Inside Game Of Thrones - Season 1 - Episode 24

4 years ago

Inside Game Of Thrones - Season 1 - Episode 24

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All of her men immediately begin to form up, mounting their horses and preparing for the onslaught, and she assigns two men to make sure Tyrion doesn’t escape. But Tyrion begs her desperately to loose his bonds and put a sword in his hands, but Catelyn isn’t that stupid, and she tells him as much. But Tyrion insists, appealing to her sense of reason and reminding her that he and the two men she assigned to guard him are three wasted men, and that they will need every available man they have if they want to deal with foes that are even more than they are.

By this time the ground is already shaking with the hoofbeats of their attackers, and listening to that ominous sound, Catelyn knows that, much as she despises him, the dwarf is right. They need every man they have. So she orders his bonds cut, and then rides ahead to be beside her husband’s master-at-arms.

The men ride into sight, men armed, as the scout had reported, though with only bits and pieces of armor. The fight is long and hard. Catelyn tries mostly to stay out of the way, but also manages to get one or two men herself. Honestly, she expects that Tyrion would die in the fight, but after, the dwarf isn’t among the dead. Somehow he even got a battleaxe and a rich fur cloak, the one the leader of their attackers had been wearing.
But one of the dwarf’s men fell, along with one of the sellswords and a few other men. Even Ser Rodrik took a grievious wound in the fight.

Even with their losses, they still have to mount up and continue going, before other mountain clans descend on them as well. But even with their haste, they still have to fight through two more attacks from the mountain clans. Tyrion Lannister fights alongside them all three times, and none of them leaves him dead or even with an injury.

So even though the dwarf had started out with them as a captive, by the time they were nearing the gates of the Vale, he was riding his own horse, had an axe and a fine cloak on his back, and had even befriended one of the two sellswords Catelyn had ridden out from Masha Heddle’s inn with. Bronn was the sellsword’s name. The other one had died in the first attack they suffered.
Sometimes Catelyn would hear laughter, and would look back to see Tyrion and Bronn riding close together and sharing a joke. Sellswords were a fickle thing, to be sure, basing their loyalties only on who had the most money, but even so, Catelyn knew that Tyrion was just as dangerous as his brother Jaime, though a dwarf he might be.

And the dwarf rides up beside her once, assuring her that whatever she might have heard about him trying to kill her son was a lie. He would never harm a little boy, especially one that had caused him no harm. But, as is only wise, Catelyn takes his words well salted.

And Ser Rodrik, her faithful master-at-arms, is even weaker than he was before from his injury, but he still continues to stubbornly sit his horse.

When they are still a ways off from the Vale, they are spotted, and a group of men ride out to meet them, headed by a knight, and one whom she knew well. Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, brother to Catelyn’s father Lord Hoster and uncle to she, Lysa and Edmure. When Lysa had moved away from Riverrun with her husband— just as Catelyn had to Winterfell with hers —Brynden had taken up service with her.

Brynden greets his niece warmly, calling her Cat— the pet name her father had given her ever since she was a little girl —and then leads her and her party through the heavily guarded gates and into the Vale.

The Vale (which means “valley”, in case you’re wondering) has very fertile lands, with crops and flowers alike in full bloom as well as meadows lush with green grass. The Vale also has a big lake.

I think the sight of all of those things made Catelyn finally let down her guard. I mean, the thought of not being in any more danger from those mountain clans is enough to make anybody just sag with relief. I can’t speak for Catelyn, though, but that’s just what I think.

As they ride along, Catelyn and her uncle drift ahead of their group, to a safe distance where they can speak freely without fear of being overheard. First of all, Ser Brynden asks her quite harshly why she came in the first place, and why she thought to bring a son of Tywin Lannister along. Of course, with the kind of perils that abound in the Mountains of the Moon as well as the pretty obvious signs that their journey hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park, she had been expecting him to ask them how they have fared and express sympathy.

But Brynden makes her understand that they may not recieve a warm welcome from her sister. Catelyn is amused and surprised, wondering if it’s the same Lysa she grew up with that her uncle is talking about. But Brynden assures her about her sister, saying that Lysa is no longer the person she used to know, that she has changed. Perhaps it was the death of her husband, Lord Jon Arryn, that caused it, he doesn’t know.
Well, as to why she’s there, Catelyn tells him the story of Tyrion Lannister’s dagger and the attempted murder of her son, Bran. As well as the letter Lysa sent her on the night of their hosting the King, in which she la!d the accusation of the murder of her husband at the feet of the Lannisters. It is for both crimes that she has brought the dwarf to face her sister’s justice.

All this time they have been following the main road leading into the Vale, and when they reach the city itself, all of them part ways. All the rest are going off to rest, as should Catelyn, but the Lady of Winterfell insists that she must see her sister, even though the day is growing late. Ser Rodrik says he must come with her, and Catelyn appreciates his fierce loyalty, but she can also see that he is barely sitting on his horse. So they leave him in the care of the Vale’s maester.