So what else did I miss about ASOIAF? (probable spoilers)

I’m not very good at picking out subtleties in a text. Case in point: A Song of Ice and Fire. I read it, and was more or less sure that I’d gotten most of the main points. Then I looked at some of the online discussions. :smack:

For instance, Jon Snow’s real parentage. I’d taken it for granted that he was Ned and Willa’s son, because Ned said so, and if you can’t trust Ned Stark, who can you trust? But no, everyone was saying how obvious it was that he was really Rheagar’s kid. :smack:

Then there was the Hound. I’d assumed that he was dead of massive infection, but no, a lot of people were saying that he was actually a monk in a graveyard, or something like that. That GRRM wouldn’t dare kill him off, anyway. Oh, and that somewhere along the way he went from being a villian to an anti-hero. (Yes, I really didn’t notice that :o ). :smack:

So I figure, if I missed all that, there are probably some equally important subtleties that I missed. In fact, it’s nearly certain. So I’m asking you: what are some key aha! moments in and major theories about ASOIAF?

Ned did not say so. He said he Jon had his blood.

Well, something that makes the “Holy Shit, I Can’t Believe People Even Think This Is Something That Needs To Be Figured Out” is that Coldhands the wight is the missing Stark uncle.

-Joe

This. Ned calls jon “his blood”, which he would be as the son of his sister. A lot of stuff in ASOIAF is really impossible to catch on the first read through. The reason i figured out Jons parentage was on a third or fourth reading of the fever dream Ned was having after having his leg broken, he remembers finding Liana in her “bed of blood”. This is the first time in the book the bed of blood is mentioned at all, unless you remember this minor little detail hundreds of pages later when Dany is about to give birth and asks the magician woman if she can help her deliver and she answers “i know the secrets of the bed of blood” that you realize that meant she was having a baby.

As far as the hound goes if you pay attention to what the priest says when Brianna asks about the hound he says the hound is dead, when she asks about Sandor Clegane the priest answers “he is at peace”. Also theres a really tall priest with a bad leg that covers his face when they walk by, AND the monastery has Cleganes horse which was known to attack anyone but him.

That’s the one thing I did figure out. Any theories on what sort of wight he is? It seems to me that he’s self-aware, not a monster like the others, and I’m wondering how such a thing would come to pass.

What’s the evidence for Benjen=Coldhands beyond them both being beyond the Wall?

One thing you might have missed is that the Red Priestess is probably a fake (not a faker of magic, but a faker of being a priestess of R’hllor or whatever his name is). The fire of Stannis’s sword isn’t hot (as Maester Aemon noted to Jon), but the fire that Thoros gives to Beric Dondarion’s sword is real, as the Hound flinches away from the heat.

I’d guess that Starks themselves may have some resistance to it. Maybe he’s half-turned. Maybe he got to a cache of dragonglass and it halted the conversion.

The fire of Dondarions sword is from that fire liquid they used in the siege of kings landing, the name escapes me at the moment. They mentioned the priest used it in melees but it really weakened the blades, thats why Dondarions sword snapped during the duel.

My understanding was that Thoros USED to use the liquid when he was acting the charlatan, but that he was able to make it burst into flame by actual magic now (along with the whole “breathing life into dead people” thing).

Yeah, in Beric’s last fight he used his own blood to ignite his sword.

Here’s one I didn’t catch until I read about it online. You remember Jaqen H’gar? I’m probably butchering the spelling of his name, but he was the prisoner that Arya freed, and he later let her choose three names of peolple he would kill for her. Then he used some magic/skill/whatever to change his face, and he gave Arya a coin that later led her to the faceless men.

Re-read the passage where Arya watches him change his face. Then, in the latest book, re-read the bit early on (I think it’s the first chapter) where a mysterious stranger kills the guy from the maester school with a poisoned coin. The “mysterious stranger” is Jaqen, after his transformation.

Its possible but if he really had the flaming sword wouldnt that make him the prince that was promised? and i doubt a real magic sword would snap in half. The liquid fire just made more sense to me.

I remember another theory I heard: was Renly supposed to be gay?

Oh, I think so. There’s a reference, for instance, about him and Ser Loras spending the night together…“praying”. (The pause before the word “praying” seemed quite significant.)

Yes, incredibly be so. He and pretty boy Loras Tyrell were obviously lovers.

Kicking Brienne in the gut yet again. Poor girl.

-Joe

See, that’s my problem. You guys are all picking over words, sentences, tiny details… I’m not good at the stuff. When I read, I pick up the general gist of a scene, which obviously doesn’t work for ASOIAF.

Anything else?

I think that Quentyn Martell is disguising himself as Daario Naharis to seduce Danaerys. I could be wrong, and we will find out in the next book because he’s supposed to be a POV character.

Thanks, guys. The reason I’m asking this is because I found a fellow Martin fan in my Hebrew class and we’ve been discussing the books together. She makes me feel better about being clueless, since she didn’t know any of this stuff, either. (“Wait, Renly’s gay? Where does it say that Renly’s gay?”)