Lady Anna

"You are welcome to try. Until such time you must mistrust them all . . . and a little mistrust is a good thing in a princess." Prince Doran sighed. - The Princess in the Tower, AFFC "Perhaps you should be the fool instead of me. Trust no one, my prince. Not your chainless maester, not your false father, not the gallant Duck nor the lovely Lemore nor these other fine friends who grew you from a bean. Above all, trust not the cheesemonger, nor the Spider, nor this little dragon queen you mean to marry. All that mistrust will sour your stomach and keep you awake by night, 'tis true, but better that than the long sleep that does not end." - Tyrion VI, ADWD

No.

I'm not sure if this is the right place but: ''As the salmon was being served, Ser Axell Florent had entertained the table with the tale of a Targaryen princeling who kept an ape as a pet. This prince liked to dress the creature in his dead son's clothes and pretend he was a child, Ser Axell claimed, and from time to time he would propose marriages for him.'' - Davos II, ADWD Who do you guys think this may have been, if it's a true story?

I was not thinking under the assumption that whoever wrote the letter was expecting the Watch to leave and come to Winterfell, on the contrary. I was wondering if someone wanted Jon specifically. Jon being Jon he would go alone if he had to, if no one else voluntereed (and he was planning to do that). As you say, the Watch does not engage in wars and conflicts so of course he could not accept an attack on them, or that anyone but him would leave, but this decision would also leave the Watch in chaos. The question is, did the person who sent the letter expect the Watch to come (unlikely) or Jon to come alone (more likely). Also I don't think the writer really thinks Jon has Arya and Theon. After they escaped how would they have time and resources to go to Castle Black in the time between their escape and Jon getting the letter. Even if that person thinks Jon was behind the plan to save Arya how would he have her already. Who do you think wrote it?

(Sorry to butt in, I'm just rambling) My memory isn't fresh, but why was the letter adressed to Jon? I mean, maybe the person who wrote it wanted to lure Jon to Winterfell and knew that would happen. In it, Ramsay says he wants Arya and Reek back, and that Stannis is dead,. If Jon doesn't deliver them then he would go there personally to kill him (?). He mentions things like the sword and also the spearwives...idk it just seems like the letter mentions much more details than those than Ramsay would know, unless he actually defeated Stannis, which we know he didn't (isn't the letter written and sent before any battle takes place?). I actually think it could have been Mance since he had access to wax and seals, knew both Stannis and Jon, enough to be sure than the latter would decide to leave his post and come to Winterfell (and possibly throw the Watch into chaos). Now why he would do that is something I haven't really thought about (besides the consequences on the Watch). I should probably mention I haven't read Theon's WOW chapter. I'm also welcome to some recs of threads about this.

I think ''Castle Rock'' is also the name of a place in a Stephen King book. Anyway it may be a play on that name, yes.

Does it say in the valonqar prophecy that Tommen and Myrcella will die before Cersei? It makes it seem like that, but there may be a loophole. If not, could a fake death still fullfill the prophecy? If someone fakes one of their deaths - and Cersei believes in it - would that still count?

Did Visenya actually love Aegon, romantically? Maybe she also felt the same as Aegon, had to marry him because it was their duty as elder siblings. I'm sure she loved him and Rhaenys as family though. The fact she was the elder sibling and Aegon was the eldest son and therefore the heir and more ''important'' is a different conversation I think.

Victarion Littlefinger hopefully Roose and/or Ramsay Myrcella and/or Tommen Jojen

He studied her, frowning. "Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again, he said. - The Reader in The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC And: He had to think a moment. "A dragon eating its own tail?" "The dragon is time. It has no beginning and no ending, so all things come round again. Anders Yronwood is Criston Cole reborn. - Arianne in The Soiled Knight, AFFC This isn't a wow moment but I love when authors use or reference the same themes.

Agreed. I don't know why, and I can't explain it, but I just feel like Aegon is real. It just makes sense, narratively and thematically, to me. However, and like others have said, if he is fake I honestly don't think it will matter since he will probably live and die and neither us or the characters will realize he was fake. Even if he's a Blackfyre I don't think a Blackfyre/Targaryen confrontation is gonna matter that much since the threat from the North will be more important than whoever sits the Iron Throne and who deserves it the most. I think we'll be beyond that.

1. Jon's parentage: firmly on R+L=J Me too. 2. Tyrion is not a Targ, he isn't Aerys' son Yes, I think he is who he is. 3. Bran didn't eat Jojen I'm torn on this. 4. Ramsay wrote the PL I've never given much thought to this, but I think it might have been someone on Stannis or on the Stark loyalists side. 5. Red door/lemon tree = Braavos In Braavos. 6. Lanna is the daughter of the SW and Gerion Lannister, not Tyrion Fine by me. Not something I'm interested in. 7. Theon will not be killed before the heart tree at the CV. For some reason I don't think Theon will die at all.

Tyrion was referencing griffs and I only noticed it now. I mean, he was probably implying he knew it was Connington, not just referencing his alias. No wonder he put 2 and 2 together so quickly though: griff - griffins - house connington.

If Rhaenys was still alive, and Aegon knew about it, then I think he would stop at nothing to save her/get her back tbh. I think she did die, and the letter was a sort of passionate plea for a truce; Aegon seemed a reasonable man, prone to mercy, and I think he would realize revenge would be futile (and if the dornish killed one Targaryen who says they couldn't also kill either him or Visenya too). His conquest was very recent, other lords' loyalty as well, and their power almost entirely rested on their dragons so he might not want to risk anything that would jeopardize what they had done. Just my two cents. Guess it's one of those things that will always remain ambiguos and lost to history, like many in real life.

Game of Thrones - I'd have to say Sansa but I don't hate them Clash of Kings - Dany Storm of Swords - It's tough but I'm going with Sam simply because he was the new one Feast of Crows - Arys Oakheart and Aeron maybe Dance with Dragons - Quentyn

Melisandre is older than she looks for sure. I always thought that Mariah Martell had a large influence on Dareon and the ruling of the kingdom but in F&B it's said that Alysanne Targaryen was the most politically involved queen of Westeros, bummer. I used to think that the possibility of Tyrion being the son of Aerys and Rhaella was a deliberate misdirection/ red herring, but after F&B I'm not so sure. However a large part of me still really wishes he isn't.....idk him being a Lannister is thematically more interesting and poignant to me, after all Tywin did to him. My headcanons for the ending (so not exactly headcanons) are: Dany and Jon die heroically along with the dragons (if the 3 last that long and i'm not sure if Jon will ride one tbh) but Tyrion survives Either Bran remains in the cave or goes back to Winterfell. I'd actually love if both he and Rickon survived and ruled Winterfell after the end, maybe with Rickon as king and Bran as an adviser. Following from the above, I think Westeros will go back to being separate kingdoms, or at least the North, and Dorne. As far as the other characters I really don't have specific wishes. There's things I wish could/would happen - like Sansa warging something, or Aegon being real after all, or Jon and Dany not happening romantically lol - but anything Martin decides will be okay with me.

Robb and Catelyn

I do that when Jorah (?) convinces her to stop at the bay of slaves while they're on their way to Pentos, knowing what we know now. ugh

I agree with you. Claiming Martin doesn't suffer from that habit like many other (most?) male authors is disregarding the text. Yep. That said, I was actually surprised by the amount of female characters in F&B, and the attention paid to them. Targaryen women are way more interesting than the men. But I found the quick successive deaths of Jaeherys' and Alysanne's children a bit too much.

I think it's definitely interesting, I think it's great that Martin tried exploring other places outside the european-inspired Westeros, but the execution of it was not that great.

Well I first responded to the part where you said it was ''ruled out''. Excuse me if I misread it but I assumed you meant that it was impossible that it referred to the scene with the doll. And I did get the Hitchcock thing, but since my interpretation of Sansa's scene is different, I don't see it as the kind of situation he refers to.

What do you mean it's 'ruled out'? Sansa destroying the doll IS what the dream refers to. Or are you saying that that scene is just a coincidence matching the old woman's dream? It's not a red herring, it is what it says. But - and this is what I thought you guys mean with all those threads - some people say it will be used later by Martin as foreshadowing something else. I disagree. The ''significance'' is in the dream being metaphorical; by reading it you would never think of a doll and a small snow castle, but of a more literal event, or at least the ''giant'' representing a person. And the fact it's Sansa would be surprising, but it turns out to be a doll and a snow castle, naturally. Neither that part or the first part of the dream are straight, literal, visions (is Sansa's hair actually made of serpents?) (Oh but apparently the second part is not, according to some, Sansa! Woah. We're at the 'directly contradicting the text' phase.) I don't see the problem with it. And I don't need a Hitchcock explanation to explain something so simple, that million writers have done before, and continue to do. But you guys are free to think of endless possibilities that will never happen about something that has already happened, and I am free to not be interested in discussing those alternate realities.

Unlike some people here, I believe the second part refers to Sansa destroying Robert's doll inside the Winterfell snow castle, at the end of the novel, as one would realize after reading that part. But apparently that's too simple for some folks. I do not envy Mr. Martin.

I myself have little faith that we will ever see the end of these books and for that reason I've made my peace, if you will. And I have no hard feelings towards Martin or towards these series. I honestly haven't cared about the rest of it for many years. I love it, yes, and I will still read it again, and enjoy it while doing so, but for the past 4/5 years I've been slowly letting it go. And what else is there to do? If I'm wrong and we get to read the books then great! But if we don't I won't care and I just hope that people don't gang up on Martin because of it. He owns nothing to us and he's entitled not to finish this if he doesn't want to. Watch the show, read something else, read fanfic, make your own ending. I know it's frustrating but it hasn't been months or a year since Dance come out, you know what I mean? A part of me remains optimistic (of course! I love this series, so how could I not be?) but. Shit happens.

I honestly can see number 4 happening in the books but with somebody else as king or queen at the end instead of Tyrion. So if that happens on the show I would actually be pleased. Out of those 4 options that's the one that seems more likely and fitting (I would let Tyrion remain Hand). In my opinion there is no way number 2 will happen in the books (the first part, not so much Tyrion dying) and I doubt they'll put it in the show; it's just not the right ending for this show/series. I also don't see number 3 - Dany being queen - happening, and thee Night King winning seems unlikely, although being the one ending not affected by the books, who knows what D&D will pull.