ASOIAF- A Dance with Dragons p. 210-301

Today in A Dance with Dragons, Dany makes all the enemies, Jon Snow continues to shoot himself in the foot, and we find out something incredibly important about Tyrion’s boat buddy, Young Griff.

I guess I should just come out and say that a) I’m pretty certain that Tyrion isn’t going to die and b) I’m certain that Young Griff isn’t really Aegon Targaryen, Rhaegar’s son and Dany’s nephew. The former because Chapter 22 still has Tyrion as a narrator (unless Martin just describes Tyrion’s drowning for an entire chapter which ew, gross). The latter because of Dany’s prophecies and the fact that it seems pretty late in the game to be introducing a character like Aegon.

Aegon in hiding isn’t out of the realm of possibility (he did have his head caved in so maybe the babies could have been switched), but that fact that he just shows up five books in and we’re just supposed to accept it? I don’t think so. Then, there’s the new prophecy that Dany gets that I completely forgot about decided to hold off on mentioning in Chapter 11. Quaithe from Qarth shows up again to give Dany a list of people to watch out for. I think I’ve figured out most of them, but some allude me:

The pale mare= ????

The Kraken and the darkflame= Victarion Greyjoy and I’m guessing, Euron

Lion and griffin= Tyrion and Griff (who’s actually Jon Connington, Lord of Griffin’s Roost)

The sun’s son and the mummer’s dragon= Quentyn Martell and Young Griff (nee Aegon)

The perfumed seneschal= Varys

Now, I could be horribly mistaken and the mummer’s dragon could refer to maybe the Golden Company, who are apparently made up of a different branch of the Targaryen family. But, I don’t think I am.

Quaithe’s prophecy doesn’t really bode well for Dany no matter how you look at it. If Dany does what Quaithe says and not trust any of these people, then she stuck without any allies whatsoever. Which is not good seeing as she not only has to fend off the armies of Yunkai and the Sons of the Harpy, but now she has to deal with Qarth again. If she doesn’t listen to Quaithe, however, then she’ll have her allies but she’ll probably end up being used as some sort of pawn again. It seems like a lose-lose situation no matter what Dany decides.

Speaking of lose-lose situations, Jon Snow has been making some questionable decisions. It starts off OK at first, Jon basically tells off Stannis and his men telling them what’s what about the North. Stannis and Dany’s story lines have really begun to parallel as the series has progressed. Both live under a huge shadow in the form of their respective older brothers, both are fighting insurmountable odds to stay a player in a game their both ill equipped for, and both are complete outsiders trying to make it in a culture they can barely comprehend. For Dany, it’s Meereen and Slaver’s Bay. For Stannis, it’s the North. Jon rightly points out that the North will not willingly follow Stannis just because he’s there rightful king. The Northern lords have been burned by one king and forced into surrender by another. All they really want is peace, especially with what looks to be a long winter coming.

Jon, in a sense, becomes a pseudo-Davos to Stannis while the king is at the Wall. He gets treated like crap from a bunch of lords who are completely incompetent themselves, and he gives Stannis wise and level-headed counsel, which Stannis ends up taking because Jon is absolutely right. And Jon has his own hand injury!

Too bad Jon can’t win this well with his own men. In order to replenish their fighting force, Jon asks the wildlings for fighters to help man the Wall. The Night’s Watch brothers think that this is a bad idea since both sides hate each other. Jon points out that with Stannis gone and no help arriving from King’s Landing any time soon, the only people that can help them are the free folk. It is a good idea in theory, but one that will probably end up hurting Jon in the long run. Just like the rest of his family!

Finally, let’s talk about Davos. He’s in hot water right now and it doesn’t look good for our favorite smuggler. Davos’s chapters ends where we found him in A Feast for Crows, as a prison of Wyman Manderly awaiting execution. I flipped ahead and I think we get at least one more chapter with him so hopefully it counts. But, Davos’s chapters do bring up an interesting aside, namely how the Lannisters and the Freys are handling the fallout of the war. Which is pretty much lying through their teeth. At Davos’s hearing, one of the Freys remarked that it was actually Robb that killed everyone at the Red Wedding by turning into a warg and eating everyone. He goes one to mention that the Starks are dead and bad people, which really doesn’t seem to go over to well in Manderly’s court. So maybe, the North isn’t as cow-towed as everyone thinks.