The latest episode of Game of Thrones was, in my humble opinion, far and away the most exciting one yet. Fire, fire and more fire, fatherhood and impeccable crescendoes. Such payoff for book fans, but what do viewers think?
Let's recap and discuss. I can't wait!
We begin the episode right where the last one left off. With fire! Well, with Sandor Clegane facing trial by combat against the Brotherhood Without Banners. Thoros of Myr may be a witty, drunk sort of character, but we see the way he and his group take the religion of R'hllor quite seriously ('R'hllor' is silly and unpronounceable, so it makes sense he just gets called the 'Lord of Light' on the show). It's a particularly disadvantageous set of circumstances for the Hound, who deeply fears fire.
That we expect he should lose makes it seem divine when he wins: proof of his innocence of various crimes in service of the Lannister crown, most of which have been done by his brother Gregor. Unfortunately for Arya, the Lord of Light can't seem to be bothered to punish Clegane over the death of her little friend the butcher's boy. And he can bring back Beric Dondarrion from the dead a supposed six times, but not re-attach Ned Stark's head. Supposed heroes who claimed to love her father let their religion prevent them from delivering her justice, and plan to sell her back to her family at Riverrun. And Gendry, the only comrade she has left, has decided to stay on in the Brotherhood, as her gender and high birth form something of a ceiling for how close he feels he can get to her.
Poor Arya. All the kid has left is her "prayer" -- a list of the names of people she'd like to see dead.
The main religion of Westeros involves the "Seven", a pantheon of deity figures that represent the various faces of humanity (Father, Mother, Warrior, Maiden, Smith, Crone and Stranger). Robb Stark and Lady Talisa had a marriage that paid homage to the Seven, and that's Lady Catelyn's faith as well, although Ned Stark and much of the Northmen worship the Old Gods, as symbolized by the sap-weeping white weirwood tree we see in the season's opening. In the Brotherhood Without Banners, we see another side to the fire-centric religion of R'hllor -- we confirm it seems to conjure genuine magic, independently of Melisandre's fanaticism and apparent sorcery.
Other fanatics include Stannis Baratheon's wife Selyse, whom we meet for the first time this episode. Our introduction to Stannis' family serves to illuminate his ambivalence toward the fact he has to use the powers of the "Red Woman" to earn a crown he feels is his by fundamental rights -- his own wife is not hurt, but rather delighted by the infidelity he struggles to confess, and feels ashamed of their daughter Shireen, a sweet child deformed by a skin disease called Greyscale.
The jars of Selyse's stillborn sons, I'm fairly sure, are not in the books, and the unsettling imagery helps us empathize with Stannis' private uncertainty about having to consign his purest and most loyal friend, Davos "the Onion Knight" Seaworth, to his dungeons for the treason of speaking against Melisandre.
Speaking of fire, we see redheaded Ygritte continuing to stand up for Jon Snow among mistrustful wildlings like Orell the warg and bearded Tormund Giantsbane. She does this because she wants him, of course, and in this episode we see her get tired of waiting. Snow seems reluctant to fully sell out the defenses of his black brothers to the wildlings' oncoming assault on the Wall -- is he lying when he tells Orell which castles are manned? A thousand seems like a lot of crows relative to how badly the patchy Night's Watch has lately been struggling against the Others and one another.
It almost doesn't matter: Giving up his virginity to Ygritte is probably, to Jon, a more significant break with his old life than anything he's done so far. But what a beautiful little scene: She really, really likes and trusts him. Does he like her more than his black brothers, though?
Brienne and Jaime are delivered to Robb Stark's ally Roose Bolton, who enjoys tormenting the Lannister son by dangling details of the Blackwater battle at King's Landing. After losing everything, the idea that the woman he loves -- his sister Cersei -- might also be dead seems to render him unable to stand any longer. And there's more pain ahead, as malpracticing Maester Qyburn is engaged to try to help save Jaime's rotten stump.
Cersei is fine, of course. After her father rejected her mistrust of the Tyrells, she hasn't let the issue go, and instead engages Littlefinger to help her prove the Golden Rose is plotting against the Lion. Cersei lacks the tact of most of her rivals; threats seem to be the extent of her bargaining tactics, where her brothers seem much more skillful at dangling riches and glory.
We see terrifying Olenna Redwyne as more than a match for Tyrion, eluding his strategies to reduce the extravagant cost of the Royal Wedding, an expense the Crown certainly can't afford. Recall that being unable to pay its debts to the Royal Bank of Braavos might actually cause the powerful lenders to shift its financial loyalty to a rival war effort. Tyrion could just tell his father that, one supposes, but it's meant to be his job to deal with the situation.
We already know Olenna isn't necessarily passionate about the wedding itself -- we've seen her make fun of frippery and classism. But she'd probably prefer to bleed the Crown's cash for her granddaughter's sake: Her offer to pay for half the affair seems generous, but is probably geared at making sure the wedding remains as expensive and frivolous an event as possible.
The Northmen have gotten tired of waiting for their revenge. Robb's taken too many personal detours, and the loss of Jaime Lannister as a prisoner might have been irrelevant from a military standpoint, but devastating from a spiritual one. Mad with grief and impatience, The Karstarks, of a clan of distant Stark-cousins, kill the little boys Willem and Martyn Lannister (they're the sons of Tywin's brother Kevan, if you were wondering). These poor kids were the ill-chosen captives of Robb's uncle Edmure Tully, who for some reason decided to take a mill instead of fighting Gregor Clegane.
Robb's all but lost control of every thread of his war effort, and he can't afford to lose the military power of his longtime Northman allies. But when Rickard Karstark suggests Robb is powerless to actually punish him for his ill-advised initiative, Robb feels he he has to step up, even if doing so means he loses half his army. His family unifies to advise him against executing Karstark, but Robb is loyal to the ideal of justice to an actual fault, just like his dad. He'd rather pursue that than to win the war.
We know he's making a bad, bad choice. Then again, a certain dread has overhung all of Robb's choices so far. Now his last remaining option is to go and seek support from the Frey family, who he's recently spurned against his mother's advice so he could marry Talisa instead. An ominous thematic crescendo builds as Robb moves a wolf's head strategic piece toward the Twins, the fort of Walder Frey. Ah, surely this is going to fix everything. It's all going to work out great.
Why does Jaime Lannister have no problem entering the bath with Brienne, despite her mortification? Because he's disinterested in her sexually, sure. But mainly because he knows that if he, still unwell, passes out, she'll save him. He is absolutely safe with her, because she swore a vow, and even if he mocks her for her impressively-stubborn adherence to her oaths, he knows that in spite of her resentment, she will protect him.
Oathbreaking is the highest on the list of Brienne's list of reasons to distrust and dislike the famous Kingslayer. He's been seeing that aversion in the eyes of every foe and comrade alike since he stabbed King Aerys Targaryen quite literally in the back while the Lannister army sacked King's Landing, and never felt the urge to explain or defend himself until now. Maybe after everything he's been through, seeing that aversion in Brienne's eyes is too much to take, so he confides in her.
If Jaime had kept his oath to the hellish Mad King, had not been a Kingslayer, he would have been forced not only to kill his father, but also to watch the entire city and everyone in it burn to death. It was his father, the strategician Tywin Lannister, who gained access to King's Landing under the guise of aiding the Targaryens against Robert's rebels, and then promptly sacked it. Ruthlessly tactful, that. Then, the Lannisters apparently had the Targaryen babies killed. Next, Cersei's wedding to Robert Baratheon, cemeting the family's presence in the capital.
Then the King's Hand, Jon Arryn, died under mysterious circumstances. Then King Robert himself. Oh, except that was an accident.
We see how tortured Jaime still is by the fact he had to break that vow, and how traumatized he is by the things he had to do and see under Aerys. Most of all, the condescension of moral Ned Stark stings. The books show Ned frequently recounting his sense of apprehension at arriving at King's Landing after the Lannisters sacked it to find Jaime sitting in the throne room. On the Iron Throne, in fact. The memory of Jaime in that weaponized chair seems to have been instrumental in sowing Ned's mistrust against the Lannister family, and in bringing him to King's Landing to try to support King Robert. Yet we learn even though King Aerys' madness was poisonous to the city, Jaime still tried to warn him about his own father, even if taking his head was not something he could have done.
Honorable Ned never asked him though, simply judged. "By what right does the wolf judge the lion," he curses bitterly, a brilliant quote that illustrates the rampant Lannister pride, ruthlessness, as something of an understandable expression of a moral code that simply favors victory -- but is no less moral than a sanctimonious, slavish devotion to imperfect ideals of honor. We see that Brienne has heard him, judged him anew, when she forgets all modesty to rush to him and calls for help when he faints.
Margaery has assured Sansa that as queen, she'll have the power to make a wedding between Sansa and Loras Tyrell happen. In the books, Sansa is disappointed to find out she's intended not for Loras (who joins the Kingsguard and thus, like Jaime Lannister, avoids marriage via the station) but for his much less-appealing brother Willas. But the fact Sansa wants to become a Lady of Highgarden remains the same, and for the show's purposes involving Loras is not only simpler, but more dramatic.
Loras will fulfill his family's request even though he's not interested in women. How did his handsome young sparring partner detect his predilection? Well, Littlefinger must have told him, as the young man was a spy sent to find out what Tyrell plot might be underway. When Littlefinger invites Sansa to finally escape King's Landing with him, a friend of her mother's, and she declines, he has confirmation that the Tyrells have already gotten her to collude with the idea. Sansa seems thrilled that Littlefinger doesn't look likely to insist on upsetting her secret plans, but what she doesn't know is that when he says, "I hope you know I'm your friend," what he means is, "don't worry, you're not going anywhere, anyway."
We see a highly-satisfied Cersei at her father's side, positively glowing at finally having brought proof of the Tyrells' scheming to their dear old dad. That Tywin's plan to thwart the Tyrells by marrying Sansa to Tyrion instead absolutely mortifies her little brother only seems to please Cersei more. Tyrion knows how terrorized Sansa is already, and how disappointed she, barely older than a child nursing fantasies of courtly lords, will be in him as a husband, and protests. Tywin insists. He always insists.
Cersei hardly has long to gloat, either. Though she's proved her usefulness at court to her father and saved their family's grip on the crown, Tywin still plans to wed her to Loras Tyrell, to bring the rival family in line and to quell the "rumors" about Cersei and her brother. Her horror at being used as a "brood mare" again is palpable, gutting. Mean, aggressive Cersei is one of the show's least-likeable characters, but is nonetheless empathetic, a victim of her father's system with even less fortune than her brothers, by virtue of her gender and the mistakes her desperation tends to sow.
Some of the best dramatic moments in the entire series have come from Cersei stricken, calling tremulously for her Dad. When Tywin stages a last-minute rescue of his family at the end of the Blackwater battle of season two, we see her fling aside her suicide plan, forgotten at the first sight of Dad, rising to her feet with the soft cry of "father." In this stunning episode finish, she is begging again, her hard protest giving way to naked, broken pleading -- "don't make me do it again, please," so soft, so sorrowful.
Game of Thrones would be an entirely different narrative if rooting for the Lannisters to simply be stamped out of King's Landing like an infestation were an easy decision. Yet it is possible to respect Tywin, to feel Cersei's pain and anger, admire Tyrion or Jaime's complex, deeply-personal morality in the face of suffering.The house of the Lion is the red, beating heart of this series, and just when you find yourself wishing most fervently for the tide to turn against them, you end up feeling a little sorry that you did.
I think appreciating the Lannister family is among the most interesting choices one can make in the favorites-picking "war" that Game of Thrones encourages in readers and viewers. The narrative is not always sensible reading. It's not always brilliantly-plotted; it's neither literature nor high art. But it's most intriguing feature is the way it exposes systems within a society, and how systems handicap some and privilege others, affecting their value systems, mobility and the framework of their choices for life. It presents an idea that's obvious when you think about it, but radical in the context of a fantasy story or a hero tale -- that morality is in large part relative and dependent on context.
Here, a given faction might find no relevance in the storybook ideal of "the right thing". With an expansive and complicated system exposed, we can empathize with the idea that all most people are able to do is the right thing for them, within the limitations they're given, and that maybe that's heroic enough. Whether intentions are good or ill almost don't matter in a world where fire licks at one edge of the map and cold ice crumples the other.
What was your favorite part of this exciting episode? Yes, I did gloss over the lovely bit where Grey Worm reinforces his fealty to Daenerys, but if you couldn't tell, I was too busy feeling sorry for bad guys this week. Love your discussions in the comments each week. Please, please no spoilers related to any weddings or prospective weddings mentioned in this post. No colors, no initials, nothing. Thank you.
Don’t fall for that bad guys hooey. Great episode.
Can you correct the headline? It’s Season 3, not 2.
what? no jon snow and ygritte love…love? :)
Better and Better, more and more rewarding every week , seriously need the Blu rays though, adverts every 5 mins on sky seems like :(
So wait a couple of hours and download the torrent.
This season seems to be all about growing up, maturation of the children in the story.
Robb seems to be following in the footsteps of his father, Ned; trapped in doing the right thing instead of doing what is right. His wife, mother, and allies all warned him to leave well alone because the war still needs to be won. Unfortunately, he ignored them (that Stark stubborness) and am sure the results will be as predictable as Ned’s were. There is no room for honor and integrity anymore in Westeros.
With Arya losing all her companions (the only family she has now), she will be forced to grow up and learn self-reliance (we already know she is smart via the scenes with her and Lord Tywin from S2).
The same goes for Daenerys, who with her army, has now fully come into her own as a leader and queen.
Jon Snow, as you wrote, is shuffling off the trappings of the Night Watch. but also freed of the stigma of being a bastard. The Wildlings don’t seem to care much about who or where you came from, as long as you be trusted; Ygritte especially. To be loved and respected, finally, is no small thing for Jon.
Sansa, unfortunately, is still Sansa and still believes the knight in shining armour, from her story books, will save her from all her misery. Sir Loris’ reputation *ahem* apparently hasn’t reached her ears yet and she is certainly in for a surprise when the Lannister’s will reveal their future intentions for her.
Maergary is proving to be a fine manipulator to get what she wants. How much of it is Olenna’s plotting/grooming versus Tyrell genetics is anyone’s guess. She knows exactly what she wants, to be queen, and she will have it; wrapping Joffrey around her fingers all the while.
That line of Cersei’s totally and utterly broke my heart. In the books you see that she was a Daddy’s girl when she was younger, but then her mother died and he became cold and distant and it just…awwww. I love the Lannisters and their complex characterisation.
wayyy too much love for Lannisters around here. Cersei is one of the biggest bitches ANY tv show has ever seen, what good qualities does she have? the fact she is so one dimensional in her ruthlessness is disgusting
In the books, as you read the chapters that are told from Cersei’s point of view, you can’t help but start to empathise with her slightly.
Yes she’s a bitch, but she’s generally trying to do everything she can for her family (eg killing Robert because she was worried he was going to find out that her children weren’t his and kill them).
The show does a good job of making you sympathise with Jamie (this episode in particular), but it’s not done as well with Cersei, leaving her just looking like a bitch.
tl:dr it’s more complicated than her just being a bitch
I haven’t read the books, but I think you’re underestimating Littlefinger’s deviousness. It’s not just “you’re not going anywhere anyway”. He knows that by telling Cersei about the Tyrell plan to marry Sansa off to Loras, they’ll respond by marrying her to Tyrion instead. And what do you think Sansa’s reaction to this news will be? If she can’t marry Loras, she’ll want to take Littlefinger up on his original offer to take her with him. Lord Balish is always three steps ahead.
Right, exactly. Obviously already knows what the Lannisters will do, hence he has the luxury of accepting her “choice” to stay.
I’m not so sure Baelish knows the Lannisters will set Tyrion up with Sansa, but he definitely knows they will cut the Tyrell/Varys plot to get her away from him off. Tyrion just happens to be the perfect mark in this set-up.
I love thinking about Littlefinger or Varys will ultimately triumph over the other by the end of the series.
plus he used to be mayor of Baltimore
Thank you for the clue; it’s been driving me nuts!
“I think you’re underestimating Littlefinger’s deviousness.”
An appropriate thing to say at pretty much any time in the entire series.
I thought Sansa was supposed to marry Willas Tyrell in the books.
Anyway, another fantastic episode. This season is starting to kick into high gear.
Good catch – yes, it was indeed Willas to whom Sansa was to be married.
Thanks for the confirmation. It’s been a while since I read the books and it can be tough to keep the characters straight. I guess I could consult a wiki if I had to.
Yep. Willas. I totally even caught that as I was editing, and apparently never actually changed it.
Nobody’s perfect. :-)
I wish I had discovered your work earlier. From what I’ve read so far, you’re a gifted writer.
That’s kind of you to say, though I believe my GoT recaps are more ‘info wrangling’ than ‘writerly’ :)
Fantastic episode (and recap). The bath scene at Harrenhal, Qyburn, the execution of Karstark, the Jon/Ygritte cave-scene, all of them spot on…well, save for the lack of the cave-dwelling cannibals legend in the latter.
Re: the Lannisters – it’s funny, but in my readings I never coalesced them into a sad and dysfunctional entity (for whatever reason), but the series (well, in particular the superb acting) is opening my eyes to how all the children are intertwined with Tywin’s ambition. Cersei’s story seems much more tragic on screen, to me, than in the books.
One thing I’ve been ever so slightly disappointed with so far – the character of Tormund. In the books, he’s a jovial dude, and very friendly to Jon. Not so the character in the series, at least not yet anyhow. I’m sure there’s a reason for it.
And whatever happened to Ser Dontos, I wonder?
It may have been that when we saw Sansa save Dontos from being drowned in wine by Joffrey, they had intended to keep that storyline. But I can see why they would drop it, it would just expand the time spent telling her story, at the expense of all these other juicy threads.
I like to imagine we’ll see a tiny snippet of Ser Dontos later, maybe interacting with Moon Boy.
seems to me Ser Dontos has been written out of the series. As well as Patchface…
I see no loss in dropping Patchface and Moon Boy. I expected the series to make Ser Dontos a character, but his very minor betrayal wont add much in the scheme of things or change what we know of characters.
Patchface was supposedly cast. He may pop up time to time.
As a book reader I loved being able to tell viewers of season 1 that Jaime might end up being their favorite character. We first saw it in his fight with Ned Stark. One of his men hit Ned during their one on one duel. Jaime clocks him, obviously pissed. He may be ok with pushing a small boy to his death, but still believes in a fair fight. In this episode we really see that things are not always as simple as they seem.
In many ways he is a traditional rogue like Han Solo or Sawyer from Lost, just a bit more morally ambiguous. You can see though that most of that moral flexibility comes from a loyalty to family.
I haven’t read ahead far enough to know if he ever sees Cersei again. He’s been such an insufferable villian for so long, I can’t imagine forgiving him – unless he tells his sister to stuff it. Then I might reconsider.
I don’t want to spoil anything, so can we come back to this at a later date?
“Fealty” is the key word regarding this episode: why and how people give it to (and withdraw it from) kings, liege lords, gods, spouses, causes. As with many concepts of high fantasy re-visited by George RR Martin and by the showrunners, fealty proves to be a lot more complex and varied than “those were just the rules back then.” Everyone in this episode is discussing their reasons for giving it or taking it away, and those reasons are varied and wide-ranging.
And the Lannisters … fealty plays a part with all three Lannister children, too, and it centres on their father and the family dynamic he’s built to make it exactly so. Tywin is shaping up to be a great character, a true Manipulative Bastard (I’ll wait a few days now after you’re done with tvtropes.org). He’s a great product of collaboration between the writers, directors and Charles Dance, who gives one of the best looks of subtle contempt I’ve witnessed on the screen.
As an example, one thing I noted last episode is the recurring theme of his one-on-one meetings with his kids, how he forces them to wait while he works, building their anticipation to talk with them. Watch their release and relief when he’s finally sanded the ink and sealed the letter and they can speak, and their disappointment when he’s signified the conversation’s at an end by starting another letter. And I thought, “man, he’s been running this schtick on all of them their entire lives. Now wonder they’re so dependent.” If Jaime ever makes it back to King’s Landing, I have no doubt we’ll see another of these scenes in Tywin’s solar.
We’re now also seeing a recurring theme in how Tywin manipulates his children when they meet together, pitting them against each-other and allowing each to think he or she has the upper hand before giving or taking as it suits him, the centre of the family, the one to whom they’re so faithful that they’ll break oaths and kill kings, or enter into disastrous marriages, or take on doomed jobs. That’s fealty.
Well said. Tywin is certainly a great character, and is being portrayed by a masterful actor.
I went back to view Alien 3 just for Charles Dance’s scenes because I couldn’t get enough of him in season 2.
Check him out as the Patrician in the Discworld adaptation of ‘Going Postal’ he of course does an amazing job.
And here he is reading from Fifty Shades of Grey.
Charles Dance in Space Truckers
Heh! I’d forgotten about the pullcord-operated penis.
Chaincock.
And of course, given his name, he can also bust a move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwroS0YP54
WELL THEN. That certainly happened! :D
^^ This.
GoT has bloody most brilliant casting I’ve ever seen.
For the record: I love to see Julius Caesar and Brutus in the same series, again.
Great observations about Tywin. And I liked that this week he gave Tyrion and Cersei his undivided attention – do you think he’s finished writing his letters?
Did anyone catch the song being sung by Shireen over the end credits? I wonder if we’re going to meet the song’s “composer” in the series….
I have a feeling his lines sung by Shireen is all we’re going to see of him.
That makes me very Sadface.
Have to agree with RadioSilence, I think that was a bone thrown to fans.
I agree that this was the dandiest episode so far, I loved it. The tub scene was the best bit, almost wept ‘Jamie. My name’s Jamie’. Also liking the continuing jibes between those guys who I always forget the name of(Dani’s adviser and the former head of the kings guard) and I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes.
Disappointing we didnt see hear anything from that tricksy little beggar who freed Theon though.
Jorah Mormont (son of the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, exiled from Westeros for slavery) and Barristan Selmy (former head of the Kingsguard before Joffrey insulted him with early retirement), respectively. I’m enjoying that relationship, too.
That reminds me, I’m trying to recall why Jorah wasn’t banished to the Nights Watch rather than banished from the continent….anyone? Was slavery viewed that much more seriously than murder or rape?
“Taking the Black” is a choice offered to lawbreakers. For the vast majority of Westerosi convicts, it isn’t much of a choice since the alternative is usually execution, maiming, or life imprisonment in a dark dungeon. Jorah Mormont, as a privileged aristocrat, had just enough wherewithal to go into exile instead.
They seem to take slavery very seriously in Westeros, perhaps even more so than the murders and rapes which seem to be day-to-day realities on the continent. One of Barristan’s main objections to Dany’s buying the Unsullied was that her arrival with a slave army won’t be taken very well by the people of Westeros.
Yeah, I just couldn’t remember if he was even offered the choice between NW or (something else) or self-imposed exile.
IIRC in the books it was pretty explicit that Ned Stark would have taken his head rather than offer him the opportunity to take the Black, so he fled.
He didn’t wait for the choice. He fled before Ned Stark arrived to impose justice.
Giving it further thought, the comforting illusion of choice is likely one of the reasons slavery is so universally abhored in Westeros. As far as the powers-that-be are concerned, it’s a threat to the realm’s order — as big a threat as magic and the supernatural (Varys loathes both, understandably).
Slavery is the flip-side of aristocracy: born one, die one. Allow it in a brutal society where rape and murder are the norm and it brings the essential injustice of the Westerosi system of governance into sharp focus. For the ruling class it adds the additional spectre of a nobleman ending up a slave due to losing a war, as happens across the Narrow Sea.
Serfdom is fine and vassalage is fine because they allow just enough room for the privileged to pretend everyone’s in their proper place because of good or bad decisions they made. But as always, in practise the privileged have more options than the “smallfolk.”
Perhaps Jorah didn’t want to face his father, Joer. The Lord of Mormont gave his title and the Bear Island to his son Jorah when he joined the night’s watch willingly.
In the books at least Joer knew about Jorah’s dishonour, which was one reason he had his family sword reforged to give Jon Snow.
It’s not clear to me how the Unsullied are free now, despite Dany offering them the ‘choice’ to leave her and stay with their former masters. Other than choosing their own names, I hope they get an opportunity to dramatize the difference between what they are now, and what they were sold to her as.
I expect the difference to be lost on the folk of Westeros as well, but so far I still have faith in this storyteller to make it work.
They’re not ever going to be free. They’ve been brutalised to the point where they know nothing else but servitude. But Dany officialy releasing them from slavery “solves” the problem Selmy brought up, at least to a point.
Baron Celery, that’s it! Thanks.
I believe he did have the option of the Night’s Watch, he just fled instead. Hence why his name is held in such disgust by Ned and others, because he fled from punishment. Interestingly, Bear Island and the Mormonts are part of the North so it would have been Ned who punished them for slaving.
That sword that Jeor gives Jon Snow, Longclaw, was once Jorah’s sword. Jorah left it behind, in shame, when he fled the country and the family sword found its way back to Jeor.
“I think appreciating the Lannister family is among the most interesting choices one can make in the favorites-picking “war” that Game of Thrones encourages in readers and viewers. The narrative is not always sensible reading. It’s not always brilliantly-plotted; it’s neither literature nor high art. But it’s most intriguing feature is the way it exposes systems within a society, and how systems handicap some and privilege others, affecting their value systems, mobility and the framework of their choices for life. It presents an idea that’s obvious when you think about it, but radical in the context of a fantasy story or a hero tale — that morality is in large part relative and dependent on context.” Well said and analyzed.
One of my favorite moments in this episode was the musical callback to Theon. When Robb is executing Rickard Karstark they play the same musical cue as when Theon executed Ser Rodrik Cassel. What were Ser Rodrik’s last words to Theon? ‘Gods help you, Theon Greyjoy. Now you are truly lost.” That is some nice symmetry.
This episode also had that lovely bone thrown to fans, Patchface’s song as sung by Shireen. I doubt he will make an appearance though. Which is interesting because his character always seems to add something to the Drowned God mythos as well as Ser Davos’ survival.
I haven’t researched this and it has probably been dissected and proven already but I imagine the reason Harrenhal doesn’t move at the beginning of the episodes is because it is not a house in motion. It doesn’t grow because the house is not rising in power; hence why the houses spin out from the motion of the house’s sigil. This is also why Winterfell rises despite being put to the torch, it still has players in the game.
Man, that Roose Bolton is a cold dude, huh? His moment with Jamie, where he pretends that King’s Landing was destroyed in the battle, was some seriously nasty business. I wonder if we will see more of this behavior from “The Leech Lord.”
Following a little behind in the books, I can tell you that from the moment Bolton appeared I didn’t trust Bolton as far as I can throw him. He and his bastard are up to something in the North, and whatever it is will not be good for Robb.
Hah! I know, right? Whatever it is will be BAD.
The family that built Harrenhal got wiped out by Aegon the Conqueror, and after that it seems like the place gets handed around from one minor noble to another. My hunch is that it’s supposed to foreshadow what’ll happen to the rest of Westeros when Danaerys gets there.
They sort of telegraph the Bolton treachery both in the show and books. I mean, their sigil is a friggin’ flayed man bound to a cross! What sort of people wear a guy being tortured for their symbol?
I’m gonna be in the minority and say that this was my least favorite episode this season. I only watch a few TV shows and as such I have a prejudice against TV serials and maybe serials in general, though I think GOT is a great fantasy series and maybe one of the best sword and sorcery pieces ever put to a screen. However, this last episode felt like the Plot Complication Episode, extending all the stories so we’ll have at least a couple more seasons of GOT. All the subplots or little plots or whatever they are just got new life breathed into them. When I see stuff like this I think: is this integral to the story or is it integral to having more episodes/books and thus more $$. Does SpiderMan not get killed by the bad guy because he’s a superior crime fighter or because he has to come back next month to sell more comics.
After 4 really meaty episodes, this one felt like more of a carrot dangling in front of us. I realize that this is the nature of TV and the serial but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.
You just need to look at GoT as one big chess game. Some moves you make are decisive and take out your opponents pieces. Other moves are needed to shuffle your pieces around to set up your attack.
As someone who has read the books I can assure you, all of the “piece moving” that happened in this episode is very important to the greater story.
There are still several books in the pipeline, so I don’t think they’re worried about source material (although the fans are plenty worried if Martin is going to complete the series). The series is being very faithful to the books — there are changes but they’re usually appropriate.
From what I’ve seen The subplots are integral to the story, usually with payoffs down the line. In the books there are also a lot of expository chapters that seem poised to deliver similar payoffs. The whole thing is well-paced and tightly written, and the less meaty episodes and chapters often add their own flavour to the overall stew.
This series will only cover half of the first book, the next series will cover the second half (and presumably it’ll be around four series to cover books four and five).
And that’s with huge amounts being cut out to fit it on TV.
As we have seen, killing Spiderman (or any other character) is usually just as much of a selling point as it is when they eventually bring him/her back.
Can you please put a spoiler alert notice and hide the text? Not all of us has read the books.
What spoilers? It’s a recap of a TV episode — ideally you don’t read an episode recap if you haven’t seen the episode. The stuff from the books is added for context, and if you haven’t yet read the books and plan to, then you’re spoiling yourself much more than a few extra details by watching the show.
I like to think the kind of fan sensitive enough about having a pure experience that minor details about the present situation on television are ‘spoilers’ would avoid reading exhaustive recaps and comment threads…
Another nice note in this episode — the contrast between Grey Worm rejecting his birth name and Jaime reclaiming his at the end of his confessional monologue. Claiming or rejecting your name is a recurrent theme in the books, and various characters have to lose or hide their names to survive or succeed. (“you have to remember your name” is a quote from a later book that still haunts me.) It was great to see the writers make sure that theme gets into the story.
@Roose – no Patchface, alas, but I love how the show has been incorporating the book songs into the credits.
I hear ya! The National’s “Rains of Castamere” was great!
Whoa! I totally didn’t catch the symmetry of the claiming of names. Great observation!
I just recently discovered this blog about GOT by Leigh Alexander. While her recap is among the best out on the net, I have to say that it’s the quality of the comments that really stand out to me. What a great discussion.
Why does Jaime Lannister have no problem entering the bath with Brienne,
despite her mortification? Because he’s disinterested in her sexually,
sure.
“Why does Jaime Lannister have no problem entering the bath with Brienne,
despite her mortification? Because he’s disinterested in her sexually,
sure.”
By the books, his crotchal regions disagree.
Olenna didn’t see the wedding as frivolous. She spelled out exactly why the wedding needed to be a spectacle: If the nobility doesn’t provide the people with a distraction, the people will make their own.
I think that’s just what she says to put pressure on Tyrion.
I guess I don’t see what advantage she’d get, outside of giving Tyrion a headache. The Crown’s debts don’t weaken the Lannisters, since they’re debtors themselves. And weakening the Crown seems counterproductive, considering Margaery is going to be queen.
As soon as I watched that episode I imagined impassioned cries of fans who were upset that Olenna managed to outsmart/intimidate Tyrion. I’m glad that I haven’t spotted that yet!
I think it’s more on the level of giving Margaery and the Tyrells an equal footing to the Lannisters when it comes to being the Crown’s major debt holders (besides the Iron Bank of Braavos, of course). If Olenna intends to give anyone a headache, it’s Tywin (though he’ll make sure Tyrion shares it).
That statement of “we’re in this together, as equal partners” also dovetails nicely with your and her (very correct) point about the value of spectacles. To paraphrase Richard Pryor, you don’t get old in Westeros being no fool.
Ah, that makes sense.
Props and Wardrobe must be phoning it in, missing Robb’s crown. It’s mentioned ….often.
Tywin gets the cold calculating bastard award, but it’s Cersei who goes full-on evil-Disney-queen. Easily the least likable character in the first 4 books that I’ve read so far, except perhaps for Gregor.
The ‘my name is Jaimie’ bit falls a bit flat onscreen without him calling her ‘wench’ repeatedly during their initial travels and her responding ‘my name is Brienne’. He does end up being one of the more likeable characters. It would have helped the show IMHO to reveal specifically in that bathtub exchange that Ned Stark’s father and brother were among those killed by Aerys.
if joffrey makes it through season 3 with his head still on his shoulders, imma b pissed
GoT is only “not high art or literature” because those genres have stagnated and only accept the most boring and similar new works into the fold.
I thought everything written was literature, but what do I know?!
The acting standard is so high in this show that whenever you get several of the best of them doing a scene together it’s just a joy to watch and listen to them. That was the best payoff in this episode. The look on Tyrion’s face when he realizes the truth of being described as a brow-beaten bookkeeper. That cut deeper than any insult about his stature ever could. The tone of Jamie’s voice when he tells Brianne he trusts her–words that he’s probably rarely spoken in his life. The subtle doubt on Jorah’s face that he can’t completely mask with bravado when Selmy tells him he will be a liability to Dani once they return to Westeros. And Littlefinger! Was he channeling Grima Wormtongue in that scene with poor Sansa? And the jewel in the crown, the last scene with the Lannisters, which could have been right out of a Harold Pinter play. The only thing lacking in this episode was Bronn. Because, well, Bronn is awesome.
Grima Wormtongue! You know, I would really love to have Brad Dourif on this show.
He’d be good for some of the roles already cast, but unfortunately not for anyone coming up. The wilder warg or Maester Qyburn would have been perfect.
Allow me to blow your mind: Varamyr Sixskins. Brad Dourif riding a gigantic snowbear.
I only now also realized the parallels between Jon Snow with Ygritte in the pool and Jamie with Brienne in the tub. Trying to parse some meaning out of that.