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Episode 66: A GAME OF THRONES, BRAN VII: "Only in Dreams"

Added 2019-06-10 14:00:03 +0000 UTC

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: 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 sixty-sixth episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “Only in Dreams: An Analysis of AGOT, Bran VII,” in which Maester Luwin assures Bran and Rickon that their nightmares about their father’s death are meaningless, and of course, he is proven 100% right. 

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

Thank you councillors very much!

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

Question

Ser Javi M, a Sworn Sword asks:

Hi!
As a 10$ Patreon I want to ask a question:
In a 2002 AFFC synopsis that appeared in Amazon sffworld.com/forum/threads/the-feast-for-crows-synopsis.267 the text says a few interesting departs from the current ASOIAF story
1) "While the remaining northern lords war endlessly with each other
2)"...and the ironmen of the isles attack the Dreadfort..."
3) "...Daenerys trains her growing dragons and learns from Barristan the secrets of her father, her brother Rhaegar, and other matters that will culminate at Starfall. "
The 3 pieces are nice but the last element is specially interesting. Daenerys in Starfall? Learning secrets of the past? And that is from 2002, only 3 years before the publish of the book.
This interesting information was brought to me by my friend Elio García and he confirmed me that the synopsis was truly published in Amazon in 2002 and George asked to remove it. The rest of the info predicts more or less what happens in AFFC and ADWD
What do you think about it?

Synopsis

Bran Stark watches a bunch of teenagers inducted into Basic Combat Training under Drill Sergeant Rodrik Cassel’s tender care. The boys swing wooden swords, curse and grunt as they smack each other with the aforementioned wooden swords. And Drill Instructor Cassel stomp-steps through the lines, yelling “No!” at the boys over and over and over again.

They don’t fight very well, Bran says dubiously.

They don’t indeed, Maester Luwin agrees, distracted. And why is Luwin distracted? Well, you see, he has a Myrish telescope in hand, and he’s looking at a large red comet in the sky. Yes, that red comet.

Luwin attempts to reassure Bran that if the boys have enough time they might be crafted into soldiers, but Bran is skeptical and resentful. If he could walk, he’d be able to take them all on. Besides, Bran had beaten Prince Tommen when they were playing at swords back when the royal family visited King’s Landing. Bran then wonders whether Luwin could teach Bran how to use a poleax. Why he’d wield his poleax atop Hodor who’d be his legs. They’d be a knight! But Luwin thinks this unlikely. 

“Bran, when a man fights, his arms and legs and thoughts must be as one.”

Down in the castle yard, Rodrik yells at his boys to stop fighting like goddamn geese. Instead, parry, block. When one of the boys laughs, Rodrik tells him he fights like a hedgehog.

Bran tells Luwin that Old Nan once told him a story about a knight who couldn’t see. This knight apparently wielded Donatello’s bow-staff -- except this staff had blades at both ends.

Symeon Star-Eyes, Luwin said as he marked numbers in a book, When he lost his eyes, he put star sapphires in the empty sockets, or so the singers claim.

Luwin says that this is only a story, and that all stories from the Age of Heroes are just that: stories. And Bran, you’re going to need to put these dreams aside. They’re only going to break your heart.

At the mention of dreams, Bran tells Luwin about an interesting dream he had the night prior:

I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad.

A distracted Luwin asks Bran why Ned was sad. Well, something to do with Jon. The dream had fucked Bran up a bit -- even more than his normal three-eyed crow dreams. And it had seemingly fucked Hodor up too. He wouldn’t go down into the crypt -- even after Bran had told him to take him down and … even after Bran had gotten so angry that he wanted to swat Hodor’s head.

Good. Hodor is a man, not a mule to be beaten, Luwin says.

Bran continues with more dream talk. He flew down to look for his dad in the crypts. Maester Luwin finally starts giving Bran the attention that he deserves. He tells Bran that Ned will one day be buried down there, yes. But that won’t be for a long time. Ned’s a prisoner down in King’s Landing. He won’t be in the crypts. 

He was there last night, Bran says. I talked to him.

Luwin sighs and asks Bran if the boy wants to go down and look for himself. But Bran can’t. Hodor won’t take him. Luwin, though, has a solution. Luwin calls Osha up, and she states that she ain’t scared of no haunted holes. Bran calls for Summer, and Team #NoFear is off for the crypts. 

Osha carries Bran across the Winterfell yard, and Bran tries not to get his feelings hurt over the fact that he’s being carried like a baby in Osha’s arms. As for the wildling woman, she had been formerly put in chains, but now, she only has heavy iron shackles around her ankles. But even they didn’t affect her long strides. 

As they move down to the crypts, Bran realizes it’s been a while since he’d been down in the crypts. He used to play down here with Robb, Jon and his sisters. But they weren’t here anymore, and Bran wishes they were. Without them, the place feels dark and scary. They progress into the crypts themselves, and the crypt statues come into view.

They were the Kings of Winter.

Ah, well to Osha, winter ain’t got a king. Maester Luwin puts in that they were the Kings in the North in actuality. Osha lifts the torch and shows these kings as they appeared -- bearded or clean-shaven but always with iron longswords across their laps. 

They progress into cave-like vault, and Bran remembers that Jon told him that there were sub-levels where the oldest Stark kings were buried. Luwin tells Bran to remember his history and give Osha (and the reader) the names of the Stark kings and a little backstory. So, Bran goes through each of the kings he sees:

They get to the end, and Bran sees Lord Rickard Stark who was “beheaded” by Aerys II. Lyanna Stark’s crypt is there too alongside of Brandon Stark. They shouldn’t have had statues, but Ned insisted on it. His father had loved them deeply. Osha thinks that Lyanna looks perty, and Bran has something to say on that:

Robert was betrothed to marry her, but Prince Rhaegar carried her off and raped her. Robert fought a war to win her back. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer, but Lyanna died, and he never got her back at all.

Sad and false tale. And ah, now I start to see why Bran said that Robert’s Rebellion was based on a lie in S07. Guess the writers re-read this chapter before writing that particularly objective line of dialogue, huh?

The party comes up to holes - where Eddard will be buried some day - and Luwin asks if this was where he saw his dad. It was. Bran feels uneasy and maybe hears a noise. Was there someone here?

Luwin steps forward, torch in hand, to give the boys a good learnin’ about the scientific nature of dreams when the darkness sprang at him, snarling. 

Bran sees green eyes, black fur and the flash of teeth as Luwin goes hurtling towards the ground. Then Bran sees it’s a direwolf, and Bran yells Summer! Bran’s direwolf goes into motion, slamming into Shaggydog. They fight and roll around on the ground while Luwin grabs his torn and bloody arm. Osha puts Bran against his grandfather Rickard’s crypt statue, and out from the shadows comes Azor Ahai Reborn, AKA Rickon Stark.

You let my father be, Rickon warns Luwin. You let him be.
Rickon, Bran says softly. Father’s not here.
Yes he is. I saw him. Tears glisten on rickon’s face. I saw him last night.

And where did Rickon see Ned? Why in his dreams, same as Bran. And Ned had told Rickon that he was coming home, just like he promised. 

Bran looks over to Luwin and sees the maester’s Richard Dawkins smug expression evaporate into uncertainty. Despite the pain, Luwin asks for the torch. The maester yells at Rickon that Shaggydog needs to be chained up, but Rickon’s all like “You can’t tell me what to do, science man.” Bran asks if Rickon wants to come with them out of the crypts, but Rickon likes it here in the dark. Besides, he’s waiting for Ned. Bran then says that they can all wait for Ned together in Luwin’s chambers, but Luwin ain’t about having the direwolves in his chambers. Shaggydog needs to be chained or …

… or killed, Bran thinks, but what he said was “He was not made for chains. We will wait in your tower, all of us.”

Luwin tries to protest again, but Osha is there to remind everyone that Bran is the one actually in charge. 

Up in the tower, Osha bandages Luwin, and everything is a cluttered mess with scientific instruments and charts about. Maester DeGrasse Luwin has taken a huge liking to tracking the red comet’s trail across the sky seemingly. Oh, and there’s a lot of shit -- raven shit specifically. The birds quork above everyone in the rookery. And Luwin quorks below:

I agree that is odd that both of you boys dreamed the same dream, yet when you stop to consider it, it’s only natural. You miss your lord father, and you know that he is a captive. Fear  can fever a man’s mind and give him queer thoughts. Rickon is too young to comprehend.

Rickon interrupts to let Luwin know that he ain’t no baby. He’s 4! Luwin goes on as Osha puts a burning ointment onto his arm to admonish Bran about Bran should know better -- that dreams are only dreams. But Osha disagrees:

Some are, some aren’t. The children of the forest could tell you a thing or two about dreaming.

Maester “Christopher Hitchens” Luwin flexes his Citadel-trained brain muscles and tells everyone that the Children only live in dreams. They’re extinct. But Bran counters that the Children of the Forest knew the “songs of trees” and do and sing all sorts of amazing things. Luwin picks up his copy of The Children of the Forest Delusion and talks about “Oh yeah, sure kid. They did it with magic. Suuuuuuuuuuure. Boy, I wish I could have some magic now to heal my arm. But we have to rely on very science-y science to heal wounds or tell Shaggydog not to bite me.”

Take a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a glass sword. As the children did.

Luwin then pulls out a glass jar full of blackened arrowheads. They’re dragonglass, the weapons of the Children of the Forest, “forged in the fires of the gods, far below the earth.” The CoTF hunted with these arrowheads thousands of years ago. But they didn’t do any metalwork. Instead, they carried blades of obsidian.

And still do, Osha says, putting a cloth over Luwin’s wound.

Bran asks if he can keep one, and Luwin agrees. Rickon wants 4 arrowheads, because he’s 4 and because he’s adorable. Luwin advises the boys that the arrowheads are sharp and to be careful not to cut themselves. And Bran asks about the Children. Luwin asks what he wants to know, and Bran says “Everything.”

So, we get some excellent worldbuilding. The CoTF were a race from the Dawn Age before the First Men, Andals or Targaryens arrived. They lived in the woods and worshipped the trees. They were dark and beautiful, little people. But they were fast and graceful. They had something resembling a gender egalitarian viewpoint as male and female CoTF hunted together with weirwood bows. Their wise men were called “greenseers”, and they carved faces onto the trees. 

But things changed 12,000 years ago. The First Men crossed from Essos into Westeros across the then-united arm of Dorne. The First Men had horses, bronze swords and leathern shields. So, the Children were terrified of these new arrivals. And then it got worse when the First Men cut down the trees to make their towns and holdfasts. The children went to war with the First Men. 

The COTF called down dark magic to break the Arm of Dorne, and the land ran red with the blood of First Men and Children. But the CoTF were losing the war. Finally, the Children and the First Men put their war aside and met together to hammer out a peace treaty at a place called “Gods Eye.” 

They they forged the Pact. The first Men were given the coastlands, the high plains and bright meadows, the mountains and bogs, but the deep woods were to remain forever the children’s and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the realm. So the gods might bear witness to the signing, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward the sacred order of green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces.

The pact started 4000 years of friendship between the First Men and CoTF. And at some point, the First Men had even put aside their religion for the faith of the Old Gods. Thus began the Age of Heroes. Now, THAT is how you do backstory Luwin and George RR Martin!

Bran says that the CoTF are gone, but Osha puts in that yeah, they’re gone here. But it’s different North of the Wall. Maester Sam Harris Luwin sighs and says that Osha should be back in chains by all rights, and that Osha shouldn’t be telling them that the Children of the Forest are real. They are dead, and we killed them. Is Luwin the Nietzsche of ASOIAF? Asking the real questions here.

But Bran wants to know what happened next in the story. Where did the CoTF go? Well, everything was fine until those goddamned Andals crossed into Westeros. The Andals fought hundreds of years worth of wars in Westeros, bringing a violent conception of the Faith of the Seven with them as they went to work. And at long last, six of the seven kingdoms in the south were absorbed into a patchwork of Andal kingdoms. 

In the North, things were different though. The Starks threw back every invasion, but down south, the Andals cut down the weirwood trees and burned them, telling everyone that they had pantsed the Old Gods in favor of their new gods. So, the Children had to flee, and they went north-

Summer began to howl.

Luwin breaks off from his story. Shaggydog joins in the howling. Fear grips Bran.

It’s coming, he whispered, with the certainty of despair. He had known it since last night, he realized, since the crow had led him down into the crypts to say farewell. He had known it, but he had no believed. He had wanted Maester Luwin to be right. The crow, Bran thought, the three-eyed crow …

The howling stops, and a raven lands on the windowsill. Rickon cries, letting the arrowheads falls to the ground. Bran pulls his brother to him and hugs him. And Luwin looks at the bird as if, and I love this, it were a “scorpion with feathers.”

Luwin heads over to the bird and sees that it’s injured. The maester thinks that it was a hawk or owl who attacked the bird. He grabs the piece of paper from his leg. Bran shivers and asks, what is it? 

You know what it is, boy, Osha says, not unkindly.

Maester Luwin looks up at everyone numbly, tears in his bright grey eyes.

“My lords,” he says to the sons, in a voice gone hoarse and shrunken, “we … we shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well …”

And that is AGOT, Bran VII: our final Bran chapter in AGOT.

It’s amazing to me that we’re here now, closing out chapter POVs from various POV characters in AGOT. We had Ned’s final chapter a few weeks ago, Arya’s final AGOT chapter last week, Sansa’s next week, but Bran’s kind of hits me in writing this synopsis. Bran is the genesis for GRRM’s writing of AGOT and ASOIAF as we talked about all the way back in February 2018, and now we’re saying goodbye to our baby boy today for a time. The nice thing is that we don’t have to wait too long as we have Bran’s marvelous ACOK arc coming up, but it’s finally hitting me that we’re almost done AGOT. And man, I’ll have a lot to say about AGOT when we come to our end of the book patreon episode, but it’s hitting me, Emmett. It just is!

Regardless of my blubbery nonsense though, Emmett, what did you think of this chapter?

Depth

We’re just coming off Ned’s execution, and before that was Mirri Maz Duur’s blood magic, and before THAT were the First Big Battles...and I would be lying if I said I thought this chapter was on par with those. Bran VII is probably my least favorite chapter of this final third or so of AGOT, which as we’ve been covering is just an embarrassment of riches. When we last checked in with Bran, I said that while he has my favorite chapters of any POV in the first half of the book, his story rapidly peters out in the second half; this chapter is where it really becomes clear that most of this stuff isn’t going to pay off for a while. Next week we’re doing Sansa VI, which is such a brilliant capper for her story in book one and brings all the themes and ideas together. Bran VII, by contrast, doesn’t really feel like it’s a conclusive end to a coherent story in this book.

True enough! You have to wonder whether this was another place where GRRM had elements of what became Bran’s ACOK chapters already written, but when he decided to split material for AGOT into ACOK, he rewrote this chapter to be the final AGOT Bran chapter. Still, I like this chapter. Just consider that we’ve been on a whirlwind of battles, magic shadow demons and then Ned Stark’s execution. Placing Bran’s chapter here works as quiet, reflective melancholy to the seismic plot-heavy chapters that preceded it.

But I can say nice things! There’s a ton of important worldbuilding in Bran VII, some neat spooky imagery in the crypts, and above all, emotional character work in both large and small strokes.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

We generally discuss the red comet as the giant Rorschach blot in the sky George uses as a framing device in ACOK, but it first shows up here in Bran VII...and again in Dany X, suggesting that the dragonbirth takes place the night before this chapter. So while the red comet has maaaany associations, perhaps we’re meant to take away that the primary ones are Ned Stark’s blood (as Arya will think) and the “fire and blood” of the dragons’ return (as Dany assumes). 

Bran says that Rickard Stark was “beheaded” by Aerys II Targaryen, and also that Rhaegar Targaryen “raped” Lyanna Stark. As we learn later from Catelyn’s fateful conversation with Jaime in the Riverrun dungeon, Rickard wasn’t beheaded. Instead, he was burned to death by Aerys while Brandon was strangled trying to saving him. And we learn (from the show -- though Ned’s memories of Rhaegar don’t lend itself to Rhaegar as the evil rapist) that Rhaegar didn’t rape Lyanna. They were in love, and they married. You have to wonder whether Ned allowed these lies to be told in Winterfell to obscure the truth -- for two seemingly unconnected but quite similar reasons! Preserving innocents/innocence. Rickard Stark’s murder was horrific, and I think Ned thought beheading a much cleaner death than burning, and he didn’t want to horrify his wife and children with the truth. On the other hand, Ned allowing the lie about Rhaegar seems likely to be a way to preserve the truth about Jon’s parentage a secret … maybe? I don’t know! Still, it’s nice to get a more grounded view of Ned. Yes, he’s a good guy, but he’s not above letting lies linger to keep his loved ones safe.

Bran wants Hodor to go into the deep dark places, and is tempted to force him with violence...but holds back, and Maester Luwin admonishes him for even thinking of doing so. Come ADWD, Bran will psychically force Hodor to go into deep dark places, and one gets the sense that his new mentor Bloodraven would not disapprove. 

This isn’t the only time a Stark boy (and his wolf) hides in the darkness of the crypts. Bran and Rickon come down here along with Osha, Hodor, and the Reed siblings to escape Theon’s clutches in ACOK. The Bael the Bard story suggests it may have also happened historically.

Theory/Discussion

So what did happen when the Children of the Forest fled north?

Conclusion


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