Post by Melifeather on Feb 13, 2016 19:33:26 GMT
The Soiled Knight - AFFC Chapter 13
As we get further into this project we get more adept at interpreting the symbolism, and its easier to identify the various parallel lives of the chapter characters. On the surface, The Soiled Knight is about Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell, but it quickly seems familiar. What other daughter of a powerful Lord is angry about being passed over as her father’s heir? Cersei is after all, older than her twin. She came into the world first with Jaime holding her heel. Arys Oakheart is a little harder to figure out. Was he a Kingsguard like Ser Arys was, or should we consult the map to see which area is the opposite of Old Oak?
Old Oak is the seat of House Oakheart. It is located in the west end of the Reach on the shore of the Sunset Sea. West of Old Oak are the Shield Islands known as the Four Shields. It is the job of the people who live there to protect the Mander river from invaders.
The mirrored reflection of Old Oak is Storm's End, which is the seat of House Baratheon. One of the strongest castles in the Seven Kingdoms, Storm's End was once the ancestral seat of the Storm Kings of House Durrandon. The castle itself is said to be protected by spells woven into it's very walls that protect it from magic. Storm's End is protected by a great 100 foot tall shielding curtain wall. East of Storm's End is Evenfall Hall, home to Brienne of Tarth and an island to mirror the Shields.
Could our historical Soiled Knight be Robert Baratheon? We'll examine the parallels for any convincing evidence that demonstrates what we already suspect: that something has been done to one of the hinges of the world that has caused these characters to relive the past, but there will be different and inverted outcomes. We have yet to discover what Bran is trying to accomplish. What is he trying to change? Whatever it is, it’s urgent.
I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late.”
“Most of him has gone into the tree,” explained the singer Meera called Leaf. “He has lived beyond his mortal span, and yet he lingers. For us, for you, for the realms of men. Only a little strength remains in his flesh. He has a thousand eyes and one, but there is much to watch. One day you will know.”
Bran has been brought to the Cave of Skulls to be the next greenseer. Surely we can expect that he will do more than watch. What can be done by a greenseer with one of the world’s hinges?
“He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it.”
From the passage above we know that a greenseer cannot change the past. They can learn from it, but they cannot change it. However, if they can learn from it, it seems implied that they can apply what they’ve learned. Bran is learning how to manipulate the present in order to change the future.
Our soiled knight, Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard is in Dorne protecting Myrcella Baratheon. He assigns men to guard Myrcella while he sneaks out of Sunspear dressed in Dornish robes to meet with Princess Arianne Martell, who has become his lover. We witness his inner struggle over his honor, and it is his intention to break the affair, but Arianne greets him naked and oiled with only a snake bracelet wound round her arm. His physical desire overrules his mental reserve and they fall into bed regardless. Afterward they talk about other knights that have broken their vows. Some Arys already knew about, but one surprised him. Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard from King Aeyrs II reign, and the man Aerys had sent to lead the 10,000 Dornishmen during the Rebellion. The revelation shocked Arys and cracked his resolve, because there was no record of his paramour in the White Book of Kingsguard.
Arys recounts how Dorne is not a good place for Oakhearts. First he thinks of Lord Edgerran the Open-Handed with the heads of a hundred Dornishmen piled round his feet, but then his next thought is of the “Three Leaves” in the Prince’s Pass, pierced by Dornish spears. The Oakheart sigil is three oak leaves, so you could interpret this two ways. Either three Oakhearts died, or simply “Oakhearts” died, because he only names two: Alester and Ser Olyvar. The third person named as dying was King Daeron Targaryen, the Young Dragon.
from the Wiki of Ice and Fire:
Daeron's conquest of Dorne did not last. It was undone in a fortnight when a clever trap killed the steward that Daeron had left to rule Dorne, Lord Lyonel Tyrell. His death sparked a great uprising that overthrew most of the conquest. Daeron lost fifty thousand men trying to hold Dorne, culminating in his own death during the uprising. At that time he was only eighteen. Daeron was murdered while meeting the Dornish under a peace banner, with three* knights of the Kingsguard slain, one yielding, and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight captured, though Prince Aemon managed to slay two of the betrayers before being taken into custody. Daeron may have died in the Prince’s Pass, as Lord Alester and Ser Olyvar Oakheart were killed there at the side of the Young Dragon.
*I don’t think there is enough evidence for the wiki to claim that there were three Kingsguard as Ser Arys only names two. The third was King Daeron I. The intriguing historical account of three men dying in the Prince’s Pass, two Oakhearts and King Daeron I, is eerily similar to Ned’s fever dream about the tower of joy, also located in the Prince’s Pass. My explanation for Ned’s fever dream is that when Bran altered the present it overlayed the deaths of the Three Leaves in the Prince’s Pass into Ned’s brain as the false memory of the three Kingsguards at the tower of joy, and the death of a King is to blame for many a reader’s assumption that Jon is Rhaegar’s son.
In earlier chapters we’ve identified Doran Martell as channeling Tywin Lannister, and Doran’s daughter is Arianne just as Cersei is Tywin’s daughter. So if Lewyn Martell is Doran’s uncle, then should we look to Tywin’s uncle for answers? Tywin’s father, Tytos had three brothers: twins Tywald and Tion, and Jason. Tywald was betrothed to Ellyn Reyne of Castamere, but he was mortally wounded while yet a squire. He was knighted, however by Prince Aegon Targaryen while he lay dying in his brother Tion’s arms and he exacted a promise from his twin to take care of Ellyn, which later led to their father Gerold agreeing to betroth Tion to Ellyn. Tion and Ellyn married, but he died shortly after in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion, an uprising where Daemon III Blackfyre challenged the throne. It was short lived when Daemon was slain by Ser Duncan the Tall, and the royalists lost fewer than one hundred men at the Battle of Wedwater Bridge, but Ser Tion was one of them.
Tywin’s youngest uncle, Jason married three times and fathered eight children, including Joanna who would eventually marry Tywin. It was Jason who led the troops of the westerlands, a thousand knights and ten thousand men-at-arms, to the Stepstones during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, because Lord Tytos was not a warrior. Jason ends up dying on Bloodstone, one of the islands that comprise the Stepsons. Here is an example of a parallel life. Lewyn Martell and Jason Lannister. Both commanding large forces of ten thousand men, yet dying near bodies of water. Lewyn at the Trident, and Jason at the Stepstones. Jason Lannister does mirror Lewyn Martell, but we don't read anything of substance about Jason Lannister, so I don't think he's our Soiled Knight. It needs to be someone that was supposed to be guarding Lyanna, and how would this person get Lyanna in the first place? Maybe we shouldn't be looking at Tywin's uncle, but rather Cersei's uncle? Kevan Lannister does have a history of abducting noblemen and holding them for ransom. His wife, Dorna Swift, was one such hostage. Her father owed the Lannisters a debt, which he refused to pay. Kevan took Dorna until Ser Harys paid up, but Kevan fell in love with her and they married. Now we see an abduction connection, yet nothing to link to Lyanna. Of all the people surrounding Lyanna, who other than her brothers was likely to get close enough to her to take her?
If our Soiled Knight is indeed Robert Baratheon, he may or may not have loved Cersei, but he certainly desired her, and he didn't care about the marriage contract when it came to chastity. Better naked than dead, Arys thinks to himself. I am a Kingsguard still, even uncloaked. She must respect that. I must make her understand. He should have never let himself be drawn into this. One of Lyanna's greatest reservations about marrying Robert was that she feared he wouldn't keep to one bed. Arys was part of Arianne’s plot to crown Myrcella, so Robert would be part of an inversion to this. Cersei was drawing Robert into her plans to stop someone from being crowned. Arys notices a pillow girl looking down at him from her balcony and he feels guilty. He looks down, hunches his shoulders and thinks, We men are so weak. Our bodies betray even the noblest of us. Even the noblest of us. Ned was the noble one, and Robert felt guilty the rest of his life whenever he looked at Ned or thought about Lyanna.
Arys passes a street vendor grilling chunks of snake over a brazier, and the pungent smell of the sauces brought tears to his eyes. The best snake sauce had a drop of venom in it, he had heard, along with mustard seeds and dragon peppers. Uh, what? This almost sounds like Cersei wanted to poison “Myrcella”. In the Captain of Guards chapter we identified “little Myrcella” as a marriage contract. It is symbolic of the one between Robert and Lyanna. Can we conclude then that Cersei plotted to poison the relationship and marriage contract between Robert and Lyanna?
Arys had left Myrcella playing Cyvasse with Trystane. This is a symbolic description of the Game of Thrones. Arys thinks the Dornish court was mad for it. Translation: the Lannisters were mad to obtain the Iron Throne. Arys found the game maddening. Did Robert find the Game of Thrones equally maddening? Arys describes Cyvasse as having ten different pieces, each with its own attributes and powers, and the board would change from game to game, depending upon how the players arrayed their home squares. Translation: somehow I sense the pieces represent the players at court. There’s the King, Queen, Hand of King, Grand Maester, Master of Whispers, Master of Coin, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Master of Laws, Master of Ships, and I guess Cersei is the last and tenth piece.
Arys notices the black and white qualities of Trystane and Myrcella. The former with olive skin and black hair, Myrcella pale as milk with golden hair, just like Robert and Cersei. He also goes on to note that there are only two doors that provide access to Myrcella in the Tower of the Sun, and Arys kept two Lannister household guards. Hmmm…lets flip this for the moment and consider how Robert could be considered the "guards" and the access to Lyanna.
Arys recalls a meeting with Doran and was shocked by his appearance. The gout aged him and he seemed infirmed. Doran apologized that he couldn’t meet Arys earlier, but he says, “…I trust that my daughter Arianne has made you welcome here in Dorne, ser.” This seems to imply that Robert met with Tywin Lannister, and that Tywin perhaps knew Cersei was seducing him. Doran tells Arys that he’s not safe beyond the walls of Sunspear, that the people are angry about Oberyn’s death and might direct that anger towards Arys. Translation: Tywin told Robert that Rickard’s death had angered the smallfolk and that Tywin doesn’t feel safe by staying in Kings Landing. Arys asks Doran about his own safety, and he replied back that his mother taught him long ago that only madmen fight wars they cannot win, and that peace is as fragile as Myrcella. Translation: Tywin tells Robert that he doesn’t fight wars that he cannot win, and that Lyanna’s death will insure the rebellion they both want. Tywin and Cersei may have convinced Robert that Lyanna's death was necessary for him to become king.
Arys responds to Doran that only a beast would harm a little girl. Doran brought up Elia’s daughter Rhaenys, that she was a princess too. Those who would plunge a knife into Princess Myrcella do not bear her any more malice than when Ser Amory Lorch did when he killed Rhaenys, if he actually did kill her. They seek only to force my hand. For if Myrcella would be slain in Dorne while under his protection, who would ever believe his denials.
Lets try to flip the above. Tywin tells Robert that if Lyanna is killed it will incite the rebellion they all want, but it cannot happen while Lyanna is under his protection. Arys declares that no one will harm Myrcella while he lives. Robert may have said something to the effect that he’s the one with access to Lyanna. A noble vow, said Doran Martell, but you are only one man, ser. Doran had hoped that by imprisoning his three nieces that it would calm the waters, but if only drove the conspirators underground. The inversion of this would be Tywin explaining to Robert that he had hoped by taking Lyanna, Ashara, and Elia hostage that it would be enough to cause the uprising, but it only created a stalemate. They need to kill Lyanna to unite the north into action. Tywin would have reminded Robert that he had Targaryen blood too and would benefit from the rebellion.
Prince Doran tells Arys that as soon as he can he’s going to return to the Water Gardens and he plans to take Myrcella back with him, and he tells Arys that he and his guards would be coming with. We learned in the Captain of Guards chapter that the Water Gardens symbolically represent Tywin’s destruction of the Reynes of Castamere, so in this instance Tywin is telling Robert that he should take Lyanna before Tywin leaves Kings Landing so as to be completely removed from the situation. Furthermore, he should look for an opportunity for her to be killed, and he wants Robert to do it. Doran says, the Gardens are my haven. Prince Maron raised them as a gift for his Targaryen bride to mark Dorne’s marriage to the Iron Throne. Autumn is a lovely season there… The death of the Reynes is Tywin’s best known act for exacting punishment on those that don’t obey him. Lyanna’s death is just a tool to raise Robert to the Iron Throne. The timing would be the opposite of Autumn which is Spring, and the Tourney of Harrenhal occurred during the False Spring. Is it possible that all of these plans were made prior to the Tourney?
Arys thinks that Myrcella will be safe at the Water Gardens, which means that Robert agrees that Lyanna must die. Arys wonders why Doran urged him not to write Kings Landing about the move, but Doran told him that Myrcella will be the safest if no one knows just where she is. The inversion of this is that Lyanna’s kidnapping needs to be seen as if Rhaegar did it. People have to assume they know what happened. We have often wondered how Brandon heard that Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar, and here we have a clue. Our Soiled Knight Robert Baratheon told him.
The chapter now moves on to Arys meeting with Arianne. Princess Arianne has ulterior motives. She is manipulating Ser Arys with sex. She wants to defy her father and crown Myrcella, because she is older than Tommen, and Arianne is angry about her own younger brother, Quentyn whom she believes her father wants as his heir. This is a similar motive of Cersei’s, but instead of defying her father, she and Tywin are actually conspiring. OK, yes, we know that she did defy her father by getting Jaime apointed to the Kingsguard, but with regards to Lyanna she was a knowing conspirator with her father. They are basically tag-teaming against Robert, manipulating him into killing Lyanna so that no trail of guilt leads back to them.
We witness Arys inner struggle, his desires battling his honor. With Robert there was no such inner struggle. He is an active conspirator with Cersei and Tywin, because he believes that by working together they can ensure he takes the throne. The tantalizing and provacative descriptions of Arianne’s beauty not only symbolize Cersei’s beauty in her youth, but also the delicious, desirous fruit of placing himself on the Iron Throne. Their passion is a shared vision and Robert is their willing partner. Robert is blinded by his own desire for power and just as Arys hadn’t noticed the crack in the ceiling until after he had rolled off Arianne, Robert doesn’t see how Cersei and Tywin are using him. There is a division in this partnership of three, and Cersei and Tywin’s true plans are hidden from Robert and this blindness to the truth will result in his death as well as the deaths of Ned and Lyanna.
There is a tapestry on the wall that Arys hadn’t noticed either, of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. I only see her, Arys thinks. A dragon might have been peering in the window, and I would never have seen anything but her breasts, her face, her smile. Lets examine the symbolism of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. Nymeria and her exiles were mostly women, children, and the elderly, yet she made common cause with Mors Martell and together they were able to conquer the various kings of Dorne. Though their campaign took years to accomplish, it resulted in the Martells rising to become the ruling family ever since. Likewise what Cersei did with Robert was to find a common cause: the desire to elevate the themselves to the Iron Throne.
Arianne says to Arys, “You bleed. I scratched too hard.” The inverted symbolism of this statement is highly ironic seeing that for all his common cause with Cersei and Robert, he’s the one that will end up dead.
Arianne and Arys talk about the line of inheritance and bring up another Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole who was nicknamed the Kingmaker, because he rose against Princess Rhaenyra when her father the first Viserys died and brought about the Dance of the Dragons to prevent an elder daughter from inheriting the crown. This is a recurring theme of female heirs being prevented from inheriting the throne. Cersei explains her own injustice with Tywin choosing Jaime as his heir, and plays into Robert's desires to place himself on the throne.
Arianne brings up how her father is keeping her cousins locked in a tower, even though the younger two girls are only six and eight. Arys is also surprised to learn that Arianne has a brother, Quentyn. Up until that point he only knew about Tyrstane. This could possibly be referring to the possibility of Tyrion inheriting after Jaime, so the plan to appoint Jaime to the Kingsguard may have already been in place. Robert tells Cersei that surely since Jaime was now a Kingsguard that she could be Tywin’s heir, but Cersei would have reminded him that she has another brother, Tyrion that would inherit before her.
Arys tells Arianne that Quentyn is with Lord Yronwood’s host in the Boneway. Arianne demurred and said that is just what Doran wants everyone to believe, but Quentyn has crossed the narrow sea in secret. Now what can the reverse be of this with regards to the Lannisters? I'm thinking Lord Yronwood is Ser Gerold Hightower Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and protector of the Iron Throne, and the Boneway is the way to reach the King. If Quentyn is Jaime, then Jaime is involved in a secret plan. There is a layering of meaning here, because instead of naming Quentyn he says “the prince” is in the Boneway, meaning the assassin is part of the Kingsguard and has access to the King. Arianne brings up the Golden Company and how they broke a contract with Myr. The Golden Company is symbolic of Jaime’s golden armor, and the broken contract is Jaime breaking his vow to protect his king and assassinate Aerys. Arianne says her father wrote a letter to Qyentyn that he must do all that his maester and his master-at-arms required of him. To me this is quite clear. Tywin wrote to Jaime and told him that he must kill Aerys. Furthermore, since Arianne read this letter, then I believe Cersei also knew about this plan. As for Jaime, the symbolism of the loyalty of the Golden Company and it’s never breaking a contract represents Jaime’s loyalty to house Lannister and his family. The Golden Company’s motto, “our word is good as gold” seems so very, “Lannister”.
Arianne brings up House Toland of Ghost Hill whose sigil is a dragon eating it's own tail. The dragon represents the cycle of time eternally repeating itself. It has no beginning and no end, and Arianne drives home the point again that she and Myrcella share a common cause, and finally Ser Arys drops to one knee to pledge his sword, life, and honor to defend her birthright.
This is the second time we are told that there is a wheel of time…the dragon eating it’s own tail…the circle of time repeating itself. This is our author telling us to look closely at what is going on in this chapter. Arianne, Arys, and Doran are reliving Cersei, Robert, and Twyin. The events are eerily similar, but the level of deceit is appalling.
As we get further into this project we get more adept at interpreting the symbolism, and its easier to identify the various parallel lives of the chapter characters. On the surface, The Soiled Knight is about Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell, but it quickly seems familiar. What other daughter of a powerful Lord is angry about being passed over as her father’s heir? Cersei is after all, older than her twin. She came into the world first with Jaime holding her heel. Arys Oakheart is a little harder to figure out. Was he a Kingsguard like Ser Arys was, or should we consult the map to see which area is the opposite of Old Oak?
Old Oak is the seat of House Oakheart. It is located in the west end of the Reach on the shore of the Sunset Sea. West of Old Oak are the Shield Islands known as the Four Shields. It is the job of the people who live there to protect the Mander river from invaders.
The mirrored reflection of Old Oak is Storm's End, which is the seat of House Baratheon. One of the strongest castles in the Seven Kingdoms, Storm's End was once the ancestral seat of the Storm Kings of House Durrandon. The castle itself is said to be protected by spells woven into it's very walls that protect it from magic. Storm's End is protected by a great 100 foot tall shielding curtain wall. East of Storm's End is Evenfall Hall, home to Brienne of Tarth and an island to mirror the Shields.
Could our historical Soiled Knight be Robert Baratheon? We'll examine the parallels for any convincing evidence that demonstrates what we already suspect: that something has been done to one of the hinges of the world that has caused these characters to relive the past, but there will be different and inverted outcomes. We have yet to discover what Bran is trying to accomplish. What is he trying to change? Whatever it is, it’s urgent.
I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late.”
“Most of him has gone into the tree,” explained the singer Meera called Leaf. “He has lived beyond his mortal span, and yet he lingers. For us, for you, for the realms of men. Only a little strength remains in his flesh. He has a thousand eyes and one, but there is much to watch. One day you will know.”
Bran has been brought to the Cave of Skulls to be the next greenseer. Surely we can expect that he will do more than watch. What can be done by a greenseer with one of the world’s hinges?
“He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it.”
From the passage above we know that a greenseer cannot change the past. They can learn from it, but they cannot change it. However, if they can learn from it, it seems implied that they can apply what they’ve learned. Bran is learning how to manipulate the present in order to change the future.
Our soiled knight, Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard is in Dorne protecting Myrcella Baratheon. He assigns men to guard Myrcella while he sneaks out of Sunspear dressed in Dornish robes to meet with Princess Arianne Martell, who has become his lover. We witness his inner struggle over his honor, and it is his intention to break the affair, but Arianne greets him naked and oiled with only a snake bracelet wound round her arm. His physical desire overrules his mental reserve and they fall into bed regardless. Afterward they talk about other knights that have broken their vows. Some Arys already knew about, but one surprised him. Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard from King Aeyrs II reign, and the man Aerys had sent to lead the 10,000 Dornishmen during the Rebellion. The revelation shocked Arys and cracked his resolve, because there was no record of his paramour in the White Book of Kingsguard.
Arys recounts how Dorne is not a good place for Oakhearts. First he thinks of Lord Edgerran the Open-Handed with the heads of a hundred Dornishmen piled round his feet, but then his next thought is of the “Three Leaves” in the Prince’s Pass, pierced by Dornish spears. The Oakheart sigil is three oak leaves, so you could interpret this two ways. Either three Oakhearts died, or simply “Oakhearts” died, because he only names two: Alester and Ser Olyvar. The third person named as dying was King Daeron Targaryen, the Young Dragon.
from the Wiki of Ice and Fire:
Daeron's conquest of Dorne did not last. It was undone in a fortnight when a clever trap killed the steward that Daeron had left to rule Dorne, Lord Lyonel Tyrell. His death sparked a great uprising that overthrew most of the conquest. Daeron lost fifty thousand men trying to hold Dorne, culminating in his own death during the uprising. At that time he was only eighteen. Daeron was murdered while meeting the Dornish under a peace banner, with three* knights of the Kingsguard slain, one yielding, and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight captured, though Prince Aemon managed to slay two of the betrayers before being taken into custody. Daeron may have died in the Prince’s Pass, as Lord Alester and Ser Olyvar Oakheart were killed there at the side of the Young Dragon.
*I don’t think there is enough evidence for the wiki to claim that there were three Kingsguard as Ser Arys only names two. The third was King Daeron I. The intriguing historical account of three men dying in the Prince’s Pass, two Oakhearts and King Daeron I, is eerily similar to Ned’s fever dream about the tower of joy, also located in the Prince’s Pass. My explanation for Ned’s fever dream is that when Bran altered the present it overlayed the deaths of the Three Leaves in the Prince’s Pass into Ned’s brain as the false memory of the three Kingsguards at the tower of joy, and the death of a King is to blame for many a reader’s assumption that Jon is Rhaegar’s son.
In earlier chapters we’ve identified Doran Martell as channeling Tywin Lannister, and Doran’s daughter is Arianne just as Cersei is Tywin’s daughter. So if Lewyn Martell is Doran’s uncle, then should we look to Tywin’s uncle for answers? Tywin’s father, Tytos had three brothers: twins Tywald and Tion, and Jason. Tywald was betrothed to Ellyn Reyne of Castamere, but he was mortally wounded while yet a squire. He was knighted, however by Prince Aegon Targaryen while he lay dying in his brother Tion’s arms and he exacted a promise from his twin to take care of Ellyn, which later led to their father Gerold agreeing to betroth Tion to Ellyn. Tion and Ellyn married, but he died shortly after in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion, an uprising where Daemon III Blackfyre challenged the throne. It was short lived when Daemon was slain by Ser Duncan the Tall, and the royalists lost fewer than one hundred men at the Battle of Wedwater Bridge, but Ser Tion was one of them.
Tywin’s youngest uncle, Jason married three times and fathered eight children, including Joanna who would eventually marry Tywin. It was Jason who led the troops of the westerlands, a thousand knights and ten thousand men-at-arms, to the Stepstones during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, because Lord Tytos was not a warrior. Jason ends up dying on Bloodstone, one of the islands that comprise the Stepsons. Here is an example of a parallel life. Lewyn Martell and Jason Lannister. Both commanding large forces of ten thousand men, yet dying near bodies of water. Lewyn at the Trident, and Jason at the Stepstones. Jason Lannister does mirror Lewyn Martell, but we don't read anything of substance about Jason Lannister, so I don't think he's our Soiled Knight. It needs to be someone that was supposed to be guarding Lyanna, and how would this person get Lyanna in the first place? Maybe we shouldn't be looking at Tywin's uncle, but rather Cersei's uncle? Kevan Lannister does have a history of abducting noblemen and holding them for ransom. His wife, Dorna Swift, was one such hostage. Her father owed the Lannisters a debt, which he refused to pay. Kevan took Dorna until Ser Harys paid up, but Kevan fell in love with her and they married. Now we see an abduction connection, yet nothing to link to Lyanna. Of all the people surrounding Lyanna, who other than her brothers was likely to get close enough to her to take her?
If our Soiled Knight is indeed Robert Baratheon, he may or may not have loved Cersei, but he certainly desired her, and he didn't care about the marriage contract when it came to chastity. Better naked than dead, Arys thinks to himself. I am a Kingsguard still, even uncloaked. She must respect that. I must make her understand. He should have never let himself be drawn into this. One of Lyanna's greatest reservations about marrying Robert was that she feared he wouldn't keep to one bed. Arys was part of Arianne’s plot to crown Myrcella, so Robert would be part of an inversion to this. Cersei was drawing Robert into her plans to stop someone from being crowned. Arys notices a pillow girl looking down at him from her balcony and he feels guilty. He looks down, hunches his shoulders and thinks, We men are so weak. Our bodies betray even the noblest of us. Even the noblest of us. Ned was the noble one, and Robert felt guilty the rest of his life whenever he looked at Ned or thought about Lyanna.
Arys passes a street vendor grilling chunks of snake over a brazier, and the pungent smell of the sauces brought tears to his eyes. The best snake sauce had a drop of venom in it, he had heard, along with mustard seeds and dragon peppers. Uh, what? This almost sounds like Cersei wanted to poison “Myrcella”. In the Captain of Guards chapter we identified “little Myrcella” as a marriage contract. It is symbolic of the one between Robert and Lyanna. Can we conclude then that Cersei plotted to poison the relationship and marriage contract between Robert and Lyanna?
Arys had left Myrcella playing Cyvasse with Trystane. This is a symbolic description of the Game of Thrones. Arys thinks the Dornish court was mad for it. Translation: the Lannisters were mad to obtain the Iron Throne. Arys found the game maddening. Did Robert find the Game of Thrones equally maddening? Arys describes Cyvasse as having ten different pieces, each with its own attributes and powers, and the board would change from game to game, depending upon how the players arrayed their home squares. Translation: somehow I sense the pieces represent the players at court. There’s the King, Queen, Hand of King, Grand Maester, Master of Whispers, Master of Coin, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Master of Laws, Master of Ships, and I guess Cersei is the last and tenth piece.
Arys notices the black and white qualities of Trystane and Myrcella. The former with olive skin and black hair, Myrcella pale as milk with golden hair, just like Robert and Cersei. He also goes on to note that there are only two doors that provide access to Myrcella in the Tower of the Sun, and Arys kept two Lannister household guards. Hmmm…lets flip this for the moment and consider how Robert could be considered the "guards" and the access to Lyanna.
Arys recalls a meeting with Doran and was shocked by his appearance. The gout aged him and he seemed infirmed. Doran apologized that he couldn’t meet Arys earlier, but he says, “…I trust that my daughter Arianne has made you welcome here in Dorne, ser.” This seems to imply that Robert met with Tywin Lannister, and that Tywin perhaps knew Cersei was seducing him. Doran tells Arys that he’s not safe beyond the walls of Sunspear, that the people are angry about Oberyn’s death and might direct that anger towards Arys. Translation: Tywin told Robert that Rickard’s death had angered the smallfolk and that Tywin doesn’t feel safe by staying in Kings Landing. Arys asks Doran about his own safety, and he replied back that his mother taught him long ago that only madmen fight wars they cannot win, and that peace is as fragile as Myrcella. Translation: Tywin tells Robert that he doesn’t fight wars that he cannot win, and that Lyanna’s death will insure the rebellion they both want. Tywin and Cersei may have convinced Robert that Lyanna's death was necessary for him to become king.
Arys responds to Doran that only a beast would harm a little girl. Doran brought up Elia’s daughter Rhaenys, that she was a princess too. Those who would plunge a knife into Princess Myrcella do not bear her any more malice than when Ser Amory Lorch did when he killed Rhaenys, if he actually did kill her. They seek only to force my hand. For if Myrcella would be slain in Dorne while under his protection, who would ever believe his denials.
Lets try to flip the above. Tywin tells Robert that if Lyanna is killed it will incite the rebellion they all want, but it cannot happen while Lyanna is under his protection. Arys declares that no one will harm Myrcella while he lives. Robert may have said something to the effect that he’s the one with access to Lyanna. A noble vow, said Doran Martell, but you are only one man, ser. Doran had hoped that by imprisoning his three nieces that it would calm the waters, but if only drove the conspirators underground. The inversion of this would be Tywin explaining to Robert that he had hoped by taking Lyanna, Ashara, and Elia hostage that it would be enough to cause the uprising, but it only created a stalemate. They need to kill Lyanna to unite the north into action. Tywin would have reminded Robert that he had Targaryen blood too and would benefit from the rebellion.
Prince Doran tells Arys that as soon as he can he’s going to return to the Water Gardens and he plans to take Myrcella back with him, and he tells Arys that he and his guards would be coming with. We learned in the Captain of Guards chapter that the Water Gardens symbolically represent Tywin’s destruction of the Reynes of Castamere, so in this instance Tywin is telling Robert that he should take Lyanna before Tywin leaves Kings Landing so as to be completely removed from the situation. Furthermore, he should look for an opportunity for her to be killed, and he wants Robert to do it. Doran says, the Gardens are my haven. Prince Maron raised them as a gift for his Targaryen bride to mark Dorne’s marriage to the Iron Throne. Autumn is a lovely season there… The death of the Reynes is Tywin’s best known act for exacting punishment on those that don’t obey him. Lyanna’s death is just a tool to raise Robert to the Iron Throne. The timing would be the opposite of Autumn which is Spring, and the Tourney of Harrenhal occurred during the False Spring. Is it possible that all of these plans were made prior to the Tourney?
Arys thinks that Myrcella will be safe at the Water Gardens, which means that Robert agrees that Lyanna must die. Arys wonders why Doran urged him not to write Kings Landing about the move, but Doran told him that Myrcella will be the safest if no one knows just where she is. The inversion of this is that Lyanna’s kidnapping needs to be seen as if Rhaegar did it. People have to assume they know what happened. We have often wondered how Brandon heard that Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar, and here we have a clue. Our Soiled Knight Robert Baratheon told him.
The chapter now moves on to Arys meeting with Arianne. Princess Arianne has ulterior motives. She is manipulating Ser Arys with sex. She wants to defy her father and crown Myrcella, because she is older than Tommen, and Arianne is angry about her own younger brother, Quentyn whom she believes her father wants as his heir. This is a similar motive of Cersei’s, but instead of defying her father, she and Tywin are actually conspiring. OK, yes, we know that she did defy her father by getting Jaime apointed to the Kingsguard, but with regards to Lyanna she was a knowing conspirator with her father. They are basically tag-teaming against Robert, manipulating him into killing Lyanna so that no trail of guilt leads back to them.
We witness Arys inner struggle, his desires battling his honor. With Robert there was no such inner struggle. He is an active conspirator with Cersei and Tywin, because he believes that by working together they can ensure he takes the throne. The tantalizing and provacative descriptions of Arianne’s beauty not only symbolize Cersei’s beauty in her youth, but also the delicious, desirous fruit of placing himself on the Iron Throne. Their passion is a shared vision and Robert is their willing partner. Robert is blinded by his own desire for power and just as Arys hadn’t noticed the crack in the ceiling until after he had rolled off Arianne, Robert doesn’t see how Cersei and Tywin are using him. There is a division in this partnership of three, and Cersei and Tywin’s true plans are hidden from Robert and this blindness to the truth will result in his death as well as the deaths of Ned and Lyanna.
There is a tapestry on the wall that Arys hadn’t noticed either, of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. I only see her, Arys thinks. A dragon might have been peering in the window, and I would never have seen anything but her breasts, her face, her smile. Lets examine the symbolism of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. Nymeria and her exiles were mostly women, children, and the elderly, yet she made common cause with Mors Martell and together they were able to conquer the various kings of Dorne. Though their campaign took years to accomplish, it resulted in the Martells rising to become the ruling family ever since. Likewise what Cersei did with Robert was to find a common cause: the desire to elevate the themselves to the Iron Throne.
Arianne says to Arys, “You bleed. I scratched too hard.” The inverted symbolism of this statement is highly ironic seeing that for all his common cause with Cersei and Robert, he’s the one that will end up dead.
Arianne and Arys talk about the line of inheritance and bring up another Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole who was nicknamed the Kingmaker, because he rose against Princess Rhaenyra when her father the first Viserys died and brought about the Dance of the Dragons to prevent an elder daughter from inheriting the crown. This is a recurring theme of female heirs being prevented from inheriting the throne. Cersei explains her own injustice with Tywin choosing Jaime as his heir, and plays into Robert's desires to place himself on the throne.
Arianne brings up how her father is keeping her cousins locked in a tower, even though the younger two girls are only six and eight. Arys is also surprised to learn that Arianne has a brother, Quentyn. Up until that point he only knew about Tyrstane. This could possibly be referring to the possibility of Tyrion inheriting after Jaime, so the plan to appoint Jaime to the Kingsguard may have already been in place. Robert tells Cersei that surely since Jaime was now a Kingsguard that she could be Tywin’s heir, but Cersei would have reminded him that she has another brother, Tyrion that would inherit before her.
Arys tells Arianne that Quentyn is with Lord Yronwood’s host in the Boneway. Arianne demurred and said that is just what Doran wants everyone to believe, but Quentyn has crossed the narrow sea in secret. Now what can the reverse be of this with regards to the Lannisters? I'm thinking Lord Yronwood is Ser Gerold Hightower Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and protector of the Iron Throne, and the Boneway is the way to reach the King. If Quentyn is Jaime, then Jaime is involved in a secret plan. There is a layering of meaning here, because instead of naming Quentyn he says “the prince” is in the Boneway, meaning the assassin is part of the Kingsguard and has access to the King. Arianne brings up the Golden Company and how they broke a contract with Myr. The Golden Company is symbolic of Jaime’s golden armor, and the broken contract is Jaime breaking his vow to protect his king and assassinate Aerys. Arianne says her father wrote a letter to Qyentyn that he must do all that his maester and his master-at-arms required of him. To me this is quite clear. Tywin wrote to Jaime and told him that he must kill Aerys. Furthermore, since Arianne read this letter, then I believe Cersei also knew about this plan. As for Jaime, the symbolism of the loyalty of the Golden Company and it’s never breaking a contract represents Jaime’s loyalty to house Lannister and his family. The Golden Company’s motto, “our word is good as gold” seems so very, “Lannister”.
Arianne brings up House Toland of Ghost Hill whose sigil is a dragon eating it's own tail. The dragon represents the cycle of time eternally repeating itself. It has no beginning and no end, and Arianne drives home the point again that she and Myrcella share a common cause, and finally Ser Arys drops to one knee to pledge his sword, life, and honor to defend her birthright.
This is the second time we are told that there is a wheel of time…the dragon eating it’s own tail…the circle of time repeating itself. This is our author telling us to look closely at what is going on in this chapter. Arianne, Arys, and Doran are reliving Cersei, Robert, and Twyin. The events are eerily similar, but the level of deceit is appalling.