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Here comes legitimate Jon Targaryen!! 😂😂😂

I think this is well known in the books that oaths before the heart trees i.e Old Gods have power and are not supposed to be broken - for ex. see Jon Snow being killed immediately after announcing/deciding that he was breaking his oaths.

This was why it was ridiculous on the TV show when Sansa promised Jon in front of the Old Gods that she would not tell anyone about his actual parentage and then straight away made a beeline to Tyrion to spill the beans in order to sabotage Dany and then was rewarded for her backstabbing and betrayal by her ending up as Queen. If she had done this in the books, the consequences for her would have been far worse.

Let's talk about the heart(s).

I realize a lot of fans dismissed this as reaching recently, and so everyone sort of shut up about it, but I can't let it go. Especially when acknowledging what is literally happening on the show itself aka YOU'RE THE HEART, has convinced me that none of this is reaching. In fact, I'm certain that the heart imagery in the California poster(s) was intentional and intended to foreshadow requited Byler in ST5!

HEAR ME OUT!

The Duffers, when asked about the significance of the s4 posters, got excited, saying that it was indeed foreshadowing done by marketing, only to shut up instantly, steering the conversation elsewhere.

A little bit before season 4 actually premiered, fans got these posters as promotion and started noticing the hearts in the trees fairly quickly. So, this isn’t something that was only recently discovered well after s4 premiered. No, this was something fans caught onto way before 'you're the heart' was even a concept we were aware of. And I think there's a reason for that, in that it was foreshadowing what was still yet to come.

So, for starters, look at each of these trees individually…

They all look like your basic, run-of-the-mill palm trees. They have texture to them, which makes them fairly unique like trees often are. They were designed for the eye to instantly qualify them as trees.

These TWO below on the other hand, follow a different formula.

These trees look like hearts, point blank. They are much more defined into a shape than they are meant to look like realistic trees.

One heart is on the left and one heart is on right in this poster (smack dab where the rule of thirds lies, might I add). The left heart is a little bigger and therefore easier for the eye to catch first, while the heart on the right is a little smaller and therefore harder to notice, but it’s there.

Now get ready, because what actually sort of sealed the deal for me, is that it’s obvious these two trees, are the exact same.

Here you can see I reverted the right heart horizontally, and yep... They’re the same. Even down to the little detail of the small tree accompanying both of them. You can clearly see they are the same image, just copy/pasted, shrunk a little smaller and reverted horizontally.

So what does this all mean…?

Well, a couple weeks after Vol. 2 dropped on July 1st, after rewatching the van scene a bajillion times, numerous fans started to notice a heart shape in the light of Will’s eye. And once you saw it, you couldn’t unsee it, especially in edits that enhanced the quality of the scene and made it even more prominent than how it looked in the show.

But the thing is, the heart doesn’t stay there the entire time in Will's eye. There’s moments where it’s bright and clear as day, and theres other moments where it's just barely visible. And I think that was probably necessary, otherwise it would have been a little too obvious. But it's still just subtle enough, and within the context of the conversation literally happening on screen, YOU'RE THE HEART!, that it's... wow. It's beautiful.

Even more interestingly, similar to the posters, while there is a more prominent heart on the left, that being the heart in Will's eye in this scene, his heart is also accompanied by a second heart to the right, which is also slightly less obvious, but it’s there, and it's in Mike’s eye.

There’s moments where it’s bursting or, to even fit the context of the scene, ‘falling apart” (it quite literally falls apart the moment Will says those exact words).

Yes, Mike's heart is a little smaller, it's less distinguishable. And there's times when you can't really see it at all, just like Will's, but it's there, all while Mike looks, dare I say it, in love?!?

The van scene took over half a day to film, and a lot of evidence points to the fact that there is way more going on in this scene than meets the eye. (Like the fact that Will's monologue in the van parallels perfectly to Mike's monologue at surfer boy pizza...)

"I know it's sort of on the nose"

NO ITS LITERALLY ON THE EYES, YOU EVIL GENIUSES!

This, on top of everything else???? Like, Byler is so inevitable at this point, there’s seriously no room for doubts anymore.

I also want to add that, fans noticed Lonnie (Will's dad)'s car in the background of the main Cali poster, and we also know the actor who played him attended the table read for season 4. Which means that this poster has another element to it that confirms it's indeed foreshadowing what is still yet to come in season 5, not just season 4... So it's not a reach to theorize about the significance here of Mike, clearly walking towards Will, while everyone else is walking forwards. After all season 4 was just the beginning of the end. And the posters are confirmed to have hints pointing towards endgame...

We don’t know, we haven’t seen non-weirwood trees “not working”. We do know that greenseers are only bound to weirwood trees, presumably because that tree is the only one with the right sort of magic. That is, as weirwoods are weirdly human, with leaves like hands and sap like blood, it may be it’s the only kind where its crushed seeds can create the physical and mental bond between human (or Children) and the trees. Furthermore, the unique properties of weirwoods – that they live forever unless cut down, and never rot, so that “a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood” – make them uniquely suitable for viewing the past, seeing across time and space.

But Bran was told that as his abilities expand, he won’t be limited to looking out of only the eyes of weirwood trees:

“Nor will your sight be limited to your godswood. The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use… but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves. […] In a year, or three, or ten. That I have not glimpsed. It will come in time, I promise you.” –ADWD, Bran III

And, well, there’s evidence Bran will / already did look through Red Keep’s heart tree:

The night the bird [with the message that Bran had awoken] had come from Winterfell, Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castle godswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwood overlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its ancient limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines; they knelt before it to offer their thanksgiving, as if it had been a weirwood. Sansa drifted to sleep as the moon rose, Arya several hours later, curling up in the grass under Ned’s cloak. All through the dark hours he kept his vigil alone. When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon’s breath surrounded the girls where they lay. “I dreamed of Bran,” Sansa had whispered to him. “I saw him smiling.” –AGOT, Eddard V

How long he waited in the quiet of the godswood, he could not say. It was peaceful here. The thick walls shut out the clamor of the castle, and he could hear birds singing, the murmur of crickets, leaves rustling in a gentle wind. The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods. His leg did not seem to hurt so much. –AGOT, Eddard XII

Weirwoods would be terrifying trees.

Of course, they would draw and host all sorts of fae and such. We’ll handle Dryads first.

A weirwood dryad would of course look like the tree themselves. Which means actual white skin. Not Caucasian. Paper white. Both hair and eyes would be blood red. They are the fiercest of dryads, and will not allow their trees to be cut down. They are so territorial, they will wipe out entire villages, if they perceive a threat to their trees. 

Of course, most people would know this, and chose instead to just...quietly help this tree grow. Y’know, watering it in times of drought, pruning any diseased branches. The kind of thing the dryad simply cannot do, for one reason or another. The dryad’s loyalty upon receiving these services would last eons. Because of one faithful gardener, an entire village will be defended by this dryad for as long as it is settled. 

And then there are the Ents. As far as Ents go, Weirwoods are fast. Because of the properties of Weirwood lumber (no seriously look it up these trees are mad awesome), they are both incredibly strong and surprisingly flexible. They take the best from hard and soft wood and create a force to be reckoned with. Once they root, and they begin to bear fruit, it’s...not the usual Ent fruit. It is not strictly limited to healing properties. It’s...more akin to the demonfruit of One Piece, except only one tree for just about every variety. 

It only bears fruit when someone comes with desperation. If they eat of the fruit, it will grant them what they need to solve whatever issue came their way.

But at a price. And it is often steep.

The elves shun the fruit of the Weirwood Ents, knowing it is rarely worth the cost.

And of course, there is the other thing. That any existing gods in this realm can and will use any carved heart trees as their eyes and voice. This...isn’t necessarily a good thing. With the native magic strengthening the connection and the power of a true god (which ISN’T NECESSARILY GOOD ALIGNED), one may find heart trees becoming animated. Neither Dryad nor Ent nor any other Fae of either court, this...this is a true Vessel of the Gods.

Let’s just say if you’ve been blaspheming, you won’t when you see this giant ass maple/birch crossbreed dripping blood-sap on your doorstep.

That said...Weirwood is still the most desired lumber for anything from furniture to bows and arrows. Just be sure to get it from a tree that isn’t somehow alive. It’s also a good idea to plant a sapling if you plan to cut down an adult. Because the Ents are protective of their groves. And never take lumber from a Carved Tree. If the gods wish you to have that lumber, they’ll let you know themselves.

Day 1 of Seven Days Of Kabby

@kabby-holiday-fun