#sybelle glover

[thenorthsource]

NORTHERN LADIES:

Catelyn Stark / Donella Hornwood / Jyana Reed / Barbrey Dustin / Bethany Bolton / Lyessa Flint / Sybelle Glover / Maege Mormont

[velcryons]

Relations of House Velaryon: House Locke

Lord Ondrew Locke Once one of the most sought after strategists and warrior of the North, Ondrew has since retired to Oldcastle to live our the rest of his days, toothless and gray. Despite this, he's still bold and outspoken, being fiercely loyal to the Starks despite being in Bolton hands.

Ser Donnel Locke The youngest and only son to make it to adulthood of Lord Ondrew Locke. Quick witted and skilled with a sword, Ser Donnel is one of Robb Stark's sworn swords, slain along with the King at the Red Wedding. Before his death, he married Lady Laenaera Velaryon. Though it was a political match, it is said the two were happy either way.

Lady Sybelle Locke Wife of Robett Glover and Lady of Deepwood Motte. With the same sharp mind as her aged father, Lady Sybelle is a force to be reckoned with at the best of times. During the siege of Deepwood Motte by the Ironborn, Lady Sybelle and her children are taken captive. She is freed by Stannis Baratheon.

Robb Locke The only son of Donnel and his lady wife, Laenaera, before his murder at the Twins. Named for Robb Stark, Robb is a shy boy, preferring reading and other quiet activities instead of the usual antics of the other boys of Oldcastle. Robb never met his father before his death.

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: The King's Prize (Asha II) [Chapter 42]

Asha Greyjoy rode in the baggage train, in a covered wayn with two huge iron-rimmed wheels, fettered at wrist and ankle and watched over day and night by a She-Bear who snored worse than any man. His Grace King Stannis was taking no chances on his prize escaping captivity. He meant to carry her to Winterfell, to display her there in chains for the lords of the north to see, the kraken's daughter bound and broken, proof of his power.

Almighty tree, show me Stannis Baratheon's power.

+.+.+

Between Deepwood Motte and Winterfell lay one hundred leagues of forest. Three hundred miles as the raven flies. "Fifteen days," the knights told each other.

"Robert would have done it in ten," Asha heard Lord Fell boasting. His grandsire had been slain by Robert at Summerhall; somehow this had elevated his slayer to godlike prowess in the grandson's eyes. "Robert would have been inside Winterfell a fortnight ago, thumbing his nose at Bolton from the battlements."

[...]

This king lives in his brother's shadow, Asha thought.

I'm guessing the brother inferiority complex will be present when Jon becomes king.

In truth, the young lord commander and her king had more in common than either one would ever be willing to admit. Stannis had been a younger son living in the shadow of his elder brother, just as Jon Snow, bastard-born, had always been eclipsed by his trueborn sibling, the fallen hero men had called the Young Wolf. Both men were unbelievers by nature, mistrustful, suspicious. The only gods they truly worshiped were honor and duty. - Melisandre I, ADWD

+.+.+

"No man has ever died from bending his knee," her father had once told her. "He who kneels may rise again, blade in hand. He who will not kneel stays dead, stiff legs and all."

Does that count as another Asha / Arya similarity?

+.+.+

Qarl and Tris and the rest who had survived the wolfswood were all she had to care about. Only nine remained. We ragged nine, Cromm named them. He was the worst wounded.

Nine? She had two hundred men and now she has nine.

Damn, I was wrong at the time, maybe she should have stayed in the castle.

+.+.+

Stannis had given her their lives. Yet she sensed no true mercy in the man. He was determined, beyond a doubt. Nor did he lack for courage. Men said he was just … and if his was a harsh, hard-handed sort of justice, well, life on the Iron Islands had accustomed Asha Greyjoy to that. All the same, she could not like this king. Those deep-set blue eyes of his seemed always slitted in suspicion, cold fury boiling just below their surface. Her life meant little and less to him. She was only his hostage, a prize to show the north that he could vanquish the ironborn.

Stating the obvious. The man does not pass the vibe check.

+.+.+

Her very womanhood seemed to offend him. Men from the green lands liked their women soft and sweet in silk, she knew, not clad in mail and leather with a throwing axe in each hand. But her short acquaintance with the king at Deepwood Motte convinced her that he would have been no more fond of her in a gown. Even with Galbart Glover's wife, the pious Lady Sybelle, he had been correct and courteous but plainly uncomfortable. This southron king seemed to be one of those men to whom women are another race, as strange and unfathomable as giants and grumkins and the children of the forest. The She-Bear made him grind his teeth as well.

+.+.+

Even prisoners have ears, and she had heard all the talk at Deepwood Motte, when King Stannis and his captains were debating this march. Ser Justin had opposed it from the start, along with many of the knights and lords who had come with Stannis from the south. But the wolves insisted; Roose Bolton could not be suffered to hold Winterfell, and the Ned's girl must be rescued from the clutches of his bastard. 

The mountain clans have doomed Stannis and I'm loving it.

+.+.+

The king cut him off. "We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right." Stannis rose to his feet. "I am not Robert. But we will march, and we will free Winterfell … or die in the attempt."

I believe you, ellipsis of truth.

+.+.+

Whatever doubts his lords might nurse, the common men seemed to have faith in their king. Stannis had smashed Mance Rayder's wildlings at the Wall and cleaned Asha and her ironborn out of Deepwood Motte; he was Robert's brother, victor in a famous sea battle off Fair Isle, the man who had held Storm's End all through Robert's Rebellion.

Mance Rayder and his ragtag army were PARLEYING.

You had two hundred men, and ABANDONED THE CASTLE. He didn't even smash you, the mountain clans did!

Zero credit. None.

+.+.+

Stannis need only bloody Bolton, and the northmen will abandon him."

So you hope, thought Asha, but first the king must bloody him. Only a fool deserts the winning side.

Trying to think of who this could be hinting at.

+.+.+

It made no matter. Her father's lands would never be hers, no matter whom she married. The ironborn were not a forgiving people, and Asha had been defeated twice. Once at the kingsmoot by her uncle Euron, and again at Deepwood Motte by Stannis. More than enough to stamp her as unfit to rule.

It's true, that will be a problem. Asha needs a big victory for the ironborn.

+.+.+

"Do you have brothers?" Asha asked her keeper.

"Sisters," Alysane Mormont replied, gruff as ever. "Five, we were. All girls. Lyanna is back on Bear Island. Lyra and Jory are with our mother. Dacey was murdered."

"The Red Wedding."

With their mother where?

The last time we saw Maege Mormont she was supposed to be sailing up the Neck to Greywater Watch. I would love to know how Lyra and Jory got to her.

+.+.+

"Aye." Alysane stared at Asha for a moment. "I have a son. He's only two. My daughter's nine."

"You started young."

"Too young. But better that than wait too late."

A stab at me, Asha thought, but let it be.

The probability that Asha's pregnant is increasing.

+.+.+

"No. My children were fathered by a bear." Alysane smiled. Her teeth were crooked, but there was something ingratiating about that smile. "Mormont women are skinchangers. We turn into bears and find mates in the woods. Everyone knows."

I'm surprised the Mormonts aren't ostracized from the rest of the north.

+.+.+

The king stood outside his tent, staring into the nightfire. What does he see there? Victory? Doom? The face of his red and hungry god? His eyes were sunk in deep pits, his close-cropped beard no more than a shadow across his hollow cheeks and bony jawbone. Yet there was power in his stare, an iron ferocity that told Asha this man would never, ever turn back from his course.

We love a stupid stubborn man.

+.+.+

"Torrhen's Square is not worth the mud beneath my heels. It is Winterfell that matters."

"Strike off these irons and let me help you take it, Sire. Your Grace's royal brother was renowned for turning fallen foes into friends. Make me your man."

"The gods did not make you a man. How can I?" Stannis turned back to the nightfire and whatever he saw dancing there amongst the orange flames.

Ser Justin Massey grasped Asha by the arm and pulled her inside the royal tent. "That was ill judged, my lady," he told her. "Never speak to him of Robert."

I should have known better. Asha knew how it went with little brothers. She remembered Theon as a boy, a shy child who lived in awe, and fear, of Rodrik and Maron. They never grow out of it, she decided. A little brother may live to be a hundred, but he will always be a little brother. 

Bran is also a little brother, are we going to see that play out too?

+.+.+

"Would that we were ravens," Justin Massey said on the fourth day of the march, the day the snow began to fall. Only a few small flurries at first. Cold and wet, but nothing they could not push through easily.

But it snowed again the next day, and the day after, and the day after that. 

+.+.+

On the third day of snow, the king's host began to come apart. Whilst the southron knights and lordlings struggled, the men of the northern hills fared better. Their garrons were sure-footed beasts that ate less than palfreys, and much less than the big destriers, and the men who rode them were at home in the snow. Many of the wolves donned curious footwear. Bear-paws, they called them, queer elongated things made with bent wood and leather strips. Lashed onto the bottoms of their boots, the things somehow allowed them to walk on top of the snow without breaking through the crust and sinking down to their thighs.

Bwahahahaha.

+.+.+

Some had bear-paws for their horses too, and the shaggy little garrons wore them as easily as other mounts wore iron horseshoes … but the palfreys and destriers wanted no part of them. 

Guys I'm starting to lose hope for a Dothraki Christmas.

We could have had it all! :(

+.+.+

On the fifth day of the storm, the baggage train crossed a rippling expanse of waist-high snowdrifts that concealed a frozen pond. When the hidden ice cracked beneath the weight of the wagons, three teamsters and four horses were swallowed up by the freezing water, along with two of the men who tried to rescue them. 

Foreshadowing for the The Night Lamp theory.

Long story short, Stannis will use a beacon of light to trick the Frey army into travelling over a frozen lake.

We'll cover it all in Theon I TWOW.

+.+.+

That was the night that Asha first heard the queen's men muttering about a sacrifice—an offering to their red god, so he might end the storm. "The gods of the north have unleashed this storm on us," Ser Corliss Penny said.

[...]

The king said nothing. But he heard. Asha was certain of that. He sat at the high table as a dish of onion soup cooled before him, hardly tasted, staring at the flame of the nearest candle with those hooded eyes, ignoring the talk around him. 

Speaking of foreshadowing, I think we all know what this is pointing to.

+.+.+

Asha thought she had known cold on Pyke, when the wind came howling off the sea, but that was nothing compared to this. This is a cold that drives men mad.

What are you saying about Canadians and Russians, George?

+.+.+

Later, when Ser Corliss Penny wondered aloud whether an entire army had ever frozen to death in a winter storm, the wolves laughed. "This is no winter," declared Big Bucket Wull. "Up in the hills we say that autumn kisses you, but winter fucks you hard. This is only autumn's kiss."

Peak asshole behaviour. Big fan of Big Bucket Wull.

+.+.+

"A sacrifice will prove our faith still burns true, Sire," Clayton Suggs had told the king. And Godry the Giantslayer said, "The old gods of the north have sent this storm upon us. Only R'hllor can end it. We must give him an unbeliever."

"Half my army is made up of unbelievers," Stannis had replied. "I will have no burnings. Pray harder."

No burnings today, and none tomorrow … but if the snows continue, how long before the king's resolve begins to weaken? Asha had never shared her uncle Aeron's faith in the Drowned God, but that night she prayed as fervently to He Who Dwells Beneath the Waves as ever the Damphair had. 

... good question ...

+.+.+

The cold count, Asha heard it named. The baggage train suffered the worst: dead horses, lost men, wayns overturned and broken. "The horses founder in the snow," Justin Massey told the king. "Men wander off or just sit down to die."

"Let them," King Stannis snapped. "We press on."

The northmen fared much better, with their garrons and their bear-paws. Black Donnel Flint and his half-brother Artos only lost one man between them. The Liddles, the Wulls, and the Norreys lost none at all. One of Morgan Liddle's mules had gone astray, but he seemed to think the Flints had stolen him.

+.+.+

On the twenty-sixth day of the fifteen-day march, the last of the vegetables was consumed. On the thirty-second day, the last of the grain and fodder. Asha wondered how long a man could live on raw, half-frozen horse meat.

Go home, Stannis.

+.+.+

Finally, after a nightmarish day when the column advanced a bare mile and lost a dozen horses and four men, Lord Peasebury turned against the northmen. "This march was madness. More dying every day, and for what? Some girl?"

"Ned's girl," said Morgan Liddle. He was the second of three sons, so the other wolves called him Middle Liddle, though not often in his hearing. 

[...]

"Ned's girl," echoed Big Bucket Wull. "And we should have had her and the castle both if you prancing southron jackanapes didn't piss your satin breeches at a little snow."

I'm stupid, is this where Middle Brittle comes from? Bwah!

The armorer considered that a moment. "Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day." - Jon I, ACOK

+.+.+

"Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned's little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue."

How can I not stan Big Bucket Wull?

+.+.+

Even in his bulky fur cloak and heavy armor, Stannis looked like a man with one foot in the grave. 

Every once in a while George abandons the art of subtlety.

+.+.+

The next day the king's scouts chanced upon an abandoned crofters' village between two lakes—a mean and meagre place, no more than a few huts, a longhall, and a watchtower. 

[...]

Asha crawled out from under her sleeping furs and pushed her way out of the tent, knocking aside the wall of snow that had sealed them in during the night. Her irons clanked as she climbed to her feet and took a breath of the icy morning air. The snow was still falling, even more heavily than when she'd crawled inside the tent. The lakes had vanished, and the woods as well. She could see the shapes of other tents and lean-tos and the fuzzy orange glow of the beacon fire burning atop the watchtower, but not the tower itself. The storm had swallowed the rest.

Night Lamp things.

+.+.+

Somewhere ahead Roose Bolton awaited them behind the walls of Winterfell, but Stannis Baratheon's host sat snowbound and unmoving, walled in by ice and snow, starving.

Sounds like he's a wildling.

Final thoughts:

The Kraken's Daughter

The Wayward Bride

The King's Prize

Someone on Reddit made the great observation that despite her self-assurance, Asha is always defined by (male) others.

-> return to menu <-

[agentrouka-blog]

Apart from Jonsa, what Asoiaf pairing you find interesting. It doesn't have to be healthy or needs a lot of investment on your part like you have towards Jonsa. Any pairing that interests you in a meta way?

None of these are very inspiring to me in a meta-writing capacity (barring a specific prompt) or I would have already done it, I imagine, but I like the idea of them a lot:

Big fan of Robett and Sybelle Glover.

Arianne and Daemon Sand

I have a soft spot for Brienne and Hyle Hunt.

Garlan and Leonette.

If done right, the reunion/mutual ending of Jaime and Cersei is likely to be very moving.

If Arya was older, I would be very fond of Arya/Gendry, I imagine but for now the ages are incompatible.

Justin Massey is someone I ship with no one in particular but I love how shamelessly he is heiress-hunting.

HOTD has given me vague feelings for Alicent/Criston Cole against my will.

Asha/Alysane has nice tension.

In a purely meta way, any couple could potentially be interesting. Analysis can be very critical, or simply look at what GRRM is doing with a couple. That's very different from liking or enjoying a couple, I think.

[uncrvwned]

Love  is  the  bane  of  honor,  the  death  of  duty.  What  is  honor  compared  to  a  woman's  love?  What  is  duty  against  the  feel  of  a  newborn  son  in  your  arms  ...  or  the  memory  of  a  brother's  smile?  Wind  and  words.  Wind  and  words.  We  are  only  human,  and  the  gods  have  fashioned  us  for  love.  That  is  our  great  glory,  and  our  great  tragedy.

#𝖚𝖓𝖈𝖗𝖛𝖜𝖓𝖊𝖉  —  a  book  canon  asoiaf  multimuse  shaped  by  eliza  .

                            ✵  independent                             ✵  mutuals only                             ✵  18+                             ✵  feat. catelyn stark, ellaria sand, willas tyrell && many more                             ✵  mobile muses under the cut. all ocs have accessible bios.

blogroll ; annie cresta luke castellan hp multi tess servopolous peter & edmund pevensie

affiliates/mains ; @pulchramsolis / @clutchofmuses @blossomhcir

primary. catelyn tully. deria martell (oc). ellaria sand. willas tyrell.

secondary. edmure tully. harwin strong. jeyne westerling. jon snow. loras tyrell. maris rivers (oc). rhaenys i targaryen. samantha tarly.

tertiary. davos seaworth. jhogo. jon connington. leonette fossoway. lyssa peake (oc). rowena arryn (oc). sybelle glover.

testing ocs. cassana bolton (leyla tanlar). serala (amita suman). steffar blacktyde (leo suter).

[redwolf17]

Ik a fic is GOOD when I have my own headcanons about someone's else fanfic. My latest is that Robb decides to make a new crown for whoever he marries next because the thought of giving her Jeyne's is too painful, the way Jeyne fought Sybell to keep hers in Feast 😭

Also you mentioning that it had been 2 to 3 years Olyvar Sansa and co spent in Meereen really shocked me lol.

It was really interesting reading the outlines for your Irri chapter like the Robett Glover stuff

Your head canon is now actual canon, ow my heart 😭😭😭

Yeah, doing the time gap has had some weird consequences, including the prolonged Meereen stay.

Ooh, cool, wasn’t sure how many people would actually look at the doc, but it was kinda fun putting it together. Especially when I saw how short my original Irri “outline” was!

[fyrethrone]

˚      ❛    𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 𝚄𝙿𝙳𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙳      !

SYBELLE  of  HOUSE  KARSTARK  is  currently  seeking  their MISCELLANEOUS  connection.  with  the  faceclaim(s)  of    UTP ( 26 - 40 ),   they   will   preferably   be   the   ANY  LIEGE / LORD / LADY   of   ANY NORTHERN HOUSES ( some suggestions : second son of house stark; houses mormont, umber, glover, hornwood ).  you  MAY  BUT  DO  NOT  HAVE  TO  contact  the  mun  at   @HALFVVATER     —      (  read more about it here. )

[gameofthronestldr]

Sybelle Glover

Culture: Northmen

Titles: Lady of Deepwood Motte

Spouse: Robett Glover

Children:

Gawen Glover

Erena Glover

Allegiance:

House Locke

House Glover

History

Lady Sybelle Glover, originally from House Locke, is the wife of Robett Glover and the mother of Gawen and Erena Glover.  Following the Ironborn capture of Deepwood Motte, she and her children Gawen and Erena Glover are thrown into prison by the Ironborn. Due to King Robb Stark's failure to come to the aid of House Glover, Robett refuses to assist his half-brother Jon Snow and sister Sansa Stark's efforts to retake Winterfell from House Bolton, who had helped them drive out the Ironborn earlier. 

Personality

Sybelle is a pious woman who often prays in Deepwood's godswood.

[eluas-cinnamon]

« Whether Sybelle Glover would find any joy in the fall of Moat Cailin, Asha could not say. Lady Sybelle all but lived in her godswood, praying for her children and her husband’s safe return. Another prayer like to go unanswered. Her heart tree is as deaf and blind as our Drowned God. »

[jackoshadows]

In the books:

Wex stole after the two, a woman and a boy. He must have stayed downwind, so the wolf would not catch his scent."

"He knows where they went," Lord Wyman said.

Davos understood. "You want the boy."

"Roose Bolton has Lord Eddard's daughter. To thwart him White Harbor must have Ned's son … and the direwolf. The wolf will prove the boy is who we say he is, should the Dreadfort attempt to deny him. That is my price, Lord Davos. Smuggle me back my liege lord, and I will take Stannis Baratheon as my king." - Davos, ADwD

GRRM interview:

He was asked where is Rickon and what will happen to him (a reader who forgot a part of ADWD it seems). GRRM said Rickon will appear in TWOW.

GRRM about Osha, SSM, Deeper than Swords: 26 Mar 2014 (its around the 56 min mark)

Q: Can you think of instances in seeing these portrayals, the actor’s take that gave you a new perspective?

GRRM: When Osha comes back in the books, it’s possible, I haven’t actually gotten to it yet that she will be influenced by what I’ve seen, that I will write a more interesting character.

Unicorns in TWoW, SSM: Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Startalk: 17 May 2019

Unicorns will appear in TWOW and GRRM will have a "unique" take on them

GRRM SSM,  8 Sept 2014

Q: Let us quote J. K. Rowling, queen of fantasy: “Fantasy has its own laws. Some things are prohibited. No sex near unicorns. ”

A: There are unicorns in my next book, and probably sex not far from unicorns. There's a lot of sex in "The Iron Throne" despite the dragons.

GRRM notes while writing season 4 of GOT, Vanity fair article:

Speaking of which: Martin leaves a little note for the producers when writing about Ramsay’s flesh-eating hounds, whom we see hunting down a girl for sport.

[N.B. A note for future reference. A season or two down the line Ramsay’s pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves, so we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes]

This is the alignment of houses in the North:

Houses supporting the Boltons: Frey, Dustin and Ryswell. Manderly (Fake), Umber, Locke, Hornwood, Stout, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates  - all most probably not loyal to the Boltons

Northern houses with Stannis Baratheon, fighting to free Arya Stark: Mountain clans - Flints, Norreys, Wulls and Liddles, Glover, Mormont, Umber, Karstark (Fake)

Note: Manderly has promised that he will be leige lord to Stannis if Davos gets him Rickon. Many of Roose’s bannermen (Umber is seen talking to Manderly, Stout consults with Umber etc.) maybe aware of what Manderly is planning and know about Rickon Stark.

House Glover is also interesting. Sybelle Glover declares for Stannis after he defeats the Iron Born at Deepwood Motte. Robett Glover is plotting with Manderly at White Harbor with respect to Rickon.  Arya Stark helps free Robett Glover and other Northmen at Harrenhal. Galbart Glover is in the Neck with Robb’s decree legitimizing Jon Snow and naming him KITN.

This is the current weather in the North in ADwD:

“Lord Stannis is lost in the storm,” said Lady Dustin. “He’s leagues away, dead or dying. Let winter do its worst. A few more days and the snows will bury him and his army both.” - A ghost in Winterfell, ADwD

---

The first flakes came drifting down as the sun was setting in the west. By nightfall snow was coming down so heavily that the moon rose behind a white curtain, unseen. -  The Turncloak, ADwD

---

The yard was a white wilderness, full of half-heard sounds that echoed strangely amidst the storm.The icy trenches rose around them, knee high, then waist high, then higher than their heads.They were in the heart of Winterfell with the castle all around them, but no sign of it could be seen.They might have easily been lost amidst the Land of Always Winter,a thousand leagues beyond the Wall. - Theon, ADwD

---

Lord Bolton unrolled the parchment. “His host lies not three days’ ride from here, snowbound and starving, and I for one am tired of waiting on his pleasure.” - Theon, ADwD 

---

“The gods have turned against us,” old Lord Locke was heard to say in the Great Hall. “This is their wroth. A wind as cold as hell itself and snows that never end. We are cursed.” -  A Ghost in Winterfell, ADwD

---

By the ninth day of the storm, every camp saw the captains and commanders entering the king's tent wet and weary...and report their losses for the day.

The fifteenth day of the march came and went, and they had crossed less than half the distance.

On the twenty-sixth day...the last of the vegetables was consumed...On the thirty-second day, the last of the grain and fodder. - The Sacrifice, ADwD

---

Justin Massey looked up from his horsemeat. “The cold count last night reached eighty.” He pulled a piece of gristle from his teeth and flicked it to the nearest dog. “If we march, we will die by the hundreds.”

“We had eight hundred horses when we marched from Deepwood Motte. Last night the count was sixty-four.” That did not shock her. Almost all of their big destriers had failed, including Massey's own. Most of their palfreys were gone as well. Even the garrons of the northmen were faltering for want of fodder - The Sacrifice, ADwD

---

“Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks.” - The King’s Prize, ADwD

---

We had expected to find the king at Winterfell. This same blizzard has engulfed the castle, alas. Beneath its walls we found Mors Umber with a troop of raw green boys, waiting for the king’s coming.” - The Sacrifice, ADwD

---

The snow was following heavily outside."Wind's from the south," Yarwick observed. It's blowing the snow right up against the Wall.See?

He was right.The switchback stair was buried almost to the first landing, Jon saw, and the wooden doors of the ice cells and storerooms had vanished behind a wall of white - Jon, ADwD

This is the state of things in the North before actual Winter hits, which happens at the end of ADwD. Winter is not coming anymore, it is here in the books. This is Arya warging Nymeria in the Riverlands:

Her nights were lit by distant stars and the shimmer of moonlight on snow, but every dawn she woke to darkness. 

------

"What three new things do you know, that you did not know before?"

"I know that some men are saying that Tormo Fregar will surely be the new sealord," she answered. "Some drunken men."

"Better. And what else do you know?"

It is snowing in the riverlands, in Westeros, she almost said. - The Blind Girl, ADwD

---

The castle dominated the broad fertile valley that maps and men alike called Blackwood Vale. A vale it was, beyond a doubt, but no wood had grown here for several thousand years, be it black or brown or green. Once, yes, but axes had long since cleared the trees away. Homes and mills and holdfasts had risen where once the oaks stood tall. The ground was bare and muddy, and dotted here and there with drifts of melting snow. - Jaime, ADwD

And finally KL:

"On the window seat a raven loitered, pale, huge, its feathers ruffled. It was the largest raven that Kevan Lannister had ever seen. Larger than any hunting hawk at Casterly Rock, larger than the largest owl. Blowing snow danced around it, and the moon painted it silver.

Not silver. White. The bird is white.

The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons.

"Winter," said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. - epilogue, ADwD

Just a reminder that Rickon Stark and his direwolf are important and will be important in TWoW. One of the richest and most powerful houses in the North is backing Rickon Stark as Lord of Winterfell. Without Bran there, Rickon is the rightful heir to the North. Other Northerners in play include the Mountain clans marching for Arya Stark and the folks who know of and have Robb’s decree. And various Northern houses and clans are doing their own plotting to put a Stark in Winterfell.

Also a reminder that Stannis is stranded in a snow storm 3 days from Winterfell.

Marching from the Vale all the way to Winterfell in these harsh snowstorms,  with a Vale army - who have no experience with the harsh conditions of the North - is near impossible.

Davos, Rickon, Shaggydog and Osha are certainly going to get to WF faster than Sansa and an army. Rickon has an actual Direwolf - the symbol of house Stark. House Stark follows male-preference primogeniture law of inheritance.

The Vale have their own problems brewing with winter here. Aegon has landed in the Stormlands, there is trouble in the Riverlands and KL is in chaos. Is the army going to abandon the Vale and go North in the harshest Winterstorms, experiencing huge loss of lives just to get Sansa to Winterfell?

The show is not the books. Nonsensical show plots don’t belong in the books. I will let just leave GRRM’s own words here:

In a convention panel this year, George said on the record that he had no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline, which now makes sense perhaps.

[thenorthsource]

Lady Sybelle all but lived in her godswood, praying for her children and her husband's safe return. Another prayer like to go unanswered. Her heart tree is as deaf and blind as our Drowned God.

[makerkenzie]

In your opinion, what immediate changes would there be if Robett Glover was given command of the forces at the battle of the Greenfork, and Roose Bolton was subsequently killed while fighting in the vanguard? Obviously, this means no Red Wedding down the line, but how do you think this would affect the rest of the Stark/Tully war effort, in the months following?

I am hardly an expert on the Glovers.

But if Roose Bolton is killed early on? Then, yeah, a lot of stuff happens differently. Doesn't necessarily mean the Red Wedding (or something equally heinous) doesn't happen.

If Roose is killed at the Green Fork, then first of all, there's no more House Bolton. The Dreadfort castle and lands are up for grabs. So, that's a reward Robb can dangle in front of his loyal bannermen. And that...can go a lot of ways.

It also means the Bolton troops may or may not keep fighting for Robb. That depends a lot on how he works with them. If they decide to pack it in, then, that already takes a chunk out of the Starks' forces.

Even so: without Roose Bolton involving himself in Robb's strategy, there are no pointless sieges of Darry and Duskendale, so Robb doesn't lose a third of his troops on castles that nobody cares about. All other factors being equal, that means Robb isn't nearly so desperate to get the Freys back on his side. He still needs them, though. He just doesn't need to march straight to the Twins to do the Apology Dance for Walder Frey, which means he doesn't need to pressure Uncle Edmure to marry a Frey girl.

But speaking of getting the Freys back on his side, the bigger questions for the war going differently are: 1. Do the Lannister-Tyrells still win at the Blackwater? 2+: Does Robb still renege on his marriage pact with the Freys?

With or without Roose Bolton, we've still got the Greyjoys taking over the North, and the littlest Stark boys missing and presumed dead. We've still got Rickard Karstark throwing tantrums. We've still got the North/Riverlands alliance assuming they can negotiate independence with Stannis Baratheon, and their being completely mistaken about that. We've still got the Riverlands being surrounded on all sides by the remaining kingdoms. We've still got Robb and Cat butting heads over what to do with Jaime. We've still got Robb and Uncle Brynden failing to communicate with Uncle Edmure.

Regardless of who's in charge at the Green Fork, presumably Tywin still gets his ass handed to him at Whispering Wood, which means he needs to rethink his strategy. Without Roose Bolton, however, Tywin needs to seek out other weak links in the alliance. But here's the thing: there are plenty of weak links, especially the Freys.

If Tywin still wins at the Blackwater, then the Freys still abandon the Starks, and that's a problem for the Starks even if there's no Red Wedding. If Stannis wins at the Blackwater, meanwhile, then the Stark-Tully alliance is still in for a rude awakening when the new Baratheon regime refuses to discuss independence. The primary difference is in how much longer the war drags on.

If Robb doesn't end up married to the wrong lord's daughter, then the Freys abandon him without murdering him. It's still a problem when they abandon him following the Lannister victory at the Blackwater.

What leads up to Robb getting married to Jeyne Westerling, though? That's part of Tywin's strategy of peeling away the Starks' allies, and I doubt Roose Bolton was necessary for Sybell Spicer and Uncle Rolph to get in touch with Tywin. If Robb still marries Jeyne, then Walder Frey is still determined to host Murderous Spite Theater, and the Freys still butcher the Starks & Co. by violating guest right.

Without Roose Bolton to help plan the massacre, Murderous Spite Theater is...probably less elegant. I feel like it was Roose's idea to have the musicians play the Rains of Castamere right before the murders began. If there's no one playing the Rains of Castamere at the event of murdering the Starks, then it's easier for the Lannister regime to distance themselves from the murders, which is better for them in the long term.

With or without Roose Bolton, the North can't win the war.

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ADWD: The Wayward Bride (Asha I) [Chapter 26]

Asha Greyjoy was seated in Galbart Glover's longhall drinking Galbart Glover's wine when Galbart Glover's maester brought the letter to her.

The Greyjoys always tell on themselves.

Same chapter:

"Asha of House Greyjoy. This is my castle."

+.+.+

And that seal … the Boltons of the Dreadfort went into battle beneath pink banners spattered with little drops of blood. It only stood to reason that they would use pink sealing wax as well.

This is poison that I hold, she thought. I ought to burn it. Instead she cracked the seal. A scrap of leather fluttered down into her lap. When she read the dry brown words, her black mood grew blacker still. Dark wings, dark words. The ravens never brought glad tidings. The last message sent to Deepwood had been from Stannis Baratheon, demanding homage. This was worse. "The northmen have taken Moat Cailin."

"The Bastard of Bolton?" asked Qarl, beside her.

"Ramsay Bolton, Lord of Winterfell, he signs himself. But there are other names as well." Lady Dustin, Lady Cerwyn, and four Ryswells had appended their own signatures beneath his. Beside them was drawn a crude giant, the mark of some Umber.

Those were done in maester's ink, made of soot and coal tar, but the message above was scrawled in brown in a huge, spiky hand.

We have to focus on the huge, spiky hand.

That same handwriting is present when Jon receives his first letter from Ramsay.

Ramsay Bolton, Lord of the Hornwood, it read, in a huge, spiky hand. - Jon VI, ADWD

But huge, spiky hand is never mentioned when Jon receives the Pink Letter, so many have speculated Ramsay didn't write it.

However I would argue huge, spiky hand is implied.

The wildling gave the letter a dubious look and handed it right back. "Feels nasty … but Tormund Thunderfist had better things to do than learn to make papers talk at him. They never have any good to say, now do they?" - Jon XIII, ADWD

Tormund can't read, what's making him think the letter feels nasty?

+.+.+

It spoke of the fall of Moat Cailin, of the triumphant return of the Warden of the North to his domains, of a marriage soon to be made. The first words were, "I write this letter in the blood of ironmen," the last, "I send you each a piece of prince. Linger in my lands, and share his fate."

Asha had believed her little brother dead. Better dead than this. The scrap of skin had fallen into her lap. 

Asha learns Theon is alive, which is important for later.

+.+.+

Whether Sybelle Glover would find any joy in the fall of Moat Cailin, Asha could not say. Lady Sybelle all but lived in her godswood, praying for her children and her husband's safe return. Another prayer like to go unanswered. Her heart tree is as deaf and blind as our Drowned God. Robett Glover and his brother Galbart had ridden south with the Young Wolf. If the tales they had heard of the Red Wedding were even half-true, they were not like to ride north again. Her children are alive, at least, and that is thanks to me. Asha had left them at Ten Towers in the care of her aunts. Lady Sybelle's infant daughter was still on the breast, and she had judged the girl too delicate to expose to the rigors of another stormy crossing.

Unreliable narrator Asha Greyjoy.

Her young children would also be alive and with her if you hadn't claimed their castle.

+.+.+

"Euron has no interest in Balon's conquests. My nuncle's off chasing dragons." The Crow's Eye had summoned all the strength of the Iron Isles to Old Wyk and sailed out into the deepness of the Sunset Sea, with his brother Victarion following behind like a whipped cur. 

Lmao.

Forgive me, Vicky.

+.+.+

"We should go to Torrhen's Square and join the fight," urged Quenton Greyjoy, a distant cousin and captain of the Salty Wench.

Somehow I knew he was going to be dead by the end of this chapter.

+.+.+

Asha had four longships and not quite two hundred men … including Tristifer Botley, who could not be relied on. For all his talk of love, she could not imagine Tris rushing off to Torrhen's Square to die with Dagmer Cleftjaw.

Numbers update!

Asha has 4 longships.

Asha has 200 men.

I don't know how many men are still alive after this chapter.

And those ships are anchored on the western coast of the north. Unless there's a mission involving the Shadow Tower, the Frostfangs, or Bear Island, they're not terribly useful.

+.+.+

"I'd sooner fuck you." One quick slash unlaced her jerkin. Asha reached for her axe, but Qarl dropped his knife and caught her wrist, twisting back her arm until the weapon fell from her fingers. He pushed her back onto Glover's bed, kissed her hard, and tore off her tunic to let her breasts spill out. When she tried to knee him in the groin, he twisted away and forced her legs apart with his knees. "I'll have you now."

"Do it," she spat, "and I'll kill you in your sleep."

George would call this consensual love making.

+.+.+

She was sopping wet when he entered her. "Damn you," she said. "Damn you damn you damn you." He sucked her nipples till she cried out half in pain and half in pleasure. Her cunt became the world. She forgot Moat Cailin and Ramsay Bolton and his little piece of skin, forgot the kingsmoot, forgot her failure, forgot her exile and her enemies and her husband. Only his hands mattered, only his mouth, only his arms around her, his cock inside her. He fucked her till she screamed, and then again until she wept, before he finally spent his seed inside her womb.

[...]

She liked the feel of his smooth, soft skin beneath her fingers. She liked the way his long, straight hair brushed against his shoulders. She liked the way he kissed. She liked how he grinned when she brushed her thumbs across his nipples. The hair between his legs was a darker shade of sand than the hair on his head, but fine as down compared to the coarse black bush around her own sex. She liked that too. He had a swimmer's body, long and lean, with not a scar upon him.

[...]

Drunk, smiling, she crawled beneath the furs and took him in her mouth. Qarl stirred in his sleep, and after a moment he began to stiffen. By the time she had him hard again, he was awake and she was wet. Asha draped the furs across her bare shoulders and mounted him, drawing him so deep inside her that she could not tell who had the cock and who the cunt. This time the two of them reached their peak together.

why

+.+.+

The room was cold. Asha rose from Galbart Glover's bed and took off her torn clothes. The jerkin would need fresh laces, but her tunic was ruined. I never liked it anyway. She tossed it on the flames. The rest she left in a puddle by the bed. Her breasts were sore, and Qarl's seed was trickling down her thigh. She would need to brew some moon tea or risk bringing another kraken into the world. 

This never happens. . .

+.+.+

A shy smile, strong arms, clever fingers, and two sure swords. What more could any woman want? She would have married Qarl, and gladly, but she was Lord Balon's daughter and he was common-born, the grandson of a thrall. Too lowborn for me to wed, but not too low for me to suck his cock.

If he knocked you up, you can make him your salt wife.

+.+.+

"My sweet lady," he murmured after, in a voice still thick with sleep. "My sweet queen."

No, Asha thought, I am no queen, nor shall I ever be. 

We're still trying to figure that one out, Asha.

'Sweet lady' is almost exclusively reserved for Sansa and Catelyn in this story, but I think it would be a stretch to suggest the above has anything to do with Sansa.

+.+.+

To east and west were empty fields. Oats and barley had been growing there when Asha took the castle, only to be crushed underfoot during her attack. A series of hard frosts had killed the crops they'd planted afterward, leaving only mud and ash and wilted, rotting stalks.

+.+.+

It was an old castle, but not a strong one. She had taken it from the Glovers, and the Bastard of Bolton would take it from her. He would not flay her, though. Asha Greyjoy did not intend to be taken alive. She would die as she had lived, with an axe in her hand and a laugh upon her lips.

I respect it, Cersei.

+.+.+

If anyone fled, it was me. The memory still shamed her.

[...]

"If I stand with my other uncles …"

"… you will die outcast, with every hand against you. When you put your name before the captains you submitted yourself to their judgment. You cannot go against that judgment now. Only once has the choice of a kingsmoot been overthrown. Read Haereg."

Only Rodrik the Reader would talk of some old book whilst their lives were balanced on a sword's edge. "If you are staying, so am I," she told him stubbornly.

"A book can be as dangerous as a sword in the right hands," said Haldon. - Tyrion IV, ADWD

Rodrik the Reader will save the world.

There might be clever wordplay happening above, see if you can catch it.

+.+.+

"Don't be a fool. Euron shows the world his smiling eye tonight, but come the morrow … Asha, you are Balon's daughter, and your claim is stronger than his own. So long as you draw breath you remain a danger to him. If you stay, you will be killed or wed to the Red Oarsman. I don't know which would be worse. Go. You will not have another chance."

Is this about Euron or someone else? Why not both!

+.+.+

Asha was still at Ten Towers taking on provisions when the tidings of her marriage reached her. "My wayward niece needs taming," the Crow's Eye was reported to have said, "and I know the man to tame her." He had married her to Erik Ironmaker and named the Anvil-Breaker to rule the Iron Islands whilst he was chasing dragons. 

[...]

She had to pay her nuncle his just due. With one stroke, Euron had turned a rival into a supporter, secured the isles in his absence, and removed Asha as a threat. And enjoyed a good belly laugh too. Tris Botley said that the Crow's Eye had used a seal to stand in for her at her wedding. "I hope Erik did not insist on a consummation," she'd said.

Lol, how can you not love Euron?

Arya fans like to use this proxy wedding to support their belief that Arya is Lady of Winterfell. Nobody tell them this is a different religion, and that's the dumbest thing anyone has ever said.

+.+.+

The sound of the waves washing against a rocky shore was in her blood, but there were no waves at Deepwood Motte … only the trees, the endless trees, soldier pines and sentinels, beech and ash and ancient oaks, chestnut trees and ironwoods and firs. The sound they made was softer than the sea, and she heard it only when the wind was blowing; then the sighing seemed to come from all around her, as if the trees were whispering to one another in some language that she could not understand.

Tonight the whispering seemed louder than before. A rush of dead brown leaves, Asha told herself, bare branches creaking in the wind. 

BRAN?!

+.+.+

"It's not food I want, my lady. You know that." Tris had grown himself a thick brown beard at Deepwood. He claimed it helped to keep his face warm.

Yeah, I bet that's why.

Qarl pleased her more than all the rest together. He might shave but once a fortnight, but a shaggy beard does not make a man. - The Wayward Bride, ADWD

You ever notice there's numerous love triangles that feature one spurned man, who isn't wanted by the girl? :)

+.+.+

"Would you have me run?"

"I would have you live. I love you."

No, she thought, you love some innocent maiden who lives only in your head, a frightened child in need of your protection. "I do not love you," she said bluntly, "and I do not run."

Be fair Asha, I'm sure there's many men who fantasize about these things, whether they admit it or not.

+.+.+

"I have hostages, on Harlaw," she reminded him. "And there is still Sea Dragon Point … if I cannot have my father's kingdom, why not make one of my own?" Sea Dragon Point had not always been as thinly peopled as it was now. Old ruins could still be found amongst its hills and bogs, the remains of ancient strongholds of the First Men. In the high places, there were weirwood circles left by the children of the forest.

What a weird insertion that was.

Why in the world would a Greyjoy who worships a Drowned God mention that?

+.+.+

"You are clinging to Sea Dragon Point the way a drowning man clings to a bit of wreckage. What does Sea Dragon have that anyone could ever want? There are no mines, no gold, no silver, not even tin or iron. The land is too wet for wheat or corn."

I do not plan on planting wheat or corn.

Please learn to sow. Don't doom yourself like the other one.

+.+.+

"Do you know what I think?"

"I am about to, I suspect."

"I think the Damphair's dead. I think the Crow's Eye slit his throat for him. Ironmaker's search is just to make us believe the priest escaped. Euron is afraid to be seen as a kinslayer."

"Never let my nuncle hear you say that. Tell the Crow's Eye he's afraid of kinslaying, and he'll murder one of his own sons just to prove you wrong."

She's right, he does not care.

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

"And yet I wear a crown and you rot in chains. How is it that your Drowned God allows that when I have killed three brothers?" - The Forsaken, TWOW

He ties Dam-phair to the prow of his ship for everyone to see. Is he really worried about appearances?

+.+.+

"Even if you did find your uncle Damphair, the two of you would fail. You were both part of the kingsmoot, so you cannot say it was unlawful called, as Torgon did. You are bound to its decision by all the laws of gods and men. You—"

Asha frowned. "Wait. Torgon? Which Torgon?"

"Torgon the Latecomer."

"He was a king during the Age of Heroes." She recalled that much about him, but little else. "What of him?"

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

Asha remembered now. "Torgon came home …"

"… and said the kingsmoot was unlawful since he had not been there to make his claim. Badbrother had proved to be as mean as he was cruel and had few friends left upon the isles. The priests denounced him, the lords rose against him, and his own captains hacked him into pieces. Torgon the Latecomer became the king and ruled for forty years."

Asha took Tris Botley by the ears and kissed him full upon the lips. 

Well looky here.

Asha learns Theon is alive, and then we get this. The one time a kingsmoot was overthrown, it was because the king's eldest son Torgon wasn't present. Urr(Eur)agon the Badbrother was chosen instead.

There's only one way to interpret that, but I think the author might be playing tricks.

Only once has the choice of a kingsmoot been overthrown. Read Haereg.

Red herring.

I'm sorry, there isn't an ironborn alive who would look at Theon and think he's king material. This version, or the one from ACOK.

+.+.+

She broke off suddenly. When Tris tried to speak, she shushed him, listening. "That's a warhorn. Hagen."

[...]

"Cromm and Hagen saw them coming over the wall," Grimtongue explained.

"Just these two?" asked Asha.

"Five. We killed two before they could get over, and Harl slew another on the wallwalk. These two made it to the yard."

[...]

"How many more?" she said. "Tell me, or I'll make your dying last until the dawn."

"Many," he finally sobbed, between screams. "Thousands. Three thousand, four … aieeee … please …"

Numbers update!

Stannis has 3000-4000 men.

Stannis had come north with no more than fifteen hundred men - Davos III, ADWD

1500-2500 of those men are the mountain clans, and we desperately need most of them to survive his downfall.

+.+.+

Galbart Glover's maester had claimed the mountain clans were too quarrelsome to ever band together without a Stark to lead them. He might not have been lying. He might just have been wrong. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we'll later learn the mountain clans are only helping Stannis to restore Stark rule, yes?

+.+.+

The maester pushed forward, with blood dripping from a broken nose. "Lady Asha, I beg you, strike your banners and let me bargain for your life. You have used us fairly, and with honor. I will tell them so."

"We will exchange you for the children." Sybelle Glover's eyes were red, from tears and sleepless nights. "Gawen is four now. I missed his nameday. And my sweet girl … give me back my children, and no harm need come to you. Nor to your men."

The last part was a lie, Asha knew. She might be exchanged, perhaps, shipped back to the Iron Islands to her husband's loving arms. Her cousins would be ransomed too, as would Tris Botley and a few more of her company, those whose kin had coin enough to buy them back. For the rest it would be the axe, the noose, or the Wall. Still, they have the right to choose.

All I can think about is Theon.

"I do not speak of running. Take the black."

"The Night's Watch?" Theon let the bow unbend slowly and pointed the arrow at the ground.

"Ser Rodrik has served House Stark all his life, and House Stark has always been a friend to the Watch. He will not deny you. Open your gates, lay down your arms, accept his terms, and he must let you take the black."

A brother of the Night's Watch. It meant no crown, no sons, no wife . . . but it meant life, and life with honor. Ned Stark's own brother had chosen the Watch, and Jon Snow as well.

I have black garb aplenty, once I tear the krakens off. Even my horse is black. I could rise high in the Watch—chief of rangers, likely even Lord Commander. Let Asha keep the bloody islands, they're as dreary as she is. If I served at Eastwatch, I could command my own ship, and there's fine hunting beyond the Wall. As for women, what wildling woman wouldn't want a prince in her bed? A slow smile crept across his face. A black cloak can't be turned. I'd be as good as any man . . . - Theon VI, ACOK

+.+.+

The wooden watchtower was the tallest thing this side of the mountains, rising twenty feet above the biggest sentinels and soldier pines in the surrounding woods. "There, Captain," said Cromm, when she made the platform. Asha saw only trees and shadows, the moonlit hills and the snowy peaks beyond. Then she realized that trees were creeping closer. "Oho," she laughed, "these mountain goats have cloaked themselves in pine boughs." The woods were on the move, creeping toward the castle like a slow green tide.

This is so cool. I want to see the crannogmen fight next.

+.+.+

She thought back to a tale she had heard as a child, about the children of the forest and their battles with the First Men, when the greenseers turned the trees to warriors.

Yo, the trees are warriors!

Everything turned inside out and upside down, and Bran found himself back inside his own skin, half-buried in the snow. The burning wight loomed over him, etched tall against the trees in their snowy shrouds. It was one of the naked ones, Bran saw, in the instant before the nearest tree shook off the snow that covered it and dropped it all down upon his head.

[...]

"The snow," Bran said. "It fell on me. Buried me."

"Hid you. I pulled you out." Meera nodded at the girl. - Bran II, ADWD

Kill Melisandre. Do it.

+.+.+

"We cannot fight so many," Tris Botley said.

"We can fight as many as come, pup," insisted Cromm. "The more there are, the more the glory. Men will sing of us."

Aye, but will they sing of your courage or my folly? 

She knows the answer to that.

+.+.+

Asha was not ready to die, not here, not yet. "A living man can find the sea more easily than a dead one. Let the wolves keep their gloomy woods. We are making for the ships."

Smart girl.

Greyjoys being adamant they must die near water is my favourite thing.

+.+.+

From beyond Deepwood's mossy wooden walls came the sudden sound of trumpets.

Trumpets? Wolves with trumpets? That was wrong, but Asha had no time to ponder it. 

Here comes the loser with his trumpet to ruin a fun stealth mission.

+.+.+

As Hagen came scrambling down the watchtower steps, a wolfling's arrow caught him in the belly and sent him plunging headfirst to the ground. His daughter ran to him, wailing. "Bring her," Asha commanded. This was no time for mourning. Rolfe the Dwarf pulled the girl onto his horse, her red hair flying.

I don't know what to make of this red-headed girl.

+.+.+

Deepwood was aptly named. The trees were huge and dark, somehow threatening. Their limbs wove through one another and creaked with every breath of wind, and their higher branches scratched at the face of the moon. The sooner we are shut of here, the better I will like it, Asha thought. The trees hate us all, deep in their wooden hearts.

[...]

After the scouts had vanished into the trees, the rest of the ironborn resumed their march, but the going was slow. The trees hid the moon and stars from them, and the forest floor beneath their feet was black and treacherous. 

[...]

Asha cursed beneath her breath, wondering if it had been a mistake to leave the castle. No. If we had stayed and fought, we might all be dead by now. But it was no good blundering on through the dark either. These trees will kill us if they can. 

THIS SHOULD BE STANNIS.

Stannis should have to fight threatening trees! It's not fair he gets to weaponize them! Where's the justice!

+.+.+

Hagen's red-haired daughter seized Tris Botley by the hand to draw him off into the trees. When he refused her, she went off with Six-Toed Harl instead.

Would that I could do the same. It would be sweet to lose herself in Qarl's arms one last time. 

Sex before the final battle is a classic trope, but this is a little out there.

+.+.+

Something flew from the brush to land with a soft thump in their midst, bumping and bouncing. It was round and dark and wet, with long hair that whipped about it as it rolled. When it came to rest amongst the roots of an oak, Grimtongue said, "Rolfe the Dwarf's not so tall as he once was." Half her men were on their feet by then, reaching for shields and spears and axes. They lit no torches either, Asha had time enough to think, and they know these woods better than we ever could. Then the trees erupted all around them, and the northmen poured in howling. Wolves, she thought, they howl like bloody wolves. The war cry of the north.

[...]

"Seven," shouted Grimtongue, but beside him Lorren Longaxe sprawled with one leg twisted under him, and the shadows kept on coming, shouting and rustling. We are fighting shrubbery, Asha thought as she slew a man who had more leaves on him than most of the surrounding trees. That made her laugh.

I'm so bitter the author wasted this on Asha instead of Stannis.

+.+.+

Behind her Grimtongue shouted, "Nine, and damn you all." Hagen's daughter burst naked from beneath the trees with two wolves at her heels. Asha wrenched loose a throwing axe and sent it flying end over end to take one of them in the back. When he fell, Hagen's daughter stumbled to her knees, snatched up his sword, stabbed the second man, then rose again, smeared with blood and mud, her long red hair unbound, and plunged into the fight.

This girl is ruining the immersion.

+.+.+

The world went red and black and red again. Pain crackled up her leg like lightning, and far away she heard her northman say, "You bloody cunt," as he lifted up his axe for the blow that would finish her.

A trumpet blew.

That's wrong, she thought. There are no trumpets in the Drowned God's watery halls. Below the waves the merlings hail their lord by blowing into seashells.

She dreamt of red hearts burning, and a black stag in a golden wood with flame streaming from his antlers.

Is that hidden foreshadowing or more R'hllor nonsense?

Patchface is a servant of the Drowned God, confirmed.

Patchface jumped up. "I will lead it!" His bells rang merrily. "We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh." - Jon XIII, ADWD

Final thoughts:

This doesn't count as a victory for Stannis. The trees and Jon Snow won.

-> return to menu <-

[agentrouka-blog]

Is LSH hanging the Westerlings in TWOW ?

Yikes.

They did use the information provided by their spying singer Tom o’Sevens to ambush Ryman Frey on his return home from the siege at Riverrun, and GRRM chose to make the Westerling treachery toward Robb more than apparent in Jaime’s dealings with them. While Brienne lures Jaime away north of Riverrun at Pennytree, Edmure and the Westerlings are on their way west.

When Edmure and the Westerlings departed, four hundred men rode with them; Jaime had doubled the escort again at the last moment.

(AFFC, Jaime VII)

Four hundred is a bit more impressive than what Ryman had with him:

“Three knights and a dozen men-at-arms,” said Rivers. “It is almost as if they knew that he would be returning to the Twins, and with a small escort.”

Which suggests that the Westerlings may be safe from ambush, and Edmure will make it to Casterly Rock. Another factor is that the Brotherhood has its support network in the Riverlands, not the westerlands.

Unless they somehow manage a sneak attack on a force of that size in the Riverlands, it’s unlikely the Westerlings will come to harm at the Crag, which is all the way on the western shore.

Then again, Sybell Spicer-Westerling is a little reminiscent of Shae. Caught between a (Casterly) Rock and a hard place, situated third in a straight line to the north of the Rock after Tarbeck Hall and Castamere, both of which were annihilated by Tywin. Sure, he offered her incentives. Marriages and such. Shae, too, kept asking after jewels and gifts from Tyrion even while obviously pressured to testify against Tyrion, who had specifically hired her to play his lover. She owed Tyrion nothing. Did Sybell Spicer owe Robb, who conquered her castle in his war? Maybe Sybell followed Tywin’s instructions to play along with this marriage alliance, maybe she even pushed Jeyne at him on purpose, but Robb was the aggressor in attacking them and Robb did not have to sleep with Jeyne or marry her. That was his choice. Sybell merely took advantage to protect her family.

While her “greed” and her cruelty to Jeyne makes Sybell unsympathetic, I’m inclined to suspect that a Westerling massacre would mirror the unjust murder of Shae by Tyrion even more so than a Frey massacre would mirror the Red Wedding.

So, it actually might happen.

Yikes.

Btw, Sybell Spicer is in direct contrast with Sybelle Glover, who was attacked and conquered at Deepwood Motte by Asha Greyjoy, who even offers to make peace by letting Ironborn settle at the Stony Shore to give them a chance at a different lifestyle.

Bells are the portent of doom. Sybell’s approach to dealing with enemies is very underhanded, lacks consideration for her own people (Jeyne), and ultimately doesn’t pay off because it leaves her disrespected and without the reward she had hoped for. (The ”Joy” promised by Tywin turns out to be a “sweet bastard girl” offered to marry her heir, who is currently believed dead. Will the Jonsa hints never stop omg.)

Belle means beauty. This actually makes me more certain of my Sansa and the Mountain Clans theory, which would mirror Asha’s failure to sell the Stony Shore idea to her people before having to flee from her uncle.

Given these contrasting parallels (Shae v. Dany) to Sybell, I find myself torn. Something is definitely going to happen with the Westerlings, but perhaps it will be closer to Dany’s ultimate fate than Shae’s. Or Cersei’s. Something more concentrated on Sybell than on the whole House.

Catelyn was able to see things from Cersei’s perspective, even while wanting her dead. She prays to the Seven for guidance in that scene, and has been both answered and not. Sybell is another mother like Cersei, harsh but ultimately guided by the desire to protect her brood and by the threats around her. It would be kind of poetic for Lady Stoneheart and Sybell Spicer to come face to face again.

[uncrvwned]

oop here's a mini attempt at an updated muse list! bolded are entirely new, and I have some new OCs under testing too. (mostly) updated carrd!

primary

Catelyn Tully

Deria Martell (OC)

Ellaria Sand

Willas Tyrell

secondary

Edmure Tully

Harwin Strong

Jeyne Westerling

Jon Snow

Loras Tyrell

Maris Rivers (OC)

Rhaenys I Targaryen

Samantha Tarly (awoiaf)

tertiary

Davos Seaworth

Jhogo (awoiaf)

Jon Connington

Leonette Fossoway

Lyssa Peake (OC)

Rowena Corbray Arryn (OC)

Sybelle Glover (awoiaf)

on request

Allyria Dayne

Alys Karstark

Daario Naharis

Roslin Frey

new testing ocs

Cassana Bolton - OC Bolton daughter. v undeveloped I just know I want her to be evil and manipulative. FC: Leyla Tanlar.

Serala - former slave, current sellsword and archer for the Windblown/Second Sons, verse depending. FC: Amita Suman.

Steffar Blacktyde - OC brother of Baelor Blacktyde. Obsessed with the Old Ways and the Iron Price. Captain of Maidensbane. FC: Leo Suter.

[sayruq]

Cersei and Jon got Aegon's storyline. But who was the third character who got a part of Aegon ?

dany. she got

varys

dorne

i suspect asha greyjoy's support- i think asha will command the fleet the manderlys have been building and that fleet will clash with euron who'll be dany's ally for a while. aegon is going to be in westeros for a long while before dany lands. 

by then the starks will have retaken winterfell and asha can negotiate with them like she did the sybelle glover but if aegon takes over the south part of westeros, it will make a lot of sense for asha to try and negotiate with him. she would be a valuable ally against euron. there’s a theory by @istumpysk that the show gave asha victarion’s storyline which is why i think she’s going to be doing something different in the books. after all affc positions asha against her uncles and if both her uncles are going to dany, then it makes sense that asha goes to aegon

casterly rock- i think that in addition to capturing casterly rock from the lannisters, aegon will be responsible for cersei and jaime's deaths. this could motivate tyrion to hate aegon. tyrion has largely positive memories with the shy maid that will no doubt contrast with his relationship with dany so in order for tyrion to be motivated into fighting a devasting war with aegon specifically (not westeros as a whole because i doubt tyrion needs much to hate it), he needs a personal reason 

That night Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westeros as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and Bittersteel as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream he had two heads, both noseless. His father led the enemy, so he slew him once again. Then he killed his brother, Jaime, hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping.

and that reason is the deaths of the twins. i also think that scene in the show where tyrion discovers their bodies and decides that dany will die will happen in the books but with aegon instead

a large fleet- dany will get victarion's fleet (which is substantial but not large) but in the show, the fleet was very large, as large as the redwyne fleet which will very probably go to aegon. in the show, cersei got euron but in the books dany will have euron's support while aegon has the redwyne fleet. 

aegon is going to be warring with euron as soon as he beats the lannisters and i can see naval battles between the redwyne fleet and euron's fleet (i actually don’t think euron will destroy the redwyne fleet, i think he’ll do a lot of damage but i doubt the entire fleet will sink) and that eventually asha will join in the naval battles with the manderly fleet.

joncon's grescale infection- it was given to jorah in the show