grillmeister

Nice thread, but it got me thinking about the past. How do you gain power, if not by conquest or battle? By alliances. You promise away your children to other mighty lords. And if they are as pretty and handsome as say Margary and Loras are pictured, this come off easy. But what if you need to switch alliances to not turn out on the losing side? Of course your daughter can only be married once, as a marriage can only be consumated once and hence forward be binding. Unless, say, the groom dies before the wedding night, yet after the wedding ceremony. And if the groom has a sweet younger brother, it is a fair bet that he would bethrothed to the bride if he should die, same as Eddard came to marry Catelyn. Under such circumstances, your sweet daughter would remain innocent for years. Thus, should the Tyrells need a new alliance in order to gain or remain in power, they can re-marry Margaery. Moreover, since the marriage is not consumated it is way simpler to break. Not to mention a new wedding is much easier to sell in with your daughter innocent. As for Margaery Tyrell, most in the kingdom - except Cersei - seem to believe her innocent before marrying Joffrey. (Of course the former ally will be pissed, so the new alliance need to be stronger than the former). The tricky part might be to escape the queen from KL in one piece. Fortunately her brother is kingsguard (and healthy at the time of the wedding - and one of the best knights in the kingdom, according to Jaime). So how do you arrange this? With the help of some guy who need to win Harrenhal in order to win the Vale, who is also is going to lose his seat in the small council should Stannis take KL. In other words a guy with much (everything?) to lose. Therefore LF need the alliance with Tyrell. Does the Tyrells understand this, and hence blackmail LF into kingslaying? I am unceirtan, althoug I believe QoT to be the brain of the house - and she is sharp. Ath this point we must assume neither Tyrell or LF knew about Aegon and JC. Will Tyrell join Aegon? I don't know. They have the option, say, by offering sweet innocent Margaery's hand. If you have a backup plan when you play The Game, you're not out of play should your first move turn out badly.

In AFFC/ADWD, Sam is set to learn more about The Others, hopefully more of their weaknesses and how they arise. When sent to Oldtown, he had not found anything, so the only information The Watch has is the vulneability against obsidian/dragonglass. Now, Bran is now learning to see the past. I believe he sooner or later will learn what Sam was trying to, by observing the long gone past. If he then manage to pass this knowledge to The Watch and contribute to save the realm, his story can be concluded by achieving something big. In addition, suppose Coldhands is unBenjen. 1) Bran didn't reckognize him since he covered his face (and Bran notized that no frost smoke passed through). 2) As stated earlier, the undead are more focused on their mission or task. Benjen has swore to be the shield that protect the realms of men. Moreover, when he disappeared, he was sent to learn more about what was happening north of The Wall (although if I remember correctly it was to focus on The Wildlings). If he somehow knew what Bran can achieve, he will keep his wows by aiding Bran, and thus have ha mission focus. I realize it is a longshot and give birth to new speculations, like how could he know about Bran's abilities. (Although, as pointed out, warging seem to run in the Stark blood).