#the last greenseer

[asoiafartandstuff]

Art of Melissa blackwood with her 3 kids Mya, Gwenys, & brynden rivers also known as bloodraven. made by the great artist @tosquinha

[hollowwhisperings]

Jojen is Fine, Actually: "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste.

CW: humanitarian diets, body horror, general blasphemy, mention of grooming (in the context of creepy tree wizards).

Okay so my being a HUGE Jojen (& House Reed in general) fan gives me an Obvious Bias against the idea of Jojen Dying Offscreen.

My being a huge literary nerd & lore geek, however, informs my Metaphor Senses that Jojen is Fine*, Actually.

The "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste: made of weirwood seeds, locally sourced. Said "Local Weirwood Tree" being. Y'know. Brynden Rivers.

It's Brynden Paste.

(*Fine: chronically ill, majorly depressed, freezing cold, surrounded by creepy tree people, stuck in a zombie wasteland, if he ever goes home he Dies, repeatedly dreaming of his own death... but, at least, Not Dead nor Being Eaten by the Prince of his Dreams? He's "Fine".)

First and foremost: storytelling conventions, even in a series as "deliberately unconventional" as ASOIAF, tend to tell audiences that NO ONE is genuinely "dead" until you see a body. And personally check its pulse. And test for rigor mortis. And maybe stab them in a lethal place, jusr to be Sure. And then burn the body, scatter its ashes, send couriers off in different directions to hide what remains in Remote Places never to be known of by the other couriers. Maybe Silence the couriers if they come back.

Er, you get the picture.

Most subscribers to "Jojenpaste" are in it for the lolz or assume The Worst due to Jojen's non-presence in the latest Bran chapters (aaand Jojen's being Very Permanently Dead in That Dragon Show). It's also an "easy" assumption that Since GRRM Is GRRM, any & all opportunities for Humanitarianism will be fully utilized.

Except... the weirwood paste is ALREADY "made of people" just because it's Weirwood (specifically, weirwood seeds) and the series has consistently described weirwood trees as "[human]".

Weirwood have "bone white" bark; they have Faces carved into them; they "Watch" and "Listen" and "Witness": this is consistent across POV characters, even before Jojen casually brings up "oh they're what Greenseers Become" or any meetings with a Literal Tree Man.

Weirwoods are described in human terms, doing human things, and at least 1 major character has been directly equivicated with Weirwoods for Plot Purposes: Ghost the Direwolf (and wolves, of course, are consistently used to mean "someone of House Stark" and the Starklings especially).

Then there is The Creepy Tree Man in the room: Brynden Rivers, called "Three-Eyed Raven" by Bran and Jojen (for that was how their Dreams interpreted him) or "The Last Greenseer" by the Singers (...despite BRAN very pointedly Being There To Prove Otherwise).

Brynden is also, as mentioned, a Tree Now.

A Weirwood Tree.

Y'know. Like the ones whose seeds make the Paste Bran's been eating.

So, unless the Singers have been sneaking about in Others' Territory to collect seeds from a different weirwood tree... that Paste is made of BRYNDEN.

Bran being fed "Brynden Paste' while Brynden Indoctrinates Teaches Bran to be a Tree Wizard makes far more sense, logistically & thematically, than Jojen getting shanked offscreen to belatedly be revealed to be "part of Bran all along".

For one thing, Meera would gladly set the Cave & everyone in it on fire if anyone so much as looks at her baby brother suspiciously. For another, Brynden is Right There for the eating & is filled with all sorts of Prophecy Juice: he's a Blackwood, he's a Targaryen, he's a Royal Bastard, he was an Infamous Spymaster with "A thousand eyes and one", he's done weird sacrifice BS before, he's a Greenseer (Jojen "only" has Greensight), he's a Living God (as per Singer & First Men Lore), the Cave Cult is trying to turn Bran INTO him...

There is a lot more "logic" to Bran's Magic Lessons featuring his knowingly (subconsciously, at least) eating Brynden than his secretly eating his friend. Human sacrifice tends to require Knowledge of the cost being paid & being Willing to do it anyway: Bran might be too tripped up on Paste to consciously connect the "Weirwood Paste" he eats with "that Human Weirwood Tree i'm sitting next to" but the Singers explicitly tell Bran the Paste is made from Weirwood Seeds. Bran "knows".

Godeating (metaphoric & literal) is a trope that is most commonly found in JRPGs, nowadays, but it has Precedent throughout western mythology: the Titan Kronus ate each of his children as they were born, Zeus alone escaping, in an effort to Dodge Prophecy; Zeus inherited Said Prophecy and, being his Father's Son, ate his first wife. The details of the Titanomachy (the War against the Titans by their reasonably upset kids) are Lost but Zeus, at least, gained all his Wife's Wisdom (& her pregnancy too) after eating her: Athena may or may not have Taken It Back upon breaking out from her Eaten Mother & Dear Old Dad.

Consuming something in order to "become" what is eaten is Fairly Common, if not with that specific phrasing: vampires seldom explain their reproduction as "eat me to become me", whilst the adorable Nintendo character Kirby & his method of Powering Up via Playing Vacuum, is Rephrased out of Sheer Self-Preservation (no one, not even I, likes to admit that The Cute Pink Blob is an Eldritch Abomination). Many JRPGs & works in eastern media use similar themes of "monster eats monster" and "let's eat god" for the purposes of High Stakes Action. Japan & East Asia has a lot less "baggage" when it comes to utilizing themes from Abrahamic verse, meaning that western works using themes of [consuming the divine] and [apotheosis] use Vampire Methodology. Such is the case in the Dragon Age series & its Order of Grey Wardens (who are, From A Certain POV, dragon god vampires).

Within the ASOIAF series itself, Dany's eating a horse heart (raw) has Humanitarian Themes in service of Prophecy and [Divinity]: the horse heart to the Dothraki, a society of horselords, could be what weirwood seeds are to First Men (especially given Jojen's whole "btw, the trees are gods are former greenseers").

Brynden & the Cave's Singers (whom I dearly hope are some long-exiled Cult & not reflective of Singers as a whole) are not particularly subtle in their Intentions for Bran: he is to be their New "Last" Greenseer. Bran is to Become Brynden or Brynden is to Become Bran: either and possibly both are plausible, though how compliant with the Singers' goals Brynden may be has yet to be revealed.

(the Brynden of F&B and D&E strikes me as someone who would gladly bodysnatch some poor kid for his own Agenda: the Singers seem unlikely to support fire-breathing foreigners, not without a Contingency Plan; somewhat likely to want Bran for the purposes of installing a Tree Hivemind Police State; and maybe, possibly... "just" wanting a Second God for their Cult in Bran, who probably Smells Better).

SUMMARY

Weirwoods are Personified in almost every appearance. Weirwood Trees are considered Gods. Jojen (& some Singers) have stated that the Next Evolutionary Phase of a Greenseer is "Weirwood Tree". Brynden "the Last Greenseer" is part of a Weirwood Tree.

Brynden & the Singers are Turning Bran Into A Weirwood Tree.

Bran's current diet is Tree Paste. His magic teacher, Brynden, is Part-Tree. The Nearest Tree to make Paste from is Brynden. The Paste is made of Brynden.

(Let's NOT think too hard on which parts of Brynden: I've only gotten this far in this Meta by using "Hunanitarian" as a pun.)

Eating Gods to Become A God is an existing Trope. Brynden is a God, by Singer & First Men definitions. Bran is being Groomed to Become Brynden, a God. To Become Brynden, Bran must Eat Brynden.

TL;DR

The Weirwood Paste is Weirwood Paste and Brynden is the Weirwood: the Paste is not "Jojen", it's BRYNDEN.

Jojen is Not Paste: Jojen is Alive but Not Well & Very Depressed.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Well, you're not wrong...

Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child. His body was so skeletal and his clothes so rotted that at first Bran took him for another corpse, a dead man propped up so long that the roots had grown over him, under him, and through him. What skin the corpse lord showed was white, save for a bloody blotch that crept up his neck onto his cheek. His white hair was fine and thin as root hair and long enough to brush against the earthen floor. Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents. One burrowed through his breeches into the desiccated flesh of his thigh, to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through. "Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck. —ADWD, Bran II

The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes. […] In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood. [...] "When we left King's Landing we were men of Winterfell and men of Darry and men of Blackhaven, Mallery men and Wylde men. We were knights and squires and men-at-arms, lords and commoners, bound together only by our purpose." The voice came from the man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall. "Six score of us set out to bring the king's justice to your brother." The speaker was descending the tangle of steps toward the floor. "Six score brave men and true, led by a fool in a starry cloak." A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. A thicket of red-gold hair hid most of his face, save for a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in. "More than eighty of our company are dead now, but others have taken up the swords that fell from their hands." When he reached the floor, the outlaws moved aside to let him pass. One of his eyes was gone, Arya saw, the flesh about the socket scarred and puckered, and he had a dark black ring all around his neck. —ASOS, Arya VI

beric dondarrion is like the poor man’s bloodraven when you think about it

“Don't get me started on Lord Beric. He's here, he's there, he's everywhere, but when you send men after him, he melts away like dew.”

“How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? the riddle ran. A thousand eyes, and one.”

[atopvisenyashill]

and when it’s revealed that bloodraven was called to the true north by the last greenseer who used the “open your third eye and i’ll help you fly” metaphor and that’s why bloodraven used it in an attempt to lure euron and then bran north, but then we meet the last greenseer and it was bran the whole time so bloodraven was taught by bran and then taught bran who will go on to teach bloodraven what then!!

[the-queen-who-should-have-been]

Lord Brynden Rivers

"Lord Bloodraven"

[asoiafhead]

girl i just realised this is meant to be bloodraven. thought about late seasons got for too long took x10 psychic damage thats so funny

[asongoficeandfiresource]

The last greenseer, the singers called him, but in Bran's dreams he was still a three-eyed crow. When Meera Reed had asked him his true name, he made a ghastly sound that might have been a chuckle. "I wore many names when I was quick, but even I once had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden." -- Bran III, ADWD

A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar 2024 || Brynden Rivers by Justin Sweet

[stormcloudrising]

if d&d knew about jonsa why did they change it? martin said the ending is gonna be the same with more additions which is obvious bc the show cut some of the characters

Why did they marry Sansa to Ramsay, which won’t happen in the books? Why did they write Dany as not having feelings for Daario and leaving him in Essos without a backward glance, which won’t happen in the books, since she chooses him at the end of her last ADWD chapter.

Why did they write the Dornish story in a way that won’t happen in the books…especially the Sand Snakes? Why was Bran the only Stark child that was given the power to warg his direwolf and other animals? Why were the final two seasons and everyone’s individual story sacrificed to Dany’s arc, which won’t be the case in the books? Why was Bran the only greenseer on the show? Why did they make Cersei the ruling queen when Dany attacks, which won’t’ be the case in the book.

I could go on and on, but you get my point. It wasn’t just the Jon and Sansa story that D&D dropped or changed. They changed a lot of storylines, and in the end, they did what George didn’t want and why he chose them over other writers who came to him proposals to adapt the books. They centered the back half of the story around one main character…Dany.

Part of the reason is because unfortunately, George didn’t finish the books in time for a proper adaptation. But another part I think is while D&D are great at adapting completed material as we saw with the first 5 seasons, they are not good at writing complex characterizations or plots on their own.

And so, once it became obvious that George was not going to complete the books on time, they simplified the hell out of the remaining story…including Jon and Sansa because that’s probably going to be the most complicated of the remaining stories to write…even with George handling it.

Truthfully, knowing D&D’s skill set, I don’t think that there is anyway they could have done it without having the printed word from George to adapt. This is because IMO, it’s not just the familial relationship that George will have to deal with but Jon and Sansa’s hidden connection to not just the current magical storyline but the one from the ancient past as well. So, in a way, I’m glad they didn’t attempt to write it on their own.

However, they did drop a lot of hints and if we ever get TWOW from George, I think fans will look back on the show and say, oh, that’s why D&D wrote them like that.

ETA: I haven’t yet watched 3 Body Problem on Netflix, but from what I’ve heard, D&D seems to have done a good job adapting it, which proves my point. They are working with a finished story. Yes, another complex story, but one that is at least completed and so most of the heavy lifting in terms of plotting has already been done for them.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

What in the "hell" is going on with Rickon Stark?

Consider the moment when Rickon Stark ventured into the Winterfell crypts and spoke with what he believed to be his father:

“Shaggy,” a small voice called. When Bran looked up, his little brother was standing in the mouth of Father’s tomb. With one final snap at Summer’s face, Shaggydog broke off and bounded to Rickon’s side. “You let my father be,” Rickon warned Luwin. “You let him be.” “Rickon,” Bran said softly. “Father’s not here.” “Yes he is. I saw him.” Tears glistened on Rickon’s face. “I saw him last night.” “In your dream …?” Rickon nodded. “You leave him. You leave him be. He’s coming home now, like he promised. He’s coming home.”

Bran VII, AGOT

Prior to this encounter, Bran had revealed that the three-eyed crow had visited his dreams the night before, guiding him to the crypts where he spoke with Ned's ghost. Bran's ability to foresee Ned's impending death isn't unexpected—after all, he is a greenseer.

But what about Rickon? Is he a greenseer too? Well,

“In a sense. Those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest. By these signs do the gods mark those they have chosen to receive the gift. The chosen ones are not robust, and their quick years upon the earth are few, for every song must have its balance. But once inside the wood they linger long indeed. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. Greenseers.”

Bran III, ADWD

Rickon himself hasn't been explicitly marked as one, but ADWD tells us that his direwolf, Shaggydog, has the eyes of a greenseer:

He had a pack as well, once. Five they had been, and a sixth who stood aside. Somewhere down inside him were the sounds the men had given them to tell one from the other, but it was not by their sounds he knew them. He remembered their scents, his brothers and his sisters. They all had smelled alike, had smelled of pack, but each was different too. His angry brother with the hot green eyes was near, the prince felt, though he had not seen him for many hunts. Yet with every sun that set he grew more distant, and he had been the last. The others were far scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind.

While Shaggydog's green eyes hint at a connection to greenseers, this alone doesn't fully explain what's going on with Rickon. There seems to be something deeper—an affinity with death itself.

More than any other character, Rickon spends a lot of time in the Winterfell crypts. We start hearing about this by Bran's sixth AGoT chapter, when the boys lean that Robb has to go south - a journey from which he will never return. Upon hearing the news, it's quite notable that Rickon instinctively seeks solace among the dead Stark kings. What's even more interesting is this:

“Listen to Maester Luwin’s counsel, and take care of Rickon. Tell him that I’ll be back as soon as the fighting is done.” Rickon had refused to come down. He was up in his chamber, red-eyed and defiant. “No!” he’d screamed when Bran had asked if he didn’t want to say farewell to Robb. “NO farewell!” “I told him,” Bran said. “He says no one ever comes back.”

Bran VI, AGOT.

For whatever reason, Rickon seems to have a rather heightened sense of death. Which brings us back to his direwolf, Shaggydog.

It just doesn't make sense to me. Why does Rickon's direwolf, of all the wolves, have unique coloring alongside Jon’s Ghost? Ghost’s white fur makes sense given Jon's outsider status and central role in the story. But why Shaggydog? Shouldn't Bran, with his greenseer abilities, have the "special" wolf? Instead, it’s Shaggydog, with his jet-black fur and green eyes, who stands out.

Given Rickon’s frequent presence in the Stark crypts, it seems possible that GRRM is suggesting Rickon has a spiritual connection to the dead—perhaps even serving in a role akin to a guardian, considering his apparent communion with the deceased. Several mythological figures come to mind as potential inspirations for this role.

One such figure is Anubis, the well-known Egyptian deity associated with death and the afterlife. 

Anubis is commonly depicted either as a man with the head of a jackal or as a black jackal or dog. He plays a crucial role in the mummification process and guides souls to the afterlife.

He has a less well-known brother, Wepwawet, who is tasked with "opening the way" for the dead on their journey to the afterlife. While Anubis is traditionally shown as black, Wepwawet is often depicted as white or grey. This stark contrast evokes the imagery of the Stark direwolves: Grey Wind, Summer, and Ghost, with their grey or white fur, parallel Wepwawet, whereas Shaggydog, with his distinctive black fur, symbolizes a link to Anubis. This alignment suggests a symbolic connection between Rickon and Anubis, while Jon, Bran, and Robb may correspond to Wepwawet.

Interestingly, throughout the series, all three of Rickon’s brothers have been portrayed as boys with wolf heads.

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

Dany IV, ACOK

Stark’s direwolf killed four of our wolfhounds and tore the kennelmaster’s arm off his shoulder, even after we’d filled him full of quarrels …”

“So you sewed his head on Robb Stark’s neck after both o’ them were dead,” said yellow cloak.

Epilogue, ASOS

[...] The wooden man she had glimpsed, though, and the boy with the wolf’s face … 

The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him.

Melisandre, ADWD

Both Jon and Bran, along with their direwolves, also have a notable connection to the dead, further reinforcing the parallel to Wepwawet.

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs. Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

Jon VII, ACOK

GRRM could be exploring the idea of Rickon as one with a deep connection to the spirits of the dead. This could explain not only his ability to perceive Ned’s presence in AGoT, but also his capacity to engage in extended conversations with him.

Additionally, various myths feature guiding dogs that act as "gatekeepers" to their respective underworlds.

Among these, Cerberus is perhaps the most renowned: the Greek three-headed black dog tasked with keeping the dead in Hades and preventing the living from entering.

ref: https://mythopedia.com/topics/cerberus

Cerberus has a Norse counterpart in Garmr, a black hound who similarly guards the gates of Hel, overseeing the dead and preventing the living from crossing into the underworld.

In Celtic mythology, black dogs like the Cŵn Annwn and the Barghest are often seen as omens of death or as guardians of the underworld. A modern depiction of this idea appears in the Harry Potter series, where the black dog, known as the Grim, is a harbinger of death.

Rickon is not a POV character, so we don't have direct insight into his thoughts or experiences with warging or dreaming. However, the evidence suggests that he is deeply connected to the concept of death and the underworld. In this way, he parallels his warg siblings—Jon, Bran, and Arya—who also have connections to death and the dead in various ways.

Rickon’s frequent presence in the crypts, his communion with spirits, and his direwolf’s distinctive black fur align him with these ancient symbols of death and protection. The many mythological references suggest that Rickon may not merely be a passive observer but could embody a significant role in the spiritual realm of the Stark family, hinting at a deeper narrative purpose that aligns with these ancient archetypes.

Whether GRRM will further explore Rickon’s connection to the dead remains to be seen, but the text and these mythological parallels certainly raise intriguing questions about his role in the magical landscape of the story.

[agentrouka-blog]

the difference form the valyrian and the first men that went north is that yes what the first men did was wrong to the native inhabitants but they also took on there culture and magic. becoming worshipers of old gods and wargs and greenseers. the targs notoriously brought there slaves to dragonstone and practice there valyrian costumes ignoring the costumes of westeroses. 

Also, I think the migration of the First Men is to me a lot closer to the expansion of neolithic farmers into the territories of hunter gatherer societies than any modern concept of colonialism. (Yes, the First Men had bronze and built ring forts, but still.) Not all migration is colonization. They had cultural misunderstandings, the Children attacked first, and the war lasted for a long time on both sides before they agreed on a peace for mutual benefit, followed by a great deal of cultural exchange. They fought together against the Andals, who truly did come blade in hand even as they were running for their lives from Valyrian expansion.

Pretending the First Men were inherently evil for entering into and settling in Westeros at all is absurd. This is supposed to be twelve to eight tousand years in the past. There had been Children of the Forest in Essos too, so they presumably migrated in one direction or the other. The lands were connected. Humans migrate, that's not in and of itself a flaw or mistake.

That's a far cry from swooping in to violently obtain rulership over an established society.

[asoiafartandstuff]

Art of Brynden Rivers also known as bloodraven & Sheira Seastar dancing by the amazing artist @tosquinha

[hollowwhisperings]

The Kids Are Alright: What's In "Blood Stew"?

In preparation for my efforts on crafting some Meera Reed meta & in support of my "Jojen Is Fine, Actually" post, I will be Preemptively Addressing the subject of "Blood Stew" in the Bran POV chapters in ADWD.

CW: spoilers for ASOIF & D&E, reference to cannibalism, hunting of animals (& probable extinction), logistics of meat production, harm to children, suicidal ideation (Jojen), arson (including to religious sites, i.e. Old Gods), possible xenocide, body horror (Brynden), cult behaviour & indoctrination, drugging & grooming of minors (Bran, by the Singers), blasphemy (consistent usage of religious terminology for an in-setting cult of faith).

Team "Cave Kids": Setting the Scene

Going into WoW, Team Bran (Bran, Summer, Walder, Meera & Jojen) will have lived as guests of the Cave Singers for near up to a year: their lodgings lay within a vast & labyrinthine underground cave system, crawling with weirwood tree roots from the Haunted Forest above, and home to More Skeletons Than A Natural History Museum. All the humans (& Summer) share sleeping quarters. Summer pops out to Hunt and Do Wolf Leader Things (GRRM has subscribed his direwolves to Ye Olde Alpha Wolfe society); Jojen Worries Meera and sometimes goes Exploring; Meera and Walder are more cautious in their movements, when Bran isn't Bodysnatching Walder for his own explorations; Bran himself is carried by Singers to & from the shared sleeping chamber to Brynden's Vertigo Cave for "Flying" Lessons.

This entire region is named by the ASOIAF Wiki as "the cave of the three-eyed crow": as I always do, I Take Issue With That Name (I got sidetracked enough to move my thoughts to a separate draft).

Instead, [Team Bran] are guests of the Singers living in "the Caves [Beneath the Haunted Forest]". The Cave Singers are Singers, not Children of the Forest, though I do use Bran & Meera's nicknames for individual Singers.

Brynden is just "Brynden": he was, once, "Lord Commander"; a "Lord Hand" twice-over; and a "Master of Whispers" both before & after his ever receiving the position "officially". More hilariously, Brynden is very definitely the Distant Cousin (mayhaps even a many-times great Uncle) of every living Stark in the series. All courtesy of one Lady Melantha Blackwood of Winterfell (and GRRM's continued Indifference to the maternal sides of family trees, To Be Doylist About It).

Bed & Breakfast

My Grievances with Non-Existent Titles, Leaf's Suspect Math & Unspecified Maternal Lineage aside, let us return to "blood stew".

"And almost every day they ate blood stew, thickened with barley and onions and chunks of meat. Jojen thought it might be squirrel meat, and Meera said that it was rat. Bran did not care. It was meat and it was good. The stewing made it tender." (Bran III, ADWD)

Jojen and Meera are probably both right, sometimes at the same time: Bran is aware of Summer's freely exit the caves to Hunt & Summer likely donates the odd "squirrel" (or pieces thereof) to the Cave Kitchens, when he can. The Supernaturally Colder climate induced by the Others does make Summer's hunting an unreliable food source, in the long run: what little game still remains in the Haunted Forest is unlikely to have any offspring to replace the current population. The ever diminishing returns of Summer's hunts are a major factor in his Direwolf Mother travelling South for her pregnancy in the first place. That she, a Giant Direwolf, somehow got as far South as Winterfell's Wolfswood? Brynden is in the neighbourhood and Invested in House Stark, if only in Bran & Jon: his "Divine Intervention" is the most plausible explanation. Directing a local direwolf to Stark lands is well within his canonically established capabilities (whether this was easier than Rigging Jon's Election is a Fun Thought Experiment).

Local vermin and Summer's potluck contributions alone could not sustain the Singers, let alone their (fragile!) human guests: it is a different sort of meat that makes up most of their Blood Stews, one Greatly Speculated upon and one of Shocking Audacity... so what is the primary ingredient of Blood Stew?

Cave Goat. :D

The Kids Are Alright

The Singers canonically keep Goats for milk, used for cheesemaking. The Singers themselves are Omnivorous (they eat mushrooms & fish) so they probably eat their goats too. Given that the Cave Settlement has existed for 1 million years (Leaf's Math, GRRM's lacking a sense of Scale), the Singers have had a long time to familiarize themselves with lactose tolerance & the butchering of goats for meat. These goats have likely lived alongside the Singers for a very long time: they're never mentioned leaving the Caves to (not) graze, meaning they too live entirely in darkness. Brynden might be called upon, now & then, to skinchange into wild Flock Queens from Above (googling "do goats have leaders" has informed me that goats are Matriarchal) & thus bring "Fresh Blood" to existing herds.

Speaking of Blood, the "blood" in Blood Stew is probably goat blood preserved after slaughter in That Most Ancient Form Of Sausage... black pudding. Blood spoils too quickly otherwise, even if the Singers have "freezers" in the form of cold caves. While GRRM never says as much, the Singers certainly have the means to "farm" salt to aid in meat preservation. There is at least one underground river in the Caves (the black one with blind fish) that is never specified as "salty" or "fresh". Assuming the Singers weren't just "mining" rock salt (solar evaporation would be Rather Difficult, what with the Complete Absence of Sunlight), the Caves almost certainly boast several brine springs.

The access to salt and [cold caves] enable the Singers to "stretch" each goat slaughtered, making them the most reliable source of meat. Given that the Singers personally tend to their goat herds, the "hygiene" of their goat meat makes the goats a much safer offering for their even the most fragile of their human guests (Bran & Jojen). Goats are safer for the Singers too: Leaf gives a population count of "three-score" for her people, and there any implications that they are an "aging population". Singers are small in size, limited in number and their mobility is likely decreasing. The "strength" of any individual Singer is never really expanded upon, beyond their ability to carry Bran around (which... doesn't really say much, given that he's a malnourished nine-year old) and historic difficulties facing humans head-on (bronze weapons & fire, yes, but larger sizes too). Slaughtering domesticated goats would be within the physical capabilities of the Singers we see moving around, hunting bigger (or more aggreesive) game would be Difficult unless Skinchanging was involved (keeping an animal docile enough to restrain and drug with shrooms, the skinchanger leaving before the actual slaughter).

So, shockingly, the "blood" in Blood Stew is just goat sausages (blood, intestines, grain & salt). The "hunks of meat" are Also Goat, for the most part, with Summer's hunts and local vermin (rats, bats, probably not ravens, any safe-for-humans bugs).

Supplementary Protein

Fish are another source of "meat": the Caves have at least one river, home to blind white fish eaten by both Singers & their human guests (differentiating "fish" from game meat would be difficult, given the primary goatiness & the "Stone Soup" vibe of any communal stew).

As Meera speculated, any vermin capable of surviving the supernatural cold, are likely additional ingredients for "Blood Stew". Vermin would be an issue in the Caves, drawn to the Singers having grain stores (oats and barleycorn): these are cold climate crops, making them farmable even This Far North (barley doesn't freeze to death 'til -8° C) though how the Singers could grow these crops in their Caves can only be Handwaved By Magic (For Safety Reasons, skylights or aboveground gardens are Unlikely). That or the Singers used ravens to facilitate Trade with freefolk, when they still lived in the area (the lands of the Thenns are North-West of the Haunted Forest). Magic ravens migjt even be foraging wild grain on the behalf of the Singers: they are fey folk, even without their keeping (stealing) the odd human to act as their personal Eldritch God-Tree Wizard.

The ravens themselves can probably be ruled out as ingredients in Blood Stew: these ravens are Sapient and Divine Envoys besides. There's also the IRL precedent of corvids Holding Grudges: incurring the Wrath of the local avian hivemind would be Enormously Stupid of the Singers. The Murders vastly outnumber the Singers, making peaceful relations Rather Important. Ravens that die prematurely or of injuries (not of sickness: fragile humans are fragile, after all) might be "Fair Game" but, knowing GRRM, the Cave Ravens are probably cannibalistic carrions.

The Cave Ravens would be much more relaxed by Singers harvesting their eggs, outside Mating Season at least. All birds eat their own eggs, making them less "taboo" than one might think. Eggs function as "external food storage" for birds, adults eating unfertilized eggs they lay & babies eating their way out from the egg they hatch from. I could not speculate on how Singers prefer their eggs: in Blood Stew, I could only guess that raven egg yolk would help in "tendering" the goat blood sausages after cold storage.

For all the food sources available to the Singers, the Blood Stews being served "almost everyday" does indicate that Rationing is at play: a Long Night looms and exhausting any food source means losing that food source permanently. Goats, fish, Summer's donations, raven eggs (&/or ravens), vermin and bugs make up the actual "meat" in Blood Stew. The general confusion of the humans as to what their meat is may be further muddled by some "hunks" actually being mushrooms or cheese.

But Humanitarianism!

While zombies are an Awkwardly Plausible Convenience (Coldhands has killed Night's Watch deserters in the vicinity of the Caves & wights were Hidden in the snow surrounding one of its entrances)... consider the state of these wights. The vast majority are rotting, even in the supernaturally cold temperatures and, since Freefolk traditionally burn their dead, the wights that are reanimated likely died in Unsavoury Manners. Even "fresh" or "preserved" corpses are quickly riddled with Unappetizing bacteria and insects. The frozen wights are old, the murdered or forgotten, and all of them Decidedly Unhygienic. Human wights might be safe enough for carrion birds or even the Singers themselves... but they are not safe for their human guests.

Consider the Efforts, the Sacrifices, that enabled Bran's getting to the Singers at all: even with Brynden's "Divine Intervention" (getting the Starklings bodyguards in the form of direwolves, prompting their awakenings as Wargs; encouraging Jojen & thus Meera to meet Bran at Winterfell; bidding Coldhands to save Sam & Gilly, enabling easier passage North via Creepy Eldritch Door, on time to give the kids a "Lift" on his Great Elk), the likelihood of Bran dying was always higher than his surviving. Readers know Bran has Plot Armour but, in-universe, his continued survival has been costly. Getting Bran safely to the Singers was an expensive undertaking, one requiring a great many moving pieces (some of them arguably "moved" before Bran was even born: each Starkling held Potential, some moreso than others, and none of their parents were originally intended for each other).

It is almost certain that Bran was not the first child Brynden Lured North: popular fanon names Euron Greyjoy as an "abandoned" attempt, whilst Jojen was canonically [granted audience? scouted?] only to be "ruled out" (being "only" a greendreamer, Jojen was instead used to Better Bran's Odds of Survival).

While greendreamers and skinchangers are Statistical Anomalies, with persons who are Both being even rarer, Westeros is large enough that having a handful of potential greenseers within generations of each other is a Fair Estimate. No, the issue is the Rarity of Potential Greenseers AND the deadly nature of any "pilgrimage". That only Brynden and Bran are ever named seems to indicate that their managing both trials makes them "worthy" of Reverance, even before "earning" the title of "greenseer". That Bran survived was miraculous and, indeed, Brynden certainly worked "Overtime" in his Acts of Divine Intervention. Even then, Bran (& Jojen's) survival was very much dependent on Summer and Meera's presence in the group: the Singers owe every single member of Team Bran a debt, all of them serving vital roles in getting them a Shiny New God-Tree for their collectiom.

What does Divine Intervention and Debts of Hospitality have to do with Blood Stew, with an "Exciting" Opportunity for Hypothetical "Humanitarianism"?

Simple: Bran is too important to the Singers for them to Risk his health by their serving "Bad Meat". Imagine going to such great lengths to find a Fresh Godling, the relief that This Godling survived to meet his destiny... only for their Godling to get killed by food poisoning.

"And They Were Roommates"

The only meal noted as being Separately Prepared for any of the humans is Bran's Weirwood Paste: what one of them eats, all of them eat. That means that one of the humans getting sick (Jojen being the most susceptible), risks all of them catching ill. While each of the humans does "disappear" now and then, exploring or generally doing their own thing, the extreme cold of their environment (their extended time traumabonding with each other) means that they all share the same sleeping chamber. They share furs, body heat, breath.

While the Singers could very easily isolate the humans from each other (if only for quarrantine purposes), keeping them together is "safer": the humans would recognise sickness or distress in each othed before the Singers could and the humans already know how to take care of each other. The Singers being Good Hosts is in their best interests, not only in currying favour with their new god-in-training but also to ensure said godling survives to do any "Ascending".

Children Are Fragile: Why "Bad Meat" Isn't An Option

Grand Futures of Kingship & God-Treehood aside, at this point in time, Bran Stark is nine-years old. Human children, even Super Magical Starklings, are still children. And children are fragile.

Bran is still recovering from Attempted Murder, with his injuries limiting his independent mobility in ways his society cannot truly accomodate (not as a Prince of Winterfell & definitely not as a half-frozen cave kid). An inability to walk isn't the greatest danger of Bran's disabilities: thermoregulation of half his body is. Bran's friends are better able to recognise Bran's symptoms of physical distress than Bran is, than the Singers could. The humans also have greater strength and mobility: the Singers only seem to have three fingers on each hand and, while Bran is unlikely to grow much bigger given his environment, he will be getting some growth spurts soon. It's unknown how long Bran is expected to need "training" from Brynden, how long he will be carried to & from the communal sleepchamber and his weirwood throne. The Singers might just Graft Bran to his Throne once he's too big for them to safely carry but, again, there is no timeline given for Bran's progress. Better to keep "Hodor" about, thinketh the much tinier Singers.

Jaime's Murder Attempt also put Bran into a prolonged coma, one he was Fortunate to awaken from. That Bran has not exhibited any of the more "inconvient" (or dangerous) consequences of a longterm coma is almost certainly Brynden's "Divine Intervention" at work. Surprising lack of cognitive issues (temporary or longlasting) aside, Bran's coma & his subsequent state of "perpetual bedrest" has left his body much weaker the average child. He's already malnourished, traumatised and struggling to stay warm: Bran getting sick, even a "minor" sickness like a cold or bout of mild food poisoning? That could kill him.

Even if Bran doesn't die from an illness, recovery would be Difficult in such as a Hostile Environment: it is cold, it is dark (no sunlight whatsoever), and [Food Insecurity] is an ongoing reality. If a person is already physically weakened, minor illnesses can very easily escalate into more serious ones. There are no Maesters, no Medicine Women for Bran. The Singers have magic bit they are fey while Bran is (at present) terrifyingly mortal. Keeping Bran alive means keeping him healthy and doing that requires keeping the Other Humans 'healthy" too: serving the "spares" Questionably Sourced Meat is against the Best Interests of the Singers, their Investment in Keeping Bran Alive.

(For now, at least.)

The Jojen Problem

The terrifying fragility of their Future God-King aside, a more "immediate" danger to the continued existence of the Cave Singers is Jojen Reed: that is, Jojen's consistent lack of good health.

Bran was a healthy child who became very vulnerable very suddenly: Jojen, meanwhile, has been "sickly" for Years. Not only is Jojen "small" for his age (14-ish), he is often described as "shaking". IRL, people get tremours for any number of reasons, and comorbid conditions are not unusual. There is valid reason to view Jojen's "shakes" as symptoms of an ongoing, chronic health condition. Jojen might have a chronic illness, lasting side effects from the fever that nearly killed him, and he's had ample opportunity to acquire some [head trauma] over the series. Jojen's "shaking fits" may also be his physiology "teaming up" with psychological trauma: muscular twitches from the stress of hypervigilance, shakiness borne of anxiety & stress, atypically expressed panic attacks (that can resemble seizures in their physicality).

While Jojen's Ambiguous Disorders are decidedly non-contagious (going by IRL counterparts), Jojen's predisposition to "sickliness" makes him just as vulnerable to Death By Minor Illness as Bran, if not moreso given Jojen's Current Psychological State.

The Terrifying Fragility of Jojen Reed

Jojen, for Very Justified Reasons, is Very Depressed. Depression, in fiction & IRL, makes people more susceptible to catching illnesses and makes recovery more difficult. That is true even when a person is not deliberately enabling (or passively "allowing") an illness to harm them.

Jojen "this is not the day I die" Reed is exhibiting every sign of suicidal ideation that Bran, his friend & fellow fragile tiny human, can pick up on. Meera, the Designated Adult of Team Bran at the wise old age of 17 & Jojen's big sister, has become genuinely concerned that Jojen's (passive) Death Wish has become an Active one.

Jojen has long believed that he is Functionally Immortal outside of Greywater Watch: his very first Greendream was, after all, a vision of his own Death. It's not unreasonable to suspect that said Death Dream is a recurring one, that Present Circumstances (Brynden's Body Horror, the complete lack of sunlight) have Exacerbated the frequency of Jojen's Dreaming of Death. Fans of The Song greatly enjoy speculating on Jojen's Inevitable Demise, many assuming he is Already Dead. This is based on his last "appearance" being Bran noting Jojen's Absence: fans fail to extend this state of Already Dead to the Also Absent Meera.

(My tinfoil has One of The Reeds Finding Something while Exploring, grabbing their sibling so as to Convene Privately Elsewhere, & that together they have begun to Conspire An Escape)

If Jojen were to Die Prematurely, far from his Destined Death at Greywater Watch... there goes Meera Reed's Entire Motivation for Being Here, in this Far Away Frozen Helscape.

Meera, obligatory loyalty to House Stark aside, has stated that her primary incentive to follow Bran, to Go North and remain there while Bran [gets made into a tree-wizard]... was to save Jojen from his Death Wish.

Reasons to Fear Meera Reed

Meera is the "healthiest" of all the humans in Team Bran: she's able-bodied, physically mature (short, yes, but strong), lethal with a net & spear... and the primary caregiver of everyone in their group.

Summer (2 y/o) helps, with scouting and hunting and bodyguarding. Walder (17 or older) helps, kind and physically powerful. Jojen (14 y/o) helped, with Uncanny Wisdom and foresight and faith in Bran. Bran (9 y/o) is, of course, the Designated Hero of his chapters (this is Greatly Limited by his being only nine-years old).

Meera (17-ish) did all that and more. Meera hunted, guarded, scouted, foraged, killed, climbed... and did so as a non-magical human, relying on her experience as a crannogmen and her Father's Daughter.

Meera keeps up morale and tells [Very Helpful] Stories, leads where Walder and the children cannot, posseses Common Sense & life experience, mediates when the children are fighting (scolds them for taking their frustrations out on each other), senses Social Danger that Summer might miss, skins prey & butchers it (ensuring none of it goes to waste). Meera is a survivalist, one canny of the Old Ways, a "Modern" example of why the First Men so successfully survived in Westeros.

And the Singers of the Cave are Old. They Know the capabilities of Humans, the single greatest threat the Singers have ever known. The Singers Remember: the Pact, the 4000 years of war before it; the First Men, their axes; the Andals, their iron & blasphemy. The Singers know Human as Invaders and Desecrators and (sometimes) Allies. The Singers also "know" the Consequences of a Human who FeelsToo Much.

Humans, historically, have Little Issue with Seeings Things Burn. Humans, it seems, will respond to Any Strong Emotion with Bronze or Iron or Fire.

Cold? A Human will find a Tree and set it on fire.

Hungry? A human will Kill Something and heat it... over fire.

Dead? Other humans gather, collect the deceased, set the body on fire.

Grieving? A human will find iron, demand answers, find you. And should your "Answers" prove unsatisfactory? Humans will set fire to YOU, your settlement, your Gods.

Meera is very, very "human". She is the most human of her group: Bran is, of course, a God-Tree sapling; Jojen is Greensighted, not long for his human flesh and soon to join You in the Trees; the one called "Hodor" reminds You of the Giants, long ago foes and more recent allies but all but a few Gone to the Earth.

(Summer is a Direwolf.)

Meera is the Single Greatest Threat to the Cave Singers, who believe themselves the "last" of their people. Meera is a Consiserable Threat to the Last Greenseer, whom she has grown to Suspect and Resent. Meera does not, at least, carry on her person any axe (she wields spear and net and shield).

Meera can definitely start a fire. Meera would willingly start a Fire, a pyre for her brother built from the Last Greenseer himself. Meera would gladly burn out the Last of the Singers, for Vengeance and as Sacrifices to stay the suit of wights (of Others) as she Flees South and homeward (taking your Prince, your Shiny New God-Tree, the Last Hope of your People with her for spite alone).

That's All, Folks!

So, no: "Blood Stew" is not made from people. It is not made of Jojen or Meera, it is Goat and Vermin and Bugs. It is occasionally made with Squirrels. The "blood" is black pudding, goat's blood and intestines salted to ensure no goat goes to waste: their hides and furs warm the children, their blood and flesh sustains them, their cheese enables their exercising in philosophy. Wights are just too dangerous, to hunt or serve for supper: Bran (& Jojen) cannot be risked for the sake of morbid convenience. Live humans are right out, too much bigger and stronger than the Singers, or too dearly missed by The Scariest Being North of The Wall.

The Kids are Alright (the human ones, anyway).

[midlandslady2]

Spoilerrrrsssss Alert!🚨

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So this thing with Daemon being a dreamer and the circulating theories of him becoming immortal after the battle of the God’s Eye, or him becoming a greenseer. I do not care. But I am concerned.

I mean, I was happy that he saw all that. I haven’t seen it but I think it will be quite an epic vision. But I don’t want him to become a dreamer per se. I wanted him to believe in the prophecy, yes. I wanted him to be more open minded to the fantastic world that is Westeros. But I don’t want him to become like Bran, you know? This stoic person that doesn’t really feel anything because he already knows how everything will happen and that he should not interfere because the things that have to pass will pass as it’s written. Heleana is this character. She wasn’t that sad about Jaehaerys’ death because she accepted that it was meant to happen. Daemon is not like that. We love Daemon because he is this unpredictable beast who feels as deeply as he rages. I don’t want his essence to ever change, I wanted his edges polished for the sake of his loved ones. But I want to see Daemon’s rage when Viserys and Aegon are captured. I want him to burn everything in his pain. I want Daemon being Daemon, like he was in season 1 episode 6, 7 and 8, when he was already older, calmer and softer, yet still capable to behead Vaemond in the blink of an eye. I think that’s my favorite version of Daemon (although I also love his younger years). I also don’t want him to go after Aemond in the God’s Eye because he knows that’s how it’s supposed to play out, knowing Rhaenyra will die later in such a horrible way but accepting it. It takes away from his sacrifice. I loved that in the book he goes to face Aemond to protect Rhaenyra, because Aemond is the last real threat to her (supposedly). I don’t want him to know that it’s not but going there anyway because it was foretold. Nop, I don’t like it. 🙂‍↔️

I also don’t like if he becomes immortal. Although I adore him, I want him to die there. 🫣

Now that I’ve heard about the whole picture, I feel slightly disappointed. Did Daemon really just accepted Rhaenyra because he saw it in the vision that she was meant to be queen? Or did Alys show him the vision because she knew he was ready to do the right thing? I do like that all this time Alys has been training him for that. I do enjoy that in a very weird way. Like she saw potential in him to be a good person but she had a lot of work to do before he got to that point. Hmm that I like. 🤔😌

Another odd thing. Last episode Oscar Tully made it abundantly clear that the army was for Rhaenyra and to Daemon as her representative. But in the leaked scene it seems the army would turn against Rhaenyra if Daemon said so because they were fiercely loyal to him. When did that happen? How did it happen? Am I the only one that got surprised? 🤔🤨

And finally … yes yes I know we cannot be greedy with how the season has been. But! I wanted a private scene with Daemon and Rhaenyra after the army scene. I wanted intimacy! To make up for lost time. I don’t want him to be best buddies or old colleagues, as Emma pointed out, I want them to be lovers! Passionate lovers! I want to erase the memory of Rhaenyra’s kiss with Mysaria and of Daemon’s scene with Alyssa. Because they are the main couple, yet we saw them with other people and we don’t see them having loving scenes together. Couldn’t they give us that?? I think not and we should be happy we got that “bend the knee” scene. But, as a fan of season 1, I needed to see passion. I needed to see how much they missed each other. 🤓😳

And now I’ll have to wait 2 years. Not knowing what evil schemes the writers will prepare for season 3. 😬

[atopvisenyashill]

sorry to bother you but do you ever think of theon’s arc as being sort of akin to an amalgamation of the previous generation of starklings in a way - he starts out lustful and wild like brandon, though raised apart from family, dead older brother(s) like ned and isolated in a tower with a sibling trying to save them like lyanna? like theon recieves a bunch of connections with the old gods and having weirwood dreams but i’m not too sure what it all means together.

oh that’s sooooo interesting.

okay so yes re: theon’s connection to the old gods and having weirwood dreams. that’s something i think about a lot. one thing i find interesting is the play between him, aeron, and patchface as prophets - aeron calls himself a prophet of the drowned god, and while i think its likely all of the greyjoys are capable of magic to some degree, it’s not aeron who is regularly having true visions in the family it’s theon who has shown this funny aptitude for magic and interestingly, it’s patchface who drowned, was revived, and suddenly became a voice for the gods. i have this theory that patchface is a prophet for the drowned god (or whatever magical being is thought to be the drowned god, the same way as for example the old gods are most likely not gods but hundreds if not thousands of greenseers connected to the weirwood hivemind system) and theon is a prophet for the old gods. patchface going through the ritual accidentally, imo, caught the attention of the drowned god. theon, meanwhile, i think is someone who was born with magical abilities, in a time period where magic seems to be reaching a boiling over point after spending several centuries simmering, surrounded by other similarly “have the aptitude but not the know-how” people in the starklings, having been intensely physically traumatized - like patchface, i think he caught the attention of the old gods bc he accidentally went through the rituals while In Their Domain. bran has his visions of the woman blood sacrificing the old man, and i’ve kind of loosely theorized that being capable of extreme magic means you must be capable of sacrificing yourself as well as others. dany doesn’t just burn mirri, she walks onto the pyre herself; melisandre doesn’t just use pyre victims to fuel her magic, she has to literally give birth to her magic; but to take it a step further, i think when people capable of magic are physically traumatized by others, it does kind of….get their senses tingling i guess you can say. i think this is why bloodraven goes from being just like a regular fighter to being known for magic and sorcery - losing his eye + his knowledge of magic sets off his senses. so as theon is already magically inclined, living in a place that is steaming with magic, tortured by ramsay…all of a sudden he goes from having visions in acok to talking to weirwoods. he’s caught the attention of the old gods (the old god being, of course, bran).

so that’s my theory on like, HOW theon’s third eye has slowly opened but the fact that it’s seemingly opening towards the OLD GODS and not THE DROWNED GOD is really interesting on a narrative level. i think when you ask “what will happen to theon” in the fandom at large, it’s a really bleak picture - some of that is the show, but i’ve seen people theorize that the last chapter we have of him in twow (the preview chapter) is the last we’ll see if theon since i got into the fandom when s2 was airing. and i know i’m biased bc i love him but i do think his connection to the weirwood magic is going to come into play. similarly, i see a lot of theon fans who would prefer an ending where he’s no longer with the starks or in the north but in the iron islands. but again - it’s not the drowned god who is speaking through him it’s the old gods! this signals to me that he is never leaving the north permanently, if at all. and i think that makes sense with his story on a narrative level; he can insist he is salt and sea, a greyjoy of pike, but even as he’s trying to prove himself as a greyjoy he’s calling himself the prince of winterfell! nothing will erase the reality that most of the formative years of his life were spent in winterfell with the starklings and when he pictures home it’s that place! that place that was full of love that he was not allowed to partake in! being able to go back to pyke and fully reintegrate back into the culture he was born into is, imo, too sweet of an ending. he doesn’t get to go back!

i’ve always felt like he will live a long life, longer than he’ll ever really want, and that’s the point - he gets to live and others don’t (and some of that is his fault!) and he has to keep trying because of it. forever. he can’t take the easy way out and exit the narrative. so i think it’s interesting you compare him to the older starks because the youngest is benjen and benjen was a man of the night’s watch. i think that concept of like, spending the rest of your life trying to do penance being what theon gets makes so much sense. specifically here i think it’s interesting that lyanna experiences some element of sexual abuse, and theon is both a perpetrator and a victim of it. and there’s that common theory that perhaps benjen helped lyanna sneak out of winterfell and joined the night’s watch out of guilt. i think you get that very interesting kind of dark mirror here - theon is much less well liked than brandon despite engaging in the same behavior, theon is never able to “rise” to the occasion as oldest boy and heir like ned nor is he respected by the iron islanders the way ned is by the northerners, theon is trapped by ramsay in a very twisted love story while lyanna’s story was more of a slow burning horror. always always never enough when compared to the starks. but i think an ending like benjen’s, not necessarily one where he’s specifically sworn to some order but maybe a more metaphorical one (not dissimilar to sandor on the quiet isle actually - less about WHO he is swearing to and more about what he does with his time), really fits everything theon is heading towards. can’t outrun and outfight his status as a hostage, his murders, his rapes, being raped, the greyjoy name or the stark one - but he can just stop and THINK for a second about WHO he is and WHY he’s wound up this way!

[shilohsversion]

Stark Kids!Adults AU

Jaehaerys Targaryen/Jon Snow: Husband of Queen Daenerys Targaryen & Prince Consort of 7 Kingdoms, Rider of Rhaegal

Sansa Stark: Widow of Lord Robert Arryn & Lady Regent of Vale

Arya Stark: Lady Commander of the King's Guard

Brandon Stark: Three-Eyed Crow & The Last Greenseer

Rickon Stark: King-Beyond-the-Wall

[rhaegxr]

𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

Was Rhaegar a dreamer? Before House of the Dragon aired, I did not have him as a dragon dreamer, but once the show gave us new info (such as the Conqueror being a dreamer), I figured a change was in order. Recently, we’ve gotten more info that has helped me better shape that headcanon, so I will elaborate on that in this post. As always, the disclaimer: all things I post here are for RP purposes. In no way am I saying this is book canon or that others should consider it so, or that I am expecting others to accept it. 

We were recently given, in show, the little detail of how Daenys the Dreamer got her prophetic Doom of Valyria dream the night after she claimed a young Balerion. Then in season one, we learn that Aegon I Targaryen, also rider of Balerion, had a prophetic dream about the Long Night (which prompted him into conquest). Then we also learn that Viserys I Targaryen, the last rider of Balerion, had that single one-time prophetic dream, and he only rode on Balerion once. We know that the dreamers aspects (and very likely the Daenys claiming Balerion and then dreaming bit) come from GRRM, so what is he trying to tell us viewers/readers?

Let’s check what we do have in books about dreams, starting with the wolf dreams the Stark children experience. They all seem to first receive these dreams when/after they get their direwolves. Direwolves are magical creatures, such as dragons are. Magic in the ASOIAF world appears to be connected, like a worldwide magical network that weakens and gets stronger. Something magical in one place can affect it everywhere (the birth of dragons after a century, for example, had ‘shockwave’ sort of events around the world). There are even certain places that Melissandre alludes to as magical ‘hinges’ of the world, with The Wall being one of them. Magic, in a sense, is almost a consciousness in that worldwide magical web; we can even consider the weirwoods as an ‘access panel’ to it for greenseers to be able to tap into. 

Using another Stark example of that magic having a ‘consciousness’ that connects all magical creatures/places, we have a passage on Jon and Ghost in books. Jon describes ‘It was Ghost who knew what to do’, with Ghost being there when he wakes from his recurrent Winterfell crypts dream. He starts getting this dream when reaching The Wall. The magic, through his bond to a magical creature, is trying to tell him a ‘truth’ about who he really is, and shows him the crypts because likely the truth is found there—Be it figuratively or literally. This is likely because the truth of his identity (half Stark, half Targaryen) will play a big role in the Long Night. This, in itself, is a headcanon, but since it’s a pretty widespread one, I am using it as an example to better explain my reasoning. 

We know that dragonlord families practiced interbreeding to keep the bloodline pure, because their blood is what enables them to bond and ride dragons. Some of them experience dragon dreams. So I do think it’s safe to say ( for the sake of the Ice/Fire parallel themes of ASOIAF ) only the Starks or those of First Men blood are able to bond with direwolves, and like them, the Stark children experience wolf dreams. And so it’s why they receive these kinds of dreams, because their magical bond to those magical creatures bestows the dreams upon them. Of course, we have characters in books and show that have had other prophetic dreams through other means, be it greensight or coming into contact with hinges or magical things (such as weirwoods), or even simply practicing magic ( like the Red Priests, the maegi, and so forth). 

And we come again to how characters like them have pointed out a resurgence of magic that makes them ‘stronger’ (after Dany’s dragons hatch). Which again alludes to the theory of magic being a worldwide web kind of thing, interconnected, with certain places, items (like glass candles, horns), elements (fire, ice, blood, etc.) and creatures serving as conduits to it. Going also by the theory of Valyrians and First Men blood being able to bond with the creatures, it would also make sense if they are more innately ‘sensitive’ to certain hinges or conduits or concentrations of magic, such as The Wall and the weirwoods; even without being ‘trained’ (as Red Priests or maegi are). We also know that ‘king’s blood’ plays a role. 

Now, after exposing all this, I do believe GRRM might be further supplementing these clues through the show bits. And I do think the message is that: dragons give the dragon dreams. Of course, we know dragons eventually go extinct but Targaryens (or those with Targaryen/Valyrian blood) continue to have dragon dreams—But the dragon eggs remain. The tradition of placing dragon eggs in the cradles of Targaryen babies continued. We know of a few of those people who had an egg or were possibly in proximity to eggs, to have been given dragon dreams. Among those dreams were the ones pertaining to the return of the dragons, and this drove a few (if not all) the dreamers into trying to fulfill what they saw. 

Dragons seem to definitely be an important part in the Long Night prophecy, so what if this obsession is also magically spurred, in a way? Even in Fire and Blood, we are told dragons seem to have an intelligence that men can’t understand—Can it be that, like direwolves, they are conduits connected to the worldwide magical network? The same that is stirring with the impending coming of the Long Night? Even Quaithe tells Dany that the dragons ‘remember’, and implies that perhaps they are trying to make Dany ‘remember’ who she is—In the same way Ghost is trying to make Jon learn the truth of who he is and is pointing to where he might find out. Because it’s all an important part of the prophecy, the Long Night, and whatever roles big or small they might have in it. 

After all this, let’s finally go back to Rhaegar and the actual reason why I wrote it. I am 99.9% certain Rhaegar has dragon dreams (always leave that .1% because this is GRRM, wouldn’t past him to just change stuff or add something that changes everything as he has done before). I used to be like a 50-50 before House of the Dragon (applied it only to AUs), and then maybe an 85%, but after the Daenys and Balerion info, I am very certain now. We are even directly given in books where and when he had those dreams: Summerhall. 

In a previous headcanon post regarding his birth, I did include the dreams as a possibility of why he was going to Summerhall but now it has been elevated into a certainty. We know Rhaegar was born during the tragedy at Summerhall, where a great fire killed half the Targaryen family. We’re not given the ‘what exactly happened’, and this is probably on purpose because it might be revealed in some big way or something later on ( because if the theory of what happened is true, then dark stuff went on there ). But we do have the bits of that half message, how there were seven eggs, the blood of the dragon was gathered and pyromancers with wildfire, before the fire went out of control, a ‘treason’ happened and Dunk saved someone ( Rhaella and -unborn or not- baby Rhaegar ). 

Here we have all the elements for the same egg hatching ritual Dany’s dreams told her to do: eggs, fire and blood sacrifice. Who was going to be the sacrifice? Unborn baby Rhaegar. Just as unborn Rhaego (oh yes, the name similarity is more than just ‘to honor her brother’ on purpose and very GRRM) was the sacrifice that gave life to the dragons in the eggs. But what matters for the purposes of the headcanon is; the eggs. We are not told what happened to those eggs so I do believe it’s not far reaching to say at least one of the eggs is still there. 

So what would happen if a Targaryen prince, already marked by the magical yet tragic circumstances of his birth, visits said ‘haunted’ place with only his harp, and comes in proximity to the egg while he sleeps under the stars? 

“Whenever he came back he would bring a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved.” --Daenerys IV, A Storm of Swords

His songs were tragic things (like prophecy?), and it felt like he was singing about himself and those he loved because of the emotional intensity in them. And that’s because he probably was, in a way. He did think himself the Prince that was Promised at some point until Aegon’s conception, after all. He was a musical individual and it would make perfect sense for him to ‘record’ or translate his dreams into song—Much like how we get in the show Helaena’s drawings on the walls and sketchbooks. For Helaena, we are told it was a way of escapism, so I can easily see the same being for Rhaegar (who already shows escapist tendencies). And speaking of dreamers and similarities, I do think there are bits throughout books that connect possible dreamers in personality terms. But I won’t get into that here. 

However, we know that Rhaegar read of the prophecy in some scroll or book, and that is what prompted him to ‘become a warrior’. I have already explained this bit in the birth post for him as well, but I think him being a dreamer only adds to it. We know he ‘grew up with a complex fascination for the ruins’. So what if when he first visited Summerhall, he was still a young teenager yet to read about the prophecy? What if when he first visited, he had a certain dream that had him want to learn more about what exactly happened in the place he was born? And what if when he learned of it, his dreams, his birth, his very existence, has a whole other meaning that he embraces through the prophecy? This, I believe, all fits with traits that previous dragon dreamers had displayed, subtly or not. And when paired with the show bits we are given about dragon dreamers being apparently bestowed the dreams by dragons (or eggs, as book might suggest), then it rounds up nicely, in my RP opinion.

Again, this is all headcanon for the purpose of RP as I portray Rhaegar, but thanks to the show’s supplemental info paired with the book equivalents; there’s too much coincidence to just think it’s nothing more than that. Of course, if/when we are given more info from GRRM himself or when/if Winds of Winter comes out, I will adjust as needed to fit canon as much as possible. For now, it’s fun to weave these threads we have been given together into a bigger tapestry through the magic of RP. And as always, if you read all this, thank you!