By the end of A Storm of Swords and the beginning of A Feast for Crows (which I just recently began rereading. I’m almost at A Dance!) Jaime’s transformation is roughly complete and Sansa has begun the next phase of becoming a major player of the game of thrones. (Warning, spoilers up to the beginning of A Feast ahead). Given that both Sansa and Jaime are nobility —and high nobility at that I think it’s fair to say eventually songs will be made about their lives and their histories will shift into exaggerated legend like so much of the available history of Westeros and Essos in general.
Look at Ser Duncan the Tall. In the novellas he’s a modest knight at best, his fighting skill is more streetbrawling than proper knightly combat. Somehow though his story changes into something much more dignified. At one point Jamie wonders how he could possibly measure up to Ser Duncan as Lord Commander:
“The chair behind the table was old black oak, with cushions of blanched cowhide, the leather worn thin. Worn by the bony arse of Barristan the Bold and Ser Gerold Hightower before him, by Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, Ser Ryan Redwyne, and the Demon of Darry, by Ser Duncan the Tall and the Pale Griffin Alyn Connington. How could the Kingslayer belong in such exalted company?”
Obviously good fortune finally falls onto Dunk but from that passage I get the sense that it’s more than that. It sounds like Dunk’s entire life is exalted.That’s a pretty big change for someone who in his early days of knighthood thought about how “…he had beggars blood himself…or so they used to tell him back in Flea Bottom, when they weren’t telling him that he was sure to hang.”
So at the end of one of the last Jaime p.o.v. chapters this passage encouraged my curiosity about what the future retellings of some of the characters will be:
“When he was done, more than three-quarters of his page still remained to be filled between the gold lion on the crimson shield on top and the blank whie shield at the bottom. Ser Gerold Hightower had begun his history, and Ser Barristan Selmy had continued it, but the rest Jaime Lannister would need to write for himself. He could write whatever he chose, henceforth.
Whatever he chose…”
What will Jaime’s history be? And moreover what will the conventional wisdom of Jaime’s history be? Not necessarily the truth mind you, but what people think happened to Jaime Lannister. Where I am now in the books, it’s really hard to tell.
That’s less true with Sansa but true nonetheless. She’s clearly going to live her life as a courtier and nobility. That’s how Martin shows us that world in Westeros. Littlefinger even says as much:
“Remember that, Sansa, when you come to play the game.”
“What…what game?”
“The only game. The game of thrones.”
So we know Sansa’s going to be some kind of major player eventually. What will the stories of her marriage to Tyrion be? What about her abduction by Littlefinger?
I want to put this out to you dear readers: What will the stories of some of these characters (currently alive or dead) be?
I think Brienne (if she lives) will end up as a legendary warrior, and possibly one of Daenerys’ future Queensguard. The “myth” will be that she was both a great knight and fantastically beautiful, with the stories dropping the fact that the nickname “Brienne the Beauty” was supposed to be a cruel joke.
Jon, of course, will be legendary. That tends to happen when you’re potentially something I can’t specify because it would be a Dance with Dragons spoiler. Same goes for Daenerys, although in her case I suspect there might be an element of sadness to the story – she might represent the last shining light of the Targaryens, before Martinworld moves on (in the same way that Aragorn’s Unified Kingdom after Sauron was defeated was the same).
Cersei, unfortunately, will probably become infamous as an evil character. She’ll be Westeros’s Richard III.
Tyrion might get the same thing as Brienne, where the title gets remembered and ultimately replaces the reality. The “Little Giant of Lannister” might eventually end up just as the “Giant of Lannister”.Report
I’m with you on Brienne and I greatly appreciate you withholding spoilers from A Dance although I really don’t see Jon being a legend beyond the Wall but I’ve still got a lot of reading to do.
I agree with you too, Dany’s story will definitely be melancholy.
Cersei of course will go down as an evil character. She’s a lunatic in power. What other way is there to go down in history in that situation?
As for Tyrion…I don’t know. I don’t get the sense that he’ll be remembered. That’s just a hunch from me though.Report
“A pig! A pig! My kingdom for a pig!”Report
Joffrey?Report
Tyrion *is* Richard III, and will remembered as the same sort of cartoonish villain.Report
That’s unfortunate.Report
And Joffrey will be his innocent victim, like one of the princes in the Tower. If anything happens to Tommen, that’ll be blamed on Tyrion too.Report
Yup, almost certainly.Report
I am only starting Dance so this is subject to change, but as it stands, it looks to me like Tyrion will be remembered as more of a villain than Cercei. I think Cercei is more likely to be disdained as a harlot, but not considered the major player that she was.Report
I should add, that she would be considered a weak woman is probably more grating to her than to be remembered as a villain. She has no desire to be love, but she does want to be respected.Report
Completely true. She wanted to surpass Lord Tywin as someone people were in awe of and feared.Report
Jaime, as his story stands now, will be as infamous in death as in life.
Good call from upthread about Brienne being remembered as beautiful.
It’s hard not to see Cersei as a villanness, but that depends on who writes the history.
Tyrion will either be Richard the Third, or something a good deal more comical — I could easily see him treated as a trickster type.Report
This is a little off topic, but…
I’m I the only person who quit caring about this series around the 4th book? It took Martin roughly 10 years to nudge the plot forward a couple of inches. Now, he’s 63 and overweight. There is almost no chance he’ll wrap this all up before he passes on.
It’s Robert Jordan all over again. The similarities are uncanny.Report
King Robb Stark, the Young Wolf who never lost a battle, will be the subject of legends too, complete with the
dastardly betrayal at the Red Wedding
.
The bards will sing sad, melancholy songs about Lady Catelyn
mourning for all her dead children
,
and tales of rousing adventure and magic about Danerys Targaryen’s epic bid to return to power.
Report