EggBlue

he said that? in the world book specifically says a knight of house Dayne and any doubt I had was gone with this line : " There are boys who secretly dream of being a son of Starfall so they might claim that storied sword and its title"

Daynes already have more than enough reasons to hate Ned. If he'd taken Dawn too, I can't imagine what makes them name their heir after him.

I'm ranking by wealth, military and political influence and between every house that's not one of the big 6 : 1. Hightower 2.Velaryon 3.Redwyne 4.Yornwood 5.Mandely

absolutely not . Blackfyre rebellions ended in his reign but the praise for ending Blackfyre line goes to Maelys himself. if I recall correctly, he killed his cousin and the rest of the family before styling himself king. and crushing the ninepenny kings wasn't more difficult than any other Blackfyre rebellion . probably even easier, as it is likely that the Crown had foreign alliances . then , there's the issue of the Tarbeck-Rein rebellion. he was far too lenient with Tywin imo . yes Tywin was collecting debt and he was crushing his enemies but he went beyond the king's justice and should have been punished for it . lastly , let's not forget the heir he groomed was Aerys and that he forced his own children into a marriage that was far from ideal for either of them.

Tywin Lannister , Gregor Clegane , Kevan to a certain extent , Pycelle , Qybern , Roose Bolton , Cersei

the problem is not that the sword doesn't have a hilt , it's that it shouldn't be a sword in the first place and if it is you've gotta use it with open eyes. the way I see it , the magic in itself is not alien to this world ,rather its exploitation by humans is ; which we had seen with Valyria for example. magic is a disrupter to the system that this world functions in. however , all we see of this system throughout the story is corruption and disfunction . maesters try to craft a scholarly world without magic , but the result is their ignorance of a huge element of this world which is somewhat equivalent of the disregard and fear of medieval era for new scientific discoveries. so , by the end of the story , I don't expect the death of the Old Gods or the death of magic . I'm expecting something like freeing these forces .lol . meaning dragons and the Others will go back to their natural habitat

who is Mastiff?

this is refreshing! predictions: 1. Daenerys will go to Westeros in the last chapter 2. Barristan Selmy betrays his queen ! 3. Sansa will take down little finger by the end of the book 4. Aegon takes kingslanding and Cersei flees 5. Jon is not dead . he'll be warging Ghost and will be guided by Bran until he wakes up halfway through the book and in a very Night's King manner realizes that in order to keep the watch in order and save everyone, he has to be some sort of tyrant commander! hopes: 1. we'll find out what is up with crypts 2.Starks take Winterfell 3.Ramsay and Roose die 4. SH and Arya meet up 5.Victarion dies wishfull thinking : 1. we'll get to see what is up with Varys 2. Jon Con won't go mad and survives the book 3. Aegon DOES NOT kill Tommen, instead, he names him lord of Stormsend to make Tyrells happy and keeps him as his hostage. 4. Cersei won't survive the book 5. Gregor dies .

I don't think Daenerys would go mad. but it'll be kinda poetic if Barry contributes to her madness path. she is going to see three treasons and the only one whose loyalty she does not doubt is Barry. now, imagine Barry goes over to Aegon's side for whatever reason ... Dany would totally go mad! most of them had worked for Aerys for years, way before he became the rapist we know and hate. that probably affected their judgment. however, I think it's more than possible that the younger ones, namely Arthur Dayne and Oswell Whent, had the same experience as Jaimie. meaning they were shocked by Aerys's actions, only to be shut down by the elder members of the Kingsgaurd. that could explain why they were seemingly prince's men rather than kingsmen .

totally possible ... I'm gonna cling on my theory anyway

that's possible . though , he was nowhere near Dorne .

No . she won't . she'll be ruthless against her enemies , she's the mother of freaking dragons after all ! but she won't be mad .

obviously that's not the case . Ned Dayne is completely clueless about who Jon is . his story about Wylla , Jon and Ned sounds like something they have told him when he was 7 in a way to stop his questions . but , apparently they have wanted him to know Jon and Ned as friends of house Dayne ... so , maybe they were planning on explaining the thing later . only , lord Dayne had died . I somehow doubt that . besides , like you say Tyrion would have had to keep going like that so maybe the Starks name the next heir after him . Ned had done nothing for the Daynes before the sword thing . unless , they see impregnating their sister and leaving her behind is a blessing ... or maybe they were thrilled to see Sword of the Morning dead! you see what I mean ? turning back Dawn on its own is not enough for such regard .

maybe , Ned extracted a promise from the Daynes too . what good does it make to tell those secrets to children ? yes Dawn is very important . but think about it this way : if Tyrion had sent out Ice back to Starks as well as Ned's body , Starks would still not name the next lord Stark Tyrion . doesn't matter that Tyrion has sent them back their sword quite honorably . these kinds of families see the honorable thing as the right thing to do . something that does make them respect the person but not so much that they feel they owe them . because after all doing the right thing is simply a duty .

still in that situation Ned would owe the Daynes more than they owe him . I mean , he is concealing a Targling's existence with their help. ... no , no , no ,... doesn't matter if you respect a young man for how honorable he is ; you just don't name your first born after him to remember that honorable man killed your brother and caused your sister's suicide because of his honor ! it must be that Daynes owe Ned , big time . for example , Lyanna may have been in Starfall . Or , my pet theory ,that I hardly have proof for , goes like this : a) Ashara takes Aegon away from Kingslanding with Varys's help . b) the Kingsgaurd try to distract Ned and co. who are actually tracing Lyanna because she too is in Starfall . c) Art in the last moment decides for some reason that he can trust Ned and tells him Lyanna's whereabouts . d) poor Ned arrives in Starfall only to see his sister dies and leaves a baby . e) Ned seeks out Ashara because he loves her and wants to say farewell . he somehow realizes what's going on with Aegon (maybe Art had told him that too) . f) Ned convinces Ashara that the best way is for her to take Aegon to Essos instead of Sunspear where it'll ensure more war and bloodshed . g) Ned gives some promises. to keep the bastard prince safe as his own , to keep Ashara's secret and let her and Aegon go , and to never mention the Daynes' close involvement with Lyanna situation and Aegon's escape which could end in their ruin and to keep Arthur Dayne's legacy intact as the honorable knight instead of the jailor! .... oh , and this theory totally works without the Ashara/Aegon part , so omit it if you like . but I somehow doubt that lord Dayne would like Ned so much if he was the reason for the death of both his siblings.

you're probably right .... but hopefully, they push him to finish Winds first and then move on to FnB2 . winds could be a huge publicity... . they already have enough material for 3-4 seasons after all and even if they wish to continue , Regency could be 2 more seasons .

I'm hoping that HoTD's Golden Globe would be such a positive development that George enjoys Winds more and finishes it faster... is it false hope?

yes , he is a fuckboy and no his protectiveness on its own doesn't say anything about Ned/Ashara situation . but the combination of what we've heard of him suggests that he's the guy who cares for his siblings deeply to the point of being a total moron . his ridings with Lyanna ( not all that lady like) and his general attitude around Barbrey and other lovers suggests that he may encourage a bit of rebellious behavior in his siblings , likely he'd be the guy to encourage Ned to go for it when he's got a crush and even help him by asking for a dance for his brother . as for Ned's crush , I think Howland's tale and Allyria's account are acceptable enough .

I might have had this conversation with you before (or maybe it was someone else ) ... all that is fair and well but Allyria's young age does not prove anything . this world is full of huge age differences between siblings ... Baratheon brother , Targaryen siblings , Jaeherys I's children , Martels, Aegon IV's kids are all but a few examples of this and Daynes could just be another one . besides, it is not given that Allyria and Beric had not married yet because she hadn't had her period yet . we don't know if Dornish marriage age range is the same as the rest of Westeros . Sylva , Ashara and Elia were still single after the age of 20 . and Arianne , the one who complained about it , complained that her father wasn't trying to arrange useful alliances for her rather than the fact that she should be married because she is old . it could easily be the norm in Dorne that women marry in an older age . and that's not just that . Cat and Brandon were also betrothed ever since she was 12 . yet they only arranged the wedding when she was 18. Lyanna too was betrothed to Robert for years and we know that they did not arrange the wedding right after she got her period . finally, last but not least , if the author wanted to hint that Ashara's daughter survived and lived on as Ashara's sister , he would have had to leave better clues that do not involve remembering ages and dates . especially that he is not particularly good at dates , timelines or ages . yeah , I kinda think killing her brother totally kills it for her . that's why I'm completely against the Ashara+Howlad theory. lol. Daynes' respect for Ned is curious . I don't buy it that they named their heir after him and told him enough stories about Ned that he'd be interested in speaking with him , just because he dropped down a sword after killing their brother and breaking the heart of their sister who later killed herself ! that's just ... unbelievable ! my take is that Ned did not know that she was pregnant and by the time she know and wanted to tell Ned , they were already at war and she decided to wait it out a bit . only to later realize he had married his brother's betrothed . however , there will still be the question of why Daynes have such regard for Ned . I could only imagine he might have had something on them that they could end up like Conningtons losing everything but he let them off the hook and never spoke of it again . I've got some pet theories yeah that would have been funny indeed so what ? Brandon is the brother who has a routine of riding with his rebellious sister , he's the guy who is ready to duel the crown prince if he thinks the man is hurting his sister . he's the guy who instead of making japes of his younger brother's shyness , steps up to ask for a dance for him himself . this guy doesn't come off as the guy who sleeps with his shy brother's crush just because he wants a good night .

Ned and Ashara liked each other , slept together , maybe fell in love and corresponded . she realized she is pregnant , war happened , he got married , her baby died , anything they once felt for each other likely was overshadowed by the fact that he killed her brother . ... that's all we can almost with certainty get from the text . everything else will go in the category of theories and speculations ... which I'm kinda tired to discuss right now also , why do people think Brandon had slept with his brother's crush ? honestly, if we can get anything from 2 out of 4 times we hear of Brandon's actions , it's that he was a good brother .

Tywin , Roose , Euron

poor George , he seems a bit frustrated ! I kinda feel sorry for him .. I did take a few days off for the holidays, I confess. Shame on me, I guess. But now I am back in the salt mine, working… working on so many bloody things, my head may soon explode. Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. ..... Oh, and did I forget WINDS OF WINTER? No, of course I didn’t. But if I ever did, I know you folks will remind me....... well, this past week the G-Men lost a heartbreaker to the Vikings, and the Jets failed to turn up for their game against the Jags. (Please, Mike White, get well soon). Life is meaningless and full of pain. Clearly, the Football Gods hate me. Maybe they are pissed off about WINDS being so late too…...... WHITE LOTUS 2 on HBO made me want to go visit Sicily… but I won’t, not until WINDS is done and delivered, I promised...... (it was also somewhat funny , the way he kept writing ok ok I'm working on Winds!)

a fan of flip-phone, ha? https://www.tomsguide.com/features/what-to-expect-from-foldable-phones-in-2023-galaxy-z-fold-5-pixel-fold-and-more

I hope George finishes winds this year . just to be rid of back and forth threads arguing Starks are the monsters or Targaryens , if nothing else .

in terms of cinematography , production , music and acting , I rate House of the Dragons higher than GoT season 1 . A LOT HIGHER . although I believe this might not be all that fair due to the huge difference between HOTD s01 budget and GOT s01 budget . in terms of narrative and character writing , I think GoT season 01 did a much much better job . again this might not be a fair comparison since HOTD had to cover a big timespan with numerous characters coming and going, which wasn't the case for GOT that had a clear narrative with scenes already written in the books only in need of complements in the show. however , I can't help but feel this was basically a hole that the showrunners threw themselves into . F&B is just outlines with too many blanks to fill which could be an amazing opportunity for a writer to delve into the story and figure out everything that leads to plot points . in comparison , I think HOTD is closer to GOT season 6 but a lot better when it comes to characters .