Gerold Dayne

[Littlefinger's crewman]

I think that Gerold Dayne, the black star, is a very interesting character who still have to play a role in the story. He hasn' t  showed what he could do yet. Are we going to see him again? What role is he going to play?

[Euron Lannister]

i think its 100% sure he will show up again.

I don't know what his role will be, but i could imagine, that the whole "he cut (f)myrcella" thing was a lie and he was the only one who did not betray arianne

[Makk]

I think he is probably Doran's informer and he is going to be the new Oberyn. I think there is a high chance Dorne is going to have a civil war with some of the population wanting to support fAegon and the rest wanting to support Daenerys and he will be a reasonably important figure in that. First of all though I think he is going to kill Balon Swann.

 

11 minutes ago, Euron Lannister said:

I don't know what his role will be, but i could imagine, that the whole "he cut (f)myrcella" thing was a lie and he was the only one who did not betray arianne

Don't we virtually know that it wasn't a lie because Arianne saw Myrcella afterwards? And Balon saw her as well.

[Euron Lannister]

1 minute ago, Makk said:

Don't we virtually know that it wasn't a lie because Arianne saw Myrcella afterwards? And Balon saw her as well.

what does this change? it could still be a lie, and most likely is

[Dorian Martell's son]

54 minutes ago, Littlefinger's crewman said:

I think that Gerold Dayne, the black star, is a very interesting character who still have to play a role in the story. He hasn' t  showed what he could do yet. Are we going to see him again? What role is he going to play?

If you used the search function, you could have participated in the plethora of threads already discussing this 

[Howlin' Howland]

His physical description in AFFC is nearly two thirds of a page long which I think makes it the longest initial description of any character in ASOIAF.  Silver hair, black where it parts.  Purple eyes that look black in the dark.  An aqueline nose.  GRRM uses unusual physical descriptions to hint at unexpected ancestry.  And Doran calling Gerold the most dangerous man in Dorne almost certainly has a double meaning.  He'll be back and I expect some conspiracies to surround him.

[Makk]

55 minutes ago, Euron Lannister said:

what does this change? it could still be a lie, and most likely is

Before I answer this I need to know what exactly you are claiming.

That Arrianne does not know who the real Myrcella is?

Or that Arrianne did not see exactly who cut Myrcella and assumed it was Darkstar when it wasn't?

Or that Arianne's thoughts, which we get to see, are written in a way to trick us? 

[divica]

22 minutes ago, Howlin' Howland said:

His physical description in AFFC is nearly two thirds of a page long which I think makes it the longest initial description of any character in ASOIAF.  Silver hair, black where it parts.  Purple eyes that look black in the dark.  An aqueline nose.  GRRM uses unusual physical descriptions to hint at unexpected ancestry.  And Doran calling Gerold the most dangerous man in Dorne almost certainly has a double meaning.  He'll be back and I expect some conspiracies to surround him.

Given all that we know what possible conspiracies can there be about him?

Another secret targ? a bastard from aerys? rhaegar's first son (some unknown bastard when he was very young)?

I think dark stark would be more dangerous if he had a claim to dorne. THAT woul be interesting...

[Euron Lannister]

11 minutes ago, Makk said:

That Arrianne does not know who the real Myrcella is?

Or that Arrianne did not see exactly who cut Myrcella and assumed it was Darkstar when it wasn't?

Or that Arianne's thoughts, which we get to see, are written in a way to trick us? 

all three of them, while my comment was focused on the second.

[divica]

1 minute ago, Euron Lannister said:

all three of them, while my comment was focused on the second.

That isn t completly irrelevant.

It might prove doran is plotting to kill darkstar. 

And why would he do it if he wasn t a danger for him and his familly?

[Alexis-something-Rose]

6 minutes ago, divica said:

Given all that we know what possible conspiracies can there be about him?

Another secret targ? a bastard from aerys? rhaegar's first son (some unknown bastard when he was very young)?

I think dark stark would be more dangerous if he had a claim to dorne. THAT woul be interesting...

He doesn't have to have a secret identity to be dangerous. Maybe he knows things he has no business knowing. That would make him very dangerous. There are things going on in Dorne that smell of civil war. Gerold Dayne might pose a direct threat to Martell. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

2 hours ago, Littlefinger's crewman said:

I think that Gerold Dayne, the black star, is a very interesting character who still have to play a role in the story. He hasn' t  showed what he could do yet. Are we going to see him again? What role is he going to play?

Darkstar is a Brightflame. 

[divica]

1 minute ago, Widow's Watch said:

He doesn't have to have a secret identity to be dangerous. Maybe he knows things that are dangerous, that he has no business knowing. 

But given the 16 years of peace what could darkstar know? Did he spy on doran or read his letters? how could he do that?

I don t think anyone has ever said that darkstar has a network of spies so whatever he learned was because he was the one to obtain that info.... So what could it possibly be?

[Howlin' Howland]

17 minutes ago, divica said:

Given all that we know what possible conspiracies can there be about him?

Another secret targ? a bastard from aerys? rhaegar's first son (some unknown bastard when he was very young)?

I think dark stark would be more dangerous if he had a claim to dorne. THAT woul be interesting...

The best theory that I've seen is that he was Arthur Dayne's squire at the Tower of Joy (which means he knows R+L=J).  But that doesn't explain why his physical description was important.

[Alexis-something-Rose]

3 minutes ago, divica said:

But given the 16 years of peace what could darkstar know? Did he spy on doran or read his letters? how could he do that?

I don t think anyone has ever said that darkstar has a network of spies so whatever he learned was because he was the one to obtain that info.... So what could it possibly be?

He could have found out something accidentally and confronted Doran with it. 

But I'm more on the side that Doran is expecting Gerold to rid him of Balon Swann.

[divica]

9 minutes ago, Howlin' Howland said:

The best theory that I've seen is that he was Arthur Dayne's squire at the Tower of Joy (which means he knows R+L=J).  But that doesn't explain why his physical description was important.

That doesn t explain why doran thinks he is the most dangerous man in dorne because doran doesn t know about R+L=J.

[divica]

9 minutes ago, Widow's Watch said:

He could have found out something accidentally and confronted Doran with it. 

But I'm more on the side that Doran is expecting Gerold to rid him of Balon Swann.

It doesn t really explain why he thinks gerold is the most dangerous man in dorne and doran could have used several ways to kill balon once he arrived in sunspear.

I think it makes more sense to thinnk he wants to make darkstar an enemy of the crown and if possible kill him.

In regards to gerold finding something. It is so abstract at the moment that it might be true or not...

I think it is easier that he is the bastard between a martell and dayne and by dornish law mught have a claim to dorne...

[Howlin' Howland]

16 minutes ago, divica said:

That doesn t explain why doran thinks he is the most dangerous man in dorne because doran doesn t know about R+L=J.

Why don't you think Doran knows R+L=J?  The Daynes named the heir to their house Edrick.  Given that Ned had killed Arthur Dayne and Ashara Dayne killed herself (supposedly) after talking to Ned why on earth would they have named the heir to their house after Ned?   And why would Edrick have thought it was important that he let Arya know that he and Jon were milk brothers?  That only makes sense if the Daynes knew R+L=J and if they knew that it's likely that Doran did too.

[Makk]

38 minutes ago, Euron Lannister said:

all three of them, while my comment was focused on the second.

Lots of quotes available to answer all three of them fully and I don't really have time. I'll focus on the second point since that is what you were talking about but briefly touch on the other points as well.

Arrianne has had a relatively long relationship with Myrcella and she knows the girl well. We have direct conversation with her and I find the fact a ten year child imposter would not answer questions in the manner she did. Further Arys Oakheart would not have embarked on this mission leaving the real Myrcella behind.

Anyway regardless of whether it was the real Myrcella who got cut or not (and I definitely believe it was), I am convinced it was Dayne who did the cutting.

This is the description of the incident

Quote

The white knight raised his blade, too slowly. Hotah's longaxe took his right arm off at the shoulder, spun away spraying blood, and came flashing back again in a terrible two-handed slash that removed the head of Arys Oakheart and sent it spinning through the air. It landed amongst the reeds, and the Greenblood swallowed the red with a soft splash.

Arianne did not remember climbing from her horse. Perhaps she'd fallen. She did not remember that either. Yet she found herself on her hands and feet in the sand, shaking and sobbing and retching up her supper. No, was all that she could think, no, no one was to be hurt, it was all planned, I was so careful. She heard Areo Hotah roar, "After him. He must not escape. After him!" Myrcella was on the ground, wailing, shaking, her pale face in her hands, blood streaming through her fingers. Arianne did not understand. Men were scrambling onto horses whilst others swarmed over her and her companions, but none of it made sense. She had fallen into a dream, some terrible red nightmare. This cannot be real. I will wake soon, and laugh at my night terrors.

It is written in such a way that could possibly support your argument, she was on the ground with memory loss and not a clear picture of the scene in the key moments immediately after Arys had been decapitated. What we do know from this however is that Myrcella had her ear cut off at this point of time. It was not one of Areo's men as Myrcella was behind them.

 

Quote

"Timoth," she tried, another day, "what has become of Princess Myrcella? I never meant for harm to come to her." The last she had seen of the other princess had been on their ride back to Sunspear. Too weak to sit a horse, Myrcella had traveled in a litter, her head bound up in silken bandages where Darkstar slashed at her, her green eyes bright with fever. "Tell me that she has not died, I beg you. What harm could come of my knowing that? Tell me how she fares." Timoth would not.

Quote

Finally, she crawled back onto the featherbed. The world had grown dark, and there was little she could do but sleep. Someone told, she thought. Someone told. Garin, Drey, and Spotted Sylva were friends of her girlhood, as dear to her as her cousin Tyene. She could not believe they would inform on her . . . but that left only Darkstar, and if he was the betrayer, why had he turned his sword on poor Myrcella? He wanted to kill her instead of crowning her, he said as much at Shandystone. He said that was how I'd get the war I wanted. But it made no sense for Dayne to be the traitor. If Ser Gerold had been the worm in the apple, why would he have turned his sword upon Myrcella?
 

Both of these quotes are similar and occur before she speaks to Doran or anyone else after being imprisoned. She has travelled back to Sunspear and had the opportunity to talk off page however. She already believes it was Darkstar who did the cutting with absolutely no doubt. He father later confirms exactly the same scenario adding her horse shied away at the last minute. 

Quote

Arianne was almost afraid to ask. "Myrcella. Is she . . . ?"

". . . dead? No, though Darkstar did his best. All eyes were on your white knight so no one seems quite certain just what happened, but it would appear that her horse shied away from his at the last instant, else he would have taken off the top of the girl's skull. As it is, the slash opened her cheek down to the bone and sliced off her right ear. Maester Caleotte was able to save her life, but no poultice nor potion will ever restore her face. She was my ward, Arianne. Betrothed to your own brother and under my protection. You have dishonored all of us."

Now for your theory to hold it meant one of Garin, Drey or Sylva would have needed to do the cutting while instantly forming the plan, along with all Areo's men, to tell Arrianne a falsehood about who cut her. But they would have needed to invent that on the fly because they could not have planned around the intangibles of Arys Oakheart's action, Arrianne having a moment when she didn't know what was going on and realising that, nor Darkstar himself. That meant it couldn't have been preconceived, and I struggle to believe any of them would have the authority to make such a plan on the fly. Note that they only wanted to scar her, and you haven't presented any reason why, and not kill her since they could have done on the way back. You are also claiming that this plan did not involve capturing the dangerous Darkstar as a priority.

Your theory becomes even more stretched when Arrianne is used to speak to Myrcella (or the girl without the ear if you insist) to convince her to lie to Balon Swann. You are now claiming that either she is in on it as well or she didn't know who it was that cut her.

I'm afraid I can't see any evidence at all to support your claim or any motivation about why they would do it.

Just to support the last of the three points, you have quotes out of winds

Spoiler

The cost of her folly had been dear. Drey had been sent across the world to Norvos, Garin exiled to Tyrosh for two years, her sweet silly smiling Slyva married off to Eldon Estermont, a man old enough to be her grandsire. Ser Arys had paid with his life's blood, Myrcella with an ear.

Only Ser Gerold Dayne had escaped unscathed. Darkstar. If Myrcella's horse had not shied at the last instant, his longsword would have opened her from chest to waist instead just taking off her ear. Dayne was her most grievous sin, the one that Arianne most regretted. With one stroke of his sword, he had changed her botched plot into something foul and bloody. If the gods were good, by now Obara Sand had treed him in his mountain fastness and put an end to him.

She still fully believes it was Darkstar and her thoughts are in no way ambiguous. 

[LiveFirstDieLater]

I didn’t lend any credence to the “Darkstar didn’t hurt Myrcella” theory... but why does the direction of his cut change from Dance to Winds? Almost took her head off, vs almost opened her up vertically? Strange...

Anybody else think he is the child of Lewyn Martell and his paramour?