Red Helm

Giving depth to Cersei's sick relationship with her children, being that she does not love any of them in a truly deep, healthy way. If her children are threatened, she conflates that with a threat to her being specifically because of the prophecy. Her not loving her children in any normal, healthy sense was hinted at in A Storm of Swords when she has sex with Jaime near enough on Joffrey's corpse. Besides, the prophecy only began to truly define her and her downfall when Joffrey died, which actually validated a fear that was otherwise at the back of her mind like a shadow--always there, but not something she obsessed over until is began to seemingly come true before her.

The Roose/Dracula parallels make sense, but I believe there's a much deeper reason behind Roose's characteristics that come to light when analysed next to his mad bastard spawn.

The administrators smile on me Garlan, for no man is astuter than I; from forums to wikis, when men read my comments, they rep.

*eyes narrow* I am watching you, Garlan. My eyes are locked onto you, and unlike Euron's neither one is smiling. Euron's cruelty is casual and serves a grander purpose, whereas Ramsay makes it a twisted art, does it for his pleasure, and in performing his sick art outright nullifies everything that makes a person who they are, and Euron has done nothing close to nullifying a person to Ramsay's extreme. There's also the fact Euron is representing a form of ascension for the Ironborn, whereas Ramsay is degeneration for both House Bolton and the North. I also find the warlock and Reek equivalency to be a poor one. Those few things spring to mind without much thought so sorry for the lack of paragraphs of this and that. Some very broad surface similarities do not validate the claim in my view. It's like saying Randyll and Tywin are the same because they have both demonstrated tremendous cruelty and are seasoned insofar as war is concerned... yet when you dig beneath the surface you find the two really are not alike at all.

Seems absurd claims ala 'Ramsay is Joffrey 2.0!!' are persisting.

The destruction made in glorious summer by this sun of York.

Anyone here have an educated opinion about how unique A Song of Ice and Fire's approach to magic is in fiction in general (discounting human mythology, etc.)?

Thank you very much for the link. My stomach squirms with disgust, and I have great pity for Aeron... and it's only page 2.

This insistence that George R. R. Martin only writes grey characters seems to be born out of the misconception that a totally evil, irredeemable character cannot have depth... not true as a general rule and not true within the series itself, as the likes of Roose and Ramsay (taken as a set) have depth, as well as a horrible creature like Tywin. I recall Free Northmen Reborn's hatred of an evil man (in broad strokes) like Walter White, yet he's not a flat, hollow character.

Given his dialogue, the exploration of his religion, his hatred for Euron and plotting against him, and trying to steer the succession to Balon's throne, and how explosive his chapters are... neither did I.

I beg to differ. For starters, I view the prose to be of brevity as oppose to plain (such as Slynt's execution where his death is confirmed in two words: Longclaw descended) and there are plenty of chapters where the prose takes on a more adorned nature, such as Daenerys X of A Game of Thrones.

This book is going to be phenomenal. I absolutely adore A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons as Act II of A Song of Ice and Fire, but I am very eager to see the buildup of Stannis v. Roose and the Bastard, the battle of Meereen, and the chaos in the Stormlands (to name a few) pay off.

That's the sad thing however... an adaption of ASoIaF should be far more than mere fun; it should be a cinematic masterpiece.