he was also weirdly loyal to Catlyn and followed her once married instead of staying to the assigned castle Riverun. Before knowing the follow thing I thought maybe he was a northman, but show accent doesn't really fit either. So he may have been a Whent like Cat.
He wanted magic to be real. He knows it is now. He gave himself to the Gods and the Trees. He can Watch and he can Whisper now through that tree set up...but yeah he is dedicated to Cat and some of her children. Specifically, Bran and Rickon.
Eh, I kinda chalked it up to a desperate old man who has the knowledge that the wound he suffered is fatal. The brutal truth is that most secular people are just as hypocritical as the religious they bash endlessly and often turn spiritual near the end, not out of faith but desperation. He figured "Eh I got nothing else to lose, these trees are mystical in nature because they do not rot and the children of the forest did worship them. Why not die there?"
He wanted magic to be real but never saw it in his life until the very end. That's my theory here. It also makes it more tragic which is up GRRMs alley for writing. He realised magic was coming back, but once he did, it was too late to help those around him.
I've heard a very convincing theory that both trees are related. When weirwoods die, they petrify into white stone. Maybe shade of the evening trees become oily black stone
You know I never really thought about how sourleaf is red and makes your mouth bloody connecting to the weirwood sap, like you said I don't think sourleaf is magical or anything but that's a damn good cover for Marwyn and very much seems in character for him. I'm totally on board with this theory
As I sit here eating maple syrup with my breakfast, I see parallels. Maple sap is slightly sweet, but the syrup is made by boiling down and concentrating the sap quite a bit. I think something light 20 litres of sap make 1 litre of syrup. Perhaps what Bran is given for his visions has been similarly concentrated? On another note, I feel like Jojen might not be dead. What if he has simply been hooked up to the Weirwood network? That is not a fate to look forward to, so that could explain his deteriorating mood as they got closer to the cave. If a greensear is hooked up to the network, they can continuously siphon off magical blood, rather than just get some once and never again. With how rare greensears are, it would be a waste to simply kill jojen.
@@HisameArtwork probably not but it is likely that it has found people to be a source of energy it cannot get elsewhere so it lures people in and farms them which keeps them alive and as a by product allows them to access the connection to other life forces.
@@lomiification Exactly! Becoming part of the Weirwood net and removing limbs are both sacrifices. So double sacrifice even. It’s confused me for so long why so many people who talk about Jojen paste see only his death as a possibility.
Hey Michael, so I really like this idea as a concept - as you say, the weirwood sap is almost certainly blood, and we know the trees are magical and that blood is a conduit for magic. Therefore eating Weirwood leaves **should** at least have the potential to convey magic. I like the microdosing analogy. So I have one thing to add in favor and one against. Against, the description of the half dead Weirwood on the Isle of Ravens sounds like a left right half, not a top bottom half - if Marwyn was picking leaves, he'd pick all the lowe branches clean and leave the higher ones. i don't picture him with a ladder picking from the top of one side when there are plenty lower down, haha. So I think it is a half dead tree. But he could still be picking leaves from it ! In favor, it makes a great parallel to Shade of the Evening, which turns your lips blue. I've always talked about sour leaf and bloody mouths in general as a way for George to imply Weirwood symbolism on a person, but it also makes sense he'd create the Sourleaf habit to disguise someone later in the story (Marwyn) who chews Weirwood leaves. I will also just say it's odd that we never see Bloodraven, Bran, or any of the children of the forest doing it, but maybe we will.
I'm curious how the harvest of the tree would work, is it taken every day or is there a time when it would be most potent and a harvest would be done then. Maybe he did harvest half the tree and then dried the leaves for later?
I don't think the moniker fits. A tech bro is somebody who doesn't know what their doing, but can sell to rich people who dont know what they're putting money into. The marwen descriptions have him more like a drug lord, or maybe drug line manager. He's Ernest Hemingway getting into bar fights and hanging with hookers
@zacmccollum7144 YES! And it makes me wonder...were the weirwoods leaves always red? I really think that the leaves used to be green. Currently, in text, Baelish avoids weirwoods and Godswoods; he sends Dontos in his place to meet Sansa because he says the Godswood is the only place spies cannot go...including him, lowkey. But when he was younger he played in the Godswood and he was with Lysa and Cat.
Very interesting theory. Love it! The one thing that doesn't sit well with me is the partly dead tree. It would be obvious if people are taking leaves for 2 reasons. 1. They would be missing from the more accessible branches only. 2. The next year or season it would have leaves again. I think the almost dead tree is meant to be a metaphor for meister's knowledge of magic. Which is dying.
Masha Heddle as well....BUT those leaves USED to be green and minty I think. And the 'stone' table Mirri uses in her temple is white with blue viens. It's like some of the trees used to have Green leaves but now some are Red and some are Blue. O, and the pale green paste Mirri uses on Drogo's boo-boo is Ghost Grass Paste
I do believe that blood flows through the weirdwood trees due to many thousands of years of wars and sacrifices, their leaves turn red from so much blood. Perhaps the only uncorrupted trees are on the Isle of Faces (maybe that’s why they are green in the latest calendar art) Probably a similar thing happened to the black-barked trees of the shade-of-the-evening, something other than blood
I really love your videos. You have some very interesting theories. I think it would be great if you had more video clips, images and diagrams rather than so much text. I can't really read large blocks of text and listen to you at the same time. I look forward to your upcoming videos. Good luck with your channel ❤
I was thinking about this awhile back. I kind of assumed that sourleaf was weirwood leaves but I like the idea of sourleaf of being GRRM's cover for Marwin's leaf eating much better.
Perhaps related, as you brought up the bare branches in the Citadel. The bare tree in Raventree Hall. The ravens still cover it. It's assumed poisoned and dead/dying. However, someone may actually be harvesting the leaves. Not that we have anyone to point to in this situation. Aside perhaps the GoHH. I would however like to consider the example in the book that bridges the gap literally or figuratively between candles and either blue or red wine/sap/leaves. That would be the Kindly man asking Arya about how the candles in the HoBW effect her. What she says oddly reminds me of how Bran talks about the taste of his paste. These candles are actually being consumed by the flame rather than remaining like the glass candles. But the general experience appears to draw at least a symbolic or figurative line between candles and the effects of blue or red leaves. There is a secondary theory I've always wondered about. Again this goes back to wine. Thoros is bringing Beric back. Is he drinking wine that's been supplied by someone in the Riverlands. Someone from Raventree Hall perhaps? Another secondary theory. Rubies and weirwood sap. On a couple of occasions the sap in a Weirwood's eyes is described as being like ruby. Does a character like Mel have a hardened piece of sap that's sort of been turned into a red amber rather than a real ruby. There is perhaps another question, but it would rely heavily on proving a theory similar to LmL's about trees with green leaves. I'll note it but I won't dig into it if you're not the sort that thinks there's a missing variety of tree in the story. This would however potentially raise a question about what the "golden blood of old Valyria" actually might mean.
The leaves of a tree are the part doing the chemical reaction while the roots are the nervous system. If the white walkers are bound in soul by having their body connected to the weirwood then perhaps the chemical stores of the weirwoods body grant the ability to either commune with the trees or simply they increase Marwyn's mental capacities and capabilities. This would explain why a maester; a traditionally hermit-like personality would venture so far and wide, either because he was given a grand vision of the big-picture or because he has built such a wealth of knowledge through microdosing that he is compelled to reveal the world-tree narrative
I don't think it is actual blood, it is tree sap with a blood element in it. Because you can buy dried blood for your garden as a plant nutrient, but the plants don't make animal blood with it, they make plant sap. And George is a gardener with his writing - meaning he knows how gardens work, he for sure knows how plant ROOT SYSTEMS work - though the weirwoods are like mushrooms, with most of it underground and the fruiting bodies above - as trees. BUT in this world it is a MAGICAL element that is added to the tree sap and seeds and maybe the leaves and because of THAT, there could be magical power to be gained from consuming these things. But Marwyn unlike Bran does not have the heritage that we know of, so he has to intake the leaves on a daily basis to get a mild boost - microdosing as you say.
In my RPG GoT Group we have to deal with a drug problem in Oldtown and Kings Landing. The drug is white Powder made of weerwood und tansy. looks like coke but works like acid.The Idea has the same roots. Our House has the title "Defender of the Weerwoods and is located on the domain of Haus Karstark. We are the ones that got defeated by Karl Stark^^
I am sure that everyone has heard of chi the concept of vital force energy in all living things, there are many different forms of chi from the more ephemeral to the more dense with the densest form of chi being blood, it is sort of like the physical representation of vital force as it bathes every cell in all the life sustaining nutrients that it requires. This is why vampires drink blood because it is capable of sustaining both the physical body of the vampire but the possessing demonic/metaphysical aspect as well. I see the weir wood trees as some form of parasite that has some form of ability to draw sustenance from metaphysical sources and as such has a connection to the lifeforce of people. Just as people have discovered and used the medicinal properties of other plants and animals people discovered the metaphysical properties of the weir wood and began experimenting with them and over time the absorbed life force energy of people made the weir woods aware of the food source in people and thus began a co parasitic relationship with green seers and the weir woods as they both tried to control the other. Just my thoughts.
A little off topic, but I've recently become more convinced of the significance of Lovecraftian influence behind a lot of mysteries George sets up. I know this is old news and already generally accepted, but I never noticed details like how the Cthulhu ritual was inadvertantly fulfilled by sailors, not knowing what they were doing, while the cult members themselves couldn't figure it out, which makes me think of how Daenerys likely performed a blood magic ritual on Drogo's pyre to hatch dragons without realizing it. Meanwhile her ancestors deliberately tried to figure it out but failed in the attempt. There is also the significance of astrological circumstances influencing the transmission of dreams. Or very similar quotations, such as how, "What is dead may never die" seems like a very obvious riff on, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." I'm almost willing to bet ASoIaF could reasonably be considered as falling within the broader Lovecraftian mythos, in a similar fashion to how Conan the Barbarian does also.
Here is another idea. I have no idea if it has been suggested before, but the thought struck me when rereading the scene of the catspaw and Cat. As far as we know, the catspaw obviously is there to kill Bran and is surprised to find Cat. To me this doesn't make sense for two major reasons: 1. It was surely well-known among all the nobles in Winterfell that Cat was spending her time with her deathly ill son. Even Joffrey couldn't have missed that fact, since he knew that "at least he's dying in silence". I think Joff's entire conversation with the Hound is just a red herring, and Tyrion coming upon that conversation and MISremembering it later strikes me as odd, because it's one of very few times (only time?) that someone outright misremembers something. Whoever sent the catspaw may have TOLD the catspaw that Bran would be alone after the distraction of the fire in the library, but I think that they KNEW that Cat was going to be there. Because ... 2. The Valyrian Steel dagger. There was no reason at all for the person who sent the catspaw to provide him with the dagger. The catspaw could have strangled Bran with his bare hands, throttled him with a pillow, or done any number of nasty things to kill an unconscious, defenseless boy. The only reason you'd want your hired thug to have such a potent weapon would be if you expected them to come upon someone in the room that was capable of defending themselves. Like, say, the mother of the boy you send your catspaw to (ostensibly) kill. So, what I am saying is that I think that whoever sent the catspaw to "kill Bran" knew that Cat was in the room and wouldn't leave his room just because there was a fire in the library. Whoever sent the catspaw told the catspaw that the target was Bran, but the INTENDED target was actually Cat. All the speculation from Tyrion, Cersei and Jamie later in the books that put the blame on Joff only takes into account that it would have been in Joff's nature to do it. But ... would it? Would Crown Prince Joffrey, heir to the Iron Throne, talk to a lowly ruffian sleeping in the stables? And if he didn't talk to the catspaw himself ... then who did, on Joff's behalf? The Hound? Surely he would have taunted Sansa or Arya with that knowledge at SOME point, no? No, I think that if anything, if Joff had wanted Bran dead, he would have done it himself. He was never all that clever and while he was sadistic, sending a catspaw seems like he would think was below him to do. But that still leaves the question ... if all of the above is true, then who wanted Cat dead at that point? Not Cersei, Tyrion or Jamie ... so who?
Every magical tree scientist knows every that every tree is full of blood. I love it when people who ARE NOT magical tree scientists chime in on this stuff. Every single tree. Everywhere.
I fw every single one of you that is waiting on winds of winter, thinks about this shit, you are a real one, ill be there in 2040 when the book comes out and no one cares
The Summer Islanders seem as if they are the only group of people NOT doing blood magic. They are of course doing sex magic - or at least sex as worship of the gods.
"bloodraven is ridiculously old because he eats the blood of children" doesnt make a ton of sense because its unlikely that theres that much blood being sacrificed to the tree hes in. Based on ned only cleaning his sword in front of the tree, that tree that gets lots of blood because ned is there beheading people only gets what, a teaspoon of blood per head? If bloodraven is being kept alive by frequent blood infusions, the above ground needs to be something like a 150k city so it can kill some kid daily for the next blood donation, while not running out of children to keep the settlement going. That much infrastructure does not seem to exist north of the wall.
I think a "he's attached to the tree, so he gets the lifespan of a tree" is a much simpler magic explanation. The blood is for doing magic, not to stay alive
![[Full] 4 ต่อ 4 Celebrity EP.922 | 10 พ.ย. 67 | one31](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zmV5HRIxIBI/mqdefault.jpg)
Sorta related, I always thought it interesting that Maester Luwin had a rare Valerian link, and crawled to a weirwood to die.
he was also weirdly loyal to Catlyn and followed her once married instead of staying to the assigned castle Riverun.
Before knowing the follow thing I thought maybe he was a northman, but show accent doesn't really fit either.
So he may have been a Whent like Cat.
He wanted magic to be real. He knows it is now. He gave himself to the Gods and the Trees. He can Watch and he can Whisper now through that tree set up...but yeah he is dedicated to Cat and some of her children. Specifically, Bran and Rickon.
That's pretty awesome. I never thought of it that way, but that is a good observation
Eh, I kinda chalked it up to a desperate old man who has the knowledge that the wound he suffered is fatal. The brutal truth is that most secular people are just as hypocritical as the religious they bash endlessly and often turn spiritual near the end, not out of faith but desperation. He figured "Eh I got nothing else to lose, these trees are mystical in nature because they do not rot and the children of the forest did worship them. Why not die there?"
He wanted magic to be real but never saw it in his life until the very end. That's my theory here.
It also makes it more tragic which is up GRRMs alley for writing. He realised magic was coming back, but once he did, it was too late to help those around him.
Crazy how you keep coming out with theories that I've literally never heard before, fire stuff.
Isn't this a parallel to shade of the evening and blue lips?
I've heard a very convincing theory that both trees are related. When weirwoods die, they petrify into white stone. Maybe shade of the evening trees become oily black stone
Yes
You know I never really thought about how sourleaf is red and makes your mouth bloody connecting to the weirwood sap, like you said I don't think sourleaf is magical or anything but that's a damn good cover for Marwyn and very much seems in character for him. I'm totally on board with this theory
Yes I think this is the point of inventing sour leaf - to misdirect the reader for weirleaf chewing
When Michael Talks About says "This is something we should talk about" I sit my ass down, I shut up, and I listen to him talk (about).
Same same same✨👌One of the most interesting ASOIAF theorists out here❤
As I sit here eating maple syrup with my breakfast, I see parallels. Maple sap is slightly sweet, but the syrup is made by boiling down and concentrating the sap quite a bit. I think something light 20 litres of sap make 1 litre of syrup. Perhaps what Bran is given for his visions has been similarly concentrated?
On another note, I feel like Jojen might not be dead. What if he has simply been hooked up to the Weirwood network? That is not a fate to look forward to, so that could explain his deteriorating mood as they got closer to the cave. If a greensear is hooked up to the network, they can continuously siphon off magical blood, rather than just get some once and never again. With how rare greensears are, it would be a waste to simply kill jojen.
never heard this idea before and it makes a lot of sense too
true, why waste good blood.
but he's gotta eat something to produce blood.
Does the tree inject them with water and spinach juice?
@@HisameArtwork probably not but it is likely that it has found people to be a source of energy it cannot get elsewhere so it lures people in and farms them which keeps them alive and as a by product allows them to access the connection to other life forces.
Jojem doesn't need to be dead to make jojem paste, either. There's plenty of paste to be made by slowly removing an arm or two
@@lomiification Exactly! Becoming part of the Weirwood net and removing limbs are both sacrifices. So double sacrifice even. It’s confused me for so long why so many people who talk about Jojen paste see only his death as a possibility.
Marwyn doing the equivalent of using shroom honey in his morning tea? That seems perfectly in character to me. Great catch!
Hey Michael, so I really like this idea as a concept - as you say, the weirwood sap is almost certainly blood, and we know the trees are magical and that blood is a conduit for magic. Therefore eating Weirwood leaves **should** at least have the potential to convey magic. I like the microdosing analogy.
So I have one thing to add in favor and one against. Against, the description of the half dead Weirwood on the Isle of Ravens sounds like a left right half, not a top bottom half - if Marwyn was picking leaves, he'd pick all the lowe branches clean and leave the higher ones. i don't picture him with a ladder picking from the top of one side when there are plenty lower down, haha. So I think it is a half dead tree. But he could still be picking leaves from it !
In favor, it makes a great parallel to Shade of the Evening, which turns your lips blue. I've always talked about sour leaf and bloody mouths in general as a way for George to imply Weirwood symbolism on a person, but it also makes sense he'd create the Sourleaf habit to disguise someone later in the story (Marwyn) who chews Weirwood leaves.
I will also just say it's odd that we never see Bloodraven, Bran, or any of the children of the forest doing it, but maybe we will.
Light bringer! I'm glad you're tapping in with this guy I love his content and I've followed you for a few years now!
I'm curious how the harvest of the tree would work, is it taken every day or is there a time when it would be most potent and a harvest would be done then. Maybe he did harvest half the tree and then dried the leaves for later?
He really called Marwyn a tech bro 😂
Ikr...I always thought of the citadel as a university...but a tech think tank fits too.
@@tinahs8269 same here. It does fit, but it just took me by surprise, lol
I don't think the moniker fits. A tech bro is somebody who doesn't know what their doing, but can sell to rich people who dont know what they're putting money into.
The marwen descriptions have him more like a drug lord, or maybe drug line manager. He's Ernest Hemingway getting into bar fights and hanging with hookers
😂New drinking game. Take a shot every time Michael says "on some level or another" in his videos
Baelish chews on minty leaves that grow in the Godswood as a youth in the Riverlands.
I believe it says "mint leaves" just to make his breath smell fresh, since he's trying to kiss the Lord's daughters
@zacmccollum7144 YES! And it makes me wonder...were the weirwoods leaves always red? I really think that the leaves used to be green. Currently, in text, Baelish avoids weirwoods and Godswoods; he sends Dontos in his place to meet Sansa because he says the Godswood is the only place spies cannot go...including him, lowkey. But when he was younger he played in the Godswood and he was with Lysa and Cat.
I like this for Marwyn. But for other characters it seems like sour leaf is the in world name for betel nut
Very interesting theory. Love it! The one thing that doesn't sit well with me is the partly dead tree. It would be obvious if people are taking leaves for 2 reasons. 1. They would be missing from the more accessible branches only. 2. The next year or season it would have leaves again.
I think the almost dead tree is meant to be a metaphor for meister's knowledge of magic. Which is dying.
Loved the microdosing comparison
I'll believe it when we get a tree scientist in here to confirm
Masha Heddle as well....BUT those leaves USED to be green and minty I think. And the 'stone' table Mirri uses in her temple is white with blue viens. It's like some of the trees used to have Green leaves but now some are Red and some are Blue. O, and the pale green paste Mirri uses on Drogo's boo-boo is Ghost Grass Paste
I do believe that blood flows through the weirdwood trees due to many thousands of years of wars and sacrifices, their leaves turn red from so much blood. Perhaps the only uncorrupted trees are on the Isle of Faces (maybe that’s why they are green in the latest calendar art)
Probably a similar thing happened to the black-barked trees of the shade-of-the-evening, something other than blood
I really love your videos. You have some very interesting theories. I think it would be great if you had more video clips, images and diagrams rather than so much text. I can't really read large blocks of text and listen to you at the same time. I look forward to your upcoming videos. Good luck with your channel ❤
I was thinking about this awhile back. I kind of assumed that sourleaf was weirwood leaves but I like the idea of sourleaf of being GRRM's cover for Marwin's leaf eating much better.
"Heroic dose." This guy trips.
amazing as always.
Perhaps related, as you brought up the bare branches in the Citadel. The bare tree in Raventree Hall. The ravens still cover it. It's assumed poisoned and dead/dying. However, someone may actually be harvesting the leaves. Not that we have anyone to point to in this situation. Aside perhaps the GoHH.
I would however like to consider the example in the book that bridges the gap literally or figuratively between candles and either blue or red wine/sap/leaves. That would be the Kindly man asking Arya about how the candles in the HoBW effect her. What she says oddly reminds me of how Bran talks about the taste of his paste. These candles are actually being consumed by the flame rather than remaining like the glass candles. But the general experience appears to draw at least a symbolic or figurative line between candles and the effects of blue or red leaves.
There is a secondary theory I've always wondered about. Again this goes back to wine. Thoros is bringing Beric back. Is he drinking wine that's been supplied by someone in the Riverlands. Someone from Raventree Hall perhaps?
Another secondary theory. Rubies and weirwood sap. On a couple of occasions the sap in a Weirwood's eyes is described as being like ruby. Does a character like Mel have a hardened piece of sap that's sort of been turned into a red amber rather than a real ruby.
There is perhaps another question, but it would rely heavily on proving a theory similar to LmL's about trees with green leaves. I'll note it but I won't dig into it if you're not the sort that thinks there's a missing variety of tree in the story. This would however potentially raise a question about what the "golden blood of old Valyria" actually might mean.
Interesting theory definitely plausible
I love the heroic dose reference
The leaves of a tree are the part doing the chemical reaction while the roots are the nervous system. If the white walkers are bound in soul by having their body connected to the weirwood then perhaps the chemical stores of the weirwoods body grant the ability to either commune with the trees or simply they increase Marwyn's mental capacities and capabilities. This would explain why a maester; a traditionally hermit-like personality would venture so far and wide, either because he was given a grand vision of the big-picture or because he has built such a wealth of knowledge through microdosing that he is compelled to reveal the world-tree narrative
I wonder if Sam will end up trying Marwyns wacky chewtobacky ?
Listened twice so I could get my ADHD brain to focus. I'm really starting to wonder if sour leaf really isn't just weirwood leaves 🤔
I don't think it is actual blood, it is tree sap with a blood element in it. Because you can buy dried blood for your garden as a plant nutrient, but the plants don't make animal blood with it, they make plant sap.
And George is a gardener with his writing - meaning he knows how gardens work, he for sure knows how plant ROOT SYSTEMS work - though the weirwoods are like mushrooms, with most of it underground and the fruiting bodies above - as trees.
BUT in this world it is a MAGICAL element that is added to the tree sap and seeds and maybe the leaves and because of THAT, there could be magical power to be gained from consuming these things.
But Marwyn unlike Bran does not have the heritage that we know of, so he has to intake the leaves on a daily basis to get a mild boost - microdosing as you say.
Basically canon
In my RPG GoT Group we have to deal with a drug problem in Oldtown and Kings Landing. The drug is white Powder made of weerwood und tansy. looks like coke but works like acid.The Idea has the same roots. Our House has the title "Defender of the Weerwoods and is located on the domain of Haus Karstark. We are the ones that got defeated by Karl Stark^^
I am sure that everyone has heard of chi the concept of vital force energy in all living things, there are many different forms of chi from the more ephemeral to the more dense with the densest form of chi being blood, it is sort of like the physical representation of vital force as it bathes every cell in all the life sustaining nutrients that it requires. This is why vampires drink blood because it is capable of sustaining both the physical body of the vampire but the possessing demonic/metaphysical aspect as well. I see the weir wood trees as some form of parasite that has some form of ability to draw sustenance from metaphysical sources and as such has a connection to the lifeforce of people. Just as people have discovered and used the medicinal properties of other plants and animals people discovered the metaphysical properties of the weir wood and began experimenting with them and over time the absorbed life force energy of people made the weir woods aware of the food source in people and thus began a co parasitic relationship with green seers and the weir woods as they both tried to control the other. Just my thoughts.
So excited for hotD 2 burning bugaloo
A little off topic, but I've recently become more convinced of the significance of Lovecraftian influence behind a lot of mysteries George sets up. I know this is old news and already generally accepted, but I never noticed details like how the Cthulhu ritual was inadvertantly fulfilled by sailors, not knowing what they were doing, while the cult members themselves couldn't figure it out, which makes me think of how Daenerys likely performed a blood magic ritual on Drogo's pyre to hatch dragons without realizing it. Meanwhile her ancestors deliberately tried to figure it out but failed in the attempt. There is also the significance of astrological circumstances influencing the transmission of dreams. Or very similar quotations, such as how, "What is dead may never die" seems like a very obvious riff on, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
I'm almost willing to bet ASoIaF could reasonably be considered as falling within the broader Lovecraftian mythos, in a similar fashion to how Conan the Barbarian does also.
Michael Talks.. I listen. Simple as that.
Sourleaf are the leaves from a wierwood? I thought it was like chewng tobacco or maybe kat.
The Citadel is more like a university than a tech company
Apparently everyone is a tree scientist nowadays 🙄
I bet Yoren chews the blood leaf.
Here is another idea. I have no idea if it has been suggested before, but the thought struck me when rereading the scene of the catspaw and Cat.
As far as we know, the catspaw obviously is there to kill Bran and is surprised to find Cat. To me this doesn't make sense for two major reasons:
1. It was surely well-known among all the nobles in Winterfell that Cat was spending her time with her deathly ill son. Even Joffrey couldn't have missed that fact, since he knew that "at least he's dying in silence". I think Joff's entire conversation with the Hound is just a red herring, and Tyrion coming upon that conversation and MISremembering it later strikes me as odd, because it's one of very few times (only time?) that someone outright misremembers something. Whoever sent the catspaw may have TOLD the catspaw that Bran would be alone after the distraction of the fire in the library, but I think that they KNEW that Cat was going to be there. Because ...
2. The Valyrian Steel dagger. There was no reason at all for the person who sent the catspaw to provide him with the dagger. The catspaw could have strangled Bran with his bare hands, throttled him with a pillow, or done any number of nasty things to kill an unconscious, defenseless boy. The only reason you'd want your hired thug to have such a potent weapon would be if you expected them to come upon someone in the room that was capable of defending themselves. Like, say, the mother of the boy you send your catspaw to (ostensibly) kill.
So, what I am saying is that I think that whoever sent the catspaw to "kill Bran" knew that Cat was in the room and wouldn't leave his room just because there was a fire in the library. Whoever sent the catspaw told the catspaw that the target was Bran, but the INTENDED target was actually Cat.
All the speculation from Tyrion, Cersei and Jamie later in the books that put the blame on Joff only takes into account that it would have been in Joff's nature to do it. But ... would it? Would Crown Prince Joffrey, heir to the Iron Throne, talk to a lowly ruffian sleeping in the stables? And if he didn't talk to the catspaw himself ... then who did, on Joff's behalf? The Hound? Surely he would have taunted Sansa or Arya with that knowledge at SOME point, no? No, I think that if anything, if Joff had wanted Bran dead, he would have done it himself. He was never all that clever and while he was sadistic, sending a catspaw seems like he would think was below him to do.
But that still leaves the question ... if all of the above is true, then who wanted Cat dead at that point? Not Cersei, Tyrion or Jamie ... so who?
Every magical tree scientist knows every that every tree is full of blood.
I love it when people who ARE NOT magical tree scientists chime in on this stuff.
Every single tree. Everywhere.
Shade of the mourning?
I fw every single one of you that is waiting on winds of winter, thinks about this shit, you are a real one, ill be there in 2040 when the book comes out and no one cares
We'll all still care lol
4th comment vibes - love this theory
Yeah, but if that is true, where are all the edgy teenage westerosi smoking the weirwood kush hidden from their parents?
very nice❤❤❤❤❤
I never understood why they changed Asha to Yara for the show. Anyone know the reasoning for changing her name?
Because of Osha
Look, I’m going to give you the wildest thing I can think of: eating weirwood leaves is like getting infected by low grade toxoplasmosis.
The Summer Islanders seem as if they are the only group of people NOT doing blood magic.
They are of course doing sex magic - or at least sex as worship of the gods.
Also, you should credit the contributing commenters in your videos.
❤
He’s chewing sour leaf
Wierwood dialysis machine
"bloodraven is ridiculously old because he eats the blood of children" doesnt make a ton of sense because its unlikely that theres that much blood being sacrificed to the tree hes in.
Based on ned only cleaning his sword in front of the tree, that tree that gets lots of blood because ned is there beheading people only gets what, a teaspoon of blood per head?
If bloodraven is being kept alive by frequent blood infusions, the above ground needs to be something like a 150k city so it can kill some kid daily for the next blood donation, while not running out of children to keep the settlement going.
That much infrastructure does not seem to exist north of the wall.
I think a "he's attached to the tree, so he gets the lifespan of a tree" is a much simpler magic explanation. The blood is for doing magic, not to stay alive
This is a level of tinfoil i can subscribe to.
So if Bran's weirwood paste is Johen, that means Marwyn microdoses on Jojen.
Marwyn has gingivitis. They don't have toothpaste.
People used dental powders and other toothpaste-like concoctions since at least the Ancient Egyptians.
Yeah, sadly they had multiple options. But, like real life ,Marwyn simply didn’t partake, and to the detriment of his dental health.
The paste is definitely made from people.
Probably gives you red poops