Thursday, September 26, 2013

Stefan's Theory Hour, part 44

Thursday is Theory Day!
This is the fourty-fourth article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right.
Prepare for part 44. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 

Which Targaryen was Olenna Redwyne betrothed to?
That's a question almost impossible to answer. The subject comes up only once, when Olenna Tyrell tells Sansa that she was to be betrothed to a Targaryen once but "put an end to that", then going on about regretting not having hit Mace Tyrell with a wooden spoon more often. Since this is the Queen of Thorns we are talking about, we can't even be sure if there ever was this mysterious Targaryen betrothal. It could just be trolling on her part. On the other hand, Martin really loves these little clues of ancient history, so it's likely that it's true. The reason why answering the question is almost impossible, though, is that we have no clue at all who it could be. "A Targaryen" fits many people, and we don't have a comprehensive family tree of those guys. Could have been some second son of a second son or something, could have been a really important player. Somehow, though, I doubt that it was a Targaryen that grew up to become a king because it seems to me that the Queen of Trolls, eh, Thorns, would then go around how she was supposed to marry a king and how she stopped that and why that makes her a wise-ass compared to everyone else.

Is Ramsay's mother still alive?
Perhaps, but unlikely. Ramsay really, really hates to be reminded that he is a bastard. He wants to be Ramsay Bolton, the son of lord Roose Bolton. The common wench that born him somehow disrupts this nice picture of aristocratic family purity, so I guess it's likely that Ramsay dispatched of her. The question here is when he did it. After Reek was given to him as a servant? Here again we face the question of whether Reek tainted Ramsay or the other way around, because it's easily imaginable how killing the mother to become a trueborn Bolton would appeal to Ramsay and Reek on basis of what we know, quite simply because it's the same ass logic that drives most of Ramsay's actions. Perhaps his mother even was the first victim he hunted down, who knows? Ramsay's a sick, sick mind, and somehow I doubt that being the reason why he is alive and kicking in the first place disposes him kindly towards her.

Will we see Alliser Thorne again?
Sure we will. I mean, it's Alliser Thorne. I guess it's not really concidence that they let him tell the story of his bad-ass-cannibal-ranging in the TV show, since it will make his ranging later in the show more of a "he guy's coming back at you, Jon" moment. The same is true for the books, though. We already lost Jon's first menace, Janos Slynt, in a rather abrupt and anti-climactic fashion. It seems unlikely to me that Thorne will just be M.I.A. It would be a really interesting turn of events if he somehow encountered the whights and/or Others and is now as convinced of the necessity to defend against them as Jon is - only he still hates his guts. That would be an interesting dynamic, provided Jon remains anything like a Lord Commander when he returns from his intermission in Ghost's body.

19 comments:

  1. Hey Stefan! Love your "Theory Hour". I also don't think we have seen the last of Thorne, but I still don't see where his part in the story is, who was he trying to reach anyways? Tormund, the Weeper?
    I would like to know what you think on how the Others will invade Westeros. I think the wall is really badass and hope it doesn't fall down, at least completely. Just like Jon has many ways of getting out of his death situation, so do the Others on bypassing the barrier, they could:
    1) Bring down the wall partially (just a small area somewhere) using sorcery/horn/earthquake.
    2) Use the tunnels that go beneath the wall (hey, it was brought up for a reason).
    3) Use ships and/or sea-creatures from hardhome, using the undead crew members to navigate them.
    4) Just walk on the ocean floor ala "Pirates of the Caribbean" or wait until the ocean partially freezes (Iceberg?)

    I would also want to know (only if you aren't to loaded with Theories) what role the wildlings will play on the protection of Westeros. A lot of people sh*t on Jon's ADWD storyline but I believe that saving the free folk (or at least a percentage of them) was the right thing to do and that adapting them as allies to the NW will have a critical importance later on when the war against the others start, even if the whole aftermath of the NW's coup on Jon causes a bloodbath between the different factions on the Wall.

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    1. I commend you to my essay "the Peace in the North", which you can find at ToTTH and which may answer some of your questions.

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    2. Thanks! It's really interesting.

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  2. I`m a bit worried about the structure of the series. Will it go from a story with complicated political plots to a "man vs zombie" story?

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    1. why should it? a story like that could have been told in less than 500 pages so why bother with all the plots in the first five volumes of ASOIAF.

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  3. What do you think happened to Raynald Westerling? Surely Sybelle Spicer would not have been happy that her son was murdered by her own involvement in the Red Wedding? He must be alive, maybe pulled from the river by Nymeria?

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    1. Put it on my list, will be a while though.

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    2. Currently, I have no opinion. Have to think about it.

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    3. Honestly it doesn't matter, he wasn't that important to begin with. There is probably a 10% chance he is still alive, but he did take a couple of arrows before jumping so I doubt it. If he somehow survived the attack AND didn't drown AND got away from the Twins AND wasn't found by the remnants-hunters AND somehow got his wounds healed, we might find him with the BWB.

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    4. And that answerts the question, I guess. Bad luck that he wasn't in on the plan.

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  4. Hi again, I just read a theory where by Eddard Stark is still alive. The evidence given was : Arya not recognising him at his execution; Sansa not recognising his face on a spike; Catelyn thinking his bones are too small. If you add this to the offer Varys makes where by he will read a letter Eddard will right for Jon makes me believe that Varys may have strung him free as Jon could easily be an ally of Daenarys as the dragon must have three heads. What do you think?

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    1. I put in my list for later, but I think it's utter bullshit. Narrative, people! Eddard Stark dead is THE defining moment for the series. If he is alive, everything is moot.

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    2. Yeah, it would cheapen the story if it were true. That's why I don't enjoy reading marvel/DC comics, characters come back to life and other bs that just kills the stories for me. Cat thinks the bones are small because she doesn't think of those remains as what her husband was...or maybe the bones just got confused, Tyrion DID say that he didn't know how the silent sisters would know which bones belonged to who.

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    3. Nah, it's freaking Catelyn we're talking about. She has a hang to speaking in metaphors and symbolisms. The bones seem small because the warm flesh of Ned is missing, the muscles etc, she says so herself.

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    4. Yeah, that's what I meant.

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    5. Cat came back as Lady Stoneheart and Jon Snow can come back too. doesn`t that cheapen the story?

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    6. Uncat isn't like Superman somehow back to his old self after dying like 4 times, she is a revenge driven monster and needs to be destroyed. If Jon (and that is a big IF) does come back to life then it will be the fulfillment of a Prophecy we have know for since CoK (maybe since GoT) which is PtwP/AAR/StMtW, he has to come back to life if the Song of Ice and Fire is truly his.

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  5. @Anonymous 5.28PM (really, take a nick):
    No, because of the cost. Beric and Cat both paid a terrible price for it and don't gain anything from coming back. Jon might be different, though.

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