Prologue:
Will and Gared, both veterans with hundreds of rangings under their collective belt are growing impatient with their superior, Ser Waymar Royce, who is a young lord with less than a half year of experience and plenty of arrogance to compliment it.
Will, an expert tracker, has returned to the group after scouting ahead. He tells them that he had tracked the group of Wildlings. Their entire camp lay dead. Both Will and Gared, who both share a sense of dread not common to them urge Ser Waymar Royce that they should return to Castle Black. Waymar Royce however is unconvinced, he doesn't wish to return from his first ranging empty handed.
They return to the Wildling's camp to find that there are no bodies. Ser Waymar Royce is a first dismissive of Will however they both notice a disturbance in the woods. They also both feel drastically more cold.
A strange creature with milky white skin, glowing blue eyes, translucent armor which changes color as the creature moves, and a longsword made of a crystal sharper than any steel engages Ser Waymar Royce in combat as Will hides. Royce meets it head on for a while, parrying it's attacks. More of these otherworldly creatures...aptly name the Others look on. Finally the creature wounds Ser Royce and shatters his longsword, the steel flying in all directions (as well as in Ser Waymar Royce's face). All of the creatures then proceed to slaughter the young knight. As Will prepares to run and bring warning to Gared or his superiors at Castle Black, he sees Ser Waymar Royce standing above him, with glowing blue eyes. Will prays to the nameless northern gods as his brother of the Watch strangles him to death.
Commentary
Forgive my blatant fan-boying...but this is the perfect opening for this series. The grim setting, the banter between characters, and showing us early that no character is safe from the axe. Of course Decoy Protagonists are not something that Mr. Martin invented. In fact plenty of stories love introducing characters to be brutally killed in the first scene. Shakespeare loved this trope (I'm looking at you Marullus and Flavius). This is also something of a running theme in each book of this series...never get attached to anyone starring in a prologue. Actually unless it's Tyrion Lannister...don't get attached to anyone period.
Anyway despite being one scene wonders (well technically two for Gared), I really like these three characters and how they play off one another. Let's face it, plenty of us have had a boss like Ser Waymar Royce. An arrogant and pompous asshole who lets his pride get in the way of reason and ends up making everyone else's job tougher as a result. And we can somewhat feel for Gared, despite hardly knowing him, having to take orders from this green, entitled, "lordling". Will's back story as a poacher forced to choose between this life as a ranger or losing a hand is very common in this series, but it works well.
There are a few things introduced in this prologue that will be elaborated on later. Just what are the Night's Watch? Obviously they are some sort of military in the north. They are opposed to the Wildlings who are more or less seen as barbarians. We don't know much else beyond that yet, other than that this life can be voluntary since Ser Waymar Royce seemed to prepare his entire young life for joining them or involuntary as Will was forced to join them or else lose a hand as a punishment for a crime he committed. This introduction however does a great job showing what they actually do...and that is tracking. Especially since the rest of the time this book spends with the Night's Watch is regarding new recruits training.
Of course the most important thing to discuss are the Others (known as the White Walker's in the HBO television adaptation). Martin does an exquisite job setting them up in this chapter. They are terrifying, they are otherworldly, and by God are they dangerous. I enjoyed the imagery of their weaponry especially and the description of their language as being like ice cracking over a lake. It's a shame we don't see them again for about two books or so. While this prologue does show us the supernatural elements of this world, the book itself focuses mostly on political intrigue and warfare (later on). Therefore the Others are regulated to the role of Bigger Bad (yeah...I like TV Tropes way too much...my apologies).
Before finishing this prologue, I'd just like to swing back to characterization for a second. I really like how Waymar Royce is written, despite being such a minor character. The whole chapter seems to go out of its way making him an unlikable douche, but once shit hits the fan he turns into a total badass. Being able to fight an Other to a standstill, even if the creature didn't seem to be giving it its all takes some stones. Despite all his pomp, Ser Waymar Royce was willing to lay his life on the line.
So let's all pour some out for Ser Waymar Royce...and Will too...he was pretty cool.
--Sean
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