Off Topic · Spoiler Alert - A Song of Ice and Fire - Discussion on Martin's novels to date (page 2)
Markji wrote:
First, I want to make clear that I don't have all the answers, just opinions and educated guesses using some facts/hints from the books. Other people find different facts/hints and bring them up. So it is fun to consider and discuss and eventually we'll all find out.
Didn't mean to put you on the spot man. There's only one man out there who really knows and he's taking his sweet @ss time providing answers. That's right, I'm talking to you Martin 
Joking aside, I'm pretty much hooked on the series now and I hope it concludes the way that it was originally planned.
I have another question for yall. Why is Varys helping the Targs when he is so afraid of magic? He must realize the connection between magic and dragons.
BigDaddyG wrote:No problem. I don't feel I am put on the spot. I just don't want to sound like the "know it all".Markji wrote:
First, I want to make clear that I don't have all the answers, just opinions and educated guesses using some facts/hints from the books. Other people find different facts/hints and bring them up. So it is fun to consider and discuss and eventually we'll all find out.Didn't mean to put you on the spot man. There's only one man out there who really knows and he's taking his sweet @ss time providing answers. That's right, I'm talking to you Martin
I have another question for yall. Why is Varys helping the Targs when he is so afraid of magic? He must realize the connection between magic and dragons.
Varys is the most interesting shadow character, IMO. We never really know whose side he's on in any particular situation. But I do believe him when he answers - "I'm for the realm."
And I think he was sincere when he expressed to Ned in the dungeon cell, "if the gods are just, why do the common people suffer so much when you Lords play your Game of Thrones?" And we see this happen thru-out the series, how brutally the common people are treated during the wars.
P.S. Varys was in disguise in the dungeon - It is Varys who actually is the gruff head jailer whom the other jailers don't see very often or know much about. He is playing both roles. This makes me also wonder if he is really a eunich?
IMO, I think Varys knows something very important about the impending danger facing Westeros. And the need to bring back the Targeryens and their dragons to face Winter and all of the sinister, dead, cold creatures that are being awakened now. Maybe he believes the prophesy that from Rhaegar's line will come the Prince Who Was Promised to save the world? Just speculating and brainstorming. Don't really know.
The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence.
That cut deep. Ned would not speak of the mother, not so much as a word, but a castle has no secrets, and Catelyn heard her maids repeating tales they heard from the lips of her husband's soldiers. They whispered of Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, deadliest of the seven knights of Aerys's Kingsguard, and of how their young lord had slain him in single combat. And they told how afterward Ned had carried Ser Arthur's sword back to the beautiful young sister who awaited him in a castle called Starfall on the shores of the Summer Sea. The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes. It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face.That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. "Never ask me about Jon," he said, cold as ice. "He is my blood, and that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady." She had pledged to obey; she told him; and from that day on, the whispering had stopped, and Ashara Dayne's name was never heard in Winterfell again.
Whoever Jon's mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away.... Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him.
Interesting that Ned doesn't say Jon is his son, but rather Jon "is my blood". It opens up the idea that Ned may not be Jon's father.
The Tower of Joy. A dream Ned has when he is lying unconscious after the fight with the Lannisters in the street. Ned's horse falls on him and breaks his leg.
EDDARD
He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life. Proud Martyn Cassel, Jory's father; faithful Theo Wull; Ethan Glover, who had been Brandon's squire; Ser Mark Ryswell, soft of speech and gentle of heart; the crannogman, Howland Reed; Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. Ned had known their faces as well as he knew his own once, but the years leech at a man's memories, even those he has vowed never to forget. In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.
They were seven, facing three. In the dream as it had been in life. Yet these were no ordinary three. They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
"I looked for you on the Trident," Ned said to them.
"We were not there," Ser Gerold answered.
"Woe to the Usurper if we had been," said Ser Oswell."When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were."
"Far away," Ser Gerold said, "or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.""I came down on Storm's End to lift the siege," Ned told them, .,and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them."
"Our knees do not bend easily," said Ser Arthur Dayne."Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him."
"Ser Willem is a good man and true," said Ser Oswell.
"But not of the Kingsguard," Ser Gerold pointed out. "The Kingsguard does not flee."
"Then or now," said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.
"We swore a vow," explained old Ser Gerold.Ned's wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. 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.
"No," Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends." As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.
"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.
"I promise," he whispered. "Lya, I promise"Lord Eddard," a man echoed from the dark.
Groaning, Eddard Stark opened his eyes. Moonlight streamed through the tall windows of the Tower of the Hand.
"Lord Eddard?" A shadow stood over the bed.
"How . . . how long?" The sheets were tangled, his leg splinted and plastered. A dull throb of pain shot up his side.
"Six days and seven nights." The voice was Vayon Poole's. The steward....Ned said. "I must know how things stand."
"My daughters?"
"They have been with you every day, my lord. Sansa prays quietly, but Arya . . ." He hesitated. "She has not said a word since they brought you back. She is a fierce little thing, my lord. I have never seen such anger in a girl.".... Ned had pulled the tower down afterward, and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge. It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory. They had been seven against three, yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed. He did not think it omened well that he should dream that dream again after so many years.
This passage is open to lots of unanswered questions and speculation.
Main question -
1. What did Ned promise Lyanna on her deathbed? It is widely thought that Lyanna died giving birth.
2. What were 3 of the 7 Kingsguards doing at the Tower of Joy with Lyanna. They primary duty is to protect the Royal Family and none were at the Tower. The 3 were special; Ser Gerold Hightower, the Lord Commander; Ser Arthur Dayne, the fiercest warrior; and Ser Oswell Whent. Why weren't they at the places Ned mentions - Battle of the Trident with Prince Rhaegar; or Kings Landing with the Royal Family and heirs? or helping the queen and children escape?
Where were they? and what was their mission at such a critical time?
Geo Martin hasn't answered this yet but it provokes a lot of thinking, speculation, and discussion.
Any ideas? 
Near the end of Book 4, Maester Aemon tells Sam on the boat to Oldtown that
"The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler."but Sam doesn't understand . Maester Aemon is a bit delirious. (Obviously, Geo Martin is making a reference to the "Riddle of the Sphinx" from ancient mythology.)
In the last chapter of Book 4 Sam meets Alleras while waiting to meet the head archmaester. Sam asks Alleras if he knows what "The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler." means, but Alleras says no. Alleras brings Sam to Marwyn.
Now skip to Prince Doran Martell in Dorne near the beginning of Book 4. He rounds up all of the Sandsnakes, Prince Oberyn's bastard daughters, when they plot to start a war with the Lannisters, all except Sarella. The head of his guard asks:
“What of Sarella? She is a woman grown, almost twenty.”
“Unless she returns to Dorne, there’s naught I can do about Sarella save pray that she shows more sense than her sisters. Leave her to her . . . game."
Spell Sarella backwards.