on lyanna as her own knight
lyanna’s narrative role seems to be an interesting reimagining of the classic ‘damsel in distress’ and ‘princess trapped in the tower’ tropes. these are fantasy staples, but ones considered fairly problematic by modern audiences for obvious reasons. george’s use of these tropes isn’t straightforward—he’s reconstructing them through a myriad of perspectives with lyanna at the center.
we were introduced to lyanna through two very different lenses: daenerys targaryen’s and robert baratheon’s. both had their own versions of the rebellion, but each reflected the same glaring flaw: lyanna was reduced to either a victim (in robert’s version) or a love interest (in dany’s). her own perspective was never truly considered by either of them.
robert’s version was slowly deconstructed: ‘you never knew lyanna as i did, robert … you saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath.’ this line painted robert’s version of events as extremely unreliable, and hammered home the earlier hints that robert was not to be trusted on this subject. and through lyanna’s mini-me—arya stark—and ned’s own reflections, we get a more vivid picture: lyanna was intelligent, willful, and opinionated, and most importantly, someone who was not happy with the role others had chosen for her. she did not want to be robert’s bride.
dany started from a different angle, but her understanding of rhaegar (and by extension, lyanna) was previously limited. though now her view of rhaegar is slowly being reconstructed as she learns more about him, and with it comes a growing awareness of her idolized brothers faults. her questions—especially the ones about elia—signal the slow reconstruction of rhaegar as a much more human hero, flawed but still good.
so while both robert and dany started off with and introduced readers to faulty tales, each of their versions have already been challenged. the key difference? dany wants to know the truth. robert was not interested in seeing his fantasy corrected—he needed it to be true.
but even after those versions evolved, the missing piece is still lyanna herself. she was reduced to a symbol in both narratives—robert’s lost love, rhaegar’s northern girl. ned’s pov challenged robert’s version and offered glimpses of who lyanna really was, but ned died before the full truth could be told. (if only he had made it to the wall to speak with jon…)
and since dany’s focus is on her brother rhaegar (understandably so), it’s left to other povs to bring lyanna’s side into focus. enter bran, and the tale of the knight of the laughing tree—the point where the deconstruction of the damsel in distress and princess in the tower tropes truly began in earnest.
i fully believe in the lyanna = the knight of the laughing tree theory, especially since it is consistent with the version of lyanna ned introduced to us. this theory helps to reframe lyanna as her own knight, and possibly her own savior. it also explains why the text keeps reminding us that lyanna was a skilled horsewoman. on that note, does anyone honestly believe lyanna would get caught by rhaegar and his kingsguard while she was on horseback… if so then pls bsffr lol.
in meera’s tale, the knight of the laughing tree is the story’s hero. bran—lover of underdogs—enjoyed the tale and asked: ‘did the knight of the laughing tree win the tourney and marry a princess?’ he was told no. that led to bran having some mild critiques of the story—a little boys disappointment at the injustice of it all—and meera’s response to that hinted at the sad ending of the next installment of the tale of the knight of the laughing tree :(
but this image of lyanna as her own knight, of the hint that rhaegar was her prince(ss)… well, besides inverting gendered fairytale dynamics, this becomes central to george’s clear and deliberate reworking of traditional fantasy tropes. the classic tale is: a dragon kidnaps a maiden, locks her in a tower, and a knight comes to slay the dragon and save her. but here? lyanna was the knight. she found her own way out of an unwanted marriage and may have even found love along the way—doomed as it was.
and personally? i’m simply not interested in interpreting this as a subversion of a subversion—because then we’re right back where we started: lyanna as a damsel who needed to be saved by men from the evil dragon. and that’s boring. when we consider key moments—like rhaegar’s final word being lyanna’s name, or the symbolic weight of the winter rose—it all points to the same conclusion: rhaelya was a tragic romance.
and continuing with the subversion—it’s much more interesting to imagine the tower not as a prison, but as a place of joy. a fleeting joy, eventually destroyed. ned tearing the tower down becomes deeply poetic. but that joy? it lives on in jon—rhaelya’s bastard son. honestly, it’s almost too on the nose that another highborn bastard is named ‘joy.’
so to me, this is the story of a girl who became her own knight, chose her own fate, and paid the price for a freedom the world refused to give her.
