[Dolorous Edd]

/begin rant


STOP DELETING MY F***ING POSTS! YOU BLOODY EVIL FORUM!!!!! TWICE!!!



/rant over



Ah, that's better. Severely cut down replies i'm afraid. CBA doing them again.

Originally Posted by Winters_Sorrow

As regards the death's issue. As much as i would love to believe that the Hound is still alive, there is precedent for GRRM killing off 'major' characters (as we all know). I think the Hound is dead - he has too recognisable a "face" to not be spotted otherwise.

I suspect he is dead, but I have a sneaking suspicion he may not be. It all hangs on the wording the man who buried him uses. He repeatedly says that "the hound" is dead. But the only time he says "sandor clegane", he says he is "at rest". He says he buried "the hound" and then placed his helm atop the grave to mark it. I think their may only be armour and clothes in that grave, the symbols of the man sandor clegane once was. Perhaps.

Originally Posted by Winters_Sorrow

Gregor & Davos - GRRM seems to want us to think that both of these are dead (and playing Devil's advocate for a moment, they could both be dead!). If Gregor is alive, would that make Qyburn a Red priest? So far they're the only ones apart from the Others who can sustain life past endurance. I can't think that Oberyn didn't use the most deadly poison he could when he fought Gregor.

Qyburn mentions that although basilisk poison usually kills nearly instantly, by stopping the heart, in gregors case it was "thickened" somehow to slow it down, thus causing the maximum amount of pain for the victim. I don't think Qyburn's "cured" gregor of the poison; I reckon he's merely stopped it from reaching the heart. gregor's still in agony! He always will be! He was a raving, unhinged lunatic beforehand; think what he'll be like now!

Originally Posted by Winters_Sorrow

As for Davos, he is a likeable, honest character so he could be dead too! Honest men die when the Game of Thrones is played!

He isn't dead. Martin seems to have taken great care that the split didn't "spoil" events in ADWD, and the "death" of Davos is the only time I noticed an event being prematurely revealed in the entire book. And the way it was revealed. A single paragraph in a chapter, a second-hand report from a letter. It was not crucial to the scene; it would have been so easy for martin to simply remove that paragraph from the text, with no effect on the scene. So why didn't he? Because he didn't want to.

Originally Posted by Winters_Sorrow

For me, although I enjoyed the POVs and story in AFfC, I greatly felt the absence of Jon & Tyrion in this book. It was very good to see more of Dorne however and more of the riverlands & Eyrie.

Ditto, I loved it - but I missed all me fave characters! The stuff in dorne was particularly fine. Doran Martell! What a devious git! I love it!