The Nature of Prophecy in ASOIAF

[The Merry Other]

Prophesies add flavors to the story and keep readers guessing. I'm sure all the prophesies in this series will turn out to be deadly accurate. Not a single hint/dream/prophesy will be redundant, which makes the series so enjoyable, at least to me

[WeirwoodTreeHugger]

Dany the Mad Queen, on 02 Nov 2013 - 5:59 PM, said:

edit: About Quaithe, I like the idea that she has her own agenda and she may be manipulating Dany for her own purposes.

:agree: At this point I'm not assuming she's trying to help her.

Different prophecies should be looked at in different ways IMO. A lot of the stuff in the HotU is quite straightforward. The same goes for the Ghost of High Heart.

The Maggy the Frog prophecy feels like the prophecy the witches told Macbeth. The more she tries to prevent it from coming true, the more likely it will come to pass.

The AAR stuff is the most dicey. It's entirely possible that it will be similar to the Shanshu prophecy from Angel. The meaning will shift around a lot and it won't ever get resolved. It also might come true in a non-straightforward way. It seems unlikely to me that it will be literal.

[Asha Greyjoy:Feminist Icon]

 

But... The fact is that, differently from the Bible, there is a real world-ending threat gathering. So Westerosi (and possibly Planetosi) people truly need AAR (or some collective force) to save them.

 

But doesn't this assume that there is a (narratively unbiased) real world-ending threat gathering? Not to suggest that Ice Zombie Armies aren't indeed threatening to other life on Planet [mumblemumble]. But from a literal devil's advocate position...it isn't beyond the realm of possibility for this force of Anthropomorphized, Otherized Evil to have a basic sense of existential threat of their own.

Making the metaphor to zealotry/biblical prophecies/End-Times Panic not as off as it would appear. It comes down to the person reading the prophecy, be it in a Bible or a fire. What has the reader been conditioned to interpret into their texts, what has the interpreter been taught to fear? (This works nicely on a metatextual level, as well. For me anyway.)

[Ours if the Fury]

I think GRRM uses prophecies more or less, to show that the characters are human, and like all humans want to feel like they have purpose or believe in something and the prophecies show that humans can turn very quickly if the feel threatened...

LIke cersei, she has been overcome by this prophecy, if it does turn out to be real it happens, but wjat i think is more effective is how it warps the characters minds... just like cersei so in the end its not the prophecy that has the emphasis but the effect it has on the character