Episode 28: A GAME OF THRONES, CATELYN V: "The Tipping Point" SHOW NOTES!

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish. 

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn. 

Welcome to our twenty-eighth episode of the Not A Cast entitled: "The Tipping Point: An Analysis of AGOT, Catelyn V,” in which Lady Catelyn and her faithful retainer Ser Rodrik have a fateful chance encounter at the crossroads. This episode is brought to you all by our Lords Commander Mark N, Timothy W, Hayden J, WolfmanZack, and Joe L. Thank you, gentlemen!

Spoiler warning: All published books - 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

Questions/Announcements

WolfmanZack, one of our Lords Commander asks:

I know you're answering fewer questions (maybe a mailbag episode is in order?) but there's something on my mind recently that I've thought of before, and as you guys are much better versed in the ASOIAF universe I thought I'd solicit your thoughts here. 

To my mind, R'hllor is the only deity for which we've seen objective proof of their existence (Beric's resurrections, visions in the flames, etc). Not to say the others don't exist, but we have yet to see objective "miracles" from the other gods and religions. 

One could also argue for the Many-Faced God, as, of course, several people die throughout the series. 

The Seven appear to be mostly superstition (meta commentary from GRRM?). 

One could maybe make an argument about the Old Gods via the weirwood trees, but that seems somewhat dubious as well. 

My questions are thus: what ASOIAF religions do you think are real, and which are just bunk? Do you think R'hllor and his followers have a larger role to play as we hurtle towards the endgame or are his machinations simply a function of plot/narrative necessity? Any other thoughts you have on this, I'd love to hear. 

Thanks for indulging me and taking the time, keep up the good work my friends!

Synopsis

Catelyn Stark is heading north from King’s Landing, doing nothing wrong in the middle of a rainstorm. Rodrik Cassel tells her to put her hood up, or she’ll catch a chill. But Catelyn doesn’t care. She’s living the Riverlands dream out here, letting the warm, soft southern rain fall on her. And she didn’t care how awful she looked. This was home for her. And home was full of memories. Damp leaves, the Riverrun godswood with drooping branches holding water and Lysa and Catelyn making mud pies and having Littlefinger eat them. The rain was youth; the rain was home. In contrast, the rain at Winterfell was not so nice. It was cold, and no one played in it. It was ice. It could be death.

But where Catelyn is having the time of her life, Ser Rodrik Cassel is miserable. He thinks about stopping soon to set up a fire, but Catelyn says there’s an inn ahead -- one that she knew from her girlhood. She’d spent many a night in that inn as her father Lord Hoster traveled to and fro. Hmmmmm. Yeah, you know the drill. More on that later! 

But is an inn safe? Ser Rodrik is skeptical. But before he can broach his skepticism further, riders approach down the kingsroad. It’s Lord Jason Mallister with his son Patrek. Ser Rodrik begs Catelyn to put her hood up, but she refuses. As Lord Mallister passes, she looks him boldly and recalls the last time that she had seen him, he was making ribald jests at her wedding night with Brynden Tully. What-What!

This time, though, Lord Jason doesn’t recognize her. No one does. To all onlookers, they appear as mud-spattered travelers. This leads Catelyn to state against that they’d be anonymous at the Inn at the Crossroads. So, they arrive at the inn near dark and meet Marsha Heddle. Who is Marsha Heddle? She’s the owner of the inn, and is renowned for chewing a sour leaf which turns her mouth into a ghastly red. 

Catelyn asks for two rooms. Marsha says sure, so long as they’re okay with rooms that are by the bell tower which will ring when supper is ready. And don’t you be late for supper! Catelyn accepts, and then she changes into warm clothes in her room. She looks outside her dirty, milk-colored window, and she catches an unclear glimpse of the crossroads where the river and kingsroads meet. Metaphor alert!

Anyways, the road crossing gives her pause. She thinks about where she might go from here. It was an easy ride to Riverrun if she wanted to go that route. Besides, if war was coming, Riverrun would be right in the crosshairs of any army coming east or west. Meanwhile, the eastern road was a wilder and more dangerous route that ran through the Mountains of the Moon. If she went that route, she might question her sister and find some answers to help bring the Lannisters to ruin. But the mountain road was dangerous. Wild animals and wild men lived in the mountains.

So, Catelyn decides the only way is to Winterfell. She would get north of the Neck and declare herself to one of Ned’s bannermen. From there, preparations for war would be made. And the rain kept falling and obscuring Catelyn’s view. But in her memory, she knew the land. There was a village not far. Beyond that, the kingsroad ran along the Green Fork of the Trident through valleys and forests to towns, holdfasts and castles of the river lords.

Cat had known them all from her youth. The quarrelsome Blackwoods and Brackens, Lady Whent at Harrenhal, Walder Frey. All bannermen to her father and all needed if it came to war. But if he called his banners, would her father’s banner lords come riding? Maybe. Maybe not. Some of Hoster Tully’s bannermen remained loyal to the Aerys II Targaryen during Robert’s Rebellion, and Hoster had to fight them as rebels. Meanwhile, Walder Frey had come late to the Trident, and no one was quite sure who he planned to back: Aerys or Robert -- despite Walder claiming that he was coming to the aid of Robert. Hoster Tully had called him the Late Lord Frey ever after.

It must not come to war, Catelyn thought fervently. They must not let it.

As soon as the bell stopped tolling, Rodrik arrived at her room and said that they should grab a bite to eat. Catelyn agrees, but first they must take on new identities. They must become father and daughter to attract less notice. As you say, my lady, Rodrik says before realizing what he said. They laugh for a moment and head down to a dinner that would decide so, so much.

Downstairs, the benches are crowded with people, and Rodrik and Catelyn find a table on the far side of the room. As she sits, she studies the room. Smallfolk, farmers, merchants but some swordsmen are in the room. The swordsmen have Frey and Bracken surcoats on, but she judges that none of them would know who she is given their youth. 

Across from them, a singer offers a blessing which Catelyn reciprocates and Rodrik ignores. The singer asks Catelyn and Rodrik where they’re going. Catelyn carefully replies that they left King’s Landing two weeks prior. The singer says that’s where he’s going, hoping to win silver and renown at the Hand’s Tourney. And the singer should have won both at the last tourney, but he’d lost it all gambling on Jaime Lannister to win the tourney. 

Anyways, food arrives, and the singer introduces himself as Marillion. He thinks they might know him. They don’t. Singers rarely made it north to Winterfell, but Catelyn is bemused by Marillion’s demeanor. It reminds her of the singers from her youth. Rodrik is less so. When Marrillion asks who was the best singer they ever knew. Rodrik replies “Alia of Braavos.” When Marillion protests that he’s better than that old stick and that he’ll show them for a silver, Rodrik states that he has a copper or two, but he’d have better use of the coins by throwing them down a well. You see, Rodrik thought singing and music was nice for the gals, but hashtag: real men don’t have any use for singers. They are swordsmen.

Anyways, Cat asks if Marillion ever played in Riverrun. Marillion lies and talks about how he and Edmure are best friends, and that he has his own room at Riverrun. Cat smiles to herself, knowing that Edmure hates singers -- especially after one bedded a girl Edmure was interested in. Catelyn asks if the singer has ever gone to Winterfell. Nah, the Starks don’t know music other than the howling of wolves.

And just then the door opens on the far side of the room. Cue the start of the AGOT plot.

Tyrion Lannister, Yoren and two Lannister men come through asking for a room. But there’s no room available. Catelyn is aghast. How is it that Tyrion is here of all places? Tyrion flashes a coin, saying he’ll buy a room from someone. A freerider takes Tyrion up on the offer, and Tyrion flips him the coin. He asks for food from Marsha Heddle, and Catelyn hopes he chokes on the food. Tyrion orders food for himself and his men anyways.

So far, Tyrion hasn’t looked toward the end of the hall Catelyn and Rodrik are in, but then Marillion jumps to his feet and yells to Tyrion that he’ll sing for him about his father’s victory at King’s Landing.

Nothing would be more likely to ruin my supper.

The dwarf looks at the singer for a moment and then looks away until … he spots Catelyn Stark. 

Lady Stark, what an unexpected pleasure. I was sorry to miss you at Winterfell.

Uh-oh. Everyone is aghast at not recognizing Catelyn, and Cat feels eyes bearing down on her. What should she do? Should she risk doing that? Yeah. She’s going to risk it. Catelyn points to a man wearing the sigil of House Whent.

You in the corner. Is that the black bat of Harrenhal?

It is. And he’s a true and loyal man to the Tullys. And how about you with the red stallion? The Brackens were always welcome at Riverrun. Are you loyal? Yup. They are too. And how about you dudes with the Twin Towers of House Frey. How’s Big Daddy Walder? Good. Getting married again. 

Tyrion laughs, and Catelyn knows she has him now.

This man came a guest into my house, and there conspired to murder my son, a boy of seven. In the name of King Robert and the good lords you serve, I call upon you to seize him and help me return him to Winterfell to await the King’s justice.

A dozen swords are drawn and Catelyn Stark nee Tully is satisfied by the sound and the look on Tyrion Lannister’s face.

And that is AGOT, Catelyn V. In the words of Will Smith in Bad Boys: Shit just got real. 

Depth

After all the intrigue and arranging of cyvasse pieces in the last few Ned and Catelyn chapters, this is where the central storyline of AGOT--the conflict snowballing its way toward the War of Five Kings--really blasts off. It’s an anchoring chapter for the book, the first act break. From here, you get the Vale plot, you get Ned’s brawl in the streets with Jaime, you get the opening moves of the Lannister invasion of the Riverlands. It very appropriately takes place at the crossroads. This is where the paths come together, and everything explodes outward. 

It’s entirely appropriate that this chapter occurs at the Inn at the Crossroads and in the middle of a huge rainstorm. This passage never stuck out to me until this read:

She sat by the window, watching rain run down the pane. The glass was milky and full of bubbles, and a wet dusk was falling outside. Catelyn could just make out the muddy crossing where the two great roads met.

Catelyn is staring out at a pivotal plot crossroads, and her view is limited - thanks Littlefinger - and though Catelyn will think that her memories and past experiences will guide her on, but will they? 

• For our POV, it’s not just a crossroads in space, but in time
  • This is home: 
    • Her hair hung wet and heavy, a loose strand stuck to her forehead, and she could imagine how ragged and wild she must look, but for once she did not care. The southern rain was soft and warm. Catelyn liked the feel of it on her face, gentle as a mother's kisses. It took her back to her childhood, to long grey days at Riverrun. She remembered the godswood, drooping branches heavy with moisture, and the sound of her brother's laughter as he chased her through piles of damp leaves. She remembered making mud pies with Lysa, the weight of them, the mud slick and brown between her fingers. They had served them to Littlefinger, giggling, and he'd eaten so much mud he was sick for a week. How young they all had been.
      
      Catelyn had almost forgotten. In the north, the rain fell cold and hard, and sometimes at night it turned to ice. It was as likely to kill a crop as nurture it, and it sent grown men running for the nearest shelter. That was no rain for little girls to play in.
    • She associates the southern rain with her mother, with Lysa and Edmure and Littlefinger, with youth and innocence...and contrasts that all with the northern icy rain of adulthood
    • Right in line with her opening chapter in the godswood, and the theme of icy/bloody/endless tears in Catelyn’s story (and Lysa’s, and Sansa’s, and Lyanna’s...) 
  • Her memories of the inn get at that same nostalgia
    • "There is an inn at the crossroads up ahead," Catelyn told him. She had slept many a night there in her youth, traveling with her father. Lord Hoster Tully had been a restless man in his prime, always riding somewhere. She still remembered the innkeep, a fat woman named Masha Heddle who chewed sourleaf night and day and seemed to have an endless supply of smiles and sweet cakes for the children. The sweet cakes had been soaked with honey, rich and heavy on the tongue, but how Catelyn had dreaded those smiles. The sourleaf had stained Masha's teeth a dark red, and made her smile a bloody horror. 
    • Once again, it’s back to childhood--smiles and sweet cakes!
    • But contrast that with sourness and blood--the future rearing its head, especially for Masha herself
    • She was traveling with Hoster, it’s worth noting
      • Worth noting, because why is Catelyn traveling with Hoster on all his journeys?
        • Southron Ambitions Theory, y’all!
        • What’s that?
        • Theory that houses Tully, Arryn, Stark and Baratheon were plotting to unseat Aerys II Targaryen before Robert’s Rebellion began
        • So, why is it important that Catelyn was traveling with Hoster?
        • Because it seems likely to me that her father was working to cement the nascent alliance via marriage and was looking for marriage prospects for his daughter.
        • Could also be more mundane that Hoster took his family along his rides to secure the river lords as part of his regular duties as Lord Paramount
        • Even if that was the case, my suspicion remains that Hoster was securing the Riverlands ahead of his planned rebellion against Aerys.
• Hiding in plain sight
  • Part of what makes this chapter work so well is how GRRM builds up to the climactic moment of Tyrion recognizing Catelyn--the themes of disguise and identity are present throughout the chapter, from the very beginning:
  • Then we get the meeting with the Mallisters on the road:
    • That ties the theme specifically to Catelyn’s Riverland roots as emphasized in the earlier passages
  • Next comes Masha Heddle, whose mood is quite different for two random strangers than for the liege lord and his daughter:
  • Marillion, too, doesn’t realize who he’s dealing with, which allows him to spin some fabrications of his own:
  • And that all comes to a head with Tyrion, after which Catelyn asserts her identity. Speaking of which…
• The climax, and hoo boy is it ever
  • Catelyn calls out how feudalism works

Likes/Dislikes

Like: Rodrik and Catelyn have a cute moment at the inn where he immediately forgets he’s not supposed to call her “my lady.” It dovetails nicely with both Podrick’s eternal struggle to find an honorific suiting Brienne (another pair of travelers on the road in the Riverlands) and GRRM’s class observations with Masha Heddle, who bows and scrapes before Tyrion as she did for Lord Tully’s children, but doesn’t know Catelyn Stark on sight to offer smiles, sweet cakes, and servility. 

Dislike: Marillion serves his purpose in this chapter and in Littlefinger’s improvisational scheming at the Eyrie, but with a couple of exceptions (Tom o’ Sevens and even more so Mance), I don’t think GRRM does bards especially well. Marillion, Dareon, Symon Silvertongue, the Blue Bard...their dialogue tends to be stiff, their thematic role (to point out that Songs And Stories Aren’t Real) is redundant by the time you get to books four and five, and their fates lean toward the grimdark “look how violent I can be” end of the spectrum. 

Like: I think I like everything about this chapter. Sure, I’ll have a dislike that I have to have, but let me count the ways I love this chapter:

1. I love the rain, how it comforts Catelyn, how changing into dry clothes feels great after being in the rain for hours and days. Love also how it obscures Catelyn’s vision, symbolizing that she’s in a Littlefingerian fog, and it’s not getting better too.  It’s visceral writing. It’s brilliant
2. I love Catelyn Stark and the character work done here. Despite the wrongs going on about how Catelyn was acting stupidly and pushing her family into war, she really doesn’t. The thought of war terrifies her much as it should.
3. Love the mini histories of the Riverlands: the Bracken-Blackwood conflict, the cursed history of Harrenhal, Hoster Tully, the Riverlords who bucked Hoster during Robert’s Rebellion. 
4. Worldbuilding: not only the Riverlands but also the Vale, the Mountains of the Moon, the North.
5. Scope: I love that the Hand’s Tourney really is a huge deal. Everyone is heading down to King’s Landing. It really helps craft our expectation for the Hand’s Tourney when we see it in AGOT, Sansa II and AGOT, Eddard VII. 
6. But above all, the kickass ending. Again, put aside your re-read minds for a moment. On first read, didn’t this feel like a triumph? A guilty man (Tyrion) was getting brought to justice by Catelyn and her merry band. It’s such a good moment that David Benioff and Dan Weiss chose to use this for the ending of “Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things” from Game of Thrones, Season 1.

Dislike: Okay, I’m trying. I really am. I don’t feel annoyed about this the way that some people do, but the timeline of Tyrion getting down from the Wall and Winterfell and chance-encountering Catelyn in the Riverlands is absurdly fast. When you sit down to think about it: Tyrion travels 2000 miles from the Wall to the Inn at the Crossroads while Catelyn does 400 from KL to the Inn. It’s a bit absurd for them to meet where they do, but still, I prefer GRRM playing fast and loose with distance/time for the narrative to spin out at the aptly-named inn.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

George writes some excellent irony into this chapter in contrasting Catelyn’s decision to go to Winterfell instead of the Eyrie or Riverrun

No, she thought, Riverrun and the Eyrie would have to wait. Her path ran north to Winterfell, where her sons and her duty were waiting for her.

• Ironic, because Catelyn will never go to Winterfell ever again in the story. She will never see Bran and Rickon.
• Instead, she’ll go the Eyrie first and by the end of AGOT, she’ll be in Riverrun.

Naturally, the key groundwork in this chapter is for all the ripple effects of Catelyn’s decision, and indeed they are laid out for us as she tries to decide which road to take. To the west: 

If Winterfell needed to brace for war, how much more so Riverrun, so much closer to King’s Landing, with the power of Casterly Rock looming to the west like a shadow. If only her father had been stronger, she might have chanced it, but Hoster Tully had been bedridden these past two years, and Catelyn was loath to tax him now.

Which pays off when Jaime invades the Riverlands in revenge to find not the canny Hoster waiting for him, but the inexperienced Edmure. To the east: 

The eastern road was wilder and more dangerous, climbing through rocky foothills and thick forests into the Mountains of the Moon, past high passes and deep chasms to the Vale of Arryn and the stony Fingers beyond. Above the Vale, the Eyrie stood high and impregnable, its towers reaching for the sky. There she would find her sister … and, perhaps, some of the answers Ned sought. Surely Lysa knew more than she had dared to put in her letter. She might have the very proof that Ned needed to bring the Lannisters to ruin, and if it came to war, they would need the Arryns and the eastern lords who owed them service.

Yet the mountain road was perilous. Shadowcats prowled those passes, rock slides were common, and the mountain clans were lawless brigands, descending from the heights to rob and kill and melting away like snow whenever the knights rode out from the Vale in search of them. Even Jon Arryn, as great a lord as any the Eyrie had ever known, had always traveled in strength when he crossed the mountains. Catelyn's only strength was one elderly knight, armored in loyalty.

I think it’s terrific Lord of the Rings type writing. Casterly Rock looming like a shadow over Riverrun and the perilous mountain road remind me of how the shadow of Mordor looms over Gondor while the perilous mountain road gives me vibes of Caradhras -- the mountain that the fellowship attempts to cross in Fellowship of the Ring.

This of course is the road Catelyn will take...to her disappointment. Lysa damn well does know more, but she ain’t telling, and she will prevent those “eastern lords” champing at the bit to join Robb from doing so, which arguably dooms him as much as any other factor in his downfall. To the north and south: 

Catelyn knew them all: the Blackwoods and the Brackens, ever enemies, whose quarrels her father was obliged to settle; Lady Whent, last of her line, who dwelt with her ghosts in the cavernous vaults of Harrenhal; irascible Lord Frey, who had outlived seven wives and filled his twin castles with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and bastards and grandbastards as well. All of them were bannermen to the Tullys, their swords sworn to the service of Riverrun. Catelyn wondered if that would be enough, if it came to war. Her father was the staunchest man who'd ever lived, and she had no doubt that he would call his banners … but would the banners come? The Darrys and Rygers and Mootons had sworn oaths to Riverrun as well, yet they had fought with Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident, while Lord Frey had arrived with his levies well after the battle was over, leaving some doubt as to which army he had planned to join (theirs, he had assured the victors solemnly in the aftermath, but ever after her father had called him the Late Lord Frey). It must not come to war, Catelyn thought fervently. They must not let it. 

Here Catelyn lays out some important Riverlands elements going forward: Harrenhal, the Blackwoods and Brackens, and above all the treacherous Freys. (Those Riverlords who stayed loyal to House Targaryen keeps coming up; setup for them joining Young Griff, given the Blackfyre history in the region? Or Dany? One, then the other?) 

We also get some sly foreshadowing of Tyrion’s successful appeal to Bronn, and of how Bronn will make good on it:

Tyrion Lannister pulled a coin from his purse and flicked it up over his head, caught it,tossed it again. Even across the room, where Catelyn sat, the wink of gold was unmistakable.

A freerider in a faded blue cloak lurched to his feet. “You’re welcome to my room, m’lord.”

“Now there’s a clever man,” Lannister said as he sent the coin spinning across the room. The freerider snatched it from the air. “And a nimble one to boot.”

Theory/Discussion

Was Catelyn right or…(gasps, thunderclaps) wrong???

Context, people!

• Catelyn has no good options here
  • If Tyrion presses on to the capital and tells his siblings he saw Lady Stark coming north from KL in disguise, they’ll know Ned’s conspiring
  • This is right after the need to pretend everything’s legit was emphasized:
  • Her first instinct is therefore to hide and pass like ships in the night
  • This is repeatedly demonstrated:
  • Marillion makes this impossible, so...plan B
• Catelyn doesn’t know that Ned’s gonna tell Robert to shove the Hand pin up his royal ass
  • This will in turn embolden Jaime to attack Ned in response to Catelyn’s actions, as Jaime himself indicates:
  • Without that fight in council, Ned might’ve been able to win Robert to his side rather than the king calling it a wash
  • More generally speaking, Catelyn loses a significant asset right when she needs it most
  • Worth noting that Ned knows Catelyn has done this when he gives up his position
• And Then There’s Lysa
  • Catelyn doesn’t know she’s lying
  • Nor does she know about Lysa’s mental and emotional state of late
  • Nor does she know that the power of the Vale has been devolved into a 35,000-strong bodyguard unit for one frightened child
  • As with Ned, Catelyn has made reasonable assumptions about the resources and power at her back, only for those assumptions to fail after it’s too late to go back
• Bigger picture: the war is inevitable 
  • Stannis is getting ready, Renly is getting ready, Varys and Illyrio are getting ready (“what good is war now?” is a promise for war later)
  • The game is on as soon as Robert dies regardless of what happens here, and Ned will conclude his investigation all the quicker if Catelyn successfully hides from Tyrion 
  • As such, while this is indeed the tipping point into outright violence between the Lannisters and the Tullys/Starks, I think another one would’ve come along quickly had this one been averted

Having said all that…I do think you can fairly lay part of the blame for the Lannister invasion of the Riverlands at Catelyn’s feet. She couldn’t have guessed that Jaime would attack the de-Handed Ned, but she could’ve guessed that Tywin would raise a host and come for Riverrun. After all, this is right after she tells us that Hoster is in poor health and that “it must not come to war.” I think her motivations are understandable, her reasoning fairly sound, and her overall plan largely a victim of some truly terrible luck, but she still bears responsibility for the way the war starts: with an invasion of the Riverlands, the land she loves, because of what she does here. 

Conclusion

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