Vicki’s Comments (group member since Jul 17, 2015)

Vicki’s comments from the A Song of Ice and Fire - A Chapter a day group.

1. The feeding of man parts to the goats joke is getting rather old for me. Meh.

2. Tyrion is sending his mountain men into the Kingswood outside the capital walls via rafts along the river. He wants them to attack Stannis’s army when they come from the Stormlands. Without the clansmen Tyrion feels naked, but it’s all to keep the capital safe so he’s willing to do it.

3. Bywater says of the 6,000 gold cloaks only a fourth can be counted on to be reliable in battle. Sure, in the beginning they’ll all start strong, but if one retreats he’ll have a thousand more retreating behind him and they’re fucked. Tyrion’s relying on the phrase: “One man on a wall was worth ten beneath it.”

4. Fish is the only source of food coming into the capital and therefore the price has skyrocketed ten times what it normally is.

5. The poor had built an alarming amount of ramshackle structures all along the walls of the capital which is not good, since Stannis could use this as leverage to climb the walls. Tyrion orders Bronn to burn all of it down so Stannis’s army can’t use it to their advantage. Bronn says this will piss off the inhabitants even more and they’ll try to fight but Tyrion doesn’t care. They already hate him. He does, however, tell Bronn to keep his sellswords in check; he wants no more raping. I laughed when Bronn says they’re sellswords, not septons.

6. So it seems King’s Landing heard what happened at Winterfell. I like that Tyrion remembers Winterfell having a feel of safety to it, even though it’s not as strong and fortified as Harrenhal and Storm’s End, which were also taken by the enemy. Tyrion hadn’t expected it to fall. It seems the gods gave the Starks Harrenhal only to lose Winterfell, “...a dismal exchange.” He knows he should be happy to hear of this, since it helps the Lannisters, but feels bad anyway. He tries to tell himself Winterfell is nothing to him and look to his own walls, but I can’t help but respect Tyrion for respecting the North, even though right now they’re his enemy.

7. King’s Landing has three trebuchets that the gold cloaks named “the Three Whores,” omg, lol, because they’re going to give Stannis a lusty welcome. ;)

8. Tyrion is late to watch the ceremony of Joffrey naming two new Kingsguard members to the Seven, replacing the two that died from the mob: Ser Balon Swann and Ser Osmund Kettleblack. He approves of the first one, not the second. The Swanns are a notable House in the Stormlands. Ser Osmund, however, is lowborn and dependent off Cersei so he must do as she says, except he’s really Bronn’s man, so the joke’s on Cersei. Still, Tyrion thinks Ser Osmund is a craven and unfit to wear the white cloak.

9. Ser Boros is currently in prison at Rosby. Bywater attacked him on the road as Tyrion commanded and Ser Boros shamed himself when he did not die in the attempt to protect his prince from capture. Cersei wanted Ser Boros stripped of his white cloak because of his cravenness, but she replaces him instead with Ser Osmund, who is equally craven, lol, hypocrite.

10. So Shae is Lollys’s bedmaid now. She likes it better than being a pot girl. That’s good.

11. Tyrion replaced the High Septon himself. He tells the new High Septon that Stannis burned the godswood down in Storm’s End as an offering to the Lord of Light. :( That’s not good! Remember what happened to the First Men who destroyed the heart trees? Stannis is like to burn down Baelor’s Sept if he wins King’s Landing, so he’d better pray to his gods that Stannis loses!

12. So Balon Greyjoy styles himself King of the Iron Islands and the North and wants to discuss a possible alliance with Joffrey. Tyrion is unsure how to respond back to this letter so he thinks he’ll let Cersei handle this one.

13. Hallyne the Pyromancer says he now has 13,000 jars of wildfire ready. That is a lot more than what they had before in such a short amount of time, making Tyrion suspicious. Hallyne says they’d found another cashe of 300 jars under the Dragon Pit. Some drunk fell through the rotted floorboards and came upon them in a cellar. Thinking they were vats of wine, he opened one and drank it, damn! How many more of these hidden cashes are there?? Also, Hallyne says the magic spells he uses to make the wildfire is becoming more potent, allowing him to produce more at a faster rate. I didn’t see the connection the first time I read this, but after Quaithe in an earlier chapter told Danaerys her dragons made that firemage’s powers more potent, it makes me wonder. Hallyne asks if there are any hidden dragons in the vicinity, so he must know about this. He says his old master told him magic started to get weaker after the last dragon died. My guess is no one in Westeros knows about Dany’s dragons yet. Give it about six more months, then. :) Word will spread.

14. Lord Bywater returns from Rosby with more spearmen from Lord Gyles’s estate and says Tommen is happy and doing well there. It is so damn cute how Tommen adopted a fawn. OMG! He had one once before but Joffrey turned it into a jerkin, wtf... Tommen misses his mom and sister but doesn’t care at all about Joffrey, lol.

15. Varys shows up with a list of several rich men, merchants, who call themselves the Antler Men, because they’re Stannis supporters. I laughed when Tyrion says, “Someone should tell them that Stannis changed his sigil. Then they can be the Hot Hearts.” Too funny. These traitors are conspiring to seize the Old Gate and let the enemy through. One of the men on the list is Salloreon, the blacksmith who promised Tyrion a ferocious demon helm. Tyrion orders for their arrest and humorously says it looks like he’s not getting that demon helm after all, ha!

Your point 7, I think Rhaegar assumed his daughter would be another dragon head, Rhaenys, and maybe he thought, at that time anyway, he needed to have one more child to complete the set? *SPOILER FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE* (view spoiler)[I'm thinking that later on Rhaegar realized he needed to have children with Lyanna to complete the dragonheads, and instead of little Aegon, Jon is the prince that was promised. It would make more sense, since his mother was of the north and father from the south, his song is of ice and fire. The Undying identified Daenerys as obviously one of the three dragonhead, and I'm pretty sure Jon is the second, but I'm still unsure who would be the third. (hide spoiler)]

1. This is the chapter I remember most in A Clash of Kings and is the topic of a lot of debate. Daenerys visits the House of the Undying. It is ancient and grey and is considered a ruin. It is also situated away from the other buildings of Qarth.

2. I forgot about the inky blue leaf trees surrounding it, that’s how they make their drink called Shade of the Evening. Their bark is black, almost opposite of a weirwood.

3. Jhogo says this is an evil place and wants to get out of here. Even Drogon seems unhappy. Ser Jorah and Xaro also try to encourage her not to go in there but she is resolved. If they cannot dissuade her then they offer to go with her, but Pyat Pree says she needs to do this alone. He also says if she doesn’t do this now she’ll never get the chance again. Jorah tells her to remember Mirri Maz Duur but Dany says Mirri had knowledge and was only a maegi (warlocks don’t seem much better to me in this series). Pyat Pree seems pleased by this and says she’s as wise as a crone.

4. Pyat Pree guides her toward the building but walks away from the entrance, saying the front leads in but never out again. Odd. He says this building wasn’t made for mortals so he tells her to do exactly what he says. It’s actually pretty simple, always take the first door to your right and always climb up, not down. He says some doors will be open and try to entice her to go in. Some will show the past, others the future, and some that never were, but never enter any of these doors. She’ll eventually find an audience chamber to speak to the Undying. He tells her to be patient, they are immortal.

5. He tells her to drink the Shade of the Evening so it’ll help her to see these truths. I like that the taste gets better in her mouth, of delicious things (though Drogo’s seed was a bit jarring, lol). After she drinks it she enters the building. It gets pretty trippy in here.

6. Though Pyat Pree told her to go alone she does bring Drogon with her, which I’m surprised he let her. I guess the “pet” doesn’t count.

7. Dany tells herself not to look inside the open doors, not that he told her she couldn’t, but she doesn’t want to be tempted. She looks anyway and sees a lot of weird shit. Some of which will happen in later books! I wonder how much of it is symbolic, what’s real, and what will never happen. *SPOILER FOR A STORM OF SWORDS* (view spoiler)[Dany sees the red wedding! (hide spoiler)] The third door she sees her house in Braavos with the lemon tree and Ser Willem Darry. She wants badly to enter, missing it so much, but doesn’t. In another room she sees her brother Rhaegar with his wife and newborn son, Aegon. He tells a prophesy that the dragon has three heads and there still must be one more. Rhaegar says of his son he is the song of ice and fire, the title of the series, so this is significant. Rhaegar believes he is the prince that was promised. It’s creepy how he looks straight at Dany when he says this.

8. At the end of the hall are stairs going down and there were no doors to the right. It’s clever of Dany to keep following the wall and pick the last door on the left (which would be the first door on her right), especially when the darkness starts closing in on her!

9. After a while she finds Pyat Pree outside on the grass who tells her she must’ve made a wrong turn and he’ll show her the way to the Undying. He takes her further away from the door to the right saying that’s not the way, and the Undying won’t wait forever, but Dany reminds him what he told her earlier; they have all the time in the world. He calls her stubborn and lost. It is a trick! She goes through the right door and up a flight of stairs.

10. Interesting Dany prays to the Warrior for courage and the Dothraki god for strength. She didn’t seem very religious to me.

11. Now she sees inside a great hall with lots of wizards who warmly welcome her and call themselves the Undying. They beg her to enter and promise they will tell her everything she wants to know but Drogon chews at the wood of the door to the right and she enters through that door instead. It was another trick!

12. Inside this room is the real audience chamber, which is a lot creepier. A human heart is suspended in mid-air; it’s blue and corrupted and still beats. There are figures of blue shadows, hmm... She sits in an empty chair beside them. She waits for them to speak. They call her mother of dragons. In the dark she can see their figures better; they’re ancient and very blue and aren’t breathing or moving. They are dressed in Qartheen fashion, though the clothes are rotting off. She asks what she saw in that hallway. They say it’s the shape of shadows...morrows not yet made...very cryptic talk.

13. Now they call her child of three and she is confused. They say the dragon has three heads. They also tell her some prophesies I find highly intriguing:
“Three fires must you light... One for life and one for death and one to love. Three mounts must you ride... One to bed and one to dread and one to love. Three treasons will you know... Once for blood and once for gold and once for love.”
As she listens her own heart is slowing and it’s hard for her to speak.

14. When she asks for help they suddenly give her a fast-moving montage of visions; some of these things have already happened, like Viserys’s death. Other visions may have happened already or will happen later in the series, like that king with blue eyes but no shadow some say is Stannis. *SPOILER FOR A DANCE WITH DRAGONS* (view spoiler)[The cloth dragon everyone cheers for is “Aegon” in DwD, not a real dragon, some say. (hide spoiler)] A stone beast breathing shadow-fire comes out of a smoking ruin, may have something to do with greyscale, some say. A wall of ice and a blue flower growing out of it is the Wall and Lyanna’s favorite flower is a winter rose. For the R+L=J theory, some say this is more proof of that. At the Mother of Mountains in Vaes Dothrak she sees all the crones kneel before her. *SPECULATION ON WINDS OF WINTER* (view spoiler)[I’ll bet that’s what happens when the Dothraki take Dany to Vaes Dothrak! (hide spoiler)]

15. Suddenly Drogon wakes her from these visions and she sees the Undying Ones standing all around her, cold and dead and attacking her (reminds me of the Others). Dany is so weak she can’t fend them off. Omg, they’re trying to eat her! Then Drogon does something completely badass. He blows fire for the first time, burning up the Undying Ones! He tears at that blue heart in the middle of the room. You go, Drogon! His fire brings her strength back and she hurries out of there. She runs and finds a door and exits through it and is back outside again. Behind her the building is on fire, lol.

16. She sees Pyat Pree chanting some sort of magic. When he sees her he is pissed, tries to attack her with a knife, but Drogon saves her yet again, and her bloodriders capture him. Ser Jorah is there to comfort her. What a wild ride!

Your point 4, I wondered what put him in the dungeons?

1. Lol, Arya is such a bad influence on Hot Pie. She hates Ser Amory so she wants to spit on his favorite tarts. Hot Pie wants to do it too but is nervous, doesn’t want to get caught. So it’s nighttime and Arya’s here, talking with Hot Pie alone when she shouldn’t be.

2. I like that Syrio taught her darkness can be her friend when sneaking around in the dark. :) She learned to see in the dark, though it’s easier when the moon and stars are out.

3. Arya serves a man named Mebble now, but everyone calls him Pinkeye. Sounds like it’s easy to get passed him; he’s always drunk. She wants to escape Harrenhal but Hot Pie doesn’t. He’s got it made here. Compared to eating worms in the forest, this is a better deal. Hard to argue there.

4. Lol, Arya steals a tart anyway and runs up to see who’s entering through the portcullis, even though Hot Pie kept telling her no. :) The Mummers have returned with plunder. They managed to catch a black bear, too! Lol, that’s an odd sort of plunder. They also come with prisoners. One looks like a lord. His sigil is a silver fist, sounds like Glover. Many look wounded. She realizes these are mostly northerners and worries what that means for Robb. Yup, these are Lord Glover’s men, who’d been with Roose Bolton’s part of the North army. They tried to attack across the river but were repelled back, shattered vanguard. Ser Amory breaks their promise of honorable treatment when he tells Vargo Hoat to put them in the dungeons. What an ass.

5. Apparently Pinkeye makes a lot of threats to whip his servants but can never actually manage to hit them, lol, so this makes him not so bad as Weese. Regardless, she still doesn’t want him to see that she’s not where she’s supposed to be.

6. Creepy how Harrenhal sometimes makes no noise at all against the wind and other times it makes a lot of noise when there’s very little wind. It scares a lot of the servants but it doesn’t bother Arya.

7. Lorch had Arya and her group moved underneath the Kingspyre Tower to better serve him since there’s far fewer people in Harrenhal now and they don’t need to be so far away. It was a lot more organized when Tywin was here but now it’s easier to get away since no one seems to know where they’re supposed to be.

8. Arya watches Gendry work in the armory and seems to enjoy watching him. He really gets into his profession, with the hammer looking like an extension of his arm. :) He’s pretty strong, she observes. It’s almost like she has a crush on him or something, lol. I like that he calls her “girl.” :) Well he can’t call her Arya now, can he? Arya asks for Gendry’s help to free the prisoners. They’re her father’s men. There’s only one door to a very large cell under the Widow’s Tower; she thinks he can bash in the door with his brute strength. Of course he doesn’t want any part in this.

9. I see now why Ser Amory looked displeased with the prisoners: there’s as many prisoners here as there are Lorch’s men! It would be too easy for them to overtake the castle if they somehow got out.

10. Arya says if they escape they could go to Winterfell and be safe there but Gendry is sarcastic with her, making her angry, lol. He has a good point, though. What’s in Winterfell that’s so much better for him there than what he has here already? She says the queen will find him if he doesn’t escape. I like that she says he’s “somebody.” :) The poor boy says he’s just a ‘prentice smith. He refuses to believe he could be anybody important. LOL! “The next helm you make, put mule’s ears on it in place of bull’s horns!” She had to flee, or else she would have started hitting him.” I love that! Arya keeps blaming him for getting them caught at the village but you can tell she still cares a lot about him, if only so he can help her get home.

11. Arya thinks it’s dark magic Jaqen used to turn Weese’s loyal dog against him and has been avoiding him ever since. She realizes why Jaqen might have been in the dungeons with Rorge and Biter now. Lol, she ponders whether they even are men or demons Jaqen raised up from hell to accompany him. A part of Arya feels powerful by having the power to whisper a name and that person dies, but once she uses up that last name she’ll feel like a scared little mouse again, awe.

12. I like that Arya practices water dancing in the godswood when she finds time between her chores. She uses a broken, sharp-splintered wooden broomstick for a sword since Gendry refuses to make her one. She usually does her practicing at night. Suddenly she feels the need to pray in front of this angry looking heart tree. She begs the old gods for help in getting the prisoners out so they can kill Ser Amory and take her home. “Make me a water dancer and a wolf and not afraid again, ever.” Awe. :) But then she speaks out loud and tells the gods they should’ve saved her father; he prayed to them all the time, then boasts they can’t help her even if they wanted to, lol.

13. Suddenly Jaqen is behind her and says she shouldn’t mock the gods, startling her, lol. He wants a third and last name to be done with it. She wonders if the gods sent him to her now. He calls her by her real name and that scares her. He repeats he will only take three lives, not one more or less. She wants him to save the northmen like she saved him but he is firm, unyielding, though not unkind. Then she asks if he’ll kill anyone, even his own father if she asked and he nods. She makes him swear it so he swears by all the gods, even the fire one, and the old gods and new. I like how she says even if it’s the king...he swears, whether it takes a year or more for him to do it, he will do it. I thought it was clever of her to name him. He did not expect that! But he’s prepared to do it, because he swore, though he doesn’t want to die. He says she’ll lose her only friend but she says he’s not her friend. “A friend would help me. I’d never kill a friend.” I smiled when he asks if she’ll take back his name and give another if he does help and she agrees. She even refers to herself in the third person like he does, cute.

14. Jaqen takes her back to Harrenhal and calls her an evil child, lol. She thinks of herself as a direwolf, even a ghost of Harrenhal, but not evil. Jaqen says the gods will feast on a lot of blood tonight and asks again for her to change his name and not make him do this. To him this is upsetting the balance of life and death. Still she will not change her mind. He commands her to go to Hot Pie and tell him to make a huge pot of broth for the Bloody Mummers. The head cook seems to strongly dislike Vargo Hoat. She thinks to tell Hot Pie of her plan, then decides against it. “He’d only yield again.” Ha!

15. Arya seems upset Jaqen gets Rorge and Biter involved but goes along with it. They help her take the huge boiling pots to the prisoners. When questioned by the guards Jaqqen kindly says prisoners have to eat too. There are eight guards by the gate. I smiled when they call Rorge the ugliest looking wench they’ve ever seen. They are so excited about the soup they aren’t paying attention when Rorge dumps it in their faces, scalding them. Biter and Jaqen throw their pots of soup on the rest of them and the three start killing guards. I like how Jaqen wipes the blood on her shirt saying she should be bloody too since this is her work. :) They grab the keys and open the door to the cell. The first man to come out is Lord Robett Glover. He tells them well done and asks if this was Vargo Hoat’s idea but Rorge laughs hard in his face, lol wut. He says they’re part of the Brave Companions now, since it seems Ser Amory is not going to be living much longer after this. Jaqen introduces them but Arya calls herself Weasel, not trusting Rorge and Biter to know her true identity. Lord Glover seems wise not to question the type of help he gets and hurries to join the rest of his men to take over Harrenhal.

16. Jaqen explains the Bloody Mummers have no loyalty; they’re sellswords, after all. Soon the direwolf banner will be placed here, which sounds like great news for Arya. Jaqen asks her to unname him now and she does. Ha, she asks if she still gets a third death but Jaqen points at all the dead guards and calls her greedy. “The debt is paid.” Arya’s a little sad; she’s just a mouse again. Out of nowhere Jaqen says he must die now and runs his hand from his forehead to his chin and his face changes like magic. This new face has a scar on his right cheek where there wasn’t one before. His hair is black now. He is a totally different person.

17. Arya is shocked and asks who is he. He grins and she can see he has a gold tooth. She wants to learn how to do what he just did. He says if she comes with him he’ll show her how, but she can’t. She has to get back to Winterfell. He says he has other duties to attend to but gives her a coin and says if she ever wants to find him again all she has to do is present the coin to someone from Braavos and say, “valar morghulis,” a phrase we’ll hear a lot more of later on in the series. She begs him not to go but the man says Jaqen is as dead as Arry and he has promises to keep. He bows and takes his leave of her. That man is so badass!

18. Arya is alone again, surrounded by dead men, but she tells herself they deserved it because they killed Yoren and the others bound for the Watch. I’m really surprised Arya doesn’t try to find Lord Glover. Instead she goes back to her bed under the Kingspyre Tower, waiting for Pinkeye and the others to return after the fighting is over. Pinkeye tells Weasel a new lord is coming to take over Harrenhal, a hard one from the north.

19. Ugh, one of the mummers named Shagwell (what an awesome name, by the way) plays with two decapitated heads, joking about weasel soup. Now Arya has to clean up all the blood and considers adding Shagwell to her to-kill list if he doesn’t shut up about what she did, lol.

20. Later that day Roose Bolton arrives with his men to take up residence in Harrenhal. It seems Edmure Tully got his way! Shagwell shows Weasel to Lord Bolton and she is not happy being the center of attention. Luckily he doesn’t recognize her. Bolton’s eyes are described as the color of ice, interesting. He seems to like her and asks for her real name. She uses Nymeria but says her mom would call her Nan for short. :) Bolton says she’ll call him my lord and asks if she’s afraid of leeches, lol, wtf. She says they’re only leeches and again he likes her answer. He apparently thinks leeches are essential for good health. A medieval practice. He chooses her for his personal servant. I like how she accidentally calls him “your lord” before correcting herself. I wonder if Bolton thought that was amusing. He never seems to laugh.

21. Bolton has Vargo Hoat take down the Lannister and Lorch banners and puts up Bolton’s flayed man and Stark direwolf in their place. She serves Bolton and Hoat as they watch Ser Amory Lorch prance about naked until he’s kicked in the bear pit. Arya enjoys this. The bear reminds her of Yoren, and I assume he gets his vengeance on Lorch.

1. Bran is Summer again at night. Summer hears something metal on stone and tries to wake the sleepers with his howling. Interesting Summer vaguely remembers another brother, the quiet, white one with red eyes. I think it’s interesting because he doesn’t recall Grey Wind, Nymeria, or Lady’s shade here, just Ghost. I wouldn’t think he’d forget about the others, but only Ghost is mentioned. The black brother, Shaggydog, has eyes described as shadows and he doesn’t like the sounds either. They smell strangers and detect danger, death. They try to escape the godswood but the gate is chained and locked. A voice speaks to him in his head; I’m assuming it is Bran? It tells him to go toward a certain sentinal tree that slants toward the rooftops of the castle. It’s the same tree Bran used to climb to get on top of the buildings! He tries to climb it at a run but falls. It scares him so much Bran wakes from his dream.

2. Bran is alone in his room, afraid for Summer. He believes Jojen now; he is a warg. He hears the dogs barking and realizes the “sea” has come. He’s heard about Dagmer Cleftjaw attacking Torrhen’s Square and Ser Rodrik took all able-bodied fighting men with him to stop it, leaving Winterfell virtually undefended. Bran’s afraid Dagmer won and is coming for Winterfell now.

3. Bran calls for someone, anyone, but a man he doesn’t recognize crashes down his door and Theon enters the room. He says they’re not here to hurt him so Bran is relieved, but he’s surprised to see Theon. He thinks Theon should be with Robb in the riverlands but Theon says he’s here to take Winterfell as his own. He tells Bran to tell his people he yielded the castle to him. Bran says he will not but Theon tells him to think carefully on what he’ll say to his people and leaves so Bran can get ready.

4. Later Maester Luwin enters Bran’s room, bloodied, and explains they swam the moat, came over the walls all dripping wet, and killed Alebelly on the wall. Luwin says he had just enough time to send two ravens out for help but the ironborn shot down one raven. The second got away though, the one that was sent to White Harbor. I wonder where the first was going? To Riverrun? Poor Luwin blames himself for this; he never saw it coming. Bran thinks Jojen did but is kind not to rub it in the maester’s face. Luwin gets him dressed so he can speak to the rest of the castle. Luwin says there’s no shame in protecting his smallfolk by yielding.

5. Luwin picks up Rickon next, who demands for his mother and direwolf. Luwin comforts him as they head downstairs. They meet up with Jojen and Meera, also being corralled downstairs. Poor Jojen looks pitifully at Bran. Omg... Little Walder tells Bran that Robb has lost his kingdom and Bran’s a hostage now. Jojen points out they’re ALL hostages and Little Walder is a dick to him, calling him a frogeater. I hate that little asshole.

6. The traitor Theon has the balls to sit in the Stark chair and Rickon says this out loud. Bran has to shush him; he’s too young to realize they’re in a dangerous situation.

7. Theon doesn’t recognize the Reeds and Freys so Maester Luwin introduces them. Theon says they’re his wards now. When the last of the castle inhabitants come in Reek introduces himself, saying he used to serve Bolton’s bastard till he was killed for marrying Lady Hornwood. This amuses Theon because he thought she was ugly but Reek says he didn’t marry her for her teats, lol.

8. Mikken certainly has a lot to say to Theon, and nothing kind. He gets beaten so Bran tells him to be silent. Bran tells everyone he’s yielded Winterfell to Theon, Prince Theon actually. Mikken keeps speaking out against it. He gets beaten again. When he speaks out a third time an ironborn spears him in the neck and he drowns in his own blood. Bran understands Jojen’s dream better now.

9. Theon promises to be a good lord to them like Ned was, lol, sure, as long as they serve him like they did Ned. Interesting he says Robb may become King of the Trident but Theon rules the north now. I’m sure he’ll be real pleased with you.

10. Reek says if Theon frees him he’ll be his man. Theon lets him bend the knee and swear fealty. Bran realizes the green dream is coming true and can’t watch. Then Osha begs to swear fealty too and Bran is struck by her betrayal. Osha begs Theon to let her hold a spear again and one of the ironborn mocks her. I love how she kicks him in the groin, steals his spear, and points it at him while he’s splayed on the ground. The rest of the ironborn laugh, including Theon. He is amused and accepts her too.

11. Poor Hodor carries Bran back to his room after the meeting is over; he’d been beaten bloody too. :( Things aren’t looking so good in Winterfell!

Hello! This is the second book out of five so far of the A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. You will be missing out on quite a lot from the first book, but by all means you can start anywhere you feel comfortable!

1. Ser Edmure has gone off with his host to meet Tywin, leaving Riverrun virtually undefended.

2. Cat has always done her duty and feels that’s why she’s Hoster Tully’s favorite of all his children. I forgot Cat has two older brothers who died in infancy. She never saw Ned’s face until their wedding day, wow. This made me real sad: “I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty.” Sounds a bit resentful.

3. I like that Cat prays not only for her brother and son but for the souls of the slain and all those they left behind. She is a considerate woman. She misses old Septon Osmynd and sounds like she had a close relationship with him growing up. He’s dead now and she wishes she can talk to him about what she saw in Renly’s pavilion. I really like that she considers praying to Ned’s gods as well. :)

4. Brienne says you don’t feel so helpless when you fight, but all this sitting and waiting must be driving her crazy. Cat reminds her knights die in battle, but Brienne makes a very good point: “As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.” Brienne never knew her mother. Apparently her father had a different “lady” with him every year. Sounds like a pig to me.

5. They find out in a letter that Ser Cortnay Penrose is dead and they yielded Storm’s End up to Stannis with no lives lost, except for Ser Cortnay, of course. Cat wants Robb to know about this asap. There’s no word of Edric Storm, though. Brienne says the boy has black hair, blue eyes and some rumor him to be Renly’s own son. Renly looked like Robert. Cat figures out why Stannis wants the bastard: to prove Cersei’s children aren’t Robert’s, though she doubts how many people will believe. Most of her own children look more Tully than Stark, except Arya. “And Jon Snow, but he was never mine.” Interesting she even thinks of him. She wonders who Jon’s mother is. I like how she wonders if this woman prays for her son as Cat does her own. :) Some rumor his mother is Ashara Dayne of Starfall, but if that’s not her she has no idea who she is, and casts the thought away as futile thoughts anyway. Ned is gone now, and his secrets went with him. :(

6. Cat finds it strange how men behave with their bastards. Ned was always fiercely protective of Jon and Ser Cortnay protected Edric Storm with his life. Yet Roose Bolton didn’t give a shit about his bastard. He treated him like a dog. Roose Bolton himself says in a letter to Edmure that Ramsay deserved to die; he was cruel, treacherous, and it’s lucky for his trueborn sons that he’s dead. He said he was glad to be rid of him. Ouch!

7. Lord Brax, who is bannerman to Tywin, seems to lead fifty men too close to Riverrun. They tried to wade through the Red Fork but the man holding the banner fell in the water and the rest retreated. I think it was the caltrops they’d set in the water from earlier that made the horses scream. Cat says they’ll come again, though, and she was right. They try to ford the Red Fork again that night. Mallister bowmen shot down any who made it past the river. They retreated again. A small victory, but a victory no less, thinks Cat. Brienne says they are probing for weaknesses and if they can’t find one, they’ll make one.

8. The next day Cat hears Brax’s men tried to cross the river six miles away but still got shot at and scorpions pummeled them with their rocks. Seems Ser Edmure knows what he’s doing after all.

9. Cat goes to visit Ser Cleos Frey, whom she’d gotten well drunk. He promises he didn’t know anything about the escape. She asks to hear of Tyrion’s peace terms so Ser Cleos repeats them to her. She doesn’t like any of the terms except the part where they’ll hand over Arya and Sansa if they hand over Jaime. Ser Cleos says Tyrion swore he’d do this in front of a large audience, so there’s lots of witnesses. She wants to know if Ser Cleos saw her daughters and he drunkenly admits he only saw Sansa, not Arya. Cat worries for Arya, and is curious that the queen did not make any of these peace terms, only Tyrion. She believes Tyrion had no part in Ned’s murder, and remembers how Tyrion saved her on the road to the Vale. She wants to trust him. I want her to also! They are both good people.

10. Abruptly Cat decides Tyrion’s lying, once she sees her maimed fingers. She still believes Tyrion was responsible for Bran’s attempted assassination. She tells Ser Cleos the Lannisters are all liars and the dwarf is the worst of them. Oh Cat... :(

11. At dinner all the men are eating and dancing happily to the singer but Cat is still miserable. She is worried sick for her daughters. Brienne is a conundrum. She tells Cat of life at Tarth, how she memorized all the songs, but when Cat asks her to sing for her Brienne wants permission to go. Cat feels bad for Brienne.

12. Days later Tywin hits hard, just as Brienne predicted he would. However, the messenger is very happy. Lord Lefford, one of Tywin’s bannermen, drowned, among other victories. At Stone Mill Edmure and others attacked the Mountain, who’d lost a lot of men. Even the Mountain was injured as he retreated. Edmure promises in his letter they will not cross. Everyone in Riverrun is happy, especially the smallfolk, awe. “...Her brother had taken them in when most lords would have closed their gates.” Even though everyone is celebrating, Cat still feels miserable.

13. The messenger had said Tywin’s main host is marching southeast and Cat looks at an old map of the riverlands, wondering what’s going on. By now they should be at the headwaters of the Blackwater Rush; that leads towards King’s Landing. Even though they keep winning in the riverlands, Cat is even more afraid now and doesn’t understand why. They look to me like they are retreating, heading down south. Perhaps Tywin heard that Stannis won Storm’s End.

14. This entire chapter felt incredibly ominous! *SPOILER FOR A STORM OF SWORDS* (view spoiler)[The whole part earlier when Cat says she has always done her duty, I wonder if GRRM put that in there in order to shock us all the more when we later find out that Cat lets Jaime Lannister go. (hide spoiler)]

1. Tyrion is informed by Lancel that Cersei wants to send Tommen away to Rosby, a nearby town, in the guise as a son of a hedge knight, for his safety. Part of the reason is to keep him away from his uncle, lol. Tyrion is disturbed because Varys didn’t say anything to him at all about this. Lancel wants to take part in commanding the next battle. Perhaps that mob made him want to take action.

2. There’s your answer, Clara: Tyrion lights a candle to the Stranger for himself. It makes me feel good knowing someone still prays to the Stranger. Plus it says something about Tyrion to even be praying at all. He doesn’t seem the religious type. Maybe he’s getting desperate. I laughed when he tells the Warrior to watch over Jaime, “...you bloody bastard, he’s one of yours.”

3. Tyrion plots to have the gold cloaks escort Tommen to Rosby instead of Lord Gyles, deciding Cersei was wise in this, at least. In case Stannis wins King’s Landing and executes Joffrey, at least Tommen will be safe. Lol, Bronn offers to take Tommen himself but Tyrion needs him here, and he doesn’t trust him with Tommen anyway. Tyrion offers Ser Jacelyn Bywater a lordship for doing this, and if he has to kill anyone, don’t do it in front of Tommen; he’s tenderhearted. Lol, Bronn asks if he’s certain Tommen is a Lannister.

4. Tyrion goes to see Shae again, but this time he’s too impatient to go through Chataya’s first. Oops! At the manse a singer is there to entertain Shae. You can tell Tyrion is not pleased but pretends to be. The singer is named Symon Silver Tongue. Tyrion chastises him, saying he’s a fool to have called him the Hand. Now he knows Tyrion’s secret and he can’t have him blabbering. The singer promises he’ll tell no one. I almost expected Tyrion to have his guards kill the man, but of course he doesn’t. That would be too cruel of him. He just leaves the man alone and goes to do his thing with Shae. She says she has Symon around to cheer her on the nights Tyrion doesn’t come, hmm... Sounds like she’s cheating on him.

5. Afterward, Shae announces Varys is here to see him and both are surprised she could tell it’s him even through his begging brother’s get-up. Shae says whores are good at seeing the man underneath the clothing or else they end up dead. Interesting.

6. Varys looks in pain, like he has bad news. He tells Tyrion Ser Cortnay Penrose is dead and Stannis has Storm’s End now. This is awful news to Tyrion; he’d hoped Stannis would be at it with Storm’s End for a while. This is too soon.

7. Shae is either young, stupid, or knows something we don’t, but for some reason she is not afraid that Stannis is coming to take King’s Landing. Tyrion says she should be. Besides, Stannis hates whores. Shae is screwed if Stannis wins, but the girl just doesn’t seem to care. Tyrion calls Shae “the Hand’s lady” but she corrects him. Strange she says she would be his lady if he wants. She could even give him sons, interesting, vowing she’d never shame him. But the fact that he loves her already shames him. Awe. Shae tells him to kill Cersei if she scares him, wtf...lol, it’s not that easy. And besides, he knows what it means to be a kinslayer. That’s an unspeakable crime to gods and men. And his father and brother still love Cersei, anyway. She points out he’s not scared of Stannis or Robb. He says against them he has the power of House Lannister at his back, but not if he has to face House Lannister itself; then he’s screwed.

8. Tyrion doesn’t feel Shae is safe at the manse anymore but thinks he can sneak her into the castle as a kitchen servant. She’d be much safer there. But when Shae flirts with him, playing with him and saying he could fuck his kitchen wench he gets annoyed. This girl isn’t taking any of this seriously. He remembers she’s young. I think she doesn’t want to downgrade from her gems and silks to roughspun servant clothes. She likes living in the lap of luxury. Shae then explains her father made her scour pots and fucked her, so she ran away. I forgot that, unless it’s a lie. I wouldn’t be surprised with her.

9. When Shae makes fun of Tyrion, that Lord Tywin would spank him if he’s caught with her, Tyrion slaps her and yells at her not to mock him. Wow...she hit a nerve! Her voice drops as she apologizes and Tyrion feels bad for hitting her. He’s turning into Cersei. Now he apologizes and tells her about Tysha. I thought he told her this before. He promises after they finish off Stannis he’ll get her another manse and silk dresses and stuff. Interesting he can’t read her expression. She seems to make a big deal about her hands being chafed afterwards but Tyrion doesn’t care about that. Like really. The girl clearly doesn’t want to be a servant. Spoiled little brat. Perhaps she’s worried her chafed hands will bother future customers.

10. As he leaves the manse he asks himself why he told her about Tysha, awe. He also hates that he cannot read her expression. It disturbs me too. He wonders how she could ever love him after hearing his confession and catches himself. She’s a whore, of course she doesn’t love him; she only loves the gold and jewels. Exactly.

11. Varys tells Tyrion he’ll put Shae in the kitchens but warns there’s lots of spies in that part of the castle and they’ll want to know all about Shae’s past so she’ll have to lie a lotv and keep track of her story. Also, she’s so pretty she’s sure to get harassed. Tyrion says he’d rather her be fondled than stabbled, lol. I guess the time for jealousy is over now for Tyrion.

12. Varys gives a better idea for Tyrion: make Shae Lollys’s maidservant. The girl needs one since the last one was caught stealing from her. Also Cersei thinks Lady Tanda and Lollys are reproachful so she’s not likely to ever visit them. Lol, Varys informs Tyrion there is a hidden door to the Hand’s bedchambers, so he can slip Shae in whenever he wants. This annoys Tyrion more than it shocks him, lol.

13. According to Varys’s little birds, Penrose threw himself out of a tower. Pushed out, more likely. Tyrion refuses to believe it. Varys sounds like he doesn’t either. Tyrion asks what Varys really thinks happened and Varys says magic. Tyrion obviously doesn’t believe in that stuff, but Varys does without a doubt. Varys reveals how he was cut. He was a mummer boy and was bought by a sorcerer who needed his male parts to perform a spell. He didn’t even bother to dull Varys’s senses and I can’t imagine how horrible that would be. The flames turned blue and a voice spoke back in words Varys didn’t understand. The man threw Varys out soon after, no longer needing him. He became a master of whispers, but every night he remembers the voice in the flames over everything else that happened. Ever since that day Varys hates magic and all who practice it. If Stannis is practicing magic Varys wants him dead. After some silence Tyrion apologizes for what happened but Varys says Tyrion doesn’t believe him. I wonder if Tyrion really did. I believed him the first time I read it, but now I’m not so gullible. He could be telling the truth or he could be lying, but I don’t see the point of this lie. I think Tyrion doubts the magic part of the tale, but he does say he believes there once were dragons; he’s seen the skulls, after all. Varys says lets hope that’s the worst thing he ever sees. Interesting.

14. Doran Martell refuses to attack the Stormlands unless they attack him first so Tyrion won’t get any help from Dorne. Varys says the Oakheart and Rowan banners have been seen north of the Mander, but no word yet from Littlefinger. I wonder what they’re planning?

15. Suddenly Tyrion laughs and Varys asks why is he doing that. He answers because all these people living in King’s Landing have heroes that are either dead or gone from the city and the only person that stands between them and Stannis is him, the one they hate; the evil, twisted little monkey demon, lol. He probably hopes they’ll hear him, too.

Well we still have at least two more books left to read, but probably more, depending on how long it takes George Martin to finish his epic story. And a lot happens in each book, so a lot can happen between now and then. Maybe Daenerys can come to the rescue and impress the kingdom and become queen, but maybe not. It's taking a long ass time for her to get to Westeros, so I'm thinking more as you. At the very least, I believe she will help destroy the Others, but as far as where she will rule... I'm not very confident it is the Iron Throne. That would be too simple.

Your point 5, I didn't know that about losing your pinky finger!

Your point 14, I really want to know too! Clearly Qhorin thinks very highly of the Starks. I wonder if he knows something we don't.

1. “The horn that wakes the sleepers.” I wonder what that means, and why that belongs to the Night’s Watch creed. Part of what Jon found in his geo-cashe was a horn. I wonder what “sleepers” will wake, hopefully nothing bad. It’s sad everyone’s afraid of two blasts; that means wildling attack, but it’s only one; rangers returning. Qhorin Halfhand has finally arrived.

2. Lol, the poor raven is miserable.

3. The Brothers from the Shadow Tower are a few days late. It had some men worried. Weird that Thoren insisted on going into the mountains without them. Wow, he is arrogant. He calls themselves wolves and the wildlings sheep. I want this guy dead, lol. As it turns out, they were attacked along the way. That’s why they had a slow start.

4. We meet badass Qhorin Halfhand, a legend of the Watch. Sounds like everyone looks up to him. For some reason I thought it was funny that he’s the only man in the group that’s clean shaven. It makes me wonder if Jon has facial hair yet. Qhorin lost some of his fingers while catching a wildling’s axe as it flew at his face, keeping it from splitting his head in half. Even the wildlings fear him.

5. Qhorin knows Jon Snow from his looks, says he looks like his father. Jon asks if he knew him and Qhorin says he wasn’t a lordling but he did know him, and his father before him. I wonder what Ned’s father was like, if he was a good man like him. He died before Jon was born. According to Qhorin, Lord Rickard was also a friend to the Night’s Watch, that’s good. I like that Qhorin has heard about Ghost. :)

6. Qhorin tells Jon and Mormont they ran into Alfyn Crowkiller, a famed wildling sent out to scout along the Wall and they caught him from returning to Mance Rayder. He is dead now, but some of his men escaped, so Mance will know.

7. Last night Jon heard several men whispering that they want to go back to the Wall, including Chett, and it almost sounds like talk of mutiny. Jon knew he wasn’t meant to hear that. Jon decided not to inform Mormont, not having the heart to betray his brothers, hoping they were empty threats. Um, what was Jon thinking??? Most men here aren’t like him; they are not honorable and will ditch you in a flash to save their skins. Still, it’s nice of Jon to give them the benefit of the doubt.

8. So Jon kept one of the obsidian blades he found in that cashe for himself. Obsidian is sharper than steel, but more brittle. He made daggers out of them for his friends, including Mormont. He gave Sam the warhorn. The horn is chipped and Jon couldn’t get it to make any sound, though. He also gave his friends the spearheads and arrowheads, for luck. :)

9. Qhorin says Mance’s army has all the major wildling leaders with him. They also have wargs and mammoths with them, Mormont says all the kings of Westeros need to know about this, even if it’s false information. Oh man, they’re not going to believe them! Qhorin says Winterfell is more likely to help than the others will. He seems a huge Stark supporter.

10. I think there is a typo here; I’m pretty sure there are 19 castles along the Wall, not 17.

11. Qhorin says Mance means to break through the Wall. He’s also searching for something in the high cold places, something with power. He says Mormont needs to send scouts into the mountains and find out what that power is before he gets it. He convinces Mormont to allow it. There will be three groups of five. He, Thoren, and Jarman Buckwell will lead the parties.

12. Mormont’s raven keeps screaming, “Die.” Creepy.

13. Qhorin personally chooses Jon on his team. He wants him because he’s a Stark. Jon wants to go too, of course. He wouldn’t want to miss out on this adventure! I think Qhorin also wants Jon’s direwolf, but I’m not sure what he wants with Ghost, other than the fact that he has sharp teeth and claws. It’s clear Qhorin sees something in Jon, even if all it is is because he has Stark blood and the man seems to think highly of the Starks. But I’m wondering if he suspects Jon is also a warg, and he could use a warg on their team.

24. I really like that Mel asks if he’s a good man and Davos is honest with her. He is a man, good and bad. He tries his best to be a good husband and father and has never felt evil until tonight. Mel calls him a grey man. “What if I am? It seems to me that most men are grey.” She sees it differently, using the analogy that a half rotten onion as all rotten. You know, if half an onion is rotten in my kitchen, I simply cut off the bad part and use the good part in my cooking. I’ve never gotten sick. She is an all black or white person. Urgh... A religious zealot, wanting only the white. Mel has obviously never heard of the Yin-yang symbol, or of harmony and restoring balance. This is what I love about this series; it can be so philosophical!

25. When asked if she’s good or evil Mel says good, “...a champion of light and life.” That’s not arrogant at all... She points out that Maester Cressen poisoned himself trying to poison her; she did not kill him. Psh, but she knew he had poisoned the wine and let him drink anyway! To me, knowing but not saying anything IS guilty. The champion of light and life committed murder. I associate murder with darkness: death and shadows. True, without light there can be no shadow, but a shadow is still dark and cold.

26. Holy shit Davos asks if she killed Renly. She says no, and Davos is sure it’s her now. I like how he tells her the cold and darkness helps them now. “The god of darkness protects us now, my lady.” At that she says not to speak that one’s name; he protects no one. He is evil, the enemy of all that lives. She says the firelit torches protect them, not the darkness. I say it’s both that are helping, but that’s just me.

27. Now Mel admits Renly was unprotected when he asks how she got to him. Hmm... She says Storm’s End is an old place, though; it has spells woven into the stones. So I guess she can’t kill Penrose the same way she killed Renly, so she has something else up her sleeves, or...robes.

28. She says there are no shadows in the dark, but how in the world would she know that if she can’t see in the dark? Sort of like the refrigerator light theory; you assume the light turns off but you don’t know that for sure because you don’t see it. She says shadows are servants of fire. So shadows are okay with her, but not darkness. She does realize that nighttime is simply the shadow of the sun beating down on the planet from the other side, right?

29. Once inside, Mel takes off her robes and reveals she is heavily pregnant, shocking Davos, and me, the first time I read this. I remember I was like...WTF??? For Davos it’s, “Gods preserve us.” Poor guy. She laughs too, wtf... Mel is sweaty and glowing, her eyes like hot coals. Freaky. Black blood pours out of her as she gives birth to a literal shadow. It stands straight and is taller than Davos. It dashes away really fast, slipping past the closed iron portcullis. Davos recognizes the shadow, too, “As he knew the man who’d cast it.” The show will have us believe Stannis and Mel had been fucking. At first I thought that was ridiculous, but after rereading this scene I’m not quite sure if they’re wrong.

fin!

Your point 10, that's why Davos is one of my favorite characters in the series. I love that he is so loyal, honest even to his king, and humble. :)

Your point 11, I just realized, if Stannis believes Robert was a usurper, that would make him a usurpers heir. Doesn't that sound wrong?

Your point 18, I agree! Burning someone alive is not a nice thing to do. I have a hard time understanding how she can justify it as good. It reminds me exactly of the witch hunts in Europe.

Your point 19, you make a good point about the dark god and the Stranger. They do kind of sound the same.

1. The Penrose sigil is a crossed pair of quills, white on russet red. Ser Courtnay Penrose is going to treat with Stannis.

2. Davos doesn’t know why he’s even here, other than Stannis commanded it of him. He’s even wearing mail, lol, which makes him feel uncomfortable. I’m guessing he’s not a fighter.

3. This is the closest Davos has gotten to Stannis in eight days. Stannis always seems to be too busy for him whenever he tries to speak with him. That’s odd, since Davos is supposed to be his Hand. It’s that Melisandre’s fault. Very interesting that Devan says Stannis has been troubled by terrible nightmares and only Lady Mel can help him sleep, hmm. Davos wonders the same thing I’m thinking, lol.

4. Ser Cortnay calls Stannis lord and Lord Florent corrects him. The Florents are apparently very rich and rule at Brightwater Keep. He was the first bannerman of Renly’s to go over to Stannis. Makes sense. He also is the first to take up the Lord of Light as his god.

5. Stannis knew Ser Cortnay sent ravens for help. He knew no one would help him. He says he’ll pardon him as he’s pardoned the other lords behind him if he accepts him as his king and hands over Storm’s End, as it’s his by right. He also wants Edric Storm. At this Ser Cortnay refuses. I wonder why he’s so invested in protecting him? Lord Florent tells Penrose that Stannis means the boy no harm. Also, Edric is his grandson on his mother’s side. That doesn’t sway Penrose, though. Ser Cortnay calls them turncloaks. Lord Caron says they’re not turncloaks; they’ve always served Storm’s End and the Baratheon House. Interesting he calls Stannis Renly’s heir; I wonder what Stannis thinks of that! That’s just what they tell themselves so they can justify why they switched sides. Ser Cortnay asks if that’s true, then where is Loras Tyrell, Tarly, Rowan, and Oakheart? These men also willingly believe Brienne killed Renly and Stannis is innocent. Psh... That’s what they have to tell themselves. Ser Cortnay says he knew Brienne since she was a little girl. Lord Florent believes it was Catelyn, but most still think it’s Brienne.

6. Ser Cortnay has a good point there. If Caron was one of Renly’s Rainbow Guard, why is it Renly’s dead and he isn’t? He should’ve been there to protect him.

7. Stannis commands them to stop arguing. He says the Lord of Light willed Renly to die and it doesn’t matter who did it. Um, I think it does matter! Such blind allegiance to a god can be very detrimental. If your god tells you to kill someone you should probably ask yourself why.

8. Ser Cortnay proposes a single-combat to settle the matter but Stannis says no. He has 20,000 men to his cause now; he’ll besiege Storm’s End if Penrose refuses to give it up without a fight. Ser Cortnay is certain Stannis will never succeed because Storm’s End is so well fortified. Haughtily, he retreats back into his castle.

9. Lord Estermont tells Stannis if they try to storm these walls thousands will die. Apparently he is Stannis’s maternal grandfather. Many of his bannermen beg him to reconsider the trial by combat. That way only one life will be taken instead of thousands. Stannis tells them to be quiet and calls for Davos to ride with him. Finally! Davos almost looks apologetic as he rides past them. He knows they’re all proud men from rich old Houses and probably aren’t used to being yelled at from anyone.

10. Davos can see how haggard Stannis is getting. Stannis tells him Lord Alester suggests they seize Lord Penrose, Ser Cortnay’s father, and hang him for his son to see, but Davos says that would be ill-done. It would bring dishonor to them all. It’s interesting Stannis still calls Davos “Smuggler.” Stannis asks why Davos esteems Penrose more than the other men behind his back and Davos says it’s because Penrose keeps faith. The other men switch sides way too easily but Penrose serves a worthy cause. Davos always tells Stannis the truth and he appreciates him for that. He tells Davos he’s missed him. :) He admits it sickens him to pardon all these traitors, but he needs them, and it’s right of Davos to reproach him. Wow, that’s big. Davos doesn’t reproach him, though.

11. I like that Stannis asks why Davos keeps his finger bones in his pouch around his neck. Davos explains it reminds him of who he once was and of Stannis’s justice. I also like that Stannis says good deeds don’t cross out a wrong one. “You were a hero and a smuggler.” In psychological terms, I forgot the word to call this, but basically it states that two opposing statements can be used to describe the same thing. Example: The flower is poisonous and beautiful. *SPOILER FOR A STORM OF SWORDS* (view spoiler)[I believe Meera tells Bran the same thing about the North, how she loves its beauty and she hates it. He didn’t know both words could be used to describe the North at the same time. (hide spoiler)]

12. Stannis grieves Renly for the boy he was, not the man he became. That’s big of Stannis to admit he grieves at all. And he hates that people believe his daughter was fathered by Patchface, making him look like he was cuckolded. But Davos reminds him they cannot stop men from talking, which is true.

13. Stannis vows he will have justice for Robert’s killers, Ned Stark and Jon Arryn’s too. But when Davos asks what about Renly, Stannis doesn’t speak at first. He softly admits he dreamt of Renly’s death and describes the scene that actually happened in Catelyn’s chapter. I forgot about this completely. I wonder if the shadow was really being controlled by Stannis in his “dream”? He says Devan was trying to wake him out of his nightmare. It sounds like Stannis doesn’t know Renly died from a shadow. He says it was only a dream. Davos knows something about this is terribly wrong. Yeah, Melisandre! I thought Stannis was in cahoots with Mel, but here it sounds like Stannis didn’t know. This really makes me dislike Mel!

14. Lol, Stannis is over-analyzing the peach thing. He promises he will go to his grave thinking about that peach.

15. At council meeting, before the other lords enter, Stannis asks what Davos would have him do. Davos says forget Storm’s End and sail to King’s Landing at once. OMG! I just realized, if they had done as Davos suggests here, they would probably win! Because the chain would not have been finished yet, according to Tyrion. *SPOILER FOR UPCOMING CHAPTERS IN A CLASH OF KINGS* (view spoiler)[That means Stannis could have proven himself a capable leader without Melisandre’s help! (hide spoiler)] Oh wow, I just now realized this. Davos says the Lannisters are his bigger threat and Tywin is marching west, not south. If they hit now they have a good chance at succeeding the throne, and then Ser Cortnay must join him. So there is no need to attack Storm’s End. Lol, I like that Stannis tells Devan, “He makes me wish I had more smugglers in my service.”

16. Unfortunately, Stannis says Storm’s End must fall, because if it doesn’t he’ll look like he was defeated and he can’t have that. No one would fear him. Apparently Stannis had sent out envoys to get the other half of Renly’s army to go over to his side but so far they haven’t returned and Stannis thinks Ser Loras got to them first and killed them. That’s 60,000 men still at Bitterbridge. Davos says that’s all the more reason they should go to King’s Landing now, before they join the Lannisters.

17. I’m surprised how angry Stannis is with Salladhor Saan. All Saan cares about is gold and the only reason he wants to attack King’s Landing is to sack it. I think it’s ironic Stannis refuses to listen to a pirate’s council yet he’s listening to a smuggler’s!

18. Stannis says Storm’s End will pass on to Ser Cortnay’s lieutenant, Lord Meadows, should something happen to Penrose. He believes Lord Meadows will yield the castle to Stannis. This does not sound good! Davos says Ser Cortnay seems healthy to him, and Stannis says so was Renly before he died. “The night is dark and full of terrors, Davos.” Oh gods, here it sounds like Stannis knows exactly what’s about to go down. Davos doesn’t like the feel of this. Stannis says Mel told him she saw it in her flames that Ser Cortnay will die tomorrow. Mel advises him to conquer Storm’s End, where he will gain the better part of Renly’s power. Well if Melisandre says it, it must be true... Has no one considered the possibility that she could be wrong? Mel is stealing Stannis’s power by doing everything for him!

19. Davos has a point. Renly only went to Storm’s End because Stannis laid siege to it. He wasn’t going to attack them; he was going to attack King’s Landing. But Stannis will not hear of it. I think what Davos means here is that Stannis shaped Renly’s fate. I wonder what else Davos was going to say? “...he would have--”

20. I forgot Mel also said she saw in her flames Stannis taking King’s Landing only to be smashed by Renly from the south. So they stopped that from happening, then. Ha! Davos says, “If she saw two futures, well...both cannot be true.” Stannis says some lights cast more than one shadow; that’s true, too.

21. Stannis brings up the fact that Davos doesn’t love Mel and not many of his bannermen do either. But she still serves him, as he serves him, and Davos wonders how. Stannis dodges the question (sounds all the more guilty to me) and asks if he can smuggle a boat under Storm’s End for him like he did before. Davos is worried Stannis wants him to assassinate Penrose and is frightened of what Mel has done to his king.

22. Stannis says Mel told him he must have Edric Storm. She saw it in her flames. I find it highly interesting that Stannis looks troubled when Davos asks if it’s possible Ser Cortnay only wanted an honorable way to yield the castle up, even if it meant his life. I think Stannis hadn’t thought of that possibility, but he goes back to saying Mel’s flames never lie. :( He’s dead set on this plan, which sounds more like Mel’s instead of Stannis’s. I like that Davos thinks, “Yet they require me to make them true.”

23. In the end Stannis gets his way. Davos smuggles Mel under the castle. It feels just like when he smuggled the onions in for Stannis 16 years ago, but different. I love this: “The last time it was life I brought to Storm’s End, shaped to look like onions. This time it is death, in the shape of Melisandre of Asshai.” I love that Davos loves sleeping on board a ship and the wind in his rigging is more beautiful to him than any singer. But he is afraid now. Mel says she can smell the fear on him. Here she seems easy to talk to, laughing and asking if it’s her he fears, what “we” do. I wonder what she means by we? Davos corrects her, “What you do. I’ll have no part of it.” Problem is, he is helping her, and I think that’s what scares him. What she’ll do, because of him.

more..

Your point 6, I think so too. She has to live with Joffrey, so she knows he's a bad apple. I think as long as he doesn't try to kill anyone she turns a blind eye, lol.

Your point 14, that's true, Tyrion was the only one who asked if Sansa's okay. Wow, I missed that. No one else cared if she was hurt, only that she was alive.

Your point 19, yeah that's the way it tends to go; blame the one in charge. It only makes sense. Tyrion was sent to clean things up but the whole mess was already heading toward disaster anyway and there was only so much he could do to stop the train wreck from happening. It goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.

Your point 21, oh you have a good point there. I didn't think of Tyrion's reason to keep Joff alive because he's Jaime's son. I just assumed Tyrion never thought of that as an option because he's a good person and, officially, Joffrey IS the king. You're not supposed to kill your king. That's taboo, lol.
1. So Myrcella is getting ready to board the Seaswift to go down to Dorne and be Doran Martell’s ward until she and his son are old enough to marry. She never cried, but Tommen did, awe. King Robert’s great war galley will accompany her as escort, as well as three other ships; one’s called Lady Lyanna. Robert must have named her that. Tyrion didn’t want to part with so many ships but Cersei insisted, to protect her daughter. They’ll be sailing past Dragonstone, after all. She’ll stop in Braavos first, I forgot about that, to throw off Stannis’s ships. The Seaswift is the fastest ship they have. Ser Arys Oakheart is her sworn shield, so there goes the nicest Kingsguard from King’s Landing...

2. It’s said Braavos is the greatest and most powerful of the Free Cities. That’s significant since Braavos is also the only one among the nine that happily opposes slavery. I believe Pentos abolished slavery as well, but only because if they don’t Braavos will attack them.

3. They are getting ready to head back to the castle when Tyrion notices how angry the commonfolk look at him. They are starving while he gets to eat, he figures.

4. Lancel informed Tyrion that Cersei is really going to see a hedgeknight named Ser Osmund Kettleblack when she has everyone believing she’s going to the Great Sept to pray. Slut. Cersei is trying to use the Kettleblacks in order to buy her own force of sellswords. She doesn’t know Bronn is buying all the sellswords away from her. Tyrion knows the Kettleblacks are much better at deceit than killing.

5. Joffrey scolds Tommen for crying but Sansa stands up for him, saying the Dragonknight cried when his sister wed his brother, Aegon. I believe that was the Unworthy one who fathered a crap-ton of bastards. Joffrey threatens to have Ser Meryn beat her if she doesn’t shut up and Tyrion sees that Cersei isn’t paying any attention. He wonders if she can really be so blind to her son’s psychopathic ways.

6. Tyrion acknowledges he relies too heavily on Varys, who is of doubtful loyalty. He’d like to have his own informers but knows he wouldn’t be able to trust them either. “Trust would only get you killed.” On Littlefinger he wonders how the negotiations are going. I laughed at this: “If I were Mace Tyrell, I would sooner have Joffrey’s head on a pike than his cock in my daughter.”

7. Among the procession is Ser Horas Redwyne, so his brother, Ser Hobber, was the one that got to go home. I bet Ser Horas is pissed about this.

8. Tyrion doesn’t like how so many commonfolk are bitter and resentful looking and fears his sellswords and gold cloaks won’t be enough if a riot broke out. For every man who shouted for Joffrey a hundred keep silent. The mood is ominous.

9. Then a woman runs out in front of Joffrey and presents him with her dead baby, all blue and swollen. Sansa manages to convince him to give her a silver coin. The crowd fights over it while the woman doesn’t move. When Cersei tries to sound compassionate to her woes this causes the woman to turn on her and shriek a score of insults at her, including “Brotherfucker.” Someone throws a piece of shit at Joffrey’s head -- nice! This is the match that lights the dynamite.

10. Joffrey demands the head of the man who threw the dung, ignoring Sansa’s pleading to let it go. He commands the Hound to find him for him. Tyrion commands the Hound to stay. The crowd screams that Joff’s a bastard and other obscenities. They even insult Tyrion, lol. They fight to get through the guards and more things are thrown at the procession. I like how people are demanding for “King Bread!” This reminds me of The Hunger Games and the Latin term, “Panem et circensis (sp?),” “Bread and entertainment.” That’s what the people really want. If you give the people those two things they will love you for it.

11. One person grabs Joff’s leg but Ser Mandon chops off their hand and the crowd breaks through the line of gold cloaks. Tyrion screams to get back to the castle. Nobody needs him to tell them, they’re all riding hard for safety. The Hound goes missing among the crowd. Parts of the procession makes it safely back to the Red Keep but not everyone. Lollys, Lady Tanda’s daughter, was knocked off her horse and was left behind. The High Septon didn’t make it either. Sansa is missing too.

12. I just love how Tyrion gives Joffrey a good beating for screaming he’ll kill them all, and calls him a blind bloody fool. They attacked because he threatened to kill them. He calls him spoiled and witless. Nice! Ser Mandon has to pull Tyrion off Joffrey. Cersei commands the Kingsguard to find Sansa. If something happens to her Jaime is as good as dead. Ser Boros is afraid the crowd will be even more enraged if they see their white cloaks, rightly so. But Tyrion tells him to take his cloak off if he’s too afraid to wear it. Ser Boros nearly attacks Tyrion for calling him ugly, lol, but Bronn pushes Tyrion out of the way. Even Cersei yells at Boros to do as the Hand tells him or he’ll lose his job. He made an oath.

13. Sandor shows up with Sansa as they’re arguing. She’s injured and badly shaken. The Hound saved her. The Hound says he saw Ser Aron Santagar’s head get bashed in by the mob. Lol, Sandor cares more about his horse than Lollys.

14. Now Flea Bottom’s on fire. Tyrion’s afraid of flames getting to his wildfire. That would be devastating. He commands Sandor to put it out and sees fear in his eyes, awe. He forgot he’s frightened of it. The Hound says he’ll go, but only so he can get his horse back, lol.

15. Surprisingly, Cersei rounds on the rest of the Kingsguard for disobeying the King’s Hand. She tells them to do as her brother says, wow. She chastises them for how they behaved, even though they were only following Joff’s orders, which in of itself is pretty stupid.

16. Lol, Tyrion has to restrain himself from yelling at his mountain men for being difficult. He commands them to protect Shae.

17. Later that night the mob disperses and a “butcher’s bill” comes in with the names of all those who were found dead, including the High Septon. Ser Preston and Ser Aron are also dead, two of the Kingsguard. Miraculously, Lollys was found still alive, though she’d been raped by fifty different men and is delirious. Tyrion’s cousin, Tyrek, is still missing, including the Septon’s crystal crown. Tyrion doesn’t care about the crown, though. Like really.

18. Ser Jacelyn Bywater speaks to him frankly. They held the rioters off for now, but he can’t speak for tomorrow. Open threats of treason are heard on the streets now. He doesn’t trust half his gold cloaks, being Slynt’s men. “...It takes more than a gold cloak to make a watchman.” And the ones he says are good men are still only half-trained. He says if it comes to battle, the gold cloaks will not hold. So now it seems to me they really need Highgarden on their side! They produce most of the food, I believe. He says the smallfolk hate the Lannisters, and for good reason. Some still blame Tywin Lannister for sacking the city. So the smallfolk hate them for executing Ned Stark, that’s interesting to know. But they don’t hate Joffrey the most, surprisingly. They blame Tyrion for all this mess, lol, of course. They don’t know he’s trying to fix things and they think he started them. He’s responsible for Joffrey, who is “just a boy.” They think the fault lies with his Hand. As soon as he came to King’s Landing things took a turn for the worst. It’s almost as if Tywin knew this would happen.

19. Poor Tyrion doubts his own achievements. He calls in Varys and Bronn, his most trusted advisors, and realizes it doesn’t make him look good, having a master of whisperers and a sellsword for advisors. He snaps at Bronn for things he wouldn’t normally care about, like eating his dinner for him. Bronn casually suggests Tommen would make a better king than Joffrey, hinting they should kill Joff. Tyrion is outraged at the notion. He tells Bronn he could have his head for talking like that but Bronn only laughs. Wow... Bronn is ballsy. He knows Tyrion can’t have Bronn killed, he needs him. Varys calls them friends, tells them not to quarrel, and to take heart. Tyrion asks whose, as there’s several he can think of. I’m not sure what he means by that, though.

Your point 8, I wonder about that myself. I'm guessing Quaithe thinks Daenerys is very important, seeing as she hatched 3 dragons out of stone eggs which hasn't been done in hundreds of years. I kind of like Quaithe. I hope she is a good person, not another Mirri Maz Duur.

Your point 10, *SPOILER FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE* (view spoiler)[ Do you think maybe Varys knew the eggs, if in the hands of Daenerys, would hatch? Maybe he tricked Illyrio into gifting them to her for that reason. (hide spoiler)]

1. Daenerys and Xaro are riding in a palanquin through the city. She takes off a tight collar that Xaro swore would protect her from all poisons. I forgot who the Pureborn are. It’s said they’re notorious for offering poisoned wine to those they thought were dangerous but so far they haven’t even given her water. She figures they never saw her as a queen, just an amusing horse girl with a curious pet. They’re going back to his manse, I think.

2. She’d dressed herself as one of them, one breast bared, hoping to gain the Enthroned’s help. I’m thinking these are the leaders of Qarth. They would never take her seriously if she continued to dress like a Dothraki.

3. Okay, here it’s explained the Pureborn are descendants of ancient kings and queens of Qarth. They command the Civic Guard and fleet. She had to jump through several hoops in order to speak to them. They heard her pleas but they seemed bored with her. They only came to see the dragons. In the end they said no to her, though they were nice about it.

4. Xaro says she ought to have wept; in Qarth, crying is a very common expression and there’s no shame in it. People cry here all the time. It’s what the civilized do here. That’s a neat concept.

5. I forgot about the Sorrowful Men, a sacred guild of assassins so named because they always whisper, “I am so sorry,” right before they kill their victims. I wonder if they’re a rival of the Faceless Men?

6. There are three main factions among the merchant princes here: the Ancient Guild of Spicers, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, and the Thirteen -- Xaro belongs to the third one. The three often fight for dominance in Qarth, always contending with the Pureborn. Xaro has helped Dany with making a bit of coin by basically charging everyone who wants to meet the Mother of Dragons. All sorts of merchants gift her with their wares. She gave them all to the Pureborn as gifts, more like bribes, but it wasn’t enough. She kept the beautiful crown, though. She feels like a beggar, and can understand why Viserys became hateful.

7. I find this highly interesting to take note: a part of Dany wanted to give up and go back to Vaes Tolorro and make the dead city bloom, but she doesn’t because she sees that as defeat. Now a big part of me wonders if in the end she will settle there after all, and let someone else, cough cough, rule Westeros. A lot of fans seem to think Dany will never sit the Iron Throne. I kind of like that possibility.

8. Dany had left Ser Jorah behind wit the other dragons to keep them safe, despite his many protestations. Today she rides with Rhaegal, who seems quite fierce with his claws and teeth.

9. Apparently Lord Redwyne fought for her father against Robert’s rebellion, one of the few who remained true to the last.

10. Xaro says war is bad for trade. He’s a man of peace, not war. And war is what Daenerys Stormborn wants. She tells him he doesn’t need to fight, only lend her his ships. Ugh, he begs her to marry him and flatters her with sweet words. Does he not hear how fake he sounds? It’s funny that his “flowery protestations” amuse her. When she first wore her garb with a breast hanging out, Ser Jorah could scarcely look away, but Xaro never even noticed, yet his palace is full of pretty boys, lol. Xaro doesn’t want Dany to go to Westeros. Of course not, he wants her dragons.

11. Dany messes with him, saying if she won’t get any help from the Thirteen she’ll go to the Spicers or the Brotherhood instead. Xaro says the Spicers are liars and braggarts and the Brotherhood is a bunch of pirates. When she says she’ll go to Pyat Pree then, Xaro sits up abruptly and says the warlocks are bitter liars that eat dust and drink of shadows, interesting choice of words. Xaro offers his home and heart to her, among lots of other treasures, but she doesn’t want that. She wants ships and soldiers.

12. The palanquin stops suddenly. Dany gets out and sees a large crowd watching a firemage performing a stunt. Jhogo points out a cutpurse in the crowd. There’s actually a few of them, harvesting coin from the unknowing people. The firemage impresses Jhogo, and somehow Quaithe is there, in her mask. She says a year ago that firemage could barely perform the simplest of tricks, but now he can do that stunt because of Daenerys; with her around his power grows. Dany asks what she means. She evades the question but warns Dany that she must leave Qarth soon or she will never leave at all. Dany asks where should she go, then? This prophesy intrigues me a lot:

“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

I have no clue what all that means, lol. A part of me wonders if she wants to go to Westeros she should keep sailing east, all around the globe, until she hits the western side of Westeros. But why would she want to go north? I mean, that’d be awesome if she brought her dragons to the Wall...but I doubt she even knows anything about the Wall or the Others at this point.

13. Dany thinks Quaithe wants her to go to Asshai. She asks if the people in Asshai wil give her an army and a fleet, or gold at least? She asks what she’ll get in Asshai that she won’t find in Qarth. Quaithe says, “Truth,” then disappears into the crowd. I’ll bet Quaithe set that firemage and cutpurse stunt up just so she can speak to her! Rakharo and Aggo spurn Quaithe and say not to trust that sorcerer who won’t even show her face. They call her “spawn of shadows,” how interesting.

14. When Dany gets back in the palanquin Xaro says her savages are wiser than they know. Wth, man? What happened to flattery? He could’ve called them body guards or something, but savages? He says the truths she’ll find at Asshai won’t make her smile. Because smiling is more important than knowing the truth, I guess.

15. Back at the Manse she chops up food for her dragons and notices they’re getting bigger. Already she knows she must train them first before taking them to war, or they’ll destroy her kingdom.

16. Ser Jorah repeats that she won’t get any help in Qarth. I smiled when Dany makes fun of Xaro for saying he dreams of her day and night and Jorah tells her Xaro dreams of her dragons. Jorah explains that in a Qartheen wedding the bride and groom keep their possessions but at the wedding the bride asks for one thing from the groom and he must give it to her, and vice versa. Xaro would ask for a dragon, she would be required to give it to him, and suddenly he would be the ultimate ruler of Qarth. That’s not worth one ship. She tells him what Quaithe said to her but Jorah councils her to move east, not to Asshai. I think that’s southeast of there? Jorah says if they go west she risks her life. He adds Illyrio would sell her out for gold; he is not her friend. He already sold her once to Khal Drogo. Dany blushes but knows it’s true. Jorah bashes Illyrio so much here, lol. He is sure that if he knew the dragon eggs would hatch he’d have kept them for himself. Still, Dany is sure Illyrio is a friend. He would buy her a fleet and men if she asked. Ha! I love this: “Nothing knits a broken realm together so quick as an invading army on its soil.” When Dany says she’s their queen Jorah reminds her she’s a stranger who comes with an army of outlanders who can’t even speak the Common Tongue. Before she sails she must win over at least some of the lords to her cause. (Try the north!) He tells her the longer she stays in one place the more likely her enemies will find her. But who will send assassins after her now? Does anyone else care that she’s still alive and will they believe she hatched three dragons?

17. Dany calls her dragons, “My furious children.” She believes the comet led her to Qarth for a reason and she wants to speak to Pyat Pree tomorrow to hear what he has to say to her.

Yes it is! I'm so glad I have someone to talk to who has read the books and loves talking about it as much as I do. My husband and a good friend of mine have watched all the shows but they haven't read the books yet and don't want to. I find myself talking their ears off and though they say they're addicted it's obvious they aren't really and don't want to go into detail much. It is such a good series! I think the size of the books intimidates some people.

I liked Catelyn my first reading but not as much as I like her now. My only problem then was that she hated Jon, but I understood why, even the first time, that it was complicated, and I forgot Cat knew she shouldn't take it out on him at the start of my second reading. Knowing this helped me out greatly. It's really hard to fault her on her feelings. She wanted a faithful husband, and the inability to talk about it with him festered.

1. Catelyn finds out her uncle and Robb have gone west and left Martyn Rivers to command the outriders in place of the Blackfish. Martyn Rivers is one of Walder Frey’s bastards. Ser Edmure is still in command at Riverrun. Martyn tells Cat that Lord Tywin is marching west with all his power and is charged to keep her safe from Lannister scouts.

2. On their way to Riverrun Martyn tells them about Robb’s endeavors in detail, including how Grey Wind showed them a hidden path beyond the Golden Tooth, so that’s how the Lannisters never saw them coming. Martyn lowers his voice and says Robb supposedly fed Grey Wind Ser Stafford’s heart but I like that Catelyn says her son is no savage. I also like that Martyn says it’s rumored the old gods of the north sent the direwolves to her children. She recalls when they got them as pups, including Jon Snow’s albino.

3. Now that Catelyn is very near her home Brienne politely asks leave to go. Cat feels bad that this woman was among them but never one of them, preferring to keep to herself the whole trip. She also never cried. I like this a lot: “There are walls around this one higher than Winterfell’s.” Cat asks where will she go. To Storm’s End, of course, to kill Stannis. She swore on it, three times. Brienne regrets fleeing Renly’s pavilion, it seems cowardly to her. I like what Catelyn says to that: “You served him valiantly, but when you seek to follow him into the earth, you serve no one.” Brienne says Cat doesn’t understand how she’s feeling but Cat says just because she doesn’t know how to use a sword that doesn’t mean she’d still like to strangle Cersei Lannister’s neck, lol.

4. Apparently the only part of Brienne that’s pretty are her eyes.

5. Sounds like Cat struggles with identifying exactly who is the rightful king in King’s Landing. Brienne says Stannis isn’t, nor was Robert. Jaime Lannister murdered the rightful king and Robert murdered the lawful heir. That sounds like a Targaryen supporter, there. “Where were the gods then? The gods don’t care about men, no more than kings care about peasants.” Ouch! She hit it right on the head! Cat counters that by saying a good king does care. Brienne says Renly would have made a fine king, she stutters, and Cat gently reminds her he’s gone now. Brienne seems concerned Robb will take Stannis’s side and Cat admits she doesn’t know what Robb will do, but reminds her that Renly’s enemies are Robb’s enemies as well.

6. I really like that Brienne would like to serve Catelyn, despite not knowing Robb. When Cat asks why she says because she was kind and stood up for her in that pavilion when she didn’t have to. She also tells Cat she has a certain courage, a woman’s courage. But she does ask that when the time comes she must not hold her back from killing Stannis. Cat remembers the threat Stannis made on Robb and promises. I love how Brienne makes a formal vow to protect and council Catelyn, an oath of service. It reminds Cat of all the times men would do this for Ned.

7. As they reach Riverrun they see a great many smallfolk taking shelter inside the castle. She also sees many of her father’s bannermen are back, which can only mean they’re preparing for war. Edmure must expect Tywin to attack Riverrun. Ugh, Edmure has some dead Lannisters hanging from the battlements, a gory sight. Seems Edmure’s not above decorating his castle with a gruesome display. The men in her service call it a beautiful sight but Brienne and Catelyn are not smiling. Cat fears Jaime may be dead and hurries into the castle.

8. Edmure greets her warmly and informs her that Ser Cortnay Penrose from Storm’s End sent three ravens pleading for help to uplift Stannis’s siege on them. He fears for “the boy” but doesn’t know what boy he’s talking about. Brienne explains he means Edric Storm, Robbert’s bastard son. Stannis wants him so he can offer him up as “proof” that Cersei’s children aren’t Robert’s. Edmure says he didn’t respond back yet because he has no help to offer and Stannis is not their enemy besides.

9. Cat introduces Brienne to her brother and his council. They are all polite and Brienne is embarrassed, lol.

10. So the dead Lannisters are the red cloaks that came back with Ser Cleos Frey, I see. Catelyn is shocked that he would kill envoys, but Edmure says they posed as envoys but tried to steal Jaime from his cell. He describes four of them as the ones Bronn had picked out for Tyrion. And of course Cat blames Tyrion for this. She still holds a grudge against him. Lol, Edmure was out whoring around when it happened. His sister knows him well! He had just come back when Jaime almost escaped. They recaptured him but not before Jaime killed several of their men. Edmure didn’t hang all of the red cloaks, though. Just the ones that tried to free Jaime. Now Jaime is in the darkest cell of the dungeons, chained and bolted to the wall. As a precaution, he put Ser Cleos in Jaime’s old tower cell, even though the man swears he didn’t know about this.

11. Edmure seems like a compassionate man for letting so many of his people take shelter here, even though he’s expecting to be besieged and there’s too many mouthes to feed. His kindness blinds his better judgment, sometimes.

12. Their father’s steward, Utherydes Wayn, just now tells Cat that Robb instructed her to go to the Twins to pick out a suitable bride for him as soon as she gets back from the south. But Cat has no intention of leaving her dying father. She knows Robb just wants her to be somewhere safe, but it’s getting annoying.

13. She reminds Edmure the last time he tried to offer battle to a Lannister he’d lost. If they were to close their gates and not harass Tywin’s army, they may ride on by them unscathed. Tywin cares more about protecting his homeland than attacking Riverrun. It just seems as if Edmure is terrible at battle strategy. He is proud and likes to think he’s smart, but Catelyn counters everything he says. She didn’t know Roose Bolton had married one of Walder Frey’s daughters while she was away, or that Ser Stevron died at Oxcross. Edmure wants Bolton to attack Harrenhal while Tywin’s away so he can’t retreat if he loses at Riverrun. Cat sometimes wishes Robb had left the Blackfish in Riverrun, awe. Brynden Tully has won countless battles whereas Edmure fought only one battle and lost miserably. Edmure seems so sure his plan will work. Cat doubts it but stops arguing and hopes he will prove her wrong.

14. Cat visits her father, nothing’s changed, still sick and dying. Poor old man, he’s confused Catelyn with Lysa, and he’s forgotten the time. He keeps begging her to forgive him. The maester softly tells Cat he doesn’t have long before he’ll die so he’s going to send a raven out to the Blackfish and Lysa so they can say their goodbyes to him. Cat is sure Lysa won’t come, not even to see her father for the last time, that bitch.

15. Cat wonders who her father meant by “wretched stripling.” I’m pretty sure he means Petyr Baelish, but Cat doesn’t know her sister had a thing for him. She figures it must be some singer; Lysa was always fond of singers, lol. But Cat tries not to blame Lysa, because Jon Arryn apparently was 20 years older than their father, wow! I keep thinking Hoster Tully is ancient, but I suppose he’d be approximately in his 60‘s. That would make Jon Arryn somewhere in his 80‘s. However noble the man was, that’s way too old. I wouldn’t want to sleep with him either.

16. The next day they show her Ned Stark’s bones that Ser Cleos had brought back from King’s Landing. Cat is overwhelmed, doesn’t think this is her Ned. He was always so strong and full of life. She misses his flesh that would hold her every night. This is so intense. She remembers they fed his eyes to crows when they chopped off his head. Utherydes says they still have Ice at King’s Landing but at least Tyrion returned Ned’s bones as a show of respect. Tyrion, not Cersei. I wonder what Cat means by this: “One day I will thank them all.” Cat turns to the Silent Sisters and orders them to return her husband’s bones to Winterfell on the morrow so he can be buried with the rest of the Starks that came before. She tells Hal Mollen to go with them since he is captain of the guard for Winterfell and it is his place.

17. Now she tells them all to leave her for the night; she wants to spend it with her husband. The Silent Sisters do not speak to the living, but some say they can talk to the dead. Cat envies them for that. Awe! *SPOILER FOR A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE* (view spoiler)[Do we ever find out what happened to Ned’s bones? Because by the end of DwD they still haven’t made it back to Winterfell. I wonder what the hold up is. (hide spoiler)]

Oh I see what you mean, that's true. Meera would be overprotective of her little brother. It reminded me of the story of the man in the flood who would keep waving rescuers away, telling them it's okay, God will save him. After so many times of waving people away he drowns and in Heaven he asks why God didn't save him and God said he tried several times but he waved them all away, lol. Jojen is that man, his dreams that tell him he's not going to die today are God, and Meera is the rescuer. Only Meera screams at him all bossy-like to get up that tree this instant, ha! I just had to laugh at that scene.

That is true, I don't know how many people in Westeros even know about her, let alone wonder if she's still alive or not. And I see what you mean now. Daenerys needs to work at gaining leadership experience before she can win anybody to her cause, and not simply rely on her dragons to impress people. Aegon the Conqueror could do both things well.

That's true, I'm not sure if it says anywhere in the book that Renly can fight. I think in the show it said he'd never been tested before.

Don't feel bad, I didn't notice about the shadows my first reading. I only noticed it the second time, probably because I knew what was coming.

1. Lord Tywin has decided to march at last. Arya is certain they’re going to attack Robb, since Robb keeps conquering all their castles in the Westerlands. She thinks Tywin’s going to make him answer for this.

2. It’s a fortunate thing Weese doesn’t think she can read, so he never seals his messages he has her delivering. Arya always reads them but unfortunately none of them are useful.

3. Look up wayn: How George R.R. Martin likes to spell wain which is a farm wagon or cart.

4. Weese doesn’t sound totally bad here. He promises to reward her with half a capon at dinner for giving him a stolen horn cup from a knight that owed a gambling debt to Weese when the knight tried to attack her for relaying the message, demanding coin. He’d even called her smart.

5. Amidst all the bustle and commotion Arya hadn’t been able to find Jaqen to give him another name and is afraid they’ll all be gone by the time she finds him. Luckily she finds out Ser Amory and his men are staying at Harrenhal to guard the castle while Tywin Lannister is away, which means Jaqen H’ghar will be staying as well. Unfortunately, the Bloody Mummers are also staying, to do the foraging in place of the Mountain. Interesting that Amory Lorch and Vargo Hoat hate each other. The Mountain will be leading the van in Tywin’s army, so that means Dunsen, Polliver, and Raff are going too (no doubt taking Needle and Gendry’s helm with them).

6. The armory in Harrenhal sounds huge! But that’s not surprising; everything about Harrenhal is huge. Arya is sent to deliver a message to a blacksmith and spies Gendry first. He pulls her aside and tells her Hot Pie told him yesterday that he heard her scream Winterfell back at the holdfast with Yoren and he covered for her, saying she only said Go to hell! That was sweet of him to lie for her. Arya doesn’t need Hot Pie telling everyone what she said. It would draw a lot of suspicion on her.

7. As she carries the sword back to Weese she enjoys having steel in her hands again. It makes her feel stronger. She may not be a water dancer yet but she knows she’s not a mouse either; “A mouse couldn’t use a sword but I can.” I like how she ponders fooling the stableboys into giving her a horse for this Ser Lyonel and simply ride out of Harrenhal with a free sword and horse, lol. And if anyone stopped her she’d say she was only delivering these things to Ser Lyonel who is stationed somewhere outside in the campground. Problem is she doesn’t know what Ser Lyonel looks like, and Weese would be pissed when he’d find out. Weese threatened to have her feet cut off if she ever tried to run. This is what keeps her from trying to escape.

8. Arya hears rumors about Robb, that the Starks aren’t natural, more wolf than man. I like how Arya agrees, and for a moment she starts to feel like a wolf too! Then out of nowhere Weese shows up in front of her and hits her across the face for being too slow. Now she feels like a little girl again, all Stark pride left her. He yells at her to run on another errand, his promise earlier all forgotten, of course.

9. On her way to the brewery she runs into Rorge and three others. Rorge is crass as ever, calls her Yoren’s cunt which would explain why he was taking her to the Wall. How rude. He bullies her, saying she’s not so brave now that he’s not in chains anymore, and makes a step toward her. She reminds him she saved him but he gets even worse, extreme pedophile talk. When she says she was sent to find Jaqen H’ghar Rorge suddenly looks alarmed, very interesting. He gives her directions and continues about his business.

10. Arya finds Jaqen taking a hot bath, how awkward. She gives him the name Weese and leaves to go to the brewery.

11. For dinner Weese feeds a woman who sleeps in his bed a part of the capon that was promised to her. When he sees her looking at him he hits her, gods... I’m glad he’s going to get it... It’s ironic that she’s sewing as she repeats her to-kill list in heated anger when in the beginning of the series we learn she hates to sew.

12. The next morning is when Tywin rides out with his host, but Weese promises it won’t get any easier for them while he’s away. As she watches them depart it suddenly dawns on her that she made a terrible mistake. Weese and Chiswyck don’t matter. It’s people like Lord Tywin and the Mountain who are the real threat, and now they’re out of her reach. She hurries to locate Jaqen before he can kill Weese to tell him Tywin Lannister’s name instead but it’s too late; Weese is found sprawled on the ground with his throat cut. His dog licks at his blood and rips at his face, gross. Someone kills the damned dog. People blame his death on the dog, and others blame ghosts, but Arya notices Jaqen leaning out of a window of the Wailing Tower. He looks at her and curiously puts two fingers against his cheek in some kind of gesture, possibly meaning that’s two deaths. Now she only has one life left, so she has to make it count!

Your point 13, yeah I agree, I thought it was pretty clever of Theon. I don't know if every ASOIAF fan thought it was clever, but I did. *SPOILER FOR UPCOMING CHAPTERS IN A CLASH OF KINGS* (view spoiler)[But I think Theon's plan to capture Winterfell would have gone much more successful if all he meant to do was sack it and run off, not stay. Theon doesn't want to be a reaver, he wants to rule a castle and impress his father, I think. Because he stayed at Winterfell that was his downfall, or his turning point, depending how you see it. (hide spoiler)]

1. So it seems Theon and his crew have captured Benfred Tallhart. He spits on Theon and says Robb will tear him to pieces with his wolf. His uncle, the priest, tells Theon to kill him. Aeron says when he spits on him he spits on all of them, even on their drowned god, so he must kill him. Theon knows his men fear their priest so he should not disobey him in front of them, even though Theon has the command. Theon tells one of his men to kill Tallhart but Damphair says Theon should do it himself and make him an offering to the drowned god, aka: drown Benfred. Theon refuses, unable to stomach it, and commands his uncle to do it instead. That does not please Damphair at all, but he obeys his nephew.

2. Awe, Theon remembers spending a fortnight with Benfred Tallhart just three years ago. He had teased him about being fat and muscled.

3. Theon watches his men who are looting from the pile of corpses. Part of Theon wants to find the two men he’d killed and loot from them but the other part thinks of Ned Stark and how he would disapprove. He is angry with himself for letting a dead man make him feel guilty. Awe. :)

4. Omg, Theon takes his bow and arrows and shoots at one of his men. He meant to knock the cup of ale out of his hand, but the guy moved and he shot him in the belly instead. The others gape at Theon, lol. He tells them not to get drunk or squabble over their plunder. He knows some of his men don’t take him seriously so he hopes that will teach them he means business.

5. Theon notices a rabbitskin is tied below the Tallhart banner and wonders why. He doesn’t know about the Wild Hares! Theon walks around the piles of dead bodies and wonders why he doesn’t feel quite so grand as he did at the Whispering Woods. It was so easy, killing the Wild Hares. They didn’t even send any scouts out ahead.

6. The overall plan was for Theon to lure the northmen to the Stony Shore while Asha took Deepwood Motte and Victarion took Moat Cailin. By then the north would be fucked. Asha and Victarion will gain all the glory while no one will remember Theon’s tiny part he played, awe.

7. Theon had Dagmar Cleftjaw stay and guard the ships while the rest finished the battle on the shore, afraid his men would call it Dagmer’s victory if he came along, not his. I’m assuming Dagmer is a well respected warrior. He sounds absolutely hideous, which adds to his fearsome quality. An axe to the face nearly killed him when he was a child but somehow he didn’t die, and when he smiles it’s scary. This man smiles more often than Lords Balon and Eddard combined and Dagmer sounds like he was more of a father to Theon in his younger years than his own father was. Though Dagmer’s not his uncle, Theon calls him that.

8. Theon chats with Dagmer on his ship called the Foamdrinker. Theon was hoping to steal more horses than what they got so far but Dagmer doesn’t see why they need horses. Theon tells him his plan. I like that Dagmer tells Theon he’s taking his father’s orders too unfairly; Lord Balon lost two of his sons and lost his youngest to the wolves. His daughter was his only solace for the past ten years and she didn’t disappoint. I think it’s funny Dagmer says he knows Theon isn’t craven. Theon hits home when he asks how can he prove he’s his father’s heir if all he’s doing is harrying the Stony Shore. He knows Dagmer doesn’t like this tedious reaving any more than he does and uses that knowledge to his advantage.

9. Theon plans to have Dagmer take the majority of their men and march on Torrhen’s Square, building catapults and siege engines as they camp in front of the castle, but Dagmer says that’s not the Old Way. Theon says he doesn’t mean for them to actually besiege them. Let the ravens fly; the castellan of Winterfell, Ser Rodrik, will answer their call, leaving Winterfell utterly undefended. I’m surprised Dagmer still doesn’t understand. For being Balon Greyjoy’s best man, he doesn’t seem entirely quick in the head. Theon doesn’t mean to take over Torrhen’s Square; he means to take over Winterfell. I figured that out even from my first reading. That certainly sounds ambitious! Dick move!