Episode 169: A STORM OF SWORDS, CATELYN III; "Fallen Kingdom" 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.

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Welcome to the one hundred and sixty-ninth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Fallen Kingdom: An Analysis of ASOS, Catelyn III” in which the good times just keep on rolling for the Starks.

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Question

Ser Erik, the Guilty Undertaker, a Sworn Sword patron, asks:

Thus far in the story, the Others have mainly acted by stealth and ambush, ever lurking in the shadows and striking vulnerable targets with overwhelming force. It's what we see at the end of this chapter, as well as in the AGoT prologue, in the attack on Mormont's tower, and later on with Sam and Gilly. It also seems to line up with Tormund's descriptions from ADWD and Cotter Pyke's ominous letter from Hardhome.

In some ways, the Fist of the First Men fits this pattern. The Night's Watch were a small, isolated force in a position that they couldn't easily retreat from, far from any possible aid, and they were set upon without warning. Yet the attack on the Fist also involved hundreds, if not thousands of wights, far more than have been involved in any other single attack. What do you think we'll see moving forward? Will the Others eventually gather all of their wights in one place to form a seemingly unstoppable army like we saw in the show, or will they continue their ambush tactics, just on an ever larger area? Or will they do both?

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But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Catelyn, Robb Stark returned home in triumph having defeated the Lannisters in the West and had joyful news: he was married now! Let’s let the good times continue to roll in this synopsis of ASOS, Catelyn III.

Synopsis

They carried the corpses in upon their shoulders and laid them beneath the dais. A silence fell across the torchlit hall, and in the quiet Catelyn could hear Grey Wind howling half a castle away. He smells the blood, she thought, through stone walls and wooden doors, through night and rain, he still knows the scent of death and ruin.

These Catelyn chapters keep getting more and more cheery, don’t they?

Catelyn Stark stands at Robb’s side, thinking that the bodies of the dead boys on dais could be Bran and Rickon. The blond boy was trying to grow a beard. His throat had been cut while he slept. His brown-haired cousin fought to survive given all the defensive wounds. But the stabs to his chest and stomach had done him in. But the rain had almost washed him clean.

Robb Stark had his crown on, and he stares. Catelyn wonders if he’s seeing Bran and Rickon.

She might have wept, but there were no tears left in her. The dead boys were pale from long imprisonment, and both had been fair; against their smooth white skin, the blood was shockingly red, unbearable to look upon. Will they lay Sansa down naked beneath the Iron Throne after they have killed her? Will her skin seem as white, her blood as red? From outside came the steady wash of rain and the restless howling of a wolf.

Edmure was there too in the room. He had been woken from sleep. Catelyn hopes that Edmure’s dreams had been good, because reality bites. All around were the lords and bannermen of Robb. Ser Raynald Westerling and Rolph Spicer was there too, but Jeyne was not present. Robb spared her of that. She might have known these boys and played with them when they were all children.

Catelyn waits a long time for Robb to speak, and then King Robb orders Smalljon Umber to tell his dad to bring the prisoners in. Greatjon Umber marches Rickard Karstark and his henchmen into the room, and Catelyn notes that the Umbers and Karstarks looked alike: big men with big beards. She could only spot the difference in that the Umbers carried spears where the Karstarks had their weapons taken away from them.

The north is hard and cold, and has no mercy, Ned had told her when she first came to Winterfell a thousand years ago.

"Five," said Robb when the prisoners stood before him, wet and silent. "Is that all of them?"

"There were eight," rumbled the Greatjon. "We killed two taking them, and a third is dying now."

Robb studied the faces of the captives. "It required eight of you to kill two unarmed squires."

Edmure says that the Karstarks murdered two of his men too, but Rickard Karstark, bound by rope but not bothered by it, says it wasn’t murder. It was vengeance of his boys.

His words rang against Catelyn's ears, harsh and cruel as the pounding of a war drum. Her throat was dry as bone. I did this. These two boys died so my daughters might live

"I saw your sons die, that night in the Whispering Wood," Robb told Lord Karstark. "Tion Frey did not kill Torrhen. Willem Lannister did not slay Eddard. How then can you call this vengeance? This was folly, and bloody murder. Your sons died honorably on a battlefield, with swords in their hands."

According to Rickard Stark, he did this because only blood can pay for blood. Robb angrily asks if he means the blood of children. Absolutely. Squires die all the time. Yeah, in battle, fuck-face. Not by murder. Robb demands that Rickard look at the bodies of the boys.

Lord Karstark looked instead at Catelyn. "Tell your mother to look at them," he said. "She slew them, as much as L"

Catelyn put a hand on the back of Robb's seat. The hall seemed to spin about her. She felt as though she might retch.

"My mother had naught to do with this," Robb said angrily. "This was your work. Your murder. Your treason."

"How can it be treason to kill Lannisters, when it is not treason to free them?" asked Karstark harshly. "Has Your Grace forgotten that we are at war with Casterly Rock? In war you kill your enemies. Didn't your father teach you that, boy?"

Finally stirred to anger at Rickard calling Robb a boy, the Greatjon punches him in the face. Robb tells Greatjon to stop. And Rickard Karstark begins to mock Robb.

"Yes, Lord Umber, leave me to the king. He means to give me a scolding before he forgives me. That's how he deals with treason, our King in the North." He smiled a wet red smile. "or should I call you the King Who Lost the North, Your Grace?"

Greatjon Umber demands the opportunity to put Rickard Karstark on a spit, but then Brynden Tully throws open the door Aragorn-in-Helm’s-Deep-style and marches in with Tully soldiers behind him. He takes a knee in front of Robb, and Catelyn notes that Nuncle Brynden was very serious about something.

So, Robb directs Brynden to tell him what’s up in the audience chamber. He wants Rickard Karstark kept here. Hang the rest. Even the dead ones. Don’t throw their bodies into the river to spoil it.

One of the captives dropped to his knees. "Mercy, sire. I killed no one, I only stood at the door to watch for guards."

Robb considered that a moment. "Did you know what Lord Rickard intended? Did you see the knives drawn? Did you hear the shouts, the screams, the cries for mercy?"

"Aye, I did, but I took no part. I was only the watcher, I swear it . . . "

"Lord Umber," said Robb, "this one was only the watcher. Hang him last, so he may watch the others die.”

That’s one hard motherfucker. Love it.

But now Robb wants Catelyn and Edmure to hear what Brynden has to say. The storm continues to crash as they head outside, and Cat wonders if that’s a metaphor of the kingdom falling. In the audience chamber itself. A small oil lamp is the only source of light as Robb takes off his crown.

Now alone with his kin, Brynden tells everyone that the Karstarks are gone. All of the fighting men. There were camp followers, wounded soldiers and servants who were left. But everyone else is gone. And they’re not reforming. Instead, they’re heading off in search of Jaime. Rickard promised to reward anyone who found Jaime with marriage to Alys Karstark.

Robb states that three hundred mounted men were gone from the camp. But Catelyn? She feels sick and guilty about it all:

Lost by me. By me, may the gods forgive me. Catelyn did not need to be a soldier to grasp the trap Robb was in. For the moment he held the riverlands, but his kingdom was surrounded by enemies to every side but east, where Lysa sat aloof on her mountaintop. Even the Trident was scarce secure so long as the Lord of the Crossing withheld his allegiance. And now to lose the Karstarks as well . . .

Edmure says everyone just needs to keep their traps shut, or else Tywin will hear of it. Catelyn realizes what Edmure is saying, and so does Robb. Sort-of. He asks whether Edmure intends for Robb to a murderer as well as a liar, and Edmure says. They’re not going to lie. Not by commission. They’re just going to keep quiet. Until the dead return to life, Brynden says? No. The truth left with the Karstarks.

"I owe their fathers truth," said Robb. "And justice. I owe them that as well." He gazed at his crown, the dark gleam of bronze, the circle of iron swords. "Lord Rickard defied me. Betrayed me. I have no choice but to condemn him. Gods know what the Karstark foot with Roose Bolton will do when they hear I've executed their liege for a traitor. Bolton must be warned."

Brynden reminds Robb that Karstark’s son was once held at Harrenhal. Maybe he’ll be super cool with Robb killing his dad? Probably not. Even if he was, he couldn’t openly be that way around his men or lose them. The North remembers.

Edmure’s next suggestion is that Robb pardon, I mean, hold Karstark hostage. Edmure doesn’t like to the idea as Karstark had several of his bros killed, but why not chain him up and hold him hostage to Harion Karstark’s good behavior? They need the Karstarks to keep their hopes alive.

"What hope . . . " Robb let out a breath, pushed his hair back from his eyes, and said, "We've had naught from Ser Rodrik in the north, no response from Walder Frey to our new offer, only silence from the Eyrie." He appealed to his mother. "Will your sister never answer us? How many times must I write her? I will not believe that none of the birds have reached her."

Her son wanted comfort, Catelyn realized; he wanted to hear that it would be all right. But her king needed truth. "The birds have reached her. Though she may tell you they did not, if it ever comes to that. Expect no help from that quarter, Robb.

"Lysa was never brave. When we were girls together, she would run and hide whenever she'd done something wrong. Perhaps she thought our lord father would forget to be wroth with her if he could not find her. It is no different now. She ran from King's Landing for fear, to the safest place she knows, and she sits on her mountain hoping everyone will forget her."

Robb says he’d love the knights of the Vale to part of the war, but if they won’t do it, all he needs is for Lysa to open the gates and then he could sail his army from Gulltown to White Harbor and move on Moat Cailin from the north and drive the ironborn out of the North in six months. But the Blackfish says it ain’t gonna happen. Lysa’s too scurred to let an army into the Vale.

This, to put it mildly, puts Robb into a #mood:

"The Others can take her, then," Robb cursed, in a fury of despair. "Bloody Rickard Karstark as well. And Theon Greyjoy, Walder Frey, Tywin Lannister, and all the rest of them. Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself . . . swore to myself . . . that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies . . . now I can't even tell one from the other. How did it all get so confused? Lord Rickard's fought at my side in half a dozen battles. His sons died for me in the Whispering Wood. Tion Frey and Willem Lannister were my enemies. Yet now I have to kill my dead friends' father for their sakes." He looked at them all. "Will the Lannisters thank me for Lord Rickard's head? Will the Freys?"

Nope says Brynden. Spare Karstark says Edmure.

Robb reached down with both hands, lifted the heavy bronze-and-iron crown, and set it back atop his head, and suddenly he was a king again. "Lord Rickard dies."

"But why?" said Edmure. "You said yourself-"

"I know what I said, Uncle. It does not change what I must do." The swords in his crown stood stark and black against his brow. "In battle I might have slain Tion and Willem myself, but this was no battle. They were asleep in their beds, naked and unarmed, in a cell where I put them. Rickard Karstark killed more than a Frey and a Lannister. He killed my honor. I shall deal with him at dawn."

Chapters like this make me wish we had more of Robb in the Westerlands. What a fuckin’ badass, man.

The next day dawns gray, chilly and rainy as rivermen and northmen bear witness to Lord Rickard Karstark’s execution. His men hang from the castle walls as the Umbers bring Rickard Karstark to the block.

Long Lew waited beside the block, but Robb took the poleaxe from his hand and ordered him to step aside. "This is my work," he said. "He dies at my word. He must die by my hand."

Lord Rickard Karstark dipped his head stiffly. "For that much, I thank you. But for naught else." He had dressed for death in a long black wool surcoat emblazoned with the white sunburst of his House. "The blood of the First Men flows in my veins as much as yours, boy. You would do well to remember that. I was named for your grandfather. I raised my banners against King Aerys for your father, and against King Joffrey for you. At Oxcross and the Whispering Wood and in the Battle of the Camps, I rode beside you, and I stood with Lord Eddard on the Trident. We are kin, Stark and Karstark."

"This kinship did not stop you from betraying me," Robb said. "And it will not save you now. Kneel, my lord."

Catelyn notes that this is true as the Karstarks descend from Karlon Stark who was a younger son of Winterfell who won land where he build Karl’s Hold or “Karhold”. Hence how the descendants of Karlon Stark became Karstarks.

This Karstark says that Robb is a kinslayer, but Robb calls Rickard a traitor and tells him to kneel. Karstark kneels, saying the gods will judge Robb.

"Rickard Karstark, Lord of Karhold." Robb lifted the heavy axe with both hands. "Here in sight of gods and men, I judge you guilty of murder and high treason. In mine own name I condemn you. With mine own hand I take your life. Would you speak a final word?"

"Kill me, and be cursed. You are no king of mine."

The axe crashed down. Heavy and well-honed, it killed at a single blow, but it took three to sever the man's head from his body, and by the time it was done both living and dead were drenched in blood. Robb flung the poleaxe down in disgust, and turned wordless to the heart tree. He stood shaking with his hands half-clenched and the rain running down his cheeks. Gods forgive him, Catelyn prayed in silence. He is only a boy, and he had no other choice.

Catelyn doesn’t see Robb for the rest of the day. Brynden takes a team out to search for the missing Karstark men, but he’s pessimistic he’ll find many or any. Once Bfish leaves, Catelyn goes to Hoster’s bedside. Maester Vyman tells Catelyn that her dad is about to die, but he’s still fighting death. The maester agrees but says, y’know maybe it’s time to be at peace and yield?

To yield, she thought, to make a peace. Was it her father the maester was speaking of, or her son?

Later that evening, Jeyne Westerling visits Catelyn. Catelyn welcomes her as “Ur grace”, but Jeyne just wants to be called Jeyne. Anyways, why is Jeyne here? She’s here about Robb. He’s miserable, and she doesn’t know what to do. Ah, well, killing someone is hard. Jeyne has a very Westerman response to this:

"I know. I told him, he should use a headsman. When Lord Tywin sends a man to die, all he does is give the command. It's easier that way, don't you think?"

"Yes," said Catelyn, "but my lord husband taught his sons that killing should never be easy."

Jeyne realizes the cultural distinction then and turns to the topic of Robb not eating. And then he spent the day writing a letter before burning it. And now Robb is looking at maps. She doesn’t know what he’s looking for, and he hasn’t changed out of his wet clothes. What should Jeyne do?

Tell me what I should do. Catelyn might have asked the same, if her father had been well enough to ask. But Lord Hoster was gone, or near enough. Her Ned as well. Bran and Rickon too, and Mother, and Brandon so long ago. Only Robb remained to her, Robb and the fading hope of her daughters.

"Sometimes," Catelyn said slowly, "the best thing you can do is nothing. When I first came to Winterfell, I was hurt whenever Ned went to the godswood to sit beneath his heart tree. Part of his soul was in that tree, I knew, a part I would never share. Yet without that part, I soon realized, he would not have been Ned. Jeyne, child, you have wed the north, as I did . . . and in the north, the winters will come." She tried to smile. "Be patient. Be understanding. He loves you and he needs you, and he will come back to you soon enough. This very night, perhaps. Be there when he does. That is all I can tell you."

Jeyne listens and says that she’ll do that. But she’s heading back to Robb. She’ll be patient if he’s still looking at his maps. Catelyn says okay. But Robb needs one more thing. An heir.

The girl smiled at that. "My mother says the same. She makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning. I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think. We . . . we try most every day, my lady. Sometimes twice or more." The girl blushed very prettily. "I'll be with child soon, I promise. I pray to our Mother Above, every night."

Sybell Spicer, you bitch, I hate you. Anyways, Catelyn will pray for Jeyne

When the girl had gone, Catelyn turned back to her father and smoothed the thin white hair across his brow. "An Eddard and a Brandon," she sighed softly. "And perhaps in time a Hoster. Would you like that?" He did not answer, but she had never expected that he would. As the sound of the rain on the roof mingled with her father's breathing, she thought about Jeyne. The girl did seem to have a good heart, just as Robb had said. And good hips, which might be more important.

And that is the synopsis of ASOS, Catelyn III. This chapter reminds me of growing up sitting at a window watching a heavy, steady rain outside. What I’m saying is that everyone in this chapter needs a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of ramen soup. What did you think, ser?

Depth

Catelyn’s my favorite POV in the first three books, and I think this is the definitive Catelyn chapter, the one that best captures the tone and imagery that makes her story so compelling. It’s a full-on gothic tragedy, all dark shadows, howling wind, and bloodstains. It feels like the stones of Riverrun are bleeding, like the world itself is fatally wounded and giving up its ghosts. Robb’s kingdom doesn’t really collapse because of what happens here; the Red Wedding is coming regardless of Rickard Karstark. But this chapter feels like a microcosm of the fall of the Starks, a self-contained symphony of doom that expresses the whole. This isn’t my favorite Catelyn chapter in ASOS, that’s of course the last one at the Red Wedding, but it’s a close second.

The reader feels the fingers of the author tightening around the neck of the Starks in ASOS, Catelyn III. In military terms, the Karstarks rolling out compounds the hopelessness of the Starks holding out against the might of the south. In moral terms, Rickard Karstark’s murder of the Lannister boys forces Robb to consider whether his side is any better than the rolling war crime caravan known as Tywin Lannister and his army in the Riverlands. It’s a terrible situation for the Stark, and it’s getting worse by the hour. But even as the noose, finger, whatever in this metaphor, tightens, George continues to offer hope. False hope as it turns out. But there’s hope that the Starks can endure, that Robb and Jeyne will conceive. I think this is just a standout chapter by a lot. I love chapters like this. I love the mood. I love Robb Stark as a western sheriff. And I love the atmosphere.

• The opening
  • This chapter takes place on a dark and stormy night, which is a cliche for a reason: it’s the perfect environment for a mood of dread and despair
  • The deluge of rainfall and Grey Wind’s howls merge into one sound for Catelyn, one great expression of pain, as if nature’s heart is broken
  • Robb’s bronze crown still shines, but darkly, as if infected by the night. Shadows hide his eyes as though he’s already dead, the rage and sorrow within him spilling forth like a rain of black tears
  • It feels like the Starks and Tullys have fallen into a well–or a gravity well, a black hole, and they’re watching the last lights wink out all around them
  • Even the memory of happiness is fading. Catelyn looks at Edmure, sleep still showing on his face, and wonders if he was having sweet dreams
  • Back in ACOK, Catelyn was still dreaming of her family reunited, but now even the fantasy is dying. All her dreams are nightmares now
  • Everything has fallen apart, as I was saying in the last Catelyn chapter, leaving behind only what she describes as “the scent of death and ruin”
  • George is drawing from a variety of literary and theatrical predecessors in crafting this chapter’s singular mood, especially in the Gothic tradition
  • The stormy atmosphere and the sense of subterranean violence bursting through to the surface reminds me of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw
  • Grey Wind’s spooky senses make him a supernatural figure of sorts, the equivalent of the ghosts haunting Screw or The Haunting of Hill House
  • King Lear is another obvious reference point; sticking with Shakespeare, there’s the titular storm in The Tempest; you could compare Catelyn III to the “dry sterile thunder” of Eliot’s “The Waste Land” that same sense of dread that winter is eternal and that spring will never come again
  • Then there’s the constant storm in Wuthering Heights, reflecting the tumult of that novel’s central relationship; the emotions surge similarly here
  • There’s a passage I love in James Joyce’s “The Dead” that evokes the same melancholy mood as this chapter:
    • His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
  • But you can set all those references aside and still feel the resonance of this chapter, because it draws its power internally, from this specific story
  • Catelyn III begins with corpses. George doesn’t tell us at first whose bodies those are, or who killed them. All we know is that they’re dead
  • So they could be anyone. They could be Bran and Rickon, as Catelyn thinks, her own lost little ones; they could be Rhaegar’s kids, Rhaenys and Aegon. Tywin had presented their corpses to Robert on the Iron Throne like a blood sacrifice, as Ned remembered back in book one:
    • Lord Tywin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard. That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth. The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy… the boy…

Ned could not let that happen again. The realm could not withstand a second mad king, another dance of blood and vengeance. He must find some way to save the children.

• But Ned is dead, Robert too. The wheel keeps turning, and no one ever saves the children. Here are two more for the Stranger to take too soon
• Catelyn sees that the blond boy was trying to grow a beard. He was trying to become a man, but like Waymar Royce, he looks so young in death
• He died in his sleep. His cousin wasn’t so lucky, and fought his killers, gaining only more wounds in the process; in a particularly effective bit of imagery, George describes his wounds as “tongueless mouths,” as though they would cry out like Grey Wind but have been forever silenced
• Robert looked down on Rhaegar’s children and said he saw only dragonspawn: the hardening of the heart necessary to kill, the denial of humanity to others that wound up hollowing out his own humanity
• There is no such detachment for Catelyn. It’s replaced by the wretched empathy common to tragedy. She sees her own children in their faces, not only Bran and Rickon, but Sansa, who she fears will be killed in revenge
• She also mourns for the boys on their own terms, thinking that they may have played with her new daughter-in-law Jeyne when they were younger
• Only now do we finally learn who these boys were: the squires Tion Frey and Willem Lannister, taken captive at the Whispering Wood in book one
• They rode into battle under the lion banner. They’re the enemy. But by slow-rolling the reveal of who they are, George has already engaged our horror and grief. It doesn’t matter who they fought for; they died too young
• The mention of Jeyne only further emphasizes that. The Westerlings were Robb’s enemies too; he took their castle by force. Yet now one of them is Robb’s wife and queen. So they can’t pretend that these boys are just “lionspawn,” to borrow Robert’s term. Robb lays with lions, after all
• The borders of the war have been broken. Here Robb stands mourning his foes, and now he must reckon with the betrayal of his friends
• It disturbs Catelyn how hard it is to tell the two apart. Men move aside from the traitors as though treason isn’t an action, but a disease you could catch: a cascade effect that could infect the kingdom, bring them all down
• As Catelyn thinks, they all look alike, the loyalists and the traitors; some on both sides are wounded. Just as the dead bodies could be anyone, their killers could be anyone. It’s not like all the Karstark men are uniquely corrupt; if the war had played out differently, it could’ve been the Umber men in chains and the Karstark men bringing them before Robb
• The disease is in them all. The North is hard and cold, Ned told her when she first arrived, and has no mercy. He was the exception, not the rule
• That’s one of the aspects of ASOS that I appreciate: it’s showing how the rule works across domains.
• Readers are naturally sympathetic to the North as they start the series as the good guys who got wronged by the bad guys.
• Yet, when we look at the North as a whole, a broader picture emerges, and it’s not an entirely sympathetic portrait.
• The good guys have just committed child murder, and what that does to the Stark cause is devastating.
• The Starks have been those proverbial good guys, the wronged party, the people who have had injustice committed on them.
• The Lannisters illegitimately seized the throne, committed mass atrocity in the Riverlands and have done mass child murder and enslavement.
• The informational war in the narrative is one where the Starks were positioned as good.
• But that narrative frays really with what happened out in the Westerlands with the Starks pillaging the land and driving livestock away from the smallfolk.
• And it really frayed with the hanging of the sex workers as seen in Jaime I.
• Now, the Stark side is committing child murder — just like the Lannisters.
• Of course, the child murders and sex worker murders are not a coordinated campaign of terror directed by Robb Stark.
• The terror and murders are not part of a coordinated strategy as seen in Tywin Lannister’s war crime council session at the end of AGOT.
• But what are the optics of the build-up of crimes for the “good guys.”
• I’m reminded of how the Nazis highlighted Allied - and especially Soviet - atrocities.
• The Katyn Massacre of 20,000 Polish army officers and intellectuals by the Soviet NKVD in 1940 was utilized by the Nazi propagandists to show how the Allies were no better than they were in the conduct of the war.
• More than that, the propaganda hardened the rationale for the German population to fight to the last man, woman and child when the Allies invaded Germany proper in early 1945.
• Now, this is all interesting at some esoteric level, but there isn’t a coordinated Lannister propaganda campaign to show how the Starks are just as bad as the Lannisters.
• But none of this sways any Riverlands or Northern houses to turn to the Lannisters.
• Those houses that do turn are even worse than the Karstarks as will be demonstrated by the end of the book.
• So, no, all of the optics stuff is academic when compared against the major houses of Westeros.
• What isn’t academic is the reaction of the smallfolk. They’ve seen the slaughter, the murder, and they’ve decided to stop taking a side in the conflict.
• Enter the Brotherhood without Banners to fill the void left by the noble combatants.
• Harwin put it best back in ASOS, Arya III:
  • “We mean your brother Robb no ill, milady . . . but it's not him we fight for. He has an army all his own, and many a great lord to bend the knee. The smallfolk have only us."
• As we’ll discover throughout Arya’s ASOS chapters, the BWB have more than stepped into the void. They are the only force that’s fighting for the smallfolk.
• I think the easy summary would be to say that well, then, it’s the BWB who are the clear heroes of the story. No one else.
• While it’s true that the BWB act heroically, and that the Stark-Tully side looks more gray, I do lean towards the position that there can be a heroic side whose individual members commit atrocities.
• Moreover, as we’ll discover in AFFC, the BWB turn away from its original, noble mission to safeguard the smallfolk.
• Ultimately, I think it’s the war that sours men’s souls, that exposes the raw evil lying just under the surface.
• Rickard Karstark and the women at the inn exposed that evil, and now the question is what do those in authority do now?
• The trial
  • With the mood established, George draws our focus to the meat of the chapter: the evil deeds of Rickard Karstark and Robb’s response to them
  • Lord Karstark has been breaking down in the background ever since his sons died protecting Robb from Jaime at the Whispering Wood
  • He seemed to reach the tipping point in the last Catelyn chapter, when he returned to Riverrun to find that she had freed Jaime
  • Now he has lashed out lethally, killing unarmed hostages, and Robb as his king must determine his fate, acting as prosecutor, judge, and executioner
  • Robb begins by giving voice to the emotions we’re experiencing reading this: horror and anger at the sheer abject awfulness of this
  • It took eight grown men to kill two teenagers? For all Lord Rickard’s tough talk, Robb immediately exposes him as a coward
  • As Edmure points out, though, they came in force to get past his guards. Their deaths, too, are on Lord Rickard’s head
  • That’s the first charge he responds to, saying it was not murder because they got in the way of his vengeance, which is just asking to die
  • So Rickard’s cowardice isn’t primarily physical, it’s moral. He is dodging responsibility for his own actions, flinching away from his own cruelty
  • Robb cuts through his bullshit with admirable clarity. I saw your sons die, on the battlefield, with swords in hand. These squires did not kill them. So you can’t spin this as avenging their deaths. This was just murder
  • You can tell how weak Rickard’s position by how he keeps blurring the central distinction between dying in battle and being stabbed in your bed
  • First he says that all that matters is that his sons died. Jaime cut them down, and these two are his kin. Blood pays for blood, nice and simple
  • But he also justifies himself by saying that squires die in every battle, so why is this a big deal? He has no consistent ethical position–he starts from the presumption that he was in the right, and then adopts whatever argument will allow him to back that up
  • “In war, you kill your enemies,” Rickard declares. Hard to argue with that! But he undermines his argument by citing Ned, saying he should’ve taught Robb about killing your enemies. Ned would’ve condemned Rickard even more forcefully than Robb, given his history I was talking about earlier
  • Rickard keeps dodging the case against him by engaging in whataboutism. How can I be a traitor when Catelyn isn't?
  • She freed Jaime without your consent, and got off scot-free. She started us down this lawless path; she started this
  • That accusation hits Catelyn like a punch to the gut. She reels and retches, because she thinks it’s true: these boys died so my daughters might live. It’s all part of the sense of doom unfolding, Catelyn’s belief that even her attempts to save lives will cause death. The imagery is particularly powerful here–Karstark’s words are like the beating of a war drum, Catelyn’s throat that the Freys will slit is dry as old bone
  • At a literal level, Karstark is full of shit. When Catelyn freed Jaime, he didn’t call her a traitor–he said she robbed him of his vengeance
  • Ever since his sons died, he’s been in this to kill Lannisters, not serve Robb. Again, he’s just grabbing whatever argument suits him
  • But on a more poetic, even cosmic level, his argument has the ring of truth to Catelyn. It feels right, the reaction to her action following Newton’s laws
  • The mood in the room goes beyond what Karstark did and why. It’s not happening in isolation; it’s one link in the chain of Robb’s downfall
  • That’s why Rickard calls Robb “the King who Lost the North.” He is demonstrating that he has lost all respect for Robb as an authority figure
  • Power resides where people believe it resides, and Rickard Karstark doesn’t believe in Robb Stark any more. Those dead bodies are about sending that message, as much as they are about vengeance
  • So when he talks about Catelyn’s actions, or Robb losing Winterfell, he’s not justifying his own actions so much as making the case that this whole “King in the North” business is over. That’s the mood in the room
  • That’s why the Greatjon is so eager to distinguish himself from Karstark: calling him a traitor, knocking out his teeth, asking permission to kill him
  • The Greatjon used to be a source of comfort and strength, but no longer. He’s clearly overcompensating for his own dread about their position
  • This is why Catelyn calls the crash of thunder “the sound of a kingdom falling,” a concept that ties all the chapter’s ideas together
  • Catelyn is sensing, with her usual tragic foresight, that she is part of a pattern that she can’t control, even though her actions are part of it
  • It’s the fall, the semi-Biblical fall that claimed her baby boy Bran, the fall from innocence and grace. There is no good; no winners, only losers
  • What makes this scene all the more dynamic is that Rickard Karstark isn’t a prophet.
  • He’s simply a man who has lost “everything” and is soothing his wounds by spitting venom.
  • At some level, Rickard Karstark knows what Robb Stark is going to do. He’s been around Robb the King for a longer period of time
  • So, he’s aware he’s about to die. As we talked about in Catelyn II, he likely hoped to suicide by Lannisters out in the west.
  • Denied that, he’ll get himself killed by Robb Stark by being the most obnoxious person around, “telling it like it is.”
  • The sad truth is that Rickard is right. This ship is going down -- not by the fault of Robb Stark, not because his cause is unjust, but because the narrative demands it.
  • Even Robb at his most righteous can’t dispel the doom. He orders the Karstark men hanged, even the one who was only keeping watch
  • He’s just as responsible, Robb says, and he has a point; the man knew what they would do, the plain horror of it, and went along anyway
  • Making him watch the other men die has a sense of evening the scales, of making clear the consequences of his actions
  • But it can’t contain the rot. I think of Dany executing one slaver in Meereen for every child they had nailed up to point her way to the city
  • In isolation, it’s justice. But in context, it demonstrates a failure to think in systems. How do you stop someone else from replacing them? How do you create a city that can work differently? How do you keep people free?
  • Similarly, Robb is applying Ned’s model of justice the best he can. It doesn't stop the problem from growing. We were introduced to Ned executing Gared, who bore witness to the white walkers, because he deserted
  • These well-intentioned guys, trying to keep things together, backing up words with actions, run headlong into the reality that human beings are flawed and frail, and our problems can’t be dealt with one-on-one
  • Things are getting out of hand for Robb, and like his mom, he doesn’t seem to know how to contain them
  • In my synopsis, I talked about how this scene is Robb Stark performing frontier justice, and it’s very satisfying to read.
  • It provides catharsis that wrongs are being righted, that the good is punishing the bad.
  • That kind-of frontier justice angle of the darker westerns is a part of ASOS that will become more prominent.
  • I’m reminded of Maester Merry the Shoeless Sage talking about how this dynamic plays out when the BWB hang the Bloody Mummers they capture at the sept in ASOS, Arya VI.
  • Unfortunately, the catharsis of that and especially Robb Stark’s frontier justice doesn’t hold out for long.
  • Like you were saying, we’re seeing one individual wrong being righted, but the larger degree of injustice in Westeros holds sway.
  • Like his father, Robb Stark is the exception to the rule: executing his own people who commit war crimes against enemies.
  • (I guess Stannis is an exception too for gelding his men who rape wildling women too. There. Are you happy, Frank?)
  • But as we’ll see later: Tywin Lannister ostensibly didn’t order the rape and murder of Elia of Dorne, but he didn’t punish Amory Lorch or Gregor Clegane for their actions.
  • Tywin is full of shit as we’ll talk about at length later in ASOS, but the point I’m driving at here is that most the lords wouldn’t do anything to war criminals in their own ranks.
  • Robb Stark does, but that’s not a uniform code of justice. It’s the exception, and it’s going to take a lot more work to set things to right. And maybe, things will never be set to rights.
• The sentencing
  • The Blackfish arrives with news that makes everything worse: the Karstark soldiers have abandoned Robb. They did so slowly, patiently, in a well-planned fashion to prevent Robb from knowing until it was too late
  • This is what I mean when I say Rickard’s actions are about rebellion as much as revenge. This didn’t happen in the heat of the moment. This was a strategy that Lord Rickard thought through and implemented
  • He has sent his men hunting after Jaime, promising the hand of his daughter to the killer. It’s like a fairytale, something Sansa would’ve loved before the fall: bring me the head of the wicked Kingslayer, and you’ll rise from common soldier to a seat at the table with your blushing new bride
  • George is showing us how that storybook imagery can be weaponized in a political context, the happy ending as nothing more than a tool of revenge
  • We’re stuck here, with the hole they leave behind, visualized in the marks Robb’s crown makes on his temples. His head lies heavy; the burdens of power are becoming too much, because his power is melting away
  • Catelyn again thinks that she lost her son these men, because if it’s her fault, then at least she has some control over her own life
  • But the situation she describes is beyond any one individual. It increasingly looks like Robb is just plain screwed: isolated by his enemies, abandoned by his allies, with the way home blocked by the Freys
  • Just to talk about a bit about how big of a deal it is that the Karstarks abandon Robb, let’s return back to AGOT, Bran VI to talk about the strength of the Karstark host:
    • The Karstarks came in on a cold windy morning, bringing three hundred horsemen and near two thousand foot from their castle at Karhold.
  • ASOS, Catelyn III only mentions the cavalry, and the reason for that is that the Karstark foot is down with Roose Bolton down at Harrenhal while Robb took the Karstark cavalry out west.
  • Three hundred cavalry doesn’t seem much, but it’s roughly 10% or more of Robb’s remaining northern force he has under his direct command.
  • Meanwhile, the bulk of the Karstark infantry likely participated in the Battle of Duskendale as evidenced by Harrion Karstark going missing in the battle and being mentioned as a prisoner of the Lannisters in the AFFC appendix.
  • All of this was before the Karstarks likely found out about Rickard Karstark’s execution.
  • As we’ll find out at the Red Wedding, those Karstark men under Roose’s command will take part in the slaughter at the Red Wedding.
  • Though it’s not mentioned why they took part in the Red Wedding, it’s an easy inference that they were adapting the position of Rickard Karstark and taking vengeance on Robb Stark for his execution of Rickard.
  • The death of the hostages further weakens his position with both the Lannisters and the Freys. Edmure realizes this, and wants to try and keep it quiet. Cover it up, move on to avoid any reprisals
  • But the Blackfish is right: the dead are dead, it’ll come out sooner or later, and probably sooner given the Karstark men spreading across the country. Edmure’s trying to close the barn door after the horses have escaped
  • Robb, meanwhile, is concerned less with the practical concerns and more with the personal: what has been done to me and what I owe others
  • You could say that Robb is being self-indulgent here, but like his mother, I think he wants to do the right thing, and just has no idea what that is
  • For him, it’s like everything has flipped upside down. He feels he owes justice to the families of the dead squires–aka his mortal enemies the Lannisters, and his jilted former allies the Freys, who trampled his banner
  • Robb has made a new enemy out of Harrion Karstark, or so he assumes. The Blackfish is again the shrewd pragmatist in the room, wondering if Harrion might secretly be glad to have his father dead. He’s a lord now!
  • But Robb thinks that unlikely. The North doesn’t just forgive and forget. The North remembers. That has become a fan favorite line since ADWD, in which it suggests that the northern lords are secretly Stark loyalists
  • But here, the first time the phrase appears, it suggests something darker: that the North is obsessed with revenge, not just Rickard individually
  • After all, why is Robb even here? Why is he still fighting this war? Because, as he says in the next Catelyn chapter, the Lannisters killed his father. Robb is nobler than Rickard, but vengeance drives him too
  • Excellent point! Robb is not talking about northern independence or a series of reforms that he’s going to enact as King in the North.
  • Instead, he frames his response as taking vengeance for dead old dead dad.
  • Robb is nobler than Rickard Karstark and Tywin Lannister, and the whataboutism of northern vs Lannister war crimes is not cogent.
  • However, a lot of this feels like a pale mirror of ASOS, Tyrion III and the small council scene therein.
  • There, we saw that the great lords of the South are dividing their spoils and planning for the end of the Stark and Baratheon causes.
  • They didn’t overlay their aims with a shred of justice or doing the right thing; they were taking their spoils of war.
  • The dark mirror comes from Robb’s rationale of continuing the war to avenge his dad.
  • I think there are a lot of just reasons to stay in the war against the Lannisters: they stole the throne, rule illegitimately through Joffrey and have committed mass atrocities in the Riverlands.
  • But Robb doesn’t mention any of those reasons. Robb is acting emotionally here in continuing the war against the Lannister.
  • These reasons are utterly sympathetic! They resonate emotionally, and maybe if Robb wasn’t acting emotionally here, he could articulate just reasons to stay fighting.
  • That he doesn’t is not to take a swipe at him, but it raises concerns about why the North remembers, why the North keeps fighting.
  • And beyond that, can actual vengeance for Ned be reasonably attained?
  • Now he’s beginning to realize that the catharsis he longs for isn’t going to happen. As Catelyn says, anger and despair are at war in his voice
  • He can’t even rely on his own family. As he says, support from his aunt Lysa would change the course of the war overnight
  • The armies of the Vale would more than make up for losing the Freys and the Karstarks, and even if they’re not willing to actively fight the Lannisters, they could allow Robb to sail home rather than having to deal with the Freys and then try to take Moat Cailin from the Ironborn
  • This is Robb’s last hope to salvage not only his kingdom, but his sense of self-worth. Catelyn recognizes that her son is looking to her for comfort, trying to regress back to the womb like Lysa and Sweetrobin
  • But Catelyn is different than her sister, and recognizes that her king needs the truth more than her son needs comfort. The truth for Catelyn is that Lysa’s a coward and always has been. Now, she still doesn’t know the full truth about Littlefinger that’s really motivating Lysa’s behavior
  • From Robb’s perspective, though, it doesn’t really matter why Lysa is refusing to help him. All that matters is the refusal itself
  • Robb finally breaks down, and delivers a monologue that I think is his most emotionally resonant moment. Robb is often underrated as a character, especially relative to his siblings. I get why: he’s not a POV and he vanishes from the page for most of book two
  • But he’s often framed as dull, uninteresting, a one-note stubborn jock who got himself killed, and I think there’s a lot more to him than that
  • What we’re seeing with Robb is the same thing that happened to Robert: the fantasy ideal of the good king with his righteous rebellion against bloodthirsty tyrants, winning battle after battle, his legend spreading…
  • …until everything catches up and the bill comes due. With Robert, it was more of a slow deflation like air hissing out of a balloon. We saw only the end result, and were given hints as to what he was like in his prime
  • With Robb, we’re seeing it happen in real time, and it feels less like air escaping through a hole and more like someone stepping on the balloon
  • Robb knows it’s happening and it’s breaking his heart. He’s so full of anger and despair because he believed so strongly in what he was doing
  • He remembers the moment they crowned him, the moment of hope, and now we learn what he was thinking. He promised himself he’d do the right thing, be a good king, be just and honorable and true
  • And now he can’t even tell his friends from his enemies. Everything got confused. Everything is more complicated than he ever anticipated
  • For me, this is extremely relatable. Ned made a promise to Lyanna, but Robb made a promise to himself, and feels like he broke it. I remember moments when I promised myself I would do better, and then failed
  • You feel this crushing weight that it was all for nothing: the past led to this worthless present, and there is no future that you can see
  • The seconds tick by unbearably, and you are still yourself, the last person you ever wanted to be
  • It’s worse even than your friends turning to enemies. You have become your own worst enemy, and there is no escaping yourself
  • Part of the general tragedy of humanity is that we try so hard to fill that hole with any number of things, and none of it seems to work
  • Look at Robb. He’s young, handsome, a king with a beautiful bride. And he is completely miserable. As he says: why would anyone want to be king? Again, the Robert comparison: that’s basically what he told Ned
  • This is a thesis statement moment for George. He’s shown us Westeros ripped apart by the question of who the king is, and now shows us the best of them, the most well-intentioned one with the most justifiable cause, and he is sick of being the king. It hasn’t made him happy, and it hasn’t avenged the dead. All it is to him now is a terrible decision he must make
  • It makes me think of Viserys, demanding to be crowned right before Drogo does so in the worst way possible. It makes me think of Stannis, seeing a vision in the flames of his crown burning him, transforming him into ashes
  • There is nothing at the top of the fiery ladder; there is no endgame that will make these people whole
  • Because of Robb’s crown, he must now behead the father of boys who died for him, on behalf of families that will not thank him for it, as the Blackfish confirms with his usual blunt practicality
  • Not just boys who died for him, his friends.
    • “Lord Rickard's fought at my side in half a dozen battles. His sons died for me in the Whispering Wood. Tion Frey and Willem Lannister were my enemies. Yet now I have to kill my dead friends' father for their sakes."
  • Torrhen and Eddard Karstark were Robb’s friends, his companions. Same as Jeyne Westerling grew up next to Tion Frey and Willem Lannister, Robb Stark grew up around these Karstark boys.
  • And now he’s about to behead the guy who probably watched from the castle walls with a beer in hand while his sons played with Robb.
  • In a chapter that’s so rich in political content, George does an amazing job of showing us how personal the political has become.
  • And you know, this is probably an absurd time to mention this, but Robb Stark will kill no more Lannisters.
  • In fact, Rickard Karstark is the last person that Robb Stark will kill in the series: father of his friends, fellow soldier and commander on the battlefield.
  • That’s how bad the Stark cause has gotten, and it’s only going to grow worse.
  • What a ridiculous shitshow this is. A mummer’s farce, as they would say in Westeros. How did Robb get here? Step by step like anyone else, part chance and part choice, the absurd ingredients of tragedy
  • To live like this is to set your heart on fire, as Stannis’ banner makes explicit. It creates broken men. So to do it, you have to be something other than a man. You have to wear the lord’s face, as Ned’s children saw, and when Robb puts his crown on, Catelyn thinks he has become a king again
  • His crown is a cage, a vessel of ice-cold power that demands Robb sacrifice the very feelings that led him to put it on in the first place
  • All their talking has led him full circle to where he started: the shameful nature of the murder, and his responsibility to erase that shame
  • “He killed my honor,” Robb says, a statement that’s easy to mock. Surely there’s more at stake here than that! This plays right into the image of the Starks as frozen fools who suffer for making propriety their first priority
  • But given the emotional tides sweeping in here, I think Robb’s words are about more than an obsession with status. It’s a recognition that honor was all he ever had. His father wasn’t King in the North. It was his personal charisma that made him king, the sense of being undefeatable
  • It was those swords they raised for him right here at Riverrun. He has to get that back, or he is nothing; he must be the man he is supposed to be because otherwise, Robb Stark has no idea who he is
  • As Maester Vyman says about Hoster, whose slow death stands in for his grandson’s kingdom at this point: this is a battle he cannot win with sword and spear and shield. This is entropy, the ultimate enemy
  • Robb is grasping after something that can’t be grasped, putting it all on the line for something that will never come back. What is broken cannot be remade; what has been done cannot be undone. The fates have decided
  • Well-said. Robb still wants it to be the end of book one of ASOIAF where he’s bringing the corrupt and illegitimate Lannisters down, where he’s gaining vengeance for Ned Stark.
  • But it’s not Book One. All good things must come to an end, I guess.
  • Robb though has a bit of Stannis in him. He’ll never surrender, never give up. To the bitter end and then some.
  • I think the question George poses to readers here is what should Robb Stark do?
  • As you all know, I often don’t like to engage in AU, but it’s hard to see how bending the knee to Joffrey would work out ultimately for Robb.
  • Sure, Tywin will later talk about serving fire and sword to enemies who are still resisting and then raising up enemies who go to their knees.
  • But I’m not sure that Robb would be allowed to surrender here. We’re not dealing with a Robert Baratheon figure in the forms of Joffrey and Tywin. Hell, we’re not even dealing with an Aegon the Conqueror-like figure who would allow Robb to retain the lordship of the North.
  • As it stands, Robb Stark was not defeated on the battlefield, and he still poses a threat to the Lannister hold on power.
  • What I’m saying is that ultimately, Robb Stark can’t simply take off his crown. He won’t be allowed to do so.
  • For that matter, there’s no guarantee that surrender will lead to peace beyond a temporary cessation of hostilities.
  • Even before the Red Wedding, the Lannisters showed that they were willing to do anything to hold onto their illegitimately-gained power.
  • “No justice, no peace” is a statement used during protests of recent police and political violence against black Americans in the United States.
  • I wouldn’t want to trivialize that statement by applying it to a fantasy context, but I think it applies in a larger context.
  • I don’t see how the North simply allows the murder of Ned Stark to go unanswered. That’s letting injustice prosper.
  • Of course, there’s the emotional context for Robb in this chapter, but it’s a very Aerys-like situation where surrender legitimizes illegitimate seizures of power and the murder of Lords Paramount at the whim of the king.
  • Again, Robb Stark isn’t making that case in this chapter, but I think it’s both implied as well as a reasonable reading of the politics of Westeros within a feudal context.
  • But even if few people hold to justice, Robb still has a vision of justice, and that justice is about to come crashing down on Rickard Karstark.
• The execution
  • After all that buildup, the execution itself moves quickly, to reflect how inevitable it is now. The night’s “dark dance” is ending, as George writes, framing the whole event as musical, a sad song like Rains of Castamere
  • The rhythm, the structure, is so clear. They stand in the storm, all that are left of the men and women who raised their swords for Robb as their king
  • The leaves fall with the rain, as if the trees are drowning, the old gods of Robb’s kingdom fading away into winter. The rain falls too on Karstark’s men, their corpses slumping against the wall. There’s barely any difference between the living and the dead; we’re all in the underworld
  • Robb steps forward to execute Rickard Karstark by his own hand, as Ned would’ve wanted. I love Rickard’s bitter response:
    • “For that much, I thank you. But naught else.”
  • At the beginning of the story, Ned’s mantra that the man who passes the sentence must swing the sword was framed as the epitome of justice
  • This is what separates him from other authority figures; as Ned said, many lords hide behind paid executioners and forget what death is. Catelyn makes that same case to Jeyne later in the chapter: Tywin killing from afar, just as he does with the Red Wedding, only cheapens death
  • But Rickard makes it seem so small, a futile gesture that does nothing to change the realities of Robb’s situation
  • Just as the families of those dead squires won’t be Robb’s friends just because he executes Lord Karstark, doing the job himself won’t bring back the Karstark soldiers. On one hand, doing the right thing with no reward is the essence of heroism. On the other hand, Robb has responsibilities that extend beyond these performances, and honor won’t help him there
  • Rickard begs for mercy, which he didn’t even bother to do before. His plea is rooted in kinship: we’re blood relatives, and the gods curse kinslayers
  • Honestly, I think this is bullshit. Robb and Rickard are very distant relations; if that counted as kinslaying, all these interrelated noble families would never fight each other! Robert was Rhaegar’s second cousin, but no one ever called him kinslayer, not even Rhaegar’s own siblings
  • This is just another example of Karstark seizing on any argument that makes him look better and Robb look worse. He’ll never acknowledge the grievous harm wrought by his own decisions, his own actions
  • In fact, George himself said Rickard Karstark was full of shit.
  • In a 2001 So Spake Martin, GRRM addressed the nuances of kinslaying and brought up the example of Rickard Karstark
    • The other factor, which you haven't raised, is degree of kinship. Killing a parent is probably worse than killing a sibling, but either one is a lot worse than killing a distant cousin. Lord Karstark was stretching that aspect of it when he tried to accuse Robb of kinslaying... but of course he was hoping to save his head.
  • Of course, if you think about it, we’re all ultimately kin if you go far enough back, but the reality is that Robb Stark isn’t violating the cultural prohibition against kinslaying.
  • Of interest though is that George confirms that Rickard Karstark is trying to preserve his life here.
  • I think that’s interesting, because as we’ve been arguing, Rickard was on a suicide mission to join his dead sons in the grave.
  • But now faced with imminent death, Rickard Karstark changes course. He doesn’t actually want to die.
  • On a level, there’s an esoteric fascination with death. As a boy and young man, heroic death seemed a good and noble thing.
  • But when faced with the actuality of death, it’s far less appealing, and the idea of living on grows more appealing.
  • Rickard Karstark may have had a death wish in the past, but now faced with the reality, he tries to avoid it.
  • It’s an understandable motivation, but really, the man shouldn’t have murdered children.
  • For me, the more impactful argument he makes is that he rose up against the Mad King for Ned, and against Joffrey for Robb. The literal kinship might be distant, but these two men were comrades in arms until recently
  • That’s the betrayal that really stings: friends turned to enemies, the subject of this chapter. Robb correctly points out that this bond didn’t prevent Rickard from rebelling against him, so why should it stop the execution?
  • But the pain still lingers. Gared was a stranger to Ned, if not to us. Rickard is no stranger. To kill him feels like a curse, no matter what the gods do
  • As with Theon executing Farlen in ACOK, it takes three swings to remove Rickard’s head. This takes away any feeling of “swift sure justice” (as Lothar Frey calls it), showcasing the pure ugliness of the act
  • Theon, too, was Robb’s friend until suddenly he wasn’t. How Robb feels now, heartsick and hating himself, would be how he felt if he actually made it home and beheaded Theon. Doing justice has lost its savor
  • Robb stands alone, isolated by power, responsibility, and his crown. His heart is broken long before Roose stabs him and makes it literal
  • In the Thrones Show, the musical motif that plays over Robb Stark executing Rickard Karstark is the Greyjoy Theme.
  • At the time, some fans were annoyed by the usage of this motif when they thought the Stark theme should have played over the act.
  • I think you identified correctly why the choice was made: there is a parallel in the story between what Robb and Theon are doing – even down to the three strokes it takes to remove the head.
  • And ultimately, the execution doesn’t bring Robb or Theon peace.
  • There are stark differences, of course. Theon executed Farlen (or Rodrik Cassel in the show) for, to put it mildly, unjust reasons. Robb’s execution of Rickard is just within the feudal Westerosi custom.
  • But like you’ve been saying so well, the objective reality of the situation matters less than the emotional resonance of the moment.
  • Robb Stark executed a northman, killed someone who wasn’t involved in his father’s death, had nothing to do with Sansa’s imprisonment and the coup in King’s Landing.
  • It’s hard not to feel the loneliness of Robb Stark after the execution. It’s almost like he wonders who will betray him next.
  • So, even before the Red Wedding comes, Robb Stark and readers are primed for the next shoe to drop.
  • And those shoes keep coming in the next chapter with “news” from the North, and then news from Duskendale and finally the Red Wedding itself.
  • But before all that, there’s one final scene in this chapter: mother and daughter … in law.
• Catelyn and Jeyne
  • So far, this has been a chapter mostly about Robb v. Rickard, dueling visions of martial masculinity. Catelyn’s been mostly just our POV on it
  • But now that changes as the chapter ends with a scene between Catelyn and Jeyne Westerling, discussing matters left primarily to women
  • This locks us back into Catelyn’s personal journey, how she interacts with the events unfolding around her. She’s always trying to play her role even as the context in which that role makes sense breaks down
  • Jeyne is in a similar position, only younger and less experienced. She needs help from Catelyn, despite technically outranking her
  • Just as Robb the person is increasingly alienated from Robb the king, to the point where Catelyn describes them like they’re different people, Jeyne doesn’t feel like a queen. She doesn’t like being called “Your Grace”
  • How ironic that Robb gave up so much to make Jeyne his queen only for it to feel like a burden, like a mask she’s being forced to wear
  • Catelyn insists at first on calling her Your Grace, which is a signature Catelyn move: sticking to the script not because she’s using it to gain advantage, but because she sincerely believes it leads to good outcomes
  • She wants Jeyne to get used to people calling her that, because that’s how it seems real: people thinking you’re queen is what makes you one
  • But Jeyne isn’t just Catelyn’s queen; she’s Catelyn’s daughter-in-law, her new surrogate daughter figure with Brienne on the road with Jaime
  • Jeyne has come to her for marriage advice, which in a happier timeline, might have happened with Sansa and Arya
  • We see here that Jeyne’s not a schemer; she’s sincere, direct, and very honest about what she needs from Catelyn
  • What she needs is a way of getting through to Robb. Intimacy’s supposed to be the heart of marriage, but Robb has all his walls up right now
  • He’s not eating, he’s not taking care of his clothes, and he’s not talking to her about what’s going on inside his head
  • Interestingly, Robb here is trying to figure out his battle plan for how he’s going to re-enter the North.
  • As we’ll find out in ASOS, Catelyn V, Robb has figured out a plan to re-enter the North and take Moat Cailin with a two-pronged attack on the castle.
  • In his analysis, Robb realizes that he can bypass Moat Cailin and get some of his force north of the Neck by relying on Howland Reed to bypass the Ironmen at Moat Cailin.
  • Of interest to me is what was in the letter that Robb wrote and then burned?
  • There are a lot of possibilities! Was this a letter to Tywin Lannister offering terms? Was it a letter to Balon Greyjoy offering alliance and power-sharing in the North?
  • GRRM doesn’t provide a definitive answer on what Robb Stark was writing, but it’s a small mystery in the book that remains unresolved!
  • (Someone ask George about this the next time you see him, alright?)
  • But even though Robb is not simply sinking into depression and withdrawing from the world, that is the present emotional moment for Robb, and Jeyne sees that.
  • Jeyne recognizes the signs of despair and considers it her responsibility to help; she loves him and he’s in pain. What can I do if he won’t let me in?
  • It takes courage for her to come here and confess her helplessness and fear to an older woman who is basically a stranger; I think it’s telling on reread that Jeyne is not having this conversation with her own mother
  • It’s interesting to consider that Catelyn’s own mother died when she was young; she thinks of her father as her primary parent/role model. She even thinks it would be Hoster she would ask for advice in Jeyne’s place
  • Jeyne has a mother, but doesn’t seem to trust her with this conversation. Catelyn has to reach across these gaps like she did with Brienne
  • Once Catelyn understands why Jeyne has come to her, as a daughter as much as a queen, she’s able to speak honestly, from the heart
  • She says that the wisest move is often nothing at all. What’s happening inside Robb is his own responsibility; Jeyne can’t force him to cheer up
  • He has to learn how to handle this. Beyond letting Robb know that she loves him and is there for him, there really isn’t anything Jeyne can do
  • Moreover, Catelyn says, there’s something in these Northmen that make them want to be alone. Ned always needed time with the heart tree, and Catelyn’s very first chapter opens with her being uncomfortable there
  • She says that winter always comes, on the inside as well as the outside. That applies not only to Starks, but real relationships in the real world
  • Intimacy is never complete. That person lying next to you will always be partially a stranger, a mask over half their face. Two hearts may beat as one, but part of Ned’s soul was always going to belong to that tree
  • Catelyn says that the key to making her marriage work was understanding that even the private face was part of the man she loved. If she took that away, he wouldn’t be that person anymore
  • It’s a classic Catelyn moment in which she finds happiness within limits. She’s always the adult looking back on childhood, rarely more than here
  • But even more perfect for her character is how she then seamlessly shifts back from the personal to the political, telling Jeyne on her way out the door that there is something she has to do as queen: get pregnant ASAP. You have a good heart, but the game of thrones is more about the hips
  • It’s such a funny, delicate little moment, in which both Jeyne and Catelyn have to confirm that Jeyne is fucking Robb’s brains out without saying that
  • Jeyne has to say “we…try” several times a day, and blushes. Despite the euphemisms, real emotion gets through, a connection: she promises to name her children Eddard and Brandon, after those Catelyn has lost
  • You can’t bring the dead back; the Others and their wights show us what it would look like. All you can do is have kids to honor them, keep the cycle going. It’s peace of mind Jeyne offers Catelyn, a chance at a future
  • And that hurts like hell on reread, because not only do we know that the Red Wedding is coming for Robb and Catelyn, but that the supposed fertility potion Jeyne’s mom is making for her is actually preventing her from getting pregnant, per the deal Sybell struck with Tywin
  • It’s an opposing archetype of motherhood: cruel and dishonest where Catelyn was kind and true. This scene feels on first read like a break from the dread, a shelter from the storm; on reread, it’s the icing on the cake
  • This scene is equivalent to Sansa hanging out with the young Tyrell cousins, and in both cases, there are plots to ruin the happiness and hope
  • That is so well-said. I remember feeling like maybe Robb had a chance here, maybe the war can still be won, maybe Robb can still get back into the North.
  • I had these thoughts while knowing the context is Catelyn saying that Jeyne will give birth to children.
  • In retrospect, it’s weird to connect Robb potentially having children with the desire to see Robb Stark continue the war.
  • Creating and giving life in order to continue ending life … that’s a strange thought, but it’s one that was prevalent within a medieval context.
  • But it’s not to be. Sybel Spicer is the worst, and as Tywin said in the previous Tyrion chapter, Robb Stark will never reproduce.
  • Life is about to stolen from almost everyone in this chapter. We start with dead children, we progress to a dead lord and conclude with the promise of life.
  • But it’s a false promise. The tragedy of the Starks is about to unfold in the worst possible way soon.
  • To think: the blows to Robb Stark are not nearly done too before the final end.
  • At this point, you just want to yell at George to stop! He’s already dead, but the wheels must grind on, the red must run.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

The Karstark men will come up frequently as we go through Jaime and especially Arya’s chapters–she meets some in Stoney Sept, and the dynamic is similar: they’ve committed atrocities, they beg for mercy, etc.

And some of those Karstark men will participate in the Red Wedding, Robb wonders what the Karstark foot will do when they find out what happened to Rickard. A lot of them die at Duskendale, but the survivors return to exact their vengeance on Robb at the Red Wedding.

Alys Karstark will show up in person in ADWD.

Theory/Discussion

Did Robb do the right thing here?

Conclusion

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