Game of Thrones 226-338

-This set of reading started off with Dany’s chapter. In this chapter, a main thing that happened was that as Dany and her brother were traveling with the Dothraki, her and her brother were aside from the group and Dany had “woke the dragon” in Viserys.  But instead, this time Dany actually stuck up for herself and the Dothraki members backed her up and Viserys had to walk behind the group the rest of the way in shame.  In Bran’s chapter Tyrion had stopped by Winterfell on his way back to King’s Landing and showed Bran drawings of how he could possibly ride a horse again, which gave both him and Robb a lot of hope. In jon's chapter a new kid, who is fatter and has no fighting ability comes to the watch.  Jon sticks up for him throughout the chapter while also encouraging other to stand up for the kid. I think Jon feels connected to this kid since they both have a feeling of being an outcast.   Also, in this set of readings Ned was doing some investigating and found a kid who worked for the town blacksmith who looked just like King Robert, and Ned knows that it must be a bastard child of his. He’s not sure how this relates to the murder of Jon Arynn since Jon Arynn had visited this kid before his death; however he believes it has some sort of meaning. Ned’s welcoming tournament as the Hand of the King was also held in this chapter.  After it was all set and done, Ned had a conversation privately in his room with Lord Varys where he finds out the Queen had a plan to kill Robert.  Through this conversation, he also finds out for sure that Jon’s death was not an accident and that he was instead killed by one of his own close friends’ who was influenced to poison him by the Queen.  This man was the same guy who got killed in the tournament by Lannister. Coincidence?  Catelyn also has a major part in this chapter where she runs into Tyrion at an inn unexpectedly and accuses him of attempting to kill Bran, this leads to them taking him prisoner and heading not to Winterfell, but instead to the Land of Arynn and Tully which requires a dangerous route to get there. 

- This set of reading was extremely interesting as there was a lot of many different and unexpected things going on.  I actually found myself wanting to keep reading when I reached the end of the section, which I would have not predicted when I first started reading this book.  One particular part that stuck out to me was Lord Varys’s conversation with Ned.  He says to Ned, “The Red Keep shelters two sorts of people, those who are loyal to the realm and those who are only loyal to themselves.”  I think this is a big example of the discussion of loyalty that Martin has talked about throughout the book.  People are either truly loyal to what they are doing in their lives, like Ned, or they are only loyal to doing what is best for themselves in gaining power, like Cersei.  I think in this particular section of readings we are starting to see characters loyalties and we are starting to be able to decide who is a good person and who is not.  I’m really curious to see where Robert’s loyalties lie because I think Ned is bringing out the better in him. Another interesting part in this section was when the Hound was walking Sansa back to her room.  When he tells her the story of what truly happened to his face it caught me off guard, and we see that the Hound really isn’t a bad person.  Sansa was afraid of him because his face was messed up, but he was a good person and we saw that when he saved Ser Loras Tyrell‘s life.  I think Martin sort of brings up an idea here of “Don’t judge a book by its cover” which was exactly what Sansa did to the Hound at first.  One last thing, I feel like in this section you can start to see even more why the book is called “Game of Thrones.”  Everyone is competing for power in one way or another which is displayed throughout the last 110 pages frequently.


Discussion questions:
-Would you agree with what Lord Varys said about how people are either loyal to realm of loyal to themselves? Do you think this applies to our world today with people? (There either truly loyal to what they do and the people they know or their only loyalty is to themselves).
-I feel as if were starting to see a good side to Robert.  I believe Ned's starting to bring that out in him and he's becoming a better person.  Do you agree? And how do you think this will play out for what could happen in the rest of the book?
-What is the biggest theme that Martin talks about throughout the book and why?