GoT - A Dance with Dragons - SPOILER SPOILER SPOILERS!

[penk]

This post is ALL ABOUT TALKING ABOUT THE SERiES - You really don't want to read this if you're reading the series now, and have NOT FINISHED the A Dance with Dragons.

I absolutely want to yammer and chat about this - so here's the LJ-CUT.

Seriously, dont' click through, spoilers are RIGHT on the other side of the cut!



Okay, so i just finished reading A Dance with Dragons. I have to agree with rintraroars - it's DEPRESSING! But no more than the other books - the descent into anarchy continues - but we start to find out who is behind it all! Wow!

But, I have some questions - maybe folks can help me out...

1) How did Arya actually kill the insurer? There's a hint that she swapped coins with the sea captain, the captain met with the insurer, and he dropped dead of a heart attack - which rings a bell in my head about something earlier, but I can't see how that worked.

2) JON? REALLY?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (This is the first time in... i don't know how many years - that I actually started crying reading a book. Wow)

3) Robert Strong - who is he? Undead? Gregor Clegane? (though that would be tricky since The Mountain's head is in Dorne, no?)

4) Sandor Clegane - The Hound - Brienne tells Jaime that she has found Sansa, but she needs Jaime to come alone to see her, or else the Hound will kill her. But previously, we heard the Hound was dead, and Sansa's whereabouts unknown. Also, wasn't brienne being hung last time we heard from her? This sort of stuff makes me hold out hope for Jon.

5) So, is Stannis really dead? The whole Winterfell situation is a mess (even more now - we dn't know who holds what where).

6) I get uncomfortable every time Theon talks about how hard it is to eat with all hsi broken teeth. Sheesh that's hard to read.

7) This one I lost track of somewhere. Where is Rickon?

I think the last line of the book should have been "Winter is here."

So, discuss!

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

1. I'm not 100% clear on this either; I mean to go back and re-read that section.

2. No way. The whole opening prelude chapter was all about hammering home the point that skinchangers have (more or less literally) nine lives, and can even put their consciousness into an animal when they can no longer fully resurrect themselves. Jon's tenure as Night's Commander is probably over, but he'll be kicking around in one form or another for a while.

3. Strong is FrankenGregor. Remember in who's "care" Gregor spent the last several agonizing weeks of his life? And now he's Tommen's guard and Cersei's champion. This'll end well, I'm sure.

4. There's some speculation that Sandor may be still alive (possibly in the care of the monks), but I doubt it has anything to do with Brienne and Jaime. Brienne is just leading him to meet Zombie Cat.

5. Damned if I know. I'd like to think that Martin wouldn't end the book with two "deaths" that are both fake-outs, and if one of Jon and Stannis are dead it seems likely that it'd be Stannis. But nothing about Ramsey's letter adds up: the World's Most Badass Chartered Accountant (AKA the dude from the Iron Bank) showed up in time to warn Stannis about the Karstarks, and the Manderlys were presumably just waiting for the right moment to start killing Boltons and Freys openly on top of covertly. Presumably he was at least telling the truth about capturing Mance Rayder, but everything else is clearly up for grabs.

6. Ramsey was such a pleasant fellow, eh?

7. Away somewhere with Asha the wildling and his direwolf. Davos seems to be heading off after them, but at this point I'm assuming that Rickon is the biggest red herring in the entire series. :)

[penk.livejournal.com]

I don't buy that Jon is not dead due to the skinchangers. He isn't one per se - the skinchangers (in the free folk) could willingly jump from person to animal (and in Bran's case, to another person). Jon just was able to sometimes feel Ghost and had a kinship with him, and sometimes dreamed - but wasn't a skinchanger.

We've already established that the R'Hllor can cheat death - witness Beric Dondarrion - who has been slain half a dozen times, and the red god brings him back.

I hadn't considered Brienne and Zombie Cat. Brienne is acting more 'alive' than Catelynn was - so I don't think she's undead... but the whole mystery of Catelynn and what's happened to her and all that is really interesting.

[etherial.livejournal.com]

The prelude chapter with SixSkins made it quite clear it takes training. Ned's family are all untrained Skinchangers.