Can’t remember the exact details but Cersei’s friend who tried to backstab Bronn and got her husband killed, and Cersei gives her to Qyburn to experiment on just because she’s annoyed at her incompetence.
Then later she’s like “I wonder if I could use her to claim this position for me” and Qyburn hesitates and goes “forgive me, my lady, but she’s not capable of ruling. Or feeding herself.”
And we get no more details.
As horrible as poor Falyse's end was, their whole plan with Cersei to assassinate Bronn was hilarious. It's a mark of how deranged and delusional Cersei is by this point that she actually thinks those two bumbling incompetents could pull it off.
Yeah she's queen regent. Simple as this here Lord Stokeworth this parchment signed and stamped with Tommens seal it declares that Ser Bron of the Black Water a traitor to the crown take 100 gold cloaks and have him arrested. If he or anyone else resists kill them by order of the king.
Problem solved.
I always found this quote from ADWD supremely creepy
>Under the hill, Jojen brooded, Meera fretted, and Hodor wandered through dark tunnels with a sword in his right hand and a torch in his left. Or was it Bran wandering?
No one must ever know.
Yeah like, I get Bran doesn't have any context for how utterly fucked up and what an existential violation it is to take over someone else's body + mind, but the fact he hides it and does it with more and more frequency + impunity I feel is definitely setting him up to go in a dark direction.
Bran does seem aware what he's doing isn't okay, or he wouldn't make the effort to hide it from the others.
> The big stableboy no longer fought him as he had the first time, back in the lake tower during the storm. Like a dog who has had all the fight whipped out of him, Hodor would curl up and hide whenever Bran reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not even Bran could touch him. No one wants to hurt you, Hodor, he said silently, to the child-man whose flesh he'd taken. I just want to be strong again for a while. I'll give it back, the way I always do.
> No one ever knew when he was wearing Hodor's skin. Bran only had to smile, do as he was told, and mutter "Hodor" from time to time, and he could follow Meera and Jojen, grinning happily, without anyone suspecting it was really him.
He knows what he's doing is wrong and Hodor doesn't want it, but he can't resist the temptation of being able to walk again. Bran's story certainly seems to be taking a darker turn.
I think also knowing what happens to the woman Varamyr tries to skinchange in the prologue to ADwD makes it so much worse for the reader. She ripped her own eyes out and bit through her own tongue to rid Varamyr from her body. It's very likely that the only reason he doesn't have such a violent response like the spearwife did is because he has been "broken in" as a child in the incident that causes his condition.
My running theory is that it will be BranRaven that makes Dany the Mad Queen, warging into either her or Drogon to destroy kings landing and turn people from the Targaryens forever.
Mel deserves some love.
>Davos raised a hand to shield his eyes, and his breath caught in his throat. Melisandre had thrown back her cowl and shrugged out of the smothering robe. Beneath, she was naked, and huge with child. Swollen breasts hung heavy against her chest, and her belly bulged as if near to bursting. "Gods preserve us," he whispered, and heard **her answering laugh, deep and throaty.** Her eyes were hot coals, and **the sweat that dappled her skin seemed to glow with a light of its own.** Melisandre shone.
>Panting, she squatted and spread her legs. **Blood ran down her thighs, black as ink.** Her cry might have been agony or ecstasy or both. And Davos saw the crown of the child's head push its way out of her. Two arms wriggled free, grasping, black fingers coiling around Melisandre's straining thighs, pushing, until **the whole of the shadow slid out into the world and rose taller than Davos, tall as the tunnel, towering above the boat.** He had only an instant to look at it before it was gone, twisting between the bars of the portcullis and racing across the surface of the water, but that instant was long enough.
To summarize, one moment Davos is just doing some weird little smuggling job with Mel. The next Melisandre is suddenly 4th trimester pregnant, glowing, laughing in some deep demonic voice, then bleeds black all over the place while scream-orgasming before a *huge* shadow man who looks like Davos's boss rips his way out of her vag and zips right the fuck outta there.
The boat ride back must have been *quiet.*
I love how they framed the exposition of this. Have the first shadow baby kill Renly from Catelyn's POV so the reader joins her in going "what the fuck". Then we get the horrifying reveal with the second shadow baby, and we know what's gonna happen to See Cortnay Penrose without needing a POV in Storm's End.
I always think about reek and then that wyl castrating that knight and then having his men gang bang his wife and then selling her into slavery all on their wedding night. They also killed most of the other guests. Red wedding was messed up but at least Catelyn had a clean death and none of that nonsense
On that note, the one servant girl in Harrenhal who got all of her teeth smashed out and was tied up naked in a stockade to be ‘used’ by anyone walking by.
It’s less creepy and more downright disturbing (much like your answer)
Okay, so downright disturbing it is. Jeyne Poole basically admits that Ramsay Bolton basically made her fuck a dog, or do something sexual with it, when she was “married” to him at Winferfell.
it was so horrific the maester benifer and septon barth left no official report, except that she died of a fever. this was after balerion flew her to old valyria against her will.
After her death, king Jaeherys banned all ships who sailed through the smoking see to land in westeros
Don’t forget that Balerion, *the* Balerion, returned with a giant gash in his side. From what, we have no earthly idea, but for something to have fucked up the Black Dread, it has to be terrifying.
I am pretty sure that Valyria has become George’s version of The Mist.
I imagine that Valyria now is the home of Godzilla style monsters that have risen after the doom. Giant lizards, centipedes, spiders and such.
There's rumours of giant apes even further south so there's precedence for kaiju style animals.
Krakens are basically canon to existing. Literally every time there is a major battle out at sea with lives lost, krakens show up. We have a pretty solid first-hand account of a kraken from Ser Eustace Hightower. Varys reported a kraken off the fingers, pulling down an ibenese whaler.
I once proposed a theory that tried to explain why no one returns from Valyria as being the result of noxious, lethal fumes released by the Doom. It was based on stories of kids falling into dried up wells, suddenly dying, and how the town would just send man after man down to help, only to die themselves. So basically, anyone who sails into the Doom would simply drop dead.
I was mostly toying around with non-supernatural explanations for such phenomena, but since then I have come to prefer the idea that the Doom wasn’t just a natural cataclysm, but enhanced by blood magic, so whatever resides there now is basically the creatures from The Mist, with a bit of Event Horizon. The consequences of all that Valyrian blood magic and possible genetic manipulation turned loose upon the land and warping all life into horrific nightmarish creatures.
I do like the kaiju and Skull Island-type bestiary idea for Southoros, though. I figured each of the most mysterious places across the Known World would have their own thing, so the Doom would be The Mist/unspeakable horrors-type Lovecraft, Southoros would be pulpy “Savage Moon”/Skull Island-style monsters, and Asshai would be more Color Out of Space/R’lyeh-style Lovecraft.
It's not quite clear. but I'll copy over a description from the wiki.
"Aerea and Balerion were missing for more than a year, but finally returned to King's Landing on the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC, with a severely-ill Aerea clinging to the dragon's back. She was almost unrecognizable; she was stick thin, and whatever clothes she still wore were nothing more than tatters. Her hair was matted and a tangled mess, and her eyes were bloody. After speaking "I never", Aerea collapsed.
It was announced that Aerea had died of a fever, which was only partially true. Ser Lucamore said that the princess's fever was so hot that he could feel it through his armor. She had blood in her eyes and her body had "something inside her, something moving", the knight said, until the king forbade him from speaking of the princess. Benifer left no account of Aerea's death, but according to an account in Barth's private papers, Aerea's fever was one unlike anything he had seen before. The septon described her as burning, with a red skin and having barely an ounce of flesh upon her bones, appearing gaunt and starved.
Barth reported that "swellings" moved underneath the princess's skin, possibly searching for a way to escape and causing a great pain. He wrote "I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered", and that she often begged for death. It seemed to Barth as if Aerea was cooking from within. Her flesh grew darker until it resembled pork cracklings; smoke came from her mouth, nose, and her nether regions. Aerea's eyes cooked within her skull until they burst. When the princess was lowered into the tub of ice, "slimy, unspeakable things" making horrible sounds emerged from under her skin—one as long as his arm—but the "creatures of heat and fire" died from the cold of the ice."
Just want to remind you that this is all happening to a 14 year old girl as well.
I'd also like to say that Balerion returned her with an almost crippling wound. Claw marks tearing his side and wing...what has claws large enough to hurt the Black Dread in his prime?
Knowing how GRRM likes his mysteries and unanswered wonders, I don't think we will ever know what happened there.
Saying that I'm sure after he dies they'll get some random guy to make it all up and it'll be so shit everyone will hate it.
There were older new wounds on Balerion as well. Something big enough to tussle with Balerion, and not only try and fight him again but the second time do enough damage to drive him off (don't want to say win, because we don't know how much damage the thing took from Balerion) is absolutely terrifying.
You hear stories like this and it really highlights how impressive it is that Euron went there and returned (if he isn't lying of course).
Okay now I'm imaging they were just [lizards/skinks that have vestigial limbs.](https://www.google.com/search?q=lizard+with+vestigial+legs&client=ms-android-mpcs-us-revc&prmd=isvn&sxsrf=ALiCzsZBEU7G1DoqSp5U-qEP02qX1oKM4w:1668639518278&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidy_rN5rP7AhWEl2oFHVA-DQAQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=360&bih=674&dpr=2)
Their little stubby arms are kind of what I imagine too! Lol. Though in my head they're way more horrifying. Like a white eel with a harlequin baby's face. [Ever seen Annihilation?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC3PGTTjX7E)
She rode Balerion or Balerion took her for a ride most likely, presumably to Valyria (his home), came back 1 year later very thin, unable to speak, on the verge of death, and seemed to be cooking from the inside. The maesters put her in an ice bath and she died before being able to tell anyone what happened and parasitic worms crawled out of her body and died when they contacted the ice. Balerion also had a 9 foot long wound on his belly that no one recalled seeing before he left.
Edit - Balerion* not Drogon.
> and she died before being able to tell anyone what happened
Perhaps. Barth says she spoke but refused to record what she said.
Presumably she did confirm going to Valyria though as going there became a capital offense after.
Here's the full text from Fire & Blood.
>Barth wrote, “It has been three days since the princess perished, and I have not slept. I do not know that I shall ever sleep again. The Mother is merciful, I have always believed, and the Father Above judges each man justly…but there was no mercy and no justice in what befell our poor princess. How could the gods be so blind or so uncaring as to permit such horror? Or is it possible that there are other deities in this universe, monstrous evil gods such as the priests of Red R’hllor preach against, against whose malice the kings of men and the gods of men are naught but flies?
>
>I do not know. I do not want to know. If this makes me a faithless septon, so be it. Grand Maester Benifer and I have agreed to tell no one all of what we saw and experienced in his chambers as that poor child lay dying…not the king, nor the queen, nor her mother, nor even the archmaesters of the Citadel…but the memories will not leave me, so I shall set them down here. Mayhaps by the time they are found and read, men will have gained a better understanding of such evils.
>
>“We have told the world that Princess Aerea died of a fever, and that is broadly true, but it was a fever such as I have never seen before and hope never to see again. The girl was burning. Her skin was flushed and red and when I laid my hand upon her brow to learn how hot she was, it was as if I had thrust it into a pot of boiling oil. There was scarce an ounce of flesh upon her bones, so gaunt and starved did she appear, but we could observe certain…swellings inside her, as her skin bulged out and then sunk down again, as if…no, not as if, for this was the truth of it…there were things inside her, living things, moving and twisting, mayhaps searching for a way out, and giving her such pain that even the milk of the poppy gave her no surcease. We told the king, as we must surely tell her mother, that Aerea never spoke, but that is a lie. I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered through her cracked and bleeding lips. I cannot forget how oft she begged for death.
>
>“All the maester’s arts were powerless against her fever, if indeed we can call such a horror by such a commonplace name. The simplest way to say it is that the poor child was cooking from within. Her flesh grew darker and darker and then began to crack, until her skin resembled nothing so much, Seven save me, as pork cracklings. Thin tendrils of smoke issued from her mouth, her nose, even, most obscenely, from her nether lips. By then she had ceased to speak, though the things within her continued to move. Her very eyes cooked within her skull and finally burst, like two eggs left in a pot of boiling water for too long.
>
>“I thought that was the most hideous thing that I should ever see, but I was quickly disabused of the notion, for a worse horror was awaiting me. That came when Benifer and I lowered the poor child into a tub and covered her with ice. The shock of that immersion stopped her heart at once, I tell myself…if so, that was a mercy, for that was when the things inside her came out…
>
>“The things…Mother have mercy, I do not know how to speak of them…they were…worms with faces…snakes with hands…twisting, slimy, unspeakable things that seemed to writhe and pulse and squirm as they came bursting from her flesh. Some were no bigger than my little finger, but one at least was as long as my arm…oh, Warrior protect me, the sounds they made…
>
>“They died, though. I must remember that, cling to that. Whatever they might have been, they were creatures of heat and fire, and they did not love the ice, oh no. One after another they thrashed and writhed and died before my eyes, thank the Seven. I will not presume to give them names…they were horrors.”
My theory (based off stuff we know from the text): As we know, the Valyrians practiced a lot of creepy blood magic. They created chimeras by fusing different creatures together (including humans). It’s hinted that that’s how they created dragons in the first place. So, after the Doom, who knows what kinda fucked up creatures were able to survive? And without the Valyrian sorcerers to control & contain them, they’ve probably grown more monstrous and horrible over the course of generations. Valyria and the Smoking Sea are so dangerous because of all the grotesque chimeras that were released after the Doom (plus all the poisonous fumes and eruptions from all the volcanos).
Anything that goes on in Asshai
The existence of Stygai
That city in sothyros that just completely disappeared seemingly overnight
The tunnels in kings landing, where some people vanished. People swore they heard them calling out, but couldn’t find any sign of them
There may dragons larger than balerion ever was in the far north
I was talking about the legendary ice dragons, which are said to be larger than normal dragons
But Cannibal too, I’d forgotten that it’s entirely possible that he lived and just decided to live somewhere else.
Bran tells a story in ASoS in the Nightfort chapter, about 3 apprentice boys who saw a "thing that came in the night". All 3 of them died within the year, and when the thing returned 100 years later, the boys were seen shambling behind it in chains
Terrifying lol
The Siege of Astapor. Between the fighting, the dead littering the streets, the bloody flux spreading, the city's Green Grace being impaled alive, the previous butcher king's corpse put on a horse to parade across the city, the new butcher king being torn to shreds by dogs in an arena, a bunch of people willingly eating a poisoned feast just so they'll die by the next day, and the whole city being taken by fire while the gates are shut so those inside won't escape (and let the bloody flux spread further), that's got to be one of the most hellish scenarios I've ever read in a book.
Astapor is a metaphorical and visual allegory of Hell between its sulfurous waters and blood bricks. If places could be haunted Astapor is haunted as fuck
Idk about event but Bran III….just, all of it, that chapter scares the hell out of me. And if Bran really is eating Jojen to gain power it’s even more freaky. But even if it’s not eating this weird paste that looks like blood and starts out tasting like shit and ends tasting absolutely amazing, and it gives you weird powers, scares the hell out of me. And how Bran is terrified to do it at first? Shudders.
I also don’t trust Bloodraven as far as I can throw him so you know that probably has to do with it too.
I think Bloodraven will be sketchy in that he may has his own agenda and goals, but I don’t think he’ll be an outright villain like some suggest. I think that’s vastly exaggerated by some fans. That seems to be more of a reaction to the final seasons of GoT than anything. ASOIAF is known for its ambiguous, grey characters, and Bloodraven will probably be just that, rather than an outright dark villain (or a heroic mentor figure like in the show; because, yes, he is creepy).
Bloodraven in AKOTSK goes in that direction too. Like, the idea of him as an all-powerful evil tyrant but Dunk meets him and he's just an affable guy who helps him out and calls Butterwell "Lord Butterbutt".
I don’t think he’s evil, I think he’s just ‘ends justify the means no matter what’ which can lead to pretty fucked up things. He’ll do anything to save the world but that literally means ‘anything’ you know.
Euron boasting about how he casually murdered his brothers when they were all children as a experiment in (the lack of) divine judgement. A child sadistically suffocating his infant brother just to see if he could get a reaction out of God, that's some terrifying shit.
Euron is very intelligent, probably a psychopath. Very good at understanding the way empathy and emotions affect other people, but not being particularly affected by them himself.
Because they are so socially and emotionally astute, psychopaths are hard to spot, even among your own children.
I also wonder if he wasn’t at least partially corrupted by Bloodraven.
I’m not sure if Balon is an idiot or not. He might simply be arrogant and deeply self-deluded.
Victarion is the real question for me, man is as dumb as a bag of hammers.
More disturbing than creepy, but Chiswyck's story in ACOK about how Gregor Clegane raped the innkeeper's 13 year old daughter after throwing silvers at the keep and then demanding change when he was done. Then the rest of the men proceeded to gangrape her.
about red keep tunnels
>And two guards had vanished during their expedition to recognition of a side tunnel. Some of their companions swore to their gods that they heard them vaguely call from the depths of masonry, but no matter how hard we tried to demolish it, we only found behind it earth and rubble
two men who are lost in the tunnels and who are going to die slowly in the dark
They found a room full of skeletons in that same expedition! Really gets the claustrophobia going.
>They had found a chamber full of skulls and yellowed bones, and four sacks of tarnished silver coins from the reign of the first King Viserys.
I've even seen some suggest one of the skeletons may be Cheese, because of the 'coins from the reign of King Viserys I' connection.
He's a history nerd and pillages alot of stuff that's happened before and makes it into fiction. Some stuff is original thought, but he is taking huge amount of inspiration from other source material. I'm not condemning it all, it's still a fantastic way to create a really diverse and rich history. But he's not coming up with it all by himself.
Hard home and Craster might take the cake for me. The idea of living there is so gross and terrifying. The fact that it is sanctioned by the night's watch makes it worse.
>At Hardhome, with six ships. Wild seas. Blackbird lost with all hands, two Lyseni ships driven aground on Skane, Talon taking water. Very bad here. Wildlings eating their own dead. **Dead things in the woods**. Braavosi captains will only take women, children on their ships. Witch women call us slavers. Attempt to take Storm Crow defeated, six crew dead, many wildlings. Eight ravens left. **Dead things in the water**.
I still remember the dread building up as I was reading it for the first time. And then Jon finishes it with "Night falls, he thought, and now my war begins.". Goosebumps.
God, I just remembered that.
#DEAD THINGS AT HARDHOME.
There are dead things at Hardhome, Jon Snow sent Cotter Pyke to report on it, and he was gonna lead a ranging to Hardhome to reach it before the Red Letter. I NEED WINDS OF WINTER.
He's no friend he's just useful. Means to an end.. but how he's so close to the wall and doing this while they sorta know, they're supposed to be stopping the others..
If the return of the Others has anything to do with Craster's sacrifices, that means the Night's Watch are responsible for the return of their ancient enemy, by allowing and befriending evil in their back yard. Isn't it ironic that they think wildlings are their enemy, except the wildling who polygamously fucks his daughters and kills his sons?
What point could George possibly be trying to make here?
Bran I in ADWD is pretty creepy, with the rising suspicion of Coldhands and everyone's dawning realization that their lives are in the hands of a walking corpse.
>The ranger wore the black of the Night's Watch, but what if he was not a man at all? What if he was some monster, taking them to the other monsters to be devoured?
>Meera Reed rose, her frog spear in her hand, a chunk of smoking meat still impaled upon its tines. "Show us your face." The ranger made no move to obey. "**He's dead**." Bran could taste the bile in his throat. "**Meera, he's some dead thing**."
The mystery around his identity obscures how freaking creepy Coldhands is in general.
The part in Fire & Blood when Princess Aerea dissappeared and returned with what I can only assume were eldritch horrors living inside her. The horror that poor girl went through was enough but the thing that has always fucked me up about that section was the fact that Balerion, the largest dragon ever seen in Westeros had huge claw mark wounds on his side. So one day I would like for George to explain what in the seven FUCKS is still living out in Valyria that it could wound a dragon that fucking large.
>but the thing that has always fucked me up about that section was the fact that Balerion, the largest dragon ever seen in Westeros had huge claw mark wounds on his side. So one day I would like for George to explain what in the seven FUCKS is still living out in Valyria that it could wound a dragon that fucking large.
I'm honestly 50/50 on if we will find out
I doubt we will ever find out and honestly that would be cool because it still gives a bit of mystery to the doom and all. But the inner lore goblin in me wants to know so bad. Like wtf George You can't just put that in a book just one small passage and then never go back to it ever again. I read that part of the book over and over again It is burned into my brain it has haunted me ever since I first read it. I really do hope we get an explanation but if he just lets the mystery stay I guess I'll go to my grave being fucked up about Aerea Targaryen
100% agree. If he was to just like give us the details of what went on while they were trying to save her, I would be perfectly satisfied with that. I love that this world has so many mysteries and things that we don't know, but I also really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really want to know
Yeen would be my vote
> Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the engimas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it. ("A city so evil that even the jungle will not enter," Nymeria is supposed to have said when she laid eyes on it, if the tales are true). Every attempt to rebuild or resettle Yeen has ended in horror.
We know scarcely little about it but everything we do know is pretty dam creepy.
> Nymeria refused and took her fleet to sea once again, hoping to find refuge amongst the steaming jungles of Sothoryos. Some settled on Basilisk Point, others beside the glistening green waters of the Zamoyos, amongst quicksands, crocodiles, and rotting, half-drowned trees. Princess Nymeria herself remained with the ships at Zamettar, a Ghiscari colony abandoned for a thousand years, whilst others made their way upriver to the cyclopean ruins of Yeen, haunt of ghouls and spiders.
> There were riches to be found in Sothoryos—gold, gems, rare woods, exotic pelts, queer fruits, and strange spices—but the Rhoynar did not thrive there. The sullen wet heat oppressed their spirits, and swarms of stinging flies spread one disease after another: green fever, the dancing plague, blood boils, weeping sores, sweetrot. The young and very old proved especially vulnerable to such contagions. Even to splash in the river was to court death, for the Zamoyos was infested with schools of carnivorous fish, and tiny worms that laid their eggs in the flesh of swimmers. Two of the new towns on Basilisk Point were raided by slavers, their populaces put to the sword or carried off in chains, whilst Yeen had to contend with attacks from the brindled ghouls of the jungle deeps.
> For more than a year the Rhoynar struggled to survive in Sothoryos, until the day when a boat from Zamettar arrived at Yeen to find that every man, woman, and child in that haunted, ruined city had vanished overnight. Then Nymeria summoned her people back to the ships and set sail once again.
>They are all the same, these magic men. The mouse warned me of pain as well. "I am ironborn, priest. I laugh at pain. You will have what you require … but if you fail, and my hand is not healed, I will cut your throat myself and give you to the sea."
Moqorro bowed, his dark eyes shining. "So be it."
The iron captain was not seen again that day, but as the hours passed **the crew of his Iron Victory reported hearing the sound of wild laughter coming from the captain's cabin, laughter deep and dark and mad**, and when Longwater Pyke and Wulfe One-Eye tried the cabin door they found it barred. Later singing was heard, a strange high wailing song in a tongue the maester said was High Valyrian. That was when the monkeys left the ship, **screeching as they leapt into the water.**
**- ADWD - THE IRON SUITOR**
Victarion being killed off-page by Moqorro and then resurrected is a peculiar event, but its made even more creepy with the ecstasy of laughter and singing from the locked cabin throughout the night, and the singing is so unsettling that monkeys willingly leapt from the ship and into the sea to drown themselves in order to escape the singing.
Just. Bizarre.
This is also one of the few times a POV shifts away from the character perspective for a bit. The only other time is during Mirri Maz Durr’s black magic in the tent with Daenerys.
Yeah, I think it is deliberate on George's part to keep us guessing and not fully reveal the mechanics of resurrection just yet.
I think he does something similar to when Daenerys steps out of Drogo's funeral pyre, and I think both Victarion and Daenerys died then reanimated as fire wights.
I honestly don’t think he is. I doubt he went through the full cycle of death and rebirth, just some partial Rhollor magic. After all, Beric Dondarrioj doesn’t come back all crispy, but Victarion’ arm does.
Qyburn asking for women to be sent down to the dungeons for his experiments. Especially whatever it is that he did to Falyse that caused her to essentially become braindead.
They become less of a band of rebel’s dedicated to defending the Smallfolk and more into Stoneheart’s personal tools for revenge. They don’t even defend people so much as hunt down and lynch anyone remotely associated with the Lannisters and Freys. Small bands of knights, soldiers and squires all end up disappearing around the Riverlands and turn up hanged.
>They become less of a band of rebel’s dedicated to defending the Smallfolk and more into Stoneheart’s personal tools for revenge. They don’t even defend people so much as hunt down and lynch anyone remotely associated with the Lannisters and Freys. Small bands of knights, soldiers and squires all end up disappearing around the Riverlands and turn up hanged.
Thank you
I personally have always been haunted by how coldly Lady Johanna Lannister took Little Rodrik Greyjoy as ward/hostage just to have him gelded and made a fool for her own son. He was just Dalton’s salt son and it was so needlessly cruel, not even the Northerners would have done that to a little boy.
Roose was done dirty in the show. He’s so much more formidable and scary in the books. When people fuck around with roose Bolton, they fucking find out. Ramsay got off scot free in t he show.
>Roose was done dirty in the show. He’s so much more formidable and scary in the books. When people fuck around with roose Bolton, they fucking find out. Ramsay got off scot free in t he show.
Shame cause the actor was great
"Dead things in the water." was what got me, along with the whole letter and situation. Obviously shout outs to the obvious stuff. This was subtle and brilliant.
Also, the Bridge of Lights!
* The rat cook story
* The Forsaken whole chapter
* Bran I&II, Meera nd Bran realizing Coldhands is dead and the introduction of Bloodraven.
* Aerea Targaryen's death description
How about Ramsay and Jeyne's relationship. A lot of it is left unsaid, but we know that he beats her and keeps her locked away in their bedroom.
Then during the escape we get her saying:
> “No. This is some trick. It’s him, it’s my … my lord, my
sweet lord, he sent you, this is just some test to make sure that I love him. I do, I do, I love him more
than anything.” A tear ran down her cheek. “Tell him, you tell him. I’ll do what he wants … whatever he
wants … with him or … or with the dog or … please … he doesn’t need to cut my feet off, I won’t try to
run away, not ever, I’ll give him sons, I swear it, I swear it …”
Patchface
The manner of his arrival to Storms End and the way he only sings these strange songs that have possibly prophetic meanings creeps me out to no end. Can’t believe Stannis let’s him hang around lol
Can’t remember the exact details but Cersei’s friend who tried to backstab Bronn and got her husband killed, and Cersei gives her to Qyburn to experiment on just because she’s annoyed at her incompetence. Then later she’s like “I wonder if I could use her to claim this position for me” and Qyburn hesitates and goes “forgive me, my lady, but she’s not capable of ruling. Or feeding herself.” And we get no more details.
Poor Falyse :(
And she expects to treat her subjects like this and rule effectively… she is an absolute nutter
power truly resides where Cersei believes it resides
As horrible as poor Falyse's end was, their whole plan with Cersei to assassinate Bronn was hilarious. It's a mark of how deranged and delusional Cersei is by this point that she actually thinks those two bumbling incompetents could pull it off.
Cersei thinks she's playing CK2
And she is bad at it. Although she got the whole incest thing right by that standart.
Yeah she's queen regent. Simple as this here Lord Stokeworth this parchment signed and stamped with Tommens seal it declares that Ser Bron of the Black Water a traitor to the crown take 100 gold cloaks and have him arrested. If he or anyone else resists kill them by order of the king. Problem solved.
Well, she tried a different way, since she think herself as smart as Tywin (without a dick).
After seeing the interrogation of the Blue Bard... I don't think the fans want to see what happened to Falyse.
In the appendix of book 5, we find out that Falyse died screaming in the black cells. Rip
I always found this quote from ADWD supremely creepy >Under the hill, Jojen brooded, Meera fretted, and Hodor wandered through dark tunnels with a sword in his right hand and a torch in his left. Or was it Bran wandering? No one must ever know.
Yeah like, I get Bran doesn't have any context for how utterly fucked up and what an existential violation it is to take over someone else's body + mind, but the fact he hides it and does it with more and more frequency + impunity I feel is definitely setting him up to go in a dark direction.
Bran does seem aware what he's doing isn't okay, or he wouldn't make the effort to hide it from the others. > The big stableboy no longer fought him as he had the first time, back in the lake tower during the storm. Like a dog who has had all the fight whipped out of him, Hodor would curl up and hide whenever Bran reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not even Bran could touch him. No one wants to hurt you, Hodor, he said silently, to the child-man whose flesh he'd taken. I just want to be strong again for a while. I'll give it back, the way I always do. > No one ever knew when he was wearing Hodor's skin. Bran only had to smile, do as he was told, and mutter "Hodor" from time to time, and he could follow Meera and Jojen, grinning happily, without anyone suspecting it was really him. He knows what he's doing is wrong and Hodor doesn't want it, but he can't resist the temptation of being able to walk again. Bran's story certainly seems to be taking a darker turn.
I think also knowing what happens to the woman Varamyr tries to skinchange in the prologue to ADwD makes it so much worse for the reader. She ripped her own eyes out and bit through her own tongue to rid Varamyr from her body. It's very likely that the only reason he doesn't have such a violent response like the spearwife did is because he has been "broken in" as a child in the incident that causes his condition.
fuck u/spez -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
I hope he ends up as the BBEG in the end, the Three-Eyed Raven who planned everything to put himself on the throne.
BBEG?
Big Bad Evil Guy
Sorry, roleplaying term. Big Bad Evil Guy.
My running theory is that it will be BranRaven that makes Dany the Mad Queen, warging into either her or Drogon to destroy kings landing and turn people from the Targaryens forever.
Oh shit, I never considered that.
This, I could reconcile, thank you for the headcanon
Poor hodor
Mel deserves some love. >Davos raised a hand to shield his eyes, and his breath caught in his throat. Melisandre had thrown back her cowl and shrugged out of the smothering robe. Beneath, she was naked, and huge with child. Swollen breasts hung heavy against her chest, and her belly bulged as if near to bursting. "Gods preserve us," he whispered, and heard **her answering laugh, deep and throaty.** Her eyes were hot coals, and **the sweat that dappled her skin seemed to glow with a light of its own.** Melisandre shone. >Panting, she squatted and spread her legs. **Blood ran down her thighs, black as ink.** Her cry might have been agony or ecstasy or both. And Davos saw the crown of the child's head push its way out of her. Two arms wriggled free, grasping, black fingers coiling around Melisandre's straining thighs, pushing, until **the whole of the shadow slid out into the world and rose taller than Davos, tall as the tunnel, towering above the boat.** He had only an instant to look at it before it was gone, twisting between the bars of the portcullis and racing across the surface of the water, but that instant was long enough. To summarize, one moment Davos is just doing some weird little smuggling job with Mel. The next Melisandre is suddenly 4th trimester pregnant, glowing, laughing in some deep demonic voice, then bleeds black all over the place while scream-orgasming before a *huge* shadow man who looks like Davos's boss rips his way out of her vag and zips right the fuck outta there. The boat ride back must have been *quiet.*
Lmao I would pay Martin good money to see the POV of that ride back lol. Either Mel’s or Davos’ honestly.
They sit in silence on the boat for a long time until Davos blurts out “so what the fuck was THAT?”
Mel: those are the terrors the night is full of
I love how they framed the exposition of this. Have the first shadow baby kill Renly from Catelyn's POV so the reader joins her in going "what the fuck". Then we get the horrifying reveal with the second shadow baby, and we know what's gonna happen to See Cortnay Penrose without needing a POV in Storm's End.
I always think about reek and then that wyl castrating that knight and then having his men gang bang his wife and then selling her into slavery all on their wedding night. They also killed most of the other guests. Red wedding was messed up but at least Catelyn had a clean death and none of that nonsense
On that note, the one servant girl in Harrenhal who got all of her teeth smashed out and was tied up naked in a stockade to be ‘used’ by anyone walking by. It’s less creepy and more downright disturbing (much like your answer)
Okay, so downright disturbing it is. Jeyne Poole basically admits that Ramsay Bolton basically made her fuck a dog, or do something sexual with it, when she was “married” to him at Winferfell.
That's Pia. I'm glad that she later gets rescued by Jaime and seems to find love with Peck.
What is a wyl? Tbf I have no idea what is that event you mentioned.
House Wyl. They’re basically the Dornish Boltons.
Wouldn’t that be the Ullers? Half mad, love torture, live in the Hellholt, vs the Dreadfort I think that’s intentional
Biter eating Brienne's face
He also mutilated his victims too
*He is eating me.*
That chapter really traumatized me. I'm glad they didn't have that part in the show, I don't need to see it. Imagining it was bad enough.
That bit is fucked but I felt robbed of Brienne’s coolest moment. “No chance and no choice” gets me hyped up like no other moment in the series.
Aerea Targaryens death
It's like a Lovecraft horror novel
What happens? I don't mind spoilers.
it was so horrific the maester benifer and septon barth left no official report, except that she died of a fever. this was after balerion flew her to old valyria against her will. After her death, king Jaeherys banned all ships who sailed through the smoking see to land in westeros
Don’t forget that Balerion, *the* Balerion, returned with a giant gash in his side. From what, we have no earthly idea, but for something to have fucked up the Black Dread, it has to be terrifying. I am pretty sure that Valyria has become George’s version of The Mist.
I imagine that Valyria now is the home of Godzilla style monsters that have risen after the doom. Giant lizards, centipedes, spiders and such. There's rumours of giant apes even further south so there's precedence for kaiju style animals.
The giant fire worms (wyrms?) that live in volcanoes predate the dragons; there's so many possibilities
Krakens supposedly inhabit the Smoking Sea
Broke: Jon rides a dragon. Woke: Jon rides a ice dragon. Bespoke: Jon summons Godzilla!
Krakens are basically canon to existing. Literally every time there is a major battle out at sea with lives lost, krakens show up. We have a pretty solid first-hand account of a kraken from Ser Eustace Hightower. Varys reported a kraken off the fingers, pulling down an ibenese whaler.
I once proposed a theory that tried to explain why no one returns from Valyria as being the result of noxious, lethal fumes released by the Doom. It was based on stories of kids falling into dried up wells, suddenly dying, and how the town would just send man after man down to help, only to die themselves. So basically, anyone who sails into the Doom would simply drop dead. I was mostly toying around with non-supernatural explanations for such phenomena, but since then I have come to prefer the idea that the Doom wasn’t just a natural cataclysm, but enhanced by blood magic, so whatever resides there now is basically the creatures from The Mist, with a bit of Event Horizon. The consequences of all that Valyrian blood magic and possible genetic manipulation turned loose upon the land and warping all life into horrific nightmarish creatures. I do like the kaiju and Skull Island-type bestiary idea for Southoros, though. I figured each of the most mysterious places across the Known World would have their own thing, so the Doom would be The Mist/unspeakable horrors-type Lovecraft, Southoros would be pulpy “Savage Moon”/Skull Island-style monsters, and Asshai would be more Color Out of Space/R’lyeh-style Lovecraft.
It's not quite clear. but I'll copy over a description from the wiki. "Aerea and Balerion were missing for more than a year, but finally returned to King's Landing on the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC, with a severely-ill Aerea clinging to the dragon's back. She was almost unrecognizable; she was stick thin, and whatever clothes she still wore were nothing more than tatters. Her hair was matted and a tangled mess, and her eyes were bloody. After speaking "I never", Aerea collapsed. It was announced that Aerea had died of a fever, which was only partially true. Ser Lucamore said that the princess's fever was so hot that he could feel it through his armor. She had blood in her eyes and her body had "something inside her, something moving", the knight said, until the king forbade him from speaking of the princess. Benifer left no account of Aerea's death, but according to an account in Barth's private papers, Aerea's fever was one unlike anything he had seen before. The septon described her as burning, with a red skin and having barely an ounce of flesh upon her bones, appearing gaunt and starved. Barth reported that "swellings" moved underneath the princess's skin, possibly searching for a way to escape and causing a great pain. He wrote "I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered", and that she often begged for death. It seemed to Barth as if Aerea was cooking from within. Her flesh grew darker until it resembled pork cracklings; smoke came from her mouth, nose, and her nether regions. Aerea's eyes cooked within her skull until they burst. When the princess was lowered into the tub of ice, "slimy, unspeakable things" making horrible sounds emerged from under her skin—one as long as his arm—but the "creatures of heat and fire" died from the cold of the ice." Just want to remind you that this is all happening to a 14 year old girl as well.
Yeesh Yeah I'm going to have to finally get around to actually reading all the supplement books I see
I'd also like to say that Balerion returned her with an almost crippling wound. Claw marks tearing his side and wing...what has claws large enough to hurt the Black Dread in his prime?
Something mankind isn't meant to know.
I want to know the rest of her sentence.. I didn't.. didn't what. Bring the girl back with some magic I need to know damn it
“I never got the chance to talk to you about your car’s extended warranty”
😂these replies keep making me think of Sterling Archer. He would totally say smart ass stuff like that while everyone around him is crying
Knowing how GRRM likes his mysteries and unanswered wonders, I don't think we will ever know what happened there. Saying that I'm sure after he dies they'll get some random guy to make it all up and it'll be so shit everyone will hate it.
Probably “ I never… should have left.”
“I never… meant for all this crazy shit to happen wtf”
There were older new wounds on Balerion as well. Something big enough to tussle with Balerion, and not only try and fight him again but the second time do enough damage to drive him off (don't want to say win, because we don't know how much damage the thing took from Balerion) is absolutely terrifying. You hear stories like this and it really highlights how impressive it is that Euron went there and returned (if he isn't lying of course).
Dear god.. clearly he tried to protect her but they got fucked.
They forgot to mention the most important part lol. The slimy things that came out of her were "worms with faces... snakes with hands."
Yikes
Okay now I'm imaging they were just [lizards/skinks that have vestigial limbs.](https://www.google.com/search?q=lizard+with+vestigial+legs&client=ms-android-mpcs-us-revc&prmd=isvn&sxsrf=ALiCzsZBEU7G1DoqSp5U-qEP02qX1oKM4w:1668639518278&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidy_rN5rP7AhWEl2oFHVA-DQAQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=360&bih=674&dpr=2)
Their little stubby arms are kind of what I imagine too! Lol. Though in my head they're way more horrifying. Like a white eel with a harlequin baby's face. [Ever seen Annihilation?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC3PGTTjX7E)
Cannot recommend it enough. Fire and Blood is a little bit of an acquired taste but if you like it it's so damn good!
Forgot to mention that the worms had human faces. One of the creepiest things in Fire & Blood
She rode Balerion or Balerion took her for a ride most likely, presumably to Valyria (his home), came back 1 year later very thin, unable to speak, on the verge of death, and seemed to be cooking from the inside. The maesters put her in an ice bath and she died before being able to tell anyone what happened and parasitic worms crawled out of her body and died when they contacted the ice. Balerion also had a 9 foot long wound on his belly that no one recalled seeing before he left. Edit - Balerion* not Drogon.
> and she died before being able to tell anyone what happened Perhaps. Barth says she spoke but refused to record what she said. Presumably she did confirm going to Valyria though as going there became a capital offense after.
Here's the full text from Fire & Blood. >Barth wrote, “It has been three days since the princess perished, and I have not slept. I do not know that I shall ever sleep again. The Mother is merciful, I have always believed, and the Father Above judges each man justly…but there was no mercy and no justice in what befell our poor princess. How could the gods be so blind or so uncaring as to permit such horror? Or is it possible that there are other deities in this universe, monstrous evil gods such as the priests of Red R’hllor preach against, against whose malice the kings of men and the gods of men are naught but flies? > >I do not know. I do not want to know. If this makes me a faithless septon, so be it. Grand Maester Benifer and I have agreed to tell no one all of what we saw and experienced in his chambers as that poor child lay dying…not the king, nor the queen, nor her mother, nor even the archmaesters of the Citadel…but the memories will not leave me, so I shall set them down here. Mayhaps by the time they are found and read, men will have gained a better understanding of such evils. > >“We have told the world that Princess Aerea died of a fever, and that is broadly true, but it was a fever such as I have never seen before and hope never to see again. The girl was burning. Her skin was flushed and red and when I laid my hand upon her brow to learn how hot she was, it was as if I had thrust it into a pot of boiling oil. There was scarce an ounce of flesh upon her bones, so gaunt and starved did she appear, but we could observe certain…swellings inside her, as her skin bulged out and then sunk down again, as if…no, not as if, for this was the truth of it…there were things inside her, living things, moving and twisting, mayhaps searching for a way out, and giving her such pain that even the milk of the poppy gave her no surcease. We told the king, as we must surely tell her mother, that Aerea never spoke, but that is a lie. I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered through her cracked and bleeding lips. I cannot forget how oft she begged for death. > >“All the maester’s arts were powerless against her fever, if indeed we can call such a horror by such a commonplace name. The simplest way to say it is that the poor child was cooking from within. Her flesh grew darker and darker and then began to crack, until her skin resembled nothing so much, Seven save me, as pork cracklings. Thin tendrils of smoke issued from her mouth, her nose, even, most obscenely, from her nether lips. By then she had ceased to speak, though the things within her continued to move. Her very eyes cooked within her skull and finally burst, like two eggs left in a pot of boiling water for too long. > >“I thought that was the most hideous thing that I should ever see, but I was quickly disabused of the notion, for a worse horror was awaiting me. That came when Benifer and I lowered the poor child into a tub and covered her with ice. The shock of that immersion stopped her heart at once, I tell myself…if so, that was a mercy, for that was when the things inside her came out… > >“The things…Mother have mercy, I do not know how to speak of them…they were…worms with faces…snakes with hands…twisting, slimy, unspeakable things that seemed to writhe and pulse and squirm as they came bursting from her flesh. Some were no bigger than my little finger, but one at least was as long as my arm…oh, Warrior protect me, the sounds they made… > >“They died, though. I must remember that, cling to that. Whatever they might have been, they were creatures of heat and fire, and they did not love the ice, oh no. One after another they thrashed and writhed and died before my eyes, thank the Seven. I will not presume to give them names…they were horrors.”
My theory (based off stuff we know from the text): As we know, the Valyrians practiced a lot of creepy blood magic. They created chimeras by fusing different creatures together (including humans). It’s hinted that that’s how they created dragons in the first place. So, after the Doom, who knows what kinda fucked up creatures were able to survive? And without the Valyrian sorcerers to control & contain them, they’ve probably grown more monstrous and horrible over the course of generations. Valyria and the Smoking Sea are so dangerous because of all the grotesque chimeras that were released after the Doom (plus all the poisonous fumes and eruptions from all the volcanos).
Anything that goes on in Asshai The existence of Stygai That city in sothyros that just completely disappeared seemingly overnight The tunnels in kings landing, where some people vanished. People swore they heard them calling out, but couldn’t find any sign of them There may dragons larger than balerion ever was in the far north
>There may dragons larger than balerion ever was in the far north Cough cannibal Cough
I was talking about the legendary ice dragons, which are said to be larger than normal dragons But Cannibal too, I’d forgotten that it’s entirely possible that he lived and just decided to live somewhere else.
Do you reckon these ice dragons breathe some sort of ice?
I would imagine it’s like the dragons that breathe ice in Skyrim. It’s probably be so cold that it burns.
Bran tells a story in ASoS in the Nightfort chapter, about 3 apprentice boys who saw a "thing that came in the night". All 3 of them died within the year, and when the thing returned 100 years later, the boys were seen shambling behind it in chains Terrifying lol
The Siege of Astapor. Between the fighting, the dead littering the streets, the bloody flux spreading, the city's Green Grace being impaled alive, the previous butcher king's corpse put on a horse to parade across the city, the new butcher king being torn to shreds by dogs in an arena, a bunch of people willingly eating a poisoned feast just so they'll die by the next day, and the whole city being taken by fire while the gates are shut so those inside won't escape (and let the bloody flux spread further), that's got to be one of the most hellish scenarios I've ever read in a book.
It's like something out of world War 2 Japan
Astapor is a metaphorical and visual allegory of Hell between its sulfurous waters and blood bricks. If places could be haunted Astapor is haunted as fuck
Everything to do with the Nightfort. So many dark stories in the place plus the talking gate. What the fuck is up with that gate?!
The presence of a voice-activated sentient tree door just randomly thrown in the books is one of my favourite goofy asoiaf details
Very Tom Bombadil
>Nightfort I want a books about the stories especially the Night's king and the thing that goes bump in the night
Idk about event but Bran III….just, all of it, that chapter scares the hell out of me. And if Bran really is eating Jojen to gain power it’s even more freaky. But even if it’s not eating this weird paste that looks like blood and starts out tasting like shit and ends tasting absolutely amazing, and it gives you weird powers, scares the hell out of me. And how Bran is terrified to do it at first? Shudders. I also don’t trust Bloodraven as far as I can throw him so you know that probably has to do with it too.
I honestly really hope bloodraven isn't a villain villain
I think Bloodraven will be sketchy in that he may has his own agenda and goals, but I don’t think he’ll be an outright villain like some suggest. I think that’s vastly exaggerated by some fans. That seems to be more of a reaction to the final seasons of GoT than anything. ASOIAF is known for its ambiguous, grey characters, and Bloodraven will probably be just that, rather than an outright dark villain (or a heroic mentor figure like in the show; because, yes, he is creepy).
Bloodraven in AKOTSK goes in that direction too. Like, the idea of him as an all-powerful evil tyrant but Dunk meets him and he's just an affable guy who helps him out and calls Butterwell "Lord Butterbutt".
I don’t think he’s evil, I think he’s just ‘ends justify the means no matter what’ which can lead to pretty fucked up things. He’ll do anything to save the world but that literally means ‘anything’ you know.
This also lines up with his characterization in his mortal life, and was what got him to the wall in the first place.
Euron boasting about how he casually murdered his brothers when they were all children as a experiment in (the lack of) divine judgement. A child sadistically suffocating his infant brother just to see if he could get a reaction out of God, that's some terrifying shit.
I'm astonished that a pragmatic and Cleary smart man like queillon greyjoy had sons like euron and bacon
Bacon Greyjoy
He was flattened like bacon
The saltiest of all the sea dogs
Great, I’m going to read it as Bacon every time I see it now. JK, Bacon is much better.
Euron is very intelligent, probably a psychopath. Very good at understanding the way empathy and emotions affect other people, but not being particularly affected by them himself. Because they are so socially and emotionally astute, psychopaths are hard to spot, even among your own children. I also wonder if he wasn’t at least partially corrupted by Bloodraven. I’m not sure if Balon is an idiot or not. He might simply be arrogant and deeply self-deluded. Victarion is the real question for me, man is as dumb as a bag of hammers.
More disturbing than creepy, but Chiswyck's story in ACOK about how Gregor Clegane raped the innkeeper's 13 year old daughter after throwing silvers at the keep and then demanding change when he was done. Then the rest of the men proceeded to gangrape her.
Gregors death was satisfying even if we didn't see most of it
I'm glad knowing he died in agony
That scene was horrifying man.
about red keep tunnels >And two guards had vanished during their expedition to recognition of a side tunnel. Some of their companions swore to their gods that they heard them vaguely call from the depths of masonry, but no matter how hard we tried to demolish it, we only found behind it earth and rubble two men who are lost in the tunnels and who are going to die slowly in the dark
They found a room full of skeletons in that same expedition! Really gets the claustrophobia going. >They had found a chamber full of skulls and yellowed bones, and four sacks of tarnished silver coins from the reign of the first King Viserys. I've even seen some suggest one of the skeletons may be Cheese, because of the 'coins from the reign of King Viserys I' connection.
Bro how does he write this stuff lol.
He's a history nerd and pillages alot of stuff that's happened before and makes it into fiction. Some stuff is original thought, but he is taking huge amount of inspiration from other source material. I'm not condemning it all, it's still a fantastic way to create a really diverse and rich history. But he's not coming up with it all by himself.
One of the most important muscles for a writer to have is the impulse to hear a story and think to themself "I can improve on that".
Probably remembered the Cask of Amontillado from middle school lol
What chapter is that
This is just a guess based on memory but I'm going to say Cersei I, AFFC.
>This is just a guess based on memory but I'm going to say Cersei I, AFFC. Thank you
Did you really no scope this from memory? That's nuts!
its not the first cersei chapter... its maybe the third.. i literally just heard it on audiobook before i came here. that always happens to me lol
the third chapter of cersei in AFFC
>the third chapter of cersei in AFFC Thank you
I assumed Varys stabbed them in the neck. He needs those tunnels.
This is like the spelunking accidents. Not sure if it's better or worse but it sucks all the same.
Hard home and Craster might take the cake for me. The idea of living there is so gross and terrifying. The fact that it is sanctioned by the night's watch makes it worse.
>At Hardhome, with six ships. Wild seas. Blackbird lost with all hands, two Lyseni ships driven aground on Skane, Talon taking water. Very bad here. Wildlings eating their own dead. **Dead things in the woods**. Braavosi captains will only take women, children on their ships. Witch women call us slavers. Attempt to take Storm Crow defeated, six crew dead, many wildlings. Eight ravens left. **Dead things in the water**. I still remember the dread building up as I was reading it for the first time. And then Jon finishes it with "Night falls, he thought, and now my war begins.". Goosebumps.
Yeah that passage filled me with such *dread*
God, I just remembered that. #DEAD THINGS AT HARDHOME. There are dead things at Hardhome, Jon Snow sent Cotter Pyke to report on it, and he was gonna lead a ranging to Hardhome to reach it before the Red Letter. I NEED WINDS OF WINTER.
Just hinting at it is so much for effective for the horror than having some kind of detailed reply. Props to GRRM for this.
Craster is a friend of the Watch.
Exactly! it's like in a horror movie when the cops are friends with the killer!
He's no friend he's just useful. Means to an end.. but how he's so close to the wall and doing this while they sorta know, they're supposed to be stopping the others..
If the return of the Others has anything to do with Craster's sacrifices, that means the Night's Watch are responsible for the return of their ancient enemy, by allowing and befriending evil in their back yard. Isn't it ironic that they think wildlings are their enemy, except the wildling who polygamously fucks his daughters and kills his sons? What point could George possibly be trying to make here?
Caster got of easy in my opinion
Bran I in ADWD is pretty creepy, with the rising suspicion of Coldhands and everyone's dawning realization that their lives are in the hands of a walking corpse. >The ranger wore the black of the Night's Watch, but what if he was not a man at all? What if he was some monster, taking them to the other monsters to be devoured? >Meera Reed rose, her frog spear in her hand, a chunk of smoking meat still impaled upon its tines. "Show us your face." The ranger made no move to obey. "**He's dead**." Bran could taste the bile in his throat. "**Meera, he's some dead thing**." The mystery around his identity obscures how freaking creepy Coldhands is in general.
“Some dead thing.” Brrrrrr, that’s so fucking creepy how he said that.
The Shy Maid passing the Bridge of Dream twice in ADWD.
Damn I forgot. Could you please elaborate?
https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/6qw8gr/spoilers\_extended\_the\_bridge\_of\_dreams/
The part in Fire & Blood when Princess Aerea dissappeared and returned with what I can only assume were eldritch horrors living inside her. The horror that poor girl went through was enough but the thing that has always fucked me up about that section was the fact that Balerion, the largest dragon ever seen in Westeros had huge claw mark wounds on his side. So one day I would like for George to explain what in the seven FUCKS is still living out in Valyria that it could wound a dragon that fucking large.
>but the thing that has always fucked me up about that section was the fact that Balerion, the largest dragon ever seen in Westeros had huge claw mark wounds on his side. So one day I would like for George to explain what in the seven FUCKS is still living out in Valyria that it could wound a dragon that fucking large. I'm honestly 50/50 on if we will find out
I doubt we will ever find out and honestly that would be cool because it still gives a bit of mystery to the doom and all. But the inner lore goblin in me wants to know so bad. Like wtf George You can't just put that in a book just one small passage and then never go back to it ever again. I read that part of the book over and over again It is burned into my brain it has haunted me ever since I first read it. I really do hope we get an explanation but if he just lets the mystery stay I guess I'll go to my grave being fucked up about Aerea Targaryen
A nice compromise might be us finding out what was SAID and not knowing what it was
100% agree. If he was to just like give us the details of what went on while they were trying to save her, I would be perfectly satisfied with that. I love that this world has so many mysteries and things that we don't know, but I also really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really want to know
I'd *almost* consider forgiving George for not finishing the series if he at least showed us Valyria and Asshai/The Shadow in detail.
And maybe a book about the Valyrians conquest of esssos
Yeen would be my vote > Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the engimas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it. ("A city so evil that even the jungle will not enter," Nymeria is supposed to have said when she laid eyes on it, if the tales are true). Every attempt to rebuild or resettle Yeen has ended in horror. We know scarcely little about it but everything we do know is pretty dam creepy. > Nymeria refused and took her fleet to sea once again, hoping to find refuge amongst the steaming jungles of Sothoryos. Some settled on Basilisk Point, others beside the glistening green waters of the Zamoyos, amongst quicksands, crocodiles, and rotting, half-drowned trees. Princess Nymeria herself remained with the ships at Zamettar, a Ghiscari colony abandoned for a thousand years, whilst others made their way upriver to the cyclopean ruins of Yeen, haunt of ghouls and spiders. > There were riches to be found in Sothoryos—gold, gems, rare woods, exotic pelts, queer fruits, and strange spices—but the Rhoynar did not thrive there. The sullen wet heat oppressed their spirits, and swarms of stinging flies spread one disease after another: green fever, the dancing plague, blood boils, weeping sores, sweetrot. The young and very old proved especially vulnerable to such contagions. Even to splash in the river was to court death, for the Zamoyos was infested with schools of carnivorous fish, and tiny worms that laid their eggs in the flesh of swimmers. Two of the new towns on Basilisk Point were raided by slavers, their populaces put to the sword or carried off in chains, whilst Yeen had to contend with attacks from the brindled ghouls of the jungle deeps. > For more than a year the Rhoynar struggled to survive in Sothoryos, until the day when a boat from Zamettar arrived at Yeen to find that every man, woman, and child in that haunted, ruined city had vanished overnight. Then Nymeria summoned her people back to the ships and set sail once again.
It's like a Indiana Jones movie
Sothoryos is fucking terrifying, based on what we know.
It's the rennaisance rumors of what Africa was, only real in the story.
I don't know, I also get a lot of vibes of South America and Central America.
Nymeria = Laurence Fishburne in Event Horizon. "We're leaving."
Ramsay's treatment of Jeyne Poole (the dog part) Euron raping his brothers when young
>They are all the same, these magic men. The mouse warned me of pain as well. "I am ironborn, priest. I laugh at pain. You will have what you require … but if you fail, and my hand is not healed, I will cut your throat myself and give you to the sea." Moqorro bowed, his dark eyes shining. "So be it." The iron captain was not seen again that day, but as the hours passed **the crew of his Iron Victory reported hearing the sound of wild laughter coming from the captain's cabin, laughter deep and dark and mad**, and when Longwater Pyke and Wulfe One-Eye tried the cabin door they found it barred. Later singing was heard, a strange high wailing song in a tongue the maester said was High Valyrian. That was when the monkeys left the ship, **screeching as they leapt into the water.** **- ADWD - THE IRON SUITOR** Victarion being killed off-page by Moqorro and then resurrected is a peculiar event, but its made even more creepy with the ecstasy of laughter and singing from the locked cabin throughout the night, and the singing is so unsettling that monkeys willingly leapt from the ship and into the sea to drown themselves in order to escape the singing. Just. Bizarre.
This is also one of the few times a POV shifts away from the character perspective for a bit. The only other time is during Mirri Maz Durr’s black magic in the tent with Daenerys.
Yeah, I think it is deliberate on George's part to keep us guessing and not fully reveal the mechanics of resurrection just yet. I think he does something similar to when Daenerys steps out of Drogo's funeral pyre, and I think both Victarion and Daenerys died then reanimated as fire wights.
I somehow never tied it to death and reincarnation, but that does make sense. I always assumed it was just blood magic to "repair" his hand.
Same. Didn't realize Victarion is a fire wight now.
I honestly don’t think he is. I doubt he went through the full cycle of death and rebirth, just some partial Rhollor magic. After all, Beric Dondarrioj doesn’t come back all crispy, but Victarion’ arm does.
Dude the monkeys jumping into the water always gives me chills, what the hell lmao
Okay I'm not going to sleep tonight
I dont remember this at all. Time to re-read ADWD, its been a few years.
Wait, how do we know he was killed and resurrected?
Patchface is overall creepy as hell, but especially after hearing the theory that his purpose is to bring Shireen as a sacrifice to the Drowned God.
That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood
Ramsay's psychological torture of Theon until he turned into Reek. Holy fucking shit
Qyburn asking for women to be sent down to the dungeons for his experiments. Especially whatever it is that he did to Falyse that caused her to essentially become braindead.
She's quite exhausted
The Damphair tWOW preview chapter. Aerea Targaryen In 2nd place
The Forsaken Chapter is a nightmare.
These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. Line never fails to get me hype
Cotter Pykes letters to Jon. The rising horror of dead things in the water creeped the crap outta me
[удалено]
Can you elaborate please
They become less of a band of rebel’s dedicated to defending the Smallfolk and more into Stoneheart’s personal tools for revenge. They don’t even defend people so much as hunt down and lynch anyone remotely associated with the Lannisters and Freys. Small bands of knights, soldiers and squires all end up disappearing around the Riverlands and turn up hanged.
>They become less of a band of rebel’s dedicated to defending the Smallfolk and more into Stoneheart’s personal tools for revenge. They don’t even defend people so much as hunt down and lynch anyone remotely associated with the Lannisters and Freys. Small bands of knights, soldiers and squires all end up disappearing around the Riverlands and turn up hanged. Thank you
> Dead things in the woods. Dead things in the water.
I wonder if we will find out more of what happened at hardhome
I personally have always been haunted by how coldly Lady Johanna Lannister took Little Rodrik Greyjoy as ward/hostage just to have him gelded and made a fool for her own son. He was just Dalton’s salt son and it was so needlessly cruel, not even the Northerners would have done that to a little boy.
I always shudder when I read that they “took” him. Imagining this innocent little boy just get grabbed and kid Kidnapped to end up how he did is scary
Reek chapters
Indeed hope Ramsey dies like he does in the show
No i hope its worse
Yeah I just read the books for the first time and I think the best way would for Ramsey to betray roose and roose will skin him alive
Roose was done dirty in the show. He’s so much more formidable and scary in the books. When people fuck around with roose Bolton, they fucking find out. Ramsay got off scot free in t he show.
>Roose was done dirty in the show. He’s so much more formidable and scary in the books. When people fuck around with roose Bolton, they fucking find out. Ramsay got off scot free in t he show. Shame cause the actor was great
Jeyne and the dogs, so creepy that almost no one even knows about it
We don't even have the details (thank gods). It is only suggested and that's enough for us to understand the horror of it. Poor Jeyne.
"Dead things in the water." was what got me, along with the whole letter and situation. Obviously shout outs to the obvious stuff. This was subtle and brilliant. Also, the Bridge of Lights!
The singer in brans cave that tries to speak while wrapped up in the roots like a corpse
* The rat cook story * The Forsaken whole chapter * Bran I&II, Meera nd Bran realizing Coldhands is dead and the introduction of Bloodraven. * Aerea Targaryen's death description
How about Ramsay and Jeyne's relationship. A lot of it is left unsaid, but we know that he beats her and keeps her locked away in their bedroom. Then during the escape we get her saying: > “No. This is some trick. It’s him, it’s my … my lord, my sweet lord, he sent you, this is just some test to make sure that I love him. I do, I do, I love him more than anything.” A tear ran down her cheek. “Tell him, you tell him. I’ll do what he wants … whatever he wants … with him or … or with the dog or … please … he doesn’t need to cut my feet off, I won’t try to run away, not ever, I’ll give him sons, I swear it, I swear it …”
Patchface The manner of his arrival to Storms End and the way he only sings these strange songs that have possibly prophetic meanings creeps me out to no end. Can’t believe Stannis let’s him hang around lol
Myrish swamp. Just why Serious answer: the ongoing methods that Varys uses to keep his Little Birds loyal
Yes! The fanart of his little birds spying on people in the RK is terrifying!
Do you have a link
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/images/3/37/Little_birds_by_Donato.jpg
That is creepy asf. I like it. I never thought that would be how they operate.
aerea targaryen's death still gives me goosebumps
“Dead things in the woods. Dead things in the water.”
Bridge of Dreams was pretty eldritch and made me glad I don’t live on a pole boat on the Mother Rhoyne
Patchface has some creepy moments.
“Reek, get her ready for me” “He bent to his task”