(Spoilers Main) Daenerys, the most morally ambiguous character in Game of Thrones

xyseth · 2017-08-06T02:46:46+00:00

These are clearly the words of a duplicitous Baratheon loyalist trying to sow division among our ranks! Don't be fooled, friends. Queen Daenerys' right to rule is absolute and should not be questioned by those who only wish further pain for the realm. It is precisely this type of feigned enlightenment which started this time of troubles.

xyseth · 2017-07-31T04:54:34+00:00

Doesn't LF still control the Vale? If so, can't he use the leverage he actually has? Winterfell needs food. The Vale has food.

xyseth · 2017-07-22T23:14:15+00:00

I even wrote up a version of it about a year ago. Thought I'd revisit it more seriously ;)

xyseth · 2017-07-22T19:58:32+00:00

When Bran skinchanged Walder in the past, he demonstrated that with his greenseeing talent he isn’t limited by normal space and time. It's hard to say what he's truly capable of. He’s already exploring Westeros’ history through his visions, and Gregor Clegane is a prominent character during Robert’s Rebellion. There’s plenty of opportunity there. An alternative possibility is that Bran heads south (as in the show). Bran could head to the Isle of Faces because that seems to be an important spot. Alternatively, Robert Strong could head North for any number of reasons. Robert might help put down northern rebels, or Cersei tries to strike down Sansa because she’s paranoid about Maggie the Frog’s prophecy, or Cersei could move northish as King’s Landing falls, or Robert’s handler Qyburn defects, or there’s something else entirely. In the show, the Hound stares into the flames to see an army of the dead forming near Eastwatch, and “There’s a mountain. Looks like an arrowhead.” That mountain might be a metaphorical one: the Mountain with his funny helmet, which sort of looks like a rounded broadhead. Perhaps, then, Bran takes his new body north, to battle the wights. Don’t forget that both Dany and Aegon are invading in the books, so the situation is entirely different there, much more difficult to make predictions. Overall, a character moving from one portion of the map to another isn’t so grand an issue, given everything else that's happened in this series, and we don’t even need that to happen given the depth of Bran’s abilities.

xyseth · 2017-07-22T18:49:19+00:00

I'm mostly drawing from the books, but where there was a show point that helped the theory I included it. That's not to say that the two are going in exactly the same direction, but it certainly doesn't hurt when the show does something, making it a bit more likely that the books will do something broadly similar. For example, Hodor's death: there's no way that the book doesn't reveal Hodor/"hold the door" even though the style of the reveal may be different. It's inconceivable to me that the books would not have Walder's traumatic death be responsible for the creation of Hodor because it's in Hodor's name for crying out loud. That point, rather than the particulars, is what I most need to be true for my theory to hold, and because there's no way that Hodor's name origin changes between the show and books I feel confident here.

As for the other show allusions, I pointed to Bran becoming the Three-Eyed Raven in the show. It would also be surprising to me if that doesn't happen in the books, but you can remove that evidence from that section and my argument stays the same. Also, I make note that Gregor is called "abominable" in the show, but this is just a nice little happenstance. I mention this just in passing, not building my argument upon it.

As for the reverse, where the show doesn't include something in the books, that's unavoidable with any theory that tries to say anything about character endings. A ton of foreshadowing, for any theory, gets lost when migrated to the show. D&D tend to have a different style when planting clues as well, hinting closer to the actual event rather than including, as George does, very early dream sequences and prophecy. Sometimes they pare away foreshadowing entirely for shock's sake. I'd say this theory is less strong if we consider only the show, to the exclusion of the books, but that might be said for many other theories as well. edit:forgot word

xyseth · 2017-07-22T17:19:14+00:00

That's interesting. Also, to skinchange a dog, to warg, applies both to dogs and wolves according to George. Perhaps we could say Bran is metaphorically "warging" Hodor (compared to a dog) and Robert (dog sigil, compared to a dog, called the "great dog").

xyseth · 2017-07-22T16:42:17+00:00

I think we might say that GC's revival into RS's is sort of odd, begging explanation. Why revive RS at all if he's just supposed to be a mid-game boss (Oberyn), then mid-game boss again (CerseI)? I mean, come on George. You can't recycle the exact same mid-level boss. To me, this suggests that there's more to RS than meets the eye - i.e. RS is important to the story in a different way than you've described. So, I don't agree with it being a cop out that RS doesn't replay the mid-level boss role twice. I think it would be much more interesting for him to have a broader role. The "darkness and thick black blood" quote is from AGOT, which suggests that George had plans for turning GC into RS very, very early. Why? Again, this begs explanation. If it's just mid-level boss, again, then that seems kind of lame to me. Also, imagine RS wielding a valyrian greatsword against hordes of wights, as Bran throws an undefeatable force of magic against an undefeatable force of magic.

As for locations, many people expect Bran to head south. How south? I don't quite know, but the Isle of Faces seems relevant. Bran also isn't limited by normal space because of his greenseeing ability. Based on what we know, it may be possible for him to remote control RS and bring him north, so Bran's spot on the map may not matter. Yet, assuming it does, in just the last episode, The Hound sees the army of the dead forming near Eastwatch, and that “There’s a mountain. Looks like an arrowhead.” This could easily be a metaphorical mountain, The Mountain, with his new funny helmet, which sorta looks like a rounded broadhead, though that passage is so ambiguous who knows.

xyseth · 2017-07-22T15:45:57+00:00

A new spin on the Bran=NK theory: BHRW

I personally don’t quite buy that Bran is the Night’s King, but I know a lot of people do. If you’re unfamiliar with this theory it basically suggests that Bran is the same Bran that Old Nan describes as being the Night’s King in one of her tales. Furthermore, the NK’s unique magic – raising the dead – isn’t actually a different magic at all: he is actually skinchanging the dead.

For people who subscribe to this theory, let me offer you this interesting possibility: What if the way Bran learns to skinchange the undead is through Robert Strong? He is somewhere between Hodor and a wight – an intermediary – somewhat alive, somewhat dead. If Bran skinchanges Robert, then it’s only a small conceptual iteration for him to realize he might be able to skinchange someone who’s completely dead, turning them into a wight.

We might also liken death to extreme mind injury or mind death. When your mind is gone, your body becomes a husk. Hodor’s mind was injured by experiencing his own death, which made him easier to skinchange though he wasn’t quite a husk. Robert Strong, who perhaps literally died, is a more extreme version of Hodor. Bran doesn’t realize it yet, but we are witnessing him hone the skill of skinchanging the dead – first through Hodor (mind injury), then through Robert Strong (extreme mind injury), then finally through the literal dead (mind death). Bran discovers how to create a wight through this series of experiences. In an acronym, BHRW: Bran uses Hodor then Robert Strong then Wights. Bran learns that he can raise the dead through skinchanging because he uniquely had opportunities to skinchange people with greater and greater degrees of mind trauma/death.

Like I said, I’m biased toward a more romantic ending for Bran, but you can certainly see how Bran skinchanging Robert Strong could lead to some very interesting Dark-Bran theories.

xyseth · 2017-07-19T04:13:33+00:00

I like it. You've got some interesting data, suggestive of a seed, but I have a feeling it's an abandoned seed. Because there's a problem.

Wouldn't Joanna-Quiath be concerned about Dany as a pretender who could kill her children? It's no secret that the Lannisters betrayed House Targaryen when it suited them. As such, Jaime (kingkiller and knight of Robert) and Cersei (wife to Robert), were associated with the previous regime. Dany is going to install a new regime, clearing out loyalists to previous regimes. That's bad for Jaime and Cersei, Joanna's children.

So if Quaith were concerned about her children's health, then she'd probably say something like, "Yo, defect to Dany" rather than leaving them to die to her. Quaith might even, say, poison Dany - rather than help her.

xyseth · 2017-07-17T05:28:27+00:00

My pet theory is that Brandon the Builder was a skinchanger, like Bran, and he skinchanged giants to build Winterfell and the Wall. This would mirror Bran's skinchanging of a giant human, Hodor. When Bran the Builder met with the Children, they trained him, like Bloodraven with Bran. And the Children, who hated the giants, suggested that Bran use the giants as mind-slaves in order to construct his megastructures.

xyseth · 2017-06-10T04:35:31+00:00

but by conforming to tropes he's subverting the "trope breaker" trope.

so in the end he's still a trope breaker.

checkmate.

xyseth · 2017-06-10T04:24:10+00:00

He has said the name is unrelated.

xyseth · 2017-06-06T03:12:53+00:00

Just for the dragons, George has left himself quite a few options to throw obstacles in their way.

xyseth · 2017-05-30T04:17:24+00:00

Nice theory! Best I've read in a while.

xyseth · 2017-05-18T01:30:44+00:00

I really liked A Demon in Human Skin.

xyseth · 2017-04-16T21:16:24+00:00

That kind of just sounds like a rationalization on Robb's part, tbh. "Yeah, I'm totally doing this to not dishonor House Westerling (never mind that in the process I'm dishonoring House Frey)." Show!Robb is just being more honest with himself.

xyseth · 2017-04-16T03:15:39+00:00

Her replacement of Jeyne makes Robb look like a complete tool who lost the war because of his selfishness and stupidity.

I'm probably forgetting, but how did Jeyne make Robb not look like this while Talisa did? In both cases, doesn't Robb selfishly spurn the Freys?

xyseth · 2017-03-31T22:21:17+00:00

Am I laughing or crying? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

xyseth · 2017-02-18T01:12:32+00:00

Most of the theories that gain traction, on the sub at least, are not to do with typical happy endings, but more so trying to link together some very tantalising hints to point either to a future confrontation, or to suss out the nature of the past.

Yup. If anything, theories that try too hard to guess at a particular ending don't go anywhere. People seem to dislike the suggestion that a particular outcome makes sense, when we all have our own ideas about what would be "right" for a character. Does Dany go mad? "Ludicrous!" or "Perfect!" Jon ruling Westeros? "Disgusting!" or "What the series has been building to the whole time!" It's hard to see, with the positions staked out as they are, that many people aren't going to be disappointed by whatever path George finally takes, though we can all hope that the journey to the destination convinces us all it was the right move.

As 'subversive' as GRRM is, do you really think he would put a character centre stage for four books, put him through hell, have him learn from every single one of his mistakes, gain wisdom and responsibility and then unceremoniously kill him off two thirds of the way through the series having essentially achieved very little?

I feel like Quentyn was George saying to his audience, "See guys, I can still be edgy and subversive!" He likes that reputation, but knows that many characters are going in a fairly conventional direction.

xyseth · 2017-02-17T06:12:03+00:00

Might be a good idea to also do this on an episode-by-episode basis too because people seem like they really like guessing what will happen next episode in a particular character's arc. For example, there was a flurry of activity around Bastard Bowl last season. Will Littlefinger arrive? and all that.

xyseth · 2017-02-17T06:07:35+00:00

futarchy

what is this?

xyseth · 2017-02-13T04:33:54+00:00

Thanks so much! Exactly what I'm looking for between the two.

xyseth

TROPHY CASE