Look: I am eager to learn stuff I don't know--which requires actively courting and posting smart disagreement.

But as you will understand, I don't like to post things that mischaracterize and are aimed to mislead.

-- Brad Delong

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Everything that appears on this blog is the copyrighted property of somebody. Often, but not always, that somebody is me. For things that are not mine, I either have obtained permission, or claim fair use. Feel free to quote me, but attribute, please. My photos and poetry are dear to my heart, and may not be used without permission. Ditto, my other intellectual property, such as charts and graphs. I'm probably willing to share. Let's talk. Violators will be damned for all eternity to the circle of hell populated by Rosanne Barr, Mrs Miller [look her up], and trombonists who are unable play in tune. You cannot possibly imagine the agony. If you have a question, email me: jazzbumpa@gmail.com. I'll answer when I feel like it. Cheers!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Undead in A Song of Ice and Fire

I count five distinct varieties up to now, not all of whom have made it into the TV series..

Ice zombies - Wights, malevolent reanimated corpses, controlled by The Others.

Fire zombies - Beric Dondarrion, Lady Stone Heart, possibly Melisandre - Reanimated people who retain some or most of their human characteristics, depending on how many times they've been reanimated, and their physical condition as it is performed.   This is accomplished by certain followers of the Red God, R'hllor, by means of its power.   UPDATE -  As this reddit comment points out, Beric and LSH are probably resurrected, rather than merely reanimated.  Clearly, they are quite different from the other types listed here.

Cthulhu zombie - Patchface, whose coded predictions of the future come eerily true.

Bloodraven zombie - Coldhands an apparently intelligent and benign character who is vital in Bran's journey to meet the Three-Eyed-Crow.

Frankenzombie -  Gregor Clegane, aka The Mountain, reanimated as Robert Strong by Qyburn.

Further, it's close to certain that Jon Snow - unless he somehow survived the attack by his murderous Night Watch brothers* - will be brought back, possibly by Melisandre, though perhaps by some other agent.  Bloodraven is a possibility, but I think Val, the Wilding Princess, whose grey eyes mysteriously turned blue, might have a part to play as well.

Did I miss any?

* Which seems to be a lot more definitively fatal in the series than in the book.


Thursday, February 25, 2016

Alas, Little Walder - Long Live the Cup Bearer


It seems to be pretty much taken for granted that this is the case, since BW is blood spattered, and Ser Hosteen Frey, who carried the boy's body into the great hall is not. The body was frozen when he recovered it. There's a lot of speculation as to BW's motives. But he is only a 9 year old kid. Not that murder by a pre-teen is unprecedented in Westeros - we have Arya in the first book as an example; but the Walders are first cousins, and even Freys, including one as obviously smart and ambitious as BW, wouldn't take kin slaying lightly.

LW's blood had frozen and he was discovered half buried in a snow bank, under the ruined keep with the old gargoyls. I'm not quite 100% certain that this is near the entrance to the crypts, but I strongly suspect that it is.

Which suggests an alternate theory, at least as a possibility.