Game of Thrones Episode 3.01: “Valar Dohaeris”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

Welcome, welcome to my annual recap of “Game of Thrones.” Like in years previous, I’m posting my reviews for the ten weeks leading up to the season premiere, this time season four, of the show. I will be dividing my summaries up by location, followed by some thoughts. Expect spoilers from both the tv show and the books up to what each episode covers.

(Winterfell now burns in the credits--*sobs!* Can’t deal.)

The title, “Valar Dohaeris,” means “All Men Must Serve,” (and yes, in canon it ties in with “Valar Morghulis”/”All Men Must Die,” the season finale from last year.) I think to “serve” seems to be an overarching theme for this episode, as people take stock of who they serve—Jon with Mance and the wildlings, Tyrion and Tywin with each other, Davos, Sallador Saan and Melissandre with Stannis, Robb feeling caught between his bannermen and his mother, Shae and Ros with Sansa and Littlefinger respectively, Cersei and Margaery with what power they can accrue around Joffrey, a surprising new/old person with Daenerys, and Dany herself with her mission to retake Westeros and what means she feels are ok to do it.

A slow, season opener…some people aren’t fans, but I rather like being eased back in to these characters and their ever-increasingly complicated lives.


Summary
Beyond the Wall
In the blinding snow, we hear the final feral cries from the White Walker attack that rounded out last season. Sam stumbles, and comes across a freaky image of a former brother with his head hulked off and in his hands. Ghost saves him from a wight attack, but not from the stormy looks from Mormont and his remaining brothers, after it is discovered that he didn’t send the ravens. Mormont turns back to the rest of the crew and warns that they have to get back to the Wall, or else their supernatural enemies will kill everyone before the winter is out.

Elsewhere, Ygritte, the King of Bones et al take Jon to Mance Wildling’s camp. Jon is wowed by his first giant sighting and the wildling children throw stones at him because of his black cloak. Inside Mance’s tent, Jon bows to whom he assumes is the King Beyond the Wall and everyone laughs at him—not only because people don’t kneel here, but because he had the wrong man. Mance, hidden, introduces himself, and he dismisses everyone else, noting the attraction between Jon and Yigritte. They talk tersely about the Halfhand’s death at Jon’s hand, their status as traitors, and why Jon is claiming he switched sides. After a couple of false starts Jon comes to an explanation that works—he wants to “fight for the side that fights for the living,” not the one that turns a blind eye to Craster sacrificing his sons to the White Walkers.

The Riverlands
Robb and his men come across Harrenhal. They are tired and cranky, obviously spending their days marching around but getting nowhere, as they can’t find anyone left to fight but also don’t have the strength to attack King’s Landing.

Inside, the crew finds a psychologically disturbing sight—a bunch of dead allies, captors whom supposedly the Mountain put to the sword before being called away by Tywin. Bolton and Karstark grumble about deaths that have gone unpaid, the Kingslayer being on the loose, and the promise of ultimate retribution. Robb briefly follows Catelyn as she mourns one of her father’s bannermen, but noting the stony faces from his own bannermen he then orders someone to find a cell for his mother. New wife Talisa rebukes him mildly, but they are interrupted by the sputtering of a lone survivor, who calls himself Qyburn.

Dragonstone
Let’s start on King’s Landing, where there was some great B footage of kids playing in the Blackwater, looking through all of the wreckage. (The perverse aftermath of devastation.) Davos, parched and sunburnt, wakes up on a bit of rock and hails a passing ship for help. There’s a brief moment of tension as he and the rescue party gauge alliances, but luckily they fight for Stannis, too. They take him to his buddy, Sallador Saan’s ship, in fact.

Below deck the two friends discuss the situation. There’s really little way that Matthos could’ve survived the wildfire. Saan basically feels that his tenure is up—he’s not a Westeros man, interested in sworn oaths; he came for gold and didn’t get it. More to the point, Stannis has retreated to Dragonstone, a broken man, who spends his days burning infidels on Melissandre’s command. Davos is horrified and begs to be taken there, despite the more logical thing to do, which is to stay away and keep your head down. But Davos is a Westerosi man, and he takes his oaths to Stannis seriously.

On the island, in the war room, he meets “alone” with Stannis—and Melissandre. Stannis barely seems interested in the fact that Davos survived, and refuses to do anything more than what he currently is with Mel. Mel, for her part—and Stannis obviously agrees with her—blames Davos for leaving her behind when she could’ve saved people. She also defends burning infidels, which gets her and Davos started on a “religious tolerance” debate of sorts (mostly they’re just sniping at each other.) But Stannis and Melissandre are fundamentalists of the same color, and they send Davos to the dungeon for his “treason.”

King’s Landing
Bronn enjoys a moment at the whorehouse where the showrunners obviously have a go at one of their big criticisms—the whore, before disrobing, asks “Don’t you want to leave anything to the imagination?” “Trouble is I don’t have much imagination,” Bronn replies. Oh, guys. *eyeroll*

Anywho, he doesn’t get very far before Pod interrupts with an urgent summons from Tyrion. Tyrion is holed up in his room, looking over his scar and awaiting their arrival; he gets his sister instead. Cersei sweeps in and tries to get out of him why he’s meeting with Tywin later that day; she doesn’t want him to “slander” her. Tyrion is trying to figure out whether Cersei ordered the hit on his life. Neither get very far, but it’s all very witty.

Outside, Bronn outwits Cersei’s kingsguard protection by taking pride in who he is—“an upjumped sellsword”—and mocking them for only being skilled at “beating little girls.” Cersei et al leave, and Tyrion takes Bronn for a walk outside. He wants more protection and Bronn wants more money for it. Turns out friendship with a sellsword—even a knighted one—only gets you so far.

Later, Tyrion visits with Tywin while the latter writes a letter—war plans go ever on. Tyrion is hurt that his father never came to visit, and that he didn’t acknowledge any of the good works that his son did as Hand. In response, Tywin lectures him for wanting applause like a street performer, and only focuses on Tyrion’s “bad deeds,” eg drinking and whoring. Tyrion tries another tactic—Casterly Rock is his inheritance, a la the laws of Westeros, and he wants it. But Tywin refuses to give him his due, and his litany of grievances against his son grows more biting and personal. Before his son leaves, Tywin threatens that the next whore he finds in his bed, he’ll hang.

Outside by the docks, yet stifled by her usual Lannister guard, Sansa sits with Shae and entices the handmaiden to play a creative game with her—making up stories about where the ship is going, and why. Sansa’s defense for such a game is “the truth is either terrible or boring.” They are interrupted by Ros and Littlefinger; Shae goes to stand aside with the former while Sansa speaks with the latter. Littlefinger teases Sansa with the news that he saw Catelyn recently—and that Arya might be alive. :O Sansa is more than ready to have Littlefinger take her away from the Capitol, and she promises that she’ll keep her mouth shut because, as he told her last year, “I’m a terrible liar.” Littlefinger promises to keep her abreast of possible plans to spirit her away. Meanwhile, Shae and Ros have their own conversation—about how rare it is for lower class “working girls” like themselves to rise so high, and also to keep an eye on Sansa with Littlefinger.

Later, Joffrey sits in a small litter being moved through Flea Bottom by servants (earning him the fandom nickname “Dick in a Box.” :P) His party stops abruptly as Margaery decides to exit her litter and take to the streets, despite warnings from her handmaidens. She goes to visit orphans, hand out toys, extol them about the sacrifices that their fathers made (most died in the Blackwater battle,) and puts the credit for saving the city on “King Joffrey’s rulership.”

Margaery and Loras meet Cersei and Joffrey for dinner, where they briefly discuss her charity. Joffrey is largely disinterested, Marg plays herself up as an altruist, yet Cersei holds her ground that the lower classes are dangerous, a la the mob attack from last year. This gets Joffrey’s heckles up, as his mother mentions that he almost died, and he blames her for being old and forgetful. It should also be noted that Margaery’s clothing is provocative and Cersei is wearing metal armor—both women note these deviations from dress code subtly. The Game of Politics is on. :P

Essos
Daenerys has gotten her Dothraki, woozy and sickly as they are, onto a ship that she presumably took from Qarth, and she watches her growing dragons swoop fish out of the water. Their destination is currently unknown, but Jorah reminds her that she has to show a feat of strength, lest the Dothraki refuse to follow her.

Later, they arrive at the slave city of Astapor, where they are looking to buy 8,000 “Unsullied,” (became a name for non-book readers in fandom,) slaves who were trained by brutal methods to be fighting chattle. Slaver Kranzys and his translator Missandei take the crew around; Kranzys speaks in High Valyrian, continually insulting Dany as she’s horrified by his nipple-cutting, baby-murdering ways. Missandei has the business savvy to be creative with words. :P Dany has to decide soon whether or not to buy the slaves.

She has her reservations about owning a slave army. Jorah points out that the Unsullied will have shit lives either way, and that at least she’ll treat them without cruelty. They are interrupted by a little urchin girl who tosses Dany a ball, obviously in play. But before she can open it, a hooded stranger knocks her down and escapes Jorah’s grasp. The ball slowly opens to reveal a deadly looking insect with Pyatt Pree’s face, which the stranger stabs. He then goes after the blue-teethed urchin, who jumps into the water, promptly disappears, and then turns up on the opposite bank before walking away. Said stranger then unveils himself as Barristan Selmy, whom Jorah immediately recognizes as “the Lord Commander of Robert’s Kingsguard.” Barristan points out that Robert is dead, and that he’s spent the last season looking for Dany. He pledges himself to her service, and promises to do a better job protecting her than he did her family all those years ago. Dany has a satisfied look on her face.

Thoughts
Quite the change in fortune for Dany! First she’s pursued by the people she pissed off last year, and is conflicted about the possibility of owning a slave army. But Barristan is obviously a man, personifying Westerosi ideals of knighthood and honor, who comes to her willingly. I’m thinking she definitely thinks her claim is more secure than before. We also get to hear a new language—High Valyrian, which is based more on lyrical Latin than the guttural, Arab/German Dothraki. Kudos to David Peterson for his continued work! Missandei is aged up, which is good for the adaptation, as it puts her on more equal footing with Dany (in bad need of female friendship after the show killed off all of her handmaidens! :P) The Unsullied are really a terrifying concept—thousands of people being taught to be so subservient to not protest body parts being cut off, to kill thousands of babies, etc. Though I suppose I’m being offensive if I pretend that any sort of slavery is any less egregious than turning people into chattle. Sadly, this sort of thing continues to exist in real life, too.

Not a lot of changes from the book in this section, except for how quickly Barristan reveals himself (in the books, he travels with an assumed name for awhile.) In King’s Landing there are far more changes—mostly around Margaery. In the book, she’s largely a young, innocent girl, not someone who wears flashy clothes, does charity work and obviously knows political machinations. Many purist fans don’t like these changes, but for the most part I’m ok with them. Marg’s new personality sheds more light on the ways that women can game the political system in Westeros. Her interactions with Cersei are pretty priceless.

The rest of the Westeros crew isn’t doing so hot—though the showrunners had a go at us again with Cersei’s comment to Tyrion—“I thought you’d lost your nose, but it’s not as bad as all that.” (In the books, he lost his nose.) These two actors do quite the job at attempting to outwit each other. But Tyrion’s scene with Tywin was far more harrowing—and that horrifyingly cruel dialogue was pulled straight from the books. Ugh.

Sansa remains a prisoner—albeit free from the threat or marrying Joffrey—but I found her opening to be much different than last year’s. Last year she was quite deliberately hiding her feelings, and hiding in grief, but this year she’s playing games to try to keep her spirits up, and she’s conspiring directly with Littlefinger (Dontos continues to be a no show this season,) in order to get the hell out of dodge. It’s a relief to see her thoughts and motivations so out in the open this season, because expository is the only medium at the service of visual arts like tv. I also liked Shae and Ros’s talk—nice to see Ros promoted from pornographic centerfold—but also to get an unusual look into the lives of working class girls. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that Sansa was my favorite part of their conversation—mentioning how the noble born girl was born to the sound of bells ringing all day, and etc. It’s a nice way to flesh out Sansa’s past and yet, like Shae and Ros, she’s still a young woman, and still in danger from the likes of unscrupulous men like Littlefinger.

Concerning Dragonstone, Davos broke my heart. :/ Actor Liam Cunningham did an amazing job with this emaciated, highly loyal, hugely grieving man. Overall I’m no huge fan of Melissandre, but he and actress Carice Van Houten (friends in RL) have such chemistry with playing these rivals—and it was so personal, too, given Mel’s disciple/Davos’s dead son, Matthos. Against likely smarter judgment, Davos returns to Dragonstone to tell the despondent king to stop sulking and burning “infidels” on Mel’s command and get back to claiming his throne, and only gets locked in the dungeon for it. It’s only slightly different than the novel—he’s not directly blamed for Mel not being at the Blackwater, and he doesn’t speak with Stannis before being put under arrest, but he IS put under arrest, because of his open dislike for Mel, if I remember correctly.

Overall, the Robb/Cat storyline is my bitter disappointment with the adaptation. But in terms of this week’s offering, eh, it’s ok. :P I’m putting aside my dislike of trading Jeyne Westerling’s storyline for Talisa’s—I discussed my grievances last year, so now I’m accepting the marriage enough to move on. There are lots of new deviations—like Robb and Cat going to Harrenhal at all (in the books, they sent Roose and men alone.) The Stark ally frustration is true to canon, given that the army is just turning their heels and their biggest hostage is gone. The resentment that Bolton and Karstark talk about seems accurate; the big difference is that Robb publicly agrees with them, whereas in the novel he stuck up for his mother (perhaps out of guilt for his own foolish act to betray his marriage contract.) But I liked their almost-tender moment of bonding over the body of a man whom Catelyn recognized from youth. War makes mourners of us all. (Robb never met Qyburn in the books—small deviation.)

The stuff beyond the wall was a great tie in from the finale, imho. I liked the freaky atmosphere of the death knolls of the White Walker attack. In the book, Sam DID send the ravens, but in the adaptation he’s a schmuck now so that his glory moment will be more impressive later. :P

Concerning Jon stuff, dunno how obvious it was that Jon is trying to spy on the wildlings, not join them. The fact that this was the Halfhand’s plan might’ve been bungled last season. But for now, I really like the “excuse” that Jon gave Mance about wanting to join them. It’s close to his truthful feelings of disgust about how Craster sacrifices his boys. (That being said, the canon reason that he gives Mance for wanting to join is because he’s a bastard, but perhaps the showrunners thought that came off as too self-pitying or something. Dunno.)

My big disappointment is Mance. Ciaran Hinds is older than the canon character—that’s no biggie for me. But I regret that Mance wasn’t more jocular, and especially that he didn’t play the fiddle in the corner when Jon came in. :P You missed out on a great opportunity, show! Would have been a fun character…Hinds’s version is definitely more serious.

I’ll hold off on mentioning Jon/Ygritte flirtation…plenty more of that to come. :P /spoilers

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