Pages 404 – 460
Davos:
So, I read pretty far ahead and can only hope I do these chapters justice.
Davos is summoned from the dungeon by Stannis. The new Hand – brother to the former Hand who just happens to be Davos’s cellmate – threatens Davos that unless he tells Stannis that he agrees with the Hand’s plan to attack Claw Island (I think that’s what it was called), he’ll meet an untimely end. Davos agrees.
But Davos is an honest man, at least to his King. He tells Stannis the plan is stupid and cowardly. The Florent is sent away to get Melisandre. Stannis knows about his plot to kill the red priestess, but doesn’t seem too concerned – just still trying to convince Davos that she is amazing. Davos will never believe this. Anyway, Stannis makes Davos a Lord and his new Hand. Can you feel the love?
Melisandre comes in and performs some magic involving leeches and Edric Storm’s blood (Melisandre wants to sacrifice the bastard child, but Stannis refuses to kill his nephew). Part of this black magic involves not very good things for Robb. Oh goodness.
Not a super exciting chapter.
Jaime:
Jaime has been invited to dine with Roose Bolton, but must first bathe. He finds a naked Brienne bathing and hops on in with her. Such a weird scene. If they film this, I think I’ll giggle. Anyway, they have a very interesting conversation about the circumstances surrounding Jaime’s slaying of King Aerys. Turns out, he’s not such a horrific Kingslayer after all.
He keeps hurting his stub and almost passes out. Oddly, Brienne gently finishes bathing and dressing him. Almost motherly. Oh yeah – Jaime’s naked body reacted to her naked body!
At the dinner, Jaime learns he is to be returned to Kings Landing, but poor Brienne is being handed back to Vargo for all his raping pleasure. I wanted to stab Bolton in his disgusting eyeballs. I hope Brienne kills them all.
Tyrion:
The Martells and other big, bad Dornish Lords and Ladies are set to arrive at Kings Landing. Tywin sends Tyrion and some others out to greet them – a slight not having Joff or himself go.
The head Martell who was supposed to come is home sick and instead the more sinister, younger Martell is in his stead. Tyrion begins to worry. He figures the Martells who hate the Tyrells and aren’t a fan of the Lannisters are up to no good. They exchange pleasantries and ugly stories about Tyrion’s birth – Cersei was such a little bitch even in youth. Then the thinly covered threats are outed. Martell wants revenge for the slaying of Elia, wife of Aerys – he’s holding a major grudge. Tyrion warns him that he’s drastically outnumbered. I hope the wedding turns into a war.
Arya:
The bandits – I think they call themselves the brown brothers – battle and defeat some of the Brave Companions. Sandor has been let go, stripped of his gold. Arya learns about the many times Beric has died and been reborn by Thoros. Gendry decides he wants to stay with the outlaws as their blacksmith which hurts Arya – he’s one of her only friends in the world. She feels abandoned by everyone. She wants the Hound dead. I want the tv peeps to change this. I want Gendry to stay apart of Arya’s life and the show!
Luckily, the Hound reappears with more threats, demanding his gold back. Beric tells him they’ll have to pay him after the war is over – that they currently have no gold. Sandor is pissed, but leaves. They know he is probably sniffing around somewhere close so everyone’s on their toes and a bit frightened.
I love Arya and feel really bad for her. I can’t believe Gendry would abandon her. Why can’t he just go with her to Riverrun and serve as a blacksmith there? He’ll get paid and be able to have a family and a home. I hope he finds out soon that he’s Robert’s bastard son. I want him and Arya to get married one day. I’m making my sad face.
Bran:
Holy Moly – Bran finally has a halfway decent chapter! They find a tower in the middle of a lake to stop for the night because a monster storm’s a brewin’. The tower is called Queenscrown and there’s a backstory that I won’t go into. Anyway, the causeway leading to the tower is under water so they feel fairly safe stopping for the night. Once inside, they manage to make it to the top of the tower, but notice a fire coming from the abandoned village. Then, they notice many more men stopping to seek shelter from the storm and grow increasingly terrified. Hodor begins to shout and they can’t seem to shut him up – they know they’ve been heard. I suspect the Wildling raiders with Jon Snow.
Bran manages to channel Hodor for a quick second to shut him up which scares him – Bran is getting stronger. Then he channels his wolf on command and feels Summer’s fear as he closes in on the abandoned village and its new denizens. Chapter ends. Should be a great suspenseful end to an episode!
The Blog of Litwits 
I assume this is your first read through? If so, awesome! It will be neat to see it through the eyes of a new reader.
FYI, the bandits call themselves the brothers without banners.
As for Gendry, he’s following what he believes which I have a lot of respect for.
And yeah, Bran’s chapter, and the chapter immediately following it are one of the few POV character connections we get. So subtle yet so good.
This was definitely my first read through! I wrote a lot of the posts a few days after reading so some of the details were a bit fuzzy. With Gendry, I just loved his character so much and wanted him to be around more – so selfish of me, I know! I know GRRM has said before that Bran is the hardest character for him to write so his chapter always intrigue me.