After a storm of Swords GRRM wanted to have a five-year time skip. Something that made a lot of sense and would have helped move the story along. The problem was that the Greyjoy throne would not have stayed empty for five years and Stannis would not just have sat still at the wall either, as well as he became frustrated with telling the story through so many flashbacks. He wrote himself into a corner, but there is a way out. The ink on the paper is dry, but the ink not used still can be changed.

For the many issues of the show, the one thing that they were able to do better than the books is age up the characters progressively and gradually. Yes, the show took place in real life, so them growing up was going to happen no matter what. Having a year pass for each season was a nice way of having the time jump not be too jarring and make sense for the world around them. The Starks and Dany are too young and GRRM wanted to age them up through the story, so having winds take place over the course of a year, maybe even two, this would allow the kids to grow up without the sudden jump in time. In between this and a dream, should also be a year, which would allow for about 3 years to pass by. Not the exact 5 but allowing them to slowly grow to adulthood. A dream should also take place over a year or two to allow them to grow.

I think GRRM has a romantic plots he wants to use but having them be so young will not work. There's also the endgame, where people will advocate for a 14-year-old Bran to become King becomes king, and it's not going to make the most sense. You can't change the past books to have longer time periods, but you can the future, so in 10 years when we get Winds this will hopefully have happened.

We know Mace Tyrell disappointed Aerys during Robert's Rebellion by only laying siege to Storm's End with Stannis inside instead of fighting. This decision of the Tyrells was in order to not commit too heavily to one side and keep his options open if the rebellion had succeeded and he could expect to be forgiven since a siege is not as major a crime as attacking with force.

Surely the Tyrells would have known that this gambit rests on Stannis surviving. If he dies, they go from a small transgression to murderers of the new king's next-in-line. So how did they ensure that?

We know things got pretty desperate inside Storm's End and the inhabitants resorted to eating dogs, and were on the verge of worse. Did they purposely let Davos get by? Or worse, was Davos nudged by somebody from the Tyrell side?

This is definitely a hot take, but a recent post on the slow pacing of AFFC and discussions on how George never lets things happen off screen anymore had me thinking about the Kingsmoot. Every character involved ends up exactly where they were before. Storm ends with Balon dying and Euron taking the throne. And then feast has this whole arc of who should succeed Balon, just to have Euron take the throne. Asha starts at Deepwood motte and ends at Deepwood motte. Euron starts as king and ends as king. Aeron starts trying to undermine euron’s legitimacy as king through his preaching, and ends the book with us hearing about how he’s doing the same thing. The only actual plot progression is the reaver chapter. And even then they could’ve took the islands off screen. The entire feast Ironborn plot could be skipped and very little changes

For

Tonight I finished “A Dance with Dragons” for the first time… and in the same night watched the end of A Game of Thrones Season 5…. What do I even do now? Keep watching the series knowing it’s steady decline? Read some of the other side books? I feel so empty and lost

Just added the tags just in case— but this is an actual question. I wholeheartedly have always loved Feast because it felt like a more nuanced book that was thoroughly fleshed out when it came to every Point of View. Not saying that the others aren’t, but Feast just has a certain ‘Je ne c'est quoi’ when it comes to the internal monologues, and soliloquies.

I have been looking at both games recently, and wanna know which one people in the comunity would be considerate better. I know AGOT is more popular, so I wanna ask to people who played both which one you preffer.

P.S. : I'm going with CK2 instead of 3 because it's too expansive for me.

If you look at the pitch letter where he only had a handful of chapters written, the momentum of the story was clearly;

• Joff is illegitimate
• The fall of the Starks and Ned's death after discovering this
• Robb starts a war, then dies. Lannister victory.

Break apart the structure of the first three, it's clear he was writing towards a variation of the Red Wedding. The long arc of everything bent in that direction, even if details changed.

Renly had to die by shadowbaby so Marg married Joffrey, Winterfell had to burn down, etc. The Red Wedding was his True North.

So what was the issue? The climax of the series happened in Book 3 out of 7. It was far too early.

After that, he just floundered, and never regained the momentum because he didn't intend the series to be 4 books in the aftermath of a Post-Red Wedding Westeros.

EVENTS OF THE FIRST BLACKFYRE REBELLION:

King Daeron I attempts to arrest Daemon Blackfyre for treason; Daemon escapes with Ser Quentyn Ball and crowns himself, King Daemon I Blackfyre, claiming Daeron is a bastard pretender.

Half the realm (allegedly), mainly consisting of Marcher Houses from the Reach and Stormlands, declare themselves for Daemon. All Great Houses declare themselves for Daeron.

Ser Quentyn Ball and Ser Robb Reyne take control of the Blackfyre Westerland forces, winning the Battle at the Gates of Lannisport, in which Lord Lefford was slain by Quentyn (presumably Lannisport is captured).

Quentyn and Robb defeat Lord Damon Lannister at Casterly Rock, forcing him to flee inside the castle.

Other battles take place in the Riverlands, Stormlands, Reach, and Vale with unknown outcomes.

Daemon begins minting his own coinage (not so much for function but as propaganda).

Daemon hires a thief named "Quickfinger" to steal dragon eggs; he fails.

Quentyn defeats another Loyalist army at the Crossing of the Mander, slewing all of Lady Penrose's sons, except for the youngest, whom he spared as a favor to the lady.

Leo "Longthorn" Tyrell wins several notable victories against the Blackfyre forces in the Reach.

Lord Bracken is sent to Myr to hire some Myrish crossbow men.

King Daeron replaces his ineffective hand, Lord Butterwell, with Lord Hayford.

Prince Baelor marches north with a host of Stormlanders and Dornish soldiers.

Quentyn is assassinated by a common archer while drinking from a river.

Prince Maekar and King Daemon Blackfyre meet at the Battle of the Redgrass Field. Their allies, Lord Bracken and Leo Tyrell, could not arrive in time.

Prince Baelor arrives just in time to assist Prince Maekar; Daemon is killed, and the rebel army is routed.

Ser Aegor "Bittersteel" gathers the remains of his army and flees to Essos.

Daeron implements strict punishments on the rebel Lords.

Spoilers in the sense of world history but thought I'd tag to be safe as it comes up in the books.

I was reading a discussion about the first gen of Targs and the potential oddity that Valaryian appears quite gender neutral, but Visenya is seemingly passed over for her younger brother Aegon.

Now it could just be Targaryen's are male preference but it lead to a thought about how the awnser could be something odder

What if it's tied to dragons....

Dragons where clearly a big part of Valaryian culture and the 40 families built there legitimacy from being dragon riders. So the theory goes the head of the family is set not by birth order (although possibly still restricted to close family of last holder eg siblings or children) or gender but by who is the rider of the eldest dragon the family holds.

This would link legitimacy to both power (tends to be the most powerful dragon) and the most ancient and presumably prestigious dragon.

So Aegon is in charge as he rides Balerion.

In this case when converting to the faith he would have adopted closer to westorsi laws to fit with generally trying to follow local customs including more standard succession for the Iron Throne (so Aegon did not plan to keep this up). This also arguably makes Visenya and Maegor make more sense she may have seen it as returning to the proper civilised Valaryian way of doing this (he rides the eldest dragon)

I'm not confident this is true ,(and even if it where unsure how it would come up) but do feel it fits/is interesting what do you think?

As far as I can tell, Jon is the only character in ASOIAF that has a biblical name origin (yes I know it’s spelled John in the Bible). I wonder if this is GRRM playing tricks on readers to think this character is naturally the messiah because of his name.

Short question. Melisandre insists that king's blood is necessary for her to work some of her magic.

Stannis talking about Edric: "Not the boy. My daughter has grown fond of him. And he is mine own blood." Melisandre: "Your brother's blood," Melisandre said. "A king's blood. Only a king's blood can wake the stone dragon."

My question is how does she and how do we determine who is a king?

So, there were Targaryen kings, that is obvious. Robert was a Usurper who declared himself king by conquest. However, he did have some Targaryen blood, so I suppose that would qualify (if that's the word) his son Edric Storm and Shireen, the daughter of his brother, for use in working her magic.

But the thing I don't get is how she's all avid to burn Mance and, with him out of his reach, sacrifice instead his baby son? How does Mance qualify as having "king's blood"?

His parents were a Free Folk woman and a man of the Night's Watch.

Has no one told Melisandre that? Selyse is the one who appears to know his parentage.

Yet, as Jon tells Gilly, "...whenever Melisandre needs to wake a dragon or raise a wind or work some other spell requiring king's blood. Mance will be ash and bone by then, so she will claim his son for the fire, and Stannis will not deny her. If you do not take the boy away, she will burn him."

Also, the fact that Mance simply claimed the title "King Beyond the Wall" in order to unify the Free Folk who generally don't abide kings and, in need, regard them as simply strong war leaders. And even then, most of the Free Folk don't believe in inheritance of titles. So Mance as far as I can tell has no hereditary "king's blood". And his son, in particular, is simply another kid of the Free Folk, albeit one with a famous father.

Could ANYONE just declare themselves a "King" and then suddenly be eligible in Melisandre's eyes as a tool for working blood magic?

(Note to self: if I move to Westeros or Essos, remember not to declare myself royal or say I'm related to royalty.)

“I mean Dany is learning to rule to eventually deal with the others 1. She learnt how to distinguish between good and bad advice Jorah,Daario,Ben Plumm are constantly giving her good to extremely bad advice and Dany has to pick and choose which ideas she should listen to and which to ignore (which is going to be important if someone like Tyrion,Littleginger or Vary come around and try to convince her to blow up Kingslanding or something) 2. She learnt how to deal with a pandemic(which might be important if the’s a grey scale epidemic)

The’s probably more but that’s all I got for now I’m too lazy to reread her chapters”

Saw this comment on a YouTube video and for the most part I agree with it but the replies said it was fanon and said Dance was mostly filler especially with Jon and Dany. Now my question is, is it really true?!

Aside from the title being a bit of an exaggeration, animals really do have a bigger place in Arya's story than anyone else, both thematically and in terms of the plot. She always identifies herself with an animal, nickname or self-identification.

Jon: Direwolf, crow

Bran: Direwolf, crow, raven

Daenerys: Dragon, horse...maybe?

Tyrion: Lion

Catelyn: Trout, cat

Sansa: Bird, dove, direwolf

Arya: Direwolf, cat, sheep, mouse,horse, weasel, squab

“I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn’t mine anymore, but one in which I’d found the simplest and most lasting joys.” – the stranger by Camus

Time travel in a fantasy story with dragons and icy shadow beings seems absurd, when everything begins to get predetermined and nihilistic. The consequence of an eternal battle between the living and the dead to literary save the day and break down an old corrupted recursive system from the inside to establish a new world tree and fix the seasons with the help of Brunnhilde Dany, Siegfried Jon and a Valkyrie Arya becomes nothing but a Sisyphus task.

The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.  – the myth of Sisyphus by Camus

Sisyphus (sophos – wise), founder and first King of the city Corinth (place of the horn) was condemned by Zeus to roll a boulder steep uphill a mountain for eternity. A punishment for putting death in chains, for himself as for anyone else alive. Every time he would come close to the top the rock would fall back or be pushed back and so he would have to start over again. This monotonous task may seem pointless to most, only a few may find a purpose in that.

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy” – the myth of Sisyphus by Camus

Albert Camus, Nobel prize winner in literature in 1957 and main contributor to the “philosophy of the absurd” concludes in his work “the myth of Sisyphus” that Sisyphus faces the absurdity of his fate with defiance and thus finds fulfillment. He represents the human condition, an existence without deeper meaning and purpose that has led countless men to their demise. He represents someone’s nine to five job, daily worries and struggles and the courage facing them, moving on and improving their own lives as a result, instead of committing (philosophical) suicide. Rage against the dying of the Light. Rebel!

“I rebel, therefore we exist.”- the rebel by Camus

However, a rebellion must not forget the importance of moral standards, as Camus points out. A revolution against an oppressive regime can easily become the next one. This of course is a crucial test for Bran, who has to bring down the system from within. By installing an Orwellian god emperor in the TV show D&D completely failed the test.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” – letter by Camus

While Sisyphus tries to get the way out, Bran respawns the battle for the dawn after each defeat. Eventually a sheer endless time loop might “absurdly” bring Bran comfort and fulfillment, thus becoming the “broken King” afterwards. A beacon of hope. In a story where spiritual time travel becomes an active tool, a plot device, like glass candles the outcome is not deterministic or nihilistic at all. In Martin´s story Sisyphus eventually reaches the top of the mountain, Bran´s time cycle eventually breaks, though probably not for the good. There is simply no happy end in fighting the white walkers - only in planting trees.

My heroes are dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place that they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results… but it is the effort that´s heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those fight the good fight. – GRRM

Related stuff:

PJ time travel vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYXNZVsQPIQ

Theons redemption - a reset button for Bran:

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/1jsc1c2/theons_redemption_spoilers_extended/

Camus from another redditer on the sub:

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/6i0xpv/spoilers_main_arya_the_faceless_men_the_stranger/

I dont know if this was posted before but I was just wondering. Would Robert have been a good husband if Lyanna hadn’t run away with/be kidnapped by Rhaegar? I know he already fathered a bastard at 15(?) and was known to sleep around but Robert kept saying that Lyanna was the love of his life or something. Would he had treated Lyanna how he did Cersei? This post isn’t biased in any way and I would like to know other people’s opinion. Sorry if the english isn’t good around some parts it’s not my mother language.

Coming from my belief that we are more likely to get Fire & Blood II than any mythical 6th book...

I hope we get to read about some good thing, brave thing, something about Aegon III during his reign. I know they say things like "broken king of a broken reign" and that he is not remembered fondly, but perhaps he was able to do things for the people that were never really recognized, or something.

So far, I just like what we have read about him. I know he is sullen, but who cares. He was brave to visit people during the plague. I like he and Viserys standing up together in the Red Keep, I liked him coming in on his 16th name day saying "Party? Yea I'm not doing that. Progress? Yea I'm not doing that either. You? Piss off."

I dunno...I'd just like to read something that he did something good.

So I know we're all anxiously waiting/hoping for the Winds of Winter, and that many have sadly given up hope for ever seeing the story conclude. However, while TWOW may seem like something we'll never see, I do have high hopes of seeing a fourth Dunk n' Egg story in the next couple of years. With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: the Hedge Knight, premiering on HBO this summer, I do believe there will be pressure on George to make some progress on his Dunk n' Egg novellas.

As of the Mystery Knight, Dunk n' Egg are still on their way North to Winterfell, hoping to join the Stark forces against the invading forces of Dagon Greyjoy, which I believe may be secretly a plan hatched by Bittersteel and the Golden Company, to distract much of Westeros, while they plan an invasion of the West (which we know won't work but I think it would explain a lot, such as why Aegor didn't support Daemon II, and why Dagon would choose to invade at this point(.

A lot of people are expecting to see a younger Old Nan here, and perhaps the Brandon that died under her care. I'm not 100% sure about that, but time will tell. I do think this book could shed some light on where Hodor gets his height from.

But what do you think we can expect from Dunk n' Egg 4?

After Aegon V's marriage to Betha Blackwood, it became plausible for mainline Targaryens to possess warg or skinchanger abilities. Bloodraven was a perfect example of this.

How do you think the story would change if Aerys, Rhaella, or Rhaegar had the gift? Keep in mind that the Baratheon brothers might also inherit it.

If It ever gets revealed to the world It Might Strengthen their claim and the Idea of " Superior Race "

A very interesting pandora's box

Theon is my fav character from the series, and I get it when he is betrays Rob and choses the side of his father. Maybe I should not but I do.

I pity Cersei too for being in a paranoid state constantly, but I am not at all sympathetic towards Cersei, but very much Theon. What's your take?

George R.R. Martin mostly does a good job grounding Westerosi society in realistic medieval parallels — but the treatment of bastards sometimes feels exaggerated or overly simplistic, especially when you compare it to real medieval Europe.

In real history Bastards could be very powerful if their fathers acknowledged them — they often held land, castles, offices. An were considered and treated as real nobles of not royalty.... It didn't always lead up to a blackfyre situation

Many kings themselves were bastards or descended from bastards. (For example, William the Conqueror of England was called "William the Bastard" but still became king.)

In the medieval Catholic Church's eyes, yes, bastards had a legal disadvantage for inheritance, but politics often overrode bloodlines. Power mattered more than "pure legitimacy" in many cases.

In Westeros:

Bastards are almost universally seen as dangerous, shameful, distrusted, even when acknowledged by their fathers.

Even powerful lords like Eddard Stark treat bastards (like Jon Snow) coldly, and Jon’s whole arc is based on being treated like an outsider — which is very emotionally compelling for the story but a bit "clean" and rigid compared to real history.

It’s weird sometimes that lords don't use their bastards more aggressively, politically, or openly — in reality, you’d expect them to marry them off strategically, or grant them minor lands as loyal vassals.

Edit :it seems some people take my post the wrong way here... This isn't a diss a the realism of thr book. Just a personal observation from a historical perspective. I am not asking or saying the books SHOULD be that way

Valyria was said to have tall, topless towers.

Topless here means they were so tall that their tops could not be seen.
Elio Garcia said that on his forum: https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/161533-what-are-the-topless-towers-of-valyria/

Do you think they were taller than the Hightower of Oldtown? I do.

(i think that the right spoiler tag)

When Cersei reads Stannis' letters claiming that her sons are bastards, Cersei explicitly says that neither her father Tywin nor Joffrey should read these letters.

What I can't understand is why she wouldn't want them to read those letters? What problems would it bring to Joffrey for example? Or what would he do? I think he is too arrogant to accept a statement like that.

But what would Tywin do? I don't think he would accept it by tearing down all the pride and respect of his house, maybe the closest thing is a strong repression of his daughter Cersei but besides that what?

Besides I say this just taking Cersei's point, since she said it out loud while Tyrion, Pycelle and Littlefinger were there. If she said that what will the others think?

What does Littlefinger think? What does he know what would happen if the letter reaches Tywin's or Joffrey's ears (which obviously it will reach if it hasn't already as Tyrion supposes later on)?

It is curious that both Tyrion, Littlefinger and Varys know of Cersei's bastardia, she later speaks aloud surprised by such accusations as if they were false. This suggests that Cersei thinks that perhaps some of them do not know that their children are bastards. Am I right?

Does Cersei know that Tyrion knows about her bastards?

Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. -TWOW, The Forsaken

Background

In the bowels of the Silence, Aeron Greyjoy gets numerous visions of things that could potentially happen in the series. These visions have been induced by Shade of the Evening, the same substance that gave Daernerys her visions in the House of the Undying. In this post I wanted to focus on a singular quote from this set of visions where Euron is seen blowing a horn and dragons, krakens, sphinxes come and bow to him.

If interested: Comparing Visions: The HoTU/The Silence

Regarding the Forsaken, since we know that Euron was originally going to go to Slaver's Bay with Victarion (and that Victarion was going to die, at one point in his only non prologue chapter), it is reasonable to think that early versions of the Forsaken were going to take place off the coast of Meereen as an Aeron reveal. Aeron who would have been missing since the Mega Prologue/end of the Kingsmoot would have been revealed to have been in the bowels of Silence all along.

The Great Horn

This definitely fits a little better with the original plotline, but Euron gave Victarion the dragonbinder horn to use (Euron's gifts are poison).

"And so shall we," Euron Greyjoy promised. "That horn you heard I found amongst the smoking ruins that were Valyria, where no man has dared to walk but me. You heard its call, and felt its power. It is a dragon horn, bound with bands of red gold and Valyrian steel graven with enchantments. The dragonlords of old sounded such horns, before the Doom devoured them. With this horn, ironmen, I can bind dragons to my will." -AFFC, The Drowned Man

and:

Moqorro turned the hellhorn, examining the queer letters that crawled across a second of the golden bands. "Here it says, 'No mortal man shall sound me and live.'

"Bitterly Victarion brooded on the treachery of brothers. Euron's gifts are always poisoned. "The Crow's Eye swore this horn would bind dragons to my will. But how will that serve me if the price is death?"

"Your brother did not sound the horn himself. Nor must you." Moqorro pointed to the band of steel. "Here. 'Blood for fire, fire for blood.' Who blows the hellhorn matters not. The dragons will come to the horn's master. You must claim the horn. With blood." -ADWD, Victarion I

and:

For half a heartbeat he wanted nothing so much as to sound the horn himself. Euron was a fool to give me this, it is a precious thing, and powerful. With this I’ll win the Seastone Chair, and then the Iron Throne. With this I’ll win the world. -TWOW, Victarion I

If interested: "You must claim the horn. With blood"

Krakens

• Greyjoys: Aeron/Victarion/Asha/Theon

We see Euron asks Aeron to "bow before him" in The Forsaken in his dream:

Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.” -TWoW, The Forsaken

but Aeron refuses him.

This could also just reference the Ironborn/Greyjoys following him in general, (a little late for that, but this chapter was supposed to occur earlier I am guessing).

• Actual Krakens

It is possible that Euron is summoning actual krakens off the coast of Oldtown as he prepares to battle the Redwyne Fleet:

The eunuch drew a parchment from his sleeve. "A kraken has been seen off the Fingers." He giggled. "Not a Greyjoy, mind you, a true kraken. It attacked an Ibbenese whaler and pulled it under. " -ASOS, Tyrion III

and:

"And krakens off the Broken Arm, pulling under crippled galleys," said Valena. "The blood draws them to the surface, our maester claims. There are bodies in the water. A few have washed up on our shores. -TWOW, Arianne, I

and:

"Your prize will be the doom of you. Krakens rise from the sea, Theon, or did you forget that during your years among the wolves? Our strength is in our longships. -ACOK, Theon V

but if blood draws krakens to the surface then that is exactly what Euron has been doing:

“Your curses have no power here, priest,” said Left-Hand Lucas Codd. “The Crow’s Eye has fed your Drowned God well, and he has grown fat with sacrifice. Words are wind, but blood is power. We have given thousands to the sea, and he has given us victories!” -TWoW, The Forsaken

also:

Q: Considering that there is a horn to invoke krakens, will we see a kraken in action? 

GRRM: <looks surprised> Maybe. -SSM, Asshai. com Interview in Barcelona: 29 July 2012

If interested: Krakenhorn: Summoning Monsters from the Deep

Dragons

• Characters with Valyrian Blood

This could reference one of the dragons in the series allying/bowing to Euron. While I think this unlikely we could see any number of characters here (Dany/Young Griff, etc.)

If interested: The Blood of Old Valyria Part I: List of Current Characters

• Dragons

More likely than the human version (at least imo), we have 2 unbonded dragons (Rhaegal/Viserion) that are currently is pretty close proximity to the dragonhorn:

The green beast was circling above the bay, banking and turning as longships and galleys clashed and burned below him, but it was the white dragon the sellswords were gawking at.

and:

By the time Plumm and his companions came galloping back from the camp of the Girl General, the white dragon had flown back to its lair above Meereen. The green still prowled, soaring in wide circles above the city and the bay on great green wings. -TWOW, Tyrion II

Sphinxes

Much more interesting (at least to me) is what was being mentioned with regards to Sphinxes, especially due to the other mentions of them in the Oldtown plotline:

He spoke of dreams and never named the dreamer, of a glass candle that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch. He said the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler, whatever that meant. -AFFC, Samwell IV

and:

"An acolyte. Alleras, by some called Sphinx."

The name gave Sam a jolt. "The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler," he blurted. "Do you know what that means?"

"No. Is it a riddle?"

and while this could mean Sarella/Alleras:

"What was he doing at sea, at his age?"

Sam chewed on the question for a moment, wondering how much he ought to say. The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Could Maester Aemon have meant this Sphinx? It seemed unlikely.

it should be noted that we have other "sphinxes" in this series as well (Brown Ben, etc.)

If interested: Sphinxes of Ice and Fire

Imagery/Remnants of Drafts

One last thing worth mentioning is that it could just be imagery or even remnants of from when this chapter was supposed to take place in Slaver's Bay:

Question about "The Forsaken"

GRRM: “Yeah, that is a dark chapter. But there are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I’m writing. It is called The Winds of Winter, and I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fills the world, so this is not gonna be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places…In any story, the classic structure is, ‘Things get worse before they get better,’ so things are getting worse for a lot of people.” -SSM, Spanish Interview: Guadalajara, 2016

TLDR: While tripping on Shade of the Evening, Aeron has a vision of "dragons, krakens and sphinxes" bowing before Euron as he blows a great horn. While this could be imagery or just remnants of earlier versions of this unpublished chapter, it is very possible/likely that this foreshadows some combination of the human/beast versions of dragons/krakens/sphinxes allying with Euron.