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Just read the most confusing chapter....


shortguy457

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It was Quentyn's second chapter in a Dance with Dragons. Wow. Did anyone understand this chapter the first time they read it? Because I seriously doubt it. You can understand the big picture of it, that they were going escape and betray the company and get to Daenerys, but wow. The pretext of it all? The siege of Astapor, that Yunkai was overpowering the new regime that formed after Daenerys' conquest, that the Windblown (which I thought was a ship by the way, not a free company) fought for Yunkai. Wow. Thank god we have internet.

Seriously, did anyone understand this chapter upon first read? I mean am I wrong? Is the chapter not confusing?

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6 hours ago, shortguy457 said:

It was Quentyn's second chapter in a Dance with Dragons. Wow. Did anyone understand this chapter the first time they read it? Because I seriously doubt it. You can understand the big picture of it, that they were going escape and betray the company and get to Daenerys, but wow. The pretext of it all? The siege of Astapor, that Yunkai was overpowering the new regime that formed after Daenerys' conquest, that the Windblown (which I thought was a ship by the way, not a free company) fought for Yunkai. Wow. Thank god we have internet.

Seriously, did anyone understand this chapter upon first read? I mean am I wrong? Is the chapter not confusing?

I will admit I did not understand the whole Quentyn plotline (other than getting to Dany) in my first read.

I was very lost on trying to figure out a)where the F he was and was going, b)which company was which and who was in each company, and c) why?

Don't feel alone here. I was there too!

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That chapter specifically no. The Quentin quest as a whole yes.

It just seems designed to fail. As Jaime said, every Great Lord has a most powerful bannerman envying him his place. For the Martells that's the Yronwoods. The Quentin quest has Quentin sent out accompanied by a handful of Yronwoods and very few resources. I can't believe Doran Martell wanted it to succeed or he would have sent resources and more loyal men.

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1 hour ago, Praetor Xyn said:

That chapter specifically no. The Quentin quest as a whole yes.

It just seems designed to fail. As Jaime said, every Great Lord has a most powerful bannerman envying him his place. For the Martells that's the Yronwoods. The Quentin quest has Quentin sent out accompanied by a handful of Yronwoods and very few resources. I can't believe Doran Martell wanted it to succeed or he would have sent resources and more loyal men.

The two Yronwoods that were with Quentyn were as loyal as they come one of them being his best friend in fact. 

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9 minutes ago, Stormking902 said:

The two Yronwoods that were with Quentyn were as loyal as they come one of them being his best friend in fact. 

:agree: I do not think it is mentioned that Doran selected the members of the group. and if he did select anyone it would most likely have been  the maester. I would be willing to bet that all Doran told him was to keep the party small so as to go unnoticed. But small groups are also easy pickings for bandits, pirates, and the like.

 

1 minute ago, CornishDornish said:

Theon Greyjoy was also best friends with Robb Stark. We all know how that turned out!

Theon was trying to please his impossible-to-please dad. Different situation.

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5 minutes ago, Raisin' Bran said:

:agree: I do not think it is mentioned that Doran selected the members of the group. and if he did select anyone it would most likely have been  the maester. I would be willing to bet that all Doran told him was to keep the party small so as to go unnoticed. But small groups are also easy pickings for bandits, pirates, and the like.

 

Theon was trying to please his impossible-to-please dad. Different situation.

Theon tried to please his family, believing that family trumps all despite them being total strangers to you. Same thing is happening in the Quentyn storyline but on a slightly bigger scale.

Quentyn will go to any impossible lengths to please his father (who also hasn't seen him for a long time) including risk his life to sail to a foreign land which is racked with war and famine. Nevermind it being a land he knows next to nothing about and that he'd rather go home and bang Yronwood's daughter.
Arch doesn't want to hurt his friend but at the same time it's unlikely that he'll want to disobey his father Lord Anders Yronwood.

I don't think any of the Yronwoods want Quentyn to come to any harm but they don't exactly want him to succeed in bringing dragons back thus making house Martells dominance over Dorne all the more stronger.

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3 hours ago, Praetor Xyn said:

That chapter specifically no. The Quentin quest as a whole yes.

It just seems designed to fail. As Jaime said, every Great Lord has a most powerful bannerman envying him his place. For the Martells that's the Yronwoods. The Quentin quest has Quentin sent out accompanied by a handful of Yronwoods and very few resources. I can't believe Doran Martell wanted it to succeed or he would have sent resources and more loyal men.

It was a secret mission. More resources spent and more people greatly increases the risk of the secret being completely blown.

Doran would not have sent Quentyn on a mission that he expected to fail, it would have been a complete waste of time and money. It was a gamble, and not all gambles succeed.

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GRRM was giving the readers a "crash course" in Essosi politics through Quentyn.  I believe that was the character's main purpose.  I agree that introducing all of the free companies at the same time as Quentyn and his companions was tough the first (and second) time around.  I actually read AFfC & ADwD 4-5 times each because there was so much to unpack with new characters and story arcs.  I cannot say for sure whether Doran wanted/expected Quentyn to succeed simply because Doran plays the Long Game, and because of that he is hard to read.  I want to believe that he had full faith that his son would succeed, but how could he?  Doran is a smart man and obviously knows the odds are against him in this endeavor.  Which is why I believe that GRRM felt inspired/compelled to tell us, the readers, about Essosi politics for some reason and created the Quentyn quest to do so.  I think that The Tattered Prince is the most intriguing character that came out of this arc and will have a role to play in the wars to come. 

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16 hours ago, shortguy457 said:

It was Quentyn's second chapter in a Dance with Dragons. Wow. Did anyone understand this chapter the first time they read it? Because I seriously doubt it. You can understand the big picture of it, that they were going escape and betray the company and get to Daenerys, but wow. The pretext of it all? The siege of Astapor, that Yunkai was overpowering the new regime that formed after Daenerys' conquest, that the Windblown (which I thought was a ship by the way, not a free company) fought for Yunkai. Wow. Thank god we have internet.

Seriously, did anyone understand this chapter upon first read? I mean am I wrong? Is the chapter not confusing?

Take heart Brother, all the chapters, plots and characters get better with each reread.  It took me 4 reads to even become interested in Dany after Clash.   I relistened to the Quentyn & Barristan chapters twice this last time.   Because they were just that good.  My 1st trip through it was Varamyr's prologue that gave me fits.  You will be very happy if you stick with it. 

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