Will storylines expand or condense in the next books?

[King Adrian Storm]

I've noticed many fans on this forum believe intentionally or unintentionally that the storylines are going to keep expanding outwards in the next book, like they have been since book 1. After AGOT, everyone went off on their crazy storylines and kept on straying farther and farther away from their home. Arya is in Essos, Dany is in Mereen, Sansa in the Vale, Bran beyond the wall, etc.  Many character predictions, I've read are saying Arya and Dany will stay in Essos forever, and same with Bran beyond the wall. My question is will the characters stay on this path, or will storylines begin to come together? Will Tyrion and Dany join forces? WIll Arya return to Westeros? Will Bran return to the 7 kingdoms, will Jon leave the night's watch (at least for now)? I believe the next book will have characters beginning to reunite, and by ADOS the characters will be together for the most part, similar to AGOT, where multiple characters were in the same location at once.

If characters arcs take them further away from the 7 kingdoms, then what will the series climax be? Will each character end with a seperate climax to their story all in different locations? Arya becoming a faceless man, Dany staying in Mereen, Bran hooking himself up to the tree beyond the wall, Tyrion searching for Tysha in Essos. Or will the characters come together and face the same threat (say the Others) together, and have their own separate arc's while together. Jon or Dany becoming AA, Bran using his weirwood powers to help the 7 kingdoms, Arya going after someone like Cersei.

In my opinion I think all of the Povs will return to the seven kingdoms during the long night. I think the Starks will reunite, at least for a time. I don't think the characters ending with their own personal journeys complete would be very cohesive.  Do you think the series ending with multiple separate character endings would be satisfying?

[Princess Daenerys]

Each point of view chapter will be deeper and really explore the inner turmoil within.  More depth in place of breadth.  So we can expect the number of unique points of views to decrease.  Martin will be killing off a lot of point of views characters.  We should also expect for some of the story lines to remain unresolved.  For example, Sweetrobin can wake up one morning and realize who his enemies are.  He orders Petyr and Sansa thrown from the moon door.  Thus ends the story in the eyrie in a very neat and tidy way.  

[zandru]

1 hour ago, King Adrian Storm said:

I believe the next book will have characters beginning to reunite, and by ADOS the characters will be together for the most part, similar to AGOT, where multiple characters were in the same location at once.

I agree with you, and I think I recall George RR saying that this will be happening. I suspect he may have spread things out further than he'd originally intended, and has more loose ends to contend with than he'd like, and is thus taking "forever" (or close enough). I fervently hope that we'll see the Winds this year, though.

And, let's be greedy: that GRRM finishes The Winds of Winter this year, and has so much momentum, that he continues work on A Dream of Spring. We can still dream, can't we?

[Nevets]

I fully expect a consolidation and condensing of story lines in Winds.   Bran, Sansa, Arya, and Daenerys are not going to remain in the cave; the Vale; Braavos; and Meereen, respectively.  They are training sites for their respective characters, and have no greater importance to the overall story.

At the end of Winds, I expect the action to be in three general locations: the North; Kings Landing/Riverlands; and wherever Daenerys is (hopefully the west coast of Essos or someplace in Westeros).  Bran and Sansa will likely be in the North, and Arya could land anywhere (but most likely initially the Riverlands).

By the way, I do not expect Arya to become a Faceless Man, or even an assassin.   If she were, she would be a lot farther along in her training than she is.  I also do not think Bran will remain in his tree.  While he may discover great things, he can't really do anything about it if he is isolated in his cave.

I think most of the remaining characters will unite to fight the Others.  Beyond that, it is hard to say.

[King Adrian Storm]

27 minutes ago, Nevets said:

I fully expect a consolidation and condensing of story lines in Winds.   Bran, Sansa, Arya, and Daenerys are not going to remain in the cave; the Vale; Braavos; and Meereen, respectively.  They are training sites for their respective characters, and have no greater importance to the overall story.

At the end of Winds, I expect the action to be in three general locations: the North; Kings Landing/Riverlands; and wherever Daenerys is (hopefully the west coast of Essos or someplace in Westeros).  Bran and Sansa will likely be in the North, and Arya could land anywhere (but most likely initially the Riverlands).

By the way, I do not expect Arya to become a Faceless Man, or even an assassin.   If she were, she would be a lot farther along in her training than she is.  I also do not think Bran will remain in his tree.  While he may discover great things, he can't really do anything about it if he is isolated in his cave.

I think most of the remaining characters will unite to fight the Others.  Beyond that, it is hard to say.

Thank you. Every time I make a post about one of these characters. Bran, Arya, Dany, most people don't like that I assume they are returning to the 7 kingdoms. I think these characters not coming into the fold when the Others attack, would be a huge disservice to the story and characters.

[Curled Finger]

Westeros is pretty central to the entire story.   The far flung characters have either loyalty (Arya) to or desire (Dany) for the place.  Even the banished sell swords are eager to return.   I think with the advent of Euron's utter weirdness involving multitudes and Aegon's masses and war, it will be a while yet before things get really centralized in the North and Kings Landing.  Danny and Tyrion and Victarion and Selmy need to get Slavers Bay in order.  We don't actually know what the plan for Arya is.  When I think about this I wonder what Sam will do if Gilly and the baby are on the ship with Marwyn.  It will take take time to get from one place to the next and ultimately these story lines have to be resolved before the real threats can be dealt with.  I expect POVs to consolidate because we don't need Jamie and Brienne's ideas in the same situation.   Being privy to both Arianne and Jon Connington is almost counter intuitive and redundant because I already know what she wants.   I want to see what Jon Con does and thinks and counsels.  Sucks to no end that he is likely terminal. I imagine Cersei will disappear for a bit but when she turns up maybe Jame will be there to speak for her.  I don't know, there are many ways the rounding up and tightening can happen and I expect it will occur in unexpected ways, such as death, much a I dread that.  For all we know we may have read our last Jon chapter.  A whole lot can happen and needs to happen, but I trust GRRM does it all for his own amazing reasons.  

[Castellan]

well there are going to be a couple of huge battles in TWOW (in Mereen and in the North) which presumably will shake things out and cause the plot to roll along with an altered trajectory - eg will the survivors of those two events meet in Westeros and will it be in battle?

meanwhile we have to see how various subplots will fit into the big picture - eg Petyr and Sansa - will anything much happen in that space or will it wait till the final book? What will happen re Young Griff's invasion and Arianne's decision on who to support (I think she'll make the wrong decision). What will Arya be doing - working her way back to Westeros in the cause of vengeance?

PS and of course, what will happen to Jaime at the BWB cave?

[Walda]

I'm expecting expansion in Winds of Winter, in terms of geography and introduction of characters, and complication of plot. There might be a reduction in the total number of characters and the population of Westeros, though.

I am basing my expectations on the place where character arcs are now,  and on the structure of a story - the climax of any book comes a few chapters before the end.  Eddard dies, King's Landing is saved and Winterfell falls, Tywin and Lysa die, Brienne and Pod meet Stoneheart, Jon dies, at nearly the end of the physical book. 

There are a lot of important and climactic plot points that don't happen at the end of a book - Red Wedding and Purple Wedding, sack of Astapor, Bridge of Dreams, but these are all developing a plot rather than resolving one. So far, most of the character arcs end their books on cliffhangers (although, most chapters end on cliffhanger of some kind, the ones at the ends of the physical books tend to be the sort that can keep you in suspense for a few 'next years'). That is because the series is progressing, and he wants you to buy the next book/be interested in what he writes next.

If Winds of Winter really is the penultimate book, it should take us the furthest from resolution of the plot, and have the most complex and convoluted plotting in the series. 

Then Dream of Spring will take everything up a notch more, except then you see the chess pieces finally closing on the endgame (like they do in the first half of Return of the King). After that, there is the wrap-up.

In The Lord of the Rings, there is a sting in the tail - the scourging of the shire, the straight seas bent. GRRM used that as his example of a bittersweet ending, so I don't know which characters will survive, but I am not expecting a happy end.

It is also entirely possible to end a story on a cliffhanger like Margaret Attwood did with The Handwife's Tale. Not sure how I would feel about that for Dream of Spring, though. I guess it would depend on how it was done.

But for Winds of Winter, we need to get the armies of the Quarrelsome Daughters in there, ship a hundred thousand Dothraki to Westeros. There are other cultures that have been mentioned like they are going to be developed but have not been, like the Lorathi, Ibbenese, Norvoshi, shadowbinders, Skagosi, Thenns, Crannogmen, and the Green men of the Isle of Faces.

 We have not been to Casterley Rock, and if Tyrion truly is a debt-paying Lannister, he has a lot of promises to pay out - starting with Mord and the Mountain Clans, and currently ending with giving the Second Sons all the gold of Casterley Rock and himself the Lordship of it. The Iron Bank of Braavos is betting that the Night's Watch and the Iron Throne will pay their debts, too. The death of the shipping insurance agent could have financhial implications for the likes of Baelish and Illyrio and all the traders that the Night's Watch and possibly Westeros will depend upon for food during the winter.

Dany is another with promises to keep - vengence on Mago, protection of her freedmen, become the stallion that mounts the world.

The Myrish and Qohorese have been hiding in plain sight throughout the series, as Ironborn Theon did in the first book.

Of course, people die, and their plans and debts with them. So Tyrion could die, or the Second Sons, or the Wildlings of the Vale, simplifying things. But it hasn't happened yet. In order for it to happen at all, things have to happen in Winds of Winter.

We know there are going to be battles at Meereen and Winterfell, the Stormlands, Stepstones, and Dorne. Even if these are resolved quickly and in ways that reduce the plotlines going forward, and the plotlines concerning Hardhome and Euron just dropped without explination, it would take half a book to make that happen if GRRM was an economical writer.

He is more an epic writer, and while I don't know how he is going to wrap it all up in Dream of Spring, I am pretty sure he isn't going to wrap it up in Winds of Winter.

[The Twink in the North]

Almost certainly contract.