Page 377: Crossroads

Doesn't seem like a whole lot has really changed in the last couple hundred pages, but lots of gears are turning (the gears of war!) and a great many plot threads are pushing their way towards big payoffs.

Tyrion: It's still very difficult to root out his motives. He has no love for "King" Joffrey, that's for sure. Every effort he makes seems to be both to secure his own safety, and that of King's Landing, but also to lessen the damage Joffrey does on a daily basis to make himself less loved by the people. Cersei harangues him for trying to send Tommen and Myrcella away, and as much as those moves are common power plays in Westeros, I think he's also doing it because he likes or loves his niece and nephew, and honestly wants them out of harm's way when the fighting comes to the capital. His interactions with Varys are some of the most interesting in the book, as well as his interactions with Littlefinger. Whereas anything involving the Starks is always artless, it's always wheels within wheels with Tyrion. You can count on the Stark kids to act out of both naivete and honor, and you can count on Tyrion to act out of guile and mysterious deception. Also, I like that we get to see Tyrion's intelligence at work with training the tower guards to use wildfire. Cersei was playing queen by inspecting the battlements, but Tyrion was heightening the chances for victory by actually training the men to use their biggest advantage, and he was quite clever in doing so. It really emphasizes how well his mind works, how clever he is, and how limited the thinking of the more martial characters can be.

Sansa: Oh Sansa, just when I want to like you, you do a half dozen stupid things that make me dislike you all over again. She is literally a damsel imprisoned in a tower waiting for a knight to come to her rescue. Can she be any more a manifestation of the useless damsel in distress? For heaven's sake, she chose her own personal gods because their statues were prettier and because the septs have crystals rather than the gods of her father. And after all she's seen she still blames Arya for Lady's death? Come on, she knew that Joffrey lied about the whole thing, and she knows that he's a monster, and still only begrudgingly misses her sister? Much as I despise the Hound (Clegane) and Joffrey, I can't help but think "you're right!" whenever they call her stupid to her face. I want so very much to find something likable in her, but every ounce of strength she shows is paired with five moments of frail weakness. Is she really going to be set free by the knight she uncharacteristically saved? Somehow I doubt it. I'm positive that someone knows about it; at the very least Varys does. We'll have to wait and see.

Arya: First off, I wonder if we're supposed to think that Yoren was killed by the same axe that Arya threw into the wagon to free the hardened criminals. That seems like an unkindness more suitable to Sansa, but while Arya is far less trusting than Sansa, she is as fiercely noble as all the Starks, and clearly saw it as the right thing to do that she not let them burn to death. However, the novels seem to take a special, sickening pleasure in turning Stark kindness into bitter lessons of the reality of human nature. It's a Stark contrast. Anyway, with Catelyn traveling south, it seems a possibility that Catelyn could happen upon Arya and take her north? Or that Arya could at some point meet up with Reny's army, but somehow I think these things unlikely. I'm still rooting for Arya to come into contact with Nymeria in the wild, and I think the wolf bands that are shadowing them are led by Nymeria. Maybe that'll be the deus ex machina that gets Arya out of the current jam of the week that she's in.

Bran: Ah Bran, my little ray of sunshine and hope. It would seem his plot has nothing going for it. Every chapter since his fall has been "Bran hung out in the castle and met with someone, then he was miserable, then he had a dream..." One and/or two things have to happen with Bran to make his plot thread even worth keeping. 1. It's clear by now that he's literally sharing Summer's mind at points. It's not just a dream. Something has to happen with this power to increase Bran's functionality in the greater plot. 2. Someone attacks Winterfell and we see it through Bran's eyes. I want so much for Bran to have his moment. His yearning to be whole leaps off the pages and clutches at my heart. His dreams excite me even as they scare him.

Catelyn: In hindsight; duh. I should have known that Robb would send her south to Renly Baratheon. The biggest plot hole in the novel was not having any eyes and ears on Renly except for spies and rumors. Catelyn was the perfect vehicle for that. I have no idea where she'll go now that Stannis has attacked Storm's End, but she'll either follow or head north. Either way we get some interesting material out of her. I'm glad Martin decided to delve a little bit into her feelings in her chapter. We see that yes, Catelyn is a strong woman, in part because she just is, and in part because she's rising to the occasion, but she still grieves for Eddard, and deep inside just wants to cry and be comforted. What I love about that is Martin's refusal to put Catelyn in the "strong woman" or "weak woman" camp. Sansa is clearly portrayed as weak and frail. Arya is portrayed as heedlessly brave. Catelyn juxtaposes weak and strong all by herself, and proves that we can be both. I think it was in the first novel that one of the kids asked Eddard or another character if it was possible to be brave and scared at the same time. The reply was that it was impossible to be brave without being afraid, for overcoming fear is what makes bravery. Thus, even a couple paragraphs of Catelyn's continued mourning for Eddard shows us just how brave she is. You go girl.

Not much to tell about Jon, just that like all the other Starks, we're having to see him struggle with the justness that Eddard raised him with versus the cold reality around him. His inability to save the weak and helpless is eating away at him. I hope he doesn't lose that completely, but I think he'll be better served by realizing he can't save everyone.

A couple of random observations: I like the scene where Bran is sitting in his father's chair in the dining hall at Winterfell, and all the local lords are enjoying the feast while Bran contrasts that dinner with the one they had when Robert was still king. Just by comparing the two scenes we see just how drastically the situation has changed. Arya lost, Sansa captured, Robb king, Eddard dead, Catelyn in the south, Jon at the Wall, four kings where once was one, and the entire realm at war. And closer to home, Bran is crippled and half the household guard they grew up with is dead. Bran's entire reality has been rocked to its foundations, and I think he survives by clinging to long held notions of knighthood as a life raft. So much lost, so much gone, and so little available for him to do to cope.

Brienne the Blue is an interesting, possible throw-away character. She's the one woman in the novel thus far actually honored in some way for her martial spirit. The only other warrior women we saw was a women who is rumored to bed with bears, and is thus a joke. Brienne on the other hand is now part of Renly's kingsguard, despite her low birth and poor looks. In that, she's a singular character, but she's also a grown-up version of what Arya thinks (or really does) want in her heart of hearts; to be one of the boys.

And finally, what is going on above the Wall with Mance Rayder? Is he really gathering up all his people for a ride south beyond the Wall? It's certainly made to look that way. All of Westereos is set up as a house of cards right now. If anyone moves, the whole thing comes crashing down. Renly moves north and is attacked by Stannis. If Robb attacks Harrenhall, he'll be smashed by Casterly Rock. Yet while he's in the south, the Greyjoys make to move on someone, even while the Others and the wildings in the north are planning something. It seems the intended pairings are actually pretty well matched. Looking at the four kings, Stannis vs. Renly is brother king vs. brother king, both Baratheon's falling for their brother's fallen crown. In King's Landing, you have the Usurper King Joffrey with no obvious enemies (now that Renly is occupied) except for a dragon toting princess across the sea who is newly empowered and craving a return home to unseat the descendant (supposedly) of the man who killed her brother. And in the King of the North, Robb, you have either the Greyjoys coming back to avenge their defeat by Eddard years ago, or the wildings of the north come down to the northern kingdom. None of these pairings are random they're all rooted in history and seem very appropriate. One of my bigger unanswered questions is what the relationship is between Mance Rayder and the Others? Could he merely be gathering his forces to defend against them? Or do they have some sort of agreement and he really is riding beyond the Wall? Time will tell I suppose.

Up next is a Theon chapter. Should be interesting.