Theon wrestles with his tormented conscience. When Asha leaves, he wonders repeatedly why he didn’t go with her. The answer to every...

Daenerys has no memory of Westeros, but it is her brother's mission to return with an army, overthrow the Usurper and take back his birthright. Viserys hopes to gain that army by wedding Daenerys to a fearsome savage warlord. Dressed up to look like a princess, young Dany is told she must impress a potential suitor who is described as a slaver and a savage. Treated as living coin by her brother She's afraid and says no, but Viserys hurts her and threatens to be angered. He's

Catelyn does not feel she can bring up her concerns about the ill omen being gossiped of in the yard. Readers don't yet know the king's sigil is a stag. The omen suggests Ned (direwolf) will be killed by Robert (stag). Catelyn must warn Ned, yet how can she when he has no faith in omens? North vs South Catelyn's discomfort in the godswood of Winterfell suggests there's an eerie feeling there, like the one rangers experienced north of Wall. She contrasts her own woods and rel

At the center of the chapter is the idea that mercy is better understood as bringing into care than as granting a swift and painless death. Lord Stark's judgment about the direwolf pups reflects on his earlier judgment of Gared. Each involve risk and require care, representing burden, yet men are treated without the immediate sympathy afforded to puppies. Gared introduces the theme of the broken man that will pervade the series. While even children understand the need to take

When Gared urges them to call the wildlings dead and start back, their commander, young Waymar Royce, is contemptuous. He would see for himself. The question of whether the wildlings Will has seen unmoving are dead or not seems straightforward until Waymar is killed and rises, undead. The Value of Empirical Evidence Waymar does not believe the wildlings froze to death because the Wall was weeping all week. Proofs will be required to convince any who have not encountered the

Edmure is still gone, having left at the beginning of 119 Catelyn 17 A Dozen Fords to defend Riverrun. He’s expected back now. Desmond...

War escalates itself. Posturing, even if only meant to be temporarily feigned for effect, is made real by the fact of having been...

Part 1 of 4 in a cluster of Sansa's Blackwater chapters Aerys Come Again, Worse Man, Trauma Activated Setup for Sansa’s “rescue” by...

Part 2 of 3 in arc where Jon is set up to feign desertion in the wildling army. Man in Office/Power of the Individual: We see what one...

Tyrion’s arrogance is on display and setting up to backfire. As he busies himself preparing the defense of King’s Landing—one he’s...

The feud between north and south, raids and rangings indistinguishable at times, is the foolish, self-destruction of a single people...

1 Aerys Come Again: Why Rule By Fear Happens We see Theon intend to treat the people of Winterfell gently but resort to rule by fear....

When she hears a singer approaching, Arya shivers with fear it's Bloody Mummers or Bolton men and tells Hot Pie to wake Gendry and hide...

Happy as she can remember ever being, becalmed aboard the great cog Balerion, Dany asks Arstan about Aerys and Rhaegar. Jealous and...

False among the wildlings, Jon notices how vulnerable and undisciplined a military camp they keep without realizing that the overwhelming...

A ship passing near means Davos may live, if he can rise and hail them but, in his feverish self-condemnation, he fears failing and...

Tyrion rises from his sickbed to be seen up and about the castle. The more he is recognized as not about to die of his wounds, the lower...

Catelyn feels ashamed when Ser Desmond Grell confronts her with his responsibility to address her crime, but he'd not confine her and is...

When Olenna Tyrell invites Sansa to dinner to propose she wed her grandson, Willas and become the Lady of Highgarden, she pretends...

Davos thinks he's on a divine mission--sent by the Mother to save Stannis--but his irrationality belies his true motive: to displace...