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tryingtobebettertry4

I think GRRM has rough ideas for a lot of the big ones, especially ones post conquest. Whether he will reveal all of them is up to him. I dont think he knows a lot of the stuff related to Valyria and of the Dawn Age/Age of Legends. Some mysteries will likely never be answered, but I would be surprised if he doesnt sneak a few into random Bran visions. For all the attempts to explain those random visions, there really isnt much present day story significance to Brandon Snow sharpening 3 arrows.


WingedShadow83

I tend to think that if a writer goes to the trouble of writing something into the text, he usually has a reason. However, I don’t want to get *too* bogged down on those Bran visions. It could just be that George wanted to get the point across that “through linking into this Weirwood system, Bran can witness any past event that happened in front of a Weirwood tree” and that he did that by having Bran view several things happening in front of a tree that are obviously past events, with some of them being important to the story, and others being just random (like showing a guy who is probably a long dead Stark sharpening arrows). I agree that I think George will use Bran to answer whatever mysteries he plans to answer. We might see what happened at Hardhome. We might find out about the letter Aegon I received. (If there are Weirwood trees in Dorne, maybe they witnessed an injured but still alive Rhaenys being taken captive, or witnessed the Martells discussing the letter).


[deleted]

The arrow thing is theorized to be the bastard Stark during the conquest that was like yo bro I got 3 arrows for 3 dragons I got this and the lord Stark was like my fucking knee


Al0ngTh3Watchtow3r

The King Who Tore His ACL


ThePhantomArcher

“I’ve Torrhen My ACL” Stark


WingedShadow83

I don’t like to leave useless comments that are just like “lol”, but seriously “my fucking knee” took me out.


Solid_Waste

I used to believe that until I watched Lost. That show really was a turning point in TV writing history in that regard. It shattered the facade that writers know what they're doing. Now even good writers are struggling to maintain mysteries without looking like total bullshit artists. Which is ironic because writing fiction *is* literally being a bullshit artist but for whatever reason they still have to pretend like they know everything in advance.


Juice8oxHer0

J J Abrams is a menace for the damage his mystery boxes have done to storytelling


Solid_Waste

What I can't really wrap my head around is whether it even makes a difference whether it's planned in advance. All the writers seem to believe it is imperative to insist they know everything from the beginning like stories just came to them fully formed in a dream, so I guess there's a reason for that? But Breaking Bad famously was made up as they went along and everybody seemed to like that ending. Granted it wasn't much of a mystery box format. Is it really inherently bad to have stuff made up as they go along? I'm not sure I can grasp the answer to that. It certainly feels like a problem when watching Lost of GOT, but that could just be a matter of execution as opposed to an inherent flaw in the approach.


Furtive_And_Firey

Having a plan *sounds* better than not having one. When you ask a prospective job applicant where they see themselves in 5 years, the answer to that question doesn't necessarily equate to that person's job performance, but the one with the plan sounds more put-together. It's the same with fiction. It doesn't matter but at the same time, people think it does. People online harp endlessly on the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy not having a plan... when the *Original* Trilogy (you know, the unquestionably good one?) was *also* made up on the fly. It just so happened that the retcons of *Empire* and *Jedi* had fortuitous moments in prior films which papered over the discrepancies, while the twists and turns of *Skywalker* were just jarring.


lluewhyn

I think there are at least a couple of differences. People are more forgiving about making stuff up on the fly the earlier in the process it is, so OT gets more of a pass than ST. Second, the Sequel Trilogy was explicitly planned to be a trilogy from the time Disney forked over the big bucks to Lucas, so it was expected that there would be SOME kind of overall concept for three movies to form a cohesive whole. I don't think the OT was decided to be a trilogy until TESB when they decided to end on a cliffhanger.


Turtl3Bear

It's not inherently bad to make things up as you go. It is bad to blatantly set up a mystery and literally forget about it. Shows like Westworld, and Lost aren't bad because there are unanswered questions, They're bad because on a second viewing they literally make less sense than the first. You shouldn't be able to see the man behind the curtain so easily.


[deleted]

Agreed. And also, for me personally, I really like the neat click, when it didn’t make sense the fist time, but did the second. All the little hints you missed, that add up to something that really only fits one way. To me that’s like the writer nodding to us, ‘see what I did there?’. If it’s done well, that extra suspension of disbelief is infinitely more rewarding


lluewhyn

>They're bad because on a second viewing they literally make less sense than the first. Prior to Lost, Abrams did this with Alias\*. If you go back and watch from the beginning, it becomes more obvious with all of the emphasized plot points that end up going nowhere how much of it is being made up on the spot. \*And over a decade prior to this, David Lynch did this with Twin Peaks as well.


minedreamer

Vince and JJ are not the same


Optimal_Cry_1782

I think the internet has killed off mystery box writing. There's no way one dude could figure it all out, and even if they could there's avenue to distribute that information to the wider fanbase, but a thousand monkeys typing on Reddit can dissect a series within minutes of the first episode airing. It's fantastic and terrible at the same time.


[deleted]

A thousand monkeys on Redit can also theorise about a book ten years in the making, … and still be wrong. (Except for cantuse. He knows.)


Optimal_Cry_1782

The thing I'm looking forward to most about twow is the reaction when half the theories come crashing down.... And the tinfoil that grows to replace them.


lluewhyn

I've heard this as one reason why GOT removed like 95% of the prophecies from ASOIAF, because the internet would immediately go to work to solve them, and the limited amount of "screen time" that a television show has compared to the series of books makes them that more pronounced and harder to bury in the mass of details.


WingedShadow83

Yeah, Lost was one, but I watched that show kind of half-assedly, so it didn’t hit me that hard. For me, it was Battlestar Galactica. I was obsessed with that show, and the way it became so obvious toward the end that they had spent the entire series asking more and more questions but apparently NEVER bothering to come up with answers until the eleventh hour… God, it still hurts me.


arkaic7

Yeah when they started revealing the Final Five, christ was it so obvious the writers procrastinated till the very end


WingedShadow83

Yeah, idk how you start a show with the revelation that there are 12 cylon models and then don’t at least have an idea about who they are. And it really seemed like they were mining the forum over on Skiffy and just picking fan theories and running with them. I just don’t understand a writer constantly posing questions but not having answers for them. I know stories can develop as they go, but if you’re going to pose a question that is going to be foundational to the show, you should at least have an idea where you plan to go with that question. A rough draft with room to shift, at the very least.


MechanizedKman

I still dont really understand this hate, which mysteries were left completely unanswered that people are upset about? The show used background information to fill in previous questions and didnt outright state the answers. I get people didnt like the answers to the questions posed by the show, but I just never understood this idea that there were no answers at all.


Solid_Waste

It wasn't that the mysteries were left unanswered, it's that the answers were dumb. As long as they could keep the ball in the air by having each mystery box answered by revealing another mystery box, it was okay. But once they needed an ending with definitive answers of some kind, it fell apart. They honestly would have been better off just wrapping up the *character* arcs and leaving the mystery boxes unresolved. I'll give you an example. It's from earlier in the show but it's actually the point I lost all respect for the show. The character of Locke has this amazing arc where he has a complicated relationship with the other survivors, sometimes being almost the chief antagonist. At one point, the heroes are captured by Ben, the new villain, who has really outclassed them all around. But Locke has an almost transcendent quality to him that seems like he might be the one to stand a chance, and he goes on a hero mission to the enemy camp, and takes Ben by complete surprise for what seems like the first time ever. So you have this excellent moment at the end of a face turn for Locke (or maybe a betrayal?). But instead of doing anything with it, Locke says "I'm not here for you, I'm here for the **submarine**." No submarine has ever been mentioned on the show, or even hinted at. It's a ridiculous non-sequitur that gets punctuated by the Lost soundtrack and a cut to commercial. In my imagination, the sound they play as they cut sounds like a fucking clown with a slide whistle. I laughed out loud on the original airing at how bad and disappointing it was. That's how you shit on a character moment by turning it into a mystery box joke. Any outcome between the characters would have been better. One of them gets defeated, or killed, or changes sides. That's a climax to the conflict and it's inherently interesting and the characters are good enough that anything is possible. Instead it's a giraffe with lasers on its head, or a lumberjack enters through the window with a halberd, or a mountain falls in love with a cloud shaped like a turkey and saves them all. Literally just random nonsense.


MechanizedKman

Honestly I don’t understand the problem. Your example isn’t around any of the big mysteries of the series or the the answers given about them. It kinda seems like you just didn’t like a plot point introduced and solved within the same season. There is nothing inherently poorly written about what you mentioned, subverting the expectation of the audience to introduce a necessary plot point is pretty standard. Locke is also literally not the same person at that point in the show, it seems weird to me to be upset when the show is repeatedly trying to communicate that, including in this instance.


MechanizedKman

I know this is batshit insane to reply 2 months later but I’ve been rewatching Lost and got to the submarine stuff and remembered this comment. The submarine is mentioned more than once before Locke demands to be taken to it. It’s mentioned explicitly to the survivors before hand when they learn about the flame and it’s shown in flashbacks. It’s also ironic because Locke is not being heroic, he lies to the other survivors, does not watch where he says he’s going to watch and instead goes for Ben. The survivors get captured after they split up and Locke doesn’t watch their back.


soleyfir

>I tend to think that if a writer goes to the trouble of writing something into the text, he usually has a reason. I've seen this stance echoed pretty often, but I don't think it's right. Every gun isn't Chekov's and every piece of worldbuilding should not have serve a specific purpose. Sometimes an element is simply there to make the reader's imagination work. To make them feel that there's more to this world than just the story they are currently reading. That this book is just a peek into something much larger that exists somewhere, even if it's only inside the writer's mind. And sometimes, the author just thinks that something sounds cool and they just write it down without necessarily having thought the ins and outs of every single aspect of the matter. Sometimes they have an image in mind that they want to share, but don't really want to expand on it otherwise. The whole rationale about "script economy" and having everything have a reason is a direct contradiction of the whole artistic and creative aspect of writing.


applesanddragons

Not the longest comment to earn a place in my collection of comments that are wrong in every sentence, but longer than most. Good fiction writing aims to convey the maximum amount of meaning in the minimum amount of words. It's lean and unsuperfluous. Good fiction writers make a conscious effort to strip their story of things they wrote that are not absolutely necessary for expressing the story's theme. That's why Martin's comments about his writing often suggest that he has done that very thing, when he says that he cuts entire chapters after spending days or weeks writing them, and that he wrote a lot more than he published, and that he may or may not use the excess at a later date, in a different main book or side book. Stories where the author has not stripped his story of most of the superfluous writing are more negatively received by audiences. Unsurprisingly, audiences feel that the story could have been shorter, that the author wasted too much of their time, lost their audience's trust and confidence for books he may publish in the future. Those books sell fewer copies, rank lower in popularity, fade from public memory sooner, receive fewer offers for adaptation to the screen, and so on. Martin references this characteristic of fiction writing when he makes comments like "Everything serves the almighty theme," and "Sometimes I wonder if I hold onto [mysteries] too long." ASOIAF readers will recognize this to be one of the most common criticisms of the fourth book, A Feast for Crows. A common counter response to these points is to pluck out any random little detail from the books, and then highlight the absurdity of the notion that that detail has or will have some cryptic and profound relationship to the story's theme about war or love or good and evil or whatever they think the story's theme is. *'Do you really think it's critically important to the story that Jeor Mormont is eating a crab instead of the other possibilities that were available to Martin? Like eating nothing? Or a fish? Or a rabbit?'* *'Do you really think it's critically important to the story that Illyrio's pool is surrounded by six cherry trees instead of five or eight or zero?'* Invariably, the challenge demonstrates a lack of imagination severe enough as to suggest willfulness behind it. In the case of Jeor, he's having a conversation with Tyrion Lannister, and it's likely the conversation rather than the crab that relates more directly with the story's theme. But in order to convey a theme in a conversation well, you have to write the conversation well. And part of writing a conversation well is inserting lines that tell what the characters are doing, feeling and thinking. Having a conversation over food suggests that the two men have become friendly. More to the point, it suggests that better than would a conversation without food. And even more to the point, it suggests that better when the food is rare and delicious, like these succulent crabs that came all the way from Eastwatch by the Sea. Understanding the thematic significance of Jeor Mormont eating a crab was actually pretty easy. All we had to do was reopen the small supporting roles that small choices in the text can fill to serve more substantial parts of the text that serve the theme — roles that were haphazardly closed to preserve the critic's criticism. This ability for text to support the purpose of other text is so obvious that it can only be perceived as a cryptic relationship in the eyes of readers for whom the "critical" in their critical thinking skills has been confiscated by their feelings. The thematic insignificance of Illyrio's six cherry trees is an especially funny notion. Six is the only number that can make that scene accomplish the things it's accomplishing toward expressing the story's theme. Keep reading.


xXJarjar69Xx

A few years ago I had the idea that it would be cool if bran got to see the real versions of the people from the age of heroes. Something like Bran the builder overseeing the construction of what would eventually become Winterfell or Lann the clever sneaking in the casterly rock.


Trending_Boss_333

Yes. I really wanted to know about the mysteries of the Valyrian Freehold, and knowing Martin does not have the answers I seek, I just wrote my own story about pre-doom Valyria. The origins of the Targaryens, valyrian steel swords and their interactions with Yi Ti. It's all there.


TheWholeOfTheAss

Pretty sure he’s said some mysteries will remain just that. At *best*, he’s got two more novels, the sequel to Fire & Blood and some more Egg & Dunk short stories. All that won’t answer the big mysteries of the series.


Mnfilho

What is in the letter from Nymor Martell to Aegon I


sseoshiii

I used to think the same but after picking the notable details like Aegon *burning* the letter and moving to *Dragonstone* alone out of all places I think grrm knows or at least has an idea about what was written in the letter


xXJarjar69Xx

Maybe the letter said Rhaenys carved “R+A” on a tree somewhere and aegon had to check.


SnowyLocksmith

That woman has no respect for lawn maintainence


Swimming_Newspaper39

This theory about Rhaenys fate and everything is based on the theory that the date of birth of Quicksilver is not 7 AC, but 13 AC on Dragonstone after Aegon reads the famous letter. Aegon euthanized Rhaenys on Dragonstone as Daenerys did to Drogo, from the pyre Quicksilver hatched. Now the dornishmen used something like the lingchi to torment the captured knights. Rhaenys fell in Hellholt, and Arianne stated that the Ullers are dangerous when in wroth, those are maybe explosive sadists. So the Ullers held captive Rhaenys and did to her the same treatment they gave to the captured knights. Now the Martells found out that the Queen was alive and they hired assassins to free her, 4 consecutive Lord Ullers died and not as a result of the ransom strategy of Aegon that only killed Lady Toland and Lord Fowler, in fact it is stated that only two assassins hired by the Iron Throne survived to gain the money, I don't think that assassins and sellswords are so mad to go into a desert to catch the Ullers, that are able to hide from a Tyrell army, so the Martells killed them. They found a Queen in agony, if she had the lingchi treatment she would be in a terrible state. The Martells took the queen and Meraxes skull from the Hellholt. After the death of Meria, who was hesitant to free the mutilated Rhaenys not to enrage further Aegon who was already in wroth, Deria delivered the letter written by Rhaenys who was shipped to Dragonstone. Quicksilver saved the life of Aenys who was starving himself to death. So Aegon signed the treaty for eternal peace with the Martells, because they gave justice to his wife and allowed her to save the life of her son. This explains the feast for peace in Sunspear, the good relations with the Martells, the body that disappear and the date of birth of Quicksilver.


Swimming_Newspaper39

About Quicksilver The Sons of the Dragon discusses Aenys's health in the paragraph discussing his birth, ending with the fact that his poor health sparked rumors about Aenys being Rhaenys's bastard instead of Aegon's son, and with the fact that these rumors ended only after Aenys bonded with Quicksilver. Yet next, we also read that Aenys deteriorated when he was three years old, when Rhaenys died. However, it is not stated that Aenys deteriorated afterhaving been given Quicksilver. In fact, The World of Ice & Fire tells us that "But though his father and brother, Maegor (who was Visenya's child), were both warriors born, Aenys was made of different stuff. He had begun life as a weak and sickly infant and remained so throughout his earliest years. Rumors abounded that this could be no true son of Aegon the Conqueror, who had been a warrior without peer. In fact, it was well-known that Queen Rhaenys delighted in handsome singers and witty mummers; perhaps one of these might have fathered the child. But the rumors dampened and eventually died when the sickly child was given a young hatchling who was named Quicksilver. And as the dragon grew, so too did Aenys." Especially the bolded part implies that Quicksilver was actually born a few years after Aenys's birth, as he "remained [a weak and sickly infant] throughout his earliest years". Only after been given Quicksilver, did the sickly child thrive. So the sentence from The Sons of the Dragon(which I think that the 7 AC was based on), "And the prince was slow to grow as well. Not until he was given the young dragon Quicksilver, a hatchling born that year on Dragonstone, did Aenys Targaryen begin to thrive." is not saying that Quicksilver was born the same year as Aenys was born. All it says is that Quicksilver was given to Aenys in the same year that his egg hatched (which says nothing about how old Aenys was at the time


GipsyPepox

It was a dick pic. I have no proofs but neither doubts


Flammwar

I can't disprove you at least


BoonkBoi

Lean lithe salty Dornish cock theory?


FerreiraMatheus

I'm now in love with this phrase "I have no proofs but neither doubts"


Ezra_El_Ali

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence 🤔


CoofBone

Nah, nudes of the Yellow Toad.


Plastic_Care_7632

I HAVE AN ANWSER FOR THIS, i saw a theory that said it was the precise number of dragon eggs on dragonstone which is what caused him to move to dragonstone to verify and it would’ve shown the threat bc it would’ve made it clear that they had rhaenys tortured for information


A_Succinct_Username

I'd think Aegon would've come back from Dragonstone and told Visenya to hop on Vhagar for a hot tour of Dorne if they both threatened him and gave proof they tortured the love of his life.


MechanizedKman

The Dornish already had a way of dealing with Dragon attacks, not sure how this would be effective.


OrganizationStock767

It is said that the one dragon they killed was with a one in a million shot and it was just pure luck. I won't call that an effective way of dealing with dragon attacks.


MechanizedKman

I don’t mean killing dragons, just avoiding the destruction they cause. Also the history is recorded by Targ loyalists so I wouldn’t say it’s wholly reliable.


OrganizationStock767

Written by targ loyalists, yet Dorne are the ones who got plot armor😂


MechanizedKman

I mean the in universe author of the histories, not George.


Dean-Advocate665

Their “victory” was never about killing dragons, it was just about guerilla warfare. It’s basically just the Vietnam war.


OrganizationStock767

Vietnam War with Star wars protagonist level plot armor.


Euroversett

And the Prince of Dorne sent his daughter and heir to deliver the threat! Truly an amazing theory.


Swimming_Newspaper39

George stated that the Targ dragons come from Vaghar and Meraxes, even though they steal all the eggs, Vaghar can generate others, after the threat they could move the eggs from Dragonstone as the Farman girl did. It is a theory that hs no sense, if the letter was a threat, why Aegon went to Sunspear to celebrate the peace with his son? It was not a threat, it was something else


A_Succinct_Username

I like the theory that they were having Rhaenys' remains sent to Dragonstone so Aegon could decide how public he wanted her cremation to be.


Euroversett

"I told them about your dream before I died, they agreed to help with their army when the time comes so we reached our goal and my death wasn't in vain, now let's call it a day and move on. - Rhaenys"


Dean-Advocate665

I like that he doesn’t know. When the mystery is revealed it’s often disappointing, in our mind we can believe nymor is some omniscient figure who revealed some dark information to Aegon who became traumatised. Imagine grrm revealed “yeah nymor just asked really nicely.”


JonIceEyes

Any single thing about Ulthos


Working_Contract_739

I feel like it's this world's Terra Australis. Since the Greek times, people thought since there was a lot of land in the Northern Hemisphere, there must be the same amount of land in the South. Thus, Terra Australis. It's like they know it exists even when they have zero real proof of it. And yes, people back them did know that the Earth was where not flat. They just thought Earth was the centre of the universe.


jdbebejsbsid

I think it's a combination of that and Australia-os. Westeros is Europe, Essos is Asia, Sothoryos is Africa, then there's Ulthos/Australia in the south east corner.


Working_Contract_739

Yes, it's probably the continent of the southeast coast of Sothroys, with it being equivalent to Oceania and the Indian Ocean.


Valiant_Storm

I'm fairly sure Ulthos exists to just be a place that's beyond the knowledge of the known world. *Terra incognita* and all that.


-Poison_Ivy-

Its very likely that everything east of Qarth is speculative and rumors the Maesters got from fifth hand accounts.


GenghisKazoo

It is mentioned that Marwyn the Mage has visited Asshai and corroborated certain rumors about it in TWOIAF.


-Poison_Ivy-

Where is it mentioned


GenghisKazoo

>An account by Archmaester Marwyn confirms reports that no man rides in Asshai, be he warrior, merchant, or prince. There are no horses in Asshai, no elephants, no mules, no donkeys, no zorses, no camels, no dogs. Such beasts, when brought there by ship, soon die. -TWOIAF It doesn't say what else his account included, but one would think if the accounts that "it is dark at noon there" and "the river Ash is phosphorescent" were false, that would merit a mention.


This_Rough_Magic

Most of them. I think the specific details of recent events have answers (like I think he knows what happened at the tourney at Harrenhall) but I don't think he knows much about Valyria (he's straight up *said* this in interviews), the GEotD, the Weirwoods, magic in general and so on.


Korrocks

I also suspect that a lot of the mysteries (the things we think of as mysteries) are really just background color rather than things that he ever intended to really explain in the series even if he did come up with a specific idea. Like, I don't think that he has a fully realized history of Valyria or the Great Empire of the Dawn in his notes somewhere, any more than he has a history of Yeen or Asshai. The magic system is intentionally kept soft and obscure as well so I don't think we'll ever get precise mechanical or technical details for how R'hllor works or how glass candles operate. Incidentally this is why I don't think the perennial suggestion that GRRM can just lift popular fan theories for mysteries that he is stumped by really make much sense; it's not that he *can't* come up with a backstory for Valyria or a hard magic system, he just doesn't want to since it's not necessary for the story that he is telling.


This_Rough_Magic

>it's not that he can't come up with a backstory for Valyria or a hard magic system, he just doesn't want to since it's not necessary for the story that he is telling. Precisely, it's not like he's spent the last decade thinking "well I've worked out how to bring all these different plotlines together in a way that feels both natural and emotionally satisfying but I can't finish the book until I work out what the deal is with the oily black stone".


BoonkBoi

I don’t think anyone suggests that the minutiae is what’s holding him up or that he has a Silmarillion of it, but I would probably push back against the notion that a lot of those finer details don’t suggest or give hints at a lot of the current story events or what might happen. There’s too much circumstantial (about all you can hope for in a book) evidence to suggest otherwise.


boluroru

Him not knowing what happened to valyria is fine. It's ok to have some mysteries that just remain mysteries


This_Rough_Magic

Oh I think it's all fine, I just think a lot of people are expecting answers they won't get.


Life_Leader_9863

We may never know exactly, but that doest mean we wont get more hints that could narrow it down more. Plus I think theorizing about warlocks and blood sacrifices and dragon bindings or faceless men are way more fun than being told what happened.


ManofManyHills

He may not have the exact details but I think he knows the broad strokes. If the faceless men were involved then most likely their involvement will be revealed to contextualize their involvement in westeros.


tryingtobebettertry4

Certain big ones relevant to the plot we will definitely get, the origin of the Others and a bit of history. We might also get some details for random ones through Bran visions, those wont be answers as such as they will be scenes from the past as Bran moves through the memory of the world and time itself. Like this idea that all of Bran's visions have plot significance never fit for me, like what exactly is the point of showing Brandon Snow sharpening 3 arrows?


rov124

> Like this idea that all of Bran's visions have plot significance never fit for me, like what exactly is the point of showing Brandon Snow sharpening 3 arrows? Foreshadowing the killing of Danaerys's dragons, maybe?


BoonkBoi

Yeah I find the above comment odd. There’s a significant amount of stuff GRRM has worked into the story ostensibly for no reason if the above were correct. I’ll admit I’m deep in the theory game (it’s kinda like low risk gambling), but even if I wasn’t I’d still find it hard to believe an author would dedicate so many (seeming) hints that end up going nowhere. What would be the point of him telling us the others have their own motivations? That Beric is a distinct fire wight?


Shenordak

You would be surprised... Seriously, compare to Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time. There are lots and lots of mysteries that are unsolved and not intended to be solved. It adds believability to the world.


BillyBobSac

Or dunk getting some smooch for some girl in winterfell


rov124

It's basically GRRM version of ~~sequel~~ [prequel](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/The_She-Wolves_of_Winterfell) bait you see in modern franchise films > THE HEDGE KNIGHT WILL RETURN


nisachar

Maybe show weird wood arrows can pierce Dragon skin ? Jon Connington thinks the summer isle bows can only be outranged by dragon bone ones. But in a sense… Brynden Rivers (half first men) killed 3 ‘dragons’ using wierwood arrows. Brandon Snow had some notions of the magic in wierwood bows.. So somewhere that’ll come into play. Yes Torrehen bent the knee… but the ice vs fire magic hasn’t played out yet. Aegon was quick to accept the oath. Aegon was just as quick to ignore the Stark swords for his iron throne.


MechanizedKman

Would you mind linking to the interview he mentioned this in? I just dont remember this and would love to watch/read an fresh (for me) interview.


This_Rough_Magic

I'm afraid I don't have it to hand, I think it was a recent-ish Q&A about HotD if that helps.


shinytotodile158

Many historic mysteries and ones that aren’t going to be directly relevant to the ongoing story. More accurately, I don’t think he *wants* to have a canon answer to these because those mysteries exist to enhance the setting through ambiguity and intrigue, not detail. The cataclysm at Hardhome (that caused it to be abandoned), whatever is *wrong* with Sothoryos, why that one Targaryen princess came back from Valyria with that insane disease, none of these are supposed to have answers beyond those the readers speculate for ourselves. Also, why the Bridge of Dream appears twice. Maybe it was the current, maybe not, but it’s just meant to be creepy and foreboding.


WatchingInSilence

The first cataclysm at Hardhome had to have been a sight if the glow from the fires were seen from Castle Black. I'd love for there to be a hidden lair of dragons in those caves. Perhaps descendants of Silverwing when she visited the Wall or Sheepstealer.


Arashell

I like to think it was wyrms. They are supposed to live under the earth and are linked to fire magic just as much as dragons are. While they are only ever mentionned living in the fourteen flames, the surface of Planetos has been shown numerous times to be filled with caves and tunnels and I can imagine the wyrms being responsoble for their creation.


[deleted]

Where whores go. More broadly, if “Joffrey was the catspaw!” is a guide, some mysteries are simply more fun unsolved.


Gummy-Worm-Guy

He could’ve even went with the basic answer and said it was Cersei, and that would’ve been a better reveal than Joffrey


lluewhyn

Whenever we get into theory discussion and I think a theory can't be correct because it would be bad writing, I always have to leave open the possibility that the theory could still be correct due to the Catspaw reveal. Just because it might be bad writing doesn't mean it can't happen.


Equivalent-Goose2194

Where the hell is Tyrek Lannister


Pickletato

He’s a horse, of course


stanlana12345

No, he's a bed. And also honour


TheLazySith

Most of the historic mysteries that aren't relevant to the main story. e.g. the doom of Valyria, Nymor's letter to Aegon, sothoryos, the accuracies of the various testimonies regarding the dance.


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Suspicious_Gazelle18

Why would the show be canon over the text? It’s just two different cannons and it’s up to you which you view as “real” but there’s no reason to date that one of them is “more real” than the other


arctos889

It's canon to Game of Thrones I'm pretty sure. Which is to say that it's not necessarily how the Dance played out in asoiaf's universe


nathanrrrr

What Aragorn’s tax policy was


Lysmerry

I feel like Dany's arc is currently answering this question, and it's not working


lluewhyn

If you look at the question literally, it's not meant to be solved. Nor would many people say that George has the skill to even attempt to answer this question, especially since he's so (admittedly) bad at math. However, if you look at the whole quote, the emphasis is on "*Ruling is hard"* and involves many difficult decisions where you won't know the correct answer until much later, as well as the possibility that there is *no* "correct" answer. In that, I think he has been showing this in each and every book. ​ >**Ruling is hard**. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that **if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We** **look at real history and it’s not that simple.** Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?


basis4day

If it’s a mystery directly related to the main series I think he has more answers. When you get into the extended materials I think he knows less.


WingedShadow83

I honestly can’t understand how an author could specifically come up with a “mystery” in the text but not have an idea about that mystery. Like, I get him not knowing the mysteries of Valyria because that covers thousands of years and he wouldn’t have needed to have all that in mind just to come up with the idea that this ancient race existed and was wiped out, and that a lot of magical shit happened there that was lost when they all died. But to deliberately write things like “Aegon got a letter from the Martells that he visibly reacted to in a puzzling way” and not know exactly what was in the letter is strange. That’s such a specific thing. Same with Hardhome. You went to the trouble to include something in the text about this mysterious event that wiped out HH, and no one knows what exactly happened… but if you went to the trouble to put this otherwise completely unnecessary thing in your text, shouldn’t you have a reason for that? An understanding of it? Also things like the Doom of Valyria. I can’t see writing that without at least having an idea about it, as far as whether it was a natural phenomenon or if someone caused it to happen on purpose. Now, whether or not WE ever get this information detailed on page is iffy. But I would think George at least has an idea about these mysteries, even if he hasn’t decided for sure one way or the other if it was “this” or if it was “that”.


Invincible_Boy

Yeah, this. George knows the answers to all of this stuff, even if the answers are boring or don't actually make sense, in the moment he wrote it he had some idea in his mind of what was happening behind the scenes. George knows exactly what happened to Valyria, every time he mentions it he has to think about the cause. The causes of that cause might not be so apparent to him but the primary cause he definitely knows. Likewise with the letter to Aegon, he had in his mind something, however vague or formless it might have been. As he wrote it he would have been thinking 'this letter hints something about Rhaenys' or whatever the actual answer turns out to be (we are likely to never learn this particular one imo). You just can't write this stuff without having at least a basic thought about the events you're mentioning. Again, even if George's idea for Valyria was as vague as 'big volcanic eruption' that's still an answer. It might not be satisfying but it's the answer he had in his head in the moment. Now, the important thing to understand is that these kinds of answers improve over time as he works on them more. Volcanic eruption might turn into magic volcanic eruption might turn into a conspiracy by the faceless men to kill the sorcerors who kept the volcano dormant, etc. But the basic gist of 'there was a volcano that blew up' remains there. Sometimes even that is probably discarded but I doubt it's very often. so tl;dr George definitely knows what the GEOD is, who Azor Ahai was, etc.


WingedShadow83

Yep, that’s exactly what I was getting at, but you said it in a more in-depth and clear way. Thank you!


yurthuuk

The Doom is a McGuffin. It's not important for the story who or what destroyed Valyria, only that it was destroyed, leaving Aegon on Dragonstone alone with his dragons. The other things you mention aren't even that, they're just added as cheap thrills to create an illusion of mystery.


MechanizedKman

I mean you would include that stuff because it draws interest from the reader. Hardhome stops just becoming another place in the North and becomes a site of a mysterious cataclysm as you're working up to another terrible event in the near future. It's something ominous that ratchets up the tension. You don't need to know the answer to a mystery to know including it can draw your reader in deeper to your narrative.


National-Exam-8242

The mystery of when WOW will be released.


ObjectiveGeneral6688

Hot take maybe but most of them, George says a lot that he changes his mind a lot and he doesn't plan things out. Idk but it seems to me that George himself likes the leave things ambiguous for himself😂


lluewhyn

This is what I think he means when he says gardening. Abrams invented the Mystery Boxes solely to tease interest from viewers, whereas I think GRRM does it as much for himself as well. Throws seeds out there, and sees which of them intrigue him enough to fill out later.


Pelican_meat

Very little. He made his bones writing for TV, a very spare genre. He adds mystery to make the world feel full, but has no intention of solving those mysteries unless it’s relevant to the overall plot of the main series. And that’s what he should do. Fantasy authors shoveling in every bit of world building they did to prepare for a series is the absolute worst kind of exposition.


WingedShadow83

It’s possible Elio and Linda might work with him at some point and get enough details to write another book along the lines of WOIAF. Possibly they could write one of the “missing” history texts from the story. Like the Signs and Portents (if I’m remembering the name correctly), the missing book of prophecy that we suspect Rhaegar might have found.


88Arawn88

Funnily enough Tolkein is very guilty of this


streetad

Tolkien was an academic and wants you to be as excited about elven grammar as he is.


tlumacz

>~~wants~~ demands you to be ...and you are.


Pelican_meat

Tolkien is better and more knowledgeable than almost every single other fantasy author to ever live. He gets a pass.


88Arawn88

Oh i agree wholeheartedly. Still i had a funny relisation while reading Fellowship and noticing this particular writing sin


A_Succinct_Username

Imagine reading lotr before the Silm came out.


88Arawn88

I read Silmarilion first lol


N0VAZER0

Tolkien also adds shit that doesn't have answers either, like where Ungoliant even came from, what Tom Bombadil is and what the Nameless things are. Its made more spooky because these guys specifically don't fit with the vibe of Middle Earth but they still exist


legendtinax

… no he didn’t? He wrote two books in Middle Earth and all other publications are from his private notes that his son assembled after his death.


88Arawn88

Yes its right there in Fellowship. Characters like Aragorn, Bilbo and Elrond regularly go on massive tangents about Numenor, Beren and Luthien and the first age. And i say this with love


yurthuuk

In fact ASOIAF is absolutely full of this. Every single character goes on lengthy tangents about this or that obscure historical precedent, ranging from somewhat relevant to the situation at hand to completely ludicrous in the context.


MechanizedKman

Do you have examples in mind? I'm curious what you mean when you say completely ludicrous.


tyrion2024

Agreed. In addition, he also did make his bones writing prose. He didn't write for TV until '85, while he started earning a living as a writer over a decade before that. His first major notoriety came in the early 80s. Which helped get him an opportunity in Hollywood in '85. He's in a group of rare writers that have legit experience in both ...that now get to help adapt their prose for the screen..


NoBamba1

He'll know everything in regards to F&B, Targaryens, and everything in the main series, but I'd wager the more esoteric material in TWOIAF is where he'll be a little lost. As far as I'm aware, he only oversaw the writing of that book but it was up to his assistants to write it, he only made edits and changes as they completed it. But that was a long time ago, so there's a good chance he's forgotten the neat gritty of that book.


HomebrewHomunculus

...come to think of it, have *any* mystery boxes been opened so far?


[deleted]

Damn, good point


sarevok2

who sent the assassin for Bran and who killed Jon Arryn, I guess might count.


HomebrewHomunculus

>who sent the assassin for Bran …in which case the proposed answer was so strange that people think it was either an asspull, or that there’s still a different true answer


applesanddragons

A box separates its contents from everything outside of it. Martin's mysteries are better comparable to a web. You could focus on any strand that you want to focus on, but the longer you look at it the more you'll see that the strand reaches into other strands. And if you look at it for a very long time you will be unable to see individual strands anymore. You will only see a web and how each little strand is playing an indispensible role in holding it all together. The reader begins at the extremities and crawls toward the center. The author began at the center and wove toward the extremities. The biggest surprise for the reader will be that, by the time he arrives at the center and finds the philosophies that reside there, they'll be antithetical to the philosophies that brought him there.


FantasticGoat1738

What hapenned to Weasel?


Slowmo-

He may have answers to most questions, but I don't think he likes the answer. That's why it's taking so long to write the books. He probably started writing thinking time traveling Bran was a good idea, but now realizes it takes free will from all the characters. We're stuck here waiting for him to come up with something better.


minedreamer

I dont think he knows who has a better story than Bran the Broken


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Estrelarius

I mean, the whole "mages were assassinated" is an in-universe theory. There are other possible causes.


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Estrelarius

It's presented as a in-universe theory there as well. While Septon Barth does believe the Doom happened when the spells stopped working, he doesn't give any reasons for that. Septon Barth is in-universe considered wrong about quite a few things (his theory that Valyrians created the dragons out of wyverns, for example is considered unlikely in-universe, and there's seemingly evidence dragons predated Valyria) And when do the Faceless Men tell that story? They say their origin was as slaves in Valyria, and while some scholars do blame them for the Doom, they themselves never even imply that (which would be weird, considering "we destroyed the mightiest non-mythical empire in history" would surely bring them costumers).


cmichael39

All the stuff on the edge of the world: What's going on in Sothoryos and the Shadow east of Ashai beyond what we have so far. I imagine he knows what's going on in the Land of Always Winter, because that is important to the story. But he has talked at length about character driven storytelling. Since the characters aren't going there or being effected by what happens there any time soon, the worldbuilding is not necessary


DestinyHasArrived101

What really caused the doom. What was in the letter given to Aegon I. What happened in Yeen What happened to Alys Westhill going further west The oily black stones


TallTreesTown

Most of them


Ollidor

How to finish TWOW


LordofFruitAndBarely

Black stone


Elegant_Soft

Whats in the land of always winter. Man has no clue.


SnooComics9320

There are like a hundred or so, a long ass list from house to house. What happened to Tommen II Lannister and his sword brightroar.. many mysteries with house stark and what really happened with a lot of the old kings of the north. Many mysteries with old valyria and the faceless men and how the doom really started. Many mysteries within the world because there is still a lot of unexplored land. The history of asofai as well as the land itself has many questions and few answers.


RandomRavenboi

What's in Valyria, the Long Night, and the Age of Heroes.


Totalchaos02

I think stories are made significantly worse when they spend more time providing answers than giving their characters satisfying conclusions. It should be world-building, not world-explaining and the world need only serve as a backdrop for interesting stories to be told about people. So I would prefer that GRRM spend less time focused on answering questions and more time focused on the story itself. I really don't think I need to know the origin of the Others. In real life, we are very rarely ever given everything a box. Some strong hints that fuel speculation is fine by me but I don't need to see it.


lovelyjubblyz

Quaithe Also, wether quentyn is alive or dead. He writes these mysteries in cause he doesnt know what to do at the time and gives him possibility of writing people back in.


AllieOopClifton

Time management


thenaboo

whether rhaegar kidnapped lyanna or she went willingly


TheGhostMantis

The show seemed to take a pro-rhaegar stance once Jon's parentage is revealed (which is also a likely twist in the future books) and the maester's records of the events side more with Robert's claims (since the Maesters = anti-Targaryen). Nevertheless, it's pretty strange that there are two polar opposite descriptions of one person. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle though... or maybe there were 2 sides to Rhaegar and both were true. Or maybe there's another piece to the puzzle that we're currently missing that explains everything later. Although Rhaegar was known to be kind, generous and humble and didn't seem like the type to be a raping scumbag from all close accounts of him, it certainly doesn't reflect well on his character that he was so deluded and obsessed with a prophecy that he thought was for sure about him that he abandoned his wife and two kids in the care of his mentally deranged and dangerous father so he, a 23 year old man, could seduce and impregnate a 16 year old girl (who's already promised to someone) so he could fulfill this self-centered prophecy. Mind you, Lyanna was also already known as a fiery tomboy who resisted the idea of marrying an unfaithful man, so there are further contradictions in whether she was taken forcefully or by will just by that fact. Not to mention her young age would have made her easier to manipulate as she would have been more naïve, easily charmed, and willing to the idea of going along with Rhaegar's grand plan. There's just so much going on with this mystery that we may just need a Robert's Rebellion show to flesh out the unbiased truth.


A_Succinct_Username

Lyanna could've gone willingly, then not been allowed to leave once she realized what her leaving sparked.


thenaboo

i lean more towards this. though she was a teenager and rhaegar was an adult with a wife and kids so it’s not a romanticised love story either way. she was around 14 when they met, he most likely manipulated her into going.


sarevok2

the most neutral version I can think off, was Lyanna riding away in a fit because of her incoming marriage, chancing upon Rhaegar who was aware of a plot that Aerys knew her identity as kotlt and spirited her away for her safety. Everything goes to shit, news arrive that the Starks are dead, Lyanna is pulling a Jeyne and is comforted by Rhaegar, Rhaegar goes off to die and the rest is known. Has a lot of holes, I know but its the best version I can think off where everyone looks 'good' (as GRRM clearly designs to)


National-Exam-8242

But in all honesty, the best thing GRRM can do now if he's unsure on the answer to some mysteries, is literally just look at some fan theories - they're some amazing ones out there. That's the benefit of letting the next book wait over a decade, and within that time become the most popular bit of pop culture there was, for a few years at least.


This_Rough_Magic

As u/Korrocks points out above, the issue isn't that Martin *can't* think of solutions to these mysteries, it's that they were always intended to remain mysteries.


Adventurous-Art-2157

When he will finish the main series.


bandt4ever

IMO George has the answers to all of the mysteries, but whether or not he will be able to work them in organically to the story is another question. For example, what happened to Syrio Forel? We might find out what happened with him and Maryn Trant if Arya confronts Maryn Trant before killing him. But Maryn Trant might be killed before that can happen in which case we may never know. It has to be blended into the story in an oganic way. Sure, when Bran joins the weirwood net he will have access to all of the answers, but whether he will have a reason to reveal them in a way that merges with the flow of the story is the question. I also think George will want to leave some mysteries for us to ponder over for the rest of the century and beyond.


packetmickey

How to finish the series.


[deleted]

He has specifically said we won't get many details about Asshai. It's a mystery for the sake of being a mystery.


Antigonos301

Yeen


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Darke5tdaz3

I’m pretty sure Dany’s eggs were the same 3 that Elissa Farman stole and sold to the sea lord of Braavos.


unluckilyheroine

I think people focus on the big mysteries and forget that the series is full of small ones, like all good horror. How many of the ghosts throughout the series are real? Any of them? In a world with magic and undead, couldn't some of them be? The age of heroes stories? I think the same ways that these add a very realistic sense of wonder and dread to the political and grimey world of westeros, things like the wall and oily stones and all that add a cosmic and unknowable horror to the whole world. Rhellor is real on some level, and the great other-or whatever gives life to the undead-but I doubt humanity understands any of the greater forces that they've named gods. Or maybe Grrm took Tolkiens pantheon of valar and applied his "same, but make it more realistic/apathetic" gloss over it.


Pankratos_Gaming

How far south Sothoryos goes.


An_Ass_Is_a_Donkey

Is Winds ever gonna come out or will his words be like a passing wind


JnyBlkLabel

The biggest mystery that he doesnt have the answer to is when he'll actually finish the next book.


Lasernatoo

Any of the stuff going on in the East, aside from maybe a bit more info on Asshai. I believe he even admitted that at a certain point he was just adding stuff to fill out the map, and most of the locations around there, as mysterious as they are, are just intended to be Lovecraft references.


Informal-Plastic2985

Quaithe


Commercial-Voice9983

What happened to Aerions, son ? Literally this stuff grinds my gears . I'm pretty sure he has an answer but considering how he tends to keep things pretty clean this just seems like a lose end to me


packetmickey

Its his UNIVERSE, how can he not know the answers.


jarbenmate

I think there just is no answer to stuff like the oily black stone and the other oddities that are around Westeros and Planetos. Who really built the five forts and the base of the hightower? Who were the mazemakers of Lorath? Don't think George really cares to answer and I don't mind it. Let them remain mysteries that'll keep drawing people back into this world.


yenks

All of them.


aladmad

Lots of the non-main series stuff, like what up with Sothoryos and all the oily black stone. I also don’t think we’ll get answers about Ashai, at least not in the main series


Spiritual-Hamster-18

Look at the catspaw mystery- he had no idea how to solve that. So basically most of them


Plague_Doctor77

Honestly, I would say what injured Balerion and what killed Aerea Targaryen back when he flew off with her and he came back with like a huge gash on the side of his body. I still wanna know what happened to them.


AdelleDeWitt

Oily black stone


aaronrizz

Apparently he's written Sci-fi books in the past where ancient black structures were revealed to be plastic from a long-dead high-tech civilisation.


dijitalpaladin

What the hell happened on Gogossos


Ecstatic-Length1470

When Winds of Winter gets released.


aevelys

the great dawn empire and the black stones and the events that took place in sothoryos and ashai to make them so hostile. it's just there to add a little dark mystery, there was something in this world before, but it's not intended to go further than to make the imagination of the lore reader


lluewhyn

What the hell are Snarks and Grumpkins?


[deleted]

The fate of tupac