![]() ![]() Below the cut, because this is a long list: I’m not necessarily including all of the quotes regarding Dany’s dragons, but all the quotes I could find discussing dragons and their nature, and knowledge people have of dragons. Indeed, Jon is himself hand-picked by Jeor Mormont to serve as his steward because, as Sam correctly deduced, Jeor “want to groom for command” Jon’s aristocratic education and formal military training (so clearly demonstrated against the other, lowborn recruits among Jon’s “class”), not to mention his direct familial connections to the closest overlord neighbor to the Watch, made him the obvious choice in Jeor’s mind to raise and train as his successor.Here is a compilation of all the quotes I could find or remember about dragons in ASOIAF, to serve as a resource for anyone that might be interested. Alliser Thorne gets promoted despite being woefully unsuited for his job because he “is an anointed knight, one of the few to take the black” in recent memory Waymar Royce is given his own command on a ranging despite being “green as summer grass” because “he insisted on the honor of his own command, saying it was his due as a knight” and Jeor Mormont “did not wish to offend his lord father” Bowen Marsh is deeply offended at Jon’s choice of Satin as his squire because, as he pouts, “raditionally the lord commander’s squires are lads of good birth being groomed for command”. It may be nominally correct to say that the Night’s Watch is not a hereditary system, but it is also important to underline the extension of aristocratic privilege even within this institution. Too, I caution overemphasizing the democratic nature of the Night’s Watch. ![]() Just as I think the experience of Davos’ POV is non-noble, so I think the experience of Jon’s POV is fundamentally that of an aristocrat instead of a commoner (albeit one who has faced internal and external prejudices against bastardy). This background was precisely what Sam relied upon (successfully) to appeal to Denys Mallister to throw his (and the Shadow Tower’s) vote behind Jon for the Lord Commander election: that Jon “ from old blood”, that he was “castle-born and castle-raised”, that he “learned sword and lance from a knight and letters from a maester of the Citadel”, and that “is father was a lord, and his brother a king”. Jon benefitted from the professional scholarly education and knightly martial training afforded to the aristocratic household of Winterfell. Jon Snow was raised not just as a formally recognized extramarital son of the Lord of Winterfell, but (deliberately) as equally as possible to his legitimate (ostensible) siblings. (And, of course, Davos’ non-lordly honesty is precisely what appeals about him to Stannis.) I think the experience of Davos’ POV is fundamentally one of a non-aristocrat, even if he has a formal title now.Ĭonversely, while Jon Snow does not have an aristocratic or knightly title, I think it may be somewhat misleading to describe him as a “non-noble POV”. Likewise, Davos is very consciously aware of the class bias against him thanks to that low birth and background, even though he was knighted the better part of two decades ago he is still maligned as a lowborn trader and smuggler by many of the blue-blooded aristocrats around him. While it’s certainly true that Davos is a landed knight (who goes on to be named Lord of the Rainwood), Davos was born into poverty and spent his first 25-odd years as a sailor and smuggler. Additionally, I would also include Davos as a non-noble POV. ![]()
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