Topic: Backstories
Some nice videos about the histories of various houses:
Lannisters part 1
Lannisters part 2
Starks part 1
Starks part 2 (be warned, spoilery speculation about Jon Snow's mother)
1 2013-05-01 05:28:09 (edited by tfurrows 2014-06-25 04:35:17)
- tfurrows
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- tfurrows
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Re: Backstories
Starks part 1
Starks part 2 (be warned, spoilery speculation about Jon Snow's mother)
1 week down, ~39 to go before season 4 
- nightcrow
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Re: Backstories
Thanks! Great thread! Can we sticky this?
Brothers! What we do in life...Echoes in Eternity!
- Deke
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Cheers for this 
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- Wizard
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Wow, thanks for this, they are great
DRM "manages access" in the same way that Prison "manages freedom".
http://xkcd.com/488/
http://xkcd.com/488/
Re: Backstories
A question for those who never read the books. I've been very curious about this for a long time.
What's your take on Roberts rebellion?
I feel that they have been somewhat clear about it in the show, but not nearly often enough for most people to understand how all the characters were affected by it and how they are connected?
Most people I ask say something like "I think Khaleesi should be queen! Wait, Robert was the one with a beard right?", and they don't acknowledge Stannis claim at all because the show made him boring and bad. Which is unfortunate since he's the rightful king of the seven kingdoms by all laws and traditions.
Everything in the show is a result of Roberts rebellion, I wonder why they haven't explained it better.
Re: Backstories
About Summerhall. Reading between the lines, it appears as if Ghost of High Heart is the Woods Witch (who knew Jenny of Oldstones, Duncan the Smalls loved one!)
If you don't remember her, here's why she's important: She knew Rhaegar and what happened at Summerhall, and maybe, just maybe, she know the prophesy that made Rhaegar put down his harp and decide to learn how to be a knight. Even Ned liked Rhaegar, and Jorah tell Dany that she is like Rhaegar as a compliment to her. He's the result of the biggest plot that never happened because of Bobby B's jealousy and stupidness. Namely, that House Arryn, Stark and Tully conspired to end Aerys reign and maybe put Rhaegar on the throne, remember he said before he died that after the Trident he would set things right in Kings Landing. So anyways, that's what I think his "southron ambitions" were. However, Rhaegar wasn't the prince that was promised. Enter: The Woods Witch!
"Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince was promised would be born of their line.”
“A woods witch?” Dany was astonished.
“She came to court with Jenny of Oldstones. A stunted thing, grotesque to look upon. A dwarf, most people said, though dear to Lady Jenny, who always claimed that she was one of the children of the forest.”
“What became of her?”
“Summerhall.” The word was fraught with doom.
So who else was at Summerhall? Ghost of High Heart! [To Arya]:
"She began to sob, her little body shaking. “You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!”"
Then we have Ghost of High Heart mention "my Jenny", and her song. Who is good with songs about Summerhall?
Viserys had spoken of Rhaegar’s birth only once. Perhaps the tale saddened him too much. “It was the shadow of Summerhall that haunted him, was it not?”
“Yes. And yet Summerhall was the place the prince loved best. He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company.”
And the only line we know of Jennys song yet:
High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny would dance with her ghosts . . .
The song is mentioned so many times, and sung by Tom of Sevenstreams which makes Ghost of High Heart rock back and forth and cry and mumble the words. Even Thoros of Myr says:
Let her savour her song in peace. It is all she has left.
Or in Toms view:
"She always makes me sing the same bloody song"
So what's the point? Well, consider this, the song has no name, she just say "my jennys song".
With this as contex, when Dany see Rhaegar in the House of the Undyingt:
“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. “There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.”
But he was wrong, as Aemon understood:
What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years.
Tl;dr: Jennys song, aka the song of ice and fire, about the prince that was promised, is still sung, and it contains the original prophesy that will tell who will bring light into darkness!
A pretty neat thing if you ask me, because there are dead things in the sea, and the dead are walking again in the north, as was stressed in the very first prologue of the whole story. Winter is coming, and Westeros will need its hero pretty darn quick now!
I think you see where this is heading...
9 2014-09-01 16:20:52 (edited by peter 2014-09-01 16:26:37)
Re: Backstories
Paisley wrote:
What is this "Roberts rebellion" I keep hearing so much about? What actually happened lol?
Good question. Here's what happened and why it is important to understand:
Ned Stark had a sister called Lyanna. She was quite wild, like Arya, and liked to ride horses and practice fighting with Benjen when they were kids. She was supposed to marry Robert Baratheon. Robert loved Lyanna, but he also loved to sleep around and drink a lot. Lyanna didn't like that.
Rhaegar, Daenerys older brother, was also in love with Lyanna. One day there was a tourney at Harrenhall, and in the end it was down to two guys, Rhaegar and Barristan Selmy. The winner got to decide who was the Queen of Love and Beauty, and since Barristan was in love with Ashara Dayne, he really wanted to win, but he lost and was very sad about it.
Elia Martell, Rhaegars wife and mother of his two children, was quite disappointed when Rhaegar named Lyanna Queen of Love and Beauty. And then they eloped.
Lyannas other brother, Brandon, who was even wilder, went to Kings Landing and told Aerys, the Mad King, that Rhaegar should return Lyanna, or else! The Mad King pondered this, but decided that it would be better to throw Brandon in the dungeons.
The father of Brandon, Lyanna and Eddard, Lord Rickard Stark, didn't like that, so he rode to Kings Landing and told Aerys he demanded a trial by battle. Aerys pondered this, and cooked Rickard in his armor over a fire in the throne room, while strangling Brandon in a weird device intended to do just that.
Aerys then decided that he wanted to cut off Eddards and Roberts heads, so he told Jon Arryn (in the Vale, where they both lived back then) to bring them. At this point, Jon Arryn had had enough of Aerys killing his friends and somewhat respecfully said no and prepared for seven hells to break loose.
Then they fought a few battles against people they didn't like. Robert became wounded and Ned went home to get help. Robert recovered and managed to father a bastard in the process, while Ned went to the Tullys to get more help. The Tullys said ok, but... our daughter Catelyn who was supposed to marry Brandon before he died, must now marry you instead. Fine, said Ned.
Meanwhile in Kings Landing, Aerys told Jon Connington, who was Rhaegars bestest friend, to go fight Robert. Ned went to help Robert and they won against Jon Connington who decided to not do this anymore because fuck it.
Meanwhile at a private love shack in Dorne, Rhaegar decided to go set things right in Kings Landing because his father, the Mad King, was surprisingly mad. On his way he met Robert at a place called the Trident, and Robert killed Rhaegar with a hammer.
The Mad Kings wife, Queen Rhaella, went to Dragonstone with her kid Viserys because she was pregnant and didn't want be be quite so near such terrible things happening near her.
Tywin Lannister, who liked to be on the winning side, decided to take his army to Kings Landing. Varys told The Mad King that it was a trap. Pycelle said it was actually not a trap, and that he should let in his friends the Lannisters.
it was a trap.
Aerys was upset, and came up with a grand plan: to set fire to everyone in Kings Landing. Everyone. The whole thing, because he had been hiding tremendous amounts of explosive wildfire pretty much everywhere in the city just waiting for the right moment.
Jaime quickly realized that if all the people in Kings Landing were dead, it would be difficult to keep sleeping with his sister, and so he killed Aerys, the Mad King, and got the nickname "Kingslayer".
Ned and Robert arrived, and Robert decided that he should be king because he's one quarter Targaryen. Tywin felt he had to prove his loyality and had the remaining Targaryen children brutally murdered by the Mountain, Gregor Clegane. This pleased Robert Baratheon, but made Ned angry because if there's one thing Ned doesn't like, it's killing children.
So he left to go look for his sister Lyanna who had been gone for a year or so, and eventually he found a tower with Rhaegars guards outside, guarding something. They fought and Howland Reed saved the day. Lyanna was in bed and there was blood everywhere, and she died after they talked for a while. Then he went to deliver a sword and then he went home.
Meanwhile, the wife of the Mad King died giving birth to Daenerys, and her brother Viserys fled with Dany over the sea to get away from Robert, who was king now and married Cersei and named Jon Arryn his Hand.
13 or 16 years later, Jon Arryn died and Robert decided that Ned should be his new Hand.
This is where Game of Thrones start.
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