The Game of Thrones 530-807

I have finished reading the first book of series and watched the final episodes of the first season of the TV series and reflected on the whole that I have experienced. That the TV series raised the ages of some of principal characters to make their involvement possible in the blood shedding and the sex was the right decision as has been the portrayal of these aspects in a frank and open way rather than in a self indulgent voyeurism with which Spartacus is associated. The overall story as yet to be revealed and the inherent themes are all such as make the series a memorable one and the book a worthwhile read. Having purchased the books that have been published to date I well be able to read them if for any reason the work does not continue with further Televisions productions. I am most impressed so far,

I have decided to write this final piece on the work with the notes made after the first episode of the last part of the Game of Thrones pages 531 to 616 which lived up to my anticipation and opened the news that Lord Eddard Stark keeper of the Kings Hand had not been assassinated but was incarcerated in a dungeon. His fate which I know is not a good one is yet to be determined. I will then cover the rest as has now unfolded and revealed to me as it has been to other watchers and readers.

The TV episode 8 The Pointy End concentrated on the roles of Robb the eldest legitimate child aged only fourteen years in the book but looking early to middle 20’s in the TV production as he calls those who have sworn loyalty to his father to assemble and march with him upon the forces of the Lannisters. Understandably there is concern and questioning of his abilities and leadership qualities and during an assembly at table one draws a knife and Robb’s direwolf charges and removes two of the man’s fingers. Robb comments that it was unfortunately that the dog had misunderstood the gesture as offensive when all the man intended to do with to cut his meat to which the man replied with humour that the meat was tough. This appeared to have quietened the leaders of the men, an assembly of 20000 with those of the senior Lannister alone amounting to over 20000 plus those of Jamie, not stated, those back at the capital and the motley outlaw leaders who have taken the Imp Tyrion prisoner and with whom he has cut a deal. Thus the combined forces of the Lannisters exceed those from the North.

The deal is that the men are provided with the latest weaponry and given the lands outside the castle of Lord Arryn making the wife of the former King’s Hand a prisoner in her isolated and impregnable stronghold. His father greets him with mixed feelings, surprised that he is still alive and disappointed that he was taken prisoner, so easily! Tyrion makes light of the situation but the outlaw leaders makes the point that he remains their prisoner until his father has delivered the promises that have been made by the son.

Back at the Capital the two daughters of Lord Stark go their separate ways. Sansa is delighted that Joffrey is now King and sees herself as Queen, with the Queen mother, questioning the loyalty of the girl to her future husband and regime because of the concern expressed about her father. She is asked to prove her commitment by writing letters to her mother and brothers requesting that they also commit themselves loyally to her future husband and the rule of the Lannisters.

When the Queen’s men comes for Arya she is practising with the swordsman both using wooden practice weapons and therefore no match for the men who have come for her, claiming they are send by her father. While the sword master fights she is able to escape and using all her skills decides to make her way out of the castle through the secret passageway which led her previously to outside the walls of the city. Her first idea was to go to the stables and take a horse but there a stable boy recognised her and tried to take her prisoner to gain favour with the Queen. Armed with the blade given to her by the half brother she kills the boy and finding the exits guarded on the look out for her she finds the courage to take the route which frightened her so much before and make her way to the family home. There is an excellent section when child puts to use all the teachings of the swordsman battling with her natural fears about her own and her family’s future. It is noted that when confronted by the queen Sansa makes no reference to the plight of her sister, something which is of concern to the rest of the family.

On receiving the letter from her eldest daughter Catelyn decides to go immediately the encampment of her son to try and persuade him not to be involved in the forthcoming battles, but she is proud of his determination to do so, Back at their home Bran tries to comfort his four year old younger brother that his parents and older brother will return but the child comments, that everyone including his sisters leaves and do not return, Bran goes to his mother’s favourite place by the water to reflect on the old Gods and there encounters the wilding girl who warns that his bother is marching in the wrong direction and should be moving north where the threat comes from ancient ones as Winter begins to approach.

There is also concern at the wall where Jon and Sam encounter a body whose death suggests a force other than wildings and both are congratulated for their behaviour and begin to feel like true men of the Watch. Jon is called to the attention of the Commander who asks him to pour wine for himself as well as for him and then reveals the news of the death of the King and the imprisonment for treason of his father. He cautions Jon about doing anything precipitous and when the lad gets into a fight with another he is confided to quarters. The young man is aroused by his direwolf and quickly senses that something is amiss and goes to the quarters of the Commander and foils an attempt on the man’s life.

Meanwhile Daenerys having achieved her ambition of getting her husband to take his forces across the water to regain her kingdoms is disturbed as the men start to take the women folk as they move to the coast raiding for slaves and money. She is rebuked by her husband when she questions the need for money as he reminds that it is needed to hire the ships which they need for the sea crossing. She sticks to her ground about the taking of the women saying that if the men want the women they should take the women as wives. This leads to one of his captains threatened by the increasing power of Danny to challenge her husband who kills the man with his bare hands although he is injured in the process. One of the rescued women who Danny has taken under her protection offers to heal the wound with skills learnt from her mother. She is regarded as a Sorceress and is to play a key part in what is to happen. The other captains continue to have questions and doubts about the role of Danny but her husband is impressed seeing this as only an indication that his son to be is filling his wife with courage and the will of a future leader.

Across the water Robb’s leadership continues to be a source fo concern and potential challenge when he decides to free an enemy look out who was trying to assess the number of troops which he has put at over 20000. Robb does not explain his reasons for letting the man return with the information on the size of the enemy and their intentions but we the reader suspect he has a plan, as yet undisclosed. The plan is a clever one. What he does is to sacrifice 2000 of his 20000 men in confronting the forces of the father of Lannister Senior who continues to have contempt for his height challenged son and decides that he and his brigands and wildmen should be at the forefront of the attack on the advances forces of Robb. Tyrion arranges to have a companion for the night before the battle and generally enjoy himself with good food and wine. When the battle is over he is surprised that although injured he is still alive, as is his father and he asks if the battle was won and his father says yes and the process of killing the entire remaining enemy continues. However his father says yes we have beaten the 2000 but the 18000 were elsewhere undertaking a surprise attack on the other brother and his forces.

In order to achieve the surprise victory it is necessary for Robb with his mother and the men to use a gated causeway controlled by a lecherous old war lord who although previously swore loyalty to Lord Eddard is known for his independence of mind and tendency to marry very young girls father several children and then take another wife with eight in total, if I remember correctly. It is Catelyn who takes the responsibility for negotiating a deal which Robb says he accepts and this includes that he will marry one of the warlord’s daughters and that Arya will marry one of the sons. Having negotiated the deal they are able to carry out the surprise attack which is not shown and next we see that Jamie has been captured who they now hope to bargain for the return of Ned and his two daughters.

A good part of this episode Baeolor (9) is devoted to Jon who has a new status on the Watch since saving the life of the Commander who gives him a well made family sword which was to have been passed down to his son who he regards as worthless. The others on the watch all want to see and handle the sword which Jon generously allows them to do so. Jon is called to the top of Wall where one of the elders now blind is chopping away at carcasses to create food for the ravens in their cages. Either on his own initiative or on behalf of the Commander he wants to let Jon Snow know that he understands the dilemma he is in, on one hand to go and help his half brother, half sister and his father and on the sworn loyalty of allegiance to his comrades in the Watch. The man discloses that he faced such a challenge late in life when the reality was that he would have been useless to help and he then also discloses that he is the brother of the Mad King, the Uncle of Daenerys. He is therefore sympathetic to the position of the young man but emphasises that while he will not advise or comment on which choice to make, he will need to decide and that once the decision is made there will be no going back.

Across the water Danny, now in the latter stages of her pregnancy continues to ride horseback by the side of her husband who falls ill as the wound he received when fighter a usurper begins to fester. When he collapses she insists they stop and make camp. Now another senior member of the Dothraki people steps in with his leadership challenge warning Danny that when her husband dies she will be nothing. Danny holds firm and calls on the woman she rescues and who tended her husband’s wounds to assist once more. The woman says that only the use of ancient beliefs can save the Kharl and she told go continue which involves the slaughtering of the Kharl’s horse with blood splattering on him and Danny. She is told to leave an ensure no one enters the tent and when the latest usurper moves to stop the old woman Danny is pushed to the ground and appears to bring forward the birth prematurely. When the man who has been her escort throughout the period in exile intervenes he is wounded but manages to kill the usurper. Danny enters the tent to seek the help of the old woman.

Back in the capital Lord Eddard in chains is approached by one of the other former advisers to the King, the eunuch who pleads with Ned to do all that he can to bring peace, to call on his son to stop the advance and to do what the Queen bids in order to protect his daughters. In the final scene he is brought before the public to admit his treason and that he and been wrong. Both his daughters look on with Sansa dressed in finery as the future wife of King Joffrey approves what he is doing while Arya dressed as an urchin looks on in horror. He sees her as he speaks to the crowd.

I therefore come the final episode of the first series Fire and Blood where I have also read that a second has been commissioned because of the positive audience response in the various countries where production has now been shown.

The episodes open with the news that following his speech on the orders of the King and his mother, Lord Eddard Stark is beheaded to the acclaim of the crowd. Sansa collapses in the shock of this betrayal which Ayra is protected by the man who provides the Watch at the Wall, the Black Watch, with new recruits. He cuts down her hair and tells her to function as a boy as he takes her North the Wall. There is an incident in which another youngster attempts to take the sword away from her and she threatens to the kill the individual boasting that he would be her second. The incident is stopped by another in the convoy, the blacksmith assistant, one of the previous Kings illegitimate children who had been visited by Ned, Lord Stark when tracing the investigation undertaken by the previous Hand to the King. I am not sure this part is the first book as I do not remember reading,

Sansa wishes to return home and experiences an assault by the King who says that his sister decided that they will marry in time. She is horrified by the betrayal by the King and his mother. She once was thrilled by his touch but now this makes her flesh cringe. He tells her he wants to have child as soon as she is capable. He forces her to see the head of her father and says he will give her another present on her birthday. Her brother Robb's head.

The grim nature of reality has come to her. A thousand leagues to the North the news of the death of his father has decided Jon to leave his post, to join his half brothers to avenge his father. Before he gets far he is overtaken by his three closest friends on the Watch all who took their oaths together. The persuade him to return. The Commander takes the decision to assemble the full force of the Watch to go beyond the wall to investigate what has been happening and to all try and find out what has happened to Lord Eddard’s brother who failed to return from the previous expedition to find out what was happening. The Commander questions Jon’s will and is satisfied with the commitment of the young man to participate in the quest with them. We see the troop leave the security of the Wall to out into the icy wilderness beyond.

Back in the area between the Kings Landing capital and their home the news of the death of Ned has reached his wife and son. She is tempted to kill Jamie and is her son but they hold fire until they have freed Sansa and Ayra after which she sears to her son that they will kill them all. She nevertheless strokes Jamie across the face with a rock and he admits that he did push her sun Bran off castle wall but does not disclose why. The news has reached that the brother of the King is claiming the throne. All Catelyn wants is get her daughters back and for them all to go home in peace. However the other Lords are not prepared to return without retribution for the deaths of relatives and comrades. They proclaim Robb King of the North.

Lord Lannister speaks approvingly of his son Tyrion’s recent conduct and his counsel and his father shares with him his plan which is to use a small force to cause havoc in area while they reassemble and prepare to make united battle against the forces assembled to meet them. In the meantime he announces that Tyrion is to become the new Hand to his nephew and put him and the boy’s mother, his sister, in their places. The only condition is that he does not take his woman, the whore, to court with him. Tyrion tells her of his father plan and his intention to take her with him as his mistress so that she can have an effect on the other women of the court. Tyrion remains the character of the series and the book.

The most dramatic development is however across the water where Daenerys discovers the treachery of the Sorcerer woman who has taken and killed her child after she gave birth claiming that it has been a reptilian monster. While her husband the Dothraki Lord has survived he has become a silent motionless shell of a man who enjoys laying out in the sun. However his captains and menfolk have for the greater part returned to their natural lifestyle abandoning the man who can no longer sit on a horse. The remainder with her are the women she rescued and a few of the older members of the Dothraki plus her personal protector. He is horrified suspecting that she proposes to die with her husband on the funeral pyre. However first she frees everyone to go or stay with her and the she orders the sorceress who betrayed her out of revenge for what her husband did to her people, to be tied to the pyre. The woman says she will not hear her scream. She does. But Danny also enters the burning conflagration and moves into its centre.

When the fires ends and the remaining embers cool, Danny is found alive at the centre fulfilling the prophecy that the descendents of the dragon. It is implied that she had taken the three dragon eggs given to her at the time of her marriage into the fire with her and these have down hatched and cling to her. The Protector and those who accepted her offer to remain with her as free men and women kneel to her in awe and admiration. She was confident she was the true heir to the Dragon Kings and would survive the conflagration.

So we have the breakup of the seven Kingdoms with three Kings and the Dragon Queen across the water, while the long dark Winter is coming with the re emergence of the undead.

The Game of Thrones pages 266-529

I saved watching and reading the next part of the Game of Thrones until this weekend in order to concentrate on my new programme working on my contemporary art project. This was written a week ago with a fourth programme to watch and fifth tomorrow.

The consequence of the gap of four weeks has meant having to remind myself of the story although I have quickly become familiar with the main characters. Rather than attempt to convey the twists and turns of the story over the month I am reporting the overall progress relating to the main characters plus aspects of the story which attracted my attention from the text together with any aspects of the book not included in the TV programmes or remembered when reading the text.

I begin with Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of the Lord of the North Eddard Stark, now the King’s Hand who despite his self exile to become a member of the Black Watch, one suspects he has a major part to play as the story unfolds. He shows great promise in his training but makes himself unpopular by his support for a new recruit Samwell sent by his father because the boy was coward hearted and refused to adopt the ways expected of a warrior. Jon has protected Samwell from the other recruits and the training Master. Both have misgivings about the life, especially the lack of contact with women and the lifelong celibacy membership of the brotherhood required. Jon grows anxious when his father’s brother fails to return and in the last TV episode covered by this writing, his riderless horse returns as he and Sam keep lookout at the top of the wall. Sam is delighted when he is told he will pass the training and become a Steward assisting in the Library and Rookery. When it was Jon turn to learn of his appointment he is shocked to be told he is to become the personal Steward of the Lord High Commander, nothing more than a personal servant and he felt humiliated as was the intention, but also one suspects to be protected for some greater purpose. The young men are seen taken the oath of commitment to the Order outside the Wall being told that they go down on bended knee as boys and rise as men. As they do this his direwolf Ghost returns carrying a severed hand in its mouth. There are several vivid scenes of the ice covered wall, the harshness and bleakness of the environment and the cold which permeates every aspect of their lives, but still nothing like the extent of the cold once the era of the long Winters take over from the Summertime.

The wife of Lord Eddard Stark, Catelyn, having visited her husband (to advise of the attempt on the life of her middle son and together with her husband learned that although the knife belonged to the former young man who sought her hand, known as Littlefinger he claimed to have handed it to the Imp, Tyrion, the height challenged likeable wayward, truth telling brother of the Queen), goes to visit her sister to seek further information on the death of the her sister’s husband. While on the journey they take overnight lodgings at a simple inn where she recognises several knights on their way to the tournament being held in the capital of the Seven Kingdoms in honour of the appointment of her husband as the Kings principal adviser, The King’s Hand. She calls in their assistance to apprehend the Imp, Tyrion, when he arrives from his visit to the Wall, and unknowingly to Catelyn, his visit to her home Winterfell where he devised a frame which enabled her son to ride a horse again and regain his will to live. An action unlikely if he had indeed been behind the attempted killing.

On their way to the extraordinary castle of the House of Arryn, along what is known as the High Road they are attacked by Brigands and Tyrion is released to aid in the fight for survival. He remains a prisoner thereafter although seeds of doubt at his guilt following his professed innocence begin to nag at Catelyn. The Castle is considered impregnable because it is approach through a guarded valley and then can only be reached part way or mule followed by either foot or winched baskets by which the supplies reach the fort. A disturbing sight greets Catelyn because her younger sister has aged to the extent she now looks older and she is still suckling her son who is already of an age to walk and talk. She wants Tyrion put immediately to death because he is of the House of Lannister but Catelyn agrees to his right to trial.

He is kept in a dungeon with a difference as there is large open to the elements side from floor to ceiling, beyond which there is a sheer drop to the bottom of the mountain. The guard is a dullard and a bully, depriving him of food but who he persuades on promise of gold to take message to Catelyn on basis he wishes to confess. He confesses his past wickedness but says he is not guilty of the crime accused. This leads to trial by combat where he is represented by someone who wins and he is released with ne companion offering to go with him along the notorious High road where it is anticipated he will not survive the murdering bandits.

In the capital Eddard has failed to prevent the holding of a tournament although his attention is directed at the activities of the former King’s hand who was visiting the illegitimate children of the King, one is working as a Blacksmith’s assistant and the other a teenage girl with a baby working at a brothel who remains in love with King waiting for him to return to her. He also finds he was exploring a large dusting book on the history of the King’s family. He lowly works out that all the illegitimate children have dark hair but his son Joffrey and the other children have fair hair like his wife and other members of her family. He finally works out that her children and the heir Joffrey to whom his daughter is betrothed is not the rightful heir. Before confronting the King and Queen with his findings he is wounded by one of the men of the Queen’s brother who goes to take him hostage on learning that Tyrion has been taken prisoner by Catelyn. When he recover he makes arrangements to return home with his daughters after having a row with the king over the decision to send an assassin to kill Daenerys who has become pregnant by the Dothraki Chief, Khal Drogo.

Sansa his daughter has re-established a relationship with her betrothed after the incident with the Direwolf and Arya and the butchers boy learning sword play. However she is disappointed when after the jousting and feasting she is left in the company of an ugly and wild man to escort her back to the Castle rather than Joffrey himself. Nevertheless she is distraught by the plan of her father knowing this will deprive her of becoming Queen. The reality of life is yet to dawn on this young woman no more an adolescent girl.

I noted the description of the meal at the feast comprising a suckling pig, pigeon pie and turnips soaked in butter with a honey comb afterwards. The coincidence is that only recently I mentioned to someone at the Marriott Leisure who had been on holiday in Majorca that I had twice eaten a suckling pig at a restaurant in the city centre during my only visit to the island and the only occasion that I have eaten this meal, Pigeons which are regarded as vermin has long since been a English food as they honeycomb for those that like honey.

Arya meanwhile has been enjoying swordplay lessons from a tutor selected by her father. He has been teaching her poise by standing on one leg blindfolded on the edge of stairs and also speed by learning how to catch cats. When undertaking the latter dressed in old clothes as boy she finds herself in under castle workings and in hiding overhears two men plotting to kill her father. She then finds herself outside the Castle and has difficulties returning only to find her father displeased by her disappearance and unwilling to hear what she has overheard in detail.

When attacked by the Queen’s brother, Littlefinger had left Ned and his men ostensibly to get the city watch to prevent the very deaths which occur. Either then or subsequently he warns Ned not to trust him. At the tourney the King proposes to enter an event in which men fight together until one is left standing. There is much breaking of limbs and some bloodshedding and the King is more than determined once his wife forbids him. This is seen as a cunning ploy her part as the King always does the opposite and therefore he could easily be killed in the mêlée and his death put down as an accident. He then decides to go hunting and is badly injured by a boar and dies having become too drunk to tackle the beast on his own, having commanded the others to stand by. He sees Lord Stark in private and gets him to write a Will on dictation in which he makes Ned Lord Protector of the realm and to govern until Joffrey is of age. Eddard writes this as rightful heir thus cleverly providing to bypass Joffrey once is position is recognised.

He has already confronted the Queen with his findings about the illegitimacy of Joffrey and the other, something which far from denying she justifies saying that the family have kept the line pure this way for 300 years and that she and her brother being twins shared the same womb and have been together since they were children. She says that nevertheless she did love the King but was shattered when on their wedding night he approached her drunk and called out the name of Ned’s dead sister instead of hers. She had ended a pregnancy caused by the King and for many years had learned how to satisfy him without permitting vaginal penetration. There is a scene where they talk together and she asks if he ever lover her and he admits his was always locked with the death of Stark’s sister.

The Queen chides Lord Stark for having failed to take the crown himself when he had the opportunity all those years ago and that in the Game of Thrones you win or die. Littlefinger also attempts to make a deal with Ned pleading with him to accept Joffrey as the King but working together they will take power. When Ned is summoned to the throne room to pledge obedience to the King who wishes his coronation to take place within two weeks, he reveals the last Will of the King which the Queen mother tares to pieces. Lord Stark as the authorised Protector of the Realm orders the arrest of the Queen and her children but it is Littlefinger who takes a knife to the throat of Ned saying that he warned him no to trust him.

Meanwhile across the water Daenerys has been securing her position as the wife of the Dothraki leader having made their way to the holy city normally in by old women, their slaves and visiting merchant. Her brother has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of action to regain his father’s kingdom and at the way he is treated, especially by his sister. Having struck her at one point he was made to travel on foot and then given the option of continuing to travel on foot or in a cart along with the old, the pregnant and the sick he opts for the cart not knowing that this is a humiliations and opens him to ridicule. He becomes even more upset when Danny achieves great standing and gives proof she will have son by eating raw the heart of a chosen beast. He comments that never has anyone expressed love and appreciation in the way the people demonstrated for her on that occasion.

When he continues to complain adn threaten her because of the lack of respect and failure to regain the crown, Khal Drogo melts gold from him and then pours the molten liquid over his head thus killing him with a gold crown.

When a shipment arrives and a wine merchant offers her a special wine, her escort becomes suspicious and requests the man takes the first glass himself and when he refuses and runs off it is realised this is an attempt to kill her and the unborn child. This puts Khal Drogo into a great rage and he vows to build ships and cross the water with his men and place her on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

There was one other development which heralds the way the adventure series is likely to progress. The son of Lord Stark (thrown off the castle home by the Queen’s twin brother when he discovered them together) goes riding with the help of the special saddle created by Tyrion. At one point he becomes detached from the hunting party and finds himself taken prisoner by runaways for the Night Watch and others, including a young woman. He is rescued by his brother and friend and the girl is taken prisoner. She reveals she is a wildling from beyond the great ice wall but has tried to flee as far south as she could because of the impeding arrival of Winter and even more significantly the awakening of the fearful creatures who have not been seen for over a thousand years, but who it is claimed have just been sleeping. The bloodshedding has only begun.