What I finally got straight was that Robert and his children are Baratheons. Cersei still is, for all intents and purposes, a Lannister. The Baratheons' house symbol is a Stag. Lannisters are a golden lion.
Remember the direwolf omen in the first chapter. Stabbed through the bottom of the jaw by a stag antler.
We're very well aware of the love Robert has for Eddard, so I don't see Robert killing him. But in Robert's absence, I can see Cersei or Robert's children taking their frustrations out on Ned.
I don't think I'm far off base, but we'll see. On to Jon Snow.
Jon
The feast has begun and Jon is happy he's a bastard, for once. He gets to sit at a table away from the attention, and he was allowed to bring his direwolf pup where his half-siblings were not because they sit at a higher table for all to see.
So he's feeding his pup some table scraps (like a whole roasted fowl) and he consumed all the wine he pleased because, since he wasn't at the royal table, he wasn't being monitored. So now we have a drunk bastard on our hands. With a mute albino direwolf.
Cute.
Jon watches the procession, Eddard accompanies Cersei in and Robert accompanies Catelyn. Baby Rickon wanders in, stopping to try to talk to Jon, who pushes him onward to the table. He is followed by Robb with Princess Myrcella on his arm, and then by Arya and Tommen, and then Sansa and Joffery.
Jon's interest piques when Cersei's brothers enter. Jaime Lannister is Cersei's twin, while Tyrion is a deformed squat little dwarf with black hair, not the blond of Jaime and Cersei, and he had one green eye and one black eye, where Jaime and Cersei both had green.
Jon could not look away.
I suppose I wouldn't be able to either.
Uncle Benjen Stark enters (brother of the Night Watch and Ned's brother) and is followed by Theon Greyjoy (who I don't trust at all).
Ghost, Jon's albino mute direwolf pup, nudges for more food as the feast continues. Jon consumes more wine.
Ben visits Jon, and after a bit of talk about the wolf pup, Ben asks how much Jon had to drink, and he doesn't respond, he just smiles as a drunk would. Ben asks why he is not at the royal table to which Jon spats that he normally would be but "The Lady Stark" worried Jon's presence would insult the royal family.
Really? Cersei be insulted by the presence of a bastard child? Nah. She must be fond of the little things, I'm sure she takes care of plenty of Robert's bastards ... (please note the extreme level of sarcasm not apparent in the text in that sentence).
Some more banter back and forth and Ben admits that Jon's people-watching skills would be useful up on the Wall. How, I'm not sure. Jon seems skilled in assassin-like traits: people watching, social observation, etc. I'm pretty sure the Wall needs rough fighting men to hunt wildlings and The Others.
Anyway, when Ben mentions the Wall, Jon insists to be taken with. Ben doesn't agree right away, and insists that at fourteen years old, Jon doesn't know what he would have to give up to become a brother of the Night Watch. Things like family, siring heirs, sex, drugs, and rock and roll ... er wait I think I got that one wrong.
Ben says this: "Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor."
Jon exclaims that bastards can have honor too and he's ready to swear the oath.
Ben reiterates that Jon is only fourteen and has never known the comforts of a woman. E.g. Jon hasn't had sex yet so he's fairly certain that if Jon had slept with a woman he'd say "Fuck you and your Night Watch, I enjoy sleeping with women way too much."
But, since Jon is merely fourteen, his little drunk fourteen year old ego pipes up and says he doesn't care about that, to which Ben further states that Jon would care if he'd ever had sex before and what it would mean to be giving that up.
Ben slips and uses the term "son" and Jon flips and says he's not his son. Ben apologizes (sort of) and says the following:
"Come back to me after you've fathered a few bastards of your own, and we'll see how you feel."
What.
The.
Fuck.
Are all the men in this world obsessed with getting women pregnant and not giving a shit? All medieval accuracy out the window at this moment, I'm really getting sick of all the bastard and casual sex and consequence-ignorant men in this book.
Jon redeems himself though and says that he will never father a bastard, shouts "Never!" in Ben's face, and realizes too late the whole room has gone quiet and is staring at him. He tries to excuse himself, runs to leave the hall, crashes into a serving girl who spills a flagon of spiced wine, and everyone proceeds to laugh at the boy. He regains his footing, dashes out in to the night, and Ghost follows.
What an emotionally disturbed little boy.
I will give him the benefit of the doubt though; I'm fairly certain he'll never intentionally sire a bastard. But I'm betting $100 (between me and myself) that Jon will knock some woman up in a later book.
That is if he survives this one. Which I'm not entirely sure of quite yet.
Jon begins to cry in the street as he sits with Ghost, and from the darkness someone calls out to him. Up on the ledge above the door to the hall sits Tyrion Lannister. He asks Jon, once he has his attention, if he may come down to look at his direwolf.
Jon asks if he needs a ladder to which Tyrion responds, "Oh, bleed that," and in what most would call a circus stunt, does a one and a half front flip, landing on his hands and then vaulting backwards on his legs.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Where did that come from and was it necessary? We were just introduced to this creature as an ugly, stunted-limbed dwarf and now he's got an Acrobatics score of 25? I'm all about twists and throwing the reader for a loop, but this just doesn't make sense.
Once back on his feet, Tyrion approaches Ghost who doesn't appear to appreciate Tyrion whatsoever. Jon coaxes him forward, forcing him to sit and allow Tyrion to pet him.
Tyrion then introduces himself (as though Jon had no clue who he was) and Jon says he knows this. Tyrion then states more than asks that Jon is Ned Stark's bastard son. Jon doesn't respond.
They banter back and forth about about bastards and Jon's siblings, but Tyrion gives Jon the best advice I've read the whole book:
"Never forget who you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."
Of couse, Jon's drunk and doesn't want to be lectured and taunts the dwarf asking what he knows of being a bastard. Tyrion all but admits outright that he was also a bastard; his mother died giving birth to him and his lord father (Tywin Lannister) was never able to ask his mother whether or not he was truly Tyrion's father.
Tyrion then gives another little bit of wisdom (All dwarfs may be bastards, but not all bastards need be dwarfs.) and leaves.
The last line reads: "When [Tyrion] opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king."
So a Dwarf and a Bastard leave a feast ...
I'm not sure whether or not to make heads or tails of Tyrion. I like him better than the other Lannisters, and I liked how I developed a dislike of the whole family before they had even appeared in a scene. Martin is good at making you hate characters, that's for sure.
I'm also not sure what to make of Jon either. He seems like a whiny baby. And I dislike lead male characters that have power or some issue thrust upon them that they didn't ask for and all they do is whine about it. (This is why I like Richard so much from Sword of Truth and why I hated Rand Al'Thor from Wheel of Time during books 1 through 9. Book 10 he was okay, but he finally learned he didn't need to be a cold-hearted, emo-face jerk in The Gathering Storm).
So I hope Jon doesn't continue to be a whiny baby the entire book. He should really take Tyrion's advice to heart.
I still don't trust Tyrion though; Ghost didn't like him, and that means there's something definitely worth not trusting there.
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