shadow-aspect of Service and Duty is the personal cost of it. It can be a weighty responsibility to truly serve, and to fulfil your duty. Anyone who has been in service where lives are on the line can tell you that. Even the less extreme, more day-to-day sense of service of a parent juggling providing for the family, with spending time with that family can be a tough burden. To quote Robert Jordan:
“Duty is as heavy as a mountain, death light as a feather.” [xli]
I think Robb Stark feels the burden of his duty a great deal as we head into the second part of the series of Game of Thrones. There is a clear moment where this shift begins to happen, when Ned has been attacked by Jaime Lannister and Stark men have been killed. He and Theon Greyjoy are talking about it and Theon says:
“It is your duty to represent your house when your father can't”
To which Robb replies:
“And it's not your duty because it's not your house.” [xlii]
This comes across from Robb as a dismissal, and Theon, ever spiky about such things takes it that way. But I think something else is going on for Robb. He is feeling the full weight of his Duty, and where Theon sees a glorious and righteous march against an enemy, Robb has more of a sense of the potential enormity of taking up arms and calling the banners. This is not the first time Robb has come face-to face with the weight of his growing duties, indeed, by this point he has been wrestling with it for some time. There is a beautifully played and very sad scene where Lady Catelyn has been sat beside Bran, who is still unconscious after his fall, for days and is ignoring and rejecting her duties of running Winterfell. Robb has started to pick these up already and steps in at this moment to say that he will resolve the issues that Maester Luwin has brought to Lady Catelyn. Robb challenges her though – and that is no small thing to challenge your mother! She is understandably distraught, but her emotion has blinded her. She thinks she is in service to her son by sitting by his bedside night and day but what about her other son? What about all the people who are dependent on her leadership as Lady of the keep? For that matter, if the Keep ceases to function, what will happen to Bran anyway? Catelyn's life is not simple and her duty is heavy to bear, the heavier with Ned having left for King's Landing to serve as the King's Hand, but in sitting by Bran for so long I think she is in service firstly to her emotions, not to Bran. This is what Robb alerts her to by challenging her as no-one else can, and in that he steps into manhood. No child could challenge his own mother like that.
I had a personal encounter with a substantial choice where duty and service were not clear a couple of years ago. It was not a matter of life and death, but for me and my family it was a big deal. My wife was pregnant with our son (now born, beautiful, very loved and called Samson), and I was not really happy in my job. I had been working slowly towards being able to go freelance for a while but it still felt like I was a little way off from being ready for that. I'd started to look at other possible jobs but that didn't feel right really. I chose to quit my job and set up on my own. To leave a secure job with a child on the way was by many people's standards pretty crazy and may have seemed a selfish act: I was, after all, following my dream. But it was actually thinking of my wife and son that made the decision clear for me. I didn't want to be a dad that comes home from work unhappy, frustrated, and bent out of shape. I didn't want to set that example for my son, or be that man for my wife. It is sometimes the case that if you want to be truly in service to your own sense of the greater good, then you have to do counter-intuitive things. I have to live with the consequences of my choice for good or ill. It still feels like it was
“Duty is as heavy as a mountain, death light as a feather.” [xli]
I think Robb Stark feels the burden of his duty a great deal as we head into the second part of the series of Game of Thrones. There is a clear moment where this shift begins to happen, when Ned has been attacked by Jaime Lannister and Stark men have been killed. He and Theon Greyjoy are talking about it and Theon says:
“It is your duty to represent your house when your father can't”
To which Robb replies:
“And it's not your duty because it's not your house.” [xlii]
This comes across from Robb as a dismissal, and Theon, ever spiky about such things takes it that way. But I think something else is going on for Robb. He is feeling the full weight of his Duty, and where Theon sees a glorious and righteous march against an enemy, Robb has more of a sense of the potential enormity of taking up arms and calling the banners. This is not the first time Robb has come face-to face with the weight of his growing duties, indeed, by this point he has been wrestling with it for some time. There is a beautifully played and very sad scene where Lady Catelyn has been sat beside Bran, who is still unconscious after his fall, for days and is ignoring and rejecting her duties of running Winterfell. Robb has started to pick these up already and steps in at this moment to say that he will resolve the issues that Maester Luwin has brought to Lady Catelyn. Robb challenges her though – and that is no small thing to challenge your mother! She is understandably distraught, but her emotion has blinded her. She thinks she is in service to her son by sitting by his bedside night and day but what about her other son? What about all the people who are dependent on her leadership as Lady of the keep? For that matter, if the Keep ceases to function, what will happen to Bran anyway? Catelyn's life is not simple and her duty is heavy to bear, the heavier with Ned having left for King's Landing to serve as the King's Hand, but in sitting by Bran for so long I think she is in service firstly to her emotions, not to Bran. This is what Robb alerts her to by challenging her as no-one else can, and in that he steps into manhood. No child could challenge his own mother like that.
I had a personal encounter with a substantial choice where duty and service were not clear a couple of years ago. It was not a matter of life and death, but for me and my family it was a big deal. My wife was pregnant with our son (now born, beautiful, very loved and called Samson), and I was not really happy in my job. I had been working slowly towards being able to go freelance for a while but it still felt like I was a little way off from being ready for that. I'd started to look at other possible jobs but that didn't feel right really. I chose to quit my job and set up on my own. To leave a secure job with a child on the way was by many people's standards pretty crazy and may have seemed a selfish act: I was, after all, following my dream. But it was actually thinking of my wife and son that made the decision clear for me. I didn't want to be a dad that comes home from work unhappy, frustrated, and bent out of shape. I didn't want to set that example for my son, or be that man for my wife. It is sometimes the case that if you want to be truly in service to your own sense of the greater good, then you have to do counter-intuitive things. I have to live with the consequences of my choice for good or ill. It still feels like it was
Similar Books
