Frey family reunion

Of course it's also possible that GRRM was sharing a run of the mill, mundane, non prophetic dream of Jon's because he wanted us to get a glimpse into Jon's subconscious. I mean it seems folly to assume that the "armored in black ice" isn't like the rest of the dream. Because techinically nothing that happened in that dream actually happened in real life. The giants weren't 40 feet tall. The wildlings didn't scurry about the Wall like spiders. Jon never killed Donal Noye, or Dick Follard, or technically even Ygritte. Certainly he didn't kill her with a red flaming sword. While Jon did have too few Night's Watch brothers with him to defend the Wall, he didn't defend it on his own. And he also didn't cut off Robb's head while declaring himself Lord of Winterfell. So there is no particular reason to assume that he's going to ever be dressed in black ice or obsidan for that matter. Or weld an actual flaming sword, that's neither glamored or gimmicked with wildfire. But I do think that GRRM wants us to take a peek into Jon's subconscious thoughts/fears/desires before he's "killed" by his brothers. Because if Jon's return is anything like Cat's then it may be a dark part of Jon's subconscious that's going to become the forefront of Jon's psyche. My guess is Jon is being torn in a few directions. He's got his duty to the Night's Watch and their Wall of ice, which is also technically his protection. I.e. armored in black ice may translate to his status as being in the Night's Watch. The red sword on the other hand may represent the power that Stannis and his red sword Melisandre may represent. Power which could helped defeat the wildlings, could help defeat the "Others" and could also be the key to giving him Winterfell and making him Lord.

While I agree with your last sentence, I think if you truly embrace the idea, then you need to throw out the idea of someone being a true “Targaryen”. The Targaryen last name is a legal fiction who’s significance over the years lost true import outside of the political power it brought. You can think of the Targaryen line at the time of the Rebellion as a line that really started by Viserys II, who could neither hatch nor ride a dragon, and the daughter of a Lynesse banker. Not one member of that line was successful at hatching a dragon. Until Danaerys. Of course assuming that Danaerys was truly of that line… The Targaryen line was only a paternal one only consisting of “legitimate” children. It was a line that had as much Rhoynish blood as Valyrian blood. The Blackfyre “line” became a similar legal fiction. Also apparently only dealing with paternal “legitimate” children as ironic as that is. To say the male line ended is only to say that there still exists people who were descended from Daemon Blackfyre, just not directly descended paternally and/or legitimately. There is technically one example in the series of a maternal line represented through name. And that’s from the Black Pearl brothel, which is a maternal line existing mother to daughter dating back Aegon IV’s daughter with the original Black Pearl. Which may be why Illyrio grins at the mention. Maybe the one existing “maternal” line springing from House Blackfyre also exists in a brothel or perhaps a Lynese pillow house. But ultimately the real issue is who in the story has a blood line that most closely resembles the bloodlines of Aegon and his sister wives who through incestuous mean were kept fairly linear for quite a time. And probably that would take a combination of bloodlines from those Targaryen off shoots that branched off in House Velaryon, House Baratheon, Plumm, Longwater, etc. And probably from a few whore houses that would have been frequented by randy Targaryen princes.

In regards to the discussion of origin of GRRM’s Azor Ahai, I wonder if it is partly inspired by the King of Judah, Ahaz. King Ahaz was known through his practice of sacrificing his son to fire. 2 Kings 16:3 Apparently the term “pass through fire” is a euphemism for a sacrificial burning in fire. So in other words the King of Judah would pass his son (a prince) through the fire. (A Prince’s pass through fire). And the god that Ahaz was sacrificing his child to was Moloch. Who was often depicted as a man with the head of a bull. (Hello Gerold). In fact there has been iconography showing a giant statue of a bull headed man with furnace inside the open mouth where the sacrifices were placed.

For what I can remember this may have been the idea that led me down the path that the tower of joy was GRRM’s version of the Valley of Hinnom, Gehenna. After all, if Rhaegar was meant as a sacrifice at Summerhall then it stands to reason that if Rhaegar was in fact preparing his own version of Summerhall, then he might also need a child sacrifice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansa_apple ETA: for those who don't want to follow the link, GRRM named one of his Starks after an apple.

We may find out there's more than one way to ride a dragon.

I think you're right to the extent that Illyrio probably thinks that Aegon has the right bloodlines to ride a dragon. Of course that doesn't mean Illyrio is right. Even though I will give Illyrio some credit, in that he did give the dragon eggs to someone who was ultimately able to hatch them. I'm not terribly sure that Illyrio is planning on marrying Aegon to Danaerys, however. Dany has been given a pretty stern warning by Quaithe to trust no one. Which you probably wouldn't need a prophet to foretell. It wouldn't suprise me if Illyrio plans on double crossing Dany once he gets a hold on one of her dragons. One thing Illyrio has probably learned in his dealings with Dany is that she's hard to control. That may not suit Illyrio and Varys' long range plans to rule through Aegon.

That would be too sci-fi. Comic book worlds have to resemble ours as much as possible, only with aliens and mythological gods flying around and super science that can only be used for hand to hand combat.

I was kind of being tongue in cheek. But like I said above, the more ludicrous the premise the less it apparently resonates with me. With Wandavision, it was pretty ludicrous, but at the core it was a fairly easy emotional hook. Wanda had to say goodbye to her family. Grief, loss they are easy things to digest and empathize with. The more complicated the issue is, the less its going to make an emotional impact when you couple it with an impossible premise. I suppose the analogy I should have been thinking of is the Israeli - Palestinian issue.

Oh, ok. I thought they were muttering about keeping the displaced people in internment camps or something. But if the issue is just kicking those dirty squatters out,

I don't really think that's the issue for Cat. She seems to be fairly understanding of Ned fathering a bastard during war. Apparently those things just happen in Westeros. Her problem is Ned bringing Jon to Winterfell and raising him as an equal to her own legitimate children.

My other big issue with the series, is that I never really did get my head wrapped around the controversy of what the UN was doing. The thing that the flag smashers were all up in arms about. I mean, they were trying to resettle the people that were displaced for five years right? At least I think that's what the issue was. So, um, what exactly was so controversial about it? I mean the governments have to figure out something don't they? I guess we were supposed to equate it with the US's immigration policy, but I'm not exactly sure how. I guess the more ficitional a "real world" issue is made the less it resonates. Half the world's population disappearing only to reappear five years later isn't exactly a hot button issue that I worry about too much.

I thought the exact same thing. It was too white. It kind of made Sam look a bit silly. Superhero costumes generally only work when they are a tad darker, so they don't stand out too much. When Sam was giving his speech to the, um, UN (?) guy at the end he kind of looked like he just walked out of a cosplay convention at a comic con. Personally I thought they should have gone mainly dark blue with some white edging, and keep his wings red as a call back to his Falcon suit.

Yes it does. I do think that UnJon and Lady Stoneheart may have an opportunity to meet up in Winterfell. Stoneheart is looking for revenge not just against the Freys but also against the Boltons. So assuming she takes care of the Freys first, that may lead her back to Winterfell to settle matters with the Boltons. And assuming Jon is brought back and he still plans on taking his wildlings to Winterfell it may present an opportunity for them to be reunited. Now whether that will be as friends or foes is an interesting question.

The most interesting theory I've heard is that Robb and Greywind were both killed but their consciousnesses fled into Catelyn before her death. Thus Lady Stoneheart may possess a bit of Robb and Greywind psyches. Cat tearing at her face after Robb's death mirrors what happened with the Wildling when Varamyr tried to take her body over as he was dying.