Unusual Theories about A Game of Thrones, alongside comments about Survivors and Abusers

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We also understand that some people find some parts of A Game of Thrones (AGoT) triggering. If so, you might not wish to read that particular activity page since its contents are a mixture of theories about AGoT and of survivor issues; there are various other webpages concerning survivors below aside from that one. If needs be, we can direct you to a different activity to do.

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7) The below includes plentiful book spoilers, show spoilers, and some of its predictions for future episodes and books may turn out to be true :-)

Presented by Sansa and her Direwolves.

Let's kick this off with a suitably big and unusual theory.

Big Standard Theory 1) Jon 'Snow' is neither a bastard nor Eddard Stark's son. Rather, he is the son of Prince Rhaegar and his second wife Lyanna Stark (Eddard's dead sister).

Big Standard Theory 2) "A Song of Ice And Fire" (the series title): that this title refers to Jon and Dany through one or both of these being each of Azor Ahai, the Prince Who Was Promised, and Heads of the Dragon.

With much of the audience here not being hardened AGoT theorists, let us lay out some of the best evidence for these (and material leading to various further variant theories).

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For Big Standard Theory 1) Just look at the structure of the first book, the first two series episodes, the 'Wolf and the Lion' episode and the 'Mountain and the Viper' episode.

* Robert approved of Tywin's bannermen murdering Rhaegar's children.

* Ned is totally opposed to the murders of children, resigns being Hand over it, placing himself at great risk.

* Robert is utterly obsessed with Lyanna, insists on visiting her tomb in the crypts of Winterfell immediately upon arrival, when drunk on his wedding night he called Cersei "Lyanna".

* It is Robert who calls Rhaegar a rapist: "How many times did he rape your sister?"

* But everybody who actually knew Rhaegar saw him as virtuous and principled (further reinforced in later books by Barristan Selmy and Jon Connington).

* Lyanna, on the other hand, told Eddard she wasn't OK with here arranged-marriage-betrothed Robert's wenchings and whorings, and that she knew that he would never change in this regard "love is sweet, dear Ned, but it it does not change a man". Eddard indeed then muses about Rhaegar being opposite to Robert in this respect.

* Eddard Stark is tormented by dreams revolving around his sister "Promise me Ned" she said on a bed of blood and dead roses at the tower of Joy. Days apart from when he supposedly collected 'his bastard' Jon Snow from the Daynes' castle, his next stop to "return the famous Sword of the Morning" of Rhaegar's and indeed the realm's best knight Ser Artur Dayne, whom Stark had just had to kill in order to get into the Tower of Joy. Why were the best Kingsguard knight, the lord commander of the Kingsguard, and a third kingsguard neither defending the King, nor beside the Crown Prince in the biggest battle of the age? These folk are sworn to defend the Royal Family . The implications are clear. The bed of blood is childbirth, The child is Royal and born of love, not a bastard born of rape. And Rhaegar considered one or both of this child and the mother worth the protection of 3/7ths of the Kingsguard, including both the lord commander and the best knight in the realm. His great love for his second wife Lyanna aside (Polygamy is normal for Targaryens), the reason for this is that he believed the child to be the Prince Who Was Promised (see below).

"Promise me Ned" is then "promise to keep my child safe, Ned. Safe from Robert. Safe by claiming him as your own." Which destroys Ned's most valuable attribute: honour, by his subsequently having to pose as having an acknowledged bastard under the protection of his roof. What Jaime taunts Catelyn Stark with in the show "poor honourable dead Ned had sex with another woman", in direct connection to Jon's existence, is therefore extremly ironic, and its own pointer to how, no, indeed people as honourable as Eddard Stark don't actually break marriage vows, so Jon is someone else's son. Note also how Eddard Stark chooses a family member's life over his own reputation a second time when he agrees to falsely claim he is a traitor in exchange for Sansa's life. These two episodes are even in close juxtaposition in the book. Really honourable people will in fact often have apparent blemishes because they had to choose between looking honourable and doing the right thing.

* The show's delivery of "next time I see you, we will speak about your mother" in Episode 2 makes a lot more sense if this were to refer to a beloved dead sister whose tomb featured prominently in Episode 1 rather than some woman he briefly saw and set aside during a war almost two decades ago. Note that Ned has considerable reverence for the Night's Watch, and probably knows there's already one Targaryen (Maester Aemon) living up there unmolested by Robert, so he may well consider Jon having taken his vows by then to be shield enough against the king's wrath. The promise might also have involved Jon being told upon becoming of age and/or upon attaining a safe position, rather than being one involving solely the maximum safety of never telling anyone. This may be tied to the circumstances of what Eddard Stark agreed to in 'confessing' - to spend the rest of his life in the Night's Watch with his Bastard. That would at least give Ned the opportunity to 'tell Jon about his mother'. Though the options for that do not run out there, since the books indicate that Howland Reed - the only other survivor of the fight at the Tower of Joy - also knows.

* Despite multiple candidate rumours, there is no other mother credibly in evidence. Ashara Dayne and 'Wetnurse' Wylla were both, logically, denizens of the Dayne castle, Starfall (ie where the meteorite from which the unique Sword of the Morning was forged landed). Ashara Dayne was also Eddard's crush, but Eddard would not have acted upon that; that dream died when his brother Brandon did, leaving him having to replace him in his house's marriage pact with the Tullys. Ashara was also handmaiden to Rhaegar's first and only publically known wife, Elia Martell, and 'threw herself off a tower into the sea' when Eddard returned her brother Artur's sword. Elsewhere on this page we'll go into the further complication that there are hints that she was raped by Eddard's brother Brandon. In essence, an accumulation of bad things happening to Ashara Dayne in a short space of time caused her to kill herself (or, just possibly, fake her own death), but this accumulation of bad things did not include Ned having a bastard with her and then taking said bastard away from her. That Wylla was indeed Jon's wetnurse as stated by Ned Dayne, is likely true, but in no way makes Wylla the mother. It might make Wylla a willing conspirator knowing only a harmless fraction of the truth (let's have a smaller theory about that later). Let us focus rather on why the Dayne family would name a subsequently born family member (and the heir at that) Ned, given that Ned Stark definitely killed Artur Dayne, if on top of that any of the following apply. Ned being at fault as regards Ashara Dayne's suicide. Ned having dishonoured Ashara. Far more likely that Ned Stark always treated Ashara with the utmost respect and behaved entirely honrourably and nobly whilst returning the famous Sword of the Morning. Unlikely even that Ashara killed herself in part over Ned Stark not only getting married with another but turning up with a bastard baby as well as the sword of her brother whom he'd had to kill. Whatever Ashara's other problems were on top of the obvious dead brother and her friend and leader having been subjected to a particularly brutal rape-murder-double-infancicide, they were ones which did not give the Dayne family further reasons to hate Ned Stark. As to Jon's mother being a fishwife from the Sister Isles, pull another one...

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For Big Standard Theory 2)

* Martin's prophecies and gods are often distortions of each other.

* PWWP was what Rhaegar believed a son of his would be (as Dany saw in the House of The Undying); that is specifically where the series title appears "He already has a song. His is the song of ice and fire".

* Then Jon = Lyanna Stark + Rhaegar Targaryan would make him 'of Ice and Fire'.

* Azor Ahai is the Red Priests' version, a warrior of fire (and thus very plausibly a dragon-rider). Born of salt and smoke under a star, who comes to possess a magic sword of fire. Dany was born on a volcanic island. Dany's dragons were born right as the Red Comet appeared and may well be the 'magic sword of fire' themselves. But the Dragon has Three Heads, so either multiple AAs or the PWWP, Last Hero being distinct Dragon Riders from AA are plausible.

Indeed Rhaegar talked of Three Heads. He only had two children with Princess Elia, who was then rendered barren by poor health. So, whilst he might have considered other of his children in this manner too (either all at once or that one among them would be).

Does Jon fit the AA trope as well as the PWWP one? He now lies 'dying', next to Melisandre, with his wounds smoking in the cold, under the stars of the remains of Ser Patrek's heraldry. She has now long been asking to see AA in the flames and 'only been shown Jon Snow'. Surely the tableau in which he is dying will cause her to cease to be blind to her god. And, of course, she is a Red Priest, and thes have a kiss of fire known to resurrect people. Plus Jon is more likely than most to survive, since he can warg into his wolf for extra protection, longevity and probably short term spirit preservation. So we very much reckon she will resurrect him, this will be an AA birth like event, and his warging will cause him to lose between less and none of himself, unlike Beric, who returned with noticeably less of himself each time Thoros brought him back.

* Whereas it does not affect identifying prophesized heroes amongst characters, it should be pointed out that the series title "ASoIaF" also refers to the conflict between R'hllor and the Great Other. Though the two are far from necessarily mutually exclusive, in that it remains entirely plausible that dragons or dragon-riders are R'hllor's champions. Whether the Great Other's champions are wargs is more contentious (we'll expand some other time). A sub-theory here is that Other Magic is a type of warging but not the only type, and that defeating this type may only be possible through collusion with the second type of warging as manifested by the Stark children and Bloodraven. Maybe this warging extends to enhancing dragon control, or negating means of Others interfering with that control. Our Coldhands Converse Theory is of that kind: that Bloodraven's warging is strong enough and similar enough to Other magic to either work on corpses or to be able to take over corpses raised by the Others. It may then be that an even more powerful warg-in-waiting could wrest either ice dragons or zombie dragons away from Other control, permitting for fire dragons to win the day, and/or to prevent Others from seizing control of Fire Dragons. [You might wish to rethink on the basis of the above the necessity of the Varamyr Sixskins prologue: that is the source of ideas like wargs fighting for control of a creature, as well as evidence beyond Orell of spirit transfers into creatures from a dying person. Varamyr also makes it clear that Warging has a 'Dark Side' to it, which might then extend as far as Other Magic.]

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Big Theory 1)

The end of A Song of Ice And Fire/A Game of Thrones Series will involve direct consequences of some of the opening chapters/scenes.

More specifically, having set Arya on her path to be an assassin by giving her a sword, either Jon or his wife/betrothed Daenerys will be her final target.

Evidence?

1) That ties the plot together rather well. Arya as an assassin in training now will come to relate to other characters by the 'is assigned to kill' relation. Why should this, in a world like Martin's, be confined to those whom Arya hates, like Ser Ilyn Payne, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei ... ?

2) Since Jon is Jon Targaryen and Targs marry other Targs to keep dragon-controlling bloodlines pure, he is a more than eligible partner. [In fact he may be the only such, though that requires at least one of the Fake Aegon and Dead Aegon theories. Let's just say that in the House of The Undying Dany sees also a mummers' dragon, and quite a lot of book fans and theorists think that this is Aegon, and his not being cast for Season 5 adds further weight to this. It's a damned good theory too, since it suggests that Illyrio's motive for backing Aegon is that he is the real father.] Thus Dany will marry Jon as part of keeping the realm safe on the long term.

3) From another angle, Daenerys is already the prime target for the world's assassins, whereas Jon has also climbed up quite high on this list.

Do not forget Jon is probably Rob's heir, wanted dead by the Boltons, Cersei tried putting substantial resources into a plot to have him killed also, and both the watch and at least some parts of the North will hate him for his conciliations with Wildlings. He might well also be seen as a Stannis supporter, even if he isn't really, or isn't in excess of what is permitted of a Night's Watch Lord Commander. The Bolton part of this includes Roose and Ramsay realizing Jon knows perfectly well who Jane Poole is. They may have lost control of Jeyne Poole for now, but hope to get her back and claim Winterfell through having paraded her as 'Arya Stark'. Finally at least some wildlings will consider Jon to be a treasonous git. Let's also not forget he's just been repeatedly stabbed at the end of Book 5. We are assuming he'll survive for our theory to be correct; the fact that Melisandre is at hand and far more powerful than Thoros is rather indicatory of this, his wounds are smoking under Ser Patrick's star-emblazoned armour, and the Lord of Light is only showing her Jon Snow in the flames when she's asking to see AA. We presume she'll finally get what her God is trying to tell her, around when she gives him the kiss of fire. This might even also free him from Night's Watch vows, so as to be Lord of Winterfell as Stannis demanded, or King in The North as per Robb Stark's will.

In Dany's case, she is the world's prime target for assassination having majorly annoyed off Yunkai, New Ghis, Qarth, a sizeable ruling faction of Volantis. Some Astapori Masters may remain, some Meereenese houses have blood feuds with her (and probably lead or participate in the sons of the Harpy). Any other large slaver-based group such as Tyrosh and Lys will hate her, and many wanting her dragons would take them over her dead body. She also has feuds with various Khals, and is prophesized to subjugate the crones of Vaes Dothrak. One quibble is that Braavos is also anti-slavery. On the other hand, it is not clear to what extent the Faceless Men are aligned with Bravosi policy, and the price on Dany's head could well be large enough that if she is killed, the Faceless men would pass to ruling over most or all of Dany's domains. Plus the Braavosi also hate dragons (Braavos arose as a refuge for slaves of the dragonlords of Valyria). [Whether the Braavosi oppose slavery more or less than they oppose dragons will be discussed in more length in a subsequent item; this could in fact be one of the most crucial issues in the remaining books and seasons.] For instance, the price on Dany's head could rise to being between half of Essos and all of Essos. If a sellsword captain can already consider one free city (Pentos) as the price for his services, the combined former rulers of most of the world's cities can expect the faceless men's price for killing Dany to be far in excess of one free city, at least all nine such. The way it will go is that the other assassin societies are far cheaper but lose all credibility as regards being able to kill Dany, so the faceless men's very large price is the only path to removing Dany.

Please note that as the mother of Dragons, Mysha, blood of the dragon, she is additionally irreplaceable within the mass movement accruing around her. This makes destroying this otherwise powerful movement by decapitation strike exceptionally tempting. Strong as she is, her unique qualities make her that movement's Achilles heel also.

4) A Jon and Dany romance could well be beautiful, as well as a triumphant and stable looking position for the Targaryen Dynasty. However, in Martin's world, weddings are dangerous. Especially if the guestlist is large and a faceless man is involved. (Though there is some chance that Arya be invited as herself). It would be very epic, tragic and macabre indeed for Arya to assassinate one or both of Dany and Jon, with Needle, at their wedding night, when one was expecting the last few pages of the series to feature a banquet and some epilogy about how everyone lived happily ever after. A final twist, foreshadowed by the red wedding and the purple wedding.

If this scenario plays out, various possibilities emerge. Perhaps one of Jon or Dany would survive and rule, but as a destroyed person due to the death of the other. Or perhaps somebody else would pounce, particularly if the assassination had some Westerosi behind it. Littlefinger is connected to Braavos. One of the issues with this theory is how inhuman and/or impersonal will Arya become. If very much so, she could stick Jon with the pointy end, with all the accompanying tragedy, irony, and shock and horror to the audience... The in those ways 'perfect' reverse side to the increadibly warm, well written and well acted scenes showing how close Jon and Arya were at the outset. If very much not so, then perhaps Jon and Dany could still be in the secret deal stage when the deed is done, with Arya skewering Dany not realizing that this will destroy the Jon and Dany stable world-plan and quite possibly destroy Jon by heartbreak also. *We'll document details on variants shortly.*

Trigger warnings: abuse and survivor issues. This is the why of this website. Whilst shorter than the theory sections, it takes a lot more work and effort to write the below per unit length of text...

A) Gregor and his lads as 'rape culture'

One very bad apple accumulates others, whether facilitators, partakers or normalizers who joke about it like old Chiswick. Furthermore, their behaviour is tacitly endorsed by a yet much more powerful man operating in a less directly brutal sphere (i.e. Lord Tywin). Also note how far from all of Lord Tywin's captains behave in such a manner. Tywin had to import a third set of monsters - the Brave Companions - since only two of his bannermen were 'suitable': Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch. It is pretty well spelled out that the likes of Tywin's brother Kevan, Ser Addam Marbrand, the Braxes and so on, were not of that kind of nature. This illustrates that only some men are thus, though Martin's works also allude to circumstances playing a role, to which we shall return in another item.

B) Viserys illustrates an abuser who is a coward and doesn't have a powerful enough position to have others hurt a survivor fighting back. His "waking the dragon" threats prove to be ineffective because he is a coward, a poor fighter himself, and then Mormont refuses to "slay these Dothraki dogs" and sides with Daenerys in all further disputes between her and Viserys.

This is to be contrasted with Joffrey, who is a coward but does have a powerful enough position to mediate domestic abuse through others.

This is clearly an example of him callously loopholing his mother's wishes. Which in turn arose from her being domestically abused by Robert.

Of particular note, his 'Leave her face, I like her pretty' is very characteristic of domestic abusers 'not leaving bruises in telling places'.

Sansa's 'how long should I look?', upon being forced to contemplate her father's severed head, is in turn characteristic for someone who is, or considers themselves to be trapped within, an abusive relation.

Overall standing up to some abusers causes them to fall apart, but standing up to others is very dangerous indeed. When Cersei confronts Joffrey, he says he'll have her executed if she strikes him again, and she's the Queen Regent. Imagine if pretty much anyone else tried. Tywin, in sending the king to bed without his supper, is exempt because he has an army. Whereas Joffrey does not want to admit it, he is Tywin's puppet king.

C) Tywin the Toxic.

It's not looking great that inspecting Gregor's lads and Joffrey both lead back to the same highly powerful man. There is a lesson in this: over-powerful institutions can fall into the hands of unpleasant leaders, whose own direct acts are not remarkably horrendous, but who do condone and make use of further others whose direct acts are horrendous. A place with these characteristics is called a toxic environment, e.g. a toxic workplace.

D) Theon illustrates that survivors can be male.

Theon also illustrates that narrow-mindedly considering nonpenetrative abuse as less serious can be very misguided.

Finally, Ramsay illustates that the abuser can be a nonconsensual sadist.

All three of the above sentances are crucial for any group truly wishing to support survivors as a whole.

E) Littlefinger illustrates the secondary abuser.

He does so in taking advantage of Sansa's desperate situation.

Worse, he had a hand in many of the steps that created that situation. He had the previous Hand of the King poisoned, he betrayed Eddard Stark, and he got Joffrey to execute Eddard. He had Sansa's husband Tyrion framed for Joffrey's murder, and further isolated Sansa by having her disappear at the time of the murder and having unwittingly carried the poison used to the scene. He then takes her to a very isolated place, kisses her, murders her aunt Lysa - his newly-wed wife - when she finds out. He has Sansa tell nobody else her true identity. The show differs in this last respect, Littlefinger framing and torturing a singer called Marillion in the book so that he confess to pushing Lysa to her death. These illustrate many of the machinations of sociopathic serial abusers, and of stalkers moving in on a target in many walks of life at once. Social, relational, political, physical... and in our world via the internet.

Now you might say 'hang on, how do we know he had Eddard killed?' and expect evidence from the show only. Well, Littlefinger tells Sansa he had Joffrey killed to 'cause confusion'. She considers this to be a poor lie on the show (though in truth, real rascals and strategists sometimes really do risk everything on creating confusion), calls him out on his bull, and then he says he did it because Joffrey had Cat Stark killed. Here show-Sansa believes him, but Sansa-presenting-this calls bull a second time. Tywin had Cat Stark killed. So no, no, no. The real reason Littlefinger had Joffrey killed is something he can't possibly let Sansa know. And that thing is that Littlefinger convinced Joffrey to have Eddard executed instead of exiled to the wall as Cersei had advised. However, Joffrey has indeed proven to be 'unpredictable', and is therefore as loose an end to Littlefinger as poor old Ser Dontos is. Furthermore, Littlefinger has seen both Tyrion and Tywin looking for who it was who'd been gaving the king bad advice or was an elsewise dishonest councillor. Tyrion had the inexperience to do this too obviously and in person, as regards telling each of Varys, Littlefinger and Pycelle a different marriage pact that nobody but each one alone knew. Hence Tyrion was also targetted by being framed for the self-same murder on those grounds as well as to widow Sansa.

[Aside: this furthermore explains why Varys partook in having Tywin killed: both Littlefinger and Varys would have been looking for openings to kill Tywin, though these are rarer due to his power and greater experience in 'the game' in general and his own personal security in particular. Varys had advantage over Littlefinger her through being the operator of Maegor the Cruel's hidden passages, which allow for a first-strike assassination past conventional postings of guards. Though please note that this advantage evaporates after one use on someone 'important enough' for the mysterious death and getting past of the guards to be thoroughly investigated - Jaime has some parts of the Red Keep taken apart looking for tunnels and Varys has officially fled by this point, and that's for when a 'demonized escapee prisoner of tiny stature' was still deflecting attention away from the tunnels, so in the Book version, at least, Varys is able to orchestrate a double-kill on Kevan and Pycelle through the tunnel system. That's probably when Book-Varys will call it quits as regards seeing remaining in hiding in Kings' Landing as being viable, and join show-Varys in fleeing to Essos. The show's timing being different, maybe Kevan won't die (being merged into Harys Swyft's part) or maybe he will but not in Varys' presence even if Varys still orders it.]

Back to show-Sansa: that Littlefinger's first lie failed to convince her shows that she's learning, that she fell for the second lie limits by how much. As regards everybody being a liar in king's landing, bad liars, good liars and a few great liars, well, the great liars like Littlefinger sometimes tell information non-disclosing weak lies so as to test the 'playing ability' of those around them, whilst all the while being ready with better lies for if someone calls bull on the first lie.

F) Queen Cersei illustrates a survivor turned abuser.

This is the fundamental problem for any group claiming to be willing to accommodate all survivors safely. For some of these are themselves also abusers, and so render that support group unsafe for the other survivors (and for those running the group). Whereas everybody needs a home somewhere, survivors who are not abusers themselves are amongst those most meriting having a safe home somewhere, and can only have such in places that are free from abusers, including those abusers who are also survivors. Thus that is very much one option to be offered somewhere. (Nor is it the only option to be offered, for survivors who are also abusers often also wish for help. It's just that survivors who aren't abusers and have had enough of abusers cannot be expected to accept to share support group with survivors who are also abusers).

Queen Cersei also illustrates the female abuser, both of men (Tyrion in particular) and of women (especially on the one hand of rather lower ranking women, seen as disposeable, and on the other hand, of a perceived rival: Queen Margaery).

The below small theories are illustrative of unusual small points that we can make by the dozen, given time.

Small Theory 1) Garlan Tyrell is a pun on Garland of flowers and also a nod to the Chief character from Battlestar Galactica, Galen Tyrol. Having looked at hundreds of postings on such nods, we are rather surprised not to see this one.

Small Theory 2) the Lychester name could be a pun on american mispronounciation of Leicester. It wouldn't even be Martin's only pun on Leicester, given a Lannister guardsman is called "Red Lester" (phonetically a type of cheese from Leicester).

The main nod this is leading to is in fact a big theory, namely that Lyanna is a self-nod to Martin's a Song For Lya. That is itself fairly well known. What is not necessarily well known is how central a Song For Lya is to ASoIaF's writing. We will shortly argue here Big Theory 2 that this being a self-nod is one of various hints at the extreme centrality of Lyanna Stark to the story, going beyond even just Jon's parentage and potential AA, PWP etc status. On this basis, we will have to predict she'll be mentioned various times again in the series version. She certainly was mentioned at the start of that series, and right in juxtaposition to Jon.

Big Theory 3

In Book 1, Arya overhears Illyrio and Varys discussing how this was never a game for two players. Who were the two players?

Not King Robert, seen as politically inactive, or Lords Lannister and Stark, seen as being manipulated. Nor the people mentioned as becoming new players, such as Renly and Littlefinger.

We can only assume that Illyrio is one of the two players, or more expandedly a faction containing Illyrio and Varys with interest in placing a Targaryen back on the throne.

However, we later lear that someone has long been playing the game of thrones in the shadows -- the original other player is Doran Martell!

He's certainly been at it long enough to have already been active then, nor would his doing so be unknown to Illyrio's faction.

How do we know? Firstly, there were Martell--Targaryen marriage pacts, and Doran supports the 'obvious' Targaryens who were long sheltered by Illyrio.

Secondly, both Doran and Illyrio are heavily involved with the Tyroshi elite. The Archon's brother was at Daenerys' wedding, whereas his daughter was fostered at Sunspear. So Tyrosh sits in between these two players. We can assume that the two players have some common interests: a Targaryen monarch, and part of what Tyrosh wants.

We can also assume they are not one and the same faction too, since the Martells are unaware of Prince Aegon's existence and Illyrio appears to principally back Aegon. In fact, there is evidence that Prince Aegon is not Rhaegar's son, and perchance has no Targaryen blood at all, but these are things that Illyrio would not care too much about, after all he is the leading other candidate for Aegon's father. Aegon might still have Targaryen blood (most likely Blackfyre blood) due to the description of Illyrio's long-dead wife. Some other theorists would even have that Varys is a Blackfyre himself, and thus tied in this additional way to Illyrio. Regardless of whether this is true, it is rather doubtful that Varys' backstory is true, after all we only know this through the revelations of a very subtle person to a very naive one (Eddard Stark). Thus we might suspect Varys and Illyrio to be more tightly bound than just as former business partners.

Big Theory 4 [Books only?: Grand Tyroshi Conspiracy Theory]

This concerns Tyrosh's ties to Doran Martell, Illyrio Mopatis, the Broothehood without Banners, and indeed to Daenerys. Tyrosh appeared to support both Illyrio and Doran's separate bids to restore the Targaryens. Dyed hair might then carry similar re-read realizations as extensive as those connected to weirwoods, the three-eyed crow being a real 'player', and glass candles. An eminence multicolore inversion of eminence grise: flamboyant characters in the background, who are more influential than one might original guess, and quite possibly up to no good... This is subtly indicated by Ironborn trying to infiltrate Old Town dressed as Tyroshis; maybe then the actual Tyroshi around the place are stalking horses for a larger conspiracy. Certainly Doran and Illyrio are connected to high-ranking Tyroshis, as seen by the presence of the Archon's brother at Dany's wedding and the green-haired girl at the Dornish Water Gardens. On the other hand, Greenbeard is a significant Brotherhood without Banners officer. And a Tyroshi company turns cloak from Lannister to Stark at the battle of the Camps; was that deliberate destabilization, and also is that unit how Greenbeard came to be in the riverlands prior to joining the Brotherhood?

Where to take this?

Firstly, are the Tyroshi in fact being overwhelmed, due to Daenery's unexpected dismantling of much of the slaver system? From that, we might consider that they are having second thoughts about backing Daenerys, which can be evidenced from their assistance of Aegon, ie finally choosing Illyrio's pro-Targaryen faction over Doran's.

Secondly, if the Tyroshi are highly distinctive stalking horses, what of the most distinctive among even the distinctive - Daario Naharis? 'Flamboyant even for a Tyroshi'! Is he in fact a plant into Daenerys' camp? Is his seduction of her then in fact politically motivated. And if the Tyroshi specifically cease to support Daenerys over her threateningness toward the world's slave trade, will he then attempt to kill (or elsewise badly compromise) Daenerys?

Thirdly, now the Tyroshi have had attention drawn to themselves here, does a closer look at their activities reveal any further plotting? Unanswered questions include why are the Tyroshi so keen on restoring the Targaryens, and what really were their wars with Lys and Myr about? The books make it clear that the Tyroshi are infamous for their avarice, but is that all there is to it? Presumably those wars are ending for now due to the common threat posed by Daenerys to slaver cities...

Big (but fairly obvious) Theory 5"End-Game"

The game of thrones is now heavily bent by two forces who were not originally part of it. One is obviously Daenerys, and the other is Littlefinger. Moreover, both of these have ties to Braavos, which is probably a larger power than any of Illyrio, Doran or Tyrosh.

Thus the theory is that Braavos will be central to the outcome of the books.

The ties are that Braavos is strongly anti slavery and anti dragons both. That's exciting in terms of whether they will support Daenerys. They also have the world's best assassins, and Daenerys is top of many powers' death list.

On the other hand, Littlefinger endebted the realm to the Iron Bank of Braavos, pocketing millions in the process, which he is now using to repay lords' debts in order to get them into his pockets. He is, in essence, buying favours with peoples' own money that he pocketed for himself. He's ensured the realm is in debt to a large and underhandedly threatening debtor. This illustrates Braavos' power, however it only temporarily grants power to Littlefinger, since there is only so much he has stolen. This suggests he has a short term interest that will catapult him further up the ladder of power. It is not clear whether this interest is already visible (Harrenhal, Lysa, Sansa, or something else?) However, once he's cleared out from this position, chances are that the Iron Bank will still not have had its due... leaving Braavos in the driving seat.

We add to this that Braavos back Stannis (a probably unintended consequence of Littlefinger's endebting the Realm).

Let us end with a more specific, less obvious point. If Daenerys takes or destroys Volantis, chances are that the slaver world's power will dip below that of Braavos. Thus we predict that the *tipping point* of the series will be Daenerys in Volantis. Once that has happened, the fate of the story will be in Braavos' hands (White Walker invasion aside), and the main decision they are to make is whether to embrace the Breaker or Chains, or to kill off the Mother of Dragons (and her 'children'). It is also obvious that if Braavos supports Daenerys, the chances of surviving as regards the White Walkers will go up. Finally, it is not clear whether Braavos is monofactional. Volantis clearly is not. Thus the Bank, backing Stannis, may well become concernded about the White Walkers, whereas the Faceless Men may decide to kill Daenerys, either for its own sake or for something like between 1/2 of or all of Essos as the price for her head.

Big Theory 6 [some spoilers potentially including Book 6 sample chapters]

Having written on Intrigue, War in three volumes: Onset, Death and the Aftermath of War, a major theme of Martin's fifth book is Pestilence. The theory is then that a major theme of the sixth book will complete this set of themes with Famine.

Evidence: to start off with, the titles themselves: A Game of Thrones = Intrigue, A Clash of Kings = cause of War, A Storm of Swords = widespread Death in War, A Feast for Crows = its aftermath, with impressive exposition on the phenomenon of bands of 'broken men' and contemplating devastated lands at war's end. While A Dance of Dragons does not itself have a pestilent title, pestilence quite typically follows (or ends) wars. It certainly contains multiple plagues, in the form of the Stone Men and the Pale Mare. The TV series will almost certainly conflate the two, with (side-theory) Ser Jorah bringing greyscale plague to the siege of Meereen in that version of events.

Next: Winds of Winter is a cold title. Winters last yeras here, and this one is hitting a land largely devastated by war. Food stocks are short, and book 5 started to see cannibalism amongst not usually canibalistic folk. (The latter differ between the show and the book: the book has the cave people Wildlings and the Skaagosi, whereas the series has the Magnar of Thenn's people be cannibals rather than the Magnar of Skaagos' which is not just a name change because the Skaagosi are in fact northmen rather than wildlings. The book also hints at weirwood magic being partly fuelled by human blood, and at some of the white walkers' minions feasting on flesh.) This situation will continue to get worse then in Book 6, both from humans and from supernatural elements, so as to become one of the dominant elements, alongside deaths from famine itself, deaths from cold and a growing army of the dead controlled by the Others.

Book Seven, due to the finall arrival of Spring, will probably be somewhat of a respite from these dour themes, though the ending is believed to be bittersweet, so further controversy and tragedy are expected. (Big theory 1 above is one possibility for some of that).