So part of my project in this essay is to sift through the dross to find the gold underneath, and to try to imagine from there what the Stormlands could have been. For all I’ve complained about the Ironborn chapter playing merry hell with comparative timelines, it cannot be said to lack for imagination or a bloody, grim drama the Stormlands chapter by comparison feels half-hearted and last-minute and more than a little repetitious. To be frank, the Stormlands is my least favorite chapter of the Seven Kingdoms section of the World of Ice and Fire. Sadly, much of this potential remains hidden. At the same time, it is a kingdom which has enormous hidden potential, if only because something must explain how it managed to temporarily seize control, first of the largest pre-Targaryen empire that Westeros had ever seen, and second of the Iron Throne itself. The Stormlands is something of an odd duck among the Seven Kingdoms neither one of the powerhouses like the Reach or the Rock, nor a failed state like the Riverlands, it putters around somewhere in the middle.

Game of thrones storms end