The Scabbard Of the Morning

I think a better comparison is the Iron Islanders to the Hill Men/Haradrim. I think Martin is working out a way to illustrate how a nation of men comes to side with the supernatural evil and monsters against other human beings.

Yes I am sure. I'm also sure that ASOIAF is not a comic book brand.

It would be Shakespeare writing McBeth and decided he needed a whole Act featuring Malcolm and his exploits raising an army in England And another one on MacDuff and his flight from Scotland. If GRRM rewrote ACOK now he'd have Robb as a POV and show us what happened at the Crag. And if he finished ASOIAF and wanted to write a couple chapters of Robb to give us insight, I'd be all for it. But for the purposes of the story he is telling, I'm glad he didn't do it. It was enough we heard what happened, we didn't need another POV in ACOK. The problem is now he doesn't have an editor who can discipline him.

The story has one main plot, everything else is a subplot.

Really, after 5000+ pages you don't know the main plot of the story, and claim there isn't one? That either says something about Martin as an author or you as a reader, maybe both.

You still don't get it. The argument isn't that the Brienne story is worthless in of itself, the issue is that it didn't need to be in *this* book at *this* time. GRRM is a good enough writer I'm sure he could have written 10 chapters on the life of Septon Merribald and made is thematically interesting. But that's not this story. That's a side story he could write later. He's interrupting the momentum of the main plot with these detours, when (and if) he gets done with the main series, if he wants to work on these side stories about Brienne, about Quentyn, about whomever, I'd gladly read them. But I dislike the fact he's doing it now and delaying pushing the main plot of the story forward.

Brienne would still show up at the last Jaime chapter, and what happened to her can be summed up with "I looked for Lady Sansa in many places, and I was eventually captured by the BWB." We didn't need 9 chapters of her fumbling around. Now I'm not saying those chapters are bad. I would have enjoyed reading them as part of an "extended cut" version of the books. But those chapters, among others, have been hell on the pacing of the story and not to mention take author's time and attention away from the central plot, which all fans want him to "get on with it" at this point.

Agreed. I always felt that Qynten Martell, Brienne, and several other POV in the AFFC/ADWD belongs in a "extended edition" or "director's cut" version of the books but not the "theatrical release" edition. Arya, Bran, Jon, Sam, Jaime, Cersei, Tyrion, Sansa, Theon, Davos, are the only POVs we needed, maybe with Aeron to see Euron. That plus a few individual chapters like Melisandre and Arriane. The only chapter we needed from Dany is her last one, the pit scene can be told from Tyrion's perspective. That's it. We didnt' need Brienne, Asha, Quentyn, Victarion. And Jon, Tyrion, Cersei, Davos, and Jaime could have some of their chapters shortened/eliminated. Put in the conclusion of the battle of ice and battle of fire. You'd have had a well paced, dynamite ADWD.

I agree with you, once he started making excuses about other works being remembered despite not being finished. I knew it was over. Because the only way this thing has any chance of being finished is if the author really wants to finish it and wills himself to do what it would take to accomplish this. When he starts that "well, even if it's not finished it will still be great" talk, it means psychologically he's already making excuses and giving himself an out. Which means he lacks the will to do what it takes. The fact he has so many distractions is because he lacks the will to discipline himself and dedicate himself to the task at hand. Don't get me wrong, I'm not even sure even if he has a will of iron and drive of Andrew Carnegie he'd able to finish the series at this point. But the fact he has far less just means he has no chance.

Is Werthead going to show up and tell GRRM to stop blaming it on distractions. Because according to him distractions have nothing to do with GRRM's slow pace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Red_Chamber

Arguably the greatest piece of literary work in the Chinese language is an unfinished novel written in the 1700's. Many have attempted to finish it, there is even an "official" finished version. But everyone agrees that all the attempts to finish it are far inferior to the original. The book is also heavy in foreshadowing, prophecy, so the fate of many of the characters can be (somewhat) deduced through careful parsing of the portion that was written, and there is a whole field in Chinese literature departments that specifically deals with this novel and attempts to guess how the author intended to conclude the story. There are some parallels here.

First of all, are you also giving yourself a warning for calling me "a massive display of entitlement"? Is that a personal attack? Looks like a personal attack to me. Secondly. No one is entitled to my feelings. So when I don't feel sorry for some one, it doesn't make me entitled. Arguing that they are entitled to my feelings by implying I'm doing some wrong in withholdiong it, makes the person, you in this case, entitled.

Are you even capable of basic logic? I wrote. "But it's not that he can't finish, it's that he's not willing to do what it takes to finish that frustrates fans. If he stopped attending conventions, stopped posting on his blog about the NFL draft, stopped publishing other books, stopped taking book tours, if he stopped all that, and still can't finish, then I would legitimately feel sorry for him. Because he's really trying, and it's still not working." To which you responded "That's a massively display of entitlement. At this point you're telling someone they can't take a leak without your permission and your approval of their usage of time." Where did I say he required my permission for anything? All I said was that his actions were unworthy of me feeling sorry for him. To which you accused me of "massively display of entitlement". Implying that I'm obligated to not withholding my sympathy. So in the same post you accuse me of entitlement, you imply that GRRM is entitled to my sympathy. I'm under no illusion that GRRM cares about my approval. But that doesn't mean I'm oligated to give it to him.

No, it's exactly the opposite, it's *YOUR* display of entitlement. That somehow he's entitled to me feeling sorry for him or entitled to my approval. He isn't. He's not my bitch, but I'm not his either, nor yours. Get off your soapbox.