A “thin white blanket” of snow. By that measure winter often starts in New Hampshire before Halloween.
I don’t think I really missed that line, I suspect that I didn’t take it as being literal.
Well it was obviously meant as a sign that winter had started. They made a big deal out of it that there was snow that far south.
Another vote for ‘more Dany than I’d like,’ though there is some indication that her Mary Sue armor may finally be failing her. She may even have to fight actual people instead of cartoonish monsters, which *might *lead to her having to make the same kind of hard moral vs. survival choices the rest of the cast has to deal with. No promises.
That said, we’re going to get a lot of ‘Dany being a wise ruler’ scenes. These would have contrasted with ‘Cersei being a terrible ruler’ scenes in Feast for Crows if they’d stayed the same book.
Loads of in-book Dany shipping. Dany+Quenten and Dany+Victarion (like that’s going to happen) are already in progress. We’ll also get Dany+Edric Storm and, of course Dany+Tyrion. Illyaro isn’t out of the game yet.
Dany’s going to go to Ashai, not back to the Free Cities. I don’t think this even counts as a guess, because the shadowbinder has been saying it for like two books now.
Less stuff at the wall than we’d like. Jon makes some more mistakes, but learns from them. Mellisandre tries to win him to her side, fails, and tries to turn Stannis against him. He refuses, or either realizes she’s been manipulating him, and turns on her, or brings her to heel. She’s not really evil, just wrong about pretty much everything, and is sure the ends justify the means.
I’d like to guess Jorah shows up at the wall and enlists, but I don’t think it’ll happen.
Arya is not permanently blind, it’s drug induced as part of her Faceless Man training. She will leave the Faceless Men, eventually, because she won’t be able to give up her past, but she’ll learn some more tricks first. She’ll probably murder some more people. You gotta go with what you’re good at.
Theon will end up like his uncle, drawing strength of will and purpose from his madness. This will not help him with his whole ‘making poor decisions for emotional reasons’ problem. Will probably end up either helping his sister, a puppet for Ramsey, or dead. Possibly all three.
Asha will ally with either the North or the Reach, and snatch the Iron Islands from Euron while he and the Iron Fleet are away. The ‘attack the aggressor’s home while their army is busy attacking your country’ hasn’t been used yet, and it’s too good a bit not to show up somewhere. For bonus points, the ally betrays her and reduces the Islands to a series of smoking wastelands. Her chapters will be insufferably smug.
Despite the pretty blatant implication she wasn’t, I’m going to guess that Briene WAS killed. Jamie will find out, which will motivate him to crack down on the Brotherhood Without Banners, take out ZombieCat, and make him feel bad about himself. This will distract him from dealing with the trial at King’s Landing, which he clearly doesn’t want to deal with anyway.
Jamie will eventually be the one to tell Dany the full truth about the mad king. Selmy will never be able to make himself, or may die before he can. This might not happen til’ book five or six.
Davos lost his hand, but not his head. He’ll need a new nickname. (He was called ‘shorthand’ a couple of times, right?)
I think Tommen might last another book. Illyaro may have him assassinated, though. His conspirator has Tommen’s heir, and that might be too good to pass up.
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Tyrion’s head on FrankenGregor! (Not really, but it would be fun)
All but the last bit was explained by Ramsey after he turns on Theon, just before he burns Winterfell. The Theon bit is supposition based on the wiki article. I never got a chance to read the Theon preview chapter. It was always either the Jon or the Tyrion one when I checked.
I’d completely forgotten most of that since I read the books…thank you.
What truth? Is there a truth I don’t remember that’s deeper than “went nuts and started roasting nobles for fun”?
-Joe
I agree here. In the preview chapter at the end of AFfC Dany is presented with the charred bones of a human child that one of her dragons supposedly killed.
No spoilers from preview chapters damnit.
I think that is exactly the truth that Dany needs to hear. She wants to hold on to the idea that he was an honorable king and nobody has come right out and told her exactly why he was referred to as the Mad King. The story about the roasting Starks should make her realize the Mad King really was a lowlife.
Agh, sorry. My bad. Were preview chapters not included at the end of the books in some editions? That didn’t occur to me.
I don’t read preview chapters since I can’t read the rest of the book. Anything that doesn’t properly belong inside the narrative of Feast for Crows is a spoiler.
I’m awed by your self-control.
Dang, really? It hadn’t occurred to me that at no did she manage to never hear about it. Sure, she might have denied it, but I really don’t believe that she doesn’t realize it…
-Joe
I am positive she never heard about the roasting of the Starks. Barristan asked her if anyone ever told her that her father was called the Mad King and she said that Viserys told her, but that the term was only used by the Usurper. Barrastan then promised to tell her all about her family history.
Ah. Well, there you go then.
-Joe
And Jaime knows about his plan to burn King’s Landing to the ground if the rebellion succeeded. No one else alive knows about that.
Well, who was going to tell her growing up, “Your dad was a crazy paranoid who burned people alive. Thank the Seven he was overthrown and killed.”?
He tells Brienne. We haven’t seen her death in the first 4 books.
A lot of people, actually. Didn’t she and her brother spend years of their childhoods being shuffled between guardians like an unwanted fruitcake? It seems hard to believe that one of these reluctant adults didn’t tell her what’s what just to wound her. They definitely weren’t raised like royalty, so who would worry about pissing off someone they thought had no chance of ever regaining the throne?
I have a feeling all their guardians were pro-Targaryen sympathizers in exile, though. So for the people sheltering them, Aerys wasn’t the mad tyrant who burned people alive and was justly overthrown. He was the old noble king, brought down by base treachery and plots by those who were supposed to be loyal to him but turned traitor.