He had never been a patient man, Robert Baratheon- Eddard II

This chapter opens with Robert Baratheon acting only as Robert Baratheon can, rude, reckless, and impractically. On the first few times through, it is hard to see how terrible King Robert is, as he is consistently shown through the eyes of Ned Stark, his oldest friend and near brother. Robert wakes Ned in the early morning, and then proceeds to, without his Kingsguard, take off on a long gallop. Robert takes a lot of secretive precautions to ensure that he and Ned won't be heard...or even recognized.

Ned and Robert proceed to have a conversation that shows the format for their future dealings, Ned advises Robert of prudent, practical moves, and Robert ignores him entirely.

The first conflict is over Daenerys' marriage to Khal Drogo. Robert wants to send assassins after the Targaryens, Ned says no.

The second conflict is over who to appoint as Warden of the East. Ned favors choosing Robert Arryn, or failing that, Stannis or Renly. Robert says no, he wants Jaime Lannister.

The third conflict is over Jaime Lannister himself. Ned distrusts Jaime and believes he lacks respect and seriousness. Robert again disagrees.

Ned ends the chapter realizing what a terrible mistake going to King's Landing is.

This chapter serves primarily to serve as insight into the kind of leader Robert is...a poor one. He's stubborn, and while he makes decisions quickly, he doesn't appear to ever be happy with any of them. Take, for example, his decision to leave his Kingsguard Knight behind. We later find out that the knights on the road, Ser Boros and Ser Meryn, are largely useless as bodyguards anyway, but it is very suspect that Robert would have no trust in two men he appointed himself. The chapter also lets us know that the Lannisters have some sort of hold over Robert, a prelude to the Westerosi debt crises we discover in Kings Landing.

All in all, you cannot help but to pity Ned, who has taken on an impossible job working for a man who only remembers being his friend.

No? - Daenerys II

This chapter begins with everyone a little bit on edge.

The free city Pentos and its magisters are on edge because all 40,000 of Drogo’s Khalasar are squatting outside of the city. Viserys is brooding because he has to take a back seat to his sister for the time being. Daenerys is nervous about consummating her wedding night with her big, strong, rough husband. Of course Illyrio is an enigma, but this is a big part of his master plan so he must be a little bit apprehensive about the wedding proceedings. Mormont the spy is also probably curious about what’s going to happen.

Illyrio’s response to Viserys’ impatience about getting his army is an early indication of how he wants things to proceed slowly. As we know later thanks to his discussion with Varys under Kings Landing, he wants to take things slow, but Varys is having trouble juggling many events at once. In response to Viserys asking how long he must wait, Illyrio states, “You have waited most of your life, great king. What is another few months, another few years?”

Mormont tells Viserys that the Dothraki are true to their word but they do things on their own time. Viserys snaps at him and tells him to guard his tongue. He states that he is the “rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms” and that “The dragon doesn’t beg”. To this, Mormont bows his head, but Illyrio “smiled enigmatically” and ate sloppily as if disregarding Viserys claims as nothing more than an arrogant child.

If the Dothraki are true to their word, then perhaps Viserys “golden crown” was a part of Illyrio’s plan all along. When talking to Viserys, Illyrio says “I have told you, all is settled. Trust me. The khal has promised you a crown, and you shall have it.” It doesn't seem that far fetched for Illyrio to have plotted this since he shows contempt to Viserys right to his face and seems to understand Viserys’ character.

Then there was the wedding party. “A Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is deemed a dull affair.” Funny, since the red wedding definitely outmatched Dany’s in excitement, the purple wedding was a dull affair and a future wedding might have the same potential as the red wedding.

The wedding gifts are as follows:
Viserys gives Dany the three handmaidens, Irri, Jhiqui, and Doreah. (One each to teach riding, language, love)
Jorah gives her books of history and songs from the Seven Kingdoms
Illyrio gives her the chest that contains the dragon’s eggs from the Shadowlands beyond Asshai.
Haggo gives Dany a leather whip with a silver handle
Cohollo gives her a gold-chased arakh
Qotho gives her a dragonbow
(Per Dothraki custom, she was to refuse these three gifts and hand over to Drogo)
Finally Drogo's gift to Dany is her horse, Silver. Which she gets on, rides through the crowd and, upon approaching a fire-pit, "The silver horse leapt the flames as if she had wings." This is clear foreshadowing of her riding a dragon.

Then it came time to consummate the marriage. She says "No" twice before finally, after being fondled by Drogo a bit and after he asks No?, she says "Yes". Was it rape? No, it wasn’t in the context of the story. Also, we're in her consciousness as readers, and she doesn't react that way.

"What are You doing here?"

Jon II

This chapter is perhaps the penultimate "anti-Cat" chapter. It features our favorite bastard, Jon Snow, seeking a final audience with his comatose brother.

The mood in Winterfell is fairly dark at this time. Bran is lying, comatose and broken in bed. Catelyn has broken, and resorted to living in her son's room. Jon is leaving Winterfell forever, headed to the Night's Watch.

This is a relatively short chapter, and the main takeaways are as follows.

Jon describes Bran as a type of skeleton, a leaf, with bones "like a bird". This, I believe, is meant as a clear allusion to Bran's future as a greenseer, a skeleton sitting on a throne.  We'll get to Bran's future more in Bran's next chapter (to be expertly exegeted by James), but its clear from the many hints in Bran's chapters that his storyline is perhaps the most important in the series.

The second takeaway is Catelyn's speech, about her prayer to the Seven for Bran to stay in Winterfell, by any means possible. There is a lot of talk in the fandom that the Seven "don't have any power", compared to R'hollor, the Old Gods, and the other religions of Martin's world. I think Catelyn's statement is a kind of direct contradiction (among other things, like Lancel Lannister's prophetic visions) of this idea. The Seven do hear prayer, but like the other gods of Westeros (or ancient mythologies) they rarely answer them in the desired fashion.

The chapter ends with a scene the cements Jon's place in the readers heart, Jon Snow gifting Needle to his youngest sister Arya.

"I cannot abide the wailing of women"

Tyrion I

Our favorite halfman enters the series with a bang, or shall we say a slap? Tyrion Lannister, the least respected Lannister by most of Westeros, is known to us already through his conversation with Jon. Presented as "the imp", a drunken layabout who frequents brothels, we find out that Tyrion is in fact a thoughtful, intelligent man who struggles with his place in the world.

We find Tyrion asleep in Winterfell's library, apparently home to several rare books. He awakes to find the Hound and Prince Joffrey outside goading each other on in their impudence. He advises his nephew to talk to Lord and Lady Stark, and is instead insulted and rebuffed. This chapter also serves to give us our first notice that Joffrey truly is a terrible person, not just an obnoxious preteen. Tyrion delivers his world famous (and very portentous) slaps and goes on his way, but not before ignoring the advice of the Hound.

One of the more interesting bits here is the dynamic between Joffrey and the Hound. The Hound clearly recognizes to some extent what Joffrey is. Its why he warns Tyrion about slapping him. However, to some extend, the Hound also encourages this behavior in Joffrey. Did the Hound help create the monster that is Joffrey, or did Joffrey create himself?

Speaking of monsters, of course, the next thing we after Joffrey is Cersei. This is a pretty defining moment for Tyrion. He clearly senses that his siblings had something to do with Bran's fall, and he is cognizant of the fact that they almost certainly threw him to protect their incestuous relationship. Tyrion argues with Cersei about the direwolves, announces he is going to visit the Wall, and then chats with his brother for the last time until the end of Storm of Swords. Jaime tells Tyrion that he's not sure what side his brother is on. As the reader, however, its clear. Tyrion is loyal to House Lannister.

The Things I do for Love - Bran II

The Things I do for Love – Bran II

The chapter begins with a bunch of the party out hunting wild boar, which Robert wanted for the feast that evening.  Bran is eagerly anticipating heading south and riding a real horse for a change, instead of his usual pony. He daydreams about being a knight of the kingsguard and considers the three kingsguard that came along with King Robert. Of the three, he says that Jaime is the only one who looked like the knights in the stories. Jaime, however, doesn't seem very fond of boar hunting and isn't with the party.

He reminisces about his life in Winterfell and visits a couple of friends. He plays with his wolf for a bit and then decides to go climbing. His wolf, the only one still without a name at this point, objects to his climbing. This is where some of the interesting imagery begins and, of course, he begins his ascent into warg-dom.

First, when he begins climbing he considers Winterfell, “To a boy, Winterfell was a grey stone labyrinth of walls and towers and courtyards and tunnels spreading out in all directions. In the older parts of the castle, the halls slanted up and down so that you couldn't even be sure what floor you were on. The place had grown over the centuries like some monstrous stone tree, Maester Luwin told him once, and its branches were gnarled and thick and twisted, its roots sunk deep into the earth.”

This seems like a comparison to an old bone-white weirwood tree, which we’ll see referenced again as a tree that looks like stone around the cave up north and possibly on the Iron Islands. Is it only a comparison though, or does Winterfell have something magical about it below in its deep roots? What keeps it warm? What’s in the crypts?

The tree imagery doesn't stop there; however, “He confessed his crime the next day in a fit of guilt. Lord Eddard ordered him to the godswood to cleanse himself. Guards were posted to see that Bran remained there alone all night to reflect on his disobedience. The next morning Bran was nowhere to be seen. They finally found him fast asleep in the upper branches of the tallest sentinel in the grove.”

Could this possibly be foreshadowing his time inside and connected to a weirwood, just as Blood Raven is?

“When he got out from under it and scrambled up near the sky, Bran could see all of Winterfell in a glance. He liked the way it looked, spread out beneath him, only birds wheeling over his head while all the life of the castle went on below. Bran could perch for hours among the shapeless, rain-worn gargoyles that brooded over the First Keep, watching it all: the men drilling with wood and steel in the yard, the cooks tending their vegetables in the glass garden, restless dogs running back and forth in the kennels, the silence of the godswood, the girls gossiping beside the washing well. It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know.”

This is very similar to what happens to Bran next. He enjoys seeing events in Winterfell unfold from above. The next thing he knows, he’s flying and seeing events all across Westeros from above.  Is it possible that he becomes a kind of “lord of warging/greenseeing” that his siblings and any other wargs would never know?

“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. Bran was not impressed. There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate it right out of his hand. None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes.”

Is it just another Old Nan story or does she know something about warging, or even about Blood Raven and his crows?

Finally, as he gets to the top of the First Keep, we learn of the incestuous relationship between Jaime and Cersei and, well, Bran never falls….

Before he left the window, Bran says his age (7) if that’s of any significance. The wolf howls, the crows circle.

Crooked Stitches - Arya I

Arya I

This is Arya’s first POV chapter, and basically serves to illustrate the contrast between her wildness and Sansa’s proper ladylike behavior.

The chapter begins with Arya, Jeyne Poole, Beth Cassel, Sansa and Princess Myrcella practicing the womanly art of needlework overseen by Septa Mordane. Arya isn’t very interested in her work, possibly because she once overheard the Septa telling her mother that she had the hands of a blacksmith. Instead, she glances around the room thinking about how beautiful Sansa’s work is because “everyone says so.” The rest of the girls giggle, gossip and gush about Joffrey and how he’s going to marry Sansa. The talking attracts the attention of the Septa, and Arya’s lack of needle talents is announced publicly, to her embarrassment. Arya storms out of the room and out of any possible opportunity to lead a prissy proper ladylike life. When asked where she is going by the Septa, she responds with quick wit saying “I have to go shoe a horse.”

This makes me wonder if Arya had any real chance to be a “proper lady” or whether she was born with the wild wolf-blood. Everyone seemed to be too busy cooing over Sansa’s beauty and talents. She seemed to be trying her best at needlework, and we know how well she gets at sword play with Syrio with practice, but perhaps when she overheard the Septa telling her mother that she has the hands of a blacksmith, it activated some type of stereotype threat or self-fulfilling prophecy which made her unable to perform well or get better. She’s also two years younger than Sansa, so the expectations of the Septa may have even been unrealistic. Telling the Septa that she was going to shoe a horse was a rejection of the gender norms. It’s also interesting with her later friendship with Gendry.

After she leaves, she looks for some place to watch Joffrey get knocked on his backside by Robb. At this point, there isn’t much reason to dislike him, besides the fact that Jon said he looks like a girl. Perhaps this could be the earliest glimmer of Arya’s dark side. She also says that she would have taken Nymeria to needlework seemingly to intimidate Septa Mordane. She is only 9 years old though, and is embarrassed and hurt by her sister’s friends giggling at her failure to fit in and do girly things. It isn’t unreasonable to feel this way.

She finds a spot to watch the fighting and Jon is already there. She’s disappointed to see that it’s only the younger boys fighting instead of Robb and Joffrey. Jon messes up her hair as she says she can perform better than Bran who’s fighting plump Prince Tommen. They remark on the arms on Joffrey’s coat. It’s interesting that they are looking at Joffrey’s arms and not Tommen’s because the arms are divided between the crowned stag and the lion of Lannister. This is possible early symbolism of Joffrey’s  incestual parentage and also the proudness of house Lannister.

The fighting ends with Robb and Joffrey arguing since Joffrey doesn’t really want to go another bout with Robb, and the Lannister men laughing at Joffrey’s lame jokes.  Arya heads back to her room where the Septa and her mother were waiting for her.

A couple of other important things that were mentioned in the chapter:

Arya discussing appearances. She says “Jon had their father’s face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her.”

Possibly subtle evidence of R + L = J. She’s discussing similar features that she shares with Jon, and later on in her second chapter, Ned says she looks like Lyanna. It’s just a small connection.

“Ah, Arya. You have a wildness in you, child. ‘The wolf blood,’ my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave.” Arya heard sadness in his voice; he did not often speak of his father, or of the brother and sister who had died before she was born. “Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her.” “Lyanna was beautiful,” Arya said, startled. Everybody said so. It was not a thing that was ever said of Arya. “She was,” Eddard Stark agreed, “beautiful, and willful, and dead before her time.”

As a little sidenote, she says “everyone said so” again in regards to someone’s appearance. She doesn’t think much of herself because of the fact that she’s called Arya Horseface even though she’s probably actually pretty (in the books at least). The last line of that quote is pretty dark and foreboding, especially given what Jon tells Arya at the end of the chapter I reviewed,

“You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.”

Combine this quote with what the Ghost of High Heart sees, and I’m a bit on edge about the future of Arya. 

Summer Will End Soon - Catelyn II

Pride and deceit were the main theme in this chapter.

PRIDE: The chapter began with Ned and Catelyn’s discussion of the former’s acceptance/refusal to being hand of the king. As Ned argued to refuse his closest comrade, Catelyn insisted that the king would not understand his reasons and his refusal would eventually put their house in danger. We get a glimpse of Cat’s pride in bringing her house honor when she talked about Sansa’s betrothal to the crown prince and her supposed marriage to Brandon Stark, Ned’s older brother who was killed by the Mad King Aerys.

DECEIT: As we continue reading, Maester Luwin makes an unexpected appearance bearing a lens, a symbolism that every character and reader should look more closely as events unfold and a controversial letter from the Lady Lysa Arryn of the Eyrie. The first taste of deceit was thrown to us in this chapter, a concept that GRRM greatly utilized in writing the whole series. Lysa sends a hidden letter in a language only she and Cat could understand and revealed that the Lannisters murdered the late hand, Jon Arryn. This event made me believe that the Lannisters were the antagonists of the series, when they are in fact just players in a game played by characters who claim loyalty to the realm. Lysa’s cunning way of sending the message also hints of her sly nature, a fact that will later on be revealed in A Feast for Crows. Due to this event, Ned was urged by both Cat and Maester Luwin to go south to find out the truth about Jon Arryn’s death; this makes me conclude that everything that was brought upon house Stark is Cat’s fault.

PRIDE and DECEIT: We are later introduced to Ser Arthur Dayne of the Kingsguard also known as the Sword of the Morning. Ser Arthur is one of the deadliest and finest knights of Aery’s seven and Prince Rhaegar’s closest friend, it is believed that Ned slew him in the Tower of Joy in single combat, a contradiction to Ned’s statement that Ser Arthur would’ve killed him if not for Howland Reed (This establishes the Bran-Jojen connection). After Ser Arthur Dayne, Lady Ashara Dayne was introduced, a beautiful maiden who is believed to be the mother of the bastard Jon Snow. Again, a devious way to conceal the true identity of Jon’s mother/truth behind R+L=J, a theory that we all probably accept as true (verified by Ned’s own statement “He is my blood, and that is all you need to know” regarding Jon Snow). This part of Cat’s POV emphasizes on her pride as a mother (something that will eventually transcend to something bigger and powerful) and how that eventually sends Jon to the wall.

CONCLUSION: Does anyone else blame Cat for falling into Littlefinger’s trap (The first step to start the game that is about to be played, yes he knows her that well)? If only Ned stayed north, none of this would’ve happened and the series wouldn’t be as interesting. So thank you, Catelyn Stark.