zaphodbrx Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Dany's storyline is interesting because it shows what goes wrong when she tries to apply a particular policy that most people would think is praiseworthy. It fits with GRRM's general theme that *ruling is hard*. Even if a ruler goes in with the best intentions, and does the right thing, circumstances can conspire against them and sink their praiseworthy political program. Actions have unintended consequences. Doing the right thing can lead to unexpected bad results. If you think Dany's storyline is uninteresting, you're not really interested in one of GRRM's main motivations in writing the book. Dany's storyline just demonstrates that GRRM is very orientalist when it comes to the 'East' and he doesn't understand them period. The peoples of Essos are not human. They are cartoons. The entire continent of Essos could sink to the bottom of the ocean the second after Dany leaves and no one would care in the slightest, either in-story or readers. Spl. exception for Bravos. There is nothing you will miss by skipping Dany chapters. I wish I had done that. I do that on rereads. Dany for me doesn't exist until she gets to Westeros. End of story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euron69 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 You need patience with the dany and Jon chapters.. Even more so during re reads.. I'm going through that myself right now.. But no, some chapters are unnecessary for the re reads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dopplerdog Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Dany's storyline just demonstrates that GRRM is very orientalist when it comes to the 'East' and he doesn't understand them period. Essos is fantasy, it's not "the East". GRRM understands Essos as much as he understands the Children of the Forest or dragons. Some readers have read our "East" in Essos, but that's up to the reading. What peoples do you think the peoples of Mereen, Astapor and Yunkai represent? The peoples of Essos are not human. They are cartoons. The entire continent of Essos could sink to the bottom of the ocean the second after Dany leaves and no one would care in the slightest, either in-story or readers. Spl. exception for Bravos. Well, *you* might not care, and that might also be the case for some readers - but that's just your choice. In the book, this region it's critical for Dany to develop herself to make her return. And without giving anything away, the last few books have quite a bit on Essos - not just in the Dany chapters. Arguably, Dany's story is central - ASOIAF is largely about a dynasty deposed, and the struggle of those who want to see a restoration. We could turn the argument around. Very little of what goes on in Westeros affects Dany directly - if we see it as Dany's story, ASOIAF spends quite a bit of time talking about mostly irrelevant Westeros events. Why not skip those then? Also, hardly anyone knows Bran and Arya are alive - should their chapters be skipped also? Almost nothing in Jon's plotline is of immediate interest to other characters in the story either. Should anything that doesn't involve King's Landing directly be skipped? There is nothing you will miss by skipping Dany chapters. I wish I had done that. I do that on rereads. Well, that's your prerogative, but whoever does that would miss a big important chunk of the story, and a major reason for GRRM writing the story: conveying the idea that ruling is very difficult, and that being a "good" ruler and having the best intentions is not sufficient. Skipping that major subplot might work for some people, but I wouldn't recommend it, and it would make me wonder what it is that people see in the books if they don't find this theme interesting. But heck, readers are free to skip any chapters they want. They could skip the entire books if they want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueOrFalse Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Daenerys's ACOK chapters are definitely her weakest but still...I wouldn't recommend skipping any chapters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The.Dragon.Prince Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Hi all From all of those POV characters in Clash of Kings Daenerys is the least interesting IMHO.He is one of my favourite characters and I still found it hard to enjoy her chapters (except House of Undying+ after and that 'dead' city).Probably even less than Sansa's and god I dont like that girl.But you can not skip it,its just not right and you will miss it a lot,especialy those last 2 chapters are Very important.Clash of kings is definitely a great book.Im looking forward to SoS,as I have just started to read. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dopplerdog Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 All I can say is that wait til you get to ADWD before deciding that a certain character's chapters could have been skipped... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambi76 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I totally did that during my first read (the googles dragons they do nothing for me) but then I read the books sidewards/backwards on top of that. I find it interesting that it was considered by the show makers to skip the Dany chapters until she shows up in Westeros at first. Would have made for a very different show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistressofWhisperers Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 There's only 5 Dany POVs in this book, so it's not even that much to read. I did like her HotU chapters, with all that foreshadowing and all. It would have been a strange show if they cut out all the Dany stuff until her arrival to Westeros. That's at least 4 seasons without her, I feel like show watchers would have forgotten about her, plus watching the dragons grow was excellent tv imagery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MimTheMad Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 i will admit Dany's chapters in aCoK are a tad bit boring, but at least they aren't as bad as Catelyn's. maybe it's just me, but her chapters are so unbearable. the best thing about them is getting to see everything between Renly and Stannis and most importantly getting to meet Brienne. other then that i wanna jump through the moon door when i read Cat's chapters, they are so depressing. i would have been done with this book a month ago if it wasnt for her. but it literally takes me days to read her chapters where as Bran, Arya, Jon and Tyrion chapters i read like the pages are on fire.this is my first post btw so hey all! :grouphug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistressofWhisperers Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Welcome to the boards! Cat's chapters tend to be a bit morose, but I kind of like them. ;) She's got some wit and wisdom too, like her line about Renly, "he'll want what kings always do, homage" or something like that and like you said, witnessing the Stannis/Renly exchange was epic. She's def not as boring as Dany. Dany and Jon were my list fave in AGOT too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MimTheMad Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 thanks ! yeah, Cat is definitely witty. i enjoy her conversations with other characters, but she really gets inside her head. not to mention her husband just died, her son is off to war and her father is dying. it's like u can feel the weight of the world and so much sorrow when u read her chapters.i actually really enjoy Jon's chapters and when i first started reading the books i didn't expect to. the last Jon chapter i read was when Qhorin Halfhand finally makes it to the Fist of First Men. idk why, but i have read this chapter 3 times for some reason, i love it. and i think other then Sam, Ghost and Maester Aemon my favorite thing about Jon's chapters is Mormont's raven lol. when Jon first got to The Wall in aGoT and the raven was introduced i was thinking "how was this not on the show?!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistressofWhisperers Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 That raven is very interesting, actually. There's a lot of speculation that he's more than what he seems. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francisco of house avila Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Her chapters get worse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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