Last dark ’s episode of Game of Thrones had so many “ oh crap ” mo it was almost too stressful to watch — like when you ’re in an aeroplane and it all of a sudden drops a few hundred feet in a few seconds . Everybody ’s suspend over the abysm , with a few stock ropes hold open them aloft .
And last dark , we saw the shape of that abysm . When the thaumaturgy of control drop away , and you pull in that there are some gaga animate being you ca n’t domesticate and some multitude you ca n’t just advertise around , then you ’re lost . pillager ahead …
It seems like almost every installment of Game of Thrones has one spoken communication that lays out some food for thought for sentiment that touches every other part of the episode — although , to its credit , this show is always subtle rather than bludgeony about it .
Last night , the honor belong to Qhorin Halfhand , the fabled Ranger who has expend more time North of the Wall than anyone , and knows these mysterious Wildlings . Talking to Jon Snow about his wandering direwolf Ghost , Qhorin says , “ You ca n’t tame a wild matter . You ca n’t trust a wild thing … godforsaken creatures have their own rule , their own reasons , and you ’ll never be intimate them . ” This applies to the Wildlings as well as to Ghost — and it definitely applies to Ygritte , the improbably well - groomed girl that Jon Snow takes prisoner subsequently in the episode .
Jon Snow is a lot more merciful and kind than most of the other character on this show — he refuses to behead Ygritte , middling presently after we ’ve just seen Theon decollate the poor doomed Ser Rodrik Cassel . ( Of course , Ygritte is a bit more attractive than miserable old Ser Rodrik . )
But when he chooses to get Ygritte live , Jon Snow is basically taking duty for her , and he ’s clearly not cash in one’s chips to be able-bodied to handle it . Qhorin stress to monish Jon a few different ways , including that language about how he ca n’t really understand or control unwarranted wight like Ygritte or Ghost , and then again , Qhorin makes Ygritte come out and say it — if the position were reversed , a quick demise would be a uncommon mercy , total from the Wildlings .
And then Qhorin takes the other Rangers and cuckold off , leaving Jon Snow to kill her — or not — in privacy . Because Qhorin ’s giving Jon Snow the choice between doing his obligation and let sentiment get the right of him . ( And we can only hope Jon ’s choice does n’t doom all of his comrades . )
And Ygritte is clearly more than a match for Jon , who ’s such a horny virgin that he is completely flustered when she rubs herself against him as they smooch together . His attack at tying her up would get him thrown out of the Boy Scouts forever . He permit her escape once , and we ’re not leave in much incertitude that she ’ll be doing it again shortly .
And that ’s kind of the thread of this installment — hoi polloi trying to assert control over things , or animate being , that they ca n’t possibly maintain a storage area over .
Prince Theon and the problem of Osha compliance
Sorry , could n’t resist .
So this episode clearly set up a couplet parallel between Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy , the two illegitimate sons of Ned Stark . ( One is Ned ’s asshole , the other was Ned ’s ward . ) And as we mention earlier , they both face a position where an older “ mentor ” type is urging them to behead someone , except that they make dissimilar choices .
Theon ’s coup d’etat of Winterfell happen surprisingly tight this instalment , so it ’s as much of a shock to us as it is to poor young Bran Stark , who wake to find his castle in the handwriting of his former champion . The look on Bran ’s aspect when he look up at Theon and says “ Did you detest us the whole sentence ? ” is warmness - crushing .
Because of course , Theon did n’t detest the Starks — he just has to be his own adult male now . His own man , who will do whatever Dagmer Cleftjaw tells him .
And at the cost of horrifying all his old friends and comrades , and decollate the man who learn him to have got a sword , Theon gets to be the lord of an empty , frozen castle in the middle of nowhere . Winterfell does n’t really mean much without the loyalty of its people . So or else , Theon has to swagger around , telling people to call him Prince and trying to shell loyalty into the people there .
These are n’t wildlings , like Ygritte . But they are Northerners , and they ’re not happy about bowing to some strange upstart whose snot - nosed face they ’re used to seeing skulk around the castling .
And then there ’s Osha , who is an genuine wildling , and who fudge that she ’s like Ygritte , totally wild and with loyalty to nobody . She endeavor to fox Theon twice , and only come after the second metre . The first time , she offers to defend for him , the second time to sleep with him . It work well the 2nd clock time partially because Theon is horny ( another analog between him and Jon Snow ) but also because he believes Osha when she says she wants her exemption . She claims she just want to run unfounded , like Ygritte and the other Wildlings .
In fact , Osha has noplace to go and nobody to go back to . She does n’t desire her exemption , she need to deliver Bran and his slight chum Rickon , so after she seduces Prince Theon , she murders one of his guard and steal the boy out of there , along with Hodor and the two direwolves . ( And it ’s sort of a shame she does n’t supervise to cut Theon ’s throat while she ’s at it . )
Robb Stark wants what he ca n’t have
Robb Stark is fussy making a move on Lady Talisa , the hot amputator he made a move on a while ago , including finding out all about her peradventure imposing parentage back home in Volantis . He clear want her because she ’s the only person who will stand up to him , and who is n’t part of his cosmos of honor and duty and loyalty .
He want her because she dispute him and interrogate him . And because she ’s someome he ca n’t curb and stamp around , in other password .
( Oh , and she ’s Charlie Chaplin’sgranddaughter . That ’s a plus ! )
Too bad his mummy shows up and takes his T - bird away , sending Lady Talisa off to slice off some more feet while Cat Stark reminds Robb that he ’s already engaged to be marry . And if Robb does n’t go through with his marriage to Lord Frey ’s daughter , then his pureness as well as his military position both go down the tubes .
And then Robb gets the awful word that Theon , the somebody he most trust , has totally shafted him . Winterfell is catch , Ser Rodrik is dead , and the destiny of Robb ’s unseasoned comrade is unknown .
Because Robb ’s ceaseless advertise South , inflicting all of those licking on Tywin Lannister and his allies , has left him vulnerable at abode . He ’s will Winterfell too lightly defended , with a young boy in electric charge , and now he ’s pay the price . Robb has a moment where he almost run back home to allot with this himself , which might really have the vantage of strengthening his defensive position and forcing the Lannisters to come to him .
Instead , he listens to Lord Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort — who , you might return , is the same guy who advocated flay captive a while back . Not a rottenly nice human beings . Roose has a phony son who ’s got nothing belong on right now , so why not charge Roose ’s bastard to deal with Theon and retake Winterfell ? It ’ll be easy , and then Robb can stick to doing what he does best — make Tywin Lannister cuss his multitude out .
Of course , Robb got into this mess by delegating to Theon in the first place . But this time around , assign will probably mold out just fine . He ’s a king . It ’s what queen do . Right ?
When you mint a Martin Luther King Jr. , does your handwriting fall off
I bank to the old immortal and the unexampled , they ’re including “ Tyrion slaps Joffrey ” scenes now , just as fan inspection and repair . And I do n’t object one bit .
Since this season began , Tyrion has been warning everybody that the people are getting restless , thanks to all the starving and overcrowding and misery make by the war Joffrey start out when he beheaded Ned Stark . Over and over again , everybody ’s dissemble as though “ the people ” are a figment of Tyrion ’s vision .
And meanwhile , Tyrion has insisted that poor little Princess Myrcella would be secure if she was station away to the peaceful land of Dorne , where all the vino comes from . ( That ’s pretty much all we keep hearing about Dorne on this show , so far . ) She can hang out in the vineyards and not have to worry about getting catch in a peasant rebellion , or an onrush on King ’s Landing by Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon . For Tyrion ’s nisus , Queen Cersei has vow to take off the person Tyrion be intimate more than anyone or anything .
( And when Joffrey ’s little crony Tommen cries , he gets all huffy because princes do n’t cry — until Sansa quiet reminds him that he did . Sansa ’s not even obscure that she hate the King now . )
And yet , no sooner has Myrcella sailed off than Tyrion is awfully , psyche - scarringly vindicated , with an dreadful peasant riot .
It start with a single bit of cowshit flung at Joffrey — who overreacts , somewhat predictably — and terminate with crazed tike tear at everyone and everything within reach , assault the women and killing the High Septon . Joffrey persists in conceive that he can just order his human beings to smash everyone , and it ’ll just happen , by magic . But none of the Kingsguard is wearing riot gear or pack canisters of tear gas , so Joffrey is shit out of luck . ( So to talk . )
Sansa Stark nearly catch the worst of it , getting chase after and cornered by four thuggish guys , while Tyrion vainly maintain calling for someone to deliver her . The Hound save up her at the last moment , but when Tyrion thanks him , the Hound scorns any belief that he did it for Tyrion — as if Tyrion could control or command the Hound . The Hound may be tame , but only for the military service of Good King Joffrey . ( Although the facial expression on the Hound ’s nerve as he follows Joffrey up the steps is pretty unmistakably disgusted . )
And that ’s when Tyrion cart off and slap Joffrey , saying that they ’ve had vicious queen , and idiot kings , but “ I do n’t know if we ’ve ever been imprecate with a vicious moron for a king . ”
Because he ’s a vicious cretin , Joffrey believably is n’t going to learn the correct lesson from all this , about governance and needing at least some horizontal surface of the consent of the the great unwashed to prevail . Like Prince Theon swash around a Winterfell that despises him , King Joffrey is under the picture that force alone can make hoi polloi respect and obey him . He ’s willing to compensate the iron price , and sometimes the atomic number 79 price , but he ’s not uncoerced to give mass honorable rulership in return for their loyalty .
Meanwhile , Sansa Stark is left crying to an uncharacteristically stoic Shae , seek to understand why men she ’s never met would hate her . Sansa ’s already experienced lots of personal cruelty , but this is her first veridical gustatory perception of impersonal harshness — something her sister Arya could secernate her a lot about .
“ Loyalty ” killed Ned Stark
Arya gets the best line of the night , when she await Tywin Lannister in the side and say that trueness kill her father . Every fit between these two is a wonder , and putting them together so much is one of this show ’s great relocation .
Only Arya knows that she ’s tattle about loyalty to King Robert , and also to the truth about Tywin ’s grandchild . In an instalment that boast Theon ’s disloyalty killing multitude , and Jon Snow ’s disobedience of order perhaps dooming the Night ’s Watch , it ’s sort of clash to be reminded that too much loyalty can kill , too .
Arya has to make Tywin believe not just that she ’s a poor peasant girl , but that she ‘s been totally domesticated and inured to servitude , so he wo n’t suspect her . At rough the same clock time that Osha is convincing Theon that she really just wants her exemption so she can extend idle , Arya is trying to assert the pretense that she really just wants to be a servant . So she can be safe .
Arya nearly gives away the game several times this episode — once , when she reveals that she can read well than Tywin ’s good - hand gentleman’s gentleman , Ser Amory Lorch . Another clock time , when she is serving wine to Lord Littlefinger , who knows her cheek perfectly well and almost clock her a few time . And then finally , when she steal a piece of paper with information about Tywin ’s warfare plan , and gets caught by the illiterate Ser Amory .
( Oh and along the room , we take that Jaime was dyslectic and Tywin teach him to show personally . And that Tywin is such a stony fucker because his own begetter was too weak and delicate , and nearly lost everything . )
She runs away from Ser Amory , but there ’s not fit to be any place she can hide out in this locked - down castle if Ser Amory tells Tywin she was spying . At good , she ’ll be sent to be a hostage with Sansa . At bad , she ’ll be executed .
as luck would have it , she cover down Jaqen , her master - assassin friend , who ’s willing to kill Ser Amory — in his own angelical time . Arya beg Jaqen to make it now , before Amory tells Tywin the verity … leading to one of the funniest death setting put on screen in a retentive metre , as Ser Amory fall through Tywin ’s door instead of step through it .
Daenerys is nothing without her dragon
And at last , this installment forcefully remind us that Daenerys only has two plus working for her , so far from home and from her birthright . Her claim as the last Targaryen is not particularly an asset , either here or probably in Westeros . Her noble upbringing is not an asset , when she ’s grapple with rich merchants who came from nothing and respect only riches . Her fiery rhetoric about taking back what is hers does n’t particularly bring home the bacon her much of anything .
No , her only asset are her beauty , or more aptly her sexuality . And her tartar . Before she managed to think up those dragons , she was just another beautiful woman with dream of greatness . Now her dreams have partly arrive true , but only partly .
Xaro Xoan Daxos , her Modern skillful supporter , takes her around to get together all the moneyed human of Qarth , and they all turn down to help her — although one of them does offer to merchandise one ship for a nighttime in layer with her . She has a memorable rematch with the Spice King , who turned her away at the metropolis gate and turns her out a 2d time , saying that her passion for recapture the throne is not an plus he can put in his ledger against a loan of ships .
When she ’s pushed to the wall , she fall back on verbalize about her flying lizard — the miracle of these petrified eggs coming to aliveness and hatch in the firing . They ’re really wild things , something that nobody has assure in centuries , and the fact that they belong to her is what makes her special .
So it ’s even more of a seismic disturbance — especially to those of us who ’ve read the books and were n’t expecting it — when Daenerys goes home to Xaro ’s place and discovers that all her bloodriders are stagnant , and the dragons have been get hold of , by a mystical hooded figure . Who is in all probability connected to those chilling wizards who near her a while back .
Because not only can you not trust to hold wild things , but as long as you have to keep them in John Cage , anybody who wants to can steal them .
Screencaps viaWICNet Tumbler .
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