chrisdaw

So he wound back her resentment for the smallfolk at this time, too soon, not enough Cersei and Petyr exposure yet.

Aeron Greyjoy is going to second life a leviathan. The possibility and history of second lifing a leviathan (whale) is what the Drowned God is based on. Aeron is becoming the Drowned God. Aeron's description at the beginning of the chapter. Later Euron's description of the drowned god. Note the similarities. The drowned god's physical description is that of a cross between a man and leviathan. The Drowned God's watery halls is a nod to the innards of a whale literally seeming like a great hall. With everyone being so focussed on Euron the real crux of this chapter is being missed. It is the most meaningful of Aeron's story, it actually reveals his story whereas before he could almost have been dismissed as simply a convenient POV to relay events. Aeron's story is a question of faith. This chapter is a trial of Aeron's faith. The very name of the chapter is a taunt, telling Aeron his faith is misplaced, misguided, wrong. This leads us, the reader, to the simple question of if Euron or Aeron is right. Will nothing come of Aeron's faith? What specifically is going to happen is in the text. Aeron is going to drown. The question is will he stay drowned? And the ending of the chapter is the answer. Aeron will drown and will begin a second life (with Falia) in a leviathan - the Drowned God's water halls. The Drowned God will set him free. The belly of the beast where it is always midnight. What is dead may never die. The Drowned God will answer his prayers. It is nothing the Drowned God has not already done for him before. He is not forsaken, the chapter title is ironic. His faith and god will prove true and see him through. And when he does second life a leviathan, basically becoming the drowned god, he will be set to meet Euron again and make good on all his threats and promises and all the foreshadowing. An epic showdown is brewing, Aeron the Drowned God leviathan vs Euron the new god Kraken. Second lifing as a concept is being brought to the fore in steps. It began with simple skin changing, then in ADWD a peripheral character second lifes a mundane wolf. Aeron second lifing a leviathan will be the next step as the series heads towards the big reveal, that Targs/Valyrians second lifed dragons.

Euron will be a third faction, a stone/green faction in comparison to the Others who are ice/blue. Following his experimentation and successes will explain a lot of the magic in ASOIAF for us - how dragons came to be ridden, Valyrian steel and how the Others work. The Others will push the Westerosi east into the narrow sea and Euron will come up behind them from around Dragonstone, eventually humanity (or the people of KL at least) will be caught between the Others on one side and Euron's slave sphinx army on the other. He's not going to outlive the Others rather he dies with them, in Dany's dreams/visions wherever she melts stone (its always with her blood or fire) that's her destroying Euron and his. Harrenhal and Harren symbolise Euron and foreshadow his end, as too does Qarlon the Great.

It is amazing how boring this shit is. Bring on the Night King and some pewpewpew.

Right, you're looking at it from a point of view of Aegon not being important enough for the character I like. Aegon isn't the POV because JC and Arianne are, and they will persist after Dany kills Aegon.

You're a character fan inflating your characters importance. Another one. I'm not making her anything, it is what it is. It is Quentyn's purpose, Dorne's purpose and Arianne's purpose, hence why she's been moved to be embedded with team Aegon as soon as they've landed. She's not a parallel with Sansa, she exists to contrast her eventual failures with Sansa's successes, that's why her screen time is comparatively minor and she's the match for Johnny come lately instead of one of the big three.

There's nothing to stick up for with regards to Arianne. She's nowhere near on par to Sansa in importance to this story. Aegon gives Quentyn and Arianne and basically the whole of Dorne their relevance. That's why her POV is embedded where it is and is going where its going. She's more important in the narrative than Aegon himself and she'll outlive him, but the pretender is what her story is about. The story is one of how Dorne could have and should have been one of Dany's staunchest allies, but turned out one of her bitterest foes. There is no Arianne resistance, the two sides haven't even proper met, there is initial apprehension on her part and caution on Doran's, soon to be blown out the water when the GC continue to prove their competence and romp all over Westeros, when she meets Aegon, when the faith declare for Aegon, when word comes back to Dorne of Dany being lost, her dragons wild and riderless, and that she spat in Quentyn's face and caused his death. Dorne's historic brutal resistance to the dragons will eventually be mirrored in Dorne against Dany, as Dorne's history of wedding princesses to the Iron Throne will be in Aegon and Arianne. GRRM has been angling at it forever, its a done thing.

Yeah Aegon's cast is C tier, including Arianne, this is why she and Dorne basically exist. As I explained GRRM meticulously cultivated the story so that Dany and dragons would become a non-factor to Dorne at the time of deciding if they'll back Aegon or not, but you'll throw out all that work because it doesn't fit with what you want Arianne to be and do.

The story on the way to Dorne is that Dany is dead or lost, and when she was not she had no interest in Dorne but had her own battles on the other side of the world. Her dragons are riderless and wild, and on the other side of the world. The doubts about the GC fade as they succeed, they've taken Storm's End in a blink, they're going to roll over their enemies in their first pitched battle, they're going to have 'friends' no-one supposed and Aegon is the HS's answer to the mess in KL. Characters change, including how they think due to events and to new information. A story in which things do not changed is not a story. GRRM only made sceptics out of Doran (Arianne isn't really) so that he may placate him. He has at hand all the ducks in a row. This is why Quentyn's failed adventure happened. Why Arianne is a sex bomb almost simpleton.

They change their thinking because the GC continues to win and court more allies. By parts of the reach turning cloak for them. By defeating their enemies in the field. By the Faith supporting them. All those things aligning that you didn't provide answers for isn't by accident, so many things pushing in the same direction, GRRM has moved mountains to make it happen.

So what was the point of Quentyn if not to turn Dorne from Dany to Aegon? Do you not think GRRM gave JC greyscale to explain why team Aegon didn't team up with Dany? Why do you think Arianne who was willing to crown Myrcella with basically no support would think Aegon is a hopeless cause? Why is JC strangely fixated with having Dorne's support? Do you think there's nothing in GRRM having set up in the minds of both JC and Arianne that the taking of Storm's End would be a big deal and proof of competency? Do you think "Friends in the Reach" is not going to factor into the impending battle? After having built up the GC as the professional fighting force in all of planetos, with elephants, do you think they're going to lose their first real battle in the series?

Or he just uses snowflakes melting in sad scenes in place of tears where it wouldn't make sense to have the actual characters cry.

Or sphinxes just represent sphinxes, literal hybrid creatures. Like One Eye is a human wolf hybrid. Like the results of humans second lifing things in blood rituals. It's not like they'd be doing this shit for no purpose. The sort of thing that happens if the dragonlords don't keep the blood of the dragon line pure. Like if a dragon were to mate with a kraken, who knows what you might get. Gotta be careful with the breeding to get the results you want. Or if you're so inclined to dark practices, sadistically and criminally minded, then do as the Gogossosi do and experiment away for the purpose of seeing what you can get. It could be amusing. More than that, your sphinxes could become your army, heeding the call of their master's horn.

Good pick up. It runs into this. Pretending to be offended, pretending that he hurt her for the purpose of making him pliable. Emotional manipulation. Where she learnt that. And soon followed by,

Right, his priority is magic and the part Dany and his horn play in that. He had intended to bring a massive fleet to her, which is what she was lacking, but the Reader pointed out the flaw in that plan. Now it seems like his exploits are for magical testing purposes while he waits on Dany. Perhaps he wants to get in the game too to pave the way for Dany. Really it's all about Dany and getting a child on her, he took the Ironborn because he couldn't go to Dany like a beggar asking for her to marry him, he needed to become a force to give her a reason to have him.

The savagery is a lack of care for the consequences of his actions, a lack of empathy. LF has no regard for the collateral damage his manoeuvres cause. He wanted war and wanted it on his terms. The giant is less about his sigil and more his influence, the sigil is just a hidden little bonus. He is a giant like important historic (or contemporary) figures are referred to as giants, and how Aemon refers to Tyrion. He moves armies, causes wars, decides battles, steers kings. LF was the single most cause of the Stark's ruin. He killed JA, saving the Lannister siblings Robert's wrath and in the knowledge it'd bring Robert to Ned and Ned to the south. To make sure of the latter he had Lysa send the secret letter. He had no regard for the ruin it would bring to the realm or on house Stark, hence a savage giant destroying WF, and the motivation for Sansa to slay him. When she figures it out.

Sansa idealised Cersei. Sansa betrayed her family to Cersei. Then Cersei destroyed her idealism. She used the stupid girl up and laughed at her naivety. Cersei absolutely did run her game over Sansa, as did LF. That LF ran over Sansa, and Sansa will give him his, strengthens the inevitability of Sansa doing the same to Cersei. There is a clash of method between the two, a clash in their outlooks set to play out. Sansa's love, vs Cersei's fear. The current instrument of Cersei's fear, the undead personification of her terror, And look at that, the symbol of Cersei's terror looms over Sansa, and between them something Cersei holds dear, a man sworn to protect Sansa's safety.

It's not strange I associate Sansa and Cersei so much when the text does. Sansa doesn't have to be the valonquar for Cersei to be a giant part of her arc. She wouldn't have to be the YMBQ either, but she is. Arya and Cersei never had a conversation in the whole series.

A castle built of snow, to be precise. Run your numbers again. No, word choice is deliberate as is aligning Sansa with maid of the seven. Yes I do cast aside Sansa fan delusions like Sandor becoming a northmen or that these other POV characters will abandon their arcs and follow Sansa north, away from the game. Cersei is integral in Sansa's arc, more so than any character in the north, they're not remotely finished, it was to Cersei Sansa betrayed her father, it was Cersei who ran the game of thrones over her dumb ass.

And she never said SR would die, Sansa would marry Harry or that Sansa would go north.

High Heart Ghost never said such thing, but we'll see how keen GRRM is to send Sansa north to all those characters he fostered such relationships for her with. Characters like... like... well there was those whole two lines about Jon. Meanwhile the Jaime, Brienne, Sandor, Tyrion and Cersei threads will all just have to be cut and forgotten. Because that's how stories work.

Which is obviously not going to happen because for it to happen she'd have to let SR die. Not to mention all her foreshadowing still has her as a maid, meaning she's not going to spend a night in her marriage bed with Harry.

Next Aeron chapter I reckon will be the battle. Euron will slit Falia's throat and a kraken or krakens will rise to the surface. Then tentacles will slither out of Falia and a lil baby kraken will wretch itself free from the belly of her corpse. Probably to just plop into the ocean, or Euron will grab it. Then Euron will skinchange the kraken or krakens, not that we'll get to see him, but we'll see the krakens start taking down opposing ships. To go further out there, Aeron, dying or otherwise, might somehow end up skinchanging a leviathian and smash into the Silence, perhaps freeing himself if he's still alive.

There's nothing pointing Sansa north or to WF, that she will in future intersect with Jaime, Sandor and Ungregor is testament to her staying south. They are southron characters with nothing pointing them north.

Euron in his talk with Victarion speaks as though he didn't know the horn blower would die, though he wasn't exactly surprised. Like he thought it was a possibility and had it confirmed.