Winds of Winter Predictions: The Murder Bank

The twin powers of Braavos - the Faceless Men and the Iron Bank - are emerging as hidden hands that shape the great game. What influence will they exert over the players in The Winds of Winter?

Winter's Winds are blowing, and @Quinn's Ideas and @Lucifer means Lightbringer are bringing you the 23 most-anticipated plotlines of George R. R. Martin's The Winds of Winter during the month of March. Make sure to subscribe to both of our channels if you don't want to miss any of the videos in this series!

[shivavereen]

This series that Quinn and yourself are doing is stellar. It’s actually hyping me up once again for “Winds.”

[charlese]

Don't forget that in "Fire and Blood" the Sealord of Braavos purchased the three dragon eggs stolen from Dragonstone. So they were perfectly willing, if not hoping, to have dragons in their city. They even forgave the Iron Thrones debt to the Iron Bank and risked war to keep them. There is no way they can be considered anti-dragon, at least as far as the creatures themselves.

[princeprocrastinate]

What I hope to see for Stannis is that he wins the Battle of Ice, brings the North together with Jon's support, and then the White Walkers come and he turns his attention to them. In the first true battle against the Others Stannis will be defeated, his Kingship at an end and all the talk of him being Azor Ahai comes to a swift end too when he dies at the hands of the Others. From a narrative perspective it's a fittingly tragic end for him.

[GretchenLovesBooks]

Dany is also, interestingly enough, one of the few 'players'/major powers in Westeros that isn't yet in debt. You mention the IT, Stannis, and the Watch as in debt, yet Dany so far has escaped being in debt to the Iron Bank, which means they're free to back her without any kind of conflict of interest (heh heh, interest??? Get it??? It's a money joke). I didn't think about it until now, but Dany seems to be trying to avoid going into debt at all (she wants to find a way to outright pay for ships vs getting a loan), I wonder if that's important.

[diegoprodriguez]

This is what I like about the books. There’s more at play then just the Lannisters, Starks, and Targaryens. The Baratheons might be around a while longer. The Greyjoysand Martells feel like they are gonna play big roles when storylines start to come together. We have the Iron Bank, the Freefolk, and Volantis, threats that were non existent by season 5 of the show, look to play big roles going forward. Hell, we even have another Targaryen, and the Blackfish is still kicking it, as well as Stoneheart, Mance, and Jeyne Westerling. There are so many stories to continue into, whereas by Season 5, there were only really three big stories at the end, being Jons Death, Dany’s Return to the Dothraki, and Cersei’s Vengeance, and, to me at least, none of them seemed to be changed by these moments, apart from world changes and not character ones.

[houseflan]

The Nights Watch and Westeros easily pay off any loan to the Iron Bank. It’s called the lumber trade. Bravos has been and will always be in need of lumber as Bravos has no trees.

[meglosthecaramacking]

This series of videos is probably the one I've enjoyed most from both your and Quinn's work. It's really lifted my spirits for the last few days knowing that I have a new video to watch.

[douglasstewart]

26:11 Remember, Arya disarmed the Kindly Man of his stick and outed him as her attacker by warging into one of her cats, and the Kindly Man had no idea how she knew.

[christophermxyzptlk]

This series is killing me. First and foremost, I absolutely love it and wish you would/could go longer than 23 days.
That said, every time I've seen the notification pop up on my phone the last few days, all I see is "Winds of Winter" and immediately think that a publication announcement has been made. 😢

[joshhoffman]

Faceless men, iron bank and sealord
Versus
The citadel, the faith and house Hightower.
Triadbowl!

[unrulycrow]

Tycho is probably one of my favourite characters in ADWD tbh he's so out of place, yet in control most of the time (starting with an iconic entrance), it has me like "please teach me your braavosi banker ways, good sir" lol

[jsull]

I think Tyrion will indeed get his hands on the dragon books behind the black Walls in Volantis, right after Danny crushes the old blood, and with them, the slave trade, once and for all

[keeganverburg]

Jaqen's mission could be Barth's dragon book, or maybe a glass candle, but he became Pate at the beginning of AFFC and is still just chilling there when Sam meets him at the end. You'd think someone with Jaqen's skills would be able to steal something in less time than that. I think Jaqen was Pate for so long because his mission hadn't yet arrived in Oldtown. He was waiting for Sam, or someone/something that arrived with Sam. The Horn of Winter perhaps?

[jarnodatema]

I’m most interested in what’s Euron up to. The dude’s basically the anti christ

[alexb]

Absolutely loving this series and such frequent content, keep up the great work LmL & Quinn. The Iron Bank are certainly capable of huge moves, they are quite comfortable playing king or queen maker and given their resources, those indebted to them and access to hiring the FM can certainly impose huge influence all over Planetos and will likely do so in the remaining books in the series. Who the IB end up properly backing will benefit massively, at least for as long as the IB feels necessary and how amenable and useful they are to the Iron bank going forward. And with Jaqen after the book about killing dragons likely at the IB's behest, the IB may feel somewhat threatened by the emergence of Dany / her dragons and likely want mitigating options in that respect to have in their back pocket. 

I do believe anyway that the Iron Bank will not want the emergence of any more regimes which include dragons, being well acquainted of the heinous possibilities that can result with evidence from before and after the Doom and through to the Targ Westerosi dynasty. Although at least the IB should consider Dany's actions and overall intent to be rid of such practices like slavery. Also Cersei is indebted to them substantially and not paying up to the standards the IB deem acceptable which can and likely will put her in a precarious situation. The IB have been huge power-players in the current narrative era and for some time in the past history as well ; I expect them to certainly be an integral component in the books' endgame narrative.

[princeprocrastinate]

"I love I got your Austin Powers reference LML.

[ashleyofnaath]

I think one of the most significant ways Tyrion could help Daenerys is to find a way to pay a portion of the crown's debt in her name. He was master of coin so he has intimate knowledge of the debt. What better way to undermine Cersei, or any other claimant? Not to mention as you say, the IB is connected to the Sea Lord, so bringing the IB to Dany's side could also get the Sea Lord to lend his ships to her cause. I'll never understand why Tyrion and Varys didn't do that in the show because Cersei's alliance with the Iron Bank is what allowed her to remain viable in the war.

Also, once I realized D&D weren't going to utilize the valonqar prophecy in Cersei's death, I thought if they wanted to be bold while respecting their own cannon, they could've had season 8 Tycho actually be Jaqen and had him assassinate Cersei. Hell it could've been revealed that Olenna and Varys had arranged the hit w/the Tyrell gold that they let Cersei steal, so effectively Cersei would've paid the fee of her own assassination. It would give a certain irony to the phrase "a Lannister always pays their debts". In fact Jaqen could've said that to her as she's choking on the strangler, and then changed his face to reveal himself for the audience. When Tycho smirked and said "tragedies are sometimes necessary to restore order and rational leadership", then Cersei invited him to stay in the city as her guest, I actually thought they might go there. But no...

[FeHearts]

One theory I’ve read about is of the Nights Watch debt to the Iron Bank. Bravos is a trade power ruled by sea lords, but has no or few trees as we know firewood is expensive there. The nightswatch have so much wood north of the wall that they can’t cut it all down to keep the treeline away from the wall.

The Iron Bank will use their power over the nightswatch to gain the wood to maintain their fleet.

[bronhaller]

I love Tycho - I hope there is some way of working him into the story further! … I do wonder how many of the Faceless Men are from Keyholder families, and it leads in with my thoughts about the FM yesterday, with the question of do they have to be paid for every assassination, or are there circumstances where they do it for free (e.g. justice, gods' will, Iron Bank links)

[jedaye]

I like the idea that the Iron Bank will aid Dany, them seeking out Dragon lore as a backup just incase their alliance goes sour and they need to whack her (unleashing dragons without anyone to control them is bad for business).