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Aemon was never in danger


MRK

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It has been bugging me for a long time. In ADWD, Jon II, as a reason to send Aemon to the Old Town, Jon gives "Melisandre may burn him because of his king's blood". How come? He is a brother of the Night Watch, a very respected maester, elderly, etc. Frankly, first reason is more than enough: does Jon seriously expect Stannis to try to burn a man of the Night Watch? Could burning Aemon by Stannis (even if somehow capture) lead to anything other than NW attacking Stannis army, meaning Stannis would never do it?

I could never understand it - wilding Prince was another story, he was Stannis's captive. Reading it first time, I was just puzzled, but later concluded it seems to be a bit lame plot device to get Aemon to Bravos, to hear about dragons and explain prophecy to us. Even Jon admits that sending Aemon to Old Town - and via sea - is a clear danger to his life, so a bigger danger had to be invented for him at the Wall? Would love to hear what others think. First post of a longtime lurker, btw :).

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Prior to sending them away he heard a wounded queen's man mutter something about "two kings to wake the dragon", and Aemon confirmed that there was power in king's blood and suggested worse things than burning kids had been done by better people in the past. Characters who dislike Melisandre also tend to assume the worst and take drastic action to counter whatever it is they suspect her of doing (Cressen tried to poison her, Davos thought she caused the loss at the Blackwater and wanted to cut her heart out because of it).

So, given the regard he holds Aemon in and the distrust he has for Melisandre, he probably took this more seriously than he should have and just wanted to evac every possible king's blood candidate. For their part Mel and Stannis never mention burning Aemon or the wildling kid, or this "two kings" thing, and nothing they do before or after suggests they were heading that way.

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Melisandre just used Edric's blood through the leeches to do some magic. She didn't need to actually burn Aemon nor kill him. While Aemon was aware that "Lightbringer" was a sham, I'm sure he knew Melisandre had real power that she could have used for not good, by using him. It was better be safe than sorry.

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Jon's decisions should be seen with the thematic context. Do they make sense? A bunch of time no. Sometimes laughably so. But those decisions serve a thematic purpose.

Aemon - His family was deposed 17 years ago. He has the blood of kings about the same as Jon or "Monster" have - which is none or plenty depending on how you determine what a king is. Stannis' did not burn Mance for his King's Blood, he did it because he was a deserter, an enemy of the realm, and it was a show of force meant to bring the Wildlings to see reason; they could not simply invade Westeros and carve kingdom for themselves in a bloody war of conquest, they would have to accept the rules of the game. "Monster" was never in danger and Melisandre knows that Jon sent him away and does not care. But we need to remember the bit about King's Blood, and get the confirmation from Aemon that there is power in it. Later in Braavos we needed Sam to hear of Dany and Aemon starting to go on about the prophecy, because Sam is going to have some interaction with this plot. That Aemon was old and not likely to live much longer, let alone not likely to survive the season's storms at sea, is set aside for those reasons, and Jon claims to just want to send him to enjoy what time he has left in the south. 

Sam - There is no reason at all to assume that Sam would become a maester in a relevant period of time. I'm not even talking about how he can't even do the basics of being a healer because he can't stand to look at blood, I'm talking about an average student needing to take a year plus for a link, and only very gifter can manage 3 in a year or so. There is not enough time for Sam to study anything relevant, but he is walking into another stroyline.

Dareon - Sending him to Braavos to "recruit with his singing voice" is not even naive, it's by this point in time simply laughable that anyone would think that you can recruit from Essos to a body such as the NW when no one in Westeros thinks they are anymore than a penal colony/border guard for the North. Especially odd that Jon sends a man to talk about the bravery of the NW when he did not join of his own accord. Dareon said that he was innocent of any wrong-doing and is only there because a lord did not want to believe that his daughter would sleep with a commoner and lie to him about it. The point of that decision was so that Arya could kill "a deserter". Her action has consequences with the Faceless Men.

 

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At the same time you thought Aemon was safe(I would have as well) I also thought Shireen was safe, and without literary foreshadowing so would have everyone else.  Yet we know how that turns out...

4 hours ago, JCRB's Honeypot said:

Melisandre just used Edric's blood through the leeches to do some magic. She didn't need to actually burn Aemon nor kill him. While Aemon was aware that "Lightbringer" was a sham, I'm sure he knew Melisandre had real power that she could have used for not good, by using him. It was better be safe than sorry.

Didn't see just see the deaths and used the leeches as a trick?

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Quite simply, Martin needed the Wall cleared out of Kings Blood to leave Shireen as the only viable candidate for burning in Mellisandre's hour of desperation.

That's why Jon, out of the blue, suddenly and cruelly sent Mance's son off to the other side of the continent along with Maester Aemon. It makes the totally extreme and unexpected burning of Shireen more narratively justifiable when the time comes.

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3 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

At the same time you thought Aemon was safe(I would have as well) I also thought Shireen was safe, and without literary foreshadowing so would have everyone else.  Yet we know how that turns out...

Didn't see just see the deaths and used the leeches as a trick?

Actually, no, we don't know how it turns out, because the book is not out yet, and the show is fanfiction written by guys who hate Stannis. 

And we don't know if she only saw the deaths or if there was something more. It is probably, as in ~99%, that it was just visions and she used it to get Stannis to trust her. But she does have power, and something that grants her visions does clearly have great power. GRRM said that no gods would show up to fix shit up (he'll only use miracles when he wants, because building a system to magic and the supernatural is too much work, as is worldbuilding the further east you go, history the further back you go, travel times, the logistics of a world where a castle/city can starve after 2 months of siege but survives winters that can last as long as a decade is a thing, etc etc...), and it's intentionally vague if they are there at all. But we do see that one Red Priest can get on a ship that sails to one destination, because he knows it will arrive at another. Another Red Priest managed to bring a man back from the dead repeatedly. And Melisandre, despite the shit she gets from the fandom, so far has the best track record regarding using visions, and has far more power that relates to the fire/light/shadow theme. She can birth a Shadow Assassin and burn an eagle in the sky, she can drink poisen and enchant a man to look as another, she can melt the snow around her while traveling under the Wall and she has no need for sleep or food. 

If there is a Red God, and if he is the source of this power, and if Aemon and everyone going on and on about King's Blood are right, and if we take Tyrion's experiance on the Rhoyne as proof of time-warping... yeah, I can see a scenario where the leeches did thier thing.

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Stannis had a clearly bigger force when compared to the NW, who probably wouldn't revolt to save an old maester.

I do find unlikely that Stannis would burn a maester, but it's possible, and if backed into a corner (which anyone can see he will probably be as he has a small army in the North in the middle of winter) he probably is capable of burning an old Targ maester.

If he (or somebody else) does end up burning his daughter then it was a great idea two remove Aemon and the baby as they would've been burnt first.

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