A song of Ice and fire discussion (spoilers incl A Dance with Dragons)

[Valarya]

As to the pronunciation.. GRRM has stated there are no official documents and you "can pronounce them however you want."

But I say her name both ways, depending on how quickly I'm speaking. Most of the time it comes out like aria (AR-ee-yah) but every once in a while, if I'm going fast, I say ARE-yuh. Hahah, does that thoroughly confuse you?

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As for the theory on who Jon Snow's parents are... I'll go ahead and point you to a wonderful essay that gives examples on WHY much better than I could. (Make sure to change the scope-of-books-read at the top of the page in order to even see the essay.)

To give you a shortened version (that is still quite long ): the majority of the community believes his parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Mostly because of three - to - four very important things.

1. Why else would 3 of the Kingsguards be guarding Lyanna in a tower way off in the South when their king is being slaughtered in King's Landing (Aerys) and their Prince is being slaughtered on the Trident (Rhaegar)? It's because Rhaegar ordered it.. because Lyanna is carrying their son... the Prince Who Was Promised. His whose song is the song of ice and fire (oh boy I got ahead of myself.. we'll get there later, lol).

2. When have you ever known Ned to not be an honorable man? Never. Ned would never.. ever.. slip and sleep with someone else after he'd already taken wedding vows. It doesn't fit everything we know about his character. So he must be protecting someone/something. I feel the Promise me, Ned's are her asking him to keep the babe's Targaryen lineage a secret else Robert would have it 'taken care of.' Why do I think she was giving birth up in that tower? She was in a bed of blood.

3. When Dany is in the House of the Undying.. there's one sentence where she notices a Pale Blue Rose (Lyanna's flower) growing in a chink of ice (The Wall).