The Ringer s Game of Thrones Book Club

Our superfans go deep on the Season 6 nale s hugely

emotional reveals,the book characters we could still see,the
latest insane theories, and more
HBORinger illustration
elcome to The Ringer s Game of Thrones Book Club,
where superfans Jason Maester Concepcion and
Mallory Mother of Dragons Rubin let their super-nerdy
banners fly for all the world to see. Jason and Mallory
helped break down the Season 6 finale on the most recent
installment of Afterthe Thrones, but are going even
deeper and weirder here to discuss readers emotional state, the most intriguing
character arcs, some truly bizarre theories, and much more. For even more
Winds of Winter talk, check out Alison Herman s review of the finale and head
back to The Ringer on Tuesday for Jason s final Ask the Maester column of the
season.
Spoiler warning, obviously: If you re not caught up on Season 6 and haven t read
every precious word that George R.R. Martin has written, proceed with extreme
caution.
Mallory Rubin: Maester Jason! Hold me! Help me! My heart feels as massive
as Wun Wun s, swollen by an astonishingly emotional series of Season 6 finale
reveals. We have so much to discuss Jaime and Cersei s future, Sam s library
card, FREY PIE but we have to start with the Tower of Joy.
We know. Finally, we know. After waiting six seasons in show land and 20
yearsin book land, we learned the truth of Jon s parentage on Sunday night:
Jon isn t Ned s shame; he s Ned s secret, the son of Lyanna Stark and the boy
Ned spent a lifetime protecting with lies so that he could honor his sister s
dying wish.
It wasn t surprising: Thanks to a Hodor-size heap of supporting evidence, fans
have long believed with something bordering on certainty that Jon is really
Lyanna s kid. But amazingly, that conviction didn t remotely diminish the
impact of the moment. When I heard Lyanna whisper promise me, words
I ve now read on the printed page more times than I can count, I got chills.
When the shot cut from the newborn s wrinkly face to modern-day Jon s
scarred visage, I wept. I m tearing up again now as I type this.
That the scene delivered so fully despite so many people being so sure they d
already solved it speaks to the brilliance with which the showrunners handled
the material. But it also speaks to how deeply we all cared. This question
united the fandom; it fostered and then fueled a community of obsessive
discussion and speculation. For me, this is up there with The Prince s Tale and
Harry s walk into the Forbidden Forest in Deathly Hallows;Desmond finally
reaching Penny on Lost; and learning the identities of the Final Five cylons on
Battlestar Galactica. It was devastatingly sad and surprisingly beautiful, and i
t
mattered to me in a way that the best fiction can when it transcends the typical
confines of storytelling.
And of course, it pulled off another masterful feat: In resolving one
monumental mystery, Bran s Tower of Joy vision posed another, because we
can t hearthe name Lyanna whispers when she s begging Ned to shield Jon
from Robert s wrath. So, Maester, I ask you:Does R+L=J? Is Rhaegar
Targaryen Jon s father, as we ve long assumed and as I still believe? Is the
show milking the fandom s favorite discussion point for every last drop, oris
there a chance that part of our equation has been wrong all along? Members of
the Kingsguard battled to the death to protect that tower;they must have done
so to serve a Targaryen heir. But might that Targaryen have been someone
otherthan the dragon prince?
JasonConcepcion: Afterso much time and so much speculation, seeing what
happened inside the Tower of Joy the promise, the bed of blood, the
newborn babe was emotional and surreal.
Emotional because, though book readers largely take it as an article of faith

that Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon, we didn t really know. Now, afterso many
feigned protagonists and tragic, bordering-on-cruel plot reversals, we really
know that Jon is the hero, the prince whose safety Ned literally promised.
It s surreal because part of me neverthought we d get here! And, if not for
George R.R. Martin agreeing to allow his story to be adapted fortelevision, we
might not have. So, a moment of silence forGeorge; he squandered a 5 0 lead
and now the core mystery of his epic tale has been revealed by someone else.
That must feel terrible.
OK! [Claps hands; rubsthem together vigorously.] ARE WE REALLLLLLY SURE
R+L = J? I always have been and still mostly am. But, that suspiciously timed
volume drop has me reconsidering what we actually know. We know that
Rhaegar Targaryen shocked the realm by crowning Lyanna Stark the Queen of
Love and Beauty at the tournament at Harrenhal and that, a short time later,
he either abducted orran off with her. And we know that nine months later,
Lyanna gave birth to Jon in the Tower of Joy amid a bed of blood.
Stay with me now: What if Aerys II is Jon s father? Problem pregnancies were
a hallmark of the Mad King s relationship with his wife, Queen Rhaella.
Between 263 AC and 274 AC, after giving birth to Prince Rhaegar, the queen
miscarried three times and gave birth to two stillborn babes and three feeble
infants who soon perished. Admittedly, that s smoke with very little fire. But if
you subscribe to the theory that Aerys is Tyrion s father, Joanna Lannister
dying in her own bed of blood suddenly seems not just tragic, but portentous.
Now, let s pour wildfire on this smoldering heap of speculation. The Mad King
was infamous for becoming sexually aroused by fire, specifically the sight of
people burning. What if Lyanna s pregnancy was the perverse result of King
Aerys watching Lord Rickard Stark get roasted alive in his armor? Awful as that
possibility is, it would be a very GRRM touch.
I don t know that I buy any of this, but I m open to the possibility.
All that aside, the question now is this: How will the realm find out that Jon i
s
a Targaryen? What say you?
(A random PS: The three heads of the dragon:Dany rides Drogon, the black
dragon; Jon the White Wolf rides Viserion, the white dragon; and Bran the
Greenseer rides Rhaegal, the green dragon??? I AM FREAKING OUT RIGHT
NOW.)
M.R.: Two words: Howland Reed. Maybe Bran will surface from his latest tree
trip determined to head right to Jon to tell him all he s learned. I m assuming
that we saw the Ned-Lyanna scene entirely through Bran s eyes, meaning he
didn t hear papa s name either. If that s not the case, then he s well informed
and ready to download Jon. If that is the case, though, why share a half-truth
with Jon when Bran can attempt to piece the puzzle together? Isn t gaining
complete knowledge part of being the Three-Eyed Raven? Bran knows that
Howland was at the Tower of Joy battling beside Ned, and he just so happens
to be traveling through the North with Howland s daughter, Meera, the one
person capable of locatingGreywater Watch in the swamps of the Neck.
Bran could try to find Chekhov s nurse, but you know what Howland has over
her (otherthan a known location)? He can help shed light on Lyanna s life, not
just her death. I can t stop thinking about the Knight of the Laughing Tree, the
story that Meera tells Bran about a mystery miniature knight who rides to
defend the honor of a picked-on crannogman at the tourney at Harrenhal. As
you noted, we know that this is where Rhaegar crowned Lyanna the Queen of
Love and Beauty. We also know, from Meera s tale, that Rhaegar played a song
at the tourney s feast that made Lyanna weep. It s pretty clearthat Howland is
the crannogman in question, and I ve always believed that Lyanna was the
knight she cared for Howland after his beating;the weirwood on the knight s
shield points to a Northern rider; and this kind of impersonation is totally
something Arya, whom Ned said reminded him of Lyanna, would do. Plus, it
explains why Howland would have gone with Ned to Dorne: He wanted to help
rescue the woman who once rescued him.
But here s the kicker: Aerys was so miffed when the knight beat the bad guys

and refused to unmask that he sent Rhaegarto chase down the mystery
(wo)man. Maybe this is when Rhaegar and Lyanna fell in love! And maybe
Howland knows it, or can at least help Bran piece it all together.
I say love because I can t really stand the idea of Jon being the product of
rape and betrayal;this all means so much more if he s the fruit of true passion,
the messiah born of a willful union between ice and fire. Plus, if Jon is Rhaega
r
and Lyanna s kid, he s Dany s nephew; if he s Aerys s kid, he s her half brother.
Bastard or not, one of those scenarios makes him a much biggerthreat to her
claim, and I can t see how that helps a story that s invested more time in
Dany s path to glory than in literally anything otherthan, to quote my main
man Ian McShane, tits and dragons. Plus, Jon and Dany can totally hook up
if they re aunt and nephew; by Westerosi standards, that s only kind of creepy
and weird. If they re siblings, that s Lannister-level filth, and no one wants
that.
Speaking of Lannisters, and speaking of dope color-coded clues to this tale s
conclusion (amazing dragon theory, by the way!), can we agree that the final
part of Maggy the Frog s prophecy is about to come true? Tommen s exit
sealed the bit about gold shrouds for all of Cersei s children, which brings us to
the part of the prophecy that the show neverincluded: And when yourtears
have drowned you, the valonqarshall wrap his hands about your pale white
throat and choke the life from you.
Valonqar is High Valyrian for little brother. Many have assumed that this
line foreshadows Tyrion returning to take his revenge upon the evil sister who
made his life hell. But Cersei just did the thing that Jaime once killed a king
to
prevent: She burned them all. Doesn t Jaime have to take her out? Wouldn t it
be pretty easy to choke the life out of her with his golden hand? Or will all th
e
talk about the two of them being the only ones who mattertrump everything
else? If Jaime forgives her, what s next forthem? And if he kills her, what s
next for him?
J.C.: Poor Jaime. I feel forthe guy. (As much as it s possible to empathize with
a person who would get down with his twin sister, push a child out of a
window, and threaten to launch a baby from a catapult.) He s in a lose-lose
situation here.
Cersei has no end game. She just incinerated numerous important Southern
nobles (including her uncle Kevan, the sitting lord of Casterly Rock) along with
untold members of the gentry; hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians; and an
influential religious leader. West of King s Landing, the Freys, the Lannisters
last ally, just lost the head of their house. Cersei might rule the capital with
steel and fear, but she d be taking her chances just leaving the Red Keep. The
united strength of the Reach and Dorne represents a mortal threat to Cersei s
reign, and that s assuming the Lannister army stands behind her. She has no
chance against Dany s military might. Oh, and the Lannisters have been lowkey
broke since Season 4 and Book 4.
If Jaime supports Cersei and just two episodes ago, he declared that he was
willing to slaughter every Tully who everlived to get back to her that
would likely mean leading Lannistertroops in the field against the family s
enemies, which, at this point, is basically everyone. Sooner orlater, the
Lannister army is going to get run and Jaime s towheaded cranium will end up
on a spike.
If Jaime fulfills the valonqar portion of Maggy s prophecy which would
entail getting past the undead Mountain one-handed he ll be a kinslayer, a
kingslayer, an oathbreaker, and, worse, a Lannisterin a post-Lannister world.
Brienne is the only person in Westeros who might ve cut him a break, but she s
duty-bound to oppose him afterthe recent siege of Riverrun.
HBO
Jaime is a tragic figure; he saved thousands of lives when he killed the Mad
King, but lost his honorforever.

This has me thinking, though: With the Reach now at war, Randyll Tarly is
going to be too busy to look for Heartsbane. This frees Samwell up
to do
what exactly?
M.R.: Sam the Slayer! Man, in a season thick with violence and despair, there
was something truly transporting about the look of bliss on Sam s face when
he walked into the Citadel s library. (Side note: Is it just me, or did the librar
y
look like a cross between the British Museum s Reading Room and
Dumbledore s office, with a little Burrow action thrown in for good measure?
I d give all the wine in the Arborto spend time there, and would definitely be
willing to shave my head and tape down my boobs to sneak by the sexists at
the gates.) Sam s finally where he belongs, surrounded by parchment and
knowledge and far, far away from bad dads.
Of course, Sam s not in Oldtown forleisure time. He s there to study up, and
hopefully in a hurry. Completing (or even truly starting) his Maester s training
is going to be a bit too time-consuming with the fate of the world at stake, so
hopefully Sam will stumble upon the right tome in a jiffy. He knows what
obsidian and Valyrian steel can do to the White Walkers, but he needs to find
something more. Specifically, he needs his light bedtime reading to reveal the
old secret to stopping the Others. Will Sam learn what saved the realms of
men the last time and what can stop the Night King this time? As Benjen
reminded Bran, and us, in the season finale, there s powerful magic in the Wall
that prevents the Others from passing. Since Mance s gang began hunting for
the Horn of Winter, I ve assumed the Wall will fall; Benjen s statement only
reinforced that belief, because the Night King needs to hit the Seven Kingdoms
at some point. So if the Wall falls, will Sam know how to raise it again? Might
he learn how to stop it from crumbling in the first place?And, perhaps most
crucially of all, will he and Gilly have time forsome romps when they re
rushing back to Jon on the snowy seas, or will they be too busy sketching out
plans to save the world and changing Little Sam s nappies?
Speaking of babies: All this talk of Dany s need to marry got me thinking about
the state of her womb (which is a totally normal thing to say, right?). Show
Dany has hinted at being barren; book Dany definitely thinks she is. But we ve
gotten some hints to the contrary. What do you think? Will Dany be able to
procreate with her new mate of choice? Did she allow Mirri Maz Duurto get
into her head with her now infamous pseudoprophecy, When the sun rises in
the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the
wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child.
Then he will return, and not before ? And get ready, because I m about to get
weird if her womb is quickening again, doesthat mean Drogo scoming back?
J.C.: This is so weird. I love it. Also, there s nothing that brings me more joy
than imaginingGeorge R.R. Martin saying, Her womb is quickening, in that
nasal voice of his, which sounds like a clarinetist swallowing his reed. I agree
that, at least in the books, it s likely that Dany is no longer barren. In the las
t
chapter of ADance With Dragons, Daenerys, adrift in the Dothraki Sea, wakes
from a dream to find that her [extremely GRRM voice] moon blood is flowing
forthe first time in she-can t-remember-when.
(ASIDE: In researching this, I ve developed a newfound reverence forthe
fantasy subgenre of George R.R. Martin period prose. Let this wash over you:
Moon blood, it s only my moon blood, but she did not remember ever having
such a heavy flow. ADance With Dragons, Chapter 71
Afterward, when their moon blood did not come at the accustomed time, Lysa
had gushed happily of the sons she was certain they carried. A Storm of
Swords, Chapter 2)
The problem with Dany s (alleged) fertility leading to a Drogo return is that
when Mirri Maz Duurissued her half-prophecy, half-taunt, she was setting the
criteria for a comatose Drogo to return to his formerself. Unfortunately (except
forthe part where this is how the dragon eggs hatched), Dany smothered him
with pillows and burned his body on a funeral pyre. There s no body forDrogo

to come back to.

Drogo staying dead has its benefits, though. The Great Khal wasn t one for
sharing, and, as future world leader, Dany is out of Drogo s league now
anyway. In orderto forge a lasting peace for a post-conquest Westeros, the
Khaleesi is going to have to find the right life partner and put a ring on it.
Speaking of which: Any bachelors (or bachelorettes) out there that you like for
the position of Mr. (or Mrs.) Khaleesi?
M.R.: Hey, Dany had some below-the-sheets fun with Irri in A Storm of Swords;
maybe Yara s right for her after all! Of course, my true hope is that Dany finds
Jorah, throws an arm-condom over his greyscale, and makes sweet love to her
bearforthe rest of his days. With Little Lyanna and the Mormonts entering the
great game in a big way in the showverse, Jorah actually wouldn t make such a
poor ally. His family would need to forget its shame long enough to speak to
him again, of course, but if he was able to win back his Khaleesi s trust after
betraying her, anything s possible.
You probably have to be (a) in love with Iain Glen or (b) drinking copious
amounts of shade-of-the-evening to be pulling forthis outcome, but what can
I say? Just because a Dany-Jon pairing seems like the ultimate end game
doesn t mean we should quit imagining alternate couplings while the clock
counts down.
The finale might have put another alternate pairing on ourradar. I d given up
hope of Quentyn Martell appearing on the show, but Dorne s return to the fray
has me wondering if someone in Sunspear might still make a move forDany s
hand. There was no show Arianne forDoran to promise to Viserys, and no
show Quentyn forDoran to send afterDany, but perhaps Ellaria and the Sand
Snakes have another card to play. Sure, so far most of their card-playing
involves killing anything with a penis and doing the Dornish version of
burning their bras in a show of female strength, so offering up a dude to Dany
doesn t really seem like theirstyle, but the Martells and Targaryens have sealed
pacts with marriage for more than a century, so perhaps we haven t met our
last Dornish drinking buddy yet.
HBO
I m just as curious about the man who brought Dany and the Dornish together,
though. What s Varys s next move? And can we be certain that he s on Dany s
team for good, given his past, Stannis-centric statements about the danger of a
ruler with blood magic on his or herside and Dany s current cheerleading
squad of red priests and priestesses?
J.C.: Mal, I think we might need to upgrade Ser Jorah s arm condom to a full
torso prophylactic considering the time that s passed. Maybe a whole boiledleather
gimp outfit with two holes cut in it.
I, too, have been anxiously waiting to see if Varys might have some cards
hidden close to his perfumed vest. Certainly, after The Winds of Winter, (we
have to talk about this title) it s probably too late in the great game to upset
the status quo with a characterlike YoungGriff, a.k.a. (Fake?) Aegon
Targaryen. Although, Varys playing a double game with Illyrio and running a
secret, possibly fugazi Targ as a Dany backup plan would fall nicely underthe
once for blood part of the three treasons prophecy that Dany received in
the House of the Undying. Which, alas, does not exist in the show.
There might be time for a Quentyn-type character and a quick tragicomic meetcute
.
Maybe. Once Dany lands in, we assume, Dorne, moving Quentyn from an
awkward wannabe suitor with visions of dragons in his head to a barbecue
briquette screaming, I made a terrible mistake, would be, at most, a twoepisode
arc. I m holding out hope forthat now, actually.
Jumping back a bit, is naming the finale The Winds of Winter a troll move by
the showrunners?
M.R.: I feel forGeorge, man. He birthed this masterpiece, and even though
HBO took his baby and lovingly swaddled it and provided it with ample
nourishment and kisses, it can t be easy to watch the network teach this story
to drive, and send it off to prom, and drop it off at college while he s still stu

ck
on the middle school T-ball field. I firmly believe that the rest of the books w
ill
be fulfilling and wonderful reading experiences regardless, and I really don t
feel like I ve been cheated out of anything by learning about Jon s mom orthe
White Walkers origin or Hodor s Hodoring or anything else on the show first.
Still, knowing that swaths of fans who ve invested years in this tale
experienced these essential late-game moments on a stage otherthan the one
he initially created has to be agonizing for our boy, and so my heart breaks for
him a little more each week. Using the name of the still-unpublished book
that s sparked more WHERE IS THIS THING? PLEASE WRITE THIS BEFORE
YOU DIE! message-board bullying than we ve everseen feels like rubbing
unnecessarily coarse salt in an open, festering wound. (But it is a good title!
Can t deny that!)
Before this book club chat gets as long as GRRM s next manuscript, let s tie it
to a raven s leg and send it off. Any final thoughts? How thrilled were you to
finally see your main man Manderly, however briefly? Did you salivate when
we got a slice of Frey pie at long last? And are you going to spend more time
overthe next few months wondering what characters like Littlefinger and Arya
will do next, orsendingGeorge loving reminders that we ll line up for him at
midnight no matter what?
J.C.: The show and books are so different now that I don t feel spoiled at all.
Frey pie is a perfect example; it s a great bit from the books, but it requires th
e
readerto do some textual sleuthing to unlock the savory goodness behind the
lines. Adapting it for Arya s arc, and making herthe mysterious hooded man
stalking Winterfell in ADance With Dragons, is a great change fortelevision.
But, it doesn t affect what we know about the book version of The Winds of
Winter at all.
In closing, I offersome quick Season 7 8 predictions based on where things
stand at the end of Season 6:
The Winds of Winter will be released in Spring 2017. Martin just got some good
advice from Stephen King (basically, SITDOWN AND WRITE ) and I m
hopeful that he took it to heart.
Cersei and Euron will be the big bads of Season 7. Season 8 will be all Night
King, all the time.
Littlefinger will die midway through Season 7 afterfailing to split Jon and
Sansa. (After being revealed as a Targaryen and coming back from the dead,
Jon now has the world s only suit of Valyrian plot armor.)
Lannister guardsmen in the Red Keep will begin dying mysteriously as Arya
looks to complete her Pokemon set of death.
Melisandre will join up with Beric, the Hound, and the Brotherhood Without
Banners, taking overthe Lady Stoneheart role. They will go to the inn at the
crossroads from A Feast for Crows, where they will meet Brienne, Podrick, and
GENDRY.
That s all for now. This was a joy, Mal! Hopefully Chris and Amanda don t kill
us for writing 4,000 words about Game of Thrones. Any closing thoughts?
M.R.: Just that I d really like a suit of Valyrian plot armor! Though not as much
as I d like Arya to reunite with the Hound, Hot Pie, and Gendry, orGhost and
Nymeria to rule the world at the end as you recently brilliantly suggested.
Sometimes, we deserve to have nice things. And what s nicerthan two
chickens with pets and pals?
Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer.