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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
Catelyn and Robb are on a ship destined for Riverrun. When they arrive, Catelyn goes to see her father, Hoster Tully, who is in much worse shape than she expected. He seems to be on his deathbed. For a moment, Catelyn despairs. She thinks that the war and all that followed is her fault because she seized Tyrion. Catelyn tells her father that Robb secured the capture of Jaime Lannister and that Hoster’s brother, Brynden, played a pivotal role in the battle as well.
Hoster seems to have kept the fact that he is on his deathbed a secret to ensure that the Lannister army wouldn’t know of any vulnerabilities in the Tully armies. That decision reinforces the importance of strategy and tactical decision making when playing the “game of thrones” and trying to gain and maintain power.
Themes
Catelyn then goes to find Robb, who is praying in the godswood with several other men from the north who worship the old gods. After praying, Robb and the representatives of his army convene to discuss what they should do next. Robb says that Renly has claimed the right to the throne over his brother Stannis. No one is exactly sure what role Stannis will play. During the strategy meeting, some advocate for attacking the Lannister army as soon as possible while others suggest joining forces with Renly’s armies. Someone else suggests letting the Lannister army and Renly’s army fight before bending the knee and pledging fealty to the victor. Everyone else calls the person who suggested that a coward.
The proposed strategy of letting the Lannister army fight with Renly’s army before declaring allegiance to whoever comes out on top resembles the strategy that Ned accused the Lannisters of using when Robert became king. In that case, Ned held a grudge against the Lannisters because they withheld support for Robert until they knew he would be victorious. The difference in the Stark army’s reaction to that strategy and the Lannisters’ willingness to utilize it in the past further reinforces the differences between the two families by showing how the Starks seem to prioritize honor and integrity while the Lannisters prioritize ingenuity.
Themes
Catelyn advocates for peace. She says they joined the fight to defend the Riverlands and release Ned from Lannister custody. Now that they’ve defended the Riverlands and there’s no chance of saving Ned, peace could be their best option. She wants to see her children grow older in safety. For a moment, it seems that others might agree, but then someone asks if they side with Joffrey, would that make them traitors to Renly? Then, Greatjon speaks up. He says that the people in the North initially joined the seven kingdoms because of dragons. There are no more dragons, he says, so what’s stopping them from splitting off? He says there is only one king who he recognizes as true. He points his sword at Robb and says, “The King in the North!” The rest of the people erupt in chants of “the King in the North.”
Catelyn makes a passionate plea for peace. While people listen respectfully and intently, they also quickly move past her ideas, reflecting again the limited power that women hold within Westeros’s rigidly patriarchal society. In contrast, if Robb had called for peace, it’s more than likely that those who followed him into battle would have heeded what he said. Notably, while people initially believed Robb to be too young to lead, they now declare them their one and only true king. It’s also notable that their decision to split off from the other six kingdoms of Westeros is based on the absence of dragons.
Themes
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