By Jamie Kennett
So, we’ve had our fair share of the Lannisters, next I’m taking a look at all those fine lords, ladies and lowborns that dwell in and around the Kingdom of the North; the Starks, Tullys, Greyjoys, and anyone in-between. By the end of the last season, it all seemed to be looking up for Winterfell and Riverrun; they were well on their way to achieving the independence they so desired, and Robb Stark was becoming increasingly close to ridding the Riverlands of the likes of Tywin Lannister and his host of malicious lion-crested cronies. However, a broken deal with the small-yet-powerful House Frey could spell trouble in the near future...
So, we’ve had our fair share of the Lannisters, next I’m taking a look at all those fine lords, ladies and lowborns that dwell in and around the Kingdom of the North; the Starks, Tullys, Greyjoys, and anyone in-between. By the end of the last season, it all seemed to be looking up for Winterfell and Riverrun; they were well on their way to achieving the independence they so desired, and Robb Stark was becoming increasingly close to ridding the Riverlands of the likes of Tywin Lannister and his host of malicious lion-crested cronies. However, a broken deal with the small-yet-powerful House Frey could spell trouble in the near future...
Robb
The King in the North and King of the Trident is a true leader, unlike the one on the Iron Throne. A man of the people, and he puts me in mind of a [Northern version] of Ken Branagh’s King Henry V. He and his army of northmen are known for spending the end of season one and the entire of the following season battling it out with a host of forces from the Lannister-controlled Westerlands. The conflict started out as a quest to free all of the Stark captives in King’s Landing, but soon developed into an all-out war of vengeance and succession. Now, about twelve episodes down the line, it seems victory is finally visible on the horizon. Tywin, the power behind the Lannister war effort, has returned to the capital, and Robb seems to be largely unchallenged up in the Riverlands. That being said, he blew it all towards the end of season two…
What we all need to take into account when considering Robb’s possible future is the agreement his mother Catelyn brokered with Lord Walder Frey; in order for your massive army of angry northerners to gain access to the more southern portions of Westeros from the North, you and your party must traverse the bridge found at The Twins, which is the only suitable river crossing to be found along the whole of the thin strip of land known as The Neck. For Robb in particular do this, he was unknowingly married off to one of Lord Walder’s many daughters. He was initially shocked to hear what his mother had agreed for him to do, but after a while merely accepted it as the price he had to pay, as he also gained three-thousand Frey soldiers from the arrangement.
A while later, he met Tulisa, a nurse from the city of Volantis in Essos, who had her hands full sawing off the limbs of Lannister men and generally clearing up the mess of death Robb’s armies kept leaving in their wake. For some bizarre and largely unexplained reason, the all-too-forward Robb decided to marry her (not just that, but he marries her under the guidance of seven gods that neither of them even worship!) after another one of the show’s infamously extravagant sex scenes. So to put the entire situation from this point on into a well-fitting nutshell, Robb, and by association his mother Catelyn have now broken a truce between the Starks and the Freys, which is punishable by death. It doesn’t take a genius/someone who’s read 'the original material' to figure out what’s in store for the King in the North.
The King in the North and King of the Trident is a true leader, unlike the one on the Iron Throne. A man of the people, and he puts me in mind of a [Northern version] of Ken Branagh’s King Henry V. He and his army of northmen are known for spending the end of season one and the entire of the following season battling it out with a host of forces from the Lannister-controlled Westerlands. The conflict started out as a quest to free all of the Stark captives in King’s Landing, but soon developed into an all-out war of vengeance and succession. Now, about twelve episodes down the line, it seems victory is finally visible on the horizon. Tywin, the power behind the Lannister war effort, has returned to the capital, and Robb seems to be largely unchallenged up in the Riverlands. That being said, he blew it all towards the end of season two…
What we all need to take into account when considering Robb’s possible future is the agreement his mother Catelyn brokered with Lord Walder Frey; in order for your massive army of angry northerners to gain access to the more southern portions of Westeros from the North, you and your party must traverse the bridge found at The Twins, which is the only suitable river crossing to be found along the whole of the thin strip of land known as The Neck. For Robb in particular do this, he was unknowingly married off to one of Lord Walder’s many daughters. He was initially shocked to hear what his mother had agreed for him to do, but after a while merely accepted it as the price he had to pay, as he also gained three-thousand Frey soldiers from the arrangement.
A while later, he met Tulisa, a nurse from the city of Volantis in Essos, who had her hands full sawing off the limbs of Lannister men and generally clearing up the mess of death Robb’s armies kept leaving in their wake. For some bizarre and largely unexplained reason, the all-too-forward Robb decided to marry her (not just that, but he marries her under the guidance of seven gods that neither of them even worship!) after another one of the show’s infamously extravagant sex scenes. So to put the entire situation from this point on into a well-fitting nutshell, Robb, and by association his mother Catelyn have now broken a truce between the Starks and the Freys, which is punishable by death. It doesn’t take a genius/someone who’s read 'the original material' to figure out what’s in store for the King in the North.
Catelyn
Moving swiftly on to Robb’s mother, Catelyn’s relationship with her son and fellow Riverlanders, not to mention her own reputation throughout the northern lands, suffered a crushing blow at the end of the last season when she suddenly decided to set free the North’s most valuable prisoner; Jaime Lannister.
In her defence, this was to hopefully secure the return of her two daughters Arya and Sansa, but little does she know now that the fair and understanding man she planned to barter with is no longer acting as Hand of the King, and Arya herself has long since left the capital. If A Storm of Swords is anything to go by, we can expect to see Catelyn spending a great deal of her time in season three walking around the keep at Riverrun, where she is now being held under what is essentially house arrest. Without even being given the freedom of her own town, she is forced to tend to her ailing father, Lord Hoster Tully, who holds a little secret regarding a woman from his past, but only offers so much as her forename as a clue. The show’s cast of characters contains plenty of illegitimate children as it is, but it would make for a good twist if it turned out her brother Edmure, or even Catelyn herself, were a bastard. Perhaps Lord Hoster (for the purposes of this theory not quite as traditional as, say, Ned) was so threatened by the lack of an heir he overlooked the fact that the very person to succeed him would have no true claim? So “Rivers” becomes “Tully”, and the problem is all but dealt with. It’s a possibility…
Asides from that, it’s fairly safe to assume that Catelyn will likely suffer the same fate as Robb in the wake of his recent marriage. The Freys should already have wind of the sudden change of plan, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
Moving swiftly on to Robb’s mother, Catelyn’s relationship with her son and fellow Riverlanders, not to mention her own reputation throughout the northern lands, suffered a crushing blow at the end of the last season when she suddenly decided to set free the North’s most valuable prisoner; Jaime Lannister.
In her defence, this was to hopefully secure the return of her two daughters Arya and Sansa, but little does she know now that the fair and understanding man she planned to barter with is no longer acting as Hand of the King, and Arya herself has long since left the capital. If A Storm of Swords is anything to go by, we can expect to see Catelyn spending a great deal of her time in season three walking around the keep at Riverrun, where she is now being held under what is essentially house arrest. Without even being given the freedom of her own town, she is forced to tend to her ailing father, Lord Hoster Tully, who holds a little secret regarding a woman from his past, but only offers so much as her forename as a clue. The show’s cast of characters contains plenty of illegitimate children as it is, but it would make for a good twist if it turned out her brother Edmure, or even Catelyn herself, were a bastard. Perhaps Lord Hoster (for the purposes of this theory not quite as traditional as, say, Ned) was so threatened by the lack of an heir he overlooked the fact that the very person to succeed him would have no true claim? So “Rivers” becomes “Tully”, and the problem is all but dealt with. It’s a possibility…
Asides from that, it’s fairly safe to assume that Catelyn will likely suffer the same fate as Robb in the wake of his recent marriage. The Freys should already have wind of the sudden change of plan, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
Arya
The fiery Arya is still on the run from the many people who want her dead or in chains. In the penultimate episode of the last season, “Blackwater”, Arya managed to escape from the very heart of the lion’s den at Harrenhal, alongside Gendry and Hot Pie (the fat kid she nearly stabbed at King’s Landing, for those who might have forgotten). We haven’t been witness to much of her epic journey to Riverrun yet, but last we did see of Arya and the other two, they had just said their farewells to the many faces of Jaqen H’ghar. This was where she received the coin and phrase that provided the name of the last episode.
Given what we’ve seen of her in the trailers, Arya’s still on the run from “The Bloody Mummers”, the bandits, and rogue Lannister men that roam the countryside between Harrenhal and Riverrun, but she does have a few interesting run-ins with the inhabitants of the Riverlands. She stops off at a riverside inn after bumping into a trio of “king’s men” and is captured by the seemingly friendly group they are a part of. This group, known to most people as “The Brothers Without Banners”, consists of a great many of the personal guard of Ned Stark, whom were sent out to that particular part of Westeros to bring back the head of Gregor Clegane (“The Mountain”). Hot Pie finds work as a baker at the Inn of the Kneeling Man, but Arya and Gendry, instead of making their way to Riverrun, are to be taken to the Lightning Lord himself; Beric Dondarrion. What happens to them from thereon in remains a mystery to me personally, but given how loved she is by most of us it’s safe to say no real harm is going to come to her. She may however never make it to where she wanted to be, and I do sometimes muse on the idea of her being taken in by them as one of their own, slowly becoming an outlaw herself. She certainly has the gumption for it.
The fiery Arya is still on the run from the many people who want her dead or in chains. In the penultimate episode of the last season, “Blackwater”, Arya managed to escape from the very heart of the lion’s den at Harrenhal, alongside Gendry and Hot Pie (the fat kid she nearly stabbed at King’s Landing, for those who might have forgotten). We haven’t been witness to much of her epic journey to Riverrun yet, but last we did see of Arya and the other two, they had just said their farewells to the many faces of Jaqen H’ghar. This was where she received the coin and phrase that provided the name of the last episode.
Given what we’ve seen of her in the trailers, Arya’s still on the run from “The Bloody Mummers”, the bandits, and rogue Lannister men that roam the countryside between Harrenhal and Riverrun, but she does have a few interesting run-ins with the inhabitants of the Riverlands. She stops off at a riverside inn after bumping into a trio of “king’s men” and is captured by the seemingly friendly group they are a part of. This group, known to most people as “The Brothers Without Banners”, consists of a great many of the personal guard of Ned Stark, whom were sent out to that particular part of Westeros to bring back the head of Gregor Clegane (“The Mountain”). Hot Pie finds work as a baker at the Inn of the Kneeling Man, but Arya and Gendry, instead of making their way to Riverrun, are to be taken to the Lightning Lord himself; Beric Dondarrion. What happens to them from thereon in remains a mystery to me personally, but given how loved she is by most of us it’s safe to say no real harm is going to come to her. She may however never make it to where she wanted to be, and I do sometimes muse on the idea of her being taken in by them as one of their own, slowly becoming an outlaw herself. She certainly has the gumption for it.
Bran
Bran’s never been a particularly exciting character; he’s spent the majority of his time on the show thus far lying in bed, having dreams about three-eyed ravens, and hiding from Theon Greyjoy with his younger brother Rickon. Their mother and older brother Robb think the two of them have been killed at the hands of the insurgent Iron Islanders, but he is in fact lurking in a cellar in Winterfell with former wildling Osha, and of course, Hodor.
The one interesting characteristic about Bran is that he is a “warg”, which in the Game of Thrones universe is someone who is able to physically and mentally control other creatures. In Bran’s case he has the power to become his direwolf Summer whenever he feels the need, but it takes him a while to realise that the experiences he has aren’t just dreams; they are real. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of his ability in the new season, as it’s about the only thing that keeps me remotely interested in his particular story.
There’s next-to-nothing to say about Rickon, but he can be easily forgiven for not having much influence over the story, being that he is only four and undoubtedly hasn’t got a bloody clue what’s going on; his father’s dead, his two sisters have disappeared, his older brother’s out fighting a seemingly un-ending war, and his mother’s spent the last few months going from one side of Westeros to the other in the role of diplomat. He hasn’t seen any of his family, save for Bran, in many a month now. So it’s expected of him to remain in a state of general confusion about the whole situation. Besides that, he hasn’t really done a lot, and I don’t expect him to. He’s only in the story because Bran is.
Hodor on the other hand…
Bran’s never been a particularly exciting character; he’s spent the majority of his time on the show thus far lying in bed, having dreams about three-eyed ravens, and hiding from Theon Greyjoy with his younger brother Rickon. Their mother and older brother Robb think the two of them have been killed at the hands of the insurgent Iron Islanders, but he is in fact lurking in a cellar in Winterfell with former wildling Osha, and of course, Hodor.
The one interesting characteristic about Bran is that he is a “warg”, which in the Game of Thrones universe is someone who is able to physically and mentally control other creatures. In Bran’s case he has the power to become his direwolf Summer whenever he feels the need, but it takes him a while to realise that the experiences he has aren’t just dreams; they are real. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of his ability in the new season, as it’s about the only thing that keeps me remotely interested in his particular story.
There’s next-to-nothing to say about Rickon, but he can be easily forgiven for not having much influence over the story, being that he is only four and undoubtedly hasn’t got a bloody clue what’s going on; his father’s dead, his two sisters have disappeared, his older brother’s out fighting a seemingly un-ending war, and his mother’s spent the last few months going from one side of Westeros to the other in the role of diplomat. He hasn’t seen any of his family, save for Bran, in many a month now. So it’s expected of him to remain in a state of general confusion about the whole situation. Besides that, he hasn’t really done a lot, and I don’t expect him to. He’s only in the story because Bran is.
Hodor on the other hand…
The Greyjoys
“Don’t die so far from the sea”. This was the last thing Theon’s sister Yara said to him before she left him and his rag-tag army of sailors at Winterfell to receive the Stark army that was marching back to reclaim it. After his intentionally rousing speech he was knocked unconscious by one of his crew and taken back to Pyke. I have the feeling Theon may have angered his father a tad, and what awaits him back on the Iron Islands shan’t be a pat on the back and a “well done” for taking the capital of the North from a paraplegic and a rabble of peasants.
His sister on the other hand, continues to lead fleets of ships and armies of men in their war on the North, to some extent of success by the looks of things…
“Don’t die so far from the sea”. This was the last thing Theon’s sister Yara said to him before she left him and his rag-tag army of sailors at Winterfell to receive the Stark army that was marching back to reclaim it. After his intentionally rousing speech he was knocked unconscious by one of his crew and taken back to Pyke. I have the feeling Theon may have angered his father a tad, and what awaits him back on the Iron Islands shan’t be a pat on the back and a “well done” for taking the capital of the North from a paraplegic and a rabble of peasants.
His sister on the other hand, continues to lead fleets of ships and armies of men in their war on the North, to some extent of success by the looks of things…
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