I actually like them both for different reasons, although there are two parts if ACoK that I like better than anything in AFfC and that’s the House of the Undying and Theon’s reunion with Asha. But I do tend to find the lack of Dany, Jon and very little Arya to make it less enjoyable. But I do love watching Cersei going crazy paranoid.
The House of the Undying might be one of my top 5 scenes in the entire series! Top ten, definitely. But as a whole, my love of Jaime and Cersei’s arcs in particular in AFFC, as well as the Sam and Maester Aemon stuff and the steps on Arya and Sansa’s journeys, elevated AFFC past ACoK for me. (The Iron Island stuff was a serious drag, though. I said it on Twitter and I’ll say it again here: CTHULHUVIKINGS, WHY ARE YOU BORING.)
Then again, I honestly don’t like Jon as much as some people. He’s much better for me in ASoS, but until then he doesn’t do anything for me. I was much more annoyed with the lack of Tyrion, to be honest! Oh, Tyrion. <3
Re: the Jaime/Cat talk, I read some interview with the producers that said that they wanted to move some of his book 3 stuff to s2 so he’d actually have stuff to do. Maybe this was the start of it? I can see them introducing additional scenes for him in the meantime, and then having his jailbreak be closer to midseason. I’ve mostly liked the stuff they’ve added, anyway!
The House of the Undying is one of my favorite scenes as well, especially once I went re-read that scene and caught that because of it Dany knew some things that were going to happen before anyone else did. I’m not a fan of Cersei’s chapters mostly because I want to throttle her every time she opens her mouth. The woman is crazy and I hate that she’s still around and some other characters aren’t. I am looking forward to her getting what’s coming to her at least.
I really the like Jaime and Brienne stuff though. I have this desire to see the two of them end up together if they make it through. They truly are the only people in Westeros who understand and respect the other. They are both far more honorable than most of the others in the series, even if Jaime is the Kingslayer. I have to give George some major credit for making Jaime one of the best and most likeable characters after what he did in book 1 and I’m really looking forward to the stuff with him and Brienne on screen.
I am looking forward to seeing how all the plot threads from AFfC involving Dany turn out in the next book. She’s got so many people after her for so many different reasons that I can’t wait to see how the Mother of Dragons handles them. I have a feeling her dragons are going to get to eat a few people.
I missed Jon mostly because his storyline has the most mystery with his true parentage still being unknown and I think what’s going on in the North is far more important to the survival of Westeros than everything happening in the South. He’s probably the character I like the least out of the POV’s I enjoy because he is kind of dull but I still can’t help but like him and I fully believe he is the Prince that was promised (and Dany is Azhor Ahahi with her dragons).
I will say that the character I most want to see in the books that we haven’t seen yet is Howland Reed. I’m convinced that he hasn’t left his stronghold because he’s the only living person who knows the truth about Jon’s parentage. He is the only surviving member of the group that went to the Tower of Joy. What other reason could he have had for sending his children to Winterfell to pledge fealty after Robb called the banners.
Hiya! I’ve just started on book 3…
…but I wanted to post because I feel so bad for Tyrion after his first talk with Tywin after the battle.
COLD, MAN. SO COLD. Wow. Poor Tyrion. I want to give him a hug and tell him it’s ok his father’s a douche.
- Arya is still awesomeballs.
- I really liked the opening bit with how some brothers of the Black are plotting to kill Mormont, not because I want Mormont to die or anything, but I think it makes so much sense that there should be some brothers at the Wall who absolutely hate Snow’s clique and so are plotting against them. And I can already imagine it being a great looking scene in the tv show, with the ominous final third blow of the horn, and then they’re all freaking out because it’s the Others.
But anyway, so far, so good.
Enjoy it, A Storm of Swords is my favorite of the books so far even if it does have several moments that I hate. It’s the book that made me like Jaime plus both Arya and Dany are awesome in it and it introduced some new characters that are pretty awesome as well.
Yeah! I forgot about Jaime. It was nice to finally get a Jaime POV (I’m not even sure if we ever got one before), and I’m really liking the interaction between him and Brienne. Most intriguing for now. Hmmm…
But yeah. I’m still shuddering from Tywin’s brutal convo with Tyrion. MAN.
Tywin is a prick to Tyrion and I hate almost every conversation with him. But the Jaime chapters are brilliant. I have this desire for Jaime and Brienne to hook up, they seem the most well suited pair so far in the books IMO.
Yeah, I agree. But the thing with GRRM is that they are either (a) going to, or (b) never going to.
You have no idea which.
So very true. GRRM does have a way of making sure things we want to happen generally don’t. I just feel those 2 get a bum rap from everyone in Westeros and they need a little happiness. I doubt they will get it but I can’t help but wishing for it.
Heh! So cryptic. “It’s either a YES…or a NO.”
But yeah, even in just one chapter, I just want more scenes of Jaime and Brienne snapping at each other. I don’t really care either way whether they hook up or not. Yet. I mean, I like Jaime and all, but he’s a guy who loves doing his sister. Yeesh. Brienne deserves better. 
Once you get through book 3 and start reading book 4 you’ll see what I mean about those two. There is just something there between those two.
I have a question for my fellow ASoIaF fans. Earlier today when I ventured out for lunch despite a the ever constant migraine I was listening to the Geekson episode about the series and they brought up something that made me want to see every one else’s opinion.
After they finished talking about the first 2 episodes of the show they started talking about the books compared to the show and one of the characters they talked about was Sansa which of course led to a discussion on the rampant Sansa hate in the fandom.
Personally, I don’t like Sansa. I don’t think she’s the one responsible for Ned’s death but I do think she bears some of the culpability according to what Cersei told Tyrion but that’s not the reason I dislike her. For me I dislike her for her tendency to be disloyal to own her family. As a Stark and the daughter of a Tully (Family, Duty, Honor notice which is the most important to the Tully’s) I find it very hard to get past all the times she lies and goes against her family. Telling Cersei about Ned is the least of them. For me lying about the events on the Kingsroad with Arya and Joffrey and then her actions at the end of book 3 and throughout book 4 are the worst examples of turning against family. Granted she is a young girl which is why I dislike her instead of hating her but I think when it suits her purposes for her little fantasy of living out a song she can be willfully blind to the truth. There are many others I dislike far more than Sansa but of the Stark brood she is my least favorite. I do feel sorry for her because of what she ends up having to put up with after Ned’s arrest but it’s not enough to overcome my dislike of her betrayals.
So I’m curious to see others thoughts on Sansa. There is a lot of hate for her and I think she gets far too much blame for Ned’s death (that resides solely w/ Joffrey and possibly Littlefinger) as far as I can tell. I keep hoping GRRM will give her a moment where she does something that make me forget she betrays Arya, Ned and other family members but since it hasn’t happened yet I’ve almost resigned myself to not being able to like her. I don’t like disliking one of the Stark kids but since betrayal is one of the worst things a person can do to someone they love it’s hard for me to like her.
My first time through Game of Thrones, I hated Sansa. Then again, I’m a fairly ungirly girl who was bullied when I was younger for not being girly enough, so I was primed to dislike her and root for Arya over her. With rereads, I have much more sympathy for her, and even like her now. In the first book, you can’t see her as anything other than a spoiled naive child, but she really is the product of her upbringing. But she’s the perfect daughter: she’s raised to be a good wife and marry obediently be a good lady. Arya is also spoiled, but in a different way: her idiosyncrasies are indulged in such a way that she will not find it easy to adjust to the life that she would be forced into had things gone how they should. The only “ladylike” thing that she admitted to being good at was sums, which could be applied towards running a household.
In AGoT, while I hated Sansa for telling Cersei about Ned’s plans to send her and Arya away at first, I don’t any more. I hate Ned for telling Cersei point-blank about his plans before that. I find it so hard to read that chapter now. Ned told Cersei that he was planning to move soon, and all Sansa did was give herself to them as a hostage when she went to tell them instead of them having to fight their way to her. And you do have to look at it from her point of view–her future was on the line. She was raised to want a prominent marriage, and it doesn’t get much better politically than marriage to a king. In her point of view, it really is a good thing that she didn’t put in a Lysa Tully/Jon Arryn situation where he was politically necessary but four-plus times her age.
After the events of her father’s death, she does what she has to do to survive, and if someone hates her for that, why not hate Arya for lying about her identity and murdering people? Both have to hide their true intentions for most of the narrative, and in AFFC both spend a significant portion of the book trying to forget their true identities as Starks in order to move forward among very dangerous people.
The more I think about it, the more I like Sansa better than Jon Snow, to be honest. Jon spends a good portion of AGoT and ACoK whining and for me, it isn’t until ASoS that his story actually picks up because he finally learns to do what he has to do and stop complaining. In the meantime, Arya and Sansa are going through tremendous character development, and I have such a huge appreciation for that the past few rereads I’ve done.
Let’s face it, trying to save her future when that’s what she’s been told her entire life she should be wanting is not the worst thing a person could do in this series. One of my favorite characters is Jaime Lannister, who screws his sister and chucked a kid out a window. I can certainly be forgiving for Sansa’s lack of knowledge of the situation.
You definitely make some good points about Sansa, but for me it’s those things about her personality that led to her betraying her family that make me not like her. It may be because I empathize more with Arya as a character or it could be because of my own family life that makes me fiercely loyal to my family. It’s most likely that I have trouble liking Sansa because she’s a Stark. I think if Arya or Ned had actually been doing the wrong thing I’d be more forgiving of her.
I do think she deserves a very small amount of culpability in Ned being betrayed at the small council meeting but not in his death, the blame for that is Joffrey’s. For me Sansa is the Ron Weasley of ASoIaF, she made a few bad decisions but those decisions make me not like her. I do not think she deserves the crap she’s been getting since Ned’s arrest. If she were a member of any other family, with any other parents I would look past it.
I don’t hate Jaime and he threw Bran out the window and I certainly don’t hate Tyrion, who in the eyes of Westeros did something on par with the what the Frey’s did at the Red Wedding. I can forgive other characters for doing worse things that Sansa but they aren’t Starks. My dislike of her stems from the fact that I hold Starks to a higher standard because of Ned and Catelyn. Ned was all about honor and Catelyn is all about family, two things Sansa hasn’t learned yet. Yes she loves her family but when it came down to she chose her dreams over them IMO. While I dislike her as character I love her chapters because of the unbiased view we get of the political machinations of Westeros and I don’t get the rabid hate for her as character. I personally want her to do something that changes my opinion of her, but I don’t know if she will. I believe that when Lady was killed it took away the part of her that makes a Stark a Stark. She gets less Stark-like as the books go on IMO.
Jon Snow is a weird character for me, he’s one of my favorites but not for being him. I like him for all the mystery of his storyline. The stuff at the Wall and the mystery about his parentage are what draw me into his plot but if he were in a different situation I doubt I’d like him.
Just wanted to warn every one that there are 180 copies of A Dance with Dragons that were shipped to UK customers by mistake so there may be spoilers for the book on A Song of Ice and Fire forums.
I saw that piece of news, too - so just to be clear, in this space, NO SPOILERS FOR A DANCE WITH DRAGONS! We’ll make a new thread when it comes out to discuss 
Or possibly before.
Depends on whether I can get sufficiently spoiled…
Am I the only one that’s giddy with the thought that there are physical copies of Dance With Dragons out there. It’s not that I want to be spoiled, it’s that There are PHYSICAL copies out there! That someone is TOUCHING! Right NOW! <seanscream>
it means it’s real - we’ll actually be getting the new book, in our hands, soon.
I’m picking up my book when a local bookstore opens on the 12th. What are everyone else’s plans for reading ADWD?
I don’t actually mind getting spoiled–it’s knowing that some of the fans in the places I frequent are so bitter and angry that they’ll pepper their spoilers with fake ones that bugs me! So I’m avoiding it now.