A Clash of Kings

“In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me – who lives and who dies?”

This riddle, proposed by lord Varys to Tyrion Lannister, summarizes the main question of A Clash of Kings, the second novel of The Song of Ice and Fire: what legitimizes power? With the war for the throne of Westeros waging on, five proclaimed kings arise to enforce their claim. We have the brothers Stannis and Renly Baratheon, Lord Balon Greyjoy, the northerner Robb Stark, and the young, but psychotic, Joffrey Baratheon. However, although the story focuses on their struggles, its true protagonist is Tyrion himself, the new Hand of the King.

Each king sustains his claim with a different argument. While Stannis considers himself Robert’s true heir, being his oldest brother, and has the priestess Melisandre proclaiming him a messiah from her god, his brother Renly knows that, by law, he has no right, but bets that having the largest army of Westeros and a better judgment than his brother will be enough to compensate that legal shortcoming. One has law and religion by his side; the other has military prowess. Balon Greyjoy, with his philosophy of “We do not sow”, doesn’t care about legitimacy, he does not sow but wants the harvest nonetheless: he sees in a rebellion the opportunity for acquiring new lands and getting his revenge on the Starks. Robb, on the other hand, is invested with power by his own people, who proclaimed him “the king in the north”, while Joffrey Baratheon gets power for being the one already sitting on the throne – and he must fight to maintain that, bringing the Lannisters to war.

Martin chooses a rather curious way to follow the turbulent journey of the five alleged kings. The Song of Ice and Fire is narrated from the point of view of several different characters and, in this volume, perhaps to show that they are not fully in control of events, none of the points of view we follow is of a king.

Accompanying Stannis, we have Davos, a former smuggler, who sees in his master a rather severe but fair man and firmly believes in his virtue. With Balon Greyjoy, we have his son, Theon, who goes to great lengths to surpass his sister and show his value to an irresolute father. Following Robb, Catelyn finally becomes an interesting character, as her maternal view of the events helps to make the “young wolf” an even more human and beloved king. And surprisingly, it is also Catelyn who gives us the vision of who Renly is, painting him as a very naïve and gentle ruler, but one who also possesses an admirable sense of justice. Meanwhile, Tyrion Lannister is trying to save King’s Landing from a siege and prevent his unhinged nephew from causing the collapse of his family and the entire kingdom.

Tyrion took from Eddard not only the position of Hand of the King but also the role of protagonist. With his amusingly clever stratagems to survive and manipulate the political conspiracies in the capital, and holding onto endless reserves of sarcasm, Tyrion fills the pages with dark humor. However, since he has to prepare the garrisons for a looming battle, Tyrion’s chapters are also filled with a foreboding atmosphere.

Now, leaving the kings behind, Arya Stark’s journey northward with the Night’s Watch opens the opportunity for the narrative to focus on the brutal side of the war: the girl watches villages being burned, close friends being hanged, and children being slaughtered. She discovers that the world is not as adventurous as she had hoped, but ruthless and cruel. The violence she is witness to gets to her, it changes her, making Arya smarter and wittier, but also vengeful and bitter. Her sister, Sansa, is also experiencing a reality shock, for although her dream of becoming royalty came true, it also came with constant humiliation and abuse, making her wear as amour the same etiquette and false courtesies that she prized so much before.

Jon Snow and Daenerys, meanwhile, make up the weakest parts of the book. The plot that covers the Night’s Watch is merely preparatory to the events that will occur in other volumes. Jon meets some interesting characters, such as Qhorin Half-Hand and a red-haired wildling, and visits some interesting places, like the old Craster’s Keep, but nothing more. His story remains completely isolated from the rest and, with the climax postponed, ends up giving the feeling of belonging to a different book. Daenerys’s arc is even worse, being almost nonexistent. For a character who has undergone so many changes in the previous novel, it’s staggering that here she just, well, walks around the desert. She goes on a tour: she visits some cities, discovers fascinating sights, has a chat with some important people, partakes in an acid trip in a temple, wears beautiful clothes, and finally sees herself back to where she started. Daenerys, in A Clash of Kings, basically takes a vacation in the desert.

Even the continent of Westeros itself changes more than her, for magic is starting to return to the world. Bran’s strange wolfish dreams are intensifying,  for example, while Arya finds a being that is not merely human, and Stannis has Melisandre. The red priestess is responsible for giving a rather sinister tone to Stannis’ plot, as her powers and ambition cast a shadow over the king (and one against his brother), giving an appropriate amount of tension to his chapters.

Martin’s prose remains as dense as ever, making us quickly understand the motivations of new characters, such as Stannis Baratheon. On the other hand, his usual idiosyncrasies are still present, such as his endless love for clothing and food, which can get out of hand sometimes: Jon can pass three pages hunting a deer in a forest so as not to starve in the cold, but you can be sure that as soon as he knocks it down, he will cook it with fried onions taken from his bag, from which he will also take some potatoes and seasoning to make a stew, which will be thoroughly described. Another prevailing problem is the number of irrelevant names and references spread throughout the narrative. Martin fills his story with a lot of secondary characters and families, describes heraldries at length, and tells about legends that make no difference to the story at hand. They are there to make the world feel more alive and faithful readers have fun discovering that important characters of the seventh book were there in the story from the start – which would be great if things did not get out of hand: there’s just too much of this type of information here, hindering the pace of the story.

But despite this clutter, A Clash of Kings still manages to maintain its focus on the contest for power and its legitimacy: what would be its main foundation? Is it money? Strength? Faith? The law? Or the people? Who is the real king between them all? The answer to these questions is implied early on in the book with the answer to that very same riddle, when power is described as “A shadow on the wall”. Varys explains: “Yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow”. In other words: what matters is that Tyrion rocks.

December 04, 2018.

Originally published in Portuguese on March 11, 2015.