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I have another thought if you’re interested. Taoism, which is associated with nameless Gods, and meditation, and the Yin/Yang symbol means “the way”. Like the naming convention used for Hodor meaning hold the door; Waymar means marring the way. He does this when he cuts down all of those poor little saplings along “the way”. The killing of children is a major theme in our story.

Also at this point just assume most of the hostages are dead. Hamas couldn't even come up with the minimum Israel asked for in a deal. That probably means they're toast.

I didn't speculate for fun, I did so because it became relevant. There's a reason this is the first time it's been mentioned. But again, you're assuming that this enemy has something to trade. Evidence suggests that they don't. For God's sake do you know how horrible that is to type? But goddamn there's a reason talks broke down, it's because they're fucking dead. How do you make peace with that, as a leader? As a people? You can't. Unconditional surrender, with release of whatever hostages survive is the only long-term outcome here.

Doing nothing and letting them rebuild also encourages them. That's the fucking problem. Israel is in a no win situation. Obviously we don't want them bombing the shit out of civilian locations, but if they don't Hamas will just rebuild and attack again. And if they do Hamas will just rise up with a different name. The best nonviolent solution would be to get all the other regional actors to make it impossible for Hamas to operate, but they kind of like what they're doing and aren't interested in helping the Palestinian people. And because of all of this the cluster fuck will remain a cluster fuck.

The show chose the theta symbol for the Prologue. “Theta” brainwaves are a type of brainwave frequency that typically occurs during deep relaxation, meditation, and during the stage of sleep when dreaming occurs. Theta waves are associated with creativity, intuition, daydreaming, and subconscious thinking. It's believed that theta brainwave states allow us to access deeper emotional responses and potentially unresolved issues. This was part of my evidence for the meditation that the CotF were doing earlier. (They weren’t Wildlings frozen or dead)

I think they were having issues with making season 3 even before Angus Cloud died. Can imagine that didn't make things easier. Would like to see them finish it on their own terms but also don't want a forced piece of garbage.

Pacers are in good offensive rhythm without Haliburton.

I’d love to but some many of these ideas tie in together. Why Gared went mad and the mother direwolf. One small detail - the wood for the bridge came from the tree who’s stump was the block for Gared’s beheading.

With the woman in the ironwood (a deciduous tree) at the bottom of the ridge we are seeing an inverted but parallel idea. The woman, a far-eyes, is a CotF half-hid in the branches. And young Will, a lookout, lost among the needles of a sentinel (an evergreen) at the top of a ridge is a boy, whom I believe is Ironborn, in a tree. Even the show put a girl in the tree.

I don’t know. And I think it’s disrespectful to speculate. Not judging those that do - to be clear - just not something I want to engage in. Anyway, point is, the surest way to kill the hostages is making the hostage-takers think they’ll be killed no matter what.

Oh, shit. D, do you think that more than five or six (maaaaybe) are still alive? Hamas is never willingly giving them back. They're almost all dead.

Indiana putting up a good fight minus their star tonight.

Don’t we have a new thread for this?

Yeah apparently you have no idea how hostage negotiations work throughout history, or even seen a movie, but this is not true at all.

No, they're attacking Rafah because Hamas is there. And destroying Hamas is the only way to save any that remain.

LOL. You think they’re attacking Rafah cuz that’s where they think the remaining hostages are? I gave you too much credit.

Bombing Hamas and clearing out their strongholds is the only way to go about rescuing whatever hostages remain.

Also, Halliburton looks like a really trendy college professor who is the captain of his night league bowling team with this outfit. And to be clear, I kind of dig it, but still.

They’ve already eradicated the vast majority of Hamas as it was constituted before 10/7. If you want to get Sinwar like the US wanted Bin Laden, fair enough, but continuing to bomb Rafah ain't gonna do it. Again, it’s patently ignorant to think continuous bombing is going to prevent Hamas by another name from “rebuilding and replicating.” Indeed, it always encourages it. I’m not coming from a moralistic standpoint. I’m saying your strategy is stupid. Because we’ve seen it fail over and over again.

Derrick White should be every bald person's champion.

Pacers looking good so far.

Oh, for my part, I certainly appreciate that y'all are speaking from a place of deep compassion. Libelous language from others aside, I understand the horror at what's happening in Gaza. I don't like hearing doctors talk about performing emergency surgeries on children without anesthetic. I don't like seeing bodies pulled out of rubble and seeing bloodied children weeping in the street.

Reason also isn't allowing Hamas to rebuild and replicate what they did which is their stated goal going forward. Ignoring that isn't really reasonable at all.

Lots of interesting ideas in this thread. When I put this thread up it was in all ignorance of the fact that GRRM had said Jeyne Westerling will be seen in the prologue, and of all the subsequent speculation. I like the analysis by Deep Geek that House Cambodia has posted in the thread What will the Prologue to the Winds of Winter be about? It occurs to me that an attack by a wolf pack is one way that the hostages would escape execution. Because Forley would not think a horrifying wolf attack was an attempt to free hostages. Which it mightn't be because so far its more like Arya becomes a wolf inside Nymeria than she controls her with human thoughts. Perhaps the wolf's taste for man flesh and an instinctive reaction of hatred to seeing Lannister colours from Arya's mind would combine. Also it seems to me the BWB are more confined in location and not numerous enough able to launch an attack on a column. The hints are more in the direction of them infiltrating Riverrun and taking Genna and her hopeless husband hostage, generating a crisis there just when the Lannisters thought everything was sewn up. And they will have Jaime too! As I've said previously I think that an attack by Nymeria's pack would have fit absolutely with the idea of A Time for Wolves which was the original title, and having Arya warging Nymeria provides an arcane element. If the wolves are fighting back in his book then an attack by any northerners on the column makes sense but a wolf pack is obvious in a satisfying way. All this means that I am now doubtful about my idea that the prologues alternate fire and ice themes. This could have been what GRRM planned but he may have abandoned it because of the way the book is evolving. Or, it is just incidental, a result of his using the prologues to introduce the two forces and then track their emergence. He could be turning back to the more worldly struggle for power in Westeros for a while. I don't see that Sybil Spicer being present and having some arcane powers really provides a fire theme. I can't see they'd be much use against a wolf pack unless the powers are much stronger that we suspect. A knowledge of herbs and poisons and perhaps a gift of prophecy is all we know of so far. One way fire magic could come into a prologue featuring Jeyne would be if she did escape with Brynden and ended up at the BWB camp where there is a fire priest and a resurrected fire wight, and Jaime and Brienne. But I don't know if GRRM would have argued so hard against the idea of a fake Jeyne then. Could just have let it ride.