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R + L = J v. 127


JonCon's Red Beard

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Not trying to be funny, but did people really come away from from the books with the idea that those classic Targaryen looks are universal and dominant?



We know that those looks are shared by a very small number (I think only Rhaegar, Dany and Viserys are described in the main book, excluding the dubious Aegon?) of Targs who are unusually inbred even for Targs, being the three siblings of an incestuous Targ marriage. The whole point of that inbreeding is to try to preserve those precious Targ genes and not have them too diluted, which the Targs are obviously very concerned about. Wouldn't that hint that the Targ seed is not exactly dominant? 'Cos otherwise they wouldn't be so worried, right?



It honestly never even occurred to me that this would even be a notion until I started reading this board. The obvious interpretation to me -- purely from the main books -- was that Targ/Non-Targs most often didn't look Targish, or after 300 years there would be a lot more Targ looks around, and a lot less incest. The ones that do look Targish are the special cases who get all the attention ("look! He's special!"), or the ones too in-bred to lose those looks.


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Then why does Ashara Dayne have purple eyes? She's not Targaryen.The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes. It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face.

There is evidence in the books that non-Targs can have purple eyes, eg Daario.

However, given Ned Dayne's silver hair and purple eyes, it could be that there is a Targ in the Dayne family tree.

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There is evidence in the books that non-Targs can have purple eyes, eg Daario.

However, given Ned Dayne's silver hair and purple eyes, it could be that there is a Targ in the Dayne family tree.

Except for Martin saying that there wasn't.

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There is evidence in the books that non-Targs can have purple eyes, eg Daario.

However, given Ned Dayne's silver hair and purple eyes, it could be that there is a Targ in the Dayne family tree.

Daario has blue eyes.

"and he has blue eyes..."

(Daenerys III, ASOS)

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There is evidence in the books that non-Targs can have purple eyes, eg Daario.

However, given Ned Dayne's silver hair and purple eyes, it could be that there is a Targ in the Dayne family tree.

When did "And his hair was a pale blond, more ash than honey," become silver? (ASoS p. 595)

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I have blues eyes too, violet blue. Momma says they're purdy. "Bats eyes and makes horrendously ugly face." I'm a Tergaran Danish, mmmmmmmm danish.

Or you're a swaggering sellsword with inappropriate swords. Either or.

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I honestly don't understand what point you are making. If I were writing a series with a big mystery regarding a character's parents, such as RLJ, I would do exactly what you are describing. I would have all the information suggest that if someone is a Targ, that person will have certain looks. I would then show other examples of where children might take after one parent or the other (e.g., the Stark children) to establish the possibility that a child may take after either parent (except for the Baratheon/Lannister situation where "the seed is strong"--another potential misdirect regarding the Targ situation). This information would keep most readers from considering that Jon might have a Targ parent.

Then, when RLJ is revealed, the reader realizes that he or she was not thinking the situation through carefully enough and discounted an obvious possibility.

Thus, your description is 100% consistent with RLJ. It does not preclude RLJ, but intentionally misleads many if not most readers not to consider RLJ as a possibility. This approach is a classic literary approach, and one that GRRM certainly employs over and over again. He absolutely loves to mislead the readers as long as in retrospect the readers know they were not actually lied to--just misdirected.

The point I am making is that it goes beyond misdirection. GRRM is very good at the kind of misdirection you are talking about, but this is an instance where he went too far.

I read The Hedge Knight before AGOT. In THK, GRRM casually introduces Baelor's Dornish looks. Then in AGOT he goes to great lengths to emphasize the Targ looks at the same time a laying out the "seed is strong" stuff. It is very jarring.

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You are right. They are "deep blue, almost purple" in ADWD. Isn't "ash" a shade of silver? In contrast to honey, which is gold?

And in ASOS Dany thinks about how "his eyes were almost purple today" but almost purple = / purple is the point I'm getting at since you first said that Daario had actual purple eyes.

And ash is closer to silver than gold but the way I udnerstand it, Targ silver hair is very silver...like you won't call it "dirty silver" like ash would be

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Lysono Maar has lilac eyes.

Nope. The oficial color for crackpot is yellow. Lemon yellow.

Yeah but they have such a great name now, the Illemonati, which sucks cause I want to be an Illemonati, it's like they are searching for hidden treasure but it's lemons instead, and it's all secret society like, and they probably have cool yellow outfits, but I hear they only take blondes, which is discrimination. I bet they have lemon cakes and lemon heads, and lemonade, and all sorts of good stuff.

All we got is John Stamos and all he has is yogurt with the consistancy of paste and Full House. It's like hell but with fruit at the bottom.

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