Raven Princling

Interesting thread! I love the idea.

Arys Oakheart swapping Myrcella with Rosamund before dying. The girl that was attacked by Darkstar was not Myrcella, but Rosamund. I like this theory a lot, but I don't know what it would do for the overall plot. Real or not, tales of Myrcella's injury have already spread.

No.

He waited for too long to take action. Now Arianne has all but dragged Dorne into war with her Queen Myrcella plot. 

If he wanted revenge, he should have joined earlier when Robb rose against the Lannisters. If anything, removing them from power would have prepared the realm for a returning Targ, be it Dany or Young Griff. 

His plans just do not seem to work. Arianne is way over her head and Quentyn failed.  Unless George has something planned that we do not know about, I cannot see Martells winning. 

As others mentioned, GRRM mentioned Jeyne Westerling being in the prologue.

I always thought it would be about Jeyne and Edmure's party heading west and getting ambushed by BwB and Lady Stoneheart. The POV could be Lady Spicer or just a regular soldier accompanying them. Regardless they get the rope in the end.  People have speculated that Jeyne could be pregnant so that could potentially be revealed in the chapter.

I do like the theories about Nymeria's pack attacking them. Never thought of that. 

Valyria (I actually want a POV to sail there or near enough to see what it is like), Starfall, Asshai and Greywater Watch. 

Also Casterly Rock, but I think that if/when Winds comes, we will see it.

Tyrion being a secret Targ.

Asoiaf being a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi story.

Catelyn was an evil mastermind and a sociopath.

Sansa will stay with Tyrion at the end (I just don't see it for Sansa's story arc).

Idk how unpopular these are, but I will avoid saying opinions I have already stated in other threads: 

1: Cersei should have had a flock of ladies around her in court same way Margaery does.  Same goes for Winterfell. Ned should have had more guests or even wards from noble Northern houses than just Theon who is a captive. Same could be said for Catelyn I guess. Starks ruled north for centuries and were Wardens of the North after conquest. They are basically the heart of the North and should have had a court of their own (a lesser one than King's Landing of course, but still).

2: Oldtown and Hightowers should have been introduced earlier.

3: Feast is actually a really good book and is my favorite in the series. I do not understand why so many people think the quality dropped with it and Dance. 

4: The hatred for Catelyn is ridiculous. People who criticize her behavior because of Jon do not realize that many women in her position would react the same way or worse in modern times, let alone in medieval times. She ignored him, gave him cold looks and said something bad in the middle of grief where she was not thinking rationally. She never abused him or anything.  I am not saying she was right or that Jon deserved it, I am simply saying that her behavior was natural (human-like) given the circumstances. She did make mistakes, but people acting like she started the war (and some claim she even planned it lmao) and is the sole reason for North's downfall are way off imo. 

5: This has been said many times before, but I wish Tyrion would have tried to get Littlefinger and failed after becoming Hand. Heck, it would have made way more sense if Tyrion tried to chop his head off, failed somehow and Littlefinger fled to Vale to get with Lysa.

6: Roose is a complete idiot for keeping Ramsay alive and letting him run around killing and torturing people. He should have killed him years ago and, if needed, made new bastards or something. Ramsay will doom his entire House (not that I feel bad).

7: Robert was a terrible King and the only character that genuinely annoyed me in the first book. 

8: Tyrion, Cersei and others in King's Landing should have mentioned Jon Arryn and Lysa way more. Jon was Robert's hand for years, but the characters barely mention how they were at court. They should have remembered and thought of them more.

9: If Young Griff makes a good king, I do not care if he is Blackfyre. They are basically Targaryens without marriage certificate anyway.

10: Tywin is not that good of a politician. He was too quick to resort to violence which caused his enemies to pounce on his children the moment he died. He is also a shit father not only to Tyrion, but Jaime and Cersei as well. 

11: Jon is not named as heir in Robb's will. The chapter purposefully makes you think it is Jon and uses him as a red herring.

My big 3 are Cersei, Sansa and Aeron with Catelyn, Bran and Victarion as close follow-ups.

This does not mean I dislike other POV's though- I honestly like them all. 

In terms of smaller characters/non-POV's: some of my favorites are Val, Rodrik Harlaw, Wyman Manderly and Alleras.

Sidenote: I recently finished first 2 Dunk and Egg novels (love them!) and I really liked Rohanne Webber.

On 9/18/2023 at 3:02 AM, Aline de Gavrillac said:

If or when Sansa kills Robin it will be because she chose to do it.  She will if she thinks it might bring Harry closer to her.  Harry is mean like Joffrey and that is what Sansa likes.  

I know you are just spewing anti-Stark (and pro-Dany) stuff until something sticks, but do you realize how this sounds? 

Assuming main series takes priority, D&E without a doubt.

Are you serious? Now people think Tullys are mad? These are obviously weak attempts to take digs at the Stark children (again). 

1) Cat went mad because she saw her son and his closest allies butchered in front of her during a wedding feast which was a betrayal of a sacred tradition. This was also after, from her eyes, Sansa has been sold to Tyrion, Bran and Rickon are dead (again from her pov) and there has not been a single word of Arya. And all this after the death of her husband.

2) Lysa was never truly mad. She is unhinged and insecure, true. But she was also unhappily in love with a man who loved his sister and whose child she was forced to essentially abort (which can be a traumatic experience). She then got married to a man much older than her and bore two stillborn children (again traumatic experience). When she gives birth to a son she clings to him too tightly and then gets manipulated and gaslit by the man she loves again. Again- not madness. And not a hereditary one at that.

3) Neither Hoster, Blackfish nor Edmure displayed traits of madness. Nor are there any tales of Tullys being insane in the past. The only family that seems to have had hereditary madness are Targaryens. Get over it.

11 hours ago, Aebram said:

The Martin does sometimes conceal characters' thoughts about critical moments.  For example, we know nothing of what Tyrion was thinking at the Purple Wedding when he dumped out the last of Joffrey's wine, or when he told Jaime, during his escape from the dungeons, that he had killed Joffrey.  And both of those happened in chapters that were written from Tyrion's POV.

If you think Joffrey did it, how do you think he found and hired the catspaw? And why would he need to provide a weapon?

But the thing is that Tyrion had no idea there was poison in the wine, so his thoughts did not matter. He did not know there was entire plot of assassination. And he said he did it to Jaime as a last "screw you".

When Tyrion figures it out in SOS, he describes a most likely scenario of the catspaw being a camp follower when Robert came North, and the weapon was simply something Joffrey found among his father's things. I believed it, because it makes sense with how Joffrey is. 

I doubt this plot point will come back either way tho and it seems like to George it is resolved.

Joffrey did it imo. Logically it's either him or Cersei, but I agree with Tyrion when he thinks that she would not use a blade that can be so easily traced back to her. I also think that if it truly was her, she would have thought about it at some point during Feast or Dance (she thinks of Robert and Melara). Especially during the walk. Joffrey is stupid and bold enough to think he could do it without consequences, so he did not even care about the dagger. And his reaction to Tyrion's insinuation in SOS also somewhat confirmed it (to me at least). 

The reveal was quite anti-climactic, but at that point in the story it did not even matter anymore. The war had become bigger than the assasination attempt.

I feel like some people are forgetting that Arya is a literal child, and a lot of her arc is about how revenge is pointless and simply repeats the cycle of violence (which I think she will understand before the end of the series).

I just hope that people will hold characters like Daenerys to the same standard as Arya, Jon and etc. when her invasion of Westeros will cause countless deaths and rapes. Something tells me they will not, because pretty special dragon queen. (I do not dislike Dany do not get me wrong).

Somewhere in between. He is very smart and witty. He was a good Hand that saved KL from being sacked by Stannis. At the same time he pities himself about being a dwarf (on the verge of having a victim complex sometimes) while at the same time being hypocritically shallow and vain towards women.  

But ever since his arrest and Tywin's death, he is becoming darker and darker- it's like a downwards spiral that fuels his resentment, thirst for revenge or even apathy. He (partly) mirrors Cersei in that way.  

So he is a very dark shade of gray for me. 

Prophecies and legends are intriguing things. Many people will understand them differently and with time, they might be twisted and changed.  Many people could see themselves as part of these prophecies if they truly desire to and I believe that is the case here.

Daenerys has the dragons and the prophecies, but do I think she is Azor Ahai? No. Why? Because it would be too simple and too predictable. ASOIAf is the story of many characters and arguably is a story about Westeros itself (and Essos also, but to a lesser extent).  In such a story, a single hero that fulfills a grand, world-saving prophecy would feel out of place. 

I do think that the prophecy will be fulfilled, but I do not think Azor Ahai will be a single person.  The obvious note here is that the dragon has three heads/there are three dragons in the world/ Aegon the Conquerer had 2 sisters and 3 dragons. I personally think that the term Azor Ahai is wider and more complex in this case (Azor Ahai could even be the entire population of Westeros that comes together and defeats the threat from beyond the Wall).

I could be wrong, of course, and these are just my thoughts.  But if Dany ends up following the "chosen one" trope and be Azor Ahai (or Jon and Tyrion) I will be disappointed. 

1. Cersei and the High Septon.

2. Dorne. Love it story-wise, but  it is reckless. Between Doran's secret scheming, Arianna and sandsnake recklessness, they could ruin Dorne completely by the end of the series.

3. Not sure if it counts as a plot, but Ned's moves when he found out about the incest.

4. Red Wedding. It was a victory, but a short-sighted one. The Freys are becoming hated for killing their own guests and the Northerners will not forget the slaughter of their lords and heirs. With Tywin dead, it is only a matter of time before it backfires.