Just finished a Storm of Swords and have a few questions (Spoilers)

[Squishtopher]

Hello. New to the forums (I only discovered them this morning) and I thought this would be the best place to voice my queries. Thank you in advance to any who deign to answer my questions (I use the word deign as these questions are completely trivial and probably not worth wasting time over). If there are any question that can be answered with knowledge that is not in the first three books please do not tell me what the answer is as I would prefer to find out on my own (I have a habit of spoiling things for myself in any case so my concerns are moot). Spoilers for the first three books so if you haven't read them I advise you to stop reading my post now.

Question one: Why are there no assassins in Westeros? The Lannisters could have dealt with Stannis before he got to King's Landing if they had sent someone to assassinate him (not to mention Rob or Renly could have been stopped this way). The only assassin I have seen in Westeros was the man that was sent to kill Bran in a Game of Thrones (and even that was more of a sellsword than an assassin). Even if Westeros has no professional assassins (which I consider unlikely considering the size of the Seven Kingdoms) the Lannisters cold have used the Faceless Men for instance. They are expensive but the Lannisters could probably have afforded them (Tyrion was worried that Cersei would send them after him, though he was joking slightly at them time) and the debt would have been better than potentially losing the city, and the throne, to Stannis.

Question two: Petyr says that he will go to the Vale to try to woo Lysa. He then remains behind to kill Joffery and rescue Sansa. However there are roughly 500 pages between when Petyr says he will set off and when he actually does. That is a significant amount of time (in that time Robb Stark got the false terms from the Freys, left Riverrun and got killed at the Red Wedding). Someone at King's Landing must have heard that Petyr was not at the Vale when he should have been (I'm sure the court at the Eyrie would have been full of talk about Petyr trying to marry Lysa).

Question three: This one is also about Petyr I'm afraid. Petyr believes that he slept with Catelyn but in actual fact he was with Lysa but he was too drunk to realise his mistake. However he also knows that he got Lysa pregnant and that she was forced to have an abortion by her father. Does this mean that he slept with Lysa at other occasions (and it was then that he got her pregnant) and why would he do that if it was the case?

Question four: When talking to Jon, Stannis mentions that he has the Lord of Bones as a captive when referencing people other than Mance Rayder whom he could treat with. However the Lord of Bones is a captive of the Night's Watch (Janos used him against Jon) thus Stannis has no power over him (and he would have probably been executed as soon as he had finished testifying against Jon as Janos had no more use for him, but that is just me opinion and it is probably wrong).

Question five: When Nymeria finds the body of Catelyn (when Arya is in control of her) and the Brotherhood without Banners come to resurrect her Nymeria retreats before them thinking about how wolves run from man and how it is the 'way of the wild'. This seems to contradict the nature of Nymeria's pack in a Clash of Kings and at the beginning of a Storm of Swords, as back then the wolves were perfectly willing to attack men and even killed the Brave Companions who were following Arya (admittedly Nymeria was under the control of Arya when they did that but she was under Arya's control when they fled from Catelyn's corpse as well).

Question six: I can understand why Jon lost ghost and was then able to find him again (probably a mixture of the wall blocking the connection and Jon's troubled mind not being able to connect in the first place, it was only when Jon fully committed to being a Night's Watchmen again that the connection was made) though it doesn't sit well with me. What I don't understand is the nature of the connection. Jon started thinking like a wolf for a few moments and knows that Ghost is near because of that. None of the other wargs that have been seen have been able to do that (Bran doesn't know where Summer is when he is not controlling him and he is by far the most accomplished warg of Eddard's children). Likewise none of the other wargs have started thinking like their direwolves (in fact the direwolves start thinking more like the wargs that control them) so why does Jon have a whole paragraph dedicated to him thinking like one (the closest I can find to this with a quick search was Bran having a brief flash of Summer's fear during the thunderstorm on the night they save Jon).

I have a few more questions but they are, probably, even more silly than these (I also need to cut this short as I should be in bed by now) so I'll wait to see if anyone answers these before pushing my luck (again thank you to anyone who decides to answer my stupid questions) I apologise if I came across as rude or condescending with my passage (also for the length, any grammatical errors and anything else anyone takes offence to) and hope to hear from someone soon. Thank you.

[Jon Snows Ghost]

1. Don't know, bro. A little light will be shed on assasins in the next book.

2. Sure, Littlefinger told Sansa that he and Olenna Tyrell did it, but he has motive to lie to her about this in order to gain her trust. Tyrion also admits to it too to Jamie but I think that was out of spite for being told the truth about Tysha. As far as all this happening around the events of the RW Martin has stated before that things could be going on at the same time or not thousands of legues away from one another.

3. I think he was involved with Lysa more than once.

4. No comment

5.Have to ask Martin about that. As the story goes on and things get darker most of the wolves in the land have lost all fear of man.

6. Don't want to ruin it for you.

[The guy from the Vale]

1) There was a discussion of hiring assassins among the Small Council in AGoT in order to kill Dany, the so-called Faceless Men. The Ghost of High Heart prophecises in ASoS that three people will die, and how. One of them apparently dies because of 'a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings.' This suggests Balon Greyjoy has been killed by a faceless man. Lastly, there's another assassin we see in ACoK. I don't want to spoil you about him, though, as he'll play a role later.

2) Littlefinger almost surely was it. And remember just how large Westeros is. He's be traveling for weeks or even months anyway, and the Vale has not been in much contact with the rest of the realm. After all, neither in King's Landing nor in Robb's camp does anybody know what's going on in the Vale at all.

3) Since LF claims to have taken Lysa's maidenhead, too, I'd assume the two had sex more than once. And while Peyr doesn't know about that one time, it's not impossible to think they might have had an affair when Jon Arryn was still alive.

4) Stannis doesn't have much of an army, but it's still larger than the Watch. They can hardly refuse if he commands them to hand out Rattleshirt.

5) That's an inconsistency, I'd say.

6) Read further, there'll be a possible explanation.

[Jon Snows Ghost]

1) There was a discussion of hiring assassins among the Small Council in AGoT in order to kill Dany, the so-called Faceless Men. The Ghost of High Heart prophecises in ASoS that three people will die, and how. One of them apparently dies because of 'a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings.' This suggests Balon Greyjoy has been killed by a faceless man..

Totally missed that....this is why I started coming here. Thank you, TGFTV!!!!

[Blangadanger]

Regarding assassins, I'm pretty sure Jaqen H'Ghar is some sort of assassin, as he's essentially one for Arya before she departs Harrenhal. This along with Dany's would-be assassin(s), Balon's mysterious death, and Renly's death (I would consider it an assassination) means that assassins definitely exist. Now why they wouldn't send an assassin to kill Stannis is anyone's guess. Tyrion obviously was planning his own creative defense (the burning chain trap along with an alliance with the Tyrells) and perhaps wanted the Battle of the Blackwater to happen partly to satisfy his own pride. But more likely it's because Stannis had an enormous army around him that made him a difficult target. With Melisandre there, I doubt any attempt on his life would have been successful anyway.

[Rockroi]

Question one: Why are there no assassins in Westeros? The Lannisters could have dealt with Stannis before he got to King's Landing if they had sent someone to assassinate him (not to mention Rob or Renly could have been stopped this way). The only assassin I have seen in Westeros was the man that was sent to kill Bran in a Game of Thrones (and even that was more of a sellsword than an assassin). Even if Westeros has no professional assassins (which I consider unlikely considering the size of the Seven Kingdoms) the Lannisters cold have used the Faceless Men for instance. They are expensive but the Lannisters could probably have afforded them (Tyrion was worried that Cersei would send them after him, though he was joking slightly at them time) and the debt would have been better than potentially losing the city, and the throne, to Stannis.

There is a lot going on in this question. It seems clear that Westeros, when it does use assassins, outsources that task to the East with the Faceless Men etc. I think here it was a matter of not having the ability to make a true competitor-guild of assassins. The East is not so far as to make the importation of assassins very tough; people who could afford assassins would invariably go East to get them.

As far as the Lannisters using assassins, a few points. First, when the War of the 5 Kings started, Stannis was way away in Dragonstone and not moving; Tywin was caught at Harrenhal, Cersei up to her neck in Baratheons. By the time the idea to do anything came, Stannis was at the Blackwater. Second, don’t underestimate the political issue that would have been caused if an assassin went at Stannis- if Stannis just up and died it would lend unintentional credence to the rumor he started- namely that Joff et al are the spawn of the Lannister twins. Third, don’t underestimate hubris- the Lannisters really thought they would win easily and would not need assassins. Had Stannis won on the Blackwater that may have changed. Interesting to note, the only character to use an assassin to effectuate the war was, of all people, Stannis.

Question two: Petyr says that he will go to the Vale to try to woo Lysa…there are roughly 500 pages between when Petyr says he will set off and when he actually does.

I think here Pyter could have done one of many things to effectuate the subterfuge, and none of them do I have ONE OUNCE of proof for. He could have had the Kettleblacks send false letters from the Eerie; he could have had Lysa herself send false info; Varys could have received the info and just never bothered telling anyone. Finally, its possible that the Lannisters lost track of Pyter because the more pressing allainces were in the West (Highgarden) and South (Dorne).

Question three: Petyr believes that he slept with Catelyn but in actual fact he was with Lysa but he was too drunk to realise his mistake. However he also knows that he got Lysa pregnant and that she was forced to have an abortion by her father. Does this mean that he slept with Lysa at other occasions (and it was then that he got her pregnant) and why would he do that if it was the case?

Petyr slept with Lysa only once before the War:

That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt. He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep. Even so, I stayed with him until the sky began to lighten. Your mother did not deserve him. She would not even give him her favor to wear when he fought Brandon Stark. I would have given him my favor.

Martin, George R.R. (2003-03-04). A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Three (p. 1110). Bantam. Kindle Edition.

Later:

Everyone thought it was because of that stupid duel with Brandon Stark, but that wasn’t so. Father said I ought to thank the gods that so great a lord as Jon Arryn was willing to take me soiled, but I knew it was only for the swords. I had to marry Jon, or my father would have turned me out as he did his brother, but it was Petyr I was meant for. I am telling you all this so you will understand how much we love each other, how long we have suffered and dreamed of one another. We made a baby together, a precious little baby.”

Martin, George R.R. (2003-03-04). A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Three (p. 1111). Bantam. Kindle Edition.

From bits and pieces scoured through the books we know that Petyr spent a fortnight recovering from his injuries at the battle with Brandon and Lysa and Cat were not allowed to see him while he recovered. After he left the war started (you should be aware that I support a bat-shit-crazy theory that credits Petyr with telling Brandon that Rhaegar had kidnapped and raped Lyanna Stark) and slightly after that Lysa was betrothed to Jon Aryn (hence the info above). Therefore, its basically impossible for Petyr to have slepped with Cat or Lysa before or after the war EXCEPT for the one time Lysa describes.

Question four: When talking to Jon, Stannis mentions that he has the Lord of Bones as a captive when referencing people other than Mance Rayder whom he could treat with.

I think its safe to say that the Lord of Bones was entrusted to Stannis by Slynt after the Battle. This is revisited a little bit in ADwD.

Question five: When Nymeria finds the body of Catelyn (when Arya is in control of her) and the Brotherhood without Banners come to resurrect her Nymeria retreats before them thinking about how wolves run from man and how it is the 'way of the wild'.

In this context its probably the number of men that Nymeria was afraid of. Otherwise it just seems like wise move.

Question six: I can understand why Jon lost ghost and was then able to find him again…

Explained more in future books.

[Chise]

Question three: This one is also about Petyr I'm afraid. Petyr believes that he slept with Catelyn but in actual fact he was with Lysa but he was too drunk to realise his mistake. However he also knows that he got Lysa pregnant and that she was forced to have an abortion by her father. Does this mean that he slept with Lysa at other occasions (and it was then that he got her pregnant) and why would he do that if it was the case?

Littlefinger knows he never got with Cat. He may talk a lot about gettin to hit that to other people, but always take what Lord Baelish says with a grain of salt. A big grain... hell take 3 salt-shakers with you just in case

Quite a lot of his actions always seem to come back to Cat.... he will hurt some, sweet talk others, fuck the sister and make googly-eyes at Sansa because in the end all these actions in some way or another lead to his biggest hang up in life - Catelyn Tully chose others over him

[Squishtopher]

Thank you for all of your replies and for indulging my nick-picking. I will just make a few notes about topics I already mentioned. The thing about assassins is that while there are a lot of assassinations in Westeros (Jon Arryn, Robert, Joffrey, an attempt on Melisandre ect.), they were all done by nobles (or in one case a maester) and not by anyone who would be trained to do this (the main exception being Jaqen H'ghar and thanks to Tower of the Hand not spoiler tagging one of the footnotes for a Clash of Kings I know what he is). But you all do bring up good points so again thank you (Another unspoken factor is probably reliability, in the politics of Westeros you can't entrust an assassination to someone who could be under someone else's control which is practically everyone). I also didn't get that it was probably a faceless man who killed Balon (though it makes more sense that Euron would return so soon after Balon's death if he had caused the death of him).

About Petyr and Lysa. I know that everything Petyr says should be doubted but the story Lysa tells Sansa seemed to be a very good explanation of why Pteyr believes he slept with Catelyn (though I only understood that that is what it was after the Tower of the Hand pointed it out) that I thought it was probably the case (but I am likely wrong in this regard). Also after the Red Wedding Tyrion wonders if Petyr has reached the Vale yet which does add credence to the idea that they are just not getting any news from that area (though they do know that the mountain clans are becoming bolder which does mean that they are getting some information).

I am glad that the Ghost issue is addressed in A dance with Dragons as I was wondering about that. I did notice that no-one addressed the problem of Jon's thinking like Ghost when the direwolf came back (if this is also addressed in a Dance with Dragons I apologise for pressing the matter but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would be addressed at a later date).

Other things that annoyed me slightly:

One: Orell being trapped in the eagle because he was killed while inside it when he was clearly lucid (and trying to attack Jon) when he died (Varamyr seemed to be able to interact with his environment slightly when taking control of animals but all he could do was say what he was seeing and not do much else.

Two: The lack of direwolves north of the wall was a bit off-putting. Especially since they were common enough for people to know what one was when they saw it south of the wall. There are wolves in Mance's army so a few of them may be direwolves but I thought it would have been mentioned (I know there is a lack of wildlife because of the others so I guess this is more of a personal gripe than an actual problem).

Three: Melisandre saying that it take years of training to be able to see the future in fire and implying that Ser Axell is just seeing what he wants to see while Stannis has seen the future (the King with a burning crown) and Thoros does so an a regular basis. Thoros is a red priest but I doubt the drunken womaniser spent much time practicing (especially since he only started getting powers from R'hllor when the War of the Five Kings had started).

Four: The lack of surprise that some people have to major revelations. Samwell has no shock to learn that Maester Aemon is a Targaryen when Stannis calls him one. Marillion doesn't react to anything he hears from Lysa and Petyr (though Sansa wasn't focusing on him so that is slightly excusable but I would have still liked a bit of a reaction, especially since Petyr notes he shouldn't be hearing what he is hearing). I also thought Tyrion should have responded more to the fact Shae ended up in his father's bed (it was only after reading these forums that I learnt that fact may have had a factor in her death, before I thought he killed her because of the fact she betrayed him in the trial).

Five: Tywin said a couple of things that don't make sense. One was when he justified the Red Wedding by saying that it was better that a dozen die at dinner than ten thousand die on the battlefield when several thousand people died at the Red Wedding when they killed Robb's men. Later on when Jaime returns and shows him his stump Tywin immediate reacting is to act like Catelyn won't get away with what she did (as he thinks she did it) when she was already dead (I know that neither of these really matter in the long run and the second one could easily be a slip of the tongue than en actual error, he only gets two or three words out before Jaime interrupts him but it still bugs me, which makes it more my problem than a problem with the book).

These are more small annoyances than actual questions but I would want to hear what you think of them. I do have some more but I believe I burdened you with my petty issues enough for one night (I should warn you though that if you do address these concerns I will put some more on here). Again thank you in advance to all who decide to answer me.

[Jon Snows Ghost]

One: Will get a better picture of this in later books

Two: a bit of information I found "When the series begins (during the reign of King Robert Baratheon) no direwolf has been sighted south of the Wall, even in the Stark lands of the North, in over 200 years." They were also saying that they were believed to be more of a myth than anything (south of the wall). With all this being said maybe they are going extinct and are rarley seen because it also mentions that some Rangers from the NW have reported sightings of them north of the wall but I would guess very few reports.

Three: Don't know maybe some inconsistencies in the writing.

Four: I think Sam already knew Maester Ameon was a Targ Jon was just reminding him of that fact. The singer was a slimey SOB and maybe nothing could suprise him. As far as Tyrion....there really isn't nothing else to be said after you witness your ol'lady testify against you in front of all of Kings Landing and then catch her naked in your fathers bed (a father who never showed you love). Just kill the hefa and move on.

Five: Yeah that was kind of odd about the dinner thing. As far as Cat I think the orginal plan was to have Cat as a hostage. When she killed the fool of a grandson that's when she was killed. But you're right if he about the murders going down he should have known that Cat was one of them.

Hope that helps although these are just my thoughts. I am no expert on summries but I tried to give it ago. Thanks for the questions they really jogged my memory.

[The hairy bear]

The Tywin / Cat confusion is a mistake by GRRM that we can now attribute to Tywin. George played a little bit with the timing of the chapters (in some early drafts, Jaime arrived at King's Landing before Joffrey's wedding). Also, he has revealed that the Red Wedding was the last chapter of the book he wrote and that innitially Catelyn was not supposed to die (only Robb).

Regarding the reasons of why de Lannisters didn't hire Faceless Men: it's hinted that their fees depend on the wealth of their client. And given how wealthy the Lannisters are, I can see why they are not willing to get rid of a huge amount of money when they can defeat their enemies on the battlefield.

[gougef]

Regarding the reasons of why de Lannisters didn't hire Faceless Men: it's hinted that their fees depend on the wealth of their client. And given how wealthy the Lannisters are, I can see why they are not willing to get rid of a huge amount of money when they can defeat their enemies on the battlefield.

I get the feeling the FM use this "cost" to kill only who "deserves" to die. Price is set too high for anyone that don't need killin'. Whether it's a religious or political reason, I don't know.

[Squishtopher]

Thank you for your answers again (and sorry for getting back to you so late). Now that I think about it properly (something that I should have really done to begin with) it makes sense that some people are more powerful wargs than others. Bran for instance can connect to Summer (and Hodor) while awake while his siblings need to be asleep before they connect so it makes sense that even more powerful wargs would be able to remain in control of their bodies when connected (Varamyr seemed to be able to control both Orell's eagle and his shadowcat at the same time which probably involves the same principles as being able to control your body while controlling an animal). It is still good that this gets expanded upon in later books though.

Jon Snow's Ghost can you please tell me when you hear the ranger's reports about the direwolves as it would help set my mind at peace.

It is also good to know that what Tywin said was an error and that I am not missing something. (not too good to know as it is still bad that there was an error but at least I can stop worrying that I misinterpreted the text).

As I warned here is a few more questions:

One: Who is the seventh member of the King's Guard? The character list at the back of the book list six members and only those six turn up to Jaime's meeting so who is missing (I think it is someone from Dorne but am not that sure).

Two: Who owns the Riverlands. Petyr was promised the Riverlands by Tyrion but that was a false promise to dupe him into thinking that the alliance with Lysa was real (he only got Harrenhal, which was also promised to him by Tyrion by begging Tywin after he forged the Highgarden alliance). Is it Ser Emmon Frey then (I know he got Riverrun but does that mean that he got the Riverlands as well. This is probably a stupid question but I really am not that sure of who the Lannisters put in charge of that area).

Three: When Gregor Clegane is poisoned Tywin wants him cured so that he can be executed. I can understand why he wants Gregor executed rather than die by poison but what I don't understand is why they want him cured. If they can make sure that he won't die for half an hour they can execute him quickly (preferrbly in the Red Keep to save time) and they wouldn't have to deal with the difficulty of completely curing him (Pycelle is keeping Gregor alive for days and he must sleep some time so it shouldn't be too hard to stop him from dying).

Again thank you in advance to any who decide to answer my questions (as stupid as they may be and again I must apologise if my post came across as rude in any way, it wasn't intentional).

[The guy from the Vale]

1) Boros Blount is reinstated to the KG after the Hound deserted.

2) Baelish is the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. Tywin gave Petyr what Tyrion had promised him. Lannisters, debts, you know how that goes...

3) Since Gregor is screaming in pain, it's probably going to be very hard to have him restrained in a way that makes sure he really dies quickly when executed. When you're crouching in pain, it's much harder to hit your neck... (that's just my interpretation)

[JonArryn]

As I warned here is a few more questions:

One: Who is the seventh member of the King's Guard? The character list at the back of the book list six members and only those six turn up to Jaime's meeting so who is missing (I think it is someone from Dorne but am not that sure).

Two: Who owns the Riverlands. Petyr was promised the Riverlands by Tyrion but that was a false promise to dupe him into thinking that the alliance with Lysa was real (he only got Harrenhal, which was also promised to him by Tyrion by begging Tywin after he forged the Highgarden alliance). Is it Ser Emmon Frey then (I know he got Riverrun but does that mean that he got the Riverlands as well. This is probably a stupid question but I really am not that sure of who the Lannisters put in charge of that area).

Three: When Gregor Clegane is poisoned Tywin wants him cured so that he can be executed. I can understand why he wants Gregor executed rather than die by poison but what I don't understand is why they want him cured. If they can make sure that he won't die for half an hour they can execute him quickly (preferrbly in the Red Keep to save time) and they wouldn't have to deal with the difficulty of completely curing him (Pycelle is keeping Gregor alive for days and he must sleep some time so it shouldn't be too hard to stop him from dying).

1. Maybe you forgot that Jaime was present, making him the seventh member, six "officers" and one Lord Commander.

2. Officialy it is Baelish who owns it, but inofficialyy Edmure's uncle Brynden "Blackfish" Tully is holding Riverrun.

3. I think it is because Cersei's pawn master (forgot the name), wants him to experiment on. Sir Gregor is a physicality which has never been seen before, and they want too see if they can use him in some way.

[JonArryn]

Hello. New to the forums (I only discovered them this morning) and I thought this would be the best place to voice my queries. Thank you in advance to any who deign to answer my questions (I use the word deign as these questions are completely trivial and probably not worth wasting time over). If there are any question that can be answered with knowledge that is not in the first three books please do not tell me what the answer is as I would prefer to find out on my own (I have a habit of spoiling things for myself in any case so my concerns are moot). Spoilers for the first three books so if you haven't read them I advise you to stop reading my post now.

Question one: Why are there no assassins in Westeros? The Lannisters could have dealt with Stannis before he got to King's Landing if they had sent someone to assassinate him (not to mention Rob or Renly could have been stopped this way). The only assassin I have seen in Westeros was the man that was sent to kill Bran in a Game of Thrones (and even that was more of a sellsword than an assassin). Even if Westeros has no professional assassins (which I consider unlikely considering the size of the Seven Kingdoms) the Lannisters cold have used the Faceless Men for instance. They are expensive but the Lannisters could probably have afforded them (Tyrion was worried that Cersei would send them after him, though he was joking slightly at them time) and the debt would have been better than potentially losing the city, and the throne, to Stannis.

Question two: Petyr says that he will go to the Vale to try to woo Lysa. He then remains behind to kill Joffery and rescue Sansa. However there are roughly 500 pages between when Petyr says he will set off and when he actually does. That is a significant amount of time (in that time Robb Stark got the false terms from the Freys, left Riverrun and got killed at the Red Wedding). Someone at King's Landing must have heard that Petyr was not at the Vale when he should have been (I'm sure the court at the Eyrie would have been full of talk about Petyr trying to marry Lysa).

Question three: This one is also about Petyr I'm afraid. Petyr believes that he slept with Catelyn but in actual fact he was with Lysa but he was too drunk to realise his mistake. However he also knows that he got Lysa pregnant and that she was forced to have an abortion by her father. Does this mean that he slept with Lysa at other occasions (and it was then that he got her pregnant) and why would he do that if it was the case?

Question four: When talking to Jon, Stannis mentions that he has the Lord of Bones as a captive when referencing people other than Mance Rayder whom he could treat with. However the Lord of Bones is a captive of the Night's Watch (Janos used him against Jon) thus Stannis has no power over him (and he would have probably been executed as soon as he had finished testifying against Jon as Janos had no more use for him, but that is just me opinion and it is probably wrong).

Question five: When Nymeria finds the body of Catelyn (when Arya is in control of her) and the Brotherhood without Banners come to resurrect her Nymeria retreats before them thinking about how wolves run from man and how it is the 'way of the wild'. This seems to contradict the nature of Nymeria's pack in a Clash of Kings and at the beginning of a Storm of Swords, as back then the wolves were perfectly willing to attack men and even killed the Brave Companions who were following Arya (admittedly Nymeria was under the control of Arya when they did that but she was under Arya's control when they fled from Catelyn's corpse as well).

Question six: I can understand why Jon lost ghost and was then able to find him again (probably a mixture of the wall blocking the connection and Jon's troubled mind not being able to connect in the first place, it was only when Jon fully committed to being a Night's Watchmen again that the connection was made) though it doesn't sit well with me. What I don't understand is the nature of the connection. Jon started thinking like a wolf for a few moments and knows that Ghost is near because of that. None of the other wargs that have been seen have been able to do that (Bran doesn't know where Summer is when he is not controlling him and he is by far the most accomplished warg of Eddard's children). Likewise none of the other wargs have started thinking like their direwolves (in fact the direwolves start thinking more like the wargs that control them) so why does Jon have a whole paragraph dedicated to him thinking like one (the closest I can find to this with a quick search was Bran having a brief flash of Summer's fear during the thunderstorm on the night they save Jon).

I have a few more questions but they are, probably, even more silly than these (I also need to cut this short as I should be in bed by now) so I'll wait to see if anyone answers these before pushing my luck (again thank you to anyone who decides to answer my stupid questions) I apologise if I came across as rude or condescending with my passage (also for the length, any grammatical errors and anything else anyone takes offence to) and hope to hear from someone soon. Thank you.

1. Good question and important remark. Something i hadn't thought about, but since Westeros is better developed and has more power than Essos it would make sense that they would hire assassins rather consistent. It's not like their honor is holding them back, and actually money would not be a problem for someone of the seven big houses, arguably the Starks since no one is leading them now. But the Lannisters could easily hire a few assassins actually. Even though Faceless Men arenät bought easily, there should be other alternatives for assassins.

2. Good observation. Your question makes sense, since the first time Littlefinger arrives to the eeyrie is when he is with sansa. So they should know it in the Vale, maybe they hadn't got a parchment? I don't really know that.

3. If you don't get the girl, her sister is the next best alternative? Maybe that's what he thought, and both girls were lookers in their youth. But it's a hard question too.

4. Well, Stannis might think he has power of the Night's Watch since he has saved their whole order. Or at least that what he thinks.

5. Well, a full frontal fight with the brotherhood is not good even for a direwolf, they are armed and strong and are rather many. MAybe she took the brave companions from behind? I don't recall that situation as i do with the finding of Catelyn's body.

6. -

The questions have been answered before but i hope my answers can explain a little of it at least.

[KhaleesiDany]

I know something about wolves so I will answer #5 of you first set of questions, about why Nymeria and the pack ran from the approaching banners but helped Arya from the brave companions earlier. I don't think it is an inconsistency.

During the Middle Ages is part of the time when wolves took on a connotation of fear and death (I'm sure our agricultural lifestyle even before this time meant we were afraid of wolves then, too.) But during the Middle Ages there was a lot of warfare and, like when the wolves come to the aftermath of the Red Wedding, would come onto battlefields and eat the bodies of the dead soldiers.

Just imagine going to see how the battle played out and there are wolves everywhere eating the bodies. Wolves got a villanous reputation. If you encounter a wolf today, it is probably very shy of people. Back then we do not know how wolves acted, but we can guess that a wolf that had tasted human flesh might not be very afraid of people. Nymeria leads a very large pack feasting on the bodies of the dead, which there are a lot of at this time in the story. Wolves are also good at making decisions and leading their packs, so she could probably judge that a few Brave Companions were not as much of a threat compared to a company of mounted knights.