Watchers on the Wall a theory. Part II No cold fierce enough
Jun 13, 2020 17:24:50 GMT
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Post by nightsqueen on Jun 13, 2020 17:24:50 GMT
Watchers on the Walls a Theory about Jon Snow
Part II. No cold fierce enough
“Bright lad. We’ve had a few light frosts this past week, and a quick flurry of snow now and then, but surely no cold fierce enough to kill eight grown men. Men clad in fur and leather, let me remind you, with shelter near at hand, and the means of making fire.” The knight’s smile was cocksure. “Will, lead us there. I would see these dead men for myself“
In Part I, I proved that Jon is in fact Brandon and Ashara´s son, using AGoT´s prologue, Jon Arryn’s murder and Lyanna’s mistery as a guide.
In this part, I am going to prove that Ned’s fight with the 3 KG never happened using his “fever dream” and AGoT’s Prologue as a guide, and Jon’s crypt dream to explain in part what actually happened.
a) They shan’t trouble us no more
“They’re dead. They shan’t trouble us no more”. Prologue AGoT
It’s time to prove that Ned was a liar, and that his dream it’s not what we think it is, using the prologue as a guide.
Ned’s “tower dream” begins with a “dueling with words”, and strikingly the one who proposes it in the dream, is Ned, who thinks that he has no patience for this kind of game. The one who asks all the questions, or rather makes all the statements in the dream is Ned himself, the others respond, suspiciously, with the same attitude as Littlefinger, that is, insolence and arrogance.
But the point here, is what Littlefinger says about Brandon: that he still carries a “token of his steem”, it is precisely that “token”, Jon Snow, that triggers Ned’s dream.
Ned has the dream after he is attacked by Jaime Lannister when he was leaving a brothel in which he met one of Robert’s bastards. That leads him to think of two things, one is “the lust of men”, which, in turn, makes him think of Rhaegar and that he surely didn’t frequent brothels. So, for Ned, Rhaegar was not a lustful person, unlike Robert, and this is important in part III.
Then, Ned thinks about Jon, and how much he looks like him. Like Ned, Jon is not interested in prostitutes, but there is something else that Jon shares with Ned and not with his father. Ned was a second son, and as our “bastard” (though for different reasons), he always wanted to prove that he could be as good as the first, the one “born to rule”, and never could.
We know that what Ned has is a “fever dream”, we’ve seen the dreams of other characters and clearly, they should not be taken as “truths”, but as a symbol of things that may or may not have happened. In this case, the symbology is closely related to the prologue.
Ned has this dream when it is pretty clear that the confrontation with the Lannisters is imminent and amid Robert’s endless insistence about Lyanna, even though she is supposed to have been dead for almost fifteen years.
Let’s see the basic elements of the dream:
White is definitely a color associated with ghosts, death, but also weddings. Strikingly the 3 Starks in the crypt have several similarities to the 3 Knights of the Dream, in addition to the quality of being, apparently, dead.
But not only that, the access to the crypt is in a “tower long fallen”, the First Keep. If we also consider that Lyanna, one of the protagonists of the dream, has a statue in that crypt, a statue that she shouldn’t have, the dream begins to get far more interesting.
Before continuing with the dream, we need to talk about Lyanna’s statue and everything that is wrong about that statue. The statues seem to have a clear purpose, which is to mark the Stark’s line of power, that is, to show the order of the dynasty. The Starks’ power passes from parent to older child without interruption and only passes to a brother when the older child dies without issue. Possibly, the dynasty has passed to a woman at some point, 8000 years is a long time and it is even possible that the dynasty has changed hands and only kept the name.
But it is clear that the statue, the sword, and the wolf are there for something bigger than the mere identity of the king or lord who dies. Furthermore, the fact that the entire Castle was built after the crypt speaks clearly that what is important in WF is the crypt, not the castle.
Lyanna’s statue makes no sense in any way you look at it. She was never the “Lady” Stark, if she had married, she would have ceased to be a Stark, so the statue doesn’t belong there, even more, her husband’s line doesn’t belong there either, the crypt is a “Stark place”. Not to mention that had she died single and without issue, the statue makes even less sense, the crypt marks the Stark line and she wasn’t part of the line.
So, basically my theory is that the statue is not Lyanna’s, but Jon’s.
Let’s take a look at the position of the 3 King’s Guards when Ned finds them in the dream:
1)Arthur Dayne has a “sad smile”. In the same dream is Lyanna who has the same sad smile. Arthur never wields the sword; he is not a threat. In the same dream Ned thinks that Lyanna´s “fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold” so, she willingly renounces to something, nobody forces her. If we consider that “Ser Arthur” is actually Jon, the “sad smile” makes much more sense. It is Jon who unknowingly “gave up his hold” on Winterfell by announcing that he wanted to join the NW, so in the dream the sword is never wielded, he is no longer a threat to Ned’s family.
2)Ser Oswell is “sharpening his blade” he is the only one that appears threatening. If there’s one thing we know about Brandon Stark it’s that he loved his sword.
“Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone it. “I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’ he told me once.” The turncloack – ADwD
We have no idea if Brandon was good with “the sword” or not, what we do know is that he was the one who was born to command, and educated to do so, and that is relevant. We also know that “his sword” Jon, is “sharp enough”. Jon is by far the smartest of Ned’s “sons”, moreover, he is always willing to learn.
3) Gerold Hightower, the white, the Lord Commander. He is clearly the oldest, Rickard Stark. But “white bull” also proves that the “white wolf”, Jon Snow, is the one born to rule, which is just another way to call him the “true” Lord.
Let’s take a look at the position of the 3 Starks in the crypt.
Ned supposedly fought the war for his family – that is, for Rickard, Brandon and Lyanna. For a culture in which the “lone wolf dies” so that the “pack” can survive, Ned’s thought that all swords failed his father, is at least striking. Unless as the quote implies, Ned does not consider himself part of “his children”, but Jon Arryn’s son, which is completely possible, seeing how Theon’s mind was a mess after spending half his life among the Starks.
But the worst problem is the way and the order of his family’s death:
“And there’s my grandfather, Lord Rickard, who was beheaded by Mad King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. Not me, another Brandon, my father’s brother. They’re not supposed to have statues, that’s only for the lords and the kings, but my father loved them so much he had them done.” Bran VII – AGoT
Here is the first problem, the most obvious. We have two different versions for Lord Rickard’s death. In Ned’s mind “all swords had failed him” in Bran’s sweetened version, “was beheaded”.
In addition, we have a third version, Jaime’s.
“(…) the Starks had died before him, Lord Rickard cooking in his armor while his son Brandon strangled himself trying to save him.” Jaime IV ASoS
Let’s continue with the dream, but considering that the 3 “ghosts” in Ned’s dream are not the 3 KG but Jon (Arthur), Brandon (Whent) and Rickard (Hightower).
Let’s examine the details of the exchange.
Arthur doesn’t answer. He may or may not have been in the Trident. We don’t know. We know that the last place Ned saw Ashara was in Harrenhal, where Lyanna Stark disappeared.
Ser Gerold, that is, Lord Rickard, tells him that he wasn’t there, which we know is true, Lord Rickard was in Winterfell.
Oswell, who I said represents Brandon, says, “Woe to the Usurper.” The Trident is where Ned married his brother’s betrothed. Worse, Ned is usurping his brother and his son, Jon. Whent doesn’t deny having been in The Trident, he only talks about the “usurper”, which means that at some point he was there and we know that this is true, it is from the Trident that Brandon goes to “die” to KL and is also the place where Whent was last seen, in Harrenhal’s tourney.
Now, let’s recall Ned’s recent experience in the trident.
Arya and Sansa fight over Joffrey “Baratheon”. Arya escapes, Sansa feigns amnesia, and Ned is forced to kill Sansa’s wolf “Lady”, while Nymeria manages to escape.
We have two 2 women, two “wolves” one who escapes (Lyanna) and another who pretends amnesia, but loses her wolf, Cat. All thanks to a Baratheon prince.
We also know that Brandon was last seen fighting a duel for Cat’s hand, which makes the phrase “woe to the usurper” sound far more threatening to Ned than to Robert. Furthermore, if the guards are the ones that are really saying those things, the threat would come from 3 men who apparently spend the war hidden in a tower in Dorne, which would make the threat sound like a joke.
Ser Gerold, as I said, is in fact Lord Rickard. There’s a very interesting relationship between Rickard, Jaime, the King and the Lannisters “golden’s word”.
Jaime was one of the witnesses of the Starks hideous murder, and obviously he has no good reason to lie, the Starks didn’t mean anything to him.
The “king” of the crypt is Brandon, his statue doesn’t belong there either, Brandon officially didn’t die “Lord Stark”, because he is supposed to have died before his father, not after.
So, what Gerold (Rickard) tells him is that if Lord Rickard had lived, the one who would “sit the throne” is Brandon, not Ned, the “false brother” who usurped him and deserves to “burn in seven hells”.
But, in addition, there is the detail that Ned tells Robert that the “sin” of Jaime killing Aerys is that Jaime was a “sworn brother”, which does nothing but support the version of Ned usurping Jon but not killing him because they are kin.
This is what Ned remembers of Aerys’s death, speaking to Robert:
If we pay attention to Jaime’s symbolism as “the heir” we’ll see that it is so related to Jon that it makes you want to scream.
Jon’s “armor” is snow, that is, calling him “Snow”, snow also “glitters”. The “silence” that Ned mentions is his own armor, nobody knows who Jon’s mother was because Ned refuses to talk about her. In fact, Ned never lied about Ashara, he just kept silent.
What Ned feels that looks at him when he accepts the position as “Hand”, a position for which he clearly wasn’t born, and in which he soon proves to be a complete incompetent, are not the “dragon skulls” but the statues of the crypt. The “sword across his legs” is actually the sword between Jon’s legs, that’s the true danger, had Jon been born a girl, he wouldn’t be a threat. The “red” of the king’s blood is actually Jon’s “wolf’s blood” Stark to the bone and of course “king’s blood”.
This is what Ned think’s as he and Robert walk through the crypt the day the King arrives at Winterfell.
He called for a lantern. No other words were needed. (…) Ned went first with the lantern. “I was starting to think we would never reach Winterfell,” Robert complained as they descended. “In the south, the way they talk about my Seven Kingdoms, a man forgets that your part is as big as the other six combined.”
The “glitter” that he remembers on Jaime is the lantern that he remembers using to go to the crypt that in the dream become the “false brother” that is a clear reference to Jon “Snow”.
The vague location, “far away” that Ser Gerold mentions in the dream is explained by what Robert tells him: “your part is as big as the other six combined” that is, the north, where Lord Rickard was and where Jon is , far enough to no longer be a danger to the other 6, meaning Ned’s family.
In time, “your part is as big as the other six combined” and that thought of his own family, comes “to shape” thanks to the magic of dreams in 6 northerners that ride with him to the tower:
If we pay attention to the description of Ned’s companions, we will notice that each one symbolizes one of the members of his own family. Proud is Cat, faithful is Robb, Bran is the squire, Sansa is the “gentle of heart”, Arya is the “crannogman” and Rickon is the great red stallion.
Jory Cassel is the one who died in Ned’s arms moments before he passes out and has this dream. In the dream, Jory becomes the body of Lyanna, who I insist, didn’t die as I will prove in Part III.
It’s Jory’s body that Ned was hugging before Littlefinger arrived with help, not Howland Reed. In the dream, LF becomes the little crannogman.
The link Cassel -Cat – Littlefinger – Reed is explained in what Ned thinks of LF, that he is loyal to Cat, like Reed and Cassel are to him.
“He called for a lantern. No other words were needed.”
Ned’s “lantern” was his “honor”, he called Jon his bastard, “for all the north to see” no other words were needed, what kind of men would claim to have a bastard for no good reason?
While awake, Ned still didn’t realize why Jon Arryn was so interested in Robert’s bastards and why is important. But in dreams, he thinks of his own problem, because someone is asking questions about his own “bastard”. In fact, Robert, no less, asked Ned directly what was the name of his mother. It is Robert’s insistence about Lyanna that makes Ned “remember” the lies he told. It is intuiting his own “bastard” problem that makes Ned fear for his family.
Ned’s problem is that he really doesn’t think of Jon and Brandon as his family.
The dream is his own mind, his loyalties divided, on the one hand, his lifetime desire to be “the Stark” and on the other, his honorable side that reminds him that what he did was wrong. Every time he has the dream the two sides fight, so in the dream Jon’s side is defended by no less than Ser Arthur Dayne, the quintessential white knight, because that is the symbol of the honorable Ned. But every time, the duel is won by Ned “the dark” because he has the numbers. It’s always 7, his family, against one, Jon.
What Ned and Robert talk about in the crypt explains the next portion of Ned’s dream. The Siege of Storm’s End. Let’s look at the conversation first:
“You need to come south,” Robert told him. “You need a taste of summer before it flees. In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses (…) Even at Storm’s End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move.(…) Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air. (…) “I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle.
It is with the magic of dreams that “the days are so hot” are magically transformed into “the fever” that takes Lyanna. “Flowers everywere” is all the Starks maidens involved in the story and the women loosing “all modesty in the heat” becomes “Lyanna’s bastard” being born in Dorne.
Furthermore, “You need a taste of summer before it flees.” And “women losing all modesty in the heat” I think is a big part of Ned’s problem regarding Jon, because the “bastard” was growing and he could have his own bastards.
But the cruelest part is that Ned saw that on the night of the banquet, the night that Jon finally understood that there was no place for him, that Jon was drunk and asking to join the NW was a rush thing to do: “the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air”.
Of course, the “summerwine” is Jon.
“Our knees do not bend easily,” said Ser Arthur Dayne.
It is clear that in the conversation between Robert and Ned, Storm’s End is mentioned, and the names Tyrell and Redwyne are implicit: Highgarden, the “golden roses” and for Redwyne the summerwines.
The night of the banquet, which in Ned’s mind is the “siege” because he was with Robert, is the glorious night when Jon finally “bent the knee” along with Benjen, who clearly is not part of Ned’s family neither. Benjen is identified in the dream as one of the “knights” who surrendered.
Now, this is the best part of the dream:
Darry is the place where was held the audience in which Cersei manages to get Lady killed.
“He remembered Rhaegar’s infant son, the red ruin of his skull, and the way the king had turned away, as he had turned away in Darry’s audience hall not so long ago. He could still hear Sansa pleading, as Lyanna had pleaded once.”
The name “Willem” is incredibly similar to another name that we heard regarding Jon:
“Wylla. Yes.” The king grinned. “She must have been a rare wench if she could make Lord Eddard Stark forget his honor, even for an hour. You never told me what she looked like …”
Wylla is the name that Ned gives Robert as Jon’s mother, who of course is “his sister”, that is, his brother’s wife, not Lyanna.
Wylla, we later learn from a Dayne, was a servant in Starfall and was Jon’s milk mother, which is absolutely reasonable considering that Jon was born there and not in a random tower in the middle of nowhere.
But, also, remember that in Darry, there were two wolves (two “Lady Starks”) Lady, the one who dies and Nymeria that survives and escapes.
When Ned and Lyanna talk about Robert, father of countless bastards, Ned says exactly those words to his sister:
” (…) but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true …”
“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.
Oswell, that represents Brandon says that “Willem” is a “good man and true” talking about his son, Jon a good boy and “true” heir.
There is another name similar to Willem that also has a statue in the crypt.
“Redbeard had been slain by Artos the Implacable, Lord Willam’s younger brother. The Watch arrived too late to fight the wildlings, but in time to bury them, the task that Artos Stark assigned them in his wroth as he grieved above the headless corpse of his fallen brother.” Jon II- ADwD
“Wylla” is the name that Ned gives as Jon’s mother, Willam is the name of “Artos the implacable” older brother. The similarities in this story with Ned’s are clearly not coincidental. Also, the wildling King name “redbeard” suggests “red” as Dorne does.
The proof that Brandon survived and that Ser Gerold (the real one not the one in the dream), realized, is in the prologue.
“Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. “Dead is dead,” he said. “We have no business with the dead.”
Ser Gerold, as Gared, noted that it wasn’t Brandon the one who was dying, that’s why he said this to Jaime:
“Gerold Hightower himself took me aside and said to me, ‘You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.’ That was the White Bull, loyal to the end and a better man than me, all agree.” Catelyn VII- ACoK
Surely, Hightower believed that Jaime had also noticed, but Jaime had his head elsewhere, he was thinking of Cersei and not paying attention to the men that were brutally murdered.
The dream ends:
.
The “now it begins” is Ned’s own mind that makes him fight against the “ghosts” of his family.
The “Now it ends” is obviously the end of the dream and the “duel” in which Ned beats Jon.
The one screaming Eddard is not Lyanna, but Jon who calls him “Lord Eddard” when they find the wolves. The storm of rose petals is obviously Jon “flying” on the Wall, blue as the eyes of death because Jon is already “dead” he already has his own statue in the crypt and is now trapped in the NW.
In the tower, not a random tower in Dorne, but in Starfall, Ned receives the final insult from his brother:
“It was the final insult. “Brandon was too kind to you,” Ned said as he slammed the small man back against a wall and shoved his dagger up under the little pointed chin beard. “My lord, no,” an urgent voice called out. “He speaks the truth.” Eddard IV – AGoT
In this case, the “small man” that is put against a wall is Littlefinger. Brandon’s final insult was the “little man” on Ashara’s belly.
According to Ned, Arthur would have killed him had if not for “Howland Reed”, I think that what really saved Ned was the “howl and deer”, that is, Jon’s existence and his friendship with Robert.
b) This isn’t my Place
It is time to talk about another “tower dream”, Jon’s dream.
Jon’s dream is very interesting for several reasons. Clearly the dream is about his identity, his desire to be recognized as a Stark and to know who his mother was, since he believes he’s Edddard’s bastard.
Jon’s dream has all the elements of AGoT’s Prologue which in turn has the elements of Ned’s own dream. That is, Ned’s dream of the “Tower of Joy” is his own version of Jon’s crypt nightmare.
The empty castle
“Do you ever find anyone in your dream?” Sam asked.
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.”
In AGoT’s prologue 3 men go in search of a group of wildlings, one of them, Will says that they are dead, the second, Gared, says that he trusts his word. Both Gared and Will want to leave and end the search because they are afraid. Waymar Royce insists on going to see the bodies personally, and when he arrives on the scene, he finds that there is no one there. “The castle is always empty“
Ned supposedly goes with a group of 6 men in search of his sister and meets the 3 guards, who are keeping her inside the tower. Lyanna, lies dying for unknown reasons. When Ned manages to reach his sister, she dies. “The castle is always empty“
“Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me.
"
Will realizes that the scene is wrong, that something is wrong, when he sees the wildlings’ axe lying on the floor, because it is a valuable weapon and nobody would abandon such a weapon.
Ned’s dream suggests that the scene is wrong for several reasons, but the main ones are those mentioned in Jon’s dream, that in the prologue are symbolized by the howling wolf (the horn).
1. The ravens: the physical similarity between Waymar, Jon and the “true” Stark look is not accidental, in fact, it is there to point out something.
2. The stables full of bones: in reality what makes “noise” are the 3 statues together in the crypt as to indicate something important, which is precisely the number 3. This number is going to be important later at the time of Jon’s death as I will prove in the last part. What really scares Jon is that he already has his own statue in the crypt, that is, he doesn’t have a place to go when he dies, because his grave is already sealed.
There is one other thing that Waymar’s death and Ned dream share that is wrong. The horse.
“Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. (…) In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.”
The “Tower of Joy” is supposed to be located in the northern edge of the Red Mountains, a stallion like the one Lord Dustin rides, it is the wrong mount for the mountain, not to mention during winter.
“Ser Waymar Royce came next, his great black destrier snorting impatiently. The warhorse was the wrong mount for ranging, but try and tell that to the lordling.”
We don’t know why Ned choose those 6 men to go “look for Lyanna”, what is clear is that if one of them mounted a “great red stallion” it would have been hard to get where he said he went. That is, the Mountains.
Furthermore, in the prologue, Will says that he had been a “poacher” before coming to the NW and that this was the talent for which he was sent ranging. The “talents” mentioned for Ned’s companions seem more like those of witnesses to a wedding than to a ranging and rescue of a maiden. I think that is exactly the role of these 6 men, they witnessed Ned’s wedding.
The “great red stallion” in turn symbolizes Ghost the wolf who is clearly the oldest, the one who commands and worse, has red eyes like the mountains of Dorne.
Climbing the tower
“I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone.”
Waymar orders Will to climb a tree, a sentry, and find a campfire that woukd explain the group’s disappearance. They had to be somewhere.
Will, who should have yelled, is not yelling at Waymar (someone) or Gared (anyone).
In Ned’s dream, there is also the tower, but the 3 steps become 3 guards and the scream is Eddard!
In the crypt we have the 3 statues, none of them explain Lyanna’s disappearance, but they do explain why Jon dreams of, “climbing the tower 3 steps at a time”. With Rickard’s death and Brandon’s disappearance, the only thing standing between Ned and Winterfell was a newborn baby who had no idea of his “rights,” which is why Ned “killed” him by naming him his bastard.
The Kings of Winter
“And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow, I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of.”
What Waymar finds in the middle of the night, and that obviously scares him to death, are 6 “beings” that speak an unknown language and who wear armor that makes them invisible in the forest, they are white, black, and gray.
“He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.” Jon I – AGoT
Whoever confronts Waymar and challenges him to a duel, has eyes cold as ice and blue as stars. Blue is the star of the “ice dragon” that marks the way to the north.
“He turned his back on it and lifted his eyes to the Wall, blazing blue and crystalline in the sunlight. Even after all these weeks, the sight of it still gave him the shivers. Centuries of windblown dirt had pocked and scoured it, covering it like a film, and it often seemed a pale grey, the color of an overcast sky … but when the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone, alive with light, a colossal blue-white cliff that filled up half the sky.” Jon III – AGoT
What Waymar is facing is an ice-eyed “wolf” who has a sword in which no known human metal has been used to forge it. There’s another sword like that in Westeros, the Dayne’s. This is not what Waymar is facing, but it is what it symbolizes, a “frozen wolf” that has a special sword.
“By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not”
What Ned faces in his dream, what he really faces, is not the 3 guards, it is his own family, his father, his brother and his nephew “Jon”.
Jon, unlike Ned, isn’t afraid of the crypt’s “Old Kings of Winter”, he’s one of them.
What Waymar finds are the “old Kings of Winter” that are “down there”, beyond the wall. Although not really.
I’m a Stark
“I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way.”
Waymar, who went in search of 8 savages, finds himself facing this duel that clearly is not what he expected. Waymar looks like a Stark, but he is not.
Ned who looks like Jon’s father, but isn’t, is the one who said, “for all the north to see” that Jon is not a Stark. In that single statement, Ned “light the way” that Jon had to take, that is, The Wall. The Wall, we know, is just a slow and cold way of dying.
On the way to the wall, Jon thinks about his mother and what would she think about his chosen destiny. “He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.”
The soundless white wolf, who has no say, is Jon’s mother. The mother is the “white wolf” who is not like the other wolves, the others are grey (Brandon, Ned and Lyanna) and black (Benjen).
Jon’s mother is a “white wolf” because she is a wolf by marriage, not by birth. Jon’s mother, I insist, was Ashara Dayne.
I want to scream
“It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.”
In the middle of the fight Waymar finds his fury and shouts “for Robert”.
In his dream, Ned also “finds his fury” in the middle of his fight, and the scream that is heard, loud and clear, is Eddard! Everything Ned did, he did for him.
Lyanna’s death in the dream is not about Lyanna. At the death scene there is a “bed of blood”, “dead and black” roses, a “fever” that takes her sister, and the mention of a handshake and pleading eyes.
The bed of blood and the blue roses are about Lyanna as we will see in the next part, but the mention “dead and black” and the “fever” are about Jon’s parents.
The handshake is Jon’s mother being pushed like Bran was pushed, and the pleading eyes are Jon’s. Ned had no need to kill him, he just needed to name him a bastard. In that simple act, he took his life without spilling a drop of blood.
Shame
“He stopped, frowning, embarrassed.”
In the duel beyond the wall, the “Other” laughs at Waymar despite the fact that he fought as well as he could.
Ned was ashamed: “The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words.”
Ned, like Waymar, also faced a “dangerous and armed ice monster” who laughed at him, “Jon”, the Stark of Winterfell.
“That’s when I always wake.” His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell.“
Waymar dies of multiple wounds that leave him trembling and with his hands soaked in blood.
Ned wakes up from the dream with the phrase “promise me, Ned” and trembling.
Ironically, Ned dies confessing his crimes, but not about Jon who is not a bastard, but about Joffrey, who is a bastard:
Wake up
“He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf’s shaggy white fur”
Before “waking up” to kill Will, Waymar was lying face down with his face buried in the snow. When he gets up, his face is unrecognizable.
Ned is beheaded using “ICE” and ends up with his face ruined and unrecognizable when his is soaked in black pitch.
Jon’s face, like Waymar’s, is ruined by the snow, when he is named “Snow” he loses his identity, and as Ned, he is “beheaded using ice” that is, he is sent to die on the Wall, in “pitch dark”, completely denied of knowing who he is.
There is nothing accidental about Royce’s death, just as there is nothing accidental about Lyanna’s crowning at Harrenhal or her subsequent disappearance.
Waymar is given the honor of leading his first mission, that is, he is “crowned”. Waymar’s death, or rather his disappearance, had the desired result, which was to send Benjen out, and then the NW, to look for him.
Before Waymar’s “disappearance”, desertions were normal, someone goes looking for Royce, because he is a Royce, because he is “someone”, nobody went looking for the others. They just assumed that they had deserted, after all, the NW is nothing more than a bunch of murderers, thieves and criminals.
The Night’s Watch brothers are the “centuries of windblown dirt”.
Thanks for reading! and sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes since english is not my first language
Part II. No cold fierce enough
“Bright lad. We’ve had a few light frosts this past week, and a quick flurry of snow now and then, but surely no cold fierce enough to kill eight grown men. Men clad in fur and leather, let me remind you, with shelter near at hand, and the means of making fire.” The knight’s smile was cocksure. “Will, lead us there. I would see these dead men for myself“
In Part I, I proved that Jon is in fact Brandon and Ashara´s son, using AGoT´s prologue, Jon Arryn’s murder and Lyanna’s mistery as a guide.
In this part, I am going to prove that Ned’s fight with the 3 KG never happened using his “fever dream” and AGoT’s Prologue as a guide, and Jon’s crypt dream to explain in part what actually happened.
a) They shan’t trouble us no more
“They’re dead. They shan’t trouble us no more”. Prologue AGoT
It’s time to prove that Ned was a liar, and that his dream it’s not what we think it is, using the prologue as a guide.
“He eyed Ned with a smile on his lips that bordered on insolence. “I have hoped to meet you for some years, Lord Stark. No doubt Lady Catelyn has mentioned me to you.”
“She has,” Ned replied with a chill in his voice. The sly arrogance of the comment rankled him. “I understand you knew my brother Brandon as well.”
“Rather too well,” Littlefinger said. “I still carry a token of his esteem. Did Brandon speak of me too?”
“Often, and with some heat,” Ned said, hoping that would end it. He had no patience with this game they played, this dueling with words.” Eddard IV – AGoT
“She has,” Ned replied with a chill in his voice. The sly arrogance of the comment rankled him. “I understand you knew my brother Brandon as well.”
“Rather too well,” Littlefinger said. “I still carry a token of his esteem. Did Brandon speak of me too?”
“Often, and with some heat,” Ned said, hoping that would end it. He had no patience with this game they played, this dueling with words.” Eddard IV – AGoT
Ned’s “tower dream” begins with a “dueling with words”, and strikingly the one who proposes it in the dream, is Ned, who thinks that he has no patience for this kind of game. The one who asks all the questions, or rather makes all the statements in the dream is Ned himself, the others respond, suspiciously, with the same attitude as Littlefinger, that is, insolence and arrogance.
But the point here, is what Littlefinger says about Brandon: that he still carries a “token of his steem”, it is precisely that “token”, Jon Snow, that triggers Ned’s dream.
Ned has the dream after he is attacked by Jaime Lannister when he was leaving a brothel in which he met one of Robert’s bastards. That leads him to think of two things, one is “the lust of men”, which, in turn, makes him think of Rhaegar and that he surely didn’t frequent brothels. So, for Ned, Rhaegar was not a lustful person, unlike Robert, and this is important in part III.
Then, Ned thinks about Jon, and how much he looks like him. Like Ned, Jon is not interested in prostitutes, but there is something else that Jon shares with Ned and not with his father. Ned was a second son, and as our “bastard” (though for different reasons), he always wanted to prove that he could be as good as the first, the one “born to rule”, and never could.
We know that what Ned has is a “fever dream”, we’ve seen the dreams of other characters and clearly, they should not be taken as “truths”, but as a symbol of things that may or may not have happened. In this case, the symbology is closely related to the prologue.
“Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it.”
Ned has this dream when it is pretty clear that the confrontation with the Lannisters is imminent and amid Robert’s endless insistence about Lyanna, even though she is supposed to have been dead for almost fifteen years.
“He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.”
Let’s see the basic elements of the dream:
- 3 white figures
- A tower long fallen
- Lyanna
White is definitely a color associated with ghosts, death, but also weddings. Strikingly the 3 Starks in the crypt have several similarities to the 3 Knights of the Dream, in addition to the quality of being, apparently, dead.
But not only that, the access to the crypt is in a “tower long fallen”, the First Keep. If we also consider that Lyanna, one of the protagonists of the dream, has a statue in that crypt, a statue that she shouldn’t have, the dream begins to get far more interesting.
Before continuing with the dream, we need to talk about Lyanna’s statue and everything that is wrong about that statue. The statues seem to have a clear purpose, which is to mark the Stark’s line of power, that is, to show the order of the dynasty. The Starks’ power passes from parent to older child without interruption and only passes to a brother when the older child dies without issue. Possibly, the dynasty has passed to a woman at some point, 8000 years is a long time and it is even possible that the dynasty has changed hands and only kept the name.
But it is clear that the statue, the sword, and the wolf are there for something bigger than the mere identity of the king or lord who dies. Furthermore, the fact that the entire Castle was built after the crypt speaks clearly that what is important in WF is the crypt, not the castle.
Lyanna’s statue makes no sense in any way you look at it. She was never the “Lady” Stark, if she had married, she would have ceased to be a Stark, so the statue doesn’t belong there, even more, her husband’s line doesn’t belong there either, the crypt is a “Stark place”. Not to mention that had she died single and without issue, the statue makes even less sense, the crypt marks the Stark line and she wasn’t part of the line.
So, basically my theory is that the statue is not Lyanna’s, but Jon’s.
“Did you make note of the position of the bodies?”
Will shrugged. “A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like.” Prologue
Will shrugged. “A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like.” Prologue
Let’s take a look at the position of the 3 King’s Guards when Ned finds them in the dream:
“Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.” Eddard X AGoT
1)Arthur Dayne has a “sad smile”. In the same dream is Lyanna who has the same sad smile. Arthur never wields the sword; he is not a threat. In the same dream Ned thinks that Lyanna´s “fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold” so, she willingly renounces to something, nobody forces her. If we consider that “Ser Arthur” is actually Jon, the “sad smile” makes much more sense. It is Jon who unknowingly “gave up his hold” on Winterfell by announcing that he wanted to join the NW, so in the dream the sword is never wielded, he is no longer a threat to Ned’s family.
2)Ser Oswell is “sharpening his blade” he is the only one that appears threatening. If there’s one thing we know about Brandon Stark it’s that he loved his sword.
“Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone it. “I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’ he told me once.” The turncloack – ADwD
We have no idea if Brandon was good with “the sword” or not, what we do know is that he was the one who was born to command, and educated to do so, and that is relevant. We also know that “his sword” Jon, is “sharp enough”. Jon is by far the smartest of Ned’s “sons”, moreover, he is always willing to learn.
3) Gerold Hightower, the white, the Lord Commander. He is clearly the oldest, Rickard Stark. But “white bull” also proves that the “white wolf”, Jon Snow, is the one born to rule, which is just another way to call him the “true” Lord.
Let’s take a look at the position of the 3 Starks in the crypt.
“There were three tombs, side by side. Lord Rickard Stark, Ned’s father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him. In two smaller sepulchres on either side were his children.” Eddard I AGoT
Ned supposedly fought the war for his family – that is, for Rickard, Brandon and Lyanna. For a culture in which the “lone wolf dies” so that the “pack” can survive, Ned’s thought that all swords failed his father, is at least striking. Unless as the quote implies, Ned does not consider himself part of “his children”, but Jon Arryn’s son, which is completely possible, seeing how Theon’s mind was a mess after spending half his life among the Starks.
But the worst problem is the way and the order of his family’s death:
“And there’s my grandfather, Lord Rickard, who was beheaded by Mad King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. Not me, another Brandon, my father’s brother. They’re not supposed to have statues, that’s only for the lords and the kings, but my father loved them so much he had them done.” Bran VII – AGoT
Here is the first problem, the most obvious. We have two different versions for Lord Rickard’s death. In Ned’s mind “all swords had failed him” in Bran’s sweetened version, “was beheaded”.
In addition, we have a third version, Jaime’s.
“(…) the Starks had died before him, Lord Rickard cooking in his armor while his son Brandon strangled himself trying to save him.” Jaime IV ASoS
Let’s continue with the dream, but considering that the 3 “ghosts” in Ned’s dream are not the 3 KG but Jon (Arthur), Brandon (Whent) and Rickard (Hightower).
“I looked for you on the Trident,” Ned said to them.
“We were not there,” Ser Gerold answered.
“Woe to the Usurper if we had been,” said Ser Oswell.”
“We were not there,” Ser Gerold answered.
“Woe to the Usurper if we had been,” said Ser Oswell.”
Let’s examine the details of the exchange.
Arthur doesn’t answer. He may or may not have been in the Trident. We don’t know. We know that the last place Ned saw Ashara was in Harrenhal, where Lyanna Stark disappeared.
Ser Gerold, that is, Lord Rickard, tells him that he wasn’t there, which we know is true, Lord Rickard was in Winterfell.
Oswell, who I said represents Brandon, says, “Woe to the Usurper.” The Trident is where Ned married his brother’s betrothed. Worse, Ned is usurping his brother and his son, Jon. Whent doesn’t deny having been in The Trident, he only talks about the “usurper”, which means that at some point he was there and we know that this is true, it is from the Trident that Brandon goes to “die” to KL and is also the place where Whent was last seen, in Harrenhal’s tourney.
Now, let’s recall Ned’s recent experience in the trident.
Arya and Sansa fight over Joffrey “Baratheon”. Arya escapes, Sansa feigns amnesia, and Ned is forced to kill Sansa’s wolf “Lady”, while Nymeria manages to escape.
We have two 2 women, two “wolves” one who escapes (Lyanna) and another who pretends amnesia, but loses her wolf, Cat. All thanks to a Baratheon prince.
We also know that Brandon was last seen fighting a duel for Cat’s hand, which makes the phrase “woe to the usurper” sound far more threatening to Ned than to Robert. Furthermore, if the guards are the ones that are really saying those things, the threat would come from 3 men who apparently spend the war hidden in a tower in Dorne, which would make the threat sound like a joke.
“When King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.”
“Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”
“Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”
Ser Gerold, as I said, is in fact Lord Rickard. There’s a very interesting relationship between Rickard, Jaime, the King and the Lannisters “golden’s word”.
Jaime was one of the witnesses of the Starks hideous murder, and obviously he has no good reason to lie, the Starks didn’t mean anything to him.
The “king” of the crypt is Brandon, his statue doesn’t belong there either, Brandon officially didn’t die “Lord Stark”, because he is supposed to have died before his father, not after.
So, what Gerold (Rickard) tells him is that if Lord Rickard had lived, the one who would “sit the throne” is Brandon, not Ned, the “false brother” who usurped him and deserves to “burn in seven hells”.
But, in addition, there is the detail that Ned tells Robert that the “sin” of Jaime killing Aerys is that Jaime was a “sworn brother”, which does nothing but support the version of Ned usurping Jon but not killing him because they are kin.
This is what Ned remembers of Aerys’s death, speaking to Robert:
“Jaime wore the white cloak of the Kingsguard over his golden armor. I can see him still. Even his sword was gilded. He was seated on the Iron Throne, high above his knights, wearing a helm fashioned in the shape of a lion’s head. How he glittered!” (…)
“I was still mounted. I rode the length of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls. It felt as though they were watching me, somehow. I stopped in front of the throne, looking up at him. His golden sword was across his legs, its edge red with a king’s blood.
“I was still mounted. I rode the length of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls. It felt as though they were watching me, somehow. I stopped in front of the throne, looking up at him. His golden sword was across his legs, its edge red with a king’s blood.
If we pay attention to Jaime’s symbolism as “the heir” we’ll see that it is so related to Jon that it makes you want to scream.
Jon’s “armor” is snow, that is, calling him “Snow”, snow also “glitters”. The “silence” that Ned mentions is his own armor, nobody knows who Jon’s mother was because Ned refuses to talk about her. In fact, Ned never lied about Ashara, he just kept silent.
What Ned feels that looks at him when he accepts the position as “Hand”, a position for which he clearly wasn’t born, and in which he soon proves to be a complete incompetent, are not the “dragon skulls” but the statues of the crypt. The “sword across his legs” is actually the sword between Jon’s legs, that’s the true danger, had Jon been born a girl, he wouldn’t be a threat. The “red” of the king’s blood is actually Jon’s “wolf’s blood” Stark to the bone and of course “king’s blood”.
This is what Ned think’s as he and Robert walk through the crypt the day the King arrives at Winterfell.
He called for a lantern. No other words were needed. (…) Ned went first with the lantern. “I was starting to think we would never reach Winterfell,” Robert complained as they descended. “In the south, the way they talk about my Seven Kingdoms, a man forgets that your part is as big as the other six combined.”
The “glitter” that he remembers on Jaime is the lantern that he remembers using to go to the crypt that in the dream become the “false brother” that is a clear reference to Jon “Snow”.
The vague location, “far away” that Ser Gerold mentions in the dream is explained by what Robert tells him: “your part is as big as the other six combined” that is, the north, where Lord Rickard was and where Jon is , far enough to no longer be a danger to the other 6, meaning Ned’s family.
In time, “your part is as big as the other six combined” and that thought of his own family, comes “to shape” thanks to the magic of dreams in 6 northerners that ride with him to the tower:
“In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life. Proud Martyn Cassel, Jory’s father; faithful Theo Wull; Ethan Glover, who had been Brandon’s squire; Ser Mark Ryswell, soft of speech and gentle of heart; the crannogman, Howland Reed; Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. Ned had known their faces as well as he knew his own once, but the years leech at a man’s memories, even those he has vowed never to forget. In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.”
If we pay attention to the description of Ned’s companions, we will notice that each one symbolizes one of the members of his own family. Proud is Cat, faithful is Robb, Bran is the squire, Sansa is the “gentle of heart”, Arya is the “crannogman” and Rickon is the great red stallion.
Jory Cassel is the one who died in Ned’s arms moments before he passes out and has this dream. In the dream, Jory becomes the body of Lyanna, who I insist, didn’t die as I will prove in Part III.
It’s Jory’s body that Ned was hugging before Littlefinger arrived with help, not Howland Reed. In the dream, LF becomes the little crannogman.
The link Cassel -Cat – Littlefinger – Reed is explained in what Ned thinks of LF, that he is loyal to Cat, like Reed and Cassel are to him.
“He called for a lantern. No other words were needed.”
Ned’s “lantern” was his “honor”, he called Jon his bastard, “for all the north to see” no other words were needed, what kind of men would claim to have a bastard for no good reason?
While awake, Ned still didn’t realize why Jon Arryn was so interested in Robert’s bastards and why is important. But in dreams, he thinks of his own problem, because someone is asking questions about his own “bastard”. In fact, Robert, no less, asked Ned directly what was the name of his mother. It is Robert’s insistence about Lyanna that makes Ned “remember” the lies he told. It is intuiting his own “bastard” problem that makes Ned fear for his family.
Ned’s problem is that he really doesn’t think of Jon and Brandon as his family.
The dream is his own mind, his loyalties divided, on the one hand, his lifetime desire to be “the Stark” and on the other, his honorable side that reminds him that what he did was wrong. Every time he has the dream the two sides fight, so in the dream Jon’s side is defended by no less than Ser Arthur Dayne, the quintessential white knight, because that is the symbol of the honorable Ned. But every time, the duel is won by Ned “the dark” because he has the numbers. It’s always 7, his family, against one, Jon.
What Ned and Robert talk about in the crypt explains the next portion of Ned’s dream. The Siege of Storm’s End. Let’s look at the conversation first:
“You need to come south,” Robert told him. “You need a taste of summer before it flees. In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses (…) Even at Storm’s End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move.(…) Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air. (…) “I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle.
It is with the magic of dreams that “the days are so hot” are magically transformed into “the fever” that takes Lyanna. “Flowers everywere” is all the Starks maidens involved in the story and the women loosing “all modesty in the heat” becomes “Lyanna’s bastard” being born in Dorne.
Furthermore, “You need a taste of summer before it flees.” And “women losing all modesty in the heat” I think is a big part of Ned’s problem regarding Jon, because the “bastard” was growing and he could have his own bastards.
But the cruelest part is that Ned saw that on the night of the banquet, the night that Jon finally understood that there was no place for him, that Jon was drunk and asking to join the NW was a rush thing to do: “the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air”.
Of course, the “summerwine” is Jon.
“I came down on Storm’s End to lift the siege,” Ned told them, “and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.”
“Our knees do not bend easily,” said Ser Arthur Dayne.
It is clear that in the conversation between Robert and Ned, Storm’s End is mentioned, and the names Tyrell and Redwyne are implicit: Highgarden, the “golden roses” and for Redwyne the summerwines.
The night of the banquet, which in Ned’s mind is the “siege” because he was with Robert, is the glorious night when Jon finally “bent the knee” along with Benjen, who clearly is not part of Ned’s family neither. Benjen is identified in the dream as one of the “knights” who surrendered.
Now, this is the best part of the dream:
“Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.”
“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.
“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out. “The Kingsguard does not flee.”
“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.
“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out. “The Kingsguard does not flee.”
Darry is the place where was held the audience in which Cersei manages to get Lady killed.
“He remembered Rhaegar’s infant son, the red ruin of his skull, and the way the king had turned away, as he had turned away in Darry’s audience hall not so long ago. He could still hear Sansa pleading, as Lyanna had pleaded once.”
The name “Willem” is incredibly similar to another name that we heard regarding Jon:
“Wylla. Yes.” The king grinned. “She must have been a rare wench if she could make Lord Eddard Stark forget his honor, even for an hour. You never told me what she looked like …”
Wylla is the name that Ned gives Robert as Jon’s mother, who of course is “his sister”, that is, his brother’s wife, not Lyanna.
Wylla, we later learn from a Dayne, was a servant in Starfall and was Jon’s milk mother, which is absolutely reasonable considering that Jon was born there and not in a random tower in the middle of nowhere.
But, also, remember that in Darry, there were two wolves (two “Lady Starks”) Lady, the one who dies and Nymeria that survives and escapes.
When Ned and Lyanna talk about Robert, father of countless bastards, Ned says exactly those words to his sister:
” (…) but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true …”
“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.
Oswell, that represents Brandon says that “Willem” is a “good man and true” talking about his son, Jon a good boy and “true” heir.
There is another name similar to Willem that also has a statue in the crypt.
“Redbeard had been slain by Artos the Implacable, Lord Willam’s younger brother. The Watch arrived too late to fight the wildlings, but in time to bury them, the task that Artos Stark assigned them in his wroth as he grieved above the headless corpse of his fallen brother.” Jon II- ADwD
“Wylla” is the name that Ned gives as Jon’s mother, Willam is the name of “Artos the implacable” older brother. The similarities in this story with Ned’s are clearly not coincidental. Also, the wildling King name “redbeard” suggests “red” as Dorne does.
The proof that Brandon survived and that Ser Gerold (the real one not the one in the dream), realized, is in the prologue.
“Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. “Dead is dead,” he said. “We have no business with the dead.”
Ser Gerold, as Gared, noted that it wasn’t Brandon the one who was dying, that’s why he said this to Jaime:
“Gerold Hightower himself took me aside and said to me, ‘You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.’ That was the White Bull, loyal to the end and a better man than me, all agree.” Catelyn VII- ACoK
Surely, Hightower believed that Jaime had also noticed, but Jaime had his head elsewhere, he was thinking of Cersei and not paying attention to the men that were brutally murdered.
The dream ends:
“And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.
“No,” Ned said with sadness in his voice. “Now it ends.” As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death
“No,” Ned said with sadness in his voice. “Now it ends.” As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death
.
The “now it begins” is Ned’s own mind that makes him fight against the “ghosts” of his family.
The “Now it ends” is obviously the end of the dream and the “duel” in which Ned beats Jon.
The one screaming Eddard is not Lyanna, but Jon who calls him “Lord Eddard” when they find the wolves. The storm of rose petals is obviously Jon “flying” on the Wall, blue as the eyes of death because Jon is already “dead” he already has his own statue in the crypt and is now trapped in the NW.
In the tower, not a random tower in Dorne, but in Starfall, Ned receives the final insult from his brother:
“It was the final insult. “Brandon was too kind to you,” Ned said as he slammed the small man back against a wall and shoved his dagger up under the little pointed chin beard. “My lord, no,” an urgent voice called out. “He speaks the truth.” Eddard IV – AGoT
In this case, the “small man” that is put against a wall is Littlefinger. Brandon’s final insult was the “little man” on Ashara’s belly.
According to Ned, Arthur would have killed him had if not for “Howland Reed”, I think that what really saved Ned was the “howl and deer”, that is, Jon’s existence and his friendship with Robert.
b) This isn’t my Place
It is time to talk about another “tower dream”, Jon’s dream.
“Do you ever find anyone in your dream?” Sam asked.
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow, I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.” He stopped, frowning, embarrassed. “That’s when I always wake.” His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell. Ghost would leap up beside him, his warmth as comforting as daybreak. He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf’s shaggy white fur”
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow, I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.” He stopped, frowning, embarrassed. “That’s when I always wake.” His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell. Ghost would leap up beside him, his warmth as comforting as daybreak. He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf’s shaggy white fur”
Jon’s dream is very interesting for several reasons. Clearly the dream is about his identity, his desire to be recognized as a Stark and to know who his mother was, since he believes he’s Edddard’s bastard.
Jon’s dream has all the elements of AGoT’s Prologue which in turn has the elements of Ned’s own dream. That is, Ned’s dream of the “Tower of Joy” is his own version of Jon’s crypt nightmare.
The empty castle
“Do you ever find anyone in your dream?” Sam asked.
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.”
In AGoT’s prologue 3 men go in search of a group of wildlings, one of them, Will says that they are dead, the second, Gared, says that he trusts his word. Both Gared and Will want to leave and end the search because they are afraid. Waymar Royce insists on going to see the bodies personally, and when he arrives on the scene, he finds that there is no one there. “The castle is always empty“
Ned supposedly goes with a group of 6 men in search of his sister and meets the 3 guards, who are keeping her inside the tower. Lyanna, lies dying for unknown reasons. When Ned manages to reach his sister, she dies. “The castle is always empty“
“Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me.
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Will realizes that the scene is wrong, that something is wrong, when he sees the wildlings’ axe lying on the floor, because it is a valuable weapon and nobody would abandon such a weapon.
Ned’s dream suggests that the scene is wrong for several reasons, but the main ones are those mentioned in Jon’s dream, that in the prologue are symbolized by the howling wolf (the horn).
1. The ravens: the physical similarity between Waymar, Jon and the “true” Stark look is not accidental, in fact, it is there to point out something.
2. The stables full of bones: in reality what makes “noise” are the 3 statues together in the crypt as to indicate something important, which is precisely the number 3. This number is going to be important later at the time of Jon’s death as I will prove in the last part. What really scares Jon is that he already has his own statue in the crypt, that is, he doesn’t have a place to go when he dies, because his grave is already sealed.
There is one other thing that Waymar’s death and Ned dream share that is wrong. The horse.
“Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. (…) In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.”
The “Tower of Joy” is supposed to be located in the northern edge of the Red Mountains, a stallion like the one Lord Dustin rides, it is the wrong mount for the mountain, not to mention during winter.
“Ser Waymar Royce came next, his great black destrier snorting impatiently. The warhorse was the wrong mount for ranging, but try and tell that to the lordling.”
We don’t know why Ned choose those 6 men to go “look for Lyanna”, what is clear is that if one of them mounted a “great red stallion” it would have been hard to get where he said he went. That is, the Mountains.
Furthermore, in the prologue, Will says that he had been a “poacher” before coming to the NW and that this was the talent for which he was sent ranging. The “talents” mentioned for Ned’s companions seem more like those of witnesses to a wedding than to a ranging and rescue of a maiden. I think that is exactly the role of these 6 men, they witnessed Ned’s wedding.
The “great red stallion” in turn symbolizes Ghost the wolf who is clearly the oldest, the one who commands and worse, has red eyes like the mountains of Dorne.
Climbing the tower
“I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone.”
Waymar orders Will to climb a tree, a sentry, and find a campfire that woukd explain the group’s disappearance. They had to be somewhere.
Will, who should have yelled, is not yelling at Waymar (someone) or Gared (anyone).
In Ned’s dream, there is also the tower, but the 3 steps become 3 guards and the scream is Eddard!
In the crypt we have the 3 statues, none of them explain Lyanna’s disappearance, but they do explain why Jon dreams of, “climbing the tower 3 steps at a time”. With Rickard’s death and Brandon’s disappearance, the only thing standing between Ned and Winterfell was a newborn baby who had no idea of his “rights,” which is why Ned “killed” him by naming him his bastard.
The Kings of Winter
“And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow, I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of.”
What Waymar finds in the middle of the night, and that obviously scares him to death, are 6 “beings” that speak an unknown language and who wear armor that makes them invisible in the forest, they are white, black, and gray.
“He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.” Jon I – AGoT
Whoever confronts Waymar and challenges him to a duel, has eyes cold as ice and blue as stars. Blue is the star of the “ice dragon” that marks the way to the north.
“He turned his back on it and lifted his eyes to the Wall, blazing blue and crystalline in the sunlight. Even after all these weeks, the sight of it still gave him the shivers. Centuries of windblown dirt had pocked and scoured it, covering it like a film, and it often seemed a pale grey, the color of an overcast sky … but when the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone, alive with light, a colossal blue-white cliff that filled up half the sky.” Jon III – AGoT
What Waymar is facing is an ice-eyed “wolf” who has a sword in which no known human metal has been used to forge it. There’s another sword like that in Westeros, the Dayne’s. This is not what Waymar is facing, but it is what it symbolizes, a “frozen wolf” that has a special sword.
“By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not”
What Ned faces in his dream, what he really faces, is not the 3 guards, it is his own family, his father, his brother and his nephew “Jon”.
Jon, unlike Ned, isn’t afraid of the crypt’s “Old Kings of Winter”, he’s one of them.
What Waymar finds are the “old Kings of Winter” that are “down there”, beyond the wall. Although not really.
I’m a Stark
“I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way.”
Waymar, who went in search of 8 savages, finds himself facing this duel that clearly is not what he expected. Waymar looks like a Stark, but he is not.
Ned who looks like Jon’s father, but isn’t, is the one who said, “for all the north to see” that Jon is not a Stark. In that single statement, Ned “light the way” that Jon had to take, that is, The Wall. The Wall, we know, is just a slow and cold way of dying.
On the way to the wall, Jon thinks about his mother and what would she think about his chosen destiny. “He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.”
The soundless white wolf, who has no say, is Jon’s mother. The mother is the “white wolf” who is not like the other wolves, the others are grey (Brandon, Ned and Lyanna) and black (Benjen).
Jon’s mother is a “white wolf” because she is a wolf by marriage, not by birth. Jon’s mother, I insist, was Ashara Dayne.
I want to scream
“It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.”
In the middle of the fight Waymar finds his fury and shouts “for Robert”.
In his dream, Ned also “finds his fury” in the middle of his fight, and the scream that is heard, loud and clear, is Eddard! Everything Ned did, he did for him.
Lyanna’s death in the dream is not about Lyanna. At the death scene there is a “bed of blood”, “dead and black” roses, a “fever” that takes her sister, and the mention of a handshake and pleading eyes.
The bed of blood and the blue roses are about Lyanna as we will see in the next part, but the mention “dead and black” and the “fever” are about Jon’s parents.
The handshake is Jon’s mother being pushed like Bran was pushed, and the pleading eyes are Jon’s. Ned had no need to kill him, he just needed to name him a bastard. In that simple act, he took his life without spilling a drop of blood.
Shame
“He stopped, frowning, embarrassed.”
In the duel beyond the wall, the “Other” laughs at Waymar despite the fact that he fought as well as he could.
Ned was ashamed: “The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words.”
Ned, like Waymar, also faced a “dangerous and armed ice monster” who laughed at him, “Jon”, the Stark of Winterfell.
“That’s when I always wake.” His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell.“
Waymar dies of multiple wounds that leave him trembling and with his hands soaked in blood.
Ned wakes up from the dream with the phrase “promise me, Ned” and trembling.
Ironically, Ned dies confessing his crimes, but not about Jon who is not a bastard, but about Joffrey, who is a bastard:
“Tell the queen that you will confess your vile treason, command your son to lay down his sword, and proclaim Joffrey as the true heir. Offer to denounce Stannis and Renly as faithless usurpers. Our green-eyed lioness knows you are a man of honor. If you will give her the peace she needs and the time to deal with Stannis, and pledge to carry her secret to your grave, I believe she will allow you to take the black and live out the rest of your days on the Wall, with your brother and that baseborn son of yours.”
Wake up
“He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf’s shaggy white fur”
Before “waking up” to kill Will, Waymar was lying face down with his face buried in the snow. When he gets up, his face is unrecognizable.
Ned is beheaded using “ICE” and ends up with his face ruined and unrecognizable when his is soaked in black pitch.
Jon’s face, like Waymar’s, is ruined by the snow, when he is named “Snow” he loses his identity, and as Ned, he is “beheaded using ice” that is, he is sent to die on the Wall, in “pitch dark”, completely denied of knowing who he is.
There is nothing accidental about Royce’s death, just as there is nothing accidental about Lyanna’s crowning at Harrenhal or her subsequent disappearance.
Waymar is given the honor of leading his first mission, that is, he is “crowned”. Waymar’s death, or rather his disappearance, had the desired result, which was to send Benjen out, and then the NW, to look for him.
Before Waymar’s “disappearance”, desertions were normal, someone goes looking for Royce, because he is a Royce, because he is “someone”, nobody went looking for the others. They just assumed that they had deserted, after all, the NW is nothing more than a bunch of murderers, thieves and criminals.
“Centuries of windblown dirt had pocked and scoured it, covering it like a film, and it often seemed a pale grey, the color of an overcast sky … but when the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone, alive with light, a colossal blue-white cliff that filled up half the sky.”
The Night’s Watch brothers are the “centuries of windblown dirt”.
Thanks for reading! and sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes since english is not my first language
All six parts are these long, it took me weeks to write it all down
