Episode 94: A CLASH OF KINGS, CATELYN II: "Summer Knights" SHOW NOTES! (Patreon)

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 ninety-fourth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Summer Knights: An Analysis of ACOK, Catelyn II,” in which Catelyn arrives at the traveling court of the rightful king of Westeros, Renly Baratheon the First of His Name, who makes her a reasonable proposal before Stannis ruins everything, as usual, just because he’s jealous. I’ve said the words you wrote for me, Emmett. Will you now release my family? And why did you make me speak treason aloud? 

Because I could, buddy. Thankfully, I once again don’t have to deal with Jeff on my own in this chapter. Very excited to welcome to the NotACast: Lady Gwyn from Radio Westeros!

LG says hello

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack 
• Grand Maester Timbob
• Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N. 
• Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves
• Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
• Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
• Jancy O, Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch
• Lord Gene, Master of Coin
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Micah: Warden of the West and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• The High Bearded Priest
• The Blue-Ringed Octoling
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Hedrigal, Captain of the Air Ship Arrogance
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Ser Jasper the Cruel, the King’s Justice
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Kelly, Warden of the East and Mistress of (Old) Bay of Crabs
• Steven the Steadfast, Master of Hounds
• The Blue Winter Rose Knight of Highgarden
• Lady Stephanie
• Lord Anonymous
• Lord Carlos
• Lord Andrew the Restless, a Priest of the Drowned God
• The King's Cook, Nolly (No-lee) Olly (Oh-lee), Master of Cannoli
• Ser Sourcedelica 
• Prince Matthew of House Targaryen - Proud Soy Boy of Summerhall, Defender of the 5th Book and Swing Dancer with Dragons
• Ser K.W. Dent, Elsie of the Blackwood Guard, and Batman of the Seven Kingdoms
• Lord Penchant for Nostalgia
• Queer Alex, Rainbow Commander of the They-des and Gentle-thems
• And our newest small council member: Lord Clint, Esq., Master of Absolutely, Positively NOT Serving As A Spy for Several Unnamed High Lords and Ladies In Order.to Further the Secret Blackfyre-Style Conspiracy to Overthrow The Oppressive Small Council.

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

Lady Madeleine Rivers, Our High Lady Justiciar of the Trident asks:

Hey boys, realized I've been a supporter for about four months now but still haven't sent in a question, so here's one. What are some of the historical and/or literary influences on ASoIaF are that you feel are not commented on as much by us in the fandom? We all know they influence of the Bible and archetypal myth and medieval England on ASoIaF, but what are some other things that you feel Martin is drawing really strongly from but don't really get time in the spotlight in discussions of the series. As always, love and support to both of you and would love to hear your answers in the show!

Eliana from Girls Gone Canon’s Complete List of Things That Inspired ASOIAF

So, thank you Lady Madeline Rivers for the question. If you’d like to ask us questions we’ll answer her on the ‘cast, you are welcome to become a Sworn Sword or higher patron over at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF where you can also get show notes, early access and 23 bonus ASOIAF episodes and 4 Fevre Dream chapter-by-chapter episodes.

But enough about patreon, let’s turn our attention to Catelyn Stark, a, as the GGC podcast would say, mom with a job. When we last saw Catelyn, she was at Riverrun watching as Robb the boy left his youth and took on the mantle of Robb the king. Let’s find out what our mom is up to in this synopsis of ACOK, Catelyn II.

Synopsis

When I do a synopsis, I try to summarize the chapter, but boy, is this one going to be hard to summarize, especially when it starts with such wonderful melancholy:

As she slept amidst the rolling grasslands, Catelyn dreamt that Bran was whole again, that Arya and Sansa held hands, that Rickon was still a babe at her breast. Robb, crownless, played with a wooden sword, and when they were all asleep she found Ned in her bed, smiling.

Sweet it was, sweet and gone too soon. Dawn came cruel, a dagger of light. She woke aching and alone and weary; weary of riding, weary of hurting, weary of duty. I want to weep, she thought. I want to be comforted. I’m so tired of being strong. I want to be foolish and frightened for once. Just for a small while, that’s all … a day … an hour …

Goodness gracious. Just soak in the way George opens this chapter. It’s among Martin’s best chapter openers in all of ASOIAF. And the good writing doesn’t end with the opening two paragraphs.

Catelyn knows that her men are waking up outside of her tent. And Catelyn just wants them all to leave. Sure, they were good dudes. Loyal, even. But she doesn’t want them. She wants her children. In a refrain echoed by every parent throughout all human history, Catelyn wonders whether she could be less than strong just for a moment. But she realizes she can’t.

But not today. It could not be today.

Catelyn clothes herself, her fingers stiff from the wound the Valyrian dagger. But she realizes that she’s grateful that she still has hands though. That was something at least.

Outside, Wendel Manderly asks if Catelyn wants some roast quail for breakfast. Nope, sorry. She wants bread and oats. Everyone else will have the same breakfast. They have a long way to go. This causes Wendel some distress. He likes his food, and bread and oats is food for birds -- birds he wants to eat. But he still obeys orders. Another man in the party, Shadd, states that he found some nettles to make some tea. Does Catelyn want some? Absolutely, mom is a tea-drinkin' gal. As she blows on the hot tea, we get an idea of the party that Robb sent with Catelyn:

Robb had sent twenty of his best to see her safely to Renly. He had sent five lordlings as well whose names and high birth would add weight and honor to her mission.

The trip down had been a scary one with Catelyn spotting marauders and smoke several times. But no one attacked her party as they were too weak to threaten and too large to be easy pickings. And by the time they crossed the Blackwater, things seemed safe.

Still, Catelyn hadn’t wanted this mission. She said as much to Robb back at Riverrun. She didn’t really know Renly, and she really wanted to be with big daddy Hoster. But Robb had no on else. He couldn’t send the Blackfish especially when they were planning on marching. Marching? Yes. Marching. But where? Harrenhal? Lol, nope. But they’re marching all the same. Robb can’t wait around for peace to spring up or appear weak to his restless northmen.

My northmen, Catelyn thought. He is even starting to talk like a king.

Catelyn tried one last attempt to get Robb to stay safe, to caution him to wait for positive news from Lysa or somewhere else, but Robb’s the smart one here, stating that if Lysa was coming to Robb’s aid, she would have responded to the ravens by now. Anyways, mom, are you going to Renly or is Robb going to have the Greatjon Umber as an envoy.

The memory brought a wan smile to Catelyn’s face. Such an obvious ploy, that, yet deft for a boy of fifteen. Robb knew how ill-suited a man like Greatjon Umber would be to treat with a man like Renly Baratheon, and he knew that she knew it as well.

So, here she was traipsing about in the Reach, in search of terrorist kings, hoping that Hoster would live long enough for her to see him before he dies. When she bid her father goodbye, it had been especially sad with him forgetting her and only seeing Cat’s mom Minisa. 

“Wait for me, my lord,” she said as his eyes closed. “I waited for you, oh, so many times. Now you must wait for me.”

But it wasn’t just her father Catelyn was thinking of. She wrote to Bran and Rickon the night before she left, telling them that she hadn’t forgotten them. It was only … that Robb needed her more at this moment. 

Ser Wendel breaks through Catelyn’s memories to state that they’ll make the upper Mander river today, and that they’ll find Renly somewhere around there. All well and good, but Catelyn still has no earthly idea what she’ll say to Renly when she arrives. The rub is that they need friends, but Robb correctly doesn’t think Renly is really the king. Thus, Catelyn has nothing to offer Renly that would bring him into alliance with Robb.

But, they mount horses and ride away with Hal Mollen carrying the Stark banner. About a half day from Renly’s camp, Robin Flint spies one of Renly’s lookouts up ahead. But when they ride to the spot that Robin saw the man, he was long gone. So, they press on -- but only for a mile as twenty mounted men ride up to them. A man wearing a surcoat with blue jay sigils running down the coat introduces himself as Ser Colen of Greenpools.

Catelyn introduces herself as Catelyn and says she’s here as an envoy of Robb Stark, King in the North. Ser Colen’s all like, fuck that shit. Renly’s king of all the seven kingdoms. (He says this a bit more politely. But same meaning). Anyways, Ser Colen is going to “escort” Catelyn to Renly. But whether Catelyn is going as a guest or captive of Ser Colen is left ambiguous. She rides with him anyways, seeing no choice in the matter.

From the distance, Catelyn sees smoke from all the campfires. And then there was the sound that start low and roaring but grew and grew as the party got close to the Mander. Men’s voices, the whinny of horses, steel on steel. But they weren’t ready for what was awaiting them:

Thousands of cookfires filled the air with a pale smoky haze. The horse lines alone stretched out over leagues. A forest had surely been felled to make the tall staffs that held the banners. Great siege engines lined the grassy verge of the roseroad, mangonels and trebuchets and rolling rams mounted on wheels taller than a man on horseback. The steel points of pikes flames red with sunlight, as if already blooded, while the pavilion of the knights and high lords sprouted from the grass like silken mushrooms.

Catelyn sees spearmen, swordsmen, camp followers, archers, teamsters, swineherds, pages, squires, knights riding, grooms. It’s a moving city. Or a massive army. They cross the stone bridge of Bitterbridge, and Catelyn witness the enormity of it all: 

Near all the chivalry of the south had come to Renly’s call, it seemed. The golden rose of Highgarden was seen everywhere: sewn on the right breast of arms-men and servants, flapping and fluttering from the green silk banners that adorned lance and pike, painted upon the shields hung outside the pavilions of the sons and brothers and cousins and uncles of House Tyrell.

There were other banners too: Florent foxes, Fossoway green and red apples, Tarly striding huntsmen, oak leaves for the Oakheartes, cranes for the, uh, Cranes, black and orange butterflies for the Mullendores.

And then there were the stormlords on the other side of the river: Caron nightingales, Penrose quills, Estermont turtles. But there were lots and lots of banners and shields she didn’t recognize. But they had all swarmed around Renly to make him a king in fact as well as name. And what of our friend Renly and his banner:

Renly’s own standard flew high over all. From the top of his tallest siege tower, a wheeled oaken immensity covered with rawhides, streamed the largest war banner that Catelyn had ever seen -- a cloth big enough to carpet many a hall, shimmering gold, with the crowned stag of Baratheon black upon it, prancing and tall.

But then Hallis Mollen hears a noise, and Catelyn hears it too. Shouts, horses, cheers.

Catelyn and the party ride up the hill, finding more and more men pressing together. When they crest the hill, the find a … melee in progress with stands, bleachers, banners, barriers. There were hundreds of people attending the melee. But seemingly, the melee was nearing its conclusion as only twenty knights remained atop their horses.

Catelyn and her friends observe knights crashing against each other, a rainbow-cloaked knight splintering another knight’s shield and knocking him from his stirrups. But Catelyn can’t go farther due to all the people around. So, Ser Colen instructs her to wait, and then he’ll present her to the king. Barf.

Catelyn agrees and then watches as some idiot knight wearing griffins who Jaime will backhand with his golden hand later in AFFC gets knocked down before a “knight in blue armor.” Hm. Who could this be? Perhaps the heraldry gives us a clue:

His steel was a deep cobalt, even the blunt morningstar he wielded with such deadly effect, his mount barded in the quartered sun-and-moon heraldry of House Tarth.

Everyone bemoans that Red Ronnet the Ginger Dumbass got knocked down by some blue … but then the next word gets lost in the roar as another man and horse go down.

This is madness, Catelyn thought. Real enemies on every side and half the realm in flames and Renly sits here playing at war like a boy with his first wooden sword.

Catelyn is not entirely wrong here, but she’s not entirely correct. I apologize. My rep mask is slipping.

She observes that the lords and ladies were just as enamored with the melee as everyone on the ground. And Catelyn takes note of each of them, remembering how her father had hosted them in Riverrun when she was a girl. Mathis Rowan was there along with Lady Oakheart. Randyll Tarly was there with his lovely sword Heartsbane slung across his back like an RPG fantasy character. And then there were others Catelyn knew from their sigils. But there were others she didn’t know at all. 

In their midst watching and laughing with his young queen by his side, sat a ghost in a golden crown.

Catelyn thinks that Rely looks like Robert come again, how handsome, long of limb with that gorgeous coal-black hair and deep blue eyes, that smile and … sigh. But then there was the crown:

The slender circlet around his brows seemed to suit him well. It was soft gold, a ring of roses exquisitely wrought; at the front lifted a stag’s head of dark green jade, adorned with golden eyes and golden antlers.

Renly was also wearing the crowned stag sigil on his green velvet tunic. But the colors were a bit different. There was gold thread worked into the sigil: the Baratheon sigil in the colors of Highgarden as Catelyn thinks. And to make the point all the more clear, there was the Tyrell queen sitting next to Renly. Queen Margaery, First of Her Name and first of our friend ManuclearBomb’s heart (or at least Natalie Dormer is). Catelyn knows that the marriage cemented the great southern alliance. But she also sees that Margaery is quite fair with curly brown hair and a shy, sweet smile. 

But then we’re back to the melee, another knight falls to the rainbow knight. And Margaery shouts for Loras! And there we have the identity of the rainbow knight. Catelyn had never met Loras, but even up in the distant North, they had heard tales of Ser Loras and his chivalric valor. And because god, George is just turning it up to “11” on these descriptions, let’s do Loras now:

Ser Loras rode a white stallion in silver mail, and fought with a long-handled axe. A crest of golden roses ran down the center of his helm.

There’s just so much being communicated by what everyone is wearing. It is not simple window dressing as I’ll be talking about in the depth section!

Moving on, two knights try to gang up on the Tarth Knight, but then he takes them both down. But then it’s Loras vs the Blue Knight. Mounted on a black horse, the blue knight fights Loras on his beautiful white horse, and look, I’ve gone damn near six pages without Renly and Catelyn meeting, and we have a lot to cover in this synopsis; so, I’m going to summarize four kindle pages with this: Loras the Blue Knight engage in a long fight both ahorse and on the ground. But the Blue Knight wins and pulls a dagger on Loras, and Loras says the word “yield” to the Blue Knight. Everyone hoots and hollers like they’re the Cleveland Browns, and they just won the preseason superbowl. (Hi Frank)

When they take the helmet off Ser Loras, Catelyn is shocked at how young Loras is. Then Renly orders the champion to come forward. So, he limps forward, his armor showing the signs of battle.

A few voices hailed him with cries of “Tarth!” and oddly, “A Beauty! A Beauty!” but most were silent.

He kneels in front of Renly, and Renly compliments him about defeating Loras in the melee. Meanwhile, a drunk archers complains about the blue knight using a trick to win against Loras. The irony. And Catelyn asks Ser Colen why everyone hates this guy:

“Because he is no man, my lady. That’s Brienne of Tarth, daughter to Lord Selwyn the Evenstar.”

Catelyn gets all horrified, and Colen relays that no one calls her Brienne the Beauty to her face. Meanwhile, Renly declares Brienne the victor and asks her whether he might do something for her -- anything and everything, so long as it’s within Renly’s power. Well, Brienne wants a spot in the Rainbow Guard. Renly … for once, I’m not going to shade this motherfucker, but to his credit, agrees. 

Renly asks Brienne to remove her helmet. And when she does, Catelyn understands why Brienne is called “the Beauty”. It was mockery:

The hair beneath the visor was a squirrel’s nest of dirty straw, and her face … Brienne’s eyes were large and very blue, a young girl’s eyes, trusting and guileless, but the rest … her features were broad and coarse, her teeth prominent and crooked, her mouth too wide, her lips so plump they seemed swollen. A thousand freckles speckled her cheeks and brow, and her nose had been broken more than once. Pity filled Catelyn’s heart. Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?

Wellllllll … Catelyn, you know you’re my #1, but I don’t think that’s especially kind -- even if it’s said out of pity.

Anyways, Renly puts a rainbow cloak on Brienne’s back, and Brienne declares her life for his going forward. She swears this by the old gods and new. And then Catelyn realizes that Brienne is looking down at Renly when she makes her vow. Brienne is much taller than Renly -- who was almost as tall as Robert.

But then Ser Colen springs into action, announcing Lady Catelyn Stark as an envoy from Riverrun from Lord Robb Stark of Winterfell:

“Lord of Winterfell and King in the North, ser,” Catelyn corrected him.

Yeah, I’m lovin’ it.

Renly is surprised to see Catelyn, but he does he empty courtesy bullshit routine and introduces Catelyn to his queen. Margaery tells Catelyn that she’s sorry for her loss, and Cat’s like, well, thanks, I guess. But then Renly swears he’ll make the Lannisters pay. He so will. Just wait and see. He’ll send Catelyn Cersei’s head. Yeah. That’ll show ‘em!

And will that bring my Ned back to me? Catelyn thought. “It will be enough to know that justice has been done, my lord.”

Ha, okay. I don’t even have to shade Renly. Catelyn’s doing it for me. And Brienne realizes this. She corrects Catelyn by saying that Renly is a grace. And you better bow before this terrorist king. But Catelyn, a little bit hypocritically, says that grace and lord aren’t too far apart. Anyways, Renly’s wearing a crown. Robb’s wearing a crown. Everyone gets a crown! And she’s not up for debating the point either. They’ve got more than enough shit going on.

Renly says yeah, well, you can call me your grace later on. But hey, how about sharing some secret war shit information with Renly? When’s Robb going to march on Harrenhal? But Catelyn isn’t going to share info with this traitor. So, she demurs, saying she’s not a part of Robb’s war councils. Ah, but what about Jaime? What’s he up to? Jaime’s at Riverrun and alive -- to Mathis Rowan’s dismay. Renly says that the wolf is gentler than the lion, but then Lord Randyll Tarly the Child Abuser strides forward.

“I call it weak. No disrespect to you, Lady Stark, but it would have been more seemly had Lord Robb come to pay homage to the king himself, rather than hiding behind his mother’s skirts.”

Catelyn won’t take this sitting down, and I love it:

“King Robb is warring, my lord,” Catelyn replied with icy courtesy, “not playing at tourney.”

In other words, Get fucked, Randyll.

Renly pretends to think this is all amusing, and then he orders his people to set his pavilion aside for Catelyn’s usage as he’s all up in Lord Caswell’s castle. He wants to chit-chat with Catelyn; so, he invites her to the feast that Lord Caswell is throwing tonight. It’s a farewell feast. Renly is leaving the Caswell castle soon, and that’s probably to Lord Caswell’s relief. But then Lord Caswell pops in, says that what’s his is Renly’s. Renly warns Caswell that when Robert heard that, he took people at their word. He asks whether Caswell has daughters. He has two.

“Then thank the gods that I am not Robert. My sweet queen is all the woman I desire.”

Yeah. We’re moving on. And so is Renly -- back to the castle.

Renly’s steward directs Catelyn and her party to the royal pavilion and asks if Catelyn needs anything. Catelyn takes a peek around at the MTV Crib that Renly is living in on campaign, noting all the finery: mattresses, a tub, braziers, camp chairs, a writing table, pots, bowls of peaches, plums, pears, a wine bottle and chests full of clothes, books, maps, game boards, then there’s a quiver of arrows, hunting hawks, weapons.

He does not stint himself, this Renly, Catelyn thought as she looked about. Small wonder this host moves so slowly.

Catelyn notices the suit of green armor that Renly has mounted up, and she looks into it:

The face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought. Can you drown in grief?

Yeesh, George. I see you.

Catelyn turns away from it all, angry at herself for her self-pity. She decides to go wash for the feast. Later, her, Wendel Manderly, Lucas Blackwood, Perwyn Frey and her highborn companions, hm, head up to Lord Caswell’s small keep. She’s given a spot on one of the benches between Lord Mathis Rowan and Ser Jon Fossoway, noting that Mathis was polite while Ser Jon was jolly. Brienne was on the far side of the table, but she was dressed in knightly garb instead of a lady’s attire. And still, Catelyn can’t help but notice her appearance and how plain she appears and how she had big hands, a flat face, muscled shoulders and no bosom.

And it was clear from her every action that Brienne knew it, and suffer for it. She spoke only in answer, and seldom lifted her gaze from her food.

Well, gee, Catelyn, I wonder why Brienne is so aware of her appearance given the stare you are giving her! Man!

But then, there’s lots of food, singing, tumbling. Course after course of the finest food was brought out for the feast. Ultimately, it all makes Catelyn sick to her stomach, but she eats sparingly to display her strength. And she watches those closest to Renly. Loras was there, looking good despite the bandage on his forehead. Margaery was there too, and Renly played courtly with her, but it was Loras who Renly shared the most jokes and conversations with. But then Catelyn focuses on Renly himself and his conduct:

The king enjoyed his food and drink, that was plain to see, yet he seemed neither glutton nor drunkard. He laughed often, and well, and spoke amiably to highborn lords and lowly serving wenches alike.

Not everyone was so outwardly temperate and well-mannered as Renly though. Some argued about what glories they’d win in taking King’s Landing, others went for handfuls down women’s bodices, others played harp, Ser Mark Mullendore fed his pet monkey morselfs from his plate. Ser Tanton Fossoway said he would kill Sandor Clegane in single combat -- though he does it with a foot in the gravy boat.

Finally, a fool comes out wearing a gold-painted tin with a cloth lion’s head. He chases a dwarf around the table. Renly demands to know why he was attacking the dwarf, and he says that he’s the Kinslayer.

“It’s Kingslayer, fool of a fool,” Renly said, and the hall rang with laughter.

Next to Catelyn, Lord Mathis Rowan points out that everyone is young, and Catelyn agrees, thinking about how none of these boys were more than a year or two old during Robert’s Rebellion and were boys during the Greyjoy Rebellion. She realizes something about them amidst the chaotic buffoonery:

It is all a game to them still, a tourney writ large, and all they see is the chance for glory and honor and spoils. They are boys drunk on song and story, and like all boys, they think themselves immortal.

“War will make them old,” Catelyn said, “as it did us.”

Catelyn was a child when Robert’s Rebellion started. She was a woman when it ended. She pities these kids. When Lord Rowan asks why she pities them given how alive and lusty they all are, we get an all-timer from Catelyn:

“Because it will not last,” Catelyn answered, sadly. “Because they are the knights of summer, and winter is coming.”

That sense of melancholy in Catelyn’s chapters draws me in so, so much.

But Brienne disagrees with Catelyn’s assessment. She thinks that winter will never come for them. And even if they die, the singers will sing songs about them.

“It’s always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.”

Winter comes for all of us, Catelyn thought. For me, it came when Ned died. It will come for you too child, and sooner than you like.

But Catelyn doesn’t say that to Brienne. And thankfully, she gets, uh, rescued? by Renly who says he needs some air. Would Catelyn like to come walking with him? Yes, she would. Brienne says she’ll come too. She just needs to go get her armor on, but Renly says nah, no worries. Renly will be completely safe with my entire army around him. Oh, buddy. Do I have news on that front come ACOK, Catelyn IV. Brienne seems crestfallen, but Renly leads Catelyn away unaware or unconcerned of Brienne’s turmoil.

Outside of the hall, Renly directs Catelyn through a room to a stair tower. On the way up, Renly asks if Ser Barristan Selmy is present with Robb Stark. Puzzled, Catelyn says he’s not. She then asks if Barristan left Joffrey’s service. Well, kinda. The old incel was retired by Joffrey, and his white cloak was given to Sandor Clegane. Renly had hoped that Barristan would show up at his camp so he could give Ser Grandfather the rainbow cloak he gave to Brienne. Regardless, Renly says that the Lannisters were fools to lose Barristan.

They keep climbing, and Renly tells Catelyn the story about how he offered to bring one hundred swords to Ned’s side if he would take Joffrey into captivity. Too bad Ned didn’t, because he would be regent, and Renly so totally wouldn’t have been after the throne. Yeah. Okay, bud. Catelyn realizes that Ned refused Renly, and Renly confirms it. But you see, Renly had no choice. He had to run or else Cersei would have killed him. 

Had you stayed, and lent your support to Ned, he might still be alive, Catelyn thought bitterly.

Renly lies and says that he liked Ned, but he was just so damn stubborn in his unwillingness to hurt children. What a fool. 

They reach the top of the stairwell, and Renly opens a wooden door. They step out, and Catelyn can see for leagues in all directions. And there were fires. Cook fires. Warming fires. Lots of fires.

They covered the earth like fallen stars, and like the stars there was no need to them. “Count them if you like, my lady,” Renly said quietly. “You will still be counting when dawn breaks in the east. How many fires burn around Riverrun tonight, I wonder?”

Catelyn hears the music behind her and stays mum, refusing to count. Renly guesstimates that Robb has forty thousand northmen and rivermen with him now, but Catelyn knows that’s not the correct figure. She stays mum like the good mom that she is. Still, Renly claims he has twice that number here at Lord Caswell’s keep. And he has more at Highgarden and others at Storm’s End. And he’ll have Dorne joining him as well. And oh yeah, don’t forget Stannis. He’s got the Narrow Sea lords and a ships.

“It would seem that you are the one who has forgotten Stannis,” Catelyn said, more sharply than she’d intended.

But Renly doesn’t want to hear about Stannis’ claim. He thinks Stannis would be a shit king. The people might respect and fear Stannis, but few love him. Catelyn persists saying that if it’s going to be one of the two Baratheon brothers, it’s Stannis who has the rightful claim to the Iron Throne. Hell yeah, Catelyn.

But then, Renly, shit that he is, decides to engage in pedantry:

Renly shrugged. “Tell me, what right did my brother Robert ever have to the Iron Throne” He did not wait for an answer. “Oh, there was talk of blood ties between Baratheon and Targaryen, of weddings a hundred years past, of second sons and elder daughters. No one but the maesters care about any of it. Robert won the throne with his warhammer.” He swept a hand across the campfires that burned from horizon to horizon. “Well, there is my claim, as good as Robert’s ever was.”

Fuck that. Seriously. God. Okay. Okay. I’ll stop editorializing. I’ll wait.

Renly says that he’ll confirm Robb as Lord of Winterfell. Hell, he can even retain the title of King in the North. But Robb has to bend the knee and pay homage. 

“King is only a word, but fealty, loyalty, service .. those I must have.”

When Catelyn asks what Renly will do if Robb doesn’t give him what he wants, Renly decides to be very clear.

“I mean to be  king, my lady, and not of a broken kingdom. I cannot say it plainer than that.”

So, you’re threatening to kill Robb then, Renly? Is that it? That shadowbaby can’t come soon enough. My God.

Renly talks about Torrhen Stark bending the knee to Aegon the Conqueror when Torrhen knew all hope of staying independent was lost. He hopes Robb has the sense to do the same. And if they join together, they can win the war.

But then a chain rattles and the portcullis is raised. A rider comes pounding into the courtyard, demanding audience with Renly. But Renly shouts from the balcony that he’s here. Okay. Well, bad news buffoon king, Storm’s End is under siege. Ser Cortnay Penrose is defying the attackers.

“But … that’s not possible, I would have been told if Lord Tywin left Harrenhal.”

“These are no Lannisters, my liege. It’s Lord Stannis at your gates. King Stannis, he calls himself now.”

And that is ACOK, Catelyn II. MY GOD. What a chapter. I remember when we started our journey in ACOK that I was looking forward to getting to a number of a lesser-remembered chapters in the story, and boy. Here we are. I am so tempted to say that this is my favorite chapter in ACOK so far. But I know only mockery awaits me at the end of that road. What did you both think?

Depth

What a chapter!

It’s been a while since we checked in with Catelyn, but it’s worth the wait. Catelyn II is just sublime. This is why she’s my favorite POV in ACOK. It’s a waterfall of imagery, politics, character introductions, imagery, heavy dialogue, even heavier inner monologue, and did I mention all the gorgeous imagery? Every element is maximized for eye-popping effect, a steadily building rapture that seems to encompass enough sound and fury to fill the world. 

What makes this chapter so effective after the initial shock and awe has faded is that this sensation isn’t incidental--it’s precisely the effect Renly and the Tyrells want to have on you. George pulls off a marvelous magician’s trick here, letting you feel the impact of arguably the best politicians in Westeros operating at the top of their game, while also laying out plenty of clues that it’s all still just a shadow on a wall, and the truth is more complicated and less friendly.

There are so many reasons to love this chapter. Do you love beautiful atmospheric writing that pulls you into the beating heart of a medieval world? Check. Gorgeous imagery that makes statements with pictures in your mind? Check. Foreshadowing and groundwork? Check. Do you love Renly? Or hate Renly? We’ve got you covered. Love food porn? There are turnips and capons and pastries galore. Or do you just love burns? Child abuser Randyll Tarly gets smoked in this chapter! But in all seriousness, this is a chapter to just revel in Cat’s ability to bear witness to what’s happening in areas of Westeros we have yet to see, her insight into people and politics, and the emotional weight she brings to each and every one of her PoV chapters.

So, when I try to do my opening thoughts on chapters, I try to highlight a small or under-analyzed aspect of the chapter and extrapolate some writin’ advice or showing how George plants small seeds that will blossom into later reveals. Boy, is that hard to do for this chapter! Everything feels of macro import for ACOK and the larger story and themes of ASOIAF. 

I guess here, I just want to highlight how good it is to have Catelyn as our POV. I mean, yes, like you were saying, Emmett, Catelyn is the best POV in ACOK. But she’s just so well-suited to be our eyes, ears, our senses for this chapter. From her Sansa-like knowledge of heraldry to her astute political observations of Renly’s camp, Catelyn is the perfect POV to treat with Renly. I daresay she’s the best POV to introduce us to Brienne too for reasons we’ll unpack later on. But most importantly, it’s Catelyn’s melancholy that sets her apart. Where we get Davos’ faithful duty and Tyrion’s nearly-gleeful cynicism shining through the narrative, we instead get a melancholy that weaves through Catelyn’s thoughts from here on out. And George starts the chapter in that lens of melancholy.

• Bittersweet dreams
  • Before we get to any of the big picture stuff in this chapter, George starts with this intimate moment of exhaustion, frustration, and despair for our POV Catelyn
  • She dreams of innocence--Bran before the fall, Robb before the crown, Ned before he rode south to his doom. And then it all fades on waking
  • That resonates so well with her baby boy Bran looking up and down the benches of Winterfell, seeingly only those who are gone, and wondering who will be next
  • And we can’t help but think how far Arya and Sansa are from that image now
  • As the ideal fades on waking, we get this beautiful image of dawn as a cruel dagger--with night as the refuge, the dreamworld preferable to reality
  • That’s a sign of grief and shock, to be sure, but it’s also an interesting inversion of the usual imagery of dawn=savior and night=downfall
  • That ties into the upcoming Renly v. Stannis showdown, in which Renly is repeatedly associated with sun/summer and Stannis with night/winter
  • Renly is the cruel dagger of dawn that awakes her from dream, but Stannis will dispatch the cruel dagger of night from his dream 
  • The cruel dagger of [D]awn also links back to the swords of starfire in Bran III
  • But the emotional character work is the core, and Catelyn is just exhausted
  • In the waking world, she’s letting go of the idea that she’s ever going to be able to get her sweet ones back. She knows that her family, as a unit, is dead.
  • Is she dreaming of the past? Maybe, but when did Arya and Sansa ever hold hands? This is the life Catelyn wanted to live: domestic bliss, forever stranded just out of reach. It’s a fantasy within a fantasy--the willful projection of a reader desperate for a happy ending, even as they know deep down it’s not coming
  • So instead, she just wants to sleep, dream, be done, no longer work tirelessly on behalf of a world (and story) that doesn’t make sense to her anymore
  • Love the implied Hamlet reference! Extend it to the conclusion:
    
    For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
    
    When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
    
    Must give us pause. 
  • Cat won’t get the rest she so desperately wants while she lives, but after she dies… yikes. Watch out for what dreams may come
  • This is alarming not just on a personal level, but because Catelyn is the consummate conventional-wisdom politician; if she’s giving up hope, it’s a sign that the system is seriously falling apart
  • As always, Catelyn stuffs her sorrows down deep to get to work, but as her story goes on, they will fester and boil over and eventually explode
  • We associate Lady Stoneheart with hatred, anger, vengeance, but it’s rooted in sorrow and loss, weaponized and turned outward
  • As I’ve said before ad nauseam, part of what makes the Red Wedding hit so hard is that our POV on it based her worldview on the idea that nothing like the Red Wedding could ever happen; her certainty is starting to fade, bit by bit, more in common with dreams than her reality
  • Boy do I find Cat relatable in those first moments of weariness--probably lots of mothers, lots of parents, can—on a purely egocentric level she’s longing for that blessed moment when she can stop worrying about her children, her family, her job, her home, and just be herself, sans responsibility. But as human beings, our ties to other humans keep us from being purely selfish, even when we’re not actively being selfless. The sad reality, George seems to be suggesting, is that moment is always in the future. When Cat admits that today is not the day we realize, and maybe she does too, that tomorrow is truly always a day away. It’s heartbreaking in its truth
  • And the tension between past and future shown in that first page with her dream, and her thoughts upon waking, for me encapsulates Cat’s ACoK arc. Her first chapter started with her observation on the weight of Robb’s crown. At the end of AGoT she realized that her Little Boy had become a man, this book will find her losing him (ultimately-as she believes- the only child left to her) in all of the small ways we lose our adult children. As much her dream is about an idealized past with ALL of her family what Cat really wants as ACoK progresses is for Robb to put down his crown and take up a wooden sword again, in other words to go back to being her Little Boy.
• Catelyn’s mission from Robb
  • With her sorrows back on the back burner, Catelyn can focus on her mission
  • It’s not one she asked for, even though she’s the one who came up with the idea of reaching out to Renly back in Catelyn I; she wants to stay with family
  • This is a constant conflict for Catelyn, as her mind pulls in her in one direction but her heart in another: the mind says south, the heart says stay (or north)
    • Fate drives me south and south again, Catelyn thought as she sipped the astringent tea, when it is north I should be going, north to home. She had written to Bran and Rickon, that last night at Riverrun. I do not forget you, my sweet ones, you must believe that. It is only that your brother needs me more.
  • Ooh, this is Cat the Reluctant Hero. In our most recent ep of RW we discuss heroes and the hero’s journey in ASoIaF. George has said that everyone is the hero of their own story and with that in mind we broke down an array of heroic types he shows us— Cat’s “heroic” arc is all about her reluctance and this chapter nails that down: “Cat had never wanted this” and “Send someone else”
  • As she points out, she doesn’t know Renly--but then, who does in Robb’s camp? Renly is young, and seems to have stuck to the Stormlands, Crownlands, and Reach throughout his brief adulthood so far
  • Moreover, most of Robb’s lords are culturally/temperamentally unsuited to treat with Renly, and/or are needed for the battle effort
  • Robb can spare Catelyn, which is somewhat backhanded; there’s an element of him trying to send her away here, though that’s certainly not the whole of it
  • Not the whole of it, but it is a common thread for the rest of their arcs--the adult son wanting to stand on his own without mom at his side
  • Catelyn doesn’t have a specific objective here and more seems to be feeling Renly out as a potential strategic asset in the larger fight against the Lannisters
  • Now, she came up with this plan independent of Robb’s strategy to lure Tywin west, which we see him teasing here; as such, Robb doesn’t think he needs Renly to hurry north and lure Tywin out of Harrenhal for him, which was the plan Catelyn proposed to the Blackfish at the end of Catelyn I
  • But as Robb will say when he returns to Riverrun, that strategy counted on one of the Baratheons eventually taking King’s Landing from Joffrey and making peace with him, so perhaps he sent Catelyn there to suss out Renly for that role?
  • I think so, definitely. The “plan” would have been Robb defeats Tywin (while both Cat and Cleos Frey negotiate) and THEN Renly takes King’s Landing. Cat mentioned “homage” to her uncle in Cat I and Renly mentions it in this chapter. Maybe an accord would have been reached if Stannis hadn’t thrown his shadow shaped wrench into the works. We’ll never know! Clearly the only person who thought Stannis was going to be trouble at this point is Tywin (and his kids to a lesser extent-but they thought Stannis and Renly would team up lol)
• Our setting: Bitterbridge (and the Reach as a whole)
  • ACOK Catelyn II is our introduction to the Reach, indeed the only chapter in the first three books set in the Reach; as such, George is working overtime to communicate what the Reach signifies, both thematically and politically
  • The Reach is associated heavily with Garth Greenhand, even more so than Bran the Builder in the North or Lann the Clever in the West
  • That’s because Garth, the embodiment of fertility, is said to be the father of basically all the major houses in the Reach, not just one
  • Garth’s territory is made in his image: all summer and sunlight, the heart of art, food, and chivalry in Westeros
  • Robert sums up the Reach in book one when contrasting it with Winterfell:
    • "You need to come south," Robert told him. "You need a taste of summer before it flees. In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses that stretch away as far as the eye can see. The fruits are so ripe they explode in your mouth—melons, peaches, fireplums, you've never tasted such sweetness. You'll see, I brought you some. Even at Storm's End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move. And you ought to see the towns, Ned! Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air. Everyone is fat and drunk and rich." He laughed and slapped his own ample stomach a thump. "And the girls, Ned!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. "I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle. Even in the streets, it's too damn hot for wool or fur, so they go around in these short gowns, silk if they have the silver and cotton if not, but it's all the same when they start sweating and the cloth sticks to their skin, they might as well be naked." 
  • That’s the Reach: “a taste of summer,” a perfect fairytale kingdom where “everyone is fat and drunk and rich,” where sex and wine seem to be in the air 
  • The combination of fertile land and horny people has resulted in the Reach being the most populous part of Westeros; that’s why Renly’s army is so big!
  • We were talking last episode about how the harvest feast of Winterfell embodies Stark power: you carefully husband your resources, then you share them with all
  • Now we see how Reach power works: deliberate indulgence, wasting and overdoing everything to show you can, because winter never comes
  • If the north is Scotland, the Reach is the South of France. Decadent, sun drenched, the medieval hub of wine, poetry and chivalry 
  • As we’ll see with Brienne, this fabled land of plenty encourages the mindset that the songs are real--the Reach is the heart of the stories that captivated Sansa
  • George describes fantasy as an overwhelming sensorial display: bright banners, lapus lazuli, and wines heavy on the tongue; the Reach is what he’s talking about
  • Yet that perfect image, that combination of Aquitaine and the moonlight-and-magnolias American South, is undercut by our specific setting
  • Some of the worst bloodletting in Westerosi history took place at Bitterbridge; it gets its name from Maegor making the Mander run red with Faith Militant blood
  • Things only got worse here during the Dance of the Dragons: this is where young Prince Maelor and his guardian Rickard Thorne were killed, and Prince Daeron responded by burning down the town
  • Not only that, but Randyll Tarly will massacre thousands of his fellows when he returns to Bitterbridge after Renly’s death, lest they join Stannis with their lords
  • This is George doing what he does best: showing us the image, the story, while hinting at the messier and uglier reality. The Reach is rose-pink on the surface, but blood-red underneath. Every rose has its thorn…
  • The descriptions of the town and camp are so reminiscent of the descriptions of Ashford Meadow in THK--written around the same time. Only as you say, this particular place has an ugly backstory, and the reality of this city of tents and chivalry is much darker, as we’ll see
  • Speaking of the history of Bitterbridge, House Caswell is also seen in TMK— Lord Joffrey Caswell, described as “weedy” to his descendant Lord Lorent’s “wispy”, is the one Ser Kyle the Cat lost to on purpose in his first tilt at the Whitewalls tourney, in an attempt to gain a place in the Caswell retinue. (It was a bad plan.) And then looking ahead, in ADwD we learn that Lord Lorent is also the little twerp who years past stole his father’s blacksmith’s son Rolly Duckfield’s birthday present longsword off him, earning himself two broken arms and some cracked ribs, and Rolly a life of exile. It’s probably no wonder he’s nervous around all those weapons, and eventually spends the rest of the war locked up in his castle
• Renly’s camp and tourney
  • Renly’s camp itself nestles perfectly within that setting; it is the best of times that threatens the worst of times, a dream on the verge of collapsing into nightmare
  • On one hand, the camp feels like a giant party bus, an impression Renly and the Tyrells are working hard to cultivate. Stannis is a cheerless grump on a volcano covered in gargoyles, Joffrey is a graceless sadist who revels in fear, and even the kindhearted charismatic Robb feels the need to put ice into his voice
  • Are they all getting you down? Do you want a break from thinking about the doom and decay and death of all that you hold dear? Come party with Renly!
  • And as with Robert’s rapturous description of life in the south, Renly and the Tyrells want to give the impression of a microcosm of society within their camp, a better version of Westerosi society, one where summer never ends
  • As we’ve mentioned before, there’s this interesting contradiction in the first act of ACOK, wherein we get the impression of a continent all abustle with armies and factions and new kings, but the Westeros we see feels hollowed out, empty
  • Stannis has barely anyone around him. Joffrey has barely anyone around him. Robb’s army has fragmented and scattered. At one point, we get three empty villages in a row! Winterfell’s an exception, but mostly: where is everyone?
  • Then you get to Catelyn II, and you’re like “oh, here’s where everyone’s been!”
    • They saw the smoke of the camp's fires when they were still an hour from the river. Then the sound came drifting across farm and field and rolling plain, indistinct as the murmur of some distant sea, but swelling as they rode closer. By the time they caught sight of the Mander's muddy waters glinting in the sun, they could make out the voices of men, the clatter of steel, the whinny of horses. Yet neither sound nor smoke prepared them for the host itself.
      
      Thousands of cookfires filled the air with a pale smoky haze. The horse lines alone stretched out over leagues. A forest had surely been felled to make the tall staffs that held the banners. Great siege engines lined the grassy verge of the roseroad, mangonels and trebuchets and rolling rams mounted on wheels taller than a man on horseback. The steel points of pikes flamed red with sunlight, as if already blooded, while the pavilions of the knights and high lords sprouted from the grass like silken mushrooms. She saw men with spears and men with swords, men in steel caps and mail shirts, camp followers strutting their charms, archers fletching arrows, teamsters driving wagons, swineherds driving pigs, pages running messages, squires honing swords, knights riding palfreys, grooms leading ill-tempered destriers. "This is a fearsome lot of men," Ser Wendel Manderly observed as they crossed the ancient stone span from which Bitterbridge took its name.
      
      "That it is," Catelyn agreed.
  • The author is trying to overwhelm you not just because he can, but because he’s trying to get across how Renly and the Tyrells operate: with shock and awe
  • What chance do any of the other kings have? Renly has more men, more resources, more everything than the rest put together! We’re so screwed!!
  • As with the Reach itself, this is both a welcoming and threatening atmosphere
  • There’s a momentum here familiar to anyone who’s ever operated in...well, virtually any social environment. Once an army (or a corporate project, or a high school lunch table) looks like the winning side, everyone suddenly wants in
    • Yet for every shield she knew, there were a dozen strange to her, borne by the small lords sworn to the bannermen, and by hedge knights and freeriders who had come swarming to make Renly Baratheon a king in fact as well as name.
  • That prospect of gold and glory draws in bystanders; it’s something Stannis lamented he lacks in the Prologue. Why would any third party join me, not Renly?
  • On the other hand, note George’s word choices: pikes catch the red sunlight “as if already blooded,” Wendel Manderly describes the army’s size as “fearsome”
  • We’re being reminded that this isn’t a party, at the end of the day. This is an army. Remember what Sandor Clegane will tell Sansa later on in ACOK...
    • “What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it's all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing."
  • ...and what he tells the Brotherhood without Banners in ASOS:
    • Clegane spat. "Might be you are knights after all. You lie like knights, maybe you murder like knights."
      
      Lem and Jack-Be-Lucky began to shout at him, but Dondarrion raised a hand for silence. "Say what you mean, Clegane."
      
      "A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead.” 
  • If this army had reached the capital, it would have posed just as much a threat to civilians as Stannis’ at the Blackwater...in fact, it’s a lot of the same people!
  • It’s so easy to lose yourself in the bounty on display in this chapter, to feel warm and safe and at home compared to the bleak terrors in the rest of the book
  • But you have to keep this in mind: every resource, every scrap of food and drop of wine, is only here in such capacity because it’s being denied to everyone else
  • Everyone starving on the streets of King’s Landing? This party, this army, and the smiling shining man at the heart of it--they are the cause of that starvation.
  • Now, of course, Joffrey is making everything worse, and it’s not Renly’s fault that Tyrion is hoarding Crownlands resources for castle and garrison
  • There’s no good side; as Jorah says, most nobles ignore and exploit those below
  • But it’s important to point out the contrast between Renly’s image and the reality of his impact so far in the war, because the image is all he has to offer
  • There’s this slippage when you talk Renly, because the rejoinder to pointing out that he’s starving thousands is “that’s not cruelty, it’s a normal war tactic”
  • I don’t buy that argument for a number of reasons:
    • Normal war tactics are often very cruel. That’s why so many people are anti-war, because even the standard practice of it inflicts horrors!
    • Tyrion’s lords and soldiers are still getting fed, so it doesn’t actually help Renly take King’s Landing. Only the powerless are suffering
    • Above all, Renly is positioning himself as so exceptionally good, such an ideal king as he tells Catelyn in her next chapter, that it’s worth bucking succession and skipping over Stannis
    • So he, more than anyone, cannot fall back on Tyrion’s line: “I believe they call that war.” If you’re arguing that you’re worth breaking norms for, you can’t justify your cruel behavior by pointing out that it’s a norm!
    • In other words: if Renly’s actual decisions are bog-standard, why should we buy into his image of exceptionalism on which his campaign is based?
    • This matters to George, because “is it OK to kill civilians because their lord serves the wrong king” comes up explicitly with Stannis and Davos in ASOS, and Stannis makes the right call: no, that’s evil
  • Same goes for the Tyrells: the image of exceptionalism is what they seek, not the substance of it. They hold back the food, starving King’s Landing, only to show up post-Blackwater with a trickle of what they stole from the populace
  • It works, of course; they arrive in the city to the cheers of the crowd. The Tyrells are very effective politicians, but that’s not the same as morally good actors
  • They’re Lannisters with roses, as Dontos says; better by degree, not kind
  • The surface matters, but shouldn’t be confused with substance; unfortunately, it’s very easy to do so, as we see with every faction but especially this one
  • All of these themes and images come together at the tourney itself
  • From a distance, Catelyn hears cheering. It’s the Hand’s Tourney 2.0, reality made better than the songs as Sansa put it back in book one
  • “Oh, splendid,” says Wendel, which is (again) exactly the reaction the hosts want; everyone is drunk and laughing and happy, focused on a martial art at its best
  • Catelyn’s reaction is more mixed, and she perfectly sums up this chapter and her place in it:
    • This is madness, Catelyn thought. Real enemies on every side and half the realm in flames, and Renly sits here playing at war like a boy with his first wooden sword.
  • Now, Catelyn is not 100% accurate about Renly’s motives here. Per Tyrion:
    • “Were I he, I would do much as he is doing. Make my progress, flaunt my power for the realm to see, watch, wait. Let my rivals contend while I bide my own sweet time. If Stark defeats us, the south will fall into Renly's hands like a windfall from the gods, and he'll not have lost a man. And if it goes the other way, he can descend on us while we are weakened."
  • However, she is right that this is just play-acting at the job of being king, and constitutes an abandonment of the real duties of Protector of the Realm
  • In other words, Renly might not really have the mindset of a boy playing at war with his first wooden sword, but he’s happy to encourage that image
  • He has a strategy, but that strategy demands that no one do anything unexpected and everyone gets smoothly in line; how mature is that, really?
  • Renly the adult is not identical to Renly the child, but the latter is still in there, informing the larger decisions, just as with Stannis and Proudwing
  • If Renly really is the king Westeros has been waiting for, the one that will solve everything, the one who can live up to all the imagery around him, why is he not actually riding to the rescue? Because it’s not in his interest to do so.
  • He’s not Mance, personally riding around to convince everyone to follow him in order to save them from the army of the dead
  • Nor is he Beric, redistributing his knightly privileges in order to defend the smallfolk being hammered by all sides
  • Renly is, at best, Daemon Blackfyre: the image of a perfect king, rooted in the chivalric image of the Reach, nothing more. At this point in the series, haven’t we learned how little that’s worth? Just another shadow on the wall. 
  • The comparison with Daemon Blackfyre is apt. When Renly declared himself King he overstepped many centuries of law and tradition regarding the proper inheritance of lands and titles. Like Daemon before him, Renly Baratheon threatened to upset the accepted order of things, literally pitting brother against brother in a power struggle centered on rumors of bastardy and claims of superior suitability for kingship. The Blackfyre Rebellion essentially boiled down to a persistent belief that Daemon Blackfyre would be a better King than his studious half brother Daeron, who neither looked the part nor lived up to the ideal of a warrior king, which has a certain parallel with Renly’s own belief that “the crown will suit me, as it never suited Robert and would not suit Stannis.” 
• Reintroduction of Renly (and introduction of Margaery)
  • Enough beating around the bush--let’s talk about the guest of honor, His Grace Renly Baratheon, and his spectacular reintroduction alongside his new bride
  • Renly’s crown and brand new sigil.
  • So, we have been and we will continue to delve further into shadows on walls, symbol politics, hard and soft power later in this podcast. But I figure I’d take this moment of Renly’s introduction to talk about the trappings of power -- specifically what Renly’s crown and sigil communicate. And wouldn’t you know it, but they both communicate similar things!
  • First, the crown: The slender circlet around his brows seemed to suit him well. It was soft gold, a ring of roses exquisitely wrought; at the front lifted a stag’s head of dark green jade, adorned with golden eyes and golden antlers.
  • Soft gold, roses, etc. This is Renly showcasing chivalric, courtly virtue. 
  • Contrast this to Robb’s crown which Catelyn describes in her first chapter: an open circlet of hammered bronze incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes wrought in the shape of longswords. Of gold and silver and gemstones, it had none; bronze and iron were the metals of winter, dark and strong to fight against the cold. 
  • The contrast reads deliberate on George’s part, demonstrating that Renly is all about the soft comforts in life (something Catelyn will observe in his pavilion)
  • But it’s more than simply showing Renly as a dude who likes the finer things vs Robb the warrior. 
  • It’s showcasing who’s the real power behind the throne: The Tyrells
  • Rings of roses lift the stag at the front of the crown.
  • As Renly was crowned at Highgarden by Mace Tyrell, the message is clear: it’s the Tyrells who lifted Renly into royalty and glory
  • Now, the sigil
  • Before re-reading, I had forgotten that it wasn’t just Stannis and Joffrey who altered the Baratheon sigil.
  • Renly did it too! 
  • The crowned stag decorated the king's green velvet tunic as well, worked in gold thread upon his chest; the Baratheon sigil in the colors of Highgarden.
  • Where like Emmett’s pointed out in the past how Stannis’ sigil represents Stannis throwing his own heart into the fire (Shireen) as well as his own identity of a Baratheon (Symbolized by the Baratheon crowned stag consumed by the heart and fire), Renly is demonstrating what he relies upon for his power.
  • The Baratheon sigil in green Highgarden colors is again showing us how Renly’s kingship rests on the Tyrells. 
  • There’s no deeper meaning as in the case of his brother Stannis.
  • It’s just an expression of Renly’s power -- something he’ll make explicit at the end of this chapter.
  • I find it interesting that Renly has been wearing Tyrell colors all along. In AGoT at Ned’s first Small Council meeting he was dressed in “dark green velvet, with a dozen golden stags embroidered on his doublet. A cloth-of-gold half cape was draped casually across one shoulder, fastened with an emerald brooch.” He’s added the roses to his crown, which is hugely significant in terms of what Tyrell support means to his claim, but imo the deeper meaning to the clothing is to symbolize his connection to Loras 
  • But lest his in-laws get too self important, his war banner is still the original Baratheon colors: “Renly’s own standard flew high over all. From the top of his tallest siege tower, a wheeled oaken immensity covered with rawhides, streamed the largest war banner that Catelyn had ever seen-a cloth big enough to carpet many a hall, shimmering gold, with the crowned stag of Baratheon black upon it, prancing proud and tall.”
  • And this is the banner he’ll carry to meet Stannis in Cat III, the original Baratheon sigil facing off against Stannis’ distinctly foreign one. Yet another statement of his own legitimacy
  • Renly definitely relies on the Tyrells--most of his army comes from the Reach, not his native Stormlands (recall from the Prologue that many Stormlords are uncertain and holding back rather than rushing off to join their liege lord)
  • Moreover, Margaery on his arm is an indispensable political asset:
    • She’s the idealized image of a queen, with her lovely looks and diplomatic demeanor to Catelyn; quite the contrast to Queen Selyse, who doesn’t fit those beauty standards and goes out of her way to piss people off
    • Moreover, Marge stands in for the image of House Tyrell and the Reach as a whole: beauty, chivalry, poise, the ability to kill with kindness
    • Her presence defangs Renly’s sexuality as a political tool to be used against him; who cares if Renly’s gay, as long as he performs straight, as long as we preserve that all-important shadow on the wall?
    • That’s especially true when you consider the succession. Renly is himself gay and is leapfrogging Stannis on the ladder to power, but Margaery at his side is a promise of an heir, made and raised the usual way. Renly breaks the rules, but Margaery and her son will restore them
    • Renly gives men their idealized image of charismatic youth, and Margaery does the same for the women. Join us, because secretly, you all wish you could be us. They’re a celebrity couple, in other words!
  • But you could also argue that the Tyrells are relying on Renly, because as we learn in ASOS, Tyrell power over the Reach is actually fairly fragile
  • Plenty of Houses can make stronger claims to a post-Gardener Highgarden
  • As such, while Mace wants to see his grandson on the Iron Throne in part out of pure petty pride (same reason he overreached in trying to make Willas a tourney champion), it’s also because he’d like the crown at his back to prevent the Florents, Tarlys, Rowans, etc from making their more provincial power plays
  • “Look at me, I’m a king!” is an extremely useful political statement for them. Speaking of which, though, let’s talk more about how Renly crafts his image:
    • In their midst, watching and laughing with his young queen by his side, sat a ghost in a golden crown.
      
      Small wonder the lords gather around him with such fervor, she thought, he is Robert come again. Renly was handsome as Robert had been handsome; long of limb and broad of shoulder, with the same coal-black hair, fine and straight, the same deep blue eyes, the same easy smile. 
  • I love this passage as much as Stannis’ introduction, and they’re flipsides of the same coin: describing the surviving Baratheon brothers in relation to Robert
  • Where Stannis is the shadow turned to steel by standing in Robert’s sun, Renly is the effortless recreation of Robert’s image, as if time has been reversed
  • Robert reflected in a copper mirror, perhaps?
  • This is the core of Renly’s character: his self-presentation as Young Robert reborn. We saw George setting this up via Ned’s POV back in book one:
    • “You must forgive me, but sometimes you look the very image of your brother Robert."
    • He might have been Robert's ghost as he stood there, young and dark and handsome.
  • But now, that’s more than an interesting parallel. It’s the subtext of Renly’s campaign for the crown. By the time we meet Robert Baratheon, that cherished image of the laughing storm “muscled like a maiden’s fantasy,” pardoning his enemies and turning them into friends, has collapsed in on itself
  • Robert has given up: on his body, his crown, his council, his queen, his brothers, his “sons,” and himself. The only one he believes in is Ned
  • He embodied what happens after the songs end, after reality sets in, after summer turns inevitably to winter: you have to do the work, and Robert refused
  • He is the fallen broken world Catelyn wakes up to in this chapter, and Renly promises a return to her cherished dream where everyone’s holding hands and smiling and the sun is always shining. It’s no accident that Catelyn describes Renly as a boy with a wooden sword--just like Robb in her dream.
  • That’s an extremely seductive promise, as we see play out in miniature with Catelyn and her dream. But you can’t live inside a dream; at the end of that road lies the House of the Undying, and even worse, Euron Crowseye, whose apocalyptic superpowers are derived from the crow who visited him in his dreams
  • Just as Euron crumbles when he’s challenged and the promises of Qarth quickly fade, there’s no there there to Renly, nothing casting that shadow on the wall
  • Robert thought reuniting with his childhood friend would bring back the past. It failed, because you can’t bring back the past. As we’ve said before, the Army of the Dead is in part a testament to the folly of living only with your ghosts
  • A ghost is an insubstantial thing that can haunt you, but it can’t help you, and hence Renly as Robert’s ghost is a clue that he is ultimately a shallow man
  • If Stannis’ introduction was about hating the past, Renly’s introduction is about loving the past; it’s resentment v. nostalgia, and both of them are traps
• Introduction of Brienne
  • But really, the star of this show isn’t the Tyrells, nor even Renly. It’s Brienne of Tarth, truest knight in Westeros, Dunk’s great-granddaughter doing him proud!
  • And oh, what an introduction this is. Let us sing its praises!
  • George takes his time building her up in expert fashion. As Catelyn approaches the tourney grounds, our focus is unlikely to be on this random knight in the cobalt blue armor; it’s on Renly, Margaery, and the event as a whole
  • Brienne takes down Red Ronnet, and someone says “Loras’ll do for that blue--” and the roar of the crowd cuts him off before he can say bitch, giving it away
  • When our attention returns to the fight after George describes Renly and Margaery, Catelyn draws our eye not to Brienne, but to Loras; we’ve already seen Loras as a champion in AGOT, so we’re inclined to think he’ll win
  • When Loras loses, the shimmering rainbow image of the legendary Knight of Flowers falls away in an instant; in the eyes of Catelyn, the ultimate mom, he looks like a boy…like Robb, playing with his wooden sword. Always back to that!
  • He’s replaced in our mind’s eye by Brienne, yet as Catelyn notes, this knight isn’t being treated like a champion. Why is that?
    • “Because that is no man, my lady. That’s Brienne of Tarth, daughter to Lord Selwyn the Evenstar.” 
  • Such a good line, such a good nod to Eowyn in LOTR! I love it!
  • Catelyn’s reaction exemplifies why she’s such a well-written character
  • George has said before how annoying he finds “spunky” modern attitudes in medieval fantasy, and this is a great example: it would’ve been easy to write Catelyn as 100% supportive of Brienne, yass queen-ing from the stands
  • That, however, would be completely out of character for Catelyn, because she represents the conventional wisdom, which is horrified by Brienne’s actions
  • Catelyn quickly follows up her horror with pity when she sees Brienne’s face, and cringes at the sight of Brienne’s obvious crush on Renly
  • This definitely tilts us against Catelyn, but her relationship with Brienne will deepen, and there’s a lot more going on with this intro
  • Visually, Brienne is breaking the pattern of Renly’s perfect tableau. The tourney, the Rainbow Guard, his magnificent clothing--all is designed to say that this is what glory looks like, what wealth looks like, what the winning side looks like
  • At least she wears blue armor? What a coincidence that blue was the only color wanting from the Rainbow Guard!
  • Brienne, unlike Margaery, does not fit that image...but we’ve been talking throughout this chapter about image v. reality, and beneath the surface, Brienne honors the ideal of knighthood far more than the official knights do
  • The Sers of the realm are either inflicting horrors on the peasants or failing to prevent that; it is Brienne who will put everything on the line to defend the powerless from the cruel, as true knights are sworn to do. No chance, no choice.
  • They may call her “Beauty” mockingly, but she has inner beauty, which matters more, and her face lights up with that inner beauty when she gets her cloak
  • Brienne is clearly a parallel to Davos: both of them outsiders who honor the values of knighthood and lordship respectively more than the insiders do
  • Both are devoted to their Baratheon king, for better or worse, and both struggle to reconcile that devotion with doing the right thing, which they both want to do
  • So the intro of Brienne, in a way, shows us what Davos looks like to the nobles around him; even the sympathetic ones look on with horror and pity
  • It is up to the reader to see the truth; George doesn’t usually embed modern ideas into the text, but he is clearly encouraging us to bring them to the table
• Catelyn v. the knights (and lords) of summer
  • So we have this well-established set of tones, themes, and images in Renly’s camp: the image of generous magnificence with the implied threat underneath, and the advantages and disadvantages of Renly’s approach
  • Catelyn is dropped into the middle of that not exactly to represent George’s perspective (he loves Brienne immediately and unabashedly), but to guide the audience in how to interpret Team Renly as a whole
  • She’s both impressed and skeptical in face of the army, and that extends to the individuals with whom she’s been sent to interact
  • Immediately, she strikes the balance of standing firm on Robb’s legitimacy while not exactly disavowing Renly’s, presenting it as a formality to get past
  • Now, of course, it’s not really just a formality to get past! The question of whose crown counts activates everyone’s passions and prejudices, especially Brienne’s
  • But it can be temporarily tabled as long as cooler heads prevail, which is something Stannis only gradually comes to learn as of ADWD and the clans
  • Catelyn also smooths things over by playing the role of a publicly grieving widow of a generally respected lord (it’s interesting that pretty much no one takes Ned’s confession seriously), because Renly and Margaery feel the need to play nice
  • Randyll Tarly doesn’t, because he’s not one of the cooler heads. Knowing what he did to Sam (and Brienne), it’s so satisfying to watch Catelyn shut him down
  • And Renly promptly throws Randyll under the bus, in part to cover up how Catelyn’s critique applies far more to him than it does to Randyll
  • This is all politically astute what Renly is doing, but in military terms, it’s both cowardly and morally dubious
  • Still, Renly knows the use of being openhanded, and immediately offers up his own pavilion to Catelyn
  • It would be easy for George to frame Renly as a perfect king for doing so, but again, he uses Catelyn’s POV to undercut that framing
  • George goes into ecstatic detail about all the niceties in Renly’s tent, only for Catelyn to remind us that this is all greed as much as largesse, and is literally weighing the host down 
  • Metaphorically speaking, the image being kept up by all this stuff is baggage
  • The image of Renly, Robert reborn with roses, is like a topheavy cheesecake. Delicious, strictly speaking, but oversweet and ready to implode
  • Catelyn looks at Renly’s armor and sees only herself; as with Garlan wearing that very armor to act as “Renly’s ghost” at the Blackwater, it’s a Rorschach blot
  • Like the comet, people project into Renly whatever they want to see, when the real thing is nothing but a hollow suit of armor: a ghost in a golden crown
  • The idea of the Good King, the Gardener given life to sweep the realm back to the ideal of wine and roses, is a politically potent one, used to its full effect here
  • But seductive as it is, the image is not enough on its own, and it’s all Renly has
  • To be fair, Renly does come off very well at dinner, getting along with everyone high and low, enjoying his food and drink without gorging himself like Robert
  • I think you can see an arc in terms of Renly’s image in these three Catelyn chapters set in the south: he gets less and less reasonable as it goes
  • In Catelyn II, he most lives up to the image he’s projecting, and there’s a dramatic contrast between this dinner scene and the silent grim affair at Dragonstone in the Prologue, in which Stannis forbade all noise
  • Which one would you want to be at, especially if you’re young and dumb?
  • As in Bran III, there’s the sense of a party going a little too long, everyone getting a little too drunk, compounded by the grief of our POV
  • Both Bran and Catelyn feel like Charlie Brown at Christmas: unable to fully understand or fully participate in the communal joy and feasting around them
  • The big difference between these two chapters, however, and what makes them melancholy in different ways, is the age of our respective POVs
  • Bran’s still a child, and all the cycles of life and death and everything else are new to him; he’s only barely begun to perceive the pattern of the story
  • Catelyn, by contrast, knows this song; she’s heard it many times before, and she knows exactly how it ends
  • And so we get the “knights of summer” dialogue, one of the most deeply felt passages in ASOIAF, and one of the most central to the story’s meaning
  • Like her, Mathis Rowan is old enough to have some perspective, but he doesn’t pity the next generation: he looks upon them with fondness and not a little envy
  • That sums up how the lords of the Reach really haven’t let go of this youthful ideal so much as they’ve been forced out of it by age: see Mace, Randyll, etc.
  • Catelyn had a harder war than Mathis Rowan, and she’s had a harder war this time around as well, so she’s much less sanguine about these things
  • She expresses something George dwells on again and again in this story: the ideal of youth, promise, summer, story, fading in the face of mortality
  • In a meta sense, it’s the arc from a blindly trusting young reader to an adult more cynical of stories’ promises of uplift and transformation through imagination
  • In a generational sense, this is once more George working in some commentary on the disillusionment of 60s-era hopes of progress: this is Woodstock, and Altamont is coming. You could say the Blackwater is this crew’s Vietnam
  • In a character sense, the evocation of the Stark words ties Catelyn’s disillusionment with age to her move north from Riverrun, cradle of her memories of childhood innocence, to Winterfell, home of the godswood that loves her not
  • And of course, the contrast of summer and winter, ice and fire, reminds us of the cold breath of the white walkers hanging over the entire series
  • They embody death, as we talked about during Season 8, and we see that so strongly here with Catelyn noting that death eats away at the promise of youth, and Brienne insisting that the stories and songs confer upon them immortality
  • This i maybe the central question of the series: what do you with your beloved stories in the face of the fall? Ask Jojen Reed: how do you grow up with the knowledge of death, the certainty amidst summer (k)nights that winter is coming?
  • It’s not just literal death but the death of the dream that haunts Catelyn; death is the worst thing Brienne can imagine, but what if she has to live with failure?
• Private chat with His Grace
  • Ultimately, this chapter boils down to who Renly is when the songs are distant echoes, the campfires only sparks down below--when the crowd isn’t watching
  • He draws Catelyn away and speaks with only the finest of courtesies: your husband was a good man, I am merely following in Robert’s footsteps, your son must follow his ancestor Torrhen’s wise example and help me end the war
  • It’s easy to be taken in by Renly’s smooth talk here, and while Stannis matches him in terms of promising justice for Ned’s death, he can’t help but harp on about how he should’ve been Robert’s Hand instead, and he openly threatens Robb
  • And Renly is right that a Tyrell-Baratheon-Stark-Tully alliance would be an absolute powerhouse, clearly the best choice available...on the surface
  • “On the surface” is perpetually the Renly problem, as we saw with Cressen’s diagnosis back in the Prologue and will again with Olenna’s in ASOS
  • He’s being wildly optimistic, which is understandable given that sea of campfires, but he’s wrong about the Dornish inevitably joining him, and what he leaves out of the Aegon comparison is that he has no dragons, no military record, and instead of five of the seven kingdoms at his back, he has most--not all--of two
  • It’s obvious that Renly’s philosophy of warfare might be summed up as “the gods favor the big battalions” and when he assumed an alliance of sorts with Robb, whom he expected to have an army of 40,000 or more men, and spoke of his expectations that Dorne would come in on his side, it should be clear that Renly dreamed of marching on King’s Landing with an army of unprecedented size, estimated to be well over 150,000 strong.
  • But he reckoned without several things: Doran Martell’s innate caution, Tyrion Lannister’s astute political mind, and his brother Stannis’ obdurate persistence about his own rights under Westerosi law. GRRM has said regarding Dorne: “Doran plays to win, whether at cyvasse or the game of thrones. Likely he did not see Renly as a winner. The enmity between Dorne and Highgarden also played a part, I am sure.” So while Doran may have initially leaned in Renly’s direction, and I think  he probably did, remembering the size of Renly’s army, we also can’t forget what we learn about Doran later vis a vis his plans for vengeance and his secret alliance with the exiled Targaryens. It’s hard to say how that would have factored into Doran’s decision on Renly had Renly defeated or worked out an alliance with Stannis. One thing that seems plain is that by all appearances Doran’s alliance with the Lannisters only came about once it was clear that Renly and Stannis were in opposition to each other, and there would be no easy victory for Renly.
  • He’s also completely dodging the ideology of Northern independence:
    • "Here is what I say to these two kings!" He spat. "Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither. Why should they rule over me and mine, from some flowery seat in Highgarden or Dorne? What do they know of the Wall or the wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men? Even their gods are wrong. The Others take the Lannisters too, I've had a bellyful of them." He reached back over his shoulder and drew his immense two-handed greatsword. "Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we married, and the dragons are all dead!"
  • As we said back in AGOT Catelyn XI, that speech from the Greatjon actually targets the Baratheons as much as if not more than the Lannisters!
  • If after that Robb bends the knee to a man who is, let’s be frank, a caricature of what Northern lords believe southern lords to be like, would he even be in a political position to hold the North together on Renly’s behalf thereafter?
  • Note also that Renly doesn’t say anything about Robb being allowed to put up his sword and go home to raise Frey babies, as Catelyn so desperately desires
  • Presumably, part of this deal is that Robb continue to fight the Lannisters. Indeed, Renly lets slip that Robb is his ideal offensive lineman at this point:
    • “Tell me, when does your son mean to march against Harrenhal?"
      
      Until she knew whether this king was friend or foe, Catelyn was not about to reveal the least part of Robb's dispositions. "I do not sit on my son's war councils, my lord."
      
      "So long as he leaves a few Lannisters for me, I'll not complain. What has he done with the Kingslayer?"
      
      "Jaime Lannister is held prisoner at Riverrun."
      
      "Still alive?" Lord Mathis Rowan seemed dismayed.
      
      Bemused, Renly said, "It would seem the direwolf is gentler than the lion."
  • So then the question becomes: what is Robb getting out of this deal? And the answer is simple: he gets to not be killed by Renly.
    • “King is only a word, but fealty, loyalty, service . . . those I must have."
      
      "And if he will not give them to you, my lord?"
      
      "I mean to be king, my lady, and not of a broken kingdom. I cannot say it plainer than that.”
  • Renly is the good cop to Stannis’ bad cop...but the good cop is still a cop, and he’s still trying to screw you over. Does it matter that he’s nicer about it, really?
  • Stannis isn’t offering anything better than that right now (his approach to the North changes somewhat in ASOS and ADWD), but at least he has the better legal claim, as Catelyn points out
  • Renly’s response to that is really what gives away that it’s all a house of cards, which will continue over the course of Catelyn III and IV
  • This passage, which begins with Renly essentially dismissing Stannis’ claim really gets to the heart of Renly’s worldview and his viewpoint of his brothers. The triangle of the Baratheon boys was made explicit by Cressen and here we see Renly intentionally modeling himself on the big bro everyone loved. He makes the critical mistake of failing to recognize the nature of the middle child, and assumes that Stannis will somehow cease to be an obstacle, perhaps hoping he would see the strength Renly had massed and simply decide to support him, as he had done Robert. 
  • In this he’s plainly unaware of the internal struggle that had been for Stannis: “If you only knew . . . that was a hard choosing. My blood or my liege. My brother or my king” When “my king” devolves to being himself, it’s hardly likely that a guy like Stannis will simply accede to Renly’s claim.
  • So Renly’s assertions about his large army and Stannis’ unpopularity, not to mention his belief in his own imminent suitability for rule, contribute to his seemingly unorthodox, though not entirely unprecedented, claim.  As GRRM would comment “Renly was not modest” and therefore wasn’t afraid to lean into the parallel with his war hero big bro
  • Renly’s resting it all on the Robert comparison, because of course he is! Again, this is the core of his character and the reason he’s so strong politically
  • The problem is that the comparison falls apart when you look at their actions, motivations, and coalition. For Robert, it really was about la gloire and Lyanna; the crown was secondary, a symbol of the glory at best.
  • For Renly, the glory is a means to an end--his way of getting into power. He’s a version of Robert who was in on Southron Ambitions from the start
  • One of his earliest appearances is asking Ned if Margaery looks enough like Lyanna to woo Robert. That’s what Renly represents: weaponized nostalgia
  • It’s the difference between being a knight of summer v. taking advantage of them
  • So while Robert rode from battle to battle, building his army until it was strong enough to confront his nemesis and then doing so, Renly’s been holding back
  • Moreover, Robert actually didn’t have the biggest army even then! Mace Tyrell still had more men, but he bent the knee because the politics had turned against them. What happens if the politics turn against Renly while he’s taking his time?
  • Oh yeah: remember Mace Tyrell’s army in Robert’s Rebellion? Which side were they on again?? They can’t claim to be upholding the Rebellion’s tradition, and if they fought for Aerys, they don’t care about charismatic magnificence that much
  • All the surface, none of the substance; meanwhile, Stannis got all the substance, none of the surface. You see Donal Noye’s “true steel” formulation at work here
  • Ultimately, it all comes down to Renly’s army, but he’s got a vested interest in pretending it’s something more. So he’ll talk about how the throne should go the brother best suited, as if he won’t be followed by Margaery’s firstborn son
  • He keeps squirming away from the base treachery of what he’s doing, however noble he can claim his intentions to be
  • He’s incredibly disingenuous about it all! While he’s very careful to draw comparisons between his claim and Robert’s, on the face of it, Renly initially had very little legitimate cause to put himself forward. Back at Riverrun in AGoT Robb Stark summed it up: "That makes [Joffrey] evil [...] I do not know that it makes Renly king. Joffrey is still Robert's eldest trueborn son, so the throne is rightfully his by all the laws of the realm. Were he to die, and I mean to see that he does, he has a younger brother. Tommen is next in line after Joffrey […] how could it be Lord Renly? He's Robert's younger brother. Bran can't be Lord of Winterfell before me, and Renly can't be king before Lord Stannis."
  • So obviously Renly is fourth in line, behind Joffrey, Tommen and Stannis. Even if Robert’s Lannister children are ruled out, then Stannis has the better claim. Why then did Renly declare himself King and what did he expect would happen when he did so? The obvious answer as far as Joffrey and Tommen go is that he was aware of Cersei’s incest, and the bastardy of her children, in spite of his later assertion that he was not, but how did he justify ignoring Stannis’ superior claim?
  • Possible answers to these issues are found in this chapter. Renly claims regarding Ned refusing his offer of alliance after Robert’s death: “Had he listened, he would be regent today, and there would have been no need for me to claim the throne.”
  • BUT! Remember that same night back in King’s Landing? Littlefinger suggested to Ned: “It will be four years before Joffrey comes of age. By then he will look to you as a second father, and if not, well … four years is a good long while, my lord. Long enough to dispose of Lord Stannis. Then, should Joffrey prove troublesome, we can reveal his little secret and put Lord Renly on the throne."
  • Renly hoped his big bro’s old buddy would support HIM and his great big army. Failing that--the buddy’s son and heir should support him. It comes back to the Robert parallel, which would lend legitimacy to his cause. As for the treachery--we know that Cersei saw Robert’s brother’s as a threat and planned to rid herself of both of them. Renly tells Cat: “I lacked the strength to act alone, so when Lord Eddard turned me away, I had no choice but to flee. Had I stayed, I knew the queen would see to it that I did not long outlive my brother.”
  • It’s likely that Stannis was equally aware of the threat from Cersei, since he spent the months between Jon Arryn’s and Robert’s deaths at Dragonstone avoiding all communication with Court, gathering an army and building his fleet. But given Littlefinger’s words to Ned “long enough to dispose of Lord Stannis” and the implication there and elsewhere that the two were in league together, perhaps the threat to Stannis wasn’t limited to Cersei.
  • Both Stannis in ASOS (“I am king. Wants do not enter into it”) and Renly here pretend to not want the Iron Throne. Events just happen to have transpired that way! In both cases, it’s bullshit; they want what Robert had, for very different reasons, and the bitter irony is that Robert hated what he had once he had it
  • Stannis is left with his lonely island, his gritted teeth, and the fading memory of a bird that loved him; Renly is left as a recreation like Carrie Fisher or Peter Cushing in Star Wars, with the bride that looks enough like Lyanna to fool the eye
  • That image holds as long as everyone plays along, but the drawback to Renly’s slow approach is that it’s prone to disruption, as Stannis finally enters the game
  • And immediately, Renly has to abandon his strategy, and run off with a smaller version of his army, and engage in a battle he might’ve lost even if a shadow-assassin didn’t show up! Such are the wages of being a warlord…

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Stoneheart Foreshadowing Watch, Part 3(?)!: The steel was polished to such a high sheen that she could see her reflection in the breastplate, gazing back at her as if from the bottom of a deep green pond. The face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought. Can you drown in grief?

Brienne’s fury against her competitors reads completely differently when you come back after AFFC, knowing the cruel “game” they played with her. 

Renly mentions Barristan, wondering if he’s joined Robb, something he’ll bring up again at Storm’s End and which will pay off with “Arstan Whitebeard” joining Dany at book’s end.

Theory/Discussion

Meta/theory: In the beginning Jeff mentioned taking note of seeds and groundwork. Brienne as Dunk’s descendant is now confirmed, but it all starts in this chapter, where she’s introduced and where we see her defeat her first opponent:

“they crashed to the ground with bone-jarring force. Loras Tyrell, on the bottom, took the brunt of the impact. The blue knight pulled a long dirk free and flicked open Tyrell’s visor. The roar of the crowd was too loud for Catelyn to hear what Ser Loras said, but she saw the word form on his split, bloody lips. Yield.”

Compare to the circumstances of Dunk defeating Aerion Targaryen in his Trial of Seven in THK:

“He rolled into Aerion’s legs, threw a steel- clad arm around his thigh, dragged him cursing into the mud, and rolled on top of him [...] He could vanquish Ser Duncan the Tall, but not Dunk of Flea Bottom. [...] Dunk flung the battered shield away and wrenched up the visor of Aerion’s helm.

A visor is a weak point, he remembered Steely Pate saying. The prince had all but ceased to struggle. His eyes were purple and full of terror. Dunk had a sudden urge to grab one and pop it like a grape between two steel fingers, but that would not be knightly. “YIELD!” he shouted.

“I yield,” the dragon whispered, pale lips barely moving.”

These two scenes were published SO close together it’s easy to imagine George writing them in tandem, and even if not, it’s nearly impossible to imagine him forgetting the details of the first one to be set down. This is intentional, as will become even more obvious when we see her fight Jaime Lannister in a river in ASoS, while in TSS, written shortly afterwards, Dunk fights Ser Lucas Longinch... in a river. Finally, in AFfC Shagwell will ambush Brienne near a well with a rock, but Brienne had a dagger up her sleeve. Then in TMK, published five years later, but possibly completed earlier, Alyn Cockshaw ambushes Dunk near a well … In an inversion, Ser Alyn had the dagger and Dunk the rock, so George was able to correct his rock, paper, scissors analogy… but in both cases, it’s pretty clear that what really won the day was the sheer size of the victor.

There’s so much more, but in terms of GROUNDWORK, our very first glimpse of Brienne in this chapter, before we even know her name or her gender even, becomes the very first clue to her heritage.

Meta: The formation of the Blackfyres

• As the world of ASOIAF expanded from AGOT to ACOK, it’s very likely George was thinking about the backstory of the new places that George.
• I think it’s likely that Damon Blackfyre, the character, was imagined up around this time -- though whether George had a Targaryen pretender imagined for Dany from the get-go is a separate topic!
• The first references for the Blackfyres came around 1998/1999 as Elio and Linda revealed in a 2015 video:
  
  Linda: When we got those old notes that we've mentioned before from George. That was from '98 or '99 -- those have the seed of the Blackfyres which obviously starts with Aegon the Unworthy and his legitimizing all his bastards including Daemon Blackfyre and giving him this Blackfyre Sword. So there, some time after the Hedge Knight maybe while working on A Clash of Kings...
  
  Elio: No, no, he was done with A Clash of Kings.
  
  Linda: After A Clash of Kings he goes back, and not only decides that there's going to be more books. That it needs to be more than that -- that it needs to be more history. He fleshes out more kings.
• So right when ACOK was about to be published
• We also see George planting Blackfyre seeds in ACOK: Tyrion’s references to “two other hands of Aerys II” from ACOK, Tyrion I, Dany’s vision of the Mummer’s Dragon in ACOK, Dany IV and finally here in ACOK, Catelyn II, we have our introduction to that turd Red Ronnet Connington
• If George is just forming in his head the idea of a rogue Targaryen, who perfectly fulfills the openhanded martial archetype of his class, leading an army dominated by the Reach...well, it’s hard to say which is chicken and which is egg, but it’s not a stretch to say that Renly is how he first worked out this image

Young Griff as Renly 2.0

• YG seems like the endgame for this archetype: the perfect image of the high fantasy Good King, tilted slightly askew, and then set on fire
• He’s handsome and charismatic and has all the right teachers; he’ll swoop in at the end of the war like Renly did at the start, promising to wrap everything up in a neat bow
• And as with Renly and the Tyrells, you can see sinister puppet strings in the background, as Young Griff’s image comes direct from Varys, mr. shadow on a wall himself
• Clint argued that Renly embodied that monologue, and Young Griff is Varys’ answer to his own riddle: give the people a show, a mummer’s dragon, and they’ll fill in the rest
• Structurally, though, Young Griff seems to be taking the Stannis role at first!
• He comes in from the sea to attack Storm’s End, and now the army of the Reach is rushing to meet him, where they’re sure to face a reversal despite superior numbers
• And from there, Young Griff will march on the capital to take on the Lannisters
• But the crowd will love him as they never loved Stannis, as we see in the House of the Undying. So the actual Stannis 2.0. to YG’s Renly 2.0. is Dany, coming from Dragonstone with fire and blood to make good on her claim.
• That has a whole ‘nother layer of resonance to it with the Blackfyre comparison in mind, because Dany is the red dragon, descended from the main branch of Daeron II
• So it’s as if she’s been replaced, pre-empted, by the Blackfyres...and the comparison to Daemon via Renly is one of many reasons I think Young Griff is a Blackfyre
• Renly isn’t literally connected to Daemon nor Young Griff, but his rise and fall in ACOK can be seen as George coming up with those other characters, Renly as the lynchpin

The Fate of the Knights of Summer

• As Brienne learns in AFFC, the bold young men who made her life miserable suffered some horrible fates at the Battle of Blackwater
• So the knights of summer run headlong into the horrors of war...where have we seen that before?
  • "A great battle is a terrible thing," the old knight said, "but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart. I will never forget the way the sun looked when it set upon the Redgrass Field . . . ten thousand men had died, and the air was thick with moans and lamentations, but above us the sky turned gold and red and orange, so beautiful it made me weep to know that my sons would never see it." 
• Yup, that’s how the Blackfyre Rebellion ended! So naturally it’s what happens to Renly’s boys, too. Hmm, what does that suggest will happen to Young Griff and his men when Daenerys comes calling? Every time the cycle repeats, it gets bigger and deadlier. 

Conclusion

• Thanks for listening!
• Thanks to LG for coming on, plug Radio Westeros
• New episode! All the usual places- Apple, Google, Soundcloud, iHeart, Podbean etc. plus YouTube. Patreon, twitter blah blah… radiowesteros.com links to all
• Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Soundcloud, Podbean etc.
• Check out our Patreon at patreon.com/notacastasoiaf
• Follow us on Twitter @NotACastASOIAF, email us at NotACastASOIAF@gmail.com
• Emmett’s social media, Jeff’s social media
• Thank you to our High Lords and Ladies on patreon!
  • Lord of the Squishers and Warden of the Deep
  • Lady Vanerys of the House Colgaryen, the First of Her Name, The Overworked, Queen of the Pencils, the Eraser and the First Draft, Queen of Monochrome, Devotee of the Great GOT, Portraitist of the Realm, Lady Realist of the Seven Kingdoms, Creator of Arts and Maker of Drawings 
  • Lady of a Thousand Words
  • Septon Eastwood of Introvert Isle
  • Septon Merrybald, the Shoeless Sage
  • Lady Madeleine Rivers, Justiciar of the Trident
  • Sister Winter - Lady of the Wolfswood
  • Nessie the Elusive, warden of the Neck, Defender of the North and Keeper of Secrets
  • Sandie the Dragon, Blood of Queen Daenerys & Lady of Jameson
  • Lady Britt, Bastard Mistress of Harrenhal
  • Ser Thomas the Raven Knight, Lord of Blackwood 
  • Ser Tim: The Knight Who Was Guided By Voices
  • Ser Cortnay, "What did the Five Fingers Say to the Face" Penrose
  • Lady Dilsdale, the StarSpear of Crescent Hill
  • Ser Way of Course
  • Matt, Warden of the Sanguine Shore
  • Lord MarConnington, Heir to Griffin's Roost
  • Lord Sam K
  • Ser Michael Mertyns
  • Ser Boaty McBoatFace
• Join us next week for Jon III, as LC Mormont’s Great Ranging arrives at Craster’s Keep, the happiest place in Westeros.