You may already be familiar with Patchface.

He was a slave boy from Volantis, who served as a fool, and was bought his freedom by Steffon Baratheon, father of Robert, Stannis, and Renly.

He was a talented fool, nimble as a monkey, witty as a dozen courtiers; he knew four tongues, he juggled and did magic. All in all, he was brilliant.

But, that all changed after he drowned at sea. It seems he died and came back. Only he lost his memory, he lost his wits. And now he speaks prophecy through riddles and songs, along with references to underwater entities.

So, what happened to Patchface?

I believe the answer has already been laid out before us, throughout the books, embedded in the stories of other characters. In the stories of Bran, Jojen, Bloodraven, Euron, and even Hodor.

Part I: Dreamers

On a reread of A Dance with Dragons, I came across this line of dialogue which made me ponder:

“Quentyn was our friend, yes. A bit of a fool, you might say, but all dreamers are fools.” Gerris Drinkwater, The Queen’s Hand, ADWD

All dreamers are fools.

Obviously, this statement was just made in reference to Quentyn Martell and the foolish actions that led to his demise, but it made me think of dreamers… particularly, what dreamers are in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire:

Meera’s gloved hand tightened around the shaft of her frog spear. “Who sent you? Who is this three-eyed crow?” “A friend. Dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. The last greenseer.” The longhall’s wooden door banged open. Outside, the night wind howled, bleak and black. The trees were full of ravens, screaming. Coldhands did not move. Bran I, ADWD

The three-eyed crow is a dreamer. Bloodraven is a dreamer.

This exchange takes place in A Dance with Dragons, but dreamers are mentioned way back, further back, in book one: A Game of Thrones.

In A Game of Thrones, as Bran is comatose after his fall from the tower, he is visited by Bloodraven in a dream. In the dream he plummets endlessly to the earth, and he sees something:

Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. Bran III, AGOT

Bran saw other dreamers.

These other dreamers are presumably the other greenseers Bloodraven sought to train, as they all failed and fell to their deaths, and Bloodraven is trying to teach Bran to fly:

Bran was falling faster than ever. The grey mists howled around him as he plunged toward the earth below. “What are you doing to me?” he asked the crow, tearful. Teaching you how to fly. … Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die. Bran III, AGOT

But, what does all this have to do with Patchface?

Well, remember that quote about dreamers being fools? Is it possible that Patchface the prophetic fool could have been one of those fallen dreamers?

“… but all dreamers are fools.”

Part II: The Drowned Ones

It is mostly believed that Patchface became prophetic after drowning. That somehow the event or the Drowned God gave him the power of prophecy.

Yet, there are other characters who have drowned all the same, and emerged with no such power…

Aeron Greyjoy:

A memory prodded at Theon. In one of his rare curt letters, Lord Balon had written of his youngest brother going down in a storm, and turning holy when he washed up safe on shore. “Uncle Aeron?” he said doubtfully. … “Young I was, and vain,” Aeron Greyjoy said, “but the sea washed my follies and my vanities away. That man drowned, nephew. His lungs filled with seawater, and the fish ate the scales off his eyes. When I rose again, I saw clearly.” Theon I, ACOK

Aeron went down in a storm and washed up safe on shore. Whether he actually died and was resurrected is up for debate.

But his newfound reverence to his Drowned God lends some credence to the theory that there was some divine intervention on his behalf.

Nevertheless, it seems he was not endowed with the power of visions or prophecy. So we can move on, to Davos Seaworth.

Davos drowned during the Battle of Blackwater. This is not paraphrasing; in his point-of-view chapter it is explicitly said that he knew that he was drowning before he ultimately lost consciousness:

His chest was growing tighter by the instant. He clawed at the water, kicking, pushing himself, turning, his lungs screaming for air, kicking, kicking, lost now in the river murk, kicking, kicking, kicking until he could kick no longer. When he opened his mouth to scream, the water came rushing in, tasting of salt, and Davos Seaworth knew that he was drowning. Davos I, ASOS

However, later on, after a conversation with Salladhor San, Davos actually compares his miraculous survival and brush with death to Patchface’s own:

“You are still warm, ser, and I feel your heart thumpety-thumping. Can it be true? The sea that swallowed you has spit you up again.” Davos was reminded of Patchface, Princess Shireen’s lackwit fool. He had gone into the sea as well, and when he came out he was mad. Am I mad as well? Davos II, ASOS

Both Salladhor and Davos seem to express that the Onion Knight’s emergence from the sea was quite miraculous. Even still, as far as we know, Davos has never had prophetic visions after his drowning.

Which leaves the last drowned man: Tyrion Lannister.

Tyrion fell into the river Rhoyne afer being pulled down by one of the stone men (those afflicted with grey scale). It is presumed he drowned and died, as his skin was cold as ice and his lips a shade of blue:

“It was Lemore who forced the water from your lungs after Griff had pulled you up. You were as cold as ice, and your lips were blue. Yandry said we ought to throw you back, but the lad forbade it.” Haldon Halfmaester, Tyrion VI, ADWD

However, this also mirrors Patchface’s body upon discovery, as both Tyrion and Patchface were deathly cold:

Cressen had thought him another corpse, but when Jommy grabbed his ankles to drag him off to the burial wagon, the boy coughed water and sat up. To his dying day, Jommy had sworn that Patchface’s flesh was clammy cold. Prologue, ACOK

So, we have Aeron, Davos, and Tyrion… Out of these three characters who drowned, why is Patchface the only one with the power of prophecy?

Perhaps the drowning wasn’t the cause of his prophetic powers at all. Perhaps he was visited by a crow…

Part III: The Crow and the Fall

In that very same dream where Bran plummets to the earth, the three-eyed crow tells him this:

Every flight begins with a fall, the crow said. Bran III, AGOT

Now, here is one of Patchface’s rhymes or songs:

“Under the sea, you fall up,” he declared. “I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.” Giggling, the fool rolled off, bounded to his feet, and did a little dance. Patchface, Prologue, ACOK

First of all, since Patchface washed up ashore unconscious (in death or otherwise), it would be safe to assume that he was in the same state under the sea. Thus, whatever he saw “under the sea” might have actually been in a dream, because he was not conscious.

So, in a dream while unconscious under the sea, could Patchface have been given the same test Bran was given by the three-eyed crow? The test of flight or fall?

Patchface actually does speak of seeing birds under the sea, or in a dream:

“Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers…” Patchface, Prologue, ACOK

However, he did not just see birds… he saw crows:

“Under the sea, the crows are white as snow…” Patchface, Jon XI, ADWD

Okay, so he saw crows… but why are they described as “white as snow”?

It makes no sense, until you read about the white fish that swim in the river flowing through the three-eyed crow’s cave:

Under the hill, they still had food to eat. … Blind white fish swam in the black river, but they tasted just as good as fish with eyes once you cooked them up. Bran III, ADWD

To Patchface, birds and fish are interchangeable. That is why he said that, under the sea, “the birds have scales for feathers”.

So, these white fish in the cave of the three-eyed crow might just be the white crows referred to by Patchface.

Furthermore, remember that the three-eyed crow is a greenseer. However, it is also known that greenseers can also wear the skins of fish:

“The greenseers were more than that. … the greatest of them could wear the skin of any beast that flies or swims or crawls…” Jojen Reed, Bran I, ASOS “Supposedly the greenseers also had the power over the beasts of the wood and the birds in the trees. Even fish.” Maester Luwin, Bran IV, ACOK

If a greenseer may take the form of a bird in both life and dream, why not fish as well?

Furthermore, when Patchface says that birds have scales for feathers, he very well could have heard this from the three-eyed crow himself, because this is what he told Bran:

There are different kinds of wings, the crow said. Bran III, AGOT

There are different kinds of wings… for, under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers:

“Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers…”

White Crow of the Night’s Watch?

“Under the sea, the crows are white as snow…”

However, there is another way the line above can be interpreted and it could still point to the three-eyed crow, Bloodraven the last greenseer.

First of all, it is important to note that Patchface only started singing about crows after he saw Jon and called him a crow:

“The crow, the crow,” Patchface cried when he saw Jon. “Under the sea the crows are white as snow…”

It can then be surmised that Patchface’s song was only alluding to men of the Night’s Watch.

However, Bloodraven was once a man of the Night’s Watch:

“Are you the three-eyed crow?” Bran heard himself say. “A … crow? The pale lord’s voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. “Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood.” Bran II, ADWD

However, Bloodraven was also reputably pale, so white. In fact, all throughout the The Mystery Knight he had been known as and associated with white:

White as bone were the skin and hair of Brynden Rivers… … “Bloodraven is the root of all our woes, the white worm gnawing at the heart of the realm.” Ser Kyle the Cat … A single white dragon announced the presence of the King’s hand, Lord Brynden Rivers. The Mystery Knight

Then, since we know he joined the Night’s Watch and was even lord commander, it could then be conjectured that he might also have been known as the white crow, much like he was the white dragon.

So, if Patchface is singing of men of the Night’s Watch, then he is likely singing of Bloodraven as he was once a white crow.

However, since I’ve established that, when Patchface says “under the sea”, he really means in his dreams, then Bloodraven is even more the likeliest candidate, as he now only visits people in dreams:

“I have been many things, Bran. Now, I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams.” Bran II, ADWD

Anyhow, I prefer the former interpretation: the connection between the white crows in Patchface’s song with the white fish swimming in Bloodraven’s cave, along with the similarly cryptic lines, “There are different kinds of wings” from the three-eyed crow and “under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers” from Patchface.

However, as I said before, I believe that, when Patchface says “under the sea,” he really means in his dreams, as he was likely unconscious under the sea, as Bran was after his fall.

So I believe some of his songs are simply him speaking his interpretations of the dreams he had while down under, dreams in which he was visited by the three-eyed crow.

Part IV: Dream Forms

Now, let us talk about dream forms and why Patchface could have seen Bloodraven as a fish instead of a crow.

First of all, it is hinted at in the books that Bloodraven does not choose the forms he takes in dreams.

When Bran first met Bloodraven, he asked him if he was the three-eyed crow, and he dithered in answering, a bit perplexed:

“A … crow?” The pale lord’s voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. “Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood.”

When he does answer, Bloodraven believes Bran was referring to his tenure as a man of the Night’s Watch, completely disregarding what Bran clearly witnessed in his dream: a talking three-eyed crow.

Now, there are some theories taking this to mean that Bloodraven is not the three-eyed crow, but keep reading.

However, we can also look at what transpired between Bran and Jojen. Jojen dreamed of Bran as a winged-wolf in chains.

“I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains,” he said. “It was a green dream, so I knew it was true.”

And Bran had no idea he was the winged-wolf, Jojen had to convince him in that same chapter:

“You are the winged wolf, Bran,” said Jojen. “I wasn’t sure when we first came, but now I am. The crow sent us here to break your chains.” Bran IV, ACOK

Bran did not knowingly visit Jojen in a dream, so far as we know, but the point still stands: when characters appear in dreams, they do not appear exactly as they are in life:

“The green dreams take strange shapes sometimes,” Jojen admitted. “The truth of them is not always easy to understand.” Bran V, ACOK

What may be going on is that the subconscious of the dreamer is mostly at fault for the form of their visitor…

… which brings me to Patchface.

I believe that when Patchface was first visited by the three-eyed crow in a dream, his subconscious attempted to make sense of this visitor relative to his last waking moments.

Before he lost consciousness, the last thing Patchface likely knew was that he was drowning in water. So, when the three-eyed crow came, he still saw him as a crow, only one with “scales for feathers”, because Patchface last knew he was underwater.

And he saw him as a white crow with scales for feathers because white fish swim in a river flowing through the three-eyed crow’s cave, fish which greenseers can warg, just like crows.

So, I believe Patchface and Bran essentially had the same dreams. That is why both of them saw crows and had a fall. Yet, one flew and the other fell…

Part V: The Broken Boys

So they both may have been visited by the three-eyed crow in dreams. Now what about reality?

Well, here is what the late maester Cressen thought of Patchface, after his discovery:

The witty, clever lad that Lord Steffon had written of never reached Storm’s End; the boy they found was someone else, broken in body and mind… Prologue, ACOK

Patchface was a boy and broken… a broken boy.

Remember that Bran is continuously called and identifies himself as a broken boy:

Night after night, the howling and the cold wind and the grey empty castle, on and on they went, never changing, and her boy lying there broken Catelyn III, AGOT …and his brother Torrhen said likely the boy was broken inside as well as out, too craven to take his own life. Bran VI, AGOT He remembered who he was all too well; Bran the boy, Bran the broken. Bran VII, ACOK But he was a broken boy with useless legs, so all he could do was watch from below as Meera went up in his stead. Bran IV, ASOS What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy… Bran III, ADWD

You get the picture: they were both broken boys.

However, another parallel is how drastically phrased their change is. Bran woke up and his world was changed, Patchface woke up and the boy they found was someone else:

It would never be the way it had been, he knew. The crow had tricked him into flying, but when he woke up he was broken and the world was changed. Bran IV, AGOT The witty, clever lad that Lord Steffon had written of never reached Storm’s End; the boy they found was someone else, broken in body and mind…

Obviously, they both went through drastic changes because of their trauma, and that is why it is drastically phrased; my point is exactly that, however: they both went through significant trauma altering their lives forever.

Similarly, no one expected either Patchface or Bran to be survivors, their survival was miraculous:

No one ever explained those two days the fool had been lost in the sea. Prologue, ACOK No one had expected the broken boy to live. The gods could not kill Bran, no more than I could. The Turncloak, ADWD

Furthermore, they both shared an idiosyncrasy that led others to describe them as, oddly enough, monkeys:

“Only a boy, yet nimble as a monkey and witty as a dozen courtiers.” Steffon Baratheon on Patchface, Prologue, ACOK He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Jon XIII, ADWD

Maybe they both liked to climb. Maybe Patchface made people laugh the same way Bran evoked laughter from the dour Ned:

As angry as he was, his father could not help but laugh. “You’re not my son,” he told Bran when they fetched him down, “you’re a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb…” Bran II, AGOT

Perhaps Steffon Baratheon thought Patchface would make Stannis laugh with his own monkey-antics:

“Robert will be delighted with him, and perhaps in time he will even teach Stannis how to laugh.” Prologue, ACOK

As we know, however, both these boys became broken.

I believe the trauma of drowning — the near-death experience — was supposed to be a catalyst: either for Patchface’s greendreams, or for his greenseer awakening (much as Bran’s from the tower was his).

Only Patchface seems to have died. The near-death experience went beyond near; it killed him.

Part VI: Awakening

“When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me.” “He came to me after I fell,” Bran blurted. Bran IV, ACOK

The crow came to Jojen and Bran after they both nearly died. The crow contacted two young boys after their near-death experience.

Patchface was a boy as well when he drowned, it should be noted.

As said before: it could be that Patchface has greendreams (actually, this is the likeliest scenario) but it may also be that he was one of those fallen dreamers Bran saw, other dreamers that were to become greenseers.

First of all, those fallen dreamers are presumed dead, as we only see their bones:

He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points.

And the crow tells Bran to fly or die:

Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die.

Perhaps they only died in the dream, or perhaps they died in life as well if they failed to fly.

Either way, Patchface fits the bill: because, he was someone who died; he was a boy who died. He was out at sea for two days and when he washed up ashore his flesh was clammy cold.

Furthermore, if greendreams are the source of his visions, then he definitely is a dead dreamer. It could be that his drowning was supposed to be a mere near-death experience, only something went wrong, and he died, then somehow came back.

However, I believe that a near-death experience is not only a requirement for the three-eyed crow to pay a visit, but for a skinchanger to elevate to greenseer…

In the prologue of A Dance with Dragons, we are given the point-of-view of Varaymyr Sixskins, a wildling skinchanger. Like all prologues in the books, the featured character dies at its end. Varaymyr died as well.

But something happened to Varamyr that never happened to him before. When he died, his powers expanded. He was not just a skinchanger anymore, he had the powers of a greenseer:

The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting. Prologue, ADWD

Varamyr saw through the eyes of a weirwood, and everything else that was alive, even earthworms.

Seeing through the eyes of a weirwood is a feat only greenseers can fulfill:

“The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use … but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves.” The three-eyed crow, Bran III, ADWD

And Varamyr achieved this — but only after dying — and only for a moment.

This leads me to believe that death is a crucial component in awakening one’s greenseer abilities. Except killing all potential greenseers would be counter-productive, obviously.

So that is where near-death experiences come into the picture. It seems a taste of may suffice, at least in Bran Stark’s case.

Perhaps by nearly dying the living may momentarily cross into the realm of the dead and tap into their power… because there is a realm of the dead in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, and it has power:

“Where are the rest of you?” Bran asked Leaf, once. “Gone down into the earth,” she answered. “Into the stones, into the trees.” … “When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered.” Jojen, Bran III, ADWD

When the children of the forest die, they go down into the earth, into the stones and the trees. Basically what happened to Varamyr when he died: he became the wood and all that is in it.

That is the realm of the dead.

Which makes sense as to why potential greenseers must first have a taste of death. Because part of that realm of dead are the weirwoods, the very first eyes greenseers learn to use.

“It is given to a few to drink of that green fountain whilst still in mortal flesh, to hear the whisperings of the leaves and see as the trees see, as the gods see,” said Jojen. “Most are not so blessed. The gods gave me only greendreams. Bran III, ADWD

So, all who must become greenseers must first have a taste of death.

Could this have been the aim when Patchface drowned? Could it have gone awry and led to his actual death?

A greenseer may have visited Patchface, as I have tried to convey, but there are hints that the very same greenseer may have tampered with his mind…

Part VII: Missing Memories

When Bran is still comatose, in the dream, he remembers Jaime Lannister as a golden face:

He tried to remember. A face swam up at him out of the grey mist, shining with light, golden. “The things I do for love,” it said.

Later, the three-eyed crow appears, addressing the golden face:

The crow took to the air, cawing. Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away. It landed on Bran’s shoulder, and pecked at him, and the shining golden face was gone. Bran III, AGOT

The shining face was gone, meaning the memory was gone. The three-eyed crow pecked at it away.

That Bran lost this memory of Jaime and the fall is confirmed by Maester Luwin:

“The child does not remember anything of the fall, or the climb that came before it,” said Maester Luwin gently. Bran IV, AGOT

So, a greenseer can erase memories.

I wonder, however… if one could erase all of them?

Perhaps once he could evoke gales of laughter with a quip, but the sea had taken that power from him, along with half his wits and all his memory. Maester Cressen on Patchface, Prologue, ACOK

Patchface lost all his memory. Supposedly the sea took it from him. I think a greenseer took it from him, for he was another dreamer, like Bran, who needed to forget his trauma:

Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away.

However, it could be argued that, while Patchface was dead in the sea, brain damage may have simply occurred, obliterating all his memory. After all, he was at sea for two days.

That is a good point.

Except there is another character who was dead in the water — and for two days, as well — and also resurrected, yet they kept their memory:

“The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And . . . she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.” Thoros of Myr, Brienne VIII, AFFC

Catelyn Stark was dumped into the river after a day already dead:

She was dead for a day and night before they stripped her naked and threw her body in the river. Epilogue, ASOS

But it should be clarified that she was two days in the water, not just by the river.

Through Arya’s point-of-view chapter where she wargs Nymeria, we know she pulls her mother out of the water just as men approach:

The sound of horses turned her head. Men. They were coming from downwind, so she had not smelled them, but now they were almost here. Men on horses, with flapping black and yellow and pink wings and long shiny claws in hand. … She abandoned the cold white prize in the mud where she had dragged it, and ran, and felt no shame. Arya XII, ASOS

Those approaching men could have only been the Brotherhood who then promptly resurrected her, as any other men with horses and steel would have likely been Freys. And the Freys would have further mutilated her corpse as they did before.

But the yellow and pink wings no doubt allude to the yellow cloak of Lem Lemoncloak and the pink robes of Thoros of Myr.

So, she was two days dead in the water then resurrected. But, did she lose her memory?

No, she remembered. She remembered everything:

Beneath her ravaged scalp, her face was shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails. But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated. “She don’t speak,” said the big man in the yellow cloak. “You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers.” Epilogue, ASOS

So, somehow, Catelyn Stark, being dead in the water for two days did not lose her memory at all when she came back. Yet Patchface did.

Could his loss of memory then be attributed to something else? A crow, perhaps? A three-eyed one that pecked at all his memories away?

If this was the case, then I pity the poor fool, because his head could have been even further tampered with…

Part VIII: Abomination – The Hodor Connection

To eat of human meat was abomination, to mate as wolf with wolf was abomination, and to seize the body of another man was the worst abomination of all. Prologue, ADWD

There are hints that something else may have happened to Patchface, besides his possible greenseer-awakening-gone-awry and the missing memories.

As we know from the show, after being warged into by Bran, Hodor could only speak “Hodor”.

In the books, after his drowning, Patchface could only speak through song and rhyme.

This happened to Hodor because he heard, “Hold the door.” I’m not saying Patchface could have heard something too — I’m only comparing the communicative handicap and possible brain damage they both seem to share.

Furthermore, when past-Hodor was warged into by Bran, he dropped to the floor, twitching.

Now, about Patchface:

He was soft and obese, subject to twitches and trembles, incoherent as often as not. Prologue, ACOK

In case you’re wondering, twitching when being warged may not just be a show thing.

In the books, when Varaymyr Sixskins tried to take over another wilding’s body, Thistle’s, this is what happened:

Thistle arched her back and screamed. …The spearwife twisted violently, shrieking. … “Get out, get out!” he heard her own mouth shouting. Her body staggered, fell, and rose again, her hands flailed, her legs jerked this way and that in some grotesque dance as his spirit and her own fought for the flesh. Prologue, ADWD

Thistle’s experience was obviously more intense than mere twitches and trembles, but that is only a reflection of the resistance to the skinchanging, and resistance depends on skinchangers relationship with their victim, or how docile they are:

Dogs were the easiest beasts to bond with; they lived so close to men that they were almost human. Slipping into a dog’s skin was like putting on an old boot, its leather softened by wear. As a boot was shaped to accept a foot, a dog was shaped to accept a collar, even a collar no human eye could see. Wolves were harder. A man might befriend a wolf, even break a wolf, but no man could truly tame a wolf. Prologue, ADWD

Anyway, my point is: Patchface could have been warged in the past or is now frequently warged, and the recurrent twitches he suffers may be proof of that.

The only difference being between Hodor and Patchface would be that Hodor was a normal human being (or your average half-giant) before he was warged into.

Patchface was something else, or was supposed to be. Perhaps he was meant to be a greenseer, or perhaps greendreams are all that he was meant to have.

So, if a greenseer warged into Patchface when he was a boy, it would be an older greenseer warging into a younger, potential one.

It could be that Patchface also referenced this in one of his songs:

“Under the sea the old fish eat the young fish,” the fool muttered at Davos. Davos V, ASOS

Since I’ve established that the fish Patchface saw under the sea were crows, which may allude to a greenseer, and that everything Patchface saw was a dream, then this might mean what I just proposed:

That Patchface was warged into by an older greenseer — the old fish ate the young fish.

Part IX: Why Melisandre Is Afraid of Patchface

Melisandre once saw Patchface in her flames. And he seems to have scared the living daylights out of her:

Melisandre’s face darkened. “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.” Jon X, ADWD

However, I want you to take note of those skulls about him.

If Patchface was indeed a fallen dreamer, then those skulls may very well allude to the bones of the other dreamers Bran saw in his dream:

He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points.

It could just be another form of the same vision taking shape.

But, why is Melisandre afraid of Patchface, exactly? Well, to answer that, we only need to look at another face she saw in her flames…

One night, as the red woman looked into the flames, she glimpsed a man with a wooden face and a thousand eyes, and beside him a boy with a wolf’s face:

A face took shape within the hearth. … A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf’s face threw back his head and howled. The red priestess shuddered. … Melisandre I, ADWD

It was just Bloodraven and Bran, of course. But she was terrified, so much so that she shuddered.

Why?

Because, Bloodraven looked back at her through the flames, “He sees me.”

It might be that only greenseers can look back at her through the fires of vision. So it might be that only greenseers have the capacity to strike fear in her through visions.

And the only other person, so far as we know, who has struck fear in her through the flames is Patchface:

Melisandre’s face darkened. “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.

Part X: The Crow’s Eye

“I want to learn magic,” Bran told him. “The crow promised that I would fly.” Bran IV, AGOT

Euron Greyjoy:

“When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly,” he announced. “When I woke, I couldn’t . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied?” “Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?” The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. “No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap.” The Reaver, AFFC

These lines from the books have led many readers to believe that Euron Greyjoy was once visited by Bloodraven the three-eyed crow, that he was one of those other dreamers Bran saw.

Beyond that, there are many other possible connections, such as his nickname: the Crow’s Eye. And then his sigil, which is “a red eye with a black pupil beneath an iron crown supported by two crows.” (Samwell V, AFFC)

Bloodraven has one red eye, and of course, is a crow in dreams.

But in the show, there might be further allusions that the Crow’s Eye is not only connected to Bloodraven… but also to Patchface.

Granted, Patchface is only in the books, but… bear with me, for a minute.

When we first meet Euron in the show, he kills his brother Balon. But, before that, Balon recounts a curious tale he heard of Euron:

Euron lost his mind during a storm. His crew tied him to the mast to keep him from jumping off.

So, he tried to jump into the stormy sea… it seems he tried to drown. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Patchface drowned during a storm, and evidently he lost his mind.

Could Euron have been visited by a greenseer on that stormy voyage? Could that greenseer have driven him mad? Driven him to jump into the sea, to drown and have a taste of death, just like Patchface and Bran?

Could a greenseer drive men mad, however?

Well, for starters, a mere skinchanger alone can drive men mad. We saw that with Varamyr Sixskins and the wildling woman whose skin he tried to steal. And then we saw that in the show when Bran broke Hodor.

However…

There are some fans of the books and show who speculate that Bran was the cause of Aerys Targaryen’s madness, that he turned him into the Mad King, just as he tampered with Hodor’s mind.

I never bought this theory. I found it tenuous at best, and considered it very much tinfoil with not even the vaguest hint in the books.

That was until I read The World of Ice and Fire, which expanded upon the Tourney at Harrenhal, and what Aerys thought of the Mystery Knight:

King Aerys II was not a man to take any joy in mysteries, however. His Grace became convinced that the tree on the mystery knight’s shield was laughing at him… The Year of the False Spring, TWOIAF

As you may know, the tree on the mystery knight’s shield was a weirwood tree, and weirwood trees are what greenseers primarily see and communicate through.

So, there may be hints that a greenseer drove Aerys Targaryen mad.

It could then be that a greenseer drove Euron mad as well, during a storm on the Jade Sea. Perhaps this greenseer wanted him to drown, just as Patchface did during a storm.

Conclusion & Speculation

So, I believe Patchface was in line to become a greenseer. Only he failed to fly, and remains merely a dreamer, and a broken one at that, but not much more. That is why he is prophetic, but not a greenseer.

And it could be that he had the power of prophecy before he even drowned.

More than likely, he could have had skinchanging abilities as well. After all, greenseers are skinchangers first. And Steffon even said he did magic, whatever that may entail.

Perhaps Patchface even flourished as a witty fool because of these skinchanging abilities, much in the same way Arya Stark flourishes as a Faceless Man trainee because of hers; for example, when she warged and saw through the eyes of a cat after being turned blind.

Whatever the case, if Bloodraven was involved in this fool’s tragedy, then Patchface’s story becomes that much darker. However, if Bran was the one who warged into him… it could even become sinister.

We know Bran warged into Hodor in the past. Though it transpired in the show, George R.R. Martin all but confirmed it for the books.

Bran could be the one who warged into Patchface long ago, then. That could be why the fool suffers like Hodor suffered, with twitches and a broken mind, able to only speak a certain way.

Maybe this is why Patchface was nimble like a monkey as a boy, just as Bran was as agile as one when he had working legs — Bran could have warged into Patchface to be a boy again, and to climb. Only he went too far one day, breaking the young fool and creating another… broken boy.

But this is merely idle speculation.

I do firmly believe, however, that Patchface has a connection to a greenseer, as I have presented throughout this post.

His trauma occurred as a boy, like Jojen and Bran; he saw white crows and sings of a fall, and he says the fish have scales for feathers much like Bloodraven said there are different kinds of wings.

Whatever really happened to Patchface, it seems even he may not be able to tell us.

Want to read more about possibly drowned greenseers?

Check out my Truth Behind the Drowned God theory.