Prologue (Will)
Three rangers (Royce, Gerad and Will) are out tracking wildlings. Will finds their camp with all of them apparently dead. He goes back to the others and they spend 10 pages arguing about what might have killed them, so by the time they make it back to the camp the bodies are gone. Will climbs a tree to act as a lookout, and therefore survives an attack by the Others. When he goes down to investigate Royce's corpse, it wightifies and scares the crap out of him.
So I went into this re-read assuming that I would find a whole new meaning in this chapter, but... I didn't. It is the obvious starting point for the book (and series), before we get tangled up in all the intrigue at King's Landing. But it just doesn't hold my attention like every single other chapter of the series does and the prose doesn't flow nearly as smoothly. It almost feels like Martin didn't write it.
One thing that really confuses me is the fact that Royce is the "commander" of this ranging, even though it's stated that:
- he's 17,
- he's only been a sworn brother for six months, and
- it's his first ever ranging...
...whereas Gerad apparently has 40 years' experience (and Will has 4).
Will and Gerad follow his orders even when they know them to be misguided. The only explanation I can think of for him being in command is his "lordling" status, which is mentioned about 50 bajillion times; but that would be in complete contradiction to the philosophy of the Night's Watch and the shedding of former crimes and titles. Another thought I had was that leading your own first ranging might be some sort of rite of passage, but that doesn't make sense in the context of the life-threatening nature of going beyond the Wall (think of how often this is shoved down our throats later in Jon's chapters). It's just a strange set of details that don't fit at all with what we now know about how the Watch and the rangers operate.
Notice how I really don't have any comments to make about the Others. That's how disinterested I am in this introduction to them.
Bran I
Bran goes off with his father and brothers to see his very first execution of a Night's Watch deserter. He Learns Lessons of northern honour from Ned. On the way back to Winterfell, they find a dead direwolf (apparently killed by a stag) and her five pups. Jon convinces Ned that the Stark children are "meant" to have them. As the party are leaving Jon notices the sixth pup and claims it as his own.
The beginning of this chapter was surprisingly painful to read. Ned! Robb! Jory! Theon!
"Theon was a lean, dark youth of nineteen who found everything amusing."
I'm actually dreading the return to Winterfell and the slightly-good times that are about to be had there (hey, compared to the rest of the series, even Bran being thrown off the tower is a piece of cake).
Catelyn I
Catelyn goes to Ned in the godswood to tell him that Jon Arryn has died and that King Robert et al are on their way to Winterfell.
My most prominent thought while reading this chapter was how confusing all of this must have been for me the first time around. I definitely remember having trouble while I was actively trying to remember names and alliances; I eventually decided to just go with the flow and hope that I'd pick it up eventually. I guess I did, yay. But I love the fact that this world was so FULL right from the beginning.
I remember really disliking Catelyn in AGOT and ACOK (mainly because of What She Said To Jon). Maybe now, knowing what happens, I can try to be a bit more sympathetic towards her.
One passage caught my eye:
""There are darker things beyond the Wall." She glanced behind her at the heart tree, the pale bark and red eyes, watching, listening, thinking its long slow thoughts."
But I'm not even going to try to figure any of this out. I'm just going to pay a lot of attention to the weirwoods this time around, just because I have NO EFFING IDEA what was going on in Bran's arc in ADWD.
Daenerys I
Dany, Viserys and Illyrio go to Khal Drogo's feast to present Dany to him in the hope that he will wed her, in exchange for the use of his army in Viserys' invasion of Westeros.
Unpopular opinion of the day: I never liked Dany. I was glad when everyone's opinion caught up to mine in later books and was looking forward to going back to the beginning and explaining exactly why she has always been an unlikeable character. That said, I really enjoyed this chapter and the references to ~strange Essos things~ that will become more prominent in later books, particularly the red priests. There was even an Unsullied! That was definitely a pleasant surprise.
Viserys fondling Dany and twisting her nipple within a few pages of the characters being introduced (as brother and sister, no less), and the shock that it gave me, are perhaps my most prominent memories of my first read of AGOT. Oh those days of innocence, if I only knew what was to come... it seemed rather tame the second time around (I think I'll be having this non-reaction quite a bit).
*R+L=J alert* I was intrigued by the references to the Trident, and Rhaegar "battling the Usurper and dying for the woman he loved". Of course my mind jumps straight to Lyanna, but I doubt Dany has much knowledge of that situation, so it's a very strange thing for her to think. Since Elia had very little Targ blood, I think Viserys would have a Slytherinesque lack of affection for her; and in any case, he's not likely to tell Dany a bedtime romance story. I suppose it's possible that Willem Darry could have told her about her sister-in-law, but that still doesn't explain why she assumes Rhaegar died for Elia.
Eddard I
The main take-home point of this chapter is that Sean Bean and Mark Addy were absolutely flawless casting decisions, because they were the ones playing this scene out in my head.
I have to wonder at the depth of Robert's hatred of Rhaegar, who apparently was almost universally loved. Of course his "kidnapping" of Lyanna plays a huge part, but it brings up an aspect of Robert's Rebellion that I didn't consider before: why get rid of Rhaegar, too? After all, isn't it known that Rhaegar himself recognised his father's madness and also wanted to put an end to his reign? By all accounts, he himself would have made a good king. One Mad King doesn't warrant the total annihilation of a dynasty which has ruled in relative peace for hundreds of years. And then of course, we later have glimpses of Robert's obsession with getting rid of Dany (and speculation that his hatred of the Targaryens fuelled, in part, Ned's obsession with keeping the secret of Jon's parentage so closely guarded). I get that they're an obvious threat to his claim on the throne, but geez.
Jon I
Jon gets drunk at the King's welcoming feast and begs Benjen to let him join the Night's Watch. When Benjen tells him that he's still too young, he runs off crying and bumps into Tyrion, who says poignant things about dwarves and bastards.
I'm struck by how young Jon sounds in this chapter. Of course part of it is that he's drunk. But it's so clear that he's just a boy! My poor little 998th Lord Commander :'(
The hall at Winterfell is full of Stark, Baratheon, and Lannister banners. This is a little off-topic, but it reminds me of how strange I always thought it was that Joff's and Tommen's banners were half-and-half Baratheon-and-Lannister. Surely that's not protocol for any child of with the blood of two great houses, let alone a king? It's also a little imprudent on Cersei's part, when she should be doing all that she possibly can to pass her children off as Baratheons. Oh well.
On a similar note, when Jaime entered he was wearing Lannister colours rather than his Kingsguard get-up. Am I completely missing something here, or was this an oversight?
I was definitely weirded out by Tyrion doing a strange tumble in the air to come down and meet Jon and Ghost. A little out of character for him: he has no problem making fun of his own dwarfism, but I was under the impression that his childhood trauma at the hands of Tywin he isn't partial to capering and cartwheeling and such (i.e. Joff's wedding).
And a little something for the conspiracy theorists out there: Tyrion's hair is described as "so blond it seemed white".
Catelyn II
Ned and Catelyn argue about Robert's offer. Maester Luwin interrupts with a secret message from Lysa Arryn, claiming that her husband was murdered by the Lannisters. They decide that Ned will go south with Sansa, Arya and Bran, and Jon will be sent to the Night's Watch with Benjen.
Ahhh, here we go. Here's where I start disliking Catelyn. Telling Ned that she "won't have him [Jon]" when Ned goes south? Geez. I find it really hard to sympathise with her on the Jon issue. Ned is probably the most honourable man in all of Westeros. She literally could not have a better husband. Can't she at least be gracious enough to not be a complete Bitchmonster 2000 about his son, whom he obviously loves?
She definitely plays favourites with her own kids, too. Are Arya and Sansa not as sweet and loving as Bran? You should be any more okay sending your daughters away than you are with sending your son, lady!
I spent a few minutes puzzling over why Lysa would send Catelyn that letter when she clearly knows the Lannisters didn't poison Jon Arryn... until I realised that obviously Littlefinger had a hand in it. Derp. In fact, is it possible that he himself knew their "secret language", and Lysa had no part in the letter at all? Although I suppose Catelyn would know her sister's hand too well for a forgery to be plausible. I'm very interested in getting to Catelyn's chapters at the Eyrie to study Lysa a little bit more.
HELL YES!
Arya I
The girls of Winterfell are sitting down to an afternoon of needlework and gossip, when Arya causes a characteristic scene and flees. She finds Jon and they watch the trueborn boys play-fighting, until Joffrey proves himself to be a twat.
I was surprised by her little tirade about, basically, how jealous she is of Sansa. In a way it was nice to see Sansa through Arya's eyes, because we've hardly ever seen the two interact, but I always thought of her thoughts towards her sister as being a lot more disdainful. But she really is a wretched little thing:
"The wolf pup loved her, even if no one else did."
Arya and Jon's relationship remains the single most beautiful thing about these books. If they don't get a happy reunion one day, I will never stop crying. And I love that Jon mentions the exact same thing I was writing about earlier (Joff's Baratheon-and-Lannister coat of arms).
(Septa Mordane: "Arya has the hands of a blacksmith". ARYA+GENDRY=FATE)
Bran II
On Bran's last day at Winterfell, he climbs an abandoned watchtower and stumbles across Cersei and Jaime making the beast with two backs. Jaime throws him out the window.
I've never been a superfan of Bran, mostly because his arc is the most confusing, but I find his thoughts in this chapter incredibly endearing. The descriptions of his climbs around Winterfell mark the point when I first started to really appreciate Martin's writing. It makes the climax of the chapter all the more shocking and tragic.
I was exciting about revisiting what Bran overheard between Cersei and Jaime before they finally saw him, but it was all straightforward stuff that we know. I suppose that after having most of AFFC devoted to their POVs, Cersei and Jaime really don't have any more secrets from us. Bummer.
Bran mentions that "the heart tree had always frightened him"; it must have made it difficult for Bloodrave to ?spy on him? if he avoided the weirwoods. Um, right? Still not clear on that last part of Bran's ADWD arc.
"Old nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning, and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes."
~~
That's all I have time for today, for which I'm almost thankful. Haven't picked up as many new things as I thought I would, to be honest. Mostly I seem to be picking up old things that I subsequently forgot!
-B
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