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aegor-bamfsteel · 1 year

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Why do you think Tywin had Jaime lied to Tyrion about Tysha being a whore? I found the gangrape of Tysha being disgusting and unnecessary to the story. Since Tywin already had the marriage undone, Tywin could have thrown Tysha out of kingslanding and it could still had impacted Tyrion. Tywin will still look bad guy. Don't understand with forcing Tyrion to raped Tysha decision. I really hated grrm here.

Rape is a very sensitive subject, so I’m sticking my answer under a cut:

Jaime tells Tyrion why when he admits Tysha was a crofter’s daughter:

A girl, she was only a girl, no older than Sansa. "My wife," he croaked. "She wed me."

"For your gold, Father said. She was lowborn, you were a Lannister of Casterly Rock. All she wanted was the gold, which made her no different from a whore, so . . . so it would not be a lie, not truly, and . . . he said that you required a sharp lesson. That you would learn from it, and thank me later . . ." —ASOS Tyrion XI

I interpret this as Tywin not believing Tysha loved Tyrion for himself but rather because he was a great lord’s son and she could get money out of a relationship. Thus sleeping (among other things) with Tyrion for gold was the same as what Shae did, just without Tyrion being aware of the arrangement, according to Tywin’s idea. In addition, Tywin also thought that Tyrion needed to be taught a lesson about not to trust lowborn women who would—in his eyes—make a mockery of the Lannisters as their paramours; this seems to be what he felt Lord Tytos’ second mistress did, as he punished her by having her paraded naked for 2 weeks confessing to be “a thief and a whore” before being exiled. Yes, Tywin could’ve exiled Tysha from the Westerlands and be done with it, as some lords did with lowborn paramours, but that’s not in Tywin’s petty, cruel character. He wanted Tysha to suffer for being a peasant girl who dared to marry his son, and he wanted Tyrion to suffer for daring to love a peasant who obviously was just after his money and Lannister name; the “lesson” was that no woman would ever love him, but just his money. And while Tytos’ mistress was a public affair because she’d basically replaced his wife, nobody knew about Tysha, so any lesson would have to be private. Hence the gangrape by Lannister guards giving her a silver each, proving that Tysha was “nothing more” than a prostituted woman with the only value between her legs, ending with Tyrion forced to rape her and give her a gold coin because “he was a Lannister and worth more” to show Tyrion shamed House Lannister by marrying her.

I’m pretty sure that HBO agrees with you that the gangrape of Tysha was disgusting, because she’s not in the show. While people complained this muddles the Tyrion-Tywin relationship and why he latched onto Shae so fast, I disagree because there are enough reasons for Tyrion and Tywin to hate each other. Tyrion didn’t necessarily need to be told of the lie about Tysha to want to kill him; finding Shae, the lady who testified against him, in his bed could’ve been enough. We didn��t need another peasant woman—we already have Pia, Shae, Alayaya, Palla, Layna, Bessa of Hag’s Mire, Kyra, Lacey, Maerie, Mhaegen, both of the Miller’s wives, Pycelle’s serving girl, Senelle and the two puppeteers, Victarion’s salt wife—in the main series whose role in the story is to be beaten, tortured, raped, or murdered just to show how bad war is or that the lords don’t care about the smallfolk…or in this case, to further a conflict between two male characters while the smallfolk woman is a memory between them (and not even, if Tywin says he forgot who she was). Yes, Tyrion was a victim of Tywin’s abuse, and he needed a reason to kill him and to get mad at Jaime to not trust him anymore, but GRRM could’ve told that story without yet another weakly characterized peasant woman being unrealistically raped. Women in Refrigerators is never going to be a trope that sits right with me, and unlike Victarion’s third wife—which considering GRRM considers Vic a dumb brute, makes me think that she’s basically a parody of fridged women—Tysha is played disgustingly straight.

#ask #opinion #grrm critical #tw: rape #tysha #tropes #female characters #male writers

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agentrouka-blog · 3 years

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Tyrion and Tysha murder mystery hints - first mention in the text

This thing just keeps tugging at me, and this recent thread made me ambitious to examine it in more detail. So I’ll look at hints for an even darker edge to the story of Tyrion and Tysha in the parts of the text that actually mention her.

Since I have limited time, I’ll do several posts. This one is about how we learn about Tysha in A Game of Thrones.

We head into AGOT, Tyrion VI via a chapter transition from AGOT, Jon V, where Jon talks Maester Aemon into choosing Samwell as his assistant. In the presence of his current assistant Chett, who - it is revealed later in the ASOS Prologue - murdered a girl he liked for rejecting him.

Chett gave a nasty laugh. “I’ve seen what happens to soft lordlings when they’re put to work. Set them to churning butter and their hands blister and bleed. Give them an axe to split logs, and they cut off their own foot.”

“I know one thing Sam could do better than anyone.”

“Yes?” Maester Aemon prompted.

Jon glanced warily at Chett, standing beside the door, his boils red and angry. “He could help you,” he said quickly. “He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. I know Chett can’t read, and Clydas has weak eyes. Sam read every book in his father’s library. He’d be good with the ravens too. Animals seem to like him. Ghost took to him straight off. There’s a lot he could do, besides fighting. The Night’s Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to no end? Make use of him instead.”

Maester Aemon closed his eyes, and for a brief moment Jon was afraid that he had gone to sleep. Finally he said, “Maester Luwin taught you well, Jon Snow. Your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem.”

“Does that mean …?”

“It means I shall think on what you have said,” the maester told him firmly. “And now, I believe I am ready to sleep. Chett, show our young brother to the door.”

(AGOT, Jon V)

The chapter is followed by AGOT, Tyrion VI, where Tyrion and Bronn rest on the high road after being kicked out of the Gates of the Moon, after he won his trial by combat:

They had taken shelter beneath a copse of aspens just off the high road. Tyrion was gathering dead-wood while their horses took water from a mountain stream. He stooped to pick up a splintered branch and examined it critically. “Will this do? I am not practiced at starting fires. Morrec did that for me.”

The entire conversation between Jon, Aemon and Chett sets up Tyrion. A lordling, bad with manual labor, but smart and a reader. Yet we know he is no Samwell Tarly in his sensibilities, and the last sentence is dedicated to Chett.

Chett...

The only women Chett had ever known were the whores he’d bought in Mole’s Town. When he’d been younger, the village girls took one look at his face, with its boils and its wen, and turned away sickened. The worst was that slattern Bessa. She’d spread her legs for every boy in Hag’s Mire so he’d figured why not him too? He even spent a morning picking wildflowers when he heard she liked them, but she’d just laughed in his face and told him she’d crawl in a bed with his father’s leeches before she’d crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her. That was sweet, the look on her face, so he pulled the knife out and put it in her again. When they caught him down near Sevenstreams, old Lord Walder Frey hadn’t even bothered to come himself to do the judging. He’d sent one of his bastards, that Walder Rivers, and the next thing Chett had known he was walking to the Wall with that foul-smelling black devil Yoren. To pay for his one sweet moment, they took his whole life.

But now he meant to take it back, and Craster’s women too. That twisted old wildling has the right of it. If you want a woman to wife you take her, and none of this giving her flowers so that maybe she don’t notice your bloody boils. Chett didn’t mean to make that mistake again.

Like Tyrion, Chett is rejected by others for his appearance, has a violent father and a lot of resentment that comes out in the shape of murdering “slatterns”. He also mixes it up with the idea of marriage. Like Tyrion, the cold night reminds Chett of the girl in his past.

He could see Bessa’s face floating before him. It wasn’t the knife I wanted to put in you, he wanted to tell her. I picked you flowers, wild roses and tansy and goldencups, it took me all morning. His heart was thumping like a drum, so loud he feared it might wake the camp. Ice caked his beard all around his mouth. Where did that come from, with Bessa? Whenever he’d thought of her before, it had only been to remember the way she’d looked, dying. What was wrong with him?

Chett killed her in a rage, but the truth is layered and haunts him.

But back to Tyrion.

Tyrion VI emphasizes Tyrion’s cleverness as he converses with Bronn, explaining his strategy in the Vale for how to steal Bronn from Cat’s service and make use of his practical talents, and his strategy for their travels in the Mountains of the Moon. Tyrion talks, Bronn listens and agrees to serve him.

The point is, Tyrion is very observant and smart. Reader, trust Tyrion’s judgent and words, is the message. Then we get more personal.

As they light a fire and eat a goat, Tyrion remembers his goaler Mord who treated him cruelly in the sky cells.

(Mord, btw, translates to murder in many a germanic/Scandinvian language.)

“And yet you gave the turnkey a purse of gold,” Bronn said.

“A Lannister always pays his debts.”

Even Mord had scarcely believed it when Tyrion tossed him the leather purse. The gaoler’s eyes had gone big as boiled eggs as he yanked open the drawstring and beheld the glint of gold. “I kept the silver,” Tyrion had told him with a crooked smile, “but you were promised the gold, and there it is.” It was more than a man like Mord could hope to earn in a lifetime of abusing prisoners. “And remember what I said, this is only a taste. If you ever grow tired of Lady Arryn’s service, present yourself at Casterly Rock, and I’ll pay you the rest of what I owe you.” With golden dragons spilling out of both hands, Mord had fallen to his knees and promised that he would do just that.

The image of coins spilling from hands is picked up later.

Tyrion was hoping to lure in the mountain clans, but they take their time showing up, so he tries to be even more conspicuous.

Tyrion chuckled. “Then we ought to sing and send them fleeing in terror.” He began to whistle a tune.

He chooses the “terrible” tune himself. It leads straight to his memory:

“Myrish. ‘The Seasons of My Love.’ Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I’ve never been able to put it out of my head.” Tyrion gazed up at the sky. It was a clear cold night and the stars shone down upon the mountains as bright and merciless as truth. “I met her on a night like this,” he heard himself saying. “Jaime and I were riding back from Lannisport when we heard a scream, and she came running out into the road with two men dogging her heels, shouting threats.

Myrish, as in the Myrish lens. The object Lysa sends Catelyn, which has a false bottom hiding the real message in a secret language, a message of murder and conspiracy. A secret language, a foreign language, like Mord.

"A lens is an instrument to help us see." (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Bright and merciless as truth.

My brother unsheathed his sword and went after them, while I dismounted to protect the girl. She was scarcely a year older than I was, dark-haired, slender, with a face that would break your heart. It certainly broke mine. Lowborn, half-starved, unwashed … yet lovely. They’d torn the rags she was wearing half off her back, so I wrapped her in my cloak while Jaime chased the men into the woods. By the time he came trotting back, I’d gotten a name out of her, and a story. She was a crofter’s child, orphaned when her father died of fever, on her way to … well, nowhere, really.

Where Tysha went will become a theme. @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir examines that beautifully here.

But even right here, the tone is ominous, and GRRM goes out of his way to emphasize it with the ellipses.

We get the story of Jaime chasing after the outlaws and Tyrion and Tysha falling into bed at an inn after drinking, eating and talking, and the story of their marriage, and its end.

Tyrion was surprised at how desolate it made him feel to say it, even after all these years. Perhaps he was just tired. “That was the end of my marriage.” He sat up and stared at the dying fire, blinking at the light.

“He sent the girl away?”

“He did better than that,” Tyrion said. “First he made my brother tell me the truth. The girl was a whore, you see. Jaime arranged the whole affair, the road, the outlaws, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman. He paid double for a maiden, knowing it would be my first time.

NOTHING about this makes sense, which is ridiculous when you consider we were just hammered over the head with how smart Tyrion is supposed to be.

Since when is Jaime prone to setting up complex schemes? Why would feel the need to push Tyrion to have sex at thirteen, and why would be ever do it this way? Why would be hire him a virgin for his first time? We don’t question it because GRRM has told us not to question the smartiepants. But as we later learn, that was all. not. true. So maybe other things aren’t true, either.

“After Jaime had made his confession, to drive home the lesson, Lord Tywin brought my wife in and gave her to his guards. They paid her fair enough. A silver for each man, how many whores command that high a price? He sat me down in the corner of the barracks and bade me watch, and at the end she had so many silvers the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling on the floor, she …” The smoke was stinging his eyes. Tyrion cleared his throat and turned away from the fire, to gaze out into darkness. “Lord Tywin had me go last,” he said in a quiet voice. “And he gave me a gold coin to pay her, because I was a Lannister, and worth more.”

The parallels to his memory of Mord are striking. Silver and gold, coins spilling from hands, a “price” beyond expectation... and a promise of something very sinister at the next meeting.

After a time he heard the noise again, the rasp of steel on stone as Bronn sharpened his sword. “Thirteen or thirty or three, I would have killed the man who did that to me.”

1) Nice how Bronn makes it about Tyrion’s pain. Tysha’s pain does not exist to them. And so the reader is also drawn away from it. Poor Tyrion.

2) Another reference to killing. It foreshadows Tyrion’s murder of Tywin over this very matter, of course, but at the same time...

Tyrion gestured impatiently with the bow. “Tysha. What did you do with her, after my little lesson?”

“I don’t recall.”

“Try harder. Did you have her killed?”

His father pursed his lips. “There was no reason for that, she’d learned her place … and had been well paid for her day’s work, I seem to recall. I suppose the steward sent her on her way. I never thought to inquire.”

“On her way where?”

“Wherever whores go.”

Tyrion’s finger clenched. (ASOS, Tyrion XI)

I don’t think it can be emphasized enough that this happens right after he murders Shae. Shae the whore.

“Did you ever like it?” He cupped her cheek, remembering all the times he had done this before. All the times he’d slid his hands around her waist, squeezed her small firm breasts, stroked her short dark hair, touched her lips, her cheeks, her ears. All the times he had opened her with a finger to probe her secret sweetness and make her moan. “Did you ever like my touch?”

“More than anything,” she said, “my giant of Lannister.”

That was the worst thing you could have said, sweetling.

Tyrion slid a hand under his father’s chain, and twisted. The links tightened, digging into her neck. “For hands of gold are always cold, but a woman’s hands are warm,” he said. He gave cold hands another twist as the warm ones beat away his tears.

And just before he asks him about Tysha, Tywin assures him he was meant to be sent to the Wall. Whether or not that’s a lie, we’re looking at another Chett parallel. Murdering a “slattern”, facing life at the Wall.

We close Tyrion’s memory of Tysha:

Tyrion swung around to face him. “You may get that chance one day. Remember what I told you. A Lannister always pays his debts.” He yawned. “I think I will try and sleep. Wake me if we’re about to die.”

He rolled himself up in the shadowskin and shut his eyes. The ground was stony and cold, but after a time Tyrion Lannister did sleep. He dreamt of the sky cell. This time he was the gaoler, not the prisoner, big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father, driving him back, toward the abyss …

Like Chett, his thoughts return to the girl. He turns into the goaler, Mord, his rage comes through, his capability of great violence. In ASOS, his lashing out at Tywin is preceeded by directing his violence toward the “whore” who allegedly betrayed him. Which is preceeded by a truth about Tysha.

“Thank you?” Tyrion’s voice was choked. “He gave her to his guards. A barracks full of guards. He made me … watch.” Aye, and more than watch. I took her too … my wife …

“I never knew he would do that. You must believe me.”

“Oh, must I?” Tyrion snarled. “Why should I believe you about anything, ever? She was my wife!”

“Tyrion—”

He hit him. It was a slap, backhanded, but he put all his strength into it, all his fear, all his rage, all his pain. Jaime was squatting, unbalanced. The blow sent him tumbling backward to the floor. “I … I suppose I earned that.”

“Oh, you’ve earned more than that, Jaime. You and my sweet sister and our loving father, yes, I can’t begin to tell you what you’ve earned. But you’ll have it, that I swear to you. A Lannister always pays his debts.” Tyrion waddled away, almost stumbling over the turnkey again in his haste. Before he had gone a dozen yards, he bumped up against an iron gate that closed the passage. Oh, gods. It was all he could do not to scream.

(ASOS, Tyrion XI)

The turnkey here is interesting. Once again, Tysha’s memory is associated with a cell and the presence of a turnkey. In his anguished memory, Tyrion almost stumbles over him. The last turnkey was Mord.

So, just looking at Tysha’s first mention, there are so many ominous connections. Murder murder murder.

The chapter ends with Tyrion meeting and “hiring” the mountain clans. How? To avenge himself on Lysa Arryn, he promises them the entire Vale. Really driving home that “a Lannister pays his debts” is all about disproportionate retribution.

A few chapter later, to create some distance to this dark tale, Tyrion meets Shae and sets up to re-create his entire Tysha trauma. The two are intertwined, so why should their ends not be?

That’s fodder for a different post, though.

#asoiaf #anti tyrion lannister #tysha #murder mystery #long post #Shae #tywin lannister #bronn #mismemory #memory edit

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molicioushat · 5 years

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As Ladies Die... No One Sings a Song About Them Part 1

Link for Part 2

Lady Corenna Swann, Ser Stevron Frey's 1st wife, mother of Ser Ryman Frey, died from a waisting illness.

Lady Jeyne Lydden, Ser Stevron Frey's 2nd wife, mother of Aegon "Jinglebell" Frey and Lady Maegelle Frey, died in a fall from her horse.

Walder Rivers's mother, fell from her horse.

Lady Rowena Arryn, Lord Jon Arryn's cousin and his 2nd wife, died of a winter chill.

Lady Waynwood, daughter of Ser Elys Waynwood and Lady Alys Arryn, died of a pox.

Prince Jaehaerys's Wet Nurse, behead on orders of King Aerys II in 274 AC.

King Aerys II's Mistress, tortured and executed in 274 AC.

Lady Melara Heatherspoon, one of Cersei's childhood companions, drowned in a well, murdered by Cersei Lannister in 276 AC, was only 11 years old.

Lady Serala of Myr, married to Lord Denys Darklyn, blamed for the Defience of Duskendale, burned alive by Aerys II in 277 AC.

Lady Darklyn, married to Ser Jon Holland, sister to Lord Denys Darklyn, executed in 277 AC on Aerys II's orders.

Lady Cassana Estermont, married to Lord Steffon Baratheon, shipwrecked & drowned in 278 AC.

Victarion Greyjoy's 2nd wife, stricken with a pox.

Victarion Greyjoy's 3rd wife, s salt wife, beaten to death by Victarion after Euron got her with child.

Serra of Lys, 2nd wife of Illyrio Mopatis, died in the Grey Plague outbreak in Pentos.

Lady Clegane, sister to Ser Gregor Clegane & Sandor Clegane, died under queer circumstances, aka Gregor murdered her.

Ser Gregor Clegane's 1st wife, murdered by Ser Gregor Clegane.

Ser Gregor Clegane's 2nd wife, murdered by Ser Gregor Clegane.

Urswyck's wife, killed by Urswyck.

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, daughter of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen & Princess Elia Martell, murdered by Ser Amory Lorch in 283 AC.

Princess Elia Martell, murdered by Ser Gregor Clegane in 283 AC after he killed her son Prince Aegon.

Lady Bethany Ryswell, married to Lord Roose Bolton, died of a fever.

Obara Sand's mother, drank herself to death.

Elza or Ella, the old Weaver, died in 294 AC.

Bessa of Hag's Mire, murdered by Chett.

Mother of the Girl from Sherrer in the bloody dress, killed by the Mountain's Men in 298 AC.

Septa Mordane, killed with most of the Stark household in Kingslanding in 298 AC.

Hali, a spearwife, killed by Summer in 298 AC.

Mirri Maz Duur, burned on Khal Drogo's funeral pyre in 299 AC by Daenerys Targaryen.

Barra's mother, (called Mhaegen in Game of Thrones), killed by Allar Deem on the orders of Queen Cersei in 299 AC because she refused to stand aside while her baby was murdered.

Masha Heddle, owner of the Inn at the Crossroads, hanged by Lord Tywin in 298 AC.

Eroeh, a Lhazareen girl that Daenerys Targaryen saved, rapec and killed by Mago in the wake of Khal Drogo's death in 299 AC.

The One-Armed woman found by Yoren's group, died in 299 AC.

Doreah, handmaid to Daenerys Targaryen, died of fever in 299 AC in the Red Waste.

Girl who shared a soldier's bed for 3 nights running, died in 299 AC.

Young Mother with Pox Scarred Face, in 299 AC killed by the Tickler during questioning.

Young Mother's daughter, in 299 AC killed by the Tickler during questioning.

Mother of 3 year old boy, in 299 AC killed by Raff the Sweetling for screaming after her son was murdered in front of her.

The pretty girl who hit one of her rapists with a rock, Ser Gregor Clegane cut her head off in 299 AC.

The Woman who tried to be brave, in 299 AC killed by the Tickler during questioning.

The Mother of the Boy with the Crossbow at the Inn of the Kneeling Man, died at the hands of the Bloody Mummers.

The Woman of the Innkeeper of the Inn of the Kneeling Man, found dead.

Lady Donella Hornwood, possibly starved to death by Ramsay Snow in 299 AC.

Goodwife Harra, executed by Lord Roose Bolton after capturing Harrenhwl in 299 AC.

Lacey, who was raped till she died.

Lady Dacey Mormont, murdered in 299 AC at the Red Wedding, killed by Ser Ryman Frey.

Lady Catetlyn Tully, murdered at the Red Wedding in 299 AC.

Ygritte, takes an arrow in the attack on Castle Black, dies in 299 AC.

Shae, is strangled by Tyrion Lannister in 300 AC.

Lady Shella Whent, Lady of Harrenhal, reported dead in 300 AC.

Lady Tanda Stokeworth, Lady of Stokeworth Castle, died of a chill in 300 AC.

Lady Lysa Tully, Regent of the Vale, pushed by Littlefinger through the Moon Door in 300 AC.

Mother of one of the orphan girls at the Inn at the Crossroads, killed.

Grey Jeyne, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Red Jeyne, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Helicent, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Alison, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Maude, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Sara, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Willow, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Kyra, worked at the Smoking Log, hunted down by Ramsay Snow in 300 AC.

Jez, hunted down by Ramsay Snow, given a "quick" death.

Harma the Dogshead, killed in the battle with King Stannis Baratheon's army in 300 AC.

Mother of the boy who stabbed Varamyr, died in 300 AC.

Thistle, killed by the wights in 300 AC.

The Mother of the Boy in the grey tokar's, who was raped and murdered in 300 AC.

Hazzea, apparently burned to death by Drogon, died in 300 AC.

The Green Grace of Astapor, impaled upon a stake in the Plaza of Punishment in 300 AC.

Queen Whore, concubine of King Cleon II of Astapor, died fighting the Yunkai in 300 AC.

One of the Merling Queen's Mermaids, drowned in 300 AC.

Old Woman at the House of Black and White who died in 300 AC with a smile on her face.

Senelle, maid in service to Queen Cersei, given over to Qyburn for "spying" on Cersei, died in the Black Cell in 300 AC.

Lady Falyse Stokeworth, died in the black cells in 300 AC, experimented on by Qyburn.

Rylona Rhee the Harpist, they cut her fingers before the Sons of the Harpy killed her in 300 AC.

The Ugly Broken Girl, Arya's first face, asked for the gift of death at the House of Black and White.

#cw: violence #violence against women #asoiaf #tw rape #asoiaf meta #so many dead ladies!#seriously so many violent deaths #and this is only part 1 #why george why #so many nameless women #sigh #long post

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turtle-paced · 6 years

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Revisiting Chapters: Prologue, ASoS

It’s not my favourite of the prologues, but it’s definitely got its merits and in all honesty the prologue of ACoK is a tough act to follow.

The story so far…

Out of sight of Jon Snow, the Watch’s expedition beyond the Wall continues. Sort of - they’re holed up at the Fist of the First Men still, deciding what to do. Unfortunately, there’s a contingent that’s not on board with Lord Commander Mormont, and that’s only one of their problems.

A Midden Heap for the Misfits of the Realm

We knew from Jon’s PoV that the Night’s Watch contained a variety of recruits from, shall we say, less than morally upright circumstances, as well as men down on their luck for whatever reason. It’s here where we now start to see just how dangerous this can be.

“Bugger that Old Bear too,” said the Sisterman, a thin man with sharp features and nervous eyes. “Mormont will be dead before daybreak, remember? Who cares what he likes?”

We get right to the first mutiny-and-desertion plan within a page, and we see all this from the PoV of Chett. We know Chett, kind of. He’s been around. And as Chett so helpfully reminds us, just in case he got lost in the confusion of Watchmen over the past two books, he’s the one who Jon unintentionally displaced in his efforts to get Sam assigned as Aemon’s assistant.

Chett doesn’t like either Jon or Sam very much. This is a consistent feature of his narration, and while readers can understand why Chett would hate Jon and resent Sam, the specific nature of that dislike…

Chett pictured Jon Snow lying blue and frozen on some bleak mountaintop with a wildling spear up his bastard’s arse.

When he killed Sam Tarly tonight, he planned to whisper, “Give my love to Lord Snow,” right in his ear before he sliced Ser Piggy’s throat open to let the blood come bubbling out through all those layers of suet.

…the sexualised violence of his fantasies and plans, plus the clear homophobia, does nothing to endear Chett to the reader. No, Jon might have screwed Chett over, but this is a disproportionate response right here. Not to mention there’s the contempt in which Chett holds his co-conspirators:

And at home they’ll know you for deserters and lop off your fool heads, thought Chett.

And his xenophobia:

Lark had wanted to bring in twice that number, but what could you expect from some stupid fishbreath Sisterman?

Chett had weighed going with [Ollo, to Tyrosh], but he didn’t speak their wet girly tongue.

And his misogyny:

The worst was that slattern Bessa. She’d spread her legs for every boy in Hag’s Mire so he’d figured why not him too? He even spent a morning picking wildflowers when he heard she liked them, but she’d just laughed in his face and told him she’d crawl in a bed with his father’s leeches before she’d crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her. That was sweet, the look on her face, so he pulled the knife out and put it in her again.

If you want a woman to wife you take her, and none of this giving her flowers so that maybe she don’t notice your bloody boils.

And his casual cruelty to animals:

The dogs were pulling, anxious to go with them, to the food they thought would be waiting at the top. Chett kicked the bitch with the toe of his boot, and that settled them down some.

The big lout Grenn laughed, and even Samwell Tarly managed a weak little smile. Chett kicked the nearest dog, yanked on their leashes, and started up the hill.

It just gets better and better!

But he’s got a sympathetic backstory, I guess?

He had no trade to speak of, growing up in Hag’s Mire. His father had spent his life grubbing in other men’s fields and collecting leeches. He’d strip down bare but for a thick leather clout, and go wading in the murky waters. When he climbed out he’d be covered from nipple to ankle. Sometimes he made Chett help pull the leeches off. One had attached itself to his palm once, and he’d smashed it against a wall in revulsion. His father beat him bloody for that. The maesters bought the leeches at twelve-for-a- penny.

This is only emphasised when Chett thinks on the actual conditions of his job with Aemon, the job Jon displaced him from.

Stewarding for Maester Aemon had been as good a life as he’d ever known. The old blind man was undemanding, and Clydas had taken care of most of his wants anyway. Chett’s duties were easy: cleaning the rookery, a few fires to build, a few meals to fetch... and Aemon never once hit him. [Sam] Thinks he can just walk in and shove me out, on account of being highborn and knowing how to read.

No mistake, Chett grew up in rough conditions. No skills, clearly very little money, and casual violence perpetrated against him. Likewise, Chett’s a smart enough man, we see that from his plans for desertion and mutiny, he’s had none of the opportunities that Sam had, and he indisputably got kicked out of his good job on the de facto basis of social class. As with other places in this series, however, having a backstory one can sympathise with does not render the owner of that backstory sympathetic. His plans for his life post-desertion only render him even less sympathetic.

He had liked the look of Craster’s Keep, himself. Craster lived high as a lord there, so why shouldn’t he do the same? […] But why stop at lord? Maybe he should be a king. Mance Rayder started out a crow. I could be a king same as him, and have me some wives. Craster had nineteen, not even counting the young ones, the daughters he hadn’t gotten around to bedding yet. Half them wives were as old and ugly as Craster, but that didn’t matter. The old ones Chett could put to work cooking and cleaning for him, pulling carrots and slopping pigs, while the young ones warmed his bed and bore his children.

Indeed, Chett’s response to the injustices rendered on him due to his social class is to internalise those values and start looking not to change the system, but to advance upwards with the express aim of inflicting the same hurts on others.

As we meet Chett properly, so too do we meet Chett’s associates as they report in to him. They’re a scary bunch.

They had Dirk as well, named for his favorite weapon, and the little grey man the brothers called Softfoot, who’d raped a hundred women in his youth, and liked to boast how none had never seen nor heard him until he shoved it up inside them.

Small Paul’s the only exception, dropping in to turn the prologue into Steinbeck for a bit. This is the absolute worst of the Watch, and the downside of the Watch being a place to send prisoners. This is the sort of person Mormont has to work with and effectively command. Unsurprisingly, these are also the sort who don’t have much loyalty to the organisation or its mission; they were sent here as a punishment, and they see their duties not as duties but as punishment. They stay because to desert is to die.

Chett’s disaffection with the organisation has led him to spearhead the mutiny-and-desertion plan mentioned above. Terrifyingly, it’s a good plan.

“We been over this. The Old Bear dies, and Blane from the Shadow Tower. Grubbs and Aethan as well, their ill luck for drawing the watch, Dywen and Barmen for their tracking, and Ser Piggy for the ravens. That’s all. We kill them quiet, while they sleep. One scream and we’re worm food, every one of us.”

[…]

The moon would be black tonight, and they had jiggered the watches so as to have eight of their own standing sentry, with two more guarding the horses. It wasn’t going to get much riper than that.

He hadn’t fed [the dogs] for three days now, to turn them mean and hungry. Tonight, before slipping off into the dark, he’d turn them loose among the horse lines, after Sweet Donnel Hill and Clubfoot Karl cut the tethers. They’ll have snarling hounds and panicked horses all over the Fist, running through fires, jumping the ringwall, and trampling down tents. With all the confusion, it might be hours before anyone noticed that fourteen brothers were missing.

With horses, chaos, the loyal sentries dead (for being in the wrong place at the wrong time), the Watch’s leadership dead, and the trackers dead, this stands a good chance of getting the deserters away from the Fist. I mean, it’s monstrous and no decent person would execute such a plan, but it does stand a decent chance of success. Chett has indeed thought this through.

It’s Scarcely Dangerous Work

But why desert now, when they’re this far north of the Wall?

Lord Commander Mormont is engaged in a bit of tunnel vision. Having travelled north to try and work out why the Free Folk are vanishing and just where Benjen Stark got to, he’s now focusing on the army Mance Rayder’s amassing.

Well, they were no closer to Stark and Royce than when they’d left the Wall, but they’d learned where all the wildlings had gone - up into the icy heights of the godsforsaken Frostfangs. They could squat up there till the end of time and it wouldn’t prick Chett’s boils none.

But no. They were coming down. Down the Milkwater.

The Watch is facing a second threat, this one apparently much more imminent than the strange vanishings. Chett’s associate Kedge Whiteye estimates their force at between twenty and thirty thousand; he also notes that raider Harma Dogshead has five hundred mounted Free Folk in the van, in spite of the fact that a dozen mounted Free Folk together is a rarity. And there’s the Watch, forted up on the Fist of the First Men, right in the way.

Any man with a thimble of sense could see that it was time to pull up stakes and fall back on the Wall. The Old Bear had strengthened the Fist with spikes and pits and caltrops, but against such a host all that was pointless. If they stayed here, they would be engulfed and overwhelmed.

So speaks Chett, a man who knows all there is to know. There is a faction in the Watch that wants to attack, reasoning that a decisively-placed blow struck by a disciplined force can shatter the Free Folk’s decidedly undisciplined march. Chett’s not wrong that this is a very risky plan, but allowing the Free Folk to march on the undermanned Wall isn’t a great plan either.

Sure enough, attack is the plan Mormont eventually settles on.

“Mance Rayder means to break the Wall and bring red war to the Seven Kingdoms. Well, that’s a game two can play. On the morrow we’ll bring the war to him.”

“We ride at dawn with all our strength,” the Old Bear said…

“We’ll hit hard and be away before their horsemen can form up to face us,” Thoren Smallwood said. “If they pursue, we’ll lead them a merry chase, then wheel and hit again farther down the column. We’ll burn their wagons, scatter their herds, and slay as many as we can. Mance Rayder himself, if we find him. If they break and return to their hovels, we’ve won. If not, we’ll harry them all the way to the Wall, and see to it that they leave a trail of corpses to mark their progress.”

Not bad. The pro-attacking camp aren’t wrong about the Free Folk being vulnerable to attack of this sort. It does, however, rely on the Watch being a disciplined force. This, they are not. Aside from the division in leadership over attack or defend, we’ve got these mutineers we’ve been following.

Watching For Snarks and Grumkins

The most significant action of this chapter, however, is the Others’ attack. It builds up over the course of the prologue, starting from the very first line. Not just of the chapter - of the entire book. The prologue of AGoT tells us that the threat of the Others is the main threat of the series; the ASoS prologue reminds us of this fact.

The day was grey and bitter cold, and the dogs would not take the scent.

These are the two big hallmarks of White Walker activity that we’ve seen thus far: unnatural cold plus spooked animals. These dogs are supposed to be tracking a bear. It’s a wight bear now. Needless to say, the dogs don’t succeed in hunting anything. Later, Dywen the forester has some opinions on the activity of the local wildlife.

Dywen was holding forth at the cookfire as Chett got his heel of hardbread and a bowl of bean and bacon soup from Hake the cook. “The wood’s too silent,” the old forester was saying. “No frogs near that river, no owls in the dark. I never heard no deader wood than this.”

Everything is gone. Either zombified or dead. Including the frogs.

This is combined with the strange behaviour of the Free Folk themselves. That they’re amassing is not in question, nor is the matter of whether they intend to march on the Wall or not. Every so often the Free Folk do attack the Wall en masse; this time it’s different. As Kedge Whiteye reports, the Free Folk gathering look like they’ve got no intention of going home, but have instead packed up for mass migration. They have their noncombatants with them, and all the stuff they use to survive, pack animals, churns and spinning wheels, etc.

As the chapter progresses, the severity of the cold becomes steadily more apparent.

“Fall is falling fast enough, there’s no need to help it.” [Edd] sighed. “And we all know what follows fall. Gods, but I am cold. Shoot the last arrow, Samwell, I believe my tongue is freezing to the roof of my mouth.”

Keep in mind that summer only just ended. This is the start of autumn. Still it grows colder.

It seemed to him that it was growing even colder, which he would have sworn wasn’t possible. […] It was warmer if he kept moving, he found, so he made a slow circuit of the perimeter with a wad of sourleaf, sharing a chew or two with the black brothers on guard and hearing what they had to say. None of the men on the day watch were part of his scheme; even so, he figured it was good to have some sense of what they were thinking.

Mostly what they were thinking was that it was bloody cold.

After Mormont’s rallying speech, Chett’s lying in his furs, fretting about the imminent attack on the Free Folk and all the things that could go wrong with his mutiny plans, snow starts to fall. It’s nothing to do with Chett failing to plan (again, this is the start of autumn, heavy snow was not in the forecast, especially not heavy snow brought about by the advance of eldritch abominations). It just…happens, and sucks to be Chett. Or anyone else at the Fist, for that matter.

Chett being Chett, his first concern is with the failure of those plans.

How would they find their food caches in the snow, or the game trail they meant to follow east? They won’t need Dywen nor Bannen to hunt us down neither, not if we’re tracking through fresh snow And snow hid the shape of the ground, especially by night. A horse could stumble over a root, break a leg on a stone. […] There’d be no lord’s life for the leechman’s son, no keep to call his own, no wives nor crowns. Only a wildling’s sword in his belly, and then an unmarked grave.

On realising that his plans are done, Chett goes to murder Sam. Because why not. But that’s where things get worse. He was literally just about to slit Sam’s throat when -

Uuuuuuuhoooooooooo.

He stopped midstep, swallowing his curse as the sound of the horn shuddered through the camp, faint and far, yet unmistakable. Not now Gods be damned, not NOW!

What does this mean? GRRM ramps this up real well here. Love this bit.

A single blast of the horn meant brothers returning. If it was the Halfhand, Jon Snow might be with him, alive.

And that’s bad.

His gloved fingers clenched around the dagger’s hilt as he waited for the sound to die away. But no sooner had it gone than it came again, louder and longer.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuhooooooooooooooo.

[…]

“Was it two?” [Sam] asked. “I dreamed I heard two blasts...”

“No dream,” said Chett. “Two blasts to call the Watch to arms. Two blasts for foes approaching. There’s an axe out there with Piggy writ on it, fat boy. Two blasts means wildlings.”

That’s worse. But just as Chett comes to grips with this perceived disaster, we get this.

“Bugger them all to seven hells. Bloody Harma. Bloody Mance Rayder. Bloody Smallwood, he said they wouldn’t be on us for another -”

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The sound went on and on and on, until it seemed it would never die.

By now, the reader can tell that three horns means something else, and, in keeping with the rule, it must be worse again.

“Three,” he squeaked to Chett, “that was three, I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means -”

“- Others.”

With the other shoe dropped, Chett pisses himself, and so the prologue ends.

Chapter Function

This chapter gets a few key pieces in place for the Watch storylines - not just Jon, this book, but Sam as well. The roll call of Watch leadership is particularly important, given the position to which Jon will be elected later; that doesn’t happen without GRRM killing off key potential alternatives. Likewise, the plot against Mormont is seeded here. We’ll see several of the mutineers later, mutineering, only this time a bit more successfully.

But the big important thing is why this is the prologue, the bit that sets the context of the book. After two books of eerie silence and mysterious disappearances north of the Wall, the Others show up in some force. They’re not just messing with a ranging party this time. This is a full on attack. Everything that takes place in the rest of ASoS happens in the shadow of this battle. Events in the south are important, particularly for those people stuck in them, but the reader must keep in mind that there is worse than the Red Wedding on the way.

Miscellany

Jon’s efforts to help his fellow recruits has done some real good - he’s long since left the Fist, but here we see Grenn and Dolorous Edd helping Sam with his archery. Grenn in particular has picked up that being encouraging works better than the various forms of abuse Randyll Tarly and Alliser Thorne heaped on Sam.

And speaking of Jon again, wow did GRRM get on the nose with his symbolism with this one:

[Chett] could feel tears freezing to his cheeks. It isn’t fair, he wanted to scream. Snow would ruin everything he’d worked for, all his careful plans. […] Snow had ruined him once before.

We got it, GRRM, ‘Snow’ is a meaningful name for a protagonist in a series where everyone’s going to end up fighting ice monsters.

Clothing Porn

None.

Food Porn

None.

Next Three Chapters

Prologue, ACoK - Arya IV, ACoK - Cat of the Canals, AFFC

If there’s a particular chapter you want me to add to the list, send me an ask and I’ll add it!

#ASoIaF #revisiting chapters #cw: violence #cw: rape #samwell tarly #the night's watch #a storm of swords

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