EggBlue

umm ... that is supposed to be heartbreaking. period. I wouldn't expect a daughter to recognize the lifeless decayed head of her father no more than I expect a wife to recognize her husband's literal bones. as for Lyanna she is so obviously Jyanna Reed. although in that case, I'd think GRRM is trolling us.

with ships of course.

I agree on Selmy. in my head cannon, the elder members of kingsgaurd can overlook these things more easily because they remember a less cruel Aerys. though Jonothor and Gerold's explanations about duty to Jaimie indicate that they had those conflicts on their own, ending up thinking they should cling to their vows, which is a cowardly move. then there are younger members, Arthur and Oswel, who were clearly on Rhaegar's side. again, in my headcannon , they must have been like Jaimie when they joined leaving them to readily break their vows to Aerys and hope for a better replacement in Rhaegar. yeah, he kinda is . not half as much as his show counterpart though!

that's just an author who kinda forgets one of his big twists includes three kids' hair color! but no, I'm still pretty sure that Blackfish is either gay or a rogue . both are rather common in asoiaf's second/third sons: Daemon Targaryen , Oberyn Martell , Renly Baratheon , Tyrion Lannister , Euron Greyjoy,

there's really no indication of it. the man's a genius psychopath. I believe him when he says he likes knowledge, he likely has seen and read about zombies and is doing experiments on humans the way scientists do with mice. obviously, a person like that is just as much trustworthy as the Goat and the rest of his party, even less because he is smart. and he'd especially be dangerous in a position of power. Unfortunately, Cersei's stupid enough to put him exactly where he shouldn't be.

that's probably it. yet, I somehow like Alyssane and Jaeherys's inconsistency. because in the end, they are the conciliator king and the good queen, even if they are bad parents , bad siblings and their conciliation was basically forcing people into an agreement by showing their dragons as a warning that they can be as bad as uncle Maegor. @King Benedict Justman I , I quite agree with your post. I guess a huge part of this mess was inevitable due to the tight timeline, particularly in Aemma's case. but Alyssane and Jaeherys are hardly good parents in my opinion. frankly, the first time I was pissed off by Alyssane was when she visited Rhaena in Dragonstone after Rhae's ladies had died. I won't comment on RL (because I agree to a certain extent), but do you realize that in that case, Daemon Targaryen would be the best Targaryen dad?!! see, people keep saying that! but these people did not have to raise their kids themselves. they had plenty of help! besides, we are judging them with their decisions in certain situations. if we were talking about why Baelon , Saera, or Vissera turned out as they did and were blaming J and A for their upbringing , then the number of the kids could have been an excuse.

I hope you mean unique and wonderful spirits in the case of Jaimie, Asha*, and Brienne! not minds! because... while they are good people with good hearts, they are definitely not smart . ... not at all! *I know we usually say Asha is the smartest Greyjoy(save for mad Euron) and that's true. she's the smartest Greyjoy. rather a low bar if you ask me.

I largely agree with the logistics of your post and I ,too, think the way the story is going there may be several kingdoms at the end. probably with North and Dorne each becoming independent and the rest of the kingdoms may be one kingdom together. with the exception of Iron Iselands which I guess may suffer more severe losses and Asha going full Nymeria by the end , grabbing women and children and looking for somewhere they can sow. however, thematically, it seems to me GRRM is making a case for unity through his books. granted this unity may not necessarily be translated to one unified kingdom and rather a few united kingdoms. but if we look at the war of the five kings and RR, the problem isn't that each of the kings' causes or Robert's cause is not just, it's that everyone is getting distracted and humans are damaging each other and starting wars, answering everything with violence, at any given moment(Bran's musings about Men and Singers come to mind). so, I think the way to go for the books is a unified kingdom. and though Targaryens aren't the heros of the story , their reign seems to be the only stable and generally accepted one in Westeros . I doubt any of the Targs survive the series but I expect one of them to leave behind a child whose reign will begin through a regency at the end of the series.

I can't express this enough when I say we NEED winds of winter, SOON!

you people think every character's arc is to choose between serving the true goddess, Daenerys, or standing against her.. don't you?

yep..

add to that the obvious : like Ned, Sansa will probably come to her own in the Vale of Arryn . if not alongside Robert Baratheon's daughter being as close as a sister but with Myranda Royce who might be as different from Sansa as Young Robert may have been from Ned.

of all of Ned's children, Sansa is the most like him in my opinion. it's not difficult to look at Ned Stark and think he might just have been as naive and idealistic as Sansa way before the war. unlike their respective siblings , possessing "wolf blood" , Sansa and Ned are way calmer and have a more straightforward sense of honor than say Jon, Lyanna or Brandon(s) . shutting down bad memories that you wrote is so spot on . makes me wonder if Ned had an un-kiss moment as well . it's worth mentioning that Ned and Sansa are even similar in their relationship with their siblings . where Sansa was more detached from the rest of the Stark kids in mannerism and activities , Ned was literally a world away from his siblings and one would assume consequently never had as strong a bond with his siblings that they did with each other.

yeahsee, when it comes to looks I am mostly disappointed with Targaryens . not only they don't have purple eyes (which although it made them too ordinary, I could live with ) , they changed Daenerys's eyebrows with each new season. what on earth was wrong with her s1 looks? why did they keep darkening those eyebrows????

I think the battles would have added a lot to the book . Asha , Stannis , Theon , Tyrion , Victarion and Barristan may not end with cliffhangers, but they are definitely incomplete and even pointless to a point. that can easily be said about Quentyn , the constant discussions of lacking a point, and the dragons that never danced in a book called Dance with Dragons. with the battles, numerous POVs would have come together in one place and one of the most boring storylines, Meereen, would have come to a conclusion. which would have made the only two cliffhangers, Dany and Jon's , less frustrating and even fun because you wouldn't have to anticipate the conclusion to all the built up in two books.