Every time this thread gets bumped, I wonder what non-asoif thing GRRM has "not-a-blogged" about this time.
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A Song of Ice and Fire BOOK Discussion |OT2| Unmarked SPOILERS for Published Material
- Thread starter Basileus777
- Start date
Every time this thread gets bumped, I wonder what non-asoif thing GRRM has "not-a-blogged" about this time.
I'm pretty sure he doesn't read Gaf
And if he did, he should stop, and get back to writing the books!
Basileus777
Member
How dare you entitled peons pass your day without wishing this author happy birthday!
My thoughts too, going to wait and hope I survive that long!
No kidding. I started my read of the series maybe, 2-3 months ago and I'm about midway through A Feast for Crows, guess there's no question that I'll finish ADWD before book 6 is out huh?
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
Oh shit, happy birthday (yesterday) George. I still love you, even though you're never going to finish the series.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
After years of waiting for AFFC, I really wanted that be true at the time.
I'd say it's time for some TWOW predictions from when ADWD came out. Oh, such an optimistic bunch we were!
BONUS TOTALLY WRONG GOT PREDICTION!
I guess I'm an optimist. I expect the series to be done by this time 2015. He is 'over the hump' as it were. If he knows exactly where this story is going, getting there shouldn't be as hard now. He also has additional incentive in trying to get the story finished in time for the TV series to catch it up...
Granted, that is IF he knows where the story is going. If he still hasn't decided then I guess 2019 doesn't sound too far off...
BONUS TOTALLY WRONG GOT PREDICTION!
Basileus777
Member
Going through those posts and seeing myself arguing with people that thought it was coming in 2014 is pretty amusing. So many new readers of the series thought "this time will be different."
Plenty said it would never come. The current state is not a surprise at all, it's a redux of the AFFC and ADWD situation. People just invented reasons to convince themselves that things would change when there was never a good reason to expect them to.
Plenty said it would never come. The current state is not a surprise at all, it's a redux of the AFFC and ADWD situation. People just invented reasons to convince themselves that things would change when there was never a good reason to expect them to.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Hey, he still has until April to have the gap be shorter than Feast to Dance!
I look forward to after the book finally does come out and a new wave of optimistic fans predict only a 2-3 year wait for the next one.
I look forward to after the book finally does come out and a new wave of optimistic fans predict only a 2-3 year wait for the next one.
Not really. People either made wildly optimistic predictions or just didn't make any predictions at all and basically had a "don't expect it any time soon" vibe. The latter group were nearly all folks who have been following the series the longest, while the former tended to be newer fans.
Incandenza
Banned
Most people (including myself) believed that the Meereenese Knot was the primary cause of the delay for 4 & 5, when in fact it's GRRM's glacial pace and highly specific requirements for where and when he will work on the book that are the issue. And those things aren't going to go away.
I'm still hoping he's writing the next two books at the same time pretty much (like story wise) so he can easily pump out the last one in a reasonable time frame
I always kind of felt he might be doing that, but I've been wrongly optimistic about his release dates for like a dozen years straight, now.
I'm still hoping he's writing the next two books at the same time pretty much (like story wise) so he can easily pump out the last one in a reasonable time frame
This exact theory was proposed when the wait for ADWD was on-going and, well, you see how that turned out.
New Prediction Winds in Q4 2018/Early 2019
Also mods, please unban Phoenix Dark whenever Winds does come out, at least for a month. pls
Yeah, I will miss his analysis and theories.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
I'm still hoping he's writing the next two books at the same time pretty much (like story wise) so he can easily pump out the last one in a reasonable time frame
Thinking like that is only going to lead you towards more pain in the future.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
.
To be fair, he was right that HBO wouldn't end up adapting the full story.
I'm still hoping he's writing the next two books at the same time pretty much (like story wise) so he can easily pump out the last one in a reasonable time frame
Even if he had been doing that (definitely isn't happening), after Winds is released, he'll realize Dream needed more time and would end up working on it for six more years.
demosthenes
Member
Books getting remasters now?
WaffleTaco
Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
I'm actually okay with it not coming out for a while. Yes it sucks, but at this point I'll watch the show to get my fix and then eventually the books. Better for him to take his time and make something spectacular than a mediocre rushed messed.
Books been getting remasters for ages.
Stephen damn King remastered the Stand and added hundreds of pages. If GRR remasters any of his books, expect and extra thousand pages of small folk aimlessly walking the countryside, disillusioned by war. And lots of nipple fetishism, probably.
I'm still hoping he's writing the next two books at the same time pretty much (like story wise) so he can easily pump out the last one in a reasonable time frame
That is not optimistic, that is straight up delusional sorry.
The next book will come in 2018 at the earliest and it will be 2026 at the earliest before the last book comes out, if we will see it all.
Realistically speaking, the odds for that final book coming out at all are 50/50, at best.
WaffleTaco
Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
50/50?? I think you are being almost too positive...
I'd read it.
This is a pretty good post on Jon Snow and making dad proud:
"What is honor compared to a womans love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms or the memory of a brothers smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy."
Ultimately, you fight for your people, not your country, and fighting is one of the ways in which you learn the difference. You start your character arc all fired up and first-time-drunk on ideals and themes and the big picture and then suddenly, you realize that youve lost the subtext and all you care about is the people with you, the people you have left, an infinite cascade of loved ones lost and replaced, a god with many faces. Jon Snow doesnt fight for the Watch, nor the realm, with quite the same ragged passion with which he fights for his father, and everyone who has filled the hole he left behind.
He does so at the cost of any other way of life, all the more desperately as they keep dying on him, just like Ned, as if its something wrong with him his plot is driven forward and highlighted throughout by their deaths, and how he redirects and represses his rage and despair and crippling guilt. He thinks hes found an easier father than Ned, if not quite the same, with Benjen, only to learn that he must earn affection within the hierarchy of the Watch. After Benjen vanishes, Jon applies this lesson with Jeor Mormont, saving him from the ultimate symbol of the old guards failure to remember their true calling, and the need (shared by Jeors fellow been-here-forever brothers Qhorin Halfhand, Aemon Targaryen, and Donal Noye) to pass on to the next generation what little they can before its too late. Jeors last words, of course, echo Neds overwhelming longing to join his son at the Wall.
As with Ned, Jon is far away and helpless when his Lord Commander is betrayed and murdered; when it comes to Qhorin, Jon has to strike the killing blow himself. That he still thinks of himself as immature following this moment, enough that he has to kill the boy in A Dance with Dragons, is a sign that this death, traumatic as it is, actually wasnt destabliizing to Jons identity. He killed Qhorin for no reason other than Qhorin told him to, because that was the One Thing that would make Qhorin proud of him, a recurring trope in Jons arc. What makes this not sappy is that the One Thing isnt triumphing over evil, but stuff like breaking his vows to go poach his siblings birthright and burn the godswood therein (as Stannis wants) or forcing a mother to abandon her child and take on another in his place (as Aemon is so proud of him for), or yeah, killing your mentor to join your enemies as they are, until he enters the kings tent.
Jon is not only humbled and awed in Mance Rayders presence; he trusts the wildling king with Aryas life, and risks political suicide (and therefore literal homicide) in freeing him to a degree that really cant be overstated. The discourse around Jons assassination tends to center on Jons wild promise to abandon his Watch in order to fight Ramsay (understandably, more below), but imagine the thoughts of your average Watchman, maybe even a Jon supporter, when they learn from the Pink Letter that Mance is alive and Jon sent him a secret mission. Some of them may be warily getting used to the wildlings in general, but how many were not glad when Mance Rayder died, even if the pyre itself horrified them? Jon took that away from them, because it was Arya and Arya was home and Arya was the father they both looked like (and only them), and so Jon was so perfectly positioned to allow a father figure returned from the dead (the only one to do so for him) to rescue his little sister, no matter how his brothers would react. Im not saying I approve of their bloodlust at all, but that its a factor Jon simply refuses to consider.
Its a blunt, explicit, practically ecstatic spirit of denial that courses through Jon Snows final paragraphs in A Dance with Dragons, a refusal to acknowledge whats coming that is, oddly enough, his most authentic act of self-expression in the whole story. As with Danys own final chapter in Dance, GRRM unveils with primal clarity who Jon Snow is, really really is. Ramsay is sitting in his dads chair. Ramsay has killed one of his other dads (or so he says). Ramsay has a third dad of Jons locked in a cage covered in the skins of women and wants Arya back now that hes done with that side project. When Jon roars,
"This creature who makes cloaks from the skins of women has sworn to cut my heart out, and I mean to make him answer for those words "
He is not thinking about the spearwives so much as Arya; Id even go so far as to say hes thinking about Joffrey (and therefore Ned) as much as Ramsay. They have killed my father, again and again; they have already cut my heart out.
Hes also, of course, thinking about Stannis, and when I say denial:
"It is not for us to oppose the Bastard of Bolton, to avenge Stannis Baratheon, to defend his widow and his daughter."
I mean heavy damn denial.
But Ive already said stuff about Stannis and Jons relationship, so Ill say instead that just as Jon doesnt give voice to his deepest feelings, so too is his true audience nowhere to be found in the Shield Hall. Its not the wildlings, nor the Watch. Its not any of his dads.
Its Catelyn.
Because her nightmare came true: her trueborn children are dead or fled, and a Snow is despoiling their inheritance. But its not Jon, and he has this gloriously unambiguous chance: to prove Catelyn wrong, to fight for Winterfell without conquering it, to show that he could be trusted to be Ned Starks son and not heir. And he takes it, and immediately suffers for it, and were left knowing that when he learns hes not Neds son after all, itll just mean another dead man (Rhaegar) for him to die for.
"What is honor compared to a womans love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms or the memory of a brothers smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy."
Ultimately, you fight for your people, not your country, and fighting is one of the ways in which you learn the difference. You start your character arc all fired up and first-time-drunk on ideals and themes and the big picture and then suddenly, you realize that youve lost the subtext and all you care about is the people with you, the people you have left, an infinite cascade of loved ones lost and replaced, a god with many faces. Jon Snow doesnt fight for the Watch, nor the realm, with quite the same ragged passion with which he fights for his father, and everyone who has filled the hole he left behind.
He does so at the cost of any other way of life, all the more desperately as they keep dying on him, just like Ned, as if its something wrong with him his plot is driven forward and highlighted throughout by their deaths, and how he redirects and represses his rage and despair and crippling guilt. He thinks hes found an easier father than Ned, if not quite the same, with Benjen, only to learn that he must earn affection within the hierarchy of the Watch. After Benjen vanishes, Jon applies this lesson with Jeor Mormont, saving him from the ultimate symbol of the old guards failure to remember their true calling, and the need (shared by Jeors fellow been-here-forever brothers Qhorin Halfhand, Aemon Targaryen, and Donal Noye) to pass on to the next generation what little they can before its too late. Jeors last words, of course, echo Neds overwhelming longing to join his son at the Wall.
As with Ned, Jon is far away and helpless when his Lord Commander is betrayed and murdered; when it comes to Qhorin, Jon has to strike the killing blow himself. That he still thinks of himself as immature following this moment, enough that he has to kill the boy in A Dance with Dragons, is a sign that this death, traumatic as it is, actually wasnt destabliizing to Jons identity. He killed Qhorin for no reason other than Qhorin told him to, because that was the One Thing that would make Qhorin proud of him, a recurring trope in Jons arc. What makes this not sappy is that the One Thing isnt triumphing over evil, but stuff like breaking his vows to go poach his siblings birthright and burn the godswood therein (as Stannis wants) or forcing a mother to abandon her child and take on another in his place (as Aemon is so proud of him for), or yeah, killing your mentor to join your enemies as they are, until he enters the kings tent.
Jon is not only humbled and awed in Mance Rayders presence; he trusts the wildling king with Aryas life, and risks political suicide (and therefore literal homicide) in freeing him to a degree that really cant be overstated. The discourse around Jons assassination tends to center on Jons wild promise to abandon his Watch in order to fight Ramsay (understandably, more below), but imagine the thoughts of your average Watchman, maybe even a Jon supporter, when they learn from the Pink Letter that Mance is alive and Jon sent him a secret mission. Some of them may be warily getting used to the wildlings in general, but how many were not glad when Mance Rayder died, even if the pyre itself horrified them? Jon took that away from them, because it was Arya and Arya was home and Arya was the father they both looked like (and only them), and so Jon was so perfectly positioned to allow a father figure returned from the dead (the only one to do so for him) to rescue his little sister, no matter how his brothers would react. Im not saying I approve of their bloodlust at all, but that its a factor Jon simply refuses to consider.
Its a blunt, explicit, practically ecstatic spirit of denial that courses through Jon Snows final paragraphs in A Dance with Dragons, a refusal to acknowledge whats coming that is, oddly enough, his most authentic act of self-expression in the whole story. As with Danys own final chapter in Dance, GRRM unveils with primal clarity who Jon Snow is, really really is. Ramsay is sitting in his dads chair. Ramsay has killed one of his other dads (or so he says). Ramsay has a third dad of Jons locked in a cage covered in the skins of women and wants Arya back now that hes done with that side project. When Jon roars,
"This creature who makes cloaks from the skins of women has sworn to cut my heart out, and I mean to make him answer for those words "
He is not thinking about the spearwives so much as Arya; Id even go so far as to say hes thinking about Joffrey (and therefore Ned) as much as Ramsay. They have killed my father, again and again; they have already cut my heart out.
Hes also, of course, thinking about Stannis, and when I say denial:
"It is not for us to oppose the Bastard of Bolton, to avenge Stannis Baratheon, to defend his widow and his daughter."
I mean heavy damn denial.
But Ive already said stuff about Stannis and Jons relationship, so Ill say instead that just as Jon doesnt give voice to his deepest feelings, so too is his true audience nowhere to be found in the Shield Hall. Its not the wildlings, nor the Watch. Its not any of his dads.
Its Catelyn.
Because her nightmare came true: her trueborn children are dead or fled, and a Snow is despoiling their inheritance. But its not Jon, and he has this gloriously unambiguous chance: to prove Catelyn wrong, to fight for Winterfell without conquering it, to show that he could be trusted to be Ned Starks son and not heir. And he takes it, and immediately suffers for it, and were left knowing that when he learns hes not Neds son after all, itll just mean another dead man (Rhaegar) for him to die for.
Don't agree with much of the above. Rhaegar is a father to reject, not die for.
What got Jon into the Ramsay situation was his love for Arya. That was his first sin, love before duty, before the best interest of the realm. The second was trusting in prophecy.
Mistakes, made crystal clear because it wasn't even Arya.
Love before duty, trusting in prophesy, they're the Rhaegar mistakes that undid a dynasty and got his wife raped and killed and children killed. And got himself killed too.
Unlike Rhaegar Jon is going to get a second chance, and will be faced again with the same dilemmas, but he will have learned. Don't trust prophecy to lead you, no matter how strong the evidence and dire the situation. And don't put love (Arya's happiness, or anyone's) before peace and stability, before the good of the realm.
What got Jon into the Ramsay situation was his love for Arya. That was his first sin, love before duty, before the best interest of the realm. The second was trusting in prophecy.
Mistakes, made crystal clear because it wasn't even Arya.
Love before duty, trusting in prophesy, they're the Rhaegar mistakes that undid a dynasty and got his wife raped and killed and children killed. And got himself killed too.
Unlike Rhaegar Jon is going to get a second chance, and will be faced again with the same dilemmas, but he will have learned. Don't trust prophecy to lead you, no matter how strong the evidence and dire the situation. And don't put love (Arya's happiness, or anyone's) before peace and stability, before the good of the realm.
Basileus777
Member
Love before duty sure, but I don't really see trust in prophecy as one of Jon's main sins. Jon essentially faced Aemon's tests, but unlike the maester finally broke because Arya was more important to him than his oaths. Which if you want to draw parallels, is what happened with Ned before his death when he choose his daughters' safety over his honor and the truth.
GRRM laid the groundwork with that sorcery is a blade without a hilt line. And he rammed home the point it was relying on Mel's sorcery that got Jon tangled up in the mess with this one.
His father read some ancient scroll then later shelved his efforts to put his mad king father aside to run off to make a third head of the dragon, resulting in calamity and the apparent other two dragon's heads getting dashed.
And here comes Stannis to Jon's doorstep to burn his daughter on a sorcerer's word and in the name of prophecy, which will end with him having nothing but his daughter's ashes to show for it.
The lesson is clear, just do the right thing and don't go trusting or relying on the magical bullshit.
His father read some ancient scroll then later shelved his efforts to put his mad king father aside to run off to make a third head of the dragon, resulting in calamity and the apparent other two dragon's heads getting dashed.
And here comes Stannis to Jon's doorstep to burn his daughter on a sorcerer's word and in the name of prophecy, which will end with him having nothing but his daughter's ashes to show for it.
The lesson is clear, just do the right thing and don't go trusting or relying on the magical bullshit.
True that. But Jon came to the opposite conclusion when he died. He thinks he should've relied on Melisandre more not less.
Dude is probably going to start using shadowbabies to get things done. Melisandre offers someone a try every book. No way that gun doesn't get fired again.
Also GRRM is with you in magic:
These books aren't really easy to summarize. If you don't want to do a re-read again which I'd recommend then I'd suggest looking through this person's chapter by chapter summaries along with her fun comments:
http://www.tor.com/features/series/a-read-of-ice-and-fire/
He hasn't learned the lesson yet, and it may take some more magical failures before he does but at this stage he still doesn't know Mel was wrong, as far as he's aware Bolton's Arya is Arya and the letter proved Mel right.
Fun theory but maybe he'll never find out Jeyne isn't Arya. How devastating would it be if his resurrection fogged up his memories enough to mistake Jeyne for Arya.
Also cool parallel but Robb and Jon both died because of different Jeynes.
There's no proof he's still writing books.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
It's now football season so...
Honestly I think GRRM gave up years ago.
Thanks! I'll check it out in a couple of years or more when it is finally time.
I'll try this theory here, maybe it will gain some traction amongst general fans rather than the more dedicated character fans that make up the ASOIAF boards.
Certain bloodlines have an affinity with certain animals/beasts. The first men with various animals, Greyjoys with krakens, Starks specifically with wolves, probably Mormonts and bears, Lannisters and lions and so on. And of course Valyrians with dragons. Why or how this came to be the case I don't know and it may not get answered, some ancient creation events probably judging by TWOIAF hints, but I don't think it's a far reach to just assume so and work from there given all the allusions in the text.
The Varamyr chapter introduced the concept of a second life, he died and became a wolf. Common thinking has it as seeding for how Jon will survive his death, that Jon's soul (maybe not the best word for it but the simplest and I'll use it from here on out) will warg Ghost and he'll somehow return to a human body from there. That may or may not happen, but it's not the whole purpose of the second life concept, the second life is the answer to the biggest mysteries in the series and will drive the end game.
The second life is how Valyrians tamed dragons to ride. They were able to sacrifice the life of a blood member of their family to begin a second life in a dragon. That dragon would then conventionally become hospitable enough towards a human blood family member of the sacrifice and allow them as a rider. A blood relation is formed between dragon and human. But Varamyr was a skinchanger, which was what allowed him to take a second life, and Valyrians are not. In place of being skinchangers Valyrian's had blood magic, which allowed them to achieve what Varamyr did.
Dragons descended from the one that was skinchanged still share the same blood relation with humans descended from the sacrifice, the blood relation holds through generations, but will weaken with the introduction of other blood lines. Thus why Valyrians practiced incest and how the notion that the blood of the dragon must remain pure came about. Also why dragon riding was a per family thing. The following are the choice pieces which are explained by or evidence something in the above.
As above.
Why they were kin to those they controlled.
Valyrians were sorcerers, blood and fire sorcerers. Marwyn puts it most succinctly but this is an accepted fact in world.
Aerys wasn't all mad, there's some truth to what he was thinking. We'll probably find out where he was getting this information, but you can see in the quote, even after the second life practice has been forgotten Aerys wasn't the first Targ thinking he could burn and be reborn as a dragon.
The second life is the explanation for Euron's horn.
Varamyr was not the first second life in the series, or the first on page. It probably happened with all three of Dany's dragons, almost certainly with Viserys -> Viserion and definitely with Drogo -> Drogon. Drogo to Drogon will be central to the story and the one with the most evidence to show the point.
MMD's gutter blood magic in her tent of wtf allowed Drogo's soul to join Drogon's, and wake when his body was burned. It's what GRRM is getting at in this passage.
And what this story is about.
There's an obvious problem to this, only Targaryen's should be able to second life a dragon on the basis of a pre-existing connection between Valyrian's and dragons. And Drogo is no Valyrian/Targ. The rule is real, just it has a backdoor, Dany's wake the dragon dream goes some way to explaining it.
Should this all be correct you would expect some Drogo like behaviour out of Drogon. Colouring (for the black braid which represented his strength) and naming is superficial, GRRM hints I'd call them, but if Drogo is in there Drogon should act like it on occasion. Not totally, the person's sentience gets lost inside the beast, like Bran can't even remember to mark a tree for Jojen when he's a direwolf. But there should be some hints.
Obviously there's Drogon's affinity with Dany, him allowing her to ride him. He's also the alpha of the three.
The next step in explaining the theory would be to move onto Euron, but only if people are interested to read it as it's a lot more writing. In summary Euron has the gist of things, the horn to do it and the mad motivation. His conversation with Victarion is double speak, when he says he wants to fly, he means second life a dragon. When he says he may never know if he can unless he jumps from a great tower, that's because his horn blower died and he's realised he will have to sacrifice himself, commit suicide, to try to fly (dragon second life). And why he wants Dany, specifically a heir of her blood, because he knows he needs it to sacrifice. What's more, he's going to succeed, and with Drogon.
From there things go to Jon/Dany. But without a detailed explanation it should be obvious how some things play into the theory. Like why there's that saying floating around that it takes two sacrifices of kings blood, the child and the father to wake the dragon. Why there's three mounts Dany must ride, one for each of Drogon's second lifers. Why there's three heads of the dragon. Why Drogo will be as he was when she bears a living child. Why there's a prince that is promised which will wake the dragon.
And the big central theme at play. What's a bastard child's life worth against the survival of the realm? What kind of monster would give a child to the living flames? Jon's abhorrence of Craster's survival of the Others by sacrificing his children. Ned's refusal at every turn to take the easy road and allow a child be harmed, the father Jon will never forget. All that against the cost of Dany's dragons, the sacrifice of Rhaego that Dany doesn't deny she knew of and Hazzea, for whom she named herself and her dragons monsters. Fire and ice, ice preserves, fire consumes.
Certain bloodlines have an affinity with certain animals/beasts. The first men with various animals, Greyjoys with krakens, Starks specifically with wolves, probably Mormonts and bears, Lannisters and lions and so on. And of course Valyrians with dragons. Why or how this came to be the case I don't know and it may not get answered, some ancient creation events probably judging by TWOIAF hints, but I don't think it's a far reach to just assume so and work from there given all the allusions in the text.
The Varamyr chapter introduced the concept of a second life, he died and became a wolf. Common thinking has it as seeding for how Jon will survive his death, that Jon's soul (maybe not the best word for it but the simplest and I'll use it from here on out) will warg Ghost and he'll somehow return to a human body from there. That may or may not happen, but it's not the whole purpose of the second life concept, the second life is the answer to the biggest mysteries in the series and will drive the end game.
The second life is how Valyrians tamed dragons to ride. They were able to sacrifice the life of a blood member of their family to begin a second life in a dragon. That dragon would then conventionally become hospitable enough towards a human blood family member of the sacrifice and allow them as a rider. A blood relation is formed between dragon and human. But Varamyr was a skinchanger, which was what allowed him to take a second life, and Valyrians are not. In place of being skinchangers Valyrian's had blood magic, which allowed them to achieve what Varamyr did.
Dragons descended from the one that was skinchanged still share the same blood relation with humans descended from the sacrifice, the blood relation holds through generations, but will weaken with the introduction of other blood lines. Thus why Valyrians practiced incest and how the notion that the blood of the dragon must remain pure came about. Also why dragon riding was a per family thing. The following are the choice pieces which are explained by or evidence something in the above.
As above.
Why they were kin to those they controlled.
Valyrians were sorcerers, blood and fire sorcerers. Marwyn puts it most succinctly but this is an accepted fact in world.
Aerys wasn't all mad, there's some truth to what he was thinking. We'll probably find out where he was getting this information, but you can see in the quote, even after the second life practice has been forgotten Aerys wasn't the first Targ thinking he could burn and be reborn as a dragon.
The fire would transform him is an important line, to take a second life as a dragon the sacrifice's body must burn, or there abouts.
The second life is the explanation for Euron's horn.
Moqorro is wrong or only has half the story when he explains the horn, the horn is a Valyrian tool to achieve a second life in a dragon. It's just as it says, it's a dragon binder, a trade of blood for fire. The blower dies, but becomes bound to a dragon, achieving fire.
Varamyr was not the first second life in the series, or the first on page. It probably happened with all three of Dany's dragons, almost certainly with Viserys -> Viserion and definitely with Drogo -> Drogon. Drogo to Drogon will be central to the story and the one with the most evidence to show the point.
MMD's gutter blood magic in her tent of wtf allowed Drogo's soul to join Drogon's, and wake when his body was burned. It's what GRRM is getting at in this passage.
And what this story is about.
Dany, moon of Drogo's life, and Drogo, Dany's sun (and stars), joined and from their union came dragons. And the dragons drank from the sun (Drogo) and that's where they got their fire. When MMD 'tries' to save Drogo he lives but ends up soulless, he has lost his fire. Drogo's soul has gone into Drogon's egg.
Soulless Drogo stares longingly at the sun, because he has lost his fire, Drogon has drank it. The fire/Drogo's soul is interchangeable, and thus the answer to Marwyn's question.
Marwyn taught MMD her blood magic, not that she really knew what she did, but they're on the right track, asking the right questions.
There's an obvious problem to this, only Targaryen's should be able to second life a dragon on the basis of a pre-existing connection between Valyrian's and dragons. And Drogo is no Valyrian/Targ. The rule is real, just it has a backdoor, Dany's wake the dragon dream goes some way to explaining it.
Rhaego is conceived, the stars which represent Drogo (sun and stars) to turn wings, and the fire comes. Drogo is replaced with the dragon through Rhaego's conception.
The sacrifice of Rhaego. Someone without the blood of the dragon can piggy back their way into a second life in a dragon by sacrificing a child of theirs with blood of the dragon. The child comes too, Rhaego is in Drogon with Drogo.
I include this passage just to show that it's not the first time this has been done. The ghosts of the other Targs are urging her on, they've done this before, it's a historic practice.
Should this all be correct you would expect some Drogo like behaviour out of Drogon. Colouring (for the black braid which represented his strength) and naming is superficial, GRRM hints I'd call them, but if Drogo is in there Drogon should act like it on occasion. Not totally, the person's sentience gets lost inside the beast, like Bran can't even remember to mark a tree for Jojen when he's a direwolf. But there should be some hints.
Obviously there's Drogon's affinity with Dany, him allowing her to ride him. He's also the alpha of the three.
Drogon exults at the news of Robert's death, if you recall Robert sending the assassin is what prompted his speech about taking the IT.
He's either enjoying this scene or it pisses him off. I think the latter because later,
He bites the offending hand.
Left to his own will Drogon makes his home in the Dothraki sea and roams and hunts it free and far, like a Khal.
The next step in explaining the theory would be to move onto Euron, but only if people are interested to read it as it's a lot more writing. In summary Euron has the gist of things, the horn to do it and the mad motivation. His conversation with Victarion is double speak, when he says he wants to fly, he means second life a dragon. When he says he may never know if he can unless he jumps from a great tower, that's because his horn blower died and he's realised he will have to sacrifice himself, commit suicide, to try to fly (dragon second life). And why he wants Dany, specifically a heir of her blood, because he knows he needs it to sacrifice. What's more, he's going to succeed, and with Drogon.
From there things go to Jon/Dany. But without a detailed explanation it should be obvious how some things play into the theory. Like why there's that saying floating around that it takes two sacrifices of kings blood, the child and the father to wake the dragon. Why there's three mounts Dany must ride, one for each of Drogon's second lifers. Why there's three heads of the dragon. Why Drogo will be as he was when she bears a living child. Why there's a prince that is promised which will wake the dragon.
And the big central theme at play. What's a bastard child's life worth against the survival of the realm? What kind of monster would give a child to the living flames? Jon's abhorrence of Craster's survival of the Others by sacrificing his children. Ned's refusal at every turn to take the easy road and allow a child be harmed, the father Jon will never forget. All that against the cost of Dany's dragons, the sacrifice of Rhaego that Dany doesn't deny she knew of and Hazzea, for whom she named herself and her dragons monsters. Fire and ice, ice preserves, fire consumes.
Pretty interesting theory but I think the easier solution is that the Valyrians used magic to hybridize themselves with dragons hence their affinity for them. That would also explain the weird coloring and good looks. We do know that they were conducting experiments to create chimeras with all sorts of other animals.
But your point about Euron is cool because it effectively makes Euron into Cthulhu if he succeeds. HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu is 1/3 man, 1/3 dragon and 1/3 kraken.