#but my god going from catelyn being murdered to arya's ''maybe we can save her'' is agonizing

[hopelesstvaddict]

The Last of Jon and Sansa

[No review for the series finale - I don't know if I want to write one - but suffice it to say I may be in the minority that was satisfied. For now I'm back to writing on interesting aspects I take out of the episode. This should be short. Shorter than my combined review of Episodes 3 and 5. I hope]

A lot has been said about the series finale. Most critics and most viewers have been left disappointed which was predictable. Jon as a character in particular was a big contentious point. The episode seemed to cement this idea that he really was a lovestruck fool in the end. That, all this time he really loved Daenerys. And yet the behaviour viewers have seen is at least as erratic as Dany's changes of mood. The previous episode seemed to point at the last of their relationship as news of his birthright spread and he couldn't return her affections, which was part of what set her on her path to her barbecue fiesta in King's Landing. So naturally what everyone expected was the final Dance of Dragons i.e. the final clash between the last two Targaryens. A bit late in the endgame but due nonetheless. The first part of the episode even seems to point in the right direction as Jon wearily witnesses Dany's speech to her armies and guesses nothing good is going to come out of it, especially when he hears her utter the name of Winterfell. He's again agitated when she sentences Tyrion, upset at the carnage, the useless slaughtering of prisoners and worried as she looks past him - with a look that carries nothing of love there, as the distorted version of Truth plays - and enters the ruins of the Red Keep. So in that first part of the finale, both Jon and Dany still seem to be consistent character-wise.

And then suddenly they don't. Jon visits Tyrion who has the greatest difficulties to swerve Jon into doing the right thing when the Jon viewers know would not hesitate and would absolutely know what to do. One could argue that the resurrected Jon is less certain, more doubtful of everything that's not White Walkers- related but come on. Is it love ? Fear ? We don't even know what it is that restrains him. He certainly doesn't seem to know either. And Dany is no better. The next time she sees Jon, she's all of a sudden all over him again. Bad writing ? Or maybe she feels so elated over her victory that she feels in a good mood ? Enough to forgive his betrayal ? He did betray her, per her own words. And she was angry with him. And as Arya pointed out, she knows her claim will be threatened as long as he lives. Well she seems to forgive him. But not the others. She goes on about wanting them to rule side by side and for a split second I thought ‘oh she's gonna off him’. That's the big twist. He's not killing her, she'll make an attempt. Except no she really was in love all over again. Consistency ? Think again.

How does Jon respond ? With his favorite sentence. ‘You are my queen’. Duty duty duty. But no ‘I love you’. Thank the Gods. Because that at least leaves room for interpretation and is a remnant of consistency carrying over from Jon's behaviour from Seasons 7 and 8. For those who cling onto the lovestruck fool theory, it works. The general audience stopped there. And for those who wish to find a way to tie all of this, it leaves just enough to try and understand Jon. As everyone pointed out, blocking his point of view was a huge mistake. Strangely the show tries to satisfy everyone but ends up frustrating everybody instead by relying too much on the fans' ability to figure everything out themselves and expecting them to find the truth. Sometimes just spelling it loud and clear works better. Anyway Jon protects himself by appealing to Dany's sense of entitlement. And proceeds to do the deed. His reaction to it and how he fares for the rest of the episode is thankfully consistent with who he is as character. Kit Harington really played it well. Once again, it works whether or not he really was in love with her. If he really loved Dany, the tears and the angst and the guilt all work themselves out on their own. If he didn't, it still works in terms of the man he is and what he has done - a man of honor who has committed the highest treason, a protector of the innocents (this plays into his final fate as he returns with the people he spent so many seasons trying to protect) who has murdered an unarmed woman (to save thousands of innocents but still...) Too bad Jaime isn't around anymore to give him a prep talk.

But what's interesting there - and I finally get to the main point of this - is the presence of Sansa despite her physical absence. If there are so many downsides to this way of making fans analyze and guess instead of simply telling it the way it is, it is still amusing and interesting to try decoding and admiring it when it's properly done. Per their own admission, Sansa is one of the producers' favorite characters and they have done her mostly right - certainly not perfectly, not even admirably, but she fares much better than the rest of the cast. The relationship between Jon and Sansa has been one of the most important on the show, ever since they reunited back in Season 6, retook their ancestral home as a team and ruled it as a team. The dynamics established between them has been an important part of Seasons 6 and 7 as it was shown that they were often at odds with each other as essentially two strangers rediscovering themselves but that the partnership could potentially lead to greatness if allowed the time to develop. Unfortunately it didn't achieve its potential. So much foreshadowing, so many Ned/Catelyn parallels... All wasted away. Or was it really ? Game of Thrones has always been about the be-careful-what-you-wish-for trope. And not fulfilling the potential of Jon and Sansa as a ruling team also works with the bittersweet ending which basically denies everybody their wishes. At best, the characters end up with satisfying situations but not perfect ones. Perhaps it was best to leave Jon and Sansa in this state rather than explicitly declare them in the end. We all saw what happened with explicit relationships. Sure it's frustrating but Jon and Sansa were always about the subtlety of subtext, analysis and interpretation. In that regard, if indeed the producers were trying to set up the pair during Seasons 6 and 7, then Season 8 did not destroy them - which is more than can be said for the show's flagship pairing - but it didn't exactly prepare the ground the way the two previous seasons did. Subtlety was still the keyword but it largely took a step back compared to the rest. Blame it on the shortened amount of episodes.

It was established clearly that Sansa plays an important part in Jon's life. Season 8 reminds viewers of this in the season premiere. Unfortunately, it does not seem to explicitly go anywhere. Except, once again, we are supposed to look deeper than what we see on screen. Astute fans have deduced that Jon's dismissive behaviour towards Sansa was really his own way of protecting her against Daenerys. That again is brought up in the series finale where both Arya and Tyrion mention Sansa as a potential dissident to her reign - the notion of how Jon will deal with protecting his sister from her. Dany has low-key threatened Sansa several times and certainly does not view her favorably - she blames her for Jon's treason, for Varys and she does not like her relationship with Tyrion, she knows Sansa wants the North to secede from the rest of the Kingdoms and she knows how much the North respects her. All of this points to Dany targeting Sansa next had she had the opportunity. This was a running theory throughout the entire season and even the potential snapping point for Jon, were he to choose between his family and Dany. None of it happens but the eventuality of it is adressed in the episode. Daenerys mentions Winterfell in her opening speech and tell me that your minds did not automatically switch to Sansa. Not Bran, not Arya. Sansa. Because Sansa is now representative of Winterfell and the North more than any other person still alive at this point. Even absent from the entirety of Episode 5 and the aftermath in King's Landing, Sansa's specter looms over Jon - and Jon in particular. He definitely thinks of her when he hears the name of Winterfell. The show established their relationship such as she's now closely associated with him in a way neither she and Arya or Jon and Arya are. That's not to diminish Arya's bond with her brother and sister but Seasons 7 and 8 have established that she is a changed woman, whose relationship with her sister and brother may be still loving but there's a melancholy to Arya that pushes her towards other horizons, to seek her purpose beyond mere revenge.

‘Try telling Sansa’, Arya says. To which Jon says nothing because he knows Sansa will never bow. Not after something like this. He himself knows as well but he is trapped. He's hopeless for himself but the main focus is Sansa. Not even Bran or Arya who's standing there in front of him and who's certainly not about to bow either but no, once again Sansa is the focal point. Sansa really permeates the first part of the episode while being absent. Too bad the recently released script [good thing this thing waited in my drafts for so long] does not make it explicit but it is not hard to connect the dots. Next, Tyrion resorts to mentioning Jon's family as a last attempt to sway him. Both 'sisters' are mentioned first before Tyrion zeroes in on Sansa - perhaps because he knows her best - but still it works. This time Jon plays the obedient subservient version of himself and says she doesn't get to choose. The switching between seemingly Political!Jon and Dumb!Jon makes it hard to keep tabs. Then finally the big moment between Dany and Jon. And again, Sansa is present without ever being physically there. Jon adopts a similar pattern to Tyrion in his attempt to appease Dany. First the question of the rightness of the massacre in King's Landing, the forgiveness to prove that she is not only fire and blood and finally, family. Jon does not explicitly mention his siblings but really, the 'everyone else who think they know what's good' is for Sansa mainly. It also works for Arya, for Bran, for Sam, all potential opponents to Dany, but really it's all about Sansa, who is the last ruler in Westeros competent and loved enough to hold the power necessary to pretend to know what's good. Dany implicitly targets Winterfell - and Sansa. Arya mentions Sansa. Then Tyrion. Finally Jon implicitly asks Dany ‘And what of my sister ? What about Sansa ?’ Her response ? She doesn't get to choose. No matter how competent she is, no matter how loved and respected she is, no matter that she's the Lady of Winterfell, commandant of the largest Kingdom in Westeros, allied to many Great Houses, no matter the fact that she is Jon's own family. If she dares oppose, she doesn't get to choose. She'll bow or she'll die. And that's finally the turning point for Jon. He kills Dany to protect those who also think they know good. On this, the script at least acknowledges the people whom Jon ‘loves the most’; perhaps - and most likely - an unintentional contrast but a contrast nonetheless between Dany, the woman he loves and Sansa, Arya and Bran, the people he loves the most.

The rest of the episode sets Sansa as indeed the last competent ruler of Westeros and I thought for a moment that she would get the Seven Kingdoms. But she settles for the North, the only Kingdom she cares about. Sansa makes it clear that she still stands by Jon; the implications of her short statement about the thousand of Northmen ready to fight if Jon were to be hurt are huge. Upon hearing her brother’s imprisonment, Sansa commandeered the remaining armies of the North (still amounting to thousands of men) and marched south, ready to start another war to save her brother. The girl who’d suffered so much in that city returned to a place full of traumatic memories for her brother, the girl who’d prayed for someone to do exactly that, when places were switched and who didn’t get her wish, decided to do the work herself. Of course, these implications are really just that and are glossed over by the final script but they are legitimate, interesting deductions we can make on the character. This again plays into the subtlety and underlines how strong Jon and Sansa’s relationship is. The guy has threatened and killed for the woman, waged war at her behest; and the woman has worked every way to protect the man, and she’s ready to start yet another war if it means saving him. Her sister is fully on board with the plan by the way.

Then the constrictions of the story call for Jon to go back to the Wall, never mind that the Wall is in the North, now an independant Kingdom under the rule of a Stark, his own kin, or that the Wall is under the jurisdiction of the Starks. Never mind thus that Sansa could legally do whatever she wants with Jon. The coronation scene was beautiful however and it really felt satisfying to watch Sansa be crowned and reflect on her harrowing journey. Sometimes, it is hard to believe when you see the writing and what they put the poor girl through that she is one of D.B. Weiss and David Benioff’s favorites; but I believe that whatever fault there was, it was either demanded by the story, or it wasn’t done with the full intention of hurting just for the sake of hurting. It was merely the result of biased views and opinions. But every one is entitled to that. In the end, Sansa comes up on top, crowned Queen in the North, [a big middle finger to the haters], the sole master of her own agency, and she has earned the respect of everyone, no longer a pawn, no longer a simple player, but a full-on force to be reckoned with on the board. Her hair and costume notably are the final steps to becoming her own person while also not losing this habit she has of incorporating the influence of those around her into her clothes. As such, for the first time, she lets down her hair completely, free from any braid and thus free from trying to emulate Cersei, her mother, her aunt, Margaery... She is Sansa Stark, First of her Name, Queen in the North. By contrast, her coronation gown pays homage to those who loved her and shaped her - Jon, Arya, her parents and deceased brothers, Bran... - and you can especially notice that finally, Sansa reverts to the blue-ish colors of the North and ditches the black dresses. How disappointing then that for a House that liked to hammer on us that the pack survives, they are all separated and no one we know is by Sansa’s side when she is crowned. But while I was personally upset about it at first, I’ve come to view it as a logical evolution of the story. ‘The pack survives’ was Ned’s motto and he imparted it to his children, who have tried to follow it as best as was possible. But this is not Ned’s story anymore, it’s his children’s and now, they are ready to properly live. Now that they have defeated their enemies, now that their world is ready for peace, they can let go of these words if they wish to do so. Each of them has gone on their own formative journey that has enabled them to be able to stand on their own. They don’t need one another to survive. Because the time is not for surviving anymore. Now is the time to live.

But where the open ending works in our favour is that nothing prevents us to imagine Jon and Sansa seeing each other in the future and indeed, it’s hard to imagine they won’t. While Arya is sure to come back at some point, once again, she and Bran are the farthest away and we are back to a similar situation to Seasons 5 and 6 with Sansa in Winterfell and Jon at/not far from the Wall. They are geographically the closest and Sansa being Queen, can indeed do as it pleases her regarding Jon. Jon seems content to peace out and settle down with boyfriend Tormund - another ginger - and it makes narrative sense that he would go North, the ‘real North’ that he has in his blood in Tormund’s words, and that he would go with the Wildlings, the only people who accepted him exactly for who he was and won’t even bother about his parentage, or about what atrocities he did in the South. For them, he will always stay the crow who saved them, the Lord Commander who opened the Wall for them, the only man who ever united the Wildlings and the Northmen to stand and fight together. He can be himself with them. But should he sometime want to come back to Winterfell, you can bet your money that Sansa is not going to forbid it. Keep also in mind that when the series ends, these characters are just beginning their life; they are in their bare twenties. They have their whole life ahead of them. Sansa, who was so focused on love and motherhood when she was younger, has her life before her now to think about it with all the freedom she wants. Jon can rest, enjoy life, fall in love again if he wishes (Tormund, hem...)

[Yes that is a very disturbing thought when you think about it. Westeros was torn over while the big boys and big girls played - the Eddards, Roberts, Tywins, Cerseis of the world - and then they were gone and it was up to the surviving children to face off the end of the world. Arya killed the Night King and she is only 18. Bran is King of the Six Kingdoms at 17. Sansa and Jon, the eldest, are 20 and 23 and have waged war and endured much trauma. One of them was raped, the other killed and resurrected. Daenerys conquered the world and saw her short life end in her 23rd year.]

And finally, we get to the last goodbye. Here again, there is lot to observe, especially in light of the released script which differs from the final screen version. First off, Jon stops and inhales a sharp breath when he sees his family. Interesting. Personally, when Sansa apologized, I also thought it was for spilling Jon’s secret. Thus the script “confirms” this and Kit Harington seems to play by it as he seemingly looks conflicted and still a bit resentful. A callback to their first reunion with a repeat of the ‘there’s nothing to forgive’ would have been lovely - I immediately thought of it when I first saw the scene - but I understand Jon’s point of view. Daenerys’ unraveling stemmed in part from the repercussions of Jon’s parentage spreading out. Again, the finale tries to appeal to everyone. Jon/Dany lovers can read into this as Jon being angry he had to kill the woman he loved. Another interpretation is Sansa apologizing for Jon’s exile to the Wall. It also works because the scene comes shortly after Tyrion explaining how Arya and Sansa tried and failed to fight the final decision.

But what’s really interesting is the final goodbye. Jon doesn’t respond to the apology but Harington makes a slight - perhaps involontary - movement of the head which can be read as a nod. A comforting thought for those who wish Jon and Sansa to part on good terms. But then Harington graces us with just that and more. He instead tries to change the subject and finally, openly validates her as the best leader the North can hope for. Sansa spins this back to him and makes it clear she still considers Jon as the King in the North. The script does not dwell long on Sansa and Jon’s goodbyes, instead focusing on Arya, Jon’s favorite sibling. While explicitly stating that Jon knows Sansa loves him, it then just reads ‘Jon and Sansa embrace’. The final screen version gave us much more as we see Sansa embrace Jon, and Jon’s initial resistance to the hug crumble as he gives in and fiercely hugs her back, burying his head in her shoulder in the process. It’s very interesting that in every hug they share we get to see both Jon and Sansa's faces. It really allows us to see the full range of emotions on Sophie Turner and Harington’s faces. This particular part was not scripted and is either the choice of Harington or the choice of the directors, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss themselves. In any case, they kept it. Another interesting thing to note : the cue Winterfell that starts roughly as Jon and Sansa hug also played during their most emotional scene in the sixth season finale The Winds of Winter.

The writers of Game of Thrones have been the target of much scrutiny following the backlash of the final season and I’m not going to argue that the writing was sometimes sloppy. However, I will give credit where credit is due and for all its faults, the episode was not that bad. Benioff and Weiss were thrust in an impossible situation where they became the scapegoats of every single default singled out in this final season; but it could have been much worse and we need to remember that screenwriters and authors do not have to answer to fans. They write the story they want to tell, we’re just here for the ride. Whether we’re satisfied or not is ultimately not their main concern. Back to Jon and Sansa, Benioff and Weiss have in my opinion written the pair beautifully and kept them consistent to the end. If indeed they were subtly trying to create an item out of the two or to point them as a potential couple, they did it properly during the sixth and seventh seasons; come Season 8, it was about following G.R.R. Martin’s guidelines. Maybe in the end, it was really the tragedy of Jon and Dany. But still, Benioff and Weiss wrote Jon and Sansa well, exploiting the chemistry between Harington and Turner to give us all too rare but important scenes full of subtext. I’ve written about the season premiere Winterfell about how much could be read into Jon and Sansa’s interactions. I personally think that The Iron Throne is perhaps the second most-charged episode this season in terms of analysis regarding to Jon and Sansa. The subtlety of the relationship is kept until the end and we’re still left satisfied and unsatisfied at the same time. Jon and Sansa love each other as siblings ? Of course. This scene establishes it. Jon and Sansa maybe love each other as more than siblings ? Well... not explicit but the scene does nothing to deny it or the possibility of it in the future. Especially when Kit and Benioff and Weiss include yet another unscripted tidbit. After Jon has finished his goodbyes, the script just states that he steps on the boat as his family watches him go. In the final episode, we see a shoulder-shot of Jon looking back one last time, distraught. Who is he looking at ? Well of course, you guessed it. He’s looking at Sansa, whose right shoulder was framed into that shot. Then he looks in the direction of Arya and Bran and then, one last time, back to Sansa. And as if to confirm it, as we move on to the next shot of the Starks watching him go, who appears first ? Well of course, you guessed it. Sansa, who’s also looking very distraught.

And of course, the lingering look Jon glances even as Sansa is framed in the shot is a well-known storytelling device. The trope of people looking back to their loved ones, whether with an established love or one still in the making, is a very common trope that has been used several times in the show, and even once already for Jon and Sansa. So yes, I will still support Benioff and Weiss at least on this; they might have ruined Jon’s character in surface; they might have written the story better; perhaps they could have done even better by Sansa. But they have done her right and they did write Jon and Sansa well. I would not also exclude Martin still hiding some final aspects in the books or asking them not to explicitly show everything to keep some kind of secrecy on the last books despite the show being completed. He has said that the show would end like the books. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all will be shown; that is pretty much a given when you see all the substories and deviations from books to show. How much of a stretch is it then to suppose that Martin told Benioff and Weiss to subtly prepare Jon and Sansa - thus explaining and validating all the foreshadowing in the books and why they have said that their relationship was ‘crucial to watch’, all the ‘they skirt around the true tension between them’, ‘all is subtext’ and why the relationship was explored over three seasons - but in the end, told them to just commit to subtlety instead of a full-on reveal, so as to keep that secret amongst others for the books as part of the full story?

Whatever the truth here, Benioff and Weiss allowed those unscripted additions that help shape Jon and Sansa more than they were in the original script. What exactly prompted these changes, why and whether it was on Harington or the directors, we may never know. But Harington has already acknowledged the chemistry between Turner and himself and stated he’d like to partner with her on screen again. Add this to the list of unexplained acting choices he made during the past seasons. Puppy eyes, big sighs, long forehead kiss... Let’s take a trip back down memory lane. Oh and of course, they both failed geography.

[choupetit]

GOT Recap:  A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Airdate: 4/21/19 ;  Season 8, Episode 2

Meep, things are really heating up on Game of Thrones!  Or rather, cooling down…oh heck, I don’t know what to do with all the Fire and Ice metaphors. Let’s just say, stuff is getting real and the latest installment of GOT  gave us one last moment to enjoy the fuzzy warm feels before next week’s huge battle against the Night King’s army begins.  This last episode was all about wish fulfillment and tying up loose ends for viewers – and I’m still a bit conflicted about how I feel about it all. But fear not, we’ll get into my two cents about it very soon.  Now, find a warm body to snuggle up to and get a toasty fire going, because the night is dark and full of manipulative story ploys.  Here’s my recap of:  “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”

I Know What You Did Last Long Summer

We start things off with Jaime Lannister standing before a tribunal in the Great Hall at Winterfell, with Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jon Snow seated at the VIP table. Dany shares that she and her brother grew up talking about what they would do to the man who murdered their father, once they captured him and reclaimed the Seven Kingdoms.  She points out that Cersei promised her an army, and instead has only sent one man with one hand.  Ouch, that smarts.  Jaime fills everybody in on Cersei’s plan: She isn’t sending any help. Rather, Queen Cersei has procured a hired army and is sending them to Winterfell to finish off whatever survivors are left after the impending war against the Dead.  She lied to them all – Jaime included – and he left her to come and join Jon and Dany’s battle for the living.  Daenerys casts a pointed gaze at Tyrion Lannister, who looks miserable. Ya done messed up, Ty!

Dany wonders how they can possibly trust Jaime. Tyrion sticks up for his brother, but is shot down by Daenerys who counters that perhaps this is an elaborate scheme for Jaime to assassinate her.  Sansa chimes in that Jamie can’t be trusted, and lists the crappy things he did to House Stark, including attacking Ned Stark back in Season 1.  When Jaime defends his actions saying it was during a time of war, and that he was protecting his family, Bran dryly states “The things we do for love.” Fear flickers in Jaime’s eyes.  Bran knows!  

Brienne of Tarth steps up and defends Jaime.  She tells Dany how she and Jaime were captured a few years back and he defended her when she was this close to getting raped – and lost his hand in the process. To Sansa, she says that it’s only due to Jaime’s honor in keeping his word to Catelyn Stark that Brienne was able to find and save Sansa from the sadistic Ramsay Bolton.  This is enough to change Sansa’s mind.  Dany seems peeved by Sansa’s about-face and asks Jon what he thinks.  Visibly still grappling with the bombshell about his parents, Jon doesn’t even look at Dany and simply states they need all the extra help they can get.  Dany allows Jaime to stay and fight with them, and they all rise.  Sansa huffs off and when Dany turns to Jon, he’s all “K gotta run, byeeee.” Ugh, you let a guy ride your dragon one time and then he gets all weird on you.  Brienne shoots Jaime a look that clearly states “Don’t make me regret sticking my neck out for you,” and Bran just stares at him.  Again.  Creepily.

Rebuffed by her lover, and fuming about Cersei’s deceipt, Dany is ripe to start throwing cell phones at her assistants.  She chews out Tyrion for being either in cahoots with Cersei, or a damn fool. When Tyrion tells her it’s the latter, she retorts “It’s not the first time,” and indicates his time may be up serving as Hand of the Queen.  Varys and Ser Jorah are all “Awwwwkward.”

Number 1 Crush

At the Winterfell forge, we see Gendry’s handiwork:  Tons and tons of spearheads and other weapons made of dragonglass are ready to be wielded. As Gendry works, Arya approaches and takes in all his hunky, sweaty manliness, then asks him about the weapon she requested.  “Yeah, I’ll get right on that after I make a few thousand more of these. Shouldn’t you be hanging out in the crypts anyway when the fighting begins?  It’s the safest place to be.” Arya questions why he thinks he’s qualified to fight – he’s just a blacksmith.  When he tells her he killed a few of the Dead and she wants to know what they’re like, his reply is “Really bad”. “How bad are we talking, dude?  What do they look like? How do they smell? When they change a toilet paper roll, do they do it the wrong way or the right way – and don’t you DARE say there isn’t a right way, Gendry!!” “Ok, fine, they’re like death, ok?” “Oh, cool, I know all about death!” Arya gives Gendry an impressive demo of her razor sharp knife throwing skills – it’s instant bonerville for Gendry.  “So…how about that weapon?” – “Yes, ma’am, coming right up!!” Ok, these two flirting is just too much. Arya is such a badass, I love it! And she deserves a little joy in her life.

Meanwhile, a very remorseful Jaime seeks out Bran by the Weirwood tree and apologizes for pushing him out the tower window all those years ago, rendering him a paraplegic. Jaime questions why Bran didn’t tell the others about this, and Bran tells him he can’t be much use in their fight if Bran lets his family murder Jaime.  “But aren’t you mad at me?” Let’s just break this down for you, dude: Bran ain’t mad at anybody.  He is so beyond all those petty human emotions, because OMG you guys are all about to be annihilated by ruthless ice zombies and Bran is trying to figure out how to stop it.  “Ok, so what happens after?” asks Jaime. Bran counters, “What makes you think there is an after?”

Oooh sidebar! Y’all I have been knee deep in GOT theories the past few weeks, and one of the theories I’m really into says that Jaime might be Azor Ahai (the Prince who was Promised) and plays a huge role in defeating the Night King.  There’s this whole prophecy about it in the books, and the High Valyerian words for “Gold” and “Hand” are very similar to the words “Lord” and “Light”. After this chat with Bran, I’m convinced Jaime is a key player in ending the Night King’s reign.

Later, Tyrion and Jaime walk around the courtyard, discussing the two queens.  Tyrion says how he truly believes Daenerys will be a great queen for the realm, and the two commiserate over how Cersei fooled them – the part about being pregnant is true, though.   Tyrion notes that Jaime has never been fooled by Cersei, he’s always loved her in spite of her miserable character.  When Tyrion remarks that they are likely going to die at Winterfell, he muses that at least Cersei won’t have the satisfaction of killing him.  Hey, maybe his dead corpse will go down to King’s Landing and tear her apart - but Jaime isn’t listening.  He is distracted by something else – or rather someone:  

Brienne of Tarth, is on the practice field, watching Podrick as he spars with another fighter.  Jaime shows up and chats with her about the impending battle. Brienne is weirded out by how nice Jaime is acting, because he’s always shown  his snarky side around her in the past.  He tells her he returned to Winterfell because we wants to serve under her command. She excuses herself.  Oh man! Brienne has been holding a torch for Jaime for so many seasons and he is finally sorta living up to the person she has seen in him all along: a good and honorable guy.  And he came to Winterfell to fight alongside her? Hubba hubba.  And yet…I don’t see anything romantic ever happening between these two, even though there is something there.  It just feels like he’s the super popular dude who’s had a lot of personal growth and really likes her and cares for her, but will never actually date her because she isn’t a supermodel.  Ya know what I mean?  Brienne is in the friend zone 4eva. Also, I think this whole exchange means Brienne ain’t long for this world – she’s probably going to sacrifice herself to save Jaime during the battle. Sorry, Bri Bri!  We love you, though!

A Matter of Trust

In Daenerys’s quarters, Ser Jorah takes a moment to tell her to take it easy on Tyrion.  He knows his Khaleesi is super pissed, but he advises her to see past Tyrion’s flub and keep him on as Hand of the Queen because he has a super big brain.  Coming from Jorah, this means a lot.  Then he offers another suggestion:  Make more of an effort with Sansa Stark.

In the great hall, Dany requests a heart to heart with Sansa Stark who also puts in a good word for Tyrion when Daenerys makes a snarky remark about not having faith in her advisors. Geez Louise, everybody is sticking up for Tyrion in this episode!  The conversation turns to Dany drawing comparisons between herself and Sansa as female leaders in a man’s world and then she’s all “Girls rule, yay!!!  So...why don’t you like me?” - “Honestly?  Because guys can do pretty dumb stuff for women and they’re easily manipulated. And you basically convinced Jon to give up his crown for you”  Dany’s all: “Ok, so, real talk? I was all about taking the Iron Throne, and then Jon pops up and tells me about these weird Snow Zombies coming to destroy us all, and I dropped everything to help him fight his war, so…who is being manipulated?”  [Personally, I think that’s a lame argument, because obviously the survival of mankind is still totally in your interest, Daenerys, because if they are all dead you don’t have anybody to rule, m’kay?]  Sansa  warms a bit to Dany, and tells her she should have thanked her when she arrived.  But just as Daenerys is cozying up to Sansa and holding her hands, Sansa takes things right back to business – God, I love her for it:   “So, Dany, riddle me this:  Let’s say we defeat the Night King and Cersei.  What happens next?” Dany’s face is a little perplexed “Um, I rule on the Iron Throne.  Obviously.” –“Yeah, but what about the North?  We took back our land and we swore we’d never give it back, so…what about the North?” This does not make Dany happy, and she looks about ready to lose it.  

Thankfully, however, their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of:  Theon Greyjoy and his men.  He fills them in on the successful rescue of Yara, and informs Queen Daenerys that Yara is reclaiming the Iron Isles for Dany.  He returned to fight for Winterfell – if they’ll have him.  Sansa’s eyes fill with tears and she rushes to embrace Theon.  It’s a very sweet moment but also, I’m immediately worried that the writers are going to try and make something romantic happen here.  Ew, not Theon. I’m just going to chalk this up to him and Sansa sharing a strong mutual survivor bond.  Also, my death prediction: Theon is sooo gonna die.  And they've been making Daenerys super unlikeable these past two episodes that it has me a little nervous they might off her, too.

In the courtyard, Davos is running a soup kitchen and gives a short pep talk to some of the men who have arrived.  Gilly is telling some girls how safe the crypts are – the safest place at Winterfell, actually.  You guys, make sure you write this down:  The crypts - where they keep all the dead bodies which have not been burned - are the safest place in Winterfell.   So if you have zero fighting skills, you really totally without a doubt need to head to the crypts where no dead bodies will suddenly come to life and attack you because the crypts are S-A-F-E, you got it?  

A little girl asks where she should go when the battle starts because she wants to fight, too. Gilly advises her to go to…you got it. The crypts. Le sigh.

A horn blows and Jon turns the corner to see who it is:  The Night’s Watch from Castle Black have arrived and as he goes to bro hug Dolorous Edd, he’s tackled by Thormund Giantsbane like an overjoyed Saint Bernard pup. Beric Dondarrion is there, too.  Yay, Jon’s happy to see them all and probably is even happier that he has more legit reasons to avoid Daenerys.  His friends inform him they met up at the Last Hearth - everybody was dead and gone.  It’s safe to assume anybody who hasn’t made it to Winterfell by now has been claimed by the Night King’s army.  Jon asks how long until the Dead will arrive and Thormund replies:  Just before sunrise. Also, Thormund would really like to know where Brienne is.  Oh me, oh my – will my Brienne, Jaime, Thormund troika dreams come true? Unlikely, but I do love Thormund’s interest in Brienne, if only for the comic relief it provides.

In the war room, all the important peeps have gathered to talk strategy.  The Night King’s army is too big, and they never tire, so Jon & Co. won’t be able to beat them in a straight fight.  Their best chance at survival is to kill the Night King – if they kill him, they kill his army.  But how? If he’s that important, the Night King won’t risk exposing himself – when they say this, I just imagine the Night King in a long trench coat.  Yeah, I’m mature.  Bran volunteers to be human bait, because the Night King is after him.  But why, Bran, why? We discover that the Night King’s ultimate goal is an endless night and he wants to wipe out all trace of men and their memories.  Bran is basically a human hard drive with the entire history of their world and the Night King wants to erase it all.  I don’t know…it’s kind of a weird reason to me.  I mean, if the Night King is gonna kill everybody anyway, why is it so important that he kill Bran first?  Sam waxes poetic about death and how when we die our memories are forgotten and we are forgotten, blah, blah, blah, but I still don’t get it.  What is the difference between wiping out all of mankind’s history and killing everybody vs. just wiping out mankind?  Wouldn’t wiping out mankind just, like...wipe out mankind and its history?  I don’t know folks.  Clue me in if you understand. Or is it just a matter of getting rid of any evidence on how to stop the Night King? In that case, just say so, Bran.

Anyhoo, Bran will wait for the Night King in the Godswood – he has a GPS tracking device on him, so the Night King always knows where he is.  His siblings are vehemently against it, but Theon volunteers to be there with his guys to help protect Bran.  Why do we think this is a better idea than Bran’s own family protecting him?  I mean, other than simply using this as a plot device for Theon to die while defending Bran and thus somehow redeem himself for all the shitty stuff he did to the Stark kids when they were younger? Obviously, I’m not a big fan of this scene.

Dany tells Tyrion he’ll have to wait in the crypts during the battle because: a) they are super safe and b) Dany needs his mind because her faith in him has been restored. Yeah, after hearing what everybody told her so far, she also polled 28 whores about his character and realized she shouldn’t fire him after all because he’s a good dude and actually really smart.  Except for when it comes to trusting his evil sister, whose superpower is stabbing people in the back, who has always hated him, and has never done anything in her life to prove herself trustworthy in his eyes.

Oh, and one more thing: They’ll need to have the dragons close by to save Bran if things go bad.  Not too close to give anything away.  Just close enough to probably be completely useless and get one more dragon killed.  M’kay? Sounds like a plan, team!  

As they wrap things up, Thormund points out the silver lining: They are all going to die, but at least they’ll die together.  He flashes a winning look at Brienne.  Jon hastily leaves, expertly avoiding Dany once again, and everybody except Bran and Tyrion exits the room.  Tyrion tells Bran he wants to hear all about his stories and they both settle in next to the fire.

One Last Waltz

And now…get ready for the showrunners to check off all your hopes and dreams for all your favorite characters so you can have one final lovely memory of them all alive before everything goes to hell:

In the courtyard, Grew Worm and Missandei share a special moment where they make plans for the future. Once Grey Worm has finished securing the throne for Daenerys, he’s gonna retire with Missandei and she can visit her home again.  And he’ll keep her and her peeps safe with his Unsullied pals as they live happily ever after. So…he’s gonna die, right?

On the ramparts, Jon and Sam hang together with Ghost nearby.  Yay, finally we see a direwolf again!  Sam asks Jon when he is going to fill Daenerys in on the revelation of Jon’s true parents.  Edd arrives and declares “And now our watch begins.” Gilly and little Sam will be in the crypts (wanna know why?) and Jon tells Sam he can go, too – to protect them – but Sam scoffs and asks his buds to give him some credit.  He was, after all the first of them to kill a white walker and discover other ways to defeat the Dead.  They take a moment to remember their fallen friends from the Night’s Watch and Edd grimly states “Last man left, burn the rest of us.”

In the Great Hall, Tyrion and Jaime sit by the fire and enjoy a cup of wine as they ponder how much they’ve changed since their last visit to Winterfell and Tyrion bemoans the perils of self betterment – gone are his days of excessive drinking and whoreing.

Brienne and Podrick arrive in the great hall – oh hai, guys!  They were looking for a place to warm up, and Jaime insists that they join him and his bro. Brienne agrees – obviously. Is she going to pass up the chance to be with her hunky unrequited love? Never.  Oh, and would you look at that!  Davos and Thormund pop in as well to join some theater in the round. Thormund regales them with a hilarious story of how he got the “Giantsbane” moniker. Truly, he is the shining star in this episode and certainly in this scene. I’m feeling extra manipulated by the show – now that we’re more emotionally invested in him, I’m 100% sure that he’ll be killed off next week.

Up on the ramparts, Arya sees the Hound and sits next to him.  They have a nice moment when she questions why he’s even here fighting with everybody.  “When is the last time you fought for anybody?”, she asks.  He replies gruffly, “I fought for you, didn’t I?” And that is the line that wins the night.  Awwwww, I love the Hound.  Then Beric Dondarrion shows up and ruins the moment.  He apologizes to Arya for the way they parted the last time they saw each other – ya know, when he sold out Gendry to Melisandre to do her voodoo magic.  When he starts talking about the Lord of Light, the Hound tells him to shut his trap and Arya is all “Peace out, I’m gonna find something better to do than spend my final hours with you old farts.”

Next, Arya whiles away the time with some archery practice when Gendry arrives with the weapon he’s fashioned for her.  It’s a spear and she gives it a whirl – not bad at all.  As she shows off her fancy spear twirling skills, Arya asks Gendry what Melisandre did to him after she took him, and he tells her about the blood magic.   She assumes (correctly) that Melisandre had sex with Gendry and suddenly Arya is grilling Gendry about all his past partners, presumably calculating her risk of contracting syphilis.  Apparently, Gendry’s number of former lovers is satisfactory and Arya reveals that if she’s going to die in the battle against the dead, she wants to at least know what sex feels like and they get. It. On.  Oh my stars!! I’m equal parts stoked that Arya and Gendry hooked up, and also intensely worried now that one of them will die – maybe even both of them. Gah!  I wish I wasn’t so traumatized by GOT to assume that any time a good moment happens, it will be yanked away, but such is the life of the Game of Thrones fan:  We can’t have nice things.

Call Me By Your Name

Back in the Great Hall, Tyrion remarks how all of the people in the room had at one point fought the Starks in one way or another, and now they are united in fighting together at Winterfell.  As Tyrion gives them all a verbal pat on the back for surviving so many battles, he accidentally calls Brienne “Ser” and corrects himself.  Thormund is confused that Brienne isn’t a knight, and she tells him women can’t be knights because sexist traditions are alive and well in Westeros. When Thormund tells her he’d make her a knight if he were king, Jaime points out that you don’t need a king to be knighted – another knight can do it. And so, with a little coaxing everybody encourages Brienne to get knighted.  She’s always wanted to be a knight and she accepts the honor with all the grace and reverence it warrants.  Ser Jaime Lannister taps her shoulders with his sword, reciting the words and at last proclaims her a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.  As the men in the room start a slow clap and cheer for her, Ser Brienne of Tarth rises with tears in her eyes and a luminous smile.  Oh God, she’s toast now!!!!

In the courtyard, Ser Jorah Mormont and his little cuz Lyanna Mormont argue.  He thinks she should go to the crypts –I really don’t want to say this, but I must…because they are the safest place to be—and Lyanna insists that she vowed to fight, and that’s precisely what she’ll do.  She wishes him well just as Samwell Tarly shows up. He presents his family’s sword to Ser Jorah.  It’s called Heartsbane and it’s made of Valyrian steel.  The sword is too heavy for Sam to wield himself.  He shares that Lord Commander Mormont – Jorah’s father – was a wonderful mentor who taught Sam to always do what’s right, and Sam would be honored for Jorah to have it.  Ser Jorah accepts the weapon, and then Sam has to go and say something like: “I’ll see you when the battle’s through.” F#$K!!!! So now Jorah’s gonna die?! I can’t take it, you guys!

Aaaand we’re back at the Great Hall, where the wine has run out and the karaoke portion of the night has begun.  Podrick, it turns out, has the voice of an angel and treats the group to a lovely and haunting melody.  It’s a perfect tune for a montage scene and we get one last glimpse of all the characters we’ve come to love as they have one last tender and bittersweet moment of togetherness.

In the ever-so-safe crypts, Jon stands at Lyanna’s coffin and statue, and Daenerys approaches. She asks who the statue is of, and Jon simply says “Lyanna Stark.” Dany knows the story of Lyanna’s abduction – she tells Jon that she grew up hearing such good things about her brother Rhaegar, who was known to be kind and decent, and yet, he raped Lyanna.  Jon corrects her “Oh, but he didn’t,” and all the details spill out.  Dany is shook by the revelation that Jon is actually Rhaegar’s legitimate son and asks how he knows this – she is not impressed by Jon’s sources and points out how convenient it is that his brother and best friend are the only people who can corroborate the story.  Her thoughts immediately go to the Iron Throne and the fact that Jon would have a better claim to it, if what he says is true. Before they can go into things further, a horn sounds: The Dead are here.  Jon and Dany give each other a look of agreement and both storm off – presumably to ride some dragons.

In the dark, a horse’s hoof stops in the snow and as the camera pans up, it reveals the Night King’s lieutenants all lined up in formation, ready for the attack, their gaze fixed upon Winterfell in the near distance.   Roll credits.

Holy moly so many people are gonna die next week, and I am losing my mind over here!  This episode was a lot of things, and while I feel like I got all the moments I technically wanted, I also feel weirdly placated by the writers for actually giving those moments to us viewers.   I’m not sure how true some of the actions were to the characters, and it seemed more like the last 20 minutes were purely catering to the audience’s wishes before the showrunners kill off all the people they shone a spotlight on in this episode. It’s hard to truly enjoy something when you feel like you’re being set up for a fall, ya know?  But overall, it was a fine episode to set up the epic battle next week.

The takeaways for me were: Jaime has an important role to play in ending the long night.  Dany’s whole worldview is going to have to be reconsidered unless of course she (or Jon) dies, making the whole “Who deserves the crown more?” a moot point.  Maybe she’ll even screw Jon over?  Tyrion will likely survive and I’m wondering if Bran shared something important with him during their chat.  That way, if Bran should perish, Tyrion will have some trump card of knowledge to share with the others.  Arya is probably toast – if not, then Gendry is. Brienne will die – for SURE!  Oh, and the crypts are the least safe place to be and some freaky deaky stuff is gonna happen down there next episode.

I would like to point out that we didn’t actually see the Night King standing outside Winterfell with his homies.  Like I mentioned earlier, I am reading so many different theories and one is that the Night King is splitting up his army, and he is heading straight to King’s Landing with his ice dragon to torch the city and turn its 1 million inhabitants into an army that nobody can match.  

Will all my death predictions come true?  Will the Night King fool us all and fly to Essos to kill the fire priestesses? Or will Melisandre suddenly pop up at the 11th hour to save the day?  Are there any other important theories I have yet to discover? I’m sure by next week we’ll know a lot more, and also be bawling our eyes out as Jaime tenderly holds a dying Brienne in his arms, who it turn holds a dying Thormund in hers.  It could happen, you guys.  I’ll see ya here next week for a grief group therapy session!

[tatticstudio55]

The thumbs of Westeros

Little Thumbling and the Red Wedding / Thumbelina in the Great Grass Sea

You probably all heard the tale “Hop-o’-My-Thumb”, or “Little Thumbling” (Le petit poucet in French), but for those who’d need a refresher, Little Thumbling is the youngest son of woodcutters too poor to feed their seven children. The parents decide to abandon them in the forest, but Little Thumbling manages to find their way back by leaving pebbles behind him. Later on, knowing that their parents will want to abandon them in the forest again, he tries to sneak outside early to get more pebbles, but since the door is locked, must do with crumbs from the breakfast’s bread. Unfortunately, the birds eat the crumbs and Little Thumbling and his siblings can’t find their way back. They eventually come across an ogre’s house and ask for shelter because there’s wolves in the forest. The ogre’s wife let them in, feed them, and all is good until the ogre comes back and decides to have the children for his supper. His wife persuades him otherwise by presenting him with pork, veal and muttons, and Little Thumbling and his siblings are given a bed for the night, next to the bed shared by the ogre’s seven daughters – all wearing golden crowns. Worrying that the ogre might want to slaughter his “guests” during the night, Little Thumbling wait until the ogre’s daughters are asleep to switch their crowns with his own brothers’ hats. When the ogre effectively comes in the chamber with a knife and feel the hats on his daughters’ heads, he assumes it’s Little Thumbling and his siblings in the bed and slice his daughters’ throats. Little Thumbling and his brothers flee before morning, by which the Ogre realize what he’s done, put on magic boots and run after them. He comes to a halt at some point to rest, fall asleep, and Little Thumbling steal his boots, who magically adjusts to his size when he puts them on. He then runs back to the ogre’s house and tells his wife that her husband was captured by thieves who’ll release him in exchange for a ransom. The wife hands Little Thumbling everything she has, Little Thumbling return to his parents with the gold and they live happily ever after (I suppose).

Just to lay things out from the get go, I think Arya Stark is the Little Thumbling of asoiaf. The ogre, of course, is Walder Frey, and Arya’s “six brothers” are her mother and brother Robb.

-Arya is travelling by forest to reach the Ogre’s house (the Twins), after Sandor Clegane has taken her captive and plans on taking her to the Twins himself to get his ransom. Robb and Catelyn are also traveling (largely by forest) to the ogre’s house for Edmure’s wedding.

They had ridden so far in rain and darkness, through trackless woods and nameless villages, that Arya had lost all sense of where they were. - Arya, ASOS

As the gods would have it, their route took them through the Whispering Wood where Robb had won his first great victory. - Catelyn, ASOS

-It’s implied that there’s an abnormal quantity of wolves roaming those forests:

“Is it safe, my lord?” Qyburn asked. “Only three days past, Septon Utt’s men were attacked by wolves. They came right into his camp, not five yards from the fire, and killed two horses.” 

“It is wolves I mean to hunt. I can scarcely sleep at night for the howling.” (...)  It is queer to see the common wolves of the south so bold.” - Arya, ACOK

-After being captured by the Hound, Arya tries to help the brotherhood without banners to find her back by leaving marks on trees (the bread crumbs), until she’s caught red-handed by the Hound.

...but Arya still expected to see the outlaws every time she looked back. She had tried to help them by scratching her name on the trunks of trees when she went in the bushes to make water, but the fourth time she did it he caught her, and that was the end of that. - Arya, ASOS

-Arya herself has a lot in common with Little Thumbling: she’s small, skinny, very young and a disappointment to her parents (or at least, that’s how Arya perceives it), but she’s also quite resourceful and uses her wits to survive. Like Little Thumbling, she’s stuck with a pack of “travel companions” (the six siblings in the tale; Lommy, Hot Pie and Weasel in asoiaf) who aren’t very useful and wouldn’t make it far without her (even Gendry tells her as much in ACOK), despite her being the smallest and scrawniest of the bunch (except Weasel).

“She’s no use,” Gendry repeated stubbornly. “Her and Hot Pie and Lommy, they’re slowing us down, and they’re going to get us killed. You’re the only one of the bunch who’s good for anything. Even if you are a girl.” - Arya, ACOK

-The ogre’s wife tries to save the children by offering veal, pork and mutton to her husband. Arya and the Hound try to reach the Twins by pretending that they’re bringing salted pork and pigs’ feet for the wedding’s feast. 

"Got pickled pigs' feet too, ser." 

"Not for the feast, you don't. The feast's half done. And I'm a northman, not some milksuck southron knight." 

"I was told to see the steward, or the cook . . . " 

"Castle's closed. The lordlings are not to be disturbed." - Arya, ASOS

-The ogre’s daughters all wear crowns. Walder Frey wants (or wanted) to crown one of his daughters by marrying her to the King in the North (Robb).

-Little Thumbling and his brothers seek shelter because of the wolves outside. Robb is coerced into leaving his direwolf outside at the Twins.

The sight of the dogs made Catelyn wish once more for Grey Wind, but Robb's direwolf was nowhere to be seen. Lord Walder had refused to allow him in the hall. - Catelyn, ASOS

-Little Thumbling and his brothers are offered food and a bed at the ogre’s house. Catelyn, Robb and his men are offered guests’ rights at the Twins. The ogre’s wife knows that her husband eats children, but can’t do anything about it. Roslin Frey probably knew about her father’s plan to slaughter the Starks after the wedding, but couldn’t do anything about it either.

-The ogre slices his daughter’s throats after feeling the boys’ hats on their heads. Walder Frey let Catelyn slice his grandson’s throat, the one surnamed “Jinglebell” for the bell hat that he wore.

Robb had broken his word, but Catelyn kept hers. She tugged hard on Aegon's hair and sawed at his neck until the blade grated on bone. Blood ran hot over her fingers. His little bells were ringing, ringing, ringing, and the drum went boom doom boom. - Catelyn, ASOS

*This only concerns the show so far, but we have another scene where “Walder Frey” slaughter his own children:

-Little Thumbling and his brothers flee on time. So does Arya at the Twins (with a bit of help from the Hound), but she doesn’t manage to save her mother, nor her brother.

"We're here," she shouted. Her voice sounded thin and scared, a little girl's voice. "Robb's just in the castle, and my mother. The gate's even open." There were no more Freys riding out. I came so far. "We have to go get my mother." 

"Stupid little bitch." Fires glinted off the snout of his helm, and made the steel teeth shine. "You go in there, you won't come out. Maybe Frey will let you kiss your mother's corpse." - Arya, ASOS

-Little Thumbling steal the ogre’s boots, whose size magically adjusts to his feet, and also steals gold from the ogre’s wife. In Braavos, Arya steals boots (presumably her size – we’re told that the boots she previously wore were too big for her) from a Night’s Watch deserter, and cuts a purse in ADWD.

Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots." 

"Good boots are hard to find." 

"Just so." She tried to keep her face still. 

"Who could have done this thing, I wonder?" 

"Arya of House Stark." She watched his eyes, his mouth, the muscles of his jaw. - Cat of the canals, AFFC

She slipped her hand through the gap, slit the purse open with the finger knife, filled her fist with gold … - The ugly little girl, ADWD

As we can see, there’s a lot of parallels and foils here. I tend to view the boots as a coming-of-age achievement and a symbol of empowerment, but in my opinion, Arya’s story goes beyond that: she wants to go home and the “ogre” is the main obstacle to that quest. Her story arc in Westeros more or less culminate with the events at the Twins (her encounter with the ogre), where she powerlessly witnesses the slaughter of her family. The rest is details: she takes her revenge on Polliver and get her Needle back, which symbolically marks the end of her peregrinations as a prisoner. She frees herself from the Hound (another “ogre” figure, though this one is more ambivalent). Then she leaves. She embarks on another storyline with another “ogre”, the Titan of Braavos, who “eat the flesh of little highborn girls”. Braavos, essentially – what lays behind the Titan – is another ogre’s house:

Even so, she kept one hand on Needle as they slipped between his legs. More arrow slits dotted the insides of those great stone thighs, and when Arya craned her neck around to watch the crow's nest slip through with a good ten yards to spare, she spied murder holes beneath the Titan's armored skirts, and pale faces staring down at them from behind the iron bars.

And then they were past. – Arya, AFFC

The House of Black and White also tries to “eat” Arya’s family: Arya must forget about her mother. She must forget about her brothers. She must forget about herself and become No One. She must rid herself of her belonging. This time, nonetheless, she outwits the ogre by hiding her most precious possession (Needle) from him. The House of Black and White shares another similarity with the ogre’s house, for few who enters ever get out – actually, one could even make a case of the House of Black and White “digesting” those who came to die there: the servants clean the dead, take their purses, coins, clothes, and the faces are taken down a labyrinthine web of stairs, halls, doors underground (the “intestines”) before ending up in the Hall of Faces (as “nourishment” for the House of Black and White). There’s even a short scene in AFFC where Arya fears that the meat she’s given for her supper is actually the flesh of the dead (before the kindly man reassures her that it’s only pork).

Arya’s Little Thumbling can be taken as a criticism of the patriarchy displayed in the original tale: the woodcutter’s wife and the ogre’s wife are both depicted as passive victims of their husbands’ cruelty (the woodcutter’s wife tries to dissuade her husband from abandoning their children in the forest, but to no avail). The good mother/cruel father dichotomy is quite present in Arya’s storyline, especially in Westeros (the good mother Catelyn and the Hound, the meek lady Frey and the big bad Walder). Thus, it’s interesting that the Little Thumbling of Westeros is in fact a little girl disguised as a boy. It’s also curious that Arya herself takes the role of a mother to “Weasel”. And, as far as parents go, the Little Thumbling is also a story about the validation of the hero/heroine to his/her family: the sickly, skinny, useless Little Thumbling save his siblings from an ogre and presents a bag of gold to his parents at the end of the story. Arya “Horseface” Stark, the little sister who can’t sew, can’t stitch, can’t draw or sing, would’ve attempted (truly) to save her mother and brother by herself at the Twins – something the Hound scoffs at, because unfortunately, Arya’s story isn’t a fairy tale…

"We should go back," she suddenly decided. "We should go back to the Twins and get my mother. She can't be dead. We have to help her." 

"I thought your sister was the one with a head full of songs," the Hound growled. "Frey might have kept your mother alive to ransom, that's true. But there's no way in seven hells I'm going to pluck her out of his castle all by my bloody self."

 "Not by yourself. I'd come too." 

He made a sound that was almost a laugh. "That will scare the piss out of the old man." - Arya, ASOS

The Little Thumbling is also one of these stories where the hero’s “quest” centers around returning home. Another story of the same style would be Thumbelina: a tiny girl, the size of a thumb, is born inside a flower, stolen by a toad who wants to marry her to her son, and left on a waterlily so she can’t escape. She receives help from some fishes and a butterfly who carries her waterlily far from the toads; however, she’s then snatched by a beetle who take her up a tree for company, until fellow beetles show up and start calling Thumbelina “ugly”. Thumbelina’s abandoned again and wanders in the forest, making herself clothes from the grass and covering with a fallen leaf when the cold sets in. She finally comes across a mouse’s nest and is taken in by an old mouse who let her stay for the winter. During that time, Thumbelina finds a near-frozen, injured bird that she nurses back to health. The old mouse also introduces her to a mole who wants to marry Thumbelina, and although Thumbelina doesn’t want to marry the mole (meaning that she’d live under the earth forever), she’s not really given a choice. The day of her wedding, however, the bird she nursed back to life come to take her away and bring her to a flower field, where she meets, falls in love with and marry a tiny fairy prince who lives in a flower.

For analysts Iona and Peter Opie, the moral behind Thumbelina’s story is that people are happier when they’re with their own kind (make sense). Whereas we have Arya as the Little Thumbling of Westeros, Daenerys Targaryen would be Thumbelina: she’s “stolen” from her home soon after birth, is betrothed twice to men she has no wish to marry, goes from places to places, never really fitting in anywhere. Just like Thumbelina who can’t really find her place among toads, beetles and moles, Daenerys never really belongs with the dothraki, the people from Quarth or the meereenese, and just like Thumbelina, ends up “flying away” from an unwanted marriage and an unhappy home at the end of ADWD. Although nowhere near the size of a thumb (of course), Daenerys is described as quite small, physically, (and, like Thumbelina, dainty and beautiful). Moreover, when in the “green grass sea” in AGOT and ADWD, she could just as well be the size of a thumb, for the grass grows much higher than herself. In ADWD, Daenerys even tries to make herself some clothes (a hat) with grass.

(For those who’ve seen the 1994 movie “Thumbelina”, you might also remember how Cornelius, the fairy prince who marries Thumbelina, is temporarily frozen in a block of ice. If this doesn’t remind us of a certain westerosi prince, I mean bastard, ah, stuck around a big chunk of ice for some time.)

The paradox here lies with Thumbelina’s connection to seeds, plants and flowers, and the recurring “Dragons plants no tree” mantra from Daenerys’s story. Still, Thumbelina is a little girl in a shell: she’s born from a barley seed and sleeps in a nutshell (before being stolen by the toad). Dittos for Daenerys, a dragon in a shell who hatches in a sea of grass. ADWD leaves Daenerys in a situation that roughly mirrors Thumbelina’s forest wanderings at the brink of winter:

In this way the summer and fall went by. Then came the winter, the long, cold winter. All the birds who had sung so sweetly for her flew away. The trees and the flowers withered. The big burdock leaf under which she had lived shriveled up until nothing was left of it but a dry, yellow stalk. She was terribly cold, for her clothes had worn threadbare and she herself was so slender and frail. Poor Thumbelina, she would freeze to death! Snow began to fall, and every time a snowflake struck her it was as if she had been hit by a whole shovelful, for we are quite tall while she measured only an inch. She wrapped a withered leaf about her, but there was no warmth in it. She shivered with cold.

Near the edge of the woods where she now had arrived, was a large grain field, but the grain had been harvested long ago. Only the dry, bare stubble stuck out of the frozen ground. It was just as if she were lost in a vast forest, and oh how she shivered with cold! Then she came to the door of a field mouse, who had a little hole amidst the stubble. There this mouse lived, warm and cozy, with a whole store-room of grain, and a magnificent kitchen and pantry. Poor Thumbelina stood at the door, just like a beggar child, and pled for a little bit of barley, because she hadn't had anything to eat for two days past. (H.C. Andersen, Thumbelina)

Not to draws too many straws here, but the parallels with Daenerys are there:

Dany's clothes were hardly more than rags, and offered little in the way of warmth. (…) Sweat and grass and dirt had stained it, and Dany had torn a strip off the hem to make a bandage for her shin. I must look a ragged thing, and starved, she thought, but if the days stay warm, I will not freeze. (…) She was hungry too. (…) The grass was as tall as she was. (…) Though she walked through a green kingdom, it was not the deep rich green of summer. Even here autumn made its presence felt, and winter would not be far behind. The grass was paler than she remembered, a wan and sickly green on the verge of going yellow. After that would come brown. The grass was dying. (…) "I need a hat," she said aloud. Up on Dragonstone she had tried to make one for herself, weaving stalks of grass together as she had seen Dothraki women do during her time with Drogo, but either she was using the wrong sort of grass or she simply lacked the necessary skill. Her hats all fell to pieces in her hands. (…) "I am lost at sea," she said (…) Instead she began to shiver violently. (…) She scooped up a handful of mud and water in trembling hands. – Daenerys, ADWD

And both girls are rescued from this environment by flying creatures. Little Thumbelina is small enough to mount a bird. Daenerys, a girl of “regular” size, mounts a dragon:

"Yes, I will go with you!" said Thumbelina. She sat on his back, put her feet on his outstretched wings, and fastened her sash to one of his strongest feathers. Then the swallow soared into the air over forests and over lakes, high up over the great mountains that are always capped with snow. When Thumbelina felt cold in the chill air, she crept under the bird's warm feathers, with only her little head stuck out to watch all the wonderful sights below. (H.C. Andersen, Thumbelina)

Dany leapt onto his back. She stank of blood and sweat and fear, but none of that mattered. "To go forward I must go back," she said. Her bare legs tightened around the dragon's neck. She kicked him, and Drogon threw himself into the sky. – Daenerys, ADWD

Thumbelina flies to a country of eternal spring, where she meets the fairy prince and gets her happily ever after. The bird who carried her is sad nonetheless because she chose the fairy prince over him.

From what we know, Daenerys will soon be flying to a country threatened by eternal winter, where she will meet a prince (Jon) who connects both with flowers (the “blue flower from a chunk of ice”) and snow.

These are, so far, Arya’s and Daenerys’s journeys back home.

[filhadoboto]

The girl in my dreams

This story was written for JONERYS APPRECIATION WEEK 2

DAY o4:  Prophecies and Dreams // Home and Family // The Long Night

@iceandfiresource

Summary: Jon has dreams about a silver-haired girl as long as he can remember, and when he enters the throne room in Dragonstone he realizes he has found her.

Also on AO3

I woke up with the sunlight bathing my face. And from its position in the sky, I realized that I had slept until mid-morning. I couldn’t remember when it was the last time I had slept so much.

Maybe it was the rocking of the sea and the sound of the boat cutting through the waters that made me relax. The sea had been quite agitated since our departure from White Harbor, but not enough to prevent or delay our progress towards Dragonstone. And as we traveled south, we could see that winter had indeed come, and the cold wind was now our constant companion.

The bed was warm and comfortable and the memory of the dream I had just had still lingered in my mind. For the first time since I had returned from the dead, I had dreamed of her. With the silver-haired girl.

I couldn’t remember a time in my life when she wasn’t with me. In my dreams, I mean. I grew up with the sight of a girl with silver hair haunting my dreams.

In the beginning, when I was just a child, I had searched for her everywhere. In the forest around Winterfell. In the winter village. In the godswood. In the fortress and in the crypts. I had even asked the Old Nan if she knew any story that had a silver-haired girl. The Old Nan had smiled gently, placed me on her lap, and told me a story about knights.

Curiously, I could never get close to the girl or see her face. Every time I approached, she either fled or was carried by the wind like smoke. For a while I believed she to be a figment of my imagination, but something inside me said that she was real and that if I were patient I would find she one day.

Over the years, I realized that not only was she growing, but her form seemed to grow steadier, more definite. Before, I saw her as if her body was made of smoke and as time passed, she seemed more solid and older, just like me. And just like me, sometimes she felt sad and alone.

The dreams seemed to be tied to my emotions and I always dreamed of her when Lady Catelyn mistreated me. These days, I always tried to hide my pain and my sadness from my siblings, but I could never hide anything from her. Not from her. It was as if the girl knew exactly how I felt, how painful it felt to be a stranger, an unwanted, an intruder. She never said anything or approached me. She stared at me from a distance, motionless, but her mere presence gave me hope that the next day would be better.

I never had the courage to tell anyone else about her. And it was only when my sister Arya grew up that I finally had the guts to talk about the girl. Arya's eyes had widened and she smiled, fascinated by the idea that I had an imaginary friend too. But the girl wasn’t an imaginary friend. Although I still didn’t know who she was or why I saw her in my dreams, I was sure she couldn’t just be my imagination. And, I hoped that one day our paths would cross.

The day I discovered I was being sent to the Wall with Uncle Benjen, it was the first time the girl approached me. In the dream, I was in the godswood, kneeling with eyes closed in front of the weirwood tree and begging the old gods to save Bran's life and that I might find a place in the Night's Watch. Then I had sensed her presence, heard her footsteps on the dry leaves on the floor and her hot hand lightly touching my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, she was there, beside me, her almost translucent form beginning to disappear.

In my early months on the Wall, I had dreamed of her almost every night. But some of these nights were etched in my mind. These nights I had heard her crying, screaming for help, pleading for someone to save her, for someone to end her suffering. I could feel her agony, her pain, her fear. And as much as I tried to reach her, I could never cross the infinite sea of grass that separated us. Her suffering seemed endless, and I seemed to be helpless. But one day the sea of grass was consumed by fire. When all the vegetation turned to ashes, I could see her and her body was covered with flames. But the flames didn’t hurt her. The flames seemed to take away all the pain, sadness and fear that consumed her. She was finally free.

During my journey with the Night's Watch, she was there. And the flames too. Now she was accompanied by three flames that kept her safe. And as we two grew older, the three flames grew larger and more intense. When my Night's Watch brothers murdered me, I could see her for a few seconds in my dying mind and I felt her sadness as the cold enveloped me.

And it was only now, months after I returned to the living world, that I dreamed about her again. This time I had seen her walk down a narrow strip of sand by herself, late in the afternoon. As always, I couldn’t see her face, but I could feel she was experiencing a moment of happiness and triumph. She had walked to the edge where the waves came and fixed her gaze on the horizon where the sun slowly set. This time she seemed as solid as a person could be in a dream and not about to be carried away by the wind as at other times. I had then walked toward her, and when I was a few steps away from her, she had turned toward me, but the sunlight reflected in the water seemed to bathe her body with flames and didn’t allow me to see her face. "Who are you?" I asked her. And just like at all other times, she didn’t respond. And when I tried to get closer to her I woke up.

Days later, when we finally landed on Dragon Stone, I had my question finally answered. And the answer awaited me sitting on the throne in Dragonstone. When my eyes rested on Daenerys Targaryen I knew, without a doubt, that she was the girl in my dreams. For a few moments, as I listened to her trajectory and her achievements through her titles, I allowed myself to look at her face and decorate each of her features. She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, and her eyes would be my doom.

How strange it was to finally meet the face of someone who had been with me all my life.

Had she dreamed of me, too? Did she, as she looked at me, recognize the boy in her dreams as well? Did she...

I forced myself to focus on the world around me. This wasn’t the time to think about dreams. I had a mission to fulfill. My people needed dragonglass to have a chance to defeat the army of the dead. My people needed powerful allies. I was there to persuade Queen Daenerys Targaryen to join the North in the war against the Night King and that was what I would do.

Ser Davos and I had already discussed strategies and ways to persuade the Queen Targaryen to help us in the war, as well as allowing us to extract dragon-glass from her island. Of course things wouldn’t be easy. The Queen had her own plans. She had come to take back what had belonged to her family and was not going to simply leave everything aside and go North with us.

I tried to focus on mining and sending to the North all the dragonglass that was necessary for the war. But I never had as much difficulty in keeping my focus as when I took her to see the cave with the drawings of the children of the forest. It was the second time we were both alone, without counselors, without guards, without anyone. And how difficult it was to look into her eyes, to hear her voice, to smell her, to be overcome by the feeling that I knew her and couldn’t speak. Every moment beside her made me see a little of the girl in my dreams. How to tell a Queen, a woman so extraordinary, that I dreamed of her since when can I remember? So I didn’t say anything.

Both of us had walked different paths, but even so, they crossed. Fate wanted us both to meet. The flames that protected her in my dreams symbolized her three dragons. Her enormous beasts were formidable and fearsome animals. The people who followed her from Essos admired her. She had freed them, saved them from terrible lives. She had given them hope. She had given them a choice. She had given them a new life. Each and every one of them had chosen to live and die for her. And when she chose to risk everything she had to save my life, I realized that I would do exactly the same for her.

Even risking losing everything and putting everyone's lives in danger, I couldn’t lie when Cercei Lannister asked me to stay out of the war between them. I would fight alongside Daenerys Targaryen until my last breath. I would fight for Daenerys Targaryen because she was the best thing that could happen to the Seven Kingdoms. She was fierce and kind and generous. She would be able to bring peace and prosperity to all. Daenerys would protect everyone, even if she had to sacrifice her own life.

I loved the woman the girl had become. And when my lips touched hers and our bodies came together all the fear I've felt all my life has disappeared. My wait was finally over.

"Jon, I've dreamed of you my entire life." she said as she fell asleep.

"And I with you, Dany." She smiled and snuggled into my arms.

As I watched her sleep, held in my arms, I felt that I had finally found my place in the world.

[lilbreck]

AGoT Chapter 5 - 8

If you want to follow along, I'm tagging my ASoIaF reading as tonya rereads asoiaf. As I said last time, feel free to comment, I'd love to talk about stuff. Point out some things I missed, whatever.

There are a lot of questionable parenting skills in this group of chapters. Robert's a bad king, Jon is angry but still loves his family, and the Starks are fucking northern fools, even Catelyn.

Chapter 4: Eddard

Age 35

Not even gonna lie, Ned's first description of how Robert used to look sounded a bit like he had a crush. No offense, but Ned has bad taste in men. How he looks now… If there's perfume coming off Robert, is it supposed to be Cersei's, does he wear perfume himself, or did he seriously visit some brothels on the way up north? I'd believe any of it. Also, as much as everyone loves Ned… he seriously says he loves Robert because, after fifteen years, the man is still obsessed with his sister?

We get a hint here that the cold (which I commented on in Bran's chapter) is potentially unusual. Though Ned says that late summer snows are common enough, I'm not sure how much to believe that.

You know, the more we see of Robert, the less I like him. I shudder to think what Lyanna would have gone through if she had married him. She may or may not still be alive, but she'd be married to a drunken, abusive (IIRC) ass who sleeps around on her. If Robert had been a better man, I wonder how differently all this would have turned out.

The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled. In the centuries before the Dragonlords came over the sea, they had sworn allegiance to no man, styling themselves the Kings in the North.

I just want a story where the ghosts of the first Lords of Winterfell reign down terror on those in the South. Maybe someone who writes ASoIaF/GoT fanfic could write that and link me.

So, I had heard conflicting reports of how the Starks were killed by Aerys. Apparently, Brandon died first (strangled, and just a few days before his wedding!) and I'm assuming his father burned after. We haven't touched on that in this chapter yet.

I'm assuming (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Ned not wanting to trust a child to Tywin has to do with the Targaryen children that died and Ned and Robert's split. It's the only reason I could think of that Ned would think speaking of it would open old wounds.

“They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man’s laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death,” Ned said evenly. “Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.”

The cold seems to give them subtle sass to spare, though. This chapter is full of damn good quotes. I'll leave it off on this one:

For a moment Eddard Stark was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding. This was his place, here in the north. He looked at the stone figures all around them, breathed deep in the chill silence of the crypt. He could feel the eyes of the dead. They were all listening, he knew. And winter was coming.

Chapter 5: Jon

Age 14

Okay, this Jon is a bit different from the serious and solemn young man that we saw in Bran's chapter. Of course, the circumstances are different, so that could be some of it. We do get a lot of description from Jon's POV. I'm going to copy his descriptions here, save Tommen (because he's pretty much a non-entity to Jon) and Tyrion because it says nothing about Jon's perception of the man, just how fascinated he is by his appearance.

< His father helped her up the steps to the dais and led her to her seat, but the queen never so much as looked at him. Even at fourteen, Jon could see through her smile. >

< The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups. >

< He had the Princess Myrcella on his arm. She was a wisp of a girl, not quite eight, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net. Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him. He decided she was insipid. Robb didn’t even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool. >

< Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey’s pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell’s Great Hall. >

< Ser Jaime Lannister was twin to Queen Cersei; tall and golden, with flashing green eyes and a smile that cut like a knife. He wore crimson silk, high black boots, a black satin cloak. On the breast of his tunic, the lion of his House was embroidered in gold thread, roaring its defiance. They called him the Lion of Lannister to his face and whispered “Kingslayer” behind his back.

Jon found it hard to look away from him. This is what a king should look like, he thought to himself as the man passed. >

Looking at that, Jaime is the only one who Jon doesn't dismiss in one way or another. I wonder if it's a coincidence that Jaime is getting a kind of (kind of) redemptive arc. I'm not really sure about Tyrion, I'll have to get back to you when I read further.

Also, Jon may or may not have a crush on Jaime.

So, given that Theon ignores Jon, I'm thinking Jon's dislike is also returned. How long has Theon been there, and when did the dislike start? Was there one instance, or did they just take an instant dislike to each other. Is this answered later on? Guess I'll find out.

His eyes stung. Jon rubbed at them savagely, cursing the smoke. He swallowed another gulp of wine and watched his direwolf devour the chicken.

I have a feeling that isn't from the smoke. Fuck, poor Jon. Beyond that, Ghost is out here intimidating dogs three times his size.

Given how very angry and hurting Jon is concerning the fact that he's a bastard, it does say a lot about him that he remains so loyal to his family later on.

Chapter 6: Catelyn

You know, we get a very different view on how political marriages can go in this world. Robert and Cersei have a hellish marriage where she's very obviously not happy and he doesn't care a bit. Meanwhile, we've got Ned and Catelyn who really seem to have a good marriage with, apparently, a satisfying sex life on both their ends.

“Robert would never harm me or any of mine. We were closer than brothers. He loves me. If I refuse him, he will roar and curse and bluster, and in a week we will laugh about it together. I know the man!”

Okay, first off, it's very obvious that Ned has a (potentially willful) blindness to who his friend really is. I also wonder if he thought he was protecting his wife by not telling her about Jon's real parents? Because the Robert we're introduced to, the one Catelyn is obviously very aware of, would not spare his family because they didn't know if he found out Ned had commited the treason of hiding a Targaryen child. Especially if that child was Lyanna's, and he wouldn't care that Lynnna was Ned's sister.

I think this is going to call for a "fucking northern fool" tag. I have a feeling it will come in handy.

I would just like to point something out:

“And in mine,” she blazed, angry now. Why couldn’t he see? “He offers his own son in marriage to our daughter, what else would you call that? Sansa might someday be queen. Her sons could rule from the Wall to the mountains of Dorne. What is so wrong with that?”

“Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven,” Ned said. “And Joffrey … Joffrey is …”

She finished for him. “… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. And I was only twelve when my father promised me to your brother Brandon.”

Everyone likes to rag on Sansa because she was excited to marry a prince and refused to see what Joffrey was. However, this conversation hints to me — speaking on assumptions from the perspective of a long marriage — that Ned had concerns about Joffrey (or reservations) that he had probably spoken to his wife about. She ignores all that in favor of how Sansa could be queen.

Not in a power grab, mind you, but in the way all mothers want their children to have the best possible chance in life. She would have filled her daughter with stories (as would have everyone around her). They would have told her what an honor it was and how lucky she was. She's eleven and sheltered, just as all the Stark children are, even the bastard boy, of course she's going to cling to it.

I'd also like to point out that Catelyn is so thrown by how scared she feels and how much she knows shit's about to go wrong that she straight up hops out of be naked to the shock of both her husband and the Maester (who has been trying to get out of that damn room of naked and half naked people). I need to find my small amusements where I can.

Just… I have to question what they thought would happen if they found out and were able to prove that Cersei and her family had killed Jon Arryn? Did they think that Sansa would be fine married off to a prince who would probably resent her father? Did they think they could back out of it? You know what, Catelyn is now roped into my "fucking northern fool" tag.

I mean, they didn't have much of a choice, but she didn't even see what dangers could come with all this. Not for a second do we see her think "Hmmm, a boy might not be happy to marry the daughter of the man who got his mother (probably) executed for the murder of The King's Hand, who was also a good friend of the king." For fuck's sake!

Chapter 7: Arya

Age 9

Okay, Arya's resentment of Sansa rings clearly through the first few paragraphs of this chapter. Also, she straight up mentally blames Sansa for attracting the septa's attention… when the septa didn't look away from the princess until Arya raised her voice. Hell, Sansa even tried to placate the septa by saying that they were talking about how happy they were to have the princess there.

Everything in this chapter speaks of her being both overdramatic and jealous of her sister. Down to thinking to herself that no one except Nyperia loves her. Now, I'm not saying that as a dig at Arya. She's 9. This is how she should be. I do have a problem with people who use her very obvious unreliable narrator POV to say that Sansa was somehow in the wrong here. I'm still waiting on this great scene that proves that Sansa is a bully to Arya.

I really do like Jon and Arya's relationship here.

Chapter 8: Bran

So, wait, when does Bran's direwolf get a name? It doesn't matter, that poor direwolf was trying to warn Bran not to climb. I'm assuming that Bran's in-depth knowledge of how to get in and out of Winterfell is going to come in handy. Like I said, it's been more than a while since I've read this.

You know, I'm sitting here laughing about the lengths they're all going to try and get him to stop climbing and he's all "whatevs" about it. But then I remember what's about to happen and I'm sad again. I don't want to read this.

Yeah, shit's only going to go wrong from here.

[reactingtosomething]

Kris Reacts to Game of Thrones: 701, “Dragonstone”

“Would That Be So Terrible?”

The Setup: I (Kris, aka @omeletsforpepper) am not the only one of us who keeps up with Game of Thrones, but I wanted to try my hand at solo reacting. This could change, but my plan is to pick out a theme (not necessarily “the” theme) of the week’s episode, and discuss in depth just one or two scenes/sequences that involve it. I’ll also include some extra thoughts at the end, in the vein of The AV Club’s “Stray Observations.”

SPOILERS for the season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones immediately after the jump.

Though it isn’t actually one of the scenes I want to spotlight this week — largely because I’m sure it’s the one most discussed already across the internet — the bloody cold open gives us a pretty clear thematic statement: this is an episode about debt, and desert. (As in, the condition of deserving something, spelled like the geographical feature, but pronounced like the thing that comes at the end of a meal.) After killing almost everyone who was still eligible to be punished for the Red Wedding, almost everyone’s favorite Stark turns to the late Walder Frey’s newest wife to deliver not only a certain weather announcement, but also probably everyone’s second favorite Stark line: “The North remembers.”

That the North remembers is critical to both Jon and Sansa in the surprisingly nuanced scene that ends with the loyalty oaths of Alys Karstark and Ned Umber. For Jon, Northern and more specifically Stark memory is tied up in the very sense of tradition that kept him a lesser member of his family in the eyes of the late Catelyn, tradition into which he always wanted to be accepted. In spite of everything he’s learned, and all the compromises he’s made, Jon Snow (or should we be calling him Jon Stark now?) still holds as tightly as he can to the ideals and customs of his father. In this case, that means not taking away the ancestral homes of families who fought against him, under the Bolton banner. The Karstark and Umber heirs, both children, will inherit their fathers’ titles. As Sansa points out, although the specific Karstark and Umber men who fought for Ramsay Bolton are indeed already dead, the rest of the North will not receive the message that betraying the Starks will be punished. And more importantly, they will not receive the message that loyalty to the Starks in difficult times will be rewarded.

This is where the “surprisingly” part comes in. Though it’s often been a fiercely intelligent show, and always one that reveled in moral grayness, Game of Thrones isn’t really something I’d describe as subtle, or as being particularly adept with philosophical uncertainty. It has always claimed to be a show concerned with subtlety and ambiguity, but in practice that ambiguity often just meant subjecting characters (partially or completely naked women, disproportionately) to heavy-handed awfulness. Something like Joffrey’s sadistic torture-murder of Ros isn’t a marker of cleverness or depth, it’s Dark and Edgy for the sake of Dark and Edgy. Also, this is just one of those shows that typically doesn’t do subtext in its dialogue. It just has much better-sounding dialogue than your typical network procedural. And that’s not nothing!

A more interesting reason for the show’s incomplete success in delivering on true moral ambiguity is perhaps that it hasn’t often pitted its traditionally heroic characters against each other, especially post-“Blackwater.” But now that the two characters who’ve perhaps suffered most (not that it’s a contest) find themselves at odds, the show’s creative team clearly understands that doing both those characters justice means using a different kind of suspense from the sort that drove episodes like, say, “The Mountain and the Viper.”

We’ll have to wait to see the consequences of Jon’s very public refusal to take Sansa’s very public advice — advice with which most of the Stark bannermen seemed to heartily agree — not only in the military and political spheres, but in Jon and Sansa’s relationship. But I was glad to see that, perhaps owing to Lyanna Mormont’s influence, the men in the room weren’t dismissive of Sansa’s counsel, and were indeed on her side. I was also glad that even when Jon pushed ahead with his own agenda, we weren’t subjected to a repetition of the “everyone sure is angry at Jon” beats we saw so often at Castle Black. Maybe like the men of the Night’s Watch, they’re all tired of arguing with each other.

Or maybe it was that though Sansa very clearly won the logical argument in this scene, Jon kind of got to win the emotional one. Is it really any wonder he’s so opposed to taking away anyone’s ancestral home? It’s not only that he just took back Winterfell. It’s also that Winterfell was, before all of this, never intended to be his ancestral home. He was born a Snow (cough cough, yeah, I know, but the show didn’t go there this week so neither will I), not a Stark. The reclamation of Winterfell doesn’t necessarily mean more to Jon than it does to Sansa, but it does mean something different.

This layer, important as it is for us, probably didn’t occur to the Stark bannermen. For them, the emotional force of Jon’s case is much more concrete once Jon calls forward Alys Karstark and Ned Umber, the former of whom looks no older than Arya was in the show’s very first episode, and the latter of whom may well be younger than Bran was. Look, on the level of strategy, Sansa is right. Sansa is right! Jon is clinging to an ideal for the sake of the ideal, at least as much as because he thinks it’ll help him win. But even as we acknowledge that he’s making a bad decision, we can also acknowledge that there’s something laudable in it. Despite their agreement with Sansa, the bannermen get solemn when those kids  — those kids, who indeed do not deserve to be punished for the sins of their fathers — approach their king and bend the knee, and cheer when those kids say the words they have to say. And when Alys Karstark cracks a smile out of what’s surely a heady combination of relief, gratitude, and newfound purpose, we can’t help but be moved.

Unless we’re Sansa, tragically world-weary and out of fucks to give. Thank the old gods and the new for her bluntness in calling out the dearly departed Ned and Robb for “stupid mistakes.” And for her quiet but firm response — “Would that be so terrible?” — when Jon asks if being smarter than them means taking her advice. And for Jon’s wisdom in not pushing her away (yet, at least).

Something else to keep in mind about Jon and Sansa: Despite their heartfelt reunion and the shared trial of taking back Winterfell, we should remember that they held no special fondness for each other way back before their lives and the world went to hell. I can’t help wondering if that lack of pre-existing closeness will quietly become a complication now that Jon and Sansa both finally find themselves with the tiniest bit of breathing room.

Of course, Danaerys Targaryen gets the prize for longest-awaited homecoming. (Here’s a cool little Vanity Fair piece about the production design of Dragonstone.) I don’t want to go on much longer here, and I guess there isn’t that much to say, other than that the choice to make this scene almost-wordless was a good one, and that Team Targaryen’s tailor wins. 

When it comes down to it, I like the fact of Dany’s arrival to Dragonstone a lot, and I’m still pretty fond of her as a character, and of basically everyone in her entourage. (Varys is one of my very favorite supporting characters on this show.)

But throughout this whole sequence, I also couldn’t shake a meta-criticism, I guess, that the columnist Ross Douthat has made of the show and at least a theoretical subsection of its fans (emphasis mine):

“Game of Thrones” is still working within the framework of its essentially romantic genre — critiquing it and complicating it, yes, but also giving us a set of heroes and heroines to root for whose destinies are set by bloodlines and prophecies, and who are likely in the end to save their world from darkness and chaos no less than Aragorn or Shea Ohmsford or Rand al’Thor.

Put another way: On “The Sopranos,” there is no right way to be a mafioso. But on “Game of Thrones” there is a right way to be a lord or king and knight, and there are characters who model the virtues of each office, who prove that chivalry and wise lordship need not be a myth. Sometimes they do so in unexpected ways — the lady knight who has more chivalry than the men who jeer at her, the dwarf who rules more justly than the family members who look down on him. But this sort of reversal is typical of the genre, which always has its hobbits and stable boys and shieldmaidens ready to surprise the proud and prejudiced. And it coexists throughout the story with an emphasis on the importance of legitimacy and noblesse oblige and dynastic continuity, which is often strikingly uncynical given the dark-and-gritty atmosphere. […] In the end, whatever their politics in this world, both the show’s bad fans and its good fans are rooting a queen or for a king.

I am not, in general, a Douthat fan, mostly because of his hand-wringing in opposition to abortion and other “culture war” matters. But I think he’s a pretty solid pop culture writer, and very often the sort who’s helpful to read precisely because he doesn’t think the same things I think. And in this case, I’m even inclined to agree at least a little.

It’s pretty hard to deny that Game of Thrones has Bad Fans. Most of those Bad Fans are the kind who tweet endless harassment at culture writers who've criticized, say, the show’s use of sexual assault and its racial politics. But I would also love to see more critical and fan engagement with the idea that our designated protagonists are all protagonists-by-blood.

(One of the reasons for my arguable lack of generosity toward my fellow viewers here is that I remain convinced that Steve Rogers’ position in Captain America: Civil War is baldly anti-democratic, and that #TeamCap loyalists generally fail to reckon with this.)

Yes, Jon and Dany and Tyrion have all learned a lot that in theory makes them worthy of leadership. But does any of that actually mean that Dany (let’s just focus on her, for word count’s sake) deserves to be Queen of Westeros? More so than Cersei, sure. But should we really assume that the war has to end with one of our heroes on the Iron Throne? And is Dany actually entitled to any throne at all? Not really, if we’re honest. There’s no great moral case for her to have left Essos, where she could have still done a lot of good (setting aside, too, the White Savior thing). She left Essos because she felt entitled to a throne her family had abused for generations, in a land she barely remembers, full of people about whom she knows next to nothing. She wants to prove that she can be a better monarch than those who’ve gone before her. Tyrion wants to see her be a better monarch. Varys wants the country to stop bleeding. That all matters. But none of it is the main reason Dany started out on this path before meeting either of her newest advisors.

I’m not saying that Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire, needs to end like the first year of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s run on Black Panther, with Wakanda finally beginning the process of writing up a constitution to distribute power away from its monarch. And I definitely doubt that it’ll go that way.

But also, um, why couldn’t it? Why shouldn’t it?

Would that be so terrible?

I Don’t Want to Just Call This Section “Stray Observations” but I Don’t Have a Different Name for It Yet Either and Sure I’ll Take Suggestions

Anyone else want to see Brienne spar with Tormund?

I have, for all practical intents and purposes, no real idea who Ed Sheeran is, so I actually really liked that scene of Arya with the Lannister soldiers. Another Surprisingly Nuanced moment. (If you feel the same way I do about the Surprisingly Nuanced thing, definitely read Matt Zoller Seitz on GoT’s grappling with its own legacy).

People not only cross oceans very quickly in this show, but build ships very quickly.

Heh.

When I read A Game of Thrones forever ago, I pictured Thoros of Myr as kind of a Shaolin monk type. I don’t know if that’s what GRRM pictured, but I still wish it was the case. I mean I like this Thoros just fine. But, you know. Asian representation. Just would’ve been cool.

I’ll try to be back here next week! In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter if you’d like a convenient feed of other, better, culture writers.