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Ser Barristan's secrets


JoannaL

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At the end of the last Daenerys chapter in ASOS Ser Barristan is pardoned (and Ser Jorah is not ) and while Dany is still in a rather depressed mood Ser Barristan comes and offers to reveal any of Aerys secrets since now she is his heir (and he is in her service).

He sought her out actively here and at the first possible moment so I think he thinks he has some important knowledge which she should have.

What secrets could that be?

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I would bet that there are a great many secrets Ser Barristan could reveal about Aerys II and the targs who came before, though his approach toward Dany may have been a comforting gesture more than anything.

Dany had just sent away her closest friend and protector, one who who knew her before her rise to power and who saw the birth of her dragons with all of the horror that went along with it. Dany had a lot of stuff wrapped up in and around Ser Jorah, and perhaps symbolized to her the home she was trying to reach.

I think Selmy knew that it was very hard for her to send Mormont away and wanted to comfort her with knowledge that Jorah simply could not provide her. Or maybe he wanted to help her learn to rule.

Either way she wasn't ready for whatever he came to offer.

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Barristan was one of the Kingsguard of Aerys and the royal family. He must know some of the darker secrets maybe even some concerning why his lord commander, arthur dayne, and whent were not on the field of battle. Maybe he knows why Eddard Stark returned with a child from Dorne. My theory is Barristan will play a large role informing Dany that her nephew his currently the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch the place where she will win her kingdom.

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In all probability, Barristan will provide the background for Dany to become a benign ruler. He served with Robert- by his own admission, despite his loyalty, he could not support Aerys nor his apple-from-the-tree heir Viserys. Dany needs to hear the justifications for the rebellion. She has the right to the throne by birth, but the rebellious lords, despite what Viserys taught her, were not wrong to rebel, and she needs to reconcile these truths.

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I think the depth and depravity of her father's psychosis will have to come out sooner or later. and while Selmy will present a relatively honest assesment of his former lieges he is gonna spin how much of a bitch Cersei is (not to hard to do) and explain- to a degree at least, what actually went down with R+L

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But if Barristan knows that R+L=J, if it does, why does he go to Dany when he is let go from the Kingsguard? Jon comes before her in the Targaryen succession. Drogo (the poster on this board, not the character in the novels) suggests that Barristan knows who Ned's bastard son is, in which case it probably wouldn't be too hard for a man respected as much as Barristan is to find out where he is. I'm not convinced that Barristan knows all this, however. He's not one of the KG Ned and his friends fight at the Tower of Joy, which may mean that he didn't know about anything that might have been going on there.

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In all probability, Barristan will provide the background for Dany to become a benign ruler. He served with Robert- by his own admission, despite his loyalty, he could not support Aerys nor his apple-from-the-tree heir Viserys. Dany needs to hear the justifications for the rebellion. She has the right to the throne by birth, but the rebellious lords, despite what Viserys taught her, were not wrong to rebel, and she needs to reconcile these truths.

This is what i saw it his offer as too. Which was a dissapointing point for Dany in that she turned away from the truth of her family once again. Hopefully in ADWD she'll have the courage to face this.

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I assumed Jon was a bastard son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. This would keep Dany in the next in succession, unless he was legitimized. Also even if Jon was the heir, he has taken the black, Barristan would probably assume that he couldn't take the throne. Also Dany has the dragons, the one with the dragons always has a better Targ throne claim then the one without, after all the dragon and it's characteristics is the basis of their house.

ledo

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He can provide background info about the people of Westeros, some of the reasons behind Robert's rebellion, people that might support her now, and the dealings inside of Kings landing. Also, being the commander of the KG he should have known about some of the secrets passages inside of the Red Keep.

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I was stupidly forgetting Jon's NW vow. Idiot! (me, not Jon).

I do think it likely, though, that Jon is legitimate since Rhaegar apparently stationed three of the KG at the Tower of Joy instead of taking them with him to the Trident or adding them to the protection around Elia and their children. I think it's more likely he'd do these things for a legitimate child than for a bastard. I also think Martin would enjoy putting Jon in the position of having to face the same decision Maester Aemon faced long ago.

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I was stupidly forgetting Jon's NW vow. Idiot! (me, not Jon).

I do think it likely, though, that Jon is legitimate since Rhaegar apparently stationed three of the KG at the Tower of Joy instead of taking them with him to the Trident or adding them to the protection around Elia and their children. I think it's more likely he'd do these things for a legitimate child than for a bastard. I also think Martin would enjoy putting Jon in the position of having to face the same decision Maester Aemon faced long ago.

I think Rhaegar is honorable enough that if the woman he loved and his son, legitimate or not were in danger of being taken from him, and his son possibly killed he would put someone to protect them even the KG, especially if the woman he loved asked him to. I bet Lyanna would be pretty eager to protect the child in her womb. Woman can be pretty persuasive to the men that love them.

Ledo

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Barristan confirmed that he knows something about Rhaegar. And he surely knows many things about Aerys as well. He told specifically about secrets so he knows some things that were hidden from everybody else. Jaime was KG only for two years and all the rest are dead.

He surely would reveal the secrets he knows in ADWD but we so far could only guess about the things he knows.

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I cannot wait to hear from him about

- What happened in Summerhall ~40 years ago

- All other crazy stuff Aerys did, and how/why he became so crazy over years of his ruling

- All about Varys at Aerys's small court... what he was doing and why he doesn't trust Varys (while Varys currently seems to be working for Targ and/or will of Rhaegar/following prophecy/against Others)

- All about Rhaegar and his prophecy

- Some more stories on Aerys and Tywin

- Some stories of young Jaime & Arthur Dayne

- His version of story on tournament at Harrenhal and KotLT

- His version of story on Rhaegar, Elia and Lyanna triangle

- His explanation on why Arthur Dayne and 2 other KG were missing from Trident/KL

(edit) Also it would be interesting to hear about Aerys-Rhaegar relationships. Barristan would know about "changes" Rhaegar was talking to Jaime before he (and Barristan) headed to the Trident.

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Barristan could know what happened at Summerhall.

I don't think that what happened at Summerhall is any sort of state secret. Many of the characters seem to know what happened there, it's just the readers that are left in the dark. "I gorged on grief at Summerhall" from Jenny of Oldstones or "My brothers had dreams of dragons, and that destroyed them, everyone," Aemon, to Sam, I believe, and either Stannis or Davos said something along the lines of "Did we learn nothing from Summerhall?" in response to Mel's plans to wake dragons from stone. The last quote is particularly telling, because neither of them had a personal relationship with any of the people killed at Summerhall, implying that it was more common knowledge. Frankly, any event that killed the king, his son, and Lord Commander would be fairly notorious across all Seven Kingdoms, I'd think.

Barristan's secrets may have to do with Rheagar and his prophecies, and perhaps Aerys's plan to incinerate Kingslanding. He may also know something secret about Targ family history and some powers hidden at the Dragonstone, but that's just raw speculation on my part.

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Barristan Selmy has a good bit of truth for Dany, interesting to see how she reacts to it. Ultimately for Dany to succeed she needs to understand why Aerys failed. I think she needs to understand that Aerys and Rhaegar shredded the social contract and that regardless of how it ended, Stark, Baratheon and Arryn had every right and reason to rebel.

Fealty is a two way street, which I don't think many seem to understand.

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...either Stannis or Davos said something along the lines of "Did we learn nothing from Summerhall?" in response to Mel's plans to wake dragons from stone.

I think that was Alester Florent to Davos, in the dungeon on Dragonstone.

Barristan's secrets may have to do with Rheagar and his prophecies, and perhaps Aerys's plan to incinerate Kingslanding. He may also know something secret about Targ family history and some powers hidden at the Dragonstone, but that's just raw speculation on my part.

If Barristan can simply shed light on the reasons for the rebellion, I think he's done a great deal. Dany needs to know the Usurper and his dogs weren't simply upstarts. There was indeed a justified reason behind their rebellion. Not that they handled everything right, but the same can be said of Rhaegar, who was apparently too busy to check his insane father.

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