Daenerys makes for Westeros, so what comes next?

Potential Spoilers Below

Ok so Daenerys is on her way to Westeros with the entire Dothraki horde, almost 8,000 Unsullied, the Ironborn loyal to Asha/Yara and Theon Greyjoy, plus the Martell and Tyrell alliance.  Jon is King in the North and Cersei rules Kings Landing.  If this were the last 10 minutes of a movie Dany’s forces would overwhelm the resistance she meets when her ships land.  She would marry Jon Snow and together they would go to the Iron Islands and drown Euron and Yara would become the first woman to sit the Seastone Chair.  They would then take the Iron Throne from Cersei and send her soul to burn in the seven hells.  But this is Game of Thrones and anyone looking for this to happen hasn’t been paying attention.

Daenerys crosses the Narrow Sea

Dothraki Horde

Unsullied

Asha and Theon

House Martell

House Tyrell

Queen Cersei

Euron

If Daenerys were even allowed to make it to Westeros under these circumstances who could stand against her?  The answer is simple, no one!  So in a show where victory is constantly being fed through the meat grinder of defeat what is the more realistic outcome?  For those of you familiar with my theory on The Game of Thrones or ASOIAF you know that I believe that it is almost synonymous with The Wheel of Time (TWOT).  And just like in TWOT the events throughout the ages repeat themselves over and over again.  I guess the old adage is true:  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

So what happened in the past that may give us a glimpse into what may perchance happen in the future?  Right now I am mixing both the books and the TV show together to get to where I am going.  We are also going to look back to the war between the Children of the Forest (COTF) and the First Men.  We will take a look at the Doom of Valyria.  Finally we will look at the last excerpt from the Winds of Winter titled “The Forsaken” giving us another clue.

Children of the Forest

OK first we will take a look at some events that took place in TWOT that tie back to ASOIAF.  There was a problem with the weather where it was just the opposite in that it should have been winter but it never came.  It turned out that there was a powerful bowl-shaped ter’angreal known as the “Bowl of the Winds” that could control the weather.  The Dark One had enough influence on the world that he caused a constant heat with no precipitation triggering the failure of crops and vegetation.  When the Bowl was finally found within days of using it winter finally came. 

Bowl of the Winds

Representation of the Dark One

There were also Aes Sedai who served the Dark One during the War of Power called the “Forsaken”.  The Dark One promised them immortality to rule the World Forever at his side.  They called themselves the “Chosen”.  The Prophecies concerning the Dragon Reborn were well documented and known by almost everyone.  The Forsaken also had what were called Prophecies of the Shadow which they kept close to the vest but they promised that the world would be destroyed and remade in the Dark One’s image.

The Forsaken

“But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but more children than men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze. Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.”

“The one thing that can be said for certain is that it was a cataclysm such as the world had never seen. The ancient, mighty Freehold—home to dragons and to sorcerers of unrivaled skill—was shattered and destroyed within hours. It was written that every hill for five hundred miles split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire so hot and hungry that even the dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed. Great rents opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, and entire towns. Lakes boiled or turned to acid, mountains burst, fiery fountains spewed molten rock a thousand feet into the air, and red clouds rained down dragonglass and the black blood of demons. To the north, the ground splintered and collapsed and fell in on itself, and an angry sea came boiling in.

“The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, the fabled empire vanished in a day. The Lands of the Long Summer—once the most fertile in all the world—were scorched and drowned and blighted, and the toll in blood would not be fully realized for a century to come.”

The Breaking of the Arm of Dorne and the Doom of Valyria to me at least seem to be have been caused by the same thing or device.  If you are a book reader you know that they have technological devices that are out of place with the setting of the series but none the less they exist.  After reading TWOT I have theorized that there is a “Bowl of the Winds” type device in the ASOIAF universe that causes the unnatural seasons that can’t be reliably predicted based upon the planets revolution around their sun. By now they should have been able to work it out but yet they don’t seem to know until it is upon them.  I have written about this before and believe that we have seen it in the Land of Always Winter.  Is this yet another reason why the Others are able to bring the cold with them when they appear?

The Land of Always Winter

To me this looks like a larger form of the Bowl of the Winds

The following comes from the latest excerpt “The Forsaken”:  “The bleeding star bestowed the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade, and new gods shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. 

Again this reminds me of the Prophecies of the Shadow from TWOT.  Is Euron taking up the mantle of The Forsaken/The Chosen?  In TWOT certain people have the gift of foretelling which shows them things that are going to be.  In ASOIAF greenseers and “Shade of the Evening” seem to perform a similar purpose.  And Euron has been drinking so much of it that his lips have turned blue as stated in the following excerpt:  “When Euron came again, his hair was swept straight back from his brow and his lips were so blue they were almost black. He had put aside his driftwood crown. In its place he wore an iron crown whose points were made from the teeth of sharks.”

Also in the books Euron came into possession of a sorcerous dragon horn with valyrian glyphs that is said to control dragons.  Dany herself confirms the use of a horn to control dragons after flying off on Drogon and not being able to control him: 

Dragon horn

“She would sooner have returned to Meereen on dragon’s wings, to be sure. But that was a desire Drogon did not seem to share.

The dragonlords of old Valyria had controlled their mounts with binding spells and sorcerous horns. Daenerys made do with a word and a whip.”

In TWOT there is a device called the Domination Band that could be used to control the Dragon Reborn. 

The Dragon Reborn

So here is what I see happening in light of what I have just discussed.  The Targaryen’s were just one family in Valyria at the time of the Doom.  All but a handful of the Valyrians and their dragons perished in the Doom.  With this said I will say that either the Others or Euron use the weather controlling device and lay waste to three quarters  or more of Dany’s fleet on her way to Westeros.  Whether this is brought about by causing storms at sea or objects to fall from the sky it awaits to be seen.  I also see Euron using the dragon horn and perhaps stealing Drogon or at least one of her dragons from her as he said the following in the Forsaken excerpt: 

Drogon

“Why am I here?” Aeron croaked at him. His lips were crusty with scabs, his voice hard. “Where are we sailing?”

“South. For conquest, plunder, dragons.”

If Drogon is indeed stolen then she won’t have a dragon to ride as a dragon rider can only ride one dragon per Dany’s own words:

“One of them. All I know of dragons is what my brother told me when I was a girl, and some I read in books, but it is said that even Aegon the Conqueror never dared mount Vhagar or Meraxes, nor did his sisters ride Balerion the Black Dread. Dragons live longer than men, some for hundreds of years, so Balerion had other riders after Aegon died … but no rider ever flew two dragons.”

Aegon the Conqueror

Balerion the Black Dread

If this is the case then Dany would then be in a mad scramble to find other dragon riders loyal to her – can you say Tyrion.  This to me seems like it may come to be as she loses her greatest advantage – Air Power.  No dragon to ride, Drogon your biggest dragon in the hands of the enemy and most of your troops drowned at sea.  Now someone comes along and has to tell her the real danger is coming from north of the Wall; the Others.  A cartoon bubble pops up above her head “Can someone tell me why the hell did I cross the Narrow Sea again?”  Now she is basically in the same boat as everyone else.  She needs alliances now just like everybody else.

Tyrion

Air superiority

By the way I have never been on the Dany marrying Jon Snow bandwagon.  In her own words Dany said the following:

“She had always assumed that she would wed Viserys when she came of age. For centuries the Targaryens had married brother to sister, since Aegon the Conqueror had taken his sisters to bride. The line must be kept pure, Viserys had told her a thousand times; theirs was the kingsblood, the golden blood of old Valyria, the blood of the dragon. Dragons did not mate with the beasts of the field, and Targaryens did not mingle their blood with that of lesser men. Yet now Viserys schemed to sell her to a stranger, a barbarian.”

Viserys

I think she was right about marrying her brother.  She just got the brother wrong.  I believe that Tyrion is a Targaryen and also her brother; she will eventually end up marrying him IMO.

My Take: Daenerys will you marry me?

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

Why Sam going to the Citadel is so important

Potential Spoilers Below

The White Tower is the tallest building in the Aes Sedai compound in Tar Valon. It is both home and training grounds to Aes Sedai, those training to become Aes Sedai, and Warders.  It is a bone-white tower nearly 100 spans (around 600 feet) in height. Its roof is flat-topped with a waist-high railing.

Tar Valon

The island of Tar Valon is eight miles long and more than two miles across at its widest point. The city fills the entire island, bar an Ogier grove, which is the only one within a major city still maintained and kept as a garden. The buildings of Tar Valon are noted for being graceful, tall, and sometimes linked together by unique “skybridges”. The White Tower is, in fact, the tallest structure in the known world. The city doesn't just rely on its island location for defense, but also on its walls, which stretch along the full length of the banks of the island. The city is centered on the White Tower and its grounds.

The city is linked to the mainland by six bridges, each one of which is a mighty feat of engineering in its own right. Even the shortest bridge is still almost a mile long and gracefully arches from the island to the shore. It isn't said whether or not the Aes Sedai helped to build Tar Valon's magnificent buildings and bridges as they helped build the White Tower or the Stone of Tear, however much of Tar Valon was definitely built by Ogier stonemasons.

The six bridges leading out of Tar Valon end at villages on both sides of the River Erinin. Darein, Jualdhe, and Alindaer lie on the west bank, and Lugagde, Daghain, and Osenrein sit on the east bank. One small hamlet further inland, Dorlan, is so small that it has no inn.

The Citadel is the seat of the Order of Maesters, the learned men who advise the lords of the Seven Kingdoms on matters scientific, medical, and historical. It is located in the city of Oldtown in the far southwest of the continent.  The Citadel is located in Oldtown, in the Reach.

Hightower

Oldtown

The Citadel was founded many centuries ago to promote and increase learning and knowledge in Westeros. It is administered by the Conclave, the ruling council of archmaesters. The Citadel is also where young men from the entire continent are trained to become Maesters.

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Citadel is described as a university-like complex of buildings extending along both banks of the River Honeywine in Oldtown, linked by graceful bridges. The Isle of Ravens is the oldest part of the Citadel and the site of the ravenry, from where the maesters send messenger ravens out to all parts of the Seven Kingdoms. Other locations of note in the Citadel include the Seneschal's Court, Weeping Dock, and Scribe's Hearth.

Oldtown is famed for its meandering, cobbled streets and many fine inns and septs. It has an immense port which plays host to ships from across the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the Free Cities and even the distant Summer Islands. The port and the entire city is dominated by the HighTower, a massive, seven-sided, stepped lighthouse rising from Battle Island. More than 800 feet high, it is the tallest structure in Westeros, higher even than the Wall. It serves as House Hightower's keep, as well as a lighthouse.

Time to go to school:

The White Tower is where Novices and Accepted are trained by Sisters or Aes Sedai to see if they have what it takes to reach the Shawl to become full Sisters or Aes Sedai.

The Citadel is where the novices and acolytes are trained by Archmaesters and maesters.  The Archmaesters determine if their students have sufficient knowledge to gain each link in their chain.

Only women are allowed to train at the White Tower and only men are allowed to train at the Citadel.  When you enter the White Tower you become a Novice.  When you enter the Citadel you also become a Novice.  When you have learned enough to be dangerous in the White Tower you become an Accepted; in the Citadel you become an Acolyte.  When you have graduated in the White Tower you become an Aes Sedia or Sister and are given a “Shawl”.  When you complete your training in the Citadel you become a “Maester” and you have completed a chain that you wear about your neck.

Aes Sedai Shawl

Maester's Chain; it is described as a choker chain in the books

“Moiraine Damodred, you will spend tonight in prayer and contemplation of the burdens you will take up on the morrow, when you don the shawl of an Aes Sedai. It is done.” For a third time she clapped her hands together.

Moiraine Damodred

Armen the Acolyte cleared his throat. “The night before an acolyte says his vows, he must stand a vigil in the vault. No lantern is permitted him, no torch, no lamp, no taper . . . only a candle of obsidian. He must spend the night in darkness, unless he can light that candle. Some will try. The foolish and the stubborn, those who have made a study of these so-called higher mysteries. Often they cut their fingers, for the ridges on the candles are said to be as sharp as razors. Then, with bloody hands, they must wait upon the dawn, brooding on their failure. Wiser men simply go to sleep, or spend their night in prayer, but every year there are always a few who must try.”

Both the White Tower and the Citadel hold vast libraries. 

There are twelve publicly known Depositories, each having books and records pertaining to a particular subject, or to related subjects. A Thirteenth Depository, known only to some Aes Sedai, contains secret documents, records and histories which may be accessed only by the Amyrlin Seat, the Keeper of the Chronicles and the Sitters in the Hall of the Tower. And, of course, by that handful of librarians who maintain the depository.  The library at the White Tower held information about the past that when brought to light helped them fight and win the Last Battle. 

An Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah in the Library

What Loial did.

“It soon became obvious, even within the stedding, that the Pattern was growing frail. The sky darkened. Our dead appeared, standing in rings outside the borders of the stedding, looking in. Most troublingly, trees fell ill, and no song would heal them.

It was in this time of sorrows that I stepped up to the Great Stump. At first, I was forbidden, but my mother, Covril, demanded I have my chance. I do not know what sparked her change of heart, as she herself had argued quite decisively for the opposing side. My hands shook. I would be the last speaker, and most seemed to have already made up their minds to open the Book of Translation. They considered me an afterthought.

And I knew that unless I spoke true, humanity would be left alone to face the Shadow. In that moment, my nervousness fled. I felt only a stillness, a calm sense of purpose. I opened my mouth, and I began to speak.”

“—from The Dragon Reborn, by Loial,

son of Arent son of Halan, of Stedding Shangtai”

Loial followed the events of his age and wrote a book documenting everything that happened with Rand, Perrin and Mat along with everyone else who contributed to the defeat of the Dark One.

Perrin - Rand - Mat

Representation of the Dark One

What will Sam do?

Sam

“My b-b-bastard.” He had said that, yes, but . . . All that water. I could drown. Ships sink all the time, and autumn is a stormy season. Gilly would be with him, though, and the babe would grow up safe. “Yes, I . . . my mother and my sisters will help Gilly with the child.” I can send a letter, I won’t need to go to Horn Hill myself. “Dareon could see her to Oldtown just as well as me. I’m . . . I’ve been working at my archery every afternoon with Ulmer, as you commanded . . . well, except when I’m in the vaults, but you told me to find out about the Others. The longbow makes my shoulders ache and raises blisters on my fingers.” He showed Jon where one had burst. “I still do it, though. I can hit the target more often than not now, but I’m still the worst archer who ever bent a bow. I like Ulmer’s stories, though. Someone needs to write them down and put them in a book.”

Gilly

Horn Hill

Others

“Did you find who the Others are, where they come from, what they want?”

“Not yet, my lord, but it may be that I’ve just been reading the wrong books. There are hundreds I have not looked at yet. Give me more time and I will find whatever there is to be found.”

“There is no more time.” Jon sounded sad. “You need to get your things together, Sam. You’re going with Gilly.”

Jon Snow

“Going?” For a moment Sam did not understand. “I’m going? To Eastwatch, my lord? Or . . . where am I . . .”

“Oldtown.”

Will Sam be able to uncover a similar type information that will help save their world come their Last Battle?  I believe the answer to this to be YES.  In the Citadel in my opinion he will discover an equivalent to the Thirteenth Depository.  Within that section of the Citadel library he will discover the truth about the Others, the secret to forging Valyrian Steel, the secret of the Horn of Winter, how the runes that the First Men Left on rocks can possibly be used to travel making the staging of troops in preparation for the last battle feasible thus not taking forever to accomplish, the secrets of the glass candles and much more.  Yes I believe Sam will do all this plus make it possible for all of us ASOIAF to do what we enjoy most.  I believe GRRM, at least the writer part of him, is Sam.  I believe we will all learn in the end that Sam wrote ASOIAF and what we are reading his telling of the events that took place during his time.  This is similar to how the introduction of ASOIAF has always been viewed through the lens of the Citadel library where Sam will make his discoveries.  The events before him he gathered from his research into the Citadel’s vast library.  The man that everyone thought useless will become a legend along the lines of Bran the Builder.

Horn of Winter

Possibly the cover of Sam's book?

Bran the Builder

Prophecies and quotes from TWOT that I believe will somehow relate in a similar fashion to ASOIAF:

“I won’t have him embarrassed, Erith,” his mother said before he could open his mouth. “Loial writes well, and Elder Haman says he may have the makings of a scholar about him, but he gets tongue-tied before even a hundred. Besides, he is only a boy.”

This one is easy.  Like Loial Sam will find his voice.

"The unstained tower breaks and bends knee to the forgotten sign. The seas rage, and stormclouds gather unseen. Beyond the horizon, hidden fires swell, and serpents nestle in the bosom. What was exalted is cast down; what was cast down is raised up. Order burns to clear his path.”

-Lord Of Chaos, Closing prophecy

Will the Citadel fall to attack in a similar way as did the White Tower?  Possibly by Euron?

“I want you to tell the Amyrlin something," he said. "If it's Egwene, this should be easy. But even if it isn't, you tell her. The White Tower has something of mine, and it's nearly time that I reclaimed it. I don't want to, but what I want never seems to matter a whisker, these days. So I'll be coming, and I don't mean to be bloody turned away. " He smiled. "Use that exact language.”

Mat was asking for the Horn of Valere. Will something similar happen concerning the Horn of Winter?

Horn of Valere

On a day of fire and blood, a tattered banner waved above Dumai's wells, bearing the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai. On a day of fire and blood and the one power, as prophecy had suggested, the unstained tower, broken, bent knee to the forgotten sign. The first nine Aes Sedai swore fealty to the Dragon Reborn, and the world was changed forever.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.