SPOILERS!! ASTRONOMY IN ASOIAF!

Man, I was already enjoying this post and then you deftly inserted some time travel right at the end there... well played.

What's interesting is that this theory, which is basically arrived at by logical deduction, comes out fairly close to what I am starting to see as a prediction generated by my astronomy research: that the comet has a date with the remaining moon, the theoretical "Ice Moon", and that this collision will somehow result in the fall of the Wall (most likely one of the meteors generated by this collision would fall to earth and hit the Wall).  What I am seeing is that the major events play out in the sky and the earth in some kind of matching pattern; the hammer was called from the Gods Eye, both on earth and in the sky. The Walll seems like an avatar for the ice moon, so I figure if the ice moon bits the dust, the Wall will too... and of course many think the breaching of the Wall is a bit of a Chekov's gun, much like the seemingly inevitable return of the Long Night for true (not just winter, but blotted out sun). I also figure that if a comet - moon collision caused the last LN, it might cause the next one too. 

The collapse or perhaps melting / vaporization of the Wall would certainly create a flood. I think this has been foreshadowed, specifically:

The streaks of red fire turning to black ice is found in the cracks in the Wall, which is also where we saw the blue rose. I tend to think RLJ is true, so I am seeing both as a representation of Jon. This is corroborated by the fact that when Jon dreams of manning the Wall as an Azor Ahai figure, the is armored in black ice while his sword burns red. Black ice, red fire: it's like the Targaryen sigil, but frozen.

It's also evocative of a meteor - a streak of red fire - triggering rivers of black ice.  The second quote comes in the same chapter, or the one right after (I forget which), and seems to emphasize the idea of deteriorating ice leading to a flood and drowning. 

There's another kind of weird angle about flooding and the Others. Of course the Others are like moonlight on pond water, and they melt when stabbed with frozen fire. Certainly you could see the dragonglass as a stand in for the meteors, and the others are definitely avatars of the ice moon, if I am right about the whole ice and fire moon thing. But going further, there's kind of weird implication of the Others coming from under the sea, by way of a scene on the Fist of the First men, where Jon looks out at the darkening wood at sunset, and it seems like a green sea, and he thinks about how ANYTHING AT ALL could moving under that canopy, and he thinks about shadows emerging form the trees. The image created is of the Others coming from under the water. That's probably not intended to be the meaning, as I don't think the Others came from the sea, but they ARE, on some level, frozen water, so... 

As to the Heart of Winter - I believe that the heart of winter is directly connected to the ice moon, that they have a direct magical relationship. So to for "the Shadow," which I think used to be a "heart of summer" - it was magically tethered to the fire moon. Perhaps that's part of the "hinges of the world" idea, although this seems like it may be a more general description for any sort of magical hot spot. In any case, at first I thought a meteor must have struck Asshai, perhaps the one of the three which seems to have exploded into a firestorm of smaller meteors (the dragon meteor shower described in the Qarthine myth). But if the hearts are connected to the moon, it may not be so. The destruction of the fire moon may be the cause of the shadow. All of the fire magic we see from Mel and the R'hllorists and Azor Ahai seems awfully shady, or shadowy, to me. In fact all of the research into Azor Ahai and his sword, and I mean every single bit of it, tells me that his sword was the Nightbringer, not the Lightbringer. Drinking light, drinking fire, drinking Nissa's blood and soul. I have connected the dragon meteors of the moon's destruction with the greasy black stone (here's my full theory on that). Drogon and Balerion, with their black fire shot with red, are perfect avatars of Azor Ahai, as is the concept of Aegon in black armor wielding the sword "Blackfyre" (black fire). Basically, I'm saying magical fire seems very black and shadowy, while ice magic is all bright, pale, white shadows, pale shadows, reflecting light like crystal, etc etc. The reason for this, based on my reading of the text, is that the fire moon's destruction corrupted the heart of summer and thus fire magic on Planetos. It's George's tip o the hat to Robert Jordan and the "taint." *chuckle chuckle* 

WeaselPie, if you're still reading, I'm getting to the point. I've long had a hole in my theory where it concerns the ice moon and the heart of winter. I knew that somehow, one of these moon meteors or comet fragments must have interacted with the ice moon or the heart of winter... The black moon meteors seem associated with magical toxicity and necromancy (the Bloodstone Emperor's 7 sins included necromancy, the magical crossbreeding horrors of Gorgai / Gorgossos next to the Isle of Toads with its greasy stone statue). In Lovecraft's writings, there are several versions of a space meteor coming to earth and causing very horrific and toxic effects, including one that drains all color and life from the land, leeching it slowly, driving people insane, and leaving behind a "grey waste." If the greasy black stone is moon meteor stone, then you can see the connection.

What I think George is doing here is depicting a violation of the natural order. We have so much emphasis on the cycles of the seasons, which parallel the cycle of death and rebirth, and of the solar cycle of sunrise, daylight, sunset, night. Maiden, mother, crone, stranger.  Springs, Summer, Fall, Winter. Much emphasis is placed on balance, and maintaining the cycle. Death is not evil; it's just a part of life. What is EVIL is stopping the cycle. Necromancy and the Long Night are the same thing - stopping the cycle, stuck on winter and death. Hence, all forms of un-life, undying, wights, Others, Shadowbinders who have presumably transformed themselves through fire as Melisandre is doing, and the opposite process with ice (the Night's Queen, I think) - all of these are violations of the life cycle. And I think they all connect to the moon meteors. 

And so, I think that what has happened is that a black moon meteor, post comet - fire moon explosion, has lodged itself inside of the ice moon. I've oufnd symbolic representations of this, *I think,* and it explains a lot about the Others and the Heart of Winter. The Ice Moon wasn't destroyed, but it has an inner fire, a corrupted, necromantic fire. This is why the Others have internal fire - those burning blue star eyes, It's a different spin on "frozen fire," as if the Others swallowed some shadow fire and froze it. But it animated them, and made their cold burn. Some thing like that. 

Voice, I hope you are reading this. 

This idea would find a parallel if there turns out to be some black stone under the Wall, as some have already speculated. I'm not sure if there is literally a black meteor in the heart of winter also, or if the one in the moon is enough. It's hard to interpret things down to that level with any certainty, of course. But the general concept, i think has merit - a black fire moon meter lodged in the ice, animating with necromantic fire. 

This idea would also have a parallel in the Night's King. Stannis gives us the model - a fire person, and Azor Ahai archetype, who turns shadowy and cold, ending his life as a Night's King archetype. Many have picked up on the Night's King / Stannis shared symbolism, and I think George is telling us something about the Night''s King. I don't know if Azor Ahai himself ended his life as the Night's King (a warrior who knew no fear), or if the son of Azor Ahai (probably the Last hero) ended his life as the Night's King. Celestially, Azor Ahai is the sun, Nissa the moon, and the moon meteors their children, representing Lightbringer. If a moon meteor, post explosion, is what inserted itself into the ice moon, that would most closely parallel the idea of the son of Azor Ahai turning into the Night's King and "inserting" himself into the other maiden cold as ice and pale as the moon. 

This is the basic two moons pattern, repeating all over the place: Solar king with an ice and fire bride. First, solar king impregnate the fire bride, who dies young. Second, impregnates the ice bride. Aegon = solar king, Rhaenys = fire bride, Visenya = Ice bride. Rhaegar, Elia, and Lyanna (sorry guys). Jon has Ygritte, and then symbolically in a couple of scenes, Val. Dany, post Drogo and dragon birth, does it too - Daario is her fire bride, and Hidahr of the frozen cock and tepid kisses her ice bride. There are more but you get the idea. So, AA becoming the NK fits the same pattern, but the son of AA impregnating the NK is almost the same thing. The black meteor impregnating the ice moon.

If this is true, then we need a cure. We need to get that nasty black meteor out of the ice moon. How to do this? The comet returns, hits the ice moon, and blows off its icy crust and ocean of water. Ice moons like Europa or Encledes are mostly rock, with a world ocean and an icy crust outer layer. So, when the comet hits, it might strip the ice and water and leave a non-magical, rocky moon. A skull with the flesh boiled off, if you will. This would translate on earth... as a flood. <e;ting of ice - maybe just the Wall, maybe the big glacier in winter's heart. Maybe the Wall DOESN'T melt, and gets to fulfill its purpose as a dam as the Heart of Winter glacier melts.

So, now do you feel like the meltwater flood theory seems less or more crazy?

I actually like LmL's astronomy theory very much...it's a fully fleshed theory that I had also recognized myself back in 2012 on Heresy. I just don't agree with some of the identifications, chiefly that Jon is Rhaegar's son, amongst others.

I don't have an issue with Ygritte being a fire symbol. One of the things I noticed about Jon's trip north of the Wall, is that Martin is making a subtle reference to Kipling's Jungle book. I'll go into it in another thread sometime, but in the Jungle Book, Mowgli protects himself from the wolf pack with a firebrand.   In Martin's story, Jon is protected from the other Wildlings by his firebrand, Ygritte.

I do agree that Jon (or at least part of Jon) will be resurected through fire.  I think we'll find in the next book that Jon has both warged into Ghost, and his body will be resurected in flame.  His positive attributes in Ghost, and his negative, shadow self, resurected in fire.  This explains what Dany saw in the Mirri's blood magic tent.  Two shadows: a giant wolf and a man wreathed in flame.

That's a very interesting idea - so you're theorizing Jon remains split, as opposed to being recombined? I've been thinking Jons soul would merge a bit with Ghost, and the wild body would be slain to force the unified Jon-Ghost back into a resurrected body (resurrected either though cold or fire, or whatever happens when a greenseer breaks the rules and tried to call the dead back to life. But the idea of bifurcated Jon is pretty interesting. Do you think they ultimately remain split, or eventually recombined?

To further the sword metaphor, when Jon becomes Lord Commander he takes up chambers in Castle Black's armory where the other weapons are stored.

By the way, Voice, I interpret Dany drinking from the cup of ice and fire as the COMET impregnating the fire moon and then the ice moon. Dany is no longer a moon maiden at this point in the story, having been reborn as the last dragon in solar king Drogo's pyre. She's now like that second half of the comet which appeared to emerge from the sun-moon conflagration, and she has a date with the cup of ice. I think Daario and Hizdahr represent a mini-drama version of this, but ultimately Drogo and Jon could be the more important fire and ice brides for Dany. I've seen George do this often, where he plays out the pattern in both very insignificant ways and very significant ones. Sansa and Petyr, for example, act out a lightbringer forging when Petyr is feeding her various foods at their stop on the fingers (a split in half blood orange, a pomegranate (persephone / captured moon maiden reference, etc). This doesn't mean Petyr is Azor Ahai, only that he plays the role for that scene to make the metaphor.

Just want to say yup. Jon arrives at the Wall with the smell of summer on him. He then takes up residence in the cold forge, as all memory of warmth flees from him. I just brought this up in the Prologue thread, so it's fresh on my mind, but Jon identifies himself as a sword in his very first chapter:
You'll hear no argument from me that George repeats and reuses his own tropes quite often. But, I do disagree regarding Dany. Rather than the comet impregnating moons, Dany is the pregnant moon. Drogo knocks her up, and she incubates dragon eggs. She wants to be called mother, wants to be a mother, but is ever doomed to be alone, like the moon.

I would propose that the moon is only maiden as it is waxing. It then enjoys the briefest of adulthoods before aging (waning) as a crone. Then, after a brief period of death, it returns, and flowers all over again. These extremities might appear as distinct as ice and fire...but rather than identify two separate states or entities, I believe they are but temporary moments along a single, greater cycle.

Or, in Dany's words, "I was a child yesterday. Today I am a woman. Tomorrow I will be old."

She's the pregnant moon right up until she births the dragons, and is transformed by fire. According to your theory, after the unitary moon is struck and gives birth to dragons, it should freeze over and turn to an ice moon. But Dany never does this

instead, after the dragon birthing, she is the "Last Dragon," a king in her own right. She wears the white lion pelt - a solar symbol, clearly - to remind people that Drogo's strength lives inside her.

She leads her people like a comet / wanderer, and the copulates with a distinctly fire associated person, Daario, and then with Hizdahr, who's cock is like in ice in her dream and is known for his "tepid kisses."

She's no longer pregnant after the dragon birthing.

She has become the Khaleesi, and as much as she longs to be the Mhysa, she cannot, for that is not her nature. She is the Last dragon... the last...