am I the only one fearing that this series will end in a Targaryen revival?

[Ser Greg of House House]

No. You're not the only one. I fear Martin sees a lot of his work as the story of this oh-so-awesome family, the Targaryens. I mean, he even means to make a whole GRRMarillion about them. Starks + Targs, ice and fire... etc.

That sucks, though, because Starks are likable from the beginning while Targs are almost invariably assholes. Though he kind of fixes that with Baelor Breakspear and Egg in the novellas, it's hard to like a family who thinks they're demigods.

[Lion of Lorath]

It will end in a Baelish monarchy. We all know it, even though we don't want to believe it.

[Disputatious]

I subscribe to that fire eater but what do you make of this? http://comeonhitme.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/game-of-thrones jon-snow-will-lead-the-army-of-white-walkers-against-daenerys-targaryen-and-her-dragons/

What FE thinks I do not presume to say. As for me, I say that this is a wild a speculation as has e'er been seen in the forum. I give it one chance in one thousand of being a correct forecast of what is coming in the series.

[C0bR]

Yeah, I do. GRRM has clearly fell in love with them over the past few years and forgot that there are other things to write about. It will probably end in a massive Targ Mary/Gary circlejerk.

[Chatty Duelist]

It's going to Stan the Man on the Iron Throne. All the Targaryen fans are deluding themselves.

[Good Guy Garlan]

GRRM loves his little incestuous demigods, of course. For the life of me, I can't see the appeal. Some of them are decent, sure, but for every decent one there are ten assholes (seriously, TPatQ has one of the most dislikable families I've seen in literature. Like, there's House Targaryen and then there's the House of Atreus, going toe to toe in the contest of the duchiest douches who ever douched)

However, Targ hatred aside, I'd still find a Targ revival frustrating because it would mean that the whole series was just a 20 year parenthesis in the history of the Targ dinasty.

So, yes, I want a new status quo, please

[KINGpanther]

We have already seen a Targ revival with Dany taking Slavers Bay. Stark's will be the ones to recieve a revival.

[Targaryen Warg]

I personally would like to see Dany on the Iron Throne (with or without a king.)

Who knows it could easily become a repeat of The Doom of Valyria. More likely than not, we'll probably never even have aDoS in the next 20 years if at all.

[HexMachina]

The first men who coexisted with Children and Giants after the pact and who converted to the Children's religion?

Targs used the faith politically. They did what they wanted even if it was against the religion like incest. Their conversion was a front

Yeah, because the First Men weren't brutal in their subjugation of the Children and Giants at all...They converted eventually yes, but only after cutting down hundreds and hundreds of Weirwood trees. The Andals were even worse. Imo the Targaryen conquest was almost peaceful by comparison. They didn't destroy septs or cut down weirwoods, did not enforce their views on incest. Even if they only adipted the religion superficially, its better than destroying it and inposing their own. I still fail to see how they are worse than Andals or First Men (I leave out the Rhonyar because I don't remember much on them)

[Mithras]

A Targaryen restoration without the dragons is not meaningful.

TPatQ has one of the most dislikable families I've seen in literature.

That is because a Targ/dragon hater wrote that history.

[Lady of Lemoncakes]

No, ew. The targs are a bunch of entitled idiots (and losers) with a severe superiority concept just because they are 'dragons'. And what's to learn from it? That GRRM loves fantasy cliches? Please, that ending is horrible. The monarchy should be annihilated, it's the reason why we got Joffrey as king, Mad Aerys or puppet such as Tommen. No thanks.

I second Edmure Tully. What a guy, a+.

Or just burn it down.

[Mithras]

No, ew. The targs are a bunch of entitled idiots (and losers) with a severe superiority concept just because they are 'dragons'.

Same goes for all the other Great Lords and the Kings before the Conquest.

[Jm4n68]

I am really enjoying my outlook going forward:

Tyrion and Sansa rule (just) Westeros,

Tyrion takes the throne from Dany.

Dany dies heirless with Tyrion as hand.

Jon Snow passes chance for crown after Wall falls, knowing nothing

Tyrion figures Varys/Illyrio endgame through fAegon. Cue DwD

Aegon conquers IT via Arrianne marriage

And this is going to end in innumerable dead small folk . In so many torturous ways. War, grey scale, Winter, etcetera. Isn't everyone a secret Targ anyway?

[Gustavo]

You're never the only one

[Nictarion]

I don't fear it at all, I look forward to it. If the story ends with anyone except Dany, Jon, or one of their offspring as king/queen of Westeros I will be very surprised.

[falcotron]

If GRRM has big Balls, he will let the Others win.

Even better, starvation and the plague of diseases Dany's people bring kill enough people to cause a collapse of civilization before the Others even get there.

... something I call a "Valyrian Revival". In my Head, that means Dany will kick some Ass around Westeros, but decide she doesn't give a fuck about that place she's never even been to and return to Slaver's Bay and Valyria, where she has a population that admires her first Hand as well as real emotional Investment. So to say, she gets her own Kingdom/Empire seated around Valyria.

What do you mean by "Valyria"? You mean she somehow heals the smoking ruins of the Doom and runs an empire from there? Conquers all of the Free Cities and rebuilds the Valyrian Freehold? Founds a city named New Valyria in Slaver's Bay or elsewhere in Ghiscari lands, completely unrelated to anything Valyrian? Or are you just mixing up the names "Essos" and "Valyria"?

[Jacob Feybrad]

What do you mean by "Valyria"? You mean she somehow heals the smoking ruins of the Doom and runs an empire from there? Conquers all of the Free Cities and rebuilds the Valyrian Freehold? Founds a city named New Valyria in Slaver's Bay or elsewhere in Ghiscari lands, completely unrelated to anything Valyrian? Or are you just mixing up the names "Essos" and "Valyria"?

"Valyria" being a more poetic form for "southwestern Part of Essos". Essentially, you would be right by saying rebuilding the Valyrian Freehold. A "new Valyria" City would also have a nice Touch to it, but I would just assume she runs a (not even necessarily growing) Empire around the Slaver's Bay from Meereen (where she has the most emotional Connection for now) and calls it "something Valyria something".

[ambi76]

I'm actually pretty confident that the "Dragons" (all of them) will go the way of the dodo in the end.

[falcotron]

... a member of House Targaryen will sit on the Iron Throne in the end ...

This is because House Targaryen is an original house from GRRM's mind. Houses Stark and Lannister were based on the Lancasters and Yorks. Basically in a sense they are not originals. They were based off something whereas Valyria and Targaryens were all from GRRM's own mind.

This is nonsense. All three of these houses are a combination of multiple historical influences and original ideas, and the one with the closest connection to any historical dynasty is clearly the Targaryens, based on the Normans.

William/Aegon the Conqueror, a foreigner from Normandy/Dragonstone, the westernmost territory of the old fallen Roman/Valyrian Empire, invades England/Westeros, bringing a new kind of castle-based/dragon-based warfare that's unstoppable. He declares himself King of the Britons/First Men and Anglo-Saxons/Andals. He sets up some of his own people as nobles, but leaves many of the old lords in place, as well as leaving the traditional Edwardian/Andal laws mostly unchanged. His descendants have a number of dynastic struggles that lead to civil wars like the Anarchy/DotD, until eventually they're overthrown by a cadet branch, the Plantagenets/Baratheons.

The Starks/Yorks and Lannisters/Lancasters were two of the major players in the War of the Five Kings/Roses. And that's about it for similarities. The Yorks and Lancasters were two cadet branches of the Plantagenets fighting over which one had a better claim to the throne of England. None of the major characters' names or personalities are similar to anyone in ASoIaF. None of the major events of the wars are similar.

Of course all of these families have many other influences, and a lot that GRRM created on his own. William and his descendants obviously didn't ride dragons, any more than Edmund of Langley and his descendants warged direwolves.

Also, if the Starks and Lannisters are just the War of the Roses, then obviously the books will end the same way their war did. Which would be Tyrion using Dany's sellswords to conquer Westeros for himself, marry Sansa Stark to reunite the realm, and found a new dynasty, after which everyone will live happily ever after, until their son decides to take over the Faith so he can annul his marriage to marry Margaery Tyrell instead, only to execute her and marry another 4 wives in succession, but the show will have to move from HBO to Showtime for that.

[falcotron]

"Valyria" being a more poetic form for "southwestern Part of Essos". Essentially, you would be right by saying rebuilding the Valyrian Freehold. A "new Valyria" City would also have a nice Touch to it, but I would just assume she runs a (not even necessarily growing) Empire around the Slaver's Bay from Meereen (where she has the most emotional Connection for now) and calls it "something Valyria something".

OK, I get it. Slaver's Bay is really more central Essos than western, and more Ghiscari than Valyrian... but that shouldn't really matter; there are plenty of examples of similar cases in our history (like New Armenia being completely outside the borders of the old Kingdom of Armenia a few centuries earlier).

And, given that Astapor has completely collapsed, she actually has the opportunity to found a new city in its place, and New Valyria sounds nicer than Daenarysandria.

The only problem I see with your idea is that Dany's whole motivation for being in Slaver's Bay is to end slavery, and unless she overthrows the supply (the Dothraki) or the demand (the Free Cities except Braavos), just removing the middle-men isn't going to do that. So it seems like she has to conquer more people, either to the northeast or to the west, and unless she's planning to leave behind more uninhabited smoking wasteland, what's she going to do with her conquests?