#icr

WILL PROLOGUE

Actually seeing it out like this, I'm kind of obsessed with the first three PoVs being the arguably most magical characters. Like, Bran, then Catelyn who is literally a zombie rn, and Dany. And all of these come before Ned and Jon. Something really delicious there to me here, that from it's very conception we get a focus on the exiled princess, the wife of the second most important man in the realm, and the soon to be disabled second son - all of whom are about to experience deep, lasting, physical harm that starts them on fucked up magical journeys.

also something something the bran-ned-ism of it all. okay let's actually read.

Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. “My mother told me that dead men sing no songs,” he put in.

Will so cutie Will so patootie

"My wet nurse said the same thing, Will,” Royce replied. “Never believe anything you hear at a woman’s tit. There are things to be learned even from the dead.”

he's not wrong but i don't like his attitude

actually kind of interesting there - will brings up an old wives tale and a lot of the northern plot especially is how these old tales are in fact rooted in the truth (something royce immediately dismisses - notable here that later on when tyrion & jon are joking about grumpkins, they actually do allow themselves a moment of "oh shit maybe that stuff IS real" because neither jon nor tyrion are quite as high on their own supply as waymar), but royce points out that they could in fact learn more context from the dead bodies, which is true regardless but also double true in that the dead are about to walk.

also something something bran will learn the language of the others

"Are you unmanned by the dark, Gared?"

the smallfolk should be allowed to reverse ramsay everyone with a last name i'm so serious

also once again, something to be said about the way the night's watch has fallen, very similar to the kingsguard (which we will see soon enough) - gared & will both have way more experience than waymar but waymar gets to be in charge despite this being his literal first ranging outside the wall. i'm positive he was given this by jeor. the rampant cronyism that exists may be something jeor doesn't like in his men but it's because he doesn't like how tacky they are about it. let it be very well known that jeor encourages this sort of classist behavior even though he knows fucking better.

Well, a poacher in truth. Mallister freeriders had caught him red-handed in the Mallisters’ own woods, skinning one of the Mallisters’ own bucks, and it had been a choice of putting on the black or losing a hand.

Also kind of a pattern here iirc with some of Jon's friends - this is not a real crime, it is a facet of being smallfolk and they get pushed off to the penal colony while younger sons get to choose the penal colony.

also love that jason mallister shows up later - all lords, even the ones we like, do this sort of shit

"What do you think might have killed these men, Gared?” Ser Waymar asked casually. He adjusted the drape of his long sable cloak. “It was the cold,” Gared said with iron certainty.

He is, again, not wrong. It was the cold that killed them.

“And how did you find the Wall?” “Weeping,” Will said, frowning.

i’m gonna be leo pointing meme every time we get weeping stuff btw

also waymar calling will a "lad" right after this when will is older than waymar like jfc this dude

“Wind. Trees rustling. A wolf. Which sound is it that unmans you so, Gared?”

oh we are doing gender here we are doing class warfare. imagine you're 60 years old and a 18 year old is bossing you around like this. i actually do understand bowen marsh a little bit now.

wayar asks "why is it so cold" and we just pointed out the wall is weeping so it's not that cold. the wall weeps, yet the others bring the cold. an inherent contradiction here!

Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

iirc the children also are described as being "dappled" similar to the trees which is very sus

also, weirwoods, in addition to growing fuck off huge (as all trees do, to be fair) and also being pale white, they are noted to grow hard as bone, essentially petrifying, rather than rotting like regular trees

Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. "Come no farther," the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy's.  

so fun here how Waymar has spent this whole chapter mocking Gared and asking him why he's so "unmanned" but the moment he sees one of the Others, his voice cracks "like a boys"

Ser Waymar met him bravely. “Dance with me then.” He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night’s Watch.

Lying dead like that, you saw how young he was. A boy.

i love this prologue so fucking much man

I also love that Will grabs the broken sword to bring back to Gared and Maester Aemon. He lets Waymar die because one of them has to live but he still remembers his duty - and honestly, I think Waymar very well would have told Will the best thing to do is take the sword back to the Wall to figure out what had happened. It was Waymar's idea to check the bodies after all. But neither of them are able to get back - Waymar is overwhemed by the Others, and Will is overwhelmed by Waymar as a wight. And the threat spreads, and the truth is once again concealed.