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Could Balon be alive?


Lord Sapna

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Firstly I don't think Balon is alive, but why is it that everyone seems to accept his death. Martin loves bringing back dead characters and I've seen theories for half the dead characters in the books. Syrio, Rhaegar, Benjen, Ashara. Tonnes more.

However nobody seems to debate Balons death, despite the fact that prophecies are very unreliable and nobody witnessed Balons death.

As a king he's an important character, who did very little besides sit in a castle. So why does everyone just accept he's done so early?

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Firstly I don't think Balon is alive, but why is it that everyone seems to accept his death. Martin loves bringing back dead characters and I've seen theories for half the dead characters in the books. Syrio, Rhaegar, Benjen, Ashara. Tonnes more.

However nobody seems to debate Balons death, despite the fact that prophecies are very unreliable and nobody witnessed Balons death.

As a king he's an important character, who did very little besides sit in a castle. So why does everyone just accept he's done so early?

Actually, the prophecies in ASOIAF are all very reliable. Ghost of the High Heart was right about everything.

We didn't see his death just because 1) there were no POVs on the Iron Islands in ASOS, 2) most readers don't give a fuck about Balon.

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Eh? I'm not doubting that everyone thinks he's dead (Actually I believe he is) I was wondering why no posters on here seemed to look into how he could have survived, when they do it for all other characters.



Syrio for example, two men fighting in a room, one comes out. As people have pointed out though, people like Syrio more then Balon.


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Well people believe Quentyn is alive, even when seeing him dead.

Agreed though Balon advanced the plot, Quentyn didn't.

I said this in the "Is Quentyn Alive" thread but I think it's far too early to dismiss Quentyn's contribution to the series. His death is going to have a big short term impact and his agreement that Dorne will give Pentos - The home of Aegon's benefactor - to The Tattered Prince is likely to be significant, Aegon isn't going to agree to it so Doran is going to have to choose between betraying his King or dishonouring his Son. If Arianne marries Aegon then there's even the potential for civil war in Dorne, all because of Quentyn.

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It's a mistake on the show's part not to have announced Balon's death. Stannis could've called Mel on it before now as well, and that's not been in the show either. Balon is the forgotten fallen, dooming all Ironborn in the process. Why waste screen time on them? It's not like they have a fleet anyone can use. In any case, Iron Islands are, effectively, off the map anyway.



In the books, there's the whole consequence of it. Damphair drives the whole return to The Old Ways, which sets up Euron's entrance. The Ironborn accept that there is no worthy heir. They can't accept Asha as Balon's heir. They don't have as open a society as Dorne where she would be accepted as the rightful heir.


The kingsmoot is the only way to bring the whole Ironborn fleet together, in one place, at one time. Clever move by Damphair!


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