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LChris24

Full Circle Death Quotes in ASOIAF (Spoilers Extended)

EXTENDED

While GRRM loves to use certain repetitions of words or phrases, I thought it would be fun in this post to speculate on which quotes could foreshadow/be tied to a character's death in TWoW (which should be an extremely dark book with lots of death and suffering).

Past Examples

Note: There are many examples of this, so I am just going to list a few, this is not mean to be all inclusive, as the focus of this post is the following section (characters in TWoW)

Tywin Lannister

A fool more foolish than most had once jested that even Lord Tywin's shit was flecked with gold. Some said the man was still alive, deep in the bowels of Casterly Rock. -AGOT, Tyrion VII

and:

For once, his father did what Tyrion asked him. The proof was the sudden stench, as his bowels loosened in the moment of death. Well, he was in the right place for it, Tyrion thought. But the stink that filled the privy gave ample evidence that the oft-repeated jape about his father was just another lie.

Lord Tywin Lannister did not, in the end, shit gold. -ASOS, Tyrion VII

and GRRM's thoughts:

Question: Were circumstances and timing of Tywin's death something you planned for a long time or another case of characters "taking intiative", like with Cat?

GRRM: That scene was largely written even before A CLASH OF KINGS was published. Hell, I'd been setting up that "Lord Tywin shits gold" line since his very first appearance in A GAME OF THRONES.

Robb Stark

While there are numerous quotes, etc. that foreshadow the Red Wedding, what Jaime/Roose discuss here:

You will give my warm regards to your father?"

"So long as you give mine to Robb Stark." -ASOS, Jaime VI

is repeated:

A man in dark armor and a pale pink cloak spotted with blood stepped up to Robb. "Jaime Lannister sends his regards." He thrust his longsword through her son's heart, and twisted. -ASOS, Catelyn VII

TWoW

Raff the Sweetling (confirmed)

Back in ACOK, Raff the Sweetling (one of the Mountain's Men) kills Lommy Greenhands:

"Can you walk?" He sounded concerned.

"No," said Lommy. "You got to carry me."

"Think so?" The man lifted his spear casually and drove the point through the boy's soft throat. Lommy never even had time to yield again. He jerked once, and that was all. When the man pulled his spear loose, blood sprayed out in a dark fountain. "Carry him, he says," he muttered, chuckling. -ACOK, Arya V

and when he later dies in Braavos, Arya repeats this:

"You'll need to carry me."

See? thought Mercy. You know your line, and so do I.

Think so?" asked Arya, sweetly.

Raff the Sweetling looked up sharply as the long thin blade came sliding from her sleeve. She slipped it through his throat beneath the chin, twisted, and ripped it back out sideways with a single smooth slash. A fine red rain followed, and in his eyes the light went out. -TWOW, Mercy

Alliser Thorne

I've theorized before that Alliser Thorne could return as a wight/remember Jon Snow:

Then you could hack off my head, same as you did for Slynt. I'll not give you that pleasure, bastard. You'd best pray that it's a wildling blade that kills me, though. The ones the Others kill don't stay dead … and they remember. I'm coming back, Lord Snow."

"I pray you do." Jon would never count Ser Alliser Thorne amongst his friends, but he was still a brother. No one ever said you had to like your brothers. -ADWD, Jon VI

It should be noted that with Jon Snow's "death" the alternate (in some ways) could happen as well.

Arya Stark

GRRM originally stated that Arya is one of the 5 main characters to "survive until the end" (fwiw old outline quote) and his wife would kill him if he killed off Arya, that said this quote is a banger (obviously not in TWoW):

You'll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers." -AGOT, Arya I

As I mentioned, The Winds of Winter is going to be an extremely dark book, one in which plenty of characters we like are going to die/do things that we don't enjoy.

If interested: Reading "Death" in TWOW is going to be different

How about you, are there any quotes in the series that you think are going to come "full circle" to how the character dies in The Winds of Winter?

Posted Dec 6, 2022, 12:54 PM UTC

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