Episode 27: A GAME OF THRONES, EDDARD VI: "The King's Bastard" 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-seventh episode of the Not A Cast entitled: “The King’s Bastard: An Analysis of AGOT, Eddard VI,” in which Ned Stark has a frustrating small council session, the reader receives our first inklings of who Stannis Baratheon is and Ned visits an armorer and his apprentice who turns out to be Gendry: Robert Baratheon’s bastard. 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

Ser Travis M asks:

Which era of Westeros or Essos history would you like to visit and perhaps live in and experience?

Same thing for our own world history.

Robert Baratheon Character Analysis patreon-only episode coming your-all’s way on Thursday, August 30, 2018!

Synopsis

Janos Slynt, commander of the Goldcloaks and a fuckboy, is complaining to the small council that the streets of King’s Landing grow unruly as the Hand’s Tourney approaches. The king’s tourney, Ned corrects. Lord Stark still wants nothing to do with the tournament. But Janos isn’t interested in what the tournament is called. There’s just so many damn people in King’s Landing now. For every knight, there’s craftsmen, men at arms, merchants, sex workers and thieves. And the heat? It’s so damn hot in King’s Landing. The Hand’s Tourney was a bad choice.

Janos rolls through a litany of crimes that have been committed the night prior: riots, drownings, knife fights, a rape, fires and robberies beyond count. And a woman’s head was found floating in the rainbow pool of the Great Sept the night prior to last night. 

How dreadful, Varys intones. Renly is dismissive of Janos’ concerns. Keep the king’s peace or we’ll find a new commander of the City Watch. Janos grows angry, talking about how even Aegon the Conqueror couldn’t keep the peace. He needs more men. How many, Ned asks. As many as I can get my hands on. Ned tells Janos to hire 50 new goldcloaks, and Littlefinger will see to the coin. 

I will? Littlefinger asks. You will. You found forty thousand golden dragons for a champion’s purse, surely you can scrap together a few coppers to keep the king’s peace. And Ned will send 20 of his own men to assist Janos in policing the mean streets of King’s Landing. 

Janos, still and always a fuckboy, thanks Ned for the extra narcs, and the council gets down to more council business. The Hand’s Tourney is causing problems, and Ned wants it over with soon. And he still hates that Robert continued to call it “The Hand’s Tourney.” Besides, the treasury was burdened by the expense. Pycelle talks about how the tourney is bolstering morale in the city, and Littlefinger does a hollow Keynesian thing and talks about how the tourney is making people spend money, thus bolstering the economy. And Renly the Terrorist reminisces about how his brother - the future one true king Stannis Baratheon tried to outlaw brothels until Robert asked Stannis if he’d also like to outlaw shitting and breathing while he was at it. And then Renly, a shitty, shitty person talks about how Stannis’ daughter Shireen is ugly and wonders how Stannis ever got a child on his wife Selyse given that he goes to his marriage bed like a commander marching to war.

But Ned isn’t laughing. He wonders aloud when Stannis intends to return to King’s Landing. Littlefinger japes that Stannis will return soon as the sex workers have been scourged into the sea. But Ned’s had enough of the council session. He calls it to an end, and then heads back to his chambers, summoning Jory Cassel as he walks off. As Ned continues moving towards his chambers, he returns to familiar thoughts about how he wishes he could be in Cat’s arms or listening to Robb and Jon cross swords in the Winterfell practice yard. And the cool days/nights that Winterfell offered instead of this wretched heat.

In his chambers, Ned gets into comfy clothes and decides to read the book that Grand Maester Pycelle, an idiot, sent him. It’s a ponderous tome with a pretentious as fuck title: The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, With Descriptions of Many High Lords and Noble Ladies and Their Children. What a mouthful! But Ned’s still interested in why Jon Arryn wanted to read this book. There had to be something in the pages for Ned to discover. But what? 

Ned re-reads the pages on the Lannisters, reading about how the Lannisters traced their lineage to Lann the Clever who tricked House Casterly out of Casterly Rock. Nothing seems pertinent to Ned’s investigation there. But then someone knocks on the door, signalling that Jory Cassel has arrived.

Ned tells Jory about his promise of 20 men to assist the Goldcloaks. Alyn will lead those men, and the guards are to be peacemakers not warfighters. Ned asks Jory whether he found the stableboy. Jory says yes, they found him. He’s now a watchmen. And what did he have to say? Not much of interest. Jon Arryn gave the lads a copper on their nameday, and that Lord Arryn loved horses and didn’t abuse his animals. He even gave them carrots and apples. Yum.

Ned doesn’t think this is useful, and this leads him to reminisce about the other people who Ned’s men interrogated. Ser Hugh of the Vale had been unhelpful and snobbish, refusing to treat with a mere guardsmen, demanding that Ned himself come talk to him if he so wished. The serving girl said that Jon Arryn had read a lot more recently. And the potboy hadn’t even spoken with Jon Arryn. But he was full of gossip -- about how Jon Arryn was quarreling with King Robert, how Jon Arryn only picked at his food, that the former Hand was sending his son to be fostered with Stannis on Dragonstone, how Jon Arryn had taken a sudden interest in the breeding of hunting hounds and that Jon Arryn and Stannis had gone to a certain armorer to get a new suit of armor made.

Back to the present, Ned asks whether the potboy-turned-watchmen had anything else to say. Well, Jon Arryn was as strong as a man half his age, and … he’d been chilling with Stannis Baratheon a lot. Ned thinks this is strange. Jon and Stannis weren’t exactly friends. And Stannis himself flew the coop to Dragonstone and hadn’t been heard from. And where were Stannis and Jon Arryn chilling at? Uh, a brothel. 

A brothel? Ned says. The Lord of the Eyrie and Hand of the King visited a brothel with Stannis Baratheon?

Yeah, apparently. And this is strange to Ned given what Renly said at the council session and what he knows of Stannis. Unlike Robert, Stannis was a different sort of man. Where Robert was licentious and crude, Stannis was stern, humorless, unforgiving with a grim sense of duty. 

Ned asks which brothel the two men went to, but Jory reports that the watchmen didn’t know. Perhaps others in Jon Arryn’s entourage would know, but they’re all back in the Eyrie now. Ned muses that anyone who might know what truly happened to Jon Arryn were now back in the Vale. The gods are vexing Ned. But what about Stannis? Should he be summoned? Not yet. Ned wants to know more information before he asks Stannis to come back -- not that Ned isn’t desperately curious about why Stannis isn’t there. Did he play a part in Jon Arryn’s death? Or was he scurred? Probably not scurred.

Ned Stark found it hard to imagine what could frighten Stannis Baratheon, who had once held Storm’s End through a year of siege, surviving on rats and boot leather, while the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne sat outside with their hosts, banqueting in sight of his walls.

Hell. Yes. God, I love that line about Stannis. One of my favorite descriptions of him - and all before we even meet him! 

Anyways, Ned’s not about to sit around the Hand’s Tower, not doing his noir investigation bit. He’s off to see this armorer that Jon Arryn and Stannis visited. Should they invite Renly, Jory asks. Nah. He wasn’t invited on the original rides with Jon Arryn and Stannis. Besides, Ned’s not sure what to make of Renly. A few days before this chapter, Renly visited Ned and showed him a locket with a miniature of a young girl, asking if the girl reminded Ned of anyone. When Ned had said no. Renly was disappointed. You see, the locket was a painting of Margaery Tyrell, daughter of Lord Mace Tyrell, and Renly was hoping that Ned would say that Margaery reminded Ned of his sister Lyanna. But she hadn’t, and Ned wondered whether Renly had grown a crush on a girl similar to his older brother’s first love.

Anyways, Ned and his men are off to find this armorer who lives in a house above the Street of Steel. They journey through the stink of King’s Landing, pass by mummers, children, women throwing shit at men fighting in the streets and cart vendors selling all sorts of fruits and veggies. Meanwhile, the lesson that Littlefinger gave him on paranoia is still fresh on his mind, and Ned is suspicious that Varys is watching where he’s going.

But as they pass through the Mud Gate, there’s a commotion. It’s Lord Beric Dondarrion coming through the gate, bragging about how he’s going to win the Hand’s Tourney. Anyhow, Ned finally arrives at the armorer’s place. He notices the wood door to the armory has a carving of a hunting scene in ebony and … weirwood. Huh. Interesting.

They’re welcomed into the establishment, and the Tobho Mott enters. Now this guy I like! He asks if Ned wants armor for the Hand’s Tourney, offering wine. And Ned just lets him run his mouth. According to Tobho, his work is the best there is. He’s made armor for Loras Tyrell, Renly Baratheon, and he knows the secrets on how to rework Valyrian steel. And he can make a direwolf helm for Ned Stark.

Did you make a falcon helm for Lord Arryn?

Well, no. Jon Arryn did come by, but he wasn’t interested in buying arms or armor. Instead, Jon Arryn was interested in “the boy.” That piques Ned’s interest. He’d like to see the boy too. Tobho loses his salesman’s touch and leads Ned back to the forge. There, they meet a boy who’s about 14 years old (Robb’s age) with blue eyes and thick, shaggy unkempt black hair. Hm, wonder who he’s related to?

Tobho introduces the boy as Gendry and asks Gendry to show Ned the helmet he’s making. Shyly, Gendry leads Ned back to his forge and shows him the helmet. Ned asks if he can buy it. Nope. Not for sale, rich man. Tobho is horrified. Give it to him, Gendry. Hell to the no. It’s for me, Gendry replies. Tobho apologizes to Ned, saying that he’ll beat the boy to teach him obedience and will craft him a helmet, but Ned’s not about that. 

Ned asks what Gendry and Jon Arryn talked about. He asked questions about whether he was treated well and who his mother was. Ned asks what the boy told Jon Arryn, and Gendry says that his mother worked in a tavern and had yellow hair. And what about Stannis? Well, the future one true king just glared at Gendry like he was some sort of rapist. 

Ned then tells Gendry to look at him, and he begins to see who the boy really is. He dismisses Gendry back to his work, and he turns to Tobho, asking him who paid for his apprentice fee. Well, at first Tobho tries to skirt around the truth, but finally he tells Ned that some stout lord who hid his appearance and face paid the boy’s apprentice fee. But Tobho doesn’t want any trouble. Yeah, no one does. But it finds its way, Ned says. Lord Stark then asks Tobho if he knows who the boy really is. Nah, he doesn’t care. He just knows what he’s told. He’s his apprentice and that’s all that matters. 

Ned decides he likes Tobho and tells the armorer that if Gendry ever wanted to wield a sword rather than make one, send him to Ned. 

As Ned departs, Jack, one of Ned’s men asks if he found anything. 

I did, Ned told him, wondering. What had Jon Arryn wanted with a king’s bastard, and why was it worth his life?

And that is the end of AGOT, Eddard VI: a solid, fun and intriguing chapter!

Depth

For me, Eddard VI is a significantly more interesting chapter than Eddard V, despite being largely an extension of the same subplot--the investigation of Jon Arryn’s death. That’s because of the actual content; no offense to Pycelle and Littlefinger (well, some offense), but the aspect of this storyline I find really interesting is how it pertains to the rising and falling fortunes within House Baratheon, royal for but one generation and already subject to multiple pressures from within and without. And that’s what this chapter is about. 

• But first, the council
  • Governing as a burden Robert has shifted to Ned--the king eats, the Hand takes the shit
  • The insult to injury is doing it all in Ned’s honor 
    • That contrast with Stannis as mentioned previously: one gets the honors and doesn’t want them, the other wants them and is always denied them 
  • Ned adds his own men to the gold cloaks to help keep the peace, which is a noble gesture, but diminishes his own power
    • It only emphasizes the venality of Janos Slynt that he betrays the man who gives him his own guards to help do his job 
  • The debate over the worth of the tourney
    • The cost to public order
    • But the coins flowing into coffers!
    • Worth noting, though, that these are not lasting public investments
    • They serve largely exploitative industries--of course Littlefinger’s happy, he owns brothels
    • Exemplified by Anguy pissing away his winnings rather than raising up turnips and sons
    • Knights of summer v. preparing for winter, Robert and Renly v. Stannis…
• Speaking of which! 
  • This chapter is our first real plunge into the fractured family dynamics of House Baratheon 
  • Specifically, it’s Robert and Renly (aka Young Robert) v. Stannis
    • On prostitution
    • On Shireen
    • In temperament in general
  • Stannis and the Siege
    • Gives an impression of toughness and stubbornness
    • An accomplished military presence
    • Earned Ned’s respect
    • Intense loyalty to Robert, a hard decision he made, as we learn in ASOS
    • The legend of Stannis Baratheon: GRRM is building him up for the next book, setting great foundation for when we finally meet Stannis in the ACOK Prologue. 
  • The Baratheon Brothers and the Twincest 
    • The case for Renly knowing: his Margaery plot comes up in this context 
    • It’s as if the author is saying “here is what Stannis did when he realized the truth, and here is what Renly did”
    • Both went to a powerful Lord Paramount to secure support before moving openly against the Lannisters 
    • Renly, however, rooted his play in Robert’s nostalgia for Lyanna 
    • It’s a backwards-looking approach for the seemingly forward-looking Renly, and boy is THAT representative
    • It’s part of the appearances uber alles approach to life that Ned senses: “not sure of what to make of Renly, with his friendly ways and easy smiles"
    • And Ned should embrace a sinless Young Robert, so that’s telling
    • Stannis, by contrast, offers “cold clear water," which is both more admirable and less likely to work on Robert
    • Above all, we get a sense of how badly things have gone awry in House Baratheon: once Stannis starved for Robert, now they fight in council, Renly mocks him behind his back, and Stannis glares at Gendry because he looks like Robert and Renly 
• On the Street of Steel
  • A microcosm of the city as a whole
    • It rises from river and mud
    • The masses at the bottom (kids running around, food merchants calling out, the less affluent smiths)
    • ...and the elites literally at the top of the hill (Tobho Mott with his doors of ebony and weirwood like he’s a goddamn Undying, describing his elaborate armorworks as if they’re magic, hiding a king’s bastard in the back) 
    • And who links these worlds but Beric Dondarrion, appearing for the first time? 
  • Ned proves canny, who knew?
    • Mostly passive, but that’s a key part of investigation
    • Lets Tobho Mott talk
    • Asks to see the boy without giving away his ignorance
    • “You know who the boy is, that is not a question”
  • Tobho Mott: asshole or angel? 
    • Initially presented as elitist and obsequious
    • When he drops the veil, he could be seen as dishonest and false…
    • ...and then it gets worse when he threatens to beat Gendry into silence (as opposed to the kindly paternal Ned)…
    • ...but then we realize that he’s trying hard to keep the kid safe, and that’s what earns Ned’s respect

Likes/Dislikes

Emmett Like: “How dreadful,” Varys shuddered. I like Varys’ tendency to swoon at unpleasant news. It works on any number of levels--it’s both obsequious and sarcastic, contrasting with his willingness to cut kids’ tongues out but congruous with his distaste for the sight of his own blood and...well, we’ll get into that in the theory section!

Emmett Dislike: It makes sense that Robert’s not here (the whole point is that he’s an absentee king, and some time apart from Ned after what happened on the road nicely echoes the rift RE Rhaegar’s children) but this reread is making me notice how long he just drops out of the book. That’s an issue because his relationships with his brothers are rather critical--his disastrous dynamic with Stannis causes so much damage down the line, and we oddly don’t see him interact with Renly at all. 

Jeff Like: See, Emmett. This is what I’m talking about. The investigation is a cool aspect of Ned’s arc. Yes, yes, you get can get all sappy over Lyanna and the emotional beats of Ned’s chapters, but look at all the fantastic plotting here with Ned’s investigation! You have all the clues as to what Jon Arryn was investigating, but GRRM holds back just enough that the answer is just outside of the reach of both the first time reader and Ned Stark himself.

Jeff Dislike: Agree with you on your dislike though. Where is Robert in all of this? I don’t get a sense of where he is or what he’s doing in these early mid-Ned AGOT chapters.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Setting up Ned’s downfall with him giving 20 of his own household guard away

Jon Arryn’s interests and what they tell us about his own investigation.

Strong Azor Ahai symbolism in the scene right after Beric (an Azor Ahai figure) is introduced--Ned rides a sword (The Street of Steel) into the fire (Ned compares the forge to a dragon’s mouth) and finds a Baratheon bastard like the one Stannis will consider sacrificing to go full Azor Ahai. 

In the songs, Lann was the fellow who winkled the Casterlys out of Casterly Rock with no weapon but his wits, and stole gold from the sun to brighten his curly hair. 

And of course, the modern-day Lannisters have “winkled” House Baratheon outta the Iron Throne!

Could it be that Lord Renly, who looked so like a young Robert, had conceived a passion for a girl he fancied to be a young Lyanna?

No, but he will marry her, which Robert ironically never got to do. 

Theories/Discussion

Who paid Gendry’s apprentice fee?

Ser Jose Y asks:

Hey guys, this is a question for the next Eddard Chapter. Who do you think paid Gendry’s apprentice fee?  Also is there anything to the fact that his mother had “yellow hair”?

Let’s get the full passage from Eddard VI:

He walked back to the house with the master. “Who paid the boy’s apprentice fee?” he asked lightly.

Mott looked fretful. “You saw the boy. Such a strong boy. Those hands of his, those hands were made for hammers. He had such promise, I took him on without a fee.”

“The truth now,” Ned urged. “The streets are full of strong boys. The day you take on an apprentice without a fee will be the day the Wall comes down. Who paid for him?”

“A lord,” the master said reluctantly. “He gave no name, and wore no sigil on his coat. He paid  in gold, twice the customary sum, and said he was paying once for the boy, and once for my silence.”

“Describe him.”

“He was stout, round of shoulder, not so tall as you. Brown beard, but there was a bit of red in it, I’ll swear. He wore a rich cloak, that I do remember, heavy purple velvet worked with silver threads, but the hood shadowed his face and I never did see him clear.”

So our description is: “a man who hides his face with a stout, round of shoulder, not tall, brown beard, some red in it, wearing a rich cloak”. Does this remind folks of other passages?

Eddard VII:

The visitor was a stout man in cracked, mud-caked boots and a heavy brown robe of the coarsest roughspun, his features hidden by a cowl, his hands drawn up into voluminous sleeves.

AGOT, Arya III

Even in heavy boots, his feet seemed to glide soundlessly over the ground. A round scarred face and a stubble of dark beard showed under his steel cap, and he wore mail over boiled leather, and a dirk and shortsword at his belt. 

Eddard XV

The eunuch's plump cheeks were covered with a dark stubble of beard. Ned felt the coarse hair with his fingers. Varys had transformed himself into a grizzled turnkey, reeking of sweat and sour wine. 

And Varys hints that he got Gendry out of King’s Landing in ACOK:

"There was another bastard, a boy, older. I took steps to see him removed from harm's way." (ACOK, Tyrion II)

The question, though, is why was Varys so interested in saving Gendry’s life? Why was he paying his apprentice fee? None of this makes sense!

Or does it?

<Cue duh-duh-duh music>

Conclusion

• Thanks for listening!
• Rate and review us on itunes, google play, etc
• Patreon/advertise/where we can find our work/social media
• Follow us on social media (Make sure to mention @NotACastASOIAF and our e mail: NotACastASOIAF@gmail.com)
• Join us next time as the plot actually gets going with Catelyn V!