The

The The To touch the light, you must pass beneath the shadow.

But what is the shadow?

We know it's the darkness-infested region as far away as one can get from Westeros in the known world, roughly speaking.

But that doesn't tell us what it is or how it relates to the story.

On top of that, there are good reasons to believe that the Shadowlands by a shy are

not our best answer for where DeNaris has to literally go, right? But that may be part of the

answer. That's why we have to dedicate an episode to it, because it's a little tricky. This belief,

rather this notion, in part stems from knowing that George

made some changes along the way. He had a plan. He changed it a bit as he went. The story grew in the

telling, as we all know. We're focusing in on that for DeNaris and some related stories. Now, in part,

he may have wanted to maintain a layer of mystery

about Ashai and the Shadowlands,

but even as he steered Danny away from going there directly,

he continued to make Ashai and the Shadowlands important,

not just to her story, as I said, but to other storylines.

And for storylines yet to come, as we'll discuss.

The shadow could be a metaphor or symbol for many things, for example. It doesn't have to be a

literal place, but as I said, it could be both. We'll take a look at all that, and which

story elements related to Ashai and the Shadowlands appear in all the books.

Not just a song of ice and fire, but the world of ice and fire and blood, too.

There's a lot to go on with that.

...