Jon 1
Jon Snow reflects that this is one of the few times in his life that he is happy to be a bastard. The Starks are hosting a feast for their Baratheon-Lannister guests. While his half siblings must sit with the royal family and be limited to one cup of summerwine, Jon Snow gets to sit with much more enjoyable company and is well into his cups.
He takes stock of the room and notices that his lord father seems to be rather detached from what is going on. Of course the king is well in his revelries and the queen seems cold as ice.
Soon enough his uncle Benjen Stark, Ranger of the Night's Watch visits. Benjen praises Jon's skill with a sword and Jon insists that he is ready to take the oath and join the brotherhood. Jon knows that as a bastard he has no right to inheritances like his siblings, and has no true future in Winterfell. Benjen cautions the boy, saying he would give up a lot for that honor; namely being a father and the touch of a woman. Jon asserts that he does not care for those things and Benjen responds that he would think differently after fathering a few bastards of his own. Jon snaps at his uncle that he will never father a bastard and storms outside...his Dire Wolf Ghost follows.
Outside he meets the Queen's brother, Tyrion Lannister - the stunted dwarf, who takes interest in the beast. Jon commands the wolf to allow Tyrion to pet it. Tyrion then bluntly asks the boy if he's the Stark bastard. When Jon takes offense, Tyrion assures him that he has more of the north in him than his other siblings; something that secretly makes Jon proud. Tyrion advises Jon to wear the title of bastard as an armor so that nobody can use it to hurt him. When Jon asks what he knows about being a bastard he replies that all dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes. As he walks off Jon thinks that for a brief moment, Tyrion Lannister is standing taller than every man.
Commentary
Well this is our first Jon Snow chapter, and I realize I like him a bit better in the books than I do in the show. Not that I dislike him in the show, but I feel he's a little less angsty here...or at least more of a Deadpan Snarker.
The biggest thing about Jon we learn here is how being a bastard affects him. He obviously isn't welcome near the royal family in Lady Catelyn's eyes. The very notion of him possibly fathering more bastards enrages him.
One of my favorite bits in this chapter is his assessment of the royal family. He thinks very little of King Robert, citing him as a disappointment. He looks up to the queen's brother Jaime Lannister, the Lion of Lannister...and the Kingslayer, as being what a king should be. Given both what (and who) Jamie does later on, this is hilarious. I may be reading too deeply into this but I wonder why he has such a strong opinion of him despite his reputation as Kingslayer. Perhaps he believes that Jamie did the right thing when he killed the Mad King? He pegs the queen dead on as an ice queen. He doesn't really have anything positive to say of the royal children. He certainly doesn't like Joffrey's face which is understandable. I've watched the show many times, introducing people I know to it. Almost every time Joffrey first appears on screen whoever I'm with says they want to kick his ass. I am pretty sure Jon is wrong about Myrcella being an idiot, but she's such a minor character I'm not really sure.
The little bit about Ghost protecting his chicken dinner from a bigger dog was funny too, shame that part got cut.
Now with all that out of the way we can bring up who we're all really here for:
I'd gush about how awesome he is, but I don't think I need to at this point. I'm fairly sure even non fans of this series at least know who he is by now what with Peter Dinklage's stellar performance. It's so hard to pick a favorite character in this series. I probably have like 5 tied for first, but you can bet your ass he's one of them. Of course I'm sure he's first on everyone's list except for that one asshole hipster we all know who thinks he's overrated or whatever.
Anyway he's baller as hell in his first proper chapter. He pulls off making fun of Jon Snow while still being a genuinely a cool guy about it. His advice of course is very good advice and with a little modification can apply to anyone. He also does a crazy cartwheel in this chapter, which doesn't show up again in book 5 which I guess is something. We learn that just like Jon has issues with Cateyln, Tyrion has some daddy issues with Tywin Lannister. Apparently his mother died in childbirth and Tywin has never forgiven him. We'll learn later on that Tyrion's parent issues are a lot worse than Jon's.
