One of the few criticisms I have for this series is that they killed off Maester Aemon. He was one of my favorite characters and because of his death, so many things got delayed in being answered. dunno why grrm made him get sick en route to oldtown, he just as easily have gone to braavos, heard about the dragons and daeny and changed plans and him and sam made an adventure to mereen with sam becoming braver and aemon teaching him (and us) about the dragons and the beginnings of becoming a maester.