#bran is endgame

[hylialeia]

I've really soured on the whole "if these female characters end up in any position other than one of feudal power and influence it means GRRM is perpetuating the harmful idea that women should be punished for their ambition" because while I am aware that is a rather disappointing and common takeaway in fantasy (and other) series in general, I am ALSO aware the strongest most consistent hammer-you-over-the-head-with-it motif across asoiaf thus far has been "FEUDALISM BAD" which is sort of hard to keep impactful when your endgame is "and then they ruled happily ever after and were so good at it nothing bad ever happened again". y'know.

[melrosing]

If the kingdoms at the end go all independent. Who ends up king in the north? I assume Sansa is queen in the vale with Harold hardying but is bran really ok for king in the north? Will it go to Rickon?

talked about this a little before but basically I don't really see the seven kingdoms each becoming independent: I think whatever becomes of the Targaryen legacy, Aegon's ice & fire dream (or whatever it was called lol) was clear that there was strength in unity and I think that echoes throughout asoiaf generally.

I think it's likely Sansa will govern the North (I agree that her arc in preparing her for that role is incomplete, but at least she has that arc where compared to Rickon). Arya's a charismatic character and a strong leader besides, you could certainly say she'd be as good at governing as Sansa. but I just don't really feel like a governing role resonates in her story regardless, so that does leave Sansa (who I personally really doubt will just marry Harold Hardyng and settle down in the Vale for all of time)

and I fully buy into the Bran as a fisher king theory - I don't think he'll govern exactly but will become a figurehead of westeros, uniting the people and the land. doubt he'll be based in King's Landing as that's likely to be a pile of ash and in any case was always very much part of the political plot, divorced from the supernatural and the struggles of the rest of Westeros. you constantly get a sense of KL as a corrupted seat where the monarchs and their court are entirely removed from the smallfolk on their very doorstep, so I don't see it having a place in Bran's reign, whatever that ends up looking like

[nymerias-heart]

Do ye remember when 2 years ago I made a 28 minute long video and posted it but then never made any other YouTube content for asoiaf?

I have most of January off from college so I was wondering if during this break I should make some more videos? And is yes, what should they be about?

[agentrouka-blog]

Do you think ASOIAF is still going to end with Bran on the throne? I kind of find that so incredibly disingenuous. I was so sure pre-GOT Ending that the 7K would all go back to being independent states, since the Targs "unified" (saying this sarcastically) Westeros, and ASOIAF is obviously going to end with the Targs dying out. So it wouldn't make sense to me to still keep that Targ symbolism (the IT and unification of Westeros) intact.

Also, I find such an ending racist. The North is obviously going to secede with Sansa as queen ... But everything that the North wants to be, is what Dorne is. And then Dorne is not going to secede (they're already halfway there anyways) and accept a Stark overlord? There is no way in Hell I see that happening. Dorne has suffered the most from the Targs and has rejected them the most and deserve the independence they have always fought for the most, but they are the ones that are not going to secede? No way.

ASOIAF should end with the full eradication of the Targaryens, the 7K all becoming independent like before, the IT destroyed, and Bran the new Bloodraven overseeing the continent as a tree or whatever. But the North only seceding and another Stark ruling over the rest of the continent? That's just blatant favoritism not to mention an unsatisfactory ending to characters (the Dornish) that have nothing to do with the Starks.

Hi there!

I've made a few post on the subject of what I think the King Bran endgame will be.

Great Council and Harrenhal

Harrenhal and the Starks

Bran the Loophole King by a Lake

Arya prepares Harrenhal

Who stays and who goes independent?

How boy king Bran might work

Bran as a human king not a greenseer

Essentially I think the show ending is a very strongly altered version of it - to the point of absolute absurdity. It feels like they dedicated less time to the political restructuring of Westeros than they did to Tyrion shuffling chairs around before that travesty of a small council meeting. It's nonsense. They didn't care about their ending. Neither should we.

To make my predictions brief: Bran absolutely and definitely will give up his powers in the course of resolving the ice threat. There is absolutely NO way GRRM would place some kind of surveilance godking on a throne and call it a "bittersweet ending". Anyway, KL is done, no more Iron Throne. A Great Council is held to decide the future of Westeros (Congress of Vienna-style but better). They elect a new king (hereditary or electoral, who knows) and the new model of monarchy is likely to be at least somewhat parliamentary with Bran as a figurehead - an intentionally weak figure head! - based on his maternal ancestry line (Tully-Whent) and its connection to Harrenhal, where this new ruling body will be situated.

Very likely Tyrion may be involved in machinations that will raise Bran to the throne, sway the election in his favor in some way. (Foreshadowed by him providing the design for a special saddle for Bran - a special "seat".) His actual endgame will follow after and it will not be happy.

I would be immensely surprised if Dorne did not reestablish independence the same as the North.

[leesielex]

Magic Awakens | CH 61: Jon Snow XV

Summary: Jon reunites with Bran in the cave with Bloodraven. He struggles to leave him behind as he prepares to meet Robb in the Free Folk camp.

A Preview:

Ghost snarled and sniffed at an unseen foe. He knew this foe well now, knew what the cold it brought felt like. The dead were upon them.

When a giant and smaller shadows next to it grew upon the horizon, he knew Bran was close. Hodor was the giant and Coldhands, Bran, Meera, Jojen, and Summer must be the smaller shadows, though he saw only three at first. When they were eighty yards out, they halted, feeling the shift in temperature and their wolves demeanor as well.

Coldhands was the first to realize what was near, his blackened hand going up to halt them and survey the area. Meera set Jojen down, who looked close to death, and he now understood why he didn’t see the fourth shadow. The elk Coldhands rode was nowhere to be seen, though it wasn’t a shock that the animal didn’t survive such a long and perilous journey.

After a discussion, Coldhands marched up the incline towards them, Hodor trailing behind with Bran secured upon his back. Halfway between where Meera and Jojen rested and Jon and Leaf sat waiting at the mouth of the cave, Summer stopped suddenly, the fur upon his back standing at attention and began to growl, Ghost joining in.

Bran began to frantically call for Hodor to stop, but he would not listen. Fear had taken over the gentle giant as he tried desperately to keep up with Coldhands. In the midst of chaos and shouting, a hand burst from the snow below to wrap around Hodor’s ankle, knocking him and Bran both to the ground.

Leaf, Jon, Coldhands, and Meera leapt into action as more wights erupted around them. Jon watched in horror as Bran lay motionless face down in the snow, Hodor running back to fight off wights and carry Jojen and leaving his brother defenseless. Jon swore he saw Hodor’s eyes go white, the pupils and irises disappearing indicative of being skinchanged.

Leaf set to burning the wights with torches as quickly as they could manage while Ghost bounded to Bran’s side to help Summer protect his brother’s limp body. Meera held a long bronze knife and a three-pronged frog spear, combatting the decaying enemy around them. Jon withdrew Longclaw and as he sliced and stabbed through rotted flesh, he muttered spells beneath his breath.

His first spell froze a wight close to Bran in a block of ice. The second created a long spike from the snowy earth below to jut out and stab a wight through its head stopping its approach towards Meera who was already engaged with three. It continued to writhe and screech despite its impalement, its limbs flailing to scratch and kill at the air.

As more dead erupted from the frozen ground and descended upon them from the eerie mist that now hindered their sight, Jon was throwing out more ice magic to help those becoming overwhelmed by them. A lull gave him an opportunity to perform a larger spell as corpses burned at Leaf’s feet, were trapped by ice he had thrown at them, or were incapacitated by the Valyrian steel of Longclaw.

He muttered the ancient words of the Old Tongue and a wall six feet high erupted from one side, beginning closest to him until it reached behind Meera bringing up the rear and curved until it began to make its way back to him and shield the other side. A cold sweat had broken out upon his skin, dripping down his forehead and neck, his arms and legs shaking from the effort. Only a few wights still animated by the Others' magic were not encased or blocked outside of the small ice wall, and they easily took them down as they made it the last few feet to reach Jon and Leaf.

They finally made it to safety inside the mouth of the cave with protection spells upon it. It was the last skill the children had taught him and one he had the most trouble perfecting. So far Jon had managed to place a protection spell around a small area that dissipated within an hour, nothing like the spells woven into the Wall, nor the spell that prevented the wights and Other from attacking within the caves.

As they carried an alert Bran into the dark tunnels Jon called home for the last moons, a shiver ran through him. He noticed the involuntary spasms of those around him as well, the cold chill that passing through the magic barrier of the protection spell caused. Bran opened his mouth to speak but no words escaped, instead his head fell to the side and his body went slack as he lost consciousness.

Click here to read full story on AO3

[rise-my-angel]

My favourite thing when writing for hotgw, now that I'm so far into the story that the in universe timeline has reached winter, is outlining a scene where I go "Maybe there is an adjacent late show scene I could use as a point of comparison for my dialouge."

Only to pull up any season 7 episode transcript and instantly close it like, "I could smash the keyboard with my face and write better dialouge then this. Nevermind."

[gendrie]

bran ii

bran wanting to become a knight is basically him wanting to be an action hero which is why his arc doesnt have anything to do with disillusionment of knighthood as an institution for its (arguably) inherent violence and corruption. for bran its related entirely to being unable to walk.

oh shit a ref to the dance of dragons

3rd starkling chap in a row where baby starts crying and runs away

no bran dont go climbing

winterfell itself being compared to a tree is such bran imagery "its roots sunk deep into the earth"

and him feeling "like lord of the castle in a way even robb would never know" and that winterfell is his “secret place" lol not a single doubt in my mind bran rules from wf in the end

really just incredibly obvious foreshadowing in every paragraph for god king bran.

cersei wanting jaime to be hand of the king is the funniest thing ive read yet she is crazy

"he said with loathing" yeah whatever throw yourself out next time

tyrion i

nerd

sandor talking shit about bran AND threatening to kill summer in the same convo......he’s pissing me off fr

summers howling literally makes brans heart beat stronger. im so emotional about the direwolves and honestly? they do keep the starklings alive! in every way. soulmates, guardians, ect

j/c: *breathe* tyrion: you guys tried to murder that kid didnt you?

"a grotesque" thats ur future asshole!

[fenrisisms]

me making changes to my own established dragon age worldstate lore: now what is the absolute funniest outcome possible

[spectrum-color]

So we all know GRRM, like all authors, took a lot of inspo from real life fairy tales, religion, and mythology. There are a ton of parallels but I picked out a few to put in this poll

Propaganda: Before anyone says anything, I know a lot of these are dark spins on the original. I’m not trying to say Littlefinger is a handsome prince or whatever. Also note that some of this is based on either things that haven’t happened yet but are highly likely to happen in Winds/Dream up to and including being confirmed by GRRM.

Arya and Jaqen as Hades and Persephone-the young maiden of spring is found by the lord of the underworld, who gives her an object (in this case a coin) to trick her into being trapped in the world of the dead. When she leaves home, winter comes, but when she returns, so does spring.

Sansa as Rapunzel-a princess locked in a tower by an evil sorceress (or just queen) who is spirited away by a man who wants to marry her. Strong focus on her hair as a symbol of her identity.

The Brotherhood Without Banners as Robin Hood and his Merry Men-a band of outlaws who defend the common people against corrupt authority figures. This one is really self explanatory.

Cersei as the evil queen and Margaery/Sansa/eventually Dany as Snow White-a vain, cruel women terrified of her beauty fading and being replaced by a younger woman who outshines her, so she tries to destroy her perceived rival, ultimately leading to her own downfall. The girls in Snow Whites slot are the popular choices for the identity of the YMBQ and the one Cersei is currently convinced it is.

Jaime and Brienne as Beauty and the Beast-a double subversion. Jaime is handsome and Brienne is ugly, but when they meet she’s brave and kind while he’s selfish and cruel, so it’s the beast who helps the beauty be better.

Lyanna, Rhaegar, and Robert as Helen of Troy, Paris, and Menelaus-a beautiful woman fiercely desired by two powerful men, she either runs off with or is kidnapped by a prince, leading to her (soon to be) husband retaliating by starting a tragic war.

Stannis and Shireen as Agammemon and Iphegenia-a king and commander sacrifices his daughter to the gods to win a war. Bonus if this ends up causing Stannis’ downfall.

Lady Stoneheart as Demeter-a mother wanders the land bringing destruction and misery as she searches for her daughter(s.) When her daughters return to her, spring comes.

Cersei and Jaimes children as the emperor wearing no clothes-the emperor walks around naked insisting that he’s a wearing magic invisible outfit, but everyone is afraid to tell him the truth until finally a child points out that he’s wearing nothing at all. See: everyone pretending not to notice that Cerseis children are the result of incest with her brother, and Ned finally realizing the truth when his 11 year old daughter points out that Joffrey is nothing like Robert.

Bran as the Fisher King-the Fisher King is a character from Arthurian myth. He is the guardian of the magical holy grail, protecting it so it (and power) does not fall into the hands of the unworthy. Notably, he also has a deliberating injury to his legs or groin (depending on the version.) Of course the endgame Bran of the show is a blatant rip-off of Leto II from Children of Dune, but I think the Fisher King sounds more like GRRM would do.

Dany as Moses-a leader who has prophetic visions, who after performing a miracle, frees her people from slavery and leads them on a harsh journey to a new land. Notably regarded as a critically important figure by a monotheistic religion.

[laurellerual]

I just realized that many of the most boring theories about the ADOS endgame of some characters can be boiled down to just plucking a sentence from their latest published chapter. For exemple:

In ADWD (The Ugly Little Girl) Arya says she is "No One" and the Kindly man doesn't correct her so, this clearly means Arya will just lose her identity and that's it. This was such a common theory for years somehow. Except that we have TWOW (Mercy) so we know that Arya beign No One lasted less then one chapter.

Or Dany's future madness that can be traced back to ADWD (Daenerys X) where she says to herself that "Dragons plant no trees" and "Fire and Blood". So apparently a thought made in one of her most desperate moment will characterize the entirety of her future politics in Westeros.

Or Bran that in ADWD (Bran III) is in Bloodraven's cave so his endgame is to be in that cave for the rest of his life obv.

Or Sansa that in AFFC (Alayne II) has Littlefinger saying to her "every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa... Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell." so this is clearly what is gonna happen. Because that is what usually happen in ASOIAF to plans that get spelled out like that.

What's next? Jon was killed at the end of his last chapter so he will stay dead for the rest of the story? Oh wait... this theory exist too.

[pixiecactus]

i don't ship jonrya (gendrya it's the one for me tbh) but i swear it bothers me so much that people in this fandom like to discard jonrya like something absurd, that really has no foundation in the books (i can only think of one jon's ships that is like this and it's not jonrya let me tell you) when we have time and time again in both of arya and jon's chapters actually shown how they are so devoted to eachother, making one of the strongest bonds in the entire series, even if you don't take the og outline (jonrya endgame) in consideration:

in agot:

"And Arya…he missed her even more than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair and torn clothes, so fierce and willful. Arya never seemed to fit, no more than he had…yet she could always make Jon smile. He would give anything to be with her now, to muss up her hair once more and watch her make a face, to hear her finish a sentence with him."

and:

"She would have given anything if Jon had been here to call her “little sister” and muss her hair."

in acok:

"When at last she slept, she dreamed of home. The kingsroad wound its way past Winterfell on its way to the Wall, and Yoren had promised he’d leave her there with no one any wiser about who she’d been. She yearned to see her mother again, and Robb and Bran and Rickon . . . but it was Jon Snow she thought of most. She wished somehow they could come to the Wall before Winterfell, so Jon might muss up her hair and call her “little sister.” She’d tell him, “I missed you,” and he’d say it too at the very same moment, the way they always used to say things together. She would have liked that. She would have liked that better than anything."

and:

"As he rode, Jon peeled off his glove to air his burned fingers. Ugly things. He remembered suddenly how he used to muss Arya’s hair. His little stick of a sister. He wondered how she was faring. It made him a little sad to think that he might never muss her hair again. He began to flex his hand, opening and closing the fingers. If he let his sword hand stiffen and grow clumsy, it well might be the end of him, he knew. A man needed his sword beyond the Wall."

their current companions remind them of eachother:

“NO!” Arya and Gendry both said, at the exact same instant. Hot Pie quailed a little. Arya gave Gendry a sideways look. He said it with me, like Jon used to do, back in Winterfell. She missed Jon Snow the most of all her brothers.

and romantic interests too:

Ygritte trotted beside Jon as he slowed his garron to a walk. She claimed to be three years older than him, though she stood half a foot shorter; however old she might be, the girl was a tough little thing. Stonesnake had called her a “spearwife” when they’d captured her in the Skirling Pass. She wasn’t wed and her weapon of choice was a short curved bow of horn and weirwood, but “spearwife” fit her all the same. She reminded him a little of his sister Arya, though Arya was younger and probably skinnier. It was hard to tell how plump or thin Ygritte might be, with all the furs and skins she wore.

and i want to end with one of my favourite arya's quotes:

“I know where we could go,” Arya said. She still had one brother left. Jon will want me, even if no one else does. He’ll call me “little sister” and muss my hair. It was a long way, though, and she didn’t think she could get there by herself. She hadn’t even been able to reach Riverrun. “We could go to the Wall.”

so... no, the idea of jon x arya is not strange at all actually

[atopvisenyashill]

there’s a few potential sansa romantic endgames that i think have some textual basis and i think all of them come with a lot of issues wrt sansa being able to publically claim these relationships which is why i think sansa will say her children are “fathered by a wolf” because regardless of Who she’s with or even the legality of it, she’s going to be actively concealing their identity AND YET she needs to have children.

i think especially that even though arya’s love life is guaranteed to be less complicated, sansa will feel obligated to take this “burden” of ensuring their line onto herself; she wants arya to have the freedom to go where she pleases, be with who she pleases, and follow her passions and that is not easy to do if everyone is expecting you to come home and start popping out kids. I consider them a sort of reflection of ned and lyanna in this way in that sansa, second born and not meant to rule, uses her newfound power to let the wild, youngest girl (but not youngest child) in the family follow her passions wherever they may take her.

this is all kind of weird with the nixed time jump but considering that george has talked about writing stories from arya’s pov about her adventures, I think it’s going to be fairly important in story regardless of their ages that arya will attempt to offer to stay home and marry and have children as a way of helping to protect sansa’s very shaky claim on winterfell but that sansa encourages arya to do whatever she wants. to travel, to help shepherd the boatloads of refugees from the various wars to wherever they want to call home, to settle displaced northerners in other parts of westeros as well, to get involved in the lives of the people arya is helping and agree to help them liberate their own homes by using her skills (crucial here that arya is A leader but not the SOLE leader), or to go out into the woods and be a secret not-quite-an-outlaw (bc sansa isn’t outlawing anything that could hurt arya’s lil crusades, probably is helping bankroll arya) to bring justice to the smallfolk, like whatever it is arya wants to do with her life, the point is that she offers to give it up and sansa refuses to take the offer.

and then we have the idea that her kids are fathered by a wolf. not elizabeth-ing herself here exactly because she’s having children but never publicly acknowledging a father or a husband or even a lover.

i think the candidates most likely are jon snow and theon, with both brienne and podrick as like “i’m not saying he’s gonna do it but i am saying they make a lot of sense narratively” and aegon vi as a huge long shot but still undeniable contender. if briensa does go canon everyone owes me five bucks each tho. i think the options other people float are not just wildly unserious they also clearly don’t think sansa will be The Ruling Lady Of Winterfell, but some much more minor or less emotionally resonant title and i just do not vibe with that shit at all. harry the heir, sandor, sweetrobin, tyrion, littlefucker, like never mind sansa never once showing any real interest in these guys and NONE of these dudes being satisfied by the idea of being her secret husband, if sansa says to arya “yeah i’m marrying tyrion” arya is going “blink twice if you’re being held hostage and you need me to kill him” but it’s too late because jon snow is already unsheathing longclaw and bran is attacking with every raven in winterfell. it’s not fucking happening and imo it’s unserious to pretend like it could happen in canon. (and if it DOES happen in canon you will find me rocking up to george’s house in jersey and demanding to know why he’s so weird about teenage girls). i think margaery is a huge long shot here (and not just bc it would make them both canonically on screen gay) because i don’t think she’s gonna live to the ending, and jeyne poole is too traumatized at this point in time for me to feel confident in putting her in the same category as brienne and pod.

(theon’s trauma is WHY i think he’s still a contender - post reek theon is going to struggle a lot with figuring out where he’s supposed to be, who he’s supposed to be, and who he can trust as he puts himself back together, and that lends itself nicely to the idea of a secret husband/lover imo. once again, we are talking extreme trauma bonding here - that’s just the only way i see sansa’s romances going).

if you’re asking “who do you think arya is winding up with” it’s gendry. i don’t doubt that there were some plans for edric dayne, arya, and gendry but i think gendry was always going to be her great love here, that she’s always going to turn down the idea of marriage to him but gendry doesn’t care so long as they are still together. there’s a neon blinking sign over gendry’s head that says “endgame material” and i think it’s unserious to pretend it’s not there too!!

[jackoshadows]

I don’t understand the logic of people who think Sansa has more skills than her siblings because she knows her courtesies, learned how to handle a 8 year old and is now seducing a womanizer (I’d give her more credits if Harry was like Stannis lol). Arya speaks 5 languages, can tell truths from lies, can lie very well, is good at spying, is a powerful warg, has knowledge of poisons, is well acquainted with the small folk. Bran ruled Winterfell and is the most powerful greenseer. How are Sansa’s skills more useful? Why would Jon NEED her as his bride? Every Jonsa claims she’s oh so necessary, and I don’t doubt it. I want her to learn the meaning of Winter is Coming and help mitigate the food shortage by providing grain to the North, but she’s far from being as skilled as her siblings unless we’re talking about embroidery and harp playing.

Sansa stan logic:

GRRM has written nothing for Sansa as a leader of the people unlike the whole books he wrote for Jon and Dany where they make mistakes or Arya leading her small wolf pack or Bran as Prince of Winterfell. That’s why she’s going to end up the endgame best leader of the series because Jon, Tyrion and Dany's arcs are actually about Sansa becoming a leader.

GRRM has written nothing for Jon and Sansa in terms of a relationship, they hardly mention each other or care for each other on the page despite growing up together. That’s why they are going to be the central, most important and best romantic relationship in the books.

GRRM has not connected Sansa to the Northern plots and characters there like he has Arya, Bran and Jon. That’s why she is the ONLY KEY TO THE NORTH and going to be the Queen in the North and leader of their people.

GRRM killed off Lady early into the books while writing Summer, Nymeria and Ghost connecting the Stark kids through wolf dreams, helping them develop and build their warging powers and in the case of Nymeria gather a huge wolf pack in the Riverlands. This is why the direwolves are unimportant in the story and don’t really matter for the Starks or their Stark identity.

GRRM has written the very least for Sansa thinking of her father and she never remembers his advice or wisdom or takes strength from his words like he has done for Jon, Arya and Bran. This is why Sansa is the most like Ned, the Nediest of the Stark children, a mini Ned in the making.

GRRM has not written a magical/fantasy plot for Sansa like he has for Dany, Bran, Arya and Jon. That’s why ASoIaF is mostly about the politicking happening and fantasy/magic is boring/unimportant/bad/evil.

And so on and so forth. It really is fascinating to watch this huge subsection of fans reading an entirely different series of books to the rest of us, think characters who have magical arcs in a high fantasy series are unreliable or evil or write essays on who is the best and smartest leader based on tradfem standards of femininity etc.

[catofoldstones]

its my personal opinion that it will be arya that ends up killing dany and jon killing the king of the white walkers. a lot of reasons towards this idea is that d&d fliped around the ending that grrm showed them and the fact that arya has more plot and relevance with slavery and jon has more relevance with white walkers. also i believe jon will uploaded neds beliefs of sparing dany leaving it up to arya to actually killing her to protect her family and the north

The theory definitely has merit! Arya training with the Faceless Men and then assassinating Dxny when she sits the Iron Throne a-la-Maegor style is very compelling. Dxny apparently being killed by a blade of the same Iron Throne she had been running after her whole life is such smooth storytelling. It is something that we have foreshadowing and compelling evidence for as well. Not to mention Robert thinks of sending one of the Faceless Men as assassins to slay her in the first book. A Faceless Man ending the act to its true satisfaction is a well written storyline if I know one. Moreover, it would be such a rich conclusion to the story arc that Dxny has slowly started on since the end of AGoT and is more apparent since ASoS & ADWD.

However, I have been recently thinking that Dxny dying in a fire would also be interesting. It would form a parallel with the first book wherein she emerged from a fire, literally rebirthed with her dragons. She might trigger the wildfire in KL and die in it as a crazy twist to the adage “fire cannot hurt a Targaryen” which we all know is untrue. It also aligns well with her tragic antagonist status. She is someone who tries her best to solve a situation only to find herself in a sticky situation of the same making, or worse. So I believe that if she (accidentally, unknowingly, not knowing better, thinks is for the good) sets off the KL wildfire, that would be very in-character for her. Not only will the wildfire take down the Iron Throne with it (which will 100% not exist by the end of the series), it will also burn down Kings Landing, which also is foreshadowed to not survive the ending by way of getting burned down.

I don’t believe that Jon will leave it to Arya to kill Dxny in any capacity simply because he doesn’t have that authority over her. More than that, I don’t think Jon & Dxny’s arcs will intertwine as much as they did in the show or even enough that Jon will think it a personal duty to eradicate Dxny. Although, I do think that the show very obviously exchanged Arya and Jon and Bran’s endgame. It definitely makes more sense for Bran and Jon to be ones to defeat the Others - the Ice Threat- finally (though there is no Night King in the books, which is sad because I miss my frosty man :,( sigh anyway) and Arya to defeat the Fire Threat given her training and motivations. Idk what d&d were thinking, seriously.

But what can I say, some of my opinions are still crystalizing and shaping as I reread the books and interact with other meta.

[leesielex]

Magic Awakens | CH 53: Bran Stark II

Summary: Bran has to leave Winterfell. With nowhere left to go he begins his journey north.

A Preview:

He padded through the forest searching for food to bring back to his pack. Not his wolf brothers and sister, they were all still far from here, but his brother that rode on the back of the giant and the two who smelled of bogs and moss. They were nearby in a cave safe from the elements, warm by a fire.

The further north they traveled the more difficult it was to find prey of any kind. The animals were scarce as the air turned colder. Most days he found a couple rabbits, a deer if he was blessed by the Old Gods, though some nights he found nothing. Today he found only a squirrel and was running back to where the people were. He paused outside and sniffed.

His pack did not sleep alone last night. A strange smelling man of mountains and winter stayed as well. He sniffed and could tell he had left, his trail went south. So he stalked into the cave and when he found his companions he dropped the squirrel at their feet.

Bran popped his eyes open and took a gaping breath. The Liddle had vacated and in his place he left oatcakes and sausages. He silently thanked the man for the food. Then called Summer over to thank his wolf as well for bringing him what he could find. Their supplies had long ran out and this bounty would too.

When Theon had taken Winterfell, Bran watched many of those he had grown up around die in front of him. The Ironborn had betrayed them, though it became clear he had no true plan, Bran knew they would not be safe there. Jojen insisted they sneak out in the middle of the night. His destiny was to fly but to do that he must go North to find the Three Eyed Crow.

Rickon, Bran, Osha, Jojen, Meera, and Hodor headed out at midnight. They led a trail into the Wolfswood. Once they reached the edge, they all doubled back the way they came while they sent their wolves on to lead a false trail. Eventually they found a stream and their wolves jumped into the cool water, walking through it for many leagues.

They hid in the crypts, near the door until they heard the signal that Winterfell had awoken. Then they would slink back into the cold, dank darkness of the King’s of Winter’s resting place. It was always dark in the crypts and time was nearly impossible to tell. No one who was not a Stark ever dared to enter, so they knew they would be safe for a time.

Osha would sneak upstairs and steal food in the dead of night while it was clear and most people slept. The wolves roamed the woods and Bran and Rickon continued to have their wolf dreams. When awake, Rickon would cry for home not quite understanding the seriousness of what had transpired, nor that they were technically home.

If it hadn't been for the wolf dreams of both Stark boys, then none would ever know whether it was day or night or how many days had passed during their extended stay in the crypts. One morning, Bran had awoken from a grisly wolf dream. Corpses littered a camp before the ancient keep.

The sky was grey with smoke and Winterfell was burned and broken. Towers had toppled over, crumbling to the ground. There was no sign of life besides carrion birds and other scavengers ripping meat from the bodies.

Click here to read on AO3

[esther-dot]

The debate about the appropriateness of Jonsa overshadows the political/feudal argument. Unless you can make a convincing case Sansa is going to run away and become a peasant with Sandor (didn't GRRM literally mock that...), or that she can singlehandedly Elizabeth the first it, then you need to be thinking about marriage. Marriage is just as important as war in GRRM's books, if not moreso, and it's a symbolic struggle at that.

Of course Stumpy has searched for Sansa's husband and applied this thinking, but it's one that's otherwise severely lacking. GRRM would go there. We know he'd go there, cousins or not. The question is, why?

Stumpy's Find Sansa's Husband is one of my favs!

No worries! Each of us has a fandom pet peeve we need to rant about. And you're right about Martin's criticism of the "running off with a stable boy trope," in fact, it sounds like the idea really annoys him (his quote below the cut)

And then there are some things that are just don’t square with history. In some sense I’m trying to respond to that. [For example] the arranged marriage, which you see constantly in the historical fiction and television show, almost always when there’s an arranged marriage, the girl doesn’t want it and rejects it and she runs off with the stable boy instead. This never fucking happened. It just didn’t. There were thousands, tens of thousand, perhaps hundreds of thousands of arranged marriages in the nobility through the thousand years of Middle Ages and people went through with them. That’s how you did it. It wasn’t questioned. Yeah, occasionally you would want someone else, but you wouldn’t run off with the stable boy. And that’s another of my pet peeves about fantasies. The bad authors adopt the class structures of the Middle Ages; where you had the royalty and then you had the nobility and you had the merchant class and then you have the peasants and so forth. But they don’t’ seem to realize what it actually meant. They have scenes where the spunky peasant girl tells off the pretty prince. The pretty prince would have raped the spunky peasant girl. He would have put her in the stocks and then had garbage thrown at her. You know. I mean, the class structures in places like this had teeth. They had consequences. And people were brought up from their childhood to know their place and to know that duties of their class and the privileges of their class. It was always a source of friction when someone got outside of that thing. And I tried to reflect that.

I think the issue is, S*nsans and people who shipped Sansa with LF were some of the first to write real meta on her (from what I've heard), so certain fans/perceptions got pretty firmly established, and then a new generation of Sansa fan came along who rejected the Sansa x adult man/molester ships, but it was pretty easy for them to assume that due to Sansa's age, Martin would leave her marriage to the future.

Also, a lot of people don't expect Sansa to be QitN, so the succession issue isn't putting pressure on the marriage timeline, and if you're someone who thinks Bran will actually be king over all Westeros or Rickon will be KitN etc etc, you can imagine Sansa's endgame is safety in Winterfell, not a romance or marriage.

Personally, I think Sansa's interactions with Cersei and LF indicate that she wants to be the right kind of queen (in defiance of Cersei's advice) and is being equipped with tools to achieve her own ends / play the game, for the right reasons, to good ends, but being handed tools nonetheless. She is so unfocused on her birthright and power, it seemed like she was meant to be contrasted with Cersei and Dany. The natural endpoint of that imo would be her becoming queen. And, if she is queen, I've argued that based on other queen's experiences, we must see her married as being a queen is a whole new set of risks, not a happy ending in and of itself.

Of course, some have speculated that the endgame will be indicated, not actually chronicled on the page, as in, Jon and Sansa fall in love, but Jon does get sent to the wall or goes into exile for a callback of what Sansa imagined she could do to save Ned, and we end kinda knowing, eventually they'll get back together, but the actual happy ending isn't on the page. Or the alternative scenario is that Jon is named KitN because of Robb's Will and marries Sansa to resolve all the chaos after parentage reveal. That's where your thoughts on the political aspect of marriage comes in because that would be very tidy. Actually, whoever is recognized by the Northern Lords, whether it’s my preference of Sansa or Jon, the heir issue was a big deal for Robb, so marriage / heirs will certainly come up and impact the plot.

As for Jonsa itself and it being icky to some, I've said before, I think Martin must have something he wants to do with incest beyond showcasing how toxic it is. As in, that is not a way to challenge the reader, by saying something we all know, and his whole shtick is to write complexity into every relationship, every hero, even many villains, so I don't for a minute believe that's he's introduced this topic without planning to ask the audience to think a little more deeply on it. To force us to look at it from a different angle. The way he does that is to give us heroes who are tempted and make us squirm until we get parentage reveal.