Post by danl on Feb 21, 2020 17:14:38 GMT
Yes, we know very little about how the red temple works or how slaves come and possibly leave the religion.
Maybe she didn't really leave the religion. Maybe she is on a mission for them. But I think about any assumption we want to make about the red priesthood is as valid as any other. We have two red priests that we really get a look at and the contrasts between them are dramatic. One or the other (or both) is not representative of the norm. The natural assumption is that Mel is the norm, partly because we knew her well before we really got to know Thoros, and partly because Thoros describes himself in fairly negative terms. But maybe it is typical for a red priest to admit to being flawed and imperfect, while a fanatic like Mel is unusual.
And Illyrio screams of lies, so who knows what he might be hiding.
I think our first good look at Illyrio was through Dany's eyes and she was suspicious of his motives. Dany's assessments are often wrong, but I think she was right in that one. Illyrio may be serving the right cause now (to the extent that one cause can be more good and right and pure), but his motives and his loyalties remain suspect. If he serves the red temple, I suspect that he expects to benefit by his service. But the red priests may value good service over devotional loyalty. Illyrio's gestures toward devotion to the Red God may be just that, and the priests may know that and be satisfied
It is also possible that the red priesthood is divided. Maybe something like Shia and Sunni Islam, or maybe like Catholic and Protestant Christianity, or like Baptist and Presbyterian, or maybe Mel is part of some fanatic order that is useful but a bit suspect.
The brothel in Molestown is definitely distinguished with a red lantern. It's mentioned several times. Samwell also notes a brothel in Braavos named the Cattery that has a doorway lit with a red lantern. Baelish's brothel in King's Landing is noted to have a leaded red glass lamp hanging by the door. Chataya's brothel is noted for red and yellow stained glass windows, but that might be a stretch in the red lantern department. The Molestown reference and Baelish's brothel come in Game of Thrones, so I think this was part of the world that GRRM was attempting to borrow from our real world.
OK. Somehow I missed all of that but it is what I was questioning. So yes, the red light signals a brothel. I still want a door that is actually red, but I'm much more open to the red lamp shining on the door theory with these data points in front of me.
I also wonder if somehow Dany's pregnancy actually helped incubate and hatch the dragons, as if they fed off of her own pregnancy. We know that in Rhaenyra's time there were several dragon hatchlings, both wild and tame.
I think it's hard to imagine that Dany's pregnancy was not somehow related. There is a significant history of putting dragon eggs in cribs and the like. There is Summerhall, where (I think the dominant) theory says a hatching attempt involved the birth of a child. And Dany's pregnancy and her attraction to the eggs seem to be linked. If we believe MMD, Dany's child had dragon-like features. And MMD says the child was a sacrifice, seemingly to heal Drogo, but maybe not just that
Well, had Aerys established this death by fire idea or was Rickard the first?
He had burned a family, I think before Rickard, but we don't know much about that
As to the idea of Reed being a bastard name, I have never heard that before.
It's not original with me, but I kinda liked it. The general idea is that bastard names reflect a major characteristic of the area. So in marsh country, "Reed" would be appropriate. Bastard names, I think, are based more on custom and tradition, so "Snow" might not make sense in the marshes.
So, this idea of Jyana might be false to, but it's what the general belief is. Still, why list her as "of the crannogmen". That is not something that GRRM points out about most of his character's in the appendices, although most of the time he does give women a maiden name for us to connect to. So, he could very well be hiding something with Jyana.
"Of the crannogmen" is odd for a couple reasons. One is that it does not give the usual information about parentage. But it is also strange because that description (I would think) would apply to most of people on the Reed family tree.
Heck, he doesn't even give us a name for Rickard Stark's wife and the mother of his children, children that were pretty important in the fall of the dragon kings. So, that seems like he is hiding something there, as well. We needed to wait until the World Book to get a name and relationship, and that seems odd, considering how developed GRRM is on the backstory of many of his characters, characters that seem less important than Lyarra Stark.
There is obviously a reason he is not giving us that information. It is also odd that he doesn't even give us her name, then he does. Maybe that tells us that whoever is responsible for those family trees didn't have that information for some reason.