direwolves - prophecies of the starks
If all the direwolves signify something about the starks' endgame -
Grey Wind (we’re all just dust in the wind; dust to dust ashes to ashes; dust or ashes scattered in the wind) Signifying that for all of Robb’s achievements and beginning strides into an independent north he could still die and will. He becomes this titan that moves across the board during the rebellion that Tywin cannot combat on his own. IIRC grrm said that Robb was winning much more quickly than he had originally anticipated and would have won if not for the Red Wedding (or that he had to be killed or he would have won, something along those lines). Grey Wind has perhaps the most tragic significance, imo. Robb becomes a heroic figure representing justice and freedom for the North - but heroes are still mortal and they can still die. And he can, and so he does. He was doomed all along.
Summer (all of Westeros fears the return of winter, and prospers in summertime. “Oh you sweet summer child, what do you know of fear?”) Bran is the first of the Stark children to be victim to power and thrones and the first who knows that fear. If he does sit on the throne of the 5/6 kingdoms (look I hold out hope Dorne gets their independence too okay) he will represent the possibility of a new age (discarding the idea of Targaryen only rule but hopefully not with an elective monarchy or a terrible small council). He may not literally bring with him summer but he will at the very least represent the hope for prosperity and compromise that hadn’t existed otherwise; a wiser, more compassionate age. (Bran the Benevolent sounds a hell of a lot better than Bran the Broken)
Nymeria (the original warrior Queen Nymeria led ships of her people fleeing Valyrian slavers and the fallout over the attack against the dragonlords in search of a new homeland, who married Mors Martell and established the domination of House Martell.) Maybe Arya’s endgame will be found in the Riverlands. She has a lot of threads that lead her back there (calling herself Cat, connections to water, reflecting Catelyn’s need for vengeance, Nymeria being the one to pull Cat’s body from the river, Nymeria still being in the Riverlands building a wolf pack), and Queen Nymeria only set sail to current day Dorne because her people and she needed somewhere to settle. Queen Nymeria burns their ships after they do and says that “their wanderings have come to an end”. That...doesn’t exactly track with Arya just fucking off for places unknown for no reason. Arya already had to wander (and on a ship to Braavos with the name Nymeria) - has she not already wandered enough due to danger? Maybe her endgame as with Queen Nymeria is meant to signify an end to her wandering and the danger she’d fled from for the sake of herself (and her people; perhaps Arya is meant to oust the Lannisters and Freys from the Riverlands - and be Lady Paramount of the Trident; maybe she doesn’t need to marry or have babies since that isn’t her dream - hopefully Roslin and the child survive). (And if Sansa is meant to be Ned’s heir in spirit of the North, then maybe Arya is meant to be Cat’s heir of the Riverlands because I’m not so sure Edmure will be spared in whatever is to come).
Lady (that Lannister woman shall never have this skin, Lady’s bones remain in Winterfell) Sansa will at the very least be the Lady of Winterfell, if not Queen in the end - she is the Key to the North; her endgame lies in her home, because part of her (Lady) waits for her so they can be made whole once more (I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell). The only way she’d likely end up as the Lady of Winterfell and not the Queen is if Rickon will take the throne after he’s of age and ready (thereby still at the very least making her queen regent). But Lady’s end remains in Winterfell, Sansa’s will be found there no matter what.
Shaggydog (I have a short meta about the possibility of Rickon being the asoiaf equivalent of the Max from Where The Wild Things Are, here ) but a shaggy dog is a funny story of which the punchline is essentially absurd or pointless. Because of that it is possible that Rickon’s whole point is to be brought back only to die abruptly with the succession crisis being built in Stannis and Davos’s POV. Maybe his whole point is just a gotcha at the audience and Stannis and Davos. IIRC believe D&D wanted to kill off Rickon much earlier and GRRM said he had a big plan for him - so it could be that Rickon’s ‘punchline’ is something different or he was trolling, idk. But, going off on an optimistic limb - which in this fandom, lol sure ok me sounds great - maybe Rickon’s punchline is that because he’s a lordling being raised by a wildling he will have to be a KITN at some point but we won’t see it; rendering the succession anticlimactic or a joke on Stannis who won’t live to see it and on us who won’t read it at the end of asoiaf because it’ll be a ways off. Which does sound absurd. Little wild Rickon ending up as a king of who we won’t see ruling or really having any immediate significance to asoiaf despite the tension? Maybe. Who’s to say. Rickon is the punchline, but of what, idk (I’m being optimistic in that his joke is that he’s named king but we never read about it and it fizzles out to have no significance in the immediate storyline, if only so Rickon survives.)
Ghost (the manifestation of a dead person, a soul or to give up the ghost (die)) Maybe Jon is a ghost at the end. Perhaps, as with many ghosts who haunt people/places/things Jon will be the last of the immediate Targaryen line, and he will still refuse the name and title; he will be their ghost. There, but not tangible, a vague impression of a once living lineage. After all that Rhaegar did to ensure The Prince That Was Promised, the third head of the dragon, the song of ice and fire - Jon throws it away. He chooses to be their end, their ghost; the last vestiges of them that might still exist but does little else for the Targaryens themselves. Perhaps his ‘exile’ or punishment is seen as such from the south, but the north welcomes him back under the tongue-in-cheek idea that he is being exiled, but remaining with the Starks, with Winterfell, with family.
Jonsa content below because by now you should hear my clown shoes squeaking a mile away
And if Sansa is meant to be Jenny of Oldstones in realtime (there’s tons of meta out there about this so I’m not going to go into it but I suggest this one if you want; probably one of my favorite meta pieces about this: this one by butterflies-dragons), taking in all of the parallels and references we have that may suggest so (that we may be seeing history repeat itself with a less tragic, perhaps a kinder, scenario of Duncan and Jenny).
High in the halls of the kings who are gone
Jenny would dance with her ghosts
The ones she had lost and the ones she had found
And the ones who had loved her the most
Is Jon her Ghost in a castle of all the ones they’d lost?
They spun her around on the damp old stones
Spun away all her sorrow and pain
And she never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave
Never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave
Does he stay, her Ghost, with his Lady in this place that they never want to leave again?
