To understand this, I think it’s important to understand what I believe is Arthur Dayne’s backstory. In my mind, however, the why is in the backstories of the two. Rhaegar and Arthur each bore a burden of ancestral mythical legacy, and I think the prince’s recognition of that drew him to the Sword of the Morning. He obviously did - Barristan, not only an eyewitness but a fellow Kingsguard knight, someone who would have seen Rhaegar and Arthur more than perhaps anyone else, comments as much - but the why is still unclear. This is something I’ve mentioned in passing before, but I’ve never written full out: why I think Rhaegar felt so close to Arthur Dayne. The Prince of Dragonstone had never trusted him as he had trusted Arthur Dayne. Perhaps by now he should have grown used to such things. Young Lord Connington was dear to the prince as well, but his oldest friend was Arthur Dayne.” When they won their spurs, he knighted them himself, and they remained his close companions. Myles Mooton was Prince Rhaegar’s squire, and Richard Lonmouth after him. “Along with a thousand others at some harvest feast.