#this is now THE piece I associate with post-doom valyria

[voluptuarian]

Genuinely one of the most sinister pieces of music I've ever heard in my life; nothing good could be happening to this.

[mneiai]

Ridiculous ASOIAF theory: D+J=E

I wrote this for r/pureasoiaf but figured I’d post it here, too lol

Months ago I had been talking to someone on the sub about how obviously anyone could be a hidden Targaryen, including Euron. Then at 4am when I couldn't get to sleep one night wrote up most of this. Again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I wrote this at 4am.

This theory explores Prince Duncan Targaryen (the Prince of Dragonflies) and Jenny of Oldstones as the parents of Euron Greyjoy. Or D + J = E.

How:

Prince  Duncan died at the Tragedy at Summerhaul and Jenny's fate is unknown, though it is implied she died. The event at Summerhaul was meant to bring dragons back into the world and at least two Targaryens died, if not many more.

"...the king summoned many of those closest to him to Summerhaull....It is unfortunate that the tragedy that transpired at Summerhaul left very few witnesses alive, and those who survived would not speak of it." (AWOIAF)

The  woods witch, who likely was a Child of the Forest or a close descendant of them, saw Jenny as her friend, perhaps one of her only friends.

"A woods witch?" Dany was astonished. “She  came to court with Jenny of Oldstones. A stunted thing, grotesque to look upon. A dwarf, most people said, though dear to Lady Jenny, who always claimed that she was one of the children of the forest.” (ADWD)

Knowing that Summerhaul would end in the death of Prince Duncan, the woods witch used the great magical energy of the event and the sacrifice of not just people with king's blood, but a king himself, to try to save Prince Duncan for Jenny.

However, as magic is unpredictable and weaker at the time, and hers (the magic of the Children) may be at odds with the Valyrian magic that Aegon V was attempting, instead of saving Prince Duncan and Jenny, she saved a piece of both Prince Duncan and Jenny--their unborn child.

Euron  was most likely born and/or "conceived" on Pyke, a place that is so old  no one knows who originally built it (AWOIAF) and is the location of the Seastone Chair, a throne of unknown origins made out of a mysterious oily black stone. There is magic in Pyke, magic perhaps powerful enough and unused enough to be tapped into.

As the magic of Valyria and the Children mixed, it needed an outlet, somewhere where both could exist simultaneously--such as where fire and ice can be tempered by  water.

Euron Targaryen:

Age: Euron was born sometime between 256 and 268. The Tragedy at Summerhaul was in 259.

While  we don't know Jenny's age, Duncan would have been in his late 30s and since there is no mention of her being excessively old and given the very young age of marriage for girls in Westeros, Jenny was almost certainly younger than that. Which means they were both likely capable of having children.

Appearance: Euron is referred to as pale and handsome, with dark hair.

In the official artwork of Prince Duncan, he is depicted as having inherited his mother's darker hair. And Targaryens are often considered good looking (a whole string of descriptions going back to Aegon I has them ranging from handsome to otherworldly beauties) and are associated with paler skin (a typical Valyrian feature found in Targaryens and   Velaryons).

We are never told the skin tones of the other Greyjoy brothers, which implies that Euron’s skin tone in particular has  some significance. We are also shown that almost all Greyjoys except Euron have two black eyes.

Euron also notably has one blue eye and an eye covered by a patch said to be black--Shiera Seastar, a Targaryen bastard, whose name itself means “Star of the Sea,” is one of the most famous figures in Westeros to have heterochromia, or two  different colored eyes.

Tyrion Lannister, another infamous “Hidden Targaryen,” whether from A+J or from D+D, is the other.

Personality and Interests:

Many of the people who know Euron consider him strange and mad (in basically every book he's mentioned in)--Jenny of Oldstones was considered both "strange" and called "half-mad" by the locals who knew her (AWOIAF).

She  was suspected of being a witch, put a great deal of emphasis on her First Men blood, and was good friends with that prophecy-making woods witch who became the Ghost of High Heart.

Euron dabbles in magic and is especially interested in clairvoyance, as he has consumed enough shade of the evening to stain his lips blue, a feature  found in warlocks.

Aeron and Victarion think that the blood of their parents "went bad" in Euron...but what if, in truth, he had none  of their blood at all?

"In him our father’s blood went bad.” “Our mother’s blood as well.” (AFFC)

Euron has many personality traits in common with notable Targaryens. Like   many of them, including Jaehaerys I, he believes himself to be more godlike than other men. He also is obsessed with conquering Westeros, as Aegon I and his sisters were. (AFFC)

"We are the ironborn, and once we were conquerors. Our writ ran everywhere the sound of the waves was heard....I say we take it all! I say, we take Westeros." (AFFC)

The only person in history thought to have gone to post-Doom Valyria  and survived was Aerea Targaryen (F&B), obviously someone with the blood of the dragon. But Euron supposedly also made a journey to Valyria  and came out alive, in fact in much better condition than Aerea.

But Aerea had been completely unprepared for the journey--she didn't have supplies or anything for it--whereas Euron knew where he was going and was ready for it. If having the blood of Old Valyria can keep someone from being killed in Valyria, then perhaps having that blood and being prepared, and having some knowledge of magic and the like, can have someone survive and be relatively healthy after.

Associations:

Euron is also associated with crows--he's called the "Crow's Eye" (or “Euron Croweye”) because of his black eye and in a dream of the woods witch it's thought he appears as a "drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings."

Brynden Rivers, a Targaryen bastard also known as  Bloodraven, was a brother of the Night's Watch, who are called crows by the free folk, and is thought to be the Three Eyed Crow that appears to Bran Stark and Jojen Reed in their dreams.

Many people theorize that Euron is a warg, which is a power associated with the Children and those First Men who interbred with them (Starks, crannogmen, etc). There are also popular theories that Euron was either a former student of  Bloodraven or has been in contact with him somehow.

If Euron is a Targaryen born into such unique circumstances, Bloodraven may have  chosen to watch him and pay greater attention to him, the way it is sometimes implied he has been watching and influencing Jon Snow (through Ghost, Mormont's raven, and other methods).

Specifically, Euron seems to talk about flying in a way that is similar to Bloodraven (and may even reference Bran's accident):

“When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly,” he announced. “When I woke, I  couldn’t... or so the maester said. But what if he lied?” ... "Perhaps  we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower? No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap." ... Do you dare to fly? Unless you take the leap, you’ll never know.” (AFFC)

It seemed as though he had been falling for years. Fly, a voice whispered in the darkness, but Bran did not know how to fly, so all he could do   was fall. ... “I can’t fly,” Bran said. “I can’t, I can’t …” How do you know? Have you ever tried? ... “I want to learn magic,” Bran told him. “The crow promised that I would fly.” ... “Old  Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said.   (AGOT)

Euron's personal heraldry also features crows and a red eye--Bloodraven is albino with red eyes. Almost as though he's referencing--honoring? mocking?--his some-greats uncle.

Duncan is called the Prince of Dragonflies, and dragonflies are associated with galleys (ships):

Two galleys had come out to meet them. They seemed to skim upon the water like dragonflies, their pale oars flashing. (AFFC)

Which in turn have been associated back with crows and Euron’s own ship in the same book:

The ship was Blackbird, the largest of the Watch’s galleys. (AFFC)

And  then he saw her: a single-masted galley, lean and low, with a dark red hull. Her sails, now furled, were black as a starless sky. Even at anchor Silence looked both cruel and fast. (AFFC)

Future Moves

Dragons:

Euron is, quite possibly, attacking Oldtown or has hired a Faceless Man to infiltrate The Citadel in order to claim the hidden book Blood and Fire or the Death of Dragons (too many theories/threads on this to reference any one lol).

There is a lot of speculation of  what exactly can be found in this book, but if it is magic of Old  Valyria it may specifically appeal to someone of Targaryen blood--could it, perchance, answer the question as to why the dragons died out? Could  it be used by someone with blood of the dragon to learn how to bring more dragons back? Or could it contain the horrific blood magics that might have been used to create dragonriders in the first place?

Finally, there is Jaime's dream about the deep, which many people associate with what Euron may or may not be doing:

"Below the earth his doom awaited, he knew with the certainty of dream;   something dark and terrible lurked there, something that wanted him. Beware the water, he told himself. There may be creatures living in it, hidden deeps..." "

“Tell me, Jaime. What lives here? What lives in the darkness?”

“Doom.” No bear, he knew. No lion. “Only doom.”" (TWOW)

Doom...as in the Doom of Valyria? Which could have very likely been brought on by the Valyrians themselves? If Euron is planning some large event, a Doom-level catastrophe could be it.

Or perhaps he seeks a type of dragon that even his Valyrian ancestors had not tamed, to kill krakens and torment islands, and show that even kings and gods need fear him, using the knowledge of the magic of the Iron Islands and Sunset Sea and his dragonlord blood.

Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves. She fed on krakens and leviathans and drowned whole islands in her wrath, yet the Grey King had slain her and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings. Nagga’s ribs became the beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became his throne. For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled. Here he took his mermaid wife and planned his wars against the Storm God. From here he ruled both stone and salt, wearing robes of woven seaweed and a tall pale crown made from Nagga’s teeth. (AFFC)

Daenerys:

Like Targaryens of the past, Euron is interested in marrying his possible-relative, Daenerys. And, contextually, they have a few things in common.

Notably, Daenerys has many dreams of flying and madness, as well.

Once  I dreamed of flying, she thought, and now I’ve flown, and dream of stealing eggs. That made her laugh. “Men are mad and gods are madder,”   she told the grass, and the grass murmured its agreement. (ADWD)

Flying, she thought. I had wings, I was flying. But it was only a dream. (AGOT)

They are both also associated with storms in the text. Daenerys is "Stormborn" and Euron is called a storm:

Aeron thought, and now the storm is coming, a storm such as these isles have never known. ... Aeron tugged his beard, and thought. I have seen the storm, and its name is Euron Crow’s Eye. (AFFC)

And as shown in the Nagga quote above, the Grey King, the early ruler of the Iron Islands and worshiper of the Drowned God, had his greatest enemy in the Storm God.

In ADWD, when Daenerys is alone, she twice specifically mentions the presence of dragonflies, the symbol of Euron’s father. Including in a possible hallucination/vision:

...all she saw was  trickling brown water … and the grass, still moving slightly. The wind, she told herself, the wind shakes the stalks and makes them sway. Only no wind was blowing. The sun was overhead, the world still and hot.  Midges swarmed in the air, and a dragonfly floated over the stream,  darting here and there. And the grass was moving when it had no cause to  move.

Euron and Daenerys are also both indirectly (or more directly, depending on one's perspective) responsible for the deaths of their older brother.

Daenerys, of course, is threatened by Viserys and then as Drogo has him killed, she watches, "curiously calm" (AGOT).

Euron  appears on the Iron Islands, despite his banishment, the very day after Balon's death. It is very likely he had a Faceless Man kill him.

"Was the storm raging when he fell?” Aeron demanded of them. “Aye,” the youth said, “it was.” “The  Storm God cast him down,” the priest announced. For a thousand thousand  years sea and sky had been at war. From the sea had come the ironborn,  and the fish that sustained them even in the depths of winter, but  storms brought only woe and grief. (AFFC)

This quote also shows a dichotomy between the sea and sky: The Iron Born are the sea, but the sky (and storms) are...something else. Euron is not of  the sea, he is of the sky. He is not a Greyjoy, he is a Targaryen.

TLDR; Since anyone can be a secret Targaryen, I posit that Euron Greyjoy, who has contextual connections to the magic of the Children and an obvious interest in Valyria, is in fact the son of Prince Duncan and Jenny of Oldstones and give a bunch of ridiculous reasons why.