I wonder why GRRM changed the title of the last book from A Time for Wolves to A Dream of Spring? If you only take out the threat of Ice, you'll have eternal summer which pretty much sounds like hell. Without winter you can't get spring. The only way to fix these unbalanced magical seasons is to remove both Ice and Fire. I'm sick of the insistance of a certain part of fandom that dragons are useful against the Others because both are equally horrible. Also the Last Hero used peace and diplomacy.
Well, I'm not GRRM. I'm also not very versed on the history of the fandom. I don't know when he switched the titles, etc. Sorry.
My personal guess is that "A Time for Wolves" sounds pretty gruesome, given how we've had plenty of images of wolves hunting and eating innocent human beings in the books. It implies triumph for the Starks, at best, but not necessarily as a force of good. (To me, anyway.) The general vibe is destruction and doom.
45. Brothers shall fight | and fell each other, And sisters' sons | shall kinship stain; Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom; Axe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered, Wind-time, wolf-time, | ere the world falls; Nor ever shall men | each other spare.
(Völuspá)
An even darker touch than "The Winds of Winter", no? I suspect GRRM may have wanted something a little more uplifting to end on.
"A Dream of Spring" has a hopeful, optimistic vibe, implying both the ability to imagine a better time, and the importance of spring as a time of renewal, growth and the return of life. Rebirth.
I don't personally get a sense of only defeating the ice threat from it, mostly because spring isn't terribly associated with the power of fire, but rather the power of the sun and nature.
The dragons are as antithetical to the idea of green spring as the Others. Dragons plant no trees. I have a suspicion, after The Winds of Winter, their role as a threat to humanity will be fairly clear.
But that's just my own personal speculation.
