Difference between revisions of "A Game of Thrones-Chapter 45"

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{| align=right border=1   
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{{Infobox Chapter AGoT
| align="center" colspan=3 style="border-top:1px |    [[A Game of Thrones]]
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| pov = [[Eddard Stark]]
|-   
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| place        = [[King's Landing]]
| align="center" colspan=3 style="border-top:1px |    [[Image:AGameOfThrones.jpg|100px]]
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| title = Eddard XII
|-   
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| page = 401
| align="center" colspan=3 style="border-top:1px | Chapters   
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| previous = [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 44|Sansa III]]
|-   
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| current = [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 45|Eddard XII]]
| align="center" |    [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 44|Sansa 3]]
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| next = [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 46|Daenerys V]]
| align="center" |    [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 45|Eddard 12]]
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| arc previous = [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 43|Eddard XI]]
| align="center" |    [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 46|Daenerys 5]]
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| arc next = [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 47|Eddard XIII]]
|-   
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}} __NOTOC__
| align="center" colspan=3 style="border-top:1px | POV Characters   
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|-   
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[[Eddard Stark|Ned]] now knows the truth [[Jon Arryn]] died for. He also learns from [[Pycelle]] and [[Petyr Baelish]] that Lord [[Tywin Lannister]] is preparing for a war. Later, Ned meets with Cersei and tells her that he will tell [[Robert Baratheon|Robert]] the truth when he returns, offering her the chance to flee and save her children. Cersei warns that Ned has made a mistake.
| align="center" |    [[Sansa Stark|Sansa]]
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| align="center" |    [[Eddard Stark|Eddard]]
 
| align="center" |    [[Daenerys Targaryen|Daenerys]]
 
|-   
 
| align="center" |    [[Image:House Stark.PNG|50px]]
 
| align="center" |    [[Image:House Stark.PNG|50px]]
 
| align="center" |    [[Image:House Targaryen.PNG|50px]]
 
|}   
 
   
 
 
==Synopsis==     
 
==Synopsis==     
[[Pycelle]] informs [[Eddard Stark|Ned]] that Lord [[Tywin Lannister|Tywin]] is wroth with him for sending men to bring Ser [[Gregor Clegane|Gregor]] to justice. Ned knows Pycelle is [[Cersei Lannister| the Queen]]’s creature, and doesn’t care. [[Petyr Baelish|Littlefinger]] pays a visit, and tells Ned that [[Robert Baratheon|the King]] continues to hunt, now after a fierce boar. Most of the hunting party returned, including [[Joffrey Baratheon|Joffrey]] and [[Sandor Clegane|the Hound]]. Littlefinger leaves, and Ned calls in Fat [[Tomard|Tom]], now in command of the Hand’s guard with [[Jory Cassel|Jory]] dead and [[Alyn]] gone, and asks him to take him to the godswood. There, Ned tells Tom to find the Queen and invite her to join him. When Cersei arrives, Ned reveals that he knows what [[Jon Arryn]] died for. We learn that all three children are Ser [[Jaime Lannister|Jaime]]’s. Cersei admits that [[Bran Stark|Bran]] had been pushed after he had seen them making love. She tells Ned why she hates Robert, because he had called her [[Lyanna Stark|Lyanna]]the first night they made love after being married.  
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[[Maester#Grand Maester|Grand Maester]] [[Pycelle]] tells [[Eddard Stark]] that the pain means that the bone is healing, but Ned only replies that he will be happy when his leg stops throbbing. Pycelle provides him with the [[milk of the poppy]] for the pain, but Ned says he sleeps too much already. Pycelle tells him sleep is good for healing.
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Pycelle informs Ned that Queen [[Cersei Lannister|Cersei]] has received a letter from her father. Lord [[Tywin Lannister|Tywin]] is angry about Ned sending men to bring Ser [[Gregor Clegane]] to justice. Ned replies that it does not bother him; Lord [[Beric Dondarrion]] rides under the king’s banner and if Lord Tywin attempts to interfere he will have [[Robert Baratheon|Robert]] to answer to, and the only thing Robert likes better than hunting is making war on defiant lords. Pycelle leaves, telling Ned that he will come again the next day.
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Ned knows Pycelle is Cersei’s creature, and doesn’t care. He is not actually confident in Robert, but he does not want Cersei to know that. He calls for honeyed wine, which will not cloud his mind as badly as the milk of the poppy, because he needs to think. Ned thinks how sometimes a child’s innocent eyes can see things that grown men are blind to and how some day he will have to tell [[Sansa Stark|Sansa]] how she made it all come clear to him.
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[[Petyr Baelish|Littlefinger]] pays a visit an hour after Pycelle leaves, bringing news that [[Varys]] has heard whispers that [[sellsword]]s are flocking to [[Casterly Rock]]. Ned asks about Robert and is told that, having found the white hart dead, the king is now after a fierce boar. Most of the hunting party has returned, however, including Prince [[Joffrey Baratheon|Joffrey]] and [[Sandor Clegane|the Hound]]. Littlefinger states that he would have liked to have seen the Hound’s reaction to learning that [[Beric Dondarrion]] is after the [[Gregor Clegane|brother]] he hates. With that Littlefinger leaves for a dinner, but not before noting the book of ''[[The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms]]'', and teasingly asking if it is a sleeping potion.
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Ned considers that, outside of his retainers, there is not a man in the city he trusts: Littlefinger leaving before the [[A Game of Thrones-Chapter 35|slaughter]] of his guard rankles him, Varys knows too much and does too little, Pycelle is Cersei’s, and Ser [[Barristan Selmy|Barristan]] is too old and rigid in his sense of duty.
 +
 
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[[Arya Stark|Arya]] and Sansa will sail in three days. Ned knows that honor will require him to go to Robert with all he knows when he returns. Last night he dreamed of when Lord Tywin had presented the bodies of Prince [[Rhaegar]]’s children to Robert. Ned remembers that Robert could be merciful if a man were brave and honest; he had pardoned Ser Barristan, Varys, Pycelle, [[Balon Greyjoy]], and Littlefinger and let them keep their office for an offer of fealty. However poison in the dark he will never forgive and would kill them all. [[Bran Stark|Bran]] must have learned some part of the truth; otherwise they would not have tried to kill him. Ned decides that he must find a way to save the children.
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Ned calls in [[Tomard|Fat Tom]], now in command of his guardsmen and asks to be taken to the [[godswood]]. Ned also orders the guard doubled despite the shortage of manpower. Ned sends Tom to find Queen Cersei and give her a letter inviting her to join him. As he sits in the godswood, Ned feels the presence of his gods under the faceless [[heart tree]] and his leg does not seem to hurt as much.
 +
 
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When Cersei arrives at nightfall, Ned notes that she is proudly displaying the bruise Robert has given her. For the first time in a long time, Ned can see her beauty. When he declares that he knows the truth [[Jon Arryn]] died for, Cersei scoffs whether he has brought her here to pose riddles or to kidnap her. Ned replies that if she believed such things she would not have come. He then asks about the bruise, and if Robert does such things often. She replies that it has never been on the face before and that her brother Jaime would have killed Robert if he knew.
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[[File:Winona Nelson The Only Game that MattersII.JPG|350px|thumb|right|© Fantasy Flight Games]]
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When Ned suggests a correction of “brother” to “lover,” Cersei does not trouble to deny it. Cersei admits that she and Jaime have been lovers since they were children and that when Jaime is in her she feels whole. When Ned asks about his son Bran, Cersei admits that he saw her and Jaime, offering her love for her own children as a reason for the attempted murder. Ned counters with a declaration that all three of Cersei’s children are Jaime’s. The last time a [[House Baratheon|Baratheon]] had a child with a [[House Lannister|Lannister]] was 90 years before when [[Tya Lannister]] wedded [[Gowen Baratheon]]; the single child was large and lusty boy with a full head of black hair. Thirty years before that a Lannister had taken a Baratheon maid; all the children had black hair. According to ''[[The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms]]'', the children of a  Lannister and a Baratheon always had black hair.
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Ned asks Cersei how it is possible that she never had a child by the king, and she admits she almost did but had the child aborted. Cersei goes on to claim that she cannot stand to even touch Robert now, and has not let him inside her for years. Instead she pleasures the king in other ways when he leaves his whores long enough; Robert is always so drunk that he never remembers.
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When Ned asks what made her hate Robert so much, Cersei reveals that on their wedding night Robert called her “[[Lyanna Stark|Lyanna]]” in the midst of the consummation. The story leads Ned to declare that he does not know which of them to pity more, but that he must still do his duty. Cersei makes a sexual advance on Ned while telling him that the realm needs a strong Hand and that he will never regret being kind to her. Ned immediately rejects the advance by asking if she made the same offer to [[Jon Arryn]] and she slaps him. Offended by Ned’s honorable persona, Cersei brings up [[Jon Snow]] and accuses Ned of many other possible debaucheries.
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Ned makes it clear that he intends to tell Robert everything when he returns and warns Cersei to leave [[King's Landing]]. He recommends that she take a ship to the [[Free Cities]] with all her immediate family, including [[Tywin Lannister|her father]], to escape Robert’s wrath. Cersei stands, laughs, and declares Ned a fool for not taking the throne himself fourteen years before, when he forced Jaime to surrender the seat. Ned replies that he has made more mistakes than Cersei can imagine, but that was not one of them. Cersei insists that it was, saying "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
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==External links==
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*[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/09/a-read-of-ice-and-fire-a-game-of-thrones-part-22 Summary and analyses of the chapter] by Leigh Butler.
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*[http://towerofthehand.com/books/101/046/index.html Summary of the chapter] on Tower of the Hand.
  
Cersei then offers Ned the chance to remain [[Hand of the King|Hand]] for Joffrey if he will remain silent, and even comes on to him, touching his leg. When Ned asks her if she made the same offer to Jon Arryn, she slaps him. Ned makes it clear that he intends to tell the King, and warns her to leave [[King's Landing]], maybe take ship to the [[Free Cities]], along with her children, brothers and [[Tywin Lannister|father]] to escape Robert’s wrath. Cersei laughs at him, and tells him he was a fool not to take the throne for himself fourteen years ago when he forced Jaime off the seat. Ned tells her he has made many mistakes in his life, but that was not one of them. Cersei replies that it was a mistake, because, "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."   
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==References and Notes==
==References and Notes==  
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[[Category: A Song of Ice And Fire chapters|A Game of Thrones: Chapter 45]]
   
 
*The synopsis was copied from Aol member vbkorik27 previously at[http://web.archive.org/web/20080228051425/members.aol.com/vbkorik27/summary/legend.html]   
 
   
 
[[Category: A Song of Ice And Fire chapters|A Game of Thrones: Chapter 45]]  
 
   
 
 
[[Category: A Song of Ice And Fire chapters--POV Eddard Stark]]
 
[[Category: A Song of Ice And Fire chapters--POV Eddard Stark]]
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[[Category:Chapters which take place at the Red Keep]]
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[[fr:A Game of Thrones, Chapitre 46, Eddard]]
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[[pt:A Guerra dos Tronos - Capítulo 45]]
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[[ru:Игра престолов, Эддард XII]]

Revision as of 17:09, 10 June 2019

Eddard XII
A Game of Thrones chapter
AGameOfThrones.jpg
POV Eddard Stark
Place King's Landing
Page 401 US HC (Other versions)
Chapter chronology (All)
Eddard XI
Sansa III  ← Eddard XII →  Daenerys V

Eddard XIII

Ned now knows the truth Jon Arryn died for. He also learns from Pycelle and Petyr Baelish that Lord Tywin Lannister is preparing for a war. Later, Ned meets with Cersei and tells her that he will tell Robert the truth when he returns, offering her the chance to flee and save her children. Cersei warns that Ned has made a mistake.

Synopsis

Grand Maester Pycelle tells Eddard Stark that the pain means that the bone is healing, but Ned only replies that he will be happy when his leg stops throbbing. Pycelle provides him with the milk of the poppy for the pain, but Ned says he sleeps too much already. Pycelle tells him sleep is good for healing.

Pycelle informs Ned that Queen Cersei has received a letter from her father. Lord Tywin is angry about Ned sending men to bring Ser Gregor Clegane to justice. Ned replies that it does not bother him; Lord Beric Dondarrion rides under the king’s banner and if Lord Tywin attempts to interfere he will have Robert to answer to, and the only thing Robert likes better than hunting is making war on defiant lords. Pycelle leaves, telling Ned that he will come again the next day.

Ned knows Pycelle is Cersei’s creature, and doesn’t care. He is not actually confident in Robert, but he does not want Cersei to know that. He calls for honeyed wine, which will not cloud his mind as badly as the milk of the poppy, because he needs to think. Ned thinks how sometimes a child’s innocent eyes can see things that grown men are blind to and how some day he will have to tell Sansa how she made it all come clear to him.

Littlefinger pays a visit an hour after Pycelle leaves, bringing news that Varys has heard whispers that sellswords are flocking to Casterly Rock. Ned asks about Robert and is told that, having found the white hart dead, the king is now after a fierce boar. Most of the hunting party has returned, however, including Prince Joffrey and the Hound. Littlefinger states that he would have liked to have seen the Hound’s reaction to learning that Beric Dondarrion is after the brother he hates. With that Littlefinger leaves for a dinner, but not before noting the book of The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, and teasingly asking if it is a sleeping potion.

Ned considers that, outside of his retainers, there is not a man in the city he trusts: Littlefinger leaving before the slaughter of his guard rankles him, Varys knows too much and does too little, Pycelle is Cersei’s, and Ser Barristan is too old and rigid in his sense of duty.

Arya and Sansa will sail in three days. Ned knows that honor will require him to go to Robert with all he knows when he returns. Last night he dreamed of when Lord Tywin had presented the bodies of Prince Rhaegar’s children to Robert. Ned remembers that Robert could be merciful if a man were brave and honest; he had pardoned Ser Barristan, Varys, Pycelle, Balon Greyjoy, and Littlefinger and let them keep their office for an offer of fealty. However poison in the dark he will never forgive and would kill them all. Bran must have learned some part of the truth; otherwise they would not have tried to kill him. Ned decides that he must find a way to save the children.

Ned calls in Fat Tom, now in command of his guardsmen and asks to be taken to the godswood. Ned also orders the guard doubled despite the shortage of manpower. Ned sends Tom to find Queen Cersei and give her a letter inviting her to join him. As he sits in the godswood, Ned feels the presence of his gods under the faceless heart tree and his leg does not seem to hurt as much.

When Cersei arrives at nightfall, Ned notes that she is proudly displaying the bruise Robert has given her. For the first time in a long time, Ned can see her beauty. When he declares that he knows the truth Jon Arryn died for, Cersei scoffs whether he has brought her here to pose riddles or to kidnap her. Ned replies that if she believed such things she would not have come. He then asks about the bruise, and if Robert does such things often. She replies that it has never been on the face before and that her brother Jaime would have killed Robert if he knew.

© Fantasy Flight Games

When Ned suggests a correction of “brother” to “lover,” Cersei does not trouble to deny it. Cersei admits that she and Jaime have been lovers since they were children and that when Jaime is in her she feels whole. When Ned asks about his son Bran, Cersei admits that he saw her and Jaime, offering her love for her own children as a reason for the attempted murder. Ned counters with a declaration that all three of Cersei’s children are Jaime’s. The last time a Baratheon had a child with a Lannister was 90 years before when Tya Lannister wedded Gowen Baratheon; the single child was large and lusty boy with a full head of black hair. Thirty years before that a Lannister had taken a Baratheon maid; all the children had black hair. According to The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, the children of a Lannister and a Baratheon always had black hair.

Ned asks Cersei how it is possible that she never had a child by the king, and she admits she almost did but had the child aborted. Cersei goes on to claim that she cannot stand to even touch Robert now, and has not let him inside her for years. Instead she pleasures the king in other ways when he leaves his whores long enough; Robert is always so drunk that he never remembers.

When Ned asks what made her hate Robert so much, Cersei reveals that on their wedding night Robert called her “Lyanna” in the midst of the consummation. The story leads Ned to declare that he does not know which of them to pity more, but that he must still do his duty. Cersei makes a sexual advance on Ned while telling him that the realm needs a strong Hand and that he will never regret being kind to her. Ned immediately rejects the advance by asking if she made the same offer to Jon Arryn and she slaps him. Offended by Ned’s honorable persona, Cersei brings up Jon Snow and accuses Ned of many other possible debaucheries.

Ned makes it clear that he intends to tell Robert everything when he returns and warns Cersei to leave King's Landing. He recommends that she take a ship to the Free Cities with all her immediate family, including her father, to escape Robert’s wrath. Cersei stands, laughs, and declares Ned a fool for not taking the throne himself fourteen years before, when he forced Jaime to surrender the seat. Ned replies that he has made more mistakes than Cersei can imagine, but that was not one of them. Cersei insists that it was, saying "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

External links

References and Notes