Game Of Thrones - Book/TV discussions - WITH SPOILERS

No, I knew the books were concurrent when they were, I've known about that since before Feast was published. But, as you will find out 1200 pages from now, Dance With Dragons is 300 pages of setup, 4 pages of payoff, all told in 1500 page format.

 

Still not seeing this, because the actual "payoff" isn't until book 6 or 7, when Dany gets back to Westeros and everyone realizes "OH SHIT WIGHTS!" and/or "OH SHIT MAYBE STANNIS IS THE GOOD GUY" I guess I'm just looking at the bigger picture and noticing all the little pieces getting put into place. I'll see how I feel at the end of the book. I feel like every little move so far is a puzzle piece being shifted into place.

 

I'm with Parker on this. I agree Dance is a little slower but with so many characters it takes time to move them into place/kill them off to wrap up the story. That said I'm about to re-read the whole series to keep it fresh as the show moves on.

 

It's hard to really rebut this without us both having read the whole thing, but take for example Game of Thrones or Storm of Swords. Particularly the latter. Tons of pieces moving, tons of setting up, but the ending *also* has tons of payoff. DWD, in contrast, does have a ton of pieces moving, but they don't move far, some move backwards or just in a circle, and in the end there's very little actual oomph to it. There's *some* but not nearly as much as the book really warrants or you would expect. it's why I tend to recommend people wait until the next book comes out before reading Dance. That way they can read Dance and then immediately jump into the next book where, God willing, Dance's meandering will lead somewhere more interesting.

I don't want to use specific examples, even in this thread that allows spoilers, because i'd feel kind of dickish doing it, but after you're done I can point to the stuff I'm talking about with greater ease.

 

Definitely having one of those "Shut Up and Take My Money" moments with this.

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I'm almost done with the second book right now. The war is ongoing, but right now is the big battle between the Lanisters and Stannis at Kings Landing and it is so hard to put the book down. I will most definitely bring these with me on deployment and finish the series thus far. I have also avoided reading this thread for fear of spoilers. Such a great series.

 

I don't think it was that involved. Bronn found her in the camp, which isn't hard to believe. The thing with Shae in Tywin's bed was huge because you find out that the one character who might have a stricter moral code than Ned (albeit a moral code that is entirely selfish) is actually a total hypocrite. It cements the fact that everything you believe about any character can inevitably be proven false, and that, again, anything can happen.

GRRM is the master of the mindfuck. I wouldn't be surprised if Arya puts on a fancy dress and becomes a whore assassin in the next book.

 

Spoiler

Here's how I think it will go down. Of course, I will probably be proven wrong in a fantastic fashion.

Spoiler

A Song of Ice and Fire--Ice is (Jon) Snow. Fire is Dany (dragons). Dany comes in and whups ass on Stannis or whomever rules the 7 kingdoms. Wights attack and her dragons fly over and rain hellfire down on all of their creepy asses like A-10 Warthogs. Jon and Dany fall in love and boink like bunnies and live happily ever after.

As for Tyrion, he somehow joins Dany in attempt to get revenge on Cersei. His knowledge of Kings Landing is something she will need.

edit: Maybe Tyrion will be riding one of the dragons like the dude riding the bomb in Dr Strangelove. That would kick ass.

 

I agree with you for the most part but have a few more predictions:

Spoiler

Three dragons, three heads, forget the exact wording but I think Tyrion may be the third. Martin has spread enough innuendo around to hint that Aerys may have been his father instead of Tywin. Also, I think Jaime kills Cersei. Because of the prophecy she got when she was a young girl she's always assumed it would be Tyrion, her younger brother, but I think it's more likely it will be Jaime- he can still be her younger brother if she came out first.

 

Wait, what? I've seen/read/heard zero of this innuendo.

 

Spoiler

Don't have my books with me at the moment, but off the top of my head- Tywin's wife was a friend or handmaiden to the queen, Aerys visited Casterly Rock around the time Tyrion was conceived, Aerys was always jealous/suspicious of Tywin and his power, there are one or two more hints I think. Check Westeros.org or a wiki of ice and fire (forget url) for a more concise list. The main thing is that they keep repeating that the dragon has three heads and there doesn't seem to be a better choice for the third. Aegon is too perfect and out of nowhere to be legit in my opinion.

 

I just finished the third book yesterday.

Spoiler

Crazy, if I may say so. My only question as I may have missed it, where is Rickon? From what I remember, he was with Bran last but I haven't heard from him in a long while. Gah, G.R.R.Martin knows how to keep us on our toes and guessing. The epilogue was crazy. I'm looking forward to the fourth book and the third season on HBO.

 

You'll find out in the 5th book, but if you must know now, he's on

Spoiler

Skagos

What he's doing is not yet clear though.

 

Spoiler

At the end of Feast for Crows while Cersei is babbling about the prophecy not coming true, someone says to her (either the priest or the new Hand) something to the effect of "All Tywin ever wanted was for his son to become a knight", implying that his true son (Tyrion) never became a knight. Perhaps Jaime and Cersei are actually Aerys' children, making Jaime the 3rd head.

 

If anyone is interested there is an excerpt from Winds of Winter on his site. I don't know how long it's been up there, so I may be really late finding this, but since the last update on Ice and Fire was when A Dance with Dragons was completed nearly two years ago I was pretty happy to find it.

 

Is there an estimated release date for Winds of Winter? I heard somewhere that the book is largely going to be Sansa's perspective and that her character will undergo a change, and possibly become a player instead of a pawn.

 

I've read that Martin is shooting for 2014 at the earliest. I'm hoping against hope that people start dying. I don't think there's been a major death since Tywin expired on the shitter.

 

Sansa is supposed to be Cersei 2.0. Probably not a raging incestuous cunt, but she's going to be a combination of Cat, Petyr and Cersei for realz.

 

Good. Maybe I won't have to chug a Red Bull before every one of her chapters now.