A Game of Thrones ÔÇö Jon II
Farewells at Winterfell: Jon gives Arya a sword called Needle and says goodbye to a Bran who cannot hear him.
The chapter retold
As the court prepares to travel south and Jon prepares to ride for the Wall, Winterfell's departures come one by one. Jon's is the most tender: he gives Arya a sword of her own, small and Bravoosi-made, tells her sharply to stick them with the pointy end, and names it Needle in the same breath he mocks her for the very sewing she hates. Before he goes he stops by Bran's sickbed too, saying his goodbyes to a brother too deep in his coma to hear a word of it.
It's the chapter where Jon's protectiveness toward his siblings ÔÇö genuine, unshowy, given without needing credit ÔÇö gets its clearest statement before the story scatters the Stark children to opposite ends of the map. The gift of Needle is a small act that will matter enormously later: Arya carries that blade through everything the war does to her, and it starts here, as a parting joke between a boy who'll never inherit anything and a girl who was never meant to want a sword.
This movement: The Road South
- A catspaw with a Valyrian dagger comes for the sleeping Bran; Catelyn's hands and Summer's teeth stop him.
- On the kingsroad, Joffrey's cruelty costs Mycah his life, Sansa her wolf, and Arya her innocence.
- Jon takes the black and finds the Watch is boys and broken men; Tyrion goes along to piss off the edge of the world.
- Catelyn rides south in secret with the dagger ÔÇö and in a crossroads inn, arrests Tyrion Lannister.