Post by pieceofgosa on Dec 1, 2015 2:54:38 GMT
Posted this on the other forum, posting here for discussion. Very rough theory, do not be gentle.
I'm having a little "lightbulb moment" so bear with me. Two particular Stark family incidents have long bothered many a poster on this forum;
1 - Why did Rickard Stark ride to King's Landing with such a token force ?
2 - Why did Torrhen Stark kneel to Aegon?
What if the two are connected ? It's my gut feeling that Torrhen Stark knew, or had been forewarned/foretold that the dragons were coming and that he knelt because "there must always be a Stark in Winterfell". The rub is that I believe that there was a price for Torrhen's surrender and that price was guaranteed dominion of the north for House Stark for as long as House Targaryen ruled Westeros. Now, we have discussed before the possibility that Aegon himself believed he was a figure of prophecy, that is unclear, what is clear is that he had access to prophecies, visions, forewarnings etc, as detailed in his ancestor Daenys' book. If we accept the possibility that Torrhen was waiting for Aegon then it's perhaps not too much of a a stretch to imagine Aegon knew he would be meeting Torrhen and he knew how he would deal with that meeting. One important codicil, I believe at the time the agreement between Torrhen & Aegon was reached, a further agreement that no union would take place between House Stark & House Targaryen was also put in place.
So how does that relate to my first question about Rickard ? Well if an ancient agreement was in place between HS + HT with regard the dominion of the north, an agreement known only to the heads of the houses, passed from father to son (with maesters as insurance in case a father died without passing on the knowledge) is it too much to imagine that Rickard went to KL with the (erroneous) assumption he would be able to fall back on this ancient accord ?
I'm having a little "lightbulb moment" so bear with me. Two particular Stark family incidents have long bothered many a poster on this forum;
1 - Why did Rickard Stark ride to King's Landing with such a token force ?
2 - Why did Torrhen Stark kneel to Aegon?
What if the two are connected ? It's my gut feeling that Torrhen Stark knew, or had been forewarned/foretold that the dragons were coming and that he knelt because "there must always be a Stark in Winterfell". The rub is that I believe that there was a price for Torrhen's surrender and that price was guaranteed dominion of the north for House Stark for as long as House Targaryen ruled Westeros. Now, we have discussed before the possibility that Aegon himself believed he was a figure of prophecy, that is unclear, what is clear is that he had access to prophecies, visions, forewarnings etc, as detailed in his ancestor Daenys' book. If we accept the possibility that Torrhen was waiting for Aegon then it's perhaps not too much of a a stretch to imagine Aegon knew he would be meeting Torrhen and he knew how he would deal with that meeting. One important codicil, I believe at the time the agreement between Torrhen & Aegon was reached, a further agreement that no union would take place between House Stark & House Targaryen was also put in place.
So how does that relate to my first question about Rickard ? Well if an ancient agreement was in place between HS + HT with regard the dominion of the north, an agreement known only to the heads of the houses, passed from father to son (with maesters as insurance in case a father died without passing on the knowledge) is it too much to imagine that Rickard went to KL with the (erroneous) assumption he would be able to fall back on this ancient accord ?