Jon and Daenerys - Yin and Yang - Saidar and Saidin

Potential Spoilers Below

The differences between men and female channelers:

Most vividly, saidar and saidin feel different: a woman would describe it as a gentle force that she must submerge herself in, as trying to exert control over it would lead to being instantly consumed; a man, on the other hand, faces a cataclysmic torrent requiring perfect control, immense willpower and ceaseless vigilance. In short, women "embrace" saidar, surrendering to it and influencing it from within, while men "seize" saidin, manipulating it by force.

“How do you embrace the Source? Just tell us. Take it step by step, slowly.”

“More like wrestling than embracing.” He grunted. “Step by step? Well, first I imagine a flame, and then I push everything into it. Hate, fear, nervousness. Everything. When they're all consumed, there's an emptiness, a void, inside my head. I am in the middle of it, but I'm a part of whatever I am concentrating on, too.”

“That sounds familiar,” Egwene said. “I've heard your father talk about a trick of concentration he uses to win the archery competitions. What he calls the Flame and the Void.”

“Rand nodded; sadly, it seemed. She thought he must be missing home, and his father. “Tam taught it to me first. And Lan uses it, too, with the sword. Selene — someone I met once — called it the Oneness. A good many people seem to know about it, whatever they call it. But I found out for myself that when I was inside the void, I could feel saidin, like a light just beyond the corner of my eye in the emptiness. There's nothing but me and that light. Emotion, even thought, is outside. I used to have to take it bit by bit, but it all comes at once, now. Most of it does, anyway. Most of the time.”

Lan

Selene

“Emptiness,” Elayne said with a shiver. “No emotion. That doesn't sound very much like what we do.”

“Yes, it does,” Egwene insisted eagerly. “Rand, we just do it a little differently, that's all. I imagine myself to be a flower, a rosebud, imagine it until I am the rosebud. That is like your void, in a way. The rosebud's petals open out to the light of saidar, and I let it fill me, all light and warmth and life and wonder. I surrender to it, and by surrendering, I control it. That was the hardest part, to learn, really; how to master saidar by submitting, but it seems so natural now that I do not even think about it. That is the key to it, Rand. I am sure. You must learn to surrender —” He was shaking his head vigorously.”

“That's nothing like what I do,” he protested. “Let it fill me? I have to reach out and take hold of saidin. Sometimes there's still nothing there when I do, nothing I can touch, but if I didn't reach for it, I could stand there forever and nothing would happen. It fills me all right, once I take hold, but surrender to it?” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Egwene, if I surrendered — even for a minute — saidin would consume me. It's like a river of molten metal, an ocean of fire, all the light of the sun gathered in one spot. I must fight it to make it do what I want, fight it to keep from being eaten up.”

Rand and Nynaeve trying to cleanse saidin from the Dark One’s taint:

Nynaeve assisting Rand cleanse saidin

Representation of the Dark One 

Alongside the turmoil of saidin, saidar was a tranquil river flowing smoothly. He dipped into that river, and suddenly he was struggling against currents that tried to pull him further in, swirling whirlpools that tried to yank him under. The harder he struggled, the stronger the shifting fluxes grew. Only an instant since he had tried to control saidar, and already he felt as if he was drowning in it, being swept away into eternity. Nynaeve had warned him what he must do, but it seemed so foreign he had not truly believed until now. With an effort, he forced himself to stop fighting the currents, and as quickly as that the river was tranquil once more.”

“That was the first difficulty, to fight saidin while surrendering to saidar. The first difficulty, and the first key to what he had to do. The male and female halves of the True Source were alike and unalike, attracting and repelling, fighting against each other even as they worked together to drive the Wheel of Time.”

The Wheel of Time

Did they cleanse Saidin?

“Have you decided yet whether the al’Thor boy succeeded at Shadar Logoth? Did he really manage to cleanse the male half of the Source?”

“Corele practiced linking with Damer, too, but the Yellow was so focused on her futile efforts to reason out how to do with saidar what he did with saidin that she would not have noticed the Dark One’s taint sliding down her throat. A pity she herself had not come to the shawl fifty years later than she had, or she would have bonded one of the men herself and had no need to ask. But fifty years would have meant that Norla died in her little house in the Black Hills before Cadsuane Melaidhrin ever went to the White Tower. That would have altered a great deal of history. For one thing, it would have been unlikely that she would be in anything approaching her present circumstances. So she asked, delicately, and waited.”

Cadsuane Melaidhrin

“Merise was quiet, and still, for a long moment, and then she sighed. “I do not know, Cadsuane.  Saidar is a calm ocean that will take you wherever you want so long as you know the currents and let them carry you. Saidin. . . . An avalanche of burning stone.  Collapsing mountains of ice. It feels cleaner than when I first linked with Jahar, but anything could hide in that chaos. Anything.”

Merise

Jahar Narishma

“The woman did not hesitate. “I can. I took time to be convinced. The male half of the Power, it is more alien than you can imagine. Not the inexorable yet gentle power of saidar, but rather a raging sea of fire and ice whipped by a tempest. Yet I am convinced. It is clean.”

So what does all that have to do with The Game of Thrones?  When I first started theorizing I figured that Jon and Danenerys may just be destined to be at odds when they finally meet.  After watching Season 6 I am not so sure.  If you pay attention to what the show is trying to tell you then you see that their lives parallel saidin and saidar in TWOT.

Jon Snow
The King  in the North

Daenerys
Queen of Meereen

Danenerys embraces her destiny

A warm embrace like saidar

Jon's destiny is more of a struggle; a fight

He has to fight his way through like saidin

In TWOT when Rand’s body died his consciousness was transferred to his nemesis Moridin.  Upon waking in Moridin’s body he looked into a mirror and within his eye he saw the Dragon’s Fang.  The Dragon’s Fang was known in their age as a sign of evil or the Dark One.  Since Moridin was now Rand he was looking into his own eye.  The name Daenerys is an anagram of “Rand’s eye”.  In the Age of Legends the Dragon’s Fang combined with the Flame of Tar Valon was the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai.  With that said are Jon and Daenerys two halves of a whole that when combined together will fight the Dark One or will GRRM take the darker route and make her the evil of this age?

Moridin

Dragon's Fang painted on door; symbol of evil

Flame of Tar Valon & Dragon's Fang

Ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai

Jon’s life also parallels the life of Rand al’Thor; the Dragon Reborn.  He was raised by a man that he thought was his father but wasn’t.  Rand was found found on Dragonmount, in the snow (ice), where Jon was found in the Tower of Joy, in Dorne the southern-most part of Westeros (fire) by his uncle who raised him as his son.  Dragonmount was raised up when Lews Therin the original “Lord of the Morning” died.  The Tower of Joy was torn down after Ser Arthur Dayne the last “Sword of the Morning” was killed.  Rand went on to become the Lord of the Morning.  I believe that Jon will become the new Sword of the Morning.

Dragonmount

Rand found in the snow on Dragonmount

Tower of Joy

Lew Therin - Lord of the Morning

Ser Arthur Dayne - Sword of the Morning

Who is Azor Ahai?

When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.

Daenerys version of this was literal.  There was a red comet that was the red star bleeding.  Daenerys willingly walked into a fire after placing her stone dragons eggs on the funeral pyre.  Mirri Maz Duur’s tears served as salt and the smoke was also literal.  When all was said and done she woke 3 dragons from 3 dragon eggs that were hard as stone.

Mirri Maz Duur

Dragon Eggs

Jon on the other hand hasn’t yet completed his part of the prophecy.  But his won’t be literal but metaphorical.  Jon begins his journey to becoming Azor Ahai by being stabbed to death by his own men.  Melisandre is the “Red woman” and also Shiera Seastar the “Star of the Sea” lies bleeding and dying which prophecy translates to “when the red star bleeds”.  This will occur after Davos kills Melisandre for burning Shireen at the stake.  Melisandre with tears in her eyes, accounts for the “salt”, smiles at Ser Davos despite the smoking wound produced by the knife would which account for the “smoke”.  The scene switches back to Jon as he unseals one of the sepulchers that I believe that it is filled chemicals that will burst into flame when exposed to air.  A fire consumes the crypt as Jon reaches in and pulls the sword “Dawn” from the flames.  Azor Ahai will then officially be reborn and later it will be revealed that dragon eggs were also entombed which will hatch accounting for him “waking dragons out of stone.”  The Night’s King will account for the gathering darkness. 

Melisandre

Shiera Seastar

Davos

Shireen about to be burned at the stake

Dawn; the sword I believe to be Lightbringer

The Night's King

“We can dismiss Mushroom’s claim in his Testimony that the dragon Vermax left a clutch of eggs somewhere in the depths of Winterfell’s crypts, where the waters of the hot springs run close to the walls, while his rider treated with Cregan Stark at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. As Archmaester Gyldayn notes in his fragmentary history, there is no record that Vermax ever laid so much as a single egg, suggesting the dragon was male. The belief that dragons could change sex at need is erroneous, according to Maester Anson’s Truth, rooted in a misunderstanding of the esoteric metaphor that Barth preferred when discussing the higher mysteries.”

Though most Maesters don’t consider Mushroom’s account of what happened to be accurate most of the information that they believe to be true in The World of Ice and Fire novel seems incorrect.  I believe his claim will indeed be proven accurate and Jon will indeed raise dragons from stone.  Melisandre’s death will pay for life.

“The One Power,” Moiraine was saying, “comes from the True Source, the driving force of Creation, the force the Creator made to turn the Wheel of Time.” She put her hands together in front of her and pushed them against each other. “Saidin, the male half of the True Source, and saidar, the female half, work against each other and at the same time together to provide that force. saidin” — she lifted one hand, then let it drop —“is fouled by the touch of the Dark One, like water with a thin slick of rancid oil floating on top. The water is still pure, but it cannot be touched without touching the foulness. Only saidar is still safe to be used.”

Moiraine; Melisandre's counterpart in ASOIAF
Where Moiraine supposedly died and came back Melisandre's death will be final

Where Daenerys was nice and clean Jon is shown covered in grime similar to the way that saidin was like water with a thin slick of rancid oil floating on top before it was cleansed

The only thing I haven’t worked out is will Jon raise Ice Dragons where Daenerys raised Fire Dragons.

An Ice Dragon

Again the parallels to saidin and saidar are there.  Daenerys embraces her destiny and is reborn.  Jon on the other hand although his destiny is not yet complete starts it off by fighting his death as he dies violently prior to being resurrected. 

The Red Comet

Literal vs Metaphorial reversed?

“In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.”ligh

“When I went to the Hall of a Thousand Thrones to beg the Pureborn for your life, I said that you were no more than a child,” Xaro went on, “but Egon Emeros the Exquisite rose and said, ‘She is a foolish child, mad and heedless and too dangerous to live.’ When your dragons were small they were a wonder. Grown, they are death and devastation, a flaming sword above the world.” He wiped away the tears. “I should have slain you in Qarth.”

Xaro Xhoan Daxos

When Daenerys gave birth to dragons she also birth to a metaphorical Lightbringer; her dragons.

Like I have always said I believe Dawn to be Lightbringer.  Therefore when Jon fulfills his destiny and pulls Dawn from the fire Lightbringer will become the literal representation of the sword.

But right when you think you’ve figured it out:

Remember I didn’t know which way Daenerys would go in this story?  Well going back and looking at the opening scenes from The Game of Thrones another clue reveals itself.  I truly believe that Sam is telling the story.  If you look at the following pictures it shows you what I believe to be the Doom of Valyria and then it shows the 3 headed dragon being killed by the direwolf, lion and stag.  It this the future to come?

The Doom of Valyria?

The 3-headed dragon being destroyed by the direwolf, lion and stag?

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.