Post by kienn on Jun 14, 2023 18:33:12 GMT
With reddit dead I figured I could post this here... I've seen some people discussing Ned as the KotLT but most are missing many of the best details (IMO).
Enjoy!
Part 1: Decoupling KotLT from RLJ.
Firstly I will have to address what seems to be the major hurdle to overcome - the piggybacking of Lyanna as KotLT on “R + L = J”. While RLJ is certainly true, it does not imply that Lyanna is the KotLT. The argument is that without Lyanna as KotLT there would be no reason for Rhaegar to have been drawn to Lyanna or any chance for them to have met.
We can start with the assumption that Lyanna was the KotLT. How did Rhaegar track her down and uncover her? The most reasonable explanation is a basic investigation.
- Since the KotLT challenged 3 knights, Rhaegar would speak to those knights to learn what they knew of the KotLT. They would thus tell Rhaegar that the KotLT scolded them to chastise their squires for their lack of honor.
- By speaking with the squires Rhaegar will learn of their confrontation with Howland and his rescue by Lyanna.
- Complete! Rhaegar has tracked down the reason the KotLT challenged the 3 knights and who the KotLT was. Rhaegar can speak with Lyanna and spark their relationship and/or his interest in her.
So how does this sequence change if Lyanna is not the KotLT? It doesn’t change at all. The actions of the KotLT lead invariably to Rhaegar meeting with Lyanna regardless of who was inside the KotLT’s helm. Lyanna’s rescue of Howland is enough to spark Rhaegar’s interest in her. Personally I think Rhaegar was aiming to find someone to birth his “Visenya” and complete his trio of children mimicking the Conqueror and his sisters. Lyanna’s sword prowess and defensive personality would have fit that bill perfectly.
As Meera says - RLJ is a different, “sadder story”.
Part 2: Direct textual links between Eddard & KotLT.
Now we can move on to the real evidence for Ned as the KotLT. Firstly of course, the booming voice used by the KotLT:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, ‘Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.’”
Throughout the series, “booming” is used frequently for laughter, tying it closely with the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Even Toad’s “shrill” laughter is described this way:
AGoT 70, Jon IX
“Another voice broke in. ‘You know where I'd be if it was me? I'd be in Mole's Town, digging for buried treasure.’ Toad's shrill laughter boomed through the trees. Jon's mare snorted.”
Ned ties the booming voice to a commander’s “battlefield voice”. A necessary skill for any commander to have their orders heard in the din of battle.
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“It was the king's voice that put an end to it ... the king's voice and twenty swords. Jon Arryn had told them that a commander needs a good battlefield voice, and Robert had proved the truth of that on the Trident. He used that voice now. ‘STOP THIS MADNESS,’ he boomed, 'IN THE NAME OF YOUR KING!’”
Just as Jon Arryn taught Robert and Ned - so too did Ned teach Robb and Jon:
ASoS 55, Jon VII
“He has a lord’s voice, Jon thought. His father had always said that in battle a captain’s lungs were as important as his sword arm. ‘It does not matter how brave or brilliant a man is, if his commands cannot be heard,’ Lord Eddard told his sons, so Robb and he used to climb the towers of Winterfell to shout at each other across the yard. Donal Noye could have drowned out both of them.”
Indeed, earlier in Jon’s chapters Donal Noye’s voice is described as booming itself:
AGoT 19, Jon III
“Jon was rolling away from the blows when a booming voice cut through the gloom of the armory. ‘STOP THIS! NOW!’
Jon pulled himself to his feet. Donal Noye stood glowering at them.”
Although we have not yet seen Ned’s voice described as a “booming voice” he is connected to it through multiple threads. No other candidate for the KotLT can claim this connection.
Part 2B: No friend to the king.
Another description of the KotLT stands out:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“That night at the great castle, the storm lord and the knight of skulls and kisses each swore they would unmask him, and the king himself urged men to challenge him, declaring that the face behind that helm was no friend of his.”
Inevitably, another essentially friendless pyrophilic mad king chooses to describe just one character similarly. Repeatedly.
ACoK 31, Catelyn III
“‘I am sorry for your lord’s death,’ he said, ‘though Eddard Stark was no friend to me.’”
ASoS 76, Jon XI
“Stannis snorted. ‘I know Janos Slynt. And I knew Ned Stark as well. Your father was no friend of mine, but only a fool would doubt his honor or his honesty.’”
ASoS 76, Jon XI
“Stannis gave a curt nod. ‘Your father was a man of honor. He was no friend to me, but I saw his worth.’”
With quite a lot of effort, I have found no king refer to any other character throughout the series in this way. Please correct me if I’ve missed any. Tyrion loves to say it about a variety of people... but he is no king.
Of course, this also ties thematically to Eddard’s plot throughout AGoT. He is constantly questioning whether Robert, his king, is still the same man as his friend. Stannis and Jon also share a philosophy that leaders should not have friends:
ACoK 31, Catelyn III
“‘Kings have no friends,’ Stannis said bluntly, ‘only subjects and enemies.’”
ADwD 53, Jon XI
“Sam, you sweet fat fool, you played me a cruel jape when you made me lord commander. A lord commander has no friends.”
Of course while for Stannis it does seem to be a true philosophy, I suspect Jon is simply sad because he has sent his friends away to protect them and/or since they are the only ones he can trust to get some important things done. Perhaps he even did learn from Ned the below lesson:
AGoT 22, Arya II
“Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. ‘Know the men who follow you,’ she heard him tell Robb once, ‘and let them know you. Don’t ask your men to die for a stranger.’”
Does Ned regard all his men (and Old Nan) as his friends? Or something else?
Before becoming king Robert was legendary for turning enemies into his friends. And yet by the time of AGoT he seems as friendless and defenseless to treason as Jon in ADwD.
Anyway, enough of that tangent, we have more theory to get to!
Part 3: The checklist
Now I will go through the checklist that we all love for the KotLT. All the squishy points that can be promoted or dismissed for what seems like any character since there’s no “hook nose” and “curly black hair” (see Jaqen & the Alchemist) to point at.
1) Why wouldn’t Ned wear his own armor?
There’s so many potential reasons here. One is simply that Ned thought his own armor was too recognizable, so if going as a mystery knight, he needed to switch it up a little to not give himself away instantly. My personal favored idea is that Ned simply had not brought his own armor because he wasn’t planning on participating. Only on hearing Howland’s prayer did he decide to joust. This would be fairly similar to Baelor Breakspear in The Hedge Knight:
The Hedge Knight, Dunk the Lunk
“The Young Prince. Gods be good, is it truly him?
Lord Ashford made the same mistake. ‘Prince Valarr?’
‘No.’ The black knight lifted the visor of his helm. ‘I did not think to enter the lists at Ashford, my lord, so I brought no armor. My son was good enough to lend me his.’ Prince Baelor smiled almost sadly.”
Baelor decided to joust to defend a man that needed help. Ned took the extra step of borrowing various mismatched pieces so he wouldn’t be recognizable as anyone specific.
2) Is Ned short?
Ned is described as taller than his own children and at least one of Varys’ disguises, but also shorter than his brother Brandon and other tall characters like Robert. Obviously that puts him somewhere in the middle. So can he be called short? Personally I think he is probably on the shorter side of average, but the real question is was he relatively small during the Tourney at Harrenhal?
Horses can be just as recognizable as armor, so it’s likely that Ned also borrowed his mount for his entry as KotLT. I believe that Ned borrowed one of Robert’s “huge destriers”. We see from Ned’s own perspective at the Hand’s Tourney that size is quite relative when it comes to mounts:
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“[Gregor] was well over seven feet tall, closer to eight, with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees. His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs, and the lance he carried looked as small as a broom handle.”
If a huge man can make a huge horse seem small it’s reasonable that a huge horse can make an average or slightly small youth seem remarkably small.
We can also note that Ned was 18 during the Tourney and a year later married Catelyn. Catelyn compares Ned in AGoT to Ned at their wedding like this:
AGoT 6, Catelyn II
“He looked somehow smaller and more vulnerable, like the youth she had wed in the sept at Riverrun, fifteen long years gone.”
If he wasn’t full grown at his wedding a year after the Tourney, Ned would also have still been growing at the time of the tourney itself a year earlier, allowing him to be a few inches shorter than his eventual full height and potentially remarkable as “short of stature”, especially on a proportionally larger mount.
3) Why would Ned use a laughing weirwood as his sigil?
I don’t think I need to explain the connection between Ned and the weirwoods since he is one of the very few characters we see in the series that prays to the weirwoods on a regular basis. Many people take issue with the “laughing” part of the sigil because of their impression of Ned’s personality as somber & stern. One favorite quote for this is Catelyn’s thought:
ASoS 45, Catelyn V
“She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber.”
However, it’s easy to realize that the moment when Catelyn met Ned was during the war, after Ned’s father and brother have both been killed. I think that would damper anyone’s mood. Here we can see how Ned’s dark experiences can squash moments of joy:
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“Then [Robert] dropped back into a chair, shaking with laughter.
Ser Barristan Selmy chuckled with him. Even Eddard Stark managed a smile. Always, though, the graver thoughts crept in.”
This is when Robert pranks his squires, sending them to find the “breastplate stretcher”. Eddard is briefly entertained by his friend’s prank, but just like during Robert’s Rebellion; Eddard’s thoughts turn to darker things: Jon Arryn’s recent death, the threat against Robert himself, and potential war brewing. I won’t claim that Ned is or was ever as rowdy as Robert himself, but he is not humorless like Stannis. Ned himself marks this as one of Stannis’ faults:
AGoT 27, Eddard VI
“Robert’s lusts were the subject of ribald drinking songs throughout the realm, but Stannis was a different sort of man; a bare year younger than the king, yet utterly unlike him, stern, humorless, unforgiving”
From Eddard’s children we see that Eddard himself certainly knows how to laugh.
AGoT 8, Bran II
“As angry as he was, his father could not help but laugh. ‘You’re not my son,’ he told Bran when they fetched him down, ‘you’re a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you.’”
ACoK 30, Arya VII
“She remembered hearing her lady mother tell Father to put on his lord’s face and go deal with some matter. Father had laughed at that.”
So the question is what was Eddard’s personality in his youth, before his family started dying? With a friend like Robert it seems unlikely that Eddard just had a stick up his butt all the time. He clearly enjoyed growing up with Robert and likely joined in on various pranks, or laughed along as witness.
The world book tells us that Robert was regarded as the “Laughing Storm reborn”.
TWoIaF, House Baratheon
“Steffon’s own firstborn son, Robert, succeeded him as Lord of Storm’s End and grew to be one of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms—a warrior so strong and fearless that many hailed him as the Laughing Storm reborn.”
If this was indeed a well known sobriquet for Robert in his youth then a “laughing weirwood” seems appropriate as a joking title for his northern companion Ned. Robert may have suggested it as Ned’s personal sigil in private as we see him do in AGoT:
AGoT 12, Eddard II
“‘at times you’re so prickly you ought to take the hedgehog as your sigil.’”
4) Why wouldn’t Ned just enter as himself instead of a mystery knight?
From Dunk we’re told that tourneys can vary widely in the format and ruleset
The Hedge Knight, Dunk the Lunk
“Even the rules of this tourney worked against him, making it very unlikely that he would face a green or feeble foe.
There were a dozen different forms a tourney might follow, according to the whim of the lord who hosted it. ”
For such a large tourney like the Tourney at Harrenhal with 5 days of jousting a reasonable format would be to allow lower status knights to joust in the earlier days, and higher status knights in the later days. This would give everyone a chance to participate with a chance at becoming a champion briefly without having to face someone with far better training than themself.
This would mean that on the second day of jousting Ned, as a son of a high lord would be very unlikely allowed to enter. It could even be seen as dishonorable for him to enter at such a time and spoil the chance for lower knights. From Ned’s perspective the dishonor of breaking these rules may have only have been acceptable in order to teach the dishonorable squires and their knights a lesson.
We can even see that this format does fit with what we’re told of the tourney:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“Their conquerors reigned briefly as champions, until they were vanquished in turn. As it happened, the end of the first day saw the porcupine knight win a place among the champions, and on the morning of the second day the pitchfork knight and the knight of the two towers were victorious as well.”
The earliest champions are not even worth mentioning by sigil, perhaps they are hedge knights with no recognizable house? The porcupine knight and pitchfork knight are likely from houses Blount and Haigh, both quite weak houses. House Frey of the two towers may have been restricted from entering until the morning of day 2 since they are a relatively more powerful house. Day 2 likely would have been restricted to peers of House Frey, with greater houses such as Tully and Stark only being allowed in during day 3 or 4 and lastly Rhaegar and the Kingsguard perhaps only on day 5.
Since the goal of the tournament was indeed likely for Rhaegar himself to take the championship then this format also helps him since he only needs to compete on the final day where he can be fresh against opponents that may be worn down already (or cooperating with him in the case of the white knights).
Part 4: The aftermath
It becomes less clear what happened after the Tournament. I’m sure whatever George writes will be far more interesting than my best guesses, but I think it will be significant that quite a few people would have known that Ned was the KotLT despite him never being unmasked. He had a shield painted, borrowed armor from several people, and of course Robert’s own horse. Robert seems to make an inside joke by claiming he would unmask the KotLT even though he does not generally joust and indeed is not mentioned as actually jousting later in this tourney. With tongues wagging and joking, eventually the identity of the KotLT would make its way to Aerys.
It’s possible that Aerys learning of Ned as the KotLT is what triggered Rhaegar to seek out Lyanna. Did Aerys want her as a hostage to get Ned to King’s Landing? Or was Rhaegar trying to protect the Starks from worse by taking her?
It’s also possible that Rhaegar took Lyanna for his own reasons but enabled Aerys to finally unmask Ned by torturing and executing Brandon’s entourage. Ethan Glover was the only survivor, perhaps he was spared for confessing.
Either way by the end of the executions of Brandon’s entourage and their fathers I think that Aerys knew that the KotLT was Ned and of Robert’s help and mockery. This would be why he called for their heads from Jon Arryn and triggered the rebellion.
Conclusion
Bran, a second son of a second son, who dreamed of being a knight but was unable to ever be one asked for a story about a knight. Jojen and Meera told him the story of his own father’s time as a knight, trying to do what was right and yet have it go wrong due to a poor king’s madness. When Bran uses his view of history through the weirwoods to look back at his family and learns the full truth of the story of the KotLT perhaps the lessons available will help him become a better Lord himself.
TLDR:
- Rhaegar meets Lyanna regardless of who the KotLT was.
- Ned is uniquely textually connected to the KotLT by the “booming voice” and “no
friend of mine”.
- Ned checks all the boxes for the KotLT thanks to Robert.
- This is why Aerys calls for Ned & Robert’s heads.
The echo argument
Separate from the analytical argument above we have a simple argument based on Ned's story in AGoT echoing the short story of the KotLT.
AGoT 20, Eddard IV
“And so Ned had come striding into the council chambers, bone-tired and dressed in borrowed clothing, to find four members of the small council waiting for him.”
The first time we see Ned at court he is forced to borrow something to wear.
AGoT 43, Eddard XI
“Ned raised his voice, so it carried to the far end of the throne room. ‘In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon . . . and do sentence him to death. May the gods take pity on his soul.’
When the echo of his words had died away...”
When Ned attaints Gregor Clegane he seems to use his booming voice, although he does not describe it that way for himself, we can see that he raises it loud enough to fill the throne room and that it is strong enough to continue echoing for a period.
AGoT 33, Eddard VIII
“Robert’s face was purple. “Out,” he croaked, choking on his rage. “Out, damn you, I’m done with you. What are you waiting for? Go, run back to Winterfell. And make certain I never look on your face again, or I swear, I’ll have your head on a spike!”
Ned’s honor angers the king, and he threatens to call for Ned’s head.
I haven't bothered to explain the parallels as they are self-evident and I prefer the analytical argument, but I do appreciate these 3 quotes to lay out the similarity between Ned's story in current times and before RR.
Enjoy!
Part 1: Decoupling KotLT from RLJ.
Firstly I will have to address what seems to be the major hurdle to overcome - the piggybacking of Lyanna as KotLT on “R + L = J”. While RLJ is certainly true, it does not imply that Lyanna is the KotLT. The argument is that without Lyanna as KotLT there would be no reason for Rhaegar to have been drawn to Lyanna or any chance for them to have met.
We can start with the assumption that Lyanna was the KotLT. How did Rhaegar track her down and uncover her? The most reasonable explanation is a basic investigation.
- Since the KotLT challenged 3 knights, Rhaegar would speak to those knights to learn what they knew of the KotLT. They would thus tell Rhaegar that the KotLT scolded them to chastise their squires for their lack of honor.
- By speaking with the squires Rhaegar will learn of their confrontation with Howland and his rescue by Lyanna.
- Complete! Rhaegar has tracked down the reason the KotLT challenged the 3 knights and who the KotLT was. Rhaegar can speak with Lyanna and spark their relationship and/or his interest in her.
So how does this sequence change if Lyanna is not the KotLT? It doesn’t change at all. The actions of the KotLT lead invariably to Rhaegar meeting with Lyanna regardless of who was inside the KotLT’s helm. Lyanna’s rescue of Howland is enough to spark Rhaegar’s interest in her. Personally I think Rhaegar was aiming to find someone to birth his “Visenya” and complete his trio of children mimicking the Conqueror and his sisters. Lyanna’s sword prowess and defensive personality would have fit that bill perfectly.
As Meera says - RLJ is a different, “sadder story”.
Part 2: Direct textual links between Eddard & KotLT.
Now we can move on to the real evidence for Ned as the KotLT. Firstly of course, the booming voice used by the KotLT:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, ‘Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.’”
Throughout the series, “booming” is used frequently for laughter, tying it closely with the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Even Toad’s “shrill” laughter is described this way:
AGoT 70, Jon IX
“Another voice broke in. ‘You know where I'd be if it was me? I'd be in Mole's Town, digging for buried treasure.’ Toad's shrill laughter boomed through the trees. Jon's mare snorted.”
Ned ties the booming voice to a commander’s “battlefield voice”. A necessary skill for any commander to have their orders heard in the din of battle.
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“It was the king's voice that put an end to it ... the king's voice and twenty swords. Jon Arryn had told them that a commander needs a good battlefield voice, and Robert had proved the truth of that on the Trident. He used that voice now. ‘STOP THIS MADNESS,’ he boomed, 'IN THE NAME OF YOUR KING!’”
Just as Jon Arryn taught Robert and Ned - so too did Ned teach Robb and Jon:
ASoS 55, Jon VII
“He has a lord’s voice, Jon thought. His father had always said that in battle a captain’s lungs were as important as his sword arm. ‘It does not matter how brave or brilliant a man is, if his commands cannot be heard,’ Lord Eddard told his sons, so Robb and he used to climb the towers of Winterfell to shout at each other across the yard. Donal Noye could have drowned out both of them.”
Indeed, earlier in Jon’s chapters Donal Noye’s voice is described as booming itself:
AGoT 19, Jon III
“Jon was rolling away from the blows when a booming voice cut through the gloom of the armory. ‘STOP THIS! NOW!’
Jon pulled himself to his feet. Donal Noye stood glowering at them.”
Although we have not yet seen Ned’s voice described as a “booming voice” he is connected to it through multiple threads. No other candidate for the KotLT can claim this connection.
Part 2B: No friend to the king.
Another description of the KotLT stands out:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“That night at the great castle, the storm lord and the knight of skulls and kisses each swore they would unmask him, and the king himself urged men to challenge him, declaring that the face behind that helm was no friend of his.”
Inevitably, another essentially friendless pyrophilic mad king chooses to describe just one character similarly. Repeatedly.
ACoK 31, Catelyn III
“‘I am sorry for your lord’s death,’ he said, ‘though Eddard Stark was no friend to me.’”
ASoS 76, Jon XI
“Stannis snorted. ‘I know Janos Slynt. And I knew Ned Stark as well. Your father was no friend of mine, but only a fool would doubt his honor or his honesty.’”
ASoS 76, Jon XI
“Stannis gave a curt nod. ‘Your father was a man of honor. He was no friend to me, but I saw his worth.’”
With quite a lot of effort, I have found no king refer to any other character throughout the series in this way. Please correct me if I’ve missed any. Tyrion loves to say it about a variety of people... but he is no king.
Of course, this also ties thematically to Eddard’s plot throughout AGoT. He is constantly questioning whether Robert, his king, is still the same man as his friend. Stannis and Jon also share a philosophy that leaders should not have friends:
ACoK 31, Catelyn III
“‘Kings have no friends,’ Stannis said bluntly, ‘only subjects and enemies.’”
ADwD 53, Jon XI
“Sam, you sweet fat fool, you played me a cruel jape when you made me lord commander. A lord commander has no friends.”
Of course while for Stannis it does seem to be a true philosophy, I suspect Jon is simply sad because he has sent his friends away to protect them and/or since they are the only ones he can trust to get some important things done. Perhaps he even did learn from Ned the below lesson:
AGoT 22, Arya II
“Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. ‘Know the men who follow you,’ she heard him tell Robb once, ‘and let them know you. Don’t ask your men to die for a stranger.’”
Does Ned regard all his men (and Old Nan) as his friends? Or something else?
Before becoming king Robert was legendary for turning enemies into his friends. And yet by the time of AGoT he seems as friendless and defenseless to treason as Jon in ADwD.
Anyway, enough of that tangent, we have more theory to get to!
Part 3: The checklist
Now I will go through the checklist that we all love for the KotLT. All the squishy points that can be promoted or dismissed for what seems like any character since there’s no “hook nose” and “curly black hair” (see Jaqen & the Alchemist) to point at.
1) Why wouldn’t Ned wear his own armor?
There’s so many potential reasons here. One is simply that Ned thought his own armor was too recognizable, so if going as a mystery knight, he needed to switch it up a little to not give himself away instantly. My personal favored idea is that Ned simply had not brought his own armor because he wasn’t planning on participating. Only on hearing Howland’s prayer did he decide to joust. This would be fairly similar to Baelor Breakspear in The Hedge Knight:
The Hedge Knight, Dunk the Lunk
“The Young Prince. Gods be good, is it truly him?
Lord Ashford made the same mistake. ‘Prince Valarr?’
‘No.’ The black knight lifted the visor of his helm. ‘I did not think to enter the lists at Ashford, my lord, so I brought no armor. My son was good enough to lend me his.’ Prince Baelor smiled almost sadly.”
Baelor decided to joust to defend a man that needed help. Ned took the extra step of borrowing various mismatched pieces so he wouldn’t be recognizable as anyone specific.
2) Is Ned short?
Ned is described as taller than his own children and at least one of Varys’ disguises, but also shorter than his brother Brandon and other tall characters like Robert. Obviously that puts him somewhere in the middle. So can he be called short? Personally I think he is probably on the shorter side of average, but the real question is was he relatively small during the Tourney at Harrenhal?
Horses can be just as recognizable as armor, so it’s likely that Ned also borrowed his mount for his entry as KotLT. I believe that Ned borrowed one of Robert’s “huge destriers”. We see from Ned’s own perspective at the Hand’s Tourney that size is quite relative when it comes to mounts:
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“[Gregor] was well over seven feet tall, closer to eight, with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees. His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs, and the lance he carried looked as small as a broom handle.”
If a huge man can make a huge horse seem small it’s reasonable that a huge horse can make an average or slightly small youth seem remarkably small.
We can also note that Ned was 18 during the Tourney and a year later married Catelyn. Catelyn compares Ned in AGoT to Ned at their wedding like this:
AGoT 6, Catelyn II
“He looked somehow smaller and more vulnerable, like the youth she had wed in the sept at Riverrun, fifteen long years gone.”
If he wasn’t full grown at his wedding a year after the Tourney, Ned would also have still been growing at the time of the tourney itself a year earlier, allowing him to be a few inches shorter than his eventual full height and potentially remarkable as “short of stature”, especially on a proportionally larger mount.
3) Why would Ned use a laughing weirwood as his sigil?
I don’t think I need to explain the connection between Ned and the weirwoods since he is one of the very few characters we see in the series that prays to the weirwoods on a regular basis. Many people take issue with the “laughing” part of the sigil because of their impression of Ned’s personality as somber & stern. One favorite quote for this is Catelyn’s thought:
ASoS 45, Catelyn V
“She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber.”
However, it’s easy to realize that the moment when Catelyn met Ned was during the war, after Ned’s father and brother have both been killed. I think that would damper anyone’s mood. Here we can see how Ned’s dark experiences can squash moments of joy:
AGoT 30, Eddard VII
“Then [Robert] dropped back into a chair, shaking with laughter.
Ser Barristan Selmy chuckled with him. Even Eddard Stark managed a smile. Always, though, the graver thoughts crept in.”
This is when Robert pranks his squires, sending them to find the “breastplate stretcher”. Eddard is briefly entertained by his friend’s prank, but just like during Robert’s Rebellion; Eddard’s thoughts turn to darker things: Jon Arryn’s recent death, the threat against Robert himself, and potential war brewing. I won’t claim that Ned is or was ever as rowdy as Robert himself, but he is not humorless like Stannis. Ned himself marks this as one of Stannis’ faults:
AGoT 27, Eddard VI
“Robert’s lusts were the subject of ribald drinking songs throughout the realm, but Stannis was a different sort of man; a bare year younger than the king, yet utterly unlike him, stern, humorless, unforgiving”
From Eddard’s children we see that Eddard himself certainly knows how to laugh.
AGoT 8, Bran II
“As angry as he was, his father could not help but laugh. ‘You’re not my son,’ he told Bran when they fetched him down, ‘you’re a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you.’”
ACoK 30, Arya VII
“She remembered hearing her lady mother tell Father to put on his lord’s face and go deal with some matter. Father had laughed at that.”
So the question is what was Eddard’s personality in his youth, before his family started dying? With a friend like Robert it seems unlikely that Eddard just had a stick up his butt all the time. He clearly enjoyed growing up with Robert and likely joined in on various pranks, or laughed along as witness.
The world book tells us that Robert was regarded as the “Laughing Storm reborn”.
TWoIaF, House Baratheon
“Steffon’s own firstborn son, Robert, succeeded him as Lord of Storm’s End and grew to be one of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms—a warrior so strong and fearless that many hailed him as the Laughing Storm reborn.”
If this was indeed a well known sobriquet for Robert in his youth then a “laughing weirwood” seems appropriate as a joking title for his northern companion Ned. Robert may have suggested it as Ned’s personal sigil in private as we see him do in AGoT:
AGoT 12, Eddard II
“‘at times you’re so prickly you ought to take the hedgehog as your sigil.’”
4) Why wouldn’t Ned just enter as himself instead of a mystery knight?
From Dunk we’re told that tourneys can vary widely in the format and ruleset
The Hedge Knight, Dunk the Lunk
“Even the rules of this tourney worked against him, making it very unlikely that he would face a green or feeble foe.
There were a dozen different forms a tourney might follow, according to the whim of the lord who hosted it. ”
For such a large tourney like the Tourney at Harrenhal with 5 days of jousting a reasonable format would be to allow lower status knights to joust in the earlier days, and higher status knights in the later days. This would give everyone a chance to participate with a chance at becoming a champion briefly without having to face someone with far better training than themself.
This would mean that on the second day of jousting Ned, as a son of a high lord would be very unlikely allowed to enter. It could even be seen as dishonorable for him to enter at such a time and spoil the chance for lower knights. From Ned’s perspective the dishonor of breaking these rules may have only have been acceptable in order to teach the dishonorable squires and their knights a lesson.
We can even see that this format does fit with what we’re told of the tourney:
ASoS 24, Bran II
“Their conquerors reigned briefly as champions, until they were vanquished in turn. As it happened, the end of the first day saw the porcupine knight win a place among the champions, and on the morning of the second day the pitchfork knight and the knight of the two towers were victorious as well.”
The earliest champions are not even worth mentioning by sigil, perhaps they are hedge knights with no recognizable house? The porcupine knight and pitchfork knight are likely from houses Blount and Haigh, both quite weak houses. House Frey of the two towers may have been restricted from entering until the morning of day 2 since they are a relatively more powerful house. Day 2 likely would have been restricted to peers of House Frey, with greater houses such as Tully and Stark only being allowed in during day 3 or 4 and lastly Rhaegar and the Kingsguard perhaps only on day 5.
Since the goal of the tournament was indeed likely for Rhaegar himself to take the championship then this format also helps him since he only needs to compete on the final day where he can be fresh against opponents that may be worn down already (or cooperating with him in the case of the white knights).
Part 4: The aftermath
It becomes less clear what happened after the Tournament. I’m sure whatever George writes will be far more interesting than my best guesses, but I think it will be significant that quite a few people would have known that Ned was the KotLT despite him never being unmasked. He had a shield painted, borrowed armor from several people, and of course Robert’s own horse. Robert seems to make an inside joke by claiming he would unmask the KotLT even though he does not generally joust and indeed is not mentioned as actually jousting later in this tourney. With tongues wagging and joking, eventually the identity of the KotLT would make its way to Aerys.
It’s possible that Aerys learning of Ned as the KotLT is what triggered Rhaegar to seek out Lyanna. Did Aerys want her as a hostage to get Ned to King’s Landing? Or was Rhaegar trying to protect the Starks from worse by taking her?
It’s also possible that Rhaegar took Lyanna for his own reasons but enabled Aerys to finally unmask Ned by torturing and executing Brandon’s entourage. Ethan Glover was the only survivor, perhaps he was spared for confessing.
Either way by the end of the executions of Brandon’s entourage and their fathers I think that Aerys knew that the KotLT was Ned and of Robert’s help and mockery. This would be why he called for their heads from Jon Arryn and triggered the rebellion.
Conclusion
Bran, a second son of a second son, who dreamed of being a knight but was unable to ever be one asked for a story about a knight. Jojen and Meera told him the story of his own father’s time as a knight, trying to do what was right and yet have it go wrong due to a poor king’s madness. When Bran uses his view of history through the weirwoods to look back at his family and learns the full truth of the story of the KotLT perhaps the lessons available will help him become a better Lord himself.
TLDR:
- Rhaegar meets Lyanna regardless of who the KotLT was.
- Ned is uniquely textually connected to the KotLT by the “booming voice” and “no
friend of mine”.
- Ned checks all the boxes for the KotLT thanks to Robert.
- This is why Aerys calls for Ned & Robert’s heads.
The echo argument
Separate from the analytical argument above we have a simple argument based on Ned's story in AGoT echoing the short story of the KotLT.
AGoT 20, Eddard IV
“And so Ned had come striding into the council chambers, bone-tired and dressed in borrowed clothing, to find four members of the small council waiting for him.”
The first time we see Ned at court he is forced to borrow something to wear.
AGoT 43, Eddard XI
“Ned raised his voice, so it carried to the far end of the throne room. ‘In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon . . . and do sentence him to death. May the gods take pity on his soul.’
When the echo of his words had died away...”
When Ned attaints Gregor Clegane he seems to use his booming voice, although he does not describe it that way for himself, we can see that he raises it loud enough to fill the throne room and that it is strong enough to continue echoing for a period.
AGoT 33, Eddard VIII
“Robert’s face was purple. “Out,” he croaked, choking on his rage. “Out, damn you, I’m done with you. What are you waiting for? Go, run back to Winterfell. And make certain I never look on your face again, or I swear, I’ll have your head on a spike!”
Ned’s honor angers the king, and he threatens to call for Ned’s head.
I haven't bothered to explain the parallels as they are self-evident and I prefer the analytical argument, but I do appreciate these 3 quotes to lay out the similarity between Ned's story in current times and before RR.
