Post by whitewolfstark on Jan 25, 2016 6:29:57 GMT
I wrote this over at Westeros in the "Merging Story Lines" thread:
My guesses--totally willing to be wrong about this, but my gut feelings:
Arya - leaves Braavos not long after the Mercy chapter. To likely assassinate Dany somewhere before she reaches Westeros. She'll go through the other Free Cities and be a witness to their destruction via the dragons though. Arya will likely end up learning about Dany the conqueror however and being Arya and having always been attracted to the idea of a female warrior conqueror (Nymeria & Visenya), she'll abandon her mission and join Dany, fully embracing her turn towards her desire for revenge. She likely doesn't reveal her true self to Dany--but might as a way of severing ties from the House of Black and White for forever.
Sansa - will get abducted by the Mad Mouse when she's revealed at the Tournament to be Sansa Stark too early by the Royces (via Myranda's snooping). The Mad Mouse makes off with her, Brienne eventually rescues her.
Victarion - will likely remain until close to the end of the book when he'll die IMO. He'll blow the horn thinking it'll bind the dragon to him, but it will feel as though he's burning up from the inside and instead both of Dany's dragons will go rogue and abandon Mereen to cause havoc as they fly west--eventually destroying the Free Cities, will slowly wither and die. He's there to cause Viserion and Rhaegal to go mad and disobey Dany even more, but also show us what Euron's horn does to dragons and those that blow it. Many will complain that they had to suffer Victarion's chapters in AFFC just to have him die like Quentyn, I'm predicting. Quentyn freed the dragons, Victarion will make them go wild and disobedient.
Tyrion - remains in Mereen and eventually meets up with Dany. He's not easily accepted into her rank, but is instead the Second Sons' representative to Dany, and manages to weasel his way into her acceptance by that route. Likely his ticket in to Dany will be his knowledge of dragons from all his years of study, where he'll say he can get her children back for her, at the price of Casterly Rock for him.
Arianne - will replace Cersei as the King's Landing POV & Jon Con as the Aegon POV. How the Tyrells and the Faith are dealt with will be dealt with in her chapters until the freed dragons cross the Narrow Sea and destroy the city in a rain of fire. Aegon tries to control one of them and fails, with Arianne likely fleeing the destroyed city. In this manner she'll be so burned that she'll die from her injuries. Thus leaving Doran's only heir to be Trystane.
Theon - Theon's likely to survive Stannis and be sent on a mission to help in the battle of Winterfell (showing how he got in the first time). I see Theon dying in the Battle of Winterfell or falling back to a non-POV character after Winterfell is taken again.
Dany - Goes to Vaes Dothrak, gathers all the Dothraki under her and Drogon's leadership, then returns to Mereen and takes the ships to West to chase after her now wild children. She sacks Mereen Dothraki style, utterly destroying it as she fully embraces "Fire & Blood" style of total warfare and leaves behind her arc of wanting to be a good Queen for wanting to be a good Conqueror. She'll meet again with Illyrio, who will likely reveal that he somehow got her mother's crown for her back again and sell the idea of her being Aegon's wife and how Aegon is waiting to marry her in King's Landing, having taken the city. The revelation of her mother's crown will cause Dany to question some of her past, revealing Illyrio and Varys used Dany and Viserys as decoys to keep Robert occupied while they trained the true King in secret. Thus they always had to be on the run and why Varys allowed for Robert to get close to killing them many times, but never fully allowed it to happen either. Dany has her hoard sack Pentos (mirroring how Pentos essentially bought off Khal Drogo before, only to receive it worse when it came back round again), before setting sail for Westeros with Arya.
Bran - continues his training until he discovers something dark and disturbing and is put with a moral quandary. Either the Three Eyed Raven wasn't really Bloodraven--but instead someone else trying to manipulate Bran--perhaps a former pupil of Bloodraven's that's since gone rogue and is trying to bring about the Long Night by messing with Bloodraven's chosen new apprentice. Confused and conflicted, Bran leaves the cave and learns more about the Others' society.
Jon Snow - we will no longer get his POV, he will still be around, but we will lose his POV because of his resurrection & also because he, like Jaime, came to a conclusion which ended his conflict of the heart
Cersei - will go mad when she realizes that her "twin" has chosen to die alone and separate from her, which was his choice. She'll flee to Casterly Rock and make her last stand there.
Jaime - his story is practically over IMO. Brienne will attempt to save him, but Jaime won't let her and he'll die satisfied that in the last moment he made the right choice and was the knight he always wanted to be. He will also have finally completely broken with Cersei to the fullest extent as Cersei expects to die together with Jaime, but Jaime chooses to die alone and a hero to someone who truly matters, thus earning something noble and honorable to put down in the White Book, but ironically never will be (until Brienne later is on the Kingsguard--but that's my ADOS predictions)
Samwell - Will continue in Oldtown, and likely get in trouble when he realizes just what "Pate" is doing, will witness the Ironborn sacking Oldtown, and flee with Gilly to his father's house at Hornhill where he'll reunite with his mother and sisters briefly, likely running into Obara as she chases Darkstar from Starfall. Word reaches Sam of the Wall having fallen and Sam is left with the choice of returning North to be a true Brother of the Night's Watch or to be a coward and hide in the South. Sam chooses for once to be a brother--albeit one who hasn't become a full maester yet, and journies North, perhaps traveling with Obara (or not) for a bit.
Brienne - Will take over Jaime's job as POV in the Riverlands. Will witness the carnage of Red Wedding 2.0 at Riverrun, and eventually run into Sansa and the Mad Mouse as the Mouse tries to get Sansa to Casterly Rock where Cersei has set up shop. Brienne will do battle with the Mouse for Sansa's protection.
Davos - He'll get Rickon and IMO likely return to Castle Black where Rickon will come to less than friendly environment with an anti-Jon Snow faction in charge. Davos just manages to escape with Rickon and head south in search of Stannis, instead running in to Jon Snow and he's our POV with Jon Snow. He'll likely die not long after reaching Stannis' camp due to not being able to bear the cold.
Asha - Will be our POV to Stannis and Jon Snow after Davos' death and as Stannis takes Winterfell. She'll discover herself pregnant and with child, thus unknowingly fulfilling the whole "when the Kraken and Dragon wed" idea that Euron keeps going on and on about.
Barristan - Will die in the Battle for Mereen, most likely by the Shavepate's hands IMO for him being so foolish as to trust him
Aeron - Our POV to the invasion of the Reach up on the Mander (separate half of the fleet from the one attacking Oldtown). Likely dies during the campaign at the end of the novel.
Melisandre - will take Jon Snow's place as the Wall POV and give us further insight into events around Jon Snow while he remains at the Wall. When he leaves, she's tempted to go as well, but she remains at the Wall and ends up burning Shireen and going insane herself. She dies at the Wall, either by the anti-Jon Snow faction, her throwing herself onto the burn pile, or when the Wall comes crashing down on top of her.
Aero - will travel to Starfall IMO, and end up dead in battle against Darkstar, thus revealing whatever it is about the Daynes that GRRM considers a "spoiler" to his story (like the words of House Dayne)
Jon Con - will die of greyscale at some point, with Arianne taking his place, but not before infecting the Stormlands and Crownlands however.
So at the end of TWOW, Westeros is being attacked on three major fronts: Dragons from the East, Krakens from the West, and Others from the North.
I could very easily be wrong--but that's my guesses.
And this was a further elaboration upon what someone asked of me:
Bloodraven himself is part of the great Weirwood Consciousness--he's as much a representative of all the Greenseers who've gone before him as he is of Bloodraven himself. He's the current avatar the great hive-minded greenseers and Children are using to speak and train Bran. As for a failed apprentice who might be interfering with Bran's training? . Prettypig has done a lot of research into the similarities of Silver Age Marvel comics and ASOIAF, and pinpointed a potential influence that Bran & Jon both seem to be on the "Dr. Strange" echoes, especially Bran with regards to the psychic training he receives. In that Dr. Strange has to distinguish between his master's teachings, and those of a saboteur. A saboteur who has a lot in common with Euron Greyjoy (so she says). I actually think the direction is a good way to go and to get Bran out of the cave and then encountering and learning more about the Others and the Land of Always Winter that I believe he'll travel to, learning things about the Others that'll be necessary to understand them IMO as he tries to deal with the fact that his head has been messed with far too much and sort out Bloodraven from Euron.
Asha I can see as a pregnant bad ass rather easily, though she'll be stuck as Stannis' prisoner, and have to give birth in her little brother's former greenlander home of Winterfell, and come to terms with where her brother called "home" and why he became the man he did, I think. For some reason Euron's obsession with marrying the "Dragon to the Kraken" and then GRRM's insistence on mentioning Qarl and Asha's union made me think we're supposed to connect the two (especially as Qarl is from thralldom--and we don't exactly know what his lineage is). But for some reason Euron seems to think that wedding the Kraken to the Dragon will help bring about the Long Night, and Asha might just be in for a rude awakening when she gives birth--and inadvertently fulfills and foils Euron's plans simultaneously. Asha and her son become the future of the Iron Islands as far as Stannis is concerned. The Boltons are defeated in battle--which I could also see Asha participating in, which earns Asha some freedoms from Stannis (like freedom to walk around Winterfell), but she's still his prisoner. The majority of the difficult part of her pregnancy occurs in a Winterfell that has fallen. When Stannis fails to hear from Melisandre and his Queen, he rides for Castle Black, leaving Winterfell in charge of Jon Snow, who rules as Rickon's regent and is a bit more lenient with Asha. And because of this relationship and her good relationship with Alysanne Mormont, Asha will make peace with the North in ADOS. Stannis will not return from the Wall as he'll run right into Others on the way, with likely the epilogue being a man in Stannis' brigade just as they run into Others south of the Wall. In ADOS Asha and her son retake the Iron Isles and foil and face Euron in a showdown there in that book. She'll likely be our witness to Jon Snow's revelation about his parentage IMO.
Theon redeems himself IMO by helping to take Winterfell for Stannis & the Starks. He'll have a POV until he dies. He dies in the battle I'm thinking, with Asha spending most of the novel trying to truly understand he brother and the world he grew up in. This leads to wandering around Winterfell as Stannis' highborn prisoner, with her grumpily talking with Jon Snow because he's the closest thing she has to understanding her brother--but Jon's at a loss as his childhood memories are vague and hazy due to resurrection, and he never really got along well with Theon. Anyway, they journey down into the crypts together and Jon faces whatever he needs to face down there. Asha also bears witness to how the North Men and the Wildlings are forced by Jon Snow to have to get along, with Rickon liking and getting along with the Wildlings, but the Northern lords grumbling about Jon and his "influence" over Rickon. The Dredfort likely goes to a Wildling "lord" which is a point of great contention for the Northern lords, who just got rid of a bunch of Boltons--and now they've got to put up with a bunch of Wildlings. Likely sending the Thenns and other Wildlings to capture the Dredfort is how Jon will deal with the tensions between the Wildlings and Northmen.
Sansa, if she hears of Jon Snow and Rickon at Winterfell, likely becomes convinced that Rickon is an imposter.
Oh yeah, lack of conflict of the heart is often why we don't get POVs from certain characters like Stannis, Oberyn, and Doran IMO, but instead see them through the eyes of other characters.
As for Cersei--who do you think is going to be the person Tyrion is fighting Casterly Rock for? She's the one who makes the most sense IMO. In an epic nod to Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings book series, I see Cersei and Tyrion facing off of one another in ADOS as they fight over Casterly Rock like Mahaut & Robert fight over the County of Artois in The Accursed Kings. With both utterly devastating and destroying the Westerlands as their squabble wrecks everything, and both dying without ever achieving what they wish.
These are just speculations, I could very well be wrong, but they're what I'm going with for now.
My guesses--totally willing to be wrong about this, but my gut feelings:
Arya - leaves Braavos not long after the Mercy chapter. To likely assassinate Dany somewhere before she reaches Westeros. She'll go through the other Free Cities and be a witness to their destruction via the dragons though. Arya will likely end up learning about Dany the conqueror however and being Arya and having always been attracted to the idea of a female warrior conqueror (Nymeria & Visenya), she'll abandon her mission and join Dany, fully embracing her turn towards her desire for revenge. She likely doesn't reveal her true self to Dany--but might as a way of severing ties from the House of Black and White for forever.
Sansa - will get abducted by the Mad Mouse when she's revealed at the Tournament to be Sansa Stark too early by the Royces (via Myranda's snooping). The Mad Mouse makes off with her, Brienne eventually rescues her.
Victarion - will likely remain until close to the end of the book when he'll die IMO. He'll blow the horn thinking it'll bind the dragon to him, but it will feel as though he's burning up from the inside and instead both of Dany's dragons will go rogue and abandon Mereen to cause havoc as they fly west--eventually destroying the Free Cities, will slowly wither and die. He's there to cause Viserion and Rhaegal to go mad and disobey Dany even more, but also show us what Euron's horn does to dragons and those that blow it. Many will complain that they had to suffer Victarion's chapters in AFFC just to have him die like Quentyn, I'm predicting. Quentyn freed the dragons, Victarion will make them go wild and disobedient.
Tyrion - remains in Mereen and eventually meets up with Dany. He's not easily accepted into her rank, but is instead the Second Sons' representative to Dany, and manages to weasel his way into her acceptance by that route. Likely his ticket in to Dany will be his knowledge of dragons from all his years of study, where he'll say he can get her children back for her, at the price of Casterly Rock for him.
Arianne - will replace Cersei as the King's Landing POV & Jon Con as the Aegon POV. How the Tyrells and the Faith are dealt with will be dealt with in her chapters until the freed dragons cross the Narrow Sea and destroy the city in a rain of fire. Aegon tries to control one of them and fails, with Arianne likely fleeing the destroyed city. In this manner she'll be so burned that she'll die from her injuries. Thus leaving Doran's only heir to be Trystane.
Theon - Theon's likely to survive Stannis and be sent on a mission to help in the battle of Winterfell (showing how he got in the first time). I see Theon dying in the Battle of Winterfell or falling back to a non-POV character after Winterfell is taken again.
Dany - Goes to Vaes Dothrak, gathers all the Dothraki under her and Drogon's leadership, then returns to Mereen and takes the ships to West to chase after her now wild children. She sacks Mereen Dothraki style, utterly destroying it as she fully embraces "Fire & Blood" style of total warfare and leaves behind her arc of wanting to be a good Queen for wanting to be a good Conqueror. She'll meet again with Illyrio, who will likely reveal that he somehow got her mother's crown for her back again and sell the idea of her being Aegon's wife and how Aegon is waiting to marry her in King's Landing, having taken the city. The revelation of her mother's crown will cause Dany to question some of her past, revealing Illyrio and Varys used Dany and Viserys as decoys to keep Robert occupied while they trained the true King in secret. Thus they always had to be on the run and why Varys allowed for Robert to get close to killing them many times, but never fully allowed it to happen either. Dany has her hoard sack Pentos (mirroring how Pentos essentially bought off Khal Drogo before, only to receive it worse when it came back round again), before setting sail for Westeros with Arya.
Bran - continues his training until he discovers something dark and disturbing and is put with a moral quandary. Either the Three Eyed Raven wasn't really Bloodraven--but instead someone else trying to manipulate Bran--perhaps a former pupil of Bloodraven's that's since gone rogue and is trying to bring about the Long Night by messing with Bloodraven's chosen new apprentice. Confused and conflicted, Bran leaves the cave and learns more about the Others' society.
Jon Snow - we will no longer get his POV, he will still be around, but we will lose his POV because of his resurrection & also because he, like Jaime, came to a conclusion which ended his conflict of the heart
Cersei - will go mad when she realizes that her "twin" has chosen to die alone and separate from her, which was his choice. She'll flee to Casterly Rock and make her last stand there.
Jaime - his story is practically over IMO. Brienne will attempt to save him, but Jaime won't let her and he'll die satisfied that in the last moment he made the right choice and was the knight he always wanted to be. He will also have finally completely broken with Cersei to the fullest extent as Cersei expects to die together with Jaime, but Jaime chooses to die alone and a hero to someone who truly matters, thus earning something noble and honorable to put down in the White Book, but ironically never will be (until Brienne later is on the Kingsguard--but that's my ADOS predictions)
Samwell - Will continue in Oldtown, and likely get in trouble when he realizes just what "Pate" is doing, will witness the Ironborn sacking Oldtown, and flee with Gilly to his father's house at Hornhill where he'll reunite with his mother and sisters briefly, likely running into Obara as she chases Darkstar from Starfall. Word reaches Sam of the Wall having fallen and Sam is left with the choice of returning North to be a true Brother of the Night's Watch or to be a coward and hide in the South. Sam chooses for once to be a brother--albeit one who hasn't become a full maester yet, and journies North, perhaps traveling with Obara (or not) for a bit.
Brienne - Will take over Jaime's job as POV in the Riverlands. Will witness the carnage of Red Wedding 2.0 at Riverrun, and eventually run into Sansa and the Mad Mouse as the Mouse tries to get Sansa to Casterly Rock where Cersei has set up shop. Brienne will do battle with the Mouse for Sansa's protection.
Davos - He'll get Rickon and IMO likely return to Castle Black where Rickon will come to less than friendly environment with an anti-Jon Snow faction in charge. Davos just manages to escape with Rickon and head south in search of Stannis, instead running in to Jon Snow and he's our POV with Jon Snow. He'll likely die not long after reaching Stannis' camp due to not being able to bear the cold.
Asha - Will be our POV to Stannis and Jon Snow after Davos' death and as Stannis takes Winterfell. She'll discover herself pregnant and with child, thus unknowingly fulfilling the whole "when the Kraken and Dragon wed" idea that Euron keeps going on and on about.
Barristan - Will die in the Battle for Mereen, most likely by the Shavepate's hands IMO for him being so foolish as to trust him
Aeron - Our POV to the invasion of the Reach up on the Mander (separate half of the fleet from the one attacking Oldtown). Likely dies during the campaign at the end of the novel.
Melisandre - will take Jon Snow's place as the Wall POV and give us further insight into events around Jon Snow while he remains at the Wall. When he leaves, she's tempted to go as well, but she remains at the Wall and ends up burning Shireen and going insane herself. She dies at the Wall, either by the anti-Jon Snow faction, her throwing herself onto the burn pile, or when the Wall comes crashing down on top of her.
Aero - will travel to Starfall IMO, and end up dead in battle against Darkstar, thus revealing whatever it is about the Daynes that GRRM considers a "spoiler" to his story (like the words of House Dayne)
Jon Con - will die of greyscale at some point, with Arianne taking his place, but not before infecting the Stormlands and Crownlands however.
So at the end of TWOW, Westeros is being attacked on three major fronts: Dragons from the East, Krakens from the West, and Others from the North.
I could very easily be wrong--but that's my guesses.
And this was a further elaboration upon what someone asked of me:
Bloodraven himself is part of the great Weirwood Consciousness--he's as much a representative of all the Greenseers who've gone before him as he is of Bloodraven himself. He's the current avatar the great hive-minded greenseers and Children are using to speak and train Bran. As for a failed apprentice who might be interfering with Bran's training? . Prettypig has done a lot of research into the similarities of Silver Age Marvel comics and ASOIAF, and pinpointed a potential influence that Bran & Jon both seem to be on the "Dr. Strange" echoes, especially Bran with regards to the psychic training he receives. In that Dr. Strange has to distinguish between his master's teachings, and those of a saboteur. A saboteur who has a lot in common with Euron Greyjoy (so she says). I actually think the direction is a good way to go and to get Bran out of the cave and then encountering and learning more about the Others and the Land of Always Winter that I believe he'll travel to, learning things about the Others that'll be necessary to understand them IMO as he tries to deal with the fact that his head has been messed with far too much and sort out Bloodraven from Euron.
Asha I can see as a pregnant bad ass rather easily, though she'll be stuck as Stannis' prisoner, and have to give birth in her little brother's former greenlander home of Winterfell, and come to terms with where her brother called "home" and why he became the man he did, I think. For some reason Euron's obsession with marrying the "Dragon to the Kraken" and then GRRM's insistence on mentioning Qarl and Asha's union made me think we're supposed to connect the two (especially as Qarl is from thralldom--and we don't exactly know what his lineage is). But for some reason Euron seems to think that wedding the Kraken to the Dragon will help bring about the Long Night, and Asha might just be in for a rude awakening when she gives birth--and inadvertently fulfills and foils Euron's plans simultaneously. Asha and her son become the future of the Iron Islands as far as Stannis is concerned. The Boltons are defeated in battle--which I could also see Asha participating in, which earns Asha some freedoms from Stannis (like freedom to walk around Winterfell), but she's still his prisoner. The majority of the difficult part of her pregnancy occurs in a Winterfell that has fallen. When Stannis fails to hear from Melisandre and his Queen, he rides for Castle Black, leaving Winterfell in charge of Jon Snow, who rules as Rickon's regent and is a bit more lenient with Asha. And because of this relationship and her good relationship with Alysanne Mormont, Asha will make peace with the North in ADOS. Stannis will not return from the Wall as he'll run right into Others on the way, with likely the epilogue being a man in Stannis' brigade just as they run into Others south of the Wall. In ADOS Asha and her son retake the Iron Isles and foil and face Euron in a showdown there in that book. She'll likely be our witness to Jon Snow's revelation about his parentage IMO.
Theon redeems himself IMO by helping to take Winterfell for Stannis & the Starks. He'll have a POV until he dies. He dies in the battle I'm thinking, with Asha spending most of the novel trying to truly understand he brother and the world he grew up in. This leads to wandering around Winterfell as Stannis' highborn prisoner, with her grumpily talking with Jon Snow because he's the closest thing she has to understanding her brother--but Jon's at a loss as his childhood memories are vague and hazy due to resurrection, and he never really got along well with Theon. Anyway, they journey down into the crypts together and Jon faces whatever he needs to face down there. Asha also bears witness to how the North Men and the Wildlings are forced by Jon Snow to have to get along, with Rickon liking and getting along with the Wildlings, but the Northern lords grumbling about Jon and his "influence" over Rickon. The Dredfort likely goes to a Wildling "lord" which is a point of great contention for the Northern lords, who just got rid of a bunch of Boltons--and now they've got to put up with a bunch of Wildlings. Likely sending the Thenns and other Wildlings to capture the Dredfort is how Jon will deal with the tensions between the Wildlings and Northmen.
Sansa, if she hears of Jon Snow and Rickon at Winterfell, likely becomes convinced that Rickon is an imposter.
Oh yeah, lack of conflict of the heart is often why we don't get POVs from certain characters like Stannis, Oberyn, and Doran IMO, but instead see them through the eyes of other characters.
As for Cersei--who do you think is going to be the person Tyrion is fighting Casterly Rock for? She's the one who makes the most sense IMO. In an epic nod to Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings book series, I see Cersei and Tyrion facing off of one another in ADOS as they fight over Casterly Rock like Mahaut & Robert fight over the County of Artois in The Accursed Kings. With both utterly devastating and destroying the Westerlands as their squabble wrecks everything, and both dying without ever achieving what they wish.
These are just speculations, I could very well be wrong, but they're what I'm going with for now.
