What will Danaerys be doing in Season 4? (book spoilers)

[Ordos]

I'm curious about this one because I see two possibilities:

A. Dany takes Mereen. A long protracted siege perhaps?

B. Instead on Mereen, the TV seies differs and Dany chooses to govern Yunkai instead. I speculate this based on the ending of season 3 with the freed slaves and the fact that she took Yunkai in the same manner book Dany took Mereen. This way all those boring Dany chapters from book 5 can be pushed forward. But not as far forward as the part where Drogon takes her away.

Obviously there will be the Jorah Mormont banishing but that's my only certainty.

[Ordos]

Hey! I didn't notice this was approved already for days!

[Broken Fox]

Attempting to govern Meereen (or Yunkai)

Jorah/Barristan suicide mission / Jorah's exile

Banging Daario

Out of control dragons

[Onna Lewyys]

Possible episode plot points:

1) Her massive following is starving

2) She resolves to take Meereen

3) Daario fights the Hero of Meereen / Jorah is jealous

4) Jorah kisses her and she freaks out

5) Jorah's treason from S1 is revealed

6) Jorah's (and Barristan's?) sewer mission

7) She banishes Jorah

8) She decides to stay in Meereen and be queen

I don't think they'll get into any ADWD material yet for her next season.

[Steinnis]

Possible episode plot points:

1) Her massive following is starving

2) She resolves to take Meereen

3) Daario fights the Hero of Meereen / Jorah is jealous

4) Jorah kisses her and she freaks out

5) Jorah's treason from S1 is revealed

6) Jorah's (and Barristan's?) sewer mission

7) She banishes Jorah

8) She decides to stay in Meereen and be queen

I don't think they'll get into any ADWD material yet for her next season.

This seems like a pretty solid prediction. Although, she already knows Barristan's true identity, and they seem very friendly on the show. Plus Barristan told Jorah that he didnt sit on Robert's council, on the show. So I'm thinking Daario will cause strife between Dany and Jorah, and she will send him away.

[Harry Lime]

I don't like the idea of having Yunkai take the place of Meereen. It would just serve to prolong the clunky Dance with Dragons storyline. Give Dany her last hurrah (for a while) in season 4: have her take Meereen pretty much how she does in the book, and include some early Dance stuff, up to when she learns Drogon ate the farmer's child. This might lessen the viewer's rage at her for deciding to stay, and it will provide a shocking cliffhanger instead of just another city being conquered.

[The Idiots Lantern]

This seems like a pretty solid prediction. Although, she already knows Barristan's true identity, and they seem very friendly on the show. Plus Barristan told Jorah that he didnt sit on Robert's council, on the show. So I'm thinking Daario will cause strife between Dany and Jorah, and she will send him away.

I think there will probably be some event that proves Barristan's loyalty to Dany before the Meereen sewers. He hasn't been tested the way Jorah has, and I think the friction between Selmy and Mormont is only going to increase. Barristan clearly thinks Jorah is a bad influence on Dany and that her keeping him close is a bad idea. Jorah is very defensive of his position.

I don't think Dany will decide to stay and rule Yunkai. D&D don't want to run out of story before George has published the rest of the books, so they won't move her plotline ahead to the Dance of Dragons and her ruling angst until season 5 at the earliest. Look forward to her taking Meereen in Season 2.

EDIT: whoot 1,000 posts! :cheers:

[Onna Lewyys]

This seems like a pretty solid prediction. Although, she already knows Barristan's true identity, and they seem very friendly on the show. Plus Barristan told Jorah that he didnt sit on Robert's council, on the show. So I'm thinking Daario will cause strife between Dany and Jorah, and she will send him away.

Yeah, it's definitely a big question how Jorah's treason will be revealed now, but someone in another thread suggested that maybe Barristan does know about it but kept it to himself because Jorah seems changed, but then when he sees/finds out about Jorah kissing her, he decides that Jorah isn't honorable after all and tells Dany.

I totally forgot that they took Yunkai in the show by sneaking in and opening the gates from the inside, though. That is how they take Meereen in the book. That does put a crimp in my predictions.

[The Idiots Lantern]

I don't like the idea of having Yunkai take the place of Meereen. It would just serve to prolong the clunky Dance with Dragons storyline. Give Dany her last hurrah (for a while) in season 4: have her take Meereen pretty much how she does in the book, and include some early Dance stuff, up to when she learns Drogon ate the farmer's child. This might lessen the viewer's rage at her for deciding to stay, and it will provide a shocking cliffhanger instead of just another city being conquered.

I don't think the Farmer's child is a good end point. For one because I never thought it really convincing that Drogon did it and two because it didn't happen immediately after she took Meereen. She'd been struggling to keep the city together in the face of the Sons of the Harpy for quite a while before that farmer appeared with his sob story and bag of bones to convince her to take her three most powerful weapons out of play.

[oierem]

Plotwise, it's tricky, because conquering ANOTHER city would be just repetition for the sake of it (Dany only spends one book conquering cities after all).

However, season 3 didn't have many personal scenes with Dany; there was barely any interaction with Jorah or Barristan alone, so I guess her next season will be more focused on the personal struggle.

[boojam]

Plotwise, it's tricky, because conquering ANOTHER city would be just repetition for the sake of it (Dany only spends one book conquering cities after all).

However, season 3 didn't have many personal scenes with Dany; there was barely any interaction with Jorah or Barristan alone, so I guess her next season will be more focused on the personal struggle.

In the books Yunkai's conquest , on the show, is with a little bit of action mostly told in retrospect, and in the book Meereen is pretty much the same GRRM gives a build up (not real lengthy) and the battle is told in summary afterward.

Now the Wall is going to be a different matter and will be properly funded.

I would love to see an elaborated Battle of Meereen (I don't mean the short hand thing we saw at Yunkai) but HBO is going to have to come up with money for VFX , it could be a very action packed season... but I am expecting that to be all at the Wall.

[polarbear]

The siege of Mereen isn't going to be a budget busting battle scene. It should be an extended "Mission Impossible" style heist sequence.

[King Tommen]

The Daario (who I assume will sub for Strong Belwas) fighting the champion of Meereen sequence is made for television and it's something different in Dany's storyline. My guess is that this development will be beefed up for the show in order to give it more weight.

I really hope the show provides a more conclusive argument for Dany to decide to stay and rule Meereen and even possibly hints it's because she's developed a little bit of a saviour complex. While a slight departure from the books, that to me would ring more true on the show and give the Mhysa scene more purpose.

[Khal-a-bunga]

Just thinking out loud, but I'd figured that Barristan would fight as Dany's champion outside the gates of Meereen (which will most definitely be included). A lot has been made of Barristan's battle prowess, and it'd be a perfect opportunity to show the audience why he's so highly regarded. Though I could also see Daario fighting the Hero of Meereen, as well, I don't think it would be quite as dramatic. With Barristan, there would be more doubt as to whether or not he will prevail, I think. But all in all, I agree with King Tommen is that they need to re-contextualize Dany's reasoning for staying to rule in Meereen. She's learned how to conquer, but now she needs to learn how to lead. I think next season is going to be an interesting one for Dany; that she'll be knocked down a few pegs, and learn that there are real consequences to her actions that go beyond her own limited view point of what the world should be. Add the situation with Jorah (how it might come to be known that he acted as an informant), and I think she'll have plenty enough to do.

Possible episode plot points:

1) Her massive following is starving

2) She resolves to take Meereen

3) Daario fights the Hero of Meereen / Jorah is jealous

4) Jorah kisses her and she freaks out

5) Jorah's treason from S1 is revealed

6) Jorah's (and Barristan's?) sewer mission

7) She banishes Jorah

8) She decides to stay in Meereen and be queen

I don't think they'll get into any ADWD material yet for her next season.

Anyway, for the most part, I think this is spot-on. I think she's got enough left that they'll avoid getting into any of her material from the last book, though obviously some things will play out differently on the show (the sequence with the sewers,for instance).

[gmk]

I expect the basic arc is the Meereen conquest from ASOS with some elements of ADWD mixed in.

She conquers Meereen by midseason, then struggles to decide her next move... Does she sail for Westeros? Can she get the ships? What about her following of freed slaves, does she take them with her? Meanwhile, show the attacks on her Unsullied by the Meereenese resistance, and show the "bones of a child" scene. Make an issue of the problems that Astapor faces after her destruction there. Maybe show her and Daario becoming lovers.

The end of the season is the same as the end of ASOS... she decides she must stay, to straighten out Meereen and to protect her followers, and she must banish Jorah. And maybe, she has to chain up her dragons too.

Then in S5, introduce Hizdahr, the Green Grace, whoever they want to include from ADWD, and have S5 really be her downfall season.

[The Idiots Lantern]

I really hope the show provides a more conclusive argument for Dany to decide to stay and rule Meereen and even possibly hints it's because she's developed a little bit of a saviour complex.

She doesn't need a savior complex to justify her staying in Meereen, in fact just the opposite. Dany decides to stay in Meereen for for a few reasons, all of them perfectly understandible. For one, she's just received word of the Butcher King taking over Astapoor, drafting highborn boys to become new Unsullied, and ruling with an iron cleaver. She realizes that if she leaves Meereen now, most of her freedmen and smallfolk will choose to follow her, and that even if she strips the city bare of all it's food and resources leaving NOTHING for those who stay, it won't be enough to feed everyone. So instead she decides to stay, resupply, build up her power base, give her dragons time to grow larger and get some experience actually ruling, rather then just conquering. It was quite a practical decision that blew up on her face.

[The Idiots Lantern]

Then in S5, introduce Hizdahr, the Green Grace, whoever they want to include from ADWD, and have S5 really be her downfall season.

I don't think D&D will put their necks in a noose by making S5 the "Dance of Dragons" season. I think season 4 she'll take Meereen, season 5 and 6 will be her trying to rule it. They've only got so much book left, and if they run out of material, they will be faced with the tough choice of putting the show on Hiatus until the next book comes out or deviating completely from the source material. They're going to stretch it out.

Unfortunately this means we'll have to wait until season 6 to see her dragon ride. Alas.

[Onna Lewyys]

I don't think D&D will put their necks in a noose by making S5 the "Dance of Dragons" season. I think season 4 she'll take Meereen, season 5 and 6 will be her trying to rule it. They've only got so much book left, and if they run out of material, they will be faced with the tough choice of putting the show on Hiatus until the next book comes out or deviating completely from the source material. They're going to stretch it out.

Martin has given them an outline of what's going to happen in books 6 & 7, so they won't have to deviate completely. They only have so many years to make the show. They won't stretch things out just to stretch them out. I'd bet we see her riding off on Drogon at the end of S5.

[King Tommen]

She doesn't need a savior complex to justify her staying in Meereen, in fact just the opposite. Dany decides to stay in Meereen for for a few reasons, all of them perfectly understandible. For one, she's just received word of the Butcher King taking over Astapoor, drafting highborn boys to become new Unsullied, and ruling with an iron cleaver. She realizes that if she leaves Meereen now, most of her freedmen and smallfolk will choose to follow her, and that even if she strips the city bare of all it's food and resources leaving NOTHING for those who stay, it won't be enough to feed everyone. So instead she decides to stay, resupply, build up her power base, give her dragons time to grow larger and get some experience actually ruling, rather then just conquering. It was quite a practical decision that blew up on her face.

And that's why people who read the books are not bored and frustrated with her decision to stay there and rule right? While I'm not saying that her decision in the books is non-sensical (you've explained it well) that doesn't help with the fact that it's extremely frustrating for the audience to watch her do this.

If the reasoning is less about her apparently feeling she has no other options but rather her becoming enamored with her newfound status as liberator and saviour to the slaves, that's more dramatic. Her advisors can see this happening and try to snap her back into reality but her growing (for lack of a better word) addiction to being seen as the "Mother" to all of these slaves can be the motivator to drive her into a more entrenched position in Meereen. To me, that's more interesting than her saying "well I'd like to go to Westeros, but y'know, what are you gonna do?"

[The Idiots Lantern]

Martin has given them an outline of what's going to happen in books 6 & 7, so they won't have to deviate completely.

Yeah but he's also written into his contract that there are certain things they legally cannot reveal before the books come out. This means if they reach that point in the story, they will have a difficult choice to make: Hiatus or deviation. They figure they've got two or three more seasons of material if they are careful, and Martin hopes to be working on the next book by then, so they've got some time before that tough choice has to be made.