Has anyone ever considered this about Rhaegar?

[iyce eyes]

Everyone assumes Azor Ahai story talks about a hero killing his wife to make a sword. It is in fact about a guy losing his wife giving birth to a “dragon”(a metaphorical dragon ofcourse) .

Check this passage of Azor Ahai prophecy:

“And Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel.” (A Song of Ice and Fire)

I always found the moon cracking part a little bit out of place and wondered why it has been mentioned there. Now, compare it to this story where Danny’s handmaids tell Danny about the creation of the dragons:

Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.” Moon is no goddess, moon is a woman wife of sun! (Doreah ,A Song of Ice and Fire)

This is actually one of the few scenes that book and the movie are exactly the same (check it out):

 

From these two it can be assumed that the advent of the dragons had something to do with the long night’s end and timewise it does make sense. According to the world of ice and fire the long night ended almost exactly before the rise of Valyria.

 

Now the interesting part in handmaids’ conversation is that “Moon is no goddess, moon is a woman wife of sun!” Doreah mentions this and the rest of handmaids confirm this is known. This statement results in the prophecy being about a man and woman giving birth to a dragon. And I think this is the prophecy Rhaegar read in the old scripts.

The story of Rhaegar’s life is consistent with Azor Ahai’s prophecy as well. According to the world of ice and fire Steffon Baratheon (Robert Baratheon’s) father was sent to Volantis to find Rhaegar a pure blood bride but his ship was sank while returning (Water breaking the Sword in Aor Ahai Story). Tywin Lannister brought Cersi to court to have her married to Rhaegar but Aerys the mad king did not permit Tywin to present Cersi (Lion and sword breaking again). It even looks like Rhaegar wanted to fulfill the prophecy by getting married to a feeble and delicate bride. There has been no mention of Rhaegar being in love with Elia. Check out this passage:

"You saw my brother Rhaegar wed. Tell me, did he wed for love or duty?"

The old knight hesitated. "Princess Elia was a good woman, Your Grace. She was kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit. I know the prince was very fond of her."

Fond, thought Dany. The word spoke volumes.” (Ser Barristan Selmy, A Feast for Crows)

Aerys was against the marriage and Rhaegar did not exactly love her and the only mention of her in the books is about her having health problems. It seems Rhaegar just married her for the prophecy to be fulfilled.  

I also think Rhaegar Targaryen is the Night King. My reasoning for this goes back to the “Bael the Bard” or “The winter rose”, a story Ygrittetells Jon snow:

 

According to free folk legend, Lord Brandon Stark, the liege of the north, once called Bael a coward. To take revenge for this affront and prove his courage, Bael climbed the Wall, took the kingsroad, and entered Winterfell under the guise of a singer named Sygerrik of Skagos. ("Sygerrik" means "deceiver" in the Old Tongue.) There, he sang until midnight for the lord.

Impressed by his skills as a singer, Lord Stark asked Bael what he wanted as a reward, but he requested only the most beautiful flower blooming in Winterfell's gardens. As the blue winter roses were just blooming, Brandon Stark presented him with one. The following morning, the maiden daughter of Lord Stark had disappeared, his only child, and in her bed was the blue winter rose.

Lord Brandon sent the members of the Night's Watch looking for them beyond the Wall, but they never found Bael or the girl. The Stark line was on the verge of extinction, when one day the girl was back in her room, holding in her arms an infant: they had actually never left Winterfell, staying hidden in the crypts. Bael's bastard with Brandon's daughter became the new Lord Stark.

Thirty years later, Bael was King-Beyond-the-Wall and led the wildlings' army south, and he had to fight his own son at the Frozen Ford. There, incapable of killing his own blood, he let himself be killed by Lord Stark. His son brought back Bael's head to Winterfell, and his mother who had loved the bard, seeing the trophy, killed herself by leaping from the top of a tower.

Usually theories around this story assume this is about Mance Rayder (especially him disguising himself as ABLE when he goes to Ramsey’s wedding (A dance with Dragons)) but let’s see what are Bael’s characteristics:

1. He was a skilled Harp player and singer.

3. He secretly and rapidly seduced a Stark daughter with whom he disappeared.

4. She reappeared a year later with his son.

5. Many years after that, he became King beyond the Wall.

6. He eventually gathered a great host and confronted his half-Stark son (the primary leader of the opposing forces) on a frozen battlefield.

7. They met face-to-face, and Bael found himself unable to kill his son.

8. His son, instead, kills him.

There are numerous bits in both the books and the movie that associate Lyanna Stark with the blue rose. Hence, it is very safe to assume if there is a winter rose it would be Lynna. This would make Rhaegar Bael the Bard!

This story is important since it is not only talking about the past it is also a prophecy about what will happen later on. Rhaegar happens to fill every description in this story. Based on Ser Barirstan he was one of the best harpists and singers in Westeros. He stole rose of Winterfell and disappeared and she reappeared with a son almost a year later. This might not be as important but whenever ser Barristan wants to describe him he starts with” Rhaegar was ABLE” and we know GRRM likes this kind of word play (refer to Barristan introducing himself Arstan and BEAL becoming ABLE for Mance…)  From now on the story seems to foretell what’s to come. The real king beyond the wall is the night king and based on this story Rhaegar has somehow turned into him (another strange fact about Rhaegar is his corpse is almost the only corpse in the story that seems to be missing without a purpose and the other fact of emphasizing on the Rubies he was wearing at the Ruby ford and ruby being the gem used for disguise both by Mance and Melisandre) . We even have had a couple of scenes in the movie where night king saw Jon and did not attempt to go for the kill. If these assumptions are correct it seems the end game will be Jon Snow killing the night King.    

 

I have added the story of Azor Ahai and Bael below:

Azor Ahai:

 

said Salladhor Saan, "and be glad of that, my friend. Do you know the tale of the forging of Lightbringer? I shall tell it to you. It was a time when darkness lay heavy on the world. To oppose it, the hero must have a hero's blade, oh, like none that had ever been. And so for thirty days and thirty nights Azor Ahai labored sleepless in the temple, forging a blade in the sacred fires. Heat and hammer and fold, heat and hammer and fold, oh, yes, until the sword was done. Yet when he plunged it into water to temper the steel it burst asunder.

Being a hero, it was not for him to shrug and go in search of excellent grapes such as these, so again he began. The second time it took him fifty days and fifty nights, and this sword seemed even finer than the first. Azor Ahai captured a lion, to temper the blade by plunging it through the beast's red heart, but once more the steel shattered and split. Great was his woe and great was his sorrow then, for he knew what he must do. Being a hero, it was not for him to shrug and go in search of excellent grapes such as these, so again he began. The second time it took him fifty days and fifty nights, and this sword seemed even finer than the first. Azor Ahai captured a lion, to temper the blade by plunging it through the beast's red heart, but once more the steel shattered and split. Great was his woe and great was his sorrow then, for he knew what he must do. A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. 'Nissa Nissa,' he said to her, for that was her name, 'bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world.' She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

 

 

 

 

Bael The Bard

 

She smiled again, a flash of white teeth. “And she never sung you the song o’ the winter rose?”
“I never knew my mother. Or any such song.”
“Bael the Bard made it,” said Ygritte. “He was King-beyond-the-Wall a long time back. All the free folk know his songs, but might be you don’t sing them in the south.”
“Winterfell’s not in the south,” Jon objected.
“Yes it is. Everything below the Wall’s south to us.”
He had never thought of it that way. “I suppose it’s all in where you’re standing.”
“Aye,” Ygritte agreed. “It always is.”
...
The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says… though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote. Be that as it may, what’s certain is that Bael left the child in payment for the rose he’d plucked unasked, and that the boy grew to be the next Lord Stark. So there it is—you have Bael’s blood in you, same as me.”
“It never happened,” Jon said.
She shrugged. “Might be it did, might be it didn’t. It is a good song, though. My mother used to sing it to me. She was a woman too, Jon Snow. Like yours.” She rubbed her throat where his dirk had cut her. “The song ends when they find the babe, but there is a darker end to the story. Thirty years later, when Bael was King-beyond-the-Wall and led the free folk south, it was young Lord Stark who met him at the Frozen Ford… and killed him, for Bael would not harm his own son when they met sword to sword.”
“So the son slew the father instead,” said Jon…

[Lady Winter Rose]

I think you were sensible untill you mention Rhaegar is the Night King.

 

I really like idea of Azor Ahai's wife dying at childbirth & birthing dragons.