HBO's Game of Thrones - - Part 11

[Roose Bolton]

 

[Marvolo]

While I am not the biggest fan of ADWD, I feel it is far more the natural progression from ASOS. The pair of books didn't progress the story nearly enough on the whole, but at least with ADWD you finally get to pick up a lot of the major plot threads from ASOS. AFFC stalls the overall arc, and starts a few detours.

I won't deny it stalls the overall arc, but I still love all the stuff that happens sans brienne. I just found everything fascinating. And I can't stress enough how awesome it was not having to cut away from King's landing and get stuck in Dany's stalled mess in Mereen.

Because I waited to read AFFC until ADWD came out and read them back to back i treat them as one very large book. A lot of the issues people had with AFFC I didn't have because I waited until I could read it with ADWD. Had I read it when it first came out and had to wait years for its conclusion I would have a lot of animosity towards it.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Are we talking Stannis here, or Lord, the board member?

Lord...is...Stannis.

 

[Reek]

Holy ****ing ****! **** me! **** you! **** him! **** everyone!

 

[Roose Bolton]

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I won't deny it stalls the overall arc, but I still love all the stuff that happens sans brienne. I just found everything fascinating. And I can't stress enough how awesome it was not having to cut away from King's landing and get stuck in Dany's stalled mess in Mereen.

As for ADWD, because I waited to read AFFC until ADWD came out and read them back to back i treat them as one very large book. A lot of the issues people had with AFFC I didn't have because I waited until I could read it with ADWD. Had I read it when it first came out and had to wait years for its conclusion I would have a lot of animosity towards it.

Oh I enjoy quite a bit of it, and yeah I like not having to cut to Dany doing her thing.

Spoiler

Jaimie is a real boss in AFFC, so I definitely enjoy reading his story. I also like the little bit of material we get on Arya, Sansa and Asha.

But it doesn't feel like a natural progression from the previous book imo. Just considering the last third of ASOS. Even if you waited and read AFFC and ADWD back to back, it still feels like one big pause imo.

 

[Solidus]

I've always enjoyed Dany's story. AFFC was the hardest to get through, ADWD I went through in a blink compared to AFFC. I found Dany's story much more interesting then the Mario type adventure that Brienne got stuck in. Especially with the last 400 or so pages with Dany's story in ADWD had me hooked. I find the stuff in Mereen with great parallel's to the U.S. among other things. I have always enjoyed the naiveity with her, but the fire/temper of her Targaryen blood, that always interested the hell out of me. She truly is two minds of things, but tries to let the better half win.

 

[Victarion]

Meereen looks great. So now, I wonder if that shadow over King's Landing is happening currently, or (Dance with Dragons spoilers)

Spoiler

if it's something Bran's seeing courtesy of the Three-Eyed Crow's weirwood training

.

If you take the meat from AFFC (introing the Greyjoys, truncating Brienne's quest to meeting the Brotherhood, all the Cersei and some of the Dornish chapters) + ADWD, you'd get what amounts to A Game of Thrones, or book one of a new trilogy, with AGOT-ASOS being the first trilogy. The Greyjoys and Qyburn were the best parts of AFFC, as was the conclusion of Brienne's quest.

There's a couple of sites out there that have edited AFFC/ADWD into one big volume. I also had the privilege of reading AFFC long after ADWD had been released.

 

[Roose Bolton]

The best part of the Meereen storyline for me were Barristan's chapters. It was great seeing a classic Arthurian type Knight in that setting.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Except a lot actually happens in AGoT. It is far from all setup. It has significant progression and stands on its own, just like ACoK and ASOS.

 

[Solidus]

The best part of the Meereen storyline for me were Barristan's chapters. It was great seeing a classic Arthurian type Knight in that setting.

Ya I liked them. I really liked most of the Mereen stuff, there were a few chapters I would have cut, especially at the beginning. Which I bet they will with the show. But especially the second half, and everything that it is building to. Ya I have always seen AFFC/ADWD resetting the chess board, and building up once again to another massive clash.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

In each book, Dany's story seems to follow that progress. It starts slow, almost at a crawl, but after a few chapters it picks up steam.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I'll hand it to GRRM, Quentyn's...well THAT chapter with Quentyn was pretty messed up. Or rather, the aftermath was...

 

[Victarion]

Quentyn lives!

 

[Roose Bolton]

 

[Solidus]

Ya I've always found the character interesting enough, alongisde with Jorah and Selmy, that even the slower chapters never bugged me. Even the same with some stuff in AFFC.

But I have a theory. I think GRRM wanted it to be seven books, and he thought he could not fill enough stuff in there to make the seven books. So I kinda think (especially AFFC) was just a lot of filler, (very interesting character/history stuff at times) but somewhat kind of filler so that he could fill the story with seven books. But I think now he realizes he never needed to do that as much, due to the fact that apparently TWOW and ADOS is both around 1500 pages in length. He probably always should have combined AFFC, and ADWD and trimmed them (especially AFFC). And he still could have done 7 books easily.

But in the end I still love all the books, and I think TWOW and ADOS will be as "active" as the first three books. But ya I love all the books, even AFFC which I'd give around an 8.0/10. He makes such an interesting world/characters even if things slow down they are still quite interesting/entertaining.

 

[Marvolo]

The best part of the Meereen storyline for me were Barristan's chapters. It was great seeing a classic Arthurian type Knight in that setting.

Agreed! I like his character a lot in that book.

 

[Victarion]

TWOW should have at least two big battles at the beginning.

 

[Roose Bolton]

What was his quote about Robert and the dead Targaryen kids? "If Robert had smiled over their bodies then no army in the world would have saved him from me." or something to that affect..

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Ya I've always found the character interesting enough, alongisde with Jorah and Selmy, that even the slower chapters never bugged me. Even the same with some stuff in AFFC.

But I have a theory. I think GRRM wanted it to be seven books, and he thought he could not fill enough stuff in there to make the seven books. So I kinda think (especially AFFC) was just a lot of filler, (very interesting character/history stuff at times) but somewhat kind of filler so that he could fill the story with seven books. But I think now he realizes he never needed to do that as much, due to the fact that apparently TWOW and ADOS is both around 1500 pages in length. He probably always should have combined AFFC, and ADWD and trimmed them (especially AFFC). And he still could have done 7 books easily.

But in the end I still love all the books, and I think TWOW and ADOS will be as "active" as the first three books. But ya I love all the books, even AFFC which I'd give around an 8.0/10. He makes such an interesting world/characters even if things slow down they are still quite interesting/entertaining.

I don't think it would have been such a deal if ADWD progressed the story a lot more. That was the hype, and in the end outside of a couple of storylines, it really didn't.

 

[Marvolo]

TWOW should have at least two big battles at the beginning.

Yeah, Martin's said he had to bump those battles from the end of ADWD to the beginning of TWOW.

 

[Solidus]

I don't think it would have been such a deal if ADWD progressed the story a lot more. That was the hype, and in the end outside of a couple of storylines, it really didn't.

See I guess that was a plus me getting into the books later on and not knowing any of the hype. Because just reading them, I felt that ADWD had quite a lot of events and build up. But I could see those waiting 6 years and the hype could have skewed their own views of the books themselves.

 

[Roose Bolton]

From what's been released in preview chapters, Battle of Meereen looks to be Blackwater level..

 

[Solidus]

See I've stayed away from the preview chapters...just because it would make it that harder to wait. I just want to read them all in once fell swoop. Wait...I may have read the Barristan chapter. But that may have been it.

 

[Roose Bolton]

My will is weak lol I think it's because they really built up that massive convergence of POVs that I had to see what was next. It should be a pretty cool way to open WoW at least.