Catspaw

Catspaw
Biographical information
Died	298 AC at Winterfell Throat ripped open by Summer
World of Westeros
Series	Game of Thrones
Season(s)	1
Appeared in	"The Kingsroad"
Died in	"The Kingsroad"
Portrayed by	Lalor Roddy

"You're not s'pposed to be here; no one's s'pposed to be here. It's a mercy; he's dead already."

―The catspaw to Catelyn Stark before attempting to kill Bran.

This assassin is a catspaw being someone unwittingly used to further another person's agenda.

Biography

Game of Thrones: Season 1

The catspaw was paid to kill Bran while he was in a coma at Winterfell, following his fall. The catspaw arranges for a fire to start in the castle, reasoning it will draw people away from Bran's room. This diversion succeeds in persuading Robb to leave, but Catelyn remains behind. Upon reaching Bran's room, the catspaw finds Catelyn at Bran's bedside. The pair tussle which results in Catelyn receiving hand wounds; Bran is saved by his direwolf, Summer, who tears the catspaw's throat out.

The catspaw is killed by Summer.

The catspaw carried an ornate dagger, made of Valyrian steel and with a dragonbone hilt. Catelyn takes the blade to her husband, Ned, in King's Landing in order to investigate further. Littlefinger claims that the dagger belongs to Tyrion, which leads to Catelyn taking Tyrion prisoner when she chances across him at the Inn at the Crossroads. Her actions spark a conflict between House Stark and House Lannister. Tyrion acquits himself of the crime via trial by combat at the Eyrie.

Game of Thrones: Season 7

Years later, Littlefinger presents the dagger to Bran at Winterfell. Bran asks Littlefinger if he knows who the dagger belongs to, to which Littlefinger replies he does not. Later, Bran, Sansa, and Arya discuss the dagger and the cutthroat who wielded it—they are all perplexed as to why Littlefinger would give the dagger to Bran. Bran states "someone very wealthy wanted me dead" and hands the dagger over to Arya as it would be "wasted on a cripple". Soon after, at Littlefinger's surprise trial, it is deduced that the dagger did in fact belong to Littlefinger.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the catspaw's name is never revealed. He is described as a small, dirty man in filthy brown clothing, stinking of horses, gaunt, with a limp blond hair and pale eyes deep-sunk in a bony face.

In A Clash of Kings, Catelyn finds out - too late - that Littlefinger lied to her about the dagger, only when she interrogates Jaime. Jaime bluntly admits that he pushed Bran from the window in an attempt to kill him, but claims that neither he nor Cersei nor Tyrion had anything to do with the catspaw; both Tyrion and Jaime point out the key flaw in Littlefinger's story - Tyrion couldn't have won the dagger in a gambling bet because he never bet against Jaime in such circumstances. When asked about the dagger, Jaime remembers that Littlefinger bet and lost it during the tourney held to celebrate Joffrey's twelfth nameday - to Robert, not to Tyrion. Catelyn realizes Jaime is telling her the truth, for he has nothing to gain by lying about the catspaw and the dagger, after admitting that he pushed Bran. Jaime admits that he and Cersei considered having Bran killed, but given the fact Catelyn was in his bed chamber at all times and the room was guarded, it would have meant murdering their way through half of Winterfell's population to reach Bran, and they concluded there was no need when it seemed more likely that Bran would die of his injuries from the fall.

While Jaime and his escorts are on their way to King's Landing, he wonders whether Cersei hired the catspaw, to make sure Bran never woke up. Jaime correctly dismisses that thought, reasoning that had Cersei wanted Bran dead - she would have sent him; moreover, it was not like her to choose a catspaw who would make such a "royal botch" of the killing.

During a casual conversation at King's Landing, Tyrion makes a comment about Littlefinger's elegant suit and handsome knife. Littlefinger draws his knife, glances at it casually, as if he has never seen it before and says "Valyrian steel, and a dragonbone hilt. A trifle plain, though. It's yours, if you would like it." Noticing the mischief in his eyes, Tyrion realizes that Littlefinger is teasing him insolently about the catspaw's dagger, without saying anything explicit.

Tyrion has suffered a lot as a result of Littlefinger's lie: he was humiliated, kidnapped, beaten, locked in a sky cell and nearly got killed three times (on the way to the Eyrie, at the Eyrie, and on the way back) - and yet he never attempts to settle the score with Littlefinger, either openly or secretly (as he did with a singer who tried to blackmail him), even after being taunted about it. It is unclear why Tyrion lets Littlefinger get away with that, in contrast to the unofficial motto of his house; maybe he realizes that while war rages, Littlefinger is still useful to House Lannister in maintaining the crown's finances and has too many loyal henchmen in positions of power around King's Landing. Tyrion's following train of thought implies that once Littlefinger's usefulness is at an end, he will gladly settle the score with him.

In A Storm of Swords, Tyrion and Jaime independently deduce that it was Joffrey who sent the catspaw:

• After Joffrey uses his new sword to cut the book Tyrion gave him at his wedding, he says "I am no stranger to Valyrian steel." That strange comment makes Tyrion realize it was him (discounting the only two other possible culprits, because Jaime was too proud to have another do his killing for him, while Cersei was too cunning to use a knife that could be traced back to her). Tyrion remembers overhearing Joffrey jesting with the Hound in Winterfell about killing wolves: "Send a dog to kill a wolf." Even Joffrey was not so foolish as to command the Hound to slay a son of Eddard Stark, as Clegane would have informed Cersei. Instead he found his catspaw among the unsavory lot of freeriders, merchants, and camp followers who had attached themselves to the King's party as they made their way north. Since even Joffrey was not stupid enough to use his own dagger, he went poking among his father's weapons. No doubt some diligent servant had made certain that the King's weapons went with him, in case he should desire any of them. The only thing Tyrion cannot figure out is Joffrey's motive. Recalling a nasty quarrel between Joffrey and Robb, Tyrion asks Sansa if there was any ill feeling between Bran and Joffrey, but her answer is negative. He guesses then it was mere cruelty of Joffrey. Another possibility is that Joffrey grew incensed when Tyrion slapped him and ordered him to offer his sympathies to Eddard and Catelyn about Bran's injury (simply for the sake of decorum); in his warped mind, Joffrey felt so insulted at being commanded to express sympathy to Bran's parents that he may have wanted to soothe his wounded pride by having an unconscious seven year old boy assassinated.
• Jaime tells Cersei that Catelyn suspected him of sending the catspaw to kill Bran. Cersei recalls Robert saying of Bran: "We kill our horses when they break a leg, and our dogs when they go blind, but we are too weak to give the same mercy to crippled children" in the presence of their children, including Joffrey. Jaime deduces that it was Joffrey, since he was a child hungry for a pat on the head from the man whom he believed to be his father - that somehow in Joffrey's warped train of thought, he concluded that Robert would appreciate his decisiveness for euthanizing Bran without permission. It also may have been a combination of all these motives.

Although there is no direct evidence that definitively proves that Joffrey was the one who sent the catspaw, it is very likely Tyrion and Jaime are correct about pinning the assassination attempt on him. When Jaime finally engineers Tyrion's escape from the dungeons, during their conversation through the secret tunnels of the Red Keep, Tyrion becomes annoyed and asks Jaime if he knew that his son tried to kill Bran Stark. Jaime grudgingly admits that he had thought he might have.

This proved to be another example of how Baelish thrives on chaos, thinking quickly to turn events to his benefit. He had already set in motion his plan to trick the Starks and Lannisters into fighting each other, by convincing Lysa Arryn to poison her own husband and also write a secret letter to Catelyn, claiming that the Lannisters did it. When Catelyn inquired about the knife, Littlefinger knew that he'd lost it to Robert, and must have realized someone in the royal entourage had taken it, but quickly decided to blame Tyrion as the culprit. He possibly chose Tyrion to blame because Cersei and Jaime were already back in the capital city, surrounded by their own guards, while Tyrion was still traveling in the North and would be more vulnerable to Stark reprisal.

Littlefinger's lie about the dagger was hardly one of his more subtle schemes: had Catelyn and Ned not accepted his words as true and made some inquiries, by asking Jaime (as Catelyn eventually did, though too late) or anyone else who attended the tourney about the dagger, they would have realized Littlefinger lied to them, though might not have figured who sent the catspaw. Revealing the truth in time might have not prevented the war, but it could have spared many innocent lives which were subsequently lost due to Catelyn's naivety and rashness, and Ned's stubborn refusal to settle the matter peacefully, among them: Masha Heddle, Jory Cassel, Wyl, Heward, six of the people who escorted Catelyn to the Eyrie, and the people of the Riverlands who were raided at Tywin's command.

It is unknown why the TV series never reveals that it was Joffrey who sent the catspaw; Joffrey receives the Valyrian steel sword Widow's Wail as a wedding gift in Season 4, as he did in the books, but no mention is made of the assassination attempt on Bran back in Season 1. It is possible that the reason is the same for not revealing the truth about Tysha in the Season 4 finale: the producers grew afraid that casual viewers wouldn't remember that this happened in early Season 1 - even though this was one of the escalating events which sparked the entire Stark-Lannister conflict. Alternatively, the producers may have deviated from the books and changed the catspaw in the show, particularly with the revelation in the season 7 finale which suspected that Littlefinger was behind the attempt.

Appearances

• – "The Kingsroad"
• – "The Wolf and the Lion" (mentioned)
• – "A Golden Crown" (mentioned)
• – "The Spoils of War" (mentioned)

External links

• Catspaw on A Wiki of Ice and Fire