Episode 58: A GAME OF THRONES, EDDARD XV: "Enter the Void" SHOW NOTES!

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 fifty-eighth episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “Enter the Void: An Analysis of AGOT, Eddard XV,” in which George RR Martin does his best Shakespeare pastiche in Ned’s final (sob) chapter in ASOIAF. Dad’s not going to make it this time either, is he, Emmett?

Speaking of Shakepeare: intro to Lauren, AKA ShakesofThrones, AKA Shakespeare of Thrones!

Hello, I am Lauren aka ShakespeareofThrones. I do talk a lot about Shakespeare’s influence in A Song of Ice and Fire on Twitter where you can find me @shakesofthrones …Love the podcast and am incredibly honored to be here. This is by far my favorite Ned chapter in the book and I’m super excited to talk about it.

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack 
• Grand Maester Timothy W
• Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N. 
• Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves
• Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
• Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
• Jancy O, Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch
• Lord Gene Master of Coin
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Baby the Onion Baby
• Lord Blackheart the Defiant, Master of Zorse 
• Lord Micah Warden of the West and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised

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!

Ice and Fire Con! 

Question

Ser Jay B asks,

“If you could ONLY read either the Winds or the Spring, and never learn even in the broadest strokes what happens in the other one, which one would you choose? You gotta choose one, no “take my life instead” option for you! What’s it going to be, lady and gentlemen? Stannis victory over the Boltons or the bittersweet ending of the series? Tick tock…”

Synopsis

Back in August, I said that Catelyn V from AGOT was my favorite chapter in this book. I have an update on my rankings of AGOT chapters. AGOT, Catelyn V is now my 2nd favorite chapter in AGOT. Eddard XV is bar-none: the best chapter in AGOT.

And on that note ...

Ned Stark is alive! The crowd goes wild. He’s going to make it this time, guys. I can feel it. No? The story remains the same, and this is a re-read podcast? Oh no.

But for the time being, Ned is alive yet buried. The floor he lies on smells like Littlefinger (it’s the piss). But it was dark. Too dark. No windows, no bed, not even a bucket to piss into. Ned remembers the glimpses of what he last saw before coming into this dungeon: a door of splintered wood, pale red stone “festooned with patches of nitre.” And because I’m a dum-dum, I had to look up what “nitre” is exactly. Turns out it’s potassium nitrate or saltpeter. You learn something every day. Thanks, George!

But once Ned had been tossed into this room, the door had been shut, and the darkness was complete, total. He could have been blind.

Or dead, Buried with his king.

He talks to Robert, himself, both. He remembers when Robert told him that the king eats, and the Hand takes the shit. But Robert had gotten it wrong.

The king dies, and the Hand is buried.

Lotta burial imagery so far. And that brings us to a question: where exactly is Ned? Well, he’s in the deepest bowels of the Red Keep dungeon: the black cells. The castle itself was designed by Maegor the Cruel who had all the stonemasons murdered so as to keep the secrets of the Red Keep secret. And then Ned turns his attention to the people who need a good damning:

He damned them all: Littlefinger, Janos Slynt and his gold cloaks, the queen, the Kingslayer, Pycelle and Varys and Ser Barristan, even Lord Renly, Robert’s own blood who had run when he was needed most. Yet in the end he blamed himself. “Foo,” he cried to the darkness, “thrice-damned blind fool.”

In the darkness, Ned sees Cersei and her golden hair, telling him When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. Ned tried playing the game. He lost. And the price was the lives of his men.

And then Ned turns his attention to his daughters. If he could, he would weep for them, but he’s a Stark of Winterfell, and tears wouldn’t come. His rage and anger freeze hard inside of him. And just pause here. Again, George, if you would. Please do the unpublished writers a favor and not be so good, okay? Thanks.

Anyways, Ned’s leg still throbs in pain, but it wasn’t as painful when kept still. So, he tried not to move. Ned sleeps and wakes, days running into each other to the point where he’s not sure what day it is or whether it’s day or night outside. His thoughts turn to the one woman who has done only one thing wrong in her entire life:

The thought of Cat was as painful as a bed of nettles. He wondered where she was, what she was doing. He wondered whether he would ever see her again.

It hurts me in my deep places to report that no, Ned, you are never going to see Catelyn again. 

Hours turn into days, and as time becomes imprecise, the silence remains Ned’s constant. He begins talking to himself to hear something. He thinks about Renly and Stannis raising armies to take King’s Landing. Or maybe Harwin and the nascent Brotherhood without Banners would march on King’s Landing. Maybe even the beloved Catelyn Stark was raising the North, Riverlands and Vale to march.

But above all of these castles of hope built in the dark as George writes it, he thinks most of Robert. He imagines him as the boy of his youth. Talle, handsome, muscled like a maiden’s fantasy, like a horned god: you all know the bit by now. Ned imagines Robert laughing about how it all came to this: Ned in the dungeon and Robert killed by a pig.

I failed you, Ned thought. He could not say the words. I lied to you, hid the truth. I let them kill you.

Well, according to fantasy-Robert, Ned was a stiff-necked fool, too proud to listen. Honor isn’t going to shield or help you. And then cracks rippled across Fantasy-Robert’s face, and he morphs into Littlefinger with his grinning, mocking smile. Littlefinger’s mouth opens, and his lies turn into pale grey moths, and oh my god, George. I just watched Silence of the Lambs for the first time. Are you speaking to me?

The first time they came for him, Ned was half-asleep. They burst in, flooding the room with light, and thrust a jug of water at Lord Stark. Ned had gulped the water down, but when he started to ask how long he’d been down in the dungeons, the gaoler had wrenched the water jug from Ned and told him to shut up. When Ned tried to ask after Arya and Sansa, the gaoler had slammed the jail cell door shut. Ned lowers his face back down into the straw, and now he’s nose-blind to all the Littlefingerian piss smells in the straw.

And if going nose-blind, being left alone in the dark, starvation or his crushing guilt weren’t bad enough, Ned begins to lose track of when he’s awake or asleep. And so, a memory vivid as a dream creeps up on Ned. Ned was eighteen. At Harrenhal. And OH, SHIT! Hold up! Ned’s going to tell the story of the Tourney of Harrenhal. BUCKLE. UP.

Well, Ned was a very young man, and he experiences the memory in vivid color, smell and sound. The deep green grass, the pollen on the wind, warm days, cool nights, the sweet taste of wine, Brandon’s laughter. He remembers Robert’s courage and then Jaime receiving the white cloak of the kingsguard. All of the Kingsguard - Oswell Whent, Gerold Hightower and the rest - were there to welcome Jaime into the ranks. And then the jousting had begun.

Strangely, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. He wore his black armor with rubies weaved into the breastplate -- same armor he would die in. And the Crown Prince had knocked Brandon Stark, Bronze Yohn Royce and Ser Arthur Dayne into the mud. And finally Rhaegar had knocked Barristan Selmy off his horse in the final tilt. It was all jokes and joy until …

Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty’s laurel in Lyanna’s lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost.

Ned tries reach out to the roses, but he feels the thorns beneath the petals, and the thorns cut into his skin. Ned wakes in the dark, but the memories remain:

Promise me, Ned his sister had whispered from her bed of blood. She had loved the scent of winter roses.

Ned weeps. Gods save me, I am going mad. But the gods, because they’re assholes don’t answer him. 

Days pass, and Ned counts them by the times that a jug of water is brought to him. He keeps trying to ask for any information, but he only gets kicked and told to shut the fuck up as responses. And now Ned was hungry. He tries begging for food, but even as be begs, he thinks that Cersei doesn’t want him dead lest he would have been killed in the throneroom. Cersei wants Ned alive -- albeit weak and starving.

And then another rattle, the door creaks open. Ned asks for food, but a somewhat familiar voice responds with wine. This man was a different man than the one who had brought Ned water. The voice tells Ned to drink, and as he does, Ned realizes who it is. Varys. But this Varys doesn’t resemble the one Ned remembers:

The eunuch’s plump cheeks were covered with a dark stubble of beard. Ned felt the coarse hair with his fingers. Varys had transformed himself into a grizzled turnkey, reeking of sweat and sour wine. “How did you … what sort of magician are you?

A thirsty one, Varys retorts. Varys tells Ned to drink again, but Ned is suspicious, wondering if it’s the same poison as the one that Robert had. But no. It’s not. Varys takes the wineskin from Ned and takes a gulp, doing his whole it’s no more poisonous than most bit. He gives the wine back to Ned, and Ned drinks the dregs. He nearly pukes right then and there.

All men must swallow the sour with the sweet. High lords and eunuchs alike. Your hour has come, my lord.

Ned asks after his daughters, and he’s relieved to find that they’re alive. Arya is somewhere, no one knows where, and Sansa is still betrothed to Joffrey. Varys had been present when Sansa had asked that Ned’s life be spared. Ned would have been touched by her courage. But then Varys leans forward:

I trust you realize you are a dead man, Lord Stark.

Ah, how quickly the visage changes. Well, Ned has previously convinced himself that Cersei wouldn’t kill him, and he reiterates this point to Varys. Besides, Catelyn has Tyrion. Ah, no. She doesn’t. Okay, well that sucks. Then why not just kill Ned? Ah, no. Varys doesn’t want Ned to die -- at least not yet! He’s got Aegon to consider! But Ned is unfazed. Goddamit, Varys. You just stood there and didn’t do a damn thing when my men were killed. You didn’t even say a fucking word!

And would again. I seem to recall that I was unarmed, unarmored and surrounded by Lannister swords.

Besides, Varys was only playing his mummer’s role. Everyone has a part to play. Varys’ particular part is to be sly and obsequious and without scruple. 

A courageous informer would be as useless as a cowardly knight.

Ned looks Varys over and asks if the eunuch could free him. Well, yeah. He could. But he won’t. Okay then. Will Varys deliver a letter for Ned? Uh, sure, so long as Varys reads it over first and decides whether he wants to send it or not as best fits his interests. You understand, of course Ned, right?

Yeah. Ned understands. But what the fuck are you really after Varys? Peace, he replies. And somehow, I think Varys means it in his own twisted way. He didn’t want Robert dead and had tried protecting him from his enemies. Too bad Robert’s got shitty friends who would tell Cersei that they knew the truth of Joffrey’s birth. Why you so dumb, Ned?

Well, Ned isn’t dumb first off. But secondly, Ned did it, because he was giving Cersei mercy. Varys understands, musing about how few honest people there are in Westeros. When I see what honesty and honor have won you, I understand why.

But let’s move on Varys. Can we talk about Lancel and his role in killing Robert? Sure. He gave Robert the wine. Cersei told Lancel that it was Robert’s favorite vintage. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyways. Robert was a man marked for death. If it wasn’t the wine, it would have been a fall from a horse, a snake bite. But beyond that, it wasn’t any of those things that really did Robert in:

It was not wine that killed the king. It was your mercy.

Ned bitterly asks the gods to forgive him, and Varys responds that if there are gods, they’ll likely forgive Ned. Besides, Cersei was going to knock Robert off sooner rather than later. She needed him gone to deal with his brothers.

They are quite a pair, Stannis and Renly. The iron gauntlet and the silk glove. 

Oh, and Ned, you should have backed Littlefinger’s plan to support Joff’s ascension to the Iron Throne. Ned is stunned. How in the world did Varys know that? That doesn’t matter. What matters is that Cersei is coming tomorrow. She’s afraid of Ned, and her enemies are all around her. And did Varys mention that Robb is marching down the Neck with a northern army at his back? Well, shit, Varys. Why didn’t you fuckin’ mention that sooner? Robb’s only a boy. Yeah. A boy with an army. But yes, a boy. It’s really Stannis that gives Cersei sleepless nights. 

His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

Varys … love ya, but you are so fucking wrong and yet somewhat right at the same time. Cannot WAIT for ACOK. 

Anyhow, Cersei’s fear is that Tywin and Jaime will be dealing with the riverlords and Robb while Stannis lands and proclaims himself king. And then he’ll march on King’s Landing and kill Joffrey. No doubt Cersei is more concerned with Joffrey’s head than her own.

Stannis Baratheon is Robert’s true heir, Ned said. The throne is his by rights. I would welcome his ascent.

And just so that every bad and ugly opinion-holder hears it again, let me now re-read that Ned supports Stannis. Ahem.

Varys says that Cersei ain’t gonna be too happy if Ned says that to her. But besides … even if Stannis wins, only your beheaded head will be present to welcome his ascent. Sansa begged for your life, you idiot. Don’t throw it away. No, fuck that, Ned sort-of says. He ain’t going to serve Cersei. She killed his men. Well, don’t serve Cersei, Varys replies. Serve the realm instead. Confess your treason, proclaim Joffrey as king, send your son and his army back home and keep Cersei’s secrets. Then you can take the black and hang out with Jon Snow on the Wall.

The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words. If only he could see the boy again, sit and talk with him …

And what would you want to sit and talk with Jon about, Ned, hmmm? HMMMMMM?

Well, Ned’s leg starts to flare up in pain again, and he asks Varys if he’s working with Littlefinger. Ha, no, Ned. Varys ain’t working with Littlefinger. He’d sooner wed the Black Goat of Qohor. Nice, Varys. Sure, he feeds Littlefinger choice whispers, much as he feeds Cersei choice whispers -- all to convince these two that he’s their man. Ah, well Ned has some thoughts about this, and I’ll read the passage in full, because it’s a personal fav of mine!

And just as you let me believe that you were mine. Tell me, Lord Varys, who do you truly serve?

Varys smiled thinly. “Why, the realm, my good lord, how ever could you doubt that? I swear it by my lost manhood. I serve the realm, and the realm needs peace.

But … do you, Varys? Do you really serve the realm and peace? Sighhhhhhhhhhhhh.

But we’re getting distracted, Ned. What’s your answer when Cersei comes? Well, his answer is fuck no, fuck you and fuck this motherfucking political system that would stand on a foundation of lies and deceipt. Ned’s life is less precious than his honor.

Got it, Ned. So, your life isn’t all that valuable. Would it be okay if we killed Sansa instead, Ned? Wait, Sansa? Yeah, Ned, Sansa. She’ll be so fucking dead if you don’t give Cersei the answer and follow-on responses that she wants. And do we kill children in Westeros? Yeah we do. Just look at Rhaegar’s kids if you want proof of that. And then we get some more Varys mugging for the camera, and it’s just perf:

The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that’s true, Lord Eddard, tell me … why is it always the innocents who suffer most when you high lords play your game of thrones. Ponder it, if you would, while you wait upon the queen. And spare a thought for this as well: The next visitor who calls on you could bring you bread and cheese and the milk of the poppy for your pain … or he could bring you Sansa’s head.

The choice is entirely Ned’s.

And that is AGOT, Eddard XV, and I think we can all let out the breath we were holding as we plunged through that final Ned and Varys scene. It’s the defining conversation in AGOT. Hell, it even has Varys says the words game of thrones. 

I have so many emotions going through this chapter. It’s a rush. It’s Varys at his most cynical yet somewhat honest. It’s so fucking sad sitting here at the end of Ned Stark. Yeah, we’re going to see him one last time. We’ll hear him say some words, but dad’s not going to make it. And I’m angry and sad and sad and angry.

Depth

The last and best Ned chapter, despite being an epilogue more than a climax. As we said in Eddard XIV, the climax was the confrontation in the throne room, as Ned puts it all on the line and goes down with his men. But I’ve been saying throughout Ned’s chapters that while the overarching plot about discovering the truth of Jon Arryn’s death and Cersei’s incest is serviceable, what really draws me into these chapters on reread is the internal qualities of Ned’s arc: the emotional and philosophical questions sparked by that unfolding mystery and the drama created by its agonizing interaction with Ned’s backstory, increasingly present in his mind.

In Eddard XV, the overarching story is over, and it’s being stripped down for spare parts. You’ve got Robb preparing to take over for Ned in-universe and Tyrion in the wings to take over for him in terms of the narrative. So all that’s left is the character, alone in the dark, turning inward on himself because it’s all he has left to do. The black cells are a crucible for Ned, breaking him down physically and emotionally so GRRM can fully explore the themes at his story’s heart. This is where we talk about what it all meant, and it hits home as such because it’s communicated so beautifully. There’s so much to discuss, but what really makes Eddard XV my favorite Ned chapter is the tone, alternately harrowing and sorrowful, the perfect way for him to go.

• That harrowing, sorrowful tone as Ned turns inward on himself is so powerful and even theatrical. It’s very much like the tragic hero’s final soliloquy in Act V when he realizes he’s probably not going to make it and is reflecting on life one last time.
• Minimalist v. Maximalist 
  • This is a more stylistically ambitious chapter than it might appear on first glance
  • On the one hand, it’s about a man lying very still in a box. Occasionally he gets to drink something. The thrills! The chills!
  • It would seem to stand in deliberate contrast to something like the Hand’s Tourney or the Tower of Joy, those showers of bright overripe imagery
  • But the first half of the chapter finds Ned taking refuge in exactly that kind of imagery, “castles of hope” as he tellingly calls them...before they turn on him
  • So Eddard XV finds GRRM pushing the envelope in both directions at once
  • We’ve talked before about ASOIAF being neither romantic nor grimdark but about the collision between the two; Eddard XV is perhaps the ultimate example
  • GRRM cuts back and forth between the grounded misery of imprisonment to the wistful flights of fancy in Ned’s mind’s eye, creating an almost dialectic feel
  • ASOIAF is the synthesis resulting from this process, one which does not abandon the rich surface of fantasy, but seeks to put it in context of bleak politics, bleaker violence, and above all, the internal struggles of our characters
  • Rather than strand fantasy in grimdark or scrub it squeaky clean again, GRRM insists that the two have a relationship and we have to understand what it is
  • You could argue that such a synthesis is the in-universe ideal as well; note how GRRM contrasts Melisandre’s rigid Manichean binaries (“there are two. Two!”) with the Reeds’ semi-Taoist beliefs in a unitary whole of mountain and valley, love and hate, ice and fire, etc. by putting them in successive chapters in ASOS
• Into the black
  • So let’s get into both sides, the minimal and maximal, starting with the former
  • Eddard XV is full of these raw details emphasizing the sheer physical toll of his imprisonment
    • The stink of urine
    • The lack of adequate food and water
    • The lack of comfortable bedding
    • His inflamed wound going untreated
  • But there’s also a psychological toll
    • The dark
    • The solitude
    • The grief and guilt RE both Robert and his men who died in the throne room
    • The agony of not knowing what’s happened to his daughters
    • The self-loathing turn inward that accompanies such an environment
  • On one level, you can see GRRM making what really ought to be an uncontroversial argument: solitary confinement is torture
  • (I mean, I think imprisonment in general is a bad thing that causes more problems than it solves, but that’s an argument for another day…)
  • Humans aren’t meant to live like this, cut off from stimulus and nourishment
    • “Gods save me...I am going mad”
  • Shakespeare check-in (if I may!) - this scene reminds me an awful lot of Richard II’s imprisonment scene (Act V of course) which starts with a soliloquy revealing how solitary confinement has driven him mad:
    • “I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; And for because the world is populous and here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it; yet I’ll hammer it out.” And he goes on to describe how his brain and soul will marry and beget thoughts which will people his world...it is actually painful and distressing to read, much like this chapter.
  • GRRM is ruthlessly stripping Ned down to his core so he can extract as much meaning as possible, but is also framing the literal stripping down as awful
  • On first read, this might seem like Ned is in the belly of the whale (like Davos in both ASOS and ADWD) prior to his rebirth
  • On reread, though, we know that this cell represents his coffin, hence the connections between the black cells and the Winterfell crypts (which also go down several levels beyond comfort), reinforced by Bran and Rickon’s dreams 
  • This is his last chance to give his life meaning, decide what it all was for
  • Speaking of which...
• Ned’s life flashing before his eyes
  • And now the maximal! 
  • Unlike the singular setpiece of the Tower of Joy, Eddard XV is more impressionistic in its use of flashbacks and loaded imagery
  • That fever dream was the keystone, the crown jewel of Ned’s storyline; here, he’s more like Bran tripping on Jojenpaste, skipping across the surface of his life
  • As the visions in the House of the Undying shivered out of the indigo, I imagine Ned’s visions being somehow both rainbow-colored and in shades of black 
  • But what Ned is looking for isn’t some cryptic prophetic image of the sort that pops up in Bran and Dany chapters, he’s looking for the meaning of his life
  • “I trust you realize you are a dead man, Lord Eddard?” Yes, he does, at some level. “Or dead. Buried with his king” like a khal’s bloodriders following him to the grave. So now he has to know: what was it all for?
  • That’s why the visions center around not only the present-day villains who have brought him low (Cersei and Littlefinger, both mocking him), but also the two people that have defined his life more than any other: Robert and Lyanna
  • Indeed, Robert gives way to Littlefinger, and there’s a lot linking Cersei to Lyanna here as well--Robert was left with her after Lyanna’s death
  • The vision of Robert is especially interesting to me, it’s almost like he’s a ghost in how he and Ned converse with each other and see each other in the same space. Ghosts are one thing we don’t get in ASOIAF, but Ned’s vision of Robert feels very much like one. I wonder if GRRM was tempted to go full-Shakespearean and make Robert a ghost, but he resisted; a good thing probably; the deeper meaning of ghosts in literature is usually the inner psychology of the character they appear to, and that’s some we explore quite thoroughly in this chapter
  • Their conversation emphasizes their fall from grace: 
    • He saw the king as he had been in the flower of his youth, tall and handsome, his great antlered helm on his head, his warhammer in hand, sitting his horse like a horned god. He heard his laughter in the dark, saw his eyes, blue and clear as mountain lakes. "Look at us, Ned," Robert said. "Gods, how did we come to this? You here, and me killed by a pig. We won a throne together …"
  • The longer flashback centers on the Tourney at Harrenhal, firmly establishing it as GRRM’s ultimate vision of The Good Life, the temporary state of grace for which that generation is forever searching to no avail
  • It’s connected to laughter, sex, wine, war as a game rather than a grim reality, and of course warm weather, a sense of winter lifting. But it’s a false spring, and Ned feels that now more than ever with Robert dead along with so many Starks
  • That’s how the vision ends, with “the moment when all the smiles died” (a great alternate title for this book IMO), as Rhaegar crowns Lyanna in blood wearing the armor he will die in
  • Ned reaching for the crown and bleeding for it is intimately tied not only to Robert’s Rebellion and Ned’s current state, but also his promise to Lyanna
  • Jon (as a potential heir to the Throne) is the crown, and Ned has metaphorically and now literally bled to keep him and other kids safe
  • (Of course it’s also about Jesus etc etc) 
  • That promise and the interconnected “mercy for the children” theme is Ned’s redemption, his candle in the darkness
  • While Robert/Littlefinger delivers the line so many take away from Ned’s story (“Can you eat pride, Stark? Will honor shield your children?”) it’s worth remembering that Ned making his deal with Cersei and lying for his children’s sake does NOT shield him, nor his children
  • What shields his children are the bonds he made in life--that’s why the Reeds guard Bran, that’s why the clansmen are marching for Arya (or so they believe), and that’s partially why the northmen will in all likelihood crown Jon
  • “Men’s lives have meaning, not their deaths,” and while Ned is despairing because he’s hit rock bottom, his legacy is more than this dark night of the soul
• A chess game with Death
  • And then Varys walks in, for what’s probably his best scene in the series to date
  • It’s telling that GRRM chooses to show this conversation and not the one with Cersei that follows it 
  • The latter is the one that actually matters in terms of the plot (it’s the one that leads to Ned’s false confession and thus his execution come Arya V), but as I said earlier, this chapter is more about character and theme than plot, and the conversation with Varys is all about character and theme
  • After all, we already had the Ned v. Cersei showdown, in the godswood in Eddard XII! That was the center of Ned’s story, and this is the epilogue
  • Varys isn’t Ned’s nemesis nor his assassin, he’s the crypt keeper, the grim reaper, the ferryman come to usher Ned across the River Styx
  • Ned spends the whole chapter on the edge between life and death: he loses his sense of time and smell, he comes unstuck in time, etc.
  • So Varys is Death, and this is GRRM’s Seventh Seal

Varys’ entrance changes the narrative rhythm of Ned’s POV and marks the second part of the chapter:

• Turns Ned’s inner monologue into a two-character dialogue, heightening dramatic tension
• Varys enhances the theatrical vibes with his mummery and lyrical speech, especially with his “Each man has a role to play” bit which is reminiscent of a famous monologue from As You Like It:“
  
  All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players;
  
  They have their exits and their entrances;
  
  And one man in his time plays many parts,”
  • Varys is telling Ned he has a role to play! Ned’s gonna have to brush off his acting skills, because he’s going to have to lie
• Varys presents to him the moral quandary at the end of the chapter: telling the truth to the public or lying to save his daughter, and we understand pretty well how Ned will choose because we were witness to that exploration of his mind early in the chapter--the grief and guilt he feels about failing those he loves outweighs his commitment to honor and integrity (tricky concepts to define in this situation, a conflict of loyalties but we’ll get back to that in a second)
  • The author emphasises Varys’ status as an avatar of death with some classic wine=blood symbolism:
    • He drank, a trickle of red leaking from the corner of his plump mouth. 
  • Even more telling:
    • “I serve the realm, and the realm needs peace." He finished the last swallow of wine, and tossed the empty skin aside.
  • So Varys’ proclamation of peace is undercut by the imagery, which suggests the realm will be emptied of blood by the time he is done--it’s the peace of the grave
  • This is exactly what Ned has been dreading and trying to avoid RE Robert. The specter of Rhaegar’s children, the threat to Dany’s life, Ned’s subtextual fears for Jon’s, all of it points to Robert as Aerys and hence king of ashes. 
  • Varys’ detached view has a cold Machiavellian logic, but in the series as a whole, GRRM argues that the individual acts of mercy should hold sway (see Davos’ “everything” especially) and will ultimately produce better outcomes
  • Never forget that Varys fed Aerys’ worse impulses, no matter what he says now

Regarding Ned’s fears that he “let them kill [Robert]” and Varys’ line about Ned’s mercy killing Robert—there is some interesting Shakespearean influence behind the suggestion that Ned had a part to play in Robert’s death

• George seems to be solidifying a parallel between Ned and Brutus in Julius Caesar
  • Each the trusted friend of a powerful leader
  • Dedicate themselves to the public sphere but are ultimately rejected by it
  • Reputed as the most honorable of men: “For let the gods so speed me as I love the name of honor more than I fear death”
  • Tragic heroes with fatal flaws
  • Even their differences are reflective; Brutus carries out a murder conspiracy while Ned seeks to solve one. Brutus is governed by public loyalties while Ned is governed by private loyalties. 
• Shakespeare’s message with Brutus was that it’s unwise to elevate the public self entirely over the private self; George R. R. Martin counters that message in AGOT by showing us that there is equally great danger when public duties aren’t given as much priority as the private self
  • RE fatal flaws: Perennial argument of what was Ned’s downfall: his honor or failure to understand/efficiently carry out duties of his position--kind of both? His personal sense of honor was a part of his decisions that made him not the best Hand of the King
  • Arguing that Ned was “too honorable” is too grimdark and nihilistic for what Martin is trying to achieve with Ned’s arc.
  • I think there is generally too much focus on “where Ned went wrong” and not enough on what he did right, especially in the broad scope of his whole narrative—how he died after making a choice that was personally meaningful and true to who he was after all his emotional trauma from Robert’s Rebellion
  • Despite all this, it’s still kind of a stretch to make that Ned-Brutus parallel without Ned killing Robert, because Brutus killing Caesar is a big deal in his arc; and here in this chapter George sneakily slides that in to really solidify the allusion so it’s all nice and neat and tied up in a bow
  • What do we know about what George has said about Julius Caesar?
    • On of his two favorite Shakespeare plays alongside Richard III (thanks Eliana who asked him at a book signing)
    • The comet in Julius Caesar was inspiration for the comet at the end of AGOT (SSM 2002)
    • From SSM in 2001: someone asked George about honor in ASOIAF, and he replied:
      
      “Two thousand years after the assassination of Julius Caesar, people are still debating whether or not that was an honorable act. Dante put Brutus and Cassius in the lowest level of hell for what they did, right next to Judas Iscariot, but Shakespeare wrote that Brutus was ‘the noblest Roman of them all.’ So argue on.”
      • George R.R. Martin adds to that rich historical and literary narrative surrounding honor with his own story; by positioning Ned alongside Brutus, George shows us that honor is a very broad spectrum but the human condition is still very much the same. Just profound.
  • This conflict of public self vs. private self and how that contributes to the concept of honor is Ned’s philosophical legacy in ASOIAF. George continues to bring back this conflict through characters like Jaime, Stannis, and Jon. All variations on the same theme, all very complex/compelling characters with very different systems of honor as a result of how they balance that conflict and those competing priorities.
  • Moreover, while Varys framing Ned’s mercy as being responsible for Robert’s death has a dramatic logic as Lauren noted, in literal terms, it’s not actually true--Cersei had already dispatched Lancel with the wine, and as Varys admits, she had to get rid of Robert soon anyway to focus on Stannis and Renly
  • Speaking of which, here’s where we get GRRM’s definitive statement to date on Robert’s brothers, starting by contrasting them before zooming in on Stannis
    • “They are quite a pair, Stannis and Renly. The iron gauntlet and the silk glove."
  • Varys’ description sounds like a good cop and a bad cop, the viper and the grass, and is testament to how well they could work together...but of course, they won’t
  • The Lannisters are so relieved about that because that’s the only way they stand a chance of survival; as Stannis notes, he and Renly would be unbeatable as one
  • That the royal family instead turns on each other in Robert’s wake mirrors Ned’s overall disillusionment about Robert and the latter’s fall from grace
  • Even more important for both Ned and Varys, though, is the latter’s description of Stannis, one of my favorite passages in the series:
    • “His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.”
  • I love this in so many ways, most of which I’m going to save for when we meet the man himself, but it sets up so well what Stannis *means* for the story
  • You can see Ned and the first time reader nodding along as Varys describes Stannis as a threat to Cersei, a proven commander, the true heir to the throne...
  • ...but then Varys gets to “utterly without mercy,” and you can imagine Ned’s smile starting to falter
  • Ned put it all on the line for mercy for Cersei’s children, and this is the first time he has to confront that the man he hoped to crown instead would kill those kids every bit as much as Robert would
  • Now, before Jeff kills me, Stannis is not as rigid and heartless as Varys makes out. But he does adopt a detached utilitarian view not dissimilar to that of Varys
  • Indeed, he’s urged to do so by Melisandre, who has so many parallels with Varys
  • And that imagery I was talking about, among other things, points to the ultimate folly and failure of Varys’ approach; so too is Ned more admirable than Stannis IMO
  • Varys too thinks of himself as a truly just man, but he’s self-aware that he’s terrifying as well; when he speaks of the innocents who suffer in the game of thrones, he speaks as a man who orders childrens’ tongues removed
  • Speaking of which, the end of the chapter and of Ned’s POV arc revolves of course around the question of mercy for the children
  • Varys brings up Rhaenys, which cuts deep in so many ways
  • It reminds Ned of Robert’s culpability in child murder, and thus indirectly his own
  • The Lannisters knocking down her door parallels Jeyne Poole, one of the primary innocents who suffer in the game of thrones
  • Above all, the idea of Rhaenys learning the difference between a kitten and a dragon ties Ned’s struggle into that book-long theme of the innocence of songs and stories giving way to bloody depressing realities; Rhaenys = Sansa here
  • But the question ASOIAF focuses on is what you do after that realization, which is why it’s the focus of the first book in the series, and the answer is not “give up on mercy and trying to do the right thing”
  • It is not Ned’s error, it’s Joffrey’s; “mercy is never a mistake” 

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

So much of this chapter feels like a template for chapters to come: prison chapters (see Davos and Theon), vision-quest chapters (see the House of the Undying), or both (see The Forsaken).

Maybe most of all, it’s paralleled with the epilogue to ADWD, in which Varys again gives a big ol’ villain(ish) monologue to a dead man

The ugly-bad theory that Varys and Littlefinger are working together was once and for all dispelled by none other than GRRM in Guadalajara 2016:

Interviewer: How would you describe Varys' and Littlefinger's relationship?

GRRM: Adversarial! Both of them know a lot about the other one, including some very damaging things. So, they're in, essentially, a stalemate, because each one knows that if he revealed what he knows about the other one, then the other one would reciprocate and they would both be destroyed. So, they're locked in a certain stalemate. I think Littlefinger has a better idea of what Varys wants than Varys has an idea of what Littlefinger wants. Littlefinger is an agent of chaos who likes to be unpredictable and succeeds in that.

Theory/Discussion

Shakespearean influence on ASOIAF in general

I AM SO EXCITED that you guys are letting me talk about Shakespeare in ASOIAF! It is my passion, my joy…

• A bit about me: I came to love the bard from growing up acting in a Shakespeare festival
• As soon as I started watching GoT and reading ASOIAF I was finding Shakespeare’s influence everywhere in this story, and started my twitter account because I had to start talking about it

So let’s talk about it, Shakespeare in ASOIAF. Shakespeare’s scope of influence in shaping modern English language, literature, and culture is just massive. You can do an analysis of Shakespearean influence in most great works of literature and find an awful lot. So especially when we’re looking at an author like George R.R. Martin who names so many of his influences and talks about how they manifest in his work, we want to take a very close look at what he has to say about Shakespeare

George has confirmed in multiple interviews/appearances that he loves Shakespeare, particularly the history plays; informed his interest in the Wars of the Roses which inspired ASOIAF

• First of all, citing the histories as your favorite Shakespeare plays: just wow.
  • It must be noted that Julius Caesar and Richard III are tragedies not histories, but they do lean more historical than the high tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth, and I think George is talking about the overall influence of the Henriad on his work
• And it all makes sense: “[The plot progression of Shakespeare’s Henriad] is founded in personality clashes interwoven expertly with political antagonisms, one action interrupting, overlapping, reinforcing, or retarding another. We become aware that history has a multiple momentum and is imperfectly controlled by the most powerful persons concerned” - A.D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker
• ^That is ASOIAF
• This dovetails perfectly with what we’ve been talking about a lot in our last few episodes, especially in Tyrion VII--the political and the personal struggles intertwining, so that family dramas explode onto the landscape. Varys alludes to that with Stannis v. Renly

Balticon 2016: “He’s sort of a looming presence you know?…you can dare to dream of writing like Tolkien, but no one can dream to write like Shakespeare.” - GRRM

• (So modest, George)
• No one can even *DREAM* to write like Shakespeare

Why can no one dream to write like Shakespeare? What makes the bard so awesome?

• His plays which expanded the dramatic potential of plot, language, and characterization: “Before Shakespeare there was characterization. After Shakespeare, there were characters, men and women capable of change, with highly individual personalities” – Harold Bloom
• Soliloquies are no longer used to deliver information and events to the audience, but to explore characters’ minds and inner conflict--man vs. self paradigm 
• Classical theatre and literature represents men and women as aging and dying, going on epic adventures, reconciling their relationship to society and the gods, but their character is still essentially unchanging.  Shakespeare takes it to the next level by looking inward instead of outward; characters develop and evolve as they reconceive themselves 
• Shakespeare has had a huge impact on other classic literature, including William Faulkner who George cites as one of his favorite authors—"human heart in conflict with itself” idea traces right back to Shakespeare 

When we’re reading ASOIAF, there are certain chapters and character arcs that feel distinctly “Shakespearean” as you have pointed out before on the cast. What triggers that connection?

• Poetic language – iambic flow of the dream sequence in Eddard X as Eliana pointed out on GGC; lyrical verse adds a new dimension
• Intimate two-person scenes which make up the bulk of a chapter, like in this chapter or the Ned and Cersei chapter—all highly character-explorative yet minimalistic in structure; you can imagine it easily staged
• Borrowing of symbols, themes and motifs, especially ominous portents like George loves to use as part of his foreshadowing 
  • Comet in AGOT inspired by comet in Julius Caesar 
  • Romeo & Juliet, ill-fated vibes right from the start 
    • Juxtapositions of opposites in R+J, love is fused with death in a way that fantasy is fused with harsh reality in AGOT
• Big theatrical events like the “celebration/feast gone wrong”; bringing all the characters together to the stage to kill em all, or to bear witness to a highly pivotal plot point--a HUGE theatrical ploy that George has the guts to pull off in novel format, not once, but multiple times in the series and it is extremely effective
• Characters! Individual storylines seem to position characters in the narrative similarly to characters in Shakespeare, and which also might echo similar motifs, themes and character conflicts – like Ned and Caesar’s Brutus but also:
  • Ned & Brutus; (Of course, Shakespeare’s Brutus isn’t the be-all-end-all of influences in Ned’s arc--in fact, Ned also shares similarities with Julius Caesar himself, and even Christ—all figures who are betrayed, murdered, and deified after death...but that’s a discussion for another day.)
  • Tyrion & RIII - complex characters that hover between comedy and horror
  • Stannis & Macbeth, Cersei & Macbeth/Lady Macbeth
  • [Littlefinger & Iago - a part of me hates giving LF any Shakespearean cred, but it’s true; if you ever wanted to know what a Littlefinger POV is like, go watch Othello] 
  • George brings broad plot structure or themes from particular plays into ASOIAF, clueing us in through character positioning and recurring motifs in a certain storyline, but always tweaking the narrative as if he’s countering Shakespeare or at least conversing with him on that narrative. 
• Probably even more influence than is intended; the literary subconscious is a powerful thing
• Shakespeare’s been so influential that even when you’re borrowing from someone else, you’re often borrowing from him by proxy--Kurosawa took so much from him, and GRRM takes so much from Kurosawa in ASOIAF

Conclusion

• Thanks for listening!
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• Join us next week for Catelyn IX, where we meet the most loathsome villain in ASOIAF: Joyeuse Erenford. Wait, are my notes are wrong? Ah, I see it now. It says WALDER FREY here. My mistake!