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Episode 73: A CLASH OF KINGS, PROLOGUE: "Red, Part 1" SHOW NOTES!

Added 2019-08-05 14:00:03 +0000 UTC

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish. 

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.          

Welcome to the seventy-third episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “Red, Part 1: An Analysis of the Prologue to ACOK,” in which Old Man Cressen stares down a giant Eye of Sauron in the sky before explaining a bunch of backstory and wishing he wasn’t so damn old. I feel that.

Talk about the split

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

And our newest member of our small council. Say hello to Hedrigal, Captain of the Air Ship Arrogance! Welcome, Hedrigal!

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!

E Mail

Lady May, a brand new Sworn Sword patron, sent us a lovely note over patreon that we wanted to share

Let me preface with saying this may be long, especially for an introvert who would much rather silently support than ever make my voice known, but I felt compelled. You have been warned.
I took a fantasy lit class my junior year in college, way back in 2007. A Game of Thrones was one of the books among ten others we read that semester. The problem with that, I had two other literature courses that required a book a week! The result led me having to utilize SparkNotes quite frequently and especially with AGOT. I started my re-read two days after season eight premiered. I love the lore and theories that asoiaf has sparked. My only regret is that I didn't know about the vast and fantastic community until recently. Also, I had no idea "to stan" or "stanning" was a thing!
I listened to quite a few podcasts that were not for me and became discouraged. I found your podcast around the time I was on Jon IV. I immediately started listening to all your previous podcasts. Few creators have ever kept me so wholly engaged in the content. I got caught up around Jon VIII, but I couldn't put the book down. I finished reading ADWD and immediately picked up the Dunk & Egg novellas, and now I'm halfway through Fire & Blood. 
I cannot thank you both enough for creating such amazing content. I have never subscribed to a creator before (my husband and I are avid gamers, and we have our favorite streamers), you guys were my first. I love the discussion and the insight you both have. It is refreshing, intelligent, and delivered brilliantly. I cannot wait for Dany X and to dive back into ACOK with you guys and everything after that. 
As a side note, you both have mentioned Stannis in every single episode since the very first episode, and it makes my heart so happy. 
-Mayra (pronounced "my-EE-dah")

Question

Lord Travis, master of ships and warden of the waves, a small council member, asks:

We all agree that the show didn’t handle the One True King as well as they could have. But one thing they did well, in my opinion, is build a relationship between Stannis and Shireen that, to my knowledge, doesn’t exist in the books. We get no scene of Stannis admonishing Selyse for being harsh to the Princess nor Stannis telling his daughter why he did everything he could to save her life from greyscale. Those are touching scenes in the show and actually build a heart and soul for his grace. Of course, we all know that part of its inclusion was to make the sacrifice even more tragic.
With that being said, do you think we will get interactions between Stannis and Shireen in the books similar to what we got in the show?
Further, why do you think George hasn’t included them thus far in the series?

Synopsis

The comet's tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a wound in the pink and purple sky.

The triumphant songs of dragons and the cries for northern independence fade into the ether, and we open back on the lifeless surface of the moon. Or Dragonstone. It’s Dragonstone. The red comet under which Dany birthed dragons now flies over the bleak, barren, haunted island of Dragonstone and our elderly point of view: Maester Cressen.

Standing between two twelve-foot tall gargoyles shaped as a hell-hound and wyvern, Cressen watches the red comet, disbelieving the plain omen above him. He is a skeptic, a maester, chained and bound to the Citadel of Oldtown, but the color of the Red Comet: the red of blood, fire and the setting sun disquiets him. 

Such folly, he thinks to himself. Talking gargoyles and prophecies in the sky. I am an old done man, grown giddy as a child again.

Cressen wonders if his lifetime of knowledge and wisdom was deserting him, the same as his youth and health. He wonders if he’s becoming superstitious like some peasant.

And yet … and yet …

The comet flies over Dragonstone, even lighting its fiery plume by day now. But as if the very universe was challenging his skepticism of omens, a white raven had arrived from the Citadel the morning before. The end of summer. The omens were there, but what did they mean?

A quiet voice stirs Cressen from his inner-reflections. Pylos. He probably hadn’t wanted to disturb Cressen from his thoughts. Perhaps he should have shouted, given the “drivel” that’s become Cressen’s thoughts of late. Pylos announces that they have visitors. Princess Shireen.

Ever correct, Pylos called her princess now, as her lord father was a king. King of a smoking rock in the great salt sea, yet a king nonetheless. “Her fool is with her.”

Cressen turns from his gargoyles and asks for help into his chair, holding the wyvern to steady himself. 

Pylos leads Cressen into his chambers, and Cressen reflects that he had once been a fast walker, but no more. Maester Cressen was two years shy of eighty years old, and was not in the best health. He broke his hip two years before. It had never healed. And Pylos? He was here to replace Cressen when he died. Cressen didn’t mind that so much. Someone would need to replace him, but it’d be better if the dying came later rather than sooner. Oh Cressen …

Pylos places Cressen at his desk, behind his books and papers. Shireen comes in shy with Patchface behind her with a “queer sideways walk” … never noticed that bit of unsettling detail before. And how else is Patchface described?

On his head was a mock helm fashioned from an old tin bucket, with a rack of deer antlers strapped to the crown and hung with cowbells. With his every lurching step, the bells rang, each with a different voice, clang-a-dang bong-dong ring-a-ling clong clong clong.

Eerie.

Cressen adopts his best “I’m your granddad” demeanor with Shireen, asking Pylos who’s come to see him. Of course it’s Shireen and “patches”, Shireen’s blue eyes blinking at Cressen:

Hers was not a pretty face, alas. The child had her lord father’s square jut of jaw and her mother’s unfortunate ears, along with a disfigurement all her own, the legacy of the bout of greyscale that had almost claimed her in the crib. Across half one cheek and well down her neck, her flesh was stiff and dead, the skin cracked and flaking, mottled black and grey and stony to the touch. 

Shireen reports that Pylos said that she might be able to see the white raven, and Cressen agrees. He couldn’t deny her. She had been denied too often in her time.

Her name was Shireen. She would be ten on her next name day, and she was the saddest child that Maester Cressen had ever known. 

Cressen believes that Shireen’s sadness is his shame and part of his failure. He asks Pylos to bring the white raven down, and Pylos consents, polite yet solemn.

If only [Pylos] had more humor, more life in him; that was what was needed here. Grim places needed lightening, no solemnity, and Dragonstone was grim beyond a doubt, a lonely citadel in the wet waste surrounded by storm and salt, with the smoking shadow of the mountain at its back.

But maesters go where they are sent. And so Cressen had gone to Dragonstone with his Lord Stannis twelve years before. But he hadn’t loved it. This wasn’t home. And lately, his dreams had been troubled, disturbed by visions of the red woman.

Patchface turns to watch Pylos climbing up to the rookery:

“Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

Cressen thinks on Patchface and how he was a sorry fool. Patchface has lost his sense of humor to the sea. The sea had also taken “half his wits and memory.” Also, Patchface is obese and soft. Only Shireen laughs at him. She was the only one who cares if Patchface lives or dies.

Maester Cressen invites Shireen to sit with him, and then he asks what she’s doing up so early in the morning.

“I had bad dreams. About the dragons. They were coming to eat me.”

Oh, is that all, Shireen? Ho-ly sh-it. 

Cressen thinks that Shireen has had nightmares all her life, and he tries to reassure her that the dragons can’t eat her. They’re made of stone, crafted by the Valyrians who used Dragonstone as the western-most outpost of their Freehold empire. The Valyrians also created the castle itself, shaping stones in ways lost to time. Cressen then proceeds to describe how the towers of Dragonstone are shaped to look like dragons to inspire fear, while the crenellations are shaped as dragons too. All to inspire fear. Cressen turns to Shireen.

“So you see, there is nothing to fear.”

Oh, good. Glad we got that sorted and are not misidentifying why Shireen has dreams the dragons are coming to eat her. Whew-sob!

But Shireen is unconvinced. Good girl. She asks about the red comet and says that Melisandre had told Mama Selyse that the comet represented dragonsbreath. Does that mean that the dragons have come to life? 

The red woman, Maester Cressen thought sourly. Ill enough that she’s filled the head of the mother with her madness, must she poison the daughter’s dreams as well?

Cressen responds that this is just a comet, a star lost to the heavens, never to be seen again when it’s gone. I mean I get where Cressen is coming from here, but Melisandre isn’t wrong here. We’ll get to that. But Shireen is perceptive, stating that the white raven from the Citadel means that it’s the end of summer.

True enough, Cressen says, fingering each of the metals from the maester’s chain around his neck, thinking about how heavy the metal seems now. Cressen then states that the conclave met and determined that the longest summer in living memory was coming to an end. Shireen asks if it’ll get cold, and Cressen says that it will, but maybe they’ll have a long, warm autumn, lots of harvests. Oh God.

Patchfaces jingles his bells

“It is always summer under the sea. The merwives wear nennymoans in their hair and weave gowns of silver seaweed. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

Shireen giggles, wanting a gown of silver seaweed. But then Patchface continues. Under the sea, it snows up, and the rain is dry as bone. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.” When Shireen asks if it will truly snow, Cressen says that it will, but he hopes and prays that doesn’t occur for a long time.

Finally, Pylos returns with the white raven to Shireen’s cries of delight. The bird spreads its wings leaping into the air and taking its place on the table beside Cressen. Pylos heads off to fetch Cressen’s breakfast, and Shireen is astonished when after Cressen introduces Shireen as “Lady Shireen,” the bird is able to say Lady. Patchface, as always, has some things to say:

“Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool. The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord. The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord.”

Shireen states that she’s scared by him singing that and wants him to stop. Cressen thinks that he might have stopped him once, silenced him forever, and then we’re into a flashback. 

Back in the day, Lord Steffon Baratheon went to Volantis on behalf of King Aerys II Targaryen, attempting to find a wife for Prince Rhaegar. During that time in Volantis, Steffon found Patchface, stating that he was the best fool about. Nimble, a juggler, riddler and magic performer, Patchface also sang in four languages.

“We have bought his freedom and hope to bring him home with us. Robert will be delighted with him, and perhaps in time, he will even teach Stannis how to laugh.”

The letter makes Cressen feel sad. No one had ever taught Stannis to laugh, least of all the boy Patchface. A storm had come up on Lord Steffon and his wife’s ship and sunk it in Shipbreaker Bay as Robert, Stannis and Cressen watched on in horror from the battlements of Storm’s End. Corpses floated onto the shores for days afterwards. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and Patchface washed on-shore. They thought him a corpse to throw onto the burial wagon, but the boy coughed water and sat up. The man who found him swore that Patchface was dead when they found him.

No one had ever explained those two days the fool had been lost in the sea. The fisherfolk liked to say a mermaid had taught him to breathe water in return for his seed. Patchface himself had said nothing. The witty, clever lad that Lord Steffon had written of never reached Storm’s End; the boy they found was someone else, broken in body and mind, hardly capable of speech, much less wit.

When Ser Harbert, the former castellan of Storm’s End, had heard of Patchface, he advised Cressen to straight up mercy-kill the boy, but Cressen had refused and was able to win that fight. But Cressen is unsure whether Patchface had taken any joy from what he’d done for him. 

Flashing back to the present, Patchface continues cryptically singing about the shadows coming to dance, my lord. The white raven repeats the “Lord” refrain, and Cressen sighs that Patchface will sing what he will. He can’t control it. Maybe he’ll remember another song tomorrow. 

Then Pylos comes through the door and announces that Ser Davos Seaworth arrived back from the Stormlands the night before. He’s with the king now, and Cressen gets annoyed that he was not woken to consult with Stannis. The king would have woken him back in the day. No more. Cressen excuses himself from Shireen and Patchface, but they follow him out anyways until Cressen proves slow, and they blow past him. 

Castles are not friendly places for the frail, Cressen was reminded as he descended the turnpike stairs of Sea Dragon Tower. 

And so it was now. Cressen thinks that Stannis would have once come to him, but now Cressen resigns himself to going to Stannis. Thankfully, Pylos was around to help Cressen out. They pass windows showing archers practicing, guardsmen walking their rounds and a three-thousand strong army camped outside the walls with cookfires adding smoke to the haze. Beyond the army was the navy. Lots and lots of ships sit in port at Dragonstone as Stannis had appropriated all ships sailing into Dragonstone and hadn’t allowed any to leave the island for a half year. 

Pylos and Cressen reach the Stone Drum Tower, and Cressen asks that he be allowed to go up alone. Pylos tries to offer his assistance, but Cressen waves him off. Halfway up the tower, Cressen regrets not taking Pylos up on his offer. He takes a breather which allows the descending Ser Davos Seaworth to enter the scene and our hearts. 

Davos was a slight man, his low birth written plain upon a common face. A well-worn green cloak, stained by salt and spray and faded from the sun, draped his thin shoulders, over brown doublet and breeches that matched brown eyes and hair. About his neck, a pouch of worn leather hung from a thong. His small beard was well peppered with grey, and he wore a leather glove on his maimed left hand.

Cressen greets him, asking when he returned.

“In the black of morning. My favorite time.”

Can anyone sit there and not absolutely love Father Davos already?

Well, because this chapter is doing a lot here - like introducing a POV character here to avoid having to do the introduction then, Cressen provides us with the first part of Davos’ backstory, talking about how he was the greatest smuggler in Westeros before Stannis knighted him. Cressen asks what happened in the Stormlands, and Davos says that the storm lords ain’t gonna rise for their rightful king. They don’t love Stannis.

Nor will they ever, Cressen thinks. He is strong, able, just … aye, just past the point of wisdom … yet it is not enough. It has never been enough.

Cressen asks if Davos spoke to all the lords, and Davos says, well, not exactly. Only a few of them actually heard him out. Most of them refused to treat with the Onion Knight. No, no. It’s not class discrimination and social snobbery. It’s, um, yeah, it’s exactly that. All the same, Davos shared a meal with Lords Swann and Penrose. Lord Selwyn Tarth met with Davos at midnight in a grove. Beric Dondarrion was gone, missing. Maybe dead? Yeah, maybe. Lord Caron is with Renly, and his son is in the Rainbow Guard -- Renly’s brand new Kingsguard that wear rainbow colored cloaks. Loras Tyrell is the Elsie.

It was just the sort of notion that would appeal to Renly Baratheon; a splendid new order of knighthood with gorgeous new raiment to proclaim it.

As a young terrorist, Renly loved his bright colors and rich fabrics, running around Storm’s End yelling “Look at me! I’m a dragon. I’m a wizard. I’m the rain god.” Guys, what Cressen is saying here is that Renly is vain, always has been, always will be -- but not for long. 

The bold little boy with wild black hair and laughing eyes was a man grown now, one and twenty and still he played his games. Look at me, I’m a king. Oh Renly, Renly, dear sweet child, do you know what you are doing? And would you care if you did? Is there anyone who cares for him but me?

Cressen asks why the lords refused Stannis, and Davos responds by saying that some of them refused softly, some bluntly, others made excuses, others just lied. In the end words are just wind. What an interesting phrase, George. Wonder if that one will get repeated ever again?

Regardless, Davos ain’t about to bring Stannis false hope. He’ll give Stannis the truth. Always. This leads to Cressen recounting some of the backstory of Davos and how he sailed into Storm’s End while it was under siege, breaking through the Redwyne cordon and delivering onions and salt fish enough to keep the garrison alive until Ned Stark came down on Storm’s End to relieve the siege. And Stannis had rewarded Davos with lands, a knighthood, but those were the rewards. And this is Stannis. So …

He also decreed that he lose a joint of each finger on his left hand to pay for all his years of smuggling. Davos had submitted on the condition that he would accept no punishment from lesser hands. Stannis had used a butcher’s cleaver, the better to cut clean and true.

Davos chose the surname “Seaworth” thereafter with a black ship on a pale grey field with an onion on its sails as his sigil and banner. And he thanked Stannis for giving him four fewer fingernails to clean. This guy wouldn’t give Stannis false hope. So, Cressen says that Stannis can’t hope to march on King’s Landing despite his dream of doing so. And Davos agrees. If they go to King’s Landing, they’re all going to die. But you know his pride. Cressen sighs and says he’s off to try to aid Davos’ initial foray to convince Stannis of the rightful course of action and begins climbing the stairs again.

And that is part 1 of the A Clash of Kings Prologue!

Even without he-who-shall-be-named-and-bent-the-knee-to, this is a magical chapter. It’s absurdly good. 

What did you think, Emmett?

Depth

Let me start with a bold statement: Cressen’s Prologue stands head and shoulders above all the other prologues and every chapter in AGOT.

It’s better in terms of structure, and emotional character work, and imagery and dialogue and the sheer hellfirey atmosphere of it all...it’s a chapter in which you can feel the author’s growing confidence and excitement in his expanding story come through in every paragraph. George has to both set up an enormous amount of important threads going forward and tell the self-contained story of a sad old man trying to do right by his alienated son before the end, and he pulls off both at once better than most authors could do one at a time. We could make a list of all the things he does right here, put them on a wheel, spin it, and just talk about whatever topic it lands on for three straight hours. Three hours on Cressen! Three hours on Dragonstone! Three hours on Patchface!!

Obviously, the main attraction is the king himself, but even pushing him to next week, there’s still so much to love and discuss here. That’s just how good this chapter is.

When George got to the end of AGOT, I think he made a conscious decision to have two separate endings: the political one (King in the North) and the magical one (The music of dragons). What I love here is that GRRM opens Clash by refusing to separate the two. He fuses realpolitik and magic in the Prologue. The Iron Throne, the raw military numbers, political theory and alliance occupy the same space as R’hllor, magic, prophecy and red priestess. And that’s really ambitious. Because broadly, what George is doing here is ambitious. He’s gotta do 4 major things:

  1. Introduce a character we’ve not been properly introduced to: Stannis
  2. Set up a brand new political A-plot in the narrative
  3. Introduce Melisandre and R’hllor
  4. Set up a brand new form of magic through Melisandre

So, how does George accomplish this? Well, first, he makes this a really long chapter! It’s the second longest chapter in ASOIAF with only AFFC, Alayne II as three pages longer. The Prologue is roughly 3% of the entire page-space of A Clash of Kings. Secondly, George is doing what I’m coining as the Bayeux Tapestry effect. What I mean by that is that while one plot or character action is established, we have other plot and character actions in the background. Think the red comet hovering over Cressen as he talks with Shireen about dragons with Patchface uttering fucked-up shit around them. Think the introduction of Davos and word of what the stormlords are doing set against Cressen’s long climb to the stone drum tower (symbolizing Stannis’ long odds to take the Iron Throne). Third, it’s our POV. In contrast to Will, Chett, Pate and Varamyr, Cressen has “major supporting character” written all over him. He could have been the Catelyn Stark archetype to Robb. Instead, he dies, and Davos (and much later, Melisandre) fulfill the role.

But to put my earlier stat geekery aside, did anyone who read the Prologue ever get bored at any point in it? Did things drag? Or was this chapter, despite being the 2nd longest chapter in ASOIAF, feel crisp, constantly hurtling the plot forward to new and interesting ways. I know I’m speaking in generalities, but I feel that the only way to discuss this chapter is to start at the 10,000 foot view and then slowly work our way down until we’re at the heart level -- the flaming heart level of course!

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

We get our first mention of Beric Dondarrion in the book from Davos as he rattles off the stormlords to Cressen. Beric does not appear in ACOK, but is a constant presence as so many are searching for him or spreading rumours about him. Not only does this lend him a mystique prior to his reappearance in ASOS, but it establishes his legend as a fearless escape artist that is then subverted by the reveal that Thoros has literally been bringing him back from the dead.

George revisits this chapter in multiple ways for AFFC’s own Prologue. It’s set at Oldtown among Citadel novices, discussing dragons and omens and the secular v. the supernatural, even a mention of Cressen in passing. This is the alternating pattern many have noted with the prologues: the odd-numbered books (AGOT, ASOS, ADWD) have prologues set north of the Wall dealing with the Watch/wildling/white walker dynamic, whereas the even-numbered books (ACOK, AFFC) have prologues set south of the Wall among maesters dealing with more eastern magical influences. Will TWOW keep this pattern going or break it? What do you think, Jeff?

In a 2012 interview with Asshai.com (Spain’s premiere ASOIAF site), Spain, GRRM revealed why Davos came to Stannis at Storm’s End:

Question: During Robert's rebellion, what brought a simple smuggler like Davos to take sides in the war by helping Stannis and the starving garrison at Storm's End?
GRRM: (George laughs) Because he had onions! And so he thought to himself: "Where can I sell these at the best price? If I take them to King's Landing they'll pay me the price of onions, but i I take them to people dying of hunger they'd certainly pay me better."

The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord. The shadows come to stay, my lord. To stay, my lord…

Theory/Discussion

So what’s up with Patchface??

Conclusion


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