Melissa Cynova Welcome to the second round of CinemaTarot – Game of Thrones edition. Today, we’re going to visit the Stark family. Bless ’em. Now, I’ve read all of the books, and have seen the show. If you aren’t caught up and don’t want spoilers, you might want to skip this puppy.
House Stark’s motto is “Winter is Coming”. It may as well be, “That was a terrible mistake”. They are, as a whole, the Tower card. If Ned weren’t so earnest, if Bran weren’t so nosy and LISTENED to his mother for the LOVE OF THE SEVEN GODS (and also the old gods). If Arya would have run faster, if Sansa weren’t such a great chess piece, if Robb hadn’t been so rash – if if if. As the Tower, the House of Stark comes crashing to the ground. The thing about the Tower is, if it hadn’t fallen, it would have rotted from the inside out. The Starks are catalysts in Game of Thrones. They’re the game changers and the wrecking balls.
Eddard “Ned” Stark – Ned is so freakin’ honest and earnest, that the King himself comes to ask for his help. Things are sour, they’ve gone left somehow, and of all of the people in the kingdom, King Robert asks his buddy Ned to come and help. And he does. Kind of. Can a person be too honest? Too forthright? Well, yeah. His very honor is the thing that gets his head cut off. For this reason, our Neddy is The Emperor. He has integrity, by god. He surely does. And he’s completely inflexible, completely sure that he’s correct, and completely made about a foot shorter because of it. Oopsie. In the first CinemaTarot I did for GoT, Tywin Lannister is also the Emperor – they have a lot in common, Tywin and Ned. Just on the other side of the coin.
Catelyn Tully Stark – AHHHH! She’s my favorite! Ok – Cat Stark – mother to all (except for Jon the bastard bastard who she hates more than anything ever). This woman is fierce. Try to kill her son? Um, she’ll cut you – at least, she’ll distract you long enough for a wolf to eat your face off. If you’re sad, she’ll hug you and tell you that you’ll kill everyone and won’t that be nice. She decides what’s best for everyone. She tries to remind everyone that they’re still family. She threw down and took various Lannister’s prisoner at various times, and seems to be the moral compass -maybe an avenging angel type – of the series. She is the Queen of Wands. She is action. She is fierce. She is seriously sick of everyone’s shit and will TAG you in the head with that wand.
Robb Stark – This guy. He’s so close to being like his dad. So close. A bit rash, though. A bit impatient and eager to PROVE to everyone that he’s right, he’s smart and he IS like his dad. The Page of Swords is very smart – and impetuous. He’s got a big huge sword and doesn’t particularly know how to wield it. He falls in love – with the strategically wrong person. He doesn’t think things through, and all of that potential goes up in flames. Or arrows. Whatevs. Robb forgot a very important part of being his dad – keeping your word.
Jon Snow (knows nothing) – Jon is SO the Knight of Pentacles. Grounded, reliable, and broody as hell. What a pouter. He has to live honorably – stiff upper lip and all that -but he keeps pulling against his promises and getting himself into moral quandries. For Pentacles, moral quandries are the worst kind of…quandries. Feet on the ground, eyes straight ahead (except when they wander to certain redhaired ladies). Jon has a great deal of potential, and he’s further ahead maturity wise than Robb, but he’s not all grown up just yet.
Sansa Stark – Sansa is the Wheel of Fortune. She spends the first part of the story as a passive character. Things happen to her. She is a perfect pawn and is moved easily around. THEN, she becomes an active character. The people who were manipulating her either turn purple and die, or hand her a bit of the control. I think we’re going to see some interesting changes around Sansa that she actually chooses.
Arya Stark is Ned and Cat’s youngest girl. Headstrong, smart and thoughtful. Arya’s character path is surrounded by Death. Beginning with the murder of her sister’s direwolf, to the killing of her father and her young friend, Arya’s whole life is surrounded by Death. Like the Death card in the tarot, Arya is an agent of change. Everywhere that she goes, everyone that she encounters – she is a serious force to be reckoned with. You can’t ignore her, and you can’t get out of her way. She seems to ride right into the center of the story and push things in the direction she needs them to go. Arya is the Death card. Valar morghulis.
Bran Stark is the Magician. He’s had all of the tools removed from him – his family, his position, his mobility and his home. All he’s got left is his Hodor and his magic. He’s going on a heroes quest, and when he’s finished, I suspect that the young Lord of Winterfell is going to be a serious contender. Bran draws magical people to him, hangs out with three eyed ravens, and can see into the future. My kind of kid.
Seriously, where in the hell is Rickon Stark? The last I remember, he was running away with Tonks. I have no idea. We’re going to call him the Fool, because talk about a blank slate.
Stay tuned, we’ll deal with the Mother of Dragons and her asshole brother next. 😀
xoxo! LFT