Bran Chapter AGOT with the three-eyed crow

[the smiling weirwood]

I thought of Stoneheart.

I don't know why, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

I think perhaps that the armor might not be literal, but rather metaphorical. The meaning of the empty visor and the dark blood is clear enough. It's something without a soul and really creepy.

Now that I started thinking along those lines, might it not be a future Arya? Both Sandor and Jaime, who I am assuming to be the two lesser shadows, are on Arya's List. Perhaps she loses her face and becomes a harbinger of death...
That theory doesn't seem as strong to me personally because Arya is already accounted for in the vision...and it just lacks a certain ring of possibility.

Just felt I should throw those two stones into the pond. Maybe the ripples will provide more insight.

Edit.

Wait, scrap that. I have a better question, are the things he sees things that *are* or things that will or may be? Do we know what the phrasing of the shadows mean? As in, why say shadows when they obviously mean people. Or is it that they aren't real people, or won't be? Or is the crow just being purposefully obtuse and prophetic?

 

[Boaz]

Bazza, good thinking. I'm not sold on it, but I always like new ways of looking at things.

 

[Bazza]

Thanks Boaz. Weirwood, that's a good point, why are some shadows and some not? I can see Jaime being a shadow because the crow doesn't want him to see his face since it causes him so much fear/pain. As for the other two, I don't have a good answer. Figures in our dreams often appear as shadows without distinct faces. However, he does know his family's faces very well, so they don't appear as shadows. The fact that the Hound has a Dog's head seems that it is more of a symbol and not what he looks like. Does everyone else around these 3 unique shadows and his family also appear as shadows but none are of note?

I interpret what Bran sees as how things "are" at this point in time. All the events he sees during his unconscious state seem to be happening concurrently. The death of Lady (Eddard pleading to the king) and his mother on the ship south to KL definitely occur near enough at the same time. Jon at the wall sleeping, forgetting what warmth feels like strikes me as him being at the wall somewhat recently ie when Eddard and company set off south. And the dragons stirring by Asshai, could mean Viserys and Dany marrying Khal Drogo and stirring up his khalasar, finally emerging as a possible threat to Westeros. Or the stirring of the dragons inside the eggs (them emitting heat). The only prophetic part of this vision I think is the crow telling Bran that winter is coming.

Also I don't really see how this fits in with anything, but Sansa is very unnerved by Ilyn Payne, sensing great darkness in his presence. Even her wolf doesn't like him, and we know that these wolves have keen senses when it comes to hidden dangers.

"The king is gone hunting, but i know he will be pleased to see you when he returns," the queen was saying to the two knights who knelt before her, but Sansa could not take her eyes off the third man. He seemed to feel the weight of her gaze. slowly he turned his head. Lady growled. A terror as overwhelming as anything Sansa Stark had ever felt filled her suddenly. She stepped backward and bumped into someone..." who turns out to be the Hound. "You are shaking girl, do I frighten you so much?" He did, and had since she had first laid eyes on the ruin that fire had made of his face, though it seemed to her now that he was not half so terrifying as the other."

In fact, Lady growls at him two separate times in this chapter. The second time, Sansa isn't afraid, but the wolf still growls. Could he somehow fit into the description of this third shadow? What is house payne's sigil? Ah HA! Ser Ilyn is my faceless man!

 

[scalem X]

I see the faceless men more like guys like Jaqen h'ghar to be honest. He doesn't fit the profile.

Hell everyone can fit the description... Tyrion wasn't there right, but shae calls him her giant (an armor of stone=casterly rock) and indeed he's not big enough to have a face when he opens his visor, lol.

 

[Koopa]

Okay, so its probably not the king then, so who else was there, if we go and look at the chapters concerning that part of brans's vision? Perhaps we can deduce it from the ones that are present.

For a second i was thinking the area, and the stronghold of darry being the third shadow.

It is made out of stone, (2 possible explanation about the blood)

1) and lots of blood is spilled there.
(when lady is killed, when the northerners kill the ones inside, ...) and when blood is old it becomes black.

2) The Darry (or the people of that castle) where targaryen followers,there where still Targaryen tapestries hastily tucked away, their motto (targaryen) is fire and blood, their sigil is black and red. ...

 

[pan naranus]

...

"A giant in armor made of stone."

Or perhaps a stone giant? What other icon might a stone giant represent? What guards the way into Braavos, the home of the Faceless Men, a guild of assassins, bringers of death?

"The Titan of Braavos. Old Nan had told them stories of the Titan back in Winterfell. He was a giant, as tall as any mountain".

Why not littlefinger then, his family took the titan as there emblem....

I do believe that the shadow is the mountain. It makes so much sense, portraying the ungregor and the Soule of the living one in the same description. And remember, it is a dream, it doesn't need to obey the annoying physical reality of Gregor simply not there.

 

[Boaz]

The thing I like most about the idea of a Faceless Man is that it means GRRM has even one more plot line that he started four or five books in advance.

 

[Young stormlord]

And what if the giant with the armor of stone is Jeoffrey, our little dead a**. He always loved to be begged, all he gave to the world was pain and blood, and he quite literarly commands over the Hound and poor little Jaime of the Kingsguard.
On the other hand, I like the idea that the shaddow is Derry castle. If Storms End can have a personality, so can that castle too

 

[Bazza]

And remember, it is a dream, it doesn't need to obey the annoying physical reality of Gregor simply not there.

That may be, but the rest of what Bran sees when scrying seems to obey a certain physical reality. The crow is trying to show him the important events taking place to the south and the east. It wants to impress upon him that only he and Jon are left in the North to face the first winds of winter. Where it diverges from reality are the shapes that these shadows take to portray something other than their literal meaning. Whether this shadow is a person, place, or entity, it surrounds the Starks and I believe it is there on the Kingsroad. I really do find it odd though, that it seems to react to Bran's scrying...

 

[the smiling weirwood]

Perhaps then, it is a god. Could it not be the shadow of war? Or perhaps the shadow of the Warrior?

 

[Eulalia]

I vote with the Smiling Weirwood, for the shadow of the
Warrior God.

 

[Tansy]

Could it be some sentient awarenenss (Shadow of the coming WInter?) of the Others then, trying to ensure their are no Starks in the North when Winter arrives?

They are tied pretty closely to the Wall and watch and also they hare descendents of the first men. Does having a Stark in Winterfell/North/on the Wall help keep the Others back?

 

[Bazza]

Wait, I've got it!


It's HODOR!

 

[Sereph]

First time i read this i automatically assumed it was Gregor, the same as one of the first posts. I assumed that the 'nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood' in reference to the stone giant makes it Un-Gregor, as in my mind he's going to be full of nothing but hate when he comes back.

Please be gentle, this is my first post

 

[Boaz]

Welcome, Sereph. We have a policy of showing only kindness to new posters... but this ends after fifteen posts or so... then we'll feed you to the sharks!

 

[Syphon of Oor-Tael]

I agree with the new guy, though. Everything I remember points to the horrific experiments that that weird maester is doing to his body. It can't be anything else.

 

[The Imp]

First time i read this i automatically assumed it was Gregor, the same as one of the first posts. I assumed that the 'nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood' in reference to the stone giant makes it Un-Gregor, as in my mind he's going to be full of nothing but hate when he comes back.

Please be gentle, this is my first post

Welcome, and I agree. My first thought was Gregor

 

[Raven]

And what if the giant with the armor of stone is Jeoffrey, our little dead a**.

On this one, I can categorically state that the answer is 'no'. On another board, I once encountered someone who had this theory and stuck to it like glue. I was going to WorldCon and he made me promise to ask GRRM about it. The reply was simply, 'that person is wrong' - one of the few times I've ever seen GRRM flat out reject a theory. (I suspect it was because it was so far out of left field that he was caught by surprise.)

 

[TK-421]

Shot down that theory.

 

[Syphon of Oor-Tael]

From the mouth of the author to your ears. That's as hard a gunning down as you can get.