Jon Fossoway

It will stand, as it always has.

No. A lot of characters from the first book were just dropped by George. Remember that the first 3 books differ much in structure than the latter, where characters did tend to return. In the first one there were a lot of one time hit wonders.

I dnn't think this deserves much in-case-study. It's a metaphor for the three, comparing them to one another, not to the rest of the characters in world: Stannis is indeed the most rigid of the three; Robert, at his prime, is the strongest; Renly is the most florid (thus, the most charismatic, even more than Robert, possibly). Noye worked at Storm's End and had a good look at the three brothers.

Sending someone to bargain on Tyrion's safety is a rational thing to do, but we're talking about Tywin Lannister here. Any slander to his family is responded in force. Even if it's about Tyrion.

Skagos is met, in the books, via third parties' account and rumours. The truth may be much simpler: insular people, more akin to the mountains clans than inland northerners, etc. I don't think unicorns are common there, but they should exist in the property of skagosson nobles. These beasts are hardly known even in Essos, so I don't see any reason they are common in Skagos.

As a dude, get close to a high lord and toss and coin, expecting your children will jump into prominence. On this, I am thinking about Clegane and his offspring, and Kettleblack and the white cloaks that are his kids. Of course, you can't really trust Gregor or the Kettleblack brothers will maintain the momentum, before being imprisoned or turned into zombies...

On a nerdish note, Arya always reminded me of Alita, the manga (GUNMNN) character: kinda small (if you compare her height to her enemies') but very agile. Alita also has some artstic gymnastic moves (to which I can also compare Arya's 'water dance').

I didn't found him unlikeable as a character. Certainly, GRRM had the intention of furthering Arianne's plot with him. Without the 5 years gap, which presumably -at least, to me- would have made Ned Dayne the Sword of the Morning, 'tis now p to Gerold Dayne to steal it and do some harm. But, honestly, reading some of Arianne's chapters, which I don't remember even mentioning him, well, who knows...

A kinda naive presented topic, but sure, there are a lot of 'strong women' in GRRM's works, and in ASOIAF aswell. As for your picks, I would doubt about Lyanna, since her personality has been described with several (often) contradictory terms. 'Stubborn' comes to me more quickly than 'strong'. I would also set in Alysanne Blackwood, who married Cregan Stark. There is little known about their relationship but I am curious on how it was between this fierce, fearless woman with a bawdy tongue and good ol' stern Stark, who had half the realm narrowing its butt cheeks in the Hour of the Wolf. I reaaally would like GRRM to further more words on this explosive couple.

Not this again.

Aurone sounds funny.

Sure, if you are invested in world building and like the Targaryen history. It does expand a lot on the latter.

GRRM has had experience writing scripts for shows in the past. I haven't heard any opinions of his part about tv, but for all I read of his works (which is nearly all asoiaf' and his weird sci-fi stories) I feel he likes it. Popular shows and sci-fi flicks. As for the cliffhangers I wouldn't know. GRRM is a prolific writer and apparently tends to produce a lot of pages when 'gardening' his subplot, so I don't think he ends a book with a cliff hanger: he and/or the team cut in some particular places of the output so the material can fit into the original 7 book idea. Which I believe it will fail.

A caution for young girls, by Coryanne Wylde. Must be the equivalent of Marquis de Sade in westeros.

Yep, I haven't heard of any 'Stannis is the big bad wolf in the story' theory yet. My idea is that Stannis WILL die at some point near. GRRM has been frequently describing his physical appearance, and although it matches his personality (stern, rigid, no-bullshit, etc) he also has been particularily attentive to his looks in Dance: he's becoming thinner, his eyes appears to have sunk into his eye sockets. It's like he is slowly fading as his army is, marching to Winterfell amidst snows and cold. But I don't think he'll become the Night King, nor any figure related to ice. He's been 'fathering' shadows (fire magic) and has been supporting a fire related religion nearly from the start of the saga. Who knows? Maybe somehow, if he truly comes back as anything, he'll come back as a Lady Stoneheart kinda character?