remember how i was reading asoiaf?
This felt like the most uneven book of the series so far. It drags in the beginning and middle, but then the last two hundred pages or so come together even better than the first book, to the point where I think this one ended up being my favorite so far.
There's Issues, I mean. Ew on the eventual fallout of the Shae thing, obviously. This book and the book before it use sexual violence entirely as a tool men use to illustrate the depravity of other men. I could deal with the uglier bits of the first book, because they were from the women's perspective. And the entire erasure of sexual violence against men is skeevy on so many levels. Less importantly, the 'verse's tendency toward twentieth-century-style body policing doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the medieval-ish context, which makes the constant drive-by fat hate especially gross.
(there is only R'hallor, and the Other)
I really, really like the story with Stannis and Melisandre, these arrogant fanatical true believers. The black-and-white monotheism appeals to Stannis' desire to consider his ambition to be a just cause, and Melisandre is so fabulously scary. Davos also did it for me a lot more than he did in the book before this.
(am I a dragon, or a harpy?)
I remain simultaneously fascinated and squicked by Dany's story. I mean, I love her as an individual character, how could I not? She's making up the rules as she goes along, and she has such a powerful sense of justice and such uncanny courage and wisdom. Her identity as the Targaryen heir is a much more complicated heritage than she ever expected, and now she knows she's walking a fine line between greatness and insanity. And I love how throughout all of that she's not too cerebral and depersonalized to be all I WANT MORE OF THE SEX, YES I DO. Her psychological makeup is so believably that of a teenage girl in such bizarre circumstances. I want to cheer for the spread of freedom across the Summer Sea. HOWEVER. She's still the only POV character in that whole part of the story which makes the White Saviorism of it all to be the defining trait of that aspect of the story, which, eesh. When really, this radical upheval in the social structure of what seems like a whole sub-continent is of much greater interest and consequence than "four or five Westerosi kings are bickering over their sorry island, again."
(the Starks)
I love how Sansa and Arya haven't shared a scene in thousands of pages, but they're still such sisters. Each girl is a huge presence in the other's thoughts. That relationship is such a big part of their identities. Even if they don't think they like each other or understand that they love each other. SUCH SISTERS. <3
ARYA. I know the fake-out with the blow from the ax was a cheap shot, but it was so fantastic when she reappeared I don't even care.
Sansa Stark absolutely guts me. God. That poor girl. I'm really loving how her play-acting ends up being this amazing survival skill, how her ability to act the part of perfect princess lets her be this ideal that nobody can bring themselves to let slip away. It means she's had a lot of practice at keeping some part of herself protected from whatever's going on around her. And yet, it's also the thing that all of these creeps use to justify their idea that they have some right to her. That last shot of her, building a snow castle, not even allowed to vent her anger on a doll, and getting sucked into this grotesque world of adult exploitation.
I thought the marriage between Sansa and Tyrion was handled in a really interesting way. I mean, it's certainly believable in their world that they'd be forced into it and miserable. Both of their perspectives got a fair airing, I think - Sansa's horror at the whole thing doesn't get disrespected or treated as shallowness (and the fact that some of it is a little bit shallow isn't used to discredit her, which I really like), but Tyrion's hurt at the whole thing is understandable too. I really enjoyed how Tyrion does the right thing, or at least the least bad thing, in setting some ground rules about consent, but he's so pissy and petty about it that you kind of can't put him on a pedestal for it.
Catelyn continued to be amazing, and the perfect foil for Cersei. I loved her struggling to wield what little influence she had, and her strategic and diplomatic mind. I also really liked that she was such a flawed character, with her reliance on tradition which manifested so early in her contempt for Jon being the thing that undid the regime of the North.
I even felt for Robb a little bit here, which I hadn't at all before. He was in so far over his head. Robb was apprenticed to fill his father's shoes, to mostly keep things stable in the North, ruling a sparsely-populated land of people with enough threat from the outside to mostly keep them in line with authorities from the inside. And now he's trying to take over a kingdom, but still using his father as a template. He tried to fly a 747 like Ned rode a bike. And for all that, he crashed and burned almost exactly the way his father did, by acting foolishly himself and overestimating the rule-abidingness of others.
I love the irony of that, too - Robb was the heir of Winterfell instead of Jon because of the arbitrary weight their system put on marriage and legitimacy, and he fell because he didn't properly respect the political ramifications of his own behavior in the same system that put him in power. And now Jon is a lord in his own right, and turned down Robb's place as the heir of Winterfell. More than that, he's likely to be the last military power standing once Stannis Barantheon burns himself out. The Watch are the only ones who won't be destroyed in the fight for the Iron Throne, and the Westerosi are going to be more dependent than ever on the Watch as the wildlings and Others encroach.
(you know nothing, Jon Snow.)
So since the first book, I've been trying to manage expectations and not get too excited about my dream scenario where Samwell turns into a back-alley political operative and manipulates Jon into taking over the Night's Watch. Because that would have been too awesome to happen, clearly. AND THEN IT TOTALLY HAPPENED AND NOW WE HAVE LORD COMMANDER SNOW.
I love Jon. Like, a lot. I'm not even sorry. That self-loathing and shame that eats up all of his conscious thoughts, it's so voraciously self-centered, but it's also so very understandable for someone caught between two worlds as much as he is. And as he grows up, the conflict only gets deeper when he goes beyond the wall, convinced he's being corrupted as he's being set free. Ygrette is lovely and that romance was so cliched but still got to me entirely.
Samwell's growth is absolutely fantastic. Sam the Slayer. SAM THE SLAYER. It's so sad, how he tries so hard not to let anyone give him credit for the brave man he's becoming. And it makes so much sense, that someone who's so hypersensitive and constantly in freak-out mode would deal better than anyone with...freak-out mode.
(autumn is here)
Not only did this book give great Jon, but it let me fall in love with his perfect foil Jaime Lannister. The white Kingsguard and the black Night's Watch; Jon the bastard and Jamie the prince. They reject the heirship they're offered, and instead come into their own as leaders, and they're both quite good at it. Also Jaime has that whole Spike thing going on? 'nuff said. <3
and um, BRIENNE IS PERFECT.
So...once Sansa was safely away from him (I don't do objective, okay), I kind of really enjoyed Joffrey? I ended up feeling bad for him. Not quite as bad as I did for anyone in his immediate vicinity, but still. The only guidance he had in his life was Cersei with her "you win or you die" worldview, and Robert to whack him around in altercations he couldn't possibly win. Of course he ended up being an absolute horror.
Probably my favorite chapter was Tyrion's POV of Joffrey's wedding feast, with him getting drunk and snarky to cope with his giant crazy right-wing family and not even a little able to stop his smart-ass mouth digging him in deeper and deeper. A timeless predicament! OR SO I HAVE HEARD FROM PEOPLE I HAVE KNOWN. And Tyrion generally, the Shae thing aside. He can't blend in, so he's obnoxiously truthful.
Cersei is such a phenomenal character. I can't even get over it. I love her so much for resenting the limitations placed on her, for just knowing enough how unfair it is that she can't have the control she so desperately wants. And how the lack of that power has messed her up so, so tragically.
Her prideful determination to win these traditional power plays that are just out of her reach almost directly mirrors her father's. Tywin didn't quite make it as a Machiavellian power broker because he was so determined to have House Lannister be seen to have a traditional male heir; if he'd adopted the Dornish laws of succession and made Cersei his heir, or supported Tyrion's psychological development rather than attempting to stunt it, he'd have easily established a solid power base. Instead, he left himself with Jaime, who's so very unsuited to these games.
But the Lannisters, ultimately, aren't about the long term. The Starks are all about how winter is coming, sometime in the future, so they set down stones and hew to tradition and are all set to hunker down and freeze. The Lannisters live in the now. Autumn is here. They're all about growth, all about action, about never getting caught standing still.
And that's the kicker of the whole thing, that Westeros desperately needs both the Lannisters and the Starks. The Starks would send the society into deep freeze, and do nothing but watch it slowly crumble with time like the Wall. And the Lannisters would forever create anarchy and chaos. Winter is coming, and autumn is here.
There's Issues, I mean. Ew on the eventual fallout of the Shae thing, obviously. This book and the book before it use sexual violence entirely as a tool men use to illustrate the depravity of other men. I could deal with the uglier bits of the first book, because they were from the women's perspective. And the entire erasure of sexual violence against men is skeevy on so many levels. Less importantly, the 'verse's tendency toward twentieth-century-style body policing doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the medieval-ish context, which makes the constant drive-by fat hate especially gross.
(there is only R'hallor, and the Other)
I really, really like the story with Stannis and Melisandre, these arrogant fanatical true believers. The black-and-white monotheism appeals to Stannis' desire to consider his ambition to be a just cause, and Melisandre is so fabulously scary. Davos also did it for me a lot more than he did in the book before this.
(am I a dragon, or a harpy?)
I remain simultaneously fascinated and squicked by Dany's story. I mean, I love her as an individual character, how could I not? She's making up the rules as she goes along, and she has such a powerful sense of justice and such uncanny courage and wisdom. Her identity as the Targaryen heir is a much more complicated heritage than she ever expected, and now she knows she's walking a fine line between greatness and insanity. And I love how throughout all of that she's not too cerebral and depersonalized to be all I WANT MORE OF THE SEX, YES I DO. Her psychological makeup is so believably that of a teenage girl in such bizarre circumstances. I want to cheer for the spread of freedom across the Summer Sea. HOWEVER. She's still the only POV character in that whole part of the story which makes the White Saviorism of it all to be the defining trait of that aspect of the story, which, eesh. When really, this radical upheval in the social structure of what seems like a whole sub-continent is of much greater interest and consequence than "four or five Westerosi kings are bickering over their sorry island, again."
(the Starks)
I love how Sansa and Arya haven't shared a scene in thousands of pages, but they're still such sisters. Each girl is a huge presence in the other's thoughts. That relationship is such a big part of their identities. Even if they don't think they like each other or understand that they love each other. SUCH SISTERS. <3
ARYA. I know the fake-out with the blow from the ax was a cheap shot, but it was so fantastic when she reappeared I don't even care.
Sansa Stark absolutely guts me. God. That poor girl. I'm really loving how her play-acting ends up being this amazing survival skill, how her ability to act the part of perfect princess lets her be this ideal that nobody can bring themselves to let slip away. It means she's had a lot of practice at keeping some part of herself protected from whatever's going on around her. And yet, it's also the thing that all of these creeps use to justify their idea that they have some right to her. That last shot of her, building a snow castle, not even allowed to vent her anger on a doll, and getting sucked into this grotesque world of adult exploitation.
I thought the marriage between Sansa and Tyrion was handled in a really interesting way. I mean, it's certainly believable in their world that they'd be forced into it and miserable. Both of their perspectives got a fair airing, I think - Sansa's horror at the whole thing doesn't get disrespected or treated as shallowness (and the fact that some of it is a little bit shallow isn't used to discredit her, which I really like), but Tyrion's hurt at the whole thing is understandable too. I really enjoyed how Tyrion does the right thing, or at least the least bad thing, in setting some ground rules about consent, but he's so pissy and petty about it that you kind of can't put him on a pedestal for it.
Catelyn continued to be amazing, and the perfect foil for Cersei. I loved her struggling to wield what little influence she had, and her strategic and diplomatic mind. I also really liked that she was such a flawed character, with her reliance on tradition which manifested so early in her contempt for Jon being the thing that undid the regime of the North.
I even felt for Robb a little bit here, which I hadn't at all before. He was in so far over his head. Robb was apprenticed to fill his father's shoes, to mostly keep things stable in the North, ruling a sparsely-populated land of people with enough threat from the outside to mostly keep them in line with authorities from the inside. And now he's trying to take over a kingdom, but still using his father as a template. He tried to fly a 747 like Ned rode a bike. And for all that, he crashed and burned almost exactly the way his father did, by acting foolishly himself and overestimating the rule-abidingness of others.
I love the irony of that, too - Robb was the heir of Winterfell instead of Jon because of the arbitrary weight their system put on marriage and legitimacy, and he fell because he didn't properly respect the political ramifications of his own behavior in the same system that put him in power. And now Jon is a lord in his own right, and turned down Robb's place as the heir of Winterfell. More than that, he's likely to be the last military power standing once Stannis Barantheon burns himself out. The Watch are the only ones who won't be destroyed in the fight for the Iron Throne, and the Westerosi are going to be more dependent than ever on the Watch as the wildlings and Others encroach.
(you know nothing, Jon Snow.)
So since the first book, I've been trying to manage expectations and not get too excited about my dream scenario where Samwell turns into a back-alley political operative and manipulates Jon into taking over the Night's Watch. Because that would have been too awesome to happen, clearly. AND THEN IT TOTALLY HAPPENED AND NOW WE HAVE LORD COMMANDER SNOW.
I love Jon. Like, a lot. I'm not even sorry. That self-loathing and shame that eats up all of his conscious thoughts, it's so voraciously self-centered, but it's also so very understandable for someone caught between two worlds as much as he is. And as he grows up, the conflict only gets deeper when he goes beyond the wall, convinced he's being corrupted as he's being set free. Ygrette is lovely and that romance was so cliched but still got to me entirely.
Samwell's growth is absolutely fantastic. Sam the Slayer. SAM THE SLAYER. It's so sad, how he tries so hard not to let anyone give him credit for the brave man he's becoming. And it makes so much sense, that someone who's so hypersensitive and constantly in freak-out mode would deal better than anyone with...freak-out mode.
(autumn is here)
Not only did this book give great Jon, but it let me fall in love with his perfect foil Jaime Lannister. The white Kingsguard and the black Night's Watch; Jon the bastard and Jamie the prince. They reject the heirship they're offered, and instead come into their own as leaders, and they're both quite good at it. Also Jaime has that whole Spike thing going on? 'nuff said. <3
and um, BRIENNE IS PERFECT.
So...once Sansa was safely away from him (I don't do objective, okay), I kind of really enjoyed Joffrey? I ended up feeling bad for him. Not quite as bad as I did for anyone in his immediate vicinity, but still. The only guidance he had in his life was Cersei with her "you win or you die" worldview, and Robert to whack him around in altercations he couldn't possibly win. Of course he ended up being an absolute horror.
Probably my favorite chapter was Tyrion's POV of Joffrey's wedding feast, with him getting drunk and snarky to cope with his giant crazy right-wing family and not even a little able to stop his smart-ass mouth digging him in deeper and deeper. A timeless predicament! OR SO I HAVE HEARD FROM PEOPLE I HAVE KNOWN. And Tyrion generally, the Shae thing aside. He can't blend in, so he's obnoxiously truthful.
Cersei is such a phenomenal character. I can't even get over it. I love her so much for resenting the limitations placed on her, for just knowing enough how unfair it is that she can't have the control she so desperately wants. And how the lack of that power has messed her up so, so tragically.
Her prideful determination to win these traditional power plays that are just out of her reach almost directly mirrors her father's. Tywin didn't quite make it as a Machiavellian power broker because he was so determined to have House Lannister be seen to have a traditional male heir; if he'd adopted the Dornish laws of succession and made Cersei his heir, or supported Tyrion's psychological development rather than attempting to stunt it, he'd have easily established a solid power base. Instead, he left himself with Jaime, who's so very unsuited to these games.
But the Lannisters, ultimately, aren't about the long term. The Starks are all about how winter is coming, sometime in the future, so they set down stones and hew to tradition and are all set to hunker down and freeze. The Lannisters live in the now. Autumn is here. They're all about growth, all about action, about never getting caught standing still.
And that's the kicker of the whole thing, that Westeros desperately needs both the Lannisters and the Starks. The Starks would send the society into deep freeze, and do nothing but watch it slowly crumble with time like the Wall. And the Lannisters would forever create anarchy and chaos. Winter is coming, and autumn is here.