Okay, so I need to distract myself from Moon Knight for a bit so I’ll pivot over to ASOIAF instead. Specifically thinking about Jon Snow, I wonder if he may become a fully fledged skinchanger in TWOW?
It’s established in the books that all the Stark children are wargs with their connection to their direwolves, to varying degrees of ability. But being a warg doesn’t necessarily make one able to skinchange into other animals. [For the purpose of this post, I will refer to warging as solely having control over wolves (/and dogs) and skinchanging as having control over any and all kinds of animals; that is how the author describes it so I shall too.]
Of the siblings, Bran is clearly the most powerful: a warg, skinchanger, and greenseer too. His fall leaves him in a coma, which results in Bran experiencing his first meeting with the Three-Eyed Crow. But it’s not until the second book that Bran feels he can truly reach beyond himself, and beyond his direwolf, Summer:
He remembered who he was all too well; Bran the boy, Bran the broken. Better Bran the beastling. Was it any wonder he would sooner dream his Summer dreams, his wolf dreams? Here in the chill damp darkness of the tomb his third eye had finally opened. He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon.
— A Clash of Kings, Bran VII
It’s not the first time Bran has warged into Summer, so clearly something has changed this time. In ASOS and ADWD, we can see Bran further his abilities by skinchanging into different animals and even a human.
Arya is also a very powerful warg like her brother. She can reach out to Nymeria despite considerable time apart and over a large land distance. Though Pre-ADWD, she is only able to connect with her direwolf, not any other animals. It is specifically after she loses her eyesight that Arya starts being able to skinchange into cats.
So that loss of sight (Bran being engulfed in the darkness of the crypts and Arya actually loosing her eyesight) is what seems to awaken the latent skinchanging ability. TWOIAF does make mention of something regarding this:
These new Lorathi were worshippers of Boash, the Blind God. Rejecting all other deities, the followers of Boash ate no flesh, drank no wine, and walked barefoot through the world, clad only in hair shirts and hides. Their eunuch priests wore eyeless hoods in honor of their god; only in darkness, they believed, would their third eye open, allowing them to see the "higher truths" of creation that lay concealed behind the world's illusions. The worshippers of Boash believed that all life was sacred and eternal; that men and women were equal; that lords and peasants, rich and poor, slave and master, man and beast were all alike, all equally worthy, all creatures of god.
— The World of Ice and Fire, The Free Cities: Lorath
Jojen also provides some insight on the opening of the third eye:
"How would I break the chains, Jojen?" Bran asked.
"Open your eye."
"They are open. Can't you see?"
"Two are open." Jojen pointed. "One, two."
"I only have two."
"You have three. The crow gave you the third, but you will not open it." He had a slow soft way of speaking. "With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you can see that oak tree there. With three you could see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become. With two you see no farther than your walls. With three you would gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall."
— A Clash of Kings, Bran IV
Additional note by Bloodraven:
"Never fear the darkness, Bran." The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."
— A Dance with Dragons, Bran III
The darkness, or shall I say sensory deprivation, is key here. Jojen (greendreams) and Varamyr (skinchanging) are two other characters with such supernatural abilities, and since both of them are described as being sickly in their childhood, it’s possible some kind of sensory deprivation state came about as a result of their childhood sickness.
Regarding the abilities of the other siblings, Rickon was also present in the crypts alongside Bran, but since he is a non-pov, it’s not really possible to say how exactly he is affected. Though I will say this, considering his young age, Rickon does seem to be incorporating large aspects of Shaggydog’s nature the same way Shaggydog is incorporating Rickon’s nature. In terms of describing their personalities, it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Moving on to Sansa, she is an interesting case because Lady died near the start of the story. Sansa still has warging potential but the skinchanging seems rather unlikely since I don’t see a situation in Sansa’s future where some kind of sensory deprivation could take place (who knows, it might happen, it might not).
Robb & Jon are in a similar situation where they both are somewhat aware of the connection they have with their direwolves. But both of them, over the course of their stories, start to deny this part of themselves (eg. locking up their direwolf).
The Varamyr prologue chapter introduces us to skinchanging 101, and one of the things we’re told is that Jon has great potential:
He had known what Snow was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side. One skinchanger can always sense another. Mance should have let me take the direwolf. There would be a second life worthy of a king. He could have done it, he did not doubt. The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught, still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it.
— A Dance with Dragons, Prologue
Varamyr acknowledges Jon’s latent skinchanging ability. Should a situation arise where Jon also experiences sensory deprivation, he could tap into that latent skinchanging ability he has. Though it’s not enough to simply have the ability, you need to be able to acknowledge that part of yourself. Jon does sometimes try to deny it. Robb, from what we saw of him, had a similar tendency; fluctuating between keeping Grey Wind always by his side and trying to limit their connection.
Part of the reason Bran and Arya are such powerful wargs, is that they fully embrace the nature of a human’s connection with their direwolf, and so they’re able to further that into their latent skinchanging ability easier than their siblings:
She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.
— A Clash of Kings, Arya X
Yes, Arya thought. Yes, it's you who ought to run, you and Lord Tywin and the Mountain and Ser Addam and Ser Amory and stupid Ser Lyonel whoever he is, all of you better run or my brother will kill you, he's a Stark, he's more wolf than man, and so am I.
— A Clash of Kings, Arya VIII
I won't be afraid. He was the Prince of Winterfell, Eddard Stark's son, almost a man grown and a warg too, not some little baby boy like Rickon. Summer would not be afraid.
— A Storm of Swords, Bran III
"I'd sooner be a wolf. Then I could live in the wood and sleep when I wanted, and I could find Arya and Sansa. I'd smell where they were and go save them, and when Robb went to battle I'd fight beside him like Grey Wind. I'd tear out the Kingslayer's throat with my teeth, rip, and then the war would be over and everyone would come back to Winterfell. If I was a wolf . . ." He howled. "Ooo-ooo-oooooooooooo."
— A Clash of Kings, Bran I
Both of them even react in the same appreciative way to hearing about Robb's warging/connection with wolves. This is something we don’t really see with their siblings.
Jon most likely warged into Ghost upon his “death”. So that will certainly build a closer bond between the two. Depending on Jon’s internal psyche (if he has dreams in the crypts) and what state his body is kept in, he could very well be resurrected with his latent skinchanging ability awakened.
TLDR; I would like to see Jon skinchange Mormont’s raven.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Varamyr’s is definitely my favourite prologue. Mostly because it’s right in between when we Bran start warging into Hodor and when he begins to do it more often. In ASOS it’s already kind of creepy that Bran’s done it, but with the added layers of even skinchangers think that that’s an abomination, it makes it even creepier.
In this meta I will try to point out the clues of Jon’s death- warging into his direwolf- coming back to life process.
Our main hint is going to be : ONE EYE motifs...
And interestingly this hint is always close to Sansa...
[Most of these clues etc have been already examined by many people but I will try to put them all in order to show the pattern..]
A GAME OF THRONES:
Waymar Royce
Waymar Royce appearence and story are very similar with Jon’s.
They look similar:
Ser Waymar Royce was the youngest son of an ancient house with too many heirs. He was a handsome youth of eighteen, grey-eyed and graceful and slender as a knife.
[AGOT; Prologue]
Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.
[AGOT; Bran I]
They are both young men of Night’s Watch but they were not very welcomed by their other black brothers:
His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin. “Bet he killed them all himself, he did,” Gared told the barracks over wine, “twisted their little heads off, our mighty warrior.” They had all shared the laugh.
It is hard to take orders from a man you laughed at in your cups, Will reflected as he sat shivering atop his garron. Gared must have felt the same.
[AGOT; Prologue]
“Yes, life,” Noye said. “A long life or a short one, it’s up to you, Snow. The road you’re walking, one of your brothers will slit your throat for you one night.”
“They’re not my brothers,” Jon snapped. “They hate me because I’m better than they are.”
“No. They hate you because you act like you’re better than they are. They look at you and see a castle-bred bastard who thinks he’s a lordling.” The armorer leaned close. “You’re no lordling. Remember that. You’re a Snow, not a Stark. You’re a bastard and a bully.”
[AGOT; Jon III]
Others are a very important part of Jon’s arc and story and Waymar meets with them in Prologue:
Ser Waymar met him bravely. “Dance with me then.” He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night’s Watch.
[AGOT; Prologue]
This phrase also reminds us Jon:
It is more than impatience, Jon realized. They are afraid. Warriors, spearwives, raiders, they are frightened of those woods, of shadows moving through the trees. They want to put the Wall between them before the night descends.
A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You’ll dance with me anon.
[ADWD; Jon XII]
In Prologue, Waymar gets killed by Others:
Royce’s body lay facedown in the snow, one arm out-flung. The thick sable cloak had been slashed in a dozen places. Lying dead like that, you saw how young he was. A boy.
[AGOT; Prologue]
And Jon dies in ADWD:
Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …
[ADWD; Jon XIII]
But Waymar comes back to life as a wight with ‘ONE EYE’:
Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.
His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.
The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.
[AGOT; Prologue]
So: A young man of Night’s Watch who looks like Jon dies and comes back to life with ONE EYE.
Let’s continue with the second book...
A CLASH OF KINGS:
Orell
Orell is Wildling who is also a skinchanger. His animal is an EAGLE.
Jon kills Orell in ACOK; Jon VI:
Jon nodded toward the one by the fire. It felt queer, picking a man to kill.
[...]
Jon’s man leapt to his feet, thrusting at his face with a burning brand. He could feel the heat of the flames as he flinched back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the sleeper stirring, and knew he must finish his man quick. When the brand swung again, he bulled into it, swinging the bastard sword with both hands. The Valyrian steel sheared through leather, fur, wool, and flesh, but when the wildling fell he twisted, ripping the sword from Jon’s grasp.
[...]
“You ought to burn them you killed,” said Ygritte.
[ACOK; Jon VI]
But due to the magic of skinchanging, a portion of Orell’s consciousness remained in the eagle, which developed a fierce hatred for Jon.
And in ACOK; Jon VII he dreams of an eagle attacking him and people talk about vargs and skinchangers:
Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun…
“Ghost!” Jon shouted, sitting up. He could still feel the talons, the pain. “Ghost, to me!”
Ebben appeared, grabbed him, shook him. “Quiet! You mean to bring the wildlings down on us? What’s wrong with you, boy?”
“A dream,” said Jon feebly. “I was Ghost, I was on the edge of the mountain looking down on a frozen river, and something attacked me. A bird… an eagle, I think…”
[...]
“Skinchanger?” said Ebben grimly, looking at the Halfhand. Does he mean the eagle? Jon wondered. Or me? Skinchangers and wargs belonged in Old Nan’s stories, not in the world he had lived in all his life. Yet here, in this strange bleak wilderness of rock and ice, it was not hard to believe.
[ACOK; Jon VII]
So: There is a skinchanger who dies because of Jon but a part of him keeps living in his animal: eagle.
The interesting thing is that between these two Jon chapters (Orell and eagle dream) comes a very important Sansa chapter which has many parallels with Jon VI chapter...
An example of parallels:
[…] ‘All I ask is a flower,’ Bael answered, ‘the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o’ Winterfell.”
“Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious…
[ACOK; Jon VI]
Sansa lowered her head. “The blood frightened me.”
“The blood is the seal of your womanhood. Lady Catelyn might have prepared you. You’ve had your first flowering, no more.”
Sansa had never felt less flowery. “My lady mother told me, but I… I thought it would be different.”
[ACOK; Sansa IV]
For more, please check: Jonsa Book Hints: B5
In this chapter Sansa says she wants to be loved and Cersei warns her that “love kills too...” Next chapter is Jon with his eagle dreams and warging abilities:
A half smile flickered across the queen’s face. “[…]Robert wanted to be loved. My brother Tyrion has the same disease. Do you want to be loved, Sansa?”
“Everyone wants to be loved.”
“I see flowering hasn’t made you any brighter,” said Cersei. “Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.”
[ACOK; Sansa IV]
Let’s move on to third book...
A STORM OF SWORDS:
Orell and Wargs
In ASOS; Jon I, we learn the name of the Wildling that Jon has killed in ACOK; Jon VI:
“He slew Qhorin Halfhand,” said Longspear Ryk. “Him and that wolf o’ his.”
“And did for Orell too,” said Rattleshirt.
“The lad’s a warg, or close enough,” put in Ragwyle, the big spearwife. “His wolf took a piece o’ Halfhand’s leg.”
[...]
“What’s this?” he said. “A crow?”
“The black bastard what gutted Orell,” said Rattleshirt, “and a bloody warg as well.”
“You were to kill them all.”
“This one come over,” explained Ygritte. “He slew Qhorin Halfhand with his own hand.”
[ASOS; Jon I]
This Jon chapter comes after ASOS; Sansa I.
And these chapters have many parallels such as:
Sansa knelt at the feet of her future queen. “You do me great honor, Your Grace.” “Won’t you call me Margaery? Please, rise. Loras, help the Lady Sansa to her feet. Might I call you Sansa?”
[ASOS; Sansa I]
“I would be pleased to eat, Your Grace. And thank you.”
“Your Grace?” The king smiled. “That’s not a style one often hears from the lips of the free folk. I’m Mance to most, The Mance to some. Will you take a horn of mead?”
[ASOS; Jon I]
For more, please check: Jonsa Book Hints: C1
We also learn about Sansa’s new betrothed: Willas Tyrell..
Willas has a bad leg and so does Jon, in ASOS:
“Willas has a bad leg but a good heart,” said Margaery. “He used to read to me when I was a little girl, and draw me pictures of the stars. You will love him as much as we do, Sansa.”
[ASOS; Sansa I]
If the mare had gone down, he would have been doomed. “A lucky thing my leg got in the way,” he muttered.
He rested for a while to let the horse graze. She did not wander far. That was good. Hobbled with a bad leg, he could never have caught her.
[ASOS; Jon V]
Let’s keep reading...
In ASOS; Jon II chapter Jon’s eagle dream from ACOK comes true and Orell’s eagle attacks Jon’s eye:
He could still hear wings, though the eagle was not in sight. Half his world was black. “My eye,” he said in sudden panic, raising a hand to his face.
“It’s only blood, Jon Snow. He missed the eye, just ripped your skin up some.”
[…]
Can a bird hate? Jon had slain the wilding Orell, but some part of the man remained within the eagle. The golden eyes looked out on him with cold malevolence.
[…]
I will need to get this tended, he thought, but not just now. Let the King-beyond-the-Wall see what his eagle did to me.
[…]
The look Mance gave Jon was grim and cold. “What happened to your face?”
Ygritte said, “Orell tried to take his eye out.”
“It was him I asked. Has he lost his tongue? Perhaps he should, to spare us further lies.”
Styr the Magnar drew a long knife. “The boy might see more clear with one eye, instead of two.”
“Would you like to keep your eye, Jon?” asked the King-beyond-the-Wall. “If so, tell me how many they were. And try and speak the truth this time, Bastard of Winterfell.”
Jon’s throat was dry. “My lord… what…”
[ASOS; Jon II]
Jon almosts loses his ‘one eye’ and becomes Jon ‘One Eye’ Snow because of this attack..
After this eagle attack Jon chapter comes ASOS; Sansa II
And these chapters have many parallels such as:
Jon wheeled and followed Tormund back toward the head of the column, his new cloak hanging heavy from his shoulders. It was made of unwashed sheepskins, worn fleece side in, as the wildlings suggested.
[…]
“I wear the cloak you gave me, Your Grace.”
[ASOS; Jon II]
A new gown?” she said, as wary as she was astonished.
“More lovely than any you have worn, my lady,” the old woman promised. She measured Sansa’s hips with a length of knotted string. “All silk and Myrish lace, with satin linings. You will be very beautiful. The queen herself has commanded it.”
“Which queen?” Margaery was not yet Joff’s queen, but she had been Renly’s. Or did she mean the Queen of Thorns? Or…“The Queen Regent, to be sure.”
[ASOS; Sansa II]
For more, please check: Jonsa Book Hints: C2
And after the chapter of an eagle attacks Jon’s eye we learn in next chapter that Sansa’s betrothed Willas Tyrell flies EAGLES:
“Willas has the best birds in the Seven Kingdoms,” Margaery said when the two of them were briefly alone. “He flies an eagle sometimes. You will see, Sansa.”
[ASOS; Sansa II]
Why is Almost One Eye Jon and Sansa Stark being near to each other important?
Because the first Sansa Stark in Stark family tree was married with her half-uncle Jonnel ‘One Eye’ Stark:
So another Sansa being close to another Stark family member who almost had lost his one eye sounds interesting.
Well, Jon didn’t lose his eye but his face got scarred:
He had almost forgotten about his face. “A skinchanger tried to rip out my eye.”
Noye frowned. “Scarred or smooth, it’s a face I thought I’d seen the last of. We heard you’d gone over to Mance Rayder.”
[ASOS; Jon VI]
Who else has a scarred face? Sansa’s husband- Tyrion Lannister:
“I like your scar.” She traced it with her finger. “It makes you look very fierce and strong.”
He laughed. “Very ugly, you mean.”
“M’lord will never be ugly in my eyes.” She kissed the scab that covered the ragged stub of his nose.
[ASOS; Tyrion II]
Varamyr
What happens to this eagle later?
Skinchanger, Varamyr Sixskins, takes control of Orell’s eagle. Varamyr uses the eagle to scout Castle Black and spots Stannis Baratheon’s arrival at the Wall.
The eagle bursts into flames during the attack on Castle Black with Melisandre claiming she was responsible.
The skinchanger was grey-faced, round-shouldered, and bald, a mouse of a man with a wolfling’s eyes. “Once a horse is broken to the saddle, any man can mount him,” he said in a soft voice. “Once a beast’s been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes.”
[...]
“Banners,” he heard Varamyr murmur, “I see golden banners, oh . . .” A mammoth lumbered by, trumpeting, a half-dozen bowmen in the wooden tower on its back. “The king . . . no . . .”
Then the skinchanger threw back his head and screamed.The sound was shocking, ear-piercing, thick with agony. Varamyr fell, writhing, and the ’cat was screaming too.... and high, high in the eastern sky, against the wall of cloud, Jon saw the eagle burning. For a heartbeat it flamed brighter than a star, wreathed in red and gold and orange, its wings beating wildly at the air as if it could fly from the pain. Higher it flew, and higher, and higher still.
[ASOS; Jon X]
Melisandre burns the eagle. Who else got burned in the books?
Jon Snow in AGOT:
He had burned himself more badly than he knew throwing the flaming drapes, and his right hand was swathed in silk halfway to the elbow. At the time he’d felt nothing; the agony had come after.
[AGOT; Jon VIII]
And Jon burns himself in AGOT; Jon VII:
Jon tried to shout, but his voice was gone. Staggering to his feet, he kicked the arm away and snatched the lamp from the Old Bear’s fingers. The flame flickered and almost died. “Burn!” the raven cawed. “Burn, burn, burn!”
Spinning, Jon saw the drapes he’d ripped from the window. He flung the lamp into the puddled cloth with both hands. Metal crunched, glass shattered, oil spewed, and the hangings went up in a great whoosh of flame. The heat of it on his face was sweeter than any kiss Jon had ever known. “Ghost!” he shouted.
The direwolf wrenched free and came to him as the wight struggled to rise, dark snakes spilling from the great wound in its belly. Jon plunged his hand into the flames, grabbed a fistful of the burning drapes, and whipped them at the dead man. Let it burn, he prayed as the cloth smothered the corpse, gods, please, please, let it burn.
[AGOT; Jon VII]
This Jon chapter comes after AGOT; Sansa IV:
And these two chapters have many parallels such as:
So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly … only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor’s Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside.
[AGOT; Sansa IV]
They took his knife and his sword and told him he was not to leave his cell until the high officers met to decide what was to be done with him. And then they placed a guard outside his door to make certain he obeyed. His friends were not allowed to see him, but the Old Bear did relent and permit him Ghost, so he was not utterly alone.
[AGOT; Jon VII]
*
Yet somehow it seemed colder with Jeyne gone, even after she’d built a fire. She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother’s queen.
[AGOT; Sansa IV]
Yet he was trembling, violently. When had it gotten so cold?
[…]
Metal crunched, glass shattered, oil spewed, and the hangings went up in a great whoosh of flame. The heat of it on his face was sweeter than any kiss Jon had ever known. “Ghost!” he shouted.
[AGOT; Jon VII]
For more, please check: Jonsa Book Hints: A10
What happens to skinchanger Orell and warg Varamyr after the eagle burst into flames?
The incident greatly affects Varamyr and supposedly kills the remnants of Orell inside the eagle.
After the defeat of the wildlings at the battle beneath the Wall, Varamyr has lost all his possessions in his madness from experiencing the eagle’s death; he has also lost control of his snow bear and shadowcat, but his wolves remain.
[Orell dying completely and Varamyr gets mad also reminds me another resurrected character Beric Dondarrion who also has ONE EYE and him dying for good to bring Catelyn Stark back to life... And like Varamyr, Lady Stoneheart loses her mind too... ]
Let’s move on to fourth book...
A FEAST FOR CROWS:
Jon is not even in this book?
But Sansa is and we learn few things about her crushes:
Waymar Royce:
She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar, she remembered dimly, but that was a lifetime ago, when she was a stupid little girl.
[AFFC; Alayne I]
Grrm reminds us Waymar Royce aka the biggest foreshadowing for Jon in AFFC book via Sansa’s chapter...
Loras Tyrell:
Loras was another crush of Sansa and we learn that he got burned really bad in AFFC.
Like the eagle and Jon.
“Tell me,” said Margaery. “I command it.”
Command it? Cersei paused a moment, then decided she would let that pass. “The defenders fell back to an inner keep once the curtain wall was taken. Loras led the attack there as well. He was doused with boiling oil.”
Lady Alla turned white as chalk, and ran from the room.
“The maesters are doing all they can, Lord Waters assures me, but I fear your brother is too badly burned.”
[AFFC; Cersei VIII]
More about Loras // Jon, please check: Jonsa Book Hints: A8
Let’s keep reading the fifth book...
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS:
In ADWD; Prologue Varamyr encounters with Others (just like AGOT; Prologue) and Varamyr’s body dies, but his mind lives on in his wolf One Eye.
And Varamyr also thinks about Jon and his direwolf..
So we have dead warg who kept living in his animal: A WOLF whose name is ONE EYE.
Varamyr could feel the snowflakes melting on his brow. This is not so bad as burning. Let me sleep and never wake, let me begin my second life. His wolves were close now. He could feel them. He would leave this feeble flesh behind, become one with them, hunting the night and howling at the moon. The warg would become a true wolf. Which, though?
[...]
“They say you forget,” Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his own death. “When the man’s flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.”
Varamyr knew the truth of that. When he claimed the eagle that had been Orell’s, he could feel the other skinchanger raging at his presence. Orell had been slain by the turncloak crow Jon Snow, and his hate for his killer had been so strong that Varamyr found himself hating the beastling boy as well. He had known what Snow was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side. One skinchanger can always sense another. Mance should have let me take the direwolf. There would be a second life worthy of a king. He could have done it, he did not doubt. The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught, still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it.
[...]
A sleeping direwolf raised his head to snarl at empty air. Before their hearts could beat again he had passed on, searching for his own, for One Eye, Sly, and Stalker, for his pack. His wolves would save him, he told himself.
That was his last thought as a man.
True death came suddenly; he felt a shock of cold, as if he had been plunged into the icy waters of a frozen lake. Then he found himself rushing over moonlit snows with his packmates close behind him. Half the world was dark. One Eye, he knew. He bayed, and Sly and Stalker gave echo.
When they reached the crest the wolves paused.
[...]
The things below moved, but did not live. One by one, they raised their heads toward the three wolves on the hill. The last to look was the thing that had been Thistle. She wore wool and fur and leather, and over that she wore a coat of hoarfrost that crackled when she moved and glistened in the moonlight. Pale pink icicles hung from her fingertips, ten long knives of frozen blood. And in the pits where her eyes had been, a pale blue light was flickering, lending her coarse features an eerie beauty they had never known in life.
She sees me.
[ADWD; Prologue]
Jon dies in his last ADWD chapter and his last word was his direwolf’s name: GHOST...
Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …
[ADWD; Jon XIII]
So we have a full circle:
It started with Agot; Prologue
and ended with ADWD; Jon XIII
Let’s not forget that Jon’s death was foreshadowed in ASOS; Sansa VI chapter.
Lord Petyr dismissed him with a wave, and returned to the pomegranate again as Oswell shuffled down the steps. “Tell me, Alayne—which is more dangerous, the dagger brandished by an enemy, or the hidden one pressed to your back by someone you never even see?”
“The hidden dagger.”
“There’s a clever girl.” He smiled, his thin lips bright red from the pomegranate seeds.
[ASOS; Sansa VI]
Next chapter was Jon:
Fore more about Jon’s death and Sansa; please check:
Jonsa Book Hints: C12 & E7
“Do not be so certain.” The ruby at Melisandre’s throat gleamed red. “It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel. It was very cold.”
“It is always cold on the Wall.”
“You think so?”
“I know so, my lady.”
“Then you know nothing, Jon Snow,” she whispered.
[ADWD; Jon I]
In conclusion:
Jon’s death, him warging into his direwolf during his death and him coming back to life arc has been foreshadowed since AGOT; Prologue and its most obvious hints were given in ADWD; Prologue by echoing AGOT; Prologue.
The ‘ONE EYE’ motif seems like a key hint for his resurrection.
And Sansa is always close to this motif or she has some connections with this motif via other characters or her chapters.
A Sansa Stark being close to another ‘ONE EYE’ Stark is interesting because of the historical couple: Jonnel ‘One Eye’ & Sansa Stark in Stark family tree..
Even the hints of Jon’s death can be found in Sansa chapters.
All of these tell us that Sansa will be important in Jon’s past resurrection story.
varamyr the favourite superior POV? its true its true. i like how skinchangers have their own club/cult of you can't sit with us you cant warg or skinchange with us, and we have these defined warg principles too. However my fav part after highlighted one is varamyr being so critical of cats because they are vain and therefore * not fit candidate for skinchanging*. varamyr said f*ck cats they are cruel they dont let us in???
"Bring your heroes to the wolf’s den, watch them all get crushed" - Werewolf Gimmick, the Mountain Goats
It's my first non ASOIAF quote, but it's one I always associate very strongly with Varamyr. I'm a little bit obsessed with this character, is ASOS he seems like just another of Mance's colourful weirdos, then your first time reading ADWD his prologue seems a bit shallow - another "horrible person gets killed by the Others" like Chett version 2.0. Even on reread, it seems pretty basic - he's there to establish second lives at the start of the book to prepare for Jon's at the end. Very functional, nothing special. But keep digging, and in some of his throwaway comments is the thesis statement for a Dance With Dragons. Paraphrasing: He'd set up in a cave above the village and demand tribute of wealth and women, and every now and then a village hero would take up their spear and set out to slay the beast in the cave. "Those he killed". In three words, the archetypal hero's quest turned on it's head. The fact they were the hero of their story didn't save them, because not all men were made to dance with dragons. It's Quentyn's story from the perspective of Viserion, not distinguishing whether the person they burn has a rich complex life and has been on an epic quest or if they're just another nameless extra. It's Jon, learning you can't always be the hero and the king, Dany learning peace is harder than war, and Tyrion learning it's easier to be the monster the world sees you as.
The mini for Varamyr is from DGS games, stoneclaw savage, it is a solid lump of pewter and it weighs a tonne. The shadow cat is a D&D mini, the rest of his skins are cmon... I'm still waiting on a final wolf, it drives me a bit mad my Sixskins on has five skins.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
What are you views of the prologue chapters in each book? my own personal favorite is maester Cressen.
Ah, yes, I do have some thoughts.
In my opinion, the AGOT prologue, more than perhaps any of the others, is the most consummate contained short story; were it published alone, it could work marvelously well as its own tale. Indeed, Aziz from @historyofwesteros referred to this chapter as a Lovecraftian short story, and it’s an extremely apt description. The horror is not even necessarily that our POV protagonist dies at the end - though that’s certainly shocking - but the knowledge that this ancient evil, forgotten for so many centuries and dismissed as a scare tactic for children, is real, and alive, and hungry. The prologue is haunting and terrifying, but what makes it stand out for me is that it ends on this note of overwhelming doom that is completely unexpected. You leave it not just having witnessed characters die, but having learned that a supernatural force which dispatches humans so easily, and turns them into terrible monsters serving their will, actually exists. The Others will be the Sword of Damocles for the rest of the series, always hanging above humanity’s neck with an aim to destroy.
What I also think is highly deserving of praise in the AGOT prologue is the deftness with which the author handles worldbuilding. The reader learns exactly what he or she needs to know about the three central characters and the world at large, but nothing else. We don’t need to know at this point that Ser Waymar’s father is Bronze Yohn Royce, or that he’s from the Vale, or that his brothers are Andar and Robar, or that he stopped at Winterfell before coming to the Wall; the simple description of him as “the youngest son of an ancient house with too many heirs” tells us everything we need to know about Ser Waymar’s pride, arrogance, resentment, and inexperience. We don’t need Gared’s whole backstory: we learn that he is old, that he has been on the Wall for decades, that he is very experienced, and that has known several bad winters, suffering for them himself. What we know about him sets his terror and disbelief that much more in contrast; this situation is unusual, unnatural, wrong to his trained senses, and we as readers are put on immediate alert. The setting as well perfectly complements the tone of the chapter: the bleakness and vastness of the wilds beyond the Wall underline how alone these three men are, so very out of their element and defenseless. It feels very “The Most Dangerous Game”-esque, adding to that sense that they are being watched and hunted - which, of course, they are. In every sense of the word, this is a chilling chapter.
Yet, and this is so crucial, it’s not hopeless. Ser Waymar, for all his blustering and haughtiness, gets a single, shining moment of true worth; when the hour was bleakest for himself and his companions, his chose to stand and fight and even taunt an enemy against whom he had to have realized he was unquestionably outmatched. Moreover, even though the Others are presented as this unconquerable force, creatures who lazily parry the attacks of castle-trained knights and butcher them after, there is a small hint that they are not unbeatable. The Other’s eyes fix on Ser Waymar’s sword, and it hesitates; it knows there is, or was, a blade that could melt an Other into nothingness. All is not lost for humanity, if it can only learn what weapon will defeat its greatest enemy. Even as the author undermines the audience’s faith in the protagonists’ success by introducing this colossal threat, he ends the book with the birth of three dragons. We need to learn that the Others are real, and that they mean nothing good toward humanity, so that we can understand the scale of the final battle - but we also need that ray of hope, to know that we can win. Match the bravery of future Ser Waymars with this weapon, and the Others can (and will) be vanquished.
Now, in terms of ACOK, I don’t envy the task GRRM had before him at all. After so much buildup in AGOT, the author had to introduce Stannis Baratheon in this book, and as a major character to boot. The audience already knew quite a bit about Stannis from the previous book: that he had held out at Storm’s End during Robert’s Rebellion and earned a reputation as a commander; that he had served on the king’s small council before abruptly departing before Ned’s arrival; that he had been intimately involved in Jon Arryn’s investigation into the “Baratheon” children’s paternity; that Ned respected him, Renly hated him, and the Lannisters were afraid of him; and that he is spoken of as tough, stubborn, just, terrifying, and a man utterly without mercy. The challenge of ACOK would be introducing the man behind the reputation; we know what is said of him, but who is Stannis, really?
The author could have answered this question with “Davos I”, and it might not have been a terrible choice; I quite like that chapter, and the opening setpiece of the burning gods may be my favorite in all ASOIAF. But instead, the author decided to introduce Stannis with Maester Cressen, here in this prologue. In Cressen, GRRM had the perfect choice to tell the audience about the person known so far only by reputation. The old maester, in Stannis’ household since the latter’s childhood, had known Stannis longer than any other person alive, and may have claimed to know him better than anyone else as well. He had seen the Baratheon brothers as few other living people had, boys before they were kings, and had formed conclusions about them unavailable to those outside the family circle. These details are crucial to understanding Renly’s conduct in ACOK, and Stannis’ for the rest of the series; those early personalities - Renly’s childish showiness and need for attention, Stannis’ withdrawal from human emotions following his parents’ death - would define their approaches to kingship in that book, and Stannis’ part in ASOS and ADWD would be a response to his choices in ACOK.
More than that, though, Cressen is someone who loves Stannis, and along with Davos he’s perhaps the most genuinely sympathetic toward him of anyone in the series. Cressen sees the emotion behind the iron mask: somewhere underneath the grim facade is a sad and lonely little boy who felt unloved by everyone - his brothers, his household, even the gods themselves, who so cruelly took his parents away. Cressen is uniquely capable of presenting the real Stannis because of this strong personal connection he himself feels toward his surrogate son. If anyone can come the closest to showing us readers the real Stannis, it’s the man who loves him so much. At the same, Stannis’ treatment of Cressen, and the maester’s death at the end, mark a fundamental break between Stannis and his past (although he can never escape it).
But of course, it’s not just about Stannis and Cressen in this chapter. It’s about R'hllor, and Melisandre - the latter a character just barely hinted at in AGOT. “Red, and terrible, and red” is more than just Cressen’s reaction to the red priestess resident in Stannis’ court; it’s a description that is at once unnatural and otherworldly. Melisandre is not an ordinary woman, and her appearance emphasizes this, from her strange hair to her startling red eyes. She blazes into the story at the same time the bleeding comet does; both are burning symbols of new power in an unsettled world. As the old Maester with his old knowledge and old bonds falls, this (seemingly) young woman with her strange ways and stranger deity will lead the way.
Unfortunately, Chett is by far my least favorite prologue; I mean it’s not even a contest how much I dislike Chett’s prologue compared to the Others. Undeniably the best part is the ending, and to be fair it’s a fantastic ending. Few chapter endings in the 300+ of the series have reached the acme of abject terror that ASOS’ prologue does. To see Chett go from annoyance at the sound of one horn blast, to cruel mockery of Sam’s fear at the two horn blasts, to the two of them marveling in awesome dread at the third horn blast, unheard for thousands of years … well, again, few climaxes in ASOIAF (in my opinion) reach such an emotional height.
But the rest is just … boring. Chett is pathetic, but Merrett makes a far more interesting pathetic villain POV than he does. Chett is cruel, murderous, and totally unsympathetic, but Varamyr shares all those qualities and is a far more interesting monster POV besides. His motivations aren’t complex or sympathetic: I guess you could say there is a minor note of resentment at classism, with Chett hating that he was condemned by Lord Walder’s bastard son and that he lost his cushy job to Sam Tarly, but honestly that sort of discussion is handled so much better elsewhere, including at the Wall (Dareon’s backstory springs to mind), that it feels superfluous. Chett’s POV introduces the mutiny, but there’s nothing learned from him that couldn’t have been explained in Sam’s own POV; indeed, all Chett does is make the mutiny seem that much less sympathetic and understandable. I like the ending, but very little else about it.
Pate’s chapter, on the other hand, is fantastic. As with Will’s chapter, I have to give praise to the author for the worldbuilding he does in this prologue. Oldtown had certainly been mentioned before AFFC, as the seat of House Hightower and the home of the maesters’ Citadel, but few details were known about it. In the AFFC prologue, however, the author takes only a few short pages to establish a whole host of information about Oldtown. We learn about the setup of the Citadel, and the process of maesterly education; we learn about Oldtown’s wealth, power, and cosmopolitan nature; and, most of all, we learn about Lord Leyton, a recluse at the top of his Hightower - where, it is said, a man with keen vision could see all the way to the that other lofty magical peak, the Wall.
Strangely, then, at the center of this all is Pate. For, of course, from the very beginning our Pate is setup as a perfectly ordinary individual, the least likely character to have his own POV. His name is purposefully overcommon (before we even meet him, we readers have seen or heard of at least eight other Pates, and the folk tales of their shared namesake only underlined the point), his background is unimpressive (especially in comparison to Sarella Sand Alleras and the haughtily Tyrell Lazy Leo), his talents are unremarkable, and his destiny seems to be to serve as a live-in caretaker to a senile old man. His motivations are simple too: Will has his duty as a sworn brother to anchor him, Cressen his long devotion to House Baratheon in general and Stannis in particular, Chett his vengeful fury at the wrongs he considers done to him, and Varamyr his monstrous appetite, but Pate just wants to fuck the barmaid’s sweet daughter and ride off into the sunset with her doing odd jobs for smallfolk. He really has no malicious intent toward the Citadel (save the reprehensible Leo), and barely thinks about what the Alchemist could possibly want with Walgrave’s key (before dismissing his concerns almost immediately). He’s an average man with average dreams, pushed into a desperate situation because he sees no other alternative at a place designed less to educate its acolytes and more to improve the already intelligent and/or wealthy; few at the Citadel or elsewhere would ever mourn his passing.
Yet there is the irony, for this most ordinary of individuals has perhaps the most important chapter for setup of the supernatural. The chapter opens with discussion of dragons, and the young queen who rules them. Marwyn the Mage gets his first mention since AGOT, with a particular note that he’s studied with warlocks and shadowbinders. Leo notes that the glass candles are burning once again, and that they’re made of Others-killing dragonglass. I already mentioned above the fact that Leyton has not descended in a decade from his Hightower, which has a literal foundation in the supernatural; later we’ll learn from the captain of the Huntress that Leyton has spent his time up there consulting “books of spells” with his daughter Malora. Most of all, of course it ends with a mysterious “Alchemist” (almost certainly the Faceless Man Jaqen) killing the hapless Pate to get a key, perhaps to steal an ancient Valyrian text - and, as we’ll see later, magically assuming Pate’s own face. Pate might be the most common of commoners, but through his eyes we see the dawning of the age of wonder and terror coming to Oldtown.And then there’s Varamyr, and oh boy Varamyr. I’ll admit, I used to not appreciate the ADWD prologue as I do now. I thought it was only important as a primer for skinchanging and a foreshadowing for Jon Snow’s fate: we see more of how skinchanging works mentally (having only Bran and snippets of Jon and Arya before this by which to learn), and we find out that a skinchanger can survive the death of his or her body, if he or she slips into the mind of another creature. These facets are true, of course, and I’m sure the author intended this prologue to serve a pragmatic, as well as a thematic, purpose.However, Varamyr is not just a villain on the level of Chett or Merrett or Victarion; he is evil with a capital E, on a completely different plane from where they are. When we step into Varamyr’s mind, we are stepping into the mind of a supervillain, someone who not only has powers beyond those of ordinary humans, but has committed heinous acts and feels absolutely no remorse for them. He’s changed into a dog to kill his brother, slain his mentor and eaten his goddamn heart, and raped countless of hostage women while murdering their loved ones. Varamyr not only dwells outside the morals of any society, he delights in doing so; as Emmett has said so well, this is as close as we’ll ever get to seeing inside Euron’s head, reading the thoughts of one so accepting of his own monstrosity.So what’s the point of having someone so incredibly evil as a prologue POV? Because we get to see him beaten. Like the introduction of the Others in AGOT, Varamyr is first shown to us as incredibly powerful, absolutely uncaring about humanity, and ready and willing to enslave whatever and whomever he can in order to fulfill his own whims. Yes, the author is telling the audience, I won’t lie to you, your enemies are powerful indeed; you’re up against some very strong and very evil creatures. Yet they’re not invincible: the Others hesitated at Waymar’s blade, and Varamyr dies in his human form, trapping himself in the wolf One-Eye - and, as we see in Bran’s first chapter, being conclusively defeated (and then pissed on!) by our victorious Stark boy. As great evil as exists in the world, humanity can always win - but the victory is so much greater when knowing just how terrible its enemies are.
"Abominação. Essa sempre foi a palavra favorita de Haggon. Abominação, abominação, abominação. Comer carne humana era abominação, acasalar-se como lobo com outro lobo era abominação, e tomar o corpo de outro homem era a pior abominação de todas. Haggon era fraco, tinha medo do próprio poder. Morreu chorando e sozinho quando lhe arranquei a segunda vida. Varamyr devorara-lhe pessoalmente o coração. Ele me ensinou muito, e ainda mais, e a última coisa que aprendi com ele foi o gosto da carne humana." - A Dança dos Dragões // Prólogo
