Why the Citadel library looked the way it did

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.

Verin had her quarters above the library, in corridors used only by a few other Brown sisters. There was a dusty air to the halls there, as if the women who lived along them were too busy with other things to bother having the servants clean very often, and the passages took odd turns and twists, sometimes dipping or rising unexpectedly. The tapestries were few, their colorful weavings dulled, apparently cleaned as seldom as everything else here. Many of the lamps were unlit, plunging much of the hall into gloom. Egwene thought she had it to herself, except for a flash of white ahead, perhaps a novice or a servant scurrying about some task. Her shoes, clicking on bare black and white floor tiles, made echoes. It was not a comforting place for one thinking of the Black Ajah.

The maesters represent the Brown Sisters  

She found what Verin had told her to look for. A dark paneled door at the top of a rise, beside a dusty tapestry of a king on horseback receiving the surrender of another king. Verin had named the pair of them—men dead hundreds of years before Artur Hawkwing was born; Verin always seemed to know such things—but Egwene could not remember their names, or the long-vanished countries they had ruled. It was the only wall hanging she had seen that matched Verin’s description, though.

Minus the sound of her own footsteps, the hallway seemed even emptier than before, and more threatening. She rapped on the door, and entered hurriedly on the heels of an absentminded “Who is it? Come in.”

One step into the room, she stopped and stared. Shelves lined the walls, except for one door that must lead to inner rooms and except for where maps hung, often in layers, and what seemed to be charts of the night sky. She recognized the names of some constellations—the Plowman and the Haywain, the Archer and the Five Sisters—but others were unfamiliar. Books and papers and scrolls covered nearly every flat surface, with all sorts of odd things interspersed among the piles, and sometimes on top of them. Strange shapes of glass or metal, spheres and tubes interlinked, and circles held inside circles, stood among bones and skulls of every shape and description. What appeared to be a stuffed brown owl, not much bigger than Egwene’s hand, stood on what seemed to be a bleached white lizard’s skull, but could not be, for the skull was longer than her arm and had crooked teeth as big as her fingers. Candlesticks had been stuck about in a haphazard fashion, giving good light here and shadows there, although seeming in danger of setting fire to papers in some places. The owl blinked at her, and she jumped.

Sam stops and stares

Shelves lined the walls

Charts of the night sky

Books and papers and scrolls covered nearly every flat surface

Strange shapes of glass or metal, spheres and tubes interlinked, and circles held inside circles

This guy is the representation of the stuffed brown owl

“Ah, yes,” Verin said. She was seated behind a table as cluttered as everything else in the room, a torn page held carefully in her hands. “It is you. Yes.” She noticed Egwene’s sideways glance at the owl, and said absently, “He keeps down mice. They chew paper.” Her gesture took in the entire room, and reminded her of the page she held. “Fascinating, this. Rosel of Essam claimed more than a hundred pages survived the Breaking, and she should have known, since she wrote barely two hundred years afterwards, but only this one piece still exists, so far as I know. Perhaps only this very copy. Rosel wrote that it held secrets the world could not face, and she would not speak of them plainly. I have read this page a thousand times, trying to decipher what she meant.”

The tiny owl blinked at Egwene again. She tried not to look at it. “What does it say, Verin Sedai?”

Verin blinked, very much as the owl had. “What does it say? It is a direct translation, mind, and reads almost like a bard reciting in High Chant. Listen. ‘Heart of the Dark. Ba’alzamon. Name hidden within name shrouded by name. Secret buried within secret cloaked by secret. Betrayer of Hope. Ishamael betrays all hope. Truth burns and sears. Hope fails before truth. A lie is our shield. Who can stand against the Heart of the Dark? Who can face the Betrayer of Hope? Soul of shadow, Soul of the Shadow, he is—’ ” She stopped with a sigh. “It ends there. What do you make of it?”

“I don’t know,” Egwene said. “I do not like it.”

“Well, why should you, child? Like it, or understand it? I have studied it nearly forty years, and I do neither.” Verin carefully placed the page inside a silk-lined folder of stiff leather, then casually stuffed the folder into a stack of papers. “But you did not come for that.” She rummaged across the table, muttering to herself, several times barely catching a pile of books or manuscripts before it toppled. Finally she came up with a handful of pages covered in a thin, spidery hand and tied with nubby string. “Here, child. Everything that is known about Liandrin and the women who went with her. Names, ages, Ajahs, where they were born. Everything I could find in the records.

Name hidden within name shrouded by name. Secret buried within secret cloaked by secret. Betrayer of Hope.  I think this is going to represent Daenerys.  Click here to see what anagram makes up Daenerys name and why I think she will become the “Betrayer of Hope”. Ba’alzamon, Ishamael & Moridin are all names used by the same Forsaken. Click here to see what I believe "Secret buried within secret cloaked by secret" represents.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

What if there exists a secret society of maesters within the Citadel

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.  What if there exists within the Citadel itself a secret society of maesters that none of the other maesters know about or will openly acknowledge.  I say they do exist and every maester unknowingly undertakes the initiation ritual but only a few are selected.  So that just leaves the ritual and how they are recruited for the cause.

“What are these glass candles?” asked Roone.

Armen the Acolyte cleared his throat. “The night before an acolyte says his vows, he must stand a vigil in the vault. No lantern is permitted him, no torch, no lamp, no taper . . . only a candle of obsidian. He must spend the night in darkness, unless he can light that candle. Some will try. The foolish and the stubborn, those who have made a study of these so-called higher mysteries. Often they cut their fingers, for the ridges on the candles are said to be as sharp as razors. Then, with bloody hands, they must wait upon the dawn, brooding on their failure. Wiser men simply go to sleep, or spend their night in prayer, but every year there are always a few who must try.”

If you can light a glass candle then you are approached and recruited to be a member of their society.  You then spend your time in pursuits of the higher mysteries.  The maesters, not in the secret society, were the ones who rid the world of dragons but in the process severed some ties to a source of the power and/or abilities of the secret society.  Three within the books leap to mind Marwyn, Qyburn and possibly Aemon.  I would also consider people like Melisandre, Thoros of Myr, Benerro, Moqorro, Ezzelyno and  Quaithe members of a similar type society although not directly connected to the Citadel.

“Alleras stepped up next to Sam. “Aemon would have gone to her if he had the strength. He wanted us to send a maester to her, to counsel her and protect her and fetch her safely home.”

“Did he?” Archmaester Marwyn shrugged. “Perhaps it’s good that he died before he got to Oldtown. Elsewise the grey sheep might have had to kill him, and that would have made the poor old dears wring their wrinkled hands.”

“Kill him?” Sam said, shocked. “Why?”

“If I tell you, they may need to kill you too.”

Marywn smiled a ghastly smile, the juice of the sourleaf running red between his teeth. “Who do you think killed all the dragons the last time around? Gallant dragonslayers armed with swords?” He spat. “The world the Citadel is building has no place in it for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles, much less for dragons. Ask yourself why Aemon Targaryen was allowed to waste his life upon the Wall, when by rights he should have been raised to archmaester. His blood was why. He could not be trusted. No more than I can.”

The tie to the Wheel of Time is simple.  Just click the link and read up on the Black Ajah.  Like all major themes I don’t think the secret society within the Citadel is hell bent on the destruction of the world like the Black Ajah.  That is the 180-degree difference that I speak of when it comes to the two books.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

The shattering of the Arm of Dorne and the Doom of Valyria could pale in comparison

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.  There is an event from the Wheel of Time (TWOT) that I have always thought would have to be used somehow as it was pivotal.  With the advancing White Walkers and wights something on those lines will have to be incorporated somehow.  I have always believed that there was a device within ASOIAF that was similar to the Bowl of the Winds in TWOT.  The Bowl is a ter’angreal which allows its users to control the weather.  This to me could account for the long summers and winters that are experienced that aren’t tied to their planet’s revolution around its sun.  The picture of the Bowl of the Winds reminded me immediately of something shown in the TV show located in the Land of Always Winter.  Think of it a device that could control nature itself.  It would provide a better insight as to how the Arm of Dorne was shattered and how the Doom of Valyria was able to destroy everything to the extent that it did where even dragons couldn’t escape.  What if Sam discovers a way to utilize said device and do something on the lines of what was done in TWOT to give our heroes enough time to escape and plan their next phase of attack against the advancing enemy.  It could be the way they utterly destroy the enemy.  As my theory has developed over the years I would say such a device would most like reside on the Isle of Faces.  Click here to see the blog I wrote concerning the item that I theorize could exist.  The rest is the blog is the story of the pivotal event from TWOT:

The Bowl of the Winds

This reminded me of the Bowl of the Winds from TWOT

Someone rode up beside her on a large black horse, emerging as if from smoke. The man was tall and well-built and had darks curls of hair down to his shoulders. Logain looked thinner than she remembered from last time she’d seen him, his cheeks sunken, but his face was still handsome.

“Logain?” she said, shocked.

The Asha’man gestured sharply. Explosions sounded all across the battlefield. Elayne turned to see over a hundred men in black coats marching through a large gateway on top of her hill.

“Pull those Ogier back,” Logain said. His ragged voice was raw. Those eyes of his seemed darker now than they once had been. “We will hold this position.”

Elayne blinked, then nodded for Arganda to pass the command. Logain shouldn’t give orders to me, she thought absently. For the moment, she let it pass.

Logain turned his horse and rode to the side of the hilltop, looking down at her army. Elayne followed, feeling numb. Trollocs fell as Asha’man called up strange attacks, gateways that seemed tied to the ground somehow. They stormed forward, killing the Shadowspawn.

Logain grunted. “You’re in bad shape.”

She forced her mind to work. The Asha’man were here. “Did Rand send you?”

“We sent ourselves,” Logain said. “The Shadow has been planning this trap for a long time, according to notes in Taim’s study. I only just managed to decipher them.” He looked at her. “We came to you first. The Black Tower stands with the Lion of Andor.”

“We need to get my people out of here,” Elayne said, forcing her mind to think through the cloud of fatigue. Her army needed a queen. “Mother’s milk in a cup! This is going to cost us.” She’d probably lose half her force withdrawing. Better half than all of them. “I’ll start bringing my men back in ranks. Can you make enough gateways to lead us to safety?”

“That wouldn’t be a problem,” Logain said absently, looking down the slope. His impassive face would have impressed any Warder. “But it will be a slaughter. There’s no room for a good retreat, and your lines will grow weaker and weaker as you pull back. The last ranks will be overwhelmed and consumed.”

“I don’t see that we have any other choice,” Elayne snapped, exhausted. Light! Here, help had come, and she was snapping. Stop it. She composed herself, sitting up straighter. “I mean to say that your arrival, while appreciated greatly, cannot turn a battle that is this far gone. A hundred Asha’man cannot stop a hundred thousand Trollocs on their own. If we could arrange our battle lines better, get at least a short rest for my men … but no. That is impossible. We must retreat—unless you can produce a miracle, Lord Logain.”

He smiled, perhaps at her use of “lord” for him. “Androl!” he barked.

A middle-aged Asha’man hurried over, a plump Aes Sedai joining him. Pevara? Elayne thought, too exhausted to make sense of it. A Red?

“My Lord?” the man, Androl, asked.

“I need to slow that army of Trollocs long enough for the army to regroup and refield itself, Androl,” Logain said. “How much will it cost us for a miracle?”

“Well, my Lord,” Androl said, rubbing his chin. “That depends. How many of those women sitting back there can channel?”

*   *   *

It was a thing of legends.

Elayne had heard of the great works performed by large circles of men and women. Every woman in the White Tower was taught of these feats from the past, stories of different days, better days. Days when one half of the One Power had not been a thing to fear, when two halves of one whole had worked together to create incredible wonders.

She wasn’t sure the days of legend had truly returned. Certainly, the Aes Sedai during those times hadn’t been so worried, so desperate. But what they did now left Elayne in awe.

She joined in the circle, making the total fourteen women and twelve men. She barely had any strength to lend, but her trickle added to the increasingly large stream. More importantly, a circle had to have at least one more woman than it had men—and now that she had joined, Logain could come in last of all and add his considerable strength to the flow.

At the head of this circle was Androl, an odd choice. Now that she was part of the circle, she could feel his relative strength. He was extremely weak, weaker than many women who were turned away from the Tower, refused the shawl because of their lack of innate talent.

Elayne and the others had relocated to the far side of the battlefield. The rest of the Asha’man held back the attacking Trolloc horde as Androl prepared. Whatever he did, it would need to be swift. Elayne still had trouble believing anything could be done. Even with this much power, even with thirteen men and fourteen women working together.

“Light,” Androl whispered, standing between her horse and Logain’s. “Is this what it feels like to be one of you people? How do you handle so much of the One Power? How do you keep it from consuming you alive, burning you away?”

Pevara rested her hand on his shoulder in a gesture that was unmistakably tender. Elayne could barely rub two thoughts together amid her fatigue, but she still found herself shocked. She had not expected affection from a Red for a man who could channel.

“Move the soldiers back,” Androl said softly.

Elayne gave the order, worried. The man beside her had never held this kind of power before. It could go to someone’s head; she had seen it happen. Light send that he knew what he was doing.

The soldiers and others retreated, passing by Elayne’s group. Several tired Ogier nodded to her in passing, their shoulders slumped, their arms scored with cuts. The Trollocs poured forward, but the Asha’man who weren’t in the circle disrupted their attack with weaves of the One Power.

It wasn’t enough. Though the Asha’man fought well, there were just so many Trollocs. The Asha’man could not stop this tide. What did Logain think could be done?

Androl smiled widely, and held his hands out in front of himself as if pressing against a wall. He closed his eyes. “Three thousand years ago the Lord Dragon created Dragonmount to hide his shame. His rage still burns hot. Today … I bring it to you, Your Majesty.”

A beam of light split the air, easily a hundred feet tall. Moonshadow shied back and Elayne frowned. Why a column of light? What good would that … The beam of light began to twist in the air, rotating upon itself. Only then did Elayne recognize it for the start of a gateway. An enormous gateway, large enough to swallow buildings. She could have moved an entire wing of the Caemlyn palace through that thing!

The air shimmered in front of them, the way a gateway always looked from behind. She couldn’t see where the gateway was leading. Did they have an army waiting on the other side?

She could see the expressions on the slavering Trolloc faces as they looked into the opening. Absolute horror. They broke away, running, and Elayne felt a sudden heat, almost overpowering.

Something exploded out of the gateway, as if pushed by an incredible force. A column of lava a hundred feet in diameter, blazing hot. The column broke apart as the lava crashed down, splashing to the battlefield, gushing forward in a river. The Asha’man outside the circle used weaves of Air to keep it from splashing back on the circle and to shepherd it in the right direction.

The river of fire washed through the foremost Trolloc ranks, consuming them, destroying hundreds in an eyeblink. The lava was under pressure on the other side; that was the only way she could explain the force with which it sprayed from the enormous gateway, turning Trollocs into cinders, burning a large swath through their army.

Androl held the gateway for long minutes as the Shadow’s army pulled back. Asha’man to the sides used gusts of wind to blow the Shadowspawn back into the ever-widening river. By the time Androl finished, he had created a barrier of red-hot death between Elayne’s army and the bulk of the Trollocs, whose backs were against the northern walls of Cairhien.

Androl took a breath, closed the gateway, then pivoted and made two others in quick succession, one pointing southeast, the other southwest.

A second and third column of lava spurted forth—smaller this time, as Androl was obviously weakened. These went tumbling over the land to the east and west of Cairhien, singeing away dead weeds and casting smoke into the air. Some of the Trolloc army had pulled back, but many others had perished, boxed in, with the walled city on one side and lava on others. It would be some time before the Fades could organize the survivors to resume their attacks on Elayne’s forces.

Androl let the gateway close. He slumped, but Pevara caught him.

“One miracle, my Lord,” Androl said, voice soft, as if strained. “Delivered as requested. That should hold them back for a few hours. Long enough?”

“Long enough,” Elayne said. “We will be able to regroup, bring through supplies for the dragons, and fetch as many Aes Sedai from Mayene as we can get to Heal our men and wash away their fatigue. Then we can sort through who is strong enough to continue and reposition our ranks for a much more effective battle.”

“You intend to keep fighting?” Androl asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Elayne said. “I can barely stand, but yes. We cannot afford to leave that Trolloc horde here intact. You and your men give us an edge, Logain. We will use it, and everything we have, and we will destroy them.”

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

Bran is the "wind" in more ways than one

Potential Spoilers Below

I keep telling everyone that similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.  Below is an interview that was conducted with Robert Jordan, the writer of the Wheel of Time, that perfectly sums up what I believe is going on with ASOIAF in terms of the type of circular time it is utilizing.  The red highlighted text is what I deem important to what I believe.

Laura Wilson:

Hi, This is Laura Wilson of Audio Renaissance, and I'm speaking with Robert Jordan. How did you decide to start writing the Wheel of Time series?

Robert Jordan:

I began writing the Wheel of Time because a great many notions had been bouncing around inside my head and they started to coalesce. I wondered what it was really like to be tapped on the shoulder and told you were born to be the savior of mankind. I didn't think it would be very much the way it is in so many books where someone pops up and says, "Hi, I was born to be the savior of mankind, and here's the prophecy," and everybody says, "Oh well, let's go then." I thought self interest would play a big part.

And, I was also wondering about the source of legends and myths. They can't all be anthropomorphizations of natural events. Some of them have to be distortions of things that actually happened, distortions by being passed down over generations. And that led into the distortion of information over distance, whether that's temporal distance or spatial distance. The further you are in time or space from the actual event, the less likely you are to know what really happened.

And then finally there was the thought about something that happens in Tolkien and a lot of other places. The wise old wizard shows up in a country village and says, "You must follow me to save the world." And the villagers say, "Right then, guv, off we go!" Well, I did a lot of growing up in the country, and I've always thought that what those country folk would say is, "Oh, is that so? Look here, have another beer. Have two, on me. I'll be right back. I will, really." And then slip out the back door.

There were a lot of things that came together, and even once I started, of course, a lot of things built in, and added in, and changed.

Laura Wilson:

What about this notion of time as a wheel? Is that your idea?

Robert Jordan:

No. It's not mine. It is from Hindu mythology that time is a wheel. But actually, most eastern cultures believed that time was circular. The Greeks gave us the great gift of believing that time was linear. And that's a great gift because if time is circular, if everything repeats in cycles, then change is impossible. No matter what you do, it's always going to come back to what is here. But if time is linear, then change is possible. But I wanted the circularity because I wanted, again, to go into the changes by distance. So, the myths and legends and a few of the stories that these people tell, well, some of them are based on our own current events, on the present. What they are doing is based on our myths and legends. So they are the source of our myths and legends, and we are the source of theirs.

Laura Wilson:

So what religions or mythological traditions are your stories based on?

Robert Jordan:

Different religions, different mythologies. I felt that because America is a melting pot, I had at least some right to mine the mythologies of any nation that is represented in the United States, and also religion. So there are elements that come out of religious books, and there are elements that come out of mythologies, as well. Not done in a mythological way. I try to present these things so that you feel you are in a place that is quite real, and this could actually happen

Laura Wilson:

Tell me a bit about the idea of the One Power.

Robert Jordan:

In these books there is the One Power, which comes from the True Source. And the One Power is what turns the Wheel of Time, the power that drives the universe. And the conceit is, is the One Power actually consists of two quite separate halves that work with each other and against one another to produce the driving force of the universe. Men can tap into one side, women can tap into the other. A man can't teach a woman how to use the male half, or how to use the female half for that matter, and she can't teach him.

Laura Wilson:

Are you an audiobooks listener? And if so, what sorts of books do you listen to?

Robert Jordan:

I'm afraid the audiobooks I listen to are my own. I don't read my own books, but when I get the new audio tape, I listen to it because I get a different view. It is different than reading it.

Laura Wilson:

So are you listening for a different interpretation of your work?

Robert Jordan:

It's not so much the different interpretation. I want to have that one-removed to see that I actually said what I think I said. You see, that's a problem that is very difficult for any writer. It's a problem that your editor helps you solve. You know what you intended to say. You know what you meant. And the fact that you perhaps didn't put it down clearly enough for someone who doesn't know what you meant to understand, that can be a problem. My wife Harriet is my editor, and she's very very good at being able to say, "You didn't convince me here." Or, "I don't understand what you mean here. You have to do better." Because that's the point where I know what I meant, and because I know what I meant, it read fine to me. But to someone who didn't know what I meant, it didn't read fine. Well, I can also spot some of that in listening to the audio. And because I can spot it in listening to the audio, I know that, ahh, I thought I had put a bit of foreshadowing for something of the future here, and it doesn't come across clearly, I must do something about that in the next book to make sure that I do have that foreshadowing.

Laura Wilson:

Well thank you very much for talking with me.

The first section speaking on the “distortion of information over distance” isn’t anything new but it is the cornerstone of what is happening with the ASOIAF series.  Who are the White Walkers?  What do they truly want?  Who is the R’hllor and the Great Other and why are they diametrically opposed to each other?  How could any of these events be obscured over time?  How could the Night’s Watch forget its prime directive and how did it morph into what it is now?  What happened to make people forget such world-shattering events?  My personal theory suggest that it was done with religion.  R’hllor to be exact.  I think the true enemy are the Children of the Forest (COTF).  I believe that they have the same ability as Bran and they used visions to push ideas to people who became their followers and basically brainwashed the population as to what truly happened.  You can click here to view my theory on that.

The second section is what I think will be revealed to be happening with the stories that have become the bedrock to the series (i.e. Lann the Clever, the Rat Cook, the Night King, Azor Ahai etc.)

Why are these stories repeating?  The quote: “So, the myths and legends and a few of the stories that these people tell, well, some of them are based on our own current events, on the present. What they are doing is based on our myths and legends. So, they are the source of our myths and legends, and we are the source of theirs” is key.  That is because that is exactly what seems to be happening but I see it happening just like that but only with a twist.  I don’t think the stories that we are told of the past actually took place at all.  I think Bran became so powerful that he was able to physically transport himself back to the past.  Think of it, Bran see’s everything taking place in his own time and he gets to a point where the Night King or one of his lieutenants come upon him and are about to kill him and he does something new and finds himself out of harms way but not in the current time either.  Click here and here to see the stories that were shown in the TV show that represent stories that have been passed down through the centuries.  The biggest unsolved mystery is how did Azor Ahai actually defeated the Others in the first place.  There isn’t much given on that point and I think the reason is obvious.  Bran had to go back before whatever took place happened.  So, the story over time has been passed down with “fill in the blank” because the “how of it” wasn’t known to him.  Perhaps the most famous story of the defeat of the Others is a half truth as it were.  I liken it to the unsaid truth that Ned Stark let people believe on how Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, was defeated.

The books kind of tell us that Bran somehow finds himself in the past when the following story is told:

“Five more castles he built, each larger and stronger than the last, only to see them smashed asunder when the gale winds came howling up Shipbreaker Bay, driving great walls of water before them. His lords pleaded with him to build inland; his priests told him he must placate the gods by giving Elenei back to the sea; even his smallfolk begged him to relent. Durran would have none of it. A seventh castle he raised, most massive of all. Some said the children of the forest helped him build it, shaping the stones with magic; others claimed that a small boy told him what he must do, a boy who would grow to be Bran the Builder. No matter how the tale was told, the end was the same. Though the angry gods threw storm after storm against it, the seventh castle stood defiant, and Durran Godsgrief and fair Elenei dwelt there together until the end of their days.”

HBO showed us a picture of Bran the Builder when they released the Season 1 DVD and showed him directing the building of the Wall.  He was being carried around and shown pointing out to others what he wanted them to do.  Why would someone building the Wall have others carry him around when those men could have been used in the task of building said Wall?  I say he couldn’t walk because he was indeed our Bran Stark.

If you have followed me so far, I think the rest is pretty easy to digest.  He completes the Wall and passes down his stories as tales that had already happened.  Why did he do this?  He wanted to ensure that when the time actually came men wouldn’t be caught totally off guard.  He knew how the stories excited him as a boy and knew they wouldn’t be forgotten.  He also did it to counter the COTF and the god they represent R’hllor.  Below is what Melisandre said within the books:

“The way the world is made. The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good.” She took a step toward him. “Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war.”

“The war?” asked Davos.

“The war,” she affirmed. “There are two, Onion Knight. Not seven, not one, not a hundred or a thousand. Two! Do you think I crossed half the world to put yet another vain king on yet another empty throne? The war has been waged since time began, and before it is done, all men must choose where they will stand. On one side is R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. Against him stands the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror. Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light.” She clasped the bars of his cell with her slender white hands. The great ruby at her throat seemed to pulse with its own radiance. “So tell me, Ser Davos Seaworth, and tell me truly—does your heart burn with the shining light of R’hllor? Or is it black and cold and full of worms?” She reached through the bars and laid three fingers upon his breast, as if to feel the truth of him through flesh and wool and leather.”

“A face took shape within the hearth. Stannis? she thought, for just a moment … but no, these were not his features. A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf’s face threw back his head and howled.”

In the first excerpt Melisandre tells us of her god R’hllor and his enemy the Great Other.  She sees Bloodraven with Bran in the second excerpt and thinks that they are the enemy because R’hllor (aka COTF in my opinion) let her think that to be the case.  So, what does it actually mean?  When Bran goes back, he isn’t exactly changing the future because it will all play out the way it already did.  He is the one that caused the events to be the way they are all along.  Hodor doesn’t get PTSD, from seeing his own death, after Bran is born; because Bran will go back to do it he is that way regardless; essentially the effect coming before the cause.  Hodor becomes Hodor, Jojen and Meera come to Winterfell to escort Bran to the 3EC, Jon Snow finds the Horn of Winter all because Bran nudged things here and there because that is what he always did it.  You ever had anything happen that you couldn’t quite explain that caused you to turn left or right or do this or that?  Well that is what Bran is doing only he is doing it on a scale that covers the world.  But sadly the day comes when he has to catch up to where he jumped away to begin with and nothing that he did stopped the threat from advancing.  Well he has one thing that nobody else does and that is the benefit of seeing it all and his greatest ability.  He knows and has seen everything from the time he jumped back to the beginning.  And in all that time I think he finally came up with a plan.  Click here to see that plan per my theory. 

 Another thing that is said that I believe is key in the Wheel of Time, that is utilized in ASOIAF, is what most people say about Aes Sedai:

“You see, lad, Aes Sedai are tricksome. They don’t lie, not right out, but the truth an Aes Sedai tells you is not always the truth you think it is.”

I think that plays out in the form of prophecies in ASOIAF.  Bran in this case being the Aes Sedai.  He doesn’t lie but the truth that he tells you is not always the truth you think it is.  Case in point Jojen’s green dreams or any other prophecies for that matter: 

“Tell me the bad thing you dreamed,” Bran said. “The bad thing that is coming to Winterfell.”

“Does my lord prince believe me now? Will he trust my words, no matter how queer they sound in his ears?”

“Bran nodded.

“It is the sea that comes.”

“The sea?”

“I dreamed that the sea was lapping all around Winterfell. I saw black waves crashing against the gates and towers, and then the salt water came flowing over the walls and filled the castle. Drowned men were floating in the yard. When I first dreamed the dream, back at Greywater, I didn’t know their faces, but now I do. That Alebelly is one, the guard who called our names at the feast. Your septon’s another. Your smith as well.”

“Mikken?” Bran was as confused as he was dismayed. “But the sea is hundreds and hundreds of leagues away, and Winterfell’s walls are so high the water couldn’t get in even if it did come.”

“In the dark of night the salt sea will flow over these walls,” said Jojen. “I saw the dead, bloated and drowned.”

“We have to tell them,” Bran said. “Alebelly and Mikken, and Septon Chayle. Tell them not to drown.”

“It will not save them,” replied the boy in green.

Meera came to the window seat and put a hand on his shoulder. “They will not believe, Bran. No more than you did.”

“Jojen sat on Bran’s bed. “Tell me what you dream.”

Theon and the ironborn that followed him were the sea that came over the Winterfell walls to capture it.  I know why it had to be shrouded in mystery and wrapped in an enigma.  Had he known and said straight out what was going to happen; things would have played out totally differently.  Maybe vague dream and imagery to those with “greensight” is the only way it can be interpreted by those who hear the “whispers” aka the wind.  I really think that this is just the reimagining of how characters within TWOT see Aes Sedai and the truth they speak playing out in ASOIAF.  The prophecies all seem to come true but had you known what they meant in the first place you could have averted the danger to begin with.

Below is the mantra for TWOT series:   

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose…. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was a beginning.”

This is exactly what I see happening within ASOIAF and you guessed it Bran himself is the wind. 

Is is sacrilege to pray to yourself

At this point in the story does Bran know that he is looking at himself?

Dany within the TV show has said that she is going to “break the wheel”.  Is it possible?  Can she do what no character within TWOT could do and break the restraints of circular time?  Within TWOT universe it is said that no one inside of the Pattern can destroy the Wheel.  I personally think that Dany is going to go dark and maybe on the lines with the Dark One.  With that being said the Dark One exists outside of the Wheel.  Click here to see my theory on Dany.

Well again that's my two cents, what do you think?  The source of the interview with Robert Jordan can be found here I show you this as a lot of people for some reason think I am making this stuff up.  I am not.  I am only trying to show you what I see and you can draw your own conclusions. 

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.