This "Game Of Thrones" Fan Theory About Davos Is Weirdly Convincing

By the old gods and the new, this is an excellent fan theory. Via FollowTheBeard.

As we head into the penultimate season of Game of Thrones, we've finally started to get some answers.

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We know why Hodor can only say Hodor. We know where the White Walkers came from (above). And, most importantly of all, we know Jon Snow is, as many knew all along, the son of Lyanna Stark.

As well as confirming Jon's true parentage, many fans took the conclusion of Season 6 to mean that Jon was the fabled Azor Ahai.

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We'll get on to why in a moment. But first, a quick history lesson on who Azor Ahai is/was/might be.

Around 8,000 years before the events of the show, Westeros suffered through the fabled "Long Night" – when winter took over the whole continent, and the White Walkers did their thing: murdering shitloads of people.

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Their reign of terror was finally ended thanks to a man known as the Last Hero, who sought out the Children of the Forest, who helped push the Walkers back up to the Lands of Always Winter. In Asshai, in eastern Essos, this hero has another name: Azor Ahai.

But why does this matter if it happened so long ago?

Thanks to Melisandre, we know that there is a prophecy that states Azor Ahai will return to save the day from the White Walkers all over again. Talk about a one-trick pony.

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She tells Jon: "When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."

She also says: "In the ancient books it's written that a warrior will draw a burning sword from the fire, and that sword shall be Lightbringer."

So when looking for candidates for Azor Ahai, you need someone who was born beneath a bleeding star, amidst smoke and salt, who took a burning sword from the fire. Simple. So why do people think it's Jon?

In the Season 6 finale, when we see Lyanna dying during childbirth in the Tower of Joy, the camera lingers on the following shot.

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Young Ned enters the room and places a sword at the end of Lyanna's bed. The weapon in question is Dawn, the ancestral sword of House Dayne, which Ned has just taken from Ser Arthur Dayne after he and Howland Reed killed the legendary Kingsguard.

Dawn is literally a falling star – unlike most ancestral swords that are made of Valyrian Steel, Dawn was forged from a meteorite. And, seeing as it was just used to kill a bunch of Northmen, it's covered in blood. So, you might say it's a ~bleeding star~, and that Jon was born ~beneath~ it.

But what about the other parts of the prophecy?

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In the show, at least, we have seen no sign of Jon holding a burning sword. But prophecies being prophecies, there are many who think it could just be a ~metaphor~ for his Valyrian steel sword, Longclaw.

Lyanna was certainly crying during his birth, so that could well be the "salt", but there doesn't seem to be any obvious smoke. Perhaps the most clear sign that it probably is Jon, is the "...shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone" bit.

Jon is very probably about to find out that instead of being a Stark, he is in fact a Targaryen – with blood of the dragon. His inner dragon is about to wake up, and we can't bloody wait.

Thanks to Reddit user FollowTheBeard, however, it turns out there is another, much more unexpected candidate: Ser Davos Motherfucking Seaworth, the Onion Knight.

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You can read FollowTheBeard's extensive and very impressive argument in full here, but we'll go over some of the most compelling points.

If you can cast your mind back to Season 2, Stannis drew a flaming sword from the fire, and Melisandre was totally convinced that he was Azor Ahai.

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He died a few seasons later, so she was clearly very wrong.

But after everyone had left the beach, Ser Davos casually picked up the sword from the sand.

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Meaningless, or a very subtle sign of things to come?

Next: "...shall be born again amidst smoke and salt..."

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At the end of Season 2 Stannis's fleet – including Ser Davos – was decimated by Wildfire thanks to Tyrion. Smoke from the burning fleet, salt from the sea. It adds up so far...but you can't really call it a birth, can you?

FollowTheBeard points out that after the Battle of the Blackwater, everyone thought Davos was dead.

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"I had heard you were dead," says Stannis upon being reunited with his Hand. While Davos's smuggler friend Salladhor Saan remarks, "You've only just come back to life. Stay alive a little longer, my friend."

He may not have died. But he came rather close. And who says the birth from the prophecy isn't metaphorical? Perhaps this was the moment when everything changed for him, when he lost everything – including his son – and his destiny as Azor Ahai was set.

As for the bleeding star, a comet with a red tail is shown in the skies above Westeros for most of Season 2.

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Including during Davos's lowest moment at the Blackwater.

So what about the final part of the prophecy? Has Davos woken a dragon from stone? Well, yes.

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By Season 6 Episode 2, Melisandre has lost any faith that remained. She was wrong about Stannis, and now – with his corpse lying on a stone slab at Castle Black – it seems she was wrong about Jon. She has given up.

That is until Super Davos comes along to help her get her mojo back. He gives her a Bill Pullman-esque pep talk and convinces her to try to bring back Jon.

Melisandre thinks, once again, that she's failed. She leaves the room, and Davos is the only one who remains.

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As FollowTheBeard says, "He approaches Jon, internally begging, pleading, willing, praying for his return. Shortly after, Jon gasps his first breath."

Whether you put it down to Davos's own desires, or just the influence he had on Melisandre's efforts, there's no denying Davos is responsible for Jon Snow being resurrected.

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Jon – a Targaryen, whether he knows it or not – was brought back from a cold, stoney nothingness by Ser Davos Seaworth. A dragon woken from stone.

The most persuasive argument, however, doesn't even come from the show at all. Just before Season 6, Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos, told Conan O'Brien that when he first met George R.R. Martin, the writer told him a secret about the show that only he knew.

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You can watch the interview in full here. But we're struggling to think of any information that it would be important for Cunningham to know while others were kept in the dark, unless his role in the show would turn out to be much more significant than we were led to believe...

Game of Thrones being the size that it is, there are, of course, other theories. Chief among them is that Daenerys is the prophesied Azor Ahai.

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This – along with the Jon theory – has the benefit of fitting another requirement that is hinted at in the books: that Azor Ahai must be a descendant of Aerys II Targayren and his wife Rhaella.

Daenerys is their daughter, while Jon is their grandson. Unless there is a very left-field plot twist coming our way, Ser Davos is certainly not a Targayren.

Let's be honest, it probably isn't Davos, and it almost certainly is Jon, but either way this is another excellent fan theory from a fandom that just keeps on giving.

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For a more in-depth analysis of why Jon and Dany are much more likely candidates, check out this video from the excellent Alt Shift X.

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