Kestrel Sans Jesses

The Mormont motif of a bearwife isn't just a thing they say- it's actual iconography they use. In a Storm of Swords, circa page 630 US paperback, Dacey describes a carving above the gate on Bear Isle. "There's a carving on our gate," said Dacey. "A woman in a bearskin, with a child in one arm suckling at her breast. In the other hand she holds a battleaxe. She's no proper lady, that one, but I have always loved her." The Mormont bearwife is important enough to be above the gate that's the entrance to their keep, and again, this is one of those things that COULD simply be because Mormont woman have to occupy a space unique to Westeros- but it could also be a wink and a nod to the women in the family who take things into their own hands, and bring forth children that have the Mormont name, despite their lack of fathers

"it's a very poignant image, frankly, of Dunk setting a laboring Rhaella down and then rolling onto his back in the evening grass, looking up at the stars while the world burns and he tries to find the strength to go back and look for Egg. 'The luck is ours alone.'" To add to that, this beauty of an ending where Dunk has one last look at the stars that have sort of defined his journey, after performing this act of saving a woman. A return to the beginning of his journey starting by saving Tanselle, but not in a bad way. I also just find that any theory that's spinning off of Dunk surviving is reliant on a lot of wild leaps of faith- this man is nearly seven feet tall, in his sixties, and one of the most recognizable men in the kingdom. He didn't run off and secretly join the Night's Watch. What would the narrative purpose of him being Coldhands be? How does all of it tie in THEMATICALLY? Things don't just happen because they're /cool/ in GRRM's world, they happen for a reason, and that's the thing- I have yet to see a good theory that has an actual reason beyond 'I think it would be neat.'

You need this today