This book was a step up from the last one. A Feast
of Crows had good character arcs for Jaime, Cersei and Brienne, but the
plot was rough. I still can’t really
tell you what the core of that novel was.
A
Dance with Dragons, on the other hand, has two very
distinct, powerful threads. The first is
Deanerys trying to abolish slavery and bring peace to the city she’s
conquered. The second is at the Wall,
where in order to battle the greater evil, Jon Snow attempts to unify his army
and the wildlings, who have been at war with each other for the first three
books. The book is about the internal
and external oppositions they face, the beauty of their plans, their bold
moves, and ultimately, how they fail to accomplish their ends.
Daenerys fails because even though it was noble of
her to bring peace and abolish slavery, it was not where she belonged. She has another responsibility, to reclaim a
kingdom that has been torn apart and must be unified, and even though
abolishing slavery is a virtue, she was in the wrong place. And she pays for that misstep.
Jon fails for another reason. He is absolutely right in every decision he
makes. He knows his duty and he follows
through even knowing danger is on every side.
His only mistake is not paying attention to Mellisandre, the red witch, about
his impending doom but then, it’s hard to blame him because that lady is not as
smart as she thinks she is. Regardless, where Daenerys’s punishment is an
exile of sorts, Jon Snow dies in a way similar to Julius Caesar, betrayed and
murdered by his own men. That alone could
cost them the war. And they might even
deserve to lose it after that.
As far as deaths in this series go, especially in
the Stark bloodline, Jon’s death was by far the noblest. Through these books, part of their downfall
came with Ned telling a lie, Robb broke an oath, and Catelyn made way too many
stupid decisions trying to protect her children and none of them actually doing
it. Jon is the only one killed for doing
the right thing every time. As that
goes, I can have a lot of respect for that death.
Of course, it’s deeply annoying because I had hoped
for Jon and Arya reuniting at some point in the series. The two siblings that were closest to the
other, I felt they at least deserved a hug somewhere down the line. And unless Melisandre brings Jon back from
the dead (not an unlikely situation but I’m not holding my breath) that will
never happen.
Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be so doubtful. I mean, fans have told me not to get attached
to characters in the series because Martin kills characters, but as I’ve
mentioned before, Martin is a tease.
Yes, a lot or characters die in the series, but most of them are
minor. As far as viewpoint characters
go, Ned is the only one who died and stayed dead. I mean, Martin brought back Theon Greyjoy (a character I despised in
book two), and made him a player of sorts in this novel. (For the record, it’s hard to hate Theon in
this book. He committed some awful
crimes against humanity in the first novel, but considering the tortures and
degradations he’s suffered up to this, I just pity him now. I’m starting to wonder if there might be a
redemption of sorts for him later in the series.)
And I can’t forget Tyrion. Tyrion is one of my favorite characters in
all literature. His story is one of
constantly being thrown under the bus.
But no matter how many hits he takes, he always gets back up and runs
even faster. This novel just exemplifies
it. He starts off drunk and feeling
guilty for his past crimes, and then he gets sent on a journey. Lands with a group that hates him and almost
dies, but he ends up becoming a counselor for the only member of the group that
matters. Then he gets kidnapped and
turns out that he’s headed right where he wanted to go anyway. He almost dies again. Gets captured and put in slaver and nearly
dies again. And he gets out of that and
ends up with his third army in these books.
You cannot keep this man down. I
can’t wait to see what happens next here.
Things I want to see happen:
Tyrion rides a dragon. That would be awesome. And if not, it might be Jaime, since it’s
clear to me that Jaime and Cersei are really Targaryens and related to
Daenerys. This makes the story hilarious
since now it looks like Cersei's children may have a more legitimate claim to
the throne than suspected (although, maybe not since it would mean that Jaime
and Cersei are bastard-born themselves.)
The incest makes so much more sense now with that little puzzle piece
put into the picture.
We discover that the greenseers have been talking
through Mormont’s raven, and most recently, it’s Bran that’s spoken through the
bird. What else would that raven talk
about?
Jaime kills Cersei.
There’s no way that that doesn’t happen.
Of course, Jaime will probably die soon after. Much as I’ve come to like that character (and
he starts off being the most hated) I don’t see how he survives through the end
of the series. Not unless he goes into
hiding or takes the black.
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