I think they’re wights. Barrow-wights, even. 

You tell, because highborn people wear the best of everything, whether that’s armor or courtly dress, because they place their sigils/coats of arms on everything they wear, whether it’s a surcoat over plate mail or a signet ring or a cloak or a piece of jewelry, and because they’re healthy and well-fed when most people aren’t. And most of the time, that works, because most soldiers know that they could get rich by holding a highborn for ransom. 

But it doesn’t always work. Maybe the soldier in question doesn’t recognize the highborn in time because it’s foggy or the mud is covering his armor, or maybe the soldier doesn’t think he can get the prisoner off the battlefield and keep him prisoner (say if he thinks his side might lose the battle, or if it’s a quick-moving skirmish), or maybe his blood is up and the highborn looks like an enemy, or maybe he thinks it’s easier to cut the rings off the finger than risk having his captive be commandeered by a highborn officer of his own…and that’s how knights end up with misericords stuck through the gaps in their armor. 

Yes, although it’s not clear whether it preceded or anteceded the return of the Others. 

We see both salting and smoking used to preserve meat.

Pickling is used for vegetables, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a good bit of preserves-making. 

For drinking, there’s water, beer, ale, wine, etc. 

We don’t know, exactly, but there are a couple possibilities:

1. The Others wanted the wildlings to get to the Wall – either because they might eliminate the Wall’s magical protections in the process of bringing it down (the Joramun Option) or because it’s simply more convenient to have a huge pool of human bodies for the army of the dead closer to hand – and the Great Ranging threatened that. 
2. The Others were after the Horn of Joramun itself, and since Benjen had gotten his hands on it (presumably ahead of Mance through some sort of infiltration mission into the graves that Mance was digging up at the source of the Milkwater) and taken it to the Fist, they went there to retrieve it. This might also explain why that one Other shows up to go after Sam, since he was carrying the horn. 
3. It’s entirely random.
4. There’s some other reason, but we don’t know it. 

warsofasoiaf:

I think @racefortheironthrone would be a better person to answer this question. I’m rather rusty on the Haitian Revolution except for the actual war itself and he’s far better at the history of revolution than I am.

Thanks for the question, Yusuf.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

I’m not an expert in the Haitian Revolution either, but it seems to me that the main difference would be that it probably would have been Toussaint and not Dessalines who led Haiti to independence and then led the new republic. That might have made a significant difference both to policy (Dessalines was more of a Bonapartist and ended up declaring himself Emperor, whereas Toussaint was a Jacobin) and to the stability of the state (since Dessalines’ imperial rule was ended by his assassination, which then led to the division of Haiti between Christophe and

Pétion until Boyer managed to reunite Haiti in 1820).

Another major question is whether a more stable Haiti under

Louverturian lines would have been able to avoid the indemnity that Haiti was forced to pay France starting in 1825, which had long-term negative impacts on Haiti’s economic and political development. 

Agreed. GRRM doesn’t do one-to-one direct parallels; as he put it in an interview:

goodqueenaly:

I think it’s a false distinction to say “this character is X historical figure, and this character is Y historical figure, and never the twain shall meet”. After all, as I explained yesterday in my reasons for comparing Henry Tudor to Young Aegon, there can certainly be characters who draw from multiple historical sources, or historical figures who have parallels in multiple characters. Is it wrong, for example, to say that Cersei has shades of both Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret of Anjou? To summarize very briefly, Elizabeth was a woman considered very beautiful by her contemporaries, eager in the advancement of her relations, who wed the handsome and gregarious warrior-king who had unseated his mad predecessor but, after his death, faced accusations from her husband’s younger brother that her children were illegitimate; Margaret was an ambitious and scheming queen, whose violent and war-hungry son was rumored to be the product of her adulterous affair with a member of her court, and whose greatest rival was a very powerful northern nobleman who had tried, and failed, to seize control of the government. But traces of Margaret can also be seen in Margaery – a teenager from a fertile and chivalric land, raised by an iron-willed and clever grandmother, married to settle a peace between factions hitherto at war. That doesn’t make Margaret any less of a parallel to Cersei, and if you asked me I’d say the better comparison is probably Cersei, but it’s worthwhile to note the parallels in both, and see how GRRM uses the history in multifaceted and interesting ways.

So, in a similar manner, I think it’s more fair to say that I see parallels in Aegon to both Henry Tudor and the typical false pretender narrative. Indeed, the very words of the ask – a king who “crossed the channel with the goal of reclaiming the throne for his seemingly exiled house” – describe precisely what Aegon’s campaign represents, and how he’ll (probably) be crowned. To believe that Aegon cannot be compared to a true pretender because he’s not really the son of Rhaegar seems to me akin to believing, for example, that Stannis’ accusations of illegitimacy cannot be compared to Richard of Gloucester’s accusations accusations of illegitimacy, because Stannis is actually right and Richard was (probably) presenting a fiction; the inspiration remains when the facts have been changed to suit the narrative. Nothing is 1-1 with history in ASOIAF, and I think it does Aegon’s story a disservice to focus solely on his being false without noting the comparisons to the “real” (that is to say, not fabricated) pretender Henry Tudor, both explicit (the dragon banner, the years in exile as the last scion of a dynasty out of power, the Jasper Tudor-like JonCon, the 1485-esque landing) and hidden (the female-line descent from a legitimated royal bastard branch).

– NFriel

“there’s really no one-for-one character-for-character correspondence. I like to use history to flavor my fantasy, to add texture and verisimilitude, but simply rewriting history with the names changed has no appeal for me. I prefer to re-imagine it all, and take it in new and unexpected directions.”

What this means for those of us who like both history and ASOIAF is that you can’t use the outcome of the Wars of the Roses to predict ASOIAF exactly, either in terms of the meta-plot or at the individual character arc level. 

Instead, what’s going on is that GRRM is remixing history, taking bits and pieces and using them in different ways, so that there are characters who have bits and pieces of historical figures – Robb Stark has been compared to Edward IV (military prodigy, handsome young king who goes back on a betrothal and is betrayed by his own) but GRRM has also mentioned Charles XII of Sweden as an inspiration, and his links to the Red Wedding brings in William Douglas – and there are also historical figures who pop up again and again in the narrative. 

In addition to @goodqueenaly‘s point about the ways in which we can see Margaret d’Anjou or Elizabeth Woodville in multiple characters, I would add that we can very clearly see Richard of Gloucester in both Tyrion and Stannis, but you could also say that Tyrion has similarities to Claudius or Justinian II, and GRRM has made comparisons between Stannis and “Henry VII, Tiberius or Louis XI.”

poorquentyn:

chocolatewitchharmony:

goodqueenaly:

poorquentyn:

Nah. Logistics, first of all: there’s no sign of a Rhaegar liaison with Ashara, no reason for him to have a prophetic fixation on her (as opposed to Lyanna, who fit Rhaegar’s “song of ice and fire” framework perfectly), no indication in Ned’s POV, no hints dropped in Dany’s POV, we know Rhaella was pregnant, there were tons of witnesses at Dragonstone, I don’t buy that the motives of anyone involved would lead to this scenario…I could keep going.

Equally as important, though: there’s no reason for this, dramatically speaking. Unlike Jon, there’s no sign as far as I can tell that Dany’s heritage is even supposed to be a mystery. There are no questions that need answering here, no clue from GRRM that the presented story of her conception and birth shouldn’t be trusted, and nothing really to be gained from the revelation in terms of her arc or the larger story. It raises too many questions, and answers none.

Well said! I mean, really. Just compare the very first chapters in the series of Daenerys in Jon. In “Daenerys I”, the author summarizes pretty plainly Daenerys’ life and the circumstances that led the exiled Targaryens to Illyrio’s manse, in a “this is what happened” style. By contrast, Jon’s very first line is about his being a bastard, and in the same first chapter he mentions not knowing who is mother is – an early indication of the mystery of his parentage. Would it really make sense for the author to say “That was a lie, turns out she was Rhaegar’s secret daughter the whole time, gotcha!”?

Actually Dany’s first chapter has a lot of things that are either contradicted by other characters or just don’t make sense to begin with, mainly Willam Darry and house with the with the red door. Everyone points out that lemon tree’s don’t grow in Bravos so the house with the red door would have to be somewhere in Dorne (Starfall Maybe?) 

But that’s not all, Dany says that Willam Darry was a big old bear of a man who was confined to his death bed, but in another characters POV we learn that he was a young warrior who certainly does not fit with what Dany described.

there is definitely something wrong with Dany’s memories of her child hood. Those are are just a couple of examples i listed. 

http://thelasthearth.com/thread/572/dany

There *are* trees in Braavos–they grow in the courtyards of the mighty, as established in Sam III AFFC. Not sure what you’re referring to RE Willem Darry. When is he referred to as being fit while in Braavos?

Regarding Willem Darry: given that Ser Willem was appointed master-at-arms sometime between 270-272 AC, he would have been in his 40s at least when he died in 290 AC. And given that he died of “a wasting sickness,” his physical state near his death isn’t unusual. 

Over time, maybe. The main test would be how to keep the system going after Mance’s own death, tho. 

Yes. Technically he’s arresting her, but he’s doing it very politely.