Things we can now accept as likely?

[Twenty of House Goodmen]

Yes but everything previously could have been hence when it causes a bit of confusion

Not really. Pretty sure "in world" Westeosi art looks a lot more like 14th or 15th century medival art, so the pictures would look a lot different.

[Rhaeguardiandroid]

That Rhaegar and his best pal Ser Arthur Dayne still have a big part to play in the next 2 novels with the lack of new information on them?

[Winterfell is Burning]

Ghost of the High Heart is a child of the forest.

Nettles went to the Mountains of the Moon at least for a time.

There was a rift between Aerys and Rhaegar before Harrenhal.

The Wyls are the Boltons of the South.

[SusieSnow]

Throughout the book we are reminded that very little in the history can be considered absolute. Everything written is often based on hearsay and personal interpretation. Though some threads of truth may be found (substantiated by physical evidence and/or more recent first-hand accounts) much and more may very well be sewn together by one or two Maesters trying to form logical conclusions.... which can't be relied upon.

The ONLY fact I was able to extract from the WoIaF is: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. Period.

Example: p.226 - King Durrandon (the Cunning) causing chaos to create weakness amongst the enemy.... sounds familiar.

Anyone catch the Davos/onion reference in Archmaester Gyldayns side note on p.227.... lol.

Or what about the snow all over Dragonstone shown in the picture on p.230-231? Interesting.

Yep... history repeats itself over and over and over and over. All the answers are in plain site. Just a matter of plugging in the players. Just my opinion.

[Mark Antony]

Though, Euron claims to have visited Valyria.

Think Euron might be full of shit

[RumHam]

Think Euron might be full of shit

Doesn't he say he found the horn in Valyria? and we know from the app that he got in in Qarth.

[aryagonnakill#2]

^ I don't think he got it in Qarth, he got it from the worlocks who left Qarth to go after Dany.

[Mithras]

Brandon the Builder was the Last Hero. I was already considering that very likely and TWOIAF nailed it for me.

[AryaNymeriaVisenya]

Ghost of the High Heart is a child of the forest.

I don't think the ghost is a Child of the Forest. We are meant to compare her to Bloodraven I think, someone very connected with the old gods to the point she is white like the tree and red like the leaves. She's a greenseer keeping watch on the holy hill.

[RumHam]

^ I don't think he got it in Qarth, he got it from the worlocks who left Qarth to go after Dany.

I don't have the app so I'm not sure of the exact wording. But yeah that seems more likely.

[cgf]

The timelines we've been told about for arrival of the first men, the long night, and the andal invasion are bullshit.

[Lady Barbrey]

I don't have any new facts, really, from my reading aside from Cersei and Jaime aren't Aerys's kids (not a theory I ascribed to but certainly possible before World). I've never ascribed to the theory that Tyrion was Aerys's either, but World made that a much more reasonable theory because of the dates. Those and the Joanna/Aerys stuff were emphasized so either Martin wants to increase the speculation and is playing with the reader or Tyrion is a Targ. I still suspect the former but am more open-minded to the latter.

Other theories I think more reasonable:

I think that Jaime as a contender for the Mystery Knight became more reasonable too. Obviously his size didn't rule him out if Aerys, who had just seen him, suspected Jaime was the mystery knight. I liked that Yandel, while first stating that Jaime obeyed his orders and went home (after all, he couldn't say the brother-in-law of his benefactor, later called the Kingslayer, broke his vows the day after saying them), even though he doesnt and cant know whether Jaime returned, then goes to major trouble to say how hard it would have been for Jaime to leave, how Aerys insults him with orders from the toilet, how mad Aerys was for repeating to everyone that it was Jaime laughing at him as the Mystery Knight - honestly he gives Jaime every reason to disrespect Aerys and come back to prove his valor incognito. I've long thought Jaime as valid (not more valid but a good alternative if it wasn't Lyanna) as Lyanna, and this bit of denial then backhanded support made me feel that Yandel, and possibly others at the court, thought the MK was Jaime just as Aerys did. Anyway to me that theory was lent some credence just by Yandel identifying a suspect by name.

In the Warg war, the Starks and co killed the Warg men but took the Warg women as concubines. For lack of alternative info, I think now this is when the magical Warg gene likely passed into the Stark bloodline.

I get weary of the Targ bloodlines but the Summer hall mystery has often intrigued me. My suspicion concerns the Ghost and her obvious sense of guilt and heart wrenching grief when she speaks of Jenny. So I've wondered whether, in order to give her Jenny her heart's desire,she didn't make up the prophecy about the promised prince coming from Aerys and Rhaella's line so that Duncan's marriage to Jenny would be more accepted and all kingly focus put on his brother rather than him. That's why the prophecy didn't come true; it was false to begin with, but the others acting on it brought about the tragedy. World makes it clear some betrayal happened. So I think this, granted farfetched, theory became a little more reasonable. Not to rule out other treacheries at Summer hall by any means.

I know I've used this thread to bring up some pet theories I think more reasonable rather than anything definitive. But really want to thank everyone on here re the speculation on the Doom. There are some differences of opinion, of course, but found them really interesting and persuasive.

Last, the idea that the maesters have been actively suppressing belief in magic, working against the Targs by poisoning dragons,rewriting history to mess with beliefs,etc., was the most obvious fact to come out of this book, confirming all the stuff in the series. How dangerous this is, with the White walkers about to descend and nobody even believing in them, will soon be shown. The reasons for this suppression, if not just a power grab, are less clear. Let's hope Sam and the Dorne princess get to the bottom of it. Maybe they'll find the apocryphal Book of Nan and we'll get some straight answers

[The Red Widow of Coldmoat]

How does Jaime make any sense as the Knight of the Laughing Tree? Why would he use a device related to a weirwood? Why would he specifically defeat the knights whose squires attacked Howland Reed? Why would he do pretty much anything recounted in the Knight of the Laughing Tree story? If Jaime were the mystery knight at Harrenhal, then the entire Knight of the Laughing Tree story makes absolutely no sense. I think the only way Jaime could've been the Knight of the Laughing Tree is if Meera was outright lying (or repeating an outright lie) when telling the story to Bran and if that's the case then none of it makes any sense (what is the point of us being told a completely made up story rather than one that actually tells us something important?)

edit: Also regarding your thoughts about the Ghost of High Heart, Duncan and Jenny were married five years before Aerys was even born. Duncan had already long removed himself from the line of succession and Jaehaerys was already Prince of Dragonstone by the time the Ghost would've been saying it was necessary to marry Aerys and Rhaella

[OrangeStallion]

I'm kinda scared about the things that live in the water. Like the thousand islands legend where the people can't even be forced to walk into the water even under death.
Other things that interested me were the mazes of lorath, the woods walkers in that forest in essos, the Old Ones in Leng that live underground, Yeen, and whatever the f*** is actually in Asshai.

Other things: I believe the world is round and that the Wall and the five forts are fencing something in around the other side (most likely the Others?)

Also, Ice Dragons, they're probably real.

[Aetta]

All the scrolls in the citadel could not match Old Nan's wisdom. Rule 1 of ASOIAF: If Old Nan said it, it's going to turn out to be at least mostly true.

[personal fave crackpottery]I will remain convinced that Old Nan is in fact thousands of years old and knows everything because she's a first hand witness even if I receive a personal signed notarisation from GRRM that it is not so. Anything that she gets wrong is because she's so forgetful in her old age she doesn't realise how old she is -- the the Brandon Stark she came to Winterfell to wetnurse was Brandon the Builder. [/personal fave crackpottery]

I love it! Nan the (non-participatory) Norn!

[SeanF]

Lady Barbrey, the Maesters must surely be right to be prejudiced against magic and dragons, given the potential for things to badly wrong.

Where they are very wrong (unforgivably for intellectuals) is in their belief that they can keep magic out of the world merely by saying it doesn't exist. That's wishful thinking of the worst kind. At least Yandel is open-minded enough to admit there are parts of the world where magic does still exist.

[scotcat]

Aerys and Rhaegar had problems long before Harrenhal.

Nettles (and Sheepstealer) spent at least some time in the mountains of the Moon.

There's at least a chance that ice dragons are actually real.

The Starks taking the warg women as concubines at the end of the warg war is when the warg traits were introduced into their bloodline - there were likely other incidents of it being bred into the family as well, but this is a major indication of it happening at a specific point in history.

[Lady Barbrey]

Also regarding your thoughts about the Ghost of High Heart, Duncan and Jenny were married five years before Aerys was even born. Duncan had already long removed himself from the line of succession and Jaehaerys was already Prince of Dragonstone by the time the Ghost would've been saying it was necessary to marry Aerys and Rhaella

[Lady Barbrey]

Lady Barbrey, the Maesters must surely be right to be prejudiced against magic and dragons, given the potential for things to badly wrong.

Where they are very wrong (unforgivably for intellectuals) is in their belief that they can keep magic out of the world merely by saying it doesn't exist. That's wishful thinking of the worst kind. At least Yandel is open-minded enough to admit there are parts of the world where magic does still exist.

So true. Yandel's the best. Did anyone else's eyes light up when they discovered he was a foundling? Calculated the year he was born to see if there were any missing Targs in that generation or maybe he could be Ashara's supposedly dead baby? C'mon. Bet you did. ;)

[Lady Barbrey]

Consider the following--what if the mages had never tried to keep the 14 flames in check at all (and assuming the "blood magic" for dragon bonding had nothing to do with the issue)? Would the Doom have happened earlier? I don't think so.

Yes, they were living in a relatively unstable area--but what made it so unstable? And why is the area now--hundreds of years after the Doom--still so toxic anyone who goes near is never seen again. This situation suggests more than just normal volcanic activity being held back by the mages. To me, at least, it suggests that the reason that so many mages were needed to keep the area stable is because something happened to destabilize the area--and the only event I am aware of is the binding of the dragons.

If the instability is caused by repercussions to such powerful magic--it would explain why the area remains unfit for people today. But this is getting too off-topic. Maybe I will start a separate thread to discuss this particular theory.

I'd be very interested in this thread.