(r)Aegon and Ned Helped

[AryaGonnaEatThatDeadFatGuy]

So let me start this by saying I am very new to these forums and am only on my second read through the books. So if this has already been brought up or I completely missed stuff I apologize.

I think Aegon is real and Ned brought him to Ashara after the sack of KL. This would most likely mean Ashara is Septa Lemore. But it wouldn't take much of an argument to convince me Ned didn't just get Aegon to JonCon directly.

I base this entirely on Ned referring to Rhaegar's daughter as the 'princess' and son as 'the boy' [GOT: an Eddard chapter, page 483 on paperback]

The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her gown, and the boy . . . the boy . . .

It might be pretty weak, but why refer to him as 'the boy' and not as 'the prince' there? Also, Jon's last chapter ended in the same ellipses yet most people assume there is more to that story so why not here.

So I think it went

• Varys (or whoever) switches out someone for Aegon
  
• KL sacked
  
• Varys (or whoever) comes to Ned with Aegon. If it was Varys he came to Ned in disguise and only because he saw how Ned gave up the throne
  
• Ned delivers Aegon to Ashara, or if he goes straight to Storm's End gives Aegon to someone he trusts (let's hypothesize Howland Reed)
  
• Before Arthur Dayne ends Ned at the TOJ, Reed is able to explain what Ned did
  

Even if this is completely wrong, hopefully it spurs some good conversation.

[Connartist92]

I'm on my second read through too, and that quote jumped out at me. I don't know if he had a hand in the switch, but I think Ned knew about it or learned about it afterward - if Aegon is indeed who he thinks he is.

[Ygrain]

One problem here - if Aegon is real, Ned didn't know about it, because he "remembered Rhaegar’s infant son, the red ruin of his skull".

[Jon's Queen Consort]

One problem here - if Aegon is real, Ned didn't know about it, because he "remembered Rhaegar’s infant son, the red ruin of his skull".

I came to say this. Ned had told that both the children are dead.

[Isobel Harper]

If the quote does suggest that Ned suspected or knew that the baby was not Aegon, I doesn't appear that Ned ultimately connected the plot to Varys. Ned distrusted Varys too much.

I think relevance of "the boy... the boy..." is that Ned is thinking of Rhaegar's sons. He begins to make a connection between Aegon and Jon in that line, but doesn't continue with the thought. Aegon/the baby's death was the main reason why Ned kept Jon's identity a secret.

ETA: But, the quote might still hint that Ned suspected that the baby was not Aegon.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

Agreed with the others.

Also, Ned would have left King's Landing with a baby in tow. The baby would have been with him at the ToJ. And people would have noticed that there was a baby among the party. Now, it's possible that this would work...if the people at the ToJ all lived and disappeared to keep the secrets of Aegon's survival and Jon's birth. Arthur would have to be "dead" as would Gerold, Oswell, and the men who went with Ned (excluding Howland because honestly how is Ned going to beat the Sword of the Morning without help? They needed a believable story). A good reason not to take Lord Dustin's bones home is that he's still using them.

But...it contradicts Ned's own thoughts about Rhaegar's infant son, so it's not likely. Would take one heck of a switcheroo by Martin to make this work.

I submit that "the boy" was more a hint from Martin to us, as was the face being unrecognizable.

[AryaGonnaEatThatDeadFatGuy]

Now, it's possible that this would work...if the people at the ToJ all lived and disappeared to keep the secrets of Aegon's survival and Jon's birth.

I still thought everyone else died at the TOJ save maybe Arthur Dayne since that would be a lot of really good fighters to just sit around doing nothing for 20 years. I was trying to come up with a way Reed could have stopped Dayne most likely when all the fighting was done and he was the last one standing. I have a hard the picturing Reed stopping Dayne by force.

And as for Ned's thought, yea I agree with all of you it's a hole. But just maybe since Ned was referring to Robert turning a blind eye he thought about that moment from Robert's point of view.

I think it's a reach but to me I guess I am still leaning that way since it gives me a way Reed could stop Dayne

[Ygrain]

I still thought everyone else died at the TOJ save maybe Arthur Dayne since that would be a lot of really good fighters to just sit around doing nothing for 20 years. I was trying to come up with a way Reed could have stopped Dayne most likely when all the fighting was done and he was the last one standing. I have a hard the picturing Reed stopping Dayne by force.

So do I. But I can imagine Reed getting Dayne entangled in the net, thus largely immobilizing him. We know from the Barristan's PoV, when one of his trainees uses a whip to a similar effect, that this gives a huge advantage.

And as for Ned's thought, yea I agree with all of you it's a hole. But just maybe since Ned was referring to Robert turning a blind eye he thought about that moment from Robert's point of view.

I'm afraid not. The whole paragraph is Ned's own thoughts, summarizing all the cases of murders or attempted murders of children to which Robert turned a blind eye:

Ned rose and paced the length of the room. “If the queen had a role in this or, gods forbid, the king himself … no, I will not believe that.”

Yet even as he said the words, he remembered that chill morning on the barrowlands, and Robert’s talk of sending hired knives after the Targaryen princess. He remembered Rhaegar’s infant son, the red ruin of his skull, and the way the king had turned away, as he had turned away in Darry’s audience hall not so long ago. He could still hear Sansa pleading, as Lyanna had pleaded once. “Most likely the king did not know,” Littlefinger said. “It would not be the first time. Our good Robert is practiced at closing his eyes to things he would rather not see.”

Ned had no reply for that. The face of the butcher’s boy swam up before his eyes, cloven almost in two, and afterward the king had said not a word.