We here at iDigitalTimes write a lot about Winds of Winter spoilers, but it’s not because we’re all secretly George R. R. Martin. Quite the opposite: None of us are, nor do we have secret insight into his brains. If you want mind-reading, sorry to disappoint. No, I’m a well-informed speculator and armchair theorist. Today’s subject: How are King Tommen Baratheon and Princess Myrcella Baratheon going to die?
Now, don’t act so shocked: We both know it’s coming. Maggy the Frog told Cersei so, and even if she’s probably going to end up making the prophecy come true partly through her own actions, come true it probably will. “Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds,” you know. Alright, let’s get to the “close textual analysis,” or speculation. Spoilers for all henceforth.
How Are King Tommen and Princess Myrcella Going To Die?
Princess Myrcella
Princess Myrcella is already dead on the show, and I’m sure we’re all very curious whether her book counterpart will quickly follow. In the books, she was merely wounded down in Dorne, visibly but not in a way that will end up killing her. Does that mean something else is about to go down, perhaps a precursor to the Martells declaring for Aegon? Or is the show just trying to save a couple bucks?
Say what you want about Cersei’s paranoia, but she was totally right about Myrcella being in Dorne. She is the Martell’s hostage and will remain that way indefinitely, especially when they do eventually declare for one of the Targaryens—and they certainly will. Having the second in line to the throne in their clutches is a pretty good get, especially when by their own inheritance laws, she should be sitting the Iron Throne already. She’s a valuable bargaining chip, but that means her life is constantly in grave danger—especially if the Martells don’t want to negotiate with the Lannisters, but betray them. And considering the bad blood there… it seems pretty likely that Myrcella won’t make it out of the Martell’s cluthes alive.
King Tommen
King Tommen is more immediately secure than Myrcella at the end of Dance with Dragons, but that’s not saying much. He’s King, and the realm is nominally more at peace than it was during his brother’s short reign: The War of the Five Kings is over, and even though Stannis and the Greyjoys are still popping around, most of the realm is under his rule. But he’s a boy, and both his wife and his mother are in deep trouble with the Faith. He’s increasingly going to be controlled by the Tyrells, which is fine—they’re reasonably competent, but they’re not his family and don’t have necessarily have his best interests at heart. Moreover, King’s Landing is in chaos, deep in the grip of a resurgent Faith, and royalist sympathies are very low. Can the boys of Flea Bottom take down the Red Keep? No, of course not, but they’ll make the city impossible to defend when someone else attacks.
I don’t think that will be Aegon—he doesn’t have the forces to face the Tyrell army, the largest in Westeros, in the field, let alone to endure an extended siege of the capital. No, he’ll keep doing what he’s doing: Taking major fortresses around the South and rallying Great Houses to him, probably first and foremost the Martells.
It makes much more sense for King’s Landing to fall, not to Aegon, but to Daenerys. She does have the forces, and she has three dragons, and the symbolism of returning to Westeros where her ancestor first began the Conquest is too much for her to resist. She’ll attack it and she’ll probably win, at great cost in blood and fire. And then she’ll kill Tommen.
Why wouldn’t she? Tommen’s grandfather is more responsible for the fall of the Targaryens than anyone else besides Robert, who is already dead. Tommen’s “uncle” Jaime actually dealt the blow and killed Aerys II, Daenerys’s father. Tywin ordered the death of Daenerys’s niece and nephew. She hates the Usurper and his brood more than anyone, and she won’t spare Tommen because he’s a boy: She’s not like that anymore. Tommen’s life is forfeit once she comes.
What do you think?
