Arya
It's apparent from the first sentence in this chapter that Arya is not a typical girl. Actually, she's probably more typical than she seems. She just doesn't act in a manner that all the other women are trying to make her act.
First off, she can't sew straight stitches. Um. I can't either. And I'm 17 years older than Arya. Septa Mordane says that Sansa is a wonderful girl, with all these positive things. And then she says that Arya has the hands of a blacksmith. That's not very nice ... unless Arya wants to be a blacksmith ... but she's probably not allowed because she has a vagina.
And when Arya begins chatting with her sister, this catches the attention of the Septa Mordane, who sounds, essentially, like a full-time babysitter, or a sort of wet nurse minus the breast feeding. And whenever I picture Septa Mordane, I think of an older nun who uses a ruler to smack her student's knuckles when they're misbehaving.
And Arya gets pissed that she attracted the Septa's attention. During their quick conversation, we learn one key element of Sansa. She does not think highly of Jon and makes it a point to call him their half brother.
Arya seems to look up to Jon, never pointing out he's a bastard. But once Sansa ended up attracting the attention of the Septa, the conversation was over. Septa Mordane demands to see Arya's stitches, and after inspecting them, she says in a really polite way that they suck.
Arya is overcome with embarrassment, especially because they're with Princess Myrcella today, and gets up and attempts to dash out of the room. Septa yells for her to return and not embarrass them in front of the princess. Arya comes back, asks Princess Myrcella for permission to leave, to which Myrcella does not know how to respond; she looks to her advisors and never responds. Septa Mordane asks where she's going. And because Arya is smart, she says, in a sweet manner:
"I have to go shoe a horse."
And then she bolts out the door. We then get a look in to the relationship of Arya and Sansa. It appears they're two very opposite girls, while only 2 years apart in age. Arya envies just about everything to deal with Sansa; everything she has makes Arya jealous. And that nothing was fair.
But at least Arya had her direwolf pup. She had named her Nymeria after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne. Sansa had named her pup Lady. That girl needs to get out more.
Arya meets Nymeria shortly after having left the sewing circle. She then heads for the Great Keep to watch the men practicing swords in the yards below. When she arrived, she found Jon in the window, who asks her why she was not practicing stitches. She simply says she wanted to see the men practicing. Jon finds this endearing, smiles, and helps her up on to the sill.
The young boys are still practicing; Arya compares them to featherbeds with all of the padding they have on. Bran and Tommen continue to fight. Jon comments that this appears to be a shade more exhausting than needle work, to which Arya tosses back that it's a shade more entertaining.
Arya asks Jon why he's not down there ... as though she doesn't know. Maybe she really doesn't. I couldn't tell; I just thought it was obvious. Bastards aren't allowed to harm princes.
After some small talk, Jon points out Prince Joffrey who's wearing a surcoat with the arms of both his parents; the crowned stag on one side, the lion the other. Jon makes this seem like it's unreasonable, that Joffrey's mother's House is no where near as important as the Baratheon House.
Arya stands up for "the woman" (not so much Cersei, but what her position stands for), saying she's important, too. Jon then says that Arya should don a coat of arms that weds Tully and Stark. Arya finds this hilarious, saying "A wolf with a fish in it's mouth? ... That would look silly."
Ser Rodrik breaks up Bran and Tommen and asks Joffrey and Robb to go another round. Robb quickly agrees, but Joffrey scoffs saying this is a childrens game; Theon Greyjoy points out truth in that they are children. I can see Theon rolling his eyes as he says it. I chuckled.
And here is where we get a true look at Joffrey's colors. And the only color I can really put on him is baby-poop green. He's a selfish little ponce. He attempts to insult Robb by suggest he is a child, but then says that because he is a prince, he bores of swatting at Starks with a play sword.
Robb jabs with the fact that he hit Joffrey more times than Joff hit him, and then taunts him further by asking if Joff is afraid? Little boys don't like being called chicken and Robb just called him out! The gloves are off!
With Joffrey surrounded by Lannister body guards/baby sitters/Joffrey-ego-boosters (because all they really do is laugh-on-cue when Joff insults Robb/Stark family), Joffrey is full of muster and mocks Robb.
Arya points out to Jon that Joffrey is "trully a little shit."
Ser Rodrik asks what Joffrey is getting at and Joffrey puffs out his chest as he says "Live steel."
Robb agrees immediately. And Ser Rodrik says no. One of Joffrey's knights, a man Arya did not recognize, claims that Ser Rodrik is not allowed to say no to the prince if he asks to have an edge on his sword. Rodrik should have shoved his foot up the man's ass, but he reiterates the fact that he's the master-at-arms in Castle Winterfell and what he says is the rules. We learn the man speaking up has part of a name at least: Clegane.
Clegane insults Ser Rodrik, claiming that they train women here. We also learn that Clegane's face is marred by burn scars, and that he's a big guy, "muscled like a bull". Rodrik explains that training knights implies providing edged steel when the boys are ready, when they are of the proper age.
Clegane then asks Robb how old he is, to which he responds "Fourteen". Clegane then tells the crowd that he killed a man when he was twelve and that he was not with a blunt sword.
Robb pleads with Rodrik for a match of steel against steel (did I really use that phrase?) with Joff, but Rodrik suggests tourney blades. Joff scoffs, again, like the little twat he is, and jousts one more insult at Robb. "Come and see me when you're older, Stark. If you're not too old." And then the Lannister men laugh, as though there was a button Joff pushed and a big neon sign light up above his head that says "LAUGH!"
Joffrey gathers Tommen, and leaves the children to their "frolics". More canned laughter.
The battle of wits ended, Jon insists that Arya return to her rooms before she wait any longer otherwise Septa Mordane will have her sewing all winter. Arya emphasizes the fact that she hates needlework but agrees to return to her rooms. Jon leaves, with Ghost on his heals, and Nymeria attempts to follow Ghost, but stops when she sees Arya is not following.
Arya goes the other direction to her room, only to find not just Septa Mordane, but her mother there as well.
Shoeing Horses > Sewing
Not an extremely informative chapter, but a cute one, nonetheless. We see that Joffrey is an insufferable brat and that Arya is not very lady like. I don't know many nine year old girls that are very lady like ... most enjoy playing outside. But again ... medieval accuracy! And then I think, tell Joan of Arc her place in society during that time and she'd run you through with a blade. (Sure she eventually was burned at the stake by her enemies, under false claims of heresy [false or not, I'm not sure] but ... oh well!)
Overall a fun chapter, but nothing overly important.
No comments:
Post a Comment