BIG NEWS: In March issue of Dragon Magainze, there is an novella-length excerpt from A Feast for Crows called Against the Kraken, pertaining to the succession to the Seastone Seat after the death of Balon Greyjoy. Will report back on it as soon as I read it.
Though I’d like to see The Hound’s POV, I think it’ll be Littlefinger. I also think that together, The Hound and Sansa would be a force to be reckoned with.
There is no direct evidence of Jon’s parentage, though Quixotic and I are in full agreement.
I believe Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen were in love, and Ned agreed to protect the baby Jon out of love for his sister. It was the only way to save Jon from Robert’s wrath. This fact makes Ned all the more amazing-- his promise made a huge rift in his marriage with the execrable Catelyn. Remember that Lyanna “made him promise” before she died, and when Ned did, she let go; the fact that Rhaegar Targaryen gave her a rose at the tournament, even though she was bethrothed to Robert Baratheon; Rhaegar is described by Daenerys as “dying for his love”; Robert Baratheon made it his business to kill Rhaegar b/c Rhaegar allegedly raped Lyanna when she was his “hostage”; and Lyanna is described as dying in a bloodsoaked bed, e.g. in childbirth.
I’m convinced we’re right. Now the question is, will Jon be compelled to throw off the black? It would be perfectly in keeping with Targaryen tradition for Daenerys to marry him. As for Gendry being king, I don’t know. I could see him throwing in with Daenerys against the Lannister/Baratheon competing coalitions for a share of the kingdom.
I really hope Tyrion is there to the end; he’s a great character. If he can get with someone who appreciates his talents (as I think Daenerys would), he could be a mover and shaker. Think about it: Daenerys, Tyrion, and Jon, with whatever Bran is turning into-- quite the cabal.
Something that’s always bugged me: how do you say some of the names? Tyrion-- is it TEE-ree-on or TIE-ree-on? Tywin-- TEE-win or TIE-win? Cersei-- is it pronounce SIR-see or KER-see? Jaime-- _JAY-mee or HI-may? Baratheon-- bara-THEE-on or BARA-theon? Arya-- AH-ri-uh or ARE-ya?
I’m not sure how enthusiastic I am about there being only two perspectives in the next book. One of the most appealing things about the series for me is the intricate way in which the different stories intertwine, and that’s going to be a lot more difficult to maintain with just two characters’ POVs.
It’s all but said in A Game of Thrones. I’m shocked someone could have missed it. Look in the Eddard chapters regarding Lyanna, the Tower of Joy, and Jon.
Of course, then someone says something that doesn’t fit the pattern in A Storm of Swords. It’s got to either be a red herring or Martin has abandoned that aspect of Jon’s character and wanted to do away with the speculation.
The Hound has to be alive. George RR Martin has no qualms about killing off characters so for him to leave the Hound dying but not dead was purposeful.
I’ve been wondering about Hodor too. The entire story arc of Bran in book three was forgetable at best as he’s been scripted, IMHO, as the weakest character. His entire section could have been cut down to “Bran went North,” and you wouldn’t have missed anything crucial.
I’ve been thinking since book 1 that Tyrion was going to switch sides. Now that we’re through book 3 and it hasn’t happened, I’m begining to doubt this theory. I found it to be unstrategic of him to claim he had killed Jaime’s kid. Tyrion often gets angry, but he’s a strategist first and foremost and I don’t really see how this “confession” helps him in the long run.
I, for one, don’t see Arya as heading down the path of cold blooded killer. Revenge, absolutely. But murder for hire? I really don’t get that.
The thing I love about the books is the ease with which one can relate to the individual characters. There are dozens upon dozens of names and families and relationships to sort through and Martin makes it as unconfusing as possible for the complexity with which the series is written. He never forgets a character trait. He never forgets a character action. He is so detailed oriented and able to relay cruicial reminders of what character is what that I was almost never confused while reading the books. I really wish I knew his secret. Does he just remember it? Jot it down in a journal? Draw some sort of pictograph? What?
I’m sorry if I mislead – there will be the usual number of different POVs in the next book, but two new ones…Cersei’s and someone else’s that hasn’t been named yet. (Oooh, I would love a Littlefinger POV! But there will be a Sansa POV, and LF’s might be redundant. We’ll just have to see, though…)
Re: Jon’s parents: I told you I occasionally skim. I do remember Lyanna murmuring, “Promise me” a few times – I take it that meant, “promise me you’ll raise my son”?
In his public readings, Martin has been said to use the following pronunciations:
Jaime – JAY-mee
Cersei – SIR-say
Tyrion – TEER-ee-on
Tywin – TIE-win
I’m not sure about the “official” pronunciations of the others, but I personally say Bara-THEE-un and ARE-ee-ah.
Sometimes the names throw me with their closeness to our own names. Also, there are at least three variations of the name Alistair (Alliser, Alester, and Mallister) and two Jeremys (Jaremy and Geremy), and that irritates me for some reason. I also noticed a few biblical expressions (e.g., “turn swords to plowshares”), which really threw me.
And since I’m getting things off my chest, every time Ygritte said, “You know nothing, Jon Snow” I wanted to throw the book across the room. I was so glad when she died. (But then she had to go and say those last words.:mad: )
Actually, something important did happen to Bran in A Storm of Swords. His magical abilities became a lot more powerful. He is now able to control Summer with ease, and even able to use his mind control on Hodor to some extent. My speculation about what happens next is that the “three-eyed crow” that they’re looking for will turn out to be Benjen Stark. There’s seems to be some inate magical ability in the Stark bloodline, and also there’s the fact that the Rangers are sometimes called “crows”.
They were dull in terms of what action occured with Bran, but Martin did use those chapters to provide some vital backstory such as the tournament at Harrenhall that started the whole mess as well as advance the Starks connection with the wolves storyline a bit more than Jon or Arya’s chapters did. Bran’s the POV we get most of our backstory and details through.
Did anyone get to read the novella in Dragon Magazine? What did you think?
Well, Euron Greyjoy has a horn that can control dragons. This could throw a major monkeywrench in Daenerys Stormborn’s conquest of Westeros. Damn, this is going to be interesting. Wonder where he got it. Theories?
I agree. I think JRRM is setting up Bran to be one of the more powerful players. Just think, he’s crippled, yet if he can refine his skills, he could potentially become unstoppable. Who says he has to stop with Hodor? My guess is that he’s going to learn to contray Danerys’ dragons.
I’m not saying that Bran is a useless character. All the characters GRRM has set up have the potential to greatly influence the course of events. Indeed, they probably will in one way or another. I sincerely believe that he’s had at least a general concept of where this storyline is going since the begining and he isn’t going to waste our time by completely ignoring someone he’s been setting up for three books.
My point is that, in book three, Bran’s storyline was (to me) rather boring. Nothing happened! He went north. That’s it. Sure he gained some powers, but 1) it’s already been shown in books 1 and 2 that he had a special gift and 2) he never did anything significant with those powers within the larger picture of the series’s overall plot.
He went north. That sentence alone could have saved me 100 pages of reading.
Ender, I agree with most of what you said about Bran, except this:
I think his revealed ability to “possess” Hodor was pretty crucial. I also think that it dovetailed quite nicely with the… waddya call em… wargs? Shapechangers? That the wildlings had.
That being said – yes, Bran’s POV chapters were clearly the most boring out of all of them.
Resurrecting this one just because while rereading the series I was struck by how awesome it is yet again. These are massive, complex, intricately detailed books that take a month to read, and yet I eagerly await the fourth book.
quixotic78 – “wargs” seems to be the preferred term for the shape/skinchangers in the series. All the Stark children, to various extents, seem to have had the potential to become wargs, but due to unforseen circumstances (such as Lady’s death in ACok, and Robb and Grey Wind’s demises in ASoS) we’ve really only seen Bran develop his abilities.
gallows fodder – The Hound better be alive! He’s got too much unfinished business to attend to. He’s still got to kill his brother and I hope, as one poster put it on the ASoIaF messageboard he “liberates Sansa from Littlefinger and Littlefinger from his life.”
Seriously though, Sandor and Sansa are the one pairing I’m really rooting for. Opposites attract, non? I also hope to see Jaime and Brienne meet up again at some point, and Jon and Arya, too. As she’s my favorite character, I’m hoping for a happy ending of some sort for Dany, but knowing GRRM, that isn’t likely. Still…
…in one of her visions, she sees a blue rose growing from a wall. This seems to be an allusion to Jon (and his true parentage – Rhaegar/Lyanna 4evah!) so it seems he and Dany will encounter each other soon.
Nichol, if the Hound ends up being dead at the start of the next book, I think I might stop reading. (Well, I’ll skim ahead to find out what happens to Sansa, but that’s it.) Seriously, I’ll be righteously pissed off – he is one of the greatest characters in the series, and he had better get the good treatment he deserves. And he had better not be dead and then get resurrected – I hope GRRM doesn’t use that technique on anyone other than Lord Beric and Catelyn…otherwise, it will just get silly.
Ok, any other die-hard fantasy readers out there already seeing the hand of GRRM influencing other new fantasy works? I think The Briar King by Greg Keyes owes something to GRRM in the relative darkness of the writing. And I’ve read several other books recently where I thought “Ah, fantasy is changing because of what GRRM is doing…”
And am I the only person who, upon hearing the name of the Treasury Secretary John Snow, think “Winter is coming”?
[SPOILER]It seemed fairly obvious that Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen had hooked up (otherwise why all that secrecy about the promise Ned made to Lyanna), but I totally missed the possibility that Rhaegar is Jon’s father.
If that’s true, which seems very likely to me now, then Ned did a great job of hiding it. Ned mentions to King Robert that Wylla (spelling?) is Jon’s mother, and in book we hear again of Wylla from Ser Beric’s squire.[/SPOILER]
Martin has shown no hesitation when confronted with the choice of killing a great character. That’s one of many reasons why he’s such an amazing author. With that said, I believe the Hound will survive a little bit longer. He’ll eventually die, but then so will everyone else. Valar morghulis.
How many of you believe that the humans will win against the Others?
Yeah, but if the Hound is killed off-screen like that…man, that just won’t be right. I’m with you – I’m sure he’ll be dead by the end of the series – but I want to see him kick some Mountain ass and win the little bird’s hand first.
I’m not sure about the Others…I have a strong feeling that there won’t be a happy ending to the series, but I can’t see it ending on such a sour note as “mankind destroyed / Others victorious!” We’ll just have to wait (and wait and wait) to see, though.
I do remember Lyanna murmuring, “Promise me” a few times – I take it that meant, 