5 insane Game of Thrones theories that may come true in The Winds of Winter

Rhaegar Targaryen is alive and chilling

In the world of Game of Thrones, magical powers have restrictions, and everything comes at a cost. Melisandre is able to draw magical power from rubies, which grant her the ability to change her appearance. We all remember what she looked like when she took off her magic ruby necklace on Game of Thrones:

We see things from Melisandre’s point of view in one chapter of A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the series. In that chapter, we discover that she uses rubies to make Mance Rayder appear as Rattleshirt. While pretending to be Rattleshirt, Mance also wears a ruby. She claims she can do this via a special spell learned in Asshai, which makes a person appear to everyone as someone else.

Rubies have been the basis for several Song of Ice and Fire theories, including one that would have you believe that Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys’ older brother, is alive and well.

We hear multiple times throughout the series that Rhaegar died fighting Robert Baratheon at the Battle of the Trident, and that people still search the river for the rubies Robert knocked off his breastplate. If the same magic used by Melisandre was used by another, that someone could impersonate Rhaegar on the battlefield. That suggests another Greek mythological parallel, this time to the Iliad, where Achilles allowes Patroclus to impersonate him, lending him his chariot and his armor.

The idea that someone could have impersonated Rhaegar isn’t completely ridiculous, but there are plenty of theories that take that as their starting point and then go overboard, identifying Rhaegar as any character who slightly fits the bill. It also demeans the significance of Rhaegar’s death, making him into a man without integrity who left behind a fractured kingdom.

There is a popular theory out there that Mance Rayder, no stranger to ruby magic, is actually Rhaegar. For evidence, fans point to the character’s love of the harp and Mance’s black-and-red tattered cloak. How does that square with what we know about Mance’s life, that he was born a wildling and eventually joined the Night’s Watch? Not important.

Another possible identity for Rhaegar is Jaqen H’ghar, who has streaks of white hair. The Targaryens also have famously pale hair. Jaqen seems overly concerned with prophecy and fate, and his connection with Arya is interesting. Rhaegar, you see, loved Lyanna Stark, whom Arya is said to resemble.

There is one theory that goes so far as to say Rhaegar Targaryen is actually the Night King. “The sheer act of Rhaegar’s death—an object being plunged into the chest—directly parallels the creation of the Night King—with the dragonglass/glass candle being plunged into the man tied to the weirwood tree.” You can be the judge.