Was leaving Daenerys in Meereen a mistake?

[Zman1863]

I think that without knowing what was exactly expected to happen during the "Five year gap" it's hard to judge the idea of Dany in Mereen. If Dany/Mereen was mostly glossed over and compressed, it would probably rankle readers less.

I'm actually ok with the themes that went on in Mereen, power, how rulers relate to the ruled, the respect for existing traditions, imposing values on other groups. I think, in the story of ice and fire, it's worth touching on.

If Dany was on a boat to Westeros at the end of ADWD/AFFC superbook 4, then I think most people would be ok with it. But that's not going to happen until early/middle TWOW I speculate.

I agree with a lot of this. It has to be noted that an extended stay in Meereen was contemplated before GRRM ran into problems writing the 5 year gap. The ADWD story line has problems because much of the tedium was never meant to occur on stage, but adjusting for the lack of a 5 year gap necessitated more in depth coverage of her experiences as they happened.

I also think that the themes explored in Dany's Meereen experiment are perfectly consistent with the rest of the series, including the thorough way they are explored. Dany's chapters also serve as the opposite to Cersei's chapters in AFFC. I know Dany wasn't exactly an ideal ruler, but I think its clear that GRRM was contrasting her sincere and well meaning learning experience with Cersei's disastrous time holding the reins of power.

[The Great and Mighty Poo]

I'm not big on dany however I must be the only person in the world who wasn't "OMG MEEREEN WAS A DISASTER!" People say it didn't progress the story. That's wrong it did. Slowly lmao. Everyone seems to forget she has more then one goal at this point. Its not all IT, must have the IT... she also wants to end slave trade. I agree with people on how she handled things I hated 90% of her choices. Taking a lover, marrying for peace, not ruling with an iron fist,etc. However it showed us she has more to learn, and allowed other characters to reach her. We are going to get a SICK battle in the next book. It was a soap opera at points true but name a book that doesn't have this pinch of a quality? My hopes for dany is she doesn't take the IT but instead takes all of essos.

[King Tyrion VIII]

No.

[IRON BANK]

For the sake of world building spinoffs and prequels GRRM needed a bigger world. Now he can write stuff about old Valaryia. or future Essos and really cash in on the Hollywood film, novel, and merchandising community. I mean C'mon we all know Dany's building a kingdom. the southern half of westeros and Slavers bay will be part of it.

[Batman]

I cant rightfully question his decision since he has sold 15 million books and I am at roughly 0. I will say, as a reader, that I didn't care about her storyline or the one in Dorne.

[LordStoneheart]

I don't think GRRM intended for a Dany hatedom to spring up after Dance, but I think he definitely wanted to make readers question her (if they haven't already). I don't see anything he did as as mistake to the story as a whole since its not just about one thing. If it was all about Westeros he wouldn't even focus on Dany as much as he does. I'm in the minority, but I found Dany's chapters were the ones I loved best in Dance (and Jon and Arya's of course).

[Sir Noone Sword Of The Day]

I was initially annoyed at the decision to leave prolong daenerys time in essos and postpone her journey back to westeros, however by the end of ADWD i was pretty satisfied with how her story panned out. This is because there are (apparently) only two book left for GRRM to write, therefore, considering how (depends how you look) 'slow' danys story has been it leaves it open for a lot to happen in only two books. I will only be disappointed if the next two books have a mediocre continuation of the story and take 10 years for each book to be written, seriously... He has already written so much on the series, so you can't say he is short on ideas for the next two books, yet each of the books that have been released so far have taken longer to be published that it's predecessor...

[Sir Noone Sword Of The Day]

sorry about getting off topic a bit aha

[Faydra]

Clearly it's not a mistake. Illyrio thought that Dany was a piece in aGoT. She was supposed to secure the Dothraki Army for Viserys, and Viserys was supposed to lead the invasion of Westeros. He wanted the Lannisters and the Targaryens to fight eachother and clear the path for Aegon. Dany knew that she wasn't ready and it was really smart of her to stay in Meereen. Now Aegon is clearing the path and she will have less enemies when she arrives.

[PrimeRhaegar]

i'm not gonna question the author since it is his story so i say no. Character wise it was a mistake for her

[TalalOfDorne]

Im not sure if it was a mistake. As mentioned before in this thread, maybe its because her story didnt require the number of chapters she was given. This certainly was my problem with Meereen.

And who knows? Maybe Martin needed to keep Dany away while he began creating the general setting/outline prior to her arrival to Westeros.

[Arya kiddin']

The whole point of Dany's arc in Mereen in my opinion was her coming to realization that peace is not as easily achieved as she might've believed. Her attempts to make peace before, with Lhazareen and MMD, with Yunkai and the Harpy have been noble but feeble. Check this. The realization she comes to in the end, that she is not capable of creating a lasting peace and the decision to use force rather than diplomacy is what was the meaning of her arc in Mereen. If so, it "may" foreshadow her turning a little on the negative. :(

[TheMysteriousOne]

The essays on this thread clearly and efficiently demonstrate that Meereen was an integral part of Dany's story arc, and how GRRM wrote it well.