Death of a Major POV

This is something that I don't want to happen, I will make that very clear, but the more and more I think about it, the more I think that it is a very big possibility. I try to ignore it I think, because I don't want it to be true, but we as readers might have to accept that Brienne might die in TWoW.

Background

Brienne has likely yelled the word "sword" (swearing herself to Lady Stoneheart again) in order to save Ser Hyle and Pod from the Brotherhood. We last see Jaime (my favorite character) leaving his men to follow Brienne to help save Sansa from "The Hound".

"Where is she?"

"A day's ride. I can take you to her, ser … but you will need to come alone. Elsewise, the Hound will kill her." -ADWD, Jaime I

They are in quite a perilous situation. Not only does Lady Stoneheart want Jaime dead more than anyone in the world, a couple of other members of the Brotherhood without Banners aren't the biggest fans of Jaime either.

My Original Thoughts

Due to my desire for both Brienne/Jaime to live (while also wanting to approach the situation as "logically" as possible, I often would post different versions of the same basic query:

"Help Me Find A Way that Brienne and Jaime both survive that also meets the following conditions":

• Brienne/Jaime return to the Brotherhood (not only has Brienne seemingly sworn herself to Lady Stoneheart and to help assist with Jaime Lannister, but if she does not then Hyle/Pod die)
• Brienne/Jaime don't fight their way out (Jaime has one hand, although he is getting better and Brienne just barely survived almost being eaten alive and a fever dream)
• Lady Stoneheart doesn't all of a sudden decide to be merciful (death changes you obviously and the dead seem focused on the last things before they died)
• The Brotherhood doesn't turn on Lady Stoneheart (We haven't seen the members (they've likely gone they're separate ways who seem to disagree with her, ex: Ned Dayne and like I mentioned the BwB isn't the biggest fan of Jaime, especially if Lem = Richard Lonmouth)

The best answers I (and/or others) have come up with are:

• Brienne sings for Lady Stoneheart (Cat wanted her to sing, but she refused. But again I don't think she will all of a sudden be merciful)
• They use Jaime to help with Red Wedding 2.0 (possible, but I can't see Jaime willingly taking part in the slaughter of his relatives, plus the BwB already has infiltrated Riverrun)
• Magical Involvement (trial of Seven, resurrection, Bran/Bloodraven, fire magic)
• Deus ex Machina (by the other BwB members who left, or Lyle Crakehall)
• Information (Brienne trading information on Hound for their lives, as the BwB/LSH has been actively searching for Arya who they know is alive and was last seen with the hound)

All of these while possible, still have flaws in the theory. I'd argue that its more likely we will see Lyle Crakehall killed by the Brotherhood than the other way around. And I'm not totally ignorant, its definitely possible that Jaime dies instead of Brienne (but I think his character arc still involves a couple major events).

Potential Reasons For Brienne Dying

• The Wind of Winter is going to be a very dark book, in which a lot of things we as readers don't want to happen will happen and characters we like are going to die
• GRRM only kills off a POV when he has another around to pick up the story and we should be expecting him to kill off POVs in TWoW
• As I mentioned above, they are in a perilous situation. Brienne dying (so Jaime can live) is sad, but poetic

A Couple Reasons For Potential Survival

Do I think Brienne and Jaime could have some unfinished business together? Yes. But I think its much easier to argue against that than some of the reasons I list in the "aganst" section. That said we do need to look at Brienne's appearance in Jaime's weirwood dream which could potentially seem (although I've heard this argued about a trial with the BwB) to show the Battle for the Dawn:

The fires that ran along the blade were guttering out, and Jaime remembered what Cersei had said. No. Terror closed a hand about his throat. Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne's burned, as the ghosts came rushing in.

"No," he said, "no, no, no. Nooooooooo!"

Newest Thought

GRRM waited until the very end of A Storm of Swords, to go back and write the Red Wedding, since it was so hard for him to do (how many of us "threw our books against the wall in disgust" or at least claim to have done so?).

Well, for the longest time we had no confirmation of either a Jaime or Brienne POV in TWOW until 2 months ago when GRRM posted on his notablog:

WINDS, you say? Yes, still working. Finally finished a clutch of Cersei chapters that were giving me fits. Now I am wrestling with Jaime and Brienne. The work proceeds, though not as fast as many of you would like.

If interested: Thoughts on GRRM's Recent NotABlog Comments

This is complete and under speculation, but what if GRRM waited until he was about done to go back and write one of the harder scenes in TWoW (I'm sure burning Shireen would be hard, but we don't have the POV connection like we have with Brienne). Writing about how Brienne sacrifices herself or dies fighting for Jaime would be so rough. But hey if we get Winds soon because of this, then I am here for it. I'm sure I'll post something similar in 2 years when Winds still isn't out yet like I did earlier this week.

TLDR: I am still not willing to say I think Brienne dies in TWoW, but based on the information available sadly Im considering it more.