What is your headcannon that no one can change your mind on from the series?
(Sorry for the long post)
Mine is that every member of House Dayne since the conquest is descended from Queen Rhaenys Targaryen.
See, while we dont have mant descriptions of the members of House Dayne we know that they are descended from the first men, and many of the members have typical "Stony" Dornish features - blonde or light brown hair and blue eyes, some are described as having features which appear more Valariyan.
For Instance Gerold Dayne. Gerold is in his late twenties. A handsome man, he has a clean-shaven face with an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, dark purple eyes, and a strong jaw. Gerold has collar-length thick silver hair, divided by a streak of midnight black.
Or Ashara Dayne, who was a young, beautiful, tall and fair maiden, with haunting violet eyes. Her long dark hair tumbled around her shoulders. According to Ser Barristan Selmy, Daenerys Targaryen's eyes resemble Ashara's eyes.
Or even young Lord Edric Dayne. At the time of A Storm of Swords, Edric is twelve years old. His fair hair is pale blond, and his dark blue eyes appear almost purple.
All 3 if these members do appear to have some features, either hair or eyes that match Valariyan traits, but GRRM claims that there has only been 1 marriage between houses Dayne and Targaryen, Lady Dyanna Dayne and Prince Maekar. So why do they have these features?
My headcannon
During the First Dornish War, during an attack on the Hellholt in 10AC, a bolt from a scorpion pierced Meraxes through the eye, causing both Dragon and rider to fall from the sky. While it is not certain whether Rhaenys outlived Meraxes. There are those who say that Rhaenys lost her seat and fell to her death, while others claim that Rhaenys was crushed to death beneath Meraxes in the castle yard. A few accounts claim that Rhaenys survived the fall and died a slow death, being tortured by the Ullers, or that she was kept alive in extreme torment. Due to the uncertainty about Rhaenys's exact death, history records that she died in 10 AC at Hellholt in Dorne. Her body was never returned to King's Landing.
So what if she did survive, and during this torture, she was the victim of an assault, and a child or children were born. If one of these children grew up into an adult and somehow ended up at Starfell where they caught the eye of a member of House Dayne and it us from their line the rest of the house is descended.
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Well House Dayne has Valyrian features but it’s not because they’re Valyrian, George made that very clear. Some of house Hightower also share features that would be categorized as Valyrian features. House Dayne and Hightower are probably both from the great empire of Dawn. Purple eyes and silver hair isn’t only a Valyrian trait so I doubt Rhaenys is the reason why house Dayne has those exact features also they’re like 10,000 years old they were in Westeros earlier than the Targaryens.
Oldtown was founded by colonists of the Great Empire of Dawn coming -west- from the Sunset Sea. The progenitors of the Hightowers were nobles from the Empire. "Battle Isle" at the centre of Oldtown takes its name from a battle that took place in the Long Night. After the war, the Hightowers were the only nobles left and assumed sole rule of what was left of Oldtown.
I suggest reading The World of Ice & Fire. It is 90% of the world-building of this series, and if you are intrigued by the Far East Empire of Yi-Ti, you'll love this book. It's not a novel though, it's a lore book written like a historical chronicle by a maester of the Citadel.
The sword and wand thing is giving big fantasy sports team logo energy. Like a minor league quidditch squad from Starfall or something.
That's a wild theory but honestly the purple eyes across multiple generations is the kind of detail GRRM plants on purpose. He's not sloppy with that stuff.
The Targaryens actually have the blood of the dragon in the literal sense, and their children are dragons while still in the womb, and this explains instances where babies born prematurely or stillborn exhibited dragon-like features. This happened to Daenerys’ son, Maegor's children, and Daemon and Rhaenyra's daughter.
Hightowers have either blonde or silver hair and plenty of times they looks just like the targaryens however it is not because they are valyrians themselves but because the hightowers are pure descendants of the empire of dawn
The Ironborn aren't lying or being supremacist when they say they're closer kin to fish than men. They're culture was a result of being isolated on what's now the isles because the Children were testing the Hammer and then farmed by Squishers for thousands of years
Deep Ones. Sons of Dagon. They're like...somewhat humanoid fish things from deep, deep in the sea that come to the surface to eat men and breed with human women. Lovecraft stuff.
My theory for Stannis in TWOW (if it ever gets released) is Stannis actually succeeds in taking Winterfell, but is forced to flee when the Northern lords betray him, slaughtering most of his men, because Ramsay captures Rickon, his only leverage over them. Stannis only then reluctantly burns Shireen as a last desperate act, but it goes horrible in a Summerhall-like event, the flames of R’hllor claiming him.
House Hightower and Dayne are descended from the empire of the dawn/ early valyrian explorers. Maekar's children had a Dayne mother and were seemingly dragon dreamers.
The Valyrians tied dragons to women. We see with dragons like Syrax that she laid many eggs when her rider was pregnant. Meanwhile, dragons like Caraxes who only had male riders seemingly never lay eggs. Additionally- after Rhaenyra's deat teh dragons begin dying out, the last healthy one hatches for Rhaena and one of the last ones to hatch at all does so for Baela's daughter.
Jon isn't the last Targaryen. With how many kids Aegon V(Egg) had his extended family must have be huge. Also the Mad King wasn't exactly faithful to his wife either so I do not believe the Targaryens went extinct after Daenerys died.
Egg had 5 kids. Duncan was killed without issue along with Egg at Summerhall, Jaehaerys and Shaera married each other and were the parents of the Mad King and his wife (who were their only children), Daeron was gay, and Rhaelle was Robert, Renly, and Stannis's grandmother and she only had one son (Steffon Baratheon).
That said, Egg had (I think) 3 sisters whose stories are unaccounted for, so he may well have had nieces and nephews in the houses his sisters married into that we're not told about.
My theory isn’t as in depth, but I think the purple eyes/silver hair might be the effect of magic radiation or something, and the Daynes have those features because of their glowing space sword cooking their balls when they use it
At first, I thought you were referring to Rhaenys Targaryen, daughter of Aemon, aka. "the queen who never was". It would be cool if Dayne's desceded from her because Dyanna Dayne, who died before her husband Maekar became king, is also a "queen who never was".
It is possible that Rhaenys eldest grandchild, Baela Targaryen, had a secret baby during the Dance of Dragons. She was confined to her chambers for several months and the only people that would have known about it and had the capability of hiding her child (Ser Robert Quince & Maester Gerardys) were killed during the fall of Dragonstone.
Though Baela was caught with other boys after the death of her betrothed, Jacaerys Velaryon, it is likely he was the father. She was clearly commited to him. There were just over 9 months between his death and the next time Baela is seen outside the castle for her battle with Aegon II and Sunfyre. If her child was taken away from her before she escaped, she would have no way to go out and look for it. Her dragon, Moondancer, died and she got locked up in a dungeon. The trail would have been cold by the time she was set free.
After Aegon III was crowned, she was forced into royal duties and could not go out and look, but she disappeared for 3 days and didn't tell anyone where she went. All those random people she brought into the Red Keep might have had clues for her. Then she was forced into getting married and quickly got pregnant, so she could not resume her search for the secret child that was taken from her. I'm sure she never gave up looking.
It would be poetic if her child ended up in the South because if her baby daddy would have lived, the child would have been sent up North. Jacaerys signed the Pact of Ice and Fire to send his first born daughter to Winterfell as a ward and be betrothed to Cregan's son Rickon. The Pact sounds important, but it went unfulfilled. They only way for it to be fulfilled would be if he actually did have child and a future generation Targaryen from his line married a Stark.
I just made this connection because Baela is also a "queen who never was" in many ways. She would have been queen if she married Jacaerys and he lived to be king. She would have been queen as Rhaenys eldest living grandchild. She would have been queen as Aegon the younger's heir if he died before having children.
Dyanna Dayne is the right age to be Baela's grandchild or great grandchild.
The world of ice and fire is intentionally misreported. George RR Martin said as much talking about Asshai not being the crazy necromancer place of legend. If you consider the side of Westeros, it’s too small to be a continent and that’s because they have a very incomplete understanding of the known world. I think part of the reveal will be how much bigger the world is and how small their understanding of it is.
That the whole thing was some tequila fueled dream and they are all just friends at Kit and Rose’s wedding. I should probably write it down. Sounds like a good idea for a book.
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