Post by Melifeather on May 20, 2019 18:35:06 GMT
The final series of the HBO "mummer's" version has been quite confusing this year for the book readers. Once Dan and David ran out of canonical material to draw from, it no longer made sense to most of us. GRRM is a master of mixing psychology and sociology and how they influence character motivations and actions. Hollywood, on the other hand, focuses strictly on character psychology, and totally ignores the sociological influences, which leaves us book readers stunned and confused. Sure, people have fantasies of revenge like Daenerys, but societal norms are powerful enough that most sane people don't follow through on those darker and more evil thoughts. Dan and Dave think they are following the outline that GRRM gave them, but their execution doesn't make a lick of sense. I think we can safely conclude that this is not the dish that George will serve us. D&D gave us the turd on the doorstep that GRRM was afraid of - not that he feared D&D would drop this stinky deuce, but rather that he wanted to avoid writing an ending that ended as badly as the tv show Lost did.
So, what threads did D&D wrap up - what were the "high notes" that we watched last night?
1) Realizing that she's a psychopath that believes she's doing "good", Jon killed Daenerys.
2) Grey Worm kept Tyrion and Jon safely incarcerated until someone took control and told him what to do.
3) Drogon was furious Daenerys was dead, but didn't dare burn Jon to a crisp.
4) The major Lords of Westeros laughed at democracy and the notion that all men and women should get to help elect a ruler.
5) Bran knew he'd be chosen King
6) Sansa declared the North would not kneel.
7) Tyrion remains as Hand to the king.
8) Jon is banished to the Wall and forced to remain a man of the Watch - but what the hell are they defending the Wall from?
9) Arya has some unexplained desire to sail west.
10) Drogon took Dany's body east to Essos.
11) It was briefly winter in Kings Landing, but was soon warm again.
12) Tyrion mourned the deaths of his siblings.
I have been preaching and promoting for a few years about the existence of a wheel of time at play upon Westeros, and I think the show - in it's confusing way - tried to demonstrate it's existence by having the major characters going in the four major directions:
1) Sansa remains in the center at Winterfell
2) Jon went North
3) Dany returned East
4) Bran remained in the South
5) and Arya sailed West
Before she died, Daenerys made a declaration that she has made before - she stated she wanted to break the wheel. Several seasons ago she described the Iron Throne as a wheel with the various Houses being the spokes on the wheel:
Daenerys Targaryen : "Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell they're all just spokes on a wheel. This ones on top, then that ones on top and on and on it spins crushing those on the ground."
Tyrion Lannister : "It's a beautiful dream, stopping the wheel. You're not the first person who's ever dreamt it."
Daenerys Targaryen : "I'm not going to stop the wheel, I'm going to break the wheel."
The show didn't fully explain this concept, but I will try my best to simplify my thoughts about it. Think of Westeros as a playing board with the characters as playing pieces. The wheel of time are all the historical events that repeatedly occur during each season. For example: tourneys occur in the Spring, as do royal or important weddings, and maiden abductions. Wars and rebellions occur in Winter. The greenseer is the administrator of the game. He can delay a season and make it last years in order to allow certain events to repeat with some frequency. He can allow a normal year to occur if he wants, or for a season to last an entire year or even years. And, he can make the seasons occur in reverse just as what I believe occurred back in 281 - the Year of the False Spring. Spring only lasted the last two months of 281 before the reversal and Winter returned. Winter lasted roughly nine months, before the greenseer allowed it to return to Spring once again. I theorize that Winter returned when Lyanna was abducted, and then it returned to Spring once she died. My theory is too long and detailed to condense for this episode review, but I will try to provide a few examples so that you get the gist.
Here are a couple quotes from the books that hint at a wheel of time:
“The dragon is time. It has no beginning and no ending, so all things come round again. Anders Yronwood is Criston Cole reborn."
“Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.”
How many instances has some character said another character has been 'reborn'? The wheel of time has come around again, but with reality flipped like a mirror different families are reborn to live certain lives. The Greyjoys are the most obvious as reliving the Targaryens, but there are others. For example, the Martells are reliving the Lannisters. The results are not complete inversions, but they are different since the places have moved we have different pieces on the board...almost like a giant game of cyvasse...different Houses set in place...similar circumstances...differing results. Recall how the game of Cyvasse is played. Each player sets up a shield to conceal how they setup their pieces. Think of the shield as the warding of the hinge on the Wall. Once the pieces are in place, the shield is removed, and play begins.
This revelation came during a conversation with min while she was working on her Hinges of the World essay where she describes how the shape of the Wall is like a sword without a hilt. The east is the straight sword, while the west is like a serpent. No matter how the Children of the Forest and their greenseers reset the Cyvasse game, the outcome is less than perfect. The Wall is warded like a lock on a door. The warded hinge is what holds the physical door called the Wall in place, and it was closed long ago when the Others were defeated. Opening or changing it causes wanted and unwanted side effects. The wheel of time has circled around again and the seasonal cycles of rebirth, life, and death has begun anew. We can see evidence that the hinge has been tampered with by examining Quaithe's instructions to Dany:
Dany’s wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. “Where would you have me go?” she asked.
“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”
In other words, if she wants to navigate this mirrored reality she has to do the opposite of whatever her natural inclination is.
The Tourney at Harrenhal was ground zero for when the wheel of time reversed. The evidence is the number of inverted parallels:
The daughter of Harrenhal began the tourney as the queen of love and beauty, and was defended by her four brothers. The inverted parallel was Lyanna, who had three brothers and one close friend (Howland). She chased off three squires with a tourney sword defending Howland. Later on the Knight of the Laughing Tree defeats the three knights of the squires, and Lyanna is crowned the Queen of Love and Beauty.
Rhaegar’s search for the Knight of the Laughing Tree is the reverse of Howland’s search for a way to become a knight.
Meera’s account says Rhaegar never found the Knight, just the shield hanging from a tree. The reverse of this is Howland’s success in finding a way to become a knight, and he painted his shield with a laughing weirwood tree.
Jaime’s investiture into the Kingsguard was also in recognition for his part in helping bring down the Kingswood Brotherhood, which was a group of bandits that gained notoriety for kidnapping nobles and holding them for ransom. The parallel inversion is that there was a group of people responsible for kidnapping Lyanna, and while their true identities remain hidden, it was Rhaegar that took the blame.
The Kingswood Brotherhood, King Aerys's detachment, the Brotherhood Without Banners, Gregor Clegane's raiding party, and Arianne's group that abducted Myrcella are all parallels with each other. Their fates are a repeated pattern on the wheel of time. In my study of the Cat of the Canals chapter there is some symbolism that signifies that Winterfell was struck by lighting, and it was that lightning strike that reversed the wheel of time. This is why the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners is nicknamed "The Lightning Lord". Beric's men each mirror men from the Kingswood Brotherhood, King Aerys's detachment, Gregor's Clegane's raiders, and Arianne's group of friends. The number significant characters in each group are roughly the same and have similar characteristics. Take Lem Lemoncloak of the Brotherhood Without Banners for example. His physical description fits Ser Gerold Hightower, but living amongst the commoners would be more like something Ser Arthur Dayne would do. His name (Lem Lemoncloak) and the dirty yellow color of his cloak connects him to Arianne's milk brother, "Drey", whose brother is the Knight of Lemonwood. Lem's leader, Beric Dondarrion, has a squire named Edric Dayne. I saw enough parallels with Edric to suspect that he might be the real Aegon, with the irony being that his group abducted Arya. Arya, of course, is said to be very much like Lyanna. I had to drop Edric as a candidate for Aegon when someone pointed out that he was too young. Edric was only 12 years old when Arya met him, while the real Aegon should have been 14 or 15 years old, BUT since I don't believe Rhaegar abducted Lyanna in the first place, then the parallel is complete. Edric isn't the real Aegon while Rhaegar isn't the real kidnapper, but Edric does fit another profile.
Edric told Arya that he was Jon's milk brother, because they were both nursed by Wylla. Edric said Wylla was Jon's mother. I believe Wylla is actually Ashara, and that she is a parallel to Sansa who is also in disguise as Petyr's daughter Alayne. Alayne is living at "home" with her "father" Petyr, while Ashara is living at her real home of Starfall with her real father, disguised as Wylla. Ned wasn't lying when he said Wylla was Jon's mother. Ned and Ashara together mirror Samwell and Gilly. Gilly is taking care of Mance Raydar's son, Aemon Steelsong, and is raising him as Sam's son at Horn Hill. Meanwhile, her true son, Monster, is being raised at the Wall. Ned brought his real son, Jon, home, but sent the mother home to Starfall, where she ended up nursing her nephew, Edric Dayne. Jon is also at the Wall, just like Monster. Since Mance is the King Beyond the Wall, I had thought that maybe Edric was Rhaegar's son, but he's too young, unless he is Ned's 2nd bastard son with Ashara - which would make his nickname "Ned" a whole lotta sense.
I'm hoping this post gave you a taste of how I think the wheel of time is playing out in Westeros. Daenerys did break the wheel when she hatched her dragons, and it sent the historical events hurtling in reverse. The order of the major timeline has been unfolding in reverse. Think about Jon Snow for a moment. He is replaying the tale of the Night's King. Recall that the Night's King was a Lord Commander who suffered a mutiny and was taken down by the Lord of Winterfell in partnership with the King Beyond the Wall. At the end of Dance we have that very same historical event playing out. Jon was taken down by mutiny, ignited by a letter sent by the Lord of Winterfell who claims to have the King Beyond the Wall in a cage. Meanwhile we have Arianne as a stand in for Dorne, on her way to Griffin's Roost to make an marriage proposal to Young Griff, who came to Westeros by way of the RHOYNE - he is the stand in for the Rhoynar and Nymeria who married the Prince of Dorne. The sexes of the two houses have reversed, and I suspect the outcome will also be reversed, and no marriage or alliance will take place. Also - we have Cersei as our Andal representative dealing with the Faith. Recall that the Andals invaded Westeros with the symbol of their faith burned into their foreheads, but when they were defeated by the Targaryens, the Targaryens first adopted their faith, and then put down the Faith Militant. Now the Faith Militant has been restored, and I believe that they will be the ones to dislodge Cersei from her throne - well, they basically already have by having King Tommen and Queen Margaery under their control.
Well, I hope I haven't confused you as much as this last season has confused me. May the old gods and new bless George with good health and preserve him until he finishes both Winds and Spring so that we all learn how the Song of Ice and Fire will really play out.
So, what threads did D&D wrap up - what were the "high notes" that we watched last night?
1) Realizing that she's a psychopath that believes she's doing "good", Jon killed Daenerys.
2) Grey Worm kept Tyrion and Jon safely incarcerated until someone took control and told him what to do.
3) Drogon was furious Daenerys was dead, but didn't dare burn Jon to a crisp.
4) The major Lords of Westeros laughed at democracy and the notion that all men and women should get to help elect a ruler.
5) Bran knew he'd be chosen King
6) Sansa declared the North would not kneel.
7) Tyrion remains as Hand to the king.
8) Jon is banished to the Wall and forced to remain a man of the Watch - but what the hell are they defending the Wall from?
9) Arya has some unexplained desire to sail west.
10) Drogon took Dany's body east to Essos.
11) It was briefly winter in Kings Landing, but was soon warm again.
12) Tyrion mourned the deaths of his siblings.
I have been preaching and promoting for a few years about the existence of a wheel of time at play upon Westeros, and I think the show - in it's confusing way - tried to demonstrate it's existence by having the major characters going in the four major directions:
1) Sansa remains in the center at Winterfell
2) Jon went North
3) Dany returned East
4) Bran remained in the South
5) and Arya sailed West
Before she died, Daenerys made a declaration that she has made before - she stated she wanted to break the wheel. Several seasons ago she described the Iron Throne as a wheel with the various Houses being the spokes on the wheel:
Daenerys Targaryen : "Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell they're all just spokes on a wheel. This ones on top, then that ones on top and on and on it spins crushing those on the ground."
Tyrion Lannister : "It's a beautiful dream, stopping the wheel. You're not the first person who's ever dreamt it."
Daenerys Targaryen : "I'm not going to stop the wheel, I'm going to break the wheel."
The show didn't fully explain this concept, but I will try my best to simplify my thoughts about it. Think of Westeros as a playing board with the characters as playing pieces. The wheel of time are all the historical events that repeatedly occur during each season. For example: tourneys occur in the Spring, as do royal or important weddings, and maiden abductions. Wars and rebellions occur in Winter. The greenseer is the administrator of the game. He can delay a season and make it last years in order to allow certain events to repeat with some frequency. He can allow a normal year to occur if he wants, or for a season to last an entire year or even years. And, he can make the seasons occur in reverse just as what I believe occurred back in 281 - the Year of the False Spring. Spring only lasted the last two months of 281 before the reversal and Winter returned. Winter lasted roughly nine months, before the greenseer allowed it to return to Spring once again. I theorize that Winter returned when Lyanna was abducted, and then it returned to Spring once she died. My theory is too long and detailed to condense for this episode review, but I will try to provide a few examples so that you get the gist.
Here are a couple quotes from the books that hint at a wheel of time:
“The dragon is time. It has no beginning and no ending, so all things come round again. Anders Yronwood is Criston Cole reborn."
“Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again.”
How many instances has some character said another character has been 'reborn'? The wheel of time has come around again, but with reality flipped like a mirror different families are reborn to live certain lives. The Greyjoys are the most obvious as reliving the Targaryens, but there are others. For example, the Martells are reliving the Lannisters. The results are not complete inversions, but they are different since the places have moved we have different pieces on the board...almost like a giant game of cyvasse...different Houses set in place...similar circumstances...differing results. Recall how the game of Cyvasse is played. Each player sets up a shield to conceal how they setup their pieces. Think of the shield as the warding of the hinge on the Wall. Once the pieces are in place, the shield is removed, and play begins.
This revelation came during a conversation with min while she was working on her Hinges of the World essay where she describes how the shape of the Wall is like a sword without a hilt. The east is the straight sword, while the west is like a serpent. No matter how the Children of the Forest and their greenseers reset the Cyvasse game, the outcome is less than perfect. The Wall is warded like a lock on a door. The warded hinge is what holds the physical door called the Wall in place, and it was closed long ago when the Others were defeated. Opening or changing it causes wanted and unwanted side effects. The wheel of time has circled around again and the seasonal cycles of rebirth, life, and death has begun anew. We can see evidence that the hinge has been tampered with by examining Quaithe's instructions to Dany:
Dany’s wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. “Where would you have me go?” she asked.
“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”
In other words, if she wants to navigate this mirrored reality she has to do the opposite of whatever her natural inclination is.
The Tourney at Harrenhal was ground zero for when the wheel of time reversed. The evidence is the number of inverted parallels:
The daughter of Harrenhal began the tourney as the queen of love and beauty, and was defended by her four brothers. The inverted parallel was Lyanna, who had three brothers and one close friend (Howland). She chased off three squires with a tourney sword defending Howland. Later on the Knight of the Laughing Tree defeats the three knights of the squires, and Lyanna is crowned the Queen of Love and Beauty.
Rhaegar’s search for the Knight of the Laughing Tree is the reverse of Howland’s search for a way to become a knight.
Meera’s account says Rhaegar never found the Knight, just the shield hanging from a tree. The reverse of this is Howland’s success in finding a way to become a knight, and he painted his shield with a laughing weirwood tree.
Jaime’s investiture into the Kingsguard was also in recognition for his part in helping bring down the Kingswood Brotherhood, which was a group of bandits that gained notoriety for kidnapping nobles and holding them for ransom. The parallel inversion is that there was a group of people responsible for kidnapping Lyanna, and while their true identities remain hidden, it was Rhaegar that took the blame.
The Kingswood Brotherhood, King Aerys's detachment, the Brotherhood Without Banners, Gregor Clegane's raiding party, and Arianne's group that abducted Myrcella are all parallels with each other. Their fates are a repeated pattern on the wheel of time. In my study of the Cat of the Canals chapter there is some symbolism that signifies that Winterfell was struck by lighting, and it was that lightning strike that reversed the wheel of time. This is why the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners is nicknamed "The Lightning Lord". Beric's men each mirror men from the Kingswood Brotherhood, King Aerys's detachment, Gregor's Clegane's raiders, and Arianne's group of friends. The number significant characters in each group are roughly the same and have similar characteristics. Take Lem Lemoncloak of the Brotherhood Without Banners for example. His physical description fits Ser Gerold Hightower, but living amongst the commoners would be more like something Ser Arthur Dayne would do. His name (Lem Lemoncloak) and the dirty yellow color of his cloak connects him to Arianne's milk brother, "Drey", whose brother is the Knight of Lemonwood. Lem's leader, Beric Dondarrion, has a squire named Edric Dayne. I saw enough parallels with Edric to suspect that he might be the real Aegon, with the irony being that his group abducted Arya. Arya, of course, is said to be very much like Lyanna. I had to drop Edric as a candidate for Aegon when someone pointed out that he was too young. Edric was only 12 years old when Arya met him, while the real Aegon should have been 14 or 15 years old, BUT since I don't believe Rhaegar abducted Lyanna in the first place, then the parallel is complete. Edric isn't the real Aegon while Rhaegar isn't the real kidnapper, but Edric does fit another profile.
Edric told Arya that he was Jon's milk brother, because they were both nursed by Wylla. Edric said Wylla was Jon's mother. I believe Wylla is actually Ashara, and that she is a parallel to Sansa who is also in disguise as Petyr's daughter Alayne. Alayne is living at "home" with her "father" Petyr, while Ashara is living at her real home of Starfall with her real father, disguised as Wylla. Ned wasn't lying when he said Wylla was Jon's mother. Ned and Ashara together mirror Samwell and Gilly. Gilly is taking care of Mance Raydar's son, Aemon Steelsong, and is raising him as Sam's son at Horn Hill. Meanwhile, her true son, Monster, is being raised at the Wall. Ned brought his real son, Jon, home, but sent the mother home to Starfall, where she ended up nursing her nephew, Edric Dayne. Jon is also at the Wall, just like Monster. Since Mance is the King Beyond the Wall, I had thought that maybe Edric was Rhaegar's son, but he's too young, unless he is Ned's 2nd bastard son with Ashara - which would make his nickname "Ned" a whole lotta sense.
I'm hoping this post gave you a taste of how I think the wheel of time is playing out in Westeros. Daenerys did break the wheel when she hatched her dragons, and it sent the historical events hurtling in reverse. The order of the major timeline has been unfolding in reverse. Think about Jon Snow for a moment. He is replaying the tale of the Night's King. Recall that the Night's King was a Lord Commander who suffered a mutiny and was taken down by the Lord of Winterfell in partnership with the King Beyond the Wall. At the end of Dance we have that very same historical event playing out. Jon was taken down by mutiny, ignited by a letter sent by the Lord of Winterfell who claims to have the King Beyond the Wall in a cage. Meanwhile we have Arianne as a stand in for Dorne, on her way to Griffin's Roost to make an marriage proposal to Young Griff, who came to Westeros by way of the RHOYNE - he is the stand in for the Rhoynar and Nymeria who married the Prince of Dorne. The sexes of the two houses have reversed, and I suspect the outcome will also be reversed, and no marriage or alliance will take place. Also - we have Cersei as our Andal representative dealing with the Faith. Recall that the Andals invaded Westeros with the symbol of their faith burned into their foreheads, but when they were defeated by the Targaryens, the Targaryens first adopted their faith, and then put down the Faith Militant. Now the Faith Militant has been restored, and I believe that they will be the ones to dislodge Cersei from her throne - well, they basically already have by having King Tommen and Queen Margaery under their control.
Well, I hope I haven't confused you as much as this last season has confused me. May the old gods and new bless George with good health and preserve him until he finishes both Winds and Spring so that we all learn how the Song of Ice and Fire will really play out.