We all have the characters we love and hate so 'happy ending' will mean different things to all of us.

ASOIAF often gets labeled as nihilistic. Nothing good ever happens, everyone suffers. On and on it goes. If George went full dark mode and, say, Euron ended up winning (my personal hell), maybe that label would be fair.

Of course execution matters a lot. Maybe even more than the destination. But would it sap your enjoyment of the story if it was dark ending?

In ADWD, Theon is down in the crypts of Winterfell and sees the tomb of a Lord of Winterfell/King in the North named Theon Stark and thinks "my namesake". I always thought it was wierd a Greyjoy would name their son after a Stark and wondered if there was a story there, but didn't really think much of it. It only just occured to me he's refering to himself. He sees himself as a Stark/wishes he was one, so when he sees the name Theon Stark he thinks "hey, that's my name". I think this was midway through the slow regaining of his identity so this line might be more important than I thought. Thanks for reading my shower thought, sorry if this has been pointed out before!!

I definitely think it would be an interesting addition even if only to have more magic/fantasy aspects in the series

Let's say Bran and Rickon or Jon and Robb wanna trade places for a time. Could they skinchange into each other's bodies? Bran can break into Hodor's mind and control him with ease, and Hodor responds by mentally curling up inside. He's still in there, but what if no one was in there? It shouldn't be too hard to invade a body that's been temporarily abandoned, right? When no one's there to fight you?

Why is there this movement of the great houses to marry each other so suddenly? We know that the lords of great houses do not need to marry other people from great houses, especially in times of peace and we have examples like Twyn and Doran who are two great lords who did not marry anyone of much relevance.

And this becomes strange because as far as I know we were still in times of peace, of course Aerys was there in his madness, but nothing really big had happened yet. And we have these wedding plots since long before, Oberyn and Elia's mother planned to marry them to Jaime and Cersei.

And after a while we have a flood of attempts and promises of marriage. Jaime and Lysa, Cat and Brandon, Robert and Lyana. The great houses of Westeros were trying, in my opinion, they even seemed to try to escape a possible marriage between their daughters and Rhaegar.

Would the war have been avoided? Would Stannis have learned to laugh thanks to Patchface? What changes would this have represented for the brothers? If the war had occurred, would Steffon have prevented the siege?

After my cold shower, I was in the middle of my daily 'There are so many ways that Viserys could've avoided the dance' rant as I wiped the steam from my mirror so that I could take a picture of myself in a wet wife beater, then a thought sort of occurred to me. Something like the dance was kind of inevitable.

Even if, for some reason, Rhaenyra's ascension went according to plan, there was pretty much a close to zero chance Jace doesn't get Blackfyre'd to all seven hells. Even if the Usurper had lived the average Targaryen rulers lifespan (which is like ~45 years, but lets be honest, George probably has her dying early during a horrific childbirth) Aegon and the Greens are still going to be kicking around enough to pose a threat. Presuming that all none war deaths happen according to plan and so do the preposed marriages, then the ways he would be fucked are;

• Just the mere rumour of Daeron the Good being a bastard was enough for people to turn to his brother, and he at the very least had the dignity to look Targaryen. Jace has those rumours and a basic bitch face to boot and all the lords who swore for his mother would be long dead.
• Aegon would be around, what? 35? Aemond and Daeron even younger and their dragons (Tessarion and Goodest Boy) bigger.
• Daemon and Rhaenys would've probably been long dead (Rhaenys for a certainty, Daemon would be like 62 otherwise), and so Caraxes/Meleys would be riderless or with young inexperienced riders that could either be either Green or Black. Syrax would be riderless.... which, honestly, makes no difference to what she did during the Dance. Mysaria is also dead.
• Corlys would be dead, and thus his influence and power go with him. The wealth would probably still be there but Luke would be a child lord for the first couple of years (if Corlys dying when he did happens in this dank timeline) so who knows how much of that would go to the fighting the resurgent Triarchy.
• Yeah Rhaela and Aegon (the boring one) would be grown with their own dragons too, but thats 6 Black dragons versus the 6 Green dragons through Aegon's kids coming of age, with the Greens having both Dreamfyre and Vhagar. So the one advantage the Blacks had would've gone up in smoke too.
• Jeyne is dead (probably) and lesbian (most definitely) so there goes Jace's connection to the Arryns and thus the Vale is a toss up. He might still be friends with Cregan though so maybe, if you squint, he still gets the North through Manderly marriage pact.
• The Riverlands was always a toss up and no Daemon there to hold a metaphorical gun to their heads to support the true Queen of Westeros. The Reach will definitely splinter, they only seem united when Mace is around (the REAL best politician of ASOIAF).
• The Westerlands are still Aegon. The Stormlands too if we go by Aemond's marriage to baby back bitch Boros Baratheon's babe. The Iron Islands would still probably attack the Westerlands because what sort of idiot would pass up an easy opportunity like that when their homeland is otherwise barren and destitute to instead attack, what? The North?! Hahahahahahha I want to die.

The Queen's council would be filled with Blacks, so thats good for both representation and Jace's chances, so yay. But he would still probably be on Dragonstone when the news of his mother dying violently giving birth at the age of 45, because George is going to George. Basically, the kid would've inherited his mother's war, but in a much worse position. And I don't know if he doesn't just outright lose it....

It's almost impossible to tell when Varys is being genuine, since it's so rare. 2 moments came to my mind when I was wondering about it. When Varys visits Ned in his cell:

Varys gave a long weary sigh, the sigh of a man who carried all the sadness of the world in a sack upon his shoulders. "The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that's true, Lord Eddard, tell me … why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones? Ponder it, if you would, while you wait upon the queen. And spare a thought for this as well: The next visitor who calls on you could bring you bread and cheese and the milk of the poppy for your pain … or he could bring you Sansa's head. The choice, my dear lord Hand, is entirely yours."

When he tells Tyrion how he was cut:

"Yet I still dream of that night, my lord. Not of the sorcerer, nor his blade, nor even the way my manhood shriveled as it burned. I dream of the voice. The voice from the flames. Was it a god, a demon, some conjurer's trick? I could not tell you, and I know all the tricks. All I can say for a certainty is that he called it, and it answered, and since that day I have hated magic and all those who practice it. If Lord Stannis is one such, I mean to see him dead."

Are there any others?

How can Stannis win the throne from his current position is it even possible

Is the Mannis doomed to failure

GRRM has called Westeros an absolute monarchy with their Targaryen and their dragons but he has claimed that Westeros is a continent about the size of South America so it is hard to believe that such control is possible even with dragons. If anything Westeros seem to act like a composite monarchy whereby diverse local territories are unified under a single monarch but each territory is allowed to keep their traditions, customs and institutions in exchange for paying taxes (even then there are different tax levels for each territory).

So did Westeros ever had an absolutist monarchy or should it be called a composite one?

Thirteen years on a cliff hanger has one think about a lot of things, yet somehow this thought has only just popped into my mind now, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone else float the idea before. But what if Stannis became an ardent Aegon supporter? His entire motivation is that he believes he is the rightful heir. He claims he doesn't do this by choice but because it's the law. And then this youth comes along who claims to be the true heir. Of the previous dynasty sure, but if he argues against that then he's arguing for the king being the person with the biggest army, as Robert was, and not some divine rule of law. If could be a wild turn for the story that doesn't seem obvious but in retrospect makes a lot of sense. His position militarily also isn't that strong, he's about as far from the Iron Throne as he could be at this point. Out of sheer pragmatism aligning with Aegon could be one of the better choices he could make.

So, I don't support the theory bc even if there's room for it I think it's dumb and George shouldn't do it

But I was rereading Pycelle begging cersei for his life , laughing, and then I remembered a video on the fake tommen theory

The theory says that Pycelle is constantly bringing up Rosby's non blood relative "ill-born" ward to Cersei and then once to Kevan bc the ward is the real Tommen who was left there at Tywin's command

This would explain quite a few odds and ends,the biggest of which is Pycelle bringing it up when his life is in mortal danger and during small councils and it would be super ironic especially given Cersei's behavior

But obviously it would also be super dumb bc it would require no one by boros Blount and Pycelle realizing that they had fake tommen at Kings landing

However, another issue is that Pycelle eventually HAD to tell Kevan Lannister, the one Lannister that he could trust with the secret

And I think IF this theory is true, then Varys would've also probably found out and it would add to why he killed Pycelle and Kevan when he did

He killed both of them after he overheard Pycelle telling Kevan about Tommen at Rosby

Boros Blount dies and Varys is the only one left with this very useful piece of info

Would Varys knowing about a fake tommen that no one else knows about make this theory worthwhile?

I still reject it but i hadn't realized how much Pycelle cares about the Ward until he brought it up at the dumbest possible moment

An ultimate monarch and their court have enough to deal with when ruling over a continent, but King's Landing appears to be a complex metropolis by the world's standards. Why is there no Lord-Mayor, municipal apparatus, or cadet house (ala the Lannisters of Lannisport, or the Arryns of Gulltown) handling the top-down administrative duties of King's Landing? With so few hours in the day, why does the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and their Small Council of Masters concern themselves with seemingly petty and time-consuming matters such as the harbor's custom houses, the local brothel laws, and the City Watch?

Imagine during Robert's rebellion, the Iron Isles declare for the crown from the start and a launch a similar attack on the North when their armies move south, take moat Calin and raid the coasts and maybe take some castles. Balon, in a move similar to his son, manages to seize Winterfell taking Benjen as a hostage. How would this impact the war? What if similar to Bran and Rickson, Benjen escapes and Balon executes a Northern teenager and passes it of as Benjen? What impact would that have on the characters (in particular Ned as he would think he is the last living male Stark) and the course of the rebellion? Would Balon feel bad about it at all?

I don’t understand why a third generation immigrant who should understand the succession of Westoros would want to break it a son comes before a daughter always and she knows this. Did she see something in Daenerys that made her want to her to be queen? Was it guilt for usurping Rhaena the queen in the West and her daughters

I don’t think it was ever fully explained why she wanted Daenerys to be heir. I know she was a champion of women but only in the bounds of the patriarchy ie wanting Rhaenys to be heir over Baelon since a daughter comes before an uncle

Can anyone enlighten me? Did I miss something?

I know Rhaegar annuling his marriage with Elia is an unpopular opinion within the fandom, an argument could be made for that based on what we know of Rhaegar and Lyanna's personality:

1. Lyanna's didn't want to marry Robert because she thought he would not keep to one bed, it doesn't seem in character for her to become a married man's mistress or even second wife, she definitely would have wanted Rhaegar to end his marriage with Elia and be loyal to her.

2. Ned remarks that Rhaegar wasn't the type to visit brothels and he most likely didn't cheat on Elia before Lyanna, even though his and Elia's marriage was strictly political and he did not love her. If he loved Lyanna, I think it's fair to assume and he would remain loyal to her even if that means divorcing Elia.

We know Ned taught Robb stuff like ride a day with one lord and listen to him, but was Jon taught anything in that direction? Or in general did they have a close relationship? Does he remember any lessons from Ned?

Don't get me wrong, this is just off the top of my head and I do lean towards "I'm overthinking this" or I'm missing something

BUT

A) the floods set the stage for the red wedding and lady stone heart

The use of flooding/water magic is probably the biggest example of old gods magic that we are explicitly told about

We are told it was used to destroy the land bridge between essos and Westeros.

And that it was used to flood the neck and resulted in the riverlands.

This relatively small bit of flooding allowed Bolton to weaken Rob's loyalists, allowing them to be captured by the mountain, delayed Rob's journey to the twins, and gave the Freys more time to prepare

It also slowed Dondarion's pursuit of the hound and arya and also probably determined the timing of Dondarion finding Catelyn's body which was part of a prophecy

If the floods hadn't happened, I don't see how the timing would've allowed that last ghost of high heart prophecy to come true. Berric would've captured the hound, wouldn't have found catelyn's body, arya wouldn't have fled to bravos bc she would've missed the ship instead of rorge, and lady stone heart wouldn't have been a thing

I'm sure the floods also caused other unique circumstances and coincidences that I can't think of atm

B) The crannogmen are the people most adept at manipulating earth and water on a massive scale and the success of the red wedding ensured they wouldn't play a major role in the war

After the red wedding Rob would've met up with the crannogmen to enlist their help

Now, the crannogmen and howland reed are already semi treasonous for only aiding rob with token forces to harass moat Cailin (though I'm probably forgetting other help they gave) even though rob frickin called the banners.

Howland reed shouldve sent an army and I've always been baffled that Rob wasn't furious when he didn't.

But anyway, the crannogmen are famous for their ability to hide in the swamps by moving their castles.

It's also hinted that they could have some cotf or squisher heritage

Theyre the most likely to have the ability to cause floods through old god's water magic

And they have the motive. A successful red wedding would've meant they stayed out of the war. They even live where we're told water magic has been used on a large scale in the past

So yes I'm saying the crannogmen could've caused the flooding bc they likely had the means and motive (it's also just odd how George has kept them out of sight and the Redding is the biggest thing that he's used for that purpose)

In general, I don't think it's a question that the floods don't have to be magic related but they did determine how the red wedding played out

So, are there other reasons to think that there could be more to the floods?

Or did the floods actually hurt the chances of a successful red wedding?

Rhaegal, the dragon named after Rhaegar Targaryen was the one to kill Quentyn Martell

Now, who were the Martells in Rhaegar's life? His sickly wife, with whom he was trapped in a loveless political marriage and her two children

Could Rhaegal off-ing Quentyn be a hint to what Rhaegar wanted to do to the Martells close to him? Did he possibly want Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon out of the way so he could marry the woman he was in love with and that was the reason behind his complete disregard of their safety (by leaving them within his mad, dornish hating father's reach and spending a whole year in Dorne while a war broke out and Elia and her kids were held hostage by his crazy father)?

The only problem here could be his belief in the the prophecy and Aegon and Rhaenys being two heads of the dragon...but the three heads of the dragon were supposed to be Rhaegar's children, not necessarily Elia's, he could have three more kids with Lyanna and she would be able to give him those children since she wasn't frail and sickly like Elia.

It's also the first POV in ADWD for each character. I have no clue if this was intentional by George, but I actually found some parralels for all 3 characters during these chapters.

All three are in a bind they're trying to get out of and are in wait-and-see mode. Victarion's ships are gone and may be lost. Daenerys flew away and no one knows where she is. Jaime went off with Brienne and no one knows where he is.

During their POV, each character has to do something they absolutely hate. Victarion has to trust in a red priest (which is the opposite of a follower of the drowned god). Barristan has to play the game of thrones, which goes against what he stands for. Cersei has to be nice.

And by the end of the chapter, they each resolve themselves to a decision. Cersei wants Robert Strong. Victarion embraces his new arm (RIP Maester Kerwin). Barristan commits himself to the coup.

(Repost as I messed up the title)

So it’s pretty clear in most people’s eyes that Jon Snow is coming back in the Winds of Winter, with some debate on how/when. One key aspect that underlies most theories about his resurrection is the role of Ghost in bringing back Jon. Ghost is his last word and throughout ADWD through Varamyr’s prologue we see a lot about the second life of a warg, mentioning how Ghost would be “a second life worthy of a king”.

For those who haven’t ever read Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, the main character FitzChivalry (Fitz) is a bastard from the royal line who constantly struggles with his bastardy and his place in the world, and also possesses a rare form of magic called the Wit in which he shares a very close bond with his Wolf Nighteyes. We know GRRM and Robin Hobb are good friends and George really likes the books she wrote, so it’s very possible they both influenced eachother.

Spoilers for the Farseer trilogy… . . . . . . .

!FitzChivalry is murdered and when he dies he joins with his wolf and they become one for a while, until Fitz’s body is patched up and his soul is put back into his body. However the Fitz that returns is by far more beast than man. It takes him a very long time to return to a person similar to how he was before, and his wolfishness remains throughout the rest of the series of books.!<

I believe it’s very likely that Jon’s resurrection will be similar, I think he will embrace more of his ‘wolf blood’ especially after being one with Ghost, becoming more impulsive, aggressive, and ruthless. Just like Dany begins to embrace her inner dragon at the end of ADWD, I think that Jon will do the same. I hope that we do get Jon POVS in TWOW as it would be very very interesting to see how his thoughts have changed after his resurrection. We know from all the other people we’ve seen that come back from death that death changes you, Lady Stoneheart and her lust for vengeance, Beric and his memories, Patchface and his sanity. Jon will be different too, and I think that maybe Hobb and GRRM took inspiration from eachother about how this resurrection and subsequent personality change will come about. I don’t think Jon will have nearly as drastic of a change and Fitz did, as the story doesn’t have time for a complete wolf Jon, but regardless I’m very excited to see how it pans out.

From the Wiki of Ice and Fire:

• ''Gregor is (...) extremely tall, being well over seven feet tall, closer to eight (somewhere in between 2,31 m and 2,43 m).
• He has "massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunk of small trees.
• Gregor weighs over thirty stone (420 lbs, or 190 kgs).
• His armor is so heavy that no ordinary man would be able to move, let alone fight effectively while wearing it.
• The Mountain's strength allows him to wield a six-foot, two-handed greatsword with just one hand, giving him enormous reach while still wielding a shield. Such is the power of Gregor's strength that he has been known to hack men in half with just a single blow. (...)
• He rides huge stallions

So Ser Gregor is monstrously large, strong and heavy. But three things stand out to me: that he is an effective fighter in the sense that he can wield a sword, that he has agility to move about in a duel and that there are horses big enough for him to ride.

In the real world we have examples of people close to or over 8 feet who had trouble walking let alone running or fighting in full plate armor. So is Gregor Clegane possible or it just pure fantasy awesomeness bordering on sci-fi?

Rickard Stark was an only child, but his father's siblings married into minor Vale nobility. Now, this could just be GRRM setting up an excuse to put Jon Snow in the succession and make the Starks seem weakly connected to their bannermen and it could be there's not that much thought put into it. But is that possibly evidence the wardens and lords paramount were spreading their influence to unite against the Targs as early as the days of Ned's grandfather?

We know that House Justman ruled the Riverlands for 300 years until they were extinguished by the Ironborn. Then after the Justmans fell, the petty river kings of Houses Blackwood, Bracken, Vance, Mallister and Charlton spent about a century fighting each other for the Riverlands, until Lord Torrence Teague using sellswords and conquered enough of the Riverlands to crown himself at Maidenpool. We know the Teagues were little loved and had to hold hostages at their court from the great river houses, and they also may have not ruled the Riverlands uninterrupted, instead being contested by other river dynasties. We know of three Teague kings, Torrence, Theo the Saddle-sore, who would be the fourth king of the dynasty, Humfrey I Teague he and his sons and younger brother would be slain at the Battle of Six Kings 400 years before Aegon’s conquest. The Battle of Six Kings would bring the end to the Teagues and an independent Riverlands until Aegon I Targaryen. The Riverlands would be ruled by the Storm Kings of House Durrandon for 300 years from 400 BC till 100 BC. In 100 BC the Durrandons would lose the Riverlands to King Harwyn Hoare of the Iron Isles.

Been thinking about this for a little bit but what exactly makes Lord Tarly a “soldier” rather than anything else? As far as I can recall off the top of my head, he’s one of if not the only characters referred to consistently as a soldier rather than a warrior or a commander or a knight or what have you.

I really don't care that she didn't want to marry Quentyn. But because of this, I think she missed the point. This Prince of Dorne shows up offering 50,000 spears.

Don't wanna marry him? Fine. But how is she not trying to work out a different deal? How is she not grilling him every day about the state of westeros? The obstacles she'll face there, the people primed to be her allies, the current situation in King's Landing, etc.

Same with Barristan. How is she not constantly asking him about where Rhaegar went wrong? Where Aerys went wrong? The potential weaknesses in the lannister regime he was so closely privy to?

This also encompasses why I don't like the idea of 'If I look back, I am lost.' The only way to avoid the mistakes of people who came before us is to educate ourselves on them, no?

I feel like after the first two books the dany chapters are kind of a slog to get through cause with literal exageration its like; she drinks, shits, says "no were not opening the fighting pits," "oh no who's going to betray me next", blah blah.

I feel like some of the most interesting characters are those tangential to the power; for eg Davos' pov is significantly more interesting then Stanis' would be and Catelyn's pov is more interesting then Robb. These characters are not the monarch or the main power in their faction and thats what makes them interesting

Davos, is loyal to Stannis, but his moral compass clashes with Stannis’ . His view of the struggle for power is more grounded and more human. He sees the cost of Stannis' decisions and feels the weight of them without ever being able to change them directly. We don't live in Stannis' head but we live in the head of his best friend and advisor. This power dynamic sets him up for an inner conflict that is at the heart of the series "the human heart in conflict with itself" and with these two it is be both humbling and maddening, as he’s forced to stand by and watch as events unfold, despite his sense of right and wrong.

Catelyn Stark’s POV as Mother in Robb Stark’s camp reveals the cracks within the Northern faction. She supports Robb's cause yet consistently questions his judgment, giving an emotionally layered view of a campaign otherwise driven by a sense of duty. Robb, is both her son and her king, adds a depth that would be lost in a POV centered on Robb himself, whose characterization is more duty-driven and goal-oriented.we see not only the difficulties of managing loyalty, alliances, and political strategy but also the deeply personal stakes of war, loss, and love—things Robb might have to compartmentalize or suppress. Like she is conflicted about the execution of Karkstark and the marriage to Jeyne. But robb is less so.

So, I think that dany's story lines COK onwards would have been better through Misandei maybe or Barristan

So, I read once that seasons lasting years is more magical than attached to real-world factors. So, if seasons come to last the same as in our planet, would the climate in Westeros remains the same? I mean, once I read it would be impossible to have a swamp so close to the cold North, what else may change?

R + L = J theory : Jon snow is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark . He is the heir to the seven kingdoms and the iron throne , the chosen one and the prince that was promised. He is half Stark half Targaryen

N + A = J theory : Jon Snow is the son of Ned stark and Ashara Dayne. He is the 1st born , oldest of the Stark Children, true heir to winterfell and starfall , next wielder of dawn , sword of the morning and lord of the North . He is half Dayne half stark .

Most of the man’s features were covered by the scarf about his face. Only his eyes could be seen. “Reek, is that you?”

Yes, he meant to say. Instead he heard himself reply, “Theon Greyjoy. I … I have brought some women for you.”

Theon, you finally remember your name.

I just got done with Theon I on my ADWD re-read. This chapter is wild. I totally forgot that Hosteen Frey almost killed Wyman Manderly. For a Frey, Hosteen does stand on business.

Also gotta shout out the spearwives. I thought they were annoying sometimes (especially Rowan) but they did do EVERYTHING they could to save Jeyne.