Why Rhaegar crowned Lyanna, Brandon was pissed, Robert was quiet; the rebellion is a lie and one man knows the truth!

[Egged]

So recently I made a post on Reddit about how much every single woman named Wylla echoes Lyanna, as well as Arya herself. Obviously, it's always controversial, but I felt I was on to something.

The scene where Arya play-fight with Mycah "the butcher's boy" I was sure echoed some other event, likely at the Harrenhal Tourney, but I couldn't quite figure out how it would fit.

Now I realize that a likely great fit would be Lyanna play-fighting with Howland. At first I thought maybe this is when the squires stumbled on them, but that doesn't quite work with the story Meera speaks of. But then note the following:

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When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, 'Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.' Once the defeated knights chastised their squires sharply, their horses and armor were returned.

This is really important: the knight was not trying to hide from everyone at this point. They literally came to him and the knights chastised their squires, after which their horses and armors were returned to them.

We usually imagine the knight hurrying away never to be seen again, but the above indicates otherwise. But we know that suddenly, he disappears.

Then it hit me when I noticed the following:

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The storm lord drank down the knight of skulls and kisses in a wine-cup war.

[...]

It was a good story, Bran decided after thinking about it a moment or two. “Then what happened? Did the Knight of the Laughing Tree win the tourney and marry a princess?”

“No,” said Meera. “That night at the great castle, the storm lord and the knight of skulls and kisses each swore they would unmask him, and the king himself urged men to challenge him, declaring that the face behind that helm was no friend of his. But the next morning, when the heralds blew their trumpets and the king took his seat, only two champions appeared. The Knight of the Laughing Tree had vanished. The king was wroth, and even sent his son the dragon prince to seek the man, but all they ever found was his painted shield, hanging abandoned in a tree. It was the dragon prince who won that tourney in the end.”

 

The two men who vow to find the mystery knight are Robert Baratheon and Richard Lonmouth! That's quite an interesting duo! And then the mystery knight disappears. Who is Richard Lonmouth?

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"I make no such claim, ser. Myles Mooton was Prince Rhaegar's squire, and Richard Lonmouth after him. When they won their spurs, he knighted them himself, and they remained his close companions. Young Lord Connington was dear to the prince as well, but his oldest friend was Arthur Dayne."

And what about House Lonmouth itself, who are they?

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House Lonmouth is a noble house from the stormlands, sworn to House Baratheon.

A squire to Rhaegar, a close companion, but sworn to House Baratheon!

Note that we have no idea what Richard Lonmouth did during the rebellion.

But back to my original point: Lyanna playfighting with Howland could have totally happened AFTER the joust! And it could have played out extremely similarly to the Arya VS Joffrey scene!

Imagine the following, with Arya being Lyanna, Mycah being Howland, Sansa is Richard, Joffrey is Robert, Nymeria is Brandon. And remember Lyanna was already betrothed to Robert!

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Beyond, in a clearing overlooking the river, they came upon a boy and a girl playing at knights. Their swords were wooden sticks, broom handles from the look of them, and they were rushing across the grass, swinging at each other lustily. The boy was years older, a head taller, and much stronger, and he was pressing the attack. The girl, a scrawny thing in soiled leathers, was dodging and managing to get her stick in the way of most of the boy’s blows, but not all. When she tried to lunge at him, he caught her stick with his own, swept it aside, and slid his wood down hard on her fingers. She cried out and lost her weapon.

Prince Joffrey laughed. The boy looked around, wide-eyed and startled, and dropped his stick in the grass. The girl glared at them, sucking on her knuckles to take the sting out, and Sansa was horrified. “Arya?” she called out incredulously.

“Go away,” Arya shouted back at them, angry tears in her eyes. “What are you doing here? Leave us alone.”

Joffrey glanced from Arya to Sansa and back again. “Your sister?” She nodded, blushing. Joffrey examined the boy, an ungainly lad with a coarse, freckled face and thick red hair. “And who are you, boy?” he asked in a commanding tone that took no notice of the fact that the other was a year his senior.

“Mycah,” the boy muttered. He recognized the prince and averted his eyes. “M’lord.”

“He’s the butcher’s boy,” Sansa said.

“He’s my friend,” Arya said sharply. “You leave him alone.”

“A butcher’s boy who wants to be a knight, is it?” Joffrey swung down from his mount, sword in hand. “Pick up your sword, butcher’s boy,” he said, his eyes bright with amusement. “Let us see how good you are.”

Mycah stood there, frozen with fear.

Joffrey walked toward him. “Go on, pick it up. Or do you only fight little girls?”

“She ast me to, m’lord,” Mycah said. “She ast me to.”

Sansa had only to glance at Arya and see the flush on her sister’s face to know the boy was telling the truth, but Joffrey was in no mood to listen. The wine had made him wild. “Are you going to pick up your sword?”

Mycah shook his head. “It’s only a stick, m’lord. It’s not no sword, it’s only a stick.”

“And you’re only a butcher’s boy, and no knight.” Joffrey lifted Lion’s Tooth and laid its point on Mycah’s cheek below the eye, as the butcher’s boy stood trembling. “That was my lady’s sister you were hitting, do you know that?” A bright bud of blood blossomed where his sword pressed into Mycah’s flesh, and a slow red line trickled down the boy’s cheek.

“Stop it!” Arya screamed. She grabbed up her fallen stick.

Sansa was afraid. “Arya, you stay out of this.”

“I won’t hurt him … much,” Prince Joffrey told Arya, never taking his eyes off the butcher’s boy.

Arya went for him.

Sansa slid off her mare, but she was too slow. Arya swung with both hands. There was a loud crack as the wood split against the back of the prince’s head, and then everything happened at once before Sansa’s horrified eyes. Joffrey staggered and whirled around, roaring curses. Mycah ran for the trees as fast as his legs would take him. Arya swung at the prince again, but this time Joffrey caught the blow on Lion’s Tooth and sent her broken stick flying from her hands. The back of his head was all bloody and his eyes were on fire. Sansa was shrieking, “No, no, stop it, stop it, both of you, you’re spoiling it,” but no one was listening. Arya scooped up a rock and hurled it at Joffrey’s head. She hit his horse instead, and the blood bay reared and went galloping off after Mycah. “Stop it, don’t, stop it!” Sansa screamed. Joffrey slashed at Arya with his sword, screaming obscenities, terrible words, filthy words. Arya darted back, frightened now, but Joffrey followed, hounding her toward the woods, backing her up against a tree. Sansa didn’t know what to do. She watched helplessly, almost blind from her tears.

Then a grey blur flashed past her, and suddenly Nymeria was there, leaping, jaws closing around Joffrey’s sword arm. The steel fell from his fingers as the wolf knocked him off his feet, and they rolled in the grass, the wolf snarling and ripping at him, the prince shrieking in pain. “Get it off,” he screamed. “Get it off!”

Arya’s voice cracked like a whip. “Nymeria!”

 

So why did Rhaegar go on to put the crown of winter roses on Lyanna's lap? Why did Brandon get so outraged? Why did Robert stay quiet?

Because the very next day Rhaegar was told to go look for the mystery knight, AND RICHARD LONMOUTH TOLD RHAEGAR ABOUT ALL THAT HAPPENED!

Rhaegar crowned Lyanna for having beaten up Robert. Rhaegar was telling Brandon and Robert that HE KNEW that Lyanna FOUGHT Robert! He knew their relationship was screwed! And above all, he knew who the knight of the laughing tree was.

This is why Robert did not go to King's Landing calling out for Lyanna when she was supposedly kidnapped. Lyanna and Robert's relationship was already over. Robert never wanted to admit it, never wanted to believe it. Who knew the truth? Robert, Brandon, Rhaegar, Lyanna, and Richard Lonmouth.

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You must be a lackwit, boy. We're outlaws. Lowborn scum, most of us, excepting his lordship. Don't think it'll be like Tom's fool songs neither. You won't be stealing no kisses from a princess, nor riding in a tourney in stolen armor. You join us, you'll end with your neck in a noose, or your head mounted up above some castle gate. -Richard Lonmouth

And as many have theorized, Richard Lonmouth may still be alive, he might be Lemoncloak.

edit: Another hint of Howland = Mycah parallel. Mycah is the one leads Arya to collect purple and green flowers, known as "poison kisses", which gives her a rash. She is all muddy like "some bog woman", and Mycah tells her to rub mud to make the itches go away. This is very "Crannogman"-like.

 

edit2: potential remorses not towards Cersei

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The rage was gone from him now; in his eyes Ned saw something sad and scared. "I should not have hit her. That was not … that was not kingly." He stared down at his hands, as if he did not quite know what they were. "I was always strong … no one could stand before me, no one. How do you fight someone if you can't hit them?" Confused, the king shook his head. "Rhaegar … Rhaegar won, damn him. I killed him, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into his black heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it. Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have her." The king drained his cup.

 

[Groo]

8 minutes ago, Egged said:

This is why Robert did not go to King's Landing calling out for Lyanna when she was supposedly kidnapped. Lyanna and Robert's relationship was already over.

So, um, why did Robert want to go straight to the crypts to see her when he came to Winterfell? Why does he still hate Rhaegar so much? More importantly, in your imagined scene why do you think Robert would act anything like Joffrey did? Joffrey jumped at the chance to be cruel and torment someone who couldn't fight back. That's not Robert.

[Egged]

34 minutes ago, Groo said:

So, um, why did Robert want to go straight to the crypts to see her when he came to Winterfell? Why does he still hate Rhaegar so much? More importantly, in your imagined scene why do you think Robert would act anything like Joffrey did? Joffrey jumped at the chance to be cruel and torment someone who couldn't fight back. That's not Robert.

Robert was smashed drunk, just like his “son” Joffrey, it says so in both stories.

Robert still “loves” Lyanna and doesn’t want to remind himself he lost her because of his stupid drunken actions, so he still tells himself that Rhaegar kidnapped her and was the real monster. He might well believe she was really kidnapped, but what he won’t accept was that she didn’t love him. 
 

Edit: for those wondering about the crowning, Rhaegar is basically taunting Robert, because if Robert made a scene he would risk causing Lyanna to openly stand up for herself in front of everyone. So Robert knew better and pretended Rhaegar was rightfully honoring her beauty, so to save face he just shut up and stayed sitting down.

[corbon]

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Robert was smashed drunk, just like his “son” Joffrey, it says so in both stories.

And you think Richard Lonmouth outdrank Robert then went off and did some detectiving?

 

2 hours ago, Egged said:

The scene where Arya play-fight with Mycah "the butcher's boy" I was sure echoed some other event, likely at the Harrenhal Tourney, but I couldn't quite figure out how it would fit.

 

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The rest of his father's words were drowned out by a sudden clatter of wood on wood. Eddard Stark dissolved, like mist in a morning sun. Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn't be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. "You be quiet, stupid," the girl said, tossing her own branch aside. "It's just water. Do you want Old Nan to hear and run tell Father?" She knelt and pulled her brother from the pool, but before she got him out again, the two of them were gone.

Lyanna and Benjen most likely.

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Now I realize that a likely great fit would be Lyanna play-fighting with Howland. At first I thought maybe this is when the squires stumbled on them, but that doesn't quite work with the story Meera speaks of. But then note the following:

Thats still nothing like a girl and boy play fighting.

2 hours ago, Egged said:

This is really important: the knight was not trying to hide from everyone at this point. They literally came to him and the knights chastised their squires, after which their horses and armors were returned to them.

The knight was still suited up, almost certainly ahorse.
Servants, squires, pages, handlers etc would have handled the gear, not the KotLT him(her)self.

Nthing indicates the Knight stayed to watch the chastisement in person - nor that (s)he does not.

2 hours ago, Egged said:

We usually imagine the knight hurrying away never to be seen again, but the above indicates otherwise. But we know that suddenly, he disappears.

It was the end of the day. When the knight has finished, (s)he rides off, still armoured and unrevealed, just like any other knight, except for remaining helmed. There is no 'sudden disappearance' The KotLT merely goes to an alone place (like Dunk's 'grassy pavilion' to dismount and shuck gear, then simply doesn't reappear in the morning.

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Then it hit me when I noticed the following:

The two men who vow to find the mystery knight are Robert Baratheon and Richard Lonmouth! That's quite an interesting duo! And then the mystery knight disappears. Who is Richard Lonmouth?

And what about House Lonmouth itself, who are they?

A squire to Rhaegar, a close companion, but sworn to House Baratheon!

Note that we have no idea what Richard Lonmouth did during the rebellion.

But back to my original point: Lyanna playfighting with Howland could have totally happened AFTER the joust! And it could have played out extremely similarly to the Arya VS Joffrey scene!

Except that Howland is not a boy, and is injured to boot.

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The crannogman was bruised and bloodied, so she took him back to her lair to clean his cuts and bind them up with linen.

And Lyanna is not 8 or 9, playing as a kid, she's 14 and a skilled and famous rider. 

2 hours ago, Egged said:

So why did Rhaegar go on to put the crown of winter roses on Lyanna's lap?

Because although Robert and Richard made some drunken oaths while getting blotto, someone more sober, dutiful and able, and intelligent enough to amaze the Maesters of Hightower, was actually sent to find the Knight, but 'supposedly' found only the shield hanging on a bough (again, reminiscent of Dunk's 'pavilion').

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The king was wroth, and even sent his son the dragon prince to seek the man, 

And then suddenly, the Prince, who rarely entered tourneys, joins in and wins. And crowns the wolf-maid.

One might suggest, that an intelligent and not-drunken Prince might begin a search for the Mystery Knight who failed to appear in the morning, by speaking to three squires who were so publicly chastised the evening before. And speaking to them, might learn enough to have a quiet word with a young wolf maid... and then keep her secret? 

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Why did Brandon get so outraged?

Because Lyanna is young, betrothed to another, and Brandon is brash, hot blooded, wild fool. Not that thats not my assessment, it comes from characters who knew him.
Possibly for Brandon's concept of 'honour'.
Possibly because Rhaegar appears to be interfering in Rickard Stark's political ambitions? 
We don't know exactly.

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Why did Robert stay quiet?

He laughed it off, reportedly. Its very Robert, very high school jock / frat boy. Rhaegar is about the only man in the kingdom he can't rage on, at least not publicly (Rhaegar's 'offense' is not big enough yet to put an aggrieved Robert 'in the right' if he attacks Rhaegar), so he laughs it off. 

2 hours ago, Egged said:

Rhaegar crowned Lyanna for having beaten up Robert.

 

[Egged]

1 hour ago, corbon said:

And you think Richard Lonmouth outdrank Robert then went off and did some detectiving?

Robert outdrank Richard. You misread.