Patchface update (Patreon)

Patchface is linked to some of the most mysterious forces in ASOIAF. Some connections are pretty obvious, like how Patchface’s revival after drowning is similar to the ironborn drowning ritual – so maybe Patchface was resurrected by the Drowned God, and now serves as his instrument.

But other connections are more vague, strange, and disturbing. Patchface says that “Under the sea, men marry fishes”, which may allude to the various human-fishy hybrid creatures in ASOIAF – the World of Ice and Fire mentions the “Deep Ones”, “a queer, misshapen race of half men sired by creatures of the salt seas upon human women”. Nimble Dick Crabb describes “squishers”, “Monsters” who “steal” girls “to breed with”. There is also something distinctly fishy about House Codd, the McPoyles of Westeros – one is “pop-eyed and wide of mouth, with dead white flesh”. These creepy fish-man hybrids are more or less lifted by GRRM from the mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, specifically his novella The Shadow over Innsmouth. (We’re reading this story on Alt Shift ZZZ – Chapter 1 here if you want to listen). Point is, the idea of Deep Ones and squishers carrying off human girls adds disturbing subtext to Patchface’s talk of “men marry[ing] fishes”, and his interactions with Shireen – ““Come with me beneath the sea, away, away, away.” He took the little princess by one hand and drew her from the room, skipping”. Does Patchface mean to take Shireen to the Deep Ones?

Patchface is also connected to the imagery of death and danger surrounding Shireen and her greyscale. In Dance, Val suggests that the greyscale that Shireen suffered as a child is dormant, “only to wake again … The child is not clean!” Val calls Shireen a “dead girl”. Shireen’s greyscale is an interesting parallel to Patchface’s drowning – which was also a brush with death suffered as a child. In fact, it’s hinted that Patchface might have actually died – he was at first mistaken for a “corpse”, with “clammy cold” flesh, only to rise later. (Not unlike Othor and Jafer Flowers in Book 1, who seem dead at first, only to rise as wights later). Just as Val warns Jon about Shireen, Melisandre warns Jon about Patchface – “That creature is dangerous. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood”. So Patchface and Shireen are both linked to death and danger. And Shireen’s greyscale might even connect to Patchface – greyscale is associated with “damp, cold climes”, and first appeared in Chroyane as “Garin’s Curse”, apparently a sort of Rhoynar “water magic”. So both greyscale and Patchface are associated with watery magic. Further, Melisandre’s talk of waking “dragons out of stone” – dragons who Shireen fears will eat her – are also evocative of stony greyscale. So to put all this together – maybe in the books, Melisandre’s sacrifice of Shireen will combine with some bloody intervention by Patchface to unleash the "stone dragon" of Shireen’s greyscale – fulfilling Val's grave warning, and Mel’s visions of Patchface. Sweet Shireen and her motley fool might just bring a grey plague on Westeros.

Oh and by the way, Mel's vision of Patchface with skulls and red lips coincides with the skulls-and-lips heraldry of House Lonmouth. Which is… odd? Probably nothing.

So… there's not much certainty here. But there’s clearly a lot of mystical symbolism swirling around Patchface and Shireen, including Lovecraftian fish-men and greyscale. This’ll probably be a relatively short video, with more questions than answers. But I’m sure it’ll be intriguing – and creepy.