What do you hope will happen or what do you expect to happen when the final book is written? (spoil your comments for this question)
What's the point of spoiling the comments? Your title explicitly refers to those that have read book 5.
Would love to see Tyrion take Littlefinger down,or maybe Arya assassinate him(maybe contracted from Iron Bank or something). Direction points more to Sansa,but the others would be more interesting,imo. I'm also team non zombie for J Snow. Definitely want to have Howland Reed either come into play,or be part of someones pov with some things being explained or filled in from his perspective.
That's a solid call;I could definitely see that as a viable option whether it ends up happening or not.
If he doesn't, then I think 8 or 9 books is a given. If Jon dies, then the story has moved further from resolution in ADWD than it has closer, which is supposedly what held him up (moving the story lines on a path toward resolution.)
If he's really dead then in my opinion his story has meant pretty much nothing other than to let us know that the white walkers are coming.
It will be at least 7 now. They are already named. The winds of winter and a dream of spring. Formerly: Spoiler a time for wolves
He's also yet to write a planned book he hasn't split at least once. I should say originally planned. AGOT ended up 3 books.
I don't know how he's going to get Dany from Mereen to westeros and all that comes with her conquest. Plus she has no idea how to control her dragons. I'm guessing she's gonna meet some crazy old lady who knows all the valyrian tricks and spells and that will probably take a good amount of one book. And she'll probably be with the Dothraki horde for a good portion of the next book. I feel her story could only be done in 8 books. It's too much to fit in 7. Which means we won't know the ending until 2025.
I feel like she pretty much has control of Drogon at the end of 5 and I read a theory that Quentyn is actually not dead and flew away with one of the other ones so it's possible (far from definite) that we already have 2 riders.
I read that theory too. Kind of wish I hadn't. Would have been a big holy fuck moment if it does happen.
If any of the stark children are with Varys I missed something lol. It's possible though. I think I rushed ADWD.
Yea i think you're right. I kind of realized that after i posted. Doesn't make much sense for arya to be there
I think they're actually child slaves from the Free Cities. remember when he met with Illyrio he told him he needed more "little birds".
Back to the original question. While all the political intrigue, the "Game of Thrones", is interesting, I'm pretty sure the final story will be The Others vs. everyone else. The books mention time and again how the smallfolk believe a long summer means a long winter, and it's been summer for a loooong time. As the Starks say, Winter is coming. The Others thrive in winter and indeed the last major battle with them was during an extremely long winter. They have a weakness to fire, some say an extreme weakness to dragon's fire and there are dragons in the world again. Prophecy says the dragon will have three heads, so it seems there will be three people riding the three dragons. Dany is surely one, and a case for the second was made above. I think Jon Snow to be one (it is, of course, theorized he is a Targaryen). The third could be a lot of people (as the theory above proves). Personally, I hope it is Tyrion. Selmy mentions that the Mad King lusted after Joanna Lannister (Tyrion's mother) and there is a theory that he raped her and Tyrion is actually half Targaryen. Anyway, the three headed dragon head towards the Wall as the Others begin their siege. The armies of man are absent, save the Night's Watch and the wildlings they have taken in. In response to this threat, the seven kingdoms start sending armies north as The Others breach the Wall and head south. Somewhere around the ruins of Winterfell, the epic battle begins. Thousands die, including many of our beloved characters. Except Jon Snow. Having "died", he is released from his duties on the Night's Watch. It is revealed via Howland Reed that he is a Targaryen and is also "The Prince That Was Promised" in prophecy (and the Azor Ahai as well). He is dubbed King of the Seven Kingdoms and takes his throne, starting a reign of peace until his death. tl;dr King Snow
Wasn't sure who that was so I went to the ASOFAI wike and read up on him. Then started reading about all the kings. This may be obvious as fuck to everyone but me, but Robert Baratheon was the first King of The Seven Kingdoms ever that wasn't a Targaryen. I knew the Targaryens were the most prominent royal family, but I assumed someone else had sneaked in during the last 300 years.
That's because they were 7 separate kingdoms before Aegon came over with his dragons and conquered and united them all.
My question was how did the Targs keep power for so long? They brought only a handful with them and conquered everyone else because of their dragons. They never took over the different kingdoms in terms of inserting other Targs as wardens or rulers of castles so it would seem that none of the major houses have any real allegience to them other than the fact that they 'bent the knee' way back when. So how did they maintain power over all those houses after the dragons were gone.