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Bran watched them come from a guard turret atop the outer wall, peering through Maester Luwin’s bronze far-eye while perched on Hodor’s shoulders.

Is there perched the participle or the past simple? Why the subject (Bran) of the action (perched) is absent in the while-clause? I know that while can be used without a subject with ing-form of verbs, but there is ed-form, no ing-form. Shouldn't we rather correct the sentence in the following way

Bran watched them come from a guard turret atop the outer wall, peering through Maester Luwin’s bronze far-eye while he perched on Hodor’s shoulders.

or

Bran watched them come from a guard turret atop the outer wall, peering through Maester Luwin’s bronze far-eye while perching/sitting on Hodor’s shoulders.

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    In your first example, "perched" is not a verb, but an adjective in a verbless clause (c.f. "He was perched on Hodor's shoulders"). "Perched/perching" are verbs in your other two examples, and all three have more or less the same meaning.
    – BillJ
    Commented Nov 17, 2021 at 8:40

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Yes, perched is an adjective here. ie perched is not something he was 'doing', it was the state he was in. You could borrow the 3rd example and say 'while seated' on Hodor's shoulders. 'While' the 2nd example 'he perched' is gramatically correct as well, it seems awkward in the context. 'while perched' is best.

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