Eddard I

WARNING SPOILERS FOR ALL BOOKS AHEAD:

Synopsis: Here we finally get a look inside the head of the Lord of Winterfell himself. This is Eddard's first chapter and don't worry, we'll be having a look at him for a long time to come. Here we are introduced to a whole host of characters Lannister and all, we also finally get a look at King Robert Baratheon. Robert makes some courtesy calls, visits the grave of his dead love, and against Ned Starks wishes appoints him Hand of the King.

What do we learn?:

Culture:

Well I can't say we learn much more culturally here than we did in other chapters but there are some interesting insights. On the one hand we have yet another look at just how different the North is from the many Southern realms, what with Ned's talk of little humor in the North and his dutiful attitude and talk of honor.

We also see some of the ancient glory of House Stark. There is a great crypt beneath Winterfell where all the Lords (and Kings) of Winter lay to rest. Clearly these are old crypts which stretch back hundreds of years as we see some of the earliest Kings of Winter sitting on their thrones with swords in hand and wolves at their feet. It's interesting that they have the iron swords placed upon their graves in order to keep their spirits locked inside (Which Ned humorously reflects is a good thing since the original lords of Winterfell were harsh men who styled themselves King in the North, which implied they were the ones who conquered all the North quite brutally).

The description of the South in summer is also one which is in stark comparison to the North, one of ripe harvests, rich wines, lush fields, and bustling trade and economy. The North on the other hand is subject to summer snows, vast empty territories, and a dour and serious people who do what they have to in order to survive.

All in all rather cheerful.

As an extra note I'm mildly amused to discover I had forgotten that phrases like "The Others take him" are considered swear words or curses. It really goes to show how the supposedly legendary threat of the Others really pervades the culture of Westeros, and for all the men of the modern day scoff at the idea of them existing, the cultural memory of the Others and their invasion is deeply ingrained into the Westerosi psyche.

Political:

Thankfully unlike the last chapter, this one is fairly meaty with some lovely political details, especially in light of the death of Jon Arryn.

I haven't talked much about the Warden system of Westeros (outside my one essay of course) but here I might as well bring it up since it is an important point. The title of Warden is purely military and even as Ned points out "In peace the title is only an honor." However we also learn that it is one which is almost hereditary, and removing that title would evidently be something which might offer an affront to a noble house "the title comes with the domain" suggesting that is has been centuries since the honor/duties of Warden were transferred from a Great House. It's even a part of Ned's official title.

Here though we see that Robert has a practical reason for considering shifting the title away from Robert Arryn, even though he is the head (in name at least) of House Arryn he is only a child, six and sickly to quote Robert directly, and a sickly child is no war leader so now he must find someone suitable to hold the title.

This could be a mild political affront to a House with as much history and honor as the Arryn's so Ned is probably right to suggest Robert tread carefully, but Robert's practical concern of potential invasions and potential internal turmoil (not to mention the mountain clans which seem to eternally plague the Vale) are quite valid and actually shows some good forethought for ruling on his part, as much as he complains about having to do it.

Mind you Lysa Arryn's flight from Kings Landing in the middle of the night may have irked Robert, and this is a man not above being petty, but here I think his concern is much more practical.

However, Robert also has a much more important position to fill, that of the Hand of the King. The Handship is a rather difficult office to explain but we have Ned lay out the full authority of the Hand in this chapter:

"The Hand of the King was the second-most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms. He spoke with the king’s voice, commanded the king’s armies, drafted the king’s laws. Robert was offering him a responsibility as large as the realm itself."

This is a handy way to get a feel for the power of the Hand and what his duties are. Though as Robert points out, he is merely just giving the job of ruling the realm to Ned.

It's hard to define exactly what the Hand is, it's a very original office which seems to combine the roles of First Councilor and Prime Minister into a single office. He is given charge over the Small Council, given command of the King's Laws, and given control over the very power the King can wield himself (and it is implied only the king could overrule him if he made a proclamation). This is quite a prestigious honor and one which easily makes Ned one of the most powerful men in the Seven Kingdoms and easily enforces the Stark-Baratheon alliance, to say nothing of helping keep the Tullys and Arryn's in line. Couple this with Robert's marriage to Cersei Lannister which adds the wealthy and powerful House Lannister into the mix and you have a dynasty which should truly be able to stand the test of the centuries.

Ned's appointment should of course simply seal the Baratheon kingship into its new mantle as overlords of Westeros, but as we all know that isn't quite what happens.

Politically we also get a good look at the system of fostering which is prevalent throughout Westeros. We learn both Robert and Ned were fostered at the Eyrie under Jon Arryn and that Robert had plans to foster Robert Arryn at Casterly Rock in order to help cement cooperation between the Great Houses. Fostering is of course a valuable tool since it shows your trust in a fellow lord and how it can create great bonds between future heirs or members of the Great Houses.

Of course we also see the flip side where a ward can easily become a hostage, as is the case with Theon Greyjoy, who was taken in the aftermath of the failed Greyjoy Rebellion.

Character:

We get a good look here at the inner workings of both Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon, both two of the most powerful men in the Seven Kingdoms.

Credit to Amoka

First off let's take a look inside the head of the Lord of Winterfell. As shown previously Ned is an honorable man with a deep sense of duty to his people, his family, and his king. Seeing his interaction with Robert here is what truly shows us just how dutiful a man Eddard really is. He says things because it is expected of him and he treats Robert with the proper deference and distance as expected from a vassal to a liege lord.

Building up on this we really see that it isn't a face Ned puts on and he really is as honorable and family oriented as others make him out to be. We also see where these traits can be a fault. Rather than truly arguing with Robert he tries to humor his king, and rather than voicing any immediate doubts he goes to humor the man who he would be better off talking to purely as a friend.

However, he also seems to have a deep seeded, almost instinctual, distrust of the Lannisters after having dealt with Tywin's casual betrayal of Aerys during the rebellion, and Jaime's kingslaying. Then of course there is the matter of Tywin having the Targaryen heirs he could lay his hands on butchered by his knights. This leads to Ned's internal monologue mistrusting Tywin and thinking about how he'd rather trust a child with a pit viper.

While maybe not a major character flaw for mistrusting all things Lannister, it does mean he can take things a little too far in that mistrust as we will see later.

Now for our good friend and the King of the Seven Kingdoms, Robert Baratheon.

Despite what many say about Robert being a bad king (and believe me, he isn't a good one) he actually acquits himself well here, he is well aware of the practical military realities and even some of the political problems facing his rule (something he does consistently show) but I think what I said above is true above all. Robert is well aware of the military problems the kingdom faces, but he is not incredibly astute at the art of politics.

Sure his cheerful and amiable personality wins him fast friends and even cows some of his enemies, but he is not well suited to playing the game of thrones. Truly it was Jon Arryn who ran the kingdom despite the troubles placed upon it by Robert.

Here though we see that yes Robert is practical, but for all that he is stuck in the past. He spurns his queen (the link to an incredibly powerful house) and immediately goes to visit the grave of his long lost dead love, and while he is there he speaks angrily of killing Rhaegar at the Battle of the Trident. He speaks contemptuously of his time on the throne, and seems to detest it as much as any man can detest a job.

Credit to Abe Papakhian

However, that being said the man is self-aware of his problems, but he chooses to do nothing about it. He knows he is a poor king but he flits between hating the job and doing it with alarming regularity, one minute with Ned he is all chummy and contemptuous of the throne, the next he is using his power like a weapon to bully Ned into seeing things his way. Robert is clearly a man who doesn't quite know what to do with the power he wields, and as time will show, is clearly one who never wanted it in the first place.

History:

Well I could offer you a historical analysis about fostering, wards and hostages, but I think I can speak more about that later. For now let's talk about something from Westeros's history which I think demonstrates just how decent Robert was as king.

This of course all relates back to Eddard's ward, Theon Greyjoy.

I am of course referring to the Greyjoy Rebellion which is mentioned in this chapter and I'm hoping to use it to underscore a point about Robert's personality.

First some background for those who are unaware of the whole story here. The Greyjoy Rebellion was a revolt insitigated when the ever enterprising Balon Greyjoy crowned himself King of the Iron Islands. His thinking was that Robert was a new king, and he would never be able to rally the support of the Great Houses like a Targaryen king could have, he also believed he held the edge over Robert at sea.

Unfortunately Greyjoy miscalculated.

His revolt took place a full six years after Robert had seated himself upon the throne, plenty of time for Robert to pardon enemies and solidify alliances, which in turn left Balon alone to fight against the strength of every Great House save Dorne.

Balon's fleets were crushed by Stannis and his castle was besieged and stormed by Robert who swiftly de-crowned the so-called King of the Iron Islands. Balon again bent the knee.

There are two things which can be taken away from this, one is that as Ned had pointed out, several years ago Robert had still been much the same man, a warrior and a leader despite six years on the throne, and it showed that Robert was still in his prime, strong, capable, and intelligent. The second is that it shows Robert's surprising penchant for clemency. Though I doubt he was following Tywin's ideas he is clearly living by Tywin's maxim of:

"When your enemies defy you, you must serve them steel and fire. When they go to their knees, however, you must help them back to their feet. Elsewise no man will ever bend the knee to you."

This of course is how Robert managed to win the kingdom in the first place. He was merciful to his enemies, but swift to punish those who disobeyed him. Instead of engaging in wholesale slaughter of rebels he pardoned them and worked to integrate them back into the kingdom.

This is Robert in his prime, this is Robert with sound advise, and this is when Robert was still doing his best to keep the throne, but as his physical appearance and haunted eyes point out, that Robert has long since changed.

Daenerys I

WARNING SPOILERS FOR ALL BOOKS AHEAD

Synopsis: Across the Narrow Sea we meet Daenerys Targaryen, second last child of the Mad King Aerys. She is currently residing in Pentos with her brother Viserys who is the heir to the Targaryen dynasty under the care of the scheming Illyrio Mopatis. Here we learn firstly that Daenerys and her brother were whisked away on the eve of the fall of their families ancestral stronghold in the aftermath of the past civil war and fled to the Free Cities under the care of Sir Willem Darry, a Targaryen loyalist who kept them safe and cared for them until he expired. Following that they were forced to roam the Free Cities as virtual beggars selling the last bits of their heritage to feed themselves and keep the company of the various merchant princes. Finally it seems Daenerys scheming brother will have his chance as Illyrio promises to connect him with an army led by the fearsome Dothraki leader Khal Drogo.

Credit to aprlilis 420

What do we learn?

Culture:

Well this chapter is not necessarily one which really indulges us in the culture of the Free Cities, it does give us a few important insights and one interesting comparison between ideas of slavery in Essos and those in Westeros.

Firstly a remark about slavery. In Essos it is plainly clear that the selling of people like chattel is commonplace. Slavery is seen as nothing to be remarked upon and as a clear continuation of the natural order of things. This is most likely inherited in the Free Cities from the slaving ways of the Valyrian Freehold, but more on them later.

Credit to Other in Law

We can get a clearer view of just how casual the state of slavery in the Free Cities is by Illyrio's remarks regarding Jorah Mormont's exile from Westeros:

"The Usurper wanted his head." Illyrio told them. "Some trifling affront. He sold some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver instead of giving them to the Night's Watch. Absurd law. A man should be able to do as he likes with his own chattel." 

This really speaks to the casual attitude that most have towards slavery in the Free Cities and one which is rather appalling to both our 21st century sensibilities and those of the Westerosi. It does help cement that there is a real divide between Westeros and the Free Cities, showing us the very different cultural background that each nation comes from.

We also get a look at the Dothraki that we don't get a look at again. It's an interesting and very often overlooked point of their personality and culture.

Here we see Khal Drogo in an expansive manse living it up like a rich Pentoshi merchant surrounded by political and economic figures from all over the Free Cities. He has men from all over in attendance at his lavish party and seems to be playing the part of a good host. Contrast this with his warrior persona from later in the novel and see just how much it contrasts with his very political appearance here.

If I'm being honest this always baffles me on read throughs since it is really never mentioned again. I mean we see his expansive manse in Vaes Dothrak but we don't really see him interacting with political figures and merchants like he's a great prince again. He almost seems to switch between his city persona and the persona of a fearsome khal. It's intriguing while at the same time mildly confusing.

Though there is a probably a good reason for this if we look at Dothraki culture over all, but its a point which is sadly never really elaborated upon, though we do get suggestions of having separate cultural lives.

Finally culture wise I have to say that this is some of the finest world building GRRM packs into a few paragraphs in a while. We see a completely different culture, attitudes, and religion neatly placed between the pages. It's an early establishment of those who worship R'Hillor and of the casual slavery of the Free Cities, all points which will come into play later on!

Political:

There is not too much to be gleaned politically here I'm afraid. Though there are a number of good notes to take.

One is that we see that Robert sits on the throne having taken it from Mad King Aerys (more on ideas about the legitimacy of that later) and here sit the last descendants of House Targaryen living in exile reminding us that there is another side to the civil war and its very human.

Credit to ntaq-d60jdwu (deviantart via Google)

The other note is the beggining of the long arc of Dany's story. Sold as a child to make way for a marriage alliance which will hopefully win Visery's back his throne. This is of course all a part of a massive Illyrio/Varys conspiracy (which I personally maintain is to put a Blackfyre pretended on the throne) and is arranged to further their ambitions (though more on this particular tid bit later). Based on some of Viserys words (and later information from the books) we do get a little insight how some of the Great Houses (like the Martells) and lesser Houses (like Darry) still maintain some loyalty to the old Targaryen dynasty. This of course may have much greater implications down the line.

Sadly we don't get a great look at the politics of the Free Cities (though it seems the Red Priests are even here being set up as a powerful religious/political force in Essos even here) but we do see one thing worth great note.

Like the barbarian hordes of old the Free Cities seem to find it far more preferable to pay off the Dothraki khalasars than fight them. They basically ransom their cities rather than risk economically ruinous war between them and the khalasars, which to me is mildly interesting.

Character:

This chapter is nice and instructive really as it gives us our first true look at what Dany used to be. Now don't get me wrong yes this is how she is now but almost immediately after she begins some rather exponential character growth. This is truly the first and last time we see the meek and bullied Dany who is always afraid of her brother and living in constant fear of his wrath and rather creepy sexual advances on her person. Afterwards she is a woman who is growing and getting used to power.

Quite honestly aside from Sansa I think Dany has probably the most prolific character growth in AGOT.

Now looking at Viserys we can see that he is in truth little more than an entitled and bitter man. His throne which he had been promised at a young age is stolen from him by rebels and usurpers, his family murdered, and all he had stolen from him as he is forced to live as a fugitive on the run from assassins. Due to this (and the death of his mother while birthing Dany) he is mean spirited, spiteful, vindictive, and has an inflated sense of self-worth to deal with the issues that lay before him.

In his head he paints a fantasy world where the people of Westeros await his return like that of a Messiah and he's been painting this picture in his head for so long that it has become reality, and anything that interferes with his reality is a burden and an enemy which needs to be cast down or aside. Nothing Dany says and none of the solid advise Illyrio gives is taken and he proves time and time again that he has to have things his way, even if that isn't realistic. He is paranoid of knives in the dark from the Usurper and is constantly running, his paranoia probably informs even more of his personality than his bitterness.

We don't get much of a look at Illyrio here because he hides any of his true nature behind a the facade of a boot licker and a flatterer who says sweet words to worm his way into the good graces of everyone he meets. Dany most likely sums it up best when she says:

"...she mistrusted Illyrio's sweet words, as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio."

That dear Dany is a good stance to take.

Credit to Amoka

There is also Ser Jorah Mormont, but we shall have a chance to get to know him much better as the series goes on.

Finally the last principle character we meet in this chapter is Khal Drogo, a great Dothraki khal commanding a khalasar 40,000 strong and is a man of both manses and silks and war and horses. I'll return more to him later though.

Historical:

There are many historical comparisons I could make here. Firstly I would probably compare the Free Cities themselves to the post-Roman cities throughout the Western Roman Empire in the long slow collapse of Roman authority, but more specifically you could probably compare them to the city states of Italy. I'll return more to this comparison later though since there is a much juicier world to look into.

Then we have a comparison for the Dothraki. The Huns spring to mind first and foremost, but the Dothraki have similar culture and status to everything from the Mongols to the Comanche. They're more of a stand in for the horse riding nomadic warrior cultures which haunted European memory all the way to 1200 with the aborted Mongol invasion.

Here in Pentos though we get big similarities to the Huns under Atilla as they rampaged across the Eastern Roman Empire. You see way back in 440 AD when the Western Roman Empire hadn't totally collapsed and the Eastern one was still on the rise Atilla and the Huns decided they wanted to open up Roman markets to Hunnish traders, they had arranged a treaty with Eastern Emperor Theodosius who had agreed to open markets and give the Huns tribute money in exchange for peace. When Theodosius reneged on this treaty in 441 to fight a war in Africa the Huns brought war to his doorstep. Sacking cities and forts they rampaged through the Balkans even making it to the great double walls of Constantinople, which they could not breach.

Having been defeated by the Huns in battle and with them rampaging with impunity outside his capital Theodosius was forced to pay a staggering sum of money in the form of 2000 pounds of gold with a yearly tribute being double to 2100 pounds of gold to keep the peace.

This still didn't stop Atilla from later returning and sacking his way through the Eastern Roman Empire in 450 and despite the fact he was defeated then he had to be paid off again.

Perhaps the Magisters of Pentos are on to something when they figure it's far cheaper to pay off the Dothraki than to fight them hmm?