I love the contrast between Bran and Rhaegar, and imma run away with @poorquentyn‘s great post a lil bit, cuz it made me think of how differently Bran and Rhaegar have approached this idea of knighthood, with Bran so eager
“Bran was going to be a knight himself someday” (AGOT) // “I want to be a knight” (ACOK) // “When he’d been little, all he had ever dreamed of was being a knight.” (ASOS) // “I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered.” (ADWD)
while Rhaegar treats knighthood like just another duty, as if it’s just another item on the burdensome Checklist of the Prophesied Hero of Epic Fantasy
“As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father’s knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, ‘I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.’” (ASOS)
And throughout the books, I think GRRM is playing with this idea of knighthood: what does it mean to be a knight? A true knight? Because when men like Gregor Clegane hold a knighthood, the whole system is bankrupt and “knight” becomes nothing but an empty word, one that GRRM then spends 5 books, 5 prequels, and a companion guide trying to fill up again, to redefine, as something more than the “silken pennants waving in the wind, the gleam of sunlight on bright steel and gilded spurs”.
Because I think Bran is going to be GRRM’s masterpiece of knighthood.
Initially Bran is caught up in the empty imagery of knighthood, fixed on this idea that a knight is armor and a horse and a lance: “bright armor and streaming banners, lance and sword, a warhorse between his legs.” I think it’s as @poorquentyn says, that there is this internal struggle of the Winged Wolf vs the Stark-in-Winterfell throughout ACOK, and I think one aspect of that struggle is this choice between knight/protector/wolf vs ruler, something GRRM starts off Bran II with: “There were guests in Winterfell, visitors come for the harvest feast. This morning they would be tilting at quintains in the yard. […] Bran had never asked to be a prince. It was knighthood he had always dreamed of”.
Throughout all of his princely duties, “the distant clash of arms through the windows” calls to Bran. Knighthood is Bran’s destiny, and his narrative throughout the books is learning what knighthood is actually about, in my opinion: bravery, justice, and above all, protecting people.
“In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave.” // “I’m a prince of the north, a Stark of Winterfell, almost a man grown, I have to be as brave as Robb.”
“In the name of the Father I charge you to be just.” // When giving their oaths of fealty, the Reeds call upon Bran to deliver justice.
“In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent.” // “That it’s a fool boy who mocks a giant, and a mad world when a cripple has to defend him.”
“In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women.” I’m waiting for whatever is going to happen to Meera in TWOW, as well as whatever the rest of the vows of knighthood are.
Unlike Rhaegar, Bran isn’t just going through the motions in an effort to control and direct prophecy. Bran wants to defend people, he stands up against injustice without any prompting, he’s naturally brave, liking the scary stories best. It’s this protector/defender role – this true knighthood – that makes Bran the lynchpin of the entire story, humanity’s champion against the Others in a fight that will put the victories of Ser Barristan the Bold and Symeon Star-Eyes and Aemon the Dragonknight to shame.
“So long as there was magic, anything could happen. Ghosts could walk, trees could talk, and broken boys could grow up to be knights.”
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