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Chapter 26: Jon
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
The tournament has led countless people to stream into King’s Landing, which has led to an uptick in crime. This frustrates Ned even more. Though the tournament is supposed to be in his honor, he wants nothing to do with it, and it keeps leading to more and more headaches. Ned promises 20 of his men to help patrol the city. He then goes to talk to Jory, the captain of the Stark guards. Jory has been looking into the leads that Littlefinger gave to Ned regarding Jon Arryn’s death.
Ned continues to show a distaste for the position of Hand of the King. This passage also demonstrates the novel’s interest in how small, detail-oriented decisions related to power can have far-reaching consequences. In this case, Ned decides to let 20 of his men help patrol the city—meaning that those men will not be guarding Ned.
Themes
Based on what Jory has found out, Ned goes to visit an armorer in King’s Landing. The armorer boasts of his skill and the knights whose armor he supplies, but Ned says he wants to know about a visit that Jon Arryn paid to the armorer months ago. The armorer answers reluctantly. He says that Jon Arryn wanted to see “the boy.” Ned isn’t sure what that means, but he says he wants to see the boy, too. The armorer takes Ned to the workshop and calls over to a boy named Gendry. The boy is the spitting image of King Robert, and Ned thinks that he must be Robert’s child born out of wedlock. But Ned doesn’t know why Jon Arryn would have been interested in the boy.
Ned continues his investigation into Jon Arryn’s death. To document that investigation, the novel again uses genre conventions of detective stories, as Ned slowly discovers clues in an attempt to fill in details that will ultimately give him a fuller picture of what led to Jon Arryn’s death. As Ned investigates, he continues to pursue leads and hunches but is also met with setbacks, red herrings, and potential wrong paths.
Themes
