Make It Home

Opening at the beginning of A Storm of Swords, Make It Home is about the difficulty of survival in the wilderness, even traveling. It has ties to Broken Man, Vulnerable Traveler, Landscape as Prison, Live As Wildling, Population of Free People & Food Enough

144 ASOS 1 Prologue: Where Lark the Sisterman and Ollo Lophand hail from places that would harbor them as deserters, Chett does not. He has no home to go to so plans to take the best thing he's seen north of the Wall: Craster's. Unable to scrape a living out of the wilderness as his fatjer did, collecting leeches, Chett sees murder and theft as good options. He could live like a king at Craster's, even call himself a king. Or so he thinks.

145 ASOS 2 Jaime I: Jaime doesn't need to get to King's Landing; he's a famous Lannister. To get home, all Jaime needs is to find a few Lannister soldiers.

147 ASOS 4 Arya I: If only Arya can make it to Riverrun, she'll be home. Home is family.

148 ASOS 5 Tyrion I: Tyrion must rise and venture out, weak as he is, to survive by being seen. Certain Cersei means to kill him with one catspaw or another, he braves the wilderness of a Red Keep full of ready revulsion. Yet, his attempt to find sanctuary with Tywin backfires when he flippantly asks for Casterly Rock and learns his father has no love for him and sees him as never to have what is still perceived as Jaime's birthright. Tyrion cannot make it home.

149 ASOS 6 Davos I: Living in exposure is killing Davos. It takes an ecosystem to support even one man and some wilderness cannot be survived alone.

151 ASOS 8 Jon I: Were Jon to truly desert, he'd be home.

152 ASOS 9 Daenerys I: Between two harbors, the last one riddled with traps, Dany hears Jorah's warning to become independent or be at the mercy of questionable supporters, as he views Illyrio to be. She is not home.

153 ASOS 10 Bran I: counter-example: Bran comes to understand that the stone chains in Jojen's dream represent the stone walls he continues to seek out in order to feel safe. To realize his potential, he'll have to venture beyond the world he knows and trusts. Instead of trying to Make It Home by arriving at a castle, Bran realizes he must become at home as a traveler in hiding.

155 ASOS 12 Jaime II: counter example: travel can be made dangerous by dens of thieves.

162 ASOS 19 Samwell I: Samwell can't go on, so is carried.

163 ASOS 20 Tyrion III: Tywin tells Tyrion he can make Winterfell and the north home through his child by Sansa Stark.

165 ASOS 22 Jaime III: Jaime attempts to make it home by tricking Faithful Urswyck to take him straight to Tywin.

168 ASOS 25 Bran II: A fellow traveller feeds Bran and party in the mountains, noting that when there was a Stark in Winterfell, the roads were safe as home.

170 ASOS 27 Jon III: Jon and Ygritte might make a home in the cave.

Though many characters are in a state of travel, the theme Make It Home does not otherwise figure as heavily as it has been. It seems to transform, here, as has already begun, into the idea of Family As Home.

206 ASOS 63 Jaime VII: Jaime makes it home to Cersei.

209 ASOS 66 Arya XII: Arya must accept her mother is dead. There is no going to her, now.

215 ASOS 72 Daenerys VI: Dany tries to make a home in the Great Pyramid, but is lonely, having exiled Jorah.

220 ASOS 77 Jon XI: Stannis would raise Jon to Lord of Winterfell, a place he feels is home.

223 ASOS 80 Jon XII: Jon decides he could never burn the heart tree to gain Winterfell.

224 ASOS 81 Sansa VII: At the Eyrie, Sansa makes a snow Winterfell, remembering home is the place she feels strong.

It seems the theme progression ends here, at the end of A Storm of Swords, suggesting it to be book-specific.