Asoiaf Theory - Tumblr Posts

I hate those Daenerys is going to sacrifice herself/die theories so much it genuinely makes me tweak and I have never been the type of person to get upset at all over fiction or any type of media, but this irks me so bad because not only is Daenerys my absolute favorite character of all time, it’s upsetting how the female character is always the one who has to die for others sakes and never achieve anything for herself. Yes, it’s her destiny as AA to fight the Others, but that doesn’t mean that she has to die doing it. Like, seriously, after we got F&B and saw how many Targaryen women struggled with misogyny and being passed over for the throne, it feels upsetting to me if the one who is supposed to break the wheel will never have a chance to do so. I do love Bran but I do not see him fit to sit on the throne, not to mention how young he is and will be at the series end unless George does a massive timeskip, and after the whole world is in shambles after the Long Night, who is more fitting to sit on the throne and help mend things and lead the people forward? A well experienced ruler and fighter who will bring along a new age of change, or a child with no such experience? Perhaps it’s just me being salty but I just really want the best for my favorite character who I believe deserves to have her shot at having a home and being able to rule and change the world together with the other characters. Especially after the end of GoT, which no I don’t ever believe that George will go that route, but with how everything happened in the show, it looked like Westeros was a completely and utter mess and there was nobody capable left to pick up the pieces, Bran’s ascension to the throne was so random too and didn’t even feel satisfying or like a good conclusion (not that those two incapable idiots could ever produce a satisfying ending, but yeah). What are your thoughts on this? I just feel sad that fellow Dany fans are literally enthusiastically waiting for her death in the upcoming books as if there isn’t a better destiny for her :( The female character who managed to rise to power and become a ruler in her own right dying or giving that up to the men in order to “settle down” leaves such a bad taste in my mouth and doesn’t look like the subversion George has done with her character at all.

I definitely agree with you anon, Dany dying/sacrificing herself really doesn't seem to fit with her story. Yes, Dany certainly would be willing to die to save the world, but that doesn't seem to be where GRRM is writing her.

Dany's story is saturated with life; which is pretty ironic since she's been called "Daughter of Death". She's closely tied to themes of fertility (mother of dragons, helloo), rebirth (Azor Ahai, entering the pyre), and survival/endurance.

Dany's story shares very little similarities to characters who have been set up for death. For example, Robb. Dany may share some superficial similarities to Robb, but the signs of Robb's impending death are not shared at all. GRRM always sets up the deaths of his major characters from their introductions. That hasn't happened with Dany; if anything we see a set up to her surviving.

You're so right about how people are foaming at the mouth for Dany's death. Her dying after everything she's been through and everything she stands for is just...no. It feels so gross and has some really concerning undertones.

The woman who actually fought for change and made a massive upheaval in the status quo, who genuinely cares for all her people, who understands the responsibility of ruling, who demonstrates incredible wisdom, who only wants to make the world better dying for the sake of the story is just wow.

what do you think about the theory that dany will revive the great empire of the dawn and become the new amethyst empress, finally marry for love and have the children she always wanted, and bring forth a new age of magic and dragon repopulation? especially if grrm envisioned bran doing his own thing in westeros it would be full circle with house targaryen making their way back to their ancestral land of essos but this time with the wheel being broken. if this is the ending we get i will never complain about anything asoiaf related ever again, i just want dany to have her happy ending.

I will say this is the first time I'm hearing about Dany and the Empire of the Dawn, but I love it!

I've always been a little unhappy with how a lot of the Dany taking the IT theories require her to abandon her antislavery campaign in Essos. Like she may finish in Salver's Bay and Volantis, but Essos is still full of slaves. Sure, the ripple effect of Dany could lead to uprisings all over Essos, but I've always liked the idea of her being involved in the entire process to some extent. Dany reestablishing the Empire of the Dawn would put her right in the center of Essos.

Plus I hate how often the trope of magic disappearing is used. So Dany reestablishing magic and bringing back dragons has always been an idea I love dearly. Magic is a very important part of ASOIAF, it's part of the balance of that universe. So it coming back definitely is important, and the fact that it's Dany doing it is awesome.

So yeah, anon, I really like this theory!

SNOWSTORM SUMMER 2022 ↳ A Game of Thrones and A Dance With Dragons Parallel

“Please, please, Viserys, I don’t want to, I want to go home.” - Daenerys I, A Game of Thrones 

Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl. - Jon XI, A Dance With Dragons

“I’d let his whole khalasar f-ck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. - Daenerys I, A Game of Thrones 

Would she still have that little sword he’d had Mikken forge for her? Stick them with the pointy end, he’d told her. Wisdom for her wedding night if half of what he heard of Ramsay Snow was true. - Jon XI, A Dance With Dragons

The Snowstorm dynamic I want to see once they meet in the books:

Jon: You should be addicted to shutting the fuck up

Dany: You want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid.

(I want them to go from being irritated by each other to being irritated how hot the other is to falling in love).

Jon eyeing up Val in ADwD and considering her as “lovely” makes me smile, he’s so awkward and cute but it also made me think of some parallels…

Val wrapped in her bearskin…

Dany wrapped in her lionskin…

Val’s honey blonde hair shining like silver in the moonlight…

Dany’s silver-gold hair shining like molten silver…

A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.

Jon’s Targ genes activating when he sees Dany atop her dragon for the first time:

I haven’t read the books but I always see those 2 quotes “ghost wolf big as mountains” and “in the distance a wolf howled, it made her feel sad and lonely but no less hungry.” Why do Sansa and Dany both hear Jon die? Why not just Dany or just Sansa? Why both? Why either of them at all? How come Arya and Bran don’t hear it? Especially bc Sansa has no connection with animals or warging.

Oh no, no, anon. The howl Sansa hears happens an entire book before Jon’s death. In other words…

Sansa did not hear Ghost howl.

How am I so certain? Ghost doesn’t howl.:

Benjen: A very quiet wolf.Jon: He’s not like the others. 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.

Ghost sat on his haunches watching, silent as ever. Will he howl for me when I’m dead, as Bran’s wolf howled when he fell?

He found Ghost atop the hill, as he thought he might. The white wolf never howled.

Ghost doesn’t howl. He’s silent. Sansa heard the howl in A Feast for Crows, which is one full book before Jon dies in A Dance with Dragons. And that is important. Because Ghost does not howl on his own, it is implied that he howled for Jon upon his death, probably because Jon warged into him with his last moments on earth:

Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered.

Yet… Daenerys did hear Ghost howl.

I know, I know, Ghost doesn’t howl. Not on his own, anyway… What Daenerys heard was likely a plea from a dying skinchanger. And oh, is this a fun tale! One of my favorites.

First of all, the timing matches up. Twenty-five pages after Jon is killed, Daenerys hears a wolf howl that made her feel sad and lonely.

At the time, Daenerys is in the Dothraki Sea, a world away from Jon. There aren’t really wolves native to the area, so we can rule those out.

Out in the plains, Daenerys is having trouble finding food. What she does find are some strange green berries that end up giving her some trippy visions and a very graphic depiction of a loose bowel movement (poor Dany).

These two symptoms paired together sound a lot like a drug here on earth, Ayahuasca:

“The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca include visual and auditory stimulation, the mixing of sensory modalities, and psychological introspection that may lead to great elation, fear, or illumination. Its purgative properties are important (known as la purga or “the purge”). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces…“

The psychoactive ingredient in Ayahuasca is dimethyltryptamine (DMT):

“Rick Strassman has theorised that the human pineal gland is capable of producing the hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) under certain circumstances. In 2013 he and other researchers first reported DMT in the pineal gland microdialysate of rodents.”

…The pineal gland.

“The pineal gland represents a kind of atrophied photoreceptor.In the epithalamus of some species of amphibians and reptiles, it is linked to a light-sensing organ, known as the parietal eye, which is also called the pineal eye or third eye.”

Through the use of these berries (which seem to have a lot in common with Ayahuasca), Daenerys might’ve ’opened her third eye’.

Bran Stark gives us an important clue about third eyes:

“Here in the chill damp darkness of the tomb his third eye had finally opened. He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon.”

What makes this so intriguing is that, like Bran, Daenerys is also a skinchanger. It’s subtle, but the proof is there in the first book:

“The slightest pressure with her legs, the lightest touch on the reins, and the filly responded. She sent it into a gallop, and now the Dothraki were hooting and laughing and shouting at her as they jumped out of her way. A daring she had never known filled Daenerys then, and she gave the filly her head. The silver horse leapt the flames as if she had wings.”

From the Wiki:

“An untrained skinchanger may unconsciously enter the mind of an animal.”

and

“The interaction between the skinchanger’s and animal’s minds influence both personalities.”

Dany suddenly found a ‘daring she had never known’, likely from bonding with her horse.

Lastly… (and this is my favorite part)

This is a controversial theory, but the berries she ate might’ve caused a miscarriage:

“As she splashed her face, she saw fresh blood on her thighs. The ragged hem of her undertunic was stained with it. The sight of so much red frightened her. Moon blood, it’s only my moon blood, but she did not remember ever having such a heavy flow.”

And remember…

“Only death can pay for life.”

In summary: Jon dies. He wargs into Ghost. He howls as a plea for help. Daenerys hears his howl. And with her miscarriage, might’ve provided the death that will pay for Jon’s life.

If, like me, you’d like to believe that Dany and Ghost share a connection, then perhaps Jon and Drogon do, too (after all, the name Drogon in Tolkien languages translates to ‘male wolf’).

These two dark-colored dragons (Drogon and Jon) were both just stabbed. A distraught Drogon conveniently takes Daenerys right to the berries that might’ve opened up a psychic connection between Jon and Daenerys…

Anyway. This theory is way too fun so it probably can’t be true. *sighs*

dany remembers a lemon tree near the house with the red door in braavos

arya notices that there are no trees in bravos

sam mentions that the exception is courts and gardens

there’s the sealord palace in braavos and as depicted on the map it has greenery

dany describes house with the red doors as having ‘wooden beams with carved animal faces adorning them’

“The Sealord’s Palace contains the Sealord’s menagerie.”

elissa farman stole three of rhaena’s dragon eggs and sold them to the sealord….

house with the red door is the sealord’s palace and dany’s dragons hatched from rhaena’s stolen eggs. what is also interesting is as @adreamofspring​ mentioned, rhaena was the one who started the tradition of putting dragon eggs to baby targaryens’ cradles to make them bond quicker and as @etherealdany​ noticed dany becomes stronger after her second dragon dream. did dany have those eggs since she was born and was separated from them because of illyrio?

What Was Stannis' Plan for the Blackwater?

I’ve been thinking on what the point of the Battle of the Blackwater (henceforth BotB) was strategically for Stannis. And I'd argue it was to gain the Reach to his side.

I will not argue the BotB was not a huge series of fuckups on Stannis’ part. Even so there was a point. Winning that battle was possible and a reasonable goal. I think, in Stannis thinking, the problem would have been the aftermath. He'd be stuck with a wounded army, an at least partially damaged fleet and an entire city to feed. Somehow this was a desirable goal. In my opinion the victory is what makes that battle desirable because the battle wasn't just to take the capital (although that's very important) but to gain the capital to get the Reach to join him. I think the cart before the horse analogy works here.

As Rhaenyra I, Daemon Blackfyre, Robb Stark and Robert Baratheon prove, winning battles brings allies because they see your strength. The blackwater would have been Stannis' Whispering Woods or Summerhal, like how Rhaenyra capturing KL gave her legitimacy.

It's same reason as fighting the ironborn in the north gives him allies in ADWD. In westeros winning proves strength. In ACOK the Stormlords and Reacherlords he gets from Renly's death were all he was gonna get at that point. He needs more men to win the entire kingdom, and the Vale won't fight but the Reach might. With Tywin distracted by Robb Stark at Harrenhal. Stannis knows Tywin could come down from Harrenhal to defend KL and he knows that the Tyrell forces are sitting at Bitterbridge in a leadership crisis. It was is the perfect time to strike while KL was undefended and win an *almost certain* battle to prove himself. When I say almost certain remember BotB is 20,000 of Stannis' trained soldiers against mostly a few thousand gold cloaks and a small (in comparison) number of knights.

By taking KL Stannis eliminates his rival claimant (Joffrey) and proves he should be followed as a victorious king. Specifically to the Tyrells who have the sheer military numbers to win the war as well as food supplies for KL. If the Stannis won faster the battle might've solved all of the problems it would cause. Namely supplying a city and military casualties.

I think that the Fossoways (or more specifically Red Apple Fossoways) became Blackfyre supporters during the Third Blackfyre Rebellion and that’s how the Green Apple Fossoways got a castle.

Firstly, some evidence as to why they *became* Blackfyres. The Fossoway heir Raymun and his cousin Steffon were welcome at the Ashford Tourney, a tournament where Targaryen princes were the main feature making it a loyalist tourney. And while there were Blackfyre supporters there (Brackens, Hightowers.) the majority of present houses were loyalists or houses of unknown affiliation during the 1st rebellion. Extrapolating from that the Fossoways likely had loyalist affiliation during the 1st or weren’t on bad terms at least.

So what’s the evidence of these apples *going bad* so to speak? When we see of the Fossoways in ACOK they have two branches, each with their own castle. House Fossoway of Cider Hall (red apple) and House Fossoway of New Barrel (green apple). Wait how did the greens get that castle?

We know Raymun Fossoway was the founder of the green apple branch. So, that brings the question: how did Raymun (or his descendants) get that castle? It’s possible that he built it. After all it’s called *New* Barrel. But, we don’t hear about many castle constructions in asoiaf. He could’ve gotten it from another house? But why’s it called New Barrel? There aren’t any castle renamings in asoiaf. But hey… that name sounds like a Fossoway name (Maybe to store all the Cider made at Cider hall). And we also know that lords can have multiple castles (the Peakes!). Thus I think that New Barrel was a Red Apple Fossoway castle alongside Cider Hall, and that Raymun got it.

How to lose a castle.

In the Hedge Knight Steffon, the Fossoway heir, is an ambitious and not so honorable knight who sided against Dunk in the trial by seven for personal gain. By contrast Raymun sides with Dunk and founds the Green apple Fossoways. I think that when Steffon became the new Fossoway Lord he sided with the Blackfyres for personal gain. Either during the Third rebellion (more likely) or the Fourth Rebellion (less likely). And in doing so, lost one of his family castles to Steffon (an ally Dunk and Egg): New Barrel. My theory rests on this, how do people get castles? Rewards from the crown (like how House Foote got Nightsong). And how do people lose castles? Rebelling against it (Ex. Riverrun, Nightsong etc.). Ultimately, the same question is explicitly asked in the Mystery Knight about Gormon Peake:

“"How do you lose two castles?"

"You fight for the Black Dragon, ser."”

So, how did the Red Apple Fossoways lose a Castle? They fought for the Black Dragon.

Theory: the Rhoynish water mages didn’t just use floods and water spouts to fight the Valyrians. They used rain, and storms.

Rain is a very powerful grounding tool against dragons as shown in the battle of the Last Storm and how Meraxes was grounded. A storm grounded the dragon onto the killing field. Because this is so effective against dragons and because the Rhoynar fought for so long I hypothesize that summoning rain was one of the ways that the Rhoynar were able to fight dragon wars.

It’s already said that Rhoynish water mages were the key to fighting dragons. With torrential rain, they could negate dragons.

Could the fall of the wall be a little more… wet?

The wall in asoiaf is made of ice. When it’s hot it is described as “weeping” with melted parts flowing down the ice. Is it possible that when (if) the wall falls in story instead of being like a brick wall caving in it could be more like a Great Flood?

After all the easiest way to make all that ice go away is to let it run away on its own i.e. turn it into a giant wave! “Waking giants from the earth” could be earthquake but think back to the hammer of the waters or the creation of the neck. Both involved enormous amounts of water flooding after an earthquake. Maybe the fall of the wall could be the same, except being a land based tsunami post earthquake. (Meta narratively drawing upon the Great Flood myth GRRM might’ve learned about as a Catholic child)

Then the Others will surf all the way down to the God’s Eye and marry Jon snow at Harrenhal!

or something

I also could be completely wrong. But it’s a fun idea!