A Game of Thrones Reread - Part 18

What time is it? It's time for another South of the Wall Game of Thrones reread post! But you knew that right? Well if not, you do now. Sorry about missing another post yesterday, my work schedule has been irregular the past week. I'd like to say we're back on track now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? There's a post today, anyway. I think to help keep the schedule I will just be doing one chapter a day, at least for this week. We'll see how it goes.

Now let's witness the Hand's tourney through the eyes of a stupid naive young girl!

As always, these posts may contain spoilers for all published Song of Ice and Fire material, up through A Feast for Crows.

On with the show!

SANSA

Summary

Sansa rode to the tourney with Septa Mordane and Jeyne Poole in a litter with curtains of yellow silk, and "they turned the whole world gold." Sansa was taken away by the majesty of it all. Knights in armor, great pavilions, and thousands of spectators. She thought it was even better than the songs.

Sansa took her seat among the other high lords and ladies, as she surveyed the knights. She saw the Kingsguard, all in white except Jaime Lannister who wore his gold armor under his white cloak. There was Ser Gregor Clegane, Lord Yohn Royce, Lord Jason Mallister, and Thoros of Myr. There were many knights that Sansa did not know, and some that were young and had not yet had the chance to prove their valor. Sansa and Jeyne marveled at Jalabhar Xho, a black skinned man and an exile from the Summer Isles, and  Lord Beric Dondarrion. There was also the Hound, Lord Renly, and some of her father's men, Jory, Alyn, and Harwin.

"Jory looks a beggar among these others," Septa Mordane sniffed when he appeared. Sansa could only agree. Jory's armor was blue-grey plate without device or ornament, and a thing grey cloak hung from his shoulders like a soiled rag. Yet he acquitted himself well.

The jousting went on all day, and Sansa was proud of how dignified she was in watching it. She did not avert her eyes once. The Kingslayer and the Clegane brothers were all doing well. There was a terrifying moment during Ser Gregor's second tilt, where his lance struck a knight from the Vale under the gorget with such force it killed him instantly.

Jeyne Poole wept so hysterically that Septa Mordane finally took her off to regain her composure, but Sansa sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching with a strange fascination. She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran. It would be different if it had been  Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself. The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her, some stranger from the Vale of Arryn whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized; there would be no songs sung for him. That was sad.

 Once the body was removed, the tourney resumed. Lord Renly was a favorite of the crowd, but was unhorsed by the Hound. Septa Mordane returned then, but without Jeyne. Lord Beric Dondarrion was unhorsed by Thoros of Myr. The field was finally reduced to just four: the Hound, Ser Gregor, Jaime Lannister, and Ser Loras Tyrell. Ser Loras, at sixteen, was the youngest knight on the field, but he had defeated three members of the Kingsguard. He was the youngest son of Mace Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden. Sansa had never seen someone so beautiful. His armor shone, and his stallion had a blanket made of roses. After each victory Ser Loras would present a white rose to a maiden in the crowd. After his last victory, he had presented Sansa with a red rose; all the other women received white roses.

Sansa was thinking of Ser Loras, when a man she did not know approached her. Septa Mordane identified him as Lord Petyr Baelish. He told her that her mother was his "queen of beauty" once, and told Sansa she had her hair. He stroked her hair and his hand brushed her cheek. He then abruptly turned and walked away.

The moon had soon come up, and the king called a halt to the proceedings, and the final three jousts would take place in the morning before the melee. Sansa and Septa Mordane sat in a place of honor during the dinner. Joffrey sat next to Sansa, and she was nervous, they had not spoken since "the awful thing happened."

At first she thought she hated him for what they'd done to Lady, but after Sansa had wept her eyes dry, she told herself that it had not been Joffrey's doing, not truly. The queen had done it; she was the one to hate, her and Arya. Nothing bad would have happened except for Arya. She could not hate Joffrey tonight. He was too beautiful to hate.

 Throughout the dinner Jofffrey was very courteous to her, and a perfect gentleman the entire night. Sansa had several cups of wine, but she was drunk on the entire spectacle of it. Throughout the dinner the king's voice got louder and louder as he drank more and more. Finally he was so loud that everyone heard him, as he yelled at Queen Cersei that she did not tell him what to do, and that he would fight in the melee. Queen Cersei left the table, and Jaime Lannister put a hand on the king's shoulder, but the king shoved him away hard, knocking Lannister to the floor. Joffrey told Sansa it was late, and asked if she would like an escort back to the castle. She said yes, and Joffrey called out for his Dog. He told Sandor Clegane to escort her back to the castle, and then walked off.

The Hound laughed, asking if she thought Joff would walk her himself. He started to walk her out, and Sansa tried to wake up Septa Mordane (who had fallen asleep at the table) to no avail. As they walked Sansa remembered her courtesies and told "Ser Sandor" he rode well. The Hound said he was no ser, and he spits on them and their vows. He asked if she saw Ser Gregor, and she said he was and complimented him. The Hound told her she was like one of those pretty birds that just repeat the words they are told to recite. He told her that Ser Gregor killing the knight was no accident, that he had noticed the gorget was not properly fastened.

He then forced Sansa to look at his horribly scarred face until she began to cry. Then he told her how he got his scars. When he was six or seven he had taken one of Gregor's toys. Gregor was five years older than Sandor, and had no need for the toys, but when Gregor saw him he grabbed Sandor and pressed his face into a brazier. It took three men to pull Gregor away.

"The septons preach about the seven hells. What do they know? Only a man who's been burned knows what hell is truly like."

Four years later they anointed Gregor and Rhaegar Targaryen knighted him himself. Sansa says that Gregor is no true knight. Sandor roars at this, and agrees with her. They walk the rest of the way in silence. When they reached the corridor outside her bedchamber the Hound told her to tell no one what he told her, or he would kill her.

My Thoughts

Holy crap was there a lot going on in this chapter. I guess I'll take it in order, and then I want to talk about Sansa chapters in general. But first things first, the tourney! We see a LOT of names here, and I didn't even list half of them. These are just names now, but nearly every one of these knights factor into the plot later on. We see Lord Beric and Thoros, who of course will lead the Brotherhood Without Banners. And I didn't remember Thoros unhorsing Lord Beric! I think my mental image of Thoros of Myr may be wrong. They describe him as having a bald head and wearing red robes, and I always pictured him as a sort of warrior monk. But if he's in the joust, he has to be wearing armor, right? Granted, I don't know much about jousting but you can't stay healthy too long jousting without any armor, tourney lances or no. We also have Lord Renly and Ser Loras in the same place, but of course, they don't interact yet. I think this is also the first mention of Jalabhar Xho, the exile from the Summer Islands. Is he the only black man in the novels so far? I can't think of any others.

We also get the first meeting of Sansa and Littlefinger. He was sufficiently... creepy. So what does everyone think Littlefinger's interest in Sansa is? The obvious? He couldn't have the mother, so he'll go for the daughter? Dude, she's only eleven. Quit it with the cheek caressing and hair stroking.

The man that Ser Gregor killed was, of course, Jon Arryn's squire, the one Ned wanted to talk to. So who told Ser Gregor to kill him? So many plots!

We also get the first one on one between the Hound and Sansa. Seriously, a lot of stuff going on in this chapter! There is an odd connection between them from the start. The Hound is crude and cruel, but you can tell there is some sort of soft spot for Sansa. What it is, you've got me. Sansa is supposed to be very pretty, and maybe her politeness to him takes him off guard? She is clearly frightened of him, but I would guess most eleven year olds would be pretty terrified at a six foot five man with half his face burned off. But there is clearly something going on, as I doubt the Hound tells the story of big brother Greggy burning his face off to just anyone. And, speaking of which, Jesus!! So Gregor is what, eleven or twelve (and already six foot), finds his FIVE YEAR OLD brother playing with his toy, grabs him (without saying a word) and holds his face in a fire. What the hell? I mean, I can't even fathom, I don't have the words. And the father doesn't punish his eldest child, instead he just lies about what happened to little Sandor. And if rumor is to be believed, Gregor eventually killed his father anyway. Gregor is fucked up. And scary. I think I went off track here. Where did I start? A touching moment between the Hound and Sansa? Ha!

And, since I haven't talked enough already, I want to talk about Sansa chapters in general. In my original read I remember hating Sansa chapters, Sansa and Catelyn chapters I always thought were the worst, but now I find myself intrigued by Sansa. Using the points of view for chapters invites the character to be an unreliable narrator, and I don't think this is as true anywhere else as it is here. I liked this line from the first paragraph, where looking through yellow silk "turns the whole world gold." That is the way Sansa ALWAYS looks at the world. She never sees what is there, instead seeing what she wants to see. The majesty of the tourney, the knights are all heroes, the world is a magical place. When she sees the knight of the Vale killed, it doesn't effect her at all. He was nobody, and while she did feel guilty, she acknowledged that the knight would be forgotten by everyone else just as quickly. Then, a little foreshadowing, she assures herself she'd cry if it was someone she knew. That will be put to the test soon, which is too bad. She ends her thought that the dead knight would not have any songs sung for him, which in her mind, is a fate worse than death.

This twisted world view is even more apparent in her thoughts about Joffrey that I quoted above. She is literally changing the way things happened in her own head, she is lying to herself. She wants Joffrey to be her beautiful prince so bad that she just rationalizes what happened, and twists the facts around, until Joffey is innocent and the queen is evil. The queen and Arya, which is a whole other kind of fucked up. Choosing the asshole prince over your own sister, Sansa? That's cold. But these rationalizations and lies change further, as Sansa will eventually try to ingratiate herself to the queen. The queen she hates in this chapter, she rats her father out too soon enough!

OK, I suppose that's enough. And I didn't say that I liked Sansa (I don't, especially not in this book) but I find her chapters fascinating.

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Well, if you stuck it out and read all my Sansa rantings, thank you! And what do you all think? Any big moments in the tourney I didn't mention, or other musings on Sansa's idealized world view?