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[[Sansa's Storyline is Coming to an Early Close.]]
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[[Sansa's Storyline is Coming to an Early Close.]]
Sansa has a few fleeting POVs in "A Feast for Crows" and doesn't really do much, and despite being a main character, doesn't appear at all in "A Dance with Dragons," a book that included every major surviving POV from the entire series (minor POVs like Brienne and Aeron were cut.) Mysteriously, the Eyrie was barely even mentioned. It seems that George is saving Sansa's chapters for later. It's likely that after the major development that happens late in "'Feast" that Sansa's role in the plot is nearly fulfilled. Her whole story was about her being a pawn in the game. Now that she's a player, she won't have much left to do other than make a few plot-affecting decisions before her few loose ends are wrapped up. Her detachment from the Others problem or the Iron Throne squabble might mean that her story will end on a personal note, since Sansa's storyline was always more about what she goes through than the goings-on around Westeros.
Sansa has a few fleeting POVs in "A Feast for Crows" and doesn't really do much, and despite being a main character, doesn't appear at all in "A Dance with Dragons," a book that included every major surviving POV from the entire series (minor POVs like Brienne and Aeron were cut.) Mysteriously, the Eyrie was barely even mentioned. It seems that George is saving Sansa's chapters for later. It's likely that after the major development that happens late in "'Feast" that Sansa's role in the plot is nearly fulfilled. Her whole story was about her being a pawn in the game. Now that she's a player, she won't have much left to do other than make a few plot-affecting decisions before her few loose ends are wrapped up. Her detachment from the Others problem or the Iron Throne squabble might mean that her story will end on a personal note, since Sansa's storyline was always more about what she goes through than the goings-on around Westeros.
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This is how Dany is going to achieve control of one of, if not all 3 of her dragons. If you can warg into a human, why not a dragon? It'd be the perfect way to have Bran's superwarging abilities be not only important, but pivotal to the plot, indebt Dany to the Starks, who she restores, and once more let him fly. Only in a FAR more awesome way than a raven.
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This is how Dany is going to achieve control of one of, if not all 3 of her dragons. If you can warg into a human, why not a dragon? It'd be the perfect way to have Bran's superwarging abilities be not only important, but pivotal to the plot, indebt Dany to the Starks, who she restores, and once more let him fly. Only in a FAR more awesome way than a raven.raven.
[[WMG: Stannis will take Winterfell.]]
* Stannis is in his natural environment at the end of "A Dance with Dragons," outnumbered and surrounded by enemies. This is the guy who defeated Victarion Greyjoy (someone even iron-balled Robb Stark feared) at sea, survived the siege of Storm's End and nearly took King's Landing. As of where the book left off, he was frustrated, but not discouraged. And does someone as undisciplined as Ramsay Snow really have what it takes to stand up against someone like Stannis Baratheon? Really?
With his bro Davos off picking up a Stark, their storylines will reconnect fittingly by book 7 if Winterfell ends up in Baratheon hands.
[[WMG: Stannis will take Winterfell.]]
* Stannis is in his natural environment at the end of "A Dance with Dragons," outnumbered and surrounded by enemies. This is the guy who defeated Victarion Greyjoy (someone even iron-balled Robb Stark feared) at sea, survived the siege of Storm's End and nearly took King's Landing. As of where the book left off, he was frustrated, but not discouraged. And does someone as undisciplined as Ramsay Snow really have what it takes to stand up against someone like Stannis Baratheon? Really?
With his bro Davos off picking up a Stark, their storylines will reconnect fittingly by book 7 if Winterfell ends up in Baratheon hands.
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[[WMG:Bran's going to warg into a dragon]]
This is how Dany is going to achieve control of one of, if not all 3 of her dragons. If you can warg into a human, why not a dragon? It'd be the perfect way to have Bran's superwarging abilities be not only important, but pivotal to the plot, indebt Dany to the Starks, who she restores, and once more let him fly. Only in a FAR more awesome way than a raven.
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* Done -- Winterfell has (er... had) glass gardens. In our world, greenhouses date back to the middle ages.
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* Done -- Winterfell has (er... had) glass gardens. In our world, greenhouses date back to the middle ages.
ages. In Book V, Jon even wonders what would be entailed in building glass gardens at Castle Black.
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** As for the "old" dragon, the Elder Brother on the Quiet Isle could be Rhaegar.
** Or it refers to Maester Aemon, who refused the kingship but was a Targaryen nonetheless.
** Or it refers to Maester Aemon, who refused the kingship but was a Targaryen nonetheless.
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** As for the "old" dragon, the Elder Brother on the Quiet Isle is really Rhaegar.
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**** Shall we start a list? The wildlings: if Jon is indeed [[spoiler:out of the picture - and even if he's not dead, I don't think he's gonna be Lord Commander any more -]] then they're in an interesting position. Euron Greyjoy: he'd probably do it just to see what happened. The Others/a wight under their control. Jon ([[spoiler:if he survives]]): he doesn't want to keep the wildlings out, and maybe he'll think the Wall won't keep the Others out and that having it divide the Westerosi and the wildlings will just make it harder to fight the real enemy. And of course, let's not forget Someone Who Thinks It's Just A Horn: who says they have to ''want'' to bring the Wall down? Anyone I missed?
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*** The Dragonbinder is certainly magical, but whether it will do what Euron thinks it will remains to be seen. Of course, in this series people wielding magic rarely get exactly what they plan. If Sam's horn really is the Horn of Winter (and it seems likely that it is), one wonders what future role it might play in the series. At this point, who desires to destroy the Wall?
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-->'''"There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes"'''
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[[WMG:There is no specific Azor Ahai - anyone who rides a dragon will be Azor Ahai]]
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[[WMG:There is no specific Azor Ahai - anyone who rides a dragon "clasps Lightbringer" will be Azor Ahai]]Ahai]]
This is linked to the above WMG, and assumes that Dany's dragons = Lightbringer. However, this basic theory still holds true for whatever you believe to be Lightbringer.
The prophecy itself:
-->''"There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him."''
The prophecy goes into great detail about how and when a sword(/weapon) will be forged. However, nowhere does it say that Azor Ahai will be the one to forge it. It simply says that "a warrior" will draw a sword from the flames. The sword is Lightbringer, and "he who clasps [Lightbringer] shall be Azor Ahai come again". So literally, "he who holds Lightbringer is Azor Ahai". Now assuming that the three dragons are Lightbringer, this means that anyone who rides the dragons are Azor Ahai. There is no specific chosen one(s), anyone can be Azor Ahai, solely by virtue of "clasping [Lightbringer]".
This is linked to the above WMG, and assumes that Dany's dragons = Lightbringer. However, this basic theory still holds true for whatever you believe to be Lightbringer.
The prophecy itself:
-->''"There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him."''
The prophecy goes into great detail about how and when a sword(/weapon) will be forged. However, nowhere does it say that Azor Ahai will be the one to forge it. It simply says that "a warrior" will draw a sword from the flames. The sword is Lightbringer, and "he who clasps [Lightbringer] shall be Azor Ahai come again". So literally, "he who holds Lightbringer is Azor Ahai". Now assuming that the three dragons are Lightbringer, this means that anyone who rides the dragons are Azor Ahai. There is no specific chosen one(s), anyone can be Azor Ahai, solely by virtue of "clasping [Lightbringer]".
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Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, and Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.
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Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, and Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.direwolf.
[[WMG:The Dragons are collectively Lightbringer.]]
Let's have a look at the prophecy concerning Lightbringer:
-->'''"There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes"'''
* "Sword" is a mistranslation from "weapon". The dragons, particularly in Dance, are referred to repeatedly as weapons.
* Dany's dragons were born right at the end of a long summer, just as autumn started.
* There was a red comet in the sky during their birth ("when the stars bleed")
* Dany literally drew the dragons from a fire.
Plus, the parallels between Azor Ahai's forging of Lightbringer and Dany birthing the dragons are undeniable.
* AA tried to forge the sword twice, but failed - Dany tried to hatch the dragon eggs on a brazier, but failed.
* So AA sacrificed his wife to forge Lightbringer - Dany killed her husband and burned his body on the pyre where the dragons were born. The payment of his life is specifically what allowed the dragons to be born.
[[WMG:There is no specific Azor Ahai - anyone who rides a dragon will be Azor Ahai]]
[[WMG:The Dragons are collectively Lightbringer.]]
Let's have a look at the prophecy concerning Lightbringer:
-->'''"There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes"'''
* "Sword" is a mistranslation from "weapon". The dragons, particularly in Dance, are referred to repeatedly as weapons.
* Dany's dragons were born right at the end of a long summer, just as autumn started.
* There was a red comet in the sky during their birth ("when the stars bleed")
* Dany literally drew the dragons from a fire.
Plus, the parallels between Azor Ahai's forging of Lightbringer and Dany birthing the dragons are undeniable.
* AA tried to forge the sword twice, but failed - Dany tried to hatch the dragon eggs on a brazier, but failed.
* So AA sacrificed his wife to forge Lightbringer - Dany killed her husband and burned his body on the pyre where the dragons were born. The payment of his life is specifically what allowed the dragons to be born.
[[WMG:There is no specific Azor Ahai - anyone who rides a dragon will be Azor Ahai]]
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*More-or-less confirmed, I think (don't have my copies of the books with me so I can't check). I forget which book it was in, but there have been reports of a kraken, though it hasn't yet been involved in a battle or anything history-altering.
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**It killed the last guy who blew it, so it's not a particularly wild guess that it's the real thing. Though, I'm certain that there ''is'' a genuine Horn of Winter - it's already been found and is currently in Sam's possession, probably soon to fall into the hands either of Archmeister Whichever-one-it-was or of Jaqen/Pate.
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(OP here) I abandoned this theory based on the age, but I've come round to it again. I guess it might not be Rhaegar (though he's by far the most likely), and it might not be the Older Brother, but I'm convinced there is a Targaryen - or someone who will be a head of the dragon - on the Quiet Isle. It's the bit about the sign washing up on the isle; [[LawOfConservationOfDetail it's got to be important]]. If that's not a portent, I'm a biscuit.
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***Whether or not Jeyne has escaped, she's not pregnant. Her mother saw to that. She was giving Jeyne some herbal drink, supposedly to make her more fertile, but we know she never wanted the marriage and it would make sense for her ''not'' to want the couple to conceive - it's certainly hard to believe she would work to make it ''more'' likely. So what was the drink? I'll bet you anything you like it was moon tea.
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* Because even if the Others and their wights are turned back, even with Dany and her dragons' issue is finally settled, even if everyone plotting and scheming and murdering and burning and avenging and destroying ends up settled, done, backstabbed, frontstabbed, sidestabbed, and stabbed from every other angle, and there is someone or a few someones still left standing who 'win'...it doesn't matter, because WINTER IS STILL COMING, a long long winter due to how long the summer was, and all the crops and livestock and foodstores and items needed to survive have been destroyed due to all the people playing the game of thrones and their grudges out while all their men rampaged around the continent putting everything mindlessly to the sword, and the survivors will just end up starving and freezing to death, leaving a dead land with just the animals wandering around. Like the BlueOysterCult sang, history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
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* Because even if the Others and their wights are turned back, even with Dany and her dragons' issue is finally settled, even if everyone plotting and scheming and murdering and burning and avenging and destroying ends up settled, done, backstabbed, frontstabbed, sidestabbed, and stabbed from every other angle, and there is someone or a few someones still left standing who 'win'...it doesn't matter, because WINTER IS STILL COMING, a long long winter due to how long the summer was, and all the crops and livestock and foodstores and items needed to survive have been destroyed due to all the people playing the game of thrones and their grudges out while all their men rampaged around the continent putting everything mindlessly to the sword, and the survivors will just end up starving and freezing to death, leaving a dead land with just the animals wandering around. Like the BlueOysterCult Music/BlueOysterCult sang, history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
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Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, drogon, Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.
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Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, drogon, and Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.
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* In contrast to the runaround about the legitimacy of the Horn of Winter, the Horn of Dragons will turn out to be the genuine article and bind Rhaegon and Viserion to Victarion. Luckily, Drogon is beyond its sound. Victarion will return to Westeros will the dragons and Daenerys's next priority will be regaining them from the Ironmen.
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* In contrast to the runaround about the legitimacy of the Horn of Winter, the Horn of Dragons will turn out to be the genuine article and bind Rhaegon and Viserion to Victarion. Luckily, Drogon is beyond its sound. Victarion will return to Westeros will the dragons and Daenerys's next priority will be regaining them from the Ironmen.Ironmen.
[[WMG:If Bran is the third head of the dragon, then Dany will get a direwolf]]
Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, drogon, Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.
[[WMG:If Bran is the third head of the dragon, then Dany will get a direwolf]]
Note this is not a declarative ''Bran is the third head''. To me at this point its just as likely that its Tyrion. Anyways my theory is based on the fact that since the two heads of dragons are Dany and almost certainly Jon, Dany has a dragon, drogon, Jon would have a direwolf and a dragon. Bran, if he is the third head, would also have a direwolf and a dragon. In order to be completely balanced Dany would have to get a direwolf.
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In some sea battle or something, a Kraken will come out of the briney depths and do something. Probably eat a boat or some people in the sea.
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In some sea battle or something, a Kraken will come out of the briney depths and do something. Probably eat a boat or some people in the sea.sea.
[[WMG:The Dragonbinder horn will work]]
* In contrast to the runaround about the legitimacy of the Horn of Winter, the Horn of Dragons will turn out to be the genuine article and bind Rhaegon and Viserion to Victarion. Luckily, Drogon is beyond its sound. Victarion will return to Westeros will the dragons and Daenerys's next priority will be regaining them from the Ironmen.
[[WMG:The Dragonbinder horn will work]]
* In contrast to the runaround about the legitimacy of the Horn of Winter, the Horn of Dragons will turn out to be the genuine article and bind Rhaegon and Viserion to Victarion. Luckily, Drogon is beyond its sound. Victarion will return to Westeros will the dragons and Daenerys's next priority will be regaining them from the Ironmen.
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* Option 3 (not very likely): Hodor's real name is Walder, which is a common Frey name. Lady Stoneheart will try to kill him and will end up killing Bran.
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* Option 3 (not very likely): Hodor's real name is Walder, which is a common Frey name. Lady Stoneheart will try to kill him and will end up killing Bran.Bran.
[[WMG:A Kraken will show up]]
In some sea battle or something, a Kraken will come out of the briney depths and do something. Probably eat a boat or some people in the sea.
[[WMG:A Kraken will show up]]
In some sea battle or something, a Kraken will come out of the briney depths and do something. Probably eat a boat or some people in the sea.
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** I don't think it's all fire they've got immunity to. It's ''dragon'' fire that they can whether... or, at least, any fire with a high dose of whatever magic is in dragon fire. Why? Every fire Dany has walked out of with only crisped hair to show for it has been of that type. To me, it suggests that should, say, any Red Priest try to burn her, they're in for a ''very'' long evening waiting it out: Targaryens who have connected with the family magic ''own'' Blood and Fire magic. Perhaps more than the Priests do.
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** I don't think it's all fire they've got immunity to. to (even though they do all, presumably, have that hot bath thing going on). It's specifically ''dragon'' fire and the associated heat of that that they can whether...weather... or, at least, any fire with a high dose of whatever magic is in dragon fire. Why? Every fire Dany has walked out of with only crisped hair to show for it has been of that type.linked to blood and dragons. To me, it suggests that should, say, any Red Priest try to burn her, they're in for a ''very'' long evening waiting it out: Targaryens who have connected with the family magic ''own'' Blood and Fire magic. Perhaps more than the Priests do.
do. But, I think that's the kicker: they need to work out how to do it, first. Viserys hadn't a snowball's chance in Drogon's strike-range of connecting, imo. Too self-absorbed to get the sacrifice connection.
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** I don't think it's all fire they've got immunity to. It's ''dragon'' fire that they can whether... or, at least, any fire with a high dose of whatever magic is in dragon fire. Why? Every fire Dany has walked out of with only crisped hair to show for it has been of that type. To me, it suggests that should, say, any Red Priest try to burn her, they're in for a ''very'' long evening waiting it out: Targaryens own Blood and Fire. Perhaps more than the Priests do.
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** I don't think it's all fire they've got immunity to. It's ''dragon'' fire that they can whether... or, at least, any fire with a high dose of whatever magic is in dragon fire. Why? Every fire Dany has walked out of with only crisped hair to show for it has been of that type. To me, it suggests that should, say, any Red Priest try to burn her, they're in for a ''very'' long evening waiting it out: Targaryens own who have connected with the family magic ''own'' Blood and Fire.Fire magic. Perhaps more than the Priests do.
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Adding a bit.
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Page II of Wild Mass Guessing for the ASongOfIceAndFire novels. See also [[WMG/ASongOfIceAndFirePartI Page I]].
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* Done -- Winterfell has (er... had) glass gardens. In our world, greenhouses date back to the middle ages.
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[[WMG:Someone will go to the southern hemisphere]]
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[[WMG:Someone will go to the southern hemisphere]]hemisphere]]
[[WMG:Lady Stoneheart will eventually ccause the death of one of her children, which will lead to her breaking down and commiting suicide.]]
* Option 1: Jaime will eventually find Sansa and decide to take her to her mother. When he reaches her, Lady Stoneheart will try to have him killed on sight. Sansa will try to protect him and will end up killed. Another way this to go is for Lady Stoneheart to succeed in killing Jaime, leading to Sansa giving he a WhatTheHellHero.
* Option 2: Lady Stoneheart will decide that Jon Snow is her enemy. At the same time, Arya will be sent to the Wall to kill someone as part of her Faceless Man training. Following what happened to him in aDwD, Jon will be unable to defend himself. Seeing Lady Stoneheart attempt to kill him will re-awaken Arya's personality, and she will die protecting Jon.
* Option 3 (not very likely): Hodor's real name is Walder, which is a common Frey name. Lady Stoneheart will try to kill him and will end up killing Bran.
[[WMG:Lady Stoneheart will eventually ccause the death of one of her children, which will lead to her breaking down and commiting suicide.]]
* Option 1: Jaime will eventually find Sansa and decide to take her to her mother. When he reaches her, Lady Stoneheart will try to have him killed on sight. Sansa will try to protect him and will end up killed. Another way this to go is for Lady Stoneheart to succeed in killing Jaime, leading to Sansa giving he a WhatTheHellHero.
* Option 2: Lady Stoneheart will decide that Jon Snow is her enemy. At the same time, Arya will be sent to the Wall to kill someone as part of her Faceless Man training. Following what happened to him in aDwD, Jon will be unable to defend himself. Seeing Lady Stoneheart attempt to kill him will re-awaken Arya's personality, and she will die protecting Jon.
* Option 3 (not very likely): Hodor's real name is Walder, which is a common Frey name. Lady Stoneheart will try to kill him and will end up killing Bran.
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* The Lannisport branch of House Lannister rises up and tries to replace the main branch.
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* The Lannisport branch of House Lannister rises up and tries to replace the main branch.branch.
[[WMG:The seasons shall be put into order by someone]]
Maybe the Night's Watch, maybe Dany, maybe something else. But something will be done which will set the climate cycle of this world to four seasons per year as by axial tilt.
This will freak a lot of people out
[[WMG:Someone will invent the Greenhouse]]
Do you like starving to death in the dead of a years long winter? Well with a greeenhouse you can add to your food stores.
[[WMG:Someone will go to the southern hemisphere]]
[[WMG:The seasons shall be put into order by someone]]
Maybe the Night's Watch, maybe Dany, maybe something else. But something will be done which will set the climate cycle of this world to four seasons per year as by axial tilt.
This will freak a lot of people out
[[WMG:Someone will invent the Greenhouse]]
Do you like starving to death in the dead of a years long winter? Well with a greeenhouse you can add to your food stores.
[[WMG:Someone will go to the southern hemisphere]]
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Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the Kingsguard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
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Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the Kingsguard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer of Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
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* The Faith Militant jumps on the chance and convinces Lancel to claim Casterly Rock as Kevan's heir. This would really piss off the other Lannisters (and probably many other powerful people in Westeros), since it would de facto mean handing over one of the Seven Kingdoms to the High Septon.
* Cersei tries to rigthfully inherit Casterly Rock. In theory, there would be a pretty good chance to do so, since there are literally no male heirs left (except the mentioned Martyn, and Jaime and Lancel who are sort of unable to claim) in Tywin's family (the closest would be a brother of his father, and it's never even mentioned if Tytos HAD a brother). In practise, we are talking about Cersei, who is almost universally loathed.
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite an uproar.
* Cersei tries to rigthfully inherit Casterly Rock. In theory, there would be a pretty good chance to do so, since there are literally no male heirs left (except the mentioned Martyn, and Jaime and Lancel who are sort of unable to claim) in Tywin's family (the closest would be a brother of his father, and it's never even mentioned if Tytos HAD a brother). In practise, we are talking about Cersei, who is almost universally loathed.
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite an uproar.
to:
* The Faith Militant jumps on the chance and convinces Lancel to claim Casterly Rock as Kevan's heir. This would really piss off the other Lannisters (and Westerlands(and probably many other powerful people in Westeros), since it would de facto mean handing over one of the Seven Kingdoms to the High Septon.
* Cersei tries torigthfully rightfully inherit Casterly Rock. In theory, there would be a pretty good chance to do so, since there are literally no male heirs left (except the mentioned Martyn, and Jaime and Lancel Lancel, who are sort of unable to claim) in Tywin's family (the closest would be a brother of his father, and it's never even mentioned if Tytos HAD a brother). In practise, we are talking about Cersei, who is almost universally loathed.
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite anuproar.uproar.
* The Lannisport branch of House Lannister rises up and tries to replace the main branch.
* Cersei tries to
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite an
* The Lannisport branch of House Lannister rises up and tries to replace the main branch.
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Changed line(s) 967,971 (click to see context) from:
Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the King's Guard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head of the House of Lannister is Kevan's third son, a young squire named Martyn. Does anyone really think he will be able to sustain the claim to the richest house in Westeros without anyone interfering?
So, a few things yould happen:
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion about any candidate the Small Council is backing.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head of the House of Lannister is Kevan's third son, a young squire named Martyn. Does anyone really think he will be able to sustain the claim to the richest house in Westeros without anyone interfering?
So, a few things yould happen:
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion about any candidate the Small Council is backing.
to:
Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the King's Guard.Kingsguard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head ofthe House of Lannister is Kevan's third son, a young squire named Martyn. Does anyone really think he will be able to sustain the claim to the richest house in Westeros without anyone interfering?
So, a few thingsyould could happen:
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion in the Westerlands about any candidate the Small Council isbacking.backing.
* Jaime renounces his status as Kingsguard and places himself as successor to Tywin. Many will see him as most fit to rule, but many will also consider him an oathbreaker (now TWICE, as you are not supposed to retire from the Kingsguard), and not be too keen on him becoming Lord.
* The Faith Militant jumps on the chance and convinces Lancel to claim Casterly Rock as Kevan's heir. This would really piss off the other Lannisters (and probably many other powerful people in Westeros), since it would de facto mean handing over one of the Seven Kingdoms to the High Septon.
* Cersei tries to rigthfully inherit Casterly Rock. In theory, there would be a pretty good chance to do so, since there are literally no male heirs left (except the mentioned Martyn, and Jaime and Lancel who are sort of unable to claim) in Tywin's family (the closest would be a brother of his father, and it's never even mentioned if Tytos HAD a brother). In practise, we are talking about Cersei, who is almost universally loathed.
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite an uproar.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head of
So, a few things
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion in the Westerlands about any candidate the Small Council is
* Jaime renounces his status as Kingsguard and places himself as successor to Tywin. Many will see him as most fit to rule, but many will also consider him an oathbreaker (now TWICE, as you are not supposed to retire from the Kingsguard), and not be too keen on him becoming Lord.
* The Faith Militant jumps on the chance and convinces Lancel to claim Casterly Rock as Kevan's heir. This would really piss off the other Lannisters (and probably many other powerful people in Westeros), since it would de facto mean handing over one of the Seven Kingdoms to the High Septon.
* Cersei tries to rigthfully inherit Casterly Rock. In theory, there would be a pretty good chance to do so, since there are literally no male heirs left (except the mentioned Martyn, and Jaime and Lancel who are sort of unable to claim) in Tywin's family (the closest would be a brother of his father, and it's never even mentioned if Tytos HAD a brother). In practise, we are talking about Cersei, who is almost universally loathed.
* A tangent to the above, the Small Council argues that it should be passed through the female line, meaning to King Tommen Baratheon himself. That would effectively mean ending the rule of House Lannister in the Westerlands, and cause quite an uproar.
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The duty of the man serving the watch ''... shall not end until my death.'' [[spoiler: Given the ending of A Dance with Dragons, Jon surviving, or even being revived after his stabbing, will release him from his oath.]]
to:
The duty of the man serving the watch ''... shall not end until my death.'' [[spoiler: Given the ending of A Dance with Dragons, Jon surviving, or even being revived after his stabbing, will release him from his oath.]]]]
[[WMG: The Lannisters will soon have their own little war of succession]]
Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the King's Guard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head of the House of Lannister is Kevan's third son, a young squire named Martyn. Does anyone really think he will be able to sustain the claim to the richest house in Westeros without anyone interfering?
So, a few things yould happen:
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion about any candidate the Small Council is backing.
[[WMG: The Lannisters will soon have their own little war of succession]]
Let's take a look at the Lannister family tree, and who is left. Tywin was the undisputed ruler, he is now dead. His heir would be Jaime, but he has no right to claim Casterly Rock, since he joined the King's Guard. Next in line is Tyrion, but he is presumed the murderer Joffrey and in exile, so he's out of the picture. Tywin had three brothers, two are dead and the third one has been missing for years. That means the heir to Casterly Rock would be Kevan's oldest son Lancel ...who has joined the Warrior's Sons, which does not automatically revoke his claim, but makes it unlikely that he will take it. Kevan's second son? Yep, also dead.
So, as of now, the rightful heir to Casterly Rock and head of the House of Lannister is Kevan's third son, a young squire named Martyn. Does anyone really think he will be able to sustain the claim to the richest house in Westeros without anyone interfering?
So, a few things yould happen:
* The Tyrells and the Iron Throne back Martyn, because they think he is inexperienced and easy to control. However, since the whole point of Kevan's assassination was to shatter the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, there will be a lot of suspicion about any candidate the Small Council is backing.
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Deleted line(s) 624,629 (click to see context) :
[[WMG: Aegon Targaryen is alive and well, but he's not the boy with Jon Connington.]]
The Prince Who Was Promised, Azor Azai reborn, the Stallion Who Mounts The World, and the rightful King of Westeros. As a baby, during the Rebellion, he (and a blade of Valyrian steel) was swapped for a decoy and somehow transported to an alternate universe and left with a carefully staged wagon to be found and raised by dwarves. He is... [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]].
* Even if he finds out, he won't accept the crown because his home and duty lie in Ankh-Morpork and the Watch.
* Instead, Vetinari will come to Westeros and sort everything out.
** Since Tywin Lannister and Vetinari have both been played by Charles Dance, I'm guessing that them shaking hands would lead to the universe exploding.
The Prince Who Was Promised, Azor Azai reborn, the Stallion Who Mounts The World, and the rightful King of Westeros. As a baby, during the Rebellion, he (and a blade of Valyrian steel) was swapped for a decoy and somehow transported to an alternate universe and left with a carefully staged wagon to be found and raised by dwarves. He is... [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]].
* Even if he finds out, he won't accept the crown because his home and duty lie in Ankh-Morpork and the Watch.
* Instead, Vetinari will come to Westeros and sort everything out.
** Since Tywin Lannister and Vetinari have both been played by Charles Dance, I'm guessing that them shaking hands would lead to the universe exploding.
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[[WMG:The Starks will win]]
Not just "the Starks will recover". They will end up as one of the most powerful factions in Westeros. Why?
Three reasons:
* Their enemies are weak:
** The Boltons are in a war with Stannis, and Theon is in a position to do some serious damage to them. Even if they survive, there's still the matter of the remaining Stark bannermen wanting to kill them.
** Everybody in Westeros with a shred of honor now hates the Freys' guts.
** Tywin Lannister is dead, and Cersei's regency has collapsed. The only thing the Lannisters really have going for them is that Casterly Rock is theirs.
* The surviving Starks are much more dangerous than they were before:
** Jon is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
** Sansa is poised to take control of the Vale of Arryn, and one of the only armies in Westeros that ''hasn't'' been decimated by war. And she has Petyr Littlefinger on her side, to boot.
** Arya is soon to become a Faceless Woman - one of the best assassins in the world.
** Nymeria is leading a massive wolf pack in the Trident.
** Bran is a warg and greenseer, with possible ties to the children of the forest.
** Catelyn is a zombie leading an army of bandits.
** Rickon will be more batshit insane than usual. With Shaggydog even more crazy at his side.
*** More like BATMAN insane!
* The South is already facing a Targaryen invasion, which will only get stronger once Dany shows up.
To paraphrase, the Starks' enemies have already played most of their good cards, and the Starks have been dealt some new ones.
At minimum, the Starks will end up ruling an independent North, presumably having allied with Daenerys.
Also, while the Starks started out as the protagonists, they've quickly fallen from power. So what would be a better plot twist than the Starks ending the series ''stronger'' than they started?
* One other thing: the Starks have essentially lost their FatalFlaw of HonorBeforeReason. They've shifted from LawfulGood to ChaoticGood.
* At the very least, Jojen ''did'' dream that "the wolves will come again," so that's something.
The seventh book was initially named "Time for Wolves" before being changed to "A Dream of Spring". It is ''so'' happening.
[[WMG:Nymeria will warg into Arya]]
Arya is trying to become a Faceless Woman. But the one part of her identity she can't erase is Nymeria. At some point, Arya's own sense of self will weaken to the point that Nymeria takes over.
What happens at this point is anyone's guess. A few possibilities:
* Nymeria simply takes control of Arya's body. She will retain Arya's muscle memory, so she will still fight with a sword.
* Nymeria can call upon Arya's full mental abilities - intelligence, memories, skills, even speech. This might lead to Arya and Nymeria's identities melding.
* This will occur just as Arya undergoes her initiation as a full Faceless Woman. Arya/Nymeria then receives her first assignment: assassinate Jon Snow. Result: the House of Black and White becomes the House of Red and More Red.
* At the same time, Arya ends up warging into Nymeria. The giant wolf-pack becomes an army under Stark control.
[[WMG:Benjen is fine.]]
He's been separated from his horse, but he's alive and well (albeit freezing his ass off). What happened is that he's following some sort of trail or tracking something that's leading him ever further north. By now, he's reached the Land of Always Winter. Eventually, he will ''find'' something that's related to the origin of the Others.
* What the heck is he ''eating'', then?
** Snow hares.
[[WMG:Cersei will (try to) burn King's Landing down.]]
Right now she seems to be content with being around Tommen, but that could change very fast (for example, by Tommen's messy murder). We know that the last thing Aerys wanted to do was ignite the strategically placed caskets of wildfire and destroy the capital. The only reason it didn't happen was because Jaime intervened. This could easily be set up again, as the city is bound to have plenty of wildfire, after they used it to such great effect against Stannis' fleet. And Cersei is the only person I could see doing it. Literally everyone else either wants the throne, or wants some specific person to sit it, so burning down the capital only hurts them. But if Cersei loses Tommen, she could very well decide to die and take the whole city with her, since by now she has very good reason to hate the people of King's Landing, particularly the faith of the seven.
And think about Jaime. He killed Aerys to save the city, and it haunts him to this day. Now imagine he has that exact same choice again. Killing his sister, former lover and mother of his children, or letting the city he once saved (without anyone ever thanking him for that) perish.
[[WMG:Dany isn't barren.]]
Mirri Maz Duur wasn't speaking prophecy or doing anything else supernatural when she gave her little speech about how Drogo would be fully healed and get his mind back "when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east" etc. etc. and listing Dany having another child as one of these "impossible" things. She was making an educated guess based on how fucked up Dany's previous pregnancy was (and saying the most hurtful things she could think of, of course), but she was wrong.
* I was just coming here to say this. I think Dany's reproductive system is fine. She had a hard birth, obviously, and for an extremely brief period she was carrying something she wasn't designed to carry[[note]]Point of interest: even if she hadn't already been in labor, the biggest risk (assuming roughly similar size and no claws/other sharp bits) would have been her immune system attacking it, which would make her very miserable but leave her basically fine once it was expelled[[/note]], but there's no indication that not!Rhaego actually damaged her beyond a normal birth. She has also not had another sex partner (who could get her pregnant, anyway) until [[spoiler:Daario]] in ADWD, so it's not like she'd know, and given that she's unsurprised to [[spoiler:get her period at the end of ADWD, it's obvious she's still menstruating regularly]]. I think Mirri Maz Duur was either lashing out with whatever she thought would hurt, or really did believe she was making a prophecy but she's wrong.
* I think she said that [[spoiler:she couldn't remember the last time she'd had her period, which may have been delirium but may have been that she hadn't been getting it at all.]] I took that to mean that now that "the sun did rise in the west and set in the east (Quentyn dying in Meereen), the mountains did crumble (the dragons burning the pyramids of Meereen), and the seas did dry up (the Dothraki sea is undergoing a drought)" (from a previous WMG) that she was barren, but was now capable of bearing a child.
[[WMG:Mellisandre isn't misinterpreting her visions.]]
Instead Rhllor is deliberately giving her inaccurate visions in order to manipulate her into what he wants her to do. So far, most of her bad readings have netted in good results. For example, she was wrong about Arya arriving at Castle Black but it ended up with the Night Watch gaining a powerful ally in Jeyne, something they are in desperate need of. It will remain to be seen if this continues to be the case.
* Wait, why is Jeyne a powerful ally?
** She's the Lady of Karhold, the head of a prominent Northern house. If she tells the other Northern houses to let Lord Commander Snow settle wildlings on the Gift, they'll listen and maybe agree. Also Karhold could help with food transportation during the coming Winter.
* Some confusions here. Alys Karstark is the girl on the dying horse who allies with Jon at the Wall. She was fleeing her evil uncle. "Arya"/Jeyne Bolton and Theon/Reek escaped Ramsay at Winterfell and made it to Stannis camp, 3 days south of Winterfell, after meeting the banker and his escorts. And lets leave Jeyne Westerling out of it for pete's sake.
*** She's of house ''Bolton'' via marriage, and she's not the Lady of that house. That "honor" goes to Walda Bolton (nee Frey). She has nothing to do with Karhold. And no one is likely to listen to her because a) the Boltons are the enemies of almost all the Northern houses, b) those that aren't that house's enemies are following her husband's father, not his son's runaway bride, and c) she's not who she's pretending to be, she's just a steward's daughter, and the moment that becomes general knowledge, she loses what tiny sliver of authority she ever had.
*** Whoops, sorry. I misread that as Alys, who did turn up at Castle Black as an ally.
** Jeyne herself may be of some value (and it's good she was rescued in any case). Presumably, Littlefinger told her he was [[FalseReassurance going to take care of her]] and then had her trained as a prostitute (obviously unpleasant given the whip scars on her back). While Littlefinger is usually pretty good about keeping his hands clean, she might be able to expose some of his villainy.
** Also, if Jeyne is pregnant with Ramsay's son, then that opens the door to claiming the Dreadfort. If Jeyne gives birth to a son, and something happens to Roose and Ramsay (say, hypothetically, Arya Stark), then she could quite easily become Mistress of the Dreadfort. That might actually be more satisfying than the Boltons falling in a Northern rebellion.
[[WMG:It was Petyr Baelish who lied to Brandon Stark about Lyanna's kidnapping.]]
The timeline here is sketchy because the main players are dead, but we know some things about the events between the duel at Riverrun and Brandon arriving at King's Landing. After the duel at Riverrun, Brandon left to collect his friends from the North, Riverlands and Vale. Presumably he went to Winterfell to get his wedding suit and met everyone on his way back to Riverrun. In the meantime, Petyr is stuck in bed for two weeks recovering from his wounds and [[spoiler:having sex with Lysa]]. He is then thrown out and travels back to the Fingers in a litter, which is quite slow moving. Petyr would have taken the East-West road, stopping at the Inn at the Crossroads, before going Northwards and turning East for the Fingers. At approximately the same time, Rhaegar and Lyanna would have been fleeing South from Winterfell to the Dornish mountains. They would have covertly stopped at the Inn at the Crossroads.
I theorise that Petyr saw Rhaegar and Lyanna there and gleaned two pieces of information: they were consensually running away together and they were heading for Dorne. Petyr then travels North and, to his horror, meets Brandon on the road. He knows that Brandon will hear about Lyanna's disappearance soon, if he doesn't know already, and chooses to lie in the hope of deferring Cat's wedding. He says that he saw Lyanna was with Rhaegar, that she had obviously been kidnapped against her will and that Rhaegar mentioned heading for King's Landing. Brandon believes this, is enraged and changes course. He might even stop at the Inn at the Crossroads to confirm the story.
As we all know, a bloodbath followed and Brandon died. This is Petyr's StartOfDarkness: he can't kill with swords but he can with words. This may also explain why Lyanna didn't leave a message - perhaps Petyr agreed to take it.
* WMG assist here. LF tried to steal Catelyn directly first, Brandon beat him down and seriously wounded him. So he wasnt prancing around the country, nor could he talk to Brandon directly and expect to be trusted. Instead he writes 3 poison pen letters. (While Lysa Tully was "nursing" him back to health..)
** Anonymous to Brandon: "Rhaegar has kidnapped your sister and is raping her in Kings Landing." ( A lie with a hint of truth in it mostly by accident.) Brandon rushes to KL in a rage.
** Anonymous to Aerys: "Brandon and his friends are coming to King's Landing to kill you." (Guarantees Brandon a Hot Reception when he does burst in.)
** A letter to Catelyn: We know she burnt it unread, thereby foiling Petyr's plan to get his hands on her. Fallout: Robert's Rebellion, can't make an omelette without breaking eggs...
* WMG Petyr tried again to kidnap Catelyn after Bran's fall into a coma. She believed the kidnapper was an assassin sent to kill Bran, with unfortunate results for him. (Throat turn out by wolf means he cant explain the comedy of errors.)
** LF had his poor pawn carry his knife because he (vainly) thought Cat would recognize it. Ironically no one recognizes the knife as his, his knife fight with Brandon was more than 15 years ago after all. This turned out to be very lucky for LF in the end since it allowed him to cover his tracks.
* Catelyn rushes to King's Landing aboard the fastest ship she could find at White Harbor, which ironically is owned by LF, who hides belowdecks and has his first mate pretend to be captain. When Catelyn arrives at KL, Petyr has her scooped up immediately. He and Varys put on a mummers farce for Catelyn, where Varys pretends his "powers" have told him what happened. She swallows it completely. Good damage control there Petyr! Arguable Fallout: Ned takes Hand position and eventually gets killed, starting War of 5 Kings. Petyr's done it again.
* WMG Petyr switches his obsession to Sansa. He decides to poison her husband, Tyrion, and has his pirates standing by to spirit Sansa away. Third time's a charm! Petyr finally gets his hands on a red-haired Tully woman. Fallout: Regicide as King Joffrey accidentally swallows the poison intended for Tyrion, and Tyrion is blamed for Joffrey's death, instead of Sansa being blamed for Tyrion's death. Still, compared to his previous attempts, this was a comparatively minor side effect. (Unless you also include Tyrion's murder of Tywin followed by his escape to Dany and her dragon, which probably will have Tremendous Consequences....)
* Counting his first direct attack and his 3 plots above, Petyr took 4 tries to get his hands on a Tully, causing massive damage along the way. WMG assumes he did this due to the prophecy he received as a boy, which he said was "nothing much". Yeah right. the same way Cersei's prophecy was nothing much.... (Presumably Lysa Arryn nee Tully did not fit the prophecy, since she always just threw herself at Petyr, instead of having to be stolen/captured.)
[[WMG: "Aegon Targaryen" is actually Ashara Dayne's bastard]]
It's been mentioned more than once that the Daynes have coloring similar to the Targaryens, which one would suspect would be important due to the LawOfConservationOfDetail. Dany was warned about a "mummer's dragon", which can be interpreted two ways: a real dragon belonging to mummers, or a prop dragon used by mummers. In other words, a fake.
From Selmy, we learn that Ashara gave birth to a stillborn bastard daughter, however, it's possible that this was a lie spread after the child's birth. A child with Targaryen features who is the right age to be Aegon would be very useful as a figurehead to rally people behind, so the child was taken as a fallback plan or to use in addition to Viserys and Dany, perhaps to replace them if they didn't prove amenable to the plans others like Varys and Illyrio had for them.
As to his father, it could indeed be Eddard Stark. He was in love with Ashara and spent time with her at the tourney where Selmy said she got pregnant.
Ashara did indeed kill herself over grief - she's lost her brother, possibly the father of her child to another woman, and her child itself. Combined with post-partum depression, she killed herself.
Less plausibly, she's actually Septa Lemore, looking after her son, and her suicide was ruse so that people wouldn't question her disapearance.
Connington is probably not aware of the ruse and believes the boy to be Aegon.
[[WMG: "Aegon Targaryen" is Ilyrio's Son]]
When Ilyrio and Tyrion part company, Ilyrio talks about "Young Griff", and shows more emotion than would be expected in the circumstances. If the boy is not truly Aegon, but rather Ilyrio's son, that would explain it. It would also explain the extraordinary lengths Ilyrio has been willing to go to, and the extraordinary costs he has been willing to bear (giving away the dragon eggs, hiring the Golden Company), in support of the Targaryens; he aims to have his own son - the fake Targaryen (i.e. the mummer's dragon) on the throne.
* It's possible, but why would Illyrio go to such great lengths to put his own son on the throne of a foreign country? After all, it's not like Illyrio couldn't have given his son a good life. Illyrio is, after all, a very wealthy merchant and powerful figure in Pentoshi politics. Why not just bring up his son to inherit the family business? Not only does that seem safer and easier, it also has the advantage of not forcing him to send his son away to be raised by strangers under a different name, never to know his real father.
** Ilyrio may be a wealthy man, but you can't buy a kingship. And without this theory, it's hard to think of a reason why Ilyrio and Varys are conspiring to put Aegon on the throne. Ilyrio may be an old friend of Varys, but their collusion makes even more sense if this theory is true. Varys is offering Ilyrio an opportunity he can't possibly buy.
** One variation on this that I came across is that either or both Illyrio and Varys are descended from exiled branches of the Targaryen family such as the Blackfyres or Brightflame, which may well provide a motivation if true
[[WMG: Qyburn works for Varys]]
In ''Dance' With Dragons', [[spoiler:we learn that Varys is trying to keep Cersei in power so she'll destabilize the Seven Kingdoms, making it easier for Aegon to take over. Qyburn has always been unusually supportive of Cersei,even before she gave him "materials" for his experiments. Another piece of evidence that points to this theory is that Qyburn has done such a good job succeeding Varys as Master of Whispers that Cersei believes that Varys is nothing more than a fraud, and thus severely underestimates him.]]
* The last point implies that Qyburn may be such an effective Master of Whispers because Varys was feeding him information, either because they were allies (thus helping to make Qyburn more valuable to Cersei), or because he was a useful tool (meaning he wasn't working with Varys, but Varys was manipulating him to his own ends).
[[WMG: It's going to be three-way war on the Wall in Book 6.]]
(Warning: ''[=aDwD=]'' spoilers.)
So, yeah. We all read the end of ''Dance'', with Jon getting all stabbified by his own Sworn Brothers. What we're forgetting is that Jon had just left a meeting in which he won the wildlings' allegiance, once and for all. (It's interesting that everyone has been spitting "You're half wildling" at him as though it's an insult, because events have proven that it's actually a great strength which will help save the Seven Kingdoms.) So what happened when hundreds of wildlings came spilling out of the Knight's Hall and saw their new King-Beneath-The-Wall getting attacked by crows?
When we open Book 6, we will find Jon injured but alive at Castle Black, having been saved by Tormund and etc. The Watch (what remains of them) will have retreated to the Shadow Tower or Eastwatch-By-The-Sea, whilst the wildlings have taken Castle Black for their home base. It's like to be open war for a while, and heaven only knows what will happen to Night's Watch defectors (Grenn, Pyp, Dolorous Edd) who want to rejoin their friend. But Jon is likely to win in the end, especially when wights start arising ''south'' of the Wall, from the corpses of the slain. The Night's Watch isn't going to be happy, and Jon will probably not be reinstated as Lord Commander and maybe will even be hit with execution for his "crimes", but they will have to accept his methods, whether they like them (or him!) or not.
[[WMG: The briefly mentioned blond archer Lewis Lanster who traveled with Jon Connington will be a ChekhovsGun]]
He's a good-looking, prideful blonde with a surname suspiciously similar to "Lannister". Too subtle to be a RedHerring, but definitely something that stands out.
* It's mentioned earlier in the books that Casterly Rock and Lannisport are filled with Lannistons, Lanns, Lansters (etc, I can't remember the exact names). It's not necessarily meaningful, it just means this guy comes from this city.
[[WMG: Sansa ''won't'' betray Littlefinger.]]
Everyone seems to think that she's going to eventually be his downfall, but maybe she'll end up being his evil accomplice, either a DarkChick or an odd sort of [[TheDragon Dragon]] once her CorruptTheCutie process is complete. The characters always develop in surprising ways, and Sansa turning into a competent ManipulativeBitch--or even a [[MagnificentBitch magnificent]] one--would be at least as surprising as a sword-wielding "for the North!" moment, while still being more in character.
* Alternatively, she will simply displace him. After she goes public with her true identity and retakes the North, it will appear that she is Littlefinger's puppet, just as everyone thought that Joffrey would be Cersei's puppet. Then she'll do something he doesn't want (say, executing Roose Bolton), and prove that she's the one with the power. Littlefinger will stick around as her advisor. The guy's ambitious, but I also suspect he's capable of quitting while he's ahead. There are far worse fates than being the right hand man to the Queen in the North.
[[WMG: Arya will come back to Westeros]]
Part of the faceless man training is cutting off all ties to your past life, and in a sense becoming 'no one'. One of the problems arya might have with this is that no matter how much she cuts herself off from the starks, she is still connected to Nymeria. So the faceless men will give her the task to kill nymeria, and in the process she will get drawn back into the conflict of westeros, and possibly stop being a faceless woman as a result.
[[WMG: Arya will be brought back to Westeros as Cersei's assassin.]]
It's mentioned in ADWD that if a ruler doesn't pay the Iron Bank what he owes, the Bank have them killed and replaced by someone who'll take the hint. Cersei blew off the Bank while she was ruler, so they'll be looking to topple her if she wins her trial by battle and regains control of King's Landing (and, with [[spoiler:Zombie Gregor]] as her champion, how can she lose?).
It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the Bank use Faceless Men for their assassinations, since both the Bank and the Men are based out of Braavos. And we know Arya would leap at the chance to put a dagger between Cersei's shoulderblades, especially since she hasn't phased out her own identity like Faceless Men are supposed to. Of course, this doesn't guarantee she'll succeed, but it seems like an elegant way to bring her back to Westeros for the finale...
* While I am pretty sure Arya eventually WILL return to Westeros, would it not be detrimental to her training, from the Faceless Men's point of view? Convincing their apprentices that they are noone, or at least not who they were before, is as important to them as physical or perceptive training. So it seems like an unwise decision to send her to the country she actually hails from, where the chance of running into someone from her previous life she knows/hates in much higher than while operating in Braavos or even further east. And if they find out how exactly Arya and Cersei are connected, sending her for the kill would be against their whole training, as Arya would be "herself" almost immediately.
* Arya cannot assassinate Cersei because she knows who Cersei is and whispers her name as part of her prayer. Faceless Men can only give the gift to those who they don't know. I do think that Arya is sent to Westros to kill someone and I'm leaning toward Melisandre. Cersei, the Illyrio-Varys conspiracy, or the Citadel conspiracy hires a faceless man to get rid of her. Arya doesn't know Melisandre and is dispatched to kill her. Of course, someone Arya loves dearly, Jon, is probably with Melisandre. I think that Jon and Arya are the first two Stark siblings to reunite and that scenario makes that happen.
[[WMG:Bran will become the 1000th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]]
In ''Winds of Winter'', a new Lord Commander will be chosen [[spoiler:to replace the stabbed Jon Snow]]. He will die during that book, or sometime early in ''Dreams of Spring''.
In ''Dreams of Spring'', Bran will return to the Wall, leading a warhost of the children of the forest, probably a few wildlings, and possibly something else that we have yet to encounter. He will stop the Others and save Westeros. However, by this point Bran will no longer be entirely human. There will be no place for him in Winterfell. Instead, he will remain on the Wall as the 1000th Lord Commander. Jon will either die or have another destiny.
[[WMG:The post-series Westeros will be a high fantasy realm]]
One of the themes of the series is that magic is returning to Westeros. And outside of the Others, most of the magical elements are aligned with the heroes, particularly Dany and Bran. These will prove key to their return to power. Sam's plot will involve the maesters trying to stop the return of magic. He, of course, will become a wizard like he always wanted. In the end, they will fail, and magic will return.
[[WMG: The maesters will be involved in some attempt to kill the dragons]]
The maesters want magic gone. The dragons are bringing magic back. Possibilities:
* Dany will need their help/alliance, and their price will be the death of the dragons.
* They can use science to make her fertile, and their price is the death of the dragons, forcing her to choose between her "children" and real, actual blood children.
* Dany will be established as monarch (very, very rockily) and they'll give her a maester, who will be a spy trying to kill the dragons/figure out how to kill them.
Feel free to add your own ideas.
In any case, I think it's a virtual guarantee that the maesters are going to be making themselves a nuisance to Dany one way or another.
** Well, at the end of AFFC Archmaester Marwyn pretty much outright states that he has to rush to Dany's side to warn her about the other maesters' inevitable attempts to do just this.
** Indeed, Marwyn's statement that "The world the Citadel is building has no place in it for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles, much less for dragons" suggests that the maesters weren't just cheerleaders for the vanishing of magic from Westeros, but actively worked to foment it.
[[WMG: Azor Ahai Reborn is more than one person]]
...most likely the three heads of the dragon. Let's look at the two most cenral figures of the series: Dany and Jon.
* Dany was born on Dragonstone, the place of smoke and salt. Then she was "reborn" into a more confident, ready to lead woman at Khal Drogo's funeral admidst smoke (from the fire) and salt (from the tears she had shed) when the red star bled (when the comet went across the sky.) She woke the dragons out of stone eggs, which Melisandre was convinced Azor Ahai would do. Azor Ahai also tempered Lightbringer with his wife's blood. Dany woke the dragons with the (unintentional) deaths of her husband and son.
* When Melisandre looked in her flames to see who she believed was Azor Ahai, all she could see was Snow. (aDwD spoilers) When Jon was knifed, a star bled, the knight that had been killed. The smoke was Jon's smoking wounds, the salt was the steward's tears. If he died and was somehow resurrected, that would be a literal rebirth.
These two people both fit the prophecy so well, it would be weird for either of them to not be Azor Ahai. What if something of Azor Ahai went to both of them? It may have overlapped with the three heads of the dragon, since Dany and Jon are strongly implied to be two of those heads.
* Jon is only implied to be a head of the dragon if you believe he's Dany's nephew, which is not explicit and not everyone believes.
** Not really. In Dany's vision that the Undying gave her, she saw a blue winter rose growing from a wall of ice as one of the symbolic heads of the dragon. Even if you don't believe R+L=J, there's only so many characters associated with a wall of ice, and Jon is the most likely of them.
[[WMG:The Night's Watch as we know it will cease to exist]]
The aforementioned War at the Wall will end in a wildling victory. The wildlings will then take over the defense of the Wall, and claim the Gift as well. Mance Rayder will become King on the Wall.
[[WMG: Future POV Names]]
In the more recent books, Martin has this thing of calling characters by a descriptor/changing their name for dramatic effect (i.e. Sansa as Alayne Stone and Arya as Cat of the Canals). Here's some of the ones I'm thinking could be in the future- spoilers ahead:
** "Lady Stoneheart" (to fill in where there used to be Catelyn Pov)
** "No One" (for Arya)
** "The White Wolf" (for Jon, especially if he wargs into Ghost)
*** Or perhaps the Azor Ahai or the Long-lost Prince for Jon as well.
**** Come to think of it, if he has a POV after the end of ''ADWD'', his first one will appropriately be "Ghost".
** "The Young Bear" (Jorah, naturally)
** "A Man" (Jaqen/Alchemist/Pate)
* GRRM has stated there will be no more POV characters added, which removes the option of the last two. (In theory. We'll see if he lives up to this.)
[[WMG: Mormont's raven contains a skinchanger]]
* In the beginning of A Dance with Dragons, we are told that skinchangers who die have their souls enter the body of the animal they rode. The rest of the book then makes constant reference to the raven, how intelligent it is, and underlines how many of its responses are dramatically appropriate for whatever conversation it is listening to. This is because it was the former host of a skinchanger who died, whose soul now resides within. While they have forgotten most of their life and who they were, the faint memories that remain keep it near Jon (it wants to help). The skinchanger in question may be Mormont himself, one of the wildlings from beyond the Wall, or perhaps someone else who knew Winter was coming and wanted to help stop it.
** Conversely, the raven is actually Bloodraven's, and he occasionally reaches out to it to spy on Jon or influence him (it's been established that distance is not necessarily a barrier to skinchangers. Or it might actually be Bran's, if his future self eventually learns how to use the greensight to project his consciousness backwards in time through the weirdwoods (perhaps argued even more effectively since the name "Bran" means "raven").
[[WMG:Bolton will attack the Wall]]
Let us imagine that Jon Snow and/or his allies regain control of the Wall early on in ''The Winds of Winter''. A likely scenario is that Melisandre decides to help Jon, bringing Stannis' people in on his side. If Jon's human body is dead, Melisandre might end up in charge (or at least she will be the POV). They send Roose Bolton a fuck you raven. Bolton, furious, leads his men north to attack the Wall. In the eyes of just about everyone, this is Roose Bolton's MoralEventHorizon. The North rises in open rebellion. Roose Bolton is defeated by an army of Stark loyalists, wildlings, crows, what remains of Stannis' troops, and even Boltons - one subplot sees the castellan of the Dreadfort turn against his liege. Around this time, Sansa's true identity is revealed. One of the final scenes has her being declared Queen in the North.
* Roose Bolton already passed the moral event horizon when he killed Robb Stark at the Red Wedding and the North is quite aware of the situation. (See Lord Manderly's Magnificent Bastard reveal).
** Yes, but not everyone accepts this as his MoralEventHorizon. Bolton's actions had legal sanction in the eyes of the Iron Throne. Attacking the Wall would wipe out his credibility.
*** Also, people are morons (and more kindly, people are distracted right now). I'm willing to bet the Greatjon's remaining fingers that a good chunk of the North, especially smallfolk, just see "Freys did it!" and even if they do know Bolton was behind it, that's sort of been pushed to the back of their minds. (The way two people who get into a fistfight will be the ones punished, even if everyone knows that someone else was really the instigator.)
*** I think this will happen, provided that the Boltons somehow won the Battle of Winterfell. In ''Storm'', Jon points out at least once that the Wall can't be defended from the South. Furthermore, the Iron Throne sees the Watch as part of the rebellion, and the wildlings have manned ruined castles. It's such an overwhelmingly bad situation that it has to come to pass. It seems like the kind of easy victory Ramsay Bolton would jump upon.
**** Rmasay Bolton may try to jump on it and be reined in by his more pragmatic father (or someone else, although I don't think anyone else is capable of controlling him).
[[WMG:Azor Ahai, The Prince Who Was Promised and The Stallion Who Mounts The World are three different people. Their clash will have catastrophic outcomes.]]
All three have characteristics of a messianic archetype, or at least a great leader that will bring peace and stability by conquer. What better way to subvert this prophecies than them just resulting in a bitter war that eventuelly sees the demise of all three of them.
[[WMG:Varys wants the Targaryens back because he knows about the Others and believes that dragons will be necessary to defeat them.]]
Think about it. In those rare moments when he may actually be speaking honestly, Varys always says that his loyalty is to the realm, and he's probably telling the truth. He's certainly not out for personal power: he has as much of that as he's likely to get no matter who's on the throne. But if he's truly loyal to the realm, why put it through all this messy civil war nonsense, and why prolong it by killing Kevan Lannister? He's already proven that through his manipulations of the throne and Small Council, he can keep the realm stable and prosperous even with a certifiable madman wearing the crown, so why not help whoever happens to be on the throne at the time, the way he did for over a decade with Robert? In short, why so much loyalty for the Targaryens, who've been a crapshoot at best when it comes to what's actually good for Westeros and who wouldn't have had a chance in hell of seriously attempting a return to power without his constant help?
UNLESS there's an even greater danger to the entire realm, one compared to which years of messy civil war are a small and necessary evil, one which can only be combated by the Targaryens due to their special affinity for dragons? Enter the Others.
As to how he would know about this threat years before even the Night's Watch suspected they were back, well, he IS the Master of Whisperers, and he had at least a passing (as in, "please pass your testicles, there's a good lad") acquaintance with a bona fide sorcerer in his youth, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
[[WMG:The defining WhamLine of ''The Winds of Winter'':]]
"Shouldn't the sun be up by now?"
[[WMG: Khal Drogo shall ride again.]]
The sun has risen in the west and set in the east. The mountains have crumbled. The sea has dried up. Khal Drogo will return to the world under the open sky, with the infant Rhaego in his arms. He will be surrounded by four stallions. The first will have a white coat, and a Dothraki bow will be strapped to it's side. The second will have a fiery red coat, and will carry an arakh strapped to its saddle. The third will be pitch black and carry a whip. The fourth will be deathly pale, but strong as the others. Mounted atop the pale horse and with the other three in tow, Drogo will rebuild his khalasar, who will ride behind him as he tracks down the moon of his life.
* Likelihood aside, I will officially pray for this until the last page of ''A Dream Of Spring''.
* Variant: after the Long Night, the sun will rise in the west. Also during this time, the other elements of the prophecy will have come true in some way (maybe on a lesser scale, maybe metaphorically). Then Khal Drogo will rise again and rejoin his khaleesi.
** This is quoted from a post higher up on the page, under the WMG about Dany having the grey mare; ''the sun did rise in the west and set in the east (Quentyn dying in Meereen), the mountains did crumble (the dragons burning the pyramids of Meereen), and the seas did dry up (the Dothraki sea is undergoing a drought).'' So we have the metaphoric fulfillment of all the prophecies except Dany popping out another kid. So there you go.
[[WMG: The arrival of Winter heralds a great change]]
* It happened just before Jon's stabbing, just like the Red Comet appeared just after Dany's eggs hatched. A herald of Ice, a herald of Fire, [[TitleDrop they sing a song...]]
[[WMG: Dany will re-create Valyrian steel with her dragons]]
Given that it's also referred to as Dragonsteel and the Valyrians were known for having a lot of dragons, it seems pretty obvious to me that the LostTechnology involved in making the stuff consisted of a blacksmith smelting with the aid of dragons. Since there are currently dragons again, it shouldn't be too hard to make a lot of the stuff, which will come in handy since it reputedly can kill wights and Others. It will also be kind of funny since Valyrian steel is known for being priceless, if now any Tom, Dick, or Harry can get a Valyrian steel sword.
[[WMG: The other source of Valyrian steel swords]]
The Iron throne is made of the swords of Aegon the Conqueror's fallen foes. I bet were probably made of Valyrian steel, ergo, the Iron throne will be melted down so the swords can be reforged. Ultimately, Westeros will become a republic and someone (Davos? Jon? Littlefinger?) will be president.
* Semms unlikely, given how valuable Valyrian steel is. I'd be more inclined to think Aegon took whatever Valyrian steel was there and used/reforged those weapons before making the Iron Throne.
[[WMG: The source of the letter at the end of ''A Dance with Dragons'']]
In the last few chapters of Stannis' storyline in ''A Dance with Dragons'', he spent a LOT of time staring into fire. By doing so, he was granted visions by R'hllor, and he was the one who figured out that [[spoiler:Jon had sent Mance Rayder and the girls into Winterfell to rescue "Arya".]]
* The contents of the letter are consistent with other R'hlloric visions: pretty much correct, but not really all that correct.
* What Stannis wished to accomplish with the letter is unknown - it may have been a Hail Mary to give Jon enough encouragement to send reinforcement from the wall, or he may have intentionally led him into a trap.
** I don't think Stannis relates to other people well enough to pull off a convincing imitation of Ramsay's probable writing style (nor is he evil enough to make up those kind of things/lead Jon into a trap).
** This would be a sure way to make Jon forsake his vows as a member of the Night's Watch, and accept the offer to become the new Warden of the North, exactly as Stannis wants, so I think we can get a good idea of what he'd want to accomplish.
[[WMG: Every POV introduced in AFFC/ADWD will play a major role in TWOW & ADOS.]]
When you think about it, they are all well-placed to observe new storylines, particularly as GRRM has said that there will be no more new POV characters. An early example is Asha Greyjoy, who ended up as our POV in Stannis' army in ADWD. So, theories ahoy!
* Brienne: the Brotherhood Without Banners.
* Aeron Damphair: what's happening with Euron back in the Iron Islands. He may overthrow Euron ("No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!").
* Jon Connington: what's happening with Aegon Targaryen in Storm's End. He'll actually share this one with Arienne Martell - he'll cover the military events, she'll cover the intrigue.
* Melisandre: she'll cover the Wall while Jon does whatever he does (which may include being dead).
[[WMG:Jaime will return to the Westerlands.]]
He may formally resign from the Kingsguard, but he will become the ''de facto'' (if not ''de jure'') Lord of Casterly Rock and the leader of the Lannister faction. As a sidenote, we will finally get to visit Casterly Rock.
* This may result in the Lannisters doing something of a HeelFaceTurn.
** Or leaving the series entirely. Right now, perhaps the best thing the Lannisters could do to boost their own power would be to withdraw into the Westerlands, leave the Iron Throne to whoever wants it, and use their enormous economic power to erect defenses. They can let the surviving claimants fight it out and then [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney use their gold to buy a prominent place in the next kingdom.]] Also, given that they are based on England, it would be in keeping with "Splendid Isolation."
* Approved, if only because leaving the Kingsguard would free him up to get married. You know. If you were the kind of person who was hoping to see him get married. To someone. In the future. And maybe have a whole bunch of absolutely terrifying children.
[[WMG:Benjen isn't Coldhands.]]
Benjen is somewhere with the children of the forest, being kept apart from Bran either for a reason or because the children haven't realized their relationship, and we'll see him in Winds or even Dream. What evidence do I have? Well, I'm re-reading Game of Thrones and when Bran first heards Benjen is missing, he says "the children of the forest will help him!" because Old Nan was just telling him a story about that. Maybe a throwaway line, but knowing what I know now about the children, it just pings me a little.
** Could be that the children of the forest are the ones that prevented him from becoming just another mindless wight. After all, it wouldn't be very GRRM-like to have one of the characters be saved from certain doom by magical forest elves without any drawback whatsoever.
*** No, it wouldn't, which makes me suspect it of him even more. Let's face it, he loves fucking with us and he loves being unpredictable. I think it would be just like him to randomly throw in an unreasonable bright spot (maybe just before he's killed for real or learning of it sometime after he's killed).
[[WMG: Boros Blount is being poisoned, or is diabetic.]]
It is common knowledge that Cersei hates Boros Blount, and even Jaime gets less crap about killing a king than Blount does for surrendering a prince. After Jaime makes him into Tommen's food taster, he becomes increasingly sickly looking. I believe he isn't just sick with shame. If Tommen's food was poisoned, then it would have been noticeable. It is likely that Tommen's diet is rich in foods that Boros is allergic to, or otherwise incapable of eating. Tommen likes sweets, so I think some sort of Westerosi diabetes is at play. ''Who'' is poisoning him, I don't know. It couldn't be Cersei, because she was planning on having him killed when he championed Margery Tyrell. Considering that Varys is going around killing people in order to troll Cersei, it could be him.
[[WMG:Mance Rayder will be the 999th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.]]
If the wildling faction wins the War on the Wall, he'd be a splendid choice, perhaps enacting some choice reforms.
[[WMG:Aegon is real. The Mummer's Dragon prophecy is meant to be read the other way round.]]
It's not about someone claiming to be a Targaryen. It's about a Targaryen (probably unknowingly) claiming to be someone else. Going to the old Rhaegar-and-Lyanna's-son well again, it could be Jon. I know it's a stretch, but Aegon would be kinda obvious, and there is no other Targaryen pretender in sight. So maybe it actually means the opposite.
* It may also mean a real Targaryen being used as a puppet by someone else, and Aegon does sound like a puppet to whatever Varys and Illyrio are planning.
* Or Varys is the mummer (often compared to one and IIRC used to be one) and Aegon is his pawn, hence "mummer's dragon". There's also Moqorro's reference to "dragons real and false"
though.
* or quentyn is the mummer's dragon and Aegon is the sun's son (his Mother was dorans sister
[[WMG: In the world of ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', two monozygotic twins can have different genders.]]
Of course, I have no idea how this is even supposed to work, but it would explain the often described physical similarities between Jaime and Cersei.
* I think it can be chalked up to their parents being first cousins. If Tyrion hadn't been deformed, it's possible he would look freakishly like Jaime and they would all look like triplets (except Tyrion having a little less lines in the face/scars/whatever). As it is, the extenuating circumstances make it hard to track whether they're just a family with strong resemblance.
[[WMG: Danearys herself will be [[spoiler: one of the betrayers]]]]
The prophecy said, [[spoiler:"[[ExactWords Three betrayals shall you know]]]], not [[spoiler: "You will be betrayed three times"]] My original thought was that Daenerys would "betray" [[spoiler:Mereen]] by abandoning it to go to Westros, [[spoiler: "for blood"]], but the [[spoiler: "for blood" betrayal would seem to be what Mirri Maz Duur did]], so maybe she will betray someone (Probably [[spoiler: Hizdahr]]0 so she can be with [[spoiler:Daario - "for love"]].
* I agree. I think the three "for love" parts of that prophecy will refer to the same thing. She'll betray a lover, the first since Drogo she's genuinely loved, by killing him, like Azor Ahai killed Nissa Nissa, in order to activate whatever her equivalent of Lightbringer is (thus "lighting a fire").
[[WMG: Balerion (the cat) will be somehow significant]]
Okay, this is probably a stretch simply because this is such a minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg, but here goes. You know that tomcat with the torn ear that Arya chases around in AGOT? And the one that Tommen whines in AFFC has been bullying his kittens, presumably the same creature? The big, angry, ''black'' tomcat? And remember when someone mentioned offhand that little Princess Rhaenys (Rhaegar's daughter, the yes-she's-definitely-dead one) had a little black kitten she adored, called Balerion? Go on, tell me it wouldn't be fantastic if that cat did something amazing. Why else is it still floating around the Red Keep?
* Warging with someone, perhaps? Arya [[spoiler: has demonstrated the ability to warg with cats]], after all.
* Judging by Varamyr Sixskins, skinchangers permanently meld with their companions when they die. Supposing little Balerion has the, er, "soul" or whatever of Rhaenys in him? Potential for anything interesting there?
[[WMG: Dolorous Edd will have a LetsGetDangerous BigDamnHeroes moment.]]
Because it would be so very like Martin to have the comic relief character turn out to be a complete badass. Of course, considering the bleakness of the setting, it's likely he'd [[HeroicSacrifice pull a Forel and die]].
[[WMG: [[spoiler: Jon Snow is dead, but Melisandre will raise him like Beric Dondarrion was.]]]]
[[spoiler:Although Martin is a real bastard when it comes to killing off characters we love (looking at you, Ned) there's something just not right with Jon's death. It looks like he's been given too much importance to the story to die like that. And, if Thoros of Myr, a second-rate priest by his own admission was able to raise Beric from the dead, what might Melisandre be capable of? Not to mention that it would give her a handle on Jon, and bind him to her.]]
* The first time Thoros raised Beric was an accident - he gave him the Lord's Kiss, a standard R'hllorian funeral rite, and was amazed that he cam back to life. I'm thinking that's what's going to happen here (and finally convince [[spoiler:Mel that he's AA into the bargain).
[[WMG: Sansa will be rescued by the Mountain Clans]]
Remember she is [[spoiler: in the Vale with Little Finger]] and she is of-course [[spoiler: Tyrion's wife]], so it is entirely possible that her secret could be revealed to a member of one of the Mountain Clans who are still loyal to Tyrion and they could help rescue her.
[[WMG: ''Melisandre'' is Azor Ahai.]]
This would be a ProphecyTwist that I have yet to see - the prophet is, unknown to himself, the very ChosenOne he speaks of. And Jon Snow is Lightbringer.
* Also, there's a neat little parallel to the original legend - namely, that Azor Ahai tried to forge two other swords but failed. In this case, Melisandre tried to build up Stannis as Azor Ahai, but failed.
[[WMG: Jaime Lannister is bisexual or mostly gay]]
He likes guys and has very, very, very, very far repressed it, because it may be rather dangerous in Westeros (as in any medieval counterpart society). His relationship with Cersei is so twisted that she's become the "safer" option in his mind, which is why he's never been tempted to stray from her -- he was only looking at women and it never even occurred to him to look at men. This is also why he's mildly upset when he's attracted to Brienne -- either attraction to any woman is slightly odd (and he's just used to it with Cersei), or Brienne being rather more masculine than the standard brushes perilously close to realizing he's not straight. Now that his relationship with Cersei seems to be over, we'll see if this emerges any.
To clarify: I talk about both him knowing things and them never occurring to him. In psychology this is totally possible -- some part of your psyche will know it if you like the same sex, but that doesn't necessarily mean your conscious mind has figured it out.
* The fact that he's never shown the slightest sexual or romantic interest in a man shows ''just how far'' he's repressed this...
** It may be as much repression as "is that even an option?" I have friends who got to middle school without even realizing same-sex attraction was a thing, and there are even gay people who don't realize it until late in life because it's always framed as something that happens to other people. Admittedly, there's less evidence for it than evidence against the reverse.
* I think this theory actually works pretty well. His relationship with Cersei is as much founded in narcissism as conventional gendered sexuality.
[[WMG: Syrio Forel was a Faceless Man and is still at King's Landing...]]
...masquerading as Ser Meryn Trant, who he killed after Arya fled. ''[[{{Badass}} With his wooden sword.]]''
* Introducing the Faceless Men was really OpeningACanOfClones, wasn't it...
[[WMG: Syrio Forel is still at King's Landing but is not a Faceless Man]]
...but is being held in the fourth dungeon level of the Red Keep, the one used "only for torment." He will teach Jaime Lannister to fight with his left hand and then the two of them will go an a quest to retrieve Arya Stark from Braavos, so that Jaime can fulfill his promise to Lady Catelyn to protect her daughters.
[[WMG: ''All'' the events so far are part of an undescribably complex {{plan}} set up by...]]
Benjen Stark. He manipulated Littlefinger, Varys, Melisandre, ''everyone'' to set the events of the books in motion. Then he went into hiding beyond the Wall. When the various conflicts (War of the Five Kings, Targaryen invasion, the Others) come to an end, he will emerge from the forest and declare himself Overlord of Everything to Ever Exist Ever. Trufax.
** Can we ''please'' stop misusing XanatosGambit to mean "any clever plan"?
[[WMG: Future Plans of the Brotherhood Without Banners]]
They will conduct a daring jail break and free Edmure and take back Riverrun. Also, they will "gatecrash" the wedding of Daven Lannister and the Frey girl he's marrying (Tom O'Sevens will naturally be undercover as a musician) and will murder them along with their guests. This will both be an awesome moment as well as a demonstration of how much they and Catelyn have become HeWhoFightsMonsters. Demonstrating this, a pregnant Roslin Frey will also be killed. Edmure will survive the series but as a bitter man and will hunt down and execute the members of the Brotherhood.
* By "daring jail break", you mean "besiege Casterly Rock"? And then turn around and capture Riverrun? You realise that would be... tricky, right?
** Forgot Edmure was being taken to Casterly Rock and was writing this with the mindset he was still imprisoned at Riverrun. Attacking the Rock doesn't seem feasible- maybe they'll intercept Lannister troops on the road between Riverrun and there? In any case, I definitely think that wedding mas acre is gonna happen.
[[WMG: Quaithe is a ghost]]
She can appear and vanish without explanation, can be seen only by certain people, and she comes from 'the shadow lands.' Dany bringing magic back into the world made her stronger, and self-interest is why she watching out for her with advice and warnings.
Also for the sheer hell of it, I'm going to throw in that Quaithe is specifically the ghost of Joanna Lannister. Because that would be fun.
[[WMG: Jaime Lannister will not survive the series]]
He has grown into one of the audience's favourite characters since his HeelFaceTurn. It is very dangerous to be an audience's favourite character in Westeros. Also, look how many people are gunning for him:
** Dany knows him as the man who murdered her father and opened the way for Tywin's men to rape her mother and kill her brother.
** The Martells feel the same way.
** The Northern lords, Riverland lords and Jon Snow see him as a Lannister, one of the family that ransacked the North, [[spoiler: orchestrated the Red Wedding and put Ned Stark to death.]]
** If he remembers, Bran will know him as the man who pushed him from a window and crippled him.
** Arya Stark is hardly going to be best buds with him if they ever meet.
** Tyrion has decidedly mixed feelings towards him after the Tysha episode.
** Perhaps the greatest immediate threat to him: [[spoiler: Undead-Catelyn Stark is gunning for him, has probably sent Brienne to trap him and intends to put him to death.]]
** Stannis sees him as guilty of treason, a crime punishable by death, and Stannis is not one to ignore the law.
*** I agree. I cannot picture any scenario where he survives the end of the series. Literally every one of the major contenders for the throne wants him dead.
** Jaime Lannister dies defending Jon Targaryen. Because it would be poetic for the kingslayer to end up dying in defense of another king.
[[WMG: Dany really can't have kids]]
Mirri Maz Duur wasn't making a prophecy, she was giving the educated guess of an eperienced midwife who saw firsthand the damage Rhaego's birth did to Dany. Exact wording is usually pretty important in the books, and Mirri's exact words were that Daenerys would never bear a living child. Being able to concieve and being able to carry the pregnancy to term are two different things- look at Lysa's track record.
[[WMG: Jon's Sword will become the new Lightbringer]]
In order to create the original Lightbringer, it had to be quenched in the body of its maker's wife. Jon used his sword to kill Ygritte, who was his wife by Wildling law.
** Ygritte was killed by an arrow (and specifically not one of Jon's), and died in Jon's arms from her wounds.
[[WMG: Daenerys will march on Harrenhal with the dragons. Or even just one or two of the dragons.]]
Like Aegon the Conqueror.
[[WMG: Varys caused Robert's rebellion]]
* Rhaegar was not someone who kidnaps and rapes women.
* Lyanna was not someone who can be kidnapped and raped with the rapist's protruding parts intact.
* Lyanna knew that Brandon was overly protective so she left him a note before eloping with Rhaegar or sent him a raven afterwards. Said message has, however, disappeared. It reeks of powder and perfume.
Why would he wanted to do that? Well, Varys is loyal to the kingdom. Aerys was bad for the kingdom. So Aerys had to be removed. It was pretty much a XanatosGambit: if Rhaegar won, he would have "made some changes" - presumably dethroning his insane father. If the rebellion won, well, the new king can't be much worse. And even if the new king or the king after him is bad, he saved Aegon so he could return and rule as someone groomed to be a good king.
** Because just having Aerys assassinated, leaving Rhaegar to rule the kingdom automatically... that would have been far too messy. And it seems pretty clear that Varys is interested in the ''stability'' of the realm, and one mad king is going to be nowhere near as destabilising as a massive civil war. Surely Varys knew about the wildfire Aerys was planning to cook Kings Landing in if he was threatened? (Incidentally, what are you basing your characterisations of Rhaegar and Lyanna on, when we've heard barely anything about either?)
*** Pretty sure he was basing Lyanna's on the WMG that she masqueraded as a mystery knight to enter tournaments. And Rhaegar's been stated by almost everyone but Robert to have actually been a really good guy. Even Ned didn't have anything bad to say about him, which says a lot, considering the guy supposedly kidnapped his sister.
[[WMG: More Targaryen (or Blackfyre) claimants are due to show up]]
Moqorro makes a prophecy of "[[http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Prophecies/Entry/5435/ Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark.]]"
* "Old and young" is tricky. Aegon and Dany are too close in age to fit, which signifies there must be more "dragons" than these two involved in the dance. Bloodraven is ancient, but appears to be dying. Aemon is dead. The trueborn Targaryens old enough to be "old" all seem to be accounted for, which suggests that there is a lost relative somewhere waiting to pop up. That, or a literal dragon...
** Aegon is older than Dany, but in terms of experience pretty much a sweet summer baby compared to her. Old and young could refer to the vast gulf in life (or at least ruling) experience they have, which is a lot wider than the year or two of age.
* "True and false" may be a reference to illegitimacy - the Great Bastards were legitimised (if that makes any difference to one being a "false dragon"), but Jon Snow is of course a bastard. Alternatively it might refer to a fake Targaryen (a "mummer's dragon") which may be Aegon.
** Aegon is Varys' piece in the game of thrones - Varys was once a mummer. Of course, your possibility is possible as well.
* "Bright and dark"; Qaithe also warns against a "dark flame" which may be a reference to a Blackfyre. Most of them are long dead, but Haegon was taken to Tyrosh by Bittersteel, so it seems likely he was at some point a member of the Golden Company. "Griff"/"Aegon" might really be a descendant of his, or else one may be concealed among the company. Alternatively, Jon Snow or Bloodraven might be "dark" due to their association with the Night's Watch.
** As for the "old" dragon, the Elder Brother on the Quiet Isle is really Rhaegar.
[[WMG: Tyrion will be the Starks' greatest threat]]
He never bore them any ill will at the start, but of all the Lannisters Tyrion's the only one the direwolves treated as a danger. The Starks were less than kind to him, and he's rather bitter over everything with Sansa. Should he encounter any of the remaining Stark kids again, it'll end with them getting messed up good and proper.
** IDK. He's certainly mad at Sansa, but I don't think he'd go so far as to actually hurt her. (He doesn't throw all of the blame on her at his trial, remember, even though from his point of view doing so would just have been being honest). The same goes for Arya, Bran, and Rickon. Basically, Tyrion, for all his flaws, is perhaps the only Lannister offspring who seems aware that he's a grown-ass man, and he's been really reluctant to do anything bad to children in the past. (If he wouldn't hurt *Joffrey* when offered the chance, how could he hurt Bran or Rickon?) Robb's dead, so that just leaves Jon Snow, who Tyrion is actually friends with (and whose direwolf actually likes him). He might be willing to go after Catelyn, but what could he possibly do to her that's worse than what's already happened? I think the direwolves are good at sensing how much a threat a person *can* be, but I doubt they actually know what a person's intentions are. So, basically, YMMV.
[[WMG: Jaime Lannister will kill one or all three of Dany's dragons]]
We know that Dragons can be fought and beaten if you know what to do - the Dornish managed to beat Aegon the Conqueror, and then they beat the Young Dragon as well. Similarly, we know that dragons can be killed - [[spoiler: Harghaz nearly managed to kill Drogon in ADWD, and Dany clearly feared for his safety]]. At the moment, Dany is [[spoiler: about to be captured by Khal Jhaqo.]] Perhaps she [[spoiler: will be pushed over the edge by the]] [[spoiler: nasty treatment she can look forward to at Jhaqo's hands, or he will use her to enslave the dragons.]] Also, since his HeelFaceTurn, Jaime is actually trying to become more like a chivalrous knight - [[spoiler: saving Brienne, rescuing Tyrion (and telling him the truth), beating himself up over having to threaten Edmure, showing his respect for Lord Blackwood over Lord Bracken.]] And what do knights do? Kill dragons.
** Alternatively, Drogon will prove to be [[spoiler: untameable and require killing.]]
[[WMG: Lightbringer is the Night's Watch]]
Not as far-fetched as it may seem. After all, the prophecy of Azor Ahai (and prophecy in general in this series) is heavy with symbolism. It's possible "sword" is an interchangeable term for a "weapon." A fighting force can be a weapon. A "red sword" could mean a weapon/force that's seen and survived combat.
Besides, look at the Night's Watch vow: "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come."
Here we have an oath that uses a sword as the metaphor for the Night's Watch. Lightbringer is supposed to give off heat; the Night's Watch burns against the cold. It is the "light that brings the dawn." The original defeat of the Others is called the Battle for the Dawn. Could this mean that Lightbringer has been staring us in the face practically the entire time? It certainly seems like something Martin would do.
The Azor Ahai legend and the origin of the Night's Watch are, we're led to believe, roughly contemporary. Azor Ahai's legend has to do with defeating the Others, which is also the Night's Watch's mission. As such, the AA legend and the Night's Watch are inexorably linked. The "wielder of Lightbringer" might simply mean the person who commands the Night's Watch. For all we know, AA might himself have been the founding Lord Commander.
It also may be that AA's sacrifice of Nissa Nissa might somehow tie into the Night's Watch promise to not take wives. We understand that promise to simply be putting duty before familial loyalty, but what if there's more to it? If AA did sacrifice Nissa Nissa to "forge" Lightbringer, and the Night's Watch is itself Lightbringer, then the rule against taking wives literally goes back to the first days of the Watch and has a deep symbolic meaning beyond just utility.
* AA killed Nissa Nissa to forge Lightbringer. The Night's Watch [[spoiler:killed Jon Snow to "forge" Azor Ahai...]]
[[WMG: Robb is alive as Grey Wind.]]
Unlike Catelyn, who was unceremoniously dumped in a river, we pretty much know the location of Robb's body after his death, so there's little chance some convenient priest could come along and resurrect him. Indeed, we thought we knew the location of Grey Wind's corpse as well, but recent events seem to give the wolf an out, released into the woods in the confusion, though shot with crossbows. If he still is alive, then it is possible that, at the moment of death, Robb's spirit hitched a ride on the wolf. With his body dead, however, poor Robb is now stuck in Grey Wind, much like how the wildling shapechanger ended up stuck in a bird when Jon killed his human body.
This theory is basically part interesting use of what we already "know" (as much as ever really know anything recently in this story) and the fact that, for main characters in an "AnyOneCanDie" series, the Starks do very little actual dying after Ned (well, very little ''staying'' dead). In a sense, among all the other deconstructions and parodies, AnyOneCanDie is being toyed with, as the series begins with a shattering of comfort on who may live and who may die, but then doesn't really follow through with any of the main POV characters. And why let a character have the peace of death when you can make them suffer some more?
* According to Tyrion the Freys killed Grey Wind as well and sewed his head onto Robb's corpse. Not much room for revival with that kind of cranial damage.
** Though if above theories about Rob getting a Catlyn-style zombification pan out, a wolf-headed zombie warg would be pretty badass.
* Tyrion wasn't there, though. That was a story someone brought back to him - you know, like the story that the Stark troops transformed into wolves when they defeated Stefford Lannister and then ate all of the corpses afterwards. Not entirely ironclad.
** It gains credence from one of the images Daenerys sees in the House of the Undying: a wolf-headed king headed on a throne, surrounded by corpses, with an iron crown on his head.
** Yes, that's certainly true, but there's enough wiggle room there that it's still possible to root for it. The vision about the lady and the five dwarves (to pick one at random) was true, but it wasn't literal. Sometimes, they're not literal. And I want my irrational hope, dammit!
*** More damningly, there's the fact that the Brotherhood without Banners brings this up to Merrett Frey who does not deny it.
* Assuming that the whole "sewing Grey Wind's head on Robb's body" thing wasn't true, then most likely, Robb!Grey Wind was rescued by Nymeria's Wolfpack. Which means that said wolfpack now includes one of the best tacticians in Westeros.
* Doesn't Summer!Bran say something about his brother going silent? And he can still sense Nymeria.
[[WMG: Dany's about to become the Mad Queen.]]
We know she has a capacity for very severe vengeance (see Mirri Maaz Duur, the Good Masters, the Great Masters...) and a quick temper. It only seems to have gotten worse as time goes on (compare burning one woman at the stake with crucifying 163 slavers and leaving them up for days). On top of that, she just survived weeks isolated and alone with only a dragon for company. Perhaps her dark side will only continue to grow, and Tyrion, Jorah, Barristan, or someone else will have to become a queenslayer. In any case I think (assuming she survives her BolivianArmyEnding) Dany's dark side is going to become more prominent.
* I expect the madness/genius coin-flip described by Barristan will be left up in the air for a long long time. Although there's no reason given that a single Targaryen couldn't both great ''and'' insane at the same time, or at least alternately. At any rate, plenty of perfectly sane monarchs have had a vengeful dark streak a mile wide, both in the real world and in Westeros. And ruthlessness is a pretty useful trait in someone whose goal is to conquer a continent.
* I like this idea. Imagine this: Dany decide to retake Westeros even if she has to burn it to the ground and attacks with her dragons. Selmy finds himself facing the same dillema Jaime had, but he decides to follow his oath. Dany's conquest leads to deaths of many inocent people, and in the end, Stark children will warg into her dragons and force them to kill each other. Selmy will live the rest of his life in guilt for the lives lost.
[[WMG: "The Shadow" is a volcano that puts Valyria to shame]]
Old Valyria seems to have been a volcanic region devastated by an enormous eruption, and is also strongly tied to dragons. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to assume a connection, especially considering "dragonglass", whose real-world counterpart obsidian is a volcanic material. The other place associated with dragons is Asshai "by-the-Shadow", near a mysterious area called the Shadow Lands, which are said to be "under the shadow". So what if they're either metaphorically "in the shadow" of a great mountain, or literally shadowed by plumes of smoke belching from it? What if beyond Asshai the atmosphere becomes so caustic and poisonous (or even dragon-infested) that it's generally considered uninhabitable, a sort of naturally-occurring uber-{{Mordor}}?
[[WMG:[[spoiler:Arya]] will get enough assassin training to be a badass MasterOfDisguise killing machine, but drop out before making a final commitment]]
As interesting as they are, a Faceless Man as a viewpoint character, let alone as a protagonist character, wouldn't work. They're meant to have no identity, no desires of their own, no ties to the outside world -- none of the things that make a hero, basically. [[spoiler:Arya's hidden sword and her wild direwolf ]]both symbolise aspects of her character that she wouldn't allow to be subsumed by the House of Black and White. Either something in Braavos will remind her of home, or she will rail against a final stage of induction to the Faceless Men and flee -- or be expelled -- from them. Like [[Film/BatmanBegins Bruce Wayne]] and [[TheEmpireStrikesBack Luke Skywalker]], she will join the ranks of the Dropout Hero. Some kind of rediscovery of [[spoiler:Nymeria being the catalyst would be excellent, as she symbolises all the aspects of Arya that go against the FM's ethos, although it's hard to see how that would happen except as a particularly vivid wolf-dream.]]
* Given that [[spoiler:Dunsen is on his way to Braavos with Harys Swyft to negotiate with the Iron Bank, I'm guessing the bank will take a contract out on Swyft. Arya will be given it, will see Dunsen on the mission and not be able to stop herself killing him, and her killing another person she knows for personal reasons will get her expelled.]]
[[WMG: The next book will focus on the fight with the Others more than the Game of Thrones. Because of this, Dany will win.]]
Stannis and the Greyjoys will make their way back to the Wall and Melisandre will recruit the worshipers of Rh'llor to come and fight. Jon Snow will use all the pull he's ever got to recruit Wildlings and Starks to come and fight. The Lannisters family would have been so weakened by the events of the last book and Ser Kevan's death that they will have only the most superficial power and Littlefinger will be too busy with Sansa to do any of his usual manipulations. Everyone who still has power will have been summoned to the Wall to deal with the zombie apocalypse and everyone else with any power will be too stuck up in their problems, so Varys and the Martells bring Dany and her dragons into the city and she'll take over before anyone else really notices. She convinces Tommen and the Tyrells to swear allegiance to her and she'll take the throne without a fight.
[[WMG: Whoever wins the Iron Throne will be a Tyrell.]]
Or, failing that, the person who does take the Iron Throne - consensus seems to be that Jon or Dany are the most likely at the end - will marry a Tyrell. Why? Well, Stark = York and Lannister = Lancaster, and this troper thinks that Tyrell = Tudor. The Tyrells' rose sigil looks very much like the Tudor rose in design, and one of the actual Tudor colors was green (the other being white; red and white is a common misconception because of the rose; the red and white symbolized the joining of White Rose York and Red Rose Lancaster). The Tyrells' colors are green and gold. The head of the Tyrell family is also Lord of the Marches - the Tudors were Welsh, Welsh Marches, anyone? Lastly, Margaery Tyrell's story has quite a few parallels to Anne Boleyn's, and Anne Boleyn's rise and fall is one of the better-known events in the Tudor era. Which also makes the fact that Natalie Dormer plays Margaery, and was also Anne Boleyn on TheTudors, a nice CastingGag.
* Going with the Margaery/Anne Boleyn parallel, and the fact that if Jon is a Targaryen he binds two royal houses together in his blood (which Henry VII did not do; he married the York heiress but it was his sons who carried both York and Lancaster blood) it's possible that Jon will marry Margaery.
* Henry Tudor was technically a Lancastrian, though; his mother, Margaret Beaufort, was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt. The seeds of the War of the Roses were first planted when John's son, Henry Bolingbroke, overthrew his cousin, Richard II, and became Henry IV. The Lancasters were eventually deposed, though, because Henry VI was crazy and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, could have given LadyMacbeth lessons in ruthlessness. I don't know if GRRM knows it, but when Henry Tudor went to war with Richard III, Henry fought under the banner of the dragon (the symbol of Wales) and Richard under the banner of the white boar.
* OP here. Yes, I know that Henry Tudor was technically a Lancastrian through his mother, but Margaret Beaufort was of a secondary line, the descendent of John of Gaunt's legitimized bastards. So he wasn't a member of the primary line, he was just pretty much the only living claimant the Lancasters had left. Besides, it wouldn't be an entirely direct parallel - Cersei reads like an evil caricature of Elizabeth Woodville in some ways, and Robert like an extreme caricature of Edward IV in his later years. It's why I'm very concerned that Tommen will suffer a Prince in the Tower sort of fate.
** Oh, Robert is so strikingly like Edward IV it ''had'' to have been deliberate. Both were both very tall, muscular and handsome as young men; excellent military commanders, and didn't get along well with their brothers. They both got fat as they aged and were succeeded by twelve-year-olds. Cersei also has a bit of Margaret of Anjou and Lucrezia Borgia in her. Nevertheless, despite that York and Lancaster sound similar to Stark and Lannister, the Yorkists and Lancastrians have more direct textual parallels in the Baratheons and the Targaryens with the Blackfyres being legitimized bastards. If Martin plans to end the series like the War of the Roses did, then the logical end would be for a surviving Blackfyre male to marry a Baratheon female. But I don't think it's going to be that exact.
* Not to mention the TV parallels Margaery Tyrell is played by Natalie Dormer who also played Anne Boleyn.
[[WMG:A dragonrider ideally needs to be half-Targaryen]]
The three heads of the dragon will all be half-Targaryen, thus having both "Blood of the Dragon" plus a sort of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosis hybrid vigour]] that preserves them from the Taint, a side effect of inbreeding. (This controversially rules Dany out but [[spoiler:Griff]] in, along with [[spoiler:Jon Snow]] and [[spoiler:Targ!Tyrion]]). The Targaryens initially lost their hold over dragons because they got too obsessed with blood-purity; the reason there need to be three per generation is so that two of them can maintain the purity of the Blood of the Dragon and the other can marry out in order to birth the next generation of dragonriders. This is also why the most successful dragonriders in history were Aegon I and his sisters, who were the first to institute the inbreeding tradition.
[[WMG: Aegon Will Win the Iron Throne and Marry Arianne Martell]]
* Aegon has Varys behind him and a very divided realm ahead of him so that's very in his favour
** Littlefinger might even be on their side in a way
* The Martells have been planning to get behind the Targaryens forever and their support will clearly be crucial in order for him to have any chance at winning.
* Since Viserys is dead then it makes sense for Arianne to marry Aegon for them
** Also GRRM has said that in ''Winds of Winter'', they are going to meet
** What would Aegon stand to gain by marrying Arianne? As Elia's son he's already guaranteed Dorne's support.
[[WMG:Dany won't retake Meereen]]
If she takes over Meereen again, she'll eventually have to choose whether to give up on Westeros, or go there and abandon her "children" as Meereen quickly backslides into the old regime. If she's exiled, much like Sansa and Tyrion it effectively dissolves her marriage to Hizdahr, allowing her to marry Victarion or some other suitor who might actually be able to help her get her eyes back on the prize.
* Alternatively, the wild dragons will leave the city a smoking ruin and there'll be nothing ''left'' to rule over.
[[WMG:The old gods, children of the forest, First Men and the Starks are less benevolent than they seem..]]
In A Dance with Dragons, we learn that the ancient Starks used to sacrifice people to their weirwoods via Bran's vision of the white-haired woman cutting a captive's throat in front of a heart tree. We know that "blood magic" is a powerful and ancient form of magic GRRM's world through the examples of Melisandre and Mirri Maz Duur. Since A Game of Thrones we have been told that weirwoods have blood-colored sap and leaves and often appear to "weep blood" from their faces. The weirwood in White Harbor, which was the site of much bloody sacrifice as mentioned by Davos, is humungous and fat. Weirwoods cannot take root at the Eyrie and we know that that castle is unique in that it executes its major criminals by throwing them off the mountain as opposed to beheading (apparently the preferred execution method in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms). From this we can deduce that weirwoods thrive on the blood of human sacrifices and in fact that their "sap" is most likely, to some degree, literal blood!
This throws the First Men and the children of the forest and the old gods into a whole new light. When we first learn of the Andals invading Westeros and driving the First Men and the children back and hacking down all the weirwoods we are sympathetic to the First Men and the children (or, at least, I was). But, if the Andals knew of the origin of the weirwoods, they could hardly be blamed for finding the First Men and children barbaric and horrifying.
On a related note, we have the Starks. They are the only major house that is still (mostly) of the blood of the First Men. They describe their ancestors as the "Kings of Winter". They are the only major house that still worships the old gods (though they appear to be unaware of their religion's bloody origin). At one point in the story, I forget where exactly, it is noted that the Stark words are the only words of a major house that are not a boast of some kind. In contrast to things like "Growing strong", "We do not sow", "Ours is the fury", etc., the Stark words are "Winter is coming". "Winter is coming" is used as a warning throughout the books akin to something like "Knock on wood". However, what if originally, the Stark words were meant as a boast, as well? As in, look out southerners/Andals/enemies of the old gods, because when Winter gets here, we are gonna kick some serious butt. In other words, Winter coming was a good thing for the Starks of old and their gods.....
* That's a pretty good theory actually. One problem; the Children of the Forest and the Others were enemies, and the First Men sided with the children.
* Interesting, but it depends on your interpretation of Bran's vision, which came without any context. It could have been an execution of a criminal. That might have been the origin of the Northern custom of the local lord performing executions personally, and then going to pray before the heart tree afterward. Also, the lack of a heart tree at the Eyrie proves nothing: heart trees in the South are not weirwoods in the first place. There is no heart tree at the Eyrie because no tree can grow at that elevation.
** Well... whether or not Bran's vision entailed an execution, a Mayan-style blood sacrifice or some kind of Extreme Bar Mitzvah doesn't really enter into it. The point is that someone's blood was being spilled at the base of a weirwood. And Abraham Stark's descendants -- such as Ned -- have been unwittingly feeding their tree every time they cleanse their blades in the waters of the godswood ever since. Also, no, the lack of a heart tree at the Eyrie by itself doesn't prove anything, and yes, weirwoods are not as customary in the godwoods of the southron castles. However, in Chapter 80 of Storm of Swords (Sansa's seventh of that book), a point is made that in the Eyrie they specifically tried to get a weirwood to take root and it could not. The book also notes that your explanation is of course the most likely; a tree just can't take root at that altitude... On the other hand, all this circumstantial evidence has got to add up to something at some point, and taken as a contrast to the bloated, ginormous tree at White Harbour (where bloody executions are noted to have been quite common), well...
** Just thought of something else: the weirwood at the wildling village of Whitetree is also huge. Not only that, but it is described as having a mouth carved into it large enough to fit a sheep into and Jon Snow even finds charred human remains in there. The wildlings still worship the old gods by and large and seem to be much more in tune with their religion and history... This all but confirms that they are making blood sacrifices to the weirwoods.
[[WMG:Jojen Reed was killed and his blood was used to initiate Bran as a greenseer]]
Related to the above. When Jojen gets to the caves north of the Wall he seems to become more and more depressed, even in spite of the fact that he seems to get physically stronger (he had been ill). Jojen often mentions that "this is not the day I die" implying that he knows the day of his death (he does NOT say this on the day Bran consumes the weirwood paste). Meera intimates to Bran that her brother wishes to return home but will not fight his fate, though she doesn't say what that fate is; she then begins to cry. Meera admonishes Jojen for scaring Bran and Jojen's response is that "[Bran] is not the one that needs to be afraid". Martin describes the new crescent moon on the day Bran consumes the paste as "sharp as a knife"; a parallel seems to exist between this moon and the sickle used in the blood sacrifice Bran witnesses in the weirwood vision. Bran sees veins of red in the weirwood seed paste before he eats it, which he supposes is just weirwood sap. Bran nearly retches up the first bite of the paste. After his vision is over, Bran can taste blood in his mouth. Meera and Jojen are nowhere to be found after Bran eats the paste.
Taken altogether, I believe this points to the fact that Jojen was (willingly) killed by Bloodraven and the children of the forest and his blood was used to indoctrinate Bran into greenseerhood. Perhaps Bran and the weirwood he "uses" both fed on Jojen's blood to link them together. Meera seems to have been at least vaguely aware of Jojen's fate and seemed to hope that the "three-eyed crow" (Bloodraven) would be able to alter it. Jojen may have humored her to that end in order to get her to accompany him, knowing that her huntress / fighting abilities would be needed.
This is related to the speculation that Bran may be heading down a darker path than it initially seemed, what with his willingness to warg into Hodor against the latter's wishes.
** Where's the rest of his blood? If they only needed enough for the bowl of weirwood paste, why would Jojen have to die?
*** Who knows how blood magic works? Maybe it needs to be the last drops of his life's blood for the magic to work. Maybe Bran needs to keep eating this stuff, and Jojen is going to keep providing it until he dies.
*** That's more-or-less confirmed by Stannis using the leeches in the brazier to try and off the pretender-kings. Melisandre warns him that doing it that way (i.e. not actually murdering the person whose blood is used in the spells, in that case Edric Storm) will "work and not work". Bloodraven (and likely Jojen himself) weren't about to induct Bran into super-warg-hood in such a half-assed kind of way.
[[WMG:Alysane Mormont had sex with Tormund Giantsbane]]
On a brief adventure beyond the wall, Tormund meant he had sex with a Mormont when he said "bear". Alysane said her children were fathered by a bear because she genuinely mistook Tormund for one.
[[WMG: The dragon Rhaegal is female.]]
That's the reason why (s)he is not named Rhaeg''on'' in accordance with Drog''on'' and Visery''on''.
** Dragons don't have set genders, according to Maester Aemon. But chances are Rhaegel was given a feminine name in honour of the women of the Targareyn dynasty. There were several queens with the 'Rhae' prefix in their name.
* Or Rhaegon is the name of an actual person. Or it sounded too close to Rhaegar or the names would all sound weird together. And "Rhae" isn't exclusively feminine unless Rhaegar had a really weird secret. Dragons are neuter or hermaphrodites.
[[WMG: At the end of the series, the Stark in Winterfell will be... Jeyne Poole, pretending to be Arya.]]
What could be more appropriate, in a series that places so much emphasis on mutable identities and the utter silliness of the medieval obsession with noble heritage, than ending up with the Stark lineage carried on by someone who we, the readers, know isn't a Stark at all? (Warning: this is going to be a long one.)
In one of the preview chapters of ''Winds'', we see that [[spoiler: Jeyne has continued to lay claim to her 'Arya' identity even when released from the Boltons' captivity]]. The other candidates for the job, while by no means ruled out at this stage, all have a plausible reason why they might not lay claim to Winterfell. Arya herself is in the process of abandoning her own identity; Sansa may never feel it's safe to drop the 'Alayne Stone' persona; Bran's up in the far, far north, surrounded by hostile Others, and seems unlikely to return south of the Wall even if he survives ''Winds'' and ''Dream''; Rickon's likely to have gone half-feral after spending so long on an island of cannibals and sharing his mind with a wolf throughout his formative years; and [[spoiler: Jon is dead, a bastard at any rate, and likely to have more important prophecy-related business than sorting out the succession in Winterfell even if he comes back]].
Who else could identify Jeyne as a fake? Theon, but he has no reason to- in fact, he's been the number one supporter of Jeyne keeping up the pretense of being Arya, [[spoiler: a pattern he continues in the Winds preview chapter.]] Lady Stoneheart could, assuming she's still mentally capable of such, but she's down in the Riverlands and unlikely to ever meet the girl passing herself off as her daughter. Littlefinger, Varys and Tyrion could, but none would have any objection to a fake Stark assuming it figured into their plans somehow (and, seriously, does anyone believe Littlefinger in particular is going to make it to the end of ''Dream''?) Finally, there's Roose and Ramsay, both of whom are going to be ''incredibly'' dead by the end of the series. As cruel as GRRM is to his heroes, he does have a way of making sure his villains get their just desserts, too. Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch that none of these characters would spill the beans, but thematically it'd be perfect for the series, fitting in with the recurring message that it's not who you are that counts but who you can convince other people you are, or who other people say you are. Plus, hey, the girl could use ''some'' good luck after everything she's been through.
[[WMG: The series will end with three kingdoms.]]
The Lannisters are doomed. Sorry Tommen, but its true. The magic is coming back, and they're the only faction that has none of it on their side. They'll probably be wiped out by the end of book six to clear the board for the serious players. Dany will invade before Stannis can move South, securing King's Landing promptly. This will leave Stannis with a serious dilemma: he can legitimately say that Joffrey and Tommen had no claim to the throne, but Dany does have a valid claim. At the same time, though, I doubt he's going to lay down his armies, and as the magic comes back, Melisandre is going to gain access to increasingly kick-ass magic, and Dany will realize that, even with her dragons, she could potentially lose...around this time the Wall will come down, forcing the Night's Watch and the Wildlings into a hopeless battle against the forces of Darkness, but Stannis and Dany, determined to protect their people, abandon their own squabbling (something no other leader in the series was prepared to do) to protect the people. After the battle is over, Dany makes a propositions: technically, the North declared itself independent, but no longer has a legitimate King (all the Starks remain in hiding, or have taken the black, or just have no desire to rule)...so, she offers Stannis the North, and he promptly accepts. The Wildlings at this point have come to see the Nights Watch as their leaders, due to their valiance in battle, and Stannis proposes that the gift, and the lands that were once North of the wall be merged into a single, new kingdom, and that the position of Lord Commander and King Beyond the Wall be merged, and the Nights Watch take on the role of that kingdom's knights. Thus, Jon Snow becomes the first King of the Gift.
** While you're probably right, I'm not going to be 100% sure that the Lannisters aren't involved in anything magical until we finally see Casterly Rock. Yes, Jaime's dream about something ominous and terrible lurking under it are probably just dreams or metaphors, but still worth looking into.
** Due to Qyburn's love of Mary Shelley, the Lannister now have some magic to them. I'm sure that could in no way turn out wrong.
[[WMG: Ramsay Bolton will be hunted and killed by Nymeria's wolf pack.]]
Just think about it. This is very appropriate end for him. A perfect KarmicDeath.
[[WMG: Dany's return to westeros will be A Big RealityEnsues.]]
She missed the oppurtunity to conquer, Aegon has or will gain the support and thanks to Cersei noone wants a woman.
[[WMG: There'll be a diplomatic incident involving Daenerys and "The bear and the maiden fair"]]
Everybody in Westeros seems to be constantly singing it, but Dany didn't grow up there. So when she hears the lyrics for the first time, she'll take them to be about Ser Jorah and herself - cue interesting insights into a paranoid queen.
[[WMG: The Drowned God and the Storm God were the original deities of he First Men]]
Ironborn religious doctrine teaches that the Drowned God led their ancestors to find the Sea Stone Chair. Implying that they had been worshiping him or a being like him proceeding their settling on the Iron Islands. Thus, it may be possible that the First Men who came from Essos did in fact worship him before they discarded him in favour of the Children of the Forest. But the First Men are said to come from Essos, and within the series the similarities between the Drowned God and R'hilor are remarked upon as uncanny. Therefore, it can be further extrapolated that the Drowned God and the Storm God are merely mutations of the R'hilor and the Great Other respectively, changed as Ironborn's culture began to emphasize sea-born raiding.
* There are hints at all sorts of gods the First Men may have had before converting to "the old gods" of the children of the forest (the ancient story of the first Storm King says he took a daughter of "the gods" as a wife, and went to war with them, which implies numerous, anthropomorphic gods, at least some of whom have powers over the weather). Either they had multiple religions, or it was a polytheistic/henotheistic religion with a whole pantheon of gods.
* A seafaring pantheon doesn't make all that much sense considering that the First Men had to _walk_ to get to Westeros, and that destroying their bridge is seen as the ideal way to stop them.
[[WMG: Gunpowder Is Coming]]
Somewhere between ''The Winds of Winter'' and ''The Dream of Spring'' one of the maesters will design stable, wildfire-based compound with explosive capabilities. At first, it'll be overlooked, but invention of firearms will be just a matter of time. Using Valyrian steel for barrels shall make them lighter and stronger than in our world, while obsidian shells in particular will prove useful against the Walkers pouring from the North. Citadel will establish a powerful presence on the Reach, incorporating the remaining Pyromancers and maybe wiping out the Hightowers ForScience. The fall of knighthood will be imminent... but Westeros, having this new power at their disposal, will survive.
* Perhaps Sam will take part in it, further cementing his 'Slayer' title.
* As a CrowningMomentOfAwesome mixed with TearJerker, imagine a dragon being killed with cannon fire. Cue Daenerys' lament and the words: "Fire nowadays can kill a dragon. They have taught it".
[[WMG: Melisandre really is as good as she sees herself.]]
Her morally ambiguous acts are done out of desperation. Consider her situation: she knows that the Others are returning, and will destroy humanity if not stopped, but no one, or almost no one, is listening to her. She needs Westeros to be united to stand against the Others, or everyone will die, and the whole world will be shrouded in eternal cold and darkness, but the rulers of Westeros would prefer to fight for power amongst themselves instead, wasting the military forces that ought to be used to defend against the Others. The only figure in Westerosi politics over whom she has any influence is Stannis, so she needs to put Stannis firmly in power on the throne in order to get Westeros mobilized against the real threat. What are her other options? What would you do in her shoes?
[[WMG: Robert did not abuse Cersei.]]
He cheated on her, obviously, but other than hitting her the one time in Ned's presence, when he himself said that that "was not kingly," he did not beat her or force himself on her. Cersei made that up to justify her own actions, and to play on Ned's doubts about what Robert had become. Who knows? She might even have been lying about Robert having whispered Lyanna's name on their wedding night. After all, why should we believe anything she says? She's clearly a sadistic sociopath, and probably always was one: it is very likely that she murdered Melara Hetherspoon.
* She mentions him beating and raping her in her POV in ''AFFC'', and characters generally don't lie to themselves in their POV chapters/people don't lie to themselves in their thoughts. Just because Cersei is a sociopath doesn't mean Robert isn't a wife beater and rapist.
** People lie to themselves in their thoughts all the time, especially when it comes to justifying their own bad behavior. Why should we assume that the characters are being totally honest with themselves in their own thoughts/[=PoV=] chapters? It's true that Cersei could be a sociopath ''and'' Robert could be an abuser and a rapist, but why should we just take Cersei's word on it?
*** Well, Occam's Razor, I guess. Option A is that Robert beat and raped Cersei. Option B is that Cersei made up the beatings and rape in her own head in order to justify her actions. In support of Option A you have the fact that Robert is an alcoholic who frequently gets blackout drunk and is known to have hit Cersei in full view of his court. Assuming GRRM knows anything about this type of thing, we have to assume that this wasn't an isolated incident. Also, the setting is very much based on medieval Europe and marital rape was not even considered a crime until about the 20th century in our own world. Robert (not that he would have been in any state to rationalize it anyway going by Cersei's memories), as icky as it sounds today, was within his rights as a husband and especially as a king in expecting Cersei to perform her "wifely duties" according to his whim. In support of Option B we have the fact that Cersei is apparently at least in partial denial about what she did to Melara and the fact that it sucks to find out that the Jovial, formerly-badass king who was once Ned's best buddy turned out to be a cowardly, wife-beating rapist. I don't know about you, but to me Option A just seems a lot more likely... Also, you have to keep in mind GRRM's writing style which is to often create deeply flawed characters; heroes with dark sides and villains with redeeming qualities and sometimes just plain old people who fit somewhere in the middle. Personally, I think Robert is much more interesting and believable (if repugnant) as a character if Option A is true.
[[WMG: Robert knew, at least subconsciously, that Cersei's children were not his.]]
Ned recollects that Robert was often quite affectionate toward his bastard children: when they were fostered together in the Vale, Ned would go with Robert to visit one of Robert's mistresses so that Robert could play with his bastard daughter, the infant Mya Stone, long after Robert had lost erotic interest in the mother. Yet Robert seems to have had no interest in Cersei's children. He would go hunting when she was in labor, and otherwise seems to have taken little or no interest in their upbringing. Maybe he knew, on some level, that they weren't his, and that was why he had no interest in them. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it to himself.
* Playing with children is a very different thing to attending their birth. Robert's treatment of his children is [[FridgeBrilliance just like his rulership of the realm]] -- he's happy to be there for the fun and games, but he's not going to change any dirty nappies. As for why he preferred his bastard children to his wife's, you may be right about him knowing subconsciously. On the other hand, he may have just seen it as them having more of him in them, whereas the kids at home reminded him more of their mother, whom he hated (or he might have suspected the former deep down, but reassured himself with the latter). And finally, bastard children and a mistress could be a kind of spare family unit with none of the resentment and responsibility of his marriage.
[[WMG: The series will end with the formation of new Seven Kingdoms]]
1. Dany will decide that the east is her home and won't return to Westeros. She will be The Queen in the East. However, wanting to prevent further war in Westeros, she will ask them to establish six other kingdoms. Tyrion will be the one bringing her message to Westeros.
2. Stannis will admit that Dany's claim is stronger than his and agree to rule Baratheon lands.
3. Bran will rebuild Winterfell and become The King in The North.
4. Bronn will be the fourth king because he seems to be good at gaining more power. He will make peace with Tyrion, who will be his Hand.
5. Littlefinger will be the fifth king because he can.
6. The sixth king will be The King beyond the Wall.
7. I'm not sure who number 7 will be, but Asha Greyjoy seems like a likely candidate.
[[WMG: The series will end with a DistantEpilogue, featuring life in a modern-day King's Landing.]]
1000 years after the epic tale, we'll see that [[ShaggyDogStory almost everything built up by our protagonists was either broken down or made moot]]. Dragons are fully domesticated, and have been bred into fat, stupid animals akin to turkeys. Magic is used so extensively, it more or less [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic replaces modern technology]]. The Others are now classified as an endangered species, and their ways are fully understood. The Old and New Gods have given way to Rh'llor, but a much more mellow and secular version of the worship we're seeing now. The Faceless Men, Nights' Watch, Brotherhood Without Banners, and other such groups have been demolished or faded away (save for the Brotherhood, which is now more or less a men's club). The wildlings have faded away (perhaps, save for small reservations?), and the great families have all lost their meaning. Winter and summer can be accurately predicted, or even controlled. [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld Airships]] sail back and forth across the Wall, and the glorious Red Keep is a weathered ruin upon a hill, only kept as a small museum, in which an [[FutureImperfect extremly fractured version]] of the story is related to bored museum-goers.
* [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Why would the museum-goers be bored?]] The story would probably still be pretty interesting even in fractured form. Besides which, why would people who find the story boring go to the museum? Wouldn't the museum-goers self-select for those who find the story interesting?
** To them, the story is quite literally ancient history, and most likely eclipsed by "future" events. They'd be bored for the same reasons some visitors to modern-day museums get bored.
* As the camera pans the parking lot on the approach we can see the license plates proclaim "REPUBLIC BICENTENNIAL" across the bottom. On the tour we see the Iron Throne gathering dust behind velvet ropes...
[[WMG:Stannis will gain the throne without further fighting.]]
It will be revealed that Stannis defeated the Boltons at Winterfell at the end of ''Dance with Dragons'', so the North will proceed to rally around Stannis. Stannis will then march south to fight for the throne, only to learn that Tommen had already died. After all, the valonqar prophecy holds that Cersei's children will all predecease her. Tommen, of course, has no children, and no younger brothers. As such, there would no longer be a Lannister claimant for the throne. The South will bend the knee to Stannis simply because there won't be anyone else left to contest his claim.
* Myrcella is Tommen's heir right now. But if she managed to die before Stannis got there too, yeah, Stannis would be the heir even if the kids were trueborn. However, that doesn't preclude further fighting, because there are plenty of other people trying to get a piece of the power.
** Only under Dornish law. In the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, a girl cannot inherit. And it seems extremely unlikely that Dorne would really want to fight for Myrcella, considering how Prince Doran feels about the Lannisters.
*** Then why is Sansa supposed to be the heir to Winterfell (going off what characters have said who don't know Bran and Rickon are alive)? Why have we heard of ladies in charge of estates and lands and such? Women do inherit, men just inherit first.
**** Rickon will be found by Davos, and will inherit Winterfell once it is removed from Bolton control.
*** Nope, women can inherit in Westeros, but only after the males. That is why Bear Island is under Lady Maege Mormont's control (after her brother Jeor took the black), and will continue to be under female control as she has only daughters. The second poster is right, Myrcella is Tommen's heir.
** Yes, "by law" a daughter has claim to her father's title if there are no male children. But the question is: Can she defend her claim? If her uncle, cousin, or even her husband has greater economic, military or political influence than her, he WILL be able to take her inherited right away, or at least wield all the power while she is only a figurehead.
[[WMG: Jojen Reed is actually Howland Reed, and Meera Reed is Jon Snow's twin sister.]]
For whatever reason, Howland Reed stopped growing after his encounter on the Isle of Faces. He developed the ability to greendream, and through these dreams he was the one who guided Eddard Stark to the dying Lyanna at the Tower of Joy. After discovering Lyanna with her newborn twins and witnessing her death, Howland saw that the twins would play an important part in future events, so for their safety he advised they be split up; he took Meera back to Greywater Watch while Eddard took Jon to Winterfell. Eddard spread the lie of Jon being his bastard son, while Greywater Watch's remote inaccessibility (no ravens, no maester, moving location) shielded Meera's existence from prying eyes. Similar to the lie Eddard put out about Jon, Howland put out the falsehood that he had a married a woman named Jyana while he was away, and that they had a daughter. Howland and Eddard would communicate through unknown means over the years, but Howland Reed was the only northern lord that never came to call at Winterfell during the rest of Eddard's tenure, most likely due to the fact that he hadn't aged and that he was secretly raising a Targaryen heir.
Shortly after Eddard's death, Howland had several green dreams regarding the threat of the Others, and that Meera's twin brother was now a member of the Night's Watch that was opposing them. With Eddard having been killed and the twins having safely reached adulthood, it fell to Howland to reunite the twins and explain to them their heritage. To get to Jon, they first had to assist Bran Stark, Jon and Meera's cousin, in developing his powers by accompanying him beyond the Wall. Howland briefed Meera on her past, and the pair left Greywater Watch for Winterfell. To compensate for his appearance, Howland adopted the identity of Jojen Reed, his non-exisitent son.
[[WMG: All of the people who want to kill Jaime Lannister will eventually converge on him.]]
Okay, maybe this is just an idea for a fanfic I had. I just think it would be hilarious if one of the people or groups who wants him dead manage to corner him, and just as they're talking, another one shows up, and then another and another - Bran and his wolf pack for throwing him out the window, Danerys and her horde for killing Aerys, Aegon and his horde for killing Aerys, Varys and his little birds for killing Aerys, Cat and the Brotherhood Without Banners for all of their reasons, Blackfish and the Tullys for all of their reasons, Cersei because she's finally found out that he freed Tyrion and decided that he's the valonqar after all, Stannis because he broke his oaths, the other Stark kids to avenge Bran, Littlefinger because he's decided that today's another random murder day and Jaime drew the short straw, the list goes on - until he's just sitting there going "come on, really?" as more people keep showing up. Maybe Tyrion could talk them down. Or grab a crossbow and join in.
* "Littlefinger because he's decided that today's another random murder day and Jaime drew the short straw" LOL! Well played! :)
[[WMG: Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped and raped Lyanna Stark.]]
It just seems to me sometimes that a certain segment of this fandom has just assumed that what Robert, and, indeed, the whole realm appears to believe about what happened between them is all wrong. I don't buy it. It just seems to me, from what little we know of Lyanna, that, if her lover and her brother were fighting a war over her, she would not just stand by and let them kill each other. Even if you assume she cared nothing for Robert, she certainly loved Ned, and the fact is that she might have ended the war with a letter. It seems more likely to me that Rhaegar, obsessed with prophecies and certain that, this time, he had interpreted them correctly, and that the child he would have with Lyanna would be the Prince who was Promised, propositioned her, only to have her laugh in his face. At which point, Rhaegar, deciding that fulfilling the prophecy was more important than any other consideration, abducted and raped her. No secret love affair.
* It would not surprise me if Rhaegar, who is constantly portrayed as a saint-like figure who can do no wrong, is being set up for a massive subversion in the next two books. IIRC, Robert's always subscribed to the "Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna" story, but everyone else (except Ned, and he has his own reasons for keeping quiet) either has no clue what happened or believe they ran off together willingly. It would be a huge ironic twist if it was discovered that Robert, not the most credible or unbiased source regarding Rhaegar, was actually right about him all along.
* People used to roll their eyes when Robert said that Danerys Targaryen was a serious threat, too, come to think of it...
[[WMG: When Tyrion and Danerys finally do meet up, it's going to go badly for her.]]
It's a shame, because seeing the two of them together as an unstoppable political powerhouse would be pretty sweet. She has, however, been warned against him in prophecy at least twice - once against "the lion," and once against "the perfumed seneschal." No, Tyrion's not perfumed, and he's not really a seneschal, but remember the name of the ship that brought him close to her? The one with the name that could be translated as "The Fragrant Steward," or, I don't know, possibly as something else that means the same thing as "The Fragrant Steward?" We know how prophecies are in this series. One of the two might wind up being a mislead that's actually about someone else, but both of them? Probably not.
[[WMG: Winterfell will not be touched by the probable undead invasion.]]
Winterfell is flooded, yes? Jojen's prediction and the Ironmen's subsequent invasion shows that much. Patchface sings his song about under the sea, and mentions that there will be no Others under the sea. Winterfell is thus 'under the sea'. Also, Patchface will probably make Winterfell his home.
[[WMG: When all three dragons find riders, Danaerys will ride Drogon, and the other two will be ridden by men.]]
Definitely [[spoiler: Jon Snow]], possibly [[spoiler: Targ!Tyrion]], but definitely two men. It will make for a nice symmetry with Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters - Aegon rode the black dragon, and his sisters rode the other two. Drogon is clearly the dragon that Danaerys has bonded with the most, even though he's also the most dangerous, and he's the only one named after someone who was specifically important only to her (as opposed to Rhaegar and Viserys, who were important figures in many people's lives). [[spoiler: Jon Snow]] will most likely ride Rhaegal, since [[spoiler: he's theoretically Rhaegar's son]], and while I'm not yet totally convinced by the [[spoiler: Targ!Tyrion]] theory, it would make a kind of sense for [[spoiler: one valonqar to ride a dragon named for another valonqar, and one son of Aerys Targaryen to ride a dragon named after another son of Aerys Targaryen.]]
[[WMG: The weird seasons were put in place as a way to keep the world in technological stasis.]]
Some powerful magic entity doesn't want mankind to become too powerful with their technology. Giving them long, harsh winters and seasons of unpredictable length is a good way to hold back progress.
* In the real world, a lot of technology came about in Northern Europe during the Little Ice Age (~1350-1850); in fact, it's kind of the figurative summer of European civilization. The long winters would probably spur technological progress to survive and expand, not retard it.
[[WMG: Khal Drogo is Jon Snow's father]]
Think about it: Jon's three best friends on the Wall are Sam, Grenn and Pypar. That sounds a lot like Sam, Merry and Pippin. And that means that Jon Snow is Frodo Baggins AKA Frodo son of Drogo.
[[WMG: When Drogo returns, he will be very angry]]
One of the conditions for Drogo's return is for Dany to give birth to a living child. Drogo doesn't seem like a guy who would just accept that Dany had sex with someone else.
* Or maybe, Dany's child will be Drogo reborn.
[[WMG: Brynden Tully aka "The Blackfish" is the biological father of Catelyn, Lysa, and Edmure]]
Here's the theory: He was deeply in love with his sister-in-law Minisa Whent and was having a secret affair with her behind his brother's back. Hoster Tully knew about his brother's feelings for his wife and kept trying to marry him to someone else with the excuses that this match or that match will improve House Tully's fortunes. What he really wanted was to divert Brynden's attention away from Minisa. Brynden also seems to have played a more fatherly role for the Tully children than his brother, since Catelyn at one point talks about how he was always the one they went to with their problems. It would be pretty ironic if it turned out after looking down on bastards such as Jon Snow and Mya Stone Catelyn turned out to be one herself.
[[WMG: Lady Waynwood knows who Alayne Stone is]]
When the Lords Declarant arrive at the Eyrie, two of the male members start making inappropriate comments to "Alayne." Lady Waynwood steps in and tells them that "Alayne" has been through enough horrors, despite the fact that they all supposedly just found out that Petyr Baelish has a daughter at all (and therefore should know nothing about the girl's past life). It also appears that she's agreed to a betrothal between Alayne Stone and [[spoiler: Harrold Hardyng, her ward]]. It doesn't make sense that a sensible noblewoman would agree to a match between her valuable ward and a bastard girl. This troper belives that Baelish has let her in on the secret of Alayne's true indentity. She knows it's [[spoiler: Sansa Stark]] and knows that there are advantages for her if her ward was the husband of [[spoiler: the Lady of Winterfell]].
[[WMG: Sansa will start dreaming of Grey Wind.]]
Grey Wind's death in ASOS is *just* ambiguous enough - the people bringing back news of it aren't terribly reliable sources, some of their accounts contradict one another, at least one remembers *something* running for the woods - to leave us with a possibility, however remote, that [[HesJustHiding he is still alive]]. If that's so, then we're left with one dead Stark kid and one dead Stark wolf as the total for the series. Just as Sansa is losing her identity and truly becoming Alayne Stone, she will start having warg dreams about Grey Wind and remember who she is. The two will track one another down, and she will, quite appropriately, have Robb's wolf by her side when she becomes Lady of Winterfell and/or The Queen in the North.
* Or, why not Nymeria? Personally I'm hoping she gets back to Arya, but you never know.
** Eh...that seems less likely, given that distant as she is, Arya is still alive.
[[WMG: The Ice Dragon mentioned in ADWD is real]]
It is the power behind and probably the god of the Others and Dany's three dragons will fight it in the final book.
[[WMG: The Starks are slowly morphing into a more appropriate pantheon of folkloric characters for the inevitably terrible/dark winter that's coming.]]
Taking stock of what's become of them, save for Sansa and Rickon:
* Ned's demise provides a good [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop story about how being honorable gets you absolutely nowhere.]]
* Don't go out late at night, kids or Lady Stoneheart will get you.
* As for Robb [[spoiler: the way the Freys mutilate his body]] gives good fodder for ghost stories.
* Wargs have already been used in scary stories like the ones Old Nan told, why should Bran and his preference for taking over Hodor be any exception.
** There is no way in seven hells that kid's official Brandon title isn't going to wind up being Brandon the Broken. Brandon the Builder, Brandon the Shipwright, Brandon the Daughterless... and Brandon the Broken, who became the last greenseer after he learned from Brynden Bloodraven beyond the Wall. Tell me that's not a scary folklore character.
* The whole real/fake Arya thing as understood by Westeros is bound to inspire a few legends.
* For all we know [[spoiler: as said above, Jon might be raised by Melissandre, or even become something akin to Coldhands]]
[[WMG: Ilyn Payne's tongue was never removed, he is perfectly literate, and is really one of the ultimate Big Bads of the series who has outwitted and outgambited even Varys]]
Ok, this is pretty much utterly unsupported by what is actually in the books, but think about it. Ser Ilyn is utterly beneath suspicion due to his supposed lack of tongue and literacy skills, he is present at crucial events, and is either explicitly or implicitly trusted with the darkest secrets and requests of some of the most powerful individuals of the series (Cersei, Jaime and Tywin), and is likely witness to many others as well given his proximity to those like Varys and Littlefinger. This mix of both proximity to power and influence, and utter non existance of any suspicion around him give him the potential to be the most dangerous man in Westeros.
He also seems to be an extremely fearsome, yet understated warrior, given the fear he inspires and the fact he is training Jaime (the latter a factor which could allow him to easily beat Jaime if they come to blows) which further adds to his "Potential Big Bad" rating
Not only that, but he was the one who carried out the execution of Ned Stark and earned the enmity of Arya, being added to her kill list, which means he will almost certainly have a significant part at some point.
My theory is that at the major climactic point of the next book, he will act in a way that completely torpedoes the schemes of those like Varys, and throws the entire game of thrones into chaos, and likely cross the moral event horizon at the same time by killing a popular character, while revealing his ability to talk and what his agenda really is, as well as a possible revelation as to his real identity.
[[WMG: All three Baratheon brothers are gay.]]
Renly: We all know he is gay.
Stannis: Described as uncomfortable around women. Maybe he didn't realize it because he never considered it. Maybe he only found out after he was married, so he never did anything about it. Maybe he always knew, but thought that having an heir is more important than his own happiness.
Robert: He is in denial, and sleeps around to prove himself that he is not gay. Convinced himself that he was in love with a dead woman to justify not falling in love with another woman.
* More likely, each one of them has a different sexual alignment. Renly is homosexual, Robert is heterosexual, and Stannis is asexual. The first two are stated canonically, the last is evidenced by his being uncomfortable with women, his dislike of brothels, and his grim, warlike determination in regards to sex. He most certainly is not bisexual.
[[WMG: The Direwolves were sent by the others to wreck havoc and debilitate the Seven Kingdoms for the inminent invasion]]
The Others know that the longest winter in centuries, maybe the longest winter period, is coming, and they intend to take advantage of it. Thus they sent the Direwolves for the Starks.
It might look like it makes no sense at first, but think about the facts for a moment.
-Nymeria hunted the White Hart Robert was going after. This gave Cersei's mooks enough time to complete the conspiration and get the "hunting accident" into motion.
-Summer saved Bran, making for a bunch of extremely boring chapters narrated by him. Also, if he died Catelyn might had never left Winterfell, or left later due to his son's burial, and therefore would have never found Tyrion and started the OTHER chain of events that started the war
-Ghost helped to kill Qhorin Halfhand, and travells with Jon to ensure the Nightwatch and the Wildlings kill each other as much as possible. Plus, who knows what he did when he separated himself from Jon?
-Lady... eh... made Robert and Ned argue. Or something.
-Grey Wind... helped to get Jaime imprisoned?
-And who knows what evils ShaggyDog is planning offscreen!
** Shaggydog is going to eat a lot of people, probably starting with [[spoiler:Davos, when he finds Rickon]]. Last we saw of Rickon, he was angry and nigh-uncontrollable, and Shaggydog too, proving that Rickon is a skinchanger like his siblings. And that was at Winterfell; now, he's [[spoiler:lost his home and what remained of his family, and either has only one person for company or is living with the inhabitants of Skagos, whose reputation is not nice]]. And while most out-of-control five-year-olds are pretty much limited to breaking things and screaming, an out-of-control five-year-old skinchanger bound to as dangerous an animal as a direwolf brings a new and terrifying meaning to 'feral child'.
* One of the heralds of the apocalypse in Norse mythology is packs of wolves descending on the earth at the beginning of an endless winter...
[[WMG: Littlefinger took part in the plot against Joffrey specifically to get Sansa into trouble.]]
My guess here is that Littlefinger's assertion that he masterminded the whole plot himself is about as honest as his claim that he deflowered Catelyn Tully. If you look at the plot, you see that a couple of people directly benefitted from it: Tywin Lannister (because he rid himself of someone who was quickly becoming an out-of-control liability, and, hey, as a bonus, making sure that Tyrion could never inherit Casterly Rock), The Queen of Thorns (because her family got to keep all of their power without forcing Margaery to marry a sociopath)... and Littlefinger, who suddenly found the girl of his dreams entirely in his power and entirely dependent on him. My guess is that he found out about the plot when it was already in motion and agreed to help out on the condition that Sansa be involved somehow and get slapped with the blame, but be "overlooked" long enough to flee right into his arms. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense that she had anything to do with the plot whatsoever -- all of that hairnet stuff was completely unnecessary when Oleanna Tyrell could just have easily have hidden something in her sleeve (since she wasn't exactly keeping her hands clean by plucking out that jewel in any case).
[[WMG: Aegon Targaryen is alive and well, but he's not the boy with Jon Connington.]]
The Prince Who Was Promised, Azor Azai reborn, the Stallion Who Mounts The World, and the rightful King of Westeros. As a baby, during the Rebellion, he (and a blade of Valyrian steel) was swapped for a decoy and somehow transported to an alternate universe and left with a carefully staged wagon to be found and raised by dwarves. He is... [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]].
* Even if he finds out, he won't accept the crown because his home and duty lie in Ankh-Morpork and the Watch.
* Instead, Vetinari will come to Westeros and sort everything out.
** Since Tywin Lannister and Vetinari have both been played by Charles Dance, I'm guessing that them shaking hands would lead to the universe exploding.
[[WMG: Jaime and Brienne will inherit the pair of swords made from Ice.]]
Brienne already has one, called Oathkeeper. When Jaime learns to fight again with his left hand, he will get the other. It will be called Oathbreaker. That's the only way that the pair of them seem to function effectively these days -- Jaime needs Brienne around to help him keep oaths, and Brienne needs Jaime around to help her break oaths. Whenever they get separated, they seem to run into trouble for exactly that reason.
[[WMG: Upon finishing her Faceless Man training, Arya's first target will be...]]
Daenerys Targaryen.
Just for all the irony.
* [[IsntItIronic What irony?]]
** I wouldn't be surprised if she DESTROYS the FM (how her last wish)
[[WMG: There's a Kraken out there somewhere]]
And I don't mean more Greyjoys. During ASoS there's a point where the King's Council is meeting, and Varys mentions all this talk of dragons in the east, which we all know to be true. Oddly, he also mentions a Kraken has been seen attacking ships and dragging them underwater. As yet, nothing has come of this, but given it was mentioned in the same breath as something true, there could be more to it than just idle rumour.
* If Euron's tale of throwing his dragon egg into the water is true, it may have hatched underwater for some reason. A sea-dragon might easily be mistaken for a kraken, especially as few people alive have seen a real dragon. However, it's far more likely that he used it to pay the Faceless Men for Balon's murder.
** I doubt it. Sea-dragons are a thing, though whether an ordinary dragon egg could hatch into one is a different question, and they're not krakens: sea-dragons prey on krakens. And most people know both dragons and krakens from pictures; krakens wrap their squid arms around ships and pull them under (at least in every other story that involves them) so it's unlikely that a sea-dragon would be mistaken for one. Although I believe Euron about throwing the egg away. No-one else would have done it, but '... Euron's maddest of all' and what we've seen of him seems to bear that out. If anyone would throw away a king's ransom in a fit of pique, it would be him. (On a side note, I have a theory for why all the iron-born are crazy. They're brain-damaged from the ritual drownings.)
[[WMG: The prophecy from the very first chapter is still not fulfilled.]]
On their way back from the execution the Starks find a dead Direwolf (the mother of the direwolves the Stark children adopt), killed by an antler lodged in her throat. This is seen as a bad omen, because the stag is the animal of House Baratheon. It's some very blatant foreshadowing that when Robert Baratheon arrives shortly afterward, his bringing Ned to King's Landing leads to his death and the downfall of House Stark. However, I think that there may be more to that. Robert can't really be blamed for Ned's death, and neither can another Baratheon. So this omen may only be fulfilled in the future, when a Baratheon (possibly Stannis) is the one to actively kill a Stark, or (figuratively) ultimately "kills" House Stark. He is already up north, and may take Winterfell soon.
* The prophecy was fulfilled when Robert asked Ned to be the Hand of the King. That led to Ned's death and all the trouble from the first book. That's what Cat's so afraid of, when Ned tells her he's going to go south with Robert.
[[WMG: The valonqar from the prophecy isn't a younger sibling of Cersei's -- it's a younger sibling of the young and beautiful queen from the same prophecy.]]
Specifically, the younger and more beautiful queen is Sansa and the valonqar is Arya. The queen isn't the queen of Westeros -- she's the Queen in the North. Sansa has, after all, already been responsible for the death of one of Cersei's children. Cersei also tends to think of the two of them -- "The Stark girls" -- as a unit, made up of the older one and the younger one (i.e. the valonqar). We also know that Valyrian nouns are gender-neutral, which doesn't make it much of a stretch to guess that the pronouns are gender-neutral as well (and that "wrap his hands" could be translated as "wrap her hands"). We also know that of Arya's list of future kills, Queen Cersei is pretty much always the last one that she names -- the way that you'd name the final boss in a video game last. She's missed the chance to kill some of the people on that list, but Cersei was always the main one. And finally, oh, how incredibly sweet it would be. GRRM is good at making us miserable, but he's also good at dealing out the occasional moment of transcendent bliss (Jaime in the bear pit, the Tickler's death, what happened to Vargo Hoat, etc.), and that would definitely be one of them.
[[WMG: Daenerys will never return to Westeros.]]
Instead, she will conquer Essos and reestablish the Valyrian Freehold. She can hardly abandon Meereen now, and the only way the war in Slaver's Bay can end is with one side crushing the other; that's clear now. Once that's done, the obvious next target is Volantis; remember that woman in Volantis, the Widow of the Waterfront, who gave Ser Jorah a message for Dany, on behalf of the slaves of Volantis: "Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon." Once Dany takes Volantis, the obvious next step is to do what the Volantenes wanted Aegon the Conqueror to do, long ago: conquer the other free cities and reestablish the Freehold of Valyria. This will end up being ASoIaF's version of the Holy Roman Empire, as the Valyrian Freehold was its version of the Roman Empire.
[[WMG: Brandon will become the new Night's King.]]
He will marry an Other princess, but this will actually lead to peace between humanity and the Others.
[[WMG: The valonqar isn't Cersei's younger brother; the valonqar is her younger sister.]]
Remember, at least some High Valyrian nouns are common or neuter, even ones one might expect to be masculine or feminine: we know that Maester Aemon concluded that the "Prince who was Promised" was actually a princ''ess'', Daenerys. It is therefore possible that valonqar could be a common noun, essentially "younger sibling." As such, it could refer to a younger sister as easily as a younger brother. Of course, Cersei has no sisters, only two brothers, both younger than she. But she does have three or four sisters-in-law: Selyse Florent, married to Stannis Baratheon, Margaery Tyrell (also her daughter-in-law), who was married to Renly, Sansa Stark, married to Tyrion, and Tysha, also married to Tyrion. Any one of these women could qualify as Cersei's younger sister (granted, I don't recall if we ever learn Selyse's age relative to Cersei, or Tysha's either), and any one of them would certainly have motive.
* Sansa is interesting. Unlike Margaery (that marriage was annulled), she's still legally Cersei's sister-in-law, and she would also be able to do double-duty as the "young queen" who's supposed to usurp her. Then there's the irony in Cersei having essentially played her EvilMentor in queenliness. Finally, just think how wonderfully ''[[TheDogBitesBack satisfying]]'' it would be.
[[WMG: Sansa's cover is about to be blown.]]
There's a ChekhovsGunman waiting in the Vale to blow the lid off Alayne Stone's identity. In her final chapter in ''A Feast For Crows'' she reunites with Littlefinger, who has been away in the Vale, and when she walks in he's talking to three hedge knights. Looks like there's nothing much of note there, the three are dismissed after a coupl of paragraphs. Except one of them turned up during Brienne's first chapters. Ser Shadrich, the man who saw through Brienne's cover story about a younger sister and said he, too, was looking for Sansa Stark. He's a shrewd man, as evidenced by the fact that he saw swiftly through Brinne's admittedly flimsy cover story, his reappearance was over so quickly it seems like it was designed to be missed by anyone not paying attention. He has a bigger part to play.
* This is quite plausible, but I'd add that it's plausible that Shadrich will be acting in conjunction with another person, and that perhaps Sansa will have some allies. Myranda Royce is also in the Vale and iirc, she actually met Sansa in the past prior to meeting "Alayne Stone". Myranda is very gregarious and it wouldn't be too surprising if she and Shadritch got to talking about Littlefinger's mysterious daughter.
[[WMG: Nestor Royce and Myranda are spies for for the bronce Yohn]]
the irony that LF enemys are using his tricks on him and he is unable to see it
[[WMG: Tyrion is actually Tywin Lannister's child... but Cersei and Jaime are not.]]
Because Genna Lannister says to Jaime that Tyrion is Tywin's son and he is not.
And that the 'liberties' Aerys Targaryen reportedly took with the bedding of Joanna and Tywin would have been well, well before Tyrion's conception, but possibly around the time of Cersei and Jaime's.
And when Cersei gets pissed at Jaime and goes "We are not Targaryens!"... well... this way they actually are. And doing the whole Targaryen incest thing.
Okay, so not very plausible, but just for the irony.
Oh, and this way Jaime's killed his father (Aerys) and [[spoiler: Tyrion's killed his father (Tywin)]].
* If that were true, then that would mean that when Aerys rejected Cersei as a possible bride for Rhaegar, he was rejecting Rhaegar's sister. Remember that Rhaegar married Elia Martell because he had no sister to marry. The dramatic irony is twofold.
** The prophecy that consums Cersei says that she will be replaced by a younger and prettier queen and that she will be killed by her 'valonqar' - little sibling in Old Valyrian. She assumes that the valonqar is Tyrion, but if Cersei was Aerys' daughter, this would make ''Daenerys'' both the younger and prettier queen ''and'' the valonqar.
** I've been thinking about this particular theory for a while, and I say its actually ''highly'' probable. The twins' incest, Robert's hatred of Targaryens, Tywin and Aerys complicated relationship, Jaime's kingslaying, Tyrion's existence, Tywin's treatment of Tyrion, Tywin's personality and his tendencies, Cersei's prophecy, Cersei's love for Rhaegar, Joffrey's madness, the Lannister bastards claims to the throne,as well as a bunch of others words thrown around in this story would receive new meaning would this turn out to be true. I sum the entire events as this: Aerys, Tywin, and Joanna are in a sort of love triangle; Tywin wins but Aerys fathers Tywin's twins; Tywin raises them as his own due to him being either ''or both'' a stubborn(and possibly deluded)hypocrite as well as a MagnificentBastard; things get more complicated due to Aerys' douchbaggery and eventually Jaime kills him not knowing he killed his real father. Ser Barristan's words aside, Aerys and Tywin seem to have this epic game of trolling each other going on and this kind of ironic Shakespearean twist seems to be something Martin's fully capable off.
[[WMG:During long summers, the '''Black''' Walkers lay waste to Sothoryos, just like the White Walkers do to Westeros during long winters]]
Jalabhar Xho wasn't merely a deposed prince. He escaped the entire genocide of his people at the hands of the Black Walkers, with dark skin hot as molten rock and eyes red like fire. Unfortunately, when he first arrived he didn't speak the Common Tongue well enough to accurately explain his situation to Robert.
* Except that Jalabhar Xho isn't from Sothoryos; he's from the Summer Isles, which lie directly south of Dorne, and are still populated.
** The Summer Isles are part of Sothoryos in the same sense that Cape Verde is part of Africa.
[[WMG:Arya is really the younger and more beautiful queen/person who will cast Cersei down]]
Right now, the leading fan theories on this are for Dany, Sansa, and Margaery, but they're way too obvious. Dany and Marg are clearly redherrings- Marg for Cersei since she thinks it is her and Dany for the audience because she is being set up to be in the position to fill that role, especially if we interpret the prophecy to be referring to a queen instead of just a person who may or may not be royalty or even female. But in true Martin fashion, those expectations are going to come to nothing. With Sansa, that theory just seems more like fan hopes than anything substantial.
But if Arya is the younger and more beautiful one who will cast Cersei down it would be completely unexpected and almost out of no where since most don't see Arya in this way, least of all Cersei. She is obviously younger, and as far as beauty goes, Arya seems to be the ugly duckling type who is growing into her looks as the books go on. Having Cersei taken down by a younger, live version of Lyanna Stark (the woman Cersei spent the duration of her marriage living in the shadow of) would be perfect symmetry and it would explain the importance behind Arya's similarity to her aunt.
* Interesting, although a few characters note that Lyanna Stark, while pretty, was not half as beautiful as Cersei or Ashara Dayne.
** That's true. In this series, as in life, beauty is subjective. Some say Lyanna was incredibly beautiful. Some say she was just OK, but not even close to being as beautiful as others. But Arya goes through the same thing. Some call her ugly (Arya Horseface) while others say she is attractive. Her beauty is even referenced in ADWD by another character. Plus, Cersei has aged a decade and a half since she was in her prime. It will be much easier to surpass her in beauty now.
[[WMG:Jon will come back as a sentient wight a la Benjen!Coldhands.]]
Okay. Coldhands is obviously Benjen. But why is he sentient and not a soulless automaton like the other wights? Well, we know that he's down with the children of the forest-- perhaps having encountered them on his last ranging, before dying?-- and that they're really good at teaching people how to warg out and get their greensight on and whatnot. And warging is also a Stark trait. So he gets killed, wargs into some handy nearby animal, like, say... a reindeer. The Others raise his corpse, and he wargs right back in. Boom. Coldhands.
Jon already has a decent degree of conscious control over his warging, so he could do the exact same thing: warg into Ghost to avoid death, then warg back after he's zombified.
* I thought that too (about Coldhands/Benjen, not Jon), but after we encountered the three-eyed-crow I'm sure it's not. It seems like the children or greenseers or both can reanimate dead bodies too. The Others' wights aren't completely soulless: it was remarked on in-series that they seem to remember things from when they were alive. So Coldhands is a wight, but he's controlled by the three-eyed crow, not by the Others. And Varamyr was convinced that he wouldn't be able to skinchange after his true death, which seems to be borne out by the fact that he's still in One-eye and Othell stayed in his eagle. So it seems that once you're dead, you're stuck.
[[WMG: King Robert knew about Cersei and Jaime's affair and the true parentage of Cersei's children long before either Jon Arryn or Ned found out, and this was the main reason he was such a failure as a king]]
Originally he attempted to be a genuinely good king, but when he saw "his" children grow up, he simply put two and two together when he saw how they were the only Baratheons ever to not be black haired, and how "close" the two Lannister siblings seemed to be, but he also knew that if he did anything about it, the realm would collapse due to how vital Lannister support and money was. Thus he pretty much gave up on ruling altogether after seeing just what it would force him to do for the "greater good of the realm", and decided to spend the rest of his life drinking, hunting and whoring as he entered a protracted HeroicBSOD, which culminated in him basically committing Suicide by Pig when he realized Ned was getting to the truth (which would force him to act against the Lannisters given how Ned would refuse to simply keep it under wraps), as well as being the only one clued into the threat the resurgent Targaryans posed.
[[WMG: Rhaegar is alive]]
Seriously wounded and rendered unconscious by Robert's hammer, but not quite dead.
Who do we know who used to be a knight, but 'died' at the Trident - indeed, in the Trident, and floated down-river to an island where it's likely that few questions are asked (after all, 99% of the inhabitants can only speak to confess their sins)? Some other bits of his story parallel Rhaegar's too.
The Elder Brother is described as wearing a tonsure - alternatively, Rhaegar shaved off his distinctive hair. The colour of his eyes is not mentioned. He's 44. Do we know how old Rhaegar was? 44 seems reasonable to me.
Remember that bit about the dragon sign? One of the heads, now red with rust, washed up on the quiet isle. Bit portentous, surely, for one of the heads of a red three-headed dragon to end up there.
Some of the details in his story would have to be outright lies, but so would some of the details in his story about Sandor Clegane, and it seems fairly accepted that he's alive.
** It seems reasonable that Rhaegar would be in his late thirties at the time of the series - he had two children at the time of the Rebellion, so early to mid-twenties tops. The only problem I have with this theory is that it just doesn't make sense from a writing point of view.
*** According to the Wiki at least, Rhaegar was born in 259 AL. The story takes place currently in 300 AL. That would make Rhaegar 41 and "dead" at 24. He could lie about his age, granted, but three years seems a little excessive.
**** Ah well. Guess 'twas not to be. Thanks for the info.
** The fun thing about Rhaegar is that he's pretty much impossible to predict. He'll pretty much do anything the prophecy tells him to, and we don't know the full text of the prophecy.
** It would be cool, but seems extremely unlikely. Rhaeger was wearing armor, so he'd have been too heavy to wash downstream and it's not likely Robert would let him simply wash away- his body would have been important proof of his victory.
*** I dunno. The Elder Brother's story is that he was stripped of his armour by looters. And Rhaegar's armour would have been top-of-the-rang and might have still had a few rubies on it, so would have been especially valuable. As for not letting him wash away, there was a line about crows feasting on Rhaegar's body that seemed to imply that he was just left on the battlefield - presumably the proof of his victory would be that the Targaryen army was put to flight and there is no silver-haired prince coming to claim his father's throne. But.
[[WMG: Aegon VI Targaryen will show interest in Sansa.]]
Totally fanwank, but in ''The Hedge Knight'' at the Ashford tourney, the maiden's champions ended up being:
* Humfrey Hardying
* Tybolt Lannister
* Leo Tyrell
* Lyonel Baratheon
* Valarr Targaryen
Doesn't that bunch of surnames sound quite familiar? Well, except for the last one...unless LawOfConservationOfDetail is in full force here.
[[WMG: The horn of Joramun controls the Others]]
It's also called the horn of winter, and what are the Others but the personification of winter? It's also said to have woken giants from the earth; I wonder, is it possible that 'giants' is a mistranslation or some kind of mistake, and it ought to have been 'monsters' or something.
[[WMG:The Faceless Men are more of a major player of the Game than even Varys and Littlefinger put together.]]
...And have been for decades beyond count.
OK... that's not so wild: it's pretty darned obvious they're a part of the whole mess, simply down to who they do and do not accept "prayers" from and how they choose to accept clients in the first place. That means an awful lot of room for an agenda beyond their open mission statement. The really wild stuff is in what comes next...
The possible link with the Iron Bank: face it... that iron coin and an Iron Bank is rather suggestive. There must surely be some connection? And, Arya's first assignment is to kill an insurance broker of some description. Telling me the rather nervous guy hasn't racked up a few debts in the wrong places insuring the wrong things (and knows it)? Won't wash. Whether the Faceless Men and the Iron Bank actually have something that is just a rather cozy relationship or what amounts to a full-blown connection meaning they are one and the same, their combined influence goes back ''decades'' for said bank to get such a ''fearsome'' reputation when it comes to debt collection. And, who, pray tell, has been funding all sides from even before the start of the series? And, can call in debts as and when it's useful for their purposes, whatever those may be?
If anybody tries to tell me that Jaqen H'gar was in the Black Cells when Arya first met him because he got careless, I'll start laughing. And, should they further go on to suggest that he had to go along with the Black Watch Recruitment Drive just to get out, again... I'll start turning into a hyena. I don't know what he was doing, but whatever it was, it was no accident. And, accepting Arya's little list of names, and going along with her scheme in Harrenhal? I'll be surprised if that was a total accident, as well. It certainly stirred the political pot.
Recruiting her may or may not have been on the shopping list, but he was in a wonderful position to affect the War in various other ways, depending on the requests he could trigger just by hanging around waiting for "I wish he'd just drop dead" kind of requests all the way to the more expensive kind: just think of the characters he came into contact with through that Black Cell... including, probably, Varys. He's not only touched the Black Watch, Arya, a bastard of the late king in Gendry, one of the centre pin Castles of the War of the Five Kings, but could collect a better suited face and is now in the Citadel... Please: simple religious assassination order simply serving a conglomerate ideal of Death, my left foot. You don't land that deeply in politics just for kicks and giggles. Or, just to kill. Think of all the information he's already had access to by sneaking around King's Landing... and is primed to get where he is, now.
He's also well placed to start collecting debts linked to the Iron Throne, should the need arise. Should Varys leave any left outstanding for him to collect, of course.
And, something else to nibble on that is totally out there: the Waif. She's very, very short. The size of a young child, in fact. Yet, she's waaaaaaay older than she looks and admits it with one hell of a backstory... and, she's in a place where looking human is made rather easy. What if she isn't actually human, but good at singing to all that weirwood that's hanging about the place, rather? Acorn... oak... oak table: we're still talking tree, here. And, as the Children up North use bowls with carved eyes, etc... I'm betting the "dead" wood hanging around e.g. the doors of the House can still see. The Faceless Men lie about their backgrounds all the time, when they need to... Are you telling me you didn't think of her as possibly being a Child of the Forest at some point? And, the Children do mention the fact that they could be all the "gods" men have had, any way.
[[WMG:If and when Tyrion kills Cersei, it will be a MercyKill.]]
The prophecy did state that she would only die by the younger sibling's hands after she had lost everything. It would be tragically ironic if the fate she had been dreading her whole life will turn out to be something she ''wants'' after crossing the DespairEventHorizon. And when Tyrion does kill her, it won't be an act of malice, but a huge favor.
[[WMG: Littlefinger's plan is to topple aristocracy]]
Littlefinger's endgame is to end the game of thrones. In ASoIaF, he represents the renaissance, the rise of the merchant class and the toppling of the aristocracy. He is rich and powerful without being born into aristocracy. Instead of being born into priviledge, he uses his own hard work to create his own future. Littlefinger's motivation for what he is doing goes back to how he was screwed over because of the strict social hierarchy of Westeros.
Petyr seemed to be a good kid when he was fostered with the Tullys. He's described as being a clever kid who was a good friend of the Tully kids right up until he was injured and humiliated by Brandon Stark in a duel for Catelyn's hand. When he's all healed up Hoster Tully sends him packing back home after a [[spoiler: scandal involving Lysa Arryn]]. So he goes back to the Fingers where he gets to brood over how the system screwed him over in getting what he wanted. So this kid grows into a man and decides to climb up the ranks using his talents to screw the system over like it did to him as a child.
From Game of Thrones TV Series
-->'''Littlefinger:''' Do you know what I learned, losing that duel? I learned that I’ll never win, not that way, that’s their game, their rules. I’m not going to fight them, I’m going to fuck them.
In a Tyrion chapter from A Clash of Kings, Tyrion is trying to determine whether he can take down Littlefinger or not and it's mentioned how Littlefinger came up multiplying the wealth of houses before being appointed Master of Coin. It specifically mentions how he replaced all the various lords running the kingdom's finances with merchants and men of modest birth. Littlefinger's movement throughout the books looks democratic and what ever he's planning is something that's gonna be good for the common folk and bad for the feudal lords.
* Littlefinger has always been in it for himself, and his actions were a major contributing factor to a war that ravaged the land right before winter. Because of him, thousands of commoners will likely starve; he never had their interests at heart.
* Also, that Littlefinger was not "born into privilege" is a common misconception. His father was a Lord. An unimportant one, yes, but it's not like he was born a farmer's son. True, that he achieved what he did was a grand accomplishment. But that he was fostered with the Tully family, where he could learn how the 'game' worked so that he could later manipulate it? That was because his father was friends with Hoster Tully. Or that he even got an education in the first place and did not have to start farmwork as soon as he could walk? That was because he was an aristocrat. He is way down the social ladder compared to other characters, though only because most of them are members of powerful houses like Stark or Lannister. But he was still born a part of the 1% of Westeros, so to speak.
The WMG might still be true, though. But if he tries to abolsh the aristocracy than only because it furthers his goals, or at least to prove a point, not because he loves the common people so much.
* Original troper here, I did not mean to say that Littlefinger cares for the common folk, I'm just saying whatever he's planning doesn't look good at all for folks in high positions and at the end of it all the common folk (who are all suffering so far) may benefit from it. I seriously doubt that Littlefinger's motive has anything to do with power or for social status. I also don't think he's gunning for the Iron Throne. We already have several characters fighting for that, I think Littlefinger just wants to dismantle and trash the whole system for what happened to him in his childhood just because he can. Yes, Littlefinger was born into and educated through aristocracy but I bet he started thinking outside the box after his time with the Tully's. While he could die before it comes to fruition the end result to his grand schemes has a renaissance theme to it.
* No, his plans will likely turn Westeros into an AfterTheEnd winter wasteland. Civilization will regress as commoners starve by the thousands and become scavengers, looking for ''anything'' to get them through. It's not just that his actions were never for the common benefit, it's that his actions will actively screw over thousands of people. Behind every noble family he ruined, thousands had to die to make it happen, and many more will die in their wake.
[[WMG: The three heads of the dragon will be Dany (just possibly another surviving Targaryen), a Greyjoy, probably Victarion, and a Stark (or almost-Stark), most likely Jon.]]
The reasoning is pretty simple. The accepted theory is that the heads of the dragon are the dragon riders. So they must each control a dragon. That's easier said than done.
* The proper way to do it, we're told, is with a magic horn. There's only one of those, and the ironborn have it. Victarion [[spoiler:is currently in possession of it, and planning to betray Euron and take the prize for himself]], so he's the most likely bet, but I wouldn't bet against Euron having planned for this and/or finding some way of outsmarting him. Also, Euron fits Moquorro's vision better [[spoiler:the 'one black eye' bit]].
* Dany [[spoiler:already is riding a dragon, at least when he's in a good mood]]. It's possible that another surviving Targaryen - [[spoiler:Aegon, if he's real or the real one is alive somewhere else]] or Rhaegar (my pet theory, see above) - could take her place if anything happens to her, but unlikely. Dany does it with classic animal training: Targaryen blood seems to help with it, but [[spoiler:Quentyn had some, and he got barbecued]]. Possible that you have to be pure Targaryen - would tell against [[spoiler:Aegon]], who's only half-blooded - this could even be the reason, lost in the mists of time, for the incest tradition. But even if it was a pure-blood Targaryen, Dany is the dragons' mother, they know her and obey her. It would be much harder for someone else to do the same. So Dany's almost certainly the only person who can control a dragon that way.
* So the Ironborn have the horn, and only Dany can use the whip. What's left? All I can think of is skinchangers, which means the Starks with virtual certainty. Jon seems the most likely, since there's a possibility of him having Targaryen parentage, and [[spoiler:if he survives the stabbing, he's probably going to be out of a job as Lord Commander]], and is the only surviving Stark with experience of war and leadership, (unless Benjen returns, but we've not heard he was a skinchanger). Sansa doesn't seem a likely candidate to me, and Arya's forte seems to be more murder and sneaking, Bran seems an unlikely possibility [[spoiler:since he's busy becoming a tree]] but I guess he could ''possibly'' do it remotely, so to speak. Rickon feels the most likely of the trueborn Starks, but he's five and out-of-control and I can't see it working (although... dragon-Rickon could be a fantastic shock ending, by which I mean apocalypse).
** Thing about the horn, though, is that it fries your insides. One use only, and you're not around to ride the dragon when you're done blowing. So, you'd either need someone immune to fire (A Targaryen, perhaps? Maybe Targ!Tyrion, if that theory is true? We know Jon Snow isn't immune to fire, because he burned his hand in the first book) or it's some kind of Sword in the Stone thing and the only person who can blow it without dying is the "right person," which could really be anyone.
*** The dragon-rider wouldn't be the one who blew it. Moqorro explained it to Victarion in aDwD: the dragons obey the person who claims the horn (not sure exactly how you do that but it involves blood, apparently), and you can have a mook do the blowing.
**** My personal WMG is that the only real purpose of the Greyjoy invasion of Essos is as a plot device to get that horn to fall into Danerys' hands. Then Jon could dig up the Horn of Joramund and we'd really get somewhere. A horn of fire, a horn of ice... they could play a song...
***** Jon's already dug up the Horn of Joramun. Sam has it.
[[WMG: Brynden "Blackfish" Tully is heading to the Eyrie and will die there]]
After Jaime Lannister takes Riverrun, The Blackfish escapes and his whereabouts and where he's headed are unknown. Brynden's best shot at being safe is to head back to the Eyrie which has stayed neutral to the surrounding chaos all this time. The Blackfish has never seen Sansa but he should recognize her because she looks a lot like a young Catelyn, and will have a northern accent. I think he'll see through Littlefinger's crap and then get killed before he can do anything about it. The only person in a great postion to royally screw Littlefinger's plan is Sansa at this point. Brynden may probably be a plot device that makes Sansa turn against Littlefinger. She seemed tolerant with all of his scheming in A Feast For Crows but killing Brynden may be the last straw for her.
Following Sansa throughout the books we notice every time [[HopeSpot she thinks something good will happen]] to her it's the opposite.
* She thought Joffery was the man of her dreams, but he turned out to be a monster.
* She thought her father was going to take the black for those treason charges, [[OffWithHisHead loses his head instead]].
* Remember when she thought the Tyrells were going to whisk her away to Highgarden? [[TraumaCongaLine Didn't work out]].
* She also thought Dontos was going to save her, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness we saw what happened to him a little while after]]...
So Brynden Tully will come to the Eyrie, find the truth about "Alayne Stone", promises to come to her rescue and free her from Littlefinger's shenanigans only to be killed in the attempt. This will set Sansa on her [[TookALevelInBadass path to get rid of Littlefinger with what he taught her]].
** That would be cool. But put it together with the fan theory that Jeyne Westerling escaped with him -- that the girl Jaime saw at Riverrun was, in fact, Jeyne's little sister -- and things REALLY start to get interesting. Forget avenging Brynden Tully -- what do you think Sansa would do if she had the chance to save Robb's unborn (or, for that matter, born) child?
[[WMG: Viserys and Dany have different fathers]]
Much is made of the fact that Viserys died when Drogo poured molten gold on his head, but Dany could survive the pyre unharmed. Sure, probably this attribute just got passed down to Dany but not to her brother, or it is somehow related to a prophecy (what isn't?), but since we question pretty much everyone's parentage by now, here goes: Aerys is the father of only one of them. The other's father would have probably been a Targaryan (or close relative) as well, to explain why they both inherited the look. If it's true, the illegitimate child is probably Dany, for storytelling reasons - Viserys is dead and has no children, so the question of his legitimacy has no impact anymore.
* The Targaryens aren't immune to fire - not even Dany: she suffered burns in aDwD, and although she recovered it seems to be just because her injuries were fairly minor. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the pyre, but there was evidently some extra magic involved that day, whether it was the sacrifice of Mirri Maz Duur, or the presence of the eggs, both (my best guess), or something else entirely. Although that's not to say that their parentage is definitely as advertised, but so far there's no evidence against it.
* That Targaryen immunity to fire not being total would also explain something that's been bugging me -- the fact that Jon Snow burned his hand badly in the first book. Maybe intent has a role to play? That is, maybe it's a power that works only with concentration or something?
** I'm 99% sure that the Targaryen immunity to fire not only isn't total, but isn't actually a thing. What are we basing it on besides Dany surviving the pyre? That she's immune to fire was contradicted in aDwD - and I'm pretty sure she was concentrating pretty hard then on not getting roasted. There was some stuff in aGoT about 'dragons' not minding heat, but all that amounted to was liking hot baths. The pyre can only have been a one-off, with something else at work. And there's nothing to indicate that Targaryens in general have any immunity to fire and plenty to suggest that they aren't: there's Viserys; Aerion Brightflame, and it's hard to imagine he wasn't concentrating; Jon, if he is a Targaryen; Quentyn, although admittedly his Targaryen blood was more than a little watered down.
[[WMG: The Three-Eyed Crow is allied to Euron Greyjoy]]
Not only because so many crow symbolisms are bound to attract each other.
* The Three-Eyed Crow (let's just call him Brynden Rivers and be done with it) doesn't necessarily have to be a neutral "teacher" character. In a meta way it perfectly fits with Martin's love of turning widely accepted fantasy stereotypes on their heads: in almost all fantasy books the man that teaches magic is benign and often neutral or if not taking a purposedly supportive role to the heroes (ie: Gandalf). So, of course, the closest thing to a Grand Wizard in ASOFAI is not only more malicious, he's directly involved in politics.
* It would also mean that Bran slids further from Good into Neutral or Evil, if Brynden convinces him of siding with Euron (not entirely likely since he would be siding with a Greyjoy, but then again Brynden and Euron both seem to be quite good at convincing people to do their biding) and that he takes sides with the next parties in the inevitable next war (all of which are things the plot is making the remaining Starks do).
* That aside, why Euron? The crow thing is obvious, as is the fact that Euron seems to be ''really'' into magic. He knows of the ways of the Warlocks of Qarth, and may employ the Faceless Men; but he may also know some of the First People's magic. The Ironborn are confirmed to have some sort of skinchanging tradition with those pretenders to the Driftwood Crown, so his speech about flying may be a sincere desire to become a skinchanger. Perhaps Brynden helps him with some sort of telepathy-ish powers, the reasoning would be that he wants a man in the Iron Throne that understands and respects magic. This would explain how Euron knows so many things he has no way of knowing, and how he understands so much about magic: Brynden brings him info. Euron seems like a total bastard, but god knows things are usually not that simple, maybe he eventually starts to show more features that would make him a good ruler. Not to mention that, monstrous or not, Euron does not seem to be entirely into reality, so maybe this is an effect of Brynden's influence. And it would make ''so'' much sense for a person as far away from Westerosian reality as Brynden to support a man that is so obviously not what first comes to mind when you think "king material".
[[WMG: Daenerys will become the ruler of a humongous, multi-cultural empire that goes all the way from Meereen to Westeros]]
* Because she was already our AlexanderTheGreat expy anyway. And it will be named Targarya.
** She will then die, and her empire will fragment almost immediately afterward.
[[WMG: The Others are weapons]]
* They are, to date, the only culture that GRRM has not given ''any'' type of deepness or questionable morals. They are HumanoidAbominations that's about it. I remember that GRRM said in an interview that the next books will tell us more about them...maybe the revelation would be that there is some seriously poweful warlock on the Lands of Always Winter that summons them to attack Westeros. It would explain the whole "not sure if they come with the cold or if the cold comes with them" from the stuff Sam read.
[[WMG: Howland Reed has Eddard Stark's [[spoiler: bones]] ]]
* The silent sisters were dispatched to bring Eddard Stark's bone to Winterfell. They were going to Moat Cailin which is Crannogmen turf. When Moat Cailin gets attacked by the Iron Born the Crannogmen helped the silent sisters escape and now have Eddard Stark's bones. Howland probably made attempts to get the bones to Winterfell but he may have canceled after learning what happens to Winterfell.
[[WMG: The whole series will end up being one massive ShootTheShaggyDog...]]
* Because even if the Others and their wights are turned back, even with Dany and her dragons' issue is finally settled, even if everyone plotting and scheming and murdering and burning and avenging and destroying ends up settled, done, backstabbed, frontstabbed, sidestabbed, and stabbed from every other angle, and there is someone or a few someones still left standing who 'win'...it doesn't matter, because WINTER IS STILL COMING, a long long winter due to how long the summer was, and all the crops and livestock and foodstores and items needed to survive have been destroyed due to all the people playing the game of thrones and their grudges out while all their men rampaged around the continent putting everything mindlessly to the sword, and the survivors will just end up starving and freezing to death, leaving a dead land with just the animals wandering around. Like the BlueOysterCult sang, history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
[[WMG: The Others will be defeated before they ever make it beyond the Wall. And the people of Westeros will never even know that they were a threat.]]
* I can't shake the feeling that Jon, or the Watch, or ''somebody'' will manage to stop the Others, fix whatever supernatural force is causing the irregular seasons, and save the world only for the people of Westeros to never even learn that it happened. It just seems... fitting that the Others will be stopped in some great and heroic fashion, while the people south of the wall will be too wrapped up in their own wars and arguments to learn or care how close they came to destruction.
[[WMG:Shireen and Edric are going to fight over Stannis' inheritance]]
There are considerable parallels between the Baratheon brothers' dispute and that between the three children of William the Conqueror. William left his first son, Robert, the territory he considered most prestigious, the duchy of Normandy, and left his second son William Rufus his largest and most profitable holding, the throne of England (''Robert taking the crown and giving Dragonstone to his older brother Stannis''). Robert felt cheated and went to war with his little brother to claim England (''Stannis feeling cheated of both Storm's End and the crown, and going to war with Renly''). William Rufus died in a hunting accident, at which point their third brother (Henry) entered the stage, and won the war (''how the war probably would have worked out were it not for [[DiabolusExMachina the shadowbaby]]''). Not a direct adaptation, obviously, but there seems to be some influence there.
What happened next in RealLife, when the king died? He had [[HeirClubForMen one legitimate daughter, but many nobles preferred his nephew]], and backed him in a rebellion that led to years of civil war. And who are Stannis' heirs? A single legitimate daughter, and a nephew being looked after overseas by prominent lords who dislike said daughter...
[[WMG: Shireen is going to marry Theon]]
All Patchface's "under the sea" gibberish is foreshadowing of a marriage of convenience between Theon Greyjoy and Shireen Baratheon, brokered by Asha. At the moment, Stannis seems to want Theon executed, but (a) he's the heir to a fairly powerful House, (b) Stannis and Theon both need all the help they can get, and (c) the Lobster needs to learn to compromise somewhere (who better to compromise with than the Squid?). After the thorough breaking Theon's been through (and the tenderness he's shown to Jeyne) he and Shireen might even make quite a sweet couple. I could see Asha proposing such a deal and bullying Theon into playing along, and a sufficiently desperate Stannis consenting (in the ''TWOW'' preview chapter he seems in pretty dire straits, and it wasn't long ago he was seriously considering marrying her to a wildling). Theon, back from the dead and with an army behind him, his LadyMacbeth sister beside him, and now the heir to the entire realm, would then have a chance of taking control of the Ironmen's Northern conquests, and using their boats to retake the Islands. Needless to say, all this will seriously piss off Melisandre, maybe giving her the last hint that Stannis isn't AA.
[[WMG: Tyrion's nose did come from family.]]
It's just... he's pegged the wrong person for the deed by thinking his sweet sister was behind it. I'm suggesting everybody's favourite RoyalBrat, Joffrey. Mandon Moore wasn't wearing a white cloak for nothing, and wouldn't be the first one to act under Joffrey's orders without consulting anybody else. Add to that the veiled hints Joffrey made at the start of the Battle of Blackwater that his uncle wouldn't last long... and making Sansa kiss his sword while doing that, to boot. For luck. Yup: another plot-complicating, remote-controlled, murderous mess provided by Joffrey, when nobody else was looking.
[[WMG: Jaime and Brienne are going to resolve their UST.]]
But it's going to be tragic. Aware that she's leading Jaime into a trap and she won't have another chance to let him know, Brienne will be unable to hide her feelings and will confess her attraction to Jaime. He'll be initially repulsed, predictably, and will turn her down. As he gives it further thought, though, he'll consider that Brienne is really the only woman in the world he really respects. Also, despite him being faithful to Cersei his entire life, she hasn't shown anything like the same loyalty to him. For reasons that are as much as an act of contrary defiance against his previous record as much as for any actual feelings he has towards Brienne (having slept with only a single, beautiful but awful woman his entire life, it'd be ironic for him to sleep with a really ugly but good one), he'll resolve himself to just closing his eyes and accept her. Afterwards, of course, her guilt at her deception will be too much to bear and she'll confess what's happening. What happens after THAT and how Jaime reacts depends on how cruel the author is feeling.
** If the two of them slept together, it would be the first time Brienne had ever slept with anyone AND the first time Jaime had ever slept with anyone other than Cersei, who he thinks of more of his other half than as a separate person. Tell me that the narrative wouldn't always feel a little unresolved if one or both of them died before that hugely important event happened.
** Too much to "bear." Har!
*** I agree that it would feel unresolved if they didn't, but I have a suspicion that unresolved may be exactly what Martin is going for. There's a few plotlines now that don't look likely to ever be tied up, and I think it's a case of ''deliberate'' WhatHappenedToTheMouse. Who honestly still thinks we're going to find Benjen Stark? The Hound is almost certainly [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]], but the gravedigger was obviously put in deliberately to appear to be him; that's highly unlikely to be confirmed or jossed in-universe: if it is him, he'll just stay there for the rest of his life. What happened to Syrio Forel? I don't think the things that have led to the Jaqen H'gar theory are accidents, but I do think they are red herrings, and Syrio is dead but we will never find out for certain - I used to support Syrio=Jaqen, but on rereading, it was clear that it would be unlikely to suspension of disbelief-snapping levels that he survived. I think there'll be a lot of this sort of thing.
*** Well, maybe, maybe not. In interviews, for example, Martin has said that Bronn still has a role to play. If he's planning to bring Bronn back -- Bronn, whose storyline could really end pretty naturally right where it is -- if he brought back Beric Dondarrion -- if he brought back freaking [[spoiler: Aegon Targaryen or, at least, someone who *might* be him]], a character who was never ONCE seen on screen in universe and "died" before the series even started, then I don't think it's safe to say that any characters are absolutely retired just yet. I see your point -- he doesn't always resolve things -- but really, he very often does. Look Arya [[spoiler: stabbing the Tickler and getting Needle back]]. It's so satisfying that it's unrealistic -- designed to resolve a dangling thread, not to be realistic.
*** I think saying that Martin won't do something just "because he never resolves dangling plot threads" is a pretty weak argument.
**** I am sorry. I thought this was a page for guessing. My guess is that he's deliberately not going to resolve some things, and this feels to me like something that he quite likely wouldn't.
[[WMG: The descendant of Ser Duncan the Tall who has supposedly already appeared in the books is Hodor.]]
According to the author, Duncan ("Dunk" from the prequels) has left at least one descendant and has left "pretty stong clues" of who it is. The next upcoming Dunk and Egg story is "The She-Wolves of Winterfell", with the two of them finally reaching Winterfell in their search for adventure. While there, Dunk will finally get to get busy with a girl- Old Nan, or as she would be known at this stage, Young Nan (or possibly Nymeria). Remember, she's VERY old, but the Dunk and Egg stories take place ''many'' decades before the present. Anyway, Duncan is forced to leave Nan pregnant and their child is the grandparent of Hodor, which explains where he got his huge size from.
* I'm not saying I don't believe that, but given that the person (one of the people?) in question is supposed to have strong clues to their identity, it would be surprising if it's not Brienne. Who is extremely tall ''and'' has [[spoiler:a shield like Ser Duncan's, based on one she remembers seeing at home]]. Could be both of them, of course.
[[WMG: The importance of Patchface is...]]
Patchface is so creepy that he even puts Melisandre on edge. Her visions show him surrounded by skulls and with lips red with blood, and he himself spouts some eerily accurate garbled prophecies so it seems that he could have a role to play, but what it is is unclear:
* Patchface will destroy The Wall, and the blood from his lips comes from the Horn of Winter having a similar effect to Euron's dragon horn and killing its user
* He will kill somebody important at a really inconvenient moment, he's essentially a sleeper agent of whatever power saved him from drowning and destroyed his mind the other skulls in her visions always indicated violent deaths, no idea about the bloody lips for this one though
* Saved from drowning but CameBackWrong. Remind you of anyone? Anyone ironborn, perhaps? Of course, we don't yet know if the Drowned God really exists, but my betting is that ''something'' does.
* Keep in mind that the blood on his lips could refer to his words -- basically, anything he says that winds up getting people killed.
[[WMG: Jaime will buy his life by offering to help Stoneheart destroy Walder Frey]]
She intends to kill him and she's clearly not going to let him go for anything less than vengeance or recovering a child for her. Jaime has no idea where any of the remaining Starks are and believes the boys to be dead at any rate. Given that Tywin is already dead, the only person he's in a position to offer her (and the only one she hates more) is Walder Frey, either by killing him or smashing his House.
* I don't think this is likely. Walder Frey's role in the story seems to have been fulfilled, killing him would accomplish nothing. I don't think Martin would make such a big sidestep so late in the story.
* If I remember rightly, she's already traded Podrick Payne's life for Brienne's promise to bring her Jaime, and I imagine there's only so far she's willing to suspend her bloodlust. I ''really'' don't see her doing it for some vague promise of political destabilisation. Jaime Lannister is in all likelihood the very focus of her rage, with everyone else being side dishes.
** Although it would be pretty funny if the BwB started adopting the same tactics that the cops use on The Wire -- flipping people at every level in order to slowly work their way up the chain of command...
[[WMG: Alternatively, Jaime buys his life by promising to kill Roose Bolton.]]
It serves more of a role in the story as Roose is now one of the main villains, and Stoneheart may have more direct anger towards Bolton as the last thing she saw as a living woman was him murdering her last child in front of her.
''"Catelyn Stark sends her regards." *stab*''
[[WMG:The whole thing ends in a peasant revolt]]
Seriously, how can it ''not''? The Westerosi are used to putting up with shit...but ''this'' much shit? War in the middle of a long winter, using up more food than strictly necessary (armies get hungrier than civilians, since active soldiers need more energy than holed-up farmers), and over what? Plus raising gigantic armies, potentially giving weapons and military training to commoners who would never have otherwise had either. And what are they fighting about? Who gets to be ''king''? That's probably enough to make anyone say "That does it! I'm sick of kings!" and revolt.
* I don't think it's very usual for civil wars to cause revolts (the other way around is of course a different matter). Wars are times when autocracies come into their own -- would introducing a young, fragile democracy in the middle of a war end it, or just make your side more likely to lose to the guy with an iron grip over his armies? And once the war ''ends'', the reigning monarch is the hero who saved us all from civil war, so he's got plenty of political capital to play with. Peasant revolts tend to come from long periods of misrule by a single regime on which all the blame can be easily piled (hence Cersei/Joffrey nearly causing one in KL).
[[WMG: Benjen is Jon's father]]
* By Ashara Dayne. All we know about the tourney is that Brandon told her that his ''little brother'' was into her; Ned's name isn't mentioned. Benjen joined the Watch, and Ashara killed herself, for related reasons, whatever they may be, which also meant Jon had to be raised by Ned. Benjen wistfully remarks at one point that he wishes Jon had been his son.
** The problem with that idea is that Benjen didn't join the Watch until well after the rebellion. So no, there really isn't any reason to hide it if he's Benjen's son.
[[WMG: Patchface will end up being the end of Melisandre and she knows it.]]
* Why would someone as powerful and scary as Mels fear a once-drowned halfwit clown? Because their gods are at odd and water can extinguish fire.
[[WMG: "The Winds of Winter" is going to be an absolute bloodbath.]]
* As of "Dance'," Martin has all the dominoes in place. Now the only thing left to do is let them fall. He'll probably being tying up all the various lesser storylines in "Winds'," meaning only the important characters are going to make it out in one piece.
** Let's hope! Enough chitchat -- I think we're all ready to let the red run and set some wrongs aright.]
[[WMG: Victarion is going to drown.]]
* He wears armor because he's unafraid of drowning. In a series this irony-heavy, this seems like an "I told you so" waiting to happen.
** "Irony-heavy." Hah!
[[WMG: The Stark and Targaryen connection to their AnimalMofits and the Lannister lack of one is important]]
* The starks and Targaryens have proven magical connections to their wolves and dragons while the Lanisters are repeatedly told "you are not lions" and have been threated with injury death at the hands (well, teeth) of real lions in a way that highlights their lack of connection with the creatures. This might just be Foreshadowing but it seems significant.
[[WMG: Asha Greyjoy will be the only surviving member of house Greyjoy]]
* She's the sanest of the bunch and is an ActionGirl as well which means she might have it in her to survive the last two books. The Ironborn way of life is noted in-universe to be dying out which she realises and might find another path while the rest of her family is destroyed.
** Isn't that just a ''little'' to rosy to hope for? If anything, I think it'd seal her death at the hands of her uncle at some point. Or, completely at random, just as we think she's about to succeed at something.
[[WMG: The Darkstar is actually Ashara Dayne and Brandon Stark's bastard]]
* Ashara killed herself soon after giving birth, due to the trauma of being raped by Brandon, thus leaving Gerold Dayne an unwanted orphan, explaining his dark temperament. The dark streak in his white hair, either natural or cosmetic, serves as a constant reminder of his Stark/Dayne ancestry, leading him into being what amounts to a sellsword, as it allows him to kill freely in the service of his lords.
[[WMG: Qyburn and his knowledge will be essential to the fight against the Others and their wights]]
* When the realm is threatened by an undead horde, someone who "knows more than any other man alive about the boundaries between life and death" (paraphrasing) and [[spoiler:seems to be something of a dab hand at necromancy himself]] would be a pretty useful guy to have around, wouldn't he?
** or he could be the reason they're on rampage mode
[[WMG: The Boltons have some Other blood]]
* During the Long Night when the Others invaded Westeros, deep in the forgotten past, some ancestor of House Bolton somehow managed to reproduce with an Other. This is the source of their pale, cruel descendants, with their eerily pale, icy blue eyes. Roose is detached and dispassionate in nature (he is [[IncrediblyLamePun cold]] to the point of seemingly barely human) and has hidden any particularly evil tendencies from the world at large[[hottip:*:as, presumably, his immediate forebears did: the Boltons haven't openly worn the skins of their enemies in many years]], just as the Others have been hidden away up North for thousands of years. But now, as the the Others are stirring again, their AlwaysChaoticEvil tendencies are awakening in Ramsay. '''And in the story about the Long Night that Old Nan tells to Bran in AGOT, she says the Others "hunted the maids through frozen forests". Now, does this sound like anyone we know?''' House Bolton's words ("Our Blades are Sharp" according to WordOfGod) could refer to the Others' {{AbsurdlySharp|Blade}} ice-blades, and their historical enmity with House Stark could originate in the latter's building the Wall to try to protect the land from the Others.
** Old Nan says that Night's King (who married an Other and had children with her) may have been a Bolton. She mentions several other possibilities and she herself thinks he was a Stark, but Bolton is the first possibility she mentions, suggesting it's at least a popular theory.
[[WMG: Only one living man other than Howland Reed knows the truth about Rhaegar, Lyanna and Jon.]]
* And that's ''Jaime.'' Look, we can assume Jaime knew Rhaegar pretty well and admired him- he still remembers Rhaegar's last words before he set out to the battle on the Trident. He also said that the Kingsguard are sworn to keep the King's secret- even if he was being sarcastic about himself and Aerys, I can see why he'd keep Rhaegar's secrets even after death. If Lyanna DID in fact give birth to Rhaegar's child in the Tower of Joy then, unless she had been confined there from the moment Rhaegar kidnapped her, she would have been seen to be noticeably pregnant beforehand. Maybe Selmy never had the chance to see her (although he knew that Rhaegar loved her) or he would have mentioned as such to Danaerys, but Jaime might well have.
** Would give him something to hand Un-Cat that might mitigate the hanging, if it's true. Maybe. "I know who Jon actually is, and he isn't Ned's..." After all, one of the biggest questions/ regrets/ points of jealousy in her life was that, so I bet she'd currently still have it as as big a trigger as "you are a Frey: prepare to die".
** It always seemed a bit weird that he was standing up for Jon to Catelyn in the TV show. Perhaps the creators of the show know something we don't?
[[WMG: If Jon really is the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, he was named after Jon Connington, not Jon Arryn.]]
* I know Jon wasn't born until after Rhaegar died, but if his relationship with Lyanna was consensual (which still isn't clear) they could have discussed names beforehand, and Rhaegar wanted to name the child in honour of his exiled best friend.
** I always assumed that - assuming the theory is true - he was named after ''both'' of them. I figure that in the days when Ned was traveling back to the North, the roads were a lot less safe, with Targaryen Loyalists still actively hunting rebels, so Ned (or maybe Howland Reed) decided to call him Jon so they could tell any loyalists that may or may not attack them that he was named after Connington, while telling any friends that he was named after Arryn.
** Why would Ned be discussing the identity of the baby with Targaryen loyalists in the midst of a war with them? Even if he were captured, he's hardly going to give away that it's Rhaegar's heir to the people who want to keep the Targs on the throne. Either Rhaegar named it after Griff or Ned after Arryn, not both.
*** Maybe it wasn't necessarily a method of protection, but the idea can still hold up. Ned could have named Jon after Arryn, while also thinking of Connington in the back of his mind.
** There weren't any active Targ loyalists at that time. They had all surrendered at the Trident or after the fall of King's Landing. So Ned wouldn't have needed to do that. Plus, Rhaegar wanted to complete the rebirth of the original Targ trio of conquerors: Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya. That was the whole point of needing a third head for the dragon and using a young teenage girl as the baby maker. He would have been expecting a girl, named Visenya, not a boy without a Targaryen name.
[[WMG: By the end of the series, Rickon will be the Stark in Winterfell.]]
If Stannis wins the castle back, things can work out quite easily, since Davos is Stannis's man and he's been sent to retrieve him. It's likely no other Starks will ever see Winterfell again.
* Ned is [[spoiler: dead.]]
* Catelyn is [[spoiler: somewhat dead.]]
* Robb is [[spoiler: super dead.]]
* Sansa is [[spoiler: set to take over the Vale.]]
* Bran is [[spoiler: a tree.]]
* Arya is [[spoiler: no longer a Stark.]]
* Jon is [[spoiler: on the wall, dead, and not a Stark anyway.]]
** Got to question a couple of those:
*** Arya refused to throw away Needle, and secretly revels in her wolf dreams. She's hiding it well enough for now, but she's still Arya Stark. No way is she going to stay the course, though she will probably learn a lot of tricks before she quits/gets kicked out.
*** I have trouble believing that about Jon. I don't know whether he'll [[spoiler:survive his injuries or be raised by Melisandre]], but that scene is ''way'' too reminiscent of Theon at the sack of Winterfell, Asha in the fight in the woods, Brienne in the fight with the 'Hound', Arya at the Twins. There's probably more. Quentyn Martell is the nearest thing to an exception, but even he [[spoiler:didn't actually die ''in that scene'']]. People have [[spoiler:died in their POV, but there's a ton where they're implied to be dead and turn up later, and the way it faded out, dwelling on the last thing he saw/felt as he lost consciousness, is far more in line with the not-dead scenes]]. ''And'' he was legitimised by Robb, offered it again by Stannis, and there's kings all over the place who could potentially do it a third time.
[[WMG:Tyrion is going to meet up with his long-lost uncle Gerion.]]
Gerion Lannister, Tyrion and Jaime's favourite uncle, went on a quest to find the ancestral Valyrian steel sword of House Lannister, Brightroar, years before the series proper began. While he is considered to be "most likely dead" due to sailing to Valyria even after half his crew abandoned him and the expedition Tywin sent out to look for him never found a trace, he has not been confirmed dead and could be ANYWHERE. Possibly he's finally found Brightroar but has lost all his men and is working on slowly hitchhiking his way back to Westeros.
If Tyrion DOES run into him, it'll be an emotional reunion (Gerion was the man who most supported Tyrion while he was growing up) but things ''could'' get a bit awkward when Gerion asks the question "so how is your father, my eldest brother, doing?"
[[WMG:Joffrey sexually abused Tommen.]]
In ASOS when Jaime thinks Brienne is about to be raped he tells her to let them have her and just "go away inside". Tommen says to him later that he "went away inside when Joffy..." and then he never finishes, but the wording is unsettlingly similar. It also seems unlikely that Joffrey physically abused his brother, at least any place it would show, as people would notice. And Joffrey's certainly enough of a monster to do it.
* I'm not saying that's not so, but he needn't have physically bullied him to explain those words without sexual abuse; we ''know'' he bullied him emotionally (up to and including killing his pet fawn and making a jerkin out of its skin). And besides, I think it would be quite easy for Joffrey to have hit him and just frightened him into saying nothing - they were both being trained in combat, not to mention that little kids fall over and hurt themselves all the time just playing, so bruises could have easily been explained away. But that's an interesting theory. I certainly wouldn't put it past the little horror, and it would be quite nicely circular (though not as much as if it was Myrcella).
[[WMG: The wishes of the Stark children in A Song of Ice and Fire come true again, but in a much better outcome in the last book.]]
The Stark children have their wishes come true in the first book, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor which was horribly rigged against them.]] Now, in the final book, they will actually get their wish. It makes sense from a BookEnd perspective.
** Bran gets to fly, by possessing or taming one of the dragons.
** Sansa gets to marry a prince, probably [[spoiler: Aegon, the Sixth of his name.]]
** Arya manages to get away from her noble privileges becoming some sort of master spy.
** Robb [[spoiler: is still super dead.]]
** Jon Snow will lead the Night Watch against a greater threat than the politics of the day, the White Walkers and their undead, and bring them glory.
[[WMG: The Seven Kingdoms will break up, at least temporarily]]
The High Septon will overthrow Cersei and Tommen, possibly by declaring that Tommen ''is'' a bastard. This will be a fatal mistake.
* '''The Iron Islands:''' The Iron Islands are still in open rebellion, and have no desire to bend the knee. The only one who could force them to do so is Daenerys Targaryen.
* '''The Westerlands:''' Without Tommen on the throne, Jaime will have no reason at all to be loyal to King's Landing. He will become the Lord of Casterly Rock, and will likely circle the wagons in hopes of survival. If Tommen and Cersei are dead, he may well declare himself King on the Rock.
* '''The North:''' The North is a powder keg already. Between Stannis, Melisandre, Lord Manderly, and the surviving Starks, the Boltons' hold on the North is doomed. And once the Boltons go, the Reeds will ensure that no one can send in reinforcements. The North probably won't get very involved in the southern war, due to a rather pressing need to fight the Others.
* '''The Vale:''' Petyr Baelish and Sansa Stark are poised to take control. And there really isn't an army left in Westeros that could take the Vale by force.
* '''The Riverlands:''' The Freys' control is so weak that the Riverlands will likely collapse into a series of independent lords. Especially if and when the Brotherhood takes out the Twins. The Tullys could eventually pull a comeback.
* '''The Reach:''' Euron will take Highgarden, and probably kill as many Tyrells as possible. If he manages to purge the house, the Reach will probably unite under the Hightowers (especially as we have Sam in Oldtown to serve as our POV).
* '''The Stormlands:''' Already falling to Aegon VI.
* '''Dorne:''' Will likely back Aegon.
If this happens, then it is unlikely that Aegon will be able to unite the Seven Kingdoms again. Dany could, with her dragons. But even if Aegon takes King's Landing, he'll only have the Crownlands, the Stormlands, and Dorne.
[[WMG:The war is heading into a repeat of the Battle of the Trident]]
Ramsay's letter is a lie. Stannis will crush the Boltons and the Freys with ease since most of their "vassals" hate them and will defect to Stannis at the first opportunity; the Tyrell-Lannister alliance will have enough trouble dealing with the Aegon-Martell alliance on the one hand and the Ironborn on the other to do anything about it. With Lysa out of the picture, Stannis might even get the support of the Vale if Littlefinger jumps ship or is taken care of in some way. Meanwhile, Aegon wins over the Tyrell-Lannisters and takes King's Landing, but his forces get so depleted in the process that when he immediately departs north to meet Stannis, Aegon is defeated and killed easily. By Stannis' own hand, of course.
[[WMG: Jon Snow will be released of his oath as a member of the Night's Watch due to the ExactWords nature of the oath.]]
The duty of the man serving the watch ''... shall not end until my death.'' [[spoiler: Given the ending of A Dance with Dragons, Jon surviving, or even being revived after his stabbing, will release him from his oath.]]
