[Brujah]

Abyss, on 19 June 2012 - 07:30 PM, said:

I hold to some thin shred of hope that Dany's return to the Dothraki means a return to kick ass Dany and less sitting around whining Dany. Her chapters in DWD were tedious, especially compared to Selmy's.

I kind of giggled when Martel was fried.

Lol. That's kinda twisted.

I liked his character. Kid has moxy!

You gotta at least give him some respect.

Kid just woke up one day and said, "I'm fuckin' awesome. And what do awesome princes do? They leash dragons! For I am impervious to its flame breath, Sharp teeth, razor Sharp talons, and general killing prowess. And I'm quite sure I can 'mindfuck' it into obeying me. Then I'm going to ride it over to where Dany is. And when she sees how I've stolen one of her dragons how awesome I look mounted atop such a glorious beast, I shall claim her mine!"

[worry]

Yah, I liked him too AND I'm glad he died, so that POV should be represented here as well.

[Tiste Simeon]

Huh. Just finished ADWD:2ATF and all I feel is frustration. Agree with most things in this thread tbh it all makes sense although GRMM is pretty good at killing off characters/plots that seem to be going in one direction but now move in another. Some other thoughts:
1. Hopefully now Dany has had her wonder through the Dothraki sea and then killed some people with Drogon, she will stop being all "oh these are my people and I must save them" and suddenly be all like "mother fluffers, ima kill you all!"
2.Favourite part (somewhat maliciously) was Cersei's humiliation. It was about time she got pimp-slapped down. I hope she has a painful death, and it is at the hands of Gregor Clegane Robert Strong, acting under Qyburns influence.
3. Jon ain't dead, he's gonna come back and tell everyone to shut the hell up (especially Melisandre) and sort everyone out.
4. Aegon for King! I liked him more from that one book then I did Dany from all 6!
5. If GRRM dies before the books are finished I might just cry.

[Ceda Cicero]

Tiste Simeon, on 19 July 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

Huh. Just finished ADWD:2ATF and all I feel is frustration. Agree with most things in this thread tbh it all makes sense although GRMM is pretty good at killing off characters/plots that seem to be going in one direction but now move in another. Some other thoughts:
1. Hopefully now Dany has had her wonder through the Dothraki sea and then killed some people with Drogon, she will stop being all "oh these are my people and I must save them" and suddenly be all like "mother fluffers, ima kill you all!"
2.Favourite part (somewhat maliciously) was Cersei's humiliation. It was about time she got pimp-slapped down. I hope she has a painful death, and it is at the hands of Gregor Clegane Robert Strong, acting under Qyburns influence.
3. Jon ain't dead, he's gonna come back and tell everyone to shut the hell up (especially Melisandre) and sort everyone out.
4. Aegon for King! I liked him more from that one book then I did Dany from all 6!
5. If GRRM dies before the books are finished I might just cry.

[Werthead]

An in-depth Q&A with GRRM, covering a lot of stuff from ADWD. GRRM gives some good answers here. The best, plot-focused interview I've seen in a good few years, actually.

[Ceda Cicero]

Werthead, on 30 July 2012 - 11:25 PM, said:

An in-depth Q&A with GRRM, covering a lot of stuff from ADWD. GRRM gives some good answers here. The best, plot-focused interview I've seen in a good few years, actually.

I've got nothing to add ATM, though probably plenty of speculation down the line. In the meantime... damn, there's really a lot packed in that interview.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Finally got around to reading this (wasn't in a hurry given how it will be before we can expect the next book).

After reading it, I won't be buying the next one anyway - so no harm done on my part. Might pick it up from the library.

The number of characters who I felt were sympathetic to the audience (poorly worded, but characters I might like in other words) was always a small portion of the characters in the series. Of the last few characters I actually cared about, Daenerys kind of withered away in the last couple of books. Maybe she comes back as a strong character, but that much time of meh, I really don't care to read about you will be tough to overcome. Arya I was hoping to see more of and more progression with. Jon Snow was the only one who was given screen time and doing well with it, until the end. If he is dead/almost dead and comes back as warg, changeling etc. that's far less appealing to me than just having that bit at the end of the book skipped.

Rickon could be in there for sympathetic characters, but where is he the last half of the book? In some ways I feel GRRM has bitten off more than he can chew in terms of the number of characters. I also laugh at his quote about Erikson being hard on characters. With all of the Malazan books there is the feeling at the end progress has been made. With ASOIF, at the end of the book it is more along the lines of things having gone for the worse. That bit where the reader can expect things to get better at some point (hope in other words) is missing.

And nevermind who did what or what happened to who, the book is sloooow.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 19 July 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

Huh. Just finished ADWD:2ATF and all I feel is frustration. Agree with most things in this thread tbh it all makes sense although GRMM is pretty good at killing off characters/plots that seem to be going in one direction but now move in another. Some other thoughts:
1. Hopefully now Dany has had her wonder through the Dothraki sea and then killed some people with Drogon, she will stop being all "oh these are my people and I must save them" and suddenly be all like "mother fluffers, ima kill you all!"
2.Favourite part (somewhat maliciously) was Cersei's humiliation. It was about time she got pimp-slapped down. I hope she has a painful death, and it is at the hands of Gregor Clegane Robert Strong, acting under Qyburns influence.
3. Jon ain't dead, he's gonna come back and tell everyone to shut the hell up (especially Melisandre) and sort everyone out.
4. Aegon for King! I liked him more from that one book then I did Dany from all 6!
5. If GRRM dies before the books are finished I might just cry.

I haven't quite brought myself to read it a second time, but apart from number 2 (the epilogue was my favourite part I think) I pretty much concur with all of that. The problem I'm suffering from with Martin is that now I've gone and looked into it, the pre-GoT history seems way more interesting to me than the current plot line. Ah well!

[Tiste Simeon]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 06 July 2014 - 11:16 PM, said:

Tisteon Simeonus, on 19 July 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

Huh. Just finished ADWD:2ATF and all I feel is frustration. Agree with most things in this thread tbh it all makes sense although GRMM is pretty good at killing off characters/plots that seem to be going in one direction but now move in another. Some other thoughts:
1. Hopefully now Dany has had her wonder through the Dothraki sea and then killed some people with Drogon, she will stop being all "oh these are my people and I must save them" and suddenly be all like "mother fluffers, ima kill you all!"
2.Favourite part (somewhat maliciously) was Cersei's humiliation. It was about time she got pimp-slapped down. I hope she has a painful death, and it is at the hands of Gregor Clegane Robert Strong, acting under Qyburns influence.
3. Jon ain't dead, he's gonna come back and tell everyone to shut the hell up (especially Melisandre) and sort everyone out.
4. Aegon for King! I liked him more from that one book then I did Dany from all 6!
5. If GRRM dies before the books are finished I might just cry.

I haven't quite brought myself to read it a second time, but apart from number 2 (the epilogue was my favourite part I think) I pretty much concur with all of that. The problem I'm suffering from with Martin is that now I've gone and looked into it, the pre-GoT history seems way more interesting to me than the current plot line. Ah well!

Reading through that list, I can remember precisely none of it. All I can remember from the 2 ADWD books is people getting from one place to another and being all "I hope my past doesn't catch up with/now I'm going to kill lots of people because of it." Or something.

I can't pretend I don't care any more because I am watching through GoT again, this time with my wife and we are really enjoying it so I hope he does something soon but I'm not sure I can bring myself to reread the books if he does.

[Spoilsport Stonny]

This blog here has some interesting views on the happenings of ADWD.

http://meereeneseblot.wordpress.com/

It actually helped rescue me from the pit of despair i was in once i finished it and felt like i was missing some things. Its real good stuff.

[Melnibonean Wanderer]

GRRM has said before that he doesn't think the fantasy genre needs anymore Dark Lords in the vein of Sauron. We know next to nothing about the Others and what's motivating them. Jon has Stark blood. The Starks are connected to the Night's King. I think Jon's soul or what have you may well be transported into the Heart of Winter, wherein we may learn more about the Others. Jon may even become the Night's King, using Ice to bring order to the disorder of Fire. Fire may be the religious fervor burning through King's Landing with the Sparrows, the intense hatred of the Northerners for their new Warden of the North, or even Danaerys and her dragons. I have no idea where Stoneheart fits in...I was including her with the religious fervor since she's in the company of a Red Priest.