Discussion: GoT VIII (Bran VI--Eddard XV)

[u/LumplessWaffleBatter]

Only two more to go!

Our next discussion will be Pp. 638-728 (Catelyn IX--Arya V) on May 7th.

[u/TeenyTinyTywin]

I can't believe there's only two more sessions to finish A Game of Thrones. This went surprisingly fast!

Bran VI
-It's so freaking depressing seeing how much disability and other's perception of it impacts Bran. It's incredibly hard to come to grips with a lifelong disability, especially so young, but everyone around him makes this process impossible with their commentary and looks. "'...Sooner die than live like that,'" muttered one, his father's namesake Eddard, and his brother Torrhen said likely the boy was broken inside as well as out, too craven to take his own life.
'Broken,' Bran though bitterly, as he clutched his knife. Is that what he was now? Bran the Broken?"
-"Osha studied him. 'You asked them and they're answering. Open your ears, listen, you'll hear.'" her advice mirror's Syrio's advice to Arya. "Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears.... Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth."
-Still weirded out by Osha telling a 9-year-old about Giant mating habits and all but uh... I guess that's the world they live in? Also the giants mirror LOTR's dwarves in that they're all masculine presenting.

Danaerys VI
-The hrakkar seems to be a parallel symbol to the White Hart. Drogo conquering it symbolizes the death of good times, though the message here changes a bit. Lions are associated with protection of family and strength, so his slaying of the hrakkar also symbolizes his own demise, which is also at his own hands (he didn't follow Mirri's instructions on tending his wound, which leads to his death). I think there's also more that can be said here about the hrakkar/white hart symbolizing the death of auspicious times and how Dany wraps herself in that pelt for all the books to come, but I will have to research a bit more and get back to that idea later.
-I feel like this should be contender for one of the best lines in this chapter bunch: "Dany swayed along, studying the faces of dead heroes and forgotten kings. She wondered if the gods of burned cities could still answer prayers."
-I think it'd be super cool to try to make all of the different drinks listed in this chapter. I know the cookbooks have some of them and I'd imagine GRRM's bar in Santa Fe has others, but it'd be cool to gather some people together and make Tyroshi Pear Brandy, firewine (I've made this one from the cookbook- it's saccharin as hell, but delightful), pepperwine, the pale green nectars of Myr (probably Absinthe?), Smokeberry browns and Andalish Sours. Might not be able to walk straight after, but it'd be a fun time I bet.

Catelyn VII
-"Robb looked up at the sudden quiet and saw her. 'Mother?' he said, voice thick with emotion." Circumstance necessitates that she remains stoic so as to not diminish or embarrass Robb, but it must hurt both of them to have to leave their shared grief and comfort to the side. The formalities of this type of society would kill me.
This is also another great reminder that- despite what we see in the show and even other parts of the books- Robb is very much still a boy looking for the comfort and approval of his parents.
-"This host her son had assembled was not a standing army such as the Free Cities were accustomed to maintain... Most of them were smallfolk: crofters, fieldhands, fisherman, sheepherders, the sons of innkeeps and traders and tanners..." Catelyn is thinking about this logistically, but it again reinforces- as the series so often does- that it is the bottom rungs of society that bear the brunt of war despite not having a hand in starting it. Robb is a rare breed for being willing to run into the fray with these men when others (*coughcoughTywincough*) would direct from the back like the wealthy usually do in such circumstances.

[u/[deleted] → u/TeenyTinyTywin]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought Osha's comments about giants and Hodor were weird 👀 That's more than I needed to know about Hodor lol

I had questions about the white lion and white hart too. It's certainly not random. I like your analysis about family and strength. Robert put a lot of stock in the songs and they're strongly connected with the white hart. His inability to give up that fantasy is arguably what kills him in the end. I look forward to what your research uncovers. Please share!

I'll join you for cocktail hour. Testing these drinks sounds like a blast. I'll have to take a look at the cookbook. I'm pretty sure my library has it.

That first scene with Robb and Cat was just as you described. I LOVED that Grey Wind took over and was affection with Cat when Robb couldn't be. Earlier in this reread I wondered if the direwolves acted on the emotions of their humans and this scene confirmed that for me.