The Blackfyre v2.0

[Lord Varys]

On 20.3.2017 at 9:35 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

Wow! I can't believe I never caught this before...

Tyrion VIII, Dance 33

Those are Blackfyre colors Tyrion sees back in the direction of where he left Aegon as he sails toward Daenerys! 

I checked the context. It isn't clear whether we are talking about 'behind' meaning west in that case.

But still, there might be something to that. However, weather symbolism is much more prevalent in TMK where it is really used to some effect.

On 23.3.2017 at 6:14 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

The Watcher, Dance 38

Did Daemon Blackfyre and his half-sister Daenerys Targaryen love, or at least desire, each other?

I think there is a good chance that Daemon wanted Daenerys for himself, to get closer to the throne and satisfy his ego, but I doubt the girl had the hots for him. At least not when Daemon married Rohane of Tyrosh. She was two years younger than he was, making her only twelve years old when Daeron II became king and Daemon was married to his wife.

That is simply too young an age for her to have been particularly deeply in love.

Now, perhaps some sort of secret love blossomed in the years between 184 AC and her marriage to Maron Martell in 187 AC. We should keep in mind that Daemon the Younger is 4-5 years younger than his elder twin brothers Aegon and Aemon. Now, we all assume that Calla Blackfyre was born between the twins and Daemon II but even if that's the case there is still a chance that Daemon actually grew tired of Rohanne after impregnating her a second time in 185 AC (who may not really have loved, using her just as baby machine) and grew obsessed over a flowering Daenerys.

Nothing indicates that they ever had a real romance but there could still have been some emotions involved. Bonifer Hasty and Rhaella Targaryen apparently also never consummated their relationship yet they still were in love or at least infatuated with each other.

Maron and Daenerys would have left for Dorne in 187-188 AC, and Daemon may then have returned to Rohanne's bed, having his third son either in 188 or 189 AC.

But the idea of a marriage between these two would have been nothing but a pipe dream, at least after Daemon had been married to Rohanne.

It is difficult to say how close Daemon and Daenerys were in their childhood. Were Daena and Naerys close? Was Daena even still alive in the later 170s? If they got along then Daemon and Daenerys might actually have been close companions as children, allowing for them to forge a lasting bond. But that's really all speculation as of yet.

19 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

If anyone would downplay the idea that the two loved, or at least desired each other, it would be her descendants. 

Why should Doran do that? Marriages for reasons of state are what people in his position do. Two of his children were supposed to marry people they had never met, and most Princes and heirs of Dorne would have lived with similar arrangements.

And he might not have had real knowledge about that, just what singers tell about them. They love doomed lovers. Maron and Daenerys are long dead. They are likely his great-great-grandparents or so.

[Lost Melnibonean]

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"Dragons," Moqorro said in the Common Tongue of Westeros. He spoke it very well, with hardly a trace of accent. No doubt that was one reason the high priest Benerro had chosen him to bring the faith of R'hllor to Daenerys Targaryen. "Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark. And you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all."

Tyrion VIII, Dance 33

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"As my queen commands. Will you hold court today?"

"No. On the morrow I will be a woman wed, and Hizdahr will be king. Let him hold court. These are his people."

"Some are his, some are yours. The ones you freed."

"Are you chiding me?"

"The ones you call your children. They want their mother."

"You are. You are chiding me."

"Only a little, bright heart. Will you come hold court?"

"After my wedding, perhaps. After the peace."

Daenerys VI, Dance 43

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Blackheart. Myles Toyne had been so full of life the last time Griff had left him, it was hard to accept that he was gone. A golden skull atop a pole, and Homeless Harry Strickland in his place. Lemore was not wrong, he knew. Whatever their sires or their grandsires might have been back in Westeros before their exile, the men of the Golden Company were sell-swords now, and no sellsword could be trusted. Even so …

...

The captain-general's tent was made of cloth-of-gold and surrounded by a ring of pikes topped with gilded skulls. One skull was larger than the rest, grotesquely malformed. Below it was a second, no larger than a child's fist. Maelys the Monstrous and his nameless brother. The other skulls had a sameness to them, though several had been cracked and splintered by the blows that had slain them, and one had filed, pointed teeth. "Which one is Myles?" Griff found himself asking.

"There. On the end." Flowers pointed. "Wait. I'll go announce you." He slipped inside the tent, leaving Griff to contemplate the gilded skull of his old friend. In life, Ser Myles Toyne had been ugly as sin. His famous forebear, the dark and dashing Terrence Toyne of whom the singers sang, had been so fair of face that even the king's mistress could not resist him; but Myles had been possessed of jug ears, a crooked jaw, and the biggest nose that Jon Connington had ever seen. When he smiled at you, though, none of that mattered. Blackheart, his men had named him, for the sigil on his shield. Myles had loved the name and all it hinted at. "A captain-general should be feared, by friend and foe alike," he had once confessed. "If men think me cruel, so much the better." The truth was otherwise. Soldier to the bone, Toyne was fierce but always fair, a father to his men and always generous to the exile lord Jon Connington. Death had robbed him of his ears, his nose, and all his warmth. The smile remained, transformed into a glittering golden grin. All the skulls were grinning, even Bittersteel's on the tall pike in the center. What does he have to grin about? He died defeated and alone, a broken man in an alien land. On his deathbed, Ser Aegor Rivers had famously commanded his men to boil the flesh from his skull, dip it in gold, and carry it before them when they crossed the sea to retake Westeros. His successors had followed his example.

The Lost Lord, Dance 24

It should be noted that the swollen heart, blue with corruption and pulsing from dimness to darkness in the House of the Undying Ones is referred to as a dark heart, and the Ghost of High Heart calls Arya Dark Heart. Those two don’t fit in the context of Moqorro’s vision, but the succession of Golden Company captains general from Bittersteel through Blackheart, backing Blackfyre pretenders might.

[Lost Melnibonean]

In Catelyn IV, Game 18, we are told, "The Tyroshi were notorious for their avarice." Given that's where the Blackfyres ended up, I wonder if there's anything to that. Probably not. Interestingly, Tyrion describes Tywin as "the soul of avarice" in Catelyn VI, Game 34, and Dunk tells us in The Mystery Knight that the Sisters "were sinks of sin and avarice." Getting back to Tyrosh, the only other time the George used the word was in describing the the privateers of the Triarchy before the Dance of the Dragons. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

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Ned turned off the square where the Street of Steel began and followed its winding path up a long hill, past blacksmiths working at open forges, freeriders haggling over mail shirts, and grizzled ironmongers selling old blades and razors from their wagons. The farther they climbed, the larger the buildings grew. The man they wanted was all the way at the top of the hill, in a huge house of timber and plaster whose upper stories loomed over the narrow street. The double doors showed a hunting scene carved in ebony and weirwood. A pair of stone knights stood sentry at the entrance, armored in fanciful suits of polished red steel that transformed them into griffin and unicorn. Ned left his horse with Jacks and shouldered his way inside.

Eddard VI, Game 27

Why  griffin and a unicorn? Perhaps... Jon Connington’s sigil is a griffin, but the unicorn is trickier. Perhaps... Illyrio describes the noblest lad that ever lived as “A savior come from across the sea to bind up the wounds of bleeding Westeros." (The word savior is used only twice more in all of ASOIAF.) In late antiquity, artists used the unicorn to symbolize the Incarnation of Christ.

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Tobho had learned to work Valyrian steel at the forges of Qohor as a boy. Only a man who knew the spells could take old weapons and forge them anew.

Eddard VI, Game 27

Hmm... Forging swords anew makes me think of this...

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes, a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

--JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Isn’t that what Jon Connington thinks he is about—forging anew the Targaryen dynasty with his noble young savior come from across the sea?

[DJ Jazzy Joff]

44 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Why  griffin and a unicorn? Perhaps... Jon Connington’s sigil is a griffin, but the unicorn is trickier. Perhaps... Illyrio describes the noblest lad that ever lived as “A savior come from across the sea to bind up the wounds of bleeding Westeros." (The word savior is used only twice more in all of ASOIAF.) In late antiquity, artists used the unicorn to symbolize the Incarnation of Christ.

The “stone” knight in red armor =>  Jon Connington, the Griffin with Greyscale, wearing his red wolf cloak while he guards/ travels with Aegon VI Targaryen, the “unicorn”...as in, literally, a mythical creature that doesn’t actually exist.

I am far more intrigued that this red stone griffin and his unicorn can be found at a house of black and white.  Curious indeed.

[Lost Melnibonean]

43 minutes ago, DJ Jazzy Joff said:

The “stone” knight in red armor =>  Jon Connington, the Griffin with Greyscale, wearing his red wolf cloak while he guards/ travels with Aegon VI Targaryen, the “unicorn”...as in, literally, a mythical creature that doesn’t actually exist.

I am far more intrigued that this red stone griffin and his unicorn can be found at a house of black and white.  Curious indeed.

Before Mercy was released, I was quite convinced that Tobho Mott was Izembaro. Now, I wonder whether there is a connection between Tobho and the House of Black and White...

[DJ Jazzy Joff]

41 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Before Mercy was released, I was quite convinced that Tobho Mott was Izembaro. Now, I wonder whether there is a connection between Tobho and the House of Black and White...

Hmm.  Don’t know that it’s Tobho Mott’s connection to the House of Black and White that we’re getting the hat tip to with the symbolism here.  I believe Martin wants us to more closely examine “Aegon” and JonConn’s early years of exile in Essos.    Even in A Game of Thrones he had those “plenty of thoughts about Aegon” and that sad death of the little prince.

[Lost Melnibonean]

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The lad flushed. "That was not me. I told you. That was some tanner's son from Pisswater Bend whose mother died birthing him. His father sold him to Lord Varys for a jug of Arbor gold. He had other sons but had never tasted Arbor gold. Varys gave the Pisswater boy to my lady mother and carried me away."

Tyrion VI, Dance 22

Oh no he didn’t...

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One thing all the stories agreed on: King Robert was dead. The bells in the seven towers of the Great Sept of Baelor had tolled for a day and a night, the thunder of their grief rolling across the city in a bronze tide. They only rang the bells like that for the death of a king, a tanner's boy told Arya.

Arya V, Game 65

[Lost Melnibonean]

There is no doubt in my mind that the George had the Blackfyre thing worked out as he wrote Clash...

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The noise receded as she moved deeper into the castle, never daring to look back for fear that Joffrey might be watching . . . or worse, following. The serpentine steps twisted ahead, striped by bars of flickering light from the narrow windows above. Sansa was panting by the time she reached the top. She ran down a shadowy colonnade and pressed herself against a wall to catch her breath. When something brushed against her leg, she almost jumped out of her skin, but it was only a cat, a ragged black tom with a chewed-off ear. The creature spit at her and leapt away.

By the time she reached the godswood, the noises had faded to a faint rattle of steel and a distant shouting. Sansa pulled her cloak tighter. The air was rich with the smells of earth and leaf. Lady would have liked this place, she thought. There was something wild about a godswood; even here, in the heart of the castle at the heart of the city, you could feel the old gods watching with a thousand unseen eyes.

Sansa II, Clash 18