I begin my third review of the third season of the Sky Atlantic series Game of Thrones based on the whole of volume one of Storm of Swords, Steel and Snow and part of Volume 2 of Storm of Swords Blood and Gold which are in turn volumes three and four of George R R Martin’s great epic series of books under the banner of Fire and Ice. Having read the two volumes in full I can only in part remember what is the books and not in the TV production so am covering all that I can remember and have time to check.
I begin with King Stannis Baratheon, known as The King in the Narrow Sea and the brother of murdered King Robert Baratheon and who in turn was responsible for the death of another brother who has also claimed the Throne of the Seven Kingdoms because of the accurate intelligence that the young King Joffrey Baratheon was in fact the child of an incestuous relationship between his mother and her twin brother Jamie Lannister. Joffrey apart from being a ruthless, vicious, obnoxious, spoilt boy without any redeeming features had therefore no legitimate claim to the throne over Stannis or his brother and technically nor had my favoured character Daenerys Targaryen apart from being the last legitimate offspring of the former King who was killed by Jamie, hence his nick name as the Kingslayer because he was such an odious man prone to indiscriminate killings.
Knowing that a battle for control was ensuing the Lannisters made every effort to ensure that the known illegitimate children of King Robert were also murdered, only in part because of their potential as magisterial claimants and more so because any study of the appearance of these children would confirm that the two sons and daughter of Queen Cersie, nee Lannister were indeed the offspring of someone other than Robert.
My reason from coming to Stannis after Daenerys and Jon Snow is because of the involvement of magic and the dark arts which surround all three, although in the case of Jon Snow he just encountered the horrors of the Others, the White Walkers and their creation the Wights, the risen dead or undead. It is also fair to say that Daenerys was a comparatively innocent young woman when she survived the funeral pyre built for husband after his death nor was she to know that the fire would hatch the three Dragon eggs given to her as a wedding present and that as they grew and commenced to do dragon things she would be hailed as the Mother of dragon as well as Mother of slaves and other people she liberated from three cities.
King Stannis, former Lord of Dragonstone is perhaps the more culpable of the three having been taken up by Lady Melisandra of Asshal called the Red Woman priestess of R’hllor, the Lord of Light and the God of Flame and Shadow.
The Lady Melisandra, described as a great beauty is a fanatical fundamentalist for her God and self confident in her ability to interpret his will and signs and portents of what is his bidding. She has made what I believe is the mistake of believing that King Stannis is the chosen one although the discerning reader will assume that if anyone is the chosen one, it is Daenerys Targaryen and indeed it is noteworthy that the increase in her magic powers coincided with the birth of the three Dragons.
Melisandra was able to convince Stannis that her should take her Counsel after the woman did not die after one fo his trusted people failed to poison her and she was also able to persuade the King‘s wife ad other members of the Household have all switched from the current religion to hers.
She has then eliminated the rival of Stannis, his younger brother who had created a great army to support his cause. She does this by giving birth to a Shadow killer which had murdered Renly while his female bodyguard the Lady Brienne and Lady Catelyn Stark were present. When forces loyal to Renly defend his Castle Storm End Melisandra she releases another Shadow the kill the leader. However the King is persuaded not to include her when his trusted aide Davos Seaworth known as the Onion Knight sails off to try and capture Kings Landing, the City HQ of King Joffrey, by sea. She argues that the fleet would not have been defeated if she had been allowed to be involved in the battle.
Davos is an illiterate smuggler and pirate with seven sons most of whom sail with him in the Kings Fleet. He has a onion of the sails of his ship hence his nick name after he had run onions and other food stuffs to Stannis during Robert’s rebellion until the forces of Eddard Stark had broken the blockade. Davos was knighted and given lands, choosing Seaworth as the name of his new home He supports the claim of Stannis but does not like or trust the Melisandra and refuses to change from the religion of the Seven Kingdoms. He is sent on missions and is part of the siege of Storm End and is used by Stannis to smuggle Melisandra into the Castle so she can perform the killing of the brother to the horror of Davos.
He counsels against Melisandra coming on the sea assault on Kings landing via Blackwater Bay and four of his son participate on different ships and die. He counsels the Fleet Commander against his tactics in entering the Bay when they discover the opposing Fleet is not there with the consequence they are ingenuously trapped by Tyrion Lannister and then destroyed with the use of wildfire, the liquid which seeps into everything including steel and the burns long and hard. Davos is shipwrecked on an island not more than a large rock which gets almost covered with the tide.
He is fortunately rescued and blaming Melisandra for the disaster plots to kill her although in fairness she could have intervened if allowed to participate. Because she can foresee she prevents his plan and he is arrested and placed in a dungeon. He survives and his rewarded by being made the Kings Hand, he begins to learn to read along with the children of the King.
He also opposes Melisandra when she wants to make sacrifice by burning alive an illegitimate son of King Robert. Davos is again condemned when it is discovered that he has arranged for the boy Edric Storm to escape. I had assumed that the boy had escaped from Kings Landing with Ayra Stark but had then been traded by Melisandra after he had opted to stay working as a blacksmith during what seems to be years that he Ayra and others attempt to reach her relatives in the North. I must re read and sort out later when I talk of young Ayra Stark as one source says that Edric was sent to Stannis for protection as soon as the purge of the illegitimate children of King Robert Baratheon had commenced.
Fortunately Davos has learned to read and understands the communication sent by Raven from Castle Black about the emergence of The Others, so threatened with imprisonment and execution he says he will be needed and in this respect Melisandra agrees. When a raven brings the request for forces to help against the attack from the Wildlings as reported in the writing about Jon Snow, the arrival of the force leads to the defeat of the Wildlings and to saving Jon Snow who in turn is elected the new Commander of the Commander of the Watch.
So the story is told via Davos and King Stannis appears to be man led by his wife and the Priestess with only Davos who can be trusted to look after his interests. Stannis is a man full of resentment because although he supported his brother King Robert and commanded his fleet it was Lord Stark of Winterfell who was rewarded and eventually called to become the Kings Hand after the murder of Stark‘s brother in law who had been investigating legitimacy of the children, as hand Stannis seeking evidence. He becomes depressed and withdrawn following the defeat of the fleet but is encouraged by his wife and Melisandra and continues with the dream of replacing Joffrey as the King and his rescue of the Nights Watch is part of the plan to unite the North against the South.
In part two of this writing I turn my attention to the wife and legitimate children of Lord Stark with Robb officially a sixteen year old made King of the North by his kindred Lords of North to signal their independence of the South. The story is not for the feint hearted,
When Robb was growing up he was close to his father’s ward Theon Greyjoy and a good rivalries relationship with Jon Snow as he had with his younger brothers and sisters, His Direwolf is called Grey Wind
With the imprisonment of his father Robb raised an army and marched south to free him and his sisters but with the execution of his father he became King as well as leading the army of the north, or at least those Lords who had allegiance to his father. In order to meet the two forces of the Lannister’s King Robb sends half his force under Roose Bolton and accompanied by his mother with the rest he negotiates a quick passage through the lands of and an important crossing of Lord Walder Frey another of those with the proclivity to take adolescents as wives and to beget many sons and daughters. The price of passage in this instance is that Robb will marry one the daughters after the war is won.
The purpose of his move is to stop the siege of Riverrun, a three sided castle of he family of Tully, the parental home of the widow of Lord Stark, Catelyn where her father and widowed sister in law live. He is successful defeating the forces led by Jamie Lannister who is captured. Jamie is later removed by Catelyn as the prisoner of Lady Brienne to be returned to Kings landing in exchange for the freedom of her two daughters. This action angers her son and other Lords fighting with him. His defeat his matched by the victory of his brother Tyrion over Roose Bolton who retreats to the fortress of Harrenhal, an extraordinary castle with rooms suitable for giants and with extra thick walls, the kitchens the size of Winterfell’s Great Hall and stabling for a thousand horses. It has five tall towers and two well guarded gates.
In order to consolidates his position Robb sends Catelyn to see Stannis and the Renly to gain their support. She witnesses the supernatural murder of Renly arranged by the Red priestess for Stannis brother, and when she leaves she takes Lady Brienne, Renly’s Guard at the time of his death with her as her protector, and then later users her to take Jamie in exchange for her daughters.
Robb also sends Theon Greyjoy on a mission which also fails but worse still the young man is in effect turned by his father and in an effort impress him take a small force and captures Winterfell and has also murdered the Stark brothers, Bran and Rickon, or so it is believed by everyone at the time.
Robb meets up with Jeyne Westerling as she tends the wounded no matter who and what they are and they fall in love and marry thus breaking his commitment to Lord Frey with the consequence that Frey’s men return to their homeland in anger at what is regarded as an insult. Catelyn is also horrified by the marriage and foresees the implications for their relationship with Lord Frey.
Worse is to come with Catelyn’s action to try and use Jamie Lannister in a swap for daughters with their release a priority following the news that the family home has been over run and laid to ruin with his youngest sons murdered. Her action angers one of the Lords who then murders two young hostage prisoners. In part to re-exert his authority Robb sentences the perpetrator to death and personally executes resulting in that all the man’s followers also return to their homes leaving Robb bereft of forces.
His next plan is to try and regain the family home and with his younger brothers murdered and without news of sister Ayra feared lost, his fears that should he die the family lands would go to his sister Sansa who has been forced to marry Tyrion Lannister. After Joffrey ordered the execution of Lord Eddard declared a traitor marriage to his daughter Sansa was out pf the question and a new marriage is arranged. Sansa agrees to marry a brother of the new Queen to be but this plan is scuppered and she is forced to marry Tyrion. In this situation the lands of Winterfell would go to Tyrion if Robb dies so he makes arrangements for Jon Snow to become legitimate and his official heir freeing him from the vows of the Nights Watch things a king may do. It is interesting that this is unbeknown to Jon when Stannis makes the same kind of offer after the relief of Castle Black with Jon deciding to stay with the Watch where he is elected Commander.
In order to achieve his objective Jon needs to make peace with Lord Walder Frey and persuades one of Catelyn relatives to wed one of Frey‘s daughters which although making a song and dance about it Walder agrees and arranges a wedding feast with Robb, his mother attending the wedding with a just a few men while their main force celebrate in adjacent tents.
I turn next to daughter Ayra then to Bran and Rickon and then to Sansa the other children of Ned and Catelyn Stark. The intelligent and independent grit of Ayra has impressed from the start, not prepared to tolerate the behaviour of Joffrey when his father visits and she accompanies her father and her betrothed sister to Kings Landing. She is forced to send off her Direwolf after Joffrey kills the creature belonging to Sansa, but she has a small sword fashioned especially for her by Jon and which she been trained to use. She escapers from Palace before her father is executed which she watches from the crowd. She then escapes from the city and the southern territory accompanying the recruiter for the Nights Watch where another in the party is Gendry trained as a blacksmith who is another born out of wedlock never knowing who is father is/was with his mother to have worked in an ale house. He appears to be protected with someone of rank paying for him to be apprentices and joins the party going north when the purge of King Robert’s illegitimate children begins.
On their travels north Arya has disguised herself as a boy but it is Gendry who works out she is a girl but keeps her secret. When the party is approached by agents of the Queen it is Gendry who is the priority and not Ayra but neither he or Ayra appreciate the reasons. After many adventures on the road together they are captured by the Brotherhood without Banners also known as the knights of Hollow Hill, a disparate group of outlaws protecting the common folk and in common cause against the rule of the Lannisters, originally established by Lord Stark. Gendry finds a home with the outlaws and is created a Knight, Ser Gendry of Hollow Hill, and an active member of the group and his loss of company saddens Ayra. As with Eric Storm with whom I confused there is a sense that both, as potential contenders for the throne will continue to have a role, although the importance of this remains speculation.
In A Clash of Kings Arya and her companion end up at Harrenhal as prisoners and put to work during the time that the castle is the base for the father of Queen Cersie, Jamie and Tyrion Lannister. The Castle then becomes a base for Roose Bolton and his men. Before reaching he Castle she frees three of the men taken as prisoners for training in the Nights watch. One of these, Jaquen H’ghar appears to special powers and grants Ayra three wishes which uses to gain revenge and also to escape. Jaquen giver Ayra a coin so she can find him again when needed.
Having been recognised when found by the Brotherhood without banners, Ayra is confronted by Ser Sandor Clegane also known as the Hound because of his savagery and who the brotherhood had been initially formed by Lord Stark to capture. He is gruesome to look at because of burns to his face in childhood.
Ayra hates him from when as a bodyguard to King Baratheon he kills one of her friends on orders of the Queen because of an alleged incident involving Joffrey. . He was then involved in the killing of her father’s personal guard when at Kings Landing after the murder of King Robert and Joffrey as King under the control of the Queen.
While a savage man and the most feared of fighters he takes to Sansa, unbeknown to Ayra, refusing to beat her as commanded by Joffrey when he becomes head of the Kingsguard, also refusing to become a knight as he has a general dislike of knights and the gentry. During the battle when Kings Landing is attacked by the forces of King Stannis, he disobeys Tyrion and goes on the run until captured by the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood put Sandor on trial for various crimes but none can proved. Ayra brings up the killing of the butchers boy but she cannot produce evidence for a conviction and he eventually engages in a trial by combat to the death with the leader of Brotherhood who he defeats and gains his freedom but his gold is taken from him. He returns to try and get back the money only to find Ayra who has escaped and he takes her prisoner with a view to getting gold by taking her to her mother and brother who he learns/ has learned are on their way to the Castle of Lord Walder Grey. They arrive just as the situation become bloody.
For just as in the first season Lord Stark is decapitated, and in the second Bran and his brother are believed murdered, their bodies burned beyond recognition, Catelyn and Robb have walked into a trap as Ser Walder Grey has done a deal with the Lannisters and drunk at the wedding feast and drugged with the use of Dream wine Robb is killed as is his direwolf with the head of the wolf attached to headless body of the young King. The accompany party are also murdered and Ayra arrives to witness the scene.
The Hound keeps Ayra prisoner hoping to find a relative who will pay a ransom and every night the girl mentions him in her prayers of people she wants to kill. They then encounter another group and fight in which The Hound is badly injured but they get away with the man pleasing with her for a quick death which she refuses. She get to the coast seeking ship to get her to the Wall and her half brother Jon, believing that apart from Sansa whose fate is unbeknown the rest of her family are dead. She lacks the funds and regrets not killing the Hound and taking the coin he kept in his shoe. She offers to work her passage but when producing the coin given by Jaquen H’ghar and repeats the give saying whereupon she is immediately given a cabin and passage.
As I have indicated Bran and Rickon her younger brothers are believed dead, slaughtered on orders of Theon Greyjoy. Bran is also a character high on my approval and wish well list and who I believe is to play an important role in the epic and therefore upset when he appeared to have been killed off during the second book and TV series production.
Bran liked to climb and including the outer walls of his home until being thrown off and crippled by Jaime Lannister when he overheard the Prince together in a compromising position with Queen Cersie. He is saved from an assassination attempt by his Direwolf who develops a very close and protective relationship. He struggles to cope but show a determination which will carry him forward. He commences to have dreams, premonitions of what is to happen with disturbing accuracy,
When Robb becomes King and goes to war Bran , despite being a child is not only the Prince of Winterfell but its head with the guidance and support of a faithful right hand to his father and the friendship of two children of his age Meera and Jojen.
When the castle is attacked by the ward of Lord Stark the brothers hide in the crypt and then escape in two parties with action taken to give the impression that they have died. Theon Greyjoy returns to his father who is not pleased at the disobedience of his instructions, Theon was assisted by the illegitimate son of Roose Bolton but it is Theon who kills and burns two peasant children and presents the remains as those of Bran and Rickon. Ramsay later betrays Theon, captures and tortures him.
Meanwhile Rickon assisted by Osham a freefolk girl who is befriended by the family head for White Harbour while Bran with is carried by Hodor, a large young man with learning difficulties and Meera go north with Jojen who has suggested they find the three eyed crow that Bran sees in his dreams foretelling the future.
With Ramsay Bolton aware fo the trick played by Theon and scouring land for them, the quartet have to move north carefully. Eventually they approach the Wall and encounter some Wildlings so Summer, Bran’s Direwolf attacks them not realising that Jon Snow is part of the group. The attack by the Direwolf enables Jon to escape back to Castle Black without being aware how close the half brothers had come together. Bran and his group hide in one of the deserted Castles of the Wall until they hear noises from below, a secret passage when they meet Samwell Tarly and the accompanying mother and child. Sam wants Bran and his part to go with him to Castle Black which he believes is the safest place, but Bran is on a quest of his own which he continues. We learn nothing more about young Rickon although he is believed to be dead.
Catelyn Stark realised they were part of a trap pleads with Walder Frey not to kill her son and takes his wife hostage threatening to kill her. Walder comments that he can get another wife and Robb is beheaded and then Catelyn has her throat cut and dies. It is not clear if Catelyn dies or become one of undead for although she survives she can not speak and becomes the leader of the Brotherhood determine d to gain revenge for the loss of her husband and children.
I am leaving the fate of her eldest daughter Sansa until my final piece on the third and fourth books and third TV season. I will also cover what has happened to Brienne and her assignment to take Jamie Lannister back to Kings Landing in exchange for her daughters. There is to be another shocking and surprising development not covered yet in the TV series but an early and key aspect of Blood and Gold
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