A Game of Thrones Reread - Part 9

Part nine of the reread? Where does the time go. Nearly 1/5 of the way through the book! What will we be discussing tonight? First we have the ramifications of Arya's actions, and then we have a young crippled boy finally open his eyes.

The Bran chapter is actually very interesting, and as it is short, I recommend you go back and read that chapter yourself (if you're not already reading them along with these posts).

Okay, spoilers through A Feast for Crows, be warned, blah blah blah, you should all know it by now.

EDDARD

Summary

Ned is informed that Jory has found Arya - before the Lannisters did. Unfortunately, Arya has been taken straight to the king. Ned informed his men to bring Sansa, then he rushed to the king. Ned found the king, with the queen next to him, and Joffrey next to her. Joffrey's arm was heavily bandaged. Arya stood in the center of the room, alone except for Jory. Ned immediately went to her. She had been gone four days. Ned surveyed the room, but there were no friendly faces. Renly wore a half smile, Barristan looked grave, and the Lannister men looked hostile. Ned was just relieved that Jaime and Sandor Clegane weren't there, as they were still out searching.

Ned angrily asked Robert why Arya wasn't brought to him first, and Cersei snapped back, leading to an argument between her and Robert. Robert clearly wanted to be anywhere else. Cersei accuses Arya and her friend of attacking Joffrey. Joffrey claims Arya and Mycah beat him with clubs, and sicced her direwolf on him. This devolved into a shouting match between Arya and Joffrey. The king silenced them and asked for Arya's side of the story. As Arya recounted the story, Ned saw Sansa enter the room. When Arya reached the point where she threw Lion's Tooth into the river, Renly broke out laughing. The king ordered him out of the room. Joffrey then told his version of the story, very different from Arya's. Ned points out that there was another witness, and asks Sansa to tell what she saw. Sansa says she cannot remember, and Arya attacks her. Ned broke up their fight, and Cersei demanded that Arya be punished. The king had had enough. He decreed that kids fight, he expects Ned to punish Arya and he will punish Joffrey. Ned was relieved.

Robert started to walk away, but the queen was not done. "And what of the direwolf?" she called after him. "What of the beast that savaged your son?"

The king stopped and turned around. He had forgotten about the direwolf. Arya's wolf was not found, and was still loose in the area. Cersei offered a reward, but Robert wanted no part of it, and besides there was no wolf. Cersei pointed out that they did have a wolf. The king nodded, and said for Ser Illyn to see to it. Finally Sansa realized what was happening and began to plead. Arya joined her cause and said Lady was not even there. Ned pleaded on his daughter's behalf, looking for mercy from his friend.

The king looked at them for a long moment, then turned his eyes on his wife. "Damn you, Cersei," he said with loathing.

Ned stood, gently disengaging himself from Sansa's grasp. All the weariness of the past four days had returned to him. "Do it yourself then, Robert," he said in a voice cold and sharp as steel. "At least have the courage to do it yourself."

Robert said nothing, and walked away. Joffrey was smiling, and Cersei sent for Ser Illyn. Ned stepped in and told Jory to bring the girls to their rooms, and to bring him Ice. Cersei asked if this was some sort of trick, why would he do it himself?

They were all staring at him, but it was Sansa's look that cut. "She is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher."

When it was done, Ned ordered four of his men to bring the body all the way back to Winterfell. He was finally about to retire, when Sandor Clegane came riding back, with a mass slumped over the back of his horse. His body had been cut nearly in half. The Hound had run him down.

My Thoughts

This was tough. First Bran was crippled, and now we have lost a direwolf. The Starks aren't having it easy so far, huh? And how about Arya, evading the entire caravan, including trained knights and her father, for four days? That can't be easy to do. We also see a lot into Robert's character in this chapter. He clearly does. not. like. his job, and is cowed by Cersei. Sure, he yells at her and puts up a fight, but she clearly gets her way.

Now Cersei is an interesting character. If you think about it, she's really already won. She's the queen, her father is the most powerful of the high lords, her brother is in the Kingsguard, and pretty soon her son would be king. But she always has to push things, and cannot let any slight go. The question is, does she know what a prick Joffrey is and doesn't care, or does she really have no idea the monster she sired? I can't tell if Cersei is evil, an idiot, some combination? I'm not even really sure what her motives are, I guess she wants more power for herself? She's the damn queen!!

And poor Sansa. I'm pretty sure most of the readers identified with Arya much more than Sansa, so probably didn't have the warmest feelings for Sansa, but this still sucks. We've seen so much about the direwolves by now, to have one beheaded for NO REASON really hurts. I love that Ned did it himself, using Ice, and had Lady sent back to be buried at Winterfell. The north keeps it real. I wonder if Sansa's intense fear of Ser Illyn Payne was foreshadowing to Lady's death sentence? Or, again, it could just be that Ser Illyn Payne is a scary looking dude, and Sansa is 11. Either way I guess.

And yeah, the Hound running down a young boy and nearly cutting him in half with his sword? That's fucked up. What's more fucked up? NOBODY CARES! Except Arya of course. But damn. Tough living in Westeros.

BRAN

Summary

Bran was falling. He was so high up he could barely see the ground, but he knew he was falling. And he knew he would wake up the moment before he hit the ground.

And if you don't? the voice asked.

 The ground was getting closer and closer, and Bran wanted to cry. The voice told him to fly, not to cry. Bran looked around and saw a crow was flying around him. He told it that he could not fly, and the crow argued that he never tried. Bran and the crow began to argue, about who could and couldn't fly, and of the nature of dreams. Bran noticed his body, and he was much skinnier than he remembered, with his skin stretched taut across his bones. He began to remember a face with golden hair and screamed. The crow flew at Bran and told him not to think about that, to put it away.

Bran looked down and saw the world. He saw many things. He saw Maester Luwin studying the sky and making notes. He saw Robb, taller and stronger, practicing in the yard. He saw the weirwood standing in the center of the godswood, and it lifted its eyes and stared back at Bran. He saw his mother on a galley to the east, a bloodstained knife in front of her. To the south he saw his father pleading with the king. He saw Sansa crying, and saw Arya watching and keeping her own secrets.

There were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.

He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.

Finally Bran looked north. He saw the Wall and looked past it, past the forests, past rivers of ice and plains, further and further north to the end of the world and beyond. "He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks.

Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.

"Why?" Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.

Because winter is coming.

 And then Bran was very afraid, but he remembered his father's words to him. The only time a man can be brave is when he is afraid. And then Bran flew. He flew alongside the three-eyed crow. The crow flew at Bran and began pecking at his forehead, between his eyes.

Bran awoke in his bed, to find his direwolf lying next to him. A serving girl ran out of the room yelling that he was awake. Robb ran into the room to find Bran hugging his direwolf. "His name is Summer," Bran said.

My Thoughts

This was a short chapter, but it was sure packed with information. So much of this series is grounded in "reality," and by that I mean a realistic portrayal of events. This is clearly a fantasy world, but the actual goings-on so far (outside of the prologue... and the six wolves the size of horses... ok just go with me on this, alright?) have been pretty devoid of 'magic' or the typical fantasy tropes. Now we full out have prophetic dreams and three-eyed crows! It still isn't entirely clear what the crow meant about Bran flying, but it could be his eventual ability to merge with animals. Opening his own third eye, and becoming a warg. We will obviously be dealing more with that later, so let's get on to what Bran saw in his dream.

Maester Luwin viewing the sky and making notes. I think this is Maester Luwin performing a little meteorology. He is viewing the portents, and is likely concluding that winter is, in fact coming. And fairly soon. (Soon being a relative term when you're dealing with four very long books).

He saw Robb, taller and stronger. We can probably merge this with Bran's viewing of himself as gaunt, and of Catelyn on the galley with the dagger. Bran is clearly seeing things that are happening concurrently with the dream. He isn't dreaming and remembering how things were before his coma, he is "seeing" the present, through some power.

He saw the weirwood, looking up at him from the godswood. This was an interesting one. It was said the First Men allied themselves with the children of the forest, and the children are the ones that carved the weirwoods. Was there any breeding between the two? Does Bran (and the Starks) have the blood of the children of the forest in them? Or is the ability of a warg tied to the children in some way? Clearly there is a strong connection between the Starks (and Bran in particular) and the weirwoods. (In my opinion, the old gods kick the seven and R'hollor's ass in the theological department).

This one I'm not too sure about, and maybe you can help. He sees his father and two sisters, clearly shortly after Lady was killed. But then he has the vision of the shadows. One shadow is clearly the Hound, and the other pretty obviously Jaime. But who is the third, greater shadow? A giant in armor made of stone, and beneath the visor nothing but "darkness and thick black blood." I have two theories. It could be Ser Gregor Clegane, but I don't think it is. Gregor is clearly the "giant" as far as this series is concerned, but I don't know why he would be seen as a greater shadow than Jaime and the Hound. My other theory, which I'm not sold on but I like better than Gregor, is that this shadow is Tywin Lannister himself. Jaime is his son, and the Cleganes are his bannermen, so clearly his shadow is above and greater than theirs. And his armor is made of stone, and what is Tywin's true armor if it isn't Casterly Rock itself? The Lannisters are the villains of the piece (with the exception of Tyrion I suppose), and why not the head Lannister as the big villain? I'd love to hear any of your theories on this.

I'm very curious about the next paragraph as well, when Bran looks to the east. He sees dragons in Asshai by the Shadow. We know the last dragons, Viserys and Daenerys are to the east, but as far as I remember Dany never got to Asshai. So is this a premonition of some future event when Dany will be in Asshai with her dragons? Its made clear in all of his other visions that Bran was seeing the present, so this would seem incongruous. But it also seems strange to me that their is a country far to the east that is filled with dragons. I guess I'll have to wait on that one, and pay attention to any future mentions of Asshai.

And of course, whatever Bran saw far north of the Wall. This is likely the Others, and whatever other foul shit is going on up there, and I'm sure we will see firsthand eventually.

There was a lot going on in this short Bran chapter, and if you're just reading these posts and not rereading the book too, I recommend pulling the book out and reading this chapter at least.


And that's it for this week! I will be back again next week with a new post. Now - what did everyone else think?