Will Daenerys Targaryen Live Until Book 7?

This Sunday marks the end of the truly heroic third season of HBO's Game of Thrones. One of the pleasures of following both the TV series and the books is trying to figure out what author George R.R. Martin is doing with these characters. The most engaging game in the whole Song of Ice and Fire saga is played between its cruel author and his traumatized fans. Martin sets us up with these fascinating and conflicted people. We fall in love with their misguided nobility and desperate struggles (or evil natures and selfish schemes) and then BAM! Out of the blue Martin kills them off and cuts them out of our lives. With each episode and chapter we fans struggle with whom to invest our emotions so that we're not left with that aching numbness in the pit of our collective stomachs when a favorite character dies.