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References and Homages


Ran
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Firestarter (by Stephen King) reference: In "A Dance with Dragons" Melisandre recalls being sold as a child and "lot six" is heard. In "Firestarter" Lot Six is the chemical given to Charlie McGee's parents who both develop physic powers, and as Charlie grows older she develops pyrokinesis. Besides that both characters can wield fire, another rough comparison is that like Melisandre (who is purchased by the red priests), Charlie is pursued and eventually captured by the Shop, who also plan on using her for their own ends. I seem to remember reading that George R.R. Martin had a similar idea to "Firestarter" but abandoned writing it when "Firestarter" was published and the idea seemed too similar.

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Qyburn/Tyburn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyburn -- Tyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch in present-day London. It took its name from the Tyburn or Teo Bourne 'boundary stream',[1] a tributary of the River Thames which is now completely covered over between its source and its outfall into the Thames. For many centuries, the name was synonymous with capital punishment, its having been the principal place for execution of London criminals and convicted traitors, including many religious martyrs.

Qyburn is a necromancer. Sounds like Tyburn, a name associated with executions.

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I got that as well. Not just that, but some very nasty stuff happened there. That's where Francis Dereham was fully castrated, after being hung to near death, then disembowelled and beheaded, limbs chopped off after death (hung, drawn and quartered) to get spiked at London's gates under the order of Henry VIII: for no other reason than being a handsome young courtier who was a friend of Catherine Howard. Another suspect in the Queen's supposed infidelity, in what is now regarded as a pure product of paranoid jealousy on the part of Henry, brought about by some of his councillors to change the tide of religious influence back to his prior rampant Reformism, was the similarly comely and friendly-with-Catherine Thomas Culpeper. He was beheaded first before the other mutilations only because he'd been a favourite of the King.

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Sorry if this has been mentioned, Im not going to go through all 54 pages to find out. Interesting story, Bran the blessed translates to Blessed Raven in Welsh mythology.

http://en.wikipedia....ran_the_Blessed

I started this thread a while back, but didn't get much response.

http://asoiaf.wester...an-the-blessed/

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greyjoykraken - Also, you've missed an important one re: Firestarter, though I wouldn't have noticed it unless you'd brought it up. John Rainbird, who pretends to be Charlie's best friend, is mutilated down one side of his face in a very similar way to Sandor, though Sandor actually has the interests of Sansa and Arya at heart.

Beric - Now that you've brought this up, I think that was quite deliberate. 'Arryn - Aryan' brings to mind a family that overprides itself on its genetic line, and draws the reader's attention to it possibly being subverted, i.e. by the fact the house appears to be on its last legs, with the dead Jon Arryn having shot blanks, and Robert clearly being Littlefinger's child.

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I don't think so, but Renly's 'Rainbow Guard' is a clear reference to the fact so many gay men are stereotypically fans of Judy Garland and The Wizard of Oz.

Eh?? Is this a joke? Its a reference to the rainbow flag of gay pride - rainbow having been around as an image of inclusiveness (mainly racial) for a while before it became particularly associated with gay pride.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/qq-rb_h.html

Also a joke about Renly being 'colourful' and 'best dressed' I suppose.

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Rereading Mary Gentle's 'Golden Witchbreed' this weekend, and one of the Desert Cities on Orthe is Quarth.

The plot never goes there though, so it's impossible (and unlikely) that there are any similarities between that and Qarth in aSoIaF. The name itself though is almost identical.

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Castellan - Never knew that: had to Google it. I wasn't attempting a joke, but I still think what I said does make it apposite they adopted it. Anyhoo, the seven striped version became standard as a symbol purely of the gay community, if anyone's interested, after the assassination of Harvey Milk.

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I've seen this idea floating around here and there but not sure if its been put in this thread - Starks refer to the Starkadders of Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm. There must always be a Starkadder at Cold Comfort Farm.

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Additionally to an ASOIAF character called Titus Peake, referring to Titus Groan in Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, there's also a more blatant reference in Tales of Dunk and Egg, though I've not read them yet, with a character called Gormon Peake from Starpike. 'Gormon' Peake...I mean, really! And Steerpike is the antagonist in the first two Gormenghast books, of course. Starpike! Ha, ha.

Edited by The Killer Snark
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Plus Fuchsia's nanny, though it's not actually stated, just heavily hinted at different points in the text. Yes, I'd picked the same thing up myself. Perhaps later on, in Ice and Fire, we'll be treated to a scene where Littlefinger gets chased by soldiers across a series of flooded buildings, before Sansa jumps down from the battlements and stabs him through the chest.

Edited by The Killer Snark
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