The Serpent Maid of GoHH Prophecy

These prophecies are certainly written to be vague and applied to different aspects of the story. I can see this one fitting Sansa quite nicely, with her purple poison hair net fitting "the purple serpents in her hair", and even the slaying of a savage giant could simply be Sansa ripping the head off of Sweetrobin's doll amidst her snow Winterfell. The fact that The GoHH looks right at Arya at the end of this is a bit odd, and has lead people, me included, to question if Arya could steal Sansa's face for some perfidy later in the story. But it's almost to awful to imagine Arya skinning her sister's face and wearing it. Arya certainly has dark aspects, however. So, why does the GoHH look directly at Arya and accuse her of hiding?

This idea of Shae fitting the prophecy is interesting but it's harder for me to see. I will say I am not even convinced that Arya plays the role of Shae in that play. What role does Shae really play in the overall story of the Lannister's and Stark's and Robert Baratheon's death? Minimal, at best, although she is clearly important in Tyrion's story. Arya says she plays a maiden who gets raped and murdered. Shae is no maid, nor does Tyrion ever rape her. He certainly does murder her. I have honestly wondered if Arya will play the role of Sansa in this play, expect Tyrion never rapes nor murder's Sansa. Although he is her husband and might be thought to have "raped" her. Still, I admit that Sansa isn't a good fit for the role that Arya plays either.  Arya has dark hair and so does Shae, so why would she need to wear a wig for her part? If she was playing Shae, she could grow her own hair to fit the part. But Sansa has quite notable red hair, which a wig might be needed for.

Anyway, I do like the thought process of Shae perhaps working with someone behind the scenes, either gifting them information or doing favors for them. I could see this connection to either Varys or Littlefinger, but Oberyn is possible as well, but there are no clear connections between Oberyn and Shae, even a meeting. Of course, that doesn't mean that Oberyn would not have sought her out for information or perhaps even some active manipulation of Tyrion.



I have never seen this connection but depending on how you look at the text, it could be a hint. Oberyn is called a snake often, and at one time during the battle with the Mountain, Oberyn leaps over the Mountain and Tyrion says for a moment he had wings. This could be a very smart interpretation. I think we will just have to wait and see how the story unfolds, although since Oberyn is dead, I don't know what effect it could have on the storyline if he is/was a winged snake. But it's a good catch in the text, something to think about.

The Martell's in general are not thought of as being snakes, however, just Oberyn, and then his daughters. So while the wings of a dragon could fit Young Griff/Aegon, I don't see the snake hint fitting him specifically. Now, if Oberyn had a child with a Targaryen, this imagery might fit. 

But as to the idea of a "winged snake", the only time that two word phrase ever comes up in the story is in Bran's POV from Summer's perspective. It doesn't really tie to anything else directly, although the "winged" and "snake" separately connect to Oberyn, as you point out, and then to incidents in Arya, Jon, and Theon's POV, but not directly tied to any one person, just to something that is happening. The most interesting one to me is Arya, who feels like she is being attacked by wings of hot red fire while smoke curls around her like a black snake, because that imagery might fit what Summer see's. The wolf POV could sea a dragon, but it could also just be smoke and flames, like Arya experiences at that holdfast attacked by Lannister men. That part of Arya's story always reminds me of what it might feel like to be attacked by a dragon and having to hide underground to escape the heat and flames.