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scifi_rewatchThis felt like a more compact episode than most, with each storyline contained to its section, and not broken up in pieces, dispersed amongst each other. It’s also an hour where all of the major players are debating questions of justice and entitlement, which, among these nobles are often conflated into the same thing. Was Daenerys too harsh in her collective punishment towards the slavers? What is Stannis’s claim to Westeros amongst Essos bankers who only care about numbers? Is a broken man worthy to be saved and brought back to his former family? And, most centrally, how do personal desires taint what is supposed to be impartial law? Perhaps the Iron Bankers are incorrect—no story is without bias, or “interpretation.”
Won’t ever be my favorite episode, because there’s no Starks in it, save for the mention of Sansa at the trial. And speaking of such, my main quibble actually concerns her, though I don’t want to get too spoilery with it over the cut. I also think there’s a little bit of convenient hand waving at the Dreadfort, but it ends in a powerful place. Speaking of, no surprise after you watch it, but the clip they used for Peter Dinklage’s acting nominations this year all came from the end of this hour.
Summary
Essos
Two storylines here! :O For the first time ever, Dany’s got company. Kinda. :P
Stannis in Braavos
Stannis, Davos & co sail under the impressive Titan of Braavos statue and enter the bustling commerce city. They are forced to wait for awhile at the Iron Bank, causing the king some upset. And when the banker, Tycho Nestoris, finally arrives, he’s less than detrimental to Stannis’s noble claims. The bank doesn’t back people based on bloodline but rather by financial gain, and Team Dragonstone, unfortunately, doesn’t have much to offer. In the process of being handed their hats, Davos tries a new approach. Having already shoveled so much money into the Lannister war, how do they expect to be repaid? Stannis can’t beat the Lannisters in much, but he can in credit—both financial and social.
Seems like the ploy worked, because when Davos greets Sallador in a pleasure bath, he can pay him this time. Team Dragonstone may be rebuilding their navy at last!
Daenerys in Meereen
A man and his son tend their flock of goats…until Drogon flies up and starts roasting them. Later, Daenerys meets with supplicants in the great pyramid. Things start on a decent note—although she can’t replace the shepherd’s flock, Dany offers him triple their value. Smiles abound!
The next supplicant, Hizdahr zo Loraq, is far more complicated. Daenerys immediately dislikes him, as he’s a former slaver who uses a servant to introduce himself. But the conversation quickly turns to controversial ethics. Dany had Hizdahr’s father crucified—another slaver, yes, but one who spoke against the crucifixion of the children. More broadly, is it ethical to leave their bodies for carrion when loved ones want to bury them? Dany is offended on behalf of the children—who cared about their remains?—but with Hizdahr declining to defend the masters’ actions, simply his wish to bury his father, she ultimately allows it. Suddenly the 200-plus supplicants waiting to see her seems like a very long day. :P
The North
Yara & co approach the Dreadfort by boat, as Balon’s daughter reads out what Ramsay sent last season. She claims that all of the mutilation the Bastard of Bolton performed on Theon, “your prince,” he did by proxy to all of them. So long as they can hurt the boy with impunity, the Ironborn are in trouble.
So the Ironborn scale the walls while Ramsay is having particularly loud sex with Myranda. Yara takes a young guard hostage who then leads her to Theon…not in the dungeons but in the kennels, sleeping in a cage like Ramsay’s dogs. Yara, stunned, tries to coax him out, but “Reek” is having none of this, pitching a fit while the dogs bark. Ramsay, shirtless and covered with blood, ultimately finds them with his own guard, and a fight ensues. Ultimately reaching a brief standstill, Yara demands Ramsay let Theon go. Instead, he sets the hounds on her, and after a final look at her brother, she flees. Making it back to the dingy, she tells her men that Theon is dead.
The next morning, Ramsay draws a bath for “Reek.” He’s happy that his still-terrified creature remained loyal to the Boltons. As “Reek” takes off his clothes, we see that his upper body is covered in scars. A soothing bath is ultimately a lost concept on the man, and he reacts to Ramsay’s washing him by expecting to be punished. Instead, the Bastard of Bolton has other plans. He explains that he needs “Reek’s” help in taking back a castle…”Reek” must pretend to be someone he’s not, aka Theon Greyjoy.
King’s Landing
The new small council is called to an early meeting before Tyrion’s trial. Varys brings up the Hound—news of his slaughter of Lannister soldiers/ “fuck the king” remark have reached his ears at last, and Tywin plans to entice an assassin with 100 gold coins. Next, Varys brings up Dany’s ascension to the throne of Meereen. Tywin, Cersei and Pycelle try to shake this off for now, but Varys and Oberyn are more impressed by her Unsullied army, not to mention her two knight advisors (it’s confirmed that Jorah is no longer working as a spy against her, and Tywin lightly chastises Cersei for dismissing Barristan all those years ago,) and, of course, three dragons. But for now, she’s on the backburner. And Mace, who spent most of his time being defensive with Oberyn and fawning over Tywin, is commanded to fetch the quill and paper. :P
Oberyn and Varys meet at the Iron Throne, the usual spot for advisors to talk over wants and desires. :P They touch on a little backstory (Oberyn having spent five years in Braavos, recognizing Varys’s cover up of his accent meaning he’s from Lys.) Oberyn is someone whose passion drives him to experience a lot—he travels because he doesn’t want to just live in one place, he’s openly bisexual, etc. Varys, on the other hand, finds passion to be dangerous, linking it to the devastation of the recent war. Even when it comes to sex he’s asexual, allowing him to focus on…other things (glimpse at throne.)
A reluctant Jaime comes to fetch Tyrion for his trial, putting him in irons—“Father’s orders.” The throne room is packed for the proceedings, with Tyrion being chained to the smaller of two diases, facing the throne. Tommen formally recuses himself after a look from his grandfather; Tywin takes the throne with Mace and Oberyn on either side of him. The closest victims, Cersei and Margaery (with Loras beside her) also face the accused. Tyrion pleads not guilty, for himself and also for having any knowledge of Sansa having done it, and is slightly cavalier in his defensiveness. The crowd titters.
Ser Meryn, as the first witness, recounts Tyrion mocking and lecturing Joffrey and threatening the kingsguard’s life during the beating Sansa incident in season two—which Tyrion hastens to point out before his father shushes him. Pycelle reads out a long list of his stores—all poisoned—and then produces Sansa’s necklace, found on the Dontos’s body. Apparently someone had come forward, having seen Dontos spiriting Sansa away, and sure enough the necklace has traces of poison on it, one of those stolen from Pycelle. Cersei recounts how Tyrion threatened her with harm before the Blackwater, but she ignores and rewrites other bits. Eg how she didn’t want Joff to lead the battle (she claims her son did rallied the troops of his own accord,) and there’s no mention of her kidnapping of Ros, though she does fabricate a conversation where she asks her brother not to keep whores in the Tower of the Hand. Finally, Varys recounts Tyrion’s dark warning to Joff in the wake of the Red Wedding news, suggesting that perhaps his marriage to Sansa made him “sympathetic to the northern cause.” Quietly betrayed, Tyrion is granted permission to guilt Varys over the fact that post-Blackwater, the other man said he’d not forget his service to the city. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do much for the here and now.
The trail goes into intermission and Jaime storms off to have words with his father over lunch. At first, the Kingslayer expresses his disgust over Cersei manipulating the trial (Tywin denies this,) and how callously Tywin might murder his second son, perhaps the only person capable of carrying on the Lannister name, at least from the main branch of the family. Tywin makes protestations about justice not murder, appropriate punishments, etc…and Jaime drops his last card, saying he’d give up the kingsguard and live as Lord of Casterly Rock if Tyrion could live. Wuddaya know—Tywin was expecting this all along, and he immediately lays out what will happen—Tyrion will be found guilty, he’ll plead for mercy, Tywin will send him to the Wall, and Jaime will vamoose for Casterly Rock. Resigned, Jaime accepts this, and goes out to tell Tyrion to keep his cool, this will all be over soon.
Unfortunately there’s one more witness…Shae. :O She immediately accuses Tyrion (and Sansa) of the crime, outing herself as his whore, complete with embarrassing details. When Tyrion begs her, near defeated, to stop, her voice cracks in reference to their last, painful argument, and she proceeds to paint a picture where Tyrion promised to kill Joff so that Sansa would let him into her bed. As the audience reacts, so does Tyrion, losing his cool in a big way. He claims he’s been on trial his whole life for being a dwarf; he damns the city people for damning him now when he’d saved them from Stannis; he tells Cersei that although he didn’t kill Joff, her “vicious bastard’s death gave [him] more relief than a thousand lying whores.” With his father, he snatches away his grand plan of sending Tyrion away/reinstating Jaime as his heir by demanding a trial by combat. There’s a lot of commotion from the crowd and reaction from key characters, but the camera lingers on the glare between father and son; Tyrion won the only way he knew how, by pulling the rug out from under his father’s feet.
Thoughts
I suppose I’ve already started to extrapolate, in my summary, the intriguing character dynamics at Tyrion’s trial. :P We have Pycelle, who’s basically a sycophant for Tywin, and Varys, who, like with Ned, will first save his own skin. We have Cersei, who believes so strongly in Tyrion’s guilt that she’ll lie and distort evidence in service of her desired results. You have to admit some similarity here to Tywin, who uses the trial as a tool to manipulate his two sons. This actually didn’t happen in canon, though it seems like something Tywin could have well planned in the books, too. Tyrion’s uncle, Kevan, who hasn’t been on the show in years, does suggest in the books that his nephew plead guilty so as to live at the Wall rather than be executed. The trial is otherwise condensed on the show, and features witnesses we know well, rather than secondary characters from the books. A few minor additions or subtractions (what stands out most to me is that Pycelle recovered Sansa’s necklace and knows a bit more about what happened with her, but there’s no reason that the show trial shouldn’t contain that clue. Definitely assists in making Tyrion look more guilty.)
My least favorite part of the episode is Shae’s testimony. I had been wary, like some other “sullied,” how they might handle her betrayal, since the show had the couple grow real feelings towards each other. To that end, I can buy Shae’s “lover scorned” given how she felt betrayed after Tyrion denigrated their relationship and sent her away. But I’m less pleased with how they handled her turning on Sansa; even Sibel disagreed with the showrunners on this, but they were insistent. I find it lazy and insipid to have Shae claim, all this time, that she loved Sansa, only to throw her under the bus. Granted, Sansa is no longer in King’s Landing, but we already know that Cersei rallying bounty hunters. Why build up this relationship if you don’t intend to have it inform character decisions?
I suppose it’s especially disappointing, because the Shae who surfaced these last few seasons is definitely more fleshed out than her book counterpart. In the books, perhaps it could be assumed that, similar to Varys, she’d rather save her own skin than save a man who was more of a paycheck than a lover. On the show, presumably she was taken from her ship when the harbor closed post-Purple Wedding, and likely threatened (or at least strongly urged) to play along. But visual media is more unforgiving to this type of development if we don’t see it, or at least have hints about it. Meh.
I loved the rest of the trial, though, the glares between the Lannister siblings, Margaery’s doe-eyed expression (speaking of someone who won’t risk her own skin for Tyrion,) Varys’s resigned, subtle apology “sadly my lord, I don’t forget a thing…” Jaime’s big eyes when Tyrion doesn’t stick to the script at the end, Cersei and Oberyn’s calculating eyes, and I think I already mentioned the eyes between Tywin and Tyrion; I should move on here. :P Obviously the “confession” isn’t exactly identical to the books (same result) but Peter Dinklage really nailed it, imho. Tyrion’s emotions were crystal clear.
Just a brief mention on the other King’s Landing scenes, that aren’t in canon. At this point in the books, I think King’s Landing is getting muddled accounts of Dany and dragons in Qarth, but I’ve already discussed how everyone is more in the know on the show. Mostly I loved the character interactions here—like at the small council, Oberyn is languishing and bored, Mace’s brownnosing relegates him to “coffee boy,” and the older members are true to their usual. Speaking of the Dany stuff, it’s also nice to have the show tie the King’s Landing plot to the Arya/Hound plot some.
Another scene I’ve really come to appreciate is Varys and Oberyn in the throne room. I don’t think it really serves a larger purpose, but it’s an intriguing character study—the uber passionate Oberyn vs the stoically passionless Varys. The show can be very successful at bringing various characters together to hash out how different personalities play into broader thematic elements.
Moving onto a storyline that, plotwise, was fraught with iffiness, we have the Dreadfort. It seems like one of those progressions that they should have fit in earlier but didn’t have the time to. Obviously, Ramsay and “Reek” are still at the Dreadfort, because how would Yara/Asha know to look for them at Moat Cailin? But damn, she and her men have been on the sea for a long time now! (Canonically you can’t get to the Dreadfort from the sea, but eh.) Where the hell is Roose while his ancestral seat is under attack? Why the hell isn’t Ramsay stabbed to death while shirtless? Didn’t Arya and the Hound recently have the lesson about armor? :P (I get that it’s for effect, but I couldn’t see past the logistics, sorry.) Also, there was some weird pacing…like why didn’t Yara/Asha attack Ramsay as he was sloooowly opening the kennel door? And why did Ramsay let her go? (Maybe I’m being too nitpicky about the Ironborn being able to outrun hounds. Or, perhaps, Ramsay wanted her to get home, so that she could tell everyone else that Theon was a lost cause.)
Asha/Yara was the best part of this sequence, other than the fact that I’m not sure I bought her speech to her men. The Ironborn culture didn’t give a shit about who Theon’s daddy was when he arrived there in season two. He had to prove himself. Though it’s worth noting that the girl went against her father to mount this rescue mission; maybe she has a soft spot for her brother. It’s a spot that dissipates pretty quickly once she realizes that Theon is now “Reek.” It seems obvious that she’s not going to try anymore, nor demand her men to try, and save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. She’s supposed to be hard…look at what she did to the hostage who took her to the kennels. But talk about a heartbreaking scene between two siblings. :( None of this happened in canon; it’s less certain to outsiders that Theon is still alive.
The scene between Ramsay and Theon makes up for it, though; other than the weirdness of them not being at Moat Cailin yet, it’s amazing on a character level. I think it takes a special actor to debase himself the way Alfie must to play “Reek,” someone who no longer even sees himself as human. The makeup on his upper body was a great start, but it’s Alfie who brought out “Reek’s” quivering, traumatized nature, his desperation to please his “master.” Although Ramsay is less brutal and “Reek’s” conditions are slightly less horrifying on the show, the two actors have a wonderful repartee. Disturbing, yes, but I bought every minute of it.
As noted earlier, Stannis doesn’t sail for Braavos, but this pulls on some of his book plot. I’m not usually much of a fan of the unsympathetic, cold capitalism of banking, but I must admit that I’m gleeful about it in this story. :P I can only deal with so many entitled nobles justifying carnage with words like “birthright” and “bastard” or whatever before I want the system to be taken down a notch or two. :P I also enjoy that although this series is largely about a medieval obsession with knights and swordplay and the outcome of battles, the whole financial backing component gives it a much more realistic attribute. And, relatedly, offers new conundrums for our characters. The folks in King’s Landing have already grappled with this some, and now Davos, in particular, drives it home for Team Dragonstone’s interests.
Oh the sex scenes…meh. The Sallador Saan one was a fun bit of frivolity, but of course he couldn’t remember the womens’ names; a reminder that the ladies are predominately cast as objects in the sex scenes. Sigh. Myranda and Ramsay was more equal—though it still freaks me out that Ramsay does that—and I assume the only reason, besides for lewd humor, is to have something covering up the noise of the Ironborn sneaking in. *eyeroll* But in terms of plot, things are looking up, regarding Stannis getting back on his feet!
Finally, Daenerys finds herself on more uneven footing than perhaps she’d like. Her interactions with the two supplicants say a lot about where she is right now—she’s magnanimous, when it comes to her downtrodden supporters, attempting to ease their troubles with lavish gifts. But with her former enemies, things are a bit more complicated. It’s easy, on the battle field, to burn things down, but what happens when you’re left with the aftermath? Robb, too, had to face these issues a few seasons back.
In the books, Dany deals with compensating her dragons’ meals by simply paying the actual value, so long as her subjects will swear before their gods that the dragons did this; one would think she might get to this point on the show, after her 200-plus supplicants a day. :P Also in the books, Hizdahr doesn’t approach her about burying his father and the other slavers, though she ultimately takes down the bodies since they’re a health hazard. She has to deal with the complications of ruling over disparate people in other ways, but this is a nice one for the show, IMHO. A couple of episodes, Barristan cautioned her to be merciful to the slavers. Now she must deal with the aftermath of ignoring his advice, and of considering the fact that the these folks weren’t completely monolithic.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I love this part of Dany’s storyline. Anything that encourages a character to confront complex realities and thereby develop as a person is ok in my book. The stakes with Dany are of course ridiculously high, since she’s basically the Alexander the Great of “Game of Thrones.” :P But as this is an epic fantasy series, some characters have ridiculous amounts of power and magic (or dragons, anyway,) behind them. I like when they can be human, too.
Won’t ever be my favorite episode, because there’s no Starks in it, save for the mention of Sansa at the trial. And speaking of such, my main quibble actually concerns her, though I don’t want to get too spoilery with it over the cut. I also think there’s a little bit of convenient hand waving at the Dreadfort, but it ends in a powerful place. Speaking of, no surprise after you watch it, but the clip they used for Peter Dinklage’s acting nominations this year all came from the end of this hour.
Summary
Essos
Two storylines here! :O For the first time ever, Dany’s got company. Kinda. :P
Stannis in Braavos
Stannis, Davos & co sail under the impressive Titan of Braavos statue and enter the bustling commerce city. They are forced to wait for awhile at the Iron Bank, causing the king some upset. And when the banker, Tycho Nestoris, finally arrives, he’s less than detrimental to Stannis’s noble claims. The bank doesn’t back people based on bloodline but rather by financial gain, and Team Dragonstone, unfortunately, doesn’t have much to offer. In the process of being handed their hats, Davos tries a new approach. Having already shoveled so much money into the Lannister war, how do they expect to be repaid? Stannis can’t beat the Lannisters in much, but he can in credit—both financial and social.
Seems like the ploy worked, because when Davos greets Sallador in a pleasure bath, he can pay him this time. Team Dragonstone may be rebuilding their navy at last!
Daenerys in Meereen
A man and his son tend their flock of goats…until Drogon flies up and starts roasting them. Later, Daenerys meets with supplicants in the great pyramid. Things start on a decent note—although she can’t replace the shepherd’s flock, Dany offers him triple their value. Smiles abound!
The next supplicant, Hizdahr zo Loraq, is far more complicated. Daenerys immediately dislikes him, as he’s a former slaver who uses a servant to introduce himself. But the conversation quickly turns to controversial ethics. Dany had Hizdahr’s father crucified—another slaver, yes, but one who spoke against the crucifixion of the children. More broadly, is it ethical to leave their bodies for carrion when loved ones want to bury them? Dany is offended on behalf of the children—who cared about their remains?—but with Hizdahr declining to defend the masters’ actions, simply his wish to bury his father, she ultimately allows it. Suddenly the 200-plus supplicants waiting to see her seems like a very long day. :P
The North
Yara & co approach the Dreadfort by boat, as Balon’s daughter reads out what Ramsay sent last season. She claims that all of the mutilation the Bastard of Bolton performed on Theon, “your prince,” he did by proxy to all of them. So long as they can hurt the boy with impunity, the Ironborn are in trouble.
So the Ironborn scale the walls while Ramsay is having particularly loud sex with Myranda. Yara takes a young guard hostage who then leads her to Theon…not in the dungeons but in the kennels, sleeping in a cage like Ramsay’s dogs. Yara, stunned, tries to coax him out, but “Reek” is having none of this, pitching a fit while the dogs bark. Ramsay, shirtless and covered with blood, ultimately finds them with his own guard, and a fight ensues. Ultimately reaching a brief standstill, Yara demands Ramsay let Theon go. Instead, he sets the hounds on her, and after a final look at her brother, she flees. Making it back to the dingy, she tells her men that Theon is dead.
The next morning, Ramsay draws a bath for “Reek.” He’s happy that his still-terrified creature remained loyal to the Boltons. As “Reek” takes off his clothes, we see that his upper body is covered in scars. A soothing bath is ultimately a lost concept on the man, and he reacts to Ramsay’s washing him by expecting to be punished. Instead, the Bastard of Bolton has other plans. He explains that he needs “Reek’s” help in taking back a castle…”Reek” must pretend to be someone he’s not, aka Theon Greyjoy.
King’s Landing
The new small council is called to an early meeting before Tyrion’s trial. Varys brings up the Hound—news of his slaughter of Lannister soldiers/ “fuck the king” remark have reached his ears at last, and Tywin plans to entice an assassin with 100 gold coins. Next, Varys brings up Dany’s ascension to the throne of Meereen. Tywin, Cersei and Pycelle try to shake this off for now, but Varys and Oberyn are more impressed by her Unsullied army, not to mention her two knight advisors (it’s confirmed that Jorah is no longer working as a spy against her, and Tywin lightly chastises Cersei for dismissing Barristan all those years ago,) and, of course, three dragons. But for now, she’s on the backburner. And Mace, who spent most of his time being defensive with Oberyn and fawning over Tywin, is commanded to fetch the quill and paper. :P
Oberyn and Varys meet at the Iron Throne, the usual spot for advisors to talk over wants and desires. :P They touch on a little backstory (Oberyn having spent five years in Braavos, recognizing Varys’s cover up of his accent meaning he’s from Lys.) Oberyn is someone whose passion drives him to experience a lot—he travels because he doesn’t want to just live in one place, he’s openly bisexual, etc. Varys, on the other hand, finds passion to be dangerous, linking it to the devastation of the recent war. Even when it comes to sex he’s asexual, allowing him to focus on…other things (glimpse at throne.)
A reluctant Jaime comes to fetch Tyrion for his trial, putting him in irons—“Father’s orders.” The throne room is packed for the proceedings, with Tyrion being chained to the smaller of two diases, facing the throne. Tommen formally recuses himself after a look from his grandfather; Tywin takes the throne with Mace and Oberyn on either side of him. The closest victims, Cersei and Margaery (with Loras beside her) also face the accused. Tyrion pleads not guilty, for himself and also for having any knowledge of Sansa having done it, and is slightly cavalier in his defensiveness. The crowd titters.
Ser Meryn, as the first witness, recounts Tyrion mocking and lecturing Joffrey and threatening the kingsguard’s life during the beating Sansa incident in season two—which Tyrion hastens to point out before his father shushes him. Pycelle reads out a long list of his stores—all poisoned—and then produces Sansa’s necklace, found on the Dontos’s body. Apparently someone had come forward, having seen Dontos spiriting Sansa away, and sure enough the necklace has traces of poison on it, one of those stolen from Pycelle. Cersei recounts how Tyrion threatened her with harm before the Blackwater, but she ignores and rewrites other bits. Eg how she didn’t want Joff to lead the battle (she claims her son did rallied the troops of his own accord,) and there’s no mention of her kidnapping of Ros, though she does fabricate a conversation where she asks her brother not to keep whores in the Tower of the Hand. Finally, Varys recounts Tyrion’s dark warning to Joff in the wake of the Red Wedding news, suggesting that perhaps his marriage to Sansa made him “sympathetic to the northern cause.” Quietly betrayed, Tyrion is granted permission to guilt Varys over the fact that post-Blackwater, the other man said he’d not forget his service to the city. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do much for the here and now.
The trail goes into intermission and Jaime storms off to have words with his father over lunch. At first, the Kingslayer expresses his disgust over Cersei manipulating the trial (Tywin denies this,) and how callously Tywin might murder his second son, perhaps the only person capable of carrying on the Lannister name, at least from the main branch of the family. Tywin makes protestations about justice not murder, appropriate punishments, etc…and Jaime drops his last card, saying he’d give up the kingsguard and live as Lord of Casterly Rock if Tyrion could live. Wuddaya know—Tywin was expecting this all along, and he immediately lays out what will happen—Tyrion will be found guilty, he’ll plead for mercy, Tywin will send him to the Wall, and Jaime will vamoose for Casterly Rock. Resigned, Jaime accepts this, and goes out to tell Tyrion to keep his cool, this will all be over soon.
Unfortunately there’s one more witness…Shae. :O She immediately accuses Tyrion (and Sansa) of the crime, outing herself as his whore, complete with embarrassing details. When Tyrion begs her, near defeated, to stop, her voice cracks in reference to their last, painful argument, and she proceeds to paint a picture where Tyrion promised to kill Joff so that Sansa would let him into her bed. As the audience reacts, so does Tyrion, losing his cool in a big way. He claims he’s been on trial his whole life for being a dwarf; he damns the city people for damning him now when he’d saved them from Stannis; he tells Cersei that although he didn’t kill Joff, her “vicious bastard’s death gave [him] more relief than a thousand lying whores.” With his father, he snatches away his grand plan of sending Tyrion away/reinstating Jaime as his heir by demanding a trial by combat. There’s a lot of commotion from the crowd and reaction from key characters, but the camera lingers on the glare between father and son; Tyrion won the only way he knew how, by pulling the rug out from under his father’s feet.
Thoughts
I suppose I’ve already started to extrapolate, in my summary, the intriguing character dynamics at Tyrion’s trial. :P We have Pycelle, who’s basically a sycophant for Tywin, and Varys, who, like with Ned, will first save his own skin. We have Cersei, who believes so strongly in Tyrion’s guilt that she’ll lie and distort evidence in service of her desired results. You have to admit some similarity here to Tywin, who uses the trial as a tool to manipulate his two sons. This actually didn’t happen in canon, though it seems like something Tywin could have well planned in the books, too. Tyrion’s uncle, Kevan, who hasn’t been on the show in years, does suggest in the books that his nephew plead guilty so as to live at the Wall rather than be executed. The trial is otherwise condensed on the show, and features witnesses we know well, rather than secondary characters from the books. A few minor additions or subtractions (what stands out most to me is that Pycelle recovered Sansa’s necklace and knows a bit more about what happened with her, but there’s no reason that the show trial shouldn’t contain that clue. Definitely assists in making Tyrion look more guilty.)
My least favorite part of the episode is Shae’s testimony. I had been wary, like some other “sullied,” how they might handle her betrayal, since the show had the couple grow real feelings towards each other. To that end, I can buy Shae’s “lover scorned” given how she felt betrayed after Tyrion denigrated their relationship and sent her away. But I’m less pleased with how they handled her turning on Sansa; even Sibel disagreed with the showrunners on this, but they were insistent. I find it lazy and insipid to have Shae claim, all this time, that she loved Sansa, only to throw her under the bus. Granted, Sansa is no longer in King’s Landing, but we already know that Cersei rallying bounty hunters. Why build up this relationship if you don’t intend to have it inform character decisions?
I suppose it’s especially disappointing, because the Shae who surfaced these last few seasons is definitely more fleshed out than her book counterpart. In the books, perhaps it could be assumed that, similar to Varys, she’d rather save her own skin than save a man who was more of a paycheck than a lover. On the show, presumably she was taken from her ship when the harbor closed post-Purple Wedding, and likely threatened (or at least strongly urged) to play along. But visual media is more unforgiving to this type of development if we don’t see it, or at least have hints about it. Meh.
I loved the rest of the trial, though, the glares between the Lannister siblings, Margaery’s doe-eyed expression (speaking of someone who won’t risk her own skin for Tyrion,) Varys’s resigned, subtle apology “sadly my lord, I don’t forget a thing…” Jaime’s big eyes when Tyrion doesn’t stick to the script at the end, Cersei and Oberyn’s calculating eyes, and I think I already mentioned the eyes between Tywin and Tyrion; I should move on here. :P Obviously the “confession” isn’t exactly identical to the books (same result) but Peter Dinklage really nailed it, imho. Tyrion’s emotions were crystal clear.
Just a brief mention on the other King’s Landing scenes, that aren’t in canon. At this point in the books, I think King’s Landing is getting muddled accounts of Dany and dragons in Qarth, but I’ve already discussed how everyone is more in the know on the show. Mostly I loved the character interactions here—like at the small council, Oberyn is languishing and bored, Mace’s brownnosing relegates him to “coffee boy,” and the older members are true to their usual. Speaking of the Dany stuff, it’s also nice to have the show tie the King’s Landing plot to the Arya/Hound plot some.
Another scene I’ve really come to appreciate is Varys and Oberyn in the throne room. I don’t think it really serves a larger purpose, but it’s an intriguing character study—the uber passionate Oberyn vs the stoically passionless Varys. The show can be very successful at bringing various characters together to hash out how different personalities play into broader thematic elements.
Moving onto a storyline that, plotwise, was fraught with iffiness, we have the Dreadfort. It seems like one of those progressions that they should have fit in earlier but didn’t have the time to. Obviously, Ramsay and “Reek” are still at the Dreadfort, because how would Yara/Asha know to look for them at Moat Cailin? But damn, she and her men have been on the sea for a long time now! (Canonically you can’t get to the Dreadfort from the sea, but eh.) Where the hell is Roose while his ancestral seat is under attack? Why the hell isn’t Ramsay stabbed to death while shirtless? Didn’t Arya and the Hound recently have the lesson about armor? :P (I get that it’s for effect, but I couldn’t see past the logistics, sorry.) Also, there was some weird pacing…like why didn’t Yara/Asha attack Ramsay as he was sloooowly opening the kennel door? And why did Ramsay let her go? (Maybe I’m being too nitpicky about the Ironborn being able to outrun hounds. Or, perhaps, Ramsay wanted her to get home, so that she could tell everyone else that Theon was a lost cause.)
Asha/Yara was the best part of this sequence, other than the fact that I’m not sure I bought her speech to her men. The Ironborn culture didn’t give a shit about who Theon’s daddy was when he arrived there in season two. He had to prove himself. Though it’s worth noting that the girl went against her father to mount this rescue mission; maybe she has a soft spot for her brother. It’s a spot that dissipates pretty quickly once she realizes that Theon is now “Reek.” It seems obvious that she’s not going to try anymore, nor demand her men to try, and save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. She’s supposed to be hard…look at what she did to the hostage who took her to the kennels. But talk about a heartbreaking scene between two siblings. :( None of this happened in canon; it’s less certain to outsiders that Theon is still alive.
The scene between Ramsay and Theon makes up for it, though; other than the weirdness of them not being at Moat Cailin yet, it’s amazing on a character level. I think it takes a special actor to debase himself the way Alfie must to play “Reek,” someone who no longer even sees himself as human. The makeup on his upper body was a great start, but it’s Alfie who brought out “Reek’s” quivering, traumatized nature, his desperation to please his “master.” Although Ramsay is less brutal and “Reek’s” conditions are slightly less horrifying on the show, the two actors have a wonderful repartee. Disturbing, yes, but I bought every minute of it.
As noted earlier, Stannis doesn’t sail for Braavos, but this pulls on some of his book plot. I’m not usually much of a fan of the unsympathetic, cold capitalism of banking, but I must admit that I’m gleeful about it in this story. :P I can only deal with so many entitled nobles justifying carnage with words like “birthright” and “bastard” or whatever before I want the system to be taken down a notch or two. :P I also enjoy that although this series is largely about a medieval obsession with knights and swordplay and the outcome of battles, the whole financial backing component gives it a much more realistic attribute. And, relatedly, offers new conundrums for our characters. The folks in King’s Landing have already grappled with this some, and now Davos, in particular, drives it home for Team Dragonstone’s interests.
Oh the sex scenes…meh. The Sallador Saan one was a fun bit of frivolity, but of course he couldn’t remember the womens’ names; a reminder that the ladies are predominately cast as objects in the sex scenes. Sigh. Myranda and Ramsay was more equal—though it still freaks me out that Ramsay does that—and I assume the only reason, besides for lewd humor, is to have something covering up the noise of the Ironborn sneaking in. *eyeroll* But in terms of plot, things are looking up, regarding Stannis getting back on his feet!
Finally, Daenerys finds herself on more uneven footing than perhaps she’d like. Her interactions with the two supplicants say a lot about where she is right now—she’s magnanimous, when it comes to her downtrodden supporters, attempting to ease their troubles with lavish gifts. But with her former enemies, things are a bit more complicated. It’s easy, on the battle field, to burn things down, but what happens when you’re left with the aftermath? Robb, too, had to face these issues a few seasons back.
In the books, Dany deals with compensating her dragons’ meals by simply paying the actual value, so long as her subjects will swear before their gods that the dragons did this; one would think she might get to this point on the show, after her 200-plus supplicants a day. :P Also in the books, Hizdahr doesn’t approach her about burying his father and the other slavers, though she ultimately takes down the bodies since they’re a health hazard. She has to deal with the complications of ruling over disparate people in other ways, but this is a nice one for the show, IMHO. A couple of episodes, Barristan cautioned her to be merciful to the slavers. Now she must deal with the aftermath of ignoring his advice, and of considering the fact that the these folks weren’t completely monolithic.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I love this part of Dany’s storyline. Anything that encourages a character to confront complex realities and thereby develop as a person is ok in my book. The stakes with Dany are of course ridiculously high, since she’s basically the Alexander the Great of “Game of Thrones.” :P But as this is an epic fantasy series, some characters have ridiculous amounts of power and magic (or dragons, anyway,) behind them. I like when they can be human, too.
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