Friday, August 4, 2017

Does Cersei have a mole? OR is Euron just that fucking good?

Much has been discussed in Game of Thrones fan circles of just who is working as a mole for Cersei in Dany's camp after the Tyrion-led offenses have both met disastrous ends, but it keeps being ignored who exactly executed the first blow, completely on their own, and may be responsible for even more: Euron Greyjoy.

Let's look.


Destroying Dany's Fleet in the Night


Euron left Cersei at the throne with a promise that he'd prove himself to her, that he'd bring her a gift that would prove his value to her. It wasn't on Cersei's command, and it wasn't with information that Cersei had gathered and given to him via some mole, it was with what he already knew. Somehow (we'll guess later), he knew where his stolen fleet was, led by his niece Yara for Dany, and somehow he knew Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes, "The Gift", were along for the ride.


So Euron tracks the fleet down, destroys it, then takes Yara, Ellaria and Sand Snake Tyrene captive and heads back to King's Landing, then hands over the Sands to Cersei. 

Now on to Dany's next defeat.


Casterly Rock


So, yet again, Tyrion's offense is masterfully defeated when Dany's forces sail up to Casterly Rock only to find that it has been abandoned, and are then attacked by new Team Cersei Navy man Euron on the sea just off The Rock. So it has to be a mole this time, right? Nope.

The plans to sail part of Dany's fleet down to Dorne to pick up forces, and also to sail around Westeros to sack Casterly Rock were both laid out on Dragonstone at the same time. So it's safe to assume that members of the fleet who were sacked by Euron at night during the first attack knew of the Casterly Rock plan. A little bit of interrogating, torture, or “save my own ass so I'll start squealing” later, and Euron has even more information on Dany and Tyrion's plans.

Hi Cersei. Here is your gift....oh, and Casterly Rock is next.” -Euron Grayjoy...probably.

But how'd he know about the whereabouts of his stolen fleet and the Sands in the first place?

First of all, this is fiction, “Fantasy”, so there will be no perfectly logical explanations, but we can make a pretty good guess of just how Euron was able to figure things out before his first attack during the night, no matter how far-fetched (or not).

Number one, he has probably been looking for his stolen fleet for quite some time, and may have been on their trail since not too long after they left Mereen with Dany and her forces. Coming across different merchants etc..., Euron may have gotten news of a large fleet of ships heading toward Dragonstone/Westeros. 

What seems certain at this point is that he already knew where the fleet was, and who would be within the fleet when he promised Cersei her gift. How he gained that information can easily be explained away by the geography surrounding these events:

Euron meets Cersei in King's Landing. King's Landing rests along Blackwater Bay. To enter Blackwater Bay from the sea to the East, you come very close to Dragonstone. By this, we can assume it possible that scouts from Euron's fleet spotted Dany's fleet at Dragonstone. Upon relaying this information back to Euron, a plan could have been hatched to have some of Euron's Ironborn infiltrate Yara's Ironborn at Dragonstone and gather information.

From whatever information we can assume Euron could have gathered, he continued on to King's Landing knowing he still had time and that Dany's fleet would not yet depart for Dorne. He made his promises to Cersei, then went and capitalized.

...or maybe Cersei has a mole in Dany's camp.


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