126% of women died in birth in the medieval period. No need for alternate explanation on that one.
I was also a little surprised Littlefinger directly envisions himself on the iron throne. I thought perhaps he was planning on inserting a puppet there to deflect attention but really run things.
And yeah, it would be nice if Bran had an explanation for why he wanted to get back south of the wall. Since I suspect the white walkers are going to be able to follow him over it, if he just travels there for no reason it’ll be a stupid plot device driving the biggest development of the next season.
The Iron Bank of Braavos does not write off loans, like the banks we use. Whether or not it will be a plot point, someone is going to be on the hook for those loans.
Robb and Catelyn were both hit by crossbow bolts before being killed, so I think the reference is to that rather than Greywind’s death. And I would argue that Talisa (killed by knife to the stomach) was probably a bigger character than Greywind. But yes, the parallels are very clear. Also, Tywin and Roose killed Ned’s son but ended up killed by their own sons.
It seemed there was blood on her side not just on the bed, but I would imagine if someone tried to kill her they would also have killed the baby.
He needs to communicate what he’s learned. And if he’s to be embedded in a tree, why not the one at Winterfell where his family can come visit him?
I was thinking they would figure in this by providing Dany with the ships she needed. But she doesn’t need them any more. But maybe they’ll figure in this in some way.
Only Howland Reed and Ned knew about Jon’s parentage so it is unlikely either Littlefinger or Varys knows.
Littlefinger’s love for Catelyn was genuine. He fought a duel for her with Ned’s older brother. I suspect his love for Sansa is genuine as well but he has earned her distrust.
Bran has to get away from the white walkers who want to kill him. He also wants to be involved in the fight against them and needs to be south of the wall to do both.
I’ve been thinking for a while now that it would be the ultimate irony for him to end up on the iron throne, as a puppet himself. Although who could pull those strings (and live for some appreciable amount of time), I don’t know.
I think the idea is that it’s a remote location that’ll be far away from any likely battlefields. Almost certainly died during childbirth, she was guarded by the best men in the Kingsguard and there’s no evidence that anyone went through them before Ned, Howland and the others.
Listening back on the scene with the volume cranked way up I definitely hear an Ae- sound, sounds like he might be named after his paternal grandfather Aerys to me but the Reddit speculation picked up by all the blogs is that it’s Jaehaerys. I can only hear two syllables though, YMMV. Sounds like it ends with an ‘s’ sound but that might be Bran sucking in air in reaction to it. Local Bran ruins everything again.
What is pretty clear is that she says “If Robert finds out he’ll kill him, you know he will. You have to protect him. Promise me, Ned. Promise me.”
Which makes it fairly obvious that Rhaegar is the baby daddy, why else would Bobby B want to kill him?
I was wondering if the point was that Lyanna announced his name is Jon Targaryan. As, she and Rhaegar had gone through a marriage ceremony so she was claiming Jon was entitled to his father’s name.
Hey, there are historical examples of Targaryans with multiple wives, so why not?
She has a rather strong argument for ‘fear will keep them in line’
Everyone now knows ‘Lannister’s always pay their debts’ and Cersei doesn’t fuck around. She was a complete underdog with little to no public support and she just managed to destroy her enemies in glorious fashion. Anyone wanting to go after her has to wonder what other tricks she has up her sleeves. ‘If your going to come at the Queen, you best not miss’
Since the Iron Bank has been mentioned, we have no idea how powerful they actually are. Since the Lannisters still have gold mines and a history of paying there debts, if it is within their power to flip the scales, backing Cersei is probably a good plan.
Tywin told Cersei that the gold mines stopped producing years ago and they were in heavy debt to the Iron Bank. The Mace Tyrell went there to try to smooth things over on the Lannister’s behalf and wasn’t able to make the minimum payment IIRC.
What puddleglum said, but there’s also the fact that there’s nothing for him to survive on north of the wall. It’s a barren, unpopulated, frozen tundra and winter is here. How do you suppose a cripple and a girl are going to survive in that environment long-term? In order for him to live he has to get back to civilization. There’s no other choice.
I saw some of this speculation, and it makes no sense whatsoever. She literally just warned Ned about Robert wanting to kill him, so of course she wouldn’t give him a blatantly Targaryen-sounding name. After she says “His name is…” the only logical next thing for her to say is “Jon”, because his name is Jon. That’s his name. Why would she tell Ned his name and then Ned decides to randomly change it to Jon?
She tells Ned in the next sentence, Robert would kill him if he ever found out. Found out what? As he narrates on the Sack of King’s Landing“Babies or no, theirs was the same cursed blood that flowed within the Mad King’s veins. They were dragonspawn, and couldn’t be allowed to survive. What would they grow to be, loyal subjects?”
So Ned taking home a baby Aemon or Aerys or whatever would rather give the game away that he’s a Targaryen, so he calls him Jon, a common enough name, perhaps after his friend Jon Arryn.
Tywin, who was no pushover, was afraid of them. As mentioned, he told Cersei that the Lannister gold mines had ceased producing several years ago. As the saying about the Lannisters is “A Lannister pays his debts,” the saying about the Bank is “The Bank will have its due.”
The Bank has a reputation for being relentless and implacable, which they have to be if they are financing deadbeat rulers. If even a king owes them money, they will finance someone to overthrow him. Like a loan shark, if someone reneges on a loan they will send in the goons. They have to to stay in business.
Right… which is why it would be utterly stupid of her to give him a Targ name in the first place, which she knew could never be used. Might as well give him an actual name. And that name is Jon.
Unless she genuinely loved and quite possibly even married Rhaegar and wanted to honour (she is a Stark) his Targaryen heritage, but in secret. Not to get too meta about it but what the hell would be the point of the “His name is…mumble mumble…” if we’re just gonna be told something we already know. Though it would be in line with that stupid “OMG how’s Arya gonna survive that?!” “Errr she just does lol” shit from ‘No One’. Yes, I am still angry about that.
But yes, the parallels are very clear. Also, Tywin and Roose killed Ned’s son but ended up killed by their own sons.
