u/fakefolkblues

Today I finished reading 'An Artist of the Floating World' by Kazuo Ishiguro. Only recently I realized that I've actually read almost every book of his. The only book left now is 'When We Were Orphans'. It's actually been quite a journey that I unintentionally started two and a half years ago. Now that I am nearing the end of this journey, I feel rather sad.

I also realized I should have changed my reading order, as it seems like 'When We Were Orphans' is almost universally recognized as his worst book (even by the author himself). So I am actually not as enthusiastic to start reading it as I would like to. But the thing that intrigued me is that there is a new book of his, 'Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger', coming next spring. Since it seems to share a similar setting with 'When We Were Orphans', I think it would be interesting to compare these two with each other.

So where does 'When We Were Orphans' sit in your ranking of Ishiguro books? Interesting to hear if anyone actually really loved it.

...Robyn. (According to Elio Garcia)

An interesting fact I haven't seen being shared in this subreddit. Last month Elio revealed that when GRRM sent him a draft of a Targaryen family tree in 1999, Bloodraven was originally named Robyn (instead of Brynden).

We know that Bloodraven was not fully fleshed out as a character during his writing of AGOT but GRRM always knew the Three-eyed crow would be related to Targaryens (also according to Elio). Now this recent revelation about Bloodraven's original name has some fun implications:

1. His answer to Bran's question about Brynden Tully is ironic:

>"I have an uncle Brynden," Bran said. "He's my mother's uncle, really. Brynden Blackfish, he's called."
"Your uncle may have been named for me. Some are, still. Not so many as before. Men forget. Only the trees remember." - ADWD, Bran III

In fact, from the meta perspective, we now know that GRRM named Bloodraven after Blackfish.

2. GRRM just kinda likes how the letter y looks, right?

3. The only Robyn I can recall that was invented before Bloodraven is Robyn Rhyswell from The Hedge Knight. It is a one eyed edgelord of a knight that fought alongside Dunk during the trial of seven. It is funny that some tinfoil theories that were sparked by the AKOTSK show may actually have some merit (Bloodraven=glamored Robyn Rhyswell...)

4. Although spelt differently, Robert Arryn's nickname is Sweetrobin. The first time this nickname is used in AFFC. In this book, he assumes the role of the Lord of the Eyrie and seats on a weirwood throne. There are also some hints of Sweetrobin's psychic abilities, which further reinforce the connections between him, Bloodraven, and Bran.

Nevertheless, Robyn is a lame name (I apologize to all Robins) and I am glad GRRM went with Brynden.

Basically the thread title. I noticed that most of the time I spend working on papers I put on writing rather than experiments. I often struggle to articulate my thoughts. A single sentence can take me up to minutes of thinking. In my opinion, the language of my papers turns out to be OK (not great) but I could have definitely spent significantly less time to achieve the same quality.

A little bit of background: I am doing PhD in machine learning. English is not my native language. I do not have international friends, so my communication skills are also not as great as I want them to be.

I have a practice routine that I try to maintain. Whenever I read a paper, I write a few paragraphs to summarize the key concepts. But the thing is, I do not really know if I am improving. I often notice that I keep reusing the same patterns and cliches and overthinking about the grammar. I want to maintain clarity in my writing and make my text stylistically diverse yet appropriate, so the reader could find it simple and interesting.

However, I am also not sure if reading research papers helps me anymore. I find it difficult to distinguish between great and poor writing. This has become worse since the LLM era, where most of the papers are polished by AI. Besides, I also read English literature on the daily basis, though I also doubt if it had any positive effect.

Can you share some tips on how you overcame similar issues (i.e., bottleneck = writing)? I would also appreciate if you could share any resources on academic English that you found particularly useful. Thanks!

Disclaimer: This theory is based on the long summary of the play by u/airbender_librarian (check this out!). I haven't seen the play. Also tinfoil alert.

According to that thread and various spoiler reports, Lyanna is revealed to have had some sort of magical dreams (green? warg?) prior to the events of the play. When Rhaegar meets her, he shares that he had dragon dreams which makes them bond. This reveal of Lyanna having magical prophetic powers is new to the canon, although it is not entirely surprising.

The thing about the play that seems strange and quite deliberate to me is that these prophetic dreams intensify throughout the course of the play. This is a major plot point, as this partially seems to explain the degrading mental state and irrational actions of this couple. According to the reports, in this second half of the play, visions become more tangible, and both R and L experience them in the waking hours. Basically the dreams turned into hallucinations:

• R and L in their lovesick hippie phase in Tower of Joy (the tower's name itself is drug coded)
• Rhaegar burning prophecy scrolls
• Lyanna starts having waking green dreams and hallucinating the kingsguard as her brothers
• Rhaegar having a dragon dream during his duel with Robert

To me this has major implications because in the book series, wolf and dragon dreams occur only during sleep (please correct me if I am wrong here). In fact, the only instances of the waking dreams that I can recall are:1) House of the Undying and 2) Euron drugging Aeron in the Forsaken chapter. Both of these occur due to shade of the evening, which is a blue-shaded drink consumed by warlocks.

So my theory is the following. Shade of the evening is actually made from winter roses, which explains its blue hue. The first half of the play ends with Rhaegar gifting Lyanna a crown of winter roses. I think one of the reasons the play is structured that way is to provide the midpoint for R and L before and after "the shade-of-the-evening poisoning". In the ASOIAF 2024 calendar, Rhaegar and Lyanna are seen spending time together amidst a pole of blue flowers (winter roses?). So they likely plucked some more roses on their way to the Tower of Joy from Harrenhal. In fact, Ned recalls seeing the roses in the Tower of Joy. Winter roses, due to its relation to the shade-of-the-evening, could enhance the psychic abilities of their users and making them mentally unstable.

So the moral of the play: don't do drugs. If someone watched the play, please tell me if this makes any sense or this tinfoil is too much.

The preview play finally started about two hours ago. I thought it would be great to have some thread to discuss the play, even though I am not attending to it myself. Those who are watching it tonight, please share your impressions about the play (and spoilers, if they are allowed).

Meanwhile, the rest of us could speculate about the plot details. After all, this is some of the most exciting new ASOIAF content since the end of the original TV show. Feel free to share your wildest predictions.

My tinfoil prediction: there is a Mance Rayder cameo. The wandering crow who recruits people at the tourney is him. He learnt most of his songs there and also listened to Rhaegar's playing.

Also: Rhaegar will play "a song of ice and fire".

It's known that Dunk is Brienne's ancestor. A not so subtle hint was planted back in AFFC where Brienne recalls finding a painted shield on Tarth with the same description as of Dunk's. GRRM seemingly confirmed them being related and according to the report from Balticon 2016,

>"Will we ever learn how Brienne descends from Dunk?"
GRRM replied, "Eventually. All will be revealed in time."

One of the most accepted theories is that due to Tarth and Targaryens being related (according to TWOIAF), one of Egg's sisters had an affair with Dunk and they had a bastard. The mother then married one of the Tarths and they raised the child.

But I rarely see another way to which how Dunk and Brienne may be actually related. That is, Dunk himself might be a secret Tarth bastard. In The Sworn Sword, Dunk and Egg discuss the Great Bastards, and this leads to this interesting bit of dialogue about Dunk's origins:

>Born to betrayal, Dunk thought. Born of lust and weakness. Never to be trusted, great or small. "Egg," he said, "didn't you ever think that I might be a bastard?"

>"You, ser?" That took the boy aback. "You are not."

>"I might be. I never knew my mother, or what became of her. Maybe I was born too big and killed her. Most like she was some whore or tavern girl. You don't find highborn ladies down in Flea Bottom. And if she ever wed my father . . . well, what became of him , then?" Dunk did not like to be reminded of his life before Ser Arlan found him. "There was a pot shop in King's Landing where I used to sell them rats and cats and pigeons for the brown. The cook always claimed my father was some thief or cutpurse. 'Most like I saw him hanged,' he used to tell me, 'but maybe they just sent him to the Wall.' When I was squiring for Ser Arlan, I would ask him if we couldn't go up that way someday, to take service at Winterfell or some other northern castle. I had this notion that if I could only reach the Wall, might be I'd come on some old man, a real tall man who looked like me. We never went, though. Ser Arlan said there were no hedges in the north, and all the woods were full of wolves." He shook his head. "The long and short of it is, most like you're squiring for a bastard."

We know one of the future D&E stories involves The She-Wolves of Winterfell and our favorite duo traveling to the North. There's also this bit of lore where Dunk escorts Bloodraven to the Wall. Since he assumed he might meet a real tall guy at the Wall, likely a criminal, he would be his father.

I think this is an interesting direction and I rarely see it being discussed, and this could be a great premise for future Dunk stories, if we ever get one. I know some of you may not like this idea that Dunk is actually highborn but it could be where "Brienne is related to Dunk" has always been about.

A widely accepted theory is that Lyanna was the knight of the Laughing Tree and that's how Rhaegar fell in love with her (he was sent to find out who was the mystery knight by his father). And when Rhaegar won the tourney, he crowned her with winter roses. However, if this theory is true, then crowning her was a spontaneous act that Rhaegar could have come up with only during the tourney. Since the tourney lasted only for seven days, this raises several questions:

1. How Rhaegar found out that these were Lyanna's favorite flowers?

2. Where did he get them in Harrenhal? Are these rare flowers that are only mentioned being grown in Winterfell (at least in Bael the Bard's legend that is the only source we have) can be easily bought from the local merchants?

3. Or the theory is only partially true and Rhaegar had planned the crowning before arriving at Harrenhal. There may be multiple reasons: from prophecies to purposefully igniting conflicts.

What option do you see makes most sense? Or anything else I missed out? Let's see if we can predict it correctly before the play reveals it in July.

So there's this character that allegedly appears only in the appendices - Aegon "Bloodborn" Frey, an outlaw, the eldest son of Aenys Frey and the brother to Rhaegar Frey. Besides his sick nickname and him being an outlaw we know absolutely nothing. He is first being mentioned in the appendix to ACOK, and since then he appears only in the appendices.

I know a theory that he is in the Brotherhood without banners under the alias of the Mad Huntsman because his appearance matches Aenys Frey (balding and with a weak chin). But beyond that I never heard any theory about this guy, so I would be interested in yours. Have we already encountered Aegon the Bloodborn? Why is he never mentioned in the main text? Why does he have such a cool nickname and why did he become an outlaw? Seriously, this might be the greatest Frey character and we know nothing about him.

Today I read Sandkings, GRRM's horror short story, for the first time. Damn... it was much better than I expected, given I don't really like horror as a genre. If you never read it, go read it, it's worth it. Also, major spoilers.

In Fire and Blood, there is a section where princess Aerea Targaryen rode off with Balerion to (presumably) Valyria and came back to the King's Landing injured. Balerion had a huge slash on its body, suggesting an attack of some large creature. Aerea passed out with fever, and Septon Barth attempted to heal her. She died, and worms emerged out of her body.

I think everyone who read F&B remember this section well, unfortunately, as it is one of the highlights of the book in a dark way. So I won't repeat the details, we all know them. The thing that has been bothering me is the origins of these "worms". What are they exactly? Septon Barth described them as having human faces:

>The things…Mother have mercy, I do not know how to speak of them…they were…worms with faces…snakes with hands…twisting, slimy, unspeakable things that seemed to writhe and pulse and squirm as they came bursting from her flesh. ***Some were no bigger than my little finger, but one at least was as long as my arm…***oh, Warrior protect me, the sounds they made…

These descriptions are really similar to the sand kings. They consist of the maw (female "queen") and the bug-like small mobile creatures whom maw breeds. Together they form a hive mind. The mobile sand kings grow from being as small as a human nail to the size of a human:

>Something moved from shadow into light. A pale shape on the seat of his skimmer. It was as long as his forearm. Its mandibles clacked together softly, and it looked up at him from six small eyes set all around its body. - Sandkings

When they reach the size of a human arm, they shed their "skin" and take a new form. Each of these forms can vary depending on how sand kings were breed. But in the story, the "adult" sandkings evolve into creatures with human faces (mimicking the face of their former owner and protagonist of the story):

>Kress stopped suddenly. “No,” he said, “oh, no. Oh, no.” He backpedaled, slipped on the sand, got up and tried to run again. They caught him easily. They were ghastly little things with bulging eyes and dusky orange skin. He struggled, but it was useless. Small as they were, each of them had four arms, and Kress had only two.
They carried him toward the house. It was a sad, shabby house built of crumbling sand, but the door was quite large, and dark, and it breathed. That was terrible, but it was not the thing that set Simon Kress to screaming. He screamed because of the others, the little orange children who came crawling out from the castle, and watched impassively as he passed. All of them had his face. - Sandkings

This immediately reminded me of Aerea's worms, and now I think they are just an hommage to sandkings. Not saying they are the same species, but just GRRM self-referencing his past work as a small easter egg.

I just finished reading A Song for Lya and decided to share some thoughts. It is a novella written by George R R Martin in 1974. This post is not a comprehensive review, just a set of observations I wanted to share. Obviously, spoilers.

Disclaimer: I am a big fan of GRRM and I mostly knew him for his most famous work, A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into Game of Thrones. I also read a couple of his other short stories, but given how much he has written, I barely scratched the surface.

So I knew A Song for Lya was one of his more popular novellas besides ASOIAF, so I decided to finally give it a try. Besides that, I went completely blind. My first impression was trying to get myself familiar with the setting. The first pages open with a description of a city, which I assumed to be from ancient Earth. I really liked the ambiguity of it, and when I realized it was on another planet, I got excited. So it is a sci-fi story, good, let's see what it is all about.

The city is populated by the Shkeen, a native sapient species who are less advanced than human despite their civilization being older. The protagonists are a couple of humans, Robb and Lya, who have special psychic powers: enhanced empathy and telepathy. They are hired by the current administrator of the human colony, Valcarenghi, to conduct research on the Shkeen relegion. They worship parasytic creatures called the Greeshka that drive them into "joining", i.e. sacrificing themselves to become part of the hivemind.

Weirdly enough, the bits of this premise actually reminded me of Ubik by Philip K Dick. Spoilers for Ubik: >!a squad of psychics land on the Moon for investigation and stop at the hotel.!< The similarities end here, because from this point Ubik takes a turn in the opposite direction. I felt like A Song for Lya is what I expected Ubik to be about when I had been reading it.

The Shkeen as alien species are interesting enough and the mystery surrounding their mystery was a great drive for the story. Some parts of the novella started to feel a bit repetitive. For example, it describes Robb's and Lya's daily routine (waking up, getting headache, researching the Shkeen, getting dinner, making love, sleep, dreaming). Despite being part of the plot, the plot twist is somewhat predictable, thus this description of the routine becomes a bit annoying.

As for writing, I recognized GRRM's style. His food descriptions are always fun to read and I laughed out loud because of how much it reminded me of ASOIAF. Since the protagonist has enhanced empathy and starts to understand the Shkeen better, he gradually becomes more emotional and reflective. To be honest I didn't like how the story became overly sentimental towards the end. Despite the grand scope of concepts, I found the language not really convincing and shallow. I think this shows how much GRRM's skills as a writer evolved (he was 26 when he wrote A Song for Lya). But these are just my personal preferences.

Overall I liked this novella. It had a lot of potential but the resolution was kind of disappointing. But hey maybe I missed something. What are your thoughts?

In one of the Sam chapters in AFFC, he visits the Citadel and gets an invitation from Maester Marwyn. On their way to Marwyn's room, he and Alleras meet Lazy Leo, who is staring at a glass candle from the outside:

>At the top of the steps, a pale blond youth about Sam’s age sat outside a door of oak and iron, staring intently into a candle flame with his right eye. His left was hidden beneath a fall of ash blond hair. “What are you looking for?” Alleras asked him. “Your destiny? Your death?”
The blond youth turned from the candle, blinking. “Naked women,” he said.

So assuming this is not some joke from Lazy Leo and he is being literal here, is this how Marwyn the Mage usually spend his time?

In the same chapter, when he finally meets Marwyn, Sam notes:

>He had the biggest hands that Sam had ever seen.

Alleras also reveals that they knew Sam was coming by watching him through the glass candle. Did they also witness his infamous "fat pink mast" moment?

The Ice Dragon is a short story written by GRRM long before he had planned A Game of Thrones. It originally was published in 1979 as part of the anthology Dragons of Light. Since then, it has also been republished twice (in 2006 and 2014) with some edits and illustrations.

While I do not have a book copy, at least in their respective Amazon pages both of the post-ASOIAF releases state that this story is set in the ASOIAF universe.

From the 2006 release published by Tor/Starscape:

>The Ice Dragon marks the highly anticipated children's book debut of George R.R. Martin, the award-winning author of the New York Times best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire and is set in the same world.

From the 2014 release published by Tor Teen:

>In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire the ice dragon was a creature of legend and fear, for no man had ever tamed one. When it flew overhead, it left in its wake desolate cold and frozen land. But Adara was not afraid. For Adara was a winter child, born during the worst freeze that anyone, even the Old Ones, could remember.

Also see the Tor page with the same text.

GRRM has stated that this is not the case but it has been promoted as such twice by the publishers. My question is why? Why did GRRM allow this a second time? Is the more to this? Perhaps he went back and forth, considered it being set in ancient Westeros for some time, but ultimately scrapped this idea.

I would also use this chance to ask what happened to The Ice Dragon animated film lol. They announced it 2018 but it seems like its been abandoned? If so, such a shame. I'd take it instead of HOTD season 3 or Aegon's biopic.

>The Ice Dragon holds a special place in George’s heart as one of his favorite short stories. Naturally he, and all of us at Fevre River, is thrilled with the announcement:  The Ice Dragon, a fully animated feature film headed by Warner Bros, is in development. (source)

By the end of ADWD, at least two parties are interested in the crypt of Winterfell. Lady Barbrey Dustin and Mance's spearwives independently ask Theon how to enter the crypts. We also have Big Walder, a boy Frey, to whom Rickon showed the entrance way back in ACOK. There are murders being committed in Winterfell, possibly by the hooded man who Theon does not recognize, and who might be hiding in the crypts. So multiple parties might have discovered it, and I am interested to discuss the possibility all these plotlines being related to the R+L=J reveal.

We know Lady Dustin holds the grudge against Ned because he did not return the bones of her husband to Barrowton, despite burying Lyanna in Winterfell. There is also a peculiar thing about Ned, namely, that he broke the unspoken rule by making the statues for Lyanna and Brandon. Traditionally only the lords and kings of winter have their own statues, so people think Ned made an exception out of sentiment. But there are numerous popular theories suggesting he did it out of some practical reasons, e.g., to hide some evidence of R+L=J inside Lyanna's statue. Some of the examples include Rhaegar's harp or dragon eggs.

While the crypts played a somewhat major role in the story so far, with Bran and Rickon hiding there, I think constant mentions of it in Jon's dreams and its significance in ADWD point towards an even larger twist. With so many people trying to uncover the crypts (and especially Big Walder knowing), the Boltons might notice it and go after after them. If either Ramsay or Roose finally locate it, they might ravage the statues and tombs out of spite. Then after breaking Lyanna's statue, they might discover the evidence for R+L=J.

Obviously, the Boltons would not necessarily realize why the object hidden in the statue signifies Jon's parentage. For example, if they discover Rhaegar's harp, there is no guarantee they would know it belonged to Rhaegar. However, for us, the readers, it would be a confirmation that we've been waiting for so long. Another more exciting possibility is a dragon egg being hidden inside the statue. The Boltons retrieve it, and it is a huge brainmelting moment for them. Yet when Stannis takes Winterfell from them, he might also take the egg from them. And this is where "waking dragons from stone" comes to fruition.

So what do you think? Just some thoughts regarding a theory of harp/eggs in the crypt. If there is a statue with a secret, then it will be broken at some point of the story, akin to a Chekhov gun. The Boltons fit this role perfectly, and they are a sort of villains to break Stark statues.

In the first ADWD Jon chapter, he recalls hearing one of the Stannis's men revealing the plan to burn Mance Rayder:

>Burning dead children had ceased to trouble Jon Snow; live ones were another matter. Two kings to wake the dragon. The father first and then the son, so both die kings. The words had been murmured by one of the queen’s men as Maester Aemon had cleaned his wounds. Jon had tried to dismiss them as his fever talking. Aemon had demurred. “There is power in a king’s blood,” the old maester had warned, “and better men than Stannis have done worse things than this.” The king can be harsh and unforgiving, aye, but a babe still on the breast? Only a monster would give a living child to the flames. - Jon I, ADWD

Since Mance is the king-beyond-the-wall, his blood suffices for a sacrifice. But he also has a son, which makes his son's blood also special. We do not actually know if Stannis ever intended to burn the wildling prince, but Jon takes this overheard conversation seriously, and that's why he enacts his plan to switch Gilly's and Mance's kids.

Victarion has similar pragmatic and utilitarian ideas. Although he does not have anyone with king's blood, he captures the Yunkai slave girls, who he sacrifices to both the Red God and the Drowned God:

>The captain answered with a nod, grim-faced, then called for the seven girls he had claimed to be brought on deck, the loveliest of all those found aboard the Willing Maiden. He kissed them each upon the cheeks and told them of the honor that awaited them, though they did not understand his words. Then he had them put aboard the fishing ketch that they had captured, cut her loose, and had her set afire.
“With this gift of innocence and beauty, we honor both the gods,” he proclaimed, as the warships of the Iron Fleet rowed past the burning ketch. “Let these girls be reborn in light, undefiled by mortal lust, or let them descend to the Drowned God’s watery halls, to feast and dance and laugh until the seas dry up.” - Victarion I, ADWD

Why serve one god when you can serve many? Honestly, people love mocking Victarion for his low erudition and knowledge, but he is street-smart, one must admit. He is also chose the seven girls specifically, perhaps to honor the Westerosi Seven. Not only that, people overlook that he can be surprisingly poetic sometimes. These are the quotes from the same chapter:

>No man had need of candles when the sun awaited him. (Context: comparing the captured slaves to Daenerys)

So similar to Loras's thoughts about Renly. If Victarion and Loras ever meet in the series, it would be like witnessing Socrates and Plato exchanging the ideas.

>On wings of song I fly to you, Daenerys (Context: the song here is the screams from burning the slaves)

Davos is called the Onion Knight. But why? We know the in-universe reason is because he smuggled in onions and fish to starving Stannis and his people in Storm's End during the siege.

What I am more interested is the meta reason behind this choice from the perspective of GRRM. He, as a writer, certainly likes when things take multiple meanings in unexpected ways. Talking about names, one of the examples is Jon Snow. His last name speaks of the region he was raised in and his supposed origin of being a bastard. Yet there is also another meta reason for his name: it is phonetically quite similar to John Doe, which is a placeholder name for people whose real identity or name is unknown (reflecting his Targaryen origin).

So assuming Davos's nickname carries multiple layers, I think I have some idea that could shed light into his TWOW arc. First, I would like to acknowledge that his show arc is weird and, most likely, DnD just didn't know what to do with him after Stannis's death. While in the books Davos is headed to Skagos, in the show he is at the Wall and becomes a Jon Snow loyalist. He also gets a somewhat happy ending there, surviving the series and becoming a master of ships.

I think in the books his arc is much darker and bleak. His nickname basically seals his fate for me. GRRM gave it to Davos so he can be cut like an onion, making us cry. Mayhaps he will die defending Rickon and Shaggydog. For all we know, there will also be unicorns and Osha, confirmed by GRRM in some of his interviews.

Skagos also contains dragonglass and its name literally translates to "stone" in Old Tongue. There are lots of elements of the Azor Ahai prophecy surrounding him (he is kinda hidden in the plain sight and is outshadowed by Stannis), such as experiencing near-death and being reborn in salt and smoke (Blackwater). Could he potentially discover large deposits of dragonglass and finally fulfill the prophecy? What kind of sacrifice will he make?

>Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake (mine) dragons (dragonglass) out of stone (Skagos).

Where do you think Davos's journey ends?

>Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end.
When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … - Jon XIII, ADWD

In this post, I propose an idea that the fourth dagger that stabbed Jon in his last chapter was made from obsidian. The intuition behind this idea is simple and can be "deduced" backwards. Bear in mind that there would be no hard evidence in the support of this theory, as it mostly offers a way for Jon to remain "alive".

Jon's status quo at the start of TWOW

We know for a fact that Jon will have his POV chapters in TWOW, as confirmed in the most recent GRRM interview. I see three options here (from the least likely to most likely):

• Jon dies from the stabs, and his consciousness is forever stuck in Ghost (the most unlikely option)
• Jon is actually alive, (maybe he wargs into Ghost), albeit heavily injured from the non-lethal stabs (probable)
• Jon dies from the stabs, he wargs into Ghost, then he is ressurrected (the most likely)

I won't dive deep into explaining the reasoning behind all three options, since it was overanalysed in the past 15 years. But I wanted to outline them because the difference between the last two options is actually blurry. The next chapter after Jon's "death" is Barristan's and it opens with this line (referring to Quentyn Martell):

>The Dornish prince was three days dying. - The Queen's Hand, ADWD

Pretty cheeky writing from George, huh? This, with GRRM's quote about Jon's status, where he says "so you think he's dead?", leads me into thinking the option where Jon remains alive has some merit. Although not fully functional, but enough to sustain some sings of life.

Mors Umber and his story

>A crow had once taken Mors for dead and pecked out his eye, so he wore a chunk of dragonglass in its stead. As Old Nan told the tale, he’d grabbed the crow in his fist and bitten its head off, so they named him Crowfood. - ACOK, Bran II

I always thought this backstory of Mors Umber was oddly specific. In particular, him wearing a piece of dragonglass was always kinda sus from the worldbuilding perspective. This is in A Clash of Kings, the book where GRRM planted obsidian heavily in the story (lots of glass candles mention, Jon finding a stash with dragonglass). Mors Umber could foreshadow the potential fate for Jon:

• Jon is heavily injured, and the Night's Watch think he's dead
• His body is mutilated by the "crows" (his sworn brothers)
• According to my theory, Jon is stabbed with an obsidian knife, which sustains life in him (more about it below)

Obsidian and trapping the souls

When Sam kills an Other with his dragonglass dagger, his flesh melts and dissolves into mist. Sam then describes the dagger as if it were alive:

>Sam rolled onto his side, eyes wide as the Other shrank and puddled, dissolving away. In twenty heartbeats its flesh was gone, swirling away in a fine white mist. Beneath were bones like milkglass, pale and shiny, and they were melting too. Finally only the dragonglass dagger remained, wreathed in steam as if it were alive and sweating. Grenn bent to scoop it up and flung it down again at once. “Mother, that’s cold.”

I think what happened here is the Other's soul had been trapped inside the dagger. Notice how when Grenn touches it, he feels the cold, despite it never being described this way neither before nor after. Or is it? Jon feels the cold after all.

In the show, the Night King, who is absent in the books, is transformed into an Other by piercing the obsidian through his chest. His whole personality changes: it seems like before the stabbing he had been a random scared man, and after he becomes possessed by an evil spirit. Assuming some of these ideas come from George, I think the children of the forest enchanted the obsidian by trapping some spirit of the forest inside it. Then, by stabbing this man, it connected to his physical body, allowing the spirit to take a humanoid form.

This also partially answers the question of why the cache that Jon finds at the Fist of the First Men contained hiltless dragonglass. Besides using them as a weapon, they also have another purpose: they can serve as soulstones.

Additional evidence comes from the AFFC draft uncovered by gsteff: the Alchemist reveals that glass candles can grant immortality.

>Esharys was a sorcerer as well, and when he wrote that men were candles he was making more than metaphors. The night is dark and full of terrors, and light can keep some fearful things at bay. Even death. Fire was at the root of all Valyrian magic. With such candles men made themselves immortal. Dragonglass burns but it is not consumed... and so long as the flame lasts, the man whose life is bound to it cannot die. - AFFC, the discarded Pate prologue

Jon and his connection to obsidian

Did you spot other curious thing in the quote above? The men were candles... Melisandre reveals that the dragonglass has another name in Old Valyria, which translates into frozen fire. Jon himself can be seen as frozen fire due to his heritage.

So how is the fourth knife obsidian, exactly? And why does it matter? We know that after the Fist of the First Men, the Night's Watch has enough obsidian for Jon to equip the rangers:

>All were seasoned rangers, armed with obsidian as well as steel, warhorns slung across their saddles should they need to summon help. - Jon VII, ADWD

Who else have the dragonglass at the Wall? The free folk:

>The arms most wildlings carry are little more than sticks, thought Jon. Wooden clubs, stone axes, mauls, spears with fire-hardened points, knives of bone and stone and dragonglass, wicker shields, bone armor, boiled leather. - Jon XI, ADWD

Therefore, enough people at the Wall have access to obsidian weapon. So it is not unlikely that one of the daggers used for assassinating Jon was one of those. Assuming this, it will allow for his body to sustain some life long enough for someone else to help him (e.g., Melisandre).