Game of Thrones Episode 3.08: “Second Sons”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

Although this episode is named for a group of sellswords with whom Daenerys interacts, it is primarily the opening act of the Season of Weddings. Cersei/Loras has been talked about a lot lately, Edmure/Roslin is mentioned in this very episode, and Joffrey/Margaery is surely on the horizon. But we start off the festivities with Tyrion and Sansa.

Several of the weddings have canon or fanon names, which I urge you not to look up if you are an “Unsullied” who wishes to remain unspoiled. I call this one The Marvelous Wedding, after The Marvelous Marriage in “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” It’s basically me mocking that element of the fandom, which responds to a marriage between a young, defenseless girl and a member of the enemy's family looking to steal her inheritance, with derision for the former. Not to compare Tyrion to closely to Count Olaf, beyond their senses of humor. :P But book Sansa is even younger than Violet’s 14.

Overall, this was a very strong episode. There was the usual whitewashing and gratuitous female sex and nudity, but not to the glaring amount of recent eps. We featured far fewer locations than usual, too, which made things seem more focused and flow faster. Also a nice ease into next episode, the pinnacle number nine. But I’ll leave that for next week.

( Episode Summary and Spoilers )