Episode 57: A GAME OF THRONES, SANSA V: "In the Court of the Crimson King" 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-seventh episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “In the Court of the Crimson King: An Analysis of AGOT, Sansa V,” in which Sansa Stark begs the newly-crowned King Joffrey for mercy for her father Eddard  and ... Joffrey agrees! Whew, another close call! Glad that’s taken care of!

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!

Question

Lady BWord asks:

Listening to your latest Sansa episode made me wonder something; hypothetically, if the Tyrell’s had been in the Lannister’s position (let’s say Mace was born female) do you think they would have handled Sansa any differently at the arrest of her father? Like the Lannister’s they are a very manipulative group, I feel they would have behaved similarly in trying to get Sansa to do their bidding. I’m curious to know your thoughts. 

Synopsis

Remember all those fabulous hunting tapestries that Robert hung on the walls of the Red Keep after taking the dragon skulls down? Welp, wouldn’t you know it, but those same tapestries have been stripped off the walls and dropped in a heap in the corner of the room. This is regime change, and it only gets worse and worse from there.

Sansa stands near the door unescorted. Yes, she’s been given freedom of the castle so long as she doesn’t go past the walls of the Red Keep, and Sansa was happy to make that promise. It wasn’t like she could really go all that far anyways. Janos Slynt, garbage man, has his goldcloaks guarding every gateway in and out of the Red Keep. And beyond even that: where would Sansa even go? At least here in the Red Keep, she could pick flowers or pray at the castle godswood.

But back to the Red Keep. It’s the first court session of Good King Joffrey’s reign, and Sansa is a bit nervous about it all. For the moment, it’s the gold cloaks and red cloaks in the hall, but it’ll become much more nerve-wracking later on. And as for the audience for this court session, well, it’s a bit threadbare. Where Robert’s courts had a hundred nobles, knights and smallfolk always there, this one has a paltry twenty high and lesser lords. And of course, because this is the beginning of the Lannister regime in King’s Landing, they ain’t gonna allow the poors to be present.

Sansa wades into the mix of twenty nobles and tries to greet them. But none of them want anything to do with her. Lord Gyles fakes a coughing spell, and when Ser Dontos Hollard, who may turn out to be important in books 2 and 3, we’ll see, tries to call out a drunken greeting, Balon Swann whispers into his ear, and he turns away.

And, again, where the fuck was everyone? Where had everyone gone? Where were the friendly faces that greeted her during Robert’s reign?

It was as if she had become a ghost, dead before her time.

Poetic, Sansa. But up ahead at the small council, Pycelle sits at it alone, because who the fuck wants to be near the Grand Molestor? I hate him. But then Varys scurries into the hall, his slippered feet making no sound. A moment later, Littlefinger the Defiler, comes striding in, shit eating grin spreading across his asshole of a mouth. He pauses to speak with Ser Balon and Ser Dontos Hollard. Yup. More on this come ACOK! But all the new entries into the Red Keep make Sansa more and more nervous:

I shouldn’t be afraid, she told herself. I have nothing to be afraid of, it will all come out well, Joff loves me and the queen does too, she said so.

Oh Sansa, life is not a song. But before we get all that, Joffrey enters to the herald’s cry, following Ser Barristan Selmy with Ser Arys Oakheart escorting Cersei and Ser Boros Blount next to Joffrey. With Jaime off violating his Kingsguard vows and leading an army of war criminals in the Riverlands, all six of the seven white swords are now present in the Red Keep. 

Joffrey is resplendent in his black velvets slashed with a crimson and cloth of gold cape and crown, which, Cersei … sigh. But we’ll get to that. He notices Sansa, smiles and gives her a nod. Joffrey then mounts his throne and orders Pycelle to read the decrees. Pycelle retrieves a slip of paper from his sleeve, and in lieu of going through every ponderous thing that Pycelle will read - Emmett will do a great job of getting into those details in a few minutes! - I’ll bullet-point:

• Great houses (Starks, Tullys, Baratheons, Tyrells, Martells) and their families as well as those who are in open “rebellion” against the crown are to come to King’s Landing to swear fealty to Joffrey
  • At the very end, Pycelle reads out the Starks, and Sansa is surprised to hear Arya’s name -- leading her to correctly surmise that Arya has not been captured. 
• Tywin Lannister will become Hand of the King again
• Cersei will replace the “traitor” Stannis on the small council.
• Janos Slynt will be raised to lordship.

And from there, let’s pick up the narrative. While naming Cersei to the small council provoked some mutterings, because girls doing politics, lol, amirite, bros. And c’mon, we know that this is the reason why the nobles are upset about that -- they don’t give a shit that Cersei is a villain. At least yet. 

But Janos Slynt being raised to lordship is an outrage. He was the son of a butcher. A commoner! And now he’s becoming a lord -- all for betraying Ned Stark. But the frog-faced asshole marches forward with his two sons to receive his lordship all the same. And what sigil is he wearing? Why, yes. He’s wearing a goddamn bloody spear, gold on a night-black field. Like, holy shit, dude. Could you be more obnoxious? Longclaw can’t fall quickly enough across your neck!

But then the conversation transitions to more transitions. Pycelle drones on about how the king’s life is important to protect, blah, blah, blah and oh, Ser Barristan, could you please step forward? Barristan had been standing still as stone, quiet as still wa- wait, wrong character. He comes to life, bending the knee to Joffrey. But then Cersei strangely orders him to take his helmet off. Though he doesn’t understand why, he complies. And then Cersei does #JustCerseiThings:

You have served the realm long and faithfully, good ser, and every man and woman in the Seven Kingdoms owes you thanks. Yet now I fear your service is at an end. It is the wish of king and council that you lay down your heavy burden.

Uh, what? Barristan doesn’t understand, but Lord Janos, hate saying that, makes it plain. Her Grace is trying to tell you that you are relieved as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Well, hey, hold up here a second, Barristan says. Kingsguard serve for life. Only death can part a white cloak from his duty. 

Whose death, Ser Barristan? The queen’s voice was soft as silk, but her words carried the whole length of the hall. “Yours, or your king’s?”

Joffrey puts in that Barristan let Robert die, and that Ser Grandfather is too old, which, I give Barristan a lot of shit. But come the fuck on. Barristan couldn’t save Robert from Robert. I mean, I know. It’s not like Cersei and Joffrey are operating in good-faith here, but I just had to editorialize for a moment. 

Well, Barristan stares on up at Joffrey, and Sansa starts to see his age. It’s the blocking of the scene. 

"Your Grace," he said. "I was chosen for the White Swords in my twenty-third year. It was all I had ever dreamed, from the moment I first took sword in hand. I gave up all claim to my ancestral keep. The girl I was to wed married my cousin in my place, I had no need of land or sons, my life would be lived for the realm. Ser Gerold Hightower himself heard my vows … to ward the king with all my strength … to give my blood for his … I fought beside the White Bull and Prince Lewyn of Dorne … beside Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Before I served your father, I helped shield King Aerys, and his father Jaehaerys before him … three kings …"

And all of them dead, Littlefinger puts in like the red rimmed ring of an asshole that he is. Cersei tells him that he’s done. Oh, and Jaime will become Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. 

The Kingslayer? The false knight who profaned his blade with the blood of the king he had sworn to defend?

Cersei goes all How dare you say this extremely true thing about our dear brother and, uh, your king’s own blood? But Varys has kinder words. He says that Tywin has put a nice Lannisport retirement villa aside for Barristan next to the sea with servants. Sounds nice, right? Ha, fuck that shit. Barristan has some thoughts about that. He starts stripping off his armor and white cloak and then fires a sabot round at this “offer”:

A hall to die in, and men to bury me. I thank you, my lords, but I spit on your pity ... I am a knight. I shall die a knight.

A naked knight, Littlefinger says holding up his hand, looking for high-fives from the bros. Everyone laughs at the quip, and Sansa, yes, she’s still in this chapter, thinks that the laughter probably hurt the worst given all the goddamn shit Barristan had done on behalf of the realm. But then Barristan draws his sword. 

Everyone starts gasping while the Kingsguard knight move forward to defend their king. But Barristan freezes them all with a look - love that - and then, Jesus, I’m reading all the Barristan lines here, but, they’re so good:

Have no fear, sers, your king is safe … no thanks to you. Even now, I could cut through the five of you as easy as a dagger cuts cheese. If you would serve under the Kingslayer, not a one of you is fit to wear the white. 

He tosses the sword at the feet of the Iron Throne.

Here, boy. Melt it down and add it to the others, if you like. It will do you more good than the swords in the hands of these five. Perhaps STANNIS! STANNIS! STANNIS! Will chance to sit on it when he takes your throne.

Barristan marches out of the hall, head held high to the silence of everyone. Sound only returns once Barristan has exited the Red Keep. Joffrey goes all Joffrey, complaining about being called boy and he was talking about Stannis. The nerve! Varys tries to soothe Joffrey, but nyet. Joffrey wants Barristan seized and questioned. No one moves at first until Janos Slynt says his goldcloaks will take care of it, which lol, wonder how that will go.

But with Barristan now gone, they can return to council business. With Barristan out of a job, they need to appoint a new Kingsguard. And who should they appoint? Well, Joffrey and Cersei have already thought that one out.

The king and council have determined that no man in the Seven Kingdoms is more fit to guard and protect His Grace than his sworn shield, Sandor Clegane.

Does Sandor want the job? Yeah, sure he’ll take it. He’s got no lands or wife. But he ain’t gonna be a ser. No fucking way. Ser Boros Blount does his best shocked noble routine and cries about how the Kingsguard have always been knights. Until now, Sandor rasps to Boros’ cowardly silence.

But yes, BTW, did I mention that Sansa is in this chapter too? She’s been occupying the watcher role for most of this chapter, but now she takes on an active role. As the king’s steward moves forward, Sansa realizes that her time has come. She has to move now. She’d dressed appropriately, having redyed the dress Arya ruined with a blood orange black. And she’d tried to make herself as beautiful as possible with her hair and jewelry before deciding on simplicity: a silver chain.

The herald calls out for any final requests or petitions from the king, and Sansa thinks now. I must do it now. Gods give me courage. She steps forward, feeling everyone looking at her. I must be as strong as my lady mother. She calls out to Joffrey. Your grace.

Joff hears her and beckons her forward. He smiles as she approaches, and Sansa thinks that Joffrey does love her. She stops in front of Ser Barristan’s white cloak. Cersei asks Sansa if she has some business for king and council. And she does.

As it please Your Grace, I ask mercy for my father, Lord Eddard Stark, who was the Hand of the King.

Cersei sighs and talks about how disappointed she is. Pycelle the Grand Molestor puts in that Ned is a terrible traitor. Varys goes for the you know not what you are asking from Matthew 20:22. But Sansa doesn’t give a shit about them. She looks to Joffrey. And Joffrey? He wants to hear her out. Odd, right given all that we know about Joffrey so far in the narrative? Hm.

Sansa starts to thank Joffrey, but Pycelle talks about treason as a noxious weed that must be torn out les new traitors grow up all around you, and I would like to punch the twice-traitorous Pycelle in the fucking mouth. But, Littlefinger asks Sansa whether she denies her father’s crimes. She doesn’t deny it. She knows he has to be punished and know that her father probably regrets what happened. Ned was friend to Robert, and he never wanted to be Hand until Robert asked him. Sansa thinks that her dad was lied to by Renly (true) or Lord Stannis (not true) or somebody else (Littlefinger). 

Joffrey leans forward and asks why Ned said that he wasn’t the king. Well, his leg was broken, and he was in a lot of pain. And he was taking milk of the poppy for the pain. Everyone knows that the milk of the poppy clouds people’s brains. 

A child’s faith, Varys intones, such sweet innocence … and yet, they say wisdom oft comes from the mouth of babes.

Not to Pycelle.

Treason is treason, Pycelle says like a man well-acquainted with the concept.

Joffrey looks to Cersei for guidance, and Cersei looks Sansa over before telling her that if her dad confesses to treason, then they might know that he has repented. Joffrey rises from the Iron Throne, and Sansa hopes and prays that Joffrey is good and king and noble. Spoilers: he’s not. He asks if she has anything more to say. She doesn’t, save for as you love me, you do me this kindness.

Well, Joffrey is so fucking moved by all this that he agrees to Sansa’s plea. He’ll do as Sansa asks, but he has to do something in return for him:

Your father has to confess. He has to confess and say that I’m the king, or there will be no mercy for him.

Sansa’s heart soars.

He will. Oh, I know he will.

And that is AGOT, Sansa V. I hope that everyone listening is content that as a result of being a hero, I threw no shade at Sansa in my summary. I didn’t even try to pretend this was a Cersei or Barristan chapter. Please clap.

But really, this chapter. It’s outstanding in so many ways. And I love how it’s escalating tension and Sansa’s character growth. Sure, she spends a long portion of this chapter in the margins observing the action and characters. But she steps forward and acts. And despite knowing where this story is going, this chapter helps me appreciate Sansa more and more.

What did you think, Emmett? 

Depth

After spending the last few chapters racing around Westeros and beyond to check in with every storyline as act three of AGOT begins, we’re back in King’s Landing, trying to pick up the pieces of everything that broke in Eddard XIV, Arya IV, and Sansa IV. This chapter is moving along two parallel tracks, political and personal. On the one hand, Sansa V is about regime change in King’s Landing, as Cersei and Joffrey cement their hold on power at every level from the purely symbolic to aspirational threats to direct personnel changes. On the other, Sansa V is about Sansa taking a courageous step in an increasingly hostile and restrictive environment to try and save her father. Both threads come together at the end of the chapter, in which Sansa pins those personal hopes to the new political regime...and of course, is going to be hideously disappointed when we get to Ned’s execution in Arya V and the aftermath in Sansa VI. 

What I think is one of the most fun aspects of this chapter is that this chapter works as a false spring where the threat of winter and death appear to be lifting -- where Sansa’s fairytale conception of life as a song beliefs of the fairytale prince are validated -- only to be cut sinisterly short both in Varys’ cynical relating of Sansa’s plea to Ned in the next chapter and then ultimately in Ned’s execution. Still, like you, Emmett, I applaud Sansa for taking the step forward to plead for her father’s life despite knowing she’s persona non grata and knowing the potential consequences for speaking out on Ned’s behalf. And she’s not stupid here. She’s been manipulated by the cynical assholes of the small council and made to think that her father is a traitor. And yet to steps forward to plead for his life. That’s admirable. Tragically for her, she doesn’t know that the new regime is more cynical, more sinister than the old regime … that realization comes in a few chapters.

• The king is dead, long live the king
  • As you say, the chapter opens with the extremely unsubtle metaphor of Robert’s hunting tapestries being removed
  • Not just removed, but “stacked in the corner in an untidy heap,” an act of contempt and disrespect like Cersei tearing up Robert’s will
  • One of many ways in which Cersei signals a complete break from Robert’s regime even as she clings to the fig leaf of Joffrey “Baratheon” 
    • Still, it’s kind of foolish on Cersei’s part. No doubt she’s drinking in the satisfaction of ripping evidence of Robert from the very walls of power. But maybe, just maybe, Cersei, you might want to keep those symbols of power in place to demonstrate continuity in governance.
  • Come ACOK, this political weakness will allow Renly to seize the symbolism of Young Robert ahead of Robert’s ostensible son and heir
  • Davos will mourn the missed opportunity to fly Robert’s banner at the Blackwater so the people will rejoice; R’hllor seems as much a (S)tranger to them as Joffrey 
  • The walls being stripped bare represent the new regime’s status as a blank slate, a canvas on which Cersei and Joffrey set out to paint in red
    • But of course, Joffrey is clothed accordingly in black velvet slashed with crimson cape and cloth of gold. And oh how this reminds me of Joffrey’s coat of arms:
      
      An ornate shield had been embroidered on the prince's padded surcoat. No doubt the needlework was exquisite. The arms were divided down the middle; on one side was the crowned stag of the royal House, on the other the lion of Lannister.
      
      "The Lannisters are proud," Jon observed. "You'd think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother's House equal in honor to the king's." (AGOT, Arya I)
      • Joff’s clothing is yet again Cersei’s pride coming to the fore. She can’t have Joffrey wearing the black and gold of the Baratheons. Lannister crimson needs to be there too -- equal honor to Robert yet again!
  • First, they summon all their actual and potential enemies to court, which fulfills several functions:
    • Fills the reader in on the various factions, including ones we haven’t met
    • Reminds us that Arya (and Beric, and Renly & Loras) are at large
    • Gives us a sense of how outnumbered the Lannisters are, with threats in every direction, as Tywin will lay out at book’s end
    • Potentially yields hostages, if anyone fell for it, which they don’t
    • More to the point, Joff has to act legitimate to be legitimate in these uncertain fluid times; power is a trick, after all, and sometimes you have to act as though you have authority in order to convince others you do
    • Conduct does count in this process of public politics, hence “Daemon was the better man.” Joffrey’s behavior as we go through ACOK lends credence to Stannis’ accusations and turns the mob against him
  • Next, they make some personnel changes, which get increasingly controversial
    • Tywin as Hand: no surprises there, everyone saw this coming 
    • Cersei as Regent: ok, this disturbs some people, but she’s powerful and established enough that they have to swallow it for now
    • Janos Slynt as Lord of Harrenhal: fUCK THAT, he’s a BUTCHER’S BOY
  • The bitter irony as you say is that Cersei and Janos are not being challenged on their actual sins for which we, the audience, have been primed to dislike them
  • Instead, it’s because she’s a woman and he’s a commoner, and being a woman and a commoner in Westerosi society is the only sympathetic thing about them! 
  • Tywin’s done things just as bad as these two, but no one says a word... 
• Sansa the pariah
  • To get back to the tapestries: their fall also gets at the fall of the dream they represented for Robert, the cherished chivalric ideal of his faded youth
  • Sansa, too, shares that dream, albeit from a much different perspective
  • So that dream is being torn down to reveal terrifying blankness: the world as a morally neutral canvas on which you must choose what to paint
  • Robert never got around to doing so, Littlefinger chose horribly. And Sansa?
  • This chapter contrasts Sansa’s last few sparks of hope against the grim realities of the situation, before they’re extinguished over Arya V and Sansa VI
  • She assumes Arya escaped home, but we know better
  • She thinks Joffrey loves her, but...,no, my daughter, he very much does not
  • She keeps mouthing her courtesies and following the rules, but everyone’s turning away from her and treating her like a ghost, like a plague, like a traitor
  • Politically, this reflects the reality that the Starks are persona non grata in the capital, which hints that Sansa’s plea isn’t going to go well in the end
  • Personally, it’s like an uneasy beginning to a nightmare before the real thing arrives with Ned’s execution and the aftermath
  • Of course, Sansa is also an outcast in the royal court because she’s got a good heart--hence her heart going out for Barristan when all else are laughing at him, and kneeling on his (white) cloak while addressing Joff on his (black) throne.
• So long, Whitebeard
  • Speaking of which…
  • The dismissal of Barristan is significant in a number of respects
  • For the new regime, it’s another break with the old, and an ill-considered one
  • As Tywin says, Barry’s presence lends legitimacy; that’s why Ned handed Robert’s will to him in Eddard XIV
  • But Cersei can’t control him, so he’s gotta go, and that’s her weakness!
  • For Barristan, it’s a humiliation and rejection, confirmation of his subterranean doubts that he’s been doing this Kingsguard shit all wrong for quite a while
  • As he notes, though, it’s not sparked by his own actions, but by the Lannisters
  • For Sandor, it’s the culmination of a childhood dream he has since abandoned
  • As such, his feelings about joining *the* knightly order are...complex, let’s say
  • As he notes, he has nothing to sacrifice, suggesting it’s meaningless
  • But that white cloak comes to mean a great deal to Sansa, and it seems to change Sandor too, as Jaime notes the cloak tends to do for better or worse
  • There’s something profound about the cloak passing from Barristan, every inch the true knight, to Sandor the not-knight; both men have light and dark in them
  • And to double all the way back to your point about how Joffrey’s behavior will turn the smallfolk and merchants of King’s Landing against him, Joffrey’s demand that Ser Barristan be seized and questioned is met with silence -- signalling that, uh, hey, is this kid mentally stable enough to be giving commands?
  • The dismissal of Barristan in context of the Varys-Illyrio conspiracy
    • Of all the counselors, Varys is the one who tries not to outwardly antagonize Barristan when he’s dismissed, offers him the nice retirement home
      • But then when Tyrion arrives in ACOK, we discover some interesting information about Varys’ role in the whole affair:
        
        "His Grace has a unique way of winning the hearts of his subjects," Tyrion said with a crooked smile. "Was it Joffrey's wish to dismiss Ser Barristan Selmy from his Kingsguard too?"
        
        Cersei sighed. "Joff wanted someone to blame for Robert's death. Varys suggested Ser Barristan. Why not? It gave Jaime command of the Kingsguard and a seat on the small council, and allowed Joff to throw a bone to his dog. He is very fond of Sandor Clegane. We were prepared to offer Selmy some land and a towerhouse, more than the useless old fool deserved." (ACOK, Tyrion I)
        • So, Varys was the one who was really behind Barristan’s dismissal despite him seemingly being the most genial of the counselors.
        • Parallel between Varys and Lothar Frey
        • Two guys who seem the most genial in public with Varys here with Barristan and Lothar with Robb in Catelyn’s chapters, but as Varys suggested the Barristan dismissal, Lothar was plotting the mechanics of the Red Wedding with Roose Bolton:
          
          Lord Walder had ordered the slaughter of the Starks at Roslin's wedding, but it had been Lame Lothar who had plotted it out with Roose Bolton, all the way down to which songs would be played. (ASOS, Epilogue)
      • Now this is going to be a little wacky, but it occurs to me that when we get Tywin’s perspective about Barristan’s dismissal in Tyrion IX, Tywin doesn’t seem read in on his own alleged plan to offer Selmy an estate outside of Lannisport:
        
        "And dismissing Selmy, where was the sense in that? Yes, the man was old, but the name of Barristan the Bold still has meaning in the realm. He lent honor to any man he served.”
        • Did Tywin really have a retirement package in mind for Barristan, or was he cut out of the loop?
        • Always the possibility that Tywin is washing his hands of the whole affair, his basic MO as we talked about last week -- Who, me? No, not me. Never me. It is someone else’s fault. Always.
    • But the crux of it all is that Barristan’s dismissal helps the Varys-Illyrio plotting in undermining Joffrey’s reign as seen in Tywin’s comment about it.
      • Tyrion underscores this in ACOK:
        
        "Ser Barristan was the Lord Commander of Robert Baratheon's Kingsguard," Tyrion reminded her pointedly. "He and Jaime are the only survivors of Aerys Targaryen's seven. The smallfolk talk of him in the same way they talk of Serwyn of the Mirror Shield and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. What do you imagine they'll think when they see Barristan the Bold riding beside Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon?"
    • And there’s more curiosities and some more backstory which GRRM will likely explore in TWOW
      • We know that Barristan eventually ended up in Pentos at the house of Magister Illyrio before proceeding onto Qarth with Belwas and Groleo.
        • Did Varys help smuggle Barristan out of Westeros and to Illyrio?
        • Probably, but this has yet to get an explicit confirmation in the books. Wonder why George is saving this reveal … b a r r i s t a n t u r n c l o a k
        • And there’s a lot more to talk about with why Varys and Illyrio then end up dispatching Barristan to Daenerys instead of Young Griff, but we’ll save that for Dany’s final ACOK chapter!
• Mercy, mercy, mercy
  • Finally, we arrive at the plot function of the chapter, Sansa’s plea for mercy
  • On one level, this is being stage-managed to a large degree in terms of everyone’s responses
  • As Varys outlines to Ned in the next chapter, Cersei wants to neutralize Ned rather than kill him, and she’s not about to touch Sansa at this point
  • As such, you could look at this cynically as Cersei manipulating Sansa once more
  • But Sansa’s emotions are genuine, her courage real, and should be recognized within that context
  • After all, Joff himself will go completely off script, so GRRM’s not suggesting we ignore these kids’ own decisions entirely 
  • Instead, he zeroes in on Sansa’s choices to be courageous in a helpless situation, such as when she saves Dontos’ life in her first ACOK chapter
  • This also ties into the overall theme of mercy; Ned put it all on the line for mercy for Cersei’s kids (and subtextually, for Jon), and now his own child asks mercy for him in turn, as she’ll ask the gods for mercy for Sandor at the Blackwater
  • She argues not that he is innocent, but that love and compassion should rule the day; Joff betrays her not out of adult Machiavellian calculation, but out of a heedless childish cruelty that is the flipside to Sansa’s perspective
  • And behind that cruelty, that mocking smile as he orders Ned’s execution, is Littlefinger and his dead dreams, all moths and pomegranates and sweetsleep 
  • Again, the challenge is for Sansa to go beyond not only her current worldview, but also Cersei and Littlefinger, broken by that worldview’s failure
  • She must learn the right lessons from what she loses and faces in King’s Landing, holding onto compassion while shedding the dangerous assumption that the power structures that be will reflect that compassion back at her and hers

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

This isn’t actually groundwork, but instead the reverse--a great misdirection! By having Barristan reveal he thinks Stannis will soon take the Throne, GRRM primes us to expect Barristan to show up with Stannis. And this is groundwork for the “where’s barry” gambit in ACOK.

And in tandem to the the whole “Where’s Barry?” question we do finally get the whole hilarious story of how Janos Slynt made a botch of his attempt to arrest Barristan in ADWD:

“When I reached the stables the gold cloaks tried to seize me. Joffrey had offered me a tower to die in, but I had spurned his gift, so now he meant to offer me a dungeon. The commander of the City Watch himself confronted me, emboldened by my empty scabbard, but he had only three men with him and I still had my knife. I slashed one man's face open when he laid his hands upon me, and rode through the others. As I spurred for the gates I heard Janos Slynt shouting for them to go after me.” (ADWD, Daenerys II) 

“Funny drunken Ser Dontos” who tries to wave to Sansa here will have a lot more involvement in her storyline come ACOK and ASOS! It’s interesting that he singles her out despite social pressure not to here, as she will do for him (under a lot more pressure) in the next book

• It’s also a fascinating note that Littlefinger is seen “chatting amiably” with Dontos in this chapter -- signalling their relationship and foreshadowing the ASOS reveal that Dontos was Littlefinger’s catspaw all along. In addition to the emotional beats, it’s the small details that bring me back to ASOIAF!

Pycelle’s list of recalcitrant vassals features the one and only mention of Doran Martell in this book, setting up not only the offstage role he will play in the early stages of the WO5K but also his and his family’s direct involvement in the plot starting with Tyrion’s offer of Myrcella

Theory/Discussion

What’s up with those tapestries??

After this chapter, Robert’s hunting tapestries go missing for 4 books until they’re strangely brought up again in AFFC where Cersei receives a letter from Littlefinger about the goings-on in the Vale:

"Does Lord Baelish seek our help?" asked Harys Swyft.

"Not as yet. In truth, he seems quite unconcerned. His last letter mentions the rebels only briefly before beseeching me to ship him some old tapestries of Robert's." (AFFC, Cersei V)

This seems an odd request from Littlefinger, and he alludes to this being part of some sort of conspiracy when he talks with Sansa about this later in AFFC:

Petyr laughed. "Perhaps I shall. Or better still, to our sweet Cersei. Though I should not speak harshly of her, she is sending me some splendid tapestries. Isn't that kind of her?"

The mention of the queen's name made her stiffen. "She's not kind. She scares me. If she should learn where I am - "

" - I might have to remove her from the game sooner than I'd planned. Provided she does not remove herself first." Petyr teased her with a little smile. "In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn. (AFFC, Alayne I)

And then in the Alayne sample chapter from TWOW, the tapestries show up again in EXTREMELY DRAMATIC FASHION:

Lord Nestor was showing Lady Waxley his prize tapestries, with their scenes of hunt and chase. The same panels had once hung in the Red Keep of King's Landing, when Robert sat the Iron Throne. Joffrey had them taken down and they had languished in some cellar until Petyr Baelish arranged for them to be brought to the Vale as a gift for Nestor Royce. Not only were the hangings beautiful, but the High Steward delighted in telling anyone who'd listen that they had once belonged to a king. (TWOW, Alayne I)

Aw, shit, Lord NESTOR has them! What a REVEAL! Littlefinger is a MASTER PLAYER in the game of thrones!

But sarcasm aside: could the tapestries be just a simple bribe to keep Nestor Royce on Littlefinger’s side? Certainly! And perhaps that’s part of it. But I don’t think this is the last we’re going to hear about those tapestries. As Littlefinger alluded to Sansa, they seem part of something a bit bigger than a bribe to keep Nestor on Littlefinger’s side.

• Could they be part of a larger conspiracy to set the Vale lords against Cersei?
  • In an illiterate society, the tapestries depicting Robert in hunt could prove a potent weapon that Littlefinger could use to raise the Vale on Sansa’s behalf.
    • We see in Stannis that, despite wrong opinions to the contrary, he didn’t want Edric Storm because he wanted to burn him … at least initially. Before his defeat on the Blackwater, Stannis wanted Edric as proof that Joffrey and Tommen weren’t his brother’s children:
      
      "Yet you have no proof. Of this incest. No more than you did a year ago."
      
      "There's proof of a sort at Storm's End. Robert's bastard. The one he fathered on my wedding night, in the very bed they'd made up for me and my bride. Delena was a Florent, and a maiden when he took her, so Robert acknowledged the babe. Edric Storm, they call him. He is said to be the very image of my brother. If men were to see him, and then look again at Joffrey and Tommen, they could not help but wonder, I would think." (ACOK, Davos I)
    • In similar ways, the tapestries could be physical evidence for the Vale lords that Cersei’s kids are incest-babies. And especially when you consider another piece of physical evidence that Littlefinger might have in the Vale ...
    • Mya Stone!
      • While she’s not an acknowledged bastard of Robert’s, pretttttty much everyone from Ned to Littlefinger to Varys to Cersei knows that she’s one of Robert’s “by-blows.”
      • Could she work in tandem with the tapestries to rally the Vale against Cersei and to Sansa?
        • “This is Robert hunting. This is Mya Stone his bastard. Notice anything about their hair?”

Conclusion

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