#there is SO much. the lore. the fact that brandon lasts two seconds before his shirt comes off everyone else is so bundled

[crossbackpoke-check]

the deweys photos are from this video: https://youtu.be/5xTwJho44ao?si=bPw8MZZ327lCogVZ aren’t they just everything

kissing you and the minnesota wild official media team (with consent) full on the mouth, THANK YOU THIS VIDEO IS EVERYTHING 🥰🥰 i have seen pieces of it before i think (connor petting a shark 🥹) but the entire video start to finish is such a delight, 10/10 would recommend

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #2: A Maiden Dark and Fair, but make it f!Jon/Ned

I absolutely adore female!Jon Snow fics because they open up a whole range of opportunities not available to the canon character. A male bastard might only find acceptance on The Wall, but a female bastard is inherently less threatening to parochial systems. (For a RL example, several fille légitimée de France ended up married to legitimate uncles/cousins in an attempt to shore up power.) And all of that doesn't even begin to touch on the fact that a female Heir to the Iron Throne allows for a possibility of a marriage alliance outside House Targaryen the way a male Heir does not. So here is a plot bunny that's been hopping about for a while.

Just imagine it:

The North might rise for a male bastard if they believed Jon Snow to be the only child of their heir, but it'd be a hard sell to get it to do the same for an illegitimate daughter. So Ned Stark can pass off his sister's child as his older brother's without anyone raising too many eyebrows or pissing off his wife too much. (Cat's still pissed, because Brandon was her betrothed, but it's a less potent anger than your new husband having an affair and choosing to raise the child.)

So f!Jon Snow (I'm calling her Alysanne instead of Joanna or Lyanna or Lyarra, because I like the lore throwback) grows up thinking she's the bastard daughter of Brandon Stark and Ashara Dayne. When she's young and all elbows and knees, they still call her The Bastard of Winterfell. After puberty hits, some start calling her The White Rose instead - in part as a play on her last name, in part because I feel she'd have the whole Snow White thing going for her.

Then, shortly after Aly turns 14 and the North starts wondering if Ned is going to marry the girl off to his heir to forestall any questions of inheritance between Brandon's line and his own, Lady Caitlyn dies in childbirth. Her child - maybe another boy born 2 or 3 years after Rickon - dies with her.

Ned is heartbroken and sort of retreats into melancholy. Steward Poole and Maester Luwin divide the Lord's duties between them, calling on young Lord Robb for those which require a Stark. And those tasks which in times past would have fallen to Lady Caitlyn - running the household, overseeing the staff, caring for the children - fall to Aly instead.

After about two or three months of this, I imagine Lord Umber comes to Winterfell for some reason and manages to knock some sense into Ned - you still have a family to care for and The North to rule etc - and manages to plant an idea in the process: your niece is practically running the keep singlehanded and your bannermen will be pushing you to marry one of their daughters or sisters before long, so why not tie up any issue of inheritance once and for all and wed the girl yourself?

Ned really can't argue without revealing that Alysanne Snow is really Alysanne Targaryen. Besides, all he's ever wanted to do is keep his family safe and, admittedly, Umber's idea is such a handy way doing so The Old Gods might well have made Caitlyn bleed out in childbed after five easy births to see it happen.

And so Aly becomes the second Lady Stark.

It's... awkward at first - how could it not be? - but they're Starks and they do their duty (and, though it would probably pain Ned to admit it, he likes Aly rather more than he liked Cat at first. He'd respected Cat and cared for her, certainly, but Aly is Northern. It's easier with Aly. She understands in a way Cat never could, even if yes that's because he raised her to be that way. So awkward.)

Actually, the whole how do you go from being uncle and niece to husband and wife would probably be the bulk of the fic, because there's so much to explore there. Plus the inherent angst of do I tell my wife that I've been lying about her parents all along? To say nothing of my cousins I was raised beside are now my stepchildren. How do I make that work?

By the time Robert arrives to kick off the events of S1, three or four years have passed. Aly's 18 or so and given birth to two sons - Torrhen and Cregan - and the fact that the king is lusting over his best friend's wife is just unpleasant for all involved, and Ned ends up agreeing to become Hand of the King mostly just to get Robert out of the North before one of his bannermen decides to take offense to Robert's wandering eyes in a permanent way.

Afterwards, well... Ned doesn't set out to put his wife on the throne, but it happens. He's somewhat more cautious this time around because Aly's not "safe" at the wall the way Jon was in canon, not to mention Torrhen and Cregan are the same age Rhaenys and Aegon were when they were brutally murdered, and as such rather more successful.

Dorne ends up being surprisingly helpful after they realize that Ned intends to put Aly on the throne in her own right and abdicate The North in favor of Robb, in the Dornish fashion. They still don't like that Rhaegar spurned Elia the way he did, but better a Dragon than a Lion or Stag.

And so Aly becomes Queen Alysanne Targaryen, second of her name. Ned stays as Hand of the Queen as well as her consort. Torrhen, namesake of the King Who Knelt, becomes known as The White Wolf and spends a considerable amount of time after his majority north of The Wall...

And that's all I've got. Feel free to adopt the bunny if you can give it a good home, just link me if you ever do...

Other Jon Snow Headcanons: Aegon the Unyielding | Aemon the Adventurous | Lady Arryn | Lady Baratheon | Lady Lannister | Lady Stark | Prince Consort | Prince of Summerhall | Queen Mother

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[drops-of-moonlights]

What are your issues with S3 of Winx Club?

Okay, so. I am going to get long and ranty and annoyed overall on this post. I shouldn’t even have to preface this, half of the people that follow me have critical thinking skills I hope, but you can have whatever opinion on S3 and all the things I’m gonna touch on this post, I do not care and you should not either, live your life however the fuck you want yadda yadda yadda. Now:

The first thing that comes to mind is the pacing, and just how fucking terrible it is. Every single event takes so long and its so slow for the first 18-or-so episodes (a lot of situations really did not require two episodes), only to be suddenly kicked into high gear and have 7 different “final” battles one after another. It felt like it was just happening to end the season already and so they could keep working on SOTLK, and like I get you’re working on both and all but you COULD have afforded to at least PRETEND you gave a shit, Rainbow.

Next topic is Valtor, who is my absolute least favorite villain in the series, and yes, I am including the S5-S7 villains on this. This is where it’s not much a fault of the character itself (well. not ENTIRELY a fault of the character), but a fault of both the narrative and (and for this I am petty) the fanbase. Valtor, to me, is the most generic villain in the franchise, a different flavor than Darkar but by no means less bland - Valtor is your standard “hot” prettyboy villain who tries to charm the protagonist to his side with the empty promise of answers, and THAT COULD HAVE BEEN INTERESTING... if the show ever bothered to do anything with it other than Valtor creeping on a senior highschool student for 26 episodes. Because it’s all a farce, there’s not an actual connection between them outside of Valtor feeding her lies about her retconned parent’s backstory (we’ll talk about this more later) and both of them having God’s power inside them. My second point on Valtor is that he singlehandedly ruined the Trix’s characterization to simply be your standard evil henchwomen that thirst after Valtor’s dick because truly they all have terrible taste in men, and nothing else, and it’s annoying as all fuck, ESPECIALLY when you compare the Trix as Darkar’s lackeys a season earlier, where they stayed mostly the same personality-wise and only allied with the Phoenix out of necessity and survival. And the worst part? Valtor doesn’t do shit in the season! Like, at all! He only ever gets Chimera, Cassandra and Diaspro on his side, blinds Aisha and that’s literally it as far as confrontations with the Winx go - outside of fighting them when they get the Water Stars and the three last battles, he spends most of the show’s time fucking around random planets getting weird magic and sitting broodily on a chair, and apparently this makes him a good villain???? Okay, sure.

And since I mentioned them, let’s get on the Water Stars for a bit, and while yes, this is the one part everyone agrees on that was weak as fuck, it still brings attention because WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT. All this time there was this antithetical force to the Dragon’s Flame, super-mega-ultra powerful little thingies that could douse the Flame’s power almost permanently, AND YOU ONLY BRING THEM TO ATTENTION NOW AGAINST VAMPIRE AESTHETIC. Do you have any idea how fucking useful they could have been against the Trix in S1???? If they had gotten the little squishy motherfuckers two seasons earlier the War of Magix would have been over quicker. And it’s not like Bloom would have been in much risk, she barely had any Flame left in her.

In a similar situation, we have Enchantix, which is my second most-hated form after Tynix for similar reasons. One, where in the fuck were all the Enchantix fairies during S1? Fairy Dust is supposed to be this OP magic, and could have also been very useful against the Army of Decay. Two, the way to earn Enchantix, for what is retroactively just the final base fairy form, is far too obtuse and complicated for the average fairy, not to mention incredibly limiting - you just have to hope someone from your realm is in a dangerous situation so you can fling yourself into danger and probably die, and all you get for it are some opera gloves and a pair of barefoot sandals. Like sure a super powerful magic upgrade also happens but still, it’s such a specific situation to find yourself in that it’s no wonder no one ever graduates Alfea, it’s literally borderline impossible unless you like traveling. My last point on the transformation, and this one is a bit YMMV, 3 of the 6 Winx did not actually earn Enchantix. Bloom counts for this, but it’s an actual plot point (though it was terribly handled) so I let it slide most of the time, but Musa and Tecna? Musa didn’t even get to sacrifice anything, she just suddenly got the form and that’s it, GALATEA was doing more of a sacrifice to let everyone leave the burning library without her than Musa was. Tecna also got Enchantix without saving anyone from Zenith, and before you even type it out, no, it was never said Tecna saved the entire universe by closing the Omega Portal. None of the three English dubs nor the original Italian ever say this. That’s entirely just fanon. I have headcanonned it away as “some of the prisoners were Zenithian” to justify it for myself, but overall it was very obviously just shoehorned in because as always, the writers don’t know what to do with Tecna.

“But Drops! What about Nabu???” I can already hear you type, and no, I do not like Nabu. I don’t hate him either, outside of the fact I reject the idea of Aisha being into men in any way, shape or form, but he is very much worshipped as the Golden Child in the fandom and I’m tired of it. You can see a better description on my feelings about Nabu (as well as how the fandom loves to demonize Sky for the shit he pulled in S1 but hold nothing against either Brandon or Nabu, who pulled the same shit) here.

There *is* a part of S3 I like, that being the Solaria Usurpation arc, but it’s the one sole thing that I legitimately enjoy in the season and I’m not gonna stick around the fuckton of episodes that interrupt the arc just for that.

But what I hate the most about S3, above all this, is how goddamn irrelevant it is. Outside of getting the Winx Enchantix, NOTHING about the season is remotely relevant lore-wise or plot-wise, and the show itself acknowledges this! Even SOTLK pretends S3 never happened and the girls just got Enchantix somehow! Because of the drive Rainbow had to end the franchise’s original arc with fancy shitty CGI, they ended up making the original last season of the show, what was supposed to be the best thing before the movie, into the biggest waste of time instead. You can really just watch the episodes each girl gets Enchantix and then the final episode and you wouldn’t miss anything at all.

So the TL;DR for all this is “I hate S3 because Valtor sucks, Enchantix sucks, the pacing is garbage and there’s really nothing nice in it outside of like 3 episodes”, and I refuse to rewatch it ever again.

[trinuviel]

Was the Stark Ancestral Sword Ice the Original “Lightbringer”?

In a recent interview Nikolaj Coster-Waldau hinted that there might be a deeper meaning to the fact that Jaime Lannister and Brienne Tarth wields Valyrian steel swords made from the Stark ancestral sword Ice. 

(The HuffPost)

Ice was a great sword of Valyrian steel that has belonged to House Stark for times immemorial. We see Ned Stark wield it in his capacity as Warden of the North in the very first episode of season 1 and he is decapitated by his own blade in episode 9 of the same season. 

In season 4, Tywin Lannister ordered Ice melted down and reforged into two new swords meant for his son Jaime and his grand-son Joffrey Baratheon - so that House Lannister could once again have Valyrian steel (House Lannister lost their Valyrian sword Brightroar in when King Tommen II sailed to the ruins of Valyria).

That was a rather painful moment for fans of House Stark - seeing a symbol of their House appropriated by their enemies. Ice was made into two new swords. Joffrey named his sword Widow’s Wail (because he’s a little shit) but Jaime gave his sword to Brienne of Tarth who named it Oathkeeper.

There’s a beautiful sort of poetic justice to the fact that the remnants of Ned Stark’s sword are going to be wielded in defense of Winterfell and Ned Stark’s children. However, NWC’s words seems to hint that the deeper meaning of these two swords goes beyond the emotional resonance of this. In fact, his words reawakened a theory that has been puttering about at the back of my head for a while: What if Ice was the magical sword of the Lightbringer myth? It may sound like a bit of a reach - and maybe it is - but I have several reasons for thinking that Ice may in fact have been the original Lightbringer.

JAIME’S DREAM

According to the Jade Compendium, Lightbringer burned fiery hot when wielded in battle - it was, in short, a burning sword. Burning swords appear multiple times in ASoIaF as I’ve elaborated on in this essay.  One of these times is during a dream that Jaime has in ASoS. When an injured Jaime is being escorted back to King’s Landing, he has a vivid dream whilst sleeping with his head on the stump of a Weirwood tree. In this dream, Jaime wields a burning sword:

“I gave you a sword,” Lord Tywin said. It was at his feet. Jaime groped under the water until his hand closed upon the hilt. Nothing can hurt me so long as I have a sword. As he raised the sword a finger of pale flame flickered at the point and crept up along the edge, stopping a hand’s breath from the hilt. The fire took on the color of the steel itself so it burned with a silvery-blue light, and the gloom pulled back. (ASoS, IV) 

Brienne appears in his dream and she, too, is given a sword that takes flame:

Brienne’s sword took flame as well, burning silvery blue. The darkness retreated a little more. […]  Brienne moved her longsword back and forth, watching the silvery flames shift and shimmer. Beneath her feet, a reflection of the burning blade shone on the surface of the flat black water. (ASoS, Jaime IV)

What is especially  noteworthy here, is the fact that the two swords burn with a silver-blue fire! 

This is a significant detail since the prophecy of Azor Ahai come again calls Lightbringer not only a burning sword but the Red Sword of Heroes!

"In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him." - Melisandre (ACoK, Davos I)

I’ve previously argued (here and here) that the prophecy of Azor Ahai may not be what Melisandre and the audience think it is. It is very possible that GRRM will subject this part of the story to a epic Prophecy Twist - and that the prophecy is not the promise of a saviour but rather a warning.

Now let’s get back to Jaime’s dream. In this context, this dream may foreshadow both he and Brienne will wield Valyrian swords in the Great War - but the fact that the swords burn silver-blue sets them apart from the prophecy of AA coem again. Jaime has this dream before he returns to King’s Landing where Tywin gives him one of the two Valyrian swords that he had made out of Ice, the ancestral sword of House Stark. 

Jaime gives this sword to Brienne when he sends her on her mission to find and protect Sansa Stark. He asks her to fullfill the oath he gave to Catelyn Stark and that is why Brienne names her sword Oathkeeper.

The second sword made from Ice was given to Joffrey who named it Widow’s Wail. It is unclear what happened to this sword after Joffrey’s death but it is assumed that it is kept in trust for Tommen until he grows older. Will Jaime eventually wield Widow’s Wail? I find this quite possible given this dream - and since Jaime does indeed wield Widow’s Wail in seasons 7 and 8, the show might just have spoiled this particular plot point.

However, Jaime’s dream might also hint that the two Valyrian swords made from Ice are special in a more magical sense. They burn like Azor Ahai’s magical sword Lightbringer burned, according to the myths and legends. Yet they burn with silver-blue fire as opposed to the red flames of the prophecy of AA come again. Thus, through this dream imagery, the remnants of Ice are connected to Lightbringer on the level of associative logic.

THE LAST HERO

The myth of Azor Ahai and the legend of Lightbringer are stories that have come out of Asshai, on the far end of the world. So could Ice actually be Lightbringer? This is where we have to take a look at the figure of the Last Hero, which is the character who is credited with leading the defense against the Others in Northern lore. The story of the Last Hero goes like this:

How the Long Night came to an end is a matter of legend, as all such matters of the distant past have become. In the North, they tell of a last hero who sought out the intercession of the children of the forest, his companions abandoning him or dying one by one as they faced ravenous giants, cold servants, and the Others themselves. Alone he finally reached the children, despite the efforts of the white walkers, and all the tales agree this was a turning point. Thanks to the children, the first men of the Night’s Watch banded together and were able to fight—and win—the Battle for the Dawn: the last battle that broke the endless winter and sent the Others fleeing to the icy north. Now, six thousand years later (or eight thousand as True History puts forward), the Wall made to defend the realms of men is still manned by the sworn brothers of the Night’s Watch, and neither the Others nor the children have been seen in many centuries.(TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Long Night)

(The Last Hero. Art by Roman Papsuev)

Who was the Last Hero? No one really knows but I’ve argued that you can make a case that the Last Hero was none other than Brandon the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark, the architect of Winterfell and the Wall as well as the Hightower in Oldtown and Storm’s End, the ancestral seat of House Baratheon. Why do I think that the Last Hero was Brandon the Builder? It was this snippet of text in The World of Ice and Fire, the companion book to the series, that lead to my identification of the Last Hero with Brandon the Builder:

Maester Childer’s Winter’s Kings, or the Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell contains a part of a ballad alleged to tell of the time Brandon the Builder sought the aid of the children while raising the Wall. He was taken to a secret place to meet with them, but could not at first understand their speech, which was described as sounding like the song of stones in a brook, or the wind through leaves, or the rain upon the water. (tWoIaF)

In the myths of the North, the Last Hero sought the secret cities of the Children of the Forest - and now this piece of information from Maester Childer’s book Winter’s Kings or the Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell places Brandon the Builder in those self-same hidden cities. That is too much of a coincidence in my humble opinion.

If the Last Hero was indeed Brandon the Builder, founder of House Stark, then how does Ice come into the equation? Interestingly, in ADwD the text reveals another intriguing piece of information:

I found one account of the Long Night that spoke of the last hero slaying Others with a blade of dragonsteel. Supposedly they could not stand against it.” “Dragonsteel?” The term was new to Jon. “Valyrian steel?” (ADwD, Jon II)

Thus, the text hints that the last hero wielded a sword of Valyrian steel and that a weapon of this material could slay a White Walker. This is something that the show confirmed in season 5 when Jon Snow killed a WW with Longclaw, which is made from Valyrian steel.

The question now is this: How did the Last Hero/Brandon the Builder get a Valyrian steel sword before the rise of Old Valyria (the rise of Valyria and the Dragonlords is generally placed after the Long Night in the historical chronology of GRRM’s world). Furthermore, if Ice was the original Lightbringer, then what is the connection between the legend of Lightbringer and Valyrian steel swords?

THE MYTH OF LIGHTBRINGER AS AN ALLEGORY 

I have previously written about how the legend of Lightbringer works as a subversion of the trope of the Magic Sword on a meta-textual level. Many readers fail to realize that magic swords already exists in Westeros! 

GRRM has specified that Valyrian swords require magic for the forging, which means that every single sword made of Valyrian steel is, in fact, a magic sword! 

However, he doesn’t specify what kind of magic is required to make Valyrian steel. Some fans have speculated that dragonfire was necessary to forge Valyrian steel and while I understand the reasoning it doesn’t strike me as particularly practical in its application. Instead, I think that there’s a clue hidden in the companion book in the section on the Free City of Qohor because the smiths of this Essosi city still know the secret to rework Valyrian steel:

The properties of Valyrian steel are well-known, and are the result of both folding iron many times to balance and remove impurities, and the use of spells—or at least arts we do not know—to give unnatural strength to the resulting steel. Those arts are now lost, though the smiths of Qohor claim to still know magics for reworking Valyrian steel without losing its strength or unsurpassed ability to hold an edge. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: Valyria’s Children) 

It is a secret jealously guarded:

Maester Pol’s treatise on Qohorik metalworking, written during several years of residence in the Free City, reveals just how jealously the secrets are guarded: He was thrice publicly whipped and cast out from the city for making too many inquiries. The final time, his hand was also removed following the allegation that he stole a Valyrian steel blade. According to Pol, the true reason for his final exile was his discovery of blood sacrifices—including the killing of slaves as young as infants—which the Qohorik smiths used in their efforts to produce a steel to equal that of the Freehold. (TWoIaF, The Free Cities: Qohor)

This is an interesting story though it should be taken with a grain of salt, especially since Ice was reforged in King’s Landing by Tobho Mott:

Tobho had learned to work Valyrian steel at the forges of Qohor as a boy. Only a man who knew the spells could take old weapons and forge them anew. (AGoT, Eddard IV)

Mott, however, used magic when he reforged the ancestral Stark great sword Ice into two new Valyrian swords for House Lannister :

But Valyrian steel is stubborn. These old swords remember, it is said, and they do not change easily. I worked half a hundred spells and brightened the red time and time again, but always the color would darken, as if the blade was drinking the sun from it.(Tobho Mott to Tyrion Lannister, ASoS, Tyrion IV)

Whilst Mott was trained in Qohor, I seriously doubt that he could get away with killing someone unnoticed. However, it is possible that some kind of blood magic is involved in reworking Valyrian steel. Blood magic doesn’t have to involve murder as Melisandre demonstrates with the use of blood fattened leeches.

This brings us back to the myth of Lightbringer, which is the story of how Azor Ahai forges a sword in the holy fires of a temple and then quences it in the heart’s blood of his faithful wife Nissa Nissa:

A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade and as it glowed white hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. ‘Nissa Nissa,’ he said to her, for that was her name, ‘bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world. She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.” - Salladhor Saan to Davos Seaworth (ACoK, Davos I)

(Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa. The Forging of Lightbringer. Art by Amok)

The role of myth is a recurring theme in ASoIaF. GRRM plays with the idea that ancient myths contain a kernel of truth, a truth that has been distorted over millennia of retellings. A lot of fans seems to think that the myth of Lightbringer functions as a kind of recipe to create an extra-special magical sword. However, while myths contains kernels of truth in GRRM’s universe, they are not necessarily to be read in a literal manner. I don’t think that a prophesied  hero will have to kill a loved one to make a magical weapon. I suspect that the myth of Lightbringer is to be read allegorically rather than literally.

The myth of Lightbringer tells us two things about the creation of this magical blade:

There is smith craft involved - “Azor Ahai labored sleepless in the temple, forging a blade in the sacred fires.” (ACoK, Davos I)

A blood sacrifice is involved - “Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel.”

This actually dovetails nicely with what GRRM himself has said about the making of Valyrian steel: 

Q: A brief question about Valyrian steel - is it the metal that makes the sword so special (provenance, age, etc), or is it the forging (spells, techniques)

GRRM: Forging techniques and spells, actually. There is magic involved in the making of Valyrian steel. (x)

If we read the myth of Lightbringer allegorically then  the sacrifice of Nissa Nissa signifies what type of magic was used in the creation of Valyrian steel, i.e. blood magic.

Let’s get back to the the legend of the Last Hero. As said, Sam discovers an ancient text in the library at Castle Black that states that the Last Hero slew a White Walker with dragonsteel, i.e. a Valyrian sword. In this context, it is worth noting that in Old Nan’s retelling of the story, it is specifically mentioned that the Last Hero loses his sword during his quest:

He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. (AGoT, Bran I)

A frozen blade shattering in the cold sounds a lot like what happened to Ser Waymar Royce when he duels with a White Walker in the prologue of AGoT:

His blade was white with frost; the Other's danced with pale blue light. 

...

Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. "For Robert!" he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other's parry was almost lazy.

When the blades touched, the steel shattered.

A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. (AGoT, Prologue)

The Others bring a cold so intense that it shatters steel swords. Only a magical blade might stand a chance against their ice swords. 

If the Last hero was indeed Brandon Stark, and if he did indeed wield a blade made of Valyrian steel, then it is most likely that this sword was Ice, the ancestral blade of the House he founded. If this is indeed the case, the its very name, Ice, could obliquely refer to the fact that it was used to kill a being that was essentially “Ice Made Flesh” (I’ve argued elsewhere that the text implicitly depicts the Others as beings of embodied ice).

THE HIGHTOWER

Let’s just assume that Ice was indeed the dragonsteel blade that the Last Hero (Brandon the Builder) wielded against the Others. The question remains: how did he get his hands on a blade of Valyrian steel when the Valyrian Freehold did not yet exist? In this context, it is worth noting that the myth of Lightbringer and the prophecy of Azor Ahai come again appear to originate in Asshai and not in Valyria. Maybe the secret to forge Valyrian steel wasn’t actually discovered in the Valyrian freehold but in Asshai? This is where this essay gets even more speculative. 

In this section, I’ll be drawing on a four part theory that the user u/sangeli published on reddit a few years ago (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). The gist of this theory revolves around the hypothesis that the Valyrian Dragonlords weren’t native to the Valyrian peninsula but that they were the descendants of the Great Empire of the Dawn, which u/sangeli locates in Asshai. The chaos of the Long Night cause an Asshai’i diaspora (possibly because Asshai was ground zero of some kind of magical catastrophe that rendered the place sterile, which I’ve written about elsewhere). One of the places where the Asshai settled was the Valyrian peninsula and the companion book does offer some weight to this argument:

In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts—all impossibly ancient—claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. These Asshai'i histories say that a people so ancient they had no name first tamed dragons in the Shadow and brought them to Valyria, teaching the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria)

However, u/sangeli goes further and theorizes that some of the Asshai’i also settled in Westeros, more specifically in the location that is now known as Oldtown. It is one of the oldest, perhaps even the oldest of the cities of Westeros and its origins is lost in the mists of time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it was founded by an Asshai’i disapora but u/sangeli presents the mysterious structure of fused black stone that constitutes the foundation of the Hightower as a piece of evidence for their theory:

Yet mysteries remain. The stony island where the Hightower stands is known as Battle Isle even in our oldest records, but why? What battle was fought there? When? Between which lords, which kings, which races? Even the singers are largely silent on these matters.

Even more enigmatic to scholars and historians is the great square fortress of black stone that dominates that isle. For most of recorded history, this monumental edifice has served as the foundation and lowest level of the Hightower, yet we know for a certainty that it predates the upper levels of the tower by thousands of years.

Who built it? When? Why? Most maesters accept the common wisdom that declares it to be of Valyrian construction, for its massive walls and labyrinthine interiors are all of solid rock, with no hint of joins or mortar, no chisel marks of any kind, a type of construction that is seen elsewhere, most notably in the dragonroads of the Freehold of Valyria, and the Black Walls that protect the heart of Old Volantis. The dragonlords of Valryia, as is well-known, possessed the art of turning stone to liquid with dragonflame, shaping it as they would, then fusing it harder than iron, steel, or granite. (AWoIaF, The Reach: Oldtown)

The base on which the Hightower rests is made from fused black stone in an unknown technique the is eerily reminiscent of the magical arts of Valyria. Yet the architectural style of this edifice shares no similarities with the architecture of Old Valyria:

The fused black stone of which it is made suggests Valyria, but the plain, unadorned style of architecture does not, for the dragonlords loved little more than twisting stone into strange, fanciful, and ornate shapes. Within, the narrow, twisting, windowless passages strike many as being tunnels rather than halls; it is very easy to get lost amongst their turnings. Mayhaps this is no more than a defensive measure designed to confound attackers, but it too is singularly un-Valyrian. (TWoIaF, The Reach: Oldtown)

I must admit that with evidence like this, I do find u/sangeli’s theory that the Hightower was founded by an Asshai’i disapora both interesting and convincing. As do I find their claim that House Hightower may indeed descend from these people, especially since the companion book also raises the issue of the origins of House Hightower:

The reasons for the abandonment of the fortress and the fate of its builders, whoever they might have been, are likewise lost to us, but at some point we know that Battle Isle and its great stronghold came into the possession of the ancestors of House Hightower. Were they First Men, as most scholars believe today? Or did they mayhaps descend from the seafarers and traders who had settled at the top of Whispering Sound in earlier epochs, the men who came before the First Men? We cannot know. (TWoIaF, The Reach: Oldtown)

The reason I bring up the Hightower in relation to the Last Hero and the secret of Valyrian steel, is because Brandon the Builder had a connection to the Hightower as the purported architect of its upper levels. Furthermore, the Hightower is associated with the Night’s Watch through the image of the Lighthouse as a positive image of fire - a beacon in the darkness, which I’ve written about elsewhere.

(Left: Hightower in Oldtown. Art by Ted Nasmith, Right: Sigil and Motto of House Hightower)

If we accept that there’s usually a kernel of truth in the myths and legends within GRRM’s fictional universe, then we may speculate that Brandon the Builder did indeed visit Oldtown and the mysterious fortress that forms the base of the Hightower. If u/sangeli is correct in their theory, then the people who inhabited this mysterious structure of fused black stone may have been Asshai’i refugees from the GEotD - and they may have known the secret of forging dragonsteel steel. The Hightower may indeed have been the place where Ice was forged. 

All of this is, of course, highly speculative, if the Last Hero did indeed wield a blade made of Valyrian steel before the Valyrian Freehold existed, then I haven’t come across another theory as to why he would have had such a blade.

(GIFs not mine)

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries; 5.24 - The Widening Gyre

Commentary with Nick Parker (writer for episode), Shireen Razack (writer for the previous episode) and Josh Brandon (script co-ordinator and writer)

NP: I laboured over what to name this episode, because stuff is going so wrong, and ended up pulling from one of my favourite poems, The Second Coming, and The Widening Gyre is about things falling apart. It’s a weird falconry term, I guess? I always liked the way it sounded. SR: It was really fun watching Nick really tear out his hair over the title of this episode. NP: Yeah. Titles are always tough for me for some reason. I feel like I end up thinking about titles more than most of the writing. SR: Or it’s our way of procrastinating.

SR: The cool thing about this episode, that I really really love, is that the stuff that happens between Audrey and her dad, all takes place in this one room for the entire episode. It’s two people talking to each other and normally if that happens on any other show it is the most boring thing you could imagine. But when I watched this I just thought it was so compelling. I could not look away. Nick did an incredible job of crafting these scenes. NP: Oh that’s so sweet of you. We talked a bit with the last episode about how we had to shoot that really fast and that was why we went with the security camera footage idea that ended up working really really well. For this episode in order to get it done quickly we had to basically have a bunch of two handers in static locations. So we’ve got Audrey and Croatoan here, we’ve got Vince and Howard in the Herald, and then we’ve got Duke and Nathan basically, in the station. All conversations between two people in a single room. It was a lot of talking. SR: For a writer that’s doing TV that can be the most terrifying thing on the planet. But when you’ve got a great writer like Mr Nick Parker, then what you see on screen is compelling that you don’t care that there’s not a lot of movement. NP: Thank you very much. I think it was also aided greatly by the fact that we have a legend in the sci-fi genre, William Shatner, holding some of these scenes up. He was so much fun to write with. My dad is a huge Star Trek fan. I used to watch The Next Generation with him when I was growing up, and he used to watch the Original with his dad back in the day. So when I found out I was going to be able to write for him and I told my dad on the DL, and he just kept asking me questions; Are you going to get to meet him? How much do you get to write for him? He was so excited. JB: We did get to meet him briefly when he came into the office. SR: Of course that was the day I was out of the office. NP: He is just awesome. I don’t even know how old he is ... JB: He’s 83 NP: And apparently these days were pretty brutal, they were working and working and working. And he was great - there is a reason that he is a legend. SR: Now that I think about it, both of my brothers are huge Star Trek fans, as am I, and I don’t think I’ve told them that I got to write for William Shatner. How is that possible? NP: It’ll be a great surprise for them when the episode comes on.

[McHugh throws a chair to Dwight who smashes it over Duke’s back to stop him attacking Nathan] JB: Oh that was awesome! NP: Yeah that was definitely a callout to the wrestling. WWE fans will know, but for those that don’t know, Adam Copeland and Christian were tag team partners in WWE for years, so we wanted to have a moment where we had a little tip of the hat to their wrestling past. So Christian tosses Edge a chair and it just seemed very wrestly SR: It was beautiful. NP: I was afraid it might be cheesy SR: Not between these two. They know how to sell it. NP: They made it work. McHugh ended up being a really fun character too, so thank you for giving us that character Shireen. McHugh’s cool.

SR: The thing that I don’t understand, is why isn’t Croatoan serving Audrey pancakes? NP: Because Mara hates pancakes. And he wants Mara back. SR: Oh, right. NP: Audrey is just an imitation to him. SR: She’s a real girl now.

NP: I think production did a really good job with this room that Croatoan and Audrey are in. It’s pretty but creepy SR: It’s very Laura Ashley NP: Yes. Any time you start to throw in a floral wallpaper, you’re going to terrify me. It feels like an old horror movie, set in my grandmother’s house.

NP: These were fun scenes to write between Audrey and Croatoan because when we were going through the revision process, Matt McGuinness was having some problems with his back so wasn’t coming into the office. So I went over to his place and spent a whole day working just with him which was really fun because Matt is the father of three daughters so he gave me a lot of good guidance on talking with your daughter, which is an experience I do not have, so that was good. SR:  It’s really interesting when you’re on a writing staff and half the staff are parents and the other half are single, and footloose and fancy free. NP: Yes, functionally still children. SR: That too. So Matt’s got three daughters, Speed has triplets, and hearing the stories that come from them as opposed to the stories that come from us are polar opposites. NP: Yeah like when I start talking about my weekend like; I woke up at 10, went to play basketball. And you can just see Matt’s blood slowly starting to boil. SR: Yes, exactly.

NP: This was a fun story line {Vince and Howard] because we got to really … well the difficulty of an episode this late in the series is that you’ve still got a lot of mythology you want to pay off, but you don’t want to get all talky and boring becasue too much mythology can be really cumbersome. But it was fun to have basically the guy from the other world who knows how everything works, with the guy who’s spent his whole life protecting Haven (the lore keeper of Haven) talking to each other. That was a lot of fun to write SR: I remember in the room, once everyone realised that was what was happening it was like; Holy crap of course - this is what the story is! NP: And then we were pitching the idea that Vince becomes the New Barn’s Controller. And at first it was like; Oh man that’s huge, how do you get your head around it. But then as we talked about it more in the room it started to really make sense and fit. And then really just informed all the scenes previous because we knew what we were working towards. SR: Yeah. Basically when you came up with that, it was another light bulb moment, and everyone was just like: Of course, that’s it, that’s what has to happen! JB: It has to be that way.

[Nathan sitting down to talk to Duke in the interview room] NP: I’m always a sucker, as you can probably tell in this episode, for scenes where there’s two things happening on both sides of a one way mirror. It’s a total cop trope at this point, but I still think it’s so much fun. SR: Especially when on the other side of the mirror is someone who’s completely possessed/ NP: A total monster, yes.

[Croatoan: I loved your mother. She wasn’t destroyed by me. She was contaminated by weak minds] NP: Yeah, he really sells it. I’m so glad we got him. NP: I don’t think any of us thought it was really going to happen. They were talking about it for a long time. He came in and met everyone. He sat down with Matt and Gab and kind of quizzed them about the show for an hour. But I still think everyone thought it would be too hard and we wouldn’t get him. And then he said Yes. NP: It worked out great. He’s also sitting a beautiful table - look at that. SR: And the house that they found for the exterior of this, is just perfect. NP: Oh I know. It was like; We’ve got to find a place that looks isolated, kind of innately creepy, but also Haven. And then; this house that is totally alone on a cliff side? Perfect. SR: Our location scouts are amazing. NP: Yes. That’s a great example, and then there’s that spa that we shot at a couple times. It’s this crazy place where they were going to build this huge getaway place up in Nova Scotia there and I guess the real estate bubble crashed in 2008 or whenever that happened. And so, seriously, you walk in and there’s blue prints lying around. Uninstalled light bulbs. They just stopped paying the workers and people stopped coming in, so it’s just this giant concrete, unfinished … it’s humongous, halls and halls and halls of it. It’s crazy looking. SR; Which episodes did we shoot there? NP: 4.11. And also … something in the first season. And we go up there for exteriors every so often.

NP: I think the shroud ended up looking really cool. I think I’ve said that before but it ended up looking amazing. I really like it. SR: Yeah it’s really cool. It doesn’t look like a visual effect. It just looks like Los Angeles fog.

[Nathan; Whatever Croatoan did to you it’s wearing off.] NP: No, it’s not. Boo. SR: That’s my favourite line; Boo. NP: Oh thanks. But really the way he acts, the way he’s teasing Nathan and everything, was absolutely informed by your sing-song dialogue in the last episode. Because, we were really the ones that were responsible for setting up how he’s going to be through to the end. So the Evil Duke character you conceived really helped me write these scenes, so I couldn’t have done it without that. SR: Oh, thanks.

[Duke: Sometimes Audrey likes the bad boys. And now that I’ve found my true self, well, we might go all the way this time] SR: Doesn’t it just always go back to Colorado? NP: Yeah, pretty much. That one scene in Colorado … the actual scene was probably like three minutes long, but the amount of time we’ve talked about it since then, it’s like three hours of on screen content. SR: And back then, I was a fan then [before working on the show], so I’m watching it as it’s airing, Screaming at the television; What are you doing? No! NP: Yeah, we can all blame Shernold for that JB: Everyone does, it’s so unfair. NP: Poor Shern. One of my favourite people in the world. Even though she did put Duke and Audrey together. And she did start the whole Team Waffles thing I guess. SR: That’s true. And I think in the commentary that we did together … You know, I fully own my Naudrey-ness, but Shern refuses to own her Daudrey. NP: I mean, she is the originator of the Daudrey movement. She has to admit it. JB: But just so everybody knows - these decisions are not made by one person. NP: No, that’s true. And she’s not even here to defend herself, poor thing.

NP: I love the way that post-apocalyptic Haven looks. Like; Well, we’d better throw some garbage on the street. JB: But I love that because so many times you see - and one of the best examples is Dark Knight Rises, the place is on lockdown and nobody does anything for months. But still there’s no garbage, nothing piles up, there’s nothing on the street.

[Howard; By your calendar it was several centuries ago] NP: Oh, here’s comes the info dump. Get ready SR: But hey, there’s something very important about this info dump. NP: Well and it is nice that he gets to talk to Vince about this. Vince is the right guy to hear this stuff. SR: And even more important is that this connects to the awesome comic book that is the insert to the DVDs that you wrote. NP: Yes, the season four comic book. What I loved in that is that Maurice [who plays Howard] has an awesome look and his mustache is excellent. But the season four comic book was set way back, in the fifteenth century or whatever, so then he is in fifteenth century garb, and with a mustache that’s twice as big and goes all the way down to his chin. So it’s like; Yes, that’s the classic look. And it’s funny how we really got to push a lot of mythology in the comic books. Like; We’ll tell that story there - OK, great, that’ll be fund, it’s actually a really important story! JB: What was it called? In The Beginning? NP: Yes. The other one was After The Storm, which tells what happens between seasons three and four. And then the season four comic book told the story of Mara and William’s first time in Haven. It was funny because, between three and four it was easy becasue there was a six month gap between the seasons so we could tell the story of what happened right after three ended. But between seasons four and five - no time passes whatsoever. JB: Yeah, what can we tell in this one hour? NP: So we’ve got to go back, we’ve got to go way back.

SR: Is that Dwight’s new crossbow that he was talking to Jason Priestley about? NP: Yeah that might be the one he wanted Chris Brody to see. Adam has got a long career ahead of him. He’s just so good. And built like a giant brick house. He’s great. And, the nicest person you will ever meet. SR: And Adam and Christian are awesome on screen together. NP: Yeah you can tell they have a lot of history together. They’ve been friends forever.

*Some joking around about the idea of Mara drinking black coffee as a child and that maybe that is what messed her up, and perhaps black coffee isn’t that different from aether anyway* JB: You should put some milk in your aether so you can tell them apart

[Audrey stabs Croatoan in the next] JB: Oof, that looked good. NP: He just looks like such a bad ass here SR: Daddy’s not happy [Croatoan breaks Audrey’s arm] NP: Oh god SR: That looks nasty. NP: Yeah I feel like I had to work in the bone breaking moment. Just because, I love on TV whenever you hear a bone breaking, because the folio people do such a great job to make that bone breaking sound. It always sounds so brutal SR: There were some conversations in the writers’ room about how much of the bone should be poking through the flesh. And I think Standards and Practices might have pulled us back. NP: Well in the original script it was just hanging at an impossible angle. And then we were like; Let’s go as gruesome as possible. SR: And I also remember there being a lot of conversations about what Croatoan should wear. And ultimately it was a beautifully tailored suit, and he looks awesome! NP: Yep, gotta look classy. JB: I remember on the prep schedule, one of the first things it had - because Shatner is always dressed by … he either has a tailor or he does something with Mens Wearhouse or whatever. And so it even said on the prep schedule; Shatner arrives and is taken immediately for fittings at Men’s Wearhouse. Although he was not listed as Shatner on the prep schedule. We won’t say what it is, but he travels under an assumed name so that people don’t mob him. NP: Yeah it never said “Shatner” on the scripts or anything.

[McHugh; Some Guard buddies of mine have Old Troubles that can make Duke talk] NP: McHugh doesn’t have a lot of lines in this script, but what he has to work with, I think he did a great job with. He’s just efficient, just like; Let’s make it happen - let’s torture the shit out of him and find out what’s going on. SR: We’ve played with that a couple different times in different episodes, and it’s even been cut from certain episodes JB: The ethics of it? SR: Using Troubles to torture people. NP: Yeah because for this one we had talked about going back through the old Trouble catalogue. I think the character’s name was Ginger Danvers, from 3.10 - Burned. Ginger was named after one of Matt McGuinness’s kids. And her power was that anything she said that you had to do, you had to do it. So she inadvertently kills several people, and then she uses the power on Jordan at one point to make her tell the truth. So we were like; What if we bring Ginger Danvers back? But we had to keep it simple, we really could only have a few people in each scene.

[Vince draws Dwight a map of the old farmhouse where he thinks Croatoan will be hiding out] JB: That was a very quick reference to the old mis-labelled East Haven, West Haven map. West Haven is where East Haven should be, and vice versa. It’s a quirky thing. So in case you’re wondering why West Haven is written on the East Side of that map - it’s deliberate. NP: It’s very Haven.

SR: The thing that I thought was really interesting about the final cut of this episode is that normally the act outs (where you go to commercial) are usually on Audrey, or Nathan, or Duke. But a lot of the act outs in this one went out on Vince. And I thought it was a really nice send off to the character, because he is the one that has the worst dilemma but also the most heroic moment. NP: Yeah. It’s something I thought about a lot writing this. Functionally, the fact that Audrey is in the scenes with Croatoan makes that the A story, but really there’s three A stories in this episode. And while we’re getting a bunch of information from Croatoan and there’s a lot of emotional movement in their story, and obviosuly Duke and Nathan are going through a lot as well … but then all the while going on in the background is this Vince story where he is making this huge sacrifice that no one else is really aware of because they’re so caught up in their own stories. So that I think was why we ended up putting the act outs where they are. It kind of gives him that impact.

[Croatoan; I created you] NP: That was scary. SR: This is the best part; “Twice.” His evil little giggle at the end, just sold it so well. NP: Yeah, he really held those scenes.

NP: Just looking back on Duke’s character; he’s goes through a Lot this season. Leaves Haven, goes on this journey, comes back, loses Hailie. He has quite a journey this season. SR: Yes, and if you go all the way back to the beginning of 5A, it’s just been quite the rollercoast ride. NP: Yeah, Mara was a rollercoaster there. JB: And there are echoes of the Mara,Audrey stuff from the beginning of the season here, Duke trying to come to the surface [Nathan seeing Duke still there underneath what Croatoan has turned him into] NP: Yeah, this was definitely a callback to that kind of stuff. It’s funny, talking of Hailie - in the original concept for this episode, Duke was receiving instructions from Croatoan, but Croatoan was posing in Duke’s mind as Hailie. And there was going to be this whole big reveal. But as we got further into it we realised; We don’t really need to see that side of it, it’s enough to play all of that off of Eric Balfour’s acting, and him really selling it. And he nailed it. So I’m glad we don’t have that complicating factor. JB: And I think as well, I remember reading that and thinking; This is really cool, but it would be amazing if it was Jennifer. And knowing we couldn’t make it Jennifer, I wonder if some of the fans might have thought the same thing. NP: Yeah, we totally wanted it to be Jennifer. But it was a case of who was available. JB: She was great too though, Hailie NP: Yes she was, but just emotionally does she mean the same to Duke? JB: Exactly

SR: So, do you think, if Dave were still alive, would Vince be willing to do this? [To sacrifice himself to become the controller of the new Barn] NP: Um, yes. It is something I thought about working on this, that his sacrifice is more about Haven as opposed to some displaced or weird mourning process for his brother. I definitely think that Dave passing recently maybe put the idea in his head, but I wanted the sacrifice to be more about his relationship with Haven as opposed to his relationship with his brother. SR: Right. Actually, I guess if Dave were alive they would do it together. NP: Likely, yeah. Just high fiving on the way in. They can just play gin rummy for ever and ever. SR: And argue with each other. NP: Yep. They’re good at that.

*Some comments about how pretty the house in this is, and how pretty Nova Scotia in general is, the downsides only being that it’s cold and rains all the time* SR: When we started shooting this season it was bitter cold. NP: Yes, because we did 26 episodes this year, which was a lot to cover. So we started shooting in April, and didn’t wrap up until mid-December. So by the time we were into the last four episodes, we had maybe 6 hours of daylight, the sun went down at like 3 o’clock or something. So that’s why we have a lot of interiors. SR: And when we started - April in Nova Scotia is still really cold as well. And I remember Lucas was out there in a shirt leaning against cold steel NP: Yes where Mara had shot him and he’s leaning against the bronco, there are all these out takes of him leaning against the cold metal like; Ahhh!!! JB: And in the last couple of episodes there some stuff outdoors and everyone’s wearing big coats which you’ve never seen anyone in Haven wear before. NP: Yeah, we just couldn’t do it otherwise SR: But our actors are troopers, man.

[Duke breaking out of his chains, and walking through the table and the wall/window] NP: It’s the classic; He wanted to be captured. SR: And as it true on pretty much any type of sci-fi show, you’re always wondering how much money do you have for visual effects. And I remember this discussion of; Do we have enough money to see him go through the table? NP: Yes, it was that specific. Because originally it was; We can’t do any more special effects. And because of the structure of this episode there was not a big visual effects budget dedicated to it. So originally that was going to be practical where Duke would have jumped across the table and leapt through the window. And then they were like; Er, actually it’s going to be more trouble for us to do it that way, let’s just go with the visual effects. So was I was like; Yes, that’s what I wanted all along. JB: So that’s the answer. You have what you want in your head, but you know it’s a bit expensive. So you write a shittier version of it so they insist you re-write it. NP: Yeah pretty much. A long con.

[Duke taking the Trouble census from Nathan] SR: The amount of times that Nathan has been hit in the head. NP: Yeah poor guy. I know he can’t feel it, but. JB: I feel it. I feel for him. Also didn’t McHugh almost get killed in this scene too? NP: Yes, that was changed, so eventually we just knocked him out. JB: A bit of a shout out to Nick because he’s too modest to mention it himself, but the whole concept of what the Trouble Census looked like, Nick spent a lot of time mapping that out for the art department when we were coming up with the concept. NP: I did? Oh yeah I did. I think because I carry around a journal that looks a lot like that.

[Audrey pleading with Croatoan not to kill Nathan] NP: That was the first time Audrey called Croatoan ‘Dad’. Probably to manipulate him, in that moment, but. SR: It worked NP: I wanted to have this cut back and forth between appealing to people’s real selves. And as scripted, this fight scene between Duke and Nathan was much longer, but with the constraints of producing something it had to be tightened. SR: The other thing I remember is that part of the reason we were shooting these two episodes in 10 days is because we were banking a lot for the finale. So that the finale could be awesome for the fans. NP: Yes, we really wanted to have as much time and money as we could, to do those final episodes right. SR: And I think Matt and Gab did a bang up job NP: They turned out great. And what’s nice is because we did do that, with the constraints of the last episode and this one of just being two people in various rooms, we got to have them talk a lot and figure out where they’re coming from heading into the craziness of the final two episodes. Because there’s a lot that goes on in 25 and 26, and there’s not a lot of time to sit down and talk about motivation. So that’s why these were fun to write.

[Croatoan tells Audrey she’s free to go] SR: This was another light bulb moment, because we were trying very hard to figure out what happens at the end of this episode. NP: Yeah you really painted me into a corner with having Audrey abducted. I was like; Why does he let her go? Gotta come up with something. SR: But you did a beautiful job! NP: Thank you. SR: It make absolute sense that he would just say; Off you go - go say goodbye. NP: Yep, before I turn them all against you. And then what we see is the result of that move [Dwight walking up to the house, about to find Lizzie] NP: This has always been one of my favourite story lines; Dwight and his daughter. He just talks about her really, you don’t see much in the show, but I always liked it. SR: And you did a webisde about it. That cleared up a lot of stuff for him. NP: Yeah we got to cover a lot in that, which was fun. Got to learn a lot about the Guard and everything. SR: She’s super cute. She totally looks like his daughter. NP: What I liked about this is it’s the first example of like; How I’m going to ruin you all. This is how I’m going to manipulate you and your friends. SR: Oh so beautiful. JB: It’s more evil than violence, it’s more manipulative. NP: Yeah. And that plays out in 25 and 26 in a cool way. It gives Dwight something to really lean into.

[Vince; I know exactly what we have to do to send Croatoan screaming back to hell] SR: That is a great line. NP: I love it when he gets tough. I also love that the outfit he chose for eternity is a sweater vest, or cardigan or whatever that is. Thank you all for watching. SR: Watch the finale, you’re going to love it.

[beyondmistland]

Westerosi Worldbuilding Wednesday: Hidden History of the North: Lost Lore (Part IV)

 Letter #41: During the reign of Harlon's son, Torrhen Alms-Giver, the Manderlys were given ownership of the Wolf's Den, which led many houses to plot and grumble, chief among them House Bolton.

 Letter #42: Upon the completion of White Harbor Jonos VIII sent a mighty fleet to conquer the city only for it to be crushed in the battle known till today as the Merman's First Test. (This victory is commemorated each year with seven days of celebration. At this time there is typically a six-day tourney followed by a reenactment of House Manderly's exile in the mummers' hall on the seventh.)

 Letter #43: The next three hundred years saw the Crown of Swords pass through twelve unremarkable kings, during which time White Harbor grew both in size and wealth, making House Manderly the most powerful of Winterfell's bannermen.

 Letter #44: This power (and the loyalty of those who wielded it) would be tested during the century called till today the Strife of Winterfell.

 Letter #45: The first trial came when the Lord of the Dreadfort rose in rebellion against House Stark whilst King Errold and his heir, Beron, were bedridden. Triton Manderly was the first lord to answer Prince Karlon's summons, followed by Big Jon Umber and Handsome Harry Hornwood, whose lands House Bolton sought to reclaim. Altogether, they commanded nine thousand-odd men. Belthasar Bolton, on the other hand, could field only forty-five hundred. (His younger brother, Richard, was at the time gathering additional swords in the Grey Hills, which were then sworn to the Dreadfort.)

 Letter #46: When Belthasar Bolton saw that the enemy host was twice the size of his own he quickly retreated.

 Letter #47: Heavy rain caused the Weeping Water to flood, forcing the Lord of the Dreadfort to give battle on the south bank of the river in what singers call "the Bloody Wash".

 Letter #48: Belthasar the Young drew his three thousand spearmen up in two lines with their backs to the river. An additional four hundred men wielding swords and axes were held back as a reserve while his five hundred-odd heavy horse was positioned on both flanks. Finally, six hundred longbowmen rounded out the Lord of the Dreadfort's meager host.

 Letter #49: The Stark vanguard, led by Big Jon Umber, arrived ahead of the main column just as the first stakes were being driven into the ground. Seeing this, the Lord of the Last Hearth ordered an immediate charge, sweeping aside Belthasar Bolton's archers to smash his center, which buckled from the weight of the attack until the Lord of the Dreadfort ordered his reserve to reinforce the line, at which point his forces began to slowly push back the Stark vanguard. In this moment Prince Karlon arrived with the rest of the royalist host. Quickly assessing the situation, he brought his greater numbers to bear by reinforcing Lord Umber's faltering vanguard, which then began to push the enemy lines back once again. Seeing Prince Karlon's banner in the thick of the fighting, Belthasar Bolton then attempted to flank the royalist host in an attempt to reach him for the death of the Red Wolf would decide the outcome of the battle in a single stroke. To give the Lord of the Dreadfort credit, his gamble might have had a chance were it not for the knights of White Harbor. The chivalry of the North drove Belthasar Bolton's heavy horse off the field with a thunderous charge. As he attempted to then rally his cavalry the Lord of the Dreadfort was cut down by Ser Triton Manderly. When word spread of Belthasar Bolton's death, the rebel lines broke. So many died over the course of the next hour that the Weeping Water ran red almost to its mouth (or so the singers claim).

 Letter #50: Thinking they had won, Lord Umber threw a riotous feast afterwards. The Red Wolf did not partake in the celebration however. Instead, he had his retinue set up camp further south, which would turn out to be a very wise decision on the prince's part. (Contrary to what many singers claim, Prince Karlon was known as the Red Wolf not because he emerged from the battle covered in blood but because of his fiery hair.)

 Letter #51: When Richard Bolton got word of his elder brother's death he swore an oath of eternal enmity towards House Stark. (When one of his men questioned this decision Richard cut out the man's heart with the Valyrian steel sword, Wolfsbane, and ate it.)

 Letter #52: Marching south with twenty-three hundred men at his back, Richard crossed the Weeping Water under cover of darkness atop the corpses that then choked the river.

 Letter #53: Taking Lord Umber's drunken camp by surprise, the Night Attack was a crushing victory for the rebels, who slew two thousand men for the price of three hundred before retreating at the approach of Prince Karlon's entourage. Amongst the slain were Big Jon Umber, four of his five sons, and a dozen petty lords. As a result, the Stark host now numbered just over five thousand men.

 Letter #54: When Prince Karlon marched north the next day he put the Dreadfort to the torch upon taking custody of Richard's underage heir, Jack, who he made a ward of House Hornwood. (The entire garrison was put to the sword after the castle was stormed.) (In time Jack Bolton would become known as "the Gentle", which remains to this day a strange sobriquet for the Lord of the Dreadfort.) (Jack's favorite pastime was exploring the Hornwood on horseback, which one day led to his disappearance at the tender age of sixteen.) (Jack's wife produced a posthumous son three months later.) (Berena Hornwood named the child after her father.)

 Letter #55: The last battle of the rebellion would take place a week later at Hangman's Hill, where Lord Triton Manderly died saving the life of Prince Karlon. (The Red Kings of old would often have convicted criminals executed atop the hill, hence its name.) (To honor the Lord of White Harbor's sacrifice, Prince Karlon took to wife his maiden daughter, Ariel.) (A thousand men died at the Battle of Hangman's Hill but only two-fifths of them were sworn to the Dreadfort.) (Who slew Richard Bolton is unknown. The ultimate fate of the Valyrian steel sword formerly known as Lancet is, likewise, a mystery.)

 Letter #56: A generation later war broke out between Winterfell and the Eyrie. (The chief cause of this particular conflict was King Beron, who executed seven Septons after their preaching along House Manderly's borders led to a series of riots.) (The War of the Seven Septons lasted half a century, only coming to an end when the High Septon expelled the entire city of White Harbor from the Faith, which made Lord Pykewood Manderly beg his king on bended knee to make peace with the Eyrie.) (Because of the War of the Seven Septons a chapterhouse of the Warrior's Sons was never stationed in White Harbor. Instead, that honor went to Stoney Sept.) (The original chapterhouse of Stoney Sept was established during the reign of Lucifer II.) (When the Riverlands were overrun during the reign of Benedict III the Warrior's Sons were so sickened by the violence that they intervened in the conflict despite orders to the contrary.) (Thus, the High Septon had the entire chapterhouse purged for defying his holy mandate.) (The second chapterhouse of Stoney Sept was established during the long reign of Humfrey (I) Teague.)

 Letter #57: Ten years later a new King-Beyond-the-Wall rose to power. His name was Sygerrik the Small. (This sobriquet comes from the fact his father was supposedly a Giant.)

 Letter #58: While his son crossed the Wall with ten thousand men to ravish the Gift Sygerrik led seventy-five coracles south to raid the White Knife, culminating in the Rape of White Harbor.

 Letter #59: Scaling the walls under the cover of night the wildlings sacked the city before attempting to make off with their ill-gotten goods but alas for them His Lordship quickly mounted a pursuit.

 Letter #60: As the wildlings passed by Oldcastle they were surrounded and overwhelmed. (Sygerrik died at the hands of Glauca the Gourmand, who forced him into the sea when the King-Beyond-the-Wall attempted to board The Trident.) (The fate of Sygerrik's son was much more brutal. Having been caught raping Lord Wull's maiden daughter he was coated with honey and then thrown in a pit full of hungry wolves.)

 Letter #61: Two years later the Skagosi rose in rebellion. (Amongst the dead were King Bennard, a score of lesser lords, and Ser Theo Manderly, the heir to White Harbor.)

 Letter #62: It would fall to King Bennard's successor, Lonny the Leper, to finally put down the rebellion. In time he gave way to Brandon the Shipwright, who was himself followed by Brandon the Burner.

 Letter #63: Four and a half centuries before Aegon's Conquest a two-year winter fell upon the North.

 Letter #64:  Walton Stark ruled for the last twenty-eight days of winter. As a result, he is known as "the Moon King".

 Letter #65: His successor, Edwyn the Spring King, died four years later fighting the new King-Beyond-the-Wall alongside Lord Umber and the Night's Watch. (The name of this King-Beyond-the-Wall was never recorded. Consequently, he is referred to in the chronicles as Skar on account of the fact he came from a tribe known for self-mutilation.)

 Letter #66: As the wildlings crossed the Last River they were met by Barba Bolton and a thousand heavy horse.

 Letter #67: This time they did not win.

 Letter #68: When the new Lord of Winterfell arrived he was presented with a cloak made of Skar's skin by Barba Bolton. Moved by the gesture he accepted the gift and took to wife the Lady of the Dreadfort. Thus began the reign of Brandon the Bad. (This Brandon should not be confused with his princely counterpart, who lived during the Bad Times.) (Nor should he be confused with Brandon IX, who lived during the Worthless War.) (Brandon IX's regnal number stems from House Manderly's attempts to produce a definitive chronology of Stark kings, which have only made the Citadel's work that much more difficult.) (Brandon the Bad was hated for his tax on beards.)

 Letter #69: His great-grandson, Edderion, became king after the Winter Sickness had passed.

 Letter #70: The last of his line, King Edderion was convinced by the Dowager Queen Barba to take more than one wife for the sake of securing the succession. Thus, he is known to history as "the Bridegroom." (The Dowager Queen warned her great-grandson not to marry any of the great houses but her advice was ignored by King Edderion.) (The Dowager Queen died a fortnight before the wedding.)

 Letter #71: Alas, this led to the problem of there being too many heirs.

 Letter #72: As the bedridden king grew senile knives began to sharpen and smiles to slip.

 Letter #73: Princess Branda and Prince Artos both died the same day as King Edderion, precipitating a civil war as accusations of murder flew fast and loose inside Winterfell. (Princess Branda was the daughter of Lady Jocelyn Karstark. Prince Artos was the son of Lady Leona Manderly.)

 Letter #74: On one side there were the supporters of King Edderion's eldest son by Lady Sarah Bolton, Benjen the Sweet. On the other side there were the supporters of King Edderion's eldest son by Lady Ellyn Ryswell, Edderion the Exile. (Benjen the Sweet was a gentle man fond of riding and reading. As a result, the real leaders of his faction were Lady Sarah Bolton and her paramour, Janna Umber.)

 Letter #75: Eventually, Edderion was forced to seek asylum in the Vale, where he became King Consort to Jeyne (I) Godsgift. (Though their relationship was initially warm it later grew cold and bitter, leading Edderion to abandon the Falcon Queen while she was heavy with their child, who she spitefully named Artys.)

 Letter #76: Edderion returned to the North due to letters of reconciliation from his half-brother but these overtures were false. At a parley south of Winterfell Edderion was attacked beneath the peace banner and killed. When news of this reached the king's ears he hanged himself from Winterfell's heart tree. (In truth, the letters had been penned by the king's mother.)

 Letter #77: His grieving son dedicated his reign to hunting down his half-uncle's murderers. When the last one was found he joined the Night's Watch. Thus ended the reign of Benjen the Bitter, son of Benjen the Sweet. (The first act of his reign was the arrest of the Dowager Queen Sarah Bolton, who was confined to a tower cell for the rest of her days as punishment for the perfidious murder of Prince Edderion.) (When Benjen the Bitter took the black so did his blood-brothers.)

 Letter #78: He was succeeded by his younger brother, Donnor the Majestic.

Letter #79: The King Who Knelt was more of a scholar and administrator than a warrior or commander.

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