In this answer the OP says the following (emphasis mine).
Pate is the viewpoint character and while his death is not explicitly confirmed (he might have just fainted from his wounds), the viewpoint character of all other book prologues has died, so we can assume that Pate did too.
I'd never made this connection before and so looked into it, we have:
- A Game of Thrones: Will is killed by the wight of Ser Waymar Royce
- A Clash of Kings: Maester Cressen drinks poison and dies
- A Storm of Swords: Chett is killed in the battle with the Others
- A Feast for Crows: Pate is poisoned
- A Dance with Dragons: Varamyr Sixskins succumbs to his wounds
The odd one out here is Chett as all the other characters die in the prologue, while his ends with him and Sam hearing the three horn blasts.
Samwell Tarly stood shaking, his face the same color as the snow that swirled down all around them. "Three," he squeaked to Chett, "that was three, I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means—"
"—Others." Chett made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob, and suddenly his smallclothes were wet, and he could feel the piss running down his leg, see steam rising off the front of his breeches.
A Storm of Swords, Prologue
Is there any reason why Chett survives the prologue and not the others? Has George R. R. Martin commented on this before?
I am looking for an out of universe answer on the meanings of why this is the case.