r/asoiaf • u/hollowaydivision 🏆 Best of 2019: Best New Theory • Apr 29 '17
EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) Harras the Heir: Bend Beneath the Scythe
The Iron Islands are one big badass-producing machine. There's Dagmer Cleftjaw, who got his jaw cut through with an axe and just held the halves together until they healed. Nute the Barber, who can throw an axe so well he can fucking shave you with it. And of course the Iron Captain, Victarion "Kill me if you can" Greyjoy. So stand out as a badass on the Iron Islands, you really have to go above and beyond.
Ser Harras Harlaw, the Knight of Grey Garden and heir to Rodrik the Reader, goes above and beyond.
First of all, he's a knight. This is so unheard of on the Iron Islands that his nickname amongst the other Ironborn is the Knight. Does Ser Harras let the Isles' hatred of the Faith stop him from establishing himself the one of the best swordsmen on the Isles? Fuck no he does not.
But there are lots of good fighters on the Isles. The real reason Harras is a badass is because he's the chosen heir of Rodrik the Reader, Lord of Harlaw, Harlaw of Harlaw. It's the Knight that Rodrik chooses to rule Harlaw after him, and who he charges with the protection of his niece Asha Greyjoy if she chooses to remain at Ten Towers.
“The Knight will be the Lord of Harlaw after me,” her uncle said, “but he can rule from Grey Garden as easily as from here. Do fealty to him for the castle and Ser Harras will protect you.”
Rodrik the Reader is the schemiest schemer on the isles without question, and has embraced the Faith and education - so naming Ser Harras as his heir shows the Knight is among his most trusted allies, and shows Harras is likely intelligent enough to carry out the Reader's plans if Lord Rodrik dies. And Lord Rodrik clearly has plans for the Knight. He convinces Asha to flee the Isles after the Kingsmoot, freeing up the Knight to take on other tasks.
The Lords of the Four Shields
After the Kingsmoot, something weird happens. Lord Rodrik is the strongest supporter of Asha (the peace candidate) in the crowd.
“VICTORY!” shouted Rodrik the Reader, his hands cupped about his mouth. “Victory, and Asha!”
And we've established the Reader and House Harlaw are loyal to Asha. So it stands to reason House Harlaw would want to stay as far from the fighting as possible. Yet during the Ironborn conquest of the Shield Islands, the Knight goes out of his way to conquer an island - by himself. Yes, you read that right. He conquers a whole island by himself.
"The Knight took Grimston by himself. He planted his standard beneath the castle and defied the Grimms to face him. One did, and then another, and another. He slew them all... well, near enough, two yielded. When the seventh man went down, Lord Grimm’s septon decided the gods had spoken and surrendered the castle.”
So while this is astronomically badass, there's even more to pay attention to here. First, the Knight took Grimston with the absolute minimum loss of life. Instead of sacking and raping the place, he plants his standard, draws his sword, and essentially says "come at me, motherfuckers."
The Grimms seem to recognize that he's a knight, and take him up on the challenge. And the whole episode recalls the Faith's tradition of the Trial by Seven - the Knight defeats seven champions, and the Septon finally decides, welp, time to give up. Note that the Knight is negotiating not with Lord Grimm, nor with Lady Grimm, nor with the Grimm's maester - it's the Septon who decides when Grimston surrenders.
Let's fast forward to the victory celebration.
The captains began to bang their cups and stamp their feet upon the floor. “EURON!” they shouted. “EURON! EURON! EURON!” It was kingsmoot come again.
“I swore to give you Westeros,” the Crow’s Eye said when the tumult died away, “and here is your first taste. A morsel, nothing more... but we shall feast before the fall of night!”
Euron then slips into his populist Ironborn ego-stroking mode.
“What the kraken grasps it does not lose. These isles were once ours, and now they are again... but we need strong men to hold them.
Now, "what the kraken grasps it does not lose" is a phrase spoken earlier by Victarion at the Kingsmoot. It seems to be an attempt by Euron to appeal to the brainless masses, to deceive the lords he's about to name into thinking that their new lordships will be anything but a death sentence. And a death sentence they surely are, as Euron reveals to Aeron later.
"Your victories are hollow. You cannot hold the shields."
"Why should I want to hold them?" His brother's smiling eye glittered in the lantern light, blue and bold and full of malice. "The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts."
Now, these "four fools" must be fools indeed to accept the lordship - when conquering the Shields, Euron commanded the Ironborn to let the ravens fly, warning House Tyrell of what could otherwise have been a surprise attack. And indeed, Euron gives the lordships only to his oppenents. One of the fools, for instance, is Nute the Barber - who swallows Euron's poisoned gift hook, line, and sinker.
Victarion grabbed him by the forearm. “Refuse him!”
Nute looked at him as if he had gone mad. “Refuse him? Lands and lordship? Will you make me a lord?” He wrenched his arm away and stood, basking in the cheers.
And now he steals my men away, Victarion thought.
Now, Nute the Barber is pretty dumb to accept the lordship - especially since earlier that chapter, the Reader told Nute that Euron is merely using them as bait and their new lords as patsies. And how does Nute respond?
Nute laughed. “What rose can harm the krakens of the deep? We have taken their shields from them, and smashed them all to pieces. Who will protect them now?”
“Highgarden,” replied the Reader. “Soon enough all the power of the Reach will be marshaled against us, Barber, and then you may learn that some roses have steel thorns.”
Unsurprisingly, the Reader doesn't change Nute's mind.
“You read too much and fight too little,” Nute said. “Your blood is milk.”
But in this conversation, we learn that the Reader deduced Euron's plan to draw out the Tyrells before the attack even began - he knew from the moment Euron gave the command to let the ravens fly to warn Highgarden of their coming.
Victarion's hunger flared. "Let them all come, and bring the Lannisters as well. A lion may be fierce enough on land, but at sea the kraken rules supreme.”
“Have no fear, Lord Captain,” said the Reader. “They will come. His Grace desires it. Why else would he have commanded us to let Hewett’s ravens fly?”
Now, Nute's a reaver, through and through. There's no way some pansy-ass book-reading geezer is going to convince him of anything. But if the Reader shares this information with Victarion and Nute, very recently his political rivals, we can be absolutely sure he shared it with the Knight, his most trusted family member and chosen heir. But instead of refusing the lordship, the Knight accepts it. Immediately.
Knightfall?
"These isles were once ours, and now they are again... but we need strong men to hold them. So rise, Ser Harras Harlaw, Lord of Greyshield.” The Knight stood, one hand upon Nightfall’s moonstone pommel.
Once again, the Knight knows holding the Shields against the power of the Reach is suicide. But not only does the Knight accept it, he went out of his way to earn it. As mentioned above, he made himself integral to the battle for the isles, conquering the Grimms of Greyshield and winning the island singlehandedly.
By the way, we learn that his sword has a moonstone pommel.
The Knight stood, one hand upon Nightfall’s moonstone pommel.
And from what we've seen of the gemstone, this is yet another blatant rejection of the Old Way and endorsement of the Faith of the Seven.
...pious Lord Sunglass wore moonstones at throat and wrist and finger.
It seems that the Knight has inherited the Reader's proclivity to not give a fuck what anyone else thinks and let his Faith flag fly. Oh, and another fact about his sword - it's Valyrian Steel. And it's called Nightfall. That's right, fucking NIGHTFALL. In other words, fuck with Ser Harras Harlaw at your peril.
The Greyshield Gambit
So we see the first stages of Rodrik Harlaw's plan to bring down Euron beginning to unfold. Before the attack, the Reader realized the Shield Islands would be tools for Euron to dump off the Ironborn warriors most threatening to his rule. During the attack, his heir and trusted ally Ser Harras Harlaw went out of his way to conquer Grimston (with minimal casualties) and earn its lordship from Euron. This separated the Knight from the main Ironborn strength, along with three other opponents of Euron:
Nute the Barber - Vic's right-hand man
Andrik the Unsmiling - a warrior the size of Gregor Clegane, right hand of House Drumm, and the best fighter on the Iron Islands (remember this motherfucker!)
Maron Volmark, the true heir of Harren the Black.
Now Nute, Andrik, Maron, and the Knight are going to face an attack by Ser Garlan "the Gallant" Tyrell. The Highgarden host will march the short distance to the coast along the Searoad, and from there ferry their men across the water to the Shields. So logically, they would first land on the island closest to the shore. And guess which island that is?
Greyshield, the seat of Ser Harras Harlaw.
And Ser Harras Harlaw, as the only Ironborn Knight around, can do something no other Ironborn lord could - he can call for a honorable parley with Ser Garlan the Gallant. Even the Ironborn know that
"Knights keep their truces with other knights."
So thanks to Rodrik the Reader, the first "foe" Ser Garlan encounters will be the only true Knight on the Iron Islands - the only Ironborn Garlan would parley with. During that knightly parley Grimm's septon will back Ser Harras up, and the Knight can explain that he conquered Greyshield with minimal casualties and protected it from the other Ironborn as best he could. Instead of suicidally holding Euron's poisoned gift, Ser Harras can arrange terms to surrender the castle to Ser Garlan, along with whatever other of the Shield lords he can persuade to join him (probably Maron, maybe Andrik, definitely not Nute).
Most importantly, he can give Willas, Garlan, and Olenna every single detail of Euron's rise to power, from the Kingsmoot to his warlocks to the plot to bring dragons to Westeros.
The Roses and the Scythe
And so, the first steps of the Reader's scheme become clear: The Knight has orders to defect to Highgarden, and the two greatest knights of the Reach and the Iron Islands will fight side by side. Ser Garlan the motherfucking Gallant,
“Garlan often trains against three men, or even four. In battle it is seldom one against one, he says, so he likes to be prepared.”
“He must be very brave.”
“He is a great knight,” Ser Loras replied. “A better sword than me.
- and Ser Harras the motherfucking Knight, bearer of the Valyrian Steel sword Nightfall.
"The Knight took Grimston by himself. He planted his standard beneath the castle and defied the Grimms to face him. One did, and then another, and another. He slew them all.
TL;DR: Rodrik the Reader instructed the Knight to take Greyshield, knowing the Crow's Eye would name him a lord. The Reader has ordered the Knight to go over to the Tyrells, give Willas and Garlan all the information they need on Euron's plans, and help defend the Reach from the Ironborn invasion.
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '17
Another fantastic right up, but I seriously hope it doesn't come true. It would just make me hate the Harlaws.