Since Jonsa theories are somehow too 'reaching' for the ASOIAF fandom and this also extends to theories not Jonsa related written by Jonsa shippers this sideblog was created to post theories written by JonsasHeader and icon by ragekitn!
Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Bowels of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing
Younger and More Beautiful Cersei
AFFC PART II: CLICK (pending)
Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs
Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ
A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪
The Usurper's Knife
Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉
Squid Game
AFFC PART III: CLICK (pending)
Chapter Transitions
JONSA 🐺❤️❄️
Previous books:
AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK
ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II
ASOS Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV
Stumpy note:
If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂
SANSA STARK, QUEEN IN THE NORTH
The lady of the house has duties to perform.
"In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn. Now, don't you have some duties to perform?"
She did indeed. She saw to the mulling of the wine first, found a suitable wheel of sharp white cheese, and commanded the cook to bake bread enough for twenty, in case the Lords Declarant brought more men than expected.
[...]
The solar next. Its floor was covered by a Myrish carpet, so there was no need to lay down rushes. Alayne asked two serving men to erect the trestle table and bring up eight of the heavy oak-and-leather chairs. For a feast she would have placed one at the head of the table, one at the foot, and three along each side, but this was no feast. She had the men arrange six chairs on one side of the table, two on the other.
[...]
It might be that the lords would talk late into the night. They would need fresh candles. After Maddy laid the fire, she sent her down to find the scented beeswax candles Lord Waxley had given Lady Lysa when he sought to win her hand. Then she visited the kitchens once again, to make certain of the wine and bread. All seemed well in hand, and there was still time enough for her to bathe and wash her hair and change.
[...]
Alayne met them in the Crescent Chamber beside a warming fire, where she welcomed them in Lord Robert's name and served them bread and cheese and cups of hot mulled wine in silver cups.
Petyr had given her a roll of arms to study, so she knew their heraldry if not their faces. - Alayne I, AFFC
x
"Then he has none to throw at me. Isn't there some work you should be doing? And you, Maddy . . . are all the windows closed and shuttered? Have all the furnishings been covered?"
"All of them, m'lady," said Maddy.
"Best make certain of it." - Alayne II, AFFC
x
"Lord Robert is feeling stronger," Alayne told the serving women. "Fetch hot water for his bath, but see you don't scald him. And do not pull on his hair when you brush out the tangles, he hates that." One of the squires sniggered, until she said, "Terrance, lay out his lordship's riding clothes and his warmest cloak. Gyles, you may clean up that broken chamber pot." - Alayne II, AFFC
x
Petyr Baelish was clear across the Vale, though, attending Lord Lyonel Corbray at his wedding.
[...]
Alayne understood all that well enough, but it meant that the burden of getting Sweetrobin safely down the mountain fell on her. - Alayne II, AFFC
+.+.+
JON SNOW, KING IN THE NORTH
Are you sure?
Mance's blood is no more royal than mine own. He has never worn a crown nor sat a throne. He's a brigand, nothing more. There's no power in brigand's blood. - Samwell I, AFFC
+.+.+
Jon's acting like a king.
Lord Janos would have sent Snow ranging naked on a mule. 'Scamper on up to Craster's Keep,' he would have said, 'and fetch me back the Old Bear's cloak and boots.' We saved him from that, but now he has too many duties to drink a cup of mulled wine by the fire?"
Grenn agreed. "His duties don't keep him from the yard. More days than not, he's out there fighting someone."
[...]
Jon, he'd said, but Jon was gone. It was Lord Snow who faced him now, grey eyes as hard as ice. "You have no father," said Lord Snow. - Samwell I, AFFC
x
Only Robb and baby Rickon were still here, and Robb was changed. He was Robb the Lord now, or trying to be. He wore a real sword and never smiled. His days were spent drilling the guard and practicing his swordplay, making the yard ring with the sound of steel as Bran watched forlornly from his window. At night he closeted himself with Maester Luwin, talking or going over account books. Sometimes he would ride out with Hallis Mollen and be gone for days at a time, visiting distant holdfasts. Whenever he was away more than a day, Rickon would cry and ask Bran if Robb was ever coming back. Even when he was home at Winterfell, Robb the Lord seemed to have more time for Hallis Mollen and Theon Greyjoy than he ever did for his brothers. - Bran IV, AGOT
+.+.+
Many monarchs are implicated, so we'll put it everywhere.
Should Jon fear his black brothers?
On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? - Jaime VI, AFFC
+.+.+
Sounds like a steward with royal blood.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Did you know the Darklyns were kings in Duskendale before the Andals come? You'd never know t'look at me, but I got me royal blood. Can you see it? 'Your Grace, another cup of ale,' I ought to make them say. 'Your Grace, the chamber pot needs emptying, and fetch in some fresh faggots, Your Bloody Grace, the fire's going out.'" She laughed again and shook the last drops from the pail. - Brienne II, AFFC
x
"There is no shame in being a steward," Sam said.
"Do you think I want to spend the rest of my life washing an old man's smallclothes?" - Jon VI, AGOT
+.+.+
Looks can be deceiving.
"Looking for mermaids, Slayer?" asked Dareon when he saw Sam staring off across the bay. Fair-haired and hazel-eyed, the handsome young singer out of Eastwatch looked more like some dark prince than a black brother. - Samwell II, AFFC
+.+.+
Sworn to protect the realm.
"The Iron Throne must defend the Faith," growled a hulking lout with a seven-pointed star painted on his brow. "A king who does not protect his people is no king at all." - Cersei VI, AFFC
+.+.+
JON (AEMON?) SNOW
Sounds familiar.
"He was a good man," he began . . . but as soon as he had said the words he knew that they were wrong. "No. He was a great man. A maester of the Citadel, chained and sworn, and Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch, ever faithful. When he was born they named him for a hero who had died too young, but though he lived a long long time, his own life was no less heroic. No man was wiser, or gentler, or kinder. At the Wall, a dozen lords commander came and went during his years of service, but he was always there to counsel them. He counseled kings as well. He could have been a king himself, but when they offered him the crown he told them they should give it to his younger brother. How many men would do that?" Sam felt the tears welling in his eyes, and knew he could not go on much longer. "He was the blood of the dragon, but now his fire has gone out. He was Aemon Targaryen. And now his watch is ended." - Samwell IV, AFFC
+.+.+
Little Aemon Steelsong (he has a song!) with the royal blood will be passed off as a bastard.
Thank you, @sherlokiness!
"Maester is not a name. You could call him Aemon, though."
Gilly thought about that. "Dalla brought him forth during battle, as the swords sang all around her. That should be his name. Aemon Battleborn. Aemon Steelsong." - Samwell IV, AFFC
x
"I do," said Sam, "but I could lie in a letter. I'm better with a quill in hand. I had a . . . a thought. When things are more settled here, I thought maybe the best thing for Gilly . . . I thought I might send her to Horn Hill. To my mother and sisters and my . . . my f-f-father. If Gilly were to say the babe was m-mine . . ." He was blushing again. "My mother would want him, I know. She would find some place for Gilly, some kind of service, it wouldn't be as hard as serving Craster. And Lord R-Randyll, he . . . he would never say so, but he might be pleased to believe I got a bastard on some wildling girl. At least it would prove I was man enough to lie with a woman and father a child. He told me once that I was sure to die a maiden, that no woman would ever . . . you know . . . Jon, if I did this, wrote this lie . . . would that be a good thing? The life the boy would have . . ."
"Growing up a bastard in his grandfather's castle?" Jon shrugged. "That depends in great part on your father, and what sort of boy this is. If he takes after you . . ." - Samwell IV, ASOS
+.+.+
AHOY MATEY! ARYA STARK SAILS THE OCEAN BLUE
Did Princess Nymeria do anything other than sail on ships? It's hard to tell.
There were two seats on the dais, near twin to one another, save that one had the Martell spear inlaid in gold upon its back, whilst the other bore the blazing Rhoynish sun that had flown from the masts of Nymeria's ships when first they came to Dorne. - The Captain of the Guards, AFFC
x
He rolled off of her to sprawl staring at the ceiling. A great crack ran across it, from one wall to the other. He had not noticed that before, no more than he had noticed the picture on the tapestry, a scene of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. - The Soiled Knight, AFFC
x
She leaned her back against a fluted pillar and wondered if her brother was looking at the same stars tonight, wherever he might be. Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. - The Queenmaker, AFFC
x
We are in part, Your Grace. Nymeria's blood is in me, along with that of Mors Martell, the Dornish lord she married. On the day they wed, Nymeria fired her ships, so her people would understand that there could be no going back. Most were glad to see those flames, for their voyagings had been long and terrible before they came to Dorne, and many and more had been lost to storm, disease, and slavery. - The Queenmaker, AFFC
x
Arianne would have given much and more for a copy of Ten Thousand Ships or The Loves of Queen Nymeria, anything to occupy her thoughts and let her escape her tower for an hour or two, but such amusements were denied her. - The Princess in the Tower, AFFC
+.+.+
We could be like Nymeria, and sail beyond the Sunset Sea.
Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. "Make me your king, and I shall lead you there," he cried. "We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen." - The Drowned Man, AFFC
+.+.+
The ship has a name.
"Just so. Your father was oarmaster on a galley. When your mother died, he took you off to sea with him. Then he died as well, and his captain had no use for you, so he put you off the ship in Braavos. And what was the name of the ship?"
"Nymeria," she said at once. - Arya II, AFC
+.+.+
Arya dreams of home while on a ship.
His father was shouting orders. Sailors scrambled up and down the three tall masts and moved along the rigging, reefing the heavy purple sails. Below, oarsmen heaved and strained over two great banks of oars. The decks tilted, creaking, as the galleas Titan's Daughter heeled to starboard and began to come about.
The star of home. Arya stood at the prow, one hand resting on the gilded figurehead, a maiden with a bowl of fruit. For half a heartbeat she let herself pretend that it was her home ahead. - Arya I, AFFC
+.+.+
Like any other person who seeks adventure.
Arya never seemed to find the places she set out to reach. - Arya I, AFFC
+.+.+
Arya prefers the boat.
She had crossed the narrow sea to get here, but if the captain had asked she would have told him she wanted to stay aboard the Titan's Daughter. Salty was too small to man an oar, she knew that now, but she could learn to splice ropes and reef the sails and steer a course across the great salt seas. Denyo had taken her up to the crow's nest once, and she hadn't been afraid at all, though the deck had seemed a tiny thing below her. I can do sums too, and keep a cabin neat. - Arya I, AFFC
+.+.+
Arya likes the sailors and harbors best of all.
Only Braavosi were permitted use of the Purple Harbor, from the Drowned Town and the Sealord's Palace; ships from her sister cities and the rest of the wide world had to use the Ragman's Harbor, a poorer, rougher, dirtier port than the Purple. It was noisier as well, as sailors and traders from half a hundred lands crowded its wharves and alleys, mingling with those who served and preyed on them. Cat liked it best of any place in Braavos. She liked the noise and the strange smells, and seeing what ships had come in on the evening tide and what ships had departed. She liked the sailors too; the boisterous Tyroshi with their booming voices and dyed whiskers; the fair-haired Lyseni, always trying to niggle down her prices; the squat, hairy sailors from the Port of Ibben, growling curses in low, raspy voices. Her favorites were the Summer Islanders, with their skins as smooth and dark as teak. They wore feathered cloaks of red and green and yellow, and the tall masts and white sails of their swan ships were magnificent. - Cat of the Canals, AFFC
+.+.+
No matter where she goes, Arya always comes back to the harbor.
Some days she rolled her barrow past the towers of the mighty to offer baked clams to the guardsmen at their gates. Once she cried her catch on the steps of the Palace of Truth
[...]
Customs officers from the Chequy Port would buy from her, and paddlers from the Drowned Town
[...]
One time, when Brea took to her bed with her moon blood, Cat had pushed her barrow to the Purple Harbor
[...]
Other days she followed the sweetwater river to the Moon Pool.
[...]
But she always returned to the Ragman's Harbor. – Cat of the Canals, AFFC
+.+.+
A young man hurts his hand, and has to become an oarsmen. I don't want to get into it, so you'll have to trust me that the Arya is strong on this one.
"You come work with me, Cat," urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo's hand. "I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish."
"Casso likes the way I smell," she said. The King of Seals barked, as if to agree. "Is Narbo's hand no better?"
"Three fingers do not bend," complained Tagganaro, between mussels. "What good is a cutpurse who cannot use his fingers? Narbo was good at picking pockets, not so good at picking whores."
"Merry says the same." Cat was sad. She liked Little Narbo, even if he was a thief. "What will he do?"
"Pull an oar, he says. Two fingers are enough for that, he thinks, and the Sealord's always looking for more oarsmen. I tell him, 'Narbo, no. That sea is colder than a maiden and crueler than a whore. Better you should cut off the hand, and beg.' Casso knows I am right. Don't you, Casso?"
The seal barked, and Cat had to smile. She tossed another cockle his way before she went off on her own. - Cat of the Canals, AFFC
+.+.+
BRAN THE BROKEN, KING OF WESTEROS
I bet they trade places.
"A letter to King Tommen?"
"At Winterfell Tommen fought my brother Bran with wooden swords. He wore so much padding he looked like a stuffed goose. Bran knocked him to the ground." Jon went to the window. "Yet Bran's dead, and pudgy pink-faced Tommen is sitting on the Iron Throne, with a crown nestled amongst his golden curls." - Samwell I, AFFC
+.+.+
The five year gab is abandoned, and the author immediately produces new history of a 10-year-old Stark chosen to rule.
"My lord, when I was looking through the annals I came on another boy commander. Four hundred years before the Conquest. Osric Stark was ten when he was chosen, but he served for sixty years. That's four, my lord. You're not even close to being the youngest ever chosen. You're fifth youngest, so far." - Samwell I, AFFC
+.+.+
He meant to call a council.
Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime's shoulder. "When this battle's done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but . . . well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return." - Jaime I, AFFC
+.+.+
A man who sounds a bit like Bran tries to win an election.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers, unholy creatures who could take on the forms of sea lions, walruses, even spotted whales, the wolves of the wild sea.
Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. "Make me your king, and I shall lead you there," he cried. "We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen." - The Drowned Man, AFFC
+.+.+
Many monarchs are implicated, so we'll put it everywhere.
(Three-eyed?) Crows are dining on kings.
On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? - Jaime I, AFFC
+.+.+
Jaime Lannister slays kings, and makes kings.
"They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon." Jaime closed the White Book. "They called him Kingmaker." - Jaime II, AFFC
x
The man looked over at the woman. "The things I do for love," he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.
Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him. - Bran II, AGOT
+.+.+
Crowns switched to bells, then passed to a cripple.
Jaehaerys and his queen slept there during their journeys, it is said. For a time the inn was known as the Two Crowns in their honor, until one innkeep built a bell tower, and changed it to the Bellringer Inn. Later it passed to a crippled knight named Long Jon Heddle, who took up ironworking when he grew too old to fight. - Brienne VII, AFFC
+.+.+
HIGH SEPTON RICKON?
An eight-year-old boy is selected as High Septon.
"After that one died, an eight-year-old boy was elevated, once more at King Baelor's urging. The boy worked miracles, His Grace declared, though even his little healing hands could not save Baelor during his final fast."
Lady Merryweather gave a laugh. "Eight years old? Perhaps my son could be High Septon. He is almost seven." - Cersei VI, AFFC
+.+.+
Any number of boys.
Cersei did not doubt that there were any number of boys who would do more honor to the crystal crown than the wretch on whom the Most Devout had chosen to bestow it. - Cersei VI, AFFC
+.+.+
Might not have to look too hard.
Are you a priest or a greengrocer? "And what might I do to make it . . . riper?" If he dares mention gold, I will deal with this one as I did the last and find a pious eight-year-old to wear the crystal crown. - Cersei VI, AFFC
+.+.+
PICK YOUR POISON: THE TWINS MEET THEIR END IN THE BOWELS OF CASTERLY ROCK . . . OR KING'S LANDING
You're going to need the original theory to make better sense of this.
If you want to read the theory in its entirety (including the new evidence below), click on the link. I strongly suggest this option.
If you're familiar with the theory and only want the AFFC additions, keep reading.
To summarize:
Jaime and Cersei will intentionally drink poison as a castle crumbles above them.
The valonqar prophecy.
The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei wakes from her valonqar nightmare choking in the same manner as Joffrey. . . when he drank poison.
The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat, the queen heard, but the voice did not belong to the old woman. The hands emerged from the mists of her dream and coiled around her neck; thick hands, and strong. Above them floated his face, leering down at her with his mismatched eyes. No, the queen tried to cry out, but the dwarf's fingers dug deep into her neck, choking off her protests. She kicked and screamed to no avail. Before long she was making the same sound her son had made, the terrible thin sucking sound that marked Joff's last breath on earth. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Like what?
Father found no better man. Instead he gave me Robert, and Maggy's curse bloomed like some poisonous flower. - Cersei V, AFFC
x
He touched one of the crystals lightly with the tip of his little finger. Such a small thing to hold the power of life and death. It was made from a certain plant that grew only on the islands of the Jade Sea, half a world away.
[...]
Cressen no longer recalled the name the Asshai'i gave the leaf, or the Lysene poisoners the crystal. In the Citadel, it was simply called the strangler. - Prologue, ACOK
+.+.+
The twins are dry, and need some wine.
It's ill luck not to eat the pie," he scolded as he filled his mouth with hot spiced pigeon. "See, it's good." Spitting out flakes of crust, he coughed and helped himself to another fistful. "Dry, though. Needs washing down." Joff took a swallow of wine and coughed again, more violently.
[...]
The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
x
The little queen is making excuses for her brother. Cersei's mouth was dry. I need a cup of Arbor gold. - Cersei VII, AFFC
x
"I was just . . . remembering." Her throat was dry. "You are a good friend, Taena. I have not had a true friend in . . ." - Cersei VII, AFFC
x
"It was. I know it was." Cersei shuddered. "My throat is raw. Be a sweet and pour me some wine." - Cersei IX, AFFC
x
So passed the longest night that Cersei Lannister had ever known, save for the night of Joffrey's wedding. Her throat was so raw from shouting that she could hardly swallow. - Cersei X, AFFC
x
"I've sent him wine."
"Wine?" Brienne was lost. "Robb? Or . . . Theon Greyjoy?"
"The Kingslayer." The ploy had served her well with Cleos Frey. I hope you're thirsty, Jaime. I hope your throat is dry and tight. "I would like you to come with me." - Catelyn VII, ACOK
+.+.+
Ser Ilyn keeps mocking Jaime.
The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
x
Ser Ilyn opened his mouth and made a clacking sound. A laugh, Jaime realized. Something twisted in his gut. - Jaime III, AFFC
x
The pockmarks on Ser Ilyn's face were black holes in the torchlight, as dark as Jaime's soul. He made that clacking sound.
He is laughing at me, realized Jaime Lannister. - Jaime IV, AFFC
x
He made that clacking sound that might have been a laugh and drew his sword up Jaime's throat till the point came to rest between his lips. Only then did he step back and sheathe his steel. - Jaime V, AFFC
x
"If I keep at this for another year, I may be as good as Peck," Jaime declared, and Ser Ilyn made that clacking sound that meant he was amused. "Come, let's drink some more of Hoster Tully's good red wine." - Jaime VII, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei's feeling tight.
It is blood I need, not water. Tyrion's blood, the blood of the valonqar. The torches spun around her. Cersei closed her eyes, and saw the dwarf grinning at her. No, she thought, no, I was almost rid of you. But his fingers had closed around her neck, and she could feel them beginning to tighten. - Cersei I, AFFC
x
Seated on her gold-and-crimson high seat beneath the Iron Throne, Cersei could feel a growing tightness in her neck. - Cersei VII, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei's going to have Jaime kill the younger and more beautiful queen.
Cersei is the younger and more beautiful queen. (Next section)
Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
She did. I knew it all along, she thought. Even in the tent. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Jaime Lannister, The Kinslayer.
He never said he meant to kill our father. If he had, I would have stopped him. Then I would be the kinslayer, not him. - Jaime I, AFFC
x
The height of folly was reached when a plump fool came capering out in gold-painted tin with a cloth lion's head, and chased a dwarf around the tables, whacking him over the head with a bladder. Finally King Renly demanded to know why he was beating his brother. "Why, Your Grace, I'm the Kinslayer," the fool said.
"It's Kingslayer, fool of a fool," Renly said, and the hall rang with laughter. - Catelyn II, ACOK
+.+.+
A dragon's coming for the twins.
"The puppet lions grow greedy and arrogant as this treasonous tale proceeds, until they begin to devour their own subjects. When the noble stag makes objection, the lions devour him as well, and roar that it is their right as the mightiest of beasts."
"And is that the end of it?" Cersei asked, amused. Looked at in the right light, it could be seen as a salutary lesson.
"No, Your Grace. At the end a dragon hatches from an egg and devours all of the lions."
The ending took the puppet show from simple insolence to treason. "Witless fools. Only cretins would hazard their heads upon a wooden dragon." - Cersei V, AFFC
+.+.+
But where will it happen: King's Landing or Casterly Rock?
King's Landing
Cersei's asking for a storm to rock the Red Keep.
"No one wants rain," said Cersei. For herself, she wanted sleet and ice, howling winds, thunder to shake the very stones of the Red Keep. She wanted a storm to match her rage. - Cersei III, AFFC
x
"Even if Tyrion were still hiding in the castle, he won't be in the Tower of the Hand. We've reduced it to a shell."
"Would that we could do the same to the rest of this foul castle," said Cersei. - Cersei III, AFFC
+.+.+
God forbid dragonfire enters into the equation.
Jaime ignored that. "If these flames spread beyond the tower, you may end up burning down the castle whether you mean to or not. Wildfire is treacherous." – Cersei III, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei's front row seat.
The Tower of the Hand gave out a sudden groan, so loud that all the conversation stopped abruptly. Stone cracked and split, and part of the upper battlements fell away and landed with a crash that shook the hill, sending up a cloud of dust and smoke. As fresh air rushed in through the broken masonry, the fire surged upward. Green flames leapt into the sky and whirled around each other. Tommen shied away, till Margaery took his hand and said, "Look, the flames are dancing. Just as we did, my love."
"They are." His voice was filled with wonder. "Mother, look, they're dancing." - Cersei III, AFFC
+.+.+
Who's going to die beneath the Red Keep?
Unless my brother murdered Varys too, and left his corpse to rot beneath the castle. Down there, it might be years before his bones were found. - Jaime I, AFFC
x
Tyrion hung back a moment. Varys had already betrayed him once. Who knew what game the eunuch was playing? And what better place to murder a man than down in the darkness, in a place that no one knew existed? His body might never be found. - Tyrion XI, ASOS
+.+.+
A dragon has been waiting for Jaime beneath the Red Keep.
He remembered the sullen orange glow of the coals in the iron dragon's mouth. The brazier warmed a chamber at the bottom of a shaft where half a dozen tunnels met. On the floor he'd found a scuffed mosaic of the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen done in tiles of black and red. I know you, Kingslayer, the beast seemed to be saying. I have been here all the time, waiting for you to come to me. And it seemed to Jaime that he knew that voice, the iron tones that had once belonged to Rhaegar, Prince of Dragonstone. - Jaime I, AFFC
+.+.+
Jaime's going to have some problems if he's ever down there again.
Jaime had led a dozen guards below, with torches and ropes and lanterns. For hours they had groped through twisting passages, narrow crawl spaces, hidden doors, secret steps, and shafts that plunged down into utter blackness. Seldom had he felt so utterly a cripple. A man takes much for granted when he has two hands. Ladders, for an instance. Even crawling did not come easy; not for nought do they speak of hands and knees. Nor could he hold a torch and climb, as others could. - Jaime I, AFFC
+.+.+
Casterly Rock
Tywin's under the Rock. Is he asking for company?
Her brother was growing his beard again as well. The stubble covered his jaw and cheeks, and gave his face a rough, uncouth look. He might at least have waited till Father's bones were interred beneath the Rock. - Cersei II, AFFC
x
There were watery caverns deep below Casterly Rock, but this one was strange to him. "What place is this?"
"Your place." The voice echoed; it was a hundred voices, a thousand, the voices of all the Lannisters since Lann the Clever, who'd lived at the dawn of days. But most of all it was his father's voice, and beside Lord Tywin stood his sister, pale and beautiful, a torch burning in her hand. - Jaime VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Cersei's place.
Her uncle was unmoved. "If you are resolved against another marriage, I will not force it on you. As to the other, though . . . you are the Lady of Casterly Rock now. Your place is there." - Cersei II, AFFC
+.+.+
Rolling thunder echoed off the Rock.
She was ten when she finally saw her prince in the flesh, at the tourney her lord father had thrown to welcome King Aerys to the west. Viewing stands had been raised beneath the walls of Lannisport, and the cheers of the smallfolk had echoed off Casterly Rock like rolling thunder. - Cersei V, AFFC
+.+.+
Jaime practically asks for it.
Harrenhal had seen more horror in its three hundred years than Casterly Rock had witnessed in three thousand. - Jaime III, AFFC
+.+.+
Makes for a big target.
She's known no home but Harrenhal, he reflected. Every castle in the realm will seem small to her, except the Rock.
Josmyn Peckleton was saying the same thing. "You must not judge by Harrenhal. Black Harren built too big." - Jaime IV, AFFC
+.+.+
What will the queen do?
"This city is a cesspit. For half a groat I would move the court to Lannisport and rule the realm from Casterly Rock."
"That would be an even greater folly than burning the Tower of the Hand. So long as Tommen sits the Iron Throne, the realm sees him as the true king. Hide him under the Rock and he becomes just another claimant to the throne, no different than Stannis."
"I am aware of that," the queen said sharply. "I said that I wanted to move the court to Lannisport, not that I would. Were you always this slow, or did losing a hand make you stupid?" - Cersei's III, AFFC
+.+.+
YOUNGER AND MORE BEAUTIFUL CERSEI
Thank you for the theory, @agentrouka-blog!
The prophecy.
"I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her.
"Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
One more time.
The younger her.
"I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
While dreaming of her encounter with Maggy the Frog, Cersei frequently switches to third-person narration, giving the impression the girl is someone else.
She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death.
[...]
Cersei watched the girls huddling, whispering to one another. Go back, she tried to tell them. Turn away. There is nothing here for you. But though she moved her mouth, no words came out.
[...]
Lord Tywin's daughter was the first through the flap, with Melara close behind her.
[...]
Leave her be, the queen wanted to cry out. You little fools, never wake a sleeping sorceress. Without a tongue, she could only watch as the girl threw off her cloak, kicked the witch's bed, and said, "Wake up, we want our futures told."
[...]
The girl with the golden curls put her hands upon her hips. "Give us our foretelling, or I'll go to my lord father and have you whipped for insolence."
[...]
Beneath her golden curls, the girl's face wrinkled up in puzzlement.
[...]
Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." Even then she would not stop, willful child as she was.
[...]
"What is a valonqar? Some monster?" The golden girl did not like that foretelling. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
One more time.
"Begone," she told the girls, in a croaking whisper.
"We came for a foretelling," young Cersei told her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Are there two queens present?
"Here," she whispered, "give it here." When Cersei offered her hand, she sucked away the blood with gums as soft as a newborn babe's. The queen could still remember how queer and cold her mouth had been.
"Three questions may you ask," the crone said, once she'd had her drink. "You will not like my answers. Ask, or begone with you."
Go, the dreaming queen thought, hold your tongue, and flee. But the girl did not have sense enough to be afraid. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
In the middle of the dream, we're told Maggy the Frog was young(er) and (more) beautiful when she arrived at Lannisport, but age and evil had left their marks on her.
Sounds familiar.
The old woman's eyes were yellow, and crusted all about with something vile. In Lannisport it was said that she had been young and beautiful when her husband had brought her back from the east with a load of spices, but age and evil had left their marks on her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
"You are being foolish. I am only here to help you."
"To help me to my grave. I asked for you to leave. Will you make me call my gaolers and have you dragged away, you vile, scheming, evil bitch?"
Cersei gathered up her skirts and dignity. - Cersei X, AFFC
+.+.+
In a later chapter, Taena Merryweather reassures Cersei by telling her she was young(er) and (more) beautiful than the hateful Maggy.
Taena took her hand and stroked it. "This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue." - Cersei IX, AFFC
+.+.+
Immediately after waking from her dream, Cersei calls on old Pycelle. Younger Pycelle used to be a magnificent man, but the cells and razor ruined him.
Sounds familiar.
Pycelle had been old as far back as Cersei could remember, but there was a time when he had also been magnificent: richly clad, dignified, exquisitely courteous. His immense white beard had given him an air of wisdom. Tyrion had shaved his beard off, though, and what had grown back was pitiful, a few patchy tufts of thin, brittle hair that did little to hide the loose pink flesh beneath his sagging chin. This is no man, she thought, only the ruins of one. The black cells robbed him of whatever strength he had. That, and the Imp's razor.
"How old are you?" Cersei asked, abruptly.
"Four-and-eighty, if it please Your Grace."
"A younger man would please me more." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
She screamed and kicked and howled until her throat was raw, at the door and at the window. No one shouted back, nor came to rescue her. The cell began to darken. It was growing cold as well. Cersei began to shiver. How can they leave me like this, without so much as a fire? I am their queen. - Cersei X, AFFC
x
They brought lye soap, a basin of warm water, a pair of shears, and a long straightrazor. The sight of the steel sent a shiver through her. They mean to shave me. A little more humiliation, a raisin for my porridge. She would not give them the pleasure of hearing her beg. I am Cersei of House Lannister, a lion of the Rock, the rightful queen of these Seven Kingdoms, trueborn daughter of Tywin Lannister. And hair grows back. - Cersei II, ADWD
+.+.+
Another prophecy.
The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
Cersei and Jaime will intentionally drink poison.
+.+.+
Cersei says she'll have her brother kill the younger and more beautiful queen. In other words, Cersei will have Jaime kill Cersei.
Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
She did. I knew it all along, she thought. Even in the tent. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei wakes from her valonqar nightmare choking in the same manner as Joffrey. . . when he drank poison.
The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat, the queen heard, but the voice did not belong to the old woman. The hands emerged from the mists of her dream and coiled around her neck; thick hands, and strong. Above them floated his face, leering down at her with his mismatched eyes. No, the queen tried to cry out, but the dwarf's fingers dug deep into her neck, choking off her protests. She kicked and screamed to no avail. Before long she was making the same sound her son had made, the terrible thin sucking sound that marked Joff's last breath on earth. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
+.+.+
Cersei fears the prophecy because Maggy foretold Melara's death, yet it was Cersei who chose to kill Melara that evening. Cersei's actions are making the prophecy come true.
Cersei did not want to hear that. "This maegi made certain prophecies. I laughed at them at first, but . . . she foretold the death of one of my bedmaids. At the time she made the prophecy, the girl was one-and-ten, healthy as a little horse and safe within the Rock. Yet she soon fell down a well and drowned." Melara had begged her never to speak of the things they heard that night in the maegi's tent. If we never talk about it we'll soon forget, and then it will be just a bad dream we had, Melara had said. Bad dreams never come true. The both of them had been so young, that had sounded almost wise. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
A young girl sat beneath a fountain, drenched in spray, and stared at her with Melara Hetherspoon's accusing eyes. - Cersei II, ADWD
+.+.+
Cersei is destroying herself.
"You would not believe half of what is happening in King's Landing, sweetling. Cersei stumbles from one idiocy to the next, helped along by her council of the deaf, the dim, and the blind. I always anticipated that she would beggar the realm and destroy herself, but I never expected she would do it quite so fast. It is quite vexing. I had hoped to have four or five quiet years to plant some seeds and allow some fruits to ripen, but now . . . it is a good thing that I thrive on chaos. - Alayne II, AFFC
+.+.+
The beginning of the end.
In her final chapter, Cersei is imprisoned, but not before claiming the younger and more beautiful queen is finished.
Maggy the Frog should have been in motley too, for all she knew about the morrow. Cersei prayed the old fraud was screaming down in hell. The younger queen whose coming she'd foretold was finished, and if that prophecy could fail, so could the rest. No golden shrouds, no valonqar, I am free of your croaking malice at last. - Cersei X, AFFC
Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Mines of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing
Tyrion Lannister, (Prisoner?) Hand of the King
In Remembrance: A Look Back at Sandor Clegane's & Ygritte's Greatest Moments
ASOS Part II: CLICK
Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs
Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ
Showdown at the Trident
A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪
The Usurper's Knife
Bran the Dragonslayer?
Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉
ASOS Part III: CLICK
JONSA 🐺❤️❄️
Previous books:
AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK
ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I & PART II
Stumpy note:
If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂
CHAPTER TRANSITIONS
Catelyn I -> Arya I
You might see one.
"All you have made certain is that I shall never see my daughters again. Brienne might have gotten him to King's Landing safely . . . so long as no one was hunting for them. But now . . ." Catelyn could not go on. - Catelyn I, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa I -> <- Jon I
Twin chapters alert.
Sansa visits the Queen of Thorns, while Jon has a face-to-face with the King-beyond-the-Wall. The similarities won't stop there.
Thank you, @sxpiosexualx!
Beyond the spiked moat, two dozen men were taking their practice with sword and shield. With the castle so crowded, the outer ward had been given over to guests to raise their tents and pavilions, leaving only the smaller inner yards for training.
[...]
A fire was crackling in the hearth, and sweet-swelling rushes had been scattered on the floor. Around the long trestle table a dozen women were seated. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Elsewhere two bearded youths in boiled leather were sparring with staffs, leaping at each other over the flames, grunting each time one landed a blow. A dozen women sat nearby in a circle, fletching arrows. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Outside its tall carved doors stood two guards in gilded halfhelms and green cloaks edged in gold satin, the golden rose of Highgarden sewn on their breasts. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Here at least they found defenders; two guards at the flap of the tent, leaning on tall spears with round leather shields strapped to their arms. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Sansa knelt at the feet of her future queen. "You do me great honor, Your Grace."
"Won't you call me Margaery? Please, rise. Loras, help the Lady Sansa to her feet. Might I call you Sansa?" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"I would be pleased to eat, Your Grace. And thank you."
"Your Grace?" The king smiled. "That's not a style one often hears from the lips of free folk. I'm Mance to most, The Mance to some. Will you take a horn of mead?" - Jon I, ASOS
___
Pale, elegant Lady Graceford was with child, and Lady Bulwer was a child, no more than eight.
[...]
The old woman called to Butterbumps. "Fool! Give us a song. A long one, I should think. 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair' will do nicely." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
A dark young man and a pretty blonde woman were sharing a horn of mead. A pregnant woman stood over a brazier cooking a brace of hens, while a grey-haired man in a tattered cloak of black and red sat crosslegged on a pillow, playing a lute and singing:
The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun - Jon I, ASOS
___
"Sansa," Lady Alerie broke in, "you must be very hungry. Shall we have a bite of boar together, and some lemon cakes?" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"Sit, if you like," Rayder said when they were gone. "Are you hungry? Tormund left us two birds at least." - Jon I, ASOS
___
"He will," Sansa lied. "He is very . . . very comely." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Jon had his lie all ready. "The Lord Commander sent me to the Halfhand for seasoning, so he took me on his ranging." - Jon I, ASOS
___
Sansa realized that her mouth was open again. She filled it with a spoon of broth - Sansa I, ASOS
x
He took a long draught of mead to buy time for his answer. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Courtesy is a lady's armor. You must not offend them, be careful what you say. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Guest right or no, Jon Snow knew he walked on rotten ice here. One false step and he might plunge through, into water cold enough to stop his heart. Weigh every word before you speak it, he told himself. - Jon I, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa I -> Jon I
That might not be so bad.
The Baratheons have always had some queer notions, to be sure. It comes from their Targaryen blood, I should think." She sniffed. "They tried to marry me to a Targaryen once, but I soon put an end to that." - Sansa I, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon I -> Daenerys I
Stalking Daenerys through the series.
"That's a tale for later," said Mance Rayder. "How did you like the song, lad?"
"Well enough. I'd heard it before."
"But what does it matter, for all men must die," the King-beyond-the-Wall said lightly - Jon I, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon I -> <- Daenerys I
Numbers vs. discipline.
The free folk. If his brothers were to catch them in such disarray, many of them would pay for that freedom with their life's blood. They had numbers, but the Night's Watch had discipline, and in battle discipline beats numbers nine times of every ten, his father had once told him. - Jon I, ASOS
x
"Eighteen times the Dothraki charged, and broke themselves on those shields and spears like waves on a rocky shore. Thrice Temmo sent his archers wheeling past and arrows fell like rain upon the Three Thousand, but the Unsullied merely lifted their shields above their heads until the squall had passed. In the end only six hundred of them remained . . . but more than twelve thousand Dothraki lay dead upon that field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons. On the morning of the fourth day, the new khal led the survivors past the city gates in a stately procession. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys I -> <- Bran I
Any beast?
Every man of them, from captain to cook's boy, loved to watch the three fly . . . though none so much as Dany. - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
"No," said Jojen, "only a boy who dreams. The greenseers were more than that. They were wargs as well, as you are, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies or swims or crawls, and could look through the eyes of the weirwoods as well, and see the truth that lies beneath the world. - Bran I, ASOS
+.+.+
Jaime II -> <- Tyrion II
Brothers predicting the future.
Thank you, @fedonciadale!
The clink of his chains accompanied his every movement. An irritating sound. Before this is done, I'll wrap these chains around the wench's throat, see how she likes them then. - Jaime II, ASOS
x
"Your poor nose . . ."
Tyrion rubbed irritably at the scab. "Perhaps I should have a new one made of gold. What sort of nose would you suggest, Varys? One like yours, to smell out secrets? Or should I tell the goldsmith that I want my father's nose?" - Tyrion II, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion II -> <- Arya II
Don't worry, Tom of Sevenstreams survives.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
This is fruitless. "There is a singer who calls himself Symon Silver Tongue," Tyrion said wearily, pushing his guilt aside. "He plays for Lady Tanda's daughter sometimes."
"What of him?"
Kill him, he might have said, but the man had done nothing but sing a few songs. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
She was grubbing for vegetables in a dead man's garden when she heard the singing. - Arya II, ASOS
+.+.+
Davos II -> Jaime II -> Tyrion II -> Arya II
Requires context. Click, and read Rat in a Maze.
+.+.+
Catelyn II -> Jon II
Cunning worthy of a master mummer's dragon.
Thank you, @dontbipanicjonsa!
Only then came her belated remembrance. Follies done for love? He has bagged me neat as a hare in a snare. I seem to have already forgiven him. Mixed with her annoyance was a rueful admiration; the scene had been staged with the cunning worthy of a master mummer . . . or a king. - Catelyn II, ASOS
+.+.+
Catelyn II -> <- Jon II
Missing direwolves. :(
It was only then that Catelyn realized what was amiss. The wolf. The wolf is not here. Where is Grey Wind? She knew the direwolf had returned with Robb, she had heard the dogs, but he was not in the hall, not at her son's side where he belonged.
[...]
"You always kept him with you before."
"A hall is no place for a wolf. He gets restless, you've seen. Growling and snapping. I should never have taken him into battle with me. He's killed too many men to fear them now. Jeyne's anxious around him, and he terrifies her mother."
And there's the heart of it, Catelyn thought. "He is part of you, Robb. To fear him is to fear you." - Catelyn II, ASOS
x
"Find another place for Ghost to sleep tonight, Jon Snow. It's like Mance said. Deeds is truer than words." - Jon II, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon II -> <- Sansa II
Twin chapters alert.
Children, men flying eagles, and brand new clothing.
Thank you, @sxpiosexualx!
"I might get her with child."
"Aye, I'd hope so. A strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that?" - Jon II, ASOS
x
If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Rangers often shared skins for warmth, but warmth was not all Ygritte wanted, he suspected. After that he had taken to using Ghost to keep her away. Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor's sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword. - Jon II, ASOS
x
They spent long afternoons doing needlework and talking over lemon cakes and honeyed wine, played at tiles of an evening, sang together in the castle sept . . . and often one or two of them would be chosen to share Margaery's bed, where they would whisper half the night away. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
"Jon Snow, you know nothing. You don't go in with clothes." - Jon II, ASOS
x
They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They've never seen a battle, they've never seen a man die, they know nothing. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
She reminded him a little of his sister Arya, though Arya was younger and probably skinnier. It was hard to tell how plump or thin Ygritte might be, with all the furs and skins she wore. - Jon II, ASOS
x
Sister. Sansa had once dreamt of having a sister like Margaery; beautiful and gentle, with all the world's graces at her command. Arya had been entirely unsatisfactory as sisters went. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Jon turned at the sudden sound of wings. Blue-grey feathers filled his eyes, as sharp talons buried themselves in his face. Red pain lanced through him sudden and fierce as pinions beat round his head. He saw the beak, but there was no time to get a hand up or reach for a weapon. - Jon II, ASOS
x
"Willas has the best birds in the Seven Kingdoms," Margaery said when the two of them were briefly alone. "He flies an eagle sometimes. You will see, Sansa." She took her by the hand and gave it a squeeze. "Sister." - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Jon wheeled and followed Tormund back toward the head of the column, his new cloak hanging heavy from his shoulders. It was made of unwashed sheepskins, worn fleece side in, as the wildlings suggested. It kept the snow off well enough, and at night it was good and warm, but he kept his black cloak as well, folded up beneath his saddle.
[...]
Mance Rayder had not been blind to Rattleshirt's mistrust of the "crow-come-over," so after he had given Jon his new sheepskin cloak he had suggested that he might want to ride with Tormund Giantsbane instead. - Jon II, ASOS
x
"A new gown?" she said, as wary as she was astonished.
[...]
"More lovely than any you have worn, my lady," the old woman promised. She measured Sansa's hips with a length of knotted string. "All silk and Myrish lace, with satin linings. You will be very beautiful. The queen herself has commanded it." - Sansa II, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion III -> <- Catelyn III
Secret dealings.
Lord Tywin was unconcerned. "Robb Stark will father no children on his fertile Frey, you have my word. There is a bit of news I have not yet seen fit to share with the council, though no doubt the good lords will hear it soon enough. The Young Wolf has taken Gawen Westerling's eldest daughter to wife." - Tyrion III, ASOS
x
The girl smiled at that. "My mother says the same. She makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning. I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think. We . . . we try most every day, my lady. Sometimes twice or more." The girl blushed very prettily. "I'll be with child soon, I promise. I pray to our Mother Above, every night." - Catelyn III, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion III <- Catelyn III -> Jaime III
Do we go two for two?
"Old gods or new, it makes no matter," Lord Rickard told her son, "no man is so accursed as the kinslayer." - Catelyn III, ASOS
+.+.+
Jaime III -> <- Arya IV
It's an attack on religion, with missing eyes.
The day was almost done by the time they found Vargo Hoat, sacking a small sept with another dozen of his Brave Companions. The leaded windows had been smashed, the carved wooden gods dragged out into the sunlight. The fattest Dothraki Jaime had ever seen was sitting on the Mother's chest when they rode up, prying out her chalcedony eyes with the point of his knife. Nearby, a skinny balding septon hung upside down from the limb of a spreading chestnut tree. Three of the Brave Companions were using his corpse for an archery butt. One of them must have been good; the dead man had arrows through both of his eyes. - Jaime III, ASOS
x
The next night they found shelter beneath the scorched shell of a sept, in a burned village called Sallydance. Only shards remained of its windows of leaded glass, and the aged septon who greeted them said the looters had even made off with the Mother's costly robes, the Crone's gilded lantern, and the silver crown the Father had worn. "They hacked the Maiden's breasts off too, though those were only wood," he told them. "And the eyes, the eyes were jet and lapis and mother-of-pearl, they pried them out with their knives. May the Mother have mercy on them all." - Arya IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya IV -> Daenerys II
Flaming swords or dragons?
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
"I wish I had a flaming sword." Arya could think of lots of people she'd like to set on fire. - Arya IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya IV -> Daenerys II
A Faceless Man assassinates a monarch.
I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings. - Arya V, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys II -> <- Bran II
Eagle or dragon?
Much against her inclination, she had locked the dragons belowdecks. It was too dangerous to let them fly freely over the city; the world was all too full of men who would gladly kill them for no better reason than to name themselves dragonslayer. - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
Bran lifted his head and saw it, its grey wings spread and still as it floated on the wind. He followed it with his eyes as it circled higher, wondering what it would be like to soar about the world so effortless. Better than climbing, even. He tried to reach the eagle, to leave his stupid crippled body and rise into the sky to join it, the way he joined with Summer. The greenseers could do it. I should be able to do it too. He tried and tried, until the eagle vanished in the golden haze of the afternoon. "It's gone," he said, disappointed. - Bran II, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran II -> <- Davos III
Jojen believes fire and ice are one and the same, while dippy Melisandre believes one is good and the other evil. She might be dizzy, but she's certain of one thing: there's two wars. Only two.
"Because they're different," he insisted. "Like night and day, or ice and fire."
"If ice can burn," said Jojen in his solemn voice, "then love and hate can mate. Mountain or marsh, it makes no matter. The land is one." - Bran II, ASOS
x
"The way the world is made. The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good." She took a step toward him. "Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war."
"The war?" asked Davos.
"The war," she affirmed. "There are two, Onion Knight. Not seven, not one, not a hundred or a thousand. Two! - Davos III, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran II -> Davos III
Sounding eerily similar to Davos Seaworth crossing Shipbreaker Bay in the dark of night, in his little boat.
"It was the green men he meant to find. So he donned a shirt sewn with bronze scales, like mine, took up a leathern shield and a three-pronged spear, like mine, and paddled a little skin boat down the Green Fork."
Bran closed his eyes to try and see the man in his little skin boat. In his head, the crannogman looked like Jojen, only older and stronger and dressed like Meera.
"He passed beneath the Twins by night so the Freys would not attack him, and when he reached the Trident he climbed from the river and put his boat on his head and began to walk. It took him many a day, but finally he reached the Gods Eye, threw his boat in the lake, and paddled out to the Isle of Faces." - Bran II, ASOS
+.+.+
Davos III -> Jon III
A lord and a treasonous Hand who conspired with the enemy sit in a cell together, and discuss their doomed king.
Davos stood frowning. "My lord, what did you do?"
"Not treason. Never treason. I love His Grace as much as any man. My own niece is his queen, and I remained loyal to him when wiser men fled. I am his Hand, the Hand of the King, how can I be a traitor? I only meant to save our lives, and . . . honor . . . yes." - Davos III, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon III -> <- Daenerys III
Little Rhaegal appears trapped.
I should have tried to kill Mance Rayder on the Fist, even if it meant my life. That was what Qhorin Halfhand would have done. But Jon had hesitated, and the chance passed. The next day he had ridden off with Styr the Magnar, Jarl, and more than a hundred picked Thenns and raiders. He told himself that he was only biding his time, that when the moment came he would slip away and ride for Castle Black. The moment never came. - Jon III, ASOS
x
Rhaegal could sense something wrong as well. Thrice he tried to take wing, only to be pulled down by the heavy chain in Jhiqui's hand. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon III <- Daenerys III
See you at the Trident.
That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa III -> <- Arya V
Two sisters scrubbed clean.
On the morning her new gown was to be ready, the serving girls filled Sansa's tub with steaming hot water and scrubbed her head to toe until she glowed pink. Cersei's own bedmaid trimmed her nails and brushed and curled her auburn hair so it fell down her back in soft ringlets. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
Arya tried to tell them that she'd been bathed twice at Acorn Hall, not a fortnight past, but the red-haired woman was having none of it. Two serving wenches carried her up the stairs bodily, arguing about whether she was a girl or a boy. The one called Helly won, so the other had to fetch the hot water and scrub Arya's back with a stiff bristly brush that almost took her skin off. Then they stole all the clothes that Lady Smallwood had given her and dressed her up like one of Sansa's dolls in linen and lace. - Arya V, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya V -> <- Jon IV
Two men ask for mercy.
"A swallow," the fat one called down. "Ha' mercy, boy, a swallow." The old one slid an arm up to grasp the bars. The motion made his cage swing violently. - Arya V
x
"Mercy," he said when they came upon him. One of the Thenns smashed his head in with a big stone mace. - Jon IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Jaime IV -> <- Tyrion IV
Two brothers wishing for what the other one has.
"The Boltons skin their enemies." Jaime remembered that much about the northman. Tyrion would have known all there was to know about the Lord of the Dreadfort, but Tyrion was a thousand leagues away, with Cersei. - Jaime IV, ASOS
x
Yes, and I want to be tall as Jaime and as strong as Ser Gregor the Mountain too, for all the bloody good it does. - Tyrion IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Samwell II -> <- Arya VI
Gods and the people we sacrifice for them.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
There had been no attacks while they had been at Craster's, neither wights nor Others. Nor would there be, Craster said. "A godly man got no cause to fear such. I said as much to that Mance Rayder once, when he come sniffing round. He never listened, no more'n you crows with your swords and your bloody fires. That won't help you none when the white cold comes. Only the gods will help you then. You best get right with the gods." - Samwell II, ASOS
x
"Lord of Light, shine your face upon us."
"Light your flame among us, R'hllor," said the red priest. "Show us the truth or falseness of this man. Strike him down if he is guilty, and give strength to his sword if he is true. Lord of Light, give us wisdom."
"For the night is dark," the others chanted, Harwin and Anguy loud as all the rest, "and full of terrors." - Arya VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya VI -> Catelyn IV
Fire wight back from the dead.
When Arya turned, Lord Beric Dondarrion was standing behind her, his bloody hand clutching Thoros by the shoulder. - Arya VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Catelyn IV -> <- Davos IV -> <- Jaime V
Please won't somebody bend their knee?
Suddenly Catelyn was full of dread. "Wars need not be fought until the last drop of blood." Even she could hear the desperation in her voice. "You would not be the first king to bend the knee, nor even the first Stark." - Catelyn IV, ASOS
x
"They are," insisted Ser Axell. "Not all of Celtigar's men were slain on the Blackwater. Hundreds were taken with their lord, and bent the knee when he did."
"When he did," Davos repeated. "They were his men. His sworn men. What choice were they given?"
"Every man has choices. They might have refused to kneel. Some did, and died for it. Yet they died true men, and loyal." - Davos IV, ASOS
x
"Won every battle, while losing the Freys, the Karstarks, Winterfell, and the north. A pity the wolf is so young. Boys of sixteen always believe they are immortal and invincible. An older man would bend the knee, I'd think. After a war there is always a peace, and with peace there are pardons . . . for the Robb Starks, at least. Not for the likes of Vargo Hoat." - Jaime V, ASOS
+.+.+
Davos IV -> <- Jaime V
Spotlight on Daemon Blackfyre.
Thank you, @aegor-bamfsteel!
"It has always been so. I am not . . . I am not a cruel man, Ser Davos. You know me. Have known me long. This is not my decree. It has always been so, since Aegon's day and before. Daemon Blackfyre, the brothers Toyne, the Vulture King, Grand Maester Hareth . . . traitors have always paid with their lives . . . even Rhaenyra Targaryen. She was daughter to one king and mother to two more, yet she died a traitor's death for trying to usurp her brother's crown. It is law. Law, Davos. Not cruelty." - Davos IV, ASOS
x
He had finally realized that Robert was no mere outlaw lord to be crushed at whim, but the greatest threat House Targaryen had faced since Daemon Blackfyre. - Jaime V, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya VII -> Bran III
What does the future hold for Gendry?
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
As Arya was cinching her saddle girth, Gendry came up to say that he was sorry. She put a foot in the stirrup and swung up into her saddle, so she could look down on him instead of up. You could have made swords at Riverrun for my brother, she thought - Arya VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran III -> <- Jon V
The Gift shenanigans.
+.+.+
Bran III <- Jon V
Bran spends the night.
"We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown."
Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. "A queen lived there?" asked Ygritte.
"A queen stayed there for a night." - Jon V, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon V -> <- Daenerys IV
Jon escapes the wildlings, while Daenerys and gang debate Daario's loyalties.
The old man said no word. He only looked at Jon, standing amongst the wildlings. Amidst the rain and smoke, lit only by the fire, he could not have seen that Jon was all in black, but for his sheepskin cloak. Or could he? - Jon V, ASOS
x
And her knight dressed plainly while this other made a peacock look drab, though he had thrown a heavy black cloak over his bright yellow finery for this visit. He carried a heavy canvas sack slung over one shoulder. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
___
Jon wondered where Ghost was now. Had he gone to Castle Black, or was he was running with some wolfpack in the woods? He had no sense of the direwolf, not even in his dreams. It made him feel as if part of himself had been cut off. Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. He did not want to die alone. - Jon V, ASOS
x
He will forgive me, she told herself. I am his liege. Dany found herself wondering whether he was right about Daario. She felt very lonely all of a sudden. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys IV -> Arya VIII
Let's ask Arya.
Grazdan mo Eraz pointed a finger. "You shall rue this arrogance, whore. These little lizards will not keep you safe, I promise you. We will fill the air with arrows if they come within a league of Yunkai. Do you think it is so hard to kill a dragon?"
"Harder than to kill a slaver. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys IV -> <- Arya VIII
All eyes on Summerhall.
Thank you, @fedonciadale and @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir!
Viserys had spoken of Rhaegar's birth only once. Perhaps the tale saddened him too much. "It was the shadow of Summerhall that haunted him, was it not?" - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
The dwarf woman studied her with dim red eyes. "I see you," she whispered. "I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death . . ." She began to sob, her little body shaking. "You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!" - Arya VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya VIII <- Jaime VI
Jaime is no one.
Thank you, @fedonciadale!
The Lothstons held Harrenhal before the Whents and had been a powerful family in their day, but they had died out ages ago, so no one was likely to object to him bearing their arms. He would be no one's cousin, no one's enemy, no one's sworn sword . . . in sum, no one. - Jaime VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya VIII -> <- Jaime VI
Acorns, stumps, dreams, and one confused reader.
"Look in your fires, pink priest, and you will see. Not now, though, not here, you'll see nothing here. This place belongs to the old gods still . . . they linger here as I do, shrunken and feeble but not yet dead. Nor do they love the flames. For the oak recalls the acorn, the acorn dreams the oak, the stump lives in them both. And they remember when the First Men came with fire in their fists." - Arya VIII, ASOS
x
The moonlight glimmered pale upon the stump where Jaime had rested his head. The moss covered it so thickly he had not noticed before, but now he saw that the wood was white. It made him think of Winterfell, and Ned Stark's heart tree. It was not him, he thought. It was never him. But the stump was dead and so was Stark and so were all the others, Prince Rhaegar and Ser Arthur and the children. And Aerys. Aerys is most dead of all. "Do you believe in ghosts, Maester?" he asked Qyburn. - Jaime VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Samwell III -> <- Arya IX
No one sings to the Stranger.
"Seven," he agreed, "but no one sings of the Stranger." The Stranger's face was the face of death. Even talking of him made Sam uncomfortable. "We should eat something. A bite or two." - Samwell III, ASOS
x
Stranger, the Hound called him. Arya had tried to steal him once, when Clegane was taking a piss against a tree, thinking she could ride off before he could catch her. Stranger had almost bitten her face off. - Arya IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Catelyn VI -> <- Arya X -> <- Catelyn VII -> <- Arya XI
Red wedding bells.
+.+.+
Tyrion VI -> <- Davos V
What's one little nephew?
And Robert's relief was palpable. As stupid as he was, even he knew that Rhaegar's children had to die if his throne was ever to be secure. Yet he saw himself as a hero, and heroes do not kill children. - Tyrion VI, ASOS
x
Melisandre put her hand on the king's arm. "The Lord of Light cherishes the innocent. There is no sacrifice more precious. From his king's blood and his untainted fire, a dragon shall be born." - Davos V, ASOS
+.+.+
Davos V -> Jon VII
They call him Aemon (One-Eye) Targaryen.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
The first time he had seen the Wall he had been younger than Devan, serving aboard the Cobblecat under Roro Uhoris, a Tyroshi known up and down the narrow sea as the Blind Bastard, though he was neither blind nor baseborn. - Davos V, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon VII -> Bran IV
Some kings might have wings.
Well, ravens might have wings, but lords and kings do not. If help was coming, it would not come today. - Jon VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran IV -> <- Daenerys V
We've got wells leading to the exit (or entry?) in back-to-back chapters.
The well was the thing he liked the least, though. It was a good twelve feet across, all stone, with steps built into its side, circling down and down into darkness. The walls were damp and covered with niter, but none of them could see the water at the bottom, not even Meera with her sharp hunter's eyes. "Maybe it doesn't have a bottom," Bran said uncertainly.
[...]
A turn or two later Sam stopped suddenly. He was a quarter of the way around the well from Bran and Hodor and six feet farther down, yet Bran could barely see him. He could see the door, though. The Black Gate, Sam had called it, but it wasn't black at all. - Bran IV, ASOS
x
Ser Jorah looked unhappy. "We'll starve long before they do, Your Grace. There's no food here, nor fodder for our mules and horses. I do not like this river water either. Meereen shits into the Skahazadhan but draws its drinking water from deep wells.
[...]
Ser Jorah looked dubious. "Easier to go out than in, it would seem to me. These sewers empty into the river, you say? That would mean the mouths are right below the walls." - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys V -> Tyrion VII
Gold, was it gold?
"Do not say that word!" She backed away from him. "How could you? What did the Usurper promise you? Gold, was it gold?" The Undying had said she would be betrayed twice more, once for gold and once for love. "Tell me what you were promised?" - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys V -> <- Tyrion VII
Tyrion's playing with dragons.
They were Magister Illyrio's ships, in truth, not hers at all, and yet she had given them new names with hardly a thought. Dragon names, and more; in old Valyria before the Doom, Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar had been gods. - Daenerys V, ASOS
x
Within, the dragon skulls were waiting, and so was Shae. "I thought m'lord had forgotten me." Her dress was draped over a black tooth near as tall as she was, and she stood within the dragon's jaws, nude. Balerion, he thought. Or was it Vhagar? One dragon skull looked much like another. - Tyrion VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran IV -> <- Daenerys V -> <- Tyrion VII
Let's all climb inside a mouth.
"Then pass," the door said. Its lips opened, wide and wider and wider still, until nothing at all remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles. - Bran IV, ASOS
x
Ser Jorah looked dubious. "Easier to go out than in, it would seem to me. These sewers empty into the river, you say? That would mean the mouths are right below the walls." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
Her dress was draped over a black tooth near as tall as she was, and she stood within the dragon's jaws, nude. Balerion, he thought. Or was it Vhagar? One dragon skull looked much like another.
Just the sight of her made him hard. "Come out of there."
"I won't." She smiled her wickedest smile. "M'lord will pluck me from the dragon's jaws, I know."
[...]
He did, finally, but only because she let herself be caught. By the time she slipped into his arms, he was flushed and out of breath from stumbling into dragon skulls. - Tyrion VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion VII -> <- Sansa IV -> <- Tyrion VIII -> <- Sansa V
Put Joffrey from your mind, sweetling. Dontos, Tyrion, all of them. They will never trouble you again. You are safe now, that's all that matters. You are safe with me, and sailing home. - Sansa IV, ASOS
x
"What duties?" said Meryn Trant defensively.
"Keeping the king alive. How many monarchs have you lost since I left the city? Two, is it?" - Jaime VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jaime VII <- Davos VI
Davos helps Edric escape death, and sends him across the narrow sea.
He went to one knee before Edric Storm. "I must leave you now," he said. "There's a boat waiting, to row you out to a galley. Then it's off across the sea. You are Robert's son so I know you will be brave, no matter what happens." - Davos VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya XII -> <- Tyrion IX
I wonder if we'll see Timett again.
His dream of selling Arya to Lady Arryn died there in the hills, though. "There's frost above us and snow in the high passes," the village elder said. "If you don't freeze or starve, the shadowcats will get you, or the cave bears. There's the clans as well. The Burned Men are fearless since Timett One-Eye came back from the war. And half a year ago, Gunthor son of Gurn led the Stone Crows down on a village not eight miles from here. They took every woman and every scrap of grain, and killed half the men. They have steel now, good swords and mail hauberks, and they watch the high road—the Stone Crows, the Milk Snakes, the Sons of the Mist, all of them. Might be you'd take a few with you, but in the end they'd kill you and make off with your daughter." - Arya XII, ASOS
x
He could send Podrick Payne questing after Shagga, he supposed, but there were so many hiding places in the deep of the kingswood that outlaws often evaded capture for decades. And Pod sometimes has difficulty finding the kitchens when I sent him down for cheese. Timett son of Timett would likely be back in the Mountains of the Moon by now. - Tyrion IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion IX -> Jaime VIII
Jaime's giving out swords.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Either the Mountain spills my guts, or I kill him and lose Stokeworth. I sell my sword, I don't give it away. I'm not your bloody brother. - Tyrion IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa VI -> Jon IX
Look out.
When it was time for the bedding, her knights carried her up to the tower, stripping her as they went and shouting bawdy jests. Tyrion spared me that, Sansa remembered. It would not have been so bad being undressed for a man she loved, by friends who loved them both. - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
You'll know that, when you have a child."
"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly.
Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry." - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert? - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love. - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
I see no reason why you should not be wed as soon as we know that your Lannister husband is dead. A secret wedding, to be sure. - Sansa VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa VI -> <- Jon IX
Wind through their hair.
Thank you, @butterflies-dragons!
The wind ran salty fingers through her hair, and Sansa shivered. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
A gust of wind sent icy tendrils wending through his long brown hair. - Jon IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon IX -> <- Tyrion X -> <- Daenerys VI
Imprisoned Jon + imprisoned Tyrion + Daenerys and her two treacherous knights.
"Your father died by the sword, but he was highborn, a King's Hand. For you, a noose will serve. Ser Alliser, take this turncloak to an ice cell." - Jon IX, ASOS
x
He was halfway down the serpentine steps before he realized that the gold cloaks were not taking him back to his tower room. "I've been consigned to the black cells," he said. They did not bother to answer. Why waste your breath on the dead? - Tyrion X, ASOS
x
I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears. "Tell Belwas to bring my knights," Dany commanded, before she could change her mind. "My good knights." - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys VI <- Jaime IX
Jaime Lannister sounding a lot like someone.
Jaime watched from the foot of the table, thinking of all those lords who aspired to a seat on the king's small council. They can bloody well have mine. If this was power, why did it taste like tedium? He did not feel especially powerful, watching Tommen dip his quill in the inkpot again. He felt bored. - Jaime IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Jaime IX -> Jon X
The Targaryens . . . marry their sister.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
I want to be your wife, we belong to each other, but it can never be, Jaime. We are brother and sister."
"The Targaryens . . ."
"We are not Targaryens!" - Jaime IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon X -> <- Arya XIII
Sounds like the maid with honey in her hair if you ask me.
Val looked at him with pale grey eyes. "He always climbed too fast." She was as fair as he'd remembered, slender, full-breasted, graceful even at rest, with high sharp cheekbones and a thick braid of honey-colored hair that fell to her waist. - Jon X, ASOS
x
"The little bird flew away, did she? Well, bloody good for her. She shit on the Imp's head and flew off."
"They'll find her," said Polliver. "If it takes half the gold in Casterly Rock."
"A pretty girl, I hear," said the Tickler. "Honey sweet." He smacked his lips and smiled. - Arya XIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Samwell IV -> <- Jon XI
You don't know everything, Stannis.
"I am well aware of that," the king said. "I am aware of more than you know, Aemon Targaryen." - Samwell V, ASOS
x
They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. "I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, "Well, I'm Florian the Fool." Or Robb would say, "I'm the Young Dragon," and Jon would reply, "I'm Ser Ryam Redwyne." - Jon XI, ASOS
+.+.+
Samwell IV -> Jon XI <- Sansa VII
Two different types of snow knights likely being referenced.
"Sam the Slayer!" he said, by way of greeting. "Are you sure you stabbed an Other, and not some child's snow knight?" - Samwell IV, ASOS
x
What do I want with snowballs? She looked at her sad little arsenal. There's no one to throw them at. She let the one she was making drop from her hand. I could build a snow knight instead, she thought. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon XI -> <- Sansa VII
Twin chapters alert. Here we go again!
Thank you, @esther-dot!
You can't be the Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born, he heard Robb say again. And the stone kings were growling at him with granite tongues. You do not belong here. This is not your place. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"I don't want her here." Her aunt's eyes were shiny with tears. "Why did you bring her to the Vale, Petyr? This isn't her place. She doesn't belong here." - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
She remembered a summer's snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They'd each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she'd had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she'd slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn't, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
When Jon closed his eyes he saw the heart tree, with its pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face. The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said . . . but to save the castle Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman's hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
The warmth took some of the ache from his muscles and made him think of Winterfell's muddy pools, steaming and bubbling in the godswood. Winterfell, he thought. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"No. It was always warm, even when it snowed. Water from the hot springs is piped through the walls to warm them, and inside the glass gardens it was always like the hottest day of summer." She stood, towering over the great white castle. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Winterfell, he thought. Theon left it burned and broken, but I could restore it. Surely his father would have wanted that, and Robb as well. They would never have wanted the castle left in ruins. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
The snow fell and the castle rose. Two walls ankle-high, the inner taller than the outer. Towers and turrets, keeps and stairs, a round kitchen, a square armory, the stables along the inside of the west wall. It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Would I sooner be hanged for a turncloak by Lord Janos, or forswear my vows, marry Val, and become the Lord of Winterfell? It seemed an easy choice when he thought of it in those terms . . . though if Ygritte had still been alive, it might have been even easier. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
Sansa felt sorry for her little cousin sometimes, but she could not imagine ever wanting to be his wife. I would sooner be married to Tyrion again. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"A giant," the boy whispered, weeping. "It wasn't me, it was a giant hurt the castle. She killed him! I hate her! She's a bastard and I hate her! I don't want to be leeched!" - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
In the end Halder and Horse had to pull him away from Iron Emmett, one man on either arm. The ranger sat on the ground dazed, his shield half in splinters, the visor of his helm knocked askew, and his sword six yards away. "Jon, enough," Halder was shouting, "he's down, you disarmed him. Enough!"
No. Not enough. Never enough. Jon let his sword drop. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "Emmett, are you hurt?" - Jon XII, ASOS
x
It was more than Sansa could stand. "Robert, stop that." Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll's head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow.
[...]
"It was my fault." Sansa showed them the doll's head. "I ripped his doll in two. I never meant to, but . . ."
[...]
A mad rage seized hold of her. She picked up a broken branch and smashed the torn doll's head down on top of it, then pushed it down atop the shattered gatehouse of her snow castle. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want?
[...]
Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre's. He had a weirwood's eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one. And he alone of all the direwolves was white. Six pups they'd found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow.
He had his answer then. - Jon VII, ASOS
x
I will tell my aunt that I don't want to marry Robert. Not even the High Septon himself could declare a woman married if she refused to say the vows.
[...]
I will tell her. I will! - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon XI <- Sansa VII
I mean. . .
When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.
Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. It seemed to her that the sky was a lighter shade of grey. Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa VII -> Epilogue
Daughter kills giant (hmmm), mother kills Petyr.
It was more than Sansa could stand. "Robert, stop that." Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll's head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow.
[...]
"A giant," the boy whispered, weeping. "It wasn't me, it was a giant hurt the castle. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
Petyr Pimple was hanging from the limb of an oak, a noose tight around his long thin neck. His eyes bulged from a black face, staring down at Merrett accusingly. You came too late, they seemed to say. - Epilogue, ASOS
+.+.+
Prologue -> <- Sansa VII
AGOT
Prologue: ice threat introduction.
Final chapter: fire threat introduction.
ACOK
Prologue: cold-hearted King Stannis with his dying maester.
Final chapter: kindhearted King Bran with his dying maester.
ASOS
Drifting snowflakes, and Jon Snow.
Snow was falling. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Snow was falling on the Eyrie. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
What was wrong with him? He could hardly breathe. Had he gone to sleep? - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Outside the flakes drifted down as soft and silent as memory. Was this what woke me?
[...]
it was so lovely that she held her breath - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
It was a heavy fall, thick white flakes coming down all about him.
[...]
The snow was drifting in to cover him. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He got to his knees, and something wet and cold touched his nose. Chett looked up. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He could feel tears freezing to his cheeks.
[...]
He felt as though he were being attacked by a cloud of pale cold bugs. They settled on his shoulders, on his head, they flew at his nose and his eyes. Cursing, he brushed them off. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks.
[...]
She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
It isn't fair, he wanted to scream. Snow would ruin everything he'd worked for, all his careful plans.
[...]
There'd be no lord's life for the leechman's son, no keep to call his own, no wives nor crowns.
[...]
The snow's taken it all from me . . . the bloody snow . . .
Snow had ruined him once before. Snow and his pet pig. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
[...]
Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Prologue -> <- Epilogue
Ice wights, fire wights, and wet smallclothes.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
"Three," he squeaked to Chett, "that was three, I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means—"
"—Others." Chett made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob, and suddenly his smallclothes were wet, and he could feel the piss running down his leg, see steam rising off the front of his breeches. - Prologue, ASOS
x
"Please." The last of Merrett's courage was running down his leg.
[...]
The outlaws parted as she came forward, saying no word. When she lowered her hood, something tightened inside Merrett's chest, and for a moment he could not breathe. No. No, I saw her die. She was dead for a day and night before they stripped her naked and threw her body in the river. Raymund opened her throat from ear to ear. She was dead. - Epilogue, ASOS
Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Mines of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing
Tyrion Lannister, (Prisoner?) Hand of the King
In Remembrance: A Look Back at Sandor Clegane's & Ygritte's Greatest Moments
ASOS Part II: CLICK
Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs
Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ
Showdown at the Trident
A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪
The Usurper's Knife
Bran the Dragonslayer?
Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉
ASOS Part IV: CLICK
Chapter Transitions
Previous books:
AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK
ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I & PART II
Stumpy note:
If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂
JONSA 🐺❤️❄️
Once again, thank you to @ladyofasoiaf for making the manual on all things jonsa. I heavily rely on it when making these posts. :)
Chapter Transitions
Sansa I (ch. 6) -> <-Jon I (ch. 7)
Sansa visits the Queen of Thorns, while Jon has a face-to-face with the King-beyond-the-Wall. The similarities won't stop there.
Thank you, @sxpiosexualx!
Beyond the spiked moat, two dozen men were taking their practice with sword and shield. With the castle so crowded, the outer ward had been given over to guests to raise their tents and pavilions, leaving only the smaller inner yards for training.
[...]
A fire was crackling in the hearth, and sweet-swelling rushes had been scattered on the floor. Around the long trestle table a dozen women were seated. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Elsewhere two bearded youths in boiled leather were sparring with staffs, leaping at each other over the flames, grunting each time one landed a blow. A dozen women sat nearby in a circle, fletching arrows. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Outside its tall carved doors stood two guards in gilded halfhelms and green cloaks edged in gold satin, the golden rose of Highgarden sewn on their breasts. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Here at least they found defenders; two guards at the flap of the tent, leaning on tall spears with round leather shields strapped to their arms. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Sansa knelt at the feet of her future queen. "You do me great honor, Your Grace."
"Won't you call me Margaery? Please, rise. Loras, help the Lady Sansa to her feet. Might I call you Sansa?" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"Your Grace?" The king smiled. "That's not a style one often hears from the lips of free folk. I'm Mance to most, The Mance to some. Will you take a horn of mead?" - Jon I, ASOS
___
Pale, elegant Lady Graceford was with child, and Lady Bulwer was a child, no more than eight.
[...]
The old woman called to Butterbumps. "Fool! Give us a song. A long one, I should think. 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair' will do nicely." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
A dark young man and a pretty blonde woman were sharing a horn of mead. A pregnant woman stood over a brazier cooking a brace of hens, while a grey-haired man in a tattered cloak of black and red sat crosslegged on a pillow, playing a lute and singing - Jon I, ASOS
___
"Sansa," Lady Alerie broke in, "you must be very hungry. Shall we have a bite of boar together, and some lemon cakes?" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"Sit, if you like," Rayder said when they were gone. "Are you hungry? Tormund left us two birds at least." - Jon I, ASOS
___
"He will," Sansa lied. "He is very . . . very comely." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Jon had his lie all ready. "The Lord Commander sent me to the Halfhand for seasoning, so he took me on his ranging." - Jon I, ASOS
___
Sansa realized that her mouth was open again. She filled it with a spoon of broth - Sansa I, ASOS
x
He took a long draught of mead to buy time for his answer. - Jon I, ASOS
___
Courtesy is a lady's armor. You must not offend them, be careful what you say. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Guest right or no, Jon Snow knew he walked on rotten ice here. One false step and he might plunge through, into water cold enough to stop his heart. Weigh every word before you speak it, he told himself. - Jon I, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa I (ch. 6) -> Jon I (ch. 7)
Sounds like fun!
The Baratheons have always had some queer notions, to be sure. It comes from their Targaryen blood, I should think." She sniffed. "They tried to marry me to a Targaryen once, but I soon put an end to that." - Sansa I, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon II (ch. 15) -> <- Sansa II (ch. 16)
Children, shared beds, men flying eagles, and brand new clothing in back-to-back chapters.
Thank you, @sxpiosexualx!
"I might get her with child."
"Aye, I'd hope so. A strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that?" - Jon II, ASOS
x
If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Rangers often shared skins for warmth, but warmth was not all Ygritte wanted, he suspected. After that he had taken to using Ghost to keep her away. Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor's sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword. - Jon II, ASOS
x
They spent long afternoons doing needlework and talking over lemon cakes and honeyed wine, played at tiles of an evening, sang together in the castle sept . . . and often one or two of them would be chosen to share Margaery's bed, where they would whisper half the night away. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
"Jon Snow, you know nothing. You don't go in with clothes." - Jon II, ASOS
x
They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They've never seen a battle, they've never seen a man die, they know nothing. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
She reminded him a little of his sister Arya, though Arya was younger and probably skinnier. It was hard to tell how plump or thin Ygritte might be, with all the furs and skins she wore. - Jon II, ASOS
x
Sister. Sansa had once dreamt of having a sister like Margaery; beautiful and gentle, with all the world's graces at her command. Arya had been entirely unsatisfactory as sisters went. - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Jon turned at the sudden sound of wings. Blue-grey feathers filled his eyes, as sharp talons buried themselves in his face. Red pain lanced through him sudden and fierce as pinions beat round his head. He saw the beak, but there was no time to get a hand up or reach for a weapon. - Jon II, ASOS
x
"Willas has the best birds in the Seven Kingdoms," Margaery said when the two of them were briefly alone. "He flies an eagle sometimes. You will see, Sansa." She took her by the hand and gave it a squeeze. "Sister." - Sansa II, ASOS
___
Jon wheeled and followed Tormund back toward the head of the column, his new cloak hanging heavy from his shoulders. It was made of unwashed sheepskins, worn fleece side in, as the wildlings suggested. It kept the snow off well enough, and at night it was good and warm, but he kept his black cloak as well, folded up beneath his saddle.
[...]
Mance Rayder had not been blind to Rattleshirt's mistrust of the "crow-come-over," so after he had given Jon his new sheepskin cloak he had suggested that he might want to ride with Tormund Giantsbane instead. - Jon II, ASOS
x
"A new gown?" she said, as wary as she was astonished.
[...]
"More lovely than any you have worn, my lady," the old woman promised. She measured Sansa's hips with a length of knotted string. "All silk and Myrish lace, with satin linings. You will be very beautiful. The queen herself has commanded it." - Sansa II, ASOS
x
And so it was that her lord husband cloaked her in the colors of House Lannister whilst standing on the back of a fool. - Sansa III, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa VI (ch. 68) -> Jon IX (ch. 69)
Oh boy!
When it was time for the bedding, her knights carried her up to the tower, stripping her as they went and shouting bawdy jests. Tyrion spared me that, Sansa remembered. It would not have been so bad being undressed for a man she loved, by friends who loved them both. - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
You'll know that, when you have a child."
"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly.
Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry." - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert? - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love. - Sansa VI, ASOS
___
I see no reason why you should not be wed as soon as we know that your Lannister husband is dead. A secret wedding, to be sure. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
His account introduces a young maiden, or "wolf girl" as he dubs her, with the name of Sara Snow. So smitten was Prince Jacaerys with this creature, a bastard daughter of the late Lord Rickon Stark, that he lay with her of a night. On learning that his guest had claimed the maidenhead of his bastard sister, Lord Cregan became most wroth, and only softened when Sara Snow told him that the prince had taken her for his wife. They had spoken their vows in Winterfell’s own godswood before a heart tree, and only then had she given herself to him, wrapped in furs amidst the snows as the old gods looked on. - Fire & Blood
+.+.+
Sansa VI (ch. 68) -> <- Jon IX (ch. 69)
Wind through their hair.
Thank you, @butterflies-dragons!
The wind ran salty fingers through her hair, and Sansa shivered. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
A gust of wind sent icy tendrils wending through his long brown hair. - Jon IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon XII (ch. 79) -> <- Sansa VII (ch. 80)
Love and Winterfell. ❤️
Thank you, @esther-dot!
You can't be the Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born, he heard Robb say again. And the stone kings were growling at him with granite tongues. You do not belong here. This is not your place. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"I don't want her here." Her aunt's eyes were shiny with tears. "Why did you bring her to the Vale, Petyr? This isn't her place. She doesn't belong here." - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
She remembered a summer's snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They'd each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she'd had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she'd slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn't, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
When Jon closed his eyes he saw the heart tree, with its pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face. The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said . . . but to save the castle Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman's hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Winterfell, he thought. Theon left it burned and broken, but I could restore it. Surely his father would have wanted that, and Robb as well. They would never have wanted the castle left in ruins. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
The snow fell and the castle rose. Two walls ankle-high, the inner taller than the outer. Towers and turrets, keeps and stairs, a round kitchen, a square armory, the stables along the inside of the west wall. It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
The warmth took some of the ache from his muscles and made him think of Winterfell's muddy pools, steaming and bubbling in the godswood. Winterfell, he thought. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"No. It was always warm, even when it snowed. Water from the hot springs is piped through the walls to warm them, and inside the glass gardens it was always like the hottest day of summer." - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Would I sooner be hanged for a turncloak by Lord Janos, or forswear my vows, marry Val, and become the Lord of Winterfell? It seemed an easy choice when he thought of it in those terms . . . though if Ygritte had still been alive, it might have been even easier. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
Sansa felt sorry for her little cousin sometimes, but she could not imagine ever wanting to be his wife. I would sooner be married to Tyrion again. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"A giant," the boy whispered, weeping. "It wasn't me, it was a giant hurt the castle. She killed him! I hate her! She's a bastard and I hate her! I don't want to be leeched!" - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
In the end Halder and Horse had to pull him away from Iron Emmett, one man on either arm. The ranger sat on the ground dazed, his shield half in splinters, the visor of his helm knocked askew, and his sword six yards away. "Jon, enough," Halder was shouting, "he's down, you disarmed him. Enough!"
No. Not enough. Never enough. Jon let his sword drop. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "Emmett, are you hurt?" - Jon XII, ASOS
x
It was more than Sansa could stand. "Robert, stop that." Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll's head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow.
[...]
"It was my fault." Sansa showed them the doll's head. "I ripped his doll in two. I never meant to, but . . ."
[...]
A mad rage seized hold of her. She picked up a broken branch and smashed the torn doll's head down on top of it, then pushed it down atop the shattered gatehouse of her snow castle. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want?
[...]
Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre's. He had a weirwood's eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one. And he alone of all the direwolves was white. Six pups they'd found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow.
He had his answer then. - Jon VII, ASOS
x
I will tell my aunt that I don't want to marry Robert. Not even the High Septon himself could declare a woman married if she refused to say the vows.
[...]
I will tell her. I will! - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon XII (ch. 79) <- Sansa VII (ch. 80)
Ghostly silent, drifting snowflake. 🐺❄️
When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.
Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. It seemed to her that the sky was a lighter shade of grey. Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa and Chett appear to have two things in common: drifting snowflakes, and Jon Snow.
AGOT:
Prologue: ice threat introduction.
Final chapter: fire threat introduction.
ACOK:
Prologue: cold-hearted King Stannis with his dying maester.
Final chapter: kindhearted King Bran with his dying maester.
ASOS:
Snow was falling. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Snow was falling on the Eyrie. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
What was wrong with him? He could hardly breathe. Had he gone to sleep? - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Outside the flakes drifted down as soft and silent as memory. Was this what woke me?
[...]
it was so lovely that she held her breath - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
It was a heavy fall, thick white flakes coming down all about him.
[...]
The snow was drifting in to cover him. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He got to his knees, and something wet and cold touched his nose. Chett looked up. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
He could feel tears freezing to his cheeks.
[...]
He felt as though he were being attacked by a cloud of pale cold bugs. They settled on his shoulders, on his head, they flew at his nose and his eyes. Cursing, he brushed them off. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks.
[...]
She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
It isn't fair, he wanted to scream. Snow would ruin everything he'd worked for, all his careful plans.
[...]
There'd be no lord's life for the leechman's son, no keep to call his own, no wives nor crowns.
[...]
The snow's taken it all from me . . . the bloody snow . . .
Snow had ruined him once before. Snow and his pet pig. - Prologue, ASOS
vs.
It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
[...]
Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
A Snow Maid with her Snow Knight.
What do I want with snowballs? She looked at her sad little arsenal. There's no one to throw them at. She let the one she was making drop from her hand. I could build a snow knight instead, she thought. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
"What are you doing?"
Petyr straightened his cloak. "Kissing a snow maid." - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Garlan Tyrell or Jon Snow?
Thank you, @rose-of-red-lake!
"It is, my lady," said Ser Loras. "Garlan often trains against three men, or even four. In battle it is seldom one against one, he says, so he likes to be prepared."
"He must be very brave." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"Lord Commander. How may we serve you?"
"With your three best."
Emmett grinned. "Arron. Emrick. Jace."
[...]
"Which one do you want first?" asked Arron.
"All three of you. At once." - Jon VI, ASOS
___
"He is a great knight," Ser Loras replied. "A better sword than me, in truth, though I'm the better lance." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Jon swelled with pride. "Robb is a stronger lance than I am, but I'm the better sword, and Hullen says I sit a horse as well as anyone in the castle." - Jon I, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa daydreams of dancing.
Joffrey and Margaery led in their place. How can a monster dance so beautifully? Sansa wondered. She had often daydreamed of how she would dance at her wedding, with every eye upon her and her handsome lord. In her dreams they had all been smiling. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
When the musicians began to play, she timidly laid her hand on Tyrion's and said, "My lord, should we lead the dance?"
His mouth twisted. "I think we have already given them sufficent amusement for one day, don't you?"
"As you say, my lord." She pulled her hand back. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
"Lady Sansa." Ser Garlan Tyrell stood beside the dais. "Would you honor me? If your lord consents?" - Sansa III, ASOS
x
A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon. - Jon XII, ADWD
+.+.+
The Winter Rose.
Sansa is not his rose.
"At the Hand's tourney, don't you remember? You rode a white courser, and your armor was a hundred different kinds of flowers. You gave me a rose. A red rose. You threw white roses to the other girls that day." It made her flush to speak of it. "You said no victory was half as beautiful as me."
Ser Loras gave her a modest smile. "I spoke only a simple truth, that any man with eyes could see."
He doesn't remember, Sansa realized, startled. He is only being kind to me, he doesn't remember me or the rose or any of it. She had been so certain that it meant something, that it meant everything. A red rose, not a white. - Sansa I, ASOS
___
Ygritte is not his rose.
Jon sat up. "Ygritte, I never stole you."
"Aye, you did. You jumped down the mountain and killed Orell, and afore I could get my axe you had a knife at my throat. I thought you'd have me then, or kill me, or maybe both, but you never did. And when I told you the tale o' Bael the Bard and how he plucked the rose o' Winterfell, I thought you'd know to pluck me then for certain, but you didn't. You know nothing, Jon Snow." - Jon III, ASOS
___
Ygritte doesn't like flowers.
"Men can build a lot higher than this. In Oldtown there's a tower taller than the Wall." He could tell she did not believe him. If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us.
[...]
"Then I'd push him in a stream or throw a bucket o' water on him. Anyhow, men shouldn't smell sweet like flowers."
"What's wrong with flowers?"
"Nothing, for a bee. For bed I want one o' these." Ygritte made to grab the front of his breeches. - Jon V, ASOS
___
But Sansa does.
"Sweet lady," he said, "no victory is half so beautiful as you." Sansa took the flower timidly, struck dumb by his gallantry. - Sansa II, AGOT
___
Sweet-smelling Sansa.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces. - Tyrion III, ASOS
x
And then there are the roses. Roses smell so sweet, don't they? Especially when there are so many of them. - Tyrion V, ASOS
___
The Roadside Rose.
"Do you require guarding?" Marillion said lightly. "I am composing a new song, you should know. A song so sweet and sad it will melt even your frozen heart. 'The Roadside Rose,' I mean to call it. About a baseborn girl so beautiful she bewitched every man who laid eyes upon her." - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
The rose and the direwolf.
"I will not have the rose and the direwolf in bed together," declared Lord Tywin. - Tyrion III, ASOS
___
Tywin steals a rose before it blooms. Better a Lannister than a Tyrell, eh?
The Conclave met in Oldtown behind closed doors, Tyrion knew; its deliberations were supposedly a secret. So Varys has little birds in the Citadel too. "I see. So my father decided to nip the rose before it bloomed." He had to chuckle. "Pycelle is a toad. But better a Lannister toad than a Tyrell toad, no?" - Tyrion II, ASOS
___
ACOK: Jon IV (ch. 51) -> <- Sansa IV (ch. 52)
The winter roses had only then come into bloom.
'All I ask is a flower,' Bael answered, 'the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o' Winterfell.'"
"Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious. So the Stark sent to his glass gardens and commanded that the most beautiful o’ the winter roses be plucked for the singer’s payment. And so it was done. But when morning come, the singer had vanished … and so had Lord Brandon’s maiden daughter. - Jon IV, ACOK
x
"The blood is the seal of your womanhood. Lady Catelyn might have prepared you. You've had your first flowering, no more."
Sansa had never felt less flowery. - Sansa IV, ACOK
___
Plucked.
"But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely.
"Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." - Alayne I, AFFC
___
Sansa and Jon don't forget the glass gardens.
"No. It was always warm, even when it snowed. Water from the hot springs is piped through the walls to warm them, and inside the glass gardens it was always like the hottest day of summer." She stood, towering over the great white castle. "I can't think how to do the glass roof over the gardens." - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
Glass, Jon mused, might be of use here. Castle Black needs its own glass gardens, like the ones at Winterfell. - Jon VII, ADWD
+.+.+
Tyrion Lannister is a jealous man.
After all his planning, after the sortie and the bridge of ships, after getting his face slashed in two, Tyrion had been eclipsed by a dead man. - Tyrion I, ASOS
x
Tyrion had seen her only yesterday, climbing the serpentine steps with a pail of water. He had watched as a young knight had offered to carry the heavy pail. The way she had touched his arm and smiled for him had tied Tyrion's guts into knots.
[...]
It doesn't matter, he told himself as he waited for moonrise. Whatever you wear, you're still a dwarf. You'll never be as tall as that knight on the steps, him with his long straight legs and hard stomach and wide manly shoulders. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
"Chataya's?" Tyrion said, annoyed.
"It's good to be a knight. No more looking for the cheaper brothels down the street." Bronn grinned. "Now it's Alayaya and Marei in the same featherbed, with Ser Bronn in the middle."
Tyrion had to bite back his annoyance. Bronn had as much right to bed Alayaya as any other man, but still . . . I never touched her, much as I wanted to, but Bronn could not know that. He should have kept his cock out of her. - Tyrion II, ASOS
Eighteen, Tyrion thought. Eighteen, and a whore, but quick of wit, nimble as a cat between the sheets, with large dark eyes and fine black hair and a sweet, soft, hungry little mouth . . . and mine! Damn you, eunuch.
"M'lord Varys complimented Chella on her ears and said she must have killed many men to have such a fine necklace," Shae explained. It grated on him to hear her call Varys m'lord in that tone; that was what she called him in their pillow play. - Tyrion I, ACOK
x
He's getting taller, Tyrion realized as Pod stood in his stirrups for a better look. He'll soon tower over me like all the rest. - Tyrion V, ASOS
x
She fiddled nervously with her hair and looked down the table to where Joffrey sat with his Tyrell queen.
Does she wish it were her in Margaery's place? Tyrion frowned. Even a child should have better sense. He turned away, wanting distraction, but everywhere he looked were women, fair fine beautiful happy women who belonged to other men.
[...]
And there was one woman, sitting almost at the foot of the third table on the left . . . the wife of one of the Fossoways, he thought, and heavy with his child. Her delicate beauty was in no way diminished by her belly, nor was her pleasure in the food and frolics. Tyrion watched as her husband fed her morsels off his plate. They drank from the same cup, and would kiss often and unpredictably. Whenever they did, his hand would gently rest upon her stomach, a tender and protective gesture.
He wondered what Sansa would do if he leaned over and kissed her right now. Flinch away, most likely. Or be brave and suffer through it, as was her duty. She is nothing if not dutiful, this wife of mine. If he told her that he wished to have her maidenhead tonight, she would suffer that dutifully as well, and weep no more than she had to. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
A man with a few parallels with Petyr Baelish sings a song.
The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun,
and her kisses were warmer than spring.
But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel,
and its kiss was a terrible thing.
The Dornishman's wife would sing as she bathed,
in a voice that was sweet as a peach,
But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,
and a bite sharp and cold as a leech.
As he lay on the ground with the darkness around,
and the taste of his blood on his tongue,
His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,
and he smiled and he laughed and he sung,
"Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done,
the Dornishman's taken my life,
But what does it matter, for all men must die,
and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife!" - Jon I, ASOS
x
Abel rubbed the sleep from his eyes, took up his lute, and launched into "The Dornishman's Wife," whilst one of his washerwomen beat time on her drum. The singer changed the words, though. Instead of tasting a Dornishman's wife, he sang of tasting a northman's daughter. - The Turncloak, ADWD
x
When they break, they break hard, Jon Snow thought as he watched them reel away. The drums had all gone silent. How do you like that music, Mance? How do you like the taste of the Dornishman's wife? - Jon VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
But another Bael did.
"Would that I were. I will not deny that Bael's exploit inspired mine own . . . but I did not steal either of your sisters that I recall. Bael wrote his own songs, and lived them. I only sing the songs that better men have made. More mead?" - Jon I, ASOS
+.+.+
A direwolf doesn't like Petyr.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
Instead the direwolf leapt forward, snarling.
Ser Ryman's palfrey shied off with a whinny of fear, and Petyr Pimple's reared and threw him. - Catelyn VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Petyr Baelish sounding a lot like Jon Snow at a Winterfell feast.
Thank you, @kadarakey!
Petyr tried to kiss your mother, only she pushed him away. She laughed at him. He looked so wounded I thought my heart would burst, and afterward he drank until he passed out at the table. Uncle Brynden carried him up to bed before my father could find him like that. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
The Sun.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog and @that-plo-koon!
Sansa … Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. - Arya II, AGOT
x
When he thought of his daughters, he would have wept gladly, but the tears would not come. Even now, he was a Stark of Winterfell, and his grief and his rage froze hard inside him.
When he kept very still, his leg did not hurt so much, so he did his best to lie unmoving. For how long he could not say. There was no sun and no moon. - Eddard XV, AGOT
x
The wine was very fine; an Arbor vintage, she thought. It tasted of oak and fruit and hot summer nights, the flavors blossoming in her mouth like flowers opening to the sun. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC
x
"You cannot come with me," Jon said, cupping the wolf's head in his hands and looking deep into those eyes. "You have to go to Castle Black. Do you understand? Castle Black. Can you find it? The way home? Just follow the ice, east and east, into the sun, and you'll find it. - Jon III, ASOS
x
Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"Snow," the moon insisted.
The white wolf ran from it, racing toward the cave of night where the sun had hidden, his breath frosting in the air. - Jon I, ADWD
+.+.+
Jon and Tyrion use shoddy substitutes for the sun. Who's the sun?
"Not necessary, but some find it pleasant. What of love?"
"When the sun has set, no candle can replace it."
"Is that from a song?" Tyrion cocked his head, smiling. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
His dusky woman was enough to satisfy his appetites until he could reach Meereen and claim his queen. No man had need of candles when the sun awaited him. - Victarion I, ADWD
___
Bronn laughed, and Tyrion had to smile. "Into the tent, Shae, if you would be so kind." He lifted the flap and held it for her. Inside, he knelt to light a candle. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
x
A single candle lit the gloom, spicing the air with the scent of jasmine.
[...]
"Shae," he groaned, "it is not safe."
For a time she said nothing at all. Tyrion tried to speak of other things, but he met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he'd once walked in the north. Gods be good, he thought wearily as he watched the candle burn down and begin to gutter, how could I let this happen again, after Tysha? Am I as great a fool as my father thinks?
[...]
When the candle burned out, Tyrion disentangled himself and lit another. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
All the sweet innocence of the world was in her voice. Innocence? Fool, she's a whore, all she knows of men is the bit between their legs. Fool, fool. "Better you than me." Tyrion sat. "We have a long day before us, both of us. You shouldn't have blown out that taper. How are we to find our clothing?" - Tyrion VII
___
Ygritte had brought a torch, but there was no other light. She stood beside a little waterfall that fell from a cleft in the rock down into a wide dark pool. The orange and yellow flames shone against the pale green water.
[…]
Smiling, she set the torch carefully in a notch of rock, and came toward him. "There's naught to eat in the dark but flesh," she whispered, biting at his neck.
[…]
The light was shifting all about her, Jon noticed suddenly. He looked around. "We had best go up. The torch is almost done."
[…]
"What?" he prompted, as the torch began to gutter.
[…]
By the time the torch burned out, Jon Snow no longer cared. – Jon III, ASOS
+.+.+
Ygritte or Sansa Stark?
Sounds familiar.
At a lord's court the girl would never have been considered anything but common, he knew. She had a round peasant face, a pug nose, and slightly crooked teeth, and her eyes were too far apart. Jon had noticed all that the first time he'd seen her, when his dirk had been at her throat. Lately, though, he was noticing some other things. When she grinned, the crooked teeth didn't seem to matter. And maybe her eyes were too far apart, but they were a pretty blue-grey color, and lively as any eyes he knew. Sometimes she sang in a low husky voice that stirred him. And sometimes by the cookfire when she sat hugging her knees with the flames waking echoes in her red hair, and looked at him, just smiling . . . well, that stirred some things as well. - Jon II, ASOS
___
Tears would fill her eyes.
Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants,
so learn well the words of my song.
For when I am gone the singing will fade,
and the silence shall last long and long.
There were tears on Ygritte's cheeks when the song ended. – Jon II, ASOS
x
Sansa would call this an enchantment, and tears would fill her eyes at the wonder of it, but Arya would run out laughing and shouting, wanting to touch it all. -Jon III, ASOS
x
Sansa would have sighed and shed a tear for true love, but Arya just thought it was stupid. - Arya VIII, ASOS
___
Those easy Tully smiles.
She bit his neck and he nuzzled hers, burying his nose in her thick red hair. Lucky, he thought, she is lucky, fire-kissed. - Jon III, ASOS
x
Ygritte had been pretty in her own way, with her red hair kissed by fire, but it was her smile that made her face come alive. - Jon III, ADWD
x
Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. - Arya I, AGOT
___
Half fish, you say?
Ygritte punched his arm. "You know nothing, Jon Snow. I'm half a fish, I'll have you know." - Jon V, ASOS
___
Jon imagines a girl that does not exist . . . or does she?
He could tell she did not believe him. If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us. - Jon V, ASOS
x
"Who is Ygritte?" Donal Noye asked pointedly.
"A woman of the free folk." How could he explain Ygritte to them? She's warm and smart and funny and she can kiss a man or slit his throat. - Jon VI, ASOS
x
When his eyelids fluttered open, he was wrapped in thick wool and floating. He could not seem to move, but that did not matter. For a time he dreamed that Ygritte was with him, tending him with gentle hands. Finally he closed his eyes and slept. - Jon VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Ygritte and Jon have a conversation about Sansa Stark.
"And what if they do? I'd sooner be stolen by a strong man than be given t' some weakling by my father."
"You say that, but how can you know? What if you were stolen by someone you hated?"
"He'd have t' be quick and cunning and brave t' steal me. So his sons would be strong and smart as well. Why would I hate such a man as that?"
"Maybe he never washes, so he smells as rank as a bear."
"Then I'd push him in a stream or throw a bucket o' water on him. Anyhow, men shouldn't smell sweet like flowers."
[...]
Jon caught her wrist. "What if the man who stole you drank too much?" he insisted. "What if he was brutal or cruel?" He tightened his grip to make a point. "What if he was stronger than you, and liked to beat you bloody?" - Jon V, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon lays with his kin, avoids answering a question, and contemplates whether Arya was ever truly his sister.
"She [Ygritte] even claimed we were kin. She told me a story . . ." - Jon VII, ACOK
x
She punched him. "That's vile. Would you bed your sister?"
"Longspear's not your brother." - Jon III, ASOS
x
Jon had never met anyone so stubborn, except maybe for his little sister Arya. Is she still my sister? he wondered. Was she ever? - Jon III, ASOS
+.+.+
Wedding bells for Sansa and her cousin.
How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert?" - Sansa VI, ASOS
+.+.+
A moody bastard, pretending to be Arya's brother, almost sleeps with his sister.
"Why did you say that?" Arya hopped to her feet. "You're not my brother."
"That's right," he said angrily. "I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high."
Arya was taken aback by the fury in his voice. "That's not the way I meant it."
"Yes it is." He sat down on the bench, cradling a cup of wine between his hands. "Go away. I want to drink this wine in peace. Then maybe I'll go find that black-haired girl and ring her bell for her." - Arya V, ASOS
+.+.+
Targaryens lusting for their sisters.
Lord Mace Tyrell and his entourage had been housed behind the royal sept, in the long slate-roofed keep that had been called the Maidenvault since King Baelor the Blessed had confined his sisters therein, so the sight of them might not tempt him into carnal thoughts. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
The Dragonknight once won a tourney as the Knight of Tears, so he could name his sister the queen of love and beauty in place of the king's mistress. - Bran II, ASOS
x
Why shouldn't I marry Cersei openly and share her bed every night? The dragons always married their sisters. - Jaime III, ASOS
x
"I am sick of being careful. The Targaryens wed brother to sister, why shouldn't we do the same? Marry me, Cersei. Stand up before the realm and say it's me you want. We'll have our own wedding feast, and make another son in place of Joffrey." - Jaime VII ASOS
x
She pulled her hands away. "You are talking madness again. Would you have us ripped apart, as Mother did that time she caught us playing? Tommen would lose the throne, Myrcella her marriage . . . I want to be your wife, we belong to each other, but it can never be, Jaime. We are brother and sister."
"The Targaryens . . ."
"We are not Targaryens!" - Jaime IX, ASOS
+.+.+
Mance or Jon? Mance deserts for a cloak.
"You will have heard stories of my desertion, I have no doubt."
"Some say it was for a crown. Some say for a woman. Others that you had the wildling blood."
[...]
"It was for this."
"A cloak?" - Jon I, ASOS
x
+.+.+
Fertility and Children
The Tyrells have their sights set on Sansa.
"The Tyrells can trace their descent back to Garth Greenhand," was the best she could manage at short notice.
The Queen of Thorns snorted. "So can the Florents, the Rowans, the Oakhearts, and half the other noble houses of the south. Garth liked to plant his seed in fertile ground, they say. I shouldn't wonder that more than his hands were green." - Sansa I, ASOS
___
Three girls, with three different eggs.
An immense round fat man, as big as three Moon Boys, he came cartwheeling into the hall, vaulted onto the table, and laid a gigantic egg right in front of Sansa. "Break it, my lady," he commanded. When she did, a dozen yellow chicks escaped and began running in all directions. "Catch them!" Butterbumps exclaimed. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi," the Lysene girl said. "Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return." - Daenerys III, AGOT
x
Dany gazed at her eggs sadly. What had she expected? A thousand years ago they had been alive, but now they were only pretty rocks. They could not make a dragon. - Daenerys VI, AGOT
x
To break her fast the queen sent to the kitchens for two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey. But when she cracked the first egg and found a bloody half-formed chick inside, her stomach roiled. - Cersei III, AFFC
___
Dornish eggs, and a bat in Sansa's stomach.
For herself, she tried a little of the Dornish eggs, but the peppers burned her mouth. Otherwise she only nibbled at the fruit and fish and honeycakes. Every time Joffrey looked at her, her tummy got so fluttery that she felt as though she'd swallowed a bat. - Sansa IV, ASOS
___
Sons, and daughters.
Should you ever have a son, Sansa, beat him frequently so he learns to mind you. I only had the one boy and I hardly beat him at all, so now he pays more heed to Butterbumps than he does to me. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
You'll know that, when you have a child."
"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly.
Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry." - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
"I might get her with child."
"Aye, I'd hope so. A strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that?" - Jon II, ASOS
___
She added a third.
She pushed two of her snowballs together, added a third - Sansa VII, ASOS
___
Pearls.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
"The pearls symbolize fertility. The more pearls Your Worship wears, the more healthy children she will bear." - Daenerys VI, ADWD
x
Cersei Lannister ignored the question. "The cloak," she commanded, and the women brought it out: a long cloak of white velvet heavy with pearls. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
He showed them how each face bore the sigil of one of the great houses: ruby lion, emerald rose, onyx stag, silver trout, blue jade falcon, opal sun, and pearl direwolf. - Sansa IV, ASOS
x
The bodice was decorated with freshwater pearls, though. The cloak will cover them. The cloak was a deep green, with a large hood. She slipped the dress over her head, and donned the cloak, though she left the hood down for the moment. - Sansa V, ASOS
ACOK: Sansa VII (ch. 62) <- Daenerys V (ch. 63)
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
She was breaking her fast on a bowl of cold shrimp-and-persimmon soup when Irri brought her a Qartheen gown, an airy confection of ivory samite patterned with seed pearls. "Take it away," Dany said. "The docks are no place for lady's finery." - Daenerys V, ACOK
___
Jeyne Westerling or Sansa Stark?
Queen. Yes, this pretty little girl is a queen, I must remember that. She was pretty, undeniably, with her chestnut curls and heart-shaped face, and that shy smile. Slender, but with good hips, Catelyn noted. She should have no trouble bearing children, at least. - Catelyn II, ASOS
x
And at Winterfell, Sansa was a little girl with auburn hair. My daughter is a maiden tall and fair, and her hair is chestnut. Men see what they expect to see, Alayne. - Alayne I, ASOS
x
"Your bosom will be as lovely as the queen's," the old woman said as she looped her string around Sansa's chest. "You should not hide it so."
The comment made her blush. Yet the last time she'd gone riding, she could not lace her jerkin all the way to the top, and the stableboy gaped at her as he helped her mount. Sometimes she caught grown men looking at her chest as well, and some of her tunics were so tight she could scarce breathe in them. - Sansa II, ASOS
x
"Jeyne," she called after, "there's one more thing Robb needs from you, though he may not know it yet himself. A king must have an heir."
The girl smiled at that. "My mother says the same. She makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning. I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think. We . . . we try most every day, my lady. Sometimes twice or more." The girl blushed very prettily. "I'll be with child soon, I promise. I pray to our Mother Above, every night." - Catelyn III, ASOS
x
If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya. - Sansa II, ASOS
x
Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. - Arya I, AGOT
x
The girl did seem to have a good heart, just as Robb had said. And good hips, which might be more important. - Catelyn III, ASOS
x
Lady Tanda had been fleeing as well. "You have a good heart, my lady," she said to Sansa. - Sansa V, ASOS
___
Don't worry about Roslin, the mother was plenty fertile.
When she told him of Edmure's concerns about Lady Roslin's fertility, he chuckled. "Your lord brother need have no fear, Lady Catelyn. She's small, I'll grant you, and narrow in the hips, but her mother was the same, and Lady Bethany gave Lord Walder a child every year."
"How many lived past infancy?" she asked bluntly.
"Five." He ticked them off on fingers plump as sausages. - Catelyn VI, ASOS
___
For the one hundredth time: Mance or Jon?
The boy did not have a name yet, no more than Gilly's did. That was the wildling way. Not even Mance Rayder's son would get a name till his third year, it would seem, though Sam had heard the brothers calling him "the little prince" and "born-in-battle." - Samwell IV, ASOS
___
But what do they want?
He watched the child nurse at Gilly's breast, and then he watched Jon watch. Jon is smiling. A sad smile, still, but definitely a smile of sorts. Sam was glad to see it. It is the first time I've seen him smile since I got back. - Samwell IV, ASOS
x
I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
I don't want any Lannister, she wanted to say. I want Willas, I want Highgarden and the puppies and the barge, and sons named Eddard and Bran and Rickon. - Sansa III, ASOS
+.+.+
Her Florian.
Sansa smoothed down her skirts and sat. "I think . . . fools, my lady? You mean . . . the sort in motley?"
"Feathers, in this case. What did you imagine I was speaking of? My son? Or these lovely ladies? No, don't blush, with your hair it makes you look like a pomegranate. All men are fools, if truth be told, but the ones in motley are more amusing than ones with crowns. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
"A fool and a knight?" said Jonquil. "I have never heard of such a thing."
"Sweet lady," said Florian, "all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned." - The Hedge Knight
x
The pool from which the town took its name, where legend said that Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing with her sisters, was so choked with rotting corpses that the water had turned into a murky grey-green soup. - Jaime III, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa hears a dreadful song, and looks to the wrong people for help.
"I CALLED FOR A KNIGHT, BUT YOU'RE A BEAR! A BEAR! A BEAR! ALL BLACK AND BROWN AND COVERED WITH HAIR!" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Would he command his Kingsguard to strip her naked once again? The last time he had done that his uncle Tyrion had stopped him, but the Imp could not save her now. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
No one can save me but my Florian. Ser Dontos had promised he would help her escape, but not until the night of Joffrey's wedding. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
I wish the Hound were here. The night of the battle, Sandor Clegane had come to her chambers to take her from the city, but Sansa had refused. Sometimes she lay awake at night, wondering if she'd been wise. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
The words came tumbling out of her. "Yes. I will. I would like that more than anything. To wed Ser Loras, to love him . . ."
"Loras?" Lady Olenna sounded annoyed. "Don't be foolish, child. Kingsguard never wed. Didn't they teach you anything in Winterfell? We were speaking of my grandson Willas. He is a bit old for you, to be sure, but a dear boy for all that. Not the least bit oafish, and heir to Highgarden besides." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Thankfully the dreadful song ends, and the cheese finally arrives.
Thank you, @karynlibrarian and @minitafan!
x
Tyrion broke off a nibble of the cheese. It was sharp indeed, and veined with wine; very choice. "Whoever the king names will not have an easy time stepping into your armor, I can tell. Lord Mormont faces the same problem."
Lord Janos looked puzzled. - Tyrion II, ACOK
+.+.+
A little bear cub.
Tormund gave a shrug, as if to say he would never understand such madness. "Well, you are a free man now, but if you will not have the girl, best find yourself a she-bear. - Jon II, ASOS
x
"I do. Lysa has no cause for complaint." He smiled. "I wish you could see yourself, my lady. You are so beautiful. You're crusted over with snow like some little bear cub, but your face is flushed and you can scarcely breathe. - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jonnel (One-Eye) Stark, son of Lynara Stark, married to Sansa Stark.
Thank you, @occupyvenus!
"A blind boy, must be. Who ever heard of a king without ears? Why, his crown would fall straight down to his neck! Har!" - Jon I, ASOS
x
He could still hear wings, though the eagle was not in sight. Half his world was black. "My eye," he said in sudden panic, raising a hand to his face.
"It's only blood, Jon Snow. He missed the eye, just ripped your skin up some."
His face was throbbing. Tormund stood over them bellowing, he saw from his right eye as he rubbed blood from his left.
[...]
Ygritte said, "Orell tried to take his eye out."
"It was him I asked. Has he lost his tongue? Perhaps he should, to spare us further lies."
Styr the Magnar drew a long knife. "The boy might see more clear with one eye, instead of two."
"Would you like to keep your eye, Jon?" asked the King-beyond-the-Wall. - Jon II, ASOS
x
Were there twenty or twenty thousand? In the dark there was no way to tell. This is a battle of blind men, but Mance has a few thousand more of them than we do. - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
Pyp turned aside to retch, and Jon found himself envying Maester Aemon his blindness. - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
"Aye," Slynt said. "A blind man with a chain about his neck, who does he think he is?"
Aemon Targaryen, Jon thought, a king's son and a king's brother and a king who might have been. But he said nothing. - Jon X, ASOS
x
The first time he had seen the Wall he had been younger than Devan, serving aboard the Cobblecat under Roro Uhoris, a Tyroshi known up and down the narrow sea as the Blind Bastard, though he was neither blind nor baseborn. - Davos V, ASOS
+.+.+
Two Hearts that Beat as One: Jon and Sansa are forced into unwanted marriages.
Thank you, @esther-dot!
Mance nodded. "Good. You'll go with Jarl and Styr on the morrow, then. Both of you. Far be it from me to separate two hearts that beat as one." - Jon II, ASOS
x
Two hearts that beat as one. Mance Rayder's mocking words rang bitter in his head. Jon had seldom felt so confused. - Jon III, ASOS
___
"Here in the sight of gods and men," he said, "I do solemnly proclaim Tyrion of House Lannister and Sansa of House Stark to be man and wife, one flesh, one heart, one soul, now and forever, and cursed be the one who comes between them."
She had to bite her lip to keep from sobbing. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
If Tyrion did it, they will think I was part of it as well, she realized with a start of fear. How not? They were man and wife, and Joff had killed her father and mocked her with her brother's death. One flesh, one heart, one soul. - Sansa V, ASOS
+.+.+
It doesn't compare to kissing a king.
They spent long afternoons doing needlework and talking over lemon cakes and honeyed wine, played at tiles of an evening, sang together in the castle sept . . . and often one or two of them would be chosen to share Margaery's bed, where they would whisper half the night away. Alla had a lovely voice, and when coaxed would play the woodharp and sing songs of chivalry and lost loves. Megga couldn't sing, but she was mad to be kissed. She and Alla played a kissing game sometimes, she confessed, but it wasn't the same as kissing a man, much less a king. - Sansa II, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa keeps hearing stories about favors.
As for Elinor, she was promised to a young squire, a son of Lord Ambrose; they would be wed as soon as he won his spurs. He had worn her favor in the Battle of the Blackwater, where he'd slain a Myrish crossbowman and a Mullendore man-at-arms. "Alyn said her favor made him fearless," said Megga. "He says he shouted her name for his battle cry, isn't that ever so gallant? Someday I want some champion to wear my favor, and kill a hundred men." Elinor told her to hush, but looked pleased all the same. - Sansa II, ASOS
x
Your mother did not deserve him. She would not even give him her favor to wear when he fought Brandon Stark. I would have given him my favor. I gave him everything. He is mine now. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
He grinned. "I will hold you to that promise, my lady. Until that day, may I wear your favor in the tourney?"
"You may not. It is promised to...another." She was not sure who as yet, but she knew she would find someone. - Alayne I, TWOW
+.+.+
A Girl in Grey.
The Liddle took out a knife and whittled at a stick. "When there was a Stark in Winterfell, a maiden girl could walk the kingsroad in her name-day gown and still go unmolested, and travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast. But the nights are colder now, and doors are closed. There's squids in the wolfswood, and flayed men ride the kingsroad asking after strangers." - Bran II, ASOS
x
"No. I mean, yes." He blushed. "The colors. Our arms are purple and white chequy, my lady. With gold coins. In the checks. Purple and white. Both." He studied her feet.
"There's a tale behind those coins," said Tyrion. "No doubt Pod will confide it to your toes one day. Just now we are expected at the Queen's Ballroom, however. Shall we?" - Sansa IV, ASOS
x
Arya XII, ASOS -> <- Tyrion IX, ASOS
"There's frost above us and snow in the high passes," the village elder said. "If you don't freeze or starve, the shadowcats will get you, or the cave bears. There's the clans as well. The Burned Men are fearless since Timett One-Eye came back from the war. And half a year ago, Gunthor son of Gurn led the Stone Crows down on a village not eight miles from here. They took every woman and every scrap of grain, and killed half the men. They have steel now, good swords and mail hauberks, and they watch the high road—the Stone Crows, the Milk Snakes, the Sons of the Mist, all of them. Might be you'd take a few with you, but in the end they'd kill you and make off with your daughter." - Arya XII, ASOS
x
He could send Podrick Payne questing after Shagga, he supposed, but there were so many hiding places in the deep of the kingswood that outlaws often evaded capture for decades. And Pod sometimes has difficulty finding the kitchens when I sent him down for cheese. Timett son of Timett would likely be back in the Mountains of the Moon by now. - Tyrion IX, ASOS
x
A groom led a fine grey mare out the stable door. On her back was mounted a skinny hollow-eyed girl wrapped in a heavy cloak. Grey, it was, like the dress beneath it, and trimmed with white satin. The clasp that pinned it to her breast was wrought in the shape of a wolf's head with slitted opal eyes. The girl's long brown hair blew wild in the wind. She had a pretty face, he thought, but her eyes were sad and wary. - Jaime IX, ASOS
+.+.+
The Wall defends Jon and Sansa.
"I hate this Wall," she said in a low angry voice. "Can you feel how cold it is?"
"It's made of ice," Jon pointed out.
"You know nothing, Jon Snow. This wall is made o' blood."
Nor had it drunk its fill. By sunset, two of the Thenns had fallen from the ladder to their deaths, but they were the last. It was near midnight before Jon reached the top. The stars were out again, and Ygritte was trembling from the climb. "I almost fell," she said, with tears in her eyes. "Twice. Thrice. The Wall was trying t' shake me off, I could feel it." One of the tears broke free and trickled slowly down her cheek. - Jon IV, ASOS
x
He had always had a yen to see the Titan of Braavos. Perhaps that would please Sansa. Gently, he spoke of Braavos, and met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he had walked once in the north. It made him weary. Then and now. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
x
"Courtesy is a lady's armor," Sansa said. Her septa had always told her that.
"I am your husband. You can take off your armor now." - Sansa III, ASOS
+.+.+
Cold courtesy.
Perhaps that would please Sansa. Gently, he spoke of Braavos, and met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he had walked once in the north. It made him weary. Then and now. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
x
Jon Snow sat up suddenly, and the three men froze at the sound of the slosh. "My lords," he said with cold courtesy. - Jon XII, ASOS
+.+.+
The Wall is yours, Jon.
The Wall is mine, Jon reminded himself whenever he felt his strength flagging. - Jon VII, ASOS
x
The Wall is mine, he reminded himself. - Jon IX, ASOS
x
Gently, he spoke of Braavos, and met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he had walked once in the north. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon and Sansa are left in charge, and reassure terrified people during a battle.
Thank you, @aegor-bamfsteel!
He looked around the ring of firelit faces. "I need two bows and two spears to help me hold the tunnel if they break the gate." More than ten stepped forward, and the smith picked his four. "Jon, you have the Wall till I return."
For a moment Jon thought he had misheard. It had sounded as if Noye were leaving him in command. "My lord?"
"Lord? I'm a blacksmith. I said, the Wall is yours."
There are older men, Jon wanted to say, better men. I am still as green as summer grass. I'm wounded, and I stand accused of desertion. His mouth had gone bone dry. "Aye," he managed.
[...]
"The Wall will stop them," Jon heard himself say. He turned and said it again, louder. "The Wall will stop them. The Wall defends itself." Hollow words, but he needed to say them, almost as much as his brothers needed to hear them. "Mance wants to unman us with his numbers. Does he think we're stupid?" He was shouting now, his leg forgotten, and every man was listening. "The chariots, the horsemen, all those fools on foot . . . what are they going to do to us up here? Any of you ever see a mammoth climb a wall?" He laughed, and Pyp and Owen and half a dozen more laughed with him. "They're nothing, they're less use than our straw brothers here, they can't reach us, they can't hurt us, and they don't frighten us, do they?" - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
"Oh, gods," an old woman wailed. "We're lost, the battle's lost, she's running." Several children were crying. They can smell the fear. Sansa found herself alone on the dais. Should she stay here, or run after the queen and plead for her life?
She never knew why she got to her feet, but she did. "Don't be afraid," she told them loudly. "The queen has raised the drawbridge. This is the safest place in the city. There's thick walls, the moat, the spikes . . ."
[...]
Sansa raised her hands for quiet. "Joffrey's come back to the castle. He's not hurt. They're still fighting, that's all I know, they're fighting bravely. The queen will be back soon." The last was a lie, but she had to soothe them. She noticed the fools standing under the galley. "Moon Boy, make us laugh."
[...]
Sansa went to Ser Lancel and knelt beside him. His wound was bleeding afresh where the queen had struck him. "Madness," he gasped. "Gods, the Imp was right, was right . . ."
"Help him," Sansa commanded two of the serving men. One just looked at her and ran, flagon and all. Other servants were leaving the hall as well, but she could not help that. Together, Sansa and the serving man got the wounded knight back on his feet. "Take him to Maester Frenken." - Sansa VII, ACOK
+.+.+
Jon the Gargoyle.
Thank you, @dontbipanicjonsa and @minitafan!
When the moonstones hung from Sansa's ears and about her neck, the queen nodded. "Yes. The gods have been kind to you, Sansa. You are a lovely girl. It seems almost obscene to squander such sweet innocence on that gargoyle."
"What gargoyle?" Sansa did not understand. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
He raised his eyes to gaze up at the walls. In place of merlons, a thousand grotesques and gargoyles looked down on him, each different from all the others; wyverns, griffins, demons, manticores, minotaurs, basilisks, hellhounds, cockatrices, and a thousand queerer creatures sprouted from the castle's battlements as if they'd grown there. - Davos V, ASOS
x
Ser Garlan laughed. "I was a plump little boy, I fear, and we do have an uncle called Garth the Gross. So Willas struck first, though not before threatening me with Garlan the Greensick, Garlan the Galling, and Garlan the Gargoyle." - Sansa III, ASOS
x
Again he had the answer. "It's been snowing on your castle, my lady," he pointed out. "What do the gargoyles look like when they're covered with snow?" - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Tyrion, the Targaryen groom.
Thank you, @butterflies-dragons!
Tyrion wore a doublet of black velvet covered with golden scrollwork, thigh-high boots that added three inches to his height, a chain of rubies and lions' heads. - Sansa III, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa, the Targaryen wedding guest.
Sansa wore a gown of silvery satin trimmed in vair, with dagged sleeves that almost touched the floor, lined in soft purple felt. Shae had arranged her hair artfully in a delicate silver net winking with dark purple gemstones. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Laughing despite everything.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
It was so sweet and silly that Sansa had to laugh, despite everything. Afterward she was absurdly grateful. Somehow the laughter made her hopeful again, if only for a little while. Smiling, she let the music take her, losing herself in the steps, in the sound of flute and pipes and harp, in the rhythm of the drum . . . and from time to time in Ser Garlan's arms, when the dance brought them together. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
Jon had to laugh. Even now, even here. Ygritte had been fond of Longspear Ryk. He hoped he found some joy with Tormund's Munda. Someone needed to find some joy somewhere. - Jon X, ASOS
+.+.+
A shy maid on her wedding night.
Her hands trembled as she began fumbling at her clothes. She had ten thumbs instead of fingers, and all of them were broken. Yet somehow she managed the laces and buttons, and her cloak and gown and girdle and undersilk slid to the floor, until finally she was stepping out of her smallclothes. Gooseprickles covered her arms and legs. She kept her eyes on the floor, too shy to look at him, but when she was done she glanced up and found him staring. There was hunger in his green eye, it seemed to her, and fury in the black. Sansa did not know which scared her more. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
Qhorin came and stood over him as the first flame rose up flickering from the shavings of bark and dead dry pine needles. "As shy as a maid on her wedding night," the big ranger said in a soft voice, "and near as fair. Sometimes a man forgets how pretty a fire can be."
He was not a man you'd expect to speak of maids and wedding nights. So far as Jon knew, Qhorin had spent his whole life in the Watch. Did he ever love a maid or have a wedding? He could not ask. Instead he fanned the fire. When the blaze was all acrackle, he peeled off his stiff gloves to warm his hands, and sighed, wondering if ever a kiss had felt as good. - Jon VIII, ACOK
+.+.+
Two imprisoned husbands? Quickly after Tyrion is arrested, Jon Snow joins him.
"Hush, you'll be the death of us. I did nothing. Come, we must away, they'll search for you. Your husband's been arrested."
"Tyrion?" she said, shocked.
"Do you have another husband? The Imp, the dwarf uncle, she thinks he did it." He grabbed her hand and pulled at her. "This way, we must away, quickly now, have no fear." - Sansa V, ASOS
x
Slynt purpled. "Murder? You insolent pup. King Robert was not even cold when Lord Eddard moved against his son." He rose to his feet; a shorter man than Mormont, but thick about the chest and arms, with a gut to match. A small gold spear tipped with red enamel pinned his cloak at the shoulder. "Your father died by the sword, but he was highborn, a King's Hand. For you, a noose will serve. Ser Alliser, take this turncloak to an ice cell." - Jon IX, ASOS
+.+.+
A dragon knight shows up all over Sansa's chapter.
They continued down the serpentine and across a small sunken courtyard. Ser Dontos shoved open a heavy door and lit a taper. They were inside a long gallery. Along the walls stood empty suits of armor, dark and dusty, their helms crested with rows of scales that continued down their backs. As they hurried past, the taper's light made the shadows of each scale stretch and twist. The hollow knights are turning into dragons, she thought. - Sansa V, ASOS
___
Sansa dared not look down. She kept her eyes on the face of the cliff, making certain of each step before reaching for the next. The stone was rough and cold. Sometimes she could feel her fingers slipping, and the handholds were not as evenly spaced as she would have liked. The bells would not stop ringing. Before she was halfway down her arms were trembling and she knew that she was going to fall. One more step, she told herself, one more step. She had to keep moving. If she stopped, she would never start again, and dawn would find her still clinging to the cliff, frozen in fear. One more step, and one more step.
The ground took her by surprise. She stumbled and fell, her heart pounding. When she rolled onto her back and stared up at from where she had come, her head swam dizzily and her fingers clawed at the dirt. I did it. I did it, I didn't fall, I made the climb and now I'm going home. - Sansa V, ASOS
x
One step and then another, Jon told himself. One step and then another, and I will not fall. [...]
One step and then another, he resumed when the gale subsided. One step and then another, and I will not fall. [...]
One step and then another, he thought, clinging tight. [...]
Don't look down. Keep your weight above your feet. Don't look down. Look at the rock in front of you. There's a good handhold, yes. Don't look down. I can catch a breath on that ledge there, all I need to do is reach it. Never look down. - Jon VI, ACOK
+.+.+
A ghostly shape appears at the hint of dawn.
The eastern sky was vague with the first hint of dawn when Sansa finally saw a ghostly shape in the darkness ahead - Sansa V, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon and Sansa are drowning.
Thank you, @minitafan!
Ser Loras in white silk, so pure, innocent, beautiful. The dimples at the corner of his mouth when he smiled. The sweetness of his laugh, the warmth of his hand. She could only imagine what it would be like to pull up his tunic and caress the smooth skin underneath, to stand on her toes and kiss him, to run her fingers through those thick brown curls and drown in his deep brown eyes. A flush crept up her neck. - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Longclaw seemed heavier than lead in his hand, too heavy to lift. The man kept staring at him, with eyes as big and black as wells. I will fall into those eyes and drown. - Jon V, ASOS
x
Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC
+.+.+
Sam, Gilly, and weird sister thoughts while sleeping.
He liked sleeping next to her. It made him remember times long past, when he had shared a huge bed at Horn Hill with two of his sisters. - Samwell III, ASOS
x
When the feast was done he went up to sleep; not to the lord's bedchamber where his mother and father lived but to the room he had once shared with his sisters. Only instead of his sisters it was Gilly waiting in the huge soft bed, wearing nothing but a big shaggy fur, milk leaking from her breasts. - Samwell III, ASOS
+.+.+
The blood of Winterfell.
When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirwood that had his father's face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn't, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night's Watch. I will not father a bastard, he told her. I will not. I will not. - Jon VI, ASOS
x
I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. - Sansa I, AFFC
+.+.+
Sons and daughters of Winterfell.
Lord Commander Mormont made you his steward. You are a son of Winterfell, a nephew of Benjen Stark. It must be you or no one. The Wall is yours, Jon Snow. - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
I forgot, you've been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. - Arya XIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Stone and Snow are north of the Neck.
Lord Redwyne laughed. "What is there north of the Neck that any sane man would want? If Greyjoy will trade swords and sails for stone and snow, I say do it, and count ourselves lucky." - Tyrion III, ASOS
+.+.+
I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you.
It was not as though he was the first man ever to keep a concubine. Sansa's own oh-so-honorable father had given her a bastard brother. - Tyrion VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon and Ygritte open and close like their foils.
Jon slid his dirk free, grabbing the man by the hair and jamming the point of the knife up under his chin as he reached for his—no, her—
His hand froze. "A girl." - Jon VI, ACOK
x
"I never meant to steal you," he said. "I never knew you were a girl until my knife was at your throat." - Jon III, ASOS
x
"Just as if I was one of those true knights you love so well, yes. What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it's all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing." He laid the edge of his longsword against her neck, just under her ear. Sansa could feel the sharpness of the steel. - Sansa IV, ACOK
___
"Oh." Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she sighed, dying. - Jon VII
x
Some instinct made her lift her hand and cup his cheek with her fingers. The room was too dark for her to see him, but she could feel the stickiness of the blood, and a wetness that was not blood. "Little bird," he said once more, his voice raw and harsh as steel on stone. Then he rose from the bed. Sansa heard cloth ripping, followed by the softer sound of retreating footsteps. - Sansa VII, ACOK
+.+.+
Prince Aemon keeps following Sansa around the story.
ASOS: Jon XII (ch. 79) -> Sansa VII (ch. 80)
They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. "I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, "Well, I'm Florian the Fool." Or Robb would say, "I'm the Young Dragon," and Jon would reply, "I'm Ser Ryam Redwyne." - Jon XII, ASOS
x
"Sweet one," her father said gently, "listen to me. When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake. That boy is no Prince Aemon, you must believe me." - Sansa III, AGOT
x
The gift of a sword, even a sword as fine as Longclaw, did not make him a Mormont. Nor was he Aemon Targaryen. - Jon IX, AGOT
x
AGOT: Sansa IV (ch. 51) -> Jon VII (ch. 52)
She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother's queen. - Sansa IV, AGOT
x
ACOK: Jon VI (ch. 51) <- Sansa IV (ch. 52) -> Jon VII (ch. 53)
She called for the heroes from the songs, for Florian and Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard. - Sansa IV, ACOK
x
"No doubt you're right. So why don't you just eat your broth like a good girl and wait for Symeon Star-Eyes and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight to come rescue you, sweetling. I'm sure it won't be very long now." - Sansa V, ACOK
+.+.+
The theme of wanton behaviour suddenly explodes for two characters who have never exhibited wanton behaviour.
He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit. - Jon VII, ASOS
x
Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. - Jon X, ASOS
x
Where are you going? Are you afraid? Such wanton behavior must be punished, but I will not be hard on you. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
"So you admit it now? It was you, just as I thought. You are as wanton as your mother." - Sansa VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Most succumb to their baser selves.
"I have heard that in the Sunset Kingdoms men take solemn vows to keep chaste and father no children, but live only for their duty. Is it not so?"
"It is," Arstan said, when the question was put. "There are many such orders. The maesters of the Citadel, the septons and septas who serve the Seven, the silent sisters of the dead, the Kingsguard and the Night's Watch . . ."
"Poor things," growled the slaver, after the translation. "Men were not made to live thus. Their days are a torment of temptation, any fool must see, and no doubt most succumb to their baser selves. Not so our Unsullied. They are wed to their swords in a way that your Sworn Brothers cannot hope to match. No woman can ever tempt them, nor any man." - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Cinderella, her evil step-mother, and the glass slipper. Where's Prince Charming?
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Up in the gallery the musicians took up their pipes and horns and fiddles again, and began to play "The Queen Took Off Her Sandal, the King Took Off His Crown." - Catelyn VII, ASOS
x
They brought her new shoes as well, slippers of soft grey doeskin that hugged her feet like lovers. "You are very beautiful, my lady," the seamstress said when she was dressed. - Sansa III, ASOS
x
Lysa threw herself into Littlefinger's arms, sobbing. As they hugged, Sansa crawled from the Moon Door on hands and knees and wrapped her arms around the nearest pillar. She could feel her heart pounding. There was snow in her hair and her right shoe was missing. It must have fallen. She shuddered, and hugged the pillar tighter. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
Irri slid the slippers onto Dany's feet. They were gilded leather, decorated with green freshwater pearls. Does the butcher king believe a pair of pretty slippers will win my hand? "King Cleon is most generous. You may thank him for his lovely gift." Lovely, but made for a child. Dany had small feet, yet the pointed slippers mashed her toes together. - Daenerys I, ADWD
x
One of her sandals had slipped off during her wild flight from Meereen and she had left the other up by Drogon's cave, preferring to go barefoot rather than half-shod. - Daenerys X, ADWD
+.+.+
Will it be a Dornish princess for Aegon, and a northern girl for Aemon? Double ouch.
"Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late." She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. "If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Sansa and Jon are all alone in bed.
Jon wondered where Ghost was now. Had he gone to Castle Black, or was he was running with some wolfpack in the woods? He had no sense of the direwolf, not even in his dreams. It made him feel as if part of himself had been cut off. Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. He did not want to die alone. - Jon V, ASOS
x
She threw back the coverlets. I must be brave. Her torments would soon be ended, one way or the other. If Lady was here, I would not be afraid. Lady was dead, though; Robb, Bran, Rickon, Arya, her father, her mother, even Septa Mordane. All of them are dead but me. She was alone in the world now.
Her lord husband was not beside her, but she was used to that. Tyrion was a bad sleeper and often rose before the dawn. - Sansa IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Loopholes.
"By the High Septon or a Council of Faith. Our present High Septon is a trained seal who barks prettily on command. Moon Boy is more like to annul my marriage than he is." - Tyrion IV, ASOS
x
Robb's fingers brushed the pommel of his sword. "If I could I'd take his ugly head off. Sansa would be a widow then, and free. There's no other way that I can see. They made her speak the vows before a septon and don a crimson cloak." - Catelyn IV, ASOS
x
I wonder what the High Septon would have to say about the sanctity of oaths sworn while dead drunk, chained to a wall, with a sword pressed to your chest? Not that Jaime was truly concerned about that fat fraud, or the gods he claimed to serve. - Jaime I, ASOS
x
"You gave her to him?" she cried, dismayed. "You swore an oath to Lady Catelyn . . ."
"With a sword at my throat, but never mind. Lady Catelyn's dead. I could not give her back her daughters even if I had them. And the girl my father sent with Steelshanks was not Arya Stark." - Jaime IX, ASOS
x
"Vows made at sword point are not valid," the maester argued. - Bran V, ACOK
x
"She is old enough to be Lady of Winterfell once her brother is dead. Claim her maidenhood and you will be one step closer to claiming the north. Get her with child, and the prize is all but won. Do I need to remind you that a marriage that has not been consummated can be set aside?" - Tyrion IV, ASOS
x
Jaime sighed. "Then let them wed. It will be years before Tommen is old enough to consummate the marriage. And until he does, the union can always be set aside. Give Tyrell his wedding and send him off to play at war." - Jaime I, AFFC
x
"The monster has tied us a thorny knot," the old knight told Maester Luwin. "Like it or no, Lady Hornwood was his wife. He made her say the vows before both septon and heart tree, and bedded her that very night before witnesses. She signed a will naming him as heir and fixed her seal to it." - Bran V, ACOK
x
Septon Cellador cleared his throat. "Lord Slynt," he said, "this boy refused to swear his vows properly in the sept, but went beyond the Wall to say his words before a heart tree. His father's gods, he said, but they are wildling gods as well."
"They are the gods of the north, Septon." Maester Aemon was courteous, but firm. - Jon IX, ASOS
x
(A vow sworn in a sept . . .)
"Jon." Melisandre was so close he could feel the warmth of her breath. "R'hllor is the only true god. A vow sworn to a tree has no more power than one sworn to your shoes. Open your heart and let the light of the Lord come in. Burn these weirwoods, and accept Winterfell as a gift of the Lord of Light." - Jon XI, ASOS
+.+.+
Her claim.
"The girl's happiness is not my purpose, nor should it be yours. Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark." - Tyrion III, ASOS
x
The thought made Sansa weary. All she knew of Robert Arryn was that he was a little boy, and sickly. It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
"How can I lose men I do not have? I had hoped to bestow Winterfell on a northman, you may recall. A son of Eddard Stark. He threw my offer in my face." Stannis Baratheon with a grievance was like a mastiff with a bone; he gnawed it down to splinters.
"By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa." - Jon I, ADWD
+.+.+
Tyrion wants Winterfell and Sansa. Jon wants Winterfell and . . .
I want her, he realized. I want Winterfell, yes, but I want her as well, child or woman or whatever she is. I want to comfort her. I want to hear her laugh. I want her to come to me willingly, to bring me her joys and her sorrows and her lust. - Tyrion IV, ASOS
x
When Jon had been very young, too young to understand what it meant to be a bastard, he used to dream that one day Winterfell might be his. - Jon XI, ASOS
x
I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. Val would want to keep her sister's son, but we could foster him at Winterfell, and Gilly's boy as well. Sam would never need to tell his lie. We'd find a place for Gilly too, and Sam could come visit her once a year or so. Mance's son and Craster's would grow up brothers, as I once did with Robb.
He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. - Jon XII, ASOS
+.+.+
Count on Jon and Sansa to always forget someone.
Sansa had grown up with three brothers. She never thought to have a claim, but with Bran and Rickon dead . . . It doesn't matter, there's still Robb, he's a man grown now, and soon he'll wed and have a son. - Sansa II, ASOS
x
She threw back the coverlets. I must be brave. Her torments would soon be ended, one way or the other. If Lady was here, I would not be afraid. Lady was dead, though; Robb, Bran, Rickon, Arya, her father, her mother, even Septa Mordane. All of them are dead but me. She was alone in the world now. - Sansa IV, ASOS
+.+.+
They have the look.
"I see it now," the Lady Lysa said, as she set the core aside. "You look so much like Catelyn."
"It's kind of you to say so."
"It was not meant as flattery. If truth be told, you look too much like Catelyn. - Sansa VI, ASOS
x
Stannis snorted. "I know Janos Slynt. And I knew Ned Stark as well. Your father was no friend of mine, but only a fool would doubt his honor or his honesty. You have his look." - Jon XI, ASOS
+.+.+
He's no Loras, but I don't think she'll be disappointed.
She could never hold a picture of Willas long in her head, though; her imaginings kept turning him back into Ser Loras, young and graceful and beautiful. You must not think of him like that, she told herself. Or else he may see the disappointment in your eyes when you meet, and how could he marry you then, knowing it was his brother you loved? - Sansa II, ASOS
x
She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber. - Catelyn V, ASOS
+.+.+
Throwaway lines that make us smile.
Dress warmly, Ser Dontos had told her, and dress dark. She had no blacks, so she chose a dress of thick brown wool. - Sansa V, ASOS
+.+.+
Shades of Jon.
"The dwarf's wife did the murder with him," swore an archer in Lord Rowan's livery. "Afterward, she vanished from the hall in a puff of brimstone, and a ghostly direwolf was seen prowling the Red Keep, blood dripping from his jaws." - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
"I forgot, you've been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. But she left the dwarf behind and Cersei means to have his head." - Arya XIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon hears a familiar song.
Thank you, @minitafan!
Yet still the drums beat on, the trebuchets shuddered and thumped, and the sound of skinpipes came wafting through the night like the songs of strange fierce birds. Septon Cellador began to sing as well, his voice tremulous and thick with wine.
Gentle Mother, font of mercy - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
"Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life."
Her throat was dry and tight with fear, and every song she had ever known had fled from her mind. Please don’t kill me, she wanted to scream, please don’t. She could feel him twisting the point, pushing it into her throat, and she almost closed her eyes again, but then she remembered. It was not the song of Florian and Jonquil, but it was a song. Her voice sounded small and thin and tremulous in her ears.
Gentle Mother, font of mercy - Sansa VII, ACOK
+.+.+
Arya's sister catches a crow.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
The crows were there too, screaming at the wolves and filling the air with feathers. Their blood was hotter, and one of her sisters had snapped at one as it took flight and caught it by the wing. It made her want a crow herself. She wanted to taste the blood, to hear the bones crunch between her teeth, to fill her belly with warm flesh instead of cold. She was hungry and the meat was all around, but she knew she could not eat. - Arya XII, ASOS
+.+.+
Alayne Stone or Jon Snow?
"I have no gallant knights in my service, Alayne. Such a tale would draw unwanted questions as a corpse draws crows. It is rude to pry into the origins of a man's natural children, however." He cocked his head. "So, who are you?"
"Alayne . . . Stone, would it be?" When he nodded, she said, "But who is my mother?" - Sansa VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Samwell Tarly or Sansa Stark?
Sobbing, he took another step. The snow swirled down around him. [...]
Sobbing, he took another step. The crust was broken where he set his feet, otherwise he did not think he could have moved at all. [...]
Sobbing, he took another step. - Samwell I, ASOS
x
One more step, she told herself, one more step. She had to keep moving. If she stopped, she would never start again, and dawn would find her still clinging to the cliff, frozen in fear. One more step, and one more step. - Sansa V, ASOS
___
Maslyn screamed for mercy. Why had he suddenly remembered that? It was nothing he wanted to remember. The man had stumbled backward, dropping his sword, pleading, yielding, even yanking off his thick black glove and thrusting it up before him as if it were a gauntlet. He was still shrieking for quarter as the wight lifted him in the air by the throat and near ripped the head off him. The dead have no mercy left in them, and the Others . . . no, I mustn't think of that, don't think, don't remember, just walk, just walk, just walk.
[...]
Why must he remember the fight at the Fist? He didn't want to remember. Not that. He tried to make himself remember his mother, or his little sister Talla, or that girl Gilly at Craster's Keep. - Samwell I, ASOS
x
Sansa did not know what had happened to Jeyne, who had disappeared from her rooms afterward, never to be mentioned again. She tried not to think of them too often, yet sometimes the memories came unbidden, and then it was hard to hold back the tears. - Sansa II, ACOK
___
Sam knew a hundred songs, but when he tried to think of one he couldn't. The words had all gone from his head. He sobbed again and said, "I don't know any songs, Grenn. I did know some, but now I don't." - Samwell I, ASOS
x
Her throat was dry and tight with fear, and every song she had ever known had fled from her mind. Please don't kill me, she wanted to scream, please don't. - Sansa VII, ACOK
___
Whatever pride his lord father might have felt at Samwell's birth vanished as the boy grew up plump, soft, and awkward. Sam loved to listen to music and make his own songs, to wear soft velvets, to play in the castle kitchen beside the cooks, drinking in the rich smells as he snitched lemon cakes and blueberry tarts. His passions were books and kittens and dancing, clumsy as he was. But he grew ill at the sight of blood, and wept to see even a chicken slaughtered. - Jon IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Remembering Robb.
She had last seen snow the day she'd left Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. Robb had melting flakes in his hair when he hugged me, and the snowball Arya tried to make kept coming apart in her hands. - Sansa VII, ASOS
x
He remembered Robb as he had last seen him, standing in the yard with snow melting in his auburn hair. - Jon IX, AGOT
+.+.+
Jon's better at sums.
Thank you, @trins-trins!
She was looking at him the way she used to look at him at Winterfell, whenever he had bested Robb at swords or sums or most anything. - Jon XII, ASOS
x
It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward. - Arya I, AGOT
x
"Matthar, to the rangers. Dareon, to the stewards. Todder, to the rangers. Jon, to the stewards."
The stewards! For a moment Jon could not believe what he had heard. - Jon VI, AGOT
+.+.+
Oh no, does Willas have a bad leg?
"Willas has a bad leg but a good heart," said Margaery. "He used to read to me when I was a little girl, and draw me pictures of the stars. You will love him as much as we do, Sansa." - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Suddenly he was too weary to stand, and his leg was agony from knee to groin. He fumbled for his crutch. - Jon VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
Ashford alert: Willas was supposed to be another Leo.
The Fat Flower thrust him into tourneys at too tender an age, just as he did with the other two. He wanted another Leo Longthorn, and made himself a cripple. - Tyrion V, ASOS
+.+.+
Here we go again! A plot device does her best Sansa Stark impression.
Val looked at him with pale grey eyes. "He always climbed too fast." She was as fair as he'd remembered, slender, full-breasted, graceful even at rest, with high sharp cheekbones and a thick braid of honey-colored hair that fell to her waist. - Jon X, ASOS
x
Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue - Jon XI, ADWD
vs.
Worse, she was beautiful. - Arya I, AGOT
x
"Your bosom will be as lovely as the queen's," the old woman said as she looped her string around Sansa's chest. "You should not hide it so." - Sansa II, ASOS
x
"I had heard that Lord Littlefinger's daughter was fair of face and full of grace, but no one ever told me that she was a thief." - Alayne I, TWOW
x
Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones - Arya I, AGOT
x
"OH, SWEET SHE WAS, AND PURE, AND FAIR! THE MAID WITH HONEY IN HER HAIR!" - Sansa I, ASOS
x
Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC
___
Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.
They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely. - Jon XI, ADWD
vs.
She donned silken smallclothes and a linen shift, and over that a warm dress of blue lambswool. Two pairs of hose for her legs, boots that laced up to her knees, heavy leather gloves, and finally a hooded cloak of soft white fox fur.
[...]
He smiled. "I wish you could see yourself, my lady. You are so beautiful. You're crusted over with snow like some little bear cub, but your face is flushed and you can scarcely breathe. How long have you been out here? You must be very cold. Let me warm you, Sansa. - Sansa VII, ASOS
You can ignore this post, or you can open it and find out how Daenerys dies.
It is up to you to make the right decision.
ASOS Part II: UNDER THE CUT
Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs
Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ
Showdown at the Trident
A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪
The Usurper's Knife
Bran the Dragonslayer?
Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉
ASOS Part I: CLICK
Sansa Stark, Queen in the North
Jon Snow, King in the North
Jon (Aemon?) Snow
Jon the Builder & His Gift
Ahoy Matey! Arya Stark Sails the Ocean Blue
Bran the Broken, King of Westeros
High Septon Rickon?
Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Mines of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing
Tyrion Lannister, (Prisoner?) Hand of the King
In Remembrance: A Look Back at Sandor Clegane's & Ygritte's Greatest Moments
ASOS Part III: CLICK (coming soon)
JONSA 🐺❤️❄️
ASOS Part IV: CLICK (coming soon)
Chapter Transitions
Previous books:
AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK
ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I & PART II
Stumpy note:
If I didn't to give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂
DARK DAENERYS HIGHLIGHTS & LAUGHS
Davos recalls the time King's Landing burned, and gives us some fun language in the process.
And then some vast beast had let out a roar, and green flames were all around them: wildfire, pyromancer's piss, the jade demon.
[...]
The sight of it seemed to stop his heart for a moment, and he could still remember the sound of it, the crackle of flames, the hiss of steam, the shrieks of dying men, and the beat of that terrible heat against his face as the current swept him down toward hell.
[...]
In his dreams the river was still aflame and demons danced upon the waters with fiery whips in their hands, while men blackened and burned beneath the lash. - Davos I, ASOS
+.+.+
The gargoyles ripped apart, and the Targaryen fleet crumbled when Daenerys Stormborn entered the world.
No squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called, for she had come howling into the world on distant Dragonstone as the greatest storm in the memory of Westeros howled outside, a storm so fierce that it ripped gargoyles from the castle walls and smashed her father's fleet to kindling. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
A choice she'll always make.
Captain Groleo was an old Pentoshi like his master, Illyrio Mopatis, and he had been nervous as a maiden about carrying three dragons on his ship. Half a hundred buckets of seawater still hung from the gunwales, in case of fires. At first Groleo had wanted the dragons caged and Dany had consented to put his fears at ease, but their misery was so palpable that she soon changed her mind and insisted they be freed. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
And never full.
He was always hungry, her Drogon. - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. - Daenerys X, ADWD
+.+.+
Balerion was useless in calm.
But the great cog Balerion was a song of a different key; a ponderous broad-beamed sow of a ship with immense holds and huge sails, but helpless in a calm. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
The jokes are writing themselves.
"I cannot see Drogon," said Ser Jorah Mormont as he joined her on the forecastle. "Is he lost again?"
"We are the ones who are lost, ser. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
I'll take Things You'd Never Hear Bran Say, for $500.
"He could be very harsh to those he thought his enemies."
"A wise man never makes an enemy of a king," said Dany. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys, the Third of Her Name.
Whitebeard bowed his head. "It is not my place to question the words of Prince Viserys."
"King," Dany corrected. "He was a king, though he never reigned. Viserys, the Third of His Name. But what do you mean?" - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
The third-born aunt better hope the real heir isn't out there somewhere.
She tried to imagine what it would feel like, when she first caught sight of the land she was born to rule. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
A brother tries to steal a prize from Drogon's jaws.
As his sharp black teeth snapped shut around it, Rhaegal's head darted close, as if to steal the prize from his brother's jaws, but Drogon swallowed and screamed, and the smaller green dragon could only hiss in frustration. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
Other & dragon parallels that make us laugh: "Oh" edition.
The wights had been slow clumsy things, but the Other was light as snow on the wind. It slid away from Paul's axe, armor rippling, and its crystal sword twisted and spun and slipped between the iron rings of Paul's mail, through leather and wool and bone and flesh. It came out his back with a hissssssssssss and Sam heard Paul say, "Oh," as he lost the axe. - Samwell I, ASOS
x
When he raised his whip, he saw that the lash was burning. His hand as well. All of him, all of him was burning.
Oh, he thought. Then he began to scream. - The Dragontamer, ADWD
+.+.+
Other & dragon parallels that make us laugh: smoking blood edition.
When he opened his eyes the Other's armor was running down its legs in rivulets as pale blue blood hissed and steamed around the black dragonglass dagger in its throat. It reached down with two bone-white hands to pull out the knife, but where its fingers touched the obsidian they smoked. - Samwell I, ASOS
x
The dragon gave one last hiss and stretched out flat upon his belly. Black blood was flowing from the wound where the spear had pierced him, smoking where it dripped onto the scorched sands. He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I. - Daenerys IX, ADWD
+.+.+
Thunder is crashing and booming, and a kingdom is falling.
Outside the thunder crashed and boomed, so loud it sounded as if the castle were coming down about their ears. Is this the sound of a kingdom falling? Catelyn wondered. - Catelyn III, ASOS
x
Finally the crone opened her eye and lifted her arms. "I have seen his face, and heard the thunder of his hooves," she proclaimed in a thin, wavery voice. - Daenerys V, AGOT
x
He flapped them once as he swept back above the sands, and the sound was like a clap of thunder. - Daenerys IX, ADWD
+.+.+
Azor Ahai reborn.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
She talks of prophecies . . . a hero reborn in the sea, living dragons hatched from dead stone . . . she speaks of signs and swears they point to me. - Davos V, ASOS
x
"The frightened child who sheltered in my manse died on the Dothraki sea, and was reborn in blood and fire. This dragon queen who wears her name is a true Targaryen. - Tyrion II, ADWD
x
Stone, she told herself. They are only stone, even Illyrio said so, the dragons are all dead. - Daenerys III, AGOT
x
It is written in prophecy as well. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone. - Davos III, ASOS
x
Dany looked and saw it, low in the east. The first star was a comet, burning red. Bloodred; fire red; the dragon's tail. She could not have asked for a stronger sign. - Daenerys X, AGOT
x
Dragonstone was grim beyond a doubt, a lonely citadel in the wet waste surrounded by storm and salt, with the smoking shadow of the mountain at its back. - Prologue, ACOK
x
"Burnt," said Salladhor Saan, "and be glad of that, my friend. Do you know the tale of the forging of Lightbringer?
[...]
It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel.
[...]
A true sword of fire, now, that would be a wonder to behold. Yet at such a cost . . . When he thought of Nissa Nissa, it was his own Marya he pictured, a good-natured plump woman with sagging breasts and a kindly smile, the best woman in the world. He tried to picture himself driving a sword through her, and shuddered. I am not made of the stuff of heroes, he decided. If that was the price of a magic sword, it was more than he cared to pay. - Davos I, ACOK
x
"He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi," the Lysene girl said. "Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. - Daenerys III, AGOT
x
"I wish I had a flaming sword." Arya could think of lots of people she'd like to set on fire. - Arya IV, ASOS
x
When your dragons were small they were a wonder. Grown, they are death and devastation, a flaming sword above the world." - Daenerys III, ADWD
+.+.+
A warning or a prophecy? Despite George R. R. Martin's best efforts, the readers of the book still don't get it.
"An ant who hears the words of a king may not comprehend what he is saying," Melisandre said, "and all men are ants before the fiery face of god. If sometimes I have mistaken a warning for a prophecy or a prophecy for a warning, the fault lies in the reader, not the book. But this I know for a certainty—envoys and pardons will not serve you now, no more than leeches. You must show the realm a sign. A sign that proves your power!" - Davos V, ASOS
+.+.+
Fire consumes her.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
"I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning . . . burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?" - Davos V, ASOS
x
"Fire consumes." Lord Beric stood behind them, and there was something in his voice that silenced Thoros at once. "It consumes, and when it is done there is nothing left. Nothing." - Arya VIII, ASOS
x
"Did you know that my brother set the Blackwater Rush afire? Wildfire will burn on water. Aerys would have bathed in it if he'd dared. The Targaryens were all mad for fire." - Jaime V, ASOS
x
That hair she had. Well, the hottest fires burn out quickest. - Jon X, ASOS
x
The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don't you see? Don't you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her. Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children. - Daenerys X, AGOT
+.+.+
Harpy or Daenerys? Old Ghis or House Targaryen?
In the center of the Plaza of Pride stood a red brick fountain whose waters smelled of brimstone, and in the center of the fountain a monstrous harpy made of hammered bronze. Twenty feet tall she reared. She had a woman's face, with gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushed yellow from her heavy breasts. But in place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs were the legs of an eagle, and behind she wore a scorpion's curled and venomous tail.
The harpy of Ghis, Dany thought. Old Ghis had fallen five thousand years ago, if she remembered true; its legions shattered by the might of young Valyria, its brick walls pulled down, its streets and buildings turned to ash and cinder by dragonflame, its very fields sown with salt, sulfur, and skulls. The gods of Ghis were dead, and so too its people.
Yet the symbol of the Old Empire still endured here, though this bronze monster had a heavy chain dangling from her talons, an open manacle at either end. The harpy of Ghis had a thunderbolt in her claws. This is the harpy of Astapor.
[...]
Kraznys mo Nakloz bobbed his head. He smelled as if he'd bathed in raspberries, this slaver, and his jutting red-black beard glistened with oil. - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
"An old rhyme a maester taught me, when I was a boy. I never knew how true it was. The bricks of Astapor are red with the blood of the slaves who make them." - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
And above it all, frowning down from Aegon's high hill, was the Red Keep; seven huge drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts, an immense grim barbican, vaulted halls and covered bridges, barracks and dungeons and granaries, massive curtain walls studded with archers' nests, all fashioned of pale red stone. Aegon the Conqueror had commanded it built. His son Maegor the Cruel had seen it completed. Afterward he had taken the heads of every stonemason, woodworker, and builder who had labored on it. Only the blood of the dragon would ever know the secrets of the fortress the Dragonlords had built, he vowed. - Catelyn IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Missandei, the best slave.
No older than ten, she had the round flat face, dusky skin, and golden eyes of Naath. The Peaceful People, her folk were called. All agreed that they made the best slaves. - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
I don't know, maybe we shouldn't use this army.
"They are chosen young, for size and speed and strength," the slave told her. "They begin their training at five. Every day they train from dawn to dusk, until they have mastered the shortsword, the shield, and the three spears. The training is most rigorous, Your Grace. Only one boy in three survives it. This is well known. Among the Unsullied it is said that on the day they win their spiked cap, the worst is done with, for no duty that will ever fall to them could be as hard as their training."
[...]
"To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied must go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find some wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother's eyes. In this way, we make certain that there is no weakness left in them." - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Viserys returns to the story.
Kraznys waited for that to be rendered in the Common Tongue, and then continued. "This beggar queen must understand, such wonders do not come cheaply. - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
"Only lies offend me, never honest counsel." Dany patted Arstan's spotted hand to reassure him. "I have a dragon's temper, that's all. You must not let it frighten you." - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
She had not meant to be so sharp with Ser Jorah, but his endless suspicion had finally woken her dragon. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys gets into bed with the wrong man.
Thank you, @sherlokiness!
Sometimes she would close her eyes and dream of him, but it was never Jorah Mormont she dreamed of; her lover was always younger and more comely, though his face remained a shifting shadow. - Daenerys II, ASOS
x
"A shadow on the wall," Varys murmured, "yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow." - Tyrion II, ACOK
x
His bruises had mostly faded by now, and the swelling in his face had largely subsided, so Mormont looked almost human once again … though only vaguely like himself. The demon's mask the slavers had burned into his right cheek to mark him for a dangerous and disobedient slave would never leave him. Ser Jorah had never been what one might call a comely man. The brand had transformed his face into something frightening.
Tyrion grinned. "As long as I look prettier than you, I will be happy." - Tyrion XII, ADWD
x
Beneath her coverlets she tossed and turned, dreaming that Hizdahr was kissing her … but his lips were blue and bruised, and when he thrust himself inside her, his manhood was cold as ice. - Daenerys VII, ADWD
x
It was Lemore who forced the water from your lungs after Griff had pulled you up. You were as cold as ice, and your lips were blue. - Tyrion VI, ADWD
+.+.+
The grip is too tight.
Drogon raised his head and screamed, pale smoke venting from his nostrils, and Viserion flapped at her and tried to perch on her shoulder, as he had when he was smaller. "No," Dany said, trying to shrug him off gently. "You're too big for that now, sweetling." But the dragon coiled his white and gold tail around one arm and dug black claws into the fabric of her sleeve, clinging tightly. Helpless, she sank into Groleo's great leather chair, giggling. - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Joffrey, Ramsay, Weese. Dogs have a habit of turning on their masters in this story.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
"A word from me and these sheep would spill his stinking old bowels on the bricks," he said, "but do not say that. Tell them that these creatures are more dogs than sheep. Do they eat dogs or horse in these Seven Kingdoms?" - Daenerys II, ASOS
[...]
"The Good Master has said that these eunuchs cannot be tempted with coin or flesh," Dany told the girl, "but if some enemy of mine should offer them freedom for betraying me . . ." - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
George slips something in.
"I saw King's Landing after the Sack. Babes were butchered that day as well, and old men, and children at play. More women were raped than you can count. There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs. The scent of blood is all it takes to wake him. Yet I have never heard of these Unsullied raping, nor putting a city to the sword, nor even plundering, save at the express command of those who lead them. - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Never intending to part with a dragon, Daenerys is willing to pay the price of death and destruction.
Two thousand would never serve for what she meant to do. I must have them all. Dany knew what she must do now, though the taste of it was so bitter that even the persimmon wine could not cleanse it from her month. She had considered long and hard and found no other way. It is my only choice.
[...]
Dany let them argue, sipping the tart persimmon wine and trying to keep her face blank and ignorant. I will have them all, no matter the price, she told herself. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Does history repeat itself in this story?
"Yet even queens can err. The Astapori have cheated you, Your Grace. A dragon is worth more than any army. Aegon proved that three hundred years ago, upon the Field of Fire."
"I know what Aegon proved. I mean to prove a few things of my own." - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Some choose to learn from their mistakes, while others . . .
If I look back I am lost, Dany told herself the next morning as she entered Astapor through the harbor gates. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Dragonbone whip, with a woman's head.
Dany handed the slaver the end of Drogon's chain. In return he presented her with the whip. The handle was black dragonbone, elaborately carved and inlaid with gold. Nine long thin leather lashes trailed from it, each one tipped by a gilded claw. The gold pommel was a woman's head, with pointed ivory teeth. "The harpy's fingers," Kraznys named the scourge. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
You are mine.
"IT IS DONE!" she cried at the top of her lungs. "YOU ARE MINE!" She gave the mare her heels and galloped along the first rank, holding the fingers high. "YOU ARE THE DRAGON'S NOW! YOU'RE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR! IT IS DONE! IT IS DONE!" - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
And after them came her handmaids, and then the others, all the Dothraki, men and women and children, and Dany had only to look at their eyes to know that they were hers now, today and tomorrow and forever, hers as they had never been Drogo's. - Daenerys X, AGOT
+.+.+
Kraznys or Viserys? She did not pause to contemplate the ruin, and never will.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
Dany swept the lash down as hard as she could across the slaver's face. Kraznys screamed and staggered back, the blood running red down his cheeks into his perfumed beard. The harpy's fingers had torn his features half to pieces with one slash, but she did not pause to contemplate the ruin. "Drogon," she sang out loudly, sweetly, all her fear forgotten. "Dracarys."
[...]
A lance of swirling dark flame took Kraznys full in the face. His eyes melted and ran down his cheeks, and the oil in his hair and beard burst so fiercely into fire that for an instant the slaver wore a burning crown twice as tall as his head. The sudden stench of charred meat overwhelmed even his perfume, and his wail seemed to drown all other sound. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Children.
"Unsullied!" Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. "Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see." She raised the harpy's fingers in the air . . . and then she flung the scourge aside. "Freedom!" she sang out. "Dracarys! Dracarys!" - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
"The blood of children?" Robb pointed at the corpses. "How old were they? Twelve, thirteen? Squires." - Catelyn III, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys forgets who holds whips.
Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
One man kept his saddle long enough to draw a sword, but Jhogo's whip coiled about his neck and cut off his shout. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Sobbing, begging, and dying while Daenerys sings her favourite song.
"Freedom!" she sang out. "Dracarys! Dracarys!"
"Dracarys!" they shouted back, the sweetest word she'd ever heard. "Dracarys! Dracarys!" And all around them slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Lem Lemoncloak and Arya don't approve of the Mad Huntman's brand of justice.
A few feet away, a dozen iron cages hung from creaking wooden posts. Crow cages, Arya knew. The crows were mostly outside the cages, splashing in the water or perched atop the bars; inside were men. Lem reined up scowling. "What's this, now?"
"Justice," answered a woman at the fountain. - Arya V, ASOS
x
She had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next. The anger was fierce and hot inside her when she gave the command; it made her feel like an avenging dragon. But later, when she passed the men dying on the posts, when she heard their moans and smelled their bowels and blood . . .
Dany put the glass aside, frowning. It was just. It was. I did it for the children.
[...]
Dany remembered the horror she had felt when she had seen the Plaza of Punishment in Astapor. I made a horror just as great, but surely they deserved it. Harsh justice is still justice. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Other & dragon parallels that make us laugh: visions of fire paired with visions of ice edition.
"With mine own eyes. After the battle, when I was lost to despair, the Lady Melisandre bid me gaze into the hearthfire. The chimney was drawing strongly, and bits of ash were rising from the fire. I stared at them, feeling half a fool, but she bid me look deeper, and . . . the ashes were white, rising in the updraft, yet all at once it seemed as if they were falling. Snow, I thought. Then the sparks in the air seemed to circle, to become a ring of torches, and I was looking through the fire down on some high hill in a forest. The cinders had become men in black behind the torches, and there were shapes moving through the snow. For all the heat of the fire, I felt a cold so terrible I shivered, and when I did the sight was gone, the fire but a fire once again. But what I saw was real, I'd stake my kingdom on it." - Davos IV, ASOS
+.+.+
If at first you don't succeed, add more wildfire and call Daenerys.
"I heard tell you almost burned the city down."
"A filthy lie. I only burned the river." - Tyrion XI, ASOS
x
So His Grace commanded his alchemists to place caches of wildfire all over King's Landing. Beneath Baelor's Sept and the hovels of Flea Bottom, under stables and storehouses, at all seven gates, even in the cellars of the Red Keep itself. - Jaime V, ASOS
x
We have sealed them with wax and pumped the lower vault full of water, but even so . . . by rights they ought to have been destroyed, but so many of our masters were murdered during the Sack of King's Landing, the few acolytes who remained were unequal to the task. And much of the stock we made for Aerys was lost. Only last year, two hundred jars were discovered in a storeroom beneath the Great Sept of Baelor. - Tyrion V, ACOK
+.+.+
What is happening to the other slaves?
"If battle is joined, let Grey Worm show wisdom as well as valor," Dany told him. "Spare any slave who runs or throws down his weapon. The fewer slain, the more remain to join us after." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
"Very well," Dany said. "Sellsword or slave, spare all those who will pledge me their faith. If enough of the Second Sons will join us, keep the company intact." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Like locusts in sandals.
The raggle-taggle host of freedmen dwarfed her own, but they were more burden than benefit. Perhaps one in a hundred had a donkey, a camel, or an ox; most carried weapons looted from some slaver's armory, but only one in ten was strong enough to fight, and none was trained. They ate the land bare as they passed, like locusts in sandals. Yet Dany could not bring herself to abandon them as Ser Jorah and her bloodriders urged. I told them they were free. I cannot tell them now they are not free to join me. She gazed at the smoke rising from their cookfires and swallowed a sigh. She might have the best footsoldiers in the world, but she also had the worst. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Mad.
"I say, you are mad."
"Am I?" Dany shrugged, and said, "Dracarys." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
That's not how you parley, Stannis.
"To mount our attack."
Ser Jorah Mormont scowled. "You told the sellswords—"
"—that I wanted their answers on the morrow. I made no promises about tonight. The Stormcrows will be arguing about my offer. The Second Sons will be drunk on the wine I gave Mero. And the Yunkai'i believe they have three days. We will take them under cover of this darkness." - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Like a whip.
Drogon looped his neck around to nip at her hand. His teeth were very sharp, but he never broke her skin when they played like this. Dany laughed, and rolled him back and forth until he roared, his tail lashing like a whip. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Try Not to Think of Randyll Tarly Challenge.
Thank you, @aegor-bamfsteel!
This place was put to the torch a long time ago."
"Who did it, then?" asked Gendry.
"Hoster Tully." Notch was a stooped thin grey-haired man, born in these parts. "This was Lord Goodbrook's village. When Riverrun declared for Robert, Goodbrook stayed loyal to the king, so Lord Tully came down on him with fire and sword. After the Trident, Goodbrook's son made his peace with Robert and Lord Hoster, but that didn't help the dead none." - Arya VIII, ASOS
x
"When he did," Davos repeated. "They were his men. His sworn men. What choice were they given?"
"Every man has choices. They might have refused to kneel. Some did, and died for it. Yet they died true men, and loyal." - Davos IV, ASOS
+.+.+
The now extinct, once powerful family, that held Harrenhal, and had a great black bat as their sigil.
He found an old shield in the armory, battered and splintered, the chipped paint still showing most of the great black bat of House Lothston upon a field of silver and gold. The Lothstons held Harrenhal before the Whents and had been a powerful family in their day, but they had died out ages ago, so no one was likely to object to him bearing their arms. He would be no one's cousin, no one's enemy, no one's sworn sword . . . in sum, no one. - Jaime VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Other & dragon parallels that make us laugh: breathing fire edition.
The wight was burning, hoarfrost dripping from his beard as the flesh beneath blackened. Sam heard the raven shriek, but Paul himself made no sound. When his mouth opened, only flames came out. - Samwell III, ASOS
+.+.+
More fun with language during the Red Wedding (Arya XI, ASOS).
+.+.+
A hero wouldn't kill a child.
And Robert's relief was palpable. As stupid as he was, even he knew that Rhaegar's children had to die if his throne was ever to be secure. Yet he saw himself as a hero, and heroes do not kill children." His father shrugged. - Tyrion VI, ASOS
+.+.+
The stallion or the horns of a dragon?
Thank you, @a-maid-with-sunset-in-her-hair!
Jon sat between two merlons with only a scarecrow for company and watched the Stallion gallop up the sky. Or was it the Horned Lord? - Jon VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Her captain forgets to play along.
There will be more if we remain. The slaves are weak from the march."
"Freedmen," Dany corrected. "They are slaves no longer." - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
No subtext required.
"If I let Meereen's old brick walls defeat me so easily, though, how will I ever take the great stone castles of Westeros?"
"As Aegon did," Ser Jorah said, "with fire. By the time we reach the Seven Kingdoms, your dragons will be grown. - Daenerys V, ASOS
x
"If you were grown," she told Drogon, scratching him between the horns, "I'd fly you over the walls and melt that harpy down to slag." - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Freudian slip.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
High on the walls of Meereen, the jeers had grown louder, and now hundreds of the defenders were taking their lead from the hero and pissing down through the ramparts to show their contempt for the besiegers. They are pissing on slaves, to show how little they fear us, she thought. They would never dare such a thing if it were a Dothraki khalasar outside their gates. - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
We require a man and a woman.
Collio began with his version of "The Dance of the Dragons," which was more properly a song for two singers, male and female. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
More fun with language during the battle at the Wall (Jon VIII, ASOS).
+.+.+
Other & dragon parallels that make us laugh: the mouth of a dragon edition.
The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head. It felt like walking down the gullet of an ice dragon. - Jon VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
A god.
Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world.
Do all gods feel so lonely? Some must, surely. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Unpleasant rape metaphors, during the sacking of a city.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
No one was calling her Daenerys the Conqueror yet, but perhaps they would. Aegon the Conqueror had won Westeros with three dragons, but she had taken Meereen with sewer rats and a wooden cock, in less than a day. Poor Groleo. He still grieved for his ship, she knew. If a war galley could ram another ship, why not a gate? That had been her thought when she commanded the captains to drive their ships ashore. Their masts had become her battering rams, and swarms of freedmen had torn their hulls apart to build mantlets, turtles, catapults, and ladders. The sellswords had given each ram a bawdy name, and it had been the mainmast of Meraxes—formerly Joso's Prank—that had broken the eastern gate. Joso's Cock, they called it. The fighting had raged bitter and bloody for most of a day and well into the night before the wood began to splinter and Meraxes' iron figurehead, a laughing jester's face, came crashing through. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Her sewer rats.
Her dragons had roared as one in that moment, filling the night with flame. The slaves are rising, she knew at once. My sewer rats have gnawed off their chains. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
I'll take Things You'd Never See Bran Order, for $500.
She had decreed that murderers were to be hanged, that looters were to lose a hand, and rapists their manhood. Eight killers swung from the walls, and the Unsullied had filled a bushel basket with bloody hands and soft red worms, but Meereen was calm again. But for how long? - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Sly shade from the author.
I have given Astapor a butcher king. Dany felt ill, but she knew she must not let the envoy see it. "I will pray that King Cleon rules well and wisely. What would he have of me?" - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
"You see that at the end of the ['Lord of the Rings'] books, when Sauron has been defeated and Aragorn is king," Martin told the Advance. "It's easy to type, 'he ruled wisely and well,' but what does that constitute?" - George R. R. Martin
+.+.+
If I look back I am lost.
All my victories turn to dross in my hands, she thought. Whatever I do, all I make is death and horror. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Right over her head.
"If blood is what you wish, let it flow. I am told you have freed your eunuchs. Freedom means as much to an Unsullied as a hat to a haddock." He smiled at Grey Worm, but the eunuch might have been made of stone. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
"My queen?" Daario stepped forward. "The riverside is full of Meereenese, begging leave to be allowed to sell themselves to this Qartheen. They are thicker than the flies."
Dany was shocked. "They want to be slaves?" - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
A principled stance.
"I see." Perhaps it was not so shocking, if these tales of Astapor were true. Dany thought a moment. "Any man who wishes to sell himself into slavery may do so. Or woman." She raised a hand. "But they may not sell their children, nor a man his wife."
"In Astapor the city took a tenth part of the price, each time a slave changed hands," Missandei told her.
"We'll do the same," Dany decided. Wars were won with gold as much as swords. "A tenth part. In gold or silver coin, or ivory. Meereen has no need of saffron, cloves, or zorse hides." - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
There's maggots, flies, and death in her stomach.
Yet the thought of seeing Jorah Mormont again made her feel as if she'd swallowed a spoonful of flies; angry, agitated, sick. She could almost feel them buzzing round her belly.
[...]
"Flies are the dead man's revenge." Daario smiled, and stroked the center prong of his beard. "Corpses breed maggots, and maggots breed flies." - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
The Mad King's blood.
"Some truths are hard to hear. Robert was a . . . a good knight . . . chivalrous, brave . . . he spared my life, and the lives of many others . . . Prince Viserys was only a boy, it would have been years before he was fit to rule, and . . . forgive me, my queen, but you asked for truth . . . even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did."
[...]
". . . my father's daughter?" If she was not her father's daughter, who was she? - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
Your father always had a little madness in him, I now believe. Yet he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with such promise . . . but as the years passed, the lapses grew more frequent, until . . ." - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
He thought for a moment of the boy Viserys, fled to Dragonstone, and of Rhaegar's infant son Aegon, still in Maegor's with his mother. A new Targaryen king, and my father as Hand. How the wolves will howl, and the storm lord choke with rage. For a moment he was tempted, until he glanced down again at the body on the floor, in its spreading pool of blood. His blood is in both of them, he thought. - Jaime II, ASOS
+.+.+
I'm not worried about Jon or Aegon, are you?
"I am no maester to quote history at you, Your Grace. Swords have been my life, not books. But every child knows that the Targaryens have always danced too close to madness. Your father was not the first. King Jaehaerys once told me that madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land." - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Avoiding the history.
The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children's stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history.
[...]
"Viserys was a child, and the queen sheltered him as much as she could. Your father always had a little madness in him, I now believe. Yet he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with such promise . . . but as the years passed, the lapses grew more frequent, until . . ."
Dany stopped him. "Do I want to hear this now?" - Daenerys VI, ASOS
+.+.+
A change of heart regarding bed slaves.
Later, when the time came for sleep, Dany took Irri into bed with her, for the first time since the ship. But even as she shuddered in release and wound her fingers through her handmaid's thick black hair, she pretended it was Drogo holding her . . . only somehow his face kept turning into Daario's.
[...]
Irri slept soundly beside her, her lips slightly parted, one dark brown nipple peeping out above the sleeping silks. For a moment Dany was tempted, but it was Drogo she wanted, or perhaps Daario. Not Irri. The maid was sweet and skillful, but all her kisses tasted of duty. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
Dany stepped away from her. "No. Irri, you do not need to do that. What happened that night, when you woke . . . you're no bed slave, I freed you, remember? You . . ."
"I am handmaid to the Mother of Dragons," the girl said. "It is great honor to please my khaleesi."
"I don't want that," she insisted. "I don't." - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
In the middle of Jorah betrayal talk, Daario takes a moment to caress two women + the funniest bouquet you'll ever see.
"The queen has a good heart," Daario purred through his deep purple whiskers, "but that one is more dangerous than all the Oznaks and Meros rolled up in one." His strong hands caressed the hilts of his matched blades, those wanton golden women. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
On the road from Yunkai, Daario had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when he made his report . . . to help her learn the land, he said. Waspwillow, dusky roses, wild mint, lady's lace, daggerleaf, broom, prickly ben, harpy's gold . . . - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Little Missandei keeps interrupting.
Thank you, @sherlokiness!
She was Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, and there was no one in the world that she could trust.
"Your Grace?" Missandei stood at her elbow wrapped in a bedrobe, wooden sandals on her feet. "I woke, and saw that you were gone. Did you sleep well? What are you looking at?" - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
"I remember the Undying. Child of three, they called me. Three mounts they promised me, three fires, and three treasons. One for blood and one for gold and one for …"
"Your Grace?" Missandei stood in the door of the queen's bedchamber, a lantern in her hand. "Who are you talking to?" - Daenerys II, ADWD
+.+.+
LET'S DANCE: STARK vs. TARG
The smell of death.
There was a smell of death about that room; a heavy smell, sweet and foul, clinging. - Catelyn I, ASOS
x
"Sweet smells are sometimes used to cover foul ones." - Daenerys II, ACOK
x
A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness - Daenerys IV, ACOK
+.+.+
Nymeria hunts down a Dothraki, and paints the world black and red.
Thank you, @dontbipanicjonsa!
Her dreams were red and savage. The Mummers were in them, four at least, a pale Lyseni and a dark brutal axeman from Ib, the scarred Dothraki horse lord called Iggo and a Dornishman whose name she never knew.
[...]
They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them.
[...]
Only the belled man stood his ground. His horse kicked in the head of one of her sisters, and he cut another almost in half with his curved silvery claw as his hair tinkled softly.
Filled with rage, she leapt onto his back, knocking him head-first from his saddle. Her jaws locked on his arm as they fell, her teeth sinking through the leather and wool and soft flesh. When they landed she gave a savage jerk with her head and ripped the limb loose from his shoulder. Exulting, she shook it back and forth in her mouth, scattering the warm red droplets amidst the cold black rain. - Arya I, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys believes Rhaegal is trying to steal the prize from Drogon.
Drogon moved quicker than a striking cobra. Flame roared from his mouth, orange and scarlet and black, searing the meat before it began to fall. As his sharp black teeth snapped shut around it, Rhaegal's head darted close, as if to steal the prize from his brother's jaws, but Drogon swallowed and screamed, and the smaller green dragon could only hiss in frustration. - Daenerys I, ASOS
+.+.+
Clever men hatch ambitious schemes.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
Ser Jorah snorted. "That wineseller who tried to poison you was a clever man as well. Clever men hatch ambitious schemes." - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
"Maester Aemon thinks you clever." Mormont moved the raven to his shoulder. - Jon IV, ACOK
+.+.+
Mance or the Conqueror?
Three hundred men could not hope to kill a hundred times their number, of course, but Jon did not think they would need to. He need not slay a thousand, only one. Mance is all that keeps them together. - Jon II, ASOS
+.+.+
A Targaryen stain.
When he touched it his black gloves came away stained with red. - Jon II, ASOS
+.+.+
Snow snuffed the fire out.
Yesterday he begged for them to let him be one of the torchbearers, even if it meant walking outside of the column with the darkness pressing close. He wanted the fire, dreamed of the fire. If I had the fire, I would not be cold. But someone reminded him that he'd had a torch at the start, but he'd dropped it in the snow and snuffed the fire out. - Samwell I, ASOS
+.+.+
Arya the Kingslayer?
"No," the old man said. "Northmen, they were. Savages who worship trees. They wanted the Kingslayer, they said."
Arya heard him, and chewed her lip. She could feel Gendry looking at her. - Arya IV, ASOS
+.+.+
A Faceless Man kills a king.
I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings. - Arya IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Words that keep haunting Daenerys.
"Valar morghulis," said Missandei, in High Valyrian.
"All men must die," Dany agreed, "but not for a long while, we may pray." - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
"You know nothing, Jon Snow," Ygritte would have told him. I know that I am going to die, he thought. I know that much, at least. "All men die," he could almost hear her say, "and women too, and every beast that flies or swims or runs. It's not the when o' dying that matters, it's the how of it, Jon Snow." - Jon X, ASOS
+.+.+
Garnets lack fire.
As he entered his lord father's solar a few moments later, he heard a voice saying, ". . . cherrywood for the scabbards, bound in red leather and ornamented with a row of lion's-head studs in pure gold. Perhaps with garnets for the eyes . . ."
"Rubies," Lord Tywin said. "Garnets lack the fire." - Tyrion IV, ASOS
x
The pommel was a hunk of pale stone weighted with lead to balance the long blade. It had been carved into the likeness of a snarling wolf's head, with chips of garnet set into the eyes. - Jon VIII, AGOT
x
Ghost was curled up asleep beside the door, but he lifted his head at the sound of Jon's boots. The direwolf's red eyes were darker than garnets and wiser than men. Jon knelt, scratched his ear, and showed him the pommel of the sword. "Look. It's you." - Jon VIII, AGOT
+.+.+
Jon and Daario are hiding their true colours in back-to-back chapters.
"He must die," Styr the Magnar said. "Do it, crow."
The old man said no word. He only looked at Jon, standing amongst the wildlings. Amidst the rain and smoke, lit only by the fire, he could not have seen that Jon was all in black, but for his sheepskin cloak. Or could he? - Jon V, ASOS
x
And her knight dressed plainly while this other made a peacock look drab, though he had thrown a heavy black cloak over his bright yellow finery for this visit. He carried a heavy canvas sack slung over one shoulder. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Catelyn slices up a fool in a crown, ornamented with bells, with a Targaryen name. A younger version of the father.
The eighth Lady Frey stood beside Lord Walder's high seat. At his feet sat a somewhat younger version of himself, a stooped thin man of fifty whose costly garb of blue wool and grey satin was strangely accented by a crown and collar ornamented with tiny brass bells. The likeness between him and his lord was striking, save for their eyes; Lord Frey's small, dim, and suspicious, the other's large, amiable, and vacant. Catelyn recalled that one of Lord Walder's brood had fathered a halfwit long years ago. During past visits, the Lord of the Crossing had always taken care to hide this one away. Did he always wear a fool's crown, or is that meant as mockery of Robb? It was a question she dare not ask.
[...]
"Sire," Lord Walder said, "forgive my Aegon the noise. He has less wits than a crannogman, and he's never met a king before. One of Stevron's boys. We call him Jinglebell." - Catelyn VI, ASOS
+.+.+
While mostly sitting on the sidelines, Jon observes a dance.
The dance has moved on, he thought.
[...]
The dance has moved on, and we're watching from the gallery, he thought as he hobbled back. - Jon VII, ASOS
+.+.+
It's fire against ice.
The heat of the fires was making the Wall weep, and the flames danced and shimmered against the ice. - Jon VII, ASOS
+.+.+
Shades of Arya during an assassination attempt.
The old man feinted with one end of the staff, pulled it back, and whipped the other end about faster than Dany would have believed. The Titan's Bastard staggered back into the surf, spitting blood and broken teeth from the ruin of his mouth. Whitebeard put Dany behind him. Mero slashed at his face. The old man jerked back, cat-quick. The staff thumped Mero's ribs, sending him reeling. Arstan splashed sideways, parried a looping cut, danced away from a second, checked a third mid-swing. - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Doubtful the queen will have many kind things to say about the Usurper's Dog and his children.
The north. "I . . . my brother Robb was King in the North . . ."
"Your brother was the rightful Lord of Winterfell. If he had stayed home and done his duty, instead of crowning himself and riding off to conquer the riverlands, he might be alive today. Be that as it may. You are not Robb, no more than I am Robert."
The harsh words had blown away whatever sympathy Jon might have had for Stannis. "I loved my brother," he said. - Jon XI, ASOS
+.+.+
Jon is unsettled by the beautiful red lady, who burns men alive, and smells of fire & blood.
Thank you, @magiclovingdragon!
He had glimpsed Melisandre at her nightfires, and coming and going about the castle, but never so close. She's beautiful, he thought . . . but there was something more than a little unsettling about red eyes. "My lady."
[...]
In the close confines of the iron cage, he was acutely aware of the red woman's presence. She even smells red. The scent reminded him of Mikken's forge, of the way iron smelled when red-hot; the scent was smoke and blood. - Jon XI, ASOS
+.+.+
The raiders and slavers from Valyria better hope that never happens.
Thank you, @astraphysical!
Stannis put a thin, fleshless hand on Jon's shoulder. "Say nothing of what we've discussed here today. To anyone. But when you return, you need only bend your knee, lay your sword at my feet, and pledge yourself to my service, and you shall rise again as Jon Stark, the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XI, ASOS
x
Even before the coming of the Andals, the Wolf's Den had been raised by King Jon Stark, built to defend the mouth of the White Knife against raiders and slavers from across the narrow sea (some scholars suggest these were early Andal incursions, whilst others argue they were the forebears of the men from Ib, or even slavers out of Valyria and Volantis). - TWoIaF
+.+.+
SHOWDOWN AT THE TRIDENT
Jon and Daenerys stand on opposite sides.
That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened. - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
Burning shafts hissed upward, trailing tongues of fire. Scarecrow brothers tumbled down, black cloaks ablaze. "Snow," an eagle cried, as foemen scuttled up the ice like spiders. Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. As the dead men reached the top of the Wall he sent them down to die again. He slew a greybeard and a beardless boy, a giant, a gaunt man with filed teeth, a girl with thick red hair. Too late he recognized Ygritte. She was gone as quick as she'd appeared. - Jon XII, ADWD
+.+.+
Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon. The die is cast.
Thank you, @nusaran and @northernpack!
Dany mounted her silver. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest. She felt desperately afraid. Was this what my brother would have done? She wondered if Prince Rhaegar had been this anxious when he saw the Usurper's host formed up across the Trident with all their banners floating on the wind.
[...]
It is time to cross the Trident, Dany thought, as she wheeled and rode her silver back. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
A trip down memory lane that definitely won't be happening again.
"Torrhen had brought his power south after the fall of the two kings on the Field of Fire," said Jaime, "but when he saw Aegon's dragon and the size of his host, he chose the path of wisdom and bent his frozen knees." - Jaime II, ASOS
x
A terrible beauty. Like dragonfire. Tyrion wondered if Aegon the Conqueror had felt like this as he flew above his Field of Fire. - Tyrion XIII, ACOK
x
"Yet even queens can err. The Astapori have cheated you, Your Grace. A dragon is worth more than any army. Aegon proved that three hundred years ago, upon the Field of Fire."
"I know what Aegon proved. I mean to prove a few things of my own." Dany turned away from him - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Ned never taught young Robb when to kneel.
-> Jon VIII, AGOT
It would not do to make him feel as if his mother were usurping his place. Did you teach him wisdom as well as valor, Ned? she wondered. Did you teach him how to kneel? The graveyards of the Seven Kingdoms were full of brave men who had never learned that lesson. - Catelyn IX, AGOT
x
Suddenly Catelyn was full of dread. "Wars need not be fought until the last drop of blood." Even she could hear the desperation in her voice. "You would not be the first king to bend the knee, nor even the first Stark."
His mouth tightened. "No. Never."
"There is no shame in it. Balon Greyjoy bent the knee to Robert when his rebellion failed. Torrhen Stark bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror rather than see his army face the fires." - Catelyn IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Or perhaps someone else?
"Yes," the maester said, "but this battle he cannot win. It is time he lay down his sword and shield. Time to yield."
To yield, she thought, to make a peace. Was it her father the maester was speaking of, or her son? - Catelyn III, ASOS
+.+.+
An older wolf might not have believed himself immortal. (Rest in peace, 5 year gap.)
"Won every battle, while losing the Freys, the Karstarks, Winterfell, and the north. A pity the wolf is so young. Boys of sixteen always believe they are immortal and invincible. An older man would bend the knee, I'd think. After a war there is always a peace, and with peace there are pardons . . . for the Robb Starks, at least. Not for the likes of Vargo Hoat." - Jaime V, ASOS
+.+.+
Davos understands some men don't have a choice. Stannis is less forgiving.
"When he did," Davos repeated. "They were his men. His sworn men. What choice were they given?"
"Every man has choices. They might have refused to kneel. Some did, and died for it. Yet they died true men, and loyal." - Davos IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Crowns won't help when the dragons come.
"Some would say it's a poor king who crowns himself with bronze, Your Grace."
"Bronze and iron are stronger than gold and silver," Robb answered. "The old Kings of Winter wore such a sword-crown."
"Small good it did them when the dragons came. Heh." - Catelyn VI, ASOS
+.+.+
In back-to-back chapters, Jon regretfully finds himself riding off with the rebel host, while Rhaegal tries to make an escape before Daenerys massacres a city.
I should have tried to kill Mance Rayder on the Fist, even if it meant my life. That was what Qhorin Halfhand would have done. But Jon had hesitated, and the chance passed. The next day he had ridden off with Styr the Magnar, Jarl, and more than a hundred picked Thenns and raiders. He told himself that he was only biding his time, that when the moment came he would slip away and ride for Castle Black. The moment never came. - Jon III, ASOS
x
Rhaegal could sense something wrong as well. Thrice he tried to take wing, only to be pulled down by the heavy chain in Jhiqui's hand. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
A RAT IN A MAZE 🐀🔪
Did you know it's believed that smaller harbour rats from the Free Cities carry the Shivers?
Rats who bring cold.
Rest in peace, Princess Daenerys Targaryen.
And then the Shivers came, and the Stranger walked the land.
The maesters knew the Shivers. They had seen its like before, a century ago, and the course of the contagion was written in their books. It was believed to have come to Westeros from across the sea, from one of the Free Cities or lands more distant still. Port cities and harbor towns always felt the hand of the disease first and hardest. Many of the smallfolk believed that it was carried by rats; not the familiar grey rats of King's Landing or Oldtown, big and bold and vicious, but the smaller black rats that could be seen swarming from the holds of ships at dock and scurrying down the ropes that held them fast. Though the guilt of rats was never proved to the satisfaction of the Citadel, suddenly every house in the Seven Kingdoms, from the grandest castle to the humblest hut, required a cat. - Fire & Blood
x
It was the hour of the owl when Queen Alysanne was awoken by her daughter shaking her gently by the arm. "Mother," Princess Daenerys said, "I'm cold."
[...]
The princess was six, and years past being weaned, but a wet nurse was summoned, for there were some who believed that mother's milk could cure Shivers. Maesters came and went, septons and septas prayed, the king commanded that a hundred new ratcatchers be hired at once, and offered a silver stag for every dead rat, grey or black.
[...]
None of it matter. A day and a half after she had woken her mother from sleep complaining of feeling cold, the little princess was dead. - Fire & Blood
Brrrrr!
The marks of the disease were well-known. It began simply enough, with a chill. Victims would complain of being cold, throw a fresh log on the fire, huddle under a blanket or a pile of furs. Some would call for hot soup, mulled wine, or, against all reason, beer. Neither blankets nor soups could stay the progress of the pestilence. Soon the shivering would begin; mild at first, a trembling, a shudder, but inexorably growing worse. Gooseprickles would march up and down the victim's limbs like conquering armies. By then the afflicted would be shivering so violently that their teeth would clatter, and their hands and feet would begin to convulse and twitch. When the victim's lips turned blue and he began to cough up blood, the end was nigh. Once the first chill was felt, the course of the Shivers was swift. - Fire & Blood
x
+.+.+
Arya the Rat.
Lord Renly stifled his laughter. "My brother is too kind. I can find the door myself." He bowed to Joffrey. "Perchance later you'll tell me how a nine-year-old girl the size of a wet rat managed to disarm you with a broom handle and throw your sword in the river." - Eddard III, AGOT
x
The old fat septa moved forward. "Boy, how did you come here? You have no business in this part of the castle."
"You can't keep this sort out," one of the red cloaks said. "Like trying to keep out rats." - Arya III, AGOT
x
The older scowled. "Who's this father of yours, boy, the city ratcatcher?" - Arya III, AGOT
x
"You be keepin' your filthy hands off. The gold cloaks know how to deal with thieving little gutter rats, that they do." - Arya V, AGOT
x
When he laughed he brayed like the donkeys they were riding. "Where's a gutter rat like Lumpyhead get him a sword?" - Arya I, ACOK
x
The Bull scowled at her. "Why should she want you? You're nothing but a little gutter rat!" - Arya II, ACOK
x
Porridge at least seemed to know he was alive, and there was a queer sort of kindness to the man. Davos suspected that he fed the rats; that was why there were so many. Once he thought he heard the gaoler talking to them as if they were children, but perhaps he'd only dreamed that. - Davos III, ASOS
x
[Stumpy note: I refuse to track a certain type of foreshadowing, so you're going to have to trust me that the following is an Arya reference.]
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Every man shall reap what he has sown, from the highest lord to the lowest gutter rat. And some will lose more than the tips off their fingers, I promise you. - Davos IV, ASOS
x
Once the direwolf bolted through a dark door and returned a moment later with a grey rat between his teeth. The Rat Cook, Bran thought, but it was the wrong color, and only as big as a cat. The Rat Cook was white, and almost as huge as a sow . . . - Bran IV, ASOS
x
He probably won't even know me. She looked more like a drowned rat than a lord's cupbearer these days. A drowned boy rat. - Arya X, ASOS
+.+.+
There's rats in the walls of the Red Keep.
Part of her wanted to run, but she was afraid of snuffing out her candle. She heard the faint squeaking of rats and glimpsed a pair of tiny glowing eyes on the edge of the light, but rats did not scare her. - Arya IV, AGOT
x
In the Red Keep a man did best to hold his tongue. There were rats in the walls, and little birds who talked too much, and spiders. - Tyrion I, ASOS
x
"You will bring Shae to me through the walls, hidden from all these eyes. As you have done before."
Varys wrung his hands. "Oh, my lord, nothing would please me more, but . . . King Maegor wanted no rats in his own walls, if you take my meaning. He did require a means of secret egress, should he ever be trapped by his enemies, but that door does not connect with any other passages. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
"It had to be the godswood. No other place in the Red Keep is safe from the eunuch's little birds . . . or little rats, as I call them. There are trees in the godswood instead of walls. Sky above instead of ceiling. Roots and dirt and rock in place of floor. The rats have no place to scurry. Rats need to hide, lest men skewer them with swords." - Sansa V, ASOS
x
I arrived here a King's Hand, riding through the gates at the head of my own sworn men, Tyrion reflected, and I leave like a rat scuttling through the dark, holding hands with a spider. - Tyrion XI, ASOS
x
She imagined Tyrion creeping between the walls like some monstrous rat. No. You are being silly. The dwarf is in his cell. - Cersei I, AFFC
x
"Cheese knew the Red Keep better than the shape of his own cock," Mushroom tells us. The hidden doors and secret tunnels that Maegor the Cruel had built were as familiar to the rat-catcher as to the rats he hunted. Using a forgotten passageway, Cheese led Blood into the heart of the castle, unseen by any guard. - Fire & Blood
x
Years later, when these events had passed into legend, the smallfolk would tell each other that "rats in the walls" had overheard the lords talking and rushed to the princess with the news. - Fire & Blood
x
It is oft said that the Red Keep has no secrets, that there are rats in the walls who hear everything and whisper in the ears of sleepers by night. - Fire & Blood
+.+.+
Arya learns the secret passageways of the Red Keep, and makes some new friends along the way. Twice.
The dungeon was under the Red Keep, deeper than he dared imagine. He remembered the old stories about Maegor the Cruel, who murdered all the masons who labored on his castle, so they might never reveal its secrets. - Eddard XV, AGOT
x
She wondered where she was. When they had first come to King's Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. - Arya III, AGOT
x
The monsters were still there, but the fear was gone.
Arya got to her feet, moving warily. The heads were all around her. She touched one, curious, wondering if it was real. Her fingertips brushed a massive jaw. It felt real enough. The bone was smooth beneath her hand, cold and hard to the touch. She ran her fingers down a tooth, black and sharp, a dagger made of darkness. It made her shiver.
"It's dead," she said aloud. "It's just a skull, it can't hurt me." Yet somehow the monster seemed to know she was there. She could feel its empty eyes watching her through the gloom, and there was something in that dim, cavernous room that did not love her. She edged away from the skull and backed into a second, larger than the first. For an instant she could feel its teeth digging into her shoulder, as if it wanted a bite of her flesh. Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running. Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monster of all, but Arya did not even slow. She leapt over a ridge of black teeth as tall as swords, dashed through hungry jaws, and threw herself against the door.
[...]
If the room with the monsters had been dark, the hall was the blackest pit in the seven hells. Calm as still water, Arya told herself, but even when she gave her eyes a moment to adjust, there was nothing to see but the vague grey outline of the door she had come through.
[...]
Her fingers brushed against rough unfinished stone to her left. She followed the wall, her hand skimming along the surface, taking small gliding steps through the darkness. All halls lead somewhere. - Arya III, AGOT
x
This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. Arya held the candle over her head. With each step she took, the shadows moved against the walls, as if they were turning to watch her pass. "Dragons," she whispered. She slid Needle out from under her cloak. The slender blade seemed very small and the dragons very big, yet somehow Arya felt better with steel in her hand.
The long windowless hall beyond the door was as black as she remembered. She held Needle in her left hand, her sword hand, the candle in her right fist. Hot wax ran down across her knuckles. The entrance to the well had been to the left, so Arya went right. Part of her wanted to run, but she was afraid of snuffing out her candle. She heard the faint squeaking of rats and glimpsed a pair of tiny glowing eyes on the edge of the light, but rats did not scare her. - Arya IV, AGOT
x
"I warn you, Arya, if you're spinning this thread of air—"
"No, I told you, it was in the dungeons, by the place with the secret wall. I was chasing cats, and well …" - Arya III, AGOT
+.+.+
Secret tunnels, and an escape through sewers. Daenerys is told a familiar story.
She must have crept after them for miles. Finally they were gone, but there was no place to go but forward. She found the wall again and followed, blind and lost, pretending that Nymeria was padding along beside her in the darkness. At the end she was knee-deep in foul-smelling water, wishing she could dance upon it as Syrio might have, and wondering if she'd ever see light again. It was full dark when finally Arya emerged into the night air.
She found herself standing at the mouth of a sewer where it emptied into the river. She stank so badly that she stripped right there, dropping her soiled clothing on the riverbank as she dove into the deep black waters. She swam until she felt clean, and crawled out shivering. - Arya III, AGOT
x
"I know a way." Brown Ben Plumm stroked his speckled grey-and-white beard. "Sewers."
"Sewers? What do you mean?"
"Great brick sewers empty into the Skahazadhan, carrying the city's wastes. They might be a way in, for a few. That was how I escaped Meereen, after Scarb lost his head." Brown Ben made a face. "The smell has never left me. I dream of it some nights."
Ser Jorah looked dubious. "Easier to go out than in, it would seem to me. These sewers empty into the river, you say? That would mean the mouths are right below the walls."
[...]
There's things down there too. Biggest rats you ever saw, and worse things. Nasty." - Daenerys V, ASOS
+.+.+
Daenerys hears rats in the walls during her truth-seeking journey. Drogon isn't a happy boy.
What remained served to muffle her footfalls, but that was not all to the good. Dany could hear sounds within the walls, a faint scurrying and scrabbling that made her think of rats. Drogon heard them too. His head moved as he followed the sounds, and when they stopped he gave an angry scream. - Daenerys IV, ACOK
+.+.+
Aerys believes there's traitors inside the walls, right before he's killed.
But when he closed his eyes, it was Aerys Targaryen he saw, pacing alone in his throne room, picking at his scabbed and bleeding hands. The fool was always cutting himself on the blades and barbs of the Iron Throne. Jaime had slipped in through the king's door, clad in his golden armor, sword in hand. The golden armor, not the white, but no one ever remembers that. Would that I had taken off that damned cloak as well.
When Aerys saw the blood on his blade, he demanded to know if it was Lord Tywin's. "I want him dead, the traitor. I want his head, you'll bring me his head, or you'll burn with all the rest. All the traitors. Rossart says they are inside the walls! He's gone to make them a warm welcome. Whose blood? Whose?" - Jaime II, ASOS
+.+.+
The Iron Throne kills Maegor the Cruel . . . or was it someone else?
All day the lords made plans, and late into the night. It was the hour of the wolf when at last Maegor allowed them to take their leave. The king remained behind, brooding on the Iron Throne as they departed. Lord Towers and Lord Rosby were the last to see His Grace.
Hours later, as dawn was breaking, the last of Maegor's queens came seeking after him. Queen Elinor found him still upon the Iron Throne, pale and dead, his robes soaked through with blood. His arms had been slashed open from wrist to elbow on jagged barbs, and another blade had gone through his neck to emerge beneath his chin.
Man to this day believe it was the Iron Throne itself that killed him.
[...]
It might also have been a person or persons unknown, entering and leaving the throne room through some hidden passage. The Red Keep has its secrets, known only to the dead. - Fire & Blood
+.+.+
The Iron Throne rejects Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Septon Eustace tells us that the ceremony went on all through that night. It was well past dawn when Rhaenyra Targaryen rose and made her descent. "And as her lord husband Prince Daemon escorted her from the hall, cuts were seen upon Her Grace's legs and the palms of her left hand," wrote Eustace. "Drops of blood fell to the floor as she went past, and wise men looked at one another, though none dared speak the truth aloud: the Iron Throne had spurned her, and her days upon it would be few." - Fire & Blood
+.+.+
Was it the Rat or the Iron Throne?
They say the Iron Throne can be cruel to those who were not meant to sit it.
Ned could feel cold steel against his fingers as he leaned forward. Between each finger was a blade, the points of twisted swords fanning out like talons from arms of the throne. Even after three centuries, some were still sharp enough to cut. The Iron Throne was full of traps for the unwary. The songs said it had taken a thousand blades to make it, heated white-hot in the furnace breath of Balerion the Black Dread. The hammering had taken fifty-nine days. The end of it was this hunched black beast made of razor edges and barbs and ribbons of sharp metal; a chair that could kill a man, and had, if the stories could be believed. - Eddard XI, AGOT
x
"Joffrey is the black worm eating the heart of the realm! Darkness was his father, and death his mother! Destroy him before he corrupts you all! Destroy them all, queen whore and king worm, vile dwarf and whispering spider, the false flowers. Save yourselves!" One of the gold cloaks knocked the man off his feet, but he continued to shout. "The scouring fire will come! King Stannis will return!"
Joffrey lurched to his feet. "I'm king! Kill him! Kill him now! I command it." He chopped down with his hand, a furious, angry gesture . . . and screeched in pain when his arm brushed against one of the sharp metal fangs that surrounded him. The bright crimson samite of his sleeve turned a darker shade of red as his blood soaked through it. "Mother!" he wailed.
With every eye on the king, somehow the man on the floor wrested a spear away from one of the gold cloaks, and used it to push himself back to his feet. "The throne denies him!" he cried. "He is no king!" - Sansa VIII, ACOK
x
Sansa felt limp with exhaustion as she made her way down from the gallery. She wondered how badly Joffrey had cut himself. They say the Iron Throne can be perilous cruel to those who were not meant to sit it. - Sansa VIII, ACOK
x
"Have you ever seen the Iron Throne? The barbs along the back, the ribbons of twisted steel, the jagged ends of swords and knives all tangled up and melted? It is not a comfortable seat, ser. Aerys cut himself so often men took to calling him King Scab, and Maegor the Cruel was murdered in that chair. By that chair, to hear some tell it. It is not a seat where a man can rest at ease. Ofttimes I wonder why my brothers wanted it so desperately." - Davos IV, ASOS
x
"And to mount a dragon . . . I remember the first time my father took me to court, Robert had to hold my hand. I could not have been older than four, which would have made him five or six. We agreed afterward that the king had been as noble as the dragons were fearsome." Stannis snorted. "Years later, our father told us that Aerys had cut himself on the throne that morning, so his Hand had taken his place. It was Tywin Lannister who'd so impressed us." His fingers touched the surface of the table, tracing a path lightly across the varnished hills. "Robert took the skulls down when he donned the crown, but he could not bear to have them destroyed. Dragon wings over Westeros . . . there would be such a . . ." - Davos V, ASOS
x
By the end the Mad King had become so fearful that he would allow no blade in his presence, save for the swords his Kingsguard wore. His beard was matted and unwashed, his hair a silver-gold tangle that reached his waist, his fingernails cracked yellow claws nine inches long. Yet still the blades tormented him, the ones he could never escape, the blades of the Iron Throne. His arms and legs were always covered with scabs and half-healed cuts. - Jaime II, AFFC
+.+.+
Cold, chilling words.
"I will not be part of murder, Robert. Do as you will, but do not ask me to fix my seal to it."
[...]
Ned bowed, and turned on his heel without another word. He could feel Robert's eyes on his back. As he strode from the council chambers, the discussion resumed with scarcely a pause. "On Braavos there is a society called the Faceless Men," Grand Maester Pycelle offered. - Eddard VIII, AGOT
x
The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. - Daenerys IX, AGOT
x
"This Iron Throne you speak of sounds monstrous cold and hard. I cannot bear the thought of jagged barbs cutting your sweet skin." - Daenerys III, ACOK
x
Next you will be offering me a suit of magic armor and a palace in Valyria. "If Daenerys is no more than a sweet young girl, the Iron Throne will cut her into sweet young pieces." - Tyrion II, ADWD
x
"My lord is good to care so much, but I am well protected." Dany gestured toward where Barristan Selmy stood with one hand resting on his sword hilt. "Barristan the Bold, they call him. Twice he has saved me from assassins." - Daenerys III, ADWD
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Nobody can figure out who killed King Renly! Was it a shadow?
"Cold," said Renly in a small puzzled voice, a heartbeat before the steel of his gorget parted like cheesecloth beneath the shadow of a blade that was not there. He had time to make a small thick gasp before the blood came gushing out of his throat. - Catelyn IV, ASOS
x
"Oh, very good." Jaime laughed. "Your wits are quicker than mine, I confess it. When they found me standing over my dead king, I never thought to say, 'No, no, it wasn't me, it was a shadow, a terrible cold shadow.'" - Jaime II, ASOS
x
Now at last she had him. High walls pressed close on either side, and ahead was a blank windowless mass of stone. Quiet as a shadow, she repeated, sliding forward, light as a feather. - Arya III, ASOS
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Snow is falling on King's Landing when Kevan Lannister is assassinated by children in the walls.
The snow had been falling on King's Landing most of the night [...]
The chill in the throne room was palpable. [...]
Behind the table where the five members of the king's small council were seated, the Iron Throne crouched like some great black beast, its barbs and claws and blades half-shrouded in shadow. Kevan Lannister could feel it at his back, an itch between the shoulder blades. It was easy to imagine old King Aerys perched up there, bleeding from some fresh cut, glowering down. [...]
"Aye, if we had gold," Ser Harys Swyft said. "Alas, my lords, our vaults contain only rats and roaches. I have written again to the Myrish bankers. [...]
Outside the snow was swirling round the outer ward, a caged beast howling to be free. "Have you ever felt such cold?" asked Ser Harys. [...]
"An old black tomcat with a torn ear," Cersei told him. "A filthy thing, and foul-tempered. He clawed Joff's hand once." She made a face. "The cats keep the rats down, I know, but that one... he's been known to attack ravens in the rookery." [...]
Ser Kevan had always found them uncomfortably hot. Not tonight. Once past the chamber door, the chill was palpable. Black ash and dying embers were all that remained of the hearthfire.
The rest was shrouded in shadow … except beneath the open window, where a spray of ice crystals glittered in the moonlight, swirling in the wind. [...]
"Winter," said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. He turned away from the window.
Then something slammed him in the chest between the ribs, hard as a giant's fist. It drove the breath from him and sent him lurching backwards. [...]
"Tyrion?" he called. "Where …?"
"Far away," a half-familiar voice replied.
He stood in a pool of shadow by a bookcase, plump, pale-faced, round-shouldered, clutching a crossbow in soft powdered hands. Silk slippers swaddled his feet. [...]
Pain washed over him. He closed his eyes, opened them again. "There are … there are hundreds of Lannister guardsmen in this castle."
"But none in this room, thankfully. [...]
A gust of wind blew up. Ser Kevan shivered violently.
"Are you cold, my lord?" asked Varys. [...]
Ser Kevan was cold as ice, and every labored breath sent a fresh stab of pain through him. He glimpsed movement, heard the soft scuffling sound of slippered feet on stone. A child emerged from a pool of darkness, a pale boy in a ragged robe, no more than nine or ten. Another rose up behind the Grand Maester's chair. The girl who had opened the door for him was there as well. They were all around him, half a dozen of them, white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together.
And in their hands, the daggers. - Epilogue, ADWD
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Panic! Daenerys can't see who's there.
This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened.
She woke suddenly in the darkness of her cabin, still flush with triumph. Balerion seemed to wake with her, and she heard the faint creak of wood, water lapping against the hull, a football on the deck above her head. And something else.
Someone was in the cabin with her.
"Irri? Jhiqui? Where are you?" Her handmaids did not respond. It was too black to see, but she could hear them breathing. "Jorah, is that you?"
"They sleep," a woman said. "They all sleep." The voice was very close. "Even dragons must sleep."
She is standing over me. "Who's there?" Dany peered into the darkness. She thought she could see a shadow, the faintest outline of a shape. "What do you want to me?"
[...]
"Khaleesi, are you unwell?" asked Jhiqui.
"A dream." Dany shook her head. "I dreamed a dream, no more. Go back to sleep. All of us, go back to sleep." Yet try as she might, sleep would not come again. - Daenerys III, ASOS
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Arya IV, ACOK (click) -> using a secret tunnel found underground, Arya escapes a burning barn, and ends up in a river. Did dragons set the barn on fire? It's hard to tell.
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Davos III, ASOS (click) -> After failing to kill the fire lady, Davos (or is that Jon Snow?) finds himself locked in the cells underneath Dragonstone. His only friends are the rats.
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Tyrion XI, ASOS (click) -> Sibling Jaime manages to free Tyrion from the cells underneath King's Landing. Throw in several references to rats, Maegor the Cruel, spooky warnings about the dangers of secret tunnels, and you have a pretty fun chapter!
Oh, and the murder. I forgot the murder. While in the tunnels he takes a detour and does some murder.
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Bran IV, ASOS (click) -> Bran explores the abandoned Nightfort, and finds a sewer that might as well be Arya's favourite sewer in King's Landing. He's not alone though, he has his friends, and a castle filled with rats in the walls and floors.
+.+.+
Chapter transitions that make you go hmmm:
ACOK: Arya IX -> Daenerys IV
Arya the cupbearer. Daenerys is served.
Thank you, @decadelongsummer!
Nan, you shall be my cupbearer, and serve me at table and in chambers. - Arya IX, ACOK
x
They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. - Daenerys IV, ACOK
+.+.+
Chapter transitions that make you go hmmm:
ACOK: Daenerys V -> Arya X
A man from a society of assassins attempts to kill Daenerys. Arya Stark provides the echo, and shows us how it's done.
Thank you, @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir!
A Qartheen stepped into her path. "Mother of Dragons, for you." He knelt and thrust a jewel box into her face.
Dany took it almost by reflex. The box was carved wood, its mother-of-pearl lid inlaid with jasper and chalcedony. "You are too generous." She opened it. Within was a glittering green scarab carved from onyx and emerald. Beautiful, she thought. This will help pay for our passage. As she reached inside the box, the man said, "I am so sorry," but she hardly heard.
The scarab unfolded with a hiss.
Dany caught a glimpse of a malign black face, almost human, and an arched tail dripping venom . . . and then the box flew from her hand in pieces, turning end over end. Sudden pain twisted her fingers. As she cried out and clutched her hand, the brass merchant let out a shriek, a woman screamed, and suddenly the Qartheen were shouting and pushing each other aside. Ser Jorah slammed past her, and Dany stumbled to one knee.
[...]
"They were defending me." Dany snapped her hand to shake the sting from her fingers. "It was the other one, the Qartheen." When she looked around he was gone. "He was a Sorrowful Man. There was a manticore in that jewel box he gave me. This man knocked it out of my hand." - Daenerys V, ACOK
x
He'd left his dagger on the table as well, so she took that too, just in case Gendry lost his courage.
[...]
"I could catch you if I wanted," she called to it softly, "but I have to go, cat." The cat hissed again and ran off.
[...]
Arya took out the dagger and sharpened it to keep her hands busy. Long smooth strokes, the way Syrio had taught her. The sound calmed her.
[...]
She walked fast, to keep ahead of her fear, and it felt as though Syrio Forel walked beside her, and Yoren, and Jaqen H'ghar, and Jon Snow. She had not taken the sword Gendry had brought her, not yet. For this the dagger would be better.
[...]
"He told me to give all his guards a silver piece, for their good service." The words seemed to come out of nowhere.
"Silver, you say?" He did not believe her, but he wanted to; silver was silver, after all. "Give it over, then."
Her fingers dug down beneath her tunic and came out clutching the coin Jaqen had given her. In the dark the iron could pass for tarnished silver. She held it out . . . and let it slip through her fingers.
Cursing her softly, the man went to a knee to grope for the coin in the dirt, and there was his neck right in front of her. Arya slid her dagger out and drew it across his throat, as smooth as summer silk. His blood covered her hands in a hot gush and he tried to shout but there was blood in his mouth as well.
"Valar morghulis," she whispered as he died. - Arya X, ACOK
+.+.+
Chapter transitions that make you go hmmm:
ASOS: Davos II -> Jaime II -> Tyrion II -> Arya II
After King's Landing burns, the sailor returns to Dragonstone, with a gifted dagger, and one goal: assassinate the fire lady who burns people alive.
She would be waiting on Dragonstone as well, waiting in all her beauty and all her power, with her god and her shadows and his king. The red priestess had always seemed loyal to Stannis, until now. She has broken him, as a man breaks a horse. She would ride him to power if she could, and for that she gave my sons to the fire. I will cut the living heart from her breast and see how it burns. He touched the hilt of the fine long Lysene dirk that the captain had given him.
[...]
A knife in the heart, though . . . even demons can be killed by cold iron, the singers say.
[...]
"Yes, just so, someone. But not you. You are weak as a child, and no warrior. Stay, I beg you, we will talk more and you will eat, and perhaps we will sail to Braavos and hire a Faceless Man to do this thing, yes? But you, no, you must sit and eat." - Davos II, ASOS
x
Jaime the Kingslayer describes the Mad King's last moments. He wished he could have vanished once it was done.
When Aerys saw the blood on his blade, he demanded to know if it was Lord Tywin's. "I want him dead, the traitor. I want his head, you'll bring me his head, or you'll burn with all the rest. All the traitors. Rossart says they are inside the walls! He's gone to make them a warm welcome. Whose blood? Whose?"
[...]
Ser Elys Westerling and Lord Crakehall and others of his father's knights burst into the hall in time to see the last of it, so there was no way for Jaime to vanish and let some braggart steal the praise or blame. - Jaime II, ASOS
x
Tyrion searches for hidden passageways in the Red Keep while waiting for Shae. Varys appears disguised as another person.
Varys wrung his hands. "Oh, my lord, nothing would please me more, but . . . King Maegor wanted no rats in his own walls, if you take my meaning. He did require a means of secret egress, should he ever be trapped by his enemies, but that door does not connect with any other passages.
[...]
"He's gone," Shae said.
Tyrion turned to look. It was true. The eunuch had vanished, skirts and all. The hidden doors are here somewhere, they have to be. - Tyrion II, ASOS
x
Arya pulls a Davos.
Her hand went under the table to touch the hilt of her dagger, and make sure it was still there. - Arya II, ASOS
+.+.+
Wait, there's more!
THE USURPER'S KNIFE
Daenerys is running.
Thank you, @kadarakey and @aegor-bamfsteel!
The Usurper's hired knives were close behind them, he insisted, though Dany had never seen one. - Daenerys I, AGOT
x
She hated it, as her brother must have. All those years of running from city to city one step ahead of the Usurper's knives, pleading for help from archons and princes and magisters, buying our food with flattery. - Daenerys III, ACOK
x
She was no pampered lady, blind to such things. She had seen cutpurses aplenty in the streets of the Free Cities, during the years she'd spent with her brother, running from the Usurper's hired knives. - Daenerys III, ACOK
x
He had the truth of it, but she did not like the sharpness with which he put it. "Illyrio protected us from the Usurper's knives, and he believed in my brother's cause." - Daenerys III, ACOK
x
She was fleeing again. Her whole life had been one long flight, it seemed. She had begun running in her mother's womb, and never once stopped. How often had she and Viserys stolen away in the black of night, a bare step ahead of the Usurper's hired knives? - Daenerys V, ACOK
x
The narrow sea was often stormy, and Dany had crossed it half a hundred times as a girl, running from one Free City to the next half a step ahead of the Usurper's hired knives. - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. - Daenerys IX, AGOT
+.+.+
Except there were no knives chasing her. Like so many others in the story, Daenerys believes in a threat that was never there.
The king's mouth twisted in a bitter grimace. "No, gods be cursed. Some pox-ridden Pentoshi cheesemonger had her brother and her walled up on his estate with pointy-hatted eunuchs all around them, and now he's handed them over to the Dothraki. I should have had them both killed years ago, when it was easy to get at them, but Jon was as bad as you. More fool I, I listened to him." - Eddard II, AGOT
And now she's running towards the knife.
+.+.+
A dagger in the flesh.
"Daenerys Targaryen has wed some Dothraki horselord. What of it? Shall we send her a wedding gift?"
The king frowned. "A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it." - Eddard II, AGOT
x
"Kiss her?" Ser Barristan repeated, aghast.
"A steel kiss," said Littlefinger. - Eddard VIII, AGOT
x
Her words were a knife through Dany's breast. What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel? - Daenerys VIII, AGOT
x
Mirri Maz Duur chanted words in a tongue that Dany did not know, and a knife appeared in her hand. Dany never saw where it came from. - Daenerys VIII, AGOT
x
Another pain grasped her, and Dany bit back a scream. It felt as if her son had a knife in each hand, as if he were hacking at her to cut his way out. - Daenerys VIII, AGOT
x
A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. - Daenerys IX, AGOT
x
"This Iron Throne you speak of sounds monstrous cold and hard. I cannot bear the thought of jagged barbs cutting your sweet skin." - Daenerys III, ACOK
x
Pyat Pree was gibbering in some unknown tongue and hopping from one foot to the other. When Dany looked behind her, she saw thin tendrils of smoke forcing their way through cracks in the ancient stone walls of the Palace of Dust, and rising from between the black tiles of the roof.
Howling curses, Pyat Pree drew a knife and danced toward her, but Drogon flew at his face. Then she heard the crack of Jhogo's whip, and never was a sound so sweet. The knife went flying, and an instant later Rakharo was slamming Pyat to the ground. - Daenerys IV, ACOK
x
"A craven's knife can slay a queen as easily as a hero's. I would sleep more soundly if I knew my heart's delight had kept her fierce horselords close around her. In Qarth, you had three bloodriders who never left your side. Wherever have they gone?" - Daenerys III, ADWD
x
Their father, her brother Rhaegar, perished even earlier, slain by the Usurper on the Trident. Her brother Viserys had died screaming in Vaes Dothrak with a crown of molten gold upon his head. They will kill me too if I allow it. The knives that slew my Stalwart Shield were meant for me. - Daenerys I, ADWD
x
Nine. The word was a dagger in her heart. - Daenerys II, ADWD
+.+.+
Arya loves her daggers.
He'd left his dagger on the table as well, so she took that too, just in case Gendry lost his courage. - Arya X, ACOK
x
She walked fast, to keep ahead of her fear, and it felt as though Syrio Forel walked beside her, and Yoren, and Jaqen H'ghar, and Jon Snow. She had not taken the sword Gendry had brought her, not yet. For this the dagger would be better. - Arya X, ACOK
x
Arya slid her dagger out and drew it across his throat, as smooth as summer silk. - Arya X, ACOK
x
Her sword was still in its sheath across her back, and she kept a hand close to the hilt of the dagger she had stolen from Roose Bolton, in case she didn't like whatever they found within. - Arya II, ASOS
x
I knew they were outlaws, Arya thought, listening. Her hand went under the table to touch the hilt of her dagger, and make sure it was still there. If they try to rob us, they'll be sorry. - Arya II, ASOS
x
She yanked Greenbeard's dagger from its sheath and spun away before he could catch her. Gendry made a grab for her as well, but she had always been too fast for Gendry. - Arya VI, ASOS
x
The Hound sliced the meat with his dagger, and narrowed his eyes when he caught Arya looking at the knife. "Don't even think about it." - Arya IX, ASOS
x
There were two silver stags in the archer's purse, and almost thirty coppers. His dagger had a pretty pink stone in the hilt. The Hound hefted the knife in his hand, then flipped it toward Arya. She caught it by the hilt, slid it through her belt, and felt a little better. It wasn't Needle, but it was steel. - Arya XII, ASOS
x
They're killing him. Arya had no more cups, but there was something better to throw. She drew the dagger they'd robbed off the dying archer and tried to fling it at the Tickler the way he'd done. - Arya XIII, ASOS
x
Gather your belongings, the captain had said, but there were few enough of those. Only the clothes she was wearing, her little pouch of coins, the gifts the crew had given her, the dagger on her left hip and Needle on her right. - Arya I, AFFC
x
In the black of night she rose again, donned the clothes she'd worn from Westeros, and buckled on her swordbelt. Needle hung from one hip, her dagger from the other. - Arya II, AFFC
x
The Tickler hung on the wall as well, the black holes that were his eyes swimming with malice. The sight of him brought back the feel of the dagger in her hand as she had plunged it into his back, again and again and again. - The Ugly Little Girl, ADWD
x
"Dragons," she whispered. She slid Needle out from under her cloak. The slender blade seemed very small and the dragons very big, yet somehow Arya felt better with steel in her hand. - Arya IV, AGOT
+.+.+
Chapter transitions that make you go hmmm:
AGOT: Jon II -> Daenerys II
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
Arya gave him a whap on the arm with the flat of her blade. The blow stung, but Jon found himself grinning like an idiot. "I know which end to use," Arya said. - Jon II, AGOT
AGOT: Arya II -> Daenerys III
"Arya, what did you think to do with this … Needle? Who did you hope to skewer? Your sister? Septa Mordane? Do you know the first thing about sword fighting?"
All she could think of was the lesson Jon had given her. "Stick them with the pointy end," she blurted out. - Arya II, AGOT
+.+.+
Uh oh, parallels:
Jon recalls something while being stabbed to death by daggers.
Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger's hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. "Ghost," he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … - Jon XIII, ADWD
+.+.+
Tracking the Usurper's Knife:
Robert -> Joffrey
Instead he went poking among his father's weapons. Robert Baratheon was a man of careless generosity, and would have given his son any dagger he wanted . . . but Tyrion guessed that the boy had just taken it. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
Joffrey -> Catspaw
Instead the boy found his catspaw among the unsavory lot of freeriders, merchants, and camp followers who'd attached themselves to the king's party as they made their way north. Some poxy lackwit willing to risk his life for a prince's favor and a little coin. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
Catspaw -> Catelyn
He saw his mother sitting alone in a cabin, looking at a bloodstained knife on a table in front of her, as the rowers pulled at their oars and Ser Rodrik leaned across a rail, shaking and heaving. - Bran III, AGOT
Catelyn -> Ned
Catelyn slid a dagger out from under her cloak and placed it in his hand. "This blade was sent to open Bran's throat and spill his life's blood."
[...]
"Very well," he said, thrusting the dagger into his belt. - Eddard IV, AGOT
Ned -> Littlefinger
"You forget," Ned told him. "You forget Jon Arryn. You forget Jory Cassel. And you forget this." He drew the dagger and laid it on the table between them; a length of dragonbone and Valyrian steel, as sharp as the difference between right and wrong, between true and false, between life and death. "They sent a man to cut my son's throat, Lord Baelish." - Eddard XIII, AGOT
x
As his men died around him, Littlefinger slid Ned's dagger from its sheath and shoved it up under his chin. His smile was apologetic. "I did warn you not to trust me, you know." - Eddard XIV, AGOT
Littlefinger -> ???
Petyr cut a pomegranate in two with his dagger, offering half to Sansa. "You should try and eat, my lady."
[...]
"Tell me, Alayne—which is more dangerous, the dagger brandished by an enemy, or the hidden one pressed to your back by someone you never even see?"
"The hidden dagger." - Sansa VI, ASOS
+.+.+
Who will get the Usurper's Knife next?!
Tune in next time to find out!
right weapon, wrong villain, right weapon, wrong villain, right weapon, wrong villain
+.+.+
BRAN THE DRAGONSLAYER?
Bran can be brave.
Bran thought about it. "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"
"That is the only time a man can be brave," his father told him. "Do you understand why I did it?" - Bran I, AGOT
+.+.+
Chapter transitions that make you go hmmm:
AGOT: Daenerys III -> Bran IV
"No dragon," Irri said. "Brave men kill them, for dragon terrible evil beasts. It is known." - Daenerys III, AGOT
ACOK: Daenerys II -> Bran IV
"Dragons die." She stood on her toes to kiss him lightly on an unshaven cheek. "But so do dragonslayers." - Daenerys II, ACOK
ASOS: Daenerys II -> Bran II
It was too dangerous to let them fly freely over the city; the world was all too full of men who would gladly kill them for no better reason than to name themselves dragonslayer. - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Dragonslayers die?
"Dragons die." She stood on her toes to kiss him lightly on an unshaven cheek. "But so do dragonslayers." - Daenerys II, ACOK
x
"But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead - Arya X, ACOK
+.+.+
Dragon or eagle?
Thrice that day she caught sight of Drogon. Once he was so far off that he might have been an eagle, slipping in and out of distant clouds, but Dany knew the look of him by now, even when he was no more than a speck. The second time he passed before the sun, his black wings spread, and the world darkened. - Daenerys X, ADWD
x
Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun . . . - Jon VII, ACOK
x
Something was moving atop one of them, he saw. A dragon, but which one? At this distance, it could as easily have been an eagle. A very big eagle. - Tyrion II, TWOW
x
She had a woman's face, with gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushed yellow from her heavy breasts. But in place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs were the legs of an eagle, and behind she wore a scorpion's curled and venomous tail. - Daenerys II, ASOS
+.+.+
Bran attempts to slip into an eagle.
<- Daenerys II, ASOS
"Look," she said, pointing at the sky with her frog spear, "an eagle."
Bran lifted his head and saw it, its grey wings spread and still as it floated on the wind. He followed it with his eyes as it circled higher, wondering what it would be like to soar about the world so effortless. Better than climbing, even. He tried to reach the eagle, to leave his stupid crippled body and rise into the sky to join it, the way he joined with Summer. The greenseers could do it. I should be able to do it too. He tried and tried, until the eagle vanished in the golden haze of the afternoon. "It's gone," he said, disappointed.
"We'll see others," said Meera. "They live up here."
"I suppose." - Bran II, ASOS
+.+.+
Practice makes perfect.
<- Daenerys I, ASOS
"No," said Jojen, "only a boy who dreams. The greenseers were more than that. They were wargs as well, as you are, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies or swims or crawls, and could look through the eyes of the weirwoods as well, and see the truth that lies beneath the world. Bran I, ASOS
x
"If we were eagles we might fly," said Jojen sharply, "but we have no wings, no more than we have horses." - Bran I, ASOS
x
The skinchanger was grey-faced, round-shouldered, and bald, a mouse of a man with a wolfling's eyes. "Once a horse is broken to the saddle, any man can mount him," he said in a soft voice. "Once a beast's been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. - Jon X, ASOS
x
"A wild stallion will buck and kick when a man tries to mount him, and try to bite the hand that slips the bit between his teeth," Lord Brynden said, "but a horse that has known one rider will accept another. Young or old, these birds have all been ridden. Choose one now, and fly."
He chose one bird, and then another, without success, but the third raven looked at him with shrewd black eyes, tilted its head, and gave a quork, and quick as that he was not a boy looking at a raven but a raven looking at a boy. The song of the river suddenly grew louder, the torches burned a little brighter than before, and the air was full of strange smells. When he tried to speak it came out in a scream, and his first flight ended when he crashed into a wall and ended back inside his own broken body. The raven was unhurt. It flew to him and landed on his arm, and Bran stroked its feathers and slipped inside of it again. Before long he was flying around the cavern, weaving through the long stone teeth that hung down from the ceiling, even flapping out over the abyss and swooping down into its cold black depths. - Bran III, ADWD
+.+.+
All men die, and every beast that flies.
"All men die," he could almost hear her say, "and women too, and every beast that flies or swims or runs. It's not the when o' dying that matters, it's the how of it, Jon Snow."
[...]
The sound was shocking, ear-piercing, thick with agony. Varamyr fell, writhing, and the 'cat was screaming too . . . and high, high in the eastern sky, against the wall of cloud, Jon saw the eagle burning. For a heartbeat it flamed brighter than a star, wreathed in red and gold and orange, its wings beating wildly at the air as if it could fly from the pain. Higher it flew, and higher, and higher still. - Jon X, ASOS
+.+.+
STORM X STORM 🦑🖤🐉
Parallels that make us laugh: storm edition.
No squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called, for she had come howling into the world on distant Dragonstone as the greatest storm in the memory of Westeros howled outside, a storm so fierce that it ripped gargoyles from the castle walls and smashed her father's fleet to kindling. - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
A smile played across Euron's blue lips. "I am the storm, my lord. The first storm, and the last. I have taken the Silence on longer voyages than this, and ones far more hazardous. Have you forgotten? I have sailed the Smoking Sea and seen Valyria." - The Reaver, AFFC
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Parallels that make us laugh: Silence vs. Drogon edition.
"Euron. Crow's Eye, they call him, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail. He's been gone for years, but Lord Balon was no sooner cold than there he was, sailing into Lordsport in his Silence. Black sails and a red hull, and crewed by mutes. - Catelyn V, ASOS
x
Above them all the dragon turned, dark against the sun. His scales were black, his eyes and horns and spinal plates blood red. Ever the largest of her three, in the wild Drogon had grown larger still. His wings stretched twenty feet from tip to tip, black as jet. He flapped them once as he swept back above the sands, and the sound was like a clap of thunder. The boar raised his head, snorting … and flame engulfed him, black fire shot with red. - Daenerys IX, ADWD
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Parallels that make us laugh: the iron price edition.
Daario had plundered himself a whole new wardrobe in Meereen, and to match it he had redyed his trident beard and curly hair a deep rich purple. It made his eyes look almost purple too, as if he were some lost Valyrian. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
Her bloodriders were waiting for her. Silver bells tinkled in their oiled braids, and they wore the gold and jewels of dead men. - Daenerys VI, ASOS
x
In the Old Way, women might decorate themselves with ornaments bought with coin, but a warrior wore only the jewelry he took off the corpses of enemies slain by his own hand. Paying the iron price, it was called. - Theon I, ACOK
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She even liked the sailors.
She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well. She liked the dolphins that sometimes swam along beside Balerion, slicing through the waves like silvery spears, and the flying fish they glimpsed now and again. She even liked the sailors, with all their songs and stories. Once on a voyage to Braavos, as she'd watched the crew wrestle down a great green sail in a rising gale, she had even thought how fine it would be to be a sailor. - Daenerys I, ASOS
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Krakens vs. Dragons.
"In the Seven Kingdoms, there are tales of dragons who grew so huge that they could pluck giant krakens from the seas."
Dany laughed. "That would be a wondrous sight to see." - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
"There are dangers at sea as well. Corsairs and pirates hunt the southern route, and north of Valyria the Smoking Sea is demon-haunted. The next storm could sink or scatter us, a kraken could pull us under . . . - Daenerys I, ASOS
x
The eunuch drew a parchment from his sleeve. "A kraken has been seen off the Fingers." He giggled. "Not a Greyjoy, mind you, a true kraken. It attacked an Ibbenese whaler and pulled it under. There is fighting on the Stepstones, and a new war between Tyrosh and Lys seems likely. Both hope to win Myr as ally. Sailors back from the Jade Sea report that a three-headed dragon has hatched in Qarth, and is the wonder of that city—"
"Dragons and krakens do not interest me, regardless of the number of their heads," said Lord Tywin. - Tyrion III, ASOS
x
Then she saw it: an uprooted tree, huge and dark, coming straight at them. A tangle of roots and limbs poked up out of the water as it came, like the reaching arms of a great kraken. - Arya IX, ASOS
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Daenerys dreams of banners.
I ought to have a banner sewn, she thought as she led her tattered band up along Astapor's meandering river. She closed her eyes to imagine how it would look: all flowing black silk, and on it the red three-headed dragon of Targaryen, breathing golden flames. A banner such as Rhaegar might have borne. - Daenerys III, ASOS
x
A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
Tyrion I, TWOW:
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Drowning in his eyes.
"A great talker, you mean."
"He brings us the Stormcrows." And he has blue eyes. - Daenerys IV, ASOS
x
The dragon has three heads, but I have only one. She thought of Daario. If ever there was a man who could rape a woman with his eyes . . .
To be sure, she was just as guilty. Dany found herself stealing looks at the Tyroshi when her captains came to council, and sometimes at night she remembered the way his gold tooth glittered when he smiled. That, and his eyes. His bright blue eyes. - Daenerys V, ASOS
x
Euron was the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons, and three years of exile had not changed that. His hair was still black as a midnight sea, with never a whitecap to be seen, and his face was still smooth and pale beneath his neat dark beard. A black leather patch covered Euron's left eye, but his right was blue as a summer sky. - The Iron Captain, AFFC
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Daenerys yearns for a dangerously cruel man.
Dany tried to imagine what it would be like if she allowed Daario to kiss her, the way Jorah had kissed her on the ship. The thought was exciting and disturbing, both at once. It is too great a risk. The Tyroshi sellsword was not a good man, no one needed to tell her that. Under the smiles and the jests he was dangerous, even cruel. - Daenerys V, ASOS
Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Mines of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing
Tyrion Lannister, (Prisoner?) Hand of the King
In Remembrance: A Look Back at Sandor Clegane's & Ygritte's Greatest Moments
ASOS Part II: CLICK (coming soon)
Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs
Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ
Showdown at the Trident
A Rat in a Maze
The Usurper's Knife
Bran the Dragonslayer?
Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉
ASOS PART III: CLICK (coming soon)
JONSA 🐺❤️❄️
ASOS: PART IV: CLICK (coming soon)
Chapter Transitions
Previous books:
AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK
ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I & PART II
Stumpy note:
If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂
SANSA STARK, QUEEN IN THE NORTH
Sansa's feeling like a crowned fish.
My son ought to take the puff fish for his sigil, if truth be told. He could put a crown on it, the way the Baratheons do their stag, mayhap that would make him happy.
[...]
Sansa's mouth opened and closed. She felt very like a puff fish herself. - Sansa I, ASOS
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Queens don't kneel.
His uncle's part went less well. The bride's cloak he held was huge and heavy, crimson velvet richly worked with lions and bordered with gold satin and rubies. No one had thought to bring a stool, however, and Tyrion stood a foot and a half shorter than his bride. As he moved behind her, Sansa felt a sharp tug on her skirt. He wants me to kneel, she realized, blushing. She was mortified. It was not supposed to be this way. She had dreamed of her wedding a thousand times, and always she had pictured how her betrothed would stand behind her tall and strong, sweep the cloak of his protection over her shoulders, and tenderly kiss her cheek as he leaned forward to fasten the clasp.
She felt another tug at her skirt, more insistent. I won't. - Sansa III, ASOS
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She would make a good queen.
Tyrion led Sansa around the yard, to perform the necessary courtesies.
She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. His cousin Ser Lancel had been brought down by Ser Kevan, the first time he'd left his sickbed since the battle. He looks ghastly. Lancel's hair had turned white and brittle, and he was thin as a stick. Without his father beside him holding him up, he would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. She would have made Joffrey a good queen and a better wife if he'd had the sense to love her. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
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Not kings, monarchs. The first chapter after Sansa escapes King's Landing, Jaime has a question.
"What duties?" said Meryn Trant defensively.
"Keeping the king alive. How many monarchs have you lost since I left the city? Two, is it?" - Jaime VII, ASOS
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JON SNOW, KING IN THE NORTH
Chett (or is that Ramsay Bolton?) has his crown stolen by Snow.
There'd be no lord's life for the leechman's son, no keep to call his own, no wives nor crowns. Only a wildling's sword in his belly, and then an unmarked grave. The snow's taken it all from me . . . the bloody snow . . .
Snow had ruined him once before. Snow and his pet pig. - Prologue, ASOS
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Does history repeat itself in this story?
"Torrhen had brought his power south after the fall of the two kings on the Field of Fire," said Jaime, "but when he saw Aegon's dragon and the size of his host, he chose the path of wisdom and bent his frozen knees." - Jaime II, ASOS
x
It would not do to make him feel as if his mother were usurping his place. Did you teach him wisdom as well as valor, Ned? she wondered. Did you teach him how to kneel? The graveyards of the Seven Kingdoms were full of brave men who had never learned that lesson. - Catelyn IX, AGOT
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A mummer's dragon . . . or a king.
Thank you, @dontbipanicjonsa!
Follies done for love? He has bagged me neat as a hare in a snare. I seem to have already forgiven him. Mixed with her annoyance was a rueful admiration; the scene had been staged with the cunning worthy of a master mummer . . . or a king. - Catelyn II, ASOS
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The oldest, dressed in grey and white. His companion larger than the rest.
One of the giants coming up on them looked older than the rest. His pelt was grey and streaked with white, and the mammoth he rode, larger than any of the others, was grey and white as well.
[...]
"Was that their king?" asked Jon. - Jon II, ASOS
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Mance or Jon? Middling height, slender, with long brown hair. A dressed down king.
The King-beyond-the-Wall looked nothing like a king, nor even much a wildling. He was of middling height, slender, sharp-faced, with shrewd brown eyes and long brown hair that had gone mostly to grey. There was no crown on his head, no gold rings on his arms, no jewels at his throat, not even a gleam of silver. He wore wool and leather, and his only garment of note was his ragged black wool cloak, its long tears patched with faded red silk. - Jon I, ASOS
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Mance or Jon? A king who unites the land.
Mance had spent years assembling this vast plodding host, talking to this clan mother and that magnar, winning one village with sweet words and another with a song and a third with the edge of his sword, making peace between Harma Dogshead and the Lord o' Bones, between the Hornfoots and the Nightrunners, between the walrus men of the Frozen Shore and the cannibal clans of the great ice rivers, hammering a hundred different daggers into one great spear, aimed at the heart of the Seven Kingdoms. He had no crown nor scepter, no robes of silk and velvet, but it was plain to Jon that Mance Rayder was a king in more than name. - Jon II, ASOS
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Mance or Jon? The king and his oddly coloured cloak.
The King-beyond-the-Wall was waiting outside, his ragged red-and-black cloak blowing in the wind. - Jon X, ASOS
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Mance or Jon? Some say a crown, others say a woman, but the truth is the king deserted for a cloak.
"You will have heard stories of my desertion, I have no doubt."
"Some say it was for a crown. Some say for a woman. Others that you had the wildling blood."
[...]
Mance Rayder rose, unfastened the clasp that held his cloak, and swept it over the bench. "It was for this."
"A cloak?" - Jon I, ASOS
x
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One day it might be the highest honour.
"Walder Frey should be flayed and quartered!" he'd shouted. "He sends a cripple and a bastard to treat with us, tell me there is no insult meant by that." - Catelyn IV, ASOS
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Are you sure?
The dream was sweet . . . but Winterfell would never be his to show. It belonged to his brother, the King in the North. He was a Snow, not a Stark. - Jon V, ASOS
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Bran and Jon travel to Queenscrown for a quick visit.
"We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown."
Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. "A queen lived there?" asked Ygritte.
"A queen stayed there for a night." - Jon V, ASOS
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From snow to crown.
"Good Queen Alysanne, they called her later. One of the castles on the Wall was named for her as well. Queensgate. Before her visit they called it Snowgate." - Jon V, ASOS
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The first domino.
". . . and dead. No one has seen or heard of Arya since they cut Father's head off. Why do you lie to yourself? Arya's gone, the same as Bran and Rickon, and they'll kill Sansa too once the dwarf gets a child from her. Jon is the only brother that remains to me. Should I die without issue, I want him to succeed me as King in the North. I had hoped you would support my choice." - Catelyn V, ASOS
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Jon laughs like a king.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Jon laughed, laughed like a drunk or a madman, and his men laughed with him. - Jon VIII, ASOS
x
Barristan Selmy could not dispute the truth of that. He had spent the best part of his own life obeying the commands of drunkards and madmen. - The Queen's Hand, ADWD
x
He laughed . . . and when the king laughs, the court laughs with him. - Sansa IV, ASOS
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Not all Aemon Targaryens have the same fate.
Aemon Targaryen, Jon thought, a king's son and a king's brother and a king who might have been. But he said nothing. - Jon X, ASOS
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Tall enough, strong enough, and well placed beside the Wall.
Thank you, @aegor-bamfsteel and @decadelongsummer!
The King's Tower was not the castle's tallest—the high, slim, crumbling Lance held that honor, though Othell Yarwyck had been heard to say it might topple any day. Nor was the King's Tower strongest—the Tower of Guards beside the kingsroad would be a tougher nut to crack. But it was tall enough, strong enough, and well placed beside the Wall, overlooking the gate and the foot of the wooden stair. - Jon VII, ASOS
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Jon sleeps inside the King's Tower.
There was a king in the King's Tower for the first time in living memory, and banners flew from the Lance, Hardin's Tower, the Grey Keep, the Shieldhall, and other buildings that had stood empty and abandoned for long years. - Samwell IV, ASOS
x
Jon could not remember the last time he had slept. When he closed his eyes he dreamed of fighting; when he woke he fought. Even in the King's Tower he could hear the ceaseless thunk of bronze and flint and stolen steel biting into wood - Jon IX, ASOS
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The shield that guards the realms of men.
What good is a king who will not defend his realm? - Samwell IV, ASOS
x
"Our honor means no more than our lives, so long as the realm is safe. Are you a man of the Night's Watch?" - Jon VIII, ACOK
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Kings, and their priorities.
I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne. - Jon XI, ASOS
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Sounds real alright.
Thank you, @astraphysical!
Lord Snow. Ser Alliser Thorne had named him that, to mock his bastard birth. Many of his brothers had taken to using it as well, some with affection, others to wound. But suddenly it had a different sound to it in Jon's ears. It sounded . . . real.
[...]
Stannis put a thin, fleshless hand on Jon's shoulder. "Say nothing of what we've discussed here today. To anyone. But when you return, you need only bend your knee, lay your sword at my feet, and pledge yourself to my service, and you shall rise again as Jon Stark, the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XI, ASOS
x
Even before the coming of the Andals, the Wolf's Den had been raised by King Jon Stark, built to defend the mouth of the White Knife against raiders and slavers from across the narrow sea (some scholars suggest these were early Andal incursions, whilst others argue they were the forebears of the men from Ib, or even slavers out of Valyria and Volantis). - TWoIaF
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JON (AEMON?) SNOW
Sounds like someone else we know.
Aemon Targaryen, Jon thought, a king's son and a king's brother and a king who might have been. But he said nothing. - Jon X, ASOS
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I don't doubt it.
"I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, "Well, I'm Florian the Fool." Or Robb would say, "I'm the Young Dragon," and Jon would reply, "I'm Ser Ryam Redwyne." - Jon XII
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JON THE BUILDER & HIS GIFT
A younger son of Winterfell puts down a rebel lord, and is granted new land.
Lord Rickard had spoken truly, Catelyn knew. The Karstarks traced their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but that soon became Karhold, and over the centuries the Karhold Starks had become Karstarks. - Catelyn III, ASOS
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A northern lord who swears fealty, but is no true lord.
"That's their sigil," said Bran. "Three brown buckets on a blue field, with a border of white and grey checks. Lord Wull came to Winterfell once, to do his fealty and talk with Father, and he had the buckets on his shield. He's no true lord, though. Well, he is, but they call him just the Wull, and there's the Knott and the Norrey and the Liddle too. At Winterfell we called them lords, but their own folk don't." - Bran II, ASOS
x
"Your Grace?" The king smiled. "That's not a style one often hears from the lips of free folk. I'm Mance to most, The Mance to some. Will you take a horn of mead?" - Jon I, ASOS
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It was some other Brandon's gift.
"The Night's Watch," he answered. "This is the Gift. The New Gift, and north of that Brandon's Gift." Maester Luwin had taught him the history. "Brandon the Builder gave all the land south of the Wall to the black brothers, to a distance of twenty-five leagues. For their . . . for their sustenance and support." He was proud that he still remembered that part. "Some maesters say it was some other Brandon, not the Builder, but it's still Brandon's Gift. Thousands of years later, Good Queen Alysanne visited the Wall on her dragon Silverwing, and she thought the Night's Watch was so brave that she had the Old King double the size of their lands, to fifty leagues. So that was the New Gift." He waved a hand. "Here. All this." - Bran III, ASOS
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It is a DREAM FOR SPRING.
Brandon's Gift had been farmed for thousands of years, but as the Watch dwindled there were fewer hands to plow the fields, tend the bees, and plant the orchards, so the wild had reclaimed many a field and hall. In the New Gift there had been villages and holdfasts whose taxes, rendered in goods and labor, helped feed and clothe the black brothers. But those were largely gone as well.
[...]
"Might be after we could come back here, and live in that tower," she said. "Would you want that, Jon Snow? After?"
After. The word was a spear thrust. After the war. After the conquest. After the wildlings break the Wall . . .
His lord father had once talked about raising new lords and settling them in the abandoned holdfasts as a shield against wildlings. The plan would have required the Watch to yield back a large part of the Gift, but his uncle Benjen believed the Lord Commander could be won around, so long as the new lordlings paid taxes to Castle Black rather than Winterfell. "It is a dream for spring, though," Lord Eddard had said. "Even the promise of land will not lure men north with a winter coming on."
If winter had come and gone more quickly and spring had followed in its turn, I might have been chosen to hold one of these towers in my father's name. Lord Eddard was dead, however, his brother Benjen lost; the shield they dreamt together would never be forged. "This land belongs to the Watch," Jon said. - Jon V, ASOS
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Wrong king, wrong gods, and not his land.
"Whilst your brothers have been struggling to decide who shall lead them, I have been speaking with this Mance Rayder." He ground his teeth. "A stubborn man, that one, and prideful. He will leave me no choice but to give him to the flames. But we took other captives as well, other leaders. The one who calls himself the Lord of Bones, some of their clan chiefs, the new Magnar of Thenn. Your brothers will not like it, no more than your father's lords, but I mean to allow the wildlings through the Wall . . . those who will swear me their fealty, pledge to keep the king's peace and the king's laws, and take the Lord of Light as their god. Even the giants, if those great knees of theirs can bend. I will settle them on the Gift, once I have wrested it away from your new Lord Commander. When the cold winds rise, we shall live or die together. It is time we made alliance against our common foe." He looked at Jon. "Would you agree?"
"My father dreamed of resettling the Gift," Jon admitted. "He and my uncle Benjen used to talk of it." He never thought of settling it with wildlings, though . . . but he never rode with wildlings, either. He did not fool himself; the free folk would make for unruly subjects and dangerous neighbors. - Jon XI, ASOS
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AHOY MATEY! ARYA STARK SAILS THE OCEAN BLUE
It takes stumpy a whole book to finally notice an amusing ship.
They had sailed up the Blackwater Rush flying the fiery heart of the Lord of Light. Davos and Black Betha had been in the second line of battle, between Dale's Wraith and Allard on Lady Marya. - Davos I, ASOS
x
I mean to use your second son as well. He will take Lady Marya across the narrow sea, to Braavos and the other Free Cities, to deliver other letters to the men who rule there. - Davos I, ACOK
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Fast learner.
He looked dubious. "Did you ever sail a boat?"
"You put up the sail," she said, "and the wind pushes it."
"What if the wind is blowing the wrong way?"
"Then there's oars to row." - Arya II, ASOS
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To reach the west, you must go east.
Now, quick as a snake, she thought, as she slammed her heels into the courser's flank. Right between Greenbeard and Jack-Be-Lucky she flew, and caught one glimpse of Gendry's startled face as his mare moved out of her way. And then she was in the open field, and running.
North or south, east or west, that made no matter now. - Arya III, ASOS
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Could have, would have, should have.
I could have stayed with Hot Pie. We could have taken the little boat and sailed it up to Riverrun. She had been better off as Squab. No one would take Squab captive, or Nan, or Weasel, or Arry the orphan boy. I was a wolf, she thought, but now I'm just some stupid little lady again. - Arya III, ASOS
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The mysterious Stark who sailed off beyond the Sunset Sea returns to the story.
It was Bran's turn to tell a story, so he told them about another Brandon Stark, the one called Brandon the Shipwright, who had sailed off beyond the Sunset Sea. - Bran III, ASOS
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There's an Ice Dragon in the north, and a Galley sailing west.
A half moon was sliding in and out amongst thin high clouds, and Davos could see familiar stars. There was the Galley, sailing west; there the Crone's Lantern, four bright stars that enclosed a golden haze. The clouds hid most of the Ice Dragon, all but the bright blue eye that marked due north. - Davos VI, ASOS
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No one cares who you are at the port.
And there were ships.
Three, thought Arya, there are three. Two were only river galleys, shallow draft boats made to ply the waters of the Trident. The third was bigger, a salt sea trader with two banks of oars, a gilded prow, and three tall masts with furled purple sails. Her hull was painted purple too. Arya rode Craven down to the docks to get a better look. Strangers are not so strange in a port as they are in little villages, and no one seemed to care who she was or why she was here. - Arya XIII, ASOS
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Arya trades a horse for a ship.
She couldn't go back, no more than she could beg for help. Begging for help never gets you any. She would have to sell Craven, and hope she brought enough. - Arya XIII, ASOS
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BRAN THE BROKEN, KING OF WESTEROS
A prince may be addressed similarly, but this still makes you pause.
It wasn't as good as deer, but it wasn't bad either, Bran decided as he ate. "Thank you, Meera," he said. "My lady."
"You are most welcome, Your Grace." - Bran I, ASOS
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One day it might be the highest honour.
"Walder Frey should be flayed and quartered!" he'd shouted. "He sends a cripple and a bastard to treat with us, tell me there is no insult meant by that." - Catelyn IV, ASOS
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From Tumbledown Tower to Queenscrown, Bran visits some cleverly named places on his journey.
Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!
Even the tumbled stones were so overgrown with moss and ivy that you could hardly see them until you were right on top of them. "Tumbledown Tower," Bran had named the place; it was Meera who found the way down into the vault, however. - Bran I, ASOS
x
"No. Old Nan told me. The holdfast has a golden crown, see?" He pointed across the lake. You could see patches of flaking gold paint up around the crenellations. "Queen Alysanne slept there, so they painted the merlons gold in her honor." - Bran III, ASOS
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Bran stays the night at Queenscrown.
"We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown."
Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. "A queen lived there?" asked Ygritte.
"A queen stayed there for a night." - Jon V, ASOS
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Some kings might have wings.
Well, ravens might have wings, but lords and kings do not. - Jon VIII, ASOS
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For the realm.
What good is a king who will not defend his realm? - Samwell IV, ASOS
x
"Most of him has gone into the tree," explained the singer Meera called Leaf. "He has lived beyond his mortal span, and yet he lingers. For us, for you, for the realms of men. Only a little strength remains in his flesh. He has a thousand eyes and one, but there is much to watch. One day you will know." - Bran III, ADWD
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HIGH SEPTON RICKON?
In a chapter that establishes the Starks and Freys as foils, a son with no chance of inheriting has an interesting thought.
The gods gave me no gift but birth, and they stinted me there. What good was it to be the son of a rich and powerful House if you were the ninth son? When you took grandsons and great-grandsons into account, Merrett stood a better chance of being chosen High Septon than he did of inheriting the Twins. - Epilogue, ASOS
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PICK YOUR POISON: THE TWINS MEET THEIR END IN THE MINES OF CASTERLY ROCK . . . OR KING'S LANDING
Jaime and his green dreams.
Thank you, @magiclovingdragon!
In his dreams the dead came burning, gowned in swirling green flames. Jaime danced around them with a golden sword, but for every one he struck down two more arose to take his place. - Jaime II, ASOS
x
Jaime saw green flames reaching up into the sky higher than the tallest towers, as burning men screamed in the streets. I have dreamed this dream before. It was almost funny, but there was no one to share the joke. - Jaime IV, ASOS
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Cersei's all fire and ash.
Thank you, @magiclovingdragon!
Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. - Eddard XIII, ASOS
x
"The Hand speaks with the king's voice." Candlelight gleamed green as wildfire in Cersei's eyes. - Tyrion VIII, ACOK
x
The queen was drinking heavily, but the wine only seemed to make her more beautiful; her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes had a bright, feverish heat to them as she looked down over the hall. Eyes of wildfire, Sansa thought. - Sansa VI, ACOK
x
His sister liked to think of herself as Lord Tywin with teats, but she was wrong. Their father had been as relentless and implacable as a glacier, where Cersei was all wildfire, especially when thwarted. - Jaime II, AFFC
x
"I have never liked you, Cersei, but you were my own sister, so I never did you harm. You've ended that. I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid." - Tyrion XII, ACOK
+.+.+
A shared destiny.
Thank you, @kadarakey and @agentrouka-blog!
I cannot die while Cersei lives, he told himself. We will die together as we were born together. - Jaime IV, ASOS
x
We will leave this world together, as we once came into it. "He will not lose. Not Jaime. Not with my life at stake." - Cersei X, AFFC
x
And Jaime and I are more than brother and sister. We are one person in two bodies. We shared a womb together. He came into this world holding my foot, our old maester said. When he is in me, I feel … whole." The ghost of a smile flitted over her lips. - Eddard XII, AGOT
+.+.+
With his head on a weirwood stump, Jaime has prophetic dreams featuring the bowels of Casterly Rock.
Naked and alone he stood, surrounded by enemies, with stone walls all around him pressing close. The Rock, he knew. He could feel the immense weight of it above his head.
[...]
He had no choice but to descend. Down a twisting passageway he went, narrow steps carved from the living rock, down and down. I must go up, he told himself. Up, not down. Why am I going down? Below the earth his doom awaited, he knew with the certainty of dream; something dark and terrible lurked there, something that wanted him. Jaime tried to halt, but their spears prodded him on.
[...]
There were watery caverns deep below Casterly Rock, but this one was strange to him. "What place is this?"
"Your place." The voice echoed; it was a hundred voices, a thousand, the voices of all the Lannisters since Lann the Clever, who'd lived at the dawn of days. But most of all it was his father's voice, and beside Lord Tywin stood his sister, pale and beautiful, a torch burning in her hand. Joffrey was there as well, the son they'd made together, and behind them a dozen more dark shapes with golden hair.
[...]
Her torch was the only light in the cavern. Her torch was the only light in the world. She turned to go.
[...]
"The flames will burn so long as you live," he heard Cersei call. "When they die, so must you."
[...]
"We could go back the way they brought us. If you climbed on my shoulders you'd have no trouble reaching that tunnel mouth."
Then I could follow Cersei.
[...]
Jaime moved in a circle, ready for anything that might come out of the darkness. The water flowed into his boots, ankle deep and bitterly cold. Beware the water, he told himself. There may be creatures living in it, hidden deeps …
[...]
The fires that ran along the blade were guttering out, and Jaime remembered what Cersei had said. No. Terror closed a hand about his throat. Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne's burned, as the ghosts came rushing in.
"No," he said, "no, no, no. Nooooooooo!"- Jaime VI, ASOS
+.+.+
The crypts aren't Jon's place. Jaime's place is under Casterly Rock.
Thank you, @dontbipanicjonsa!
There were watery caverns deep below Casterly Rock, but this one was strange to him. "What place is this?"
"Your place." - Jaime VI, ASOS
x
And the stone kings were growling at him with granite tongues. You do not belong here. This is not your place. - Jon XII, ASOS
+.+.+
The immense weight could crush you.
The Rock, he knew. He could feel the immense weight of it above his head. - Jaime VI, ASOS
x
The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head.
[...]
He looked up at where they'd come from. When you stand here it seems immense, as if it were about to crush you. - Jon VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
A clever twist to the mystery? Poison.
Thank you @eonweheraldodemanwe, for pointing out Mark Antony x Cleopatra + Romeo x Juliet might be the parallels George is aiming for.
The fires that ran along the blade were guttering out, and Jaime remembered what Cersei had said. No. Terror closed a hand about his throat. Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne's burned, as the ghosts came rushing in. - Jaime VI, ASOS
x
The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." - Cersei VIII, AFFC
x
"I don't care why," Cersei said. "He can take his reasons down to hell with him. If you had seen how Joff died . . . he fought, Jaime, he fought for every breath, but it was as if some malign spirit had its hands about his throat. He had such terror in his eyes . . . - Jaime IX, ASOS
x
In the Citadel, it was simply called the strangler. Dissolved in wine, it would make the muscles of a man's throat clench tighter than any fist, shutting off his windpipe. - Prologue, ACOK
+.+.+
She refuses to be taken alive.
Ser Ilyn opened his mouth and emitted a choking rattle. His pox-scarred face had no expression.
"He's here for us, he says," the queen said. "Stannis may take the city and he may take the throne, but I will not suffer him to judge me. I do not mean for him to have us alive." - Sansa VI, ACOK
+.+.+
George R. R. Martin deviates from the story.
[S 02 : EP 09 - BLACKWATER - Written by George R. R. Martin]
+.+.+
But will it be Casterly Rock?
She had dreamed of it the night before last, a magnificent white castle surrounded by woods and gardens, long leagues from the stinks and noise of King's Landing. "This city is a cesspit. For half a groat I would move the court to Lannisport and rule the realm from Casterly Rock." - Cersei III, AFFC
. . . or King's Landing?
"I am aware of that," the queen said sharply. "I said that I wanted to move the court to Lannisport, not that I would. Were you always this slow, or did losing a hand make you stupid?"
Jaime ignored that. "If these flames spread beyond the tower, you may end up burning down the castle whether you mean to or not. Wildfire is treacherous." - Cersei III, AFFC
Tune in next time to find out!
+.+.+
TYRION LANNISTER, (PRISONER?) HAND OF THE KING
Tyrion's tasked with rebuilding King's Landing.
"I have seen enough for now. We'll return on the morrow with the guild masters to go over their plans." He sighed. Well, I burned most of this, I suppose it's only just that I rebuild it. - Tyrion IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Wrong title.
The man inclined his head. He was bald on top. "My lord Hand," he said.
"You mistake me. My father is the King's Hand. I am no longer even a finger, I fear."
[...]
"The last thing my wife needs is more songs," said Tyrion. "As for Shae, we both know she is no lady, and I would thank you never to speak her name aloud."
"As the Hand commands," Symon said. - Tyrion IV, ASOS
+.+.+
Big if.
"If I am ever Hand again, the first thing I'll do is hang all the singers," said Tyrion, too loudly. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS
+.+.+
IN REMEMBRANCE: A LOOK BACK AT SANDOR CLEGANE'S & YGRITTE'S GREATEST MOMENTS
Queen you shall be ~ book vibes + show foreshadowings of the book-plots
Queen you shall be, the old woman had promised, with her lips still wet and red and glistening, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
— Cersei III, AFFC
The queen, Cersei Lannister and the possible candidates for the role of younger, more beautiful queen.
She dreamt she sat the Iron Throne, high above them all.
The courtiers were brightly colored mice below. Great lords and proud ladies knelt before her. Bold young knights laid their swords at her feet and pleaded for her favors, and the queen smiled down at them. Until the dwarf appeared as if from nowhere, pointing at her and howling with laughter. The lords and ladies began to chuckle too, hiding their smiles behind their hands. Only then did the queen realize she was naked.
— Cersei I, AFFC
"I govern the realm."
Seven save us all, you do. His sister liked to think of herself as Lord Tywin with teats, but she was wrong. Their father had been as relentless and implacable as a glacier, where Cersei was all wildfire, especially when thwarted. She had been giddy as a maiden when she learned that Stannis had abandoned Dragonstone, certain that he had finally given up the fight and sailed away to exile.
When word came down from the north that he had turned up again at the Wall, her fury had been fearful to behold.
She does not lack for wits, but she has no judgment, and no patience.
"You need a strong Hand to help you."
"A weak ruler needs a strong Hand, as Aerys needed Father. A strong ruler requires only a diligent servant to carry out his orders." She swirled her wine. "Lord Hallyne might suit. He would not be the first pyromancer to serve as the King's Hand."
— Jaime II, AFFC
Though she had been too young to witness the spectacle herself, Cersei had heard the stories growing up from the mouths of washerwomen and guardsmen who had been there. They spoke of how the woman had wept and begged, of the desperate way she clung to her garments when she was commanded to disrobe, of her futile efforts to cover her breasts and her sex with her hands as she hobbled barefoot and naked through the streets to exile. "Vain and proud she was, before," she remembered one guard saying, "so haughty you'd think she'd forgot she come from dirt. Once we got her clothes off her, though, she was just another whore."
If Ser Kevan and the High Sparrow thought that it would be the same with her, they were very much mistaken. Lord Tywin's blood was in her. I am a lioness. I will not cringe for them.
The queen shrugged off her robe.
(...)
"Harlot," a voice screamed.
(...) I am not afraid. I am a lioness. She walked on.
— Cersei II, ADWD
Daenerys Targaryen, queen in the East, claimant to the Iron throne
Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver's Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.
— Daenerys VII, AGOT
"Viserys is dead. I am his heir, the last blood of House Targaryen. Whatever was his is mine now."
— Daenerys X, AGOT
I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father.
But before she could do that she must conquer.
— Daenerys II, ACOK
"Sellswords have their uses," Ser Jorah admitted, "but you will not win your father's throne with sweepings from the Free Cities. Nothing knits a broken realm together so quick as an invading army on its soil."
"I am their rightful queen," Dany protested.
"You are a stranger who means to land on their shores with an army of outlanders who cannot even speak the Common Tongue. The lords of Westeros do not know you, and have every reason to fear and mistrust you. You must win them over before you sail. A few at least."
— Daenerys III, ACOK
It was hard to summon the will to speak, to recall the words she had practiced so assiduously. "I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros."
Do they hear me? Why don't they move? She sat, folding her hands in her lap. "Grant me your counsel, and speak to me with the wisdom of those who have conquered death."
— Daenerys IV, ACOK
Dany knew she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all. "Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him."
— Daenerys II, ASOS
“I know what Aegon proved, I mean to prove a few things of my own”
(...)
"Done," the old Grazdan answered in his thick Valyrian.
The others echoed that old man of the pearl fringe. "Done," the slave girl translated, "and done, and done, eight times done."
(...)
"Is it done, then? Do they belong to me?"
"It is done," he agreed, giving the chain a sharp pull to bring Drogon down from the litter.
(...)
She stood in her stirrups and raised the harpy's fingers above her head for all the Unsullied to see. "IT IS DONE!" she cried at the top of her lungs. "YOU ARE MINE!" She gave the mare her heels and galloped along the first rank, holding the fingers high. "YOU ARE THE DRAGON'S NOW! YOU'RE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR! IT IS DONE! IT IS DONE!"
(...)
"Unsullied!" Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. "Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see." She raised the harpy's fingers in the air . . . and then she flung the scourge aside. "Freedom!" she sang out. "Dracarys! Dracarys!"
— Daenerys III, ASOS
A boy came, younger than Dany, slight and scarred, dressed up in a frayed grey tokar trailing silver fringe. His voice broke when he told of how two of his father's household slaves had risen up the night the gate broke. One had slain his father, the other his elder brother. Both had raped his mother before killing her as well. The boy had escaped with no more than the scar upon his face, but one of the murderers was still living in his father's house, and the other had joined the queen's soldiers as one of the Mother's Men. He wanted them both hanged.
[btw, people still think she'll accept either Jon or Aegon as Rhaegar's children? — I mean this boy is basically a foil of either or both of them, his elder sibling(s) has been killed by two men as his father has been slaughtered, his mother raped and later killed... does this not remind anyone of Elia, Lyanna, Rhaenys and Rhaegar?, Yet Daenerys refuses him, even knowing her slavers have done something hideous to someone she should feel inclined to protect a woman, who possibly had no agency and a child]
I am queen over a city built on dust and death. Dany had no choice but to deny him. She had declared a blanket pardon for all crimes committed during the sack. Nor would she punish slaves for rising up against their masters.
— Daenerys I, ADWD
Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.
— Daenerys II, ADWD
"None, this one grieves to confess. We beg your pardon."
Mercy, thought Dany. They will have the dragon's mercy. "Skahaz, I have changed my mind. Question the man sharply."
"I could. Or I could question the daughters sharply whilst the father looks on. That will wring some names from him."
"Do as you think best, but bring me names." Her fury was a fire in her belly. "I will have no more Unsullied slaughtered. Grey Worm, pull your men back to their barracks. Henceforth let them guard my walls and gates and person. From this day, it shall be for Meereenese to keep the peace in Meereen. Skahaz, make me a new watch, made up in equal parts of shavepates and freedmen.
— Daenerys II, ADWD
Margaery Tyrell, briefly queen consort to Joffrey Baratheon, consort to king Tommen Baratheon
Margaery was different, though. Sweet and gentle, yet there was a little of her grandmother in her, too. The day before last she'd taken Sansa hawking. It was the first time she had been outside the city since the battle.
— Sansa II, ASOS
But why? Sansa wondered when she was alone. It made her uneasy. I'll wager this gown is Margaery's doing somehow, or her grandmother's.
Margaery's kindness had been unfailing, and her presence changed everything. Her ladies welcomed Sansa as well. It had been so long since she had enjoyed the company of other women, she had almost forgotten how pleasant it could be.
— Sansa II, ASOS
I will need to move carefully with that one. The city was full of his men, and he'd even managed to plant one of his sons in the Kingsguard, and meant to plant his daughter in Tommen's bed. It still made her furious to think that Father had agreed to betroth Tommen to Margaery Tyrell.
— Cersei I, AFFC
The old woman was twice as clever as her lord son, that was plain.
— Cersei II, AFFC
She is pretty enough, she had to admit, but most of that is youth. Even peasant girls are pretty at a certain age, when they are still fresh and innocent and unspoiled, and most of them have the same brown hair and brown eyes as she does. Only a fool would ever claim she was more beautiful than I. The world was full of fools, however. So was her son's court.
— Cersei III, AFFC
But the king was deaf to sense, thanks to his little queen. "If we mingle with the commons, they will love us better."
"The mob loved the fat High Septon so well they tore him limb from limb, and him a holy man," she reminded him. All it did was make him sullen with her. Just as Margaery wants, I wager. Every day in every way she tries to steal him from me. Joffrey would have seen through her schemer's smile and let her know her place, but Tommen was more gullible. She knew Joff was too strong for her, Cersei thought, remembering the gold coin Qyburn had found. For House Tyrell to hope to rule, he had to be removed. It came back to her that Margaery and her hideous grandmother had once plotted to marry Sansa Stark to the little queen's crippled brother Willas. Lord Tywin had forestalled that by stealing a march on them and wedding Sansa to Tyrion, but the link had been there. They are all in it together, she realized with a start. The Tyrells bribed the gaolers to free Tyrion, and whisked him down the roseroad to join his vile bride. By now the both of them are safe in Highgarden, hidden away behind a wall of roses.
— Cersei VI, AFFC
Brienne of Tarth, the ‘great beauty’, sworn shield of lady Catelyn Stark and sworn to find and protect her daughters.
"Children are a battle of a different sort." Catelyn started across the yard. "A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Carrying a child, bringing it into the world . . . your mother will have told you of the pain . . ."
"I never knew my mother," Brienne said. "My father had ladies . . . a different lady every year, but . . ."
"Those were no ladies," Catelyn said. "As hard as birth can be, Brienne, what comes after is even harder. At times I feel as though I am being torn apart. Would that there were five of me, one for each child, so I might keep them all safe."
"Brienne, I have taken many wellborn ladies into my service over the years, but never one like you. I am no battle commander."
"No, but you have courage. Not battle courage perhaps but . . . I don't know . . . a kind of woman's courage. And I think, when the time comes, you will not try and hold me back. Promise me that. That you will not hold me back from Stannis."
Catelyn could still hear Stannis saying that Robb's turn too would come in time. It was like a cold breath on the back of her neck. "When the time comes, I will not hold you back."
— Catelyn V, ACOK
Brienne curled up beneath her cloak, with Podrick yawning at her side. I was not always wary, she might have shouted down at Crabb. When I was a little girl I believed that all men were as noble as my father. Even the men who told her what a pretty girl she was, how tall and bright and clever, how graceful when she danced. It was Septa Roelle who had lifted the scales from her eyes. "They only say those things to win your lord father's favor," the woman had said. "You'll find truth in your looking glass, not on the tongues of men." It was a harsh lesson, one that left her weeping, but it had stood her in good stead at Harrenhal when Ser Hyle and his friends had played their game. A maid has to be mistrustful in this world, or she will not be a maid for long, she was thinking, as the rain began to fall.
— Brienne IV, AFFC
"A daughter." Brienne's eyes filled with tears. "He deserves that. A daughter who could sing to him and grace his hall and bear him grandsons. He deserves a son too, a strong and gallant son to bring honor to his name. Galladon drowned when I was four and he was eight, though, and Alysanne and Arianne died still in the cradle. I am the only child the gods let him keep. The freakish one, not fit to be a son or daughter."
— Brienne VI, AFFC
Seven, Brienne thought again, despairing. She had no chance against seven, she knew. No chance, and no choice.
She stepped out into the rain, Oathkeeper in hand. "Leave her be. If you want to rape someone, try me."
The oulaws turned as one. One laughed, and another said something in a tongue Brienne did not know. The huge one with the broad white face gave a malevolent hiss. The man in the Hound's helm began to laugh. "You're even uglier than I remembered. I'd sooner rape your horse."
— Brienne VII, AFFC
Sansa Stark, princess in the North to her brothers, currently hiding in the Vale.
"The night's first traitors," the queen said, "but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning." As they left, she turned to Sansa. "Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you'll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy."
"I will remember, Your Grace," said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.
— Sansa VI, ACOK
Across the city, thousands had jammed into the Great Sept of Baelor on Visenya's Hill, and they would be singing too, their voices swelling out over the city, across the river, and up into the sky. Surely the gods must hear us, she thought.
Sansa knew most of the hymns, and followed along on those she did not know as best she could. She sang along with grizzled old serving men and anxious young wives, with serving girls and soldiers, cooks and falconers, knights and knaves, squires and spit boys and nursing mothers. She sang with those inside the castle walls and those without, sang with all the city. She sang for mercy, for the living and the dead alike, for Bran and Rickon and Robb, for her sister Arya and her bastard brother Jon Snow, away off on the Wall. She sang for her mother and her father, for her grandfather Lord Hoster and her uncle Edmure Tully, for her friend Jeyne Poole, for old drunken King Robert, for Septa Mordane and Ser Dontos and Jory Cassel and Maester Luwin, for all the brave knights and soldiers who would die today, and for the children and the wives who would mourn them, and finally, toward the end, she even sang for Tyrion the Imp and for the Hound. He is no true knight but he saved me all the same, she told the Mother. Save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him.
But when the septon climbed on high and called upon the gods to protect and defend their true and noble king, Sansa got to her feet. The aisles were jammed with people. She had to shoulder through while the septon called upon the Smith to lend strength to Joffrey's sword and shield, the Warrior to give him courage, the Father to defend him in his need. Let his sword break and his shield shatter, Sansa thought coldly as she shoved out through the doors, let his courage fail him and every man desert him.
— Sansa VI, ACOK
He had not been dead when she left the throne room. He had been on his knees, though, clawing at his throat, tearing at his own skin as he fought to breathe. The sight of it had been too terrible to watch, and she had turned and fled, sobbing. Lady Tanda had been fleeing as well. "You have a good heart, my lady," she said to Sansa. "Not every maid would weep so for a man who set her aside and wed her to a dwarf."
A good heart. I have a good heart. Hysterical laughter rose up her gullet, but Sansa choked it back down. The bells were ringing, slow and mournful. Ringing, ringing, ringing. They had rung for King Robert the same way. Joffrey was dead, he was dead, he was dead, dead, dead. Why was she crying, when she wanted to dance? Were they tears of joy?
— Sansa V, ASOS
A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.
Yet she stepped out all the same.
She pushed two of her snowballs together, added a third, packed more snow in around them, and patted the whole thing into the shape of a cylinder. When it was done, she stood it on end and used the tip of her little finger to poke holes in it for windows. The crenellations around the top took a little more care, but when they were done she had a tower. I need some walls now, Sansa thought, and then a keep. She set to work.
The snow fell and the castle rose. (...) It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell. She found twigs and fallen branches beneath the snow and broke off the ends to make the trees for the godswood. For the gravestones in the lichyard she used bits of bark. Soon her gloves and her boots were crusty white, her hands were tingling, and her feet were soaked and cold, but she did not care. The castle was all that mattered.
— Sansa VII, ASOS
"When Robert dies. Our poor brave Sweetrobin is such a sickly boy, it is only a matter of time. When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon . . . and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell.”
— Alayne II, AFFC
"What if Lord Nestor values honor more than profit?" Petyr put his arm around her. "What if it is truth he wants, and justice for his murdered lady?" He smiled. "I know Lord Nestor, sweetling. Do you imagine I'd ever let him harm my daughter?"
I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell.
"A touch of fear will not be out of place, Alayne. You've seen a fearful thing. Nestor will be moved." Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes."
— Sansa I, AFFC
It had fallen out just as Petyr said it would, the day the ravens flew. "They're young, eager, hungry for adventure and renown. Lysa would not let them go to war. This is the next best thing. A chance to serve their lord and prove their prowess. They will come. Even Harry the Heir." He had smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead. "What a clever daughter you are.
It was clever. The tourney, the prizes, the winged knights, it had all been her own notion. Lord Robert's mother had filled him full of fears, but he always took courage from the tales she read him of Ser Artys Arryn, the Winged Knight of legend, founder of his line. Why not surround him with Winged Knights?
— Alayne I, WOW
All of them are strong, they simply display strength in a different manner. All of them are clever and goal-oriented, the way they go about achieving those goals differs. All of them are passionate, the way they purpose that passion differ. All of them love their family, the way they honor them differ. No matter which man is the catalyst of what happens to them, no matter who victimises them, they are the real players, the real achievers. They are resilient and they endure.
I’m so spoiled, this re-read project has bestowed upon me so many Gift(s)!
“You are as hopeless as any boys I have ever trained,” Ser Alliser Thorne announced when they had all assembled in the yard. “Your hands were made for manure shovels, not for swords, and if it were up to me, the lot of you would be set to herding swine.
(…)
"They will call you men of Night’s Watch now, but you are bigger fools than the Mummer’s Monkey here if you believe that. You are boys still, green and stinking of summer, and when the winter comes you will die like flies.” And with that, Ser Alliser Thorne took his leave of them.
He’s so inspiring. I’d lay my life on the line for this man if I were a new recruit.
+.+
While Grenn seized his arm, Pyp gave the skin a squeeze, and a thin stream of red squirted Jon in the face. Halder howled in protest at the waste of good wine. Jon sputtered and struggled. Matthar and Jeren climbed the wall and began pelting them all with snowballs.
By the time he wrenched free, with snow in his hair and wine stains on his surcoat, Samwell Tarly had gone.
Face full of snow, and blood red wine all over his surcoat, caused by his brothers. That’s unfortunate. What a waste!
+.+
Everyone laughed but Grenn. “I hope I’m a ranger.”
“You and everyone else,” said Matthar.
(…)
“Not everyone,” said Halder. “It’s the builders for me. What use would rangers be if the Wall fell down?”
The order of builders provided the masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, the miners to dig tunnels and crush stone for roads and footpaths, the woodsmen to clear away new growth wherever the forest pressed too close to the Wall. Once, it was said, they had quarried immense blocks of ice from frozen lakes deep in the haunted forest, dragging them south on sledges so the Wall might be raised ever higher. Those days were centuries gone, however; now, it was all they could do to ride the Wall from Eastwatch to the Shadow Tower, watching for cracks or signs of melt and making what repairs they could.
HMMM! 🤔
Everyone wants to be a ranger! But hold that thought, let’s interject with a whole paragraph romanticizing the role of builders.
Yes, my thoughts exactly Halder! What good is a ranger if the Wall fell down? We need builders! Masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, miners to dig tunnels and crush stone for roads, and woodsmen to clear new growth of that valuable lumber the North has an abundance of!
+.+
“The Old Bear’s no fool,” Dareon observed. “You’re certain to be a builder, and Jon’s certain to be a ranger. He’s the best sword and the best rider among us, and his uncle was the First before he …”
Nah, I don’t think he’s going to be a ranger, I think he’s going to be something else.
✨ 😍 ❤️ 👷🏻 Jon the Builder! 👷🏻 ❤️ 😍 ✨
+.+
“You will be First Ranger someday, just as your uncle was.”
“Is,” Jon corrected. He would not accept that Benjen Stark was dead.
x
“Benjen Stark is still First Ranger,” Jon Snow told him, toying with his bowl of blueberries. The rest might have given up all hope of his uncle’s safe return, but not him.
He’s so adamant Benjen is alive, it’s making me believe it.
+.+
He wheeled his horse around and started for home.
Castle Black is not your home, and it never will be.
+.+
Maester Aemon listened silently, blind eyes fixed on the fire
This is so on the nose, it made me laugh out loud.
Probably not written with any purpose, but it’s hilarious all the same.
+.+
“I asked why each link was a different metal. A silver chain would look much finer with his grey robes, I said. Maester Luwin laughed. A maester forges his chain with study, he told me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, gold for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. And he said there were other meanings as well. The collar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn’t that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.”
Yes, Jon! Yes! Yesss!
A land needs all sorts of people! You need farmers, and smiths, and merchants, and new lords, and noble daughters you wed off, and the like!
Keep going, I love it!
+.+
“It means I shall think on what you have said,” the maester told him firmly. “And now, I believe I am ready to sleep. Chett, show our young brother to the door.”
And just like that, Jon saves Samwell, but also seals his own fate. Enjoy being the Lord Commander’s steward.
Final thoughts:
Several years ago I would have found this chapter terribly boring. Not anymore!
This dragon will plant trees! (then cut them down, and sell them) 👷🏻
The eastern sky was rose and gold as the sun broke over the Vale of Arryn. Catelyn Stark watched the light spread, her hands resting on the delicate carved stone of the balustrade outside her window. Below her the world turned from black to indigo to green as dawn crept across fields and forests. Pale white mists rose off Alyssa’s Tears, where the ghost waters plunged over the shoulder of the mountain to begin their long tumble down the face of the Giant’s Lance. Catelyn could feel the faint touch of spray on her face.
+.+
Same vibes.
She threw back the shutters and shivered as gooseprickles rose along her arms. There were clouds massing in the eastern sky, pierced by shafts of sunlight. They look like two huge castles afloat in the morning sky. Sansa could see their walls of tumbled stone, their mighty keeps and barbicans. Wispy banners swirled from atop their towers and reached for the fast-fading stars. The sun was coming up behind them, and she watched them go from black to grey to a thousand shades of rose and gold and crimson. Soon the wind mushed them together, and there was only one castle where there had been two. - Sansa IV, ASOS
+.+
Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, her brothers, and all her children slain, and yet in life she had never shed a tear. So in death, the gods had decreed that she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth of the Vale, where the men she had loved were buried. Alyssa had been dead six thousand years now, and still no drop of the torrent had ever reached the valley floor far below. Catelyn wondered how large a waterfall her own tears would make when she died.
Both sisters are covered here, and later in the chapter.
First, Catelyn:
Husband, and children slain? Check.
Does he see Bran and Rickon as well? She might have wept, but there were no tears left in her. - Catelyn III, ASOS
In death, she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth, where the men she had loved were buried. Not sure what that means, but I hope you’re listening Arya!
Wait, there’s more.
Second, Lysa:
Alyssa’s Tears = tears of Lys
Wait, there’s more.
+.+
“My father would not have given the defense of Riverrun over to Edmure unless he was very sick,” she said, worried. “I should have been woken as soon as this bird arrived.”
“Your lady sister thought it better to let you sleep, Maester Colemon told me.”
Funny, considering she made her haul ass up a mountain in the middle of the night.
+.+
“Then she still plans to go through with this mummer’s farce?” Catelyn grimaced. “The dwarf has played her like a set of pipes, and she is too deaf to hear the tune. Whatever happens this morning, Ser Rodrik, it is past time we took our leave.
(…)
When that vile turnkey of hers had come crawling to tell them that Tyrion Lannister wished to confess, Catelyn had urged Lysa to have the dwarf brought to them privately, but no, nothing would do but that her sister must make a show of him before half the Vale. And now this …
Damn you Lysa Arryn for blocking Catelyn from outwitting Tyrion again.
At least Catelyn knows what’s up.
+.+
Lysa’s apartments opened over a small garden, a circle of dirt and grass planted with blue flowers and ringed on all sides by tall white towers. The builders had intended it as a godswood, but the Eyrie rested on the hard stone of the mountain, and no matter how much soil was hauled up from the Vale, they could not get a weirwood to take root here.
Okkkaaayyyy.
no matter how much soil was hauled up from the Vale, they could not get a weirwood to take root here.
= Sansa. 100% Sansa. Early in the story we have our first Sansa weirwood tree imagery. Fun!
Blue flowers! In the same garden where Sansa builds Winterfell, and tastes ghostly silent, drifting snowflakes on her lips. How sweet.
+.+
Lysa’s suitors were gathering around them like bees round a blossom.
Just add it to the list.
+.+
"Women understand little of these things,” Ser Morton Waynwood said. “Ser Vardis is a knight, sweet lady. This other fellow, well, his sort are all cowards at heart. Useful enough in a battle, with thousands of their fellows around them, but stand them up alone and the manhood leaks right out of them.”
Good thing there was a man around to explain everything.
+.+
Lysa had named Cersei in the letter she had sent to Winterfell, but now she seemed certain that Tyrion was the killer … perhaps because the dwarf was here, while the queen was safe behind the walls of the Red Keep, hundreds of leagues to the south.
(…)
Ser Rodrik tugged at his whiskers. “Poison, well … that could be the dwarf’s work, true enough. Or Cersei’s. It’s said poison is a woman’s weapon, begging your pardons, my lady.
It’s amazing how much more obvious things are on a re-read.
Lysa is flip-flopping from Cersei to Tyrion for no real reason, and immediately after we’re reminded poison is a woman’s weapon.
+.+
"His lord father agreed with you,” said a voice at her elbow. She turned to behold Maester Colemon, a cup of wine in his hand. “He was planning to send the boy to Dragonstone for fostering, you know … oh, but I’m speaking out of turn.” The apple of his throat bobbed anxiously beneath the loose maester’s chain. “I fear I’ve had too much of Lord Hunter’s excellent wine. The prospect of bloodshed has my nerves all a-fray …”
“You are mistaken, Maester,” Catelyn said. “It was Casterly Rock, not Dragonstone, and those arrangements were made after the Hand’s death, without my sister’s consent.”
The maester’s head jerked so vigorously at the end of his absurdly long neck that he looked half a puppet himself. “No, begging your forgiveness, my lady, but it was Lord Jon who—"
He’s not even being subtle now.
Sweetrobin was getting shipped off long before Jon Arryn was dead.
Is that more motive I smell?
+.+
"The bad little man,” Lord Robert said, giggling. “Mother, can I make him fly? I want to see him fly.”
It’s impossible to not compare Robert and Bran.
I have faith he can turn it around, but there’s a lot of work to be done.
+.+
Petyr had begged her for a favor he might wear, but she had turned him away. Her lord father promised her to Brandon Stark, and so it was to him that she gave her token, a pale blue handscarf she had embroidered with the leaping trout of Riverrun.
Oh hello there!
I’d like to see it again, please!
+.+
When the river was lapping at their ankles, Brandon finally ended it, with a brutal backhand cut that bit through Petyr’s rings and leather into the soft flesh below the ribs, so deep that Catelyn was certain that the wound was mortal. He looked at her as he fell and murmured “Cat” as the bright blood came flowing out between his mailed fingers.
Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name… . - Daenerys IV, ACOK
How’s that for a parallel.
I’ll be shocked if Littlefinger’s last word isn’t Cat or Sansa.
+.+
The Eyrie’s plump septon escorted him to the statue in the center of the garden, a weeping woman carved in veined white marble, no doubt meant to be Alyssa.
x
The brief flurry of fighting ended as swiftly as it had begun when Bronn sidestepped and slid behind the statue of the weeping woman. Ser Vardis lunged at where he had been, striking a spark off the pale marble of Alyssa’s thigh.
x
The knight crashed into the weeping woman, rocking her on her plinth.
x
Jon Arryn’s beautiful engraved silver sword glanced off the marble elbow of the weeping woman and snapped clean a third of the way up the blade. Bronn put his shoulder into the statue’s back. The weathered likeness of Alyssa Arryn tottered and fell with a great crash, and Ser Vardis Egen went down beneath her.
Looks like Alyssa is taking on more damage than anyone else in this fight!
Wink, wink… Catelyn.
+.+
Bronn was on him in a heartbeat, kicking what was left of his shattered rondel aside to expose the weak spot between arm and breastplate. Ser Vardis was lying on his side, pinned beneath the broken torso of the weeping woman.
Almost sounds like that statue is assisting with Ser Vardis Egen’s death.
Wink, wink… Lysa.
+.+
“And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. - Eddard X, AGOT
x
“Whatever happens,” Ned said, “I want my daughters kept safe. I fear this is only the beginning.” - Eddard X, AGOT
x
“Is it over, Mother?” the Lord of the Eyrie asked.
No, Catelyn wanted to tell him, it’s only now beginning.
I’m sad.
Final thoughts:
Do you have any idea how miserable I would have been if this chapter was in Tyrion’s POV?
He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.
She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death. - Cersei VIII, AFFC
🤷🏻♀️
+.+
Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
Wait, which side did House Whent support in the rebellion? I’m guessing Hoster Tully’s side.
✨ awkward ✨
+.+
“I looked for you on the Trident,” Ned said to them.
(…)
“When King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.”
“Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”
(…)
“Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.”
The Kingsguard, sworn to protect the king and the royal family.
Were you with Rhaegar on the Trident? No.
Were you with Aerys, Elia, Aegon and Rhaenys? No.
Were you with Rhaella and Viserys? No.
So who were you with?
(It’s astounding to me people think Jon belongs to Ashara Dayne.)
+.+
As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.
“Lord Eddard,” Lyanna called again.
Kudos to @esther-dot’s anon for pointing out Lord Eddard. She knows father and brother are dead.
+.+
“The Kingslayer is fled the city,” Alyn told him.
Big man!
+.+
“My daughters?”
“They have been with you every day, my lord. Sansa prays quietly, but Arya …” He hesitated. “She has not said a word since they brought you back. She is a fierce little thing, my lord. I have never seen such anger in a girl.”
Too many people don’t find that last line the least bit concerning.
+.+
They had been seven against three, yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed.
Secrets hiding in the swamp! Howland, I believe Sansa and Jon are going to need you in the immediate future.
+.+
“I take it you know what Catelyn has done?”
“I do.” Ned took a small swallow of wine. “My lady wife is blameless, Your Grace. All she did she did at my command.”
Now there’s an honourable lie.
See, I’m not always mean to Ned.
+.+
“Catelyn had good reason for taking the Imp—”
“I said, I will not have it! To hell with her reasons. You will command her to release the dwarf at once, and you will make your peace with Jaime.”
Shouldn’t you at least hear the reasons?
+.+
“I’ve talked to Littlefinger,” Robert said. “He claims he rode off to bring the gold cloaks before the fighting began, but he admits you were returning from some whorehouse.”
HOW DO YOU TRUST THIS MAN?
+.+
“Some whorehouse? Damn your eyes, Robert, I went there to have a look at your daughter! Her mother has named her Barra. She looks like that first girl you fathered, when we were boys together in the Vale.” He watched the queen as he spoke; her face was a mask, still and pale, betraying nothing.
(…)
“The fool child is in love with you, Robert.”
The king glanced at Cersei. “This is no fit subject for the queen’s ears.”
I’m going to have to agree with Robert here.
+.+
Robert flushed. “Barra,” he grumbled. “Is that supposed to please me? Damn the girl. I thought she had more sense.”
“She cannot be more than fifteen, and a whore, and you thought she had sense?”
Ass.
Reached my limit, no more being nice.
+.+
“No,” he said. “I want no more of this. Jaime slew three of your men, and you five of his. Now it ends.”
“No,” Ned said with sadness in his voice. “Now it ends.”
Three dead versus five, same as the Tower of Joy, only this time Ned is on the other side. The losing side.
And it’s only beginning.
+.+
He shouted for a guard. Ser Meryn Trant stepped into the room, tall and somber in his white armor. “The queen is tired. See her to her bedchamber.”
What a nice parallel for mother and son.
“Ser Kevan, I can see the king is tired. Please see him safely back to his bedchamber. Pycelle, perhaps some gentle potion to help His Grace sleep restfully?”
+.+
“My loving wife. The mother of my children.” The rage was gone from him now; in his eyes Ned saw something sad and scared. “I should not have hit her. That was not … that was not kingly.”
(…)
“Your Grace,” Ned Stark said, “we must talk …”
Robert pressed his fingertips against his temples. “I am sick unto death of talk. On the morrow I’m going to the kingswood to hunt. Whatever you have to say can wait until I return.”
Nothing you do is kingly! Do your job! Fuck!
+.+
“Like it or not, you are my Hand, damn you. I forbid you to leave.”
Ned picked up the silver clasp. He was being given no choice, it seemed.
YOU HAVE A CHOICE! You have a choice.
Final thoughts:
Continuity error!
They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. - Eddard I, AGOT
For a small man, he had been cursed with a dangerously big mouth
Cursed with a dangerously big mouth, or do you simply have rich powerful daddy privilege? Your siblings aren’t any different.
+.+
From below it looked like a small white honeycomb. - Catelyn VI, AGOT
x
He was a bee in a stone honeycomb, and someone had torn off his wings.
x
The sky cells on the lower levels made the castle look something like a honeycomb from below. A honeycomb made of ice, Alayne thought - Alayne II, AFFC
Okay George! I get it. Now tell me what it means.
+.+
It was cold in the cell, the wind screamed night and day, and worst of all, the floor sloped. Ever so slightly, yet it was enough. He was afraid to close his eyes, afraid that he might roll over in his sleep and wake in sudden terror as he went sliding off the edge. Small wonder the sky cells drove men mad.
Gods save me, some previous tenant had written on the wall in something that looked suspiciously like blood, the blue is calling.
Before you start to feel any sympathy for him, try to remember it’s insinuated Tyrion knows Jaime and/or Cersei pushed Bran off the tower, and he’s deliberately covering up that crime.
You can rot there, pal.
+.+
“This is Tyrion the Imp, of House Lannister, who murdered your father.” She raised her voice so it carried down the length of High Hall of the Eyrie, ringing off the milk-white walls and the slender pillars, so every man could hear it. “He slew the Hand of the King!”
“Oh, did I kill him too?” Tyrion had said, like a fool.
Catelyn, I think it’s time to abandon ship.
+.+
“The Eyrie is impregnable,” Lysa Arryn declared calmly. She drew her son close, holding him safe in the circle of her plump white arms. “The Imp is trying to frighten us, sweet baby. The Lannisters are all liars. No one will hurt my sweet boy.”
The hell of it was, she was no doubt right. Having seen what it took to get here, Tyrion could well imagine how it would be for a knight trying to fight his way up in armor, while stones and arrows poured down from above and enemies contested with him for every step. Nightmare did not begin to describe it. Small wonder the Eyrie had never been taken.
I have finalized my thoughts on The Irony of The Impregnable Eyrie:
Like many of you pointed out, it’s negated by everyone in the castle having to leave the fortress in winter.
For all the safety it provides, it won’t protect you or your son from the killer you invite through its doors.
Those silly dragons, and the bullies that ride them.
It serves as comical Sansa symbolism, and we love that.
+.+
In contrast, sending some oaf with a stolen knife after Brandon Stark struck him as unbelievably clumsy. And wasn’t that peculiar, come to think on it …
Tyrion shivered. Now there was a nasty suspicion. Perhaps the direwolf and the lion were not the only beasts in the woods, and if that was true, someone was using him as a catspaw. Tyrion Lannister hated being used.
Joffrey, the lion, sent the assassin. Jaime, the lion, put Bran in the bed.
If you’re being used as a scapegoat, it’s by your own family. Littlefinger is just an opportunist.
+.+
“Oh, much gold,” Tyrion assured him. “The purse is just a taste, my friend. My brother wears armor of solid gold plate.” In truth, Jaime’s armor was gilded steel
What a perfect analogy for Jaime Lannister.
+.+
In the rear of the hall, Bronn lounged beneath a pillar. The freerider’s black eyes were fixed on Tyrion, and his hand lay lightly on the pommel of his sword. Tyrion gave him a long look, wondering …
Tyrion receives loads of credit for his cunning in this chapter, though anyone paying attention can see he inadvertently landed on a favourable outcome.
Bronn is signalling to Tyrion that he’ll fight for him, but Tyrion is slow to pick up on it.
+.+
“If you are tried and found to be guilty of the crimes for which you stand accused, then by the king’s own laws, you must pay with your life’s blood. We keep no headsman in the Eyrie, my lord of Lannister. Open the Moon Door.”
No headsman in the Eyrie?
Does that mean Jon Arryn would push people out the Moon Door?
✨ The man who passes the sentence should shove off the mountain. ✨
+.+
“Lysa, I think this unwise,” Catelyn Stark said as the black wind swirled around the hall.
We passed unwise several chapters ago, Catelyn.
+.+
“If it is all the same to you, I’d sooner find one to kill for me.” Tyrion looked over the long hall. No one moved. For a long moment he wondered if it had all been a colossal blunder.
Then there was a stirring in the rear of the chamber. “I’ll stand for the dwarf,” Bronn called out.
Tyrion Lannister, playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.
Final thoughts:
Stuff happened in this chapter, yet nothing happened in this chapter.
Bran looked away and pretended not to have heard, but he could feel Greyjoy’s eyes on him. No doubt he was smiling. He smiled a lot, as if the world were a secret joke that only he was clever enough to understand.
Smiler!
Won’t be smiling for long.
+.+
Robb seemed to admire Theon and enjoy his company, but Bran had never warmed to his father’s ward.
What does this say about Theon?
Remember when Ned was going to bring Bran to King’s Landing to smooth over the tension between Joffrey and the boys? Sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love?
+.+
She did not say when she meant to return, only that she had taken the Imp as prisoner. Bran had sort of liked the little man, yet the name Lannister sent cold fingers creeping up his spine. There was something about the Lannisters, something he ought to remember, but when he tried to think what, he felt dizzy and his stomach clenched hard as a stone.
See, this is where I get stuck. It feels inevitable that Bran and Jaime meet again.
+.+
“If your father dies,” Theon said, “Robb will be Lord of Winterfell.”
“He won’t die!” Bran screamed at him.
Jesus, Theon.
+.+
The joy Bran had felt at the ride was gone, melted away like the snowflakes on his face. Not so long ago, the thought of Robb calling the banners and riding off to war would have filled him with excitement, but now he felt only dread.
Quite a bit of difference between real and make believe, little one.
+.+
He knew this wood, but he had been so long confined to Winterfell that he felt as though he were seeing it for the first time. The smells filled his nostrils; the sharp fresh tang of pine needles, the earthy odor of wet rotting leaves, the hints of animal musk and distant cooking fires. He caught a glimpse of a black squirrel moving through the snow-covered branches of an oak, and paused to study the silvery web of an empress spider.
Are you seeing it for the first time, or do you have a heightened sense of smell and sight?
+.+
“Bran?” Robb asked. “What’s wrong?”
Bran shook his head. “I was just remembering,” he said. “Jory brought us here once, to fish for trout. You and me and Jon. Do you remember?”
“I remember,” Robb said, his voice quiet and sad.
“I didn’t catch anything,” Bran said, “but Jon gave me his fish on the way back to Winterfell. Will we ever see Jon again?”
Might be unrelated, but this was in the previous chapter:
Ser Jorah grunted. “Yes, Khaleesi, but … the Dothraki look on these things differently than we do in the west. I have told him as much, as Illyrio told him, but your brother does not listen. The horselords are no traders. Viserys thinks he sold you, and now he wants his price. Yet Khal Drogo would say he had you as a gift. He will give Viserys a gift in return, yes … in his own time. You do not demand a gift, not of a khal. You do not demand anything of a khal.”
You don’t demand anything from a king either, but perhaps in time you’ll be given The Gift.
+.+
They were on the far side when they heard the howl, a long rising wail that moved through the trees like a cold wind. Bran raised his head to listen. “Summer,” he said. No sooner had he spoken than a second voice joined the first.
Oh god, not howling – every single time.
Boys I would get out of there.
+.+
“I want to go with you,” Bran said.
“I’ll find them faster by myself.” Robb spurred his gelding and vanished into the trees.
Robb’s apparently never watched a scary movie in his life.
+.+
Bran flared. “I’m Brandon Stark of Winterfell, and you better let go of my horse, or I’ll see you all dead.”
The gaunt man with the grey stubbled face laughed. “The boy’s a Stark, true enough. Only a Stark would be fool enough to threaten where smarter men would beg.”
Bran, I have to agree with him. I’m not sure about this strategy.
+.+
Robb shouted, “Winterfell!” and kicked his horse.
Ser Rodrik shouted “Winterfell!” and rode to meet him
This is so cute.
+.+
Holding the knife with both hands, the small woman stabbed down, but the direwolf seemed to sense the blade coming. He pulled free for an instant, his mouth full of leather and cloth and bloody flesh.
I wonder how the direwolf sensed it!
+.+
The sixth man ran from the carnage … but not far. As he went scrambling up the far side of the bank, Grey Wind emerged from the stream, dripping wet. He shook the water off and bounded after the running man, hamstringing him with a single snap of his teeth, and going for the throat as the screaming man slid back down toward the water.
Questionable kill.
+.+
In that moment Bran saw everything. Summer was savaging Hali, pulling glistening blue snakes from her belly. Her eyes were wide and staring. Bran could not tell whether she was alive or dead. The grey stubbly man and the one with the axe lay unmoving, but Osha was on her knees, crawling toward her fallen spear. Grey Wind padded toward her, dripping wet. “Call him off!” the big man shouted. “Call them both off, or the cripple boy dies now!”
Sounds like you have six eyes, Bran!
+.+
For a moment Stiv was at a loss. His hand trembled; Bran felt a trickle of blood where the knife pressed against his neck. The stench of the man filled his nose; he smelled of fear.
Impressive nose, Bran!
+.+
The guardsmen had a strange, pale look to their faces as they took in the scene of slaughter. They eyed the wolves uncertainly, and when Summer returned to Hali’s corpse to feed, Joseth dropped his knife and scrambled for the bush, heaving.
Oh dear.
I don’t think Summer is going to make it through the story guys.
+.+
As the maester knelt to examine the wound, Bran turned his head. Theon Greyjoy stood beside a sentinel tree, his bow in hand. He was smiling. Ever smiling. A half-dozen arrows were thrust into the soft ground at his feet, but it had taken only one. “A dead enemy is a thing of beauty,” he announced.
(…)
“What if you had missed the shot?” Robb said. “What if you’d only wounded him? What if you had made his hand jump, or hit Bran instead? For all you knew, the man might have been wearing a breastplate, all you could see was the back of his cloak. What would have happened to my brother then? Did you ever think of that, Greyjoy?”
I’m on the fence. Highly risky, but I don’t know if they had another option. I’m not convinced you can negotiate with a wildling facing certain death.
+.+
Robb glared at his guardsmen. “Where were you?” he demanded of them. “I was sure you were close behind us.”
The men traded unhappy glances. “We were following, m'lord,” said Quent, the youngest of them, his beard a soft brown fuzz. “Only first we waited for Maester Luwin and his ass, begging your pardons, and then, well, as it were …” He glanced over at Theon and quickly looked away, abashed.
“I spied a turkey,” Theon said, annoyed by the question. “How was I to know that you’d leave the boy alone?”
Robb turned his head to look at Theon once more. Bran had never seen him so angry, yet he said nothing.
As if this wasn’t entirely your fault, lol.
+.+
Maester Luwin stood. “We might do well to question her.”
Bran could see the relief on his brother’s face. “As you say, Maester. Wayn, bind her hands. She’ll come back to Winterfell with us … and live or die by the truths she gives us.”
Robb might be in over his head.
Final thoughts:
Summer seems to be a bit more bloodthirsty than Grey Wind, no? That can’t be good.
Beyond the horse gate, plundered gods and stolen heroes loomed to either side of them. The forgotten deities of dead cities brandished their broken thunderbolts at the sky as Dany rode her silver past their feet. Stone kings looked down on her from their thrones, their faces chipped and stained, even their names lost in the mists of time.
Pillaging, plundering, and pilfering statues of Gods.
It makes my heart sing.
+.+
Monsters stood in the grass beside the road; black iron dragons with jewels for eyes, roaring griffins, manticores with their barbed tails poised to strike, and other beasts she could not name.
Okay, let me try.
Black iron dragons with jewels for eyes: Euron? Maybe Jon or Aegon?
Roaring griffins: JonCon & Co.?
Manticores with barbed tails poised to strike: Assassination attempt with the manticore, but also… Tyrion? Head of a human, body of a lion, tail of a scorpion. It was said Tyrion was born with a tail, wink wink.
Other beasts she could not name: Sons of the Harpy?
+.+
“What … what if it were not Viserys?” she asked. “If it were someone else who led them? Someone stronger? Could the Dothraki truly conquer the Seven Kingdoms?”
Careful with that treason.
+.+
But the men around him, well, their pipers play a different tune. His brother Stannis, Lord Tywin Lannister, Eddard Stark …" He spat.
“You hate this Lord Stark,” Dany said.
“He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-ridden poachers and his precious honor,” Ser Jorah said bitterly. From his tone, she could tell the loss still pained him.
Please shut the fuck up, pig.
+.+
“yet Vaes Dothrak is large enough to house every man of every khalasar, should all the khals return to the Mother at once. The crones have prophesied that one day that will come to pass, and so Vaes Dothrak must be ready to embrace all its children.”
I wonder where this is going.
+.+
“The Dothraki do not build. A thousand years ago, to make a house, they would dig a hole in the earth and cover it with a woven grass roof. The buildings you see were made by slaves brought here from lands they’ve plundered, and they built each after the fashion of their own peoples.”
x
“Only the crones of the dosh khaleen dwell permanently in the sacred city, them and their slaves and servants,” Ser Jorah replied
x
A small army of slaves had gone ahead to prepare for Khal Drogo’s arrival.
There they are again.
+.+
As each rider swung down from his saddle, he unbelted his arakh and handed it to a waiting slave, and any other weapons he carried as well. Even Khal Drogo himself was not exempt. Ser Jorah had explained that it was forbidden to carry a blade in Vaes Dothrak, or to shed a free man’s blood. Even warring khalasars put aside their feuds and shared meat and mead together when they were in sight of the Mother of Mountains.
Do not shed blood in the sacred city. Got it.
+.+
If the khal died at the hands of some enemy, they lived only long enough to avenge him, and then followed him joyfully into the grave. In some khalasars, Jhiqui said, the bloodriders shared the khal’s wine, his tent, and even his wives, though never his horses. A man’s mount was his own.
Nice. Women have less social standing than horses.
+.+
Haggo, huge and silent, often glowered as if he had forgotten who she was
Ohhh she wouldn’t like that.
+.+
Yet they were bound to Drogo for life and death, so Daenerys had no choice but to accept them. And sometimes she found herself wishing her father had been protected by such men. In the songs, the white knights of the Kingsguard were ever noble, valiant, and true, and yet King Aerys had been murdered by one of them, the handsome boy they now called the Kingslayer, and a second, Ser Barristan the Bold, had gone over to the Usurper. She wondered if all men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms.
Were you not just discussing usurping the throne?
+.+
“Jhiqui, a bath, please,” she commanded, to wash the dust of travel from her skin and soak her weary bones.
(…)
The water was scalding hot, as she liked it.
They caution against the use of hot tubs during pregnancy, Daenerys. There could be birth defects.
Oh.
+.+
She brought back a haunch of goat and a basket of fruits and vegetables. Jhiqui roasted the meat with sweetgrass and firepods, basting it with honey as it cooked, and there were melons and pomegranates and plums and some queer eastern fruit Dany did not know.
Daenerys feeding Viserys honeyed meat. I see it.
+.+
His fingers dug into her arm painfully and for an instant Dany felt like a child again, quailing in the face of his rage. She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she’d hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength.
It caught him full in the face. Viserys let go of her. Blood ran down his cheek where the edge of one of the medallions had sliced it open. “You are the one who forgets himself,” Dany said to him. “Didn’t you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.”
(…)
Drops of his blood had spattered the beautiful sandsilk cloak.
Whoopsie daisy, did you just shed blood in the sacred city? Daenerys I believe that is forbidden.
On the surface she’s respecting the culture, but actions are telling a different story. Won’t be the first time we see this.
+.+
“Please, bring me one of the dragon’s eggs.”
Irri fetched the egg with the deep green shell, bronze flecks shining amid its scales as she turned it in her small hands. Dany curled up on her side, pulling the sandsilk cloak across her and cradling the egg in the hollow between her swollen belly and small, tender breasts.
(…)
She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her …
(…)
“You are the dragon,” Dany whispered to him, “the true dragon. I know it. I know it.”
She’s holding Rhaegal’s egg.
Final thoughts:
A nice little reversal we’re witnessing where Viserys keeps waking the dragon.
He found Littlefinger in the brothel’s common room, chatting amiably with a tall, elegant woman who wore a feathered gown over skin as black as ink.
Why are you in a brothel, and not on a ship?
+.+
Jory Cassel stood beside a rain-streaked window with a wry smile on his face, watching Heward turn over tiles and enjoying the view.
x
The streets of King’s Landing were dark and deserted. The rain had driven everyone under their roofs. It beat down on Ned’s head, warm as blood and relentless as old guilts. Fat drops of water ran down his face.
x
Ned was soaked through to the bone, and his soul had grown cold.
Wet windows, warm rain, and soaked bones, before a disastrous altercation with a Lannister:
“My lady, you ought cover your head,” Ser Rodrik told her as their horses plodded north. “You will take a chill.” “It is only water, Ser Rodrik,” Catelyn replied. Her hair hung wet and heavy, a loose strand stuck to her forehead, and she could imagine how ragged and wild she must look, but for once she did not care. The southern rain was soft and warm. Catelyn liked the feel of it on her face, gentle as a mother’s kisses. It took her back to her childhood, to long grey days at Riverrun.
“I am soaked through,” Ser Rodrik complained. “Even my bones are wet.”
She sat by the window, watching rain run down the pane.
+.+
“Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm’s End. “I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale.” Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. “Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”
Meanwhile, Ned’s a whole grown ass man still trying to change Robert.
+.+
The girl had been so young Ned had not dared to ask her age. No doubt she’d been a virgin; the better brothels could always find a virgin, if the purse was fat enough. She had light red hair and a powdering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, and when she slipped free a breast to give her nipple to the babe, he saw that her bosom was freckled as well.
Shockingly young maiden, with red hair. Eddard, are you reminded of anyone? That’s your best friend, buddy.
+.+
Ned Stark kept his vows. He thought of the promises he’d made Lyanna as she lay dying, and the price he’d paid to keep them.
Catelyn and Jon paid the price, Ned.
+.+
“And tell him I’ve not been with no one else. I swear it, milord, by the old gods and new. Chataya said I could have half a year, for the baby, and for hoping he’d come back. So you’ll tell him I’m waiting, won’t you? I don’t want no jewels or nothing, just him. He was always good to me, truly.”
Good to you, Ned thought hollowly. “I will tell him, child, and I promise you, Barra shall not go wanting.”
Boy, that is quite the promise, given:
You’re no longer Hand of the King.
You’re returning to Winterfell.
“That was his curse. Robert would swear undying love and forget them before evenfall”
Cersei Lannister exists.
+.+
“I’ve also heard whispers that Robert got a pair of twins on a serving wench at Casterly Rock, three years ago when he went west for Lord Tywin’s tourney. Cersei had the babes killed, and sold the mother to a passing slaver. Too much an affront to Lannister pride, that close to home.”
The mines of Casterly Rock are calling.
+.+
“Why would Jon Arryn take a sudden interest in the king’s baseborn children?”
The short man gave a sodden shrug. “He was the King’s Hand. Doubtless Robert asked him to see that they were provided for.”
Littlefinger is eager to take Ned to a brothel to meet more of Robert’s bastards, but doesn’t have a clue why Jon Arryn would take an interest in the king’s baseborn children. Uh huh.
+.+
For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen.
What? He’s been thinking and talking about him since the very first chapter.
Suddenly, uncomfortably, he found himself recalling Rhaegar Targaryen. Fifteen years dead, yet Robert hates him as much as ever. - Eddard VIII
+.+
Riding through the rainy night, Ned saw Jon Snow’s face in front of him, so like a younger version of his own. If the gods frowned so on bastards, he thought dully, why did they fill men with such lusts?
x
He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not.
Believes Rhaegar was filled with lust for Lyanna, but was too honourable to go to a brothel. Okay, whatever.
+.+
“My lord,” his voice hoarse with alarm. And in an instant, the street was full of soldiers.
Ned glimpsed ringmail over leather, gauntlets and greaves, steel helms with golden lions on the crests. Their cloaks clung to their backs, sodden with rain. He had no time to count, but there were ten at least, a line of them, on foot, blocking the street, with longswords and iron-tipped spears. “Behind!” he heard Wyl cry, and when he turned his horse, there were more in back of them, cutting off their retreat.
I wonder who informed Jaime Lannister of Ned Stark’s whereabouts.
+.+
“The wolves are howling,” their leader said.
Oh no, are the wolves howling? That’s never good news.
+.+
He gave Littlefinger a cool, contemptuous glance. “Lord Baelish, I’d leave here in some haste if I did not care to get bloodstains on my costly clothing."
Littlefinger did not need to be urged. "I will bring the City Watch,” he promised Ned. The Lannister line parted to let him through, and closed behind him. Littlefinger put his heels to his mare and vanished around a corner.
I wonder who informed Jaime Lannister of Ned Stark’s whereabouts.
+.+
“Kill me,” he warned the Kingslayer, “and Catelyn will most certainly slay Tyrion.”
Jaime Lannister poked at Ned’s chest with the gilded sword that had sipped the blood of the last of the Dragonkings. “Would she? The noble Catelyn Tully of Riverrun murder a hostage? I think … not.”
No, she doesn’t try to murder you… the first time.
+.+
“Still … we wouldn’t want him to leave here entirely unchastened, so"—through the night and the rain, he glimpsed the white of Jaime’s smile—"kill his men.”
The mines of Casterly Rock are calling.
+.+
Jory Cassel put his heels into his mount and charged. A steel-shod hoof caught a Lannister guardsman in the face with a sickening crunch. A second man reeled away and for an instant Jory was free.
(…)
Suddenly Jory was back among them, a red rain flying from his sword. “No!” Ned shouted. “Jory, away!”
This was stupid, but it’s nice Jory left the story on a heroic note. Farewell, friend.
+.+
Littlefinger and the City Watch found him there in the street, cradling Jory Cassel’s body in his arms.
Nice timing.
+.+
He remembered seeing the Red Keep looming ahead of him in the first grey light of dawn. The rain had darkened the pale pink stone of the massive walls to the color of blood.
A grey (Stark!) dawn, and a bloodied Red Keep. Hmmm. 🤔
Sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone
+.+
six brave men had died to bring her this far, and she could not even find it in her to weep for them. Even their names were fading.
She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran. It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself. The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her, some stranger from the Vale of Arryn whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized; there would be no songs sung for him. That was sad.
+.+
Could I be wrong? Catelyn wondered, not for the first time. Could he be innocent after all, of Bran and Jon Arryn and all the rest? And if he was, what did that make her? Six men had died to bring him here.
Resolute, she pushed her doubts away.
Denial is a powerful thing.
+.+
When they had climbed almost to the top, a knight rode out to meet them. His horse and his armor were grey, but his cloak was the rippling blue-and-red of Riverrun, and a shiny black fish, wrought in gold and obsidian, pinned its folds against his shoulder.
Pinned on Blackfish, we have our first mention of obsidian. Does this mean anything? Should I read entirely too much into this? Is this nothing? Something? I don’t know.
+.+
“My home is at my back,” he said gruffly.
“Your home is in my heart,” Catelyn told him.
I love this.
+.+
Looming over them all was the jagged peak called the Giant’s Lance, a mountain that even mountains looked up to, its head lost in icy mists three and a half miles above the valley floor. Over its massive western shoulder flowed the ghost torrent of Alyssa’s Tears. Even from this distance, Catelyn could make out the shining silver thread, bright against the dark stone.
The fertile Vale of Arryn, the Giant’s Lance, Alyssa’s Tears, Snow & Stone, the impregnable Eyrie, Moon Door, ghostly wolf wind…
I’ve never paid so much attention to worldbuilding in my life.
+.+
“A woman can rule as wisely as a man,” Catelyn said.
“The right woman can,” her uncle said with a sideways glance.
Heh.
+.+
“The Lysa who came back from King’s Landing is not the same girl who went south when her husband was named Hand. Those years were hard for her. You must know. Lord Arryn was a dutiful husband, but their marriage was made from politics, not passion.”
“As was my own.”
Catelyn, you did not just compare your marriage to what Lysa had to endure.
+.+
Her uncle nodded. “It is too dark to see them, but the steps are there. Too steep and narrow for horses, but mules can manage them most of the way. The path is guarded by three waycastles, Stone and Snow and Sky.
+.+
"What madness is this?” he said bluntly. Brynden Tully had never been a man to blunt the edge of his words. “A night ascent, with the moon not even full? Even Lysa should know that’s an invitation to a broken neck.”
Seriously, what’s this all about? Was Lysa trying to kill Catelyn or has she lost her grip on reality?
+.+
Snow was smaller than Stone, a single fortified tower and a timber keep and stable hidden behind a low wall of unmortared rock. Yet it nestled against the Giant’s Lance in such a way as to command the entire stone stair above the lower waycastle. An enemy intent on the Eyrie would have to fight his way from Stone step by step, while rocks and arrows rained down from Snow above.
I don’t know what this means, but I love it!
+.+
Above Snow, the wind was a living thing, howling around them like a wolf in the waste, then falling off to nothing as if to lure them into complacency.
This howling wolf wind is a touch more foreboding than Sansa’s, yes?
Catelyn and howling, never a good mix.
+.+
Catelyn edged her foot backward, the most timid of steps, but the mule was behind her, and she could not retreat. I am going to die here, she thought. She could feel cold sweat trickling down her back.
“Lady Stark,” Mya called across the gulf. The girl sounded a thousand leagues away. “Are you well?”
Catelyn Tully Stark swallowed what remained of her pride. “I … I cannot do this, child,” she called out.
“Yes you can,” the bastard girl said. “I know you can. Look how wide the path is.”
“I don’t want to look.” The world seemed to be spinning around her, mountain and sky and mules, whirling like a child’s top. Catelyn closed her eyes to steady her ragged breathing.
“I’ll come back for you,” Mya said. “Don’t move, my lady.”
Moving was about the last thing Catelyn was about to do. She listened to the skirling of the wind and the scuffling sound of leather on stone. Then Mya was there, taking her gently by the arm. “Keep your eyes closed if you like. Let go of the rope now, Whitey will take care of himself. Very good, my lady. I’ll lead you over, it’s easy, you’ll see. Give me a step now. That’s it, move your foot, just slide it forward. See. Now another. Easy. You could run across. Another one, go on. Yes.” And so, foot by foot, step by step, the bastard girl led Catelyn across, blind and trembling, while the white mule followed placidly behind them.
I must compare:
I could close my eyes. The mule knows the way, he has no need of me. But that seemed more something Sansa would have done, that frightened girl. Alayne was an older woman, and bastard brave.
(…)
Ahead stretched a high stone saddle, narrow and icy. Alayne could hear the wind shrieking, and feel it plucking at her cloak. She remembered this place from her ascent. It had frightened her then, and it frightened her now. “It is wider than it looks,” Mya was telling Lord Robert in a cheerful voice. “A yard across, and no more than eight yards long, that’s nothing.”
(…)
Mya staggered, and for half a heartbeat it seemed as if she would be blown over the precipice, but somehow she regained her balance and went on.
Alayne took Robert’s gloved hand in her own to stop his shaking. “Sweetrobin,” she said, “I’m scared. Hold my hand, and help me get across. I know you’re not afraid.”
He looked at her, his pupils small dark pinpricks in eyes as big and white as eggs. “I’m not?”
(…)
“Ser Sweetrobin,” Lord Robert said, and Alayne knew that she dare not wait for Mya to return. She helped the boy dismount, and hand in hand they walked out onto the bare stone saddle, their cloaks snapping and flapping behind them. All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains.
Bastard brave, indeed. ❤️
+.+
Dawn was breaking in the east as Mya Stone hallooed for the guards, and the gates opened before them. Inside the walls there was only a series of ramps and a great tumble of boulders and stones of all sizes. No doubt it would be the easiest thing in the world to begin an avalanche from here.
Avalanche, you say?
+.+
Lysa seated herself near the fire and said, “Come to Mother, my sweet one.” She straightened his bedclothes and fussed with his fine brown hair. “Isn’t he beautiful? And strong too, don’t you believe the things you hear. Jon knew. The seed is strong, he told me. His last words. He kept saying Robert’s name, and he grabbed my arm so hard he left marks. Tell them, the seed is strong. His seed. He wanted everyone to know what a good strong boy my baby was going to be.”
x
She opened her robe and drew out a pale, heavy breast, tipped with red. The boy grabbed for it eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck. Lysa stroked his hair.
Catelyn was at a loss for words, Jon Arryn’s son, she thought incredulously.
God this woman is tragic.
+.+
She remembered her own baby, three-year-old Rickon, half the age of this boy and five times as fierce.
This is not ominous foreshadowing! Shhh.
+.+
Lysa covered her boy’s ear with her hand. “Even if they could bring an army through the mountains and past the Bloody Gate, the Eyrie is impregnable. You saw for yourself. No enemy could ever reach us up here.”
Catelyn wanted to slap her. Uncle Brynden had tried to warn her, she realized. “No castle is impregnable.”
Joking aside, all of this talk regarding the Eyrie being impregnable is a bit over the top. It’s so over the top it makes me wonder whether it’s an intentional distraction.
I know, I know, the mountain clans. Still.
+.+
“Make him fly,” Robert said eagerly.
Lysa stroked her son’s hair. “Perhaps we will,” she murmured. “Perhaps that is just what we will do.”
Lysa is so unhinged, one second she’s freaking out over Catelyn’s actions drawing the attention of the Lannisters, the next second she’s contemplating throwing one off a mountain.
Get the hell out of there, Catelyn.
Final thoughts:
It really feels like Jon Snow is hiding all over this chapter.
“Robert, I beg of you,” Ned pleaded, “hear what you are saying. You are talking of murdering a child.”
“The whore is pregnant!”
Hey Ned, didn’t your daughter mention a pregnant princess? Was her story just further substantiated?
+.+
“Then let it be on my head, so long as it is done. I am not so blind that I cannot see the shadow of the axe when it is hanging over my own neck.”
“There is no axe,” Ned told his king.
Were you not just informed of a plot to kill the king?
Which you still haven’t told him about.
We don’t need Ilyn Payne, I volunteer.
+.+
“But if it is a boy?” Robert insisted. “If he lives?”
“The narrow sea would still lie between us. I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water.”
Okay, but hear me out: Greyjoy.
So worried about Targaryens, you forgot about those other hooligans!
+.+
Varys gave the king an unctuous smile and laid a soft hand on Ned’s sleeve. “I understand your qualms, Lord Eddard, truly I do. It gave me no joy to bring this grievous news to council. It is a terrible thing we contemplate, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule must do vile things for the good of the realm, howevermuch it pains us.”
Varys tasked with stalling in the previous chapter, yet he brings this news to the council. Okay, let’s figure out what the plan is.
+.+
“Mercy is never a mistake, Lord Renly,” Ned replied. “On the Trident, Ser Barristan here cut down a dozen good men, Robert’s friends and mine. When they brought him to us, grievously wounded and near death, Roose Bolton urged us to cut his throat, but your brother said, ‘I will not kill a man for loyalty, nor for fighting well,’ and sent his own maester to tend Ser Barristan’s wounds.” He gave the king a long cool look. “Would that man were here today.”
Kind of funny he flips.
+.+
Once I counseled King Aerys as loyally as I counsel King Robert now, so I bear this girl child of his no ill will. Yet I ask you this—should war come again, how many soldiers will die? How many towns will burn? How many children will be ripped from their mothers to perish on the end of a spear?“ He stroked his luxuriant white beard, infinitely sad, infinitely weary. "Is it not wiser, even kinder, that Daenerys Targaryen should die now so that tens of thousands might live?”
Maester Pycelle, pro-killing baby Hitler.
+.+
“When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it,” he declared. “Waiting won’t make the maid any prettier. Kiss her and be done with it.”
“Kiss her?” Ser Barristan repeated, aghast.
“A steel kiss,” said Littlefinger.
+.+
“Mormont craves a royal pardon,” Lord Renly reminded them.
“Desperately,“ Varys said, "yet he craves life even more. By now, the princess nears Vaes Dothrak, where it is death to draw a blade. If I told you what the Dothraki would do to the poor man who used one on a khaleesi, none of you would sleep tonight.”
Okay, Varys does not want Jorah to do it. What’s the plan Varys?
+.+
“Now, poison … the tears of Lys, let us say. Khal Drogo need never know it was not a natural death.”
Grand Maester Pycelle’s sleepy eyes flicked open. He squinted suspiciously at the eunuch.
I don’t know what I love more, the Pycelle reaction or Varys dropping the words ‘tears of Lys’ right in front of Littlefinger.
Power moves.
+.+
“On Braavos there is a society called the Faceless Men,” Grand Maester Pycelle offered.
“Do you have any idea how costly they are?” Littlefinger complained. “You could hire an army of common sellswords for half the price, and that’s for a merchant. I don’t dare think what they might ask for a princess.”
Okay, Littlefinger does not want the Faceless Men to do it. What’s the plan Littlefinger?
+.+
Perhaps he and Catelyn would make a new son together when he returned, they were not so old yet.
🥺
+.+
And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden. Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love and trust. Ned slid the dagger that Catelyn had brought him out of the sheath on his belt.
Ned, you’re wrong.
+.+
Catelyn had tried to warn him. You knew the man, she had said. The king is a stranger to you.
Catelyn I wish you took your own advice, and applied this to Littlefinger.
+.+
“I care nothing for the size of its cabins or the quality of its appointments, so long as it is swift and safe. I wish to leave at once.”
Poole had no sooner taken his leave than Tomard announced a visitor. “Lord Baelish to see you, m'lord.”
Ned was half-tempted to turn him away, but thought better of it.
Nooooo. Go, go, go!
+.+
“After you stormed out, it was left to me to convince them not to hire the Faceless Men,” he continued blithely. “Instead Varys will quietly let it be known that we’ll make a lord of whoever does in the Targaryen girl.”
x
Let some sellsword drunk on visions of lordship try to kill her. Likely he’ll make a botch of it, and afterward the Dothraki will be on their guard. If we’d sent a Faceless Man after her, she’d be as good as buried.“
The plan is to get a halfwit to do it, botch it, and instigate a war. Got it.
Varys and Littlefinger finally on the same page.
+.+
Ned frowned. "You sit in council and talk of ugly women and steel kisses, and now you expect me to believe that you tried to protect the girl? How big a fool do you take me for?”
“Well, quite an enormous one, actually,” said Littlefinger, laughing.
Where’s the lie?
+.+
“None … but if perchance you’re still here come evenfall, I’d be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually.” Littlefinger smiled. “And I won’t even tell the Lady Catelyn.”
Prick.
How many times does this ass have to insult you to your face, Ned?
Final thoughts:
Why is Robert having a rage fest at the prospect of Daenerys having a boy when Viserys already exists and is of age?
The one-eared black tom arched his back and hissed at her.
They keep telling me this is foreshadowing a future relationship with someone, and I keep laughing.
+.+
Catching cats was hard. Her hands were covered with half-healed scratches, and both knees were scabbed over where she had scraped them raw in tumbles. At first even the cook’s huge fat kitchen cat had been able to elude her, but Syrio had kept her at it day and night. When she’d run to him with her hands bleeding, he had said, “So slow? Be quicker, girl. Your enemies will give you more than scratches.” He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish fire, which burned so bad she had had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. Then he sent her out after more cats.
I’m sure this has been observed a thousand times before, but it just occurred to me that “catching cats” is potentially alluding to Arya catching / stopping Cat (Lady S).
+.+
The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, cold-eyed mousers twitching their tails, quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies’ cats all combed and trusting, ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps. One by one Arya had chased them down and snatched them up and brought them proudly to Syrio Forel … all but this one, this one-eared black devil of a tomcat.
I’m sure each of those represents a specific enemy, but I’m too lazy to figure out which ones.
“Black devil” brings someone to mind.
+.+
They don’t know me, Arya realized. They don’t even know I’m a girl.
x
Quickly she lowered her head and dropped to one knee. Maybe they wouldn’t recognize her.
Arya already embracing being no one.
+.+
“Who do you belong to, boy?” the septa demanded. “Answer me. What’s wrong with you, are you mute?”
A mute child, roaming the Red Keep. Arya’s a little bird!
+.+
When they had first come to King’s Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find a window. Sometimes she would hear her father’s voice, but always from a long way off, and no matter how hard she ran after it, it would grow fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark.
Similar to Jon’s nightmare.
+.+
Yet somehow the monster seemed to know she was there. She could feel its empty eyes watching her through the gloom, and there was something in that dim, cavernous room that did not love her. She edged away from the skull and backed into a second, larger than the first. For an instant she could feel its teeth digging into her shoulder, as if it wanted a bite of her flesh. Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running. Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monster of all, but Arya did not even slow. She leapt over a ridge of black teeth as tall as swords, dashed through hungry jaws, and threw herself against the door.
Are you going to kill a dragon, Arya? Pls?
+.+
She wiggled her fingers in front of her face, felt the air move, saw nothing. She was blind.
+.+
She could hear their voices, echoing up the shaft.
"… found one bastard,“ one said. "The rest will come soon. A day, two days, a fortnight …”
Ha! Varys being spied on by a little kid. You got to love it.
+.+
“The gods alone know,” the first voice said. Arya could see a wisp of grey smoke drifting up off the torch, writhing like a snake as it rose.
Spider, snake – same thing.
+.+
“If one Hand can die, why not a second?” replied the man with the accent and the forked yellow beard.
(…)
“Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other,” the scarred man said as they stepped out into the hall.
I shudder at the prospect of Jon Arryn being more incompetent than Ned.
+.+
“Perhaps so,” the forked beard replied, pausing to catch his breath after the long climb. “Nonetheless, we must have time. The princess is with child. The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born. You know how they are, these savages.”
(…)
“If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late,” the stout man in the steel cap said. “This is no longer a game for two players, if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lord father to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen. Littlefinger … the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing. Yet Lord Stark’s the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard, he has the book, and soon enough he’ll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger’s meddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has a queer affection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that will bring the Tullys in as well. Delay, you say. Make haste, I reply. Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever.”
Lots to dig through here, but I’m stuck on a game for two players. Who were the original two players?
I find it hard to believe Renly is dumb enough to think Cersei Lannister would ever be put aside for a new queen. Tywin Lannister would burn the entire realm down.
+.+
“As well bid me stop time. Do you take me for a wizard?”
x
“You are more than a juggler, old friend. You are a true sorcerer. All I ask is that you work your magic awhile longer."
I’m sure Varys loves being called a sorcerer, who works magic.
+.+
"So many?” The voices were fainter as the light dwindled ahead of her. “The ones you need are hard to find … so young, to know their letters … perhaps older … not die so easy …”
“No. The younger are safer … treat them gently …"
"… if they kept their tongues …”
“… the risk …"
Ugh.
Did George really email Conleth to let him know Varys is a good person? I swear that guy better work overtime trying to bring down Daenerys, because that assessment does not work for me.
+.+
She found the wall again and followed, blind and lost, pretending that Nymeria was padding along beside her in the darkness. At the end she was knee-deep in foul-smelling water, wishing she could dance upon it as Syrio might have, and wondering if she’d ever see light again.
You will little one.
+.+
She found herself standing at the mouth of a sewer where it emptied into the river. She stank so badly that she stripped right there, dropping her soiled clothing on the riverbank as she dove into the deep black waters. She swam until she felt clean, and crawled out shivering. Some riders went past along the river road as Arya was washing her clothes, but if they saw the scrawny naked girl scrubbing her rags in the moonlight, they took no notice.
She starts the adventure catching cats, and ends it by stripping herself, and bathing clean in a river. Interesting.
+.+
"Perchance later you’ll tell me how a nine-year-old girl the size of a wet rat managed to disarm you with a broom handle and throw your sword in the river.” - Eddard III
x
“You can’t keep this sort out,” one of the red cloaks said. “Like trying to keep out rats.”
x
The older scowled. “Who’s this father of yours, boy, the city ratcatcher?”
It’s not lost on me that Arya keeps being called a rat.
+.+
“You realize I had half my guard out searching for you?” Eddard Stark said when they were alone. “Septa Mordane is beside herself with fear. She’s in the sept praying for your safe return. Arya, you know you are never to go beyond the castle gates without my leave.”
It’s almost as if not correcting bad behaviour will ensure it keeps happening.
+.+
“I didn’t go out the gates,” she blurted. “Well, I didn’t mean to. I was down in the dungeons, only they turned into this tunnel. It was all dark, and I didn’t have a torch or a candle to see by, so I had to follow. I couldn’t go back the way I came on account of the monsters. Father, they were talking about killing you! Not the monsters, the two men. They didn’t see me, I was being still as stone and quiet as a shadow, but I heard them. They said you had a book and a bastard and if one Hand could die, why not a second? Is that the book? Jon’s the bastard, I bet.”
“Jon? Arya, what are you talking about? Who said this?"
(…)
"Arya, they were mummers,” her father told her. “There must be a dozen troupes in King’s Landing right now, come to make some coin off the tourney crowds. I’m not certain what these two were doing in the castle, but perhaps the king has asked for a show.”
Ned, I swear to god.
They said you had a book, and a bastard, and if one Hand could die? That is not remotely unclear.
Take his head, I don’t care.
+.+
“Yoren, as it please m'lord. My pardons for the hour.” He bowed to Arya. “And this must be your son. He has your look.”
“I’m a girl,” Arya said, exasperated.
Not for long.
+.+
Quiet as a shadow, light as a feather, quick as a snake, calm as still water, smooth as summer silk, swift as a deer, slippery as an eel, strong as a bear, fierce as a wolverine, still as stone.
I studied this for a minute or two trying to decipher a deeper message, and I’ve concluded it’s pretty straightforward: Arya has a lot of identities.
Final thoughts:
What the hell is this chapter? Every paragraph feels like a coded message.
As he stood in the predawn chill watching Chiggen butcher his horse, Tyrion Lannister chalked up one more debt owed the Starks.
Oh you want to keep score?
+.+
“Meat is meat,” Bronn said with a shrug. “The Dothraki like horse more than beef or pork.”
“Do you take me for a Dothraki?” Tyrion asked sourly. The Dothraki ate horse, in truth; they also left deformed children out for the feral dogs who ran behind their khalasars. Dothraki customs had scant appeal for him.
Dothraki, Lannister, Greyjoy, and Targaryen. What could go wrong?
+.+
“You’re making a sad mistake, Lady Stark. I had no part in any attack on your son. On my honor—”
“Lannister honor,” was all she said.
Amusing he doesn’t realize that’s worth nothing.
+.+
Scarlet-tinged spittle flew from the fat innkeep’s mouth as she begged of Catelyn Stark, “Don’t kill him here!”
“Don’t kill him anywhere,” Tyrion urged.
“Take him somewheres else, no blood here, m'lady, I wants no high lordlin’s quarrels.”
Masha Heddle, you’re about to learn it’s the innocents who suffer most when high lords play their games.
+.+
Only two of the Freys had stirred, Tyrion noted, and they’d sat back down quick enough when their captain failed to move. He might have smiled if he’d dared.
A sneak peek at how useless House Frey is.
+.+
I was about to settle down to a warm fire and a roast fowl, and that wretched singer had to open his mouth, he thought mournfully.
+.+
The wretched singer had come along with them. “There is a great song to be made from this, and I’m the one to make it,” he told Catelyn Stark when he announced his intention of riding with them to see how the “splendid adventure” turned out.
The irony of Catelyn bringing Marillion to the Eyrie. Thanks, I hate it.
+.+
“This is the high road,” he gasped, looking at Lady Stark with accusation. “The eastern road. You said we were riding for Winterfell!”
Catelyn Stark favored him with the faintest of smiles. “Often and loudly,” she agreed. “No doubt your friends will ride that way when they come after us. I wish them good speed.”
Even now, long days later, the memory filled him with a bitter rage. All his life Tyrion had prided himself on his cunning, the only gift the gods had seen fit to give him, and yet this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn. The knowledge was more galling than the bare fact of his abduction.
+.+
“It was not my dagger,” he insisted. “How many times must I swear to that? Lady Stark, whatever you may believe of me, I am not a stupid man. Only a fool would arm a common footpad with his own blade.”
He’s got you there.
+.+
Just for a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes, but what she said was, “Why would Petyr lie to me?”
“Why does a bear shit in the woods?” he demanded. “Because it is his nature. Lying comes as easily as breathing to a man like Littlefinger. You ought to know that, you of all people.”
She took a step toward him, her face tight. “And what does that mean, Lannister?”
Tyrion cocked his head. “Why, every man at court has heard him tell how he took your maidenhead, my lady.”
“That is a lie!” Catelyn Stark said.
(…)
Catelyn Stark stared at Tyrion with a coldness on her face such as he had never seen. “Petyr Baelish loved me once. He was only a boy. His passion was a tragedy for all of us, but it was real, and pure, and nothing to be made mock of. He wanted my hand. That is the truth of the matter. You are truly an evil man, Lannister.”
“And you are truly a fool, Lady Stark. Littlefinger has never loved anyone but Littlefinger, and I promise you that it is not your hand that he boasts of, it’s those ripe breasts of yours, and that sweet mouth, and the heat between your legs.”
Catelyn, I’m begging you to take 5 seconds to think this through. You’re smarter than this.
+.+
The mountain clans cared nothing for the enmities of the great houses; they would slaughter Stark and Lannister with equal fervor, as they slaughtered each other. They might spare Catelyn herself; she was still young enough to bear sons.
Nice reminder that every woman in the story is always one wrong turn away from being raped.
+.+
Catelyn Stark was trapped against the stone face of the mountain with three men around her, one still mounted and the other two on foot. She had a dagger clutched awkwardly in her maimed hands, but her back was to the rock now and they had penned her on three sides. Let them have the bitch, Tyrion thought, and welcome to her, yet somehow he was moving.
Before you go commending him, keep in mind he’s a dead man if anything happens to Catelyn.
+.+
… and Catelyn Stark stepped up behind him and opened his throat.
Like mother, like daughter.
+.+
Tyrion glanced over to where Lady Stark was dressing Ser Rodrik’s wounds. “I’m willing if she is,” he said. The freeriders broke into laughter, and Tyrion grinned and thought, There’s a start.
He’s not even that funny. What is wrong with this fandom?
+.+
“As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted,” Tyrion began, “there is a serious flaw in Littlefinger’s fable. Whatever you may believe of me, Lady Stark, I promise you this—I never bet against my family.”
Catelyn, please.
Final thoughts:
I never cared for the chapters that feature fighting/battle.
