Most emotionally draining POV

[larastone]

What are the most emotionally draining POVs to read for you guys?

For me its:

Theon/Reek in ADWD: pretty self explanatory I think

Arya in ACOK: her hearing about the gang rape, seeing the horrors of the war, being increasingly more traumatized and depressed

Cersei: Her AFFC chapters are too OTT. way tooooo much paranoia,anger,vindictiveness,depression,fear at one time. she really gets under my skin. the dream she has of herself being in the Blue Bard's place and Tyrion is torturing her is one of the most fucked up things ever. I always skip her mid-end AFFC chapters on re-reads.

Sansa in ACOK-ASOS: Reading all of the ways that Joffrey abuses her is just awful and her wedding night with Tyrion is one of the most depressing chapters for me. Her last chapter in ASOS is one of the best chapters in the entire series but also so much happens that I remember feeling so drained after reading it for the first time.

[olenna123]

Theon definitely. I've always felt sorry for him, even before Ramsay captured him. I think death is the happiest ending he'll get at this point.

Arya too but since her arrival in Braavos she has become a little boring for me. Her preview chapter for Twow broke my heart but I wish her sotyline would move along a little faster.

[Good Guy Garlan]

Cat. I had to put down the book after "Ned loves my hair!", and the Renly-Stannis parley scene still makes me seethe thinking about how awesome those two would have been in an alliance

Also, I agree with Arya. And I'll add, perhaps surprisingly, Jaime in aSoS, because the Bloody Mummers are so fucking disgusting (the bit when Rorge and Shagwell threaten to rape Brienne makes me sick every time)

[larastone]

Cat. I had to put down the book after "Ned loves my hair!", and the Renly-Stannis parley scene still makes me seethe thinking about how awesome those two would have been in an alliance

Also, I agree with Arya. And I'll add, perhaps surprisingly, Jaime in aSoS, because the Bloody Mummers are so fucking disgusting (the bit when Rorge and Shagwell threaten to rape Brienne makes me sick every time)

haha Jaime in ASOS is the only time when I felt genuinely sympathetic towards him. i love all lannister siblings but i feel the least amount of pity for jaime for some reason. i feel more sympathy for tyrion than jaime even though i like jaime more.

[Pod The Impaler]

Catelyn - there is really no contest. (As far as she knew) She made several terrible mistakes, lost everything that mattered to her, and then died grieving, desperate, and insane.

Theon / Reek is stuck in horrible circumstances, and Arya's travels have been a horror show as well.

But the bleakest depths of despair are those Cat goes through, and she never lives to recover from it. Indeed her second "life" might be counted as worse than death, since she must go on feeling her last living emotions indefinitely.

[RainGhost]

Catelyn, Arya and Sansa. There's nothing worse than losing your family.

[voodooqueen126]

Theon. My nephew considered it the most disturbing thing he had ever read. I agree with him

Sansa in ACOK-ASOS: the accounts of the abuse she suffered...I would say that her chapters made me hate Cersei and Joffrey on a visceral level.

Catelyn to a lesser extent, her description of the Red Wedding...

[aje12]

Catelyn. She literally goes through an emotional hell that I can only begin to imagine, but must remain strong for her remaining child, even when there appears to be nothing worth living for. Then the red wedding happens and all that grief just explodes.

[Guard of the Rainking]

Catelyn, Theon, Arya and Sansa.

If I had to pick one it would be Catelyn.

[The Bastard Son]

Theon. Such a mix of emotions.

[hatbar]

The Stark women but especially Catelyn because there is no chance for things to get better for her. Its even worse re reading the books and knowing what she will be turned into at the end of Storms.

[James Arryn]

Cat, RW.

If Theon didn't include that (imo) huge false note, it would be up there.

Additionally, personally speaking, boredom is my most hated sensation, so like Damphair or post-GoT Dany or much of Bran would qualify. Also Damphair. And that seaweed priest whose name I am temporarily omitting for aesthetic reasons. God I unenjoyed him.

Edit: in a good way, Tyrion between Purple Wedding and patricide, in a bad way Tyrion between Patricide and Fair Maid.

[Free Northman Reborn]

Catelyn. She takes bleakness and helplessness against the cruelty of fate to a new level.

As an aside, that's why the Arya chapters were always so enjoyable in those books. Because while Arya experienced similar blows from fate during that period, her story involved a sense of personal empowerment, where she was able to wrest control of fate in small but very significant ways, rather than be helplessly swept away in a sea of despair as Catelyn was.

Examples include her picking the wormy apple from between the corpses of the hanged men in an act of defiance, her freeing of the three chained prisoners in the fire, her beating of Lommy (or was it Hot Pie) with the stick when he tried to bully her, her escape from the Red Keep, her escape from Harrenhal. The killing of the cruel head of servants in Harrenhal, her killing of the Tickler etc etc.

She gives you a sense of agency and control over circumstances, no matter how insignificant, which is a huge relief after slogging through another draining tidal wave of hopeless despair that is the average Catelyn chapter.

[LordStoneheart]

Arya and Sansa.

You'd think I'd say Cat, but her chapters actually inspire me most.

[Mithras]

Asha after the kingsmoot is pretty depressing and I am not sure she will get another POV in TWoW. Her story is done and done. She might be the first POV casualty if Barristan does not act first.

[MissMatchedEyes]

Arya.

[The Wolf Lord's Daughter]

Catelyn after Ned's execution. The way she desperately tried to defend Robb, her last remaining son, from getting killed and thinking that it doesn't matter if they kill her so long as Robb was safe, and then losing him in front of her eyes, was gut wrenching.

Theon in ADWD. I never thought I'd feel sorry for him, but no one should have to go through what happened to him.

Arya in the riverlands. After Catelyn's chapters, Arya's were probably the most painful. Trapped in a war zone with zero agency, the risk of getting killed or tortured or raped or all three at once always present and then trying so desperately to get home to her mother, to be there when they kill Catelyn and Robb. In her place,I probably would've gone mad.

Arya and Sansa.

You'd think I'd say Cat, but her chapters actually inspire me most.

I get what you're saying, but I find the way Catelyn struggles so much to be strong for her children and to put on a brave face when she's falling to pieces inside both admirable and heartbreaking.

[Endymion I Targaryen]

Catelyn - COK/SOS. She is increasingly depressing after her losses

Sansa - COK.She is humiliated by Lannisters.

Tyrion - DWD.The most emotionally draining POV.He thinks about his father and Tysha all the time and considers suicide a solution to his problems.

Theon - DWD.His tortures are endless.

Daenerys - DWD.She is facing an identity crisis (mhsya-mother of dragons)

[King Tyrion I]

Catelyn - COK/SOS. She is increasingly depressing after her losses

Sansa - COK.She is humiliated by Lannisters.

Tyrion - DWD.The most emotionally draining POV.He thinks about his father and Tysha all the time and considers suicide a solution to his problems.

Theon - DWD.His tortures are endless.

Daenerys - DWD.She is facing an identity crisis (mhsya-mother of dragons)

:agree:

And I'm adding the twins. Cersei and Jaime.

[MyLittleFinger]

Brienne in AFFC, I never realized how truly bland she is once all the interesting characters were stripped away from her. Until she meets Hunt it's a slog.