Reflection on A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire Book 1) by George R.R. Martin

               Now here’s a great book. I have watched the show through four times I think now and this is my second read-through of the books. I noticed a lot more things and I remembered all sorts of things that I’d forgotten. AGOT is such a good introduction to the series with a slow build that develops into several thrilling plotlines. Several different characters’ stories are told in a seemingly unrelated way until they develop into a Stark-Lannister war. However, three point-of-view characters plotlines seem to stay well out of this storyline, being Jon, Daenerys, and Bran (though Bran is used to describe what’s going on with Robb until he leaves Winterfell).

               The most compelling two characters in this book for me are Eddard Stark and Daenerys Targaryen. Stark’s story is a sort of murder mystery, with an outsider (Stark) thrust into a world of intrigue, assassination, incest, and family secrets. His investigation is the exciting tensions that carries the reader through the King’s Landing plot of the book. He is the key character of the book until its last act. Daenerys’ story is the other one that I love most. She is the only character that from the beginning, the absolute beginning, you know is destined for big things. Her transformation in the books from her unlikely marriage to Drogo that elevates her over her brother, Viserys, who abused her, to the death of Viserys, to the fall of Drogo, to the birth of her dragons, takes her from the position of being sold as a slave to becoming an independent khaleesi. Her story in this book is incredibly captivating. Jon, who we also know is later destined for big things, is really on back burner for most of this book, as it remains unclear to the reader when something will happen with the Others. By the end of Daenerys’ arc, we can see what Martin has planned for her, as she says of the Dothraki who betray her that, “I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming.” I see very little hinting in this book of Daenarys going to free the slaves. Though she demonstrates some compassion, she tries to tell herself that this is the way of war, and it would seem like she would reject freeing slaves after her problems with Mirri Maz Duur. I believe that Martin had no plans to include the slave-freeing plot when it was still going to be a trilogy, but added it in later.

               I think that most of the book is honestly the Stark parents blundering into problems for their families. They have no plan. Both Eddard (in trying to discover Jon Arryn’s secret) and Catelyn ( in trying to bring Tyrion to justice) are solely concerned with doing the right thing, but they never think about what’s going on around them. The Lannisters, on the other hand, are ruthlessly ambitious, and Martin tells us through the book that it is better to be ambitious and have a plan than to single-mindedly pursue moral ends. Power is critical, and the Stark parents were just not up to the level of southern intrigue. It is incredible to me that even after getting word that his wife has kidnapped Tyrion and even after Jaime kills his men in the streets and even after the Lannisters and Tullys call their banners, Eddard Stark still does not call his banners. That is plain stupid. I noticed that in Eddard XI, where I also noticed what I recently read in a bryndenbfish essay, which is that Ned made a very bad mistake in not sending Loras to go after the Mountain. By sending Beric Dondarrion (a no-name lord) instead, he loses Loras’ support when he could have brought the Tyrells against the Lannisters. Ned is not a competent political thinker, planning only for the short-term goal of defeating the Mountain’s brigands. He does not conceive of the fact that a war is brewing at all, and it Eddard XI that is made most clear by his lack of will to call banners and his refusal to send Loras, forsaking what would have been an incredibly powerful alliance with the Tyrells. Then, in Eddard XIII, after King Robert dies, he refuses an alliance with Renly Baratheon! If only Stannis had actually done something, he could have been Ned’s dream ally, but Ned just waits and waits and loses out on two critical allies (who will later turn the tide of the Battle of the Blackwater). If the Starks had gotten an alliance with the House Tully (which they did), House Tyrell, and House Baratheon (under Renly), that would have been an unstoppable alliance with Arryn neutrality under Lysa and a lack of will in House Martell to help their enemies, the Lannisters. That would have been the end of Lannister power. Similar mistakes are made by Robb at the strategic level, as he allows himself to be declared King in the North to retroactively give meaning to the Northern struggle after Ned’s death, but that also ends all reason to keep fighting in the south, which will soon cause him problems.

R+L=J

               As Eddard investigates Robert’s bastards, following the path of mysteries that led Jon Arryn to his death, we get the first hints about Jon Snow’s true parentage. It happens pretty late, all the way in Eddard IX: “He thought of the promises he’s made Lyanna as she lay dying, and the price he’d paid to keep them.” We are also told that Lyanna did not want to marry Robert, though as a reader, one may not connect this to Ned or Jon very quickly. In Eddard X, we get the scene at the Tower of Joy, where we hear about Lyanna’s “bed of blood,” which implies the bed is a birthing bed. The implication is essentially confirmed in Daenarys VII, when Mirri Maz Duur claims to know “every secret of the bloody bed” as Daenerys prepares to give birth. Another connection I drew was between Eddard X and Daenerys X. The quote in Eddard X that interests me is right after that famous line, “And now it ends.” Martin writes that, “A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.” First of all, the blood-streaked sky reminds me of this line from Daenerys X: “Dany looked and saw it, low in the east. The first star was a comet, burning red. Bloodred; fire red; the dragon’s tail. She could not have asked for a stronger sign.” This is the first time we hear about the comet that will also be mentioned by everyone at the opening of the next book. I see it as pretty significant in marking the births of both Jon and Daenarys, who were born at the same time, as well as the dragons, about a decade and a half later. I also think it is interesting that Eddard’s chapter says “as blue as the eyes of death,” which is a very weird way to describe either a sky or the eyes of death, unless the eyes of death are wights. There is no other reason that dead eyes would be blue.

               The clearest R+L=J hint comes in Eddard XIV, when he remembers the tourney at Harrenhal while he is in the dungeons beneath the Red Keep. He dreams/remembers Rhaegar being the champion of the jousting competition and scandalizing everyone by laying the queen of beauty’s laurel not in the lap of his wife Elia but in the lap of Lyanna Stark. They are winter roses. Martin writes as the dream finishes, “Promise me, Ned, his sister had whispered from her bed of blood. She had loved the scent of winter roses.” The words “promise me” remind us that Ned has a secret. The “bed of blood,” reminds us that it has to do with Lyanna’s childbirth. The new information is that “She had loved the scent of winter roses,” which can be logically meant to say “she had loved Rhaegar,” being that he gave her those winter roses. So now with the new information that she and Rhaegar loved each other and that this is related to her “bed of blood,” it becomes clear on a reread that Lyanna is Jon’s mother and Rhaegar his father.

               I feel like on my read through of the book, R+L=J was not obvious to me by any means. However, as I return to my notes and page markers it is very clear. Lots of the clues that are revealed are seemingly revealed in an order that makes it difficult to discern but they are there. What I wonder is if we continue to get clues in the next book.

Thing I Noticed:

• Bran II: Right at the very beginning of the chapter, Martin writes from Bran’s perspective that, “The king wanted wild boar at the feast tonight,” definitely a wink to the king’s own death.
• Bran III: When Bran is dreaming with the three-eyed raven and feels himself falling, he looked down and “He could see the whole realm, and everyone in it.” Martin described him seeing all of Westeros and Essos and then North, beyond the Wall, foreshadowing the powers Bran will get.
• Catelyn IV: I noticed that Littlefinger claims to have bet for Jaime Lannister against Tyrion. We find out later in the book that Tyrion never bets against his brother.
• Catelyn VI: She thinks to herself that, “Sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone,” a hint at Lady Stoneheart.
• Tyrion V: Lady Lysa Arryn sits on a weirwood throne.
• Jon VII: Jon dreams a nightmare about “dead kings” who come “stumbling from their cold black graves,” a clear foreshadowing of the crypt scene in the battle against the White Walkers in the show.
• Bran VI: Osha says to Bran, “Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?” And Bran will later send wind as he learns to be the three-eyed raven.
• Jon VIII: Jon burns his hand when he kills the wight with fire in the Lord Commander’s quarters. I associate this burned hand with Victarion’s burned hand later on. It is Jon’s right hand.
• Tyrion VIII: Martin writes that, “It had been nigh on a year since he’d lain with a woman, since before he had set out for Winterfell in company with his brother and King Robert.” This means that about one year passes in the book. But are Planetos years equal to Earth years?
• Sansa VI: We hear from Sansa after her father’s death that Grand Maester Pycelle “felt her brow, made her undress, and touched her all over while a bedmaid held her down.” I had not noticed this on my first reading but it is incredibly messed up that Pycelle molests her, basically doing it the moment that she loses all her protection at court. This is a very bad dude.
• Catelyn XI: Cately had already mentioned in an earlier POV chapter that she had always waited for her father and when he returned to Riverrun from wherever he had been, he would ask her, “Did you watch for me?” There is a really beautiful reversal of the relationship in Catelyn’s final POV chapter as her father dies. Martin writes, “’My little cat.’ A tremulous smile touched his face as he groped for hers. ‘I watched for you…’” That was such a sad line honestly.
• This is a very Stark-heavy book. We get perspectives from Bran, Catelyn, Eddard, Sansa, and Arya. Leaving only Robb and Rickon without POV chapters. The only other POV characters are Tyrion and Daenarys, giving us 5 Stark POV characters, one Lannister, and one Targaryen.