rotting sea cow

Qft

Just chiming in interesting. The hoard of dragon's eggs at Dragon Stone is still missing. Well, we do not know Varys motivations during the time of Aerys. I believe that those events changed his perspective of things. Which does mean, he meant to die with Aerys, but who knows.... and how would he move the bloody jars? The substance is wildly unstable and apparently only the pyromancers know how to handle it properly. I agree that Varys should know that wildfire is buried all around the city, in fact there are some suggestions that there is something below the Red Keep and he knows it, in these secret passages where he must unlit the torches.

C'mon kids. Give the man a break. I know it is disheartening but if you think that locking George in his room with food, water and his PC will make him to write faster, you know nothing about doing creative work. I quite sure he truly wants to finish Winds but I'm also sure that there are many issues to be solved, in particular timelines (Dany vs Westeros ones). He apparently wants to stick to only two more books and I don't see how unless they are damn long. Etc, You don't get out of these problems by locking yourself unless you want to do a mediocre work. You need to speak to people, hear/read other ideas, complete side work (e.g. world building, fic history, etc), do some research, you need air, you need space, sometimes you need mental distance from your work to gain perspective, you need to discuss your work with others, etc. I know myself that, because I'm six years late of presenting some important work and every summer I think I'm closer but I'm not. Maybe next one?

Please, don't post under the influence

My turning point is the realization that these books are written to be re-read many times. And I love that. I'm a maniac reader. I LOVE SPOILERS. I'm not the kind of people who read few pages before going to sleep and think about it the next day and so on. No, I often open the books at a random page and read a few pages. If I like a book, I don't stop until I finish, in many occasions I don't eat, sleep or go to the toilet until I'm done. It was like that with LOTR, I finished the three books in a day and half. In the case of ASOIAF, I read AFFC at a friend's party. Everybody drinking and dancing and I was myself in a corner reading that book. Then I bought it and I read the five books in less than a week, sometimes I skipped many pages and chapters (many Sansa's unfortunately).

Isn't trying to split the hairs in four? (beyond of the logistical problems of that "chain") The in-Universe answer for this is that Yandel hasn't had access to all documents. Plain and simply. He may update (or not) some info if he get access to additional sources. From a story-telling perspective there are two possibilities 1) GRRM is trying to answer the original question of this thread. Yes, there were some surviving dragonlords, they just died out at different locations. So, don't get surprised if a few more dragonlords/ladies survived in other parts of Planetos. Because, it is not fundamental for the story our beloved author hasn't thought too much about it. 2) The story of Aurion is somewhat important and would have an impact down the road, so GRRM is holding some additional details. For example, we know that Missandei has been researching some scrolls in Meeren, maybe some of them describe the fate of Aurion and his army and together with Tyrion they puzzle out few things? Also, notice how similar Aurion and Euron sound like. Some people have speculated that the dragon horn, the dragon egg and the Valyrian steel armor stolen from the warlocks belonged originally to Aurion. ETC BTW, I liked the @Lord Varys's suggestion that at the time of the Doom there was some event in Valyria that attracted many dragonlords/ladies there.

People have argued that the Starks are GRRM's first love but Targaryens are the ones he married. It's possible that originally the ends of the story was heavily Stark focused. Now other players have also their own important place.

I think the only pattern in prologues and epilogues is the powerlessness of the narrator against greater odds.

Some people have suggested that Varys has king's blood and that sorcerer recognized him. Some believe tha Varys is the son of the missing Maegor son of Aerion, others a Blackfyre descendant. As for the identity of the wizard. I myself tend to believe he is the same man that Euron charged to hatch that dragon egg and subsequently killed because got bored. Others believe the man was Marwyn who may also be the son of Maegor ( or not)

Hi. That Jon will wield one day Dawn is almost a certainty. How would it happen is more nebulous. Will Jon travel to Starfall looking for clues about his mother? Or will be the Daynes who will look for him upon hearing the fall of the Wall and the time for Dawn has arrived? I've no idea. But I think that sending Hotah to hunt Darkstar has the purpose to link the Daynes and Jon stories. Remember, GRRM is taking out the POV who reports on Doran to us, exactly when things are getting interesting in the Dorne subplot. It means there is something even more important that needs to be told.

Apparently I'm the only one saying that Summer saw a dragon, just not a physical one.

That scene has always confused me a lot. I even stopped thinking about it, but now I have the mind a bit clearer. First, at the symbolic level the dragon that Summer saw represents Jon. A dragon hidden in Winterfell. Now. I think the egg hatched, at least metaphysically, but because there was nobody to claim the dragon, its fiery spirit flew away. And that is what Summer saw. The egg is physically undamaged but it's now a dud. This should play a role once Stannis gets hands on that egg and attempts to hatch the dragon by burning Shireen and nothing happens.

C'mon. It isn't ser Arlan who said that, it is GRMM using his voice to give us some info to chew. A plot device if you wish. Of course there is the issue with unreliable narration but we have learned to find these moments. I don't think this is the case. It's like Old Nan. Even if her tales are distorted we are compelled to believe them. And what does she know about the Long Night? Also. Isn't that the small folk believe that after long summers come the cruelest winters?

Hard to say. The PoV there is Areo Hotah. My take is more or less. Darkstar steals Dawn, Hotah kills him, he goes to Starfall to give it back and ends learning some very important bit of information. He goes back to Doran at the same time the later declared for Aegon... etc Maybe Doran charges him to find Jon, maybe not, but at some point Dawn should fall in Jon's hands and Hotah may play a more important role on that.

Darkstar is one most clumsy characterizations in the entire asoiaf series. So sorry, no. Darkstar was introduced because without the five year gap, Ned Dayne was too young to carry out that part of the plot.