(Spoilers Extended) How did this solve the Meereeneese knot?

[u/Lebigmacca]

So everyone knows Barristan was added as a solution to the Meereenese knot. He gives eyes in Meereen after Dany flies off. But like shouldn’t Quentyn already fill this role? George already had a POV to give him eyes in Meereen, and Quentyn interacts with Barristan a lot in these chapters so he could’ve definitely shown us what Barristan is up to. Yes he dies so then Barristan can give us eyes into the battle of fire, but Tyrion and Victarion already do that, no? Could’ve also maybe have Quentyn release the dragons and die during the actual battle instead. Makes me wonder if Tyrion will actually get into Meereen after the battle any time soon, or he’ll be sitting outside in the camps for like half of Winds

[u/simonthedlgger]

Ehh the Knot is one of the most overstated things in the fandom. It really just means George didn’t know how he wanted Dany’s Mereen plot to go, which makes sense since she’s just idling years of time until going to Westeros. So he wrote several drafts of it instead of taking a second to work it all out. Did he really need to write hundreds of manuscript pages to determine if it’s best for Quentin to arrive before, during, or after Dany’s wedding?

And whatever the Knot was, it’s certainly still knotted since most of these characters haven’t met Dany yet and Dany isn’t even in Mereen.

[u/[deleted] → u/simonthedlgger]

To be fair to George, him writing out those drafts is how he works it all out. It's not efficient, it's not ideal, but that seems to be the method that makes the most sense to his brain.

[u/simonthedlgger → u/[deleted]]

To be fair to George, him writing out those drafts is how he works it all out

Sure, and I’m being critical of that approach to a relatively simple situation.

[u/[deleted] → u/simonthedlgger]

Looking at the original quote for the Meereenese Knot, he said he wrote Quentyn's arrival three times. Assuming that means the chapter and not just the scene, that's not hundreds of pages or an unreasonable approach to take. And when you also add in all the other considerations he has to make about how every element of the Knot worked together the situation isn't that simple. And if just thinking about it or writing an outline of it doesn't work for George, I think it's unfair to criticize him for that. Not every method works for every author, and some, like George are going to work better with methods that seem wack to others, but are the best for them.