Time Warp

[CrypticWeirwood]

Don’t wolves eat their victims bodies

Always. Otherwise our lupine friends no cause for mayhem and murder. Even wolverines, which in contrast are known for such, still chow down on their kills, and quite voraciously. Solitary wolverines are known to kill deer and caribou, even elk and moose. They’ve been known to fight off polar bears. They make a wolf seem like a puppy dog with a waggy tail. The wolf pack can defeat them, but the solitary wolf must be very careful, for wolf cubs are common wolverine prey.

Higgledy-piggledy

Lord Wyman Manderly

Sups with his foes, leaving

Nary a crumb.

Wolvering wolverenes

Incontrovertibly

Tell all who hearken that

Winter is come.

[Ghost714]

dont wolves eat their victims bodies

The poster made it sound like Arya would be eating the bodies of her victims, with her own body(not her wolves), and they made it sound like it was somehow in connection with Arya being a Faceless (wo)Man.

[cybroleach]

I imagine Sam and Arya's training will just be accelerated a bit and they will develop quicker than their peers. This may risk looking a bit too convenient, but if it's done well (like I'm sure it will, trusting in George as I do) I don't think it will matter so long as their chapters are good and develop the story.

Sam's Oldtown chapters I expect will provide us with a whole lot of cool info and Arya's have unpredictable potential.

I'd imagine your right where we'll see Sam be something of a prodigy, he's already a very well read and studious individual with training under one of the greatest maester in westeros. He probably can pass Ravenery & economics without any study already. Although given his neck girth, he does need more rings than the average acolyte to become a maester. Still if he gets one-three links a month within a year he could be a maester.

Arya I've never expected to finish her training anyways her plot is filled with unexpected twists.

[sp1um]

That said, Martin could employ a time gap at some point in or after Book 6. We know that the 5 year gap after Book 3 was abandoned because there was no reason why Dorne wouldn't respond immediately to Oberyn's death. But winter has begun, and if it is half as harsh as I expect it to be, it'd be a perfectly good reason for characters to hunker down wherever they are to ride it out for a period of time, conveniently aging/training in the process.

I think so too, since the last book is going to be A Dream of Spring, and it's been often said that winter would last as long as summer if not longer, meaning about 10 years!

Although maybe the last book will still be during winter which will end towards the end, hence the "dream" of spring.

[Alric Stark]

I agree with some of the above posters either he could put in a gap due to Winter or through the books slow the narrative basicly stating that during the 5 years where Winter is the harshest Houses have dug in and focused on survivial and only doing POV's for signifigant events showing the pasaage of time.

[baxter]

So, I guess I'm being an idiot here, it's been awhile since I read the books, what is this 5 year gap / time warp that is being discussed?

[NewJeffCT]

So, I guess I'm being an idiot here, it's been awhile since I read the books, what is this 5 year gap / time warp that is being discussed?

George R.R. Martin was considering inserting a 5 year gap in the story after A Storm of Swords. So, after the events of ASoS, the next book would have picked up five years later. However, he decided against it, but people in this thread have been speculating that he could always put one into The Winds of Winter - somewhere in the middle, I would hope, so we can at least resolve some of the cliffhangers that ended ADwD.

[CrypticWeirwood]

George R.R. Martin was considering inserting a 5 year gap in the story after A Storm of Swords.

Instead, he just inserted it into the publishing cycle between Feast and Dance. </whine>

[NewJeffCT]

Instead, he just inserted it into the publishing cycle between Feast and Dance. </whine>

Not to mention before Feast, too. </pout>

[girlfrommonday]

Faceless Men can't kill people they know. Why do you think everyone on the ship was telling Arya their names like a hundred times when she was sailing across the Narrow Sea?

so then the question is, who is an important character that Arya does NOT know?

for me, the question is if she counts everybody from all every previous lifes? For example: she gets the contract to kill Roose Bolton (highly unlikely but suppose if) and then what? Arya of House Stark does not know Bolton, but Nan knows him? But now she is (almost) one of the Faceless Men, and her only identity is "no one", so she can't know him also... And since when acquaintance is important - I mean, people from life before being Faceless counts also for sure? And what means changing appearance/identifity of Faceless Man? Whether he/she retains (in terms of killing rules) prior acquaintance of other people?

I'm sorry, maybe I ask obvious questions, but I don't have my books near me.

and second question: keeping with the theoretic example of Roose Bolton - suppose Arya is aware that he killed Robb, and then what? I don't believe in her new religiosity and that she don't take the oportunity to kill Roose/Cersei/whoever she hates. Faceless Men can't verify all her acquitances, it is the matter of being in harmony with religion of Many-Faced God. And if Arya at the end will be "I'm really Old Gods girl and I can kill everybody"?

[The Phoenix]

1. The maesters have a test for magical aptitude, though nobody passes it because magic is gone.

2. With the return of dragons, magic is returning to the world.

3. Sam always wanted to become a wizard.

It is known.

[Miriamele]

I'm not sure Arya will become a faceless man. I think at one point something will make her abandon her training and go back to Westeros. Like she hears of a plot to murder Jon (if he is alive). Or she might be told to kill Alayne Stone and, once there, recognizes Sansa. She promised her father not to stab her sister after all.

[Dolorous Ali]

We don't know how long Arya's training take; because we know very little about the FM. Once she learns how to lie about her identity the training might go very fast. And I don't think Sam's going to finish his training. He will learn something important and run back to the wall. With all this said, I don't think GRRM will finish this series in 7 books, at least 8. He might even finish it in 10 books. There's also another thought that bothers me: he might not finish it at all. I mean in any second he can announce that he doesn't wanna write anymore and he is retired. That'd be his right, and we can't stop him from doing that. Taht'd be very very dreadful for me.

[Ibbison from Ibben]

Sam could make major plot contributions long before he becomes a maester. He has already helped get Archmaester Marwyn moving east. He could come across some vital piece of anti-Other knowledge in an old dusty book. He could stumble across some old septon who secretly performed a marriage at the Tower of Joy about sixteen years ago. And then there's that ancient weirwood tree that no one is using, giving Sam a chance to receive a tree-mail message from Bran. Lots o' possibilities.

[Golden Twin]

I was disappointed that GRRM had scrapped the time jump, I was pretty much looking forward to it. Honestly, the Iron Throne plot is near its end to be sure. Tommen is boned, one of the Targs (or both) will end up grabbing the throne. What I wanna see is the Citadel story and bringing justice to the Freys and Boltons. Stannis? Probably won't get anything.

It begs the question - does the storyline require Sam and Arya to finish their training? With Jon dead and Arya becoming more a 'no-one', will the two even want serve some purpose after their training is finished? I somehow doubt it.

[sadfascist]

A five-year timeskip to age up the kids would be nice, but the more realistic question at this point is how many *days* will TWOW actually cover?

ADWD took place over something like 7 months, and I'm guessing TWOW is going to be much less than that. Remember that it includes both the Battle of Meereen and the Battle of Winterfell, plus assorted fallout. I mean hypothetically the Meereen stuff could be 20 chapters long but only cover 3 days in the story.

[Domelition]

What is the possibility of the five year gap occuring mid-war through Winds of Winter?

[baxter]

Personally, the setup to me has always been Arya is trying to learn enough about being an assassin so she can confidently set off for those on her list. Her hiding Needle and using warging to beat the blindness suggest to me she has no intention of abandoning Arya Stark. She's just trying to get time under her belt (and probably age up so she can self sustain) and then go after everyone.

There is no way in hell she is killing a Stark, she may accept a hit to get over there though. I don't think she's brainwashing Arya a way.

[Valmorfëa]

I think having Sam in the Citadel is extremely useful, and I don't see why he shouldn't finish his training... being a Maester brings so many advantages, as well as being in the Citadel. Through him we can be privy to so much cool stuff going on; I hope he never goes back to the boring Wall! All the books he could read, and all the research... imagine what we could find out about the First Men, the dragons, etc etc :drool: plus all the political intrigue among the academics! And Alleras... I can't wait to see what's been going on in Oldtown.

I don't know why people are so bothered by Arya being an assassin? It's not like she's an innocent little girl being made to do horrible things... she's already killed/maimed a bunch of people without a second thought! But, as someone mentioned above, it is going to be a question of whether she can abandon her former identity (as someone mentioned above)... on the one hand. On the other I don't see the Faceless Men just letting her leave after letting her become privy to their secrets, especially their most prized one - the changing on the faces! So I'm not sure what will happen there.

But back on topic, I was also kind of hoping for a bit of a time warp... I think we could have done without all the travelling chapters and just jumped forward a little with Victarion and Tyrion arriving in Meereen. Then again, there's so much relatively important stuff going on it's hard to think of where GRRM can cut the story... as someone said, maybe at the end of TWoW. Aegon is on the throne, bad stuff is happening up North and Dany is... stalling/saving slaves/sipping cocktails in Asshai/busy with a new boytoy. And then we pick up with White Walkers strolling into KL.

[koststerg]

I don't see a renewal of the 5-year gap and I don't think it can be "sliced" and introduced between chapters. Always stories move faster when they are closer to the end and this has been a very fast-moving story already. As every book lasts approximately 6 months I think the end will be 1 year from now or sooner so sorry folks but there is no time for Arya to master any assassin skills or for Sam to be learn anything complicated like being a Maester or a magician.

But that I think is OK because the purpose of Arya in the story is to bring in contact Dany with Bran and Jon by developing her warg skills and communicating with Bran when he is ready (and this I think will happen soon). She already is moving fast in that direction by warging in cats (she is the first to manage that except for Bran)

As for Sam things are not that clear for his purpose but I think it has to do with "Pate" and a certain hidden book about dragons or information about the others or even the role of the Maesters in the death of dragons and the real motives of this plan. In any case I think he soon will have to abundane his training and head north.