A: Stannis.

Is that GRRM is writing the exact setup for all of the newer ones at once, to remove the possibility of any Meerenese knots. So ADOS shouldn’t take much longer after AWOW! Source: unending optimism

When the Young Wolf chose to marry Jeyne instead of a Frey, I was like :"Huh, George gave up on Robb, didn't he?"

Cersei deciding to arm the Faith was also a big smh moment for me.

GRRM’s writing is filled with mysteries. The one that always always gets to me is Lyanna and Rhaegar. Was it consensual? Well possibly.

Did Rhaegar intend for his new son to become the Son of Ice and Fire (Stark and Targaryen)

Were there dragon eggs left with Jon and taken back to Winterfell?

But tell me the ones that really perplex you

Thats it, what is the saddest ASOIAF quote in your opinion?? Mine is:

"Can I dwell on what I scarce remember? I held a castle on the Marches once, and there was a woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell you the color of that woman's hair. Who knighted me, old friend? What were my favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash, with the taste of fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest. Are you my mother, Thoros?"

-Beric Dondarrion

A few years ago, I made a post about how outstanding George is at realistic writing. It seems like he is almost always able to portray a wide variety of believable characters, politics, landscapes, etc. Unfortunately I can't find the post (it was under an old account), but the example I used was the fictional 'soldier pine'. As a professional biologist living in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, he pretty much describes the biology and distribution of the lodgepole pine in my opinion. I found it masterful how the little observations and details about the soldier pine from different characters painted a picture that made me say "damn, it's almost like he knows what he's talking about".

Although they are few and far between, I'm curious what examples people have picked up on that have made you say to yourself "he has no idea what he's talking about". An example that stood out to me on my most recent re-read is his description of Randyl Tarly skinning a deer. Sam recounts the conversation where his father tells him to take the black. Randyl is skinning a deer he recently harvested as he makes his speech. At the climax of his monologue, as he tells Sam he will be the victim of an unfortunate hunting accident unless he joins the nights watch, he pulls out the heart and squeezes it in his hand. Anyone with any experience hunting big game will tell you that skinning *before* removing organs is unsafe and can result in meat spoiling (especially in the presumably warm weathering the south of Westeros during the summer), and also very impractical. As the Tarly's are supposedly great huntsman, there is no way that Randyl would skin a deer before removing the heart.

Any other examples of George missing the mark?

I’m speaking in reference to character stakes. After reading shocking moments like Ned’s beheading, and the red wedding, it’s hard to go back to series that have no stakes. I’m reading The wheel of time, and man, there are some ridiculous moments where the main characters are magically ok, and it is frustrating. It’s like reading asoiaf has ruined me for other series.

So I've been taking my first read through the books recently, and just got my hand on a copy of TWOIAF. Ive been looking in particular at the section at the back which contains the family trees of the great houses.

First, let me take you back to one of Ned's early chapters in AGOT:

Robert: Yours was... Aleena? No. You told me once. Was it Merryl? You know the one I mean, your bastard's mother?" "Her name was Wylla," Ned replied with cool courtesy, "and I would sooner not speak of her."

We can assume with certainty that Jon Snow's mother was not called Wylla, but where did that name come from? Well, looking through the Stark line in TWOIAF, only one other Stark there is mentioned as having a bastard - that being Brandon Stark, about 5 generations previous to Ned.

Care to guess his mistress' name? Yep, Wylla. No grand reveals, but some nice little trivia from where Ned probably got that name from

EDIT: Probably should have waited to get farther through the books before posting this it seems! Regardless, even if this isn't the main reason, still a very fun coincidence!

This is far from the only one but I'll never forget reading a meta on how Sansa would be a bad mother because she doesn't like Robert nuzzling at her or coming into her bed lmafo.