[ADWD Spoilers] RAGE

[lostinwesteros]

I feel sort of hungover after finishing this. Jon...ouch. Also, I can't believe we are still waiting to hear what word Brienne shouted to save herself.

Exactly! I even hung out in Barnes and Noble after AFFC flipping through every chapter of ADWD (before getting my copy) frantically searching for some reference to Brienne (and only found a page or two of a brief reference, even after reading the entire next book!).

Then upon finishing ADWD, I yelled outloud (repeatedly) after the last Jon chapter. All hell is breaking loose on the Wall, to say nothing of Jon's being stabbed.

We're also left wondering about Dany. Although she's not my favorite character, on one side we have Dany and Drogon, and on the other what'shis face (lent my book out, but the guy who was sworn to Khal Drago but deserted once Drago was no longer able to ride a horse)l and half a hundred horsemen . . .

Too many cliff-hangers.... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (not to be confused with GRRM).

You're right, it's ends with a hangover, at least for me after setting aside sleeping and eating while I devour the book. One of the producers, I think, on the HBO website, in one of the little video clips, called ASOIAF "crack on paper" -- that's pretty much it.

[lostinwesteros]

* Ned Stark's death was truly shocking. The Red Wedding was truly shocking. They really died. Then, Beric comes back, Catelyn comes back, now famous dead baby Aegon is back. Jon's death is a little bit shocking as unexpected but doesn't have the same impact now you know that some dead people don't really die. Multiple resurrections have watered it all down.

* The Brienne thing was awful. I wanted to know what word she shouted - I thought she might have shouted "Jaime" as she died. But she's back with no explanation.

* I think the point of Daenerys sitting in Meereen for all this time is that she has forgotten who and what she is. She is a dragon warrior queen and she has been ignoring her dragons and not warring. However, doesn't stop it being BORING and ANNOYING! She was my hero - now she's just silly.

Yes! This said at the risk of being repetitive - I just posted my frustration with having to read through an entire next book to find only a teeny bit, maybe two lines of real information, about Brienne.

But you're right about the action/non-action in Meereen. That's just made me restless and depressed, kind of like being in quicksand. And I never did get the Quentyn thing - or any of the Martells - or, actually, any of the ironborn, either.

As someone in a post above noted, I didn't realize how much I needed to rant and rave until I started writing this! But then again - it's just as true that I'm still glued to anything that has to do with the series, even to the point of spending, in spite of the cheapstake that I am, about $40 extra bucks a month just to get HBO so I can watch the series!

[niñostark]

i'm starting to feel the same i felt when watching lost :(

[Ladywhiskers]

IF THEY KILL GHOST I DONT KNOW WHAT I'LL DO. Seriously. I would be quite sad, perhaps a little enraged.

:agree:

I understand subverting the genre and saying, "hey, look, just because you want this character to have some big destiny doesn't mean there's one to be had. Life really isn't all that meaningful." But after awhile that makes me want to stop reading. I can have meaningless experiences on my own, without having to buy a book.

[Ser Wun Wun]

I just finished rereading the series, and ADWD (like AFFC) is a little better once you've read it with all the theories and little details you get off this board in mind. But still, you shouldn't need all that esoteric knowledge to enjoy a book.

ADWD would have been infinitely better if Martin had just resolved one or two of the battles he's left in progress. The book is huge, but we can all see numerous areas where he could have made cuts in order to end with more resolution. The entire Quentyn POV for one. I love Jon, but there was no need for 13 chapters to cover the build up to his stabbing. Just like Tyrion didn't need 12 to cover his travelogue, or Dany 10 to get across the point that it is hard to rule. The book could have done with some fat trimming basically.

[Humphrey Plantagenet]

The only thing that really made me rage at all was the lack of resolution (which, to be honest, I didn't really rage all that much about). Also I was pissed when Bran's chapters just fucking ended halfway through the book, right when he was suddenly becoming one of the top-five most interesting characters in the series. Same goes for Davos, but not nearly as much as Bran.

And one Jaime chapter is a bit odd. In or out.

Anyway, I enjoyed ADWD as much as the rest and, as with the others, more so on the reread. But it seems to be more and more of a struggle to keep the pacing of the various different "theatres" in step. And to juggle the expanded number of POVs.

But no rage. I’m still enjoying it enormously.

[lostinwesteros]

i'm starting to feel the same i felt when watching lost :(

Love your comment!

[Lady of Long Lake]

:agree:

I understand subverting the genre and saying, "hey, look, just because you want this character to have some big destiny doesn't mean there's one to be had. Life really isn't all that meaningful." But after awhile that makes me want to stop reading. I can have meaningless experiences on my own, without having to buy a book.

Well said!