Settle an argument — what the Three-Eyed Crow wanted with a broken boy

My maester tells me I raise this too often. My maester is welcome to raise something better.

The question, put plainly: what the Three-Eyed Crow wanted with a broken boy. I think it will turn out to be simpler and sadder than the songs have it.

There is a version of this where the truth is dull — a bad decision, a bad winter, nobody's grand design — and I have never once heard anybody argue for it.

It matters less than the harvest, and I will still be arguing about it at midwinter.