Post by danl on Jun 28, 2017 13:34:21 GMT
I think it's very possible. I have felt for a long time that Brandon had an interest in Ashara, and that something about Ashara is what drove him to go to the Red Keep in a rash manner. I used to think it was about Lyanna, but now I am not so certain of that. But honestly, who knows but GRRM and his withholding books from us
Ashara does seem to be in the middle of things. And I suspect that the primary interest was not romantic/sexual.
Of course, Jaime's recollection of this incident with Ser Arthur might not be so accurate, and either the Smiling Knight was more a challenge for Arthur Dayne than Jaime let's on (Jon vs Rattleshirt/Mance), or the duel didn't last nearly as long as Jaime remembers. If Arthur gloried in beating the tar out of a man who had less training than him, then yes, that sounds a bit like our Jonno
I have the impression that the Smiling Knight was a bit of a folk hero. SAD may have taken his time because he wanted SK to submit, or at least to show that SAD was more chivalrous than SK, or to try to avoid creating a legend.
But why did Howland know to watch for Ashara, or is Howland just very intuitive and picked up on this political maneuvering? Did he learn something during his time on the Isle of Faces that steered him in a certain direction while at Harrenhal? Howland's story of Harrenhal is vague and told through the POV of his children, which makes it scoot right into unreliable narrator territory! And his intent is a complete mystery to me!
A child learn a story from her father and tells it to another child and the story is in code. It's rather cynical of you to suspect that it might be unreliable. Presumably Howland told it in code, but why tell her at all? I have this suspicion that Meera was instructed to tell it to Bran after carefully memorizing it. But I have no theory as to what he is to learn from it.
I'm not sure why Howland was paying close attention to Ashara's movements, but each is a mysterious character in the middle of the same odd events. As we look from families who are mirror images, maybe we should consider Reed and Dayne, bastard mud-men and blessed nobility.