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.

ah ... only the mother? what happened to the child? from what I remembered one(or a twin) of Bob's bastards was from a Westerlander mother and it was so insulting that Cersei sold them to slavery...

wow! I did not remember that at all! I was like... "ummm... is she talking about the bastards?! eat whaat?!...." lol! Votary , it seems we have to disagree about something yet again!!! ... I think Cersei was quite pleased with herself that she's killed her husband's bastards , including the baby and the one she sold to slavery from lannisport/Casterly Rock) . besides, she wouldn't have to worry about bastards if her children weren't bastards. for all the Blackfyre talk , one of Daemon Blackfyre's biggest advantages was that he was Targaryen on both sides and looked more Targaryen than Daeron or Baelor . Baratheons never had that much purity of blood thing going on and none of Robert's bastards were that highborn , not even Edric Storm , and especially not baby daughter of a 14 yr old prostitute! one would think she has killed those kids to keep her own secret in earlier books . but in book 4 .... I don't know. she might not be a Ramsay level monster but she is definitely vile enough to think that killing a bastard in cradle is the best idea .. not because of political reasons but because they hurt her pride.

ummm... and there are a LOT of them . didn't she also consider the dead Catelyn Tully a weakling because she hadn't killed her husband's bastard? nothing like smart Cersei , knowing when to kill babies.

because they are self made men/women and they don't need their father's name!! seriously, what Corvo says + they were all playing nice for Daeron for about a decade. why would they anger him by taking the name Targaryen? they were completely dependent on Daeron's support at that point especially because the eldest was 14 .

or Targaryens . poor fellow

if you think Cersei doesn't take pride in killing babies, you weren't paying attention!

wasn't he on his way to the Vale? and wouldn't that be somewhere in the crossroad inn ? isn't there somewhere that someone like Brandon would like to hold his bachelor party with his buddies -Elbert , Kyle , Glover and so on? I'd say if there is one naughty teenage boy who would just like poke a wild wolf by exaggeration, spreading rumors, or whatnot, it would be Little Finger. not that he would have "plans" per se, but rather he'd just like to be annoying. of course, annoying a wild wolf and sending him off to a mad Dragon's nest doesn't end well... not that LF would know or care. but it ends up in a devastating war that ends up with the only person willing to help LF in the capital married to the second most powerful man of the realm. not so bad for LF. he would learn that being annoying might just pay off! .......... of course, none of that can be proven. BUT it can't be un-proven either!

yes , that was Jon at 14(though the general consensus in the book is that he's wiser than his age) before his character development. this was Aegon at 18 before his character development. I don't see much difference in that regard. the situations are indeed comparable. you shouldn't look at it as "oh , well he suggested that Dany might not be submissive" ... NO . as much as Jon's "brothers" and his bastardy is a huge deal for Jon, Aegon's sole purpose in life is important to him. Tyrion didn't just point out that his plans may not succeed. he shattered the boy's bubble completely. Tyrion questioned his identity which is honestly a big deal . not because of inheritance stuff but because of how would you feel if someone comes along and questions everything you know about yourself . then he questioned Dany's willingness to help him which from his answer we know he expects her help because they are kin (his only kin from Targ side at that) , not that it is her duty or that he'd be an amazing king . then T questions his abilities and why anyone should join his cause. then he questions Jon Con (basically his dad) and everyone else's loyalty and questions the success of a purpose he was preparing for his whole life. he also tells him of his dead father's overboldness and what not. then he tells him he needs to prove himself to the nobles which like it or not works exactly the way Aegon approached it . yeah , it would have been different if Westeros was in a time of peace but it is not at the point Aegon decides to attack. this was surely a well-aimed, well-executed manipulation on Tyrion's part with heavy implications for Aegon. would this naivety and arrogance be a problem when Aegon becomes king? yes, surely. but he's not Joffrey and from what we've seen he tries to be better.

I don't think the guy's the perfect king like Varys likes to believe either . but that is not to say Tyrion's assessment of him is correct . in book 1 , Tyrion did the exact same thing to Jon on their way up to Wall and Jon had Ghost terrorized Tyrion for it. sure, Tyrion didn't compare Jon to Joffrey then. but if we compare the two instances with Aegon and Jon, save for Tyrion's position in the whole thing they are exactly the same. two princes showing exactly the same behavior towards a certain (physically) underdog when faced with terrible truths. only Tyrion sees himself in Jon as a bastard, is generally in a better mood and genuinely wants to help Jon see the truth. with Aegon, he downright tries to make him angry and manipulate him, he himself is in a bad place and doesn't see anything of himself in Aegon . so naturally he thinks about the other prince he knew.

Unfortunately, I think Aegon is up for a tragic end (probably at the lowest point of the Dream of Spring) too. whether there will be a Dance or not , I do not know ( a boring affair with only 3 dragons), but I doubt he'll survive this series. we can already be sure that another tragedy is waiting for him in tWoW . his father figure has a terrible disease and will go mad. he might have to kill JonCon after a Bells episode or support him and lose all of his kingdoms and popularity... like another Aegon I would say RE his competence, I don't know. but he's definitely a good kid, well-behaved, generally nice, appreciates competence instead of bloodlines (as appointing Duck as his kingsgaurd shows), albeit a bit arrogant (I'd say not more arrogant or naive than Robb and Jon at the beginning of the series) and shows a hint of sexism in his Golden Company speech (as it is Westerosi way)