So this
book is really just a continuation of A Feast for Crows (AFFC), which had been
the same book until Martin split them up. I think it’s really a masterpiece as
Martin takes us mainly to Essos and the North, following Jon Snow and Daenerys
Targaryen above all others. It really feels like Daenerys’ biggest book since A
Game of Thrones (AGOT) and she goes through more big transformations in her character.
The book also follows Tyrion on his adventures across Essos to Meereen. I’m
going to write about four big characters who did not appear in AFFC.
Daenerys’ Story
I think
that of the major characters in the book, Daenerys has the most interesting
storyline in ADWD. I am mainly just a sucker for her as a character and she is
my favorite, but I think that the final chapter of the book is such a good
culmination of her arc. I think that while in Westeros the first three books
are one comprehensive story, for Daenerys it is different. In AGOT, she
transforms from a weak little princess, sold by her own brother to the
Dothraki, to a khaleesi, to a widow, to the mother of dragons. In ACOK, she is
tested in Qarth by temptations to go east and by the House of the Undying and
comes out triumphant. In ASOS, she finally becomes a conqueror, freeing the
slaves in Slaver’s Bay. In ADWD, she struggles with ruling over her city until
finally she flies away with Drogon into the Dothraki Sea, where she has major
revelations about who she is. I think that with this book ends one major story
in her life and begins the next.
In the
Dothraki Sea, she finds that Drogon has made his own little home there in the
place where he was born. Daenerys realizes that like Drogon, she needs to
return to the place she was born. If the parallel wasn’t clear enough, she
names the cave where he had been living for the whole book and where he took
her “Dragonstone.” After some time there, she decides to leave without Drogon
and goes walking in the Dothraki Sea. She reflects that in Daznak’s Pit only
her hair was burnt and that she was unharmed by the dragonfire. That early part
of the chapter is spent in her thoughts on the scene in the pit, the flight
from Meereen, and the people who awaited her in the city.
Then, she
is visited by Quaithe, who tells her, “Remember who you are Daenerys. The dragons
know. Do you?” Quaithe reminds he of the riddle about to go north, go south
etc. Daenerys then dreams of Viserys. He is cruel to her and blames her for his
death. He tells her that he would have taught their enemies the meaning of “fire
and blood.” She awakens with her thighs “slick with blood.” Does this mean that
she can bear children again? She thinks of Jorah, who also tells her that she
should remember who she is and remember her words. These three visitors:
Quaithe, Viserys, and Jorah all make it clear that Daenerys must embrace the destructive
power of dragons. But is that a good thing? Was Daenerys so wrong in ADWD to
try to plant seeds and create peace? As we saw in the show, her embrace of the
Targaryen words will lead to huge destruction. By “remembering who she is,”
Daenerys may achieve all she ever wanted but at a great cost. At the end of the
visit by Jorah, Drogon finds Daenerys in the grass. She is then discovered by Khal
Jhaqo’s khalasar, but the situation is very different from the show. In the
show, she was alone. This time she has her dragon with her.
Jon’s Story
Jon Snow’s
goal in this book is to forge a peace between the wildlings and the Night’s
Watch before the Others arrive. He brings wildlings south of the wall but is
eventually betrayed by his brothers. In Jon I, Melisandre tells him outright
that he should keep his wolf close by band that she sees “daggers in the dark,”
but he does not listen to her. Melisandre also prays to see Azor Ahai but says
that “R’hllor shows me only Snow.” That’s very interesting… The big question
for the living on the Wall is what will happen to the peace between the Night’s
Watch and the wildlings? Will Alliser Thorne return to try to kill them all or
will Tormund kill all the Night’s Watch first? I really don’t understand why
Jon didn’t talk about the Others more. He brings them up a few times, but he is
not a very good Lord Commander. He doesn’t make his reasoning clear to the
others and treats them kind of disrespectfully I think.
I also
wonder what will happen to the host of men that Jon was about to lead to attack
Ramsay? Will they join with Stannis? It seems clear that Ramsay is lying in the
pink letter about having defeated Stannis because he does not have Reek or
Jeyne. We, the readers, know that they are with Stannis and unless they left
right before the battle, Ramsay should already have them. But where would they go?
I think Stannis and his men are alive and well, that Ramsay captured Mance and
the spearwives and that Melisandre will sacrifice Shireen to bring back Stannis
because she will think that he’s dead. Instead of bringing back Stannis, Jon
will come back to life. That is not an original theory, I read it yesterday on
r/ASOIAF.
Tyrion’s Story
Tyrion gets a lot darker in this
story, and he even self-identifies as Joffrey’s murderer even though he wasn’t.
He revels in the title of kinslayer and while he still has the same wits as
always, he is a lot crueler than before. In Tyrion VII, he says that the only
reward for his services that he offers Daenerys is that she let him “rape and
kill” his sister. He also lets Penny’s dog and pig die so that they can escape
slavery, which is honestly really cruel. Those animals weren’t just her livelihood
but her friends and her connection to her old life. Tyrion tricked her for his
own benefit. I like Tyrion a lot less and find him a lot less sympathetic than
in the first three books.
Bran’s Story
Bran also comes back in ADWD and meets
the three-eyed raven, also known as Brynden Rivers, a bastard Targaryen uncle
to maester Aemon. The visions he has are so cool and I just gotta say that he
has some of the coolest chapters in the book. I really want to see what his
adventures are in the next one.
Things I noticed:
- The Horn of Joramun and the horn of dragon-binding are very similar, both being very huge and covered in runes. However, Joramun is black and covered in the runes of the first men. The horn of dragon-binding is red and covered in Valyrian script.
- Tyrion VI: I think there is some foreshadowing in here. Tyrion is thinking about how to attack Volantis by land and he says to himself that, “If I were khal, I would feint at Selhorys, let the Volantenes rush to defend it, then swing south and ride hard for Volantis itself.” I can’t help but think that this will be played out in TWOW.
- The Wayward Bride: A master of house Glover “protested noisily” but then Lorren, an Ironborn hits him with a mailed fist. This is funny because the mailed fist is the sigil of House Glover.
- Melisandre at one point thinks to herself that the free folk “were a lost people, a doomed people, destined to vanish from the earth, as the children of the forest had vanished.” That would seem to suggest that the wildlings will all die, though on the other hand we know that there are still some children of the forest who live.
- Tyrion VIII: Tyrion asks Moqorro about others that he’s seen in his fires and Moqorro describes “A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood.” I can’t figure out who this is. The one black eye makes me think of Euron, but I can’t figure out ten long arms, unless that refers to the Greyjoy sigil, a kraken with ten tentacles…
- Bran III: Some good lore we get in this chapter is that the children of the forest used to send messages by raven and taught the way to men. However, when the children did it, the birds talked.
- Bran III: There is some R+L=J stuff when Bran sees his father praying that “they grow up as close as brothers” and that hos “lady wife find it in her heart to forgive…”
- Bran III: Bran has some very interesting visions from the perspective of the heart tree in Winterfell. First, he sees his adult father playing. Then he sees Lyanna and Ned as children fighting with sticks (and they reference Old Nan, meaning she was old even then). Then things get faster and he saw a naked pregnant woman begging for a son to avenge her. Who is this? He sees a “brown haired girl slender as a spear” who goes on her toes to kiss a knight as tall as Hodor. Could the knight be Duncan the Tall? Then he sees a “dark eyed youth, pale and fierce” who takes three branches off the weirwood to make three arrows. I have no idea who this is. He starts going really far back in time and sees a bearded man force a captive onto his knees and a white-haired woman cutting his throat with a bronze sickle. These are some very interesting sights we get to see through the perspective of the tree in the Winterfell Godswood.
- Prince of Winterfell: There’s a really sad moment in this chapter when Theon thinks about how the ravens have Winterfell as their home. Martin writes, “Theon wondered what that would be like, to have a home.”
- Jon X: What the fuck is going on with Patchface??? I cannot figure out a single relevant thing he says but then Melisandre randomly drops, “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.” Skulls always mean death in Melisandre’s visions, so I wonder what’s gonna happen.
- Cersei II: It is mentioned that Littlefinger offered to marry Sansa, but it was impossible since he was too lowborn. That is definitely his goal from the beginning, so I wonder what his plan will be with Harry the Heir.
- Epilogue: The inner moat of the Red Keep has three feet of snow in it. That is something the show never really represented. Winter is coming hard!
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