Game of Thrones Final

This set of reading starts off right away with a very surprising move as we see Ned gets beheaded by Joffrey after “admitting” his crimes instead of being allowed to go to the Wall. This was very surprising as I did not expect Ned to be killed off this early in the series of books.  I expected him to be the main character throughout all of the books. I think this is also a big deal because now that Ned is dead there is nothing keeping the war from completely breaking loose, and now there is really no chance of the two sides coming to peace with one another. I have personally started losing interest in Bran’s chapters throughout the book.  At the beginning of the book he was probably one of my favorite chapters to read but ever since his fall I feel like his chapters have not been as exciting. In Sansa’s next chapter, she seems to be disgusted by Joffrey and wants nothing to do with him, if only she would have realized this earlier in the book then maybe she wouldn’t have caused all of this trouble.  Joffrey is being very cruel to her and has Ser Meryn hit her multiple times.  This is crazy because I thought Joffrey was somewhat of a decent guy the whole book until he beheaded Ned.  It always seemed as if Cersei was the crazy one and Joffrey just did as she said but now Joffrey is showing his true colors as well.  I want to feel bad for Sansa, and I do, however it’s hard to knowing that she had kind of brought this upon herself earlier in the book.  I’m really curious to see how her situation with Joffrey will play out in the books to come, and to see if she’ll be saved from Joffrey.  In Dany’s chapter we learn that her baby died at birth, and she also killed Drogo to put him out of his misery since he really could not function anymore whatsoever. I feel sort of bad for her as her character was growing on me and she has pretty much lost all the family she has.  I had hope that Drogo would come back normal after the ritual that was done to him, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.  In Tyrion’s chapter, Tywin decides he has to march against Robb and appoints Tyrion to be the hand of the king while he is gone.  I think this is a big moment for Tyrion because he is finally given power from his father and it seemed as if this would never happen.  I feel good for Tyrion here because he is finally recognized or loved by his father but at the same time I really wish Tyrion would have never went back to his family.  For a little while I thought Tyrion would join the Starks and fight against Kings Landing but that was ruined when he was treated terribly as a prisoner.  In Jon’s chapter he decides to leave the Wall and go fight alongside Robb.  When I read this I was really excited as I felt like it brought a whole new storyline into the book.  But, unfortunately some of the guys from the Wall ride after him and track him down and convince him into returning to the wall. Mormont also decides to lead a group out past the wall and discover what is going on, Jon is allowed to go as long as he promises not to run away again.  I think this will be exciting for the coming books as we already know a little bit of what is going on past the wall, but now that Jon is actually going out to explore I think a lot of interesting things will happen. I’m also curious with Ned being gone to see if Jon will ever talk or see any of the Starks again since he is a bastard and his father is dead now. In Catelyn’s final chapter, we see that Robb is named King of the North.  This is exciting to see Robb is now given the power and I think it is again something that will play a major role in the following books.  It seems as if the last few chapters from each character leave us with a lot of unanswered questions and wondering what will happen next.  The last chapter was Dany’s and in this chapter she has a funeral for Drogo.  She burns him and as he is burning she walks in the fire and does not burn at all.  She takes the dragon eggs in to the fire with her and they hatch.  This part was sort of confusing but seemed very important as Dany seems to truly have “the blood of the Dragon.”  Again, I think this is something that will greatly play out in the rest of the books and we will see more.  I think that Dany will lead the Dothraki across the seas in the following books and begin to capture the Kingdoms for herself.  Overall, I really liked the book.  At the beginning I wasn’t too excited about having to read it but now I could definitely see myself continuing to read the series.  I would strongly recommend this book and I already have been recommending it to friends and family since I started reading it.  The ending was interesting as not much was really wrapped up but instead it left the audience open to more things that could possibly happen in the books to come.  This was different for me because I don’t read many books that are apart of series.  I think I was definitely able to understand the book better and pick up on more important ideas in the book by having discussions in class and being able to talk about it.  I worry that I may not be able to pick up on as many ideas, or understand the books as well if I read them on my own in the future.  Last, my favorite character was probably Jon.  We learned a lot about him throughout the book and really got to watch him grow as a character and watch him learn about himself.  I think it was interesting to see in to the thoughts and the mind of an outsider and try to understand his feelings.  I think Martin did really well in this book with the discussion of outsiders and building characters like Jon.  Overall, great book and I highly recommend it.