CSL
1681
How did we not catch this - everything about the Others and such is just a show - the real plot is just a medieval land dispute.
It’s not THAT in dispute. The real Lord of Harrenhal is Littlefinger; he’s just never actually been there.
Wader
1683
Considering how Harrenhal is described, I wouldn’t want to go there either. Now, the place Littlefinger used ownership of Harrenhal to get a hold over? I would visit that place in a second…
XPav
1684
I present: Cooking with Ice and Fire
So far:
Well, Mr. Martin does not disappoint, in this writer’s view, in A Dance With Dragons. The very first scene after the prologue is a cornucopia of fantastic dishes as Tyrion adjusts to his life in exile. All I can say is that for this one, we’re going to need a bigger table. My preliminary review yields the following dishes in need of production:
Tyrion’s Pre-Dinner Snack
Cheese
Bread
Figs
A good Arbor strongwine (a least a flagon)
The Main Event With Magister Illyrio
Broth of Crab and Monkfish
Cold Egg Lime Soup
Quails in Honey
Saddle of Lamb
Goose Livers in Wine
Buttered Parsnips
Suckling Pig with Plum Sauce
Black Mushrooms in Butter and Garlic
Fig-Stuffed Heron
Veal Cutlets in Almond Milk
Creamed Herring
Candied Onions
Assorted Snails and Sweetbreads
Black Swan in Plumage
Black Cherries in Sweet Cream
This one is going to take some doing… As I lack a seven oven kitchen and a legion of sous chefs, I am going to tackle this one is stages. Now, to find a swan…
After Martin’s reveal that the Three Stooges are in GoT, (a.k.a. Lharys, Kurliket, and Mohor,) I went hunting to see what other references I’d completely missed.
I have no idea if this is intentional or not, but my personal favorite: Cersei’s choices of champions for her trial consist first of her brother, and then “Ser Robert Strong,” who doesn’t speak.
So her champions are Jaime and Silent Bob.
So Cooking Ice and Fire is like a less awesome Inn at the Crossroads?
Athryn
1687
Yeah there are a ton of author references in the books as well, via heraldry. I know the two biggest he pays tribute to are Zelazny and Robert Jordan, but there’s a bunch of others.
Lord Trebor of House Jordayne of the Tor and Archmaester Rigney who wrote that time is a wheel?
This thread is packed with them. Martin apparently got as bored while writing AFFC as most people got while reading it.
That thread is where I picked up the Jay and Silent Bob reference. I think my second favorite is the Doom that came to Valyria.
In Conan the Barbarian, Thulsa Doom kills Valeria.
The Ralph Bakshi early 80s animated feature, “Fire and Ice,” has some interesting voice actor names: Susan Tyrrell and Steve Sandor.
A warning about that thread, though: it’s full of that particular kind of internet stupid where someone forges the most tenuous link possible just to believe that Martin connected the book to something they like.
“The first letters of all the trueborn Stark kids’ names spell BARRS! Clearly this is Martin referring to Roseanne!”
Which makes the thread way longer and more annoying to sift through than it should be. Even worse are the posts believing the Drowned God to be primarily references to Children of Bodom or Metallica lyrics, when those lyrics are themselves references to the Cthulhu mythos.
Just read the “Red Wedding” chapter a few days ago…
my reaction: WTF??? Oh Bloody Hell!!!
I feel that is one of the most tragic chapters in a book I have ever read. Definetely brought out raw emotion…
yeah, well…that chapter simply devestated me. I actually felt empty inside…
to me that is a testimony to Martin’s skill at writing, that he can bring out emotions like that.
Read that scene back in 2000 on a Sunday afternoon and remember wanting to throw the book across the room. Finished the chapter, set it down to walk away for hours, and then had to dive back in and finish it that night.
oh, these are awesome books. I hate to catch up, because I realize it will probably be years before the 6th book comes out.
Go ahead and catch up anyway. Then you can feel the pain the rest of us did between A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons, while GRRM blogged endlessly about football and the latest volume of Wild Cards.
He doesn’t really look like a football fan.
bluemax
1700
I honestly thought that chapter was so telegraphed as to not be shocking. Martin practically hits you over the head with the foreboding.
