Game of Thrones Gossip #29 Jorah Mormont

Welcome to my Game of Thrones Gossip, where all of us fanatics get the chance to discuss everything we love about this amazing TV series. I did a few spoiler free posts about the series last year but I found that there were other bloggers out there who were also itching to talk more freely about favourite characters and events without spoiling things for those visiting the blog. So I decided to do a whole series of these discussion posts that let us say everything we want and enjoy every second of it! The topics may talk about a death, an event, a character or be season reviews and so on. Please feel free to comment fully and without restriction!

I have to warn you that it is important that you have seen all six seasons before reading any of these posts because these posts and blogger comments will be oozing and exploding spoilers all over the place. If you haven't watched the series and plan to, be warned that it's a bad idea to be here right now! I take no responsibility if you read on and things are spoiled for you nor do I take responsibility for any mistakes on the pages I link you to.

For those of you who stuck with me through my season one posts, thank you loads! Now I'm going to look at the main characters introduced in season two, what our season one characters were doing in season two and looking at all the bests bits. Enjoy the season two posts! 

Jorah is the son of Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He became Lord of Bear Island when his father bdicated his titles to his son by joining the Night's Watch. He became a knight for his bravery in battle during the Greyjoy rebellion, fighting for Robert Baratheon. Jorah was married to Lynesse Hightower and struggled to give her the kind of lifestyle she expected, resorted to selling poachers on his land to slave traders. After being caught, he fled Westeros to avoid being beheaded by Ned Stark, fleeing to the Free Cities and his wife left him for a richer man. Jeor was shamed by his son's disgrace, telling Jon Snow that he did have the decency not to take the family sword Longclaw with him, a sword that Jeor gave to Jon as a surrogate son. Father and son never had a chance to be reunited before Jeor was murdered by his own men.

When we first meet Jorah, he has pledged his service to Prince Viserys, and has a very good relationship with the dothraki and Khal Drogo. They call him Jorah the Andal, although in reality the Mormonts, like the Starks are northern, descended from the First Men. He speaks to Dany at her wedding, giving her books about Westeros. However Jorah has a dark secret. In order to gain a royal pardon and return to Westeros, he has agreed to spy on the Targaryens for King Robert, passing information back through Varys and his spies. We see the first evidence of this when Irri tells of dany's pregnancy. Jorah looks unhappy and excuses himself, obviously to get a message to Varys.

The problem Jorah seems to keep having is making poor choices that come back to bite him. He is supposed to be spying on Viserys and Dany but very quickly forms a dislike of the former and respect for the latter. He makes no move to help Viserys when Rakharo attacks him for striking Dany, and obviously does not see him as a real contender for the throne. I think he was able to fully justify his spying mission when Viserys was the heir but when he is killed by Drogo, it is much harder to keep betraying Dany. He saved her dragon eggs from being stolen by her brother and faithfully obeys her and advises her where he can. Jorah begins to fall in love with her and sees her as more of a potential ruler than Viserys ever was. The royal parden arrives which is all Jorah ever wanted but it alerts him that there is a reason why he is no longer needed to spy on Dany. He disregards the pardon, and steps in to save Dany's life when the wine merchant goes to poison her. His choice has been made.

When Drogo becomes seriously ill, Jorah becomes more important than ever to Dany's welfare, and is stunned when he sees her reborn from the funeral pyre of Drogo with her three dragons. He proclaims himself to follow her, and does so through the Red Waste to Qarth. He advises her not to marry Xaro though whether this is purely professional tactics or jealousy at the thought of her with another man is open to question. He advises her to let him find her a ship and not rely on the financial aid of others, but while he is doing this, Irri is killed and Dany's dragons are stolen. He berates himself for not being there and agrees to find out what happened. Quaithe asks him if he will betray her again and is satisfied with his reply of 'never', telling him where to find the thief. He arrives in time to help Dany escape from Xaro and guides her to the House of the Undying to get her dragons back and punish those who betrayed her. 

Jorah has made many mistakes but I believe him to be a good man at heart, who truly loves Dany. There is going to be a difficult road ahead for Jorah in seasons to come.