I know speculating about when the next book will come out is pointless given what we know of the author, but his editor said some stuff that gives me hope that Winds of Winter will be out faster than Dance. Link

Not putting much stock in that, but the fact that it's his editor and not him gives me a small atom of hope.

 

Recently started aFfC. Each Brienne chapter brings me closer to giving up.

Someone please tell me the interesting characters come back in aDwD.

 

ADWD Pov chapters might have spoilers, fuck it:

Spoiler

Jon Snow - 13 chapters
Tyrion Lannister - 12 chapters
Daenerys Targaryen - 10 chapters
Theon Greyjoy - 7 chapters
Quentyn Martell - 4 chapters
Davos Seaworth - 4 chapters
Barristan Selmy - 4 chapters
Asha Greyjoy - 3 chapters
Bran Stark - 3 chapters
Jon Connington - 2 chapters
Cersei Lannister - 2 chapters
Victarion Greyjoy - 2 chapters
Arya Stark - 2 chapters
Areo Hotah - 1 chapter
Jaime Lannister - 1 chapter
Melisandre - 1 chapter

 

Ahhhh thank the gods. Thanks for restoring hope

 

Posted this the quest thread but it makes more sense for it to be here.

There is this guy named Preston Jacobs on youtube, who has a few amazing videos out, each dealing with different theories regarding the books.

My favorite so far is called The Dornish Master Plan and addresses issues such as the fact that Doran's 17 year plan seems to have just been having his daughter marry Viserys and later have his son marry Daenerys, which is as weak as a plan can get.

This is just a theory but so far it makes the most sense to me, and if true, I absolutely understand why GRRM takes so long with each book.

The Dornish Master Plan a four part youtube video series by Preston Jacobs where he explains his theory whilst backing it up with passages from the books and logical thinking.

As he said, may not be true in the end but I genuinely wish it is. Makes a lot of sense to me.

A one part video is titled The Locusts of Mereen where he talks about :

Then there are his videos about the Pink Letter Mystery

So, what do you guys think?

 

Seen most of this on reddit over the last few years. Pefectly plausible, and I bet it is some what true, but I doubt it is quite this involved.

 

Watched the Dornish Master Plan. While some of it seems pretty weakly substantiated, most of it blew my mind. There are a lot of throw away lines that I discarded as unimportant while reading, but when you put it together with other throw away lines all over the place, they suddenly seem really significant.

 

That pretty much sums up most ASOIAF theories, to be honest. I love 'em all, though. There's a few out there that are givens (Gravedigger, Frey Pies, Alleras), some at like 96% (R+L=J), and then things... get crazy.

Cleganebowl, every Prince That Was Promised theory (Jon, Jaime, Jorah, Dany et cetera), Daario = Euron, Ashford Tournament Theory, Greyscalepocalypse, Jojen Paste, every Night King theory (Stannis, Jon again et cetera), Euron The Dusky Woman, Val the Other, Jaqen's Heist, Waking Dragons Out Of Stone, Dornish Master Plan, Tattered Prince's Master Plan, Tyrell's Master Plan, Northern Conspiracy, Red Wedding 2.0, Lonmouth Lemoncloak, Theon Durden, Skahazfinger, High Septon = Howland Reed, Southron Ambitions, Ashara Lemore or Ashara Reed, every Valonqar theory (Jaime, Tommen, Arya et cetera), the Mad Mother and Barristan Queenslayer, R+L=J&M, Dany's Visenya Impersonation, every Pink Letter theory (Mance, Asha, actually Ramsay et cetera), Tywin Gets Viper'd, Dragon In The Crypts, Tyrion the Clever, Bolt-ON, Night Lamp, Lyn Cobray's Prize, every Aegon VI theory (Blackfyre, I+S, Brightflame, N/B+A et cetera), every Shiera Seastar theory (Old Nan, Melisandre, Quaithe)...

Fucking everything, man. I ain't even getting started.

 

That whole thing started because Gurm is lousy with remembering eye colors. He made Renly's green at one point, and while Val was initially described with grey eyes, after that ranging to find Tormund she was described with blue eyes. Couple that with her pale blonde hair and everyone is rioting to make her the Night's Queen and Jon the next Night's King.

Too broad here, you might as well be describing Cersei.

Wait what?

 

Yeah, Val the Other is bullshit, but I like that we got that crazy to come up with it. Mad Mother is Dany, and the theory is that because we don't see her from anyone else's PoV, she's actual insane and Barristan will have to Queenslay her, but I can see the Cersei confusion.

Bolt-ON? It's basically that Roose Bolton is immortal, the only Bolton from the very start, and he's skinning people to keep himself young or some shit like that.

 

Okay, that's different and strange and I haven't heard it yet but it's pretty far there... like X-Files way out there.

The Dornish Master Plan... I'm leery about it as hell. There isn't a way I can connect all these dots 'leading' to it in one reading, if it'll turn out it's actually true. Sorry, GRRM, but your books are ponderous and sprinkling a number of hints throughout 700+ pages every few years just doesn't work for me.

 

Bolton is a ASoIaF version of a vampire? That would be quite cool, but only with enough foreshadowing because as it is it would be too random.

But now I want a good Dracula/ASoIaF crossover.

And what suppose to be the Tyrell's Master Plan? I'm only aware of some speculations that Willas may be one of the main players of the Game, but no details.

 

Tyrell's Master Plan isn't as extensive and crazy as the Dornish one, but it's basically just the elements of various things leading to Cersei's downfall. The main crux has to do with Loras's fate - if he's actually injured as bad as it sounds or not - and what the plan is with Margaery's trial. It's mostly born out of Cersei being crazy and wrong half the time in AFFC. And could easily change if Aegon shows up.

Also, I'll put together a brief explanation of that list along with some links. Gimme a bit.

 

In as few words as possible:
Tyrell Grand Conspiracy at heart is about le'gasp! gaining monopoly on power and the best way to do is to remove Cersei from the picture, permanently. What better way to do it than to oust her as the scheming, lying, crazy bitch that she is, hence involvement of the Faith to publicly humiliate her and 'prove' that she's evulz.

Loras, probably, isn't as grievously injured injured as Cersei was led the believe.
Aurane Waters is probably a Tyrell plant and one of their provocateurs. He was the man who told Cersei about Loras' injuries and mad dash to take Dragonstone, leading to Cersei being happy that Margaery lost her shield(Loras) which slowly led to the arrests. Margaery is most likely still a virgin and it will be proved as the last nail to Cersei's coffin.

Jury's out about Taena. Maybe she's working for the Tyrells, maybe she's one of Doran's spies, maybe she's just that enterprising.

 

Compared to the Dornish, it's not much of a master plan.

That would be cool because some of them are complete mysteries to me.

 

That's why it's the Grand Conspiracy and not a Master Plan. They're flying a bit blind and by the seat of their pants.

 

The ASOIAF Theory Masterlist. Now with even less textual support! Added some more, too. Biggest source for most are here, here, and basically everything on r/asoiaf! And for immediate Winds battles of ice and of fire, the Winterfell Huis Clos, and a bunch regarding Meereen here...

-- R+L=J. C'mon, we all know this one by now. Doesn't automatically mean it was a consensual union, or that it actually means something for Jon should he find out. Most arguments against it are just people reacting against hype/thinking that GRRM is some crazy troll. Well, he is sometimes, but not that much. Common ideas on how it'll be confirmed is basically a race between someone meeting Howland Reed and Bran using Weirwood.net.

-- Gravedigger. Sandor Clegane survived 'n shit. Living on the Quiet Isle, digging graves, limpin' around. Maybe his happy ending, maybe not.

-- Frey Pies. Wyman Manderly hosted three Freys - Jared, Rhaegar and Symond - on the way from White Harbour to Winterfell, but all three went missing. Then, three pies show up at the wedding feast, Wyman asks for the Rat Cook to be played, and then heartily eats the pies in front of everyone. Epic trolling, guy.

-- The Sphinx. Sam's new Oldtown buddy Alleras is actually Sarella Sand, one of Oberyn's bastard daughters. Wanted to become a Maester, couldn't because she was a girl, posed as a boy. Highly imaginative name, too.

-- Cleganebowl. Ser Robert Strong of the Kingsguard is a queer giant of a fellow who never takes off his helm, never eats or shits, and has undertaken a vow of silence. He will champion Cersei in her upcoming trial of the Faith. No duh, it's Gregor Clegane's undead corpse, reanimated by Qyburn, and maybe even with some bonus parts attached (Robb's head, for example). The idea is that the Faith will call upon their own champion in the form of a novice from the Quiet Isle who's been digging graves. The two "dead" brothers get their final showdown, and it's all kinds of hype. Now. The biggest problem is that it feels like Sandor's still too out of the game to jump up for the trial that'll probably happen early in Winds, but that doesn't preclude a meeting down the line.

-- Daario = Euron. This is a "we've never seen them in the same room" kinda theory, but it's not tooooo crazy. Dany's story does mostly take place removed enough from Westeros's timeline (She was married to Drogo before Jon Arryn died, for example) that it's possible that Daario leaving from Meereen was to head back to the Iron Islands and kick off shit. The theories about Euron involve all kinds of magic bullshit, and the idea that he might've sailed to the Iron Islands from the west. Euron being Victarion's paramour the Dusky Woman is another lol!Euron one, but hey, who knows.

-- Ashford Tournament Theory. In the first Dunk and Egg short story, the tournament at Ashford is to celebrate the lady's thirteenth nameday, and involves five champions defending her honour or whatever. The five end up being a Baratheon, a Tyrell, a Lannister, a Hardying and a Targaryen. Sound familiar? Sansa Stark's marriage prospects: Joffrey Baratheon, Willas Tyrell, Tyrion Lannister, Harold Hardying, and... If Ashford theory holds, she'll marry a Targaryen.

Aegon is the main possibility, but I'm kinda rooting for Jon, assuming R+L=J. The Jon/Sansa endgame is such a baller move, given their character arcs and parallels, and the very idea of ending the series with our lead family getting incest-y (Technically cousins, but raised siblings!), while the story started with the incest of the Lannisters. And c'mon, we all root for Sansa/Happiness more than anything else, and Jon at least knows how oral. Things'd work out. And the Ned/Cat parallel, both in looks and the "starting as duty" thing. I mean c'mon.

-- Jojen Paste. A popular one, mentioned often. Basically that Jojen was sacrificed to make a paste that Bran consumed in ADWD; mentions of it tasting like blood, Jojen knew about his death, Meera seemed depressed in that chapter. Et cetera.

-- Jaqen's Heist. Jaqen's currently hanging in Oldtown as Pate the pig boy, and he's obviously got a mission. If the Faceless Men are actually behind their own conspiracy - probably, yeah - or if it's just Jaqen on his own (What was he doing in that King's Landing dungeon anyway...), who knows. But it's worth noting that in one of the Oldtown vaults is a book basically detailing various things about dragons, of which it's implied the Maesters were behind the eradication of. Dun dun dun. Combine with the theory that Euron might've paid for a Faceless Man killing Balon with a dragon's egg he found in Old Valyria... DUN DUN DUN. Who even knows.

-- Lady Lance and Aegon. This is a bit of a spoiler to a preview chapter in Winds Of Winter, but I adore this theory, man. Lady Lance is Elia Sand, Oberyn's fourteen year old bastard daughter who accompanies Arianne to meet with Aegon VI. Now, Elia is described as being wilful, going around making out with stableboys, and a big horse rider. I've been thinking that Arianne's going to marry Aegon - Dornish support might fall easier with him than Dany given how Quentyn faired, and Arianne's own ambition - but the bonus idea that Aegon would then have a dalliance with a horse-loving younger woman? I mean c'mon. History repeating in a hilarious way, even if Aegon's not really Rhaeger's son. If it means something bad for the plot more than just a little thing, then all the better!

-- Dance With Dragons 2.0. The original Dance was a dispute of heirs, a male heir versus a female one, and dragons were involved in the conflict. Lots of death ensued, dragon and Targaryen and everyone fucking else. With Aegon landing in Westeros and Dany destined to follow (GRRM has said she will, at least, get there.), it's a common theory that history'll repeat. Maybe with some bonus Blackfyre angle (see below), maybe not. There's a billion ideas of who'll side with who (Like, Jaime might champion for Aegon to go up against Tyrion, the Tyrells and the Martells will be for Aegon while the Vale and Euron's Ironborn for Dany, and who knows where the North'll go (With King Jon? Who knows!)), but yeah, it'll be fun. Maybe.

-- Aegon VI aka the Mummer's Dragon: Again, there's like a billion. He could be a Blackfyre pawn from Varys - himself a Blackfyre maybe; he does have a shaved head, like Egg did, and he might've been chosen for that ritual by that dude who took his junk 'cause of the power of king's blood - and/or Illyrio. Could be Illyrio's son via Serra, his beloved. Serra might've been the Blackfyre. Serra might've even been a Brightflame. Aegon may even be the real deal, and just called the Mummer's Dragon because he was groomed by Varys. Impostors showed up in the War Of The Roses aka the real war ASOIAF takes some inspiration from, and some made it pretty far regardless. Who knows!

-- Hooded Man theories. The Hooded Man who appeared in Winterfell in ADWD to Theon, calling him Theon Turncloak and kinslayer, was too weird an encounter to not be a hint at something, so. Common speculation ranges from it being Theon Durden - aka Theon seeing shit; he does lose some time in those chapters, and may have even killed some folk along with everyone else killing folk - to a Glover (Robett, probably), one of the Umbers on Stannis's side (Mors), Blackfish (yeah no), Hallis Mollen, or Septon Chayle, Winterfell's Septon who the Ironborn threw in a well, but he also said he was a strong swimmer... Notably, when Theon dreams about all the dead people he used to know in Winterfell, some time after the HM encounter, Chayle isn't among the mentioned, while Mikken and Farlan and Robb et cetera are. Maybe?

-- Waking Dragons Out Of Stone. I also love this one 'cause it's mean. TL;DR: Shireen's going to be sacrificed by Melisandre to revive Jon. She has had dreams that the dragons were coming to eat her. Oh boy. Patchface's part to play in unknown, but it would be something if he immediately turned around and killed Melisandre for it.

-- Tattered Prince's Various Master Plans: This guy's got all kinds of mystique to him, so might be behind some plots or have some big things coming. We still don't really know why he sent Westerosi to infiltrate Meereen or what his plan was with the Windblown, but his connection to Pentos could mean something. Something like him and Illyrio having a connection. Someone theorised that Illyrio's dragon eggs that he gave to Dany were once Tatters's. And he wants them back, bitch. He might've also poisoned the locusts in trying to take out Dany. He may also be the mummer's dragon described in Quaithe's prophecy, as it was noted that the mummer's dragon and the sun's son were in the same sentence or whatever, and Quentyn did come with the Windblown!

-- Northern Conspiracy. This one's, well, a thing. Basically: Robb's will named Jon as King In The North, and Galbart Glover and Maege Mormont are out there conspiring with other Northern houses to set it up. Maybe letting Stannis and the Boltons kill each other. Or something like that. Worth reading, for sure.

-- Red Wedding 2.0. My favourite. Daven Lannister, the Warden of the West and Jaime's cousin, is getting married to some random Frey in Riverrun. Tom O'Sevens of the Brotherhood's already inside, and Brienne's bringing Jaime to Stoneheart as we speak. If I was a revenge-driven zombie, I'd have a sense of ironic justice too. So Jaime will be used to let the Brotherhood into Riverrun, and then a massacre will ensue. All kinds of variables could be in play - Nymeria's wolf pack? - and there's all sorts of moral greyness to play at. Because Roslin Frey's still there, for example. And all Freys are targets to Stoneheart. And Jaime might be put into another impossible position in facing his own army. It's beautiful, man.

-- Lonmouth Lemoncloak. One of Rhaegar's squires went missing in the Battle of the Trident. Crackpot theory says he might be Lem from the Brotherhood. Easter egg-y as hell and means nothing, but still.

-- High Septon = Howland Reed. We first meet the High Septon who goes on to imprison Cersei in the Riverlands, heading south. Shortish fellow. Why the hell not?

-- Skahazfinger. Dany's enforcer buddy Shavepate is essentially Meereen's Littlefinger and poisoned the locusts to take out Hizdahr and maybe marry Dany himself. He is kind of a brutal dude and has command of the Brazen Beasts in a way that LF did have the Gold Cloaks, so. This one also leads to the idea that, while Barristan is busy leading the battle of Meereen, Shavepate will kill the hostages and Hizdahr to consolidate his new iron rule and say fuck you to the Harpy. Probably hoping that Dany'll come back and bone him for it.

-- Southron Ambitions. Plotting for great houses to intermarry back in the day. I mean, Brandon Stark to Catelyn Tully, Robert Baratheon to Lyanna Stark, et cetera. Most great houses marry bannermen and shit. So why? It's either part of the maester conspiracies - one was apparently whispering in Rickard's ear - or Rhaegar wanted an alliance to help him overthrow his mad father. Idea is that Harrenhal tourney was a cover for a discussion. Everyone was there, after all.

-- Dany's Visenya Impersonation: This is a vague-ish one but a neat idea, at least. Back in Aegon I's conquering days, the Vale being impenetrable was a big problem... for all of five minutes. Visenya flew her dragon into it, then was found sitting on their throne with the child lord in her lap, talking excitedly about the dragon lady. So why not another history repeating thing, with Dany landing in Westeros via the Eyrie? Who even knows how Littlefinger will react, but it's worth thinking how the Sansa interactions might go, and of course, Dany getting the Vale army. I dunno man.

-- Dragons In The Crypts: Evidence for R+L=J, mostly. Could be Rhaegar's harp or Lyanna's maiden's cloak with a dragon sewn on it. There could also be an actual dragon there, but let's not.

-- Other Tower Of Joy Shenanigans. Aka more shit happening. From Arthur Dayne not dying to Lyanna giving birth to twins and one being Meera, to Howland warging into Dayne for Ned to kill him, to... Yeah. Just yeah.

-- Tyrion the Clever. Tyrion repeats his ancestor Lann's trick and swindles Casterly Rock for Dany or whoever. Do remember that Tyrion helped run the sewage system for the place, and there are other elements like Edmure Tully and other hostages in the dungeons...

-- Night Lamp. Part of the battle strategy of Stannis in the upcoming battle. The Night Lamp was mentioned in an ADWD Davos chapter as basically a beacon that lures the enemies in a time of poor visibility. Snowstorms are kickin' up, so the incoming Freys and Boltons might be lured by Stannis burning some folk. Arnolf Karstark probably, but Theon is also a possibility. The link provided says that it's possible he'll burn some weirwoods, but that might piss some people off, so I really hope he doesn't.

-- Lyn Corbray's Prize: Oh man, this one's sick as shit. Lyn Corbray's a Littlefinger man in the Vale lords who is noted to like little boys. Why not target one that's sickly and needs to be removed? For his service for Littlefinger, Littlefinger lets Lyn kidnap/rape/murder Sweetrobin. It has been mentioned multiple times how there's a controversial Sansa chapter coming up in TWOW...

-- Bolt-ON. Just. Yeah.

Every Prince That Was Promised, Ashara Dayne, Shiera Seastar, Night's King, Aegon, Valonqar, Summerhall, blah blah theory can be found in some of the links provided, and, well, everywhere. I'm going with Jon as the Prince (But Jorah or Jaime would work), Ashara as Lemore (And it was Ned that knocked her up, not Brandon), Shiera as Quaithe, Night's King 2 as Stannis (But god I hope not), Aegon as Blackfyre, and Valonqar... Well, I might save that one for a fic. It's too good, man. Summerhall was tragic as shit, tho.

 

pls no, not Shireen.

 

My two favorite crack-theories are the Merling Conspiracy and Snarks = Starks.

 

The tinfoil is strong in some of those