HOUSE REED: The SECRET that DESTROYS the North | Game of Thrones

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:03]There is a house in Westeros that almost nobody talks about. It doesn't m coins.

[00:00:09]It doesn't build castles of [music] gold. And it doesn't burn its enemies with dragon fire. Yet, this is the very house that guards a secret upon which everything depended. Who sits on the Iron [music] Throne? Whether Jon Snow is alive, and whether the War of the Five Kings [music] even happened the way it did. a small swamp dwelling house with an [music] estate that's impossible to find. Led by a man whom George RR Martin has deliberately kept from being a [music] POV character because he knows too much. Today, we're going to break down exactly what he knows and why it's [music] more important than any army on the battlefield. Before we talk about the secrets of the Reeds, we need to understand [music] who they actually are. Most viewers of the show know very little about this house. [music] A boy with green eyes dying on the road to the three-eyed raven and his sister with a [music] net and frog spear dragging Bran through the snow. But behind these two children [music] lies a history that runs much deeper than most northern houses would care to admit. The reeds rule the neck. For those who don't remember their [music] geography, the neck is a marshy ismas connecting the north to the rest of the seven kingdoms.

[00:01:24]It's literally a [music] bottleneck. The only land route passes through a causeway defended by Mo Kalin.

[00:01:31]Everything else is bogs, quagmireers, poisonous plants, lizard lions, and people who know how to fight in a way that no heavy cavalry would ever dare to challenge. Whoever controls the neck controls access to the north. And this bottleneck has been ruled by one house for [music] thousands of years. small, poor, without pomp or ceremony, but absolutely indispensable.

[00:01:56]The bog devils, that's what they call the Reeds people, the Cranog men, [music] are a distinct folk, short in stature, quiet, and insular. They don't leave outsiders alive in their swamps without permission. [music] They don't invite guests, and they almost never leave the neck. Their weapons are nets, bronze knives, frog spears, leather shields, and poison tipped arrows. No knights, no misters, no commanders [music] and plate armor. Just people who know every square meter of their swamps better than their own faces. They're called frogeeers. They're mocked. They aren't taken [music] seriously. And that, incidentally, is their greatest advantage.

[00:02:38]Gaywater Watch, that's the name of their castle. That alone [music] tells you you're dealing with something unusual.

[00:02:45]Gaywater isn't a fortress on a cliff.

[00:02:48]It's a structure [music] built on a cranog, a man-made floating island in the swamps. It doesn't stay in one place. No raven can ever find it in the same spot twice. No army has ever [music] captured it in all of history.

[00:03:02]The Ironborn couldn't find it. The Freys, who spent centuries [music] trying to expand their lands north, couldn't either. A castle that moves, leaves no tracks, [music] and doesn't accept uninvited guests. If you think about it, it's the perfect image for Guardians of Secrets. A place that is by definition impossible to find without an invitation. [music] A floating archive at the edge of the north. But what exactly are they guarding? That only becomes clear when you start digging into the history of the [music] house properly. because the surface hides something that changes your entire [music] perspective on the events of the main saga irreversibly. And this story doesn't [music] start with Howland or the Tower of Joy or the War of the Five Kings. It starts with the swamps and the [music] children of the forest in an era that almost no one in Westeros remembers anymore. To understand the DNA [music] of House Reed, you have to go way back, further than most northern histories.

[00:04:03]Before the [music] Starks and their role as kings of winter, before Bran the Builder and the Wall, there existed something that [music] has vanished from the memory of almost all northerners except for the bog devil. The world of ice and [music] fire tells us that in the dawn age, when the children of the forest still inhabited Westeros and were at war with the first men, something important happened in the region of the neck. The children attempted one of their great acts of magic. They wanted to shatter the neck using the hammer of the waters, a catastrophic spell that had worked once before. That's how the children separated the arm of Dorne [music] to stop the invasion of the first men from the east. They were prepared to flood [music] the entire ismas just to stop the humans. According to legend, something changed. Something got in the way. The neck wasn't flooded. And it was during this time that the Cranog men grew closer to the children than any other of the first men. While other humans were chopping down weirwoods and waging war, the bog devils were drawn to the forest [music] dwellers, to their knowledge, to their memory. This bond defined everything that followed. That is why the bog devils have different blood than the rest of the northerners.

[00:05:22]The world of ice and fire states it plainly. Among theranog [music] men, there are those who possess the gift of green dreams. Green sight is the magic of the children [music] of the forest. Green seers were their sages, their mages, their living links to the [music] trees. And these little people of the swamps have this ability, too.

[00:05:46]Maester Yandell, the official author of the world of ice and fire, explains the short stature of the Kranogen as a result of poor nutrition, [music] claiming there's no grain in the swamps.

[00:05:58]But in the same breath, he admits that some believe the cause is interbreeding [music] with the children of the forest.

[00:06:05]Maesters don't like to acknowledge magic where they think it doesn't belong.

[00:06:10][music] But the fact remains the Cranog men remember what has been forgotten at Winterfell. And Jojan Reed upon arriving at Winterfell [music] tells Bran directly the secrets of the old gods.

[00:06:23]The truths that the first men knew are [music] forgotten now at Winterfell. Not lost everywhere. Just at Winterfell, [music] the bog devils haven't forgotten. That is the red thread of the house through the millennia. [music] Silence and memory. While the rest of the north looks forward and forgets, the reads guard what once was. And here arises one of the most [music] important facts about the entire house. Howland Reed spent an entire winter [music] on the aisle of faces. This is a sacred place in the center of the God's Eye Lake [music] where thousands of years ago the children of the forest and the first men signed the pact. The island is covered in weirwoods with [music] carved faces, the very ones that were meant to witness the oath. The green men [music] live there, a secret order of guardians that survived even the Andal [music] invasion. Almost no one ever gets there.

[00:07:19]No one is allowed in without the island itself choosing them. Howland was [music] one of the few people in the history of Westeros to spend time there and return. What did he learn there?

[00:07:31]What did the green men tell him? Martin doesn't answer this question, but the question hangs in the text like an open loop that the author clearly hasn't forgotten. So, there's the architecture [music] of the house at the very beginning. A people who remember what everyone else has forgotten. A man who has been where no one else goes. a castle that is impossible to find. And all this long before Howland Reed ended up at the Tower of Joy. And then came the year 281 AC. And everything that had been building up until then converged at a single point. But before we move on to that year, it's worth dwelling a bit more on the aisle of faces. [music] This place is rarely mentioned in the saga, but every mention is loaded with meaning. The Isisle of Faces [music] lies in the center of the God's Eye in the Riverlands south of Harrenhal. It was there [music] thousands of years ago that the pact between the first men and the children of the forest was signed, ending a long war. As a sign of the oath, a face was carved [music] into every weirwood on the island so that the gods would witness the peace. Since then, the green men have lived there, an order guarding the trees. According to old legends, they wear green robes and are [music] sometimes described as having antlers and dark green skin.

[00:08:52]Maester Yandel in the world is quite skeptical about their existence, but he himself [music] admits the Andals, who destroyed weirwoods all across Westeros, never managed to take the aisle of faces. Something stopped [music] them.

[00:09:06]Howland spent an entire winter there shortly before the turnney at Harrenhal.

[00:09:11]This is a canonical fact described in the books. The young bog devil went to the aisle of [music] faces and returned.

[00:09:18]He is the only person we know of who did this in the relatively [music] modern era. What happened there over the winter? Martin doesn't write it. But exactly after [music] this, Howland went to the turnney. The night of the laughing tree appeared there with a shield depicting a laughing weirwood.

[00:09:35]And then a chain of events began that changed the world. Coincidence? There are no coincidences with Martin. It was after that [music] winter on the aisle of faces that Howland Reed went to the famous tourney at Harrenhal, the year of the false spring, as it's called, the most famous tney in the history of Westeros. Because it [music] was here that Prince Rhaegar Targaryen placed the crown of Queen of Love and Beauty, not on the head of his wife, Ilia Martell, but on the head of Lyana Stark. This gesture triggered a chain of events that ended in Robert's rebellion, the fall of an entire dynasty, and the birth of the world we know from the books and the show. The little bog devil arrived at the turnney of stranger among strangers.

[00:10:25]Cranigman weren't respected. Howland was attacked by three squires older and larger than him. They took his weapons, kicked him, and mocked the froge eater from the swamps. He was saved by young Lyanna Stark, who chased them off with a wooden turn sword. She took him to her brothers, fed him, insisted he go to the feast because he was highborn and had as much right to sit on the bench as anyone else. That night changed everything.

[00:10:54]That was when Howland met Edert Stark. A friendship was forged between them that lasted all of Ned's life and survived his death. And then at that same turnney, the knight of the laughing tree appeared. A mysterious [music] knight in mismatched armor entered the lists and challenged the three knights whose squires had bullied the bog devil.

[00:11:18]His shield bore the laughing face of a weirwood. He defeated all [music] three.

[00:11:24]He demanded a ransom in the form of an oath. The knights had to punish their [music] squires for their dishonor. And then he vanished. King Aerys personally ordered the knight to be found. Prince Rhaegar rode out to search for him.

[00:11:38][music] The knight was never found. His identity remains to this [music] day one of the great mysteries of Westerosce history. In the books, this question is left open. Meera [music] tells the story in a way that hints it could have been the bog devil. Jojan adds cautiously, [music] "Or maybe not." Bran listening strongly suspects that the knight was indeed Howland. Arguments [music] in favor of this version include the following. Howland had just spent the winter with the green men on the aisle of faces and could have received help or power from the old gods. He was shorter than average which matches [music] the description of the knight. The motive for revenge was stronger than anyone else's. The shield with the weirwood pointed [music] to a connection with the northern gods and the swamps. But there is another version which also has strong arguments. [music] The knight was Lyanna Stark on her own without Howland. They say she was skilled [music] with weapons. It was she who saved the bog devil. It was she who brought him into the Stark circle. Her voice could have sounded deeper through a helmet. [music] There is no answer. And perhaps there won't be one explicitly in the books.

[00:12:49]But there's something more important.

[00:12:51]Ned Stark knew this story and had heard it more than once. and yet he never told his [music] children. Jojan and Meera are astonished that Bran hasn't heard it hundreds of times as they have. Why did Ned stay silent? One possible reason, the story of the night of the Laughing Tree is far too dangerous because it's inextricably linked to what happened next. Rhaegar crowned Lyana the queen of love and beauty right there at that very tournament immediately after the mysterious knight appeared that set off the chain [music] of events that led to Robert's rebellion. If anyone started asking questions about the knight, those questions would quickly lead to the secret Ned guarded with his life. And only one other person knew that secret.

[00:13:41]Howland Reed, the Tower of Joy. This [music] place stands apart in the history of Westeros like a small knot that ties almost everything together. At the end of Robert's rebellion, when the mad king was already dead and Robert Baratheon had taken the Iron Throne, Edard Stark led a small party south to the Red Mountains of Dorne. There at [music] a nameless tower stood the last two knights of the King's Guard. Gerald High [music] Totower and Arthur Dayne, known as the Sword of the Morning, the [music] greatest knight of his age, a man who, by Ned's own admission, would [music] have killed him if not for Howland Reed. Before we talk about what happened in that fight, it's worth noting that context is key to understanding Howland's role. Ned returns to this memory again and again in his dreams throughout the first book.

[00:14:37]He sees [music] his fallen men, their faces worn away by the years. He calls [music] out their names, among them Howland Reed, the little cranic men. In his dreams, Ned tells Bran that Arthur Dayne would have killed him [music] if not for the tiny Cranic men. That admission carries a lot of weight. Ned was a seasoned warrior who had survived a war. And yet, he says [music] plainly, "Without Howland, I would have died." In the fight of seven against three, almost everyone died. Only two remained. Ned Stark and the Little Kronicmen. And it was Howland [music] who saved Ned at the end of the skirmish. When Arthur Dayne was already standing over the defeated Lord [music] of Winterfell with his sword raised, Howland rose from behind the knight and struck him. Ned finished off his fallen opponent. Then he climbed [music] the steps of the tower. There is one detail from the show that's worth [music] being honest about. In the series, Bran is shown this scene through a vision and there Howland lands [music] a blow and wounds Dne. The boy is surprised. He always thought his father had defeated the great [music] knight in a fair fight. In the books, there is no such direct contradiction. Bookbran knows that Howland saved his father. Ned told him so himself. This is a significant divergence as it shapes the image of Ned differently. The book Ned didn't hide that he had help. The show Ned became a slightly different character in the eyes of the audience.

[00:16:08]We know what he found there. His dying sister Lyanna and her newborn child, a child whom Ned took north and claimed as his own bastard, Jon Snow. Howland Reed stood nearby. He saw Lyona. He saw the child. He heard the dying woman's final words. Ned didn't share this secret with his wife. He didn't share it with any of his brothers. He left no records. The only living person who knows the truth about Jon's parentage is Howland Reed.

[00:16:42]After Ned's [music] death in the first book, he became the only one in the entire world. In the show, this scene was finally depicted, albeit in a flashback. Viewers saw a young Howland at the moment of that very fight. But in the books, he still hasn't appeared [music] in a single live scene. He exists solely in memories, in Bran's dreams through the weirwood trees, [music] and in the stories told by his children. Physically, he is absent from the narrative space. Martin said outright in an interview, "Howland will [music] not be a point of view character because he knows too much. This isn't just an authoral whim. It's a conscious structural decision. If we had a chapter from his perspective, we would immediately [music] know everything. The entire mystery of Jon would fall apart in the first few paragraphs. This means Howland carries [music] information that remains both important and dangerous. He doesn't appear in any book in person, though his name is mentioned many [music] times. His children come to Bran. Rob Stark sent messengers to him.

[00:17:50][music] The Cranogman under his command fought at the causeway of the neck, but Howland himself [music] remains invisible. He sits in Graywater Watch in a castle that cannot be found and remains silent. This silence itself is the most important fact about House Reed. They keep secrets not because they enjoy being secretive. They keep them because they [music] understand the price of a word and even more so the price of silence. Now about Howland's children. Meera and Jojan Reed arrive at Winterfell [music] at the beginning of the second book for the harvest feast.

[00:18:27]They are sent by their father. This is the first thing that's important to [music] understand. They didn't come on their own initiative. Howland sent them because Jojan had dreamt of a winged wolf in chains and a three-eyed [music] crow beyond the wall. The children are there to carry out a mission assigned [music] to them by their father after he learned of these dreams. House Reed acts as a single entity. There are no individual initiatives here. Every step is coordinated with the one who sits in [music] silence in a floating castle and sees further than others. And this fact alone says a lot about Howland. When his son told him about the dreams, his father didn't brush him off. He didn't say, "You're too young. These are just dreams. Go to sleep." He took it seriously because he himself knows what visions are worth in this world. A man who spent a winter on the aisle of faces knows how to distinguish a real warning from a random image in his head. And when his son said, "I saw a winged wolf in chains," his father understood.

[00:19:25][music] It was time to act. Jojan, a boy who strikes everyone he meets as someone older than his years. Quiet, serious, with deep green eyes the color of moss on a forest stone. He possesses the green sight, the gift of prophetic [music] dreams. He didn't learn this, nor was he taught by a maester with the right chain. He simply nearly died of graywater fever [music] as a child. And in that moment, the three-eyed crow visited him. The same crow that appeared in Bran's dreams. The very same entity [music] that ultimately turns out to be the blood raven beyond the wall. The [music] last of the Targaryen bastards who has been fused with the tree for three centuries.

[00:20:12]Jojan knows the day of his death. He says it openly. Green dreams do not lie.

[00:20:18]This isn't a pose or a metaphor. He truly has seen his end and accepted it.

[00:20:24]It is precisely this [music] knowledge that makes his behavior in the books so heavy. He carries out [music] his mission not because he believes in victory but because it must be done. He resembles a man walking a pre-ordained path who sees no point in turning back.

[00:20:41]And after Bran ends up in the blood raven's cave and begins his training, Jojan finds himself at a dead end. His goal has been achieved. What comes next?

[00:20:51]This is where the book and the show diverge fundamentally. [music] In the show, Jojan dies during the white attack on the cave. He is wounded and [music] Meera finishes him off herself to end his suffering. It's an understandable television style death, clear and final. In the books, he reaches the cave alive and then he begins to fade. He wanders [music] the dark tunnels alone. He stares into the forest distances for hours. Meera tells Bran Jojan wants to go home. He knows what awaits [music] him there and he doesn't want to fight it. And then Bran is given a red paste made from weirwood [music] which grants him access to a new level of visions. The paste is described as something dark resembling blood and Jojan is gone. No one says [music] directly what happened. This is where one of the darkest theories in the fan community arises. Jojan paste. According to this theory, the boy was sacrificed so that his blood and his abilities would [music] pass to Bran through ritual consumption. The children of the forest needed a powerful green seer.

[00:21:59]Jojan had completed his work. His further existence became material for magic. This is a theory, not canon.

[00:22:07]Martin has neither confirmed nor denied it. But the way those chapters are written leaves no room for comfortable explanations.

[00:22:16]What speaks in favor of the theory? The paste is described specifically as a dark red liquid reminiscent of blood.

[00:22:24][music] Jojan disappears at the exact moment it appears. He himself knew his end. Accepting death as a mission looks [music] very different in this light.

[00:22:35]The children of the forest use blood magic. This is known from other sources in the same [music] saga. What speaks against it? All of this is circumstantial evidence, not a direct indication. [music] Martin could simply have left Jojan's fate ambiguous for the sake of tension in the text. The book Jojan is scarier and deeper than the show version. His story isn't about a heroic sacrifice [music] in battle. It's about the quiet acceptance of an end you already [music] know. It's a special kind of courage which the Kanog men, by all appearances, understand better than [music] others.

[00:23:11]the courage not of a sword swing but of patient knowledge. Meera in the books is also [music] different. She is older than the character in the show. An experienced [music] hunter, a warrior, a person who knows how to survive in conditions where a city knight would die on the third day. She wields a net and a trident because [music] Howland taught her himself. Not a maester, not a commander, her father. In [music] a land where women are taught needle work rather than hunting, this is a detail that says a lot about how House Reed raises its children. Meera carries the most practical part of the house's legacy, the ability to survive where others [music] drown, literally and metaphorically. She is the one who brought Bran to his goal. Not because she was the strongest possible protector, but because Cranigman [music] know how to move through spaces that kill everyone else. Be it a swamp or the world beyond [music] the wall. At the same time, Meera carries something else.

[00:24:15]She is the only one of Howland's children who survived [music] and returned to the world of men. Jojan remained beyond the wall forever, one way or another. Hodor [music] died.

[00:24:27]Meera returned. And within her lies everything she saw and endured. The death of her brother, the long journey, and the [music] knowledge of what Bran has become. It's a heavy burden. In the show, her farewell to Bran looks like a farewell to a person who has become something nonhuman. Bran didn't thank her [music] as a person. It was as if he were looking right through her. In the books, her story is [music] still ongoing. And what happens next may prove to be more important than it seems because Meera, unlike her father, has already left the swamps. She has been in the big world. [music] She has seen the war. She has seen the white walkers. She has seen what the blood raven is doing to Bran. She carries this knowledge. And if Howland ever emerges from Gaywater Watch to speak, Meera already knows [music] what to tell him about what happened to his son. And that perhaps is the hardest thing she will ever have to do. Now, let's look at what exactly makes House Reed strategically vital.

[00:25:35]Not just within the scope of a single war, but on the scale of [music] the entire saga. Throughout the war of the five kings, we see nothing but murder, betrayal, and destruction. [music] And at the heart of so much of what unfolds lies the lie about Jon [music] Snow. Robert Baratheon hated the Targaryenss so viscerally that any child with Targaryen blood wouldn't have lasted a day. Ned didn't hide Jon because he enjoyed the deception, but because he had no other choice. But from the moment Robert [music] died and Jon ended up at the wall, the situation began to shift. The secret was still necessary. [music] It was still dangerous. Especially with Cersei around, ready to destroy any potential claimant. If Howland Reed had stepped out of his moving castle and declared the truth, the entire balance of power [music] would have shifted instantly. As the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, [music] Jon is simultaneously the heir to two of the greatest houses in Westeros. His claim to [music] the throne supersedes Daenerys's by direct line. His parentage makes him a contender who cannot be [music] easily ignored. This knowledge is the nuclear weapon that Howland keeps [music] hidden in the swamps of the neck. And that is precisely why in a world where information kills, the silence of the reeds is more valuable than any army. Look at it [music] from another angle. Roose Bolton, the new warden of the north after the red wedding, is terrified of the cranagmen.

[00:27:08]He travels through the neck in [music] a carriage with a body double, fearing an ambush. A man who trusts only cold, hard calculation [music] doesn't try to recruit them or wipe them out. He simply tries to avoid being within their reach.

[00:27:22]That speaks [music] volumes. A house without knights or castle walls forces one of the north's smartest [music] political players to change his routes.

[00:27:31]It's worth drawing a parallel. There are other keepers of knowledge in the saga.

[00:27:37]The citadel with its maesters, the faceless men in Braavos, the blood raven beyond the wall. They all hold knowledge, but each in their own way.

[00:27:47]The maesters systematize and control access.

[00:27:50]>> [music] >> The Faceless Men treat death as a technology. The Blood Raven preserves the past through the trees. [music] The reeds preserve it differently, not in stone or in trees, but in the living memory of a man who was personally there when the pivotal events took place. And that makes their knowledge fundamentally different. [music] Stone can be destroyed, trees can be felled, but as long as Howland is alive, the truth is alive. Because the neck belongs to the reeds and if the reeds decide that someone shall not pass, they will not pass. The Cranog men remember the children of the forest. This isn't a metaphor or some romantic notion.

[00:28:33][music] It's a literal statement about the nature of their magic and their memory. While the north has forgotten [music] the essence of the old gods and turned them into mere ritual, the Kranog men have kept something alive. Jojan possessed [music] the green sight not because he studied for it, but because he was born with it. After nearly dying as a child, he was visited by the three-eyed crow. The very same crow that appeared in Bran's [music] dreams. The same one that turns out to be the blood raven beyond the wall. This implies [music] the following. The blood raven knew about Jojan long before he reached the cave. That Jojan [music] was part of the plan. to send the children to Bran to awaken his abilities and to [music] guide him in the right direction.

[00:29:18]Howland Reed, having spent a winter with the green men on the aisle of faces, might have received something like [music] instructions back then, or at least an understanding of what had to happen, that his son carried the seed of the site and [music] at the right moment had to go where he was needed. This is a fan interpretation, a theory in its purest form. Martin hasn't laid these connections out explicitly in the text, but the architecture [music] of the saga hints at such a structure persistently enough that it cannot be [music] entirely ignored. And there is another fact that many overlook. The oath that Meera [music] and Jojan swear when they meet Bran is different from the standard northern vassel oath. The standard oath [music] mentions the old gods or the gods of the seven. The reed's oath goes like this. We swear this [music] on ice and fire. Ice and fire, the two words that make [music] up the title of the entire series. A small swamp house, never one to reach for power, utters this specific oath. Martin doesn't do accidental details. This is either a deliberate nod to the nature of the whole story or a hint that the Cranigman understand the essence of what is happening far better than any other player in this game. If you look at House Reed not as a minor vassel house without ambition, but as what it truly [music] is, everything falls into place.

[00:30:47]A repository of memory, a bridge between the world of living gods and a world that has forgotten them. a strategic point without which the north is exposed from the south and the only living witness to the secret that changed history. Each of these elements is important on its own. Together, [music] they make the reads one of the most significant houses in the saga despite [music] being neither seen nor heard. In Martin's universe, there are many houses striving for power. The Lannisters, Targaryenss, Baratheonss, Tyrells, they all play the game of thrones. The Reeds do not play [music] it. Their game is different. Not who will sit on the throne, but who will survive when the game ends and winter comes. The red [music] thread of House Reed runs through their entire history. Silence [music] as a weapon, not the silence of cowardice or indifference. Silence as a conscious choice by people who understand that what they are guarding is more important than any fleeting [music] victory. Howland could have stepped out at any moment after Ned's death and declared the truth. That would have changed the war. But he didn't because he knew that the timing of the [music] announcement matters just as much as the announcement itself. And because the Cranogen live by a different clock than the kings and lords who are always in such a rush. Their castle floats. Their ancestors [music] remember what others have forgotten.

[00:32:20]Their children see the [music] future.

[00:32:23]Their Lord knows a secret that turns everything on its head. These aren't coincidences.

[00:32:30]This is a house built to preserve, to endure, and [music] to know that the truth does not disappear. It only waits for its time. There is a theory that has existed [music] among book fans for a long time. Howland will yet appear in the unfinished novels. that he will be the one to finally [music] tell Jon or someone else the whole truth about the Tower of Joy, that the floating [music] castle of Gaywater Watch will eventually be found because it will allow itself to be [music] found. It's a theory, but it's based on a solid understanding of how Martin builds his plots. Nothing is random. Every detail works, [music] and a character the author consciously hides behind the horizon appears at the most critical moment. And think about this.

[00:33:17]Throughout the entire main saga, Howland hasn't gone anywhere. He is sitting in Graywater Watch, waiting. The war of the five kings rages. The Red Wedding happens. The [music] Bolton sees the North and he remains silent because his place is not in this war. His war is different. And when his moment comes, he will emerge from the swamps [music] just as he always has, unexpectedly and decisively. To sum up, at the beginning of this analysis, I said that House Reed guards a secret upon which everything depends. Now you can see how literal that is. Not one secret, several. The story of the night of the laughing tree, which Ned didn't dare [music] tell his children. The night on the aisle of faces, which Howland never shared with anyone, perhaps except his own children.

[00:34:09]The Tower of Joy and Lyanna's child. The Cranogman didn't just help the Starks.

[00:34:15]They preserved the very possibility that the history of the North [music] would in the end be about something more than just another war for the throne. Think about it from this perspective. When Ned died on the block in King's Landing, the possibility [music] of the truth about Jon being spoken from his lips died with him. Everything Ned carried [music] within him went with him, except for one thing. In Gaywater Watch, in a castle that cannot be found, sat a man who knew. That, if you think about it, is the [music] most important fact about House Reed. They survive catastrophes because they aren't where the catastrophes are happening. They survive because they know how to wait. And the truth they guard survives along with them. While the great houses slaughter one another, the Cranigman stand guard over the secrets that determine whether this war has any meaning at all. While the North forgets [music] its gods and turns them into mere setdressing, the Cranicman remember [music] that something living hides behind those wooden faces. While knights build their reputations on the battlefield, Howland Reed sits in a castle that cannot [music] be found, guarding something more important than any reputation. A small swamp house with no motto, [music] no claim to the throne, no knights and no gold. A castle that cannot be found.

[00:35:41]Children with green [music] eyes. And a secret capable of turning Westeros upside down. That is why House [music] Reed is one of the most underrated and most important houses in the entire saga. Because in a world where [music] everyone is shouting, the most important information is kept by those who remain silent. Let me know in [music] the comments. Do you think Howland Reed will appear in the final books? And when he finally speaks, what exactly will he say? Subscribe so you [music] don't miss the next breakdown.