149 ASOS 6 Davos I: Judgment of the Father

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 knowing himself condemned by the gods for having led his sons into the fire on the Blackwater. When he reflexively reaches for his luck and finds his pouch of knucklebones gone, Davos prays to the Mother for salvation and hears her voice condemn him. The Mother says the gods burned Davos on the Blackwater because he burned them on the beach at Dragonstone. Davos objects, saying that was Melisandre. He rises with new purpose: to redeem himself by doing what he ought to have before and oppose Melisandre.

Davos's Luck

When Davos says he wears his knucklebones in a leather pouch around his neck to remind him of Stannis's justice, he means he still feels he won the lottery when Stannis smiled upon him. Stannis made him right with the law and gave his sons futures brighter than they ever could have been. If he could have, Davos would have traded his fingers for a knighthood long ago. But Stannis's justice was more like a contract by which Davos and his line were elevated in exchange for being subject to Stannis's judgement.

The maiming of Davos's left hand represents the sacrifice of self-determination made by all who choose to be ruled.

Davos realization, in this chapter, that even his lucky knucklebones have been taken by the fire, marks the climax of his first arc. The loss of the knucklebones represents Stannis's breach of contract. By subjugating his own judgement to Melisandre's, Stannis has broken his contract with Davos and with his lords bannermen. It's why there was open attrition when Davos first began to fly his red hawk. Guncer Sunglass withdrew his support and the Rambtons gave their lives opposing Melisandre's sack of Aegon's sept. Other lords attended the burning of the gods, but huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Stannis was said to know that strength of every house and to serve him was to operate under a known equation wherein one did not attack without the numbers. Men who were happy to serve a lord with such a basically rational approach were now expected to serve a foreign priestess of a foreign religion who showed signs of being actually evil. Having stood idly by while others were imprisoned for dissent, Davos now finds it's his turn to oppose Melisandre.

The Mother's Mercy is Vengeance?

As Davos weighs the suicide of doing nothing against the suicide of making a real effort, it seems best to experience his exposure with gratitude. It will mercifully kill him. But when he braves his fear of their condemnation to submit to his gods for salvation, Davos feels his guilt transform to murderous fury. It was Melisandre's fault. His only misstep was standing idly by while she took his king.

When the passing ship turns out to be Stannis's, Davos concludes it was sent by the Mother, in her mercy. It raises the question of whether the voice Davos heard was the Mother or his own conscience. Why would she verbally condemn and deny him when she'd already sent a ship to rescue him? It seems Davos's intention to murder Melisandre on the orders of the god of Mercy is a just a way to take out his grief for his sons on someone other than himself.

By blaming Melisandre, Davos continues to resist the realization that it was Stannis's pressing of his claim to the throne that got his sons killed. He'd said to Cressen in the prologue to A Clash of Kings:

"We should all be in motley tonight, for this is fool's business we're about. The red woman has seen victory in her flames, so Stannis means to press his claim, no matter what the numbers. Before she's done we're all like to see what Patchface saw, I fear--the bottom of the sea."-26

Davos knew the risk of standing idly by was to see his sons drown, but he was not yet ready to face the question of what would happen if he were to abandon Stannis, withdrawing his support like Lord Sunglass.

It takes a whole ecosystem to support a single man

Davos's exposure on the Merling King's Spear reminds that a man can barely survive alone. As we've seen with Yoren's party on the road, it's society's wealth that feasts the individual. Travelers may run out of food crossing distances with no inns or towns. A good life may be made in the wilderness, but by settled generations.

How is a man to survive without owing allegiance to one lord or another?

As an outlaw, Davos was free. His next choral chapter will hear Salladhor Saan's offer to partner as merchants, with some shady dealings. In Essos, the contrast skews differently. There are no lords, but there is a slave class.

Mnemonic device "Judgment of the Father" refers to

1. Stannis's judgment of Davos when he raised him to a knight but cut off his fingers. Davos did it for his sons. He might have smuggled himself out of Storm's End, except he saw his being raised as the best thing that had ever happened to his family. Stannis's punishment of Davos wiped clean a past he'd been driven to by the kind of abject poverty we witnessed when Arya tried to survive in King's Landing as an orphan. That trade now looks less advantageous, especially since Stannis has taken Davos's fingers, a symbol of agency.

2. Davos's judgment of Stannis's as just and good for him. Davos raises his sons to be skilled sailors in a better life than he had, but thought Stannis's judgment raised them further by dignifying their origins.

3. Davos's self-condemnation at having led his sons into the fire

4. The Mother's condemnation of Davos for serving Melisandre.

Ironies

To see one's family line protected by a lord, one must forfeit that line to that lord, even see it thrown away in pointless war.

Stannis thought following Melisandre would make him stronger, but it caused attrition among his lords and drained his physical strength.

References

Maester Cressen's attempt to assassinate Melisandre. Cressen uses Davos's half-full cup to make his murderous toast. Davos sees and catches Cressen's sleeve "with the fingers Lord Stannis had shortened"-28 but Cressen easily pulls free. The implication is that Davos might have intervened successfully, saving Cressen's life, had Stannis not reduced him. It also reminds of Cressen's failure that Davos now makes the same kind of effort.

Jaime's describing it as a torture to have stood idly by watching the Starks burn

The wildlings requirement to go south or die. Davos's situation describes migration as high risk, since one needs strength to travel and may not have the resources to make the journey.