By: Maria

<strong><a href="#comment-111244" rel="nofollow">Maartje</a></strong>, I think that in ADWD, GRRM started explicitly treating those tropes you're supposed to "see" him as subverting as actually being real. So Cersei really IS a stupid aging Mean Girl with saggy tits, not a regal queen who's endured years of a rapist boor of a husband and made a serious play for power in a manner that advanced Lannister standing at court. Dany really IS a semi-virginal young girl in need of political guidance. Jon Snow really IS a tragic figure caught between different types of honor. Etc etc. For characters like Jon Snow, where there's external stuff, like the White Walkers, to make it compelling, that's okay. For Cersei, it's a little weird/boring -- while shaving pubic hair is a historically accurate punishment, that whole sequence felt oddly sexual. For Tyrion, it was just dull dull dull.