Have you heard of the show Game of Thrones?
That was a joke. Of course you have. And you probably clicked on this article to satisfy your junkie-level cravings for new GoT content. With last season ending on an epic cliffhanger, and the new season being the last one ever… the jonesing for thronesing has been worse than ever before.
Well there may not be new episodes coming out any time soon, but there’s lots of cool stuff to think about an analyze. Take this Reddit thread for example, which examines the names of all the Stark’s Direwolves and susses out their meaning. It’s pretty interesting to think about, and contains some possible hints at events to come.
Game of thrones uses a lot of symbolism. Recently I’ve looked into the starks and their direwolves and the Targaryen dragons as symbolism
The starks each had a direwolf that represented their personality and future to come. Lady represents Sansa and her future as the Lady of Winterfell.
Nymeria named after a fierce female warrior queen shows Aryas future as a strong fighter and potential for leadership
Ghost the runt of the litter represents snow for white and not being part of the family like the others and that Jon dies and becomes “a ghost”.
Likewise Summer represents the coming of summer symbolizes Bran saving the day, or dying because winter comes. Summer also sacrifices himself to save bran which might mean bran also sacrifices himself.
Shaggy dog is the untamed stark child who never got a chance to be trained or educated, he was meant to be a banner man to his brother (in the show he says I’m meant to protect you) but really, was raised by a wildling. He’s the shaggy dog of the family
Grey Wind was most loyal and obedient just as robb is most loyal and obedient to the family, was first to act. The two are inseparable and excellent fighters. Robb was said to turn into a wolf because of Grey Wind. Murdered by arrows the both of them, and head sewn on another. They spent so much time together that only when separated did they lose and their fate was entwined
The dragons I think are similar. Named after her 3 male relationships Viserys for her brother(vyserion) , Drogo her lover(Drogon), and Rhaegar (rhaegon) for her other brother. Which dragon was killed? The brother who died. Drogon is her strongest and fiercest dragon. I don’t believe he will die because he promised to conquer the lands for her, and he will. He will also be the one to kill Vyserion the ice dragon, as the man did to the brother.
Rhaegal was named after Rhaegar , and we do not know much about Rhaegar or Rhaegal at this time. It’s known he was an artist and a fighter and a lover and took lyanna stark as his new wife. Process of elimination One could say, that Jon will ride Rhaegal as that was Jon’s father, and would represent Rhaegars love for both Stark and Targaryen.
Maybe you already picked up on some of those hints, but if you haven’t they’re pretty darn interesting. And most of all, they show what a f***ing long game George R.R. Martin has been playing this whole time. The Direwolves were introduced super early in the first book, and apparently, their names contain foreshadowing of events that unfold several books later.
It’s times like these where you can’t really get mad at George for taking his sweet time to come out with new books. He’s got a lot of threads in his noggin to tie up. Of course, that won’t really stop us from being straight-up bloodthirsty when it comes to more Game of Thrones content.
Come on George! WE NEED IT NOW.