The Wild and Wacky Willem Darry: Take 2

Dragonstone was the last outpost of Targaryen loyalists, thus Stannis took it from the Targaryens. I don't think there's any indication of whether any actual fighting took place or whether the garrison simply surrendered, but Stannis took it either way.

Dany's account of Darry stealing the two Targ children away is pretty well corroborated by Stannis:



"As if I could have stopped it" indicates it happened before Stannis was in position to intercept Darry's ship, so before he was there. Thus "steal away" is from the garrison rather than from Stannis. The fact that Rhaella didn't go with them fits in nicely with her being dead at the time.

Another oddity, is the need for Rhaella and Viserys to make a midnight flight to Dragonstone. The rebellion's fleet was destroyed, so at the time it would have been safer to take the Queen and heir to Dragonstone by day with a royal escort, then take a risky midnight ride without escort. Unless of course Rhaella was taking Viserys to flee from Aerys before he had a chance to rape her. In such case the purpose of a midnight flight would be to avoid Aerys' ships from stopping them and returning them to the Red Keep.

I feel like the answer to all of this will become more clear if we consolidate several threads into one: The Enigmatic Elia Martell (did I post that here?), Wacky Willem, and Lemongate. I believe all of these may be connected, in that there is an underground Targaryen railroad in play.

First, let me start out by saying that I think Elia went to Dorne, or at least met up with her Dornish family, sometime after recovering from Rhaenys' birth (or perhaps during the recovery period, if the recovery period was actually a ruse) but before the tourney at Harrenhal. There are several clues throughout the story that support this. To what end I'm not entirely sure yet, but I suspect that this meetup may have been when Ashara Dayne came to court.

Also, the whole Kingswood Brotherhood encounter is very fishy....a group led by a descendant of staunch Blackfyre supporters, who kidnap nobles for ransom, and they wound the LC of the KG but LEAVE THE WIFE OF THE PRINCE OF DRAGONSTONE alone, save for taking some jewels and a kiss??? I don't buy it. There's a Blackfyre connection here with Simon Toyne, I just know it.

Add to this that Elia returns to KL, attends the tourney at which she is spurned, and has this mystery pregnancy not mentioned anywhere, by anyone, that results in a son born on Dragonstone right around the time her husband goes on walkabout. (A son that was seen by his father as TPTWP with a song of ice and fire, etc.) Odd.

Then we move into Darrygate - and the more I look at this the more I cotton to the idea that Darry did NOT leave KL until AFTER the Sack, and that Rhaella/Viserys weren't holed up on Dragonstone. I think we need to pay attention to Tyrion's plan of getting Myrcella to Dorne by way of Braavos, specifically avoiding Dragonstone, and then sending Tommen away from Joffrey under protection of Ser Jaclyn with no knowledge of his final wherebouts - IMO these two scenarios are telling us something about the movements of Targaryen heirs during RR. However, I think these scenarios apply to TWO different Targaryen heirs - plans in place to get both male heirs out of KL, and put them in separate places.

(I'll also throw in a plug for The Fisherman's Daughter Theory (TM), which postulates that the FD and all of Ned's movements from the Vale to Winterfell are part of a human smuggling operation intended to get someone out of the north and across the Narrow Sea via White Harbor.)

This is where Lemongate comes in. Dany's backstory ties in to the hiding location of one of the heirs. I haven't worked through this in my head yet.

Anyway, my point is that all of these movements and all of this shuffling around by Darry, the three KG, etc, are related and indicative of preemptively moving heirs to safety - with knowledge of/planning by both Rhaegar and Rhaella.

There's always the possibility that Rhaella wanted people to think she left on that ship.

The queen had been suffering at Aerys' hands for years - infidelity, cruelty, abuse, rape.  She has endured most of it herself while trying to protect her youngest son from the worst of Aerys' behaviors.   The kingdom descends into war, and suddenly the royal family is on the losing side.    Aerys orders his family away to safety on Dragonstone, finally allowing his wife and child out of his sight for the first time in years.

What would YOU do? I know what I'd do....get a message to a longtime friend, perhaps a friend who was more than a friend, and ask for help getting out of dodge.


Who? The garrison?  If she left KL all cloaked and hooded, who's to say she didn't arrive at DS the same way?  All the men would see is a woman, said to be Rhaella, ushered quickly by toward the safety inside the castle.  
Her maids?    Sounds like they didn't go with her, since Jaime heard them talking after she left.  
A maester?  Who was that?  It wasn't Cressen - Stannis brought him from Storm's End - and Pycelle stayed behind in KL.    
 Cooks?  Servants?    As if any of those would have been allowed near a royal during a war.   (I have said before at the W that IF Rhaella was there after the Trident/Sack, and especially if she was pregnant again, she would have been confined to a room with MAYBE one or two people AT MOST having access to her.   Her own son probably wouldn't have been allowed to see her.)  

I just find it really, really interesting that not a single person has shown up in current universe that can verify ANY of the goings-on at Dragonstone during the Rebellion - we only have the account of a "garrison" from the viewpoint of a sheltered 8yo boy.     


side note:  The missing maester is especially intriguing,  as this would have been the same guy who assisted in the birth of at least one of Rhaegar's kids and looked after a postpartum Elia.   Maybe we'll find him playing a nice game of cyvasse with Walys Flowers, former maester of Winterfell, who also conveniently disappeared during that time. Hey, markg171 , crackpot for you - who might fit the description of a stooped man using a walking stick, with big soft hands, who would be able to teach Dany classic High Valyrian? Former Master-at-Arms of KL seems a bit out of character, but how about the former Maester of Dragonstone?

 

Could the missing maester be Haldon Halfmaester?

Lemore is hot, but not Ashara Dayne hot. Their ages don't line up. Lemore's eyes are not all that remarkable, as Tyrion makes no remarks regarding their color. So I'm in the "no" camp on this one.

Well because per Jamie's recollection of what the maids said "the Queen's breasts and thighs looked like they were ravished by a beast." They didn't say anything about her sporting a shinner.And i don't recall anywhere in the text that says Aerys beat Rhaella,sure when her burnt someone he was extremely rough but punching her in the eye....Nah.Lastly,concerning that point even if Aerys used to give Rhaella the "straight to the moon" treatment to save face he would not have put bruises where it would be visible.

And we come back to perception.What did Jamie here with regards to te maids did he come in mis convo to hear her thighs and breast were messed up?Also,all Jamie saw was a figure cloaked and hooded climbing into the royal wheelhouse and he assumed it was the queen.Plus,Rhaella may have left KL without Aery's leave and thus there needed to be a lie told to make people believe she was in KL when she wasn't.

Now we have to look at the author's point and why he did what he did.He could have simply have Jamie see Rhaella absent hood and cloak.He chose to put that there for a reason and that was to point to the possibility that it wasn't the Queen after all.Given Aerys decent into utter cray cray town,and the mounting tension around him what would Rhaella have done especially after the King burnt two High Lords.Make arrangements and get the hell out of Dodge.

We don't know what the garrison on Dragonstone saw,how much contact they were allowed to have.Plus someone brought up a good question.Who supposedly was the Maester that delievered Dany on Dragonstone if a delivery on Dragonstone took place?