Admittedly Stannis does himself little favors by his total refusal to do anything to ingratiate himself to others. But when Varys (of all people) says:

Lord Stannis in particular. His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

It's a bit wild that the guy who knows everything doesn't know there's more than meets the eye with Stannis. Then there's the famous Catelyn passage:

Stannis pointed his shining sword at his brother. "I am not without mercy," thundered he who was notoriously without mercy.

Cat doesn't know Stannis, so okay fine. So she and Varys don't know that Stannis is the only highborn ruler we see who consistently asks for advice from people around him even if it's an answer he's not gonna like. And they don't know that Stannis does truly believe he has an obligation to both Robert and the realm to claim the crown as Robert's legal.

Also never forget the reaction of the man who never smiles when he saw Davos again post Blackwater.

His eyes were blue pits lost in deep hollows, and the shape of a skull could be seen beneath his face.

Yet when he saw Davos, a faint smile brushed his lips. "So the sea has returned me my knight of the fish and onions."

A follow up to my previous post,But when I asked about who could be Daenerys's possible 3rd marriage out of love while all her love lnterests exept Quentyn Martell are horrible many suggested Jon,The problem ls that the relationship between them can simply not work:

1-Jon is dead,How can they interact if he is dead?

2-They don't even know each other

3-It's incest,They are aunt and Nephew,Why would George make a incestious targ marriage a positive thing when he’s been dragging that practice for 5 main books and in fire and blood?

3-Jon already have Val and sinking that pairing for incest between two people who don't know each other would be really controversial and there is also the theory about Jon marrying an Other to renew the pact of Ice and Fire

4-reminder Daenerys called the Starks the “usurpers dogs” and hate them

5-some mention the HOTU visions but reminder the blue rose stuff is preceded by OMINOUS foreshadowing in the house of the undying right Like it’s Daenerys wedding night to khal drogo (where she was raped) and a grey corpse on a ship (Euron Greyjoy). This doesn’t bode well for an intersection between them. The blue rose smelling sweet is also not good. There’s a direct quote in a Dany chapter that says “sweet smells are often used to cover up foul odours” (what does this imply about the blue rose) and sometimes used as a metaphor for poisoning. Also like wolves are always framed ominously in her Dany’s chapters

They are most likely to be enemies if they meet(And that if Jon dosen't stay dead)or become enemies rather than have a romance,So please explain me how can a relationship work between these two with those arguments?

This is how Dance begins:

>The night was rank with the smell of man.
The warg stopped beneath a tree and sniffed, his grey-brown fur dappled by shadow. A sigh of piney wind brought the man-scent to him, over fainter smells that spoke of fox and hare, seal and stag, even wolf. Those were man-smells too, the warg knew; the stink of old skins, dead and sour, near drowned beneath the stronger scents of smoke and blood and rot. Only man stripped the skins from other beasts and wore their hides and hair.
Wargs have no fear of man, as wolves do. Hate and hunger coiled in his belly, and he gave a low growl, calling to his one-eyed brother, to his small sly sister. As he raced through the trees, his packmates followed hard on his heels. They had caught the scent as well. As he ran, he saw through their eyes too and glimpsed himself ahead. The breath of the pack puffed warm and white from long grey jaws. Ice had frozen between their paws, hard as stone, but the hunt was on now, the prey ahead. Flesh, the warg thought, meat.
A man alone was a feeble thing. Big and strong, with good sharp eyes, but dull of ear and deaf to smells.

It establishes that regular humans are "deaf to smells" and near the end of this prologue, we get a POV of Varamyr's disembodied soul moving along "on some cold wind", with various animals reacting to his "ghost" as if they could smell him on this wind that is carrying him:

>Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting. A hundred ravens took to the air, cawing as they felt him pass. A great elk trumpeted, unsettling the children clinging to his back. A sleeping direwolf raised his head to snarl at empty air. Before their hearts could beat again he had passed on, searching for his own, for One Eye, Sly, and Stalker, for his pack. His wolves would save him, he told himself.

This essentially confirms a theory Qyburn poses in the previous book, that ghosts/souls leave something behind akin to a "scent" that one can pick up on:

>“Do you believe in ghosts, Maester?” he asked Qyburn.
The man’s face grew strange. “Once, at the Citadel, I came into an empty room and saw an empty chair. Yet I knew a woman had been there, only a moment before. The cushion was dented where she’d sat, the cloth was still warm, and her scent lingered in the air. If we leave our smells behind us when we leave a room, surely something of our souls must remain when we leave this life?” Qyburn spread his hands. “The archmaesters did not like my thinking, though. Well, Marwyn did, but he was the only one.”

At the beginning of A Clash of Kings, Old Nan can somehow smell it in the air that the comet and its supposed magic are connected to Dragons, even though she couldn't have known that its arrival had just coincided with the birth of three dragons halfway across the World:

>Though Old Nan did not think so, and she’d lived longer than any of them. “Dragons,” she said, lifting her head and sniffing. She was near blind and could not see the comet, yet she claimed she could smell it. “It be dragons, boy,” she insisted. Bran got no princes from Nan, no more than he ever had.

Something like this also seems to hold true for the Others and/or their Wights, with animals generally losing composure much quicker around their presence when compared to humans, like the dogs refusing to pull the sled with two dead NW Wights in AGOT or Sam witnessing horses break out into a panic during the battle at the Fist of the First Men, but some humans can also pick up on this scent more than others:

>So long as he gives us a hot meal and a chance to dry our clothes, I’ll be happy. Dywen said Craster was a kinslayer, liar, raper, and craven, and hinted that he trafficked with slavers and demons. “And worse,” the old forester would add, clacking his wooden teeth. “There’s a cold smell to that one, there is.”
Dywen was holding forth, spoon in hand. “I know this wood as well as any man alive, and I tell you, I wouldn’t care to ride through it alone tonight. Can’t you smell it?”
[...]
“What is it you smell, Dywen?” asked Grenn.
The forester sucked on his spoon a moment. He had taken out his teeth. His face was leathery and wrinkled, his hands gnarled as old roots. “Seems to me like it smells … well … cold.”
“Your head’s as wooden as your teeth,” Hake told him. “There’s no smell to cold.”
There is, thought Jon, remembering the night in the Lord Commander’s chambers. It smells like death. Suddenly he was not hungry anymore.
[...]
“Ghost,” Jon breathed, surprised. “So you came inside after all, eh?” The white wolf often hunted all night; he had not expected to see him again till daybreak. “Was the hunting so bad?” he asked. “Here. To me, Ghost.”
The direwolf circled the fire, sniffing Jon, sniffing the wind, never still. It did not seem as if he were after meat right now. When the dead came walking, Ghost knew. He woke me, warned me. Alarmed, he got to his feet. “Is something out there? Ghost, do you have a scent?” Dywen said he smelled cold.
[...]
The empty village was no longer empty. Blue-eyed shadows walked amongst the mounds of snow. Some wore brown and some wore black and some were naked, their flesh gone white as snow. A wind was sighing through the hills, heavy with their scents: dead flesh, dry blood, skins that stank of mold and rot and urine. Sly gave a growl and bared her teeth, her ruff bristling. Not men. Not prey. Not these.

At the end of Dance's prologue we even get a direct view on one of the animals in Varamyr's pack picking up on this scent and immediately concluding that these men-shaped things are neither men, nor prey.

So yeah, animals and some humans can smell the presence of ghosts/souls lingering around them and maybe even magic in general, like the Others' necromancy giving the corpses its controlling an otherworldly "cold" scent that spells out "Danger."

It seems like despite the realm being united for 300 years and goes thru like 7 civil wars and rebellions where the realm stayed united afterwards, using same currency, roads connecting all the realms and cities, the royal court etc.. it still doesnt really seem like there's any shared identity or even much mingling.

The vale, iron islands, north and dorne are literally nationalistic

The stormlands and reach have distinct cultures and are proud aswell but to a lesser degree.

All the nobles just keep to their own realm, attend their own feasts and balls etc. And there's barely any "intermarriage" if you can call it that. A vale lord marries a lady from the vale, a reach lord marries a lady from the reach. Everytime there's an intermarriage its treated as very special.

No where is this disunity more apparent than in two5k.

I like this little world building from george, subtly showing that the realm was forced together by dragons and the only thing keeping it barely together is inertia and status quo. Great way to show that "power resides where men believe it resides" and how powerless kings really are.

After jon arryns death stannis stayed on dragonstone for a year and did nothing. Nothing at all. He shouldve gathered all the evidence and notes and stuff him and jon collected, and run thru jons solar.

Then go around westeros presenting his evidence and that whatever evidence he has that jon was killed by the lannisters since that was pretty suspicious in the books aswell. Go to the vale first, obviously lysa arryn would try to block him and all and wont listen to him(because she killed jon), but he could present his evidence and findings to the vale lords who very much would listen to him even if they remain suspicious, especially yohn royce and I could see a lords declarent situation arising much sooner.

Then go to winterfell and do the same thing, im sure ned and Catelyn would very much believe him if they've gotten lysa's letters that jon was killed by the lannister at this point, but they sooner or later would get them anyway and it would match with what stannis had said plus now the Starks know that Cersei's children are bastards and that robert is probably next on the chopping block.

By now robert travels to winterfell and asks ned to be his hand and to betroth sansa to joffrey, ned firmly refuses or delays the betrothal talks but accepts to become his hand for the same reason as in canon but now he's trying to expose cerseis kids aswell as expose jons murder.

Stannis back at dragonstone starts rapidly expanding the royal fleet and training his men preparing for war, then ned gets arrested and beheaded for "treason". And everything stannis has said now seems true, he sends his letters to everyone that joffrey is a bastard and stannis is the rightful king. No matter what lysa says, if the vale lords believe jon was murdered by the lannisters, then they have to avenge him to protect the vales honor and they declare for stannis. The starks who have been in cahoots with stannis for a long time do the same instead of robb declaring himself king.

Now the war of the 5 kings start with the vale, riverlands, north and dragonstone declaring for stannis. Renly still has the reach and stormlands but his legitimacy and belief in him would be extremely shakey if his older brother has 3 kingdoms declaring for him. Stannis now either fights the lannisters in the riverlands personally with robb stark or he goes to storms end and kills renly with a shadow baby. Either way he claims the iron throne.

A man can only dream.

I've always felt like robbs power had been brittle and reliant on victories and results. He was 14-17 and thrust directly into war before he could even begin to consolidate his power in the war and I get that. But I always felt like robb lacked the intense following and reverence men like tywin, robert, randyll, stannis and other military leaders got. Like really, even after humiliating and defeating the lannisters so completely and massacring 3 hosts he was still never respected in the south or by tywin which I dont understand why.

Then the north gets raided by ironborn, his brothers die and winterfell gets captured, karstarks start pulling back and we really see this. How shakey robbs power had always been and that he was not given the deference you'd except for a genius tactician like robb.

Even robert, he had been away from the stormlands and fostering at the vale for quite the while, and his defeat at ashford and storms end getting besieged didnt effect him quite like it effect robb. Tywin lost battle after battle, even at the hands of edmure, westerlands themselves got pillaged by robb and his position never became shakey.

What could be the reason for this? What did robert and tywin have that robb stark lacked?

Truth be told, she deserved it. She armed the Faith willingly, constantly refused to pay to the Iron Bank and attempted to stall them. She accused Margaery and tried to put a stain on Tyrell name, and she lost control of the Faith Militant almost immediately and had to perform the Walk of Atonement.

Even before that, in the previous chapters of hers in A Feast For Crows, she blows up the Tower of the Hand 'cuz she believed Tyrion was in the walls. Thought Tyrells were behind Tyrion's escape and they are trying to overthrow her (Gardener coin). It was a disaster all along. However, do you think she'll be forced to flee the capital or be exiled by Aegon the Young Griff in the BOOKS?

Okay, so I've been down a Lyonel Baratheon rabbit hole for the last few hours, but I think I've actually landed on a timeline that makes sense, and I need to throw it out there to see what you guys think.

The main issues that kept bugging me:

The Tourney at Storm's End: Baelor mentions he fought in a tourney at Storm's End 'nine years past' {from 209} to celebrate the birth of a grandson of the Lord Baratheon.

Ormund is called 'the heir', not 'the son': Ormund Baratheon is referred to as Lyonel's heir, but never explicitly as his son. I have wondered if Ormund was actually a nephew or cousin.

I think both of these can be explained by something pretty simple: Lyonel had a son who was born in around 200, said son fathered Ormund, and then died before the rebellion.

Here's how I think it shakes out:

The grandson of 200: That baby whose birth Baelor attended? That's Lyonel's son. Lyonel himself would have been a grown man at the time. Say, late twenties at Ashford in 209. That fits perfectly with how he's described and drawn.

Andal succession tradition: Daughters come before nephews. If Ormund was just a nephew, Lyonel's daughter, the one betrothed to Prince Duncan, would have been the heir presumptive, but the text treats Ormund as the clear successor who eventually marries Rhaelle. I think the cleanest explanation for this is that Lyonel's son {Ormund's father} was the original heir, he died, and Ormund inherited his claim.

Ormund's age: Rhaelle was born in around 229, they marry in 245, and Steffon pops out in 246. So Ormund had to be old enough to father a kid by 246, meaning he was born by at least 229, though probably earlier. A birth year around 225 makes him a contemporary of Jaehaerys II {born in 225}, which is a nice little parallel since Jaehaerys later makes Ormund his Hand.

Lyonel versus Dunk in 239: If Lyonel was born in around 179 or thereabouts, he's sixty when he faces Dunk in single combat. Dunk's about a decade younger. That's totally reasonable for two absolute units who've been swinging weapons their whole lives. Barristan was out there carving people up Harpies at sixty-plus.

My working timeline, just for fun:

179: Lyonel Baratheon is born.

200 AC: Lyonel's first sonis born. Big tourney at Storm's End. Baelor Breakspear attends.

209 AC: Ashford Meadow. Lyonel is thirty, laughing his ass off and knocking crests into the crowd.

220-224: Prince Duncan is born. Lyonel's daughter is born around the same time.

225: Ormund born to Lyonel's son.

Sometime before 237: Lyonel's son dies. Ormund becomes the heir.

237: Betrothal of Duncan to Lyonel's daughter.

239: Duncan breaks betrothal. Rebellion. Trial by combat. Lyonel yields to Dunk at age sixty.

245: Ormund marries Rhaelle.

246: Steffon Baratheon born.

I feel this ties up the loose ends without making anyone a geriatric superhuman. It also makes Lyonel's rebellion hit a little harder: He's a guy who already buried a son and then watched his daughter's future get trashed by a prince's whim. The Laughing Storm had plenty of reasons to stop laughing for a bit.

Now, I'll admit: the twenty-ish year gap between Lyonel's son {born in 200 AC} and his daughter {born sometime in the early 220s} is a long stretch between kids, especially in Westeros, but it's not unheard of: Alyssa Velaryon gave birth to Jocelyn Baratheon at forty-seven, Alysanne herself birth to Gael at the age of forty-four, and Rhaella had Daenerys a full twenty-five years after Rhaegar. Lyonel's wife could have been a similar case: a healthy son early on, a long gap, and then a surprise daughter later in life.

Of course, there's another explanation that fits just as neatly: Lyonel could have remarried. It's entirely possible his first wife, the mother of his son born in 200 AC, died at some point in the intervening years {childbirth, illness, other causes}, and Lyonel took a younger second wife who gave him the daughter that was later betrothed to Duncan. That would make the daughter his child by a second marriage, while Ormund remains his grandson through the son from his first marriage. It's a clean way to explain the generational spread without relying on a late-in-life miracle baby.

Oh, and one more thing that makes this timeline feel even sturdier, in my opinion: Royce Baratheon. He was born in 131 as the posthumous son of Borros Baratheon. If you do the generational math, Lyonel born around 179, his dad in around 155, and his granddad Royce at 131, you get clean twenty-four year gaps between each generation. That means Royce is almost certainly Lyonel's grandfather, and the Lord Baratheon who threw the 200 tourney for the grandson was Royce's son.

Anyway, that's my likely wrong theory. If anyone has a different way of squaring these dates, I'm all ears.

AGOT Catelyn I

Ned lifted Ice, looked down the cool steel length of it. "And it will only grow worse. The day may come when I will have no choice but to call the banners and ride north to deal with this King-beyond-the-Wall for good and all."

"Beyond the Wall?" The thought made Catelyn shudder.

Ned saw the dread on her face. "Mance Rayder is nothing for us to fear."

This is an alternative universe I'd have been really interested in seeing happen. Pretend Jon Arryn never gets murdered, Jon still goes to the wall. Could've had Ned, Benjen, Jon (and maybe Robb?) fight against the wildlings at Castle Black. Would've been epic. It sounds like something right out of the legends of the Kings of Winter.

Faegon is a pretty accepted theory in the fandom. But why would Varys lie to the dying Kevan Lannister , What goals could he possibly accomplish from lying to a dying man? We can even rule out the hidden doorways in the red keep because the man who will know all about them, and know to avoid them is Varys

>"When last I passed this way, I saw every rock and tree and whitecap, and watched the grey gulls flying in our wake. I was five-and-thirty and had been a maester of the chain for sixteen years. Egg wanted me to help him rule, but I knew my place was here. He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. No recruit had arrived at the Wall with so much pomp since Nymeria sent the Watch six kings in golden fetters. Egg emptied out the dungeons too, so I would not need to say my vows alone. My honor guard, he called them. One was no less a man than Brynden Rivers. Later he was chosen lord commander.”

Literally the most stacked recruit in centuries, 35 year old royalty who had already been a maester of the chain for 16 of those years and then, unlike any of the other chumps in the citadel, once again gave up real power for the second time to dedicate the rest of his life to serving the Realm.

AEGON V

>THE FIRST ACT of Aegon’s reign was the arrest of Brynden Rivers, the King’s Hand, for the murder of Aenys Blackfyre. Bloodraven did not deny that he had lured the pretender into his power by the offer of a safe conduct, but contended that he had sacrificed his own personal honor for the good of the realm.

>Though many agreed, and were pleased to see another Blackfyre pretender removed, King Aegon felt he had no choice but to condemn the Hand, lest the word of the Iron Throne be seen as worthless. Yet after the sentence of death was pronounced, Aegon offered Bloodraven the chance to take the black and join the Night’s Watch. This he did. Ser Brynden Rivers set sail for the Wall late in the year of 233 AC. (No one intercepted his ship). Two hundred men went with him, many of them archers from Bloodraven’s personal guard, the Raven’s Teeth. The king’s brother, Maester Aemon, was also amongst them.

>Bloodraven would rise to become Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch in 239 AC, serving until his disappearance during a ranging beyond the Wall in 252 AC.

The history books:

"REMEMBER WHEN BLOODRAVEN JOINED OMG BLOODRAVENBLOODRAVENBLOODRAVEN oh yeah, I guess Aemon was also there."

I've been stuck on Barristan's wording in ADWD. He says in The Kingbreaker that all three sons 'had wed for love'.

>Prince Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna, and thousands died for it. Daemon Blackfyre loved the first Daenerys, and rose in rebellion when denied her. Bittersteel and Bloodraven both loved Shiera Seastar, and the Seven Kingdoms bled. The Prince of Dragonflies loved Jenny of Oldstones so much he cast aside a crown, and Westeros paid the bride price in corpses. All three of the sons of the fifth Aegon had wed for love, in defiance of their father's wishes. And because that unlikely monarch had himself followed his heart when he chose his queen, he allowed his sons to have their way, making bitter enemies where he might have had fast friends.

Given what TWOIAF tells us about Daeron's relationship with Jeremy Norridge, the implication seems to be that there was a ceremony of some kind.

So where does a prince of House Targaryen and a knight from the Reach get married in secret? Daeron and Jeremy were squires together at Highgarden. Maybe a small septry on the edge of the woods, or perhaps performed by a village septon near Summerhall who had no idea who they really were?

As for Barristan witnessing it... he would have been a boy of fourteen or so in 251 AC, fresh from the tourney circuit and just starting to make a name for himself. He seems to be was enough to the Targaryen martial sphere to know the details of Daeron's life.

I suspect Barristan did see something. Maybe he was the one holding the horses outside the sept while Daeron and Jeremy exchanged vows inside. It would explain why, decades years later in Meereen, the memory of that specific union haunts his thoughts.

When Barristan talks about the 'bride price in corpses', I think he's not just thinking about Jenny of Oldstones, but also about the quiet dignity of two men he saw commit to each other in the dark, knowing it would have to end the way it did: side-by-side in battle, on a muddy field against the Rat, Hawk, and Pig.

Maybe Barristan saw the kiss and thought it was treason to the realm's order, but he also saw the loyalty and understood why his prince did it anyway.

So Casterly Rock is a great big castle on top of a giant gold/silver mine. Gold and silver mines are notoriously absolutely packed with lead. Symptoms of lead poisoning include things like aggression, paranoia, delusions, etc.

All the Lannisters are vain psychopaths because they spent their formative years breathing lead dust

Probably not a very new discovery but it once again puts Melisandre into a different light from my perspective:

>“It is not a matter of gold or horses. This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life.”

World of Ice&Fire mentions that there were Valyrian Bloodmages and that bloodmagic is still practiced in Qohor and Asshai, but the actual terms "bloodmage" and "bloodmagic" are only ever used in AGOT (by Mirri Daz Mur and Dany) and mentioned once by Qyburn in Feast:

>"The smallfolk used to call her Maggy.”
“Maegi?”
“Is that how you say it? The woman would suck a drop of blood from your finger, and tell you what your morrows held.”
“Bloodmagic is the darkest kind of sorcery. Some say it is the most powerful as well.”
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.”

So we learn that Cersei once engaged in a magical ritual of the darkest and most powerful kind but nevermind that, it's not what she came for or wants to hear. Other than this instance three books later, the actual concept of bloodmagic is never referred to by name again.

>"This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life.”

This phrase however, does appear three more times in subsequent books after AGOT:

>“A man pays his debts. A man owes three.”
“Three?”
“The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life. This girl took three that were his. This girl must give three in their places. Speak the names, and a man will do the rest.”
[...]
Queen Selyse was adamant. “None of these was the chosen of R’hllor. No red comet blazed across the heavens to herald their coming. None wielded Lightbringer, the red sword of heroes. And none of them paid the price. Lady Melisandre will tell you, my lord. Only death can pay for life.”
“The boy?” The king almost spat the words.
“The boy,” agreed the queen.
“The boy,” Ser Axell echoed.
[...]
“I am a small man,” Davos admitted, “so tell me why you need this boy Edric Storm to wake your great stone dragon, my lady.” He was determined to say the boy’s name as often as he could.
“Only death can pay for life, my lord. A great gift requires a great sacrifice.”
“Where is the greatness in a baseborn child?”
“He has kings’ blood in his veins. You have seen what even a little of that blood could do—”
[...]
You wanted a way to save your little sister and still hold fast to the honor that means so much to you, to the vows you swore before your wooden god.” She pointed with a pale finger. “There he stands, Lord Snow. Arya’s deliverance. A gift from the Lord of Light … and me.”

I wonder, what's the cost attached to this particular gift from the Lord of Light. Melisandre wouldn't dare to kill the boy would she, wait what boy again?

We do know the price required for another of her "gifts". Knowing the price beforehand made Jon reject it, hopefully she didn't learn from that mistake.

>"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."

Even then, she didn't include the fact that he would quite literally be burning the souls of all his ancestors and he still rejected her gift.

And he won't even reside in the King's Tower, that foolish boy with "false humility":

>It was Jon Snow she needed, not fried bread and bacon, but it was no use sending Devan to the lord commander. He would not come to her summons. Snow still chose to dwell behind the armory, in a pair of modest rooms previously occupied by the Watch’s late blacksmith. Perhaps he did not think himself worthy of the King’s Tower, or perhaps he did not care. That was his mistake, the false humility of youth that is itself a sort of pride. It was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power, for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings.
The boy was not entirely naive, however. He knew better than to come to Melisandre’s chambers like a supplicant, insisting she come to him instead should she have need of words with him. And oft as not, when she did come, he would keep her waiting or refuse to see her. That much, at least, was shrewd.

What Melisandre and "a man"/Mirri say, is also not exactly the same:

>Lady Melisandre will tell you, my lord. Only death can pay for life.
The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life.
This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life.

TL;DR: Two instances of bloodmagic are attributed to the Red God (Melisandre's and "a man's") and Mirri also used fire/light in her shadowmagic/dance ritual and Dany finally used it herself while sacrificing others and herself in a burning pyre: Is all bloodmagic Red (God) magic?

EDIT: Forgot to include Dany knowingly using bloodmagic.

>“You will not hear me scream,” Mirri responded as the oil dripped from her hair and soaked her clothing.
“I will,” Dany said, “but it is not your screams I want, only your life. I remember what you told me. Only death can pay for life.” Mirri Maz Duur opened her mouth, but made no reply.
[...]
And something else came crashing down, bouncing and rolling, to land at her feet; a chunk of curved rock, pale and veined with gold, broken and smoking. The roaring filled the world, yet dimly through the firefall Dany heard women shriek and children cry out in wonder.
Only death can pay for life.
And there came a second crack, loud and sharp as thunder,

The term "bloodmagic" is only ever used after this chapter once by Qyburn in Feast but the phrase associated with it appears twice more in a different context, and all either related to fire/shadows and/or attributed to the Red God directly, who is "God" of light, fire and shadow.

We all know the great unanswered mystery of the First Dornish War. Aegon reads the letter from Prince Nymor, grips it so hard his hand bleeds, burns it, flies off to Dragonstone, and returns the next day to sign a peace treaty.

Here is the passage from the book, with the most popular theories "in universe"

>What the letter contained, none know to this day, though many have speculated. Did Nymor reveal that Rhaenys lived still, broken and mutilated, and that he would end her suffering if Aegon ended hostilities? Was the letter ensorceled? Did he threaten to take all the wealth of Dorne to hire the Faceless Men to kill Aegon’s young son and heir, Aenys? These questions shall never be answered, it seems.

But when you actually look at the logistics of the delivery and Aegon's immediate reaction, the torture theories completely fall apart. Two massive clues point in a different direction:

1. The Messenger was Princess Deria Nymor didn't send a random envoy or a disposable maester. He sent his own daughter and heir, Princess Deria, straight into the Red Keep to hand deliver the message. You do not send your heir into the literal dragon's mouth if the letter contains a credible assassination threat against the Targaryen bloodline, or news of horrific torture. That is a suicide mission.

You only send your daughter if the letter is deeply personal, undeniably authentic, and fundamentally deescalating. Which leans heavily into the theory that Rhaenys survived, was treated well, and chose to stay in Dorne (which aligns perfectly with her free-spirited personality, and why Aegon was so angry, yet didn't lash out).

2. The Flight to Dragonstone A furious, grieving conqueror who just got blackmailed doesn't typically retreat to an island to sulk. He mounts his dragon and starts burning things. Aegon flying straight to Dragonstone is the biggest behavioral tell we have. He didn't go there to be alone... he could be alone in his own chambers in King's Landing. He went there because he had to check something or consult someone that he couldn't access anywhere else.

A few possibilities for what he was doing:

A Glass Candle?: We know Dragonstone is a Valyrian outpost built on a massive repository of dragonglass, and we know Valyrian dragonlords used dragonglass candles to communicate and see across distances. If the Targaryens retained one in their ancestral seat, Aegon wouldn't just take a Dornish prince's word for Rhaenys being alive. He would fly to Dragonstone to use the candle to look into Dorne and verify it with his own eyes. I admit this isn't directly supported in canon that I am aware of.

Consulting Visenya on Magic: If the letter contained a threat of Rhoynish water magic or blood magic ...he needed an expert. He went to ask her, "Can they actually do this?"

The Painted Table: If the letter forced him to abandon his life's ambition for a deeply personal reason, he went to the room where the conquest started to look at the map and psychologically accept that he would never own the bottom of it.

The torture theory just doesn't fit the mechanics of what actually happened.

What do you guys think he was doing on Dragonstone? Why did he immediately fly to Dragonstone, and why did it make the difference in giving up Dorne?

I just finished one of the Jaime chapters, which he returns to the Red Keep, devours Cersei, leaves the Sept and then talks with Tywin about Joffrey's death and his resignation from the Kingsguard... Tywin states that Sansa's maids were locked and going to be interrogated and made the maesters rip Joffrey's throat to see whether there was a blockage or not.

When Sansa enters the ship and LF welcomes her, he states that the City Watch would hunt her and the Master of Whisperers (Varys) would investigate as well. We even saw Sansa being transformed into Alayne Stone in the Vale and probably taking control in Eyrie. However;

1. Is she still in danger? Is the Crown still searching for her?

2. If so, why haven't we seen any agents of the Crown being noticed by LF's men? (Perhaps I didn't notice it because I'm still reading ASOS.)

3. How can Littlefinger (I know he's DAMN cunning, started the Lannister-Stark war, helped kill Joffrey... but) , a Lord Paramount by a royal-appointment, hide Sansa Stark from the most powerful institution (on paper) for that long?

4. Do you think GRRM's gonna kill Sansa off?

Out of The Prophecies Daenerys recieved one of them imply a 3rd marriage out of love

The problem is that all of Dany's love interests exept one are horrible even the past ones(Hello Khal Drogo)And said exeption(Quentyn Martell)is probably dead and is not even her type

The others while they fit her type all suck,there is:

-Victarion who may I remind you only want Dany to one-up Euron and use her dragons,And also killed his wife "for the crime" of getting raped by Euron

-Euron who is only interested in her dragons and is considered horrible even by Iron Islands standards

-Daario who dosen't need an explanation

And finally we have Young Griff who may be decent but is most likely a Blackfyre

That made me wonder how and if a Third marriage out love for Dany will happen?especially with the candidate all being bad and the bar being in the depths.

I have heard some mention that either there will be no marriage or that Victarion could work as the the marriage out of love because of his similarities to Drogo(both are considered the Ideal man of their cultures)and Young Griff could also be that third marriage out of love but it's end up souring later,Or that the marriage out of love wasn't supposed to mean Dany but supposed to mean FAegon and Arianne or Jon and Val or Jon and his Corpse Queen for the new pact of ice and fire.

What do you think about this whole 3rd marriage out of love and do you think it's will happen?Even with the bar being so low and all the love interests(exept one)sucking?and if so how?

I'm so confused about this. In the books, it's heavily implied that Joffrey's the one who ordered it but still there are some elements that don't sit right with me. Let me explain:

- Joffrey's extremely spoiled and was a prince of the Crown. His swords and belongins were decorated with gold and he was surrounded by prestige and luxury. And yet he promised the catspawn a sac of silver instead of gold?!

- How did the assassin (a low-level and non-experienced) enter the Winterfell and sneak into Bran's room without even being sensed by Catelyn until being noticed? Let alone that, but a Great House is supposed to have DOZENS of guards.. did all of them went to the library at that time?!

- In ASOS, we learn that Robert actually thought killing Bran was an act of mercy instead of letting him leave with this misery. And in AGOT, the catspawn says "It's a mercy.. you shouldn't be here." Was this a parallel or a message? Perhaps Robert sent the assassin?

- Who would give such a valuable weapon to a low-level assassin? Even a stupid individual like Joffrey could've thought that Valyrian Steel would've been too suspicious and be traced back.

- Another theory is that Cersei gave the order to LF and the original plan was catspawn killing Bran and disappearing forever.

This song ,"We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel (1989) ,Suggests we did not start the world's problems but inherited them.

All I got is the last verse, which covers the Second half of the 3rd century. I tried my best to match the original cadence .

Summerhall, blown away, what else do I have to say?

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Nine penny, Barristan, the prophecy is back again

Kings'guards, Kingswood, Duskendale, False spring

Lyanna, Rhaegar, Mad King, Tourney in the Harrenhall

The Dule on the Trident, Lions on the Iron Throne

Tower of Joy, What a surprise !Ashara Dayne's suicide

Foreign debts,Iron islands,Schemes, Scandal, Five Kings

Daenerys on the shore, Slaves under martial law

White Walkers and Dragon War

I can't take it anymore!

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone, it will still burn on

And on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on

May someone can finish the Whole Song based on the world of ice and fire.

Each Generation passes by,And this song becomes longer and longer.

>The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.

l

>

If Gared can even hear this down in the forest, all he knows is WaThen Royce’s parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar’s fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red.

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.

Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. “For Robert!” he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other’s parry was almost lazy.

Then Royce’s parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar’s fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red.

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.

Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. “For Robert!” he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other’s parry was almost lazy.

When the blades touched, the steel shattered. A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking, and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers.