#chiswyck

[someasoiafart]

Jaqen H'gar Kills Chiswyck - Richard Hescox

[coffereadsasoiaf]

The men all roared, none louder than Chiswyck himself, who laughed so hard at his own story that snot dribbled from his nose down into his scraggy grey beard. Arya stood in the shadows of the stairwell and watched him. (...) Two nights later, he sent her to the Barracks Hall to serve at table. She was carrying a flagon of wine and pouring when she glimpsed Jaqen H’ghar at his trencher across the aisle. Chewing her lip, Arya glanced around warily to make certain Weese was not in sight. Fear cuts deeper than swords, she told herself. She took a step, and another, and with each she felt less a mouse. She worked her way down the bench, filling wine cups. Rorge sat to Jaqen’s right, deep drunk, but he took no note of her. Arya leaned close and whispered, “Chiswyck,” right in Jaqen’s ear. The Lorathi gave no sign that he had heard. When her flagon was empty, Arya hurried down to the cellars to refill it from the cask, and quickly returned to her pouring. No one had died of thirst while she was gone, nor even noted her brief absence. Nothing happened the next day, nor the day after, but on the third day Arya went to the kitchens with Weese to fetch their dinner. “One of the Mountain’s men fell off a wallwalk last night and broke his fool neck,” she heard Weese tell a cook. “Drunk?” the woman asked. “No more’n usual. Some are saying it was Harren’s ghost flung him down.” He snorted to show what he thought of such notions. It wasn’t Harren, Arya wanted to say, it was me. She had killed Chiswyck with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate.

George R R Martin, A Clash of Kings, Arya VII

[gotcasting]

Chiswyck

Robert Duvall - 86 years old, American.

(Accent.)

[poorquentyn]

Didn't say it meant 'bad' pal, said it was reductive. You calling the Others evil is a linguistic shortcut to avoid a deeper, more troubling reading. As in, do they even understand what it is to be good -- i.e. good as Waymar Royce would understand it, or is their conditioning so divorced from our own that their moral practice is abhorent to us? Seriously, I think either of those options would be more horrifying to me than what you're proposing. & as far as philosophers go, Karl M. is ok, yeah?

I dunno, I think knowing good and choosing evil is considerably more horrifying than just being an alien. Again, evil is not reductive. Evil is not a linguistic shortcut. Evil is an ancient and extremely significant concept, and it has such a central place in myth and storytelling–including ASOIAF–for a reason. I hate hate hate the idea that evil is some silly shallow nonsense from kid’s stories, or that it’s an inherently dehumanizing concept that has no place in our ever-so-enlightened modern times. Evil matters, and always will. Evil is not only committing atrocities–it’s taking active pleasure in your victims’ pain: 

“And now here’s thebest bit… when it’s all done, Ser tells the old man that he wants his change. The girl wasn’t wortha silver, he says… and damned if that old man didn’t fetch a fistful of coppers, beg mlord’spardon, and thank him for the custom!” 

The men all roared, none louder than Chiswyck himself, who laughed so hard at his own storythat snot dribbled from his nose down into his scraggy grey beard.

The Crow’s Eye sipped from his silver cup. “I once held a dragon’s egg in this hand, brother. This Myrish wizard swore he could hatch it if I gave him a year and all the gold that he required. When I grew bored with his excuses, I slew him. As he watched his entrails sliding through his fingers he said, ‘But it has not been a year.’” He laughed.

Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced throughringmail as if it were silk. Will closed his eyes. Far beneath him, he heard their voicesand laughter sharp as icicles.

I condemn the Others on the same grounds as Euron and the Mountain’s men: as beings who find the suffering they cause hilarious.   

(FWIW, I’m a social democrat, not a Marxist.) 

[poorquentyn]

Hi. I'm reading A Clash of Kings and I was wondering why didn't Arya gave Jaqen Tywin's and Mountain's name?

Hiya! racefortheironthrone covered this question quite well here and here. Basically, Arya’s desire to do her part for the Stark causecomes into conflict with her personal experiences of individual acts ofinjustice. Naming Chiswyck was completely understandable, IMO; listening to himchortle while describing a gang rape of a barely-teenager is simply too muchfor someone with Arya’s empathetic nature and burning desire to set the worldto rights herself (both comparable to Dany, as many have pointed out). NamingWeese is a little less heroic, asit’s more to do with vengeance than justice, but I cannot blame Arya at all forwanting to strike back at her abuser. As racefortheironthrone notes, this is afamiliar arc in three-wishes stories: the hero starts out with every intentionof making the “right” wishes, but is then tempted off that rational path bymore immediately satisfying choices. That Arya’s choices in Harrenhal are thoroughlysympathetic even as she comes to regret them (Lord Tywin, why didn’t I say Lord Tywin?) is what makes this a compellingtragedy.