Wind's Points of View.

[protar]

Before I knew about Aeron and Arianne getting chapters I had these POVs in mind for TWOW:

Tyrion

He will probably not have so many chapters, just because I think that TWOW will mainly focus on what is happening on Westeros (hence the title). Out of all the people he on Essos he will get the most, though. I assume he and the sellswords will arrive in Meereen very soon, so he will be our eyes and ears there.

Daenerys

I imagine she'll only get one or two chapters, three tops, to establish where she is and where she is going. On the other hand GRRM mentioned that Mago will play an important part in TWOW, so Dany could end up with way more chapters.

Jon/Ghost or Melisandre

Melisandre was set up as a POV character in ADWD and I think he will use her to tell us about what is happening on the Wall from now on, with the readers thinking that Jon is really dead. At least for the first half of the book. In the second half it will be revealed that Jon is in Ghost now and we will start to get chapters from his POV.

Davos

I think he will be one of the most prominent characters in the book. He'll probably start off arriving on Skagos. If GRRM wanted to tell the story of his journey he would have done it in ADWD.

Theon or Asha

I don't think that both will get chapters. I'd bet my money on Theon though, just because he is more established.

Connington

I think it's necessary to give him quite a few chapters in order to make us care about Aegon, who is a major player now.

Sansa

She is the only Stark child left who can have a substantial amount of chapters. I don't think that we will see Bran again as Bran until A Dream of Spring and we won't see much of Arya, because she is still in training. Sansa will probably have the most chapters in the book.

Arya

As mentioned before, she'll probably be still in training and we won't see much of her. One or two chapters tops, though I wouldn't put it past GRRM to leave her out of TWOW completely and then bring her back in A Dream of Spring out of the blue.

Jaime

As someone else here said, Brienne knows too much about what is going on with UnCat so we will see all the events through Jaime's eyes. I also think that he will die in this book and that Brienne will get one or two chapters to describe what is happening, but maybe not until A Dream of Spring.

Cersei

We need someone in King's Landing. That's all.

Barristan

If Tyrion or Dany don't return to Meereen in the first half of the book, Barristan will probably be our eyes and ears there. Though I don't think he will survive TWOW.

Victarion

Don't know why exactly we need him, but GRRM made a point of naming his last chapter in ADWD Victarion, instead of using a descriptive title, which makes me think that he will play an important part in TWOW.

Samwell

Yeah, well, he's in Oldtown and important things are happening there.

I was hoping that GRRM was done with the one-off characters like Areo Hotah, but the fact that Aeron gets a chapter doesn't seem to support that. Or maybe he is actually going to have a real storyarc and all my doubts will be washed away. I also hope that we are done with those weird chapter titles. Either call everyone by their first name (except for Jon Connington maybe, although it would be funny if his first chapter chapter was titled Jon and then everybody goes like "oh ... that Jon") or use descriptive titles for everyone. This back and forth is terrible for my OCD.

I also hate the one-off POV's, it feels like George has bitten off more than he can chew and can't think of ways to tell the story with his current characters. I'm also hoping we'll get fuller character arcs for all the POV's, preferably 5 chapters at least.

[the maester]

I'm keen to hear something from Greywater Watch, but not sure who could do this if a new POV is not used. We have 2 interesting pieces of information at GWW - who Rob picked as his heir, and the only surviving person from the Tower of Joy, who may be able to shed some light on R+L=J and Eddard's promise to Lyanna.

Who is close to GWW?

From memory - Jamie and

Brienne are closest.

Or what about Sansa?

[House Balstroko]

It would be great to get a POV from at least one of the Sand Snakes.

Some people think that Aegon and Daenerys will form an alliance due to their bloodline, but I anticipate that there may be a clash between them. Aegon has a stronger claim being the son of the prince in line to rule but Dany has her dragons. Dany was raised believing that she and Viserys were the last surviving Targaryens so she may find it difficult to accept that someone wants to take her throne and I doubt that she would want to marry a Targaryen considering all she went through.

Who I think will die in TWOW (POV's):

-Barristan

-at least one of Balon's brothers (Aeron?)

-Asha or Theon

-Brienne

-Areo Hotah

Who I think will at least survive till ADOS or the whole series

-Tyrion (he's just too damn awesome)

-Daenerys (princess of fire)

-Jon (if he isn't dead)

-Bran and Arya

-Cersei (Varys will keep her safe so she can keep on screwing her kingdom :D )

[GrandPoobah]

Bran's last POV was about him becoming what he is now, and tipping the hat to folks who've read the Dunk & Egg stories about Brynden Rivers/Bloodraven.

Bran will cease to be a POV character and settle in to being a crystal ball or plot device. As several have pointed out, he'll know too much to be a POV character. Because he can effectively project himself anywhere via the ravens/trees, we'll see him (or hints of him and his handywork) in numerous POVs. So the character didn't go all that way to "die." He went there to serve his purpose to the story. He'll be the annoying bird in the room giving maesters and kings what they think is just a bird making annoying chatter (that somehow proves to be words of wisdom). As Bloodraven has been doing for some time?

The sticky wicket for Martin is the disposition of the rest of his party. Is there a POV character that can rescue them? Will they pop up and meet one of them without any needless travelogue exposition? We don't really need to read three or four long chapters about them leaving the cave, eluding The Others, and getting safely to/south of The Wall. It doesn't advance story and doesn't give us anything we need to know.

[protar]

Bran's last POV was about him becoming what he is now, and tipping the hat to folks who've read the Dunk & Egg stories about Brynden Rivers/Bloodraven.

Bran will cease to be a POV character and settle in to being a crystal ball or plot device. As several have pointed out, he'll know too much to be a POV character. Because he can effectively project himself anywhere via the ravens/trees, we'll see him (or hints of him and his handywork) in numerous POVs. So the character didn't go all that way to "die." He went there to serve his purpose to the story. He'll be the annoying bird in the room giving maesters and kings what they think is just a bird making annoying chatter (that somehow proves to be words of wisdom). As Bloodraven has been doing for some time?

The sticky wicket for Martin is the disposition of the rest of his party. Is there a POV character that can rescue them? Will they pop up and meet one of them without any needless travelogue exposition? We don't really need to read three or four long chapters about them leaving the cave, eluding The Others, and getting safely to/south of The Wall. It doesn't advance story and doesn't give us anything we need to know.

I think Jaime might (ironically I know.) be sent to rescue him by Uncat.

[Lord Varys]

Bran will not cease to be a POV character. He will the guy who tells us (and possibly other characters) the history of Westeros, and the truth about the Others. No one else can do this.

[protar]

Bran will not cease to be a POV character. He will the guy who tells us (and possibly other characters) the history of Westeros, and the truth about the Others. No one else can do this.

I think that Martin will want to save these things for the last book, which (if my theory about him having to stretch out the series is correct.) is still a couple of books away.

I think Bran has become a danger to Martin's writing, in that he can just use Bran as a crutch to give any neccesary exposition by having Bran see something through a weirwood, or the eyes of a raven etc. To me this would seem cheap and Bran's chapters would feel incredibly disjointed. I don't want them to become some expository pick and mix, each one looking at a different place as the plot demands. The story would be much improved imo if we only saw Bran from other people's POV's from now on. Especially as TWOW seems to be much faster paced than AFFC/ADWD based on the sample chapters, this would be ruined a bit by having fifty pages of random exposition chapters.

[Lord Varys]

Not sure about that. As of yet, we have no idea what the Others are or what they want. Nor have we any clue at all about the last Long Night, the Last Hero, who and how the Wall was raised, why there are freak seasons, and so on.

Those things should be addressed and resolved properly. That's all exposition, not a plot twist at the very end of the series. Knowing what the Others are, what they want, and how they were defeated the last time, will not necessarily give away how they deal with them this time. Say, if the Children of the Forest were the deciding factor last time, whoever will end fighting the last battle most likely will not be able to count upon them this time.

Considering the centuries the history of Westeros is spanning, there could be more than a few chapters about this.

And then there are is the whole thing about Bran being able to actually influence past events in Westeros. Maybe he (and/or Bloodraven) caused the Blackfyre Rebellion or Robert's Rebellion? Jaime seems to be dangling on Bran's threads as well since ASoS. And then it's more than likely that Bran and Bloodraven knew (or think they knew) who they have to find (or create) to fight the war against the Others (i.e. Azor Ahai).

[protar]

Not sure about that. As of yet, we have no idea what the Others are or what they want. Nor have we any clue at all about the last Long Night, the Last Hero, who and how the Wall was raised, why there are freak seasons, and so on.

Those things should be addressed and resolved properly. That's all exposition, not a plot twist at the very end of the series. Knowing what the Others are, what they want, and how they were defeated the last time, will not necessarily give away how they deal with them this time. Say, if the Children of the Forest were the deciding factor last time, whoever will end fighting the last battle most likely will not be able to count upon them this time.

Considering the centuries the history of Westeros is spanning, there could be more than a few chapters about this.

And then there are is the whole thing about Bran being able to actually influence past events in Westeros. Maybe he (and/or Bloodraven) caused the Blackfyre Rebellion or Robert's Rebellion? Jaime seems to be dangling on Bran's threads as well since ASoS. And then it's more than likely that Bran and Bloodraven knew (or think they knew) who they have to find (or create) to fight the war against the Others (i.e. Azor Ahai).

Those are all good points, but I say again, I think most of those things can wait until the last book. And I don't mean as a twist at the end, but they could be discovered during the last book (or second to last, which I don't think TWOW will be.). And in any case Bran is not the only one who can tell us things about the Others. Sam could unearth something in the citadel, Theon could delve into the crypts of Winterfell, Jaime could visit the isle of faces. Your post illustrates exactly why I don't think Bran should be a POV any more: His chapters would just become history lessons. To have Bran just be able to have magical visions showing us how to defeat the Others would undermine the mystique that comes with them.

And furthermore, I'm also concerned about what Bran's doing during the present. I think he's planning something with Theon and possibly with Jaime and other characters as well. Would it not be so much more entertaining to see bits and pieces of this plan across all the POV's, rather than having the whole plan unveiled in Bran chapters? The kid knows too much.

[Lord Varys]

Yeah, well, all his playing with important characters could be stuff he does in the future. We don't know from which time Bran sent Jaime his dreams (if he did this), or from which time he tried to contact Theon at Winterfell.

So it's easily possible to read lots of Bran chapters in the next volume which do not actually give away anything about the things he is doing.

As to other characters finding the truth about the very distant past:

I very much doubt that this will lead to anything. There is some ancient knowledge in the Citadel - most importantly that tome 'The Death of the Dragons' - but I'm convinced that the maesters don't have a clue about what really happened during the Long Night. It has already been established that the First Men left no books, only runes on stone. The truth is in the trees, and only Bran has access to it.

[Gromdal]

Here's my 2 cents. Spoilers if you did not read all of the sample chapters from TWoW.

Its not important actually how many PoV characters we have, but their location. If Pov are scatered Martin has problems to tell the story. If they are on few locations Martin has OPTIONS to tell the story from different angles which is good. That's what Martin will try to do, join some characters together.

That said the locasiots will be: Meeren ( Tyrion, Baristan(maybe a Pov, or not) and Victarion, with maybe Dany) I think Victarion and Tyrion are crucial here, because the battle for Meeren is new Blackwater, and not just that Victarion may or may not get the dragons, he is a crucial part of the battle as we "see" in his chapter that Martin read. Victarion I think has major roll to play in the series.

Dany: I hope that Martyn merges her with the rest on Esos after the battle, but maybe not. Long story short I think Dany will go to Ashai (probably with VIctarion and Tyrion and the army, but maybe not) , and reach Westeros from the east. To go forward you must go back (done), to go west you must go east + to reach the light you pass beneath the shadow= Ashai. I don't see her coming to Westeros till the last book.

Wall: Mel, Jon is unlikely to be PoV, but we might not see Wall at all from a PoV. Maybe for the better, to reduce the number of Locations and ad mystery. Unlikely thou.

Lands of Always Winter: Martin said in interview will see them and more about others in TWoW. So most likely Bran's (Major role for him) PoV trough visions, or Jon trough Ghost (unlikely).

North(WInterfell) Theon/Asha. I think Theon will get sacrfised to the Tree with a twist, don't think he will die, but may lose PoV. There will be a second battle here. "Battle in the ice" Martin calls here at the start of the book. Hope Stanis lives.

Riverlands: Jamie/Briene, probably Jamie.

Storamlnds: Ariena, Jon (Conington, I have a feeling his chapters will be name Jon now, just to shock some readers who will think its Snow :), but thats just a guess). Probably merged with KL somewhere in the middle of the book.

Iron Islands/Reach: Damphir a few, not many chapters.

Old Town/Reach: Sam, maybe merged with Ironman stories. Maybe even left without PoV.

And KL: Cercey and someone else, heres hoping for Tiene. Maybe Jamie comes to KL, in any case we need more eyes there. Or if not, Aegon will take it fast and we get eyes.

Erie: Sansa

Maybe: Davos, Arya. Martin aybe cuts them unless they aren't really suppose to show us something major.

Also I don't think we will have another "war of five kings". I think Aegon takes KL fast, and we won't see any major feud between him and other pretenders. He will either die fast (probably not), take a fast diplomatic approach with everyone, especially Dany, or danger of the north will finally become to big to ignore and fight a civil war.

[blackseer]

It seems to me that any here believes that Bran will only be used as a tool to tell the story, instead of a character. It would be a grave error of GRRM to just leave Bran the way he is now, not showing us the results of his journey, his relationship with the Reeds, how he treats Hodor and his passion of a nine years old boy.

I don't think Bran has a master plan on his sleeve when he is contacting Theon, unless he is being guided by Bloodraven or it's future Bran messing with the past (which I would hate more than Lost). And he would never talk to Jaime, unless something really big happened to him in the cave. Whenever he tried to remember him, he almost passed out from the trauma.

And Bran is not all powerful yet. When we left him, he couldn't control what to see and only from the weirwood in Winterfell. We can't discount him as a POV yet.

[Lord Varys]

Of course, Bran will continue to be a character. The whole thing about him deciding to become a living tree was heartbreaking. GRRM will (and can't) just leave him there and transform him to some guy who talks (and acts) through trees and birds. This would be stupid.

But I guess we got no additional Bran chapter in ADwD because the whole Theon thing will become prominent during/before the battle between Stannis and the Boltons, so showing us the preparations/manipulation for this from Bran's POV would have been a mistake.

[protar]

Of course, Bran will continue to be a character. The whole thing about him deciding to become a living tree was heartbreaking. GRRM will (and can't) just leave him there and transform him to some guy who talks (and acts) through trees and birds. This would be stupid.

But I guess we got no additional Bran chapter in ADwD because the whole Theon thing will become prominent during/before the battle between Stannis and the Boltons, so showing us the preparations/manipulation for this from Bran's POV would have been a mistake.

I don't think it would be stupid, I think it would be really interesting. We'd just see little bits and pieces of his influence and for the astute readers it'd be like "hey, that was Bran, cool". He would still exist as a character, we'd see him again in person in the last 2 books, so his characterisation wouldn't be ruined. And it'd be great fuel for conversation as well. I do however think that we'll get one Bran POV as the last chapter of the book, to unveal some secret or another, but I think having him as a POV throughout would be an overload.

[House Balstroko]

If Martin wants to close the series at 7 books, I think all 20 POV's will have to appear at least once, since he doesn't want to write books in parallel like AFFC and ADWD.

The only one that I think could be excluded is Areo Hotah, if we get Arianne.

[Lan the Clever]

I think every POV character will have at least one POV or two. So...

Arya- Will have 4 or 5 chapters and will make it through the book;

Bran-Will have 4 or 5 chapters and will help Jon Snow to get a hold of himself while possessing Ghost. Will make it to ADoS;

Jon- Will likely return at the second half ot the book, therefore having only a few POV chapters;

Melisandre- I get a feeling she will die, but not before having her handful of chapters;

Theon- A real enigma. Will he die at the beginning or will he be put to some use by Bran? Only Martin knows;

Asha- I think either she or her brother dies. If not her, we'll likely see Winterfell and the North through her eyes;

Aeron- I doubt he'll have many POV's, and he somehow seems like a good candidate for being killed, so I doubt he will;

Brienne- Will die, perhaps, saving her beloved Jaime. Or not;

Jaime- It would be a waste of a good character to kill him. That's not why I think he'll live, though. He might be oneof the characters with the most POV's;

Cersei- Who else do we have in KL? That means she will probably have a lot of POV's;

Davos- I hope he has quite a few chapters. And that he doesn't die. He's one of the best characters;

Sansa- She will probably have more than 10 POV's. They'll probably be very interesting too. And no, she won't die;

Daenerys- As much I'd like to see her die (she's boring and stupid), I'm not seeing it happen in the next book. But hey! who knows? She'll probably have quite a few chapters, as usual;

Tyrion- He's not dying. No way. He'll be one of the characters with the most POV's, I bet;

Arianne- I really don't know. I don't think she'll die, but that's about as much as I can say;

Victarion- Somehow, I think he'll die; After getting 4 or 5 chapters;

Barristan- I give him a 50/50 chance of survival. He'll have about as many chapters as Victarion, I guess;

Areo- Will have 2 or 3 chapters, I expect. But I don't think he'll die;

Gerrold- Darkstar will die, I suspect, after having a few chapters.

[House Balstroko]

I think every POV character will have at least one POV or two. So...

Arya- Will have 4 or 5 chapters and will make it through the book;

Bran-Will have 4 or 5 chapters and will help Jon Snow to get a hold of himself while possessing Ghost. Will make it to ADoS;

Jon- Will likely return at the second half ot the book, therefore having only a few POV chapters;

Melisandre- I get a feeling she will die, but not before having her handful of chapters;

Theon- A real enigma. Will he die at the beginning or will he be put to some use by Bran? Only Martin knows;

Asha- I think either she or her brother dies. If not her, we'll likely see Winterfell and the North through her eyes;

Aeron- I doubt he'll have many POV's, and he somehow seems like a good candidate for being killed, so I doubt he will;

Brienne- Will die, perhaps, saving her beloved Jaime. Or not;

Jaime- It would be a waste of a good character to kill him. That's not why I think he'll live, though. He might be oneof the characters with the most POV's;

Cersei- Who else do we have in KL? That means she will probably have a lot of POV's;

Davos- I hope he has quite a few chapters. And that he doesn't die. He's one of the best characters;

Sansa- She will probably have more than 10 POV's. They'll probably be very interesting too. And no, she won't die;

Daenerys- As much I'd like to see her die (she's boring and stupid), I'm not seeing it happen in the next book. But hey! who knows? She'll probably have quite a few chapters, as usual;

Tyrion- He's not dying. No way. He'll be one of the characters with the most POV's, I bet;

Arianne- I really don't know. I don't think she'll die, but that's about as much as I can say;

Victarion- Somehow, I think he'll die; After getting 4 or 5 chapters;

Barristan- I give him a 50/50 chance of survival. He'll have about as many chapters as Victarion, I guess;

Areo- Will have 2 or 3 chapters, I expect. But I don't think he'll die;

Gerrold- Darkstar will die, I suspect, after having a few chapters.

Agreed, but I hope Melisandre will make it till ADOS. She's still quite mysterious and it'd be nice to see her contribution to the final struggle.

[protar]

Where has this idea come from the Darkstar could be a POV? What does he add to the plot as a POV exactly?

[The Meeraculous Third Reed]

Where has this idea come from the Darkstar could be a POV? What does he add to the plot as a POV exactly?

Essentially it's just that people want an "armchair view" of Swann vs Darkstar if it should occur.

[Celeste Greyjoy]

Theon must be redeemed.