A Feast For Crows
Jul. 11th, 2011 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessFirst, for GRRM fans that somehow missed this, The Geekologie map of Westeros which is…really stunning. And, since I can't remember if I recommended this before, I need to link to The Inn at the Crossroads, a blog steadily plodding through recipes to every. single. dish. mentioned in the book series.
The amazing thing is that all but one of their recipes that I've tried has turned out to be amazing, so much so that I'll even be trying out their latest recipe for fish tarts which does not sound in the slightest like my sort of thing. (The exception was the pease recipe. I can't tell if I made it wrong or what, but it was close to inedible.)
And with that, off to discuss the book:
Many people list A Feast For Crows as their least favorite of the series. In some ways, I can see why. No Tyrion, no Dany, very little Jon (although I'm not inclined to feel too bad about this last one). No Bran. Instead, a lot of pirates, the heads of dwarfs, some adorable little kittens, a conspiracy of scholars trying to keep magic from returning to the world, and oh, yes, desert seduction, plotting and revenge.
I love it. It's probably my favorite or second favorite of the series. Here's why:
1) I love the contrasts Martin draws between the women of this book. The Sand Snakes, the point of view characters, the women who surround Cersei.
Sidenote to this: I can't help noticing that the two women who outright attempt to use seduction and sex to gain power end up imprisoned by the end of the book, while the woman who just enjoys sex (Asha) but doesn't use sex to control anyone or for political purposes remains free, if uncrowned and irritated, and the woman who has chosen virginity (well, to be fair, more had this thrust upon her) and declined to have her status and life constrained by men – is literally left hanging and eaten for this choice. Hmm.
2) Stylistically, this is the most beautifully written of the four books so far, with several parts containing some of Martin's best, most poetic writing, bar none. I think the comparative absence of a plot tends to hide this from some readers. Although, "comparative" to Storm of Swords -- in this reread, I realized that Clash of Kings (where not that much happens, except Renly's death, until the end) and Feast of Crows have about the same number of Big Plot Things, which probably explains why many readers list books 4 and 2 as their least favorite of the series. I agree with the assessment of book 2, but book 4 redeems itself with the writing.
2) It reminds us of just why the Seven Kingdoms even should be saved.
Think about this for a moment. By the end of Storm of Swords, most of the characters have been revealed to be either despicable or zombies. Or, depending upon your attitude, both. Or at the very least, morally questionable. Or dead. Sure, we have Jaime – who began by pushing a little kid out of the window and crippling him for life. We have Arya, who is merrily killing her way through the Seven Kingdoms and losing her morality as she does so. We have Davos, who truthfully informs us he is a smuggler and a not a particularly good man. We have Stannis, who, yes, has finally done the right thing, but not after dragging the kingdoms into war and taking up with a religious fanatic. We have Tyrion, who has just strangled the woman he loves and killed his father. (Ok, so, he had an understandable motive, but…still.) We have Varys, spying, setting up civil wars and doing only the seven gods know what.
And these, except Varys, are among the heroes.
Beyond those characters, we have the Boltons (who all need to die); the Freys (who mostly need to die); Cersei Lannister (who is merrily destroying herself); Melisandre who keeps giving birth to really creepy shadowy things; Qyburn; Gregor Cledane (not quite dead!); Littlefinger, merrily stealing from the treasury, throwing women off cliffs, and having really disturbing fixations on the preteen to teen daughter of his first crush; Theon who AUUGH; the remaining Brave Companions; and Gyles Rosby, who coughs too much. Then we have the various just questionable characters: the Martells (although some of the minor members may be good guys); Randall Tarly (despicable parent; apparently efficient and relatively decent, by Seven Kingdoms terms, administrator); the Brotherhood of Banners, who think that following an obsessed half zombie is a good idea; and various lords of the Riverlands and Highgarden, and the other knights/courtiers of King's Landing.
That leaves us with Sansa, Brienne, Bran, Meera, Johen, the Blackfish and -- debatably – Val, Jayne Poole, Asha, Osha, Rickon, Mya Stone, Gendry, Ellaria Sand and some of the Tyrells as good guys to cheer for. And, I suppose, Fat Walda – but she's a Frey. Ditto Roslyn. (I'm not counting emo Jon or Sam or any of the others on the Night Watch because they are on the Wall, doing the defending.)
Given that Tyrion, Arya, Bran, Meera, Johen, and Varys have all left or are leaving the Seven Kingdoms by the end of the third book; Asha is going back and forth and can certainly leave; and the rest of these are all minor characters, that leaves us with exactly two reasons to say, please, please keep the White Walkers from invading the Seven Kingdoms: Brienne and Sansa.
That's not enough.
Because frankly, by the time you end Storm of Swords, "these guys deserve everything they get" is an understandable reaction. These people are awful. To cover their own sins, they've started a hellish civil war right before a horrific winter where they won't be able to grow any crops, increasing the chance of starvation, and even the smallfolk we see have added to the disaster by turning to raping and pillaging and crop burning. And that's leaving aside everyone's individual deeds.
What Feast of Crows does, especially but not only in Brienne's storyline, is remind us of just what's at stake. The people. The regular people. To remind us just why we should care. Admittedly many of these regular people and minor knights turn out to be awful as well, but at least we get their stories – and the septons Brienne meets, in stark contrast to the religious fanatics and incompetent septons we see elsewhere – are genuinely good guys. This is important.
Brienne also continues the theme of the Arya chapters, showing us just how much the country has suffered. The other characters, particularly and somewhat surprisingly, Jaime and Tyrion, had noted this before, but Brienne actually talks to these people, instead of trying to escape them or hit them, and she's considerably more insightful than Arya. This is her lesson on the reality of honor and knighthood, the dream she pursued so fiercely because she saw no other options. And it's brilliantly done.
And now, other things I thought of while reading through this book…
1. This isn't actually from this book, but it occurred to me – duh! that Stannis actually heads to Storm's End not so much to attack Renly (although that's a bonus) but to grab Edric Stone so he can awake the dragon and then attack Renly, which….yeah. Twisted!
2. Back to this book – I was pleased, after my fury with Shae in the last book, to see that Cersei did not follow through with her promises and give Shae a manor, a castle and her jewelry. Now, to be fair, Shae had seen Cersei reward others for loyalty – but Shae also must have heard and seen that Cersei was not exactly the trustworthy sort, especially since Tyrion was saying, fairly unambiguously, that Cersei was not the trustworthy sort, and Tyrion is not exactly the only person in King's Landing thinking this. So I was happy to read that Shae was disappointed in that – and I am fairly certain that Tywin would have disappointed her as well.
3. On a related note, I liked that little thought of Cersei's since it helped explain just what Shae was doing in Tywin's bed. I was as shocked as Tyrion about that in the earlier book – I figured that the oh so superior Tywin certainly ensured that his needs were met, whatever he was saying to Tyrion, as long as those needs were met more discreetly. My impression was that Tywin was not just upset with Tyrion's constant visits to brothels, but that Tyrion had never bothered to be particularly discreet about these visits. But quietly heading to brothels is one thing; sleeping with the woman who has just openly admitted in a royal court that she did "unspeakable things" with your son is quite another. But…if Shae headed up to those rooms to beg for a manor and jewelry…it's another side to both of them.
4. Yet another indication – from the admittedly biased viewpoint of Brienne – that Renly probably would have been the best of the Five Kings. What he does for Brienne, by dancing with her, is not only an act of kindness, but tact and diplomacy. Melisandre has a lot to answer for. This is also why it helps to go check out ALL of the candidates before you pick just one, no matter how honorable and rigid Stannis might be. Perhaps especially because Stannis is so honorable and rigid.
5. About that volanquar that will kill Cersei – I have no basis for this speculation whatsoever, but I would like it to turn out to be one of the dragons. Whichever one is the littlest, a little brother to the other two.
That's just because I like dragons. This is not in the text.
6. This is a book of dreams: Cersei's dreams, Jaime's dreams, Sansa's dreams, Arya's dreams. I have often thought that Sansa, at least, should retain some vestige of warging – she has never stopped thinking of Lady, and sometimes sees Lady's ghost – and that, like Bran, she may have a trace of prophecy in her dreams. But this book convinces me that Cersei and Jaime too can sometimes have prophetic dreams. (Jaime's first prophetic dream actually appears in the earlier book, but most of that dream is more Jaime's subconscious saying, "CAN YOU GET A GRIP AND A CLUE ALREADY, THANK YOU.")
I don't have anything profound to say about this, except mildly wondering if at least some the great houses of Westeros became great because they had the gift of prophesies and far seeing, something that is popping out now along with Others and fire zombies and dragons.
7. Ok, Cersei is not the most pleasant character. But I found her terror at Tommen's wedding – the terror that leads her down such a self-destructive path – very understandable, and very sympathetic, and I found myself irritated at the others for not realizing it. The woman did, after all, just have to watch her first son die right in front of her the first time one of her sons married Margaery. No wonder she's freaking so much.
When we're playing these what-if games – yes, the Lannisters needed Tommen to marry Margaery in order to ensure the continued support of the Tyrells for the throne. At the same time, if they'd allowed a few more months to go by, so that the memories of Joffrey's death weren't quite as immediate to Cersei….I just wonder if her destructive path would have been as terrible.
8. With that said, the frustrating part of watching Cersei is that although her paranoia is justified – after all, the Tyrells did start off by supporting a rebel and continued by poisoning the last king – she has, hands down, the worst people judgement of anyone in the series. Admittedly, she's overcome with grief and stress – losing her son, losing her daughter for all practical purposes to the Martells (and her fear of what might happen to her daughter also turns out to be justified), losing her father (not exactly sad, but stressful), knowing that two members of her immediate family have been murdered within the past year and that parts of the country are still at war and winter is coming – ok, it's a lot to deal with.
That said, er, Cersei, trusting Qyburn, he of "Please allow me to conduct experiments on humans"? (Quite apart from his other even less savory connections.) Lady Merryweather, not even from Westeros, clearly ambitious as hell (although to give her credit, despite her scheming, she does manage to keep Cersei from carrying out some of her most badly thought out plans. And Aurane Waters, showing up oh so conveniently at this moment? At least her other counselors have made cameo appearances in the books before (and Gyles Rosby was casually mentioned in the HBO show), but none of this made you the slightest bit suspicious.
What's darkly amusing, though, is that even the ones most clearly working against her – the Merryweathers and presumably Aurane Waters – actually do attempt to give her good advice from time to time, which most of the time she ignores. Even with Lady Merryweather warning her to take care; Waters and Qyburn saying THE DRAGONS ARE COMING and BY THE WAY WE HAVE THIS SITUATION IN MYR, and Margaery begging her to get a sense of priority, she simply can't. And that's tragic.
And, to repeat, their advice is not all bad – Otton Merryweather's suggestion to put Ser Bonifer Hasty in charge of cleaning up Harrenhal is the first good suggestion anyone has had regarding Harrenhal in the entire series; Lady Merryweather is right about the maids; and Aurene Waters does build a fleet. Which leads to the thought that no matter how much the smallfolk, people of King's Landing and Littlefinger may be blaming Cersei's Council for careening the country still further in the dust, it's less the councilors and more Cersei, especially after we see her yelling at them and dismissing much of their well meant advice.
9. The second most frustrating part of watching Cersei: look, Cersei, I'm all for trying to keep Tommen on the throne. But you don't seem to get why it's so important to keep Tommen safe, and no, it isn't to keep you in power.
It's because Tommen has no legal male heir.
He has his sister (who, based solely on this book, is hands down the best available candidate except Dany to take the throne), but she's a woman and down in Dorne, among people with no reason to keep her alive and every reason to kill her – except for concerns of stability. He has Stannis, who you have named a traitor to the throne. Stannis has one daughter, Shireen. Robert left several bastards around, including Edric Storm who is at least of noble birth on both sides.
And, of course, Dany.
And maybe, if you're pushing it, the Ironborn, who at least are calling themselves kings.
And after that?
No one that we've heard of.
No wonder HBO has shown Littlefinger looking thoughtfully at the throne.
And the problem is, this instability isn't just bad for Cersei – it's bad for the seven kingdoms, who have just climbed out of one major civil war, are looking at a second along the south, and have the Ironborn more than happy to take advantage of this. But does Cersei even once think of this? No. Tyrion does. Jaime does. Tywin does. Asha does. The Martells do. Randall Tarly does. Not that any of them are exactly entirely or even mostly motivated by concern for the common people, but they do at least spare them a thought.
Cersei? Not. Once. She sees the starving sparrows swarming to her city. She sees riots. She hears of poverty. And what does she do? Hack away, with however justified paranoia, at her one stable source of support, the Tyrells. In the same paranoia, select a master of coin/lord treasurer that even she realizes is incompetent – just as the crown is desperate for revenue, with Jaime pointedly noting that various things in the city, including, you know, gates, are in desperate need of repair.
Also, Cersei, if you hadn't raised such a little monster for a son, the Tyrells wouldn't have killed him, whatever the prophecy.
But on a related note, to repeat, I can't help grinning at all the times people desperately try to tell Cersei, HELLO, DRAGONS ARE ON THEIR WAY, and she keeps dismissing the reports, even when they are coming from people she does trust…
10. Small thing: I have to admit to still chuckling every time I read the unexpected Wheel of Time reference and Archmaester Rigley's observation of history as a wheel…Nice tribute.
11. On an initial read, I confess that I was not overly enthralled with the pirate Greyjoys. On this read, I found myself far more drawn in, by the subtlety of the two younger brothers and Asha who know, all too well, that the legal male heir to the throne (under their false assumption that Theon is dead) is a child molester and a murderer who for fun sleeps with his brother's wife and then forces his brother to murder her. We've only seen a few small glimpses of Euron Greyjoy, but this desperate attempt by all three to keep him from the throne – ruined because none of them except, to a limited degree, Asha, are willing to explain just why having Euron Greyjoy on the throne may be so dangerous.
I also find Aeron, with his faith in his Drowned God so terribly mistaken after the kingsmoot, fascinating. And did I mention the writing? Look at Martin's descriptions of the weather here.
12. You know, until this reread, I entirely missed all of the mentions of the selkies? I must be more on selkie alert now that I've written a few tales of these seal creatures myself…
While I'm at it, I do want to point out that actually, grey whales and right whales, although certainly capable of sinking boats and ships, are really not all that wolf life, but perhaps Martin had another whale in mind.
And since I'm pretty sure that I was the only person interested in that aspect…onwards!
13. I am mildly amused at the way Sam continues to run into all of the missing Stark children. I'm assuming Sansa and Rickon are next.
14. I know it's true to the period Martin is creating, and it's good that Martin acknowledges this as something men do, but the frequent blame-the-victim attitude towards rape, frequently brought up in this book by the pious and impious alike (and not just focused on Brienne) is disturbing.
15. I do have to feel sorry for Sandor Clegane here, what with everyone blaming him for Saltpans and raping a 12 year old when he's innocent of this, at least. Chances of anyone finding this out? Nil.
16….and of course, just as you want to scream at Cersei for lacking any sense of priorities at all and abandoning the wealthy and badly needed farmlands of Highgarden to the pirates to continuing pursuing Stannis, she remembers Robert regularly raping her and I start pitying her. Auugh. Do not want to pity Cersei!
17…and I'd forgotten that Arya, too, has prophetic dreams, even when she's Cat of the Canals. In this particular one, she is chasing her mother in a wasted land while a man with a dog's head will not let her save her mother….Frankly, Arya, I think Sandor Clegane speaks for most readers here.
18. Oh, Mr. Martin. I know you aren't reading this, but if by any chance you do, can you do me one very very small favor –
Don't kill Ser Pounce!
(And Cersei, really, trying to instruct a kitten in tactics?)
19. In a book with so many sad chapters, I find one of the saddest the chapter where Arianne talks with her father, and where we learn that she has a right to be furious with him: he has been concealing the truth from her for years, convinced she is too talkative. Which might be true, but in the meantime, she is emotionally devastated, both after learning that she was not to have Dorne – since she had no idea her father intended her to have the Seven Kingdoms – and of course all of those unsuitable husbands.
It's particularly sad since, as we also learn in this book, Tywin trusted the seven year old Cersei with a similar secret – and Cersei, for all her other faults, did keep this one. But it's also sad because these two are among the most astute, intelligent, and well meaning nobles of WEsteros. All that was needed was one small whisper that Arianne was intended for another bridegroom, one more request for her silence…
….and what makes it worse is that Viserys has been dead for some time now, which means that Doran could have, should have, at the very least begun to look for more suitable bridegrooms, to soothe his daughter. He didn't, and failing to consider her not only got Myrcella injured, but almost destroyed his plans.
20. Yeah, Catelyn, as if I didn't have enough reasons to find you irritating when alive, now that you're dead – Yeah, I admit, things don't look for Brienne on the oathkeeping front, what with her not having either of the Stark daughters and carrying around Jaime's gold and letters. But. Brienne also just leapt to the defense of several orphans and had her face eaten as a thank you, so, you know, could you spare a moment to hear her out? ERK.
And on that note…A Dance With Dragons, very soon!
The amazing thing is that all but one of their recipes that I've tried has turned out to be amazing, so much so that I'll even be trying out their latest recipe for fish tarts which does not sound in the slightest like my sort of thing. (The exception was the pease recipe. I can't tell if I made it wrong or what, but it was close to inedible.)
And with that, off to discuss the book:
Many people list A Feast For Crows as their least favorite of the series. In some ways, I can see why. No Tyrion, no Dany, very little Jon (although I'm not inclined to feel too bad about this last one). No Bran. Instead, a lot of pirates, the heads of dwarfs, some adorable little kittens, a conspiracy of scholars trying to keep magic from returning to the world, and oh, yes, desert seduction, plotting and revenge.
I love it. It's probably my favorite or second favorite of the series. Here's why:
1) I love the contrasts Martin draws between the women of this book. The Sand Snakes, the point of view characters, the women who surround Cersei.
Sidenote to this: I can't help noticing that the two women who outright attempt to use seduction and sex to gain power end up imprisoned by the end of the book, while the woman who just enjoys sex (Asha) but doesn't use sex to control anyone or for political purposes remains free, if uncrowned and irritated, and the woman who has chosen virginity (well, to be fair, more had this thrust upon her) and declined to have her status and life constrained by men – is literally left hanging and eaten for this choice. Hmm.
2) Stylistically, this is the most beautifully written of the four books so far, with several parts containing some of Martin's best, most poetic writing, bar none. I think the comparative absence of a plot tends to hide this from some readers. Although, "comparative" to Storm of Swords -- in this reread, I realized that Clash of Kings (where not that much happens, except Renly's death, until the end) and Feast of Crows have about the same number of Big Plot Things, which probably explains why many readers list books 4 and 2 as their least favorite of the series. I agree with the assessment of book 2, but book 4 redeems itself with the writing.
2) It reminds us of just why the Seven Kingdoms even should be saved.
Think about this for a moment. By the end of Storm of Swords, most of the characters have been revealed to be either despicable or zombies. Or, depending upon your attitude, both. Or at the very least, morally questionable. Or dead. Sure, we have Jaime – who began by pushing a little kid out of the window and crippling him for life. We have Arya, who is merrily killing her way through the Seven Kingdoms and losing her morality as she does so. We have Davos, who truthfully informs us he is a smuggler and a not a particularly good man. We have Stannis, who, yes, has finally done the right thing, but not after dragging the kingdoms into war and taking up with a religious fanatic. We have Tyrion, who has just strangled the woman he loves and killed his father. (Ok, so, he had an understandable motive, but…still.) We have Varys, spying, setting up civil wars and doing only the seven gods know what.
And these, except Varys, are among the heroes.
Beyond those characters, we have the Boltons (who all need to die); the Freys (who mostly need to die); Cersei Lannister (who is merrily destroying herself); Melisandre who keeps giving birth to really creepy shadowy things; Qyburn; Gregor Cledane (not quite dead!); Littlefinger, merrily stealing from the treasury, throwing women off cliffs, and having really disturbing fixations on the preteen to teen daughter of his first crush; Theon who AUUGH; the remaining Brave Companions; and Gyles Rosby, who coughs too much. Then we have the various just questionable characters: the Martells (although some of the minor members may be good guys); Randall Tarly (despicable parent; apparently efficient and relatively decent, by Seven Kingdoms terms, administrator); the Brotherhood of Banners, who think that following an obsessed half zombie is a good idea; and various lords of the Riverlands and Highgarden, and the other knights/courtiers of King's Landing.
That leaves us with Sansa, Brienne, Bran, Meera, Johen, the Blackfish and -- debatably – Val, Jayne Poole, Asha, Osha, Rickon, Mya Stone, Gendry, Ellaria Sand and some of the Tyrells as good guys to cheer for. And, I suppose, Fat Walda – but she's a Frey. Ditto Roslyn. (I'm not counting emo Jon or Sam or any of the others on the Night Watch because they are on the Wall, doing the defending.)
Given that Tyrion, Arya, Bran, Meera, Johen, and Varys have all left or are leaving the Seven Kingdoms by the end of the third book; Asha is going back and forth and can certainly leave; and the rest of these are all minor characters, that leaves us with exactly two reasons to say, please, please keep the White Walkers from invading the Seven Kingdoms: Brienne and Sansa.
That's not enough.
Because frankly, by the time you end Storm of Swords, "these guys deserve everything they get" is an understandable reaction. These people are awful. To cover their own sins, they've started a hellish civil war right before a horrific winter where they won't be able to grow any crops, increasing the chance of starvation, and even the smallfolk we see have added to the disaster by turning to raping and pillaging and crop burning. And that's leaving aside everyone's individual deeds.
What Feast of Crows does, especially but not only in Brienne's storyline, is remind us of just what's at stake. The people. The regular people. To remind us just why we should care. Admittedly many of these regular people and minor knights turn out to be awful as well, but at least we get their stories – and the septons Brienne meets, in stark contrast to the religious fanatics and incompetent septons we see elsewhere – are genuinely good guys. This is important.
Brienne also continues the theme of the Arya chapters, showing us just how much the country has suffered. The other characters, particularly and somewhat surprisingly, Jaime and Tyrion, had noted this before, but Brienne actually talks to these people, instead of trying to escape them or hit them, and she's considerably more insightful than Arya. This is her lesson on the reality of honor and knighthood, the dream she pursued so fiercely because she saw no other options. And it's brilliantly done.
And now, other things I thought of while reading through this book…
1. This isn't actually from this book, but it occurred to me – duh! that Stannis actually heads to Storm's End not so much to attack Renly (although that's a bonus) but to grab Edric Stone so he can awake the dragon and then attack Renly, which….yeah. Twisted!
2. Back to this book – I was pleased, after my fury with Shae in the last book, to see that Cersei did not follow through with her promises and give Shae a manor, a castle and her jewelry. Now, to be fair, Shae had seen Cersei reward others for loyalty – but Shae also must have heard and seen that Cersei was not exactly the trustworthy sort, especially since Tyrion was saying, fairly unambiguously, that Cersei was not the trustworthy sort, and Tyrion is not exactly the only person in King's Landing thinking this. So I was happy to read that Shae was disappointed in that – and I am fairly certain that Tywin would have disappointed her as well.
3. On a related note, I liked that little thought of Cersei's since it helped explain just what Shae was doing in Tywin's bed. I was as shocked as Tyrion about that in the earlier book – I figured that the oh so superior Tywin certainly ensured that his needs were met, whatever he was saying to Tyrion, as long as those needs were met more discreetly. My impression was that Tywin was not just upset with Tyrion's constant visits to brothels, but that Tyrion had never bothered to be particularly discreet about these visits. But quietly heading to brothels is one thing; sleeping with the woman who has just openly admitted in a royal court that she did "unspeakable things" with your son is quite another. But…if Shae headed up to those rooms to beg for a manor and jewelry…it's another side to both of them.
4. Yet another indication – from the admittedly biased viewpoint of Brienne – that Renly probably would have been the best of the Five Kings. What he does for Brienne, by dancing with her, is not only an act of kindness, but tact and diplomacy. Melisandre has a lot to answer for. This is also why it helps to go check out ALL of the candidates before you pick just one, no matter how honorable and rigid Stannis might be. Perhaps especially because Stannis is so honorable and rigid.
5. About that volanquar that will kill Cersei – I have no basis for this speculation whatsoever, but I would like it to turn out to be one of the dragons. Whichever one is the littlest, a little brother to the other two.
That's just because I like dragons. This is not in the text.
6. This is a book of dreams: Cersei's dreams, Jaime's dreams, Sansa's dreams, Arya's dreams. I have often thought that Sansa, at least, should retain some vestige of warging – she has never stopped thinking of Lady, and sometimes sees Lady's ghost – and that, like Bran, she may have a trace of prophecy in her dreams. But this book convinces me that Cersei and Jaime too can sometimes have prophetic dreams. (Jaime's first prophetic dream actually appears in the earlier book, but most of that dream is more Jaime's subconscious saying, "CAN YOU GET A GRIP AND A CLUE ALREADY, THANK YOU.")
I don't have anything profound to say about this, except mildly wondering if at least some the great houses of Westeros became great because they had the gift of prophesies and far seeing, something that is popping out now along with Others and fire zombies and dragons.
7. Ok, Cersei is not the most pleasant character. But I found her terror at Tommen's wedding – the terror that leads her down such a self-destructive path – very understandable, and very sympathetic, and I found myself irritated at the others for not realizing it. The woman did, after all, just have to watch her first son die right in front of her the first time one of her sons married Margaery. No wonder she's freaking so much.
When we're playing these what-if games – yes, the Lannisters needed Tommen to marry Margaery in order to ensure the continued support of the Tyrells for the throne. At the same time, if they'd allowed a few more months to go by, so that the memories of Joffrey's death weren't quite as immediate to Cersei….I just wonder if her destructive path would have been as terrible.
8. With that said, the frustrating part of watching Cersei is that although her paranoia is justified – after all, the Tyrells did start off by supporting a rebel and continued by poisoning the last king – she has, hands down, the worst people judgement of anyone in the series. Admittedly, she's overcome with grief and stress – losing her son, losing her daughter for all practical purposes to the Martells (and her fear of what might happen to her daughter also turns out to be justified), losing her father (not exactly sad, but stressful), knowing that two members of her immediate family have been murdered within the past year and that parts of the country are still at war and winter is coming – ok, it's a lot to deal with.
That said, er, Cersei, trusting Qyburn, he of "Please allow me to conduct experiments on humans"? (Quite apart from his other even less savory connections.) Lady Merryweather, not even from Westeros, clearly ambitious as hell (although to give her credit, despite her scheming, she does manage to keep Cersei from carrying out some of her most badly thought out plans. And Aurane Waters, showing up oh so conveniently at this moment? At least her other counselors have made cameo appearances in the books before (and Gyles Rosby was casually mentioned in the HBO show), but none of this made you the slightest bit suspicious.
What's darkly amusing, though, is that even the ones most clearly working against her – the Merryweathers and presumably Aurane Waters – actually do attempt to give her good advice from time to time, which most of the time she ignores. Even with Lady Merryweather warning her to take care; Waters and Qyburn saying THE DRAGONS ARE COMING and BY THE WAY WE HAVE THIS SITUATION IN MYR, and Margaery begging her to get a sense of priority, she simply can't. And that's tragic.
And, to repeat, their advice is not all bad – Otton Merryweather's suggestion to put Ser Bonifer Hasty in charge of cleaning up Harrenhal is the first good suggestion anyone has had regarding Harrenhal in the entire series; Lady Merryweather is right about the maids; and Aurene Waters does build a fleet. Which leads to the thought that no matter how much the smallfolk, people of King's Landing and Littlefinger may be blaming Cersei's Council for careening the country still further in the dust, it's less the councilors and more Cersei, especially after we see her yelling at them and dismissing much of their well meant advice.
9. The second most frustrating part of watching Cersei: look, Cersei, I'm all for trying to keep Tommen on the throne. But you don't seem to get why it's so important to keep Tommen safe, and no, it isn't to keep you in power.
It's because Tommen has no legal male heir.
He has his sister (who, based solely on this book, is hands down the best available candidate except Dany to take the throne), but she's a woman and down in Dorne, among people with no reason to keep her alive and every reason to kill her – except for concerns of stability. He has Stannis, who you have named a traitor to the throne. Stannis has one daughter, Shireen. Robert left several bastards around, including Edric Storm who is at least of noble birth on both sides.
And, of course, Dany.
And maybe, if you're pushing it, the Ironborn, who at least are calling themselves kings.
And after that?
No one that we've heard of.
No wonder HBO has shown Littlefinger looking thoughtfully at the throne.
And the problem is, this instability isn't just bad for Cersei – it's bad for the seven kingdoms, who have just climbed out of one major civil war, are looking at a second along the south, and have the Ironborn more than happy to take advantage of this. But does Cersei even once think of this? No. Tyrion does. Jaime does. Tywin does. Asha does. The Martells do. Randall Tarly does. Not that any of them are exactly entirely or even mostly motivated by concern for the common people, but they do at least spare them a thought.
Cersei? Not. Once. She sees the starving sparrows swarming to her city. She sees riots. She hears of poverty. And what does she do? Hack away, with however justified paranoia, at her one stable source of support, the Tyrells. In the same paranoia, select a master of coin/lord treasurer that even she realizes is incompetent – just as the crown is desperate for revenue, with Jaime pointedly noting that various things in the city, including, you know, gates, are in desperate need of repair.
Also, Cersei, if you hadn't raised such a little monster for a son, the Tyrells wouldn't have killed him, whatever the prophecy.
But on a related note, to repeat, I can't help grinning at all the times people desperately try to tell Cersei, HELLO, DRAGONS ARE ON THEIR WAY, and she keeps dismissing the reports, even when they are coming from people she does trust…
10. Small thing: I have to admit to still chuckling every time I read the unexpected Wheel of Time reference and Archmaester Rigley's observation of history as a wheel…Nice tribute.
11. On an initial read, I confess that I was not overly enthralled with the pirate Greyjoys. On this read, I found myself far more drawn in, by the subtlety of the two younger brothers and Asha who know, all too well, that the legal male heir to the throne (under their false assumption that Theon is dead) is a child molester and a murderer who for fun sleeps with his brother's wife and then forces his brother to murder her. We've only seen a few small glimpses of Euron Greyjoy, but this desperate attempt by all three to keep him from the throne – ruined because none of them except, to a limited degree, Asha, are willing to explain just why having Euron Greyjoy on the throne may be so dangerous.
I also find Aeron, with his faith in his Drowned God so terribly mistaken after the kingsmoot, fascinating. And did I mention the writing? Look at Martin's descriptions of the weather here.
12. You know, until this reread, I entirely missed all of the mentions of the selkies? I must be more on selkie alert now that I've written a few tales of these seal creatures myself…
While I'm at it, I do want to point out that actually, grey whales and right whales, although certainly capable of sinking boats and ships, are really not all that wolf life, but perhaps Martin had another whale in mind.
And since I'm pretty sure that I was the only person interested in that aspect…onwards!
13. I am mildly amused at the way Sam continues to run into all of the missing Stark children. I'm assuming Sansa and Rickon are next.
14. I know it's true to the period Martin is creating, and it's good that Martin acknowledges this as something men do, but the frequent blame-the-victim attitude towards rape, frequently brought up in this book by the pious and impious alike (and not just focused on Brienne) is disturbing.
15. I do have to feel sorry for Sandor Clegane here, what with everyone blaming him for Saltpans and raping a 12 year old when he's innocent of this, at least. Chances of anyone finding this out? Nil.
16….and of course, just as you want to scream at Cersei for lacking any sense of priorities at all and abandoning the wealthy and badly needed farmlands of Highgarden to the pirates to continuing pursuing Stannis, she remembers Robert regularly raping her and I start pitying her. Auugh. Do not want to pity Cersei!
17…and I'd forgotten that Arya, too, has prophetic dreams, even when she's Cat of the Canals. In this particular one, she is chasing her mother in a wasted land while a man with a dog's head will not let her save her mother….Frankly, Arya, I think Sandor Clegane speaks for most readers here.
18. Oh, Mr. Martin. I know you aren't reading this, but if by any chance you do, can you do me one very very small favor –
Don't kill Ser Pounce!
(And Cersei, really, trying to instruct a kitten in tactics?)
19. In a book with so many sad chapters, I find one of the saddest the chapter where Arianne talks with her father, and where we learn that she has a right to be furious with him: he has been concealing the truth from her for years, convinced she is too talkative. Which might be true, but in the meantime, she is emotionally devastated, both after learning that she was not to have Dorne – since she had no idea her father intended her to have the Seven Kingdoms – and of course all of those unsuitable husbands.
It's particularly sad since, as we also learn in this book, Tywin trusted the seven year old Cersei with a similar secret – and Cersei, for all her other faults, did keep this one. But it's also sad because these two are among the most astute, intelligent, and well meaning nobles of WEsteros. All that was needed was one small whisper that Arianne was intended for another bridegroom, one more request for her silence…
….and what makes it worse is that Viserys has been dead for some time now, which means that Doran could have, should have, at the very least begun to look for more suitable bridegrooms, to soothe his daughter. He didn't, and failing to consider her not only got Myrcella injured, but almost destroyed his plans.
20. Yeah, Catelyn, as if I didn't have enough reasons to find you irritating when alive, now that you're dead – Yeah, I admit, things don't look for Brienne on the oathkeeping front, what with her not having either of the Stark daughters and carrying around Jaime's gold and letters. But. Brienne also just leapt to the defense of several orphans and had her face eaten as a thank you, so, you know, could you spare a moment to hear her out? ERK.
And on that note…A Dance With Dragons, very soon!