The Glade 4.0

That did not just happen. I mean seriously. I don't even know what to say. When you thought he died towards the beginning of the first book, it was horrible, and sad, and while he seemed like a pretty cool character, you were just getting to know him.

Then he blossoms into this great character. His drive to overcome his disability. I loved reading his viewpoints. Now this.

I tell you...I've never wanted to kill a fictional character so much as that freaking bastard Theon Greyjoy. I so hope the Others get him.

Hmmm...Martin got me again. Even so, Theon is a freaking bastard that deserves to be shortened a foot or so from the top.

So I knew something wasn't right. It was telegraphed in advance, with Grey Wind freaking out, and the general uneasyness, but that? Its horrible! Whats the point of this series? Everyone freaking dies. The next chapter is an Arya chapter. Her and the Hound will probably go up to the castle, they'll find out who she is, rape her, and slit her throat. Then Tywin will decide its time to end the farce, and cut off Tyrion and Sansa's heads. Then the wildlings will come and Ygrette will slit Jon's throat for a bit of irony. Then the Others will take out Meera, Jojen, Hodor, and Bran (for real this time). Let me think, are there any other characters I love? Oh yeah, Samwell will probably freeze to death at the base of the Wall a 100 yards from the gate.

You're talking about Lady, not the butcher's boy, aren't you? You monster.

Arya, Bran, and Jon? Which is the emotional one, and which wouldn't make you unhappy?

For me, it's kind of the inverse. I've grown *more* attached to a broader range of characters as the series progressed. Jaime gets all sympathetic in aSoS, Sansa gets tolerable after leaving King's Landing and starting to legitimately be able to see the world beneath the shine of her bard's tales, the wildlings get humanized quite a bit with Jon's interactions with them, Thoros does a lot to redeem the Lord of Light from Mellisandre's creepiness and ruthlessness, Arya gets harder and harder to let go; I want her to totally get turned into a girl with awesome assassin skills and then get reunited with Nymoria, if anything happens to Bryndon I'll be royally pissed, the Hound has been made a lot more sympathetic, too, Tyrion ends up getting a lot of pathos and trying to do the right thing while not getting devoured by his family, I've already ended up feeling just ultimately sorry for Theon, for how much he's **** things up, while Asha ends up just being a cool little spitfire who I can't bring myself to wish ill upon...

About the only characters who I'm really actively rooting for to die in a fire are Cersei, Joff, and maybe Tywin (though, Tywin doesn't have to die -- I'd settle for his ambition ripping his family and lineage/legacy to shreds in the ultimate schadenfreude). I suppose ultimately, my biggest wishes are still for the Starks to come out okay after all this. But there's a lot of folks that I don't want to get trampled on along the way, even if that's still the end result. Which is perfect for GRRM, as that means he gets to crush my soul again and again, still.

Arya's the sympathetic one. On my last reread through I think she was my favorite character. There is too much potential for badassery here, though I wonder how the emotions/psychology side of things will play out. I don't want her to turn into a stereotypical Whedon character... friend of mine sees this happening, right up until she meets a rough, grisly death at the hands of reality. I would be kinda distraught if this happens!

The other character I mention would, of course, be Tyrion. The series as a whole just loses too much if it loses him. Granted, you could've said the same thing about Ned, but I think Ned's loss helped the story, whereas the gap left behind by any death of Tyrion's would just be... empty.

There are other characters that are probably immune to death, though, that I'm not too worried about. Any character mostly alone is pretty immune by virtue of the fact that if they die, their plotlines sorta die too. Dany is the obvious one, but I think Jon counts too. Arya and Sansa would fit into this role as of the end of A Feast for Crows but I don't think in either's case, especially Sansa's, that it will last. Bran does at the moment and may continue on for awhile, as the center of one of the few mystical/magical plots going on now. Jon and Dany, I believe, have a meeting far in the future to settle some things, Ice and Fire style. They could die towards the very very end, I guess, but I don't think I count end-of-story deaths in the same vein as some of the big names we saw go so far, i.e. deaths that we need to deal with.

I can see very awesome, worthwhile deaths for people like Jaime (another candidate for favorite character), Brienne, Stannis, Cersei... mm, Asha may or may not fit into the above carrying-a-plotline-by-herself invincible status. I would hate these deaths as much as I hated the other deaths, but again... I know what I've got myself into. :p

...and yes, it was Lady. Only part of the books I skim through on rereading due to horrible sad cruel feelings!

Its rather difficult to keep up with this thread when EVERYTHING cool is in spoilers that I refuse to read because I have not read the books yet and don't want to ruin it!!! Grrrr.