So, it seems "The Mad King" has finally premiered, and here are some alleged leaks regarding the events:
- Lyanna Stark is confirmed as the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
- Lyanna joins Rhaegar of her own free will. The first act ends with them having a conversation beneath the weirwood tree after she is crowned Queen of Love and Beauty.
- Elia is an active participant in Rhaegar's plans to remove Aerys from the throne; half of the ideas are hers.
- Aerys knows about Rhaegar's plans and confronts him, literally offering his neck and telling him to kill him. When Rhaegar fails to do so, Aerys mocks him and calls him a coward.
- Robert Baratheon is portrayed very sympathetically.
- Brandon and Ashara confirmed—or at the very least, strongly implied!
- Rhaegar is tormented by dragon dreams; at one point, he specifically mentions a dream about a three-headed dragon with Lyanna present. Puppets are used to show his dreams to the audience.
- Elia and Rhaegar's marriage is portrayed as cordial; he confides in her about his dragon dreams.- Elia Martell and Lyanna Stark become pen pals (exchanging letters) while Lyanna is at the Tower of Joy.
- Elia Martell is politically astute. She is unbothered by the relationship between Rhaegar and Lyanna and brings up the idea of him having two wives like Aegon I the Conqueror—one for love and one for politics.
- Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen are in love.- Lyanna is confirmed as a greenseer and communicates with Rhaegar through dreams; this is how they plan their escape. Benjen helps them.- The only explicit childbirth scene is of Ashara Dayne giving birth to a stillborn son (her child with Brandon).
- Rhaegar dies fighting Robert while experiencing prophetic visions or hallucinations
.- Rhaella prays to the gods that, instead of a heroic son, she might give birth to a vengeful daughter who will bring the dragons back to burn the kingdoms.
So, any thoughts? These are alleged leaks so far, but they’re already setting Reddit and other social media platforms ablaze.
Oh no, the official premiere will be on Saturday, August 08th. All performances of the play seen so far have been previews only.
By now, there are very conflicting reports about what happened in the play, because everyone has its own interpretation of what they saw.
If someday somehow I get to see this play with my own eyes, I will have more accurate and personal opinions about it.
But to answer this question, I mostly used the recap by user aryasmercy on X (Twitter), because it is the more complete, detailed and organized of all the recaps I read so far.
Lyanna being the Knight of the Laughing Tree is not shocking at all.
Lyanna and Rhaegar's romance just feels too easy. Lyanna willingly ran off with him because she didn't want to become some lord's wife and spend her life having his children (lol). Then there's Elia, as some political mastermind who's perfectly fine with her husband—the crown prince—having an affair, potentially fathering more children, and abandoning her and their actual kids in King's Landing at the mercy of Aerys (lol).
And, conveniently enough, Elia is in love with someone else—someone who also sleeps around—so she doesn't mind her husband shirking his responsibilities as a husband, father, and heir to the Iron Throne while he plays lovestruck mystic with a teenage girl in a remote tower.
On top of that, the entire romance is driven by the same prophecy, dreams, and magic obsession. It's all just too convenient and honestly pretty cringe at some points. Rather than making Rhaegar and Lyanna the tragic romantic figures that many expect them to be, it makes them come across as two irresponsible, reckless, self-absorbed fools.
In any case, I expect more from GRRM.
And in the end Lyanna tried so hard to ran away from getting birth some lord's child that she ended up exactly that way, and she was so embarrassed and regreatful of her actions that she made Ned to promise her he would never ever mention Jon about prophecy and his true parentage.
I read this somewhere as the exact words Lyanna told Ned, but I can't provide a source, I can't find it, sorry:
"Keep him safe. He was born of love, and my love goes with him, my heart, my life. But he can not know. Hold my secret, even from him. Tell nothing of his royal father or blood of the dragon. Speak not to him of prophecy or fate, no minstrel stories. Let him choose his own path. Promise me."
This is one sentiment I could actually see coming from George himself, a regret over becoming so obsessed with prophecy, magic, and dreams, knowing that they so often mislead people and drive them toward tragedy.
Lyanna and Rhaegar made catastrophic decisions because they placed too much faith in prophecy. Their story works more as a cautionary tale than as some grand, idealized romance.
Rhaegar is so useless that Elia is the actual politician mastermind and Lyanna is the one that ended the more obsessed with prophecy, dreams, and magic.
Aerys seems to be the best performance of the play, and makes total sense since the play is named after his character.
Oh I like the Robert Baratheon from this play very much. Someone needs to draw him wearing Lyanna's favor in one of the antlers of his helmet!!!
Brandon and Ashara also not shocking at all. This is making Ned and Ashara shippers cry so much lmao.
CATELYN STARK SUPREMACY!!!!!!!!!!
If the last thing Rhaegar saw was a dreadful black dragon with red eyes (Drogon?) approaching/looming over a pregnat Lyanna, and that's the reason he called her name in panic the second before being killed, that depicts the dragon as a threat against people he loves . . . . So let me laugh.
The Elia and Lyanna becoming pen pals while Lyanna and Rhaegar were being hippies at the Tower of Joy, is just so wrongly worded. Like please try to find and read less romanticized recaps of the play, like the one I recommended.
Lyanna being a greenseer is OK I guess, but her dream what's app with Rhaegar, "Come to me, Come to me, Come to me," sounds like a copy of Cersei's letter to Jaime. Cringe.
Apparently they cut Ashara Dayne giving birth scene.
Rhaegar dying because a dragon dream decided to appear while he was fighting Robert. . . . It's too funny. Does it seem like the prophecy wanted him dead, as if he'd already played his part and needed to die . . . . And to add insult to injury, the prophecy decided to show him that a dragon was threatening his true love and magical baby. . . . Let's laugh instead of crying.
Rhaella's curse is very in line with Game of Thrones ending:
"she looks to the sky and says that if her body is to be used as a vessel, she will lay a curse: she will not birth a savior, but a scourge. she will not birth a kingly son, but a vengeful daughter who will bring forth dragons and set the world ablaze." [from user aryasmercy on X (Twitter)]
There's a lot more to say but I limited my answer to the points you mentioned.
Just let me add what the playwright/adaptor of the play has said about his script:
"He [Duncan MacMillan, The Mad King playwright/adaptor] admitted that, despite the challenge of writing for two audiences (those familiar with the original novels and those who weren't), he had filled the work with fan service and Easter eggs for book lovers (...)"
"Fan service," huh? *SHOCKING* lmao
"one major takeaway from the pre-show talk is that the play's writer asked george why rhaegar sang the song of ice and fire at harrenhal and george replied with "I don't know because I haven't written it yet.""
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