A wise man once said, "thou shalt not lie, for the Queen shall kill thy pet direwolf." Perverse karmic justice is served when Lady is executed as a direct result of Sansa’s actions. The significance is obvious: Sansa ceased being a Stark in spirit when she chose Joffrey over her family, and her symbolic connection with "northness" was fully severed with Lady's death. If Arya-vs-Joffrey was a character test for Sansa, she failed in every way possible way. She betrayed her sister, lied to her father, and upset her future husband and family. Even though she did Joffrey a favor by lying, all she received in return was her innocent wolf’s corpse.
After you strip away all the royal titles and family pride, this was just kids getting into a stupid fight and receiving with a few scars and bruises. It's not like Arya pushed Joffrey off a window ledge or sent an assassin to kill him in his sleep. Despite this, Robert lets Cersei have her way because he was too cowardly and lazy to argue with her. Even though Robert is king, his life still sucks tremendously. He’s in love with a dead girl, his son is a wuss and a jackass, and his wife would rather sleep with her brother. Also, supernatural ghost men invade from the north and the Scorpion King raises an army across the sea. Lastly, he’s become embarrassingly overweight. Robert’s going to be the first king who commits suicide out of depression.
I have two final thoughts about this chapter. First, the Hound is a pretty badass cowboy with his “he ran, but not very fast” line. Second, I can't believe Martin killed off one of the direwolves so early in the book, because I felt very attached to them already. When it was revealed that Mycah was in the body bag and not Nymeria, I was relieved and happy. Repeat: I was happy that an innocent child was murdered instead of a guilty pet wolf.
____________________
I spent an inordinate amount of time and words on that last chapter because there’s hardly anything to say about the next one because it's six pages of Bran tripping out on LSD, where he converses with a three-eyed crow and possesses the power of flight. Then he wakes up names his wolf “Summer,” when “Fall” is clearly the more appropriate name, as it signals winter is coming and conveniently summarizes why he’s crippled.
I am still enjoying your take on things as you read. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteHe's crippled but he's very smart, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI was ready to say that I have been missing the acid humour of your first few entries. Then I got to the "Repeat:" and the "Fall". Excellent entry.
ReplyDeleteAlso, interesting take on the symbolism. As a rule, I don't look for symbols when reading a book - certainly never in a first read-through - so I had not considered Lady's death that way. In the grand scheme of things, in fact, I see Lady's death in another light completely, but I can see your side too. Thanks, it has given me something to ponder.
Grey Wolf
god damn the lady death scene is one of the saddest moments, it still upsets me after about 5 re-reads lol! its just the beautifully described scene where ned is sat stroking lady, looking off into the distance and thinking about how lady was always the best behaved of all the direwolves. totally agree about the karma thing, sansa really is just a silly little airhead. also, cersei= mega super bitch, although tbf i think most parents would want revenge if they believed that thier child had been attacked (esp. since sansa confirms joffrey's, not arya's, story).
ReplyDeletei think what this chapter gets across is one of the main themes of asoiaf: bad, horribly unfair things happen to good people (or in this case, direwolves)
Ha ha, your synopsis of Robert's life is the funniest I've ever seen. You're right, poor old sot has a pretty shitty deal altogether. And to think he actually had to try to be king, he didn't just inherit it.
ReplyDeleteI was also very attached to the wolves and surprised to see one whacked so early. It was confusing to me to see Martin spend so much time drawing attention to the importance of these creatures, and then just kill one. At the same time though, he never demonstrated a closeness between Sansa and Lady to match that developing between the other Starks and their wolves. I never thought of it in terms of Sansa betraying her 'northness', but that's a good point. Keep an eye on those wolves though, the amount of debate that has gone into what the wolves 'mean' is borderline ridiculous.
Man the hound is cool.
ReplyDeleteI found Bran's dream quite interesting...
ReplyDeleteJust found this blog. Enjoying very much. I wish I was reading these for the first time again. I got such a thrill out of it. Every possible moment id get stuck into it. I'm aching for A Dance of dragons. Need it now!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Fall.
ReplyDeleteYou ever hear of naming a male "Fall"?
ReplyDelete"Fall". Loved it.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm also kinda disappointed that you didn't share what you thought of Renly. Clearly he made an impression, since he made it on your power rankings. And I think the way he treats his nephew is probably the best part of "death of Lady" chapter.
Did you notice that Bran's LSD trip was showing him things that were actually happening around the kingdom? Sure, it's not to big a leap to imagine the Maester on top of a tower taking an observation, or his brother Robb being Lordly... or Jon Snow on the Wall... but his mother on a ship headed toward a storm??? Sansa on the Kings Road crying??? To me that seems to be something Bran would be unlikely to guess. A clairvoyant vision perhaps? So maybe that 3 eyed crow really exists. Maybe?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - You are ruining the "AHA!" moments for the future when something that he just read clicks with something he read before. Please, stop.
ReplyDeletegod the bran chapters rank right up there with sansa and cats for being the most boring.
ReplyDeleteslyhell- if you really think he doesn't already know what happens then maybe you should go play in traffic. Please, go do it now.
ReplyDeleteif he already knows what happens whats the point of your comment about the crow then? its useless
ReplyDeleteTo bat a little for Sansa, she did think these people are her future in-laws, and it's kinda her duty to cozy up to them. But I do agree that there's something going on with her northiness, it's just that it's an ongoing thing even after four books.
ReplyDeleteRobert is such a chickenshit. And I had the same reaction about Mycah and Nymeria at first. Whoa, self, whoa.
I'll admit to having the same reaction as you when they revealed the body wasn't Nymeria's.
ReplyDeleteI felt a little mean later on, then decided that I would still rather Mycah have died than Nymeria. I was attatched to those wolves from day one.
Rather heartless bunch, this was my first read of the work and I had to stop for nearly a week after this chapter, I was so disgusted with the lack of reaction or justice for the murder of a little boy.
ReplyDeleteI was also astonished to see the reader base so one sided about being happy the thirteen year old innocent boy was murdered instead of a wolf.
Thankfully Arya at least felt something, if not the readers, for his death, and that helped redeem the book to me later on.