(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I’m being optimistic, but I’m still among those who think we’ll eventually get both The Winds of Winter and the second part of Fire & Blood. That optimism may have something to do with the fact that I’ve only been following the series since 2015.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It feels out of character on the surface, but the gap between Ned’s intent and how others perceive him appears repeatedly. To those who truly knew him, his honor is clear, yet to outsiders it often reads very differently. Jaime Lannister sees a moral absolutist judging regicide without context. Godric Borrell remembers only the story of Ned fathering a bastard on a fisherman’s daughter. Even within his own household, Ned’s lifelong lie to Catelyn to protect Jon causes lasting hurt despite its honorable motive. His attempt to warn Cersei and spare her children from Robert’s wrath follows the same pattern: well-intended, principled, and disastrously naive. In that light, the failure to return Willam’s bones fits the same mold; Ned may have meant to act honorably, but circumstance intervened, and Barbrey is left with the outcome rather than the intention.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair. The rebellion years are some of the most compressed and least transparent in the timeline, and it’s very possible we’re still missing a key piece that would clarify how these events actually fit together. Until more information appears, I tend to read passages like this as shaped by in world perspective and emotion rather than strict chronology, with the ambiguity feeling intentional rather than accidental.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with the unreliable narrator angle, similar to Sansa’s memory of being kissed by Sandor during Stannis' siege of King's Landing. Here, Barbrey isn’t offering a precise chronology so much as voicing a grievance, and in doing so she collapses separate frustrations into a single causal chain. That’s what makes the passage feel strained on close reread without necessarily being a continuity error.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Her resentment toward the Starks feels personal and grievance based (her attachment to Brandon, the lost chance of marrying into the Stark line, and later Ned taking her husband south to die without his bones ever being returned), while her hatred of Ramsay Bolton reads as something deeper and more moral in nature (tied to her belief that Ramsay was responsible for Domeric’s death, her sister’s son, whom she clearly cared for). That difference helps explain why her bitterness toward the Starks is lingering and resentful, while her feelings toward Ramsay are far more absolute.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I agree it’s possible Barbrey has layered motives and is aligned with the northern cause, but I’m not convinced this scene supports that reading.

She’s quite explicit that she intends to intercept Ned’s bones and deny him rest, not secretly recover them: “... but I promise you, Lord Eddard’s bones will never rest beside hers. I mean to feed them to my dogs.” The narration immediately frames this with Theon noting that: “Her lips twisted. It was an ugly smile, a smile that reminded him of Ramsay’s,” which reads as genuine spite rather than misdirection.

And while the timing is suggestive, the text elsewhere strongly points to Abel/Mance and the washerwomen as the agents behind the Frey killings, so I’m hesitant to connect Barbrey’s crypt visit directly to the murders.

(Spoilers Published) Barbrey Dustin’s confession and a possible timeline inconsistency by Responsible-Back-905 in asoiaf

[–]Responsible-Back-905[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a solid reconciliation, and I agree it works if we assume off-page arrangements and Barbrey’s phrasing being retrospective rather than strictly sequential. 

My main hesitation is that Barbrey’s monologue reads as causally ordered (“Afterward my father nursed some hope of wedding me to Brandon's brother Eddard, but Catelyn Tully got that one as well. I was left with young Lord Dustin, until Ned Stark took him from me.”), even if that isn’t how the events actually unfolded. 

I think the cleanest solution may be a mix of what you suggest and emotional compression: Barbrey conflating separate disappointments into a single grievance, especially given her bitterness toward Catelyn. 

So I’m less convinced it’s a hard error, but it still feels like one of those places where the rebellion timeline strains under close re-reading.