To me, the most effective thematic through-line of the chapter is its depiction of Aeron Damphair’s “ dark night of the soul.” Throughout this chapter, Aeron is experiencing a complete religious crisis, and is constantly trying and failing to extricate himself from it. It’s almost like Euron doesn’t care about the larger strategic picture…more of which in a minute. Yes, the Reachermen might get bloodied taking back the Shield Isles, but they have more pawns to trade with. In the short-term, it’s a very interesting political move, because the Iron Islands are not exactly rich with manpower, and having already sent away the Iron Fleet, Euron can’t particularly afford to keep sacrificing his own men as pawns. In this new context, we see that Euron only really wanted the Shield Islands so that he could give them away – Euron is definitely a monster and definitely crazy, but he absolutely understands that in feudal politics “ a great king is open-handed” (and how that can cut both ways) – to Harras Harlaw, Andrik the Unsmiling, Maron Volmark and Nute the Barber, thus eliminating any chance that Victarion could turn his faction against Euron. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts.” The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other.
THE FORSAKEN GAME OF THRONES FULL
“Why should I want to hold them?” His brother’s smiling eye glittered in the lantern light, blue and bold and full of malice. Which in turn raises the question of whether we’re going to get a Torgon Latecomer scenario with Theon and Asha – although the show seems to be going with Theon and Asha hooking up with Dany, it’s still an option in the books, although it’ll be significantly harder without Euron raising up the common people to pull down Euron’s regime.Īt the same time, we learn that Euron doesn’t actually care about holding onto the Iron Islands after all, which renders moot a lot of the explainers people have written about how unstable that conquest was: Which means that there’s no religious rebellion on the islands (although Aeron’s men are still there without their leader, so it’s not as if Euron’s sewn up every loose end), and Erik Ironmaker is still in charge.
No godless man may sit the seastone chair!” it turns out that Euron’s mutes bushwacked him while he was communing with the sea and he’s been in the hold of the Silence the whole time. In every town and village shall my words be heard. While many of us, myself included, thought that Aeron was going to “go to Great Wyk to Harlow to Orkmont to Pyke itself. One of the big things we can take away from this chapter is a very definitive answer to what’s going on and what’s likely to go on with the politics of the Iron Islands. The Political Situation of the Iron Islands Indeed, I would highly recommend that everyone who read it goes back and reads it a second time in a somewhat calmer environment, so that you can actually pay attention to what’s going on beneath the freaky visuals. Between the really gruesome violence, the mind-bending psychedelia of the visions, and Euron’s anime villainness turned up to 11, I found myself genuinely rattled – so much so that I think I missed some of the most important stuff in the chapter my first read-through, and only on a second read did I get a handle on what’s going on.
GRRM was clearly relishing the opportunity to go full-on metal album cover with this one, and the apocalyptic imagery has a shock and impact that cannot be ignored and downplayed. To get initial impressions out of the way, let me say that this is an amazing chapter and you all need to read it right away. However, on reflection, I’ve come to an intermediate position between “Euron is a sideshow, Redwynes will win because we need to get to the White Walkers” and “oh crap I’m totally wrong, this is going to take forever,” which I will explain below. My initial reaction was one of rather petty dismay, that this chapter made Euron Crowseye out to be a much bigger deal than I thought he was, and that I would have to pay out my bet with BryndenBFish (and others? Can’t remember, it’s been a while) about the Euron vs. Many many thoughts on the chapter below the cut: THIS IS NOT A DRILL, REPEAT, NOT A DRILL.Īt Balticon 2016 the other night, GRRM read out a brand-new Aeron Damphair chapter from TWOW.
0 kommentar(er)
