A Feast For Crows...(SPOILERS BECAUSE DUH!)
The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros have erupted into chaos following the unexpected assassination of Tywin Lannister. With his murderer and the accessory to murder having fled to Essos, all of the Lords and Ladies now cope with how the death of Westeros's most powerful Lord will impact the way all of the world acts. The Tyrells begin to outmuscle Cersei in terms of influencing her young son Tommen as King, with Margaery marrying the boy and wrapping him around her finger, the Small Council begins to belittle Cersei for not being her father and even her own family doesn't truly trust her judgments on events. Add that to the Iron Bank of Braavos suddenly deciding that the Crown needed to pay its debts (which surely has nothing to do with the one competent Lannister being murdered) and the Queen Regent finds herself being squeezed completely out of power in King's Landing, forcing her to think of ulterior ways to overpower her rivals from House Tyrell and beyond. When her cousin Lancel returns to the capital and reveals to Cersei that he has become immersed in the radical branches of the Faith, Cersei realizes this could be the way she overwhelms the Tyrells and seeks out the infamous leader of this radical branch, known as The High Sparrow.
While continuing to play politics with Littlefinger in the Vale of Arryn, Sansa is soon escorted by her "guardian" away from the Vale and out onto the King's Road once more. The two do meet up with Brienne of Tarth, but Sansa mistrusts her thanks to Littlefinger's manipulation and she rejects Brienne's offer of assistance. But Sansa may regret turning down that offer when she learns that Littlefinger is taking her back to Winterfell in The North to marry the recently legitimized son of her brother's killer. Petrified of the idea of being married to Ramsay Bolton, Sansa is only convinced when Littlefinger tricks her into thinking she can use her wiles to manipulate him into being her servant.
At the Wall, Jon struggles to toe the line between being his own man, a wildling supporter, a brother of The Night's Watch and an ally of King Stannis Baratheon. After sparing the suffering of Mance Rayder by shooting an arrow into his heart instead of letting him burn alive, he is implored upon by Stannis to abandon the Watch and join his ranks, with which Stannis would legitimize him as a trueborn Stark and name him the Lord of Winterfell. Jon is tempted by the idea of finally being a Stark, but turns down the offer when he unexpectedly wins the election to succeed Jeor Mormont as the new Lord Commander of The Night's Watch. He takes a serious interest in the thousands of Wildlings amassing at the ancient northern village called Hardhome and offers his former foe Tormund Giantsbane his freedom and the right to live south of the wall and away from the White Walkers when they march on the wall provided he bring the other wildlings down with him. Tormund agrees, but only on the condition that Jon join him.
Arya Stark finally arrives at the Free City of Braavos in the hopes of becoming a Faceless Man assassin by studying their arts in the House of Black and White. But Arya struggles to truly let go of her sense of self (as is mandatory for one to become a Faceless Man) and finds herself incapable of letting go of her hatred of the Lannisters, the Freys or her love of her family. While taking part in missions of spying on the abysmal fiends that plague the city of Braavos, she finally encounters one of the men on her infamous kill list: Ser Meryn Trant, a Kingsguard who murdered her sword instructor Syrio Forel and was discovered to be a pedophile. Disguising herself as one of the young women Trant wanted to subdue and engage in carnal relations, Arya reveals herself to him and slits his throat, but is punished by the Faceless Men for taking the life of someone she wasn't supposed to and has her eyesight taken from her, making her blind.
Daenerys Targaryen struggles to maintain peace and order in Meereen with her reign being undermined by the locals whose traditions she finds herself incapable of respecting and the rise of a pro slavery rebellion in the streets led by a group of killers known as The Sons of the Harpy. While she toys with the idea of how best to deal with the insubordination, she loses her chief advisor in Ser Barristan Selmy, who is slain while fighting the Harpy assassins. At the advice of one of the Meerenese nobles, Daenerys reopens the barbaric fighting pits in the hopes of placating the locals and bringing peace to Meereen, but not before feeding some of the nobles to her dragons.
Tyrion Lannister and Varys the Spider arrive in Essos, where Varys reveals his intention on assisting Daenerys Targaryen reclaim her birthright as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and advises Tyrion to do the same. Though he is currently wishing he were dead after murdering his father and lover, Tyrion does go with Varys in the direction of Meereen, but is abducted by Ser Jorah Mormont, who hopes to hand the Lannister Dwarf over to Dany in exchange for being forgiven for his actions as a spy on behalf of King Robert. While on their way to Daenerys, Jorah and Tyrion are beset upon by a group of Grayscale infected people from Volantis and are unable to escape unscathed as Jorah contracts the slow murdering curse of Grayscale.
Back in King's Landing, Cersei receives a threatening message from Dorne, where her daughter Myrcella is being kept as a guest of the Martell Family (whom are ticked off at how Prince Oberyn perished in King's Landing in a Trial by Combat with Ser Gregor Clegane). Refusing to accept this kind of threat against her daughter, Cersei dispatches Jaime and Bronn to head to the Dornish capital of Sunspear to rescue Myrcella from any sort of reprisal the Martells can muster. Upon arriving, Jaime and Bronn manage to thwart a failed kidnapping plot by the daughters of Oberyn (known as the Sand Snakes), but are arrested and imprisoned. Myrcella confronts her Uncle (in reality her biological father) for not trusting her to make her own choices about her life and insists she would be staying with her love Tristane in Sunspear.
With Jaime out of the way, Cersei allots significant power to the High Sparrow to essentially serve as an armed faction loyal to her and purging King's Landing and the Courts of the blasphemous behaviors, including having Ser Loras Tyrell arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality. Soon, even Margaery is imprisoned for performing perjury on behalf of her brother, which earns Cersei the eternal hatred of the elderly Lady Olenna Tyrell, who ultimately joins up with Littlefinger to leak more information to the High Sparrow, this time about Cersei. While she gloats over Loras and Margaery, Cersei herself is arrested for incest with Lancel, the murder of Robert Baratheon and potentially sleeping with her brother to make the children she passed off as Roberts. Cersei is tormented by the Faith Militant for her sins and is refused even the slightest bit of decency until she confesses to crimes.
Sansa tries and fails to make Ramsay Bolton her subservient ally and instead is forced to become Ramsay's newest rape victim, which he proceeds to do every night the two are together after Sansa marries him, Roose Bolton, completely unsympathetic to either his sons desires or Sansa's terror, continually demands Ramsay impregnate Sansa so that they could solidify complete control of the North, knowing all too well that if Cersei found out he had been keeping Sansa in Winterfell, the Lannisters would unleash their wrath on them. Sansa finally reunites with Theon, much to her initial dismay, but she does learn from him that Bran and Rickon are both alive and she realizes she needs to escape from the Boltons and Winterfell and make it to Castle Black to be under Jon's protection or to reach Stannis's marching army.
Stannis departs from Winterfell with his entire army to take Winterfell back from the Boltons, but his army is worn down by horrific winter weather, supply and food shortages and surprise attacks from Ramsay's men. With his men on the verge of mutiny, Stannis ultimately gives into Melisandre's desire to burn his sickly daughter Shireen Baratheon at the stake and use her King's Blood to melt the snows and make the march to Winterfell exceedingly simple. But more than half of Stannis's army ultimately abandons him and the last trueborn Baratheon is forced to march against the Bolton army essentially alone.
Upon arriving at Hardhome, Jon and Tormund struggle to convince the Wildlings to join up with them and flee Southward. After convincing some of them to come south, Jon begins to lead in the evacuation of Hardhome, but the Army of the Dead arrives at Hardhome and proceeds to massacre many of the Wildlings. While fighting to protect the Wildlings, Jon destroys one of the White Walkers with his Sword, which is made of Valyrian Steel, which is proven to be one of the few tools one could use to destroy one. But when Jon and his men escape Hardhome, they encounter the leader of the White Walkers known as The Night King. He uses his powers to revive the entire slaughtered group of wildlings and adds them to his numbers, utterly horrifying Jon.
Tyrion and Jorah finally make it to Meereen and are used by Slavers to take part in the fighting in Dany's fighting pits. Though she initially dismisses both Tyrion and Jorah, the Lannister dwarf manages to convince her of his use as an advisor by convincing her to seek out alliances in Westeros and to banish Jorah for his faithlessness. Jorah manages to get back into her good graces during the Fighting Pits when he spoils a Sons of the Harpy attempt to murder Daenerys. On the back of her dragon Drogon, Daenerys flees Meereen and leaves it in the care of Tyrion, Daario, Missandei and Jorah. Jorah and Daario set out to find Dany while Tyrion and the newly arrived Varys try to keep the peace in Meereen on their Queen's behalf. Daenerys meanwhile is found and captured in the Dothraki Seas by the same hordes she had once commanded as Khal Drogo's wife.
Jaime manages to convince Doran Martell of his good faith reasoning for wanting to bring Myrcella back to King's Landing and both find out that Oberyn's former paramour, Ellaria Sand, is the one behind the assassination attempts on Myrcella. Doran dispatches his son and Myrcella to King's Landing, with Tristane to take up a position on Tommen's Small Council. Jaime finally reveals Myrcella's true parentage to her and she happily embraces her father, but dies of poisoning at the hands of Ellaria and the Sand Snakes.
Brienne and Podrick, while trying to follow Sansa to fulfill her oath to protect Catelyn Stark's daughter, tells the young squire about her backstory and why she fought to protect Renly Baratheon despite knowing he was a homosexual who could never love her. As the duo finally reaches Winterfell, they come across the utter slaughter of Stannis's armies and how Stannis Baratheon is drastically weakened by the battle. Brienne locates her love's killer and accuses Stannis of murdering his own brother and her rightful King. Stannis, shamed by the death of his daughter and the departure of Melisandre and Davos for Castle Black, accepts his fate and Brienne finishes him off.
Sansa takes Stannis's attack as the sign to try and escape from Winterfell. She is nearly found and skewered by one of Ramsay's lovers, but Theon manages to overpower her and kill her, taking Sansa with him as the two flee for Castle Black as best as they can to the safety of Jon's leadership.
After several weeks of being imprisoned, Cersei finally confesses to the crime of sleeping with Lancel, but refuses to accept the charges of betraying her husband's trust and for murdering Robert. The High Sparrow accepts her confession and even allows her to return to the Red Keep to see her son, but must first take the Walk of Atonement throughout King's Landing completely naked and her head shaven. While on her walk, Cersei is accosted by the people of King's Landing who call her a "whore", "murderer" and "brother lover", but keeps her strength as best as she can until breaking down at the gates of the Red Keep. She then meets the newest member of the Kingsguard, who is revealed to be the zombified version of Gregor Clegane who vows to destroy all of Cersei's enemies for her.
Jon brings the Wildlings to Castle Black and promises to give them lands in the North to live on so long as they are willing to fight with him against the White Walkers. But Jon returns to Castle Black to find his Brothers of the Night's Watch are deeply xenophobic of the Wildlings and that all of his most faithful friends have either turned against him or have passed, as did Maester Aemon Targaryen. Jon dispatches Samwell Tarly and Gilly to the South so Sam can learn to be the next Maester of Castle Black and the old friends part ways. Soon, Jon meets with both Davos and Melisandre and learns of Stannis's fate. Lastly, Jon is lured into a trap by his greatest enemies of The Night's Watch and is brutally murdered by his men, who claim he was going to destroy the Night's Watch by bringing the Wildlings south of the wall and leave him to bleed out on the snow.
