sorry for the crappy gifs, I just never see the Robb and Talisa strategy discussions compared to Jon and Sansa’s. The lighting of the Jon/Sansa scene especially stood out to me. It took a moment for me to realise what the softness of the scene (candles everywhere, strategy board pieces on the table between them) reminded me of until it hit me, that the Robb/Talisa scene was lit pretty much exactly the same way - which is an oddly romantic parallel to make and definitely not one that happens accidentally.
Once again if you are interested in reading the other chapters I’ve done analysis on, you can get the links to them on this page. I appreciate any comments and discussion!
In this chapter we catch up on our favorite brooding protagonist.
Game of Thrones Episode: 1x4 Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things
Cast of characters:
Jon Snow
Grenn
Pyp
Alliser Thorne
Samwell Tarly
Halder
Rast
Dareon
Events or Facts of Note:
Jon continues to help his fellow new recruits improve their fighting skills.
Samwell Tarly arrives at the Wall as a new recruit. He’s very fat and cowardly. He’s originally from the Reach.
Samwell has three younger sisters and a brother named Dickon.
House Tarly is based in a castle called Horn Hill and has a Valyrian sword called Heartsbane.
Samwell explains his father told him to join the Watch or else he’ll have an arranged death to make sure Dickon is the heir to Horn Hill.
Observations & Questions: One of the many things we fans can cheer about this chapter is that one of the great bromances of ASOIAF is born! As is appropriate for a Jon chapter, we get to see some more development of Jon as a person in his new life among the Night’s Watch. Despite the fact they are still recruits, Jon has quickly proven himself to be a leader in the group of misfits.
There’s some dueling leadership styles happening in this chapter. As recruits, Jon and company are expected to obey orders from Alliser Thorne since he is the Master at Arms of Castle Black. He’s the one who is supposed to train recruits in how to be fighters and see if there are potential rangers among the group. It’s important to gain Thorne’s approval. However Thorne regularly ridicules the recruits giving them names like “Aurochs” or “Rat” when referring to them. There’s very minimal actual training we see (or read as is the case in the novels) that Thorne actually does with the recruits.
Jon, on the other hand, had taken Tyrion’s advice in the previous Jon POV chapter and has made an effort to befriend the others by explaining to them what they are doing wrong when trying to fight against him. In other words, he’s training them. He also doesn’t insult them (anymore), which undoubtedly makes people more inclined to like you than hate you. Throughout the chapter, we see evidence that while Thorne will have his orders obeyed, most of the recruits will be more inclined to follow Jon. Even when Thorne orders the recruits to attack Sam during training, they either look at Jon first before reacting or they wind up defending Sam along with Jon. Jon is gaining some influence among his peers. This is a good indication of how things could go in the future for Jon if he continues his track in the Night’s Watch. At the same time, we can see that the antagonism between Jon and Thorne will inevitably continue later down the road.
At the start of the chapter we are introduced to Samwell Tarly. From the very start he’s a misfit due to the fact he’s very large and fat. They can’t even find proper Night’s Watch armor that will fit Sam. On top of that when he’s sent to fight in the training yard with the other recruits, he yields very quickly. He’s a self-admitted coward. When Sam explains his backstory to Jon, we see how he’s even a misfit back at his home at Horn Hill. We get a glimpse as to how difficult and tough a man Sam’s father is. Jon doesn’t express his pity or shock, which in a way is a good thing. He does however show he does actually care about Sam fitting in by convincing the other recruits not to give Sam a hard time at the training ring, which as I discussed earlier is an example of Jon having influence while Thorne doesn’t.
One other interesting thing to note is that once again we get a discussion / description of a character’s dreams. Now there is likely a reason that GRRM has bothered to explain or mention characters having dreams as it provides an opportunity to foreshadow more stuff that will happen in some fashion in the future.
“Sometimes I dream about it,” he [Jon] said. “I’m walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers, so I walk faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don’t even know who I’m looking for. Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.”
Sam proceeds to ask Jon if he finds anyone in the dream.
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty,” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me.”
There’s a pretty good case to be made that this dream is a foreshadowing of his family’s fate by the end of Book 5. The dream shows Winterfell is empty, which certainly symbolizes how not only are the members of his family gone, but so are the familiar household servants and guards are gone. As readers / viewers, we know eventually the only Starks left at Winterfell by the end of book 1 are Bran and Rickon. Then they were forced to flee when Theon and the Ironborn attack Winterfell in book 2. We know eventually through machinations and plots, the Boltons end up in charge of Winterfell and many of the remaining residents were either killed or imprisoned at the Dreadfort.
Potential Theories and Unsolved Mysteries: There’s a couple things to talk about in terms of theories. So one thing to talk about is the rest of the dream that I was talking about in the previous section.
The final part of his dream is interesting as well.
“And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of.”
There is a case to be made that this part of Jon’s dream is another foreshadowing of things that could be happening in Books 6 and/or 7. Things like this dream Jon has in this chapter seem to point that there are possibly secrets hidden in the crypts involving Jon in some way. It’s also possible this is just fans reading too into things, but we’ll see what happens.
The other thing to note is something that’s more speculative, which is a hint towards Jonsa. Now I don’t pretend this is a smoking gun clue or anything, but I found it interesting who he mentioned as family members he was looking for in the dream he discussed with Sam. On the surface it’s not a surprise why he mentioned in particular Ned, Robb, and Arya. He’s very close to the three of them the most of his family. However the hint towards Jonsa (that a number of Tumblrs have written about) is the fact that he doesn’t view Sansa as his little sister.
The reasoning is that naturally Jon wouldn’t be attracted to someone who is a sibling like a Targaryen would (Ha!). The idea is that he doesn’t mentally consider Sansa a sister the way he does with Arya. It’s because they aren’t particularly close and barely interact with each other. This is supposed to make them more able to transition to potential lovers / spouses in the future because they don’t have to overcome their sibling relationship when Jon’s parentage is revealed.
Final Thoughts: There’s very little left for me to say about this chapter that I didn’t already say in the other sections. I am however reminded in this chapter how more or less everyone in House Stark are either ignorant of politics (the kids starting with Jon and Robb and younger) or they know politics but more or less ignore it because of their emotions (Catelyn) or disinterest in political games (Ned). This all inevitably gets them into major trouble later on.
Seriously the Jonsa fandom should be freaking out after the last episode cause it was confirmed Jon is the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne over Dany. Jon is the heir to the South, while Sansa has been confirmed as the heir in the North by the Northern Lords. All in the same episode.
Casuality much? I don't think so. Shouldn't the heir to the South marry the heir in the North to bring peace to the realm? To unite it before the final war? Why will Dany marry Jon when she can not give heirs to him?
Either Dany fights with Jon (Targbowl), or accepts him as her heir, but still, he will have to marry another woman and the obvious candidate is the (just confirmed) heir in the North. Not to mention is the only solution if they want to keep Jon's rule as KITN.
So to me, JONSA IS CONFIRMED. Just fast-forward 'boat-crap' wait for season 8, and keep calm shipping Jonsa until it happens. CAUSE.IT.WILL.HAPPEN.
So I was thinking about it earlier today about how Jon and Sansa are going to interact next season, and it’s more than likely going to be tense considering the following:
1. He bent the knee to 🦖👑 (which he didn’t consult her about and pissed off the Northern Lords) and 🦖👑 burnt loads of food.
2. He didn’t **communicate**with very much last season until he sent her the letter in 7x07. ( I’m not entirely convinced he didn’t at least write a little before that but who knows 🤷🏾♀️)
3. He blindly trusted Cersei that she would keep an alliance (again blows my mind that Tyrion wasn’t a bit suspenseful that she might back out...... I just don’t understand - yes he’s desperate but he knows her or at least I thought he did)
4. The fact he slept with 🦖👑 - I don’t think Sansa will be too keen on that but I’m pretty sure she’ll put on an ice face when she greets them.
5. I don’t know if the North will know about the ice dragon before Jon and Co. come back to WF. I’m leaning towards yes- they will know. I am very curious if the North will also be mad about the Wight Hunt.
I think Jon and Sansa will likely confront one another when tensions get really high and Sansa gives Jon a cold shoulder. He’ll probably call her out on it and ala another tent scene type fight but perhaps even better. I think Sansa will be highly upset and Jon will leave the room angry.
I think Cersei is likely going to kidnap Sansa when WF isn’t heavily guarded and after the big argument with Jon. I think everyone will be distraught and Jon will feel a lot of guilt. He will be extremely dedicated on getting her back because he loves her -on what type of love that is, we will find out.
I also think if/when Sansa is kidnapped it will be towards the later episodes and with the possibility Jaime might get blamed for it. Which could also have Arya implications.☹️
Hopes for Season 8
1. The realm wins (that’s kinda predictable but I’m a sucker for a happy ending)
2. Sansa lives🙂🌸
3. Sansa becomes Queen in the North 👑👸🏽, gets married to a wonderful man (hopefully Jon but I don’t want to get my hopes up too high) refill Winterfell with sweet and smart Stark babies.
4. Gendry and Arya ❤️ (again I don’t want to get my hopes up too high)
5. Brienne and Jaime❤️(ditto)
6. Theon lives. He is happy and restores his relationship with his sister.
