Aejohn the Conqueroo

Whether this is meant as a genuine account of his feelings on the matter or as bait I couldn't say, but I think that whatever his message is, it's for Ramsay. I kind of take it at face value and see it as Roose telling letting Theon know that Ramsay doesn't have anything to fear from Walda's children... unless he lets them or Roose get too old.

What I'm on the edge of my seat to know is how is the narrator going to pronounce 'Brienne' and 'Petyr'?

Yeah, totally. I completely forget sometimes that love conquers all. Of course they'd marry.

Robert could be known as the King Who Jacks Off while he waits.

'Look at me, the king who eats leftovers.' It just wouldn't fly. There's more at stake than Robert's personal wishes and if no one else did, at least Jon Arryn still had his eye on the prize. The fact that Robert made himself look ridiculous by the time the boar got him doesn't mean that he set out to look ridiculous or set out willing to be seen as ridiculous. Honestly, I think he'd be more likely to Victarion her than marry her, but again, the people around him would have saved him from that bad choice. If he did marry Lyanna, he would have to wait a good long time to have a child with her, so moon tea every morning for a year or so. Half the kingdom would be laughing at the usurper who put his enemy's son on the throne if there was even the hint that their kid could have been Rhaegar's. it's all too messy. Lyanna would have to be disqualified.

Freys Merrit the rope.

Missed that part. Thanks Still don't think he'd do it.

And take the throne with his wife's newborn baby on his lap?

Mel said that someone's AA, so that must be true. Of course she said that it's Stannis but she was wrong there, unless she wasn't and he is. She wasn't wrong when she said that someone must be AA though, because she wouldn't be wrong about that. It was Prophesized.

If things were different, they definitely wouldn't be the same.

I don't know, but someone better set these so many people straight.

Hey thanks for using that quote. 'a kindness and a mercy'. We've seen Mercy used somewhat euphemistically for ending a sorry life throughout the series, but this adds kindness to stand beside it like the Kindly Man and his little protégé, last seen by us using the name Mercy. Sweetrobin's prospects look pretty bleak.

Yeah, I'm not really hoping for any of the predictions to come true, maybe Arya. I could see her having a real snap back moment which makes her change her views on everything. Her ongoing identity crises seem like they would naturally culminate in a hit on the person who's taken her name and her place. Literally erase herself and be No One after Arya Stark is declared and confirmed dead. I think news of hte death of Jon will impact her as will the eventual reveal that he's ok/ back or whatever, but her eventual trip to the North will be about Jeyne. It's been quite a while since I read it, but it was the preview Mercy chapter and some of the disturbing things she thought of herself and her job that first got me thinking this might be an eventual outcome. She can't stay a little murder princess forever can she? I think she'll see the light and repurpose Needle and disappoint all the 'Arya's dark heart will be the ruin of all Westeros' set. THe story sort of sets us up to expect a big reveal from Howland Reed at some point. To me, that means that we're primed for the author to pull the carpet out from beneath us and it would be consistent with my read of his character for him to make it painful for us to witness as possible. The Reeds' mission ending in an abject horror show kind of fits. I also wonder a lot about where Meera fits in a Jojen Paste reading of Dance (and I don't want to beleive Jojen paste, but I can't help it. Weirwoods don't have 'seeds'). I suspect that she wouldn't be too cool with it and one way or another, the resulting conflict would not go well for her. I think Rivers will give us a lot of hte info that we would have gotten from Reed. Sansa and Sweetrobin. Sansa is isolated with the worst possible influence and she's already kind of accepted LF's idea that Robin won't be long lived. I think the manipulator will let it sit with her a while, and when the time comes set her up so that she can either give him the end she knows is coming anyway and get on with things, or sacrifice plans to help him linger just a little longer. I can't accept that Cersei is done. She's back and she's got a heavily armoured zombie to set people right. Ultimately the only person she needs to impress is Tommen and she has a bit of an in with him. Who doesn't like a happy ending? OK, Jon and Dany is just a little too saccharine and Tyrion and Tysha was just a nod to Sandy Clegg's excellent posts on where whores go. I really like Cantus' idea about dragonsteel being silver and lightbringer being rhagar's harp. I think this would be a more interesting story than just 'how many of our heroes will survive the long night?' and 'who will sit the Iron Throne when it's said and done?' Too many stories (maybe I've played too many video games) allow the hero to defeat the badguy and then all of the badguy's people melt away and the world goes back to pre crisis state. I would like to see a different take. That's my defense. I think the author will take some of the dark storylines we've seen to much darker places than we might have guessed, and make us hate to turn the pages on some of hte chapters we might be anticipating the most, but ultimately we'll still get the right ending.

I'm writing these before reading any of the comments on this thread. Predictions 1) Arya will be either sent or go of her own to Winterfell with the objective of killing Arya Stark, now played by Jeyne Poole. 2) She balks (but really late in the action). This is her break with the FM and perhaps leads to a complete break from violence and killing for Arya. She returns to House Stark as a tempering voice. 3) Meera sees Bran in a different light after realizing he ate her brother. She escapes the cave, but dies on the road home. Body or news of it gets back to the Neck. There is a consequent schism between Houses Stark and Reed. 4) Sansa is complicit in Littlefinger's murdering of Sweetrobin. 5) After Varys little murder splurge the way is clear for Cersei to retake her place as her son's official WHATEVER and she continues to run the show in Kingslanding, but the relevance of Kingslanding in the rest of hte continent slides. Wishes 1) Lightbringer is revealed to be Rhaegar's silver harp (a little ol Cantus idea that I don't think got enough attention). The solution in the North begins with communication not violence 2) Jon and Dany meet, fall in love, someone isn't quite as Targaryan as we've been led to suspect and they live happily ever after raising rugdragons and ruling westros in an endless era of peace and prosperity 3) Tyrion bumps into Tysha in a ladies' room and they live happily ever after 4) The reports from Dragonstone are completely false. Ser Loras is fine and the Tyrells are plotting hard to get rid of Cersei 5) Blackfyre is Longclaw. The story Jeor told Jon was bunk. Blackfyre's been at the Wall waiting for Jon for a hundred years and reports of Bittersteel taking it to Essos turn out to be untrue. Old Man Rivers fills Jon in on a lot of blanks and then dies.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, Umber doth protest too much, methinks. In light of the situation at and around Winterfell when we left it in Dance, the degree and means of Manderley and Umber collusion is worth a bit of investigation. Umber's overblown but aimless denouncement (what does being fat have to do with his shipbuilders anyway?) suggests that it predates Clash, but perhaps is fresh enough that the wrote 'he's too fat to sit a horse' knock should reasonably disguise the relationship. Hey, is it the same Umber who later said he wants Mance Rayder's head for a wine cup or something to that effect? It would be interesting if he's showing a pattern.

I'm cheering for the good ones.

I'm starting to think that there's such a dearth of felt love out there that people don't have a baseline for objectively appreciating this monstrous woman's qualities as a mother. Whatever. She loved her children. What do I care what people think?

No... I don't...

Is that people construing the relationship as related to us as abusive or is that people suggesting that there was abuse that wasn't on the page?

Well, Beric, LSH, Cold Hands... the rest are all hated theories

There's a hated theory out there that all of the "good wights" are bodies that BR hops into.

So, whaddaya think, should we start posting how many of the most hated theories we see in this list are theories that we subscribe to? I'm not listing theories because I don't want to sidetrack, but I count 9 items that people absolutely hope won't happen, that I am rather expecting to happen/ hoping to see happen in Winds and Dream.

Could take 5 minutes, could take 5 years. If the city fell, Cersei was going to have her son killed beside her (wonder who would go first?). Call it what you like. I have troubles seeing where the word 'love' could possibly apply. "We" certainly don't know that. I dispute it and as I've said before I see no evidence of it. As far as I'm concerned her actions express her feelings quite clearly. Her kids are props and mirrors and means to power. Here she is with Jamie with their dead child beside them Hurry," she was whispering now, "quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime." Her hands helped guide him. "Yes," Cersei said as he thrust, "my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you're home now, you're home now, you're home." She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair. Jaime lost himself in her flesh. He could feel Cersei's heart beating in time with his own, and the wetness of blood and seed where they were joined. Clearly devastated by her loss.