I actually like Daavos (I think it's two A's but I'm not sure) a lot. He's loyal and does what needs to be done. I don't really get the whole finger thing with him though. That's kinda weird. He lost a finger for every two smuggling runs or something when he joined Stannis, which makes no sense. Why??
Daavos Seaworth was a smuggler by trade, an illegal occupation. During the Rebellion, Stannis sided with his brother, obviously, and had to hold Storm..stormcastle? Something Storm. The Targarian army couldn't breach through their walls so they decided to starve them out and camped outside the walls. As time went by, all of Stannis' food was gone and even all the cats and dogs. Cannibalism became a real possibility. However, on a moonlit night, Daavos smuggled in barrels of onions for Stannis and kept him and his men from starving and eatting one another. Once the war was over, Stannis raised Daavos to a lordship and he became known as the Onion Knight (For the onions). However, one good deed doesn't cancel the bad in Stannis' eyes. He is a lord of justice and doesn't ignore such things. So, he cut off 5 knuckles off his hand as punishment for moving illegal goods around (Kinda like how thieves can get their hands cut off for stealing, remove the offending body part).
I loved Joffrey. Jon and Danaerys are both poorly written characters, in my opinion. More or less "Mary Sues" in the strict and also broad sense. Two young naive yet naturally talented individuals cast off to the ends of the earth in what looks like bad situations, only to miraculously find themselves In charge. They have no major flaws and everyone loves them. The mother stark was written well, but she's your typical extremely selfish mother, which I can't stand. Joffrey is another well written character who I can't stand, however, since it's obvious he's meant to be hated, I can enjoy him and I thought he was great. Same with theon and the hot incest queen. Don't watch the show, but the girl who plays Daenaerys looks absolutely ridiculous with bleached hair. How did the show get away with that?
Storm's End is the Winterfell to the Stormlands (pretty much the "North" of the Baratheon holdings. All the houses in the Stormlands are bannermen to the Baratheons (like the Karstarks are to Winterfel/the Starks). And no I get that, but why only five knuckles? Why not finish the job and remove ALL his knuckles?
Considering the general stigma against cripples, I don't think Stannis would have thought it just to cripple a man entirely for life and force him to love like so. Just cripple him short of uselessness There might have been a detailed reasoning behind why only five knuckles but I don't recall it.
@123456789 'Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night.' Horrid introduction to a totally unlikeable character. At least he doesn't take up much room but who knows what's coming? I found it very hard to warm to Catelyn. Her treatment of Jon ensured that. I wasn't a fan of Eddard's either. He could have done with a bit less honour and a few more smarts.
I think Eddard had to be overly honourable or the entire instigating event (Him losing his head) would of never had happened and that means no war, no death of entire family, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But it makes me wonder... Who influenced Joffrey to execute Eddard? It was not the Lannisters, they were shocked to find out Joffrey decided to do otherwise when they had instructed him to let Eddard take the black. Couldn't have been Varys as he wouldn't want a war. Perhaps Petyr influenced the boy? Or Maybe it was all part of Joffrey's madness, just like he had hired a catspaw to kill Bran in his sick bed (Though it was with Baelish's dagger... wonder where he got it from, exactly Lost to a card game, my butt) or perhaps Joffrey is simply a sadistic little idiot and launched the country to war.
The point was Joffrey was uncontrollable and here's a key word for somg of Ice and fire, something I got to give George rr Martin credit for, Joffrey was stupid. He was a stupid adolescent and Eddard was a stupid honorable servant of the King and Catelym was a stupid mother. I like stupid characters . They're realistic. And they make the smart characters, cersei, tywin, etc that much scarier. Tbh, Jon snow and Daenaerys really kill song of I've an fire for me. While I hate Catelyn, those two just suck me out of the story.
@123456789 That's so odd considering I love Daenerys. Though, I like Jon but for the most part, piss on the Wall. Just fraternity drama >.>
What do you guys think of Martin's disallowing people from creating fanfiction on his work? I've heard a few other authors doing so but I never really understood their reasoning behind it. Something about property rights or somethin.
You are not welcome here with such slandering words! G.R.R. Martin is a god amongst writers! A GOD!!! *Rage*
On the fan fiction thing.... Cracked.com actually ran a piece on A Song of Ice and Fire fan fiction. Its pretty messed up, that's why. Robb wargs into Greywind and decides to pork Nymeria for some reason. Oops haha Arya's warging into Nymeria....
Tolstoy is often praised for writing very human characters. Now before I get skinned for putting Tolstoy in the same sentence with George RR Martin, allow me to preempt that by also saying I think Tolstoy is very overrated, so there! For a fantasy, I think George does a stellar job creating very human characters and is very incisive. Catelyn Stark, not wanting to go to Winterfell, but coming to love her husband anyway, and hating his bastard son, very, very realistic. Two fraternal twins having a secret bond against the world (minus the incest), but, as they get older, they become different people and wind up becoming almost enemies- well, let's just say I'm impressed he even knows that truth. Joffrey is a perfect brat. Which is why I'm really stunned by Daenaries and Jon Snow, as I've said before. I just don't see that kind of insight being applied to them. Both are very vanilla characters. Everything just sort of works for them. Their plot arcs are very similar. Their large popularity makes me wonder if George wasn't making a commercial move by including them.
Has Daenaerys had everything go her way? Her entire family was murdered by the Usurper, minus Vaesarys. Then she was sold to Khal Drogo for Vaesarys' army. Then Drogo killed Vaesarys, then Khal Drogo died himself. That's all Season 1 and Game of Thrones. Season 2 and A Clash of Kings saw her dragons born and he heading to Qarth. Nothing of worth came to her in Qarth except her dragons being stolen and retaken by her. Season 3 (and what I assume to be the first half of A Storm of Swords) gave her the eight thousand Unsullied and her Second Sons. Seaon 4 gave her the city of Mereen which seems to hate her. I mean, she was hoping to sweep over Westeros with her Khalassar back during season 1. Look where we are now. I mean, she's not fully 3D, but she isn't flat and things don't always go her way. Now, Jon Snow is different. He was born different and it's been his protagonist since episode one. He joined the Night's Watch just to escape that and it didn't work. Season 1 gave him his sword, saw Ghost grow old, and turned him into a Black Brother. Season 2 showed him ranging, as he always wanted. Season 3 turned him into a "Free Folk", gave him a girlfriend, broke his oaths, and ended with three arrows in his chest. Season 4 returned him to Castle Black, where he was almost shunned by the new Lord Commander. They didn't listen to him, and he was right. Mance's attack on Castle Black took his ex-girlfriend, Pip, the other friend whose name I'm forgetting, and a bunch of other brothers. These characters are very lucky, against all odds. But what about Tyrion, for that matter? He was supposed to die young. From there his family tortured him emotionally (people have killed themselves for lesser things, mind you) and Cersei tried to have him killed during the Battle of the Blackwater. In the book, he loses half his nose. He's luckier in the show. All of them are lucky, as I've said, but they're not getting what they want. Jon wanted to not be branded 'the bastard' by everyone. He ended up as 'Lord Snow', which ended up worse. Dany wanted Westeros. She still doesn't have it and has lost all of her family.
Look at the plot arc. Jon and Danaerys are more less orphans, both set out to the ends of the earth . It STARTS bad. Harry potter was also an orphan and started out locked in a closet. Then, by no virtue of their own, but due to their heritage, al three of them find themselves in extraordinary positions, where each of them is revered and listened to. It's unearned responsibility. That, my friend, is more than luck. Let's look at Jaime. Handsome famous knight. Loses his hand. Loses his sister. Befriends an ugly woman warrior. Quite different, right? Tyrion goes from clown to noseless clown to Kings hand (or the equilavent) to murdering his father. I would say those other characters are quite different from Jon and Dany, who are both currently unharmed, powerful, and undersvedly famous. Worse, we know where they were when they started. We saw them go from zero to hero in no time, as opposed to the older characters with real history.
I dunno, Stannis didn't seem to know who Jon was (despite everyone else in the North knowing). Hell, he almost died if it wasn't for Melisandre going "Hey, screw this war for the stupid city of King's Landing, the real war is up north". Stannis wouldn't have thought of it at all. And Dany's plans seem to be crashing down in Mereen right now, since these people are selling themselves back into slavery. Stannis doesn't seem to like Jon very much (or at least Davos doesn't), so I don't see him getting much 'hero' there. Jon wouldn't have been able to kill Mance, so the Wildlings would have attacked the Wall and taken it if Stannis didn't show up. What about Stannis? He's gone from hero to zero. Everyone was scared of him up until the Battle of the Blackwater, then Tyrion screwed him over with the wildfire and the chain. Then he was nothing, and he was sitting there brooding on Dragonstone for the first half of A Storm of Swords. And, given that Joffery and Tommen and Mercella (I think I got her name right) are all incest borne bastards of Jaime and Cersei, Stannis deserves the Iron Throne. He's the only one in the show who actually has a right to it.
I see what you're saying 123, and I agree with you. Even when Dany and Jon had it a bit rough, they sort of found shelter in opposite sex. When Jon is with the Wildlings (which is a difficult position, remember he had to kill one of Watch's best rangers and was later thought of commanders as a traitor), he found shelter in Ygritte. With Dany is a bit different, she has problems with Mereen folk and freed slaves in previously freed cities, but she has a loyal council (including Jorah, he was actually on her side towards the end), and she finds a short shelter in Daario's embrace (but it's quite different from Jon&Ygritte, those two were in love, when with Dany and Daario there was mainly only physichal lust). What about Bran? He is also not your typical hero. I think he has had a development as a character, he is slowly learning his role in the world. Plus, he had to abandon the world he knows to find something that was known only as a legend, but he is brave enough to go on a long walk, even though he has no legs and the land beyond the wall is exclusively dangerous. When it comes to series, I was quite dissapointed there wasn't Coldhands. I mean, look at his awesomeness! EDITED TO ADD: if the theories of Coldhanhds being Benjen Stark are true, then I think series made a mistake to avoid him. But this is just a theory so far... @Ulramar , it's Myrcella.
Yeah I just saw it was spelled like that. On Jon killing Halfhands (the ranger he killed to prove himself to Mance), in the book Halfhands literally told Jon to do it to get him in with the Wildlings before they were both captured. And on Bran, I don't like his character for some reason. In the books, where I am (beginning of A Storm of Swords), the first half of his chapter is him warging in Summer and it's a boring read then he's whining about something in the second half. As for the show, I don't know. I assume his plot is interesting but it seems too drawn out. Do we really need to see them walking for two seasons?
Yeah, I'm aware of Qhorin ordering Jon to kill him, in the series he also ordered him. Haha, I agree with you, I also don't like Bran's story so much, I just wanted to express my opinion that in my eyes, he is also a wee bit different character. The excursion is boring, yes, but now that he reached his destination I'm very intrigued what will happen next.
For whatever reason seasons 2 and 3 seem to be a blur to me, from Blackwater to the Red Wedding, so I don't remember that part sadly. But yes, I do think Bran's story will pick up. D&D (what people keep calling the producers/directors/writers/whoever) did what Rob Kirkman did with The Walking Dead and the prison: they drew it out too long. I understand why they did it: that's how it was in the books. But they could have had less Bran chapters. We only really needed the one where Jon betrays the Wildlings, them going under the Wall, the two episodes at Craster's Keep, and then had the finale. But I hope it does pick up.
