Game of Thrones Book Spoiler Open Thread: “The Children”

Welcome to your last Game of Thrones discussion thread of season four, book readers. Let’s talk about that thing I know all of us want to talk about.

• Lady Stoneheart, where are you?! I appreciate season four ended on a note of “new beginnings in a new land”—as Kristy points out in her recap, the final scene of Arya going to Braavos was strangely hopeful, which I really dug. But Lady Stoneheart. That would have been such a great cliffhanger moment to end the finale with! This is just me spitballing here, but is it possible her introduction will end season five? There isn’t a lot of stuff that happens between now and then, but hell, it’s not like season four didn’t pad out Jon and Bran’s storylines like crazy.
• Oh Sandor, you’re not dead.
• Poor Jojen. Him dying before he gets to the cave lends credence to the Jojen is paste* theory for me. Obviously, Jojen can’t be paste if he’s exploded. But. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss know the basics of what will go down in the rest of Martin’s series. If they know Jojen has basically nothing to do after Bran meets The Last Greenseer, and if they know he dies offscreen, I can totally see them just killing him early and not doing Jojen as paste at all. Thomas Brodie-Sangster, you’re free! Granted, if Jojen is still alive and kicking it wouldn’t be the first time D&D either wrote out or didn’t include characters whom Martin says will be important later on in the books.
• Not related to book spoilers, but I love how Peter Dinklage acted the scene where Tyrion murders Shae. He’s immediately horrified at what he’s done, because he knows that for all Shae hurt him, the one who’s ultimately responsible for all the pain in his life is not Shae, but dear daddy Tywin. *clutches Shae to her heart and hisses at detractors.*
• So… no Coldhands at all, then?
• Melisandre seeing Jon through the fire: “…shit. Did I have the wrong Azor Ahai all this time?” BWAHAHAHAHA.

*Here’s all the info on the Jojen is paste theory, but TL;DR: The theory goes that in A Dance With Dragons the children kill Jojen and mix his blood into a paste that The Last Greenseer has Bran drink to fully unlock all his magical powers. There’s not a lot of evidence for it: The paste is described as tasting like iron, and basically Jojen’s entire narrative purpose has been to help Bran realize his powers, so him being pastified would be a fitting, if ironic and twisted, end for him. It’s all pretty circumstantial, but I’ve always liked the Jojen is paste theory for some reason. It’s not like it’d be the first time blood magic popped up.

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