Episode 35: A GAME OF THRONES, EDDARD IX: "Tears in the Rain" 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 our thirty-fifth episode of the Not A Cast entitled: “Tears in the Rain: An Analysis of AGOT, Eddard IX,” in which Ned’s melancholy musings on Robert and Lyanna while riding back from visiting a brothel are rudely interrupted by an attack by Jaime Lannister, which leaves Ned wounded and several of his men killed. This episode is brought to you all by our Lords Commander Mark N, Timothy W, Hayden J and WolfmanZack. Thank you, gentlemen!

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

Ser Snark Knight asks:

Is there any Monthly Episode Topic/Place/Character that you would like to do an episode on that your co-host does not want to do?

Synopsis

Ned Starks finds Littlefinger chatting with Chataya in the brothel common hall while Heward, one of his men, plays strip forfeit with a sex worker. Meanwhile, Jory Cassel is all looking at the scene with a smile at the view. But Ned’s business is done here. His men jump to accompany their lord out of the brothel, but Littlefinger wonders something:

Your business or Robert’s? They say the Hand dreams the king’s dreams, speaks with the king’s voice, and rules with the king’s sword. Does that also mean you fuck with the king’s -

Ned cuts him off. Ned’s not ungrateful for his Littlefinger’s “help”, but don’t be a dick, Littlefinger. 

Outside, a warm rain pours down from a black sky. Jory asks if they’re heading back to the Red Keep, and Ned nods. Everyone mounts up, and Littlefinger mounts a horse next to Ned. He talks about wanting to buy Chataya’s brothel, talking about how sex work is profitable unlike ships which sink. Ned just lets him talk, not saying anything, and finally Littlefinger catches the hint and shuts the fuck up.

Riding silently through the dark rain drives Ned into memory. He thinks back to Lyanna and how she knew that Robert would never stay faithful. She knew about Mya Stone in the Vale. And though Ned had tried to reassure her that Robert truly loved Lyanna, his sister had known better.

Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.

Alright. Everyone, but especially Emmett, is appropriately sad now. More sad is Ned’s memory of the girl that he interviewed back at the brothel. She’d been young. She’d named her daughter Barra, stating that the girl looked like Robert. She asks that Ned tell Robert how beautiful their daughter is. And this drives Ned into a deep melancholy.

Robert was a man of love for an hour, but by the end of that hour, he would forget his vows -- and that’s something that Ned never did. Promise me, Ned. Lyanna’s dying words and Ned had kept his vows despite the price he paid. 

The girl claims that she’s been with no one since Robert, and that she doesn’t want any material possession, just Robert. He was good to her. Ned promises to tell Robert and says that Barra will not go wanting. The girl had smiled then. And it broke Ned’s heart. And for some very odd reason, Ned had thought of Jon Snow then. Wonder why.

Flashing back to the present, Ned asks Littlefinger how many bastards Robert has. More than you, for a start. Obnoxious. Ned asks again how many, and Littlefinger counts off the ones he knows:

• Edric Storm who was conceived during Stannis’ wedding night to Selyse on Stannis’ bed. Damn, Robert. (More on that in our patreon Robert episode)
• A pair of twins at Casterly Rock that Cersei had murdered and the mother sold into slavery.

Ned didn’t like the sound of that, but he couldn’t discount it either. The Robert he knew wouldn’t be down for that, but then again, Bob wasn’t that dude these days.

Eddard asks Littlefinger why Jon Arryn took an interest in all of these bastard children. Well, he was probably doing Robert’s bidding to look after them. No, not that. There’s more here. Littlefinger gets all dickish and jokes that Jon Arryn had to be killed for knowing that the king fathered baseborn bastards -- an unheard of crime. This sends Ned into memory, and he thinks of someone who rarely thinks of: Rhaegar Targaryen. He wonders if Rhaegar went to brothels but thinks not. 

But all this memory and melancholy is suddenly interrupted when Jory Cassel yells out a warning and suddenly there are soldiers in the streets. It’s Lannister men, and they’ve surrounded Ned and his small party. Jory draws his sword and orders the streets to be cleared, but no, that’s not happening.

Jaime Lannister, decked all up in lion of Lannister regala, is not letting them pass despite Littlefinger’s “protests.” (We’ll get to that). He’s here to ask after Tyrion. Any chance you know what happened to him, Ned? Yeah. He was taken prisoner at my command.

Well, that may have been a touch hasty. Jaime draws his sword and tells Littlefinger to get lost. Jaime gets a 1/10 of a gold star for at least that. He demands that Ned draw his own sword. He’d rather not kill the shit out of an unarmed Ned like he did to Aerys II Targaryen. Littlefinger scurries off like a moral coward, saying he’ll bring the city guard back. But now it’s 20 Lannisters vs Ned and his 3 men. Not good odds.

But Ned has a play here. 

Kill me, and Catelyn will most certainly slay Tyrion.

That gets Jaime’s attention. He’s skeptical, but he doesn’t want to take the chance, especially on a woman’s honor. Jaime sheaths his sword and wheels around, saying that he knows Ned will go back to Robert and tell the king how Jaime has put the fear of God into him, but he wonders if Robert will care. He orders that no harm comes to Ned, but you know … we really should teach that Ned Stark a lesson.

Kill his men.

Ned screams no! He draws his sword and runs his horse after Jaime, but the golden knight is far away. Jory puts his heels into his mount and charges. Ned’s man Wyl is yanked down from his horse and stabbed to death. A spear takes Heward in the stomach. And then Jory reappears, his sword a red slash against the sky. Ned screams at Jory to get the fuck out of here, but then more disaster. Ned’s horse trips, and falls on top of Ned’s leg. Ned watches as Lannister men cut the legs out from Jory’s horse and then sword him to death.

Ned tries to get to his feet, but he can’t. His leg bone protrudes from his calf. He passes out with the rain coming down around him. When Ned wakes, he’s alone. He drags his ass up to Jory Cassel, and that’s where Littlefinger and the goldcloaks found Ned: cradling Jory’s body. Good Lord, George.

A litter is produced, and Ned’s loaded onto it. He loses consciousness a few times on the way, but he finally sees the Red Keep ahead. They pass into the Red Keep, whose walls are, of course, looking like blood to Ned Stark, and then Grand Maester Pycelle is standing over Ned. He offers Ned the milk of the poppy, and Ned overhears the Grand Maester telling someone to heat some wine for the wound.

And that was the last Ned Stark knew …

And that is the melancholic, action-packed AGOT, Eddard IX: another home run by GRRM. Emmett, your thoughts?

Depth

Eddard IX is basically a daydream interrupted by a nightmare. Structurally speaking, it’s a bit awkward in that its first half (Ned leaving the brothel and getting lost in his thoughts) doesn’t have anything to do with its second half (Jaime attacking in the streets), but GRRM really sells the sudden shift in tone from the haunted past to the bloody present. Moreover, both halves are terrific and significant, so it’s hard to complain much! Ned’s musings are extremely emotional and cleverly structured, and the fight is gorgeously written in its imagery and the sickening turn into violence, making you feel the gut punch Ned is experiencing and effectively ratcheting up the Stark v. Lannister stakes a step further from Catelyn snatching Tyrion. Ned gets a lot of chapters practically in a row in this part of the book; good thing they’re all great.

• Supply and demand
  • GRRM starts with a quick little contrast between the clients at Chataya’s, as represented by Ned’s men…
    • By the hearth, Heward and a buxom wench were playing at forfeits. From the look of it, he'd lost his belt, his cloak, his mail shirt, and his right boot so far, while the girl had been forced to unbutton her shift to the waist. Jory Cassel stood beside a rain-streaked window with a wry smile on his face, watching Heward turn over tiles and enjoying the view. 
    • Jory brought out his horse. Young Wyl came right behind him, leading Littlefinger's mare with one hand while the other fumbled with his belt and the lacings of his trousers. A barefoot whore leaned out of the stable door, giggling at him. 
  • ...and the investors, as represented by Littlefinger.
    • He found Littlefinger in the brothel’s common room, chatting amiably with a tall, elegant woman who wore a feathered gown over skin as black as ink.
    • "Chataya runs a choice establishment," Littlefinger said as they rode. "I've half a mind to buy it. Brothels are a much sounder investment than ships, I've found. Whores seldom sink, and when they are boarded by pirates, why, the pirates pay good coin like everyone else." 
  • Ned’s men talk to labor, Littlefinger talks to management. Heward’s not only taking his clothes off, but gambling them. They’re being taken for a ride, which I think is part of the wryness of Jory’s smile. 
  • Littlefinger is the one who profits from it all, recognizing this as a recession-proof industry where pirates play by the same rules as everyone else: the oldest profession. 
  • It’s not Ned’s world, but it is Robert’s, and he reflects on that as he rides back to the Red Keep
• Misty Water-Colored Memories
  • The rain cues a nested flashback, in a way that feels very cinematic (thinking of the swells of noise that greet a flashback in Lost)
  • GRRM plays with structure in an interesting and moving fashion, starting with distant memories of Lyanna, then shifting to the very recent past of the brothel
  • This may seem counterintuitive, but it has several key effects
  • #1: It’s a thesis-and-proof setup, wherein Lyanna’s declaration about Robert is proven right via Barra and her mother
  • #2: And Ned was proven wrong, so this ties into his overall disillusionment about Robert wherein his beloved image of his brother in all but blood starts to rot: 
    • He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not.
  • #3: It also gets at a larger societal disillusionment, as Ned’s chivalric defense of Robert rooted in the transformational power of love gives way to the reality: a young girl pining after the man who will never visit her or their child.
    • Ned was soaked through to the bone, and his soul had grown cold.
  • #4: It illustrates, rather than merely gesturing at (as in previous chapter), the thought process of Eddard Stark as it was reshaped by his losses in Robert’s Rebellion and the secret he has been forced to keep ever since. His past lives inside his present, his ghosts reflected back at him everywhere he goes.
  • #5: Specifically, this passage moves from the seed of R+L (on L’s side) to its fruit: a young girl in bed with her babe, smiling a smile that cuts Ned’s heart out, pining for the babe’s royal father who will never return to them. 
• The Wolf and the Lion
  • There’s a whole ‘nother layer to the Ned-Jaime showdown coming back to it as a re-reader, knowing what an effect Ned’s judgement RE Aerys had on Jaime
  • One could see this as Jaime’s attempts to turn the tables on Ned from that day
    • Ironic if he’s doing it in defense of his half brother who is in fact Aerys’ bastard son...we’ll see about that!
  • Jaime is framed as a snarling beast in this chapter--the blood bay stallion, the defiant roaring lion on his breastplate, “the gilded sword that had sipped the blood of the last of the Dragonkings.”
  • And then, of course, there’s the white of his smile as he orders Ned’s men killed
  • This is honestly what I’ve never been able to get past with Jaime, even more so than the attempt on Bran’s life; at least that had the logic of protecting his kids 
  • Here...there’s just nothing. No calculus, no innocents protected, not even a purely selfish benefit. This won’t free Tyrion, it’s cruelty with no impetus beyond itself.
  • It’s one of the purest examples of the immorality and superficiality of the game of thrones. These men exist to Jaime merely as pawns to be sacrificed in an expression of his own anger; he centers that above their lives, and rides away.
  • This is in contrast to Ned, who screams with anguish when Jaime gives his order and begs Jory to flee
  • What does connect the two halves of these chapters together is that Ned is once again “alone with his dead.” 
    • Littlefinger and the City Watch found him there in the street, cradling Jory Cassel’s body in his arms.

Likes/Dislikes

Like: I love Ned’s reaction to Jaime confronting him: “He knows what he’s doing,” Ned said calmly. Such a taciturn badass response, very Western. You can practically see the tumbleweeds blowing across the street.  

Dislike: By contrast, Jaime’s tough-guy posturing works a lot better when he becomes a POV and we get access to the frequently contradictory and self-aware mind behind those comments. In this context, “I’ll butcher you like Aerys if I must” just undercuts the drama from the hopeless situation and how well it’s described. Contrast him with Sandor, who never becomes a POV, but has already been given a vulnerable and revealing moment with Sansa. 

Like: When George wants to make you feel sad, by God is he going to. The Lyanna flashbacks talking about how love isn’t all it’s chopped up to be, the girl’s smile, Ned cradling Jory’s body in his arms. Yeah. Let’s pause for a moment and be sad. Moment’s over, you saps. But let’s give George his writing props here in the Jory example. He clearly sets the stage for us to be sad over Jory: crafting this minor character to be loyal, good, trustworthy and above all (in a literary sense) likable. He jokes about the boys finding the direwolves, helps Arya save Nymeria’s life and serves as plucky underdog during the Hand’s Tourney. Having him ripped from both Ned and the readers and then having Ned cradle his body after he’s dead just guts us. Good work, George.

Dislike: Similarly to Emmett: my dislike for the chapter is not a dislike of the chapter. In Jaime’s chapters, we never get a memory of this encounter, because like Emmett, I would love to understand Jaime’s mindset here. This whole scene reads very much like the Jaime from the pitch letter -- the one who murders his way to the kingship instead of the more complex character we come to know in Storm. Arguably, this is one of Jaime’s worst acts, and I’d have loved to get a retrospective Jaime POV of it and the emotions he experienced before, during and after. 

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Chataya’s establishment will play a significant role in Tyrion’s story when he arrives in the city, and that the King’s Hand is here foreshadows not only Tyrion but Tywin.

“I will tell him, child, and I promise you, Barra shall not go wanting.”

And indeed, Ned will promise Robert as well to take care of his children--his true children.

Here we get our first mention of Edric Storm, though not by name:

“I know he's acknowledged that boy at Storm's End, the one he fathered the night Lord Stannis wed. He could hardly do otherwise. The mother was a Florent, niece to the Lady Selyse, one of her bedmaids. Renly says that Robert carried the girl upstairs during the feast, and broke in the wedding bed while Stannis and his bride were still dancing. Lord Stannis seemed to think that was a blot on the honor of his wife's House, so when the boy was born, he shipped him off to Renly."

By the time we get to ACOK, the author appears to have Edric’s purpose in mind (“I must have the boy, Davos. Must. She has seen that as well”), but at this point, he might’ve just been a way to further emphasize the wedge between Robert and Stannis. 

“Kill me,” he warned the Kingslayer, “and Catelyn will most certainly slay Tyrion.”

This is not the last time Ned will try to escape a tight corner with an implied threat to Tyrion from Catelyn--he will try again in the black cells, long after Tyrion has slipped his bonds. It’s interesting that both Ned and Catelyn are relying on the other to give them cover, and both fail; Ned gives up his Hand pin and can’t persuade Robert, Catelyn trusts Lysa and lets Tyrion go.

And of course, the image of Ned helpless as his men are butchered by Lannister forces all around him perfectly foreshadows the climax of his story: his downfall in the throne room. That time, Littlefinger won’t run away, but will be right there at Ned’s side...

Theory/Discussion

Minor theory with larger implication discussion time! How did Jaime Lannister know where to find Eddard Stark? (It’s Littlefinger)

Conclusion

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