Firsts off, there are potential SPOILERS for the series / books if you haven’t watched or read them already, also there are a lot of theories being banded around here so if you carry on reading, it is at your own risk… thow hath been warned!

Still here?

Ok let us continue.

Narrated in video, Written version below

The Song of Ice and Fire book and the Game of thrones TV series are complicated to say the least. Trying to divine or figure out what is going to happen next is like trying to predict the lottery; highly improbable.

A matter made all the more conspicuous when you take into account that the series and books, once of the same mind and body are now diametrically opposed in many aspects; including plot line and characters.

Like a great oak that once started as a single stem, then sprouted off into two different gnarled and grim directions. Branches would jut out and, in places, merge and go in the same way but as a whole the tree, is, in effect, two separate entities.

This analogy will be lost on those who have only read the books or only just seen the series but to those of us who have waded through the blood, deceit, sex and snow of both are fully aware, and in some cases lament, the differences.

But it is through this hard toil and dedication to the series as a whole that, in its dark, unyielding and dangerous form, light, clarity and even clues can be seen.

It is after all known (its is known) that despite the different directions of both, the end game, the striving for the end of winter and for the trees green leaves to bask in the Lord of Lights golden glow, is the same. Martin has even provided Benioff and Weis how he wants the book (and therefore the series)to finish and so with a fixed point it would seem that despite all these different paths that there is a dedicated end.

Granted, this is Martin and HBO we are talking about and trying to tie them down to a set ending would be like having Ramsey Bolton tame one of the dragons, Martin isn’t one to follow the norm and HBO will likely follow the path they feel will get them the best ratings.

But it is my view Martin hasn’t got much left and to start adding more complications will just prolong something that has taken up so many years of his life and as much as I’m sure it is a labour of love, it is something he will be glad to see the end of.

So, a fixed point it is, a winding path to a joined end, bringing harmony to series and books a like.

This is all very well and good Matt, but what are you trying to get to in this piece? Ok, well like the dragons, it is coming.

There are many big characters within the Song of Ice and Fire, too many to establish a definitive outcome for them all and the effects they will have in the lands of Westeros and those across the narrow sea.

I will therefore look at 5 people, who, in theory, could have the biggest impact on the lands of Westeros and the theory behind some of them being the 3 heads of the dragon, the Sigel of the Targaryen’s.

I will also put forward how I feel the series is likely to end and man is it a doozey!

THE 3 HEADS OF THE DRAGON AND HE / SHE WHO WOULD RULE-

Daenerys

Dany is a pretty much given for a part of the 3 heads of the dragon theory (and another contender for Azor Ahai). She’s a Targaryen, She is, by title, the mother of Dragons, of which she has 3 and to cap it off, fire and hot burny stuff does nothing to her.

She is also currently the rightful heir to the Iron Throne… or is she?

When Dany is in the house of the Undying she encounters some different rooms, all giving her Visions; some of the past but some of things not yet to come to be.

This is where the series and the books differ quite a lot, with the series cutting out a lot, most likely because HBO didn’t want future episodes to be ruined.

The one scene that is shown, and now in season 6, adds up a bit more, is her walking through the Red Keep throne room, covered in Snow, she reaches out to touch something on the Iron thrown but then is distracted by the sounds of her Dragons and walks off and through The Wall’s main gate.

Is this a foreshadow of the coming of winter to Kings landing and her need to defend the wall, or, is this her seeing that she won’t have the throne of Westeros as it will belong to the Snow.. or Jon Snow?

Quite tenuous I must admit BUT if you look at the vision she has in the tower, in the book, it adds up slightly more:

In the 5^th room she sees a man who looks a lot like her brother Viserys, but with different coloured eyes and is taller. This man, we would make the assumption is Rhaegar is speaking to a woman who is nursing a newborn child; we make another assumption that this is Ellaria Martell as he informs her that the child’s name should be Aegon

“What better name for a king?”.

 The Lady asks Rhaegar if he will write a song for the child, and he replies that he has a song and:

“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

He then looks right at Daenerys and adds:

 “There must be one more,” and “The dragon has three heads.”.

The “there must be one more” line is very cryptic but we can assume that, as he is talking to Dany, the one more, would be the third head: Dany, Aegon and…..

Jon Snow

Now, as described in my last article (5 reasons why John Snow is alive) I discuss the major fan theory that Jon is in fact the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (R+L=J) I won’t go into it in any depth as many already know this theory and it would seem, if the series previews are to believed, that in episode 3 we are going to be shown just that.. the Tower of Joy, Ned stark seeing his sister die in child birth and her asking him to look after Jon. (or something heavily implying this)

The fact that he now lives again (I called it 6 years ago!) can only add credence to this theory (and another that he is in fact Azor Ahai.. again see my previous article)

We also have to think about the visions seen in the series and in the book. The Series vision showing snow on the Iron Thrown may well imply Jon Snow as the new King and therefore a head of the dragon.

This being said, going back to the book’s vision, Rhaegar may name him Aegon but he also says:

“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

This to me rules out Aegon as we know him from the books (see below) and what is spoke of him in the series.

But what if the woman in the vision was in fact Lyanna? And that Aegon was Jon’s actual name, and not the one Ned gave him when he returned with him to Winterfall?

Sayyyyy whhhhhhhhaaaaaaatttt?

 Jon is born of Ice and Fire; Ice from his mother’s side and Fire from his fathers; he is the Prince that was promised, a Targaryen, a head of the Dragon and a contender for being rightful heir to the Iron throne, even over Danny, as he is only Heir of the Heir to the throne and so giving him primacy over his Aunt.

Issue here is though, he may be a Head of the Dragon, he may have Targaryen blood and he may even be the Lord of Light but he’s still a bastard and so could never never be king, while Danny was alive and he wasn’t legitimised; that is unless his real father and mother were actually married… but that couldn’t happen right? Rhaegar already married Ellaria Martell?

He did buuuut, Polygamy, though not common, was not unheard of in Westeros and was practiced.

George R R Martin said this:

“Maegor the Cruel has multiple wives, from lines outside his own, so there was and is precedent. However, the extent to which the Targaryen kings could defy convention, the Faith, and the opinions of the other lords decreased markedly after they no longer had dragons. If you have a dragon, you can have as many wives as you want, and people are less likely to object”

If Rheagar and Lyanna got secretly married as well as giving birth to Jon then we have a serious succession crisis here.

Aegon (Little Griff)

Ok, so for those who haven’t read the books Aegon Targaryen is dead, the Mountain smashed his little brains out against a wall, killed his sister, and because he’s a super awesome chap, went on to rape and murder their mother Ellaria Martel, the fallout of that you already know… ouch.

Anyway, the book on the other hand, has a similar story BUT, it is very heavily implied and then stated, that a character called Little Griff, is in fact Aegon, and that he was smuggled out of Kings landing during the sack, where the son of a farmer from Pisswater Bend replaced him.. The father having sold his son to Varys for some Arbor Golden wine!

This is a rumour that even Tywin’s brother, and new hand of the King, Kevan, started to believe to be true… before he was killed by Varys at the end of The Dance with Dragons.

As the books go, Aegon is the rightful Heir to the throne, being the son of the Heir, Rhaegar and therefore also a head of the Dragon. Something that is backed up by the fact Varys believes he is the Heir and shows that he has been actively manipulating things for his return, which he does, with an army.

The problem we have with Aegon is that, series wise, he’s not really mentioned and there has been nothing to imply he survived, and, unless HBO want do something out of left field not a story ark that I think they will follow; something I feel is due to the direction they are going with another character.

Tyrion

There is a theory that, despite the recent media attention, has been around for a while stating that Tyrion is a Targaryen and the product of King Aerys lust for Tywin Lannister’s wife Joanna.

Sir Barristan in A Dance with Dragons says :

“Prince Aerys . . . as a youth, he was taken with a certain lady of Casterly Rock, a cousin of Tywin Lannister. When she and Tywin wed, your father drank too much wine at the wedding feast and was heard to say that it was a great pity that the lord’s right to the first night had been abolished. A drunken jape, no more, but Tywin Lannister was not a man to forget such words, or the . . . the liberties your father took during the bedding.”

Now, obviously this would have been too early for Tyrion to be conceived but it lays precedence and shows that the prince (then to become king), could have, and likely did have, his way with Tywin’s wife, Joanna, later on, and in that union begot a son; maybe one of the reasons Tywin tortures Tyrion so much.

Now this is where the books and the series split apart again.

In the books the above is stated but that’s it, there is no other implications or insinuations towards Tyrion’s blood line and in fact he starts to have suspicions himself that Little Griff is in fact Aegon:

Tyrion plays Little Griff a game of cyvasse and after being tricked by Tyrion he gets angry and kicks over the cyvasse board. He immediately commands Tyrion to pick up the pieces and as he is about to do so he thinks to himself:

“He may well be a Targaryen after all”

 It is very likely that Tyrion, in the books at least, will not be one of the 3 Heads of the Dragon or a Targaryen but will instead be, what he has always been, wise council, with a drinking habit.

Now, the series on the other hand, well, taking into account that Aegon / Little Griff aren’t mentioned, or likely to have a story ark, outside of maybe one of Brans visions, then that would leave a space for a third head of the dragon wouldn’t it? Another character who, for some reason, was able to confront Deanery’s Dragons, take off their restraints and leave, unscathed.

Dragons are very smart, as Tyrion says, so maybe they know, in the series at least, who he really is.

THE CONTENDERS AND WHO GETS THE THRONE

So we have now got 4 possible Contenders who fit into the Theory of the 3 headed dragon and equally 4 possible contenders for sitting on the Iron Thrown.

We know that all of them, depending on if you read about them or watch them, fit the proverbial mould and in my mind it is likely that as the series goes we will have Dany, Jon and Tyrion, where as in the books, it seems more probable that it will be Dany, Jon and Aegon (little Griff).

Granted, the Winds of Winter is still to be released and more could change, but as it is, based on the evidence presented and the clues at our disposal, these two scenarios seem to be quite plausible.

That being sorted, then who will sit on the Iron throne?

Well I guess it is equally plausible, if not slightly ikkey,  that all 3 of them would, Targaryen’s after all do marry within the family to keep the blood pure and we have noted that Polygamy is a thing, especially if you have 3 dragons.

More realistically though if it was to be the 1 person then you have some rather strong claims, and in Aegon’s case and even Jons (depending on if it is confirmed his mother and father were wed) would surpass that of Dany’s; her being the sister of Rhaegar and both Jon and Aegon being Sons.

As it is though, I don’t think that Martin or HBO would build up a character like Daenerys only to have her surpassed by another, no, I think she will be queen in one way or another and the only way I think it will tie in with the whole story and bring a crescendo to the song of Ice and Fire is if Jon Snow and Dany marry, ikkey still but not as bad, as there is at least a mix of blood there.

He’s Ice, She’s Fire and either Tyrion or Aegon (in the books and if he survives) would be the Hand of the king.. Giving you again the 3 heads of the Dragon, protecting the Iron Throne and uniting the land and those across the Narrow Sea,

THE END OF THE SONG

So, we have our plausible 3 headed dragon and so here is where the end game comes in and where the winding branches and paths join to become one.

This is a theory that I have had for a while and it might not be one of the most popular ones but I think it’s plausible and, having tested it out on some of the actors from Game of Thrones when I interviewed them, it seems to have gone down quite well… so here it is:

The Theory

Summer has come after a long and bloody winter, the White Walkers / Others have been defeated and we have our three headed Dragon sitting in power overseeing the reconstruction of Westeros and the dawn of a new Era.

But out of the shadows, a character appears. A man who, throughout the entire Game of Thrones has been playing once side against another and all for his betterment and gain.

He has allegedly had something to do with the death of the old Hand of the King, Jon Arryn; Framed Tryion, betrayed Ned Stark, became Lord of Harrenhall, had a hand in the death of Joffrey, killed his fiancée Lysa, became regent of the Eyrie and would seem to have machination’s towards the north as well.

As time goes on in the series and books, this man’s power will grow and then at the end, just as we think we will finally get a happy ending, a resolution, he will kill, or have killed those who fought to win the thrown and save Westeros from the Others / White Walkers.

The final scene will be that of Petyr Baelish, Little finger, sitting on the Iron throne, looking down, the camera pans back and up towards his face and he looks up and grins.. black and then credits.

AND THE INTERNET EXPLODES!

The Reasons

Ok, this will not be a popular theory I don’t think because it will just be too grim and after so many beloved characters dying and bad things happening people need a resolution BUT it is because of this that I think it is plausible.

Little finger has, throughout the series and books been power building and manipulating everything and everyone and he’s not going to just disappear, especially as, based on Martins Mindset (or so I believe) a cliff hanger like that is more realistic despite the magic and dragons, and also is something that would have his master piece talked about for years to come.. Arguments will be had, nerds will rage and all the while we didn’t see it coming.

G R R Martin is a big History nerd, he reads it, writes about it and based Westeros on it. Having a degree in Military History myself I can see this.. like a cross between the Wars of the Roses and the Roman Civil Wars.

And in History, wars and Kingdoms are not often won by heroes of pure heart, no they are won through Machiavellian cunning, power building and deceit; something we all know Little Finger is more than capable of carrying out and as we sit and watch (and hopefully will be reading soon) his rise to power will only become more apparent, and then it will be too late.

Thanks for Reading everyone, it has been a long one but if you got this far, congratulations.

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