References and Homages

[Rufus Snow]

94 pages in, I'm not going to trawl it for prior art, but was Arya's arc at all inspired by Mathilda in the film "Leon"?

Edited April 5, 2020 by Rufus Snow

[The Map Guy]

On 4/5/2020 at 6:29 PM, Rufus Snow said:

94 pages in, I'm not going to trawl it for prior art, but was Arya's arc at all inspired by Mathilda in the film "Leon"?

Awesome catch! I totally forgot about this 1994 film, I guess I gotta re-watch it some time. I do remember a few things.
 

This is the scene where Mathilda casually walks by her apartment door after her family was just murdered inside. She didn't want to alert the guard of who she was by running away. Tense scene.

Reminds me of Arya's escape:
Arya looked. She knew all of her father's men. The three in the grey cloaks were strangers. "You," the one walking rounds called out. "What do you want here, boy?" The other two looked up from their dice.
It was all Arya could do not to bolt and run, but she knew that if she did, they would be after her at once. She made herself walk closer. They were looking for a girl, but he thought she was a boy. She'd be a boy, then. "Want to buy a pigeon?" She showed him the dead bird.
"Get out of here," the guardsman said.
Arya did as he told her. She did not have to pretend to be frightened. Behind her, the men went back to their dice.
{Arya V AGOT 1996}

Mathilda's grocery bags = Arya's pigeon! lol

 

Also Arya has been trained by many men in the art of killing ... like Jon "stick them with the pointy end!" Snow, Syrio Forel ... etc.

Leon trains Mathilda to kill as well.

Leon is an Italian hitman.
Syrio Forel is from Braavos, which is based on Venice, Italy!

Off Topic:

Spoiler

I remember the acting of the younger Natalie Portman was great in this movie. It was really impressive for her first role.
Over her career she has been in Oscar-worthy movies like Black Swan 2010, and terrible movies like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 2005 as Padme.

Anyways, it is nice that Arya Stark has a little Natalie Portman in her arc ... along with the same wild she/wolf blood that Lyanna Stark had.

Hmmmmm there is a cruel and Dark joke somewhere here that GRRM might be kicking himself for in 2005.

Oh right ... "Promise me Obi-Wan. Promise me." lol

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by The Map Guy

[The Map Guy]

The buxom red-haired innkeep howled with pleasure at the sight of them, then promptly set to tweaking them. [...]
[...]
"Oh." Bella tugged her gown back over her shoulder and went to talk with Jack-Be-Lucky. Before long she was sitting in his lap, giggling and drinking wine from his cup. Greenbeard had two girls, one on each knee. Anguy had vanished with his freckle-faced wench, and Lem was gone as well. Tom Sevenstrings sat by the fire, singing. "The Maids that Bloom in Spring." Arya sipped at the cup of watered wine the red-haired woman had allowed her, listening. Across the square the dead men were rotting in their crow cages, but inside the Peach everyone was jolly. Except it seemed to her that some of them were laughing too hard, somehow.
[...]
"Beds we got," said red-haired Tansy. "There's never been no lack o' beds at the Peach. But you'll all climb in a tub first. Last time you lot stayed under my roof you left your fleas behind." She poked Greenbeard in the chest. "And yours was green, too. You want food?"
"If you can spare it, we won't say no," Tom conceded.
"Now when did you ever say no to anything, Tom?" the woman HOOTED. "I'll roast some mutton for your friends, and an old dry rat for you. It's more than you deserve, but if you gargle me a song or three, might be I'll weaken. I always pity the afflicted. Come on, come on. Cass, Lanna, put some kettles on. Jyzene, help me get the clothes off them, we'll need to boil those too."

{Arya V ASOS}

I know the Peach is a brothel, but the moment George made them serve food ... is George thinking about Hooters? [...] the woman HOOTED
Buxom women, alcohol, food, music ... seems like a Hooters in Westeros ... silly George 

[The Map Guy]

This one is for all my New Yorkers. Stay safe out there!

Master Tobho Mott and the Street of Steel is about the 3 adjacent neighborhoods in downtown Manhattan.
TriBeca - sOHO - and Mott Street of Chinatown.

At Mott Street, there are plenty of Chinese gift shops where they occasionally sell Chinese artifacts and steel swords.
Master Mott would be giggling now lol

[The Map Guy]

"Did he?" Archmaester Marwyn shrugged. "Perhaps it's good that [Maester Aemon] died before he got to Oldtown. Elsewise the grey sheep might have had to kill him, and that would have made the poor old dears wring their wrinkled hands."
"Kill him?" Sam said, shocked. "Why?"
"If I tell you, they may need to kill you too." Marywn smiled a ghastly smile, the juice of the sourleaf running red between his teeth. "Who do you think killed all the dragons the last time around? Gallant dragonslayers armed with swords?" He spat. "The world the Citadel is building has no place in it for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles, much less for dragons. Ask yourself why Aemon Targaryen was allowed to waste his life upon the Wall, when by rights he should have been raised to archmaester. His blood was why. He could not be trusted. No more than I can."

{Samwell V AFFC}

Someone needs their Top Secret clearance!

[The Map Guy]

According to the 2005 AFFC Appendix:

Tommen's kittens are Ser Pounce, Lady Whiskers and Boots

This is a reference to Puss-In-Boots from Shrek 2 (2004)

Damn his claws are long and sharp too! No need to stick them with the pointy end!

• Boots is Boots
• Lady Whiskers is ... um ... never mind, I don't want to get banned. Use your imagination to picture what "lady-whiskers" are (according to GRRM lol)
• Ser Pounce is Puss-in-Boots pouncing on these Ser's here:

This golden cat always pays his debts!!!! ... with his pointy end!!!

I know, I know ... just because they had armor doesn't mean they are knights, but it is funnier this way!

And poor knights, getting their butts whooped by a cat. I'm sure after a long day of guarding the monarch, they just want to go back home to their families, or enjoy a night at the local brothel with a good girl ... they didn't need this bad ... um ... "Lady Whiskers"

Off-Topic Personal Rant:

Spoiler

Seriously, the ending to Shrek 2 is epic and amazing. I literally watch this clip everyday since my two-year old son jumps up and down for it lol.
It has an awesome sound-track. I love the Dance involving future-Queen Fiona and a CGI Jaime Lannister look-alike (tangoing with a rose in his mouth!!). And then Shrek, a monster from the swamp lands, crashing the party and attacking the castle! There are fireballs flying the air everywhere. I love that weaponized gumdrop button that burned with a silvery blue light, the little Gingerbread Man jumping off the deck and falling down & down, the gigantic crash into the water, the handsome golden cat repaying his debt with a pointy end! He also dances in the rain later on!
And unlike GoT S8, these soldiers knew to station their trebuchets within the castle walls! Gods, how these two scripts differ! Next time, if anyone sees George in person, please let him know not to end ASOIAF the crappy way D&D ended it. If George needs an example of a properly executed ending, Shrek 2 is a great example ... since all the characters here are fueled by the fires in their bloods!

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by The Map Guy
Hot Pie

[zionius]

A few I've find recently:

Ken Keller, an old friend of GRRM, grew up in the west coast of the United States and lives in Kansas City. George dedicated the first volume of Wild Cards to Ken, and named Kennos of Kayce after him. 

Mary Mertens, an old friend of GRRM since 1977 (GRRM dedicated two Wild Cards volumes to her and her husband. Also see her photo on GRRM's website) is the model of Mary Mertyns. She once lived in New Orleans, hence the owl of House Mertyns. Mary passed away recently, so I guess Mary Mertyns will live forever in ASOIAF.

Gerardys was named for Vince Gerardis, GRRM's agent. Thus he had a terrible death.

Edited July 13, 2020 by zionius

[TheLastWolf]

I'm not sure if this fits into this thread, but anyway......

 

[TheLastWolf]

Harvey Dent —Sandor Clegane

THE JOKER - Smiling Knight

Batman /Bruce Wayne-Eddard

Scarecrow /what's his name - Jaime

Ra'as AL ghul - Bloodraven..... Kinda 

Shiera/Quaithe - Miranda/Talia

Lucius Fox - Howland Reed 

Gordon - Umber/Flint/Norrey/? 

Robin - Jon/Benjen

. 

. 

. Oh! Forgot - Master Luwin as Alfred 

Any more?? 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by TheLastWolf

[Targknight]

Valyrians,Targaryens,Bloodraven, Rhaegar are all Elric.

Rhaegar is Elric.

Both we’re exiled, and thought were dead.

Both serve a dark god

both lost everyone they ever loved

both attract death

[FictionIsntReal]

This seems simple/obvious enough that it might not be worth pointing out, but when I tried doing a search here I didn't see anybody else doing so. The lost prophetic work "Signs and Portents" has a title that sounds like a reference to Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols". One of the notions in Nabokov's story is that searching for secret signs is itself a sign of insanity, and that would fit with the notion that "prophecy will bite your prick off".

[TheLastWolf]

Does the Darkstar in Ben10 have any connection to the one in the series (Gerold dayne)? Ben10 guy appeared in 2008 first, while Dayne was 3 yrs older in making first appearance in AFFC. Both blonde, purple eyed (IIRC) and extremely handsome.

[The Map Guy]

"He has to catch us first." The singer glanced up at poor Petyr. "And he can't hang us twice, now can he?" He drew a melancholy air from the strings of his woodharp. "Here now, don't soil yourself. All you need to do is answer me a question, and I'll tell them to let you go."
Merrett would tell them anything if it meant his life. "What do you want to know? I'll tell you true, I swear it."
The outlaw gave him an encouraging smile. [...]
{Epilogue ASOS}

This BWB scene using Petyr Frey's corpse to scare Merrett to talk reminds me of this scene from The Untouchables (1987) where Sean Connery shoots a corpse again to intimidate the outlaw into a confession.

"Don't! Don't! I'm going to tell you whatever you want! What do you want to know?!?!?"

RIP Sir Sean Connery. Thank you for this Golden Eunuch performance in this film, and in all the other works in the film industry that you have spiced up during your career.

Edited October 31, 2020 by The Map Guy

[CamiloRP]

I've wanted to do a list of the many Dune references for a long time, but I was sure most of them where already pointed out, I just finished searching page by page, and most where, but I have two that weren't posted:

In Dune there's a weasely evil dude  that works as a counselor of the protagonist's opponents, he's also a scheming political player and his name is Piter (a weird spelling of the name Peter).

The other one is that in Dune, Fremen culture is tied to the desert, in that desert lives a giant creature (a worm) that they call 'the old man of the dessert'. Rhoynar culture is tied to the Rhoyne, in the Rhoyne lives a giant creature (a turtle) that they call 'the old man of the river'.

There's also something to be said about the natives of Westeros that are marginalized and aren't considered citizens being called "Freefolk" while the natives of Arrakis that are marginalized and aren't considered citizens being called "Fremen" but I think that's a coincidence.

[Loose Bolt]

15 minutes ago, CamiloRP said:

There's also something to be said about the natives of Westeros that are marginalized and aren't considered citizens being called "Freefolk" while the natives of Arrakis that are marginalized and aren't considered citizens being called "Fremen" but I think that's a coincidence

In Wheel of Time there are people who seem to be another incarnation of Fremen Aiels. They have their own society of female warriors known as Maiden of Spear and Freefolk seem to have their Spearwives. So I assume that Fremens => Aiels => Freefolk.

[TheLastWolf]

I AM GROOT!

HODOR!

[Alyn Oakenfist]

23 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

I AM GROOT!

HODOR!

Timeline doesn't add up

[TheLastWolf]

On 11/7/2020 at 2:17 PM, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Timeline doesn't add up

Groot appeared in 1960.

[Alyn Oakenfist]

21 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

On 11/7/2020 at 10:47 AM, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Timeline doesn't add up

Groot appeared in 1960.

Yeah but weren't the Guardians incredibly obscure, like bottom of the bin levels? It was only with the movies that they became well known.

Thought to be fair as I myself has pointed out, the Reek/Ramsay story is an almost perfect copy of a  pretty obscure Romanian story that to the best of my knowledge has never been published in high quantities in English, so I wouldn't put anything past GRRM to rip off pay homage too

Edited November 10, 2020 by Alyn Oakenfist

[TheLastWolf]

4 minutes ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Yeah but weren't the Guardians incredibly obscure, like bottom of the bin levels? It was only with the movies that they became well known.

Doesn't rule out GRRM knowing them