Anytime I hear the latter I now always think of Jaime’s words later in the series, in how a single act labeled him forever.

doesn’t something as life altering as killing a king in cold blood stay with you forever? if jaime thought that act would not define him, considering his position, he was naive, don’t you think?

so when watching hbo’s take on dany, i didn’t feel a lot of the angst. and i had no clue about martin’s reputation or prior books.

i didn’t fear dany would become a perpetual victim but in retrospect, i believe i didn’t really think about anything very much after the watching the premiere. there was just too much for a complete newbie to process.

starting the book was a relief and dany’s chapter was just more relief. the characters were easier to follow as well as their stories.

i will say that i was rooting for dany right from the start. maybe because i’m a woman as well. i’m not a big fan of “romance novels” but i had a feeling drogo would be a gentle giant in regards to her. i started to suspect he would be the balm after her brother’s sting and when she got the horse from him, i knew he would be good to her. after i started the book (and couldn’t put it down), i quickly found out things were indeed going well for her.

i absolutley agree the dany chapters seem “off world” and i believe its that way by intent. its exactly how i described it to a friend: “there is a strong juxtaposition before and after a dany chapter from the rest of the characters.” very much like the movie “blue velvet”. sordid vs pristine. hot/south vs cold/north. sexy vs well, not so sexy.

as for her brother, he’s made out to be a pompous prick but i confess, i did think he would make it a lot farther than he did. i think that was silly of me now that i’ve read your comments. you’re right. the mere fact of dany marrying a powerful khal would make a weak and poor exile more useless.

but regarding illyrio, i don’t think he was lying about there still being loyal followers of the true king. if that were not the case, i don’t think robert and the council would have felt so threatened by dany’s marriage and pregnancy.

Thanks for the kind words, hope you stick around and continue to enjoy and share in our experience!

@Elena –
i read all the current books of the series before looking up sites online and thus wasn’t exposed to the misogyny comments and when i read about them i was surprised because i didn’t think that about georges writing at all and i usually pick up on stuff like that

i think the distinction you make between writing a misogynist society and a misogynist writer is important and one reason i love the series is seeing how the very different girls/women react to the society and events around them and how much the characters change throughout the series

@4raser Thanks so much for reading!

Thanks for reading!

Quanta, having read this series and experienced it for some years now it’s always easy to forget just how we may have been starting out reading this series, and I – like you – I’m loving reading Elena’s leaps and grasps, be it close to the truth or not. A level of literary virginity popping one can’t go back to:( My prediction: She will like the Dany chapters as we/she moves on. I never found much truth to the elements that I’ve seen people critical of (some of which that Elena highlighted earlier in this project), and generally found that they seem to stay true to the setting. That said, I find that for some reason I’m always last to find out that I should be offended when reading (even if it’s applicable to me).