Presenting Weakness as Strength

Opening in A Clash of Kings, the theme Presenting Weakness as Strength is best communicated in Strong Belwas's claim that each cut on his belly represents a kill, since he let each pit fighting opponent cut him once before he killed them as part of the theater of the arena. Related themes: Ancestral guidance, Destiny, Emboldened by Desperation

57 AGOT Tyrion VII: Tyrion rides into Tywin's camp with what so convincingly appears a guard of savages that Tywin doesn't realize Tyrion is a hostage.

A Clash of Kings

74 ACOK 1 Prologue: Stannis called his banners, but they were Renly's and Renly already called them, though younger so with no claim. Stannis does not have the support to attack King's Landing to take the threon, but has been convinced by Selyse to plan to anyway. Melisandre has seen Renly's death in her fires. His armies will turn to Stannis. All Stannis has to do is...? (Get Melisandre in range, we learn) Emboldened by Desperation

84 ACOK 11 Davos I: Lightbringer was forged in desperation. Emboldened by Desperation

85 ACOK 12 Theon I: Theon thinks the letter from Robb he carries is a paper crown, but it is a request for aid.

93 ACOK 20 Arya V: Lommy insists he has to be carried because injured.

126 ACOK 53 Sansa IV: The Hound surprises Sansa on the roof when he catches her from fainting. He reminds her he saved her from the bread riots. She remembers how he looked driving off thirty peasants. He gets defensive and pretends to enjoy killing though his twitching mouth is a tell. He thinks he has to be like this to survive. His gruffness and cruel sense of humor cover his fear and vulnerability.

133 ACOK 60 Tyrion XIII: Tyrion's true reason for leading the sortie is as an alternative to being shamed in a public execution. if Stannis takes the city. He'd rather die on the battlefield in an effort to prevent that outcome. "This is madness, he thought, but sooner madness than defeat. Defeat is death and shame." 843 Yet, when Tyrion addresses the tire, terrified men who have already been in three times, he says "They say I'm half a man. What does that make the lot of you?" 843 Tyrion assumes he sames them, thinking "If I fight they must do the same or they're less than dwarves." What he puts forth as bravery is desperation. Except this now seems to me like unreliable narration wherein Tyrion simply cannot undertand that the men he rallies felt like half men too. It's their pride he inspired, explaining the chant of "Half Man." Emboldened by Desperation

136 ACOK 63 Sansa VII: The Hound tells Sansa he can protect her, that he's leaving the city, that he'll go where she would. He says he can kill anyone who tries to hurt her. She would. He says he can kill anyone who tries to hurt her. Really though, the Hound is deserting in shame, having broken on the Blackwater. he is terrified. Coming to Sansa in his plan to leave safely. With her, he can wear his white cloak and pretend to have been ordered to take her somewhere. Gates will open. He'll be in command. Then, he can hope to be taken in by the Starks, having performed a service. As Sansa's sworn shield, he'll not be tasked to strike children either. With Sansa, the Hound gets to defect with dignity. Without her, as he does leave, he is an infamous coward who will be hunted by his brother's thugs, as we see at the inn with Arya. Emboldened by Desperation

137 ACOK 64 Daenerys V: Strong Belwas boasts his scars are a count of his kills since, as a pit fighter who must produce a bloody drama for the crowd, his signature is to allow each opponent to cut him once. While this must embolden Belwas to claim, it's unlikely strictly true. In all his life of training and fighting, there must have been cuts he took that were not part of his pit fighting kill count, even men he killed who never cut him.

When Jhiqui braids a bell into Dany's hair for the Undying, Dany's first thought is that she should not wear an undeserved bell, recognizing "it was Drogon's victory." Dany decised to let it stay to embolden her people. However, when she hears it tinkling enroute to the docks it reminds of the murmurings of the Undying. What really happened--that Dany fell into a trap set for seekers of knowledge who would come to warlocks and was rescued by Drogon--is forgotten and the murmurs infect Dany's thinking. The bell should represent a warning to Dany that there are those who prey on magical thinking and looking to prophecy. Instead, her decision to be fuzzy about the facts in order to present strength makes her vulnerable to repeat a mistake she should have learned from. Dany should no longer believe the comet was sent to guide her. Instead, when she hears the bells she remembers bits of the murmurings and begins to mull them over despite knowing they were summoned to paralyze her so she might be eaten alive. The murmurings themselves begin to eat Dany alive, warping her sense of her agency and introducing paranoia about betrayals.

138 ACOK 65 Arya X: Saluting Harrenhal's heart tree with "valar morghulis" Arya has begun to combine worship of the Old Gods, which she does to draw strength from an ancestral. roots, with the little she knows of Jaqen H'ghar ways of the Faceless Men. In her desperation, she asks the heart tree for help and is emboldened by hearing her fathers voice remind her what he told her in The Tower of the Hand. Though she remembers his words, she assigns them new meaning. When Ned said "the lone wolf dies while the packs survives" (paraphrase) he meant that in times of danger family must make peace with each other and overcome grievances to cooperate for the good of all.

"You are too young to be burdened with all my cares," he told her, "but you are also a Stark of Winterfell. You know our words."

"Winter is coming," Arya whispered.

"The hard cruel times," her father said. "We tasted them on the Trident, child, and when Bran fell. You were born in the long summer, sweet one, you've never known anything else, but now the winter is truly coming. Remember the sigil of our House, Arya."

"The direwolf," she said, thinking of Nymeria. She hugged her knees against her chest, suddenly afraid.

"Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. Septa Mordane is a good woman, and Sansa … Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you … and I need both of you, gods help me." - A Game of Thrones - Arya II

What Arya takes away from her memory of this talk is the idea that she must be like a wolf and that she must bring Hot Pie and Gendry with her or die. However, it can be noted this takeaway is not entirely antithetical to Ned's guidance and that it saves Hot Pie and Gendry from the Mountain's rule of Harrenhal that she convinces them to leave. Ancestral guidance

141 ACOK 68 Tyrion XV: Tyrion strangles Maester Ballabar until he agrees to remove the bandages covering Tyrion's mouth. Emboldened by Desperation

142 ACOK 69 Jon VIII: Bravado can seem to overcompensate. The Lord o' Bones comes across contemptible because he wears bones to menace his detractors. He inspires derision. Qhorin calls him "Rattleshirt."

A Storm of Swords

144 ASOS 1 Prologue: The purpose of the Night's Watch has been forgotten. The words of their oath describe them as a shield, yet these words are used to rouse the men to pre-emptive attack on the wrong enemy. Mormont unintentionally misuses Qhorin's quote to waste deaths. Ancestral guidance

Mance's caravan of refugees must be an army in order to pass through the Wall, the men of the Watch who raise their swords to cry their vows transform fear into resolve, emboldened by desperation, they decide to die fighting. Though many already plan mutiny, they say the words. Emboldened by Desperation

Chett's bullying of Sam covers for his own fears. Even his displacing of angher at Mormont for taking his life onto sam and Jon in vengeful intent is cowardice posing as something else. Chett makes his contribution to escape and kill Sam on the pretext of freeing the ravens to prevent word of their desertion from reaching the Wall. Really, it's so he'll have easy pickings and personal vengeance where other men must do real heavy lifting. However, if Chett were fastidious, he'd assign some other man to easy Sam and be one who will kill whatever man drew watch, since that presents a weak link in his plan. But, is Chett hard enough to kill whatever man draws watch?

146 ASOS 3 Catelyn I: Catelyn asks to be confined with Hoster so she might be a comfort to him when her real reason is to be comforted by him. Edmure overreacts to Jaime's release, calling for a massive manhunt that seems calculated to make him seem strong and serious, but which actually turns Catelyn's defiance of Robb into the appearance of a win by Jaime.

149 ASOS 6 Davos I: Feverish and grieving his sons, Davos would almost rather die than try to climb to hail ther passing ship. When he realizes the time has come to act or miss his chance, Davos reaches for his pouch of fingerbones to find it gone. Then he breaks down, despairing, and begs the Mother for mercy. He had been preparing to risk all, so reached for his luck. Finding it gone, he prays to the Mother. If he would survive, he needs help. Some little bit of strength. The Mother denies it to him. He heards her voice blame him for the fire that took his sons, saying it was called down upon them by the fire that burned his gods. Then Davos agrees, blaming Meliandre. The Mother reminds him he rowed Melisandre into Storm's End (raising the question of whethre the voice of The mother is actually an inner voice of Davos's related to conscience), Davos determines to act and so finds the strength to climb the Merling Kng's Spear to hail the ship. Though it may be the voice of conscience Davos hears, it incites him to murder Melisandre, an act more in line with vengeance than protecting Stannis. But Davos has to acknowledge he had gone against conscience standing silent before. Emboldened by Desperation

152 ASOS 9 Daenerys I: When Arstan tells the story of Rhaegar's having come to the sword by way of the scroll, Dany's takeaway is not that rulers must know how to fight, but that Rhaegar knew his destiny: that he must become a warrior and then did. It suggests Dany will succeed at becoming a conqueror, having realized it as her destiny. Destiny

Later, Jorah uses his knowledge of the various "prophecies" Dany is focused on to distinguish himself as her closest councillor and attempt to persuade her to adopt his plan to buy Unsullied, sell Illyrio's goods without permission and even as a marriage proposal.

154 ASOS 11 Davos II: "It is nothing, he told himself. Surely the gods did not bring me safe through fire and sea only to kill me with flux." 154 Destiny, Divine Guidance

155 ASOS 12 Jaime II: The boy at the Inn of the Kneeling Man confronts them with crossbow. Jaime is contemptuous. The crossbow is a weapon of choce of a lazy soldier who depends on numbers to keep him alive. Or of a coward. Emboldened by Desperation

161 ASOS 18 Arya III: Jack Be Lucky is called that because he lost an eye. It's a hopeful name that recognizes he almost died. It even counters a name like "Unlucky Jack" which he might otherwise attach to himself. When men give each other emnboldening nicknames, it is to actually strenghthen by choosing an optimistic story. Emboldened by Desperation