Erik Kain is a blogger and freelance writer. Currently he serves as Editor-in-Chief of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen and writes a tech blog at Forbes. Visit his politics blog here. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The National Review, The Washington Examiner, and the now-defunct True/Slant. You can also contact him via email.
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Wow. Thanks.
This is amazing. Two of my early favorites, as I peruse, are the Flayed Man of the Dreadfort and the fact that the Freys really do look like weasels.
You know, until I saw this map I had trouble picturing what House Bolton’s sigil looked like.
Fun game: is it possible to figure out who everyone at the bottom is?
From left to right, I’ve got: Jaime, Arthur Dayne, someone, Gerold Hightower, Aerys II, Varys, Pycelle, someone, Oswell Whent, and someone. One looks Dornish, and I have no idea about the other two.
Oh, duh. Lewyn Martell.
How are you identifying them? (I get Jaime, from his golden hair.)
The top (obviously) is the Seven: Smith, Warrior, Father, Stranger, Mother, Maiden, Crone.
Well, Aerys, Varys, and Pycelle seem obvious. And the rest are the Kingsguard. Dayne has the greatsword, Dawn. Gerold Hightower is called “the Bull”, so that seems like him with the helm. The Whents had a bat sigil, so that’s got to be Oswell From the Kingsguard. And the Dornish member of Aerys’ Kingsguard is Prince Lewyn Martell.
I have a question… I read somewhere that Dance is the follow-up to the third novel. I try not to read too much about it all so that I can avoid spoilers, but is this true? If so, where does the fourth novel fit in? Does Dance take place in between the third and fourth or after the fourth? (I know that there are some prequels. I am kind of ignoring them at the moment while I focus on the main four/five.)
Dance and Feast were split up (originally one book) and have different POV characters. Both take off after the third, but Dance goes further than Feast in the timeline. So it’s like a sequel to both.
Okay, so Dance ends after Feast. Is it supposed to begin at the same time, during, or after Feast?
They begin at the same time, but Dance is supposed to go on longer.
Great! Thanks!
Several of the POV characters from Feast appear in Dance as well, if only briefly.
*spoilers but not many*
Are we going to get to see Howland Reed in Dance? Are we ever going to get to see Howland Reed? He’s one of my favorite characters, and he’s never actually appeared in any of the books.
Why is he one of your favorite characters? It just seems hard to me to form much of an opinion on someone who the reader really knows almost nothing about.
He’s the only one who came back with Ned from the Tower of Joy, which means he’s the only one left who knows what happened, the circumstances of Lyanna’s death, and some other things. He apparently saved Ned’s life and earned his eternal friendship. He also appears to possess some kind of magic powers and lives in a floating city in a swamp. What’s not to love?
Hah, fair enough.
Cool. Just finished A Game of Thrones last night (technically this morning) and am ready to plunge into the winter waters of Kings. Amazing storytelling thus far. I particularly admire how the fantastic elements are present, but minimal, lurking beyond the Wall and within seemingly cold stone. It makes the their eruption all the more potent.
I agree!
Two questions for the hivemind: the red and white shield under Castamere —who is that and why is it upside-down? Second, what’s the red, yellow, white, and black shield near Nunn’s Deep? Is that a manticore?
First: that would be the sigil of House Reyne of Castamere. It’s upside down as a reference to Tywin’s complete annihilation of the house and its line of succession.
Second: The manticore sigil belongs to House Lorch, of which the only member we’ve seen is Ser Amory. There appears to be some dispute on the interwebs about exactly what the Lorch sigil looks like. I just did a quick Ctrl+F in my Kindle versions of the first two books, and I can see why. It’s never very clearly described, although it’s definitely a manticore.
Ah right, I forgot about the Reynes.
And Lorch yes. For some reason I thought Lorch was the first of his line as a knight.
In anycase, many thanks, Ryan B.
Also, is it me or is House Bolton kind of cool? In like a favorite antagonist sort of way? I mean Roose Bolton and Ramsay are just such blood-curdling characters. I love it.
This is a great site; I had been looking for a discussion site for “A Game of Thrones” and luckily found this one. I am re-reading GoT right now, and would love to participate in the discussions. I just finished chapters 42 and 43 (Tyrion VI and Eddard XI). Am I behind with respect to you guys? Please let me know. Thanks!
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