James Fenimore Cooper XXII

The signs are there, Bran is going to become a villain. Why else show him his family killing people and feeding their blood to the trees unless that is what he will do in the future. I maintain that the only way to turn back the long night is to kill Bran with dragon fire.

I think the ghost kings with swords are trapped in the spirit world. There were killed in battle. The Others turned their bodies to wights. Their souls can't pass into the next stage because their bodies are still moving around under the control of the Others. The souls are still bound to the body. Cat died but some of her soul was recovered because the body has not broken down.

There are a few ways things could go wrong because of Bran. He uses Bloodraven's teachings to enact revenge on the families who opposed the Starks. I can easily believe Bran Stark saving the families he likes but letting Lannisters, Freys, and Karstarks just die. A Greenseer should remain neutral and not take sides. Jon allowed his inappropriate loyalty to House Stark cloud his judgment and wrecked the Night's Watch. Bran will fail in the same way. Most of the people will choose to leave Westeros. Those who have the means to do so would prefer to cross to Essos and start new lives instead of accepting mass suicide. Suicide through Bran driving them to kill each other. Look at the mechanics of how to transfer the human data to the weirwoods. It is not happening through a USB cable. No. It will be done through blood transfusion as in human sacrifices to the weirwoods on a crazy mass scale. Because that is part of the solution to push the people's minds into the weirwoods. The solution, if that is what Bloodraven really planned, is as wild as the religion of the Faceless Men.

Bran experienced a flashback from the time Winterfell was newly built. He saw his ancestors murdering a prisoner and feeding the blood to the white tree. Bran tasted the blood of the poor dying man as he is going through his death spasm. Bran can feed through his dreams. He has fed on human blood thrice. This time, through his direwolf, and perhaps through the bloody soup which may be Jojen Reed's flesh. But who is the lady with the bronze sickle? We should be careful to avoid making definitive conclusions. Even the dark haired First Men grow old and lose their hair color in old age. Simply said, perhaps the woman had dark hair and slowly lost the color as she aged. The use of a primitive weak metal tells us this woman comes from a people lacking the knowledge of working with iron. She is not Valyrian else she would have at least a quality iron sickle. But maybe she had to make do with the tools available to the First Men. Compare this woman to the old kings in Daenerys' vision of her family's past. The men wore fancy clothing and had glowing weapons. The difference is rather stark. However, all of this does not mean there could not be a people so lost in history that they have been forgotten. An elder specimen of humans who had knowledge of magic and practiced experiments that are unknown today. Not everybody is of royal status. While Daenerys' ancestors were clearly important people in their time there must have been commoners. Commoners always make up the majority of a population. The woman in Winterfell was someone with authority over the barbarians of the north. She was leading the ceremonial killing of the captive. We already know the power of blood sacrifices to buy peace with the Others. Craster, who is likely a man kin by blood to the Starks, kept the Others satisfied with blood offerings. Literally offering his own blood, Stark blood, to the Others in trade for his freedom to live where he was. The woman, I will call her a dark priestess, was showing the First Men how to give offerings to the Others. The ritual killings had multiple purposes. The Others get what they need, the Weirwood is fertilized, and the Greenseers get their blood meal. The Starks of Winterfell kept up the practice and the Weirwood grew strong over the thousands of years since. The woman could have been part of an elder race which existed at the same time as the Great Empire of the Dawn and a few survived to the building of Winterfell. Daenerys, on the other hand, has knowledge which is even older than Asshai. This is impossible unless genetic memory exists. We have always known that Daenerys is very special. I think Daenerys in her previous life lived before the events in Bran's vision. Daenerys is a member of the ruling line who are endowed with superhuman abilities. The Stark line also have superhuman abilities which I believe they got from interbreeding with the Others. The rulers of Daenerys' line must have had an opposing force and that is the Others. We know the silver haired Gods were not in control of the whole world during their entire dynasty. One branch, the reds of the Bloodstone emperor, tried to usurp the throne but he must have been defeated after a time and either killed or banished to the North. I think his people became the Others. The priestess in Winterfell came from a line of followers of the reds. The black meteorite is either hidden deep within Asshai, which is not likely. More likely it is hidden somewhere in the North. Either somewhere on the other side of the Wall or guarded by the Kings of Winter in their stronghold. The pale corpse queen was of the defeated royal line of the Bloodstone emperor. The Warg king, where the Starks supposedly got their inherited power of wolf bonding, was also descended from emperor Bloodstone. The white haired woman carried out hybridization experiments with the Others and the ancestors of the Warg king and the Starks. The Others from the prologue seemed to behave like they feel entitled. Craster's relations with them also seems to paint the Others as feeling entitled of worship and servitude. The punishment for the crime of betraying the Amethyst Empress was the removal of the Bloodstone line's ability to reproduce. Loyal followers like the white haired priestess used ancient knowledge and magic to get around this through advanced hybridization. One unusually successful hybrid, the corpse queen found a biologically compatible mate in the Nights' King. The Night's King was a Stark. Eye color is indicative of lineage and affinity. The Weirwoods have red sap, red leaves, and when carved, red eyes. The purest form of a Northern creature, Ghost, has red eyes. Genetic material from the Bloodstone line spread in the North through genetic experiments. The weaker emperors of the East later had to build the Five Forts to protect themselves from outside threats. Threats which happened to be on the north side of the fortifications. This can mean the Bloodstone's clan was banished to the north and a land bridge, perhaps made of perpetually frozen water, connected the continents. The strange creatures today are the results of hybridization experiments carried out by his followers.

Arya is losing her sanity and morality because her mental illness is getting worse. Carrying out the murders is the symptom of the illness. The crime is the effect not the cause. Her inherited gene from the Tullys plus the horrific experiences are the contributing elements to the illness.

Bran is the lord of the dark. He will be more harmful to Westeros than Jon is now.

Two books left only. I don't think there is time for Arya to die like Catelyn and then get the kiss of life to come back. Arya will die and second-life her direwolf. How insane she is when it happens will be interesting to witness.

Jon died in his last chapter. The Others can bring the dead back to some sick imitation of life and that will be good enough for Jon to find his sister and take her away from her many enemies. Like the ice dragon. He gets to rescue a girl, he thinks is his sister, and lives just long enough to do it and then finally melts away forever. He is a man guilty of treason and he is not going to have a place anywhere among the living.

Rhaegal and his rider will probably bite the dust. That is probably Fake Aegon. Jon already bit the dust, or the snow rather and he is not coming back as a warm-blooded human. He will come back as the personification of the ice dragon to take Arya away from, I would guess the Boltons or the Freys. He gets a little bit of time before he melts and fades away like the ice dragon. He is not a Targaryen. The Rhaes were broken potentials among the Targaryens. They were not the real deal. Daenerys is the real Azor Ahai and the promised one they have waited for so long.

We may soon and hopefully soon, see the beginnings of a new Great Empire Of The Dawn. Somebody will have to pick up the pieces and rebuild at the end of the Long Night. Daenerys Targaryen will be that person. No other Targaryen in history has three dragons. She has this great power for a reason. To rebuild civilization after the Long Night.

The Frey family has a much greater chance of surviving the rage of the Starks because of their numbers. Location also make the Boltons vulnerable if the Starks were to come to power again. It appears to me from an important scene in the Palace of Dust that it will be Her Majesty, Daenerys Targaryen, who will judge the Freys and that is good news for fairness and justice. The Boltons will not be so lucky. But there is still a glimmer of hope for at least one of them to survive the revenge of the Starks and that is Fat Walda Bolton. She deserves to live and give birth to a Bolton baby who will inherit the Bolton holdings. Arya will be told of Jon's treasonous conduct and how he was killed by his own men. She will make it her objective to murder the brothers of the watch. Bran will see his bastard brother's death and that will push him over to the evil side. The Others will resurrect Jon and I am assuming he will come back like a wight but with his mind still working because of the wolf bond. His wight body will make him even harder to kill and so more dangerous. Three Starks with abilities to carry out mass murders will bring chaos and death in the North. Ramsay deserves punishment for his acts. Roose is cruel but not more so compared to Stannis and Tywin. Roose has done nothing illegal in recent time to earn punishment. Robb Stark was the lawbreaker who was rebelling. Anything Roose did against Robb is not considered illegal by their laws. Roose was not only pardoned for the Robb Stark Rebellion in trade for his valuable assistance in putting down the same rebellion. He was handsomely rewarded with the North which now belong to him. Roose cannot be touched legally. I still do not hold much hope for Roose Bolton surviving. I am hopeful and would like to have Lady Walda Bolton to survive and birth an heir to the Dreadfort. I would even find it appealing if Fat Walda births a child who inherits Winterfell and the North as long as she gives her loyalty to Daenerys Targaryen. Fat Walda has done no wrong and nothing that has broken the laws. Her child will be an innocent who can be brought up properly. The Frey family are not especially cruel. They have not proven themselves quarrelsome in their history. The family leaders have operated the family business with competence and fairness over the generations and led the family to their present day prosperity. Walda's baby can learn a lot of valuable skills from her side of the family to prepare to govern the North on behalf of the Targaryen.

Jon unwittingly started the fall of the wall. He was too attached to Arya to do his job properly. The harm he caused and the damage they will do in the future happened because he was not a competent leader. He had a lot of malice and misused his authority. Bowen felled Jon but not before the latter had already began the decay of the Night's Watch and its ability to defend Westeros from the Others. Jon's tragedy is one where an incompetent person who lacked the skills, discipline, and the intelligence to get the job done was given the lead position.

It is human nature to want revenge but some of the characters carry this too far. Lady Dustin tells a chilling story to Reek. She wants to feed Eddard's bones to her dogs. The goal is sickening. Barbrey is not alone, however. Lady Catelyn, Arya Stark, and Doran Martell are just as motivated by that negative emotion driving them towards revenge. Innocents like Dareon, Jingle Bells, and you could argue, Quentyn are the undeserving victims of their lust for revenge. For the four, I do not see a happy ending.

I don't think so. Daenerys has already fulfilled the requirements and became Azor Ahai after the funeral of Khal Drogo. If Jon is anything he is the return of the Night's King. Rhaego was the innocent life who was the partial payment for and the price for the dragons to return.

Daenerys embarked on the most ambitious project ever conceived in a song of ice and fire. The emancipation and liberation of an enslaved people numbering far greater than the population of Westeros. No other monarch could have done any better. The lack of advisers undertaking a huge project would hinder anybody. But where do you find anybody with experience in such matters? There are none. Yet there is no doubt at all that the effort must be made. No cause can be greater than that of helping the enslaved. Slavery and dehumanization of people as well as the lack of respect for lives were the standard practice for Slaver's Bay. Fighting the Ghis and the Harpy is the beneficial training Daenerys is receiving to better prepare her to fight the Starks and the Others later in the story.