A Storm of Swords Entry 6

More character-by-character goodness. As I will point out in the Arya section, I believe I must be given credit for a semi-G-chat nut. CB can witness!

Sam: The remaining few Night's Watchmen have reached Crasters again. Craster has taken them in grudgingly and is feeding them but not enough. There are grumblings by some of the men that he has a hidden cache of food. They can hear that girl giving birth, the one who tried to get Jon to take her with. Sam talks to Mormont who is wondering why they didn't know about the Dragonglass being what kills the Others. He said that they need to go find more. The girl, whose name I now see is Gilly (which reminds me of Harry Potter 4, where he has to breath under water and takes Gilly weed) does in fact have a boy. They go to have a feast and at some point, one of the men starts complaining that Craster is holding out on them. There is an argument and when Craster goes at them the Night's watch dude kills him! Mormont is enraged! This is now way for a guest to act. Then all hell breaks loose and dude stabs Mormont. NOOooooo. The Old Bear is dying in Sam's lap. He tells Sam he must go back to the wall and warn them. Then a couple of the older wives come and tell Sam he must go and take Gilly with him with the child. The Others come and take the newborn boys. They get them some supplies and horses and let them on the way.
CB Note: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! This chapter was CRAAAAAAAaZY! Like, Lysa-Crazy! I couldn't believe what I was reading! So killed Mormont!! The Old Bear!!!!! Say it ain't so! Lol at the Gilly weed. Doesn't Mormont leave a dying wish for Sam to tell Jorah that he's sorry/he forgives him/he wants him to join the Watch or something like that? Anyway, I really wanted to smack those ungrateful dudes who started the fight.
JN Note: oh poor Old Bear! this was pretty sad. what will the Nights Watch do without their Bear! they are leaderless. frankly, if i didnt have my bear, id be lost :( I cant believe those dummies violated Guest Right! tyrion sure was right when he told jon in book 1 that the nights watch was lots of thieves rapists and murderers. GRR!
RK Note: I was SO SAD when Commander Mormont was murdered, and by his own men!! Correct about his dying wish for Jorah!! If he only KNEW what Jorah's been up to in exile! NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE A FIG FOR GUEST RIGHT LATELY, ITS AWFUL!!! Its a shame the Nights Watch is made up mainly of such poor stock.

Sam and Gilly travel down South towards the wall. They have two horses but one dies so Sam has to walk. They reach a village and get ready to stay for the night. They fall asleep and wake up with the fire out and someone at the door. It's Small Paul...as a wight!!! Noooo. Sam tells Gilly to take the horse out. He lunges at Small Paul with the dragon glass dagger but it shatters!!!! (Huh? So I guess Wights are different than Others?) Sam somehow gets to a burning piece of wood as Paul is about to strangle him and sets him on fire! yayyyy. He goes outside though and Gilly is surrounded by Wights. Oh no!!!! But then, a huge amount of crows start coming at the wights and peckign at them. There is this mysterious dude all in black who has rescued them. Woohooo! They are excited but then Sam sees the dude's hands and it is all black. Ruh roh.... (PS: Is this the three eyed crow Bran is looking for??)
CB Note: Ok so, I was SO FRICKIN SCARED during this chapter!!! I seriously thought it was like the scariest chapter ever, reading about the sight of all the wights surrounding them, I was like totally freaked out. And per our gchat discussion, we will not be commenting on your PS question lol.
JN Note: obviously, if GRRM wanted you to know who this big dude with the cold black hands who saved them was, he woulda told you. as for what we'll do, youll have ot wait! as for Others and Wights, i strongly suggest you look at recent notes i made to either ASOS or rk's AGOT blogging, where i describe the difference. sicne you dont know it, it is apparent that you are SKIPPING the extensive noting that goes on when rk finalls reads her chapters. SHAME ON YOU!
CB Note: Um, actually baby, it was one of LB's blogs where we had a whole discussion of Wight vs Other....sooooo kinda looks like YOU are the one who isn't paying close enough attention...
RK Note: I think the glass shattered against Small Paul's chainmail-- it appears Wights are clad in whatever they died in. LOL to the JN/CB exchange and discussing of my RK noting. My first guess when someone rescued them was that it was Benjen Stark and he's been somehow living out there in the cold and has become like half-dead with black frostbitten hands but he's still out there as a protector. But from further reading it seems its the 3-eyed crow. Unless Benjen Stark IS also the 3-eyed crow!

Bran: Speaking of Bran, he Meera and Jojen have lead him to the gift and they reach this village with a castle surrounded by water. Bran remembers from one of Old Nan's stories that there is a hidden causeway under the water so they walk through and get to the tower. They go up to the top and settle in for the night b/c a storm is coming. As the storm is starting they see a solitary rider, then the lightning starts and Hodor is freaaaaaaaaked out and screaming HODOR HODOR!! All of a sudden Jojen sees a whole bunch of people coming into the village and they try and shut Hodor up. Interesting moment when Bran screams HODORR STOPP!!! and is able to become Hodor for a second before he calms down. Bran is gonna be a talented Warg!!! He then senses Summer who can "smell fear."
JN Note: If bran could warg into hodor, he could be a strong powerful knight!!! any guesses on who is in that village? i bet its jon....
RK Note: AWESOMENESS on Bran being able to be Hodor. If he can perfect this, he'll be able to WALK, through other people!!!! But what happens to Hodor when Bran is controlling Hodor, I'd like to know.

Jon: Turns out the people in the village that Bran saw were the wildlings that Jon is traveling with. Jon is still Ygritting his teeth and playing along with all the Wildling stuff. But he's trying to figure a way out of there. When they get to a village head wildling dude calls Jon and says they've found this old man (the man that Bran saw). To prove his loyalty Jon must kill the guy. Jon cannot make himself do it b/c the guy is old and innocent. Ygritte is angry and goes up and kills the man and says something like You know nothing Jon Snow. As she does so a wolf comes and attacks the wildlings. Jon thinks it's Ghost but in fact it's Summer! Jon takes the opportunity with all the confusion to take a horse and ride away. After he escapes enough he stops and notices he has an arrow in his leg which he grotesquely pulls out. He turns to go warn the Night's Watch.
CB Note: Gotta do the above two in one note. AHHHHHHHHH!!! How awesome were these two chapters?!?! I love how it starts from Bran's POV and continues on through Jon's. Also, I'm pretty sure I nutted that the group of people were the group of Wildlings with Jon back in Bran's chapter. Just to toot my own hown a bit. ;) YAY SUMMER! She saved Jon!!!! He finally got away!!!! SO HAPPYYYYY!!!
JN Note: nut for me!! great b2b chapters imo. and cb did nut that. i was impressed at the time. love how bran saved jon! and now jon can go warn the Wall! if anybody made it back, that is :(
CB Note: *Eyeroll* at your "nut"
RK Note: big LOL to the Ygritting his teeth pun. This was AMAZING and its so nice that through Summer Bran realized Jon was there and saw him!!! I was hoping for a reunion though, there was that brief moment when Jon was with Ygritte and told her about the causeway and they were contemplating going to the tower, and I was so hopeful for a Jon/Bran reunion! Alas...

Davos: He is called from the cell by one of the Queen's relatives (name?) He's freaked out 'cause he thinks that Melisandre has convinced Stannis to burn him. Turns out Stannis finally wants to see him. They talk about what to do with the former hand. Stannis says they must kill him b/c the punishment for treason is death. Davos makes a pointed (and rather reckless) remark about how Stannis betrayed Aerys, the former king. Stannis talks about how he had to choose between honor and family. He thinks Jaime should have been sent to the wall for killing Aerys as Ned had suggested. Queen's relative wants to be the King's hand and has an idea to go take this one island with this old dude who had fought for Stannis at King's Landing but knelt to Joffrey after they lost. Davos tells Stannis that he thinks this is a terrible idea and cowardly. *Audible gasp* Moment of tension. What is gonna happen!?! Turns out Stannis wants to name Davos his hand. Prolly the first good decision Stannis has made. Davos is not a yes man like the rest of them, willing to switch gods and everything just cause Stannis wants them to. Turns out, btw, that now Stannis is starting to see visions in the flames. Methinks that staring into the fire a little too long can make one delirious...
CB Note: Ser Axell is the one that comes for Davos and wants to be the hand. Yay for Hand Davos! Methinks that looking into the flames may be like looking at the clouds. Look hard enough and shapes begin to form! However, one can't doubt that Melisandra HAS seemed to seen things that have happened in her flames. So who knows!! In this very chapter, we learn that Melisandre showed Stannis the fight at the fist in the flames. So...shrug! Also at the end of this chapter, Melisandre gives Stannis a leech with all the other king's blood - Robb, Joff, and Balon Greyjoy. How the heck did she get those anyway?!?! He won't let her kill Edric to get the "blood of the king" so they're using the blood of the current kings instead. Wonder what will happen!
JN Note: it sure is the first good decision stannis has made. davos is no toady like mm. as for this leech talk, im pretty sure that it doesnt actually have those ppls blood. i think she was just cursing them, and wanting to use edric's blood to do it. good cloud comparison too.
CB Note: Ohhhh. So it was Edric's leeched blood, but he just said each of the kings names while throwing them into the fire. I remember now.

Tyrion: Was not a fan of this chapter to be honest. It was a bit slow. Tyrion rides out to meet the representatives from Dorne who have come for Joffrey's wedding. Something is immediately wrong because the lord of Dorne has sent his son who is a jackassssss (Oberyn or whatever.) Oberyn is likely to cause problems and Tyrion wonders if he was meant to cause such conflict. Plus the Tyrells hateee the Martells so this is gonna be a problem. They get into this verbal sparring thing and Oberyn tells about how he visited Castlerly Rock after Tyrion was born. He had expected to see this huge monster with a tail and deformities but it wasn't all that bad. Cersei was horrible even back then and horrible image where she takes baby Tyrion's penis and twists it around until he cries. (Um, omg, what?!) Oberyn talks about how he wants to kill the mountain. Tyrion essentially tells him to fuck off and then rides away. Oh also we learn that there is now a tax on whoring. Tyrion is reallllly doing everything to make himself unpopular...
CB Notes: True, this isn't a very exciting chapter. But I thought Oberyn was a fun guy to read. Also, he is Prince Doran's brother, not son. Their sister Elia was married to Prince Rhaegar and was murdered along with her children during the whole throne takeover.
JN Note: and, as we all know, the one who did the murdering was Ser Gregor the Mountain. But who ordered the code red??? anyway, i enjoyed this chapter, as Oberyn is quite the character, plus that old story about the visit to casterly rock was good. in the old war, the Martells and Dorne fought with the Targaryens bc Elia was married to Rhaegar. and that tax on whoring wasnt tyrions idea i believe, but he just gets blamed again. whats it called again? oh yea, the dwarf's penny. reread my notes to a blog or 2 ago fora chuckle. :)
RK Note: Tywin obviously ordered the Code Red, but maybe Tyrion thinks Oberyn just can't handle the truth! Maybe he was an early riser and liked to pack in the morning. Maybe he didn't have any friends. I'm an educated man, but I'm afraid I can't speak intelligently about the travel habits of one Private Santiago. Are these really the questions I was called here to answer? Phone calls and foot lockers? Please tell me that you have something more! Anyway, I digress... I think this Oberyn might not be so bad... I am aligned with his desire to kill Ser Gregor, that is for SURE!!! And I'm still pretty pissed about the killing of Princess Elia and Rhaenarys and the little infant babe, myself!

Jaime: Goes to the bathhouse to clean up in preparation for his meeting with Roose. Awkwardness ensues when he notices Brienne and goes to sit with her and she's all bashful and covers up. We learn huge news here. Turns out that Aerys was going to burn King's Landing before Robert got there and this is why Jaime killed him! He never told anyone 'cause the Kingsgaurd are sworn to keep the King's secrets. (Umm, really Jaime, at that point you've killed the King you were sworn to protect and you care about keeping his stupid secret.) They go to see Roose. Roose doesn't want to be implicated in Vargo's folly of cutting off his hand so he is going to send Jaime back to King's Landing. Brienne he is giving to Vargo. Eek.
CB Note: Another great chapter!! Some more weird sexual tension between Brienne and Jaime right?? Taking a bath together all naked lol. Anyway, I liked that Jaime told Brienne the whole story. And obviously, awesome stuff to learn. I also believe in this chapter Roose mentions something about Arya...do you recall? And damn that Roose, not wanting to "deprive Vargo of both his prizes." Oh noes!!!
JN Note: interesting stuff! that mad king aerys deserved to be Kingslayed! we knew he was nutso from earlier stories as well, including Jaime's to Catelyn of how he killed Neds brother and dad. brienne is in trouble if she doesnt get some sapphireth athap!
RK Note: Aw the bathhouse scene! Roose is so complicated, sometimes he does good things but he is also a cold DOUCHE bastard, and he shows it at times like when he gives Brienne back to Vargo. He is cold and has no honor. Much like his bastard son, who he's not even very attached to. I kind of wanted Jaime and Brienne to hook up in the bath btw.

Jaime is traveling down to King's landing with the ex-Maester dude who is hoping that by helping Jaime, Tywin will get him his chain back. (Never hope for help from a Lannister!) Jaime has a dream where he is in this cave where he faces the ghosts of people he killed. Brienne is there and helps him. Jaime wakes up and insists on going back for Brienne. When they get back to Harrenhaal she is in a bear pit unarmored (b/c she had bit off Vargo's ear lol). Jaime offers to pay her ransom her but Vargo says no. Then he jumps into the pit to help her. Fat load of good this does with one hand. Finally one of Roose's men shoots down the bear with an arrow and they take Brienne with. Jaime comes off in this two chapters seeming almost...I dunno...noble! Odd.
CB Note: Yay! I get to beat J at what he so desperately wants to write...A Bear! A Bear! All black and brown and covered with hair! The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair. Moving right along. Great dream right??? So crazy!! And then Jaime goes back to save Brienne from the Big Bad Bear! That Jaime is full of surprises...
JN Note: as i noted earlier, i believe that these were the chapters when cb finally stopped hating jaime. remember tho, he did throw bran off that ledge. altho he did it for love. of his sister. what morally difficult questions! as for cb stealing my thunder, i always knew brienne was A MAIDEN FAIR! as for jaime's plan to save her, he knew roose's men would have to kill the bear so he didnt get killed, bc tywin would NOT have liked that.
RK Note: Brienne is the Maiden Fair in the song with the bear?! Really? All this was foreshadowing to the bear pit? But who was the song written ABOUT? I was horrified by poor Brienne in the bear pit with only a tourney sword, and Jaime was SO noble and chivalrous to go back for her and save her!! So GALLANT!

Dany: She is with her unsullied at this other slavers city. She has lifted the whole can't have names for more than a day thing and has named one of the Unsullied as captain and he is pretty good apparently. The people from the other city (name?) are lining up for battle. They consist of various groups including this one group of Sellswords (The Second Brothers) and the Stormcrows. Dany talks with the different groups proposing to come to her side. The Stormcrows have three leaders who refuse. The Second Brothers dude just wants to do her and she gives him a lot of wine. Then one other dude comes and tries to give her a bribe to not attack; she offers that if he releases all of the slaves of the city and let her in the gate she will not attack. She gives him until the next morning to decide. Trixxxxy Dany decides that she is going to attack that night while the one dude is deciding and the other dude is too drunk to fight. While they are getting ready one of the Stormcrow dudes who has like blue hair and stuff comes and says he killed the other leaders and wants to be on her side. She takes his oath and he agrees to lead his men on her side. Jorah is not happy with this and Dany yells at him about how he can't be the only one she trusts. Awwkwardddddddd.. While waiting for the battle to end she sits with that old squire who tells her of her brother and how he was born depressed and always super sad. Jorah comes back announcing victory. Dany goes to the city and all the freed slaves are running around calling her Mother. Apparently this was one of the visions in the Undying place. (Sorry, I don't remember... LOL).
CB Note: The city Dany is at is Yunkai. I love these chapters with Dany. She's so kickass. Total OUCH for Jorah when she tells him that she doesnt love him and he's not going to be the only man in her life. The old squire who talks to Dany about her bro is Arstan. And yup, the vision from the House of the Undying was of "ten thousand slaves reaching out to touch her and crying "mother" as she rides past."
JN Note: this was a pretty innocuous vision coming true, young squirrel. make some effort for getting the big ones! as for this Arstan, i believe this isnt the first time hes told dany about her fam. which is nice, bc she only ever knew that tool viserys.
RK Note: I love the Dany chapter, she is SO badass, and its so noble how she wants to free all the slaves! She is so CLEVER, this one is trixxier than Tyrion lately!!!!

Catelyn: Sad funeral of her father. Edmure misses the raft with the flaming arrows three times before Brynden doe sit for him (Edmure is kinda loser...) Attends an audience b/w Robb and some of the Freys. They are mighty pissed about Robb marrying someone else but have agreed that Edmure will marry his granddaughter (name?). Edmure is not happy b/c he doesn't know her but they convince him to accept to make up for his folly on Trident.
CB Note: Who felt totes awkward as Edmure kept missing the boat. Ouch. The deal is that Edmure is betrothed to Roslin Frey, Walder Frey's youngest daughter (from his 6th wife, natch). You also failed to mention that Robb and Catelyn get news about Winterfell in this chapter!
JN Note: edmure should suck it up and do as hes told. im pretty sure he Fed up earlier and its his fault tywin was able to save kings landing and beat stannis in the first place. as for the marriage stuff, id be mad to if i was gonna get to marry a Queen but instead i had to marry her loser aunt edmure.

They march to the wedding and it's raining. Catelyn pisses off her brother by saying that he should be hoping that his new wife is loyal not pretty. Then she pisses off Robb who wants to name Jon Snow his heir in case he has no son. Catelyn, who hates Jon Snow, thinks this is a terrible idea. (Whereas I was like yayyy King Jon Snow!) They cannot cross the river b/c of the rains and have to go around it. They meet up with a traveler who has escaped from Dragonstone. Balon Greyjoy is dead. Robb forms this plan to split his forces into three and march up the neck to retake Moat Cailin. Catelyn isn't so sure. Turns out he is sending Catelyn to Seagard to wait out the war. Catelyn has been trixxxxxxxxxed!!!! (Where is Seagard again?)
CB Note: I also was like YAY KING JON SNOW! I heart Jon. Looking at the map, Seagard is just a bit West of the Twins, much farther North than Riverrun.
JN Note: Balon Greyjoy is dead? ohnoes, was it melisandre? he totes deserved it tho, fyi. Seagard is on the map, its just a town on the west coast far away from stuff. as for this King Jon Snow business - great idea robb! cant have sansa being your heir and letting tyrion be king!!!
RK Note: I also was all YAY JON SNOW, I wish Catelyn were kinder to him!

Arya: So much awesome Arya stuff. They go to this secret cave where Thoros is there. He looks nothing like he used to, all gaunt and skinny. Turns out he has refound the whole Lord of Light thing. (Bit of a reborn nutso if you ask me.) Hound is there and they are sitting in judgment of him. Turns out there is going to be combat b/w him and Beric to judge him. Trial by combat, btw, is the dumbest thing ever!!! I already "blogged" this by im so I won't go into too much detail. Beric has flaming sword which Hound is scared of but some how Hound wins :(. They send him off.
JN Note: note, as far as judging is concerned, it seemed that beric was gonna win ez, but all of a sudden hound just broke his sword! was it Rhllor intervening?!?!
CB Note: OMG @ you and Rhllor.
RK Note: R'hllor sure has some powers to bring Beric back to life SIX TIMES. I mean omg that is some crazy power....

Next they ambush this group of Bloody Mummers and and end up hanging them all. Arya talks to Beric and he tells her about the many times he almost died, twice by the hand of the stupid Cleganes. Not much happens.
JN Note: ummm.. Thoros has been bringing beric back from the dead multiple times, and thats "not much happened?" as john mcenroe (and ed zalinsky) woudl say, "you cant be serious!!!" also, you may recall that throughout books 2 and 3 we hear people talk about all the different ways berics been killed and how hes totes dead but nobody knows for sure. cool, in hindsight.
RK Note: SO AWESOME that we've been hearing all along all the different ways Beric is said to have died, and its all TRUE, but he's still alive! SO COOL!!!!

Next, Thoros leads them back to that high hill place where they again see the old woman. She is telling her dreams but this time notices Arya and make some comment about how she smells of death. She predicts a number of things. Something about a goat and then a feast with a woman with vipers in her hair (hmm...?? I can only think of Cersei cause she is such a biotch...) They learn that Catelyn has gone to the Twins to see her brother married. We learn possibly who Jon's mother is! She talks to beric's squire who says he was milk brothers b/c his wet-nurse was Jon's mother. Hmm....doesn't sound right. Then we learn that before he married Catelyn, Ned had fallen in love with Ashara but who committed suicide from a broken heart. If Ashara is Jon's mother then he is highborn yeah? They get to an inn and Arya stupidly storms off and gets caught by the Hound! NOoooo....
CB Note: High Heart is the place with the old woman. Ok, so I've spent so much time reading this blog and noting that I think my brain is fried cause I'm so confused. haha. So I'm going to refer to our helper site to get my thoughts straight. First off, I'll help out by pasting the old woman's dreams: "She dreamed of the goat sitting alone and fevered in the hall of kings as the great dog descends on him, a wolf howling in grief in the rain, a clangor of horns and drums and the sad sound of a little bell, a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, and the same maid slaying a giant in a castle built of snow. She senses Arya and tells her to come closer. She says Arya is a blood child and smells of death." Arya smells of death?! Whatchu talkin bout old lady!? Then we get to Arya finding out about Jon's mom!!! Even if his mom is high-born, he's still a Bastard, so it doesn't really change anything, since he's a Stark child already anyway. Anyway, I was also upset with Arya for running away again!
JN Note: since im in a helping spirit, i will note that when dreams are separated by punctuation marks called commas, which look like this: >>>> , <<<<>

Now here is where there is a huge NUT. NUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! I will paste my gchat conversation as proof:

Caryn: why am i sooooooooooooo tired
me: i'm sooo sleepy too and pissed b/c apparently the hound got away again tell J my nut is that he joins the outlaws cause he has no where else to go and despite being a jackass he saved sansa so deep down he could be good
Caryn: how much did you read last night?
me: none. i just read one more chapter now
Caryn: ah well keep reading :)

Now the Hound doesn't join the outlaws. That's true but they cross this river and we learn he is riding to take Arya back to Catelyn so he can ransom her but also so that maybe Robb will reward him by taking him into his service. I think he is good deep down! Ha! Maybe Arya will finally get back to her family!!!!! I hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!! That deserve at least 60% nut credit!
CB Note: I'm confused again, due to fried brain from this neverending blog lol. I just don't see the NUT in there! The "deep down he could be good" part? Cause if that's it, that's way less than 60%! The "NUT" attempt was that he'd join the outlaws!
JN Note: im feeling bad for lb, since he gets so few nuts. and the hound did save sansa. so he nutted that the hound saved sansa. that deserves credit, right? maybe the nut attempt is "maybe arya will get back to her family" - that sounds like its gotta be true, right? i dont see how it could be wrong...
RK Note: Having trouble following the JN notes here. Anyway I am very curious about Jon's mother!!!! Dreams:
Goat sitting alone and fevered in the hall of kings as the great dog descends on him = Vargo Hoat at Harrenhal with his fever from the festering wound from Brienne biting his eat as Gregor Clegane comes to murder him (or just chop off his hands and feet and watch him slobber)
Wolf Howling in Grief in the Rain: Arya crying with grief for her lost family members in those bad rainstorms?
Clangor of horns and drums and the sad sound of a little bell: The wildlings advancing on the wall? Dany in the slave city with a little bell in her hair?
Maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair: Serpents? Sansa with the amethysts in her hairnet at Joffrey's wedding?
Maid slaying a giant in a castle built of snow: A girl slaying a giant at the Wall? Gilly? But it's the same made as the one at a feast with purple serpents in her hair... Hmmmmmmmm...