zod: 1. Yes, I agree that he’ll only chose one POV for these two.
2. “Eventually” is the key word here. Dany will be alone for a while before she reaches Meereen, and her POV is a given.
Victarion will still be a POV, as evidenced by one of GRRM public reading.
Tyrion will obviously be a big POV as usual (+ GRRM read two Tyrion chapters in his public readings).
Barristan has at least two POVs chapters as evidenced by GRRM public readings, so he’s still a POV as well. So, no, none of these characters are going to be combined in TWOW.
3. “Eventually” is the key word once again. Aegon hitting KL is pure speculation on your part… and Cersei will remain a POV no matter what… he’s not going to drop her arc all of a sudden, and she’s our only eyes in KL right now.
See AlsoGypsy Rose Crime Scene Photos LeakInterventional Procedures For Adult Structural Heart Disease Download (PDF/EPUB) eBookArianne has at least one chapter before meeting JonCon as evidenced by a public reading. He’s not going to drop her all of a sudden : she will be a POV in TWOW.
As for JonCon, I don’t know. He might drop his POV in favor of Arianne’s, yes (that is if they ever meet).
4. Jon and Melisandre will most likely be combined, yes. Hence why I included Mel in my first post but not Jon… might be the other way around (Jon but not Mel)… Either way you see it, that’s still in the end 1 POV… and since I only counted 1 for those two in my first post, that actually doesn’t change anything.
Sansa is a big “eventually”. GRRM released a Sansa chapter from TWOW : she’s still Alayne and she’s still in the Vale, without any indication that she’s going to move any time soon. She still counts as being her own POV.
—So. Arya, Bran, and Sansa are a given.
—Davos could be left off-screen for one book I guess.
—There’s something more interesting going on at the Citadel than just Sam studying. The original Jaqen is there. The last update we had on that was in AFFC : 10 years ago. And when is Euron going to hit Old Town if not in TWOW? Sam will be a POV.
—Areo has been sent on a quest to kill Darkstar (he is of the night). So we “need” an update on that. Might be given off-screen, though. Ok.
—You forgot Aeron. His POV in TWOW is a given since GRRM mentioned it.
—Regarding Theon and Asha. Yes, I can see Asha being combined with Theon.So : Jaime/Brienne, Tyrion, Victarion, Barristan, Daenerys, JonCon/Arianne, Cersei, Theon/Asha, Jon/Mel, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Sam, Aeron, Theon.
That’s still 15 POVs.
Plus, the situation in KL is going to become very complex. Will Cersei’s POV be enough? He might hit another knot here and need to add POVs in that place.
This is going to be long. Before I divulge, I want to note again that I said “in the course of the book”. I don’t mean that GrrM is going to cut out POV’s immediately, outside for perhaps dramatic effect. See point 2 for clarification. Edit: You counted Theon twice, so it should be 14 in your post, not 15.
1. Yay! Pretty much the Cat/Brienne-dynamic in the storytelling in aco*k.
2. Dany is with the Dothraki and will get chapters. But would she need 10+? She only had limited chapters in aco*k, and it still told a decent story. There doesn’t need to be a lot of actual chapters before she converges back to Meereen. As for Barristan, Victarion and Tyrion, I know they all have been confirmed to have chapters in Winds, but all of those are in the Battle of Fire. Once that calms down and Victarion, Barristan and Tyrion are in the same place, do we really need three perspectives to tell one story? Nope, those can be done via the Tyrion-POV, cutting Barristan and Victarion-POV’s out after the initial phase of Winds. Which reminds me of the fact that the Battle of Fire was meant as the end of Dance, and that GrrM perhaps never intended for Barristan or Victarion to have chapters in Winds. So, I think the only two post-Battle of Fire POV’s that are required to tell the Meereen-story, are Dany and Tyrion. So not combined from the start, but after the battle.
3. I know that Arianne will have at least two chapters. A new JonCon-chapter may be nice, but I don’t think’s all that necessary. Again look at aco*k’s and the run-up to Stannis’ attack on King’s Landing. Tyrion was our sole man on the ground and we didn’t get an update from Davos after the shadow baby until he reaches the Blackwater. Yes, we did have Sansa there as well. Same could be done for fAegon after Arianne meets up with him. So a few chapters in the early book and a few chapters late in the book with Cersei being our eyes in KL. And is it pure speculation? GrrM has said multiple people will sit on the IT before the story ends, and fAegon seems like the easiest fit right now for at least a temporary stay. And yes, KL is a complex place, but Cersei isn’t grasping on to that, in fact, it’s falling apart without her recognizing it. We don’t need many chapters of her dealing with the intracacies, because they go over her head more often than not. So: Arianne and JonCon meet up in the early stage, they disappear for the large part of the book while Cersei has her trial and loses touch with everything and everyone and at the end, we have a JonCon-chapter where he and Dorne and likely the Reach assault KL and a Cersei chapter where we see her (arguably) pro-Targ/Dorne/Reach court turn on her. So Arianne and JonCon function in the same storyline without having to double up on chapters. Three Arianne and one/two JonCon-chapter would be plenty to tell that story and leave a lot to the imagination.
4. I had talked about Theon/Asha/Aeron here, but you missed it and went to Jon/Mel, so just pointing out that I didn’t forget Aeron. I know of his supposed chapter. But there’s no reason why he should have more than that single chapter. Asha plans to take Theon back to the Iron Islands to annul Euron’s claim. What better way to make a shocking reveal (if the show hadn’t spoiled it prior) than to have Aeron rally men against Euron’s rule only for Asha to show up with Theon and than have a “Eureka!”-moment? From that point on, we really wouldn’t need him anymore again. So Theon gets the most chapters in that storyline and Aeron gets one for the dramatic reveal and perhaps Asha doesn’t get one as long as she sticks to Theon. Or we get to see a part of the story that would otherwise be a Theon-chapter but simply from her perspective. In that case, the amount of chapters to the storyline would still be the same, which is what I mean with combining the POV’s.
5. Jon/Mel. This may be the same as the Victarion/Barristan-argument I made at 2. Perhaps Mel was only supposed to be a POV in Dance, and perhaps she was supposed to have only two chapters. With her second being the one in which Jon is restored, but got pushed to Winds. But that’s just a feeling right now.
6. I didn’t say Sam or Areo wouldn’t get chapters. Just that I find it unlikely that they’ll get a lot. Perhaps three for Sam and one or two for Areo.
You count the POV’s separately, but I tend to see them as narrative vehicles for a storyline. In which a storyline has a set of chapters and the POV’s tell that story. So if a storyline has 8 chapters, it doesn’t really matter if that storyline is told by 2 or 4 POV’s, as in the end, it’s still 8 chapters. Aeron having a chapter in the Ironborn storyline, or one chapter being told through Asha’s perspective in stead of sticking to Theon’s the entire story isn’t going to make it any longer as long as it sticks to the number of chapters GrrM had in mind for it. So it comes down to GrrM deciding how many chapters each story-arc needs, and not how many each POV needs.
In that mindset:
1. – Brandon: North of the Wall
2. – Arya: Braavos
3. – Jaime/Brienne: Riverlands
4. – Sansa: Vale, potentially the North?
5. – Jon/Mel: Wall, the North
6. – Tyrion/Dany/Victarion/Barristan: Meereen, Dothraki.
7. – Theon/Asha/Aeron: North/Iron Islands
8. – Arianne/JonCon: Stormlands and Kings Landing
9. – Cersei: King’s Landing
10. – Samwell: Oldtown
11. – Areo: Dorne
12. – Davos: Magical Mystery Tour aka better left offscreen.
As I consider that Areo, Sam, Arianne+JonCon and Davos may just get 8 chapters in total, a big book of 80 chapters (aSoS) will still have 72 chapters for the 8 other storylines. Which is 9 chapters each. Where some won’t even need 9, like Bran or Sansa (though 6 seems like a definite minimum), which would give more chapters to stories such as Meereen, The Wall and KL.
So concluding, I really don’t see a problem here.
