ASOIAF- A Sword of Storms p. 405-502

Today I bring up a new theme I’ve been thinking about, things continue to go bad for Robb and Stannis, and Jon Snow has ended up where he started.

I was going to leave this discussion until I had finished reading A Sword of Storms, but it’s becoming harder to ignore and I rather not just give a synopsis of what’s been happening in the chapters like I’ve been doing lately. So, think of this as a sneak peak for a longer post to come. Also, I haven’t been feeling well, so this post is going to be a little short.

One thing I’ve noticed with this series is that George R.R. Martin likes to play with tropes and that a lot of characters’ downfalls are due to them adhering to the tropes commonly associated with the high fantasy genre. For example, Ned Stark is the honorable hero who believes in a knight’s chivalry and values that he grew up, which left him completely unprepared for the realities of King’s Landing. Ned couldn’t deal with the spy vs. spy nature that the kingship demanded, and when he tried to insert his own morals into the situation like any good hero would, it massively backfires on him leading to his death.

In this chunk of chapters, we get two such trope defining characters: Jaime Lannister and Samwell Tarly. Jaime has been having a tough time lately. He’s been captured, held in a dungeon, and now his hand has been cut off by men who used to serve his father. In Chapter 31, Jaime honestly starts to question who he really is better than I could anyway:

‘Craven,’ Jaime thought, as Brienne fought to stifle her moans. ‘Can it be? They took my sword hand. Was that all I was, a sword hand? Gods be good, is it true?

Having his hand cut off has really sent Jaime spiraling and it’s quite understandable. He’s the books’ gallant knight, a Sir Lancelot figure, the one who goes out and fights for the woman he truly loves and damned the consequences. And like Sir Lancelot, the woman Jaime truly loves is also his queen and someone he’s really not supposed to be with (his sister). If Jaime can’t fight his way out of something, then he’s got nothing. He’s next to useless. It’s no wonder he spent most of his chapter contemplating death.

Jaime’s journey is still a work in progress, however. So it remains to be seen what will happen to him.

Then, there’s is noted craven Sam Tarly. Sam is a common oaf sidekick character to Jon Snow’s common hero character. He’s not meant to be the hero, but more of a comic relief character and someone for the hero to talk to. Sam himself even realizes this himself, and tells everyone within an earshot how useless and unfit he is for just about everything. Even his one badass moment (killing the Other), was pretty pathetic and more luck than heroism. But with Jon and everyone else gone, Sam has to step up and be the hero. I thing Sam survives until the end of the novel, but I’m not certain so I rather not say. I like Sam so I hope he does survive.

Just about all of the main players in the A Song of Ice and Fire series play with tropes by either embodying them, outright rejecting them, or using them to their advantage. It’s really the thing that separates Martin’s series from most other high fantasy novels and it works.