15. There Are No 'Big Moments' After A Storm Of Swords
Or in other words what on Earth is going to make up the massive episode nine sequence that has become the tradition of the last three years on Game Of Thrones? It's not to say there aren't plenty of awesome twists and character revelations in A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons, there just don't seem to be any that have the magnitude of Ned having his head chopped off, the battle of Blackwater or the red wedding... at least not until the closing moments of the fifth book. The trouble is, the end of A Storm Of Swords virtually ends the war of five kings story line, leading the way for new characters to come into play. It feels like a reboot in the books: Tyrion leaves Kings Landing; Jon is commander of the Night Watch, and there is a new king of Westeros. Plotting and machinations take place in the Iron Islands and Dorne. And Daenerys... well she doesn't seem to do much does she? As such, there is a massive build-up of new plot lines that as of the end of A Dance With Dragons really haven't come to fruition yet. To make the show engaging beyond season four, series creators Benioff and Weiss will need to really trim the fat to get to the good bits that the end moments of A Dance With Dragons (and apparently the beginning of The Winds Of Winter) will bring. But the lack of future novels is a whole other problem we'll touch upon later. In the meantime, let's continue with a look at some of the issues surrounding some of the more significant characters in the show....