I odor a rat.
Up to now, magic on “Home of the Dragon” has been low-level — goals, prophecies — even supposing the story is happening throughout Peak Dragon. May or not it’s that larger magic is going on behind the scenes, behind picket eyes and twitchy noses? “Home of the Dragon” has been slightly heavy-handed with its imagery of the weirwood tree within the Purple Hold godswood (regardless of the truth that most individuals gathering there don’t imagine within the outdated gods). There’s additionally a recurring motif of rats scurrying across the edges of the story. They infest bedrooms, ballrooms, and secret passages, and in keeping with some theories, may very well be nonhuman brokers of Larys Sturdy. What if he’s gathering info by greenseeing (trying by the bushes’ carved faces) and warging (taking up the our bodies of animals)?
It’s not as a lot of a stretch because it sounds. Larys grew up in Harrenhal, which is on the north shore of a big lake referred to as the God’s Eye. In the course of this lake is mystical place referred to as the Isle of Faces, one of many final refuges of the Youngsters of the Forest. And in “Hearth & Blood,” Larys can also be related to Alys Rivers, a proto-Melisandre witchy lady of indeterminate age who claims to see visions in fires. (She was both his moist nurse or his half-sister, presumably each.) If Larys is an adherent of a magical faith, he may also observe blood magic — blood oaths, blood sacrifice — handy justifications for his bloodletting.
A cursed citadel
Horrible issues are identified to occur to lords of Harrenhal, a bunch that in “Thrones” included Janos Slynt and Littlefinger. Individuals in Westeros usually attribute these misfortunes to a longstanding curse, courting again to Aegon’s Conquest. King Harren the Black wished to have the very best corridor and the tallest towers in all of Westeros, and his obsession resulted within the deaths of hundreds of enslaved employees. On the very day that this nice labor was accomplished, Aegon started his conquest. His dragon, Balerion the Black Dread, quickly lowered Harrenhal to cinders.
In “Hearth & Blood,” the reason for this second conflagration is rarely decided, though the histories level to a number of potential culprits, most with motives to eradicate Harwin Sturdy and forestall him from revealing the illegitimacy of Rhaenyra’s kids. Now, Larys not directly gives this safety for the Targaryens and Velaryons whereas concurrently giving credit score (and blame) to the Hightowers — however why? Is he enjoying all sides towards one another, as Littlefinger as soon as did? Is there nobody he received’t sacrifice?
Larys believes that love is a weak point, and that life is best unencumbered by it. It is a philosophy that would appear to make sure dynastic extinction. Certain sufficient, by the point “Sport of Thrones” begins, Harrenhal is held by Home Whent, and Home Sturdy is not any extra.