The Slaver's Bay Three

[Winterfell is Burning]

I don't think any of them will die just yet. They'll end up being part of Dany's entourage when she arrives in Westeros.

After they arrive, though, it's every man for himself and GRRM against them all.

[Lonin]

I think one of the three will die in the battle of Slavers Bay.

Barristan - I believe his story completes with his death defending the (new) Targaryen Dynasty in Westeros, so he lives.

Tyrion - "I know much and more about dragons", he helps train the dragons, so he lives.

Victarion - dead man walking.

[TKO]

How about?

VIctarian uses horn. Dragon attacks Victarion. POV BREAK. Victarion brings back dragons head.

[Ned Dayne]

I think one of the three will die in the battle of Slavers Bay.

Barristan - I believe his story completes with his death defending the (new) Targaryen Dynasty in Westeros, so he lives.

I really never thought of that as a possibility for Barristan before, but I think its the only way to end his story should end.

How about?

VIctarian uses horn. Dragon attacks Victarion. POV BREAK. Victarion brings back dragons head.

This would just be awesome.

[Babeldygob]

I too would not like Barristan to die in Meereen, but it seems to me that Victarion's journey to Dany would be pointless if he died in the battle for Meereen unless Moqorro is somehow more important than him, which seems doubtful at best. I also feel there's still a standoff between Euron and Victarion we have to see, I enjoyed their last conversation, now add swords... BOOM! Tyrion won't die just yet, there are too much open storylines just yet (he's heir to the Rock, he's probably the valonquar in the common reader's eyes, Tysha, the fact he hasn't used his knowledge of dragons yet, ...

What if Dany dies? :o :P

There are still plenty of sidecharacters who could die though:

-all of the Grezla Mo Zonaks

-Moqorro

-the Dusky Woman

-Penny

-Brown Ben Plumm

-Daario

-Grey Worm

-Missandei

and I'm sure there are plenty I forgot.

[LordDolorousEdd]

Martin pretty much openly admitted that Barristan as a POV was his way out of the Mereen knot. (I think it was that google question submission interview). . .

He said something that he intends the battle to be observed from multiple angles, obviously he needed someone inside Mereen to get that perspective. I think we'll get no Vic POVs until after the battle, with an exceptional revelation (he rescued/kidnapped Dany, or tamed a dragon through Moqorro, something unexpected).

What I don't want is another Tyrion melee POV. For such a small guy he's already had too much luck surviving melees (Green Fork, Blackwater wreckage bridge). It's going to break some realism for him to make out on another imo. Hopefully he's smart enough to sit this one out.

we already know that vic has a POV chapter pre battle as GRRM read it out (its on youtube).

I think it will be Barristan if anyone after or during the battle (has anyone else noticed that no one important ever seems to die in big battles?)

that being said i like it when there is a few POV characters in one place because you get to analyse the situation in such depth from multiple angles.

[kha_alim]

we already know that vic has a POV chapter pre battle as GRRM read it out (its on youtube).

I think it will be Barristan if anyone after or during the battle (has anyone else noticed that no one important ever seems to die in big battles?)

that being said i like it when there is a few POV characters in one place because you get to analyse the situation in such depth from multiple angles.

There is also a Tyrion POV just before the battle. Where they are planning on changing sides again. So there is a good possibility that Tyrion will see some action (while trying to free the prisoners), thou probably not on the front lines as last few times.

I think none of them will die in battle.

In his povs Barristan mentions that his age is catching up to him. He can no longer climb the stairs as he used to, slow, weak, old. Barristan will probably not make it back to Westeros, but only because of his age, rather than the result of battle.

I think Tyrion will survive, he has a good shield, lets call it magic plot armor along with being the favorite of G.

Victarion will also prob. survive. I mean even if he is betrayed/tricked by Euron he would probably somehow see it in time and survive. Mainly because Danny needs a good fleet admiral to take her and her armies home across the narrow see. Magic plot armor.

[The Meeraculous Third Reed]

I believe Barristan will be stabbed in the back (quite probably literally) by Jorah.

[aDaffodil]

I don't see any of these three actually dying during this battle. I feel they all have so much they can offer Dany still that it would be silly to simply end their story. That being said though if one were to die I have to say it will be Barristan, I love him and all but he's getting old and I think a major battle like this will really takes it's toll on him.

[Anya, Vengeance Demon]

I see Victarion dying, maybe not during the battle but shortly thereafter. It seems pretty obvious that Euron and Moqorro are both playing him (not to say that they're working together, just that he's somebody that's easy to manipulate).

Barristan's history with the Golden Company--namely, the fact that he's killed so many of them, and would likely be hostile to the survivors, thanks to his service in the War of the Ninepenny Kings--suggests that he'll be alive long enough to face off against Jon Connington and the crew surrounding King Aegon.

Tyrion's one of the five most important characters in the series, and will not die until at least well into book seven, if at all.

[Gogossos]

Let me start with the big picture: Dany needs to get to Westeros. Barristan's journey needs a Westeros closure and also Dany arriving with Barristan says a lot about her and helps to cut about a third of the dialogue that would otherwise be. So Barristan survives. Victarion's purpose in this story is to bring a thousand ships to Dany and his tale really has nowhere else to go, he won't be able haul Dany on his shoulders and kidnap her. So he dies. Tyrion has a lot of unfinished business: with Cersei, with Jamie, with the Where do whores go?, with Pentos now and the Second Sons, with Dany and the dragons obviously. So he lives.

[TymCon]

This is how I imagine BArristan dies (if).

The battle is won, Mormont is back, there's a collasal celebration, drums wine and everything. It's peaceful and happy, but Barristan is feeling old and believes Dany is safe so he goes up to his bed.

As he lies there, he can feel the beat of the drums through the bed, and he thinks about his life, Ashara Dayne, Reagar, his brothers, how Dany is the leader Aerys never was (so on so forth in a happy way), and his chapter ends like this:...

Then the very next chapter is Danys and it begins with this line: "Your Grace, Ser Barristan Selmy is dead."

Dying in bed :(

[scurvy]

Barristan was my favorite second tier character until he got a few chapters of his own in DwD. I really like him and will be disappointed if he dies. I expect his life to come full circle- in a battle against Baratheon (Stannis) + Stark (North) in defense of the Targaryen Dynast.

He should have died on the Trident at Rhaegar's side. It would only be fitting for the same battle to play out and for him to die at Dany's side.

[Chaircat Meow]

I think either Barristan or Vic will die and perhaps both.

[Dunkin' Eggs]

I highly doubt that it'll be Tyrion that dies. If he does, I just see too many unsatisfying things about his story arc if he never gets back to Westeros. If he doesn't get there, I doubt that anyone would ever find out that he was ever involved with Dany which seems pointless. Also, he never gets revenge on his sister, he never gets any ultimate recognition about what he did at the Battle of the Blackwater, and he never gets to shove it in the entire worlds' face that he is the lord of casterly rock despite being a dwarf. Him dying doesn't do anything to catapult the story forward like it did with Ned, which was definitely a great use of "offing" a character.

Barristan Selmy is less tough to kill. He really has no more revenge factor left because everyone that pissed him off before he left Westeros is either dead or incapacitated, so him getting back there doesn't seem to be imperative. However, If there is anything to the theory of Tyrion being a Targ, I would think that Barristan would have to be alive at least long enough to tell him that he is a Targ or else what's the point? If it was hinted at a bunch of times in the earlier books that his parentage was in question, and then much later there is even more information revealed that backs up that very same thing, and then George just kills off all the people that knew anything about it before anyone of importance (Tyrion, Dany) learns about it just seems a little odd to me. Of course there is the possibility that Selmy really doesn't know anymore than what he's already told Dany and there is some other way that everyone finds out.

Victarion is by far the most interesting one. I agree at this point that he could die in the Mereen Battle and pretty much have fulfilled his characters' role, but there is one thing in particular that gives me pause. What we've seen happen to Vic here regarding his hand is one of the most magical things we've seen happen in these novels. I would think that if George is going to introduce something like this into his "realistic fantasy" story, he's going to give us a little more explanation about how Moqorro did that and/or what Vic's fire-hand is actually doing or what it can do. I believe this because the magic of his hand is clearly having a physical, tangible impact on the environment and of the story itself, and in every other case that we've been exposed to real magic we've gotten some kind of explanation for it. For example, just like with the Melisandre shadow babies - which was another spell that actualy did something physically to something or someone - we eventually learned that Mel was using parts of Stannis' life-essence/soul as a key component to the spell. Also, the Glamour that she casts on Rattleshirt and Mance was another spell that physically effected a character and was, again, given some kind of explanation.

So we have one of four options for Vic here. He can be successful with binding the horn to him and then die, which to me is pointless because why would you introduce a magical fire-hand into the story, give it to a character, show that the hand works, and then kill the character while at the same time putting all the rest of the characters back to square one and not advance anything.

A second option is that he is successful with the horn and lives, rendering him (obviously) not dead and in control of 1-2 Dragons. Plus we would then know that Euron didn't know about Moqorro, that Euron is not as clever as we thought, and that Moqorro at least was being sincere as far as looking out for Vic.

The third option is he is unsuccessful and dies, in which case I put forth my first argument; mainly wondering why it is revealed that Red Priests can make firey appendages if it ultimately ends up doing nothing. The only way this scenario would make sense is if either Moqorro was binding it to himself the entire time and fooled Vic or he's some kind of agent of Euron or Euron himself (which I don't subscribe to).

The fourth option is that he could be unsuccessful with the binding, yet still come out alive. In this scenario, Vic is alive, but the magical phenomenon (a.k.a. "fiery appendage") turns out to be a dud. George could be doing this to show us that not every magical spell is necessarily going to work perfectly, which up until now they pretty much have. Perhaps Vic does something else amazing with his fire fist that we're not expecting which ends up being the main reason why he survives/wins the war.

So in summary:

1. I would be utterly shocked/not pleased if Tyrion dies

2. I have to put Barristan as the most probable to die simply because my main argument for him living is based on a rumor that may or may not be true.

3. I just don't see Vic dying unless Euron/Moqorro was behind it the whole time and they used the fiery appendage trick to get the horn under their control thus advancing the story.

What I would prefer if I had to choose someone would be Selmy only because I am more interested to see what Vic's fire-hand can do, and more importantly, how Moqorro accomplished it. I also don't mind Vic as much as some other people do. Sure we always knew he was kind of dumb, (and now we know it for a fact) but we cannot deny that throughout human history people have reaped the benefis of being ruthless and immoral human beings. These books are known for giving us the hard truths that sometimes the bad guys just win. I also pity the remaining Greyjoy's to some extent. I compare the current state of House Greyjoy at the beginning of ASoIaF like Germany after WW2. Their leader led them down a terrible path that was clearly unjustifiable (The Last Greyjoy Rebellion) and rightfully needed to be stopped, which was. However, the turmoil that the innocent nobles and the smallfolk of the Iron Islands had to suffer because of their leaders' bad choices were devistating. The ecomony of the Iron Islands probably plummeted for a time because no one wanted to be associated with traitors. They most likely had no money left because they spent it all on the war, and they have a gloomy geographical location to begin with that just makes them harder people in general. To me it's no woder Vic grew up to be a brute. Look at the enviroment he had to grow up in; a country whose economy and morality systems were so far behind because of their leader's bad choices, which Asha uses as her campaign slogan at the Moot.

[alienarea]

Tyrion should die. He has used a lot of luck already.

[Targaryen loyalist]

Barristan's history with the Golden Company--namely, the fact that he's killed so many of them, and would likely be hostile to the survivors, thanks to his service in the War of the Ninepenny Kings--suggests that he'll be alive long enough to face off against Jon Connington and the crew surrounding King Aegon.

I like this. If Barristan dies, when Dany will meet Aegon she will have only Tyrion's advice (that is favourable towards Aegon). However, for plot purpose, I think that with Barristan saying "Never trust the GC, etc" things will be much more interesting, as Dany might decide to listen to Barristan and mistrust Aegon.

[IKE]

What if Dany dies? :o :P

There are still plenty of sidecharacters who could die though:

-all of the Grezla Mo Zonaks

-Moqorro

-the Dusky Woman

-Penny

-Brown Ben Plumm

-Daario

-Grey Worm

-Missandei

and I'm sure there are plenty I forgot.

This, I can see. Grey Worm and the unsullied are in a lot of danger I believe. I have a hard time imagining them in Westeros.

The more I think about it the harder time I can imagine the three povs getting up in trouble. Perhaps one pulls a Tyrion on blackwater bay and goes MIA on Povs for a while. But really, I can't see Barristan's plot armor any more thick than Vic's. Both have an arc that have puzzle pieces not yet in play.

I agree with the joke Babel. I think there will be some unexpected outcome with Dany in this one. She is captured by the khalassar or slavers or something. Hence the slaver's bay 3 riding to her rescue. Da da da duuuuh

[Seed]

I know Ser Jorah Mormont isn't a POV character, but what do people think his odds are in surviving all this??

[Jolene Brown]

I see Victarion's magic fire hand through a red priest as potentially serving as foreshadowing for some mischief with Thoros of Myr and Jaime's missing hand in the next book (or totally not, whichever). Jaime constantly talks about how he needs/wants a new hand, and Brienne is about to take him within Thoros's orbit.

Alternatively, it could just be a Quentyn Martell sort of irony. Victarion might have a volcanic fire hand, but he's still a pawn, not a player, and that hand ain't going to help him. But maybe he'll do something cool with it during the battle before he dies.

I just really want Victarion to die.