Dialogue between Tyrion and Tywin is so so so good

Clocking in about 1/5th of the way through and this is 10/10 so far. All of the arcs are riveting – some are purely jam-packed, and the dialogue heavy ones are so so so fucking good (Tyrion and Catelyn) that you hate that the chapter ends, but then oop you're back over the wall now with Jon and Sam and it's also the best thing you've read.

Concretely, Catelyn's chapters describing Rob's kingship are some of the best writing I've ever laid eyes on. Perhaps rose tinted because I know what happens, but nevertheless, we get to see Rob being a good, honorable king (slaying the Carstark),, but not without his own flaws (betraying the Freys). And that he's still just a boy. Rob, undefeated on the field, but broken – being the king that the 7 kingdoms need, taking so much after his father (which really reinforces how GOOD Eddard was). and all this told through the lens of the only person who could do justice to all those who came before Rob, which is his mother. who is broken herself, and knows how thin the ice is that Rob treads, and is dreadfully worried for him, in so much conflict about whether she needs to care for him as her son or counsel him as her king. Goddamn. The scene where Rob serves the sentence he passes to Carstark is a pure pathetic fallacy but it's one of the coolest "lowkey" scenes in the series.

I did myself/y'all a disservice by not continuing to check in every subsequent fifth. This book is long, but you get 2 books worth of payoff in the back half. Clash of Kings is boring so that this book can be epic, and it is.

Jon's arc developing north of the wall, questions of honor and integrity while trying to live up to his father's name that he does not even bear. John's character becomes relevant in this book.

The red wedding told from Catelyn's eyes is SO FUCKING GOOD AND SAVAGE. When the chapter's go from Cat, to Rob, AND THEN RIGHT BACK TO Cat it's like oh goddamn, we're not bouncing back north of the wall, we're just going in rn.

Tyrion also shines in this book between continued dialog with his father & Cersei, Geoffrey's wedding, and subsequent trial, then his relationshop with Jaime.

Samwell, Bran, Sansa, and Arya's arcs are all rather droll which bring down the score for the ~remaining 80% of the book from a 10 to an 8.75

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