New user flairs have been added for movies releasing in 2024. I was going to wait a couple days until doing it but had time now so thought I should do it now. I have removed the 2023 movies as options to select but they’re still in the system but due to an error I had some flairs were accidentally removed from users so if you would prefer to keep a 2023 film as your user flair and it removed let me know and I’ll help you restore it.
New flairs added are:
Joker: Folie à Deux
Sing Sing
Blitz
Kinds of Kindness
Anora
Megalopolis
A Real Pain
Inside Out 2
The Wild Robot
Furiosa
Planet of the Apes
Deadpool & Wolverine
Civil War
The Apprentice
The Piano Lesson
Conclave
Maria
Bird
Parthenope
Gladiator II
Challengers
Emmanuelle
Hitman
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
The Bikeriders
Didi
Evil Does Not Exist
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Drive Away Dolls
The Outrun
Horizon
Hard Truths
The End
Wicked
If you wish to have a custom flair text or have multiple images listed and aren’t sure how to let me know and I’ll help you. For filmmakers and actors flairs, I will be making some of those soon but wanted to get the film flairs done first.

F 25 5'4 230 pounds
Ive been suffering from chronic back pain for a year and a half now. Everyday it feels like someone punched me above my tail bone, nothing not even narcotics make it fully go away. I cant walk for more than an hour and standing in place is torturous within a few minutes.
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Ive been to my doctor, had spinal x-rays even got an ultrasound thinking it could be endometriosis since it got EVEN WORSE during my periods (most days cant even stand or walk at all). Been to a lot of chiropractor appointments, but they barely help and by the time I got again (Im covered to go every 2 weeks) Im back to square one. I also have a pediatrist appointment as I have a shallow in-step that needs addressing.
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I know I need to lose weight, but could that and my feet really be the only issue? Ive seen people bigger than me be able to do more...and whenever my Mom and doctor say that thats the issue I feel so unheard, like no matter how I describe my pain to them they just never understand. This hurts emotionally almost as much as my back... Could it really be it? Or could there be something my doctor is missing?

• 34M, 6'0", 205lbs, White/Caucasian
• Primary Complaint: Chest pain, tightness in chest, trouble breathing, acute fatigue.
  • Chest pain is primarily in left side of chest, just to the left of the sternum, but not quite at the pectoral muscles. This is also where the tightness seems to stem from, spanning across the center of my chest. Another pain point appears to exist in the left side of the chest, around the mid/lower ribcage. This one can sometimes be irritated when moving certain ways, and almost feels muscular in sensation. I haven't been able to manipulate these points of concern or identify sensitivities with surface-level touch or massage, beyond just adding uncomfortable pressure.
• Secondary Complaints: Significant heartburn, intermittent skin rash (small itchy bumps appearing on hand/knuckles/testicles/elbow for the past 2-3 months), muscular pain/fatigue, intermittent lightheadedness.
• Past/Current Diagnoses: Idioventricular arrhythmia, GAD, ADHD, possible SAD/MDD, IBS
• Drink? 0-3 drinks per week (often 0). Smoke? No. Drugs? No.
• Medications (was taking none prior to this event):
  • Bupropion XL 150mg: Began 1 week prior to medical event, stopped after chest issues.
  • Esomeprazole Magnesium 20mg: Took two-week course, ending 3/4/24. Resolved heartburn in that time, but did not affect chest symptoms. Heartburn returned after this.
  • Propranolol 10mg: Prescribed off label for possible bodily anxiety. Took two weeks, now on hand for as-needed use. Saw intended improvements for bodily anxiety (my brain still reacted to anxiety-inducing events, but my breathing and heart rate remained normal), but the chest symptoms were unaffected.
  • Lorazepam 0.5mg: Prescribed in effort to treat chest pain. Currently trialing. Tried a 0.5mg dose so far, and noted slight calming effects, but no impact on chest issues. Planning to take a 1mg dose today to confirm results.
  • Arnuity Ellipta 100 MCG/ACT inhaler: Currently waiting on pharmacy to receive stock.

​
First, a quick background leading to the medical event.
I've been seeing a psychologist on and off for 3.5 years, but no other medical professionals in this time. The work done here was pretty basic--talked through a couple breakups, but typically met once per month for proactive work around daily life. I have a history of probable SAD (received a MDD diagnosis ~10 years ago) that began to interfere with my life around OctobeNovember 2023, so my psychologist recommended seeking a psychiatric prescriber.
I had an upcoming appointment with a new primary care provider, where I wanted to discuss ongoing fatigue since I had COVID in April 2023 (possible "long COVID"?), so I decided to discuss medication here as well, with the idea that they would have the whole picture in mind while treating me.
I'd tried SSRIs twice around 8-10 years prior and didn't love the sexual side effects, so I asked about Viibryd and Wellbutrin, which were recommendations I'd received. I mentioned hesitation around Wellbutrin, given a history of cardiac issues (ultimately diagnosed as an arrhythmia) and medication/stimulant sensitivity (and orders from my past cardiologist to avoid caffeine/stimulants), but my new PCP insisted he was comfortable prescribing it to me, so off I went with a 150mg bupropion prescription, taking my first dose on 12/4/23. They also ran an EKG that day, simply because I had worked with a cardiologist in the past and hadn't had one since then (outside of occasional Apple Watch ECGs), which was interpreted as normal, and I was referred to a sleep specialist for possible sleep apnea (later confirmed, and I'm now trying to figure out how to sleep with a CPAP).
Here's where the symptoms began.
One week later, on 12/11/23, I hadn't noticed any effects from the bupropion, either positive or negative. Around 7:40pm, I was relaxing on my couch in good health, playing a relaxing turn-based game (so no apparent stressors), when I felt intense pain in the left side of my chest. This lasted for 1-2 minutes, when the sharp pain subsided, but an intense tightness remained, which came with a sensation of some difficulty breathing.
I probably should have taken a trip to the ER, but I didn't due to fear of cost (poor choice, I know). I felt things out a bit and eventually went to sleep, hoping to feel better in the morning.
I did not feel better in the morning. I woke up with the feeling of tightness still present, along with feeling a bit lightheaded. I nearly passed out after getting up and moving around, but I barely avoided it by lying down in the floor and elevating my legs. I've passed out maybe 5-8 times in my life due to what is assumed to be anxiety/vasovagal in nature (from medical needle work/IVs, one reaction to numbing or dilation drops at optometrist, one reaction to an oncoming IBS event with lack of restroom access, one vaccination experience (of many before and since that went fine), and once while overdoing it when I had COVID), so I'm assuming that's what happened here. I've experienced occasional lightheadedness in the time since--maybe 5-6 days of frequent lightheadedness, but I haven't actually passed out in this time.
I managed to grab a same-day appointment with my PCP that morning, so I went in to see him, fully expecting to be referred to the ER or urgent care. He told me he wasn't worried about it being a heart attack, to continue taking the bupropion, asked when I was seeing my therapist next, asked for an update in a couple days, and sent me home.
With no change, I saw my PCP via telehealth two days later.
He advised me to continue taking the bupropion, but I reframed my inquiry around that to ask if it was safe to stop entirely. He said yes, so the dose taken earlier that day was my last. He referred me to get an x-ray and blood work. These came back normal, apart from a granuloma/calcified nodule in the left lung.
At this point, he asked me to come back in one month with a journal, which felt much too long, given the symptoms and their impact on my life. He also wrote me a work note recommending remote work while working out a treatment plan.
Currently, there has been no improvement--my chest still feels tight and/or in pain essentially all the time, with severity coming and going. At this time, I was also experiencing acute muscular pain/fatigue across my chest and arms, like I had gone to the gym and way overdone it on those muscles. It was mostly focused on the chest, and the muscles around the armpit. I also began to experience GI symptoms (primarily severe heartburn, but initially accompanied by excessive burping and notable gurgling/activity in the stomach that has since subsided).

• From my journaling, here are the activities correlated with my symptoms:
  • Lack of sleep. This is the most impactful by far.
  • Physical exercise/exertion, including short walks. This can be especially bad, but it's also one I have a bit more control over managing.
  • Driving, especially when heightened alertness is needed, such as in heavy traffic.
  • Remaining in one physical position for too long. Lying on my back is the worst, with lying on my sides, sitting upright at a desk, standing also providing discomfort. Sitting on the couch, where I can lounge and shift position more easily seems to be the least problematic spot for me, but rotating resting positions is the best thing for it so far.
  • Being in social settings for extended periods--even something fun and low-energy, like a couple friends coming to see me, feels taxing after a while. I suspect this has to do with my limited bandwidth, and the passive tension I experience as someone who experiences social anxiety, but it's noteworthy either way.
• It's worth noting that a lot of these symptom correlations don't occur immediately, but in the hours following, and symptoms can be elevated for days at a time if I overdo it too much. It's less like having the body feedback from a broken limb that says, "Don't move that way," and more like the timeline that comes with something like heartburn/IBS (you ate/did the wrong thing and are paying for it on a delay).

It took me multiple requests to get a cardiologist referral, which I directly requested, given my history. He also recommended lung function testing, so I scheduled that. Every time I've spoken with my PCP, he's brought up mental health and referred me to my psychologist, who has determined this is not a mental health issue, as I've never had anxiety present in anything close to these symptoms. We even tried some additional exercises around calming and anxiety, and they helped in the sense that if you have physical pain from something like a broken limb, being able to calm yourself and relax a bit is better than being anxious/agitated, but it does nothing for the actual symptoms (either in the moment or in the following hours).
As soon as I could, I made appointments with a psychiatric prescriber, a cardiologist, and a pulmonologist.
I onboarded with the psychiatric prescriber to explore the bupropion's possible role in this. I was told that given my medical history, prescribing the bupropion at all was not a good idea for me, and especially in an XL format at 150mg. The initial hypothesis was that this could have thrown my body into a "feedback loop" of bodily anxiety that persisted after stopping the medication, but after the symptoms didn't respond to a couple different prescriptions (see above), the determination was that this should be exhaustively diagnosed as a physical health issue. Long-term, this prescriber wants to try stimulants for ADHD treatment, but said this is on hold until the chest issues are resolved and a cardiologist has given approval.
The cardiologist I saw didn't want to see a 12-lead EKG (my latest was from the initial PCP visit before symptoms began). He scheduled an EKG stress test, which was actually the first time I got wired up since my symptoms began. He has also declined to view the medical records I acquired from my past cardiologist on more than one occasion, which detail my past diagnosis and testing (including another stress test, nuclear imaging, echo, and Holter monitor results).
I powered through the stress test as best I could. I experienced resistance in my chest as my breathing increased, but my symptoms got much worse as I returned to rest, and the following 3-5 days were especially bad. The good news is that the results came back good, but the cardiologist has advised against any further testing, despite symptoms persisting with no identified cause.
Here are the X-Rays taken last week after my lung function tests.
I saw the pulmonologist, who has maybe been the most thorough provider I've worked with so far (aside from the sleep specialist, who was excellent, and the psychiatric providers I've worked with outside my PCP's network). He mentioned the calcified nodule on my left lung remained static between the two rounds of X-Rays, and was likely a result of a past fungal infection, or similar. He said my lung function results were good, but noted my lungs held on to air a bit too long, which was possibly a sign of asthma (though unlikely, given I haven't presented accordingly in the past). He prescribed me an inhaler (see above) to try for a couple weeks, at which point he wants to refer me to a GI specialist for the heartburn and have an echo to check for pericarditis (he declined to refer until I've trialed the inhaler).
Feel free to skip to the end from here!
This next bit may be more about poor provider interactions, though I would absolutely invite advice.
About a month ago, my workplace requested a renewal for my remote work recommendation. It's been a good accommodation that allows me to work in light of the physical limitations I'm experiencing (without having to resort to a medical leave, which my psychologist recommended, but I can't afford), and there are no issues in performing my job remote. My PCP asked me to return in person before issuing another note, so I scheduled that and went in (with a different doctor this time). I was assessed, asked again repeatedly about mental health, and told a note would be written. I later found some very inaccurate notes that misrepresented much of what I said during the visit.
The following day, I received a message asking how I'd like the work letter formatted. I provided details and didn't hear back for a week. I nudged them, asking if they needed more details. This led to an interaction with my usual PCP, who asked what limitations I was experiencing... I returned to square one and laid them all out, as above in this post. He then asked why I hadn't seen a pulmonologist as discussed during my visit with the other doctor--this hadn't been brought up at all before now (and I scheduled my above detailed pulmonary visit after this interaction). He then again asked how my mental health was, and what my new psychiatrist recommended (which I had detailed previously). He then recommended I ask my psychiatrist for a work note instead, said that his office would reach out to their office, and noted that I would be charged for the message interaction, because it was initiated by me... despite it being a follow-up interaction initiated by his office after my last appointment. I relayed that I sent my psychiatrist a release form, but noted I wasn't sure how helpful a work note from their office would be, given the ruling that this is a physical issue unrelated to mental health. He requested I return in person yet again.
Against my better judgment, I agreed and set my appointment. The first thing he did in person was act confused and ask why I came in (this is not the first time we've had an appointment he requested begin this way). He then pointed out that I have a care plan via the pulmonologist, threw up his hands, and presented that in an "Okay, end of story, now go home" sort of way. I'm pretty uncomfortable advocating for myself, but I gave it my best shot. I explained that I'm still in pain and can't do the things I want to do, at work and beyond, and that I desperately want to return to normal health, or at least get some answers. He said that some things don't have a solution, and the stress test came back fine, so I can resume normal activity, and his biggest advice was to exercise.
I was baffled by this suggestion, so I explained that I would love to be able to resume exercise (I have a bike and paddleboard collecting dust, and I am not happy being stuck at home nearly all the time, feeling terrible while I manage my symptoms), but it's not something I'm able to do right now. I walked through the fact that I have a significant amount of pain that gets worse as my activity level increases, and we haven't identified a cause... which tells me that I shouldn't push things until I know what I can push. His response was that it would be fine. Specifically, he said that I'm an adult who can make the choice to push through discomfort, and his recommendation as an internal specialist was to exercise through it.
I should add that he was severely agitated and appeared on the verge of yelling this whole conversation, and I was shut down any time I attempted to discuss my symptoms or ask for help.
For example, I wanted to ask about the heartburn and where I need to draw lines on medicating for it, as I currently take famotidine 10-20mg as needed until I can do another round of Nexium, but am concerned with doing this for too long, especially if there may be a better approach to resolving it (and whether it may be related to the chest issues). I've actually brought my heartburn up with him a few times, and have been brushed off each time.
Now for the wrap-up (finally).
Apologies for the large volume of text there, but it's been a journey, and thank you to anybody who stuck through this far. Right now, I'm exhausted, in pain and intense discomfort, and I'm having a hard time being taken seriously or finding a provider who seems to care. If anybody has seen something like this or has a recommendation on what sort of providers or treatment/diagnostic work I should seek out, or even just advice on how to navigate the medical system in light of my experiences here, I'm very open to ideas.
I'm not sure what to make of it, given that I'm of course not a medical expert, but symptoms coming on from nothing at all to full symptoms in an instant, and sustaining for months after seems odd. The timing of the bupropion is also pretty suspect to me, but the issues persisting so long after stopping it is also odd. I've had hiatal hernia mentioned as a possibility, but with no improvement from the Nexium (beyond just the heartburn while actively taking it), I know that makes it unlikely to some extent. It feels like we're looking at a lot of "not very likely" possibilities at this stage, though, so I don't know where I should be looking.

I’ve been posting a series of essays regarding Jon’s identity and I think most people didn't understand the point I’m trying to make, so I thought I’ll give it another try. There's a short summary at the end.
Here’s the point: I believe that we were fooled, ASOIAF is “the real story” that Bael’s song tells.
Let me please explain myself better.
ASOIAF begins with a mystery, a cold creature kills a boy, Waymar Royce, who seems to be the hero stereotype: he’s handsome, smart, and owns a nice sword, and the mean wildlings are trying to deceive him, so he goes there sword in hand, like a hero does.
However, when you pay close attention to his story, you realize the poor kid set himself for failure. He left his best swordsman guarding the horses, asked a man who was known for being silent to be his watcher, and went straight into a place that he had described himself as a suspicious scene.
His outcome was predictable.
In the following chapters, we get three seemingly fantasy clichés one after another, Ned, the honorable hero, Jon, the young hero with a mysterious parentage, and soon after that, we are told how Lyanna was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by the evil dragon, Rhaegar Targaryen.
Of course, the predictable outcome would be Jon being Rhaegar’s son, after all his mother spent the war with the man, right? Well,maybe she didn’t.
Why am I claiming that we are being deceived?
When you compare Waymar’s story to Ned’s fever dream, we are being told *the exact same story.*
Like Waymar, the prince seems to have left his best swords “guarding the horses”, he leaves a person in charge of the watch who seems to go against his interests, and goes straight to die a meaningless death like Gared when he decided to desert.
What’s the issue? *It’s a song.*
Ned’s story of what happened in the tower (his fever dream) follows Bael’s song to the letter, and the point of that song is the deception, it’s not about love or even the baby, but Bael being a liar.
That also happens in AGoT’s prologue, Waymar was being deceived but not by the wildlings as he assumed.
The biggest hoax is that Bael’s song tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”.

1. The Stark of WF wanted Bael’s head, but couldn’t take him.He calls Bael “a craven who preys only on the weak”, so Bael decides to teach him a lesson and goes to WF.

Being a wildling song, we expect Bael to be the hero, so when the lesson comes we might be a bit lost.
What’s the lesson? The lesson is the Stark “calling” Bael, giving a name to the “craven who preys only on the weak”.

1. Bael fakes to be a singer called Sygerrik (which means deceiver) and spends the night singing for the Stark, when he’s done, the lord offers him to “name” his reward. Bael asks for “the fairest flower” and the Stark gives him a winter rose. After leaving with the lord’s daughter, Bael leaves the flower as proof.

What’s the lesson here? It can’t be the lord realizing who took the maiden since the singer gave him a fake name, and he was welcome because the lordhad never met him before. The flower proves the lord is a deceiver.
When the singer asks for “the fairest flower” the lord knows he is asking for his daughter (even when he never names her), and tries to deceive Bael by giving him a rose. The flower proves the lord lied.

1. Bael comes back years later with an army; he’s faced in battle by his own son who doesn’t recognize him. Bael stays silent and lets the boy kill him. The word “recognize” implies that he knew the man; the very definition of recognition is “the identification of someone from previous encounters.”

What’s the lesson in this one? Who raised the boy? Bael: a liar and craven who never told the truth.
The “young lord,” was a liar (he had to recognize Bael from his own experience), and a craven who took advantage of Bael’s own weakness (his silence) to kill him.
Basically, when you go over the song, the baby, the maiden, and “the singer” are all victims of the lord of WF who never told the boy who he was, took the child “as payment”, and blamed “Bael” for the things he did.

“Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. "My mother told me that *dead men sing no songs*," he put in.” AGoT - Prologue

Bael is the lord of WF in the three stories and the “hero” of his own songs: a name that means something, a flower as proof of his deception, and dead men*singing songs.*
To summarize, the biggest deception in the song is the language, or rather, the way people are named.
We’ll now examine how Lord Stark deceived us all, and later why this is “a song of ice and fire”.

A hero of his own songs

We are first introduced to the song in AGoT’s Prologue when we meet three men on a mission: Waymar Royce, Will, and Gared.
Each of them helps us understand one of the stories told in Bael’s song. The prologue seems to be about these men deciding what to do regarding some dead people. In truth, they illustrate the lessons in Ned’s song for us, while we can also understand other stories of dead people: Rheagar’s and Lyanna’s.
One of the men, Will, is a craven who “wants nothing so much as to ride hellbent for the safety of the Wall”.
Waymar suspects that the wildlings are trying to deceive them, and notes that some things in Will’s story don’t seem to add up.
He wants to go personally to see the dead wildlings and prove his theory: someone is lying. Ironically his own broken sword is proof that he was right about the deceptionbut wrong about the author.
The third man, Gared,instantly recognizes what happened to the wildlings by Will’s description, even when he never actually saw them; but knew from previous experiences what “the cold” does, as he had found one of his brothers “with a smile on his face”.
Let’s examine how the song unfolds so we can find the real Bael.

1. The Craven and the given name.

In the song, “Bael” is a name that means something, is what you call a craven who preys only on the weak.
We get to see how Will exemplifies the concept of being a craven when the Others appear. I mentioned earlier that one of Waymar’s mistakes was sending a brother known for being silent to act as his watcher.
Will sees the entire fight while hiding on a tree (he’s a craven after all), and never says a word, not even when he sees the shadows moving, not when he sees the Other facing Waymar, and not while the boy is being mercilessly butchered.
He realizes, however, that he should “call down a warning” as the shadows start to appear, and ironically, Waymar shouts his name instead.

The Others made no sound. 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. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all? "Will, where are you?" Ser Waymar called up. "Can you see anything?" He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see."Answer me! *Why is it so cold?"*

Interestingly, that’s exactly what happens in Ned’s dream, he tells us how he gets to the Tower with a bunch of shadows and how he sees three men in white waiting for him, and curiously, the person yelling in the dream was recognized before by Ned himself as being*so weak* that she could only whisper:

He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes.” Eddard I - AGoT

Lyanna’s fear as she dies seems far more interesting considering how Will never yells fearing “the shadows”, since Ned gets to his dream surrounded by shadows. Now, while we are told by Ned himself how she could barely speak, somehow, she calls ‘Bael’ loud and clear:

"As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" *she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky,as blue as the eyes of death. *"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.

See the first lesson in the song?
Why would Lyanna use the word “Eddard”, to call her own brother; a brother that she, and everyone who knew himcalled “Ned”?
In the song, the Stark gives Bael a name because he doesn’t know the man, but he knows *he’s hiding his identity to take advantage of “the weak”.*
In the dream “Eddard” means Bael. *He’s lying.*
The “craven” who actually yells in the dream is deliberately hidden:

"The finest knight I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me *but for Howland Reed*." Bran III - ACoK

In Ned’s “song” Lyanna yells even when she is so weak that she can barely speak. In truth, the one yelling, Howland, is warning him about the “white shadow”, Arthur Dayne, who was moving towards Ned to kill him as the shadows move to kill Waymar. That’s what Will should have done when he saw them: warn his brother.
The parallels between the Other facing Waymar and Arthur with Dawn in hand facing Ned in the dream are clear too. This is the Other:

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

This is Arthur, holding his sword made from “no human metal”.

"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass,*alive with light*. Eddard X - AGoT

You see, Ned did in his dream what Lord Stark does in the song: the “weak” (Lyanna), are identified as a Stark; Bael takes advantage of weak people to sing his song, to tell his own version of things.

"Your Bael was a liar," he told her, certain now. "No," Ygritte said, "buta bard's truth is different than yours or mine. Anyway, you asked for the story, so I told it." Jon VI - ACoK

In fact, Lyanna ends up buried in WF’s crypt (like the maiden in the song) because she’s identified by Ned as a Stark, so that was “her place”.
That’s the first lesson: In Ned’s song (his dream) he hid the truth by identifying the person who yells as Lyanna, when it was actually Howland Reed warning him.
The biggest clue is the person calling him in a way that’s not familiar to him, like “Brandon the Daughterless” is not familiar name to Jon when he hears Bael’s song. We’ll discuss that name later.
What was Ned hiding? That Lyanna was never in that tower, that’s Ned’sbiggest deception, hiding the fact that Rhaeagar spent half the war chasing shadows, like Waymar, and that Robert never “avenged” Lyanna as he believed,because the prince was deceived and Robert was too late to the vengeance train.
When Jon hears the song’s happy ending, he asks if Bael has brought back the maiden, to which Ygritte replies that she was “hiding with the dead”. Ned made people believe that he had brought Lyanna’s body from Dorne while he left his friends’ corpses buried there, but he didn’t. She died elsewhere.
As for “the craven”, Ned himself explained his issue with the man: the “laughter”.

"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." Eddard I - AGoT

Howland Reed was identified as “the Knight of the Laughing Tree” by his children, he wasn’t, but he’s one of the three main suspects: Howland, Ned and Lyanna. None of them was the “laughing” one though.
While Ned tells us how people’s laughter freezes in their throats and chokes them to death, look what happens to the craven Will in the prologue when he thinks of doing what Howland does: calling “Bael”.

Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and *the words seemed to freeze in his throat*.

You likely remember how Will dies, choked to death by the un-dead Waymar.
To summarize: in Bael’s song “Bael” is a name that means something, is what you call a craven who preys only on the weak.
In Ned’s dream, the word “Eddard” means “Bael”; he’s hiding the warnings: Howland warned him about Arthur Dayne trying to kill him, and Lyanna gave him her own warning:

"I hear he has gotten a child** on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but *it cannot change a man's nature*." Eddard IX - AGoT

What Ned is trying to hide (mostly from himself) is the fact that killing Arthur turned him into a kinslayer, since Ashara got pregnant in Harrenhal, explaining why he links “the laughter” with “the freezing cold”: he fathered a bastard.
Ned was great at hiding things in plain sight and being silent, yet his dream sang a different song.

2. The deceiver and the flower.

When Will reports he found the wildlings dead, Waymar doesn’t believe him. To confirm his suspicions he asks the most experienced of the group, Gared, his views about the scene that Will had described, andhe says without hesitation “it was the cold”.

"I've had the cold in me too, lordling." Gared pulled back his hood, giving Ser Waymar a good long look at the stumps where his ears had been. "Two ears, three toes, and the little finger off my left hand. I got off light. We found my brother frozen at his watch, *with a smile on his face*."

Waymar asked Will a series of questions that Ned diligently answer for us:

"Did you see *any blood?" "Well, no," Will admitted. "Did you see *any weapons?" "Some swords, a few bows. One man had an axe. Heavy-looking, **double-bladed, a cruel piece of iron.It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand." "Did you make note of the position of the bodies?" Will shrugged. "A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like."

In Bael’s song, the lord offers the singer to “name” his reward, and the man asks for “the fairest flower” which as we know, is then left behind as proof of the lord’s deception.
When Ned comes home from the war with “proof” of his deception, his wife names “the reward”, Ashara Dayne, and Ned’s answeris priceless:

It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. "Never ask me about Jon," he said, cold as ice. "He is my blood, and that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady." She had pledged to obey; she told him; and from that day on, the whispering had stopped, and Ashara Dayne's name *was never heard in Winterfell again*." Catelyn II - AGoT

In this memory, Catelyn parallels Bael singing (marshaling his courage) until he’s asked to name the reward, and not daring to name the maiden, he asks for “the fairest flower”, to which the lord gives him not what he asked for, but “a rose from the gardens”.
Ned gives Jon’s name when he’s asked about Ashara, most importantly,he establishes the link between Jon and “the blood” he later dreams of, meaning he makes us believe that the boy killed Lyanna while being born,that’s the deception.
Did you see any blood? Yes, a ‘brother’ “frozen at his watch”, a sister who allegedly died “in a bed of blood”, and the “fairest flower” blowing in the wind like the petals Ned sees when he hears his name.
They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips.” Eddard X - AGoT
Killing Arthur made him a kinslayer, but Will saw a “double-bladed” weapon.
Did you see any weapons? Yes, petals falling “dead and black”.

Ned remembered **the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, *dead and black*. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. "I bring her flowers when I can," he said. "Lyanna was … fond of flowers."

What about the position of the bodies? They all waited for Ned and ended up “fallen”: Ashara, Arthur, *and Lyanna.*
Let’s discuss the proof.
When Waymar falls, Will thinks he needs to take his sword as proof of what he saw, as if the entire thing had nothing to do with him.
Ned, as we know, takes Dayne’s sword to Starfall and after that visit, Ashara commits suicide. Yet, we have no idea what he told them. It seems kind of weird how Lord Dayne seems to highly respect the man who killed his brother and caused his sister’s suicide, right?
The point is how Will finds the sword that was supposed to be proof:

He found what was left of the sword a few feet away,the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.

We know that Ashara killed herself (explaining the sword splintered and twisted like Bran). We also know that Ned killed Arthur since that was the talking in Winterfell when he returned from the war (as Will intended to get to the Wall with a story), the proof being he took Dawn to Starfall.
What matters here is “what was left” and Ned “snatching” something that ended up in Winterfell, even when he never brought his friends’ corpses back. You see, in Ned’s memory, he seems to do what Will does when everything is over, “look around warily”.

“…the rose petals spilling from her palm, *dead and black. After that, he remembered nothing. *They had found him** still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his…”

The scene is not just weirdly similar to the way that the un-dead Waymar finds Will withhis sword, but also the proof of the crime that “Bael” left behind for the lord to find: a dead flower instead of the maiden as proof of the kidnapping.
As I said earlier, in Bael’s song the flower doesn’t mean that the lord realizes who took the maiden sincethe singer *gave him a fake name, and he was welcome in WF becausethe lord had never met him* before.
The flower proves the lord is a deceiver. It wasn’t Jon being born what killed Lyanna, *it was Ned’s flower.*

Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden. He felt them clawing at his skin, sharp and cruel, saw the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, trembling, in the dark.” Eddard XV

Ned mentions how he always brings Lyanna flowers, and that’s exactly what happened the last time he saw her. Except this time the flower was poisonous and killed her.
That’s one of the “weapons” that Will sees in one of the “fallen” *“right by his hand”,* which makes Ned a “double-bladed” weapon, or rather a double kinslayer.

“…the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his…”

Howland clearly realizes what happened and takes her hand from Ned’s so he wouldn’t die too.
All the weapons used in Ned’s song are mentioned by Will in the crime scene beyond the Wall: “It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand.”
It was “the ground” that killed Ashara, Ned being “beside” Arthur, and the petals in Lyanna’s hand.

"The trees press close here," Will warned. "That sword will tangle you up, m'lord. Better a knife." AGoT - Prologue

We get to see the proof of all victims in the way that Waymar raises being a portrayal of all three fallen.

Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him. His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from *his sword* transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye. The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

Waymar is the proof: the white pupil “transfixed” by the sword is for Arthur he died from multiple stabb wounds, the right eye “burning blue” is for Ashara (what Catelyn saw) while the “dead and black” Waymar stands for Lyanna in “her bed of blood”.
She died surrounded by her "brothers" too.
When Waymar rises, his gloves soaked in blood go straight for Will’s throat, and the man never gets to tell what he knows.
To summarize: in Bael’s song the flower proves the Lord’s deception, and the lie isn’t just about the maiden’s disappearance, or the boy’s identity, but about his own attempt to deceive the person who asks about “the flower” (his wife).
Like I said, the lord didn’t know the identity of “the thief”.Jon’s father is never named in any of Ned’s chapters*, not once,* not because he didn’t know him though, but because Ned stole “his song” as Will intended to steal Waymar’s, proof included.

3. The cold ending

In the song, when Bael comes back years later he’s faced in battle by his own son who doesn’t recognize him. I said earlier how the lack of recognition is related to previous experiences that “the young lord” should have seen coming.
Now, for some reason, the most experienced brother, Gared, runs south, he’s caught and beheaded.
That’s Bael’s fate in the song, and therefore, Ned’s.
What’s interesting is how Ned gets to that point. He goes south when he’s named “Hand” in the crypt, which is ironic as hell, but he only accepts the position since he’s determined to investigate a poisoning, and how that’s related to his son’s “falling” from a tower. Of course, he loses his sword at the peak of his mission, though Tywing was no singer, just a common thief and mass murderer.
Ned died singing his own song, *like Bael.*

Your Bael was a liar.

Since we get AGoT’s prologue from Will’s point of view and Bael’s song from Ygritte’s, (therefore the song of ice and fire), we might forget that there are other songs to be learned here.

Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. "My mother told me that dead men sing no songs," he put in. "My wet nurse said the same thing, Will," Royce replied. "Never believe anything you hear at a woman's tit. There are things to be learned even from the dead." His voice echoed, too loud in the twilit forest. "We have a long ride before us," Gared pointed out. "

I claimed at the beginning how the prince seemed to have left his best swords “guarding the horses”, how Lyanna seemed to go against his interests even when we are led to believe that she's there on her own will, and how Rhaegar goes straight to die a meaningless death.
All of that is true only if you believe Ned’s song.
When Waymar leaves Gared behind, they have a quite enlightening exchange:

Gared dismounted. "We need a fire. I'll see to it." "How big a fool are you, old man? If there are enemies in this wood, *a fire is the last thing we want."* AGoT - Prologue

We know that “a fire” was exactly what Rhaegar was looking for, what he called the “one more”, apparently a daughter to complete his three-headed dragon.
Interestingly, Bael’s enemy is called Brandon “the daughterless” and he’s the deceived person in the song.

"Will you make a song for him?" the woman asked. "He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.” Dany IV- ACoK

See the issue? Rhaegar parallels “Brandon the daughterless”, while Ned parallels Aegon, the promised one, as if the heads *had been exchanged.*
Ned’s song, like Aegon’s, was about people believing he was “the one and true hero” versus the truth proved by what happens to Waymar and his broken sword, and the true Aegon’s broken skull as proof.
Ned is “the one” because he’s the only hero in his song, even when “three heads” (Ashara, Lyanna, and Jon) would like to disagree.
Now, let’s examine the music “lingering behind” the prince and the winter rose, and how the song was playing from their point of view of “daughterless” lord and disenchanted promised bride.

1. The first lesson in the song is The Stark giving a name: “Bael” and the future “king” deciding *to teach a lesson.*

There were three people suspected of being the KoLT in Harrenhal, (Howland, Ned and Lyanna), though none of them were the true one, the real one was “a craven” who hid, (like Will), on a tree.
His shield had a laughing weirwood tree. We already saw how Ned thought that laughing causes people to freeze and choke to death, perhaps explaining why Ghost is mute.

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 voicesand laughter sharp as icicles.

The lesson in the daughterless song is Lyanna claiming to be the knight to hide “the true Bael”, who was teaching a lesson to the squires who had bullied the little Howland when he arrived at the tourney.
That explains why in Ned’s dream she’s giving the warning instead of the person who actually warned him*. They all claimed to be the knight.
In this version of the song, Bael is “a craven” because he hides his identity and “preys only on the weak”; the weakness is not knowing, and this is relevant to understanding the rest of these songs.

1. The second lesson is “the singer” asking for a reward without ever naming it and *leaving the flower as proof.*

The flower proves the lord is a deceiver, meaning Rhaegar didn’t believe Lyanna was the knight but he understood why she lied, *she was in love with the man.*
The reward however, is Rhaegar winning the tourney using the mystery knight’s same strategy, cheating:

“The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk.” AGoT - Prologue

This is how Ned remembers the prince’s success in the tourney:

A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him. Brandon fell to him, and Bronze Yohn Royce, and even the splendid Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.” Eddard XV - AGoT

Truly, no lance could touch the man, that’s the proof that “Bael” left behind, “scarlet silk streaming”; he won by cheating.

1. The final proof is Bael coming back, and here’s where we need to split the songs between ice and fire.

Let’s start with the prince and something closer to Ygritte’s version of the song.
Rhaegar’s incursion to the Trident is explained *by what he lacked, the daughter he was searching for and, most importantly, *the promise of magic that “Bael” meant for him. When he learns that Elia can’t have more children, he does what “the daughterless” does in the song, ***send “the crows” to look for the maiden and her Bael.*
That’s how Ned finds them, the guards end up in the tower because they were deceived and went there thinking that Lyanna and “the craven” were there. They were never there. Howland and Wylla were in the tower, she was faking to be Lyanna.
The prince got what he was searching for though in a very twisted way but still. Dany hatched the dragon’s eggs that came from Asshai, like the silk that Rhaegar wore in the tournament.
He wanted magic so Elia could have the daughter he wanted, since apparently, *that’s what the prophecy promised:* a three-headed dragon.
When Waymar is told about the dead wildlings, as we saw, he asks about their blood, their weapons, and the position of their bodies. All those things are related to Rhaegar’s quest for dragons.
In the daughterless song, the line seems to end with the woman, and the lack of recognition that happens when (the liar) Bael comes back means that Aegon is a fake, which we all suspect already since his song seems a bit too convenient. The “song of fire” now is whatever Dany decides to become, it’s her song.
Now, when you examine the song from Lyanna’s position, the story is about the maiden hiding in the crypt, and you have a completely different song because down there you can only find dead Starks, swords, and direwolves.
We know that Lyanna went to the tournament and that months after that, she disappears roughly at the same time that Rheagar was seen in the Trident.
That doesn’t mean he took her, it means she was hiding from him, because the prince wanted Bael like Waymar wanted those “dead wildlings”. He wanted to know who the man was.
The point of Lyanna’s song, however, is not so much about the tragic way in which she died, but how she convinced her father to get what she wanted: her own “sword”.
Ice as we know was divided into two swords, “Widow’s Wail” and “Oathkeeper”. Lyanna was married when she died, therefore the widow’s “wailing”, the cry that Ned remembers when she died.
The oath-keeping, however, is about Rickard and the “smell of blood and roses” Ned mentions when Lyanna dies:

Lord Rickard Stark, Ned's father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but *in life all swords had failed him*.” Eddard I - AGoT

Rickard had broken his word towards Robert when he allowed Lyanna to marry someone she liked instead of the man whose “nature” wouldn’t change no matter what he vowed. Robert *was blind. He didn’t care.* His lack of interest caused his downfall starting in Harrenhal when Lyanna saw him for what he was, and she seized that chance.
Lyanna fell in love with another man right in front of him and he didn’t see it because he never cared about her until “she was stolen from him” as if the woman had been his property.
Lyanna came back from the tourney *with proof:* she knew about the bastard, and she had the flowers as proof that when the prince embarrassed her in front of the entire realm her betrothed told nothing, like Will, he just stood there.
What Ned remembers of Rickard is what happened to Lyanna in the tourney, she was sitting “holding tight” to the winter roses across her lap, the proof of her father's “sword” failing.

He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but*in life all swords had failed him*.”

She had “the blood” (the bastard daughter) and “the weapon” (the crown) that Waymar asks for as proof of the deception. The position of her body changes after that because *Rickard agrees with her.*** Like Will, Robert couldn't be trusted, he would ruin Lyanna's reputation making her the laughing stock of the realm.
In Lyanna’s song, Bael comes back with an army too, he sneaks into Winterfell when Robert comes looking for Ned, he uses a fake name “Mance Rayder” to introduce himself, and sings for Lord Brandon.
When they meet, the real Bael is singing “The Dornishman’s Wife”, a song about a man who dies singing and laughing.
Jon’s true name is Brandon, like “The Daughterless”. In the song, the name of the young lord is never told, but since he grows up to become lord and the only lord in the song is Brandon, well, that’s the young lord’s name.
That’s what the Song of Ice and Fire is about names that mean something, magical proof, and young heroes dying, only to rise again *singing their own songs.*
Jon’s survival is explained by Waymar’s failed song, when he’s stabbed (like Arthur), he falls face down (like Ashara), only to rise again when someone goes for his sword.
Jon himself found his mother’s sword, *and he has proof too.*
Jon’s sword was the bastard letter. The letter told him Bael’s song again, only the names are different. The letter mentions the blood, the weapons, and the position of the bodies: Mance is in a cage cloaked by the skins of women “for all the north to see”.
That’s what Will saw coming for Waymar: *silent watchers.*

“The Others *made no sound.* 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.”

Jon is an “Other”, all you need to become one *is knowing,* finding the truth hidden inside the lies to realize that the lord is a liar and craven who preys only on the weak.
That’s how you find the winter rose and *her armor.*

"The armor of the Others is proof against most ordinary blades, if the tales can be believed, and their own swords are so cold they shatter steel.. Jon II - ADwD

If you know, then you’re not weak anymore, your “armor” is proof against ordinary blades, because some tales should be believed.
To summarize, I claimed at the beginning how the biggest hoax is that Bael’s song tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”.
The stories are all related to the brothers in AGoT’s prologue:

• Waymar telling Rhaegar’s story and how his failure turned into success when Dany achieved what he never could, finding real magic.
• Gared telling Ned’s story, thinking how he “needed” a fire to keep away “the enemies”. As Aemon told Sam, “fire consumes, but cold preserves”, explaining why Ned wanted some fire.
• The silent Will telling Jon’s story of finding his own “broken sword” as proof of his identity: a widow and an “oathkeeper”.

Summary:

The song of ice and fire is about how we are told the exact same song in two different ways: from Will’s point of view in AGoT’s prologue were “the Others” are the villains, and from Ygritte’s point of view were the Stark in Winterfell is the villain.
Ned’s song, his fever dream, which was closer to Will’s version, meant that he’s the only hero in three different stories: Lyanna’s mystery, Jon’s parentage, and his family’s downfall.
Rhagar’s song was closest to Ygritte’s, as his intention was having another child, which explains why she calls the lord “the daughterless”.
In the midst of those versions you find a “grey one”, Lyanna’s and what she left behind as proof:a broken sword.
The biggest hoax in Bael’s song is that it tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”. The stories are all related to the brothers in AGoT’s prologue and what they do regarding the dead people:

• Waymar tells Rhaegar’s story and how his failure was turned into success when Dany achieved what he never could, finding real magic.
• Gared tells Ned’s story, thinking how he “needed” a fire to keep away “the enemies”.
• The silent Will tells Jon’s story of finding a “broken sword” as proof of his identity: a widow’s wai and an “oathkeeper”.

Some girlfriends go on a road trip together car breaks down on a mysterious side road they have to go find help and end up at an abandoned house with bird cages all around the yard and a shack out back keeps making mysterious noises
Dose anyone know the movie I’m talking about did they remove it from Tubi

I’ve been posting a series of essays regarding Jon’s identity and I think most people didn't understand the point I’m trying to make, so I thought I’ll give it another try. There's a short summary at the end.
Here’s the point: I believe that we were fooled, ASOIAF is “the real story” that Bael’s song tells.
Let me please explain myself better.
ASOIAF begins with a mystery, a cold creature kills a boy, Waymar Royce, who seems to be the hero stereotype: he’s handsome, smart, and owns a nice sword, and the mean wildlings are trying to deceive him, so he goes there sword in hand, like a hero does.
However, when you pay close attention to his story, you realize the poor kid set himself for failure. He left his best swordsman guarding the horses, asked a man who was known for being silent to be his watcher, and went straight into a place that he had described himself as a suspicious scene.
His outcome was predictable.
In the following chapters, we get three seemingly fantasy clichés one after another, Ned, the honorable hero, Jon, the young hero with a mysterious parentage, and soon after that, we are told how Lyanna was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by the evil dragon, Rhaegar Targaryen.
Of course, the predictable outcome would be Jon being Rhaegar’s son, after all his mother spent the war with the man, right? Well,maybe she didn’t.
Why am I claiming that we are being deceived?
When you compare Waymar’s story to Ned’s fever dream, we are being told *the exact same story.*
Like Waymar, the prince seems to have left his best swords “guarding the horses”, he leaves a person in charge of the watch who seems to go against his interests, and goes straight to die a meaningless death like Gared when he decided to desert.
What’s the issue? *It’s a song.*
Ned’s story of what happened in the tower (his fever dream) follows Bael’s song to the letter, and the point of that song is the deception, it’s not about love or even the baby, but Bael being a liar.
That also happens in AGoT’s prologue, Waymar was being deceived but not by the wildlings as he assumed.
The biggest hoax is that Bael’s song tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”.

1. The Stark of WF wanted Bael’s head, but couldn’t take him.He calls Bael “a craven who preys only on the weak”, so Bael decides to teach him a lesson and goes to WF.

Being a wildling song, we expect Bael to be the hero, so when the lesson comes we might be a bit lost.
What’s the lesson? The lesson is the Stark “calling” Bael, giving a name to the “craven who preys only on the weak”.

1. Bael fakes to be a singer called Sygerrik (which means deceiver) and spends the night singing for the Stark, when he’s done, the lord offers him to “name” his reward. Bael asks for “the fairest flower” and the Stark gives him a winter rose. After leaving with the lord’s daughter, Bael leaves the flower as proof.

What’s the lesson here? It can’t be the lord realizing who took the maiden since the singer gave him a fake name, and he was welcome because the lordhad never met him before. The flower proves the lord is a deceiver.
When the singer asks for “the fairest flower” the lord knows he is asking for his daughter (even when he never names her), and tries to deceive Bael by giving him a rose. The flower proves the lord lied.

1. Bael comes back years later with an army; he’s faced in battle by his own son who doesn’t recognize him. Bael stays silent and lets the boy kill him. The word “recognize” implies that he knew the man; the very definition of recognition is “the identification of someone from previous encounters.”

What’s the lesson in this one? Who raised the boy? Bael: a liar and craven who never told the truth.
The “young lord,” was a liar (he had to recognize Bael from his own experience), and a craven who took advantage of Bael’s own weakness (his silence) to kill him.
Basically, when you go over the song, the baby, the maiden, and “the singer” are all victims of the lord of WF who never told the boy who he was, took the child “as payment”, and blamed “Bael” for the things he did.

“Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. "My mother told me that *dead men sing no songs*," he put in.” AGoT - Prologue

Bael is the lord of WF in the three stories and the “hero” of his own songs: a name that means something, a flower as proof of his deception, and dead men*singing songs.*
To summarize, the biggest deception in the song is the language, or rather, the way people are named.
We’ll now examine how Lord Stark deceived us all, and later why this is “a song of ice and fire”.

A hero of his own songs

We are first introduced to the song in AGoT’s Prologue when we meet three men on a mission: Waymar Royce, Will, and Gared.
Each of them helps us understand one of the stories told in Bael’s song. The prologue seems to be about these men deciding what to do regarding some dead people. In truth, they illustrate the lessons in Ned’s song for us, while we can also understand other stories of dead people: Rheagar’s and Lyanna’s.
One of the men, Will, is a craven who “wants nothing so much as to ride hellbent for the safety of the Wall”.
Waymar suspects that the wildlings are trying to deceive them, and notes that some things in Will’s story don’t seem to add up.
He wants to go personally to see the dead wildlings and prove his theory: someone is lying. Ironically his own broken sword is proof that he was right about the deceptionbut wrong about the author.
The third man, Gared,instantly recognizes what happened to the wildlings by Will’s description, even when he never actually saw them; but knew from previous experiences what “the cold” does, as he had found one of his brothers “with a smile on his face”.
Let’s examine how the song unfolds so we can find the real Bael.

1. The Craven and the given name.

In the song, “Bael” is a name that means something, is what you call a craven who preys only on the weak.
We get to see how Will exemplifies the concept of being a craven when the Others appear. I mentioned earlier that one of Waymar’s mistakes was sending a brother known for being silent to act as his watcher.
Will sees the entire fight while hiding on a tree (he’s a craven after all), and never says a word, not even when he sees the shadows moving, not when he sees the Other facing Waymar, and not while the boy is being mercilessly butchered.
He realizes, however, that he should “call down a warning” as the shadows start to appear, and ironically, Waymar shouts his name instead.

The Others made no sound. 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. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all? "Will, where are you?" Ser Waymar called up. "Can you see anything?" He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see."Answer me! *Why is it so cold?"*

Interestingly, that’s exactly what happens in Ned’s dream, he tells us how he gets to the Tower with a bunch of shadows and how he sees three men in white waiting for him, and curiously, the person yelling in the dream was recognized before by Ned himself as being*so weak* that she could only whisper:

He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes.” Eddard I - AGoT

Lyanna’s fear as she dies seems far more interesting considering how Will never yells fearing “the shadows”, since Ned gets to his dream surrounded by shadows. Now, while we are told by Ned himself how she could barely speak, somehow, she calls ‘Bael’ loud and clear:

"As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" *she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky,as blue as the eyes of death. *"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.

See the first lesson in the song?
Why would Lyanna use the word “Eddard”, to call her own brother; a brother that she, and everyone who knew himcalled “Ned”?
In the song, the Stark gives Bael a name because he doesn’t know the man, but he knows *he’s hiding his identity to take advantage of “the weak”.*
In the dream “Eddard” means Bael. *He’s lying.*
The “craven” who actually yells in the dream is deliberately hidden:

"The finest knight I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me *but for Howland Reed*." Bran III - ACoK

In Ned’s “song” Lyanna yells even when she is so weak that she can barely speak. In truth, the one yelling, Howland, is warning him about the “white shadow”, Arthur Dayne, who was moving towards Ned to kill him as the shadows move to kill Waymar. That’s what Will should have done when he saw them: warn his brother.
The parallels between the Other facing Waymar and Arthur with Dawn in hand facing Ned in the dream are clear too. This is the Other:

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

This is Arthur, holding his sword made from “no human metal”.

"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass,*alive with light*. Eddard X - AGoT

You see, Ned did in his dream what Lord Stark does in the song: the “weak” (Lyanna), are identified as a Stark; Bael takes advantage of weak people to sing his song, to tell his own version of things.

"Your Bael was a liar," he told her, certain now. "No," Ygritte said, "buta bard's truth is different than yours or mine. Anyway, you asked for the story, so I told it." Jon VI - ACoK

In fact, Lyanna ends up buried in WF’s crypt (like the maiden in the song) because she’s identified by Ned as a Stark, so that was “her place”.
That’s the first lesson: In Ned’s song (his dream) he hid the truth by identifying the person who yells as Lyanna, when it was actually Howland Reed warning him.
The biggest clue is the person calling him in a way that’s not familiar to him, like “Brandon the Daughterless” is not familiar name to Jon when he hears Bael’s song. We’ll discuss that name later.
What was Ned hiding? That Lyanna was never in that tower, that’s Ned’sbiggest deception, hiding the fact that Rhaeagar spent half the war chasing shadows, like Waymar, and that Robert never “avenged” Lyanna as he believed,because the prince was deceived and Robert was too late to the vengeance train.
When Jon hears the song’s happy ending, he asks if Bael has brought back the maiden, to which Ygritte replies that she was “hiding with the dead”. Ned made people believe that he had brought Lyanna’s body from Dorne while he left his friends’ corpses buried there, but he didn’t. She died elsewhere.
As for “the craven”, Ned himself explained his issue with the man: the “laughter”.

"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." Eddard I - AGoT

Howland Reed was identified as “the Knight of the Laughing Tree” by his children, he wasn’t, but he’s one of the three main suspects: Howland, Ned and Lyanna. None of them was the “laughing” one though.
While Ned tells us how people’s laughter freezes in their throats and chokes them to death, look what happens to the craven Will in the prologue when he thinks of doing what Howland does: calling “Bael”.

Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and *the words seemed to freeze in his throat*.

You likely remember how Will dies, choked to death by the un-dead Waymar.
To summarize: in Bael’s song “Bael” is a name that means something, is what you call a craven who preys only on the weak.
In Ned’s dream, the word “Eddard” means “Bael”; he’s hiding the warnings: Howland warned him about Arthur Dayne trying to kill him, and Lyanna gave him her own warning:

"I hear he has gotten a child** on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but *it cannot change a man's nature*." Eddard IX - AGoT

What Ned is trying to hide (mostly from himself) is the fact that killing Arthur turned him into a kinslayer, since Ashara got pregnant in Harrenhal, explaining why he links “the laughter” with “the freezing cold”: he fathered a bastard.
Ned was great at hiding things in plain sight and being silent, yet his dream sang a different song.

2. The deceiver and the flower.

When Will reports he found the wildlings dead, Waymar doesn’t believe him. To confirm his suspicions he asks the most experienced of the group, Gared, his views about the scene that Will had described, andhe says without hesitation “it was the cold”.

"I've had the cold in me too, lordling." Gared pulled back his hood, giving Ser Waymar a good long look at the stumps where his ears had been. "Two ears, three toes, and the little finger off my left hand. I got off light. We found my brother frozen at his watch, *with a smile on his face*."

Waymar asked Will a series of questions that Ned diligently answer for us:

"Did you see *any blood?" "Well, no," Will admitted. "Did you see *any weapons?" "Some swords, a few bows. One man had an axe. Heavy-looking, **double-bladed, a cruel piece of iron.It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand." "Did you make note of the position of the bodies?" Will shrugged. "A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like."

In Bael’s song, the lord offers the singer to “name” his reward, and the man asks for “the fairest flower” which as we know, is then left behind as proof of the lord’s deception.
When Ned comes home from the war with “proof” of his deception, his wife names “the reward”, Ashara Dayne, and Ned’s answeris priceless:

It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. "Never ask me about Jon," he said, cold as ice. "He is my blood, and that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady." She had pledged to obey; she told him; and from that day on, the whispering had stopped, and Ashara Dayne's name *was never heard in Winterfell again*." Catelyn II - AGoT

In this memory, Catelyn parallels Bael singing (marshaling his courage) until he’s asked to name the reward, and not daring to name the maiden, he asks for “the fairest flower”, to which the lord gives him not what he asked for, but “a rose from the gardens”.
Ned gives Jon’s name when he’s asked about Ashara, most importantly,he establishes the link between Jon and “the blood” he later dreams of, meaning he makes us believe that the boy killed Lyanna while being born,that’s the deception.
Did you see any blood? Yes, a ‘brother’ “frozen at his watch”, a sister who allegedly died “in a bed of blood”, and the “fairest flower” blowing in the wind like the petals Ned sees when he hears his name.
They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips.” Eddard X - AGoT
Killing Arthur made him a kinslayer, but Will saw a “double-bladed” weapon.
Did you see any weapons? Yes, petals falling “dead and black”.

Ned remembered **the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, *dead and black*. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. "I bring her flowers when I can," he said. "Lyanna was … fond of flowers."

What about the position of the bodies? They all waited for Ned and ended up “fallen”: Ashara, Arthur, *and Lyanna.*
Let’s discuss the proof.
When Waymar falls, Will thinks he needs to take his sword as proof of what he saw, as if the entire thing had nothing to do with him.
Ned, as we know, takes Dayne’s sword to Starfall and after that visit, Ashara commits suicide. Yet, we have no idea what he told them. It seems kind of weird how Lord Dayne seems to highly respect the man who killed his brother and caused his sister’s suicide, right?
The point is how Will finds the sword that was supposed to be proof:

He found what was left of the sword a few feet away,the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.

We know that Ashara killed herself (explaining the sword splintered and twisted like Bran). We also know that Ned killed Arthur since that was the talking in Winterfell when he returned from the war (as Will intended to get to the Wall with a story), the proof being he took Dawn to Starfall.
What matters here is “what was left” and Ned “snatching” something that ended up in Winterfell, even when he never brought his friends’ corpses back. You see, in Ned’s memory, he seems to do what Will does when everything is over, “look around warily”.

“…the rose petals spilling from her palm, *dead and black. After that, he remembered nothing. *They had found him** still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his…”

The scene is not just weirdly similar to the way that the un-dead Waymar finds Will withhis sword, but also the proof of the crime that “Bael” left behind for the lord to find: a dead flower instead of the maiden as proof of the kidnapping.
As I said earlier, in Bael’s song the flower doesn’t mean that the lord realizes who took the maiden sincethe singer *gave him a fake name, and he was welcome in WF becausethe lord had never met him* before.
The flower proves the lord is a deceiver. It wasn’t Jon being born what killed Lyanna, *it was Ned’s flower.*

Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden. He felt them clawing at his skin, sharp and cruel, saw the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, trembling, in the dark.” Eddard XV

Ned mentions how he always brings Lyanna flowers, and that’s exactly what happened the last time he saw her. Except this time the flower was poisonous and killed her.
That’s one of the “weapons” that Will sees in one of the “fallen” *“right by his hand”,* which makes Ned a “double-bladed” weapon, or rather a double kinslayer.

“…the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his…”

Howland clearly realizes what happened and takes her hand from Ned’s so he wouldn’t die too.
All the weapons used in Ned’s song are mentioned by Will in the crime scene beyond the Wall: “It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand.”
It was “the ground” that killed Ashara, Ned being “beside” Arthur, and the petals in Lyanna’s hand.

"The trees press close here," Will warned. "That sword will tangle you up, m'lord. Better a knife." AGoT - Prologue

We get to see the proof of all victims in the way that Waymar raises being a portrayal of all three fallen.

Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him. His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from *his sword* transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye. The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

Waymar is the proof: the white pupil “transfixed” by the sword is for Arthur he died from multiple stabb wounds, the right eye “burning blue” is for Ashara (what Catelyn saw) while the “dead and black” Waymar stands for Lyanna in “her bed of blood”.
She died surrounded by her "brothers" too.
When Waymar rises, his gloves soaked in blood go straight for Will’s throat, and the man never gets to tell what he knows.
To summarize: in Bael’s song the flower proves the Lord’s deception, and the lie isn’t just about the maiden’s disappearance, or the boy’s identity, but about his own attempt to deceive the person who asks about “the flower” (his wife).
Like I said, the lord didn’t know the identity of “the thief”.Jon’s father is never named in any of Ned’s chapters*, not once,* not because he didn’t know him though, but because Ned stole “his song” as Will intended to steal Waymar’s, proof included.

3. The cold ending

In the song, when Bael comes back years later he’s faced in battle by his own son who doesn’t recognize him. I said earlier how the lack of recognition is related to previous experiences that “the young lord” should have seen coming.
Now, for some reason, the most experienced brother, Gared, runs south, he’s caught and beheaded.
That’s Bael’s fate in the song, and therefore, Ned’s.
What’s interesting is how Ned gets to that point. He goes south when he’s named “Hand” in the crypt, which is ironic as hell, but he only accepts the position since he’s determined to investigate a poisoning, and how that’s related to his son’s “falling” from a tower. Of course, he loses his sword at the peak of his mission, though Tywing was no singer, just a common thief and mass murderer.
Ned died singing his own song, *like Bael.*

Your Bael was a liar.

Since we get AGoT’s prologue from Will’s point of view and Bael’s song from Ygritte’s, (therefore the song of ice and fire), we might forget that there are other songs to be learned here.

Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. "My mother told me that dead men sing no songs," he put in. "My wet nurse said the same thing, Will," Royce replied. "Never believe anything you hear at a woman's tit. There are things to be learned even from the dead." His voice echoed, too loud in the twilit forest. "We have a long ride before us," Gared pointed out. "

I claimed at the beginning how the prince seemed to have left his best swords “guarding the horses”, how Lyanna seemed to go against his interests even when we are led to believe that she's there on her own will, and how Rhaegar goes straight to die a meaningless death.
All of that is true only if you believe Ned’s song.
When Waymar leaves Gared behind, they have a quite enlightening exchange:

Gared dismounted. "We need a fire. I'll see to it." "How big a fool are you, old man? If there are enemies in this wood, *a fire is the last thing we want."* AGoT - Prologue

We know that “a fire” was exactly what Rhaegar was looking for, what he called the “one more”, apparently a daughter to complete his three-headed dragon.
Interestingly, Bael’s enemy is called Brandon “the daughterless” and he’s the deceived person in the song.

"Will you make a song for him?" the woman asked. "He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.” Dany IV- ACoK

See the issue? Rhaegar parallels “Brandon the daughterless”, while Ned parallels Aegon, the promised one, as if the heads *had been exchanged.*
Ned’s song, like Aegon’s, was about people believing he was “the one and true hero” versus the truth proved by what happens to Waymar and his broken sword, and the true Aegon’s broken skull as proof.
Ned is “the one” because he’s the only hero in his song, even when “three heads” (Ashara, Lyanna, and Jon) would like to disagree.
Now, let’s examine the music “lingering behind” the prince and the winter rose, and how the song was playing from their point of view of “daughterless” lord and disenchanted promised bride.

1. The first lesson in the song is The Stark giving a name: “Bael” and the future “king” deciding *to teach a lesson.*

There were three people suspected of being the KoLT in Harrenhal, (Howland, Ned and Lyanna), though none of them were the true one, the real one was “a craven” who hid, (like Will), on a tree.
His shield had a laughing weirwood tree. We already saw how Ned thought that laughing causes people to freeze and choke to death, perhaps explaining why Ghost is mute.

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 voicesand laughter sharp as icicles.

The lesson in the daughterless song is Lyanna claiming to be the knight to hide “the true Bael”, who was teaching a lesson to the squires who had bullied the little Howland when he arrived at the tourney.
That explains why in Ned’s dream she’s giving the warning instead of the person who actually warned him*. They all claimed to be the knight.
In this version of the song, Bael is “a craven” because he hides his identity and “preys only on the weak”; the weakness is not knowing, and this is relevant to understanding the rest of these songs.

1. The second lesson is “the singer” asking for a reward without ever naming it and *leaving the flower as proof.*

The flower proves the lord is a deceiver, meaning Rhaegar didn’t believe Lyanna was the knight but he understood why she lied, *she was in love with the man.*
The reward however, is Rhaegar winning the tourney using the mystery knight’s same strategy, cheating:

“The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk.” AGoT - Prologue

This is how Ned remembers the prince’s success in the tourney:

A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him. Brandon fell to him, and Bronze Yohn Royce, and even the splendid Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.” Eddard XV - AGoT

Truly, no lance could touch the man, that’s the proof that “Bael” left behind, “scarlet silk streaming”; he won by cheating.

1. The final proof is Bael coming back, and here’s where we need to split the songs between ice and fire.

Let’s start with the prince and something closer to Ygritte’s version of the song.
Rhaegar’s incursion to the Trident is explained *by what he lacked, the daughter he was searching for and, most importantly, *the promise of magic that “Bael” meant for him. When he learns that Elia can’t have more children, he does what “the daughterless” does in the song, ***send “the crows” to look for the maiden and her Bael.*
That’s how Ned finds them, the guards end up in the tower because they were deceived and went there thinking that Lyanna and “the craven” were there. They were never there. Howland and Wylla were in the tower, she was faking to be Lyanna.
The prince got what he was searching for though in a very twisted way but still. Dany hatched the dragon’s eggs that came from Asshai, like the silk that Rhaegar wore in the tournament.
He wanted magic so Elia could have the daughter he wanted, since apparently, *that’s what the prophecy promised:* a three-headed dragon.
When Waymar is told about the dead wildlings, as we saw, he asks about their blood, their weapons, and the position of their bodies. All those things are related to Rhaegar’s quest for dragons.
In the daughterless song, the line seems to end with the woman, and the lack of recognition that happens when (the liar) Bael comes back means that Aegon is a fake, which we all suspect already since his song seems a bit too convenient. The “song of fire” now is whatever Dany decides to become, it’s her song.
Now, when you examine the song from Lyanna’s position, the story is about the maiden hiding in the crypt, and you have a completely different song because down there you can only find dead Starks, swords, and direwolves.
We know that Lyanna went to the tournament and that months after that, she disappears roughly at the same time that Rheagar was seen in the Trident.
That doesn’t mean he took her, it means she was hiding from him, because the prince wanted Bael like Waymar wanted those “dead wildlings”. He wanted to know who the man was.
The point of Lyanna’s song, however, is not so much about the tragic way in which she died, but how she convinced her father to get what she wanted: her own “sword”.
Ice as we know was divided into two swords, “Widow’s Wail” and “Oathkeeper”. Lyanna was married when she died, therefore the widow’s “wailing”, the cry that Ned remembers when she died.
The oath-keeping, however, is about Rickard and the “smell of blood and roses” Ned mentions when Lyanna dies:

Lord Rickard Stark, Ned's father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but *in life all swords had failed him*.” Eddard I - AGoT

Rickard had broken his word towards Robert when he allowed Lyanna to marry someone she liked instead of the man whose “nature” wouldn’t change no matter what he vowed. Robert *was blind. He didn’t care.* His lack of interest caused his downfall starting in Harrenhal when Lyanna saw him for what he was, and she seized that chance.
Lyanna fell in love with another man right in front of him and he didn’t see it because he never cared about her until “she was stolen from him” as if the woman had been his property.
Lyanna came back from the tourney *with proof:* she knew about the bastard, and she had the flowers as proof that when the prince embarrassed her in front of the entire realm her betrothed told nothing, like Will, he just stood there.
What Ned remembers of Rickard is what happened to Lyanna in the tourney, she was sitting “holding tight” to the winter roses across her lap, the proof of her father's “sword” failing.

He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but*in life all swords had failed him*.”

She had “the blood” (the bastard daughter) and “the weapon” (the crown) that Waymar asks for as proof of the deception. The position of her body changes after that because *Rickard agrees with her.*** Like Will, Robert couldn't be trusted, he would ruin Lyanna's reputation making her the laughing stock of the realm.
In Lyanna’s song, Bael comes back with an army too, he sneaks into Winterfell when Robert comes looking for Ned, he uses a fake name “Mance Rayder” to introduce himself, and sings for Lord Brandon.
When they meet, the real Bael is singing “The Dornishman’s Wife”, a song about a man who dies singing and laughing.
Jon’s true name is Brandon, like “The Daughterless”. In the song, the name of the young lord is never told, but since he grows up to become lord and the only lord in the song is Brandon, well, that’s the young lord’s name.
That’s what the Song of Ice and Fire is about names that mean something, magical proof, and young heroes dying, only to rise again *singing their own songs.*
Jon’s survival is explained by Waymar’s failed song, when he’s stabbed (like Arthur), he falls face down (like Ashara), only to rise again when someone goes for his sword.
Jon himself found his mother’s sword, *and he has proof too.*
Jon’s sword was the bastard letter. The letter told him Bael’s song again, only the names are different. The letter mentions the blood, the weapons, and the position of the bodies: Mance is in a cage cloaked by the skins of women “for all the north to see”.
That’s what Will saw coming for Waymar: *silent watchers.*

“The Others *made no sound.* 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.”

Jon is an “Other”, all you need to become one *is knowing,* finding the truth hidden inside the lies to realize that the lord is a liar and craven who preys only on the weak.
That’s how you find the winter rose and *her armor.*

"The armor of the Others is proof against most ordinary blades, if the tales can be believed, and their own swords are so cold they shatter steel.. Jon II - ADwD

If you know, then you’re not weak anymore, your “armor” is proof against ordinary blades, because some tales should be believed.
To summarize, I claimed at the beginning how the biggest hoax is that Bael’s song tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”.
The stories are all related to the brothers in AGoT’s prologue:

• Waymar telling Rhaegar’s story and how his failure turned into success when Dany achieved what he never could, finding real magic.
• Gared telling Ned’s story, thinking how he “needed” a fire to keep away “the enemies”. As Aemon told Sam, “fire consumes, but cold preserves”, explaining why Ned wanted some fire.
• The silent Will telling Jon’s story of finding his own “broken sword” as proof of his identity: a widow and an “oathkeeper”.

Summary:

The song of ice and fire is about how we are told the exact same song in two different ways: from Will’s point of view in AGoT’s prologue were “the Others” are the villains, and from Ygritte’s point of view were the Stark in Winterfell is the villain.
Ned’s song, his fever dream, which was closer to Will’s version, meant that he’s the only hero in three different stories: Lyanna’s mystery, Jon’s parentage, and his family’s downfall.
Rhagar’s song was closest to Ygritte’s, as his intention was having another child, which explains why she calls the lord “the daughterless”.
In the midst of those versions you find a “grey one”, Lyanna’s and what she left behind as proof:a broken sword.
The biggest hoax in Bael’s song is that it tells three different stories in which the “hero” is always “Bael”. The stories are all related to the brothers in AGoT’s prologue and what they do regarding the dead people:

• Waymar tells Rhaegar’s story and how his failure was turned into success when Dany achieved what he never could, finding real magic.
• Gared tells Ned’s story, thinking how he “needed” a fire to keep away “the enemies”.
• The silent Will tells Jon’s story of finding a “broken sword” as proof of his identity: a widow’s wai and an “oathkeeper”.

The year was 3080 and I'm a politician of the kiloran civilization and I'm writing this book to tell a part of the great galactic war it started way back in 2024 when another civilization known as the tajorans had a dispute over a planet. It was known as derik 1 and it had a good amount of uranium. The galatic councils rules state that whoever gets a settlement ship in first gets the colony however we both had settlement ships in the planet at the same time so rather than going to the council we decided to fight and it escalated because why settle for a planet when you can settle for a system both of us were essentially galactic superpowers I don't know much about the tajorans but I can tell you how the war went. In Derek 1 the forces were large around 500 000 men on our side while they had 250 000 men consisting of a variety of vehicles and vessels while our force was more infantry based in Derek because our armour were prioritised elsewhere for a massive offensive the war played diplomatically both of us vying for allies and making deals some were bad short term but good long term such as smaller civilizations asking for reinforcements in exchange for materials to fuel our war machine by 2080 Derek 1 was in our control and we managed to capture 50 000 men and their equipment respectively as well as 600 medium tanks and 10 000 artillery guns what I'm saying is the war was going well until we both had the same idea of going into neutral space little did we know there was a new space civilization with new strategies and weapons we've never seen before we scouted said primitive planet and decided it would be good for colonisation.
This is were our downfall as superpowers began this new nation was known as the terrain empire thier flag was that of a white bird in a red background with some rockets on the side now ill tell you the story of the battle of earth as it was called by the Victors I've told you the context now I'll begin from our perspective of kilora we had around 50 000 ships in total with 10 000 being the scout fleet. Intel told us that the tajorans had 200 000 vessels however we later found out mid battle 100 000 of those ships where terrain most galactic civilizations who are starting out would have at most 10 000 ships.
I don't know how the humans managed these numbers but they did regardless our scout fleet continued into the sol system to mark enemy targets but suddenly they got cut off by some force of something so we were unable to communicate with them we thought it was a trajoran superweapon based on the signals we were getting however only 20 ships warped back and told us they were blasted with some electric field disabling comms and systems then all hell broke loose our ships (from what they told us) were massacred they were forced to use manual aim which was unreliable and slow they never stood a chance with only 40 000 ships left we had to stay defensive we thought to ourselves perhaps we can lure the enemy in however they never came
Instead what came was the terrain scout fleet of 1000 ships they were outnumbered 40 : 1 but they fought ferociously which makes sense if our homeworld was under threat it was either death or dishonor so despite the odds they managed to inflict 10 000 casualties before retreating although is was just cruisers and battlecruisers the admiral decided we were in no shape to fight so he retreated. in the battle report it stated that the terrain scouts where able to outmaneuver our cannons as for the trajorans they had it worse from public records it stated they suffered 75 000 losses only because terrain ships where more focused on them than us.
The aftermath sent ripples through the galatic Council and [the book found was ripped and it ends here the rest of it would be garbled nonsense]
Op here I want feedback since this is my first story and I feel like I sound like an ai so yea ill make a part 2 if it gets 10 up votes or something

Banned Bird.....you've absolutely outdone yourself......
And not in a good way.
I've read over your report a few times and you've failed miserably in terms of trying to deliver facts, evidence and corroboration and you've used your own personal feelings towards an individual and not had the simple knowledge how to even factor in which laws are being broken by Elphaba to sway your personal argument, not to mention some of the wording and phrases you've used without even explaining it, "doxxing" as an example.
So here goes.....
You started off with a personal letter to Elphaba. Big waste of time because she isn't going to read it, and she frankly doesn't care. Neither Elphaba nor her parent is going to care whether she has "Mommy issues" or not, or even Daddy issues if you want to go that deep. And let's be clear, you also don't care about Elphaba's welfare or anything else except the clout and the spoils that it brings.
1) Your own experience of tiktok has been "poor," to say the least, yet you spend copious amounts of time on the app.
2) You keep your personal details privately for understandable reasons, yet you have "leaked" the location of Elphaba on social media yourself to stir up issues for this very problematic creator. You know what the consequences of this could be for anyone, yet you wish for your own details to remain confidential and private. So what makes you a person better or more deserving of privacy over someone else? Regardless of their actions.
3) You do have some valid points of behaviour from these problematic behaviours, but unfortunately, this is a much bigger issue within society compared to specific individuals. As you're aware, some people will prey on the vulnerable and exploit them, extremely wrong to do so, but it is something that isn't going to stop or be changed overnight. You also reference naracassctic personality traits and displays of behaviour, yet you aren't a trained clinical psychologist or psychiatrist, and Dr. Google just doesn't cut the mustard. Yes, I agree fully these these problematic people, specifically Elphaba, display behaviour, but there is nothing "illegal" in having warped personality traits.
4) Injustice, unfortunately, does happen every day within our society and bullying. Victimisation, of course, happens, any it shouldn't. But as detailed in your "report," you are, of course, using the term "injustice" to fit your own narrative as you've cleared stated you have faced this. So why have you faced this? Is it because people have legitimate questions or concerns, and you're not supplying enough information to quench those concerns. You simply can't say you're being attacked because people are concerned or your own actions, even innocently are being questioned along with your motives.
5) I would also like to point out that you've referenced "illegal behaviours" by some of these creators, so which laws and legislations have been broken? Surely, such a "concrete case to be used in evidence" would outline the facts, the laws and legislations broken along with sufficient evidence to corroborate it. Yes, Chelsea Lee Art has been arrested for racially aggravated behaviour and racist behaviour, but technically, until she is found guilty in court, she is proved innocent. I have no time or patience for racism in any form, yet adding this into your report without conviction or legal due process is missing the mark entirely.
6) Yes, Elphaba has openly claimed that gifts and go fund me donations are for transgender surgery (male to female) and after three years of the constant back and forth, we are yet to see any of this materialise. I completely understand, and I'm in agreement. This is absolutely disgusting and wrong that she has done this, but for a case to even be submitted in civil court against her or for police action/investigation to be taken seriously, it has to be reported by a "victim" of this rouse and with enough proof that the crown office wouldn't dismiss it.
7) It's more than obvious that Elphaba, among many others who financially groom viewers, targets a young audience and manipulation tactics, and everyone has seen very clear examples of this. Tiktok's policy clearly states that users must be "eighteen or older" to gift, so again it is a tiktok policy flaw rather than a legal aspect because I'm pretty sure there are no laws or legislations about gifting on tiktok. If anything, it would be a parental issue and also up to the parents of said underage users on where money is going and being sent. So, for every gift given or donation made, do you have concrete evidence or where this has all gone? Again, a solicitor or court won't take rumour and third-party information as seriously compared to having correct documentation.
8) Elphaba has copied and mimicked a fictional character and attempts to sing very unpleasantly (I'm being professional) and yes, it's the most unfortunate thing to ever experience but there are hundreds of thousands of individuals who copy or are inspired by a brand and use it as entertainment purposes. Is it unfair that some people destroy nice things? Of course it is, but wicked as a company have expressed that they are not affiliated with Elphaba in any shape or form. If they were to legally silence Elphaba, then they would need to do this for thousands of real entertainers, and it wouldn't be cost effective. It's a simple reality.
9) Elphaba has lied on numerous occasions over the years of fictitious ailments, diagnoses, and medical issues in what we perceive to be an attempt to manipulate viewers and to also gain attention. No matter how morally wrong this is, it isn't illegal. In no way is that defendable because these are very real illnesses, diagnoses, and medical issues that people battle every day and face enough stigma with as it is. Again, immoral, but not illegal.
10) Yes, Elphaba claimed she was going to send monetary donations and physical donations to organisations and charities and never did so. This would be actually breaking a law as it's theft through deception, similar to claiming donations are for transitioning and not being used on such. But again, it would have to be a victim who donated or gave willingly for this to be investigated and taken seriously. And it's most unfortunate that police services all over the UK are abused, they are overrun with very real crimes where people are causing great physical harm to others, but I'm not going to explain that route for now since you'll get the just of it. In the grand scheme of things, not buying a few toys is hardly the crime of the century. In the future, awareness about these incidents, again with proof, is what's needed to expose the pattern of behaviour or the good old modus operandi.
11) Elphaba has accused multiple people over the years of very serious crimes and it brings such heartache to survivors and victims alike, even people who don't have personal experience find it disgusting and in poor taste given the instances and context. She has accused numerous individuals in the last three years of sexual assault in a variety of circumstances, claiming that she has received hate crime assaults and attacks and all the rest of her victim complex routine. Unless victims who she has accused of these incidents have complained, what do you expect the authorities to do about it? The police would advise to block, avoid, and not watch the live streams or content. Very rarely, if ever, the authorities won't hold men or women who are lying about these incidents accountable for several reasons. Yes, she habitually accuses innocent people of these horrendous, heinous crimes, but the authorities are more limited than they should be.
12) Elphaba has threatened physical violence on numerous occasions over the tiktok platform, threatening to kill, cause harm, and even wave a kitchen knife in threatening behaviour. Again, if this has been reported to the police by the victims, then surely it's a discussion between the victims (if they even pursued it) with the police and the crown office. Yes, disgusting behaviour, and we all say and do things in our daily lives that we aren't proud of, yet I wouldn't expect the police to be called at every opportunity if we said and did something wrong, whether it be in heartache or anger.
13) Elphaba's misogynistic views towards women on the app are very apparent, and it's unpleasant to watch and witness. It is obvious that she only feeds into a toxic tit for tat relationship with other women, ones who wish to hold her accountable. She had made wild accusations and has added the proverbial arms and legs to the stories that she gives out, but some of these people who she targets and responds to are also fellow creators who mostly use her as their content. If you're going to be on a public domain platform and point out someone's wrongs and wrong behaviour, then surely you have to expect some sort of response, whether it be positive or negative. Again, this is in no way defending Elphaba on what she has said or called people, but it isn't as one-sided as it's getting made out to be. People make it personal, then complain when it becomes personal. Again, the authorities have better things to do than deal with squabbling women on an app.
14) Yes, we all know that Chelsea Lee Art and Evil Queen have broken the guidelines on multiple occasions for financial gain, but again, this is tiktok policy and guidelines, not law.
15) Any public platform where there is money to be made will always be abused, is it right? Of course not, but what can we do to change it? Remove gifts. tiktok won't allow that because of what it earns, and then the next step would be to dispute the agencies that "protect" said problematic creators. Shouldn't change start happening from the inside?
As I've said, I've read your report and your case study numerous times, and I've been left feeling depleted and expecting more from all the big promises. Your case study, if anything only shows narcasstic delusions of grandeur and self importance and all you've reinforced is that Elphaba has problematic behaviours, but again people don't need to watch the car crash drama or even get involved. A lot of your points are publicly valid. However, it isn't up to the public to decide what is illegal conduct or which crimes being committed are. I'm more than sure that the general public would appreciate a dangerous individual such as a domestic abuser, a rapist, a murder, a human trafficking organised crime group or pedophiles and many others who create serious victim based crimes, were removed from our society and policing budgets and time wasn't being wasted on problematic tiktok creators and focused on the serious issues.
While I understand that many agree that this behaviour and actions isn't acceptable, but people also have the option to remove themselves from viewing such material and then to also monitor which material their children are viewing.

This may seem kind of faint because I don't remember a whole lot about this game, but it was a ds game, and involved you having these small cartoony alien type characters. Basically the object of the game (or atleast what I remember) was you having to use a slingshot type of mechanism sort of like in angry birds, to launch your little alien guys into these baskets. You would have to launch them over certain barriers and obstacles and whatnot into these baskets to complete the level. As you progress and complete more levels you would unlock more of these little alien characters to use in your levels.
At this point what I'm recalling from the game is very faint and it may not be 100% accurate from the game, however from what I remember, each little alien guy had their own abilities that assisted you in launching them into the baskets. Like for example ( this isn't an actual character from the game just a generalization) there could've been a character that was able to split itself into 3 separate characters when you tapped the screen or something to increase chances of making it ino the basket. It was different abilities like that which made each little alien guy so unique, and I'm pretty sure the later you unlocked a character, the better ability it had.
Anyway thats really all I can remember from it, So I'm hoping someone knows the names

I am so anxious and overwhelmed about this so even if it seems like an overreaction I ask that you please be kind.
Our MC journey started rough. The first person we saw was horrible and basically said emotional affairs aren’t real.
We lucked out the second time around. Our MC was a student intern and she was amazing. We have made so much progress with her in the last 8 months. My husband and I both felt like she cared and understood us.
We just got a call from the practice that she’s “taking a personal leave of absence that will likely be permanent” and we were encouraged to schedule with another therapist at the practice. This seems super weird because we just saw her last week and she was prepping to move to a new location (with the practice). I fully respect her need for a personal leave of absence if that’s the case but honestly I feel like something weird has went down between her and the practice.
Regardless we are now starting over with someone new. The two options they had available was another intern who doesn’t have any experience with EFT (which is what we’ve been doing and has been so successful) or someone else that only does telehealth. We went with the telehealth option even though we hate it as we both feel we need EFT.
It sucks because we’re quickly approaching one year and I’ve noticed a lot of my hyper vigilance is back as the affair started late April last year. The timing and lack of great options just makes me feel so afraid for our progress.
Theres a very loud voice in my head that tells me to just let MC go because the thought of starting from square one with someone else who doesn’t know all the details and doesn’t know us sounds so completely overwhelming right now, but I know that’s not the way to go.

[Nintendo ds] [late 2000s-early 2010s?] Cartoony action/strategy kinda puzzle game
This may seem kind of faint because I don't remember a whole lot about this game, but it involved you having these small cartoony alien type characters. Basically the object of the game (or atleast what I remember) was you having to use a slingshot type of mechanism sort of like in angry birds, to launch your little alien guys into these baskets. You would have to launch them over certain barriers and obstacles and whatnot into these baskets to complete the level. As you progress and complete more levels you would unlock more of these little alien characters to use in your levels.
At this point what I'm recalling from the game is very faint and it may not be 100% accurate from the game, however from what I remember, each little alien guy had their own abilities that assisted you in launching them into the baskets. Like for example ( this isn't an actual character from the game just a generalization) there could've been a character that was able to split itself into 3 separate characters when you tapped the screen or something to increase chances of making it into the basket. It was different abilities like that which made each little alien guy so unique, and I'm pretty sure the later you unlocked a character, the better ability it had.
Anyway thats really all I can remember from it, So I'm hoping someone knows the name of it

I take the most likely senario and write a story. Then you post what happens next. Then You give Me different options. Then I pick the most liked option. I roll my dice to see if it plays out. Are you willing to go on this journey.
As Izuku receives conflicting advice from u/pekka27711 and u/WolfzodeYT, he hesitates for a moment, torn between the urge to act impulsively and the need to maintain control of the situation. However, with his resolve firm and guided by the wisdom of his quirk, he makes a decision.
With a swift motion, Izuku turns the wooden spear in his hand, aiming the blunt end towards the doctor's face. With a determined expression, he launches the spear, aiming for a non-lethal strike to incapacitate the deceitful doctor.
The wooden spear hurtles through the air, its trajectory guided by Izuku's determination and resolve. In a flash, it strikes the doctor squarely in the face, delivering a powerful blow that sends him staggering backward, dazed and disoriented.
As the doctor recoils from the impact, Inko gasps in shock, her eyes wide with disbelief at the sudden turn of events. The doctor's facade of authority crumbles in an instant, revealing the truth behind his deceitful actions.
With the doctor momentarily stunned, Izuku seizes the opportunity to take control of the situation, his actions guided by the wisdom and guidance of his quirk. As he prepares to confront the doctor and ensure that justice is served, he can't help but feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that he has thwarted the villain's plans and protected those he cares about.
izuku yells "perv, the doctor touched me," at the top of his lungs as it echoes out of the room. as the thundering feet of who ever. the door opens as
What happens next. You decide. Note that Izuku is only 4, and all might hasn't fought all for one yet.
Part 3

I have over 1200 hours in MD and I think I enjoyed some of them. I even know a group of friends who play modern yugioh. However, I cannot see myself ever buying a yugioh deck. Believe me, I have been tempted. Then I remember that I'm considering buying a yugioh deck. Here are my reasons.

1. Free to play is free: So why exactly would I pay money to play a game I could play for free whenever I want? Yeah. I didn’t have a good answer for that either.
   
2. The Meta Game Rotates: These little squares of cardboard are expensive. I could make a deck. I could make a meta deck. And it would be meta, until it isn’t. The experience of anyone not playing every new meta is watching as your deck becomes more and more unplayable until you are basically a punching bag for the newest decks. Frankly I don’t want to watch that happen to a deck I put time, effect and love into learning. I’d rather it live in glory, even if it was no longer legal to play.
   
3. Casual Yugioh doesn’t exist: You might say that you don’t need a meta deck and could just play casually with friends. But I want you to think for a moment the decks that your yugioh friends would pull out if you challenged them to a game. I bet that deck is designed to compete with the meta. Even if you do arrange a casual game. I bet the decks are not balanced. You are more likely to find an opponent around the same level by just playing your deck on the ladder until you end up in the right rank.
   
4. Yugioh might just be a bad game: I feel like over half the games I play of yugioh are won or lost by “The Out” with little to no impact from the player. They won the coinflip and set skill drain GG. Your perfect hand loses to exactly Droll, well that happens. Going 1st people often play out their entire hand. It’s pretty easy to count the interactions. Sometimes you know before your 1st turn starts that you lost and there is no possible way to out the board. Other times you have that red-reboot for that backrow deck.
   
5. I feel rude scooping in person: On Master Duel I have 0 issues with surrendering at the first sign that I am going to lose the game. I have things to do and frankly I get board of watching someone combo off on their turn, then combo off on my stand-by. Sometime I even have the out like the evenly matched or whatever, I just don’t feel like waiting for my main phase to play it. In person I would feel like I jerk if I was resigning every game all the time.
   

6. I feel bad always reading everyone’s cards: For me to play the game even remotely competently I need to know what my opponent’s deck does. I find it really nice to be able to scroll through the game log and review their cards while they are combing. Sure I could ask to read them in person. They would probably let me. But I be they would stop combing while I read the cards. If I when to local I wouldn’t even finish the first game because I would still be reading their cards.
7. Tracking the game state is a mess: I have in fact played modern yugioh in person. I've borrowed decks. And every time I played it, the game was mess. Even the most experienced players I know got confused about minor wording differences. They forgot about lingering effects and once per turn effects that happened at some point earlier in the turn. I’m still not entirely sure when I can flip floodgate traphole and when I cannot. I know people cheat left and right. They don't even cheat intentionally. People just cannot keep track of yugioh's game state. I very much prefer that the computer simply manages all of the crazy. Its like a referee that doesn't make mistakes.
8. Decks I like to play are not good: I am not a combo deck player. I like decks that have a strong toolboxy feel, but that don’t require 50 steps just to summon on monster. I also generally prefer archetype pure decks over piles. But more than anything else I prefer decks with a high floor even if the ceiling it low. I’d rather do something rather than be completely shutdown. The yugioh meta game is dominated and probably will continue to be dominated by these decks that win on the spot if X resolves. That’s just not how I play. I take a turn or two to kill the other player which generally just means my archetypes are worse.
9. I wouldn't play it enough: Whenever I’ve gone to a casual yugioh night with my buddies, they spend about 50% of the time talking about yugioh, about 30% of the time looking at the same trade binders from the previous time. Then maybe if we choose not to go get food, then someone actually plays a game. So I make a deck and play it what, once a month? I suppose I could go to locals, but that doesn’t really work with my work schedule and I don’t want to get smacked by meta decks every round.

This is the prologue and first chapter of a superhero story I've had in my head for a pretty good while. Regarding criticism, any mistakes you find are definitely something worth telling me. Also, if you need me to critique your work, just send it to me and I'll be happy to take a look at it the first chance I get, which is usually very soon. With that in mind, here is a short excerpt:
Before further bickering could ensue, the twins heard sounds of yelling coming from inside of a dirty, stinky alley up ahead. They both looked in to find 2 people towards the end of it. The first appeared to be a tall man wearing a black hoodie and jeans, with a gray ski mask covering his face, and he appeared to be grabbing onto the red shirt of a young adult man with a brown goatee and a white and blue baseball cap, pinning him against the wall by his shirt.
“...I said to give me everything!” The first man said with a gruff sounding voice, pointing a handgun to the second man’s forehead.
“No! P-please! I-I don’t have anything of value on me!” The second man responded, clearly fearing for his life.
The masked man had his back turned to the section of the alley Alexis and Elias were standing, so, without really thinking about what they were about to do, only acknowledging the danger the second man was in, the two decided to quietly sneak up and jump the robber. They had almost reached their destination when one of the many bags of trash overflowing out of the dumpster next to the them fell off of the stack, making a loud assortment of noises as cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, and the like spilled out onto the concrete, causing his head to turn towards the commotion.
“This doesn’t concern you kids, now scram.” The hooded man sighed, not letting go of his victim.
The twins stood there motionless, looking at each other, then at the armed mugger, trying to figure out what to do now that they had been spotted.
“I said scram.” the man said again, this time removing his gun from his victim’s forehead and pointing it in the direction of the twins.
The twins stood there frozen with fear for their lives, now putting their hands behind their heads before slowly beginning to step away from the scene before them. The man with the gun began turning back towards his first target before turning around, then suddenly pointing his gun at Elias and pulling the trigger. A loud bang suddenly occurred and a bullet began flying out of the barrel of the gun, speeding towards Elias. Neither him nor his sister had any time to react to this, yet he flinched and put his arms in front of him out of reflex, only to find that the bullet appeared to be long gone by the time he did this. His sister looked over, expecting a bloody hole in her brother’s chest, only to be met with not just the opposite of that, but something that could only be described as supernatural. Elias looked at the man, who had what could be considered to be the biggest look of surprise ever seen on a person’s face, then at his sister, whose previously fear and panic filled expression turned to one of shock. Elias looked around for the bullet, and noticed a curiously tiny pile of ash on the ground near his feet. He looked around and noticed that everything all around him looked to have a greenish hue, the air feeling noticeably warmer around him as well, a fact which only increased the confusion of the situation between him and his sister. The mugger, his hand now shaking, fired his gun 3 more times and it was then when all 4 parties present (the mugger’s victim was also observing this whole ordeal from the pavement) got to witness the bullets near instantaneously disintegrate into ash, each grain of said ash falling around the previous mound. The mugger, now with an expression of fear at the seemingly supernatural sight before him, attempted to fire again, however, his gun only made a clicking sound, signaling the depletion of its magazine. Alexis saw this as an opening, and snapped out of her mesmerization at her brother’s almost divine escape from the jaws of death. She ran up to the mugger before punching him square in the face, except, just before fist made contact with face, some kind of flaring green energy wrapped itself around her fist, seeming to increase the power of the attack. The impact caused the man to slam full force into the brick wall of the alley before he fell head first onto the ground, knocking him unconscious. Alexis looked down, enraptured at the sight of both of her hands, which were now glowing with the aforementioned energy, she then looked up at the other still-conscious man, whose eyes were wide with (both astonishment and horror) at what he had just witnessed. He looked back over at his attacker on the ground before quickly scrambling onto his feet and sprinting out of the alley. Suddenly, the green energy field around her brother nearly instantly dissipated, and he began falling forwards on the ground. Alexis caught him before he made contact with the pavement, however.
“…Okay…WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL JUST HAPPENED?!” Alexis eventually said after a period of silence, helping her brother back onto his feet.
“…I…I’m not…sure…” Elias responded, evidently exhausted. “…But I’m feeling really tired…and I’m not sure why…”
As the two began processing what had just happened, they heard a faint clicking sound emanating from somewhere close behind them, they turned around to find that the source of the sound was a dirty Geiger Counter that had evidently fallen out of one of the trash bags that had spilled earlier. They walked closer to it, and the clicks grew moderately close together. The twins looked at each other, confused by this mysterious happening, before Alexis eventually spoke.
“We’re not telling dad about this, are we?”
“Oh hell no.”

Hi all - I am looking for some advice - we are fixing up some of the electrics in the house - and as part of this I’m taking the opportunity to replace the main fuse board and I am about to get our standalone garage connected up to the house (it currently just has one strip light on an extension from the upstairs lighting ring).
I was thinking about adding a battery for storage - as our daily usage is about 15-20kwh (when not charging our phev more than once) - which would payback over the next 5+ years if I cycle it and export it during expensive periods. We have space in the garage for it - and the cable run from the main fuse board isn’t too far (5 metres or so).
If I was to do this - it seems to make sense to me to also add some panels to the garage roof. I don’t want to touch the house roof - as it’s 1920s original clay tiles - and we’ve already had issues with breakages/leaks when sorting out the chimney caps - to sort out bird problems!
The garage has a south facing flat roof that’s got 530x270cm of usable space. It’s a wooden frame with OSB board and usual rolled felt, so not very solid - but hopefully enough to support some panels on risers?
Before I go and get estimates from an installer - just looking for some advice on what I should be considering when wiring up the garage - and even if this makes sense - I don’t want to be wasting anyone’s time - if it’s a job too small for an installer - I’m comfortable DIYing it as I can rope in some help.
I had a quote a while ago for 13 panels on the roof that were estimated at 5-6kw, the garage has a bit of shading from the trees around - but u imagine similar Rio the two chimney stacks on the roof.
Thanks for your help!

This particular festival is tied strongly with the Iliac Bay politics. The preceding week is devoted to the election of the two leaders who would guide the League through the next decade. By tradition, the candidates, and delegated voters from every city-state of the league gather in the city of Balfiera to present themselves and cast vote in person. Counting their ships with crews, and invited honorary guests, the population of Balfiera is said to double on those days.
After the outcome of the election is announced, the celebratory part begins. The main attraction here is a regatta, a sea-race though all the length of the Iliac Bay from the isle of Balfiera to the isle of Betony. But that is not the contest of pure speed - packed cargo waits on Betony, its amount exceeding the size of a typical ship hold two or three times. Thus, it measures the logistical capabilities of the captains, and the endurance and speed of all the crew.
From the Iliac Bay, each city-state puts forward its own ship. They all are much similar in construction - mid-sized, with two or three masts, mostly square-rigged, except for the gaff sail on the aft. Such ships have shown themselves to be capable both in the relatively calm waters of the Abecean Sea and in the open ocean. They are small enough to be fast and maneuverable, but big enough to carry the cargo, and the fighting complement of the marines and shipboard ballistae. There is no surprise that the shipbuilding of the rest of the nations is influenced by the Iliac designs to a greater or lesser degree.
YgM: They are cheap to build, that's their main advantage. Freehold and Sapiarchy designs are superior in every way, but you can't turn them out with the same speed as those clinker brigs.
Of the guest competitors, the most impressive one is, obviously, from the Potentate. Saint Barenziah of Port Katariah is competing for the second time. She have been constructed as a flagship for the upcoming expedition to the Akavir, and now waits for the rest of the fleet to be built. Her dark hull is made of the finest Nibenese softwood, the multitude of independent sealed holds ensure that she stays afloat even when severely damaged. The fully battened sails from the closely-woven moth silk are dyed bright purple. A great treasure ship, she is slower than average. But she is big enough to fit all the cargo in one go, and the crew can populate a decent-sized town. Using the ship-mounted cranes, she can be loaded and unloaded surprisingly rapidly. Only the unfortunate low tide had prevented her from winning the race the last time.
YgM: This bloated cow of a boat managed to run aground smack in the middle of the Iliac Bay. Independent holds worked well, though. So after the high tide she needed only three months to limp back to Port Katariah. Let us all hope they don't run aground in the middle of the ocean if and when they finally sail to Akavir. It's a fine bunch of lads and lasses serving on her, would be a pity to lose them..
From the port of Alinor hails the beautiful Root Square of Minus One. The crystal ships of Sapiarchy, with their impossible geometry and wing-like sun-sails are rarely seen on the trade routes. The performance under sail is invariably awe-inspiring, but it is mitigated by the fact that the crew seems to consist of enthusiastic amateurs who don't see the open seas often.
A less refined take on the same design is marked as being from the newly-constructed port town of Jode's Pocket. The port doesn't see much trade, as few merchants wish to go up the Strid river, but just as a ship itself, it is a testament to the fledgling Bosmer state ambitions. The ship, pretentionsly named Valentis the Great, has been commissioned from the Sapiarchy shipyards. Doubly restricted by the unwillingness of the Altmer to disclose all their secrets, and the necessity to dock in the freshwater port, it came out too small for its sails, and a bit awkward on sharp turns.
Two longships from the port of Solitude and the port of Windhelm stand side by side, as similar as sisters. Named Blessing of Akatosh and Kyne's Breast, both are in Atmoran style, and thus much different from the rest. Clinker-built from the long planks of the ancient northern oaks, their length is limited by the height of the tree itself. Shallow-keeled, broad and flexible, they show their best in the icy Sea of Ghosts, where they can go up the rivers on oars, and survive the impact on floating ice that sinks bigger and sturdier ships of the southern style. The sail plan is simplistic, though, and doesn't allow to sail as fast and as close to the wind. The Wrothgarian ship is all prettied up, with the sails and crew uniforms dyed Queen's red. The Snow-Throat crew, in comparison, looks as if they have wintered on the floating ice halfway to Atmora with only horkers for company.
YgM: If that's the ship I know as 'Kyne's Tits', then yes. Yes, they did.
The port of Greenheart is represented by Thousand and First Eye. Formerly an EEC merchant ship, it has been claimed under the ancient rights of salvage. The legality of its aquisition is as dubious as a Free City status of the Greenheart itself, but too many interests are tied in to make an issue of it. Built in the Potentate many years ago, it is a workmanlike affair, far removed from the splendor of the Saint Barenziah. However, recently it has been upgraded with the complicated system of studding sails that unfurl to the sides like a pair of great wings - and which its agile Bosmer-Khajiit crew operates flawlessly.
Similar sails adorn the ships from Pelletine and Anequina. Few can match the natural grace of the people of Azurah on the masts, and that allows them to operate the rigs of such complexity that would confound the average sailor. The hull of the Anequina's ship is a veritable antique - an ancient Imperial warship, captured together with its home port Leyawiin in the time of troubles. The ship of Pelletine is newly-built though, garish with the carved guilded ornaments and bright paint.
Freehold is represented by a different vessel at each Regatta, following some complicated internal arrangement between the merchant families. Once they even put out a full Goblin crew, if you can imagine that. This year their representative is conservative enough, Dibella's Grace, belonging to the Patrician Umbranox. She would be similar enough to the Iliac Bay ships to be indistinguishable, if not for the Altmeri sun-sails augmenting the usual canvas ones.
Similar enough to the classical Iliac brig is also Hundig's Rage of Stros M'kai. She is lateen-rigged in a more archaic way, though. And she seems to carry more ballistae than usual, including the compact alchemical ones hidden behind the clever windows of the lower deck. There also appears to be no distinction between the sailors and the marines in the crew, as everyone is lightly armored and carries a sword at all times.
Gifted Heart flies the banner of port Evermore. Depending on the complicated ebb and flow of the relationships between the Iliac Bay and their eastern neighbours, it is not always allowed at the Regatta. But the trade up the Bjoulsae is not blockaded by Wayrest now, and the ancient galley of old Breton design is welcomed as an honorable guest.
From Blacklight comes Saint Jiub. Her battened silk sails make her appear similar to the Potentate ships from the distance. The hull design, however, is quite archaic and ungainly. The Resdayn ships only rarely make it as far as the Abecean Sea, mostly being used for local transportation across the Inner Sea - and so they lag behind in their shipbuilding.
The most outlandish-looking is the contestant from Soulrest. From the first impression, an uncharitable observer would call it a giant raft fully assembled of reeds and hollow trunks. But a closer look reveals much cleverness - Eternal Change is a twin-hulled vessel, stable enough for the shore trade, but also able to navigate the swampy shallow rivers and lakes of the southern Black Marsh. The materials are chosen with the traditional Argonian ingenuity to either resist rot naturally, or treated with fire to become such.

TLDR: BSG don't segment your player base, having the option to pay for things is fine having inconsequential exclusive things (knives, cosmetics, starting guns and ammo)... but don't kick your player base in the balls and then throw them twenty bucks, theyre not going to apricate being kicked in the balls
okay, now that I got both the curious people who don't care and want to see the dumpster fire of the comments for the title, AND the people who were going to get rage baited into this and possibly even BSG including Nikita himself in where I hope this dosnt fall on deaf ears in that regard even if BSG or nikita dosnt acknowledge this post, i'm being hopeful and fair in that regard as this community is very quick to get angry but I want to make a post that voices the same outrage everyone has... but i always say it's always good to try to meet in a middle ground so this is where this post starts (i'm expecting this post to get auto downvoted by people who just doom scroll the subreddit anyway without reading this.
so how the unheard edition was released was well... obviously kind of tone deaf and in many ways like BSG went back on their word about EOD, and I went and bought the new edition under the impression that the Unheard edition was basically EOD+, you basically get a pay for convenience situation where everything else is gained through gameplay or through EOD and is the equivalent of a supporter edition. What I was not expecting is what it actually is turned out to be where it has a handful of things that are just over all weird and predatory behavior. so i want to cordially suggest some changes to the pack to make it more fair and over all in good faith to the player base
number 1 and I know Nikita has said they don't have the server bandwidth to support the PvE tarkov right now to allow everyone to play... my suggestion is why not work with a certain modding group to work together to make a really fucking good PvE tarkov... you put PvE tarkov right on the launcher they already have the servers for it, you sell PvE tarkov for X amount you split it between the two of you, then all that needs to happen is the BSG team focuses on making and balancing PVP tarkov and allow PvE tarkov to be balanced by the other team and you work together, BSG also gets access to their AI tech and that not only makes PvP tarkov better but it allows people to have everything in one place which will then just get more people to buy tarkov which is the main reason people have speculated this edition was even made, to make money. people will buy PvE tarkov probably more than PvP tarkov and theres a lot of ways to go about it instead of trying from square one. networking is a powerful tool use it.
another thing about two particular items the mark of the unheard... now i'm of the belief that fence should give a little something better for PMCs who have +6 scav karma than just a slightly better store page... so the mark of the unheard to me is an effort to reward PMCs with that... but make it so that everyone can get it by getting +6 karma... but heres a Debuff for it. if you ether kill a scav or go under +6 scav karma you basically become marked and cursed and some scavs will go looking for you to kill you, because the item even states that it tracks the user, that's how scavs know not to shoot you at exactly 60m a way to balance it is the player using it needs to kill a PMC to become unmarked and become "unheard" again.
what this does is it gives the item's bonuses some very harsh downsides for the bonuses it gives.
and the biggest thing is... well the beacon, or what I call the buddy buzzer. please reconsider making this in the PvP mode. the fear and stress of the game kinda goes away if you can just call your friends at the first footsteps, and it's an easy way to RMT flat out. keep it to the PVE mode because I can see a lot of fun, and just convenient gameplay to bring your friend into the raid when youre mid raid... PvP not good, PvE literally a gameplay win.
so this generally concludes the "love letter" and it's more of a "BSG please reconsider some things and make better choices that will guarantee make you the money you seem to be after and make the player base happy. if you have a happy player base, you can sell things, nothings wrong with selling things, but don't make long awaited features exclusive and don't make items that take away from the spirit of the game... and give scav karma 6+ PMCs something but don't make that exclusive ether.
again give the option to simply Pay, that's fine within reason, but don't segment the playerbase
i want to see this game succeed but that dosnt mean I agree with the general disregard for the players
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Hi! I've been a One Piece fan for over a decade, and I love the conversations regarding the Earth in this story potentially not being correctly orientated. This obviously isn't a complete theory that has originated from many before me, but I can provide some scientific rationale for the conversation that may help.
Throughout the One Piece story, there's been a lot of evidence to suggest that the One Piece world has been rotated 90 degrees so that the magnetic north doesn't align with the true north (ex. Jaya birds, map orientations, whale migratory patterns, etc.). Lots of evidence for that has been laid out before, so I'm not going to get into all of that here. But I DID want to talk about what would happen if the Earth rotated back 90 degrees, making the Grand Line run North to South and the Red Line along the equator.
Our own Earth isn't perfectly spherical- the rotation of the Earth causes a centrifugal force, causing the planet to bulge out along the equator where the rotation is the fastest (called the equatorial bulge). As a result, along the equator, the relative sea level is higher in this area. If the One Piece planet has been rotated 90 degrees, that would mean that the sea is artificially higher along the Grand Line (where the are now a bunch of small islands where people live) compared to the rest of the 'true ocean', and is potentially covering space in the Grand Line that was once an exposed continent that people lived on. This would explain both why there are ruins of towns on the sea floor, and why the Grand Line ocean area is so turbulent.
If the Earth had been rotated, the entire ocean circulation would have been suddenly disrupted, and the water passing over this newly-covered Grand Line would be a lot shallower than the real ocean depths around it, denoted by the Calm Belt edge. This water would be very turbulent, and explain some of the extremely rough seas in the Grand Line. The best analogy to this is water circulation patterns formed by white waters (and used in white water rafting). The water then running into this comparatively higher piece of continental crust along its sides wouldn't have anywhere to go, and not generate currents or even potentially large wind patterns (think of Backwaters in rivers).
The sudden rotation of the planet would also explain the variations in weather patterns and magnetic fields of the different exposed islands along the Grand Line. After being rotated so suddenly, their magnetic fields would be completely out of sync with the planet, as well as with the larger thermohaline circulation patterns (deep ocean currents that are huge drivers for temperature and salt circulation patterns). With the disruption of these currents, continental areas (now islands) that may have once received colder, deeper circulation waters are now getting warmer ones, and vice versa. Combined with magnetic anomalies, this could be the cause of the crazy weather patterns seen on many of the islands visited, and why the special Log Pose compasses are needed for navigation.
If the Earth was rotated back 90 degrees, this would have huge implications for reconnecting the world and the four Blues. To start, the theorized connecting continent along the Grand Line would be exposed as the equatorial bulge was relocated, and the many islands along it would be reconnected together. There also wouldn't be the deadly and harsh waters of the Grand Line and the Calm Belts separating people, allowing them to come together (one step closer to the 'All Blue' goal). This would also allow many of the Straw Hat crew to fulfill their own dreams.
At the same time, this theory alone doesn't explain why the Red Line exists. However, just by looking at it, it's clear that the Red Line is not natural to the world around it and has been raised from the ocean floor (cliff-like edges, lack of natural life, etc.). This act alone would have caused a huge displacement of water and tsunamis, and ultimately may have been the cause of a prior flood, or the first 'cleansing'. However, the Red Line's existence may make better sense in the broader picture of the world nobles and Gorosei.
This also all then begs the natural questions of why, how, and by whom.
I think the 'whom' side of this is the easiest to speculate on and kind of answers the other two questions. Imu. All of the other Gorosei are shown to be other planetary Gods that have immense power yet have chosen to make Imu their ruler. None of them seen like they would want to give up such a ruling power that they could control themselves so easily UNLESS Imu already had the same planetary power, but for Earth. If Imu had such a powerful Earth-controlling power, he most likely was the individual responsible for either raising the Red Line or rotating the Earth 90 degrees.
The Red-Line-raising and the Earth-rotating actions could be theorized in either order, with Oda potentially rationalizing it either way. The raising of the Red Line to encompass the Tree of Eve, blocking sunlight and thus hope to the now disconnected masses could have caused enough turmoil to rotate the Earth, but an easier explanation is the opposite order of events. Imu could have rotated the Earth 90 degrees to flood the major Grand Line continent and kill the masses in a first-strike flood, then followed by the raising of the Red Line. This would have enclosed the Tree of Eve, given his loyal "Celestials" a place to live, given the Gorosei a place to live away from prying eyes, and broken up the ocean into four distinct Blues. This tactical move would have separated the people and made them easier to control (for what is power if you have no one to rule over). However unclear, it is easily concluded that the Red Line needs to be destroyed to free the Tree of Eve and connect the people of the world.
By rotating back the Earth 90 degrees and destroying the Red Line (post-Imu defeat), Luffy could fulfill many of his own dreams and those of his crew.
However, most importantly, this theory could potentially be rationalized by Oda to a broad audience in a limited number of panels, which would go something as follows: 1) Imu is the Earth God, and can control the tectonics of the planet. 2) During the time of Joyboy, Joyboy or someone affiliated got too close to finding out the truth of the Gorosei so a great world cleansing was initiated. 3) To prevent this from happening again, Imu rotated the Earth and raised the Red Line, separating the people and killing many more. 4) Raising the Red Line gave the Gorosei somewhere to live away from the people, which they also extended to the Celestials. 5) The Celestials were just people or a kingdom that sided with the Gorosei during this fight and were thus granted a place to live in the "Holy Land of Mariejoa". 6) To reconnect the people, Imu/some power must be forced to reorient the Earth. 7) The Red Line must be destroyed.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, and see what people think (either in favor-of or against)!

Here's the project I did for mathematical modeling based on factorio:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOzjHWKG5xGcqtSx2pCJzhfLtqDog3uTspkDGoWswTM/edit?usp=sharing
I have the same professor for numerical analysis 2 as I did for mathematical modeling and he gave me the go ahead to modify that project using the new concepts instead of making a whole new project. The issue is that I don't see how the content is very applicable. The concepts that are applicable to the final project are:
Root finding without derivatives (Muller's and Brent's methods)
Symmetric matrices and Cholesky factorization
The conjugate gradient method
Broyden's method for nonlinear system
Chebyshev Interpolation
Generalized Minimum Residual Method
Nonlinear Least Squares
Romberg Integration
Adaptive Quadrature for Integration
Gaussian Quadrature for Integration
Numerical Methods for solving differential equations (partial and... normal?)
Random number generators
applications of monte carlo simulations
Trigonometric interpolation and Signal Processing
Audio/Image compression using trigonometric interpolation (Unsure if these are Fourier, we haven't gotten to them yet though I'm familiar with Fourier from other classes and would guess they probably are)
Rayleigh Quotient Iteration
Applications of SVD (IDK what that is, we haven't gotten to it yet and the project materials don't cover it, I hope you guys do lol)
Support Vector Machine algorithm for data clustering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Support_vector_machine)
Other Optimization Methods: steepest descent, conjugate gradient search
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P.S. sorry for the alt account, I didn't want to link my school email to my reddit account lol.

Needed things: Shelter from 27 march Blue star Sacrifice employee and one in the shelter (only 1 per department is enough)
Optional but highly recommended: WhiteNight A bunch of others Aleph or goods waw ( to accelerate the process )
Basically all you will have to do is to put an employee in the shelter from 27 march and let the abnormality do the job, cause when you use the shelter, after some time a random abnormality on your facility escape over and over. Blue star and white night will do damage around the facility, constantly damaging the Red mist will one employee is in the shelter. And other alephs can damage her too to make the process faster. If you use WhiteNight the employee in the shelter might become the heretic. He will still count as alive so it still work ( I think he can’t turn into an evil apostle if he is in the shelter )
Apocalypse bird can help too cause he will make abnormalities breach faster and can also be a good damager
When everything is set up you can just afk, it can take 20min to 1 hours depending on abnormalities movement and how many damager aleph you have. I had every aleph so it took me only 20min
Hope this will help y’all :D
Source of the idea: @saltedhorsemeat4843 on YouTube, the video is named “Lobotomy Corporation: How to easily beat Gabura Meltdown