The A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 finale throws a fun little surprise at fans who have been watching the series and wondering if there’s a deeper significance to “Red” (Rowan Robinson), the clever sex worker who follows Ser Duncan the Tall’s (Peter Claffey) rise at the Tourney at Ashford. Is she connected to someone in George R.R. Martin‘s books? Is there a reason why she’s in Ser Manfred Dondarrion’s (Daniel Monk) camp? Could she even secretly be Lady Rohanne Webber, a pivotal character in the second Dunk and Egg novella, The Sworn Sword?
**Spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 “The Morrow,” now streaming on HBO Max**
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 “The Morrow” reveals that “Red” actually winds up marrying Ser Duncan’s best friend and staunchest ally, Ser Raymun Fossaway (Shaun Thomas). This makes her Lady Rowan Fossaway, the mother of the Green Apple Fossoway line.
Apparently, while Dunk was passed out, she tended to Ser Raymun’s wounds. “One thing led to another,” they had sex, and then got married.
“Look, there’s a lot of stuff that happens off-screen because obviously we’re just solely in Dunk’s POV, but what I really love doing is making up whole backstories of what the characters would have done,” A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker told DECIDER, before spinning the tale.
“So like, Raymun Fossaway, after he is on the winning side of a Trial of Seven, the first in one hundred years — you know, he was knighted on that day! — he’s got to be feeling pretty darn fucking good with himself. But he doesn’t have anybody. He doesn’t have a squire, you know?” Parker said.
“Red’s watching this tournament and she’s maybe fallen out a little bit with Sir Manford and she sees this cute young guy who’s just done a pretty good job out there,” Parker continued. “You know, the idea that she would go to him feels so natural and he is like Dunk. He’s so guileless and he’s so innocent.”
Parker even went so far as to suggest that Ser Raymun may not even know what sex is. “He’s so sincere that I believe that as soon as they have sex once and she says, ‘You know, I’m with child now.’ He says, ‘Well, of course you are because that’s just how sex works. And so we have to get married.’”
“Again, it’s all coming out of character. You know, this great long back story of what happened that night for him, it has happened in the wings. We only get a little snippet of it through Dunk, which I think is a lot of fun.”
Okay, but will Rowan go on to become Rohanne Webber? Is that fan theory correct? And what significance does the name Rowan have in the world of Game of Thrones? Here’s what you need to know about Red’s new name…
Why Does Red Change Her Name to Rowan In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Besides spelling out what went down off-screen between Rowan and Raymun, Ira Parker also explained a little bit about her name change.
“Rowan is the more formal ladylike version of Red,” he said, implying that she changed it and her persona at once.
The name Rowan has a fun, triple significance here. Rowan literally means red or the “little red one” in Irish Gaelic. It could simply be a nod to Red picking a fancier version of her own name.
Rowan is coincidentally the first name of the actress who plays Lady Rowan Fossaway. So Parker might have “borrowed” the name from actress Rowan Robinson.
Of course, there’s another big Easter egg in the name Rowan. The Fossoways are one of many old families in Westeros who claim to be direct descendants of Garth the Green, a sort of fertility god/folk hero who was allegedly the king who led the First Men to Westeros in the first place. He also taught the early settlers of Westeros the secrets of agriculture. Oh, and because he’s a fertility god, he had lots and lots of children, all of whom also are mythic characters.
House Fossoway claims to be direct descendants of Foss the Archer, who would shoot apples off of the heads of ladies and maids he was attracted to.
Another one of Garth’s children? Rowan Gold-Tree. She was jilted by a lover who left her for a richer woman so she wrapped her gold hair around an apple, buried it in the ground, and up sprung a golden tree whose bark and fruit were yellow.
So “Lady Rowan Fossoway” sounds very fitting for the matriarch of a new Fossoway line planning to make their fortunes with apple orchards.
“It’s also just hopeful to me,” Parker said. “You know, that the Green Apple Fossaways were founded with an up-jumped squire and a prostitute. Nobody’s ever going to know after this.”
“Anyway, it seemed like fun and when I pitched it to George, he laughed. So it was a positive sign.”
Is Red, or Lady Rowan Fossaway, Secretly Lady Rohanne Webber?
Uh, probably not. First, Parker told DECIDER that he created the character of Red because “Dunk’s journey has to be a reflection of the people that he would have access to” at the beginning of the show.
“Even the prostitutes are a much higher social rung above Dunk, who is barely passing for a knight, if at all, in this moment,” Parker said. “Then…I just started liking them.”
Okay, but should Ser Raymun fans be concerned that Rowan will kill him and use the Fossoway name to land a richer husband? Could she rebrand herself down the road as the “Red Widow,” Lady Rohanne Webber?
Well, besides confirming that Red/Rowan is an original character he just kept rooting for, Parker literally referenced the Red Widow as a new character we’ll meet in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 while answering a question about magic in his show.
“Look, at the moment, magic is at an all-time low. It’s not that it’s totally gone from this world. It’s just at its least powerful in these realms,” Parker said. “Obviously you get into Season 2 and it plays a little bit more of a role because we talk about the Red Widow and whether or not she actually has blood magic.”
Parker clearly sees Rowan and Rohanne as different characters, even if they are both seductive, short, redheaded women in Westeros.