storm of swords: my continued shrieking reactions

[verbicide]

(Just past three quarters the way through.)



DING DONG THE JOFF IS DEAD. I swear to god, as much as I love Tyrion, even if he dies for this, it's still so worth it to have Joffrey DEAD. I hated that motherfucker SO MOTHERFUCKING MUCH. I can't believe he basically threatened to rape Sansa as much as he liked even after married. What a son-of-a-bitch. I have never read the account of someone chocking to death with such relish before--even bad guys.

I do hate that Tyrion is getting the brunt of it. Though at this point (maybe naively) I don't think he's going to die. So sad that Uncle Kevan can't believe him at all.

And it turns out Joffrey was the one who sent the catspaw to kill Bran. Why? I mean, Tyrion couldn't even suss out the why of it. He was just a sweet kid. I wondered if somewhere along the line Joff found out that Jamie tossed him from the window or that Cersei wanted him dead. Maybe we'll still find out, because that seems even more randomly cruel of Joffrey than usual. Most of his cruelty lies in power struggles, and he never had one with Bran.

And fucking Littlefinger is the one behind Sansa's escape. I must say--I did not see that coming at all. (Though now rimrunner's comment about Sansa spending time with Tyrion and Littlefinger makes more sense to me!)

OH, and it's fucking Maergery's GRANDMOTHER WHO POISONED JOFFREY? DUDE. I've been able to piece a bunch of stuff out, but GRRM continues to surprise the fuck out of me. I wondered why that old woman was so sanguine about her granddaughter marrying a sociopath. How did Littlefinger work out that conspiracy--I seriously am bowled over. How do you have any conversation that ends with, "I will embed poison into Sansa Stark's hairnet for you to drop into Joffrey's wine cup, but do it at a time that your granddaughter won't actually drink from that chalice." And then, why did she need Sansa's hairnet? Why not just bring the poison in a hairpin herself? Wasn't sad to see Dontos bite it. Can't believe he fucking sold out Sansa for money.

Also. I am sad. For Jamie. That his sister does not apparently want to fuck him anymore. What is wrong with my brain? I mean, I suppose I'm not really sorry if they are never together again. I'm sorry to see him hurt and rejected by the one person he's fucked his entire life over for. I suppose what I really want is for Jamie to get away from this toxic love that makes him do crazy self-destructive things. I really hope he learns to use that left hand--for writing, sword play, whatever. Nice to see him taking ownership of the Kingsguard. Though, man. Fucking Tywin. Cold heartless motherfucker. How easy it is for Tywin to have people set aside their oaths. It was really interesting to get Uncle Kevan's perspective on Tywin and why he is the way he is (a reaction to his own overly soft father) and that out there is someone who is not just tied inextricably by birthright to Tywin (his children) but actually loves him.

I put this on Google+ but wanted to share my dorkiness here, too:

My brother and sister-in-law are working on a crazy backyard project, so I had my nephew for the weekend. Just dropped him off. And now I will spend the next however-many-hours-necessary finishing Storm of Swords.

One of the things we did was go to the zoo. When I reached the ticket teller, I actually GASPED out loud like a total dork and clutched my chest when I saw that she had Storm of Swords on her desk and her bookmark was about where I am. And then we happily chatted about it for a few minutes. I wanted to ask her to be my friend and hang out with me and talk about the book forever, but I ...didn't. Mercifully.

Comments

[richboye.livejournal.com]

.... aaaaaaaaand scene.


yes, here we have the Purple Wedding, as it was dubbed on the asoiaf boards.

The jury is still out as to who actually poisoned the wine - the whole idea of the Sansa as the, er, Poison Mule is very, very weird.

Prevailing wisdom is that having Sansa be seen with the purple gems at the feast and then be busted later with one missing was all part of Lady Olenna's masterplan to off Joffrey and use Sansa as a patsy.

However.

That doesn't mean that the missing stone was actually the source of the poison - why the need to smuggle the poison in on Sansa's person anyway - were they going to frisk Lady Olenna or go through her purse? Lady Olenna and Littlefinger cobbled together the plan to kill Joffrey and use Sansa, although I don't think that Olenna understood to what extent Petyr wants to use Sansa - I believe that the whole poison in her snood affair was designed to make Sansa *think* she had been inculpated and flee into Petyr's arms. Whether or not the Tyrells planned on Sansa fleeing is another story.

However - your post also includes an assumption not proven. It's not as if they had to poison the wine after Margaery had a sip to avoid poisoning her too. This is not a worry if darling Margaery knew ahead of time to not drink from that cup...... Lady Miss M. was pretty sanguine about the whole marriage to a sociopath too, if you recall.

Also, the logistics of Olenna poisoning the wine are tricky - recall how much ado there is about how tall the chalice is and how small she is - how could she reach it? However, other Tyrells were all around including ones who are chivalrous and gallant, shall we say...

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

The Purple Wedding. That was so unexpectedly satisfying. God. I can't imagine any royal wanting to get married in Westeros again for awhile.

That is some serious fuckery on Lady Olenna's part--whether or not she knew that Sansa would be escaping that night, way to set up a young girl for certain death.

Or really, if she had any idea that some random innocent person was going to die for her crimes. And I rather liked her when she was busy planning Sansa's escape to Highgarden and Willas.

(Obviously my modern day morals are somewhat laughable for that time. Except for Ned, who I still miss.)

And your comment about the wine--Margaery was drinking from the cup. Or do you mean, knowing to not drink from it after a designated time or signal?

I am still gaping at the breadth of Petyr's plotting and betrayal. And his epic grossness. And honestly, still agog over Catelyn's spectacularly poor judgment about him.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Also! Very gratifying that the GRRM basically tells us that Robert was talking about Bran being dead, and it was Joff wanting to please his father.

Though, how would his father have ever credited it to him? Maybe Joff just didn't think things quite through?