Marwyn Targaryen

[Only 89 selfies today]

No, not really.  But he cannot be trusted by the Citadel.  The list of reasons or possible reasons are:

1. He comes from a house traditionally loyal to the Targaryens.
2. His open belief in magic is a direct affront to the teachings of the maesters.
3. Past behavior.  Something Marwyn did in the past raised doubts about his loyalties to the Citadel.

It can be one or all of those.  What did he do you might ask to raise questions concerning his loyalty?  Perhaps he was the maester on duty at Dragonstone when Daenerys Stormborn was born.  He helped Willem Darry escape with the children.  I would expect he and Alleras are not the only dragon supporters within the walls of the citadel.

[Seams]

I suspect that some of our Marwyn clues are going to come from the Maggie the Frog / House Spicer / House Westerling story line. He may be an upjumped spice merchant in some way, shape or form.

On the spice theme, the ship on which he travels is called the Cinnamon Wind. Of course, the same ship brought Sam and Gilly to Oldtown. I think we are supposed to compare Marwyn and Sam, so it is appropriate that they would travel on the same ship. (But does it mean something that they travel in opposite directions?) Maybe we will find that Gilly fits in the maegi tradition with Maggie the Frog and Mirri Maz Duur (and Taena Merryweather?) so her travels on a spice ship would also fit with the parallel to the spice family.

Marwyn helped Mirri Maz Duur to learn magic and I believe they were also lovers at some point. Because Mirri's role in Dany's arc could be seen as destructive, I don't find a clear path for Marwyn as a Targaryen loyalist. Maybe he loved dragons or he is interested in some other aspect of the prophecy that consumer Rhaegar and fascinated Maester Aemon. It will be interesting to see whether he is traveling to Dany with his own agenda.

Marwyn is called a mastiff, but a number of characters are compared to mastiffs and there are actual mastiffs in ASOIAF. I wonder whether this passage will tell us something about Marwyn's future role, or whether it alludes to a different mastiff association:

Quote

Eleven men, two boys, and a dozen dogs crossed the moat. Beyond the outer wall, the tracks were plain to read in the soft ground; the pawprints of the wolves, Hodor's heavy tread, the shallower marks left by the feet of the two Reeds. Once under the trees, the stony ground and fallen leaves made the trail harder to see, but by then Farlen's red bitch had the scent. The rest of the dogs were close behind, the hounds sniffing and barking, a pair of monstrous mastiffs bringing up the rear. Their size and ferocity might make the difference against a cornered direwolf. (ACoK, Theon IV)

[Lord Varys]

He could be a descendant from one of the Targaryen-Hightowers, i.e. one of the six daughters of Rhaena Targaryen and Garmund Hightower.

But he could just as well just be some guy with an interest in magic.

[Alyn Oakenfist]

Actually he's Shiera Seastar, that always seems to be the final explanation to these theories

[Tai Pan]

He doesn't buy into the Citadel's dogmatic way of looking at the world.  So they want to build a world based on "science."  It's about control.  What they consider "science" gives them control.  It's a narrow lens from which to see their world because magic is a science on a planet where it exists.  They knew it exists and yet they want to hide it from the curriculum and their culture.  Those who disagree are not tolerated.  But we have to ask why Marwyn was tolerated.  Marwyn is the head of the Pro-Targaryen underground party and Alleras is one of his trusted disciples. 

Marwyn's arrival in Meereen will be greeted with understandable suspicion but I would not expect conflict.  Daenerys is eager for knowledge and will give him a chance to prove his intentions.  I am equally interested in Gilly's arrival in Meereen.  I hope she does get accidentally shipped to Meereen, along with the wildling babe and Aemon's remains. 

[Aebram]

Marwyn is my favorite character. He's an intellectual, but he doesn't just sit in his Tower reading about others' discoveries; he goes out into the world to discover things for himself. I expect him to play an important part in the story.

But I think you jumped to a conclusion that isn't justified by the text. He knows that magic is real, and that the Citadel is trying to suppress all magical knowledge. But that's different from the politics; it doesn't mean that he will support putting a Targaryen on the Iron Throne. I think his interest in the dragons is more related to the coming of the Long Night and the battle against the Others.

There is that one line where he says

Ask yourself why Aemon Targaryen was allowed to waste his life upon the Wall, when by rights he should have been raised to archmaester. His blood was why. He could not be trusted. No more than I can.

This does seem to imply that he might have some Targaryen blood, but it's not conclusive.

[Big P]

He's too old to be a bastard son of Aerys but he could still carry Targaryen blood from many generations back. 

[The Lord of the Crossing]

He wasn't murdered.  It means he's not considered a big threat.  He is distrusted but not feared.  He can't be closely related to Aerys then.