A writer friend of mine sent me a link to an interesting article that reminded me of one of the worst story threads that I ever encountered--the story of Quentyn Martell. I had great hopes for it and was enjoying it until suddenly Martin just killed it all off as soon as the characters arrived at their destination. So what was the point? They travel over many chapters, seeming to have some vague future connection to the plot, but then they are dead. So if all of their chapters had been excised, nothing at all would have changed in the overall story arc.
I didn't know where Martin was heading with that story arc, but I at least expected he'd go somewhere with it. After all, why devote so much page time to it if not to use it in some manner? I even thought Quentyn might blossom and turn into one of the three future dragon riders.
The article writer even moaned about how homely and average Quentyn is. I find this hilarious given that I believe this character was a direct result of people moaning for so long about how attractive and above average characters always tend to be. So Martin finally does what many people seem to want, make a character normal, and people then moan about that. Anyway, I liked that he was normal, since it gave him that much more room to grow and change...except Martin decided not to bother.
What are your thoughts of the Quentyn Martell sequence? Do you see some deeper meaning there that will actually impact the plot going forward?