Dancy is Tywin's Bastard

[Lost Melnibonean]

7 minutes ago, Seams said:

I have special training. I know how to pleasure you.

Jeyne? Jeyne Poole? Is that you? Gods! What have they done to you? How could this have happened? Father said that he would see you were taken care of...

[Isobel Harper]

54 minutes ago, Seams said:

There's something to this. The name Dancy, I mean.

Tyrion associates with whores while the Stark men associate with horses. This may be the purpose of the horse / whores pun: to get us to compare what the Starks do with horses and what Tyrion does with whores.

Bran has a horse named Dancer, which he can ride because Tyrion designed a saddle for him. At the Harvest Feast at Winterfell, GRRM helps us to see that Hodor is also a sort of horse for Bran by showing Bran ride into the feast on the back of the horse, Dancer; Hodor as the only dancer (for a time) at the feast; and Bran leave the feast carried by Hodor. In fact, Bran leaves the feast (in part) because he doesn't want to watch people dancing because that's something he can never do. (At an earlier point in the story, I believe that Ned had sadly thought about the fact that Bran could not have sex when he grows up. Actually, a lot of disable people can have sex but maybe the "dancing" is a metaphor for sex in Bran's arc. Certainly Bran's later skinchanging into Hodor is portrayed as a form of rape.)

So then we get Tyrion rejecting the advances of the sex worker named Dancy. He's still planning to have sex, just not with Dancy. Maybe this is a way of showing that he has given up his whoring ways ("dancing") and that he wants to be true to a woman he loves.

This may be a stretch, but I was thinking about Dancer the other day and wondered whether there might be Dancer / Sandor wordplay. There is sexual tension between Sansa and Sandor . . .

This wordplay stuff doesn't contradict any of the theories here about the secret paternity or maternity of the prostitutes, but it might help to explain GRRM's purpose for detailing their appearance and personalities.

Rohanne Webber was also strongly associated with horses, and she tries to give Dunk a horse at the end of their flirtation, but he declines. Egg, on the other hand, does accept a horse from her, iirc. So maybe that symbolizes a sexual connection between the Targs and Rohanne Webber.

The fact that the bet between Dancy and Marei involves black pearls might also give us a hint about their family trees. The prostitute associated with The Black Pearl was a Targ mistress and a pirate queen. The fact that Marei wants to obtain Dancy's black pearls might mean that both are Targ descendants.

Dancy and Dacey are very similar, one letter different actually.  Dacey Mormont is a "bear" and, as a warrioress, "dances" with swords.  I guess this makes her a "dancing bear."  I'm not sure what the etymology of Mormont is, though "mont" might be "mountain" or "mound." "Mounting" is another term used for "mating," but the opportunity to breed is literally cut short for her during the Red Wedding when she takes an axe to the belly.  

Maybe there's some mountain/mounting wordplay.  Gregor is called the "Mountain who rides" (a horse).  And then there's the prophecy "the stallion who mounts the world."  Given Dothraki violent culture, a true "stallion who rides the world" would be a person very similar to Gregor.  A woman's private parts are also commonly referred to as a "mound."  And Lann the Clever supposedly snuck into Casterly Rock by sneaking into a cleft of a rock (in a mountain), which is basically a euphemism for knocking up Lord Casterly's daughter. 

[Pain killer Jane]

1 hour ago, Seams said:

Rohanne Webber was also strongly associated with horses, and she tries to give Dunk a horse at the end of their flirtation, but he declines. Egg, on the other hand, does accept a horse from her, iirc. So maybe that symbolizes a sexual connection between the Targs and Rohanne Webber.

hmm....Radio Westeros on their piece of the GNC, stated that the customary gift signalling the end of hospitality is the gift of a horse and the acceptance of a horse. I would say that Egg and Rohanne ended their hospitality but Rohanne and Dunk did not. I think that is where the sexual connection comes in. 

[Seams]

6 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

hmm....Radio Westeros on their piece of the GNC, stated that the customary gift signalling the end of hospitality is the gift of a horse and the acceptance of a horse. I would say that Egg and Rohanne ended their hospitality but Rohanne and Dunk did not. I think that is where the sexual connection comes in. 

That makes a little more sense, based on the previous interactions of the characters.

Dunk cutting Rohanne's braid, though, seems to have something to do with the hair / heir motif: is he cutting off her "heir"? Taking her "heir" as a souvenir?

[Pain killer Jane]

1 minute ago, Seams said:

That makes a little more sense, based on the previous interactions of the characters.

Dunk cutting Rohanne's braid, though, seems to have something to do with the hair / heir motif: is he cutting off her "heir"? Taking her "heir" as a souvenir?

took her hair but gave her an heir. Reciprocity 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

When looking at who all could produce a kid with silvery hair, don't forget that the Celtigars are also of Valyrian Origin. They just aren't as much fun as the Velaryons and Targaryens. 

@Isobel Harper was it you who asked if a noble family would be willing to sell a bastard into prostitution? I think overall no, but it would depend on the family and how badly they needed money or wanted to get rid of the girl.

Wicked-step-mother syndrome could be at play here. Father keeps the kid around, but his new wife doesn't like her. Father goes off on a voyage, step-mother sells the girl. Father comes home, step-mother claims she ran away and even weeps over not being able to find her. Poor Marei needs some glass slippers and a pumpkin.

[Lost Melnibonean]

1 hour ago, Lady Blizzardborn said:

When looking at who all could produce a kid with silvery hair, don't forget that the Celtigars are also of Valyrian Origin. They just aren't as much fun as the Velaryons and Targaryens. 

@Isobel Harper was it you who asked if a noble family would be willing to sell a bastard into prostitution? I think overall no, but it would depend on the family and how badly they needed money or wanted to get rid of the girl.

Wicked-step-mother syndrome could be at play here. Father keeps the kid around, but his new wife doesn't like her. Father goes off on a voyage, step-mother sells the girl. Father comes home, step-mother claims she ran away and even weeps over not being able to find her. Poor Marei needs some glass slippers and a pumpkin.

[Isobel Harper]

1 hour ago, Lady Blizzardborn said:

When looking at who all could produce a kid with silvery hair, don't forget that the Celtigars are also of Valyrian Origin. They just aren't as much fun as the Velaryons and Targaryens. 

@Isobel Harper was it you who asked if a noble family would be willing to sell a bastard into prostitution? I think overall no, but it would depend on the family and how badly they needed money or wanted to get rid of the girl.

Wicked-step-mother syndrome could be at play here. Father keeps the kid around, but his new wife doesn't like her. Father goes off on a voyage, step-mother sells the girl. Father comes home, step-mother claims she ran away and even weeps over not being able to find her. Poor Marei needs some glass slippers and a pumpkin.

I was thinking that Marei might have been placed there as an informant for Varys, not for money.  I can't imagine House Velaryon needing money that badly anyway.  Their wealth dwindled after tdotd but not that much. 

Lucerys Velaryon served on Aerys' small council, so it's probable that he just fathered her on a prostitute in KL.  

[Lady Blizzardborn]

18 hours ago, Isobel Harper said:

I was thinking that Marei might have been placed there as an informant for Varys, not for money.  I can't imagine House Velaryon needing money that badly anyway.  Their wealth dwindled after tdotd but not that much. 

Lucerys Velaryon served on Aerys' small council, so it's probable that he just fathered her on a prostitute in KL.  

That makes more sense than GRRM throwing in another wicked step-mother when he already used that for the Waif.

And it's possible that either Lucerys or the child's mother decided she should at least learn to read in case she ended up having a better life than her mother did.

[Pain killer Jane]

On 1/18/2017 at 2:49 PM, Seams said:

Dunk cutting Rohanne's braid, though, seems to have something to do with the hair / heir motif: is he cutting off her "heir"? Taking her "heir" as a souvenir?

 

On 1/18/2017 at 2:50 PM, Pain killer Jane said:

took her hair but gave her an heir. Reciprocity 

Quote

Varamyr gave them his seed, took a hank of their hair to remember them by, and sent them back. From time to time, some village hero would come with spear in hand to slay the beastling and save a sister or a lover or a daughter. Those he killed, but he never harmed the women. Some he even blessed with children. Runts. Small, puny things, like Lump, and not one with the gift.

- Prologue, aDwD

Dunk wasn't small but his children may have been but his descendant is not. So there maybe something Brienne inherited from Dunk aside from his height.