Tiny if you do a cartwheel you can hear it rattle around your skull like a marble brain: Mance Rayder is literally Rhaegar Targaryen
Functionally literate mind: As a bard in red and black silk who takes a father figure role towards Jon, it’s clear that Mance is a parallel to Rhaegar Targaryen. His story about them being kin through Bael the Bard, a wildling who steals away a Stark daughter with his music and had a secret child with her whose obliviousness about his heritage was his undoing, is obvious foreshadowing.
Cutting-edge knife-shaped smart brain: while Mance does exist to foreshadow Jon being a Targaryen, the real significance of his character as a parallel to Jon is about self-actualization. He turns his cloak by making his own. Jusy like Jon, at the end of the day, despite taking oaths and despite everyone telling him who he is, he cannot be anyone but himself. He must go home. This might foreshadow Jon finding out he is a Targaryen, but also provides some pretty clear evidence that’s not going to be deterministic of who he is. He’s going to forge his own path, likely with the wildlings, likely becoming king beyond the wall, a role he already takes on implicitly in adwd.
Brain so huge your thematic understanding literally eclipses your ability to accurately and rationally predict the plot: Jon Snow being a Targaryen is a Bael the Bard reference and not the other way around.
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
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