onionmaester

[onionmaester]

Ser Glendon and Ser Kyle on the Identity of Dunk and Egg

Spoilers for Duncan & Egg: The Mystery Knight...

So having recently gotten done reading through Dunk & Egg (a very wonderful if sadly short spin-off to the ASOIAF Novels) I had a quick thought regarding the ending...

So.

Glendon Balls/Flowers and Kyle the Cat have got to realise there's more to Ser Duncan the Tall (and by extension, Egg) than it seems, right? Sorry if I'm getting any details mixed up, I'm kinda tired today and also only recently finished reading through it all...

So Dunk shows up during the meals and start up outs John the Fiddler as Daemon the Second, aka a Blackfyre pretender and all that, and then proceeds to defend Glendon; not only proclaiming his innocence and accusing others of preforming a frame-up, but also accuses the tourney as a whole of being rigged in Daemon's favour.

So Daemon agrees to do some trial by combat, and Glendon wins, and then Bloodraven shows up to crash the party and arrest everyone. This is probably where they should really start getting curious about Dunk's connection.

It was only a few heartbeats later, as Dunk and Ser Kyle were helping Glendon Ball off his horse, that the first trumpet blew, and the sentries on the walls raised the alarm. An army had appeared outside the castle, rising from the morning mists. “Egg wasn’t lying after all,” Dunk told Ser Kyle, astonished.

Here we see Dunk inferring to Kyle that Egg was aware of the coming army and had informed him of it as well.

It was late that afternoon before Ser Roland Crakehall of the Kingsguard found Dunk among the other prisoners. “Ser Duncan. Where in seven hells have you been hiding? Lord Rivers has been asking for you for hours. Come with me, if you please.”

As Dunk, Glendon and Kyle all await trial, suddenly a knight of the Kingsguard shows up and greets Ser Duncan by name and then proceeds to reveal Bloodraven has been looking for Duncan specifically.

“Aye, m’lord. Ser Kyle the Cat, and Maynard Plumm. And Ser Glendon Ball. It was him unhorsed the Fidd … the pretender.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that tale from half a hundred lips already. The Bastard of the Pussywillows. Born of a whore and a traitor.”

“Born of heroes,” Egg insisted. “If he’s amongst the captives, I want him found and released. And rewarded.”

And then of course we have the meeting with Dunk and Egg with Bloodraven in which Egg names Kyle and Glendon (and also Maynard Plumm, who from what I understand was likely Bloodraven himself) and specifically asks for the latter to be freed and rewarded. I'd assume Kyle also would at least get the courtesy of a shift release due to being named here by Dunk.

So from the perspective of Glendon and Kyle; Dunk knew of the Blackfyre presence, was informed a Targaryen army was coming, is acquainted with a member of the Kingsguard, and was specifically sought out by Bloodraven himself. And then presumably shortly after Dunk was taken to speak with Bloodraven, both Kyle and Glendon were presumably freed, with the latter getting rewarded for knocking the latest Blackfyre pretender in the mud.

From an outside perspective, this all has to be quite suspicious right? They'd likely be wondering if Dunk was a Bloodraven spy all along or at the very least side-eye just what kinds of connections he has (or rather, Egg has). If they manage to hear about the Ashford Tourney and Dunk's role in it, then that only would add to the confusion.

Just thought all this could be a source of conflict or at least confusion. I do think its likely they'll have questions at least.

“Some never will,” Dunk told him. “It doesn’t matter what you do. Others, though … they’re not all the same. I’ve met some good ones.” He thought a moment. “When the tourney’s done, Egg and I mean to go north. Take service at Winterfell and fight for the Starks against the ironmen. You could come with us.”

---

You have as much chance of wearing a white cloak as I do, Dunk almost said. You were born of a camp follower, and I crawled out of the gutters of Flea Bottom. Kings do not heap honor on the likes of you and me. The lad would not have taken kindly to that truth, however. Instead he said, “Strength to your arm, then.”

Dunk does offer to Glendon to come with him and Egg to the North, and given how disillusioned he became with the Blackfyres as a result of the events of the Tourney, as well as gratitude to Dunk for saving him from torture, he may be more inclined to join them. Plus there's also foreshadowing of Glendon one day joining the Kingsguard of Aegon V, so him joining Dunk and Egg on their travels at least for a bit more would make sense in increasing the bond.

“I know that feeling well.” Ser Kyle sighed. “Lord Caswell did not know me. When I told him how I carved his first sword, he stared at me as if I’d lost my wits. He said there was no place at Bitterbridge for knights as feeble as I had shown myself to be.” The Cat gave a bitter laugh. “He took my arms and armor, though. My mount as well. What will I do?”

Kyle was also in a rather bad situation due to the tourney, and so might also be inclined to join the group heading North in hopes of finding more long-term service with the Starks.

So if both Glendon and Kyle are going to be travelling with Dunk and Egg, then that increases the liklihood of them noticing the pair (mostly Egg really but still) are more than they seem, and more time for them to ask questions the two will need to find someway to answer.

#asoiaf #dunk and egg #ser duncan the tall #aegon vi targaryen #ser glendon flowers #ser glendon ball #ser kyle the cat #bloodraven #bryden rivers #egg #john the fiddler #dunk #starks #daemon ii blackfyre #the mystery knight #asoiaf theory #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf analysis

[onionmaester]

Davos Seaworth: A Lifetime of Smuggling

An aspect of Davos' backstory which I do not believe I have seen discussed much, likely because to my knowledge it appears to have only been brought up fairly briefly, is the age of which Davos first became involved in illegal smuggling and the potential implications of this own his character, backstory and general morality.

The first time he had seen the Wall he had been younger than Devan, serving aboard the Cobblecat under Roro Uhoris, a Tyroshi known up and down the narrow sea as the Blind Bastard, though he was neither blind nor baseborn. Roro had sailed past Skagos into the Shivering Sea, visiting a hundred little coves that had never seen a trading ship before. He brought steel; swords, axes, helms, good chainmail hauberks, to trade for furs, ivory, amber, and obsidian.

Here Davos is shown reflecting on his experiences while serving upon the Cobblecat, which was the first ship he served on, and notes he saw the wall during this time and was "younger than Devan" at this point.

“My son is not quite twelve. I am the King’s Hand. Give me another letter, if you would.”

In this same chapter, Davos remarks that Devan is "not quite twelve", therefore indicating that Davos was presumably no older than eleven himself (at the maximin) when he first joined the crew of the Cobblecat. We do not know much of Davos' childhood prior to this, but it is known that he grew up in Flea Bottom which is the poorest slum of King's Landing.

The HBO show does state he is a "Crabber's son" (for the record though I have only ever seen clips of the show) but this does not appear to be mentioned anywhere in the books. Instead we get this;

“That may be so,” Davos said, “but when I was a boy in Flea Bottom begging for a copper, sometimes the septons would feed me.”

So we know young Davos was a beggar, so likely not from a family with any stable employment or means to support themselves. When Davos' family is brought up, only his wife and sons are mentioned. He is never alluded to having living parents, siblings, cousins etc. Given his family-oriented nature, one might also expect he'd be at least a bit guilty if he had abandoned any family to join the Cobblecat's crew (although granted it has been decades). So while I do not think its outright stated that Davos is an orphan, it seems likely.

I feel the reason why this might be important to note, and why it might have some notable implications, is because it shows how and why Davos became involved in smuggling in the first place. One criticism I have seen of Davos' character a few times is that he does not necessarily feel like the type of man who'd break the law for profit for many years, as he is one of the most morally upright and honest characters in ASOIAF.

While I do think these criticisms have some merit, I also think that there is nothing about being a criminal which necessarily means Davos would prevent Davos from being a generally moral man. This is especially the case in Westeros, which is a highly stratified feudal society where the commons have little protection or upward morbility.

On this same note; there is also another thing worth mentioning when considering the time Davos become a smuggler... the tenure of Tywin Lannister as Hand of the King.

A Wiki of Ice and Fire calculates Davos' birthdate as being no later than 260, although notes that Davos was likely born a few years earlier. Tywin was Aerys' hand from 262–281 AC, and one of his famed actions is removing the pro-smallfolk reforms. I've seen this theorised as contributing to the eventual rise of the Kingswood Brotherhood and their initial popularity with the smallfolk.

So judging by what we know; Davos was born into extreme poverty in a society in which distinctions between classes are part of the law, and likely grew up during a time where the rights and conditions of commoners were being taken away and decreased.

I do not mean to claim Davos is free of fault; he has cheated on his life, he associates with morally ambiguous folk such as Salladhor Saan (A pirate who has no scruples with pillaging innocent civilians) or Stannis Baratheon (a very fascinating character as well).

But I do think this history and context could be worth noting to inform how Davos grew up, and how he is the man that he is. He got into smuggling when he was young enough to possibly not fully grasp the implication of this, and likely continued all those years because smuggling was his main skill-set to support himself, and later his family.

Transitioning to being a legitimate merchant would likely carry a number of obstacles; having to explain where he gained his wealth and cargo he'd have to sell at first, paying tariffs, making himself more well-known to authorities which could risk his old crimes being uncovered and making it easier to arrest him for them. I do not think it is a contradiction between Davos generally being good-natured, but also continuing to do the (dishonest) job he is best at. Especially when his commitment to his family is such a major part of his character that it also likely was why he continued the job of a smuggler to support them.

#davos seaworth #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf analysis #asoiaf theory #stannis baratheon #house seaworth #smuggling #salladhor saan #tywin lannister #aerys ii targaryen #cobblecat #Roro Uhoris #devan seaworth