🧙 The mysterious Ays Rivers: Harrenhal's Witch Queen #houseofthedragon

Alice Rivers who was this woman a serving wench who dabbled in potions and spells says monin a Woods witch claims septon eustus a malign enchantress who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth mushroom would have us believe between that description from Fire and Blood and her declaring to Prince Damon Targaryen that he will die in Heron Hall Alice Rivers knows how to make an entrance the witch queen of heren Hall as she is called The Secret main character of the dance of the dragons and my personal favorite character from this era for the tremendous chaos and touch of the old gods that follows her everywhere she goes who is this Alice really what do she want how long has she been at heren Hall waiting for the dragons to dance for her what long dormant Magics is she ushering into westros waking the power in the old stones of heren Hall in this video I'm going to try and answer all those questions and more we are all in on Alice rivers in this house Alice Rivers if that is even her real name is an enigma in the history of Westeros she pops into existence during dance and the threads of Fate seem to weave themselves around her or maybe she weaves them herself and turning Loom spools of green spools of black dragons of Flesh weaving dragons of thread what we're told in histories is that she is a bastard daughter of how strong sept and eustus and grandm monin point to her being Lionel Strong's daughter making her the half-sister of Harwin and Lara strong and also curiously they're wet nurses however mushroom adds a little bit of spice to that story as he often does and suggests that she is older than liel and was his wet nurse as well both of which are confounding since she appears far too young to be a wet nurse for even lar strong never mind the older Harwin and their father ly this has led to mass confusion in the histories about Alice as well as the fandom with suggestions that yeah maybe she does bathe in blood maybe she is far older than she appears and actress Gail Ranken isn't helping matters either in an interview with Entertainment Weekly she had this to say about her character she's someone who has all this power who's been alive for potentially 400 years Rankin herself is 34 years old and has a youthful appearance while Matthew Needum playing Lara strong is older at 40 years old seemingly leaning into the confusion of the Fire and Blood account it could be that the show has abandoned this oddly youthful appearance for Alice we'll just have to see if it gets brought up and we know that house of the Dragon has played a little loose with the ages of actors versus characters as Olivia Cook is only a year older than her on-screen son Tom Glen Carney and actors aren't always the best source of information as their understandings of their characters can vary depending on later rewrites and edits made to the final footage or stuff they just made up even still with fire and blood's account of her in mind this is an intriguing choice to cast Gail looking as young or younger than Lis many have wondered if quote unquote Alice Rivers is even her real name and how old she truly is there's two characters in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones that get similar treatment of confoundment at their ages the first is obviously melisandra the Red Witch from a in books and show Melisandre wears a magical spell known as a glamour which allows her to disguise her true appearance from all but the most trained eyes in fact melisandre's actress was quoted as saying melisandre's true AG is anywhere between 100 and 400 years old the red ruby she wears by her throat appears to be the key to this spell with her true age only showing up when the choker is removed much to the horror of millions of fans who lusted after the red woman the same could be true for Alice perhaps Alice like Melisandre truly is incredibly old and hide behind a magical youthful appearance to disguise that fact certainly this isn't the only connection between Melisandre and Alice Rivers as they play similar roles in the story and as Gaya said she is the first entry point to that World of Magic some more inventive Minds even wonder if Alice and Melisandre are the same person posing as two different magical women at key points in westro history although we have not seen any of the key magical stones on Alice to support that the other character that gets the same fragmented and unclear history is a surprising one old n of Winterfell while the show does not delve into this too far in the books no one at Winterfell knows how old she is when she arrived at the castle or even how many lords of Winterfell she helped personally raise and that includes herself I could tell you stories about Brandon the Builder old Nan said that was always your favorite thousands and thousands of years ago Brandon the Builder had raised Winterfell and some said the wall brand knew the story but it had never been his favorite many other Brandon's had like that story sometimes Nan would talk to him as if he were her Brandon the baby she had nursed all those years ago and sometimes she confused him with his uncle Brandon who was killed by The Mad ging before BR was even born she had lived so long mother had told him once that all Brandon Starks have become one person in her head as we can see from that quote old man has outlived everyone else in her life and has become almost a magical figure in the Stark household beyond the confusion about their age what all three of these characters have in common is their role in the Rel of stories as ushers into magical world the people around them scarcely believe old Nan is the character that tells us about the white walkers the children of the forest and the Deep history of the long night and although her stories are dismissed as midwives Tales just like Alice she has a shocking success rate with Legends and stories she tells actually being true much the same Melisandre tells the viewers about the magic of fire and how the future can be seen in Flames the power of blood sacrifice and the strange and Powerful magic of Shadow binding Al plays sort of a hybrid role between the two crones where she is reintroducing the world to the old gods and weiro Magic however she also s towards being like Melisandre as in Fire and Blood and Gail ranken's interview Alice Rivers can supposedly see the future and has legit magical powers while old Nan does not on House of the Dragon we have dragons obviously but she's the first entry point to that World of Magic Ranken says this person can tell the future basically ranking continues she's someone who has all this power who's been alive for potentially 400 years and from Fire and Blood she saw you in a storm cloud in a mountain pool at dusk in the fire we lit to cook our suppers she sees much and more my Alice and we've seen Alice make one prophetic statement already telling Damon that he will die in heral and she's already making that curious red drink she gives to Damon that send him on his drug trip and leaves him confused and groggy before he even walks up there's a tremendous amount of audities around Alice that do not get easier to answer the more we learn about her and most of all what is she doing at heren Hall a question that the audience and Damon share according to Alice she is the Healer of the castle playing the role of M after the last one quote unquote fled in the night and could not settle in looking at how Damon's Knights have gone so far between ending up in front of a wewood stalking New Castle chasing ghost with a sword and hallucinating during meetings you can probably see why Damon names her a witch and Alice does not disagree although she would more accurately be called a Woods witch in Westeros a witch that uses more earthy remedies that Veer more into the Supernatural and super for their craft and the maesters adherence to Scientific rigor wood witches are remain from the faith of the old Gods originally being priestesses of the Weir and serving that role still Beyond the Wall in many of the ancient stories of the age in Heroes and the first men Woods witches feature prominently as agents of the Gods and Magic often employing blood magic and necromancy for example it was a Woods witch that created house tarle by marrying both Harlin the Hunter and hearnen of the horn get it girl it was a Woods witch that revived the decapitated heads of the whisper so they could speak with sir Clarence crab it was a Woods witch that told King Jaris II that from the marriage of Prince Aries and Prince princess raella that the prince that would promise will be born to save the world from darkness that which seemed to have nailed that one whether you believe John or Dany is the prince that was promised as both are descendants of that marriage Woods witches consistently are shown to have a foot in the Supernatural and seem to use that power to drive the course of Destiny like a river at times they are more commonly seen as local healers for small towns and cements that can't acquire maer of the Citadel or don't want to they serve as healers midwives and interpreters of Fortune and the gods for those who will listen what's very unusual about Alice is that they don't tend to hang around castles especially in the South more often they stick to the wilds and woods living in Huts or Hollow trees like Maggie the Frog who told Cersei Lannister's future in the woods outside lannisport more ambitious ones end up like the green Queen of the rainwood in the stormlands fighting Shadow Wars from the woods Against The Storm Lords for decades maesters and Lords tend to fall between intolerant or dismissive of woods witches and the same is true for septons of the faith of the seven and their adherence Woods witches can often be branded as blasphemers and Servants of evil and are treated with distrust by populations who follow the seven often only consulted by the desperate or the Curious there's an air of a fouyan bargain around them that a Woods witch can help you with whatever it is you need but the cost may be more than you realize what I'm driving at here is that is unique for a castle to have a resident Woods witch and Alice's story about how there was a maester who fled in the night after never settling into the building not only is that an extremely horror movie way of describing a Maser apparently fleeing the castle in Terror there's no time noted by Alice for that event Alice just says it was the last one how many maesters have fled harrenhal how long ago was that Alice days weeks months years decades hauh Alice how long have you been there Alice's mere presence in the castle marks her as an oddity even among Woods witches and she is certainly taking the witch part seriously her witches Den has everything you could want candles that have dripped all the way to the floor bubbling cauldrons nondescript bottles herbs and ingredients strewn about a weirwood apron and a roaring fire waiting to bring people in from The Damp like fireflies to a flame which tells you something important about her and her relationship to the Lords of heren Hall she wields a lot more power and influence than meets the eye although the strongs are first men and perhaps have connections still to the old gods in the all of faces next door outwardly they still follow the seven a castle with a Woods which entrench as a maester replacement would make their neighbors look at them with extreme suspicion there's no other Lord that has that set up anywhere in modern times except one Stannis Baratheon and everyone thinks he has lost his bald mind for having Melisandre in the castle Alice walks around like she owns the place and who knows maybe she does she refuses to bend the KNE to Damon she comes and goes as she pleases we've seen no evidence that Simon strong and his three stooges order around like Lords normally do with MERS and talks to Damon like they are equals while Lis is officially the Lord and Simon the castellan it seems clear that Alice is the one who acts like this is her castle the witch queen of heren Hall her behavior and place within the castle feels very similar to how the weird Roots have found their way all throughout the halls and walls of the decrepit building always there impossible to get rid of and having a supernatural influence that few totally grasp and with that let's talk a little bit about what Alice said to Damon in this last episode about the sources of curses within heren Hall I made a video about this at the end of season one link here and in the description where I talked about this topic that the many curses of Heron Hall are largely economic and logistical in nature that it's an enormous ruin no one can manage and is giving to up jump minor Lords and knights who don't know better however at the end I did address this exact idea that there is something Supernatural about heren Hall beyond the horrors of stewardship and economics any magical curse on the building is unlikely to be a spell or a curse like you see in other fantasy stories but connected to the Weirs that were cut down and used in the construction of the building as well as the very nearby aisle of faces in the center of the God's eye Lake and as if Ryan condo watch that video Alice confirms that idea here for me cheers to Ryan and Alice thank you both very much Damon has been experiencing wild dreams and hallucinations ever since he stepped wood within the castle on his first night he hallucinated rira stitching the head of Prince Harris back before the tearful and Confused Damon awoke to find himself face to face with the one weirwood tree remaining on on the grounds and in this last episode he found himself with reira in the throne room with her accusing him of wanting her throne before he decapitates the dreamy Phantom all his regrets and actions he feels guilty about coming to life and being forced to confront them those dreams in his sleepwalking to the remaining Heart Tree can for sure be explained by the influence of the weirwoods especially since Alice tells us that Damon has been sleeping on a bed made of a weirwood heart tree this has happened before in A Song of Ice and Fire notably when Jamie Lannister falls asleep against a weirwood stump and has a very odd experience he sees the Mad King his Kings guard brothers who confront him as an oath breaker his father with a sword the scorn of his ancestors his guilt over not saving Princess Elia Martell and her family during the sack of King's Landing and oddly glimpses the others and a flaming sword with a naked Brien of Tarth hot this dream has a profound impact on Jaimie inspiring him when he wakes up to go back for Brienne at heren Hall and save her that is a key part of all this as well these dreams and spers from the heart trees aren't just Vivid nightmares meant to torture they attack the core of the person manipulate them exploit their fears their worst memories and desires it's one of the key powers of the green seers of the children of the forest attacking the minds of their foes in the night rather than on the battlefield this also happens to Bran Stark by the three-eyed Crow Brenden Rivers a bastard of House Targaryen and Blackwood in order to manipulate the boy to abandon his home in Winterfell and come north to join him under his weirwood tree Brendan often appears to Bran's dreams trying to draw him North and over time it ends up working tempting bran with Promises of being able to fly and somewhere between jimie and bran seems to be what's going on here with Damon after Damon awakes from his second dream where he fantasizes about killing rir to claim the crown a dark part of him that he truly desires what does he do he has a meeting with the young heir to the riverlands Oscar Tully and tells the boy that he should murder his beloved grandfather so that he can inherit the title and in turn give the river Lander armies to Damon why this is important that Damon has completely screwed up this meeting as the faces of Oscar and Simon strong tell the audience in order to get control of the Riverland or armies Damon needs the tules to exert control over their vassals for him instead of aegon instead he offends the Future Boy Lord and insults him for being too cowardly to murder his way to power which is exactly what the Whispers of the Weir wits just encouraged him to do a seed planted in his mind that has borne fruit in the waking world and it has butchered any chance of Damon easily getting the Army he wants and then what happens after Damon's first dream where he ends up outside his guilt and shame at reira and her scolding of him contributes to him not sending any Ravens back Dragon Stone and contemplating if he should be Prince or King there is a way back for Damon here to get over his anger at their argument and find a way back to riro with an army and mend the breach between the couple his weirwood bed and The Whispers of the old gods made sure that didn't happen and key to all this is Alice herself she appeared in the courtyard during Damon's dream walk seemingly waiting for him as he comes out of his dream Alice cryptically informs the prince that he will die in this place and then walks off leaving nothing but confusion it's this third dream of Damon where things are getting very bizarre Damon hallucinates what appears to be his nephew Aon stalking the halls of harrenhal Damon chasing after him with dark sister only to have The Apparition turn around revealed is himself in an aan Spirit Halloween costume this time instead of finding himself out in the courtyard he is right outside of Alice's witch's Den as if the hallucination was leading him right to her and wouldn't you know it Alice is working on a drink for him as he arrives as if she knew he was coming I say that's exactly what the dream was doing Alice makes small talk for a bit however blows Damon's mind and intrigues him about her is that she starts rattling off the contents of his dreams the context of the images and what they mean to Damon as well as asking the innocent questions about if he's had any odd experiences and dreams like she didn't stand in front of him in a heart tree and predict his death she reveals that she knows that Damon and re are quarreling brushing off how she knows that by saying well he hasn't sent any Ravens however there's no explanation given afterwards for how she knows exactly the relationship between himself and rira how he is considering pushing his own claim that he enjoys having his own castle how he's resentful of his niece that has overtaken him and that on some level he's trying to prove his worth and loyalty rira by delivering the Riverland she is the most well-informed Woods witch in the Seven Kingdoms apparently and an expert in the psychology of Damon's heart Garen as well as the relationship that Damon has with banira it's like she's been watching House of the dragon or more precisely she's been watching the contents of Damon's dreams and using those to understand the prince and what drives him not only knowing their contents but saying out loud the desires he's most ashamed of encouraging him to take them seriously the darkest parts of his desires set Out Loud by The Stranger summoned into the real world by Alice's voice the dreams he's having and Alice are working in concert pushing Damon and rero part while encouraging Damon to do what his most impulsive selfish and Savage side desires there's only two ways Within A Song of Ice and Fire to read the dreams of other people it's weird that there's more than one right first is glass candles a magical Shard of obsidian that when lit allows the user to spy on places and mines anywhere in the world seeing as there's no glass candles in these shots that option can be discarded the second as we discussed previously is the power of the green seers using the weirwoods her line about being an owl and form is definitely hit in that direction as well she just offhandedly mentions it it's almost framed as a dead pan joke at Damon's expense however what she just said is an extremely common sentiment among morgs and skin Changers they spend so much of their time in their animals minds and often end up preferring it to their own bodies they begin to think of themselves as those animals trapped in human form brand Stark Echoes this exact sentiment to maester Lun in a Clash of Kings and in a Game of Thrones jojan explicitly warning bran that if he spends too long in summer he will eventually lose himself and we know that while nodwell skin Changers and Wars are green seers all green seers are skin Changers the relationship between them is very similar to Dragon Riders and dragon dreamers where the dreaming parts of the animal pseudo mind control is a far rarer but a connected gift so as Alice is invading Damon's mind to learn the contents of his dreams she should also have the ability to skin change animals the show is providing us with that Ln hauling back with the owl reference to characters like bran let's talk a bit about the choice of an owl as well in Helena's prophetic drawings on her wall much like the Rat King I talked about in my previous video there's an owl as well it appears to be roosting over a giant building and a giant Beast with a crown on its head to me this seems like a dead ringer for Alice heren Hall and possibly Damon which is fascinating that Helena's Visions are going far beyond just herself and immediate surroundings examining the idea that Alice is a barnow barnow is in English Legends and literature particular cly Shakespeare's Works can be seen as a source of wisdom drawing on the example of an owl being the Greek goddess Athena's Avatar which would check out here Alis as an avatar of the weirwoods and old gods is a figure with Divine powers and wisdom there's also a far more common meaning that owls are often used as the harbingers of death and bad Omens sometimes called the funeral bird the monster of night in like Beth for instance owls are heard or spotted right before characters die or some other tragedy is about to occur similar meanings of of owls are also used in many of his plays and in folklore as soon as an owl appears or is heard in the night bad things are about to happen which makes for an interesting choice for Al rivers and fits what we've seen so far Damon's every decision and interaction with her have gone from bad to worse after meeting Alice Rivers the owl The Show Goes even further reinforcing the idea that she's a green Seer and connected to the weirwoods when Damon arrives she is preparing some kind of drink or potion one minute for Damon as we see when she hands it to him will help him make use of this place the key part about this drink is that we see on her hands and while she's making it that the substance is a deep dark red thick and curiously looks a lot like blood after drinking it Damon loses track of time and awakens groggy with the cup Stone in his hand in the heart of heral treating with Willam Blackwood the new region of his house with his brother Sam all slain in the Battle of burning Mill yes that William Blackwood he's back considering the sigil of House Blackwood is a weirwood surrounded By Ravens this means that this is the fourth out of four dreams that Damon has awoken from in front of a weirwood of some kind the first obviously the weirwood in the courtyard the second his weirwood bed and his bloody hand weirwood leaves are often described as bloody hands due to their shape and color the third Alice Rivers weirwood apron and her curiously red drink and the fourth W Blackwood with his weirwood sigil and faith in the old gods those are some very very heavy suggestions that the trees are involved with the dreams in and by extension Alice is not so secretly the green Seer making use of them to mess with Damon the reason for making it this blatant is that most of the audience will not know or remember what weirwoods can really do they're being called attention too heavily just the same as the blackwoods and brackens got in the last episode getting massive amounts of explanation the show is laying the groundwork for casual viewers to understand what's really going on combined with Alice's narration they want you to make the connection that Damon's dreams are not just kind of weird but being manipulated by Supernatural forces dream Alice weirwoods a simple formula that can be remembered easily back to that drink we've seen something like this before in the books where a character drinks a gloopy liquid with something that looks like blood in it and suddenly their mind's third eye is open and they start hallucinating and seeing wild uncontrolled images that happened again to bran star that a lot of these references are about bran makes sense as he is the most visible green sear from the show and books so they're trying to make an easy connection here after he arrives in blood r Cave In the far north and meets the children in the ancient Blackwood bastard bran is given a quote unquote weirwood seed paste to consume bran much like Damon here goes on a wild and uncontrolled barrage of visions and images his mind skips across time and space seeing images of the far past in the long dead the really curious part though is how bran describes the weirwood seed paste something about the look of it made bran feel ill the red veins were only weirwood sap he supposed but in the torch light they looked remarkably like blood he dipped his spoon into the paste and hesitated will this make me a green Seer your blood makes you a green Seer said Lord Bryan they will help you awaken your gifts and wed you to the tree it's entirely possible that Alice has done the same thing here to Damon as happens to bran and given him the weirwood pace to unlock his mind it's after he drinks it and wakes up that he begins hallucinating with his waking eyes instead of just in his dreams seeing his long dead wife as a serving girl for any of you in the know there's a popular fan Theory called Joan paste where the red substance in the past that looks like blood actually is blood specifically jojan reads his blood and body being fed to bran as many old God rituals typically involve Human Sacrifice bran even saw one in his Visions where an old God Priestess slits the throat of a man before the weirwood and bran Taste the Blood seeping into the roots which asks another intriguing question is daming being fed that maester who supposedly fled in the night perhaps Alice is recreating that scene and as a priestess of the old gods she's performing a human sacrifice for Power Man Alice is really doing a number on the Rogue Prince since his arrival heren Hall and her are Beyond his faculties driving him to Madness for those of you wondering of course this is turning into a lay strong video we're pulling the club foot into this one the line I just said is not some clever writing from me it's a line from this episode that Laris said about what Haren Hall will do to Damon Lis is well aware here that the Weir would Whispers at night and the effect they can have on people driving them to Madness he accurately predicted that Damon would be overwhelmed and taken in by the building or more precisely the woods witch that has lived inside of it for God knows how long Matthew Needum said a similar thing in an interview when asked about his character laris's relationship to harrenhal and here's what he had to say I don't think Laris is particularly warm fluffy feelings about Haron Hall I don't think it he was having many postcard moments there I think he knows the power that it has I think he knows that there's a dark magic that lives there that plays tricks on people so I think he kind of knows what Damon's in for Lis doesn't have fond feelings of her and all in the dark magic that is there and knows it can overwhelm unprepared Minds as I've alluded to he's aware of Alice what she can do and the weirwoods that whisper and infect the minds of Aon Hall's Dennison thank you again Ryan Condell for the very first confirmation in this show that Lis is aware of the supernatural world of the weirwoods and that the children of forest are real Bo it seems like we're getting closer and closer to Laris actually being a skin changer in green Seer you guys how many times did Laris strong in his youth also wake up in front of that heart treat did his wet nurse Alice offer him a similar goopy drink as Damon that opened his mind was that laris's own weirwood bed that Damon is now sleeping in it would make sense that that is laris's room the Lord's room left unoccupied and given to Damon upon his arrival it may be that Lis has also had his dreams haunted by Alice Rivers all his life or he could even be her student their tactics behaviors manipulations and what they are encouraging in the Dragon Riders are shockingly similar at court Lis is encouraging Aon to give into his every impulse while also breaking apart his relationships to those closest to him fracturing the greens it is his comment about Oto high tower being theer's hand as well as the hanging of the Rat catchers that removed OT high tower from court and King's Landing and it was also Lis who allowed aegon to get his first Blood by killing with a mace it was laris's whispers about Allison and aan seeking to ruin aon's place should he go to war that makes Aon suspicious of aan which then led to him bullying aan in the brothel which infuriates aan enough to embarrass Aon in the council and then try to kill him with dragon fire it's the same pattern we're seeing with Alice and Damon knowing way too much encouraging impulsive violent self-destructing behaviors while also breaking apart key relationships we'll have to see more of these two say for certain if they're acting in concert to manipulate the greens and the blacks or if Lis is just repeating Alice's example from his youth in herin Hall from the similarity in their tactics and if my theory is correct from season one about Lis possibly their Supernatural Powers is something highly intriguing to keep your eyes V for there's one more topic I want to discuss here and where do these powers for Alice come from and what are her real Origins the strongs are first men meaning like many other K across Westeros can sometimes have the power of skin changing however outside my theory about Lis there's not really any known history of that occurring within the house strong and Alice doesn't really look like a strong neither does Lis their family are typically like their house name bulky and strong Harwin and liony are far more in line with the other historical members like sir lucamore strong who is described as a strapping broad shouldered young blonde bull the strongs have long since been known as a House of warriors with deceptively sharp Minds underneath their muscles but then you look at Alice and Lis they're nothing like that not only that they have dark ha and features while being slight and skinny they sound to me like blackwoods consistently throughout the ages the blackwoods are described as being skinny and slight with dark hair and dark eyes and the blackwoods are also heavily implied to have connections to the weirwoods with their great weirwood and Raven tree Hall their association with Ravens and that they wear weirwood on their Crest and let us not forget their most famous magical son the previously mentioned three-eyed Crow in rivers AKA The Blood Raven who became the living Avatar of the old gods adding on to that Alice's chosen animal as an owl while it's not a raven like the blackwoods owls and Raven share reputations as birds of ill Omen and a very high intelligence laris's mother is unknown and Alice's entire past is a giant mystery it would make a lot of sense especially for Alice if one of her parents actually was a Blackwood in past videos I even noted how similar his behaviors supernaturally effec his spying and control of the Court mimic blood Raven who in his youth before becoming a tree God served as master of Whispers to the red keep Alice unambiguously fits with the other parts of blood Raven with her witchy Powers being a direct parallel to blood Raven's eventual Ascension to a green Seer if you sort of combine Alice and Lis you get blood Raven I would not be shocked to find out during House of the Dragon if one or both of Alice and Lis are actually black woods or if we're feeling very spicy maybe Lis is Alice's son wrap this all up though let's ask the big question why is Alice doing any of this what are her goals and motivations Fire and Blood is no help as the sources at the time basically said I don't know she's a witch so let's make some hypotheses with what we've seen with Damon she's encouraging him to create a third faction for his own splitting from reneer in the dance of the Dragons the obvious impact would be causing even more chaos and death particularly from Dragons imagine if instead of crais being a sight of comfort for the blacks the great red dragon being a f threat the more the dragons fight each other the higher the chance more dragons will die and that may have a few benefits to a servant of the old gods it could be sort of like the lorax The Speaker for the trees idea as the years have gone on more and more weirwoods get cut down and there's less followers of the old gods the faith of the seven had become dominant in every region in West except the North and Beyond the wall and critically in order to Curry favor with their new vassals the targaryens converted from their valan dragon God worship to the seven any sort of old gods res surgeons would need the dragons to either be removed or converted to have a shot in any kind of holy war and there's some evidence that has been a play here and in the future Westeros for instance Damon's First Alliance in the riverlands is not with the faith of the seven worshiping tulies but The Devout followers of the old gods the blackwoods the idea of the old gods versus the seven is a plotline That Game of Thrones largely Dro from The Narrative however it's much more prominent in the source books with flashing faiths and belief in the objectively real old gods become major plot points perhaps that is about to happen here with Alice pushing Damon and crais into helping the blackwoods and look at that a dragon on the side of the old gods and the first men Harwin and rira fit that mold as well with Harwin being a future Lord of heren Hall by extension the gods ey and Y of faces before his fiery end a very subtle alliance between dragon and weirwood embodied in Jace Luke and Joffrey and we also know in the future with figures like Bryan rivers chenny of oldstones Beth of Blackwood Melissa Blackwood and on a stark among others that there's a pattern of firstman houses attempting to and succeeding at a very high rate of marrying into the Targaryen family so perhaps that's one thing Alice is after even this early on stealing dragons for the old gods or causing their deaths the second possibility could be similar to the actions of Howland Reed at the great turning of heral before Robert's Rebellion after communing on the aisle of faces for months he strolls into the tney and subtly sets into motion the chain of events that lead to the downfall of the targaryan dynasty and also the eventual birth of Jon Snow by making Prince rhaegar and lyanna Stark meet each other Alice with her ability to see in the future could also be attempting to play a part in this great game of dominoes starting with Damon by getting him to break with rira to create a chain of events that lead to the birth of the prince that was promised and the defeat of the others this also happens in the future there's a Woods witch that has aspirations of creating the chosen one I already mentioned her the woods witch that accompanies Jenny of old stones to court and convinces King jarris the second to marry his son arys and daughter roela together to create the prince that was promised like some sort of tree worshipping benages which will align with a very similar character like melisandra whose entire purpose in life is finding and supporting the prince that was promised and who knows if Gail Rankin isn't just speaking out of turn about Alice River's longevity maybe that Woods Witch is Alice as well and maybe even the ghost of high heart there's an ancient Woods witch in the main of song of B and Fire books that lives among a Grove of Cho down weirwoods trading her prophetic dream in exchange for B singing of her Jenny Jenny of old stones with alas Rivers anything is on the table and that's what makes her so exciting as a character in House of the Dragon we actually get to see beyond the unreliable narration that surrounds her as the witch queen of harrenhal and see what exactly what the aloan human form is really up to whatever the truth I know I cannot wait to find out and I hope now you do too thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Joe Magician

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Keywords: Game of Thrones, a song of ice and fire, house of the dragon, HOT D, ASOIAF, house of the dragon theory, HOTD theory, ASOIAF theory, Larys Strong, House strong, Larys the Clubfoot, Joe The Magician, Larys rat, Larys skinchange rats, Larys Strong Theory, Joe the magician, Alys, Alys Rivers, Alys Daemon, Daemon Targaryen, Daemon Harrenhal, Alys Harrenal, alys rivers house of the dragon, Jojen Paste, alys rivers harrenhal, Willem Blackwood, daemon dream, Alys Rivers Owl

Id: aBCs9gd3zh0

Length: 33min 14sec (1994 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 14 2024