Page 637: Everybody Gets a Little Face Time

Once quick note before I launch into this: Normally I just do a paragraph for each character, which sometimes means mashing two or three chapters into a single paragraph. But as some of these chapters reveal quite a bit of information, and how information can flow from one chapter into another, I've decided now on to do a paragraph per chapter instead of per character. So you might see multiple paragraphs per character if they get multiple chapters in the page span I'm reading. Previously I'd only done this for Theon, as he earned a special place of ire on this blog.

Davos: Davos will probably be the best actual Hand around, but they don't really last long do they? And yeah, these guys mean business. I don't take their voodoo idly, what with trying to kill the various other kings (and frankly, if Joffrey and Balon died, I wouldn't shed a tear). But I have to say, it seems an unfair advantage to have that much power. I almost hope that the Reeds can protect Robb somehow using the power of the north. It seems like the powers of the Old Gods are a little more passive though. Melisandre gets to see the future in the fire, send shadow monsters after people by sucking energy from others, and can apparently orchestrate the deaths of people from afar through some sort of ritual sacrifice. That's some serious fire power (pun intended in her case). Thus far we haven't really seen any abilities from the Southrons, and the north men thus far, from the couple we've seen, have metaphorical future telling dreams, dreams where they can communicate through trees, and in Bran's case only, can control animals they know very well, and possibly more. The balance of power is really skewed here, and I hope it balances out. Normally I'm all in favor of new powers, but here I think Melisandre is the Hiro of the story (as in, so powerful it upsets the balance (it's a Heroes reference)).

Jaime: We see a lot more of his reasons for things, like why he betrayed Aerys, or joined the Kingsguard, and also that he has as much humanity as anyone else. I'm struck by the fact that he had to turn away, steel his heart, when the Starks were killed by Aerys. It's a hefty contrast to the guy who can casually toss a child out a window. But I can't tell if he used to be a decent guy turned bad because of Aerys, or if he's just totally unmotivated by normal human morality, and is thus unquantifiable in many ways. The only times we seem him acting in any way decently towards another human being are when he is involved with that person, like his respect for Tyrion or love for Cersei, and his growing respect for Brienne. Sadly, setting him free, from Catelyn's perspective, is a useless endeavor for a million different reasons, between Sansa being married off and Arya being gone. They'll get no value from him, except, the Jaime that was released might not be the Jaime that arrives back at King's Landing if his transformation continues apace. I don't see him totally reforming, but he's not the big bad wolf anymore. For the reasons states above, I think his personal moral code is peer to peer, rather than all encompassing. By that I mean, he's only going to extend the general list of moral compunctions and courtesy to people he actually knows and respects. So tossing Bran, a boy he has no feeling toward, out a window is no problem. But clearly his shifting feelings towards Brienne, as well as the fact that he's seemingly the only one who respects Tyrion for his intelligence, and the fact that he has disdain for seemingly everyone else indicates to me that he has to have a personal connection with people. That's why I don't see any wide ranging shift in his basic moral code or conduct.

Tyrion: I would love to see the Martells and the Tyrells at each other's throats. It seems that Tywin and Cersei have created an alliance almost designed to fall apart. I feel a little sorry for Tyrion and the indignities he's forced to suffer, but he's pretty tough, and gets his fair share of shots in to everyone who goes after him. I think he can take it.

Arya: Not much to say other than the fact that she certain seems to be in a much better place than she's been in since Ned died. Dondarrion might not be a saint, but he's no monster (so far as I know). Because of that, I'm assuming that he either dies or Arya is somehow separated from him. These novels refuse to let too many good things happen for too long a period or time, and in general Martin seems to have a sort of reflexive need to stir the pot when things are quiet for too long.

Bran: His powers continue to develop, and they appear to be making pretty damned decent time on their way to the Wall. Interesting how much power over people he might develop. Jojen said that more powerful wargs could literally control any living thing, and based on Bran's experience with Hodor, he's developing actual Jedi mind tricks. Finding Yoda appears to be an even more important endeavor.

Jon: And of course, they did the whole "ships in the night" thing by having him be within shouting distance of Bran but not actually have them meet. I'm guessing that either Summer knew it was him and decided to help, or Bran took control of Summer and sent him in to help Jon. Not sure why Bran would assume it wasn't a group of Night's Watch, but maybe Summer helped him there. Is it possible that Jon got some supernatural powers as well during his escape? Super strength and speed? And pain tolerance? You know, it occurs to me that a bit of a bad piece of evidence for anyone who thinks that he has Targaryen blood is the fact that he was burnt when fighting the first Other, when Dany has shown that Targaryens have special resistance to fire. Sure he could have missed the fire gene in favor of the Stark powers, but, still. I think that Ygritte wasn't one of the ones who shot him, and she escaped as well and will turn him in a later chapter as he makes his way back to the Wall. We aren't done with her yet. Whether she tries to kill him or not, I don't know. As a side note, it's nice that Jon really never lost himself all the way amongst the Wildings. They were a powerful lure in so many ways. They represented freedom, a total lack of restrictions and inhibitions. And here's Jon, young and untested, totally naive to the kinds of draws they would represent and fresh off making vows that would test him in even more serious way to someone who had no idea what he was giving up. He failed a lot of those tests, but never lost himself in the process. He's young, and young people make those mistakes. He'll learn and grow stronger. Maybe he'll still do something stupid for Ygritte, but, he's still true to the Night's Watch.

Dany: Interesting about Rhaegar and Lyanna. By the way, shame on anyone who mentioned this in the comments section of the blog. Little stuff like Ice being broken down doesn't bother me, but stuff like this counts as a spoiler. For shame. Anyway it's interesting that Rhaegar comes off as a bit of a romantic. He's bookish and gave Lyanna the mark of being the prettiest girl around despite being married. He seems to have only learned combat as a matter of course rather than from a genuine affinity for it. I'd like to see more on him. Every time I learn something more about a character from 15 years ago, I want to read a book about the rebellion and in general about the time before the time in question. I doubt that'll ever be written by Martin, and I don't know if I want it written by anyone else. Anyway, it's easy to see how Dany will build her army if she moves from city to city collecting slaves. Also, I think her biggest asset is how easily she creates a cult of personality around her. I think it takes a bit of a toll on her to be revered as a mother figure when she is destined to have no natural children of her own, but most of how she got to where she is has been because of her own choices. She has had a dozen chances to not go the way she's going since she was married off to Khal Drogo, and she always stuck to this course.

Arya: Okay, Jon's mother is Wylla? Or maybe Ashara Dayne? Both of those seem unlikely, but I suppose not impossible. Seems very odd that they would just drop that sort of bomb on the reader after all the build-up. I knew this was too good to be true as a return for Arya back to her family, and I think there are two reasons she's still being kept from home: 1. She still needs to meet back up with Nymeria at some point. 2. Robb is going to die before all the Stark kids return home from beyond the grave. Lots of prophesies and revelations in this chapter, and I've totally lost track of all the prophesies that the old woman has made. I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere keeping track of them all. Balon Greyjoy dying is another reason I fear for Robb. Melisandre's voodoo crap is either having an affect, or Balon died coincidentally and she's just using guessing right rather than actually causing things to happen. I have no idea what Sandor Clegane would want with Arya, other perhaps than to simply sell her to someone, but I can't imagine the Lannisters would want to see him again after his disappearance, so, where does he plan to go? Or does he just plan to keep her as a pet to supplant Sansa, who he appears to have had some weird sort of attraction to?

Jaime: I really fear for how Cersei might treat him when he returns maimed. There's an interesting parallel between Jaime losing his hand and not being a "whole man" and Bran's feelings of incompleteness (at Jaime's hand(s)). What with Jaime's identity being so closely tied up in his warmaking ability, and in general for Bran, being a cripple is near a death sentence in Westeros, regardless of what your identity was, but especially for a boy who fearlessly put his body into all sorts of physical trials. It might not have been as big a deal for someone like Samwell. Yet both of them are being forced to forge new identities in the wake of the death of their previous ones. Both are struggling with is pretty seriously. Bran is running away from life, and Jaime's identity crisis hasn't really resolved itself into any single direction. I find these parallel stories to be some of the most interesting stuff going on in the book.

It still strikes me as interesting that Jaime is steadfastly monogamous to his common law wife sister. Set aside for a moment how odd that relationship is to begin with, monogamy is a rare in this world among the nobility. I think the only real example of it that we have so far is Ned and his relationship with Catelyn, and even he might have slipped, depending on who you think are Jon's parents. Jaime is something special. Maybe not something good, but certainly not like the others. I love that we keep seeing constant references from Jaime to appeal to, or respect, Tyrion's intelligence. I saw it a bit before he was maimed, but now that he can't bash his way through problems, whenever he is met with a problem, he responds with WWTD? Tyrion would find a way out. What would Tyrion do? Also, I just realized that both Brienne and Jaime refused to call each other by their right names. Jaime called her wench and she called him Kingslayer, and it pissed them both off. And when he went back for her, he even had the movie moment when Hoat called her a wench and he said "her name is Brienne." Total movie moment, but I was still sucked in. Also, let's take a minute to appreciate the fact that he actually went back for her. How many times in this series has something terrible happened and then undone? By a guy like Jaime?! We've gotten to the point where I'm shocked when something good happens. I'm not really sure what was up with his dream. Were it a Stark, I would have said it was prophetic or magical in some way. But I think for Jaime it was normal dream, but certainly influenced by and representative of his inner turmoil.

Catelyn: Anyone who has been reading this for the past week or two knows that I've been pretty good about defending Catelyn. I've been talking about her a little bit with other people, and a bit of a consensus was formed around the notion that she's useless. All she does is whine and complain about how terrible her life is and how dire everything is and how much she has lost while serving only to provide a window into the actions of others; namely Robb, of late. But I stuck with her! I defended her. No, I said, she has genuine reasons to be grief-stricken with all she has lost. Robb can be propped up by the fact that he has a kingdom to run and a war to fight, plus he has a wife now. Everyone else either knows that all the kids aren't dead, are struggling to survive themselves, or live in denial (yes Sansa, I'm talking to you dear). So I said, give her a break. She's a strong character, and gives wise counsel despite her grief. Yet from a literary perspective, she's starting to wear thin on me as a character. I've really lost interest in her problems, and I really only like her as a conduit to see what is happening with Robb, who as I've said before, has the most interesting untold story of what is currently happening. By the way, this chapter convinces me even more that he is going to die. Probably soon. The whole debate over whether to have Jon inherit over Sansa is interesting. What repercussions will there be from this decision? I think, at a minimum, Robb didn't get Jeyne pregnant, or if he did, she'll die when the Lannisters besiege and take Riverrun in the near future. Robb will blame Catelyn for forcing him to leave her behind. Then Robb will die, and Catelyn will blame herself. The thing is, Jon never would have been inherited if Robb knew that Bran and Rickon were alive, but I'm guessing that Robb giving recognition to Jon means that even if that fact is discovered, the younger boys still won't inherit since Jon is older. This discussion never would have happened if Robb was destined to be king forever. It'll force an interesting crisis if Jon DOES become king and it is later found out that he wasn't Ned's. They'll have their own constitutional crisis. Anyway, away from some technicalities. Rickon has to be making his way south at a pretty good clip, and I wonder when he'll finally reenter the picture. Also, I hope that involving Graywater Watch means that we'll get to see more of, and get more information on, the Reeds, who I find fascinating.

I think at this point in the novels, guessing what next calamity will befall the characters is ruining all the shock value. I think terrible things are going to happen all over the place, and I'll be surprised if they don't happen that way. I think for the sake of twists and turns, which these are full of, it's almost time for good things to start happening for the sake of surprises, rather than heaping on more bad stuff.