A Song of Dan and Josh: Daenerys X (A Game of Thrones)

Welcome to A Song of Dan and Josh, the show where myself, Dan Selcke, your humble editor, and FanSided’s own Josh Hill pick apart each and every chapter of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, from poor Will the Night’s Watchmen getting killed by wights in the prologue to A Game of Thrones through…who knows? Ball’s in your court, George.

Anyway, this week, we hit Daenerys X, the final chapter from A Game of Thrones, and an incredibly memorable one. Let’s get into it:

Some of the topics we hit include:

• George R.R. Martin achieves a unique tone here. Something’s changed in Daenerys. She’s different, more confident, colder, and further away. But we aren’t told exactly why. I’m not sure she knows why herself. It all makes for a uniquely eerie chapter, pregnant with importance and dripping with atmosphere.
• Damn, Martin really lets loose with the language here. The loving way he describes fire, I want to walk it into it, too.
• This is probably still the best ending to any Song of Ice and Fire book. It’s a cliffhanger in all the best senses of that word.

Man, what a great chapter.

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So that’s it! We’re done with A Game of Thrones! This has been a fun series, and we plan to move forward with A Clash of Kings in the new year. But first, we’ll take one episode to look back on A Game of Thrones as a whole. What are the highlights and lowlights? How well does this book set up the rest of the series? You can catch that live on our Facebook page on Wednesday, December 19 at 4:00 p.m. CST!

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