They already did something like that with Jaqen where we saw "him" on the cell cart season 1. Maybe Belwas will just be a figure in a cloak standing nearby, and the Reeds will just turn up.

The dragons are going to have to start getting bigger quickly. If they stick with the books, Drogon will need to burn down the House of the Undying this season, right? I can't really see that happening at his current, tiny size.

Well, she carries Drogon in on her shoulder, so he was still small. He burns it down by breathing fire on the floating heart and trying to eat it. Then the fire spreads quickly as everything in there, including the undying themselves, is old, brittle, and ready to go up in flames.

Yeah. We might not have really seen what even a tiny dragon can do at this point, as well. They may be saving that for that particular scene. He's all dainty and such with his flame when eh's eating the meat she offers. Maybe he can go beast mode with the flame when he wants, even as a small dragon.

Two questions...

1 - Was the masked lady (who spoke to Jorah) in the books? If so, was her identity ever revealed?

2 - When Dany was getting Drogon to char the meat, she kept saying a word that I didn't recognize. Did they change the name "Drogon" to something else?

Yeah, at first I was disappointed that there were no Reeds this season. But once I realized the sheer number of new characters that NEEDED to be introduced this season (Stannis, Melisandre, Davos, Brienne, Craster, Qhorin, Gendry, Roose, Balon, Asha, etc), I realized why they had to leave them out. Hopefully they will be introduced in Season 3.

Can't really have the series without the Reeds - they'll get them in there.

The masked lady is in the books, they call her Quaithe. She appears a couple of times and gives short prophecies to Dany. Her true identity has not been revealed in the books, but supposedly she is a priestess from Asshai who lives in Qarth and was one of the ones who rode out to greet Dany in the books. Here are her main prophecies:

Book 2:

"To go north, you must journey south, to reach the west you must go east. To go forward you must go back and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

Book 5:

"The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal."


As for Dany's word to Drogon, that is her command to make him breathe fire, it is a Dothraki word. He is still named Drogon, she was trying to train him to cook his own meat.

Why not?

{checks to ensure still in spoiler thread}

Because Jojen is critical to Bran's understanding of his gifts and Meera is kinda the leader of the crew that keeps them alive past Winterfell's fall. Really, without Jojen, I don't see how Bran ever really learns how to control his ability to warg.

You could theoretically remove them, but they'd have to be replaced by some plot device whereby Bran learns more about his green dreams and develops a formidable traveling group. I guess you could just have Osha take on multiple roles, but really Bran's character development would suffer quite a bit without the Reeds, IMO. You're starting to stretch Osha's character pretty thin (suddenly she's not just a former wildling, but also a wildling with fairly mystical knowledge; where the hell did that come from?). Moreover, what do you do with Rickon? He leaves the group and goes beyond the wall with Osha; so who is Bran traveling with? That's when he learns the most about his skills and the history north of the wall. Pretty sure Hodor doesn't offer much help for him there...

And to tell you the truth, I don't think GRRM is done with them (though I think Bran stays in the cave, personally). They'd have to really screw with the books to make that stuff work without the Reeds - so why bother? Just put 'em in there.

I think that they'll be in the show in some form, but they may not be "The Reeds". They could just as easily be introduced as wildlings of mountain folk that they run into after escaping Winterfell. I agree that they need some mechanism for Bran to develop his powers, and I can't imagine creating a new mechanism from scratch when there are already characters from the book that you could draw from.

Fair enough. To me they could have other characters get Bran to the wall and off to see the people under the ground.You are right, we don't know what Martin has in store for the greenseer and his sister.

So again - why not just have it be the Reeds?

If you have to throw a handful of other characters in anyway, just use the ones that Martin gave you (seeing as how you have absolutely no idea where they'll end up anyway).

I guess the fact that Martin has a hand in the development of the series could be something of a giveaway to the books. If we don't see the Reeds show up in the television series, it probably means that Martin doesn't have much in store for them in the book and that Bran's journeys are probably pretty close to over.

Now it's just a matter of the Children of the Forest showing him how to do his thing as a tree root or something. I suppose the Reeds have served their purpose in the story and they can probably just get bumped off now.

The Reeds will not be in the show. They already gave Jojen's prophetic dream to Bran, and prior to the season it was announced that Osha would be traveling with Bran. She's his advisor of all things Warg. What will happen to Rickon if Osha is with Bran? Your guess is as good as mine.

Stannis has grown on me.