I hate it when I get re interested in ASOIAF because I’m like…. Oh my god do we know which of the Lannister twins was born first?! Is Jaime the valoqar??!! Oh man!! And Ghost is an albino canine, is he deaf like many albino dogs are? Is that why he makes no noise? And when Jon calls for Ghost moments before his death, is it merely affection for his companion, or is there more to it than that? The prologue in ADWD is about a warg taking the skins of animals to survive when his own body can’t, is that significant? Is Jon the reason why it’s included at that particular time? It says he never feels the fourth knife, only the cold. Is that because he’s in Ghost’s body now? Oh my god, is it?! And Maester Aemon says dragons change sex at will, this is mentioned in Fire and Blood as well. That’s what makes Aemon think there was an error, and the Prince that was Promised is actually a princess. But GRRM has described the story as Jon’s as well as Dany’s many times. Is the fluid nature of the dragons’ gender just there to explain the potential misgendering of the ‘prince’ or is there more to it than that? And IF Jon is currently living in Ghost’s body and can now shift bodies, where will he go next? Jon as Rhaegar and Lyanna’s son is long foreshadowed in the books, from the like the first Ned chapter back in AGOT. Is the subject of dragon’s changeable genders foreshadowing as well? And IF Jon really is alive in Ghost’s body, is he eventually going to find his way to Dany? Will the concept of dragons and their sex changing abilities be reflected in House Targaryen’s children, the ‘dragons’ Jon and Dany? Are we looking at some weird body sharing situation here? Are they BOTH the prince(ss) who was promised, or are they when put together?! And also what about Dany’s three men prophecy? It says ‘will be’ does that mean that all of the men were men she had yet to meet? And when they discuss the dragon’s three heads, with the concept of that being equivalent to three people, how do you count that? Is there significance to what generation they are from? Can it be any Targaryens?? Does it have to be Targaryens, for that matter? The Mad King had three children; Rhaegar, Viserys, Daenerys. Rhaegar had three children; Rhaenys, Aegon, and Jon. Dany has her three dragons, who she considers her children, but she also had a stillborn child, Rhaego. How does that factor in? If Jon’s body is not recovered for him, does he count as one of the three heads the dragon must have? GEORGE??!! GRRM???!!! George, I have so many questions, I need you to finish writing the books so I can sleep at 1AM instead of making this increasingly frantic post. I’m begging, please just have an actual ending.

wrt valonqar speculation, if the valonqar is allowed to be someone else's unrelated younger sibling, let's stretch that to use the "but maester aemon said gender doesn't matter in hv" clause to mean the valonqar is not even restricted to being a younger brother either. that makes just as much sense as noting the prophecy says the valonqar, not your valonqar. what if cersei is killed by someone else's sister who keeps a lannister vendetta list? no, i don't mean arya stark, dummies. i mean her undead mother, lady stoneheart!

but catelyn was an eldest child, not anyone's younger sibling you say? wrong! "Her two older brothers had both died in infancy", meaning she was actually a younger, thirdborn child. if the valonqar is not restricted to cersei's own brothers, and could be younger siblings in general, why not count someone who was a younger sister only to two dead brothers she never knew? of all the non-lannister younger siblings, did anyone else specifically dream of strangling cersei? ("dream of riding to King's Landing and wrapping my hands around Cersei Lannister's white throat and squeezing until her face turns black." compare that to the valonqar prophecy of "the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." why else would grrm ever repeat the unique phrasing of "white throat" in such a way? obviously it has to mean something!) and the chapter where cat speaks of her dreams of choking cersei (Catelyn V, aCoK) comes right before her chapter revealing the existence of two dead elder brothers (Catelyn VI, aCoK). that can't be a coincidence, people! grrm wants us to connect those two facts in the back of our minds, so when the true valonqar is revealed it will be shocking but make perfect sense in retrospect to those few of us who have been paying attention.

c'mon now, folks! who has a higher lannister threat level: the former lannister dog who killed his brothers' goons only in self-defense and became a lamed dog; the knight of flowers who has only ever killed baratheon soldiers, his own men included; some child whose little hands probably can't strangle anyone; or the spirit of vengeange hunting down all frey- and lannister-affiliated enemies, who had cersei lannister near the top of her hit list before her death? i rest my case. accept no other non-lannister valonqar substitutions.

ASOIAF Prophecies As Punchlines:

cersei lannister learns she's to be "replaced" by someone "younger and more beautiful": cersei raises myrcella to be an intelligent politician & pointedly dotes on her. myrcella ends up as queen, the younger & more beautiful heir to her mother's legacy.

cersei learns a [younger sibling] will kill her by the neck: cersei reforms her attitudes to her brothers, pointedly doting on them; cersei has 3 kids and remembers to dote on the two younger siblings of the 3; cersei, long-reconciled with her brothers & well-loved by her children, retires to a castle in the riverlands. she dies mid-journey north, pain relief provided by a maester with elder siblings, in the region of westeros named "the neck".

aegon v & his kids learn that "the prince who was promised" is to be borne of the line of his grandkids aerys & rhaella. aegon v prevents his teenaged kids, jaehaerys & shaera, from wedding their own kids to each other while underaged & unwilling. aegon v finds nice, non-relative spouses for aerys and rhaella. when they are both of age & married, not to each other, THEIR kids (cousins) are tentatively betrothed: they are princes promised to each other, prophecy fulfilled.

rhaegar asks maester aemon about this "prince who was promised" prophecy he read in a book. maester aemon patiently explains to his great-grandnephew the mysticism of Contract Law & the importance not of "who" is promised but to "WHOM" he is promised. rhaegar dutifully doublechecks his debts & debtors to make sure any kids of his don't get promised to, say, an eldritch sea god or an uncle tree-wizard.

rhaegar learns his wife, elia, cannot have another pregnancy after their 2nd child's birth. rhaegar believes he must have three children: elia reminds rhaegar that adoption is a thing & that his parents are unlikely to survive to raise his kid brother forever. rhaegar takes an intetest im the wellbeing of his mother, "adopting" viserys by making him his squire before taking his family from court to dragonstone. viserys grows up looking to his brother as a father figure, looked up to by his niece & nephew (who call him "brother"). elia & her children live, rhaegar has his "3 heads", no lords paramounts get murdered while protesting the royal kidnapping of their underage daughters.

dany learns she will have 3 great loves, equated with pyres. dany shrugs this very disturbing imagery off & goes about living her best life. on her deathbed, wrinkled & surrounded by adopted family, everyone retroactively checks off dany's prophecies to see how they ended up being fulfilled, knowing that prophecies happen regardless of personal intervention.

jaime has a dream about getting abandoned & then saved by brienne of tarth. jaime remembers tyrion describing myths of "green seers": jaime recalls his eyes are green & notices he is sitting on a tree stump. jaime resolves to ensure lady brienne has plentiful resources available to her, and thus him, & endeavors to endear himself to her (in his hour of need, brienne comes to his rescue: armed, armoured & with a medically trained maester. jaime never dies of exposure after getting lost in a snowstorm).

melissandre sees in her flames: azhor ahai reborn! melissandre starts drafting a List of interpretations alternate to "stabbing loved ones = get magic victory sword".

melissandre later reminds stannis of sexual innuendo & his being kin to 'that dragon mother girl': shireen, beloved daughter of stannis by his less-loved wife, successfully adopts daenerys into the family & gets to borrow one of her dragons to keep everyone warm for the winter. more people survive & no children are burned as hypothetical victory fuel.

For me, idk if Sansa is the girl in grey in Melisandre's prophecy and i don't care if they reunite at the Wall, in the Vale, in Winterfell or on the way, because the thing is its almost given that Sansa and Jon will be the first Starks to reunite since they are the most distant ones. Its how grrm works. The Starks are the central family of the series and out of their four povs that remain, Jon and Sansa are the only ones to not have a defined relationship and their reunion in twow before others will give them time to develop one.

In defence of the girl in grey theory - at this point it almost impossible to imagine her being not sansa. As much as I would prefer the vale meeting. Just think of it - Jon and Melisandre were thinking that the girl in grey would be Arya but ironically it was Jeyne Pool/Alys Karstark who happened to be geographically more convenient? Nah, that's not the irony of GRRM. Now, Sansa who Jon barely registers as sister in his inner pov - that would be the irony that we are used to in ASOIAF.

The girl in grey being not the Stark but someone else entirely just because this girl fits the criteria? It's not interesting. It gives the same vibes as theory that Cersei's valonqar is neither Tyrion nor Jaime and some other person that just happens to be someone else's younger sibling. That's just boring.

"Jon and Sansa are the only ones to not have a defined relationship" - oooh, now that's the topic I can speculate about for hours.

I'm rereading ASOS right now and gosh, the ways GRRM chooses to portray these two while their lack of any established relationship in books? That's simply fascinating how he dances around some words and names.

One of the most interesting part of this lack of interactions is the fact that it doesn't mean that they don't have this defined relationship. Their meeting and then dynamic will be a total wild card - unlike any other pair of siblings. They can literally have any dynamic and shared history or lack of it and we have no idea what it will be. I'm so excited!

And it's not only that. There is a conflict between them too - until they learn that Bran and Rickon are alive they both are kinda heirs of Starks and Winterfell, both are ruler coded since AGOT and their political strengths complement each other's weaknesses. Moreover, both can support each other's claim. Sansa Stark while being legitimate heir in many lords eyes is still married to Lannister and everyone knows it and she is also a girl who doesn't know how to wage a war. On the other hand Jon Snow even with Stark blood printed on his Ned Stark (who is still beloved in the North) face is still a bastard and can't interfere with claim of legitimate heirs (given that Robb's will is still unknown). One of them on his/her own can raise a lot of questions but two can make a decent claim.

So yeah.

Sansa and Jon meeting first of the pack is making quite a lot of sense from every point of view. It's not just that they are most distant siblings and thus make more interesting pair to interact, it's also very practical for GRRM if he wants Starks to go on the offensive - two of them combined can actually form a decent political power (in terms of both claim and set of skills). No other pair of Starks has that.

The inability of a lot of the fandom on reddit, twitter, and especially BNFs, to even explore the hints in the book that GRRM laid for Aegon potentially being real is very funny to me. But this is the same fandom that is deep in the POV traps and is still taking everything at face value. The valonqar - Cersei thinks it will be Tyrion and is fixated on him. But it will likely be Jaime. The Girl in Grey - Jon is fixated on the girl being Arya. Then Jon (and the fandom) thinks the vision refers to Alys Karstark when the girl will likely be Sansa - the other sister who will likely flee a marriage or betrothal in the Vale. This is where Sansa and Jon not being close in the series will come into play. She'll be the Girl in Grey, they will retake Winterfell working together, etc. It's kinda genius because Jon thinks it has to be the sister he is close to, Arya, and doesn't even consider the possibility that Melisandre is correct, just that her vision refers to his other sister, Sansa. The Sun's Son - the fandom and Dany believes this refers to Quentyn when it's referring to Aegon. Dany being so sure Quentyn is the Sun's Son is on its own enough for me to know it's not. It's obvious misdirection and exactly the type of irony GRRM likes to put into the series. But these theories don't fit in with peoples' headcanons lol so they refuse to even entertain the possibility.

As @istumpysk rightfully pointed out: why on EARTH would Quaithe warn Dany about sincere, forthright, dutiful Quentyn Martell of all people. He utters zero lies and is entirely upfront about his intentions.

If we had nothing else to go on, this alone should be a huge hint that it's not meant to be Quentyn. So who else qualifies? Oh, right. Elia's son. The guy whose claim supercedes hers. Who was going to come meet her until he decided to try his luck in Westeros on his own. Because he wants to be king there. They would be a lot less reluctant to accept that if it didn't create two inconvenient extra facts: Dany can't be queen unless she usurps Aegon (she who hates usurpers!), and the 'mummers dragon' is Jon, which casts doubt on them having a positive relationship.

Girl in Grey? It's not Arya, obviously as she's currently in Braavos, nor is it Alys Karstark who passes no bodies of water nor wears a grey cloak, nor is it Jeyne Poole, who never travels alone. Is anonymously travelling Arya somehow going to have another marriage arranged for her when she returns to Westeros before she's even reached Winterfell? Or could it possibly end up referring to the other "non-sister" who actually has a long history of sinister marriage plans actually involving her own plot, not in absentia? Nah, that would imply Sansa is important.

Tyrion already strangled a defenseless woman with a chain of golden hands. Are we to expect a reprise? A mere copy of this event? What- or whoever the valonqar will turn out to be, it's bound to be a lot less literal than that.

GRRM making prophecies deliberately confusing, or introducing false leads, is him playing with the characters and the readers. The moment a character fails to consider how unreliable a prophecy is, and believes himself certain of a specific outcome, we can strongly doubt their interpretation. That doesn't mean there isn't a specific fitting outcome attached to the every part of the prophecy at all. Just that it will only ever be clear in hindsight. Never in advance.

Visenyaism ASOIAF Theory Rubric Table of Contents

I have done so many of these over the course of this semester that I think it makes sense to start organizing them now. Here's my list under the cut. I tried to put them in little subcategories so it'd be easier to get through at this point:

Weird Magic Shit:

Arrax left dragon eggs in the Winterfell Crypts

Maegor the Cruel was a blood magic baby

Euron dropped out of Bloodraven school

Bran serves the Great Other

The Starks are responsible for the Others

Danny Flint is Coldhands (REAL)

Theon is favored by the Drowned God

Secret Parentages (Rhaegar Targaryen you ARE the father)

Melisandre is Shiera & Bloodraven's kid

Robert Strong isn't Gregor Clegane but rather a descendant of Aemond and Alys Rivers

Pycelle Hill

Tywin is Rhaegar's biological father

Alyssa Targaryen was Alaric Stark's kid

R+L=D

Cersei and Jaime are Aerys II's children

Domeric Bolton was Brandon Stark's Bastard

Daemon is Aemond's real father

Aemond and Alys’ son invented House Whent

Brienne the Tall

Varys Blackfyre

Who Young Griff is Specifically:

YOUNG GRIFF BLACKFYRE SWEEP

Young Griff is a Brightflame

Young Griff is a random

Disguise Time

Quaithe is Shiera

Euron is warging the dusky woman

Assorted Political Conspiracies:

Red Wedding 2.0

Walda Frey's letters are code re: the red wedding

Oberyn poisoned Tywin

Lemongate

Mance Rayder wrote the Pink Letter

Barbery Dustin wrote the Pink Letter

Grand Maester Conspiracy

Galaza Galare is the Harpy

Predicting the Future:

Loras is alive

The Cannibal is alive and on Skagos

Jon will lose an eye

Jaime Lannister is the Valonqar

Jaime YMBQ

Horsie symbolism

Hound warged his horse to avoid dying

Silly Goofy Funtimes:

Jon has no secret Targaryen name but Lyanna gave him a secret Stark name before she died which happens to be theon (this one is mine)

Varys is a merman

Varys is 3 kids in a trenchcoat

Ghost is a good boy :)

Tyrek Lannister was/is a horse

Hater Corner

Bolt-On

Exodus Theory

The prestonjacobs one about dany lying about the red door

Euron is time-travelling Bran

Ramsay's mother poisoned Domeric Bolton

Viserys II was a random

Time-travelling fetus tyrion

Meera and Jon are twins and Jyana Reed is Ashara Dayne

Ser Shadrich is Howland Reed

Dunk is Tywin’s grandfather

I just wanted to say that your theory of how Jaime will kill Cersei (the one you answered on March 14th) was really interesting but wouldn't that push Jaime inexplicably into villain status as opposed to his current status as sort of a bad guy that does good things/a good guy that does bad things? Also how do you think his story will end after he kills Cersei?

Jaime was (until his disappearance with Brienne at the end of his chapter in ADWD) the official representative of the crown in wrapping up the war in the Riverlands for the Baratheon-Lannister regime - which is to say, directly enforcing and empowering that regime and its chosen beneficiaries in the aftermath and as a result of the Red Wedding. Jaime continued the official royal employment of the Mountain's men despite their active participation in Tywin's broad strategy of war crimes (not to mention their own acts of cruelty and violence). Jaime undertook command of the siege of Riverrun, fully prepared to launch an attack if the Tullys did not surrender, and oversaw the transfer of the Tully's ancestral home to the family which had openly violated guest right to murder Lord Tully's nephew and the king he had acclaimed following the willful destruction undertaken by the Baratheon-Lannister regime (as well as his sister and any number of his bannermen and their supporters). Jaime left Tytos Blackwood with the wish of “a good harvest and the joy of the king’s peace” knowing that another harvest would be a complete impossibility (thanks to the onset of winter and his family's role in the destruction of Blackwood lands and men) and that Lord Blackwood’s true king was the one who had been murdered at his, Jaime's, father’s direction (and did much the same for Lord Bracken, telling him to “go home and plant your fields” even though there would be no time or resources to do so).

To be clear, I'm not mentioning these things in order to say "Jaime is an evil POS and has always been a supervillain", but rather to emphasize that his current story, and indeed his story overall, is far from spotless or morally uncomplicated. Jaime is, like many other characters in ASOIAF, capable of both good and bad, and I for one am not committed to any idea of Jaime "having" to be good or sympathetic or respectable for any remainder of his story, including the murder of Cersei. (This is the same reason I vehemently reject any theory that ties the valonqar murder to Jaime trying to save King's Landing or perform some other selfless or noble act.) The fact is that Jaime has thought quite a bit, and sometimes violently, through AFFC and ADWD about his resentment toward what he perceives as Cersei's romantic/sexual infidelity to him. I am not saying that Jaime's murder of Cersei will be connected to his sometimes violent feelings of resentment because I want to demonize or villainize Jaime, but because this is how the author has portrayed Jaime thinking about Cersei recently and because the author has very clearly telegraphed Jaime as the prophesied valonqar.

I have no strong feelings on what happens to Jaime following his murdering Cersei.

Do you think Braime will happen? And how?

I’m fairly confident they will exchange i love you’s, i go back and forth on whether they fuck or not before he dies.

i’m admittedly fuzzy on the details. I think Brienne is going to Do A Scheme to get herself, Pod, and Jaime out of the LSH mess alive and feel hugely guilty over it - to be real clear, she's luring Jaime to LSH, then they're escaping with Pod, but they're not actually having a hand in LSH's end, that's Arya's job. Jaime, meanwhile, will just be happy they’re alive, and will probably think it’s funny Brienne convinced herself that he’d hate her for lying to him when she just saved him from a zombie horror. Likely they split again soon after this because Brienne gets wind of Sansa being in the Vale and goes to get her before someone else does (unsure whether she pulls a full on Dunk and gets to the tourney on time to see something happen and makes off with Sansa that way, or if she meets up with Sansa as Sansa is escaping and saves her, but either way, basically the moment the tourney happens, I expect some crazy shenanigans to go down, and Brienne to swoop in, save Sansa, and make for the Wall for safety from Jon Snow). If you're interested in those theories, please look at my ashford tourney theory tags and the ser shady i mean ser shadrich tags! Now, what is Jamie doing during this time?

fuck if i know bro and that's the honest truth! Because he is the valonqar and he’s gonna do some valonqarizing, obviously, but i don’t think it necessarily means he kills cersei and I know I'm in the minority opinion with that here BUT. None of the other prophecies are that literal and yet everyone assumes he's going to literally strangle her to death because Cersei thinks she's going to be literally strangled to death, and we are somehow taking Cersei at her word here even though she's wrong about literally everything, the same way every single person in this series who tries to guess prophecies are wrong about everything! But the imagery, you say, the dreams of strangling her, the stuff about his golden hand! Yeah, I'm well aware of that, I’m not saying he’s doing anything nice to her, i think he’ll have a hand (badum-ts) in her dying, probably enough to feel guilty over it too (plus whatever is happening with tyrion) but he’s not strangling her to death and I simply do not believe he's dying right after either. What is he doing? no idea. they’re at casterly rock and he uses the last of the conditioner and then he leaves. i have no idea and I think people who are insistent that he HAS to murder-suicide his way out of the story are overconfident af about that ending.

after that. lots of war. they’re twin fires side by side in the darkness. Jaime will knight Brienne after he valonqarizes. If they say i love you, this is where it happens. If they fuck, this is definitely where it happens. They will be at the trident - perhaps stuck there, perhaps sent there on a mission by whichever Starkling is ruling the North. They will fight there, and Jaime will fall, but not before seeing Brienne bravely keep fighting, and having hope that she will live.

And she will. Brienne will live, Brienne will rise high, Brienne will not abandon her oaths, because Brienne is the True Knight, the bastion of goodness and heroism that Jaime needed when he was a young man, and she will continue to give others hope like she has given to him by staying true to the ideals of being a knight if not the minutiae of the vows she's sworn.

Anyways, my point is that I believe Jaime is going to have a Vader-esque "tell Sansa and Arya you were right about me" ending and Brienne will be the Luke in this situation, picking up the saber sword of the man who knighted her. What's that post that's like, Anakin asks Qui-Gon if he's here to free the slaves and Qui-Gon says no, only for Anakin's own son to show up decades later and say no, I am the last Jedi and I am here to free the slaves. That's Brienne and Jaime, except there's kissing involved.

what do you think of valonqar Jaime? Do you think it's going to happen?

This is going to be very long, and will discuss a lot of things. Sorry in advance. Also do not expect anything truly conclusive either.

To preface: Alright, so I am not big on theory crafting and focusing all my energy on predicting what events will or will not happen. I have many different reasons for this. I think a lot of this fandom expects “endgames” to be all encompassing character defining moments. They want easy answers to questions they have set themselves. Even though this is not at all how this series functions to me. Sure, a death and an ending can speak to a character, but it will not be defining, especially in the cases of the major characters. If that was the case, our main and only takeaway from Ned’s story should be how his failure to play the game got him to lose his head because #thisisnotlikeotherfantasies here the #hero #dies, being the honorable protagonist = death. That is clearly not the only point. It is those of who view this story as nihilistic torture porn that believe this. Its realism, that should never be misunderstood as nihilism, does not set out to deal divine justice to all of its characters based on a concoction of all of their moral choices. Especially the PoV characters. For instance, much of the reason I find the theme of “the heroism lies in the attempt” so profound is because it frames heroism as defined by acts DESPITE of this reality. So on a meta textual level, these characters do not act motivated by receiving rewards from the narrative.

“My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.”

This is the thesis conveyed through moments like “No chance, and no choice.”

This fight he is referring is to is the macro, with characters destined to try and enact radical change that truly challenges the very structure of the world that they are inhabiting. But I also think it can be applied to the micro: internal battles. There are so many characters in this series that are battling themselves primarily. George uses the canvas of a feudal society to have his characters carve out their identity in a world of rigid constructs full contradictions. The characters’ heart will always be at conflict with itself, but he aims to achieve the same with the readers’.

I do not think we should expect George to provide us with a completely conclusive answer to what we should take away about some of his ‘protagonists’, or how we should ultimately feel about them. This is why it bothers me that so much of what governs conversations regarding Jaime’s endgame, and the valonqar theory specifically, is the word “redemption”. This need to reduce this complex character and his journey to a word that is essentially a media trope drives me nuts. It always goes on to become an argument of “he is on a journey of redemption” (sure, whatever that means), “no, actually he is on a journey of subverting redemption. the point is that you are being tricked!!!” (ok, feels dismissive), “no, it is a subversion of the subversion!” (ok enough). The way these labels are used all feel like a reductionist idea of an arc. What is “redemption” even supposed to mean here? Why do we expect George to decide this for us and set it in stone? So much of Jaime is about perception, contradictions, and complex moral dilemmas with no easy answers. Why would any part of his endgame or choices of great importance down the line be not that? I think Jaime’s attempts at change, and the decisions he makes in pursuit of redefining his self concept, be it successful or not, should be the ultimate deciding factor for the reader in what they make of him, not just where he ends up (as with most of the characters).

“One of the things I wanted to explore with Jaime, and with so many of the characters, is the whole issue of redemption. When can we be redeemed? Is redemption even possible? I don’t have an answer. But when do we forgive people?” “I don’t know the answer, but these are questions worth thinking about. I want there to be a possibility of redemption for us, because we all do terrible things. We should be able to be forgiven. Because if there is no possibility of redemption, what’s the answer then?” - GRRM

Does not sound very concrete to me. This is an idea that does not even have to extracted from his interviews, it is written all over this series.

"If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil." - Mel vs “A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward. You were a hero and a smuggler." - Stannis

"Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best." - Loras vs                “The best and the worst."..."And a few who were a bit of both.” - Jaime

I also think another reason I avoid putting much effort into forming ideas of what will happen is because I do not really gain that much satisfaction in guessing an event happening. I much prefer to pick apart the event once it happens. Because these events will be complex with a lot of implications. Knowing the “if” or “it” without the “how” and the “why” is whatever to me. Of course so many of the mysteries are fun to address in your head, I’m just hesitant to come to conclusions about them without actually reading how the events play out and are written.  Also I think a lot of it is just people being more insistent on just pulling whatever out of symbolism and twisting lines into that of vague foreshadowing rather than looking at the grander structure and what would make sense thematically.

Now that that is over with, I am gonna actually tackle this question. This is gonna be Jaime & Cersei endgame discussion, not just the valonqar. 

CW: discussion of abuse, violence, suicide, incest, you know the drill with this topic.

To me, Jaime valonqar certainly leans towards the “how” and “why” rather than the “if”. The main reason I am really leaning towards Jaime is because I really cannot see another as thematically meaningful alternative. I’d personally hate it if it were Loras or some other “little brother” (Aegon, Victarion etc). I think a lot of the parallels that are in the text that are used to argue that Loras is a candidate for instance are primarily there to juxtapose the Tyrells and the Lannisters more than anything. Like I do not know how that would really serve Cersei’s character. After all, that is who this is most relevant to, it would be her conclusion for certain. Tyrion is a red herring for Cersei, which is extremely important. The narrative being in accordance with Cersei’s paranoia about him (she also tends convince herself of it using ableism) would not work for me, sorry.  Jaime is very likely, but if it is not him, I would only really accept it to be Cersei herself. Part of it is the desire to not have her death be her being overpowered and killed by an ex. Obviously, I do not know how that would work, the prophecy would have to become less literal. Maybe she poisons herself with the strangler in an act of suicide, as everything collapses around her, as an act of tragic agency and addition to the poetic nature of her downfall being self inflicted. This route makes me think of Ibsen’s (the father of realism in theatre) Hedda Gabler. I see a lot of parallels between these characters, with how their nature, nurture, and the patriarchal systems they inhabit affect them. This play gradually deconstructs Hedda as both a victim and a perpetrator, whose actions are influenced by the patriarchy that suppresses her identity and inner desires, rendering her inhuman. Ibsen comments on the destructive capacity of static social constructs by creating a character that turns into the devil of the story due to a world that ceaselessly strips her of her humanity, very much like Cersei. An essential aspect in making Hedda into a functional character is not removing her agency. Ibsen demonstrates an understanding that being a perpetrator does not negate her victimhood, and vice versa. She still makes choices. It is Hedda’s stubbornness and power hunger that leave her to her ruin in a world that does not allow her the ‘freedom’ or ‘power’ that she desperately desires (again, much like Cersei). This part could become confusing if you are not familiar with the play, but when Lovborg “loses” his manuscript, Hedda knowingly withholds her knowledge of its location in an attempt to control Lovborg’s destiny (gain control over others bc she has no true autonomy as a woman, again, much like Cersei). Lovborg refers to his manuscript as his and Thea’s child, saying that he would rather destroy it than leave it in evil hands. He says to Hedda: “But to kill his child—that is not the worst thing a father can do to it”. By this statement, Ibsen makes a parallel to Hedda’s life and her relationship with her father. Her father abandoned her and sentenced her to the life of a woman in a world that is restrictive and cruel. This has similarities to Cersei’s relationship with Tywin, and how much of a presence he, his conditioning, as well as how he used her in bridal slavery to gain political power, has in her life. Lovborg continues with: “The devil knows into what hands it may have fallen—who may have had their clutches on it.” The devil’s hands in the case of Hedda’s life is the static social contruct of gender. In the same way that the manuscript is trapped in Hedda’s clutches, she is trapped in a patriarchal system. The dramatic irony of Hedda becoming the devil whose hands the transcript has fallen into demonstrates the results of these static social constructs that turn the victim into a perpetrator. A perpetrator that burns the manuscript representing hope in the story and kills her child in the process of freeing herself from the world through suicide. Hedda ultimately kills herself to not let the men in her life rule over her, shape her into what she is not, and not accept her defeat.  I acknowledge that there are a lot of problematic aspects in framing a suicide as the only means of escape for Cersei from the patriarchy, but I think it would function well thematically.

I agree that a lot of the intrigue about the prophecy comes down to Cersei misunderstanding it, and it being Jaime would be something she does not see coming, hence it would function very well. But what if she starts to suspect him too?


“No one knows. We've had no further word of him. The woman may have been the Evenstar's daughter, Lady Brienne." Her. The queen remembered the Maid of Tarth, a huge, ugly, shambling thing who dressed in man's mail. Jaime would never abandon me for such a creature. My raven never reached him, elsewise he would have come.


Like she is currently overdosing on copium, but what if her character goes down a path of complete paranoia when this fact becomes more of a certainty that she cannot deny? What if her paranoia about the valonqar is what drives her to become her own valonqar? I think that irony would function very well too, especially in a self-fulfilling Oedipus kind of way. As for the pronouns subject, maybe it speaks to the constructs of gender that is such a primary focus in Cersei’s story, and how she always craved to be a man, or at least have what a man does in this society. However my issue with this is the “little brother” part. Truly there has to be some major mental gymnastics done here to make that fit neatly. Maybe there are multiple valonqars contributing to her downfall simultaneously, including Jaime? And they are not physically present to kill her, they are just causing the downfall of her regime, “choking her” with their armies? Maybe the valonqar part was never real, and that is the real tragedy of all of it? Do not want to over-complicate this, so I am leaving it here. Again, requires a lot of mental gymnastics to justify this scenario, which speaks to its unlikelihood. 

Thematically, what needs to happen is for their romanticized idea of “one soul in two bodies, going from womb to tomb” to be subverted, because obviously it is a narrative that has been deconstructed and proved to be a belief system they made up to justify themselves and what they gain from the relationship (my post elaborating on it here: link). This subversion can happen with a murder/suicide, Jaime killing her and then living on, Jaime living on and even being potentially destroyed by that decision etc. It can also be subverted by it not happening at all, as in one of them dies alone, tragically reflecting on this very belief, calling attention to their “other half’s” notable absence. So a complete divergence in regards to their characters would also work. I am pretty much okay with literally everything, if it is executed well, except for what happened in the show lmao.

Anyway, if Jaime valonqar happens, it will have to be a very loaded decision. I do not think it will be motivated by angry revenge because of the infidelity, as I do not view Jaime’s anger towards Cersei as exclusively rooted in her infidelity to begin with (plus if that was the case how come he did not do it already). The misogynistic rage is very much present though, I just do not think Jaime would actually resort to murdering someone like Cersei purely motivated by rage as a result of that betrayal, especially in his current state. He makes threats in his head constantly, but like his confrontation with Lancel, they do not come to fruition. "Only a fool makes threats he's not prepared to carry out.” is to me a very ironic line with this man.

However:

"How is Cersei? As beautiful as ever?"

"Radiant." Fickle. "Golden." False as fool's gold. Last night he dreamed he'd found her fucking Moon Boy. He'd killed the fool and smashed his sister's teeth to splinters with his golden hand, just as Gregor Clegane had done to poor Pia. In his dreams Jaime always had two hands (interesting); one was made of gold, but it worked just like the other. "The sooner we are done with Riverrun, the sooner I'll be back at Cersei's side." What Jaime would do then he did not know.

Then two Jaime chapters later:

Ser Ilyn drew a finger across his throat.

"No," said Jaime. "Tommen has lost a brother, and the man he thought of as his father. If I were to kill his mother, he would hate me for it . . . and that sweet little wife of his would find a way to turn that hatred to the benefit of Highgarden."

Ser Ilyn smiled in a way Jaime did not like. An ugly smile. An ugly soul. (very interesting part of the quote, read this wonderful meta about what Ilyn represents and you can come to your conclusions about it: link, not getting into it here)

Of course, taking Jaime’s words at face value is not how it works with him. This goes both ways, good and bad. Jaime is a character that often purposefully deludes himself. That in itself is a major character flaw, but it is different from taking all his words and thoughts at face value. Things that actually bother Jaime tend to be things that he completely represses and forms different narratives in his head for, to cope. The reason he does this is because he feels doubt about them. They are things that actually threaten his view of the world (like the amoral nihilism he justifies himself for having bc contradictions, flawed moral constructs, the impossibility of being a true knight, life being shit, his romanticization of his relationship with cersei etc) and most of this guilt or things he is in denial over he only manages to actually start to confront in dreams, a way of his subconscious mind to communicate with his conscious mind (attraction to Brienne, guilt over Rhaegar’s children, his concern with how he is perceived, the death of his mother, what he and Cersei became.) Before he can confront them consciously, he often does so subconsciously. This applies to his violent anger towards Cersei. The self-deluding can also apply to his attachment to her, that I think is still there, and his reasoning for not killing her is not exclusively what he claims here. If it was, and that is what is stopping him, Tommen is soon to be dead anyway. melrosing’s interpretation also rings true to me though regarding the themes of the futility of vengeance that is so prevalent in ASOIAF, and how a lot of his thoughts of vengeance seem to come to a dead end. It would not make him into a person he is thriving to be, but a person of the likes of The Mountain and Aegon the Unworthy, as he subconsciously points out. His loudly proclaimed future revenge against Vargo Hoat & co. also went nowhere for him (the brutality of what happens to Vargo Hoat kind of disgusts him, in fact, “somehow revenge had lost its savor ”- Jaime III, AFfC). After all, it is not gonna bring his hand back, I fear. Neither would just killing Cersei and closing that relationship make him a good person. Currently, a feeling represented in his actions regarding Cersei’s possible death and the letter is disillusionment. There is an acceptance that she has been spiraling and that their fates are not entwined. There is also an aspect of grief, if you read the snowflake in that one line as a tear. But it is not complete detachment. She is still lingering at the back of his mind in ADwD. Could be argued that this is a force of habit that he manages to push away for the first time, and then chooses to go in a different direction all together, away from her. The point is, Jaime has notably changed. So did Cersei. And so did their relationship. Jaime being so hung up on her cheating currently to me also speaks to his reluctance to face that this relationship was always very broken in its foundation, and that so many of their justifications and acts to sustain it were abhorrent. Jaime’s really has to come to terms with how this reflects on him as an individual.

"The things I do for love," he said with loathing.

"If I'd let kingslaying become a habit, as he liked to say, I could have taken you as my wife for all the world to see. I'm not ashamed of loving you, only of the things I've done to hide it. That boy at Winterfell . . ."

“They fought for half the night . . . well, Cersei fought, and Robert drank. Past midnight, the queen summoned me inside. The king was passed out snoring on the Myrish carpet. I asked my sister if she wanted me to carry him to bed. She told me I should carry her to bed, and shrugged out of her robe. I took her on Raymun Darry's bed after stepping over Robert. If His Grace had woken I would have killed him there and then. He would not have been the first king to die upon my sword . . . but you know that story, don't you?" He slashed at a tree branch, shearing it in half. "As I was fucking her, Cersei cried, 'I want.' I thought that she meant me, but it was the Stark girl that she wanted, maimed or dead." The things I do for love. "It was only by chance that Stark's own men found the girl before me. If I had come on her first . . ." The pockmarks on Ser Ilyn's face were black holes in the torchlight, as dark as Jaime's soul.

There is certainly an awareness in Jaime about the vile things he has done. He has self hatred about it, this to me is clear. He justified it to himself in the name of this relationship. But as he changed, as the relationship was deconstructed, and as he learned of the infidelity  (which represents a hole in the illusion he made inside of his head), it fully crumbles. Now he has many more things to reflect.

Also, there is a clear set up of paralleling Cersei with Aerys, doubt that is not building up to something. Do not think this would not play a part in the valonqar situation: “Even in the baleful glow, Cersei had been beautiful to look upon. She'd stood with one hand on her breast, her lips parted, her green eyes shining. She is crying, Jaime had realized, but whether it was from grief or ecstasy he could not have said. The sight had filled him with disquiet, reminding him of Aerys Targaryen and the way a burning would arouse him.”

I also believe that AFfC, the letter burning, them being “effectively estranged” according to George, could be about how their relationship had moved past a point of return, rather than closing completely. Like this does not mean to me that they will no longer hold relevance in each other’s narratives, or that they will not meet ever again. I think the romantic aspect is over, but I also think they will need to ‘conclude’ their relationship in some form and meet again with this change being the new normal. Hence she is still present in his thoughts in the ADwD chapter. Though I very much understand the preference to have that conclusion be him just no longer associating with Cersei anymore, for both of their sake.

“And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

The strangling certainly has very violent implications, but I genuinely have no idea about the logistics of a one handed man wrapping his “hands” around her neck, if we are meant to take that literally. There is the hand of the king chain theory, which has merit (like his offhand threat of strangling Sybell with her seashell necklace when he is angry about Jeyne and her situation), but I think that would require Jaime to be her hand, to make the chain “his”, which I do not see happening at this point considering where their relationship is, unless Jaime tricks her. There is, again, also the strangler (poison), and that could be his weapon of choice. It could also be worded in such a way so the major point of it is the idea of intimate betrayal, with the technicalities holding less relevance, as it is more metaphorical. I also have my gripes with this part of the prophecy, and do have a desire to have it be subverted in some form. People already want her to get a brutal dehumanizing death, if it turns out to be in anyway overly gratifying (really doubt it, but let’s acknowledge that George’s writing of Cersei is not flawless when it comes to this, and Lysa’s death falls under this too) it will leave me pretty bitter.

The issues within their relationship will not be excluded from it though, like it will not JUST be a pure kingslayer 2.0 situation, that I am certain of. Like you cannot extract the history of that relationship from such an act. I also do not really want it just to be a purely heroic mercy kill where we put down the mad woman like old yeller, for very obvious reasons. Anyways, regardless of the circumstances, then we might be left with Jaime and the aftermath, as this will no doubt impact his character if he lives on. 

Some people remove the potential of the kingslayer parallel from it by moving it away from KL (and the caches of wildfire) to Casterly Rock. I know of the theory that the twins will die like the Reynes, and that is when the valonqar will come to fruition. Not really sold on it. Read a post that put it similarly: I completely get the thematic appeal of Tywin legacy collapsing upon itself, but I just do not think that holds as much weight character wise for the twins. I don’t think it is as monumental in Jaime and Cersei’s narratives. Jaime actively rejected it, and Cersei’s desires and arc are located at KL, her status as queen and her children dying under the weight of their crowns, so I think it is more fitting for her eventual demise to be there. I just feel that the two of them left the place behind them multiple times with the choices they made, unlike Tyrion who is very fixated on it, and whose character it holds a lot of significance to. Him near destroying it will serve just as well for this idea of Tywin’s own children bringing his legacy to a ruin.

Anyway, what I want for the Lannister siblings is a more of an active role in destroying the Lannister legacy (be it with the intention of doing so or not) rather than just going down in flames with it. I also think a lot of this theory relies on a very literal read of Jaime’s weirwood dream, which is primarily metaphorical and about his conscience anyway, not to mention the way that dream goes does not really fit with it either because JC end up separated in it, as in she leaves/dies before him, at least that is how I read it. It also does not completely rule out the possibility of dying with Cersei after killing her, again it is very open to interpretation in my eyes.

The reason I am hesitant to believe that they will die together is a combination of things, the dream included. I am certain everybody already covered this, but I am putting it in here for the sake of practicality. It will be surface level analysis so bear with me, I just want to speed through it.

“What place is this?” “Your place.” The voice echoed; it was a hundred voices, a thousand, the voices of all the Lannisters since Lann the Clever, who’d lived at the dawn of days. But most of all it was his father’s voice, and beside Lord Tywin stood his sister, pale and beautiful, a torch burning in her hand. Joffrey was there as well, the son they’d made together, and behind them a dozen more dark shapes with golden hair.” “Us? This is your place, Brother. This is your darkness.” Her torch was the only light in the cavern. Her torch was the only light in the world. She turned to go. “Stay with me,” Jaime pleaded. “Don’t leave me here alone.” But they were leaving. “Don’t leave me in the dark!” “The flames will burn so long as you live,” he heard Cersei call. “When they die, so must you.” “Sister!” he shouted. “Stay with me. Stay!” There was no reply but the soft sound of retreating footsteps.”

This segment represents the Lannister legacy. Cersei abandons him to join the Lannisters, all of whom named are dead at this point. She as a character does not attempt to distance herself from the Lannister legacy, and more-so embraces it, because it is the only way she knows she could attain and sustain the power she craves. With Jaime, his relationship is more complicated with it. (Here is some analysis of color symbolism to elaborate on it: link)

“In this light she could almost be a beauty, he thought. In this light she could almost be a knight. Brienne’s sword took flame as well, burning silvery blue. The darkness retreated a little more.”

A new light and a new purpose is made for Jaime. That purpose being Brienne and the example she represents. His character is established to have purpose past his relationship with Cersei. He made Cersei his “maiden”, co-dependently making her his purpose. She was made into an ideal, an ideal that covered up the flaws that the Lannisters represent: power hunger, apathy, exceptionalism, brutality, etc. His story might not end with hers. However, now Brienne is the new ideal. I think the context of these two relationships are very distinct, so I do not think his romanticization of her is the same. I also think how he views Brienne and her ‘pure morality’ will be challenged through LSH, when even she will be placed in situations where she must make choices that bloody her hands. This will probably lead to the more nuanced conclusions on morality and knighthood. Long Night: I am not sure how this will go, how long Cersei will live etc. However, I am fairly certain of Jaime having involvement in the Long Night. The fact that George spends time on him training again as a competent fighter feels like a chekhov’s gun that will have purpose past a LSH confrontation, not to mention the whole Oathkeeper and Widow’s Wail thing for JB. Widow’s Wail, which was just an #edgelord naming by Joff, also feels like a rather ironic name considering valonqar.

Anyway, when we look at the prophetic weirwood dream, a lot of Jaime’s trauma is presented with imagery of the Long Night and fighting The Others. Sure, it is metaphorical for his internal battle, but the packaging is deliberate:

“They were armored all in snow, it seemed to him, and ribbons of mist swirled back from their shoulders. ”

“The shades dismounted from their ghostly horses. When they drew their longswords, it made not a sound. ”

“The fires that ran along the blade were guttering out, and Jaime remembered what Cersei had said. No. Terror closed a hand about his throat. Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne’s burned, as the ghosts came rushing in.”

Another instance from his second ASOS chapter:

In his dreams the dead came burning, gowned in swirling green flames. Jaime danced around them with a golden sword, but for every one he struck down two more arose to take his place.

Same is the case for Brienne’s own dreams and how her trauma is conveyed:

“she dreamed about the men she'd killed. They danced around her, mocking her, pinching at her as she slashed at them with her sword. She cut them all to bloody ribbons, yet still they swarmed around her . . .”

After all, “the night is dark and full of terrors, and so are dreams.”

So yeah, flaming swords are just the tip of the iceberg.

In terms of Jaime’s ending: The weirwood dream certainly hints at him not surviving, but it is also very intentionally open. His ‘prophecy’ certainly feels less set in stone than Cersei’s. Especially with Cersei’s words being plural, with only his flame going out at the end: “the flames will burn so long as you live” “when they die so must you”.

“The fires that ran along the blade were guttering out, and Jaime remembered what Cersei had said. No. Terror closed a hand about his throat. Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne’s burned, as the ghosts came rushing in”

Whether that be literal, as in he falls in the fight against the Others, or metaphorical, that he succumbs to his conscience and self hatred in some way (“ghosts” of his past, the impact of valonqar can be relevant here). The point is that Brienne’s light is still burning. She will carry his legacy, with a next generation of knights. That legacy will be the conclusion of the series’s deconstruction of knighthood, that Brienne carries with her. A conclusion they came to together through their journey. (my metas about it: link, link)

If he lives, I would be fine with him taking the black, or being attached to a duty that he does not desire to serve the realm for the rest of his life as atonement. Wouldn’t be crazy about him living happily ever after on Tarth because I do not think it would fit with the series, nor do I feel like that is necessary for the romance between Jaime and Brienne to be incredibly meaningful and thematically fulfilling.

And that concludes my thoughts. Hope this satisfies you, anon. I am never having another thought again, this took all the energy out of me.

jaime is probably the most logical choice for the valonqar, but if it isnt jaime, i dont see why so many people dislike the idea of it being sandor clegane. ive only heard people speak negatively about that theory, but honestly, i think its perfectly plausible and would be an interesting, satisfying end to both sandor and cersei's arcs.

💖, 🧡, 🖤, 🤍, 💕 for asoiaf ;))

OH NO I'll try my best, but I've honestly forgotten at least half of what happens in these books

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

This is more of an outsider vs. fandom thing and not an intra-fandom thing, but I just wanna say (reiterate even) that I think most of the "this is grimdark bleak male power fantasy" kind of criticism of ASOIAF - if it even may be called "criticism" - comes from people who either have only watched the show or are not familiar with this series firsthand at all and are just parroting what others say to make sure everyone knows they condemn ~problematic media~. These books have a lot of nuance, most of the POV characters are marginalized or oppressed in one way or another, be it through disability, gender, social status, or a combination thereof, and it's very clear that we are supposed to sympathize with them and their values even if in one of another part of the story their values are treated as worthless.

As to opinions unpopular within the fandom, I've always enjoyed the parts about the Night Watch and the wildlings, both in the books and in those seasons of the TV show that I've watched. I have an impression that everyone in the fandom thinks them boring, but I've always found this deep north one of the most fascinating parts of Westeros.

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

I don't know, most theories I've seen make me go "Oooh... yeah that seems legit... people are so smart" (this can apply to theories that contradict each other because I don't really have any on my own). I can think of an unpopular theory or two that I disagree with; for example, I don't think that the valonqar prophesized to kill Cersei is some distant relative minor character - I believe it's going to be either Jaime or Tyrion, as simple as that, but not a popular one.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

...do people actually think there are any morally good characters in ASOIAF at all? Sometimes I see posts accusing even children of being evil. Actually, let me use this question this way: I don't think Arya has any higher ground over Sansa, I think they're just different, and the narrative itself doesn't support the idea that Arya somehow is a better person because she's a warrior and/or less feminine.

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

Genuinely don't have an answer for this one. I'm not up to date with the ASOIAF fandom trends, but my impression is that most of characters are inherently seen as either just as morally grey and ruthless if/when necessary (or just ruthless, period) as they are, or even worse (see the reply above about taking children's rivalries too seriously).

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

Again, I'm not familiar enough with the current ASOIAF fandom trends to know what is popular and what is not... Sigorn/Alys? They're in the books for like 5 seconds, but I'd really love to see how that marriage is going to turn out.

So according to people that believe that Brienne is the YMBQ, Brienne is going to take all Cersei holds dear after Cersei has lost almost everything she holds dear....makes sense. Also why is the YMBQ part of the prophecy supposed to not be taken literal, but not the valonqar one? Sounds selective to me. This theory is just proof of how much this fandom relishes in misoginy and how they want Cersei's arc to be about their ship and her losing a man to another woman. The possibility of it being Dany has none of these negative undertones because it's about comparing these two women as rulers and how Cersei has none of the qualities to be a good leader that Dany has.

According to that theory, the sense of the prophecy would be that after Cersei lost her children and the throne, the only thing left she holds dear (Jaime) would be taken away from her by Brienne. Now, it's definitely misogyny from many people, I won't argue about this. But I don't think you can seriously have been reading @the-king-andthe-lionheart posts since a while and think they’re a misogynist who only cares about their ship taking down a woman. If it was the first time you came across something they said, I understand not trusting them... but I wouldn’t have reblogged this or found it interesting coming from just anyone. Being familiar with their posts, I knew it wasn’t misogyny at all.

I haven't changed my mind about the YMBQ being Dany. It's indeed more interesting to me too if the prophecy is literal and Dany, as a queen who has shown good qualities as a ruler, is the one taking down Cersei, the queen who has shown she was a bad ruler. It’s also more logical to me since as I said, Maggy’s prophecies are quite clear.

Crackpot theory time

Jon con will kill Cersei with wildfire there by fulfilling the Valonqar prophecy.

P.S this only works if young is the son of Rhaegar

And here’s my crackpot evidence aegon the sixth is the younger brother of Rhaenys and Valonqar is a  Valyrian word alongside that Jon con is the hand of the king and wild fire is in Kings Landing.

So somewhere in TWOW Jon con will get to Kings Landing, and using the wildfire in Kings Landing, will set the city ablaze with fire, thereby killing tommen (or he’s died previously in some unrelated event )and then the smoke kills Cersei thereby choking a life out of her.

(Arianne Martell is the young more beautiful queen)

Very obvious theory for the rubric, Jaime is the Valonqar? And a much less obvious one, Young Griff is a Blackfyre?

They are really really hinting that it’s going to be Jaime in the text. It’d be a good subversion of all of Cersei’s anxiety about Tyrion and a solid self-fulfilled prophecy ending. That being said, I’m not sure if Jaime is going to be the one to literally show up and kill Cersei in the end. It seems like she’s pretty caught in a trap of her own making and also really really wants to blow king’s landing up, a project that WILL lead to her death. Not sure how Jaime is getting done with Riverlands Divorce Court, deciding to turn around, making it back to the capital, and killing Cersei before everything explodes….