Game of Thrones

Drogon rocked up.

I'm quite interested as to what will happen now though, primarily in regard to what will happen to Jon now that he's been betrayed, will he accept Stannis' old offer to become a Stark and take Winterfell? I suppose they needed a way to get him out of the Night's Watch without besmirching his honour, and this is as good as any; Jamie who is presumably being brought to see Catelyn by a live or zombiefied Brienne? and lastly with Davos and his search for Rickon in the Skags. Though I guess I also want to know what's going to happen to Theon, who after this book might have overtaken Victarion as my favourite Ironman, Arya, Sansa and Tyrion because he needs to make a boss of himself again. Also holy shit, Varys.

1. Aegon (Young Griff) is a Blackfyre Pretender
There was no baby switch. The real Aegon was smashed against the wall by Gregor. This theory points out numerous circumstantial evidence suggesting that Aegon is actually the son of Illyrio and his wife, who was (if the theory is to be believed) a Blackfyre descendant. Aegon obviously doesn't know that he is simply a pawn of Varys and Illyrio. This makes JonCon's story all the more tragic. I love this theory and believe it with all my heart. Read the passage quoted here as well.

2. R + L = J
You probably already know this, but Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaeger Targaryen. Most of the evidence for this actually comes from A Game of Thrones. The evidence for it is overwhelming and most fans of the series take it as fact.

3. Wyman Manderly baked the three missing Freys into pies and then served it to the Freys and Boltons at Winterfell
Wyman Manderly is a real boss. Other than dishing out sick burns, he also force feeds his enemies their dead relatives. This theory was actually confirmed as fact by GRRM.

4. Euron hired a Faceless Man to kill Balon and paid for it with the dragon egg he claimed he threw into the ocean
Euron's a real dick.

5. Oberyn poisoned Tywin before his fight with Gregor
Like the link says: means, motive, opportunity. Oberyn hedged his bets before the fight to ensure that Elia would receive justice.

6. Jeyne Westerling escaped Riverrun; the "Jeyne" Jaime meets in AFFC is an impostor
This may help lessen the pain of the Red Wedding somewhat. The disrepencies between Catelyn and Jaime's description of Jeyne and the absence of Elenya in AFFC suggests Jeyne escaped Riverrun (likely with Blackfish, who made it clear he would never surrender his King's bride).

7. Coldhands is the Night's King
I bet you thought he was Benjen at first and were disappointed by how obvious it seemed, right? Well good news is that probably isn't the case. This theory is much more interesting. If you recall, the Night's King was the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who fell in love with an Other and almost brought about the destruction of the Wall because of it. The legend of the Night's King is actually first told in the chapter where Bran meets Coldhands. Anyway, the theory goes that Coldhands is an attempt at penance by the Night's King, who has been cursed to live eternally as a sentient Wight. The biggest point in favor of this theory is Leaf stating in ADWD that Coldhands was killed by the Others "a long time ago." Benjen disappeared less than two years ago - hardly a long time for the Children of the Forest who live for centuries.

8. Theon Durden.
The man in the cloak that Theon runs into in Winterfell in ADWD was actually his own reflection. Think about it.

9. Jon warged into Ghost at the end of ADWD
This one is so obvious it's barely worth mentioning.

10. Robert Strong is Gregor Clegane's headless body
Welp, might as well keep the obvious train chugging along. Some people think that maybe he does have a head, but it isn't his own. I've seen options range from Robb Stark's head to Lady Stokeworth's.

11. Ramsay didn't send the letter at the end of ADWD
You'd be surprised how many people think he did.

12. Loras Tyrell isn't injured
All the evidence suggesting he's injured is based on hearsay. The suspicious way the Septas refused to talk about him before Cersei's walk of shame pretty much confirms it. The popular theory is he found something on Dragonstone, though I can't say what.

13. Tyrion is a chimera
No not the mythical creature, this theory is more mundane than that. A chimera. The theory goes that Tyrion was a twin (like Cersei and Jaime) who absorbed his sibling in the womb. This explains his mismatched eyes and his patchy hair. Why is this relevant? It isn't really but it means that Tyrion was born a kinslayer (even before he killed his mother) so it's a neat bit of thematic background.

14. Dany's crazy
Yup.

1. Aerys II raped Joanna and Jaime and Cersei or Tyrion are actually his children.
Fucking Secret Targ theories, you'll see this one everywhere. The worst theory because it completely ruins the Tywin/Tyrion dynamic if it's true. Tywin Lannister annihilated two great Houses because they insulted his father, he would never allow a man to cuckold him, even if it was the king.

2. Benjen is Coldhands
Nope.

3. Jojen Paste
I laughed when I read this but it's patently untrue. The theory goes that the Children of the Forest murdered Jojen and used his greenseer blood to make the weirdwood paste that Bran eats in his final chapter. People throw this around and there's technically no way to disprove it but GRRM still talks about the Reeds (plural) at cons and stuff so you can rest easy knowing that Jojen is still kicking around somewhere. Maybe they only took his eyes.

4. Howland Reed warged into Arthur Dayne
Ugh. The only thing worse than Secret Targs are Secret Wargs. The biggest problem with this one is it might be right. The only two survivors of the Tower of Joy were Ned and Howland and Ned was adamant that it is only because of Howland that he lived. However, the implication is that Ned doesn't like talking about it what happened there. Now, you can explain this by subscribing to R + L = J, which would explain the Kingsguard's presence at the Tower of Joy (defending Rhaeger's son) and why Ned would take no pleasure in killing themm. However, it's almost fact that the only way Ned and Howland were able to survive against Arthur Motherfucking Dayne is because Howland did something dishonorable. Now what could that be? We find out in the prologue of ADWD that warging into a human is the worst thing a warg can do and we also see that warging has dire effects on a healthy person (Thistle goes mad when she senses Varamyr attempting to warg her). The theory says that Howland warged into Arthur Dayne, breaking his mind and leaving him vulnerable enough for Ned to kill. Like I said, that COULD have happened - and there is a lot of evidence suggesting Howland is special, so warging isn't entirely out of the question. Ultimately, whether you believe this is up to you.

5. Syrio is alive/Syrio is Jaqen
Fuck this theory and fuck anyone who believes it.

6. ______, _______, and ______ are the heads of the dragon/dragon riders!
Literally every combination imaginable has been discussed to death and has no more validity than any other. I personally don't think anyone other Dany will ever ride a dragon because I cannot see it happening without it being horribly contrived ("Yes Tyrion, that's it! It's just like riding a bike horse!") Generally speaking I think people read too much into prophecies.

7. Dany's immune to fire
NO SHE ISN'T. READ THIS.

8. Merlings
It's a joke. Don't worry about it.

Re: Aegon Blackfyre.
Holy shit. That actually seems very plausible, especially where Varys is concerned (his name even sounds slightly Targaryen, doesn't it?) what with his plotting and turing the Targaryens against each other. I think that they could be reading a bit into the black dragon sign story. Though if it turns out to be true that's some nice foreshadowing.

Re: Jon's song of ice and fire
I had heard this before and thought it was a nice idea, but after seeing all that evidence I'm pretty convinced.

Re: Wyman Manderly's pies
That's hilarious, I assumed he killed the Frey's but I never really thought about it that far. Jesus christ, Manderly.

Re: Euron's assassin
Yeah that's quite likely, I never thought it was a coincidence that Euron rocked up to Pyke the day after Bolton died or anything. Though I didn't connect those dots I assumed he might have used one of his sorcerers or some artifact he found with the horn.

Re: Oberyn poisoning Tywin
This is also quite plausible, but most of that seems pretty circumstantial to me. Yeah he could have done it, but there isn't as much evidence for it as for the previous few.

Re: Jeyne 2
I'd like this to be true, and it seems likely that the Blackfish would want to protect her like that. There isn't really a lot of convincing evidence but it would be nice.

Re: King Coldhands
That makes sense I guess. I did think he was Benjen at first but then I wondered why on earth he was self aware unlike all the other wights.

Re: Jon warging at the end of DWD
I don't know. I assume you're talking about the part where it said "he didn't feel the fourth dagger, only the cold" or do you mean that whole fiasco with Wun Wun was experienced from Ghost's POV? In either case I'd say it's possible but I don't know how likely it is. Either way though I don't think Jon died (he better not have) especially if he's Rhaegar and Lysanna's son.

Re: Clegane the strong
Really doesn't need to be discussed, I'll be genuinely surprised if it isn't true.

Re: 'Ramsay's' letter
I'd really like to know who sent it. Whoever did would have to know about Ramsay's habit of flaying people, Mance's mission and Stannis' sword. I don't think Ramsay would know of the sword, the only person who comes to mind of potentially knowing everything in the letter is Melisandre, and I don't think she'd send it. More likely her than Ramsay though. As I'm typing this I realised it could have been Mance too, based on the knowledge aspect and that Jon told him he was sensitive about being a bastard, but I don't think he would have the opportunity

Re: Loras Tyrell being alive
This is another one which is plausible as there's no way to disprove it despite not really being any evidence of it.

Re: Tyrion being a chimera
I am okay with this.

Re: Dany's crazy
I didin't think she was until DWD, but yep. Her last chapter in particular was pretty evident of that.

I'll respond to the rest in one go because I'm tired:
The Merlings and Jojen paste gave me a laugh after googling them. Secret Targaryens is lame because Tywin is too much a boss for that to happen. Reed warging Dayne could well be true, but I don't think it's any more likely than a poisoned spear in the back or something.

Outside the snow was coming down so heavily that Theon could not see more than three feet ahead of him. He found himself alone in a white wilderness, walls of snow looming up to either side of him chest high. When he raised his head, the snowflakes brushed his cheeks like cold soft kisses. He could hear the sound of music from the hall behind him. A soft song now, and sad. For a moment he felt almost at peace.

Farther on, he came upon a man striding in the opposite direction, a hooded cloak flapping behind him. When they found themselves face-to-face their eyes met briefly.

The man put a hand on his dagger. "Theon Turncloak. Theon Kinslayer."

"I'm not. I never... I was ironborn."

"False is all you were. How is it you still breathe?"

"The gods are not done with me," Theon answered, wondering if this could be the killer, the night walker who had stuffed Yellow Dick's cock into his mouth and pushed Roger Ryswell's groom off the battlements. Oddly, he was not afraid. He pulled the glove from his left hand. "Lord Ramsay is not done with me."

The man looked, and laughed. "I leave you to him, then."