Going Over the Prologue, A Game of Thrones



I felt like rereading A Game of Thrones. Here’s me going over the Prologue.

The next chapters, Bran I and Catelyn I, are already up on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/prestonjacobs

▬▬▬▬ Follow Me on Social Media! ▬▬▬▬
https://www.facebook.com/prestonjacobssweetrobin/
https://twitter.com/sweetrobin9000
https://windsofwinter.com

▬▬▬▬ Check Out These Videos! ▬▬▬▬
The Purple Wedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkIczwc7Hz8
A Frey in the Snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CaDHo9BsJI&
The Deeper Dorne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55N8Q6OINHg&t=1s

#asongoficeandfire
#gameofthrones

source

34 thoughts on “Going Over the Prologue, A Game of Thrones”

  1. No comment on the Wight Royce brushes Will's cheek before strangling him? This isn't just mindless zombie action, it's deliberate motion. This ties in with the actions of the two wights that are brought back to Castle Black and how they acted. There's some intelligence either warging them or they have it themselves.

    Reply
  2. 49:20 I more like the idea (and maybe you were the one to voice it long ago lol) that they actually stopped to observe if Waymar was armed with a valyrian sword before they could take a decision to fight him.

    Reply
  3. For me, "never believe anything you hear at a woman's tit," is also crucial as introduction to the postmodern ambitions of the project. In this prologue we meet the Others. Later we hear them dismissed as the stuff of literal old wives tales. We then naturally think Nans stories are true, that we can, indeed, believe what Bran has heard at a "woman's tit." But the truth is actually more complicated. The mythohistorical accounts taught to children do get some things right, but are probably mostly false. The Other's are out there, as are the Children, but virtually no one in Westeros actually knows their own history. For the reader, taking Nans stories or other myths we hear about as the author informing us about a "correct" historical backstory is a kind of narrative perspective trap he sets for us.

    Reply
  4. 51:42 i think a potential reason why a battle cry in the name of the king doesn't happen later on i nthw books again is because the king from then on( mostly Joffrey and later technically cersei in place of tommen) were extremely unlikable

    Reply
  5. Ring mail is the correct term for chain mail. The rings are linked to several others hence it’s not a chain. I’m not a stickler for correct terminology. George refers to one handed swords as long swords for instance.

    Reply
  6. Thanks for this video, Preston! Regarding the ring mail, perhaps Martin means the armor called "байдана"? I apologize for writing in Russian, I don’t know an equivalent in English.

    Reply
  7. "I've had the cold in me too, lordling."

    "Dance with me, then."

    Those two lines and the prologue in general were what drew me in when I first read the series. I went like "fuck, I'm invested in these three stooges and the shit they will get to. I wanna see these three become friends and grow as characters." And then they fucking died in the end of the prologue/ start of Bran I. I cannot put to words how great that single chapter is to me. Thanks for doing this, Preston. And thanks for introducing me to the books.

    Reply
  8. The Night's Watch probably needs way more Waymar Royce type recruits in order to actually make sense within the story as a functional organisation. In later chapters it's essentially just a massive penal colony with a few highborn voluntary recruits, but how do a few Jeor Mormonts and Denys Mallisters actually control hundreds of thieves, murderers and rapists, and could they really stop them all deserting? (If you do desert then maybe avoid the Kingsroad near Winterfell and you'll probably be fine)

    Reply
  9. This makes me wonder how much stylistic and story detail difference there are between the chapters as they appeared in the books, and the short stories that a few of the chapters came from as they appeared in Analog, The Magazine of F&SF, Asimov's, etc. in the 1990s.

    Reply
  10. You should totally check out Joe Magician’s analysis and theory of AGoT’s prologue. He goes through why the Others personally attacked the ranging party and their talking. Waymar Royce’s similarities in appearance to Jon Snow and how the Others might think they were dealing with Azor Ahai. Pretty interesting theory.

    Reply
  11. Preston, is there an answer to how the old houses lasted for 8000 years but fall in 3 seconds due to nothing but normal inter house rivalry? Where was all the rivalry for 8000 years? One bad marriage to catlyn tully and poof

    Reply

Leave a Comment