Autarch

Theon spoiler:

I suppose he could just leave her against his will, by being taken captive after Riverrun or whatever. However, it'll be hard to see why Jaime would do anything but run back to Cersei the first chance he gets. Basically, if he doesn't turn away from her on his own it's going to become a problem for the character. Unless she dies, or he does.

I'm guessing they're still playing the Jaime/Cersei relationship out because he still has to burn her letter and they want it to be shocking. That's how D&D work: You are a Stark, Jon, and I'm going to tell you who you're mother is as soon as I come home -- Ned dies. Oh, Robb, I'm pregnant. I know! Let's name him Ned. -- Ned dies again. You are mine own daughter and I love you -- Stannis rethinks this new commitment to feeling and burns his daughter alive. I expect Jaime will practically bow down to Cersei in an act of worship before he leaves her.

The production values certainly look as high as ever. This could easily pass for a trailer for a big blockbuster--though in a way I suppose that's what's Thrones has become. I'm still hesitant to say it was really that good. I mean I did like it, but that may be just because I love Liam Cunningham as Davos.

Arianne II: https://www.facebook.com/IFLASOIAF/posts/1626810864275120

It's not so much the immediate plot, but it sets the theme for the whole book. In A Feast for Crows we have people taking over power, playing new parts, picking up where others left off. The idea is that George is setting up a bit of mummer's show, where the parts to be played are no longer feasible or justifiable, precisely because they're dead or dying (Westeros is dying, as Euron said, and everyone wants to feast). Feast can be seen as an examination of whether or not it's worth it, so to speak, to pick up these parts and play them to their ends. Take Pate, for instance. The Alchemist offers him iron for gold (gold in this story being just another name for a dragon). Well Pate dies, but someone else picked up the part (the dead thing here) and is dragging it out to suit their own purposes. Pate, the self admitted worthless novice, now the puppet strung up on mummer's strings, but is he worth more after death? And with practically every pov in the story by the end of Dance being either dead or people thinking they're dead, I believe it foreshadows where the story is heading -- i.e. more characters taking up masks, more mummers. And the iron to gold part (this is all over Feast if you look). The iron in this instance being black iron; black iron is the link for ravenry, and who is in the ravens but the deceased spirits of the children? If we carry the metaphor to it's conclusion, we end up with the basic transformation process behind all magic in Westeros (lead/iron to gold, stone to dragons): we need our basic substance, and in the end we get the gold (the dragon here). But if it's the children behind the iron, does that not also suggest that whatever the end result of the magic is, that there's likewise a bit of mummery involved? A Feast for Crows, so does that mean the Children are stringing up all of Westeros? Also interesting, though not really relevant, we have Rosey, whose maidenhead will cost a dragon. A rose, plucked by a dragon.

Jaime, Arya, Theon, Jon. Jaime was the one who surprised me most. What a beautifully written character. That's something I never would've believed before I read Storm. Non Pov would be Sandor, but before my current reread I would never have said that. I'm surprised I'm still picking up on things I missed before, but I felt I finally understood him this time around.

I haven't actually haven't checked if it was legitimate (and I don't really know how anyone could unless they were there and remembered it word for word), but apparently Arianne II is floating around out there as well. Seems some bad fan did record the reading and typed it out afterwards.

I think a lot of that stuff is still planned, just that he switched the parts up here and there, expanded and adjusted the timeline, and added more players. Dany for instance still seems set on getting revenge on a certain khal, and most likely she'll use Drogon to bend the Dothraki to her will. As for Jaime taking the throne, that part has been switched to Cersei it seems, and with Varys' little trick in epilogue, I take it still more murders will be pinned on Tyrion.

Problem with Mance as the writer is that he most likely doesn't know how to read or write. I don't believe that's part of what they teach the recruits, considering they only have a maester per castle. Also, where did he get the ravens? Someone from a castle had to have sent it, someone with the Bolton seal. I don't doubt Ramsay tortured either Mance or one of the spearwives to get the info he needed.

For another take on Jon Snow, see Justin Sweets version. George apparently liked it enough that he has the original painting hanging in his house. He's one of the few artists who understands what having a long face means. As for the name Robert Strong, this is another instance of George reasserting the notion that history is a wheel. In Feast we're told about Ser Lucamore the Lusty, a knight of the Kingsguard whose real name was Lucamore Strong, and how his entire life was a lie. I don't know why Qyburn got the notion to call him Robert, but George did it, I think, to take the idea of Cersei playing king to the next level; with Jaime gone this is Cersei's new other half. Maybe Qyburn thought it would please her, in the way that it can be seen as a harsh comment on Robert's character.

The most hilarious pick for the hooded man is that it's Theon himself; Theon Durden it's been called.

In my opinion, the Three-headed Dragon is meant to be taken literally as well as being a metaphor for whatever else--dragon riders, alliances, whatever. Something akin to the Hindu trimurti. I did not know that. Very interesting. It seems he at least wants us to keep that possibility in mind.

Tyrion being Aerys's son requires some serious suspension of disbelief, but for some reason people want it to fit so they make it. Whatever happened at the bedding ceremony wouldn't have occurred regularly or anywhere else but King's Landing (where Joanna wasn't), not to mention for eight years after. Can't say what it would mean for the twins though, but unless they were conceived that very night, it's similarly unlikely.

I get the feeling she's more like a "fire Other" than a wight.