#shadow imagery

"I can show you." Melisandre draped one slender arm over Ghost, and the direwolf licked her face. "The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows." "Shadows." The world seemed darker when he said it. "Every man who walks the earth casts a shadow on the world. Some are thin and weak, others long and dark. You should look behind you, Lord Snow. The moon has kissed you and etched your shadow upon the ice twenty feet tall." Jon glanced over his shoulder. The shadow was there, just as she had said, etched in moonlight against the Wall. A girl in grey on a dying horse, he thought. Coming here, to you. Arya. He turned back to the red priestess. Jon could feel her warmth. She has power. The thought came unbidden, seizing him with iron teeth, but this was not a woman he cared to be indebted to, not even for his little sister. "Dalla told me something once. Val's sister, Mance Rayder's wife. She said that sorcery was a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it." (ADWD, Jon VI)

While I get the impulse to equate the moon with Dany and read romance into the kiss, I think the surrounding context is so firmly about prophecy and magic that I see it more as a hint toward Jon's parentage.

The moon, among other things, relates to an origin myth of dragons, and the silvering of hair, likening it to Targaryens. If the moon has kissed Jon, giving him a metaphorical Big Impact on the world (tall shadow, see also Tyrion) then this easily can refer to his secret paternal origin, which matches Jon's discomfort with the darkness, shadows and magical influence implied by Melisandre. The focus on prophecy and its dangers, even the forced wedding of "Arya", the wild Stark sister/daughter, all easily match the context of Jon's conception and birth. There is both power and darkness in that as of yet unknown factor.

me: i shouldnt upload this here i got people from my dnd group who follow me

also me: hehe,,,,validation make brain go brrrr

Hi there!

First up, it is definitely before the Trident incident.

Bran wakes up at the end of this chapter. At this point, Tyrion is still at the Wall where Jon whirls him around in joy after reading in a raven that his brother has woken up and will live. Tyrion leaves soon after and it is approximately three weeks later that he is back at Winterfell. And another four weeks or so, by my calculation, that he chances on Catelyn at the Inn at the Crossroads. The distance between KL and the Inn is universally described as about a fortnight, meaning - unless Catelyn hung around a while in KL after she speaks to Ned on the very day of his arrival - she gets to the Inn about a month after the Trident Incident. Tyrion could never have covered the distance between the Wall and the Crossroads Inn in the space of less than a month.

Consequently, Bran's dream happens weeks before the Trident Incident.

It's a prophetic dream, and probably has more than a little endgame foreshadowing in it, but just focusing on the passage you mean:

He looked south, and saw the great blue-green rush of the Trident. He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood. (AGOT, Bran III)

I can't help but think that there are more than the obvious conclusions to draw. It is, after all, shadows and not individual men that surround them all. The dream likely connects far into the future.

The hound obviously recalls Sandor, but also Ramsay, and hounds are generally described as opposed to wolves. Golden beauty recalls House Lannister, but the sun recalls House Martell, and even the golden company. The 'giant' is an image connected to Gregor, yes, but also to Tyrion and Littlefinger, and eventually probably Dany herself, who has seen herself behind Rhaegar's visor. What is an armor made of stone? A castle? An unfeeling heart? Black blood is connected to death and blood magic, but also the the Night's Watch.

Arya and Sansa both are connected to the image of giant-slaying, so I would just place this one on a shelf right next to the "prophecy" of the Ghost of High Heart.

ch.104