Wind's Points of View.

[whackyplague]

Have to have Jon.

I think the consensus is definitely that he's not dead - though how alive he is, that's the obvious question.

I find it most likely that Melisandre both caused the assassination attempt (remember the one guy backing away like he didn't mean to do it after he dropped his dagger? I'm guessing the attackers were all under a spell) and will heal him, to prove her power to Jon.

[coalstrawbean]

Have to have Jon.

I think the consensus is definitely that he's not dead - though how alive he is, that's the obvious question.

I find it most likely that Melisandre both caused the assassination attempt (remember the one guy backing away like he didn't mean to do it after he dropped his dagger? I'm guessing the attackers were all under a spell) and will heal him, to prove her power to Jon.

Sounds plausible, it would be a let down to follow Jon all this time and then not have a POV for him when he finally becomes AA reborn. Maybe the storerooms with smoke and salt will play into the prophecy

[kephv]

Have to have Jon.

I think the consensus is definitely that he's not dead - though how alive he is, that's the obvious question.

I find it most likely that Melisandre both caused the assassination attempt (remember the one guy backing away like he didn't mean to do it after he dropped his dagger? I'm guessing the attackers were all under a spell) and will heal him, to prove her power to Jon.

She's already proved her power to Jon. That would be going a little overboard with it, and it's not likely to please Jon greatly when he finds out.

[whackyplague]

She's already proved her power to Jon. That would be going a little overboard with it, and it's not likely to please Jon greatly when he finds out.

Yes she has, but remember, the last time they actually spoke, Jon made it quite clear he didn't trust her powers (the whole "Where's Arya?" spiel). I agree it's overboard, but I don't think overboard is out of character for her.

Obviously the biggest chance is that I'm wrong.. GRRM cannot be predicted too accurately, haha.

[GrandPoobah]

Most Likely Candidates to Die:

• Asha or Theon for obvious reasons
  
• Barristan: he has served his purpose and we have three POV's around Meereen already
  
• Brienne or Jaime for obvious reasons, my money's on Brienne
  
• Damphair: what else could he possibly do other than pull a Maester Cressen on Euron; we will see the true extent of Euron's power
  
• Jon Con or Arianne, probably Jon Con
  

Barristan is needed by Dany once she heads to Westeros. For that matter, he's needed to help her get whatever forces she retains to Westeros.

[Seed]

First time poster!

I'm not sure why everybody's so certain that Dany and Victarion will be meeting up. Last we saw of Dany she was stranded in the wild with Drogon surrounded by Dothraki. Granted, it's Victarion's goal to find Dany, there's no assurance that he actually will. Ref: Brienne trying to find Sansa....still hasn't.

[Arkash]

Easier to find a dragon queen than a young lady lost in a entire continent trying to hide... but I personally think Vic' will find her !

[The Sunset King]

It could also be that Victarion, upon seeing that Daenerys is missing, decides that using the horn on a dragon is gain enough and decides to try to return to Westeros after having someone use it. Seems like it will depend on how long the problems at Mereen go on and the duration that Daenerys is tied up with the Dothraki.

[protar]

I think the point of views will be:

Dany: Obviously

Tyrion: Again obvious

Victarion: I think he'll die part way through but we need to see wether he manages to tame a dragon

Jon: Though I think he'll be spending a lot of time warged as ghost

Melisandre: To give us an insight on what's going on at The Wall when Jon's dead.

Theon: Will tell us what's going on at Winterfell. Makes Asha redundant.

Davos: In search of Rickon

Sansa: In the vale

Aeron: Stirring the iron isles against Euron

Jaime: In the riverlands at the start at least. Makes Brienne redundant

Arianne: Making her way to Storm's End. Makes connington redundant

Cersei: Gives us a view into KL (I don't believe she's leaving.)

Tyene: I know Martin said no more POV's but I think we need more than Cersei in KL and Tyene could give us a good view into The Faith.

Arya: Becoming an assassin.

Samwell: At the citadel with Faceless!Pate and Arellas.

Obara: Prologue character.

So that's 16 POV characters including a prologue, up to seventeen with an epilogue (though that's not guaranteed.). And no I don't think we'll be getting any Bran POV's.

[Arkash]

I was wondering for Bran too, who knows !

I think we'll have Asha and Brienne PoV but maybe barely one, leaving the major parts to Theon and Jaime, except in one of them dies which is strongly possible seing where they are now.7

Obara as a prologue is interesting, but I dont think it will be that... I think the hunt for the Darkstar will be told via Areoh PoV when news of what happenned will reach Sunspear...

By the way, you forgot Areoh, I think we'll have him, it's obvious for me !

[Itai Peer]

You all think that if you have one point of view in an area - than the other can die. But Martin loves to make "duets"

Like Tyrion and Sansa in ASOS, half of Game of Throne, or Sam episode in feast ,that was repeated by Jon first epissode in dance

Jon - no matter if he is alive, dead, un-dead, AA , Ghost like his wolf , or ghost like Casper, he will not have capter in the sixth book - otherwise the reader will just look for the POV names to find about him.

Probably will find about him in the end of the sixth , and he will be POV in the last book

[whackyplague]

I think we'll have Asha and Brienne PoV but maybe barely one, leaving the major parts to Theon and Jaime, except in one of them dies which is strongly possible seing where they are now.7

I think we'll get one each of Asha/Theon and Jaime/Brienne. Not much sense in having a lot of both of them.

[protar]

You all think that if you have one point of view in an area - than the other can die. But Martin loves to make "duets"

Like Tyrion and Sansa in ASOS, half of Game of Throne, or Sam episode in feast ,that was repeated by Jon first epissode in dance

Jon - no matter if he is alive, dead, un-dead, AA , Ghost like his wolf , or ghost like Casper, he will not have capter in the sixth book - otherwise the reader will just look for the POV names to find about him.

Probably will find about him in the end of the sixth , and he will be POV in the last book

You could also skip to the end of the book and read what happens. Most people don't want to have the book spoiled so they wont look. And it could easily be disguised with more abstract chapter titles.

I was wondering for Bran too, who knows !

I think we'll have Asha and Brienne PoV but maybe barely one, leaving the major parts to Theon and Jaime, except in one of them dies which is strongly possible seing where they are now.7

Obara as a prologue is interesting, but I dont think it will be that... I think the hunt for the Darkstar will be told via Areoh PoV when news of what happenned will reach Sunspear...

By the way, you forgot Areoh, I think we'll have him, it's obvious for me !

I did not forget Areo. I exluded him. The only Areo chapter I care to see personally is him dying horribly. I'd much rather we saw the hunt for Darkstar first hand, and I think it'd be better if Balon Swann surprised us all and survived to tell of Obara's treachery, sparking further conflict between Dorne and KL.

[ThinkerX]

"Dance of Dragons' sets the stage for two massive, pivotal conflicts in ' Winds of Winter' - a 'fire' battle in Slavers Bay, and an 'ice' battle near the Wall. To properly pull this off with POV style story telling, a POV character is going to have to be with each of the major factions in each conflict (except, perhaps, the walking corpses of the north).

So...in Slavers Bay, we have

Dany's Protector Barristan for her faction in Mereen proper;

Tyron, currently stuck in the slavers camp, which is beseiging Mereen;

Victarion, commanding a fleet which is probably going to obliterate the army which Tyron is in; and

Dany, who may or may not be hanging out with the horse people. and might not make it to the battle before it is better than half over.

(I do expect Victarion to gain at least brief control over one or two dragons - and to get seriously teed off when Dany isn't handed over to him).

In the north/wall area, we have

The Nights Watch, which could be a bit tricky to pull off, as Jon, at a minimum is going to be 'out of it' and the Red Witch has ...perspective... problems of her own rivaling those of Cersei;

Stannis's army, where we currently have a choice of Theon or his sister for POV info - but probably not both;

Boltons army encamped in the ruins of Winterfell...with no established POV characters to keep tabs on what they're up too;

and last the 'terrors beyond the wall''.

I can see the Bran POV providing 'overviews' of the whole mess, but that is likely to be a bit vague when it comes to Bolton's army and the 'ice zombies'. Maybe a prologue or epilogue type character to help fill the blanks? Maybe Theons sister makes it to the wall?

I suspect these two conflicts will dominate 'Winds' to such an extent that events in Kings Landing and Dorne take a bit of a back seat for the time being. We may have to rely on one or two Cersei, 'Sansa', and Arriane chapters to cover pretty much all of that.

After the end of 'Winds', though, the outcomes of the 'fire' and 'ice' conflicts should be settled well enough to where the action reverts to Kings Landing and other such 'central' areas.

[bogdevil]

Boltons army encamped in the ruins of Winterfell...with no established POV characters to keep tabs on what they're up too;

Maybe Davos returns with Rickon?

[Arkash]

I suspect these two conflicts will dominate 'Winds' to such an extent that events in Kings Landing and Dorne take a bit of a back seat for the time being. We may have to rely on one or two Cersei, 'Sansa', and Arriane chapters to cover pretty much all of that.

I dont believe this.

I guess the two battles + the battle of Storm's End will be the main events of the birst third of the book... then, important things might happen in the Vale / Riverlands / KL / Dorne / Reach / Iron Islands and we'll get back PoVs from Sansa / Brienne - Jaime / Cersei / Arianne - Areo / Aeron...

[Jory]

I dont believe this.

I guess the two battles + the battle of Storm's End will be the main events of the birst third of the book... then, important things might happen in the Vale / Riverlands / KL / Dorne / Reach / Iron Islands and we'll get back PoVs from Sansa / Brienne - Jaime / Cersei / Arianne - Areo / Aeron...

I don't know about that. We're facing a really big challenge here, mostly because of the material ported over from A Dance with Dragons. For the first three books, at least, you had chapter after chapter of set-up - fans who are just starting the series often complain that it is "slow-moving" though I think this is a poor complaint - and then the last third was the obvious climax. So we don't really have a precedent for these major battles, events, and sieges happening at the beginning.

I wouldn't, honestly, be surprised if the Bolton attack comes at the -end- of Winds of Winter.

[Arkash]

From what we've seen from the extract of Winds, things might go a lot more faster from now on and that is really exciting !

[Itai Peer]

I don't know about that. We're facing a really big challenge here, mostly because of the material ported over from A Dance with Dragons. For the first three books, at least, you had chapter after chapter of set-up - fans who are just starting the series often complain that it is "slow-moving" though I think this is a poor complaint - and then the last third was the obvious climax. So we don't really have a precedent for these major battles, events, and sieges happening at the beginning. I wouldn't, honestly, be surprised if the Bolton attack comes at the -end- of Winds of Winter.

:) It will not support me that after the final battle where Jon,Dany and Tyrion fly dragons and kill all the others , in their way to KL they find Winterfall still in sieges

[Arkash]

If there is this giant dragon battle, if must be damn well written not to look and sound cheesy ! I'm quite afraid of that !