Stark Girls

A Game of Thrones

Arya 1

The Stark Girls

Septa Mordane is instructing a group of girls in the arts of needlework. In attendance are Beth Cassel, Jeyne Poole, Princess Mrycella Baratehon, and the two Stark daughters: Arya and Sansa. The Septa praises Sansa and Myrcella's work while Arya watches, resenting the whole affair. Arya laments to herself how Sansa is so perfect: more beautiful and more womanly than she'll ever be. She thinks of how Sansa's best friend, Jeyne, used to call her Arya Horseface, a name that stung more when she realized the only thing should could ever best Sansa at is horse riding.

As they are working the girls begin to gossip. Jeyne says that the crown prince, Joffrey likes Sansa. Arya is not impressed. As they talk the Septa asks to see Arya's stitch-work and is critical. Arya storms out. She meets up with her direwolf pup Nymeria, named after the famed conqueror of Dorne to meet up with the boys who are practicing swordplay.

Arya catches up with Jon Snow, who was always her closet sibling. She reflects how alike they are, to the point of her wondering if she's a bastard herself. Jon is too lowborn to be allowed to practice with royalty, so he is forced to the sidelines. Bran and Tommen are at it, something that is not very impressive to watch.

Soon after its Robb and Joffrey's turn to spar again. Joffrey has grown bored with practice swords and demands live steel, something Master at Arms Rodrick Cassel denies him. After some arguing, Joffrey leaves, but not before tossing some more insults at Robb Stark.

Commentary:
This is another chapter big on major character introductions. The most important being the stark contrast between Arya and Sansa, the Stark sisters.

Arya "Horseface"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arya is our point of view for the chapter, and it takes great plains to paint her as a tomboy. She sucks at needlework. (Incidentally so do I. I almost flunked Home EC in 7th grade due to shitty needle skills). She's also very self conscious, feeling inferior to her sister at every turn (who at least in this sister sounds like a complete Mary Sue). She'd much rather learn to fight than to sew. Arya and Sansa's differences can honestly be summed up by what they named their wolves. Sansa's is 'Lady'. Arya's is 'Nymeria' --a female conqueror who made the nation of Dorne her bitch.

Of course at this point it's no secret that Arya's a fan favorite. While I am sorta....hesitant...as to where her story is going in the later books, this chapter is good at setting her up as a likeable underdog. Of course this isn't your typical fantasy story so the underdog role is going to go in a much different direction. But that's for later.

One of the nicest parts of this chapter is seeing how close she is to Jon. It's good to see that they have each other.

As for the other Stark girl

I think Sansa gets a lot of undeserved flak but we can't really get into that now. Even though she's a fairly main character in this chapter, we aren't really introduced to her yet. We're introduced to her through Arya's eyes. Arya is deeply resentful of how perfect her sister is, so we don't really see her as anything but a slightly insufferable Mary Sue for now. There's not too much to comment on now but believe me there will be soon.

As for some of the other minor characters - Septa Mordane is like Maester Luwin, she'll be around a lot but never a major character. She's fairly two dimensional. It's important to remember Jeyne Poole in this chapter and that she's slightly bitchy. She's not going to do anything for like four books but man when Martin decides to make her an important character does it come out of nowhere. Once again Mrycella comes off as rather likeable, though we don't get much out of her.

Things are more interesting when we meet up with the boys. Bran and Tommen are in this chapter but we don't really learn anything new about them other than Tommen is fat. The master at arms is Rodrick Cassel who doesn't really have much to him...except in the show where he has the most ridiculous facial hair.

 

 

 

The only reason he gets a picture is his beard. I mean damn look at that thing!

Jon gets to be nice and snarky with Arya, reminding me again why I prefer him so much more in the books than in the show. We also see the dynamic between Robb and Joffrey. Robb I already introduced but this chapter really shows off how hot blooded he is.

And then there's Joffrey. Joffrey. Fucking Joffrey.

Such a punchable face.

We've heard a bit about the young prince and now we finally get to meet him. And basically right now he's a shit. A little fucking shit. In this chapter he pretty much seems like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter has been lifted out of Hogwarts and dropped in here. Now I fucking hate Malfoy and I hate everything about Joffrey in this chapter. He's a smug little rich bastard who talks all this shit, backs away from a fight, and plays it off like he's still the better man. He even uses the excuse that Robb is older than him for why Robb got in more hits.

But *Spoilers* Joffrey is NOT Draco. Joffrey may seem like it right now, but if you think that Joffrey is just your typical wannabe, minor in the grand scheme of things, pussy kind of villain, you got another thing coming. Draco Malfoy doesn't have SHIT on Joffrey.

We also are introduced to a guard of Joffrey's named Clegane who seems to be an ass. He's a little more complicated but...yeah he's an ass.