The Scabbard Of the Morning

The 5 year gap is the perfect way to "wrap it up".

Well, maybe that's the reason she'll make Tyrion Hand, and will marry Jon Snow (as the TV show suggests), both acts would be attempts to surround herself with people who do know Westeros instead charging in blindly. I would have no problem with that as a character arc for her, she's still in her teens and certainly still capable of growth.

It doesn't have to negate her arc, her arc could just be that she learns that good intentions are not enough. That no matter how bad things seem, meddling without knowing what you're doing can always make it worse.

But I think a version of that is already going to happen, the battle of fire is going to leave Meereen a pile of ashes of ruin.

Well as somebody else pointed out, it's a lot more than 10 chapters if you include all the other people either on their way there, or already there. Quentyn, Barristan, Tyrion, Victarion,etc. All of their purpose is to take place in the Meereen plot, which even by the end of the book, has not actually happened yet, all of it has been about waiting for the Meereenese plot to happen, but very little has happened. Meereen is not in substantially a different position as it was when the book started. There is a conflict in the city with the former slavers and former masters and threatens to disstabilize Dany's regime. There is a hostile force in Slaver's Bay that wants to end Dany's regime. That is true in the begining of ADWD and still true at the end of ADWD.

But that's exactly the problem, he spent half the book there and we have yet to see much on how it shapes her at all. Furthermore, we don't need to see all of it in exquisite detail to see how it shapes her. We got 2 paragraphs about Viserys and how a life on the run has shaped him in AGOT, and we can fill in the blanks and understand his development as a character. We got one page from Samwell describing his life at Hornhill, and we understand how he came to be the person he is.

It's 2 books, they are long enough for me to judge them on their own. I didn't need to watch Revenge of the Sith to know that Phantom Menace and AOTC were awful. I did give Lucas the benefit of the doubt after Phantom. But after 2 movies, I stopped.

So your argument is "I can't imagine a good writer like GRRM writing filler so I have to operate on faith that all these things which walks like filler and talks like filler are, in fact, not filler." I'm sorry, I'm just not willing to go there. GRRM is a good writer, but good writers screw up all the time, especially when they go big time and start ignoring other peoples' editorial input.

I knew when I said "nobdy cares about Meereen" there is going to be somebody who jumps in with "I care, I care, look at me!". Yeah, you care, good for you and the 5% of the readership you represent. And by the way, nobody to going to Meereen or Essos. That's not what the story has ever been about, and even without the benefit of knowing the general plot from the TV show, I could have said with confidence that your scenario of everyone going there is absurd and will not happen.

I think the only hope I have for it is that whenever the story finally leaves Mereen it will pick up again. I'm of the opinion that the problem with most of the story is caused by Mereen, the reason why other parts of plot can't get started is that it requires Mereen to be done before they can start. Furthermore despite GRRM's valiant effort he can't get the readers to be invested in Mereen. No one actually cares about what happens Mereen, we just all want it to be over with And all of the chapters spent on it just feels like wasted time to the reader. One of the main reasons I agree with the view that he should have kept the 5 year gap is that then we'd have skipped all of Mereen, and started the story again when Dany is ready to invade. But GRRM decided he wanted to write a story about the struggles of a foreign occupation force, probably because it was a timely topic at the time with the US invasion of Iraq and and Afghanistan. Once again it just shows storytellers should not try too hard to be "relevant", because what is timely and relevant can change very quickly. The best way to be timely and relevant is actually to be timeless, and deal with universal human struggles and transcend what the "hot issue" is at the moment, and forcing these timely elements into one's story can actually derail it,.

A big, long, unfinished book. I would like it much better had he put in the ending that was originally intended.

It's not that he's no longer a good writer, I think he stopped writing for the fans of ASOIAF and is now only writing for himself. Now he has every right to do that. But the consequence is many fans have noticed and are less than happy with his recent output, and I don't begrudge them that reponse.

There is a difference between saying you "want to finish" and actual action that means you "want to finish". When I was in college almost everyone wanted to get good grades, or said they did, but most tried to find any reason to distract themselves from studying, and then there were the few who was always in the library studying. The people who were always studying truly wanted it because they were willing to do what it takes to get it. The others only wanted it if it was handed over to them.. I don't see from GRRM's action that he actually "wants" to finish, sure, he would like it to be finished, but he isn't doing what it takes for that to happen. He's finding every reason and excuse to work on other stuff and distract himself from this task.

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.