Hey YouTubers, it's Charlie! So, a lot of you guys requested an Arthur Dayne video,
so this is going to be a little bit of the history of House Dayne,
but mostly focusing on Arthur Dayne's life up to Robert's Rebellion.
He's not a character that's alive on the show right now,
and we haven't even really seen that much from House Dayne,
but he's just one of those characters that ties a lot of things together --
a lot of historical events and a lot of stuff that's going on in present day.
So there's hope that the TV show might do his character in some way.
Most of the times when we hear about him,
it's when characters are talking about him in past tense,
like Catelyn Stark or Jaime Lannister.
Jaime Lannister almost worships the ground that he walked on,
because when he first joined the Kingsguard, Arthur Dayne was the one who taught him to fight.
So Jaime Lannister was like one of the best swordsmen in the realm,
you know, before he lost his sword hand,
then Arthur Dayne is that much better.
So not only does the fandom hype him up,
other characters inside the narrative hype him up.
But just going back into the history of House Dayne first,
just to add some context --
The legend goes that 10.000 years ago,
a First Man, the creator of House Dayne,
saw a meteor fall to earth near the Torrentine river here,
used it to forge their ancestral blade called Dawn,
and built Starfall, their ancestral home on the site.
Their family ruled over that area for thousands of years
until Nymeria's war, about 700 BC.
That's the 10.000 ships
when Queen Nymeria brought her people and conquered Dorne.
House Dayne was defeated and thereafter they were bound to service to the Martells
For history buffs, Queen Nymeria took a Dayne for her third husband,
But the reason that House Martell went on to rule Dorne
is because her oldest daughter succeded her, and she was born of a Martell.
But even though the Daynes are bannermen to House Martell
they're still a legendary House.
They go all the way back to the First Men,
all the way back to the building of the Wall.
Because of that, they actually look like the rest of the people in Westeros,
just very pale-skinned.
The show always plays it fast and loose with the way characters look,
depending on which area they're from,
but the Rhoynish people generally look like this.
Really the biggest thing that people talk about, when they talk about Arthur Dayne,
is his sword.
His title is "Sword of the Morning".
It's part of their family's tradition, that they pass their sword down
to the most worthy person.
It's a lot like Thor's hammer.
"Let he who be worthy wield this blade."
Not a lot is known about the meteorite metal that the blade is made of,
only that it's just as strong as Valyrian Steel,
but it's a completely different metal.
Currently in the story there's no one wielding the blade; it just resides at their family's home at Starfall.
Ned Stark took it there after Artur Dayne died during Robert's rebellion.
There are other Daynes that are alive right now,
but no one is wielding it, because none of them have been deemed worthy.
Edric Dayne is the current Lord of the House, but he's only about 12 years old.
He's another character that we haven't seen on the show yet,
but in the books he's part of the Brotherhood Without Banners,
so if he would have been on the show, we would have seen him whenever Arya ran into them.
There are really two big events in Arthur Dayne's life
that are significant to what's been going on on the show so far.
There's the Smiling Knight, which is a big event in Jamie Lannister's personal history,
and then there's the Tower of Joy,
which is a HUGE nexus for rumors, but is like a big personal event in Ned Stark's history.
The Smiling Knight is a really infamous outlaw that Jamie calls the Mountain of his youth.
So, when you think of the Smiling Knight, just think of Franken-Mountain here.
The knight was causing all kinds of trouble, so the Kingsguard were ordered to put him down.
You see how events in history repeat themselves a little bit.
So Jamie almost got his head squished like a grape, just like Oberyn Martell did.
Arthur Dayne rides in, saves him, then defeats the Smiling Knight in the swordfight.
So, when you picture Arthur Dayne, think of someone so badass with a sword,
that they could take Franken-Mountain down.
The Tower of Joy incident happened years after that.
That was during Robert's Rebellion -- towards the end of that.
So, as a Kingsguard, Arthur Dayne became a really close personal friend --
like THE closest friend -- of Rhaegar Targaryen.
So, regardless of Rhaegar's actions or his motives for capturing Lyanna Stark,
Arthur followed him around, protecting him everywhere.
And when Rhaegar was called away to lead the Mad King's forces at the Trident,
he left Arthur Dayne behind at the Tower of Joy to protect Lyanna Stark.
Ned Stark and Howland Reed found out she was there, went to rescue her,
ended up killing Arthur Dayne -- Ned Stark killed Arthur Dayne --
and they found Lyanna dying, surrounded by her own blood.
This sequence of events sets the stage for a lot of the Jon Snow's mother tin-foil theories.
I've already done a video on Lyanna Stark, so I'll put a link for it in the description,
if you want to learn more about that.
But even though he ended up killing him, Ned Stark still called Arthur Dayne
the finest knight that he ever knew.
He was just a legendary knight with a legendary sword.
Currently, the TV show is trying to cast a character for season six that meets his description.
but that's not confirmed; like, we don't know that they're doing Arthur Dayne.
It just says that the actor they're looking for is a legendary knight with a legendary sword.
And in real life, the actor that they cast needs to be AMAZING with a sword.
So, presumably, whoever they cast is going to be doing some really badass sword-fighting
with a really legendary sword.
Whether or not it's in a flashback, we have no idea.
So, the hope is that they'll announce who this character is at Comic-Con;
but because Comic-Con is happening a couple of weeks earlier this year,
it's possible that they haven't found any of these actors yet.
Usually, Game of Thrones shows off a casting reel every year at Comic-Con,
like, "Here are the five or six big characters that we've cast."
So, everybody cross their fingers that we find out who the big five or fix new people are.
My big question for you is: Do you think that they're casting Arthur Dayne?
And do you think that we'll ever see his legendary sword Dawn on the show?
One way or the other, we're going to find out by next Friday;
that's when the Game of Thrones panel is going to be.
I'm going to do like a separate Comic-Con preview, where I explain like who they're bringing, you know,
what's going to be going on -- when I'm going to be posting those videos --
I'll record the panel, and if they do release any kind of trailer or anything like that,
I'll totally do videos for that, too.
So, be sure to subscribe to get everything. I'll be doing a giveaway during that week,
but because I'm not going to do a Q&A tomorrow, because I'm doing the Comic-Con preview instead,
I'll announce this week's winner right now.
So, congratulations to Zealot: you win a $20 Amazon gift card;
just be sure to private message me on my channel so I can get your contact info.
Just for reference, I'm going to be doing a bunch of giveaways next week,
most of the videos I post will be Comic-Con related, so I'll make a special Comic-Con playlist on my home page.
It's going to go all the way from Wednesday to Sunday,
so there'll be about like 14 or 15 videos that I should be posting from that.
My Game of Thrones explainer should post by Tuesday, so just keep your eyes peeled for that.
While you guys wait for all the madness to start, all those videos to post,
you can click here to learn all about resurrection in A Song of Ice and Fire,
and you can click here to learn all about House Tyrell.
Thank you so much for watching, everybody! Let's high five; I'll see you guys tonight!