The finale of Game of Thrones Season 6 revealed that Jon Snow is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne as the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. A new fan theory posits that his birth wasn’t just the result of a Helen of Troy-style affair between a doomed couple, but rather it was deliberately orchestrated from the start.
Howland Reed was Ned Stark’s friend, who helped him kill legendary swordsman Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy, as Bran Stark discovered through his visions in Season 6. Reed was also at the tourney where Jon’s parents met before the events of the show. Reed is still alive in the show’s current timeline, but he has yet to appear onscreen.
Because he might be the only living lord who knows the truth about Jon Snow’s parentage, Reed has a rather important place in the show’s mythology. But as this redditor suggests, he might be even more important. See, Reed is the lord of the crannogmen, who have ties to the mysterious Children of The Forest and Greenseers, which is how Bran has his visions. Both populations can be found on the Isle of Faces, where Howland Reed traveled in his youth right before he went to the tourney where Jon Snow’s parents met.
The theory posits that Howland Reed’s place in the events surrounding Jon’s birth was no accident. Rather, he was tasked with a mission to find or help facilitate the birth of the “Prince That Was Promised,” a prophetic savior who is probably Jon Snow.
The fan writes,
Howland Reed during his time on the Isle of Faces took council with the Children and Greenmen and learned of the “Wars yet to Come” and was sent on a mission to find the PTWP or to help facilitate him being conceived and born. If a Greenseer saw in to the future it is possible they knew it would need to be a child of both Fire (Rhaegar) and Ice (Lyanna) They could have interpreted this and sent Howland to make it happen. Howland was there at the tournament, he was also at the Tower of Joy and it is not a stretch to think he may have aided Lyanna and Rhaegar in their marriage which could very well have took place on the Isle of Faces.
While many fans think Varys has secretly been pulling the strings the whole time, it could very well turn out to be Howland Reed. Even more intriguingly, as a post-resurrection Jon maintains a depressed air (“I did what I thought was right and I got murdered for it”) and an aura of “nothing matters,” if his narrative has been this orchestrated, it turns out that everything matters.
Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres on July 16 on HBO.
