u/sayfalbaha

That line made me loudly snort. Rhaenyra is consistently doing nothing but sitting around Dragonstone and talking while other people push her claim. She's not much of a dragonrider or strategist. Her own kingsguard locked her in a tower at the behest of her own son and all she could do was scream and cry.

Her sons are bastard-born because she was too stubborn and indecisive to pick a husband and ended up married off to a gay man. She's also taken L after L throughout the show, losing three of her dragonriders so far (four if you count Laenor) and replacing them with three commoners of questionable loyalty.

Genuine question to Rhaenyra fans. What has she ever done that has displayed the soul or heart of a king?

One of the most common questions about ADWD is "what was the point of Quentyn's chapters?" and people often express that they are pointless and a waste of time. I would argue that, in the full context of a finished series, these chapters may be more important than we think.

The most common reasons people reply with are that it's there to alienate Dorne and the Martells from Daenerys. While I do think that's partly the case, I present another reason: Quentyn's failure is going to strengthen fAegon's claim to legitimacy.

After being rejected by Daenerys, Quentyn decides that his next best move is to tame a dragon. He thinks that he can do this because he has Targaryen lineage himself, through his great-grandmother, the first Daenerys Targaryen. Clearly, this lineage is too far back, it does not work, the dragons do not like him. He is of high lineage and descended from royalty, but that doesn't matter.

Who do the dragons like? Brown Ben Plumm. According to him, his ancestor, Ossifer Plumm, married a Targaryen princess (that being Elaena). Tyrion suspects that he is a descendant of Viserys Plumm, who was reputedly fathered by Aegon IV and his cousin Elaena (Ossifer's wife). That would mean that, despite the name, Viserys Plumm was a full-blooded Targaryen on both sides. As that was during the reign of Aegon IV, we can extrapolate that Ben has significantly more Targaryen blood than Quentyn. And this is borne out by the fact that the dragons like him and tolerate him, despite the fact that he is pointed out to be an utter mongrel with Ibbenese, Qohorik, Dothraki, and other ancestry.

It doesn't matter that Quentyn is of royal lineage, whereas Ben's lineage is primarily lowborn and mongrelized. What matters to the dragons is that Ben has a greater concentration of dragonblood.

Despite some hints, I highly doubt that Brown Ben is going to end up riding one of the only three dragons in the world. I have a hard time seeing how that would move the story along, and I also don't think Ben has enough dragon blood to successfully ride a dragon. I would not, however, be surprised if Ben tries to tame one, possibly out of desperation, and fails, to set up our successful dragontamer: Aegon.

I posit that Viserion is not going to become a weapon of the Others, in the books. I think that was a Game of Thrones writing decision that they had to make because fAegon was cut out of the show. There have been many statements made that there is going to be a second Dance of the Dragons in the books, and I think the clear and most obvious way for that to happen is for Aegon to tame Viserion.

From what we know, dragonblood has to be relatively concentrated for the dragons to allow a rider. Great-grandma on one side isn't close enough. Brown Ben probably isn't close enough either. fAegon will tame the dragon, and while that will confirm he has concentrated dragonblood, this cannot be used as evidence of his legitimacy or not.

So, in context, I don't think Quentyn's chapters are totally pointless. Aside from the consequences in Dorne, they will serve as a small piece of evidence toward Aegon having actual dragonblood.

If I am correct about this, then it will leave fAegon in a very particular spot in terms of legitimacy. "He's got real dragonblood, but whether he's Rhaegar's son, a Blackfyre, a Brightflame, some combination, the world will never know."

To me, that sounds like the most plausibly GRRM answer to this character.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but I'm reading Wind and Truth and at 200 pages... it just feels like a slog.

So many named characters with absolutely no personality. An incredibly convoluted plot. An impossible number of Radiant and Fused orders to remember. And, it seems like nobody has a character arc anymore. Adolin committed murder and he's too busy thinking about clothes, because that's his one personality trait. Dalinar no longer seems like a complicated person. Jasnah and Navani don't seem dangerous like they used to. I thought Shallan fixed her personality issues, but she's still got three personalities. (Does anyone think it's interesting when she LARPs as a cowgirl or a knight?)

Honestly, I think tying the series so much into the greater Cosmere was a bad idea. The whole series feels small and irrelevant once it zooms out from Roshar to the greater universe; a greater universe whose existence doesn't seem to phase anyone. Nor does anyone seem really interested.

And the great, continent-wide war... feels like it doesn't happen, because everyone just hangs out at Urithiru talking all the time. We hear about the war, but it doesn't feel like it really happens. We don't get to really see the impact on the ground level. Nobody ever seems to die.

I'm really tired of reading about these boring people sitting around Urithiru just talking constantly.

For that matter, it feels like Sanderson has forgotten about all the interesting lore and flavor that made the series so interesting to begin with. The first couple books felt like a really interesting, alien world with some cool characters. This book feels like the world is just window dressing for a bunch of characters to share stiff, boring, unrealistic dialogue. (Which, for the most part, sounds like it was spoken by a constantly-online millennial.)

Am I being too harsh? Does this book get good at a certain point?