Read A Song Of Ice And Fire 2016 discussion

A Dance with Dragons ~ 2. Daenerys I *Discuss only this chapter and anything prior

Why did Dany even bother with Mereen? Didn't she have a whole realm to claim? Come on, girl!

Isn't Mereen the place she acquired the Unsullied soldiers?

Terry wrote: "Isn't Mereen the place she acquired the Unsullied soldiers?"

From what I remember, she got them from Astapor. Mereen was just an on-the-way-to-somewhere kinda town but Dany felt it was reallyyy important to free all the slaves right now, so she did. And then she felt like well, 'I could use this as a miniature-KL, to practice my Queening skill', for when she win the realm back she'd be flawless at ruling.

(view spoiler)[(this happens in about 2-3 chapters from here)...Even Illyrio said to Tyrion that she should be back from Mereen any minute now. She wasn't supposed to be there in the first place! (hide spoiler)]

Dany degrades herself. "I am a young girl and I don't know blah blah blah." She lacks confidence. It is annoying me.

The bones were sad.

Well, I'm pretty sure she's being sarcastic when she says that (about being a little girl and blah-blah). She's basically saying "you underestimate me, I am no idiot". At least that's how I understand it. I do, however, agree about her lacking confidence. She doesn't know how to handle her people, she doesn't know how to handle her dragons. It is so obvious that she has had no training in how to be a queen... She does have the potential, I believe, but is way too young. And that pretend game she's playing in Meereen is bullshit. She shouldn't have messed with the free cities at all, imo. She's only been making things worse.

So as much as I like Dany, this chapter was kind of boring and I'm not sure how much I want to read about her trying to solve other people's grievances...

Haha

I love the idea of Dany but I have always found her chapters to be a bit dry. I always dread her chapters.

I think that is because GRR Martin is not really that good at writing from a female perspective - he creates strong women, which is great, but his male characters seem more real to me.

I think you are right Terry. I am just so disappointed with her. I want her to be so much more than she is.

I wonder if this pit stop for Dany is just because GRRM needs a place to park her for a while before she heads over to Westeros? The dragons probably aren't ready for war yet anyway. Like Dany said, soon they'll be big enough for her to ride, but they're still somewhat small.

This chapter was kind of boring, using the throne room audiences as a way to let us know what's currently happening in Mereen, but in general I like Dany's chapters. Her story seems to be kind of in line with the Sword and Sorcery books I read in my youth.