The Prologues and Epilogues of A Song of Ice and Fire

I was thinking about the prologues and epilogues of the A Song of Ice and Fire books last night. If you don’t know what A Song of Ice and Fire is, this is not the thoughts or analysis or essay for you, I won’t be catching you up on the plot of it. Let’s get right into it.

A Game of Thrones has a prologue, but no epilogue.

A Clash of Kings has a prologue, but no epilogue.

A Storm of Swords has a prologue and an epilogue.

A Feast for Crows has a prologue but no epilogue.

A Dance with Dragons has a prologue and an epilogue.

AGOT, ACOK, and AFFC are missing epilogues. If we could give them epilogues, what would they be?

A Game of Thrones is the most difficult for me to figure out.

The prologue opens Beyond-the-Wall with cold death at night and introduces us to the Ice of it all, the Others. Daenerys X ends deep into Essos with warm birth in the morning and introduces us to the Fire of it all, Dragons. These two contrast so well, and the ending of dragons is so iconic, that including some epilogue afterwards would just deflate that moment, nothing could hold a glass candle to it. I wondered whether making Daenerys X into an epilogue would work, but the prologues and epilogues are specifically non-normative POV characters, so having it be Dany would be wrong, and having it be Jorah feels wrong too. So, I'm unsure how to handle that.

A Clash of Kings is much easier for me to decide upon.

I would actually move Chett's POV from the prologue of ASOS back to the ending of ACOK.

I think this would work in several different ways. Firstly, Bran's final chapter is the original ending, but adding this other chapter doesn't ruin it, instead it builds on it, as Bran's chapter shows how the North is broken and the only way for him to go is further north, and it also directly ends with mentions of death and the Kings of Winter. Then having Chett's chapter would work, showing how brutal the north is and how Chett tries to kill Samwell, and it ends with the reveal of the Others, the true Kings of Winter, the bringers of death, and it emphasizes how terrible of a thing the North being broken really is, since the North is now weak to the Others.

Furthermore, it works as an epilogue too. ACOK opens with the fires of R'hollr, the attempted conspiracy of Cressen, of burning magic in the south along with notions of one becoming a king. This change would then mean that ACOK ends with the ice of the Others, the attempted mutiny of Chett, the freezing magic in the north along with notions of one becoming a King-beyond-the-Wall. It parallels rather nicely, and it also calls back to the prologue of the first book, the Others are a very present threat.

A Storm of Swords now needs a new prologue, and I have an idea.

It would have to parallel with the epilogue, which has Merrett Frey recalling the Red Wedding and then being murdered by Lady Stoneheart. I think the prologue would be good if it were an original chapter following Jeyne Westerling.

It would be short, opening with her caring for a wounded Robb, her recalling the siege (everything Robb tells Catelyn later), her noting how much she likes him but also how precarious her position is, her thinking of the Rains of Castamere and how caring for Robb could anger Tywin and cause her and her family to die brutally, and then we see Robb getting news of his brother's deaths, and she comforts him, and she then ruminates on how he has no heirs, he is drugged and weak right now, how he's honourable and she likes him, and so on, and in the end she notes to herself that she has to do what she has to do, ending the chapter ambiguously.

Now, it would end with us unsure if Jeyne murders Robb, and given the second chapter is Catelyn, we are reminded of her grief, which would be effective, but in her second chapter we would realise what Jeyne did. She abused his weak drugged grief-stricken state to seduce him, using his honour to marry him, become Queen, be secured in the Stark household and cause, saving her family as best as she can, and being useful at giving Robb a new heir. The prologue would shed light on her situation, both the good and the bad she's doing, the complicated nature of it all, but also how she's still a naïve sixteen-year old who doesn't exactly know what she's getting into.

It also works in that ASOS focuses heavily on the War of the Five Kings, and so the prologue and epilogue both focus on it too, with the prologue basically being the inciting incident for the Red Wedding, which was itself the inciting incident for the murder of Merrett Frey. Opening with the Westerlings and ending with the Freys, opening with the grief of the Starks and ending with the grief of the Starks. It also works to remind us that Bran is believed dead when the last book ended (barring the epilogue) with the reveal that Bran was alive, and it would link to the epilogue of ACOK with a kind of conspiracy. Lastly, it also just lets us see more of Robb, which is always a good thing.

A Feast for Crows needs an epilogue, and this is one that stumps me.

The prologue shows us Pate in Oldtown, with his wants and needs being cut down by the Faceless Men. The book ends with Samwell V reaching Oldtown and the final line is him meeting a Faceless Man disguising themselves as Pate. It parallels quite well, and so we run into a similar problem to the AGOT epilogue. We can't turn Sam into an epilogue POV, that wouldn't work, and giving the chapter perspective to someone else also would not suffice.

Adding another chapter afterwards may work, though it would lessen the impact of Samwell V's ending. Doing so, however, would open the door up to more original chapter ideas. What would contrast with the prolgoue? Oldtown is far south, but what in the far north would be interesting? Perhaps it could just be around the Neck of the Isle of Faces, maybe Howland Reed? Maybe something connecting back to the Iron Islands since they were rather important? Maybe something in Braavos? I've not come to a conclusion on this one.

A Dance with Dragons has a pretty much perfect prologue and epilogue.

However, if I could change one thing, I would change the perspective from Kevan Lannister to Grand Maester Pycelle. I like Kevan and all, but we have much more of a history with Pycelle, he's been an important secondary character since AGOT, while Kevan has just sort of been around. A chapter following Pycelle would also give us an insight into his perspective on all of this, his background and opinions, which would be neat.

We could learn that perhaps he was born a peasant, making his rise to one of the highest offices in the land impressive. We could also learn that he doesn't care much for dynasty or lands or even really legacy, and so the role of Grand Maester is perfect for him, he doesn't want wives nor father any children nor hold any lands, he simply wants to be a great Grand Maester and do a good job of it. He supports the Lannisters sure, he respects Tywin, but he wants to keep the peace overall, and supporting the Lannisters is, in his opinion, the best way to do that. He even ruminates on how he believes Robert would have killed Cersei's children if Jon had told him the truth, and that would have certainly led to a war, and so he helped let the old man die as peacefully as he could, to keep the peace, to save the children, and even though it backfired in the end, he would still do it all again, because he still thinks it best. Likewise for opening the gates to the Lannisters that caused the Sack of King's Landing, better the quick bloodshed by the Lannisters than a prolonged starving siege, the burning of the city, and then the inevitable sack. These are just his opinions.

Then, at the very end, he is killed by Varys. This would also be effective as we would see one council-member from AGOT-ASOS kill another, two we know quite well, and it would be much more impactful than Varys killing Pycelle off-screen and then talking to Kevan as he kills him. It would also be effective within the chapter as Pycelle could feel the pain of death as Varys monologues about the good of the realm, essentially delivering the exact same reasoning Pycelle had for his actions earlier, just replacing the Lannister children with the Targaryen children, once more backfiring on Pycelle.

I think that would be pretty effective, in my opinion.