Game of Thrones Episode 3.06: “The Climb”
Mar. 3rd, 2014 07:29 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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scifi_rewatchLots of metaphysical and one very physical reason for this title. Jon, Ygritte and co make the very literal climb up the wall and into Westeros. Sam and Gilly are moving more slowly in that direction. :P Jaime and Brienne are on more of a seesaw than a climb, and most other people—Arya, Gendry, Sansa, Loras, Tyrion, Cersei and Shae are on more of a descent. Bran and co are kind of in limbo, with Meera and Osha fighting for barely discernible reasons. >.< It’s one of the things I like least about this episode, that and the continued whitewashing and oversimplification of some elements. On the other hand, there/s a shocking scene between two characters who’ve not met in the published novels that kind of feels like foreshadowing. :O Overall I liked the episode—even the more controversial parts for the rest of fandom, like Littlefinger’s monologue over Sansa and Ros, and Jon and Ygritte’s romantic moment at the top of the world. If there was any moment where Ramin Djawadi’s score deserved an award this season, this was it.
Thoughts
The North
Just two quick pitstops here. The first with Bran and co, where Meera and Osha argue over skinned rabbits and basic hospitality. Bran, perhaps hearkening back to some of Luwin’s old lessons, attempts to play peacemaker. They’re interrupted by Jojen having an epileptic fit; Meera rushes over to aid him. When he wakes, he tells Bran that he’s had a new vision—and that Jon is on the wrong side of the Wall, surrounded by enemies.
Meanwhile, somewhere hidden, “the Boy” who turned out to be Theon’s torturer after all, wakes him with a trumpet blast. He then proceeds to pour out a cup of water in front of his emaciated prisoner. Theon tries to plead—quite unsuccessfully—the only thing the Boy seems interested in is his admission from last week that Bran and Rickon are alive. They play “a game”—the Boy will start slicing at Theon’s finger until either Theon guesses his identity or he begs for his appendage to be cut off due to pain. Theon ultimately guesses that he’s an Umber who’s doing this because our Greyjoy betrayed Robb. This seems to be the correct answer—the Boy backs off for a bit—before starting forward, pointing out that he is a liar, and basically the only reason he’s torturing the lad is because he enjoys it. And so the torture continues on.
The Riverlands
Robb and Catelyn
At Riverrun, Robb, Catelyn, Edmure and the Blackfish meet with some representatives from the Frey household. Things are tense around the issue of the king’s broken marriage vows, but The Late Walder Frey oks continued support so long as he gets Harrenhal—and Edmure consents to marry his daughter, Roslin, whom he’s never met. Edmure is less agreeable to this idea, but alone Robb, Cat and especially the Blackfish bully him into it.
Jaime and Brienne
At Harrenhal, Roose gives Brienne a somewhat hideous looking dress and invites her and Jaime to dinner, which is difficult for the Kingslayer with his one hand. :P Lord Bolton points out that despite Brienne’s stated mission, Robb is now holding Cat for treason. But he seems more amenable to sending Jaime to King’s Landing—especially since “wars cost money” and Tywin will pay the most. So long as Jaime points out to his father that Roose wasn’t responsible for the maiming, because that would be bad news bears. Jaime naturally assumes that Brienne will be accompanying him, but that’s where Roose puts his foot down. Brienne’s acts were still treason, and although Jaime actually insists on it, the Lord of the Dreadfort points out what happened to him the last time he got so cocky.
Arya and…Melissandre???
Arya’s shooting arrows at a dummy, reciting her kill list, and Anguy gives her pointers. They are interrupted by the arrival of Melissandre and her men! Thoros talks to her in High Valyrian, or mostly she rebukes him for falling down on his duty to turn Robert to the Red God. (Looks like Robert did a better job of turning Thoros to the drunk god. :P) They go to see Beric, where Melissandre is shocked at his condition after being brought back to life six times. Thoros makes a rather convincing case that the Red God is the true god, particularly since the priest had given up believing before Beric died the first time. Beric points out that there is nothing but darkness on “the other side,” which seems to strengthen Mel’s resolve about her mission here.
Gendry joins the Arya/Anguy party outside where he talks about fixing things. Arya sees Mel exiting and says she doesn’t like her, which earns some chuckling from the menfolk. But soon Gendry’s also not a fan of Mel and her men, as Beric gives his ok for them to grab him. Arya and Gendry protest—what happened to Gendry joining the Brotherhood Without Banners? Thoros cites religious reasons, but Arya thinks it’s a load of crock. Gendry is momentarily stunned, when before being trussed up and put in the back of a wagon, Mel approaches to say that he has a big fate ahead of him, where he will make “kings rise and fall.” Then Arya confronts her, claiming that she’s a witch out to hurt her friend. Mel grabs her chin and reveals what seems to be a prophecy—she sees many eyes staring out of Arya’s face, eyes that the girl will shut forever. She promises, before leaving, that she will meet our young Stark again. :O (And book readers go a’whaaaaa? :P)
King’s Landing
Olenna and Tywin haggle over the possible Loras/Cersei match. First Tywin names his daughter as mother of the queen and most beautiful woman in the realm, but Olenna says she’s too old to bear children anymore. Tywin points out that Olenna should be lucky that anyone wants Loras at all, given his perversion; she happily calls him a “sword swallower,” but dismisses that it’s a problem. Normal, discreet behavior. Tywin obviously doesn’t agree, but Olenna suggests that he might have a bigger problem—Cersei’s sexual relationship with her own brother, which Tywin immediately denies. Ultimately, he gives Olenna an ultimatum—Loras will either join the Kingsguard, and give up all rights to Highgarden, or he will marry Cersei. Olenna almost seems impressed by this man who “lives up to his reputation,” before snapping the quill in half.
Sansa and Loras share an awkward meeting by a fountain, where Loras recounts all of his dreams about the majesty of his upcoming wedding—oh, and of course he’s excited about the bride. :P He asks if Sansa has been to Highgarden before, which she hasn’t, and they both confide their desire to leave King’s Landing, “the most terrible place there is,” the knight confides before helping the lady to her feet. Unknown to them, Cersei and Tyrion are watching the couple and brooding. Not only is Cersei unhappy about her upcoming marriage—because goodness knows, it could take forever for Jaime to get back and kill Loras for her—but she remains convinced that the Tyrells, and particularly Margaery, are getting “their claws” in Joffrey. Too much power! Speaking of power, Tyrion finally confronts his sister concerning his assassination attempt during the Battle of Blackwater, and it turns out it was probably Joffrey.
Later, Shae is helping Sansa try on a dress for Joffrey’s wedding, the girl all the while prattling that her wedding dress will be much finer, because the Highgarden dressmakers are superior and Loras has particular tastes. She wonders, tentatively, if the Tyrells will allow her to invite her family, but Shae guesses that they won’t. :/ They’re interrupted by Tyrion, who obviously has decided to tell his betrothed about their new engagement. He tries to get rid of Shae, but Shae’s not having it and Sansa assures him that she trusts her handmaiden. We don’t get to actually witness the conversation. Instead, we shift to Littlefinger and Varys in the throneroom. Their usual ruminations on power turn to the subject of LF being aware of Varys meddling in his affairs, and trying to thwart them with the Sansa/Tyrell alliance. Moreover, he knows that Ros betrayed him, and it turns out that she didn’t meet too good of an end, at Joffrey’s hand. :/ Varys maintains that he did everything “for the good of the realm,” which LF says is a lie, the whole idea that there’s “a realm.” “The climb,” aka for ambition, for your driving goals, is the only thing that’s real. He finishes his monologue on Sansa’s distraught face—she’s sobbing and watching his ship set off for the Eyrie—as LF obviously invokes the girl, saying that “some people” are too afraid to climb, clinging instead to illusions of love and duty. “Only the ladder is real,” LF promises. Perhaps Sansa believes it now.
Beyond the Wall
Sam and Gilly, freshly escaped from the tumult at Craster’s, build a fire in the night. Well, actually Gilly instructs Sam, whom she learns quickly is noble born and hasn’t had to do much for himself. He regales her with tales of the majesty of the Wall and life within it’s confines; that’s where they’re headed. The baby fusses, and after slight resistance, Sam gives into Gilly’s request for a song. It’s poetry from the books, about the virtues of the seven gods.
Meanwhile, Jon and his group of wildlings have reached the Wall. Ygritte has stolen some hiking boots for him, and the two of them flirt, slightly, about his sexual prowess. But conversation grows more serious as Ygritte gets in close and says she knows Jon hasn’t really disavowed the Night’s Watch. But she has news for him—the Night’s Watch, or even Mance, don’t care if they live or die. The two of them are just faceless soldiers in an army. You and me care about you and me, she vows to an uncomfortable looking Jon, before warning him to not betray her. Tormund comes up with more gear and makes a joke about Jon not screaming if he falls and dies on the very treacherous task ahead.
We get a few amazing looking shots of the wildlings climbing the Wall. At one point, Jon nearly loses his footing after some ice chunks shoot down at him, and Ygritte is upset. Later, someone digs a claw into the ice so bad that there’s a rupture along the Wall, causing lots of people to plunge. Jon and Ygritte are almost among them, but Orell and Tormund have them by a hair. This doesn’t sit well with Orell, who decides it’s time to enact his vengeance by cutting them from the tether. Jon works to swing and stick himself to the Wall, just in time to save Ygritte when she plummets. Later, finally, everyone makes it to the top. Our protagonists lay still for awhile, trying to catch their breath, before Jon turns Ygritte around…first to see where they came from, and then to see the other side of the Wall, Westeros. They share a passionate kiss amongst the scenery as the music swells.
Thoughts
…I just love that last scene, the beauty and the majesty of it. Some people thought that it was schmaltzy and uncanonical, but at least on the first one I disagree. We’d just watched a few teeth-gritting scenes of the two of them risking their lives on that climb. At one point Orell was actively trying to kill them and they had to rely on each other to survive. So they get to the top and they’re exhausted and the view is beautiful. More to the point, this is the first time Ygritte has seen her goal—Westeros—and Jon has seen his home in several months. If these things don’t enflame the senses and call for a little passion, I don’t know what does.
Ygritte as a character definitely takes a step into the uncanonical. In the books, she doesn’t strike me as much more than a girl looking for a good time with Jon. The adaptation made her a bit more savvy, more complex—about her political/military situation as well as Jon’s. I have to give the show kudos for that; it just makes the whole situation, plus Jon’s competing loyalties, more compelling. Ygritte makes a good point that several characters have to face this episode—who can you trust? Is it enough to believe in a higher cause like the Night’s Watch or Mance Rayder, when you’re nothing more than a foot soldier to them? Across the world, Arya definitely doesn’t think that Thoros, Beric and Melissandre’s fundamentalist devotion to the Red God is worth Gendry’s life. Can Jaime and Brienne trust Roose to be swayed to their agenda? Can Robb, with the Freys? Can Theon trust his captor to be honest in the game they’re playing? Can Osha and Meera learn to trust each other and work together towards a common goal? Can Gilly trust Sam to lead her and her baby safely to the Wall? Can Sansa trust that her secret betrothal to Loras and way out of King’s Landing will work out? Can Littlefinger, Varys (and most tragically Ros) trust that their ambitious climb won’t get the best of them?
(I’ll just touch briefly on Sam and Gilly because it’s sweet, and nicely shot with the snow and the darkness, and I’m a fan. Honestly, insofar as I’m a canonical shipper on this show, Sam/Gilly is as far as I’ll go—Ned/Catelyn is no longer a possibility. :( Sometimes, you just gotta cling to the most kindhearted characters. And have I mentioned that I love the songs in this franchise? Cos I do, and frankly I wish the show—and GRRM in the novels—had paid more attention to the arts.)
Poor Ros. Just as she gains more agency on this show than to be used for sexposition, they kill her off. I don’t particularly mind it; there’s a high cost to being a spy and the show didn’t buck from that. I was definitely more ok with her “Joffrey scene” than I was last season—last season’s sadism-fest of Joffers ordering the prostitutes to beat each other served little point—we already knew the king was a proverbial bastard. I’m more ok with seeing the aftermath of an assault. We’re not lingering on it; the act of it isn’t meant to titillate in any way. It just shows the horror of Joffrey’s actions and Ros’s fate.
In that vein, I remain tepid at most with the Theon torture scenes. There’s just no way that the show could make it as brutal as the books. I suppose, in a way, the producers made the right choice—or the choice that they wanted to make—because “the Unsullied,” from my understanding, were just scratching their heads—who IS this Boy? But I think there’s mixed results to basically just showing him, again and again, to be a sadist. The most interesting thing to note in this passage, really, is his interest in Bran and Rickon.
I always like highlighting Bran is a lord’s son, attempting to be a wise peacekeeper even at his young years. Paradoxically, I’m not a fan of Osha and Meera’s griping. It just seems to be the usual “Mean Girls” stereotypes shining through, similar with how Ygritte chooses to put down girls in silk dresses as “dumb.” Come on, show. Certainly some proverbial sisters, more than just Sansa and Shae or Daenerys and Missandei, should be sticking together against the highly misogynistic patriarchy. I do find this scene, well, more unsurprising than anything, for Jojen’s sight dream about Jon being “on the wrong side of the Wall.” This whole “trip to Jon” thing doesn’t happen in the books for spoilery reasons, so I was assuming that the show would have to move us from this path sooner or later. (They’re drawing it out to give us more time with Bran and Rickon. *sniffles* What about more wolf dreams??)
Quick foray over into Jaime/Brienne and Robb/Catelyn. I liked Harrenhal especially—Brienne’s ridiculous dress, Jaime’s ridiculous meat cutting. :P I like Michael McElhatton’s Roose—cold yet cunning. And I buy, particularly after their tub scene, that Jaime is starting to warm to Brienne. In a lot of ways this scene is mostly set-up for their parting of the ways, but it definitely made me anxious in a good way, as a viewer. Everything is going to canon. Relatively the same at Riverrun—Robb needs to meet new demands in order to mend his relationship with the Freys, and Harenhall and Edmure for Roslin are among them. The major difference is the Blackfish’s ridiculously over-the-top bullying of Edmure (they ought to call him Uncle Dickfish. It’s especially annoying when you consider that the character’s reason for arguing with his brother is that HE refused to marry.) But Edmure, Cat and Robb were more true to form. I actually liked Cat’s line, mirroring the book, where she chastises her brother for putting sexist vanity over their wellbeing. Finally, SOMEONE stands up for the ladies as a group! Kinda. :P And for the book readers, it must’ve been nice to see a hobbling Frey, aka Lothar Frey. He’s not a hugely important character, but purists like their details. :P
The Brotherhood Without Banners is a very changed organization by now—we’ve seen none of their professed “helping the poor” ways, and instead they’re completely uncanonical religious fundamentalists. I kind of like their adaptation, insofar as it relates to Arya’s arc of continuing to realize that people aren’t whom they seem, and these “higher callings” they cling to aren’t always just or honorable. It started last year, perhaps, when she realized that Ned’s staunch honor couldn’t save his life. That being said, Arya’s arc is undoubtedly more one-dimensional, likely because they’re trying to stretch it out. And I think it’s interesting that Beric and Thoros make such a strong case for the Red God’s power, because maybe it gives viewers something to think about. IS the Red God the true god, or is he a hack? (What is causing Beric to rise from the dead, basically.) Meanwhile, book readers can wonder at the Arya/Melissandre scene, and whether the producers are trolling us. These two characters haven’t met in the published novels (Mel never came to the Riverlands; she already had access to one of Robert’s bastards who was cut from the show for streamlining reasons), though her assessment of Arya’s future holds a bit of foreshadowing. WILL these two meet in a future book? I’ll definitely be on the lookout! (I’m sure the showrunners are cackling at me now. :P Mission accomplished.)
Off to King’s Landing…where Sansa is in the last throes of her fantasy of marrying Loras. I’m no huge fan of making Loras so bumbly—I mean just because he’s not attracted to her doesn’t mean that he can’t make courtly conversation. That being said, eh, no one is perfect at propriety, I guess. :P At least he tries, a little bit.
Some folks don’t like how open—and accepting—Olenna is of gay behavior, but eh. Certainly there are enough examples in our own history of discreet homosexuality being tolerated, even where any form of “gay marriage” would never be considered. True, the characters on the show are a lot more forthcoming with both homosexuality and incest, but it’s one of those things about visual media. The big difference for canonical purposes is the lack of Willas Tyrell, the book heir to Highgarden, who Sansa is betrothed to (the Tyrells refuse the Cersei offer.) In the books Loras chooses the Kingsguard—likely because he doesn’t want to marry, and because he wants to protect Margaery. The show sets up this useful dichotomy of birthright vs Kingsguard, which works well since they wanted the Cersei/Loras betrothal to go through. And it also highlights Tywin as ruthless in playing with peoples’ lives for his political gain, not that we needed a reminder, I suppose, but still.
The major characters, to my mind, who have been whitewashed this episode are Cersei and Tyrion. Canonically Tyrion’s assassination attempt is still up in the air, and it very well could’ve been his sister. But it seems that the showrunners are keen to pass most of her sins onto Joffrey—the killing of the bastards last season especially. Tyrion’s whitewashing is worse. Look, he’s not jumping up and down to marry a girl against her will. But he IS attracted to her. And he wants Winterfell—he wants power. And he most certainly, in no sense of the term, warned Sansa about the upcoming marriage at all. He mumbled some apologies on the day of when she was brought to him, and he even said he’d try to get her married to his cousin Lancel instead if she wanted it (though considering this was the morning of their wedding, I dunno how likely that would be.) The bigger issue, that other fans have spoken about more eloquently, is that Tyrion isn’t allowed to have any flaws. That’s both insulting to the canonical character AND to viewers—other shows have given us more complicated characters, whom we can feel for even if they’re not just saints or victims. Hell, JAIME is such a character. He seems to have sucked up his siblings’ complexity. :P (Actually, I could argue that show Cersei is more complex than book Cersei, but she’s still being whitewashed, too.) And that’s a shame.
Frankly, I disagree with folks—including the author—who say that show Littlefinger is that different than book Littlefinger. The main difference, to me, is that he externalizes his desires because this is a television show and that’s the main reason we’d know about them. (That being said, twirling his mustache so much wouldn’t work as well in real life, granted. And someone ought to give Aidan Gillen a through lozenge. :P) But it’s not like his goals and personality have changed, like, say with a certain woman who gripes about “a motherless son” and doesn’t think about being a diplomat for her real one. >.<
His speech is interesting, and frankly the layover of his narrative against heartbroken Sansa watching his ship depart without her is one of my favorite moments from the series. There’s just a lot of emotion there, and it’s so SANSA. That being said, I think it’s interesting to unpack LF’s charges against Sansa. First off, it’s quite obvious that snitching about her secret Tyrell arrangement was, in part, to punish her for not choosing him—and it worked. He definitely is a…er…creeper scorned. :P (It also fit into his broader agenda, but anyway.) That being said, did Sansa betray her own goals by choosing Loras over Littlefinger? If her goal is to see her family again, well then probably, as Shae pointed out to her. (LF has at least teased a possible reunion.) But if her goal is to get out of King’s Landing in the safest way possible, and to build the healthiest life for herself (and also, the way that best fits her worldview of marriage to an honorable knight and a relatively kind-hearted, noble House), then Highgarden is definitely the way to go. (And who knows…this war can’t last forever. Her family still isn’t completely lost to her.) The LF/Tyrell paradox isn’t canon—although it runs kind of parallel to book Sansa’s choice to either conspire with Dontos to run away or to marry Willas Tyrell. But I do think this set of scenes gives us interesting fodder for dissecting Sansa’s actions and motivations. And, frankly, we don’t get near enough of that on this show.
___
Thoughts
The North
Just two quick pitstops here. The first with Bran and co, where Meera and Osha argue over skinned rabbits and basic hospitality. Bran, perhaps hearkening back to some of Luwin’s old lessons, attempts to play peacemaker. They’re interrupted by Jojen having an epileptic fit; Meera rushes over to aid him. When he wakes, he tells Bran that he’s had a new vision—and that Jon is on the wrong side of the Wall, surrounded by enemies.
Meanwhile, somewhere hidden, “the Boy” who turned out to be Theon’s torturer after all, wakes him with a trumpet blast. He then proceeds to pour out a cup of water in front of his emaciated prisoner. Theon tries to plead—quite unsuccessfully—the only thing the Boy seems interested in is his admission from last week that Bran and Rickon are alive. They play “a game”—the Boy will start slicing at Theon’s finger until either Theon guesses his identity or he begs for his appendage to be cut off due to pain. Theon ultimately guesses that he’s an Umber who’s doing this because our Greyjoy betrayed Robb. This seems to be the correct answer—the Boy backs off for a bit—before starting forward, pointing out that he is a liar, and basically the only reason he’s torturing the lad is because he enjoys it. And so the torture continues on.
The Riverlands
Robb and Catelyn
At Riverrun, Robb, Catelyn, Edmure and the Blackfish meet with some representatives from the Frey household. Things are tense around the issue of the king’s broken marriage vows, but The Late Walder Frey oks continued support so long as he gets Harrenhal—and Edmure consents to marry his daughter, Roslin, whom he’s never met. Edmure is less agreeable to this idea, but alone Robb, Cat and especially the Blackfish bully him into it.
Jaime and Brienne
At Harrenhal, Roose gives Brienne a somewhat hideous looking dress and invites her and Jaime to dinner, which is difficult for the Kingslayer with his one hand. :P Lord Bolton points out that despite Brienne’s stated mission, Robb is now holding Cat for treason. But he seems more amenable to sending Jaime to King’s Landing—especially since “wars cost money” and Tywin will pay the most. So long as Jaime points out to his father that Roose wasn’t responsible for the maiming, because that would be bad news bears. Jaime naturally assumes that Brienne will be accompanying him, but that’s where Roose puts his foot down. Brienne’s acts were still treason, and although Jaime actually insists on it, the Lord of the Dreadfort points out what happened to him the last time he got so cocky.
Arya and…Melissandre???
Arya’s shooting arrows at a dummy, reciting her kill list, and Anguy gives her pointers. They are interrupted by the arrival of Melissandre and her men! Thoros talks to her in High Valyrian, or mostly she rebukes him for falling down on his duty to turn Robert to the Red God. (Looks like Robert did a better job of turning Thoros to the drunk god. :P) They go to see Beric, where Melissandre is shocked at his condition after being brought back to life six times. Thoros makes a rather convincing case that the Red God is the true god, particularly since the priest had given up believing before Beric died the first time. Beric points out that there is nothing but darkness on “the other side,” which seems to strengthen Mel’s resolve about her mission here.
Gendry joins the Arya/Anguy party outside where he talks about fixing things. Arya sees Mel exiting and says she doesn’t like her, which earns some chuckling from the menfolk. But soon Gendry’s also not a fan of Mel and her men, as Beric gives his ok for them to grab him. Arya and Gendry protest—what happened to Gendry joining the Brotherhood Without Banners? Thoros cites religious reasons, but Arya thinks it’s a load of crock. Gendry is momentarily stunned, when before being trussed up and put in the back of a wagon, Mel approaches to say that he has a big fate ahead of him, where he will make “kings rise and fall.” Then Arya confronts her, claiming that she’s a witch out to hurt her friend. Mel grabs her chin and reveals what seems to be a prophecy—she sees many eyes staring out of Arya’s face, eyes that the girl will shut forever. She promises, before leaving, that she will meet our young Stark again. :O (And book readers go a’whaaaaa? :P)
King’s Landing
Olenna and Tywin haggle over the possible Loras/Cersei match. First Tywin names his daughter as mother of the queen and most beautiful woman in the realm, but Olenna says she’s too old to bear children anymore. Tywin points out that Olenna should be lucky that anyone wants Loras at all, given his perversion; she happily calls him a “sword swallower,” but dismisses that it’s a problem. Normal, discreet behavior. Tywin obviously doesn’t agree, but Olenna suggests that he might have a bigger problem—Cersei’s sexual relationship with her own brother, which Tywin immediately denies. Ultimately, he gives Olenna an ultimatum—Loras will either join the Kingsguard, and give up all rights to Highgarden, or he will marry Cersei. Olenna almost seems impressed by this man who “lives up to his reputation,” before snapping the quill in half.
Sansa and Loras share an awkward meeting by a fountain, where Loras recounts all of his dreams about the majesty of his upcoming wedding—oh, and of course he’s excited about the bride. :P He asks if Sansa has been to Highgarden before, which she hasn’t, and they both confide their desire to leave King’s Landing, “the most terrible place there is,” the knight confides before helping the lady to her feet. Unknown to them, Cersei and Tyrion are watching the couple and brooding. Not only is Cersei unhappy about her upcoming marriage—because goodness knows, it could take forever for Jaime to get back and kill Loras for her—but she remains convinced that the Tyrells, and particularly Margaery, are getting “their claws” in Joffrey. Too much power! Speaking of power, Tyrion finally confronts his sister concerning his assassination attempt during the Battle of Blackwater, and it turns out it was probably Joffrey.
Later, Shae is helping Sansa try on a dress for Joffrey’s wedding, the girl all the while prattling that her wedding dress will be much finer, because the Highgarden dressmakers are superior and Loras has particular tastes. She wonders, tentatively, if the Tyrells will allow her to invite her family, but Shae guesses that they won’t. :/ They’re interrupted by Tyrion, who obviously has decided to tell his betrothed about their new engagement. He tries to get rid of Shae, but Shae’s not having it and Sansa assures him that she trusts her handmaiden. We don’t get to actually witness the conversation. Instead, we shift to Littlefinger and Varys in the throneroom. Their usual ruminations on power turn to the subject of LF being aware of Varys meddling in his affairs, and trying to thwart them with the Sansa/Tyrell alliance. Moreover, he knows that Ros betrayed him, and it turns out that she didn’t meet too good of an end, at Joffrey’s hand. :/ Varys maintains that he did everything “for the good of the realm,” which LF says is a lie, the whole idea that there’s “a realm.” “The climb,” aka for ambition, for your driving goals, is the only thing that’s real. He finishes his monologue on Sansa’s distraught face—she’s sobbing and watching his ship set off for the Eyrie—as LF obviously invokes the girl, saying that “some people” are too afraid to climb, clinging instead to illusions of love and duty. “Only the ladder is real,” LF promises. Perhaps Sansa believes it now.
Beyond the Wall
Sam and Gilly, freshly escaped from the tumult at Craster’s, build a fire in the night. Well, actually Gilly instructs Sam, whom she learns quickly is noble born and hasn’t had to do much for himself. He regales her with tales of the majesty of the Wall and life within it’s confines; that’s where they’re headed. The baby fusses, and after slight resistance, Sam gives into Gilly’s request for a song. It’s poetry from the books, about the virtues of the seven gods.
Meanwhile, Jon and his group of wildlings have reached the Wall. Ygritte has stolen some hiking boots for him, and the two of them flirt, slightly, about his sexual prowess. But conversation grows more serious as Ygritte gets in close and says she knows Jon hasn’t really disavowed the Night’s Watch. But she has news for him—the Night’s Watch, or even Mance, don’t care if they live or die. The two of them are just faceless soldiers in an army. You and me care about you and me, she vows to an uncomfortable looking Jon, before warning him to not betray her. Tormund comes up with more gear and makes a joke about Jon not screaming if he falls and dies on the very treacherous task ahead.
We get a few amazing looking shots of the wildlings climbing the Wall. At one point, Jon nearly loses his footing after some ice chunks shoot down at him, and Ygritte is upset. Later, someone digs a claw into the ice so bad that there’s a rupture along the Wall, causing lots of people to plunge. Jon and Ygritte are almost among them, but Orell and Tormund have them by a hair. This doesn’t sit well with Orell, who decides it’s time to enact his vengeance by cutting them from the tether. Jon works to swing and stick himself to the Wall, just in time to save Ygritte when she plummets. Later, finally, everyone makes it to the top. Our protagonists lay still for awhile, trying to catch their breath, before Jon turns Ygritte around…first to see where they came from, and then to see the other side of the Wall, Westeros. They share a passionate kiss amongst the scenery as the music swells.
Thoughts
…I just love that last scene, the beauty and the majesty of it. Some people thought that it was schmaltzy and uncanonical, but at least on the first one I disagree. We’d just watched a few teeth-gritting scenes of the two of them risking their lives on that climb. At one point Orell was actively trying to kill them and they had to rely on each other to survive. So they get to the top and they’re exhausted and the view is beautiful. More to the point, this is the first time Ygritte has seen her goal—Westeros—and Jon has seen his home in several months. If these things don’t enflame the senses and call for a little passion, I don’t know what does.
Ygritte as a character definitely takes a step into the uncanonical. In the books, she doesn’t strike me as much more than a girl looking for a good time with Jon. The adaptation made her a bit more savvy, more complex—about her political/military situation as well as Jon’s. I have to give the show kudos for that; it just makes the whole situation, plus Jon’s competing loyalties, more compelling. Ygritte makes a good point that several characters have to face this episode—who can you trust? Is it enough to believe in a higher cause like the Night’s Watch or Mance Rayder, when you’re nothing more than a foot soldier to them? Across the world, Arya definitely doesn’t think that Thoros, Beric and Melissandre’s fundamentalist devotion to the Red God is worth Gendry’s life. Can Jaime and Brienne trust Roose to be swayed to their agenda? Can Robb, with the Freys? Can Theon trust his captor to be honest in the game they’re playing? Can Osha and Meera learn to trust each other and work together towards a common goal? Can Gilly trust Sam to lead her and her baby safely to the Wall? Can Sansa trust that her secret betrothal to Loras and way out of King’s Landing will work out? Can Littlefinger, Varys (and most tragically Ros) trust that their ambitious climb won’t get the best of them?
(I’ll just touch briefly on Sam and Gilly because it’s sweet, and nicely shot with the snow and the darkness, and I’m a fan. Honestly, insofar as I’m a canonical shipper on this show, Sam/Gilly is as far as I’ll go—Ned/Catelyn is no longer a possibility. :( Sometimes, you just gotta cling to the most kindhearted characters. And have I mentioned that I love the songs in this franchise? Cos I do, and frankly I wish the show—and GRRM in the novels—had paid more attention to the arts.)
Poor Ros. Just as she gains more agency on this show than to be used for sexposition, they kill her off. I don’t particularly mind it; there’s a high cost to being a spy and the show didn’t buck from that. I was definitely more ok with her “Joffrey scene” than I was last season—last season’s sadism-fest of Joffers ordering the prostitutes to beat each other served little point—we already knew the king was a proverbial bastard. I’m more ok with seeing the aftermath of an assault. We’re not lingering on it; the act of it isn’t meant to titillate in any way. It just shows the horror of Joffrey’s actions and Ros’s fate.
In that vein, I remain tepid at most with the Theon torture scenes. There’s just no way that the show could make it as brutal as the books. I suppose, in a way, the producers made the right choice—or the choice that they wanted to make—because “the Unsullied,” from my understanding, were just scratching their heads—who IS this Boy? But I think there’s mixed results to basically just showing him, again and again, to be a sadist. The most interesting thing to note in this passage, really, is his interest in Bran and Rickon.
I always like highlighting Bran is a lord’s son, attempting to be a wise peacekeeper even at his young years. Paradoxically, I’m not a fan of Osha and Meera’s griping. It just seems to be the usual “Mean Girls” stereotypes shining through, similar with how Ygritte chooses to put down girls in silk dresses as “dumb.” Come on, show. Certainly some proverbial sisters, more than just Sansa and Shae or Daenerys and Missandei, should be sticking together against the highly misogynistic patriarchy. I do find this scene, well, more unsurprising than anything, for Jojen’s sight dream about Jon being “on the wrong side of the Wall.” This whole “trip to Jon” thing doesn’t happen in the books for spoilery reasons, so I was assuming that the show would have to move us from this path sooner or later. (They’re drawing it out to give us more time with Bran and Rickon. *sniffles* What about more wolf dreams??)
Quick foray over into Jaime/Brienne and Robb/Catelyn. I liked Harrenhal especially—Brienne’s ridiculous dress, Jaime’s ridiculous meat cutting. :P I like Michael McElhatton’s Roose—cold yet cunning. And I buy, particularly after their tub scene, that Jaime is starting to warm to Brienne. In a lot of ways this scene is mostly set-up for their parting of the ways, but it definitely made me anxious in a good way, as a viewer. Everything is going to canon. Relatively the same at Riverrun—Robb needs to meet new demands in order to mend his relationship with the Freys, and Harenhall and Edmure for Roslin are among them. The major difference is the Blackfish’s ridiculously over-the-top bullying of Edmure (they ought to call him Uncle Dickfish. It’s especially annoying when you consider that the character’s reason for arguing with his brother is that HE refused to marry.) But Edmure, Cat and Robb were more true to form. I actually liked Cat’s line, mirroring the book, where she chastises her brother for putting sexist vanity over their wellbeing. Finally, SOMEONE stands up for the ladies as a group! Kinda. :P And for the book readers, it must’ve been nice to see a hobbling Frey, aka Lothar Frey. He’s not a hugely important character, but purists like their details. :P
The Brotherhood Without Banners is a very changed organization by now—we’ve seen none of their professed “helping the poor” ways, and instead they’re completely uncanonical religious fundamentalists. I kind of like their adaptation, insofar as it relates to Arya’s arc of continuing to realize that people aren’t whom they seem, and these “higher callings” they cling to aren’t always just or honorable. It started last year, perhaps, when she realized that Ned’s staunch honor couldn’t save his life. That being said, Arya’s arc is undoubtedly more one-dimensional, likely because they’re trying to stretch it out. And I think it’s interesting that Beric and Thoros make such a strong case for the Red God’s power, because maybe it gives viewers something to think about. IS the Red God the true god, or is he a hack? (What is causing Beric to rise from the dead, basically.) Meanwhile, book readers can wonder at the Arya/Melissandre scene, and whether the producers are trolling us. These two characters haven’t met in the published novels (Mel never came to the Riverlands; she already had access to one of Robert’s bastards who was cut from the show for streamlining reasons), though her assessment of Arya’s future holds a bit of foreshadowing. WILL these two meet in a future book? I’ll definitely be on the lookout! (I’m sure the showrunners are cackling at me now. :P Mission accomplished.)
Off to King’s Landing…where Sansa is in the last throes of her fantasy of marrying Loras. I’m no huge fan of making Loras so bumbly—I mean just because he’s not attracted to her doesn’t mean that he can’t make courtly conversation. That being said, eh, no one is perfect at propriety, I guess. :P At least he tries, a little bit.
Some folks don’t like how open—and accepting—Olenna is of gay behavior, but eh. Certainly there are enough examples in our own history of discreet homosexuality being tolerated, even where any form of “gay marriage” would never be considered. True, the characters on the show are a lot more forthcoming with both homosexuality and incest, but it’s one of those things about visual media. The big difference for canonical purposes is the lack of Willas Tyrell, the book heir to Highgarden, who Sansa is betrothed to (the Tyrells refuse the Cersei offer.) In the books Loras chooses the Kingsguard—likely because he doesn’t want to marry, and because he wants to protect Margaery. The show sets up this useful dichotomy of birthright vs Kingsguard, which works well since they wanted the Cersei/Loras betrothal to go through. And it also highlights Tywin as ruthless in playing with peoples’ lives for his political gain, not that we needed a reminder, I suppose, but still.
The major characters, to my mind, who have been whitewashed this episode are Cersei and Tyrion. Canonically Tyrion’s assassination attempt is still up in the air, and it very well could’ve been his sister. But it seems that the showrunners are keen to pass most of her sins onto Joffrey—the killing of the bastards last season especially. Tyrion’s whitewashing is worse. Look, he’s not jumping up and down to marry a girl against her will. But he IS attracted to her. And he wants Winterfell—he wants power. And he most certainly, in no sense of the term, warned Sansa about the upcoming marriage at all. He mumbled some apologies on the day of when she was brought to him, and he even said he’d try to get her married to his cousin Lancel instead if she wanted it (though considering this was the morning of their wedding, I dunno how likely that would be.) The bigger issue, that other fans have spoken about more eloquently, is that Tyrion isn’t allowed to have any flaws. That’s both insulting to the canonical character AND to viewers—other shows have given us more complicated characters, whom we can feel for even if they’re not just saints or victims. Hell, JAIME is such a character. He seems to have sucked up his siblings’ complexity. :P (Actually, I could argue that show Cersei is more complex than book Cersei, but she’s still being whitewashed, too.) And that’s a shame.
Frankly, I disagree with folks—including the author—who say that show Littlefinger is that different than book Littlefinger. The main difference, to me, is that he externalizes his desires because this is a television show and that’s the main reason we’d know about them. (That being said, twirling his mustache so much wouldn’t work as well in real life, granted. And someone ought to give Aidan Gillen a through lozenge. :P) But it’s not like his goals and personality have changed, like, say with a certain woman who gripes about “a motherless son” and doesn’t think about being a diplomat for her real one. >.<
His speech is interesting, and frankly the layover of his narrative against heartbroken Sansa watching his ship depart without her is one of my favorite moments from the series. There’s just a lot of emotion there, and it’s so SANSA. That being said, I think it’s interesting to unpack LF’s charges against Sansa. First off, it’s quite obvious that snitching about her secret Tyrell arrangement was, in part, to punish her for not choosing him—and it worked. He definitely is a…er…creeper scorned. :P (It also fit into his broader agenda, but anyway.) That being said, did Sansa betray her own goals by choosing Loras over Littlefinger? If her goal is to see her family again, well then probably, as Shae pointed out to her. (LF has at least teased a possible reunion.) But if her goal is to get out of King’s Landing in the safest way possible, and to build the healthiest life for herself (and also, the way that best fits her worldview of marriage to an honorable knight and a relatively kind-hearted, noble House), then Highgarden is definitely the way to go. (And who knows…this war can’t last forever. Her family still isn’t completely lost to her.) The LF/Tyrell paradox isn’t canon—although it runs kind of parallel to book Sansa’s choice to either conspire with Dontos to run away or to marry Willas Tyrell. But I do think this set of scenes gives us interesting fodder for dissecting Sansa’s actions and motivations. And, frankly, we don’t get near enough of that on this show.
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