Unanswered Questions?

[Maester Cressan]

I like the question about ser Balon Swann's secret mission (thread on it floating around). Next revised list, I'll add it.

Thanks y'all. This is shaping up great!

I want to know why Ser Balon Swann was seen several times in the company of Dontos before Dontos lost his knighthood.

[Maester Cressan]

That smacks of sly cunning, which Ned always disdained. He owed it Ashara to return Dawn to the family. He had a debt of honor to the man he respected most and to the woman he loved. Ned wasn't one to let others do the hard work. He would look into a man's eyes before he killed him because it was a hard thing to do and if something hard had to be done and he couldn't, maybe it shouldn't be done.

I daresay Ned would never have shared the secret of Jon's parentage with anyone, including Ashara. He could not have given her the babe, purple eyes or no. To do otherwise would risk failing the oath he swore to Lyanna on her deathbed. It would also dishonor the woman he loved. Also, Jon was Lyanna's legacy and Ned would have felt a duty to the child and a need to see that he was taken to the North, where the Starks belong.

Ned may have disdained sly cunning- but he certainly could have thought of it- and he sure seems to feel shame when he thinks of Jon. I say there's something fishy going on. Perhaps Ned did use sly cunning just this once (to save his sister's son) and feels dirty about it. Which might explain why he never told Catylen about it. Perhaps Ned prefers to his wife to think of him as an adulturer than a deciever.

Also, Ashara being somehow involved in concealing Jon's parentage might be why Ned is so fierce about preventing rumors about her from swirling around amoung the servants. It might invite someone to take too close a look into Jon's parentage.

[bundtcake]

3). Who told ser Mandon Moore to kill Tyrion?

It's Littlefinger. GRRM kind of snuck it in there, but both Littlefinger and Mandon were brought to court by Jon Arryn. Tyrion wonders about who might've done it, but he can't draw any lines to connect Mandon to anyone, so he assumes it's his sister. Later we find out LF and MM both came via Arryn, so there's the connection. Also keep in mind LF framed Tyrion for murder twice (Bran and Joff). Bascially he's had a hard on for Tyrion since the books started.

8). What was Brienne's (last?) word?

Sword.

15). What really happened with ser Loras and Dragonstone? Did they take the city or not? Is ser Loras injured or not?

This one should fall under the Ashara Dayne clause. We have no reason to suspect anything but what we've heard. Only that we haven't actually seen it. I'm not arguing one way or another here but if Ashara is off the list this should be also.

whoooaaaaa somehow i didnt notice this was 11 pages long, for some reason i only though it was 1... I'm a little late to the party.

also

Is it possible that Syrio morphed into Trant?

this is probably the most hilarious crackpot theory I've heard, it would just totally come out of nowhere and be so awesome if Trant started clicking his teeth together and saying "Just so"

[cybroleach]

The Daynes have Valerion blood, and are well known to have Valerion looks. If Jon had ended up looking like a Targ, Ned would probably have eft him with the Daynes, (or maybe claimed Jon was his and Ashara's son... if Ashara could be convinced to go along with it).

You know alot of ppl make this connection BUT it is absolutely not true the Dayne's have NO Valyrian blood. They decend from First Men and have a mix Rhyonar and Andal's. No where is it mentioned they have Valyrian Blood or ever married into a house with in the last 300 years. Even if there was a marriage mentioned we'd need to know that Arthur and his kin decend from it.

[Trem]

This one should fall under the Ashara Dayne clause. We have no reason to suspect anything but what we've heard. Only that we haven't actually seen it. I'm not arguing one way or another here but if Ashara is off the list this should be also.

Well i tend to think theres several reasons while the whole "Tyrell conspiracy" theory is very possible. First off, the Tyrells killed Joff... that right there is a big honking proof that there is in fact a Tyrell conspiracy even if its just from the women or even just the Queen of Thorns. Second anything that happened in AFFC regarding the Tyrells and Cersei was initiated by the Tyrells, by this i mean it was Lady Merryweather who ingratiated herself with Cersei out of the blue, it was Loras himself who volunteered for the attack, it was Margaery who requested the moon tea. Its like this whole anti-Tyrell plot just fell in Cerseis lap from out of nowhere, i just don't buy it. Thirdly if theres no conspiracy then that would mean one of Cerseis plots actually worked, and i find that much more unlikely than any crackpot theory.

[SugaMan]

To the people who talk about the valonqar being Jaime, pay closer attention to the quote about Cersei's ultimate demise.

"...And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."

Since Jaime was sadly nerfed I would bet against it being him. Unless he somehow gets an automated golden hand (army of darkness?) or he becomes The Hand, and gives Cersei the same treatment Tyrion gave Shae, I would lean towards it being another little brother. I wouldn't put it past GRRM to make the "hands" something like The Hand's chain, but I don't think that Jaime will become The Hand anytime soon what w/ his new sense of duty and all.

[Stratonice]

Regarding Ashara Dayne, I hope she really is dead. However, there are a few things that seems odd about the whole thing at the moment. Mainly: since no body was ever found, how does people know she killed herself??? Was someone in the tower with her when she did it? If that's the case, who was it and why didn't this person stop it? If not, why do people assume she's even dead, much less that she killed herself?

Her story is more tragically beautiful if it turns out the explanation we've been given so far is true, and I like it. I just don't understand how people can be so certain it happened that way. Unless somone was actually with her and witnessed her jump it's equally possible that she simply fell, was murdered or faked it.

An additional question I didn't see anyone asking is:

What happened to Wyllas baby? Since people around Starfall (at least Edric Dayne) believes Jon to be her child and she at least appears to have been his wetnurse she must have had a child at around that time that disappeared. (Unless, of course, she really is Jon's mother in which case Ned's refusal to tell Cat and Jon her name makes no sense what so ever.)

[Lann_Boys'Girl]

Benjen Stark. Sam Tarly never met Benjen while he was alive - he had left for his ranging beyond the wall before Sam arrived.

My line of thinking took that even a step further - the LAST Bran chapter is when Sam and Gilly show up at the Nightfort. Now, why wouldn't Bran meeting CH and such be in a Bran chapter described firsthand, or in a Sam chapter described firsthand? I figured, it's because CH is Benjen Stark, and Bran would recognize him, therefore GRRM will keep the surprise until the next book.

[Moshe Goldberg Rubinshteyn]

To the people who talk about the valonqar being Jaime, pay closer attention to the quote about Cersei's ultimate demise.

"...And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."

Since Jaime was sadly nerfed I would bet against it being him. Unless he somehow gets an automated golden hand (army of darkness?) or he becomes The Hand, and gives Cersei the same treatment Tyrion gave Shae, I would lean towards it being another little brother. I wouldn't put it past GRRM to make the "hands" something like The Hand's chain, but I don't think that Jaime will become The Hand anytime soon what w/ his new sense of duty and all.

Good catch about the hands

I also think that every Hand gets a different batch of office. So, even the 'Tyrion treatment' seems unlikely to me. And wouldn't it be sweet if in the end it is actually Tyrion who kills Cersei?

[Stratonice]

Another unanswered question:

Will Arya go to the Isle of Faces at some point and if so, what will she learn there?

The background for this question is a sentence in ACoK, in the beginning of the chapter where Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie are captured by Gregor and his men she's high up in a tree. She's thinking of how they've been walking along the muddy shore and how she some days can feel the lake calling to her. Is it just the fact that she's tired and thirsty, or is something actually calling her from the Isle of Faces?

[Dhevrin]

What the heck was Hoster Tully sorry to Tansy about?

[Moosicus]

What the heck was Hoster Tully sorry to Tansy about?

I believe Tansy is the chief ingredient of Moon Tea, or some abortion-causing potion. He is sorry for giving it to Lysa.

[Dhevrin]

I believe Tansy is the chief ingredient of Moon Tea, or some abortion-causing potion. He is sorry for giving it to Lysa.

The ingredient in Moon Tea is called "tansy," but Hoster specifically "Tansy" and there is an innkeep named Tansy in the riverlands.

[Michael Jon Snow]

Cat hears tansy and assumes its a name, Tansy. We don't know Hoster's intention with that word.

Cat basically figure it out in her first chapter in SoS. She realizes that Lysa had been pregnant and that Hoster aborted it with Moon Tea. She said that Lysa was "proven to be fertile." How do you prove fertility except getting preg and she doesn't have a child so it must have been aborted. Then the speech from Hoster makes sense.

[Dhevrin]

Cat hears tansy and assumes its a name, Tansy. We don't know Hoster's intention with that word.

Cat basically figure it out in her first chapter in SoS. She realizes that Lysa had been pregnant and that Hoster aborted it with Moon Tea. She said that Lysa was "proven to be fertile." How do you prove fertility except getting preg and she doesn't have a child so it must have been aborted. Then the speech from Hoster makes sense.

Very possible, but the context that he speaks in is very odd. To quote, "Forgive me... the blood... oh, please... Tansy..."

Yeah, this might just be Hoster apologizing to Lysa, but I'm hoping there's more to the story, just to keep things interesting.

[Michael Jon Snow]

He is mumbling a bunch of disjointed phrases. You cannot connect them for comprehension. My grandmother just had double knee replacement and for the first 3 days the pain meds kept her loopy. She said a lot of things that made no sense and my aunts were trying to figure things out from some unrelated sentence fragments. All we can assume is that these words are related, but we can know nothing about how they are related.

[HellaGood]

I might be missing something here but isn't one of the big unanswered questions 'Why did Jon switch the babies and send Sam away with the wrong one?'

[BerryHarryBear]

I might be missing something here but isn't one of the big unanswered questions 'Why did Jon switch the babies and send Sam away with the wrong one?'

I think that one was answered in AFFC. Ammon tells Sam the truth on page 224 (US HB) and Sam understands why on pg 225. "He switched the babes to protect the little prince, to keep him away from Lady Melisandre's fires, away from her red god. "

[Gerold Hightower]

Well, that's all explained. Mance Rayder was "King beyond the Wall." Melisandre wants "king's blood" to raise a dragon. That puts anybody who might in some way qualify in danger of being sacrificed. So Jon sent Dalla's child and Maester Aemon away out of Mel's reach.

[Trem]

The ingredient in Moon Tea is called "tansy," but Hoster specifically "Tansy" and there is an innkeep named Tansy in the riverlands.

So how exactly does one capitalize a word in speech?