In the parallel reality where we got ADOS, I honestly would hope that George would include details on King Bran's tax policy. It would be a fitting way to end a series if you ask me.
Apologies if this was addressed in the book, and I don't remember it.
The Autarch makes a pretty persuasive case for himself and his actions in Citadel, and I can see why Severian loved him as he ate the Autarch's brain. Yet, why did the Autarch allow the Antechamber to exist in perpetuity? Did all of his personalities forget it was there? Seems like a pretty crummy thing to let happen to people if you know it exists.
In the Hollywood Reporter article, George revealed he was planning to kill Sansa, but may change his mind now due to the show.
It is interesting that in the show, the whole Sansa in the Vale with Baelish plot is just dropped unceremoniously so that Sansa can basically take over the Jayne Poole story. Considering the direction that Sansa SEEMED to be heading at the end of Dance + TWOW sample chapter (Controlling Sweetrobin, more planned by George, etc.), don't you think it is weird that D+D would just drop ALL of that for Sansa taking up some minor Jeyne Poole storyline? Well, what if it is because George said he is going to kill Sansa shortly in that plotline, and D+D instead decided to keep her, and thought the Jeyne Poole story was the best way to reintegrate her?
While you may think it is likely that northerners are willing to crown Jon Snow king of the north, because he is just such a badass, don't you think it is weird that Sansa being a legitimate child (who is sitting right there when Jon is named king in the north(Bran & Arya are still missing, and Rickon is dead)) is never really brought up? I understand there are issues with lifting Sansa up politically, but it isn't seriously discussed until the end of Season 8 where she illogically is given the Queen of the North title despite Bran becoming King. Well, maybe it is because Sansa never making it back to the North solves all those problems.
I really do think that George was planning to kill Sansa, and then changed his mind sometime in the last 10 years. Plotlines for TWOW are still up in the air. I guess I am glad that George is trying to find more for her to do, but I think it just goes to show how far away George is from finishing Winds (as if we didn't already know). To an extent, I do sympathize with D+D on this.
There are so many single parents, financial victims of divorce, and people trapped in families they can't stand (or are even abuse victims of) that we really aren't doing that bad.
At the very least, we have the sanctity of only being accountable for ourselves, which is an underrated benefit.
The truth is that only 20% of the population start and maintain truly loving families. Yeah, we have it worse than these people, but they are just less common than you think.
That isn't to say our trauma of being unloved isn't valid, but there are silver linings to be found. The best we can do is use these linings to the best of our ability.
It is increasingly hard for me to not see sex as an incredibly fucked up practice in the first place. Call me asexual if you want, but I feel like being forced to not have relationships has given me insight into the whole thing.
Feelsbadman.
Rhaego is alive. We know blood magic was used, so why couldn't have it been used to switch out Rahego with an already dead fetus? Think about it...