A Song of Ice and Fire thread (will contain spoilers to HBO's game of Thrones)

Shakie666 wrote:Poliwrath, there's a slight problem with bringing back Gregor Clegane: he's supposed to be 8 foot tall. I think maybe they should've established him as more of a monster character, but he wasn't in the books so...

By the way, here's why I think the identity of Jon's mother isn't important:

Spoiler:

By the way, its spelt Jaime not Jamie.

The last we saw of Jon was that he was stabbed, whether he is dead or not is never confirmed in the book.  There are also many hints suggesting he's not dead or will arise after death.  Things like "Kill the boy and be born a man", the prophesy of Assor Assai (sp?) rising from fire, and the visions in the Mel chapter.  

Also, that character says they shared the same milk mother, not the same mother.  There are actually 3 different stories going around Westeros on who Jon's mother is, a fisherman's daughter, Wylla (that's the milk mother), and Ashara Dayne.  The only one not explicitly a theory in the book is that he's the son of Rhaegar Targaryan and Lyanna Stark, though there are many, many subtle hints at it.  It would be incredibly stupid to have discussed this since the first few pages of book one and never find out, especially w/ all the hints and conflicting stories w/in the text.

Don't worry about spoiler tags, the title says explicitly that there are spoilers.

Just saw this while looking for ASOIAF art.



So what do people think we should call this? The elite knight of house Tully? XD

I'm re-reading this series now after finishing the first of the Farseer trilogies.  So much information I missed the first time around.  A sentence here and there, one every few chapters or so hinting at what comes next and pointing to now obvious secrets.  I think I'm enjoying it more the second time through thatn I did the first.  I didn't particularly notice Martin's writing style before, but he's obviously very intentional w/ his word choices.

Well I've finished AFFC thanks to the audio version, just got ADWD now. By the way my heart dropped hearing Davos death, though I had to quickly look on wiki to see if it was confirmed and to my relief it was a deception. Cersei reinstating the Faith Militant, man I saw that one coming with all the trouble with it afterwards. Even though I expected that it was a good read. King's Moot was sweet, Dorne finally playing a part at last and the Vale is starting to stir but overall AFFC was more about moving chess pieces than anything really happening. Things only really started to pick up about half way through without any real conclusions. George Martin really needs to revise this book with other chapters from later books to make it more complete. I get that he didn't want it to be too big of a book to read but it's his own fault for wanting to add more stuff.

steveswede wrote:Well I've finished AFFC thanks to the audio version, just got ADWD now.  By the way my heart dropped hearing Davos death, though I had to quickly look on wiki to see if it was confirmed and to my relief it was a deception.  Cersei reinstating the Faith Militant, man I saw that one coming with all the trouble with it afterwards.  Even though I expected that it was a good read.  King's Moot was sweet, Dorne finally playing a part at last and the Vale is starting to stir but overall AFFC was more about moving chess pieces than anything really happening.  Things only really started to pick up about half way through without any real conclusions.  George Martin really needs to revise this book with other chapters from later books to make it more complete.  I get that he didn't want it to be too big of a book to read but it's his own fault for wanting to add more stuff.

The main problem he had w/ both AFFC and ADWD is that each chapter is 4-10 pages longer than the chapters in the first 3 books.  In the first 3 books I was able to read a chapter on the bus to work, for the last two I rarely could.  If he could have kept the chapters at the same length he could have saved 300+ pages from each book and have more room for other chapters or include all the story arcs in both books.  He got too long winded and it hurt both of these books, though to be honest I still loved them.

When I get to AFFC and ADWD again I plan on reading them in parallel.  Start AFFC until I get a repeat character, then start ADWD until I get a repeat character, and go back and forth between the two books.

The second time around I'm loving that I'm picking up on all the back stories.  Like Rhaegar's story of him fighting on the Trident for his love (Lyanna Stark), or Old Nan being around for multiple generations of Starks and Hodor is her great-grandson, or the story of the Last Hero who went north in search of the Children of the Forest to save them from the Others, or the power of the wolves and how Bran gets better w/ the wolf there and worse when he's not.  This world is just so HUGE that the first time around you simply can't get all of it because you're concentrating so much on the here and now instead of why everything is happening and the parallels to these back stories.

For instance, Cercei is going crazy and has access to wildfire w/ a prophecy that her younger brother will kill her.  Is this setting up another Jaime/Aerys parallel between Jaime and Cercei?  Who knows, but the foreshadowing is there...

For me one of the allures of the first few books was you never knew who was going to get shafted next. I feel he's going to it too much now, it's like he writes himself into a corner and uses it to get himself out and there's so much plots and twists going on at the mo, i feel like it's going to end abruptly with a lot of halfassed finished plots\stories if he is aiming for the 7 books. Haven't gone back since ADWD release, it pissed me off too much. I've run out of stuff at the moment and might give a 2nd reread a go once i finish bakers prince of nothing.

So I've finished ADWD now and all I can say is..

GEROGE MARTIN YOU ARE A GIT FOR LEAVING SO MANY CLIFF HANGERS!

Before I finished ADWD I said to myself I wouldn't read the bonus chapter from TWOW. By the time I finished ADWD I couldn't resist because I wanted to know what was bloody going to happen to everyone at Winterfell and it still left me asking more questions. Is that chapter before some events in ADWD? Is Ramsay lying about the death of Stannis? Will Theon now be executed? I'm still itching for more story on the issues between the Boltons, Freys and Manderley's because the sections on them was just gripping with them all wanting to kill each other.

LOL at Daenerys and Quentyns parody of kissing a frog into a prince and unintentionally saving Tyrion's life in the fighting pits, I really hope the scenes with Penny and her animals make a showing in the series.

Also with Aegon going to attack Storms End, it looks like the whole of Westeros in the next two books is going to be at war including Dorne and the Vale.

ADWD is one of my favorites in the series so far.  So many questions left, but A LOT of info is provided.

Ramsay's pink letter... is it real?  Is Stannis really dead?
Jon Snow... dead?  Or will he become Azor Asai Reborn?
Will Theon be sacrificed as a blood of the king?
Is there a Great Northern Conspiracy to crown a new Stark king in the North?
What will Dany do to the Dothraki?  Is she the one to unite them all as prophesized in AGOT?
Mel's single chapter and her TERRIBLE reading of the fires.  What else has she gotten wrong?

My favorite parts, however, are Bran's.  What was in the paste?  What will he find out using his new powers and how can they be used to stop the wights?  Who is Coldhands (Nights King?)?  How did Bloodraven become the three eyed crow?  Could he possibly have been warging into Mormonts raven this entire time? Snow... King... Corn!

I'm currently on my re-read and am about 2/3 of the way through ACOK.  LOTS of stuff I missed the first time around and am enjoying it much more.  Once I get to Feast I plan on reading it in parallel with Dance as a single volume.  Once done w/ that I plan on tracking down the Dunk and Egg novellas and read those.

Not too pushed about the rest of the series but this peeked my interest.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Wit-Wisdom-Tyrion-Lannister/dp/0345539125