A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Jon IX
Sent under a peace banner to kill Mance Rayder, Jon is saved from his own conscience when Stannis's host falls on the wildling camp like a hammer.
The chapter retold
Sent under a peace banner to negotiate ÔÇö and, privately, ordered to assassinate ÔÇö Mance Rayder, Jon Snow wrestles with the plain wrongness of killing a man under truce even for a cause he believes in. He hesitates at the threshold of the act, the Watch's mission and his own conscience pulling in opposite directions with no clean resolution available to him.
The dilemma is resolved from outside rather than within: Stannis Baratheon's army falls on the unsuspecting wildling camp like a hammer, the assault Jon was sent to help set up arriving before he ever has to decide whether he could go through with murdering a man he has come, however guardedly, to respect. Jon is spared the choice, but not the consequences ÔÇö the wildling cause he lived among for a season is being crushed in front of him by the side he technically serves.
This movement: The Purple Wedding and the Trial
- Joffrey chokes at his own wedding feast, purple as his namesake; Sansa vanishes with a fool and a hairnet lighter by one stone.
- Tyrion stands trial for kingslaying; Shae's testimony cuts deepest; he demands trial by combat.
- Oberyn Martell fights the Mountain for a confession ÔÇö and wins everything but the ending.
- Petyr Baelish sails Sansa to the Vale as his "daughter Alayne"; Lysa marries him inside a week.