I may be in the minority, but I hate where her storyline went.

I'm with you. I disliked it as well, though it got better as ADWD progressed.

They are taking the Starks and giving them all kinds of potentially important roles in the final two books.

Catelyn - Now a zombified badass, who knows where that will go

Arya - kickass assassin and hopefully reunites with Nymeria

Sansa - looks to become queen of the vale and possibly the entire north

Bran - could become the most central character in the entire book

Jon - who knows, but it will be big

Rickon - In Skagos right now so we can bet he will be a wild one when they find him

You also have the direwolves Summer, Shaggydog and Ghost still around.

Or GRRM is just going to kill them all off in the prelude chapter to the next book and say, "Actually, the Boltons win!"

I've just become less and less convinced of GRRM's ability to bring this thing to a satisfactory conclusion. He just keeps spinning off new bullshit complications and plots that just stall things even more.

It's also why I think the HBO series will fizzle out before it reaches a conclusion. Audiences and critics are going to get impatient with it after this season. They're already impatient with this season. The Red Wedding, Joffrey's death, Tywin's death... those will tide people over for another season... but getting through the long slog of the next two books while maintaining a satisfied audience will be really difficult.

A girl is nobody. I kind of like it. She's going to kick ass.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through Dance wiht Dragons and I'm starting to agree.

Jordan couldn't bring himself to finish Wheel of Time, seemingly, endlessly creating more loose ends and getting further and further away from the core/crux of the story. He had to die and then Sanderson finished it off.

GRRM seems like he may have the same problem.

My thoughts...

Would be awesome. I would love to see Jon's plot go on. But with the track record of people just dying, I would not be surprised if he is just dead.

There is a ton of evidence pointing to Jon's story continuing in some form.

I think just being dead is probably the least likely of all the possible outcomes, though it wouldn't surprise me. If I remember right, he calls out to Ghost in his last moments, so it's plausible that he could warg into him until his body is resurrected.

I think GRRM will be able to bring this to a good conclusion, provided he doesn't die first. It's a very complicated plot, but there's an interconnected-ness to all the different storylines that makes me feel he will be able to wrap everything up neatly.

I agree about the show. They're going to have to start cutting major portions of the books to keep people's interest.

"When the red star bleeds and darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."

Now, many read this and think "Dany" which is entirely possible.

But in the Jon Snow "betrayal" scene, we see Jon's wound smoking, the man who gave it to him crying (Salt) and a night whose rainment is made of stars dying/bleeding/etc.

I just don't see any way this story wraps up without Jon Snow and Dany being AA and the Prince who was Promised. Conceivably, both could fill either role.

I don't think Jon is perma-dead. There's been too much setup.

Yes.

The guy who gets killed by Wun Wun the giant in that scene was the result of a bet GRRM had with a buddy. Martin is a Giants fan and his buddy is a Cowboys fan so the bet was if the Cowboys beat the Giants that year, his buddy would be in the book, thus Ser Patrek. In typical GRRM fashion, Ser Patrek, with the star (Cowboys) symbol, gets murdered by a Giant.