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Who wrote the Pink Letter - correct answer.


MostlyMoody

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Everybody is asking WHO wrote the Pink Letter but nobody is asking HOW is the Pink Letter. :P

Anyway, here's who wrote the pink letter - The George.

So if George wrote the letter:
Why did he write it in comparison to two previous letters sent by Ramsay, clearly distinguishing it from the other two?
Why did he write it with Mance's affectations and language he has previously used in the text.
Why did he put in heavy handed parallels to the wildling submission and burning of Mance?

Here are my guesses:
Maybe Ramsay was feeling kinda weird or was a little too much into the cups what with the stress of current events and forgot his characteristics.
Maybe Stannis conquered his crippling inability to socialize and emotionally manipulate people.
Or maybe it was Tim of Sevendicks who once said the word 'crow' referencing Night's Watch in a Storm of Swords before getting plowed by The Mountain or something.

Snark aside, I feel like a more interesting conversation/theorycrafting is why Mance wrote the letter and how it fits in with all the scheming going on in the North.

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5 hours ago, MostlyMoody said:

Why did he write it with Mance's affectations and language he has previously used in the text.
Why did he put in heavy handed parallels to the wildling submission and burning of Mance?

It's entirely possible - and even likely - that Mance has been captured by Ramsay and tortured into either telling Ramsay everything he knows, or even writing the letter himself. I believe this is more likely than Stannis or someone else writing it. 

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I think when considering who wrote it, you have to consider who would know about all the references in there. Red whore, wildling princess, Reek, little prince and he even makes a crow reference. Ramsay or some of the other potential authors of that letter wouldn't be in a position to know all these details. 

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18 hours ago, MostlyMoody said:

Everybody is asking WHO wrote the Pink Letter but nobody is asking HOW is the Pink Letter. :P

Anyway, here's who wrote the pink letter - The George.

So if George wrote the letter:
Why did he write it in comparison to two previous letters sent by Ramsay, clearly distinguishing it from the other two?
Why did he write it with Mance's affectations and language he has previously used in the text.
Why did he put in heavy handed parallels to the wildling submission and burning of Mance?

Here are my guesses:
Maybe Ramsay was feeling kinda weird or was a little too much into the cups what with the stress of current events and forgot his characteristics.
Maybe Stannis conquered his crippling inability to socialize and emotionally manipulate people.
Or maybe it was Tim of Sevendicks who once said the word 'crow' referencing Night's Watch in a Storm of Swords before getting plowed by The Mountain or something.

Snark aside, I feel like a more interesting conversation/theorycrafting is why Mance wrote the letter and how it fits in with all the scheming going on in the North.

I am 100% sure that Mance or else a very close wildling ally wrote it.

As for the motivation by Mance, I explained before why I think Mance did it in a long thread on Reddit: Jon has three fathers and none.

Quote

As I have explained in the Mance thread, I believe Mance will reveal to Jon that he is actually Jon's father. But is it the truth? It may be that Mance has read right through the "Bastard!", and the king beyond the wall now finds himself in a position to toy with Jon, to use him for his own end. When Ygritte tells the story of Bael the Bard, she says Bael went by the name Sygerrik of Skagos, which would mean "Deceiver of Skagos" or "Deceiver of the Stone".

Mance would be using the tale of Bael the Bard as a source of inspiration to shape a lie that fits into him having impregnated Lyanna at Winterfell, leading her to flee for fear of angering her family and her betrothed.

Why would Mance do this?

One, Jon has grown to be liked by many of the free folk, and he is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Remember, Mance believes they must go south so that the Wall may serve as a shield against the Others. Getting the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch on the free folk's side is a net win for Mance, but the Night's Watch could turn on them just as quick as they let them through the wall. It is not enough for Mance.

Which brings us to the second point: what happens if Stannis dies? He is but a man, and a man can slip on ice and break his neck. And Stannis is a king of the south, one against whom much of the North is currently at war with. For how long can Stannis live, even if he was to win the battle for Winterfell? How long before he is stabbed with a cold knife? What then? Who will uphold the truce with the free folk? Selyse? Shireen?

There is no one to follow in Stannis' footsteps. The Lord Commander? How so, without Stannis to protect him? We have seen what happened when that protection left Castle Black; the Lord Commander was soon after assassinated.

Mance needs support which transcends the Watch, the Watch which the free folk have been taking over anyway and which they likely could hold a few castles of for a time.

Mance needs a king: he needs more than a King Beyond the Wall, and he needs more than a King in the North, he needs a king of the north!

And what better man to be this king than Lord Stark? The Lord Commander, the King Beyond the Wall, and the King in the North, all in one? What better man to lure to Winterfell with a deceiving letter, into the depths of the crypts, with a sad song, to reveal to him that no, Eddard Stark was not his father? To tell him "No. I, am your father!"

Quote

Abel bowed. "If it please your lordship." Lute in hand, he sauntered to the dais, hopping nimbly over a corpse or two, and seated himself cross-legged on the high table. As he began to play—a sad, soft song that Theon Greyjoy did not recognize—Ser Hosteen, Ser Aenys, and their fellow Freys turned away to lead their horses from the hall.

[...]

"Under Harren's roof he ate and drank with the wolves, and many of their sworn swords besides, barrowdown men and moose and bears and mermen. The dragon prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head. A black brother spoke, asking the knights to join the Night's Watch.

[...]

"Would that I were. I will not deny that Bael's exploit inspired mine own . . . but I did not steal either of your sisters that I recall. Bael wrote his own songs, and lived them. I only sing the songs that better men have made."

[...]

"I've sung my songs, fought my battles, drunk summer wine, tasted the Dornishman's wife. A man should die the way he's lived. For me that's steel in hand."

The revelation may not secure a place in Jon's heart for Mance, but it would for the free folk, for his family, his people. And Jon cannot abandon his people, neither of his people. In making Jon the King in the North and the King Beyond the Wall, Mance accomplished what he realized he needed to, whether he told the truth or not, to secure the alliance as best as he could.

But it could also be the truth. Jon may well be Mance and Lyanna's son.

Ultimately, wherever the truth may lie, it had to be revealed to Jon, for the greater war that is to come.

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"Demons made of snow and ice and cold," said Stannis Baratheon. "The ancient enemy. The only enemy that matters."

 

Val knows of the plan, I think. She is likely seen by Mance as Jon's expected future wife.

Quote

Amongst the stream of warriors were the fathers of many of Jon’s hostages. Some stared with cold dead eyes as they went by, fingering their sword hilts. Others smiled at him like long-lost kin, though a few of those smiles discomfited Jon Snow more than any glare. None knelt, but many gave him their oaths. “What Tormund swore, I swear,” declared black-haired Brogg, a man of few words. Soren Shieldbreaker bowed his head an inch and growled, “Soren’s axe is yours, Jon Snow, if ever you have need of such.” Red-bearded Gerrick Kingsblood brought three daughters. “They will make fine wives, and give their husbands strong sons of royal blood,” he boasted. “Like their father, they are descended from Raymun Redbeard, who was King-Beyond-the-Wall.”

I think when Mance makes the "reveal", Jon will fight him and Mance will let Jon "win". Another echo of Bael the Bard's story.

But then there is the "darker ending" to Bael's story, which is when the boy kills his father it leads to his mother jumping out of a tower in grief (how Ashara-like...) and then him being killed by a Bolton who wears his skin. It COULD be that this is a "dark ending" as in "If Jon kills Mance, they will lose Winterfell and Ramsay will win", so maybe he will actually hold back and a "better ending" will occur instead, meaning that Mance's song will have turned out to be different, his own in a way.

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On 10/23/2021 at 4:32 PM, MostlyMoody said:

Snark aside, I feel like a more interesting conversation/theorycrafting is why Mance wrote the letter and how it fits in with all the scheming going on in the North.

I think he wrote the letter to announce to the wildlings that he was alive. (I'm not breaking it down - there's more digital ink out there in the web on the pink letter than on global warming). As evidenced by their reaction in the Shieldhall the wildlings would easily follow Jon to Winterfell to retrieve him, though Jon's death and the aftermath are quite the wrinkle. There are enough hints in Mance's conversations with Mel to suspect that the mission for Farya was a means to a greater end. 

 

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Ramsay wrote the pink letter in a huff of anger after finding out some information from Mance/Spearwives. Some of it is true, some of it he believes is true. It is hype for Jon vs Ramsay. Who wrote it was never supposed to be a mystery.

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