#The Damphair [Aeron POV]

[travllingbunny]

How would you rank the Greyjoys from most evil to least?

Euron is obviously at the top.

Balon and Victarion are tricky because Balon may have been worse for all we know, but we just don't see him doing that many things, while we get a closer look at Victarion's actions... but the fact he beat his wife to death is why I put him over Balon. (Though I enjoy Victarion as a character more as he is hilarious in his stupidity, while Balon is bad and boring.)

Then I guess I'd have to put Theon, who objectively did horrible things, including having two young boys murdered just so he wouldn't look silly. And I really hated Theon in ACOK. ADWD Theon, however, would be put much lower, and could at this point even be a good person, for the most part.

Aeron "Damphair" is tiresome and annoying with his views and his zealotry, especially as it's about the Drowned God, not one of my favorite religions in ASOIAF. (I do feel sorry for him in The Forsaken though.) But while he is one of my least favorite POVs, he hasn't done anything really evil directly. However, he no doubt encouraged a lot of the worst Ironborn instincts with his preaching and his love for the Old Way.

Asha has probably done bad things, like all of them, but relative to the other Greyjoys, she is unusually smart, pragmatic and progressive, and most importantly, actually has advocated for a better way of life and tried to make a positive change to the society, which is why she gets to be the least evil.

[undeniablespice]

drowned god the weak little beast you put on this earth to write fanfiction and like greyjoys has been neglecting homework in order to reread the affc ironborn chapters and have way too many opinions about the soggiest man in the world. i have Had Some Thoughts on aeron, theon, and names

it really is striking to me just how little people refer to aeron by his name. not just in conversation, but in the narrative itself, with the most notable example of this being aeron himself in his pov chapters constantly thinking of himself not as aeron but as damphair or just The Priest. he refers to himself as damphair or The Priest instead of aeron like twenty times throughout the prophet, to the point where it's used almost as frequently as his actual name. in the drowned man it's only like eight times (which i think is mostly because the vast majority of this chapter is given over to the kingsmoot, where aeron is mostly a spectator and the narrative focus is on the events taking place rather than his reaction to them). in the forsaken, it's ten times, though while aeron is actively imprisoned he mostly thinks of himself as aeron, with damphair being used four times in flashbacks to events that took place in the past, once during a conversation with euron while aeron is defying him, and then three times after he is freed and he can see the sea again

the consistency and frequency of aeron in his own mind thinking of himself as something other than his name reads to me almost like a foil to theon and reek. the identity of the damphair allows aeron to dissociate himself from the burden of his past weaknesses and sins: his pre-drowning frivolity and alcoholism and euron's sexual abuse. for aeron, being damphair is as empowering as being reek is degrading for theon. he is constantly affirming to himself that he is a loyal servant of the drowned god and that this makes him strong. it gives him status and purpose he never had as aeron the boy, who was the youngest and weakest of his brothers. aeron-the-priest cannot be frightened by any mortal man any more than he can be frightened by the dark or by memories. kill the boy to become the man -> drown the boy to become the damphair

(although, of course, when aeron tells himself all this about how god chose him and it makes him strong and special and immune to fear, he is deluding himself. the damphair is haunted incessantly by his brothers. aeron has the tendency to reconcile his lasting fear of euron with his special god-given immunity to such mortal flaws as feeling fear by believing that euron is ungodly/an avatar of the storm god/literally the devil, and therefore not really a mortal man in the same way that balon and victarion are

which is a really interesting parallel to how euron must see himself, what with the whole apotheosis god-king thing he's got going on by twow. in a way, euron is aeron's real god. it is euron's abuse that first connected aeron with faith, and it is faith that aeron uses to cope with and overcome the lasting psychological scars of that abuse and urri's death. aeron doesn't think of euron as a mere flesh and blood human being anymore. he's mythologized the crow's eye in his own mind: euron is not just his abuser, he's a boogeyman, a devil, quite literally the thing that goes bump in the night. and euron knows this, and delights in knowing it and in taking every chance he can to tear down aeron's faith and replace the drowned god with himself as the backbone of aeron's life. which he does not actually succeed in doing, as of the forsaken! aeron keeps his faith like theon keeps his name. it cannot be taken from them)

reek, meanwhile, is not an identity that theon chooses to assume to cope with his trauma. it is forced upon him in the middle of the trauma and he has no choice but to accept it for his own self-preservation. ramsay devastates theon physically: flaying him, starving him, beating him, removing his fingers and toes and teeth and genitals. imprisonment and violence are the tools he uses to take away theon's physical strength to resist him, but reek is how he gets to all the parts of theon that can't be bruised or cut. it's the psychological equivalent of a flaying knife. reek is the weapon he uses to attack theon's identity and sense of self and personhood. though it's important to me to note that those were things theon was already struggling with well before ramsay came on the scene, and that he has an absolutely unbelievably strong will that allows him to retain a degree of his original personality under ramsay and regain his own name later in adwd even after enduring all the torture and abuse. he is a greyjoy of pyke. his name is theon, and if he dies, he will die as theon, not as reek. when he leans into being reek, it is as a means of self-preservation and protection from harm. he basically says as much to jeyne when he tells her to be arya: he believes that serving ramsay and capitulating to his whim is the best way to stay safe. you have to know your name.

ultimately, theon is as relieved to be rid of the name reek as aeron is relieved to see the ocean again at the end of the forsaken. theon's name is a source of pride to him, something that he clings to after he has lost everything else, something that will always be his even after all that has been taken away from him. aeron's name is a source of shame, something that he is reduced to when he feels weak, something that he reverts to when he is powerless at the mercy of his abuser

[greenbloods]

(ok this is going to be somewhat of an unstructured post because i am just Thinking this through and laying my thoughts out, maybe i'll format it into a proper essay later)

I've seen a few posts talking about the narrative foils that the North and Dorne--ice and fire--play in the narrative, but recently I've come to notice another such foil. In the books, there seems to be this strange attraction in the narrative between the Iron Islands and the Stormlands, specifically between Stannis and the Greyjoys. It's been gnawing at the back of my head for a while, so I wanted to explore it and see what it might mean.

Similarities:

Colors: Black on gold (Baratheon), gold on black (Greyjoy)

Castles: Both Pyke and Storm's End exist on some level to spite the gods, battered as they are by sea and stone and sky. The danger inherent to the castles' design is significant to their design, with Balon falling into the sea at Pyke (probably pushed, but still) and Steffon and Cassana Baratheon were dashed at sea while approaching Storm's End

The Iron Islands worship the Drowned God, and loathe the Storm God as their enemy; Durran Godsgrief, the mythical founder of House Durrandon from whose line House Baratheon lays claim to the Stormlands, was the first of the Storm Kings and married the daugher of the sea god, and build Storm's End

But that's not all, because it's not just that the Greyjoys and Baratheons are paralleled, but Stannis specifically seems to be intimately involved thematically and plot-wise with the past and future of House Greyjoy.

As mentioned earlier, Stannis's parents are drowned at sea, which is one of the reasons why he stopped believing in the Seven, and allowed him to take to R'hllor later (see his Red Hawk speech)

During the Greyjoy Rebellion, Stannis was the one entrusted with the navy, and was able to soundly defeat Victarion (!!) and Euron (!!!) at sea (!!!!!) off Fair Isle

Patchface, Stannis's jester, was drowned at sea and reborn, and is theorized by many to be a champion/prophet for the Drowned God, which is one reason why he is feared by Melisandre

Stannis's storyline in ADWD intersects with Asha and Theon, having captured them both, and this seems like it will shape up to be an important part of the plot in Winds

Euron, as discussed above, was defeated by Stannis, the only person we know to have done so

The only important Greyjoy whose life does not entangle with Stannis is Aeron Damphair, who others have pointed out is a parallel to Stannis's priestess Melisandre, as both being POV characters who are the champions of their respective monotheistic faiths and use their fervent belief in their worldview as a shield to guard against their deeply scarred pasts ("Even a priest may doubt. Even a prophet may know terror. Aeron Damphair reached within himself for his god and discovered only silence. As a thousand voices shouted out his brother's name, all he could hear was the scream of a rusted iron hinge." vs "One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One day she would be free of dreams. Melony, she thought. Lot Seven.")

STANNIS is initially skeptical of the FIRE PRIESTESS Melisandre but takes her in as she demonstrates her POWER and prophetic visions to Stannis; VICTARION is initially skeptical of the FIRE PRIEST Moqorro but takes him in as he demonstrates his POWER and prophetic visions to Victarion

what does it all mean? do these parallels between stannis and the greyjoys tell us anything about their themes, or what their arcs might be in TWOW/ADOS?

idk man this is all i got so far what do yall think

also this post was partially inspired by a post i read a while back which ive attached below so give it a read too:

[duxbelisarius]

Euron's Götterdämmerung

Warning! Spoilers ahead for A Dance With Dragons, A Feast For Crows, and ASOIAF in general

Alternate Title: The One Where Euron Pisses Off the Volcano

Back with another analysis/theory that I happened upon while reading on break; this time our subject is Mr. Nihilism himself Euron Greyjoy, and his likely endgame in TWOW. My argument for this theory is two-fold: 1) The Iron Islands sit atop a dormant, partially submerged volcano, the caldera of which is formed by Great and Old Wyk; and 2) Euron will sound a 'kraken summoning horn,' aka The Hammer of the Waters, to pulverize Oldtown and the coast of the Sunset Sea, causing the Wyk volcano to erupt and setting the stage for a second Long Night.

A huge shout out to Company of the Cat and her video about the Iron Islands being volcanic (skip to 9:37 of the video for her explanations), which inspired me to pursue this theory. To summarize her arguments, everything about the islands from their rich ore deposits, the mythology of Nagga the Sea Dragon, the prevalence of fire in Ironborn culture and imagery despite being a sea-faring people, and the similarity of Great and Old Wyk's shape to the known volcanic islands of Marahai in the Jade Sea, point towards the islands being volcanic. A past eruption could also explain the Ironborn mythology surrounding the Drowned God's conflict with the Storm God; to Dawn Age observers, the collapse of the volcano's caldera combined with volcanic lightning within it's ash cloud (which may be referenced by the arms of House Kenning of Harlaw) could have been explained as the Storm God casting down the god of the Islands, giving rise to the legends of the Drowned God.

This brings me to my second argument; from where things stand at the end of ADWD, Euron's plan seems straightforward: Euron wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms and intends to marry Daenerys, bending her dragons to his will with the Dragon Binder horn he allegedly found in Valyria and crushing all those who stand in his way. But as anyone can attest that has read "The Forsaken," an excerpt of an Aeron Damphair POV from TWOW, these may only be a cover for his true aims:

He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

“Never. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!”

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow’s Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

And there, swollen and green, half-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair.

...

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

As indicated Aeron Damphair's Shade of the Evening dreams, Euron aspires not merely to kinghood but godhood. This makes sense with George building-up towards a second Long Night, as Euron makes obvious parallels to the Bloodstone Emperor who was responsible for the first Long Night in Yi Tish mythology. They both came to power by murdering their elder sibling (Balon Greyjoy, the Amethyst Empress), and have committed similar atrocities. According to TWOIAF, Bloodstone "practiced dark arts, torture, and necromancy, enslaved his people, took a tiger-woman for his bride, feasted on human flesh, and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky." While Euron has yet to marry a Tiger-Woman or raise the dead, on all other accounts he is emulating Bloodstone: he uses blood magic; we know from Aeron's POV that he tortures foes; he sells his captives from the Shield Isles into slavery; he forces the Qartheen warlocks he captured to eat their dead companion; and it is made abundantly clear that Euron is a godless man bent on destroying the existing organized religions.

With Euron set-up as the one who will unleash the second Long Night upon Planetos, the question remains as to how he will do this; for a concise account of how the first Long Night happened, I recommend consulting David Lightbringer's videos that I linked in my previous ASOIAF theory. Some have suggested that Euron means to sound the Horn of Winter, aka the Horn of Joramun, which may be in Sam's possession in Oldtown, but I find this very unlikely. For starters, Jon in ACOK and Sam in AFFC both describe the horn found by Ghost as being old and cracked, suggesting that repairs or magical intervention may be needed to get it to work if it is the Horn. There's also the problem of Euron being at the opposite end of the continent from the Wall; if the Horn is indeed used for lowering and raising the Wall (as suggested by Cat in her video about magical horns in ASOIAF), it would be a massive liability for it to be capable of doing so from anywhere in the world.

I believe a clue for how Euron will trigger a second Long Night is Aeron's first vision quoted above, in which Euron blows a horn and caused dragons, krakens and sphinxes to bow to him. As Company of the Cat argues in her magical horns video, a 'kraken summoning horn' most likely refers to the Hammer of the Waters and/or similar objects. We know that Krakens are drawn to bodies and blood in the waters, as mentioned in both Fire and Blood and Arianne's TWOW sample:

"It was said that the waters between the islands were so choked with corpses that krakens appeared by the hundreds, drawn by the blood." (Fire and Blood, Reign of the Dragon: The Wars of King Aegon I)

"And krakens off the Broken Arm, pulling under crippled galleys," said Valena. "The blood draws them to the surface, our maester claims. There are bodies in the water. A few have washed up on our shores." (TWOW, Arianne I)

From what TWOIAF has to say about the breaking of the Arm of Dorne, the Hammer of the Waters could also account for the dragons and sphinxes:

"And the old gods stirred, and giants awoke in the earth, and all of Westeros shook and trembled. Great cracks appeared in the earth, and hills and mountains collapsed and were swallowed up. And then the seas came rushing in, and the Arm of Dorne was broken and shattered by the force of the water, until only a few bare rocky islands remained above the waves." (TWOIAF, Dorne: The Breaking)

If we assume the sphinxes to refer to the statues that flank the gates of the Citadel, these would likely be destroyed by the earthquakes and tsunamis of the Hammer, 'bowing' at the command of Euron. High magnitude earthquakes would lead to volcanic eruptions, thus accounting for the dragons answering Euron's command. In addition to Wyk erupting, we'll likely see Dragonstone erupt as well, esp. in light of Melisandre's talk about 'waking dragons from stone.' Based on Jon and Tyrion's recollections in the eighth chapters of ADWD, an eruption at Hardhome can also be expected:

"Only the brightest stars were visible, all to the west. A dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast, the color of a blood bruise. Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon. Monstrous, swollen, it looked as if it had swallowed the sun and woken with a fever. Its twin, floating on the sea beyond the ship, shimmered red with every wave. "What hour is this?" he asked Moqorro. "That cannot be sunrise unless the east has moved. Why is the sky red?"

"The sky is always red above Valyria, Hugor Hill."" (ADWD, Tyrion VIII)

"Hardhome had been halfway toward becoming a town, the only true town north of the Wall, until the night six hundred years ago when hell had swallowed it. Its people had been carried off into slavery or slaughtered for meat, depending on which version of the tale you believed, their homes and halls consumed in a conflagration that burned so hot that watchers on the Wall far to the south had thought the sun was rising in the north. Afterward ashes rained down on haunted forest and Shivering Sea alike for almost half a year." (ADWD, Jon VIII)

The symbolism and imagery surrounding Euron strongly implies that he will use the Hammer of the Waters; as already noted, a volcanic eruption on Wyk may have inspired the mythology of the war between the Drowned God and the Storm God. Euron is heavily associated with the Storm God, starting with his murder of Balon Greyjoy:

"The Storm God cast him down," the priest announced. For a thousand thousand years sea and sky had been at war. From the sea had come the ironborn, and the fish that sustained them even in the depths of winter, but storms brought only woe and grief.

...

Better to be scorned by Balon the Brave than beloved of Euron Crow's Eye. And if age and grief had turned Balon bitter with the years, they had also made him more determined than any man alive. He was born a lord's son and died a king, murdered by a jealous god, Aeron thought, and now the storm is coming, a storm such as these isles have never known." (AFFC, The Prophet)

"Oh, and Balon was the third, but you knew that. I could not do the deed myself, but it was my hand that pushed him off the bridge." (TWOW, The Forsaken)

Euron's title is Crow's Eye, while his personal coat of arms feature ravens, further tying him to the Storm God:

He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri. (AFFC, The Prophet)

"Crow's Eye, you call me. Well, who has a keener eye than the crow? After every battle the crows come in their hundreds and their thousands to feast upon the fallen. A crow can espy death from afar. And I say that all of Westeros is dying. Those who follow me will feast until the end of their days." (AFFC, The Drowned Man)

There's also the matter of House Goodbrother, an Ironborn house situated on Great Wyk who draw their wealth from their mines. Not only is their sigil is a warhorn while their house seat bears the interesting name of Hammerhorn, but Euron is compared to Urrathon IV Goodbrother ("Badbrother") in ADWD:

"Torgon Greyiron was the king's eldest son. But the king was old and Torgon restless, so it happened that when his father died he was raiding along the Mander from his stronghold on Greyshield. His brothers sent no word to him but instead quickly called a kingsmoot, thinking that one of them would be chosen to wear the driftwood crown. But the captains and the kings chose Urragon [Urrathon] Goodbrother to rule instead. The first thing the new king did was command that all the sons of the old king be put to death, and so they were. After that men called him Badbrother, though in truth they'd been no kin of his. He ruled for almost two years."

...

"Badbrother had proved to be as mean as he was cruel and had few friends left upon the isles. The priests denounced him, the lords rose against him, and his own captains hacked him into pieces." (ADWD, The Wayward Bride)

TWOIAF claims that Hrothgar of Pyke possessed a kraken-summoning horn during the Age of Heroes; assuming that this was the Hammer of the Waters, it's possible that the horn fell into the Ironborn's hands during their raids into the Riverlands, since we know that the Greenseers of the Children congregated at the Isle of Faces on the God's Eye lake when they called upon the Hammer to break the Arm of Dorne. It also makes sense that Euron would not reveal the Hammer, given the subtle hints George has given that Euron intends to sacrifice his fellow Ironborn in pursuit of his goals:

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

...

“Your victories are hollow. You cannot hold the Shields.”

“Why should I want to hold them?” His brother’s smiling eye glittered in the lantern light, blue and bold and full of malice. “The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts.”

...

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. (TWOW, The Forsaken)

Euron seated himself and gave his cloak a twitch, so it covered his private parts. "I had forgotten what a small and noisy folk they are, my ironborn. I would bring them dragons, and they shout out for grapes." (AFFC, The Reaver)

Clearly, Euron's ambitions exceed those of his fellow Ironborn, and this makes Aeron's vision of longships adrift on a boiling sea particularly ominous. At the end of "The Forsaken," Aeron Damphair, Euron's pregnant saltwife Falia Flowers, and a collection of holy men and women kidnapped by Euron are tied to the prows of his ships. With a naval battle looming between Euron's forces and the ships of the Hightower and Redwyne fleets, Euron's plan seems to be to use this naval battle in the Whispering Sound alongside his captives as the sacrifice required for the Hammer.

The evidence that Euron will sound the Hammer of the Waters is very strong IMO, as is the evidence for Wyk erupting. Firstly, we have Daenerys' visions from the House of the Undying in ACOK:

"From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . ." (ACOK, Daenerys IV)

The smoking tower most likely refers to the Hightower at Oldtown, while a 'great stone beast' that breathes 'shadow fire' sounds an awful lot like a volcano. That the beast takes wing and appears to fly can be seen as a reference to Euron's crow/raven symbolism, as well as his obsession with flying:

"When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly," he announced. "When I woke, I couldn't . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied?"

...

"Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap." (AFFC, The Reaver)

We then have Melisandre's vision in ADWD:

Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. 

...

"If it comes, that attack will be no more than a diversion. I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. That is where the heaviest blow will fall."

"Eastwatch?"

Was it? Melisandre had seen Eastwatch-by-the-Sea with King Stannis. That was where His Grace left Queen Selyse and their daughter Shireen when he assembled his knights for the march to Castle Black. The towers in her fire had been different, but that was oft the way with visions. (ADWD, Melisandre I)

Many of the theories I've seen about this vision identify the towers as Oldtown, and while I agree that the Hammer will devastate that city, the description doesn't quite add up. The Hightower and the Citadel are the only real towers associated with the city while House Costayne's seat of Three Towers, at the mouth of the Whispering Sound, was only briefly mentioned by Sam as the Cinnamon Wind approached Oldtown in AFFC. There's also the issue of Oldtown's location well inside the Whispering Sound and many miles from the sea. The Iron Islands fit the description quite nicely, in particular Ten Towers on Harlaw and Pyke itself:

Ten Towers had always felt like home to Asha, more so than Pyke. Not one castle, ten castles squashed together, she had thought, the first time she had seen it. She remembered breathless races up and down the steps and along wallwalks and covered bridges, fishing off the Long Stone Quay, days and nights lost amongst her uncle's wealth of books. His grandfather's grandfather had raised the castle, the newest on the isles. Lord Theomore Harlaw had lost three sons in the cradle and laid the blame upon the flooded cellars, damp stones, and festering nitre of ancient Harlaw Hall. Ten Towers was airier, more comfortable, better sited . . . but Lord Theomore was a changeable man, as any of his wives might have testified. He'd had six of those, as dissimilar as his ten towers. (AFFC, The Kraken's Daughter)

As it happens, Harlaw is situated right next to Old and Great Wyk; but the tower imagery is even more pronounced with Pyke:

The Greyjoy stronghold stood upon a broken headland, its keeps and towers built atop massive stone stacks that thrust up from the sea. Bridges knotted Pyke together; arched bridges of carved stone and swaying spans of hempen rope and wooden planks.

...

Greydon left him when the sun was up, to take the news of Balon's death to his cousins in their towers at Downdelving, Crow Spike Keep, and Corpse Lake. Aeron continued on alone, up hills and down vales along a stony track that drew wider and more traveled as he neared the sea. (AFFC, The Prophet)

The shore was all sharp rocks and glowering cliffs, and the castle seemed one with the rest, its towers and walls and bridges quarried from the same grey-black stone, wet by the same salt waves, festooned with the same spreading patches of dark green lichen, speckled by the droppings of the same seabirds. The point of land on which the Greyjoys had raised their fortress had once thrust like a sword into the bowels of the ocean, but the waves had hammered at it day and night until the land broke and shattered, thousands of years past. All that remained were three bare and barren islands and a dozen towering stacks of rock that rose from the water like the pillars of some sea god's temple, while the angry waves foamed and crashed among them.

Drear, dark, forbidding, Pyke stood atop those islands and pillars, almost a part of them, its curtain wall closing off the headland around the foot of the great stone bridge that leapt from the clifftop to the largest islet, dominated by the massive bulk of the Great Keep. Farther out were the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island. Towers and outbuildings clung to the stacks beyond, linked to each other by covered archways when the pillars stood close, by long swaying walks of wood and rope when they did not. (ACOK, Theon I)

What became of Valyria is well-known, and in the Iron Islands, the castle of Pyke sits on stacks of stone that were once part of the greater island before segments of it crumbled into the sea. (TWOIAF, Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men)

What remains of Pyke today is a complex of towers and keeps scattered across half a dozen islets and sea stacks above the booming waves. A section of curtain wall, with a great gatehouse and defensive towers, stretches across the headland, the only access to the castle, and is all that remains of the original fortress. A stone bridge from the headland leads to the first and largest islets and Great Keep of Pyke.

Beyond that, rope bridges connect the towers one to the other.... Beneath the castle walls, the waves still smash against the remaining rock stacks day and night, and one day those too will doubtless crash into the sea. (TWOIAF, The Iron Islands: Pyke)

Earthquakes, tsunamis and a volcanic eruption would more than suffice to submerge Pyke beneath the waves. Such a cataclysm striking the Iron Islands would also fit with Aeron's vision of Ironborn longships adrift on a bloody, boiling sea; while this could refer to Victarion's Iron Fleet and it's close proximity to Valyria and the Smoking Sea, we know that the ships of the Iron Fleet are larger than the normal longships of the Ironborn, and I believe it further points towards a disaster befalling the Ironborn as a result of Euron's schemes.

The final and most blatant evidence for Wyk erupting comes from Victarion, who offers this account of the Doom of Valyria while stopped at the Isle of Cedars near Slavers Bay:

On the day the Doom came to Valyria, it was said, a wall of water three hundred feet high had descended on the island, drowning hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, leaving none to tell the tale but some fisherfolk who had been at sea and a handful of Velosi spearmen posted in a stout stone tower on the island's highest hill, who had seen the hills and valleys beneath them turn into a raging sea. Fair Velos with its palaces of cedar and pink marble had vanished in a heartbeat. On the north end of the island, the ancient brick walls and stepped pyramids of the slaver port Ghozai had suffered the same fate.

So many drowned men, the Drowned God will be strong there, Victarion had thought when he chose the island for the three parts of his fleet to join up again. He was no priest, though. What if he had gotten it backwards? Perhaps the Drowned God had destroyed the island in his wroth. His brother Aeron might have known, but the Damphair was back on the Iron Islands, preaching against the Crow's Eye and his rule. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair. Yet the captains and kings had cried for Euron at the kingsmoot, choosing him above Victarion and other godly men. (ADWD, The Iron Suitor)

This passage is what sold me on this theory being more than just tin foil, as the elements it employs fit a Wyk eruption scenario perfectly. We have a massive volcanic eruption accompanied by tsunamis, along with Victarion's musing on whether the disaster was a punishment from the Drowned God. This fits perfectly with the idea of the Drowned God being a submerged volcano, as it's subsequent eruption could be seen as divine punishment for placing a 'godless man' upon the Seastone Chair.

Even more suggestive is the description of the wave's height, and how some Velosi spearmen survived due to being in a stone tower atop a hill. The Hightower of Oldtown is said to be as tall as the Wall or over 700 feet tall, with it's base being constructed from fused black stone similar to the Valyrian roads. Even more telling, the island on which the Hightower sits is called Battle Isle, which is similar to another name for the Isle of Cedars:

The girlish maester Euron had inflicted upon him back in Westeros claimed this place had once been called 'the Isle of a Hundred Battles,' but the men who had fought those battles had all gone to dust centuries ago. (ADWD, The Iron Suitor)

In the event that Euron attacks Oldtown, I expect him to make a bee-line for the top of the Hightower, and not so he can see the Wall and bring it down with the Horn of Joramun. Rather, it's because the top of the Hightower might be the only relatively safe place for miles when he sounds the Hammer of the Waters and unleashes a 'black and bloody tide.'

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

TWOW: The Forsaken (Aeron Dam-phair)

It's one of those chapters.

It was always midnight in the belly of the beast. The mutes had robbed him of his of robe and shoes and breechclout. He wore hair and chains and scabs. Saltwater sloshed about his legs whenever the tide came in, rising as high as his genitals only to ebb again when the tide receded. His feet had grown huge and soft and puffy, shapeless things as big as hams. He knew that he was in some dungeon, but not where, or for how long.

Believe it or not, this is not Theon Greyjoy.

Quick note, this chapter is going to span several months, so it might be a bit tricky following the timeline. I'll do my best to make things easy to understand, but just know this chapter covers the following:

The aftermath of the Kingsmoot on Old Wyck

The attack of the Shield Islands

The initial stages of the Arbor attack

+.+.+

The night they moved him, he had seen the moon floating on a black wine sea with a leering face that reminded him of Euron.

Moon imagery for squid and dragon, love that for them.

+.+.+

When he slept, the darkness would rise up and swallow him and then the dream would come … and Urri and the scream of a rusted hinge.

You ever notice that of all the recurrent POV characters, it's the two religious fanatics, Melisandre and Dam-phair, who have had the most traumatic childhoods?

(Please pretend Areo Hotah doesn't exist for the sake of my interesting observation.)

+.+.+

Sometimes, Euron came himself. Aeron would wake from sleep to find his brother standing over him, lantern in hand. Once, aboard the Silence, he hung the lantern from a post and poured them cups of wine. "Drink with me, brother," he said. That night he wore a shirt of iron scales and a cloak of blood red silk. His eyepatch was red leather, his lips blue. 

Did you know the way we dress can greatly influence how others perceive us? First impressions are often based on appearance, and dressing in line with expectations can help create a positive image.

+.+.+

"What can you offer me that I have not had before?" Euron smiled. "I left the islands in the hands of old Erik Ironmaker, and sealed his loyalty with the hand of our sweet Asha. I would not have you preaching against his rule, so I took you with us."

The man's got brains, what can I say?

He may be a total fraud, but he dodged the dumb Greyjoy genes.

+.+.+

Euron grabbed a handful of the priest's tangled black hair, pulled his head back, and lifted the wine cup to his lips. But what flowed into his mouth was not wine. It was thick and viscous, with a taste that seemed to change with every swallow. Now bitter, now sour, now sweet. When Aeron tried to spit it out, his brother tightened his grip and forced more down his throat. "That's it, priest. Gulp it down. The wine of the warlocks, sweeter than your seawater, with more truth in it than all the gods of earth."

[...]

Aeron hawked and spat. The spittle struck his brother's cheek and hung there, blue-black, glistening. Euron flicked it off his face with a forefinger, then licked the finger clean.

+.+.+

And when the Damphair slept, sagging in his chains, he heard the creak of a rusted hinge. "Urri!" he cried. There is no hinge here, no door, no Urri. His brother Urrigon was long dead, yet there he stood. One arm was black and swollen, stinking with maggots, but he was still Urri, still a boy, no older than the day he died.

Hey, Victarion's got one of those too.

+.+.+

"You know what waits below the sea, brother?" "The Drowned God," Aeron said, "the watery halls." Urri shook his head. "Worms … worms await you, Aeron."

You might also find Euron and Victarion down there.

+.+.+

When he laughed his face sloughed off and the priest saw that it was not Urri but Euron, the smiling eye hidden. He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

"The bleeding star bespoke the end," he said to Aeron. "These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits." Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. "Kneel, brother," the Crow's Eye commanded. "I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest."

"Never. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!"

"Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated."

Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow's Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

And there, swollen and green, half-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair. Then, Euron Crow's Eye laughed again, and the priest woke screaming in the bowels of Silence, as piss ran down his leg. It was only a dream, a vision born of foul black wine.

God, I don't know. I'm so tired.

He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

Not sure why it's called his blood eye, when it's black. That's a great way of tricking your fanbase into writing hundreds of Euron x Bloodraven metas.

The scale as dark as onyx might be the Valyrian steel armour he'll rock later in this chapter.

Euron Crow's Eye stood upon the deck of Silence, clad in a suit of black scale armor like nothing Aeron had ever seen before. Dark as smoke it was [...]

As for the mound of blackened skulls, I'm going to go out out on a limb and say they represent a significant loss of life on a large scale, caused by fire.

The dwarves are similar to Daenerys' dwarves from the House of the Undying.

In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. - Daenerys IV, ACOK

Most people believe those dwarves symbolize the four kings tearing through Westeros in pursuit of the Iron Throne, and it wouldn't be a bad guess to assume they represent the same thing here.

These dwarves will pop up again later in this chapter,

Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

and all signs are pointing towards Daenerys and Aegon, two new claimants of the Iron Throne.

That leaves the burning forest behind him. I've seen people speculate it's the Kingswood, Horn Hill, and a few other locations, among other guesses.

I personally believe it's one of two options: 1) The forest represents the Old Gods - in this same vision we see the death of all deities, or 2) It's symbolizing the Citadel (Oldtown) - books, books are burning.

"The bleeding star bespoke the end," he said to Aeron. "These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits."

Daenerys aka Azor Ahai aka Fate's Fumbler aka Destiny's Dud.

The Volantene waved a hand. "In Volantis, thousands of slaves and freedmen crowd the temple plaza every night to hear Benerro shriek of bleeding stars and a sword of fire that will cleanse the world. [...]" - Tyrion VI, ADWD 

What I especially love about this is that Dam-phair's learning that the comet's meaning is the opposite of what he initially believed. Initially, it was a promising sign, he interpreted it as a harbinger of triumph and glory for House Greyjoy and the ironborn.

The priest had dreamed the same dream, when first he'd seen the red comet in the sky. We shall sweep over the green lands with fire and sword - The Drowned Man, AFFC

Now, he is confronted with the revelation that the comet actually points towards an apocalyptic end.

Isn't that fascinating? Isn't that super interesting? I wonder if other priests are going to be forced to come to terms with the fact that they misconstrued certain prophecies.

Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him.

Christ, more horn. There is a horn that some claim can command krakens.

Lord Celtigar had many fine wines that now I am not tasting, a sea eagle he had trained to fly from the wrist, and a magic horn to summon krakens from the deep. - Davos V, ASOS

I have no clue if it matters at all, or if any of these bloody horns actually serve any real purpose.

As for the sphinxes, I associate that with the Citadel.

The gates of the Citadel were flanked by a pair of towering green sphinxes with the bodies of lions, the wings of eagles, and the tails of serpents. - Samwell V, AFFC

The sphinx is the riddle!

Now it was metal underneath the Crow's Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Iron Throne!

You're welcome.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath. And there, swollen and green, half-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair.

Euron pushing his separation of church and state agenda.

Later in this chapter we'll learn he's collecting holy men who represent some of these faiths. Fun!

+.+.+

Mingled with the distant roar of song and celebration coming up from the beach, he'd heard the faint creak of longships settling on the strand. He heard the keening of the wind and now whines. He heard the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. And there and then, the Drowned God had come to him once more, his voice welling up from the depths of the sea. "Aeron, my good and faithful servant, you must tell the Ironborn that the Crow's Eye is no true king, that the Seastone Chair by rights belongs to … to … to …" Not Victarion. Victarion had offered himself to the captains and kings but they had spurned him.

Aeron is now recalling the moments that followed the Kingsmoot.

Notice that stutter? Notice how both the Drowned God and Dam-phair struggle to arrive at a definitive answer? It's almost as if this God merely reinforces Dam-phair's own beliefs.

+.+.+

Not Asha. In his heart, Aeron had always loved Asha best of all his brother Balon's children. The Drowned God had blessed her with a warrior's spirit and the wisdom of a king – but he had cursed her with a woman's body, too. No woman had ever ruled the Iron Islands. She should never have made a claim. She should have spoken for Victarion, added her own strength to his.

She tried. Unfortunately, she's surrounded by idiots.

"Then let my nuncle sit," Asha said. "I will stand behind you, to guard your back and whisper in your ear. No king can rule alone. Even when the dragons sat the Iron Throne, they had men to help them. The King's Hands. Let me be your Hand, Nuncle."

No King of the Isles had ever needed a Hand, much less one who was a woman. The captains and the kings would mock me in their cups. - The Iron Captain, AFFC

+.+.+

It was not too late, Aeron had decided as he shivered in the sea. If Victarion took Asha for his wife, they could yet rule together, king and queen. In ancient days, each isle had its Salt King and its Rock King. Let the Old Way return.

Oh my god. Hahahaha.

Well, I'll say this, that has more chance of happening than Daenerys with Aegon/Jon, or Sansa with her uncle by marriage.

+.+.+

Aeron Damphair had struggled back to shore, full of fierce resolve. He would bring down Euron, not with sword or axe but with the power of his faith.

I think you're probably going to need the axe.

+.+.+

"And who are you, child?"

"Falia Flowers, Lord Hewett's natural daughter. I am to be King Euron's salt wife. You and I will be kin, then." Aeron Damphair raised his eyes to hers. His scabbed lips were crusted with wet porridge. "Woman." His chains clinked when he moved. "Run. He will hurt you. He will kill you."

She laughed. "Silly, he won't. I'm his love, his lady. He gives me gifts, so many gifts. Silks and furs and jewels. Rags and rocks, he calls them."

"The Crow's Eye puts no value in such things." That was one of the things that drew men to his service. Most captains kept the lion's share of their plunder but Euron took almost nothing for himself.

"He gives me any gown I want," the girl was prattling happily. "My sisters used to make me wait on them at table, but Euron made them serve the whole hall naked! Why should he do that, except for love of me?" She put a hand on her belly and smoothed down the fabric of her gown.

"I'm going to give him sons. So many sons …"

[...]

"Gone?" That was the cruelest blow of all. "Gone where?"

"East," she said, "with all his ships. He's to bring the dragon queen to Westeros. I'm to be Euron's salt wife, but he must have a rock wife too, a queen to rule all Westeros at his side. They say she's the most beautiful woman in the world, and she has dragons. The two of us will be as close as sisters!"

Sisters?

I don't have the strength or desire to properly comment on any of this.

+.+.+

That night, when the tide came rushing back into the prison cell, he prayed that it might rise all night, enough to end his torment. I have been your true and leal servant, he prayed, twisting in his chains. Now snatch me from my brother's hand, and take me down beneath the waves, to be seated at your side.

Very on brand for a Greyjoy to be wishing for his own death.

This is how I know Victarion murder-suicides.

+.+.+

"It was me who taught you how to pray, little brother. Have you forgotten? I would visit your bed chamber at night when I had too much to drink. You shared a room with Urrigon high up in the seatower. I could hear you praying from outside the door. I always wondered: Were you praying that I would choose you or that I would pass you by?" Euron pressed the knife to Aeron's throat.

There's no reason for me to include this, but it's necessary if you want to get the full Euron experience.

+.+.+

"Not even you would dare," said the Damphair. "I am your brother. No man is more accursed than the kinslayer."

Somewhere in the world, Victarion's ears are ringing.

+.+.+

"And yet I wear a crown and you rot in chains. How is it that your Drowned God allows that when I have killed three brothers?" Aeron could only gape at him. "Three?" "Well, if you count half-brothers. Do you remember little Robin? Wretched creature. Do you remember that big head of his, how soft it was? All he could do was mewl and shit. He was my second. Harlon was my first. All I had to do was pinch his nose shut. The greyscale had turned his mouth to stone so he could not cry out. But his eyes grew frantic as he died. They begged me. When the life went out of them, I went out and pissed into the sea, waiting for the god to strike me down. None did. Oh, and Balon was the third, but you knew that. I could not do the deed myself, but it was my hand that pushed him off the bridge."

Am I supposed to be thinking about Sweetrobin?

Take a second to compare the above with whoever the hell this is:

Wild, right? Of all the characters they fucked up, Euron has to be the worst.

Anyway, Euron's gotta meet his end at the hands of a brother. It's just the way it has to be, plain and simple.

+.+.+

He stepped back and sheathed his dagger. "No, I'll not kill you tonight. A holy man with holy blood. I may have need of that that blood … later. For now, you are condemned to live."

Ouu a sacrifice! Do holy men have special blood?

Good thing Melisandre is at the other end of the continent. We wouldn't want her to get a taste of sweet, poetic justice.

+.+.+

It was in the second dungeon that the other holy men began to appear to share his torments. Three wore the robes of septons of the green lands, and one the red raiment of a priest of R'hllor. The last was hardly recognizable as a man. Both his hands had been burned down to the bone, and his face was a charred and blackened horror where two blind eyes moved sightlessly above the cracked cheeks dripping pus. He was dead within hours of being shackled to the wall, but the mutes left his body there to ripen for three days afterwards.

Last were two warlocks of the east, with flesh as white as mushrooms, and lips the purplish-blue of a bad bruise, all so gaunt and starved that only skin and bones remained. One had lost his legs. The mutes hung him from a rafter. "Pree," he cried as he swung back and forth. "Pree, Pree!”

Perhaps that was the name of the demon that he worships. The Drowned God protects me, the priest told himself. He is stronger than the false gods these other worship, stronger than their black sorceries. The Drowned God will set me free.

In his saner moments, Aeron questioned why the Crow's Eye was collecting priests, but he did not think that he would like the answer.

Some people collect coins and stamps, and then there's Euron Greyjoy.

Yes, that would be Pyat Pree's little band of warlocks.

Euron drank deep from his own cup, and smiled. "Shade-of-the-evening, the wine of the warlocks. I came upon a cask of it when I captured a certain galleas out of Qarth, along with some cloves and nutmeg, forty bolts of green silk, and four warlocks who told a curious tale. One presumed to threaten me, so I killed him and fed him to the other three. They refused to eat of their friend's flesh at first, but when they grew hungry enough they had a change of heart. Men are meat." - The Reaver, AFFC

x

"Not all your enemies are in the Yellow City. Beware men with cold hearts and blue lips. You had not been gone from Qarth a fortnight when Pyat Pree set out with three of his fellow warlocks, to seek for you in Pentos." - Daenerys III, ADWD

It's so sweet how he kills all her enemies for her.

Side note, it's a bit interesting that Euron had access to a red priest from R'hllor, when the horn he gave Victarion feels like it might have a connection to that faith.

+.+.+

When Euron came again, his hair was swept straight back from his brow, and his lips were so blue that they were almost black. He had put aside his driftwood crown. In its place, he wore an iron crown whose points were made from the teeth of sharks.

That's kind of cool.

+.+.+

"Your victories are hollow. You cannot hold the Shields."

"Why should I want to hold them?" His brother's smiling eye glittered in the lantern light, blue and bold and full of malice. "The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts."

My poor Vicky. Please throw your toy in the sea.

+.+.+

Euron pulled his head back by the hair and forced the vile liquor into his mouth again. Though Aeron clamped his mouth shut, twisting his head from side to side he fought as best he could, but in the end he had to choke or swallow.

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman's form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea.

Wouldn't be Euron if he wasn't sailing on a sea of blood.

"Only their shadows," Moqorro said. "One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood." - Tyrion VIII, ADWD

In a previous chapter, Melisandre also had visions of a blood-red sea, which seemed to hint at the imminent destruction of Oldtown.

Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. - Melisandre I, ADWD

x

I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. - Melisandre I, ADWD

I'm sure I don't have to point out the Arbor is right beside Oldtown.

He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles.

Greyjoy kraken things.

Beside him stood a shadow in woman's form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire.

Four popular candidates.

Melisandre:

The mist rose from her pale flesh, and for a moment it seemed as if pale, sorcerous flames were playing about her fingers. - Jon VI, ADWD

Popular theory solely because of that.

I can't understand why. She's at the Wall, and Euron is more likely to sacrifice her than join forces with her. Honestly, what is it about these chapters that is giving people the impression Euron gives a shit about what a red priestess has to say?

Cersei:

Terrible, tall, pale, and often associated with fire. Can't totally dismiss it, because of what transpired on the show. Plus she wants a fleet as badly as Daenerys does, and would be dumb enough to ally with a Greyjoy to get one. We love Cersei and Daenerys parallels!

My problem is, I don't think Euron wants or needs Cersei Lannister.

Daenerys:

Not long or tall, but certainly terrible. Notable fire lady, and the woman Euron is after. Need I say more?

As much as I love Storm x Storm, Daenerys Targaryen is nobody's sidekick, and it's not going to take much time before these two end up in a war.

Viserion:

The shadowy pale white intersex dragon, who breathes pale golden fire.

But as Brown Ben was leaving, Viserion spread his pale white wings and flapped lazily at his head. 

I lied before, Euron's not after Daenerys. This is what Euron truly wants.

If it is Viserion, it would explain why the show felt compelled to give Viserion to a character that doesn't even exist in the books. It would also explain all the foreshadowing that suggests two of Daenerys' dragons will clash.

I'm not completely convinced about this theory, but if any of those dumb horns actually have an effect, my money's on Viserion being the target. And if there's anyone who'd snatch up one of Daenerys' dragons, it's most likely going to be Euron.

Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

Tyrion and Penny.

Kidding. Aegon and Daenerys feels like a safe bet.

+.+.+

Aeron dreamed of drowning, too. Not of the bliss that would surely follow down in the Drowned God's watery halls, but of the terror that even the faithful feel as the water fills their mouth and nose and lungs, and they cannot draw a breath. Three times the Damphair woke, and three times it proved no true waking, but only another chapter in a dream. 

Is it Dam-phair who is drowning? Or is he experiencing Euron's death?

I'm a bit lost on the three times he woke.

+.+.+

They dragged him up more steps, down a torchlit gallery, and into a bleak stone hall where a dozen bodies were hanging from the rafters, turning and swaying. A dozen of Euron's captains were gathered in the hall, drinking wine beneath the corpses. Left-Hand Lucas Codd sat in the place of honor, wearing a heavy silken tapestry as a cloak. Beside him was the Red Oarsman, and further down Pinchface Jon Myre, Stonehand, and Rogin Salt-Beard.

"Who are these dead?" Aeron commanded. His tongue was so thick the words came out in a rusty whisper, faint as a mouse breaking wind.

"The lord that held this castle, with his kin." The voice belonged to Torwold Browntooth, one of his brother's captains, a creature near as vile as the Crow's Eye himself. "Pigs," said another vile creature, the one they called the Red Oarsman. "This was their isle. A rock, just off the Arbor. They dared oink threats at us. Redwyne, oink. Hightower, oink. Tyrell, oink oink oink! So we sent them squealing down to hell."

We've now reached the Arbor.

As you can see, people are dead. More will join them.

+.+.+

"Your curses have no power here, priest," said Left-Hand Lucas Codd. "The Crow's Eye has fed your Drowned God well, and he has grown fat with sacrifice. Words are wind, but blood is power. We have given thousands to the sea, and he has given us victories!"

"And krakens off the Broken Arm, pulling under crippled galleys," said Valena. "The blood draws them to the surface, our maester claims. [...] - Arianne I, TWOW

Bruh, is this part of his plan? That's crazy, surely not.

Is it??

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

x

"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

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. - Tyrion III, ASOS

x

On the crown of the hill four-and-forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees. The sight made Aeron's heart beat faster. Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves. She fed on krakens and leviathans and drowned whole islands in her wrath [...] - The Drowned Man, AFFC

Bruh.

🎨 antoniothailan

PLS GEORGE I NEED IT.

+.+.+

"Count yourself blessed, Damphair," said Stonehand. "We are going back to sea. The Redwyne fleet creeps toward us. The winds have been against them rounding Dorne, but they're finally near enough to have emboldened the old women in Oldtown, so now Leyton Hightower's sons move down the Whispering Sound in hopes of catching us in the rear."

Euron appears to be controlling the wind again.

"Do I command the winds?" the Crow's Eye asked his pets.

"No, Your Grace," said Orkwood of Orkmont.

"No man commands the winds," said Germund Botley.

"Would that you did," the Red Oarsman said. "You would sail wherever you liked and never be becalmed."

"There you have it, from the mouths of three brave men," Euron said. - The Iron Captain, AFFC

I wonder if his red priest had something to do with that.

Euron is fully aware of what the Hightower and Redwyne fleets are planning, so they have no hope at all. Even if he were unaware, they still wouldn't stand a chance. Who the hell is Paxter Redwyne? Exactly.

+.+.+

Euron Crow's Eye stood upon the deck of Silence, clad in a suit of black scale armor like nothing Aeron had ever seen before. Dark as smoke it was, but Euron wore it as easily as if it was the thinnest silk. The scales were edged in red gold, and gleamed and shimmered when they moved. Patterns could be seen within the metal, whorls and glyphs and arcane symbols folded into the steel.

Valyrian steel, the Damphair knew. His armor is Valyrian steel. In all the Seven Kingdoms, no man owned a suit of Valyrian steel. Such things had been known 400 years ago, in the days before the Doom, but even then, they would've cost a kingdom.

Euron did not lie. He has been to Valyria. No wonder he was mad.

I bet he looks better in this armour than any pigment-challenged, scrawny, inbred, mole rat-esque Targaryen ever has. How could she resist? He's Drogon in human form.

I'm still on the Reader's side: I don't believe Euron has set foot in Valyria. No clue where he got that snazzy outfit, though. Although, someone ought to let him know that wearing armour on a ship is asking for trouble.

+.+.+

"Your Grace," said Torwold Browntooth. "I have the priests. What do you want done with them?"

"Bind them to the prows," Euron commanded. "My brother on the Silence. Take one for yourself. Let them dice for the others, one to a ship. Let them feel the spray, the kiss of the Drowned God, wet and salty."

[...]

They bound Aeron Damphair tight with strips of leather that would shrink when wet, clad only in his beard and breechclout. The Crow's Eye spoke a command; a black sail was raised, lines were cast off, and the Silence backed away from shore to the slow beat of the oarmaster's drum, her oars rising and dipping and rising again, churning the water. Above them, the castle was burning, flames licking from the open windows.

When they were well out to sea, Euron returned to him. "Brother," he said, "you look forlorn. I have a gift for you."

He beckoned, and two of his bastard sons dragged the woman forward and bound her to the prow on the other side of the figurehead. Naked as the mouthless maiden, her smooth belly just beginning to swell with the child she was carrying, her cheeks red with tears, she did not struggle as the boys tightened her bonds. Her hair hung down in front of her face, but Aeron knew her all the same.

"Falia Flowers," he called. "Have courage, girl! All this will be over soon, and we will feast together in the Drowned God's watery halls."

The girl raised up her head, but made no answer. She has no tongue to answer with, the Damphair knew. He licked his lips, and tasted salt.

I continue to have no words for Falia Flowers. Sad stuff.

Looks like Euron is planning a massive blood sacrifice featuring a pregnant woman, and a bunch of priests.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Daenerys sacrifice an unborn child, and a priestess of the Great Shepherd of Lhazar to wake the dragons? Just saying.

Final thoughts:

I'm not convinced anyone on the brink of death could survive being tied to the prow of a ship, but given there wasn't a speck of blood in sight, my guess is we'll be seeing Aeron Dam-phair again.

Next chapter: Theon I

-> return to menu <-

[dyannawynnedayne]

Who has the best POV?: Round 1

Aeron: art by mylestoyne

Tyrion: art by valyrianfreehold

BRACKET LINK

[navree]

Do u think greyjoy will succeed in taking oldtown?

I will readily admit I'm not nearly as well versed in ASOIAF theorizing as I am in HOTD theorizing (mostly because that allows me to pull on already knowing what's happening and more focusing on things like adaptation changes and characterization and also on the fact that, as much as I hate to brag, I am a good writer and I know what makes stories work and what doesn't) so this is much more likely to be horseshit than most things. I will also admit that my primary interest when it comes to the Greyjoys is a) Theon's arc and b) anything about Aeron Damphair because I for some reason really like Aeron Damphair, so Euron isn't a subject I'm incredibly well versed in.

I think the Euron likely will take Oldtown. It's subject to change, but from what we know of released Winds of Winter chapters, Aeron is forced to drink shade of the evening and that gives him a shitton of visions, and enough of the context of those visions (Euron on various thrones, Euron as a kraken, etc) makes it clear that Oldtown is not the be all end all of Euron's plotting, and the only way Euron is going to somehow be stopped at Oldtown is if he's killed at Oldtown. There's a theory floating around that Euron is a warg, and that when he summons krakens against the Redwyne fleet, he'll be able to warg into them to take the fleet down, thus then being able to go against a defenseless Oldtown. So I'd be incredibly hardpressed to see a future where he doesn't succeed in taking it.

That being said, I don't think it'll be the smoothest of sailings. There's not going to be any new POVs in Winds, and I don't think Aeron's going to last long (waaaaaaaah), so the only other Oldtown POV we could get is Sam, who is a major player and whose head we're likely goign to be spending a lot of time in, so it could take some time. There's also a lot of plots set up in Oldtown that are very mysterious, that might come into play, like there being at least one Faceless Man in Oldtown, Mance's son is in Oldtown with Gilly and we all know how important king's blood can be especially in magic, the fact that Sam might have the Horn of Joramun and how that can tie in with bringing down the wall or with the Dragonbinder horn. That's a lot of set up that's going to need some sort of payoff, and that's set up in Oldtown (that's not even touching on the Hightowers and how the current one is locking himself in the Hightower potentially with some rituals and all the magic and king's blood that flows in the Hightower veins and what Euron might need with that).

The taking of Oldtown likely won't be instantaneous, and it will likely involve a lot of plots and a LOT of magic, given just how Oldtown is and all the various magical elements that are in/associated with Oldtown in the story. In my ideal world Euron wouldn't take Oldtown and would immediately die horribly and graphically for my own pleasure and also Aeron doesn't die and gets Westerosi therapy, but I'm not writing this, so I'd assume that Oldtown will be taken, but not easily, and not without significant consequence to the overarching plot of the series.

[hereyesblueasice]

I might be slightly fascinated with Damphair

[bestofgrrm]

Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books.   And vice versa.   I have viewpoint characters in the books never seen on the show: Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington, Aeron Damphair   They will all have chapters, and the things they do and say will impact the story and the major characters who were on the show.   I have legions of secondary characters, not POVs but nonetheless important to the plot, who also figure in the story: Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff,  the Tattered Prince, Penny, Brown Ben Plumm, the Shavepate, Marwyn the Mage, Darkstar, Jeyne Westerling.  Some characters you saw in the show are quite different than the versions in the novels.   Yarra Greyjoy is not Asha Greyjoy, and HBO’s Euron Greyjoy is way, way, way, way different from mine.   Quaithe still has a part to play.  So does Rickon Stark.   And poor Jeyne Poole.   And… well, the list is long.    (And all this is part of why WINDS is taking so long.   This is hard, guys).

Various characters mentioned in the new NotaBlog, July 8, 2022

[demifiendrsa]

George R.R. Martin gives a huge update on his long-awaited book The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, on his blog.

Which brings me to THE WINDS OF WINTER.

Most of you know by now that I do not like to give detailed updates on WINDS.   I am working on it, I have been working on it, I will continue to work on it.   (Yes, I work on other things as well).   I love nothing more than to surprise my readers with twists and turns they did not see coming, and I risk losing those moments if I go into too much detail.   Spoilers, you know.   Even saying that I am working on a Tyrion chapter, as I did last week, gives away the fact that Tyrion is not dead.   Reading sample chapters at cons, or posting them on line, which I did for years, gives away even more.   I actually quite enjoyed doing that, until the day came that I realized I had read and/or posted the first couple of hundred pages of WINDS, or thereabouts.  If I had kept on with the readings, half the book might be out by now.

So I am not going to give you all any kind of detailed report on the book, but…

I will say this.

I have been at work in my winter garden.   Things are growing… and changing, as does happen with us gardeners.   Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels.

Sounds mad, I know.   But it’s how I write.   Always has been.   Always will be.   For good or ill.

What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series.   Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in GAME OF THRONES you will also see in THE WINDS OF WINTER (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.

And really, when you think about it, this was inevitable.   The novels are much bigger and much much more complex than the series.   Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books.   And vice versa.   I have viewpoint characters in the books never seen on the show: Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington, Aeron Damphair   They will all have chapters, and the things they do and say will impact the story and the major characters who were on the show.   I have legions of secondary characters, not POVs but nonetheless important to the plot, who also figure in the story: Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff,  the Tattered Prince, Penny, Brown Ben Plumm, the Shavepate, Marwyn the Mage, Darkstar, Jeyne Westerling.  Some characters you saw in the show are quite different than the versions in the novels.   Yarra Greyjoy is not Asha Greyjoy, and HBO’s Euron Greyjoy is way, way, way, way different from mine.   Quaithe still has a part to play.  So does Rickon Stark.   And poor Jeyne Poole.   And… well, the list is long.    (And all this is part of why WINDS is taking so long.   This is hard, guys).

Oh, and there will be new characters as well.   No new viewpoints, I promise you that, but with all these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near.

One thing I can say,  in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything:  not all of the characters who survived until the end of GAME OF THRONES will survive until the end of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, and not all of the characters who died on GAME OF THRONES will die in A SONG OF ICE & FIRE.   (Some will, sure.  Of course.   Maybe most.   But definitely not all)   ((Of course, I could change my mind again next week, with the next chapter I write.   That’s gardening)).

And the ending?   You will need to wait until I get there.   Some things will be the same.   A lot will not.

No doubt, once I am done, there will be huge debate about which version of the story is better.   Some people will like my book, others will prefer the television show.   And that’s fine, you pays your money and your make your choice.   (I do fear that a certain proportion of fans are so angry about how long WINDS has taken me that they are prepared to hate the book, unread.   That saddens me, but there nothing I can do about it, but write the best book that I can, and hope that when it comes out most fans will read it with clean hands and an open mind).

That’s all I can tell you right now.  I need to get back to the garden.   Tyrion is waiting for me.

[krakensofpyke]

The Battle Of Blood

Aeron bears witness to a battle at sea.

Why have you not taken me, my god? I should have died days ago...

This new prison was worse than any of the others.  In the dungeons, Aeron was able to find peace in dreamless sleep between periods of waking agony and shade-induced nightmares.  On the prow of the ship, he was left to the mercy of the Drowned God.  His god was merciless.  The sea roared and heavy waves battered his legs.  Salt stung his eyes and burned his wounds, and he spent the first day in a constant state of thrashing to keep the gulls from picking at him.

The worst of it, however, was his fellow captive.  Falia, he remembered, her name was Falia.  She was the picture of misery, pregnant and spurned.  The girl made pitiful moans from her tongueless mouth as they sailed southward.  She did not flail as he did when the seabirds took perch, and several gashes remained from when they had tasted her naked flesh.  

She had died perhaps five days after they had departed the Isle of Pigs.  It was hard to be sure, for exposure and lack of sleep had twisted the Damphair’s sense of time.  She had miscarried while strapped beside him: it had been a singularly gruesome experience.  Hours of wordless screams and the stench of blood which dyed the hull an even deeper shade of red, then nothing.  Now the bastard girl rotted beside him, barnacles already taking their seat upon her once-fine legs.

The mutes of his brother’s crew made sure that he was provided with food and water, just as they had when he was chained belowdecks.  Aeron had tried to turn away at first, opting to starve rather than live out the profane farce, but they had simply teamed up, holding his jaw open and forcing nourishment into him.  Now, he submitted to their ministrations.  Life as a living figurehead had become a sort of routine; long stretches of torture punctuated only by quick, savorless respites to allow the despair to continue.  

Euron’s Silence had been situated at the center of the fleet, giving Aeron a view of their general direction before he felt the turn of the ship.  It had made for fairly monotonous scenery when he had the sense to pay attention to his surroundings, but today was different.  Today, there were ships heading toward them.  Even from a distance, it was clear that they dwarfed the dromonds of the Iron Fleet’s reserves.  Their hulls were wide and broad, and many had more than one mast.  As the Damphair’s salt-addled eyes came into focus, he could make out deep blue sails that caught the southron winds.  The Redwyne fleet has arrived, he realized.  

For one mad moment, Aeron Greyjoy felt relief come over him.  They will smash my brother, as Stannis smashed Victarion at Fair Isle, he thought wildly.  They will put the godless beasts of the Crow’s Eye to the sword and destroy this ship.  Then I can have my rest.

The spell of hope broke almost as soon as it had been cast.  He knew that this man he was forced to count as kin was far smarter and infinitely crueler than the men of the green lands would give him credit for.  Euron surely knew that the wrath of the Arbor was coming for him from the moment the Ironborn took the Shields.  One of his men had even said that Oldtown had launched ships to trap them in the Redwyne Straits.  Something mysterious and terrible was at play and he feared that he was to play a part in it.  

The channel that separated Redwyne land from the Reach proper was made narrow by a collection of islets that fell under their jurisdiction.  They were small places, not unlike the seal rookeries near the Lonely Light.  It made for a singularly effective anvil for a hammer of ships to strike at unwitting pirates.  His brother’s position in the coming battle was inexplicable, foolish, mad.  Euron is the maddest of them all, Aeron remembered, and felt a chill snake up his spine.

The King of the Isles emerged from his cabin then.  The forsaken priest had not needed to see to know, for he was the only other man on the ship with a tongue.  “Ready your priests and prisoners,” he called to the vessels nearest him, “we make our offering now.”  The other captains spread the word and soon, Aeron could see men and women being brought up from the bowels of the fleet.  People of the Shields, of the Arbor and its vassal islands, he knew.  

He watched as crewmen of other ships approached the prows, where other holy men had been lashed.  With swift slices, the throats of septons, warlocks, Drowned priests and fire sorcerers were opened, letting their life’s blood add to the great volume of the sea.  Afterward, he witnessed the captives being put to the same fate.  In time, the waters around them were murky and red.

Euron was suddenly behind him then, leaning close enough to whisper in his ear.  “Worry not, little brother,” he promised in a voice that dripped with cruel satisfaction.  “I won’t make a gift of you to the waves.  I want you to live and to be there to watch my victory unfold.  I’ve given you the best perch in the whole fleet.”

“Your sacrifice will not appease the Drowned God,” he croaked in a hoarse and trembling voice.  “You have committed too many atrocities to be saved now.”  He felt tears well up in his eyes; he desperately wanted to believe the words he said.

“Oh sweet brother-mine,” the Crow’s Eye cooed, “you know that the Drowned God isn’t real.  I make this offering to myself: I am the only god that I will ever worship.  Now, the battle has been blessed.”

Aeron felt the winds shift suddenly, and now their sails were the ones that caught the air.  They were being hurtled toward the Redwyne fleet at a pace that seemed wholly unnatural.  Aeron had to close his eyes to prevent them from being battered blind by the onslaught of stinging salt.  Surely, the defenders of the Hightowers were being sped in their direction as well.

Soon, they were closing in on the enemy ships.  Euron’s foes had been caught completely unawares by the sudden change of weather and had failed to close the strait effectively.  Longships, small as they were, had the advantage of being nimble, and the Iron Fleet weaved between the war galleys like sea lions through a rocky reef.  Only a few inept captains had battered their ships against the larger adversaries.  

The force from Oldtown was far less fortunate.  Their crew must have been as green as the lands of the Reach, for the powerful gale that the Ironborn rode into safety had caught them off guard and carried them impotently into their allies.  The waters of the straits were now a frothing soup of confused sailors, broken galleys, and spilled blood.

Only after they had been swept a safe distance away did the gusts finally diminish into still air.  The Iron King called for the fleet to turn about, but rather than engage, he demanded anchors be laid.  The longships and commandeered vessels of the Iron Islands sat motionless as all eyes were directed toward the tangle of foemen.

The men of the Reach were clearly as confused as Aeron was, for he could hear the dull echoes of calls to order and reformation.  He saw men gesture toward them.  More shouting.  Whatever Euron has planned for them, Aeron brooded, this cannot be the whole of it.

Then, he saw.

The waters below the Redwyne and Hightower fleets opened up as masses of groping tentacles uncoiled in the air.  Organized yelling became frenzied screaming as ships were pulled under by the tens.  Men leaped from the capsizing vessels and disappeared, only to havecrimson stains and tall grey fins take their place on the surface.  The carnage doubled, tripled, quadrupled until the sea became a roaring, churning abattoir.  

If this had been to the benefit to any of Quellon’s other sons, Aeron would have called it the might of the Drowned God and reveled in the sight.  But this, from the start to the finish, was unholy and aberrant.  He retched violently into the sea, convulsing from sickness and fear. 

“You should have prayed to me,” his sibling sighed, at his back once more.  “After this, how can you not believe that my wrath is the wrath of a god?”

Aeron closed his eyes.  Aeron sobbed.  And Aeron prayed.

[argentvive]

“What Is Dead May Never Die”

I’ve finally started the fourth book, A Feast for Crows.  The first chapter, “The Prophet,” introduces a new POV character, Aeron Greyjoy, known as “Damphair.” That’s him on the right, “drowning” Euron to anoint him as king.  

This chapter introduces us to the distinctive religion of the Iron Islands.  

<For a thousand years sea and sky had been at war.  From the sea had come the ironborn, and the fish that sustained them even in the depths of winter, but storms brought only woe and grief.>

So, as in any standard dualistic faith (e.g., Manicheanism), there are two gods---the benevolent Drowned God and the malevolent Storm God.  In other words, a god of water and a god of air, just two of the Four Elements.

Under “leaden skies” the prophet Aeron submerges young men in the sea until they lose consciousness, then revives them with “the kiss of life.” They rise, reborn, as “drowned men.” 

<What is dead can never die.  But rises again.  Harder. And stronger.>

Where does this ritual come from?  Superficially, it resembles full immersion adult baptism, but there is no attempt to achieve near-death in Christian baptism, just death to sin.  (Aeron reports that occasionally a would-be “drowned man” cannot be revived and actually dies.)

The central process in alchemy, as I’ve written many times, is solve et coagula, dissolve and congeal.  Most often the dissolution process is symbolized by putting the matter of the Stone, the Red King, in a bath, like this illustration from Splendor Solis.

The dove symbolizes the King being “volatilized,” changed from a solid into a vapor.  

But there’s another illustration in Splendor Solis that is more likely to be the inspiration for GRRM’s Drowned God.  Look at the drowning king in the background of this image.  

The image shows two stages of the dissolution process.  First, the old king drowns.  Second, he is reborn as a young king, in the foreground, carrying a scepter surrounded by seven stars and a golden orb.  He wears a triple crown of iron, silver, and gold.  (Jacques van Lennep, Alchimie, Brussels, 1985, p. 117). 

More that a century later, Michael Maier would recreate this image in his book of engravings, Atalanta fugiens (1618).  This time the drowning king is front and center.

It’s too bad Euron was not worthy of the Seastone Chair.  But the whole ironborn culture is corrupt, built on raiding and plunder--”We reap but never sow.”  

I suspect GRRM was signaling the baseness of the ironborn way of life by naming it “ironborn” in the first place.  In the hierarchy of metals that defines alchemy, iron is the 5th basest of 7, after gold, silver, mercury, and copper.  Only tin and lead rank lower.  

[littlebirdisms-blog]

1 2 4 16 21 22 23 5 9 11 12

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

So, I wrote out this big long answer, then I re-read it and thought ‘ugh, ramble much?’  The gist was that my dislike or indifference to a pairing doesn’t always preclude my being able to ‘get’ why others might like it. And, that I think this objectivity comes in part from being a Fandom Old and experiencing how much of shipping comes from headcanons and fanon and hypotheticals and giggling over shit with your fellow shippers. All of which I know I’m not going to be privy to if I don’t ship The Thing. So, yeah. OTPs are very personal, so I’m fairly laissez-faire about pretendy fun time relationships.

That said, there are certain pairings which I find it harder to be objective about. In general, anything presented as Adult/Minor. Specific examples that come to mind are Dany/Jorah, Sansa/Sandor, and Sansa/Petyr, tho the latter seems to be less of a thing then it was a few years ago? (thank god -_-)

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Sandor/Sansa, Tyrion/Sansa, Dany/Sansa, Jon/Any of Ned’s Kids

4. Do you have a NOTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

Sandor/Sansa. And, yes. Yes, they are.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

I would have Sandor be the one to tell Sansa about how Gregor maimed him when they were children. Did the show runners ever address why they changed that? It’s a powerful scene and so important for both characters. (I may write a longer post about it, later) Years on, I’m still gobsmacked that they didn’t include it.

I would also have had Ellaria Sand be her book self and point out the futility of revenge rather than perpetuate it.

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

‘It started as a joke, but now it’s an OTP’ is something everyone should experience...

22. Popular character you hate?

Book!Jorah Mormont. He’s an unrepentant slaver who develops an unhealthy fixation on a young girl because she reminds him of a woman he’s already obsessed with. He tries to emotionally and physically isolate her from other men and make her as reliant on him as possible. He also makes unwanted, inappropriate intimate physical contact. He’s basically a scruffy version of Littlefinger.

Honestly, one of Dany’s best moments in the books is when she very plainly tells him that she knows what he’s doing and he can either stop or gtfo.

23. Unpopular character you love?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t really seen enough of the fandom to know who’s truly unpopular or otherwise. Also, this fandom is so B R O A D that it seems like no matter the character, you’ll find a group who stans them. -shrug-

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

Nope!

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Gregor Clegane can go die in a fire. This answer feels like cheating cos Gregor’s essentially WRITTEN to be hated, but yeah... It worked, George. Kill that motherfucker, already. oh wait u kinda did

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I think the answer for this is the same as my answer for question 23, but uh... for the sake of not being boring... I find Aeron Damphair and his creepy Viking Cthulhu God kinda fascinating. Just in the sense of ‘You are so broken. What the hell happened to you, man?’

Cos whatever it was, in his POV chapter, we see that it was so traumatic that he can’t actually face it. Hell, he can barely stand to think of it in symbolism and metaphor. So, yeah. I’m intrigued. GRRM probably won’t ever tell us explicitly, tho, so we’ll be left to speculate.

12.Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I’m not sure... I’ve seen people express frustration with a lot of Dany’s stuff because it’s so removed from the rest of the action. But, I never had a problem with it. Honestly, I think it’s neat to see the events we’ve just been in the middle of observed and speculated on by someone so far removed from it.

[poorquentyn]

So how do you see the plot of WoW playing out?

It’s been a while since I did one of these, and I’ve changed my mind on a couple points, so why not? TWOW spoilers below, natch.

In the East

Barristan and Victarion smash the slaver coalition (with a li’l help from those ever-treacherous sellswords), but neither get to savor their victory for long. Vic burns, either from without thanks to Rhaegal or within thanks to Dragonbinder. Barry returns to the city in triumph only to find that the Shavepate has wiped out his enemies root and branch, including Hizdahr and the child hostages. Furious and heartsick, the white knight goes for Skahaz’ throat, but is overwhelmed and killed by the Brazen Beasts.

Dany burns Khal Jhaqo and leads his riders to Vaes Dothrak, where the dosh khaleen declare her the Stallion (as she saw in the House of the Undying) and all the Dothraki are gathered into one gigantic khalasar at her back. All roads meet at Volantis: Dany and the Dothraki, Tyrion and the Second Sons, Moqorro and Benerro, Marwyn the Mage, etc. After overthrowing the Old Blood and being officially declared Azor Ahai Reborn, Dany consults her many advisors as to what to do next. Moqorro tells her to keep breaking chains, Marwyn passes along Aemon’s warning and urges her to fly north before it’s too late, but Tyrion plays his trump card, revealing Aegon’s existence and advising Dany to confront Illyrio about the “mummer’s dragon.” She burns the cheesemonger alive when he confesses that Aegon is not Rhaegar’s son but his, and turns Pentos over to the Tattered Prince.

Somewhere in all this, Tyrion becomes a dragonrider (possibly with Bran’s help, echoing Tyrion’s gift of a saddle in AGOT). 

In Braavos, the Faceless Men kick Arya to the curb and try to eliminate her after learning she killed Raff. She runs away…and slap bang into Justin Massey and Jeyne Poole. Hearing the latter referred to as “Arya Stark” leads the true Arya to give up all other identities for good. She returns to Westeros with them; her TWOW storyline ends with her reuniting with Nymeria. 

In the South

Jon Connington takes Storm’s End and then defeats Mace Tyrell, thanks in large part to the Golden Company’s “friends in the Reach” (I suspect Randyll Tarly may literally stab Mace in the back). Arianne calls Dorne’s spears north to join them. 

Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, both Cersei and Margaery win their trials, leading to the former sending Robert Strong to kill the latter. The city erupts as Aegon’s army arrives; Nym and Tyene kill Tommen and Myrcella, and the High Sparrow throws open the city gates to his new king. Cersei evades capture thanks to Qyburn and Robert Strong, and flees below the Red Keep to arrange a wildfire explosion. Aegon sits the Iron Throne, and Arianne is Queen.

In the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart frees Edmure and kills Jeyne Westerling and her mother in the Prologue. She then launches the Second Red Wedding at Riverrun, massacring the guests at the Daven-Frey wedding while forcing Jaime and Brienne to bear witness. Our POVs escape towards King’s Landing as the Riverlands rise up once more. Jaime is horrified to find Cersei about to pull an Aerys and kills her, fulfilling the valonqar prophecy. The “jade holocaust” is averted…until Dany arrives, attacks Team Aegon with dragonfire, and in so doing, sets off the wildfire. (My guess is that this happens in the book’s penultimate chapter from Arianne’s POV, with the Wall coming down in the final chapter; TWOW ends with eruptions of Fire and Ice.) 

In the Vale, Sweetrobin succumbs to sweetsleep during the tourney, and Littlefinger frames Lyn Corbray. In the chaos, the Mad Mouse tries to make off with Sansa; he fails and is executed along with Ser Lyn, but Sansa’s identity is revealed in the process. She marries Harry, they are declared King and Queen of the North and Vale, the knights of the Vale muster at Gulltown, and they all set sail for White Harbor.

In Dorne, Darkstar retreats to Starfall, but the main branch of the Daynes refuse to help him, and he’s killed by his pursuers; Areo Hotah then kills Balon Swann on Doran’s orders. We learn some crucial R+L=J information from the Daynes, and Dawn is brought into play. 

In the Reach, Euron annihilates both the Redwyne fleet and his own in a massive blood sacrifice. Damphair’s final moments are spent watching something huge and hideous rise from the depths in response, realizing that Euron was right all along: the humanoid god Aeron rebuilt his life around was a projection, and the real deal is a monster. Meanwhile, Sam buries himself in books as Marwyn advised, but keeps being distracted by all the weird goings-on in Oldtown. He eventually ascends the Hightower and finds Leyton and Malora very receptive to his stories about the Others; they take an immense interest in the horn Sam’s been carrying around, and he leaves it with them. Then the Crow’s Eye arrives with his “black and bloody tide,” kraken tentacles tearing down the city’s defenses so Euron’s reanimated followers can invade. Euron himself kills Leyton and Malora, and as Sam and Sarella flee Oldtown one step ahead of the Ironborn wights, they hear him blow the Horn of Winter from atop the Hightower. 

In the North

Stannis defeats Hosteen Frey at the Battle of Ice; with the help of the Karhold men formerly in service to Arnolf, he then feigns his death. Ramsay buys it, sending the Pink Letter to Jon before killing Roose and Walda out of anger at the latter’s pregnancy. Stannis then takes Winterfell with Bran’s help, loosing Ramsay’s dogs on him while Theon watches. The younger Greyjoys (assuming they both survive all this) eventually return home thanks to Dagmer Cleftjaw. 

On Skagos, Davos finds Osha and Rickon, and convinces them to return to the mainland with him (helped along by Shaggy immediately falling in love with the onion knight, a la Brown Ben and the dragons). They wind up in White Harbor, staring down Sansa and her army. 

Bran continues his wizard training, learning about the Children’s earth magic as well as greensight, and has visions related to R+L=J, the Others, Euron’s apocalypse, etc. When the Others attack via the cave’s “back door,” Bran and Meera escape into the tunnels, while Jojen, Bloodraven, the remaining Children, and poor Hodor are killed. 

At Castle Black, Mel uses a glamour to swap out Jon’s body for Cregan Karstark’s, preserving the former in the ice cells before resurrecting him. Jon executes Bowen Marsh, sends Mel and Stannis’ family to Winterfell, and then rides for Hardhome with Tormund and his fighters (leaving Dolorous Edd in command). There, Jon reunites with Benjen, who reveals R+L=J before being killed in a wight attack. Jon and Tormund retreat back to the Wall…only to see it come crashing down thanks to Euron. The Long Night returns.

[racefortheironthrone]

How would you stat the other POV characters in ASOIAF in roleplaying classes?

Let’s see:

Jon’s clearly a Beastmaster Ranger.

 Arya’s a Homebrew variant of Assassin Rogue.

I feel like Tyrion is a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue.

Sam’s a Bard who might be mutliclassing into Wizard if Marwyn’s accepting students.

Cersei, Catelyn, Sansa are Aristocrats from 3.X I guess?

Arianne might be a Bard from the College of Whispers, or maybe a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue, but she’s underleveled. 

Asha is a Swashbuckler Rogue with Sailor Background.

Jaime is a Fighter who’s having to respec from Battlemaster into a more Warlord style. 

Barristan Selmy is a Paladin.

Aerys Oakheart is a Paladin who broke his Oath.

Areo Hotah is a Protection Greataxe Battlemaster Fighter.

Aeron Damphair thinks he’s a Cleric, but he’s actually a Prophet Priest Kit from AD&D 2nd edition whose Wisdom is too low to cast spells.

Victarion is a Champion Fighter with a Sailor Background who super min-maxed for combat, so Wis, Int, and Cha are all dump-stats.

[spicyh0tramen]

off the top of my head for all the povs relationship with religion:

catelyn was a very religious character and her faith in the seven informed a lot of her decisions. with 25 chapters she's probably the strongest representative of the faith of the seven.

all the starks follow the old gods. eddard was our introduction to them, sansa goes to the weirwood in king's landing and later the eyrie to pray, jon says his vows to them though is admittedly the least religious seeming of the group, bran is bran- getting visions all the time, dealing  with the mystical side of the world, his whole story is religious.

meanwhile arya's sort of converted to the many-faced god but i can't really say her faith is clear at all at this point because she also muses about being unable to find a weirwood tree in braavos and wondering about other gods and is constantly questioning things

aeron damphair is highly religious, very devoted to the drowned god, and the other greyjoy povs besides theon are all shown to believe in the drowned god as well.

theon is at first shown mocking the old gods and saying nothing of the drowned god, but is later shown questioning his relationship with the old gods and eventually even turns to praying to them.

dany has prayed to the seven and the horse god of the dothraki, though she certainly isn't devout. seems more like she views it as a utility- say a prayer, potentially get some aid toward her goal.

tyrion is the most agnostic character we have but even he once considered joining a sept and makes occassional references to scripture.

jaime and cersei... yeah not really any religion to be seen there. they’re too up in their own heads to consider gods.

melisandre is a fanatic ofc.

davos refuses to convert to the red god and despite his devotion to stannis seems concerned with what will happen to the faith of the seven once he takes the throne.

sam was highly educated on the seven but converted to the old gods and had his faith in them confirmed when he was saved by coldhands.

brienne, areo, arys, arianne, quentyn, and joncon i can't remember.

and if we include prologue povs we also get cressen, a man so devoted to the seven that he tried to poison melisandre to prevent the spread of the red god

that said i do think grrm has left the religions of asoiaf seriously underdeveloped, i’d like to see it play a greater role in the future (and believe it will, with the azor ahai thing and the high sparrow and the others and bloodraven all coming into play)

Just sitting here... thinking about how wack it is that there is not one religious noble POV character in all of ASOIAF.