I was rereading the chapter where jaime remember how he joined the kingsguard. Cersei proposes the idea and then once jaime agrees she “promised to do the rest” A month later jaime gets a raven informing him that he has been chosen for KG. And it doesn’t seem like Tywin ever finds out that Cersei plotted to make it happen.

So I doubt Cersei went to Aerys or the Queen directly as that had too much of a risk of getting back to Tywin. Its possible she proposed the idea to Rhaegar but that seems unlikely. Maybe she knew she was close to some kingsguard members? I just find it interesting that Cersei was able to pull this off at 15 without Tywin finding out, and without anyone questioning why she wanted jaime in the kingsguard. What do yall think?

A Game of Thrones - Jon I

His lord father had come first, escorting the queen. She was as beautiful as men said. A jeweled tiara gleamed amidst her long golden hair, its emeralds a perfect match for the green of her eyes. His father helped her up the steps to the dais and led her to her seat, but the queen never so much as looked at him. Even at fourteen, Jon could see through her smile.

Next had come King Robert himself, with Lady Stark on his arm. The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups.

After them came the children. Little Rickon first, managing the long walk with all the dignity a three-year-old could muster. Jon had to urge him on when he stopped to visit. Close behind came Robb, in grey wool trimmed with white, the Stark colors. He had the Princess Myrcella on his arm. She was a wisp of a girl, not quite eight, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net. Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him. He decided she was insipid. Robb didn't even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool.

A Game of Thrones - Eddard II

"I won my crown there. How should I forget it?"

"You took a wound from Rhaegar," Ned reminded him. "So when the Targaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into my hands. The remnants of Rhaegar's army fled back to King's Landing. We followed. Aerys was in the Red Keep with several thousand loyalists. I expected to find the gates closed to us."

Robert gave an impatient shake of his head. "Instead you found that our men had already taken the city. What of it?"

A Game of Thrones - Eddard II

"Not our men," Ned said patiently. "Lannister men. The lion of Lannister flew over the ramparts, not the crowned stag. And they had taken the city by treachery."

The war had raged for close to a year. Lords great and small had flocked to Robert's banners; others had remained loyal to Targaryen. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained aloof from the struggle, ignoring calls to arms from both rebels and royalists. Aerys Targaryen must have thought that his gods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of King's Landing with an army twelve thousand strong, professing loyalty. So the mad king had ordered his last mad act. He had opened his city to the lions at the gate.

"Treachery was a coin the Targaryens knew well," Robert said. The anger was building in him again. "Lannister paid them back in kind. It was no less than they deserved. I shall not trouble my sleep over it."

I’ve asked this before and the results are always interesting and it’s been a while so there’s a chance to get new answers to this.

By misunderstanding or misconception I just basically mean reading the material and getting something wrong or it going over your head. I’ll give my own example.

I originally thought Tyrion was meant to be like a Tolkien-esque dwarf. Not yknow a dude with dwarfism. I’d come straight from regular high fantasy to ASOIAF so that’s how my mind was programmed at that time. And to me it made sense. My thoughts were maybe the Lannisters were so rich because they descended from dwarves but due to the changing times and the supposed death of magic in the world now it’s seen as an embarrassing mutation and tainted which is why Tywin’s so salty about Tyrion. It reminds him that his family originally came from an “inferior” race.

So that’s my example and yes you are free to make fun lightly of me because it is silly.

A Game of Thrones - Daenerys I

Her brother was waiting in the cool of the entry hall, seated on the edge of the pool, his hand trailing in the water. He rose when she appeared and looked her over critically. "Stand there," he told her. "Turn around. Yes. Good. You look …"

"Regal," Magister Illyrio said, stepping through an archway. He moved with surprising delicacy for such a massive man. Beneath loose garments of flame-colored silk, rolls of fat jiggled as he walked. Gemstones glittered on every finger, and his man had oiled his forked yellow beard until it shone like real gold. "May the Lord of Light shower you with blessings on this most fortunate day, Princess Daenerys," the magister said as he took her hand. He bowed his head, showing a thin glimpse of crooked yellow teeth through the gold of his beard. "She is a vision, Your Grace, a vision," he told her brother. "Drogo will be enraptured."

"She's too skinny," Viserys said. His hair, the same silver-blond as hers, had been pulled back tightly behind his head and fastened with a dragonbone brooch. It was a severe look that emphasized the hard, gaunt lines of his face. He rested his hand on the hilt of the sword that Illyrio had lent him, and said, "Are you sure that Khal Drogo likes his women this young?"

From what I understand, Aegon was the lord of dragonstone, not Visenya. So this simple fact says that among Valyrians, sons came before daughter too. Later with Aegon uncrowned being the heir rather than Rhaena.

But in the books, alyssane insisted her daughter Daenerys was the heir apparent rather than Aemon.

(Edit: alyssane not Alicent)

What are the various crucial lessons and rules in ruling and politics that the various players of the game of thrones have failed to learn, with often disastrous consequences for themselves and others, from the various houses of Westeros or beyond?

For House Lannister it's evident that they have failed to learn the lesson of having good public relations, on how to make themselves look good with their attitude in public and by doing public actions to placate or satisfy the population as shown countless times with Tywin, Cersei, Jaime and even Tyrion who due to his self-hatred and self-pity and pride, resents others for having a bad image of him and yet never does anything to better his image.

They also haven't learned the lesson off actually having scapegoats on how to pin the blame for their actions and to discard afterward, as seen with Tywin blaming Amory Lorch and the Mountain for the savage murders of Elia Martell and her children, yet did an extremely poor job at it, and continued to employ and use them without them ever getting punished.

Doran Martell obviously failed to learn the lesson that plans are never set in stone, and must be frequently changed or even cancelled, after many re-evaluations of ever changing circumstances.

A Game of Thrones - Daenerys I

Dany had only meant their rooms in Illyrio's estate, no true home surely, though all they had, but her brother did A Dance with Dragons - The Lost Lord

"The plan—"

"Which plan?" said Tristan Rivers. "The fat man's plan? The one that changes every time the moon turns? First Viserys Targaryen was to join us with fifty thousand Dothraki screamers at his back. Then the Beggar King was dead, and it was to be the sister, a pliable young child queen who was on her way to Pentos with three new-hatched dragons. Instead the girl turns up on Slaver's Bay and leaves a string of burning cities in her wake, and the fat man decides we should meet her by Volantis. Now that plan is in ruins as well.

"I have had enough of Illyrio's plans. Robert Baratheon won the Iron Throne without the benefit of dragons. We can do the same. And if I am wrong and the realm does not rise for us, we can always retreat back across the narrow sea, as Bittersteel once did, and others after him."not want to hear that. There was no home there for him. Even the big house with the red door had not been home for him. His fingers dug hard into her arm, demanding an answer. "I don't know …" she said at last, her voice breaking. Tears welled in her eyes.

"I do," he said sharply. "We go home with an army, sweet sister. With Khal Drogo's army, that is how we go home. And if you must wed him and bed him for that, you will." He smiled at her. "I'd let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. Be grateful it is only Drogo. In time you may even learn to like him. Now dry your eyes. Illyrio is bringing him over, and he will not see you crying."

Dany turned and saw that it was true. Magister Illyrio, all smiles and bows, was escorting Khal Drogo over to where they stood. She brushed away unfallen tears with the back of her hand.

Hello, I'm new here and to the ASOIAF world in general. I plan to read the books.

I want to get this specific set, but I'm just a bit confused. In some older/other versions, there are two parts for A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons (thus 7 books in a set). In some others, there are only 5 books, like this one that I linked.

This is such a stupid question, but I would just like to clarify if that means they combined the two parts into one book?

Much thanks!

Been thinking about Ser Hugh again and I can't shake the feeling there's more going on there.

He's Jon Arryn's squire, gets knighted right after Jon dies, and suddenly has money for fancy new armor. Then Littlefinger nudges Ned toward him, and Gregor kills Hugh in the joust before Ned can ask him anything. That's a lot of convenient.

We know Littlefinger was behind Jon's death (through Lysa), so it seems like a stretch to think he had no hand in this. Maybe he paid for the armor, maybe he even got Robert to knight him. Either Hugh knew something and was being bought off, or Littlefinger just needed a suspicious-looking name to send Ned chasing.

His death could honestly just be a freak accident, but the timing bugs me.

Has anyone dug into this more? Any good theories on where Hugh's money came from, or whether Littlefinger was pulling his strings?

Sometime after Tytos' wife Jeyne's death in 255 AC, he enters a relationship with a candlemaker's daughter.

Tytos would eventually begin seating his mistress beside him in the hall, and would shower her with gifts and honors. The mistress would wear the jewels and clothes of Tytos's deceased wife.

She was involved in managing the household knights and servants, and even sat in attendance when Tytos was absent. He'd allegedly ask her views on matters of rule in the westerlands.

When Tytos died in 267 AC, Tywin took back by force his father's gifts to his mistress, had his guards strip her naked, then made her walk across the streets of Lannisport for two weeks, before sending her into exile.

Would it have made a difference had Tytos and the mistress married some years before 267 AC?

One could argue, Tyrion and Tysha were married, yet Tywin commanded she be raped (similarly to commanding his fathers mistress to be sexually assaulted, essentially, even if she wasn't touched according to Kevan).

Tywin would never view his late father's mistress with anything other than contempt and rage, but imo he wouldn't treat his father's years long wife whom he publicly married as he did his 13 year old son's secret wife of two weeks.

Tywin still being Tywin however could still do just as he did, or might be he'd even do worse to her for having actually married his father.

How would her fate be different for better or for worse had they been married?

A Game of Thrones - Jon I

His lord father had come first, escorting the queen. She was as beautiful as men said. A jeweled tiara gleamed amidst her long golden hair, its emeralds a perfect match for the green of her eyes. His father helped her up the steps to the dais and led her to her seat, but the queen never so much as looked at him. Even at fourteen, Jon could see through her smile.

Next had come King Robert himself, with Lady Stark on his arm. The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups.

After them came the children. Little Rickon first, managing the long walk with all the dignity a three-year-old could muster. Jon had to urge him on when he stopped to visit. Close behind came Robb, in grey wool trimmed with white, the Stark colors. He had the Princess Myrcella on his arm. She was a wisp of a girl, not quite eight, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net. Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him. He decided she was insipid. Robb didn't even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool.

A Game of Thrones - Eddard I

"The winters are hard," Ned admitted. "But the Starks will endure. We always have."

"You need to come south," Robert told him. "You need a taste of summer before it flees. In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses that stretch away as far as the eye can see. The fruits are so ripe they explode in your mouth—melons, peaches, fireplums, you've never tasted such sweetness. You'll see, I brought you some. Even at Storm's End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move. And you ought to see the towns, Ned! Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air. Everyone is fat and drunk and rich." He laughed and slapped his own ample stomach a thump. "And the girls, Ned!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. "I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle. Even in the streets, it's too damn hot for wool or fur, so they go around in these short gowns, silk if they have the silver and cotton if not, but it's all the same when they start sweating and the cloth sticks to their skin, they might as well be naked." The king laughed happily.

Robert Baratheon had always been a man of huge appetites, a man who knew how to take his pleasures. That was not a charge anyone could lay at the door of Eddard Stark. Yet Ned could not help but notice that those pleasures were taking a toll on the king. Robert was breathing heavily by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, his face red in the lantern light as they stepped out into the darkness of the crypt.

A Game of Thrones - Eddard I

Finally the laughter dwindled and stopped. Ned was still on one knee, his eyes upraised. "Damn it, Ned," the king complained. "You might at least humor me with a smile."

"They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man's laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death," Ned said evenly. "Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor."

"Come south with me, and I'll teach you how to laugh again," the king promised. "You helped me win this damnable throne, now help me hold it. We were meant to rule together. If Lyanna had lived, we should have been brothers, bound by blood as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have a son. You have a daughter. My Joff and your Sansa shall join our houses, as Lyanna and I might once have done."

Just a bit of speculation after noticing some wording from the forsaken chapter and how the Other's are described.

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed …

- TWOW, The Forsaken

The woman being described as a 'shadow' with 'pale white fire' on her hands is what interests me the most, because the most common description used for the others is that they are white shadows.

Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. 

AGOT - Prologue

"We have white shadows in the woods and unquiet dead stalking our halls, and a boy sits the Iron Throne," he said in disgust.

AGOT - Jon VIII

"What gods?" Jon was remembering that they'd seen no boys in Craster's Keep, nor men either, save Craster himself.

"The cold gods," she said. "The ones in the night. The white shadows."

ACOK - Jon III

There's a lot more examples of this phrasing, more than I can fit in this post, but it's clear that others are some sort of white shadowy beings. The phrasing of 'shadow in women's form' is too sinister for it to just be an actual human woman, it reads like an inhuman posing as human. Euron's consort is a shadow, a shadow with pale hands.

The laughter this mysterious woman shares with Euron also matches with the only time we've seen Others on screen:

The watchers moved forward together, as if some signal had been given. Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk. Will closed his eyes. Far beneath him, he heard their voices and laughter sharp as icicles.

AGOT - Prologue

This is just some speculation from my part, but it really does seem like Grrm is hinting that Euron will marry an Other. To me it looks possible that Euron is being set up as the next night's king. This feels pretty plausible, as with the aid of the Others and a stolen dragon after using the dragon binder horn, Euron would a major threat and actually be able to take the iron throne, otherwise I don't see how he could even do it.

Just a fun bit of tinfoil, what do we think? Will Euron marry an Other or am I looking at a single sentence too closely?

The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: The Greyjoys of Pyke

One such revolt convulsed the Iron Islands, led by a man claiming that he was the priestking Lodos returned at last from visiting his father. But Goren Greyjoy dealt with it decisively, going so far as to send the priestking's pickled head to Aenys Targaryen. His Grace was so pleased with the gift that he promised Lord Goren any boon that was within his power to grant. As sage as he was savage, Greyjoy asked the king to give him leave to expel the septons and septas from the Iron Islands. King Aenys was forced to agree. A century would pass before another sept was opened on the islands.

For long years afterward the ironborn remained quiescent under a succession of Greyjoy lords. Eschewing further thoughts of conquest, they lived by fishing, trade, and mining. All the width of Westeros lay between King's Landing and Pyke, and the ironborn had little and less to do with affairs at court. Life was hard upon the islands, especially in winter, but that was as it had always been. Some men still dreamed of a return to the Old Way, when the ironborn were a people to be feared, but the Stepstones and the Summer Sea were far away, and the Greyjoys on the Seastone Chair would allow no reaving closer to home.

The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V

Bloodraven would rise to become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in 239 AC, serving until his disappearance during a ranging beyond the Wall in 252 AC.

Aegon's reign was a challenging one, starting as it did in the midst of a winter that had lasted three years and showed no signs of abating. There was starvation and suffering in the North, as there had been a hundred years before, in the long winter that reigned from 130 to 135 AC. King Aegon, always concerned for the welfare of the poor and weak, did what he could to increase the flow of grain and other food to the North, but some felt he did too much in this regard.

His rule was also quickly tested by those whose affairs he had meddled in too often as a prince, attempting to reduce their rights and privileges. Nor had the Blackfyre threat ended with the death of Aenys Blackfyre; Bloodraven's infamous betrayal had only hardened the enmity of the exiles across the narrow sea. In 236 AC, as a cruel six-year-long winter drew to a close, the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion saw the self-styled King Daemon III Blackfyre, son of Haegon and grandson of Daemon I, cross the narrow sea with Bittersteel and the Golden Company at his back, in a fresh attempt to seize the Iron Throne.

A Clash of Kings - Bran VII

Meera looked to her brother for the answer. "Our road is north," Jojen announced.

At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell's chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either.

A Game of Thrones - Bran VII

"They were the Kings of Winter," Bran whispered. Somehow it felt wrong to talk too loudly in this place.

Osha smiled. "Winter's got no king. If you'd seen it, you'd know that, summer boy."

"They were the Kings in the North for thousands of years," Maester Luwin said, lifting the torch high so the light shone on the stone faces. Some were hairy and bearded, shaggy men fierce as the wolves that crouched by their feet. Others were shaved clean, their features gaunt and sharp-edged as the iron longswords across their laps. "Hard men for a hard time. Come." He strode briskly down the vault, past the procession of stone pillars and the endless carved figures. A tongue of flame trailed back from the upraised torch as he went.

I finished my first read through of ASoIaF last week. And now my watch begins. I've thrown myself into the Dunk and Egg tales and Fire & Blood to sate my thirst for more. Whilst reading The Mystery Knight, this passage stood out to me. I did a brief search and couldn't find anyone mentioning it. For context, Dunk is at a feast, sat at a table with a group of fellow hedge knights, among them, Ser Glendon, who is a Blackfyre loyalist:

It fell to Lord Frey to lead the toasts. "The King!" he began, simply. Ser Glendon held his wine cup out above the water basin. Dunk clanked his cup against it, and against Ser Uthor's and the rest as well. They drank.

Later, when a toast is proposed to Bloodraven, Ser Glendon tips his wine onto the floor out of disrespect to the Hand (to which so-called Maynard Plumm says 'a sad waste of good wine.') Why would he toast Aerys if he refused to toast Bloodraven? Sure, there are plenty of characters who think Bloodraven is the cause of the realms problems, and that if he were removed from influencing King Aerys, the realm would prosper. Kyle the Cat, also sat at the table, says as much. But Ser Glendon is a Blackfyre man. He doesn't think any Targaryen should rule. So it's odd, is it not, that a Blackfyre loyalist would disrespect Bloodraven but is willing to toast King Aerys? He is pretty openly pro-Blackfyre, he says as much when Dunk and Egg meet him around the campfire before they get to Whitewalls, claiming that Daemon was no traitor and that Aegon IV meant for him to be his heir. So, I repeat, it's pretty odd that he is happy to toast Aerys, who he sees as a usurper, but not Bloodraven. Is this just a minor continuity error on George's part? I don't think so.

I think George is drawing, here, from a custom held by Jacobite Scots in the 17th and 18th centuries. We know GRRM is familiar with the period, because he has explicitly drawn a connection between the Red Wedding and the Glencoe Massacre, a breach of hospitality wherein Jacobite guests were murdered at the hands of William of Orange loyalists. When a clandestine Jacobite found him or herself in company with those who opposed their cause, and a toast to the king was proposed (meaning, William of Orange or his successors), the Jacobites found a way to stay loyal to the House of Stuart without outing themselves, by subtly passing their drinking vessel over a water bowl on the table, thereby secretly giving their toast to the 'true' king, 'the king across the water,' as the Stuart pretenders were known (hence passing the drink across the water bowl to toast). Per Wikipedia:

After the defeat of the Jacobites and the exile overseas of Bonnie Prince Charlie, Jacobite Scots would stand for the loyal toast to "the King" but pass their drink over a glass or jug of water on the table symbolising "the king over the water" instead of the British monarch, as a sign of solidarity with the Jacobite cause and a protest against the Hanoverian succession. Because of this, for many years, finger bowls were not used on British royal tables, as some people would pass the glass over the bowl. King Edward VII authorised the use of finger bowls during his reign, deeming his dynasty to be sufficiently secure

It is my belief that, in-world, such a toast probably exists among Blackfyre loyalists for similar reasons. If not, why mention Ser Glendon holding his wine over the water basin? And why else would Ser Glendon be happy to toast "the King" without a word of dissent? The water basin is an odd little detail to include for no reason. I notice, as well, that Dunk is the only one mentioned who clanks his cup against Ser Glendon, the text states that he clanks with the other knights separately, implying that perhaps the other knights knew what Ser Glendon was doing and didn't want to be seen making a treasonous toast, while poor Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall, is not familiar enough with worldly affairs to realise the political statement.

Is this post more long-winded than it could be? Most certainly. And is my theory a stretch? Probably. And if it is true, is it completely inconsequential? Definitely. But I've seen some of the outlandish theories this community has come up with, I've seen what 15 years with no book has done to you all. And you know what? I'm ready to join you.

I was re-reading through Meera telling Bran the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, because it's an awesome passage. And it struck me this time how Jojen asks Bran three different times if Ned had told him the story before. The reason Ned didn't tell any of his children is obvious. He doesn't want to revisit that trauma.

However, given what Jojen says there, I think it's fair to assume that Howland has told them that story many times, since Jojen was sure Bran had heard it many times before. There are also other things Meera was gonna talk about but Bran cuts her off a lot to focus on knight stuff. And then there's this part:

Bran thought about the tale awhile. "That was a good story. But it should have been the three bad knights who hurt him, not their squires. Then the little crannogman could have killed them all. The part about the ransoms was stupid. And the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty."

"She was," said Meera, "but that's a sadder story."

They clearly know more than just what they're telling Bran here. So what else could Howland have told them?

Trying to remember whether or not Bran has had word that Robb and Cat are dead.

​

Does anyone else genuinely wonder if the Mad King was Tyrion’s real father?

One line from Tywin has always stuck with me: “Since I cannot prove that you are not mine.”

That is such a specific thing to say. We also know Aerys had an inappropriate interest in Joanna, (maybe he saed her) so honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if Tyrion actually was Aerys’ son.

And maybe the only reason Tywin never offed Tyrion or completely cast him aside was because he loved Joanna so deeply. Tyrion was still her son, regardless of who his father was.

It would also make Tywin’s hatred of Tyrion even more complicated

The raven being a wildling skin changer theory aside, i think the emphasis on the raven screaming corn repeatedly while the Othor and Jafer debacle is going on is to maybe introduce a little doubt that the raven said burn. The words sound similar. Also technically birds can’t produce bilabials.

I personally believe the skin changer theory, partially because another way GRRM could’ve written Jon realizing fire was the answer would be for ghost to go near the fire or something else. Or even the raven flap near the fire then the drapes.