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References and Homages


Ran
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I think we can say for sure that KL was mainly influenced by Konstantinopel. The geographic location, the way enemies are forced to besiege it, the courts, the Hills, ... and the Great Sept of Baelor even looks like the Hagia Sophia (after the Ottomans attached Minarettes). So i think it's pretty obvious... like the Wall was influenced by Hadrian's Wall in Britain.

Hell yeah!

Continuing more with the Byzantine theme, we have an usurper, named Basil the Macedonian who killed the previous ruler, Michael the Drunkard. Basil was later on killed in a 'hunting accident' In which he was allegedly stabbed by the antlers of a STAG. The parallels with Robert Baratheon, who usurped the throne from Aerys the Mad, was also killed in a hunting accident and whose house sigil was a stag are pretty staggering.

Edited by thenedstark
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This is a long thread, and I tried to search if this came up but didn't see it. If I have stepped on anyones toes, I am sorry.

I feel like a part Tyrion's personality was loosely inspired by Alexander Pope (poet and satirist). Both men were of stunted heights (for different medical reasons); both men were exceedingly clever in their use of words; both loved the written word (Pope began translating greek in his teens); both had problems with women; both were held with soe mistrust by the extablished social order (Pope was also catholic in a protestant world). However, Tyrion is much more enterprising and not afraid of going head on. Pope was much more of the writerly at home type.

More about Pope:

http://www.poetryfou.../alexander-pope

http://www.luminariu...ope/popebio.php

Edited by Persicaria
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Aenar Targaryens daughter foreseeing the doom of Valyria always reminds me of Jor-El foreseeing the doom of Krypton..like Jor-El trying hopelessly to warn his fellow people, Aenar did the same. And they both acted to save their families and ensure their continuing legacy.

Very nice find! :)

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The stench at Tywin's funeral is reminiscent of the death and burial of William the Conqueror. He probably already had serious condition, as he had grown a huge abdomen despite not eating much, and was on his way to Rouen to take a health cure. On the way he sacked Mantes, which had invaded his territory, and his horse jostled him in a way that made the metal pommel poke into his stomach apparently causing internal injures (or causing a crisis/rupture in whatever disease had already developed). He was taken to a priory and eventually died of peritonitis. As soon as he died all those in his party fled to England to secure their lands, and a plain burial in a church was arranged. He was too large for his sarcophagus (because of the huge stomach) and the monks tried to shove him in, with the result that he exploded (from the gases inside him I presume) releasing an unbearable stench, and most people fled the church.

Edited by Castellan
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Don't know if this been mentioned already, but I don't have the time to go through all 54 pages... Howland Reed has a 'moving' castle. There is a movie called 'Howl's Moving Castle.' Might be a coincidence, but the similarity is striking :).

Movie's from the 2000s. The books are from the 90s. Definitely coincidence.
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The stench at Tywin's funeral is reminiscent of the death and burial of William the Conqueror. He probably already had serious condition, as he had grown a huge abdomen despite not eating much, and was on his way to Rouen to take a health cure. On the way he sacked Mantes, which had invaded his territory, and his horse jostled him in a way that made the metal pommel poke into his stomach apparently causing internal injures (or causing a crisis/rupture in whatever disease had already developed). He was taken to a priory and eventually died of peritonitis. As soon as he died all those in his party fled to England to secure their lands, and a plain burial in a church was arranged. He was too large for his sarcophagus (because of the huge stomach) and the monks tried to shove him in, with the result that he exploded (from the gases inside him I presume) releasing an unbearable stench, and most people fled the church.

Duke William is a very good parallel for Lord Tywin. Both were brilliant, predatory, rutheless and ultimately successful until their undignified deaths. William knew how to turn a situation to his advantage as well, such as the episodes where he put on his hauberk backwards and when he supposedly stumbled, debarking from his ship during his invasion of England. And most remeniscent of Tywin, was his massacre of the town that mocked his bastardry by hanging uncured hides fron their walls (the name of it escapes me, but his mother was the daughter of a tanner). Add to all of that his attention to detail, with regards to administration, as evidenced by the Domesday Book and you've go a very strong likeness between the two character. Good observation, although, short of a similar death, most of the "great men" of any period in question are likely to be Tywin clones. They always seem to find their way to the top of the pile somehow. Such is life.

Edited by Jon Flowers
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The bizarre transformation of Bran into an omniscient hybrid is an evident reference to Leto Atreides II in the Dune books. The story of the Rat Cook and the 'Frey pies' are direct lifts from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Winterfell resembles a smaller version of Castle Gormenghast, especially when Bran goes climbing through its towers. Harrenhal resembles a half-melted version of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Martin has admitted the influence of Ivanhoe on the first book, and it shows in the long homage to it in the tournament section. Tyrion appears to be partly modelled on Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. And the Red Wedding is based on two events in Scottish history as Martin has already said.

The "feints within feints" and "wheels within wheels" similarity relating to the Dune books has already been brought up and it's something I noticed as well. HP Lovecraft wrote a short story called Dagon and the Drowned Men motto is similar to Lovecraft's "And with strange eons even death shall die", in reference partly to an underwater deity. Daenarys Targaryen has been clearly influenced by Paul Atreides in the first two Dune books, where also we have Fish Speakers for Unsullied, D-wolves for direwolves, and the idea of non-human symbiosis along with killed-off characters coming back. Both Bran and Leto II begin their transformations while believed dead after being hunted, as boys, and after mind-altering substance ingestion. There are hinted at but unconfirmed parentages in both series'; Farad'n Corrino is blatantly the son of Lady Fenring and Fey-Rautha Harkonnen, but it's never confirmed in the Dune book three.The character name Titus Peake refers once more to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, with it's main character, Titus Groan, and the 'trilogy's more eccentrically droll characters are clearly prototypes for some of Martin's, like Olenna Tyrell. It's come to my attention recently that there are striking similarities between Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Marvin the depressed robot and Dolorous Edd, as well.

Plus, if Theon and Asha both miraculously survive and claim the Seastone Chair, it will evoke the symbolic marriage between Let II (also a sexual neuter) and his sister for political reasons at the end of Children of Dune. Maesters also seem very similar to Suk doctors, by the way.

Edited by The Killer Snark
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Don't know if this been mentioned already, but I don't have the time to go through all 54 pages... Howland Reed has a 'moving' castle. There is a movie called 'Howl's Moving Castle.' Might be a coincidence, but the similarity is striking :).

Had the release dates lined up, that certainly would have been both striking and amusing :).

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In DwD, after the wildings are forced to burn weirwoods, so they start carving faces into other trees, and at one point Jon notices a giant Oak tree with a face carved into it, and notes that:

the great oak looked especially angry, as if it were about to tear its roots from the earth and come roaring after them

Sounds a bit like a certain type of sentient tree from the works of Tolkien..

Edited by Corvo Attano
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In DwD, after the wildings are forced to burn weirwoods, so they start carving faces into other trees, and at one point Jon notices a giant Oak tree with a face carved into it, and notes that:

Sounds a bit like a certain type of sentient tree from the works of Tolkien..

Nice find! :agree:

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I guess I'm not the first to notice that, but nobody has mentioned it, so here I go.

There are a lot of similarities between Jon Snow and the main protagonist in Robin Hobb's "Farseer" and "Tawny Man" trilogies, Fitzchivalry Farseer:

1. They are both bastards of powerful men (if RLJ is true, they are actually both the bastards of the heirs to the Crown - Chivalry and Rhaegar).

2. They are both raised by their families, but never fully accepted as part of them.

3. They both rise to a position of some power and seemingly die when they try to grasp more of it (and in both cases, that happens at the end of a novel).

4. They both have a bond with a wolf (even though Fitz's bond with Nighteyes is much deeper that Jon's with Ghost).

5. They both have some sort of warging ability.

"Assassin's Apprentice", the first book of the "Farseer trilogy", came out a year before "A Game of Thrones".

Edited by TheCrannogDweller
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I guess I'm not the first to notice that, but nobody has mentioned it, so here I go.

There are a lot of similarities between Jon Snow and the main protagonist in Robin Hobb's "Farseer" and "Tawny Man" trilogies, Fitzchivalry Farseer:

1. They are both bastards of powerful men (if RLJ is true, they are actually both the bastards of the heirs to the Crown - Chivalry and Rhaegar).

2. They are both raised by their families, but never fully accepted as part of them.

3. They both rise to a position of some power and seemingly die when they try to grasp more of it (and in both cases, that happens at the end of a novel).

4. They both have a bond with a wolf (even though Fitz's bond with Nighteyes is much deeper that Jon's with Ghost).

5. They both have some sort of warging ability.

"Assassin's Apprentice", the first book of the "Farseer trilogy", came out a year before "A Game of Thrones".

Interesting find, and the first one that I've seen here. Thank you!

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More on Dune, and I think this wraps it up, is the substitution of Faceless Men for Face Dancers, and Duke Leto and Ned being thrown into a position of authority someplace neither wanted to go, being killed via a rival House's conspiracy, and their progeny then chasing vengeance. The first few Dune books are House based, and the Houses have different regalia. Both series' feature prescient or preternatural children, and are written in POVs without any authorial moral intercession, leaving characters to either give credit to or damn themselves. Regular comment on proceedings is therefore left to the characters, via internal monologue in italics, a technique that I think originated with Herbert. Apart from the obvious grey morality, labyrinthine intrigue-heavy plotting, racial apocalypse anxiety and tendency to wipe out main characters, there's also hereditary power over specified life-forms in both series', and the way that sandworms and dragons are both treated as tools for Empire is similar as well. Now onto historical character comparisons:

Martin has already stated that Maegor the Unworthy was based on Henry VIII. There's also, in my opinion...

Cersei - Valeria Messalina

Joffrey - Caligula

Ramsay - The Emperor Nero

To a very slight and heavily inverted extent ...Tyrion - The Emperor Claudius

Tywin - Pope Alexander VI Borgia

Jaime - Cesare Borgia

Littlefinger - Sir Richard Rich

Edited by The Killer Snark
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Don't know if this been mentioned already, but I don't have the time to go through all 54 pages... Howland Reed has a 'moving' castle. There is a movie called 'Howl's Moving Castle.' Might be a coincidence, but the similarity is striking :).

Well, yes, as everyone notes the film dates from 2004, but the fantasy novel of the same name, by Diana Wynne Jones, on which the film is based, was published in 1986, well before ASoIaF, so I'd say it's a nod to the (quite enjoyable) book.
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In DwD, after the wildings are forced to burn weirwoods, so they start carving faces into other trees, and at one point Jon notices a giant Oak tree with a face carved into it, and notes that:

Sounds a bit like a certain type of sentient tree from the works of Tolkien..

to that I'll add:

She thought back to a tale she had heard as a child, about the children of the forest and their battles with the First Men, when the greenseers turned the trees to warriors.

The Northmen disguised as trees is also a reference to Macbeth, where Tolkien got the idea for the Ents, feeling cheated that he didn't see the trees move in Macbeth like he thought.

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