“Do you just hate Joffrey, or do you loathe him?”
Fascinating, I never thought of that. Jojen’s surprise that Bran’s father had never told him the story led me to believe that the mystery knight was Ned himself, who woudl have been fairly young at the time. But I like this theory much better!
I think it is even mentioned at some point that Lyanna was the best rider of the Starks.
It makes sense that Hotchick-Handmaiden (Doreah) is acting “un-Dotkraki” because she ISN’T Dothraki. She’s a Lysine please slave given to Dany as a gift to teach her how to please Khal Drogo.
But you’re right, though. Irri saw Dany transform from a timid little girl, to a Khaleesi and leader of a Dothraki tribe. Seeing Dany “ohh and ahh” over a frilly dress, and ditch her riding leathers is like a slap in the face to her and everything she helped Dany learn.
And now I wonder where the Hell Jhiqui ran off to…we haven’t seen her at all this season, have we?
This all makes sense. I just don’t know what the point is.
They have so little time to work with (which is amazing, considering they have ten episodes for one book), I don’t know where they’re going with it. I’m wondering whether Hotchick-Handmaiden is going to survive Qarth. Are they setting up a different way of killing her off? If so, how is that gonna happen? Will it be a handmaiden dispute? A fierce bout of Dothraki mudwrestling, to the death? I just can’t see Doreah’s bigger purpose in all this, especially considering her fate in the book.
I liked Cat’s chapters but Cat as a character annoyed the piss out of me. She’s easily the cockiest character in the book. She always knows what the right thing to do is, despite the fact that she’s usually wrong. She was wrong about grabbing Tyrion, and she was wrong about releasing Jaime.
I’ll never forgive her for saying to Robb in Clash of Kings “Tell the truth, are you reluctant to free the Kingslayer because you fear meeting him on the battlefield?”
Cat knew that was wasn’t true. Robb wouldn’t release Jaime because he was without parallel the most valuable hostage one could possess in the 7 kingdoms. She called her own son a coward in order to manipulate him into making a bad decision. Then she got all butthurt that Robb didn’t want her advice anymore.
On the other hand, she’s a great example of how Martin is a master of POV. Cat thinks she knows everything, and that the choices she makes are obviously the right choice. The events of the series prove her quite wrong.
I hated Cat because every bad decision she makes stems from the completely selfish “my children are more important than anything else, so fuck you” mentality. That would be a perfectly reasonable way to feel for a regular person, but for someone like her is simply abuse of power. Arresting Tyrion, freeing Jamie, hell even pushing Ned to become hand to Robert, and every other bad decision she made came from the “unreasonable mom doing what she thinks is best, but it’s for the children so fuck you” mentality.
Cat’s dilemma is that she had Ned in her life for so long that she can no longer function outside the cotnext of a solidly honorable partner. I think she was right to nab Tyrion, or would have been if her sister wasn’t batshit crazy.
context.
bilge.
I think Martin did an excellent job of characterisation with Catelyn. He’s perfectly captured a certain “know-it-all mother type”. She’s a great example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Agreed.
What is she ignorant about? She does make her share of mistakes, but they don’t seem to be worse than most characters in the book.
She’s ignorant about her own competence. Every one of the decisions she makes listed by Secretary of Evil above (persuading Eddard to become Hand, arresting Tyrion, goading Robb and then releasing Jaime) is based on her belief that she knows better than everyone else.
I’d also add her continual undermining of Robb’s authority on the march south, her goading of the late Lord Frey at the Twins, and her attempt to conciliate Renly and Stannis to her list of failures.
I’d say she suffers from GRRM disease - women can’t be competent on their own, they’re emotional wrecks and need a strong man to prop-up their decision making or they become increasingly confused (Dany,) shrewish (Cat,) or simply fucking insane (Lyssa, Cersei.)
Olenna Tyrell, Margarie Tyrell, Osha, Asha, the Mormont women, Brienne, Melisandre, Arya, etc…
Few* males* (if any) in the world have any brains or are sane or are just giant dickheads or all three. Tyrion is just about the smartest guy on two continents, yet he’s a emotional wreck and not completely sane. It goes a lot to say he’s the most sympathetic character in the series.
Oh, I wouldn’t say he’s the most sympathetic. I think that Ned, Brienne, and Jon Snow are all more sympathetic. None of them murdered a prostitute because she wasn’t loyal (hah!). He was, through the first three books, the coolest though.
But Ned’s a honorable idiot, and so (to a lesser extent) is John.
So I know it’s super nerdy, but I love this montage of ASOIF illustrations
Some of the drawings are just fantastic works of art in their own right, and it’s neat to see visuals of stuff that hasn’t been seen on the show yet, as well as to see different interpretations that are closer to the way the books described things.
So new episode tonight. I loved the Hound’s rescue scene, very badass. Also, naked Tonks! Yay!