Who will be dead by the end of A Song of Ice and Fire?

In no particular order, these are the characters I don't see surviving the series.

So here's a picture

of Patrick Troughton (the Second Doctor from Doctor Who) reading a script for a radio play and looking like an absolute badass.

Thought I'd share.

Redemption follow-up

Addendum to the comparison between Jaime and Theon's redemption arcs. 

There are three points in Jaime's story (on the boat, "Sapphires," and the bear pit) where Jaime has absolutely nothing to gain by helping Brienne, but he does anyway.

In contrast, Theon's ability to escape Winterfell is entirely dependent on his role in rescuing Jeyne.

So no, they really don't compare.

Favorite character at the end of each ASOIAF book

"Who's your favorite character?" is a question that I'd answer differently as I journeyed across George R. R. Martin's epic Song of Ice and Fire. Or at least, the books that are finished.

A Game of Thrones: Arya Stark. She's ten pounds of awesome in a five-pound bag.

A Clash of Kings: Tyrion Lannister, the only character who accomplished anything in that book.

A Storm of Swords: Daenerys Targaryen. Even though the high point of her story was fairly early on in that book (Astapor), she was still pretty awesome throughout.

A Feast For Crows: Jaime Lannister. Epic character arc in the last book, awesome speech to Edmure at the end of this one.

A Dance With Dragons: Still Jaime Lannister. Because Tyrion accomplished squat, Dany went off the rails, and Arya's plot is on an excruciatingly slow burn.

Limelight

Welcome to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rush.

Or should I say, welcome to Good Taste, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cliffhangers Cliffhangers Everywhere and Not a Plot to Think, Or: Why A Dance With Dragons is the Worst Book in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire Book Five: A Dance With Dragons was the greatest disappointment since my son.

No, wait. That's been taken.   

Star Wars vs A Song of Ice and Fire

How are they similar. Let me count the ways.

• Both the brainchild of guys named George
• Both took a long time coming out with the fourth book/film (to be released)
• Some fairly important characters do not appear in the fourth book/film (chronologically)
• A lot of really important backstory happened around the time the youngest generation was born, about 15-20 years before the first book/film (to be released)
• Key to this backstory was a love affair that tore the realm apart.
• A disproportionate number of characters have their hands maimed or amputated... including an arrogant swordsman whose fatal flaw is pride
• One character's hand loss is a major turning point in his character development
• A mentor figure nicknamed Ben dies/vanishes before he can do much mentoring
• In the first book/film (chronologically), there's a stoic decoy protagonist who gets killed off for real
• A major character's parentage is a major plot point
• A princess starts out on the run from the dominant power in the Verse.  
• A protagonist's home is burned down
• Twincest!!!!

I thought of three more but they're spoileriffic for A Storm of Swords, so I've hidden them behind the jump.

AGOT Catelyn II, Arya I, Bran II: Don't Spy On Naked People

In which we talk about things happening for the sake of the plot, and in which I spoil absolutely nothing beyond the scope of these chapters (aside from some vague allusions to things like the War of the Five Kings, which pretty much everyone should be aware of by now).

AGOT Daenerys I, Eddard I, Jon I: Where We're Going, We Don't Need Maps

These three chapters collectively make up what I call "the rebellion chapters" because, well, they're the ones where we actually learn (almost) all the relevant details about Robert's Rebellion....

(Scope: I'll be talking about the narrative structure of Feast and Dance. I'll also be giving away the ending of Dany's arc in Game and that big revelation Doran Martell makes at the end of Feast. And I'll be mentioning some backstory details about Rhaegar Targaryen that don't get revealed until... um... well, it's a Kingsguard who brings these details up, so Storm at the earliest.)

AGOT: Prologue, Bran I, Catelyn I: Winter is Coming... Eventually

Right! So! Having finally finished all five extant A Song of Ice and Fire books, I have decided that there's nothing for it but to start the series again. Because it is just that good.

Well, mostly.

So before I get into this, let's get some important things out of the way.

• At this point I am only committing to blogging my way through the first book. That said, I am committing to blogging my way through the first book. I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the writing, the foreshadowing, and my initial reaction at the time to various events (and to get this out of the way, That Big Thing That Happens in 65 Arya V was spoiled for me beforehand, so I'm not going to pretend to have been surprised).
• Actually let's just get this out of the way right now: I knew going into this about That Big Thing That Happens in 65 Arya V (thanks, TvTropes). I knew that [the guy who starts writing in the White Book at the end of ASOS] would be rehabilitated later on, but I didn't know the specifics (I honestly don't know what spoiled this one for me). And I knew that there was something about a wedding and a certain color, but again none of the specifics (thanks, io9).
• The spoiler scope for each post will be different. I will discuss things that happen both in this book and in future books. I'll make sure to post the scope before the jump.
• In direct contrast to the other reviews I've done, these posts will not be recaps or synopses.  I may recap the plot from time to time, but that's not my main objective here. 

With that in mind, the spoiler scope for this post is as follows:
I will not be getting into specifics of what happens beyond the first three chapters, but I will mention just how far along the Others plot has gotten by the end of ADWD, and I will also mention a fairly minor other detail in ADWD.  So there aren't really any spoilers here...

Why A Dance With Dragons seems horribly unfulfilled

Let's take a look at how all the POV characters in all the books end up, and see if something's a bit... amiss... with the most recent entry.

Spoilers all, obviously.

Casting gag...

Fair warning: this post is going to assume you've read through at least A Storm of Swords.