If you're like us here at HuffPost Books, then you likely were spinning with excitement over George R.R. Martin releasing a new chapter from The Winds of Winter, the sixth volume in Martin's magnum opus A Song of Ice and Fire. We read it. It's amazing.
One thing led to another, and we found ourselves speculating on what will happen in the final two books, and discussing some of the wildest theories we've heard about characters both old and new. With that in mind, we've laid down some of our favorites for all our fellow Thrones obsessives. Feel free to drop your own theories and speculations in the comments
WARNING: spoilers abound for those who have not read up through A Dance with Dragons. Proceed at your own risk!
Tyrion is actually a Targaryen.
This one is pretty out there as Tyrion has been so firmly established within the Lannister family, but hear us out. The theory goes that the Mad King Aerys, for whom Tywin served as Hand of the King, raped Tywin's wife. As a result she became pregnant with Tyrion.
We know, it's tough to swallow, but there's one big reason we keep coming back to it. It would tie nicely with the prophecy that Daenerys heard in the House of the Undying about the dragon having three heads, meaning three dragonriders.
Since we're basically certain that Jon Snow is a Targaryen (his father being Rhaegar Targaryen and his mother Lyanna Stark), this would give us a third major Targaryen character who could be a dragonrider, making all three dragonriders Targaryens.
The Wall is going to come crashing down.
Yeah, this is going to happen. To paraphrase Chekhov, you don't build a wall that big unless you plan on tearing it down.
Quaithe is Daenerys from the future.
We don't really have any evidence or reason for this. We just think it would be really cool. We also stand with great Thrones blogger Sean T. Collins for putting it out there.
There will be a serious outbreak of greyscale in Westeros caused by Jon Connington.
Martin went into a lot of detail about greyscale in A Dance with Dragons, and the reveal at the end that Jon Connington has the plague and is now in Westeros could mean that Martin is setting up greyscale to play a role in adding to the chaos that is gripping the Seven Kingdoms.
Aegon is not the son of Rhaegar.
This feels right for a couple reasons. One is that Varys is behind Aegon, and anything the Spider is involved in is never what it seems. The other is that the setup for Aegon is as this savior boy-king who will sweep into Westeros as a benevolent monarch. That seems exactly the sort of scenario Martin would set up only to destroy mercilessly.
We do not see good things ahead for Aegon. Frankly, we see a brutal death.
Melisandre will bring Jon Snow back to life.
Our hero was stabbed by his own men Caesar-style at the end of A Dance with Dragons and may have died. This would be devastating. However, the prologue in Dance established that a skinchanger can send his consciousness into one of his spirit animals. This would presage Jon doing exactly that with Ghost right before the death of his body.
The question is, how would his consciousness find its way back to his body (which, if he died in the stabbing, would be preserved in a frigid crypt underneath the Wall)? Melisandre, a priestess of the Red God, would be a likely candidate for this, as the Red God has been able to revive the dead before (Beric Dondarrion and Catelyn Stark).
There is no way things work out for our favorite doomed, incestuous couple. When she was a girl a fortune teller prophesied to Cersei that she would be killed by the valonqar. This means "little brother" in High Valyrian. Cersei thinks this to be Tyrion, but we think it's actually Jaime.
Jaime strangling Cersei with his golden hand... just the thought gives us chills!
What are some of your favorite Thrones theories? Sound off in the comments.
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