The name of the book, A Dance with the Dragons, is reminiscient of a civil war in Westeros called The Dance of Dragons, when a Tagraryen princess rebelled for the Iron Throne. The civil war is known mostly for the destruction and carnage in Westeros. The name implies the unpredictability of the dragons Daenerys faces, although it is possible the name depicts the struggles of Daenerys, Jon, and Tyrion, the former two being confirmed Targaryens, while unconfirmed theories suggest that Tyrion might be a half-brother to Daenerys.
The book picks up after events of A Storm of Swords; thus, it runs parallel to A Feast for Crows and even after the events of A Feast for Crows have ended. While this book focuses on the action in the East and the Wall, a Feast for Crows focused on the action at the King’s Landing and Braavos. Through multiple POVs, we learn of the aftermath of the war at the Wall, the impending one in King’s Landing and the ongoing civil war in Meereen.
All the main characters are reeling after a major event and trying to find their bearings. Tyrion, after being accused of killing Joffrey and sentenced to death, kills his father Tywin and with the help of Varys escapes to Pentos. He is completely suicidal at this point after learning of the innocence of Tysha, his first wife, whom Tywin declares to be a prostitute. Possibly, Varys and Illyrio could have been contemplating Tyrion’s wit and competence for the running of a kingdom which leads them to save him and convince him to go looking for Daenerys as an advisor. His journey uncovers many aspects about Essos, which so far had not been introduced in the previous books. He is a person of royalty and has lived a lavish life, but it is through his experience as a slave meant to die in the pits for the enjoyment of others that he learns the value of life of others especially the slaves.
Daenerys after conquering Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen and banishing slavery becomes a figure of hatred in the Slaver’s Bay, which she believes is strange as she believes that she has freed people, but what she doesn’t realises that by doing so she has defied the foundation people, including slaves have been living upon. People of Ghiscari culture including slaves, are so used to slavery that a world without slaves is queer to them. Rich people are annoyed for having to pay wages for getting their work done, while slaves who have been so far used to work find themselves unemployed for their lack of skill. Those who do have a skill, become a target for the Sons of Harpy. Thus, Daenerys finds herself in a city where everyone is free but is starving. This tests her skills as a ruler, who’s trying to becomes a part of the masses by adopting their culture but at the same time is repulsed by it.
Jon finds himself in a similar position. After being chosen as the Lord Commander, he is told by Maester Aemon, to ‘kill the boy’, as he is considered to be soft-hearted and thus unfit for a position as Lord Commander. His decisions are opposed to what other members of the Night’s Watch would have wanted. Since his comradery with wildlings he begins to see them as people of different culture than mere untamed wild people, and decides to save them from the wrath of Winter as well as the Others. He is also at odds with Stannis Baratheon for not siding with him. There is considerable pressure on him from all sides, and yet he does what he believes is his duty as the Lord Commander is.
Another major theme is the understanding of evil. While all the characters are fighting wars which satisfy their intrinsic needs, no one considers the threat impending from beyond the Wall. A supernatural element is introduced with the story of Bran Stark who is following in the wake of others to become the Three-Eyed Raven and the prophecies Daenerys learns from Qaith. The visions and the prophecies focus on the factors which decide the fate of their world. This also brings the question, what is evil? For the Night’s Watch, the Others are evil but for the Children of forests the evil is in the humans. This is a metaphor for the real world, that we define evil in others but what about the evil in us. A Dance with Dragons could be understood as the point in the slope where the story starts climbing to the climax.
