Mithras

I've thought about the problems with Blackfyre and D&E adaptations before. It seems to me that the best solution to avoid a colossal mess is to do massive rewrites in order to separate the two definitively. And the process should start with the Blackfyre adaptation. Let me explain. First of all, we should go with the Dexter route for the Blackfyre adaptation. First Blackfyre Rebellion will be adapted rather faithfully and after that the show will write its own story. This way, they can avoid a generational saga (which doomed the Vikings after Ragnar’s death) and fit the whole thing into the lifetime of a single main lead that is Daemon Blackfyre. The later Blackfyre Rebellions will be heavily edited and merged. Each season might be a single Blackfyre Rebellion. The first season might feature the prelude to the First Blackfyre Rebellion and end just as Daemon Blackfyre rises in rebellion. As I mentioned before, Daemon Blackfyre should not die at the First Blackfyre Rebellion but instead survive till the end of the show, leading the rest of the Blackfyre Rebellions as well. The audience would not be interested at all in his lame-ass sons and other descendants that led the later Blackfyre Rebellions. Bittersteel should be reduced to a side role and Daemon Blackfyre vs. Bloodraven dynamic should be promoted as something similar to Thor vs. Loki. This can carry the show until the end. To make the story better, Daeron II needs to be changed. I think a king like King Baldwin from the Kingdom of Heaven would do well. This seemingly weak and sickly but actually smart and capable king will be opposed by a Thor-like figure that is Daemon who looks like every inch a king should be. Daeron II in the show will be basically Aerys I combined with Daeron II and Jaehaerys II. Team Blackfyre will claim that Bloodraven is a sorcerer and the weak king who is not fit to rule is his puppet. It might even be that Daeron II is slowly but secretly dying from greyscale. Team Blackfyre will also be opposing the Dornish marriage of this king as well as the peace with Dorne. Depending on what GRRM plans with them in the future, more roles should be given to some side characters like Shiera, Danelle Lothston, Elaena Targaryen etc. For example, the first Daenerys can be merged with Shiera and she could be the love interest between Bloodraven and Daemon Blackfyre. Elaena Targaryen might be made the mother of Daemon Blackfyre. Elaena might stay loyal to the king whereas Shiera might join Daemon for love. By giving more depth and connections to a select few of cast, the show can avoid some of the problems in the books. I mean, GRRM wrote all this historical stuff basically as wiki entries. There is over-abundance of characters. If GRRM wrote the First Blackfyre Rebellion as a proper narrative like a novella or a novel, then he would have to pay attention to character economy, which means he would be the one to make a similar consolidation of characters and events. All in all, the Blackfyre adaptation will cover a decade for 6 seasons at most. Daemon Blackfyre will survive and lead all the rebellions until the end where he dies. All this story will be concluded before D&E properly starts. Since the Blackfyre backstory will concluded by the time of Dunk and Egg, there will be major revisions to them as well.

Well, they would still kill each other in the Dance just the same. After that, either because of excessive incest or not enough of it. But even before the Dance, not all the Targaryens would be "firebenders" and not all of them would bend it at the same skill level. As GRRM said, the extent to which the Targaryen kings could defy convention, the Faith, and the opinions of the other lords depended on their dragons. As long as the Targaryens could consistently burn masses with their minds, people wouldn't mind them being incestous warlocks and witches.

I don't think GRRM would give pyrokinesis to all the Targaryens, just like he didn't make all of them dragonriders. Also I expect this ability to come in different capacities. Some Targaryens would only conjure simple sparkles whereas some would burn hundreds by hand like Yennefer.

I have a better question: what would happen if GRRM did not introduce the dragons and instead went forward with his original idea of pyrokinesis? Some of you might know that at the dawn of writing ASOIAF, GRRM was not sure about having dragons in the story. Instead, he considered pyrokinesis as the special Targaryen power. If we replace the dragons with pyrokinesis in the story, what would we gain and what would be lose? First of all, consider how pyrokinesis would work with Dany's story. We would have a sight similar to what Yennefer did at the Battle of the Sodden Hill. The benefits of pyrokinesis over the dragons: Pyrokinesis is much more personal. It is an integral part of a character whereas dragons are no more than just external tools for destruction. It is true that GRRM is trying to mystify the bond between the dragon and the rider but that can never be like pyrokinesis. Pyrokinesis is much more empowering for the character. Pyrokinesis should be harder to control than dragons, which plays better to Dany's ending. In a lot of scenarios, it would be easier to underestimate Dany if she had this latent ability over visible dragons that scream of power. This allows interesting storytelling possibilities. For example, consider the scenario where Dany burns khals to take over the Dothraki. In the books, Dany will do it with Drogon. If pyrokinesis remained, Dany would do it all by herself. Or consider Dany taking over the Unsullied. If Dany conjured fire from her hands to burn the slavers instead of giving a command word to a pet sized dragon, the awe and dedication of the Unsullied would be better grounded. As a matter of fact, her savior-messiah cult would be much better explained if she showed this pyrokinetic ability in a scale far grander than her ancestors instead of being a little girl with big dragons. Of course, the dragons have their own advantages over pyrokinesis. The most important one would be the nuke metaphor. The ultimate power device that everyone covets would not work with pyrokinesis. But then again, GRRM picked the dragons and wrote the story accordingly. If he proceeded with pyrokinesis, he would have written new stuff for certain parts.

From the perspective of the characters in the story, fAegon's legitimacy depends on realpolitik. Anyone who benefits from fAegon's claim will believe that he is legit. And vice versa. My point was about the perspective of the readers. As far as the readers are concerned, the only evidence in favor of fAegon's legitimacy is "because Varys says so". Some readers might trust Varys enough and consider the case closed. You asked for a plausible switch scenario for other readers who doubt fAegon's legitimacy. The only reasonable* way for GRRM to reveal that information to the readers can again be via Varys because he is the only remaining live witness. That is counter-productive because these readers already mistrust Varys. * There are unreasonable ways such as GRRM retcons a totally unknown or some known live character into the switch scenario or uses the Bran exposition. Both would be bad writing.

Jon. But it will take some time. Furthermore, we have not seen the full extent of Bowen's mess yet. Bowen and the assassins will quickly dump Jon's body into an ice cell before anyone sees what happened. Next day, Bowen will declare that Jon deserted his post and became an oathbreaker. He will send letters to every castle in the north about Jon's desertion. All this will make it even harder for Jon to fix.

If you are using the show like this, you should also accept that your baseless speculations such as the drooling zombie Jon that is no longer a POV are not happening at all. Post-resurrection, Jon remained the same character and him being the same character is integral to the story. His resurrection is not discussed or made a big deal about throughout the story afterwards. It is as if the resurrection never happened!

Cregan Karstark spent many days in the ice cells and Jon decided to remove him only after seeing that the access to the cells was about to be buried by snow.

The main plot wouldn't lose anything if we remove all those Brienne chapters. Just have her appear in that particular Jaime chapter with facial scars just the same and in the next one, give her a couple of paragraphs to explain what happened to her. If GRRM was so in love with what he'd written for Brienne, he should have released it as a separate novella. GRRM didn't have to do the split if he cut the filler like this. In fact, the series would have been finished by now. But no, GRRM loves his loooong chapters where nothing happens.

I'd start with ACoK. For example, instead of going east at the end of this book, Dany should move westwards towards Pentos and/or Volantis. Imagine the amount of trouble this would have saved. Another one is Stannis. Instead of sending him to the Wall in ASoS, just let him burn Shireen at Dragonstone after the defeat at Blackwater. That would have wrapped him up there and then. No Dorne. No ironborn. No fAegon. The Others break the Wall at the end of ASoS. Jon evacuates the north and brings the survivors to Riverlands. The Dance of Dragons takes place between Jon and Dany at the end of the fourth book and continues into the fifth.

Not precisely medieval ages but close enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edgehill By the following morning the King and his army returned to the Edge Hill escarpment and Essex's army returned to Kineton. It was a bitterly cold night with a hard frost. This was suggested by contemporary reports as the reason many of the wounded survived, since the cold allowed many wounds to congeal, saving the wounded from bleeding to death or succumbing to infection.

Well, Cat didn't stay dead. For me, the most popular scenario in the fandom is the most irreconcilable one with a straight face. The one in which GRRM kills Jon but spares him from degradation by this wee little warg mechanics he himself so conveniently invented. If you are producing a principle and telling it in every interview as if it is some huge discovery, stick to it. Don't try to walk around it by a self-made rule. That is why I think GRRM should proceed with the least problematic scenario, i.e. repeat what he did to Bran in AGoT for Jon. And if some fans can't reconcile with the idea of Jon not actually dying... Well, surely there will be Rant & Rave without Repercussion threads.

The choice was between Cat and Robb. If Robb was made a POV, Cat had to go. I think that would be the better bargain.

Seriously though