Watcher on the Walls Part IV - Something Cold and Implacable
Jun 17, 2020 19:04:02 GMT
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Post by nightsqueen on Jun 17, 2020 19:04:02 GMT
Watchers on the Walls
Part IV: Something Cold and Implacable
“I have no place, Jon wanted to say, I’m a bastard, I have no rights, no name, no mother, and now not even a father. The words would not come. “I don’t know.” Jon IX AGoT
1. The Bastard of Winterfell
It is time to talk about Jon, but first, I want to briefly point out the clues that indicate that he is indeed Brandon’s son and what is the relationship between the 3 Starks, the 3 Rangers and the 3 King’s Guards, all of them “watchers” on the Walls.
1. The unsolved crimes I mentioned in the Part I, are all related to the 3 Starks statues in the crypt:
• The 8 missing wildlings, and the “battle-axe”
• Jon Arryn’s death: “the seed is strong”
• Lyanna’s disappearance: “love is sweet but it cannot change a man’s nature”
2. The second crimes, the one commited to hide the truth, are in time also related to the 3 Starks:
• Waymar’s duel: “dance with me then”
• Bran’s “fall”: “the things I do for love”
• Brandon Stark’s arrest: “come out and die”
3. The revealed truths are about Ned’s family:
• Othor’s hands and Flower’s eyes
• The bastard’s eyes
• Jon Snow’s identity
Bael’s song has 3 characters, the bard “Bael”, the maiden, and Lord Stark, Brandon “the daughterless”. Each of these characters has their own motivations, we know that Bael is a liar and that the maiden hides for love, but we don’t know Lord Brandon’s motivations, we only know that he is “bitter” and that Bael did something to him, but the song never says what.
1. Bael the deceiver
Bael’s identity is hidden by the first 3 crimes: the 8 missing wildlings, Royce’s death “dance with me then” (the duel), and the “black brothers” corpses (Othor and Flowers).
Waymar Royce went in search of 8 wildlings, what he found was a group of 6 “beings” one of them wielding a sword and proposing a duel, while 5 watched. What the 8 wildlings actually represent is:
a) The group of 4 heirs (Stark, Mallister, Arryn, Royce) and the 4 parents who were called to KL to answer for the crime of plotting to kill Rhaegar. In total, there should have been 8 people, but Jon Arryn never went, instead he started the rebellion, as I mentioned in the previous part. Of the remaining seven men, Rickard Stark asked for a “trial by combat” (dance with me then), that is, he is the “being” with the sword. The other 6 are supposed to have died, but the “Others” are 5, which proves that Brandon Stark survived. The first liar, is Jon Arryn, his “song” is that Aerys had asked for Robert and Ned’s heads, when the reality is that he had asked for his head.
b) In time, the 6 beings that Waymar faces are Cat and her children, all of them “blue eyed”; in fact when Will sees them he mentions that the first two watchers are “twins to the first” and Cat’s two elder children (Robb and Sansa) look just like her. The “Others” only kill one of the “brothers”, Royce, that represents Brandon and by extension Jon. It’s Jon the one that worries Cat and she the one that wants him out of Winterfell.
c) The “black brothers” corpses: they represent Brandon and Jon, the two “brothers” that are supposedely buried in the crypts, Brandon (the “big ranger) and Jon that seems to be Lyanna (Flowers).
In part I I said that Bael was several people, all liars:
1. Brandon who didn’t die
2. Arryn who lied about the war
3. Eddard who lied that Jon was a bastard
4. Lyanna that’s not dead
All the lies are related to one of the 3 Starks statues in the crypt, Brandon’s with his own statue, Arryn’s with Rickard’s and Ned’s with Lyanna’s, which as I mentioned in Part II, is not the person represented by the statue but Jon.
2) The hidden “maiden”
Now let us examine the identity of the Stark maiden that hides for love. The clues are all present in the crimes commited to hide the truth: “the seed is strong”, “the things I do for love” and Robert’s bastards.
The “maiden” that is hidden are actually two, one of them is Jon, who as I said is “buried” in the crypt, statue included, although his statue is supposed to be of a woman, Lyanna. The other is the true maiden, Lyanna Stark, that is not dead.
The “seed” corresponds to what is mentioned in Bael’s song that the line of the Starks “was at it’s end” that is, the line of Starks are Brandon and his son Jon, and the “strong” is because they are made of stone, they are the hidden statues.
Regarding “the things I do for love”, that is the excuse that Ned gave regarding the statues, which clearly were made not out of love for his blood family, but for his perceived family, Robert and Cat. The existence of Jon’s statue, as we will see, becomes relevant later.
As for Robert’s bastard, as I stated in part III it explains Lyanna’s “dissapearence”, she married another man because of Robert’s first bastard, Mya Stone (the seed of Robert’s problem with the Starks).
3) Lord Brandon, the daughterless
The clues to understand Jon’s existance and why Ned “killed” him by naming him a bastard are in the revealed truths: “love cannot change a man’s nature”, Brandon screaming for Rhaegar to “come out and die”, and Ned’s fever dream.
Man’s nature is not actually about a man, but about Cat. It was her “nature” what made Brandon understand that she was not worthy, when she stared as her “brother” Petyr was humiliated in his duel with Brandon.
“Come out and die” explains Will’s death, Waymar killed him when Will took his sword, before that, Royce was just “fallen”, it’s not until Will “steals” the sword that that Waymar “raises”. In the same way, it’s not until Cat (and Ned) decided to sent Jon to die, that her children starts to also die.
In turn, all the clues point to Jon and his father as I said in part I, and we will see again in the final part.
So, let’s talk about Winterfell’s “maiden”, Jon Snow.
“I have no place, Jon wanted to say, I’m a bastard, I have no rights, no name, no mother, and now not even a father. The words would not come. “I don’t know.” Jon IX AGoT
a. Night gathers and now my watch begins
“King Aerys made a great show of Jaime’s investiture. (…) But that very night Aerys had turned sour, (…) “He’ll win no glory here,” the king had said. “He’s mine now, not Tywin’s. He’ll serve as I see fit. I am the king. I rule, and he’ll obey.” That was the first time that Jaime understood. It was not his skill with sword and lance that had won him his white cloak, nor any feats of valor he’d performed against the Kingswood Brotherhood. Aerys had chosen him to spite his father, to rob Lord Tywin of his heir.”
Jon and Jaime’s investitures have many similarities. The most obvious is the “show”. The night Jon says his vows, Othor and Flowers corpses appear. The next day, things got “sour” for Jon because that’s when he finds out about Ned’s arrest for treason, and he reacts by attacking Thorne.
That night, while Jon awaits his punishment, an act of magic happens, the Ranger’s corpeses “come to life” and one of them goes in search of Lord Commander Mormont, apparently to kill him. The attack gives Jon an opportunity, not only his punishment is forgotten, but he can start from scratch and with a splendid sword.
At this point is worth noting that by the time Jon goes beyond the Wall not only he has his own statue in the crypt, but he has the “special” wolf and the “special” sword, made of steel, fire and spells (valyrian steel). I believe that the “spell” is what keeps the steel sharpened for life, and it’s that quality of never loosing its sharpness what is relevant for Jon.
But this act of magic that happened in The Wall, was not the first that happened in our bastard’s life, before, another had occurred:
“He remembered how excited Bran had been at the prospect of the journey. It was more than he could bear, the thought of leaving him behind like this. Jon brushed away his tears, leaned over, and kissed his brother lightly on the lips. “I wanted him to stay here with me,” Lady Stark said softly.” Jon II – AGoT
Bran was an “offering” from Jon, a gift. Totally involuntary, of course, but still, a gesture full of love.
While we were distracted with Dany, her eggs, and her witchcraft, we didn’t see that real magic was happening elsewhere.
Dany’s elaborate sacrifice hid the fact that on the other side of the world, long before, the first magical act had occurred.
Daenerys’ magical ceremony on the night she saw the comet and became the “mother of dragons,” had, in addition to fire, some basic ingredients:
• Her own life
• Her dead husband
• The horse that would lead the Khal “to the stars”
• Her child, stillborn
• The “Maegi” which Dany explained, was only necessary because of her screaming, her terror basically.
But before the ceremony occurred, Dany had made her first offering to the “others”, Viserys, her brother.
Jon’s offering was an “ice kiss,” ice, unlike fire, is silent, slow, imperceptible, just as deadly or vital as fire, but much more “kind” and less spectacular.
“I saw men freeze last winter, and the one before, when I was half a boy. Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don’t have the strength to fight it. It’s easier just to sit down or go to sleep. They say you don’t feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy, and everything starts to fade, and then it’s like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like.” Prologue AGoT
Jon’s first offering, as I said was Bran, I’ll talk about him later. Let’s see the rest of the elements necessary for the ceremony:
• His own life “it shall not end until my death” Jon is three times “dead“, he has his statue in the crypt, (grey), he was named a bastard (white), and he gave his life to the NW (black), all the Winterfell’s wolves colors.
• Husband: “I shall take no wife”
• The Horse. “Hold no lands”
• The child “father no children”
• The “Maegi” “I shall live and die at my post” – The Night’s Watch
Let’s talk about the “maegi” the “godswife”, that “shall live and die” at her post.
When Dany encounters the meagi, the “godswife,” she believes she is saving her from a horrible fate, and does her best to prove her that not everyone in her “clan” are ruthless savages. But the woman is “beyond salvation” the damage has already been done and nothing will change that fact. The maegi is then instrumental in the death of the Khal, Dany’s son, and Dany’s “rebirth” as mother of dragons.
Dany becomes a “true khaleesi” when she chooses the Khal over her brother (her only family) and betrays him, speaking in an unknown language. Then, against everything that clan represents, she chooses to “save” the maegi, perhaps because she understands that her own fate could have been much worse. It’s only when her “clan” and the maegi die that Dany is really free and can become herself, the “mother of dragons”.
Jon, like Dany, is “given to the enemy” Ned, who names him a bastard out of love for his new family or maybe hate for Brandon, or perhaps a bit of both. The kiss Jon gives Bran is what brings him back to life, although none of them know it, neither Cat nor Jon nor Bran. The problem is that ice is slow and by the time the miracle happens, Cat has already abandoned Bran because as a “shadowcat” she smelled blood and went hunting.
So, Jon is a “chosen one”, like Dany, and like Jaime for his blood, the three of them the “stolen” heirs. But unlike Dany, Jon never betrays his family. The enemy for Jon is always the “others” that is, anything that endangers his family and his territory, like a wolf.
When Jon chooses to let the wildlings pass, it looks like he is going against the NW, but at the beginning, the decision has a very practical reason, there is no way to avoid the fact that sooner or later the north will be invaded because the wildlings have no place to go but south. The NW has been dying for years, perhaps centuries, although they refuse to acknowledge it, as the Khal was dead long before Dany finished the job. But, in addition, the north has a major populational problem and wars only make it worse, so letting the wildlings cross is a wise decision. On top of that, the north is full of abandoned and ruined places, so letting the wildlings in, is really a matter of sharing what they already have.
Let’s go back to the brothers.
Viserys was born with all the necessary elements to be the hero of his own song, but he allowed himself to be “consumed” by the “fire”, by hatred, resentment and the feeling of having been born with “the right to be someone”. If he had been a little kinder, smarter and more patient, the reward would have been a thousand times greater than expected.
Bran, on the other hand, is not a “skinchanger” by chance, but thanks to his Stark blood and the kiss that Jon gives him, witchcraft like the ones Melisandre and Dany use are based on blood and death, but true magic as we saw in Lyanna’s crowning, and we will see in Jon’s case is based on something else.
Bran, like Viserys, had all the necessary elements to be a hero. All Bran had to do was the same as Viserys, be kinder, more patient, and smarter. When the Freys arrive at Winterfell, Bran despises and mistreats them, when Theon invades the castle Bran chooses to save himself, even if that meant death for the people he left behind, the Freys included, whom the Starks had promised to care for.
By the time Bran arrives at Bloodraven’s cave, he tells him he’s late, because by the time he goes to his own version of “crowning” he’s all the things he shouldn’t be. He’s more wolf than boy, in a bad sense of what it means to be a wolf, he’s a mind rapist, repeatedly abusing Hodor, and in the same way that Viserys was looking at Dany the wrong way, Bran is watching Meera with “the wrong eyes”, Hodor’s.
By the time he becomes “a tree” he’s actually already thinking of Meera in a sexual way, or as sexual as a child’s imagination allows. Unlike Viserys’ coronation, which was brutal, violent and explicit, Bran’s was kind and fairy tale style, because Bran is a monster, but he is also a child.
Let’s go back to Jon.
The “power” that Mance was looking for, the “horn of winter” is clearly related to Jon.
“The way’s easy. Look for the Ice Dragon, and chase the blue star in the rider’s eye.”
The way to the north is marked by the “ice dragon” to find it, you have to follow the rider’s eye, the star used as a guide is blue. So, there are 3 elements, the dragon, the rider and the rider’s eye.
The “ice dragon” is the Wall itself, the most formidable defense in the north, which like a dragon has a strength, which is its height, and a weakness, which is its length.
The NW is “sitting” with its back against the Wall, they are looking south, in direction of Winterfell, the “Winter rose”. The NW rider is our warg, Jon Snow.
In part I I said that Bael’s song and Ned’s dream makes you think that Jon’s name is “Winter” which is clearly not his real name, but if we consider this name and Jon’s statue in the crypt, then Winter-fell, means that Jon died when Ned called him a bastard, and Winter “rose” from the dead when he left Winterfell.
A dragon is basically a “magic monster”, Jon is a warg, which is clearly a magic power, and considering that his second skin is a “monstrous wolf” we can understand that Jon is in fact a magic monster or on a basic level a “magical wolf”. Jon’s wolf eyes are unique, they are red, like fire, that is, they point south (fire), in his mother’s direction, and again in Winterfell’s direction.
Jon, the “rider”, has grey eyes like those of most Starks, but Jon’s eyes have a different quality, and that is that they seem almost black, which implies, as Tyrion said, that Jon “has more of the north” than the rest of his “siblings”. Furthermore, since Jon have a statue, he is a “walking dead”. The eye of the “rider” pointing north is blue, “blue as the eyes of death”. So clearly, Jon is the “ice dragon”.
“I used to think that it got cold up in the Dornish Marches. What did I know?” Jon I – ADwD
The Starks, who are supposed to be “made for the cold”, live in the hottest castle in the north, the Daynes, on the other hand, are supposed to be “hot”, but they live not only in the coldest place in Dorne, but a place that is surrounded by Water that likely make it colder.
Lastly, and regarding the position of the NW against the Wall, and magical powers, in Winterfell’s crypt, the kings and lords are sitting against the wall and facing each other, that is, looking in opposite directions, with the rows of statues separated between pillars that run two by two.
Therein lies the key to the “horn of winter”. Jon is “Winter” but he won’t know until the horn is blown.
b. Kill the bastard
“The next door was made of rusty iron. Behind it was a flight of wooden steps. Dolorous Edd led the way with his lantern. Up top they found a tunnel as long as Winterfell’s great hall though no wider than the wormways. The walls were ice, bristling with iron hooks. From each hook hung a carcass: skinned deer and elk, sides of beef, huge sows swinging from the ceiling, headless sheep and goats, even horse and bear. Hoarfrost covered everything. As they did their count, Jon peeled the glove off his left hand and touched the nearest haunch of venison. He could feel his fingers sticking, and when he pulled them back he lost a bit of skin. His fingertips were numb. What did you expect? There’s a mountain of ice above your head, more tons than even Bowen Marsh could count. Even so, the room felt colder than it should.” Jon IV – ADwD
In this part, I’m going to prove that Jon’s “innocent” visit to the Night’s Watch food storage, was actually, his version of Dany’s fever dream that showed her the way to awaken the dragons, and it did the same for Jon
These are Jon’s elements:
• An iron door
• A tunnel in which several carcasses hang
• Frost that covers everything
• Sticking fingers and the loss of some skin
• Numb finger tips
• A room “colder than it should”
Let’s now look at Dany’s feverish dream
“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, (…) and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” (…) across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. (…) Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” (…) The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run.(…) She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, (…) but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child (…) but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. (…) Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. (…) She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back (…) The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. (…) She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door.”
Let’s review the elements of the two “awakenings” and we will see that they are not only exactly the same, but that both represent Winterfell’s crypt.
• An iron door, a “red door”. The door that gives access to the crypt is made of “ironwood” the iron leaves red stains over time, Dany’s door is red.
• A room “colder than it should” by the time Jon has his “perception”, Winterfell is “colder than it should” Winterfell has warm waters that keep the castle from freezing in winter, but it is clear from the ADwD chapters that the castle is not hot, in fact, it’s frozen. In Dany’s dream, she thinks that “she must not look back”, the cold, the death, the darkness is behind her, that is, the North.
• A long hall beneath high stone arches, “carcasses”, “You do not command the dragon”, “Ghost lining a hallway”. This is clearly the crypt where the “Kings of Winter” are lined up. “You do not command the dragon” is basically the same as saying “Winter’s got no King” that is, the true “dragon” does not recognize another king, because he is the king.
• Hoarfrost that covers everything, the ice preserves what fire consumes, Dany’s eggs became rock, in the dream she realizes that they lack heat, a lot of heat to be born. That “heat” is not given by any normal fire, but by the series of sacrifices it makes, and which result in a “magic fire”. The Wall, that is, the “ice dragon” is also “magic ice”, there is no way to sustain such a thing if not with magic.
• Fingers sticking and Fingertips numb is Jon’s “frozen” version for what in Dany’s dream is “a terrible burning” and “a great knife of pain” which for Dany is the tremendously painful birth of his dead son and for Jon his own “monsters”, killing him.
• Dany’s Tears turned to steam and Jon’s tears are frozen, Dany cries for her son, and it is for Rhaegar the “last dragon” that she becomes the “fire monster” Jon’s fate is decided the night he learns about “Arya’s” marriage, his “direwolf”.
These are the elements that Dany mentions, that are missing in Jon’s “revelation”:
• Smells of earth and death
• Wind and water
• Stars in a daylight sky
• Icy breath behind: a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness
Dany thinks she needs her dragons, the fire monsters, because they are her way home, to not die “forever alone”. But in reality, by the time the monsters become flesh, she herself is already the 3-headed monster, Viserys’s is the visible head, she is the last Targaryen, the Khal’s is the rider’s head, she is mighty queen, and her son, is the “stallion”, she is conquerer and destroyer. Those are the 3 heads of her dragons. All three, she killed herself:
• Viserys: she kills him with “gold” and “ice”, that is, when she betrays him for her new family. Viserys was her hope to return home, “earth and death”. There is no “home” waiting for her, only land because her family is all dead, the last one, her brother, she killed herself.
• Khal Drogo: she kills him with the “magic bandage” made of plants and magic, that is, green and bronze. The Khal was supposed to be her second chance, but to return with him meant that “home” would to become “wind”, that is, scorched earth. The Khal didn’t plan to conquer Westeros, but to destroy it, rape women, and enslave children.
• Her son: she kills him during “the maegy ceremony”, in which there was fire and blood. The son was a “promise” the “stars in a daylight sky”. The problem is, the son was no different than the father, he was predestined to be a Khal, the best of them, but that wasn’t what Dany wanted. What she wants is not to die “howling forever alone” like the rest of the Khal’s widows.
What she wants is to live as she likes and on her own terms.
Let’s now look at Jon’s case:
• Smells of earth and death
• Wind and water
• Stars in a daylight sky
• Icy breath behind: a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness
First, earth and death:
“He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew.”
About this, I’ll talk in the next part in detail.
Regarding “wind and water”, the most lethal cold is the one that “comes howling out of the north”. The “icy breath behind” is the Wall itself and what is beyond, as I mentioned, the NW has its back against the Wall, and Jon is the “rider”. For Jon, this icy wind represents his “father” Ned, the one that send him to die in The Wall.
The “stars in a daylight sky” are obviously a reference to his wish of being recognized as a Stark, but the “blue stars” meaning Cat and Ned’s “trueborn sons” are what kept Jon “in the darkness”.
Lastly, for Jon, suffering “a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness” is what is already happening to him, he is a Stark “in eternal darkness” who was deprived of the right to be part of the “wolves of Winterfell” that share the “watch” even in death.
The relationship between the NW oath and Winterfell’s dead king’s position is also no accident.
The votes taken by the NW men prevent them from having a wife, children, lands, crowns and glory. They are vows of chastity, poverty and humility. In other words, the NW is actually a “religious” brotherhood and it is clear that this religion includes worshiping ice and night, as Melisandre worships fire and day. Although clearly, the Night’s Watch forgot its true purpose. The NW has its own prophecy, and they were also waiting for the “promised prince”. But I’ll talk about this in part VI.
c. The Sword
“Jon had just been thinking that all the meat in the world surrounded them.” Jon IV ADwD
As I said in the first point, Dany’s ceremony was artificial, bombastic, like everything that involves fire. Jon’s, on the other hand, was calm, silent, like ice, or like a wolf.
“The gift of a sword, even a sword as fine as Longclaw, did not make him a Mormont. Nor was he Aemon Targaryen.” Jon IX – AGoT
Jon was given gifts at his “wedding” as good as the ones Dany received. Dany received a strong husband who could protect her, a wise adviser (Ser Jorah) and 3 dragon eggs, that is, the possibility of magic. Her identity, the three-headed dragon, fire and blood, death and destruction, is something she chose.
Jon was given a sword almost as good as “ICE”, “Longclaw” which, unlike the enormous ICE is best suited for a young man, he also received a wise adviser, Aemon, and Ghost, his own possibility of magic.
In Part I and at the beginning of this part I stated that there were 3 clues that relate to Jon, one is the burned hand, the other are Flowers eyes and the third the horn that does not sound.
These 3 elements define Jon’s life and his death.
The sword he receives from Mormont would have enabled him to be as good and famous as Benjen Stark, Qhorin Halfhand, or Arthur Dayne, and in fact Jon was on his way to being just like any good “sword” when his “awakening” occurs, when he burns his hand.
Not being able to use his sword hand helped him find his “true sword” which is to learn. This eventually helped him in awakening his second power which is warging Ghost, the “horn that does not sound“, the silent wolf. Even when it seems that he isn’t great at warging, that’s not entirely truth as we’ll see in the next part.
The third element, the “eyes” have to do ironically, with a blind person, Maester Aemon.
Aemon helped him see something that is very simple and at the same time terrible: Stannis’ “Lightbringer’s” is not the right sword. Lightbringer, the hero’s sword, makes its own heat.
“I looked at that book Maester Aemon left me. The Jade Compendium. The pages that told of Azor Ahai. Lightbringer was his sword. Tempered with his wife’s blood if Votar can be believed. Thereafter Lightbringer was never cold to the touch, but warm as Nissa Nissa had been warm. In battle the blade burned fiery hot. Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame. (…) “A pity that the sword that Stannis wields is cold. I’ll be curious to see how his Lightbringer behaves in battle. Thank you for the wine. Ghost, with me.” Jon Snow raised the hood of his cloak and pulled at the door. The white wolf followed him back into the night. “ Jon III – AdwD
Jon knows perfectly well the sword, because he grew up there. Lightbringer is Winterfell.
“When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirwood that had his father’s face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn’t, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night’s Watch. I will not father a bastard, he told her. I will not. I will not. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she whispered, her skin dissolving in the hot water, the flesh beneath sloughing off her bones until only skull and skeleton remained, and the pool bubbled thick and red.” Jon VI – ASoS
Jon is good with the sword, but he is better thinking, Jon’s real sword is not “Longclaw”, but seeing, remembering and learning, like a wolf.
Let’s talk first about the sword and the dream. The sword of the hero is formed thanks to “Nissa Nissa”, in Jon’s case, his “Nissa Nissa” are his “fathers” Ned and Brandon, represented by his two sisters, Sansa and Arya.
Jon has two sisters, both represented in Ygritte’s dream. The one who laughs at him, is the one who always called him “bastard”, Sansa the cold, she represents “ICE” the family sword, which Jon cannot have, which in turn is symbolized by The Wall, the place Ned chose for him. In fact, the place where a valuable “sword” is put, when not used, is a wall. Obviously, “ICE” is Ned, the one who really laughed at him when he named him a bastard.
His other sister, Arya, represents the opposite, Winterfell, the heat, Jon’s “boiling” blood, his “wolf’s blood”, his wishes. Because what Jon wants most is to be a Stark and Arya is the only one who looks like a Stark, and of course the one that looks like him. Arya represents his hope. Arya symbolize Jon’s true father, the one that can, not only prove that he is a Stark, but “the” Stark.
Let’s go back to Stannis, Lightbringer, Winterfell and Jon’s dreams.
Stannis and Melisandre laughed not just at Jon, but at the NW, the wildlings, and what the north means. They are the ones who, like in the dream, tried to leave the north “naked”, and Jon in an impossible position. They wanted Jon to be the Lord of Winterfell regardless of what it would mean to Jon, that is, proving to everyone that he was exactly what they believed him to be, and worse, bypassing Sansa, something that Jon was unwilling to do because it would meant betraying his family.
The NW asked for help to fight the wildlings, it’s true, but that wasn’t what brought Stannis to the Wall, that was the excuse. What brought Stannis north was the hope of winning the throne. Worse still, Stannis intends to give away something that is not his and that he cannot dispose of, that is, the Wall and everything it includes. That belongs to the NW, not to a king and even less to a pretender. He also wants to dispose of Winterfell and Jon stubbornly reminds him that Sansa is alive, it is not Stannis’ prerogative to “give” Winterfell, it is not his to give.
Stannis, a great hypocrite, is doing to the north exactly what Cersei is doing to him, which ironically is what he says he’s fighting. Worse, Stannis intends to use in the north exactly the same tools Cersei uses against him, a bastard, Jon, to usurp the legal heir, Sansa.
Jon then, cornered by Stannis, Melisandre and the wildlings, does the only thing he can do, he sends Stannis to “test his Lightbringer.” That is, he sends him to die as he deserves, in the heart of winter, showing him that the north is not his to dispose of, that the north does not recognize him, nor care about his war.
“Roose Bolton summons all leal lords to Barrowton, to affirm their loyalty to the Iron Throne and celebrate his son’s wedding to …” His heart seemed to stop for a moment. No, that is not possible. She died in King’s Landing, with Father.” Jon VI – ADwD
Let’s see Jon’s second power, which apparently is being a pretty mediocre warg.
This scene happens during the night, after learning that “Arya” is going to marry Ramsey:
“I just need a breath of air.” Jon stepped out into the night. The sky was full of stars, and the wind was gusting along the Wall. Even the moon looked cold; there were goosebumps all across its face. Then the first gust caught him, slicing through his layers of wool and leather to set his teeth to chattering. He stalked across the yard, into the teeth of that wind. His cloak flapped loudly from his shoulders. Ghost came after. Where am I going? What am I doing? Castle Black was still and silent, its halls and towers dark. My seat, Jon Snow reflected. My hall, my home, my command. A ruin. In the shadow of the Wall, the direwolf brushed up against his fingers. For half a heartbeat the night came alive with a thousand smells, and Jon Snow heard the crackle of the crust breaking on a patch of old snow. Someone was behind him, he realized suddenly. Someone who smelled warm as a summer day. When he turned he saw Ygritte. (…) “Ghost.” Melisandre made the word a song. The direwolf padded toward her. Wary, he stalked about her in a circle, sniffing. When she held out her hand he smelled that too, then shoved his nose against her fingers. Jon let out a white breath. “He is not always so … friendly” Jon VI – AdwD
Jon’s ceremony, “marrying” both ice and Ghost at the same time, the three of them becoming truly one, was a silent ceremony. Jon went straight into the freezing cold wind and Ghost entered with him. What comes out is not “Ghost” but his shadow, the wolf is no longer a wolf, but Jon’s inner child, who has just died, so Ghost is now friendly and “wary”. What is born, the new Jon, is a man, is a wolf, and is cold. This new Jon is no longer friendly or wary.
At the end of the union, we have the same elements as in Dany’s ceremony, music, and a night that “comes to life”. In Dany’s case, it is from her “children” that the breath comes out, in Jon’s case, is from himself.
Jon’s ceremony was quiet, private, as he is, Dany’s was spectacular, full of witnesses and people falling to their knees, like everything she symbolizes.
Jon is already a wolf, he is already a Stark, Ghost and he are really one, and as winter comes and the nights are longer, he is more and more wolf and colder, or what is the same, more an “Ice werewolf”. This, that Melisandre sees in her fires as “now a man, now a wolf” and that we see every time Jon opens and closes his hand.
The Stark’s sword is “ICE”, the statues in the crypt have three elements, the man, the sword (ICE) and the direwolf. Jon is the three things, man, ice and direwolf.
Jon is already the 3 “headed” ice dragon.
“The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? (…) Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children. (…) and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.” Dany X AGoT
Jon’s ceremony happens after he receives the news that Arya, his Arya, is going to marry a horrible monster and that the north will never stop fighting. That night, Jon claims both “swords”, symbolically he marries the two, “ICE”, the frozen wind of The Wall and Winterfell, that is Ghost. That night Jon becomes the Stark on the Wall and without realizing it, another magical act occurs that I will talk about in the next part.
“Stannis read from the letter. “Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK.”
By the time Stannis receives this letter, all Stark men are supposed to be dead. Lyanna’s letter says in words exactly the same as the other Lords told with silence, the north is done with southron kings. What Stannis seems to miss, but Jon clearly sees, and that’s why he accepts Mance’s “rescue” mission, is that the north needs peace or none of them will survive winter. The rescue was never about Arya, because deep down Jon knows she is not the real one, he feels Nymeria far away, the “rescue” is about saving the north, but since Jon ironically doesn’t trust in magic, he accepts Melisandre’s offering.
“Lady Melisandre stirred. “Tell me, Lord Snow … where were these other kings when the wild people stormed your Wall?” “A thousand leagues away and deaf to our need,” Jon replied. “I have not forgotten that, my lady. Nor will I. But my father’s bannermen have wives and children to protect, and smallfolk who will die should they choose wrongly.” Jon I ADwD
One of the kings who was “a thousand leagues away and deaf” was precisely Robb Stark, who completely forgot about the north, but more importantly, of all the promises he and his mother made, and many people died for it. Next comes Stannis with his excuse to help the NW and unite the north, but just as deaf as Robb. Stannis wants the north to continue fighting the north, meaning that more people will die and for no good reason. Jon can’t side with Stannis, not really.
“”There are risks and risks, Ser Richard. This one … it is too much, too soon, too far away.” Jon IV- ADwD
Robb did “too much, too soon and too far away” and paid with his life, Stannis too, with the difference that Stannis was fooled by Jon who sent him directly to his death, surrounded by a large number of northerners ( too much), people he didn’t knew or understood (too soon) and at the heart of winter (too far away).
“To lead men you must know them, Jon Snow.” Jon VII – ACoK
Jon clearly knows the land and the men he was born to rule.
“The Halfhand helped himself to an egg and cracked it on the edge of the bowl. “These kings will do what they will,” he said, peeling away the shell. “Likely it will be little enough. The best hope is Winterfell. The Starks must rally the north.” Jon V ACoK
The only hope against the “Others” is the Starks. What neither Stannis nor Melisandre understand is that, for Jon, they are the “Others”.
Thanks for reading! and sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes since english is not my first language
Part IV: Something Cold and Implacable
“I have no place, Jon wanted to say, I’m a bastard, I have no rights, no name, no mother, and now not even a father. The words would not come. “I don’t know.” Jon IX AGoT
1. The Bastard of Winterfell
It is time to talk about Jon, but first, I want to briefly point out the clues that indicate that he is indeed Brandon’s son and what is the relationship between the 3 Starks, the 3 Rangers and the 3 King’s Guards, all of them “watchers” on the Walls.
1. The unsolved crimes I mentioned in the Part I, are all related to the 3 Starks statues in the crypt:
• The 8 missing wildlings, and the “battle-axe”
• Jon Arryn’s death: “the seed is strong”
• Lyanna’s disappearance: “love is sweet but it cannot change a man’s nature”
2. The second crimes, the one commited to hide the truth, are in time also related to the 3 Starks:
• Waymar’s duel: “dance with me then”
• Bran’s “fall”: “the things I do for love”
• Brandon Stark’s arrest: “come out and die”
3. The revealed truths are about Ned’s family:
• Othor’s hands and Flower’s eyes
• The bastard’s eyes
• Jon Snow’s identity
Bael’s song has 3 characters, the bard “Bael”, the maiden, and Lord Stark, Brandon “the daughterless”. Each of these characters has their own motivations, we know that Bael is a liar and that the maiden hides for love, but we don’t know Lord Brandon’s motivations, we only know that he is “bitter” and that Bael did something to him, but the song never says what.
1. Bael the deceiver
Bael’s identity is hidden by the first 3 crimes: the 8 missing wildlings, Royce’s death “dance with me then” (the duel), and the “black brothers” corpses (Othor and Flowers).
Waymar Royce went in search of 8 wildlings, what he found was a group of 6 “beings” one of them wielding a sword and proposing a duel, while 5 watched. What the 8 wildlings actually represent is:
a) The group of 4 heirs (Stark, Mallister, Arryn, Royce) and the 4 parents who were called to KL to answer for the crime of plotting to kill Rhaegar. In total, there should have been 8 people, but Jon Arryn never went, instead he started the rebellion, as I mentioned in the previous part. Of the remaining seven men, Rickard Stark asked for a “trial by combat” (dance with me then), that is, he is the “being” with the sword. The other 6 are supposed to have died, but the “Others” are 5, which proves that Brandon Stark survived. The first liar, is Jon Arryn, his “song” is that Aerys had asked for Robert and Ned’s heads, when the reality is that he had asked for his head.
b) In time, the 6 beings that Waymar faces are Cat and her children, all of them “blue eyed”; in fact when Will sees them he mentions that the first two watchers are “twins to the first” and Cat’s two elder children (Robb and Sansa) look just like her. The “Others” only kill one of the “brothers”, Royce, that represents Brandon and by extension Jon. It’s Jon the one that worries Cat and she the one that wants him out of Winterfell.
c) The “black brothers” corpses: they represent Brandon and Jon, the two “brothers” that are supposedely buried in the crypts, Brandon (the “big ranger) and Jon that seems to be Lyanna (Flowers).
In part I I said that Bael was several people, all liars:
1. Brandon who didn’t die
2. Arryn who lied about the war
3. Eddard who lied that Jon was a bastard
4. Lyanna that’s not dead
All the lies are related to one of the 3 Starks statues in the crypt, Brandon’s with his own statue, Arryn’s with Rickard’s and Ned’s with Lyanna’s, which as I mentioned in Part II, is not the person represented by the statue but Jon.
2) The hidden “maiden”
Now let us examine the identity of the Stark maiden that hides for love. The clues are all present in the crimes commited to hide the truth: “the seed is strong”, “the things I do for love” and Robert’s bastards.
The “maiden” that is hidden are actually two, one of them is Jon, who as I said is “buried” in the crypt, statue included, although his statue is supposed to be of a woman, Lyanna. The other is the true maiden, Lyanna Stark, that is not dead.
The “seed” corresponds to what is mentioned in Bael’s song that the line of the Starks “was at it’s end” that is, the line of Starks are Brandon and his son Jon, and the “strong” is because they are made of stone, they are the hidden statues.
Regarding “the things I do for love”, that is the excuse that Ned gave regarding the statues, which clearly were made not out of love for his blood family, but for his perceived family, Robert and Cat. The existence of Jon’s statue, as we will see, becomes relevant later.
As for Robert’s bastard, as I stated in part III it explains Lyanna’s “dissapearence”, she married another man because of Robert’s first bastard, Mya Stone (the seed of Robert’s problem with the Starks).
3) Lord Brandon, the daughterless
The clues to understand Jon’s existance and why Ned “killed” him by naming him a bastard are in the revealed truths: “love cannot change a man’s nature”, Brandon screaming for Rhaegar to “come out and die”, and Ned’s fever dream.
Man’s nature is not actually about a man, but about Cat. It was her “nature” what made Brandon understand that she was not worthy, when she stared as her “brother” Petyr was humiliated in his duel with Brandon.
“Come out and die” explains Will’s death, Waymar killed him when Will took his sword, before that, Royce was just “fallen”, it’s not until Will “steals” the sword that that Waymar “raises”. In the same way, it’s not until Cat (and Ned) decided to sent Jon to die, that her children starts to also die.
In turn, all the clues point to Jon and his father as I said in part I, and we will see again in the final part.
So, let’s talk about Winterfell’s “maiden”, Jon Snow.
“I have no place, Jon wanted to say, I’m a bastard, I have no rights, no name, no mother, and now not even a father. The words would not come. “I don’t know.” Jon IX AGoT
a. Night gathers and now my watch begins
“King Aerys made a great show of Jaime’s investiture. (…) But that very night Aerys had turned sour, (…) “He’ll win no glory here,” the king had said. “He’s mine now, not Tywin’s. He’ll serve as I see fit. I am the king. I rule, and he’ll obey.” That was the first time that Jaime understood. It was not his skill with sword and lance that had won him his white cloak, nor any feats of valor he’d performed against the Kingswood Brotherhood. Aerys had chosen him to spite his father, to rob Lord Tywin of his heir.”
Jon and Jaime’s investitures have many similarities. The most obvious is the “show”. The night Jon says his vows, Othor and Flowers corpses appear. The next day, things got “sour” for Jon because that’s when he finds out about Ned’s arrest for treason, and he reacts by attacking Thorne.
That night, while Jon awaits his punishment, an act of magic happens, the Ranger’s corpeses “come to life” and one of them goes in search of Lord Commander Mormont, apparently to kill him. The attack gives Jon an opportunity, not only his punishment is forgotten, but he can start from scratch and with a splendid sword.
At this point is worth noting that by the time Jon goes beyond the Wall not only he has his own statue in the crypt, but he has the “special” wolf and the “special” sword, made of steel, fire and spells (valyrian steel). I believe that the “spell” is what keeps the steel sharpened for life, and it’s that quality of never loosing its sharpness what is relevant for Jon.
But this act of magic that happened in The Wall, was not the first that happened in our bastard’s life, before, another had occurred:
“He remembered how excited Bran had been at the prospect of the journey. It was more than he could bear, the thought of leaving him behind like this. Jon brushed away his tears, leaned over, and kissed his brother lightly on the lips. “I wanted him to stay here with me,” Lady Stark said softly.” Jon II – AGoT
Bran was an “offering” from Jon, a gift. Totally involuntary, of course, but still, a gesture full of love.
While we were distracted with Dany, her eggs, and her witchcraft, we didn’t see that real magic was happening elsewhere.
Dany’s elaborate sacrifice hid the fact that on the other side of the world, long before, the first magical act had occurred.
Daenerys’ magical ceremony on the night she saw the comet and became the “mother of dragons,” had, in addition to fire, some basic ingredients:
• Her own life
• Her dead husband
• The horse that would lead the Khal “to the stars”
• Her child, stillborn
• The “Maegi” which Dany explained, was only necessary because of her screaming, her terror basically.
But before the ceremony occurred, Dany had made her first offering to the “others”, Viserys, her brother.
Jon’s offering was an “ice kiss,” ice, unlike fire, is silent, slow, imperceptible, just as deadly or vital as fire, but much more “kind” and less spectacular.
“I saw men freeze last winter, and the one before, when I was half a boy. Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don’t have the strength to fight it. It’s easier just to sit down or go to sleep. They say you don’t feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy, and everything starts to fade, and then it’s like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like.” Prologue AGoT
Jon’s first offering, as I said was Bran, I’ll talk about him later. Let’s see the rest of the elements necessary for the ceremony:
• His own life “it shall not end until my death” Jon is three times “dead“, he has his statue in the crypt, (grey), he was named a bastard (white), and he gave his life to the NW (black), all the Winterfell’s wolves colors.
• Husband: “I shall take no wife”
• The Horse. “Hold no lands”
• The child “father no children”
• The “Maegi” “I shall live and die at my post” – The Night’s Watch
Let’s talk about the “maegi” the “godswife”, that “shall live and die” at her post.
When Dany encounters the meagi, the “godswife,” she believes she is saving her from a horrible fate, and does her best to prove her that not everyone in her “clan” are ruthless savages. But the woman is “beyond salvation” the damage has already been done and nothing will change that fact. The maegi is then instrumental in the death of the Khal, Dany’s son, and Dany’s “rebirth” as mother of dragons.
Dany becomes a “true khaleesi” when she chooses the Khal over her brother (her only family) and betrays him, speaking in an unknown language. Then, against everything that clan represents, she chooses to “save” the maegi, perhaps because she understands that her own fate could have been much worse. It’s only when her “clan” and the maegi die that Dany is really free and can become herself, the “mother of dragons”.
Jon, like Dany, is “given to the enemy” Ned, who names him a bastard out of love for his new family or maybe hate for Brandon, or perhaps a bit of both. The kiss Jon gives Bran is what brings him back to life, although none of them know it, neither Cat nor Jon nor Bran. The problem is that ice is slow and by the time the miracle happens, Cat has already abandoned Bran because as a “shadowcat” she smelled blood and went hunting.
So, Jon is a “chosen one”, like Dany, and like Jaime for his blood, the three of them the “stolen” heirs. But unlike Dany, Jon never betrays his family. The enemy for Jon is always the “others” that is, anything that endangers his family and his territory, like a wolf.
When Jon chooses to let the wildlings pass, it looks like he is going against the NW, but at the beginning, the decision has a very practical reason, there is no way to avoid the fact that sooner or later the north will be invaded because the wildlings have no place to go but south. The NW has been dying for years, perhaps centuries, although they refuse to acknowledge it, as the Khal was dead long before Dany finished the job. But, in addition, the north has a major populational problem and wars only make it worse, so letting the wildlings cross is a wise decision. On top of that, the north is full of abandoned and ruined places, so letting the wildlings in, is really a matter of sharing what they already have.
Let’s go back to the brothers.
Viserys was born with all the necessary elements to be the hero of his own song, but he allowed himself to be “consumed” by the “fire”, by hatred, resentment and the feeling of having been born with “the right to be someone”. If he had been a little kinder, smarter and more patient, the reward would have been a thousand times greater than expected.
Bran, on the other hand, is not a “skinchanger” by chance, but thanks to his Stark blood and the kiss that Jon gives him, witchcraft like the ones Melisandre and Dany use are based on blood and death, but true magic as we saw in Lyanna’s crowning, and we will see in Jon’s case is based on something else.
Bran, like Viserys, had all the necessary elements to be a hero. All Bran had to do was the same as Viserys, be kinder, more patient, and smarter. When the Freys arrive at Winterfell, Bran despises and mistreats them, when Theon invades the castle Bran chooses to save himself, even if that meant death for the people he left behind, the Freys included, whom the Starks had promised to care for.
By the time Bran arrives at Bloodraven’s cave, he tells him he’s late, because by the time he goes to his own version of “crowning” he’s all the things he shouldn’t be. He’s more wolf than boy, in a bad sense of what it means to be a wolf, he’s a mind rapist, repeatedly abusing Hodor, and in the same way that Viserys was looking at Dany the wrong way, Bran is watching Meera with “the wrong eyes”, Hodor’s.
By the time he becomes “a tree” he’s actually already thinking of Meera in a sexual way, or as sexual as a child’s imagination allows. Unlike Viserys’ coronation, which was brutal, violent and explicit, Bran’s was kind and fairy tale style, because Bran is a monster, but he is also a child.
Let’s go back to Jon.
The “power” that Mance was looking for, the “horn of winter” is clearly related to Jon.
“The way’s easy. Look for the Ice Dragon, and chase the blue star in the rider’s eye.”
The way to the north is marked by the “ice dragon” to find it, you have to follow the rider’s eye, the star used as a guide is blue. So, there are 3 elements, the dragon, the rider and the rider’s eye.
The “ice dragon” is the Wall itself, the most formidable defense in the north, which like a dragon has a strength, which is its height, and a weakness, which is its length.
The NW is “sitting” with its back against the Wall, they are looking south, in direction of Winterfell, the “Winter rose”. The NW rider is our warg, Jon Snow.
In part I I said that Bael’s song and Ned’s dream makes you think that Jon’s name is “Winter” which is clearly not his real name, but if we consider this name and Jon’s statue in the crypt, then Winter-fell, means that Jon died when Ned called him a bastard, and Winter “rose” from the dead when he left Winterfell.
A dragon is basically a “magic monster”, Jon is a warg, which is clearly a magic power, and considering that his second skin is a “monstrous wolf” we can understand that Jon is in fact a magic monster or on a basic level a “magical wolf”. Jon’s wolf eyes are unique, they are red, like fire, that is, they point south (fire), in his mother’s direction, and again in Winterfell’s direction.
Jon, the “rider”, has grey eyes like those of most Starks, but Jon’s eyes have a different quality, and that is that they seem almost black, which implies, as Tyrion said, that Jon “has more of the north” than the rest of his “siblings”. Furthermore, since Jon have a statue, he is a “walking dead”. The eye of the “rider” pointing north is blue, “blue as the eyes of death”. So clearly, Jon is the “ice dragon”.
“I used to think that it got cold up in the Dornish Marches. What did I know?” Jon I – ADwD
The Starks, who are supposed to be “made for the cold”, live in the hottest castle in the north, the Daynes, on the other hand, are supposed to be “hot”, but they live not only in the coldest place in Dorne, but a place that is surrounded by Water that likely make it colder.
Lastly, and regarding the position of the NW against the Wall, and magical powers, in Winterfell’s crypt, the kings and lords are sitting against the wall and facing each other, that is, looking in opposite directions, with the rows of statues separated between pillars that run two by two.
Therein lies the key to the “horn of winter”. Jon is “Winter” but he won’t know until the horn is blown.
b. Kill the bastard
“The next door was made of rusty iron. Behind it was a flight of wooden steps. Dolorous Edd led the way with his lantern. Up top they found a tunnel as long as Winterfell’s great hall though no wider than the wormways. The walls were ice, bristling with iron hooks. From each hook hung a carcass: skinned deer and elk, sides of beef, huge sows swinging from the ceiling, headless sheep and goats, even horse and bear. Hoarfrost covered everything. As they did their count, Jon peeled the glove off his left hand and touched the nearest haunch of venison. He could feel his fingers sticking, and when he pulled them back he lost a bit of skin. His fingertips were numb. What did you expect? There’s a mountain of ice above your head, more tons than even Bowen Marsh could count. Even so, the room felt colder than it should.” Jon IV – ADwD
In this part, I’m going to prove that Jon’s “innocent” visit to the Night’s Watch food storage, was actually, his version of Dany’s fever dream that showed her the way to awaken the dragons, and it did the same for Jon
These are Jon’s elements:
• An iron door
• A tunnel in which several carcasses hang
• Frost that covers everything
• Sticking fingers and the loss of some skin
• Numb finger tips
• A room “colder than it should”
Let’s now look at Dany’s feverish dream
“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, (…) and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” (…) across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. (…) Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” (…) The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run.(…) She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, (…) but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child (…) but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. (…) Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. (…) She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back (…) The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. (…) She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door.”
Let’s review the elements of the two “awakenings” and we will see that they are not only exactly the same, but that both represent Winterfell’s crypt.
• An iron door, a “red door”. The door that gives access to the crypt is made of “ironwood” the iron leaves red stains over time, Dany’s door is red.
• A room “colder than it should” by the time Jon has his “perception”, Winterfell is “colder than it should” Winterfell has warm waters that keep the castle from freezing in winter, but it is clear from the ADwD chapters that the castle is not hot, in fact, it’s frozen. In Dany’s dream, she thinks that “she must not look back”, the cold, the death, the darkness is behind her, that is, the North.
• A long hall beneath high stone arches, “carcasses”, “You do not command the dragon”, “Ghost lining a hallway”. This is clearly the crypt where the “Kings of Winter” are lined up. “You do not command the dragon” is basically the same as saying “Winter’s got no King” that is, the true “dragon” does not recognize another king, because he is the king.
• Hoarfrost that covers everything, the ice preserves what fire consumes, Dany’s eggs became rock, in the dream she realizes that they lack heat, a lot of heat to be born. That “heat” is not given by any normal fire, but by the series of sacrifices it makes, and which result in a “magic fire”. The Wall, that is, the “ice dragon” is also “magic ice”, there is no way to sustain such a thing if not with magic.
• Fingers sticking and Fingertips numb is Jon’s “frozen” version for what in Dany’s dream is “a terrible burning” and “a great knife of pain” which for Dany is the tremendously painful birth of his dead son and for Jon his own “monsters”, killing him.
• Dany’s Tears turned to steam and Jon’s tears are frozen, Dany cries for her son, and it is for Rhaegar the “last dragon” that she becomes the “fire monster” Jon’s fate is decided the night he learns about “Arya’s” marriage, his “direwolf”.
These are the elements that Dany mentions, that are missing in Jon’s “revelation”:
• Smells of earth and death
• Wind and water
• Stars in a daylight sky
• Icy breath behind: a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness
Dany thinks she needs her dragons, the fire monsters, because they are her way home, to not die “forever alone”. But in reality, by the time the monsters become flesh, she herself is already the 3-headed monster, Viserys’s is the visible head, she is the last Targaryen, the Khal’s is the rider’s head, she is mighty queen, and her son, is the “stallion”, she is conquerer and destroyer. Those are the 3 heads of her dragons. All three, she killed herself:
• Viserys: she kills him with “gold” and “ice”, that is, when she betrays him for her new family. Viserys was her hope to return home, “earth and death”. There is no “home” waiting for her, only land because her family is all dead, the last one, her brother, she killed herself.
• Khal Drogo: she kills him with the “magic bandage” made of plants and magic, that is, green and bronze. The Khal was supposed to be her second chance, but to return with him meant that “home” would to become “wind”, that is, scorched earth. The Khal didn’t plan to conquer Westeros, but to destroy it, rape women, and enslave children.
• Her son: she kills him during “the maegy ceremony”, in which there was fire and blood. The son was a “promise” the “stars in a daylight sky”. The problem is, the son was no different than the father, he was predestined to be a Khal, the best of them, but that wasn’t what Dany wanted. What she wants is not to die “howling forever alone” like the rest of the Khal’s widows.
What she wants is to live as she likes and on her own terms.
Let’s now look at Jon’s case:
• Smells of earth and death
• Wind and water
• Stars in a daylight sky
• Icy breath behind: a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness
First, earth and death:
“He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew.”
About this, I’ll talk in the next part in detail.
Regarding “wind and water”, the most lethal cold is the one that “comes howling out of the north”. The “icy breath behind” is the Wall itself and what is beyond, as I mentioned, the NW has its back against the Wall, and Jon is the “rider”. For Jon, this icy wind represents his “father” Ned, the one that send him to die in The Wall.
The “stars in a daylight sky” are obviously a reference to his wish of being recognized as a Stark, but the “blue stars” meaning Cat and Ned’s “trueborn sons” are what kept Jon “in the darkness”.
Lastly, for Jon, suffering “a death that means howl forever alone in the darkness” is what is already happening to him, he is a Stark “in eternal darkness” who was deprived of the right to be part of the “wolves of Winterfell” that share the “watch” even in death.
The relationship between the NW oath and Winterfell’s dead king’s position is also no accident.
The votes taken by the NW men prevent them from having a wife, children, lands, crowns and glory. They are vows of chastity, poverty and humility. In other words, the NW is actually a “religious” brotherhood and it is clear that this religion includes worshiping ice and night, as Melisandre worships fire and day. Although clearly, the Night’s Watch forgot its true purpose. The NW has its own prophecy, and they were also waiting for the “promised prince”. But I’ll talk about this in part VI.
c. The Sword
“Jon had just been thinking that all the meat in the world surrounded them.” Jon IV ADwD
As I said in the first point, Dany’s ceremony was artificial, bombastic, like everything that involves fire. Jon’s, on the other hand, was calm, silent, like ice, or like a wolf.
“The gift of a sword, even a sword as fine as Longclaw, did not make him a Mormont. Nor was he Aemon Targaryen.” Jon IX – AGoT
Jon was given gifts at his “wedding” as good as the ones Dany received. Dany received a strong husband who could protect her, a wise adviser (Ser Jorah) and 3 dragon eggs, that is, the possibility of magic. Her identity, the three-headed dragon, fire and blood, death and destruction, is something she chose.
Jon was given a sword almost as good as “ICE”, “Longclaw” which, unlike the enormous ICE is best suited for a young man, he also received a wise adviser, Aemon, and Ghost, his own possibility of magic.
In Part I and at the beginning of this part I stated that there were 3 clues that relate to Jon, one is the burned hand, the other are Flowers eyes and the third the horn that does not sound.
These 3 elements define Jon’s life and his death.
The sword he receives from Mormont would have enabled him to be as good and famous as Benjen Stark, Qhorin Halfhand, or Arthur Dayne, and in fact Jon was on his way to being just like any good “sword” when his “awakening” occurs, when he burns his hand.
Not being able to use his sword hand helped him find his “true sword” which is to learn. This eventually helped him in awakening his second power which is warging Ghost, the “horn that does not sound“, the silent wolf. Even when it seems that he isn’t great at warging, that’s not entirely truth as we’ll see in the next part.
The third element, the “eyes” have to do ironically, with a blind person, Maester Aemon.
Aemon helped him see something that is very simple and at the same time terrible: Stannis’ “Lightbringer’s” is not the right sword. Lightbringer, the hero’s sword, makes its own heat.
“I looked at that book Maester Aemon left me. The Jade Compendium. The pages that told of Azor Ahai. Lightbringer was his sword. Tempered with his wife’s blood if Votar can be believed. Thereafter Lightbringer was never cold to the touch, but warm as Nissa Nissa had been warm. In battle the blade burned fiery hot. Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame. (…) “A pity that the sword that Stannis wields is cold. I’ll be curious to see how his Lightbringer behaves in battle. Thank you for the wine. Ghost, with me.” Jon Snow raised the hood of his cloak and pulled at the door. The white wolf followed him back into the night. “ Jon III – AdwD
Jon knows perfectly well the sword, because he grew up there. Lightbringer is Winterfell.
“When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirwood that had his father’s face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn’t, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night’s Watch. I will not father a bastard, he told her. I will not. I will not. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she whispered, her skin dissolving in the hot water, the flesh beneath sloughing off her bones until only skull and skeleton remained, and the pool bubbled thick and red.” Jon VI – ASoS
Jon is good with the sword, but he is better thinking, Jon’s real sword is not “Longclaw”, but seeing, remembering and learning, like a wolf.
Let’s talk first about the sword and the dream. The sword of the hero is formed thanks to “Nissa Nissa”, in Jon’s case, his “Nissa Nissa” are his “fathers” Ned and Brandon, represented by his two sisters, Sansa and Arya.
Jon has two sisters, both represented in Ygritte’s dream. The one who laughs at him, is the one who always called him “bastard”, Sansa the cold, she represents “ICE” the family sword, which Jon cannot have, which in turn is symbolized by The Wall, the place Ned chose for him. In fact, the place where a valuable “sword” is put, when not used, is a wall. Obviously, “ICE” is Ned, the one who really laughed at him when he named him a bastard.
His other sister, Arya, represents the opposite, Winterfell, the heat, Jon’s “boiling” blood, his “wolf’s blood”, his wishes. Because what Jon wants most is to be a Stark and Arya is the only one who looks like a Stark, and of course the one that looks like him. Arya represents his hope. Arya symbolize Jon’s true father, the one that can, not only prove that he is a Stark, but “the” Stark.
Let’s go back to Stannis, Lightbringer, Winterfell and Jon’s dreams.
Stannis and Melisandre laughed not just at Jon, but at the NW, the wildlings, and what the north means. They are the ones who, like in the dream, tried to leave the north “naked”, and Jon in an impossible position. They wanted Jon to be the Lord of Winterfell regardless of what it would mean to Jon, that is, proving to everyone that he was exactly what they believed him to be, and worse, bypassing Sansa, something that Jon was unwilling to do because it would meant betraying his family.
The NW asked for help to fight the wildlings, it’s true, but that wasn’t what brought Stannis to the Wall, that was the excuse. What brought Stannis north was the hope of winning the throne. Worse still, Stannis intends to give away something that is not his and that he cannot dispose of, that is, the Wall and everything it includes. That belongs to the NW, not to a king and even less to a pretender. He also wants to dispose of Winterfell and Jon stubbornly reminds him that Sansa is alive, it is not Stannis’ prerogative to “give” Winterfell, it is not his to give.
Stannis, a great hypocrite, is doing to the north exactly what Cersei is doing to him, which ironically is what he says he’s fighting. Worse, Stannis intends to use in the north exactly the same tools Cersei uses against him, a bastard, Jon, to usurp the legal heir, Sansa.
Jon then, cornered by Stannis, Melisandre and the wildlings, does the only thing he can do, he sends Stannis to “test his Lightbringer.” That is, he sends him to die as he deserves, in the heart of winter, showing him that the north is not his to dispose of, that the north does not recognize him, nor care about his war.
“Roose Bolton summons all leal lords to Barrowton, to affirm their loyalty to the Iron Throne and celebrate his son’s wedding to …” His heart seemed to stop for a moment. No, that is not possible. She died in King’s Landing, with Father.” Jon VI – ADwD
Let’s see Jon’s second power, which apparently is being a pretty mediocre warg.
This scene happens during the night, after learning that “Arya” is going to marry Ramsey:
“I just need a breath of air.” Jon stepped out into the night. The sky was full of stars, and the wind was gusting along the Wall. Even the moon looked cold; there were goosebumps all across its face. Then the first gust caught him, slicing through his layers of wool and leather to set his teeth to chattering. He stalked across the yard, into the teeth of that wind. His cloak flapped loudly from his shoulders. Ghost came after. Where am I going? What am I doing? Castle Black was still and silent, its halls and towers dark. My seat, Jon Snow reflected. My hall, my home, my command. A ruin. In the shadow of the Wall, the direwolf brushed up against his fingers. For half a heartbeat the night came alive with a thousand smells, and Jon Snow heard the crackle of the crust breaking on a patch of old snow. Someone was behind him, he realized suddenly. Someone who smelled warm as a summer day. When he turned he saw Ygritte. (…) “Ghost.” Melisandre made the word a song. The direwolf padded toward her. Wary, he stalked about her in a circle, sniffing. When she held out her hand he smelled that too, then shoved his nose against her fingers. Jon let out a white breath. “He is not always so … friendly” Jon VI – AdwD
Jon’s ceremony, “marrying” both ice and Ghost at the same time, the three of them becoming truly one, was a silent ceremony. Jon went straight into the freezing cold wind and Ghost entered with him. What comes out is not “Ghost” but his shadow, the wolf is no longer a wolf, but Jon’s inner child, who has just died, so Ghost is now friendly and “wary”. What is born, the new Jon, is a man, is a wolf, and is cold. This new Jon is no longer friendly or wary.
At the end of the union, we have the same elements as in Dany’s ceremony, music, and a night that “comes to life”. In Dany’s case, it is from her “children” that the breath comes out, in Jon’s case, is from himself.
Jon’s ceremony was quiet, private, as he is, Dany’s was spectacular, full of witnesses and people falling to their knees, like everything she symbolizes.
Jon is already a wolf, he is already a Stark, Ghost and he are really one, and as winter comes and the nights are longer, he is more and more wolf and colder, or what is the same, more an “Ice werewolf”. This, that Melisandre sees in her fires as “now a man, now a wolf” and that we see every time Jon opens and closes his hand.
The Stark’s sword is “ICE”, the statues in the crypt have three elements, the man, the sword (ICE) and the direwolf. Jon is the three things, man, ice and direwolf.
Jon is already the 3 “headed” ice dragon.
“The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? (…) Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children. (…) and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.” Dany X AGoT
Jon’s ceremony happens after he receives the news that Arya, his Arya, is going to marry a horrible monster and that the north will never stop fighting. That night, Jon claims both “swords”, symbolically he marries the two, “ICE”, the frozen wind of The Wall and Winterfell, that is Ghost. That night Jon becomes the Stark on the Wall and without realizing it, another magical act occurs that I will talk about in the next part.
“Stannis read from the letter. “Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK.”
By the time Stannis receives this letter, all Stark men are supposed to be dead. Lyanna’s letter says in words exactly the same as the other Lords told with silence, the north is done with southron kings. What Stannis seems to miss, but Jon clearly sees, and that’s why he accepts Mance’s “rescue” mission, is that the north needs peace or none of them will survive winter. The rescue was never about Arya, because deep down Jon knows she is not the real one, he feels Nymeria far away, the “rescue” is about saving the north, but since Jon ironically doesn’t trust in magic, he accepts Melisandre’s offering.
“Lady Melisandre stirred. “Tell me, Lord Snow … where were these other kings when the wild people stormed your Wall?” “A thousand leagues away and deaf to our need,” Jon replied. “I have not forgotten that, my lady. Nor will I. But my father’s bannermen have wives and children to protect, and smallfolk who will die should they choose wrongly.” Jon I ADwD
One of the kings who was “a thousand leagues away and deaf” was precisely Robb Stark, who completely forgot about the north, but more importantly, of all the promises he and his mother made, and many people died for it. Next comes Stannis with his excuse to help the NW and unite the north, but just as deaf as Robb. Stannis wants the north to continue fighting the north, meaning that more people will die and for no good reason. Jon can’t side with Stannis, not really.
“”There are risks and risks, Ser Richard. This one … it is too much, too soon, too far away.” Jon IV- ADwD
Robb did “too much, too soon and too far away” and paid with his life, Stannis too, with the difference that Stannis was fooled by Jon who sent him directly to his death, surrounded by a large number of northerners ( too much), people he didn’t knew or understood (too soon) and at the heart of winter (too far away).
“To lead men you must know them, Jon Snow.” Jon VII – ACoK
Jon clearly knows the land and the men he was born to rule.
“The Halfhand helped himself to an egg and cracked it on the edge of the bowl. “These kings will do what they will,” he said, peeling away the shell. “Likely it will be little enough. The best hope is Winterfell. The Starks must rally the north.” Jon V ACoK
The only hope against the “Others” is the Starks. What neither Stannis nor Melisandre understand is that, for Jon, they are the “Others”.
Thanks for reading! and sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes since english is not my first language
