0:03 young Griff fagon aegon I 6 he goes by
0:06 many names but whoever he is he is a
0:07 very important character in the books of
0:09 A Song of Ice and Fire launching an
0:12 invasion of Westeros no less but who is
0:15 he really hi everyone this is Robert
0:18 welcome to indeep geek here we cover the
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0:29 welcome arguably the most significant
0:31 character in A Song of Ice and Fire
0:33 missing from the TV show was a young man
0:36 called young Griff he is significant
0:38 because he claims to be Aon targarian
0:41 the eldest son of rhaegar Targaryen and
0:43 therefore the rightful Targaryen heir to
0:45 the Seven Kingdoms he has amassed an
0:48 invasion Force before Daenerys has
0:50 powerful allies has landed in Westeros
0:52 and is actually probably just a few
0:54 weeks away from being able to launch an
0:57 attack on King's Landing so is he who he
1:00 claims to be let's start with what we
1:02 know about him for sure we first
1:04 encounter him when Tyrion meets him in A
1:07 Dance with Dragons Tyrion has escaped
1:08 King's Landing and is hiding out at
1:11 ayoma Pat's mans in pentos it's fair to
1:13 say that his mind is mostly occupied by
1:16 the next jug of wine and ruminating over
1:18 his father's dying words but his
1:20 interest is piqued by the chance to join
1:21 a group of Travelers heading down the
1:24 river roin to valantis with a view to
1:26 eventually meeting daer Targaryen and
1:29 Her Dragons but he soon realizes that
1:31 his travel companions are just as
1:33 intriguing in particular he concludes
1:36 that Griff the leader of the group is an
1:38 identity taken on by John connington a
1:40 former hand of the king and close
1:42 companion of rhaegar Targaryen after his
1:43 rumored death from
1:46 alcoholism when you add in the other odd
1:48 characters on the boat hen half maer
1:51 SEPTA LaMore and so on it's quite the
1:53 mystery for Tyrion to solve and working
1:55 it all out seems to invigorate him a bit
1:58 but back to Young Griff this is how we
2:01 first see him Tyrion craned his head to
2:03 one side and saw a boy standing on the
2:06 roof of a low wooden building waving a
2:09 wide brimmed Straw Hat he was a lie and
2:11 well-made youth with a lanky build and a
2:13 shock of dark blue hair the dwarf put
2:17 his age at 15 16 or near enough to make no
2:18 no
2:20 matter the wide brimmed Straw Hat
2:22 immediately takes fans back to egg from
2:24 The Duncan egg stories who similarly
2:26 wore a hat like that so perhaps George
2:28 Aram Martin is immediately trying to
2:31 make us think of a young Arian traveling
2:33 the land in Disguise an image will come
2:36 back to it takes Tyrion only until they
2:38 are passing through the Sorrows to see
2:42 that this is ostensibly at least Aon son
2:44 of rhaegar Targaryen although of course
2:46 everyone knew that aegon had been
2:48 brutally murdered at the end of Robert's
2:51 Rebellion by the mountain we read this
2:55 the lad flushed that was not me I told
2:57 you that was some Tanner's son from
2:58 pisswater Bend whose mother died
3:00 birthing him his his father sold him to
3:03 Lord Varys for a jug of aror gold he had
3:06 other Sons but he had never tasted aror
3:09 gold Varys gave the pisswater boy to my
3:13 lady mother and carried me away so
3:15 that's the story we have young Griff is
3:18 rhaegar's eldest son aegon secretly and
3:20 dramatically saved by Varys from the
3:22 sack of King's Landing years earlier at
3:24 the end of Robert's Rebellion since then
3:26 it seems he has been raised under cover
3:28 in OS by John connington and with the
3:31 support ofia mopatis the ridiculously
3:34 Rich Magister who protected viseris and
3:37 Daenerys Taren for a while and varis who
3:39 has retained his place as spy master in
3:41 King's Landing but not given up on the
3:43 dream of there being a better King out
3:46 there than either ays or Robert
3:48 barathan we are told that Varys arranged
3:50 for him to be raised not in riches and
3:53 privilege but in learning what a ruler
3:55 really needs to learn in varys's mind at
3:58 least this is what he says when he's
4:00 about to kill Kevin Lannister so with no
4:03 obvious reason to lie aegon has been
4:05 shaped for rule since before he could
4:08 walk he has been trained in arms as
4:10 befits a KN to be but that was not the
4:13 end of his education he reads and writes
4:15 he speaks several tongues he has studied
4:18 history and lore and poetry a scepter
4:20 has instructed him in the mysteries of
4:22 the faith since he was old enough to
4:24 understand them he has lived with Fisher
4:27 folk worked with his hands swam in
4:29 rivers and mended Nets and learned to
4:32 wash his own clothes at need he can fish
4:34 and cook and bind up a wound he knows
4:37 what it is to be hungry to be hunted to
4:40 be afraid tommen has been taught that
4:43 kingship is his right aegon knows that
4:45 kingship is his duty that a king must
4:47 put his people first and live and rule
4:51 for them which sounds fantastic and to
4:52 be fair although we haven't seen huge
4:54 amounts of him yet he does seem to be
4:56 quite well adjusted certainly better
4:59 King material than many others and we
5:02 have that egg imagery again Egon I who
5:03 had his apprenticeship out on the
5:05 highways and byways of the Seven
5:08 Kingdoms rather than at court as king he
5:10 then spent a lot of his time radically
5:12 trying to improve the rights and
5:13 protections of the small folk of the
5:15 land at the expense of the lordly
5:17 classes a cause seemingly close to
5:21 varys's heart so it has to be said young
5:23 Griff as we'll call him from now on just
5:25 to ease any confusion seems to have been
5:28 raised to be a good King not an entitled
5:30 one a king who would care about the
5:32 poorest and most vulnerable under his
5:35 care whatever the political minations
5:37 going on around him young Griff would
5:40 probably be a good king or try to be
5:43 whether he is who he claims to be or not
5:45 and whether he succeeds or not I don't
5:47 think georgea Martin wants us to forget
5:49 this he just doesn't think that being
5:51 good is necessarily enough in a gray
5:54 power hungry World okay so that said
5:56 let's put morality and idealized
5:58 kingship to one side for a moment and
6:00 try to work out whether young Griff
6:02 really is who he is supposed to be Aon I
6:06 6 well he himself certainly seems to
6:08 think so there is no hint in the text
6:10 that he believes he has two layers of
6:13 secret identity going on and Griff John
6:15 connington similarly also seems to
6:17 believe it we have chapters from his POV
6:19 and he thinks a couple of times about
6:21 putting rhaegar's son upon the iron
6:24 throne and although his hair is died
6:26 blue for most of the time we see him his
6:28 eyes definitely are
6:30 purple on the other side of the narrow
6:32 sea on hearing that someone had landed
6:34 in the stormlands with an army claiming
6:36 to be Aon I 6 Kevin Lannister who had
6:38 witnessed the presentation of baby
6:40 aegon's body to the new King Robert
6:43 years earlier recalls that the girl had
6:45 been recognizably the princess reice but
6:49 the boy a faceless horror of bone and
6:51 brain and Gore with a few Hanks of fine
6:54 hair none of us looked long Tywin said
6:56 that it was Prince Aon and we took him
6:59 at his word so there is a death inite
7:01 lack of concrete evidence that this
7:04 isn't Aon I 6 in fact the only person
7:06 who could probably provide to that is
7:08 varis who allegedly did the baby Swap
7:11 and as we've already noted he told us
7:13 soon to be dead man that this definitely
7:16 was Aon I 6 Baris also undoubtedly was
7:17 one of the few people who could have
7:19 pulled off such a switch without anyone
7:21 knowing he has the skills contacts and
7:23 access to secret passages in the red
7:26 keep that others simply don't all of
7:29 which is quite convincing so why do so
7:30 many people people in the fandom believe
7:33 that all is not as it seems firstly the
7:37 baby swap plan only really works well in
7:39 retrospect varis may have been able to
7:41 swap out baby aegon before the attack
7:43 knowing he would likely be killed by the
7:45 Lannisters but how was he to know that
7:47 aon's body would be unrecognizable
7:50 afterwards and his sister re's would
7:52 still be clearly identifiable was it
7:54 just a lucky guess surely a more
7:56 straightforward answer is that Varys
7:58 instead later used the fact that aegon's
8:01 body was recognizable to come up with a
8:03 believable backstory for the person he
8:06 wanted on the throne but the big problem
8:09 here is one of motivations Varys has no
8:11 particular loyalty to the targaryens
8:13 that we know of still less to rhaegar
8:15 whose apparent C attempt against Aries
8:18 II at the attorney at Haren Hall Baris
8:21 Scupper so why go to so much trouble to
8:23 save rhaegar's son yio is the one who
8:26 bankrolled all this but similarly why is
8:28 he so willing to throw his weight and
8:30 money behind the plot Tyrion asks him
8:33 this to his face and when AO claims he
8:34 has been promised a castle and the
8:37 position of Master of coin Tyrion simply
8:40 doesn't believe him liar thought Tyrion
8:42 there is something in this Venture worth
8:44 more to you than coin or
8:47 castles AIO goes on to say that it is
8:50 also about a debt of affection to Varys
8:52 which sounds closer to the truth but
8:55 brings us back to varys's motivations in
8:57 fact varis seems less concerned about
8:59 the surname of the ruler than their
9:01 their character which is laudable even
9:02 if we don't always agree with his
9:06 methods varis serves the realm or so he
9:08 tells Ned Stark not any particular
9:11 family so he's not a targaryan
9:13 exceptionalist in any way he didn't even
9:15 come from Westeros and having come from
9:17 the gutters himself cares for the small
9:18 folk a lot more than the rich and
9:21 privileged he saw firsthand how Aries
9:23 and then Robert then Joffrey all ruled
9:26 poorly in their own ways it's not a
9:28 giant leap of logic to suggest that the
9:30 idea of creat beating a perfect ruler
9:32 will have appealed to him and he won't
9:35 have cared who the child was what would
9:37 have mattered to him is that the people
9:39 believe that young Griff was aegon
9:41 Targaryen and welcomed his claim to the
9:43 throne not whether he actually was who
9:46 he claimed to be or even who he thought
9:49 he was he didn't need Aon Targaryen
9:51 grandson of the Mad King and Son of the
9:53 man so consumed with prophecy that his
9:54 pursuit of it threw the kingdom into a
9:57 Savage Civil War he just needed someone
9:59 who looked like they might be Aon
10:02 Targaryen The question is where might he
10:04 find someone who looks like a Targaryen
10:06 on the evidence we have from Fire and
10:09 Blood and House of the dragon all over
10:11 the place for example targaryan bastards
10:13 and their descendants in King's Landing
10:14 and Dragonstone and those of Valyrian
10:17 descent in valantis lease and elsewhere
10:19 in the free cities and there is of
10:21 course an offshoot of the targaryan
10:23 family in esos that everyone thinks has
10:27 died out the blackfires there's a whole
10:28 history here to house Blackfire that
10:30 I'll say for another another video but
10:32 the short version is that they descend
10:34 from Damon Blackfire a bastard son of
10:37 King aegon IV who thought he had a
10:39 rightful claim to the iron throne but
10:41 despite several rebellions and Invasion
10:43 attempts over the years he and his
10:45 descendants and supporters were exiled
10:48 to OS we're told that the last of the
10:50 Blackfire Pretenders was killed in the
10:52 war of the nine peny Kings some 40 or so
10:55 years ago might Varys have picked one of
10:57 them and just pretended from an early
10:59 age that this was aegon Targaryen it's
11:02 definitely possible so all of that works
11:04 well with varys's motivations and
11:06 there's no doubt that he is capable of
11:08 such underhand and subtle tactics but
11:12 where is the evidence to support this
11:13 most people start with an intriguing
11:16 conversation between Tyrion and AO in A
11:19 Dance with Dragons Tyrion wants to know
11:21 why the golden company more on them in a
11:23 moment would support putting a targaryan
11:25 on the throne young Griff when their
11:28 entire history was to support blackfires
11:30 against targaryens
11:32 yio brushed away the objection as if it
11:35 were a fly black or red a dragon is
11:37 still a dragon when may least the
11:40 Monstrous died upon the stepstones it
11:42 was the end of the male line of house
11:45 Blackfire the cheesemonger smiled
11:47 through his forked
11:49 beard clear implication is that the
11:52 female line of blackfires is still going
11:54 strong in other words that the last or
11:56 one of the last Blackfire Pretenders
11:58 might not have had any sons but they did
12:01 have a daughter who in turn may have had
12:03 Sons why would that matter if it weren't
12:05 important for the golden company support
12:08 for young Griff If This Were Generations
12:09 ago then perhaps the genetics would have
12:12 been so diluted as to not matter but 40
12:14 years which is when the last Blackfire
12:17 Pretender was killed it isn't that long
12:20 ago it's in living memory in fact the
12:21 person who killed that last Blackfire
12:24 Pretender was barrist and SEL me who was
12:26 still very much alive in the books so
12:29 there is or was probably a woman with
12:31 Valyrian Heritage and looks and an
12:33 ancestral claim to the Iron Throne
12:35 through house Blackfire alive at around
12:37 the time to make her a contemporary of
12:39 varis and delirio in the free cities and
12:41 if she had a son they would indeed be
12:44 about young Griff's age again this makes
12:46 it all possible but it isn't really
12:49 evidence let's hold that thought for a
12:51 moment though because although it's
12:52 interesting from a historical
12:54 perspective we know George ARA Martin
12:56 always lays the groundwork for these
12:58 kinds of Revelations if young Griff
13:00 really is a black in Disguise there will
13:03 be hints throughout the books and there
13:06 are Geor Martin spends a lot of time
13:08 talking about the blackfires way more
13:09 than he needs to if they were just a
13:11 random offshoot of the targaryens who
13:14 tried and failed to win the throne we're
13:16 told of five different Invasion attempts
13:19 not just as dry historical facts but how
13:21 they impacted on characters in the story
13:23 that we know the Rivalry between Damon
13:25 Blackfire the first Pretender and blood
13:28 Raven we see the second attempted
13:29 rebellion in which a black Blackfire
13:31 Pretender comes to westros in Disguise
13:33 firsthand in the Duncan egg Story the
13:36 mystery night the third Rebellion again
13:38 saw blood Raven directly involved the
13:40 fourth had dunk leading the charge the
13:42 fifth the war of the nine peny Kings was
13:44 the one we've already mentioned with
13:46 barrist and seli not only that but
13:48 Blackfire history leaves some pretty
13:51 important threads just lying around the
13:53 golden company for example a name
13:55 checked dozens of times in the books and
13:57 we're told repeatedly about how they
13:59 aren't just a cell sword company they
14:01 are the descendants of Blackfire
14:04 supporters exiled in OS and waiting to
14:07 return and the sword Blackfire is
14:09 missing the great ancestral sword of
14:11 Targaryen kings that was given to Damon
14:14 Blackfire last seen in the possession of
14:16 aore rivers Damon blackfire's biggest
14:18 supporter and the founder of the golden
14:21 company I'll do a whole other video very
14:23 soon about where that sword is now so
14:25 keep an eye out for that but these are
14:28 not just small Clues George Aram Martin
14:30 is telling us repeat ly how important
14:32 the blackfires are to this story so the
14:34 blackfires are going to be important in
14:36 the rest of the story there's probably
14:38 at least one Blackfire descendant out
14:40 there somewhere we have a young man with
14:41 Valyrian features now claiming to be a
14:44 Targaryen Heir and the golden company
14:46 that bunch of Blackfire loyalists are
14:49 mysteriously supporting him which is
14:51 already painting quite a clear picture
14:53 what we don't have yet is why varis and
14:57 AO might be behind such a plot well you
14:59 will find plenty of theories out there
15:00 there connecting Varys to the black
15:03 fires perhaps he is secretly won himself
15:04 hence him keeping his head shaved like
15:07 an egg or perhaps he is secretly not a
15:10 unic but a woman and so on but as fun as
15:12 they all are none have huge amounts of
15:14 supporting evidence for me the link is
15:18 instead probably through yio yio is a
15:21 fascinating character like varis who he
15:23 became friends with at a young age he
15:24 worked his way up from the streets until
15:27 he reached a position of power in pentos
15:29 he was once married seemingly for
15:31 political gain to the prince of pentos
15:34 his cousin but then fell deeply in love
15:37 with a woman called Sarah Sarah was
15:39 everything to him the scandal of him and
15:42 Sarah led to the Palace of pentos being
15:44 closed to ayia but he didn't mind
15:48 because he had found love but then Sarah
15:51 died of the gray plague this hit Lio
15:53 hard he still carries around picture of
15:56 her in a locket and so he says keeps her
15:59 stone hands in his bedroom he wears
16:01 solemn Oaths in her name from the
16:03 picture in the locket we learn that
16:05 Sarah had bright blue eyes and silver
16:08 blonde hair classic Valyrian looks just
16:10 like young Griff has and although we see
16:13 Sarah written in the text spelt as Sarah
16:16 s e r r a that's from tyrion's
16:19 perspective what he thinks and hears but
16:21 Ayo has a thick accent could it actually
16:26 be Sarah or SRA a very targaryan name it
16:28 wouldn't be the first time that Georgia
16:29 ra Martin has made use use of the POV
16:32 mechanism to hide clues in the text
16:34 could this woman with Valyrian features
16:36 and a Valyrian sounding name be of
16:39 Valyrian descent maybe even Blackfire
16:42 descent which would explain how he and
16:44 apparently only he knows that the
16:46 Blackfire line had continued through the
16:49 female line the hints then follow that
16:52 she and alyo had a child Georg ARA
16:53 Martin makes a point of showing us that
16:56 Ayo had rather curiously kept a chest
16:59 full of clothes for a young boy but but
17:02 Sarah tragically died let's follow the
17:05 logic a plot was hatched between vanis
17:07 and Lio to get aio's son onto the Iron
17:09 Throne to honor the Beloved Sarah's
17:11 family line and perhaps even her
17:13 explicit dying wishes it would be a
17:15 powerful contrast to lean's dying wishes
17:18 for John varis by this point had moved
17:20 over to King's Landing and was acting as
17:22 spy Master for Aris II then Robert
17:24 barathan neither of whom were exactly
17:27 model rulers young Griff would be tuted
17:29 and trained to be the per perf King
17:31 Varys would then have a ruler who cared
17:33 for the realm and yo would have his and
17:36 Sarah's son on the throne yo himself
17:38 admitted that his motivation in all this
17:41 was not money or power but a debt of
17:43 affection everyone would get what they
17:46 wanted in order to get the support they
17:48 needed they couldn't just admit that
17:50 young Griff was a Blackfire though the
17:52 blackfires had tried five times to claim
17:55 the throne it had never worked so
17:58 instead he would claim to be aegon v 6
18:00 the true Target Arian Heir and when the
18:02 time was right varis would eventually
18:04 Start Spreading the rumor that he had
18:06 saved the babe from Gregor Cain and so
18:09 on a Blackfire with a black dragon sigil
18:11 would be pretending to be a Targaryen
18:14 with their red dragon sigil as AO says
18:17 pointedly to Tyrion black or red a
18:19 dragon is still a
18:22 dragon and this is where the golden
18:24 company comes in the golden company
18:26 remember are effectively the blackfire's
18:29 standing army established by aor river
18:30 and used to spearhead most of the
18:32 Blackfire rebellions of course they
18:34 would support a secret Blackfire
18:37 Invasion but just as importantly they
18:39 have a reputation for never breaking a
18:42 contract a perfect reputation until they
18:46 break one to come and support this cause
18:47 when Tyrion asks why on Earth they would
18:50 ruin their reputation iio simply says
18:53 that some contracts are written in ink
18:56 and some in blood in other words they
18:58 are honoring their ancestral blood vow
19:01 to to support the blackfires there is no
19:03 other reason for them to do it and there
19:05 are more hints elsewhere that aegon may
19:07 be a false Dragon one of the Visions
19:09 Daenerys has In The House of the undying
19:12 is of a cloth Dragon swaying on poles
19:14 cheered by a crowd which seems to be one
19:17 of the lies she must slay and Quai also
19:20 warns her to beware the M's Dragon the
19:22 imagery both times seems to be clear
19:24 this is a pretend Dragon not a real
19:27 Targaryen and it is Danny's role somehow
19:29 to expose it
19:31 it all adds up explaining everything
19:34 from ayio and varys's motivations the
19:36 golden company's actions and even some
19:38 of Danny's Visions to why George AR
19:40 Martin tells us so much about the
19:42 blackfires in the main story There Is No
19:45 Smoking Gun here no one 100% conclusive
19:48 bit of evidence that this is true but we
19:50 shouldn't expect one yet because George
19:52 ARA Martin is obviously wanting to do a
19:55 big reveal later in the story and as for
19:56 Varys having no reason to tell the dying
19:59 Kevin Lannister A Lie I actually don't
20:01 think there's a contradiction here young
20:03 Griff has started his invasion by this
20:05 point so Varys actually wants the rumor
20:07 that baby aegon was safe from Death all
20:09 those years ago to start spreading and
20:12 if Kevin is mortally wounded there are
20:13 others there his little birds the
20:15 children who work for him and Varys is
20:18 too clever to trust anyone 100% even
20:20 them and he certainly doesn't owe Kevin
20:22 Lannister honesty when he's about to
20:24 kill him him asserting that young Griff
20:27 really is aegon is exactly what we would
20:30 expect finally let's look at what this
20:32 all means for the plot young Griff
20:35 saying he is Aon v 6 immediately sets up
20:37 a good old-fashioned Targaryen
20:39 succession crisis he certainly thinks
20:41 that he is ahead of Daenerys in the line
20:43 of succession and would think the same
20:45 about John if he ever learned of him but
20:47 it's hard to imagine Daenerys standing
20:49 meekly aside for him and your guess is
20:51 as good as mine as to how she would
20:53 react to a marriage proposal of course
20:55 Daenerys Sweeping in to claim her crown
20:58 unopposed just isn't how targaryan
21:00 success has ever worked Fire and Blood
21:02 shows time and again how there is a
21:05 targaryan succession crisis in almost
21:08 every generation this generation won't
21:11 be any different and in this context it
21:13 perhaps ultimately doesn't matter for
21:15 the plot whether young Griff really is
21:18 Aon I 6 or is a Blackfire or just some
21:19 random silverhead youth picked out by
21:23 varis and alio he believes he is and
21:25 people around him believe he is and his
21:28 list of allies is growing swiftly as
21:31 Maris comments elsewhere power resides
21:34 where men believe it resides no more and
21:38 no less but what do you think do you
21:41 agree with the Blackfire Theory or hold
21:43 that young Griff really is Aon I 6 or
21:45 something else let me know in the
21:47 comments below if you'd like to see more
21:49 videos diving deep into the lore of A
21:51 Song of Ice and Fire there's a playlist
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22:01 that's all for this time thanks for
