Game of Thrones Bookclub – Week Three Spoiler Thread

by · June 10, 2011

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Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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12 Responses

  1. Trumwill says:
    June 10, 2011 at 2:26 am

    Perhaps the most striking example of Starkdom, it seems to me, is Sansa. And I think she provides a lense through which to see the rest of the family. Sansa believes in a world of beautiful things and this guides her decision-making process to many faults. She doesn’t understand what’s really at stake. She just knows the world that she wants to live in and seems to think it will come about through the power of assumption. At least Eddard realizes that there are games being played.

    Now, we can more easily forgive Sansa on account of her youth. But I think her untempered nature is partly what makes Eddard easier to understand. One imagines, when he was younger, he was much the same way. Time and experience revealed a more complicated world, but when push comes to shove, it’s the uncomplicated world that he retreats to. The higher the stakes, the more he retreats. So he knows that Littlefinger is a bad dude, and yet in the thrust of events, he acts otherwise, retreating into the world he better understands.Report

    • E.D. Kain in reply to Trumwill says:
      June 10, 2011 at 2:36 am

      That’s a very interesting way to look at Sansa. I hadn’t considered that angle, but it makes a great deal of sense. Perhaps Arya is not so different in a way, imagining a world where even little girls can become lords and sword-fighters. Just another refusal to believe in the world as it actually is. Even their gods are long-dead.Report

    • North in reply to Trumwill says:
      June 10, 2011 at 8:16 am

      I really like Sansa and can’t help but agree there. Having her learning the game at Littlefingers knee strikes me as a fearsome potential combination. All those Stark morals and dreams poured into the tempered vessle of Littlefinger’s razor sharp cynical scheming? And then frosted over with her burgoning beauty? The Queen had best watch her back.Report

  2. E.D. Kain says:
    June 10, 2011 at 2:40 am

    I wanted to also note that Jaimie Lannister has a bit of the Stark in him, and this begins to come out more in the third book. He’s never the schemer that his siblings are, nor as ambitious and power-hungry as his father or Cersei. And really, he can’t play the game either.Report

    • James K in reply to E.D. Kain says:
      June 10, 2011 at 3:32 am

      I don’t know if the fact he’s not a schemer make him Stark-like. I think it’s just that he’s too impulsive to scheme. If he wants somethign he just takes it, if that gets him into trouble he falls back on his sword. Sure things might go wrong and kill him, but I don’t think he cares much.Report

      • Murali in reply to James K says:
        June 11, 2011 at 6:45 am

        Jaime’s character develops as the books progress especially after his hand is lopped off. After some life-changing moments it looks like that if not for his unnatural attachment to his sister Cersei (Lady Macbeth) Lannister h would hav been a decent sort. As his Aunt says:

        You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there’s some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak . . . but Tyrion is Tywin’s son, not you.

        Jaime Lannister is in a way a tainted and fallen hero. While we see his worst side first in the beginning, as with Sandor Clegane, we find that they are not without redeeming qualities. It may be that pushing Bran did sort of push him off the moral event horizon (as well as screwing his own sister) But his own efforts to restore honour and dignity to the Kingsguard as well as to behave honourably with respect towards Ctelyn Stark and his promise to her as well as Brienne of Tarth and his subsequent severing of ties with his sister is making me want to re-appraise him. It is easy to perceive him as having shit for honour, but it is clearly not the case.Report

  3. The Fool says:
    June 10, 2011 at 6:16 am

    Why do you like to hate Littlefinger? I’m pretty much entirely in awe of him and can’t quite understand those who loathe him.Report

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