u/NoMoreButtonPLZ

NEW READER HERE HOPE IM NOT A BROKEN RECORD

So i'm in the post-finishing era of "well why isn't Winds out?" discussion and all signs point to the characters ages being a large factor in GRRM's mega writers block, and I totally get why he scrapped the 5 year time skip post Storm because of all the characters that needed an immediate followup. I see how the mix of "I'd like Sansa to not be 14" and "I want to show what Cersei's doing post-Tywin" is so vexing for him.

SO MY QUESTION IS

Is there a later point in the story that George could implement a time skip so that he could get the Starks/Dany to an acceptable age while also not having to cut any of the post Storm immediate fallout?

So Winds has to start and we need to get Stannis vs Ramsey, Meereen, Young Griff's ascension and The Oldtown battle out of the way. I think you'd have to kill Cersei or have her imprisoned before starting, but is there a point after these battles occur that you think George could jump ahead? What seems the best choice to me is a long Winter while Young Griff holds the throne (fuck then Connington would need to slow his greyscale)

You can't keep dead Jon on Ice for that long (heh) but perhaps he does a bigger "rumors of Lady Stoneheart" thing with Jon prowling throughout Winter as this undead Wildling leader?

I'm sure there are others who've put more thought into it than me but can someone find a secondary point in the timeline where this could work?

have always been fascinated by this concept but throughout my playthroughs of these games i've only had a few "you did this so this quest is locked forever" moments myself.

If anyone could drop a few minor or major quest breaking moments you find interesting that would be great

No but also.... maybe?

(SERIES REVIEW)

One small thing I always appreciated about Sami Zayn is that he makes slight deviations to his look depending on what kind of face or heel he is at the moment.

When he was 2021 chicken shit conspiracy Sami he let his hair and beard grow messy and untrimmed and his body was pale and skinny fat to fit that gimmick of greasy paranoid annoying mf.

However once the Bloodline story got rolling in the direction of babyface Sami vs Roman, he didn't have some drastic physical transformation or anything like that but he got his abs back, his arms got a little bigger and he trimmed his hair/beard to look well kept. Now he's immediately easier to root for as a babyface despite only changing 2-3 aspects of his look because he doesn't look like a greasy rat anymore.

Same with his babyface open challenge run last year vs his current look as the heel who doesn't think he's a heel. He made sure to look a little stronger as a fighting babyface US champ. Defined abs and the man bun really helped, but now that he's turning heel again he's getting that wild man hair back slightly.

It's something that doesn't really get attention but I've always appreciated him switching it up like that, love Sami.

The Law of Equivalent Exchange is the fundamental rule of alchemy, to obtain anything, something of equal value must be lost or sacrificed.

I'm fresh off finishing this series for the first time. Just digging into the Winds Sample chapters and holy FUCK they are good.

I heard through the grapevine over the years that some of the sample chapters are unnecessary and people hope they eventually get cut down or fused together, but after finishing the two Arienne chapters I gotta say I really wish these were in Dance. Not only is she a great new POV I feel like those two POV's kinda wrap up the Dorne plot in Dance moreso than the regular book which just leaves all these characters up in the air, with Arienne's chapters being placed at the end of Dance I feel like that's a perfect climax for not only her story but JonCon and Aegon having taken Storms End, it just feels like that 100% needed to be in Dance. The Forsaken and Mercy don't fit Dance at all but personally I would

REMOVE

The Windblown (11 pages)

Davos 2 (10 pages)

Jon 7 (11 pages)

to fit Arienne 1 and 2 which is about 22 pages and Barristan 1 (epic speech) which is 8 pages.

YOU COULDA MADE IT WORK GEORGE

I finished the series a few days ago and while I love the general theories i've read on here. I found one concept that really did it for me where someone created their own fictional chapter order for Winds and basically mapped out the entire book while trying to fit the 70 or so chapter limit (IE Theon 1 followed by Tyrion 1 followed by Theon 1 etc)

Over the 15 year history of this subreddit, who knows the best one of these discussions they could direct me to!? Like the most plausible "this could actually be Winds" layout and not one that pushes the Battle of Ice to halfway through the book.

Whoever can find me the best one, I will lay my sword at your feet and swear my life to you