Chapter 7 – Arya

Arya’s one of the Stark daughters, right? Honestly wasn’t expecting her to get a POV — she seemed like a throwaway character. Serves me right.

Yeah, this is definitely her. She seems a little envious of her sister Sansa’s skill in the “womanly arts”:

[quote]”Sansa’s work is as pretty as she is,” Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. “Se has such fine, delicate hands.” When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. “Arya has the hands of a blacksmith.”[/quote]

Sucks to be Arya, I guess. Where is this? When? I can’t even remember how old Arya is.

Arya, Sansa and some other girls are practicing their needlework, whispering about how hunky Crown Prince Joffrey is. I don’t . . . I suppose I expected a little more drive at this point, considering how the last chapter ended.

[quote]”He’s going to marry her,” little Beth said dreamily, hugging herself. “Then Sansa will be queen of all the realm.”

Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. She did everything prettily, Arya thought with dull resentment.[/quote]

I think I’ve got this character nailed down already. They keep talking about hunky ol’ Joffrey, and Sansa asks:

[quote]”What did you think of Prince Joff, sister? He’s very gallant, don’t you think?”

“Jon says he looks like a girl,” Arya said.

Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he’s a bastard.”

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly.[/quote]

ARYA I APPROVE. Then she gets pretty upset when the septa (whatever that is) comes over and ridicules her for her substandard needlework. Arya leaves in a flurry of angst and goes to seek solace with her direwolf pup, Nymeria. (Also, apparently Arya is two years younger than Sansa, so now I feel kinda bad for misrepresenting her. She’s only nine.)

Arya named her pup “Nymeria” after a warrior queen who successfully escorted her people to safety. Sansa named her pup “Lady.”

Deciding to watch her brothers practice combat, Arya and her wolf run into Jon and his own wolf, and they sit together to enjoy the show. A neat little bit of exposition confirms that they’re a pretty closely-knit pair:

[quote]Jon had their father’s face, as [Arya] 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.[/quote]

Jon Snow: making all of us other older brothers look bad.

In the courtyard below it’s time for Robb and Prince Joffrey to take a few swings at each other, and Joffrey suggests they use live steel instead of practice weapons. Got a baaaaaaaaaad feeling. The Winterfell master-at-arms, Ser Rodrik, doesn’t support this idea, but since Joffrey’s the crown prince, his worry is nearly overruled. He still manages to quash this idea, but Joffrey doesn’t co-operate with grace, and Robb clearly hates the kid.

And that’s it. That’s it? Oh. Nobody fights, then Arya goes back to her room.

Summary Time: Arya Stark is failing hard at sewing and upsets her sewing teacher by leaving in the middle of the lesson, potentially offending Princess Myrcella, who was also practicing with the girls. Arya takes her direwolf pup to watch the boys fight, and she hangs out with Jon Snow. Her brother Robb gets into a shouting match with the remarkably Draco Malfoy-esque Crown Prince Joffrey, but nothing seriously bad happens.

Not much to say about this one. I like Arya so far — any character who stands up for Jon Snow automatically scales my list of favorite characters — but this seemed to just be another setup chapter, which makes sense considering it’s following a new POV. Still, not the most exciting thing in the world.

Should I read another one? I should read another one.

Let me just get some donuts . . .

Chapter 8 – Bran

Really? Bran again? The kid from Chapter 1? Interesting. Right off the bat my mind jumps to the conclusion that the content of this chapter will require a seven-year-old’s perspective on the world, but I haven’t the foggiest why yet. I didn’t mention that the last chapter featured a very brief scene of Bran fighting — and winning against — Prince Tommen. Uh oh, that wasn’t important, was it?

So, a ton of people have gone on a sort of “last hunt” and Bran’s been left behind with his sisters and Jon. So, he’s kind of disappointed. Also, according to him Jon has been told he’ll be joining the Night’s Watch, which is kind of disappointing to me, since I wanted to see Jon’s reaction to that on-page. Still, I’ll probably get a better idea of his reaction when he gets another chapter from his POV.

[quote]His father would be the Hand of the King, and they were going to live in the red castle at King’s Landing, the castle the Dragonlords had built. Old Nan said there were ghosts there, and dungeons where terrible things had been done, and dragon heads on the walls. It gave Bran a shiver just to think of it, but he was not afraid. How could he be afriad? His father would be with him, and the king with all his knights and sworn swords.[/quote]

As I suspected, the writing for Bran’s POV is substantially simpler, designed to reflect his young and naive viewpoint. (Although if you haven’t read the book and have been following along entirely via my quotes then this probably isn’t obvious to you.)

Apparently King Robert brought a group called the Kingsguard with him, which excites Bran because he’s a total Kingsguard fanboy.

[quote]After the hunt had ridden out, he wandered through the castle with his wolf at his side, intending to visit the ones who would be left behind, Old Nan and Gage the cook, Mikken in his smithy, Hodor who smiled so much and took care of his pony and never said anything but “Hodor” . . .[/quote]

*snort* Err, sorry, Hodor the Pokemon Boy is probably mentally challenged or something and it’s bad form to laugh at the mentally challenged, but that made me giggle. I’m simple and I laugh at simple things.

More direwolf puppy names: Bran’s still trying to find a good name for his pup, but Robb named his “Grey Wind” and Rickon called his “Shaggydog.” I live for this.

Bran’s kinda freaking out about leaving Winterfell now, so he’s taking his mind off of it by running and climbing around:

[quote]He raced across the godswood, taking the long way around to avoid the pool where the heart tree grew. The heart tree had always frightened him; trees ought not have eyes, Bran thought, or leaves that looked like hands.[/quote]

Yeah, no shit, that sounds terrifying.

Apparently Bran’s like a seven-year-old Spider-man or something:

[quote]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.[/quote]

Bran’s gotten in trouble for his climbing, but his father decided to let it slide. “Old Nan” tried to scare Bran into giving up his climbing ways by telling him the crows would peck out his eyes, but the kid was totally unimpressed:

[quote]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.[/quote]

Also:

[quote]Then for a while the guards would chase him whenever they saw him on the roofs, and try to haul him down . . . None of the guards could climb half so well as Bran, not even Jory. Most of the time they never saw him anyway. People never looked up. That was another thing he liked about climbing; it was almost like being invisible.[/quote]

Assassin’s Creed: Bran Stark Edition.

. . . Okay, I get it, Bran likes to climb stuff. Climbing, climbing some more . . .

Oh, whoa, Bran just jumped up to his favorite spot — an abandoned tower — and there are people there:

[quote]”Don’t you see the danger this puts us in?” the woman said. “Robert loves the man like a brother.”

“Robert can barely stomach his brothers. Not that I blame him. Stannis would be enough to give anyone indigestion.”

“Don’t play the fool. Stannis and Renly are one thing, and Eddard Stark is quite another. Robert will listen to Stark. Damn them both. I should have insisted that he name you, but I was certain Stark would refuse him.”[/quote]

The plot’s thickening. Not 100% sure, but I bet the woman is the Queen, and maybe the man is her brother, what’s-his-name.

Yep, gotta be the Queen, but I don’t think the guy’s her brother and her brother. Bran’s interested in the conversation now that he’s realized they’re talking smack about his dad, so he’s trying to get a better angle on them and find out what they look like. Ugh, I just know this is going to end badly.

[quote]He had to get closer, Bran realized. He had to see who was talking.

The man sighed. “You should think less about the future and more about the pleasures at hand.”

“Stop that!” the woman said. Bran heard the sudden slap of flesh on flesh, then the man’s laughter.[/quote]

Eeeeeewwww. Yeah, so, uh, Bran finally manages a proper angle on the two, but by the time he does they’re “wrestling” with each other and he can’t see their faces.

Wait, no, crap, she saw him. She’s screaming. Bran tries to escape too quickly, loses his balance, falls . . .

And catches the window ledge. Nice save, bro.

[quote]Bran’s fingers started to slip . . . The man reached down. “Take my hand,” he said. “Before you fall.”

Bran seized his arm and held on tight with all his strength. The man yanked him up to the ledge . . . “How old are you, boy?”

“Seven,” Bran said, shaking with relief. His fingers had dug deep gouges in the man’s forearm. He let go sheepishly.

The man looked over at the woman. “The things I do for love,” he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.

Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him.

Somewhere off in the distance, a wolf was howling. Crows circled the broken tower, waiting for corn.[/quote]

🙁

Summary Time: Bran Stark is getting preemptive homesickness, so to quell it he plays with his direwolf, then climbs up to his favorite spot in Winterfell, the broken tower. Once there he overhears what I’m guessing are the Queen and Ser Jaime Lannister, her brother, discussing their nefarious plans that may or may not involve the death of King Robert and Eddard. Bran almost falls, but is saved by Ser Jaime, only to be pushed to his death.

Well, I felt the last chapter was lacking tension or plot, so . . . yay?

Obviously, the events of this chapter are a big deal. I’m betting that Bran’s murder will be passed off as an accident — his family always feared he would slip and fall off a building anyway — and I don’t think it’s going to affect Eddard’s relocation to the southern kingdom, although he might postpone the journey for a mourning ceremony. But this tragedy is going to devastate Catelyn, no doubt, and I think Jon Snow might crack a little too, since it seemed like he and Bran were close.

The chapter also confirms the betrayal of the Queen — she never outright says it, but her discussion with her brother dances around the fact that she poisoned Jon Arryn.

Also: graphic incest.

Also: I only got a brief view on Ser Jaime from Jon Snow’s perspective in an earlier chapter, but this one has an Establishing Character Moment for him when he casually kills a seven-year-old. Dude’s pure evil, as is his sister for supporting the murder.

So, here’s my dilemma: I liked this chapter. It was the first chapter to truly drag a strong emotion out of me. On the one hand: that’s good. Stories are supposed to invest you. If they don’t, they’re usually not doing it right. On the other hand: they killed a little boy. Of course I had an emotional response — how could I not? It’s almost a textbook Sacrificial Lamb situation: a character is introduced, then fleshed out a little as innocent, loyal and relatively capable, and then killed off for dramatic effect.

It’s not bad, exactly, but I feel a little disappointed that the cause for my first true emotion is the death of a child. I don’t know for sure if I’m disappointed in myself or G.R.R.

With that said . . . it’s a bummer, you know? Funnily enough, I didn’t fully react until I started rereading this post, checking for errors. My emotions:

I realize Bran dies: “Aw, that’s pretty sad.”

I realize that means Bran never got to name his puppy: “OH NO WHY” *sob*

Thanks for reading. For better or worse, I’m getting invested in the story now.

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EDIT: Check out Ian’s drawing of Bran Stark here. 🙁