What is your headcanon for the future of the series?

[Mithras]

5 hours ago, Nevets said:

Jon will be leading the fight against the Others, once they show up and become a threat.  Before that, I expect he will be preparing as best as possible.  I try not to get too specific In my predictions, since for most characters, there are many directions their stories can go.

This is still quite problematic. Majority of Jon's efforts in ADwD consisted of preparations for the fight against the Others. But GRRM submerged him in politics and southern affairs which resulted in his assassination. What you suggest looks like Jon is punished for "not minding his own business" in ADwD and after his return in TWoW, he will apologize to the readers and fully concentrate on the Others. This does not look like a trajectory one would expect from GRRM. This would make us question the point of his ADwD story.

[Tyrion1991]

OP

I mean it’s a little hard to theorise with the show around. It’s hard baked certain points in. 

I think that George is building up to the Starks taking down Dany and Bran taking over Westeros. That way the middle ground, stoic intelligent Professor X character gets to save the world. I think people will say that he presents that as dark. But he’s going to give them all the justification they need:

- The Starks will be the ones who save the world and not Dany

- Dany will be reviled for attacking Aegon and being a foreigner. She may attack KL and blow it up. Pushing Jon to kill her. George is probably going to frame this as a road to hell paved with good intentions and “your new empire!?” kind of thing. 

- I think her army will probably be weakened and the North compelled to destroy it. I don’t think they’ll peacefully leave. 

- Dragons are going to die. You can’t make such a massive deal about the galaxy ending threat posed by three bipanes with incendiaries and then have them fly off to be claimed by other people. Bran will probably get his Dune moment and be all “ohhhh, take me seriously. Look at what I can do. I should be King now. Kneel before the trees peasants.”

- Jon will probably go North as what’s intended to be a Frodo esque “I am so stressed” and he wearily walks off into the sunset to his Wildling Harem. If it was fanfic I d want him dead; again. 

-  Jorahs honestly one I am really not sure about because of where George left the character. He could be inadvertently killed by Dany, he could end up rejoining her to be a kind of hatchet man for her before recanting and going to the wall, he could die saving her as in the show, he could go Robert Baratheon after Danys death and kill Jon, he could just straight up kill himself ala Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. I do think he’ll get to the final book and it would be a big component in Danys story. I’d hate if George tries to make this a “swear off women” tale and he joins the watch. 

- I think the democracy ending is set in stone. George will want that to be a manga Carter moment to cement that the world has been made glorious by this son of Stark. 

- George is probably not going to address that having a corpse emperor on his weir wood throne directed by the eldritch tree network dominating humanity is a little bit sinister. But hey, he saved the world from the crazy fire lady who wanted to sit in a chair so...yay.

 

[Alyn Oakenfist]

4 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

I think that George is building up to the Starks taking down Dany and Bran taking over Westeros. That way the middle ground, stoic intelligent Professor X character gets to save the world. I think people will say that he presents that as dark. But he’s going to give them all the justification they need:

Bran isn't really the middle ground. He's as Stark as you get, be it the name or the magic

5 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

Dany will be reviled for attacking Aegon and being a foreigner. She may attack KL and blow it up. Pushing Jon to kill her.

How would that work. Dany will attack in late TWOW or very early ADOS, Jon would still be quite busy with the Others or trying to get help with the Others at that point.

6 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

- Jon will probably go North as what’s intended to be a Frodo esque “I am so stressed” and he wearily walks off into the sunset to his Wildling Harem. If it was fanfic I d want him dead; again. 

More likely just Val, but I get your point

6 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

- I think the democracy ending is set in stone. George will want that to be a manga Carter moment to cement that the world has been made glorious by this son of Stark. 

A Targaryen can sign a Magna Carta just as well as long as he/she doesn't have dragons. More than that, Bran would not need a Magna Carta and could force against it through mind control.

[Tyrion1991]

1 minute ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Bran isn't really the middle ground. He's as Stark as you get, be it the name or the magic

How would that work. Dany will attack in late TWOW or very early ADOS, Jon would still be quite busy with the Others or trying to get help with the Others at that point.

More likely just Val, but I get your point

A Targaryen can sign a Magna Carta just as well as long as he/she doesn't have dragons. More than that, Bran would not need a Magna Carta and could force against it through mind control.

 

Its the Song of Ice and Fire. A story of extremes in people and in magic. Brans magic is all about nature and the roots of the earth. So that means the magic he’s learning is a third pillar and i think George intends this to be the wise middle ground. I mean I could say one mans middle ground is another mans extreme but let’s not let that ruin a metaphor. 

Unless George resorts to

“five years later” - Spongebob

There is zero way Dany gets to Westeros in Winds. It’s likely that Aegon will fill a role similar to Cersei in the show. So they’ll ally but the war will need resolving. 

As an aside, I wonder if people will actually blame the Greyscale plague on Dany. Ohh the evil queen casting spells against good King Aegon.

Jon would get help from Dany for the obsidian. Seems legit. They fall in love in the last book. George wants that incest love story.

I don’t think George wants to really cast shadows on the Starks. We’d be talking that “morally grey” where they’re given validation and the real issues aren’t addressed. Like, you know, I don’t trust this tree beard. 

I think Dany will be dead before any conference and I can’t see George giving her a positive legacy beyond maybe freeing the slaves IF she doesn’t go back on that in TWOW. The issue is that George clearly wrote Dany as a deconstruction /satire  of the Rand al Thor style all powerful saviour character. Instead of rising above her nature she’s consumed by it. Which George is going to pin on “your lust for power”.

Bran might want to give the people the illusion of control. There’s not really a democracy if you can summon the elector counts.

 

 

[Alyn Oakenfist]

Just now, Tyrion1991 said:

Brans magic is all about nature and the roots of the earth.

Mate it's the Old Gods, magic, the magic of the Starks and the North.

Just now, Tyrion1991 said:

There is zero way Dany gets to Westeros in Winds.

How come? The way I see it she should be back in Meereen in 3 or 4 POV's, then it's off to Westeros via Volantis

1 minute ago, Tyrion1991 said:

As an aside, I wonder if people will actually blame the Greyscale plague on Dany. Ohh the evil queen casting spells against good King Aegon.

That would be the kind of messed up shit GRRM would pull, so if the outbreak happens when Dany comes, especially with her being supported by the Red Priests... Yeah it's a distinct possibility for the Faith to pull something like that.

2 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

Bran might want to give the people the illusion of control. There’s not really a democracy if you can summon the elector counts.

The illusion but not actual control. Nor any future way to gain it, as while Bran is mortal, the spirit inside him won't be. Eternal dictatorship under the mind control spirit. Not much of a happy ending or a democracy.

3 minutes ago, Tyrion1991 said:

I think Dany will be dead before any conference and I can’t see George giving her a positive legacy beyond maybe freeing the slaves IF she doesn’t go back on that in TWOW. The issue is that George clearly wrote Dany as a deconstruction /satire  of the Rand al Thor style all powerful saviour character. Instead of rising above her nature she’s consumed by it. Which George is going to pin on “your lust for power”.

The underlined part is deffo true, but she will have an influence I think, finally breaking the power of the nobility by dragoning them to death, allowing the faith and the smallfolk to have a voice in the future.

[Tyrion1991]

10 minutes ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Mate it's the Old Gods, magic, the magic of the Starks and the North.

How come? The way I see it she should be back in Meereen in 3 or 4 POV's, then it's off to Westeros via Volantis

That would be the kind of messed up shit GRRM would pull, so if the outbreak happens when Dany comes, especially with her being supported by the Red Priests... Yeah it's a distinct possibility for the Faith to pull something like that.

The illusion but not actual control. Nor any future way to gain it, as while Bran is mortal, the spirit inside him won't be. Eternal dictatorship under the mind control spirit. Not much of a happy ending or a democracy.

The underlined part is deffo true, but she will have an influence I think, finally breaking the power of the nobility by dragoning them to death, allowing the faith and the smallfolk to have a voice in the future.

Ice is the Others which is threat 1

Fire is Dany which is threat 2

Starks weird Norse cosplay religion/magic is the middle ground. The Starks role is to defeat both these supernatural extremes and bring balance to the force. Clearly.

Consider the number of POV, how big the Battle is, all the people she needs to meet, an entire Dothraki subplot. If the book was JUST Dany and co it would be fine. But it’s really not. Getting her in a position to get to Westeros is optimistic. He may very well have to split the book again like Crows and Dance.

To be fair, the Red Priests might be saying God is punishing the people for siding with Aegon. It would be easy to say there’s some witchcraft involved.

I really don’t think George seriously considers the Weirwoods evil. He plays on the idea that, oh it looks sinister but it’s all the same and just misunderstood. “Darkness will nourish you”, Ice is about preserving whilst fire destroys. Etc etc. He will frame this as restoring the ancient compact that man forgot. Not “feed the roots of the earth with blood”.

Hes going to depict Bran as a Fisher King style character. You could poke fun at that. But I don’t think his intent would be “Bran stabbed his half brother in the back”. 

I don’t know. Bloodraven lived a long time. Perhaps Bran is basically immortal.

There would be no reason for the Starks to honour or understand such a pledge made by Dany. From their perspective it’s the people not the system which need to change. So if the Elector Counts pick a King to replace the Targaryen Dynasty it’s just business. That’s the train of thought. They want to get Bran on the throne so they’ve push for an election.

 

[Skahaz mo Kandaq]

The Others will be pushed back to their side of the wall.  Westeros will be experiencing the Long Night. Most peasants and nobles will die off.  The Starks will have their second lives in their Direwolves.  Sansa won't get a second life because her wolf is gone.  Daenerys and her dragons will retreat from the cold and bide their time in Essos.  Bran will use the tree network to record the present for future generations.  Samwell will do the same but in writing.  Samwell and Gilly will become a couple.  The folks who migrated south and east will slowly build lives for themselves.  Those places of refuge will be very diverse in terms of race, culture, and religion.