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 series, written by George R. R. Martin. With the war for the throne of Westeros waging on, five proclaimed kings arise to enforce their claim: 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 appears sustaining 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, his 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. Balon Greyjoy, with his philosophy of “We do not sow”, thinks himself and his family above all others and sees in a rebellion the opportunity for acquiring new lands and finally 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, none of the points of view is of a king – a position that, after all, still represents a piece of chess.

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 nephew and his crazy sister 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 post of the protagonist. With his tricks and stratagems to survive and control the political intrigues of the capital, and holding onto endless reserves of sarcasm, the dwarf fills the pages with acid humor. However, since he has to prepare the garrisons for a looming battle, Tyrion’s plot is 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 Martin to show again the brutal side of the war: the girl watches villages being burned, friends being hanged, and children being slaughtered. She finds out the world is not as adventurous as she had hoped; but unscrupulous and unforgivable. A single error, a single oversight can cost not only her life but her family’s as well. The violence gradually changes her, making Arya smarter and wittier, but also vengeful and bitter. Her sister, Sansa, also suffers a reality shock: although her dream of becoming royalty actually comes true, it also comes with constant humiliation and abuse, making her wear as amour the same etiquette and false courtesies that she prized so much before.

Meanwhile, Jon Snow and Daenerys make up the weakest parts of the book. In A Clash of Kings, the plot that surrounds 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 and, by having its climax postponed, ends up passing the sensation of belonging to a different book. Daenerys’s arc is even worse, being almost nonexistent. For a character who has undergone so many changes and achieved so much in the past, it’s staggering that here she just, well, walks around the desert. She goes on a tour, visiting some cities, discovering fascinating sights, having a chat with some important people, partaking on an acid trip in a temple, wearing beautiful clothes, and finally seeing herself back to where she started. Daenerys, in short, basically takes a vacation, which is very disappointing.

Even the continent of Westeros itself changes more than her: on account of certain births, magic begins to return to the world. Bran’s strange wolfish dreams start to intensify, Arya finds a being that is not merely human, Stannis trumps all with Melisandre. Magic must always be carefully managed in a fantasy story, for it should only serve the narrative and not control it. In this respect, here Martin is successful: the red sorceress is responsible only for giving a rather sinister tone to Stannis’ plot. Her powers and ambition cast a shadow over Stannis (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, and his endless love for clothing and food reaches funny levels: 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 eat it with fried onions taken from his bag, from which he will also arrange potatoes and seasoning to make a stew, which will be thoroughly described. One more worrying element is the number of irrelevant names and references. Martin fills the narrative with a lot of secondary characters and families, describes heraldries at length, and tells about legends that make no difference to the plot of A Clash of Kings. They are only there to make the world fill more alive and to make regular readers have fun discovering that important characters of the seventh book were on the story from the start – which would not pose a serious problem if Martin did not exaggerate in the amount of this kind of information.

A Clash of Kings, although showing that A Song of Ice and Fire is starting to become a bit too ambitious for its own good, still manages to maintain its focus on the contest for power. The discussion then falls to its legitimacy: what would be its main foundation? What constitutes power? 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 in the book with the answer to that riddle, when power is described as “A shadow on the wall”. Varys goes on to explain, “Yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow”. In other words: It doesn’t matter; Tyrion rocks.

December 04, 2018.

Originally published in Portuguese on March 11, 2015.