The central mysteries of Game of Thrones - SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 1-3

Cafe Society
1

Again, if you’ve only read Book 1 or seen Season 1 of Game of Thrones, turn back now.

The series begins, and hinges, on two central mysteries:

Who killed Jon Arryn?
Who tried to kill Bran?

These set in motion the entire saga. And both seem to point to Lannister involvement, since Jon Arryn was about to figure out that Jamie and Cersei were lovers, and Bran actually caught them in the act. And certainly the Lannisters are portrayed as villains for the first three books.

But the mysteries have, to me, extraordinarily unsatisfying solutions:

Jon Arryn was killed not by any Lannisters but by his own wife, who seemed mad with grief over his death. She also didn’t seem to care what effect his death would have on her son, whom she adores beyond reason. But because Littlefinger whispered in her ear, she killed her husband and falsely blamed the Lannisters, and ruined the lives of her family and thousands of others.

The series and the first book devote *a lot *of time to this mystery, with Tyrion’s trial and all. For nothing.

Bran was almost killed by an assassin hired by Joffrey, because he…drunkenly heard his father say…that it would be better to be dead than a cripple. (I literally cannot believe those words as I type them). So, basically the assassination was just a kid being stupid. No larger motive, no sinister plan, nothing.

Those resolutions SUCK.

Am I reading them wrong? Am I remembering wrong? Is it just me? Is there some more satisfying information coming? I’m halfway through Feast For Crows, so please try to keep any upcoming revelations vague.

2

I’m with you on the second one but the death of Jon Arryn perfectly fits in with Littlefingers scheming and the whole “everything that happened in the past still matters” theme. Jon Arryn was an old guy, Lisa was an attractive young girl who was in love with someone else when she was forced to marry him. That reveal was one of the highlights of the books for me.

3

I interpret it a bit differently and wasn’t very disappointed, though it did start to feel a bit like a red herring and moot point by the time those plot points are over.

For the first, Joffery is one of those malicious twerps who can’t stand to be humiliated. Tyrion humiliated him by forcing him to offer his best wishes and support to the Stark family in their time of hardship, even though he didn’t give a shit. So since he couldn’t strike back at Tyrion, he struck back at the other person involved who he could get to, Bran. (Like he supported having Sansa’s direwolf killed when Arya’s couldn’t be found, later on.) It’s still a bit weak, but it is implied that he’s overheard Jaime and Cersei talking about how they weren’t happy with the boy being alive, which isn’t something you say unless you have a reason. I can believe that in his dim mind he thought he might actually be doing Mum and Uncle a favor.

As for Jon Arryn, he’s repeatedly described as a duty-bound, honorable dry old stick of a man who took Lisa as a wife out of obligation and hardly ever acted like a husband. I also seem to recall Catelyn having been promised to the Dragon Prince and Lisa to one of the Lannisters or Starks, so she might not be happy about the trade-down. And, frankly, she’s absolutely bonkers. But still sane enough to realize that her husband’s memory and his heir is the only reason she’s allowed to stay in control.

4

My interpretation of the Joffery thing was that he knew or at least suspected that Robert wasn’t his father and knew that he would be in deep shit should the truth come out. He overhears the conversation and so knows that Bran knows something, but also hears that Jamie refuses to do anything about it and so takes it upon himself to act.

5

Here are the reasons.

1- Jon Arryn told his wife that their son was a weakling (moma’s boy).
He had made arrangements to have the boy sent to be a ward at another Lord’s household, so he would train to be a knight. The main reason was to separate Sweet Robyn from Lysa. Lysa killed him when she realized she could not stop him, then blamed the Lannisters.

2- Joeffry found out that Jaime tried to kill Bran. He did not know why, nor did he care. He hatched a plan to finish the job AND frame Tyrion at the same time by planting Tyrion’s knife. He probably thought he was a genius when he came up with that.

The bottom line is that the “obvious” culprit is rarely the guilty party. Ned and Cat suspect the Lanisters because of Lysa’s accusations and Tryon’s knife, but in these stories, the obvious is almost never the truth.

6

The knife was never Tyrions, that was something Littlefinger made up to frame him.

7

Right, Joffrey just grabbed a knife more or less at random from the armory. He’s been filthy rich all his life, and it never even occurred to him that a Valyrian blade with a dragonbone hilt is a rare and precious thing.

When Littlefinger saw it, he knew he could make use of it to point a finger and stir things up.

8

But why blame anyone? There was no suspicion around Jon’s death until Lysa raised it. Did she have something against the Lannisters in particular?

9

Littlefinger told her to do it (in that he both told her to kill him, and to send a note to Catelyn blaming the Lannisters.) Littlefinger knew of the incest, and surmised correctly that Ned would find out. But Ned didn’t do what Littlefinger wanted, which was to completely remove the Lannisters by force, so he changed his plans to side back with the Lannisters until the timing was right to move things along again.

Then he “made his move,” and it resulted in him becoming Lord of the Vale, which essentially makes him one of the top ten most powerful people in the kingdom, at least on paper.

And then on top of that (putting this in a spoiler because it might not happen until book 4, I can’t remember)

He schemes to get Sansa to wed a little boy who, at first glance isn’t very important, but will in fact be heir to The Vale when Robin dies, which given his sickly nature, might not take that long. And then he tells her that once she is “safe” in a position of power, he’ll reveal to the kingdom who she really is, and have her “take back” her rightful claim to Winterfell (though I suppose they might run into problems if Lord Manderly’s plan to bring Rickon back to The North succeeds, but obviously Sansa won’t care, she’d just be happy to know that Rickon is alive and wouldn’t care that he gets Winterfell (what’s left of it,) instead of her.)

10

Thanks for the explanation. I’ve read the books but have forgotten a lot.

Was Jon Arryn ever going to act on his knowledge? Did Arryn knew that Littlefinger knew?

Maybe I should just re-read the damn book.

11

This thread has shown me two things:

  1. I need to reread all the books again, because I didn’t even remember that’s how the two topics in the OP turned out.

  2. I need a freaking flowchart to follow all the twists and turns.

And a side note about the plotting: If Daenerys doesn’t get her butt across the Narrow Sea soon, I’m going to start rooting for the zombies.

12

Spoilers for books 4+5

[spoiler]Honestly, I do not give any shits about her. There’s a better Targaryen now (Aegon,) who IS in Westeros, a mere book and a half after we meet him. Dude knows military tactics, how to fight, histories of the kingdoms, several languages, diplomacy…he was literally raised for one purpose, to reclaim his rightful place as heir to the Iron Throne and be the best gods-damn ruler Westeros ever saw.

And, of course, knowing GRRM he’ll die two chapters into the next book. [/spoiler]

13

Heh.

I’d bet you anything that Aegon is not a Targaryen, but is Illyrio’s son. There’s a ton of evidence for this that I’d have to look up, but I’m sure a google search would find it all in short order. I do agree that he’s probably going to die soon though.