Episode 53: A GAME OF THRONES, BRAN VI: "Marching the Wrong Way" 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-third episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “Marching the Wrong Way: An Analysis of AGOT, Bran VI,” in which Bran watches his big brother Robb muster an army to go rescue their Dad from the clutches of the Lannisters, which will go 100% according to plan!

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 and our newest member of the small council Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers. Thank you councillors very much! And welcome to Scarlett!

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

Reminder that “Shadow of a Crown: Jon Snow and Young Griff, ft. heathen_king” is out.

Ser Jay B asks (and mea culpa from Jeff), this was supposed to be in last week’s episode, but I pasted the wrong question into the document:

"Question for the show regarding Fire & Blood and the one-handed preacher Shepherd: I had little knowledge about the Dance of the Dragons period of history and no knowledge about the Shepherd before reading the book. Apparently, he was mentioned in previously released books, so I don’t know if anyone has speculated this already but Mushroom’s description of him as pale and foul as a corpse fresh-risen from the grave and naming him the Dead Shepherd makes me think that the man is just that: A wight of some sort. What do you guys think? Just another “creative” detail from Mushroom, or could the man be an actual revenant like Patchface? Now there isn’t a much of evidence beyond Mushroom’s words and his story is very anticlimactic, so maybe he is just a man after all. Anyway, thoughts?"

Lady BWord, a Sworn Sword asks:

Of all the characters in AWOIAF which one would be the closest to who you were in high school? 

Lady BWord is also the riddler of ASOIAF, and you all should be following her on twitter as @b_petersen85. And she has provided a riddle for us to ponder. We’ll speak the riddle here, allow you all to ponder it, and we’ll try our best to answer it at the end of the podcast. Here it is!

Riddle, I kept it pretty easy for you guys 😉:

I am the link to both of your names
I forfeited all of my claims
I fought with the fish, I saw the frog die
When my time is due will anyone cry?

Synopsis

Typically when I do a synopsis, I don’t start with the opening line, but this chapter opener is a beaut:

The Karstarks came in on a cold windy morning, bringing three hundred horsemen and near two thousand foot from their castle at Karhold. The steel points of their pikes winked in the pale sunlight as the column approached.

“The steel points of their pikes winked the pale sunlight” is a goddamn turn of phrase. Damn, George. Make it easier for us here trying to get our unfinished novel published. This is a general comment, not at all a personal one.

Ahem.

Bran watches the Lord Rickard Karstark, his sons and their host approach Winterfell with a member of the Karstark marching band playing the bass drum atop the shoulder of Hodor. And while Old Nan had stated that the Karstarks had blood ties to the Starks, Bran isn’t so sure about this. These guys have long hair and thick beards with clothing made from skins, polar bear pelts, seal and wolf -- I picture warrior hippies.

And these were the last northmen to arrive at Winterfell. Bran really wanted to ride out to the Winter Town to say hi to all these people milling about. But no. Robb wasn’t about to let Bran potentially endanger himself -- especially with such a volatile bunch.

Only two days ago, one of Lord Bolton’s men knifed one of Lord Cerwyn’s at the Smoking Log. Our lady mother would skin me for a pelt if I let you put yourself at risk.

It’s almost as if GRRM wants to immediately communicate something about the Boltons. But what? It’s a mystery.

Anyhow, Robb wasn’t talking like this brother much these days. He was Robb the Lord. But Robb does kind of have a point. It wasn’t that long ago that Bran was attacked by the wildlings and Night’s Watch deserters. The memory still gives Bran nightmares. But it’s more than just the bad dreams. Bran is ashamed that he couldn’t do anything when he was attacked. Even Rickon would have at least kicked his attackers. But Bran was helpless as a baby.

To add poignancy to Bran’s helpless shame, he starts thinking about how he would have climbed over the walls of Winterfell to go visit the town just a year ago. But now he can only watch from the top of the wall with Maester Luwin’s telescope. For his part, Luwin had been kind enough to teach Bran about the different sigils of the northern houses: the Mormont black bear, the flayed man of House Bolton, the Teddy Roosevelt Bull Moose for the Hornwoods, the battle-axe for the Cerwyns, three sentinel trees for the Tallharts, and the best sigil: a roaring giant in shattered chains for House Umber.

And then Bran had learned the men under the banners as Robb hosted each of his bannermen in turn. Just to twist the knife of Bran’s discomfort at his disability, some of those bannermen had stared at Bran when he was up on the dais with his brother. Bran thinks they think him unworthy to sit above them.

Back to the wall, Bran turns to Maester Luwin and asks how many men are now encamped around Winterfell. 

Twelve thousand men, or near enough as makes no matter, Luwin responds.

Okay, great. But how many knights? Bran wonders. Ah, as for that, not a lot. The northmen ain’t about the knightly tradition of standing vigil in a sept and being anointed with the seven oils. That’s a southron tradition tied up in their weirdo Faith of the Seven religion. Up here in the north, they follow the old gods.

A man’s worth is not marked by a ser before his name.

As Emmett would say: damn straight. But Bran still wants to know how many knights. Dude, it’s like 400 max, Luwin tells Bran. And now with Lord Karstark present, the army is complete for now. And Robb will need to get moving soon. Or not at all. Besides, there’s more soldiers waiting to join up with Robb along the kingsroad. And the fighting has already started in the Riverlands. Robb needs to get gone.

And Bran knows that Robb is leaving, and he feels miserable about it. He asks Hodor to take him back down to the Winterfell keep. But Luwin warns Bran that Robb won’t have time to see him. Bran, though, doesn’t want to see Robb. He wants to go to the godswood.

Hodor climbs down the walls of Winterfell with Bran still attached to his back. Luwin had made a wicker basket for Hodor to carry Bran around in. The only tricky part about the basket was, uh, Hodor had trouble with going through doors. It could be painful for Bran. Painful for Bran to go through doors, huh? Hm. Yup. More on this later.

As Bran and Hodor progress into the Winterfell courtyard, they pass by Karstark lancers riding through the gate. Everyone stares at Bran, and one asshole even laughs. I would not be sad if the laughing man ended up as one of the casualties at the Green Fork. Just saying. But Luwin had warned Bran that people would stare at him, and they would mock too. 

Let them mock, Bran thought. No one mocked him in his bedchamber, but he would not live his life in bed.

And so Bran whistles and his direwolf Summer comes lopping along. The very brave Karstark men are scared shitless, their horses go rearing back, and I just want to say love the power move, bro!

Hodor carries Bran through the rest of the castle, passing men, Mikken at his forge, and then they’re at the godswood. For Bran, this was a place of peace and quiet. He pulls himself out of the wicker basket and asks to be alone in front of the heart tree. Hodor says “Hodor” and hurries off to get naked in the pool.

But now Bran was alone with the heart tree -- alone with Summer that is. Bran was a fan of the godwood prior to his “accident”, but now he loved this place even more. And he was even coming to love the great heat tree in the middle. He was safe here with the old gods watching. And in that safety, Bran prays:

Please make it so Robb won’t go away. Please make him stay. Or if he has to go, bring him home safe with Mother and Father and the girls. And make it … make it so Rickon understands.

Rickon had been a royal terror since he learned that Robb was heading out. He’d punched Old Nan, refused to eat, cried, screamed. One time, he even disappeared and was only found in the Winterfell Crypts with Shaggydog who’d proceeded to bite Gage in the arm and took a bite out of Mikken’s thigh. Only Robb and Grey Wind had been able to bring Shaggy to heel. And now that direwolf was chained up.

Moving onto different matters: Luwin and Bran had told Robb that he should stay put at Winterfell. But no. Robb was bound and determined to go. He had to go. Bran thinks this was half a lie as someone had to march south to help out the Tullys and secure the Neck. But did it have to be Robb? Well, for Robb, yeah, it had to be him. Ned wouldn’t stay put and send men to die for him. Robb was Robb the Lord now and a bit of a stranger to Bran. 

Though Robb was only 16, he was no longer acting like the beloved brother that Bran had known. More and more, Robb had put on his lord’s face -- especially around his lords bannermen. Roose Bolton and Robett Glover demanded battle commands, Maege Mormont insulted Robb and told him that he should marry her granddaughter. Lord Cerwyn tried to marry his 30-year old daughter to Robb. Lord Hornwood brought gifts and tried to get Robb to return lands and hunting rights to the Hornwoods. But Robb kept his lord’s face up, answering all of his lords and bending them to his will.

All save for Lord Greatjon Umber. A massive man, Greatjon had threatened to march his host back to the Last Hearth if he was put in the order of march behind the Cerwyns or Hornwoods. Robb had a thought about this:

You are welcome to do so. And when we are done with the Lannisters, we will march back north, root you out of your keep, and hang you for an oathbreaker.

Robb’s got some stones on him. But Greatjon had gone ballistic anyways, throwing his beer into the fire and tossing aside Hallis Mollen and then unsheathed his sword. Robb only whispered a command to Greywind, and the direwolf went into warrior mode, tearing fingers off of Greatjon Umber.

My lord father taught me that it was death to bare steel against your liege lord, but doubtless you only meant to cut my meat.

And the Greatjon’s response: well, it’s a fan-fav: Your meat is bloody tough! And then the man had laughed and become Robb’s staunches ally. 

But that night, Robb had come into Bran’s room with his lord’s face gone. He was Robb the boy again, scared shitless about how he thought the Greatjon was going to kill him. And the Umbers weren’t the worst of his lords bannermen:

Lord Roose never says a word, he only looks at me, and all I can think of is that room they have in the Dreadfort, where the Boltons hang the skins of their enemies.

You know, Emmett, I wonder: are the Boltons the baddies? They’ve got that flayed man on their banner, they have a room where they hang the skins of their dead enemies and their castle is called “The Dreadfort.” These might be extraordinarily subtle clues that the Boltons may be bad, but I guess we’ll have to keep reading.

Anyways, Robb is anxiety-ridden, not knowing what to do. And he wishes that Ned were here. Bran and Rickon wish Ned was here too. But they really have no idea what’s going on in the south. News had reached Winterfell of Ned. Some reports said he was in a dungeon (true), others that he was a fugitive (false), others said that the Winterfell guardsmen’s heads were rotting on the spikes of the Red Keep (true). Oh, and the Baratheons had apparently laid siege to King’s Landing (Spoilers for book 2!), Ned had fled south with the terrorist Renly (hell fucking no), Sandor Clegane killed Arya and Sansa (nope), Catelyn killed Tyrion (sigh, nope), Tywin was marching against the Eyrie (No) and one dude even claimed Rhaegar was on Dragonstone marshaling a vast host of heroes to retake his father’s throne (It ain’t Rhager. It’s Stannis).

But the boys had received some news when Sansa’s raven came to Winterfell announcing that Ned was a traitor, Robert was dead and that Robb and Catelyn needed to come to King’s Landing to swear fealty to Joffrey. And if they do that, then Sansa will plead for Ned’s life. But the letter said nothing about Arya. Damn her. What’s wrong with the girl? Robb rages. 

She’s lost her wolf, Bran says.

And then in a flashback to the flashback, Bran explains that Lady’s body had returned to Winterfell, and they laid her bones in the shadow of the First Keep where the Kings of Winter laid their direwolves to rest. While Lady was buried, Grey Wind, Summer and Shaggydog stalked between the graves. 

She had gone south, and only her bones had returned.

And that was no an uncommon thing for the Starks. Bran’s grandfather and uncle had gone south with two hundred men. None of them returned. Ned went south, and he ain’t coming back. And Arya and Sansa, Jory, Hullen, Fat Tom, Catelyn, Rodrik? Well, at least Arya and Sansa got out. But now Robb was going, and it frightens Bran.

Returning to the present, Bran prays that the old gods will watch over Robb, his guards and his lords bannermen. Oh, and prayers for Theon too, I guess. He prays for victory. A wind sighs around the godwood, and the red leaves stir. Summer bares his teeth as Osha steps out asking if Bran can hear the old gods. They’re her gods too, the only gods north of the Wall. 

Bran takes notice of Osha, seeing that she has brown, shaggy hair and looks more womanly than he remembered when she was part of the wildling band that nearly killed him. After talking about sex to an eight year old, she makes to leave, but Bran stops her and asks her what she thinks the old gods are saying. Well, open your ears, the old gods are talking through the wind they sent. And what are they saying?

They’re sad. Your lord brother will get no help from them, not where he’s going. The old gods have no power in the south. The weirwoods there were all cut down, thousands of years ago. How can they watch your brother when they have no eyes?

Ah, well, Bran is scared again. He tries listening again and he thinks he can hear the sadness in the wind. But then the rustling increases in noise and out pops Hodor from the brush, naked dick swinging and all. Osha thinks that Hodor has giant’s blood in him, but Bran thinks the giants are all dead. It was what Luwin told him anyhow.

As to that, Luwin should head north of the Wall. The giants are all alive up there. The giant-women take human husbands and breed half-breeds. But giant men taking human women was quite bad as they tended to rip the maidens apart and oh my god, why the fuck are you telling this to an eight year old, Osha?

Bran sends Hodor away and then asks if there really are giants.

Giants and worse than giants, Lordling. I tried to tell you brother when he tasked his questions, him and your maester and that smiley boy Greyjoy. The cold winds are rising and men go out from their fires and never come back .. or if they do, they’re not men no more, but only wights with blues eyes and cold black hands. 

And when Osha had seen Robb again just the day before and tried to talk to him, Greatjon had shoved her aside. So, Bran says he’ll take a message to Robb and Robb will listen:

Will he now? We’ll see. You tell him this, m’lord. You tell him he’s bound on marching the wrong way. It’s north he should be taking his swords. North, not south. You hear me?

Bran does hear, but tragically, at supper time, Robb isn’t present at the solar. He was in counsel with Lord Rickard Karstark and Greatjon Umber and the other lords in making final preparation for the march south. Some of the lesser nobles had been present at the feast though. Lord Karstark’s son Harrion, Torrhen and and Eddard were present, Bran sees as Hodor carries him into the hall. 

Bran is presented and gives a stiff Yup, welcome bit and then he hears the two youngest Karstarks being assholes about Bran’s disability. Sure hope that won’t to come to bite them in the peen. 

Bran knows that he’s broken, but was that all he was. He doesn’t want to be broken. He wants to be a knight. Luwin puts in that some people call the maesters “knights of the mind”, and Bran might want to become a maester and learn their trade. Nah, Bran wants to learn magic. The three-eyed crow, AKA Old Nan, had told Bran that he would fly. Luwin sighs and says that he can teach him all sorts of stuff, but no man can teach him magic.

The children could, Bran says. The Children of the Forest.

And that reminds Bran about what Osha told him about the goings-on north of the Wall. Luwin listens to all science-like, but he dismisses it, because yeah. That’s the trope. Luwin thinks that Robb has too many concerns on his hands right now with trying to rescue Ned. The Lannisters hold Ned, not the children of the forest. 

Two days later, Bran sits strapped atop a horse, watching as Robb Stark is mounted up and prepared to march south with the snarling face of a direwolf emblazoned on the shield strapped to the side of the horse. 

You must take my place, as I took Father’s, until we come home, Robb says.

Bran knows, and he feels miserable about it. He didn’t have the slightest fucking idea on how to be a lord. Listen to Maester Luwin’s counsel, and take care of Rickon. Tell him I’ll be back as soon as the fighting is done.

Rickon had refused to see Robb and stayed in his chamber defiant. NO FAREWELL, the boy had screamed at Bran. No one ever comes back. Well, Robb wasn’t happy about that.

He can’t be a baby forever. He’s a Stark and near four. Well, Mother will be home soon. And I’ll bring back Father, I promise.

At that, Robb turned his horse about and trotted away with Hallis Mollen holding the banner and Grey Wind at his feet. Theon and Greatjon joined Robb on either side, and then men formed up into a column, their spear tips glinting in the sun.

He’s marching the wrong way, Bran thinks uncomfortably.

Bran thought about shouting it after Robb, but it was too late. Foot soldiers and townsfolk cheer Robb as he rides off. They cheer him in ways that they would never cheer Bran. 

He might be the lord in Winterfell while his brother and father were gone, but he was still Bran the Broken. He could not even get off his own horse, except to fall.

The cheers grow farther and farther away, until at the last the distant cheers fade into silence. Bran is alone in the empty castle yard. And the whole place seemed deserted and dead. Those that remained were women, children, old men and Hodor. The stableboy looked lost and afraid.

Hodor? Hodor said silently.

Hodor, Bran agreed, wondering what it meant.

And that is AGOT, Bran VI: a chapter that could have been written as a rousing chorus on the start of Robb’s righteous crusade to save Ned. But no, it’s a much more sad, more brilliant reflection on the boys marching off to war. And, you know, you can keep your Bran’s epic dream from Bran III, but this here: this is my favorite Bran chapter so far.

So, Emmett: Bran VI > Bran III?

Depth

Welllllllll....it’s good, I’ll give you that! Definitely the best of the later Bran chapters in AGOT.

It’s been quite a while IRL and in-universe since we checked in at Winterfell, and a lot has changed. Bran VI is in large part about reacting to those changes--the heart of House Stark rising to the challenge we’ve seen unfold over the past handful of chapters. As such, GRRM is weaving two different tones together here. On the one hand, you’ve got desperate hope (on the part of both our POV and the first-time audience) that Robb can save his dad from the Lannisters and right the ship of the narrative. On the other, as this chapter goes along, you start seeing signs that things aren’t going to go as well as we hope, which of course only becomes more poignant on reread. We’re seeing this cavalry forming up to save the day knowing that in truth, they won’t save Ned, and will be gradually whittled down in battle in the Riverlands, Westerlands, and Crownlands before half the survivors turn on the rest at the Red Wedding. 

• The winter wolves
  • More than any of the Starks, the main character of Bran VI is the Northern army
  • As the chapter opens, the Karstarks arrive to the very literal drumbeat of war
  • The Stark vassals are described as a swarm of suitors, each bringing their own political and military logic to the table, each lord a problem to be solved
  • This allows GRRM to dig into the relationship between political and military power in a feudal context, as well as introduce vital families for the story going forward
  • This is a chapter in which Stark power is being asserted and stamped in every corner, yet also challenged from without (the Lannisters) and within (the lords)
  • As Bran notes, Ned like Rickard went south and hasn’t come back; this has impact not only on the Starks as individuals, but politically on their vassals
  • So along with the usual game-of-thrones dickering (Lord Cerwyn and his daughter, Lord Hornwood and his bribes), you get more existential challenges
  • There are two; first up is the Greatjon, everyone’s favorite but misunderstood
  • Beneath the bellowing, Lord Umber is ambitious and cunning like few others
  • It’s no accident that he, even more than Robb, is the one who wills the independent Northern kingdom back into being after Ned’s death
  • Here, he seizes the opportunity to be a vessel for discontent with the green Stark-in-Winterfell, and when that fails, decides to be his right-hand man instead
  • On the flipside, there’s the Leech Lord, master of the Dreadfort, Roose the Noose
  • The way Robb describes Roose as just looking at him the way a spider might regard a fly suggests that long before all the intricate machinations of the Red Wedding, Roose had already decided that chaos was to be his ladder
  • Unlike the Greatjon, Roose is therefore irreconcilable, and from his men attacking the Cerwyn men in the winter town to his treachery at the Green Fork, he is already acting as a cancer cell within the Northern army, here in book one
  • These roles are mirrored in the Umbers and Boltons left behind: Crowfood and Whoresbane are truculent but ultimately fall in line, Ramsay goes full Ramsay
• Robb the Lord
  • The work of reconciling all of the above falls to young Robb Stark, who really becomes the Young Wolf we know and love in this chapter
  • Robb’s facing a lot of obstacles at once: the political dangers of Ned’s downfall, the military dangers in the Riverlands, his youth, his lack of youth, his truculent and ever-divisive bannermen...
  • He passes the tests with flying colors, particularly with the Greatjon: by threatening to hang him he’s calling on the other bannermen to help, by unleashing Grey Wind he’s summarizing Stark power, by offering mercy he’s making an ally instead of an enemy and setting a pattern to be followed
  • Of course, we then get his confession to Bran that he was terrified
  • That’s leadership, the projection of confidence to unite your forces behind you
• Bran the Broken
  • Bran himself gets a little lost in all the chaos, but the arrival of so many strangers allows GRRM to examine how Bran deals with his disability
  • He can’t ride out on his own like he could “before,” and so has to observe everything from afar
  • When he does interact with the men, he gets stares and mutters
  • Yet Bran will not retreat to his bedroom and cut himself off from the world, and often takes an interest at the political goings-on in ACOK
  • This is his own test of mettle, smaller-scale but just as significant as Robb’s
  • He’s in between Robb and Rickon, who’s in full meltdown mode in this chapter
  • He’s mature enough to face the realities of what’s going on, but still innocent enough to put all the emphasis on how many knights Robb has in his army
  • Bran’s own arc comes into focus when he reaches the oasis of the godswood
• Osha the Cassandra
  • This is also where he forges his extremely plot-significant bond with Osha, an underrated character even by the author himself!
  • On one level, she’s our first wildling, and a window into that world
  • It’s interesting that she doesn’t look at Mance as a savior but a “brave sweet stubborn” fool who can’t possibly take on the white walkers and win
  • (Of course, by the time he reaches the Wall, Mance has realized that…)
  • Osha links Mance to Robb as bullheaded men who won’t listen
  • We’re inclined to believe her because we’ve been given such a vivid glimpse of what she’s talking about in Jon VII
  • Everything else in the chapter is thrown into sharp relief: suddenly they’re not the cavalry charging in to save the day, they’re wasting resources on the wrong fight
  • That Bran listens and tries to do something is the beginning of his connection with Osha, which leads to her helping him escape Theon in ACOK
  • That connection is religious in nature--linked by common worship of the old gods
  • Prior to Jojen showing up, GRRM uses Osha to keep this thread going in Bran’s story, as we’ll see in Bran VII; here as there, Luwin is her opposite
• A real GRRM-deconstruction: The Departure of Robb Stark or When Trumpets Fade
  • It’s quite an amazing scene when Robb rides from Winterfell -- one I’d completely forgotten, and it’s really where we see GRRM’s deconstruction of narrative tropes in play.
    • The typical low-effort take is “GRRM deconstructs da tropes” like killing the main character (Ned) and the other main character (Robb), and that no one is safe.
    • But Robb’s departure from Winterfell is where we see what real GRRM-construction actually means.
  • To start off the scene, we have Robb giving his “You are the Lord of Winterfell/You must take my place/Listen to Luwin” speech to Bran.
  • And then Robb sounds off with a resounding I’ll bring back Father, I promise.
    • Cue triumphant music, end-chapter, Robb becomes a POV, right?
    • Wrong.
  • Bran remains a POV and watches Robb ride off with his men, and Bran can only listen as the soldiers and townsfolk of the Winter Town cheer Robb.
  • And then the cheers get farther and farther away
  • Until it all fades to silence as Bran is left along in the Winterfell courtyard with women, children, old men and Hodor.
  • The deconstruction thus is that the camera doesn’t move with the action.
    • It stays with Bran and the loneliness that Bran feels at being left behind and the sadness that Bran feels at being broken.
    • And while we will pick up with Robb in the form of Catelyn’s POV in a few chapters, the camera never leaves Winterfell. It never leaves Bran.
  • George wants us to examine the unexamined side of war: the people left behind by the men who go off to fight, the immense loneliness that Bran and Rickon will feel with their mom, dad, sisters and older brothers (counting Jon) away at war.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Hodor/Hold the Door

The only tricky part was doors. Sometimes Hodor forgot that he had Bran on his back, and that could be painful when he went through a door.

A little more on “Hold the Door” that we got from a George appearance back in 2016:

[GRRM] interviewed Joe Hill (Stephen King's son) at the Jean Cocteau. Afterwards he answered questions while Joe Hill was signing books. Someone asked him about the show's Hodor name reveal. He said that his name reveal in the books will differ in the context and how it happens. So while the name will still mean the same thing (Hold the Door), it will be very different from the show's reveal. He said he came up with the name idea in 1991 and seemed depressed that the show got to reveal it before he did.

And of course, this chapter ends with Bran wondering what “Hodor” really means…

We get our first real discussion of giants in this chapter, which will pay off big time in Jon’s story

The Winterfell godswood as “an island in the sea of chaos” will be repeated in Theon’s ADWD chapter “A Ghost in Winterfell,” only this time, Bran will be on the other side of the heart tree.

The Greatjon losing his fingers to Robb only to then become his right hand man is such a strong parallel to Stannis and Davos; Is that relationship already taking shape in GRRM’s mind?

The Karstark brothers foreshadowed to die:

Harrion Karstark, the oldest of Lord Rickard's sons, bowed, and his brothers after him, yet as they settled back in their places he heard the younger two talking in low voices, over the clatter of wine cups. "… sooner die than live like that," muttered one, his father's namesake Eddard, and his brother Torrhen said likely the boy was broken inside as well as out, too craven to take his own life.

Shouldn’t say shit to the astral-plane messiah, idiots. Your wish is granted. Now you’re dead.

Theory/Discussion

What would have happened if Bran had managed to pass on Osha’s warning?

• If Robb can be so much as persuaded to send a raven to Castle Black, he’ll hear about the wight attack
• (Which gets at a dreaded PLOT HOLE: why doesn’t the LC ever send word to Winterfell about said zombie attack?)
• Even if he’s still skeptical, warnings about Mance might give him pause--as we’ll see RE Theon’s attack, ya gotta defend the homestead
• If Robb sends a strong force (the clans + the remaining Manderly men + Dustin/Ryswell men?) to defend the Wall, a lot of ripple effects occur
• Mance has a much harder time of things even before Stannis shows up, Stannis has a base of northmen to work with, and above all, Jon has strong numerous allies 
• Of course, that might all go up in smoke after Robb dies and Ramsay is loose
• But it’s worth contemplating because of how GRRM strategically bleeds the North of fighting men just enough to suit his purposes
• He needs the Night’s Watch situation to be desperate, and he needs it to be at least somewhat believable that first Theon and then Ramsay could run amok at Winterfell
• On the other hand, he also needs there to be some potential fighters left there in order to carry out the struggle for control in ADWD and the struggle for life itself in TWOW/ADOS
• Hence Robb rushing into battle with a smaller host than the North can provide

Conclusion

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