Random lore note: Old Nan strongly implies that the Nights Kings name was Brandon. And the Nights King was said to be brought down by Joramun, and the Stark of Winterfell who was the brother of the Nights King. However, seperately, we are told that the name of the Lord in Winterfell who teamed up with Joramun to take down the Nights King was called 'Brandon the Breaker', so we have two brothers apparently called Brandon, which seems wrong.
Yeah I think there’s a lot wrong with the myth to be honest, I think a lot of details were changed in universe to avoid certain details or secrets being found out or protecting reputations or something like that
@@eldric.stoneskin I think its one of two things; George intentially named them both Brandon to imply they are the same person. Or, George forgot and accidentally named them both Brnadon.
Unless one was a bastard. Its funny you brought this up cuz i have a theory Jon's real name is actually Brandon too so he and Bran can mimic the Night's King story perfectly.
@@nikharagrawal5808 But wait, theres more! A pet theory of mine is that "Joramun" from the Night's King story is actually the first Dayne. We know the Dayne's have been around at least 10,000 years but we have no timeline for their origin nor any legends from the time of the Long Night. I think Joramun took the Night King's sword (Original Ice) and took it south to Starfall for safekeeping. Guarding that sword seems to be the entire reason for the Dayne family's existance. I also believe Mance Rayder is actually Arthur Dayne so hes meant to mimic Joramun's story.
I think the emphasis on Lightning Bolts is very logical and there is lightning (or lighting on tree) symbolism alot. I also think that lightning is often synonymous with meteors / comets, and that sometimes the lightning symbolism highlighted is actually meteoric. The Hammer of Waters smashing a continent and causing floods for instance only makes sense as a meteor impact, not lightning. This relates to David Lightbringers idea that a moon meteor impact was the cause of the Long Night by throwing up dust clouds (this is a real thing). However, Lightning must be part of it, as I love your idea that the ultiamte Green Sea magic is calling down Lightning, to reanimate bodies (stone zombie) - this is VERY George, because its very sci-fi - electric can restart hearts, and its like a big frankenstein reference.
I keep feeling that you have amazed me as much as you could with this theory, but it just keep having so much new, important content! Bran's greenseeing being surrounded by lightning symbols! And Bran himself!
You may have already noted this but here's something more: Joramun was the wildling king who teamed up with Brandon the Breaker to take down the Nights King. He blew the Horn of Winter to 'wake giants from the earth'. Get this: Mance claims to have found Joramuns horn in Joramuns grave beneath a glacier high up in the Forstfangs. However, Tormund says they found the horn in the grave of a giant. I didnt catch this when I read it, but the implication is that Joramun was a giant. Additionally, Joramuns grave being 'beneath a glacier' also gives us the Lucifer-trapped-in-frozen-lake symbolism!! Also, the fact that it was in the Frostfangs, gives us 'Mouth of Giant Being' symbolism again. How does Joramund being a giant change things? and How did he get a horn with glowing glyphs on all that time ago, and from the North Wall culutre?
I hadn’t thought of that, it makes sense, I think the horn of winter being associated with giants graves helps the case that the horn of winter wakes giants from their grave
I think all the early legendary characters in this story were magical giants and meant to mimic pre-flood Nephilim from The Bible. They were the first generation children of Garth Greenhand who was like the ASOIAF fallen angel that mated with human women to create said Nephilim. Theyre also described as giants and "men of reknown" which immediately makes me think of "Age of Heroes". A legendary time with a bunch of giant demigods running wild and causing chaos.
@@williamhermann6635 Your definately onto something. People being giant before the apocalypse, and the only survivors being/ becoming shorter is like that biblical flood narrative. Garth being a fallen angel in some way.. Well the Watchers (the angels) were said to have taught their human wives herblore, like how Garth taught people gardening. However, Garth never seemed to come from a different culture or people than the westeorsi. He seems very native westeoris, in him being interlinked with the land, and weirwood trees. Other fans speculate that he was a weirwood tree, or a weirwood person, which further cements him as rooted in westeros. I think the 'fallen angel' thing may work better with the GeoD people, being more advanced and mixing with the native westerosi giants creating a half-giant race with the best of both qualities. However, the angel/human interbeeding and creation of hybrids was a great sin that caused the apocalypse. I think the sinful hybridisation that caused the apocalypse was a human and a CotF (AA and NN).
The toys symbolism is great. I think this is all a reference to the fact that George loves miniature figures. When he sets them up for a battle, he must feel like a child god, sending out powerful warriors to battle. Look at his house tour and you’ll see he has all these figures set up. I think including that footage would strengthen your points
That’s a great point! I hadn’t thought of that, I do remember seeing all his figurines in his interview with History of Westeros! I’m going to try and make this into a shorter one off video and might use that! Great job! Yeah the toy symbolism is very prevalent through the texts and really blew me away and I don’t think I’ve found all of it yet, I think George might be using puppets in the same line of symbolism to suggest one person controlling another being, now I think about it there might have even been a puppet show in the mountain vs the viper chapter?
@@eldric.stoneskin Yeah I think Georges personal interests can be used to explain most magic in the series. Preston Jacobs talked about how in many of Georges works, there is a reclusive all-powerful telepath controlling events. This has been portrayed often as geeky figures, such as the turtle guy who lived in his car (another of georges stories), a time traveling chess master, and in asoiaf its Bloodraven / Bran. This represents George, being a reclusive geek but using the power of the mind to create and control worlds. His personal symbol is the turtle, because as a kid he got a pet turtles that he would watch fight, which he likened to wars and medieval kings (sand kings). Finally, he has likened skinchanging to reading 'a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies'. So, this theme of Georges personal interests being fundamental to how magic works and is portrayed is perhaps the ultimate code here. Bran taking telepathic control of the stone armeis and sending them out, essentially turns Westeros into a table-top game played by a child, a war game of miniatures - Georges hobby become real.
I hadn't considered Bran being a Lightbringer symbolism thing before. Fascinating. And i see what you are getting at there. And i had never connected Lightning and Hammer of the Waters. It seems so obvious once you pointed it out. I loved this series. I look forward to seeing more in your next series.
I think what we need is for you to put together a version of the timeline because its very confusing. Azor Ahai / Eldric Shadowchaser is presumably the first key figure. He presumably began the long night - so then we would have the Nights King, Brandon the Breaker and Joramun, who all have to be the next generation, so if Eldric Shadowchaser is a Stark, then Brandon the Breaker and the Nights King must be his sons, right? And could the story of Bael the Bard be linked next? A Wildling man 'stealing' a Stark girl, is the Nights King story in reverse. In this context, Bael would have gone to the bother of crossing the wall and walking to Winterfell to get the Stark Maiden as revenge for the previous generation when a Stark 'kidnapped' a wildling woman (the Corpse Queen). The Stark line was said to be at extinction in the Bael the Bard story, which fits with the idea that this is 1 generation after the Long Night, when populations would be low. The fact that Bael's bastard son became the next Lord Stark also implies that the Stark Maiden didnt get married and have any trueborn children at all in her life. Bastards inheriting is unfavourable, so it almost seems to imply that there simply werent any matches for her, alluding to the low populations post LN. Finally, Bael and the Stark Maiden apparently had hidden in the crypts for over 9 months where the Maiden had her baby. Of course, this couldnt be true as there would be no food, water, or light. The implication is that there is a hidden passage leading somewhere else. Bael seems to have known about the secret of the crypts (whether its a passage, or the stonemen or what), even though he had never been to Winterfell before. If Bael was 1 generation later than the Long Night generation, and he's related to Joramun (probably his son, as they are both King-Beyond-The-Wall), then that does make sense that Bael woudl already know the secrets of the crypts.
To be honest it is very confusing and George has made it that way on purpose, I’m still trying to figure it all out, I think that all of these myths are probably different people, but are meant to inform us of the actions of one person, or are different cultures memories of this one person, I’m hoping to figure the timeline of events out after the next series now that I’m looking into the weirwood woman line of symbolism, that should tell me more Does the Bael the bard myth actually say they were there for 9 months? That’s more 9 symbolism around the crypts! I need to reread that soon, that’s another example of a myth that was a real person but I think informs us of the Azor Ahai/weirwood woman relationship
@@eldric.stoneskin Yes, it is said that Bael and the Stark Maiden dissapeared. Then, (time unspecified) the Stark Maid reappears in her room with a newborn baby, apparently having hid in the crypts all this time. So that has to be the 9 month pregnancy. That Stark Maid from the Bael story is rarely mentioned in theory, but I'm sure she ties into this Weirwood Maiden thing, with her being synonymous with a flower (the blue winter rose), lived in the crypt, and having a baby in the crypt seems very .. idk.. magic woman issuing forms of life from within a realm of death sort-of-thing. Her son later killed his father, so I feel like that's relevant.
Azor Ahai and Eldric Shadowchaser are named in conjunction with 3 others (Hyrkoon The Hero, Neferion, and Yin Tar) as to who the true hero of the Long Night could be which leads me to believe Azor Ahai and Eldric Shadowchaser are not the same guy. House Dayne has used different forms of Eldric in the past (including Edric Dayne in the current story whos nickname is Ned after Ned Stark) so Dayne's very well could account for Eldric Shadowchaser. I believe the theory that Arthur Dayne is Mance Rayder. I also have a pet theory that the King Beyond The Wall named Joramun from the Night's King tale was the first Dayne and the character known in the east as Eldric Shadowchaser. Mance/Arthur could be the current version if Im right there. But I digress. I think the eastern hero myth mentioned before represents 5 different legendary characters and were supposed to puzzle out whos who. I already mentioned my pick for Eldric S. Chaser. I also think a Stark was Azor Ahai, an early Targaryen was Yin Tar, a Hightower was Neferion, and Lann The Clever was Hyrkoon The Hero.
@@williamhermann6635 Why would Joramun be the first Dayne? Where is the evidence that a willing king's descendants moved to Dorne, and used a legendary sword? If a Stark was Azor Ahai, then that ancient stark would have stabbed his wife to make Lightbringer. Wheres the evidence? Why would Lann The Clever be Hyrkoon the Hero? He isn't mentioned doing anything related to Long Nights or heroic deeds at all.
@@umwha Joramun is said to have helped Brandon the Breaker take down the Night's King. What if Dawn was the Night's King's sword and Joramun just claimed it after killing Nk? Think about it this way. What other tales of House Dayne around the time of the long night do we have beyond the forging of Dawn? Clearly they were around for the first long night. So what the hell were they doing and who were they? I think Joramun is as good of a guess as any. Dawn was forged from the heart of a fallen star(k)?
Not only does Bran mean fire sword but he also seems based on Bran the Blessed who was a giant and a king! More giant king ideas around Bran! Loved the video Eldric ❤❤❤
Another amazing video my man I'm super excited for ur future theories too but was wondering if u think it'll be bran controlling the dead Kings of winter or if the will they get their own spirits/souls back from the weirwoods and control themselves
Great question and something I nearly brought up! I’m thinking that after Bran drank the blood of that ancient sacrifice at the origin of the Winterfell heart he will have become the new three eyed crow, a collective consciousness of all the greenseers within the weirwood, like in the HBO show So maybe all the spirits of these kings are now inside Bran and they can return to their bodies? Maybe Bran can control multiple beings because he has multiple consciousnesses inside him? Maybe the three eyed crow is this original stark trying to get inside bran and return to his body beneath Winterfell? The name three eyed crow is suggestive of a greenseeing nights watch man which this original stark would have been? Interested to hear your thoughts?
I cannot believe you don't have more subscribers! You definitely earned this one. Fascinating theories and lore. Going through everything you've done the last couple days and can't wait to see what you do next! Top tier and well done! Will definitely be something to get me through the long night until the next season of HOTD or the next book comes out. Edited typo
I don't care how long it takes, I can't wait to see what your next theory has been. I am only just starting this video but I love the way you extrapolate so much from only the text. It is difficult to form your ideas in such a limited scope but you clearly have a deep talent for doing so. Much thanks for the wonderful content so far!
Really good series. Though I wonder about the practical logistics of moving a stone man army around. Dany's eggs - they got un-pretrified. So maybe that's how this is going to happen to the ancient Stark kings, but somehow I have a feeling that Bran is meant for something.. greater that just commanding a zombie army. On the other hand, the parallel to the Dead of Dunharrow is quite convincing.
Very interesting video! Thanks for this, learned a lot in a pretty short time. I’ve been binging Lucifer means lightbringers videos lately to get informed on asoiaf lore. Always stoked to stumble on a great channel in my suggested.
Great video! Great work researching your theory! I wonder what you think about the evidence from GRRM’s The Hedge Knight. One could argue that this is a tale of a small child (Egg) using a Strong giant (Dunk) to fight on his behalf. For that matter, what about Pod and Brienne or Arya and the Hound? In the Trial by Seven battle in The Hedge Knight, a horn blows and Dunk’s horse is named Thunder. Dunk “brings Thunder up” near the dragon prince and later says “Thunder! Up!” after Thunder crashes on the battlefield and once again says “Up!” when the dragon prince’s skull is ripped asunder by removing his helmet after battle. This coincides with Egg “hatching” into the new dragon prince. Does the fact that Thunder is brought “Up” here make the evidence work opposite how we usually see it in the books, since lightning is typically thought to strike downwards? Finally, Dunk melds with Thunder in some fashion as he charges into battle, thinking “I am Thunder and Thunder is me. We are one beast. We are joined. We are one.”
Further, GRRM once said that Dunk was never actually knighted. Dunk essentially knights himself when he is burying Arlan’s childlike body in a grave at the beginning of the story. Is this the prophecy in reverse, or inverse?
Wow thank you so much! It’s funny you mention it because I had some Dunk and Egg evidence I had to leave out due to length, your exactly right Dunk is a giant fighting on behalf of a child, just like Bran and Hodor, with connection going further knowing Hodor is possibly a descendant of Dunks as well, who are both giant strongly associated with lightning And if we think these giant men symbolically represent the stone kings beneath Winterfell, it’s interesting that Dunk is constantly being called “thick as a castle wall” symbolically making him a giant stone man compared to a castle, in the same way we see the castle of Winterfell referred to as a giant stone man But the “thunder coming up” is interesting, as I think the thunder is the hammer of the waters, with brought giants up from beneath the earth The name Dunk also implies him as drowned, referring this character having gone into the Greensea of the Weirwoods The child controlling a giant line of symbolism is really interesting and I’ve only just started fully investigating it but in addition to dunk and egg we also find this same thing with Doran Martel and Areo Hotah, with Doran being unable to walk like Bran and having a giant as a personal guard like Hodor, in fact even their names sound similar with Bran/Doran & Hodor/Hotah There might be more examples of this child/giant relationship in the series, it’s really a new line of investigation for me at this stage but there’s a lot there Really appreciate the support!
1:09:24 love the idea that the last hero and Night king are the same. So he ventured north of the wall, because he saw a vision of the white woman. He then went to the children, with whom the white woman was staying. They fell in love, and learned magic from the children. He then returned with her and lived on the wall. She was presumably a wildling woman. This is like rhaegar and Lyanna - where everyone thinks the woman was kidnapped but she actually went willingly, and it was part of a prophecy. Both the man’s and woman’s people then warred and the man is killed by his relative- just like how Rhaegar was killed by Robert his cousin once/twice removed. The wildling Joramun would therefore probably be the husband of the White Woman. They killed and turned to stone their followers to fight the others. But some humans thought this was like siding with the Others so they turned against them. What I don’t understand though is if the Night king story happened during the long night or what.
Yeah I think the Rhaegar/Lyanna is the perfect parallel, a firey person stealing an icey woman and starting a war, that’s going to be the jumping off point for my next series As Lyanna is shown as a blue rose and a crying stone woman in the crypts, and if we follow all the crying stone women in the series they all contain “Ly” or “Lys” in their name, “Catelyn”, “Alyssa Arryn”, “weeping lady of Lys”, “Alayne Stone” Which is interesting as Lys in French means “Flower”, and all of these stone flower associated women I’ve mentioned have also had their family killed around them, leaving them crying… So maybe the nights queen had all her family killed by the nights king when she was stolen? interested to hear your thoughts on this?
@@eldric.stoneskin I think the Nights Queen wasnt stolen - I think all 'stolen' women were actually eloping - like Lyanna. Any thoughts on the timeline of the Night King? Hes 13 lord commander of the NW, so presumably the long night has already begun. So questions remain as to: the origin of the long night and the Others, and how the Long Night actually ended. Your understanding of the Nights King / Last Hero is that he created the Stone Zombie Watch to fight the Others. Yet, no fight with the Others is mentioned in the Nights King legend at all. He seemed to accomplish nothing.
@@eldric.stoneskinjust catching up on your excellent videos after your dope Live stream with LML. Quite interesting that Lys means Lily specifically as lilys have huge mythological significance in ancient Greece as well as symbolically representing purity, renewal and also death(especially the death of children). Maybe you cover this in a later vid i haven't watched yet... but food for thought
I think I have a good reason for Robb's Will (watched till 11:19 till now) now. Perhaps Jon might be buried as a King in the North because of it, going to Stark Crypts and getting a statue. Then the WF heart tree could be struck down by lightning as Eldric says.
I feel like Jon might not get a statue but literally become a statue in the bottom of the crypts after contracting greyscale, doomed to sit in darkness while he turns to stone
I have some problems with the greyscale idea, and "stone" giants from the crypts. Martin uses a parallel symbolism all throughout. So, to give an example of this, in Game of Thrones, Ned finds Barra, the bastard daughter of Robert hidden away in the brothel. He is with two companions, plus Littlefinger. The brothel can be characterized as a "Tower of Joy." Jaime confronts Ned there with a group of Lannister men and he is stabbed from a spear. He has a fever dream, alerting the reader to the Tower of Joy, and then he is taken before Cercei where Littlefinger comes up on him from behind, portraying the role of Howland Reed. In this parallel, Ned was Ser Arthur Dayne. He had brought Ice with him, that would parallel as Dawn, and so forth. You brought up that Val stated that there were woods witches that could tell the truth of greyscale, but we still don't know what that is yet. Martin has repeatedly brought up the "fog of history" and uses Paul Bunyon as one example in American folklore. In history, he was as many as 5 or 6 distinct people that lived hundreds of miles from one another, and did not live at the same time. Martin also uses a lot of red herrings throughout the books, much like Ashara Dayne being Jon's mother, so that Tormund is called giantsbane, and the horn blower, but Sam is clearly the Turtle. The Turtle is long-lived with a great memory, and Sam has been piecing together the past on the Long Night, plus repeated emphasis is put on the horn that Jon gave him from the Fist of the First Men. Jon and Ned are the only ones, and especially Jon that always dream of the crypts. But the Gray King is also thought to be buried in one of the barrows east of Winterfell. There is absolutely something special about the crypts, and it's as much of a secret as the events of Summerhal, if not more so. Lady Stoneheart seems to be a great candidate for the moon Maiden motif, or corpse queen. She had thought to herself in one of her chapters traveling through the Vale that her heart had turned to stone, and then recalled the story of Alyssa's Tears that both foreshadow her death and coming back, just as Jon dreams about the armor of ice and wielding a glowing sword and so forth. Though I think that you hit on something with the symbolism of stone that is everywhere, it doesn't match what we've seen so far in the story. Beric is not invincible, by any means. His purpose was to... "live" until he gave that kiss to Catylen. The analogy is given of Stannis that he is like iron, he is strong, and unyielding, but brittle. I believe that Bran has already fulfilled the "waking giants in the earth" with Hodor. Also, the Nightsfort and House of the Undying both have trees growing in them with an 8 sided well. The Nightfort is replaced with an 8 sided kitchen, but it still has a well near the door. I'm not sure, but I think that the Nightfort predates Winterfell and that Winterfell might be a red herring as well. I think that the Nightfort might be the actual original seat of the kings of winter. Every castle of note seems to have been built by Brandon the Builder. Storms End has two stories of its construction, only one of them being that maybe he had been involved as a child. You noticed the parallels between the Last Hero and the Night's King, but at this point, even with Bran's greenseeing in Dance, I think that it's hard to determine certain things, such as connecting greyscale to the undead because Beric would have gotten it, Lady Stoneheart would have it, and so forth. Where are the moon Maiden videos? I really like this series. I spent all day watching them. I wasn't even going to write this until I jumped on your videos page and there were no moon Maiden videos.
@@eldric.stoneskin if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're Pete Kelly. Your voice is just about identical and your accent is identical, and this is the perfect side hustle to the projects and videos that he does. I just read the Bran chapter in Clash when Theon takes Winterfell, and while in the wolf dream, there is a passage about stone that stood out, and like I'd said, I think that you're on to something with it, but I personally feel that "waking from stone" is suggestive of death. I forget the term, something mortis, but the stiffening of the limbs and so forth, however, there are tons of parallels to it, I just never caught on like many of you have that are content creators. I've been reading the books as they come out, beginning in '97, but I had kids to take care of, so I haven't been able to do rereads and so forth as I would like. Most cultures have the stoneskin phenomenon, including the Tribal Nations here in the Americas, and just like Europe and other regions, it becomes an invincibility, so I am familiar with your argument, I'm just not certain that is the direction that Martin is taking. It does make sense that he may use it as a ticking time bomb with Shireen in the north, and Jon Connington in the south to infect and spread it all over Westeros. Martin, I think, is more likely to want an army of wights that were risen by the Others with stoneskin to hinder the protagonists because he loves to subvert all the tropes of fantasy and myth. However, I watched Lightbfinger's stream on Bran 3 from Dance, and he pointed out the collapsed segment of the crypts in Winterfell being where the weirwood throne may be, and much of what you have said does fit into that context. I think that's very plausible in this story. Regardless, I really enjoyed the series and I'm really looking forward to the moon Maiden theme.
@@eldric.stoneskin he's a content creator on UA-cam. I believe his primary channel may be "history time," but I can't remember. He does a lot of history and mythology. Keep up the good work. In Cherokee, there is the stag deity, who is called Awi Usdi, the deer woman and the moon Maiden. You go far enough back, pre colonial and Unehlenvhi was both the sun and moon Goddess. The word is the same for both, but the three could be said to form a Trinity and deer are as sacred as the corn mother, Selu. I'm not sure how much of everything content creators like yourself have been finding in Ice and Fire is intentional, and how much is subconscious on Martin's part, but it is fascinating either way.
Maybe you’ve touched on it elsewhere, but do you see Bran as being instrumental (pun intended) on fixing the broken Horn of Winter? Who do you think will blow it?
I do believe that the ancient Starks were actual Giants. It would explain the size of Ice, the family sword being twice the size of an average man’s sword. Also, they would have been proportionate to their dire wolves. Even in the crypts, the old Kings, their swords on their laps and dire wolves at their feet all seemed to be in portion. Now, the Starks are out of proportion with Ice and dire wolves. One of these things doesn't belong. Like the Targaryen dragons, somehow the Starks shrank.
Yeah that’s right, having a giant sword and being followed by giant wolves is a pretty good hint they were giant in size once as well! Excellent point!
Yes! And that’s where things get a bit confusing haha! I’m thinking maybe Dan and Dave used the night king just to give the others an identifiable figure? The night king myth has been the hardest one to make sense of at this stage
Here’s a little theory seed. Neanderthals are ancient hominids who adapted to glacial conditions. They were the first inhabitants of Europe and lived through the ice age, dying after the last ice age ended. The ice age is what the Long Night is based off. I believe the second coming along Night was inspired by the fact that there was a little ice age in the medieval era (it’s real). There absolutely seems to be a connection between ‘giants’ and the original Long Night. And a person who was - or who controlled the giants include the ancestor of the starks, despite them not having large size . The real giants we see are too big and too different , and seem to have a completely different intelligence level, and so the ‘giants’ around during that Long Night cannot be the actual ‘giant’ species. Maybe Neanderthals are being referenced here in some way. Neanderthals we’re sightly shorter than Homo sapiens but they were broader and stronger and glacially adapted. Neanderthals did interbreed with sapiens during the ice age, and then all died.
If we go by that, Planetos can be said to follow earth cosmo/disasters that occur each 6k/12k years, and clean the slate of civilizations each time. MezoAmerican cultures speak of at least "5 earths" times, and the Gemstones Emperors can be viewed as a similar mark of the Aeones or each Era. If we get into those types of research, we get to see that a lot of early civilizations have tales of survival from cataclism in caves/mountains due to asteroids and radiation, and also Ice ages.
I think there’s definitely something in that idea, Bran seems to have connected with this ancient Stark at the Winterfell heart tree, tasting his blood and connecting the two Starks across time
Yeah that makes sense! Someone also said it reminds them of George playing with his figurines he collects, commanding toy warriors like a god above a battle field
Here is a contradiction: you suggest the Nights King was the first to learn the required knowledge to create stone-warriors. He was then brought down by his brother, Brandon Breaker, Lord of Winterfell. So, Brandon the Breaker raised his armies and allied with Joramun and became a kinslayers because he thought making stone-zombie-warriors was so objectionable it had to be stopped. But then how does that fit with your idea that there are a bunch of stonezombies still waiting beneath winterfell?? Brandon the Breaker would have killed his brother for making them, and then took them all and put them under winterfell? If my idea about the Horn of Joramun being able to bind the wills of the stonemen, allowing them to be taken.
I think maybe it was this abomination that caused the long night, ressurecting dead stone warriors by stealing magic, but it also saved humanity after drawing the wrath of the others, so they hid them behind a collapsed wall (maybe broken by Brandon the breaker?) at the bottom of the crypts and struck this persons names from the record, forever damning him for what he did but the reality was this magic also saved them, once again the nights king story I’m a bit more speculative on at this stage, maybe this myth was so demonised for drawing the wrath of the others the history books changed details? Not sure at this stage just heading where the symbolism points me haha
@@eldric.stoneskin I dont think the abomination of creating stone-zombies could cause the long night. For one, if the NK is the one who made the stone-warriors, he was already the 13th commander of the Nights Watch, so the long night already has to have happened / been in progress, unless the NW was created slightly before the Long Night, but for what purpose? If the Long Night wasnt already happenning, and the Others werent baring down, then what would be the motivation behind creating stone-zombies and why would anyone agree to it? If NK is the Last Hero as you speculate, the Last Hero was said to have sought the children because of the Long Night and the Others, so that again says that the stone-zombies is a reaction to the Others. Why would the creation of the ston-ezombies cause an ice age? Magic-logistically, I dont know why this would cause an ice age. Why would it procoke the Others? Lastly, if stone-zombies were seen as abhominable, then why would they be taken by Winterfell and kept in the crypts all this time? I think this can be better explained by saying that: the Long Night Cause Event was first. Then the Nights Watch was created, and after it had run for over a decade, the Nights King, was then old enough to become Lord Commander, and had his story. So Nights King is generation 2. The Last Hero is either synonymous with the Nights King, or he's the next generation again. I favour him being a seperate person. Although I like the idea that the NK and LH are the same person remembered by differetn cultures, I point out that we learn both stories through the persepctive of one person: Bran, who learned both from the same person: Old Nan, not from two different cultural sources, this shows that the same culture maintains both the NK and LH story. 'Last Heros' title implies he is the final character in a sequence, and probably was present when the Long Night ended.
I just don't feel it would be realistic for Bran to skinchange and control knights. He's just a boy, he didn't have nearly enough training for fighting. He'd have to be some genius of tactics, i just don't think that kind of thing is realistic for GRRM.
Heres one thing that dosent make sense. Joramund took down the Nights King, and he had the horn which 'woke giants beneath the earth'. So, when Joramun lived, there must already have been a cache of stone warriors sleeping underground, yes? Yet, you also state that it was the Nights King/ Last Hero, who was the first to be given the magic of the children to learn how, with the help of his wife, to do the weirwood sacrifice and stone-ressurection. So if Nights Kings only just started creating stone warriors, how could Tormund have a horn to wake them? I suppose actually there is one way to understand this... The Long Night is already underway. NK is the 13th commander of the NW, he learns the stone-resurection from the CotF aand allys with the White Woman. He then begins the stone-ressurections, creating dozens of stone-warriors over the next 13 years. However, the wildlings and the Westerosi hate this practice, because they feel that the humanity of the stone-warrios is being removed, and that it's making them just like the Others, whom they are trying to resist. Joramun then creates or obtains a telepathic binding horn (He/ the wildings would have to have contact with another culture, such as the GeoD, proto-valyrians or somebody, idk). Joramuns horn is specifially made to bind the will of the ston-warriors, in the same way that dragon horns bind the will of dragons. He blew it, and the standby stone-warriors were suddenly under Joramuns (and the Lord Starks?) control, and thats was the key to them taking down the Nights King. But this raises another question I'll post as a seperate comment.
I've come to a belief that the oily black stone is a kind of grey goop nanomachines that came from space and is connected to the dragons, the stoneskin disease, and the black blood of the undead, and black glass candles, etc. Side note: i can't recall any but if there is any mirrored symbolism in the lands outside if Westeros associating lighting and thunder with the Yoruba Django/Shango it would support your idea.
Could well be! My thoughts on the oily black stone are that it might be petrified shade of the evening tree, if the shade of the evening trees turn to stone like the Weirwoods do, as we hear the shade of the evening it’s self being described as oily
@@eldric.stoneskin that's fair. To be frank I don't think we would ever get confirmation of what I think but I offer that more as a way of thinking it's all connected. I personally have started to see it all as one interconnected Shoggoth, nanomachines cluster, or mushroom brain thing. What ended up tying it together for me was Mel's shadow baby. When a shadow has substance that isn't a shadow. It's a mass of living darkness. The only way Davos could describe it was a shadow but I'm starting to think that was poetic and I imagine it now as a tar baby (no racism.)
Random lore note: Old Nan strongly implies that the Nights Kings name was Brandon. And the Nights King was said to be brought down by Joramun, and the Stark of Winterfell who was the brother of the Nights King. However, seperately, we are told that the name of the Lord in Winterfell who teamed up with Joramun to take down the Nights King was called 'Brandon the Breaker', so we have two brothers apparently called Brandon, which seems wrong.
Yeah I think there’s a lot wrong with the myth to be honest, I think a lot of details were changed in universe to avoid certain details or secrets being found out or protecting reputations or something like that
@@eldric.stoneskin I think its one of two things; George intentially named them both Brandon to imply they are the same person. Or, George forgot and accidentally named them both Brnadon.
Unless one was a bastard. Its funny you brought this up cuz i have a theory Jon's real name is actually Brandon too so he and Bran can mimic the Night's King story perfectly.
@@williamhermann6635that's an interesting thought!
@@nikharagrawal5808 But wait, theres more! A pet theory of mine is that "Joramun" from the Night's King story is actually the first Dayne. We know the Dayne's have been around at least 10,000 years but we have no timeline for their origin nor any legends from the time of the Long Night. I think Joramun took the Night King's sword (Original Ice) and took it south to Starfall for safekeeping. Guarding that sword seems to be the entire reason for the Dayne family's existance. I also believe Mance Rayder is actually Arthur Dayne so hes meant to mimic Joramun's story.
That was so good dude! Can’t believe I never connected lightning to the hammer of the waters before, makes perfect sense
Yeah it seems obvious when it’s pointed out but took me ages to figure out haha
I think the emphasis on Lightning Bolts is very logical and there is lightning (or lighting on tree) symbolism alot. I also think that lightning is often synonymous with meteors / comets, and that sometimes the lightning symbolism highlighted is actually meteoric. The Hammer of Waters smashing a continent and causing floods for instance only makes sense as a meteor impact, not lightning. This relates to David Lightbringers idea that a moon meteor impact was the cause of the Long Night by throwing up dust clouds (this is a real thing). However, Lightning must be part of it, as I love your idea that the ultiamte Green Sea magic is calling down Lightning, to reanimate bodies (stone zombie) - this is VERY George, because its very sci-fi - electric can restart hearts, and its like a big frankenstein reference.
Yeah i definitely think George is drawing on the old sci fi/horror trope of Galvanism as you said
I keep feeling that you have amazed me as much as you could with this theory, but it just keep having so much new, important content! Bran's greenseeing being surrounded by lightning symbols! And Bran himself!
Yeah the symbolic hammer of lightning is really interesting, I’m glad you liked the series! Thanks heaps for watching! 💀🍻
New Stoneskin drops fire as usual🔥
Cheers mate 🍻
You may have already noted this but here's something more: Joramun was the wildling king who teamed up with Brandon the Breaker to take down the Nights King. He blew the Horn of Winter to 'wake giants from the earth'. Get this: Mance claims to have found Joramuns horn in Joramuns grave beneath a glacier high up in the Forstfangs. However, Tormund says they found the horn in the grave of a giant. I didnt catch this when I read it, but the implication is that Joramun was a giant. Additionally, Joramuns grave being 'beneath a glacier' also gives us the Lucifer-trapped-in-frozen-lake symbolism!! Also, the fact that it was in the Frostfangs, gives us 'Mouth of Giant Being' symbolism again. How does Joramund being a giant change things? and How did he get a horn with glowing glyphs on all that time ago, and from the North Wall culutre?
I hadn’t thought of that, it makes sense, I think the horn of winter being associated with giants graves helps the case that the horn of winter wakes giants from their grave
I think all the early legendary characters in this story were magical giants and meant to mimic pre-flood Nephilim from The Bible. They were the first generation children of Garth Greenhand who was like the ASOIAF fallen angel that mated with human women to create said Nephilim. Theyre also described as giants and "men of reknown" which immediately makes me think of "Age of Heroes". A legendary time with a bunch of giant demigods running wild and causing chaos.
@@williamhermann6635 Your definately onto something. People being giant before the apocalypse, and the only survivors being/ becoming shorter is like that biblical flood narrative. Garth being a fallen angel in some way.. Well the Watchers (the angels) were said to have taught their human wives herblore, like how Garth taught people gardening. However, Garth never seemed to come from a different culture or people than the westeorsi. He seems very native westeoris, in him being interlinked with the land, and weirwood trees. Other fans speculate that he was a weirwood tree, or a weirwood person, which further cements him as rooted in westeros. I think the 'fallen angel' thing may work better with the GeoD people, being more advanced and mixing with the native westerosi giants creating a half-giant race with the best of both qualities. However, the angel/human interbeeding and creation of hybrids was a great sin that caused the apocalypse. I think the sinful hybridisation that caused the apocalypse was a human and a CotF (AA and NN).
The toys symbolism is great. I think this is all a reference to the fact that George loves miniature figures. When he sets them up for a battle, he must feel like a child god, sending out powerful warriors to battle. Look at his house tour and you’ll see he has all these figures set up. I think including that footage would strengthen your points
That’s a great point! I hadn’t thought of that, I do remember seeing all his figurines in his interview with History of Westeros! I’m going to try and make this into a shorter one off video and might use that! Great job!
Yeah the toy symbolism is very prevalent through the texts and really blew me away and I don’t think I’ve found all of it yet, I think George might be using puppets in the same line of symbolism to suggest one person controlling another being, now I think about it there might have even been a puppet show in the mountain vs the viper chapter?
@@eldric.stoneskin Yeah I think Georges personal interests can be used to explain most magic in the series. Preston Jacobs talked about how in many of Georges works, there is a reclusive all-powerful telepath controlling events. This has been portrayed often as geeky figures, such as the turtle guy who lived in his car (another of georges stories), a time traveling chess master, and in asoiaf its Bloodraven / Bran. This represents George, being a reclusive geek but using the power of the mind to create and control worlds. His personal symbol is the turtle, because as a kid he got a pet turtles that he would watch fight, which he likened to wars and medieval kings (sand kings). Finally, he has likened skinchanging to reading 'a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies'. So, this theme of Georges personal interests being fundamental to how magic works and is portrayed is perhaps the ultimate code here. Bran taking telepathic control of the stone armeis and sending them out, essentially turns Westeros into a table-top game played by a child, a war game of miniatures - Georges hobby become real.
Loved this series so much! Cant wait to see all your future work!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 🍻
I hadn't considered Bran being a Lightbringer symbolism thing before. Fascinating. And i see what you are getting at there. And i had never connected Lightning and Hammer of the Waters. It seems so obvious once you pointed it out.
I loved this series. I look forward to seeing more in your next series.
Glad you enjoyed it mate 🍻
Man this stuff is all great. Combined with the content from LmL theres so much depth to this series
Glad you enjoyed it!
Man, your videos feel like finding fresh crystalline waters in the middle of the desert.
Haha thanks!
Fuck yes here we go! New logo look sick btw
Thanks! Metal themes deserve a metal logo 🤘🏼
I was waiting for this video!
Hope you enjoyed it!
I think what we need is for you to put together a version of the timeline because its very confusing. Azor Ahai / Eldric Shadowchaser is presumably the first key figure. He presumably began the long night - so then we would have the Nights King, Brandon the Breaker and Joramun, who all have to be the next generation, so if Eldric Shadowchaser is a Stark, then Brandon the Breaker and the Nights King must be his sons, right? And could the story of Bael the Bard be linked next? A Wildling man 'stealing' a Stark girl, is the Nights King story in reverse. In this context, Bael would have gone to the bother of crossing the wall and walking to Winterfell to get the Stark Maiden as revenge for the previous generation when a Stark 'kidnapped' a wildling woman (the Corpse Queen). The Stark line was said to be at extinction in the Bael the Bard story, which fits with the idea that this is 1 generation after the Long Night, when populations would be low. The fact that Bael's bastard son became the next Lord Stark also implies that the Stark Maiden didnt get married and have any trueborn children at all in her life. Bastards inheriting is unfavourable, so it almost seems to imply that there simply werent any matches for her, alluding to the low populations post LN. Finally, Bael and the Stark Maiden apparently had hidden in the crypts for over 9 months where the Maiden had her baby. Of course, this couldnt be true as there would be no food, water, or light. The implication is that there is a hidden passage leading somewhere else. Bael seems to have known about the secret of the crypts (whether its a passage, or the stonemen or what), even though he had never been to Winterfell before. If Bael was 1 generation later than the Long Night generation, and he's related to Joramun (probably his son, as they are both King-Beyond-The-Wall), then that does make sense that Bael woudl already know the secrets of the crypts.
To be honest it is very confusing and George has made it that way on purpose, I’m still trying to figure it all out, I think that all of these myths are probably different people, but are meant to inform us of the actions of one person, or are different cultures memories of this one person, I’m hoping to figure the timeline of events out after the next series now that I’m looking into the weirwood woman line of symbolism, that should tell me more
Does the Bael the bard myth actually say they were there for 9 months? That’s more 9 symbolism around the crypts! I need to reread that soon, that’s another example of a myth that was a real person but I think informs us of the Azor Ahai/weirwood woman relationship
@@eldric.stoneskin Yes, it is said that Bael and the Stark Maiden dissapeared. Then, (time unspecified) the Stark Maid reappears in her room with a newborn baby, apparently having hid in the crypts all this time. So that has to be the 9 month pregnancy. That Stark Maid from the Bael story is rarely mentioned in theory, but I'm sure she ties into this Weirwood Maiden thing, with her being synonymous with a flower (the blue winter rose), lived in the crypt, and having a baby in the crypt seems very .. idk.. magic woman issuing forms of life from within a realm of death sort-of-thing. Her son later killed his father, so I feel like that's relevant.
Azor Ahai and Eldric Shadowchaser are named in conjunction with 3 others (Hyrkoon The Hero, Neferion, and Yin Tar) as to who the true hero of the Long Night could be which leads me to believe Azor Ahai and Eldric Shadowchaser are not the same guy. House Dayne has used different forms of Eldric in the past (including Edric Dayne in the current story whos nickname is Ned after Ned Stark) so Dayne's very well could account for Eldric Shadowchaser. I believe the theory that Arthur Dayne is Mance Rayder. I also have a pet theory that the King Beyond The Wall named Joramun from the Night's King tale was the first Dayne and the character known in the east as Eldric Shadowchaser. Mance/Arthur could be the current version if Im right there. But I digress. I think the eastern hero myth mentioned before represents 5 different legendary characters and were supposed to puzzle out whos who. I already mentioned my pick for Eldric S. Chaser. I also think a Stark was Azor Ahai, an early Targaryen was Yin Tar, a Hightower was Neferion, and Lann The Clever was Hyrkoon The Hero.
@@williamhermann6635 Why would Joramun be the first Dayne? Where is the evidence that a willing king's descendants moved to Dorne, and used a legendary sword? If a Stark was Azor Ahai, then that ancient stark would have stabbed his wife to make Lightbringer. Wheres the evidence? Why would Lann The Clever be Hyrkoon the Hero? He isn't mentioned doing anything related to Long Nights or heroic deeds at all.
@@umwha Joramun is said to have helped Brandon the Breaker take down the Night's King. What if Dawn was the Night's King's sword and Joramun just claimed it after killing Nk? Think about it this way. What other tales of House Dayne around the time of the long night do we have beyond the forging of Dawn? Clearly they were around for the first long night. So what the hell were they doing and who were they? I think Joramun is as good of a guess as any. Dawn was forged from the heart of a fallen star(k)?
Not only does Bran mean fire sword but he also seems based on Bran the Blessed who was a giant and a king! More giant king ideas around Bran! Loved the video Eldric ❤❤❤
Excellent point! I’ll have to include this when I make a stand alone video for this theory, thanks very much!
Another amazing video my man I'm super excited for ur future theories too but was wondering if u think it'll be bran controlling the dead Kings of winter or if the will they get their own spirits/souls back from the weirwoods and control themselves
Great question and something I nearly brought up!
I’m thinking that after Bran drank the blood of that ancient sacrifice at the origin of the Winterfell heart he will have become the new three eyed crow, a collective consciousness of all the greenseers within the weirwood, like in the HBO show
So maybe all the spirits of these kings are now inside Bran and they can return to their bodies?
Maybe Bran can control multiple beings because he has multiple consciousnesses inside him?
Maybe the three eyed crow is this original stark trying to get inside bran and return to his body beneath Winterfell? The name three eyed crow is suggestive of a greenseeing nights watch man which this original stark would have been? Interested to hear your thoughts?
I cannot believe you don't have more subscribers! You definitely earned this one. Fascinating theories and lore. Going through everything you've done the last couple days and can't wait to see what you do next! Top tier and well done! Will definitely be something to get me through the long night until the next season of HOTD or the next book comes out. Edited typo
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
I don't care how long it takes, I can't wait to see what your next theory has been. I am only just starting this video but I love the way you extrapolate so much from only the text. It is difficult to form your ideas in such a limited scope but you clearly have a deep talent for doing so. Much thanks for the wonderful content so far!
Thank you! Yeah the hardest part in plugging it all in a cohesive structure! Appreciate the support! 🍻
Really good series. Though I wonder about the practical logistics of moving a stone man army around. Dany's eggs - they got un-pretrified. So maybe that's how this is going to happen to the ancient Stark kings, but somehow I have a feeling that Bran is meant for something.. greater that just commanding a zombie army. On the other hand, the parallel to the Dead of Dunharrow is quite convincing.
I was waiting outside your office for this 😂😂
Hahaha was that you in the bushes? 🤣
Very interesting video! Thanks for this, learned a lot in a pretty short time.
I’ve been binging Lucifer means lightbringers videos lately to get informed on asoiaf lore. Always stoked to stumble on a great channel in my suggested.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Another great video! Love this series. Can't wait for the next one.
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers mate 🍻
Great video! Great work researching your theory! I wonder what you think about the evidence from GRRM’s The Hedge Knight. One could argue that this is a tale of a small child (Egg) using a Strong giant (Dunk) to fight on his behalf. For that matter, what about Pod and Brienne or Arya and the Hound?
In the Trial by Seven battle in The Hedge Knight, a horn blows and Dunk’s horse is named Thunder. Dunk “brings Thunder up” near the dragon prince and later says “Thunder! Up!” after Thunder crashes on the battlefield and once again says “Up!” when the dragon prince’s skull is ripped asunder by removing his helmet after battle. This coincides with Egg “hatching” into the new dragon prince. Does the fact that Thunder is brought “Up” here make the evidence work opposite how we usually see it in the books, since lightning is typically thought to strike downwards? Finally, Dunk melds with Thunder in some fashion as he charges into battle, thinking “I am Thunder and Thunder is me. We are one beast. We are joined. We are one.”
Further, GRRM once said that Dunk was never actually knighted. Dunk essentially knights himself when he is burying Arlan’s childlike body in a grave at the beginning of the story. Is this the prophecy in reverse, or inverse?
Wow thank you so much! It’s funny you mention it because I had some Dunk and Egg evidence I had to leave out due to length, your exactly right Dunk is a giant fighting on behalf of a child, just like Bran and Hodor, with connection going further knowing Hodor is possibly a descendant of Dunks as well, who are both giant strongly associated with lightning
And if we think these giant men symbolically represent the stone kings beneath Winterfell, it’s interesting that Dunk is constantly being called “thick as a castle wall” symbolically making him a giant stone man compared to a castle, in the same way we see the castle of Winterfell referred to as a giant stone man
But the “thunder coming up” is interesting, as I think the thunder is the hammer of the waters, with brought giants up from beneath the earth
The name Dunk also implies him as drowned, referring this character having gone into the Greensea of the Weirwoods
The child controlling a giant line of symbolism is really interesting and I’ve only just started fully investigating it but in addition to dunk and egg we also find this same thing with Doran Martel and Areo Hotah, with Doran being unable to walk like Bran and having a giant as a personal guard like Hodor, in fact even their names sound similar with Bran/Doran & Hodor/Hotah
There might be more examples of this child/giant relationship in the series, it’s really a new line of investigation for me at this stage but there’s a lot there
Really appreciate the support!
This is like my fourth time running through this final video, bravo 👏
Glad you enjoyed it!
1:09:24 love the idea that the last hero and Night king are the same. So he ventured north of the wall, because he saw a vision of the white woman. He then went to the children, with whom the white woman was staying. They fell in love, and learned magic from the children. He then returned with her and lived on the wall. She was presumably a wildling woman. This is like rhaegar and Lyanna - where everyone thinks the woman was kidnapped but she actually went willingly, and it was part of a prophecy. Both the man’s and woman’s people then warred and the man is killed by his relative- just like how Rhaegar was killed by Robert his cousin once/twice removed. The wildling Joramun would therefore probably be the husband of the White Woman. They killed and turned to stone their followers to fight the others. But some humans thought this was like siding with the Others so they turned against them.
What I don’t understand though is if the Night king story happened during the long night or what.
Yeah I think the Rhaegar/Lyanna is the perfect parallel, a firey person stealing an icey woman and starting a war, that’s going to be the jumping off point for my next series
As Lyanna is shown as a blue rose and a crying stone woman in the crypts, and if we follow all the crying stone women in the series they all contain “Ly” or “Lys” in their name, “Catelyn”, “Alyssa Arryn”, “weeping lady of Lys”, “Alayne Stone”
Which is interesting as Lys in French means “Flower”, and all of these stone flower associated women I’ve mentioned have also had their family killed around them, leaving them crying…
So maybe the nights queen had all her family killed by the nights king when she was stolen? interested to hear your thoughts on this?
"Lys" in French is "lily." "Fleur" is the French word for flower.
@@Vmac1394 ahh ok thanks for clearing that up!
@@eldric.stoneskin I think the Nights Queen wasnt stolen - I think all 'stolen' women were actually eloping - like Lyanna. Any thoughts on the timeline of the Night King? Hes 13 lord commander of the NW, so presumably the long night has already begun. So questions remain as to: the origin of the long night and the Others, and how the Long Night actually ended. Your understanding of the Nights King / Last Hero is that he created the Stone Zombie Watch to fight the Others. Yet, no fight with the Others is mentioned in the Nights King legend at all. He seemed to accomplish nothing.
@@eldric.stoneskinjust catching up on your excellent videos after your dope Live stream with LML. Quite interesting that Lys means Lily specifically as lilys have huge mythological significance in ancient Greece as well as symbolically representing purity, renewal and also death(especially the death of children). Maybe you cover this in a later vid i haven't watched yet... but food for thought
Mjølnir means the crusher. It is an Old nordic name for grinding to dust. Like you do when you make flour ✌🏼
Thanks for the info!
Tinfoil: Lyanna's "promise me, Ned" was Lyanna begging Ned to entomb her in the crypts so she can be reborn as a stone giant in the wars to come.
It almost makes too much sense 🤣
Amazing
Cheers mate 🍻
HELL YEAH! Excited to watch another banger
Hope you enjoyed it!
I think I have a good reason for Robb's Will (watched till 11:19 till now) now. Perhaps Jon might be buried as a King in the North because of it, going to Stark Crypts and getting a statue. Then the WF heart tree could be struck down by lightning as Eldric says.
I feel like Jon might not get a statue but literally become a statue in the bottom of the crypts after contracting greyscale, doomed to sit in darkness while he turns to stone
I have some problems with the greyscale idea, and "stone" giants from the crypts. Martin uses a parallel symbolism all throughout. So, to give an example of this, in Game of Thrones, Ned finds Barra, the bastard daughter of Robert hidden away in the brothel. He is with two companions, plus Littlefinger. The brothel can be characterized as a "Tower of Joy." Jaime confronts Ned there with a group of Lannister men and he is stabbed from a spear. He has a fever dream, alerting the reader to the Tower of Joy, and then he is taken before Cercei where Littlefinger comes up on him from behind, portraying the role of Howland Reed. In this parallel, Ned was Ser Arthur Dayne. He had brought Ice with him, that would parallel as Dawn, and so forth. You brought up that Val stated that there were woods witches that could tell the truth of greyscale, but we still don't know what that is yet. Martin has repeatedly brought up the "fog of history" and uses Paul Bunyon as one example in American folklore. In history, he was as many as 5 or 6 distinct people that lived hundreds of miles from one another, and did not live at the same time. Martin also uses a lot of red herrings throughout the books, much like Ashara Dayne being Jon's mother, so that Tormund is called giantsbane, and the horn blower, but Sam is clearly the Turtle. The Turtle is long-lived with a great memory, and Sam has been piecing together the past on the Long Night, plus repeated emphasis is put on the horn that Jon gave him from the Fist of the First Men. Jon and Ned are the only ones, and especially Jon that always dream of the crypts. But the Gray King is also thought to be buried in one of the barrows east of Winterfell. There is absolutely something special about the crypts, and it's as much of a secret as the events of Summerhal, if not more so. Lady Stoneheart seems to be a great candidate for the moon Maiden motif, or corpse queen. She had thought to herself in one of her chapters traveling through the Vale that her heart had turned to stone, and then recalled the story of Alyssa's Tears that both foreshadow her death and coming back, just as Jon dreams about the armor of ice and wielding a glowing sword and so forth. Though I think that you hit on something with the symbolism of stone that is everywhere, it doesn't match what we've seen so far in the story. Beric is not invincible, by any means. His purpose was to... "live" until he gave that kiss to Catylen. The analogy is given of Stannis that he is like iron, he is strong, and unyielding, but brittle. I believe that Bran has already fulfilled the "waking giants in the earth" with Hodor. Also, the Nightsfort and House of the Undying both have trees growing in them with an 8 sided well. The Nightfort is replaced with an 8 sided kitchen, but it still has a well near the door. I'm not sure, but I think that the Nightfort predates Winterfell and that Winterfell might be a red herring as well. I think that the Nightfort might be the actual original seat of the kings of winter. Every castle of note seems to have been built by Brandon the Builder. Storms End has two stories of its construction, only one of them being that maybe he had been involved as a child. You noticed the parallels between the Last Hero and the Night's King, but at this point, even with Bran's greenseeing in Dance, I think that it's hard to determine certain things, such as connecting greyscale to the undead because Beric would have gotten it, Lady Stoneheart would have it, and so forth. Where are the moon Maiden videos? I really like this series. I spent all day watching them. I wasn't even going to write this until I jumped on your videos page and there were no moon Maiden videos.
Still researching it, the first series took years to put together so making smaller videos while I research the Moon Maidens
@@eldric.stoneskin if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're Pete Kelly. Your voice is just about identical and your accent is identical, and this is the perfect side hustle to the projects and videos that he does. I just read the Bran chapter in Clash when Theon takes Winterfell, and while in the wolf dream, there is a passage about stone that stood out, and like I'd said, I think that you're on to something with it, but I personally feel that "waking from stone" is suggestive of death. I forget the term, something mortis, but the stiffening of the limbs and so forth, however, there are tons of parallels to it, I just never caught on like many of you have that are content creators. I've been reading the books as they come out, beginning in '97, but I had kids to take care of, so I haven't been able to do rereads and so forth as I would like. Most cultures have the stoneskin phenomenon, including the Tribal Nations here in the Americas, and just like Europe and other regions, it becomes an invincibility, so I am familiar with your argument, I'm just not certain that is the direction that Martin is taking. It does make sense that he may use it as a ticking time bomb with Shireen in the north, and Jon Connington in the south to infect and spread it all over Westeros. Martin, I think, is more likely to want an army of wights that were risen by the Others with stoneskin to hinder the protagonists because he loves to subvert all the tropes of fantasy and myth. However, I watched Lightbfinger's stream on Bran 3 from Dance, and he pointed out the collapsed segment of the crypts in Winterfell being where the weirwood throne may be, and much of what you have said does fit into that context. I think that's very plausible in this story. Regardless, I really enjoyed the series and I'm really looking forward to the moon Maiden theme.
@@josephdavis2198 whose Pete Kelly sorry?
@@eldric.stoneskin he's a content creator on UA-cam. I believe his primary channel may be "history time," but I can't remember. He does a lot of history and mythology. Keep up the good work. In Cherokee, there is the stag deity, who is called Awi Usdi, the deer woman and the moon Maiden. You go far enough back, pre colonial and Unehlenvhi was both the sun and moon Goddess. The word is the same for both, but the three could be said to form a Trinity and deer are as sacred as the corn mother, Selu. I'm not sure how much of everything content creators like yourself have been finding in Ice and Fire is intentional, and how much is subconscious on Martin's part, but it is fascinating either way.
Thanks for an amazing series can’t wait to see what you do next. Or if you retire at the top of your game you’re already a legend.
Your welcome! Glad you enjoyed it! Definitely more to come
Bro, your stuff is soooo good!! Can you just go ahead and finish the last two books for us please!!
Thanks very much!
That picture of Dany with the baby dragons is gorgeous...l except the dragons have too many limbs.
Maybe you’ve touched on it elsewhere, but do you see Bran as being instrumental (pun intended) on fixing the broken Horn of Winter?
Who do you think will blow it?
I’m unsure tbh, it feels like either Jon or Sam should blow the horn both being nights watchman
I do believe that the ancient Starks were actual Giants. It would explain the size of Ice, the family sword being twice the size of an average man’s sword. Also, they would have been proportionate to their dire wolves.
Even in the crypts, the old Kings, their swords on their laps and dire wolves at their feet all seemed to be in portion. Now, the Starks are out of proportion with Ice and dire wolves. One of these things doesn't belong.
Like the Targaryen dragons, somehow the Starks shrank.
Yeah that’s right, having a giant sword and being followed by giant wolves is a pretty good hint they were giant in size once as well! Excellent point!
And there are 12 White Walkers--at least in the TV show.
Yes! And that’s where things get a bit confusing haha! I’m thinking maybe Dan and Dave used the night king just to give the others an identifiable figure? The night king myth has been the hardest one to make sense of at this stage
Glad I found your channel!Nice wotk!Very nice!!❤
Cheers 🍻
Here’s a little theory seed. Neanderthals are ancient hominids who adapted to glacial conditions. They were the first inhabitants of Europe and lived through the ice age, dying after the last ice age ended. The ice age is what the Long Night is based off. I believe the second coming along Night was inspired by the fact that there was a little ice age in the medieval era (it’s real). There absolutely seems to be a connection between ‘giants’ and the original Long Night. And a person who was - or who controlled the giants include the ancestor of the starks, despite them not having large size . The real giants we see are too big and too different , and seem to have a completely different intelligence level, and so the ‘giants’ around during that Long Night cannot be the actual ‘giant’ species. Maybe Neanderthals are being referenced here in some way. Neanderthals we’re sightly shorter than Homo sapiens but they were broader and stronger and glacially adapted. Neanderthals did interbreed with sapiens during the ice age, and then all died.
Yeah excellent point! George could very well be drawing on this as well!
If we go by that, Planetos can be said to follow earth cosmo/disasters that occur each 6k/12k years, and clean the slate of civilizations each time. MezoAmerican cultures speak of at least "5 earths" times, and the Gemstones Emperors can be viewed as a similar mark of the Aeones or each Era. If we get into those types of research, we get to see that a lot of early civilizations have tales of survival from cataclism in caves/mountains due to asteroids and radiation, and also Ice ages.
I think the old Bran the Builder was current Bran skinchanging someone from the far past to do things he knows need to be done
I think there’s definitely something in that idea, Bran seems to have connected with this ancient Stark at the Winterfell heart tree, tasting his blood and connecting the two Starks across time
Awesome series.
Thanks!
This video kept making me think of the Stephen King story where literal child aliens were playing with the characters like toys.
Yeah that makes sense! Someone also said it reminds them of George playing with his figurines he collects, commanding toy warriors like a god above a battle field
Here is a contradiction: you suggest the Nights King was the first to learn the required knowledge to create stone-warriors. He was then brought down by his brother, Brandon Breaker, Lord of Winterfell. So, Brandon the Breaker raised his armies and allied with Joramun and became a kinslayers because he thought making stone-zombie-warriors was so objectionable it had to be stopped. But then how does that fit with your idea that there are a bunch of stonezombies still waiting beneath winterfell?? Brandon the Breaker would have killed his brother for making them, and then took them all and put them under winterfell? If my idea about the Horn of Joramun being able to bind the wills of the stonemen, allowing them to be taken.
I think maybe it was this abomination that caused the long night, ressurecting dead stone warriors by stealing magic, but it also saved humanity after drawing the wrath of the others, so they hid them behind a collapsed wall (maybe broken by Brandon the breaker?) at the bottom of the crypts and struck this persons names from the record, forever damning him for what he did but the reality was this magic also saved them, once again the nights king story I’m a bit more speculative on at this stage, maybe this myth was so demonised for drawing the wrath of the others the history books changed details? Not sure at this stage just heading where the symbolism points me haha
@@eldric.stoneskin I dont think the abomination of creating stone-zombies could cause the long night. For one, if the NK is the one who made the stone-warriors, he was already the 13th commander of the Nights Watch, so the long night already has to have happened / been in progress, unless the NW was created slightly before the Long Night, but for what purpose? If the Long Night wasnt already happenning, and the Others werent baring down, then what would be the motivation behind creating stone-zombies and why would anyone agree to it? If NK is the Last Hero as you speculate, the Last Hero was said to have sought the children because of the Long Night and the Others, so that again says that the stone-zombies is a reaction to the Others.
Why would the creation of the ston-ezombies cause an ice age? Magic-logistically, I dont know why this would cause an ice age. Why would it procoke the Others?
Lastly, if stone-zombies were seen as abhominable, then why would they be taken by Winterfell and kept in the crypts all this time?
I think this can be better explained by saying that: the Long Night Cause Event was first. Then the Nights Watch was created, and after it had run for over a decade, the Nights King, was then old enough to become Lord Commander, and had his story. So Nights King is generation 2. The Last Hero is either synonymous with the Nights King, or he's the next generation again. I favour him being a seperate person. Although I like the idea that the NK and LH are the same person remembered by differetn cultures, I point out that we learn both stories through the persepctive of one person: Bran, who learned both from the same person: Old Nan, not from two different cultural sources, this shows that the same culture maintains both the NK and LH story. 'Last Heros' title implies he is the final character in a sequence, and probably was present when the Long Night ended.
A remix of shadow?? Awesome!
Glad you liked it! (I just slowed it down to sound more ominous haha)
Makes me wonder about the Bravos "Statue"
Yeah your exactly right, checkout Part III Stone Heroes, I go into detail on the symbolism surrounding him there 💀🍻
YESSSSSSSSSSSS
Hope you liked the video!
Love it
Haha cheers 🍻
I just don't feel it would be realistic for Bran to skinchange and control knights. He's just a boy, he didn't have nearly enough training for fighting. He'd have to be some genius of tactics, i just don't think that kind of thing is realistic for GRRM.
He’s about to become an ancient hive mind and the strongest greenseer/skinchanger to have lived, so I could see this happening
❤
Woooooo!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Heres one thing that dosent make sense. Joramund took down the Nights King, and he had the horn which 'woke giants beneath the earth'. So, when Joramun lived, there must already have been a cache of stone warriors sleeping underground, yes? Yet, you also state that it was the Nights King/ Last Hero, who was the first to be given the magic of the children to learn how, with the help of his wife, to do the weirwood sacrifice and stone-ressurection. So if Nights Kings only just started creating stone warriors, how could Tormund have a horn to wake them?
I suppose actually there is one way to understand this... The Long Night is already underway. NK is the 13th commander of the NW, he learns the stone-resurection from the CotF aand allys with the White Woman. He then begins the stone-ressurections, creating dozens of stone-warriors over the next 13 years. However, the wildlings and the Westerosi hate this practice, because they feel that the humanity of the stone-warrios is being removed, and that it's making them just like the Others, whom they are trying to resist. Joramun then creates or obtains a telepathic binding horn (He/ the wildings would have to have contact with another culture, such as the GeoD, proto-valyrians or somebody, idk). Joramuns horn is specifially made to bind the will of the ston-warriors, in the same way that dragon horns bind the will of dragons. He blew it, and the standby stone-warriors were suddenly under Joramuns (and the Lord Starks?) control, and thats was the key to them taking down the Nights King. But this raises another question I'll post as a seperate comment.
I've come to a belief that the oily black stone is a kind of grey goop nanomachines that came from space and is connected to the dragons, the stoneskin disease, and the black blood of the undead, and black glass candles, etc.
Side note: i can't recall any but if there is any mirrored symbolism in the lands outside if Westeros associating lighting and thunder with the Yoruba Django/Shango it would support your idea.
In this concept the red comet also acts as a kind of wi Fi signal activating the "magic."
Could well be! My thoughts on the oily black stone are that it might be petrified shade of the evening tree, if the shade of the evening trees turn to stone like the Weirwoods do, as we hear the shade of the evening it’s self being described as oily
@@eldric.stoneskin that's fair. To be frank I don't think we would ever get confirmation of what I think but I offer that more as a way of thinking it's all connected.
I personally have started to see it all as one interconnected Shoggoth, nanomachines cluster, or mushroom brain thing.
What ended up tying it together for me was Mel's shadow baby. When a shadow has substance that isn't a shadow. It's a mass of living darkness. The only way Davos could describe it was a shadow but I'm starting to think that was poetic and I imagine it now as a tar baby (no racism.)