Hello loyal followers of South of the Wall! Unfortunately I'm taking another skip day from the Game of Thrones Reread. I was at the Yankees game last night (and got to watch them defeat the first place Baltimore Orioles!), and I got home too late to write up a post.
Instead of just not posting anything at all, I thought I'd ask you guys a question. What is your favorite theory or prediction about the series? It could be a theory about someone's parentage, a prediction as to what you think (or hope) will happen, or even an insane guess that's probably not true but might be cool anyway. I thought this might be a fun exercise to expose everyone to different theories, and to give me things to look for in the reread.
I'll start things off with probably the most popular theory, that Jon Snow is actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (or R+L=J as it is often referred to). The basics are that Rhaegar and Lyanna fell in love during the tournament at Harrenhall. Later, the two of them eloped together. This, of course, led to Brandon Stark going to King's Landing to attack Rhaegar, believing his sister was kidnapped, which led to Aerys killing Brandon and Brandon's father, and ordering Jon Arryn to provide Ned and Robert to be executed, and I think we all remember what happened after that.
Anyway, flash forward in the war, Robert kills Rhaegar on the Trident, Ned reaches King's Landing and finds that the Lannisters butchered all the Targaryens that were there, including the women and children. His friend Robert is perfectly okay, and actually pleased at this, which leads to Ned and Robert becoming estranged. Ned then travels south with only a few close friends to the Tower of Joy to retrieve Lyanna. There they fight three members of the Kingsguard and win, although Ned and Howland Reed are the only ones to survive the battle. Inside the tower Ned finds his sister in a bed of blood, in a room smelling of roses. There she makes him promise something. Under this theory, the bed was bloody because of the childbirth, and the promise was to protect her son. Knowing Robert's hatred of the Targaryens and his penchant for allowing babies to be killed, Ned lies and says it is his son, to protect him.
And that's pretty much it. So what other theories and predictions do you guys have?
Prediction:
ReplyDeleteSandor is alive and on the Quiet Isle. The Faith is going to send him as their Champion against Cersei, who will be using a Qyburn-ized UnGregor.
As to whether he lives or dies... well... someone's gotta save Sansa from Littlefinger.
I was thinking about the whole "Who are Jon's Parents?" thing the other day... What if Lyanna is his mother and Robert is the father. The book never says Robert and Lyanna never consummated their love. Probably crazy, but just a thought.
ReplyDeleteJon marries Danny and they all live happily ever after.
ReplyDeleteStefi - I actually really like this! I too think that Sandor is the gravedigger on the Quiet Isle, but I never considered him being the champion against Franken-Gregor. I'm not sure if I think it will actually happen, but now I really hope it does!
ReplyDeletePhil - I don't think Robert would work as the father for two reasons. The first is the timing. We know Rhaegar's "kidnapping" of Lyanna started all the fighting, and the war lasted over a year. Assuming the "bed of blood" meant that Lyanna had just given birth when Ned found her, which was after the war ended, Robert wouldn't have had access to consumate nine months prior. Second reason is why would Ned keep this a secret from Robert and claim Jon as his own?
Ty - Only in A Song of Ice and Fire can a man breaking his sworn vows and marrying his aunt be seen as a happy ending.
@Phil
ReplyDeleteThis also doesn't fit well with the 'Seed is strong' theme, where all of Robert's bastards look a lot like him (Black hair, muscular) while Jon clearly has the Stark features of his mother.
I wonder if hidden in the books there are Targaryen traits in Jon Snow.