Backstory Pt. 1 (AKA Why King Robert really hates the Targaryens)

One thing about the world of Game of Thrones takes place if that there is a great amount of history to it. A lot of this history not only has played a significant build up to the current situation but also has implications on future events. Additionally a lot of theories being floated also weigh heavily on this. So lets take a look at a bit of the backstory now prior to moving forward with the next chapter.

As we learned in the prior chapter King Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark were both wards of Jon Arryn. The Mad King Aerys Targaryen II demanded their heads Jon opted to go to war instead of turn over his charges. But why?

To learn this we have to go back to when Ned was 18. (He’s 35 when the books begin.) A great tournament is held at Harrenhal castle and the joust tournament was won by the crown prince Rhaegar Targaryen.

The victory was quickly followed with scandal however. Normally a victor will present a crown of flowers to a woman and name her “Queen of Love and Beauty”. This is usually an indication of romantic interest.

At the time Rhaegar was married to Elia Martell of Dorn who had borne him two children. Traditionally a married victor will present the crown to his wife, but Rhaegar opted instead to present the crown to Lyanna Stark who was engaged to Robert Baratheon. Even more scandalous is that both Robert and Elia were present when Prince Rhaegar did this.

A year later Rhaegar kidnaps Lysa, and her brother Brandon Stark rides to Kingslanding and demands justice. Unfortunately his demands are heard by the Mad King Aerys Targaryen who arrests him and his companions for treason.

The King summoned the fathers of the accused to court and promptly had them all executed. Ned’s father Rickard Stark demanded a trial by combat as was his right. The Mad King named Fire to be the champion of the crown and suspended Rickard from the rafters over a burning blaze. To make matters worse Brandon was brought in with a cord about his neck and a sword was placed just out of reach. He was told should he attain the sword he could free his father. But every attempt he made to grab the blade tightened the strangling cord and eventually Brandon strangled to death attempting to save his father who roasted alive.

Wishing to purge his kingdoms of all traitors the Mad King then called for the heads of Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark who at the time were the wards of Jon Arryn. Arryn refused and Robert and Ned who was now Lord of Winterfell went to war.

Now some significant events occurred here. Robert returned to the Stormlands and called his bannermen. Ned returned to the North and raised his armies as well. In addition Ned also was able to attain the loyalty of House Tully by agreeing to take the place of his older brother Brandon whom she had been betrothed to.

Eventually the rebel and loyalist armies met at the trident and Robert slew Rhaegar at the battle of the trident. After this battle Robert declared his intentions to usurp power from the Mad King and to take the throne. He did have a weak claim as a grandmother was a Targaryen, but not nearly as good as that of any of the grandchildren of the Mad King.

Robert was unable to continue to fight on as he had suffered wounds at the Battle of the Trident. Thus command  was given to Lord Eddard Stark who went on to Kings Landing.

As the Rebel forces marched upon the capital city the forces of House Lannister arrived first. Declaring loyalty to the crown they were welcomed as allies by the Mad King and under command of Tywin the Lannister men began to sack the city. Jamie Lannister who was part of the Kingsguard was ordered by Mad King Aerys to kill his own father.

Jamie had other ideas. Instead he slew the Mad King in his own throneroom and earned the name “The Kingslayer”. The Lannister men then sought out the rest of the royal family and put them to death. Most notably Ser Gregor Clegane killed Rhaegar's son Prince Aegon, then raped and killed Elia Rhaegar’s wife before killing Reagan's daughter as well.

When Ned arrived he found Jamie upon the Iron Throne with the Mad Kings body dead at his feet. When Robert arrived the bodies of the Targaryens were presented as proof of fealty to King Robert which he accepted.

Following this Ned set out to the tower of Joy and confronts the remaining Kingsguard who were guarding Lyanna Stark. After the conflict he finds Lysa who, before dying makes him promise her something. This isn’t immediately revealed but many theories as to the nature of the promise have been put forth, which I’ll get to later.

At the end of the rebellion Robert is King, who marries Cersei Lannister, as Lyanna is dead. Viserys Targaryen and Daenerys fled across the Narrow Sea to Braavos.

Game of Thrones Chapter 2: Catelyn

Chapter three opens with Catelyn bringing news of the death of Jon Arryn to her husband Ned in the godswood of Winterfell.

Character Deaths: 4

We also get some internal narrative from Catelyn and a bit of a simplified overview of her religion, the Faith, as well as her thoughts on the old gods.

So lets quickly break down the two religions. First lets start with Catelyn’s religion, the Faith of the Seven. This is the most widely practiced in Westeros. The only areas that it’s not the most commonly practiced is The North, the Iron Islands and beyond The Wall.

The main religious text is the Seven Pointed Star and the common practices are full of rituals, prayers, songs with established temples/churches throughout the lands. The seven are actually seven aspects of one deity, each with it’s own aspect and virtues to help guide the faithful in times of need. Often someone will pray to a specific “aspect or face” as it relates to the situation they find themselves needing spiritual guidance in.

The Seven are the Father, Mother, Warrior, Maiden, Smith, Crone and the Stranger.

The Father: Judgment and Justice

The Mother: Motherhood, Nurturing as well as Mercy

The Warrior: Strength, Courage and Victory.

The Maiden: Innocence and Chastity

The Smith: Crafts and Labor:

The Crone: Wisdom that comes with age.

The Stranger: Death and the Unknown.

A lot of these themes are found within the characters through the books. For example Ned often takes the role of The Father as noted in the prior chapter when he executed the deserter from the Nights Watch.

Cat often in the books has themes of the Mother going through her storyline.

King Robert in days prior would have been the personification of The Warrior as is Jamie Lannister and Jon Snow through most of the books. Each at a different stage of their lives.

Sansa and Danerys repeatedly has themes of innocence and chastity throughout their chapters.  

The Maesters as well as Davos often seem to represent the Smith being they are more experts of their crafts instead of being the typical heros.

The Crone is personified by several characters throughout but mostly by Old Nan and the Lady Tyrell.

The themes of The Stranger seem to also permeate Arya’s storyline.

The other religion is that of the Old Gods. These are the gods that the Starks of Winterfell worship.. They aren’t deities per say but more akin to spirits of nature. They don’t have temples or churches but rather the godswoods tend to be places for worship.

As revealed in this chapter most all castles have a godswood, but few of them are ever considered sacred grounds. For the most part they are thought of like a park and a good place to relax, read.

In each godswood is a wierwood tree. A large white tree with blood red sap and leaves with a face carved into it. They are considered sacred to the followers of the Old Gods. It is believed that the old gods can see through them.

The death of Jon Arryn is a really significant thing in a lot of ways. First Jon is a relation to the Starks by his marriage to Catelyn’s sister Lysa. This also means his son Robert Arryn will become Lord of the Eyrie when he comes of age.

Catelyn lets Ned know that Lysa and Robert have returned home and Ned encourages his wife to take some of the children and go to her in her hour of grief. Unfortunately this isn’t a possibility as she lets Ned know King Robert Baratheon is on his way with his court to Winterfell.

We also learn in this chapter of the history that Ned, Robert and Jon Arryn had together. Robert and Ned were the wards of Jon Arryn when they were younger. We also learned that Jon had opted to not turnover his charges when the Mad King demanded their heads and instead decided to go to war instead of allow the two of them to be executed on the Mad Kings whims. This was one of the key moments in Roberts Rebellion that lead to the present situation at the start of the books. After the war Jon Arryn was made the Hand of the King and was charged with providing guidance and running the affairs of state for King Robert.

In the end Ned decides to send an honor guard out to meet the king and to prepare for his eventual arrival.

Game of Thrones Detailed Review: Prologue

Welcome to my chapter by chapter review of Game of Thrones. (Part of A Song of Ice & Fire by George R. R. Martin) If you haven’t read the novels or seen the HBO series this will be nothing but spoiler after spoiler for you.

If you have read the books then this will be a deeper look and I’ll be pointing out some things that may have been missed the first time through. I’ll also be pointing out some differences between the novels and the show. My goal is to get through all the books before George R. R. Martin releases the 6th book The Winds of Winter, by going over at least one chapter per week..

So without any further ado lets get started.

Game of Thrones Prologue

The Song of Ice and Fire starts out with three men of the nights watch out on patrol beyond the wall.

Left to Right: Gared, Ser Waymar Royce, and Will

Gared is an experienced ranger of 40 years. Will was a hunter and four years ago he got caught poaching by the men of Lord Mallister and opted to join the watch instead of losing a hand.

Ser Waymar Royce is 18 years old and the son of a noble family. Now in Westeros inheritance of titles and lands falls to the oldest male in the family. If no living male heir exists then it falls to the oldest female. Yes this does mean a womans younger brothers are in line before her when it comes to lands and titles. This is important to keep in mind as it’s a source of motivations for characters and is a reoccuring theme throughout the story.

But back to Ser Waymar, he has been given command of this patrol from Lord Commander Mormont. Waymar comes from money. His clothing, armor, the war horse he rides, not to mention the longsword made from castle forged steel with jewels in the hilt.

Essentially this is the most likely reason Lord Mormont gave command to Ser Royce. We know the Nights Watch has fallen on hard times. The wall isn't manned like it should be, there are literally castles and forts along it that are abandoned and crumbling. So knowing Ser Waymar comes from money, Mormont may have been hoping that after a few years Lord Royce might be swayed into making a donation to the Night's Watch. So Waymar gets command over the more experienced Will and Gared.

Now Waymar has two older brothers Andar who is the first in line to become Lord of Runstone and his 2nd older brother Robar. So it’s really unlikely he was gonna inherit the family lands and title. So going to the wall in a time of peace may have been a selfless act of service.

Just a little bit about House Royce; they are the sworn bannermen of House Arryn Lord of the Vale. They are a very old house and at one point ruled the vale until they were supplanted by House Arryn.

Coat of Arms of House Royce

The family words are “We Remember” which suggests they may have ambitions of returning the house to it’s former glory.

They are tracking a group of wildlings through the haunted forest. Will is reporting back after finding the camp of wildlings apparently dead from the cold. Gared who has been ranging beyond the wall for forty years agrees that it was the cold that killed them and even relates his own experiences with how dangerous it can be.

Ser Royce disagrees and wants to see for himself as he realizes it’s not cold enough to kill. They move closer and Gared and Will feel that something is amiss. Ser Waymar outwardly mocks the Gared calling him a fool for wanting a fire.

Long story short Will and Waymar get to the camp and the bodies of the wildlings are gone. Waymar orders will up a tree and we the readers have our first encounter with The Others, also known as the White Walkers.

Some things on The Others is that the temperature drops when they are around. So it gets really cold quickly. Also when they kill a foe they raise them up as a Wight which is what happens to Ser Waymar. In addition they are also incredibly stealthy. The armor seems to change color as it moves. In addition they make no noise as they move. Ser Waymar is taken completely unaware that he is surrounded by foes initially when he gets killed. On top of that they wear armor that changes color similar to the armor worn by the Predator in the movies. They also carry some sort of spectral blade that is stronger than steel. In addition the ringmail worn by Ser Waymar really doesn't offer a lot of protection as The Others spectral blades cut through it with relative ease. Ser Waymar’s blade shatters in the fight and he is killed.

Will who was up a tree looking for the wildings stays hidden out of fear and the others don’t seem to notice or care about him. When he gets down he snags up the broken sword. This is his sort of proof that Ser Waymar fell and he can bring this back to Lord Mormont.

Unfortunately Weymar rises up as a wight and strangles Will before he can make good his escape.

This just leaves Gared alive who wanted to build a fire but was forbidden to by Ser Waymar, and forced to stay behind and tend to the horses while Waymar and Will investigated the wildling camp. This might suggest that they can at least be kept at bay with fire. 

At the least Gared would have heard the piercing sounds of fighting between the White Walker and Ser Royce and that should have alerted him to the danger. Or perhaps the Others didn't care about Will and Gared and just wanted to kill Weymar as they didn't see to bother them.

TV vs. Book

This is the section where I will point out the differences between the book and the HBO series. I’m gonna leave out the minor differences like how in the book the three rangers are days travel from the wall and in the series they are shown leaving which suggests the walkers are a lot closer to the wall then they really are. I’m gonna let some of those things go as they most likely are done to make a smooth adaptation.

• In the TV series, Will discovers the wildlings massacred and their bodies brutalized. In the book, he says they appeared to be sleeping and likely froze to death.
• The White Walkers are of different appearance in the TV series. In the book, they have white skin and reflective light armor. In the TV series, they have frozen grey skin, dark hair, and a brutal face similar to a skull. They don't seem to wear any armor.
• In the TV series, Gared and Waymar Royce face the White Walkers' first attack, while Will is exploring the area. In the book, Gared is left a short distance away to protect the horses and Will is climbing a tree to get a visual on the wildlings while Waymar Royce was left beneath the tree to face the White walkers by himself.
• In the books, a group (at least five) of "the Others" (White Walkers) approach Ser Waymar Royce, who has a duel with one of them before finally being killed by the group. In the TV series not more than two White Walkers appear, and Waymar is killed in a surprise attack by one.
• The wight girl, who frightens Will in the series is never mentioned in the book.
• In the books, Ser Waymar Royce is transformed into a wight.
• In the TV series, Gared is the second one to be killed by the White Walkers and Will escapes. In the books, Will is strangled by the wight of Ser Waymar Royce and Gared escapes. There is a key difference in the fact that in the TV series the death is a beheading at the hands of a White Walker as opposed to being killed by a wight.