Chapter 38 - The King's Prize - Dead in the snow

It was interesting to get a Theon chapter followed immediately by an Asha chapter.  Both of them have fallen quite far from where they started and from where they aimed to be.  It feels like Martin is trying to stress the importance of the Greyjoy siblings by doing this and I think the two of them will play a big role in the coming battle.

Asha is a hostage of Stannis as they travel to Winterfell.  Stannis wants to present her as a prize and as proof of his strength, but I don't get how that's going to work.  Asha even thinks the same thing.  How does capturing the daughter of the former king of the Iron Islands prove anything?  Euron is king.  Asha is kind of worthless in my opinion.  It feels like this is another one of Stannis' weird, illogical moves.

As the army travels, they are hit with a tremendous winter storm.  Is this the storm that Roose Bolton was saying slowed Stannis' army?  The men who follow R'hollor continually pray for deliverance but none comes.  There is constant discussion of offering a sacrifice to R'hollor to prove their faith and gain his protection.  Clearly they want to burn Asha, but that just seems silly to me.  How does burning her prove anything?  It seems like an empty gesture since it costs these men nothing and therefore proves nothing.  Melisandre practices a true faith and it's a faith that seems to bring results.  Perhaps the reason that their prayers have been unanswered is because their faith is false to begin with.  Perhaps their faith isn't strong enough to counter the power of the Old gods of the north.  That is one thing that Martin has never really touched on.  There are so many competing gods and faiths in this world.  You have the Seven, the old gods, R'hollor, and even more gods outside of Westeros.  Is one of them real?  Are all of them?  Perhaps they are all manifestations of the same god?

We see some interesting things about Stannis in this chapter.  We see just how averse he is to woman.  We already kind of knew that, but Asha points out just how bad it is.  Stannis can't stand to be around any women, even the She-bear.  The three Baratheon brothers were quite terrible at dealing with women it seems.  Robert was a womanizer, Stannis is incredibly awkward around them (and possibly even a bit scared of them), and Renly was gay.  We also see that Stannis still lives in his brothers shadow to the point where Robert's name angers him and ends any discussion.  I think this is part of why Stannis can't be a good king.  He keeps himself in that shadow.

By the end of the chapter, the food has vanished and men are dying every day.  They stop to camp in a tiny town.  When Asha wakes there is no movement or sound.  There is no annoucement to start marching.  Something is wrong.  We don't find out what it is, but I expect it's something that could put an end to this march once and for all.