Image: The Winds of Winter
Imagine it’s the distant future. You’ve just sat down with a brand new copy of The Winds of Winter, the sixth installment in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. The first chapter is a prologue, as usual.
You find yourself in the Westerlands, reading from the point of view of one Ser Forley Prester. Formerly a commander in Ser Jaime Lannister’s war council during the Siege of Riverrun, he is now tasked with escorting Edmure Tully and Jeyne Westerling, the wife of the late Robb Stark, to Casterly Rock. On orders, he is to kill them both at any hint of escape. They would prove a rebellious thorn in the Lannisters’ side if left alive.
Along the way, the Lannister knights are come upon by Ser Brynden Tully, the infamous Blackfish, and remnants from the Brotherhood without Banners. During the following skirmish, Jeyne Stark is rescued, as Jaime had feared. Edmure is killed by Ser Forely himself before taking an arrow to the chest. A dangerous price for the Lannisters to pay. The North has their Queen.
Well, maybe.
It’s been almost a decade since the release of the latest book in the epic series, A Dance With Dragons, the fifth out of a presumptive seven volumes. In that time, Martin has given a lot of interviews, written a lot of blog posts, and even released a lot of sample chapters, so we do have some indication of what’s going to happen. Putting it all together, one can start to build a pretty good picture of what Winds might look like upon its release.
However, you might feel a little exasperated with Westeros and Essos by now; it’s hard to hype yourself up for the release of a book you’ve already waited nearly 10 years for. At the same time, the controversial conclusion to Game of Thrones may have deflated your interest in the ending of the book series, since it will likely be the same in terms of the broad strokes.
However, TV and novels are very different mediums, as Martin himself as discussed. Even if elements from the show will be reflected in Winds, many of the particulars will be new, exciting, and worth getting interested in. In this post, we thought we’d highlight some of the intrigue to come.
The map of Game of Thrones is somewhat similar with our map. Westeros is like Britain and Essos is like Europe and Asia. However west of Westeros is where all the maps stop. No one knows what’s beyond the sunset sea. pic.twitter.com/3wpfZFyQ25
— Naya (@rockstuffx) May 21, 2019
To start, let’s talk about the points of view that may be included in Winds. In A Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, there were eight POV characters. That number has gone up with each subsequent book. Famously, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons — the fourth and fifth entries in the series — take place over roughly the same span of time, but focus on different characters. If you consider Feast and Dance as two parts of one huge book, there are a whopping 22 POVs in all.
As Martin has said, Winds will bring all the characters back under one roof, but that doesn’t mean all of those POVs will make an appearance. For one thing, some of those POV characters have died, like Quentyn Martell. And it sounds like there’s more where that came from. “There will be plenty of deaths,” Martin said in 2014. “Plenty of deaths! Including some viewpoint characters.” Time to brace for the deaths of a few fan favorite characters.
On top of that, Martin has said he doesn’t intend to add any new POV characters. The previous two volumes spread the characters fairly thin, but it’s sounding like Winds will be more concentrated. “The way my books are structured, everyone was together, then they all went their separate ways and the story deltas out like that, and now it’s getting to the point where the story is beginning to delta back in, and the viewpoint characters are occasionally meeting up with each other now and being in the same point at the same time, which gives me a lot more flexibility for killing people,” he said in 2014.
So who exactly are the POV characters we’ll see in Winds? Nothing is confirmed, but based on sample chapters, hints from Martin, and more, here’s our count of who’s almost definitely showing up:
- Arianne Martell
- Theon Greyjoy
- Mercy, AKA Arya Stark
- Alayne, AKA Sansa Stark
- The Forsaken, AKA Aeron Greyjoy
- Victarion Greyjoy
- Tyrion Lannister
- Barristan Selmy
- Asha Grejoy
- Areo Hotah
- Cersei Lannister
- Melisandre
There are also strong hints that we’ll see chapters from the likes of Bran Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Davos Seaworth and Jon Connington. And although we don’t have direct evidence for them, it’s hard to imagine we won’t see chapters from the perspectives of Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth and Samwell Tarly. And of course, there’s Jon Snow, lately murdered by his own men in the Night’s Watch, to wonder about.
All told, that’s 20-21 potential POVs, although again, expect a few to be culled by the end.
So what exactly will happen to all these characters in Winds? First, let’s recap the end of A Dance with Dragons so we’re caught back up. To the north, Jon Snow has been killed by his own men, a result of his betrayal of the Night’s Watch’s neutrality. Bran Stark has finally reached the Three-Eyed Crow and began his training as a “greenseer.” Ensconced at Winterfell, Ramsay Bolton has claimed to have defeated Stannis Baratheon in battle. At the same time, Theon has escaped Winterfell with Jeyne Poole — who was being passed off as Arya Stark so she could marry Ramsay — and met back up with his sister Asha. Davos Seaworth is searching for Rickon Stark.
To the south, Jaime Lannister travels with Brienne of Tarth towards Lady Stoneheart in the Riverlands. In the Vale, Sansa is passing herself off as Alayne, Littlefinger’s bastard’s daughter, and hatching a plan with him to retake the North through marriage. In King’s Landing, Cersei has finally been released by the Faith, and plans to use a reincarnated Gregor Clegane to defend her in a trial by combat. Jon Connington has landed in Westeros with Young Griff, a boy purporting to be Rhaegar Targaryen’s son Aegon, and has set about capturing several castles in the Stormlands. Arianne Martell is on her way from Dorne to meet them. Varys returns to King’s Landing and murders both Kevan Lannister and Pycelle, revealing that he has been plotting for a Targaryen restoration for years.
Across the Narrow Sea, Arya continues her training as a Faceless Man. Tyrion Lannister and Ser Jorah Mormont have reached Meereen and joined up with the mercenary company the Second Sons, but are on the wrong side of the coming battle against Daenerys’ forces commanded by Ser Barristan Selmy. Daenerys herself is trying to make her way back to Meereen after Drogon flew her out during the incident at Daznak’s Pit. She runs into a Dothraki horde led by Khal Jhago. As all this is going on, Victarion Greyjoy has traveled to Meereen to marry Dany and use her dragons to defeat his brother Euron.
So the stage is set. Now, let’s see if we can’t forecast what comes next.
