May 12, 2013

Thats What Ygritte Said

Weekly Game of Thrones Musings by Sam Ryu

Welcome to Thats What Ygritte Said, Mothers Day 2013 editionwhere we not only celebrate the mothers and mother figures in our lives, but where we also thank the gods (the Old and the New) that said mothers are nothing like the mothers on Game of Thrones. I thought of doing a power rankings for The Worst Mothers in Westeros, but that proved insanely difficult. Whos worse, the mother with a seven-year-old still sucking her breasts (Lysa Arryn) or the mother who ditches her two youngest boys, loses her two daughters, undermines her oldest sons leadership by releasing his most valuable prisoner for nothing, and curses the bastard son in her family to the point of near death (Catelyn Stark)? We also have a mother who keeps her three stillborn fetuses in pickle jars and locks up her cute living daughter in a room because she has greyscale on half her face (Selyse Baratheon, Stanniss wife). And lets not get started with Cersei All-sorts-of-fucked-up Lannister. I guess the only ideal mother in Game of Thrones is the one and only Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen (though she pushed it a bit by dangling one of her baby dragons for 8,000 slaves). Heres to all the mothers in our lives who are, at the very least, decent. Happy Mothers (of Dragons) Day! Season 3, Episode 6 The Climb When asked about Season 3, co-showrunner David Benioff remarked that themes are for eighthgrade book reports. And while that may be true, this past episode is rich with visual metaphors and literary themes that all relate to and run throughout the eponymous The Climb. In an episode that proves this show is capable of making its quiet, intimate scenes just as great and exciting as its big, blockbuster set pieces, we get a Game of Pairs: Sam and Gilly being cold; Osha vs Meera rabbit skinning; Arya vs brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, that she will shut forever; Theon vs Crazy Eyed Torturer (pretty one-sided); Tywin vs Olenna in the Verbal Showdown of the Year; Ygritte and Jon Snow foreplaying all the way to the top of The Wall; Loras vs Sansa in Westeros JeopardyWho Knows More About Wedding Planning edition; Cersei and Tyrion commiserating; Varys chaos pit vs Littlefingers chaos ladder; and finally, arrows vs Ross body.

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Not much goes on with runaways Fat Sam and Gilly (yet), but there is a good bit of foreshadowing (it seems) with that track/zoom out shot to show the two surrounded by darkness. Also note, the dragonglass dagger that Fat Sam shows off was found buried on that cliff area beyond The Wall, known as the Fist of the First Men (Season 2, Episode 8). He doesnt know why it was buried there, but Im sure well find out soon. White Walker killer, perhaps? We also see Arya continue to be badass. In her bow training scene with Anguy, he says about her shooting skills (which weve seen in Season 1, Episode 1 when she teases Bran in Winterfell), Youre good... Youre not as good as you think you are. Which of course continues the trend of people telling other people that they arent as _____ as they think they are. Tyrion telling Cersei shes as funny as a man whose balls brush his knees (Season 3, Episode 1) and Tywin telling Cersei that he distrusts her, not because shes a woman, but because youre not as smart as you think you are. (Season 3, Episode 4) Whos ready for Arya to become the killing machine shes meant to be and start shutting some eyes of all colors?! Quick History Lesson: The reason Melisandre takes/buys Aryas blacksmith friend, Gendry, is because he is one of King Robert Baratheons bastard sonshe escaped Kings Landing when Joffrey ordered the massacre of Roberts bastards (Season 2, Episode 1). When Melisandre leaves Stannis at Dragonstone (Season 3, Episode 3), she tells him that she needs a kings blood in order to perform magic that is more powerful than the Demon Smoke Baby Assassin. Uh oh.

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We already knew that the Boltons were the ones who had Theon in captivity (it was suggested in Season 3, Episode 2 but made pretty clear in Episode 6 with these shots, left), but we didnt know the identity of the guy who rescued and then tortured him. There have been a few hints, but none as obvious as this weeks horn blowing. First of all, you cant trust anything Crazy Eyes (what well call him until his identity is confirmed) is saying about being a Karstark and what not (both sons of Rickard Karstark, the old guy who lost his head to Robbs sword in Episode 5, are already dead) because, like he jokingly admitted himself, Crazy Eyes is lying about everything and just screwing with Theons head. Back to the horn blowing though. Crazy Eyes wakes Theon up with the annoying Westeros vuvuzela. Where has he heard this horn before? Remember when Theon takes Winterfell to prove himself to his dad? And then Robb sends Bolton men (led by Lord Roose Boltons unseen bastard son) to retake it? And when the Bolton troops surround Winterfell, someone keeps blowing a horn so that Theon cant fall asleep and it drives him nuts (Season 2, Episode 10)? Well Im sure you can connect the dots from there. Quick Hits: Is Walder Frey that forgiving of Robb breaking his oath to wed one of the Frey daughters? I doubt its that easy. Careful, Robb. Also, Lord Roose Bolton seems more interested in being on Tywin Lannisters good side (sending Jaime back, but making sure Tywin knows that he had nothing to do with the be-handing) than fearing the consequences when Robb and other Northmen find out that hejust like Lady Catelynlet Jaime go. Do I smell a Benedict Arnold? Varys calls chaos a pit and Littlefinger corrects him, calling it a ladder (no innuendo about their respective sex organs, or lack thereof, included. This is serious!). Littlefingers monologueset to heartbreaking images of Ros (our favorite former-prostitute) and poor Sansa (its strongly implied that Littlefinger is on the ship that sails away)is basically a more wordy, albeit more articulate, version of Napoleons famous quote, History is a set of lies agreed upon. And in Westeros, so is power. Power is a set of lies agreed upon, by those who have the power.
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