What if Rhaegar didn’t want to be King?

Potential Spoilers Below

 The circumstances surrounding Rhaegar’s death: ASOIAF

Rhaegar

“The day had been windy when he said farewell to Rhaegar, in the yard of the Red Keep. The prince had donned his night-black armor, with the three-headed dragon picked out in rubies on his breastplate. “Your Grace,” Jaime had pleaded, “let Darry stay to guard the king this once, or Ser Barristan. Their cloaks are as white as mine.”

The Red Keep

Jaime

Barristan

Prince Rhaegar shook his head. “My royal sire fears your father more than he does our cousin Robert. He wants you close, so Lord Tywin cannot harm him. I dare not take that crutch away from him at such an hour.”

Robert

Tywin

Jaime’s anger had risen up in his throat. “I am not a crutch. I am a knight of the Kingsguard.”

“Then guard the king,” Ser Jon Darry snapped at him. “When you donned that cloak, you promised to obey.”

Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime’s shoulder. “When this battle’s done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but . . . well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return.”

Those were the last words Rhaegar Targaryen ever spoke to him. Outside the gates an army had assembled, whilst another descended on the Trident. So the Prince of Dragonstone mounted up and donned his tall black helm, and rode forth to his doom.”

Most people believe that Rhaegar was going to depose his father King Aerys.  I think that was the furthest thing from the truth.  I believe that Rhaegar was going to give up the throne for Lyanna by simply walking away.  You will see why I think this after I tell you the story of the character upon which I believe that Prince Rhaegar was based.

King Aerys

Lyanna

I have thought this for some time but I only put it on my blog on 8 July 2017, in the comments section, after answering a question someone had asked of me: Jon Snow: Do The Prophecies Make the Man?

  

The circumstances surrounding Janduin’s death: The Wheel of Time (TWOT)

“Was. So he was dead now, too. Egwene wore sympathy on her face. Rand ignored it; he did not want sympathy. How could he feel loss, for people he had never known? Yet he did. “How did Janduin die?”

The Wise Ones exchanged hesitant glances.  At last Amys said, "It was the beginning of the third year of the search for Laman when Shaiel found herself with child.  by the laws, she should have returned to the Threefold Land.  A Maiden is forbidden to carry the spear "while she carries a child.  but Janduin could forbid her nothing; had she asked the moon on a necklace, he would have tried to give it to her.  So she stayed, and in the last fight, before Tar Valon, she was lost, and the child was lost.  Janduin could not forgive himself for not making her obey the law.

Three Wise Ones
Amys, Biar and Melaine

Laman

Maiden of the Spear

He gave up his place as clan chief," Bair said.  "No one had ever done that before.  He was told it could not be done, but he simply walked away. He went north with the young men, to hunt Trollocs and Myrddraal in the Blight.  It is a thing wild young men do, and Maidens with less sense than goats.  Those who returned said he was killed by a man, though. They said Janduin claimed this man looked like Shaiel, and he would not raise his spear when the man ran him through."

Myrddraal leading Trollocs

Dead, then.  Both dead.  He would never lose his love for Tam, never stop thinking of him as father, but he wished he could have seen Janduin and Shaiel, just once."

What it all means:

IMO Jon Snow is based upon Rand al’Thor, Rhaegar is Janduin, Lyanna is Shaiel, Ned Stark is Tam al’Thor and Ser Arthur Dayne (The Sword of the Morning) is Lews Therin (The Lord of the Morning).     

Jon Snow

Ser Arthur Dayne and his sword Dawn

Lews Therin

Both Jon Snow and Rand were raised by men who they thought were their fathers but weren’t.  We learned the truth of this when the men in question were wounded and recounted the stories via fever dreams shining light on their true origins.  Rand being the Dragon Reborn was prophesied to wield the sword that could not be touched; called Callandor.  It was a sword that was made of crystal but could only be retrieved from the Heart of the Stone by the Dragon Reborn.  The sword in Rand’s hands when the One Power was channeled through it was so bright that it looked like it was on fire.  He was able to wield the sword because he was born with the reincarnated soul of Lews Therin the last to wield the sword Callandor.  I believe Jon Snow will eventually wield the sword Dawn, which I believe to be the fabled sword Lightbringer, for similar reasons.  Ned describes Dawn as follows: “And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.  I believe Dawn will be found in the Crypts of Winterfell, most likely in Lyanna’s tomb. 

Heart of the Stone

Young Ned Stark

I can’t prove it but I believe that some sort of bloodmagic was performed that will make it possible for Jon Snow to be the next person to wield the sword Dawn and giving him a connection with Ser Arthur Dayne the last Sword of the Morning.  Remember that line “The Dragon has three heads”?  I believe that Jon fits that saying perfectly as he is a Targaryen via his father, a Stark via his mother and a Dayne via bloodmagic (a la reincarnated soul – TWOT speak).  The books have never told us what makes one eligible to become the next Sword of the Morning.  I simply believe that Azor Ahai was a member of the Dayne family line from the Age of Heroes.  People will argue that Dawn is still in Starfall where Ned took it after Arthur Dayne’s death.  It said he took it there but nothing ever said that someone there wasn’t aware of Ser Arthur Dayne’s role in the prophecy.  He could have left instructions for the sword to be returned to Winterfell in the event of his death.  When Jon claims the sword, he will become in TWOT speak – the Dragon Reborn; as he will be found to be a Targaryen aka a dragon.

Winterfell

Most argue with me on the point of bloodmagic being performed by Rhaegar being absurd but remember the following:

“As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father’s knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, ‘I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.’”

Rhaella

Baelor the Blessed

Whatever he read changed his life dramatically.  What if it told him he had to perform this ritual.  It is another reason why I believe that Ser Arthur Dayne being the best friend of Prince Rhaegar also knew he was going to die that fateful day.  I believe that Rhaegar shared with him the words he read in the scrolls which I believe to be from the book Signs and Portents.

Rand's father, an Aiel clan chief, would not kill Luc because he looked so much like his wife Tigraine or Shaiel her Aiel name. The 180-degree came with switching Jon’s father with Ser Arthur Dayne who died at the hands of Lyanna’s brother Ned.  He sacrificed himself and let Luc kill him because of that fact alone.  His mother Tigraine gave birth to him and then she dies on the slopes of Dragonmount.  Rand is born at the same place that Lews Therin, the Lord of the Morning, who is Rand’s reincarnated soul died.  Jon Snow is born at the Tower of Joy, his mother Lyanna also dies after giving birth at the same place that Ser Arthur Dayne, who I believe is Jon’s (reincarnated soul – via bloodmagic) died.  Tigraine’s personal sigil was a woman's hand gripping a thorny rose-stem with a white blossom.  Lyanna is always associated with blue winter roses or blue rose petals; they simply changed the color of the rose and for the 180-degree twist made Rhaegar and Lyanna married unlike Rand al’Thor’s parents.

Aiel

Dragonmount

Tower of Joy

Proof that Rhaegar and Lyanna were married.
Jon Snow isn't a bastard

So with all that said since Janduin was willing to give up his position as an Aiel clan chief; I believe that this is what Rhaegar was going to do when he spoke the following words to Jaime: “When this battle’s done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but . . . well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return.”

If he didn’t want to be king but didn’t make his wishes known does that mean that Jon Snow still trumps Daenerys in the “line of succession”?  I really don’t think it would matter one way or another to Jon unless Daenerys were to go “Mad Queen” and he had to step in and do what was right and oppose her.  He doesn’t want to sit the Iron Throne; he simply wants to do what is right for the realm.  What do you think?

Daenerys

Iron Throne

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the ideas 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.