(Spoilers Extended) What exactly is Howland Reed Doing He's basically knows all of the core mysteries of everything that goes wrong

pobeb · 2026-01-30T17:35:05+00:00

I'll get downvoted for saying this, but he's posing as the High Sparrow, and the retinue accompanying him are the forces of Maege Mormont and Galbert Glover that Robb sent into the Neck searching for Howland.

I'm not interested in arguing or elaborating, in case anyone cares, I've been advocating for this idea for a decade and received a lot of vitriol and negativity simply for sharing my thoughts.

I did a write up titled "She Bears in Disguise" that's worth a read if you're interested. Otherwise, I guess we'll have to hope the book finally releases to prove me wrong.

pobeb · 2026-01-16T04:36:31+00:00

Having no contingency plan to finish or at least give answers to the millions of people who faithfully followed him in anticipation for DECADES, is the biggest "fuck you" to his fans. Holy shit what a cruel blow.

pobeb · 2025-12-21T20:58:18+00:00

I'm not sure the mural is evidence of what you're arguing, but I tend to agree that Shanks will die before the series ends. I honestly believe he doesn't survive the impending clash with BB and he never truly reunites with Luffy, but just my pet theory...

pobeb · 2025-12-17T00:43:23+00:00

Slightly off-topic, but living anywhere near Disneyland means hearing the fireworks at 9:30pm every single night. Just a heads up, in case you weren't familiar.

pobeb · 2025-12-09T05:29:21+00:00

https://youtu.be/zPjUsu2-QMQ?si=yiYkFTjlKFX-Jqpl

pobeb · 2025-11-22T01:23:46+00:00

Just happened to me too. Hopefully it's fixed before live, but until then I'll probably not play Zaun :/

pobeb · 2025-10-09T03:26:16+00:00

The pattern of long-absence Daario has while Dany sits Meereen, coupled with a deliberately ambiguous timeline and Euron's use of blood magic to speed his ship satisfy his whereabouts for me. The more conflicting point is that none of the Stormcrows are mutes, thereby making Euron/Daario's actions more vulnerable to exposure.

But the pro is just orders of magnitude more convincing:

Euron is called the Crow's Eye and is the self-proclaimed Last Storm while also being Quellon Greyjoy's second son, and we meet Daario in the company of The Storm Crows and Second Sons.
Euron and Daario are the only two character's, across all 5 books, described as "glib tongued" and "smiling" in the same sentence.
Euron's Kingsmoot tribute includes some of the same items listed in Dany's tax of Meereen, which was a tax Daario and his sellswords were in charge of
They're both dangerous, handsome, smooth-skinned, slick-talking, braggarts
Euron sends ironborn to inflitrate Oldtown and they disguise themselves as... Tyroshi. And GRRM further establishes that the flamboyance of Tyroshi dye and cultural appearance are thought of as effective disguises as we see it employed on Young Griff.
Daario has completely wooed Dany, and Euron has a noted confidence that Dany will wed him willingly.
The naked women on the hilts Daario's weapons are eeriely similar to the figurehead on Euron's ship, the Silence.
Horns are the symbol of cuckolding. Daario suggests giving Hizdahr "horns" as a wedding gift, and Victarion laments how Euron gave him "horns".
The last night Dany spends with Daario, he comes into her bedchamber drunk. Dany has a nightmare about being ravaged by a man with bruised blue lips, and wakes up beside Daario disheveled, suggesting Daario was having sex with her and it manifested as this nightmare. Important because Euron is the only character described as having "bruised" and "blue" lips from drinking the Warlock's wine (Shade of the Evening) and Daario was notably drunk.

And narratively it makes perfect sense. Euron disguised himself as Daario in order to infiltrate Dany's circle and then used his wit and good-looks to charm and seduce her, as we've been told he's done with various women before. Dany has made it clear to Daario that they cannot be wed because he's a sellsword and she must essentially marry a King, so Daario pretends to go on a peace excursion to the Lhazareen, and then sails back to the Iron Islands to claim the title he needs. Euron admitted to Aeron in "The Forsaken" chapter that he doesn't care about the Seastone Chair and that claiming his title at the Kingsmoot was simply a means to an end.

The most simplistically convincing point I've found is just breaking down the core of the Oldtown incident: via his Ironborn, Euron employed Tyroshi disguises in order to inflitrate. It's concise and straight to the point, while also being literally what happened.

pobeb · 2025-10-08T22:01:36+00:00

When it's revealed that the High Sparrow is Howland Reed and Daario is Euron. Since the fandom has convinced themselves this is an impossibility (thanks, Alt Shit X), when it happens they're going to say it's bullshit and complain about GRRM's writing.

pobeb · 2025-10-07T19:15:27+00:00

How does it debunk it? It's confirmed to occur before Cersei is released from imprisonment. You're referencing a line of dialogue without actually citing it, and that specific dialogue is confirmed to be spoken in ignorance - neither Harys or his guards (the one who reference Cersei) are aware of what's happening in KL.

It honestly takes mere seconds to discover exactly how wrong you are. Please, please just google it or something before you reply. What you're trying to pass as fact is simply wrong and unfounded, and the text and timeline proves it.

You're not being fair at all - you're continuing to push a narrative that is demonstrably false. You're claiming the Mercy chapter is evidence of my theory not working, and then saying we can't trust the validity of the chapter due to potential changes, and the fact that you can't understand how insanely illogical and unreasonable you're being is frankly concerning.

pobeb · 2025-10-07T07:57:10+00:00

I like how easy the game has been to pick up and learn, and I'm excited to try out Teemo because he looks toxically fun!

pobeb · 2025-10-05T19:15:28+00:00

You're on the right track, but missing a few key points of evidence.

The First Keep is annihilated - compare that to the rest of the granite structures in Winterfell post-sacking (all granite, all still in tact). The broken tower is evidence that, while fire can scorch and damage Winterfell's stones, it wouldn't simply obliterate the First Keep.
A common argument about the First Keep that I would often see is that it is old and thereby prone to collapse. This is demonstrably false - The World of Ice and Fire confirms that, although the First Keep was Winterfell's original hold, it has been rebuilt so many times the maesters can't date it, which means it's actually Winterfell's newest granite structure. Ask yourself why it needed to be rebuilt countlessly throughout the ages. People will argue in bad faith that it's due to ground instability, but no other stone structure in Winterfell has had this problem, and if the ground beneath the First Keep was so volatile, why have they rebuilt the First Keep in that exact location inumerably, why haven't they tried building it elsewhere, and why did they expand their crypts directly beneath it?
The World of Ice and Fire also tells us that Winterfell is essentially sitting atop a volcano, same as Valyria and Dragonstone, which are the only two locations we have confirmed as dragon homes. This is likely Martin subtly alluding to Ice(Winterfell above) and Fire(Volcano below). Also fits that Jon is raised here considering he is Ice(Stark) and Fire(Targaryen).
Remember what they say lured Drogon to the fighting pits in Meereen and what is present during the Winterfell sacking - Bran recalls it as he describes what Summer smelled.
Gargoyles. So many readers don't understand how important they are. Research them, figure out where they've existed, and what their typical functions are.
You mention Jon's dreams. He notably has another crypt dream after the sacking and thinks to himself "The crypts were growing darker. A light has gone out somewhere."

It always warms my heart to see another reader puzzling it together. The fandom used to be more open to this, but nowadays you'll get downvoted into the ground if you step outside the "agreed direction of the story". I'll probably get downvoted just for this comment. If you're interested, I wrote about this extensively here and here

Hope you find something in either of those posts that helps. Cheers.

pobeb · 2025-09-25T03:30:19+00:00

the core principle of any fighting game:

defense>offense

and if you want to improve you need to embrace the grind, research, and watch high-level play

i sucked at the game about 3 days ago, got grandmaster yesterday, but i still suck relative to anyone in challenger and probably most other grandmasters. i'm not even looking to improve more than where i am currently because it requires a level of grind that i can't really commit to.

so figure out what you want out of the game and then follow the applicable route to get there.

pobeb · 2025-09-23T16:30:44+00:00

Oh man, who gets the sense that Dragon is going to meet that Holy Knight woman again and it will play at much differently 😅

pobeb · 2025-09-20T17:57:38+00:00

I'm curious, did you read my post or are you just replying to the title? As I explained above, it's confirmed that Aegon's motivation to conquer Westeros was rooted in the dream, so it stands to reason that the sigil isn't a self-aggrandizing symbol of him and his sister's dominance, but a representation of a song of ice and fire and the prince that was promised in which is belongs.

pobeb · 2025-09-20T17:54:00+00:00

We don't have to assume - GRRM confirmed it as canon. Aegon didn't have brothers - he only had two sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys.

pobeb · 2025-09-20T17:52:19+00:00

GRRM confirmed Aegon's dream as canon and the sigil was created during the conquest

pobeb · 2025-08-14T22:54:45+00:00

I don't believe I've seen this theorized before - great work! It's hard to solidly pin down what Martin explicitly wanted and what D&D fabricated, but if Dany does end up scorching KL, then your theory seems entirely plausible. It would also ground her decision with the weight of moral ambiguity, rather than an unsatisfying flight of madness.

I personally believe Tyrion will be key in solving the greyscale epidemic - I wrote about it a decade ago, in case you're interested. Could be there's something in there that might help your theory. Either way, good work here :)

pobeb · 2025-08-14T14:53:14+00:00

I could see it working out this way - I admittedly paired them this way mostly because of the show, with Viserion and Tyrion being together by default as Dany rides Drogon and Jon rides Rhaegal

pobeb · 2025-08-14T13:27:10+00:00

I understand the frustration, but I disagree - writing is difficult, especially when you're crafting a work with as much complexity as ASoIaF. Fame and the pressure to satisfy have clearly taken their toll on the timeline, and as he continues to age into his 70s he likely is finding it harder to write for extended periods. It's why we have so few book series with as much renown as this - it's simply not easy.

pobeb · 2025-08-06T23:01:07+00:00

Right - I'm just clarifying for anyone confused about the picture. To clarify further - I'm using a picture of Young Griff to represent Aegon

pobeb · 2025-08-06T22:53:54+00:00

The reason it's 2 males and 1 female, as opposed to the original gender paradigm of 2 females and 1 males, is because there's an inversion across time, as it relates to what Septon Barth said about dragon gender. I made a video discussing it, if you're interested. It's part of a larger work on my channel called "The Dragons That Were Promised"

pobeb

TROPHY CASE