basis for this?

[Maltaran]

We have a whole thread discussing the Frey-and-bacon pies http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/53305-adwd-spoilers-menu-for-a-feast/

[Ratty]

I liked the sense of scale given by some of the Northern points of view. While the list of 40-odd houses on the citadel was never definitive, we can now glean that there are several hundred Northern houses even if most are clearly very small which much better fits the scale of the map and would apply to the other kingdoms as well.

[corbaekin]

Another small matter:

Is this the first time that we are learning that Brandon's bones never returned to WInterfell? Why do we think that might have happened? Lyanna's bones were brought all the way home from the Tower of Joy, and Ned's were sent north from King's Landing, why couldn't Brandon's have been returned from Dorne? Why, precisely were they buried in Dorne, and what does it say about Ned's feelings about his brother?

[Ran]

Think you misunderstood. Eddard informed Lady Dustin that he had buried her husband in Dorne. Brandon and Rickard's bones were eventually recovered and interred in the crypt of Winterfell.

[Marcus of the South]

I thought it was Lord Dustin who was left in Dorne (he died at the Tower of Joy), and that's why Barbrey hates Ned...not because of her previous affection for Brandon.

Edit: Beaten.

[corbaekin]

Oh, you're totally right, Ran, my quick scarfing read lead me to poor conclusions. I think I was just so excited about what the Brandon-as-ass-dishonoring-jerk might mean that I started reading conspiracy in. Thanks for saving me from a long, unproductive tunnel. :)

[Herr Fick]

I didn't want to start another thread and this could turn out to be a very small matter (or none at all):

While reading A Dance with Dragons it was my impression that Martin has changed the feel of his third-person limited narration. It's been a while since I read the other novels and I have not yet re-read the new one, but I'm pretty sure that Martin, when referring to a chapter's 'narrating' character, now uses ranks, titles and similar designations far more often than before. This made me feel less close to the pov characters than I remembered from earlier novels (even though I didn't feel really detached, of course). Maybe this is just an example of literary selection bias but did you feel the same?

[brook]

One small detail which I can't help thinking may end up significant is the large Barrow at Barrowton

Some claimed it was the grave of the First King, who had led the First Men to Westeros. Others argued that it must be some King of the Giants who was buried there, to account for its size. A few had even been known to say it was no barrow, just a hill, but if so it was a lonely hill, for most of the barrowlands were flat and windswept.

Any thoughts? Maybe it is just a hill afterall but I think there is something under there.

[Marcus of the South]

I didn't want to start another thread and this could turn out to be a very small matter (or none at all):

While reading A Dance with Dragons it was my impression that Martin has changed the feel of his third-person limited narration. It's been a while since I read the other novels and I have not yet re-read the new one, but I'm pretty sure that Martin, when referring to a chapter's 'narrating' character, now uses ranks, titles and similar designations far more often than before. This made me feel less close to the pov characters than I remembered from earlier novels (even though I didn't feel really detached, of course). Maybe this is just an example of literary selection bias but did you feel the same?

He started doing this in AFFC but I think it's a lot more noticeable here because we have a couple of characters with identity issues (Theon and Arya especially.) Barristan is totally defined by his role as a Queensguard, for example, whereas Daeny is still just Daeny.

I actually liked the Reek -> The Ghost of Winterfell -> Theon progression in the chapter titles.

[Whitering]

Why is Tyrion now claiming to have killed Joff? We know he didn't. Is it just because he was proclaimed guilty, why bother denying? Does it go back to what he told Jon in Thrones? That was about the word bastard, but this is about kinslaying and regicide. Use it if it is going to stick to you anyway?

[Datepalm]

Rhaegar Frey was killed and baked in a pie by Wyman Manderly at the wedding at Winterfell.

Oh bloody hell, I didn't even notice that. I may have to rethink my sense that this was a rather optimistic book, for ASOIAF. I really should have spotted it though, I even thought at some point how much cannibalism seems to be coming up. Need sleep.

I didn't want to start another thread and this could turn out to be a very small matter (or none at all):

While reading A Dance with Dragons it was my impression that Martin has changed the feel of his third-person limited narration. It's been a while since I read the other novels and I have not yet re-read the new one, but I'm pretty sure that Martin, when referring to a chapter's 'narrating' character, now uses ranks, titles and similar designations far more often than before. This made me feel less close to the pov characters than I remembered from earlier novels (even though I didn't feel really detached, of course). Maybe this is just an example of literary selection bias but did you feel the same?

Theres even one point, which I can't remember right now, where he steps completely out of limited 3rd for a few paragraphs, for a kind of universal narrator voice. Possibly with Selmy? I think I paid attention to it becuase I can't remember another instance of that anywhere in the series.

ETA - Any guesses as to who Aerys' wife's suitor was? The one who joined the faith when she was married?

[Ran]

Ser Bonifer Hasty. In AFfC Jaime says he had a good reputation as a tourney knight in his youth, but "something" made him give it up, which he doesn't know. Hasty used to serve Lord Merryweather, Aerys's Hand after Tywin, and Jaime calls him "old Ser Bonifer", so he's the right age. And from the stormlands, too.