What hides beneath the mask?

Potential Spoilers Below

The similarities between The Wheel of Time (TWOT) and A Song of Ice And Fire (ASOIAF) are vast even if there are those out there that say otherwise.  This post points out the similarities between Ba’alzamon and Quaithe and how they appear to Rand al’Thor and Daenerys respectively to try and maneuver them into doing something none thought to do themselves.  Both Rand and Dany are both surrounded by those who are asleep and both question whether they are dreaming.  Both Ba’alzamon and Quaithe appear with their faces obscured by masks and they both claim to know who Rand and Dany are even if they do not.  Both also claim to know Rand and Dany and it having to do with their blood.  Rand being the “Dragon Reborn” and Dany being “The blood of the dragon”.  They both also speak of the taint/madness that both Dany and Rand fear they will suffer respectively.  You don’t have to take my word for this as you can read the excerpts in question for yourself.  In TWOT you find what is hidden behind Ba’alzamon’s mask.  What actually lies behind Quaithe’s?  Both also tell Rand and Dany they are offering “Truth”.  Dany’s truth isn’t offered to her in this encounter but it is here.

ASOIAF: The wearer of the mask

Quaithe

“A bath will help soothe me. She padded barefoot through the grass to her terrace pool. The water felt cool on her skin, raising goosebumps. Little fish nibbled at her arms and legs. She closed her eyes and floated.

A soft rustle made her open them again. She sat up with a soft splash. “Missandei?” she called. “Irri? Jhiqui?”

“They sleep,” came the answer.

A woman stood under the persimmon tree, clad in a hooded robe that brushed the grass. Beneath the hood, her face seemed hard and shiny. She is wearing a mask, Dany knew, a wooden mask finished in dark red lacquer. “Quaithe? Am I dreaming?” She pinched her ear and winced at the pain. “I dreamt of you on Balerion, when first we came to Astapor.”

“You did not dream. Then or now.”

“What are you doing here? How did you get past my guards?”

“I came another way. Your guards never saw me.”

“If I call out, they will kill you.”

“They will swear to you that I am not here.”

“Are you here?”

“No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun’s son and the mummer’s dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal.”

“Reznak? Why should I fear him?” Dany rose from the pool. Water trickled down her legs, and gooseflesh covered her arms in the cool night air. “If you have some warning for me, speak plainly. What do you want of me, Quaithe?”

Moonlight shone in the woman’s eyes. “To show you the way.”

“I remember the way. I go north to go south, east to go west, back to go forward. And to touch the light I have to pass beneath the shadow.” She squeezed the water from her silvery hair. “I am half-sick of riddling. In Qarth I was a beggar, but here I am a queen. I command you—”

“Daenerys. Remember the Undying.

Remember who you are.”

“The blood of the dragon.” But my dragons are roaring in the darkness. “I remember the Undying. Child of three, they called me. Three mounts they promised me, three fires, and three treasons. One for blood and one for gold and one for …”

“Your Grace?” Missandei stood in the door of the queen’s bedchamber, a lantern in her hand. “Who are you talking to?”

Dany glanced back toward the persimmon tree. There was no woman there. No hooded robe, no lacquer mask, no Quaithe.

A shadow. A memory. No one. She was the blood of the dragon, but Ser Barristan had warned her that in that blood there was a taint. Could I be going mad? They had called her father mad, once. “I was praying,” she told the Naathi girl. “It will be light soon. I had best eat something, before court.”

“I will bring you food to break your fast.”

Alone again, Dany went all the way around the pyramid in hopes of finding Quaithe, past the burned trees and scorched earth where her men had tried to capture Drogon. But the only sound was the wind in the fruit trees, and the only creatures in the gardens were a few pale moths.”

The Wheel of Time: The wearer of the mask

“A shadowy figure drew nearer through the mist, walking with a tall staff. Behind it, as if the shadow’s shadow were vast, the fog darkened till it was blacker than night. Rand’s skin crawled. Closer the figure came, until it resolved into the shape of a man, clothed and gloved in black, with a black silk mask covering his face, and the shadow came with it. His staff was black, too, as if the wood had been charred, yet smooth and shining like water by moonlight. For an instant the eyeholes of the mask glowed, as if fires stood behind them rather than eyes, but Rand did not need that to know who it was.”

“Ba’alzamon,” he breathed. “This is a dream. It has to be. I fell asleep, and—”

Ba’alzamon laughed like the roar of an open furnace. “You always try to deny what is, Lews Therin. If I stretch out my hand, I can touch you, Kinslayer. I can always touch you. Always and everywhere.”

“I am not the Dragon! My name is Rand al’—!” Rand clamped his teeth shut to stop himself.”

“Oh, I know the name you use now, Lews Therin. I know every name you have used through Age after Age, long before you were even the Kinslayer.” Ba’alzamon’s voice began to rise in intensity; sometimes the fires of his eyes flared so high that Rand could see them through the openings in the silk mask, see them like endless seas of flame. “I know you, know your blood and your line back to the first spark of life that ever was, back to the First Moment. You can never hide from me. Never! We are tied together as surely as two sides of the same coin. Ordinary men may hide in the sweep of the Pattern, but ta’veren stand out like beacon fires on a hill, and you, you stand out as if ten thousand shining arrows stood in the sky to point you out! You are mine, and ever in reach of my hand!”

“Father of Lies!” Rand managed. Despite the void, his tongue wanted to cleave to the roof of his mouth. Light, please let it be a dream. The thought skittered outside the emptiness. Even one of those dreams that isn’t a dream. He can’t really be standing in front of me. The Dark One is sealed in Shayol Ghul, sealed by the Creator at the moment of Creation. . . . He knew too much of the truth for it to help. “You’re well named! If you could just take me, why haven’t you? Because you cannot.”

“I walk in the Light, and you cannot touch me!”

Ba’alzamon leaned on his staff and looked at Rand a moment, then moved to stand over Loial and Hurin, peering down at them. The vast shadow moved with him. He did not disturb the fog, Rand saw—he moved, the staff swung with his steps, but the gray mist did not swirl and eddy around his feet as it did around Rand’s. That gave him heart. Perhaps Ba’alzamon really was not there. Perhaps it was a dream.”

“You find odd followers,” Ba’alzamon mused. “You always did. These two. The girl who tries to watch over you. A poor guardian and weak, Kinslayer. If she had a lifetime to grow, she would never grow strong enough for you to hide behind.”

Girl? Who? Moiraine is surely not a girl. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Father of Lies. You lie, and lie, and even when you tell the truth, you twist it to a lie.”

“Do I, Lews Therin? You know what you are, who you are. I have told you. And so have those women of Tar Valon.” Rand shifted, and Ba’alzamon gave a laugh, like a small thunderclap. “They think themselves safe in their White Tower, but my followers number even some of their own. The Aes Sedai called Moiraine told you who you are, did she not? Did she lie? Or is she one of mine? The White Tower means to use you like a hound on a leash. Do I lie? Do I lie when I say you seek the Horn of Valere?” He laughed again; calm of the void or no, it was all Rand could do not to cover his ears. “Sometimes old enemies fight so long that they become allies and never realize it. They think they strike at you, but they have become so closely linked it is as if you guided the blow yourself.”

“You don’t guide me,” Rand said. “I deny you.”

“I have a thousand strings tied to you, Kinslayer, each one finer than silk and stronger than steel. Time has tied a thousand cords between us. The battle we two have fought—do you remember any part of that? Do you have any glimmering that we have fought before, battles without number back to the beginning of Time? I know much that you do not! That battle will soon end. The Last Battle is coming. The last, Lews Therin. Do you really think you can avoid it? You poor, shivering worm. You will serve me or die! And this time the cycle will not begin anew with your death. The grave belongs to the Great Lord of the Dark. This time if you die, you will be destroyed utterly. This time the Wheel will be broken whatever you do, and the world remade to a new mold. Serve me! Serve Shai’tan, or be destroyed forever!”

With the utterance of that name, the air seemed to thicken. The darkness behind Ba’alzamon swelled and grew, threatening to swallow everything. Rand felt it engulfing him, colder than ice and hotter than coals both at the same time, blacker than death, sucking him into the depths of it, overwhelming the world.

He gripped his sword hilt till his knuckles hurt. “I deny you, and I deny your power. I walk in the Light. The Light preserves us, and we shelter in the palm of the Creator’s hand.” He blinked. Ba’alzamon still stood there, and the great darkness still hung behind him, but it was as if all the rest had been illusion.

“Do you want to see my face?” It was a whisper.

Rand swallowed. “No.”

“You should.” A gloved hand went to the black mask.

“No!”

The mask came away. It was a man’s face, horribly burned. Yet between the black-edged, red crevices crossing those features, the skin looked healthy and smooth. Dark eyes looked at Rand; cruel lips smiled with a flash of white teeth. “Look at me, Kinslayer, and see the hundredth part of your own fate.” For a moment eyes and mouth became doorways into endless caverns of fire. “This is what the Power unchecked can do, even to me. But I heal, Lews Therin. I know the paths to greater power. It will burn you like a moth flying into a furnace.”

“I will not touch it!” Rand felt the void around him, felt saidin. “I won’t.”

“You cannot stop yourself.”

“Leave—me—ALONE!”

“Power.” Ba’alzamon’s voice became soft, insinuating. “You can have power again, Lews Therin. You are linked to it now, this moment. I know it. I can see it. Feel it, Lews Therin. Feel the glow inside you. Feel the power that could be yours. All you must do is reach out for it. But the Shadow is there between you and it. Madness and death. You need not die, Lews Therin, not ever again.”

“No,” Rand said, but the voice went on, burrowing into him.

“I can teach you to control that power so that it does not destroy you. No one else lives who can teach you that. The Great Lord of the Dark can shelter you from the madness. The power can be yours, and you can live forever. Forever! All you must do in return is serve. Only serve. Simple words—I am yours, Great Lord—and power will be yours. Power beyond anything those women of Tar Valon dream of, and life eternal, if you will only offer yourself up and serve.”

Rand licked his lips. Not to go mad. Not to die. “Never! I walk in the Light,” he grated hoarsely, “and you can never touch me!”

“Touch you, Lews Therin? Touch you? I can consume you! Taste it and know, as I knew!”

Those dark eyes became fire again, and that mouth, flame that blossomed and grew until it seemed brighter than a summer sun. Grew, and suddenly Rand’s sword glowed as if just drawn from the forge. He cried out as the hilt burned his hands, screamed and dropped the sword. And the fog caught fire, fire that leaped, fire that burned everything.

Yelling, Rand beat at his clothes as they smoked and charred and fell in ashes, beat with hands that blackened and shriveled as naked flesh cracked and peeled away in the flames. He screamed. Pain beat at the void inside him, and he tried to crawl deeper into the emptiness. The glow was there, the tainted light just out of sight. Half mad, no longer caring what it was, he reached for saidin, tried to wrap it around him, tried to hide in it from the burning and the pain.

As suddenly as the fire began, it was gone. Rand stared wonderingly at his hand sticking out of the red sleeve of his coat. There was not so much as a singe on the wool. I imagined it all. Frantically, he looked around.

Ba’alzamon was gone. Hurin shifted in his sleep; the sniffer and Loial were still only two mounds sticking up out of the low fog. I did imagine it.

Before relief had a chance to grow, pain stabbed his right hand, and he turned it up to look. There across the palm was branded a heron. The heron from the hilt of his sword, angry and red, as neatly done as though drawn with an artist’s skill.

Fumbling a kerchief from his coat pocket, he wrapped it around his hand. The hand throbbed, now. The void would help with that—he was aware of pain in the void, but he did not feel it—but he put the thought out of his head. Twice now, unknowing—and once on purpose; he could not forget that—he had tried to channel the One Power while he was in the void. It was with that that Ba’alzamon wanted to tempt him. It was that that Moiraine and the Amyrlin Seat wanted him to do. He would not.”

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.

CleganeBowl; Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!!!

Potential Spoilers Below

I will cut to the chase as to how I believe it will go down.  Cersei who I believe is pregnant by Euron based upon the following excerpt from “The Forsaken”:

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood¬-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was  no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed...

I believe this woman to be Cersei.  At some point in the story I believe Euron will use the baby to assume power for himself.  I believe the baby to be his but he will not want to wait for the baby to be born naturally or Cersei will spurn him and he will attempt to rip the baby from her womb where some maester under his control will tell him it is viable.  The procedure will be undergone when Jaime and friends will have reached King’s Landing regrouping from their fight with the Night King/Night’s King in a battle that they are losing.  Jaime will go ahead of the main group telling everyone that he can convince Cersei to see their point of view bring her to their side.  It will be agreed and he will make his way to her.  I believe the baby will die in the procedure and Euron will make his way back to the sea.  When Jaime arrives Cersei will be in the company of the Mountain sitting upon the Iron Throne.  Jaime will see her crying and see that she is no longer pregnant.  He will attempt to comfort her but, in her anger, she will tell him that if he had not left her side that none of this would have happened.  I also believe that the throne room will be in the condition that we saw in Dany’s vision with a hole in the roof and snow fluttering in through a hole in the ceiling.  In a fit of rage, she will order the Mountain to kill Jaime.  Jaime will attempt to fight back but he will be cut down and he dies.  Cersei will then go Mad Queen and order the Mountain to “Burn them all!”  This of course is her fallback plan to destroy King’s Landing like she did with the Great Sept of Baelor.  Sansa will have made her way to the scene with the Hound in tow and will have overheard Cersei’s order to “Burn them all”.  This will lead to a fulfillment and completion of the prophecy concerning Sansa:

“I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow.”

The first part was the reference to the silver hairnet given to Sansa by Ser Dontos.  It contained the poison that the Queen of Thorns slipped into Joffrey’s chalice that poisoned him during his wedding feast.  The second is what I believe the event that leads to CleaganeBowl.  After overhearing what she says to the Mountain Sansa tells the Hound to stop him.  The Hound will run to catchup with his brother and find him in a room under the city where Cersei has had wildfire placed strategically in a similar way to destroy the inhabitants of King’s Landing.  The Mountain will turn to find his brother at his back and the battle will begin.  Both will draw swords and the two brothers will begin to slash at each other.  The dance will go on for some time with each man slashing and blocking each other’s blows in a mostly even match.  During the battle one of the Hounds slashes will reach it’s target but the Mountain being already dead will simply look at his brother unhampered by the wound.  It is at this point where the Hound will be caught off guard and will be tripped up and find himself on his back in a vulnerable position.  The Mountain will try to bash in his skull and attempt to do what he did to the Red Viper.  But he will find that his brother is also a powerful man as the two men  continue wrestling on the ground.  The Hound, will find his way to his feet first and will realize that during the battle they have moved away from the room where the wildfire has been staged to set off the spark to destroy the city.  The Hound, momentarily losing his fear of fire, will find a jar of wildfire and hurl it at his brother catching him on fire as it utterly consumes the Mountain.  The Hound will have gotten his revenge on his brother who burned him so long ago simply over him playing with a toy given to the Mountain that he didn’t even play with to begin with.  That will complete Sansa’s prophecy of “slaying a savage giant”, the Mountain, “in a castle built of snow”, the Red Keep covered with snow.  This also leads to my theory on why Sansa will become Queen.  Click here to see that theory.

The scene will then shift back to the throne room where Cersei realizing that she has lost everything that has with the death of Jaime.  She will be clutching his body and crying hysterically with Sansa looking at the spectacle when the Night King will do what he does and reanimates the dead in King’s Landing and this time Jaime will be among them.  He will start moving and Cersei will call out his name when he will reach out and clutch her pale white throat with his hands; one being of gold.  He will choke the life from her as she stares helplessly into his now bluer than blue eyes.  Sansa will have been informed by Jon Snow how to kill wights and she will probably set both their bodies ablaze.  This will make true Cersei’s words to Qyburn when speaking of Jaime: “We will leave this world together, as we once came into it.”

Note:  I used to think that Dany would be the one to have the baby ripped from her womb.  Also note that if Euron doesn’t manage to escape back to the sea that it will be his nephew Theon who will kill him with an arrow, that will fly straight and true, completing his redemption arc.

But this leads to another prophecy which was told to have been something that was supposed to be from the past but that I now think refers to events in the here and now.  Lodos was a priest of the Drowned God and said that when King Aegon I Targaryen attacked the Iron Islands he called upon the krakens to drag down Aegon’s warships.  What if he saw Euron as he is described as a metaphorical  kracken pulling down Jon Snow’s warships whose given name is Aegon.  When I say Jon’s warships, I mean the ones that will be placed under his command after everyone starts following his lead in the fight against the Night King.  Click here to see how the TV show portrayed this.

The tales of Lann the Clever, the Rat Cook and also Azor Ahai I also believe to be stories that Bran, after physically transporting himself to the past, retells these stories as coming from the past but really, they are from his time.  Click here, here, here and here to see my theories on those.

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.

What is the “Truth” to be found in Asshai?

Potential Spoilers Below

“With all the false Dragons that are appearing, it is not surprising someone would try to bring Lanfear into it.” Moiraine’s voice was as unruffled as her face, but inside herself she roiled. Only one thing for certain was known of Lanfear beside the name: before she went over to the Shadow, before Lews Therin Telamon met Ilyena, Lanfear had been his lover. A complication we do not need.”

I have believed for some time that Daenerys would turn evil.  Click here to see my thoughts on that.  Will Dany who has become Jon Snow's lover “go over to the Shadow” in a similar way as Lanfear?  I think she will and be yet another homage to the Wheel of Time.  In the books we have a good reason to believe that there is a false dragon by the name of Prince Aegon Targaryen aka “Young Griff” in the company of Jon Connington aka “Griff”.  Since I theorize that Azor Ahai told of in the old stories is the same individual as the Azor Ahai that is prophesied to be reborn it is perfect symmetry with the Wheel of Time (TWOT) analogy of  reincarnated souls.  Click here to see my theory on that.

What TWOT tells us of the lands under the Shadow:

“Verin, with her nose still buried in her notes, noticed none of it. “I don’t know, Mother. I doubt it, though. We know nothing at all of those lands Artur Hawkwing set out to conquer. It’s too bad the Sea Folk refuse to cross the Aryth Ocean. They say the Islands of the Dead lie on the other side. I wish I knew what they meant by that, but that accursed Sea Folk closemouthedness. . . .” She sighed, still not raising her head. “All we have is one reference to ‘lands under the Shadow, beyond the setting sun, beyond the Aryth Ocean, where the Armies of Night reign.’ Nothing there to tell us if the armies Hawkwing sent were enough by themselves to defeat these ‘Armies of the Night,’ or even to survive Hawkwing’s death. Once the War of the Hundred Years started, everyone was too intent on carving out their own part of Hawkwing’s empire to spare a thought for his armies across the sea. It seems to me, Mother, that if their descendants still lived, and if they ever intended to return, they would not have waited so long.”

What ASOIAF tells us of Asshai-by-the-Shadow:

“Is there any truth to these grim fables brought back from the end of the earth by singers and sailors and dabblers in sorcery? Who can say? Lomas Longstrider never saw Asshai-by-the-Shadow. Even the Sea Snake never sailed so far. Those who did have not returned to tell us their tales.

Until they do, Asshai and the Shadow Lands and whatever lands and seas might lie beyond them must remain a closed book to wise men and kings alike. There is always more to know, more to see, more to learn. The world is vast and wondrous strange, and there are more things beneath the stars than even the archmaesters of the Citadel can dream”

“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

Asshai, Dany thought. She would have me go to Asshai. “Will the Asshai’i give me an army?” she demanded. “Will there be gold for me in Asshai? Will there be ships? What is there in Asshai that I will not find in Qarth?”

“Truth,” said the woman in the mask. And bowing, she faded back into the crowd.”

Will the “Truth” that Dany finds be something profoundly life shattering about who she is?  I think so.  The “lands under the Shadow” in TWOT equate to Asshai and being “beneath the shadow” in ASOIAF.  Artur Hawkwing is Ageon Targaryen aka “Aegon the Conqueror”, the Islands of the Dead is simply the Valyrian Peninsula and the Aryth Ocean is the Smoking Sea where no ships that travel to Valyria ever return.  Click here to see my theory on that.  Dany is Tuon, the “Daughter of the Nine Moons”, who believed that since her ancestor Artur Hawkwing ruled she was also entitled to do so also.  Dany is described thusly in the books: “She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight,”.  I believe that this is yet another homage to TWOT.  You will note that Dany also thought that just because her ancestors ruled Westeros that she was entitled to because of that fact alone.  She seems to totally forget that what Aegon took by force to begin his reign was roughly 300 years later taken by force from her ancestors through Robert’s Rebellion. 

The quote: “To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow” is similar to this TWOT reference:

“The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one. If you would live, you must die.”

This to me is a reference to both Dany and Jon.  The first part about north/east, west/south & forward/back is the same as everything must be as one in TWOT.  The second part however to me is a reference to Jon Snow alone: “If you would live, you must die.”  We already know that Jon Snow has died.  In the books he is still dead but he will be brought back in the books also.  Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, had to die in order to live and he began his new life in the body of his mortal enemy Moridin.  I had for sometime thought that this would apply to Jon Snow also.  But now I believe that will apply to Bran and it will be a short-lived life at that.  Click here to read more on that.  Jon Snow however will go on to live and found House Dayne IMHO.  Again if you haven’t read that theory above you can click here to read it now.

To sum things up I don’t think that the TV show will have time to explore Asshai.  But I do believe they will fast forward to the “Truth” of who/what Daenerys Targaryen is.  In the end she will become or has always been the darkness that will have the power to destroy everything.  Just my two cents.  What do you think?

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.

Is the Night King/Night’s King “Dragon fireproof”?

Potential Spoilers Below

Will the Night King/Night’s King be shown to be unaffected by Dragon Fire?  We have seen him on the TV show walk through fire directly set by dragons but can he withstand a full-on assault of say Drogon breathing down fire on him?  I don’t know the answer to this but I pose the question because of a passage from the Wheel of Time and what happened to a member of the Forsaken:

Walking through fire set by a dragon

“Even Aginor seemed stunned. Then his head lifted, cavernous eyes burning with hate. “Enough! It is past time to end this!”

“Yes, Forsaken,” Moiraine said, her voice as cold as deepwinter ice. “Past time!”

“The Aes Sedai’s hand rose, and the ground fell away beneath Aginor’s feet. Flame roared from the chasm, whipped to a frenzy by wind howling in from every direction, sucking a maelstrom of leaves into the fire, which seemed to solidify into a red-streaked yellow jelly of pure heat. In the middle of it Aginor stood, his feet supported only by air. The Forsaken looked startled, but then he smiled and took a step forward. It was a slow step, as if the fire tried to root him to the spot, but he took it, and then another.”

“Run!” Moiraine commanded. Her face was white with strain. “All of you run!” Aginor stepped across the air, toward the edge of the flames.”

You have to admit that this would shake the confidence of everyone trying to stop him it he did this.  The other option is his very nature and those of his lieutenants of bringing the cold is enough to suppress a fire like a fire extinguisher.  This would be the best-case scenario for those riding dragons as he could just enter the “Dragon Olympics” and win the day in the javelin throw hands down.

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.

Why Dawn is Lightbringer and Jon Snow is Azor Ahai

Potential Spoilers Below

There is one line in the first book of the Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World that tells me that Dawn is Lightbringer and thusly Jon Snow has to be Azor Ahai.    

“Were bound.” Aginor smiled; his yellowed teeth had the look of fangs. “Some of us are bound no longer. The seals weaken, Aes Sedai. Like Ishamael, we walk the world again, and soon the rest of us will come. I was too close to this world in my captivity, I and Balthamel, too close to the grinding of the Wheel, but soon the Great Lord of the Dark will be free, and give us new flesh, and the world will be ours once more. You will have no Lews Therin Kinslayer, this time. No Lord of the Morning to save you. We know the one we seek now, and there is no more need for the rest of you.”

When Aginor says that “You will have no Lews Therin Kinslayer, this time.  No Lord of the Morning to save you” what stands out to me is Lord of the Morning.  That was a title held by the Dragon Lews Therin.  The compliment in ASOIAF is the Sword of the Morning.  The Lord of the Morning wielded the sword Callandor which was called the “Sword that Cannot Be Touched or Sword that Is Not a Sword.”  In the hands of Rand al’Thor the Dragon Reborn this happened:

“His hand closed convulsively. On Callandor’s hilt.

The One Power surged through him, a torrent greater than he could believe, from saidin into the sword. The crystal blade shone brighter than even Moiraine’s fire had. It was impossible to look at, impossible any longer to see that it was a sword, only that light blazed in his fist.”

When we hear of the battle between Ned Stark and Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy the following takes place:

“They were seven against three.

“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.

So now we have to blades that are blazed/alive with light; Callandor and Dawn respectively.  The title of Lord of the Morning was bestowed upon the Dragon and presumably given to the one who he was reborn into Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn.  Only a member of House Dayne who is worthy and deemed worthy to wield the sword Dawn is given the title “Sword of the Morning.”  But GRRM never gives us the rules as to what makes that person worthy.  Ser Arthur Dayne wielded the sword Dawn but it never behaved like the stories say it does when Lightbringer was held in Azor Ahai’s hands.  That to me was hard to understand until I saw what they showed us with Bran and Hodor.  Hodor should have been a normal man prior to Bran being born as we all know that Bran made him the way he was by showing him the moment of his death and uttering what Bran told him to do “hold the door” until it morphed into “Hodor”.  That is a form of time travel IMHO.  I do believe that Bran will go back in time physically as there are clues that point to it in the books.  Click here to see more on that.  So, if Bran can do it why not the person, he is seeming to groom to replace him Jon Snow as also clues seem to suggest in the books?  Click here to see more on that.  With that in mind I believe that the sword Lightbringer will only work for one-person Azor Ahai.  Click here to see how Jon can wield Dawn because we know that he is a Targaryen via his father and a Stark via his mother.  It’s quite simple when you think of it in those terms.  So, right now in the world of ASOIAF they have no Sword of the Morning to save them but Melisandre herself IMHO is the key to fulfilling a prophecy that she herself has been searching for so long.  Click here to see how she will do it.  It’s funny if you think about its Melisandre is Moiraine, a member of the Blue Ajah, except they gave her the color red.  The Red Ajah was used to hunt down and still men who could channel the one power.  I used to believe that Dawn was going to be found in the crypts of Winterfell but now I believe that a piece of the puzzle that weirwood Bran will give him will allow Jon Snow to go to Starfall and claim the sword.  Where in the Wheel of Time souls are constantly being reborn.  I don’t think that is the case in ASOIAF.  I believe that from a time perspective Azor Ahai will seem to be reborn as the prophecies say he will be but it is only a form of time travel used in ASOIAF.

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.

Bran’s Appearance

Potential Spoilers Below

Since I don’t think anything is wasted, I also believe when Bran is discovered in the crypts of Winterfell by Jon Snow his appearance will be similar to that of Aginor, from the Wheel of Time, except he will be rooted to a weirwood.

Bran squared?  I believe that at this point in the story young Bran knows he is looking upon himself.

The old man was older than old; he made Cenn Buie look like a child in the bloom of health. The skin of his face was like crazed parchment drawn tight over a skull, then pulled tighter still. Wispy tufts of brittle hair stood at odd places on his scabrous scalp. His ears were withered bits like scraps of ancient leather; his eyes sunken, peering out of his head as if from the ends of tunnels.

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.