(Spoilers Extended) Who was the 19th POV of A Feast for Crows?
I have been doing some detective work which I will post in one of these days. I wanted to discuss a part of it before diving deep into the huge material. Who was the 19th POV of AFfC? For context, check this SSM.
FEBRUARY 18, 2005
He also mentioned that part of the reason for the delay was the expansion of POV characters in AFfC. He said in book one it was 8, in book two 9, and in book three 10. AFfC has 19 POV characters. He said it was due to him bringing in Dorn and the Northern Isles.
Note that this was just before he decided to split AFfC into two. Therefore, AFfC in this context also includes a significant portion of ADwD as it is published today. Without the split, all POVs were supposed to exist in AFfC. Also some of you might know that originally, GRRM wanted to start AFfC with a Mega-Prologue consisting of Dornish and ironborn POV chapters. These temporary POV characters were not supposed to be regular POVS; instead, they were supposed to bring the story close enough to regular POVs so that they can keep getting coverage. But long before the 2005 SSM above, GRRM abandoned this idea and dismantled the Mega-Prologue, feeding it into to main body of text. This is how and when these temporary POV characters gained the status of regular POVs. Returning to the 19 alive and active POVs of AFfC as mentioned in the SSM (hence Ned and Cat are excluded), this is what we have:
-
Sansa
-
Arya
-
Bran
-
Jon
-
Dany
-
Tyrion
-
Theon
-
Davos
-
Sam
-
Jaime
-
Cersei
-
Brienne
-
Areo
-
Arys
-
Arianne
-
Asha
-
Aeron
-
Victarion
-
???
Once again I ask who this 19th POV was.
Of the remaining POVs (Quentyn, JonCon, Barristan and Mel), we can directly eliminate Barristan and Mel. They came much later as POVs, until after AFfC was published and GRRM was immersed in the problems of ADwD. Was Quentyn or JonCon the 19th POV of AFfC?
Looking at the first chapters of JonCon and Quentyn in ADwD, I think Quentyn makes the most sense. The Merchant’s Man ends with a cliffhanger idea to reach Dany. That is very much in line with the spirit of these once-temporary-now-permanent new POV characters. If this Quentyn chapter was one of the Dornish chapters in the Mega-Prologue of AFfC, it makes perfect sense the way it is. JonCon’s ADwD chapters do not give the feel of beginning and ending like this one. Also JonCon appears in Tyrion chapters before getting his own POV chapters.
TL DR : Before the split of AFfC and ADwD, Quentyn’s first chapter was most probably already written and meant to be given in AFfC.
Posted Jul 23, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC