Author: stevenattewell

Let’s say that one of Valarr Targaryen’s sons with Kiera of Tyrosh is born healthy instead of being stillborn, and that this son doesn’t later die in the Great Spring Sickness like his father. I would think this prince would be anywhere from an infant to a young child, depending on Valarr’s age and the timeline of the marriage with Kiera. When this child king ascends in 209 do you think Maekar manages to take the regency or does Bloodraven muscle his way in? What are the Blackfyres thinking?

goodqueenaly:

That’s a good question, but I think it’s a more complex one than simply “Maekar vs. Bloodraven”. After all, the last – only – time the Targaryen monarchy had a child on the throne, the regency was the subject of a Great Council decision, and rotated among quite a few individuals over the course of six years. Great lords (those who didn’t perish in the spring, at least) would want in on the regency action, especially with Valarr’s child, as the little prince would be no older than Aegon III when he succeeded, and probably a good deal younger (thus giving his regents a longer play at power). There would undoubtedly be quarrels between Bloodraven and Maekar over the regency and the position as Hand, but given Targaryen regency precedent and the distaste for both prime candidates (sorcerous bastard Bloodraven versus sullen and grim Maekar), I would think there would be an outcry from Westerosi lords about where their place was in ruling for the young prince.

Now, I can’t imagine Bittersteel would have ignored the political chaos in Westeros – a little child on the Iron Throne, his despised half-brother and the anvil of the Redgrass Field fighting with one another and the great lords for control of him, the country in shambles after the Great Spring Sickness. Daemon the Younger would have been about 20, more than capable as a pretender (especially against a mere child), but whether Bittersteel would have trusted dreamy, prophetic Daemon with the role of potential Blackfyre king, I’m not sure.

That would be an amazing scenario! 

One of the things I find quite curious about the post-Spring Sickness era is how little the Great Houses seem involved in royal politics – yes, the Starks and Lannisters are distracted by the Greyjoys, but no way in hell do the Dornish, Valemen, Stormlords, and Riverlords just have no presence. And all of that would feed into the Regency vs. Hand and Maekar vs. Bloodraven politicking: I like the idea of the Stormlords splitting between rival Valarr and Aerys factions; the Dornish theoretically being behind Maekar but not really grokking his vibe (least Dornish Dornishman ever?); the Blackwoods being the only ones who like Bloodraven sincerely, the Brackens supporting Maekar out of spite, and both of them staring daggers at Aegon V over what he did about Pennytree (obvs. the marriage hasn’t happened yet); and the Vale being staunchly pro-Valarr on traditionalist grounds and grudgingly pro-Maekar because Bloodraven is not their sort of chap, dontchewknow.

And of course you have to have Blackfyre shenanigans. I love the idea of Gormon Peake trying to politick his way onto the Council of Regents and the Handship as his ancestor did before him, only to have everyone who’s not a secret Blackfyre loyalist clambering over themselves to find someone else, anyone else. But definitely a lot of spoiler action, where the Blackfyre supporters are trying to divide House Targaryen against itself and prevent any form of united government, all the while loudly complaining about how the Targaryens are weak and Westeros needs a strong warrior king with a magic sword to save them hint hint. 

The Tormund quote about the White Walkers has always fascinated me. What has never been quite clear to me is whether he was talking just about the recent trek towards the Wall when he was describing the precautions they took against the Walkers, or whether the Walkers had always lingered around, and had never actually been truly driven into “extinction” or into the Heart of the North as the tales had said.

It seems to have been something that started relatively recently, because it hasn’t been often enough that any ranger has seen signs of it prior to poor Waymar Royce, and Royce was the first ranging to go missing, so it’s not like anyone noticed it and then was vanished. 

Tormund talks about it as something that the wildlings have been dealing with for a while now: 

Tormund turned back. “You know nothing. You killed a dead man, aye, I heard. Mance killed a hundred. A man can fight the dead, but when their masters come, when the white mists rise up … how do you fight a mist, crow? Shadows with teeth … air so cold it hurts to breathe, like a knife inside your chest … you do not know, you cannot know … can your sword cut cold?”

While Mance is a bit of a badass, I doubt a hundred refers to just one or two fights. This suggests that he’s been dealing with the wights for at least a few months prior to him holing up in the Frostfangs between AGOT and ACOK, because by the time Jon meets him, Mance has put counter-measures in place, which suggests some amount of learning about one’s enemy through observation and trial and error. 

Do you think Benjen ever knew or suspected the that Jon was not actually Ned’s bastard?

theimmaculatebastard:

racefortheironthrone:

goodqueenaly:

Yes, I do. More than suspected, in fact: I think Benjen, while not (obviously) present for Jon’s conception or birth, was actively involved in facilitating Lyanna’s running away to meet with Rhaegar. Not that I think this alone forced him to join the Night’s Watch – I could see where it was always ordained that third son Benjen would go to the Watch (much like third son Waymar Royce), to avoid the sort of Stark dynastic infighting which I believe Lord Rickard’s own marriage was designed to limit – but that certainly Benjen has carried with him the secret of Jon’s parentage for the better part of two decades.

Essentially, what I think happened is that Lyanna spent the roughly year between Harrenhal and her “abduction" trying to think of a way to meet the crown prince (assuming they had agreed to meet again in a year at the tourney, which I think they did) and thus get out of her upcoming marriage to Robert. After the shocking end to the tourney at Harrenhal, Lord Rickard and/or her overseer in the Stark household would probably have kept a strict eye on her, lest further scandal attach itself to Lyanna and her betrothal risk being cancelled. She could hardly tell ambitious Rickard about Rhaegar’s proposal, or hotheaded Brandon, or she’d be certain of never seeing the crown prince again. Quiet and kind brother Ned might have been helpful, but he would have been back in the Eyrie, and she could hardly trust the bombshell idea of running away with the married prince to a raven, or the maesters who would be handling it.

But then there was little Benjen. Ben, who had been her childhood playmate, dueling with her in Winterfell’s godswood against the wishes of Lord Rickard. Ben, who had been so helpful with Howland at Harrenhal – finding the crannogman a suitable outfit for the great feast, and offering to scour up a horse and armor for young Reed – and in all likelihood had helped Lyanna piece together a makeshift suit of armor to joust. Baby Ben, no more than an adolescent or young teenager – old enough to understand her situation, but not old enough to do anything consequential the way Rickard or Brandon could to stop it. Benjen would be able to help her.

So what I think happened is that Lyanna explained to Benjen what she and Rhaegar had discussed at Harrenhal, and Benjen – eager to help his fiercely determined older sister and playmate, especially if she emphasized how unhappy she felt being forced to marry Robert – agreed to assist her escape. Benjen would cover for Lyanna, stalling for time while she put all her horsemanship to the test and rode like hell for Harrenhal. But, of course, nothing went exactly as Lyanna planned, and I could see where Benjen felt a tremendous amount of guilt for helping her; if only he hadn’t, maybe Rickard wouldn’t have been burned alive, or Brandon strangled, or Lyanna herself died in a faraway tower in the lonely Red Mountains.

I don’t know if Ned and Benjen ever explicitly talked about Jon’s true parentage, particularly in the time between Ned returning from the war and Benjen taking the black, but I wouldn’t be surprised that, even without an explicit conversation, Benjen would have come to the conclusion. Lyanna tells him about her plans to marry Rhaegar; Lyanna disappears with Rhaegar to the south; many months later his famously honorable brother comes home, having brought with him a northern-looking baby whose official story is that he is Ned’s son. The implications of the truth of the baby’s parentage would be enormously dangerous – the last child of the dead Targaryen crown prince, alive and safe in defiance of the new Baratheon regime – and so while others might have easily swallowed Ned’s cover story, Benjen, one of the very few who knew the truth about Rhaegar and Lyanna, might have been deeply suspicious, understanding why Ned would want to hide the truth. (Of course, he and Ned might well have talked about it – Benjen feeling he needed to unburden himself to someone and Ned, who had seen Lyanna die, would be the only one who could understand, or Ned thinking his sole remaining brother could handle this profoundly dangerous truth.)

So yes, I very much believe Benjen knows Jon is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna.

Just to add some mental math on a minor point that @goodqueenaly and I were talking about on messenger: 

I’m not sure “Lyanna spent the roughly year between Harrenhal and her “abduction" because I’m not sure it was that long. (Thanks, btw, to LiveFirstDieLater from Westeros.org for help on this.)

So, we know that Rhaegar and Elia are married in 280, and Rhaenys is born the same year (WOIAF), this means that at the very earliest Rhaenys is born in “September” of 280. We know that “after the birth of Princess Rhaenys, her mother had been bedridden for half a year.” (ADWD)

And since Elia was present at the Tourney of Harrenhal, since “Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife.” So at the very earliest, the Tourney of Harrenhal could have happened in April, although given Elia’s health I’m going to say it’s probably closer to June.

We also know that Rhaegar and Lyanna disappeared very early in 281: “with the coming of the new year, the crown prince had taken to the road with half a dozen of his closest friends and confidants, on a journey that would ultimately lead him back to the riverlands.”

So I don’t think it was any longer than six months and could well have been later, depending on the whole “False Spring” thing. It may have been as short as two months. 

When was Aegon born?

Aegon was born sometime between the Tourney and the first month of 282. 

Why?

What do you think about the theory that Tyrion is Dany’s son?

goodqueenaly:

doublehex:

racefortheironthrone:

goodqueenaly:

Go home, Tumblr, you’re drunk.

Ten thousand thundering typhoons, Tumblr!

  1. He’s older than her.
  2. By a decade.
  3. Her father, who was dead before she was born, talked about Tyrion being born a dwarf to punish Tywin’s arrogance. 

You guys obviously have not heard of the magnificence that is the Time Traveling Fetus Theory.

Oh, it’s not for want of awareness that I respond thusly. Merely for want of sense.

The 2018 books cannot get here fast enough. People seem to have lost their senses in the wait since ADWD, like mariners marooned on a desert island.