A Song of Ice and Fire/WMG

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Rest of the Series According to the Prophecies

Note that none of these are particularly wild guesses, they are just interpretations of the various prophecies in the series so they may act as spoilers. Readers be warned.

On a non-prophecy related side note: If the dragonriders are to be balanced out since Jon is both fire and ice and Daenerys is fire, then one of the Starks (either Bran, Arya, Rickon, or Sansa) must be the last rider (and Arya or Bran are the most likely). It is likely they will be elementally balanced out simply because balance is a major theme in the book.

The return of the Others will wipe out the kingdoms of Westeros, just as the Doom wiped out Valyria

The title of the series, A Song of Ice and Fire, is meant to allude to this cycle of destruction. In ancient times, the world's greatest civilization was destroyed in a series of fiery explosions. Thousands of years later, in the present day, the greatest kingdoms of the western world will be destroyed by an invasion of ice-based creatures from the Far North. One civilization was destroyed by fire, and the next will be destroyed by ice--all part of some grand cycle that we don't yet understand.

  • Don't forget the Long Night - even further back, in the Age Of Myths, there was a threat of an icy apocalypse that was only stopped thanks to Azor Ahai.
  • If so, the cycles are getting shorter: the Winter that Lasted for a Generation (the last time the Others were around) supposedly happened some eight thousand years ago, the Doom of Valyria only four hundred.

It's no coincidence that the Dragons and the Others are returning at the same time

The Dragons and the Others are the personifications of Fire and Ice, respectively. When the Others inevitably breach the Wall and try to invade the southern lands, Dany and her Dragons will ultimately have to meet them in battle to save Westeros--thus fulfilling some ancient prophecy about "Fire and Ice" having to battle it out for the fate of the world. (Another possible interpretation of the series' title).

At some point, one or more characters will travel to the ruins of Old Valyria

Seeing the remains of Valyria would be an important part of bringing the series full circle, since Valyrian culture shapes so much of the present-day world that the characters inhabit. And the continued cryptic references to the Doom seem to suggest that Valyria's fate is important to the series in some way, so actually seeing the ruins might be a good way to conclusively confirm what went down (or at least clarify it somewhat). And (going off of the above theory about the Doom and the Others) finding out what caused the "fiery" destruction of Valyria might be instrumental in stopping the "icy" destruction of the Others--maybe the characters will have to stop one threat by awakening another long-dormant one.

The Faceless Men will be instrumental in defeating the Others

Their motto, "Valar Morghulis"/"All Men Must Die" is more than just a Badass Creed used by assassins. We've already seen that they're essentially a cult dedicated to serving the world's various death gods, and their entire philosophy rests on the idea that all men are subordinate to Death. Since the Others bend the rules of Death by resurrecting the dead as wights, they're in direct opposition to everything that the Faceless Men stand for. In the Faceless Men's eyes, the use of dead people as servants doesn't just pose a physical threat to the humans of the world--it violates the sanctity of Death. When the climax of the series comes around, they will prove their motto true by showing the world that even the undead can (and must) die.

  • But are the others "men"? (And no, I'm not suggesting that they're actually women.)
  • The Others themselves might not be, but the wights that serve them definitely are. Stopping them from resurrecting the dead would be an important step in saving Westeros from their invasion.

Lyanna is still alive

This might be really far fetched but this is a WMG after all. It really bugs me that Ned Stark did not name either of his daughters after Lyanna. If you assume that he named Robb after Robert, then all of Jon, Robb, Bran and Rickon are named after people important to Ned. I'd argue that Lyanna and Ned for some reason had a falling out at the end and she didn't die in her 'bloody bed' but exiled herself and her child. This might be the 'promise' that Ned keeps referring to. He's a little mad at her for leaving and she's not dead so he doesn't name either of his daughters after her, but does name children after his dead brother and father. I know I'm putting 2 and 2 together and getting twenty thousand but there's a chance she's Septa Lemore.

At the end of the series, Bronn will be king of Westeros

Given his absurd talent for seizing power and defeating foes that are superior to him, it would be no surprise if Bronn managed to win himself the Iron Throne in the final battle.

  • Alternatively, he'll become Hand of the King to Tyrion.

R'hllor is the Other

Or at least the power behind them, and not even his followers realize this. Melisandre makes a point of talking about how R'hllor controls shadows as well as light, which means that its not too much of a leap to think he rules ice as well as fire. Add to that the fact that he gains power from human sacrifice, all its clergy are slaves, the fact that it can bring back the dead into something akin to a Coldhands-style wight, and that his priestess gains power from the enchantments of the Wall (possibly by draining their power) and R'hllor seems much closer to the Other than the Seven or the Old Gods do. It doesn't help that his priests actively suppresses the other religions, up and including burning Godswoods. One can only guess what its plan is, but its playing both sides of the field to get there.

Bloodraven is the three-eyed crow.

The line about Bloodraven having "a thousand eyes and one" could probably be taken literally to mean that Bloodraven is a skinchanger. If he most frequently wargs with a crow, then he has three eyes - he has one, and the crow has two. And he's a member of the Night's Watch, too, so he seems like a likely candidate for actually being the three-eyed crow.

  • ADWD confirms that yes, Bloodraven is the three-eyed crow.
    • Well, not actually CONFIRMED in exact words, but so many bloody obvious hints have been dropped that it's effectively impossible for him to be anyone other than Bloodraven.
    • His name is Brynden, and when Bloodraven was the King's Hand people referred to him having "a thousand eyes, and one" to mean he was a spymaster.

The letter at the end of "A Dance With Dragons" wasn't from Ramsay at all....

...It was from Roose. Think about it: Roose got a raven from Ramsay saying something to the extent of "Reek and 'Arya' escaped, Stannis is coming, help me daddy." Roose, who has always remembered that Ramsay killed his trueborn son (perhaps the only person Roose ever really loved). He kept Ramsay around because he needed an heir, but now, with Fat Walda pregnant with a legitimate heir (who Ramsay would probably kill anyway), Ramsay has outlived his usefulness. So instead of sending reinforcements for Ramsay, Roose forged a letter to send reinforcements *against* Ramsay. This explains why the letter had so many inconsistencies, and proves once and for all that Roose Frigging Bolton is the coldest man in the North.

    • It seems within Roose's character to do that, but why would he send the letter to Jon Snow? As Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he's bound to the Wall, besides which he doesn't command a large enough force to fight Ramsay. Theoretically he could have written to Jon in order to get him to transfer the info to either the remaining members of Stannis' forces (of which there aren't that many) or the wildlings (hence the references to Mance Rayder) but something about that doesn't seem right.
    • It was poison pen from Bowen Marsh and his cabal. Deliverer was shaking in his boots. Bad weather, no birds flying, hence Jon hasn't heard from Stannis lately, and writer knows this. Aim was to get Jon to abandon his Hardhome wilding rescue plan, forsake his vows to go riding to his sister's rescue, and give the Bowen cabal the excuse and opportunity to kill Jon.
      • To elaborate, Marsh is ultraconservative, but not stupid. He never trusted Jon so he was always watching for deception. Jon had earlier received an authentic letter from Roose Bolton in a similar format before (except signed by multiple lords and written in blood), so a similar formatted letter from Ramsay is concocted. Jon screwed up one time talking about Tormund and Rayder as "living men" (crow goes crazy then too, probably warged) Letter doesn't spell anyone's name except Ramsay, probably the writer wasn't too familiar with the name spellings and wanted to take few chances. Every other word practically is "bastard". Since Ramsay flays people who remind him of his bastardy, he would never write like this, nor refer to himself as "trueborn". Bowen's false letter was basically saying "stannis is dead" (lie), "rayder is caught" (unknown), "Arya is lost" (accidental truth), so nobody is gonna rescue your little sister. All to get Jon to lose his head and react. We tend to forget Jon is 16 or 17 at most.
      • Also Ramsay probably knows Arya/Jeyne is a fake, at least Theon/Reek thought so. So if Ramsay imagined Arya/Jeyne had already reached Jon at the Wall, he would know the jig is up and flee. Because Jon would certainly tell the entire north how the Boltons had deceived them. Ramsay's only hope is to recapture or kill Arya/Jeyne himself before she reaches Jon or anyone who knows the real Arya (or the real Jeyne).

Sweetrobin is Littlefinger's son

He's "small for his age," Littlefinger had gotten Lysa pregnant once before and we were never quite clear on the timing of his birth as opposed to their affair in King's Landing. Keeping his "plans" for Sweetrobin (who views Sansa as a creepy crush/mother) . . . ick, just when you thought the plot in the Vale couldn't get squickier...

There is no "Jojen Reed"

Howland Reed has among other tricks he learned as the "Knight of the Laughing Tree" de-aging powers. Because seriously, what kid acts like that?

Theon will die in A Dance With Dragons

George has said he will kill off some POV characters in ADWD, and we do know that HBO is planning to fuse AFFC with ADWD for the tv series (which will cover one book per season with AFFC and ADWD merged together). Alfie Allen (Theon's portrayer) will apparently only be in four seasons.

  • To be fair, so far we only have enough books completely written for 4 seasons, if they plan to merge AFFC and ADWD. And the show has been renewed for a second season, but no more so far. Unless GRRM shared with the scriptwriters plans about a book not yet written, this idea doesn't seem to have much credence behind it.
  • The producers and writers have expressed their desire to split A Storm of Swords into two seasons because of the book's length. This further suggests the contract length of 4 seasons is based on factors unrelated to Theon's death since he wouldn't die in the show until the 5th or 6th season anyway.
  • Survives ADWD, mostly intact (if you can consider being tortured to insanity and possibly castrated "mostly intact"). Besides, that George would kill a character off because of the TV series's contracts is a little out there, even for this page.
    • Um... contracts get renewed all the time, guys. Just because it's a four-year contract now does not preclude a re-up.
  • I have a proposal that, admittedly, lacks any more traction than the Theon theory did, but Poison Oak Epileptic Trees are so fun. .
    • Peter Dinklage said, very recently at that, that his contract covers the first six seasons of the series, the first three of which have been made/are guaranteed to be made. Since the fifth season will be AFFC/ADWD combined because of the time setting, that means the sixth season will cover events during The Winds of Winter that don't bleed into previous seasons. Based on this and the fact that the series' writers/producers were informed of major plot developments from the last two books by GRRM in case he dies before they're published, I predict that Tyrion will die in The Winds of Winter. And it will piss off ALL of the fans.

Quentyn Martell will die in A Dance With Dragons

Quentyn is on his way to propose to Dany. There are a lot of reasons she should accept him. She wants to conquer a land she has never seen and knows no one in, he can help put her in good standing with the nobility. The Targaryens traditionally marry relatives, Quentyn is at least a distant cousin. The Martells are one of the only families that allows females to inherit over males, so if any Lord in the Seven Kingdoms is willing to accept being Prince Consort to a ruling Queen, it is likely a Martell. However, the prophesy from the House of the Undying seems to suggest that she won't marry him. Likely the reason that she won't is because he will die. This would also have the benefit of introducing some real difficulty into Dany's quest: Doran may decide that he's sick of sending his relatives to the Targaryens only to get back bodies.

  • Confirmed. Burned by Rhaegal in an attempt to gain control of Dany's other dragon, Viserion. He dies from his burn wounds shortly afterward.

Jon will fight Lady Stoneheart. And she'll meet one of her surviving children.

The two didn't get along. And think of the drama of Catelyn meeting one of her surviving children in her undead state.

  • Lady Stoneheart's sustaining vengeance hasn't stretched beyond the Freys. I'm marking her for release after dispatching the big Walder... once all the others are dead, of course.

Franken Gregor will kill Cersei

The prophecy says that Cersei will be strangled by her younger brother's hand. Jaime (who is younger than Cersei by seconds) lost a hand to the Bloody Mummers. What if Qyburn kept it? And, in making a super-strong champion, gave it the right hand of one of the greatest swordsmen of the day- Jaime Lannister? Maggy the Frog never said the valonqar's hand would necessarily be attached to his body...

  • While it's a neat idea, and may even happen, the reasoning is unsound. There's no way Jaime's hand would be in a usuable state- it was rotting even when he was being taken to Harrenhal by the Bloody Mummers, it'd be nothing but bones by the time Qyburn got around to making Ser Robert Strong.
  • Her younger brother's hands, plural. It's interesting that this is how Shae died - Tyrion wrapped his chain of golden hands around her neck and choked the life out of her. And now that Tommen has so few living relatives left, Jaime might well be the next owner of that chain (with all the requisite sick jokes about a Hand without a hand)...

Daenerys will confront Jaime

It's only fair that Dany gets a chance to confront one of the people who brought down her family. Especially the one who killed her father.

  • "It's only fair"? Please remember where we are. Nothing "fair" ever happens in ASOIAF . . .
    • Exactly. Of COURSE there'll be a confrontation: just as soon as there's finally a chance for a lasting peace, they'll run into each other at precisely the right moment to send events spiralling off in the worst direction possible.

Daenerys is Azor Ahai reborn.

Let's look at this more closely. Azor Ahai is meant to be reborn out of smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone, when the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers. Dany woke her dragons out of petrified stone eggs on the night of Drogo's funeral; the smoke is his funeral pyre, and the salt is her tears. She also saw the red comet (the bleeding red star) at night. Her dragons are Lightbringer - Dany tried three times to wake them, and the time she succeeded, it was with the death of a spouse, just as it was with Azor Ahai.

  • This theory gains some credibility in A Feast of Crows: Maester Aemon thinks she is The Prince Who Was Promised, and there's a lot of overlap in both prophecies.
    • Yeah, there's a lot of overlap between the two prophecies, and there's a lot of overlap with the Stallion Who Mounts The World as well. Might be that the three of them are all different names for the same thing. Damn, that should be a WMG of its own...
  • Melisandre interprets the "smoke and salt" of the prophecy to refer to Stannis at Dragonstone. But where was Dany born? On Dragonstone, in the middle of a storm. Not to mention that the prophecy says Azor Ahai reborn will draw from a fire a burning sword. The burning sword could be a metaphor for the dragons.
  • There is actually another link between the stories of Azor Ahai and that of the dragons: there's mention of a crack in the moon in both of them.

Azor Ahai, The Prince Who Was Promised, and the Stallion Who Mounts the World are all the same person.

And that person is Daenerys.

  • Unlikely. While Dany is probably Azor Ahai, princes and stallions are male. Seriously. In addition, Dany isn't a prince/princess, she's a Queen. It is more likely that the three figures are the three heads of the Dragon, speculated below.
    • She isn't a queen (in Westeros, at least) as long as Aegon is alive.
    • As Aigon points out, the word was originally gender-neutral, it was just translated to "prince." That makes Daenerys the most likely candidate to the Prince that was Promised.
      • If memory serves (feel free to correct me, I don't have the books on hand), the Stallion Who Mounts the World was supposed to be Dany's child, as the crones said that it would be the child growing in her (which died). Unless she has another child, which from the description given about her reproductive organs, doesn't seem like that will happen
      • Perhaps the crones were right but wrong. Daenerys was a child, and growing inside her metaphorically was a child to become queen. Wouldn't be the first obvious prophesy twist in the series.
    • The prophecies of Azor Ahai and the Prince that was promised are related, but the Stallion Who Mounts the world is not. It's possible that because her child died, the last prophecy died with it. Since this is all conjecture, it seems to be a case of trying to find a link where there isn't one.
      • Oh well, I'd say she's doing a pretty good job of running a big-ass khalasar reaching beyond the "edge of the world". Even as a woman.

Azor Ahai, The Prince Who Was Promised, and the Stallion Who Mounts the World are three separate people, but will be the three heads of the dragon that will conquer Westernos

Azor Ahai is Dany, as supported by the above WMG. She comes from the east, awoke the fire of dragons, and is most often associated with fire and light. She also had to sacrifice Drogo and her unborn son to awake the dragons, almost parallel to the creation of Lightbringer being plunged through the heart of Nissa Nissa.

The Prince Who Was Promised is Jon Snow. He is the "song of ice and fire" as he was born from the union of the Starks (ice) and the Targaryens (fire). He is also the defender of Westeros from the Others, and therefore is potentially the savior of the world now that Winter has reached the southern part of Westeros.

The Stallion Who Mounts the World is Tyrion. He constantly jokes about his promiscuity and virility, but also has the potential to rule the world. Unlike Dany and Jon, he has experience in conspiracies and rulership, and has the oddest gift to make anyone his ally.

  • I can agree with the first two, Dany being obvious, and Jon seeming to be a fan favorite for guessing on his parentage. But Tyrion makes less sense. While speculation leads to saying that Jon and Dany are related, there is no evidence to support a similar claim for Tyrion. Unless events are told that give a relationship showing the Lannister's having Targaryen blood in them, or that somehow Tyrion is more closely related to Dany and Jon (perhaps by way of Joanna somehow being unfaithful to Tywin and Tyrion being a child of one of the Targaryen's), I can't see a connection that he fits into.
    • And while Tyrion does made some sense in the way you put it, my main reasoning is the original "Three-Headed Dragon" was made up of Aegon I and his two sisters (and their dragons). So if the WMG of Jon being a Targaryen holds, then there would need to be a thrid person with Targaryen blood to complete the dragon.
      • Don't the Baratheons descend from the Targaryens ? Then one of Robert's bastards (Gendry comes to mind) may complete the trinity. But I guess you could say that of many other noble houses.
        • They do. Rhaelle Targaryen would be the one, who would be Robert, Stannis, and Renly's grandmother. It's possible. Gendry was given quite a lot of time in the book, but if we're going on importance, Edric Storm might have a better chance. After all, Stannis took Storm's End to get the boy so Melisandre could sacrifice him to wake the stone dragons on Dragonstone. But it's a good point. Also, there would also be Stannis' daughter, Shireen, but that seems highly unlikely.
        • Also Tyrion is a bit more uncertain as in aDwD had Dany been warned to be beware of the "lion". Since Tywin is dead, Cersei is not in control and Jaime is off on his own, the only "lion" that will be trouble for Dany is Tyrion.
          • Especially because of how that prediction was phrased, and where the commas were placed in the list. She was warned to beware of the kraken and the dark flame as a pair (who we know are coming together). The other pairing she was warned not to trust was the lion and the griffin (Tyrion and Griff, who were still together at the time).
    • This seems to be an unlikely WMG. The Prince who was Promised is Azor Ahai reborn, not another person. In anycase, the roles don't fit. Azor Ahai was chosen to fight the other, this is much more in line with Jon.
    • Wrong way around: Jon is the one who drew a sword from the fire (when he burned his hand killing the wight and Mormont gave him Longclaw) and in aDwD Melisandre thinks her scrying is broken because it keeps showing her Jon when she asks for Azor Ahai.
      • And as of the end of ADWD, Jon looks pretty dead unless R'hllor brings him back.
      • I wouldn't bet on it. Martin's exact words on the matter are "so you think he's dead, do you?" Really, how many POV characters have actually died in this series? And stayed dead, for that matter?
      • I didn't say he'd stay dead, I said his continued existence would rely on R'hllor (so if he's any of the heroes, he's Azor). Azor Ahai will be "born again amidst smoke and flame" - this might not refer to a "second coming", but to an individual's metaphorical "rebirth", and his death scene refers to smoke and tears. He's got an ancient dragonsteel sword that he received after it survived a fire, and for all we know his latent warg ability might make him easier for Meli to bring back - skinchangers believe they live on inside their beasts.
      • I won't believe he's dead until it actually happens "on-screen", so to speak, given the series. Minor quibble, though: Jon didn't pull the sword from the fire. I have no idea why this idea is so prevalent, but I seem to have to debunk it a lot. He used a flaming curtain to defeat the wight. The sword was in the fire, true, but he didn't know it was there and only received it days later after a new pommel had been carved for it to replace the one damaged in the fire.
      • I think the other poster meant the "drawing it from the fire" line was supposed to be a metaphor -- he didn't pull it from the fire, but that's how he earned it. (Though it would be pretty funny if Lightbringer was the flaming curtain.)
  • Three heads of the dragon! Daenerys is one, Aegon is another one, and the third "head of the dragon" is Jon Snow, son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen! Three Targaryen children: Daenerys is the Stallion - she united the Dothraki and then expanded her forces; Jon is Azor Ahai, as per Melisandre's scrying attempts; Aegon was believed to be the Prince Who Was Promised by his fatherD
  • I can agree with Dany and Jon being the two of the three heads. But why does nobody like Bran?! Bran is the one who wanted to fly and the three eyed crow said he could. Second of all its a song of ice and fire. Dany, pure fire. Jon half ice, half fire. Bran pure ice. Three heads of dragons.
    • Bran has a destiny lined up, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Dany or ruling Westeros or being one of the three heads.
    • I actually think it will be Bran. But he won't ride a dragon- he'll warg into one. THAT would be flying, and I hope he gets it.
  • It seems obvious at this point that the three heads need to be Targaryens all. Although yes, Aegon might be a pretender, I see no reason at this point to think that Jon Connington and Varys both would try such a dupe- especially Jon, whom we see through his POV chapters to be very passionate about the whole thing. So he'd be the second head. The third? L+R=J is pretty much cannon. It's almost there. You can't deny it. Some circumstantial evidence for Tyrion, but really, honestly, no. It has to be those three.
    • Well I do Deny it. And if I'm wrong them I'm wrong. All the books say is that the Targaryens have a strong bond with the dragons, it never said they have to be with the dragons. Now I could be wrong. Its just Bran wanting to fly really nags at me.
    • You're assuming, by pointing out his chapters, that Jon Connington wasn't lied to. I think Varys is plenty tricky enough to pull that off.
    • There's a pretty good chance the Lannisters have Targaryen blood, along with every other noble house. Westerosi nobles are quite "productive." Five children seems quite normal and even a woman who knows that every child brings her closer to losing everything has three of them. The Great Houses also do a lot of interbreeding. We see that Baratheons and Lannisters have married and had children at least four times before, and with that kind of inbreeding and 300 years to spread the seed (I can't even see it taking more than 3 or 4 generations to get a Targaryen ancestor in each of the seven houses), I think we can safely say that a huge chunk of the nobility has at least a drop of Targaryen blood, assuming a drop is all that's needed to be able to bond with a dragon.
  • So what now with Jon looking pretty dead.
    • You can really only call that mostly dead. Look at who we're dealing with here. We didn't see a body or the words "he's dead" from a reliable source, and Jon "didn't feel the [last] knife." From GRRM, this could very easily be a half-sentence that ends in "...because Sam (or Grenn) football-tackled the last stabber, having arrived with some of Jon's old friends because they had tidings of dire importance so they hired (or kidnapped) a new maester (because the wall's being staffed with a lot of non-Brothers right now so why not one more) and high-tailed it to Castle Black, where they arrived just in time and the maester (or woods witch, or midwife, or or or) was able to save Jon from his wounds." Do I think he's dead? Sadly, yes, I do, because GRRM is a bastard. But I don't think we can take his "death" at face value yet, so there's not enough reason to rule this theory out.
      • Well I think he is dead, but as said somewhere further down, I don't think he's going to stay dead.
    • Now to actually answer the question, Dany is the Prince Who Was Promised, Tyrion is the Stallion Et Cetera, and Aegon, Brienne, or a Targaryen bastard we haven't met yet is Azor Ahai. Or, Jon really was Azor (or whoever) and now they're all fucked.

Now that I really think about it, Tyrion definitely has to be on of three heads of the dragon. One it was implied in ADWD that mad King Arys was in love with Lady Joanna Lannister. We know that Lord Tywin loved his wife very much, but we don't know how she felt about him since she was dead long before the books started so it was entirely possible that she cheated on Tywin with Arys and may have gotten pregnant with Tyrion that way. Second even though it is stated in the book that the main reason why Tywin hated and mistreated Tyrion is because he is malformed dwarf and his wife died giving birth to him, but he may have also hated his son because he may have subconsciously known/suspected that Tyrion isn't his. And thirdly Tyrion has had a lifetime obsession/fascination with dragons and everything having to do with them that he can't really explain. Which leads me to believe that it is entirely possible he's actually Tyrion Targaryen, not Tyrion Lannister. Also since we know that Joanna was also a Lannister by being a cousin of Tywin's that Tyrion being half Targaryen and half Lannister might explain his mismatched eyes......

      • Danerys riding Drogon (Black dragon), Jon Snow riding Viserion (White dragon), and Bran possessing Rhaegal (Green dragon), possibly after his death. At their meeting, the three-eyed crow said Bran would fly, this after a prologue that revolved around a warg's dilemma over the choice of his final skin. This also balances ice and fire in the choice of riders.

Littlefinger is going to have a Villainous Breakdown

Because damn it would be fitting for the once bold Magnificent Bastard to achieve his goals and become increasingly unhinged and psychotic before his demise (if he doesn't do a Karama Houdini that is). And we all know how much GRRM loves ironic deaths or failures such as Tywin's death, Ned's blind faith in honour, Jaime losing his hand and Gregor Clegane's horrifically painful death.

  • And the most karmic demise for LF would be for the girl he's pervily grooming in his image to use the training he's giving her to take revenge for all the shit he's put her family through.

Oathkeeper and/or Widow's Wail will turn out to be crucial for the final battle.

... assuming that's where things are heading, of course. They're all that's left of Ice, after all, a blade connected to Stark history and thereby possibly to the fight against the Others. And there haven't been that many drops of the "ice" part of the title.

Oathkeeper is Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

The red coloring of Brienne's sword is remarked upon repeatedly. It was forged from Ice, the sword of failed hero Eddard Stark, and Brienne herself is very much a hero in the romantic mold. Though she may not herself be Azor Ahai reborn, perhaps Brienne is destined to bear it to him/her.

  • Agreed. And the person she is delivering it to may be Robert's bastard Gendry meaning that her role in the story may be over and her hanging may not be the fake out people generally assume.
    • Brienne is apparently alive or a zombie in ADWD, but she only appears in one scene, with few lines.

Dawn is Lightbringer.

It is the only sword which has been passed down not by inheritance, but by merit. It is said to be made of metal forged from the heart of a fallen star. Its wielder is called The Sword of Morning. Morning is what comes right after darkness. Both of these phrases seem to allude that Dawn is not simply Lightbriner reborn, but the ancient sword Lightbringer itself.

  • Even though it isn't inherited, if Jon Snow = Azor Ahai and Ashara Dayne = Jon's mother, there's definitely some poetic justice to his taking up his uncle's sword.

Mance Rayder is working with Littlefinger.

We know that Mance was in King's Landing during the events of A Game of Thrones. It wasn't just curiosity, though, he was there to nail out the details of the plan with Littlefinger. By starting the War of Five Kings, most of the military force in Westeros became concentrated in the South, leaving the North virtually undefended against Mance and his wildlings. How this would benefit Littlefinger ... well, even in a Wild Mass Guessing thread, I'm not gonna even try to figure out what Littlefinger's long term plan is.

    • Until recently, his plan seemed to be "screw people over so I can stick it in Catelyn." Now, -Catelyn +Sansa. Squick.
  • Mance was in Winterfell, not King's Landing. And he was only there to see King Robert, since Mance was King-Beyond-the-Wall. Also, Littlefinger wasn't in Winterfell.

Melisandre is the series' true protagonist.

She honestly believes Stannis is Azor Ahai, and she truly believes that supporting him Knight Templar style is the only way to defeat the Others. In the end, all other characters will bow to her in gratitude.

  • No. No, she's not. One of the many theme's of A Song of Ice and Fire is that both extremism towards "light" and extremism towards "dark" bring nothing but ruin. As Varys said, "Too much Light can hurt the eyes. And fire burns."
  • Alternatively, she can't be the series's true protagonist because she hasn't been murdered or horribly mentally scarred yet.

Sansa is planning to betray Littlefinger and take the allegiance of the Vale for herself.

She's shown affection for Robert Arryn and knows of Littlefinger's plot to have him killed, so that Sansa's presumable fiancee Harry becomes heir to the Eyrie. Littlefinger has been schooling her in the game of thrones for a while now. It would be a fitting graduation for this apprentice to betray her master, reveal his plot and her identity, and in doing so earn the loyalty of the knighthood of the Vale and Robin as an eventual husband - in effect, taking the Eyrie and Winterfell just as Littlefinger had hoped to. It is also the only likely way for Littlefinger to get his comeuppance, as Sansa (like her mother before her) is the only weak point in Littlefinger's plots and emotional aloofness. The resulting Crowning Moment of Awesome would also be fitting of Martin. Note that it is possible that Sansa would not plan this act but end up performing it on impulse anyways.

  • This ends up badly for her.
    • The above is true, regardless of the truth of what it's about.
  • Except she really wasn't upset about the idea of killing Robert Arryn, and seems to put up with him because she has to.
    • Maybe she'll let Littlefinger kill Robert, then point the finger at him after she reveals her true identity. And to top it all off, she shows that she is a true Stark by personally beheading Littlefinger.

Aegon Targaryen was not really murdered, and is one of the following people: Edric Dayne, Hot Pie, Samwell Tarly, Gendry, Jon Snow, Aurane Waters, Darkstar, Viserys, Quentyn Martell.

Baby Aegon was swapped with a different infant before the sack of King's Landing, and has been brought up not knowing the secret of his true identity. Assuming he also does not know his true age, any male character between the ages of 10 and 20 is a candidate.

  • It should be noted that GRRM has been close-mouthed about little Aegon's death; when asked point-blank about the Sack of King's Landing, he would only confirm that Rhaenys was killed. So his being alive isn't really a Wild Mass Guess.
    • Not confirmed, either. This could also mean an Aegon pretender will show up at some point and Martin doesn't want to spoil it. Or he could just be messing with the fans.
      • ADWD has Aegon show up, as himself and not anybody on the list, but whether or not he's a pretender is up for more WMG
  • Not Gendry or Jon. Their resemblance to their fathers is too great, and has been emphasized in the books. Unless you propose that Aegon was a bastard?
    • Jon has the classic Stark 'look,' which could have been inherited from his potential mother, Lyanna. If Jon is Aegon, that means Rhaegar's affair with Lyanna would have had to be going on before he named her Queen of Love and Beauty--but why not?
      • Aegon was Elia's son. Many people would have seen her pregnant and there would have been several people at attendence at the birth of a prince. It's not like you could show up with the child of your mistress/other wife and say "look, Elia had a baby!" While Jon being Rhaegor's son is such a commonly-held WMG to be Fanon, Jon being Aegon is nigh impossible.
        • If Martin knows anything of genetics, then he also knows that generally in children, that the mother's genetics are strongest in the male child, while the father's genetics are strongest in the mother. It's completely plausible that even with Rhaegar's dragon blood that Jon takes after his mother's father's genetics more-so than his father. Dark features in humans are dominant traits, so it's not too far off that the northerner traits in Jon would be the most prominent if he really is from Lyanna and Rhaegar, as every description of the other Targaryens has shown very light features, but the Baratheon bloodline is generally of a darker tone, despite having Targaryen blood as well. It seems really unlikely that Jon is Aegon, unless Aegon is the union of Lyanna and Rhaegar.
          • If above posters knows anything about genetics, s/he should know that your gentics do not care whether they came from the maternal or paternal side of the family (else I'd have my father's brown eyes, not they grey they are), it's dominante/recessiveness that counts. And we've seen that the Targaryen blood is not dominant is its light coloring unless they intermarry, so it's quite possible that Aegon would look more like his mother and less like the typical Targaryen, but for differnt reasons.
            • While dominant and recessive traits are what counts, males are more likely to "favor" the mother's dominant traits, while the females are more likely to "favor" their father's dominant traits, but this is not always the case.
          • You Fail Biology Forever . The other poster get a C. Yes recessiveness/dominance is important but definitely more complex than just that (cumulative effect of more than one gene). The parent's sex linked to inherited traits is irrelevant. You can't guess based on physical appearance which child is who's. Deal with it.
  • Edric Dayne and Hot Pie are too young to be Aegon, the Darkstar and Viserys are all too old. Aegon would be a little older than Jon Snow if he were alive. I don't know what Aurane's age is, but I believe he was older than 16-17. There's very little way you could mistake a 12-year-old (Edric) for a 17-year-old. If Aegon is alive or if an impostor is going to try to claim to be Aegon, I doubt we've seen him yet.
  • Aegon wasn't Hot Pie, because Hot Pie's probably dead; Polliver mentions explicitly that when The Mountain took Harrenhal back from Vargo Hoat, he put everyone to the sword except a turncloak cook (not a baker, and not a boy; a cook) and the Goat himself. Later we find out that two others were spared: a blacksmith, and Pia, the slut from the buttery. But neither of them are Hot Pie either. Unless you wanna start a new WMG...
    • Hot Pie escaped with Arya and Gendry and is presumably still living at the inn with Gendry. Still too young to be Aegon.
      • Hot Pie is not at the Crossroads Inn with Gendry, but in the Inn of the Kneeling Man, because they needed a baker (and he probably felt quietly disappearing makes for a far better chance of surviving this series).
      • Yeah, realized I'd got my facts wrong about three hours later. Failed A Brain Check much?
  • Wasn't Viserys either, as he is described as being too much older than Daenerys to have been born within a year or so of her.
  • Aegon might also be Quentyn Martell, who is the right age and so far suspiciously absent. And Prince Doran was willing to marry him to Daenerys. What were the Targaryens known for? Bingo. Incest.
    • My money's on Quentyn Martell too, given that his father clearly plans for him to rule, even though his older sister will inherit Dorne. Quentyn and Aegon are first cousins so it's not improbable that they were swapped.
    • It's worth pointing out that Prince Doran's marriage broke up due to his wife's anger about him "sacrificing" Quentyn. Arianne believes this refers to Doran sending Quentyn away to be fostered, but it is possible it could be something else...
      • Quentyn was fostered to Lord Yronwood to make peace with the family after Oberyn fatality wounded the old Lord Yronwood in a duel. So it stands to make sense that yes, he was "sacrificed", by being fostered out to keep peace between the two houses.
      • And while were on the topic of this, let's throw some Fanon in here, and reference an above WMG about Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion being the Three-Headed Dragon. If we follow the above, Dany is one head, Jon (if you follow the Fanon) could be the second head, and if Quentyn is actually Aegon, then it stands to reason he could be a strong (if not the only) contender for the third Targaryen blood for the "Dragon". While the original three-headed dragon was Aegon I and his two sisters, if this theory holds out, then the three would all be first cousins, which is close enough in lineage to give this theory something of reason.
        • Aegon, Jon, and Dany wouldn't be first cousins. Jon and Aegon would be half-brothers and Dany would be their aunt.
          • You're correct. This also proves why I shouldn't be wearing my ASOIAF tin foil hat at 7am. Still, the important part is, they would all be related, and all of Targaryen blood to some degree.
        • This actually makes a great deal of sense, given the parallels with Aegon I and his two sisters (King and two female sibling relations, Queen and two male sibling relations).

Eddard Stark is alive.

The man who was beheaded on the steps of the Great Sept was either a Faceless Man or a lookalike whom Lord Varys somehow convinced/coerced into sacrificing his life. When Joffrey shows Sansa her father's head after the execution, Sansa thinks to herself that it doesn't really look like Ned. Catelyn expresses similar unfamiliarity when presented with Ned's skeleton. The real Ned is in hiding.

    • Also, consider what the last whackjob king did to Ilyn Payne. I don't think he'd gladly serve Joffrey, who already proved he was just as much of a psychopath, so maybe he sided with Varys and Cersei instead.
    • That would make a lie of the dreams Bran and Rickon had. But, I still call shenanigans on Ned's death: It was strangely 'off camera' and the confession he recited was word for word what Cersei had said earlier. Also, there's Varys little hint to Tyrion "So, who killed him? Joffrey? Ser Ilyn? Or somebody else?". I have no doubt that Ned is dead, but he probably died before that show. Given the symptoms he experiences in his last POV chapter as well as the sadistic choice given by Varys, he probably died in his cell - either from his wound or by his own hand. But, since that would not do for the things both Cersei and Varys had planned, a show was concocted - either a mummer's farce with somebody faking the voice and Ser Ilyn beheading a corpse, or executing a double. It would certainly have been easy enough to drop a hint to Joff to order the execution without informing Cersei that somebody fucked up and let her captive die. Of course, this means both head and skeleton are really Ned's.
      • I haven't read A Game of Thrones in a year or so, but I'm pretty sure the narrative made it clear that Varys and Cersei were planning on sending Ned to the Wall and the only reason he died at all was because of Joffrey's impulsiveness. As for the notion of Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell offing himself in a cell like a bitch -- that would be completely out of character, not to mention pointless. I agree I found the "off camera" nature of Ned's death weird on first read-through, but wasn't that a Sansa chapter? Of course the poor girl would have trouble coming to terms with her father's death. We found it hard to believe he was dead because she did.
      • Arya was the POV for that chapter. She only didn't witness it because Yoren pulled her off the statue of Baelor the Blessed, so he could steal her out of the city. And it was more that he didn't want her to see it or let her see it; Yoren ended up dragging Arya away from the steps of the Great Sept. And as for Sansa, her chapter is two after Arya's, with Bran's coming first. The snippet I want to mention is "and her father’s legs … that was what she remembered, his legs, the way they’d jerked when Ser Ilyn … when the sword …". Eddard was beheaded. Or, as the WMG states, a Faceless man hired to look like him. And if that's the case, then again, we go back to the dreams Bran and Rickon being false, and also of where is Eddard now.
      • A slight alternative theory: Varys et al couldn't get Ned to falsely confess, even for his daughter's life. So they hired a Faceless Man to impersonate him so he could make the false confession, be sent to the Wall, and either join the Night's Watch (although Jon's presence would complicate things), be exchanged for the real Ned (who might be convinced to send himself into exile on the Wall if he didn't have to lie) or be lost on the way. However, Joffery's execution order threw a spanner in the works, killed the Faceless Man, and now Ned is still rotting in a Kings Landing jail. The main problems: would a Faceless Man participate in a charade that did not end in death/ would a Faceless Man's worship of death go on to his own (remember, Jaqen H'gar didn't want to kill himself)?
    • Problem for the Faceless Man Impersonates Ned theory. Judging by the room full of faces Arya sees at the House of Black and White in ADWD and the guy who may or may not be Jaqen H'gar retaining the same appearance until he kills Pace at the Citadel in AFFC, the Faceless Men can only impersonate dead people. This would make it difficult for a Faceless Man's impersonation of Ned to imply that Ned is alive.

Sandor Clegane is Baelor the Blessed reborn.

After the duel with Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr said to Sandor, "The Lord of Light judged you innocent. He did not proclaim you Baelor the Blessed come again." In an ironic twist, Thoros was wrong.

Jaqen H'gar is Arya from the future.

In this Stable Time Loop, Arya in the future is a successful Faceless Man in possession of the iron coin she must give her nine-year-old self to encourage her to seek out the Temple of the Many-Faced God and train to become a Faceless Man.

  • And therefore:

The Faceless Men are Time Lords.

They can be anywhere, anyone, at any given time. It's the only logical explanation.

Hodor is a Clegane.

He's tall like his brothers. His name ends in -or just like theirs. And the sigil of House Clegane is three dogs. Perhaps when he was a baby, Gregor dashed his head against a wall when he wouldn't stop crying, and left him with brain damage.

  • It's been mentioned by Old Nan, one of Hodor's ancestors, that his real name is Walder, which doesn't end in -or. But the other points stand.
    • Perhaps Hodor is his real name, which is why he keeps on repeating it. This doesn't answer the question of why he's in Winterfell instead of in the south, or his relation to Old Nan though.
    • Is he a Frey? We know they like to call their kids Walder to curry favour with their patriarch, though I can't imagine him being altogether flattered in that case.
      • Which is the reason why he took up another name: he really doesn't like his given name. As mentioned below also makes you think what will happen if Un Cat ever meets Hodor.
    • There's a vision that Bran has in A Dance With Dragons that shows a very tall knight having a romance with someone at Winterfell, and some have interpreted the scene to show Ser Dunk the Tall and young Old Nan, which would be a quite appropriate lineage for Hodor- and it's good for him not being a Frey, given the whole "kill all Freys" thing going around lately. Although, even if this interpretation is correct, Hodor's parentage still remains a mystery.

Various theories that have been put forth involving the identity or true nature of Lord Varys.

  • Varys is a skinchanger who wargs into birds to spy on people.
  • Varys is a Faceless Man.
  • Varys is an alien.
  • Varys is a Targaryen bastard. (He does seem to have a Valyrian name, and is actively working to return Dany to the throne, as in his own words "I serve the realm.")
    • Or possibly even legitimate. The Dunk and Egg prequel novellas mention that Aerion Targaryen spent some time in the free cities, where Varys came from; and it's mentioned in a Clash of Kings that Aerion Targaryen had a son.
  • Varys is Lady Merryweather.
  • Varys is working for the Others.
  • Varys is a merling (fish man).
    • Going with this one. He doesn't even have a real bed in the keep.
    • Uses secret passages that go down to the sewers and the river (as Arya found).
    • Told Tyrion he would be surprised if he ever threw Varys in the ocean.
    • When it was hinted he might have another use for pretty girls, licked his lips...just so.
    • Varys was castrated because male merlings turn vicious at puberty, like Biter.
    • The castrated merling is considerably smarter than the lower animals. This includes humans.
  • Varys doesn't actually have any sort of spy network, and just gets all his information by setting himself as EVERYONE'S confidant and advisor.
    • This is lent credence by the fact that in AFFC it is remarked by Qyburn that finding information is not all that difficult, it just takes the right people and the right amount of coin.
    • Although it must be acknowledged that he does canonically have an unusual knowledge of secret passages and an unusual talent for disguise.
    • He also mentions during the "mummer" conversation (overheard by Arya) that he needs "little birds" to keep things going, and his fat conversational partner mentions that young children who can read and write are hard to come by. He probably does have a spy network going. His playing one party against the other certainly does stand to reason, though.
    • Also it is revealed how much of his knowledge is gained at the end of AFFC, however: his "little birds" came out to play in the epilogue of ADWD.
      • Not to mention that Illyrio Mopatis flat-out tells Tyrion that he and Varys used to use children as spies, which they nicknamed "rats" while in Pentos, but which Varys has taken to calling little birds in Westeros.
      • I'm pretty sure the guy Varys was talking with was Illyrio Mopatis.
      • At least in the show, which has varying degrees of canonicity (is that a word?), it was Illyrio. Roger Allam's voice is rather distinctive, and he was listed in the credits for that episode.
      • Ser Dontos mentioned to Sansa at one point Varys was paying him for information ; so presumably he does have a network of people paid that way.
  • Varys has all the SOIAF books in his study, having obtained them from a passing Time Lord.
    • That time Lord being Jaqen H'ghar, aka Arya from the future (see above).
    • Can I borrow them?
    • Can GRRM borrow them?
  • Varys is George R. R. Martin.
  • Varys is literally a spider - a spider demon with supernatural spy powers.
  • Varys and Illyrio are still playing the same game that made them wealthy. They first started to make their fortunes getting stolen goods from the thieves and returning them to the original owners for a fee. This time the "stolen goods" are the Seven Kingdoms
  • Varys is several children standing on each other's shoulders.
  • Varys and Illyrio are Butch Lesbians.
  • Varys is not actually a eunuch. Has this been Jossed in the later books? (Only got a few books in yet.) Basically:
    • He's a master of disguises, and a known unreliable source. So unless anyone has actually seen the evidence, how hard would it be to pitch your voice up, shave really close, and maybe put on some weight?
      • As a bonus, he can now not just have a secret identity, but be a secret dad, too.
  • Of course, he could also be a woman. Distaff Villainous Crossdresser or Wholesome Crossdresser as needed. In which case "he" could also be a secret mother.

The entirety of the series is actually an elaborate fantasy of Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In which Shinji is Jon, Asuka is Arya, and Rei is Dany.

  • In which Shinji is Sam Tarly, Asuka is Cersei, and Rei is Arya.
  • In which Shinji is Dany, Asuka is Jon, and Rei is the Undead Catelyn

Littlefinger didn't kill Joffrey to remove an unpredictable piece from the Game of Thrones, but in revenge for Lord Eddard's death.

If Ned hadn't been executed, the War of the Five Kings would probably have been much less brutal (if it happened at all), and more importantly, Catelyn wouldn't have become a grieving widow. His original plan was to have Ned exiled to the Wall, and somehow meet up with Catelyn to... comfort her in her time of distress.

    • Seems like Petyr would be overjoyed to see Ned die, and wouldn't even remotely be interested in getting revenge for his death. After all, making Catelyn a widow (more importantly, the widow of a "traitor" whose remarriage value thus drops, potentially allowing even one as "lowborn" as he to have a shot) opens the door for him to try and step in and marry her himself. About the only reasons things didn't go perfectly for him was because Catelyn immediately rushed off to grab Robb, start a rebellion, and get herself killed.
      • The flaw in that argument is that Petyr's original plan would have worked just as well - sending Ned to the Wall would have canceled the marriage too (and, like you said, her remarriage value would still drop). But if Ned was sent to the wall, sure, the Starks might have been pretty furious. But they would have been far less likely to plunge the Seven Kingdoms into chaos and put Cat in serious risk. Littlefinger's first plan gets rid of Ned, but keeps Cat stable. Joffrey sticks a huge Spanner in the Works.
  • No reason it can't be both...
  • Or neither. My favorite WMG is Joffrey killed himself, by eating Tyrion's pie, which was poisoned by Olenna and Cersei's minions. (Joffrey even said "its the pie" as he died.) LF lies about it to Sansa to impress her. LF's obsession with Catelyn, and later Sansa, is due to the prophecy he received as a boy. Just like Cersei, it messed him up big time.
  • In Cersei's POV in ADWD, she says after Ned was arrested, Littlefinger asked to be married to 'Sansa', not Catelyn. (Catelyn might have been Plan A, though.) Cersei refused because he was too lowborn.

Jon is Lyanna and Rhaegar's son

Finding Lyanna on a "bloody bed," a euphemism used elsewhere for childbirth, the promise he made to her and sacrificed much to keep. The rumor that the mother was Ashara Dayne, who was of Valyrian stock like the Targaryens and so would have explained any resemblance to Rhaegar in Jon.

  • No resemblance between Rhaegar and Jon has been mentioned. However, Jon and Arya have been said to look alike, and Arya and Lyanna have been said to look alike - which means that Jon and Lyanna might well look alike.
    • If some fan did what Ned did to Cersei, but on the Targaryens ?detective work on Targaryen marriages to other houses, and the colorings of offspring sired thereof?one wonders what would come up. It is known that the stag is stronger than the dragon, for instance; Robert had coal-black hair despite his Targaryen grandmother. If a Stark and a Targaryen had issue, would the silver hair and purple eyes come through?
      • Quite likely not. For example, in the "Dunk and Egg" stories we meet Baelor "Breakspear" Targaryen, whose mother was a Dornish princess and not another Targaryen. In addition to being far saner than typical for the Targaryen line, Baelor has dark brown hair and brown eyes like his mother, with no sign of the Targaryen coloring. At least one of his brothers, however, DID get the hair and eyes (Maekar), so it seems it's something of a crapshoot. In any case, it has been proven possible for a "half breed" Targaryen to take strongly after the non-Targaryen parent, so Jon's lack of traditional coloration could easily be Lyanna's influence.
      • A Stark/Baratheon marriage could only produce a white-haired or purple-eyed child if the Starks have some Valyrian ancestry, which they don't (or at least, if they do, it's so far back that the odds of one particular recessive gene being passed down for so many generations are extremely small. Now, if Ned had married Ashara Dayne, the odds of a Stark/Baratheon child having Valyrian colorings would be somewhat higher, but still low.
      • The idea is that Ned deliberately had the rumor about Ashara spread so that if Jon did take after his father, there would be a ready explanation. He didn't, so it wasn't necessary.
  • This also explains Ned's insistence on not sending assassins after the remaining Targaryen children; his promise on Lyanna's deathbed was to protect her son and he couldn't do both. The confrontation also allowed him to judge the possibility of coming clean on the whole thing to Robert.
  • This also helps explain why half the Kingsguard was in the south guarding Lyanna, including their Lord Commander, instead of actually, y'know, protecting the king in Landing or the crown prince at the Ruby Ford.
  • Once the Crown Prince dies, his son becomes heir apparent (since GRRM uses classic primogeniture in Westeros, as proven by the Freys). It would not make sense for them to have been guarding a mere hostage (Lyanna). If there was no member of the Royal Family at the TOJ then they should have been heading to Dragonstone to guard Viserys and Dany, not lurking in the Dornish Marches with a hostage of dubious value.
    • Wrong. Since the Dance of the Dragons (not the book "A Dance With Dragons", but the storical event in which the Rhaenyra and Aegon II fought for the Iron Throne after their father's death), House Targaryen has practiced a highly modified version of agnatic primogeniture, placing female claimants in the line of succession behind all possible male ones, even collateral relations.
    • Of course, if most of the Kingsguard knew the truth, Ser Barristan Selmy may be one of the only survivors who know. Jaime likely wouldn't've been told since he was only appointed to the Kingsguard to annoy Cersei and Tywin and therefore not trusted with the whole story. The rest of the Kingsguard died during Robert's Rebellion.
    • While it is possible that Ser Barristan knows of Jon's parentage, it is quite unlikely given what we know of his character and actions. Renly says that when he left King's Landing he vowed to take up service with "the true king" (Likely meaning Viserys at the time). If R+L=J is true, Jon's claim supersedes Viserys' or Dany's, and Ser Barristan should have made contact with him instead. Also, if he knew about Jon, wouldn't he have told Daenarys "oh, and you're not the only living member of House Targaryen" by now? The odds are likely that only the people who were with Rhaegar and Lyanna had any knowledge of their child, in order to maintain secrecy. Considering the efforts Rhaegar went to to hide Jon, wouldn't it be a bit strange to risk enclosing the secret in a message to send off to the rest of the Kingsguard, who might tell Aerys?
      • Correction: Jon's claim would supersede Viserys' or Dany's, but by then, Jon had renounced any claim he might have had by joining the Night's Watch.
        • Actually, because Rhaegar and Lyanna were not married, Jon would still be a bastard and not a legitimate heir. Rhaegar's siblings (Viserys and Daenerys) would still be ahead of Rhaegar's illigitimate son (Jon) in the line of succession.
      • Rhaegar's son Aegon is ahead of all of them in any case.
    • Additionally, this implies that Rhaegar married Lyanna (not so improbably, given Targaryens were given to polygamy in the past). Only a trueborn son of Rhaegar would be an heir to the throne, a bastard born of a mistress wouldn't be worth more than the lives of Daenerys and Viserys. This would actually give Jon a better claim to the throne than Danny, if true.
      • 'Given to polygamy'? The only Targaryen king known to have had more than one wife at the same time is Aegon the Conqueror, who was wholly foreign to Westerosi laws and customs when he and his wives invaded. This does not appear to be the case with later kings, who were known to have lovers and mistresses but not additional wives.
        • And in any case even if Rhaegar had married Lyanna given he had kept her hidden away there would be no credible living witnesses to such a union, making it suspect at best.
    • Prior to his fight with Ned, Arthur Dayne states that had he and his comrades fought at the trident, Rhaegar would have been victorious. So, then, why did Rhaegar have them stay behind? What was so important to him that he would sacrifice his own life and his dynasty's hold on the kingdom. The only answer is that he believed that something more important than politics was at stake. And we know Rhaegar was a great believer in the Price-that-was-promised prophesy.
      • Keep in mind that we're seeing this scene through a fever dream of Ned's. We don't know how accurate it was at this point. It's also quite possible that it was hyperbole if he actually said it, one knight, no matter how good, isn't guaranteed or even likely to tilt the balance in a major battle.
      • One knight, no matter how great, would not have been able to tip the balance by strength of arms alone, but three of the best seven knights in the kingdom fighting on Rhaegar's side (in addition to Barristan Selmy) would have greatly raised morale. It's also likely that at least one of the three was an experianced General (who may have been able to come up with an alternative to Rhaegar's 'honourable' defeat at the river), it has been mentioned before that members of the Kingsguard have been known to lead armies in the King's name when he is unable or unwilling to do battle himself.
        • It's very obviously just trash-talk before a fight. Also, Rhaegar wasn't planning to lose at the Trident. He was an intelligent man, and obviously believed that his plan had a good chance of success.
        • It's entirely possible that Dayne didn't say that at all; it's a dream, and Dream-Dayne is voicing Ned's fears. The fight with the Kingsguard is the closest Ned had come to dying up until that point. He likely had a "Thank the seven those three weren't at the trident" moment afterwards.
  • You realize of course that such a revelation opens the door to Jon/Arya shipping. Just saying.
    • Is that better or worse than the Jon/Dany shipping that seems inevitable given the Targaryen habit of intermarriage? After all, there's a piece of paper heading towards the Wall naming Jon trueborn, and if he's Rhaegar's kid he has a better claim to the throne of Westeros than anybody.
      • That paper, assuming it does name Jon trueborn (it's never said for sure), was written by Robb, who was declared a traitor and killed. Only a king can remove bastardry, and Robb is not acknowledged as ever having been one by anyone with power right now. Besides, I don't think he was ever really a bastard. See above.
      • Of course, given that the dragon has three heads that'd be Jon/Dany/?
      • Jon/Dany/Aegon. See above.
      • He took the black either way, though - and the only way I'd expect Martin to go that route is if it begins early in the sixth book and causes Stannis or whoever to spill a heck of a lot more blood.
      • The Wall has to come down at some point, or else the Others are no threat at all because they can't pass it. Since that would be a pretty sad anticlimax, we can conclude that the Wall will be destroyed sometime in the next couple books. No Wall, no Night's Watch anymore. So it is possible that Jon Snow could be released from his vows since there wouldn't be anything left to have a vow to.
      • Actually, now that Jon is dead, he should be free of his vow if he comes back--which I'm betting he will, via red priest magic. The vows specify that the watch ends with the black brother's death.
        • To quote George R.R. Martin on the subject of Jon: "Oh, you think he's dead, do you?"
  • Additionally, Eddard Stark only refers to Jon Snow as "my blood," not "my son." Ta-da, more evidence for Lord Snow being Ned's nephew.
    • Actually, in the very first Bran chapter of book one, he does refer to Robb and Jon as "my sons." But I agree with this theory, he never actually names Jon's mother (just a woman he slept with, if you read), his promise to Lyanna haunts him constantly, and the facts and dates fit.
    • More notable is that in his chapters, Eddard never thinks of Jon as his son. There'd be no reason not to if the official account were true, bastard or not.
  • You're all fools! This is how it goes down:
    • The dragon has three heads. Dany/?/?
    • One is Jon, since Lyanna was raped by Rhaegar (the crime that Ned and Robers will never forgive him for) and bore his bastard child (check the timing, ~9 months after the rape Ned is at war, away from Cat). Dany/Jon/?
      • It's pretty clear at this point that Rhaegar was not a rapist. Ned feels no grudge towards him at all and he's described by everyone but Robert as noble, honorable, and melancholic. However, Dany sees a blue (winter) rose growing out of an ice wall when she sees the visions related to the dragon having three heads. Lyanna is strongly associated with blue roses, and guess who's at an ice wall (or rather, Wall) right now? Jon being one of the three heads is the most popular and best supported theory.
    • Finally, the last head of the dragon is... wait for it... Tyrion! First, Rhaegar visits Casterly Rock ~1 year before his birth. Next, his father never really liked him (although, to be fair, there are other reasons for that). Third, by this point he's probably escaped to the free cities on the other continient, where he may just meet up with someone. Tell me this wouldn't be amazing.
      • We already know Tyrion is heading for Dany right now, it was one of the released chapters of Dance with Dragons. I think he has a pretty good chance of him being one of the three heads: he dreamed of riding dragons as a child and researched them in his youth, making him a good candidate to help Dany control her wayward dragons (see the released Dany chapter). He even designed a special saddle to help him ride, a skill that would be invaluable in designing saddles for dragons.
        • Tyrion's chances is a bit uncertain as of Dw D cause Dany has been warned to be beware of the "lion". Since Tywin is dead, Cersei is not in control and Jaime is off on his own, the only "lion" that will be trouble for Dany is Tyrion.
      • On the other hand, Bran also seems like a possible candidate. He could help control the dragons via his warging ability, and he's got similar motivations for wanting to ride a dragon as Tyrion. And Dany coming to trust Tyrion enough to marry him and give him a dragon seems a tiny bit farfetched at this point in time. He's a member of the family who murdered her cousins and aunt and part of the government that's been trying to kill her all her life. I doubt acceptance will come easily. Bran has no such hurdle to cross.
  • This one is actually a real theory, which editors at The Other Wiki sometimes have trouble keeping off the page. Head over to the official forums for more info.
  • Interestingly enough, this ties neatly into the whole "ice and fire" thing. The Targaryens are closely tied to fire, while the Starks are equally tied with ice.
  • Jon is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, but not in the way everyone thinks. Lyanna was actually Elia Martell's lover, but impregnated with Rhaegar's errant semen. Eddard is not only protecting the identity of Jon's mother, but the secret behind her sexuality as well.
    • Sex doesn't work that way. Lesbian sex doesn't work that way.
  • Something I don't think anyone has brought up is that, as old Maester Aegon tells Sam, Rhaegar gets very excited on the night his son is concieved because a dragon star (one of those bright red ones) appears in the sky. I see two possibilities: a) "his son" was Jon, and that's why he had so many guards with Lyanna (he knew the child was special, probably the "prince that was promised" and ergo Jon can be important without Rhaegar and Lyanna nessessarily being married or b) "his son" was indeed Aegon, and if so, if Aegon was so special, why should he care so much about Lyanna's baby?
  • When Jon was stabbed, it said his wound "smoked." It might mean the warmth condensed into white mist like breathe, but wouldn't "misted" or "fogged" have been a better word? The chapter (and his POV in the book) end just a paragraph later so it isn't explained. Another subtle way of linking Jon to fire, and ergo dragons and Targaryens?
  • Really important to this theory is "The Dragon has Three Heads," which Dany sees Rhaegar discussing with Elia in her sojourn to the House of the Undying. In ADWD Dragons, Ser Barristan, if I recall correctly, remembers that Elia is sick for months after the birth of Rhaenys, and infertile after the birth of Aegon. Rhaegar realizes he isn't one of the three heads of the dragon and needs another child... and along comes Lyanna. Jon Snow is born by her, and Rhaenys' seat is taken up by Daenerys. So, Three heads? Dany, Aegon, And Jon Snow. All of Targaryen stock, and Jon refused the name Stark when offered to him. Dragons, Dany takes Drogon, named after her husband, Aegon takes Rhaegal, after his father (and as a true born son he gets first pick,) and Jon picks up Viserion, a white dragon and white wolf for Lord Snow.
  • About Ghost: The character's all assume that Jon has Ghost because albino=less than ideal=bastard. But the Targaryens are well known for their white-blond hair, so albino direwolf could=what do you get when you cross a Stark with a Targaryen. Also, when they found the wolves, everyone thought Ghost was the weakest and wouldn't survive, but he turned out to be the strongest, or at least he grew the fastest. Similarly, everyone thinks that Jon the bastard is the least of the Stark siblings, but he turns out to be the greatest--though this may be true regardless of his lineage, by virtue of his being Lord Commander of the Wall.

A satellite of this theory is that Lyanna Stark was the mystery knight at that Harrenhall Tourney that the Reeds recount. Being (as we recall) something of a tomboy and a skilled horsewoman she might well have been jouster enough to unseat a few green squires. When Rhaegar went to investigate this mysterious knight the two fell in love, he crowned her Queen of Love and Beauty for the tournament and everything went downhill from there.

  • Jaime himself said that most of jousting is horsemanship, and Arya's skills with horses are favorably compared to her Aunt Lyanna.
  • Alternate theory: Jon is the son of ROBERT and Lyanna. Rhaegar wanted him dead because he DIDN'T have the Targaryen eyes and hair (but he does have a Baratheon look about him!), and Tywin wanted him dead because, well, Tywin's a power-hungry dickhead. Ned, being the awesome friend that he is to Robert, pulls a Zero-Approval Gambit and appears to have let his honor slip up, just this once, to preserve the life of his BFF's trueborn son (who WOULD be the rightful heir to Westeros but, again, Targaryen loyalists or the Lannister family's genetic predisposition to dickery prevents this).
    • In the books, Jon has brown hair and eyes(I'm pretty sure on the eyes, could be wrong), not the black hair and blue eyes of the Baratheons. Also, there is no way in hell Robert wouldn't raise his son by Lyanna. It's suggested in the books that the main reason Robert was such a crappy father towards Joffery and the younger two was because on some subconscious level, he knew they weren't his. He never felt any parental bond towards them. Comparatively, he had a fairly good relationship with his one acknowledged bastard, the Storm boy. The only reason he acknowledged that boy was to spare the honor of his mother, a the daughter of relatively minor house. If he had a child by the one woman he actually loved, he'd keep the kid at court and damn the consequences.

The Seven was actually a Faceless Man

The fact that the Priests of the Seven seem so intent on insisting that they are all the same entity.

  • The Seven are the optimal traits of an agrarian, feudal god. While not * impossible* , there's no reason to believe this.

Jon Snow's mother is no one of importance.

Despite the evidence, and his own personal hope, that he is the son of a highborn lady (Lyanna Stark or Ashara Dayne), it will be revealed that Jon Snow's mother was a commoner, and his conception was simply the result of a moment of infidelity by the otherwise noble Eddard Stark. Alternatively, his true parentage will never be revealed, a la Taran of the Prydain Chronicles.

  • Actually, this is the only guess that actually has evidence from the books behind it. From Ned's own mouth we hear that Jon's mother was a common woman named Wylla, and later on in the third book Edric Dayne tells Arya that he knew Jon as a baby, and that his nurse was Jon's mother. Jon being Ashara Dayne's son is just speculation by other characters and there's nothing in the books suggesting that Lyanna was Jon's mother.
    • Well, they sure did mention promises and winter roses a lot. At weird moments.
    • He names Wylla as a woman he slept with, not specifically as Jon's mother. Re-read the chapter.
    • Also, Edric Dayne says that he and Jon are "milk brothers" -- all that means is they shared a wet nurse. Edric has no way of knowing if the wet nurse is Jon's real mother. She wasn't Edric's, after all.
      • Actually, she does say he was her son.
        • Edric still has no way of knowing for sure. Assuming the above is not a typo, it's easy for a woman to say "this is my son" regardless of whether it's true -- babies look alike. Differences in coloring can be explained away by the father, or by the fact that most babies are born with lighter eyes that later settle.
      • The fact that this entry is in WMG and not Jon's character sheet says a lot about the this series' fandom. :o
        • Yup, it says that we're intelligent enough to catch subtle hints and to distinguish between what the characters say and what we know for fact because the author says it.
    • And wouldn't Jon being the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna be a little too picture-perfect? Sickeningly so, IMO, though I guess feeling that way and simultaneously hoping for Daenerys to make it back to Westeros and actually do some good instead and not fail in a spectacular Shoot the Shaggy Dog manner makes me a hypocrite.
    • As far as crazy theories go (finding new ones has become this tropers hobby), how about the following: Jon is Brandon's son by Ashara Dayne. In an interview, Martin explained Ashara Dayne had been in King's Landing before the war. Now, there's no hint Ned was there, but Brandon was. And he lied to spare Cat's feelings, since she had loved Brandon, but did not love him (at that point).
    • And for Ashara or Wylla, maybe that was just a lie - Ashara is the mother, but she's a noble and it would ruin her socially to have a bastard, so they just claim it's the child of her servant, not hers.
  • To throw more wood on the fire, ADWD says Ashara had a stillborn daughter from "Stark", which could mean Ned or Brandon (Described as a bit of a player earlier in the book). Also, Ned apparently impregnated a fisherman's daughter from the Sister Islands as he headed north to gain support for Robert's Rebellion.
  • Whether Lyanna is his mom or not, there is definitely SOMETHING behind Lyanna and Reaghar.
  • One thing; when looking for Gendry, Ned wonders to himself why Jon Arryn had been so interested "in a king's bastard" - if he himself had knowingly covered up the existence of a king's bastard for 15 years, this is a strange thought to occur to him.
    • Not really. Remember that Robert approved the killing of Rhaegar's infant and toddler simply because they were "dragon spawn". Ned would have very good reason to keep Jon's parentage a secret. On the other hand, Robert's bastards are in no danger (that Ned knows of, anyway) and he openly acknowledges and supports them. There's a lot of reason to be interested in a child that might be a contender for the throne and whose surname is a Berserk Button for an unreasonable monarch. Not a lot of reason to be interested in one of more than a dozen acknowledged bastards of the king. The two things aren't at all equivalent.

The Others are not all evil.

In this series of Black and Grey Morality, the only possible way to make things grayer than they already are is to make the Exclusively Evil demons not Exclusively Evil, and knowing Martin, be given the the treatment.

  • Not evil, but still dangerous to humans.
  • With ADWD out, it appears you are right since Coldhands is officially revealed to be an Other
  • Coldhands is not an Other, he is a wight a reanimated corpse. The Others are the ice demon things
    • I believe something to this effect has been said by the author, that the Others aren't necessarily evil just for the sake of being evil. That said, there's a huge gap between "not evil for evil's sake" and "not evil." Even if all they want is land and conquest, the same as any of the houses of Westeros, they can still be a massive threat if that requires purging the warm-blooded humans off the land they want.
      • I think the Others aren't evil for the same reason that hurricanes aren't evil...they just do what they do, bring the cold and clear out the warm bloods. I think they also are possibly controlled by some...thing else...a direct counterpart to R'hllor that no one believes in.
        • At one point, it IS mentioned that the physical Others who can be killed are only the lesser versions, and that the true evil is more like unnaturally animated mist and cold.
      • More to the point, they aren't evil in the same way that dragons aren't evil -- just wild, destructive, lethal to humans unless controlled and dangerous even if they are. Ice and Fire can both kill people in their extremes, and we need them in balance to survive. Perhaps the off-kilter seasons are a battle between R'hllor and the Other, and the best outcome for humanity is to find that balance.

R'hllor and the Great Other are the same God.

The Faceless men are right about all the Gods in Westeros being the same God of Many Faces. The Others are the Many Faced God's servants coming to take away humanity's pain and suffering. Leads to...

The Faceless Men will ally with The Others.

The Faceless Men will believe the last WMG, and help the Others invade Westeros.

  • This does not seem likely. I don't think the Others have enough reasoning capacity to recognize an ally (or they wouldn't care). What seems more likely is that some Faceless Men would go and try to ally with the Others, and become more wights.

The Children of The Forest will return.

Osha claims the Children are still alive in the North of the Haunted Forest. She was right about the Giants and the Others.

    • Confirmed. In a spoiler chapter for A Dance With Dragons, we learn that Bran's three-eyed crow is the last Child of the Forest still alive.
      • Actually, the three-eyed crow is Bloodraven, not a child of the forest, but the children do show up in Bran's chapters.

Theories on Cersei's childhood prophecy.

  • Valonqar: It's Jaime, not Tyrion. She's been giving Jaime a lot of reasons to do so. And for the whole "little brother" thing, it will turn out that Jaime was born a few minutes after Cersei, so the prophecy will be fulfilled on a technicality. Or she has another (half) brother she isn't aware of.
    • Jaime being younger than Cersei is canon -- it is described at one point that he "came out of the womb holding Cersei's foot". Ergo, he was born second and is younger than her by the barest margin.
      • Or Cersei was a breech birth.
        • Would have been mentioned. That birth got talked about a lot.
    • Jaime is definitely younger--in AFFC, Cersei specifically notes that the only thing keeping her from inheriting Casterly Rock is gender; although she and Jaime are twins, all that would matter otherwise is who came into the world first. It's stated that by Dornish Law, it would have been Cersei, not Jamie, who was Tywin's heir.
    • Cersei does indeed have two little brothers. However, it's not as clear-cut as that. Maggy the Frog specifically says "the valonqar", not "your little brother", and there are two points about this phrasing that can be made. The first is that it was specifically mentioned in reference to a different prophecy that the Valyrian "Prince that was Promised" is a mistranslation, and is not specifically male, so it's possible that no Valyrian words are gendered and "younger brother" could similarly just mean "younger sibling". The second is that Maggy says THE valonqar, not YOUR valonqar. So basically it could be any character in the series that has an older sibling, especially if it's a significant part of their character that they do: possibilities include Sandor Clegane, Kevan Lannister, Benjen, Bran, Sansa, Arya, or Rickon Stark (or Jon Snow, even if R+ L=J doesn't turn out to be true), Tommen or Myrcella, Daenarys, Margaery, Loras, or Garlan Tyrell, Brynden Blackfish, Quentyn or Trystane Martell, seven of the eight Sand Snakes, Euron, Victarion, or Aeron Greyjoy, Stannis Baratheon, or potentially even any of the Black Brothers, Silent Sisters, or Brotherhood without Banners.
      • Lets not forget Maggy's own younger relatives: Jeyne Westerling and her brothers, one of whom has a suspicious "never found the body" fate...
      • Question; does "valonqar" translate to "younger sibling" or "little sibling" specifically? If it's younger, then the above holds true. If it's little, then Tyrion is probably still the best option.
    • Here's the quote proper, so everyone remembers (young Cersei asks Maggy if she and the king will have any kids): "Six-and-ten for him, and three for you. Gold shall be their crowns, and gold their shrouds. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." Cersei later informs us that valonqar means "little brother". From this, you can probably rule out Jaime, since he doesn't have two hands, and any female possibilities, since even if "valonqar" is gender-neutral, Maggy specifically says "his". I also think we can rule out Tyrion because that's who Cersei thinks it is, and the characters in stories are almost never right when they offer an interpretation of a prophecy. Thus, it has to be someone's younger brother. My personal theory is that it's Stannis, since in the first part of Maggy's answer, she mentions the king ("six-and-ten for him", referring to Robert Baratheon). Robert has two younger brothers, and since Renly is dead, that only leaves Stannis. Adding to this theory, in my opinion, is the fact that Stannis has already shown the ability to long-range murder someone through the use of "shadow-babies" spawned by Melisandre. First he killed his own brother with a sword through the neck and then he managed to push Ser Courtnay Penrose off the battlements of Storm's End. Who's to say he couldn't wrap his shadowy fingers around Cersei's throat? And he also has motive; with Joffrey, Tywin and Kevan dead, Tyrion disappeared and Tommen and Myrcella just children, the Queen Regent is really the only one left posing any kind of Lannister-based resistance to Stannis's claim.
  • It will be Ser Robert Strong/Gregorstein who kills Cersei. Bear with me for a sec: the prophecy specifically mentioned the valonqar's hand. That can't be a coincidence. Qyburn used to run with Vargo Hoat. Hoat cut off Jaime's sword hand: Qyburn asked for it and got it (or maybe he stole it) because hey, what better sword hand for your corpse warrior than the Kingslayer's? I know the hand itself wouldn't really be able to bestow excellent swordsmanship upon the owner, but since we're talking about a friggin' Frankenstein's monster here I think we can let this one slide. Anyway, Strong is going to kill Cersei with Jaime's hand.
  • Younger queen: Daenerys, most likely. She has the motive and means to do so, and she is stated to be beautiful. Another likely choice is Sansa, who is also said to be beautiful and might become a queen via Littlefinger's manipulations.
    • And it's probably not Margaery at this point, since Cersei has her locked up by the end of the fourth book.
      • But Margaery is likely to be pardoned since she's actually innocent of the charges and is very popular with Tommen and the smallfolk. Cersei, on the other hand, is going to get hoist by her own petard in a spectacular fashion.
      • Wait, what? If she's innocent, how do you explain the Moon Tea?
      • Simple. She jumped the gun with her beloved Joffrey. She was keeping him very happy That Way, unlike his earlier betrothal to the more innocent and naive Sansa. Once Joffrey unexpectedly died, her pregnancy suddenly became a big problem. Yes that's right, Margery aborted Cersei's grandchild, although Cersei doesnt know it.
      • Maybe she's innocent, it was for one of her cousins or another, and she was hiding her? Alternatively, she may und up proven innocent. Or... She is so BadAss, she ordered herself Moon Tea to lure Cersei into action, what she'll end up turning to her advantage. Probably she'll finish off (or scare into submission) old septon to remove him as witness against her. Oh yeah.
      • It may be that she was in league with Pycelle (who was given a lot of reasons to hate Cersei in AFFC and is the source for the moon tea information) to manipulate Cersei into making accusations which could be turned against her (with the supposed defector from her retinue to Cersei being a plant who was feeding her all Cersei's plans). However, she didn't take the upsurge in religious fundamentalism and the Church's new militancy (or the fact that most people are apparantly too stupid to realise that regular horse riding could make her physically appear not to be a virgin) into account.
      • Note that Cersei's plan was for her to set the only competent Kingsguard on Margaery's champion in a trial by combat. This worked because the other decent warriors in the Kingsguard were away (Jaime's besieging Riverrun, Balon Swann is delivering Gregor's head to Dorne etc). What nobody knows, however, is that Arys Oakheart is dead, so there's likely to be a vacancy in the Kingsguard soon- possibly for Garlan the Gallant, Margaery's brother and several times stated to be the most deadly sword in Westeros, to fill.
      • While there is an open Kingsguard spot, it probably won't be Garlan filling it. He's Happily Married if you recall, and recently was given a large keep with extensive lands, turning him into a great lord in a single stroke. He's unlikely to give all that up.
      • Whenever Kings' Landing does find out about Arys Oakheart's demise, Qyburn already has someone that he's lined up to be the next member of the Kingsguard (mentioned twice in aFfF, both before and after Cersei's incarceration). But the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard is the one who gets to appoint new members, they've only been appointed by the Regency thus far because Jaime (who was named the new commander after Selmy was relieved) was a prisoner and unreachable.
    • Perhaps the young queen is Jeyne Westerling -- Robb's wife.
      • There must be some relevance to Maggy (Maegi) being Jeyne's grandmother, after all. Why mention it so often?
      • Despite loving this theory, (Jeyne certainly deserves some good fortune), the prophecy states that the young queen will be more beautiful than Cersei is. Jeyne is stated as being pretty, but compared to Dany, Sansa or Margaery, who are all strikingly gorgeous...
    • ...which lead us to the younger queen being Sansa. SHE strarted the plot to remove joffrey and was UNKNOWINGLY a part of it.
    • Myrcella. Bear with me: if Myrcella gets married, then[1] she will technically no longer be one of Cersei's children, but instead part of her new husband's family. If she's still in Dorne when this happens, or if the new husband has a claim to the throne, then she could very easily end up being the younger/more beautiful queen that supplants Cersei.
      • Now that Myrcella's face has been scarred this seems less likely. Although as of A Dw D Cersei's famed beauty does seem to be... diminished.
  • Arya, despite being trained against it, will retain her identity, and with it, her quest for revenge. Since there are only a few people left, and Cersei would be the easiest to find, Faceless Man Arya will be the one that strangles her, with or without the use of her abilities to keep the prophecy intact, but deliciously subverted.
  • Cersei isn't concerned with her children out of maternal instinct, but because of self-preservation. I cite Stavro Mueller Beta: Cersei cannot die until all three of her children have been crowned and died before her and the younger queen finishes her off. Part of why she's so high and mighty is because she knows until that happens, she's effectively immortal. Joff's death in Storm of Swords shook her, and now she's taking a more proactive role in her kid's wellbeing.
    • Well, if that were true, she'd keep him off the Iron Throne. High mortality rate there, and it has the advantage of proving the prophecy wrong.
  • On the fate of her children: Joffrey's dead, but Tommen and Myrcella might make it out alive. The series has done enough with fake versions of the nobility (the fake Arya) and feigned deaths (Bran and Rickon) to make sure that, just because you're fated to see your children die before you, doesn't mean they'll actually die.
    • maybe Tyrion/or Jaime will "declare" to Cersei that their kids died of accident. Then she'll fling herself of the wall
  • Or her younger cousin might decide the trial
  • Am I the only person who thinks that the Younger Brother who will kill her might be Tommen? It'd be figurative, of course, but all they'd need to do would be to stick the piece of paper in front of him that says "Execute Cersei" and he'd place his seal on that without looking at it.
    • Tommen seems a bit wimpy for any such thing :/
      • Samwell Tarly seemed pretty wimpy, too. That's no stopper.
  • We are all assuming that this prophecy is true. We know "Maggy" was a Meagi, but the last one of those we met turned out to be a nasty little traitor indeed. Could just be that the sour old women was just saying things? After all, Cersei blows things way out of proportion on a regular basis.

Tommen and Rickon are going to be friends.

  • When this series is over and everyone else is dead, Tommen and Rickon are going to meet up and be bestest friends, and rule the North and South fairly. You will be able to cut the symbolism of those two being friends with a knife. I'm really just basing this on them being similar ages and that they are the only two members of their families that are not seriously messed up.
    • Rickon not messed up? Poor kid's practically a dire wolf already. He's going to be a warg.
  • Alternatively, Tommen will make friends with Bran They're of an age, and Bran seems genuinely dedicated to being a good little Lordling. Tommen needs somebody to set an example.
    • But he's gone of to the North to develop his third eye or whatever it is. Tommen is going to be the only one left.
  • This theory also assumes that Cersei's prophecy?that all her children will be crowned (true) and all of them will die before her (1/3rd true so far)?gets averted. Somehow, I'm not holding my breath. (Which is too bad for Tommen, really. He's a cute kid. "When I'm king I'm going to outlaw beets!")
    • If I remember correctly, the prophecy says that she will see her children crowned and die. It's possible that something could cause Cersei to believe Tommen and Myrcella are dead, when in actuality one or even both of them survived. I really hope GRRM does something like this. These two are some of the few genuinely good people in the series. It would be a shame if they were killed off.
  • You really think there's going to be a happy ending to all this?
    • At this point, the question could be whether or not there will be an end at all.

House Frey will be wiped out to a man by the end of the series.

  • Once old Walder Frey dies, there's guaranteed to be conflict between the heirs, particularly Black Walder and Edwyn. Plus most of the other riverlords dislike them, the Brotherhood Without Banners plans to kill as many as they can, and the fact that they've disgraced their house by killing their guest. It seems only fitting that the one house with no shortage of heirs will end up extinct.
    • And a large portion of the fanbase will cheer, although the death of Walder Frey would be the main attraction.
    • For that matter, it may in fact happen or at least become obviously inevitable before Walder dies. Having his pride stripped before he dies would seem to be what natural justice would require, after all...
    • A curious happening at the end of A Feast for Crows. Tom Sevenstrings is at Riverrun, along with its new Frey Lord. Given that he was present and gleefully a part of the previous hanging at the end of the previous book, I think its safe to say he didn't move into Riverrun because he felt that the Brotherhood Without Banners has lost sight of its original goal...
    • You obviously didn't pay enough attention - this is almost stated outright. Ryman Frey, the heir to the Twins (and Catelyn's killer), was hanged after Riverrun fell, along with several other Freys. Tom Sevenstrings organized that attack, and he is the reason why the Brotherhood Without Banners have so much inside information on the Freys.
  • Wyman Manderly will certainly be doing his best, as A Dance With Dragons confirms. Frey pie, anyone?

George R. R. Martian hates his characters and us his fans.

Honestly, why else would he write all of those horrible horrible things. No child, real or imaginary, should have to go through what those Stark children go through.

Daenerys won't survive the series.

  • If you're about to say "like he would really do it," please take a moment to remember where we are. Raise your hands if you thought the same regarding Ned and Robb Stark. There have already been subtle hints that Daenerys, despite having Taken Several Levels In Badass, still isn't quite nasty enough for this world. I grant, she has thus far proven to be a very difficult person to dispose of, but none of the majors players in Westeros are actively seeking her death; she's not important enough. Once she tries to actually invade Westeros, she's in for a nasty shock. After managing to cause a healthy dose of mayhem, confusion, and consternation, she'll end up being demolished the minute someone sends her dragons to the Void.
    • The released chapter of her shows her getting rather used to Assassination attacks and learning to be a good fair ruler while still being rather ruthless. She also has Tyrion, Quentyn Martell, Victarion Greyjoy all heading toward her. Tyrion is his father's son to the point of shooting his father in the crotch with a crossbow...
    • I think Dany may die before the end of the series, because she was prophesized to have three betrayals in her life. What kind of monarch is only betrayed three times? ...A monarch with a short life. Wildly guessing here, but it seems possible the third betrayal will kill her.
    • I've been assuming this almost has to be the case, if only because of the constant emphasis on how she's barren. A queen who returned to Westeros, conquered, and reestablished the ancient dynasty only to die childless because she cannot produce an heir would only plunge the kingdom back into anarchy and civil war a generation later. The mythological overtones of the story almost require a new king who can found a new, stronger dynasty that will be able to thrive for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.
      • Plus, to throw in the "Martin started writing this series based off the Wars of the Roses" angle, as the exiled and returning spawn of the old kings, she doesn't really fit the role of Henry Tudor. Jon is a far better fit, (likely) being the fusion of both the ancient blood of the Kings of the North and the ruling blood of the dragon kings.

Tyrion will join Dany.

  • Related to the above, he's smart enough to keep her alive. I could even imagine them being married (whether or not they have sex is something else entirely, but as a co-ruler, she could do a lot worse).

Jaime Lannister will become King of the Seven Kingdoms

  • GRRM is very good at subverting audience expectations. It would be like him, akin to the Red Wedding, to go: "Look, all this hokey magic and ancient prophesying is no match for a good sword by your side. Sure, Azor Ahai would have helped defeat the Others, but a Four-Star Badass will do, Dany is prophesied to become queen, but she spent too much time farting about in Mereen and now the moment's passed, etc" So the "prophesied" destinies of the more likely candidates could prove to be meaningless. So why Jaime? Well, it would fit with the series' cynicism to make the Kingslayer the King. Also, there has been some blink-and-you'll-miss-it description that could be seen as foreshadowing: when Jon first sees him at Winterfell in Game Of Thrones, he thinks to himself "that is how a king should look." He is also first introduced as a conciliator between Robert and Cersei, possibly foreshadowing some pretty impressive diplomacy to get the kingdom back together. He is now the only Lannister who seems to give a crap about actually trying to govern. Finally, he is a Father to His Men, and has the potential to be a father to his people. GRRM could end the series leaving it ambiguous as to whether Jaime will be a useless dilletante or an efficient monarch - Robert Baratheon Mk. II or Jaime, of the House Lannister, The First of His Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Lord of Casterly Rock and Kingslayer.

Coldhands is Benjen Stark

  • He has a Night Watch cloak, and is most likely undead due to not being able to pass the gates in The Wall (not to mention how he has his name). Benjen hasn't been confirmed dead or alive since his appearance in the prologue of the first book. Most likely he is a Wight that managed to keep sentience and memories of his past, making him something like The Skull Knight.
    • Gah, I was going to post this one, thinking no one else had thought of it.
    • He's a Night's Watch man, and it would be kinda silly and anticlimactic to make him just some old joe. There isn't anyone else it could be.
    • As for how he maintained sentience, he didn't necessarily do so. We know the Starks are generally Wargs, that when a Warg dies they possess their animal (per various wildling Wargs) and that wargs can possess humans as well as animals (and thus likely can possess other creatures as well). So if Brandon's body became a Wight, he (while in animal form) could then possess that body becoming the creature known as Coldhands. Thus he didn't actually go through the Wight transformation, only his body did.
    • It's reasonable to assume that only wargs who harnessed their powers in life can live on in their beasts (otherwise the North would be crawling with sentient animals possessed by the spirits of every latent warg who ever lived) and Benjen's never been suggested to have done so. On the other hand, it could well be the Three Eyed Crow possessing the body of a dead Watchman. Or alternatively he might have been the one to teach the wight how to hold on to its humanity.
      • The bit about it not being so because otherwise there would be a lot of sentient animals is not true. We know that the longer a warg remains in animal form after death, the more they lose their intelligence until they eventually become slightly clever animals.

The Others are not evil.

  • All we've ever seen them do that could even be considered "evil" is kill members of the Night's Watch. Which, one must remember, is a hostile armed force that regularly goes on forays into territory that they do not own, kills the largely harmless denizens of said territory, and retreats to the security of its Wall.
  • Possibly related theory: the Others are the Children of the Forest.
  • It seems very likely that the Others are not flat-out evil. There is very little black in Martin's world. But just because they're not evil doesn't mean that they're not antagonists and not a threat to Westeros.
    • "Very little black"? This series has minor characters that are worse than the primary antagonists of other High Fantasy series. They just happen to be distributed fairly equally among the different factions. That said, it's quite possible that we'll get some kind of backstory or fleshing out for the Others that reveals that they have some reason for slaughtering and re-animating living things other than shits and giggles and makes them somewhat more sympathetic or understandable - a la the Norns from Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (the series that got GRRM interested in fantasy as a genre), which were also eerie, pale-skinned humanoids associated with deathly cold. So they may turn out to be somewhat sympathetic villains rather than the inscrutable monsters they are now.
  • The Others kill wildlings too. Mance told Jon that their wights were killing more of his men than the Night's Watch (at least until Stannis showed up). There is good evidence that they aren't the Children of the Forest either. If Old Nan's story from book one is to be believed, it was the Children who taught the First Men how to defeat the Others the first time they invaded.

Tysha is the Sailor's Wife.

  • In Braavos, Arya encounters a prostitute known only as the Sailor's Wife, famous for marrying every one of her clients. The Wife is also able to speak Westerosi, unlike most people in Braavos; has a daughter called Lanna; and constantly mourns for her "first husband," her one true love, who was allegedly lost at sea. This "first husband," however, was none other than Tyrion Lannister, and she named her daughter after the Lannisters in memory of their relationship, unpleasant end notwithstanding. Where do whores go? Braavos, as it turns out.
    • This is one of the most disturbing things I've read on this website. Why would Tysha have undying love for a hideous midget who participated in her gang rape???
      • "Hideous midget"? Shockingly, both dwarfs and "hideous" people have been known to find true love. And sometimes it even lasts a long time!
      • Because she loved him before, and knows he didn't know the truth after a rant by his father. That and years of a harsh fantasy world having Tyrion's love be the only peace she knew. It's horribly disturbing because that's the sort of series this is...
      • Since it seems that Tyrion will be joining up with Daenerys shortly, the logical conclusion would be that Tyrion would betray Daenerys to save Braavos. This would fulfill the final part of the blood/gold/love prophecy. (Jorah never betrayed Daenerys for love, quite the opposite. IMO the whole Jorah romance plotline is likely to be a red herring in that regard.)
      • She may not love him anymore, even if she doesn't blame him for what happened to her, but I doubt that would have anything to do with his appearance since she didn't seem to mind that he was a "hideous midget" before. Although even if she forgives him on the basis that he was coerced by his father, I doubt she would want to have a relationship with him ever again. Which is why I don't really buy the theory that the Sailor's Wife is Tysha, unless she's lying about waiting for her love to return to her.
    • Why does everyone assume that you have to be a whore if you are raped? Only because Tywin called her a whore and had her gang-raped doesn't mean that she actually is a whore. That's some serious Unfortunate Implications there. And why on earth would Dany waste her strength by attacking Braavos?
      • Do you remember Tywin's Famous Last Words? Supposedly Tysha'd been sent to a whorehouse.
        • Tywin's words were that she went 'wherever whores go'. I always took that as a flippant dismissal that Tyrion, in his self-pitying (and I love the guy, but that is one of his flaws. Perhaps understandably, but it is.) obsession with her, took far too seriously. Why does Tywin care where Tysha went? He assumed she was a whore, so he figured wherever she wandered off to afterwards was 'wherever whores go'.
        • I thought it meant she was dead. You know, good men go to heaven, bad men go to hell, Tysha is wherever whores go.
        • Sad thing is, either one is very likely given Tywin's character. Depending on how merciful he was feeling, he might have had her shipped off to a whore house, and regardless of whether or not she had been a whore previously, she'd be forced into it after that. Then again, it's as likely as not he had her killed.
    • And what's even more disturbing is that Tyrion managed to get an erection and rape Tysha. After a dozen guards had raped her. In front of Tywin and everything.
      • Folks tend to get erections when distressed or confused, not just sexually excited. Getting an erection has nothing to do with wanting to have sex. Note that 3 out of 5 men can get erect while being raped.
      • Between fear of Tywin Lannister's punishment for not doing it and the distress and confusion mentioned above, it doesn't seem so far fetched.
    • People keep talking about how Tyrion raped Tysha--does no one realize that Tywin forced him to? Think about it with the genders switched--a father forces his barely teenage, terrified daughter to have sex with her equally unwilling boyfriend. She's not a rapist, and neither is Tyrion. What happened was just as much an assault on him as it was on Tysha. The guilty party here is Tywin.
      • The whole "he had an erection, therefore he wanted it" troubles me. Men can get an erection just from being put in a sexual situation, even an unwanted one. This isn't something that's hard to believe, it's happened in real life. It can be difficult to get an erection in such a stressful situation, but it's hardly impossible.
  • Is Braavosi "where whores go?"
  • The other whore, who could read someone's future in a drop of blood, said that the Sailor's Wife's husband was dead.
    • But if you don't take it literally it would make quite a bit of sense.
    • Look at it this way: Tysha mourns her first marriage because it was a time when she was happy. Her husband being dead could just mean dead to her after he let her be raped numerous times. (From her point of view)
    • Considering how she "marries" all of her clients, she probably has thousands of "husbands," any one of whom could be dead.

Tysha is Taena Merryweather

She has wormed her way into Cersei's good graces and is working from within to bring down the Lannisters in revenge for her rape and humiliation. Taena has no real backstory or lineage besides being Myrish, but that could be an invention.

  • You'd think Tyrion would have noticed by now . . .

The Wall is going to fall before the end of things.

  • Mance Rayder supposedly found the Horn of Winter, and was going to use it as leverage in getting his way past the wall. Since it was balked so much, it must be the right horn. This will lead to the Wall falling, and freeing everyone who didn't want to be working there from their vows once and for all.
    • Well if it doesn't, the Others sure aren't much of a threat.
    • This theory is already further up the page buried under bullets, but I agree the wall is going to fall. However, I don't think Mance's horn is the Horn of Winter. Ygritte said they didn't find it, and at that point she trusted and loved Jon. She had no reason to lie. I believe that horn was a bluff on Mance's part. I think the true Horn of Winter is the one Ghost found at the Fist of the First Men, that Jon gave to Sam. It was buried with the obsidian, so someone thought it was important. Sam has been carrying it ever since. Even after he loses all of his belongings but the clothes on his back, Martin is sure to mention he still has the horn. It's important since Martin isn't one for dropping unneeded details or red herrings.
      • And Sam, being Sam, will eventually blow the Horn thinking it's, you know, a normal horn, accidentally knocking the wall down?
      • Wasn't it also said of the horn that Jon couldn't produce any sound from it? It would make sense for a magical horn intended to bring down the wall to be unusable on the wrong side of the wall.
    • Ygritte had no reason to lie to Jon, but Mance had every reason to lie to Ygritte. He tells Jon as much when he threatens to blow the horn.
    • The horn is now destroyed.
    • According to Tormund Giantsbane in ADWD, the horn that Mance claims is the Horn of Joramun is just some giant's horn they found in a tomb. The real Horn could still be out there.

All red-haired people in Westeros share a hive mind by way of R'hllor.

  • Released chapters from Dance with Dragons show Melisandre knows the catchphrase "You know nothing, Jon Snow." But the woman who said this died before Melisandre ever arrived on the Wall, so there is no way that she could have known the phrase would be pertinent. However, Melisandre and the aforementioned Ygritte both have red hair, a fact which is specifically remarked upon several times ? Ygritte is outright referred to as "kissed by fire," while Melisandre is a priestess of a god of fire. Clearly, R'hllor gives mystical telepathy to all those in the world with red hair ? possibly also including Beric Dondarrion (at least, until he finally kicked the bucket for good), the Tullys and those Starks with Tully features (debatable, as they have auburn hair, but it's fairly close to red), and maybe several others, as redheads are not massively uncommon.
    • Melisandre probably has some psychic powers, that doesn't necessarily mean it has anything to do with hair colour. She could have taken the phrase from Jon's own head, not Ygritte's.
  • The first time Mel said the phrase, it was very "OH hoho?" but then Val and others continued to say it multiple times with no special effect, leading me to think "You know nothing" is actually just a common wildling phrase.

Daenerys will be tricked by the Martells into destroying their enemies.

  • Fact, The Martells support Dany. Fact, they're sending an suitor to treat with her. Fact, the Lannisters killed Dany's family. Opinion, Dany being duped into killing (mostly) innocent people is a great way for her to get into mega-mad queen mode, also it would teach her the Targaryens weren't great people, and that people will use her.

Rickon will kill Littlefinger.

  • Direwolves are expressions of the Starks' (and Jon's)personalities. Lady was gentle, Summer is excitement-loving and a little childish, Nymeria is jaded, Ghost is The Stoic, and Grey Wind...we don't really know that much about. Regardless, Shaggydog is terrifying EVEN TO THE OTHER WOLVES. And it takes FOUR GROWN MEN TO RESTRAIN RICKON. Think about this. Rickon's been slowly losing his humanity - note: he's the only Stark kid still near his wolf, and, as Jojen told Bran, it is very difficult for a warg to keep his humanity. I.e., by the time we see Rickon again, he will be essentially a NIGH UNKILLABLE homicidal maniac with distrust for all near his siblings. Littlefinger's plan was jostled only once - when Joffrey killed Ned. And Rickon is WAY more chaotic and insane than Joffrey, though less evil. Rickon will catch Littlefinger...doing something to Sansa, and then RIP HIS FUCKING FACE OFF.
    • Not necessarily a bad theory, though Rickon isn't really the only Stark kid still near his wolf. Bran is still fairly close to Summer, and Jon has Ghost around him all the time.
      • Bran is a trained warg/greenseer, and Jon is pretty much a grown man. Rickon, however, literally grew up with his wolf beside him; if they share a mind, he could well end up feral. (Compare a child raised with a pet dog, and a child raised by dogs.)
      • Ooh, I like this. Think how much of Jojen's training it's taking to prevent Bran giving himself up to the wolf (while he has psychic potential most of his brothers don't, Rickon had the same prophetic dream about Ned's death that Bran did). What does Rickon (wherever he is) have? Osha, a wildling - if she's still alive. Wildlings fear wargs at worst and revere them at best, but at any rate she's likely to have no idea how to control one. When Rickon shows up he'll at the very least be Raised by Wolves.

Cersei will demand Trial of Seven

  • At the end of A Feast for Crows, Cersei is locked up and facing charges of adultery, treason, and possibly even the incest that everyone in the know apparently knew about but pretended not to. Qyburn mentions that 'it' is complete and ready, and 'it' will be useful if she demands trial by combat. Unfortunately, as a result of her gambit-backfire, she's forced to use her Kingsguard to champion her. However, by the end of the book, half of the Kingsguard is dead, and the other half is abroad: the 'Soiled Knight' was killed in the Dornish ambush, Kettleblack is going to be executed, and Loras is dying at worse, or in hiding at the best (since he's still a potential POV for book 5). Jaime and Ser Ilyn Payne are away, and may or may not show up leaving two men on the guard. By demanding trial of seven, she could possibly finagle five more champions (note that there's a veritable wall of badass lords on the way at the end of the book) that are more capable that the Kingsgaurd, allowing Qyburn's creation to see battle, and bail her ass out.
    • The It that Qyburn is referanceing, is of course, the Mountain that Rides, Preserved from death by the strange magic that Qyburn knew (which works now because of the return of the dragons. or works better, whatever). this also allows his brother to finally kill him, in the end. the mountain that rides, rendered into an undead monster... scary thought, considering he was too ugly to die already.
      • I was thinking less "preserved from death" and more along the lines of "reconstructed after death" for some Frankenstein's monster-style antics.
  • Averted, in ADWD. She's still having a trial by combat - Zombie Gregor of the Kingsguard versus unknown champion.

The books are in Earth's far future

  • There are hints scattered around of lost abilities and technologies - in the description for either Dragonstone or Harrenhal the narrator mentions that the ancient builders had very skilled construction methods that allowed them to almost sculpt the stone into a desired shape. You could do the same thing with concrete and rebar for ten years, but if we say that some of the magic could be Clarke's Law style lost tech (like the Undying Ones' house), we could also assume the building techniques are also futuristic structures and materials that would last far longer. Also, if you mix some global warming, plate drift, and humanity-influenced erosion, Westeros could pass as North and South America.
    • Only if the Americas go through some mass shrinking. Westeros is only the size of South America. Unless the land beyond the Wall is North America.
      • There could easily be some credence to this, we know that the seasons of the entire world are really flubbed. If the wall is situated at more or less the future version of the Panamanian Isthumus, and the vast lands north of the wall are at a reverse seasonal point to the rather constant temperate seasons of the southern continents...
        • I'd be more inclined to believe that the equator is somewhere in or a few hundred miles south of Dorne, as that's described as the hottest part of Westeros. This would mean that the rest of the continent had shifted up (possibly a result of the cataclysm that fucked up the seasons?) and "The Land of Always Winter" is getting into the Arctic Circle/North Pole. Of course, this only covers about 4,000 miles, and the Earth is (as far as Google can tell me) about 24,000 miles from pole to pole, so either the Arctic Circle is much wider as a result of the seasons, or Sothoryos is even more brutally hot and unforgiving than Dorne. (Alternately, the planet of Westeros is banana-shaped and this is all a circle-jerk.)
      • Westeros could very well be South America. I point to a line from A Storm of Swords (p 46 in the US paperback). Arya Stark, fleeing Harrenhall, says, "See how [the moss] grows mostly on one side of the trees? That's south." This would only be true if they were in the southern hemisphere of whatever planet ASOIAF is set on. Westeros could be S. America, Essos might be some weird tectonically shifted Africa, and Sothorys is Antarctica. (See the comet theory below for the only way this might actually * work* )
      • Perhaps the Free Cities/Ghis/Valyria/etc are Africa having undergone massive continental shift (so that it rotated more or less ninety degrees and is mainly just in the southern hemisphere, sitting very close to South America (Westeros)), and the Earth underwent some massive Day After Tommorow style global calamity that rendered much of the Northern Hemisphere (ie. Above the wall) frozen and completely fucked with the weather and seasons.
        • Earth was hit by a stray comet that tilted its axis to somewhere between 45° and 90° (similar to Uranus), leaving the northern hemisphere at the time of the story pointing away from the sun. However, Martin has said that the explanation for the seasons will be magical in nature, not scientific.
    • And if that's true, then the Stark family are descendants of Tony Stark
    • Westeros is South America, as stated, and at the end the Wall will fall and the wildlings will die; Dany's conquering army will venture into the wild north and find the abandoned Lincoln memorial.
      • Or remnants of a statue.

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

  • Conversely, the books might take place in the far-future--but not on 'Earth.' The length of the seasons of Westeros indicates that the planet has a longer orbital period than earth, even though "years" are measured the same as our earth standard. Which implies that the ancient builders were ancient astronauts who terraformed whatever planet Westeros is on and their descendents eventually went medieval.
    • The length of the seasons of Westeros is random. They used to have three-month seasons, but some massive cataclysmic/supernatural event many many years ago (IMO, probably about ten thousand) threw off the path. Old Nan's stories state that once, seasons lasted a generation, which they no longer do -- the ten-year summer is treated as being unusually long, largely in the context of dreading the unusually long winter to follow. This in turn suggests that the orbital pattern is slooooowly stabilizing itself. (I'm aware I probably fail physics forever in thinking this supports the Westeros-planet = Earth theory, but it makes intuitive sense so I'm running with it.)
  • Judging from rough geological correspondences, cultural references, and the fact that the series started out as being a fantasy analogue of the Wars of the Roses, it's pretty obvious that, if this WAS Earth, Westeros would have to be Britain. The Wall is Hadrian's Wall, the wildmen are Scots, and Essos is Europe. Valyria is obvious Rome (with a lot of Atlantis symbolism), with the Doom being a reference to Pompeii and the Thera eruption. Ghis is Greece, Slaver's Bay is the Sea of Marmara/the Black Sea, and Meereen is Constantinople. Those facts would also start to argue that time is somewhat cyclical in the universe of the books (similar to the Wheel of Time setting), and the events could either be in the far future or the far past of our current time.
    • If the Doom is the Thera eruption, which would make more sense given that wiped out a decadent civilization and didn't just bury a couple seaside towns, Valyria makes a lot more sense as ancient Crete than Rome. (Thera/Santorini destroyed the Minoans. Vesuvius has buried Pompeii a couple times, the famous one in AD 79 having the only lasting consequence that a lot of rich people said "Crap, now I have to buy a new villa.")

Daenerys' return to Westeros will be an Anticlimax

  • This strikes me as the kind of thing GRRM would do. I'm probably wrong (I've not read book four yet), but I can't say I'd be surprised if Daenerys gets home either to find it's an absolute wreck and there'll be no fighting involved, the people reject her outright for some reason, her dragons die of magic swine flu or something like that.
    • The most likely way this will happen is probably this: when she meets up with Euron Crow's-Eye, he uses his magic dragon horn, but instead of putting the dragons under his control, it causes them to go mad, and they kill him and Dany.

Stannis is not a Baratheon

  • The unique Baratheon coloration is pretty much a constant throughout the series. Everyone with a drop of Baratheon blood before and after Robert has coal-black hair and blue eyes. Stannis may look similar, but not to the extent of EVERY OTHER RELATIVE OF ROBERTS. More damningly, Melisandre must use a leech full of a king's blood to work her magic, and instead of leeching Stannis (to whom she has had access for months) she uses Edric Storm. Stannis will discover this at some point and either submit to execution for treason or take the black.
    • But Mel does does use Stannis' blood to bring about the death's of Joffery, Robb and Balon. Her main objection to using his blood to wake the dragons was that it would require taking all of it. You know, as in killing he own messiah. Hence the need for an alternate blood source...
      • At that point she had and was leeching Edric Storm.
      • The point stands, though; it would hardly have been practical for her to burn Stannis.
      • She tells Stannis that there's power in the blood of Kings; i.e., Robert's Blood. Robert may have been a shit king, but he was the acknowledged king of a united kingdom, something Stannis has yet to obtain, making Stannis king in name only as of yet.
    • Also, the Baratheon coloration is described as being black-haired and blue-eyed. Also, all three of the Baratheon brothers are described as being big men, that is, tall, strong, and broad-shouldered. Stannis is black-haired and blue-eyed, tall, strong, and broad-shouldered.

George R. R. Martin will Kill'Em All. Literally

  • The others will break through the wall, the people of Westeros, the Free Cities, Ghis, the wildlings, etc will all, eventually, come to the realisation that they have to combine their strength to fight them - but it won't matter - the Others will keep killing people, turning more and more people into Others, and A Dream of Spring will end with not a speck of life remaining on the planet and George R. R. Martin pissing himself laughing.
    • No, they'll manage to defeat the Others, but in doing so will unwittingly unleash whatever caused the Doom of Valyria, destroying Westeros anyway.
  • The final showdown between the only surviving factions in Westeros will be Nymeria's wolfpack vs. the suspiciously intelligent ravens.

Arya will join Dany

Arya's in the area, she has reason to wander the world, Arya's a good rider so the Dothraki * would respect her, and Dany needs to know about the sordid past of the Targaryeans.

  • Arya isn't Arya anymore, she's a Faceless (Wo)Man.
    • Not true. She's on her way to being that, but she seems to be retaining her self thus far, though barely. There are two possibilities of that plot. Either she'll become a Faceless, who you know will end up with a bigger role once the Others plot sets in, or she'll resist and end up fighting them. And probably Dany.
      • or she'll find a surgorate familiy in Victarion's crew

Daenerys will marry Tommen

Assuming Martin plans on ending the series on a stable note, this is the only possible outcome. Jon is the natural candidate of course, seeing as he and Dany are GRRM's pet characters, but at this point Winterfell is practically nonexistent, and holds no political power. This rules out Bran, too. Marrying Tommen is the only peaceful solution that will satisfy Dany and her army (which by this point could crush Westeros without breaking a sweat) and not involve murdering every other protagonist in the book.

    • That's far from the only "stable" outcome. In fact, one could actually argue that it wouldn't be a stable outcome at all, since it would leave a queen who cannot bear heirs on the throne, while failing to resolve any number of other pretty significant issues (Tommen isn't truly of the blood of kings, he's supposed to die soon anyway according to Cersei's prophecy, simply having Daenerys come back doesn't actually work in the narrative context because it's a reimposition of the old order, rather than the birth of a new one, etc). Jon's ass is pretty much destined to wind up on that throne, with huge odds that neither Tommen or Daenerys survive the next two books. It can go multiple ways (Daenerys discovers Jon is her nephew and they marry, or conversely, Jon is revealed to be Rhaegar's heir and the kingdom acknowledges him, and then he either takes Dany's place (and her dragons) when she dies, or actively becomes a rival to her). Jon is almost certainly the fusion of old and new blood, and is pretty much poetically destined to eventually rule.
      • Side-note - even his oath doesn't necessarily preclude becoming king - if he dies and is reborn, his death would end his oath.
  • Dany's army could certainly not 'crush Westeros without breaking a sweat'. She has Dothraki calvalry, a load of sellswords and the elite Unsullied Legion(s), but without a significant alliance with at least one of the Great Houses (and preferably more than one), her forces would probably be bled to the bone during her first siege attempt - which by itself would tie up a third to half her forces while she waits for whichever castle it is to fall. The warriors that make up Dany's army are very good at what they do, but there are many different facets of warfare, and the Westerosi use of heavy armor and fortifications could toss a spanner in the works of any plans she has for complete conquest. At this point, her dragons are as likely to kill her own men as they are the other side.
    • TV!Robert explained the true threat Dany poses; her army can't successfully besiege a castle, but if she leaves the castles alone and goes on a scorched earth campaign against everyone who can't hide behind stone walls, it's only a matter of time until the people decide they'd rather have her as their leader than the nobles who abandoned them to hide in their fortresses. Better to be at the devil's side than in her path, as it were. Whether or not Dany would be smart enough to come up with this plan, or have the will to go through with it if she did are different questions, however.

GRRM is a Ricardian

Making Tyrion (the deformed, snarky Evil Uncleesque noble with bad publicity) one of the most sympathetic characters in the series was a deliberate invocation of the stereotypes surrounding popular depictions of Richard of Gloucester in order to subvert them.

    • This also seems to be echoed a bit in the character of Renly. Renly is also Joffrey's uncle, and likes his nephew about as much as Tyrion does and in the tv series, is pretty much openly shown plotting to murder him and Cersei, which really isn't all that bad of a decision. It's implied that this was the idea of Renly's boyfriend, Ser Loras Tyrell- note that the man who Richard supposedly had kill the "Princes in the Tower" was Sir James Tyrrell.
    • Stannis also has some of Richard III in him; Renly is also a bit of a mixture between George, 1st Duke of Clarence and Edmund, Earl of Rutlan.

Syrio Forel is a Faceless Man

  • After Arya flees the scen of his (supposed) death, he is captured by Ser Meryn and thrown into the Black Cells. There, he changes is identity to that of Jaqen H'ghar, and leaves the King's Landing with the other convicts bound for the Wall. That doesn't work out, and after his business with Arya is concluded, he becomes the Alchemist from the prologue of A Feast for Crows. He then kills Pate, assumes his identity, and greets Sam Tarly in that personality at the end of A Ff C.
    • Alternatively, In the series verse is Syrio Forel is Jaqen H'ghar. Syrio Forel's discussion on death sounds a heck of a lot like a faceless man. Alternatively he just knows it well being of Bravvos
    • Furthermore Syrio/Jaqen is also Arya's new mentor the kindly old man who likes to put on a cadaver face.
      • Sadly, this one doesn't seem likely (and this is coming from a Syrio=Jaqen supporter). The description of the man Jaqen turns into in Co K exactly matches the description of the man who kills Pate in the beginning of A Ff C, so Jaqen is almost definitely Pate.

Gerion Lannister is still alive.

  • He'll put in an appearance when Dany goes to the ruins of Old Valyria. He'll be half-crazy and still looking for Brightroar.

Coldhands is the Stranger

  • Think about it. Right after Sam mentions the Stranger, the god of death, a dead-ish rider rescues him from wights. Another possible spin off of this is that the Stranger is disgusted by the Others/wights evading his domain, and will help Westeros defeat them. Also could lead to Sam becoming a priest for him-probably one of the only ones, as he says that the Stranger is never talked about.
    • Alternatively, Coldhands is an avatar of the old gods of the North.
    • wrong. Coldhands is a Nights Watch wight.

Sweetrobin is The Master

Right down to guardians that make poor life decisions for him. Also his father's estates were the Eyrie.

Brienne screamed "Stannis!"

Zombie!Cat will be convinced to let Brienne live to go after Stannis who was undoubtedly somehow behind the Red Wedding.

  • Even if this isn't right, whatever word Brienne screamed saved her life (which is why we weren't told what word she screamed.) I'm willing to bet it wasn't "Sapphires."
  • It was almost definitely Stannis, or Stannis-related. From "A Clash of Kings",

Brienne: "... And I think, when the time comes, you will not try to hold me back. Promise me that. That you will not hold me back from Stannis."
Catelyn: "When the time comes, I will not hold you back."

    • If reminding Catelyn of her oath to not hold Brienne back from Stannis is the purpose of Brienne's last word being "Stannis," it won't work. Catelyn is not present during the scene where Brinne is being hanged, and the Brothers that are hanging her would not understand the importance of saying "Stannis."
  • Side theory: Brienne yelled something to the effect that signaled that she chose Cat over Jaime. We know that right after they let her down she goes off to find Jaime, telling him that she's found Sansa (a lie) and wants him to come- alone. Sketchy much? Brienne is going to betray Jaime (sobs) and hand him over to Lady Stoneheart.
    • I guess it was my own personal bias, but I had assumed it was obvious that the word she screamed was "Arya". Since not long before she had found out Arya was, in fact alive, so Caitlin would be desperate to learn what Brienne knew.

Sansa or Rickon will rebuild Winterfell.

We know the House of Stark will rise again, and they're best candidates - Robb is dead, Arya will become a Faceless Woman, Jon is commanding the Night Watch and most likely has a bigger destiny, and Bran will probably be busy fighting the Others. Sansa building a snow castle might be forshadowing, and Martin may be planning something for Rickon.

Jaime will take the black

If everything works out in Daenerys's favor, then Jaime will have to answer for his crimes as traitor and king-killer. To avoid being executed and finally give up on any chance of being respected or honored, Jaime will go to the Wall. He'll then become a Big Brother Mentor to Jon Snow and, parallel to Tyrion, give him advice of how to command the Wall at his young age.

  • Possible, but as mentioned above, there's a good chance the Wall is going to come down sooner or later, and Jon could end up elsewhere. Besides I think if any mentor-ish figure were going to take the Black it would probably be Jorah Mormont, as per his father's last request.
  • If the Wall doesn't come down (I think the chances of that are about 50-50 with it returning to its former glory as a post of distinction), this acutally makes a lot of sense-- as pointed out elsewhere, the Kingsguard and the Night's Watch are essentially parallels (one wears white, is elite, and guards the king, the other wears black, is open to all, and guards the kingdom). It'd be incredibly poetic for Jaime to end the series atoning for his crimes in the Kingsguard by serving in the Night's Watch. (I personally think he's going to end up Lord Commander, as a sort of reward/penance, and as Jon is almost certainly going to be the Stark in Winterfell. Then Sam would slot in nicely at Aemon's position, and Jorah, if he joins up as suggested above, as Lord Steward [the position he failed to serve for Dany].)
    • Jamie or Mormont will probably wind up Lord Commander, assuming the Night's Watch still exists at the end of the series. Rickon will probably wind up becoming the Stark who ultimately reclaims Winterfell, while Jon winds up sitting on the Iron Throne.

Tyrion is Aerys' son, not Tywin's

It's possible that Aerys slept with Joanna - in his twisted mind, maybe it was a way to "punish" Tywin. Tyrion's fair hair may be the Targaryen white-blond hair, and his one black eye can be very dark purple. It also fits nicely with Tyrion's fascination with dragons, and with the theory that he's one of dragon heads. After all, dragons are magical - it makes sense that only people with Targaryen blood will be able to control them (Jon is commonly thought to be the other dragon head, and the "Jon is half-Targaryen" theory is very popular and makes a lot of sense). Also, if Tyrion is really Aerys' son, then Jaime killed his father. 17 years later, Tyrion killed Jaime's father... and as we know, "A Lannister always pays his debts".

  • This would sort of fly in the face of Genna telling Jaime in no uncertain terms that Tyrion is the only one of the three Lannisters who is truly Tywin's son (of course she only meant figuratively - he has the same personality as his father, probably in his younger days when he was known to smile).
  • This is supported in ADWD. Ser Barristan tells Dany that Aerys loved/lusted after/had some kind of affection for Joanna Lannister, Tywin's wife and Tyrion's mother. And Tyrion could have developed his personality from being raised by Tywin.
    • Specifically, from ADWD: “Prince Aerys … as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, your father drank too much wine at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord’s right to the first night had been abolished. A drunken jape, no more, but Tywin Lannister was not a man to forget such words, or the … the liberties your father took during the bedding.” What is to say Aerys didn't take his lord's right by force later? Would explain Tywin's hatred of Tyrion even beyond causing his mother's death.
  • Also, there's at least one other character in the canon notable for having Mismatched Eyes- Shiera Seastar, one of the Great Bastards of Aegon IV. Furthermore, it would make a great "out" for Tyrion- in Westeros, kinslaying is considered one of the great Moral Event Horizons, but if he's not Tywin's real son then he's basically "off the hook" for killing him. Speaking of which, Tywin's Last Words were "You are no son of mine", even though Tyrion hadn't even just addressed him as "father", which may have counted as a Deathbed Confession rather than merely an I Have No Son moment.
  • This also accounts for why Tywin broke up Tyrion's marriage the way he did, and why he would only let Tyrion have whores (including providing Shae). Any Targaryen-looking progeny could be passed off as passing customers. But if Tyrion had such offspring in a monogamous relationship, Tywin's secret shame would be known by all. Tyrion's marraige to Sansa was only meant to be a stopgap to block the Tyrells. Which mean Tywin never expected Tyrion to ever consummate that marriage... which means...

If the R+ L=J theory is true, Melisandre will be the one to discover it.

According to her, peering into the fire allows her to see the past as well as the future, which might be the only way to tell Jon's heritage for sure and have a (technically) reliable source to vouch for his heritage. Even if Howland Reed, and possibly his children as well, knew this, his word wouldn't count for very much since he's a crannogman. If Melisandre does find out that Jon is of Royal Blood, Targaryen no less, then she could very well demand that he be burned, thus creating a good excuse for the Night Watch to kick Stannis and his people out of the Wall.

  • The Night's Watch isn't really in a position to be laying the smack down on Stannis at the moment. They barely have enough men to mount an adequate defense against the Wildlings from the other side of the Wall.
    • I think it's just as likely now that Bran discovers it, what with his newfound powers over seeing the past through the weirwoods.
      • Agreed. His visions of his younger father and Lyanna seem to be the closest thing so far to finally revealing the "secret" (as if we haven't figured it out by now) behind Lyanna

Margaery isn't really going to be tried for adultery by the High Septon.

The High Septon knew immediately that Osney's confession was false. However, having Cersei arrested while protected by the Kingsguard would be very difficult; arresting Margaery and waiting for Cersei to come to the High Sept without her guard so she can gloat would be very easy.

  • Alternatively, her grandmother will come and advise her to publicly confess to the High Septon and swear her loyalty to the Faith, while making a private deal with the High Septon to give her a light punishment in exchange for her future loyalty to him as queen since it seems Cersei will soon be out of the way.
    • Doubtful. The High Septon is much, much too pious for any kind of under-the-table agreement like this. I get a sense that from a political perspective he's too rigidly, short-sightedly pious to really pull off any kind of serious politics. He may not be what he seems, but I think he is.

Jeyne Westerling is on the run.

When we meet Jeyne Westerling (Robb's wife), we get several pages of Catelyn rhapsodising over her childbearing hips. By the end of A Feast for Crows, when Jaime meets her, he describes her as a "narrow-hipped" girl. The real Jeyne must have given her mother the slip, probably running (swimming?) away with the Blackfish or disguised as a maid somewhere in Riverrun- the replacement was tricked up to keep the Lannisters happy (in much the same way as there's a fake Arya who's going to marry the Bastard of Bolton), with her mother's forced connivance (it's either that or admit to the Lannisters that she messed up, which would endanger her family's pardon). Oh, and it's even money that the real Jeyne is pregnant with an heir to the King in the North.

  • The difference in the hips description between her two appearances has merit. But man oh man, it would take balls of Valarian steel for Jeyne's mother to pull off a performance like that in front of the Kingslayer, in addition to demanding even more highborn marriages for her other children on top of her family's pardon. That kind of Refuge in Audacity seems a bit hard to credit for a relatively minor Lannister bannerman, who would have a small amount to gain but everything to lose. Especially since the real Jeyne Westerling, Queen Regent of the North, would have no qualms about keeping her survival quiet. Though with the fall of Riverrun, 'the North' is kind of a nebulous term nowadays.
  • I don't know. I can't really see this theory becoming canon. I think Cat's description of Jeyne's hips may have just been hopefulness on her part--wanting to believe that her son's wife would be capable of bearing children and heirs to the throne she wanted Rob to win.

The god that revives Beric Dondarrion and Catelyn Stark is the Great Other, not the Lord of Light.

Catelyn has gone noticeably crazier since being slain and reborn. One might attribute this to her desire to get revenge on the Freys, but I believe that the influence of the god that granted her life once again might be behind this. The Brotherhood Without Banners might be actually serving the Great Other. The reasoning behind this? The resurrection itself. Melisandre might have been protected from forces that would have otherwise killed her, but she hasn't actually died and been revived like Beric and Catelyn, which leads me to believe that resurrection may not be a part of the Lord of Light's powers. Also, what else do we know of that dies and comes back to life? The Wights, which are typically people killed by the Others.

  • Also, the wights have blue eyes. Catelyn & Beric have blue eyes. Sure, they had blue eyes before they were raised from the dead, but...
    • Actually, wights have glowing blue eyes, while Cat's glow red (see her description in A Ff C). I think we can rule out that they are wights - that they still might not be revived by anything even remotely considered good, is another thing. On the other hand, the Freys did break some very important rules, rules that - at least according to the story of the rat king - might justify the gods taking a direct hand. I'd rather consider her resurrection divine retribution on the Freys.
  • Alternatively, The Lord of Light is one of the others. After all, 'Night' is just Shadow, and Shadow is another side of light. Perhaps there are two factions that go to war, and that's what destroys everything.

Jon Snow is being set up for the most massive subversion in history.

GRRM has set up this character that can sometimes read like a checklist of fantasy cliches. Heroic Bastard? Check. Improbable Age? Check. BFS? Check. But it's all just showmanship. Jon will simply serve as a convinent viewpoint character and in the end serve no real purpose beyond stopping the Wildlings. It will be brutal and come right the fuck outta nowhere. Evidence? It's A Song Of Fucking Ice And Fire!

  • In other words, there is no evidence. Jon's parentage is clearly being set up for something, whether you believe R+L=J or not, The Law of Conservation of Detail suggests that all of the foreshadowing has to have a bigger purpose than simply giving readers the finger.
    • Tell it to Robb. Also see: Brienne's long and pointless goosechase.
    • Well, considering Jon's recent maybe-death sequence, you could be right.

Tyrion has a son.

Ok, maybe it's just my fondness for our lovable Imp that has me saying this, but something in my gut tells me that Tyrion got Tysha pregnant during the gang-rape before they separated. He was the last one who mounted her-maybe his seed flushed the others' out, and maybe the Lannister sperm was a little stronger than the other men's. Remember when he once remarked that if he married and had a son he'd hopefully "look like his uncle and think like his father"? What if during his flight he meets up with Tysha again in a twist of fate, and she intoduces him to her son who is a close image of Lannister beauty-though a little unpolished(and maybe a few odd quirks around him, but still a pretty good looking guy), but has all of his father's wits and cunning in him. Then after a hard while maybe we can have the two bond. I mean it's about time something good actually happened to him-even if, knowing what series this is, it was only for a while.

    • "his seed flushed the others' out." Biology doesn't really work this way. It is possible that he got her pregnant, but more likely it would be like what happened to Lollys--no one is quite sure who got her pregnant. It's more likely that Tyrion got her pregnant before the gang-rape, so the point still stands.
      • Maybe not a son but how 'bout a daughter? It ties into the Tysha = Sailor's Wife theory as the Sailor's Wife has a blonde, fourteen-year-old daughter named Lanna, a common Lannister name.
    • I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Tyrion has almost as many bastards running around as Robert. He's been whoring long enough.

Sam will have another The So-Called Coward moment in Oldtown

The ironmen will attack Oldtown and Sam is one of the few men there that actually has battle experience. Sam will then have to participate in the battle and might even be integral in saving Oldtown. He'll end up getting yet another heroic nickname as a result like "The Black Maester" or something, and will bitterly rue saving the day as his reputation for being a hero will only make people more disappointed in him as a person.

Tywin Killed Joffrey

He was talking with Tyrion at one point about how much better of a king Tommen would be, especially since Joffery had morphed into another Mad King Aerys, who Tywin suffered under as Hand. For about two books now all the major chessmasters in King's Landing have been thinking about removing Joffery - Tywin certainly was ruthless enough to do it.

  • Littlefinger admits blatantly to Sansa that he is responsible for orchestrating Joffrey's death: The poison used to kill Joffrey was in a gem from Sansa's hair net (the one given to her by Ser Dontos, who got it from Littlefinger). Olenna takes the gem from Sansa's hairnet when pretending to adjust her hair and then slips it in his drink at an opportune time to frame Tyrion. The Tyrells want Joffrey dead because he's a monster and don't want Margery to marry him, and Littlefinger needs to dispose of Tyrion so he can whisk Sansa away for himself.
  • It is very likely that Tywin greenlighted the general idea of poisoning Joffrey. The big argument for that is the fact that "the lesson" Joffrey needed according to Tywin's words never comes about. Why so? Because Tywin already wrote his grandson off.

Sandor Clegane is alive

And living at the Septry on the Quiet Isle where Brienne discovered his horse, Stranger, and learned that Sandor was "dead." The brothers of the Septry found him alive, as they said they did, but were actually able to heal his infection (the Elder Brother is noted for having a powerful healing ability that he uses on the local smallfolk).

Narbert: The Seven have blessed our Elder Brother with healing hands. He has restored many a man to health that even the maesters could not cure, and many a woman, too.

Sandor, after his ordeal with Arya and perhaps spending some time with the brothers at the Septry, does a Heel Face Turn and decides to start over with a new life, abandoning his horse and characteristic helm.

Elder Brother: There is one thing I do know, however. The man you hunt is dead.
Brienne: How did he die?
Elder Brother: By the sword, as he had lived.

  • The best candidate for Sandor at the Septry is the Gravedigger who was noted to be "bigger than Brienne," and struggling to dig a grave due to being lame. Sandor was noted to be large (the only larger person in the book being his brother, Gregor) and would be still recovering from his injuries. The Gravedigger also lowers his head (presumably to hide his face) and stops his work to give affection to Septon Meribald's Dog (with whom the Hound would surely identify). Brother Narbert also identifies the Gravedigger as a new Novice, supposedly so that Septon Meribald would not wonder why they had not met before.
  • Another possible outcome is that after Sandor is revived/healed by the Elder Brother, he still does his Heel Face Turn, but leaves the Septry and strikes out on adventures anew.

Sam is an Expy of George R.R. Martin

Martin realizes that if he were ever stuck in a realistic medieval fantasy, he'd be a total, ineffectual coward. Sam also loves to eat (hence his weight) and loves research as well, even telling Jon directly that he could learn a lot from the past. It's the closest thing we have to a person from the modern era dropped into a fantasy world, after all!

    • For anyone who's ever read the Wild Card books and seen the main character George contributed to it (The Great and Powerful Turtle), it does seem he has a penchant for characters who are utterly convinced of their own worthlessness while still being incredibly potent in their own right. If it IS author protecting, then he's done it before.

Jon Snow will discover the truth of his past via Melisandre

He'll take her offer to peer into the flames, as Stannis did, and go on a mind journey similar to Dany's visit to the House of the Undying. Hopefully this should resolve the great mystery of his heritage, unless the author decides to be particularly sadistic...

The Prince Who Was Promised/Azor Ahai is King Arthur.

That whole legend is based on the story of King Arthur and his round table, and Lightbringer (which may or not be Oathkeeper, Stannis' magic sword, or Beric's real flaming sword) is Excalibur.

    • Unlikely, given that GRRM has a pretty obvious Arthur Expy in Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.
      • Other than having the same name, how is Ser Arthur Dayne anything like King Arthur Pendragon? If anything, the two characters (or groups of characters) who would appear to have aspects of King Arthur would be the old Kings in the North, for holding out against the Andal conquests, just as Arthur held out against the Anglo-Saxon ("Andal" and "Angle" sound and look pretty similar, which is probably not a coincidence) conquests, and Aegon the Conqueror, who preserved Valyrian culture in Westeros, just as, in one aspect of the Arthur legend, Arthur preserved Roman culture in Britain. And don't forget that according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Arthur's coat of arms was a dragon.
    • And how is the legend of Azor Ahai based on King Arthur anyway? Yes, it involves pulling a sword out of something, but in this case, it's pulling a sword from the fire, which is, after all, something done with all swords, not drawing a sword from a stone. Also, the only magic the sword in the stone had was that only the rightful king could draw it out; otherwise, it was just a sword. Azor Ahai is clearly a messianic figure, and the Arthur-myth is a retelling of the David story from the Bible, which would account for any other similarities.

Stannis will be the "Big Bad"... with the help of the Others.

Dany's vision saw a Person with a sword of fire and a Lacking of shadow. And not to mentions Catelyn's words, that he rather breaks than bend and the parable of the falcon.

The Others are unleashed experiments that the Organization unleashes every thousand years

Westeros is nothing more than another test bed for the Organization of Claymore, where they're still trying to develope weapons to take on the Dragonkin.

Dany and Jon will get married . . . to Tyrion

Pretty basic. I'm surprised it's not already up here. I think it would simply be a marriage of convenience for Tyrion (He's still looking for his gal, isn't he?). I'd say Jon and Dany would be united in grief for their lost loves and start humping like bunnies but Dany is infertile so . . . Platonic Life Partners?

The Others and The Children of the Forest are actually the same race

With the Others being the equivalent of what the wights are to humans - dead individuals returned to evil, freezing cold life via some kind of evil sorcery. Said sorcery may be some kind of curse or the work of an as-of-yet unrevealed Big Bad. It would explain the apparent disappearance of the Children at the same time the Others are in resurgence, as well as the apparent desire of the last of the Children to enlist humanity's aid via calling to Bran.

    • they aren't. Children are met in Dw D and they are nothing like the White Walkers.

The (Living) Starks Will Live Happily Ever After

By the end of A Dream of Spring, the Wall will be rebuilt, the Seven Kingdoms will be re-united under a new king on the Iron Throne, and Winterfell will be restored (or in the process of being restored), with at least several Starks in attendance. My proof? The last book's original title was A Time For Wolves!

Sansa Was Raped

We've seen before events that happened but characters just didn't comment on (example: Arya killing the Night's Watch singer). Sansa thinks about no longer being a maiden and how someone came and "left her cloak bloodied" or something like that near the end of AFFC. It is my belief that she was probably raped by The Hound. I don't think she mis-remembered him kissing her at all, I just think she left that detail out originally. After all, her maidenhead is never tested again after that. I don't think it was Petyr or she would've been more specific seeing as she was going to meet him with Robert at the end of AFFC.

  • I'm pretty sure that when Sansa refers to the bloody cloak while remembering the Hound ("He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak") she means the actual literal piece of clothing that the Hound left behind in A Co K ("She found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained by blood and fire.")
  • There are a couple probems with this theory. One, the events characters didn't comment on were insignificant to them. What made Arya's POV particularly chilling was that killing the singer really wasn't an event. It just happened. It would be completely out of character for Sansa to just not comment on getting raped. She'd never been shown to block out traumatizing events. She stares at her father's and septa's heads and details her wedding night with Tyrion. Both events were quite disturbing for her. But even if she blocked out the memories, would The Hound? When he was talking to Arya, he said that he meant to take Sansa, that he should have fucked her bloody, not that he did. He was trying to make her made enough to kill him, so why wouldn't he say that he'd actually raped her sister? That probably would've done it. Third, Sansa seems to think well of Sandor, even illogically thinking that he was her rescuer during one of her many Attempted Rapes. There's no way she'd be anything but afraid of him if he actually had attacked her. Fourth, all the details that were skimmed over were made pretty clear afterwards. Also, seeing as Sandor had just gotten out of a war zone, it makes perfect sense for there to be blood on his cloak. Finally, Word of God states that the kiss is a false memory. Interesting theory, but doesn't hold.

The fake Arya is Jeyne Poole

Not all that ground-breaking, but I think it's true. They only describe her as "some northern girl" and Jane disappeared into the ether of the court in the first book and was never heard of again. They wouldn't have been able to pass off some random peasant as a Stark; however it was would have had to have some noble experience.

  • Confirmed.

Robb's going to return, with the help of Roose Bolton with his POV

Who will see this coming.

The Doom of Valyria was a series of volcanic eruptions

We know that the Fourteen Fires (the places where dragons were discovered) are massive volcanoes. Maybe Valyria was destroyed like Pompeii or Krakatoa, except on a massive scale. With fourteen huge volcanoes, it seems plausible. It would also explain why the characters see the Doom as some sort of mythic disaster. Westeros has nothing like that to compare to.

  • Also the opening credits to the series, it shows an erupting volcano a city on fire and dragon, on one of the metal bands.
  • A Dance With Dragons lends a great deal of evidence to this theory, if not outright confirming it.
  • ADWD mentions a huge tidal wave / tsunami wiping away huge portions of Valyria during the event, suggesting that a massive earthquake was the culprit (this also explains the volcanic eruptions).

Rhaegar Intentionally Lost the War

Every character, except Robert, speaks of Rhaegar as though he was the greatest man to ever live. Factually, he was a very intelligent man with oodles of talent, who became a great warrior even though he had no love of combat. Despite this, he fought with an honorable, terribly flawed battle plan at the trident, and was killed by Robert, a warrior of lesser skill. If Jon was Rhaegar's son, and possibly the prince that was promised, he may have let his cause, and himself die, so his child could be spared the inevitable wrath of the Mad King. If not, it is possible that he believed one of his other children was the heir that was promised, and figured their rule was guarenteed regardless of his victory or defeat, and simply wanted to spare Westros of Aerys's continued rule. Alternatively, He was always described as melancholy, and only became a great warrior because he initially believed that he was going to be the prince that was promised. Once he had the child that Dany saw him claim as the prince that was promised (in the house of the Undying), he lost all sense of purpose for his life, and all taste for combat, and simply committed meaningless suicide by warhammer.

    • Unlikely. Rhaegar spoke with Jaime and told him that when he got back there would be changes to be made. He clearly expected to be coming out, and no, Jaime was not important enough yet untrustworthy enough to dupe with some kind of lie like that. Also, there is no reason to consider Robert of 'lesser skill' he was quite a renown warrior, his only shortcomings were stated to be jousting since he preferred melee combat. His own friends even said he was a better fighter then a king. The reason the loyalist forces lost was because Rhaegar was killed in combat, seeing your leader get killed would be a very huge blow to morale, it would definately cause his sellswords to flee, once part of the army flees, it easily turned into a full rout with no more leaders to rally the men.
    • Not every character speaks of Rhaegar as the greatest man, or greatest warrior, who ever lived. Arstan explicitly rejects this idea, telling Dany that while Rhaegar was certainly a skilled fighter, there's no such thing as "the greatest warrior," and that no matter how skilled you may be, there will always be someone who can beat you under the right circumstances. Also, where is it said that Rhaegar's battle-plan was terribly flawed? I don't think we're ever told what Rhaegar's plan was, specifically, except that it involved one of the two armies involved attempting to ford the Trident in the face of the other army's opposition. Granted, that's certainly a risky move, but all battle plans involve calculated risks.

Dany, Jon Snow and Quentyn Martell (actually Aegon Targaryen) are the three heads of the dragon

Quentyn is heading across the Narrow Sea in search of Dany. He gives her evidence that he is Aegon (see above) and they marry. They land in Dorne and, with the aid of Dany's army, the dragons and a Dornish army, invade the rest of Westeros. At some point, Howland Reed tells the truth about Jon Snow. Dany takes him as a second husband and they rule their own regions: Aegon gets the South, Dany the midlands and Jon the North. Dany is infertile but, as the Targaryens practice polygamy, both men could take second wives and have trueblood Targaryen children through them.

  • Er... There's no statement anywhere in the books that states the Targaryens practiced polygamy. Save for Aegon the Conqueror himself no Targrayen king has been known to take more than one wife at a time. Else Aegon the Unworthy would have had several wives instead of several mistresses.
  • Well, I sure hope Quentyn and Jon can find themselves alive enough to do that.

All Melisandre will achieve with her efforts to "wake the dragons" is make Daenerys angry.

"You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?"

Bran will become the great Other to save Westeros from the Lord of Light.

It fits to the overall theme of the series

Arya will be forced to kill somebody close to her.

As one of the tests by the Faceless Men to prove that she has discarded her original identity, Arya will be tasked with hunting down and assassinating somebody close to her, like one of her surviving siblings. Jon Snow would be the most obvious choice, but it's entirely possible that the Faceless Men are aware of Sansa, Bran, and/or Rickon.

  • Most likely, Jon Snow as they seem to sabotage their efforts to beat the Others
  • Actually doubtful. When we see the Faceless Men debate who gets which assignment in Dance, one of the ways to reject an assignment is to say that they know the target.
    • Not necessarily an argument against - the Faceless Men we see in Dance are already fully initiated, so there's no reason to assume they're subject to the same requirements or tests that apprentices must face (ie, perhaps being able to refuse assignments is a privilege you must earn BY killing someone connected to your past). More to the point, their refusals don't seem like a selfish choice (ie, I know and like this person, thus would feel bad killing them) as much as a professional one (ie, this person might recognize me, making my job harder, and raising the risk that I would be seen and accused of the killing).
  • They seem to be very big on ignoring who they used to be to an extreme length; making her hunt down a loved one would just be admitting that she still is, to some degree, Arya Stark. Also the faceless don't kill innocent people, only those they are contracted to kill.
  • I think it would be more likely she would have to go after her mother. Since she is simply known as Lady Stoneheart a mistake could be made and the Faceless Men could send Arya after her.
  • Faceless Men aren't just able to reject an assassination because they know a person, they explicitly can't give "the gift" to anyone whose name they know (per the kindly man). On a side note, once you know that it explains why the sailors who brought Arya to Braavos were so insistent on her knowing their names.

The three heads of the dragon are Dany, Quentyn Martell, and Victarion Greyjoy.

The prophecy said that Dany would ride three mounts: "One to bed and one to dread and one to love." She's already had the one to love--Khal Drogo. The one to bed would be Quentyn, in order to cement the alliance with the Martells and fulfill Prince Doran's plans. The one to dread would be Victarion, not only because he could potentially betray her to Euron and the dragon horn, but also because he had beaten his previous wife to death.

  • Not Quentyn, though not for a lack of trying on his part.
  • If we assume "riding" the mounts is a literal reference to sex, then she's already ridden her three. Drogo, obviously. Daario Naharis. Hizdahr zo Loraq. Generally speaking, Drogo is probably the one to love (because she loved him), Daario is the one to bed (because it was more about the physical attraction and sex than love), and Hizdahr was the one to dread, because she only married him to stop the killings, and should have dreaded him as her potential enemy/killer.

Robb Stark and Theon Greyjoy were lovers.

Robb clearly loved and looked up to Theon, and could not be persuaded that Theon would betray them if he were released. For Theon's part, he clearly did like Robb, to the point of being willing to fight for him.

  • WOOT WOOO

The Clegane brothers and Hodor have a Giant ancestor.

That's why they're so freakishly large. And if I recall correctly, Osha actually speculated that Hodor was part-giant.

Rhaegar wasn't in love with Lyanna.

He was actually in love with Robert and kidnapped Lyanna out of jealousy.

  • WOOT WOO

The Drowned God is actually Cthulhu.

Like Cthulhu, the Drowned God cannot die and there's lots of talk about him rising again. And hell, the sigil of House Greyjoy and the Seastone Chair are krakens, for God's sake.

  • No question that Lovecraftian imagery is operative around the Greyjoys (one of their ancestors is named Dagon!). But it's perhaps more on the level of homage than anything else. We see similar homages far away from the Iron Islands -- the "Cult of Starry Wisdom" in Braavos and the Doom that came to Valyria, for instance.

R'hllor and Balerion are the same god under different names and his wrath was responsible for the Doom of Valyria.

Way back when, Balerion was the head of the Valyrian pantheon. Worshipping him helped the Valyrians subdue almost the entire continent of Essos. But after time, the Valyrians, like the Romans they're based on, grew bored of their gods and began embracing other religions. Balerion was MAD and as punishment, decided to destroy their capital WITH FIRE AND FLAMES, MWAHAHAHAHA. He also helped cause the extinction of the Targaryens' dragons and has been driving many of the Targaryens mad just For the Evulz.

Edric Dayne aka Ned is Eddard Stark's real bastard with Ashara Dayne.

His age fits. Postpartum depression is a good enough explanation for Ashara's suicide. Combined with her angsting at Ned for not telling the world her brother fell protecting the princess rather than a traitor.

    • Jossed. Ashara had a still born daughter, and killed herself out of maternal grief.
      • That's what Selmy says happened, but as far as we know he didn't witness the events first-hand.

Melisandre will convince Stannis to sacrifice his daughter, Shireen, to wake the dragons.

For starters, the whole situation reminds me very much of the Greek myth where Agamemnon is told to sacrifice his daughter to go to war. And we know that Shireen is of royal blood and Davos and Jon have been working diligently to keep almost every single other child with royal blood far away from Melisandre.

It would certainly be in-character for Stannis to do something like that. As Donal Noye said, he'll break before he bends and his moral standards are pretty screwy as it is. If Shireen is sacrificed, I can imagine several things happening: Stannis breaks down and has an My God, What Have I Done? moment. OR he could shrug it off as a necessary evil and crosses the Moral Event Horizon quite efficiently. OR it could stay close to the Greek myth and Stannis is killed by his pissed-off wife.

  • However, given that kin-slaying is apparently universally seen as a monstrous crime, and Stannis is nothing if not unambiguous in his rule-following, I don't think he'd be willing to condemn his own blood to die.
  • Stannis seems to honestly believe himself the rightful ruler of Westeros. He wouldn't go and kill is only heir. (since he seems to have erectile disfunction or something which is preventing him from making any new ones . . . lol jk? But hey, 40 over 40, guys! It could be true!)
    • In Stannis' case, it seem more like the problem is that he doesn't actually like Selyse, and she's a bit frigid herself, so they probably haven't slept together in about 10 years. Combined with Stannis' beliefs on "duty" and "law", it means he's never going to set her aside and marry someone new with a potentially more fertile womb, even if it means going without strong heirs.
      • In hia prologue chapter, Cressen says they only sleep together about three times a year, and that he's uncomfortable around women.
  • "Two kings to wake the dragon. The father first and then the son, so both die kings." There isn't much sense in sacrificing Shireen, unless Stannis dies first (which kind of makes the whole thing pointless).
  • Considering in the Winds of Winter preview chapter, Stannis has made it VERY clear that Shireen is his heir and should he die, his soldiers are to put her on the Iron Throne.

Aerys and Rhaella were behind the Tragedy of Summerhall and maybe even their father's early death.

In "A Dance With Dragons", Barristan Selmy tells Dany that Rhaella and Aerys were forced into marriage by their grandfather, Aegon... when Aegon himself and his sons all married for love. We also know that those marriages ruffled some feathers, so perhaps Aerys and Rhaella plotted with some other nobles to orchestrate a tragic "accident" at Summerhall. That also explains Aerys' extreme paranoia, aside from the Targaryen madness... wouldn't you be paranoid if you plotted the deaths of your grandfather and uncle? It also explains why his marriage to Rhaella went so South. He knew that she had plotted against her own kin before and perhaps he suspected that she might plan to get rid of him and put Rhaegar on the throne.

The Wall will never fall.

That's just a red herring. The Others have no need to topple or breach the Wall. Take another look at the map [dead link]. When the Others do finally make their move, they may demonstrate in front of the Wall in order to draw defenders to the Wall and its fortifications, but they will then outflank the defenses by crossing the Milkwater River southwest of the Shadow Tower. After all, the Others are likely to attack in the dead of winter, when even a fast-flowing river might very well freeze over solidly enough for an army to cross, especially given the cold-causing powers the Others appear to possess. Then the Others can simply march on Queenscrown and take the defenders from the south. And if the Others can seize the bridge over the Last River before anyone realizes that they're already south of the Wall, then, well, there's no obvious place to try to stop them north of the Neck. Especially with Winterfell destroyed, they can just march down the Kingsroad.

ASOIAF takes place on a planet in the Thousand Worlds universe

Specifically, the one from "Bitterblooms", thousands of years after that story takes place.

Azor Ahai, The Prince Who Was Promised, and the Third Head of the Dragon are all the same person, and it is Eddison Tollett

Think about it. "His is the song of ice and fire," referring to the ICE-COLD delivery of the many HOT-BURNS he serves up throughout the series. Given his downcast attitude and black outlook on life, gaining a magic sword by killing his only love in life would be in perfect keeping with his track record of successes mixed with failure and his gloomy character. GRRM's desire to keep surprises coming works well too, since he has many other more 'obvious' candidates out there, few wouls suspect it is Ed. We are never specifically told who Ed's mother is, leaving an opportunity for him to be either Aegon (he is the right age to have been switched at birth, as noted in other WMGs above) or a bastard child from another Targaryen. Once it is revealed to him what his true destiny is, perhaps by Sam returning from Oldtown with the prophecies, he will likely say a typical Dolorous Ed line, like, "Well I suppose everyone expects me to defeat the Great Other and save Westeros from an eternal night of pain and darkness. I should have been a Builder like Gren. All they have to do is make ice."

Coldhands is a robot, make by lost technology before the Doom of Valaryia

How would a metallic robot feel when left out in the cold North? Cold. Very Cold. He is unable to cross under the Wall not because he is undead, but because his ancient programming forbids him from leaving the old boundaries of the civilisation that built him. A large flock of crows follow him not due to warging abilities, but because he has a radio transmitter capable of broadcasting at a high enough frequency to disrupt the natural navigational instincts of birds. It will later be revealed that he is constructed of 'dragonsteel' and thus the perfect weapon to be used in melee comabat against the Others.

    • Jossed in Dw D.
      • Thank God

Hodor gets a POV in the next book

I have 3 theories on this one. Either A) Hodor actually attained enlightenment from years of meditation and only says 'Hodor' to underscore the inherent futility of communication between groups woth different values, Hodor is extremely intelligent but was cursed by Maggie the Frog to only say one word, or C) Hodor is a brilliant mastermind who uses Obfuscating Stupidity to get everyone else to underestimate him while he secretly controls Littlefinger, Varys, and Euron as the Puppetmaster from the shadows.

  • No Hodor POV in A Dance With Dragons. Still holding out hope for Winds of Winter.
    • Martin has said that no new POV characters will be introduced from here on, so the odds may be small.
  • Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor.

Ultimately, Bran will lose his body and warg into Hodor

Kind of related to the above theory, as this plot line might open the door for giving more of a glimpse into Hodor's thoughts. It's unlikely Bran would do this on purpose, but it seems a plausible step if his body is mortally wounded. At worst, this will lead to Hodor being totally mind-raped, but it could also play out as a Split Personality Merge. The end result though will be Bran's mind in Hodor's body. Everyone who knows Hodor will be shocked to see him suddenly talking eloquently, and until he reveals himself, Bran can hide and plan using Obfuscating Stupidity. Further, rumor is that a rebuilt and unstoppable Gregor Clegane is just around the corner, and a Bran-controled Hodor seems like the right (only?) person around to stop him.

  • One does not simply warg into Hodor.

The world of A Song of Ice and Fire has a regular orbit around its sun.

The long and irregular seasons are not caused by the irregularity of the planet's orbit and its tilted axis. Instead, its sun varies in its radiance much more radically than ours, so while, for us, a decade of high solar radiance might mean ten summers and ten mild winters, for them, it might mean ten years of summer. This is a much simpler explanation for the strange seasons than the idea of a planet with a highly variable orbit and axial shift. Evidence: if this theory were correct, it would be the same season on both sides of the equator, instead of being opposite seasons as is the case in the real world. But if it were summer on one side of the equator whenever it were winter on the other side, there would be massive migrations during the long and brutal winters. That's not to say that there would be no settled populations whatsoever, but there would also be a lot of migration. The fact that we don't hear of any such migration suggests that it doesn't occur, because it's the same season on both sides of the equator.

Eddard Stark is Boromir reincarnated

After Boromir died, he was reborn in a parallel fantasy world as Ned. The reason he is so honorable and never desires power or glory is because some part of his subconscious remembers what happens when he as Boromir was tempted by the power of the Ring.

  • What's their connection to Ulrich from Black Death?

Stannis really is Azor Ahai reborn, and Daenerys' arrival in Westeros will be anticlimactic.

Stannis will eventually win the war for the throne and unite Westeros under his rule after a long and bloody struggle, and he will lead Westeros to victory over the Others, but lay down his own life in the process. At this point Daenerys will arrive with her army and her dragons, and she will take the throne by default, like Fortinbras, because there will be no one left to contest the point.

Jon Snow is the son of Eddard Stark and Ashara Dayne.

Consider the following facts: First, the Tower of Joy was on the other side of the Mountains of Dorne, a long ride from Starfall, and longer still if Eddard was bringing a newborn babe with him across those mountains; we know he was bringing the mortal remains of Ashara's brother Ser Arthur Dayne and his sword Dawn; we also know that he was at the Tower of Joy long enough to oversee its demolition. Second, Ned presumably had to remain at Starfall long enough at least for it to be credible that Ashara Dayne was Jon's mother. Granted, he could have impregnated her in one night, but since he ended up riding north again with the babe, he presumably remained there for at least nine months, and probably at least a little longer. Now, if Jon really were Lyanna's son by Rhaegar, born at the Tower of Joy, then Jon would have been about a year old, maybe a year and a few months, when he reached Winterfell, versus a couple of months old if he were Ashara's by Eddard. There are very visible differences between a 3-month old and a 1-year old. On top of which, if Eddard had shown up at Starfall with a babe in arms, or if he'd been caring for a newborn while his men were tearing down the Tower of Joy, people would have noticed and that story would have spread. So there's no way Jon was born at the Tower of Joy the day Lyanna died. He had to have been born at Starfall nearly a year later. One might say it could have been some other woman at Starfall, perhaps Wylla the wetnurse. But consider the other following fact: Eddard never denies that it was Ashara; he just commands that she never be spoken of, whereas he certainly implies to Robert that it was Wylla. Why would Eddard refuse to confirm or deny that it was Ashara? If it wasn't her, why not just say it wasn't her? Why not just tell Catelyn it was Wylla? Whatever happened between Eddard and Ashara, he still had feelings for her even afterwards.

    • Jossed In Barristan Selmy's chapter in Dance with Dragons he states Ashara had a still born daughter, and killed herself out of grief.
      • That's just what Selmy thinks happened, and he wasn't there when Ashara died, so how would he know? Also, don't forget that Selmy also thinks that Eddard "dishonored" Ashara at the tourney at Harrenhal, the same tournament wherein Rhaegar named Lyanna Stark the Queen of Love and Beauty. That happened a year before Robert's rebellion, which itself lasted for over a year. Ashara didn't kill herself until after Robert's rebellion, so again, the timeline just doesn't work. Also, Catelyn was still betrothed to Brandon Stark at the time of the tourney at Harrenhal, so Eddard would have been free to marry Ashara Dayne if they were already lovers then. The fact that they didn't suggests that they didn't become lovers until after Eddard was no longer free to marry her.
    • Not necessarily jossed yet, but the timeline in the theory is off. Jon wasn't born 9 months after the rebellion, he was born within a month (before or after) the sacking of King's Landing. So he would have had to of been conceived during the Rebellion, not after or at Harrenhal. But that doesn't mean Ned and Ashara didn't have an affair after he married Catelyn. Like GRRM said, "Ashara Dayne was not nailed to the floor in Starfall, as some of the fans who write me seem to assume. They have horses in Dorne too, you know." The fact that the author put out this info about her and wants the readers to know she was out and about proves that she was doing something that will come into play later in the series, whether that's being Jon's mother or something else.

Cat's not going to be the ONLY Stark who Came Back Wrong

Desecrated bodies that have been dead for quite a while can still be revived, as Cat proved. While the mention of Robb's body being subjected to such horrifying indignities even after his death seems to just be the final bullet in a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story, it will actually come back to haunt the conspirators when the Others break through the wall and winter comes; Robb will be revived as a Wight, but since Martin mentioned all the Stark children, including Robb, can Warg, the cruel act of sewing Grey Wind's head to Robb's body will result in the revived Robb coming back from the dead as an honest-to-god Werewolf instead of a latent skinchanger. This resulting monster will go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge (or Howling Rampage, more accurately) that will involve Roose Bolton and Jeyne's family (along with any surviving Freys) meeting a rather gristly end before Jon, Bran, or Arya has to put the thing that used to be Robb out of its misery. The creature will either be the epitome of Nightmare Fuel, Tragic Monster, or both, and seeing it will be a source of further trauma for the surviving Starks, so previous patterns suggest it could happen. Also calling an In-Series Nickname for the resulting creature as "The Crowned Wolf".
    • This may happen, but not in the way the spoiler suggests. Jon Snow is stabbed in the back (literally and figuratively) by the other Watchmen at the end of Dance with Dragons. It is my theory that he did not survive. Melisandre, realizing that she was wrong to think Stannis was Azor Ahai but still believing her flames were right and the mistake was hers alone, will ressurect Jon Snow as Thoros revived Dondarrion, and he will be very very mad.
      • Actually, the fact that the Starks are wargs may prevent this Jon's mind, when he dies, will go into Ghost. Maybe what drive the undead mad is entering the afterlife and then being torn out of it. For a warg to be killed and brought back to life wouldn't really be any different from any other time they shift into their beast's skin.

Jaime will end up as Hand of the King (or Queen)

You know, because he now only has one hand.

I agree especially with the last point...also especially after the fun he makes of being the King's hand to Eddard Stark, and as of AFFC, he seems to be the only one trying in some way to do the work of the Hand...also of notare the owrds he shares with Loras Tyrell in ASOS.

The Starks will be everybody's Spanner in the Works

  • The most obvious is Sansa to Littlefinger... Or more like Hoist by His Own Petard
  • Rickon and Bran to the Boltons (Roose losing his allies in one swoop would make a good Oh Crap momnent)
  • Arya and Nymeria to the Freys and/or Tyrion
  • and Robb to everone by coming back

Martin is a Troper

Calling Rickon's wolf Shaggydog was a clue to how the series will end.

  • Or he's not- Shaggy Dog Story is a preexisting term, it could just be a hint that Rickon hasn't been doing anything interesting all this time...

The three eyed crow is Tzeentch

Tzeentch is often reffered to in the Warhammer world as the raven god and his main way of gaining followers is sending people prophetic dreams.

Dany is the last Targaryen

There has been several prophecies that refer to a mummer's dragon. Aside from his age, true hair color and his eye color, there is no proof that Young Griff is truly Aegon VI. Instead, he is the son of Ashara Dayne, who wasn't actually stillborn. The Daynes have similar appearances to the Targeryens, after all.

  • However Aegon is Varys' piece in the game of thrones. Since Varys was once a mummer and still uses the skills he learned from being so, the phrase "mummer's dragon" might just refer to Varys' status of being the Man Behind the Man for Aegon.
    • Supported, perhaps, by the fact that Martin has acknowledged that he drew on the real history of the War of the Roses for inspiration. The war finally ended with the defeat of Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be a legitimate heir through the male line of the Plantagenet dynasty. Young Griff frankly reads like Martin's version of Simnel.
      • Maybe, maybe not. Lambert Simnel's role in the War of Roses is irrelevant to his legitimacy. He lost, so he's remembered as a pretender. If he had won, history would likely read that he was in fact one of the Princes in the Tower who had been whisked away for safekeeping until he could reclaim his throne. Young Griff might be a fake. He might really be Aegon. He might be Aegon, lose his bid for the throne and be forced to confess that he's John Connington's bastard before he's executed.

Jon Snow will become the Prince Who Was Promised

After the events of A Dance with Dragons Jon bleeds out. Melisandre gives him the kiss of fire and resurrects him. The reason why she only sees Jon Snow in the fires when she looks for Azor Azai reborn is because that's who Jon is. Jon is descended from the Kings in the North and will be sustained by the fire of R'hllor. He has both ice and fire in him.

  • Jon may very well be "born again when the red star bleeds and darkness gathers, amidst smoke and salt." Bowen Marsh cried tears of salt during the attack, and Jon's wound smoked. The bleeding star is Ser Patrek, hanging dead in the giant's arms - though the sigil of his house is a blue star.
    • My theory is that Jon will kill Zombie Cat or Melisandre (possibly consensually) and when he does, the supernatural fire inside of them will transform his sword into Lightbringer.
  • Well he is strongly implied to be the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Ice and Fire

The many visions of Melisandre

Some of my interpretations to Melisandre's visions in ADWD:

  • "Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky and ashes rose to meet them, the grey and the white whirling around each other as flaming arrows arced above a wooden wall and dead things shambled silent through the cold, beneath a great grey cliff where fires burned inside a hundred caves. Then the wind rose and the white mist came sweeping in, impossibly cold, and one by one the fires went out. Afterward only the skulls remained. Death, thought Melisandre. The skulls are death."

    Interpretation:I thought that the meeting of the snow flakes and ashes cold be a metaphor for the meeting of the ice king (Jon) and the fire queen (Daenerys). I don't know what the flaming arrows could mean, but Jon also mentions flaming arrows in his dream. Dead things=Others.
    • I think this one is about the wild folks and watchmen at Hardhome and is pretty literal. After Jon's assassination and the resulting chaos no help is sent and pretty much everybody there dies.
  • "The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half- seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him."

    Interpretation: The flickering between wolf and man could refer to i) The fact that he is a worg ii) That his spirit escaped into Ghost when he was murdered at the end of ADWD iii) GRRM has stated that Jon will become much more morally grey in coming novels, so it could refer to an inter battle between Jon's humanity and his need to be strong enough to lead (he often remarks how he need to "kill the child" within himself) or iv) some combination of the above. The skulls all around him may mean that he will be the cause of a great many deaths, which supports iii. Flames may hint that he is Azor Ahai reborn.
    • IMO the second vision about Jon being a human, then a wolf, then human again is Foreshadowing the way Jon will die from his wounds, escape in Ghost (Sixskins mentions that the gift is very strong in Jon), then return to his body when reborn. Damned spoilers!
  • "I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow.""

    Interpretation: Again, a hint that Jon is Azor Ahai reborn. Jon Snow=Snow.
  • "She saw the eyeless faces again, staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shape of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky."

    Interpretation: Eyeless faces= the unfortunate rangers that were caught by the weeper. Towers by the sea could refer to Eastwitch or Hardhome, and the waves could indicate a Greyjoy up to no good, like in Jojen's dream about Winterfell drowning (it turned Theon Greyjoy invading Winterfell). The winged shadows are obviously dragon... could the bodies locked in lust be Daenerys and Daario? The skulls that turn into mist could refer to all the people that Dany's Dragons have killed and will kill, and the shadow skulls could just refer to all of people that Dany has lost/killed, and that their memory still haunts her.

Would love to hear other people's interpretations!

Septa Lemore is Ashara Dayne

There's definitely more to Lemore than she's letting on, Griff refers to her in internal monologues as "Lady", and she's about the right age. Ashara faked her death and now she's working incognito to help reclaim the throne for Aegon.

  • Possible, but Ashara has generally been described in ways that imply her to have been a willowy, ethereal beauty, whereas Lemore is generally described as a more voluptuous, sensual beauty. Also, Lemore seems to have a generally cheerful disposition, which also clashes with my impression of Ashara Dayne.

Dolorous Edd is an alternate universe Nozomu Itoshiki

Being in the Night Watch has left him in despair.

Bran is meant to control the dragons

The greenseer repeatedly promises that he's going to fly and starts teaching him how to control flying creatures. He don't trust Danaerys to master them herself/ just don't trust Danaerys, and wants Bran to have them instead.

ADWD: Jon is ...not dead/will be revived (reborn) by R'hllor

What makes me say this is Melisandre's disappearance after Jon read the letter from Winterfell. She quickly realizes that she made a blunder and will do everything she can in order to make things right. She is too devoted to her cause, and by her words she is the most powerful/skilled of the red priests. She also said that at the Wall she feels more powerful than ever (or something along those lines). Therefore, she will be able to help out, one way or another. Now, whether this will be good or bad, is unclear. See WMG about R'hllor being a part of The Other.

Bloodraven is the real villain of the series

He's controlling/sending the Others to Westeros. Of course his ultimate purpose is to unite Westeros to a common cause.

The Bastard of Bolton is mistaken

So at the end of Dance With Dragons, the Bastard claims that he has killed Stannis, taken his crown and taken his magic sword. There seems to be some truth to this claim, as he knows about Mance Rayder and the spearwives. However, he doesn't mention the banker or Asha, doesn't know where Theon is and doesn't have Jeyne. Furthermore, the last we saw of Stannis's army had the banker arriving with reinforcement and the news that Arnolf Karstark is a traitor. Also, there's the Manderleys, who are blatantly waiting to turn their cloaks at the first possible moment. So I think there's some confusion. My theory is that the "Stannis" killed by the Bastard was actually a ringer, glamoured by Melisandre to look like Stannis- possibly Arnolf Karstark himself. As to where the real Stannis is- no idea. Still hiding in the snow, biding his time? Secreted within Winterfell under a disguise of his own?

    • Isn't he just lying? He caught at least some of the spearwives, and presumably found out enough about their plot from them that he was able to construct a plausible lie.
    • He could just be lying, yes- but that'd be a bit anticlimactic. Also, I'm not sure he has a motivation to lie, other than For The Evulz, unless he has good reason to think Jon has his wife.
      • Anticlimactic, maybe, but not necessarily. Also, the only ending to the book is somewhat anticlimactic in that regard, since we don't actually get to find out what really happened.
      • It wouldn't really be an anticlimax, since it causes Jon to desert and be murdered
    • The recently released sample chapter from The Winds of Winter lends credence to the idea that Stannis is planning to fake his death: "In Braavos you may hear that I am dead. It may even be true." So it could be that Ramsay has fallen for a ruse.

Robert Strong is Gregor Clegane's body, but Gregor Clegane is dead

More specifically Gregor Clegane's body acts as a shell, and Robert Strong is like a golem, completely devoted to his task.

  • That has already been heavily implied. Some people in King's Landing, including ser Kevan (if I remember correctly) are already suspecting this.
    • All but confirmed that Mad Scientist Qyburn has been using science to replicate what the Others/wights (and possibly the maegi/Shadow priests of Asshai/R'hllor priesthood) do with Black Magic.
      • I think his implication was that, instead of being "Zombie Gregor" in the same sense that "Lady Stoneheart" is "Zombie Catelyn", Robert Strong is more or less a meat golem made out of Gregor's parts, but completely lacking in the personality, memories, or soul that was once Gregor. In that sense, it would actually be more controllable than Gregor ever was.

The Iron Bank is a front for/controlled by the Faceless Men

The Faceless Men's symbol is an iron coin, they are stated to be hideously expensive to hire, and they take whatever wealth their "worshippers" bring the the House of Black and White. The Iron Bank is said to be extremely wealthy, and those who default on the loans of the Iron Bank are supposedly not long for this world... It seems logical that the Faceless Men are manipulating the politics of the free cities through the Iron Bank, either for the betterment of Braavos, or towards some other goal. * The Faceless Men don't accept money in payment. The Sorrowful Men, on the other hand...

  • Actually, per the waif, the Faceless Men do take money as payment, however, money isn't enough of a payment by itself (for example the waif's father had to give up two thirds of his enormous wealth and his daughter).
  • Alternately, the Faceless Men are a Church of Happyology with a made-up backstory who perform expensive assassinations to make money for the Iron Bank and also kill people who default on their loans.

Rickon is on Skagos.

Lord Manderly needs Davos to pilot a ship to get Rickon because the trip to his location is perlious and requires a skilled captain. Skagos is infamous for crashing ships on its shores. If Rickon weren't on an island, Manderly would send someone by land to get him, even though it would take longer. Also, Davos fears this place because it is inhabited by cannibals, which Skagos is known to have.

  • Seems a good bet. Bran has a wolf-dream where he sees Shaggydog fighting a large one-horned goat, which sounds like one of the "unicorns" which are supposed to be on Skagos.

Daario Naharis is Jaqen H'ghar.

Jaqen H'ghar has a gold tooth in his Alchemist identity, as does Daario. Otherwise, it's a long shot, as "Pate" is at the citadel, and Daario is apparently in the eastern continent concurrently.

Brienne of Tarth is a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Duncan the Tall

He didn't died in the fire at Summerhall. Instead he escaped, but because of what happend during the fire or caused it, he chose to drop his name and go into exile. On the way he found the last true heir to Tarth near dead after an attack by bandits. Duncan had to promise him to rule over Tarth in his name. So Duncan went there and claimed to be the long lost brother of the heir. The people accepted it, solely because they needed a ruler. Duncan left behind his old shield in the armory where Brienne later found it and copied it's sigil. He became father or grandfather of Brienne's father. Her relative great height, strength, combat abilities and sense of honor are callbacks to Duncan's.

R'hllor does not exist

So far as we've seen, the only true magic in the world comes from three sources: A psychic mind-powered sort (Skinchangers and Seers), Blood magic (The warlocks and Mirri Maz Durr), and R'hllor. However, all the magic coming from R'hllor is powered by pain and sacrifice, either physical pain to the caster (As Melisandre comments on with the glamor she does for Mance) or a sacrifice (The burning Moqorro asks for). In another word, powered by blood. R'hllor's "priests" are no more than blood-magic users and on occasion powerful psychics who are able to use their talent to pierce the future in the flames. They've been casting their powers in the guise of a god for so long, many of the them truly believe their magic is from R'hllor and not blood.

Galazza Galare is actually the harpy

Pretty self-explanatory. Near the end of the final Barristan viewpoint chapter in A Dance with Dragons, he thinks about how faithful and helpful she's been to Daenerys. Keep in mind that George R.R. Martin is the one writing this series...

The red priests of R'hllor can't actually see the future in their fires

They just have an immense information-gathering network. They share information through their fires. There was a red priest (albeit a pretty useless one) in King Robert's court in the beginning. There's Melisandre with Stannis, and now Moqorro with Victarion. The way that Moqorro knew how to find Victarion's ships was because the priests with Euron told them when he left, what speed he was going, etc. That seems more likely than just imagining Moqorro was floating around in the ocean doing nothing from the point Tyrion's ship went down to the point Victarion picked him up. In addition, the reason Melisandre can't see Stannis in her fires anymore is because there's no one to add pictures of him to the fire.

Tyrion is a Targaryen, his father being Aerys.

In aDwD Barristan Selmy tells Daenerys how the only woman Aerys ever loved was a Lannister cousin who later ended up marrying Tywin, and before being interrupted begins telling her about certain liberties that a very drunk Aerys tried to take on the wedding night. In addition, if memory serves Tyrion is sometimes described as having hair that is a little on the silvery side in addition to the gold. Lastly, right before Tywin dies he tells Tyrion "you are no son of mine"; this seems meant to be taken as hyperbole by the reader, but it could just as easily be actual truth. Tywin doesn't just hate Tyrion for being a dwarf and for killing Tywin's wife via his birth, he also hates him because he knows or suspects him to be Aerys' son, not his own. If true, this also opens up Tyrion to being the third head of the Targaryen dragon.

Stannis isn't going to survive the series.

Not exactly a revolutionary idea, considering the nature of the series, but still. It's less a matter of Stannis having little to no plot armor, and more on the fact that there's almost no conceivable way that Stannis can survive the series and still have any real number of other theories pan out. He almost certainly isn't Azor Ahai, and he almost certainly won't be king in the end, and there's no way he'd settle for bending his knee to Daenerys or anyone else, so that pretty much leaves him with death, probably killed by the Others in battle.

    • Counterpoint. Stannis is a man obsessed with doing what is right regardless of emotional involvement. The only time he subverted this that we see is Robert's Rebellion, and in one chapter he goes on about the moral problem of supporting his brother, or his King. Considering this, it would actually fit Stannis more or less PERFECTLY to bend the knee to Daenerys, being the rightful queen (From A Certain Point Of View)

Daenerys has the pale mare

In her last chapter in ADWD, it's described that she has massive, painful diarrhea, and she wakes up with blood on her thighs, which she interprets as being her period. Some theories state that she was pregnant but miscarried, but I think that's just a red herring, being that diarrhea and bloody feces are repeatedly stated to be symptoms of the bloody flux, which she could easily have caught while visiting Meereen's plague slums. The supposed Targaryen immunity to disease could easily have been a mistaken boast she heard from Viserys. Either the Dothraki have an easy cure for the pale mare, or she'll die early in The Winds of Winter.

  • More likely she was that she was pregnant and accidently aborted Daario's child by eating certain berries. Mirri pointed out that Dany wouldn't be pregnant again until certain conditions were met. Of course, Dany thought that the conditions were impossible to meet, but the sun did rise in the west and set in the east (Quentyn dying in Meereen), the mountains did crumble (the dragons burning the pyramids of Meereen), and the seas did dry up (the Dothraki sea is undergoing a drought).
  • Wouldn't that mean that Drogo is going to come back to life?
    • Unless it just means that she's going to find love again with someone capable of filling Drogo's shoes (i.e. not Daario.)
    • Lets go with Drogo coming back to life as that would be more awesome.
    • Drogo reborn = Victarion?
  • Bloody feces wouldn't lead to blood on her thighs. It would be mixed with, well, feces, and she'd have to be laying on her stomach for it to be on her thighs well enough to mistake it for a period. A lot of blood doesn't necessarily mean she miscarried/aborted, either; the first day of a period can be VERY heavy, and they tend to do weird things when a woman's diet is bad (like living solely on charred, half-cooked meat). Sometimes, a period is just a period.
    • I took it to mean that she had her period, but that she was now CAPABLE of bearing a child. She says she can't remember the last time she had her period, and if all of the above fufillments of the prophecy are true, she can get pregnant.
  • Looks more like a miscarriage. Dany says she doesn't remember exactly, but thinks its been a couple of moons (ie months). Also her last periods were synched with the full moon, but this current heavy flow occurs at the crescent moon. All this is consistent with a miscarriage somewhere in the first trimester.

So, who's next?

So, let's play the death game. Which characters do you think will very likely not survive the series, and why? Only individuals, if the series ends with a Kill'Em All or not is another question entirely. This is still the Song of Ice and Fire and while I think that most of the major protagonists (the Stark children) end up surviving, I expect lots of deaths before that. UNMARKED Spoilers for ADWD.

  • Ramsey Bolton. As cynical as the series is, when it comes to Complete Monsters, they usually DO get a messy Karmic Death (Gregor Clegane, Joffrey, Vargo Hoat...). Currently Ramsey is the most evil (as in, pointlessly evil) character alive, so I think it's save to say that he will also die screaming. Maybe at the hands of Theon.
  • Catelyn/Lady Stoneheart. Since coming back from the dead, her only purpose seems to be revenge against anyone who may have had something to do with the deaths of her husband and children. Nothing short of being killed again is going to stop her, and I don't think this is the kind of series that ends with the surviving Stark children peacefully reuniting with their undead mother.
    • Oddly enough, I almost think this is exactly kind of series that ends with the surviving Stark children reuniting with their undead mother, continuing the cycle of hellish torment and horror.
      • To me, this is more the kind of series where the surviving Stark children are forced to destroy their undead mother, for the same reason.
  • Lord Walder Frey. Seriously, this man managed to alienate pretty much everyone in the Seven Kingdoms. The North hates him, because most houses lost someone at the Red Wedding, for the Brotherhood without Banners he is probably one of the main targets, and everyone else thinks him a dishonourable bastard, too. Also, with forces loyal to the Iron Throne now both North and South of The Twins, he Outlived His Usefulness as the gatekeeper to the north, and, as a meta-example, in my opinion the only thing he could still contribute to the story is his live. And look at how old this guy is, anyway.
  • Barristan Selmy. I hesitate to even put him on the list, because his death was so obviously set up in the last chapters of ADWD, that I think Martin is deliberately letting him survive all of it just to subvert expectations. But he is an aging warrior, who fears that he will soon not be able to fight anymore, he is a mentor figure to Daenerys and one of the only people who does not try to use her for his own ends, and he takes great care in raising a young generation of knights to suceed him. All of which makes him a prime canditate to kick the bucket.
  • Tommen and/or Myrcella. Not so much because of Cersei's prophecy, but because this would be the thing to finally break her, and the series has made a point of breaking her as thoroughly as possible.
  • Jorah Mormont. No matter what the Second Sons will do next, the only thing Jorah wants is Daenerys. Even if Tyrion's plan works and the company travels to Westeros, it's plain that Jorah does not want to go there (at least not without his queen), else he would have just returned Tyrion to King's Landing, which would almost certainly have given him a royal pardon. But Daenerys will not want him either. So on the lighter side, he will at one point sacrifice himself for her, on the darker side he will Jump Off the Slippery Slope and try to take her by force, resulting in him getting killed by a dragon or someone else.
  • Melisandre. Just because it would seem so damn appropriate for her to die in a fire.
    • Melisandre's death could give birth to the true Lightbringer, the legendary sword of Azor Ahai, who had to kill his wife with it to complete it.
  • Jon Connington. Aside from him slowly dying of Greyscale, he is also the only one who really has any control over Aegon. If he dies, we will see if Aegon is like his father, or more like his grandfather.
  • Mormont's raven. Just so.
  • Stannis Baratheon and his family. I think that Selyse ends up dying in the next book along with Shireen. They get either killed in the ensuing chaos at the Wall after Jon's assassination or Shireen gets burned in the fires by a desperate Stannis or eaten by the stone dragon. I think that Stannis Baratheon gets a heroic last stand and death at the Wall ensuring that the refugees can flee South.
    • To me, a Heroic Sacrifice doesn't really sound fitting for Stannis. It's unclear how much he himself believes in Melisandre's prophecy, but in any case, he appears to be determined to be king, seeing it as both his right and his duty (and rights and duty are things Stannis is obsessed with). So I don't think he would give his life for any cause short of gaining the Iron Throne. On the other hand, this could be his in-universe Crowning Moment of Awesome, finally elevating him above Robert and Renly, as that seems to be what he always wanted. Renly has already failed and died, and Robert may have won the throne from Aerys, but only twenty years have passed since then (compare that to the several hundred years the Targaryans have ruled), there are two members of the old ruling family laying claim on the throne right now, and one has already invaded. So Robert probably won't go down in history as that great of a king, especially if the truth about his children is exposed. However, if Stannis manages to delay or even repel the invasion from the north and gives his live in the process, he will be a hero and martyr, and outshine his brothers.
    • Could even come out of his obsession with duty; one of the duties of the king is to serve as Protector of the Realm. Stannis could take that title to it's logical conclusion in his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Margaery ends getting killed by the Faith for adultery. Varys manipulates it so it happens.
  • Euron, Victarion, and Aeron (thank god). Euron and Victarion become dragon snacks and Aeron dies for being boring.
  • Roose Bolton must go because he killed Robb. He ends up getting killed by Jon Snow in a great take on the Red Wedding scene. Perhaps, Theon Greyjoy says hello or something of that sort.
    • Unless Roose Bolton is dead already - why else would the letter to Jon have come from Ramsay? It would be very in-character for Ramsay to have killed his own father to prevent the possibility of new heirs to the Bolton lands.
  • Brienne betrays Jaime to the Brotherhood Without Banners (*sob) and he is executed. Although this one may be too obvious.
    • Or she can't hold it anymore, admits leading Jaime into a trap and instead of fleeing tells her to write down his history in the white book and faces the Brotherhood who he gives a "What the Hell, Hero?" speech either dying honestly or getting away alive.

Feel free to add your own.

Bran will take a more sinister turn.

The prologue chapter of ADWD elaborates on Wargs, and also mentions how it is considered despicable for a Skinchanger to take control of other human beings. Then we turn to Bran, and find out: Yeah, that's what he has been doing all the time to Hodor, and it's no big deal for him. Right now it does not seem that malevolent - he mostly uses him to experience being able to walk again. But in the future he may decide that warging into people is also justified to reach other goals, making him a master manipulator, not even having to influence other people, or maskerading as them, but just being able to BECOME everyone he desires. Of course, that would probably mean leaving Bloodraven's cave (unless he can manipulate through the weirwoods), but I think that's going to happen anyway.

Hodor is trying to say "Other"

Halfway through the first book, we learn that Hodor's real name is not Hodor, but Walder. So why does he say Hodor? What sort of trauma caused him to be left with a single word, which is not even his real name?

Simple. His great-grandmother Old Nan's constant stories of the Others made me realise that perhaps Hodor is trying to say Other but no one else hears it for what it is. I'm only in the middle of the first book, so I can't give any more logical reasons, but it seems very likely that Hodor was traumatised either by a story Old Nan told, or something he experienced when he was very young.

I'll add more to this theory as I read the books.

  • Well, as of the fifth book it has not been disproven, however, I don't think it's very likely, for the simple reason that he does not use the word as if it were a warning or a callback to a traumatic event. He also says it when he is happy, or just tired. If 'Hodor'/'Other' is something he is deeply afraid of, or associates with scary stories, he should only use it when he is afraid, or maybe angry.
    • Oh, I completely overlooked that. But still, it might have blurred in significance in his head over the years, becoming simply a sound he uses to communicate with the people around him. Then again, as you can see, I'm no expert on trauma. Initially, I noticed that 'Hodor' and 'Other' sounded very similar, then I remembered Old Nan talked about them a lot.
    • His real name is Walder though (like the Frey, which has been pointed out already) which sounds more like "(White) Walker" as they're called in the TV series despite neither being white, nor walking so much as "loping". If that were the case his Pokémon-Speak name would sound like "Walder" with a stutter.

aDwD spoilers: Jon will become a wight a la Coldhands, retaining his memories.

We don't know exactly what is required to create a wight. Jon probably has the dubious honor of being one of only a few people to be touched by a wight and live out the next hour; indeed, the next couple of years. Does it require an Other to create a wight, or can wight beget wight? Does the body need to be touched when dead, or will still living suffice? If so, does the touch ever "expire"? If not, will touching through clothing/other close combat suffice or does it need to be skin (I don't recall whether the wight ever touched Jon's skin but I seem to recall that it did)? Is it possible that an "old" touch is what's required to create a wight that retains its humanity?

And overall, possibly the most interesting question: what will happen if this process occurs south of the Wall?

  • In answer to the last question, I think the most realistic answer, assuming the rest of this insane conjecture is correct, is that somehow Jon's body will end up on the north side of the Wall, and only then will he rise. But that would be boring.
  • It already happened south of the wall. Since the wights do not seem sophisticated enough to play dead, we can assume that the dead rangers in the first book died north of the wall, were brought south by their brothers, and then rose as wights. This means that wights CAN exist south of the wall, they just seem unable to pass it after they have woken up again.
    • The wights are shown to still possess some reasoning ability, as seen by their ability to target important members of the Night's Watch, and both wights had the characteristic blue eyes before being brought back across the wall. It's heavily implied that they were playing possum. Further evidence can be found in Game of Thrones season one, episode eight ("The Pointy End"), for which Martin is credited as the writer, in which a wight plays dead in order to disarm Jon Snow.
    • Then it means that wights can pass the wall as long as someone else drags them. Maybe they can pass it on their own as well, and just never had a reason to do so (keep in mind, no one actually knows what the Others even want). Coldhands was apparently unable to pass, but maybe there is another reason for that. All we know is that they definitely can't enter the Greenseer cave.
      • Okay, all this is true. But we can also apply it to the original theory: will being a wight stop Jon from the things he was planning to do? Will he try to hide it? Will other people get involved? (There's no end to the interesting questions I'd have with this theory, really, unlikely as it might be.)

The Valar Dohareis reply to Valar Morghulis is a figurative way of saying "All Men Must Live"

Props to people on the Westeros forums for this brilliant theory. Valar Dohareis is literally translated as "All Men Must Serve", which doesn't seem like an obvious counterpoint to Valar Morghulis, which literally means "All Men Must Die". However, when you remember that the original Braavosi were slaves, this makes a lot of sense. Living meant service, which only ended at death (note the origin story of the Faceless Men involves someone mercy killing a slave). Thus, the idea is that someone is acknowledging that death is certainly eventual, but at the moment, the speaker is still serving. Consequently, saying Valar Dohareis to a Faceless Man probably loosely translates as something like "I'm still serving, please don't kill me yet."

To support this (this is my own idea here), in Game of Thrones, the Braavosi Syrio is given a line like "All men must die. But not today." The "not today" part is original to the series, but might reflect a (still to come) book explanation of Valar Dohareis, and it's a good way of simplifying the phrases to young Arya.

The Series is Ragnarok.

(Incredibly long WMG coming; sorry, I like to be thorough.) The series is based (either intentionally or not) on the Norse apocalypse myth of Ragnarok according to Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda. Quotes are from The World of Myth by David Adams Leeming (85-88). ADWD SPOILERS NOT MARKED.

  • "First will come the winter . . . there will be three such winters on end with no summer between. Before that, however, three other winters will pass accompanied by great wars throughout the world. Brothers will kill each other for the sake of gain, and no one will spare father or son in manslaughter or in incest."
    • This is pretty obvious. A crapsack world characterized by long unnatural winters, including murder and incest. Check, check, check, and check.
  • "The wolf will swallow the sun . . . another wolf will seize the moon."
    • Sunspear is always a strong sun symbol and as of yet we haven't seen the Stark children (wolves of course) "eat" them, but it's generally hoped that Martin won't be completely horrible and kill off all the Stark children, so this still has potential. As for the moon, I currently have no idea.
    • Daenerys is the moon. Drogo called her "moon of my life".
    • Or it could be one of the Arryns or other denizens of the Vale -- the Arryn sigil is the moon-and-falcon.
  • "The whole surface of the earth and the mountains will tremble so [violently] that trees will be uprooted from the ground, mountains will crash down, and all fetters and bonds will be snapped and severed."
    • Dany's dragons are doing plenty of earthshaking across the narrow sea. Further, a mountain did crash—Sir Gregor the Mountain. The fetters and bonds were destroyed by Dany when she released all the slaves.
  • "The wolf Fenrir will get loose then . . . and his eyes and nostrils will blaze with fire."
    • Not entirely sure about this one. Barring a Harry Potter crossover, Fenrir could refer to any powerful member of the Stark family, possibly even one we've already met that will be reborn (such as Jon, assuming he survives. The fire in Fenrir's face supports this because Ghost has red eyes.) Or, Fenrir could symbolize the house as a whole.
  • "The sea will lash against the land because the Midgard Serpent is writhing in giant fury trying to come ashore."
    • The sea could refer to the Ironborn, since they represent it throughout the series (see Jojen's green dream about Winterfell flooding.) They have already attacked Westeros. The Midgard Serpent could represent either Dany's dragons (loosely reptilian in appearance and connected to the Ironborn by the fifth book) or, more likely, the Red Viper Oberyn Martell or his bastard daughters, all associated with snakes.
  • "The Midgard Serpent will blow so much poison that the whole sky and sea will be spattered with it; he is most terrible and will be on the other side of the wolf."
    • The dragons still fit here, what with their destruction, but Oberyn Martell was also closely associated with poison. Neither of these parties have directly opposed or allied with house Stark at this point.
  • "The sky will be rent asunder and the sons of Muspell ride forth from it. Surt will ride first and with him fire blazing both before and behind. He has a very good sword and it shines more brightly than the sun."
    • Muspell is the land of fire. The land to the north of it, Niflheim, is the land of ice. Surt is a giant that battles the god Frey. (More on this later.) His sword, brighter than the sun, could of course be Lightbringer. Brienne of Tarth (from the South, a land of fire), has a grudge against House Frey and was the last person to have the sword that might possibly be Lightbringer; the reddish one forged by Tywin Lannister and given to her by Jaime. Alternatively, a Targaryen could also be said to be from the land of fire. Aegon might at some point receive Lightbringer, although his being a giant is still up for discussion.
  • "When [the sons of Muspell] ride over Bifrost . . . that bridge will break. The sons of Muspell will push forward to the plain called Vigrid and the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard Serpent will go there too."
    • The most significant bridges in the series are located at the Twins and the seat of House Frey. Since Surt is believed to fight the god Frey, it isn't that much of a stretch to imagine him (whoever he turns out to be) breaking House Frey and its seat in its entirety. Vigrid is a field for battle between the gods and the sons of Muspell—I don't know the exact location, but I'd guess it's on Westeros, since that's where everybody seems to be heading.
  • "Loki and Hrym with all the frost giants will also be there by then."
    • Loki is a trickster god in Norse mythology. Sometimes he is considered the father of Fenrir. At the Ragnarok he will battle another god, Heimdall, on the sons of Muspell's side. His identity is possibly either Varys or Petyr Baelish, who is currently the adoptive father of a wolf, Sansa Stark. More below. The frost giants could easily refer to the giants beyond the wall (or perhaps those now on the southern side) which will evidently become involved in the battle somehow.
  • "Heimdall will stand up and blow a great blast on the horn Gjoll and awaken all the gods and they will hold an assembly . . . the ash Yggdrasil will tremble and nothing in heaven or earth will be free from fear."
    • Heimdall is described as the owner of the horn Gjoll/Gjallarhorn. He is very perceptive and is the "whitest of the gods." He is the originator of social classes among mankind and is fated to kill and be killed by Loki in battle during Ragnarok. Heimdall could easily be Roose or Ramsay Bolton, continuously described as "pale." Roose in particular is rather concerned with social classes. As for the horn, its ASOIAF equivalent could be either the Horn of Winter (as yet unknown) or the dragon horn in the Ironborn's possession. How the Boltons get it is anyone's guess, or perhaps neither Bolton is Heimdall. Yggdrasil is the "world tree," very similar to a Weirwood. And of course everyone is traumatized already at this point.
    • Heimdall is also supposed to be a guard, so he could be Barristan Selmy, or maybe The Night's Watch.
  • "Odin will ride first in a helmet of gold and a beautiful coat of mail and with his spear Gungnir, and he will make for the wolf Fenrir. Thor will advance at his side but will be unable to help him, because he will have his hands full fighting the Midgard Serpent."
    • Possibly Odin is Jaime Lannister, whose armor was gold and who fought against Robb Stark's (wolf) army (going with the theory that Fenrir is the whole Stark family rather than one character.) Thor I'm less sure about; anyone who opposes Dany OR House Martell (Oberyn in particular) OR allies with Lannister could qualify. Best guess is the forces of the Iron Throne, which were in King's Landing with Oberyn.
    • Perhaps Odin is Bloodraven -- a wise mentor figure with one eye who is heavily associated with ravens. That would most likely imply that Fenrir is Bran and that their relationship would turn sour.
  • "Frey will fight against Surt and it will be a hard conflict before Frey falls."
    • Again, Surt, whoever he/she is, will kill the Freys. The fact that the name "Frey" comes direct from this translation is making me squee.
      • Well, Surt is a fire demon and Thoros of Myr has a flaming sword. My guess is that The Brotherhood Without Banners as a whole is Surt. The only proble with that is that 'Thoros' is similar to 'Thor'.
  • "Then the hound Garm, which was bound in front of Gnipahellir, will also get free; he is the worst sort of monster. He will battle with Tyr and each will kill the other."
    • The hound. In the mythology, Gnipahellir is the cliff-cave that leads to hell. This could be symbolic of Sandor Clegane's near-death experience rather than a literal cave. Most theories claim Clegane has reformed, but that doesn't mean the outside world will perceive him any differently—to the rest of the country he's still a monster. "Tyr" is interesting, as it's common in male Lannister names. Further, the Norse god Tyr was depicted as a one-handed man, and he's also the son of Odin. Jaime Lannister now has one hand, and has undergone a strong character change since his battle with Robb Stark; it's possible he represents both Odin and, reborn, Tyr.
  • "Thor will slay the Midgard Serpent but stagger back only nine paces before he falls down dead, on account of the poison blown on him by the serpent."
    • Here's where my Midgard Serpent = Oberyn Martell theory comes into play. This seems to me to be describing the exactly battle between Gregor Clegane the Mountain and Oberyn Martell. If we consider Thor to be the forces of the Iron Throne, Gregor Clegane fits as he's rashly named to the Kingsguard before his death. When he fights Oberyn, he kills him, but he also dies from being touched by the poisoned spear Oberyn used.
  • "The wolf will swallow Odin and that will be his death . . . Vidar will take the wolf's upper jaw in one hand and tear his throat asunder and that will be the wolf's death."
    • Odin = Jaime Lannister according to above theories. Symbolically, the wolf did kill his first self when Vargo Hoat and the Brotherhood Without Banners seized him in the name of Stark. Then, of course, he was reborn as one-handed Tyr. Vidar is the god of vengeance and kills Fenrir to avenge Odin. He could be anyone who sympathizes with Jaime or Lannisters in general. (Candidates include Tywin and the Boltons.) Further, every single member of the Stark family has either died (physically or symbolically) or faked his/her death. Ned, Catelyn, and Robb are all dead or undead. Sansa is now posing as Petyr's bastard child; symbolically, Sansa is dead. Arya is becoming a Faceless man, also symbolically dying. Bran and Rickon both had their deaths faked. And Jon's fate is unknown but he definitely has a brush with death.
  • "Loki will battle with Heimdall and each will kill the other. Thereupon Surt will fling fire over the earth and burn up the whole world."
    • Loki, again, is a trickster god. I believe he is either Varys (a mummer, easily a trickster) or Petyr Baelish, also tricky, and I've concluded that Heimdall is most likely a Bolton (probably Roose.) It is possible that when the northern and southern halves of Westeros meet again in the next book, the Boltons will clash with either Varys or Petyr. Surt, probably not Brienne but possibly a Targaryen, either Aegon or Dany, will unleash the dragons on Westeros and destroy it spectacularly.
  • There's a bunch of stuff about the afterlife and what will happen when everyone is dead. Then: "While the wood is being burned by Surt, in a place called Hoddmimir's Wood, will be concealed two human beings called Lif and Lifthrasir. Their food will be the morning dews, and from these men will come so great a stock that the whole world will be peopled."
    • Hoddmimir's Wood is like a new garden of Eden. It could possibly be in the northern woods beyond the wall, especially if the dragons literally burn Westeros alive; the frozen woods would probably be the safest place. Lif and Lifthrasir are Adam and Eve, essentially, and repopulate the earth. A potential candidate for the male half is Rickon (once he's grown) as he has been concealed somewhere, although probably not beyond the wall. Bran is another potential, although being paralyzed he doesn't have a great chance at repopulating the world.
  • "And you will think this strange, but the sun will have borne a daughter no less lovely than herself, and she will follow the paths of her mother . . ."
    • Apparently the sun is female. Either way she could refer still to the Martells, especially since there are lots of powerful females in that family. Their chances don't seem great with Quentyn dead, but I'd never underestimate a daughter of the Red Viper, or princess Arianne, for that matter.
  • "'And now, if you have anything more to ask, I can't think how you can manage it, for I've never heard anyone tell more of the story of the world. Make what use of it you can.'"
    • As a parting shot, isn't this just so ridiculously George RR Martin?
      • Just a little addendum. The god who unwittingly started the road to Ragnarok has a name that could be translated as Hodor. Kind of makes you think about the role Bran and Hodor will play in things.
        • And Hodor's real name is Walder, which is similar to Balder, the god who killed Hoder in mythology. Will Hodor kill himself to escape Bran's mind-rape?
  • I think Littlefinger fits as Loki.
    • Yeah, after more consideration and research I came to this conclusion, too, since Loki is a trickster god archetype and also potentially the father of a wolf (and Sansa is currently posing as Littlefinger's daughter.)

There is no Westermarck effect in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.

They have powerful legal and religious prohibitions against incest, but no instinctive revulsion at it. The Targaryens, for example, did not force themselves against their natural inclinations to marry brother to sister solely to preserve their Valyrian bloodline; they positively lusted after their own siblings. Baelor the Blessed, for instance, had to lock his sisters away in the Maidenvault so he wouldn't be tempted by them, and Aemon the Dragonknight is rumored to have been Queen Naerys' lover. Or look at Jaime and Cersei Lannister. Not only did they lust after one another, they appear never to have felt any guilt or conflict over that fact. For that matter, look at Eddard's reaction when he found out: he was certainly very unhappy about it, but he showed no signs, even in his private thoughts, of being instinctively or viscerally revulsed or disgusted by it. He clearly regards it as a terrible crime, but not an unnatural one.

  • But this raises the question, if humans in this universe do not have a biological aversion to incest, then why WOULD it be prohibited by faith or law? I seriously doubt that they know about things like genetic diversity, and even if they do (or suspect), incest would be considered a, let's say, "suboptimal mating arrangement", not a straight crime against nature. The reason we perceive incest as unnatural is because it feels, y'know unnatural to most. That's what the Westermarck effect describes in the first place. Keep in mind that the whole incest thing was started by Aegon I, the first Targaryen king, and an important role model for all Targaryens to follow. It's not hard to see that his successors would also marry their sisters, if their great ancestor did it to 'keep the blood pure'. Also, don't forget that only a few of them actually married their siblings - many married into other houses of Valyrian descent, like Velaryon, who would only be distant relatives (completely acceptable even by real world medieval standards), or even 'outsiders' (like Rhaegar and Elia of Dorne). And aside from the Targaryans, that pretty much only leaves Cersei and Jaime - well, and it can't be denied that incest DOES happen in real life, so these two were probably just attracted to each other despite the Westermarck effect. As for why Ned didn't care that much... he was mostly concerned with making sure that Robert's true heir (Stannis) would be crowned, so he just didn't care much for whose children they were - not Robert's, that was the important part. And maybe he really doesn't care about their incestous relationship in itself.
  • Averting the Westermarck effect is easy, and was achieved by many Real Life royal houses by simply not having the siblings live together until they were to be wed. It's also unconnected to one's opinion of other people's relationships, which is all cultural. As far as reasons for prohibition go, in Real Life marrying-out has a solid history of being encouraged because it builds links across communities, and encourages more trade and economic activity, bringing life to the whole town; it long pre-dates any solid concept of genetic diversity.
  • Plus, remember, the only family who regularly practised incest were the Targaryens, who in the early years of their reign could get away with just about anything and no doubt felt entitled to indulge themselves in any way they wanted. If that included keeping it in the family from preference rather than apparent necessity, so be it; the children were probably so conditioned to see their siblings as prospective future spouses that it became natural to them. Otherwise people in Westeros see incest as a sin; Catelyn, for example, is clearly disgusted and appalled when she learns the truth in the second book, and in the past, Joanna Lannister is horrified when she learns what her children have been doing and takes steps to prevent it.
  • Fosterage is clearly very common among Westerosi nobility, and that could counteract the effect. On the other hand, it seems to begin around the age of 8-10, too late to affect the WE, and in the particular case of C+J they seem to have had a close childhood relationship. No word on how the Targs raised their kids though, so they could well have split them up in early childhood.

Winterfell will never be rebuilt.

Winterfell was too safe and comforting. It has to stay destroyed so that the characters can grow beyond the world's stasis. And because we really want it back.

  • To be fair, once said characters have gone away and grown, it's not impossible for one of them to come back and rebuild it, because by definition, it would be a new place (they'll never be able to rebuild it exactly the same). Thus, it will have changed just as they have. But yes, odds are, even if one of the Stark's returns to Winterfell and rebuilds, the others will remain tied to their new lives, and not return.

Nymeria's wolfpack is a Chekhov's Army.

Because nothing would be sweeter than an army of literal wolves storming King's Landing or the Twins.

Hodor.

Hodor hodor hodor HODOR!

    • Brilliant theory. I completely agree.
  • Hodor, hodor. Hodor? Hodor!

The Starks will win

Not just "the Starks will recover". They will end up as one of the most powerful factions in Westeros. Why?

Three reasons:

  • Their enemies are weak:
    • The Boltons are in a war with Stannis, and Theon is in a position to do some serious damage to them. Even if they survive, there's still the matter of the remaining Stark bannermen wanting to kill them.
    • Everybody in Westeros with a shred of honor now hates the Freys' guts.
    • Tywin Lannister is dead, and Cersei's regency has collapsed. The only thing the Lannisters really have going for them is that Casterly Rock is theirs.
  • The surviving Starks are much more dangerous than they were before:
    • Jon is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
    • Sansa is poised to take control of the Vale of Arryn, and one of the only armies in Westeros that hasn't been decimated by war. And she has Petyr Littlefinger on her side, to boot.
    • Arya is soon to become a Faceless Woman - one of the best assassins in the world.
    • Nymeria is leading a massive wolf pack in the Trident.
    • Bran is a warg and greenseer, with possible ties to the children of the forest.
    • Catelyn is a zombie leading an army of bandits.
    • Rickon will be more batshit insane than usual. With Shaggydog even more crazy at his side.
  • The South is already facing a Targaryen invasion, which will only get stronger once Dany shows up.

To paraphrase, the Starks' enemies have already played most of their good cards, and the Starks have been dealt some new ones.

At minimum, the Starks will end up ruling an independent North, presumably having allied with Daenerys.

Also, while the Starks started out as the protagonists, they've quickly fallen from power. So what would be a better plot twist than the Starks ending the series stronger than they started?

Nymeria will warg into Arya

Arya is trying to become a Faceless Woman. But the one part of her identity she can't erase is Nymeria. At some point, Arya's own sense of self will weaken to the point that Nymeria takes over.

What happens at this point is anyone's guess. A few possibilities:

  • Nymeria simply takes control of Arya's body. She will retain Arya's muscle memory, so she will still fight with a sword.
  • Nymeria can call upon Arya's full mental abilities - intelligence, memories, skills, even speech. This might lead to Arya and Nymeria's identities melding.
  • This will occur just as Arya undergoes her initiation as a full Faceless Woman. Arya/Nymeria then receives her first assignment: assassinate Jon Snow. Result: the House of Black and White becomes the House of Red and More Red.
  • At the same time, Arya ends up warging into Nymeria. The giant wolf-pack becomes an army under Stark control.

Benjen is fine.

He's been separated from his horse, but he's alive and well (albeit freezing his ass off). What happened is that he's following some sort of trail or tracking something that's leading him ever further north. By now, he's reached the Land of Always Winter. Eventually, he will find something that's related to the origin of the Others.

  • What the heck is he eating, then?
    • Snow hares.

Cersei will (try to) burn King's Landing down.

Right now she seems to be content with being around Tommen, but that could change very fast (for example, by Tommen's messy murder). We know that the last thing Aerys wanted to do was ignite the strategically placed caskets of wildfire and destroy the capital. The only reason it didn't happen was because Jaime intervened. This could easily be set up again, as the city is bound to have plenty of wildfire, after they used it to such great effect against Stannis' fleet. And Cersei is the only person I could see doing it. Literally everyone else either wants the throne, or wants some specific person to sit it, so burning down the capital only hurts them. But if Cersei loses Tommen, she could very well decide to die and take the whole city with her, since by now she has very good reason to hate the people of King's Landing, particularly the faith of the seven. And think about Jaime. He killed Aerys to save the city, and it haunts him to this day. Now imagine he has that exact same choice again. Killing his sister, former lover and mother of his children, or letting the city he once saved (without anyone ever thanking him for that) perish.

Dany isn't barren.

Mirri Maz Duur wasn't speaking prophecy or doing anything else supernatural when she gave her little speech about how Drogo would be fully healed and get his mind back "when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east" etc. etc. and listing Dany having another child as one of these "impossible" things. She was making an educated guess based on how fucked up Dany's previous pregnancy was (and saying the most hurtful things she could think of, of course), but she was wrong.

  • I was just coming here to say this. I think Dany's reproductive system is fine. She had a hard birth, obviously, and for an extremely brief period she was carrying something she wasn't designed to carry[2], but there's no indication that not!Rhaego actually damaged her beyond a normal birth. She has also not had another sex partner (who could get her pregnant, anyway) until Daario in ADWD, so it's not like she'd know, and given that she's unsurprised to get her period at the end of ADWD, it's obvious she's still menstruating regularly. I think Mirri Maz Duur was either lashing out with whatever she thought would hurt, or really did believe she was making a prophecy but she's wrong.
  • I think she said that she couldn't remember the last time she'd had her period, which may have been delirium but may have been that she hadn't been getting it at all. I took that to mean that now that "the sun did rise in the west and set in the east (Quentyn dying in Meereen), the mountains did crumble (the dragons burning the pyramids of Meereen), and the seas did dry up (the Dothraki sea is undergoing a drought)" (from a previous WMG) that she was barren, but was now capable of bearing a child.

Mellisandre isn't misinterpreting her visions.

Instead Rhllor is deliberately giving her inaccurate visions in order to manipulate her into what he wants her to do. So far, most of her bad readings have netted in good results. For example, she was wrong about Arya arriving at Castle Black but it ended up with the Night Watch gaining a powerful ally in Jeyne, something they are in desperate need of. It will remain to be seen if this continues to be the case.

  • Wait, why is Jeyne a powerful ally?
    • She's the Lady of Karhold, the head of a prominent Northern house. If she tells the other Northern houses to let Lord Commander Snow settle wildlings on the Gift, they'll listen and maybe agree. Also Karhold could help with food transportation during the coming Winter.
  • Some confusions here. Alys Karstark is the girl on the dying horse who allies with Jon at the Wall. She was fleeing her evil uncle. "Arya"/Jeyne Bolton and Theon/Reek escaped Ramsay at Winterfell and made it to Stannis camp, 3 days south of Winterfell, after meeting the banker and his escorts. And lets leave Jeyne Westerling out of it for pete's sake.
      • She's of house Bolton via marriage, and she's not the Lady of that house. That "honor" goes to Walda Bolton (nee Frey). She has nothing to do with Karhold. And no one is likely to listen to her because a) the Boltons are the enemies of almost all the Northern houses, b) those that aren't that house's enemies are following her husband's father, not his son's runaway bride, and c) she's not who she's pretending to be, she's just a steward's daughter, and the moment that becomes general knowledge, she loses what tiny sliver of authority she ever had.
      • Whoops, sorry. I misread that as Alys, who did turn up at Castle Black as an ally.
    • Jeyne herself may be of some value (and it's good she was rescued in any case). Presumably, Littlefinger told her he was going to take care of her and then had her trained as a prostitute (obviously unpleasant given the whip scars on her back). While Littlefinger is usually pretty good about keeping his hands clean, she might be able to expose some of his villainy.
    • Also, if Jeyne is pregnant with Ramsay's son, then that opens the door to claiming the Dreadfort. If Jeyne gives birth to a son, and something happens to Roose and Ramsay (say, hypothetically, Arya Stark), then she could quite easily become Mistress of the Dreadfort. That might actually be more satisfying than the Boltons falling in a Northern rebellion.

It was Petyr Baelish who lied to Brandon Stark about Lyanna's kidnapping.

The timeline here is sketchy because the main players are dead, but we know some things about the events between the duel at Riverrun and Brandon arriving at King's Landing. After the duel at Riverrun, Brandon left to collect his friends from the North, Riverlands and Vale. Presumably he went to Winterfell to get his wedding suit and met everyone on his way back to Riverrun. In the meantime, Petyr is stuck in bed for two weeks recovering from his wounds and having sex with Lysa. He is then thrown out and travels back to the Fingers in a litter, which is quite slow moving. Petyr would have taken the East-West road, stopping at the Inn at the Crossroads, before going Northwards and turning East for the Fingers. At approximately the same time, Rhaegar and Lyanna would have been fleeing South from Winterfell to the Dornish mountains. They would have covertly stopped at the Inn at the Crossroads.

I theorise that Petyr saw Rhaegar and Lyanna there and gleaned two pieces of information: they were consensually running away together and they were heading for Dorne. Petyr then travels North and, to his horror, meets Brandon on the road. He knows that Brandon will hear about Lyanna's disappearance soon, if he doesn't know already, and chooses to lie in the hope of deferring Cat's wedding. He says that he saw Lyanna was with Rhaegar, that she had obviously been kidnapped against her will and that Rhaegar mentioned heading for King's Landing. Brandon believes this, is enraged and changes course. He might even stop at the Inn at the Crossroads to confirm the story.

As we all know, a bloodbath followed and Brandon died. This is Petyr's Start of Darkness: he can't kill with swords but he can with words. This may also explain why Lyanna didn't leave a message - perhaps Petyr agreed to take it.

  • WMG assist here. LF tried to steal Catelyn directly first, Brandon beat him down and seriously wounded him. So he wasnt prancing around the country, nor could he talk to Brandon directly and expect to be trusted. Instead he writes 3 poison pen letters. (While Lysa Tully was "nursing" him back to health..)
    • Anonymous to Brandon: "Rhaegar has kidnapped your sister and is raping her in Kings Landing." ( A lie with a hint of truth in it mostly by accident.) Brandon rushes to KL in a rage.
    • Anonymous to Aerys: "Brandon and his friends are coming to King's Landing to kill you." (Guarantees Brandon a Hot Reception when he does burst in.)
    • A letter to Catelyn: We know she burnt it unread, thereby foiling Petyr's plan to get his hands on her. Fallout: Robert's Rebellion, can't make an omelette without breaking eggs...
  • WMG Petyr tried again to kidnap Catelyn after Bran's fall into a coma. She believed the kidnapper was an assassin sent to kill Bran, with unfortunate results for him. (Throat turn out by wolf means he cant explain the comedy of errors.) Catelyn rushes to King's Landing aboard the fastest ship she could find at White Harbor, which ironically is owned by LF, who hides belowdecks and has his first mate pretend to be captain. When Catelyn arrives at KL, Petyr has her scooped up immediately. He and Varys put on a mummers farce for Catelyn, where Varys pretends his "powers" have told him what happened. She swallows it completely. Good damage control there Petyr! Arguable Fallout: Ned takes Hand position and eventually gets killed, starting War of 5 Kings. Petyr's done it again.
  • WMG Petyr switches his obsession to Sansa. He decides to poison her husband, Tyrion, and has his pirates standing by to spirit Sansa away. Third time's a charm! Petyr finally gets his hands on a red-haired Tully woman. Fallout: Regicide as King Joffrey accidentally swallows the poison intended for Tyrion, and Tyrion is blamed for Joffrey's death, instead of Sansa being blamed for Tyrion's death. Still, compared to his previous attempts, this was a comparatively minor side effect. (Unless you also include Tyrion's murder of Tywin followed by his escape to Dany and her dragon, which probably will have Tremendous Consequences....)
  • Counting his first direct attack and his 3 plots above, Petyr took 4 tries to get his hands on a Tully, causing massive damage along the way. WMG assumes he did this due to the prophecy he received as a boy, which he said was "nothing much". Yeah right. the same way Cersei's prophecy was nothing much.... (Presumably Lysa Arryn nee Tully did not fit the prophecy, since she always just threw herself at Petyr, instead of having to be stolen/captured.)

"Aegon Targaryen" is actually Ashara Dayne's bastard

It's been mentioned more than once that the Daynes have coloring similar to the Targaryens, which one would suspect would be important due to the Law of Conservation of Detail. Dany was warned about a "mummer's dragon", which can be interpreted two ways: a real dragon belonging to mummers, or a prop dragon used by mummers. In other words, a fake.

From Selmy, we learn that Ashara gave birth to a stillborn bastard daughter, however, it's possible that this was a lie spread after the child's birth. A child with Targaryen features who is the right age to be Aegon would be very useful as a figurehead to rally people behind, so the child was taken as a fallback plan or to use in addition to Viserys and Dany, perhaps to replace them if they didn't prove amenable to the plans others like Varys and Illyrio had for them.

As to his father, it could indeed be Eddard Stark. He was in love with Ashara and spent time with her at the tourney where Selmy said she got pregnant.

Ashara did indeed kill herself over grief - she's lost her brother, possibly the father of her child to another woman, and her child itself. Combined with post-partum depression, she killed herself.

Less plausibly, she's actually Septa Lemore, looking after her son, and her suicide was ruse so that people wouldn't question her disapearance.

Connington is probably not aware of the ruse and believes the boy to be Aegon.

"Aegon Targaryen" is Ilyrio's Son

When Ilyrio and Tyrion part company, Ilyrio talks about "Young Griff", and shows more emotion than would be expected in the circumstances. If the boy is not truly Aegon, but rather Ilyrio's son, that would explain it. It would also explain the extraordinary lengths Ilyrio has been willing to go to, and the extraordinary costs he has been willing to bear (giving away the dragon eggs, hiring the Golden Company), in support of the Targaryens; he aims to have his own son - the fake Targaryen (i.e. the mummer's dragon) on the throne.

Qyburn works for Varys

In Dance' With Dragons', we learn that Varys is trying to keep Cersei in power so she'll destabilize the Seven Kingdoms, making it easier for Aegon to take over. Qyburn has always been unusually supportive of Cersei,even before she gave him "materials" for his experiments. Another piece of evidence that points to this theory is that Qyburn has done such a good job succeeding Varys as Master of Whispers that Cersei believes that Varys is nothing more than a fraud, and thus severely underestimates him.

  • The last point implies that Qyburn may be such an effective Master of Whispers because Varys was feeding him information, either because they were allies (thus helping to make Qyburn more valuable to Cersei), or because he was a useful tool (meaning he wasn't working with Varys, but Varys was manipulating him to his own ends).

It's going to be three-way war on the Wall in Book 6.

(Warning: aDwD spoilers.)

So, yeah. We all read the end of Dance, with Jon getting all stabbified by his own Sworn Brothers. What we're forgetting is that Jon had just left a meeting in which he won the wildlings' allegiance, once and for all. (It's interesting that everyone has been spitting "You're half wildling" at him as though it's an insult, because events have proven that it's actually a great strength which will help save the Seven Kingdoms.) So what happened when hundreds of wildlings came spilling out of the Knight's Hall and saw their new King-Beneath-The-Wall getting attacked by crows?

When we open Book 6, we will find Jon injured but alive at Castle Black, having been saved by Tormund and etc. The Watch (what remains of them) will have retreated to the Shadow Tower or Eastwatch-By-The-Sea, whilst the wildlings have taken Castle Black for their home base. It's like to be open war for a while, and heaven only knows what will happen to Night's Watch defectors (Grenn, Pyp, Dolorous Edd) who want to rejoin their friend. But Jon is likely to win in the end, especially when wights start arising south of the Wall, from the corpses of the slain. The Night's Watch isn't going to be happy, and Jon will probably not be reinstated as Lord Commander and maybe will even be hit with execution for his "crimes", but they will have to accept his methods, whether they like them (or him!) or not.

The briefly mentioned blond archer Lewis Lanster who traveled with Jon Connington will be a Chekhov's Gun

He's a good-looking, prideful blonde with a surname suspiciously similar to "Lannister". Too subtle to be a Red Herring, but definitely something that stands out.

  • It's mentioned earlier in the books that Casterly Rock and Lannisport are filled with Lannistons, Lanns, Lansters (etc, I can't remember the exact names). It's not necessarily meaningful, it just means this guy comes from this city.

Sansa won't betray Littlefinger.

Everyone seems to think that she's going to eventually be his downfall, but maybe she'll end up being his evil accomplice, either a Dark Chick or an odd sort of Dragon once her Corrupt the Cutie process is complete. The characters always develop in surprising ways, and Sansa turning into a competent Manipulative Bitch--or even a magnificent one--would be at least as surprising as a sword-wielding "for the North!" moment, while still being more in character.

  • Alternatively, she will simply displace him. After she goes public with her true identity and retakes the North, it will appear that she is Littlefinger's puppet, just as everyone thought that Joffrey would be Cersei's puppet. Then she'll do something he doesn't want (say, executing Roose Bolton), and prove that she's the one with the power. Littlefinger will stick around as her advisor. The guy's ambitious, but I also suspect he's capable of quitting while he's ahead. There are far worse fates than being the right hand man to the Queen in the North.

Arya will come back to Westeros

Part of the faceless man training is cutting off all ties to your past life, and in a sense becoming 'no one'. One of the problems arya might have with this is that no matter how much she cuts herself off from the starks, she is still connected to Nymeria. So the faceless men will give her the task to kill nymeria, and in the process she will get drawn back into the conflict of westeros, and possibly stop being a faceless woman as a result.

George Martin will die before the series is concluded or purposely write a crappy ending to the series.

One way or another, just to spite his fans.

  • The last two books in the series are already written and finished. Over the next decade, Martin will continue to pretend to be writing the next book, but will give dozens of reasons why it hasn't been finished yet. Winds of Winter will be released in 2024, and every POV chapter in it will end on a massive cliffhanger that leads directly into the last book. When he finally dies, by order of his will, the existence of the (already written) final book of the series will be revealed to the world, while simultaneously being burned on a pyre that destroys the only copy. The anguish and hate created by this act will be such a potent emotive force that it will cause him to rise from his grave and become the Dark Overlord of the World, which was his plan all along.

Arya will be brought back to Westeros as Cersei's assassin.

It's mentioned in ADWD that if a ruler doesn't pay the Iron Bank what he owes, the Bank have them killed and replaced by someone who'll take the hint. Cersei blew off the Bank while she was ruler, so they'll be looking to topple her if she wins her trial by battle and regains control of King's Landing (and, with Zombie Gregor as her champion, how can she lose?).

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the Bank use Faceless Men for their assassinations, since both the Bank and the Men are based out of Braavos. And we know Arya would leap at the chance to put a dagger between Cersei's shoulderblades, especially since she hasn't phased out her own identity like Faceless Men are supposed to. Of course, this doesn't guarantee she'll succeed, but it seems like an elegant way to bring her back to Westeros for the finale...

  • While I am pretty sure Arya eventually WILL return to Westeros, would it not be detrimental to her training, from the Faceless Men's point of view? Convincing their apprentices that they are noone, or at least not who they were before, is as important to them as physical or perceptive training. So it seems like an unwise decision to send her to the country she actually hails from, where the chance of running into someone from her previous life she knows/hates in much higher than while operating in Braavos or even further east. And if they find out how exactly Arya and Cersei are connected, sending her for the kill would be against their whole training, as Arya would be "herself" almost immediately.
  • Arya cannot assassinate Cersei because she knows who Cersei is and whispers her name as part of her prayer. Faceless Men can only give the gift to those who they don't know. I do think that Arya is sent to Westros to kill someone and I'm leaning toward Melisandre. Cersei, the Illyrio-Varys conspiracy, or the Citadel conspiracy hires a faceless man to get rid of her. Arya doesn't know Melisandre and is dispatched to kill her. Of course, someone Arya loves dearly, Jon, is probably with Melisandre. I think that Jon and Arya are the first two Stark siblings to reunite and that scenario makes that happen.

Bran will become the 1000th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch

In Winds of Winter, a new Lord Commander will be chosen to replace the stabbed Jon Snow. He will die during that book, or sometime early in Dreams of Spring.

In Dreams of Spring, Bran will return to the Wall, leading a warhost of the children of the forest, probably a few wildlings, and possibly something else that we have yet to encounter. He will stop the Others and save Westeros. However, by this point Bran will no longer be entirely human. There will be no place for him in Winterfell. Instead, he will remain on the Wall as the 1000th Lord Commander. Jon will either die or have another destiny.

The post-series Westeros will be a high fantasy realm

One of the themes of the series is that magic is returning to Westeros. And outside of the Others, most of the magical elements are aligned with the heroes, particularly Dany and Bran. These will prove key to their return to power. Sam's plot will involve the maesters trying to stop the return of magic. He, of course, will become a wizard like he always wanted. In the end, they will fail, and magic will return.

The maesters will be involved in some attempt to kill the dragons

The maesters want magic gone. The dragons are bringing magic back. Possibilities:

  • Dany will need their help/alliance, and their price will be the death of the dragons.
  • They can use science to make her fertile, and their price is the death of the dragons, forcing her to choose between her "children" and real, actual blood children.
  • Dany will be established as monarch (very, very rockily) and they'll give her a maester, who will be a spy trying to kill the dragons/figure out how to kill them.

Feel free to add your own ideas.

In any case, I think it's a virtual guarantee that the maesters are going to be making themselves a nuisance to Dany one way or another.

Azor Ahai Reborn is more than one person

...most likely the three heads of the dragon. Let's look at the two most cenral figures of the series: Dany and Jon.

  • Dany was born on Dragonstone, the place of smoke and salt. Then she was "reborn" into a more confident, ready to lead woman at Khal Drogo's funeral admidst smoke (from the fire) and salt (from the tears she had shed) when the red star bled (when the comet went across the sky.) She woke the dragons out of stone eggs, which Melisandre was convinced Azor Ahai would do. Azor Ahai also tempered Lightbringer with his wife's blood. Dany woke the dragons with the (unintentional) deaths of her husband and son.
  • When Melisandre looked in her flames to see who she believed was Azor Ahai, all she could see was Snow. (aDwD spoilers) When Jon was knifed, a star bled, the knight that had been killed. The smoke was Jon's smoking wounds, the salt was the steward's tears. If he died and was somehow resurrected, that would be a literal rebirth.

These two people both fit the prophecy so well, it would be weird for either of them to not be Azor Ahai. What if something of Azor Ahai went to both of them? It may have overlapped with the three heads of the dragon, since Dany and Jon are strongly implied to be two of those heads.

  • Jon is only implied to be a head of the dragon if you believe he's Dany's nephew, which is not explicit and not everyone believes.
    • Not really. In Dany's vision that the Undying gave her, she saw a blue winter rose growing from a wall of ice as one of the symbolic heads of the dragon. Even if you don't believe R+L=J, there's only so many characters associated with a wall of ice, and Jon is the most likely of them.

The Night's Watch as we know it will cease to exist

The aforementioned War at the Wall will end in a wildling victory. The wildlings will then take over the defense of the Wall, and claim the Gift as well. Mance Rayder will become King on the Wall.

Future POV Names

In the more recent books, Martin has this thing of calling characters by a descriptor/changing their name for dramatic effect (i.e. Sansa as Alayne Stone and Arya as Cat of the Canals). Here's some of the ones I'm thinking could be in the future- spoilers ahead:

    • "Lady Stoneheart" (to fill in where there used to be Catelyn Pov)
    • "No One" (for Arya)
    • "The White Wolf" (for Jon, especially if he wargs into Ghost)
      • Or perhaps the Azor Ahai or the Long-lost Prince for Jon as well.
        • Come to think of it, if he has a POV after the end of ADWD, his first one will appropriately be "Ghost".
    • "The Young Bear" (Jorah, naturally)
    • "A Man" (Jaqen/Alchemist/Pate)
  • GRRM has stated there will be no more POV characters added, which removes the option of the last two. (In theory. We'll see if he lives up to this.)

Mormont's raven contains a skinchanger

  • In the beginning of A Dance with Dragons, we are told that skinchangers who die have their souls enter the body of the animal they rode. The rest of the book then makes constant reference to the raven, how intelligent it is, and underlines how many of its responses are dramatically appropriate for whatever conversation it is listening to. This is because it was the former host of a skinchanger who died, whose soul now resides within. While they have forgotten most of their life and who they were, the faint memories that remain keep it near Jon (it wants to help). The skinchanger in question may be Mormont himself, one of the wildlings from beyond the Wall, or perhaps someone else who knew Winter was coming and wanted to help stop it.
    • Conversely, the raven is actually Bloodraven's, and he occasionally reaches out to it to spy on Jon or influence him (it's been established that distance is not necessarily a barrier to skinchangers. Or it might actually be Bran's, if his future self eventually learns how to use the greensight to project his consciousness backwards in time through the weirdwoods (perhaps argued even more effectively since the name "Bran" means "raven").

Bolton will attack the Wall

Let us imagine that Jon Snow and/or his allies regain control of the Wall early on in The Winds of Winter. A likely scenario is that Melisandre decides to help Jon, bringing Stannis' people in on his side. If Jon's human body is dead, Melisandre might end up in charge (or at least she will be the POV). They send Roose Bolton a fuck you raven. Bolton, furious, leads his men north to attack the Wall. In the eyes of just about everyone, this is Roose Bolton's Moral Event Horizon. The North rises in open rebellion. Roose Bolton is defeated by an army of Stark loyalists, wildlings, crows, what remains of Stannis' troops, and even Boltons - one subplot sees the castellan of the Dreadfort turn against his liege. Around this time, Sansa's true identity is revealed. One of the final scenes has her being declared Queen in the North.

  • Roose Bolton already passed the moral event horizon when he killed Robb Stark at the Red Wedding and the North is quite aware of the situation. (See Lord Manderly's Magnificent Bastard reveal).
    • Yes, but not everyone accepts this as his Moral Event Horizon. Bolton's actions had legal sanction in the eyes of the Iron Throne. Attacking the Wall would wipe out his credibility.
      • Also, people are morons (and more kindly, people are distracted right now). I'm willing to bet the Greatjon's remaining fingers that a good chunk of the North, especially smallfolk, just see "Freys did it!" and even if they do know Bolton was behind it, that's sort of been pushed to the back of their minds. (The way two people who get into a fistfight will be the ones punished, even if everyone knows that someone else was really the instigator.)
      • I think this will happen, provided that the Boltons somehow won the Battle of Winterfell. In Storm, Jon points out at least once that the Wall can't be defended from the South. Furthermore, the Iron Throne sees the Watch as part of the rebellion, and the wildlings have manned ruined castles. It's such an overwhelmingly bad situation that it has to come to pass. It seems like the kind of easy victory Ramsay Bolton would jump upon.
        • Rmasay Bolton may try to jump on it and be reined in by his more pragmatic father (or someone else, although I don't think anyone else is capable of controlling him).

Azor Ahai, The Prince Who Was Promised and The Stallion Who Mounts The World are three different people. Their clash will have catastrophic outcomes.

All three have characteristics of a messianic archetype, or at least a great leader that will bring peace and stability by conquer. What better way to subvert this prophecies than them just resulting in a bitter war that eventuelly sees the demise of all three of them.

Varys wants the Targaryens back because he knows about the Others and believes that dragons will be necessary to defeat them.

Think about it. In those rare moments when he may actually be speaking honestly, Varys always says that his loyalty is to the realm, and he's probably telling the truth. He's certainly not out for personal power: he has as much of that as he's likely to get no matter who's on the throne. But if he's truly loyal to the realm, why put it through all this messy civil war nonsense, and why prolong it by killing Kevan Lannister? He's already proven that through his manipulations of the throne and Small Council, he can keep the realm stable and prosperous even with a certifiable madman wearing the crown, so why not help whoever happens to be on the throne at the time, the way he did for over a decade with Robert? In short, why so much loyalty for the Targaryens, who've been a crapshoot at best when it comes to what's actually good for Westeros and who wouldn't have had a chance in hell of seriously attempting a return to power without his constant help?

UNLESS there's an even greater danger to the entire realm, one compared to which years of messy civil war are a small and necessary evil, one which can only be combated by the Targaryens due to their special affinity for dragons? Enter the Others.

As to how he would know about this threat years before even the Night's Watch suspected they were back, well, he IS the Master of Whisperers, and he had at least a passing (as in, "please pass your testicles, there's a good lad") acquaintance with a bona fide sorcerer in his youth, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

The defining Wham! Line of The Winds of Winter:

"Shouldn't the sun be up by now?"

Khal Drogo shall ride again.

The sun has risen in the west and set in the east. The mountains have crumbled. The sea has dried up. Khal Drogo will return to the world under the open sky, with the infant Rhaego in his arms. He will be surrounded by four stallions. The first will have a white coat, and a Dothraki bow will be strapped to it's side. The second will have a fiery red coat, and will carry an arakh strapped to its saddle. The third will be pitch black and carry a whip. The fourth will be deathly pale, but strong as the others. Mounted atop the pale horse and with the other three in tow, Drogo will rebuild his khalasar, who will ride behind him as he tracks down the moon of his life.

  • Likelihood aside, I will officially pray for this until the last page of A Dream Of Spring.
  • Variant: after the Long Night, the sun will rise in the west. Also during this time, the other elements of the prophecy will have come true in some way (maybe on a lesser scale, maybe metaphorically). Then Khal Drogo will rise again and rejoin his khaleesi.
    • This is quoted from a post higher up on the page, under the WMG about Dany having the grey mare; the sun did rise in the west and set in the east (Quentyn dying in Meereen), the mountains did crumble (the dragons burning the pyramids of Meereen), and the seas did dry up (the Dothraki sea is undergoing a drought). So we have the metaphoric fulfillment of all the prophecies except Dany popping out another kid. So there you go.

The arrival of Winter heralds a great change

  • It happened just before Jon's stabbing, just like the Red Comet appeared just after Dany's eggs hatched. A herald of Ice, a herald of Fire, they sing a song...

Dany will re-create Valyrian steel with her dragons

Given that it's also referred to as Dragonsteel and the Valyrians were known for having a lot of dragons, it seems pretty obvious to me that the Lost Technology involved in making the stuff consisted of a blacksmith smelting with the aid of dragons. Since there are currently dragons again, it shouldn't be too hard to make a lot of the stuff, which will come in handy since it reputedly can kill wights and Others. It will also be kind of funny since Valyrian steel is known for being priceless, if now any Tom, Dick, or Harry can get a Valyrian steel sword.

The other source of Valyrian steel swords

The Iron throne is made of the swords of Aegon the Conqueror's fallen foes. I bet were probably made of Valyrian steel, ergo, the Iron throne will be melted down so the swords can be reforged. Ultimately, Westeros will become a republic and someone (Davos? Jon? Littlefinger?) will be president.

  • Semms unlikely, given how valuable Valyrian steel is. I'd be more inclined to think Aegon took whatever Valyrian steel was there and used/reforged those weapons before making the Iron Throne.

The source of the letter at the end of A Dance with Dragons

In the last few chapters of Stannis' storyline in A Dance with Dragons, he spent a LOT of time staring into fire. By doing so, he was granted visions by R'hllor, and he was the one who figured out that Jon had sent Mance Rayder and the girls into Winterfell to rescue "Arya".

  • The contents of the letter are consistent with other R'hlloric visions: pretty much correct, but not really all that correct.
  • What Stannis wished to accomplish with the letter is unknown - it may have been a Hail Mary to give Jon enough encouragement to send reinforcement from the wall, or he may have intentionally led him into a trap.
    • I don't think Stannis relates to other people well enough to pull off a convincing imitation of Ramsay's probable writing style (nor is he evil enough to make up those kind of things/lead Jon into a trap).
    • This would be a sure way to make Jon forsake his vows as a member of the Night's Watch, and accept the offer to become the new Warden of the North, exactly as Stannis wants, so I think we can get a good idea of what he'd want to accomplish.

Every POV introduced in AFFC/ADWD will play a major role in TWOW & ADOS.

When you think about it, they are all well-placed to observe new storylines, particularly as GRRM has said that there will be no more new POV characters. An early example is Asha Greyjoy, who ended up as our POV in Stannis' army in ADWD. So, theories ahoy!

  • Brienne: the Brotherhood Without Banners.
  • Aeron Damphair: what's happening with Euron back in the Iron Islands. He may overthrow Euron ("No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!").
  • Jon Connington: what's happening with Aegon Targaryen in Storm's End. He'll actually share this one with Arienne Martell - he'll cover the military events, she'll cover the intrigue.
  • Melisandre: she'll cover the Wall while Jon does whatever he does (which may include being dead).

Jaime will return to the Westerlands.

He may formally resign from the Kingsguard, but he will become the de facto (if not de jure) Lord of Casterly Rock and the leader of the Lannister faction. As a sidenote, we will finally get to visit Casterly Rock.

  • This may result in the Lannisters doing something of a Heel Face Turn.
    • Or leaving the series entirely. Right now, perhaps the best thing the Lannisters could do to boost their own power would be to withdraw into the Westerlands, leave the Iron Throne to whoever wants it, and use their enormous economic power to erect defenses. They can let the surviving claimants fight it out and then use their gold to buy a prominent place in the next kingdom. Also, given that they are based on England, it would be in keeping with "Splendid Isolation."

Benjen isn't Coldhands.

Benjen is somewhere with the children of the forest, being kept apart from Bran either for a reason or because the children haven't realized their relationship, and we'll see him in Winds or even Dream. What evidence do I have? Well, I'm re-reading Game of Thrones and when Bran first heards Benjen is missing, he says "the children of the forest will help him!" because Old Nan was just telling him a story about that. Maybe a throwaway line, but knowing what I know now about the children, it just pings me a little.

    • Could be that the children of the forest are the ones that prevented him from becoming just another mindless wight. After all, it wouldn't be very GRRM-like to have one of the characters be saved from certain doom by magical forest elves without any drawback whatsoever.
      • No, it wouldn't, which makes me suspect it of him even more. Let's face it, he loves fucking with us and he loves being unpredictable. I think it would be just like him to randomly throw in an unreasonable bright spot (maybe just before he's killed for real or learning of it sometime after he's killed).

Melisandre of Asshai is Westeros' version of Amane Misa.

She kills people using rather dubious magical methods. She is a priestess of the Lord of Light. Yeah, everything adds up...

Boros Blount is being poisoned, or is diabetic.

It is common knowledge that Cersei hates Boros Blount, and even Jaime gets less crap about killing a king than Blount does for surrendering a prince. After Jaime makes him into Tommen's food taster, he becomes increasingly sickly looking. I believe he isn't just sick with shame. If Tommen's food was poisoned, then it would have been noticeable. It is likely that Tommen's diet is rich in foods that Boros is allergic to, or otherwise incapable of eating. Tommen likes sweets, so I think some sort of Westerosi diabetes is at play. Who is poisoning him, I don't know. It couldn't be Cersei, because she was planning on having him killed when he championed Margery Tyrell. Considering that Varys is going around killing people in order to troll Cersei, it could be him.

Mance Rayder will be the 999th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

If the wildling faction wins the War on the Wall, he'd be a splendid choice, perhaps enacting some choice reforms.

Aegon is real. The Mummer's Dragon prophecy is meant to be read the other way round.

It's not about someone claiming to be a Targaryen. It's about a Targaryen (probably unknowingly) claiming to be someone else. Going to the old Rhaegar-and-Lyanna's-son well again, it could be Jon. I know it's a stretch, but Aegon would be kinda obvious, and there is no other Targaryen pretender in sight. So maybe it actually means the opposite.

  • It may also mean a real Targaryen being used as a puppet by someone else, and Aegon does sound like a puppet to whatever Varys and Illyrio are planning.
  • Or Varys is the mummer (often compared to one and IIRC used to be one) and Aegon is his pawn, hence "mummer's dragon". There's also Moqorro's reference to "dragons real and false" though.

In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, two monozygotic twins can have different genders.

Of course, I have no idea how this is even supposed to work, but it would explain the often described physical similarities between Jaime and Cersei.

  • I think it can be chalked up to their parents being first cousins. If Tyrion hadn't been deformed, it's possible he would look freakishly like Jaime and they would all look like triplets (except Tyrion having a little less lines in the face/scars/whatever). As it is, the extenuating circumstances make it hard to track whether they're just a family with strong resemblance.

Danearys herself will be one of the betrayers

The prophecy said, "Three betrayals shall you know, not "You will be betrayed three times" My original thought was that Daenerys would "betray" Mereen by abandoning it to go to Westros, "for blood", but the "for blood" betrayal would seem to be what Mirri Maz Duur did, so maybe she will betray someone (Probably Hizdahr0 so she can be with Daario - "for love".

  • I agree. I think the three "for love" parts of that prophecy will refer to the same thing. She'll betray a lover, the first since Drogo she's genuinely loved, by killing him, like Azor Ahai killed Nissa Nissa, in order to activate whatever her equivalent of Lightbringer is (thus "lighting a fire").

Balerion (the cat) will be somehow significant

Okay, this is probably a stretch simply because this is such a minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg, but here goes. You know that tomcat with the torn ear that Arya chases around in AGOT? And the one that Tommen whines in AFFC has been bullying his kittens, presumably the same creature? The big, angry, black tomcat? And remember when someone mentioned offhand that little Princess Rhaenys (Rhaegar's daughter, the yes-she's-definitely-dead one) had a little black kitten she adored, called Balerion? Go on, tell me it wouldn't be fantastic if that cat did something amazing. Why else is it still floating around the Red Keep?

  • Warging with someone, perhaps? Arya has demonstrated the ability to warg with cats, after all.
  • Judging by Varamyr Sixskins, skinchangers permanently meld with their companions when they die. Supposing little Balerion has the, er, "soul" or whatever of Rhaenys in him? Potential for anything interesting there?

Dolorous Edd will have a Let's Get Dangerous Big Damn Heroes moment.

Because it would be so very like Martin to have the comic relief character turn out to be a complete badass. Of course, considering the bleakness of the setting, it's likely he'd pull a Forel and die.

the first six books in the series are a set up for...

A tale of an Ordinary High School Student coming to Westeros, saving the kingdom, becoming the king, and learning a lot about himself and growing up on the way.

  • He will also marry Sansa... and Daenerys. (Seriously, wtf?)
    • He becomes the king of a new order, where everyone will be able to reule, regardless of money or birth, and marriage will be based on love. His queen will be a common girl who happens to resemble his high school crush from back in the real-world world.
      • He will also make all the houses work together as good friends, mount the dragons by offering them strawberry candies (which will of course be described through Food Porn) and defeat the Others using The Power of Love. His dynasty will rule from the Red Keep, now renamed Pink Keep and there will be no more Iron Throne, but the Comfy Pillow instead. "Cuteness is coming..."
  • ...and then the author woke up from his happy dream and realized he is back in a cell deep down in the Dreadfort. "Hello Reek, sweet dreams?" said Ramsay Bolton. "You past out from our little "session" from the other day. Let us continue from there, shall we?"

Theon prayed to the Drowned God, the Seven and the Old gods for salvation that would never come...

Jon Snow is dead, but Melisandre will raise him like Beric Dondarrion was.

Although Martin is a real bastard when it comes to killing off characters we love (looking at you, Ned) there's something just not right with Jon's death. It looks like he's been given too much importance to the story to die like that. And, if Thoros of Myr, a second-rate priest by his own admission was able to raise Beric from the dead, what might Melisandre be capable of? Not to mention that it would give her a handle on Jon, and bind him to her.

  • The first time Thoros raised Beric was an accident - he gave him the Lord's Kiss, a standard R'hllorian funeral rite, and was amazed that he cam back to life. I'm thinking that's what's going to happen here (and finally convince [[spoiler:Mel that he's AA into the bargain).

Sansa will be rescued by the Mountain Clans

Remember she is in the Vale with Little Finger and she is of-course Tyrion's wife, so it is entirely possible that her secret could be revealed to a member of one of the Mountain Clans who are still loyal to Tyrion and they could help rescue her.

Everything after Bran was pushed from the tower is a tale...

...being told to him by Old Nan of his ancient ancestors, as are the details of life at Winterfell. The final chapter will expand on Winterfell as a medium-sized modern city in a Westeros with early-21st century technology [3] and will end with Bran going back to school in his new wheelchair, Jaime Lannister going to jail for assault with grievous bodily harm after a media-circus trial since someone in a nearby building got it on video, and readers left deliberately unsure of what "happened" and what is a myth or legend in-universe. Time moves in circles in Westeros...

Melisandre is Azor Ahai.

This would be a Prophecy Twist that I have yet to see - the prophet is, unknown to himself, the very Chosen One he speaks of. And Jon Snow is Lightbringer.

  • Also, there's a neat little parallel to the original legend - namely, that Azor Ahai tried to forge two other swords but failed. In this case, Melisandre tried to build up Stannis as Azor Ahai, but failed.

Jaime Lannister is bisexual or mostly gay

He likes guys and has very, very, very, very far repressed it, because it may be rather dangerous in Westeros (as in any medieval counterpart society). His relationship with Cersei is so twisted that she's become the "safer" option in his mind, which is why he's never been tempted to stray from her -- he was only looking at women and it never even occurred to him to look at men. This is also why he's mildly upset when he's attracted to Brienne -- either attraction to any woman is slightly odd (and he's just used to it with Cersei), or Brienne being rather more masculine than the standard brushes perilously close to realizing he's not straight. Now that his relationship with Cersei seems to be over, we'll see if this emerges any.

To clarify: I talk about both him knowing things and them never occurring to him. In psychology this is totally possible -- some part of your psyche will know it if you like the same sex, but that doesn't necessarily mean your conscious mind has figured it out.

  • The fact that he's never shown the slightest sexual or romantic interest in a man shows just how far he's repressed this...
    • It may be as much repression as "is that even an option?" I have friends who got to middle school without even realizing same-sex attraction was a thing, and there are even gay people who don't realize it until late in life because it's always framed as something that happens to other people. Admittedly, there's less evidence for it than evidence against the reverse.
  • I think this theory actually works pretty well. His relationship with Cersei is as much founded in narcissism as conventional gendered sexuality.

Syrio Forel was a Faceless Man and is still at King's Landing...

...masquerading as Ser Meryn Trant, who he killed after Arya fled. With his wooden sword.


Syrio Forel is still at King's Landing but is not a Faceless Man

...but is being held in the fourth dungeon level of the Red Keep, the one used "only for torment." He will teach Jaime Lannister to fight with his left hand and then the two of them will go an a quest to retrieve Arya Stark from Braavos, so that Jaime can fulfill his promise to Lady Catelyn to protect her daughters.


All the events so far are part of an undescribably complex Xanatos Gambit set up by...

Benjen Stark. He manipulated Littlefinger, Varys, Melisandre, everyone to set the events of the books in motion. Then he went into hiding beyond the Wall. When the various conflicts (War of the Five Kings, Targaryen invasion, the Others) come to an end, he will emerge from the forest and declare himself Overlord of Everything to Ever Exist Ever. Trufax.

Future Plans of the Brotherhood Without Banners

They will conduct a daring jail break and free Edmure and take back Riverrun. Also, they will "gatecrash" the wedding of Daven Lannister and the Frey girl he's marrying (Tom O'Sevens will naturally be undercover as a musician) and will murder them along with their guests. This will both be an awesome moment as well as a demonstration of how much they and Catelyn have become He Who Fights Monsters. Demonstrating this, a pregnant Roslin Frey will also be killed. Edmure will survive the series but as a bitter man and will hunt down and execute the members of the Brotherhood.

  • By "daring jail break", you mean "besiege Casterly Rock"? And then turn around and capture Riverrun? You realise that would be... tricky, right?
    • Forgot Edmure was being taken to Casterly Rock and was writing this with the mindset he was still imprisoned at Riverrun. Attacking the Rock doesn't seem feasible- maybe they'll intercept Lannister troops on the road between Riverrun and there? In any case, I definitely think that wedding mas acre is gonna happen.

Quaithe is a ghost

She can appear and vanish without explanation, can be seen only by certain people, and she comes from 'the shadow lands.' Dany bringing magic back into the world made her stronger, and self-interest is why she watching out for her with advice and warnings. Also for the sheer hell of it, I'm going to throw in that Quaithe is specifically the ghost of Joanna Lannister. Because that would be fun.

Jaime Lannister will not survive the series

He has grown into one of the audience's favourite characters since his Heel Face Turn. It is very dangerous to be an audience's favourite character in Westeros. Also, look how many people are gunning for him:

    • Dany knows him as the man who murdered her father and opened the way for Tywin's men to rape her mother and kill her brother.
    • The Martells feel the same way.
    • The Northern lords and Jon Snow see him as a Lannister, one of the family that ransacked the North, orchestrated the Red Wedding and put Ned Stark to death.
    • If he remembers, Bran will know him as the man who pushed him from a window and crippled him.
    • Arya Stark is hardly going to be best buds with him if they ever meet.
    • Tyrion has decidedly mixed feelings towards him after the Tysha episode.
    • Perhaps the greatest immediate threat to him: Undead-Catelyn Stark is gunning for him, has probably sent Brienne to trap him and intends to put him to death.
    • Jaime Lannister dies defending Jon Targaryen. Because it would be poetic for the kingslayer to end up dying in defense of another king.


Dany really can't have kids

Mirri Maz Duur wasn't making a prophecy, she was giving the educated guess of an eperienced midwife who saw firsthand the damage Rhaego's birth did to Dany. Exact wording is usually pretty important in the books, and Mirri's exact words were that Daenerys would never bear a living child. Being able to concieve and being able to carry the pregnancy to term are two different things- look at Lysa's track record.

Jon's Sword will become the new Lightbringer

In order to create the original Lightbringer, it had to be quenched in the body of its maker's wife. Jon used his sword to kill Ygritte, who was his wife by Wildling law.

    • Ygritte was killed by an arrow (and specifically not one of Jon's), and died in Jon's arms from her wounds.


Daenerys will march on Harrenhal with the dragons. Or even just one or two of the dragons.

Like Aegon the Conqueror.

Varys caused Robert's rebellion

  • Rhaegar was not someone who kidnaps and rapes women.
  • Lyanna was not someone who can be kidnapped and raped with the rapist's protruding parts intact.
  • Lyanna knew that Brandon was overly protective so she left him a note before eloping with Rhaegar or sent him a raven afterwards. Said message has, however, disappeared. It reeks of powder and perfume.

Why would he wanted to do that? Well, Varys is loyal to the kingdom. Aerys was bad for the kingdom. So Aerys had to be removed. It was pretty much a Xanatos Gambit: if Rhaegar won, he would have "made some changes" - presumably dethroning his insane father. If the rebellion won, well, the new king can't be much worse. And even if the new king or the king after him is bad, he saved Aegon so he could return and rule as someone groomed to be a good king.

    • Because just having Aerys assassinated, leaving Rhaegar to rule the kingdom automatically... that would have been far too messy. And it seems pretty clear that Varys is interested in the stability of the realm, and one mad king is going to be nowhere near as destabilising as a massive civil war. Surely Varys knew about the wildfire Aerys was planning to cook Kings Landing in if he was threatened? (Incidentally, what are you basing your characterisations of Rhaegar and Lyanna on, when we've heard barely anything about either?)
      • Pretty sure he was basing Lyanna's on the WMG that she masqueraded as a mystery knight to enter tournaments. And Rhaegar's been stated by almost everyone but Robert to have actually been a really good guy. Even Ned didn't have anything bad to say about him, which says a lot, considering the guy supposedly kidnapped his sister.

More Targaryen (or Blackfyre) claimants are due to show up

Moqorro makes a prophecy of "Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark."

  • "Old and young" is tricky. Aegon and Dany are too close in age to fit, which signifies there must be more "dragons" than these two involved in the dance. Bloodraven is ancient, but appears to be dying. Aemon is dead. The trueborn Targaryens old enough to be "old" all seem to be accounted for, which suggests that there is a lost relative somewhere waiting to pop up. That, or a literal dragon...
    • Aegon is older than Dany, but in terms of experience pretty much a sweet summer baby compared to her. Old and young could refer to the vast gulf in life (or at least ruling) experience they have, which is a lot wider than the year or two of age.
  • "True and false" may be a reference to illegitimacy - the Great Bastards were legitimised (if that makes any difference to one being a "false dragon"), but Jon Snow is of course a bastard. Alternatively it might refer to a fake Targaryen (a "mummer's dragon") which may be Aegon.
    • Aegon is Varys' piece in the game of thrones - Varys was once a mummer. Of course, your possibility is possible as well.
  • "Bright and dark"; Qaithe also warns against a "dark flame" which may be a reference to a Blackfyre. Most of them are long dead, but Haegon was taken to Tyrosh by Bittersteel, so it seems likely he was at some point a member of the Golden Company. "Griff"/"Aegon" might really be a descendant of his, or else one may be concealed among the company. Alternatively, Jon Snow or Bloodraven might be "dark" due to their association with the Night's Watch.

Tyrion will be the Stark's greatest threat

He never bore them any ill will at the start, but of all the Lannisters Tyrion's the only one the direwolves treated as a danger. The Starks were less than kind to him, and he's rather bitter over everything with Sansa. Should he encounter any of the remaining Stark kids again, it'll end with them getting messed up good and proper.

Jaime Lannister will kill one or all three of Dany's dragons

We know that Dragons can be fought and beaten if you know what to do - the Dornish managed to beat Aegon the Conqueror, and then they beat the Young Dragon as well. Similarly, we know that dragons can be killed - Harghaz nearly managed to kill Drogon in ADWD, and Dany clearly feared for his safety. At the moment, Dany is about to be captured by Khal Jhaqo. Perhaps she will be pushed over the edge by the nasty treatment she can look forward to at Jhaqo's hands, or he will use her to enslave the dragons. Also, since his Heel Face Turn, Jaime is actually trying to become more like a chivalrous knight - saving Brienne, rescuing Tyrion (and telling him the truth), beating himself up over having to threaten Edmure, showing his respect for Lord Blackwood over Lord Bracken. And what do knights do? Kill dragons.

    • Alternatively, Drogon will prove to be untameable and require killing.

All the House sigil-and-words logos (as seen on the character pages) exist In-Universe.

Not during the main stories but in Westeros' future, having been developed by Bran the Graphic Designer on behalf of a trade association meant to promote tourism to the Great Houses. That's why they all look like they were designed by the same ad agency.

Lightbringer is the Night's Watch

Not as far-fetched as it may seem. After all, the prophecy of Azor Ahai (and prophecy in general in this series) is heavy with symbolism. It's possible "sword" is an interchangeable term for a "weapon." A fighting force can be a weapon. A "red sword" could mean a weapon/force that's seen and survived combat.

Besides, look at the Night's Watch vow: "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come."

Here we have an oath that uses a sword as the metaphor for the Night's Watch. Lightbringer is supposed to give off heat; the Night's Watch burns against the cold. It is the "light that brings the dawn." The original defeat of the Others is called the Battle for the Dawn. Could this mean that Lightbringer has been staring us in the face practically the entire time? It certainly seems like something Martin would do.

The Azor Ahai legend and the origin of the Night's Watch are, we're led to believe, roughly contemporary. Azor Ahai's legend has to do with defeating the Others, which is also the Night's Watch's mission. As such, the AA legend and the Night's Watch are inexorably linked. The "wielder of Lightbringer" might simply mean the person who commands the Night's Watch. For all we know, AA might himself have been the founding Lord Commander.

It also may be that AA's sacrifice of Nissa Nissa might somehow tie into the Night's Watch promise to not take wives. We understand that promise to simply be putting duty before familial loyalty, but what if there's more to it? If AA did sacrifice Nissa Nissa to "forge" Lightbringer, and the Night's Watch is itself Lightbringer, then the rule against taking wives literally goes back to the first days of the Watch and has a deep symbolic meaning beyond just utility.

  • AA killed Nissa Nissa to forge Lightbringer. The Night's Watch killed Jon Snow to "forge" Azor Ahai...

Robb is alive as Grey Wind.

Unlike Catelyn, who was unceremoniously dumped in a river, we pretty much know the location of Robb's body after his death, so there's little chance some convenient priest could come along and resurrect him. Indeed, we thought we knew the location of Grey Wind's corpse as well, but recent events seem to give the wolf an out, released into the woods in the confusion, though shot with crossbows. If he still is alive, then it is possible that, at the moment of death, Robb's spirit hitched a ride on the wolf. With his body dead, however, poor Robb is now stuck in Grey Wind, much like how the wildling shapechanger ended up stuck in a bird when Jon killed his human body.

This theory is basically part interesting use of what we already "know" (as much as ever really know anything recently in this story) and the fact that, for main characters in an "Anyone Can Die" series, the Starks do very little actual dying after Ned (well, very little staying dead). In a sense, among all the other deconstructions and parodies, Anyone Can Die is being toyed with, as the series begins with a shattering of comfort on who may live and who may die, but then doesn't really follow through with any of the main POV characters. And why let a character have the peace of death when you can make them suffer some more?

  • According to Tyrion the Freys killed Grey Wind as well and sewed his head onto Robb's corpse. Not much room for revival with that kind of cranial damage.
    • Though if above theories about Rob getting a Catlyn-style zombification pan out, a wolf-headed zombie warg would be pretty badass.

Dany's about to become the Mad Queen.

We know she has a capacity for very severe vengeance (see Mirri Maaz Duur, the Good Masters, the Great Masters...) and a quick temper. It only seems to have gotten worse as time goes on (compare burning one woman at the stake with crucifying 163 slavers and leaving them up for days). On top of that, she just survived weeks isolated and alone with only a dragon for company. Perhaps her dark side will only continue to grow, and Tyrion, Jorah, Barristan, or someone else will have to become a queenslayer. In any case I think (assuming she survives her Bolivian Army Ending) Dany's dark side is going to become more prominent.

  • I expect the madness/genius coin-flip described by Barristan will be left up in the air for a long long time. Although there's no reason given that a single Targaryen couldn't both great and insane at the same time, or at least alternately. At any rate, plenty of perfectly sane monarchs have had a vengeful dark streak a mile wide, both in the real world and in Westeros. And ruthlessness is a pretty useful trait in someone whose goal is to conquer a continent.

"The Shadow" is a volcano that puts Valyria to shame

Old Valyria seems to have been a volcanic region devastated by an enormous eruption, and is also strongly tied to dragons. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to assume a connection, especially considering "dragonglass", whose real-world counterpart obsidian is a volcanic material. The other place associated with dragons is Asshai "by-the-Shadow", near a mysterious area called the Shadow Lands, which are said to be "under the shadow". So what if they're either metaphorically "in the shadow" of a great mountain, or literally shadowed by plumes of smoke belching from it? What if beyond Asshai the atmosphere becomes so caustic and poisonous (or even dragon-infested) that it's generally considered uninhabitable, a sort of naturally-occurring uber-Mordor?

Arya will get enough assassin training to be a badass Master of Disguise killing machine, but drop out before making a final commitment

As interesting as they are, a Faceless Man as a viewpoint character, let alone as a protagonist character, wouldn't work. They're meant to have no identity, no desires of their own, no ties to the outside world -- none of the things that make a hero, basically. Arya's hidden sword and her wild direwolf both symbolise aspects of her character that she wouldn't allow to be subsumed by the House of Black and White. Either something in Braavos will remind her of home, or she will rail against a final stage of induction to the Faceless Men and flee -- or be expelled -- from them. Like Bruce Wayne and Luke Skywalker, she will join the ranks of the Dropout Hero. Some kind of rediscovery of Nymeria being the catalyst would be excellent, as she symbolises all the aspects of Arya that go against the FM's ethos, although it's hard to see how that would happen except as a particularly vivid wolf-dream.

  • Given that Dunsen is on his way to Braavos with Harys Swyft to negotiate with the Iron Bank, I'm guessing the bank will take a contract out on Swyft. Arya will be given it, will see Dunsen on the mission and not be able to stop herself killing him, and her killing another person she knows for personal reasons will get her expelled.

The next book will focus on the fight with the Others more than the Game of Thrones. Because of this, Dany will win.

Stannis and the Greyjoys will make their way back to the Wall and Melisandre will recruit the worshipers of Rh'llor to come and fight. Jon Snow will use all the pull he's ever got to recruit Wildlings and Starks to come and fight. The Lannisters family would have been so weakened by the events of the last book and Ser Kevan's death that they will have only the most superficial power and Littlefinger will be too busy with Sansa to do any of his usual manipulations. Everyone who still has power will have been summoned to the Wall to deal with the zombie apocalypse and everyone else with any power will be too stuck up in their problems, so Varys and the Martells bring Dany and her dragons into the city and she'll take over before anyone else really notices. She convinces Tommen and the Tyrells to swear allegiance to her and she'll take the throne without a fight.

Whoever wins the Iron Throne will be a Tyrell.

Or, failing that, the person who does take the Iron Throne - consensus seems to be that Jon or Dany are the most likely at the end - will marry a Tyrell. Why? Well, Stark = York and Lannister = Lancaster, and this troper thinks that Tyrell = Tudor. The Tyrells' rose sigil looks very much like the Tudor rose in design, and one of the actual Tudor colors was green (the other being white; red and white is a common misconception because of the rose; the red and white symbolized the joining of White Rose York and Red Rose Lancaster). The Tyrells' colors are green and gold. The head of the Tyrell family is also Lord of the Marches - the Tudors were Welsh, Welsh Marches, anyone? Lastly, Margaery Tyrell's story has quite a few parallels to Anne Boleyn's, and Anne Boleyn's rise and fall is one of the better-known events in the Tudor era. Which also makes the fact that Natalie Dormer plays Margaery, and was also Anne Boleyn on The Tudors, a nice Casting Gag.

  • Going with the Margaery/Anne Boleyn parallel, and the fact that if Jon is a Targaryen he binds two royal houses together in his blood (which Henry VII did not do; he married the York heiress but it was his sons who carried both York and Lancaster blood) it's possible that Jon will marry Margaery.
  • Henry Tudor was technically a Lancastrian, though; his mother, Margaret Beaufort, was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt. The seeds of the War of the Roses were first planted when John's son, Henry Bolingbroke, overthrew his cousin, Richard II, and became Henry IV. The Lancasters were eventually deposed, though, because Henry VI was crazy and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, could have given Lady Macbeth lessons in ruthlessness. I don't know if GRRM knows it, but when Henry Tudor went to war with Richard III, Henry fought under the banner of the dragon (the symbol of Wales) and Richard under the banner of the white boar.
  • OP here. Yes, I know that Henry Tudor was technically a Lancastrian through his mother, but Margaret Beaufort was of a secondary line, the descendent of John of Gaunt's legitimized bastards. So he wasn't a member of the primary line, he was just pretty much the only living claimant the Lancasters had left. Besides, it wouldn't be an entirely direct parallel - Cersei reads like an evil caricature of Elizabeth Woodville in some ways, and Robert like an extreme caricature of Edward IV in his later years. It's why I'm very concerned that Tommen will suffer a Prince in the Tower sort of fate.
    • Oh, Robert is so strikingly like Edward IV it had to have been deliberate. Both were both very tall, muscular and handsome as young men; excellent military commanders, and didn't get along well with their brothers. They both got fat as they aged and were succeeded by twelve-year-olds. Cersei also has a bit of Margaret of Anjou and Lucrezia Borgia in her. Nevertheless, despite that York and Lancaster sound similar to Stark and Lannister, the Yorkists and Lancastrians have more direct textual parallels in the Baratheons and the Targaryens with the Blackfyres being legitimized bastards. If Martin plans to end the series like the War of the Roses did, then the logical end would be for a surviving Blackfyre male to marry a Baratheon female. But I don't think it's going to be that exact.

Severus Snape is the reincarnation of Ser Alliser Thorne.

They both have black hair and eyes and love terrorizing their pupils--particularly overweight cowardly ones (Neville in Snape's case, Samwell in Thorne's.)

George R. R. Martin created all the Great Houses to represent subgenres of Heavy Metal.

  • The Arryns are Stoner Metal because their motto is "As High as Honor."
  • The Baratheons are Thrash and Death Metal because they're loud and noisy.
  • The Greyjoys are Viking Metal, because they're heads of the Vikings' Fantasy Counterpart Culture, the Ironborn.
  • The Lannisters are Hair Metal, because they're flashy and rich.
  • The Martells I'm not sure about. Any ideas?
  • The Starks are Black Metal because they're grim and frostbitten and don't like churches.
  • The Targaryens are Power Metal because they have dragons.
  • The Tullys are Folk Metal, because of their commitment to tradition.
  • The Tyrells are Symphonic Metal because of their commitment to courtly love and pretty appearances.

A dragonrider ideally needs to be half-Targaryen

The three heads of the dragon will all be half-Targaryen, thus having both "Blood of the Dragon" plus a sort of hybrid vigour that preserves them from the Taint, a side effect of inbreeding. (This controversially rules Dany out but Griff in, along with Jon Snow and Targ!Tyrion). The Targaryens initially lost their hold over dragons because they got too obsessed with blood-purity; the reason there need to be three per generation is so that two of them can maintain the purity of the Blood of the Dragon and the other can marry out in order to birth the next generation of dragonriders. This is also why the most successful dragonriders in history were Aegon I and his sisters, who were the first to institute the inbreeding tradition.

Aegon Will Win the Iron Throne and Marry Arianne Martell

  • Aegon has Varys behind him and a very divided realm ahead of him so that's very in his favour
    • Littlefinger might even be on their side in a way
  • The Martells have been planning to get behind the Targaryens forever and their support will clearly be crucial in order for him to have any chance at winning.
  • Since Viserys is dead then it makes sense for Arianne to marry Aegon for them
    • Also GRRM has said that in Winds of Winter, they are going to meet

Dany won't retake Meereen

If she takes over Meereen again, she'll eventually have to choose whether to give up on Westeros, or go there and abandon her "children" as Meereen quickly backslides into the old regime. If she's exiled, much like Sansa and Tyrion it effectively dissolves her marriage to Hizdahr, allowing her to marry Victarion or some other suitor who might actually be able to help her get her eyes back on the prize.

  • Alternatively, the wild dragons will leave the city a smoking ruin and there'll be nothing left to rule over.

The old gods, children of the forest, First Men and the Starks are less benevolent than they seem..

In A Dance with Dragons, we learn that the ancient Starks used to sacrifice people to their weirwoods via Bran's vision of the white-haired woman cutting a captive's throat in front of a heart tree. We know that "blood magic" is a powerful and ancient form of magic GRRM's world through the examples of Melisandre and Mirri Maz Duur. Since A Game of Thrones we have been told that weirwoods have blood-colored sap and leaves and often appear to "weep blood" from their faces. The weirwood in White Harbor, which was the site of much bloody sacrifice as mentioned by Davos, is humungous and fat. Weirwoods cannot take root at the Eyrie and we know that that castle is unique in that it executes its major criminals by throwing them off the mountain as opposed to beheading (apparently the preferred execution method in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms). From this we can deduce that weirwoods thrive on the blood of human sacrifices and in fact that their "sap" is most likely, to some degree, literal blood!

This throws the First Men and the children of the forest and the old gods into a whole new light. When we first learn of the Andals invading Westeros and driving the First Men and the children back and hacking down all the weirwoods we are sympathetic to the First Men and the children (or, at least, I was). But, if the Andals knew of the origin of the weirwoods, they could hardly be blamed for finding the First Men and children barbaric and horrifying.

On a related note, we have the Starks. They are the only major house that is still (mostly) of the blood of the First Men. They describe their ancestors as the "Kings of Winter". They are the only major house that still worships the old gods (though they appear to be unaware of their religion's bloody origin). At one point in the story, I forget where exactly, it is noted that the Stark words are the only words of a major house that are not a boast of some kind. In contrast to things like "Growing strong", "We do not sow", "Ours is the fury", etc., the Stark words are "Winter is coming". "Winter is coming" is used as a warning throughout the books akin to something like "Knock on wood". However, what if originally, the Stark words were meant as a boast, as well? As in, look out southerners/Andals/enemies of the old gods, because when Winter gets here, we are gonna kick some serious butt. In other words, Winter coming was a good thing for the Starks of old and their gods.....

  • That's a pretty good theory actually. One problem; the Children of the Forest and the Others were enemies, and the First Men sided with the children.

Jojen Reed was killed and his blood was used to initiate Bran as a greenseer

Related to the above. When Jojen gets to the caves north of the Wall he seems to become more and more depressed, even in spite of the fact that he seems to get physically stronger (he had been ill). Jojen often mentions that "this is not the day I die" implying that he knows the day of his death (he does NOT say this on the day Bran consumes the weirwood paste). Meera intimates to Bran that her brother wishes to return home but will not fight his fate, though she doesn't say what that fate is; she then begins to cry. Meera admonishes Jojen for scaring Bran and Jojen's response is that "[Bran] is not the one that needs to be afraid". Martin describes the new crescent moon on the day Bran consumes the paste as "sharp as a knife"; a parallel seems to exist between this moon and the sickle used in the blood sacrifice Bran witnesses in the weirwood vision. Bran sees veins of red in the weirwood seed paste before he eats it, which he supposes is just weirwood sap. Bran nearly retches up the first bite of the paste. After his vision is over, Bran can taste blood in his mouth. Meera and Jojen are nowhere to be found after Bran eats the paste.

Taken altogether, I believe this points to the fact that Jojen was (willingly) killed by Bloodraven and the children of the forest and his blood was used to indoctrinate Bran into greenseerhood. Perhaps Bran and the weirwood he "uses" both fed on Jojen's blood to link them together. Meera seems to have been at least vaguely aware of Jojen's fate and seemed to hope that the "three-eyed crow" (Bloodraven) would be able to alter it. Jojen may have humored her to that end in order to get her to accompany him, knowing that her huntress / fighting abilities would be needed.

This is related to the speculation that Bran may be heading down a darker path than it initially seemed, what with his willingness to warg into Hodor against the latter's wishes.

Alysane Mormont had sex with Tormund Giantsbane

On as brief adventure beyond the wall, Tormund meant he had sex with a Mormont when he said "bear" when Alysane said her children were fathered by a bear because she genuinely mistook Tormund for one.

The dragon Rhaegal is female.

That's the reason why (s)he is not named Rhaegon in accordance with Drogon and Viseryon.

    • Dragons don't have set genders, according to Maester Aemon. But chances are Rhaegel was given a feminine name in honour of the women of the Targareyn dynasty. There were several queens with the 'Rhae' prefix in their name.
  • Or Rhaegon is the name of an actual person. Or it sounded too close to Rhaegar or the names would all sound weird together. And "Rhae" isn't exclusively feminine unless Rhaegar had a really weird secret. Dragons are neuter or hermaphrodites.

The Rains of Castamere is the theme tune of the tv show

99% for rule of cool. Because imagine that song playing in the background of the red wedding scene when they film it, then cutting to the credits with the song still playing. Maybe even ending the series on it.

  • Awesome as it would be, I doubt it. tRoC is described as fairly slow and haunting, and the theme tune is very epic and sweeping. However, they might use the same melody and keep it as a motif for the song, which would be equally awesome.
  • The Rains of Castamere is heard in the penultimate episode of season two, and it's different from the main tune. It did, however, be used in the credits for that episode.

At the end of the series, the Stark in Winterfell will be... Jeyne Poole, pretending to be Arya.

What could be more appropriate, in a series that places so much emphasis on mutable identities and the utter silliness of the medieval obsession with noble heritage, than ending up with the Stark lineage carried on by someone who we, the readers, know isn't a Stark at all? (Warning: this is going to be a long one.) In one of the preview chapters of Winds, we see that Jeyne has continued to lay claim to her 'Arya' identity even when released from the Boltons' captivity. The other candidates for the job, while by no means ruled out at this stage, all have a plausible reason why they might not lay claim to Winterfell. Arya herself is in the process of abandoning her own identity; Sansa may never feel it's safe to drop the 'Alayne Stone' persona; Bran's up in the far, far north, surrounded by hostile Others, and seems unlikely to return south of the Wall even if he survives Winds and Dream; Rickon's likely to have gone half-feral after spending so long on an island of cannibals and sharing his mind with a wolf throughout his formative years; and Jon is dead, a bastard at any rate, and likely to have more important prophecy-related business than sorting out the succession in Winterfell even if he comes back. Who else could identify Jeyne as a fake? Theon, but he has no reason to- in fact, he's been the number one supporter of Jeyne keeping up the pretense of being Arya, a pattern he continues in the Winds preview chapter. Lady Stoneheart could, assuming she's still mentally capable of such, but she's down in the Riverlands and unlikely to ever meet the girl passing herself off as her daughter. Littlefinger, Varys and Tyrion could, but none would have any objection to a fake Stark assuming it figured into their plans somehow (and, seriously, does anyone believe Littlefinger in particular is going to make it to the end of Dream?) Finally, there's Roose and Ramsay, both of whom are going to be incredibly dead by the end of the series. As cruel as GRRM is to his heroes, he does have a way of making sure his villains get their just desserts, too. Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch that none of these characters would spill the beans, but thematically it'd be perfect for the series, fitting in with the recurring message that it's not who you are that counts but who you can convince other people you are, or who other people say you are. Plus, hey, the girl could use some good luck after everything she's been through.

The series will end with three kingdoms.

The Lannisters are doomed. Sorry Tommen, but its true. The magic is coming back, and they're the only faction that has none of it on their side. They'll probably be wiped out by the end of book six to clear the board for the serious players. Dany will invade before Stannis can move South, securing King's Landing promptly. This will leave Stannis with a serious dilemma: he can legitimately say that Joffrey and Tommen had no claim to the throne, but Dany does have a valid claim. At the same time, though, I doubt he's going to lay down his armies, and as the magic comes back, Melisandre is going to gain access to increasingly kick-ass magic, and Dany will realize that, even with her dragons, she could potentially lose...around this time the Wall will come down, forcing the Night's Watch and the Wildlings into a hopeless battle against the forces of Darkness, but Stannis and Dany, determined to protect their people, abandon their own squabbling (something no other leader in the series was prepared to do) to protect the people. After the battle is over, Dany makes a propositions: technically, the North declared itself independent, but no longer has a legitimate King (all the Starks remain in hiding, or have taken the black, or just have no desire to rule)...so, she offers Stannis the North, and he promptly accepts. The Wildlings at this point have come to see the Nights Watch as their leaders, due to their valiance in battle, and Stannis proposes that the gift, and the lands that were once North of the wall be merged into a single, new kingdom, and that the position of Lord Commander and King Beyond the Wall be merged, and the Nights Watch take on the role of that kingdom's knights. Thus, Jon Snow becomes the first King of the Gift.

Ramsay Bolton will be hunted and killed by Nymeria's wolf pack.

Just think about it. This is very appropriate end for him. A perfect Karmic Death.

Dany's return to westeros will be A Big Reality Ensues.

she missed the oppurtunity to conquer, Aegon has or will gain the support and thanks to cersei noone wants a women

There'll be a diplomatic incident involving Daenerys and "The bear and the maiden fair"

Everybody in Westeros seems to be constantly singing it, but Dany didn't grow up there. So when she hears the lyrics for the first time, she'll take them to be about Ser Jorah and herself - cue interesting insights into a paranoid queen.

The Drowned God and the Storm God were the original deities of he First Men

Ironborn religious doctrine teaches that the Drowned God led their ancestors to find the Sea Stone Chair. Implying that they had been worshiping him or a being like him proceeding their settling on the Iron Islands. Thus, it may be possible that the First Men who came from Essos did in fact worship him before they discarded him in favour of the Children of the Forest. But the First Men are said to come from Essos, and within the series the similarities between the Drowned God and R'hilor are remarked upon as uncanny. Therefore, it can be further extrapolated that the Drowned God and the Storm God are merely mutations of the R'hilor and the Great Other respectively, changed as Ironborn's culture began to emphasize sea-born raiding.

  • There are hints at all sorts of gods the First Men may have had before converting to "the old gods" of the children of the forest (the ancient story of the first Storm King says he took a daughter of "the gods" as a wife, and went to war with them, which implies numerous, anthropomorphic gods, at least some of whom have powers over the weather). Either they had multiple religions, or it was a polytheistic/henotheistic religion with a whole pantheon of gods.

Gunpowder Is Coming

Somewhere between The Winds of Winter and The Dream of Spring one of the maesters will design stable, wildfire-based compound with explosive capabilities. At first, it'll be overlooked, but invention of firearms will be just a matter of time. Using Valyrian steel for barrels shall make them lighter and stronger than in our world, while obsidian shells in particular will prove useful against the Walkers pouring from the North. Citadel will establish a powerful presence on the Reach, incorporating the remaining Pyromancers and maybe wiping out the Hightowers For Science!. The fall of knighthood will be imminent... but Westeros, having this new power at their disposal, will survive.

  • Perhaps Sam will take part in it, further cementing his 'Slayer' title.
  • As a Crowning Moment of Awesome mixed with Tear Jerker, imagine a dragon being killed with cannon fire. Cue Daenerys' lament and the words: "Fire nowadays can kill a dragon. They have taught it".

Melisandre really is as good as she sees herself.

Her morally ambiguous acts are done out of desperation. Consider her situation: she knows that the Others are returning, and will destroy humanity if not stopped, but no one, or almost no one, is listening to her. She needs Westeros to be united to stand against the Others, or everyone will die, and the whole world will be shrouded in eternal cold and darkness, but the rulers of Westeros would prefer to fight for power amongst themselves instead, wasting the military forces that ought to be used to defend against the Others. The only figure in Westerosi politics over whom she has any influence is Stannis, so she needs to put Stannis firmly in power on the throne in order to get Westeros mobilized against the real threat. What are her other options? What would you do in her shoes?

Robert did not abuse Cersei.

He cheated on her, obviously, but other than hitting her the one time in Ned's presence, when he himself said that that "was not kingly," he did not beat her or force himself on her. Cersei made that up to justify her own actions, and to play on Ned's doubts about what Robert had become. Who knows? She might even have been lying about Robert having whispered Lyanna's name on their wedding night. After all, why should we believe anything she says? She's clearly a sadistic sociopath, and probably always was one: it is very likely that she murdered Melara Hetherspoon.

  • She mentions him beating and raping her in her POV in AFFC, and characters generally don't lie to themselves in their POV chapters/people don't lie to themselves in their thoughts. Just because Cersei is a sociopath doesn't mean Robert isn't a wife beater and rapist.
    • People lie to themselves in their thoughts all the time, especially when it comes to justifying their own bad behavior. Why should we assume that the characters are being totally honest with themselves in their own thoughts/PoV chapters? It's true that Cersei could be a sociopath and Robert could be an abuser and a rapist, but why should we just take Cersei's word on it?

Robert knew, at least subconsciously, that Cersei's children were not his.

Ned recollects that Robert was often quite affectionate toward his bastard children: when they were fostered together in the Vale, Ned would go with Robert to visit one of Robert's mistresses so that Robert could play with his bastard daughter, the infant Mya Stone, long after Robert had lost erotic interest in the mother. Yet Robert seems to have had no interest in Cersei's children. He would go hunting when she was in labor, and otherwise seems to have taken little or no interest in their upbringing. Maybe he knew, on some level, that they weren't his, and that was why he had no interest in them. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it to himself.

  • Playing with children is a very different thing to attending their birth. Robert's treatment of his children is just like his rulership of the realm -- he's happy to be there for the fun and games, but he's not going to change any dirty nappies. As for why he preferred his bastard children to his wife's, you may be right about him knowing subconsciously. On the other hand, he may have just seen it as them having more of him in them, whereas the kids at home reminded him more of their mother, whom he hated (or he might have suspected the former deep down, but reassured himself with the latter). And finally, bastard children and a mistress could be a kind of spare family unit with none of the resentment and responsibility of his marriage.

The series will end with the formation of new Seven Kingdoms

1. Dany will decide that the east is her home and won't return to Westeros. She will be The Queen in the East. However, wanting to prevent further war in Westeros, she will ask them to establish six other kingdoms. Tyrion will be the one bringing her message to Westeros. 2. Stannis will admit that Dany's claim is stronger than his and agree to rule Baratheon lands. 3. Bran will rebuild Winterfell and become The King in The North. 4. Bronn will be the fourth king because he seems to be good at gaining more power. He will make peace with Tyrion, who will be his Hand. 5. Littlefinger will be the fifth king because he can. 6. The sixth king will be The King beyond the Wall. 7. I'm not sure who number 7 will be, but Asha Greyjoy seems like a likely candidate.

The series will end with a Distant Epilogue, featuring life in a modern-day King's Landing.

1000 years after the epic tale, we'll see that almost everything built up by our protagonists was either broken down or made moot. Dragons are fully domesticated, and have been bred into fat, stupid animals akin to turkeys. Magic is used so extensively, it more or less replaces modern technology. The Others are now classified as an endangered species, and their ways are fully understood. The Old and New Gods have given way to Rh'llor, but a much more mellow and secular version of the worship we're seeing now. The Faceless Men, Nights' Watch, Brotherhood Without Banners, and other such groups have been demolished or faded away (save for the Brotherhood, which is now more or less a men's club). The wildlings have faded away (perhaps, save for small reservations?), and the great families have all lost their meaning. Winter and summer can be accurately predicted, or even controlled. Airships sail back and forth across the Wall, and the glorious Red Keep is a weathered ruin upon a hill, only kept as a small museum, in which an extremly fractured version of the story is related to bored museum-goers.

  • Why would the museum-goers be bored? The story would probably still be pretty interesting even in fractured form. Besides which, why would people who find the story boring go to the museum? Wouldn't the museum-goers self-select for those who find the story interesting?

Stannis will gain the throne without further fighting.

It will be revealed that Stannis defeated the Boltons at Winterfell at the end of Dance with Dragons, so the North will proceed to rally around Stannis. Stannis will then march south to fight for the throne, only to learn that Tommen had already died. After all, the valonqar prophecy holds that Cersei's children will all predecease her. Tommen, of course, has no children, and no younger brothers. As such, there would no longer be a Lannister claimant for the throne. The South will bend the knee to Stannis simply because there won't be anyone else left to contest his claim.

  1. ↑ assuming Westerosi marriage law has a similar family-based aspect to our world's medieval laws, which it does seem to given the whole exchanging the bridecloak thing
  2. ↑ Point of interest: even if she hadn't already been in labor, the biggest risk (assuming roughly similar size and no claws/other sharp bits) would have been her immune system attacking it, which would make her very miserable but leave her basically fine once it was expelled
  3. ↑ assuming it's not the mid-21st c. by the time GRRM finishes
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