Who will be the Winged Knights ?

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

At the beggining of TWOW there is a tourney taking place in the Vale to name a new order of bodyguards for Robert Arryn and likely the following lords of the Vale inspired by the legendary Winged Knight, on Sansa's suggestion after she observerved how hearing tales of the Winged Knight comforted Sweetrobin. 

There are to be eight members of that new brotherhood, who are to serve and protect the Lord of the Vale for the next three years. The tourney is about to begin and has attracted the nobility of the Vale and many young and untested knights, eager to show their prowess after missing the War of the Five Kings. 

Amongst the various knights and nobles of the Vale, who do you think could end up becoming the new Winged Knights ? Who do you imagine becoming Robert and possibly also Sansa's, if she finds allies in them, bodyguards in the future ?

[sifth]

I would love it, if the Black Fish entered and won. 

[Universal Sword Donor]

I'd imagine at least 8 of the entrants will be a part of the Winged Guard. But it would be rather funny if Ser Lyn was appointed. He's probably one of the most skilled fighters there, by reputation if not entirely by resume.

[Hippocras]

13 hours ago, sifth said:

I would love it, if the Black Fish entered and won. 

That would be an interesting problem for the Vale. Maybe he will be the Vale's answer to "Ser Strong", hiding in mystery knight armour.

[House Cambodia]

49 minutes ago, Hippocras said:

That would be an interesting problem for the Vale. Maybe he will be the Vale's answer to "Ser Strong", hiding in mystery knight armour.

The Knight of the Laughing Trout?

[James Steller]

I doubt we’ve been introduced to all eight knights yet. They’re probably gonna be new characters, most of them, relatives to the houses we’ve already been introduced to. 

[Nevets]

We've barely even met eight knights of the Vale.  Which means either there is going to be a bunch of guys chosen we've never heard of, or the plan falls apart and the Winged Knights never take the field in the first place.

My money is on door number two.  I think something major happens at the tournament that upsets all the applecarts.  I don't know what though.  Reveal of Sansa, revelation of major news, an attack of some kind, who knows.  But if it goes according to plan, I'll be surprised.  It would practically be a first for this series.  

[Club-foot cleft-lips]

If harry wins and becomes one, and robert dies, can harry still inherit or will he no longer be able to hold lands, and will the eight then become seven? will they need to replace him after? I wonder if their is a special reason for the number eight.

 

[Aebram]

4 hours ago, Club-foot cleft-lips said:

I wonder if their is a special reason for the number eight.

"Alayne had suggested seven, like the Kingsguard, but Sweetrobin had insisted that he must have more knights than King Tommen" (Winds, "Alayne" preview chapter)

[House Cambodia]

27 minutes ago, Aebram said:

"Alayne had suggested seven, like the Kingsguard, but Sweetrobin had insisted that he must have more knights than King Tommen" (Winds, "Alayne" preview chapter)

This. I thought it a hilarious childish reason when I read it.

[Club-foot cleft-lips]

11 hours ago, Aebram said:

"Alayne had suggested seven, like the Kingsguard, but Sweetrobin had insisted that he must have more knights than King Tommen" (Winds, "Alayne" preview chapter)

haha no no i meant like a writers reason not an in-universe reason.

 

11 hours ago, House Cambodia said:

This. I thought it a hilarious childish reason when I read it.

but agreed.

 

i was wondering if it was some numerology reason or something like ogdoad in gnostism is the seven realms of heave plus one

or something like that

but i dont mind also just accepting it as a cute kid thing. robin does always want one more than what you offer him after all

Edited March 27 by Club-foot cleft-lips
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[Mourning Star]

Since it seems that all we can do is speculate, I will do so wildly. 

This section of the world book may provide inspiration for outrageous predictions.

Quote

To speak of what happened next, we must return to the realm of song and legend. The singers say the two hosts came together at the foot of the Giant's Lance, within a league of the house where Ser Artys had been born. Though the armies were roughly equal in number, Robar Royce held the high ground with the mountain at his back, a strong defensive position.
Having arrived days before the Andals, the First Men had dug trenches in front of their ranks and lined them with sharpened stakes (smeared with offal and excrement, says Septon Mallow's account of the battle). Most of the First Men were afoot; the Andals had a ten-to-one advantage in mounted knights and were better armed and armored as well. They came late to the battle, if the tales are true; King Robar had looked for them three days earlier and every day since.
It was dusk when the Andal army finally appeared, to raise their tents half a league from their foes. But even in that fading light, Robar Royce did not fail to mark their leader. His silvered armor and winged helm made the Falcon Knight unmistakable, even from afar.
No doubt the night that followed was a restless one in both camps, for every man there knew that battle would be joined at the break of day, with the Vale itself hanging in the balance. Clouds blew in from the east, hiding the moon and stars, so the night was dark indeed. The only light came from hundreds of campfires burning in the camps, with a river of darkness between them. From time to time, the singers say, archers on one side or another lofted an arrow in the air, hoping that it might find a foe, but whether any of the blind shafts drew blood, the tales do not tell.
As the east began to lighten, men rose from their stony beds, donned their armor, and prepared for the battle. Then a shout rang through the Andal camp. There to the west, a sign had been seen: seven stars, gleaming in the grey dawn sky. "The gods are with us," went up the cry from a thousand throats. "Victory is ours." As trumpets blew, the vanguard of the Andals charged up the slope, banners streaming. Yet the First Men showed no dismay at the sign that had appeared in the sky; they held their ground and battle was joined, as savage and bloody a fight as any in the long history of the Vale.
Seven times the Andals charged, the singers say; six times the First Men threw them back. But the seventh attack, led by a fearsome giant of a man named Torgold Tollett, broke through. Torgold the Grim, this man was called, but even his name was a jape, for it is written that he went into battle laughing, naked above the waist, with a bloody seven-pointed star carved across his chest and an axe in each hand.
The songs say that Torgold knew no fear and felt no pain. Though bleeding from a score of wounds, he cut a red swathe through Lord Redfort's staunchest warriors, then took his lordship's arm off at the shoulder with a single cut. Nor was he dismayed when the sorceress Ursula Upcliff appeared upon a bloodred horse to curse him. By then he was bare-handed, having left both of his axes buried in a foe's chest, but the singers say he leapt upon the witch's horse, grasped her face between two bloody hands, and tore her head from her shoulders as she screamed for succor.
Then chaos ensued, as the Andals came pouring through the gap in the ranks of the First Men. Victory seemed within their grasp, but Robar Royce was not so easily defeated. Where another man might have fallen back to regroup, or fled the field, the High King commanded a counterattack. He led the charge himself, smashing through the confusion with his champions by his side. In his hand was Lady Forlorn, that dread blade he had plucked from the dead hands of the King of the Fingers. Slaying men right and left, the king fought his way to Torgold the Grim. As Robar slashed at his head, Tollett grabbed for his blade, still laughing...but Lady Forlorn sliced through his hands and buried herself in Torgold's skull.
The giant died choking on his last laugh, the singers say. Whereupon the High King spied the Falcon Knight across the field and spurred toward him; should their leader fall, the Andals would lose heart and break, he hoped.
They came together as the battle raged around them, the king in bronze armor, the hero in silvered steel. Though the Falcon Knight's armor flashed brilliantly in the morning sun, his sword was no Lady Forlorn. The duel was done almost before it began, as the Valyrian steel sheared through the winged helm and laid the Andal low. For an instant, as his foe toppled from the saddle, Robar Royce must surely have thought his battle won.
Then he heard the trumpets, ringing through the dawn air, the sound coming from behind him. And turning in his saddle, the High King beheld in dismay five hundred fresh Andal knights pouring down the slopes of the Giant's Lance to take his own host in the rear. Leading the attack was a champion in silvered steel, with a moon-and-falcon on his shield and wings upon his warhelm. Ser Artys Arryn had clad one of his knights retainer in his spare suit of armor, leaving him in camp whilst he himself took his best horsemen up and around a goat track that he remembered from his childhood, so they might reappear behind the First Men and descend on them from above.
The rest was a rout. Attacked from front and rear, the last great host of the First Men of the Vale was cut to pieces. Thirty lords had come to fight for Robar Royce that day. Not a one survived. And though the singers say the High King slew foes by the score, in the end he, too, was slain. Some say Ser Artys killed him, whilst others name Lord Ruthermont, or Luceon Templeton, the Knight of Ninestars. The Corbrays of Heart's Home have always insisted that it was Ser Jaime Corbray who dealt the mortal blow, and for proof they point to Lady Forlorn, reclaimed for House Corbray after the battle.
Such is the tale of the Battle of the Seven Stars as it is told by the singers and the septons. A stirring story to be sure, but the scholar must ask, how much of it is true? We shall never know. All that is certain is that King Robar II of House Royce met Ser Artys Arryn in a great battle at the foot of the Giant's Lance, where the king died and the Falcon Knight dealt the First Men a blow from which they never recovered.
No fewer than fourteen of the oldest and noblest houses of the Vale ended that day. Those whose lines endured—the Redforts, the Hunters, the Coldwaters, the Belmores, and the Royces themselves amongst them—did so only by the dint of yielding up gold and land and hostages to their conquerors and bending their knees to swear fealty to Artys Arryn, the First of His Name, new-crowned King of Mountain and Vale.

Seven times the Andals charged, and were defeated. The last of these was led by Torgold Tollett (Dolorous Ted!).

Then it was on the eight charge that the real Artys Arryn revealed himself and his knights attacked from the rear, having used a secret trail and a body double.

The old families mentioned here are g00d candidates for having modern members being named winged knights.

As is, in my opinion, some trickery involving the "false" death of Sweetrobin.