Episode 48: A GAME OF THRONES, JON VI: "Graduation Day" 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 forty-eighth episode of the Not A Cast entitled: “Graduation Day: An Analysis of AGOT, Jon VI,” in which Jon Snow is assigned to the order of the stewards, gets all pissy and emo and, well, Jon about it before Sam makes him wise up, and finally says his Night’s Watch vows. Give Jon a hand, everybody! No, Ghost, not that kind of hand!

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 and Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes, Ragged Michael, Warden of the North, and Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone. 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

Reminder: in TWO weeks, we have our second-ever livestream and first-ever chapter by chapter livestream with AGOT, Arya IV!

Ser, M’lady Erin M

Hi guys,

Given the most recent teaser released for S8 of the show, I would love to hear what your theories on the Winterfell crypts are. Do you think their significance will be straightforward, such as a clue down there for Jon to find about his parentage or a way for Bran to sneak back into Winterfell, or do you think they're going to end up being a source of undead warriors for the Night King, or that there's some terrible monster trapped in the lower levels? I've been watching quite a few videos from the community this week, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks again for all your good work, and for making Mondays great again.

Synopsis

As we go on

we remember

All the times Jon

Had a chapter

And as Ned Stark dies

We’ll be sad but

The true threat lies

North forever

Jon’s all eating some sausage and apples when Sam pops in to let him know that the high command of the Night’s Watch has summoned him. He’s going to take his vows with the rest of his friends! What an amazing turn of events!

Jon feigns surprise to which Samwell tells Jon that he’ll be a steward and helping Maester Aemon with the library and birds. But hey, they should get over to the sept for the ceremony to find out where they’ll be YA Fiction sorted for the Night’s Watch.

Jon and Sam arrive at the sept to find Pyp, Toad and Grenn already there as Septon Celladar waves his censer about, filling the air with Roman Catholic incense. All at once, the high officers of the Night’s Watch arrive together. Maester Aemon, Ser Alliser Thorn, Elsie Mormont, Lord Steward Bowen Marsh, First Builder Othell Yarwyck and Ser Jaremy Rykker who’s in charge of the rangers while Benjen Stark is off doing #JustBenjenThings.

Mormont stands before the altar and gives the speech the way a Lord would, and yeah, I’m just going to read it:

You came to us outlaws, poachers, rapers, debtors, killers, and thieves. You came to us children. You came to us alone, in chains, with neither friends nor honor. You came to us rich, and you came to us poor. Some of you bear the names of proud houses. Others have only bastards’ names, or no names at all. It makes no matter. All that is past now. On the Wall, we are all one house.

At evenfall, as the sun sets and we face the gathering night, you shall take your vows. From that moment, you will be a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch. Your crimes will be washed away, your debts forgiven. So too you must wash away your former loyalties, put aside your grudges, forget old wrongs and old loves alike. Here you begin anew.

A man of the Night’s Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honor of this house or that house, neither for gold nor glory nor a woman’s love, but for the realm, and all the people in it. A man of the Night’s Watch takes no wife and fathers no sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And you are the only sons we shall ever know.

You have learned the words of the vow. Think carefully before you say them, for once you have taken the black, there is no turning back. The penalty for desertion is death.

Mormont asks if anyone wants to leave. There’s no shame in being a coward, he sort of implies. No one moves. Well, then everyone can take their vows this evening here if they’d like. Anyone keep the old gods? Jon rises and says that he does. Would he like to take his vows in front of a heart tree? Yes he would. Jon had the blood of the First Men flowing in his veins, the blood of the Starks. 

Grenn whispers that there’s no godswood at Castle Black or he thinks he’s never seen one. Pyp whispers back that Grenn wouldn’t see a herd of aurochs until they had trampled him into the snow. I would so, Grenn insists. I’d see them a long way off. More of this please, George. But Mormont has the answer to the question of godswood. They’d have to go north of the Wall to the haunted forest and find a grove of weirwood trees.

But before all that, someone else wants to go to the weirwood trees too. Samwell Tarly! Sure, his family doesn’t keep to the old gods, but the Faith of the Seven has never done anything for him. Maybe the old gods would be different. Besides, his family is the Night’s Watch now. Aw, Sam. You make me warm inside. 

Mormont says, yeah, okay that’s fine. But we need to get to the YA fiction sorting! Bowen Marsh hands Elsie Mormont a piece of paper. Halder to the stewards, Grenn to the rangers, Albett to the builders. Pypar to the rangers, Samwell to the stewards, Matthar to the rangers, Dareon the Singing Penis to the stewards, Todder to the rangers. And oh yeah, Jon to the stewards.

Wait a goddamn minute. Jon is going to the stewards!? He can’t believe it. Did Mormont read it wrong? And then Jon sees Ser Alliser studying him, and he knows that it wasn’t a mistake. Mormont instructs the new Night’s Watchmen to get with their senior person and get instructions on their roles and responsibilities. Grenn and Pyp head off with Ser Jaremy Rykker while Halder and Albett follow Othell Yarwyck. And Jon? Jon is still dumbfounded. He looks to Maester Aemon looking blindly towards the light he couldn’t see while Septon Cellador arranges the crystals on the altar.

Alone now with only Samwell and Dareon, Bowen Marsh comes over to let the boys know what they’ll be doing. Sam’s going to help Maester Aemon out with the rookery and library while Chett is being reassigned to the kennels. Dareon is heading off to Eastwatch to work with passing merchant ships to get better prices for the food stuffs the merchants sell. And Jon?

Well, Elsie Mormont specifically requested Jon to be his personal steward. He’ll sleep in a chamber below the Elsie’s chamber.

And what will my duties be? Will I serve the Lord Commander’s meals, help him fasten his clothes, fetch hot water for his bath?

Well, yeah. That’s the job of a steward. Also, Jon will run messages, keep fires burning in Mormont’s chambers, change his sheets. The ush, bro. 

Do you take me for a servant? Jon whines.

No, Maester Aemon said, from the back of the sept. WE took you for a man of the Night’s Watch … but perhaps we were wrong in that.

Oh, damn. Aemon is letting Jon know what’s what. But Jon’s all teenager’y and starts thinking about how he’s going to churn butter and sew clothes like a girl. He tells Bowen and Aemon that he wants to go. And they say yeah, sure. No one’s forcing you to stay … yet.

Dareon the Singing Penis and Samwell the Brave follow Jon in silence. Jon looks up to the Wall, shining in the sun with melting ice creeping down the side of it, and then Jon thinks that he’d smash the Wall and let the world be damned. He’s a very serious teenager, and he has real emotions, people!

Jon, Sam says. Don’t you see what they’re doing?

Oh yeah. He sees it. He sees that Alliser Thorne wants to shame him. Dareon gets huffy too, talking about how Jon thinks he’s better than they are. But Jon gives back that he’s a great swordsman, rides better than anyone, and it’s soooooooooooooo unfair! 

Fair? The girl was waiting for me, naked as the day she was born. She pulled me through the window, and you talk to me of fair? Dareon says, making an alarmingly good point given that it’s coming from Dareon.

Sam puts in that there’s no shame in being a steward, but Jon’s not about to listen to any of that shit. But wait, Jon. You’re going to be with Elsie Mormont day and night. Sure, you’re gonna do the shit work, but you’re also going to be writing his letters, being with him in meetings and squiring for him in battle. And you were requested by name, Jon. I mean, damn. Don’t get mad, bro. When Sam was a kid, Randyll Tarly had taken him to all of his meetings at Highgarden and wherever he went, but when Dickon came along, Sam didn’t attend meetings anymore. Randyll was grooming his heir for leadership. Don’t you see, Jon?

He wants to groom you for command!

Well, Jon is flabbergasted at that. He knew that’s what Ned did with Robb. Was Sam right? But even if he was, he didn’t ask for this.

None of us are here for asking? Sam shoots back.

Dayum. Sam is right, and now Jon is ashamed. Sam had found the moral courage in himself to understand where he was and what his calling was. But Jon hadn’t. But now, he sees it all a bit more plainly. On the Wall, you grew up or you died.

Jon sighs and says that yeah, you’re right, Sam. But will you still say your vows, Jon? He will. The old gods will be expecting them.

Late in the afternoon, Sam, Jon and the boys head through the tunnel out of Castle Black and towards the Haunted Forest. As they pass, Jon senses the great weight of the Wall pressing down on him as the air grows colder than a tomb. They come out the other side of the tunnel, and Sam worries about whether the wildlings might show. But they would never come this close to the Wall, would they? Ha, more on this come ACOK!

Jon whistles, and Ghost comes lopping up after them. He’s going to bring Ghost along with them to the consternation of Bowen Marsh. But in the blink of an eye, Ghost darts off towards the forest, tasting the air. Jon rides his horse through the forest, thinking that it’s similar yet different to the wolfswood around Winterfell. The shadows were darker, the sounds were ominous, the trees pressed close and kept the fading light of the sun from being seen. And it was cold. So cold. Yeahhhhhhhh … we’re getting to it. Be patient.

The Night’s Watchmen arrive at the nine weirwoods at sunset, and we get some terrific imagery of the weirwoods. White trees with red leaves and a red sap oozing from the wood. It’s quite an image. Sam comments that it’s a sacred place and the old gods are watching. Yes they are, Sam. Very observant.

But now, we finally get it: the words of the Night’s Watch vow, and I figure that Emmett and I could both say the words together and then rise together as the Amen Brothers of the Night’s Watch:

Hear my words and bear witness to my vow. Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

Bowen Marsh tells Jon and Sam that they knelt as boys but now rise as men of the Night’s Watch. Everyone comes around Sam and Jon to offer their congratulations. All except Dywen. Aw yeah, time for some minor character love. Dywen is fucking great, and you can’t convince me otherwise. He tells everyone that they need to get the fuck back. It’s getting dark, and there’s something in the smell of the night that he doesn’t like.

And Dywen is absolutely right, because all at once, Ghost is back. Jon sees him and compares him to a weirwood tree. White fur and red eyes. Like the trees … Oh, and Ghost has something in his mouth. Jon calls Ghost over, and the direwolf comes to him. Samwell gasps.

Gods be good, Dywen muttered. That’s a hand.

And that, my friends, is AGOT, Jon VI: a pace-changer from the Ned Stark is doomed motif that’s been occupying many of these AGOT chapters, but it’s a chapter that really sits well with me on re-read both in giving us a realistic portrait of teenage angst, oaths and then, of course, the chapter closer which shows us that something is very, very wrong here. 

What did you think, Emmett?

Depth

Jon VI definitely feels like the odd man out in this part of the book, which is so strongly focused on Ned’s actions and reactions down in King’s Landing. (In fact, the next three chapters in a row are set in the capital, tracing Ned’s downfall through his eyes and those of his daughters.) I said regarding Dany V in our episode on it with LML that it met the high-octane tone of the King’s Landing storyline and so fit in; Jon VI is the opposite case. While there’s some low-key drama in it regarding Jon becoming a steward and it ends on a gloriously gory cliffhanger, this chapter is mostly an oasis. It’s optimistic, atmospheric, and serene, a flat still pond between mist-shrouded mountains. Structurally speaking, Jon VI’s job is to cement all the various themes and character conflicts we’ve been talking about in Jon’s chapters at Castle Black, right before the zombie attack and the news of Ned’s downfall and death throw everything into sharp relief, and it does that job well. It’s a solid little chapter! 

• Happi...ness? Am I saying that right? Ha-Pie-Nuss 
  • This chapter starts off on a very cheery note indeed
  • Sam is thrilled to be moving on up and escaping Ser Alliser’s tender mercies
  • Jon gets to grin and keep his good deed to himself, the pleasure of doing right
  • Then we get this heartwarming little image of warmth in multiple senses:
    • He was fairly bouncing as they crossed the weed-strewn courtyard. The day was warm and sunny. Rivulets of water trickled down the sides of the Wall, so the ice seemed to sparkle and shine.
  • Even Celladar is sober for once!!
  • The overall effect is a dramatic contrast with the sorrow and bloodshed going down in King’s Landing 
  • Here at the end of the world, we’ve found contentment, if only for a moment
• Elsie’s monologue: the good
  • Mormont acknowledges the disparity of backgrounds among the new recruits, which of course has been a central topic of the last few Jon chapters
  • He frames the Night’s Watch as a place of both personal and social redemption
    • Personal: your sins are washed away, and you can begin anew for the greater good
    • Social: all are equal here, a class-stratified continent transformed into “one great house”
  • The cause Mormont believes in is living for the realm, not for gold or glory or the partisan gain of one family or another, and this is very noble indeed!
  • On a more emotional level, he is telling these boys that they are his family now: “you are the only sons we shall ever know.” He’s definitely thinking about Jorah.
    • Though at the end of the Elsie’s life, his thoughts are only of Jorah -- though framed in NW terms: "Tell my son. Jorah. Tell him, take the black. My wish. Dying wish."
  • And of course, if all that wasn’t convincing, he gives them one last chance to leave...
• Elsie’s monologue: the bad/ugly
  • Acknowledging the disparity of backgrounds doesn’t actually change them
  • Look at the higher officers presiding over this ceremony: Jeor Mormont, Jaremy Rykker, Bowen Marsh, Alliser Thorne, Aemon Targaryen…
  • Sure, there are exceptions, but you’d be lying to say that the Night’s Watch leadership and organization honestly reflects Westeros as “one great House”
  • We’re just coming off a chapter in which (for better or worse) the noble privilege of literacy was key to Sam getting a post and Chett being kicked out of it
  • So even with the best of intentions, the feudal structure is replicated
  • How could it not be, when debtors and poachers are mentioned in the same breath as rapists and murderers?
  • Mormont is also naive to believe that the latter will be born again just by virtue of him saying so, as he learns to his doom at Craster’s Keep two books from now
  • That one last chance to leave doesn’t mean much when they’d be stranded in the North with no resources, especially for those from southern kingdoms
    • See also Arya at the House of Black and White, though she is also offered other professions in Braavos (who knows how genuinely)
  • Mormont mentions love alongside gold and glory as something to be abandoned, and that’s too much to ask of someone with a big heart like Jon
  • Indeed, while being a duty robot is abstractly admirable, is it realistic or relatable?
• Steward?!?!
  • Speaking of human emotions invariably getting in the way of duty…
  • Jon’s reaction to being placed with the stewards runs the gamut of immaturity
    • He pins everything on Alliser Thorne with no evidence
    • He considers himself too above Sam and Daeron to be with them
    • He considers himself above the stewardly duties
    • There are both class and gender dimensions involved here
    • And then there’s that line about smashing the Wall, world be damned!
  • And then Sam jumps in to save the day
    • He counters that Mormont, not Thorne, made this happen
    • The stewardly duties go hand in hand with leadership training
    • It’s about being in the room where it happens, not swinging the shiny sword on dangerous missions beyond the Wall (well, more on that later…)
    • Sam even drudges up his painful memories of being abandoned by his father in order to make this point to Jon, which is true friendship
    • Finally, he reminds Jon that they’re not here for fun
  • In a clear parallel to Donal Noye’s speech in Jon III, Jon gets it at a deep level, understands he was wrong, and changes his behavior
  • What’s happening is that Jon earned his spot via his intervention with Aemon to save Sam, he almost backslid (hence Aemon’s critique about “we” being wrong about Jon, presumably including Mormont), and then he proved worthy of it
• Into the wild
  • It’s our first time beyond the Wall since the prologue; there’s an appropriately spooky atmosphere, as Sam suddenly retreats to fear again
  • On the one hand, Jon actually feels relief north of the Wall, and comments that “perhaps it was all in the knowing,” suggesting that it’s not actually a different world up here
  • On the other, the weirwood grove is genuinely unusual, and Ghost does turn up with a zombie hand at chapter’s end! Ghost is “like the trees,” after all…
  • Finally, Jon and Sam take their vows together, binding them as brothers and friends
    • “Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow” --because the gods are indeed watching; Bran might check in on this moment at some point
    • “Night gathers, and now my watch begins” --rooting the Night’s Watch in watching for and resisting the return of the Long Night
    • “It shall not end until my death” --but the Others can bring you back, and the 79 Sentinels imply a watch beyond death; also foreshadowing of Jon
    • “I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children” --linking two kinds of fertility, and cutting the NW off from the generational cycle
    • “I shall wear no crowns and win no glory” --cutting the NW off from the game of thrones
    • “I shall live and die at my post” --connection to the Kingsguard and the noble death of samurai, etc
      • First general order: “I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.”
    • “I am the sword in the darkness” --connection to Lightbringer
    • “I am the watcher on the walls” --connection to Cold War era rhetoric 
      • Hadrian’s wall in Northern England:  “The Wall predates anything else. I can trace back the inspiration for that to 1981. I was in England visiting a friend, and as we approached the border of England and Scotland, we stopped to see Hadrian’s Wall. I stood up there and I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills.” - GRRM, 2014
    • “I am the fire that burns against the cold” --again connection to Azor Ahai, as well as Ygritte’s hair, Dany’s dragons, R+L=J, the title of the series, etc
    • “The light that brings the dawn” --really hitting the Long Night/Azor Ahai imagery here, as well as potentially referencing Dawn
    • “The horn that wakes the sleepers” --carried out at the Fist, connections to Sam (Horn Hill) and Euron (Dragonbinder, potentially Horn of Winter)
    • “The shield that guards the realms of men” --the crux of the NW duties, the definition of which Jon will seek to reshape as Lord Commander
  • And then of course, Ghost shows up the second Jon has committed to his duty, carrying in his pupper mouf a vivid reminder of what Jon has signed up for

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Ghost finds a severed hand right before the Hand of the King goes down...nope, nothing to see here… Also, "I see Ser Alliser's bloody hand, that's all I see.” Janos Slynt foreshadowing given the Bloody Hand sigil Janos takes on??

All the talk about the importance of being the LC’s squire and how Jon has to recognize that pays off when Lord Commander Snow makes Satin his squire in ADWD. Lesson learned!

R+L=J watch: Remember when Ned told Catelyn all the way back in Catelyn II that Jon had his blood, and that’s all she needed to know? Well, Jon here makes a similar statement that the blood of the First Men flows in his veins, the blood of the Starks. 

Dareon bemoaning his life on the Wall sets up his desertion down the road in AFFC. In all likelihood, it’s one of those cases wherein GRRM decided he wanted Sam to deal with a betrayal on the way to Oldtown to add some drama, and Dareon was a convenient choice because of this pre-existing backstory that could be made to fit. (After all, Dareon isn’t a recruiter at this point but a food taster; that changes under Lord Commander Snow.) 

This isn’t the only time the ranger Dywen will prove intuitive about the movements of the Others--he smells the cold coming at the Fist of the First Men. This is GRRM both honoring the well-worn trope of the veteran who sees it all coming and establishing a sort of collective unconsciousness among the Night’s Watch about their true mission. See also the brothers who instinctively call for the unnatural corpses to be burned in Jon VII. And also Gared from the AGOT Prologue telling Waymar that they need to GTFO from the Haunted Forest instead of go track down the wildlings. 

Theory/Discussion

With Jon joining the Night’s Watch and LC Mormont making an impassioned case for the institution, it behooves us to ask: is the Night’s Watch overall a good thing, or is it in fact ugly and bad? Is it worth having watchers on the walls when you have to create a penal colony? Is the long bitter war against the wildlings a case of correctable mission creep, or does it represent a fatal flaw? Can the Night’s Watch be reformed? Does Westeros have to reform first in order for the Watch to be redeemed? Or should the black brotherhood be melted down entirely?

Conclusion

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