A Fly in the Spider's Web: Jon Connington

[Seams]

On 7/18/2020 at 4:19 AM, Lollygag said:

I'm totally on board with the Jon/Ned parallel. Note they're both bad at the game, too. Instead of Ned/Varys, I think the parallel is Ned/LF. LF outright told Ned to not trust him, yet Ned did exactly that despite not trusting him nor even liking him. LF may also be a better parallel in that LF wanted Cat badly, but Ned got her. Unrequited love triangle. Maybe there's some parallel LF/Cat/Ned to Varys/Rhaegar/Jon?

I think this may be a very useful insight. Jon Connington is similar to Ned, but he is also similar to Littlefinger:

• (After a fashion) He pines for his first and only love, Catelyn Stark, who was betrothed to House Stark. Connington pines for Rhaegar. Like Rhaegar, Catelyn dies over or in the Trident River.
• Just as Connington is raising Rhaegar's child, Littlefinger is "raising" Catelyn's child as his own, including using hair dye to hide the child's identity.
• Littlefinger seems to have a complicated rivalry with Varys. (Connington's feelings about Varys motivated this thread.) I keep thinking about the dragonbone-handle dagger that cut Catelyn and then cut Varys. It belonged to Littlefinger.
• I believe Baelish is a descendant of Princess Elaena, sister of King Baelor. So there is a whiff of Targaryen restoration motivation in his inscrutable machinations. Connington also believes he is working toward a Targaryen restoration.
• While in Braavos, the father and/or grandfather of Baelish may have married into the Blackfyre line, to try to keep a strong Targaryen bloodline going for future efforts to regain the throne. If so, the exiled and disgraced Blackfyre story parallels the Connington drunk/dead/disinherited story that Jon Con resents and (it seems) blames on Varys.
• The appointing of Littlefinger as Lord of Harrenhal and the return of Connington to Griffin's Roost may be a parallel.
• I suspect that there is wordplay by the author around griffin / finger.
• Sansa is nicknamed Little Bird.

So I'm seeing a different possibility than your suggestion of separate Ned / Littlefinger and Connington / Varys parallels. I think Ned, Littlefinger and Connington are in one basket, for the most part. But it's not quite a perfect fit. For instance, if Sansa is a little bird, and she is being manipulated by Littlefinger, that puts Littlefinger back in the Varys basket, instead of the Ned / Jon Con basket. Ah, but it's not Littlefinger who refers to her as a little bird, it is Sandor Clegane.

So maybe more insight is gained by comparing Sansa to Young Griff / Aegon? Both are suddenly thrown in with Tyrion. At Jon Con's direction, Tyrion writes a book about dragons (presumably to instruct Young Griff). Sansa is getting a crash course on the Winged Knight, courtesy of Robert (Sweetrobin) Arryn's demands for bedtime stories.

Sansa appears to be on course to interact with Harry the Heir, better known as Harrold Hardyng. You can take it or leave it, but I suspect that the red diamonds in the Hardyng sigil symbolize dragon teeth: Sansa's potential betrothal to Hardyng symbolizes a link to the "blood of the dragon" (or, at least, the teeth of the dragon). If possession of a dragon is the Targaryen Holy Grail, Young Griff / fAegon could achieve dragon possession by teaming up with Dany and Sansa could achieve "dragon" possession by teaming up with Hardyng. (I admit, I would need to see more of Harry the Heir to ascertain just how a symbolic dragon parallel might work in his arc. I am intrigued, though, by the idea of Petyr Baelish with a convoluted and tenuous Targaryen pedigree telling us the story of Harry's convoluted and tenuous Arryn pedigree. A parallel here could explain why GRRM expended so much ink on Baelish telling that story to Sansa.)

Besides the shared experiences with Tyrion, I wonder whether there are parallels for the people surrounding Young Griff and people in Sansa's arc? Septa Mordane and Septa Lemore could be directly compared. Septa Mordane teaches Sansa to sew; Septa Lemore helps Tyrion to sew a custom-made motley outfit. What about Haldon Halfmaester, Rolly Duckfield and Yandry and Ysilla?

I originally thought the Shy Maid name of the riverboat referred to Sansa. Using the Search of Ice and Fire website at one point, however, I found that Asha Greyjoy refers to herself as a shy maid. So I'm not sure whether the name is a Sansa allusion or not. Arya sails on a ship called the Titan's Daughter, and that does seem like a reference to Sansa as Alayne: the Baelish sigil is the head of the Titan of Braavos.

[Loras]

22 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

I'm not convinced this is entirely related to love, duty and admiration for Rhaegar so much as Rhaegar has become the root of all things in his mind.  Obsession?  Clouded memory?  Perception altering grief and loss?

I think it’s really hard to say.  I think it is significant that we only get into Jon Connington‘s head after he has found out about his terminal illness.  He knows he has a limited time left, but admits that he doesn’t know exactly how long, and wants to accomplish his mission.  It would be entirely natural for Jon to grieve for himself as well as all those that he has lost around him.

Rhaegar, Myles, and Elia are the three main figures from the past that he reflects on - though two significant ones are missing in the shape of Lyanna (who we think Elia will remind him of) but the other is Rhaegar’s best friend, Arthur Dayne.  Jon is surely jealous of the relationship that Rhaegar and Arthur had.

On 7/21/2020 at 4:15 PM, Frey family reunion said:

The problem with this, is that Connington specifically seems to show a tad bit of jealousy about Elia, the business of her not really being worthy of Rhaegar. 

Lyanna, he doesn't think about at all.  Interesting.

 

22 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

It's hard to know what Jon really thinks from the words he chooses in describing Elia, but like you, I got the she's not worthy/jealousy vibe.   Seems pretty unlikely that Connington doesn't know about Lyanna.  I would like to read Jon's thoughts on that one. 

Acceptance and jealousy are not exclusive though.  The way that he remembers the wedding “all too well”, implies that he still hasn’t really dealt with it.  It is only after the wedding chat that we get this indication of Elia being unworthy, which he links to offering children and general health (Jon couldn’t offer children either).  Jon is definitely jealous in some capacity of Elia, and it seems recalling the wedding is a bitter pill to swallow for him.

Jon absolutely knows about Lyanna, he must do, as the Rhaegar vs Robert thing is reasonably well known.  He is also likely to give us more information on Lyanna being crowned at Harrenhal.

22 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

Still we see he can be a brat.  Soon he will be a very powerful brat.    I almost want to go count the instances references are made to child rulers being a terrible idea throughout the text. 

 

On 7/21/2020 at 4:08 PM, Lord Varys said:

It matters to himself and the people around him. Being Rhaegar's son is crucial to his identity, if he were to lose this in his own mind and his allies were to believe that, too, it could be part of a very interesting story.

Besides, it is quite clear that to wrap up the Illyrio story he has to come clean whether the lad is his son or not.

Identity remains a major theme of the story, as does power and where it resides.  Aegon’s story really encapsulates these two themes.

George has carefully constructed a story arc where one of the characters is in the same position as the reader in trying to determine whether Aegon is the real deal or not.  Unfortunately for Arianne, she will have significantly less information than we do!  I don’t want George to definitively tell us that Aegon is real/not real - but for us to make up our minds as readers.  Ultimately we will have to see if we make the same decision as Arianne or not.

We also haven’t seen anyone challenge Aegon on his identity yet.  @Curled Finger refers to Aegon as a ‘manufactured character’, and I think that’s pretty perfect.  His entire life view has been constructed by those around him, how will he cope when that view is challenged.  I think we saw some insight when Tyrion schooled him at Cyvasse, but challenging his actual identity is considerably greater.

I think that Illyrio’s reckoning will have to be with Daenerys rather than Aegon, particularly if the Tattered Prince remains involved in that story.  Though I would expect more clues that Aegon COULD be his son.

On 7/21/2020 at 4:08 PM, Lord Varys said:

But to be sure - we have no idea how this whole thing is going to go. Will Arianne even buy that he is Aegon? Will that be important for the question whether Dorne should join them or not? Is Arianne going to fall for Aegon, wanting him to be her Viserys 2.0? Will she want to use Aegon as a tool to get their revenge against the Lannisters with the intention to discard him once Quentyn and the dragons are there? Or is she going to actually believe he is her cousin and should be king?

These are all great questions, I think that Arianne will ultimately declare for Aegon.  I think that her arc for this novel will have to revolve around her making a decision that will decide the ‘fate of Dorne’.  She is an incredibly complex character in her own right, growing significantly in ‘Feast’.  The answers to these questions probably deserve a thread all to themselves!