A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Tyrion VIII
The Purple Wedding: pigeon pie, a dwarf's joust, and a king clawing his own throat black; Cersei's finger finds Tyrion before the body cools.
The chapter retold
Joffrey Baratheon marries Margaery Tyrell in a feast built for spectacle ÔÇö eighty courses, dwarfs staged to mock Tyrion by jousting on pigback, cruelty dressed as entertainment exactly the way the boy king prefers it. He is in the middle of humiliating his uncle in front of the entire court when he starts to choke, his face purpling, hands clawing at his own throat while the hall realizes, in stages, that this is not a joke going wrong but a poisoning succeeding.
Joffrey dies at his own wedding feast, strangled by a poison the smallfolk will later call the strangler, administered by hands the chapter does not reveal ÔÇö only the aftermath, chaos breaking out across the hall as guards, family and guests all reach for the same conclusion at once. Cersei Lannister, hysterical with grief and rage in equal measure, turns on her brother Tyrion before the body has even finished convulsing, pointing an accusing finger with total certainty and zero evidence.
The Purple Wedding closes the book's second act by killing the character the entire series has trained readers to want dead, and does so with a cruelty precisely calibrated to the crime ÔÇö Joffrey chokes in front of the same court he has spent two books performing his power for, and the last thing he sees is a room full of people who, whatever they show on their faces, are not sorry. What it sets in motion is immediate and personal: Tyrion, married to Sansa and hated by his sister already, becomes the accused before any investigation has even begun, and the throne he never wanted power over is suddenly, briefly, vacant.
This movement: The Wall Holds
- Mance's host hits Castle Black from both sides; Donal Noye trades his life for a giant's in the gate.
- Jon commands the Wall with quips and a crossbow ÔÇö until the Watch arrests him for oath-breaking.
- Stannis lands at the Wall with the fury of the one king who answered the letters.
- In King's Landing, the realm dresses for a royal wedding no god intends to bless.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- King Joffrey I Baratheon ÔÇö Strangled purple at his own wedding feast by a poison called the strangler.