Dragonstone, dragonglass, smoke and shadow fire

[mrlukeduke]

First off, bit of a vague/unlikely idea just for kicks. I'm just wondering if Dany's prophecy:

From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire.

...could also be related to Ser Loras (allegedly!) being horribly burned at Dragonstone Castle by boiling oil. I realise full well that this prophecy can be more easily connected to Winterfell and Mel's desire to awaken a stone dragon by burning alive a Storm child; also to Castle Black or further north, and other theories, including Griffins and volcanic activity.

On Dragonstone Castle (from the Wiki):

The citadel of Dragonstone is wrought all of black stone, its towers carved into the shapes of dragons, and thousands of gargoyles carved into various shapes serve as crenellations along the three curtain walls

— Wiki

Windwyrm is one of the towers of Dragonstone. It is shaped like a dragon and arches into the sky, screaming defiantly.

— Wiki

Maybe this tower was stored with this smoking oil ready to drop below on the approaching Lannister/Tyrell army as they entered the keep; perhaps inside one of the lesser gargoyles facing the entrance way. When it was "released" it appeared like a stone beast breathing its shadow fire (boiling/burning oil). Dragonstone was only manned by a small garrison so no wonder they used burning oil.

The big problem of course, is that Dany's prophecy says "took wing", explicitly, which is why some think Griffins or boulders hurled from the volcano. And because it says "beast" not "dragon", and we know that Dragonstone features both set in terrible ancient stone.

On a side note, I also wondered how (if at all) it could have been connected to the vast deposits of volcanic dragonglass under Dragonmont.

Will Stannis try to retake Dragonstone at some point to claim the crucial dragonglass to fight the icy daemons? Will someone else take it sooner or later, even too late? Does Ser Loras have any clue of its value? (He seems not to have found anything of value so he might not know its worth or care about the wider war).

Is dragonglass also connected to the candle burning again in the citadel at Oldtown in terms of its power; i.e. they are obviously of the same core material if not similar in purpose or design, but do both gain effectiveness once magic/dragons return?

It is also said that Asshai exports the material. Of course that's where Mel is from. Could there be dragonglass under or inside the Wall? Does that give it its power? Is that why Mel feels powerful?

Sounds like her idea (failed or not) of waking "dragons from stone" was based on Dragonstone where maybe she felt powerful as well, and now she might try to do something similar at the Wall.

Thanks.

[Ser Endrew Tarth]

Hmm, I kind of like your idea of "shadow fire" being the burning oil... and if the statue of the dragon has wings outspread, it could easily be interpreted as taking wing.

Some have also tried to connect this to connington, as his sigil is the Griffin (beast) and he has greyscale (stone).

[mrlukeduke]

Yeah good point, I intentionally omitted that one because I just can't see how it works. Because we have "from a smoking tower", a "beast" and "took wing". Not sure how it fits with a disease. Maybe "took wing" just means "to spread out", like a disease would spread through a populus. The beast is... the disease itself? Not sure what the smoking tower is or the "shadow fire" in that context though, hence my issue with it being about JonCon/Greyscale.

Not sure if my first (admittedly vague) ideas about the oil are new or not; could be already hypothesized elsewhere but I couldn't find it if so. But yes the Griffin/JonCon/Greyscale connection is a curious idea for sure anyway, and ties into some other prophecies. This prophecy in particular, as opposed to other Westeros / Azor Ahai / Targ ones, just always stood out to me as a bit different; harder to fit in.

I have also heard others suggest maybe there was in fact an actual dragon egg proper left behind (or undiscovered?!) by Stannis at Dragonstone. And that maybe it's related to...

Aegon's return to Storm's End and the other connections to JonCon/Golden Co. and the 'mummer's dragon = Varys' Targ-boy' stuff.

[MostInterestingManWesteros]

Could be JC and the GC wrecking people shit in the Stormlands/ other places. Like the thread that prophecy is weird.

[Eogh]

Sounds interesting, but why would the prophecy relate to the storming of Dragonstone by Loras? Doesn't seem significant enough to warrant such an epic prophecy.