Rebirth/ Living On

Opening in late A Game of Thrones, Living On touches on legacy, acceptance of mortality as wholesome/positive. The theme also relates to survival, especially coping with psychological trauma or grief.

6 AGOT Jon I: Benjen tells Jon he won't take him to join Night's Watch until he's been with a woman. "Until you have known a woman, you cannot understand what you would be giving up... If you knew what oath would cost you, you might be less eager to pay the price, son." 55

22 AGOT Tyrion III: Mormont despairs of replacing himself when he dies, partly because he's partial to a highborn replacement. The Night's Watch is dying. And winter is coming.

25 AGOT Bran IV: Bran is not the first of his name. There have even been so many Brandons that Old Nan gets him confused with men who've grown from babies in her care.

28 AGOT Eddard VI: Robert's bastard, Gendry, looks like a young Robert. Robert's trueborn son looks like Jaime Lannister.

34 AGOT Eddard VIII: Robert wants Daenerys's child dead because every Targaryen is a hope for that house to regain its fomer strength. He did nothing and now they're multiplying.

60 AGOT Catelyn IX: Lord Walder Frey would outlive all his sons if he could. His grandsons, too. Let their scheming after his chair be for nought.

61 AGOT Jon VIII: When Jeor Mormont finds the House Mormont valyrian steel sword Longclaw in wreckage from the flames, he realizes he has not looked at it in years and that it was a burden. He'd left the family sword behind when he took the black, but his sister returned it to him when Jorah left it behind fleeing in shame. Since Jon saved his life and is being groomed to be his replacment. Mormont has the sword restored for Jon, seeing his family line go forward.

63 AGOT Tyrion VIII: Tyrion is deeply upset at the idea Tywin is trying to get him killed.

65 AGOT Daenerys VIII: When Daenerys calls for bloodmagic to save Drogo, she does not intend to sacrifice their son. That she was tricked into doing so was vile treachery, especially since Mirri Maz Duur knew Drogo would not be restored nor virile enough to father again. Mirri ended Drogo's line.

72 AGOT Catelyn XI: Their mission completed or done, the gathering of northern and riverlords is at a loss for what to do next. They are still at war with the Lannisters.

73 AGOT Daenerys X: Daenerys hatches her dragon eggs, believed petrified, returning a powerful source of magic to the world.

A Clash of Kings

78 ACOK 5 Bran I: When the Freys arrive as wards, Winterfell comes alive with the laughter of children. The game Lord of the Crossing is such a hit it attracts

82 ACOK 9 Tyrion II: Tyrion rewrites the bribe offered Slynt after the fact. Janos is sent to the Wall but his title and sigil will be granted to his son, as well as lands on which his son may build a keep. Tyrion thinks of taking a wife and having a son, himself.

85 ACOK 12 Theon I: "What is dead may never die but rises harder and stronger." 175 Balon would bring back The Old Way.

Theon tells Aeron Robb is lord of Winterfell now and it means a new day. He's rebelled against ther Lannister and been crowned king in the North. Aeron says one wolf is much like another and "Every morning brings a new day, much like the old." 179

90 ACOK 17 Bran II: Lady Hornwood's husband and son have both died. Lord Hornwood had a bastard who is twelve and reportedly good. There is also a proposal from Tallhart that his ten year old be adopted, since half-Hornwood. Were Lady hornwood to choose one of the boys as heir, the house would continue under his line. It's a solution that rids Lady Hornwood of so many marriage proposals, since various likely lords would acquire her lands into their own, ending the Hornwood line.

97 ACOK 24 Jon III: Craster would live on through his daughter wives. They and his roof with be his lasting legacy. Legacy of Daughters

98 ACOK 25 Theon II: Balon intends to live on by bringing back The Old Way. He would see Asha hold the Seastone Chair after him and smiles when she speaks of her axe as husband and dirk as suckling babe. Balon is not concerned about the Greyjoy bloodline ending, but with the ironborn way of life ending. Who rules after Asha is no his concern. But he has disowned Theon for a greenlander. Theon doesn't know the Old Way nor devoutly hold to the Drowned God. He's Stark's son.

100 ACOK 27 Arya VI: Harrenhal remains, said to be full of ghosts.

119 ACOK 46 Catelyn VI: Catelyn's two elder brothers died in infancy so she was both daughter and son to Hoster until Edmure was born. This reveal sets up for Brienne to be understood to feel the pressure of being both daughter and son to Lord Selyn. With no living sons, a man must see this future of his legacy in his daughters. Legacy of Daughters

123 ACOK 50 Tyrion XI: Pleading illness, Lord Gulian Swann had remained in his castle taking no part in the wars, his eldest son had ridden with Renly and now Stannis, while Balon, the younger, served at King's Landing. If he'd had a third son, Tyrion suspected, he'd be off with Robb Stark. It was not perhaps the most honorable course, but it showed good sense; whoever won the Iron Throne, the Swanns intended to survive." 714 It may be Tyrion doesn't realize Ser Balon is secretly Cersei's hostage, as the Redwyn twins were. That his brother rode with Renly was perhaps his own choice, just as Balon likely attended the Hand's tourney as a second son the way Robar Royce spoke of doing.

125 ACOK 52 Jon VI: Bael the Bard must abandon his son. Then, not recognizing him, the son slays the father and is crully punished by the gods. The Night's Watch must train rangers in the field, meaning those of lesser ability and experience may compromise missions, as Jon does freeing Ygritte when taked to kill her. Qhorin educates and keeps a high quality of a specialist at hand by not ruling but leading.

137 ACOK 64 Daenerys V: Child of Three, Dany renames the ships Illyrio has hired after Aegon's dragons. Descendant of the conqueror, Daenerys claims his cause. Though the stories she uses to feel her campaign are unexamined and questionable, even drug-addled, Daenerys begins to conceive of herself as Aegon come again.

138 ACOK 65 Arya X: In the godswood, Arya hears Ned's voice from the heart tree repeat what he told her about the Stark house words "Winter is coming." "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives." 898 Arya understands this to mean she must find brotherhood where she can and to survive in the wilderness enroute to Riverrun so brings Hot Pie & Gendry. But the line can also be seen to refer to the family living on despite the deaths of individuals. The voice tells her "You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north you have the wolf blood in you" as an answer to her concern "there is no pack" with Bran & Rickon dead in a fallen Winterfell. When she crosses the yard to kill the guard, "it felt as though Syrio Forel walked beside her, and Yoren, and Jaqen H'ghar, and Jon Snow." 902

140 ACOK 67 Theon VI: Theon thrills to the idea of joining the Night's Watch as an alternative to death. He could surrender and live on.

141 ACOK 68 Tyrion XV: Tyrion experiences something like a reliving of his birth when he survives his wounds and wakes to find his month bandaged shut.

142 ACOK 69 Jon VIII: The purpose of defending the Wall is multi-generational. Qhorin succeeds in communicating to Jon that "if the Wall should ever fall, all fires will go out." 946 Jon feels a great loss of brotherhood of identity when Qhorin falls. His acceptance into the wildling army will require rebirth of him. To start, he must shed his persona as dutiful man of the Watch to again be Jon Snow, son of Eddard Stark of Winterfell.

143 ACOK 70 Bran VII: Hiding silent in the crypts like the dead, Bran and party re-emerge to leave Winterfell. He notices Ned's statue doesn't want him to leave and understands that his bones may lay to rest somewhere else if he does. (reminding that Ned did not return from his journey south. Nor have his bones yet arrived). Death is a major theme in the chapter, with Bran feeling its death to leave Summer's skin and the small party dividing two smaller ones to cross landscapes of unknown dangers.

Much as Jaime will, Bran sees his own corpse in the man lying face down beside the gargoyles shattered by their fall in the spot Bran landed. He marvels he survived. But it reminds of Jojen pointing out that the godswood is untouched by the fire because "There is a power in living wood, a power strong as fire." 966 When Bran sees the corpse of Winterfell from a distance he thinks "it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at ll. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as these remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either." 969 These are the last words of A Clash of Kings.

A Storm of Swords

145 ASOS 2 Jaime I: Jaime experiences a symbolic rebirth in his release from the dungeons of Riverrun, much as Bran does emerging from the crypts of Winterfell. He's paired with Brienne instead of Cersei. However, Jaime's rebirth shows him much aged. The dungeons have taken a tall and, when Cleos shaves his head as a disguise, Jaime sees his reflection as a much older man than he is used to seeing in his mirror. It sets Jaime up to be concerned with legacy.

149 ASOS 6 Davos I: Davos wants to get up and hail the passing ship, to be rescued and live on, but he got his sons killed. It might be he should perish rather than try again.

153 ASOS 10 Bran I: Bran realizes he'll be a cripple forever if he chooses to seek the safety of castles. Jojen is right that he's a winged wolf in stone chains. Only, those chains weren't Winterfell but all walls. Bran realizes the only decision that would be different than having stayed in the crypts (or found a shelter so approximate as to make no matter) is to seek the three-eyed crow beyond the Wall, as Jojen says.