[Spoiler]The Next Great Threat

[Mordor]

After the NK demise, I think most people feel the Cersei x Euron villains are a bit lacklusting. D&D should have choosen another great villain, like the Slave Masters. My fanfiction:

The remaining Slave Masters from Yunkai, Astapor and other cities retakes Mereen from Daario and the Second sons. They drive them out and revive the Old Ghiscari Empire by calling it The Ghiscari Federation .

They use their Unsullied soldiers to become the formiddable Lockstep Legions and will try to take revenge on Dany. 

This may not satisfied everybody, but having them Slave Masters as the next big threat would make more sense and would reminds us about the ancient battles between Valyria and the Ghiscari Empire. 

This would require another extra season with 6 episodes. 

[Vaith]

I get why GRRM introduced slave masters as a villain for Daenerys, to be honest: slavery is to be condemned as the abhorrent thing it is.

But... would our main Westerosi characters care that cities, thousands of miles away that most of them know next to nothing about, have been retaken by slavers? They're more than pleased to regularly do business with those Free Cities that allow slavery.

Also, aren't they kind of... out of Unsullied? They sold them all to Dany, and unless they have magically made the next generations' training take 4 or 5 years, that's going to be a tricky one in your premise.

I can see the value in there being a "scouring of the Shire" equivalent, but I feel any sort of main political storyline that's supposed to have bigger stakes than The Long Night is going to be a poor story -- just in my opinion.

[divica]

22 minutes ago, Vaith said:

I get why GRRM introduced slave masters as a villain for Daenerys, to be honest: slavery is to be condemned as the abhorrent thing it is.

But... would our main Westerosi characters care that cities, thousands of miles away that most of them know next to nothing about, have been retaken by slavers? They're more than pleased to regularly do business with those Free Cities that allow slavery.

Also, aren't they kind of... out of Unsullied? They sold them all to Dany, and unless they have magically made the next generations' training take 4 or 5 years, that's going to be a tricky one in your premise.

I can see the value in there being a "scouring of the Shire" equivalent, but I feel any sort of main political storyline that's supposed to have bigger stakes than The Long Night is going to be a poor story -- just in my opinion.

I think grrm's scouring of the shire will be about politics. Like how to mantain the aliances after they defeat the dead, who marries who, who will be in the small council, what are their plans for the future...

It is what makes sense...

[Vaith]

Just now, divica said:

I think grrm's scouring of the shire will be about politics. Like how to mantain the aliances after they defeat the dead, who marries who, who will be in the small council, what are their plans for the future...

It is what makes sense...

...if the small council even exists.

I think so too, but to keep the "bittersweet" element... I think it shouldn't be about every vaguely sympathetic character teaming up to take down one Big Bad, be that Cersei or the Masters. 

[divica]

2 minutes ago, Vaith said:

...if the small council even exists.

I think so too, but to keep the "bittersweet" element... I think it shouldn't be about every vaguely sympathetic character teaming up to take down one Big Bad, be that Cersei or the Masters. 

there might be even ploting to take the throne without starting a war…  For exemple, if cersei is alive I can totally see a small group of people deciding to kill her before she can restart some conflict...

We also have the maester problem that grrm has hinted in the latest books… There are a lot of things to do after the others in order for us to understand how the world will move forward.

[Mordor]

23 hours ago, Vaith said:

I get why GRRM introduced slave masters as a villain for Daenerys, to be honest: slavery is to be condemned as the abhorrent thing it is.

But... would our main Westerosi characters care that cities, thousands of miles away that most of them know next to nothing about, have been retaken by slavers? They're more than pleased to regularly do business with those Free Cities that allow slavery.

Also, aren't they kind of... out of Unsullied? They sold them all to Dany, and unless they have magically made the next generations' training take 4 or 5 years, that's going to be a tricky one in your premise.

I can see the value in there being a "scouring of the Shire" equivalent, but I feel any sort of main political storyline that's supposed to have bigger stakes than The Long Night is going to be a poor story -- just in my opinion.

I thought there were more of them in other cities? Anyways, the Slave Masters could always recruit people, slaves or non-slaves to be trained. 

[Vaith]

15 hours ago, Mordor said:

I thought there were more of them in other cities? Anyways, the Slave Masters could always recruit people, slaves or non-slaves to be trained. 

Astapor is where they are bred and trained, so they’d have to buy them back from other cities, and really have no natural resources other than slaves... so getting the money is going to be hard. And the training program is a rather intense ordeal lasting from childhood to adolescence, so would take time.