SUMMARY OF PROLOGUE
There are three guys named Will, Gared, and Ser Waymar Royce, who are going through the forest. They are, apparently, members of the Night Watch. Will and Gared have lots of experience and Royce, an 18-year-old noble, doesn't have so much. Guess which one's in charge? (If you said "Gared the 50-something-year-old man who has over 40 years of experience and would be the logical choice to head something like this," guess again. If you guessed "the 18-year-old lordling," you are correct). Royce frustrates me. He's the sort of guy who might say things like "being scared is for sissies. Don't make a fire when it's well below freezing and there's snow on the ground. Fires are for sissies."
Of course, Royce is the first casualty in Game of Thrones. He is struck down by an "Other," which either kills him or turns him into a zombie-Other; it's hard to tell which. (Well, to be fair, you have to be dead to be a zombie, so maybe they killed him and made him a zombie-Other). What the crap is an "Other," anyway? I assume "Other" is capitalized because that's the name of the kind of creature - sort of like how Elves can be capitalized in Lord of the Rings. From what I can tell, the Others are some kind of super-deadly, super-mysterious ice monster thing.
At any rate, Royce is definitely the first to collapse, but he turns into an Other-type thing and kills Will. Gared is nowhere to be found.
QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE PROLOGUE:
1. WHY IS AN 18-YEAR-OLD NOOB GIVEN AUTHORITY OVER A 50-SOMETHING WITH 40 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE?
2. WHY DOESN'T SAID 18-YEAR-OLD NOOB RESPECT THE WISDOM OF SOMEONE WITH LITERALLY DECADES MORE EXPERIENCE?
3. WHAT THE CRAP IS AN "OTHER?"
4. WHERE THE CRAP IS GARED AT THE END?
BRAN'S CHAPTER
There are several Stark children - in this chapter, you know there are five (plus Jon Snow the bastard and Theo Greyjoy the ward), but you only meet Robb (14), Jon (14), and Bran (7); Rickon (3) is also mentioned. Ned Stark, the head of the family, has to kill some guy for treason. There's an interesting passage here about how kings become too separated from death if they hire out executioners.
SPOILER SIDE NOTE (highlight over the text to see what it says):
I find it interesting that Ned dies by execution. Not sure the circumstances, but keep that in mind.
END SPOILER SIDE NOTE
Anyway, at the end of the chapter Jon finds a litter of five abandoned direwolves. This may be significant because the sigil of the Stark household, Winterfell, is a direwolf. Jon finds himself an albino direwolf to take care of, and he and Robb insist that the kids are capable of raising the direwolves on their own. Ned agrees, so long as the kids do it and not anyone else.
QUESTIONS RAISED BY THIS CHAPTER:
1. Ned mentions to Bran that they are descended from the First People, or something like that. According to My Roommate the GoT History Buff, the First People are important because they're a different species of people than the rest of the world. Like Homo Erectus vs. Homo Sapiens, or something? Anyway, will this be explored?
2. Why are they trusting the care of direwolves to kids 14 and younger? They say themselves that direwolves are bigger than the normal wolves - possibly bigger than Bran's pony. Sure, they're only pups, but 3-year-old Rickon won't be able to actually direct the direwolf, and Ned said that none of the staff should be involved with the raising of the direwolves. HOW THE CRAP IS A 3-YEAR-OLD GOING TO RAISE A DIREWOLF?
3. What's the deal with Bran having to see the death?
No comments:
Post a Comment