Episode 16: A GAME OF THRONES, SANSA I/EDDARD III: "The Way Things Are in the Songs" (Show Notes!)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast, the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish. 

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn. 

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of the Not A Cast, entitled “The Way Things Are in the Songs: An Analysis of Eddard III” in which …

Emmett interrupt: Wait, wait: aren’t you forgetting the other POV character we’re reviewing. Your favorite Stark?

*Sigh*. Thought I could get away with it. Fine. Welcome to our sixteenth episode of the Not A Cast entitled “The Way Things Are in Songs: An Analysis of AGOT, Sansa I and AGOT, Eddard III” in which Sansa Stark’s fairytale dreams get rudely interrupted by harsh realities, for the first but not the last time, and then Lord Eddard Stark fights for what’s right and loses but not for the last time either. 

This episode is brought to you all by our Lords Commander Mark N, Timothy W and Hayden J. Thank you, gentlemen!

Spoiler warning: All published books - 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, and TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show, anything and everything!

Questions

Lady Bree Bang asks

Which character have you changed your mind on the most significantly?

Ser Travis asks

George said that very early on he originally intended to not include the dragons. Instead, he was going to give the Targaryens psionic powers - like pyrokinesis, the ability to conjure fire and flame. He credits a fellow writer for pushing him to put them in and believes it improved the books, which I think we all agree is true. As a mother to the dragons, Dany’s arc is very impacted by their birth and growth. Her enemies lust to control them or kill them. Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion will likely be pivotal to the endgame. But imagine if you will that Dany’s three children never came to be. What would the story be like with their absence? How would it change Dany? How would readers view Dany wielding superpowers? What are some plot points that could have developed or been greatly affected by this ability? Are there characters in the current story that may have this gift?

Synopsis and Summary

Sansa Stark awakens to find her father on another hunt with Robert. So, Sansa joins Septa Mordane for a breakfast in which the eldest daughter of Ned and Catelyn feeds bacon to her direwolf and talks about her upcoming ride in the Queen’s carriage with Queen Cersei and Princess Myrcella. (sigh, do I have to go on)

Yes, Jeff, you do.

[sigh] Okay. The sibling rivalry between Sansa and Arya we glimpsed in Arya’s first chapter re-emerges with Sansa hoping that she would see her betrothed (Joffrey) today, and that the only thing she feared was Arya ruining the experience.

Asking to be excused, Sansa steps outside of Lord Eddard’s tent to find Arya and instead sees a camp in motion. Cart creak, men broke down tents for the movement ahead of them, wagons were loaded. Sansa looks around for Arya and finds her at the banks of the Trident covered in mud, brushing mud off of her direwolf Nymeria. 

Sansa instructs Arya to put on something nice. They’re traveling in the queen’s wheelhouse after all, but Arya refuses. Arya and her friend Mycah are going to search for Rhaegar’s rubies in the Trident. And the cart doesn’t even have windows. Instead, Arya will go riding with Mycah, tyvm. Sansa is horrified that Arya wouldn’t find honor in riding with the queen. Sansa hates riding horses and insists that Arya will come ride with the queen. Arya again refuses and tells Sansa that she doesn’t like the queen. She’s going to go out riding with Mycah. Sansa tells Arya that she’ll go by herself and eat every fucking lemon cake and have the best time without her. 

Sansa departs, thinking Why couldn’t Arya be sweet and delicate and kind, like Princess Myrcella? She would have liked a sister like that. Sansa reflects on how Arya looks like Jon and once even asked her mother Catelyn if Arya was a bastard too. (She wasn’t).

Wandering back to the camp, Sansa stumbles across a party gathered around the queen’s wheelhouse. The small council has sent riders to escort the king’s party the rest of the way back to King’s Landing. Two seeming knights stand in front of the queen. One adorned in kingsguard white and one in steel plate of a deep forest-green. It’s only then that Sansa realizes that there’s a third man: a gaunt, grim, silent man wearing chainmail and boiled leather. Sansa is terrified of the this man.

The third man turns his head and looks at Sansa, and the girl becomes ever more terrified. She takes a step back and bumps into none other than Sandor Clegane.

You are shaking girl, the man says. Do I frighten you so much? 

The Hound did frighten her, but not half as much as the other man did. Sandor laughs, but then Sansa’s direwolf Lady comes up and sends the crowd into a tizzy. The two knights draw their swords, but then Cersei sends Joffrey over to Sansa to “protect” her. The Crown Prince dispatches Sandor Clegane. Sansa admits that her fear is over the other man. They tell Sansa that the scary man is none other than Ser Ilyn Payne: the king’s justice (that is the king’s executioner). 

The two men introduce themselves. The first is Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. The other allows Sansa to puzzle out his identity. Sansa correctly surmises that the other man is Lord Renly Baratheon, a terrorist in service of his brother, King Robert. 

Queen Cersei then tells Sansa that unfortunately the carriage ride has to be cancelled today on account of small council business, but no worries, the queen tells Joffrey to entertain Sansa. This sends Sansa into a frenzy of romantic feeling. And what shall they do? How about riding, Joffrey suggests.

Oh, I love riding, Sansa replies.

They ride through the land. Joffrey shows Sansa his sword, uh, yeah, we’ll go with that phrasing. His sword is called “Lion’s Tooth.” They leave Sansa’s direwolf behind. They explore the countryside, tracking by the river, exploring a cave, following a shadowcat. They find a holdfast. Joffrey orders wine and food from the people there. They eat fresh trout and drink wine -- more wine than Sansa usually has.

Finally, Joff decides that he wants to head on over to the place where his “father” and Rhaegar met in battle on the Trident 15 years before. They ride to the site, and then they hear a snack, snack, snack. Joffrey unsheathes his sword, and they approach the noise only to find Arya in stick battle with an older boy named Mycah. 

Confronting them, Joffrey mocks the boy, telling him to pick up his stick and face the prince in combat. The boy freezes. It’s only a stick, m’lord. It’s not no sword. Joffrey doesn’t care. He presses the point of his sword against the boy’s cheek, drawing blood.

Stop it, Arya screams, grabbing a branch. Stay out of this, Sansa cautions her. I won’t hurt him … much, Joffrey tells Arya, and then Arya clubs the prince on the back of the head with the stick. Everything dissolves into chaos. Joffrey catches the next stick blow with his sword. Arya hurls a stone at the boy’s head, it misses but hits Joffrey’s horse. The horse sprints away. Joffrey begins slashing at Arya with his sword, backing her up against a tree. Sansa sobs. And then Nymeria jumps Joffrey, biting his arm.

Get it off! Get it off! Joffrey screams.

Arya calls out Nymeria’s name, and the wolf releases Joff’s now-bloody arm. She didn’t hurt you … much. Arya grabs Joffrey sword, stands over him, and just before she stabs him, Arya throws the sword into the Trident. Arya mounts her horse and makes like a bat out of hell. Sansa rushes over to Joffrey, attempting to comfort him.

Just then his eyes snap open, and the crown prince looks at Sansa with the vilest contempt.

Then go, And don’t touch me!

And that is AGOT, Sansa I.

All kidding aside, a pretty stellar chapter if I do say so! So, let’s talk this chapter before we get into Eddard III. There’s a lot to cover, and it’d be good if we dive in while it’s still fresh on our minds. So, Emmett, what is this about Sansa being a fantasy audience?

Depth and Structure

Sansa I

• Sansa Stark is the fantasy audience, for better or worse
  • She’s a vital character for what GRRM is doing with the genre, not so much smashing it to bits as taking it apart, examining all the pieces with a loving but knowing eye, dusting them off, and reassembling them better. Through Sansa’s understanding of songs, stories, and how they relate to real life, the author critiques fantasy specifically as a set of assumptions that do not prepare one for life in the era from which fantasy draws. 
  • In this chapter, that comes through most clearly regarding Joffrey, because Sansa’s most dangerous assumption is that Joffrey and Cersei are Good. And why are they Good in her eyes? Why is she in love with Joffrey despite not knowing him? Because:
    • He was all she ever dreamt her prince should be, tall and handsome and strong, with hair like gold.
  • What Sansa doesn’t understand (yet) is that the songs are written that way to get a rise out of her. Singers need young noblewomen to love their songs in order to get food and lodging at their fathers’ castles, after all. She thinks it’s an accurate reflection of reality, when what it is is skillful marketing--and that’s what GRRM is saying about medieval fantasy.
  • And that Sansa has dreamt of him frames Joffrey as a reward (hence the hair like gold). He carries with him a crown and a promise of happiness. Joffrey is the thing Sansa wants, it’s what motivates her throughout this first book, just as getting away from him motivates her throughout the next one. She wants him because he is a synecdoche for song.
• Sansa as both contrast and parallel to Arya
  • From the beginning, Sansa thinks of Arya as an obstacle to her identity-defining goal of the good life with her prince:
    • The only thing that scared her about today was Arya. Arya had a way of ruining everything. You never knew what she would do. 
  • But on the other hand, Sansa’s loyalty to Lady earns her this from Septa Mordane: 
    • “I’ve never seen an aurochs,” Sansa said, feeding a piece of bacon to Lady under the table. The direwolf took it from her hand, as delicate as a queen.
      
      Septa Mordane sniffed in disapproval. “A noble lady does not feed dogs at her table,” she said, breaking off another piece of comb and letting the honey drip down onto her bread.
      
      “She’s not a dog, she’s a direwolf,” Sansa pointed out as Lady licked her fingers with a rough tongue. “Anyway, Father said we could keep them with us if we want.”

“You’re a good girl, Sansa, but I do vow, when it comes to that creature you’re as willful as your sister Arya.” 

• So not only are the Stark sisters connected even as both chapters under discussion work to tear them apart, but what connects them is their Stark-ness
• This will, of course, only grow more poignant as both long for and try desperately to get home; they retain that Stark-ness in common, long after being separated
• The chapter also emphasizes something else they have in common: the songs.
  • “Mycah and I are going to ride upstream and look for rubies at the ford.”
    
    “Rubies,” Sansa said, lost. “What rubies?”
    
    Arya gave her a look like she was so stupid. “Rhaegar’s rubies. This is where King Robert killed him and won the crown.”
• After all, where else did Arya learn about Nymeria but from the stories she was told? She, too, is swept up in the excitement of fantasy, just from a different angle
• And in this regard, Arya is very much like Lyanna. Even before Ned confirms it in Arya II, the parallels are here: the flowers, the swordfighting, the affinity with underdogs
• Gender politics, of course, play a huge role in the relationship between the Stark sisters. The very first line of dialogue between them: 
  • “You better put on something pretty…”
• And that of course points forward to Acorn Hall, and Arya’s certainty that her family won’t want her back because she’s dirty and her clothes are ripped
• Sansa as a lens for social critique. What she will learn over the course of AGOT is that she has been lied to her entire life, and that those lies exist to cover up the truth that Westeros does not work like it should. That process begins in this chapter.
  • Surface is everything--she thinks of Arya as different because she looks different, more like Jon, and so maybe she’s a bastard too?
• Which leads into the introduction of Renly, Barristan, and Ser Ilyn
  • Emphasis on the beauty of the first two…
  • ...contrasted with the third
• First Sansa-Sandor interaction
  • He more than anyone else cuts through that image. “I’m honest. It’s the world that’s awful.” “Knights are for killing.” 
• Joffrey playing prince...
• ...before turning into a movie monster upon seeing Arya and Mycah
  • The imperiousness and arrogance from the Winterfell training yard is fully weaponized
  • This is so because of the class dynamics at work; where Joffrey could only threaten Robb within the context of equally armed duelists, he can torment Mycah at will
  • Joff explicitly invokes the class structure of Westeros as justification for assaulting Mycah
  • Of course, he doesn’t care about Arya’s safety--he turns on her with lethal intent seconds later--so much as what the structure of Westerosi society allows him to do to the butcher’s boy
  • This is the true reveal of Joffrey as one of ASOIAF’s monsters, a child hunting other children, the embodiment of this line from Lord of the Flies: 
    • He ceased to work at his [lion’s?] tooth and sat still, assimilating the possibilities of irresponsible authority.
  • And Mycah is only in this mess at all because he did what a noble told him:
    • “She asked me to, m’lord.”
  • Which is not to say that Arya is responsible for what happens, only that there’s no escape for Mycah--even the good nobles unwittingly trap peasants for the bad
  • All of this is a deconstructive nuke aimed at Sansa’s worldview (and thus, the Fantasy Reader’s worldview) as articulated over the course of the chapter
  • And that’s the stinger:
    • After they had gone, Sansa went to Prince Joffrey. His eyes were closed in pain, his breath ragged. Sansa knelt beside him. “Joffrey,” she sobbed. “Oh, look what they did, look what they did. My poor prince. Don’t be afraid. I’ll ride to the holdfast and bring help for you.” Tenderly she reached out and brushed back his soft blond hair.
      
      His eyes snapped open and looked at her, and there was nothing but loathing there, nothing but the vilest contempt. “Then go,” he spit at her. “And don’t touch me.”

Likes and Dislikes

Likes: (Sansa I) The contrast between the sunny filter of Sansa’s POV with the violence of a lot of the imagery (Ilyn’s stare, Sandor’s face, Joffrey cutting into Mycah) really elevates this chapter above just “haha, Sansa, she does not get the things.” Horror stands out all the more starkly when the language leading into it is so romantic.

Dislike: (Sansa I) There doesn’t appear to be any particular reason for Renly, Barristan, and Ilyn to *be* there--with so many characters of varying immediate significance to introduce in this first book, sometimes the author just needs to spread them out even if you have to fudge the motivations a li’l. Maaaaybe you could say this is a commentary on how characters just come and go in the kinds of songs Sansa loves, but that’s a stretch.

Like: Deconstruction of Sansa’s fantasy world in one fell swoop. Chivalrous knights/princes contrast unchivalrous deeds.

Dislike: Okay, don’t know if this is a dislike or just a lol moment in thinking about, but this line is hilarious, hilariously bad or both: They went more slowly after they had eaten. Joffrey sang for her as they rode, his voice high and sweet and pure. 

Eddard III

Summary

They’ve found her, my lord. Arya has been found after four days of searching. Fortunately, she was found by Jory Cassel and not Lannister men. Unfortunately, as soon as Jory and Arya had arrived at the gate of Castle Darry, Queen Cersei had been told, and Arya had been apprehended and brought in front of her. 

Ned makes his way to Darry audience chamber, seeing, hearing and sensing the thoughts of the people around him. As Ned walks through the castle courtyard, he thinks of House Darry and how that house had not welcome the party. You see, the Darrys had fought for the Targaryens during Robert’s Rebellion, and though they had been welcomed back into the king’s peace, the Darrys had lost three sons in the Rebellion.

When Ned arrives in the audience chamber, he finds Robert, Cersei and Joffrey at the high table. Joff still has bandages on his arm. He sees Arya, and he rushes over to her. Arya says that she’s sorry over and over again. Ned tells her he knows. He then asks Robert “What is the meaning of this?”

Unfortunately for Ned, most of the faces in the room are hostile to him. It’s mostly Lannister men along with Ser Raymun Darry, Ser Barristan and Lord Renly. “Why was I not told that my daughter had been found?” Ned demands. “Why was she not brought to me at once!?”

Cersei accosts Ned: “How dare you speak to your king in that manner!” Robert tells Cersei to shut up, and that Arya was brought her to get the business done with quickly. What business is that? Cersei answers: “The girl of yours attacked my son. Her and her butcher’s boy. That animal of hers tried to tear his arm off.”

Arya calls Cersei a liar. Nymeria just bit Joff a little. Besides, the prince was hurting Mycah. Arguments ensue. Accusations and counter-accusations are thrown about until Robert shouts “Enough!” He then has Arya tell her story. At the end of the story, Renly begins laughing, and Robert orders Ser Barristan to escort Renly from the room.

My brother is too kind. I can find the door myself. He bows to Joffrey and says, Perchance later, you’ll tell me how a nine-year old girl the size of a wet rat managed to disarm you with a broom handle and throw your sword in a river.

With Renly gone (finally, good god), Joffrey tells his side of the story. It’s vastly different from Arya’s version. Then Sansa arrives, and Ned asks his eldest daughter to recount what she remembers. “I don’t remember. Everything happened so fast. I didn’t see …”

Arya shrieks “You rotten!” and attempts to attack Sansa. She knocks Sansa to the ground, punching her calling her “liar” over and over again. Ned tells Arya to stop, and Jory pulls Arya off Sansa. Cersei says that Arya is as wild as her direwolf. I regret to say that Cersei is right. But Cersei also wants Arya punished. Robert refuses. Cersei calls attention to Joff’s scars, stating that Joff will carry his scars for the rest of his life.

So he will. Perhaps they will teach him a lesson.

Robert orders Ned to discipline his daughter. He’ll discipline his son. Ned is relieved until Cersei brings up the direwolf. Nymeria is gone, but Sansa’s direwolf Lady is still around. Robert orders Ser Ilyn to take care of the wolf. Ned is aghast. “Robert, you cannot mean this.” But the king will brook no argument. Sansa and Arya plead with their father, but Ned can do nothing but hold his children. He pleads one last time.

Please, Robert. For the love you bear me. For the love you bore my sister. Please.

“Damn you, Cersei,” Robert says with loathing. Ned then tells Robert to do it himself, to have the courage of a northman but Robert says nothing and walks away, his steps heavy.

With Robert gone, Cersei asks where Lady is. Barristan tells Cersei that the direwolf is chained against the gatehouse. Cersei begins ordering Ilyn Payne to do the deed, but Ned stops her. If it must be done, I will do it. Cersei thinks it’s a trick, but Ned replies that Lady is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher. He asks Jory for his sword, Ice.

Ned leaves the audience chamber and goes to Lady, sits beside her for a while, saying her name, tasting her name, observing the direwolf and how well Sansa named her direwolf. He ruffles her feather and kills Lady. He then orders the body to be taken to Winterfell to be buried.

As Ned walks back to the tower, he sees Sandor Clegane and his riders coming through the gate. Sandor tells Ned that they hadn’t found his daughter, but the day wasn’t a total waste. The Hound pushes a bundle off the back of his horse. Mycah: the butcher boy and Arya’s friend.

“You rode him down,” Ned says

“He ran,” the Hound replies, laughing. “But not very fast.”

And that is the horrifying end to a horrifying chapter.

• Follows up on the nightmarish ending to Sansa I, but from Dad’s POV
  • A simmering political stew in Darry
    • First real showdown of Stark v. Lannister, appropriately in the Riverlands, where they will meet in battle later in the book
    • Not just king’s men or queen’s men or Ned’s men, but Targaryen men
    • Establishes the context of the Rebellion--fought for Robert’s crown, and this is what’s become of it
      • We see the core of Robert’s understanding of his role with “it is a great crime to lie to a king”
      • He initially comes down on “children fight” and refuses to hurt Arya
      • But then surrenders to Cersei on Lady
  • This is where Ned’s dreams die--injustice from the top down, and Robert lets it happen
    • Pleading in the name of their brotherly bond 
    • Establishes both that Ned can cut through the Lannisters to get to Robert’s ear and that this won’t necessarily save the day
    • Yet another parallel with Stannis and Davos, specifically RE Edric Storm: hear me for the onions and fingers. That time, mercy was secured first…
  • Abusive relationships and how the concept of discipline can conceal abuse:
    • “Ned, see that your daughter is disciplined. I will do the same with my son."
    • Stannis later: “Joffrey . . . I remember once, this kitchen cat . . . the cooks were wont to feed her scraps and fish heads. One told the boy that she had kittens in her belly, thinking he might want one. Joffrey opened up the poor thing with a dagger to see if it were true. When he found the kittens, he brought them to show to his father. Robert hit the boy so hard I thought he'd killed him."
  • Sansa’s dreams are dealt another blow here too with the death of Lady
    • The brutal payoff for the wolf’s name
    • Cersei of all people killing “Lady” is very apropos
    • The palpable injustice (noted by Arya) of punishing the wolf who wasn’t even there

Likes and Dislikes

(Eddard III) The dynamics of this scene reverberate across time. It evokes the past (Lannister men killing the Targaryen children to Ned’s horror and Robert’s shrug) and the future (both Robert demanding Dany’s death while Renly chuckles in the background and Robert with his “flat, dead eyes” leaving Ned alone in the Lannisters’ clutches) alike. 

(Eddard III) As dramatic and memorable as this chapter is, it doesn’t really make a difference to to the game of thrones in King’s Landing. What brings Ned inexorably into conflict with the Lannisters is a) his follow-up on Jon Arryn’s investigation b) Littlefinger framing Tyrion for the catspaw and c) as Varys notes, Ned’s personal loyalty to Robert, preventing him from being bribed into letting the Lannisters launch a coup. None of these things are affected by what happened in Darry, and Cersei ordering Lady killed doesn’t stop Sansa from running to the queen later. 

Likes

(Eddard III) The emotional stakes. It’s gut-wrenching. Here’s GRRM on the scene (from the book and show:

It has come to my attention that a number of television viewers (mostly those who had not read my books and did not know what was coming) were shocked and upset by what befell Sansa's direwolf Lady at the end of the second episode of HBO's GAME OF THRONES.

Good. I mean, that was kind of the point. - GRRM, Notablog, “Lament for Lady”, 5/13/2011

Dislikes: I agree with Emmett; nothing really to add from his dislike!

Foreshadowing and Groundwork

Obviously, the major foreshadowing in Sansa I is of Ned Stark’s death:

“The king is gone hunting, but I know he will be pleased to see you when he returns,” the

queen was saying to the two knights who knelt before her, but Sansa could not take her

eyes off the third man. He seemed to feel the weight of her gaze. Slowly he turned his

head. Lady growled. A terror as overwhelming as anything Sansa Stark had ever felt

filled her suddenly. 

Sansa’s the one who witnesses it and has to coexist with Ilyn Payne afterwards; he nearly takes her own life at the climax of the next book. 

Death of Mycah becomes pivotal in the Sandor/Beric trial by combat in ASOS

"I'm not a boy! But Mycah was. He was a butcher's boy and you killed him. Jory said you cut him near in half, and he never even had a sword." (ASOS, Arya VI)

House Darry stuff

• Ned’s chapter paints the Darrys as hostile to Robert and rightfully so. As is revealed later by Jaime
  
  Tyrion had pointed out the squares of darker stone where tapestries had once hung. Ser Raymun could remove the hangings, but not the marks they'd left. Later, the Imp had slipped a handful of stags to one of Darry's serving men for the key to the cellar where the missing tapestries were hidden. He showed them to Jaime by the light of a candle, grinning; woven portraits of all the Targaryen kings, from the first Aegon to the second Aenys.
• So, the Darrys still seem to be secret Targ loyalists. So, maybe Illyrio, though he’s full of shit, isn’t totally full of shit when he told Viserys:
  
  "In holdfasts all across the realm, men lift secret toasts to your health while women sew dragon banners and hide them against the day of your return from across the water." 

Theories and Discussion

The Holdfast

Framing is romantic, but read between the lines here:

It was a day for adventures. They explored the caves by the riverbank, and tracked a shadowcat to its lair, and when they grew hungry, Joffrey found a holdfast by its smoke and told them to fetch food and wine for their prince and his lady. 

You may have caught it now that we’re emphasizing the lines, but notice how Joff rolls up to a holdfast and orders them to prepare food for him and Sansa. In feudal Westeros, the smallfolk of the holdfast have to prepare food for Joffrey and Sansa. In a more just world, they’d tell the two nobles to pay up or get fucked. Not so much here.

When Joffrey orders Mycah to fight him, Mycah freezes, refuses to hold a stick up to a prince and stands meekly while that monster cuts his face. Redux of Arya’s first chapter:

"Bastards are not allowed to damage young princes," 

Ned has to obey a king’s unjust decree in killing Lady. The feudal system forces a good man to do immoral deeds if someone of a higher station orders it. 

Barristan looks uncomfortable and sounds awful, but he stands aside and doesn’t do anything. That’s not his place. 

In the show, Season 6 at Riverrun, Lord Edmure Tully arrives back in Riverrun and orders the castle surrendered to the Lannisters and Freys despite Brynden Blackfish’s heroic stand against the Frey/Lannister siege.

Conclusion

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