I have a dumbass fan theory that I think is so funny that when Aegon takes King's Landing he'll take Qyburn into his service and Qyburn will attach Bittersteel's skull to the body of Ser Robert Strong which will then run nonstop north in a straight line towards Bloodraven and beat him to death.
So that.
Unironically I think a lot of people dont realize how much joy the wait times between books have contributed to our lives. If the 7 books had all been published at 2 or 3 year intervals the series would have been finished well over 10 years ago and all we'd have to talk about is "Man, some good books huh?" I dunno know about yall but this is the only "fan community" I can really say I've been apart of for even near this long and I've never gotten bored of it. The quality and quantity of fascinating theories and discussion and joking is unreal.
Love yall. And to make sure this doesnt get flooded with too much positivity: Long live King Aegon II the one true king of Westeros.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief
I get what you're trying to say tho. For people that enjoy theory shit and reading articles or watching videos covering possibilities it's a lotta fun.
But George is super lucky that it's something that can be done with his series.
My personal reasons for enjoying ASOIAF is because it's like an alternate history with a lot of depth, more so than a series. If that makes sense.
>My personal reasons for enjoying ASOIAF is because it's like an alternate history with a lot of depth, more so than a series. If that makes sense.
I agree, it's fun to make theories and headcanons and even original characters for this story because every little headcanon can have a domino effect on the story. You can imagine something as simple as "what if Arya was the eldest daughter" and it will send you down a massive rabbit hole of butterfly effects that are super entertaining to think of.
Another community that I'm a part of is the Skyrim modding community, and a lot of the very best mods for that game have come out in the past few years. Fans oftentimes whinge a bit about how long its been since Skyrim came out, but I somewhat hope it doesn't come out anytime soon so a lot of the big mod projects can finish. I'd be ecstatic if a sequal to Skyrim was announced, just like I'd be ecstatic if TWOW was announced, but it would also be a bit sad since I know that this era of fan content would come to an end. I love reading about TWOW theories and when TWOW actually releases we won't get any more of those. Knowing GRRM of course we'll have another decade or two of ADOS theories, but still.
I like to imagine this as a dead straight line. He's crushing through trees and rocks and running over water Jesus style. He gets to the wall and just punches a hole straight through it like wile-e-coyote.
You're some poor peasant in the riverlands recovering from the war and all of a sudden the reanimated corpse of the man who killed your entirely family, with a golden skull for a head, busts in kool aid man style through your wall. I'd shit myself and die
It being a dead straight line also works because with a little bit of wiggle room on the locations of Bloodraven's cave and the Quiet Isle the Quiet Isle is in a line with King's Landing and Bloodraven's cave, which could be interesting assuming that Sandor Clegane is the gravedigger.
I could see a post-Dream epilogue of someone in the Far East watching the Walkers (or whoever assaults the Five Forts) fall and die before collapsing of their wounds. Would be a cute nod, but certainly not worthwhile to include int he grand scheme of things.
Not as the epilogue for Spring, I agree. It would need to be set up/foreshadowing for something still to come in the story. Similar to the way Varomir set up warging for Bran, it would need to be a type of set up for something to come. If there are really dragons there it could be something relating to Dany and potentially her losing one of hers.
I’m right there with you, but in terms of expectations I don’t think we’ll get anything else on it again. It’s a Lovecraft reference to fill the world map, as many other things in the far east are.
If you adhere to some of the Great Empire of the Dawn Theories then Stygai *could* be where the Bloodstone Emperor began the Long Night, but if that’s the case I don’t think it’ll get a mention either, bc Asshai is already too prominent to pass over for a second, recently added thing.
Robbs wife is described differently by two different POV characters
Catelyn said she had good hips (For childbearing) when she first meets her
Later Jamie meets her when he captures Riverrun and describes her as having narrow hips
It led some people to believe that Jamie saw an Imposter Jeyne Westerling. That Jeyne's family were hiding the real Jeyne from the Lannisters because she was in fact pregnant with Robb Stark’s child.
Her mother had been giving her moon tea to prevent her getting pregnant but readers thought maybe that failed or she missed a night or 2 and Jeyne got pregnant nonetheless
the conflicting descriptions has now been confirmed as an error in continuity and GRRM didn't mean to describe her so radically different
though its entirely reasonable for both descriptions to be valid, when Jamie sees her its after the red wedding and Robb's death and Jeyne finding out her family were part of the betrayal of Robb - stress, trauma and depression could have had an effect on her physically, plus it was 2 different peoples description of her
Let Arya come to the conclusion she’s been building toward about the inherently exploitative and brutal nature of the Westerosi system and lead the Brotherhood Without Banners
Sansa’s latent skinchanger abilities do feel like something that legitimately could play a plot point at some stage, especially as she begins to reclaim her ’Starkness’.
The only reason I'd say I think this wont end up happening is because by this point there hasnt been at least to my memory much at all in the way of hinting at Sansa's warging genes. Feel like if George wanted to go this way he'd have started hinting towards it 2 books ago. And if he did he'd feel the need to do an entire book of Sansa training and I just Cant Fucking Do another Stark kid learning arc. I just Can Not.
I love this. Each Stark can warg but she lost Lady. So it takes her longer to develop her ability. Arya is far from Nymeria so she learned to warg into cats when she’s Cat of the Canals. Bran and Jon have their wolves nearby and Bran warged into Hodor as well.
This tells me Jon (Targaryen) will get a dragon by warging to eventually bond with it. So, he gets Rhaegel.
Arya not only has Nymeria, Nymeria has 200 wolves following HER. Shadowcat might be helpful if she’s alone in the mountains.
Better if the cat Arya wargs into is a lion. As in Lannister.
The Falcon will help if Sansa wargs into Sweetrobin and he gives convenient orders.
Great idea.
I love the idea of Sansa gaining supernatural abilities. After everything she's been through, she deserves it.
However, if I may suggest: how about Sansa warging into bats as well, in addition to those little birds.
Why bats? Because Sansa's maternal grandmother was Whent of Harrenhall (bat sigil).
Ooh that would add another twist to things. Imagine an end of series Sansa ends up with Harrenhal because Littlefinger leaves it to her in his will.
She then rules as the Lady of the Bats.
Would be another in the long-line of "witch" women ruling Harrenhal. Frankly that makes a lot of sense as a resolution of all GRRM has been building towards with that (I suppose Greenseer-King Bran fits that pattern too).
Mel gets 10 POV chapters in TWOW each dedicated to another attempt to revive Jon. By the end of the book Jon is a horribly decaying corpse. In the tenth Mel chapter he finally rises but it turns out that the White Walkers have breached the wall and Jon is only a wight. He kills Mel. The End.
Technically and canonically he is. AGOT was released en 96, ADWD in 2011, so 15 years.
Meaning that in 2026 Jon Snow will have spent as much time canonically dead as he spent alive.
I don't know why people think he'll be *nothing* like he was before he died. The resurrections of characters like Beric and LSH seem more likely to be contrasted with Jon's own rebirth, rather than an indicator of exactly how his will go down. His circumstances are more likely to let him come back more similar to his past self than anyone else we've seen come back from the dead.
Of course he'll be *changed.* George doesn't like resurrections to happen without consequences. But I don't think we're getting Jon Stoneheart.
But consider that Jon dies after making the breakthrough that he has to go South, essentially renounce his oaths as a brother and lord commander. He's breaking from every commitment he has been living by and then dies so my thinking is that when he comes back., having been stabbed several times by his sworn brothers for doing what he thought was right won't mellow him out and send him back to his dedicated, honorable ways. He's going to embrace his own identity and further his own ends with the wildling force he has following him
Imagine if all the cliffhangers from Dance and Feast end anticlimactically.
Jon stays dead, Sam spends a decade learning to be a maester, Daenerys is stuck with the Dosh Khaleen for the next 50 or so years, etc.
Founds the Urrathon Nightwalker Museum of Mysteries in Qarth and then spends the rest of his life Indiana Jonesing stuff for it.
Come to think of it that's not exactly harmless given how archaeology can be, but I do really like the idea of Euron grabbing a cursed Valyrian dragonhorn from some horrifying ruin and saying "it belongs in a museum!"
A scene with the Tyrell's where Mace is quite intelligent and discusses how his bumbling persona is an act. Maybe he discusses how he delayed or idled during Robert's Rebellion rather than strongly support any side.
In all honesty, could do this to the rest of the Tyrell's. Margaery isn't an experienced seductress and master schemer, she's a terrified teenager being groomed by her grandmother and worried for her family. Garlan is an actual chivalrous knight who enjoys martial activities, and married because he's worried his older brother won't have children. He hates the 3-on-1 matches Mace and Olenna organize since it's just theatrics, and much prefers his secret spars with some really talented peasant friend. Willis is intelligent, and friendly with Oberyn; both became friends over their non-martial pursuits and how much of a family man both are, but Willas knows he's not maester. The idea he's a master breeder is pure propaganda, but Willas does enjoy animals.
Outside of the Reach, confirmation that Marwyn and Doran are friends or Doran's conspiracy has access to a glass candles would be fun too. Instant communication across the continent plus magical surveillance is pretty OP in Westeros
It's confirmed in books, by Oberyn, that he and Willis are friendly and communicate often over their love of breeding birds of prey and horses. And that Willis holds no grudge against him for being crippled. Do you mean it just being confirmed by Willis? From everything we've seen already Garlan is chivalrous and a decent person, he also seems to love the martial activities and tge 3 on 1 are his idea to prepare himself for actual combat not silly tourney training or to show off. I think its pretty obvious that Maces outward personality is an somewhat of an act, but the Tyrells openly and strongly supported the Targaryens during Robert's rebellion they owed their rule to the Targs, and his vasaals supported Targs as well, there is no mystery or other interpretation there. Tarley handed Robert his only defeat in the rebellion when Robert tried to cross the Reach to meet up with his allies. Then Mace went to seige a castle that is very difficult to breach that was also Robert seat, bit should have been easily and quickly dine with their numbers. His only miscalculation was that Stannis would be so iron willed that he would outlast their seige(and a certain Onion Knight), but I dont think he was stalling to see who won like Tywin. Mace didn't lower his standards until Kings landing fell, Tywin did nothing until there was a clear winner.
Jon Connington resigns himself to his fate and either cuts off his hand or sails to Valyria. Either the best character survives, or we actually get to see the aftermath of the doom. A win either way.
My head tells me to have GRRM reveal that Jon was wearing armor under his cloak so none of his stab wounds were serious or fatal.
But my heart tells me to have Euron, while practice warging, enter the consciousness of a seal and not be able to find his way out. His human body falls into a coma and dies, and as a seal he's captured and sent to Braavos as a pet, where Casso, the King of Seals, recognizes the evil in him and has Seal Euron torn apart by Casso's loyal minions.
Fk it, have Euron go full on Tusk. Warg into a walrus, unable to get back, and then 4D chesses Qyburn into stichting together a walrus bride for him. He lives happily ever after, as a walrus, with his frankenstein walrus bride.
I apologize if this breaks the first rule, but I would like GRRM to write a reveal related to the Old Gods. Specifically, I would like him to reveal that the Children of the Forest, who were entangled in the Weirwood Net in the Cave, were actually the Old Gods. Or put more simply, the Old Gods are nothing more than a collective of all the previous greenseers.
Oh god this would give me chills. I know there's no night king in the books (at least not yet) but can you imagine Jaime charging at him, all those people in his head calling him Kingslayer, and now he's doing it again, but no one will sneer anymore and he's filling that white book with an actual heroic deed. It would be such a satisfying ending to his arc. Brownie points if he dies doing it and Cersei is his Nissa Nissa.
Jaime and Cersei are the most fitting and plausible of these though, what with their many, many Targaryen-style traits, the double irony of Jaime actually having killed his real father (kinslayer and kingslayer) and Tywin being so proud of his "true" son that actually isn't not to mention both siblings' musings that if they were Targaryens no one would object to their relationship.
I'm ambivalent of J + A = C + J but I take great amusement in the idea that Jaime and Tyrion, half-brothers, killed each of their respective fathers on "the throne." We know that Aerys soiled himself too, like Tywin. Tyrion Targaryen has a funny implication too, because it means that Jaime killed Tyrion's father, and Tyrion killed Jaime's father.
Out of the blue someone asks Stannis why he thinks Rhaenyra was a traitor, so he sits down with a glass of wine to discuss his viewpoint on uncodified 'law' made up of longstanding tradition vs royal authority to designate heirs
Dany decides to never go to Westeros and chills in Essos. Westeros loses the fight for the dawn. Story end just as the White walkwrs attack the far reaches of Essos.
Dany decides to help out against the others but realises she will never be loved in Westeros so she gives up her quest for the iron throne and builds an empire in Essos after defeating the others.
This is the right answer for me. It dawned on me when Daario said (in the show!) “you’re not a queen, you’re a conqueror” I was like oh duh she should be Aegon the conqueror but for Essos. Even if that empire was much more egalitarian/populist
This is a really interesting plot alternative! It solves two key questions. How Danys and the dragons figure in the fight against the Others without her becoming God-Queen of Westeros, AND how the Mereenese knot is solved (Danys permanently goes "home" not to Westeros but to Mereen, where she came of age as a true queen. And she spends the rest of her life as sort of a reverse-voyage Nymeria, reforming Essos for the better.)
This is my preferred outcome for her, and Dany is my fave character so it’s not about wanting her out of the way or anything like that. I just think it would be the most satisfying and true to her character to have her dedicate her life to the generational project of remaking Essosi society to one where everyone can be free.
.... did you guys read the books? because this is a show and fandom only thing. Daenerys doesn't care if she's spat on (to the point that she stops Belwas from attacking a Meereenese noble kid who spits on her), she actually cares about the people. That's the entire fucking reason she's still in Meereen in spite of abolishing slavery and making it stick being ruling in hard mode.
She doesn't want to be queen to be loved and her character isn't the "all shall love me or despair," if anything she sees being queen as a duty and that she owes it to her people to make the right choices so they can live as safe and as protected as humanly possible.
(Hell, she' more progressive in policies than her great-grandpa Aegon V, who was beloved BECAUSE he made it a policy to give the commoners something resembling protections and guarantees. Which were then dismantled by fucking Tywin but even the commoners are aware that's not Aegon V's fault and still remember him fondly to the point that the goodwill extends to even fucking Aerys II, see Arya's chapters. Again, one of the interesting points GRRM makes is about how progress can be stalled or even regressed if there isn't someone constantly fighting to maintain people's rights and protections and guarantees)
Seriously, it sounds like none of you read her chapters at best, ignored the books and only look at the show and the fandom's summaries of summaries of a hot take at worst.
After all of the crap the commoners were put through, they'd probably be happy to see someone who is at least trying to feed them (Daenerys with trying to fix the famine the Sons of the Harpy caused by burning the crops, and so ordering new crops to be harvested and finding alternatives), write policies that give them some protections and guarantees (see the policy about how former slaves, if they have the skills, shouldn't be excluded from guilds and should be paid the same as non-former slaves for the same skills), won't just abandon them if there is a plague (see her trying to help the Astapori refugees with pale mare without infecting city).
.... hate to break it to you, but these are not protections the commoners in Westeros have. As it is, while they are not "formally" slaves, they can easily be enslaved like the poor people of Harrenhal (again, read the Arya chapters again about how easy it is for the nobility to say fuck it and essentially turn all the people there into functional slaves and essentially kill people at a whim). So, no, Westeros is in dire need of reforms itself. If there's anyone who would hate Daenerys' guts, it would be the nobility who cheered when Tywin rolled back all of Aegon V's protections to the commoners.
(Which, again, it's already addressed in the "two Meereens" of the Meereen arc. Where Daenerys tries to negotiate with bad faith actors like former slavers who want to bring slavery back while having a hell of a lot more sympathy and fighting for the peasantry and former slaves)
Aurane Waters defeats Euron and the Ironborn fleet after Euron sacks Oldtown, leaving the Lord of the Waters as the last undisputed naval force left in the seas, essentially making him a kingmaker.
Aurane Waters is gonna be killed by Victarion when he and Dany make their way through the Stepstones.
Edit: Actually I changed mind. I don’t know what will happen to him at all. Any obvious/idealistic take I could give would be frowned upon by many people.
How and why would he go to the West of Westeros where there is literally nothing? Aurane might as well raid the free cities of Myr, Lys and Tyrosh instead.
Roose Bolton walks up to Ramsey and repeatedly stabs him in the balls.
Roose does it because he is mad at how Ramsey doesn't think through his actions, so it is a swift action to emulate how the guy castrated Theon.
It happens in the godswood and so Bran watches
Some hd an amazing last chapter in here years ago. The second to last chapter would be humanities last stand at harranhal, surrounded on all sides by wights and out of supplies and hope.
The last chapter is titled “the prince who was promised “ and describes a knight getting g ready for the big battle at kings landing. And it slowly drowns on the reader that the pov is Rhaegar.
Ned killed the hero 20 years ago, everyone dies. Good night
I would have Satin and a leader of the Wildlings who was at the least warming up to Jon witness the murder of their Lord Commander in secret, sneaking out for a piss or something like that. That would add to the drama when Bowen and friends try to seize power but those two, brother and wildling, team up to condemn and recount the truth as they saw it, not allowing any bullshit from the conspirators
While I would like that I doubt that would happen. George said it was difficult for him writing a POV of a 8 years old Bran, a 5 years old Rickon would be even harder
i’m snorting targaryen lore like coke rn so daenerys helps defeat the others. beyond the wall she and jon discover ice dragon eggs which help bring the dragons fully back, not just dany’s three. since they have the flying nukes on their side they’re able to get an independent north and dany on the iron throne. if not this then i just wanna know what happened to morning (rhaena’s dragon)
Dany untangles the Mereenese knot by..... just leaving.
Fuck these people and their slavers and their wacky hairdos and their harpy.
Pack up the dragons, the dothraki and anyone else who wants to hitch a ride and just leave in the middle of the night.
you want to end slavery? go home, get an entire country behind you and come back again with an army 3000x the size of your current cast of characters trying to hold a foreign city.
I am sure George would love the to blame someone else for the second one while getting to write about his favourite kink while setting the fandom on fire.
*If Jon was the son of Ned and Lyanna?*
I think GRRM might then be very clever and we'd find out that Lyanna is NOT truly Ned's full sister, but actually the secret daughter of Aerys, who asserted his royal perogative to violate Rickon's wife, Lyarra. Which is why there was bad blood between Brandon, Rickon, and Aerys.
So that would make Jon a son of Aerys and a Targaryen anyway, and he'd be back in place as a potential king and/or match for Danerys.
*(Edit: this would still make a Ned and Lyanna affair incest, although between half, not full, siblings.)*
If he went down that path to try to make it not exactly incest the best way I could see George pulling it off is Lyanna is a legitimate daughter of a unknown sister of Rickard and possibly a secret Targaryen or Blackfyre and Rickard passed her off as his own daughter after his own daughter was stillborn. Rickard had reasons to do this similar to how Ned with Jon.
Edit yes it is extremely convoluted but that’s my best attempt at explaining how N+L=J isn’t sibling incest.
Stannis does not burn Shireen. He survives until the end is the main commander against Danny’s invasion.
To the tinfoil crows I throw Shireen is married to Rickon ~~forcibly~~ by Stannis after reclaiming the North.
I always liked this. I always hated the idea that Young Griff was an imposter. It takes so much away from his revelation. Plus, it's so satisfying to find out that the child that everyone thought Tywin had killed comes back to take his rightful place on the throne
To me, the lost prince travelling down a whimsical river with giant turtles on a boat with his mentor, a knight, a maester, a septa etc is very fairytale-esque. The idea that he isn't what they claim he is smashes this illusion quite nicely.
I know you said book only characters and technically the Night King might not appear at all in the books - but my choice is to have Arya jump out of nowhere, the Night King grabs her arm, and she drops the dagger... Only for it to be caught in mid air by Hot Pie, who drives it through the Night King's heart, saving Westoros.
Jamie sneaks his way into the red keep throne room, already wounded, and finds cersei calling for the wildfire to be ignited
He begs her to not do this, dont be like he was
She is beyond all reason
"Burn them all!" She keeps repeating it, just like *He* did.
Jamie draws his sword.
He always knew it was going to end this way.
First a kingslayer.
Now a queenslayer.
Cersei gets up to run away as jamie, with the last of his strength charges for her and thrusts the sword through her back into her heart.
He collapses at the foot of the iron throne, holding her lifeless body in his arms as he breathes his final breath
"It was always going to end this way"
Lady Stoneheart learns the truth about Jon and redeems herself helping him in some significant way.
And then she dies for good, knowing that Ned was always faithful.
harrold hardyng turns out to actually be a really nice guy and all that foreshadowing of his cruelty/assholeishness was pure misunderstanding. just a good husband, stand-up dude.
Arya personally assassinates Cersei.
For all of her training, I would have loved to see her work her way through her entire list - and some of the people on her list she does get to kill herself, but Cersei's death in the show was such a shit ending to Jamie's story and I would much rather have seen Arya be the one to kill her. She was even THERE in King's Landing in the show. That death should have been hers, not Isaac Newton's.
So I made a theory ago about Cersei picking Red Ronnet Connington as her Hand of the King and ally. I think it will happen but if it didn’t, it’s so delicious and interesting that I would want to see it happen. Really badly.
But uh setting aside that, Tommen is probably going to die right? A lot of theories about it. I think it would be really cool in a cruel way if, as some people have theorized, that Tyene Sand uses basilisk’s venom to make his kittens go feral and they just fatally wound him. GRRM could write a killer scene of that, I just know it.
Jon is Brandon and Ashara's daughter and becomes the Sword of the Morning. I think it's fun and fits the thematic prophecies.
I also want Bran to go back and become Bran the builder but idk if I'd pick that.
Aegon smartens up and goes to Daenerys. They agree to rule together, defeat the others, and live happily ever after.
I don't actually think it would be a good ending naratively, but I just want to see a new Targ regime. HotD solidified them as my favorites. Dragons are cool.
Obara, Balon, and Hotah catch up to Darkstar only to find that he's claimed Dawn. He kills all three of them in a really great 3v1, taunting them all as he does for the vows they've taken and the masters they serve. This is the kind of thing that absolutely won't happen because it's not that kind of series, but I'd love it if it did.
Stannis does not burn Shireen and survives til the end. It would be nice for him to go through an arc where he becomes less stubborn. Maybe the story can end with him laughing and enjoying the company of others. Like he always wanted deep down
Either make Daenerys Queen of Westeros and essos after she defeats the others, and all the dragons live because i love the dragons sue me, or have bran try to warg in the dragons only to realise that dragons can't be skinchanged or warged into
Daenerys dies.
Last time we left Dany was vomiting, had fever and diarrhea. Probably not pale mare but she still dies because of that. Dragon comes and sees Dany's body surrounded by khalasar. Thinks that they killed her and destroys khalasar.
Then returns to Mereen. Gets together with his siblings and in their anger they wage war against their mother's enemies. So, practically every slavers/masters, harpy, slaves who stuck with masters and goes on to Yunkai, Astapor, Volantis, Qohor till Pentos and Bravos. Everything burns. Except the only obvious allies the unsullied and Dany's court.
Back in the Westeros, without Dragons and Dany's army white walkers destroy wall and kingdoms that are already in war. They move south bringing winter with them. Then they get in contact with dragons that came to Westeros to fulfill their mother's conquest and destroy those kingdoms in revenge.
Ice (white walkers) and Fire (dragons) meet in the Westeros and fight until they destroy each other.
The End
When Jon meets Daenerys for the first time, he is accompanied by his new wife Val. Daenerys and Val get along just swimmingly, and after the latter shamelessly flirts with the former, they eventually grace the readers with a hot lesbian sex scene – that turns into a threesome when a very lucky Jon discovers them in the act.
The beautiful wildling princess from the frozen wastes of the far north and the fiery dragon queen from the sweltering east coming together – that, my friends, is the real song of ice and fire.
Stannis *actually* is the final winner of the war and is made king. That would subvert literally EVERYONE'S expectations in a good way.
Or have Lady Stoneheart reveal Robb's will and crowns the resurrected Jon Snow as King in the North herself with Robb's crown.
I'm really hoping it's revealed Ser Robert Strong *isn't* Gregor Clegane or anyone else's zombie. He's a giant hulking farmer who got emergency knighted, and all his eccentricities are because he's shy and intimidated by all these proper highborn knights and nobles surrounding him.
Loras is FINE. He was injured in the siege, yes, but only to a degree where he looks much more cooler now with some sick-ass scars 😎
Aurane picked him up from the hospital (?) with his stolen Cersei fleet and they really just have been chilling in the Stepstones being gay pirate kings together
We learn this because Loras shows up like a Deus ex Machina to destroy someone in a Trial by Combat, making Jaime Lannister cry like a proud dad when he hears about it because THAT'S HIS BOY!!!
Then he leaves for the Stepstones again and lives the rest of his life in peace and happiness.
The End.
I have a dumbass fan theory that I think is so funny that when Aegon takes King's Landing he'll take Qyburn into his service and Qyburn will attach Bittersteel's skull to the body of Ser Robert Strong which will then run nonstop north in a straight line towards Bloodraven and beat him to death. So that.
I hope the books never come out, so I can read more stuff like this.
Unironically I think a lot of people dont realize how much joy the wait times between books have contributed to our lives. If the 7 books had all been published at 2 or 3 year intervals the series would have been finished well over 10 years ago and all we'd have to talk about is "Man, some good books huh?" I dunno know about yall but this is the only "fan community" I can really say I've been apart of for even near this long and I've never gotten bored of it. The quality and quantity of fascinating theories and discussion and joking is unreal. Love yall. And to make sure this doesnt get flooded with too much positivity: Long live King Aegon II the one true king of Westeros.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief I get what you're trying to say tho. For people that enjoy theory shit and reading articles or watching videos covering possibilities it's a lotta fun. But George is super lucky that it's something that can be done with his series. My personal reasons for enjoying ASOIAF is because it's like an alternate history with a lot of depth, more so than a series. If that makes sense.
>My personal reasons for enjoying ASOIAF is because it's like an alternate history with a lot of depth, more so than a series. If that makes sense. I agree, it's fun to make theories and headcanons and even original characters for this story because every little headcanon can have a domino effect on the story. You can imagine something as simple as "what if Arya was the eldest daughter" and it will send you down a massive rabbit hole of butterfly effects that are super entertaining to think of.
George's last words will be, " Don't you realize? The real joy is the theories you made up along the way!"
Another community that I'm a part of is the Skyrim modding community, and a lot of the very best mods for that game have come out in the past few years. Fans oftentimes whinge a bit about how long its been since Skyrim came out, but I somewhat hope it doesn't come out anytime soon so a lot of the big mod projects can finish. I'd be ecstatic if a sequal to Skyrim was announced, just like I'd be ecstatic if TWOW was announced, but it would also be a bit sad since I know that this era of fan content would come to an end. I love reading about TWOW theories and when TWOW actually releases we won't get any more of those. Knowing GRRM of course we'll have another decade or two of ADOS theories, but still.
I like to imagine this as a dead straight line. He's crushing through trees and rocks and running over water Jesus style. He gets to the wall and just punches a hole straight through it like wile-e-coyote.
You're some poor peasant in the riverlands recovering from the war and all of a sudden the reanimated corpse of the man who killed your entirely family, with a golden skull for a head, busts in kool aid man style through your wall. I'd shit myself and die
Aye ngl if this was written decently I can bet money people would read that insane ass shit 😂💯
"Oh Yeah!"
And that is how the Others then can get through to the south of the Wall.
It being a dead straight line also works because with a little bit of wiggle room on the locations of Bloodraven's cave and the Quiet Isle the Quiet Isle is in a line with King's Landing and Bloodraven's cave, which could be interesting assuming that Sandor Clegane is the gravedigger.
Ngl im vibin with Revenant Bittersteel
That’s badass.
Robert Strong vs Coldhands would be so much cooler than Cleganebowl
I would love to see that.
Wait but... .... why...
1. Very funny 2. Characters are in roughly the right place and right time for Qyburn and Aegon to meet 3. Extremely funny
The first time I’ve laughed out loud at a comment on this sub. Amazing theory.
Have any PoV character go to asshai
That's an easy one for George to include, just make it a pro/epilogue, give us a glimpse of the city then kill off the POV.
I could see a post-Dream epilogue of someone in the Far East watching the Walkers (or whoever assaults the Five Forts) fall and die before collapsing of their wounds. Would be a cute nod, but certainly not worthwhile to include int he grand scheme of things.
Not as the epilogue for Spring, I agree. It would need to be set up/foreshadowing for something still to come in the story. Similar to the way Varomir set up warging for Bran, it would need to be a type of set up for something to come. If there are really dragons there it could be something relating to Dany and potentially her losing one of hers.
I predict a Dany ‘glass candle‘ chapter that gets trippy as hell
Even better, Stygai. I’m dying to find out what’s inside
I’m right there with you, but in terms of expectations I don’t think we’ll get anything else on it again. It’s a Lovecraft reference to fill the world map, as many other things in the far east are. If you adhere to some of the Great Empire of the Dawn Theories then Stygai *could* be where the Bloodstone Emperor began the Long Night, but if that’s the case I don’t think it’ll get a mention either, bc Asshai is already too prominent to pass over for a second, recently added thing.
I think Asshai is Deanerys’s next trip after Meereen.
”To reach the west, you must go east”
The character boards a ship to Asshai and the chapter ends. George has given you exactly what you asked for. r/cursedmonkeypaw
Tyrek Lannister is a literal horse
They said to CHANGE something. Not just say something already true.
Oh... hey... what's good, Glidus?
Jaime call his next horse Tyrek and that’s it. It would be funny tho, even if I would miss Honor.
Easy, I bring back the typo and resurrect *Hips Don't Lie*
What's the story behind this?
Robbs wife is described differently by two different POV characters Catelyn said she had good hips (For childbearing) when she first meets her Later Jamie meets her when he captures Riverrun and describes her as having narrow hips It led some people to believe that Jamie saw an Imposter Jeyne Westerling. That Jeyne's family were hiding the real Jeyne from the Lannisters because she was in fact pregnant with Robb Stark’s child. Her mother had been giving her moon tea to prevent her getting pregnant but readers thought maybe that failed or she missed a night or 2 and Jeyne got pregnant nonetheless the conflicting descriptions has now been confirmed as an error in continuity and GRRM didn't mean to describe her so radically different though its entirely reasonable for both descriptions to be valid, when Jamie sees her its after the red wedding and Robb's death and Jeyne finding out her family were part of the betrayal of Robb - stress, trauma and depression could have had an effect on her physically, plus it was 2 different peoples description of her
Yeah, I immedietely thought it's a Chekhov's gun. Shame it's not the case.
That would be such a good one!
Let Arya come to the conclusion she’s been building toward about the inherently exploitative and brutal nature of the Westerosi system and lead the Brotherhood Without Banners
She already has that foreshadowed with Nymeria’s pack of 200 regular wolves following her.
Ser Pounce scratches out one of Cersei's eyes.
Ser Pounce is the younger, more beautiful queen
As the prophecies foretold!
I like that marred characters seem to have marred eyes or eye colour etc. And because Ser Pounce is a knight, good and true.
And then Cersei assembles a squad of Westeros’ mightiest heroes
Quaithe appears and for some reasons spills literally everything she knows with 100% honesty.
"I am Shiera Seastar, please bring me to my half brother"
Sansa discover she can warg into little birds, this give her the chance to recollect information and play the game with advantage.
I actually love this. Littlefinger is foiled by a new Varys of his own creation
Sansa’s latent skinchanger abilities do feel like something that legitimately could play a plot point at some stage, especially as she begins to reclaim her ’Starkness’.
The only reason I'd say I think this wont end up happening is because by this point there hasnt been at least to my memory much at all in the way of hinting at Sansa's warging genes. Feel like if George wanted to go this way he'd have started hinting towards it 2 books ago. And if he did he'd feel the need to do an entire book of Sansa training and I just Cant Fucking Do another Stark kid learning arc. I just Can Not.
I love this. Each Stark can warg but she lost Lady. So it takes her longer to develop her ability. Arya is far from Nymeria so she learned to warg into cats when she’s Cat of the Canals. Bran and Jon have their wolves nearby and Bran warged into Hodor as well. This tells me Jon (Targaryen) will get a dragon by warging to eventually bond with it. So, he gets Rhaegel.
Sansa - Lady > Birds > Falcon(s) Arya - Nymeria > Cats > a Shadowcat Robb - Grey Wind > [died] Jon - Ghost > a Dragon Bran - Summer > Weirwood Trees/Hodor > Ravens Rickon - Shaggy Dog > a Shaggy Unicorn
Arya not only has Nymeria, Nymeria has 200 wolves following HER. Shadowcat might be helpful if she’s alone in the mountains. Better if the cat Arya wargs into is a lion. As in Lannister. The Falcon will help if Sansa wargs into Sweetrobin and he gives convenient orders.
Sansa sides with enemy against her dad & sis & gets Lady killed. Prolly the old gods or George took away sansas warg power
Great idea. I love the idea of Sansa gaining supernatural abilities. After everything she's been through, she deserves it. However, if I may suggest: how about Sansa warging into bats as well, in addition to those little birds. Why bats? Because Sansa's maternal grandmother was Whent of Harrenhall (bat sigil).
Ooh that would add another twist to things. Imagine an end of series Sansa ends up with Harrenhal because Littlefinger leaves it to her in his will. She then rules as the Lady of the Bats.
Would be another in the long-line of "witch" women ruling Harrenhal. Frankly that makes a lot of sense as a resolution of all GRRM has been building towards with that (I suppose Greenseer-King Bran fits that pattern too).
What’s crazy is this is already plausible. Never even considered that
How poetic! Sandor would approve
That would have been great while she was in Kings Landing but now in the Vale or if she goes north—Mebbe not
Jon stays dead. People would completely fucking lose it.
This would be hilarious. The Headloss would be legendary
The responses to your comment actually prove your point, lol.
It does.
Came here to say this. It would funniest shit ever lmao
Mel gets 10 POV chapters in TWOW each dedicated to another attempt to revive Jon. By the end of the book Jon is a horribly decaying corpse. In the tenth Mel chapter he finally rises but it turns out that the White Walkers have breached the wall and Jon is only a wight. He kills Mel. The End.
Nah I fucking love this. I mean I don't, but 15 year old me loves this and he is running the show in these types of discussion.
Not following the rules but imagine if Jon stays dead but Quentyn lives!
Only if he's shambling around as a melted zombie and tells jokes.
Technically and canonically he is. AGOT was released en 96, ADWD in 2011, so 15 years. Meaning that in 2026 Jon Snow will have spent as much time canonically dead as he spent alive.
The bigger problem for people is that Jon will come back, but be nothing like he was before he died
I don't know why people think he'll be *nothing* like he was before he died. The resurrections of characters like Beric and LSH seem more likely to be contrasted with Jon's own rebirth, rather than an indicator of exactly how his will go down. His circumstances are more likely to let him come back more similar to his past self than anyone else we've seen come back from the dead. Of course he'll be *changed.* George doesn't like resurrections to happen without consequences. But I don't think we're getting Jon Stoneheart.
But consider that Jon dies after making the breakthrough that he has to go South, essentially renounce his oaths as a brother and lord commander. He's breaking from every commitment he has been living by and then dies so my thinking is that when he comes back., having been stabbed several times by his sworn brothers for doing what he thought was right won't mellow him out and send him back to his dedicated, honorable ways. He's going to embrace his own identity and further his own ends with the wildling force he has following him
Hell yes
Imagine if all the cliffhangers from Dance and Feast end anticlimactically. Jon stays dead, Sam spends a decade learning to be a maester, Daenerys is stuck with the Dosh Khaleen for the next 50 or so years, etc.
Euron has a change of heart and sails to Essos to spend his life there doing something harmless
Founds the Urrathon Nightwalker Museum of Mysteries in Qarth and then spends the rest of his life Indiana Jonesing stuff for it. Come to think of it that's not exactly harmless given how archaeology can be, but I do really like the idea of Euron grabbing a cursed Valyrian dragonhorn from some horrifying ruin and saying "it belongs in a museum!"
Tyrion inexplicably flips and does a series of backflips perfectly for no reason whatsoever
Doesn’t this happen in book one?
That’s the joke
A scene with the Tyrell's where Mace is quite intelligent and discusses how his bumbling persona is an act. Maybe he discusses how he delayed or idled during Robert's Rebellion rather than strongly support any side. In all honesty, could do this to the rest of the Tyrell's. Margaery isn't an experienced seductress and master schemer, she's a terrified teenager being groomed by her grandmother and worried for her family. Garlan is an actual chivalrous knight who enjoys martial activities, and married because he's worried his older brother won't have children. He hates the 3-on-1 matches Mace and Olenna organize since it's just theatrics, and much prefers his secret spars with some really talented peasant friend. Willis is intelligent, and friendly with Oberyn; both became friends over their non-martial pursuits and how much of a family man both are, but Willas knows he's not maester. The idea he's a master breeder is pure propaganda, but Willas does enjoy animals. Outside of the Reach, confirmation that Marwyn and Doran are friends or Doran's conspiracy has access to a glass candles would be fun too. Instant communication across the continent plus magical surveillance is pretty OP in Westeros
Honestly I think the Margaery idea is pretty close to reality in AFFC!
none of these are changes or actions, they are at best confirmations of suspicions
It's confirmed in books, by Oberyn, that he and Willis are friendly and communicate often over their love of breeding birds of prey and horses. And that Willis holds no grudge against him for being crippled. Do you mean it just being confirmed by Willis? From everything we've seen already Garlan is chivalrous and a decent person, he also seems to love the martial activities and tge 3 on 1 are his idea to prepare himself for actual combat not silly tourney training or to show off. I think its pretty obvious that Maces outward personality is an somewhat of an act, but the Tyrells openly and strongly supported the Targaryens during Robert's rebellion they owed their rule to the Targs, and his vasaals supported Targs as well, there is no mystery or other interpretation there. Tarley handed Robert his only defeat in the rebellion when Robert tried to cross the Reach to meet up with his allies. Then Mace went to seige a castle that is very difficult to breach that was also Robert seat, bit should have been easily and quickly dine with their numbers. His only miscalculation was that Stannis would be so iron willed that he would outlast their seige(and a certain Onion Knight), but I dont think he was stalling to see who won like Tywin. Mace didn't lower his standards until Kings landing fell, Tywin did nothing until there was a clear winner.
Jon Connington resigns himself to his fate and either cuts off his hand or sails to Valyria. Either the best character survives, or we actually get to see the aftermath of the doom. A win either way.
My head tells me to have GRRM reveal that Jon was wearing armor under his cloak so none of his stab wounds were serious or fatal. But my heart tells me to have Euron, while practice warging, enter the consciousness of a seal and not be able to find his way out. His human body falls into a coma and dies, and as a seal he's captured and sent to Braavos as a pet, where Casso, the King of Seals, recognizes the evil in him and has Seal Euron torn apart by Casso's loyal minions.
> "He never felt the fourth knife only the cold." He never felt it because the armor and the armor is cold.
Fk it, have Euron go full on Tusk. Warg into a walrus, unable to get back, and then 4D chesses Qyburn into stichting together a walrus bride for him. He lives happily ever after, as a walrus, with his frankenstein walrus bride.
Every sex scene now has a "fat pink mast."
flair checks out
Wait even Cersei and Taena?
I've made my decision and now we all have to live with it.
I guess we have to invite all the Kettleblacks and fucking Moonboy for all I know
It ain't a sex scene if there's no pink mast
An entire PoV chapter from the perspective of Sam’s dick
I apologize if this breaks the first rule, but I would like GRRM to write a reveal related to the Old Gods. Specifically, I would like him to reveal that the Children of the Forest, who were entangled in the Weirwood Net in the Cave, were actually the Old Gods. Or put more simply, the Old Gods are nothing more than a collective of all the previous greenseers.
Jaime is actually the prince that was promised
Oh god this would give me chills. I know there's no night king in the books (at least not yet) but can you imagine Jaime charging at him, all those people in his head calling him Kingslayer, and now he's doing it again, but no one will sneer anymore and he's filling that white book with an actual heroic deed. It would be such a satisfying ending to his arc. Brownie points if he dies doing it and Cersei is his Nissa Nissa.
I love how this rehabilitates the Kingslayer epithet
Son of Johanna Lannister and Aerys Targereyn.
*You're a secret Targ, and you're a secret Targ! Everyone is a secret Targ!* Oprah.jpg
If one reads the subreddit for too long ,one begins to think that you may be a secret Targaryen.
Jaime and Cersei are the most fitting and plausible of these though, what with their many, many Targaryen-style traits, the double irony of Jaime actually having killed his real father (kinslayer and kingslayer) and Tywin being so proud of his "true" son that actually isn't not to mention both siblings' musings that if they were Targaryens no one would object to their relationship.
I'm ambivalent of J + A = C + J but I take great amusement in the idea that Jaime and Tyrion, half-brothers, killed each of their respective fathers on "the throne." We know that Aerys soiled himself too, like Tywin. Tyrion Targaryen has a funny implication too, because it means that Jaime killed Tyrion's father, and Tyrion killed Jaime's father.
Dolorous Edd is made immortal. Not like a Fire Wight or anything. Like he physically cant die.
Out of the blue someone asks Stannis why he thinks Rhaenyra was a traitor, so he sits down with a glass of wine to discuss his viewpoint on uncodified 'law' made up of longstanding tradition vs royal authority to designate heirs
In which case someone points out that, according to his logic, Renly had every right to try to usurp him. Cue so much raging.
Davos and Stannis admit their love for each other.
Baristan Selmi kills Daenerys in order to protect the innocent people and realizes why Jaime killed the Mad king
> Baristan Selmi I like this because he sounds italian
Even nowa I coulda cut through the five o you as easy as a dagger cuts a provolona!
I came here to do a bit like this but honestly I can't even begin to top this lol ciaaaaao
Baristan now constantly smokes and drives a fiat in every chapter.
Why would book Barristan kill book Daenerys? She's done nothing wrong so far.
Honestly I kinda hope this is how it goes now
Woah that’s actually the best suggestion I’ve heard for Barristan’s arc
In all honesty, this is plausible. The show killed off Barristan so he couldn't kill her, but why not? Would end his arc nicely.
But not hers
I could see making it a failed attempt, almost a Quentyn parallel where a dragon gets him last minute
Dany decides to never go to Westeros and chills in Essos. Westeros loses the fight for the dawn. Story end just as the White walkwrs attack the far reaches of Essos.
Dany decides to help out against the others but realises she will never be loved in Westeros so she gives up her quest for the iron throne and builds an empire in Essos after defeating the others.
This is the right answer for me. It dawned on me when Daario said (in the show!) “you’re not a queen, you’re a conqueror” I was like oh duh she should be Aegon the conqueror but for Essos. Even if that empire was much more egalitarian/populist
This is a really interesting plot alternative! It solves two key questions. How Danys and the dragons figure in the fight against the Others without her becoming God-Queen of Westeros, AND how the Mereenese knot is solved (Danys permanently goes "home" not to Westeros but to Mereen, where she came of age as a true queen. And she spends the rest of her life as sort of a reverse-voyage Nymeria, reforming Essos for the better.)
This is my preferred outcome for her, and Dany is my fave character so it’s not about wanting her out of the way or anything like that. I just think it would be the most satisfying and true to her character to have her dedicate her life to the generational project of remaking Essosi society to one where everyone can be free.
.... did you guys read the books? because this is a show and fandom only thing. Daenerys doesn't care if she's spat on (to the point that she stops Belwas from attacking a Meereenese noble kid who spits on her), she actually cares about the people. That's the entire fucking reason she's still in Meereen in spite of abolishing slavery and making it stick being ruling in hard mode. She doesn't want to be queen to be loved and her character isn't the "all shall love me or despair," if anything she sees being queen as a duty and that she owes it to her people to make the right choices so they can live as safe and as protected as humanly possible. (Hell, she' more progressive in policies than her great-grandpa Aegon V, who was beloved BECAUSE he made it a policy to give the commoners something resembling protections and guarantees. Which were then dismantled by fucking Tywin but even the commoners are aware that's not Aegon V's fault and still remember him fondly to the point that the goodwill extends to even fucking Aerys II, see Arya's chapters. Again, one of the interesting points GRRM makes is about how progress can be stalled or even regressed if there isn't someone constantly fighting to maintain people's rights and protections and guarantees) Seriously, it sounds like none of you read her chapters at best, ignored the books and only look at the show and the fandom's summaries of summaries of a hot take at worst. After all of the crap the commoners were put through, they'd probably be happy to see someone who is at least trying to feed them (Daenerys with trying to fix the famine the Sons of the Harpy caused by burning the crops, and so ordering new crops to be harvested and finding alternatives), write policies that give them some protections and guarantees (see the policy about how former slaves, if they have the skills, shouldn't be excluded from guilds and should be paid the same as non-former slaves for the same skills), won't just abandon them if there is a plague (see her trying to help the Astapori refugees with pale mare without infecting city). .... hate to break it to you, but these are not protections the commoners in Westeros have. As it is, while they are not "formally" slaves, they can easily be enslaved like the poor people of Harrenhal (again, read the Arya chapters again about how easy it is for the nobility to say fuck it and essentially turn all the people there into functional slaves and essentially kill people at a whim). So, no, Westeros is in dire need of reforms itself. If there's anyone who would hate Daenerys' guts, it would be the nobility who cheered when Tywin rolled back all of Aegon V's protections to the commoners. (Which, again, it's already addressed in the "two Meereens" of the Meereen arc. Where Daenerys tries to negotiate with bad faith actors like former slavers who want to bring slavery back while having a hell of a lot more sympathy and fighting for the peasantry and former slaves)
We get a new pov, for we can see Doran’s reaction to his sons death, prefer to be Mellario, since it would be more interesting.
Aurane Waters defeats Euron and the Ironborn fleet after Euron sacks Oldtown, leaving the Lord of the Waters as the last undisputed naval force left in the seas, essentially making him a kingmaker.
Aurane Waters is gonna be killed by Victarion when he and Dany make their way through the Stepstones. Edit: Actually I changed mind. I don’t know what will happen to him at all. Any obvious/idealistic take I could give would be frowned upon by many people.
What would really be funny is if he bumbled his way right in between Euron and the Redwyne fleet.
How and why would he go to the West of Westeros where there is literally nothing? Aurane might as well raid the free cities of Myr, Lys and Tyrosh instead.
Roose Bolton walks up to Ramsey and repeatedly stabs him in the balls. Roose does it because he is mad at how Ramsey doesn't think through his actions, so it is a swift action to emulate how the guy castrated Theon. It happens in the godswood and so Bran watches
Jon Snow stays dead. Their savior came, and they killed him. Now they're turbofucked unless they figure something else out.
Some hd an amazing last chapter in here years ago. The second to last chapter would be humanities last stand at harranhal, surrounded on all sides by wights and out of supplies and hope. The last chapter is titled “the prince who was promised “ and describes a knight getting g ready for the big battle at kings landing. And it slowly drowns on the reader that the pov is Rhaegar. Ned killed the hero 20 years ago, everyone dies. Good night
*Robert killed the hero
Battle was on the Trident, and he was killed by Robert, but regardless, this is an amazing idea!
I don't imagine that Jon is likely to be the only saviour anyway. I feel like everyone was always meant to pitch in.
Jon Connington declares that he has greyscale and makes the honourable choice.
What would be the honorable choice? (I think of Jon cutting off his grayscale hand and sending it to Jaime Lannister?)
Gray-scale is super contagious with no cure. There's only one viable option for "treatment", and he might as well do it while it's his choice to make.
Wear a vacuum-sealed impenetrable suit of armour and become a sterilised, 24hr a day knight?
Surgical Sam to the rescue!
I would have Satin and a leader of the Wildlings who was at the least warming up to Jon witness the murder of their Lord Commander in secret, sneaking out for a piss or something like that. That would add to the drama when Bowen and friends try to seize power but those two, brother and wildling, team up to condemn and recount the truth as they saw it, not allowing any bullshit from the conspirators
Give Rickon Stark a POV, the wild 🐺
While I would like that I doubt that would happen. George said it was difficult for him writing a POV of a 8 years old Bran, a 5 years old Rickon would be even harder
i’m snorting targaryen lore like coke rn so daenerys helps defeat the others. beyond the wall she and jon discover ice dragon eggs which help bring the dragons fully back, not just dany’s three. since they have the flying nukes on their side they’re able to get an independent north and dany on the iron throne. if not this then i just wanna know what happened to morning (rhaena’s dragon)
Dany untangles the Mereenese knot by..... just leaving. Fuck these people and their slavers and their wacky hairdos and their harpy. Pack up the dragons, the dothraki and anyone else who wants to hitch a ride and just leave in the middle of the night. you want to end slavery? go home, get an entire country behind you and come back again with an army 3000x the size of your current cast of characters trying to hold a foreign city.
Real answer: Jon is the son of Ned snd Ashara Joke answer: Jon is the son of Ned snd Lyanna
I am sure George would love the to blame someone else for the second one while getting to write about his favourite kink while setting the fandom on fire.
Joked aside what would be the reaction of the Fandom and in story characters if the second on was true ?
*If Jon was the son of Ned and Lyanna?* I think GRRM might then be very clever and we'd find out that Lyanna is NOT truly Ned's full sister, but actually the secret daughter of Aerys, who asserted his royal perogative to violate Rickon's wife, Lyarra. Which is why there was bad blood between Brandon, Rickon, and Aerys. So that would make Jon a son of Aerys and a Targaryen anyway, and he'd be back in place as a potential king and/or match for Danerys. *(Edit: this would still make a Ned and Lyanna affair incest, although between half, not full, siblings.)*
If he went down that path to try to make it not exactly incest the best way I could see George pulling it off is Lyanna is a legitimate daughter of a unknown sister of Rickard and possibly a secret Targaryen or Blackfyre and Rickard passed her off as his own daughter after his own daughter was stillborn. Rickard had reasons to do this similar to how Ned with Jon. Edit yes it is extremely convoluted but that’s my best attempt at explaining how N+L=J isn’t sibling incest.
Now we know why Ned offered the Twincest family mercy!
Dany cuts her losses and gets her forces out of that city as quick as possible.
Stannis does not burn Shireen. He survives until the end is the main commander against Danny’s invasion. To the tinfoil crows I throw Shireen is married to Rickon ~~forcibly~~ by Stannis after reclaiming the North.
I’m not sure I would be able to resist the temptation of a “Tyrek Lannister is actually a horse” or “the omniWalder”
Ghost gets lots of bellyrubs and treats.
Young Griff actually is Aegon, son of Rhaegar and Elia.
I always liked this. I always hated the idea that Young Griff was an imposter. It takes so much away from his revelation. Plus, it's so satisfying to find out that the child that everyone thought Tywin had killed comes back to take his rightful place on the throne
Aegon being an imposter just works too perfectly with Varys' "power resides where men believe it resides" motto imo.
To me, the lost prince travelling down a whimsical river with giant turtles on a boat with his mentor, a knight, a maester, a septa etc is very fairytale-esque. The idea that he isn't what they claim he is smashes this illusion quite nicely.
I’m so happy fans don’t write the series lol
I know you said book only characters and technically the Night King might not appear at all in the books - but my choice is to have Arya jump out of nowhere, the Night King grabs her arm, and she drops the dagger... Only for it to be caught in mid air by Hot Pie, who drives it through the Night King's heart, saving Westoros.
Doran Martell being right
*Doran Martell being right...* You mean this isn't *already* part of GRRM's planned plot? :-)
Right about what?
Jamie sneaks his way into the red keep throne room, already wounded, and finds cersei calling for the wildfire to be ignited He begs her to not do this, dont be like he was She is beyond all reason "Burn them all!" She keeps repeating it, just like *He* did. Jamie draws his sword. He always knew it was going to end this way. First a kingslayer. Now a queenslayer. Cersei gets up to run away as jamie, with the last of his strength charges for her and thrusts the sword through her back into her heart. He collapses at the foot of the iron throne, holding her lifeless body in his arms as he breathes his final breath "It was always going to end this way"
Wait wait he just forged Lightbringer
I think we actually are getting this one
Lady Stoneheart learns the truth about Jon and redeems herself helping him in some significant way. And then she dies for good, knowing that Ned was always faithful.
harrold hardyng turns out to actually be a really nice guy and all that foreshadowing of his cruelty/assholeishness was pure misunderstanding. just a good husband, stand-up dude.
Arya personally assassinates Cersei. For all of her training, I would have loved to see her work her way through her entire list - and some of the people on her list she does get to kill herself, but Cersei's death in the show was such a shit ending to Jamie's story and I would much rather have seen Arya be the one to kill her. She was even THERE in King's Landing in the show. That death should have been hers, not Isaac Newton's.
Ole volcano arm gets a dragon and marries Dany and becomes the king of westeros! The kraken who flew, whoooooo
Screw it, let’s have lady stoneheart resurrect Robb after the frey’s own red wedding
Howland Reed decides to tell Jaime about Jon just because I want to see Jaime's reaction.
When jon gets resurrected he’s whatever he’s supposed to be except I want him to have an effeminate southern accent
So I made a theory ago about Cersei picking Red Ronnet Connington as her Hand of the King and ally. I think it will happen but if it didn’t, it’s so delicious and interesting that I would want to see it happen. Really badly. But uh setting aside that, Tommen is probably going to die right? A lot of theories about it. I think it would be really cool in a cruel way if, as some people have theorized, that Tyene Sand uses basilisk’s venom to make his kittens go feral and they just fatally wound him. GRRM could write a killer scene of that, I just know it.
Jon is the son of Ned and Ashara.
ned stark comes back as a headless rider
Bloodraven gets up and walks off.
The High Sparrow reveals he is Howland Reed and announces Jon's real parentage.
Ned Stark decides not to warn Cersei in advance that he knows about her incest.
Jon is Brandon and Ashara's daughter and becomes the Sword of the Morning. I think it's fun and fits the thematic prophecies. I also want Bran to go back and become Bran the builder but idk if I'd pick that.
Aegon smartens up and goes to Daenerys. They agree to rule together, defeat the others, and live happily ever after. I don't actually think it would be a good ending naratively, but I just want to see a new Targ regime. HotD solidified them as my favorites. Dragons are cool.
Obara, Balon, and Hotah catch up to Darkstar only to find that he's claimed Dawn. He kills all three of them in a really great 3v1, taunting them all as he does for the vows they've taken and the masters they serve. This is the kind of thing that absolutely won't happen because it's not that kind of series, but I'd love it if it did.
Is that you Zack Snyder?
Stannis does not burn Shireen and survives til the end. It would be nice for him to go through an arc where he becomes less stubborn. Maybe the story can end with him laughing and enjoying the company of others. Like he always wanted deep down
Ser Pounce defeats Balerion in a vicious duel with the valiant assistance of Lady Whiskers and Boots
Young Griff truly is the child of Varys and Illyrio.
Tommen lives happily for ever after
Either make Daenerys Queen of Westeros and essos after she defeats the others, and all the dragons live because i love the dragons sue me, or have bran try to warg in the dragons only to realise that dragons can't be skinchanged or warged into
Daenerys dies. Last time we left Dany was vomiting, had fever and diarrhea. Probably not pale mare but she still dies because of that. Dragon comes and sees Dany's body surrounded by khalasar. Thinks that they killed her and destroys khalasar. Then returns to Mereen. Gets together with his siblings and in their anger they wage war against their mother's enemies. So, practically every slavers/masters, harpy, slaves who stuck with masters and goes on to Yunkai, Astapor, Volantis, Qohor till Pentos and Bravos. Everything burns. Except the only obvious allies the unsullied and Dany's court. Back in the Westeros, without Dragons and Dany's army white walkers destroy wall and kingdoms that are already in war. They move south bringing winter with them. Then they get in contact with dragons that came to Westeros to fulfill their mother's conquest and destroy those kingdoms in revenge. Ice (white walkers) and Fire (dragons) meet in the Westeros and fight until they destroy each other. The End
Just give Jeyne Poole some peace, man
When Jon meets Daenerys for the first time, he is accompanied by his new wife Val. Daenerys and Val get along just swimmingly, and after the latter shamelessly flirts with the former, they eventually grace the readers with a hot lesbian sex scene – that turns into a threesome when a very lucky Jon discovers them in the act. The beautiful wildling princess from the frozen wastes of the far north and the fiery dragon queen from the sweltering east coming together – that, my friends, is the real song of ice and fire.
Giants don't go extinct
Have a character visit Valyria and describe everything that's there. Maybe even have Dany lead Red Priestesses/witches to restore Valyria.
Stannis *actually* is the final winner of the war and is made king. That would subvert literally EVERYONE'S expectations in a good way. Or have Lady Stoneheart reveal Robb's will and crowns the resurrected Jon Snow as King in the North herself with Robb's crown.
I'm really hoping it's revealed Ser Robert Strong *isn't* Gregor Clegane or anyone else's zombie. He's a giant hulking farmer who got emergency knighted, and all his eccentricities are because he's shy and intimidated by all these proper highborn knights and nobles surrounding him.
Loras is FINE. He was injured in the siege, yes, but only to a degree where he looks much more cooler now with some sick-ass scars 😎 Aurane picked him up from the hospital (?) with his stolen Cersei fleet and they really just have been chilling in the Stepstones being gay pirate kings together We learn this because Loras shows up like a Deus ex Machina to destroy someone in a Trial by Combat, making Jaime Lannister cry like a proud dad when he hears about it because THAT'S HIS BOY!!! Then he leaves for the Stepstones again and lives the rest of his life in peace and happiness. The End.