Every Boy Needs a Direwolf

A Game of Thrones

Bran 1:

Every boy needs a Dire Wolf

Gared has been captured south of the Wall, deserting from the Night's Watch. As he is in the North, he is now under the jurisdiction of House Stark, the ruling family of the North. Eddard Stark, lord of Winterfell rides to do the king's justice himself along with his two trueborn sons: Robb and Bran as well as his bastard son Jon Snow as well as a number of retainers. This is Bran, a boy of seven, first time witnessing an execution. His other brother's have attended more of these.

Eddard sentences Gared to death and beheads him with his Valyrian Greatsword, Ice. Bran does not look away as the man is beheaded. Lord Stark then talks with Bran, asking him if he knows why he had to execute the man. Bran believes that the man was a Wildling. Eddard corrects his son, stating that he was actually a deserter. Eddard then explains that he was the one who swung the sword as their way is the old way: he who passes the sentence must be the one to swing the sword.

The party makes their way back to Winterfell. On their way the encounter a slain Dire Wolf (a creature twice the size of a normal wolf). It has the antler of the stag lodged in it. There are five Dire Wolf pups. Robb and Bran urge their father to let them keep them while other members of the party, such as Lord Eddard's ward Theon Greyjoy argue that they should be put down. Finally Jon Snow convinces his father to allow the Stark children to keep the wolves: there are five wolves, three male and two female...an exact match for each of the five Stark children. Furthermore, the Dire Wolf is the symbol of House Stark, they were meant to have them. When Eddard asks what of him, Jon pointedly replies that he is not a Stark. As they prepare to leave, they find one other wolf, an albino. Jon Snow claims that this will be his.

Commentary:

First thing's first, let's pour some our for our boy, Gared.

This is our first proper chapter narrated by our first recurring point of view character, Bran Stark. We meet a few major character and are exposed to a few important themes here, so there is a bit to cover. It would be best to start with our narrator himself, Bran Stark:

 As mentioned in the chapter summary, Bran is a boy of seven. I'll have to note my prejudice here. My first read through of the series, I grew to dread Bran chapters. I didn't think his story really went anywhere and I found myself mostly bored. These early chapter themselves aren't bad, but as his story goes on I felt it really goes south (ironic given where the boy actually goes). Since I am rereading, there is a lot I wish to look for however, so I am willing to give the poor boy another chance. This chapter is interesting since we do see it from the eyes of a seven year old. There is a certain innocence in his eyes, such as his first conclusion that the man his father beheaded was an evil Wildling who stole woman to be sacrificed to the evvvviiiilll Others. Eddard has to explain that it is a lot more complex than that. He shows great resolve with the whole beheading...I know that sort of thing would fuck me up royally at seven. Hell if I saw a beheading now at 24, I'm sure I'd be traumatized. And once the wolf puppies are seen, we instantly see him as a cheerful child, pestering his father to let him keep the wolf. Despite the grim and fantastic setting, it seems so domestic, which I like. Plus I mean come on, you'd beg your dad for a direwolf too. While Bran is the narrator though, this chapter serves more of a purpose by introducing some other main players:

Sucks to be Will (who got to swap life expectancy with Gared in the show)

Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North (the dude with the sword...if you couldn't tell). Most important though, he's the dude who's constantly telling us that winter is indeed coming. As much as any character can, Eddard is the closest thing this book has to a protagonist. He's honorable, just, and compassionate. The closest thing we'll get to Lawful Good we can get in this setting (maybe tied with Barristan Selmy...but hush we don't know him yet!). Even still good is NOT nice. He is quick to due his duty, as ugly as it may be. We see two sides of him. His stone cold stoicism as he executes the deserter as well as his stern, but loving fatherly side to him when dealing with his sons and their wolves. Very telling his also his obvious admiration for his bastard, Jon Snow.

I totally wants one.

While certainly not the only contender, Jon Snow is one of the heavyweights in the title for main character of this series. But we'll get to that later. What we know now is most importantly he's a bastard, the illegitimate kind, not the asshole kind (we'll meet a few lovely characters that are both later on). Jon is described as a sort of dark and brooding character here. He is quieter than his brother Robb and more thoughtful. We see that despite his status he has a good relationship with his father and half brothers. And of course the fact that he gets the albino puppy reeks of symbolism. His harping on the importance of the symbol of House Stark is important as well.

My house symbol in real life is a bear I believe. I guess I'd be a Mormont

In this series great noble houses, and their members are constantly alluded to by their symbol. In the Stark case, this is a Dire Wolf.  Characters will constantly make cryptic references to these houses such as "Soon the Wolf and the Lion will be at each other's throat and the whole realm will bleed" or "The Dragon devours both lamb and horse". It's cool and all, but after a while it really get's over done and is kind of hard to take seriously. But I digress.

Robb Stark is the eldest of the Stark children. There isn't too much to say about him yet. He doesn't get a point of view at all so we never get into his head. In this chapter he serves as a contrast to Jon Snow, more optimistic and energetic. Having watched the show more recently though it is very interesting reading this chapter. He is about fourteen, and it shows. He is still a boy who eagerly urges his father to let him keep the direwolves as well as trying to show off to his father by stating how the mother direwolf died. Many characters were aged up for the show (which in the case of many of the female characters is a good thing considering how...HBO friendly this series is) but especially telling with Robb whose actor, Richard Madden, was born in 1986. Two years older than me. Definitely in his twenties. Not fourteen. Once again I don't mind the change at all, it's just interesting to note while rereading.

The other characters we meet are fairly minor. Jory Cassel, the captain of the guard, was a character who I must have skimmed over the first time, cause I spent the whole book not knowing who he was until...well we'll get to that. I only note him since when I re-watched the show last week I realized he was a Nice Guy to end all nice guys. He's like the Good Guy Greg of Westeros, I'd get a beer with him. I want to see if he's like that in the book or if it was just good acting for such minor role. Hullen and Harwin are so minor that I'm not getting into them. I'm not even going to check if I spelled their names correctly. They just sorta existed to have someone argue against keeping the puppies. The only character really worth mentioning is Theon Greyjoy:

Theon Greyjoy is Eddard Stark's ward: basically a prisoner with benefits. We'll learn more later. All we need to know now is that he's pretty much a freaking prick. He kicks Gared's head away while laughing after it is beheaded. He get's into plenty of arguments with Jon Snow. He's quick to want to kill the direwolves. I mostly bring him up since he becomes more important in later books. Actually his storyline ends up being one of my favorites, even if right now he's sorta just a douche.

The other big things we learn in this chapter are that it seems the Night's Watch means business. If you desert, you die. We also learn a bit about the Wildlings that our favorite trio from the prologue were tracking. This chapter seems to paint them as really evil pieces of shit that are in league with the Others. Of course this is coming from the mouth of a seven year old lordling whose only knowledge of them comes from stories his wet nurse tells them. We learn that their leader however is Mance Rayder...the King Beyond the Wall. What their true natures are remain to be seen.