[Spoilers EXTENDED] Is Bronn …… Howland Reed?

Bear with me here.

Bronn always stood out to me. He’s a deadly and brutal fighter, he’s well spoken and seems to have an instinct for politics that a common-born sell sword just wouldn’t. He sort of fell into the clutches of the Lannisters after the Blackwater, but then not only outsmarted Cersei but has used their maneuvering to apparently take control of the two most vital land holdings around the capital. If you back up and look at him from afar, he looks like a rather ingenious man who’s hiding his true motives and most of what he actually knows while working toward some secret larger goal.

At first I thought he was just a complex character, but then I noticed something. Howland Reed is set up as perhaps Ned Stark’s best friend (besides Robert and in the North). At the very least, Ned seemed to really trust and respect him due to things he’d seen Howland do. Ned tells Bran outright that Reed saved him from Arthur Dayne, and if I had to bet in anything in the show being taken directly from Martin’s plans for the unpublished books it’d be Howland Reed stabbing Ser Arthur in the back to save Ned. Reed and his Crannogmen are described as hard-living people who prefer to kill from afar and are extremely stealthy and cunning. I envision Reed as the shrewd but loyal friend who would’ve pushed Ned to be more strategic and less forgiving.

When the northern lords gather in ACOK, Howland Reed’s children arrive and basically take up station guarding Bran and protecting him while he pursues his destiny beyond the wall. Given that Ned was so close to Reed, you’d think that Reed would’ve made an appearance at Winterfell or, better, joined Rob on the march. We’re only told that Howland hasn’t left Greywater Watch since he and Ned returned from Dorne, which is extremely strange in itself. Note that this means that none of the main characters knows what he now looks like in the timeline of the books.

I didn’t think of it at first, but George’s hints tend to be kind of in-your-face, hidden in plane sight. Bronn is a gifted archer (Crannogmen are deadly with poisoned arrows) who is dubbed Bronn of the Blackwater. Dark water is the hallmark of the Neck and of Crannogmen culture. Since Bronn arrived in King’s Landing, he’s exercised the good sense to play all corners against the middle and has swiftly gained control of a position that could easily allow him to decide who sits the Iron Throne in the end. I can’t buy a man with Bronn’s sense and personality being simply a sell sword whose world revolves around a “Me want castle and pretty noble wench!” mentality. Sure, he could just be a singularly smart and well-travelled guy, but that wouldn’t groove with his wanting to rise so swiftly into tedious politics.

On the other hand, if we imagine that he might be Ned Stark’s loyal friend who’s come in disguise to avenge Ned and save the realm by playing the game that Ned wouldn’t play, it all makes a lot more sense. Howland may have calculated that Rob wouldn’t be able to outmaneuver the Lannisters in the end. Since no one knew his face, he could’ve dispatched his kids to protect the Stark family as best as they could while he went south to assess the situation. His arc began with him escorting Ned’s wife to safety, once she was in the Veil he used Tyrion as a means of ducking into the Lannisters’ employ and then becoming a leading figure in the capital. Now, he has Cersei and Tommen at the point of his sword and could throw the doors of the realm open to anyone. Notice that his kids also went north with Bran, making it possible that they could rendezvous with Jon Snow. If Jon is Rhaegar and Leanna’s son, Howland Reed is the only one who knows it.

I always felt they Ned and possibly others had a long-term plan for Jon and were waiting to get certain things in place. Maybe Howland Reed has arranged to have control of the capital to make way for Aunt Daenarys and her dragons to slay the usurpers so that he can reveal her nephew and the two could marry and rule as the Targaeryans reborn?

Thoughts?