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Chapter 64: Daenerys
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
Arya has been living on the streets of King’s Landing since she escaped the clutches of the Lannisters, but she has no money to buy food. She kills pigeons and tries to trade them for what she needs, but no one wants her pigeons. Most of the gates out of King’s Landing are shut, and the open ones are heavily patrolled by Lannister soldiers. She hears countless rumors about how Robert died and the role Ned played in his death. Some say Ned killed Robert to seize the throne himself, others that Robert died in a hunting accident. She’s not sure what’s true. She tries to think of ways to escape the city. On the shore, she finds out that the ship her father hired to transport her and Sansa out of King’s Landing is still waiting, but the men guarding the ship aren’t her father’s men.
The rumors Arya hears point to ideas about misinformation and disinformation and how those phenomena impact politics. In this case, even though Ned is Arya’s father, she doesn’t know what to believe. Many of the rumors vilify Ned. That suggests that the Lannisters, in addition to holding the throne, also control the mechanisms of information. Notably, one of the rumors contains much of the truth—that Robert died in a hunting accident—but given the swirl of conflicting information, it seems impossible for someone without inside knowledge to know which rumors are true and which are false.
Themes
After visiting the ship, Arya hears bells as she makes her way back to the heart of the city. Someone says that they’re summoning bells and that the traitor, the former Hand of the King, Ned, is being brought to the center of the city to be punished. Arya runs to try and see her father. In the center of town, Cersei and King Joffrey watch over Ned. Sansa is with them, and Arya wonders why she looks so happy.
When the summoning bells ring, someone offhandedly refers to Ned as the traitor, signaling the way that the narrative around Ned has already begun to take hold in King’s Landing. In that narrative, Ned is treasonous and the Lannisters are on the right side of history.
Themes
In front of the crowd, Ned confesses to betraying Robert. He says that he conspired to kill Joffrey and seize the throne for himself. When he finishes speaking, Joffrey announces that Sansa and Cersei have advised him to spare Ned’s life and banish him to the Night’s Watch. But, Joffrey says, Sansa and Cersei have the “soft hearts of women.” He says he wants Ned’s head. Ilyn, the Lannister’s executioner, holds Ned’s own sword, Ice. Sansa collapses, sobbing. Arya rushes through the crowd to try and reach Ned, but a man grabs hold of her. When she looks up, she sees that it’s Yoren, a member of the Night’s Watch who knew Ned. Yoren tells Arya not to look and drags her by the hair away from her father’s execution. When they reach a house, Yoren keeps hold of Arya by the hair and takes out a knife.
Ned had previously said that his honor was worth more to him than his life, but he now sacrifices his honor and integrity to try and save Sansa’s life, showing that he values his children’s lives more than his own. Joffrey, though, contradicts what he told Sansa he would do by killing Ned instead of showing him mercy. Sansa’s sobs suggest that she may have finally woken up to Joffrey’s cruelty and duplicitousness. Notably, Joffrey says that both Sansa and Cersei have the “soft hearts of women,” which reflects his characteristic misogyny. His decision to contradict Cersei also shows the limits of Cersei’s power in a patriarchal society.
Themes
