For now, maybe. But she's getting a lot of lessons in blending in with the background. I think the way she killed that moneylender with the poisoned coins was quite sophisticated, actually.

The War for Dawn can be won or lost; the Game of Thrones goes on as long as there are people alive to play it. If humanity loses, okay, game over (but Martin said the ending would be bittersweet, so I think at least some people are going to survive); if they win, it absolutely matters who gets to pick up the pieces.

I've made my peace with the extreme liklihood of R+L=J being true, but my fond hopes are that it just won't matter much in the end. Sure, Jon will be one of the heads of the dragons, Azor Asshai, the prince that was promised, the last hero, whatever, and he'll play an integral part in the War for Dawn. But he would…

Dany's master of whispers. If Sansa is poised to become a replacement Littlefinger; Arya is training to become a replacement Varys.

I don't think it's that far-fetched, actually. Great Council = House of Lords; Hand of the King = Prime Minister; Small Council = cabinett. The structures are in place. They just need someone to draft a proper constitution.

I think Aegon's main narrative function will be being a chew-toy for Dany (so that she stays away from Jon and Stannis for a little longer and hopefully gets over her fire and blood phase in the meantime) and Sansa-bait (I foresee a great Littlefinger/Varys-rematch via their respective puppets Sansa and Aegon; Sansa's…

I wish. Sadly, the liklier future involves a lot of backing the losing side in the second Dance of Dragons, and Greyscale.

I could definitely see some sort of theocracy in the future of this narrative, but my bet would be on the Red Priests of Rhollor taking over Volantis. At least they'd be on board with Dany's anti-abolutionist agenda (and that's frankly, my only hope for it to go anywhere.)

The Mance Rhaegar theory is bad and only bad people would believe it. Gods beware anyone might ever accomplish anything in that bloody story without having bloody blue blood.

Well, the version of Old-Gods worship currently practiced in the North has obviously been very watered down over the centuries and the region has maybe not coincidentially also lost a lot of power/influence in that time span.

Point taken. I did think that the one Mel POV chapter we got painted her as surprisingly sympathetic, but it's rather obvious that she's not the kind of character he sees much of himself in.

But he's going to be one of the more important movers and shakers in the next installment. We generally don't get many leader POVs apart from Jon and Dany due to George Martin's general "No-Royal-POVs"-policy.

Patience. I think the High Sparrow is a true believer, for what it's worth. (I just worry about a potential Savonarola trajectory).

Tyrion and Oberyn are portrayed as characters who can appreciate the finer things in life - much is made of Tyrion's love for scholarship and show!Oberyn even writes poetry in his spare time (can't remember whether he did that in the books). But these are generally not plot-driving exploits (although I think Tyrion's…

On the show.

BOOK SPOILERS:

There's definitely literature - where else do you think Sansa and Bran and Rob and Jon got all those heady notions of romance and chivalry from? Clearly, Westeros has its version of the Arthurian legends and the chansons de geste.

Well, skinchanging is evidently not reserved for the pious (see Varamyr). It seems more like a genetic trait of people with First Men ancestors (comparable to the Targaryan aptitude for dragon-taming/visions), rather than anything particularly connected to religious practice. The Weirwoods don't host gods, but…

But that wonderful speech quoted some comments above, about the broken men and the horrors war, which is widely considered one of the best passages in the series, was made by a Septon. It's hard not to read authorial approval behind that either. (Of course it might just mean that this particular Septon is a mensch). I…

I'm to trying to win any points for originality here - sometimes the truth is trite. And of course it would seem trival to those who are not affected/lack the imagination to put themselves in someone else shoes.