All 9 existing chapters of The Winds of Winter, explored and explained

When asked why George R.R. Martin is their favorite author, his fans generally give the answers you'd expect:: his stories contain vibrant characters, they take place in worlds of gritty realism, the dialogue sings...but the most important reason is that his writing always leaves them wanting more.

I am one such person. From the first time I read A Game of Thrones I have been desperate to know what happens next, to read just a few more pages of an author whose work launched a global revolution in the fantasy genre. For fans of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, it has been a very long wait. Famously, the last (fully) published novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons, came out in 2011… only weeks after the conclusion of Season 1 of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of the books.

In the decade-plus since, Martin has worked on the series’ sixth novel The Winds of Winter. During that time, seasons 2-8 of Game of Thrones aired as well as the first two seasons of House of the Dragon, a prequel set more than one hundred years earlier. For those of us eagerly waiting, it has been a long 13 years. But Martin has not let our interest just wither and die with dignity; he has — like a sadistic chef — given us tantalizing morsels of a future feast to keep us hungry. From 2011 to 2018, he released nine chapters from The Winds of Winter, or else read them aloud at public appearances where eager fans hastily recorded him and transcribed them.

Due to the lengths of George R.R. Martin chapters, these nine combined represent hundreds of pages of Winds that are available online for fans of Westeros. (You can find them here). Martin’s fourth ASOIAF novel, A Feast for Crows, was only 46 chapters long, so nine chapters would have been about a fifth of that novel (though I expect Winds will be longer). Altogether, I think the released chapters represent some of Martin’s best writing, which has only gotten better in quality over time, a small consolation prize for those of us who have waited so long for him to publish. For anyone feeling bereft after the end of House of the Dragon season 2 this summer, or for those wanting to go back to Westeros and hang out with Sansa, Arya, Tyrion, Theon, and Ser Barristan, these released chapters can be your gateway back into the world we love.

Let's walk through all every extant chapter of The Winds of Winter yet released. Beware SPOILERS below!

Theon I

Theon had a really rough time of it during A Dance with Dragons…and things have only improved a little here. This chapter has Theon chained to the wall of a tower being interrogated by Stannis Baratheon, who is preparing for a battle with House Bolton outside Winterfell. Luckily for Theon, Stannis does not go Ramsay on his ass… but he does still intend on executing him for his crimes against House Stark. Theon is a prisoner again after only hours of freedom, having saved Jeyne Poole (the fake Arya Stark) from Ramsay by jumping off Winterfell’s outer wall.

With his execution in the offing and a Bolton army soon to attack Stannis’ camp, the stakes couldn’t be higher in this chapter of The Winds of Winter. Stannis, one of the best soldiers in Westeros, questions Theon closely about House Bolton’s armies. Roose Bolton’s plan to draw Stannis into a battle near Winterfell where he will be betrayed by the Karstarks and destroyed is put on hold as Stannis is alerted to the plot. Inviting the Karstark family to breakfast, Stannis has them brutally taken into custody in front of Theon, while his knights outside capture and disarm the Karstark’s soldiers. While we do not yet know Stannis’ plan, it is clear to Theon that he has one. After all, Stannis is smiling, and Stannis Baratheon never smiles.

The chapter ends with Theon’s sister Asha (Yara in the show) arriving and requesting that Stannis give her brother a clean death, instead of burning him alive.

Barristan I

The defenders of Meereen may not have much, but they do have Barristan the Bold. That might just be enough.

As this chapter opens, we have our favorite wayward white knight riding through the streets of Meereen in the predawn gloom. Alone in a city where barely anyone can speak his language, Ser Barristan Selmy awaits the return of Daenerys Targaryen while preparing her armies to ride out an attack the slavers who surround her city.

Badly outnumbered by their enemies and unable to get along, Meereen’s defenders have no time to waste! At the end of A Dance with Dragons, the slavers break the peace they had brokered with Daenerys and besiege the city, launching plague-riddled corpses over the city’s walls (the slavers really do have a flair for the dramatic). Knowing he cannot hold a city against a siege while everyone within the walls dies from plague, Ser Barristan decides to go on offense.

This chapter features beautiful visuals and builds anticipation as Daenerys' army gets ready to attack; it also features two incredible speeches from Ser Barristan, one to his captains and the other to his orphan squires, that will give the reader chills. The chapter ends as Ser Barristan sees the beacon on top of Meereen’s Great Pyramid burst into flames, signaling it is time for soldiers all across the city to begin the attack. The beacon is lit!

Alayne I (Sansa)

Ok, hear me out. I will be the first to admit that Sansa’s (a.k.a. Alayne Stone) plotline in A Feast for Crows is far from the most interesting of the latter couple novels. In fact, I think the only interesting Sansa POV chapter in the whole book is the last, where Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) outlines his scheme to marry her to Harrold Hardying, the heir to the Eyrie and the Vale of Arryn. By wedding her to ‘Harry the Heir,’ Baelish intends to gain Sansa an army that she can use to eventually retake Winterfell and place her in control of both the North and the Vale, after sickly Robin Arryn’s all but certain early death.

Sansa’s first chapter in Winds follows directly on those prior events as we see what Sansa’s life is like posing as Petyr Baelish’s bastard daughter while Littlefinger rules the Vale of Arryn as Robin’s regent and puts his plans for her into motion. Summoning the Lords of the Vale to a castle, Petyr Baelish throws a grand tourney to enthrall Robin Arryn’s subjects and provide a pretext under which “Alayne” can surreptitiously meet and entrance Harry the Heir.

Opportunities and dangers abound as characters from across Westeros show up for the tourney. Ser Shadrich "the Mad Mouse” speaks with Alayne, never realizing that she is the same Sansa Stark he was hunting in the Riverlands in disguise. Ser Lyn Corbray, one of the most dangerous men in Westeros, becomes displeased when Sansa teases him. And when Sansa finally meets Harrold Hardyng, she finds him to be, well… an arse. Insulting her at their first meeting, by the end of the chapter Harry is bewitched by “Alayne” and asks to wear her favor in the tourney.

This chapter is one of my favorites because of the brilliant character moments and a depiction for how a young woman could exert influence in the male-dominated world of Westeros. Sansa’s development as a character is also sublime; once the eldest daughter of Eddard Stark who is dismissive of her brother Jon because of his bastardy, Sansa is now posing as a bastard herself and thriving on a level we haven’t ever seen before.

The Forsaken (Aeron I)

Euron Greyjoy is messed up. That is made clear in this chapter, which is told from the perspective of his brother/prisoner/childhood victim Aeron Greyjoy. As we already knew from their middle brother Victarion’s chapters in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, Euron “Crow’s Eye" has come back to Westeros after years of exile, an exile he was forced into for seducing and impregnating Victarion’s wife and causing her death. Euron is also widely suspected of playing a part in the death of the three’s siblings eldest brother Balon, the father of Asha and Theon. In Game of Thrones, we actually see Euron kill Balon onscreen.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Throughout this chapter, which is told from the perspective of a hallucinating Aeron chained up in a dungeon, we learn that Euron Greyjoy was sexually abusive towards two of his younger siblings throughout their childhoods and murdered another brother by smothering him in his bed. He is also actively waging war on the peaceful lands of the Reach with no intention of winning; he just wants the glory of victory while setting up his rivals to be blamed for defeat. We learn that Euron captures priests and tortures them, but keeps them alive for some unholy purpose. Murder, mayhem, and madness, that’s Euron Greyjoy! (Sidenote, it was not until writing this article that I realized that no less than three Greyjoy POV characters will start The Winds of Winter as captives, woof).

At one point, Euron sends his pregnant lover to feed Aeron in his cell. Knowing his brother’s mad cruelty, Aeron begs the girl to run away and save herself. She refuses, believing that Euron is in love with her or at least will care about the baby she is carrying. In a truly brutal cliffhanger, Aeron and the girl are chained naked to the prow of Euron’s flagship as he prepares to sail into the biggest naval battle Westeros has ever seen.

ASOIAF is possibly one of the greatest series ever written in terms of the author’s ability to introduce new heroes and villains after the old ones are killed off and still have us, the audience, be emotionally invested in them. Many series could not have survived the losses of Joffrey, Tywin, and the Mountain. How can we still have someone to hate? Chapters like this are the answer, although be forewarned that while it's amazingly well-written, it gets really dark, so read with caution.

Victarion I

Victarion is the on Greyjoy POV character at this point not being held captive. He's making preparations to attack the slavers at Meereen, having been sent by his cruel and arrogant brother Euron to find Daenerys and bring her to Euron for his bride. But Victarion has crossed most of the known world with the Iron Fleet with another plan: he will betray Euron, marry Daenerys himself, and then return to Westeros with his fleet, her armies, and her dragons to take his revenge on Euron for all his many cruelties.

He gets off to a good start in this chapter, sending his Ironmen into Slaver’s Bay hidden aboard merchant ships he has captured so that they can take the fleets besieging Meereen by surprise. I kind of doubt he'll succeed in getting Daenerys to marry him, but hey, he has a red priest with him who says that glory awaits, so who knows? Victarion is good at one very specific thing, and that is ramming other ships and killing their crews with his giant axe. He also has a very special horn… one that can call dragons and bind them to its owner’s will. Will it call Daenerys and Drogon back to Meereen? Will it kill the person who sounds it? Either way, death, glory, or probably both, await!

This chapter makes clearer than ever what we have missed by the long wait for Winds; this chapter and all the rest set during the Battle of Slaver’s Bay were supposed to be in A Dance With Dragons but were cut when the manuscript grew too long. I’ve been waiting for this battle since 2011, so bring it on!

Tyrion I

Whether he is sitting alone in a room pondering upon fate and destiny or in the middle of a battle just trying to survive, Tyrion Lannister always provides some of the best chapters of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. In his Winds debut, he does a little of both. Sitting in the middle of a camp outside Meereen whilst battle rages, Tyrion drinks and remembers his life in Westeros as a dwarf woman named Penny helps him put his armor on. (Side note, this battle is the one that Ser Barristan is about to start in his chapter, and also the one Victarion is about to join in his chapter: it’s going to be a barn burner!) Trapped as they are with the sellsword company the Second Sons, Tyrion realizes they are doomed to die with the slavers unless he can convince their unscrupulous commander to switch sides.

Tyrion was not in a good mental place at the end of A Dance with Dragons. Chronologically, the events of that novel take place in the weeks and months after he kills his father Tywin and his treacherous lover Shae, so his mood is understandable. After pretending the entire time that he doesn’t care if he lives or dies, standing in a camp full of mercenaries on the edge of a massive battle, Tyrion finally realizes that he wants to live; he just has to achieve that against all odds. As ships sink, armies clash, and dragons light the corpses of both sides on fire, the cleverest dwarf who ever lived has to think his way out of it.

Mercy (Arya I)

For fans of Arya Stark, “Mercy” will be an excellent chapter, as well as quite an ironic title, because Arya Stark is many things, but merciful is not one of them. For the rest of us who were once fans of Arya but have become somewhat disturbed by her growing sociopathy, this chapter is another nail in the coffin of that sweet little water dancer we knew from A Game of Thrones.

"Mercy" takes place while Arya is living in the city of Braavos and learning to be a Faceless Man assassin. In a plotline that Game of Thrones very roughly adapted for the screen, Arya is working as a stagehand named Mercy for a local theater company in Braavos, where she can learn the trade of theatricality and disguise from the very best. Unbeknownst to her coworkers, she is not the sweet girl she pretends to be and is only learning their tradecraft to use for her own profession: murder!

Any fan of the novels or the TV series will know of Arya’s infamous list: every night before closing her eyes, Arya recites the names of the people she will someday kill: Cersei, Joffrey, Meryn Trant, Ilyn Payne, the Hound… Each person on that list has done her a wrong and this 11-year-old with a Needle will never forget them. This chapter takes a dark turn when someone on Arya’s list appears in the audience: the ironically named Raff the Sweetling arrives in Braavos acting as a bodyguard for the Lannister ambassador and quickly grows bored of standing guard outside his boss’ opera box. Not wanting to miss a chance to cross this name off her list, Arya slips away from her stagehand duties and entices the pedophilic Raff to walk along the canals of Braavos alone in the dark. Mercy and Raff are never seen again.

Arianne I

Princess Arianne Martell is a book character whose entire plotline was cut from Game of Thrones. Much like her cousins the Sand Snakes, who unfortunately did make the show, Arianne’s chapters provide the A Song of Ice and Fire novels with thrilling subplots and political maneuverings in the southern kingdom of Dorne, where her father Doran Martell reigns.

In A Feast for Crows, Arianne seduces the Kingsguard knight Ser Arys Oakheart and convinces him to bring Myrcella Baratheon away from her father’s court into the desert. There, Arianne plans to crown her fellow princess as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and start a rebellion against Myrcella’s brother Tommen, who sits the Iron Throne. To Arianne’s shock, she is betrayed by one of her companions, the plot is foiled by her father’s soldiers and her lover is killed. When she is brought before her father, she is shocked again to hear that he was already planning the downfall of house Lannister… by bringing the Targaryens back to Westeros.

Her first chapter in Winds follows Arianne as she and her companions travel north through Dorne. The plot to bring Daenerys home to Westeros is in doubt and the Martells in a precarious position. Do they declare for a possible pretender in the form of the newly arrived Aegon Targaryen and his Golden Company, a group of mercenaries from Essos who have begun capturing castles? That is the essential question Arianne must answer as she travels north with the armies of Dorne awaiting her signal to attack. With her is a colorful group of six companions, including her bastard cousin Elia, a 14-year-old daughter of Oberyn Martell. Another notable companion is her former lover Ser Daemon Sand, whose assignment as her protector is heavily implied to be a punishment from her father.

While this chapter is a little light on action, it does an excellent job of portraying the difficulties of knowing what to believe in Westeros. The group have only vague rumors and suspicions to work on as they decide whether this ‘Prince Aegon’ is the real thing (if he is, it makes him Arianne’s first cousin) or just an imposter. There are no DNA tests or birth certificates in Westeros and all news travels slow.

My favorite part of this chapter is when they reach the castle of Ghost Hill where one of their noble hosts is a 12-year old girl with seemingly prophetic visions about dragons. “They were dancing in my dream. And everywhere the dragons danced, people died.” Nobody at the table believes her though… no way that will come back to bite them.

The chapter ends with Arianne and Daemon Sand playing a board game as they cross to the Stormlands by ship, speculating about whether Daenerys is mad like her brother Viserys or her father the Mad King. The truth is, it doesn’t matter, all they can do is hope.

Arianne II

Following on her first chapter, “Arianne II” follows the princess as she travels north towards Storm’s End. There she hopes to meet the Golden Company.

Having known that Arianne’s brother, Prince Quentyn Martell, had been sent to Meereen to bring back Daenerys and her dragons, the Martells are justifiably confused when the Golden Company’s message declares that it is led by Prince Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar. Aegon had been killed as a baby by the Lannisters during Robert’s Rebellion, leaving his true identity in doubt. Finding out that the fortress of Storm’s End has fallen to this mysterious Targaryen prince, Arianne decides to risk all of Dorne by meeting with him as battle with House Lannister looms.

More to come

For fans of Martin’s work and the world of Westeros, we can only hope that someday the A Song of Ice and Fire series will get the ending it deserves. I personally have no doubt that if the series is ever finished, the remaining books will be amazing from beginning to end. The proof of it is in these chapters of Winds that Martin has gifted to us. While the latter seasons of Game of Thrones were criticized for feeling rushed, these chapters are rich with characterization and drama. They give Westeros a lived-in atmosphere where things don’t happen on a deadline; they happen as the characters make decisions, and those decisions have consequences. It’s a hell of a read.

For anyone wanting a bit of this world, I highly recommend reading these chapters. And to George R.R. Martin who wrote them all… maybe just release The Winds of Winter Part I now?

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