by Manuel Alejandro Crespo Rodríguez

On the Azor Ahai Prophecy and my Estimations

The series seventh season of Game of Thrones is coming to an end tomorrow. Nevertheless, theories keep popping up trying to put together the things to come. In things pertaining to the prophecy of Azor Ahai, it seems clear that Jon Snow matches that prophecy. In spite of that, it doesn’t say anything about him becoming a Westerosi king. But lets take things one at a time.

The prophecy of Azor Ahai posits that a hero will return, Azor Ahai reborn, to fight once again the white walkers and the Night King. According to the lore, Azor Ahai is the hero that fought the white walkers and the Night King 8,000 years ago and drove them far north, ending the Long Night. Later, Bran the Builder made the Wall that protects the realm from danger far north. Being that Azor Ahai must be “reborn”, this has a multivalent meaning:

  1. That a hero will return later in time, thus “reborn” meaning something hyperbolic and,
  2. That the hero will be literally “reborn”, resurrected in the same manner as Jon Snow.

Being that Jon Snow indeed died and then was resurrected by Melissandre, he fills part of the prophecy. In the series we see that some of his companions going north to retrieve a white walker to show to Cercei. One, named Beric Dondarrion, has been resurrected too and even has the power to light up his blade. They are followers of the Lord of Light, and according to him they are fighting death itself.

But all of this doesn’t imply that Azor Ahai will become king in the end. It seems to me that Daenerys Targaryen will rule the iron throne in the end, be it that Jon Snow dies in battle or that a chain of events make it that Jon Snow yields his rule in the North and gives all the ruling power to Daenerys. Nevertheless, to me Jon Snow is the legitimate candidate to rule the iron throne, for he has both blood from the Targaryen and the Starks, and he was born from a legitimate wedlock. He has both ice and fire in his veins, and this dichotomy if individually more encompassing than the one shared mostly in social media: that Jon Snow is ice and Daenerys Targaryen is fire. It appears that the meaning A Song of Ice and Fire could mean both the familiar union (and maybe romantic union) of Jon and Daenerys and the dichotomous nature within Jon’s blood lineage, both from ice and fire.

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by Manuel Alejandro Crespo Rodríguez

I’m working on a book!

Currently I’m working on writing a book with some co-authors. The pitch came naturally. A friend wanted some of my usual material to be added on a book about caribbean history and social phenomena. Naturally, I accepted. Nevertheless, I’m still working on my thesis —today I was mostly organizing some statistical data using SPSS.

These next few months are gonna be a hell of a ride! Oh, know this before hand: this book will be in spanish. Eventually I’ll keep revealing more about this new project.

by Manuel Alejandro Crespo Rodríguez

Game of Thrones is Finally Feeling like Coming Full Circle

Game of Thrones plot is unorthodox at best, it redefined the fantasy genre. Its development was uncertain at first, not knowing which person was to live, which was to die, how was allied with whom, etc. Yet now that we begin to see the beginning of the end, now we get the meaning of A Song of Ice and Fire. 

At the beginning we see House Stark, in the north. Ned Stark is needed south in King’s Landing and eventually is executed for discovering a Lannister’s family secret: the incestous relationship between Jaime and Cercei. Afterwards the Starks begin to scatter all around Westeros. The plot seems chaotic, no one knows who will live and die, yet the plot drives something forward: life is harsh. The sons and daughters of House Stark —Bran, Rickon, Sansa, Arya, Jon, Robb— have a massive character development over the course of the series. As more plot twists come and go, we can finally see the pattern in the plot, just as after watching too much The Twilight Zone one can get the idea of the eventual plot twist.

Game of Thrones is in reality a tale from the perspective of House Stark. This fact can be forgotten because the series, as in the books, it is told from different points-of-view, humanizing all the characters, be it friend or foe. But the overall arch of the plot can be compared with myths of old: it is the scattering from the protagonists all over Westeros, fearful, lost, in chaos, but in their search of their true selves they compose themselves back together. they grow wise, and in their knowledge amased in their travels they come home with a true knowledge of their being. Once they finally know their true selves, forged in the fires of destiny, can they come back now and cool in the ice for the coming winther —and, of course, more plot twists.house stark