The Blind Girl (Arya): Hey, look who's back! Now, my feelings towards Arya in the last book were somewhat muddled. I felt a lot of her time was wasted, but I think in this book, we see that actually a great deal has changed! I think this is the first real evidence we've seen that her training in the House of Black and White really is imparting some serious skills and knowledge on her. She's learned foreign languages, learned valuable skills with using all her senses, and at the very end, is finally coming close to mastering another important skill that her brothers share. Clearly she's a skinchanger, just like Jon and Bran (though oddly, we've seen no evidence that Sansa is, as well). It's funny, because in Bran's chapter they mentioned that one in a thousand is born a skin changer. Clearly the numbers have to be a little more diverse than that, unless they're only among northmen, but then how odd is it that ALL the Stark children turn out to be skinchangers? Hm. There really is something special about the Starks. And the way that Arya is using her abilities to augment her training is pretty cool in a way that Bran's never really was, even if Bran was better at it. Her training is almost like being at Hogwarts. Potions class, language lessons, lying lessons, combat lessons, using her senses lessons. Very cool that they gave her her sight back at the end, and we can assume that she earned it, even if she may have cheated by using her skinchanger powers. I like that even as she moves through identities and training, she still hasn't lost who she is. She still remembers Arya of Winterfell, even if she has removed herself enough from that life to view Arya as someone else. I really hope Martin does some great stuff with her in the next book, or later in this one.
A Ghost in Winterfell (Theon): Geez, Theon is getting almost as much face time as Jon, Tyrion and Dany. I'm mostly not complaining, because without him we'd have a devil of a time knowing what was happening inside the walls of Winterfell. On the other hand, I don't so much care about him anymore. His little slow transformation from douchebag to broken sub-human back to human again isn't very compelling. However, I do sort of hate Martin for making me actually feel bad for Theon. I think we saw this a lot in Storm, but the only thing Theon really wanted was to be a Stark, but he didn't really understand them. So he conquers Winterfell to gain control, but learns too late that Iron Islands style rule doesn't get you love, it gets you fear, but he wanted to be loved. And it turns out he couldn't admit to himself that he wanted to be a Stark until after he'd helped destroy the entire family. Okay, that's pretty damned tragic. Doesn't mean I forgive him, he had daddy issues up the wazoo, but man, tragic. The random deaths in Winterfell are interesting. I'm guessing it's all Mance's work, rather than Manderly's. I also think the little kerfuffles between Manderly and the Freys are interesting. They will come to blows eventually. Oh ho, and what's this little bit about the tree whispering "Bran" to him? We were told earlier that you can't communicate through trees, but what I think he meant more specifically was that you can't communicate with the past (though it appears Eddard did start a bit when Bran called to him), yet, I swear I remember reading that the Children of the Forest used to chat via the WeirWood Web. So I don't see why Bran couldn't punch up www.winterfell.north and interact a bit with things around him. I figured it would take a special person to receive the message though, which makes Theon's interaction something interesting. If Stannis really is at Winterfell, things will come to a head there soon.
Tyrion: My only guess, if we're supposed to know the guy in the crowd who tried to bid on Tyrion, is that it's Ben Plumm. It seems like there was a lot going on there, but I don't think we were meant to know what all of it was. The only real points of interest in this chapter were: Tyrion and Jorah sold to a Yunkai'i, very close to Meereen, going to perform in Meereen.
Jaime: Old friend! Jaime in Feast actually kind of depressed the hell out of me. I'm betting since so little space is left in the book, this is probably the only look we'll get at him. It's nice to see him, and given how this chapter ends, it looks like he's finally back in the thick of things, and back with Brienne! The two of them together was probably some of the best stuff in Storm, so I'm glad to see it repeated. Kind of sad to see the very last remnants of the Kingdom of the North finally washed away. But I give props to the guys who held out that long with no hope of salvation. I like that in his deliberations with the two sides, he was calm, fair, even compassionate. We're seeing a much more mature side of Jaime, which has been building for at least a book now. Frankly, it's also a more lordly side. The old Jaime I never wanted to see in power, in fact, I wanted to see him dead. This Jaime, however, I'd like to see as Lord of Casterly Rock. I think we're at a point where he might be the best choice to restore the family name. Perhaps Tyrion, perhaps, but, he's headed down such a dark path. I just love that he's back with Brienne, probably off on some adventure to save Sansa! What I don't get, is why Brienne coughed up a totally implausible story to him. There's no way she found Sansa, Sansa is hidden at the Eyrie. And there's no way she's with the Hound, the Hound is dead, and someone is faking his identity. So either Brienne fell for the trap, or Brienne is a pawn in Catelyn's trap, and Jaime is falling into that. I'd really rather it be the first. If it's the second, it'll kill a great relationship possibly, and maybe kill Jaime in the process. Stoneheart doesn't seem to much care about nuances and redemption in her current state.
Finally, I want to talk briefly about sex. Oooo, this blog just got spicier! Really though, one of the more adult aspects of this series, other than its depictions of violence, is its graphic depictions of sex. I've talked about this tangentially when discussing other characters before, but I thought, being most of the way through this book, sex deserves another mention. Martin might get some flak from some people for gratuitously graphic sex scenes, but I really don't think that's fair. Sex scenes seem to come in two flavors: Brief, and incredibly brief. None of his sex scenes are every page after page affairs, like tawdry romance novels, that delve into ridiculous levels of awful prose and euphemism. They're usually a couple paragraphs at most. That's because sex is a narrative tool in these stories, but Martin only writes as much as he has to to get the point across, not merely to titillate.
I think if you did a survey of every sex scene in this entire series, you'd find that they mostly function to establish relationships between the characters. Perhaps the two biggest scenes in this particular book, between Dany and Daario, and between Asha and Qarl, were highly revealing about the characters. Daario and Qarl are pretty much throwaway characters (Qarl more so, it seems). But it reveals a lot about Dany, her passions, and what she's willing to sacrifice in order to be what she perceives to be a good queen. The contrast between her passion for Daario and her obvious coldness toward Hizdahr (and note, there's a sex scene between her and Hizdahr that lasts all of two seconds) really emphasizes how much she is willing to sacrifice. As for Asha, it shows that she's not totally cold, and that on some level, her passions are deeply personal, rather than for titles, or for silly notions of love like Tristifer holds. It also shows how trapped even she is by custom and family. She can't marry the guy she really loves, because he's too low-born, even while she's not the gender or birth necessary to ascend to her father's throne, the Seastone Chair. I could go on and on about the sex in the other books, like Jon's sexual relationship with Ygritte, which was arguably some of the best character development in the series, or Cersei's various uses of sex to hold power over people (including a very telling scene where a lesbian encounter is her attempt to assert masculine power over another woman), but I think I've gotten the point across. There's little that's gratuitous about sex in these novels, and if you pay attention, you'll find that sex is some of the most demonstrative storytelling in here.
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