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Summary
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
Will, Gared, and Ser Waymar Royce are members of the Night’s Watch. Gared has been in the Watch for 40 years, while Will has been a member for four years. Gared is missing both of his ears from frostbite. Ser Waymar is 18 years old and has been part of the Watch for less than a year, but he’s from a prominent family and is the expedition’s commander. The three men ride away from the Wall into the haunted forest. They’re looking for a group of eight wildlings that Will saw recently. Wildlings are people who live past the Wall, outside of so-called civilization. Will was sure the wildlings were dead when he saw them, but he didn’t see any blood or signs of struggle. Gared suggests that they froze to death, but Ser Waymar points out that it’s been too warm in the past week for anyone to freeze.
The fact that Gared is missing his ears from frostbite suggests how forbiddingly cold the climate beyond the Wall can be. Recently, though, the temperatures have been above freezing. The warming climate hints at the novel’s theme about the dangers posed by climate change. The fact that Waymar is the expedition’s leader despite his young age and lack of experience highlights the rigid hierarchies that define life in Westeros, the continent where they all live. That hierarchy often elevates people to positions of leadership when they are not suited to that leadership.
Themes
As they approach the site where Will saw the bodies, Gared and Will feel increasingly afraid. They know something’s not right. Ser Waymar dismounts and tells Gared to stay and watch the horses. On foot, Ser Waymar and Will make their way to the clearing where Will previously found the eight bodies, but when they arrive, the bodies are gone. Ser Waymar sarcastically remarks that the dead must have moved camp. He says he doesn’t want to return to Castle Black (where those on the Night’s Watch live) as a failure. He commands Will to climb a tree to see if there’s any sign of the wildlings in the distance.
Leadership and what makes a good leader become recurring themes in the novel. In this case, Waymar attempts to compensate for his youth and inexperience with a blustering and arrogant attitude to try and show that nothing can faze him. The novel portrays this maneuver as a sign of insecurity, which makes Waymar a poor leader, especially considering how it leads him to disregard the observations of more experienced people.
Themes
Will climbs the tree. He hears Ser Waymar shout, “Show yourself!” Suddenly, it becomes cold. Ser Waymar holds his sword in front of him. From the tree above, Will sees a shadow approaching Ser Waymar. The figure, which Will refers to as an Other, is tall and has eyes that are bluer than any human’s. Will sees four more Others lurking in the woods, approaching Ser Waymar. He knows he has to shout to warn Ser Waymar, but if he says anything, he’ll give up his hiding spot. He stays silent. The Other’s sword is crystalline. It glows with a blue light and, at certain angles, seems translucent. The Other’s armor changes color as it moves.
By not listening to Will and Gared, Waymar puts them all in danger, underlining the consequences of Waymar’s incompetent leadership. Will’s decision in the tree highlights another recurring theme in the novel: the tension between duty and self-interest. Will knows he has a duty to warn Waymar, but he also knows that it wouldn’t be in his self-interest to speak. In this case, Will chooses the self-interested path (though it’s not entirely clear that warning Waymar would have made much of a difference in the end).
Themes
The Other and Ser Waymar fight. Ser Waymar parries the Other’s attacks but keeps taking steps back. Each time their swords clash, it makes a sound like a scream. The Other knocks Ser Waymar off his feet. Ser Waymar gathers himself, but his sword shatters when he tries to block the Other’s sword. The Other stabs Ser Waymar. The four Others who were waiting in the shadows rush toward Ser Waymar and stab his body. When they leave, Will descends from the tree. He collects pieces of Ser Waymar’s shattered sword, which he plans to bring back to Castle Black as proof of the attack. As Will prepares to leave, Ser Waymar rises from the ground. His eyes are the same piercing blue color as the Others’. Ser Waymar wraps his now ice-cold hands around Will’s throat.
When the Others kill Waymar, he becomes reanimated as one of them, showing that the ranks of the Others will continue to grow as they come across more humans. That becomes a literal representation of the relationship between humans and climate change. As humans continue to contribute to the rise of heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere, the threat that climate change poses grows larger and larger, just as the ranks of the Others grow larger as they interact with more people. The novel opens with this attack of the Others, establishing the risk they pose as one of the main conflicts of the novel.
Themes
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