Descent into Madness: A Song of Ice and Fire

Not Aerys II or Euron, Stoneheart or Reek; let's talk about the fandom

This week, I've been indulging myself by returning to videos analyzing theories related to the future of A Song of Ice and Fire, the fantasy novels written by George R.R. Martin upon which Game of Thrones was based and in the same world as House of the Dragon.

Essays could be written about the phenomenon that is the ASoIaF fandom – and other circumstances where a devoted community forms around unfinished or abandoned pieces of art, including many video games.

But the ASoIaF fandom might be unique in how a few factors came together to form a kind of cult around these fantasy novels, with every word of George's text being analyzed with the same fervor devout Christians apply to the Bible.

Enjoy some popularly known, humorous-turned-serious ASoIaF theories in the captions of the art throughout.

Is Roose Bolton a Vampire? Art by BellaBergolts

Time & Timing

A Song of Ice and Fire is planned to be a series of seven novels, begun in 1996 with A Game of Thrones and most recently updated in 2011 with A Dance With Dragons as its fifth installment. Author George R.R. Martin has been struggling greatly with the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, once being hopeful about a 2014 release but of late having given up on sharing his predictions with the world.

Certainly, the community's rampant and obsessive theorizing has been enabled by the frustrating delay of possible answers. But it gets stranger when you consider that most of the fandom (myself included) have never gotten answers to their theorizing – having entered the fold thanks to the prolific HBO adaptation which aired between 2011-2019. Yet they follow in the eagle-eyed and curious footsteps of those fans who came before, making and adapting predictions between relatively frequent book releases.

Is Varys a: Merman? Blackfyre? Woman? Art by Kraehen Kunst

I imagine that pre-2011 fandom as being similar to the Cosmere-centered community I follow today, where theorizing is possible but is mostly overshadowed by literary analysis and appreciative (and sometimes critical) discussion. Brandon Sanderson is reliable as clockwork (perhaps more so) in getting new books out, so there is rarely time for idle speculation to develop.

But idle speculation is (almost) all that ASoIaF fans have had for thirteen years now, and it has grown in strange directions. The unceasing passage of time has made widely accepted theories, such as Jon being the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, feel stale in the minds of some fans. Needing a new secret, they speculate endlessly about the many possible parents of Jon, Daenerys, "Aegon" and Meera (who happen to be roughly of an age with each other).

Is Tyrion the time-travelling son of Daenerys and Drogo? Art by Cabepfir

Intricacy & Adaptation

Time is one thing, but fans of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles have been waiting just as long for their new book and you don't see them offering new possibilities for Kvothe's parentage every few months. (Though granted, there is more theorizing being done than I imagined when I started writing this paragraph). I've read a lot of speculative fiction, and very little of it invites the same level of obsession and fascination as ASoIaF.

The reason is that Martin's writing is intricate and detailed to an unmatched degree. One could almost argue that these books are constructed of beautifully written descriptions which happen to form a narrative through an emergent property or the brain's expectation that there will be one. For what other series could you spend over fifteen hours discussing the appeal and literary intent of just its food descriptions?

Will Euron Greyjoy bring an Eldritch Apocalypse? Art by Simon Dickie

It is this level of detail, along with the passing of thirteen years, that makes the phenomenon of this fandom possible. Martin has hidden an incredible amount of symbolism and foreshadowing in his books, and every apparent find makes the fandom hungry for more.

I was blown away when I first read a theory which found a perfect correlation between the order of knights at a tourney and Sansa's suitors, extrapolating that she would one day be betrothed to a Targaryen. Reading the books, I was ecstatic to realize for myself that Euron was likely a previous candidate for training by Bloodraven. I could go on. A YouTuber I like did, for seven hours.

Are the Starks descended from the White Walkers? Art by Oriana Wiesner

When it became clear that HBO's Game of Thrones was going to enter territory not yet revealed in the books, many fans feared being spoiled for the future of Martin's brilliantly constructed world. It felt like a genuinely troubling concern at the time, especially given the show's tendency toward dull simplification of its source material.

But looking back, that fear is nothing short of hilarious. The show veered so far from the core themes of Martin's work that even if major story beats do happen in both, it will be so different as to be unrecognizable. (I like the theory of Bran travelling to the Isle of Faces and having authority as the last greenseer, but having him sit on the Iron Throne is unimaginable.)

It has been interesting to see the fandom's response to the show, trying to refute the possibility of different show plots or re-interpret them to fit their understanding of Martin's books. Other than the few decade-old TWoW preview chapters and the supplementary books Fire and Blood and The World of Ice and Fire, the show is the closest thing to new material that the fandom has to work with.

Is Jon Snow (currently dead) Azor Ahai? Art by acazigot

Winter is Coming

I could write about this stuff for hours, and, clearly, so could the community. The ASoIaF fandom has constructed a world of meaning around not just Martin's books, but also their love and interpretation of them. There are some extravagant stories that fans have extrapolated from a handful of sentences written by George R.R. Martin, which to some feel just as canon as the five books they first fell in love with.

If The Winds of Winter does ever come out, I think it will be a gut punch for this community. Not just because of how connected we feel to these characters and how much danger they are certainly in, but also because every sentence will have the potential to crush theories which define peoples' connection to the books and community.

Was distant Asshai the site of a nuclear holocaust? Art by Anton Ek

But even more likely is that many theories will never be proven. There is simply so much symbolism, parallelism, authorial winks and foreshadowing in this series that to confirm every part of it would take a significant portion of the book.

So rather than be disappointed, I'm happy to enjoy the theories as they stand and will let myself enjoy any which are furthered or confirmed by the text. And for the sake of thousands of fans' sanity, I hope they are able to do the same.

Thanks for reading!