yes, should be up tomorrow (friday). thanks for the patience! 🙂

Are we still going to get this weeks installment?

Um… it became pretty obvious that however much Tyrion pretended what was between him and Shae was pure business, he was developing feelings for her, and hoped she might actually love him. Killing her was a crime of passion, because he believed she may have loved him and he may have loved her – after all, he thought the last woman who loved him was also a whore. It’s a classic psychological effect. Especially after discovering that the last whore who loved him wasn’t a whore and did love him, the betrayal of an actual whore who didn’t love him hurts more.

*Spoilers*

Rachel, there is a huge difference between rescuing Arya and not helping Tyrion. In the case of Tyrion, he is being neutral – Tyrion is being accused of a crime and denies it. There’s no proof either way. Supporting either Tyrion or Catelyn would mean taking a side between believing Stark or Lannister. But rescuing Arya isn’t like that. He’s simply taking a child (which is therefore certainly innocent) up north. There’s nothing wrong with that. Remember, nobody knew Arya was there. As long as nobody recognizes her (and who would?), he’s done nothing to break neutrality. After all, the key thing about neutrality is the appearance of it. I think that if it would have been simply a matter of defending Tyrion against some bandits who had no idea who he was, or even against an unjust accusation, Yoren would have done that.

Regarding Jaime, I’m really unsure whether Jaime is not as smart as he thinks he is. It’s close, because his problem is his arrogance, but it’s not exact. I think he’s simply over-confident at first, but he does learn from his mistakes and manages to get rid of it. I think that by the third/fourth book he knows his self-worth and how smart he is.

You write: “Tyrion has just been too solidly in the “I like him” camp for too long! Has he ever done anything horrible? Anything? I mean all the violence he visits on people is WELL-earned.”

How about murdering Shae? All she does is accept his deal, that as long as he pays her she acts as his girlfriend. He is the one that can’t keep apart fantasy and reality. When he is arrested she is a free agent and has to find new sponsors. That involves ridiculing Tyrion (which isn’t classy, but neither is it something to kill over) and screwing Tywin (which she should be absolutely free to do – she is a prostitute). Shae just does her job, but maybe does it too well. I think it is well within the category of horrible.

***Spoilers***

I have a strong dislike for Sansa in this book, so she is by no means my favorite character. But, I’m going to have to stand up for her in this instance.

If she had been all lovey dovey to Tyrion after being forced to marry him, after having been beaten and treated the way she was by Joffery, and after the way Cercei used her–all of us Sansa haters would have yet another reason to hate who she is and point out how disloyal and Starklike she acted.

We would say–“How could she treat Tyrion so respectfully after the way the Lannisters treated her?”

The reason we don’t say that is because one, we like Tyrion and we want to see him catch a break. And two we dislike Sansa.

This in a small way, is Sansa standing up for herself. She says what is necessary to keep the peace between them, but has withdrawn within herself and will not let them hurt her again. So, I can’t fault her actions.

As far as the Hound, if I remember correctly, he was the only King’s guard that ever stood up for her when Jofferey ordered them to abuse her. Perhaps, that’s one reason she takes to him the way she does.

@Stacey

**Spoilers**

That supposed fondness for Cat didn’t prevent him from setting her up when he lied to her about the knife.

@Rachel

**Spoilers**

Littlefinger doesn’t want a Targaryen return, and is working against Varys by creating conflicts that will accelerate the upheaval, which Varys wants to avoid at all costs, (at least until Viserys has his army and is ready to invade). You say that Littlefinger isn’t screwing with Varys’s plans, but as far as we can tell, Varys wants stability in the realm, at least for now, to which Petyr is the single biggest threat.

@Rachel

**Spoilers**

She may have trusted Sandor on some level, but he still frightened her, and I don’t think she would have been much happier married to him. The only Lannister she would have been ok marrying was Tommen.

@Rachel

**Spoilers**

I agree, Rachel, that it seems unlikely that Petyr knows much about any connection of Varys with Daenerys, and my guess is that Petyr isn’t (yet) spending much time worrying about dragons and Targaryens. My take on Petyr’s MO (while Ned was still around) is that he was basically sucking up to everyone and being kinda helpful (similar to Varys) so that he could jump with the bandwagon whenever he figured out who was going to be successful in taking power. Then he’d work on backstabbing whomever got power to advance himself further. His shorter term goals worked around getting himself into position to be able to marry Lysa, (which he eventually did by getting the Lannisters to award him Harrenhal).

If Ned had actually taken Petyr up on his offer to take power and secure Joffrey as a figurehead king (for a time), Petyr might possibly have gone with Ned initially, although Petyr was probably happier going with the Lannisters as they would put up with his schemy ways much more than honorable Ned ever would have. But if Petyr had maneuvered Renly onto the throne and remained influential with him, that might have served Petyr just as well.

On another topic, the way I’ve interpreted Petyr talking about taking Cat’s maidenhead (from the perspective of having read AFFC) is that Petyr actually believes that he did, so he’s not meaning to lie when he talks about it. When Lysa is babbling at Sansa, she talks about having visited Petyr in his sleep (after Cat had been dancing and flirting with him all night) and giving herself to him, while he murmurs “Cat.” I’d think Petyr sleepily thought his dreams of Catelyn were getting fulfilled, so when Lysa does it again later he thinks he’s taken both their maidenheads. This may contribute to how Petyr keeps a fondness for Cat rather than seeing her as totally betraying him for duty and the Starks (she fulfilled her duty to her family but gave him what she could).

@Deborah

***Spoilers***

Agreed most definitely. But WHYYY… I said in a previous chapter that Petyr just wants the power he saw all around him but was denied growing up. I think that’s PART of it. But if he is as knowledgeable as you guess of Varys’ plans.. why would he want that? If he wants to be a big deal in Westeros he certainly won’t be if the Targaryens come back and set fire to everything. Shouldn’t he be working against Varys as well? But he doesn’t really screw his plans… so that points to something deeper for me. Hence the WHYY PETYR WHY DO YOU DO THIS?

@Shinyteapot

***Spoilers***

Well yea, of course. I’m talking about that whole need for approval, whore-tendency thing. Tyrion is a powerful man. He’s got superb connections to money and power. There really isn’t any reason he couldn’t have married before this. I mean.. Bronn married a lackwit and personally I think that’s far worse. So what I mean is that for Tyrion there’s this inner need for approval that he never got and so he approaches all his relationships with others (friend, family, foe, potential sex partner) as if that person has already rejected him JUST because he is a dwarf.

So that scene with Sansa.. sure she hates him because he’s a Lannister. But Sansa has an infinite ability to adapt, accept and even coldly empathize with others. She never really does that with Tyrion. She’ll be weird-o friends with the Lannister Dog but when a nice Lannister shows up who really had nothing to do with any of the crap that happened to her and actually says to her face “Hey, I’m a nice guy. Let’s be nice to each other.” She basically say no dice.

@Rachel **Spoilers** I forgot, he started it long before the Starks were involved, when he had Lysa kill Jon Arryn, to make sure Jon didn’t let Robert know that Joffery wasn’t trueborn. Since he doesn’t want Robert to find out while he can still act, the most plausible motivation for Petyr’s showing Ned the baby was to delay him from leaving, and taking the girls with him. Was that just to screw with him, or did Petyr have more of a reason for keeping them in King’s Landing?

@Rachel

Do you really think Tyrion’s stature is the reason Sansa’s unhappy being married off to him? She probably isn’t too thrilled about it, or indeed about his being much older than her. She’s very young (she’d probably refuse sex with almost anyone given the choice, but of course there’s more to it than that), she’s a hostage with no friends or family to turn to.

But I should think all of those things pale in comparison to his being a Lannister. Sansa has fair reason to hate the Lannisters, and while Tyrion is not to blame for everything his family does, I imagine being forcibly married to the uncle of the toilet fungus who had her father killed and her beaten regularly would be a horrible prospect for any girl. Who cares how tall he is compared to that?

As for Petyr, he likely knows that Varys wants the realm to fall apart when Viserys (or Daenerys) is ready to come over and claim the throne, no earlier. But it’s not in Littlefinger’s interest for that to happen, since he would likely be wiped out by a Targaryen comeback, or at least his power would no longer be as respected/necessary. So, knowing how unstable everything actually is, he wants it to fall apart sooner, and it is in his interests for the Lannisters to win, not just because of an old debt to Stark but because they’ll value his ability the most, and he knows he can manipulate them. So Petyr’s motivation isn’t just to take revenge on the Starks, (though that may add to it), but to rise in power himself by vanquishing as many of those who would thwart him as possible. So he sets Catelyn off with a lie, starting hostilities sooner, and betrays Ned later, cementing his usefulness to the Lannisters while accelerating the war so the Targaryens can’t benefit from it.