one of my friends had a dad who was an amazing storyteller. when we get together at christmas we still love to trick him into telling us ghost stories. and scaring the heck out of us, even at our adult age!

yeah, robb is not good at discretion. but then from what i’ve seen neither are his parents so he’s got the deck stacked against him with those genes, those parental examples, and being 14…

also? glad you’re loving the tyrion’s axioms segment! it will be a sad, chapter, indeed, that does not have a golden line from him. 🙂

ha, yeah, that had zero relevance at that point. i should at this point probably go back and re-read everything to this point and get reminded of some of these details so i can quit sounding like i have 5% recall ability, lol

hm. if it was mentioned it went over my head. changes the whole perspective on the lannisters vs starks with their respective cripples. 🙂

Last Bran chapter (which I didn’t comment on then because I am a new reader to this site and didn’t know if you went back to older chapters) you mentioned that you didn’t like Bran chapters. I wonder if that is because we as readers do not exactly know where he is going yet. We know it will be important (or so we think) and we have some thoughts, but it doesn’t look like it will come anytime soon. Right now up to Feast for Crows his chapters feel like – Hey, I’m here. I’m still around and will be an important player. Don’t forget about me. Maybe once the action starts, you will feverently reread his chapters to pick up all the clues you missed. Any thoughts?

But it’s not surprising that this wouldn’t have made much of an impression that early in the game!

Hmm, you have a point. And she seems, with all her stories, to be a point of oral history being preserved. I wish she had an apprentice!

@duckchick

thanks, glad you are enjoying them. i think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. there might also be some residual “wargy telepathy” going on that influences the way the wolves behave sometimes.. ie i don’t like you so my dog doesn’t like you either…

but i disagree that Old Nan sounds too much like a book. I expect her stories to be part of oral tradition, which tend to be pretty practiced and “literature like”.

As to Robb, he may not have tipped their hand, but his inability to be discreet even with grave suspicions is dumb. If the Tyrion were just a touch more suspicious, the jig would have been up and it would have been Robb’s fault. I get so impatient with him at times, and have to remind myself that he’s young and this is all new to him. Sure, he’s been trained from an early age, and sat in on meetings and such with his father and their bannermen, but nothing ever really prepares you.

On the direwolves attacking Tyrion…well, I don’t know if the reasons are right, precisely. I had always assumed that Summer attacked because he recognized the Lannister in Tyrion…though what I mean by that is stumping even me! Ugh! I’ll just come back to that…

And yet, despite Robb’s rudeness and the direwolves being rather bad tempered, he still helps Bran. I love Tyrion, and I love your axioms!! Of Tyrion’s, I mean.

@Rachel, I’ve also been thinking that the Starks have warging in them, they just haven’t had a chance to exercise it in a long time. I’d bet they got the wildling blood in them, since they’re the blood of the First Men.

I think Coldhands is just leading Bran for now…he’s going to be like that hero in the story Old Nan tells…he’s going to have to go searching for the Children of the Forest to help defeat the Others. But I do agree that Bran is most likely going to die. I don’t want him to, he’s suffered enough! But it would fit.

On the attack, as I said earlier, I did think it was scent based. They recognized “Lannister scent” and got hostile. This would be why they don’t trigger of Theon, at least not right away. He wasn’t hostile till he returned from home.

But what is home to him? I admit I hate the little shit and think getting tortured by the Bolton bastard is exactly what he deserves, but I also remember he was conflicted the whole time. his upbringing with the Lannisters clashing with his desire to please his father, and everything clashing with his enormous ego.

As to Robb and Jon reacting differently to the same things…I always thought the confrontation with Joffery in the yard was a strong indication of which of them was better able to handle things. Robb got offended and lost control of his emotions quickly, while Jon – fully hating Joffery and speaking that emotion aloud to Arya – still managed to remain calm. Jon still has some growing to do, as his set down by Donal Noye proved, but he’s had things slightly rougher and developed a thicker skin than his siblings, which to me makes him better able to handle stuff.

Ugh, too early, hope I’m making sense!

Very much enjoying your summaries, ladies! 😀

@Paul

Well.. that answers that I guess. (still.. kicking severed heads? bad seed!

PS-
@Elena.. don’t read that comment up there.