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A Dance with Dragons Retrospective Book Review Part 1 | The Grease Goblins | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: A Dance with Dragons Retrospective Book Review Part 1
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This content analyzes the release context and early chapters of George R.R. Martin's "A Dance with Dragons," highlighting how its structure and character focus aimed to re-engage readers after a long wait and the release of the "Game of Thrones" TV show, contrasting it with "A Feast for Crows."
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ground all right hello YouTube Welcome
Back to the gree comom YouTube channel
today's video we're going to be picking
up on another retrospective over the
last few months I did A Feast for Crows
and as much as I enjoy doing that book I
wanted to do a dance of dragons as well
as it is the closest book to a wins of
winner it's also a book that I think is
interesting to study given when it was
released than that were going on during
this point why is this relas so
interesting given the context of the
book and how you may look at it
differently if you put it into the
context of George ARA Martin and his
writing style the its release day in
terms of when was the last time we had
seen these characters why does the story
format in a certain way especially early
on and so let's take a look at A Dance
with Dragons a dance of dragons came out
on July 12th
2011 about six years after the release
of A Feast for Crows and 11 years past A
Storm of Swords so in a lot of regards
we had not seen characters like Daenerys
Jon Snow Tyrion Davos bran a lot of our
major characters that we had come to
love for 11 years and when you put that
into context think about it like this us
waiting for Winds of winner right now is
a comparative length of time of reading
those certain characters right so again
it's a bit different because Feast for
Crows came in that time so we still had
a song about inire content but your
favorite character more than likely
probably was not in the last book so you
hadn't actually seen your best
characters your favorite characters in a
very long time at this point when this
book was coming out so let's also think
about it from this point of view and so
I want you guys to think about this if
you are A Song of Ice and Fire fan
within a couple months of each other
during the first season of a Game of
Thrones as it would premiere on April 17th
17th
2011 and would broadcast the entire
first season getting to the release of A
Dance with Dragons so A Dance with
Dragons in a lot of ways was on a high
right because people were reinvigorated
to get back into the favorite characters
but also Game of Thrones it's popularity
now it it wouldn't reach its popularity
in the first season but it would Garner
a lot of that interest back what the
first season is by loved by many people
it's one of the best seasons of the show
and so it really would have drawn all
those fans that were still waiting for
Series right back into this series and
so A Dance with Dragons had a lot of
hype around it in my opinion now was I
someone that was reading this book in
2011 no I was 11 years old so I would
not have been reading this when it came
out but I want to think about it from
this point of view of Danny Tyrion JN
are back three main characters are back
Game of Thrones season 1 has just come
out along with the rest of the series
it's going to be coming out as well it
was well received the first season in
this regard everything was looking
really up and so we get into a dance
dragons and that leads us to does this
book pay that off right is this a good
book is this a bad book what is this
book and when we get into this
retrospective I'm going to talk about it
in a lot of ways this book has a lot of
UPS it has a lot of downs right it's
almost the polar opposite of A Feast for
Crows in its structure A Feast for Crows
has a lot more more minor characters it
has a lot more of the plot lines in the
background that were happening almost
off screen or building up to offscreen
and Storm of Swords and then they kind
of explode in A Feast for Crows there's
a lot of reactionary things that happen
because of things that happened to Storm
of Swords A Dance with Dragons is almost
no different but think about the
comparison between a dance dragons and
Winds of Winter the beginning of this
story in a dance of dragons is going to
be a lot about reminding the audience
what happened right it's been 11 years
since we've touched a lot of these plots
but that'll get us into the first
chapter chapter of the book with
verir now I will say right away I think
of the five openings of the main books
this is my least favorite it is a lot of
and why I say that is because in my
opinion it does the least in terms of
the entire world like when you look at
Pate Pate is a really interesting POV
into our first look at Oldtown he is
going to connect to a bunch of different
plot lines whether that be Ario whether
that be Sam whether that connects to
Future stuff with like marwin and things
like that he also gives us kind of a
fresh perspective the common person and
how the corruption of this world Works
which I find very interesting and also
going on that really awesome idea of the
heart and conflict this is not that this
is very much a POV that is focused
solely on really one uh plotline in this
book You could argue two but I would say
it's it's really just for br bran and
this is a very interesting way to start
out a book if you look at all of the
main povs that people do not like bran
is by far the least entertaining POV I
think for most people and so starting
out a POV with or starting out the book
with a POV that is directly correlating with
with
bran is interesting and so to me I don't
like it too much because it's just
straight up it's it's warging right how
does warging work in this world from
somebody that's other than bran we
haven't seen warging too much in this
world when it comes to how does it work
what is its powers what are the rules to
it and so a lot of this is setting up
bran it really think makes us think
about bran quite a lot and how we think
about the character because when you
think about what you shouldn't be doing
right as your
animal it really relates to bran because
we've seen bran take the mind of another
human in Hodor that's a big no no we're
going to see bran eating man's flesh
through a wolf
kind of a no no once again so there's a
lot of no no that we're seeing through
bran so this chapter makes us in a lot
of ways recontextualize the way we think
about a character like bran but let me
talk about a little bit of brief summary
of what happens in the chapter so we're
introduced into this character of vamir
who is a skin changer like bran but just
a very powerful one and he is fleeing
the battle of the wall this is taken up
directly after um Stannis had come
through and won the battle for the
wall we see the rest of the wildlings
that had survived and how they were
falling back some were going to the East
and some were just dying off right these
are people that you know struggling to
find food struggling to find warmth and
it's a lot about this desperation verir
trying to live on and it's seeing that
again the others are still a huge threat
Northern the wall and really
establishing why the wildlings came
South to kind of begin with and again
personally it's just a it's almost a
reminder chapter for the John plot line
but it's a big plot it's a big POV to
setup brand and it does it pretty well
like I I won't say like this chapter
does well for what it's trying to do I
just don't like what it's really trying
to do that much I think there's a lot of
other povs that would have been more
interesting to start this book with
other than verir and so to me personally
I was not a big fan to the way this book
starts now I will say another thing I
want to mention here because when I
looked at A Feast for Crows I think
George R Martin took a step back and
realized some of the issues people had
with A Feast for Crows because one of
the things I talked about with A Feast
for Crows that's so different than this
book is going to be is A Feast for Crows
George AR Martin takes a lot of leaps he
kind of front-loads a lot of the newer
plots right the gry joy plot and the
Martell plot are almost completely front
loaded into the first half of the book
and so when you look at that book the
way it starts it's you know you have
Pate you have I think it's Aeron is
second and then Aroda you have three you
know newer povs povs people are just not
going to care as much as about until you
get to Cersei who is chapter 4 this book
does not do that this book jumps right
into the characters that people were
wanting to read and it starts in
probably the best way I think everyone
wanted to see what Tyrion was going to
be up to after that stuff that happens
to Storm of Swords how is he going to
affected as a character what is this
plot going to be looking like as The
Story Goes forward and so we get to
Tyrion 1 as the second chapter of the
book and I think Preston Jacobs sums up
this chapter perfectly in a lot of ways
it is just a catch-up chapter trying to
remind us what happened in the last book
and now catching that up to how is that
affecting Tyrion now we've see Tyrion as
this character that's he's defeated in a
lot of ways he's gone straight to
alcoholism he is questioning if he even
wants to be alive at this point of the
the story it's a really interesting
psychological dive into what Tyrion is
going to experience in this chapter and
Tyrion is a character that I think is a
tale of two
stories I think I really like him in the
first half of the book and the second
half of the book He's not so good I like
Tyrion when he's interacting with
characters that are interesting to the
story that can either outwit Tyrion or
make Tyrion use his wits or have some
bigger relevance to the plot and so
seeing Tyrion try to figure out what ay
omop pat' motivations are is quite
interesting because we as the readers
also don't know what ayo's motivations
are again remember the last time we
really see Ayo is in the first book with
Arya and so we've heard about Ayo here
and there right we know that barriston
was sent to Danny through the help of
AIO but we don't know what game alyo is
playing at this point right because the
plan doesn't really go well right the
doth Rak you're supposed to come over
with the targaryens and start a war
right but that is kind of a first
suspicion here in this chapter it's
already brought up like why is allo
helping Dany and it just isn't for
profits and Tyrion kind of notices that
so I like the back and forth between the
two characters but again this chapter is
pretty dark it's a lot of Tyrion dealing
with his trauma drinking himself nearly
to death and being as pessimistic and
awful as possible whether that's
interacting with t uh ao's servants
whether that's interacting with Alo as
well whether that's Ty interacting with
himself the way he kind of Beats him up
or things like that all of this makes
perfect sense to the psychology of
Tyrion and I know a lot of people have a
issue with the way Tyrion is in this
book but it's completely natural it's
the way Tyrion should be as a character
and so that old Tyrion which again was
still Tyrion right Tyrion is still
Tyrion it's just because of the events
that that have happened he has leaned
into that darker side of Tyrion that's
always been there alt shift alt shift X
makes a really good video on the real
Tyrion Lannister and one of the things
he really talks about that is he looks
back at a lot of the moments of
especially at Clash of Kings and some of
the things that Tyrion did that were
quite awful whereas us the audience
rooting for Tyrion but they are quite
awful things he leans into more of those
things especially in this
book again I I noted here that I think a
lot of people dread
Tyrion in some of his earlier chapters
because it is a lot of a recap but I
personally really do enjoy Tyrion 1 and
two and even again I like Tyrion really
from here all to the young Griff stuff
and so I don't have really a big problem
with Tyrion at this part of the um book
I also do like again him playing the
game of thrones with AO and also I also
like the reveal at the end of Tyrion
going to Danny which again was obvious
like I feel like anyone real reading
Tyrion or even let's go back in time
let's say after Storm of Swords There
Was You Know YouTube wasn't really a big
thing then but if there was I think if
people would have been making prediction
videos it would have been obvious that
Tyrion was going to help Danny that
would have been an obvious prediction so
this isn't like this huge big reveal but
it is something that George needed to
establish right give Tyrion that Focus
right the big focuses of this book for
Tyrion are going to be getting to Dany
and two his character right is he going
to lean further further into that darker
side of Tyrion
or will he find some sort of atonement
will he find some sort of uh higher
purpose to bring him out of that state
and that's really what Tyrion one is all about
about
again that gets us into the third
chapter of the book Danny one so again
Danny one is another one of these
chapters that it's really a lot of a
catchup but I will say this just really
goes to prove that George does listen to
feedback he does understand what things
people don't like in previous books and
is willing to adjust accordingly because
think about it the first four chapters
of this book are verir which again it's
the first chapter of the book you knew
it was going to be a different POV right
so you give him a pass there but then
two three and four are Dany Ty or are
Tyrion Danny and John the three povs
everybody wanted to see and so I think
that is not a coincidence George
understood what he wanted to do and I
want to get this out of the way right
away because very similar to Tyrion is
that Dany has a stigma especially for
this book that she's just pretty met in
this book and I can see where that is
coming from but personally I do like
Dany in this book I think she goes on a
different journey and puts her and
George puts her in a very uncomfortable
situation whereas Dany her whole life
after book one has kind of been this
conqueror this person that is trying to
gain power then to go to westros and we
have this big reveal in book three that
she's not going to do that right she's
going to try and Rule and so she's going
to struggle with that she's never ruled
anything before even back in you know
book one or book two or all these things
she's not exactly ruling over a place
right the doth raki yes she has some
sway over Drogo but she's not the person
in charge of everyone right that is
still Drogo here it is her she is the
one making the decision she is the one
that if the society fails it's on on her
and so she's dealing with a lot of
different things and so George sets this
up all perfectly in this first chapter
because we have to see what is Danny's
goal of this book what is George going
to do in this book for the character and
so we have first we have the sons of the
harpy creating issues for Danny and this
is very interesting right away because
in the past Danny has gone against other
forces right in battles and sieges but
she's never fought a war of of a Shadow
War more or less of people being killed
in the streets how do you find these
people what motivates people to give you
information to track them down and kill
them or imprison them Danny has never
had to deal with that and that's going
to be something that's very relevant to
this book for her as a
character but again we see that an
unsolid man has been killed it is
interesting because we see that Danny's
rule is far from secure and establishes
right away the central theme of her Arc
how to rule something that she has not
really done before
right how is she going to deal with
different personalities like resn and
the shave Pate how is she going to deal
with a culture that's very different
from her own we have seen her integrated
into other cultures like the dothi but
she's struggling with the ways of the
Marines the Marines are slaver people
that was built upon their roots or the
the past you know hundred years or so
how do you change an an entire society's
culture in a blink an eye how do you how
do you do that right because if you even
think about again I'm American so I like
to reference United States history quite
a lot how do you go from a point of
Slavery to everyone being free how does
that work how do you get groups of
people that have been against each other
for a long time to reconcile and
integrate into that culture and we're
still seeing some of those divides even
now but going into the story think about
that it's very difficult because you
have some people who might have had a
better life in slavery even though
slavery is an evil they themselves
benefited from slavery which is an
interesting dilemma for Danny to
overcome because Deanie realizes and us
the audience agree with Deanie that
slavery is bad but what do you do when
someone tells you they would rather be
enslaved it's an interesting dilemma
that Danny is had going to have to go
through in this book but what this
chapter does is set her up for the
future how is Danny going to deal with
personalities like the s or their and
Littlefinger things that Robert had to
do this is really a lot of that Prelude
to what Danny will have to deal with in
Westeros and it's a lot of kind of that
training it's it's a building book for
Dany but we see her sitting the throne
giving advice to multiple people or on
issues like the Yun Kai in the fighting
pits and eventually ends with Danny's
worst fear her dragons killing a child
again this is great because it plays
exactly on what Danny is gonna have to
overcome outside of all the politics
going on her trying to rule she also
attempts to deal with her dragons her
dragons are getting bigger they're
growing more fearless and violent what
does she do with that and we're not
going to figure out what she does
instantly that's going to come in the
next chapter but it poses an interesting
question for Danny is she still in
control of them obviously not because
they've killed a child at this point
something that de's not really had to
worry about up to this point she has to
now realize how dangerous they are and
that is a really awesome way to build
the Danny's chapter I think Danny's
first chapter is obviously better than
Tyrion Danny's is more focused it's it's
not about as much as like figuring out
when telling on what happened in the
past and how that works now but her
chapter is not as much a catchup chapter
it's still is but it kind of gets right
to the point it really focuses on
exactly what her POV is going to be
about whether you like that or you don't
like what her POV is about in this book
I like that George is direct with this
character and we understand right away
there's no Dilly dallying about what her
POV is about all right so getting into
John one John one I I think is very
similar in a lot of ways to Danny one
it's really about exploring again what
happened in the past so where are we at
this point of the story but also it's
about just establishing where this
character of Jon is going to be right
this chapter follows Jon dealing with
Stannis and the issues of trying to
please a king who saved them while also
trying to stay neutral because again if
you're in the knights watch at this
point you're in a very precarious
position you don't want to be seen as
helping Stannis because of Tywin and the
Lannister rule that's not a good look
for you you want to be able to get as
much aid from them as possible you're in
a very sorry state so you have to deal
with how do you manage those different
personalities we also see again a lot of
this chapter also focuses on Stannis
this is almost a almost a like POV into
Stannis as a whole because we see had St
is struggling to gain support in the
north he has sent Davos to treat with
white Harbor but again if we go back to
Feast with Feast for Crows we know that
that doesn't seem to have gone well or
at least something happened to where
Davos is presumed dead so that is a play
that Stanis is trying to do but we also
see that Stanis is not garnering much
support from the northern houses as a
whole as the Mormons have now recently
turned him down and white Harbor has
gone silent but stenis also talks on the
fate of mans and how he will be burned
which also Jon is not a big fan of
either John is going of come to respect
mans quite a lot and burning is not a
good way to go it's probably one of the
worst ways possible to go out it's not a
painless death it's you are in pain for
quite a while and then die and so John
kind of sees this as a stupid because
you can use mans in a lot of ways to
control the wildlings more if he's alive
than if he's dead and that's something
that we even see that I think even Mel
realizes as well but at this point
that's not the case but Stanis wants to
reinforce the castles on the wall with
his own men again Stanis is seeing this
as the knight's watch has all these
castles but none of them are manned so
Stannis thinks okay let's man these
castles let's get the wall to be
strengthened but that runs into a
problem because these castles are not
stes to do so right these are the
knights watches castles they stay
neutral that is not allowed and John
says that right he refuses this only
allowing that his officers be in charge
if Stanis wants to to give him men fine
but he will have the men that will be
over them and this frustrates Stanis
right Stanis in a in a lot of ways this
is a frustrating time right the north is
not rallying to him like he would have
hoped he is not getting as much as he
would require from Jon as he would like
after he believes he saved them which he
did but he's again very precarious
position for JN and this is going to
Encompass a lot of the early part of the
story for John how does he deal with
people like Stannis and Mel but Mel
follows him and warns him of foes behind
his back and daggers in the dark and
quotes a line from Egret he knows
nothing again it's a great open because
in a lot of ways this chapter is just a
refresher for the John plot line and the
Stannis plot line which will be heavy
focuses of this book but it also kind of
is for boing for the future right we
already have this foreshadowing of Jon's
death we see that Jon is someone that is
struggling to play politics to be a
leader and also getting this very
cryptic line of Mel knowing egret's
famous line all very interesting and it
also kind of peels back some of that
wound that Jon still has for Egret again
it's been quite recently she died so
again just something that would be
something that would get under Jon's
skin a little bit but that gets us into
bran one chapter
5 now something I want to point out bran
is a character that I think we give a
lot of criticism towards he's probably
one of the worst povs of the entire
story in my opinion but I will say his
at least his first two chapters in this
book are pretty good I have them ranked
pretty nicely I'm kind of doing it
differently this time than I did for
Feast for Crows where I'm ranking them
as I read them so it's a little bit more
fresher in my mind on how I want to rank
things instead of just ranking them all
out ranking them all at the end based on
my summaries and what I can remember
from them so try to make it a little bit
more fresh but I really enjoy this first
chapter for bran because it adds a bit
of tension to their story because I feel
like a lot of the problem with Brands
chapters are there's not a lot of
conflict or there's not a lot of tension
it just kind of feels like we're
wandering around this chapter is not
that this chapter is focused we need to
get here but how do we get to the cave
we are struggling right and again it
picks up on the ideas of who is the
three-eyed Crow who is cold hands that's
a lot of this chapter's focus when you
look at my video talking about who cold
hands is a lot of that information comes
from this chapter specifically a lot of
this chapter's focus is on who he is and
he is not of the living but again this
chapter is filled with Intrigue and
mystery this chapter almost directly
correlates with the vamir open to the
story and again that's one of the
reasons why I I don't like the verir one
because I feel like it's almost a
connection to one part of the story and
really none of the others but it's
really apparent here because we see bran
continuously going into summer taking
more and more time out of his body as
he's just being lugged around and not
much is happening while they wait for
cold hands to come back with food and
things like that and we also get this
disturbing Des description of how bran
is going into Hodor who does not like
the process again it makes you question
bran and it's a lot of foreshadowing to
maybe things that will come to the
future but it's very weird that bran is
going into hodor's skin a lot and George
even takes a time to describe very
similar to vr's first chapter how Hodor
is very uncomfortable with this process
and bran is basically overpowering
hodor's will and taking over his body
and mind that is very scary to think
about and if bran grows more powerful
what is that going to have on the
effects of the story what will he do
with that again people have kind of
thought up because of the
show was bran someone that went into
other people's minds was blood Raven
doing this in the past was he going into
ais's mind that's why he went insane
maybe he was trying to give him warnings
but instead it was something that drove
him mad
that's all very interesting to think
about when you look at the future of the
book series things that we could look at
going back to the past and how that
world at this time we also see that
summer Ina and takes over the pack that
we saw in the prologue of wolves so
again just bran asserting his will and
dominance which again very interesting
to see as well but we see bran and
Summer's body actually eating the
knight's Watchmen and this is very key
because in a lot of ways bran is once
again doing something he shouldn't be
doing he is eating man flesh in his
Wolf's um body that is not good that is
cannibalism more or less because
eventually we also see that cold hands
comes back to the group saying he
slaughtered a pig which is highly
doubtful think about the way verir is
described is there's no food around in
the first chapter we even our group here
they're not finding much food to eat
and you think about it and you go wait a
second there was just some people that
were killed the Wolves were eating them
and now all of a sudden it seems that
cold hands has found some food so it's
very much led to LED for us the audience
believe that yeah they probably went to
some cannibalism here so bran again
eating other humans not good and so
there's a lot of intrigue a lot of
things we can look to speculate on the
rest of the story but again really good
uh open chapter for or opening chapter
for brand that I really do enjoy that
gets us to number six or chapter six
Tyrion 2 so Tyrion 2 is definitely not
as good as Tyrion one I think there's
much more interesting stuff between the
two characters of Tyrion and AIO whereas
this one it's a lot more of a travel
chapter it's more about giving us the
histories of Os or where they are
specifically in OS it's more to
establish where Tyrion is going to be
going in the future again it is
explained at this chapter that Tyrion
will travel with a man named Griff to
deliver him to Danny but already this
seems fishy but already this kind of
seems fishy because lyo notes that the
golden company have broken a contract
and we get a famous line here that it
doesn't matter what the dragon is red or
black as long as they can go home and
it's a dragon that is a very interesting
line that does not seem to add up with
the history of the golden company and
that already is going to get the wheels
kind of turning for us to ERS as to hm
what is AO actually up to because we're
going to get more of this in the third
Tyrion chapter but that's very
fascinating because we also get more
into ao's backstory as well here but
again we get to in some interesting lore
about OS and the political climate but
the more interesting points is about
ayio and varys's past how the two
operated how they interacted it really
Paints the picture of why Varys has
become the person that he is but we also
get his ex-lover in which ayio still has
her hand and could this be a
Blackfire that would prove a lot of that
would make a lot of reasoning as to why
young Griff a would be a blackf and why
yo loves him so much that's a really
interesting point and this again Tyrion
connects with about his past in TAA
again the two can connect on their
really flawed paths when it comes to
love and that gets me to I think
probably my weakest chapter of the first
like 200 pages of the story and I've
talked about this a lot I'm not a
Quenton guy I just do not like this
character I don't really feel like he
provides much to the story I think if
he's a lot like Sam to Me For A Feast
for Crows where I think if we just skip
Quentin's journey and have him be
brought up when he meets Dany through
like Danny's POV that would be
completely acceptable I I just don't
feel like this is needed but let's talk
about what the first Quenton chapter
does and maybe what things I just don't
really particularly like about this story
story
line again this chapter is a main focus
on Quenton who he is as a character and
again he has been keeping his identity
hidden and is on a mission to reach Dany
and marry her again all of this is
self-explanatory we already knew this
from the Aron chapters and Feast for
Crows so really it's just re bringing
that to the table for us the viewers as
many people probably didn't like the
dornish as I know there are people that
didn't like a lot of the more minor
plots like the dornish plot and so
George wants to refresh the reader onto
what is going on here but to me it's
just like nothing particularly
interesting happens in this chapter
outside of okay our crew with Quenton
realize they're going to have to become
part of a cells sword company to get to
Danny because there's not really a good
way in which they can get to her cuz
slavers Bay at the moment is a very
dangerous place to travel to we get some
interesting things here and there that
uh during their passage some of their
companions have already died one of them
being a a maester which was very
detrimental to
them but they are again struggling to
find passage to Marine because of the
war breaking out they are stuck in in
volantis for the time being again they
attempt to get passage from Smuggler but
this seems like a very bad idea as it
seems like they're being full and it's
unlikely to actually end well but either
way on their way back from the docks
they encounter some wind blown looking
for recruits and the party realize this
is their only option to get to Dany
again personally I don't really care
about quenon I don't find his character
that interesting he's just another
failed love interest for Dany really and
I think he his death if he is dead I
believe he is dead other people do not
his death will have more meaning on
other characters like Aran like Duran
and some of the moves that they go
forward with so I feel like D or Quenton
is not exactly his own character he's
more a character for other characters
like Daenerys like bar Ariston and like
the other dornish I've talked about and
so this character just comes off as flat
like this this chapter by far of all the
chapters we've gotten so far is the
least impactful like this chapter didn't
need to be here right like what is the
difference between getting Quenton with
Danny later on in the story and Quenton
just goes yeah I you know I tricked the
wind blown and I ended up you know
traveling to you just so I could be
traveling to you and then getting the
big reveal that you know viseras was
supposed to marry Arian but now he is
going to marry her that's going to be
how they're going to do the deal and all
of that I think that works the exact
same except it gets rid of some of this
fluff Andor filler that I think Quenton
has in this book but that gets us to
John 2 now John 2 is very interesting
because it's a flip of Sam One In A
Feast for Crows and I mentioned this a
lot when we did that chapter in the last
book it's an interesting take of how to
do this because something that chapter
really does well for Sam one in peace
for Crows is it shows like why is JN
making these decisions it makes us just
like Sam questioning John and so even in
that book one of the big things that it
builds up for the story already is Jan
is someone that is really isolating
himself from his friends he's not making
people like him Andor respect him as
much as they probably could it's leading
people to question him because his
communication skills are not the best
and so I love the way George flips this
so in this chapter we can actually see a
lot of what Jon is doing and we
understand his motivations albeit we
think I think that he could do things a
little bit better and explain things
better the whole chapter is really the
focus of JN killing the boy and becoming
the man he is trying to make some moves
that he believes are not going to make
him well-liked for what needs to be done
for the greater good again we see John
commanding Gilly to take mance's child
and Sam as forced to go south aen and
again it's a hard chapter to look at
because we know all this stuff is going
to happen and what it ends up leading to
right like we know because aan goes
south that ends up getting him killed so
in a lot of ways Jon is responsible for
aan dying even though aan kind of dies
more of natural causes than anything
it's interesting to realize this stuff
with hindsight of looking at what Jon's
decisions are going to lead to and we
can understand J's rationale perfectly
we understand that this baby is going to
die if Gilly does not take him we know
that they need more merss Sam needs to
become a maer that's for the greater
good to find more about the others we
know that aan needs to go south or else
he might get burned and that's something
maester aan does not deserve and so we
understand all of John's decisions but
still it's hard to read because these
are hard things that he's isolating all
the people that we care about a lot and
are J's staunchest
supporters but at this we get some of my
favorite parts of this the rest of the
chapter again the second half focuses on
some of the forts remand and repaired as
best as possible but this leads to a
great payoff and it's really awesome for
me because I'm just now reading I'm
getting to that section in the Game of
Thrones reread where Janice slint is
coming into prominence he's betrayed Ned
he's just gotten Heron Hall on Tuesday
in the video we did with Sansa 5 he is
finally getting his comeuppence and so
John basically gives him an order and he
refuses it and watching Jon figure out
how to deal with slint and executing
slint is fantastic because we see JN
once again he is not a boy anymore slint
is pleading saying he's a coward and Jon
still kills him and one of the best
scenes that they executed from season
five from the book to season five anyway
is this scene and we see again Stannis
is not of approval at the end of the
chapter it's kind of that nice little
cherry on top and by far it is my
favorite chapter the first n it's just a
big moment for Jon's character and for
the story as a whole something we've
been waiting on for a long time so
Tyrion 3 again chapter nine gets us to
meeting young Griff and getting to that
party and getting away from Ayo Tyrion
again he is done with
alyo and so in this chapter he meets
Halen and duck we get some nice little
nods to the Blackfire Theory again as
AIO is gifting many things to young GFF
it makes us think about wait how come
Danny and viseris did not seem like they
got any of these things only Danny
seemed to get a lot of these gifts and
that was because she was married or
marrying C Drogo in the first book but
the three traveled to the ship having
conversations about the shrouded Lord
which is also very interesting given
some theories about this could be
tyrion's uncle which is also very
interesting and how duck was kned by
Griff because this is very interesting
as well we now know that Griff must be a
knight and there's not many knights in
OS so all of that's very fascinating
because it's going to get the gears
turning for Tyrion but all this is very
interesting but the best part is him
meeting young Griff and eventually Griff
because Tyrion sees a lot of his father
Tywin in John conington which is
interesting given that John conington
wishes he had been more like Tywin he
could have ended Robert's rebellion and
so a lot of this is very interesting it
gets us into I think the best part of
Tyrion in this book and I think the
first three Tyrion chapters are all
solid I don't think any of them are
spectacular but they are good enough to
get the job done and really get us to I
think really the peak part of Tyrion in
this book so moving on we get Davos one
and this is again it's a Prelude it's
really a Prelude to the amazing chapters
we're going to get going forward with
Davos uh in this story but again it's a
reflection chapter it's really what it
is it's reflecting and piecing together
what happened between A Storm of Swords
during the time timeline of Feast for
Crows and here and so we see that
because of storms they have shattered
salador son's Fleet and Davos has been
left stranded in sisteron Davos has been
captured as he was trying to smuggle his
way to White Harbor but is caught again
this is going to directly reflect what
happens to Ned and Robert's Rebellion
something I talked about in the past
video as well but this is interesting
right because how is this going to work
with the with the Lord here with Lord
Burell how is he going to deal with this
situation right but Lord Burell and
Davos have a conversation about what to
do with him and we get some interesting
information about the history of the
sisters again as I talked about earlier
about the Roberts Rebellion stuff it's a
direct comparison to What's Happening
Here Stannis albeit maybe isn't in the
best position at the time who's to say
he doesn't actually end up Gathering the
north if he was to defeat the boltons
that'd be a huge win rallying the north
behind him who knows what could happen
Taiwan is dead right that's something
that Davos finds out in this chapter
tommen at this point is on the throne
with really bad counselors we see how
all that plays out in Feast for Crows
and so yeah there's something that Lord
brell really has to think about but we
also not only get the Roberts Rebellion
stuff we also get the kind of the
history of the sisteron and the sisters
as a whole as how the veil of the north
would constantly fought over it until
was eventually brought into aegon's
Kingdom but overall this is a but
overall this chapter is a great chapter
to build on for Davos George is really
just showing us what happened with
Stannis in this book building up this
plot line and giving us a taste of what
is to come in the north with Davos so
that gets us to John 3 and I want to
point this out right we are only 11
chapters in and we've gotten three
Tyrion chapters and three John chapters
half of the first part of this like
little section is just John an tyum if
that doesn't show you that George took
the advice of readers in the
past of his fans and his readers about
the criticisms of A Feast for Crows they
should tell you everything right if we
even think about the next chapter right
out of the first 12 chapters eight of
them are John Danny and
Tyrion I just want to point that out as
we go further in here but John 3 again I
I really praise what George is able to
do with this character because this is
just a really great chapter I love
everything that it has relating to John
again his plotline in this book is
really established by these first three
chapters but the Chapters open with man
Raiders execution or what we believe is
man Raider's execution and this is a
really big moment right man Raider has
been built up as a really big character
at this point of the story and so again
hindsight we know that this is a man
Raider but given what we know at this
point of the story this is a Big Moment
Like This is really John's I wouldn't
say his villain of his Arc cuz that's
the others
but it's been like his anti-hero of his
story and so really big character is
going out and we see Mel performing this
ritual but we again see the way Jon and
Stan Stannis handle things quite
differently Jon is not willing to let
this man be burned to death and commands
him to be shot with some arrows to again
just allow that to end quickly now this
is not actually man's Raider so it is
quite different we are but it is quite
interesting but something else we're
left to ponder here is that man Raider
starts saying that he was not the king
and that he wasn't all these things that
leads you to think about this is like is
this just one desperate plea for man
Raider to get out of this but no we know
this is really the Lord of Bones yelling
this cuz he doesn't want to get burned
it's very interesting what also does
this tell us it tells us that Mel
doesn't really believe that King's blood
is needed because it's the Lord of Bones
it's not the king and so we've kind of
already realized this by the time we get
to wins of winner but it's not really
King's blood that does it it's blood in
general it's blood magic that's powerful
that's what gives power in this world we
also see more of why Jon is killed as he
continues to try and struggle with
ruling and dealing with people because
at this point Bowen Marsh does really
respect Jon but Bowen suggests he
blocked the gates but Jon disagrees
doesn't really Express why like he just
says oh it'll leave us blind but he
doesn't really expand upon that it just
feels like a one-sided conversation
where bow and Marsh is you know giving
all these reasons as to maybe why this
could be beneficial and just John just
going nah that's kind of how it feels
and like we as the readers understand
why Jon doesn't want the gates to be
blocked because we're in his head so
we're thinking we're looking at his
thoughts and going yeah I understand
that rationale but he's not saying those
things to Bow and Marsh and so when you
have a building conflict right where bow
and Marsh is going to have a lot of
these moments and a lot of people in the
watch will have this these moments with
John where where they're giving him some
sort of idea that Jon doesn't like but
Jon doesn't really give them anything
back he just says no and so that's an
interesting point but we also see that
the wildlings are basically given a
choice you either bend the knee and get
some food and shelter or you're
basically told to leave they can go back
up north with no clothing or well with
the clothing that they have but no food
really basically a death sentence and so
many do bend the knee to Stanis and all
of that and get food and things like
that but it doesn't really go the way I
think stanas was kind of hoping it would
and so at this point right this is why
bow March is like we need to close the
gates right because the wildings are
going to come back if we seal the gates
it'll be much easier to defend we don't
have the men to defend against another
assault like what happened with mans and
that's a very interesting point right
like if you think about it like if you
think about bow Marsh's rationale we
know the others are out there we know
the wildlings are out there and they're
going to be coming south we know all of
this what is the point of having Scouts
like what like what's the point like the
last time that they went on a really big
scouting party in book two didn't go
well a lot of the watch strength died
because of Mormon's decision now it was
important to understand what was going
on but at the same time it was also
detrimental so again you can see both of
the rationals of both Mormont and Jon
Snow which is what makes this chapter so
interesting but not only that we also
see this chapter having some internal
conflict about the wildlings and the
Nights Watch relationship right how is
Jon going to circumvent that but also
how is when he looks at his nights
Watchmen and how they react to the
wildlings a lot of them are not too
pleased a lot of them are not happy to
have all of these wildlings south of the
wall it makes them feel uneasy and if
you're a kns Watchman think about this
for thousands of years you've had these
issues with the kns watch and the
wildlings right and so a lot of these
people don't have those experiences with
good wildlings right or people that are
just normal people trying to make their
way to safety they don't have those
relationships a lot of people have lost
friends to these wildlings maybe even if
you are living in the north family
members all of that is very relevant to
this whole argument that's going to go
on with JN and the other um Knights
Watchmen but we also see Jon struggling
with being a leader he has regret over
Gilly aiman and Sam as he hears of the
storms that occurred in Sam 2 again if
you guys don't remember there was a big
storm that happens that ends up
basically having them struggling in
around skagos it's a really filler one
of the worst chapters of A Feast for
Crows but that is what JN is kind of
referring to at this moment but he also
knows he can't be friends with his men
anymore and goes a step farther so yeah
we see Jon basically going to the dining
area and his friends want them to sit
with him and John is about to but then
he thinks this like he thinks about how
Ned always told him he can't be friends
with his men right you can't do that
because you may have to send them to die
or basically be sitting over them if
they commit a crime and so JN goes a
step further he has all of his staunches
allies people that we have known from
book one and sends them away either
Shadow Tower or eastwatch and it's
another misstep from John because what
does this do it isolates his staunches
supporters people that would be able to
understand him more and sends them other
places and all in all again it's a great
chapter that really is a culmination of
John's entire Arc in this book and
foreshadows much to come and that'll get
us into chapter 12 or Danny 2 again I
think it's another really good chapter
because just how I talked about with the
last two chapters for John this is a
really good one it's a direct
continuation of the issues built up in
the first Danny chapter we see more
deaths have occurred with her unsoed
being slain by the sons of the harpy
again one of which is actually brother
to mande doesn't really happen in the
show but again this is a very big event
bande is much younger than she is in the
show and so this really impacts her but
we see how Danny deals with the sons of
the harpy and what length she will go to
get information right she goes as far as
having these witnesses that who knows if
they're innocent or actually guilty but
possibly tortured by the shave P because
she's that desperate for information
again you see those glimpses of things
that George can play on and wins of
winner where it's like Dany and her
desperation sometimes
can make bad decisions even if she
thinks it's for the greater good but
other things that I find are very
interesting in this entire situation is
how Danny again is not really asserting
herself she's playing more of a passive
role which is much more different for
her as a character than we've seen in
the past but Danny then has to be the
one to confront or Com or comfort mande
and struggles with how can she protect
her people right how is she going to
protect all these people that are
calling her mother right there's this
really cute line where mande calls Dany
basically her protector and her mother
and Danny struggles with that she feels
guilty because she has the weight of all
these people's lives but yeah people are
still dying but this also makes her
think about her real children the
children that she is always said as
being her dragons the dragons have been
imprisoned and how they have failed to capture
capture
drogon Danny is feeling an overwhelming
sense of loss of control she feels like
she can't handle this this whole
situation and again what do we always
talk about it seems like when Danny is
at her lowest point her weakest point
she's either having Dragon dreams or
being visited by cith and this is by far
the most interesting part of the chapter
because we always use this section of
this chapter to foreshadow things to
come with Danny's plotline but we see
Quai appear and it comes at a very
interesting point as Danny is in many
ways losing her way Quai tries to remind
her to be a dragon and and remember who
she is but also to warn her of people to
come like Tyrion like victarion like all
these other people like young Griff
possibly but she ALS oh but she also has
once again to deal with the growing
issue of the reopening of the fighting
pits again Hisar has brought some of
these pit fighters and what's very
interesting is that the pit fighters
want the pits to be reopened this is
where they get Glory they feel like they
have some worth in this world and Dany
doesn't know what to say to them right
it's a same idea that we talked about in
Danny 1 where slavery is definitely a
bad thing but what do you do when
there's certain people that are enslaved
that had better lives because they had
better Masters when they were enslaved
than they do now now they're you know
looking for bread and not being able to
live a normal life how do you deal with
that and that's the issues that Danny is
trying to come to is like how does she
deny the people the fighting pits if
that's what they want that is a very
compelling issue to play with with the
character of
Dany but lastly again like we talk about
whenever she's at her weakest She Goes
To Her Dragons she goes to see them but
she has to think of what they of what to
she has to think of what to do they are
no longer children but in her words they
are monsters she has to rec she recounts
how she had to deal with a farmer after
in Danny one she had to attempt to buy
his silence as drogon has had killed his
child again Dany is locking up her
dragons right she believes they're too
wild she can't control them anymore
she's losing her way right she she very
similar to me with like a character like
Rob who as The Story Goes On at times
seems to come very disconnected with his
wolf greywind and that's something
that's very detrimental right because
he's kind of going away from his Stark
instincts and going away from who he is
that's something that Danny struggles
with in this chapter and why I think
it's a really good chapter for Danny
because it plays on her identity her
growth in this character a lot of her
struggles and things she's dealing with
it's all going to to culminate into the
end of this book that this chapter is
pivotal to understanding that now we get
to chapter 13 which is bran 2 now bran 2
is a really really awesome chapter as
well right like what I talk about with
bran is he's really good at the
beginning of this book we see again
picking up from where we left off bran
and our group has been traveling and
this is the most desperate they've
probably ever been the cold is getting
to them many of them haven't eaten in
days and they're struggling to reach the
cave you can see it it's in sight
they're finally there but it's this
tough uphill battle um and I mean that
literally it's going uphill it's hard to
walk and even some of them can't even
walk anymore even jojan himself cannot
walk any longer and is having to be
helped by his sister even to the point
where they really are kind of Left
Behind as cold hands notes the others
are approaching and even the wolves are
close by they must hurry so him odor and
bran hurry to the entrance but before
they can get there they are Str they are
run upon by the others it seems a trap
the others come from the ground pulling
Hodor to the ground but also having bran
fall from his basket it's a really
intense scene in which our characters
seem like they're about to die at many
points but it all leads to once again
the question of bran warging into Hodor
and again we see that ethical issue as
Hodor doesn't like it but bran sees it
as he must do or they are going to die
bran using hodor's body allows them to
survive again helping mea and the others
but at this point they are saved by the
children of the forest something that's
been foreshadowed really since the first
two chapters of Bran's uh story in a
Game of Thrones but either way they are
LED through this really weird area where
it seems like there's these deep white
uh roots that they think are snakes at
the beginning they come across skulls of
things like Ravens and such but at this
point they find blood Raven and this is
a really interesting point because Brian
at this point asks if he will walk again
but blood Raven says no he will fly
which gets bran to the point of crying
he's gone on this insane Adventure
abandoning you know the north his family
and coming to this point just so that he
could not be a [ __ ] anymore which
just haunted bran for the beginning of
the story and is one of the biggest
reasons why he came to seek out the
three-eyed Crow at this point that's
kind of been crushed this seems there a
lot of manipulation by Blood Raven to
get bran here so that who knows what
could happen if bran is basically
becoming a vessel for the old gods who
knows but it comes off as very strange
in a chapter that will start Bran's Arc
as becoming probably the three-eyed Crow
or at least some sort of vessel for them
it puts a lot of tension and unease and
huge twist for Bran's story and is by
far one of his best chapters of his
entire POV throughout all four books
that he is in and again it's a
definitely standout chapter of the
opening story so thank you guys all for
watching part one of my dance dragons
retrospective I hope you guys all
enjoyed the first part and I'll
hopefully be getting to the second part
within the coming weeks as well let me
know if there's anything I didn't talk
about that you think I should have and
uh let me know what your guys' thoughts
are on a dance of dragons let me know
out of the five books of the main series
anyway is where is this one ranked but
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