Tyrion: For the most part it's just a run-of-the-mill chapter. More and more, Tyrion's chapters feel a lot like Dany's chapters were for the first couple books; ain't much going on. Getting to know another dwarf honestly isn't all that compelling a storyline, especially considering this particular dwarf doesn't have all that interesting a storyline. The only real interesting bit came at the very end, with the mention of the tall and twisted thing headed to Dany, with ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood. Could that be Euron Greyjoy? We know that a lot of people are supposed to be converging on Meereen, we know he has a dragon horn, and we know that we haven't seen him or Damphair since the kingsmoot, and only Victarion has been seen, attacking the Shield Islands. Martin really likes to drop a ton of hints and mysteries into his stories. Sometimes they can be annoying (if for no other reason than the sheer volume of them, some chapters seem to open up a dozen new prophesies that take hundreds of pages to solve, it's a lot to process). Sometimes they can really be interesting if they're somewhat guessable.
Bran: I've actually found some of his chapters to be kind of disappointing. After all this build-up, which his character not really doing a whole lot, he finally gets to the thing we've been waiting for for literally a decade, and then nothing really happens. However, the new revelation that Bran can see back into time really does open up a lot of possibilities. I found it highly amusing that Bran was listening into Eddard's prayers when he first brought Jon back to Winterfell, but left out all the juicy bits we really want to hear! Nice tease, George! Really though, Bran could be a fascinating vehicle for finding out all sorts of things that we thought might have been totally lost with certain characters having died. It could also be a powerful weapon, since Bran can almost become more powerful than Varys at his best. But how fast will his abilities develop, and how much use will he make of them? If he's stuck hanging out with Lord Brynden forever, he's not really of much use to the larger cast of characters, and that really does need to change in the near future. I feel a little sorry for Meera and Jojen. They're sort of suffering uselessly at the moment. I hope that future Bran chapters really do something. Even history revelations would be interesting at this point.
Jon: Most of this chapter really seems contrived to get us to learn a bit more about Stannis. Part of me wonders if the Umbers and the Karstarks will really stay true to Stannis. We know that their allegiance is suspect, but usually Martin likes to blindside us with stuff, which, to me, means that the expected (Stannis getting stabbed in the back) is less likely to happen. Also, Manderly's forces are still a factor that hasn't been taken into account. I'm glad that the Mormonts showed up to help, despite their earlier reluctance, and that they hurt the Greyjoys badly. One little tidbit that I thought was interesting was the idea of taking two corpses back to the ice cells. Is he planning on doing a little experimentation with Others? Jon has always been fairly methodical. Burning them would seem wise, but perhaps he wants to experiment with dragonglass and Valyrian steel on them. An interesting, unexpected move. Again, I look forward to more exciting things happening at the Wall.
Daenerys: So, we see her as a woman of the people, washing and healing the sick, and then being the hard-hearted but wise queen by turning off her heart and turning on her brain by leaving those same sick to starve to death outside her walls. It was a difficult but wise thing to do, considering the Yunkai'i specifically drove the Astapori to Meereen as a sort of biological weapon. It was quite a surprise to see Brown Ben Plumm go over to the other side, if he truly did. He wasn't mentioned often, but his defection kind of came out of left field. Still, we know that Quentyn is on his was to Meereen now, so things could get interesting. Looks like he'll make it there before the wedding at this rate. Dany, for her part, finally gave into her desire to have Daario. Hopefully she cools her jets a bit now. I'm a little surprised that Martin hasn't gone into the male/female dynamics of power a bit more. Dany has taken Daario for a consort, and she talks of marriage, but does her marriage make Hizdahr her superior? Some of the coolest female characters of the book have been female ones who defy archetypal female roles (like basically any woman in Dorne). Martin is sidestepping that issue a little bit here, and I'd like to see it explores a tiny bit more.
The Prince of Winterfell (Theon): Two interesting things here: 1. Mance is at Winterfell already! He's clearly the singer who arrived with the "washerwomen." They've mentioned before that he plays the lute (or whatever) and has a fair singing voice, so it's clearly him. I only hope that he doesn't end up doing something foolish that ruins the plans that Manderly has. 2. The focus, from afar, on Manderly. He's playing his part well, though it's interesting that no one seems to think he has the stones to really go through with it. We know that he doesn't give a damn about rituals of bread and salt, not after what happened to his son. Could the food really be poisoned, and he poisoned himself with it? Or could his incredible fatness give him some sort of immunity? What does he have planned, and will he have a chance to pull it off under Roose's watchful eye? Or is he really as craven as Lady Dustin says? There's still so much that could go both wrong and right in the north. I'm genuinely at a loss to guess what will happen with all the forces coming together. My fear is that Stannis will be smashed, Rickon killed, and the treachery of the north finally secured with Roose Bolton in total control, somehow. But I really hope that he finds a way to come out of it alive, and that somehow, Manderly gets to march on the Twins, and that Davos finds Rickon. And if dreams were wishes...
The Watcher (Areo Hotah): OooOoOoOoo. So we're finally back to some characters from Feast for Crows. That means that the timeline has more or less caught up for most of the characters. In a way that's a little disappointing, as I feel like even less happened in the first half of this book than happened in Feast. So much of it was the beginning of a new set of plots and schemes. Only Stannis really did anything. On the other hand, Prince Doran is potentially setting into motion a lot of interesting pieces, many of which converge on King's Landing in interesting ways. I'm still awaiting the fallout of Cersei more or less being imprisoned by the High Septon. It's awesome to see Doran finally stand up for himself and really explain the power structure of Dorne to his wayward nieces. He was the perfect counterpart to Oberyn, and the Sand Snakes need to fall in line. That was a pretty cool moment.
I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the Feast characters return. I'm also really wondering who is going to die before the end of this. I fear there are simply too many threads at this point, and Martin will be compelled to end many of them before he writes the next book, if only to make it a little simpler to keep track of. Plus, it just seems like too much time has passed without a major tragedy that makes me want to throw the book across the room, so, I'm really worried about that. I keep getting sucked back in, and Martin has raised my hopes just enough to keep me invested...even though I just know he's going to dash them against the rocks.
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