Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 4042250" data-attributes="member: 20741">If that was all it was intended to do  - be a mere setup - than I would have to agree with your unspoken point that it seems indulgent. And in fairness, there IS a lot of AFFC which is intended to be a setup of later events. The problem is that the payoff of plot advancement that was intended to be happening in the other chapters in AFFC was mostly left out of it as the "Big Three" characters' POV (Jon, Danaerys and Tyrion) were cut from the novel. And perhaps most importantly - Bran was left out of it completely - so we do not get the payoff of the exposition concerning the "gathering evil" that Bran's POV is intended to show.FWIW, I would argue, however, that Cersei's point of view in AFFC was used as an exposition of the metaplot concerning the Iron Throne; that a lot did happen in her POV chapters.  It's just that because Cersei is so stupid, and because GRRM is true to his character's point of view, that the reader senses not much is happening. Because Cersei does not notice her own subtle manipulation throughout the novel by Lady Merryweather, many readers miss it as well. There's a lot more happening in AFFC than meets the eye.  If you are inclined to re-read the novel, pay particular attention to Lady Merryweather and view everything she does or says - or does not say or do - with the unwavering assumption that the Lady is a fabulously cunning mole of Littlefinger and the Queen of Thorns. It's worth the re-read for that purpose if you missed it the first time around. But to address the balance of your post, I think its key to remember that AFFC was released early and unfinished as a response to publisher's pressure and growing frustration by fans with the delays. AFFC was supposed to be a little larger than Storm of Swords in size with the vast majority of the chapters which are forthcoming in ADWD in it as well. In the end, that did not happen.Put another way, the ADWD we will be getting is not the ADWD we were originally intended to get. The series was supposed to be only six novels, not seven.  We will get the "original AFFC" spread out over two books, not one. The ADWD originally intended will be the sixth novel, Winds of Winter, and so on.As a consequence, we get half a book with AFFC, and most of the metaplot advancement was left out of it.  If ADWD fails to advance the metaplot of the series in a manner that you believe it should, than I think your criticism will be well supported.But if in ADWD we read about King Stanis dying in the North on the tip of Longclaw, while Bran meets the Green Men and talks to a undead man with cold back hands astride an elk who looks a lot like his Uncle Benjen Stark, you might be inclined to forgive GRRM his meanderings in the Riverlands with Brienne.</blockquote>

Verification