#btw no i'm not naming names of that yt theory guy or the tiktokers or redditors they're not hard to google tyvm

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hello, what is goetd super race theory?

In the world of ASOIAF, the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, far to the east, is a pretty blatant expy of China. One of their myths -- and it is only their myth, nobody else's -- is the Great Empire of the Dawn, the legendary empire that preceded their own. The Yi Ti imperial dynasties are named after colors (for example, Lo Tho, Lo Duq, Lo Han, and Lo Bu were Scarlet Emperors), but their mythological ancestors were named after various gemstones. The Great Empire is pretty obviously based on the Chinese myth of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and is perfectly straightforward worldbuilding. There's some interest to current ASOIAF since the end of the Great Empire of the Dawn is connected to Yi Ti's legends of the Long Night, and since the Pearl Emperor established the Five Forts (a historical echo of the Wall and likely serving a similar purpose), but that's about all that's really relevant.

However. Because Dany's dream of her Targaryen ancestors used gemstone colors to describe their eyes, a theory has been built up that the Great Empire of the Dawn was not merely Yi Ti (Chinese) mythology, but the ancestors of Valyrians from millenia ago. According to the theory, this master race also founded House Hightower and House Dayne and thus they look Chinese no wait sorry they're all silver-gold haired and purple eyes except they're not, like you'd think if those particular traits were meant to be relevant for House Hightower they would have been mentioned once in all of ASOIAF (excluding Alerie Hightower, who's in her 40s and thus her silver hair may just be prematurely grey).

I find this theory to unfortunately echo various "master race" elements of Theosophy and Nazi race science, in addition to erasing the actual our-world cultural inspiration of the Great Empire. (This sort of thing is why an artist decided to make the Maiden-Made-of-Light, a Yi Ti goddess, a blonde white girl and based on Selene, instead of, idk, Ameratsu or Doumu.) I really truly dislike the theory and everything connected with it, and the fact that it's all built up over a misreading of one line makes it all the more frustrating to me. Like, I don't care for a particular theory Youtuber for most of his crack nonsense, among other reasons, but this one is especially bad.

Of course, the fact that House Hightower also gets hit with the Citadel-related southron ambitions theory and maester anti-magic conspiracy theory, which do have some standing, but have been blown up by paranoid ASOIAF video theorists on youtube and Tiktok to make them the eugenical secret breeders of all the noble houses and the secret reason for anything bad that ever happened to House Targaryen ever and the manipulators of all historical texts so the only true facts are the ones that put your blorbos in a good light, to the point that I've started calling this paranoia "the Protocols of the Elders of Hightower" -- anyway, the fact the Hightowers have these diametrically opposed fan theories attached to them, is something I'd find hilarious if it didn't depress me so much about fandom. 🤷‍♀️