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Chapter 62: Tyrion
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
Robb rides into battle against Jaime’s forces. Catelyn stays back, guarded by 30 men, who are charged with protecting her and will escort her safely back to Winterfell if Robb and his forces lose the battle. She thinks about the countless times she has waited for her father, fiancé, and husband to return from battle. Now, she waits for her son. Catelyn cannot see the battle from where she stays. For the most part, she can only hear it, though at one point she glimpses Jaime on horseback.
Catelyn’s thoughts about waiting for her husband, father, and now son to return from battle evinces a kind of weary despair on her part with regard to war. That weariness displays the human and emotional toll of the constant political fighting that seems to define much of life in Westeros.
Themes
Eventually, Robb returns. He is covered in blood, but he says that it’s not his blood and that he is uninjured. Despite being outnumbered three to one, Robb’s troops have managed to win the battle and take over a hundred knights as prisoners, including Jaime Lannister. Theon says that they should kill Jaime on the spot, but Robb says Jaime is worth more alive than dead. Much of the Lannister army still pushes on, and Robb says that they’ll have to attend to Tywin and defend against the Lannister army’s campaigns in the Riverlands before the war is anywhere near over.
Robb achieves a major victory by capturing Jaime. That victory suggests that in addition to learning leadership skills from Ned, Robb has also augmented those skills through a deft touch with political and military strategy. Now, while the Lannisters hold Edmure, Sansa, and Ned hostage, the Starks hold Jaime hostage. This makes the current contest a little more even.
Themes
