ASOIAF and GOT through a nihilistic mirror.

[random girl from westeros]

I have read some of the topics in this forum. People asking what is the meaning R + L = J if in the end it was only used a bad plot to drive Dany mad. If Arya killed the Night King what was all that built up between Jon and the Night King? And these are just the thing in the show. What does that mean for the books?

Prophecies and, some times, secrets are like a sword without a hilt. There is not a safe way to grasp it.

GRRM loves to deconstruct tropes. Why wouldn't he be doing one here? He has constructed Jon Snow or maybe Dany as Azor Ahai, or The Last Hero. He even gave them a mighty sword, We can argue that Dragons are the sword, Jon Snow is the sword or perhaps is a sword like Dawn. All these tales of Great heroes and magic swords, all over Planetos, each tale with different names or beginning, but in the end, it's the same thing. Those are ways for the writer to have us theorizing about who is secretly who, who is going to what. In the end, he will tear down all of them one by one. 

In most fantasy books where there is a prophecy, a group of people know of it and work for it to come to pass and Evil is defeated. GRRM is not going to do the same in this masterpiece. 

He is building Dany to be a great leader just to tear her down. I believe her downfall will be internal.  All her life she is been treated as a mean to get something. Her abusive brother sold her to get an Army. Drogo wanted her to breed the Stallion who will mount the world. she was welcome in Qarth because of her dragons, Quentin traveled all the way to Meereen because of the same thing. when she gets to Westeros she will be looked after because of it too. All her life all she wanted was to return to the house with the red door and the lemon tree. Like the rest of human beings, she wants to be loved. But people will only be after her because of the power she handles. 

Jon is also being built to something great, a Hero who will destroy death itself. He has everything going for him. He is in front of the battle, The Night's Watch. He is the descendant of a great, powerful, magical line, on both sides, Edric Dayne is traveling north. To give him Dawn maybe? He doesn't know any of this. He is stabbed by his own brothers.  He is dead or in limbo, and we know that this is just part of the process of the Hero Journey. Kill the boy and let the man live.  I think Jon won't be killing the Great Other or sitting on the Iron Throne or ruling anything for long. 

You want a minor example of this. Ser Barristan the Bold. He made a vow to protect the King or Queen of the Iron Throne. He thought it will bring him honor because the people he was protecting were honorable, but that's not true.  Aerys went crazy, raped his wife and wanted to burn King's Landing and. Robert was a drunkard whoremonger and wife biter. Joffrey was a psychopath and Dany, well you'll see. 

GRRM doesn't like war at all. He has said it and in his works, he is very clear how he depicts it. In a world like Planetos, as in ours, where the people are greedy and want power a being like Bran is almost welcome, but at what cost? How long will this peace last? I have posted before that in a scenario of a child with such huge power, how long will it take for a religion to form around him? What about those who will oppose that religion? In the middle ages, people went to war for these things. Can it be peace under the rulership of a King like God being? If so for how long? The human heart is fickle. 

Right now, in the books, Bran is a sweet child trying to learn and figure out who he is in the large scheme of things. Which makes me think, Bran is also being built up to something great, maybe it won't mean anything in the end. Maybe it won't be Bran who goes south to be crowned, but something else. 

 

[robasp2]

Sorry doesn't sound like GRRM. He doesn't break tropes just for the sake of breaking them. His story before and after the said event is solid.

[random girl from westeros]

I want to believe.