Tommen's "Bad Cat"

[danm_999]

Why can't a cat just be a cat? They attack birds all the time, and hardly ever for the purpose of interrogating them about "messages".

It's about context though, isn't it?

As we learn from Arya, the Red Keep is full of cats (and from Cersei, that they're there to stop all the rats). There are also hares (thanks to Joffrey's lousy shooting with the crossbow) and given it has passages to the sea, and a sizeable godswood, probably birds of all types. We also know there are kitchens, and the cooks do like to feed the cats.

So in this menagerie, the question becomes why is this single cat making the trek up to the rookery to attack ravens when there's so much low hanging fruit down below. Cats, if you've ever had one, are content to act pretty lazily if they're being fed, and given this cat is the alpha of the Red Keep, it wouldn't exactly have to go far or avoid other cats to get its feed.

But for some reason, it's going to probably the least accessible place in the entire Red Keep for something with four legs; the rookery. We know from Tyrion's ACoK PoV that the Rookery in the Red Keep is only accessed through Grand Maester Pycelle's quarters, so it'd be a deal of effort.

Given all this, I don't think it's absurd to theorise that the cat may not simply be visiting the rookery to attack birds.

[Harpo of House Trashcan]

Isn't warging an old gods only sort of thing?

[danm_999]

Isn't warging an old gods only sort of thing?

Bloodraven's mother is a Blackwood, who are of the First Men, and who keep the Old Gods.

[Arya kiddin']

Well I've always been Arya biased and thought Cat of the Canals will kill Tommen, but that is not the consensus here........ :dunno:

[hardhome]

Another possible answer is Varys. We know/suspect he has the vastest spy network in the world. And his network relys on reading peoples letters with them unaware. Assuming he has even one warg /skinchanger in his entire spy network he could be using them to delay/block letters from getting into KL. We learn in the ADWD prologue that skinchangers may be superstitious against birds and from Pycelle that ravens only fly one way and back, so they chose the cat to obstruct the information.

[Lost Melnibonean]

Bloodraven would never attack a raven, unless it was leading a rebellion that was tearing the murder in two, and had a petty, jealous, younger raven, egging him on. :)

Or maybe unless it would allow him a few more years of power.

[Ser Greg of House House]

On a side not, you can't warg a cat. You can skinchange it (not sure if we can use that as a verb, though).

Wargs = wolves/direwolves

Skinchangers = any other animals

The two are not mutually exclusive.

[Queen‍‍‍‍‍‍ Alysanne‍‍™]

Crackpot, Rhaenys warged into Balerion, when she died.

[mindchap]

On a side not, you can't warg a cat. You can skinchange it (not sure if we can use that as a verb, though).

Wargs = wolves/direwolves

Skinchangers = any other animals

The two are not mutually exclusive.

No but some of us just use warg, it's easier to type and warged, and warging sound better than skinchanged, and skinchanging.

Arya skinchanged a cat. That just sounds way too wierd. It sounds more like something that Joff would do to a cat.

[Ser Luke.]

Apart from the Bloodraven theory, that cat is the one that Arya made her masterpiece of cat-catching in Game. Furthermore, it's very likely Balerion, Rhaenys kitten.

:agree:

[Ser Greg of House House]

No but some of us just use warg, it's easier to type and warged, and warging sound better than skinchanged, and skinchanging.

Arya skinchanged a cat. That just sounds way too wierd.

I agree completely and sometimes I use "warg" in a unorthodox way too. I was just surprised nobody mentioned it before.

[mindchap]

I agree completely and sometimes I use "warg" in a unorthodox way too. I was just surprised nobody mentioned it before.

Believe me they do, like I said though that just sounds way too weird. And pretty much everybody knows what you mean anyway.

[blood of the dragoon]

Honestly I like better the idea that the cat is not acting the way it does because it's under Bloodraven's influence, but that it's simply an ordinary unmagical house cat, with a massive grudge against the family who murdered her owner. :)

I can has vengeance?

I don't have any theories to add, but I'm very curious about this kitty. Though we all know about curiosity and cats...

[mindchap]

I can has vengeance?

I don't have any theories to add, but I'm very curious about this kitty. Though we all know about curiosity and cats...

Maybe he's descended from the Great Kitty who wiped out all the rats in King's Landing during the plague.

[Pod The Impaler]

It's Balerion, and he's survived all these years on royal leftovers and pure spite.

And Arya is the only person living to have actually caught him.

[Roadside Rose]

The black cat in the Red Keep could be Balerion. When Joffrey was a child he once cut open a cat, and Robert beat him up for that.