tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146656372024-03-23T15:40:51.900-02:30An Ontarian in NewfoundlandI want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don't know anything like enough yet.Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.comBlogger576125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-77784896048442991862013-06-18T11:04:00.002-02:302013-06-18T11:04:10.876-02:30I'm so glad you're with me, here at the end of all things ... or, uh, this blog ...Well, as I said, the time has come to retire this blog--though it's not something I do lightly. I'm actually quite emotional about this. Going back and perusing old posts makes me grateful that I started it to begin with: it offers an interesting series of snapshots of the last eight years, and brings a lot of great memories to the surface.<br />
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But considering how sporadic my posting has become, it's time to move on. I will not delete this blog, of course ... there is too much here I want to keep. But it's time to recharge and refocus, and change to a more appropriate forum.<br />
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On that note, I now have my own domain name! The new blog can be found <a href="http://cjlockett.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, at cjlockett.com.<br />
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It's been amazing. See you in the new space. Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-74724256410041603972013-06-14T08:53:00.000-02:302013-06-14T09:05:05.359-02:30How HBO has ruined me <div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As I mentioned before starting on my co-posts on this season of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>, I came to the conclusion a while ago that it is time to retire this blog. I started it when I moved to St. John’s; it was then a way of letting friends and family know about how I was faring, and a place to record my impressions of both Newfoundland and life as a newly-minted full time professor. </div>
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Eight years later, St. John’s is home, I am more than settled in my life here, and, having received tenure two years ago, I am in the midst of the inevitable transformation from arrogant young turk to querulous old fart (hopefully the full transformation is still years off, but I do find myself gravitating more toward tweed than I ever have). </div>
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All of which tells me I’m now quite overdue to retire <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Ontarian in Newfoundland</i>—its original mission has long been obsolete, and it has lost its focus. When I do update it, it is usually in the service of talking about topics in the general orbit of my readings and viewings … not in itself a bad thing, but it’s high time I started putting those posts in a more appropriate setting. </div>
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So the next time I post, it will be to announce the launch of blog 2.0 … as yet unnamed. Stay tuned.</div>
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In the meantime, my penultimate post is on a topic near and dear to my heart, and will hopefully put a nice little bow on what has become Lockett’s Television and Literature Emporium (a title I considered and rejected for the new blog). </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxKD0WR7rCCRd362xTB7SFPF9tpPkpKHAJrxavViyyPGFYFz3sE3t76l5jbzSvo3bNKcB5rXjQ1AiiySYuJPRMKhHue7sVbOW-X69fB-WInfuAIXIJJ_XLbrMCk6dfLs3TdN1YNw/s1600/lion+in+winter+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxKD0WR7rCCRd362xTB7SFPF9tpPkpKHAJrxavViyyPGFYFz3sE3t76l5jbzSvo3bNKcB5rXjQ1AiiySYuJPRMKhHue7sVbOW-X69fB-WInfuAIXIJJ_XLbrMCk6dfLs3TdN1YNw/s400/lion+in+winter+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I've snapped and plotted all my life. There's no other way to be alive, king, and fifty all at once."</td></tr>
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I’ve always loved the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lion in Winter</i>. I have seen it numerous times (often late at night when I’ve happened across it on TV), and a few years ago I picked up the DVD in a bargain bin. Until recently, however, I had never read the play itself. </div>
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More or less on a whim, I picked it up when I found it at Chapters about a week ago. Reading it was like visiting old friends, except that I found the experience vaguely … dissatisfying. One of my quibbles with the film, as good as it is, has always been just how contrived the action feels: the scheming and plotting and counter-scheming by King Henry, by Queen Eleanor, and their three sons is exhilaratingly naked and frank, but it always stretched credulity that they would wear their resentments and ambitions so openly. That being said, it was always easy to ignore the little voice in the back of my head, so brilliant are the performances by Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn. </div>
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But reading the play laid its theatrical contrivances—its setpiece conflicts, improbable revelations, declarations, and avowals, to say nothing of the constant convenient (and inconvenient) entrances and exits—all bare and painfully obvious. To be certain, the genre of the parlor drama, of which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lion</i> is a noble example, cannot escape such contrivances. It must, by necessity, force a critical mass of conflict, painful revelations, and psychological angst into a limited time and space (see also: Night, Long Day’s Journey Into, and Virginia Woolf, Who’s Afraid Of). However scrupulously the stage, costumes, and characters are rendered, the action itself necessarily begs a little bit more suspension of disbelief.</div>
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Such is the case with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lion in Winter</i>. Still, had I read it five or ten years ago, I would probably not be having these quibbles to the same degree. So what has changed? In a word: television. HBO and the cable stations that have learned from its example—AMC, Showtime, FX, and every now and again the networks—have burst the riverbanks of episodic TV. Rather than tuning in once a week to see the latest self-contained, procedural narrative, we increasingly get caught up in intricate seasons-long, multiple-character stories. </div>
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HBO, not to put too fine a point on it, has ruined me. It has ruined me not just for episodic procedurals and un-nuanced, big-brush dramas, but also for otherwise bravura setpiece dramas where I find myself wanting to know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> we got there, or getting irritated by the lack of subtlety the two-hours’ traffic of the stage (or screen) often necessitates. It has ruined me for expansive historical narratives that privilege overstated romance over the vagaries of political power; it has ruined me, really, for anything that feels the need for heavy-handed exposition or for its characters to state the obvious. I gravitate now to the long build and the slow burn, stories that take between eight and twelve hours to develop, characters whose evolution—their progress, regress, irruptions, collapses and triumphs—seems to unfold on a geological time scale. </div>
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None of this should really surprise me, as I’ve always been a narrative junky (another name I considered and rejected for the new blog)—preferring substantial, chunky novels to novellas or short stories, and drawn more to good stories told well than to visual or written narratives that rely more on expressionism or metaphor. There is something deeply satisfying about television series like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wire</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i>, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deadwood</i> (among others) in the way they tend not to pander, to resist easy closure and pat resolutions, the way they show their characters no quarter (I’m looking at you, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>), and above all the way in which they are unapologetically intelligent. While I can read something like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lion in Winter</i> and appreciate its artistry, it now unfortunately feels like the penultimate episode in a series based on Henry II and his family—except that, in the series, all of the play’s histrionics would be unnecessary, because at the point when they met for that fateful Christmas we’d be intimately familiar with the characters, their loves and hates, jealousies and resentments, desires and fears. </div>
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I’m aware, of course, that this is an entirely unfair criticism to level against a classic piece of theatre, at least in the way I’ve done it. But as I say, HBO has ruined me: these are not unusual thought processes for me anymore. For good or for ill, a certain amount of my reading and viewing has become inflected with the question “What would HBO do?” I recently read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wars of the Roses</i> by Trevor Royle, and could not help but imagine what a series or mini-series about the dysfunctional York family would look like (actually, that’s an easy one—it would look an awful lot like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones,</i> minus the dragons); or when I read Tim Cook’s excellent two-volume history of Canadian troops in WWI (<a href="http://bit.ly/ZOkdd1" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At the Sharp End</i></a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/12sWLEy" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shock Troops</i></a>), I longed for our irreverent, foul-mouthed, colonial soldiers to be given the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Band of Brothers</i> treatment; watching <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elizabeth: The Golden Age</i> at my parents’ house while visiting a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but think how brilliantly HBO or AMC could do a series depicting the career of Elizabeth’s spymaster Walsingham; and knowing HBO has an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Gods</i> in the hopper threatens to make my head explode with fanboyish glee.</div>
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None of which, I should hasten to add, is to suggest that HBO is infallible. It’s put its foot in it a few times (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">John of Cincinnati</i>, anyone?), and it has a good number of series that you won’t find me defending. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sex and the City</i> started really well, but after two or three seasons fundamentally betrayed what made it great, as it shifted from depictions of unapologetically single, sexually adventurous women to an ongoing hunt for husbands; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">True Blood</i> has long since become what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones </i>is often accused of, namely a weekly excuse for blood and boobs; aside from the brilliant performance of Steve Buscemi, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boardwalk Empire</i> always felt a little like warmed-over <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sopranos</i>; and I’ll never quite understand why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Entourage</i> was ever green-lit in the first place. </div>
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But these are quibbles. At their best, HBO and its acolytes have redefined television—or have, at any rate, shattered the conceptions of television’s limitations. Once upon a time, it was inconceivable that the medium of television could ever produce <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">art</i>. Now there are those who hail a show like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wire</i> as the contemporary incarnation of the Great American Novel.</div>
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Is that hyperbole? Yes and no. Mostly, it’s a misapplication of the term “novel,” but it unsurprisingly invites backlash. Just the other day, Andrew Sullivan’s blog <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Daily Dish</i></a> linked to an <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/133397/tv-is-for-dummies">article</a> whose author, Liel Leibovitz, takes umbrage with what he characterizes as the vastly exaggerated esteem in which some television is now held. Television, in his words, “<span class="newwindow">has ascended to a perch previously reserved exclusively for the furrow-browed and the ink-stained, the Tolstoys and the Henry Jameses and the Prousts.” While he avers that he is delighted to see such a previously degraded medium achieve excellence (even though he himself has no intention of watching the shows in question), it irks him that there are those who would presume to rank today’s television auteurs alongside our greatest novelists. To quote him at length:</span></div>
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The more discerning bother making specific cases—suggesting, for example, that David Simon is our modern-day Dickens or that Vince Gilligan, creator of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i>, would’ve felt completely at home had he stumbled into a party at Turgenev’s and was seated right next to his apparent equal, Dostoyevsky … It’s time to stop this madness. Let the unfashionable truth ring clear: No matter how good it is, it will never be more than just TV—an unparalleled distraction, crisply shallow, full of wondrous sounds and gorgeous furies that ultimately, in the ways that are truly vital and important to human life, signify nothing. It does not now, nor will it ever, meet the same sublime depths explored by the great novels. It is, quite simply, essentially inferior. </div>
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I’m not unsympathetic. I’m not, really … because I am, myself, at best ambivalent about claims that television can accomplish what a novel can. But my ambivalence is fundamentally different from Mr. Leibovitz’s. Indeed, where he gives away the game with his declaration that it “will never be more than just TV,” I reject the idea that one medium is or can be categorically inferior to another. Television may pursue similar ends as the novel—as it pursues similar ends as cinema or theatre—but also possesses its own unique constraints and possibilities. Its possibilities and potential, I’d argue, have only recently been explored on a larger scale. Once upon a time I probably would have agreed implicitly with Mr. Leibovitz’s argument; once upon a time, I opined that no matter how banal, poorly written, or formulaic a book was, it was a better intellectual pursuit than watching television, because it engaged the brain in a way television could never manage.</div>
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In hindsight, I was wrong: there has always been television that is intelligent and challenging (even if much of it tended to air on the BBC). But now more than ever, I would say that there is television that is vastly superior—intellectually, artistically, and otherwise—to the balance of novels populating the fiction section of your local bookstore. Not all of it, mind you—not even most. I’m not about to pit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Top Chef</i> against a decent read. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wire</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deadwood</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i>? To categorize such shows as “just TV” is meaningless, for the simple reason that these shows have fundamentally challenged the very idea of what television can be and do. </div>
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To be fair, however, Mr. Leibovitz’s ire appears to proceed from his argument with the idea that these shows are “like novels,” and he attempts to demonstrate how television inherently lacks the depth and complexity of Henry James. But in so doing, he engages in a classic straw man argument. It’s like saying to a possible draft pick “You’ll never be good enough to play in the NBA” and proving your premise by making him play some one-on-one with Kobe Bryant. Indeed, besides James the only other novelists Leibovitz mentions are Tolstoy, Proust, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev. Well, if those are your benchmarks, it’s hard not to be skeptical of the claim that <span class="newwindow">“TV is so good now that it’s just as great as our great novels!” </span></div>
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<span class="newwindow">And, really, if he honestly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> hearing that on a regular basis, I understand his irritation. But again, if James, Tolstoy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">et al </i>are your starting lineup, then the statement “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Novels</i> are so good right now they’re just as great as our great novels!” would be just as valid a target for your skepticism. That the most current novelist cited is Proust makes Mr. Leibovitz’s argument suspect, though even if he’d mentioned the likes of Don DeLillo or Ian McEwan or Toni Morrison, the premise falls apart for the simple reason that we’re talking two very different kinds of fruit here. The novel is now around three hundred years old; television is not quite sixty, and it has only found its stride, artistically, in the last fifteen. Let’s not forget that the novel was, in its infancy, roundly condemned by the intelligentsia as a degraded and corrupt form that catered to the lowest common denominator—too sentimental and lascivious, too full of cliché and “low” characters to ever aspire to the level of art.</span></div>
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<span class="newwindow">Sound familiar?</span></div>
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On that note, here’s more:</div>
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<span class="newwindow">In television narrative, any television narrative, the commandments are few and simple: Something must always be happening, for otherwise there would be little reason to tune in next week; and whatever’s happening must happen on screen, for this is a visual medium, and a shot of Walter White brooding in his kitchen isn’t quite as gratifying as a shot of Walter White shooting some guy in the head. Our new technologies, and the gluttonous viewing habits they’ve created, have given the medium some more room to play, to build, as it were, character. But the primary principles still apply: To keep us amused, a show, any show, has to parade a quick succession of spectacles, far exceeding the scope of thrills and woes that befall any ordinary or extraordinary person in real life. That’s the nature of entertainment.</span></div>
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<span class="newwindow">I honestly don’t even know where to start with this, so I’ll quote Andrew Sullivan’s <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/06/03/the-inferior-medium/">response</a>: </span></div>
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He’s so wrong. And he’s crazy to pick an example like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i>. Watching the evolution of the central character of Walter White—and those around him—as he sinks deeper and deeper into the easy evil, has been a character study equal to any novel, or even Shakespearean drama. And what makes this show so great is precisely its ability to slow down, to show character in grainy detail, to watch human faces and bodies change, to observe the subtly changing dynamics between, say, Walter and his son. There is silence in that series, just as there is immense psychological complexity. </div>
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The fact that Mr. Leibovitz <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i> choose <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i> as his example suggests two things to me: (1) he hasn’t actually watched the show for more than an episode or two, and (2) it’s probably the show most often being called novelistic in his presence. But I think where he really goes off the rails is in his implication that somehow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the imperative to entertain and keep an audience riveted isn’t also crucial to the novel</i>. Why else do we read? All of the novelists he mentions produced great art—but they also knew how to tell a good story. </div>
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He’s technically correct to say that a shot of Walter White brooding in his kitchen is less thrilling than a shot of Walter White shooting a man in the head … but in saying so, he’s entirely missing the point of what makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i> such a compelling show, and what keeps viewers coming back. If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> Walter White did was shoot people in the head—just as if all Tony Soprano did was whack informants, if all we ever saw on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wire </i>was shootouts between drug gangs, if variations on the Red Wedding happened in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i> episode of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>—well, frankly, I wouldn’t be wasting my time writing this rebuttal. The fact of the matter is that scenes of Walter White brooding in his kitchen, to say nothing of his many strained and awkward dinners with his wife, his tortured paternal relationship with his sidekick Jesse Pinkman, his cancer treatments, his meticulous and fussy (and often stridently pedantic) cooking sessions, all of that makes his irruptions of rage and violence and his cumulative sociopathy that much more significant. </div>
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And here is where the inclination to compare such shows to novels becomes tempting. The long-form storytelling, the multi-linear narrative, the complexity and nuance of the stories as they evolve over multiple seasons, the preoccupation with character psychology … these elements invite such a comparison. But of course, however much certain series might emulate and replicate these novelistic tendencies, it is a fallacy to make a simple one-to-one analogy. </div>
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But it is understandable—for the simple reason that HBO and company’s departure from televisual norms begs for language to describe it, and in the absence of a new critical vocabulary we reach for the closest analogues we can find. I sympathize with Mr. Leibovitz’s irritation—to a point. Beyond that point however is the part of me that reads a classic piece of theatre and wonders <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what would David Simon do with this?</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ian McShane = awesome Henry II</i>. </div>
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It’s a sickness. </div>
Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-1896413785549871012013-06-12T17:32:00.001-02:302013-06-12T17:32:23.778-02:30Game of Thrones 3.10: Mhysa<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Phaernswirte morghulis,</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> fellow Westeros nerds. For those who don’t read High Valyrian, that means “all television must die.” That, however, is just the literal translation—colloquially, it means “all great seasons of television must end.” (The Valyrian word for television comes from their tendency to ascribe the existence of a thing with its originating moment, and so the word is a bastardization of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television. Interesting history, really. The literal understanding of the phrase led to the Great Recapitulation a millennium before Valyria’s Doom, in which all television sets were fed into the maw of a volcano).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Ahem. Well, this is the last co-blog I’ll be doing with the beautiful and talented <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/">Nikki Stafford</a> for ten months … or will it? Let’s find out!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daenerys tries out the mosh pit for the first time.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Well, I, for one, am never eating pork sausage again. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This week was the season finale of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>, and while for most TV shows, the season finale is where it all happens, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">GoT</i> loves to lay that stuff out in the penultimate episode, leaving the finale as the one where we try to breathe again, grieve a little bit, and then start crying all over again that we have to wait a whole year for the next season. And that was pretty much what this episode did. A letdown from last week’s, yet, but it was pretty hard to top the Great Stark Massacre of 2013. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let’s start with the character reactions to the Red Wedding: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Joffrey: Laughing like a maniacal hyena</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Cersei: Calm acceptance</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tywin: Triumph</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tyrion: This is a really, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> bad idea. The shizz is gonna hit the fan. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Arya: Angry, empty, murderous</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Bran: Doesn’t know</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Theon: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A little bit busy right now!!</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The Lannisters were missing from last week’s episode (other than Tywin being the hand that was dealing the blow from afar) and so they return, with Joffrey being an even bigger shit than he’s ever been, and Tyrion at this season’s best. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">First we see Tyrion and Sansa walking through the garden (with Shae sadly following behind) and you can see that Sansa is actually warming up to him as a friend and not an enemy. She’s no longer sulking in her bedroom about having to marry him, but instead is treating him like a BFF, explaining a really good prank that her sister used to pull on her. But when she believes that “sheep shit” is actually pronounced “sheep shift,” probably because that’s what her parents told her to prevent her from cursing, there’s a look of sad bemusement on Tyrion’s face, as if he’s once again reminded that he’s married a little girl. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The highlight of the episode, for me, is the small council, where Joffrey is so insanely happy he can’t even stand still, bouncing around behind Tywin’s chair like a goofy little monkey, squeaking, “Show him! Show him!” and practically throwing the scroll in Tyrion’s face. Joffrey lives in the moment, hopping about in a “Yippee, we won!!!” kind of way. Tywin is stoic and pragmatic, with a smugly victorious look on his face, convincing himself that by offing the King of the North, he has saved thousands of lives. (That’s his story and he’s stickin’ to it.) Tyrion is instantly hesitant, and tells his father, “The Northerners will never forget.” Tywin doesn’t care. “Good. Let them remember what happens when they march on the South.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The best part of this scene is that despite Tyrion and Tywin being on opposite sides of the moral coin on this one, they both take out their feelings on Joffrey. Giddy King D-Bag excitedly instructs Pycelle to have Robb’s head sent to them, because he wants to serve it to Sansa on a platter for her wedding. Tyrion reminds him that “she is no longer yours to torment,” but the little shit will have none of it, reminding them all that HE IS THE KING and that Tyrion is just a little monster. Tyrion’s response — “Then you’d better be careful. Monsters are dangerous and just not kings are dying like flies” — is priceless, but immediately topped by Tywin telling his stupid little grandson that “Any man who has to say ‘I am the king’ is no king.” But he catches himself quickly, and tells Joffrey — who is now as livid as he was excited earlier — that he needs to lie down, that it’s all been too taxing. “You just sent the most powerful man in Westeros to bed without his supper,” sneers Tyrion. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And Tywin reminds him that no, Joffrey is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the most powerful man in Westeros. Before, of course, explaining to Tyrion that the only reason he didn’t kill the imp at birth is because he’s a Lannister.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Let's all look back on this particular moment with fondness, shall we? And yes, you are WELCOME:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The game has gotten more complicated, and the ties that bind this family have weakened. Tyrion isn’t just a Lannister anymore, he’s married to a Stark. This massacre hits home in a way the death of Ned Stark simply didn’t, and when he returns to his chamber to find Sansa with a look on her face that tells him the little girl has just been forced to grow up, he can do nothing but turn and slowly walk away. Trapped between two families, Tyrion doesn’t know where his loyalties lie. And to me, that makes him even more interesting than he’s been before. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Brilliantly acted all around, this scene is definitely a highlight of the series. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What were your thoughts on the season 3 finale, Chris? </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Go To Bed Without Supper look: You're doing it right.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">My initial response—which seems to be echoed on the interwebz thus far—was: Really? That’s it? But on reflection, and watching the final episode again, I revise my opinion to: Nicely done. As you say, GoT has made a practice of putting the big action into the penultimate episodes. Daenerys having her messianic moment wasn’t quite as awesome as seeing her emerge sooty and naked with dragons, or seeing the frozen army of the dead, but it will do. And in a number of ways, it makes season four that much more alluring—ending with the Red Wedding, or the Battle of the Blackwater, or Ned Stark’s death would have been shocking … but they also would have offered finalities. After this episode, we look forward to: (1) the continuing escapades of Arya and the Hound (now including extra homicidal Arya!) edition; (2) the Bran: North of the Wall edition; (3) the Jon Snow: Wildlings! Wildlings! edition; (4) the Balon Greyjoy “Oh crap, one of those leeches bore my name” edition; (5) the Stannis: Who Am I Allowed to Kill Now? edition; and of course (6) the Tyrion: I Hate My Family edition. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So … you know, a lot to get to next season.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">You might never eat pork sausage again, but holy crap, I will never again date a redhead. I mean, really … a little, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">slight, </i>misunderstanding, and she puts not one, not two, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">three</i> arrows into you? Jeebus. What’s up with that?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Once again, the Jon-Ygritte moments are so good. So we’re clear: this scene was not in the novel. Jon takes an arrow in the leg as he flees the wildlings (which was, admittedly, shot from Ygritte’s bow), but the confrontation they have here is an invention of the show. I love <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so</i> much that she shoots him repeatedly as he leaves her … to have had her sob and lower her bow would have been somehow a betrayal of her character. Of course she shoots him. Perhaps she misses his vital bits on purpose … or perhaps not.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But to return to the question of pork sausage … finally, we now know the identity of Theon’s torturer, and all of us who have the read the novels can stop bouncing up and down in our seats with theatrically sealed lips. Ramsay Bolton: and I cannot remember if Roose specifies that he is a bastard or not. In the novels, Ramsay is Ramsay Snow, a bastard boy Roose got on a peasant woman in his lands. He looks different from how he’s described in the novels—GRRM describes him as thick-necked and broad-shouldered, with a plain dull face. But they got two elements spot on, namely his crazy eyes and his thick, wet lips. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">The one hint we had as to his identity, I should mention, is the sigil we</span><span lang="EN-US">’ve seen Bolton’s men carrying: the image of the flayed man, upside down against an x-shaped cross—the same kind of cross on which Theon is (admittedly upright) pinioned. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The scene with Theon and Ramsay was at once incidental and crucial. Nothing really happened … having gelded Theon, Ramsay doesn’t seem interested (for the moment) in continuing, the torture aside from taunting him with a length of sausage. But he does want to assert his dominance: having robbed Theon of his manhood and his dignity and his pride, he now wants to rob him of his name. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reek</i>. His name is now Reek, as everyone who has read the novels knew it would become.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Again, we see torture here at work not in the name of interrogation but as a process of destroying a person. Roose’s resigned words about his son give us all we really need to know—that Ramsay is a man given to his own whims and enthusiasms, which apparently mostly involve pain and torment. That Roose doesn’t seem overly chagrined at his son’s distractions is a dire reflection on how the new Warden of the North will rule his subjects—and reminds us that his family’s sigil is a flayed man.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What did you think of the Theon sequence, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: As soon as Ramsay was identified as Bolton’s, I said, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I knew it!!!</i>” to my perplexed husband. Last week’s episode made me sit up and notice Bolton in a way I hadn’t before. He’s willing to carry out the task at the Red Wedding, pitting him against the Starks but on side with the Lannisters and the Freys. He’s the one who captured Jaime and is responsible for Jaime losing a hand (while pretending he’s sorry about that) so that makes him a complicated and interesting character, and I thought if he’s somehow behind the Theon abduction, it would put him up against the Greyjoys. I thought the kid was working from him, not that he’d come from him. Near the end of the episode they referred to him as Ramsay Snow, which was the tip-off that he was Roose’s bastard. And what a bastard he is. I wasn’t sure what I thought of Theon’s sister last season, but this season, in her only appearance, I believe, she really steps up and becomes completely badass. Once again, it’s the women who come off as strong on this show: when the father’s being a prick, it’s Yara who says fine, I’m going to war. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As for Theon, each week I try to like him, but I can’t find it in me. I just found out he’s Lily Allen’s brother Alfie (she wrote that song about him) and he’s engaged to Ray Winstone’s daughter, so that should make him seriously cool. But nope. Just can’t find it in myself to like the character AT ALL. I have no doubt he reeks. The name works for me. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And yes, the Ygritte/Jon Snow thing was shocking, but like you I loved that she shot him; if she’d just stood there and let him ride away I would have been really disappointed. He tells her that he loves her, and he knows that she loves him, but we know that they just can’t be together. She’s devoted to the wildlings and he’s devoted to the Night’s Watch and his world south of the Wall. He looks at her and tells her that he knows she won’t shoot him. And then BAM, shoots him. Oh Jon Snow, you really know nothing. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After so many near misses in the last episode — Bran doesn’t quite run into Jon Snow; Arya doesn’t make it to the Twins in time to be reunited with her family — we finally get three big reunions. The first of these is Bran meeting with Sam. Now, while this isn’t technically a reunion, it’s two groups that we’ve been following coming together and finding a common ground. I loved that Sam knew exactly who Bran was, and recognized Hodor (and the bashful look that Hodor gives when he says that; part of me wanted Hodor to look down at the ground, clasp his hands, drag the toe of his shoe in the dirt and say, “Hodor” sweetly). Of course, it was just a brief meeting where Bran expresses his desire and reason to go north of the Wall, and where Sam gets to play hero by giving the daggers to the group. Sam continues on to Castle Black, and where he left a schlubby loser, he returns a hero, telling the Maester what’s coming, sending out the ravens to tell the rest of Westeros, and then ordering the others to take Jon Snow inside and help him. (That’s the second reunion of the episode.) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Did the Bran and Samwell bits play out similarly in the book, Chris? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t even bring yourself to like Theon after his cameo on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/8fbd05a4b3/gay-of-thrones-game-of-thrones-episode-3-recap-with-alfie-allen">Gay of Thrones</a></i>? Harsh.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Yes, the Samwell bits are pretty spot on—the only difference (which was a bit disappointing for me and, I assume, other readers) is that in the novel, the way underneath the Wall is guarded by a magical weirwood gate that will only open for a brother of the Night’s Watch. I was hoping that they’d show that, but I guess since it doesn’t really play a crucial role, the opted to save some money. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There is also another missing element that I won’t mention for fear of spoilers. Suffice to say we might be meeting another north-of-the-Wall character at the start of season four.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I really enjoyed the Sam bits in this episode, especially considering his stammering explanations to Maester Aemon provide some of the only levity (“It’s not what it looks like,” says he to the blind man. Ha!). And we see how he returns a hero in more ways than one: Gilly by this point is obviously taken with him, seeing him not as a fat craven but a courageous and caring man—and someone, moreover, who does not possess a speck of cruelty. After her life with Craster, it’s unsurprising she looks at Sam with such a wondering expression all the time.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And she feels safe enough with him to name her son after him, in spite of the usual injunction not to name babies until they’re a year old. In spite of his protestations to Maester Aemon, it obviously <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> what it looks like, at least a little … Sam has of course behaved with complete respect and propriety, but that doesn’t change that fact that he has, for all intents and purposes, taken on the role of the baby’s father. His oath forbids him from formalizing that relationship in any way, of course, but it’s obvious that Gilly sees him as her and her child’s protector. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Which, to segue to one of this episode’s key themes, makes Samwell Tarly the sole instance of noble or virtuous fatherhood we encounter. The episode’s title, “Mhysa,” is Ghiscari for “mother” … and while it is used to describe Daenerys at the end, it also reflects back on one of the sympathetic moments the show gives Cersei, when she urges Tyrion to impregnate Sansa—not for Tywin’s reasons, but to give her happiness. Her speech was, I found, quite affecting, for it reminded us that most of her adult life has been spent as the unwilling bride of a drunken, brutal lout who not only never loved her but came to despise her as much as she did him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even in the aftermath of his death, she is still a pawn in her father’s machinations. What joy her life has had, she tells Tyrion, she got from her children, without whom she would have thrown herself from “the highest window in the Red Keep.” That Joffrey has grown up to be a sociopathic tyrant distresses her but cannot obviate the memory of the happiness she experienced when he was an infant. Her words resonate, I suspect, with anyone who has been a parent:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">He was all I had once, before Myrcella was born. I used to spend hours looking at him … his wisps of hair, his tiny little hands and feet. He was such a jolly little fellow. You always hear the terrible ones were terrible babies. We should have known, then, we should have known … it’s nonsense. Whenever he was with me he was happy. And no one can take that away from me, not even Joffrey. How it feels to have someone … someone of your own.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Cersei’s words are in profound contrast to the sentiments expressed by the fathers in the episode, who are more numerous: Tywin, Balon Greyjoy, Roose Bolton, and the lingering specter of Craster. Balon’s scene is perhaps the starkest. Having received proof of Theon’s captivity and ongoing torment, he echoes Tywin’s preoccupations in the harshest terms possible: without the capacity to further the Greyjoy line, his son is no longer a son or a man, and is therefore useless. Tywin’s revelation that he desired nothing more than to give the newborn Tyrion up to the waves but did not is offered in the spirit of pure pragmatism: here was a son, dwarf though he may be, and therefore with a role to play. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Somewhere, Bradley Whitford is lamenting, "She had the conch in her <i>hand </i>..."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">Roose seems to come at it from a slightly different angle, though in his case he is willing to tolerate his bastard son’s terrifying enthusiasms for the sake of having a son, bastard though he may be. And it seems as though much of his cruelty is learned: “My mother taught me never thrown stones at cripples,” he tells Theon. “But my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">father </i>taught me aim for the head!” Ramsay is obviously psychotic, but it is just as obvious that his father has been an enabler.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Even the most sympathetic father has failed: Davos bonds with Gendry over their shared humble beginnings, and tells him his ambivalence about becoming a knight and lord—but that he did it so his son would have a better life that he did. “And does he?” Gendry asks. “He’s dead,” replies Davos. “Following me.”</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Agreed on the Cersei scene: for once she’s a completely sympathetic character, and of course as a mother I agreed with every word she said. In a world where she has to keep her true love secret, her son doesn’t respect her, her father treats her like useless garbage, and her husband is a boor, everyone sees her as a bitch, they know about her incestuous relationship and they know that Joffrey is the product of that. And she knows they know, and has to endure the snickers. Her marriages are arranged, her love is gone, her life is controlled by the men around her. But no one can tell her how to be a mother, or have the babies for her: in that sense, as a mother, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i> is the one who is in control, and she tells Tyrion that it’s the one thing in her life that truly belongs to her. I still remember staring at my own daughter when she was just a few hours old, thinking, “Wow. She’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mine</i>.” I didn’t buy her; I created her, and she was mine. It’s a shocking feeling. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And then her son grows up to be Joffrey, and she’s as disgusted by him as the next person, but deep down, he’s still hers, and he once smiled at cuddles, not massacres. A wonderful scene. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s interesting that you brought up Davos and his mention of his son, which was a poignant moment, because when you first said this was an episode where we really got to look at fatherhood, it was Davos who jumped into my head. Not for his relationship with his son, but the way he is with Stannis’s daughter. Another failed father, Stannis has tossed his “imperfect” child into a dungeon and has nothing to do with her, but Davos engages her, talks to her, learns with her, and tells her things others wouldn’t. She’s taught him how to read, and he’s a companion to her. I love seeing those two together. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And of course, so much of the action has been spawned by fathers: Ned Stark’s death has precipitated so much of what’s happened in seasons 2 and 3; Daenerys is out to avenge the murder of her own father; Gendry is a threat to Stannis because of who his real father is; Tyrion is alive because of his father’s decision; Theon may soon be dead because of both his father and Ramsay’s father; Sam is on the Night’s Watch because his father abandoned him there; Jon Snow’s father wasn’t married to his mother, and now he’s ended up there; Joffrey’s a king because of who he pretends his father to be; his real father has returned, but can never openly admit he’s his father. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And that final scene is the last of the three reunions I mentioned earlier, where Jaime appears before Cersei, and she is utterly speechless. When he left, he was a carbon copy of Prince Charming from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shrek</i>. Now he returns, dirty, with mud-filled hair, probably stinking to high heaven, and missing the very arm that earned him the title of Kingslayer. And she just stares at him, as if she cannot believe he’s returned… and likely that she cannot believe he looks like this. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Of course, we should also mention Arya in all of this. Having lost her father, and now her mother, the Hound has stepped in as somewhat of a protector, though he’s a reluctant one (she despises him) and realizes she’s as much a danger to herself as anyone else is. At the end of last season, Jaqen gave Arya a coin and told her that if she ever needs him, to hold out the coin and say, “Valar Morghulis” and he’d return. I thought it would take a few seasons before we’d see her pull it out, but I guess having most of your family slaughtered in front of you would do the trick. Remember: Arya probably feels like she’s alone. She assumes Sansa was killed after Ned because she was in King’s Landing, and if she’s heard the news about Bran and Rickon that Theon spread, then she assumes they’re dead, too. The Hound is her protector, and she hates him (he’s on her dreaded list), so she’s desperate and turning to the only way out she knows. I’m looking forward to Jaqen showing up; he was one of my favourite characters in season 2. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Oh, wait. That's wrong. Bloody Mary? Nope. Candyman? Crap. I should have written it down."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">The relationship that has developed between Arya and the Hound is intriguing—less adversarial than in the novel, which I would have thought would have been thus less interesting, but in fact the opposite is true. Arya, we assume, still hates the Hound; the knife she took from him was almost certainly meant to be sunk into his neck, something the Hound just as certainly knows. But if he is concerned, he does not show it—in fact, his irritation, as he says, proceeds just from wanting to be kept apprised. That Arya chose to interrupt their journey to kill a man who had a hand in the murder of her mother and brother—effectively risking both their lives—is something he takes entirely in stride.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Arya has become hardened to her world, forced to mature faster than she should have by circumstances. As you say, she must feel alone in the world, but she does not curl up in a fetal position and weep, but takes her revenge when she can. Her murder of the Frey man is cold and clear-eyed until she sinks the knife into his neck, at which point anger takes over. Her answer to the Hound’s question about whether that was the first man she’d killed—“The first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">man</i>”—reminds us that she has killed before, but it was in the heat of the moment and in self-defense when the stableboy came at her and she stabbed him with Needle. This time, she approached it very deliberately. And as much as we like to go on about Arya’s awesomeness, there is something deeply saddening about her transformation from precocious tomboy to killer.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The bit was the coin was similarly bittersweet. Will Jaqen return next season to help her? As usual, I say nothing. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Your comments about Davos’s friendship with Stannis’ daughter are spot on, as are your observations about how fathers’ actions and inactions set so much of the action in motion. It is, after all, not just a patriarchal but a patrilineal culture being depicted in which the Cerseis and Daeneryses and Yaras and Aryas are not just the exceptions but the potential spoilers to the main action. Sometimes not always to the benefit of things, as Varys seems to think: his proposal to Shae (which is yet another deviation from the novel, and yet again beautifully done) reads like an ironic reflection of Tywin’s iron law. “The house that puts family first,” he lectures Tyrion, “will always defeat the house that puts the whims and wishes of its sons and daughters first.” Tywin demands that Tyrion do his duty; Varys has a similar wish, but he must accomplish it by other means. He cares nothing for family—his concern is for the realm, and he sees Tyrion’s love for Shae and her love for him as a threat to Tyrion’s efficacy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I am still uncertain of how to take Varys’ offer: on one hand it smacks of paternalism, however kindly meant, and that is certainly how Shae interprets it. But I also cannot help but think he means to atone for Ros. Is he genuinely just trying to get Shae out of the way, or is Ros’ death tugging at his conscience? Varys has no qualms about using others as his informants, as a means of getting leverage. But I have to wonder whether Littlefinger’s cruelty—and Joffrey’s—wrong-footed him, and have him a little gun shy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What do you think, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: I have to agree. Maybe I’m getting caught in the spider’s web, but I truly believed that Varys was offering Shae a way out. He wants to save the realm, and he’s completely honest about that, telling Shae that Tyrion can’t be distracted by her, or “endangered,” as he puts it. He comes right out with it and says Tyrion is the only hope they have, and if Shae puts him at risk, it’ll put the entire realm at risk. Shae knows deep down that the future she laid out a few episodes ago — that she’ll be Tyrion’s little piece on the side, that he’ll care for her and take care of their bastard children, but that eventually he’ll either tire of her or she’ll be killed by Joffrey when he finds out — is absolutely true. She’s not safe in King’s Landing, and neither is Tyrion. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So Varys offers her the way out: take these diamonds and you can go and live in a palace, have any man you want, have servants, and Tyrion can save the realm and your life won’t be in danger and your children won’t have to hide. But clearly she loves Tyrion too much, and she hurls the diamonds back at him. I couldn’t help but think Varys was right. There is no real life for her in King’s Landing, and this is the best offer she’ll ever get. But the heart wants what the heart wants. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And next we come to Stannis and Melisandre (yes, we’re actually going to make it to every character in this episode write-up!) Melisandre, whom Gendry described as having big words and no clothes (ha!) is taking credit for Robb Stark’s death, thinking the leech in the fire procured his murder, and not a bunch of letters written by Tywin or agreements between houses. Davos begs the two of them to listen to reason, telling them about Sam’s raven, that something horrible is coming from the north, and that you simply cannot unite the seven kingdoms with blood and magic. But just as last season ended with Davos appearing to have betrayed Stannis and allowing him to lose the war, he’s betrayed him again by letting Gendry go free. The blunt discussion between the two of them was one of the highlights of the episode: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And finally, Daenerys. Season 1 ended with her emerging from the fire with freakin’ dragons on her shoulders. In season 2, she defeated the creepy bald guy and her dragons destroyed him. And now she has become not just the mother of dragons, but the mother of all those who are in chains. While Robb Stark waged war, and the Lannisters have united houses to gang up on others, and the Night’s Watch fears what’s coming, Daenerys is almost like a politician, roaming through the countryside and finding loyalty and followers wherever she goes. Her dragons are growing up, her people love her, and her army is fiercely loyal to her. She is an incredible character (certainly better used this season than last) and next season? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bigger dragons</i>. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And that ends the finale. So much has happened in season 3, Chris! And yet, if I understand it correctly, we’re only halfway through the third book, is that correct? Are you already imagining what season 4 will look like? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">The Red Wedding occurred on pages 582 and 583 of my edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Storm of Swords</i>, which runs to 924 pages. So we’re about two-thirds of the way through, but soon the storyline starts getting a bit wonky. I have to imagine that season four will get into material from books four and five—at least, I really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hope</i> it does. There isn’t much I can say about what season four might look like without getting spoilery, but suffice it to say that while the Red Wedding was the most shocking part of ASoS, it was by no means the only shock. GRRM still has lots in store for us, so stock up on your heart pills.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">loved</i> the exchange between Davos and Gendry as he sends him out in a tiny little boat. There’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> slight hesitation after Gendry tells Davos he can’t swim as you see Davos think to himself “Oh, crap. I hadn’t considered that.” But there’s nothing else for it, and he shoves him out onto the waves. Between the red priestess and the deep blue sea, as it were.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Have you noticed that every season ends with a high angle panorama shot? Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> episode ended with a vertical crane shot, pulling directly up so we see Daenerys at the center of a concentric circles of arms all straining inward toward her so that she is the focus of a seething mass of humanity. It is actually reminiscent of the crane shot of Drogo’s pyre in season one: </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">But season one ended with the camera pulling back at ground level as Daenerys’ few followers (those happy few) knelt before her and her newborn dragons, then with two cuts taking the camera’s eye higher and more distant. The final effect was both to emphasize the desolation of their location, and metaphorically show the blank slate of possibility Daenerys had won.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Season two ended just a memorably, with the image of the army of frozen undead. Like season one, it started out at ground level, the camera pulling back through the legion of wights, rising until it finally settled on the chilling (heh) image of a mass of remorseless, implacable zombies herded forward by the mounted White Walkers. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This season ends on a note that resonates with season one, in that the crane shot recalls the image of Drogo’s pyre, but also because it is an image of Daenerys’ worshipful followers—except now they number in the thousands, and the landscape is no longer empty but full of people. The final seconds before fading to black juxtaposes the mass of newly liberated people with the serried ranks of Daenerys’ army—cleverly reminiscent of the final shot in episode four, with her dragons soaring above her newly won army of Unsullied. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We’re well set for season four … though the prospect of waiting ten months is torturous (which, on reflection, is a poor choice of adjective—sorry, Theon). Once again, I want to thank you, Nikki, for proposing this project. It is such a pleasure to do these posts with you. Whatever will we do to salve our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> cravings in the coming year?</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Why… I think it’s time to read the books!! And who better to guide me along as I discover what GRRM’s original world read like than you, my trusted compadre. I’ll mention something on my site to let everyone know when I’m going to start book 1, and Chris and I will talk our way through it just like we have the shows, so if anyone else wants to join in and read the books (or jump into the discussion, having already <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">read</i> the books), we look forward to more discussions as we wait for season 4! Thanks to everyone who has been reading along and joining in all season long and remember: Season 4 Is Coming. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Well that and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Bad</i>, which is my next obsession on the calendar. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">See you all soon! </span></div>
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-55508191079897818622013-06-04T07:39:00.000-02:302013-06-04T07:46:45.197-02:30Game of Thrones 3.09: The Rains of Castamere, or, It's A Nice Day For A Red Wedding<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Greetings again fantasy nerds, for the penultimate installment of the <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/2013/06/game-of-thrones-39-rains-of-castamere.html">Nikki</a> & Chris co-blog of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>’ third season. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tonight was one of those nights the GRRM readers have been waiting for: even more than Ned Stark’s death or Daenerys’ immolation of Astapor, the Red Wedding marks a point in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ice and Fire</i> novel when we really, truly understood the fact that Martin will in fact do anything to his characters. No one is safe. It’s my turn on this post to lead off the discussion, and when that’s the case I normally like to write my first blurb as soon as the show’s over, while it’s fresh in my head. But this week … it was just way too much fun to watch the internet explode.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So even though it is my turn to lead off, I think I’ll look in on Nikki to get her initial reaction. How you doing over there, Nik?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tension started as soon as I saw the Twins were back in the credits.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! OH MY GOD I… AAAAHHHHH!!!! They just stabbed her in the… AAAHHHHHH!!!! And the knife and the OH MY GOD NOT THE DIREWOLF AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! :::sob!!:::</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Shhhh. Shhhhh. There, there … everything’s going to be all right. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Or … perhaps not. Once again, GRRM totally fucks with everyone’s head. The Red Wedding, as the massacre at the Twins comes to be known, makes the execution of Ned Stark look like a fratboy prank by comparison … and the body count of people we assumed to be important, pivotal characters is appallingly high. Robb! Catelyn! Grey Wind! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Obviously, this is our biggest point of discussion today—but we’ll save it for last so as to get through a handful of other rather important developments. So while Nikki struggles to regain her composure, let’s consider the rest of the episode, in which Jon Snow betrays the wildlings—and Ygritte—killing Orell in the process; Arya <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">almost </i>makes it home to her mother; Daenerys conquers another city; the Bran storyline <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">finally</i> has some substance to it; and Rickon gets to talk! I don’t know what’s more surprising, the mass murder of Starks or the fact that their youngest scion actually had some lines for a change. And guess what? The kid’s a pretty good actor. Too bad we won’t see him again for the foreseeable future. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So let’s start with Bran … or rather, let’s start with Samwell and Gilly’s five minutes of screen time, in which we get a nifty little bit of exposition disguised as yet another moment of cognitive dissonance between the civilized south and the backward north. Sam goes on at great length—professorially, one might say—about the arrangements of castles at the Wall, and their history. What I like about this moment is the guileless pleasure Sam obviously takes in relating what he knows, which is consistent with his character in the books … he is very much a reader, much preferring the company of musty old tomes to most of his brothers in black, and is possessed of a limitless curiosity. To him, it’s all old hat, but the very idea of learning things in the abstract from “marks on a page” is utterly alien to Gilly. To her, the ability to read is literally magical, and in an awed voice she calls Sam a wizard. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But of course in this charming little interchange is buried some key information—as when Sam shows Gilly the obsidian knife, we’re being set up for something later on. We begin to glean what it is when Bran &co. start talking along similar lines—about how there are a host of deserted castles along the wall, and pondering how they mean to get to the other side. Bran discounts Osha’s seaborne method, as it would take too long; similarly, his useless legs make it effectively impossible for them to scale the Wall. Perchance this secret passage under the Nightfort described by Sam will come in handy? </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'm not <i>actually</i> a wizard ... though I am a level 90 mage in <i>World of Warcraft</i>."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">After an entire season of Bran inching north, punctuated only by Osha’s petulance and Jojen’s cryptic wisdom (and the occasional “Hodor” thrown in for good measure), it was a relief to finally have something <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">happen</i> with that group. We see a more impressive display of Bran’s talents, for one thing—slipping his skin to briefly possess Hodor, first, in order to silence him. It was a nice little moment, and not just a little creepy to see Bran’s eyes go milky. Jojen stresses that possessing a human is practically unheard-of; and with his encouragement, Bran slips into his direwolf to save Jon in what turns into one of the better fight scenes I’ve seen on the show. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So, Nikki—what did you think of the Bran sequences in this episode?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Um … Nikki? You OK there?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: [puts down paper bag she’s been breathing into] Gasp… gasp… okay, yes. I think I can speak now. And I have a LOT to say about that final scene, but yes, let’s begin elsewhere while I attempt to compose my thoughts on the Apologetic Second-Tier Wedding massacre. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let’s just say I wish I was limited to Hodor’s vocabulary right now. Seems so much… simpler. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I agree that it was exciting for something to finally happen with that other group, and while I’m sure the GRRM fans were all yelling, “NO! Get back to the Twins and leave this stuff til later!” I had no idea what was coming (well, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> idea as I’ll explain in a minute) so I was happy just to see some side characters finally get screen time. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Oh, and to add to what you said above, I have in my notes, “Rickon says more in his first scene than in the entirety of his presence on the show!” Wow. I’m sure there’s a casting agent out there who put the kid in the show when he was a babe who sat back in relief and went, “Whew,” after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> episode. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The direwolf scene was AMAZING. The readers of the books adore the direwolves, and as a viewer I think they are truly majestic to watch, but we almost never see them. I suspect they have a bigger role in the books, since there is a spiritual connection to their guardian that just can’t be conveyed on screen. But near the beginning we see the cavalry go by and the direwolf is almost the same size as the horse. Incredible. My husband and I were both yelling and cheering when the direwolves attacked, and he said he didn’t think we’d ever seen one attack before, but I know we’ve seen a couple of smaller ones where arms and legs get bitten. But this was amazing. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I couldn’t help during this scene but watch Ygritte with some amusement after her repeated comments previously when she and Jon were travelling over the Wall, and kept doing her voice through the episode. “You know NOTHING of decapitation, JON SNOW.” But at the very end, when he leapt on the horse, I thought he was going to pause and pull her up and then… he just took off. The look on her face mirrored mine in that moment. “You know NOTHING about commitment, JON SNOW.” Perhaps this is a deliberate mislead, and he’s actually tricking the others to think he’s leaving her when in fact he’s coming back. But that was a shock. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This episode easily had the best fight scenes in it since the Battle of the Blackwater, from the direwolves to the end scene (sob). But there’s also a pretty fantastic fight scene with the Three Danyketeers: Jorah, Grey Worm, and Daario. Of course there was the constant threat that Daario was leading them into a trap the entire time, but he stayed true to the Khaleesi. What did you think of that scene, Chris? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I thought the fight scene was pretty amazing, though there was something about it that was weirdly familiar. I didn’t put my finger on it until I read a review of the episode that said it was “very 1960s Batman.” And it was! Something about the way the bad guys encircled them and got fought off was very reminiscent of the way in which Batman and Robin always found themselves surrounded by wave after wave of assailants. All it needed was “PAFF!” and “CLANG!” being thrown up on the screen to be perfect.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Strange overtones of Adam West aside, I thought it was really well done, and it was quite satisfying to see Grey Worm fight—after all the hype about how awesome the Unsullied are in combat, it was good to see that the eunuch has some game. But the scene was also entirely different from the novel: in the book, Yunkai submits to Daenerys’ demands and allows their slaves to join her growing army. I suspect they made the change as a means of letting Daario prove his bona fides … and also because it’s more exciting than simply watching a stream of former slaves issue from Yunkai’s gates.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">That being said, I found that all the Daenerys bits in the episode were somewhat flat. Perhaps I was just clenching up in anticipation of the wedding, but it seemed somewhat hurried and rote: Daario establishing himself in Dany’s inner circle; Jorah getting his alpha male hackles up; those hackles going up further when Dany gets flirty; Barristan being honourable. About the only real point of interest is the point Daenerys makes of asking Grey Worm’s opinion—emphasizing that he is no longer a slave, but a leader of his people. And the ending, when Jorah returns to tell Daenerys that all those soldiers streaming out into the courtyard in fact proceeded to surrender, it feels somewhat anticlimactic. I think it would have made for a far more affecting and dramatic scene to have seen the Yunkish soldiers throw down their weapons after a threatening moment where they just stood silently around the Danyketeers.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">(Now you have me wondering: which one is Athos? Porthos? Aramis? I would have to assume Jorah is Athos, and Barristan Aramis … which would mean Daario would have to be Porthos, with Grey Worm taking on the heroic role of D’Artagnan. He certainly fights well enough). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But to return to the north: if we ignore the Red Wedding, easily the most affecting moments of the episode belonged to Jon Snow and Ygritte. The closer they get to Castle Black, the greater the tension, as we know the moment of truth is coming for Jon. I loved everything about the ramp-up to the fight, from Jon’s subtle smack on the rock with his sword to warn the horse-breeder, to the way he distracts Ygritte so her arrow misses. Rose Leslie, it needs to be said, was stellar in this episode—she did more with her face than everyone else’s words combined, wearing her fear and suspicion and love for Jon Snow all the way through. When she misses the man on the horse, the look she throws at him is so conflicted it’s heartbreaking—though not as heartbreaking as her utter shock at his betrayal when he rides off. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghRmISXwqfjD6V_YWKCDhZvlfWtU96jZbKJz0MyazGROZGJrcnP-QK1b9UPwJapCK2z25z1-T5vD7a_YwSQNpCVirCyN5QW12lC1u_mvVS1e_VYHlVAIJJDB0NRfuRvbXeQq91qw/s1600/ygritte2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghRmISXwqfjD6V_YWKCDhZvlfWtU96jZbKJz0MyazGROZGJrcnP-QK1b9UPwJapCK2z25z1-T5vD7a_YwSQNpCVirCyN5QW12lC1u_mvVS1e_VYHlVAIJJDB0NRfuRvbXeQq91qw/s400/ygritte2.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The painful moment of realizing He's Just Not That Into You.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">If Ygritte’s shock is the most affecting moment, I’d say the most satisfying one is when Jon Snow kills Orell, murmuring “You were right about me all along.” Cold comfort for the wildling, I suppose (poor Gareth. Always getting the short end of the stick). It’s dueling wargs, though, and Jon has no time to take satisfaction in his victory as Orell’s eagle proceeds to dive-bomb him. These pets … so, so protective of their humans.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The other storyline in this episode, of course, was the continuing buddy comedy starring Arya and the Hound … not nearly as entertaining as Jaime and Brienne, but with some funny moments. My favourite bit was Arya preventing him from killing the cart man. Their exchange is worth quoting in its entirety:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“You’re so dangerous, aren’t you? Saying scary things to little girls. Killing little boys and old people. A real hard man, aren’t you.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“More than anyone you know.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“You’re wrong. I know a killer. A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> killer.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“Is that so?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“You’d be like a kitten to him. He’d kill you with his little finger.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indicates unconscious man</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“Is that him?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“No.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“Good.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“Don’t kill him! Please! Please don’t.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“You’re very kind. Some day it will get you killed.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And then as the cart man struggles back to consciousness, Arya matter-of-factly thwacks him across the skull again. And for all of the Hound’s show of being unimpressed, the look he gives her as she walks past him is appraising.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What I loved about this is it shows two sides of Arya—on one hand, practical and fearless, unfazed by neither the Hound’s looks nor his brutality; but she is still a lost little girl, and in a moment of weakness reaches for the memory of the last person who impressed her—Jaquen. Her description of him is funny but also vaguely pathetic, like some phantom big brother she wishes could rescue her.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What did you think of the Arya moments, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: I realize GRRM clearly has a penchant for killing Starks, but seriously, if he touches one hair on Arya’s head… </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I thought Arya’s scene definitely had some of the comic highlights, as did the scene where Robb stood before Walder and apologized for not marrying one of his female descendants. VERY funny, actually, which is something that tipped me off that things were about to go VERY BADLY. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tip #1: When Robb Stark said to his mom (I might be paraphrasing here), “So, I’d like to ask for your advice out of the blue and make amends with absolutely no lead-up to it whatsoever after locking you up and treating you like a prisoner forever, BECAUSE you counseled me on something else that I’d completely ignored, and of course by saying this I’m reminding viewers of that OTHER thing you counseled me on — marrying Walder’s kid — and therefore hinting that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very bad is about to happen</i>. Oh, and just to drive that point home, let’s put this little chiseled model of the Twins here on the board…” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Me: “Oh shit… Robb’s going to die.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tip #2: When Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter says to Robb, “And we shall name him EDDARD!!” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Me: “Oh crap. That kid is doomed. So… she’s going to die. And Robb. And baby makes three.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tip #3: Arya looking out at the Twins while the Hound is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">totally wasting time eating pig’s feet and not moving for god’s sakes!!!</i> and he says, “You’re worried you won’t make it in time.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Me: OH MY GOD they’re going to kill all of them. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tip #4: The merry little wedding band begins playing “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” during the celebration. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Me: WTF they’re going to lock them in with a bear?! Or… they’re going to slice off a hand. Last time I heard that song Bolton’s men had just sliced off Jaime’s hand. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tip #5: Bolton’s sitting there. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Me: I’m going to be sick. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So… was it worse than what happened to Ned in season 1? Yes. Three Starks and an unborn child is pretty darn awful. (And methinks Edmure isn’t going to fare well down the hall there…) But was it as shocking as Ned’s? No. For weeks fans had been talking about a Very Big Thing that was going to happen. I had no idea it was going to be this. But I figured someone was going to die. And by the time the wedding was in full swing I knew it was going to be a Stark or three. My stomach was in terrible knots. Seeing the end was like knowing I was about to step into a boxing ring, and then having to deal with pain that’s much worse than what I could have possibly imagined. But with Ned? There was no way they were going to kill him. Major character… most famous person in the cast… the guy on the freakin’ season 1 poster and all promo materials… yeah, they won’t kill him. They’re going to go up there, and bend him over on the thing and Joffrey will be a prick and Arya will run up there just in time and OH MY GOD THEY KILLED HIM WTF?! To go back to the boxing metaphor, it was like I was walking down the street enjoying the beautiful day when I suddenly got walloped in the gut so hard it knocked me unconscious. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The Red Wedding was horrific and awful and the scope of it was inconceivable, but it wasn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">quite</i> the shock that Ned’s death was. Was I still shocked? Holy hell, yes. DAMN I thought Filch was awful when he was at Hogwarts, but that was nothing compared to what he’s like now.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Harry Potter 8: The Re-Filchening</i>.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">But the one thing I absolutely didn’t see coming… was the direwolf. Catelyn was shot and Robb was shot and Talisa was stabbed repeatedly in her gut and my hand was over my mouth to stifle my screams (even if you see it coming, you just can’t imagine how horrific it’ll be). But when they cut to outside, and Arya senses something is terribly wrong and runs to the direwolf, I was begging her to get there. And she didn’t. When the dog rolled onto the ground and she saw its face as it died, I lost it. Tears. Everywhere. We had just seen how powerful those animals were (and perhaps the warg scene was there just for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> foreshadowing), and to watch the light go out of its eyes was devastating. And then we cut back to the Red Wedding, and I began to think that Catelyn had a chance. That she was going to watch her son die, that she was going to slit the throat of Walder’s wife (which elicited no more than a “meh” from him) and then her punishment would be to go on living, having witnessed all of it. The camera slowly pans in as Catelyn looks like she’s had a lobotomy: she just stands there, eyelids heavy, mouth agape, like her mind just can’t take all of this pain and horror. And then, silently, Walder’s guard steps up and with one movement, slits her throat, and she falls. Fade to black, silent credits. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One of the most powerful moments I’ve ever seen on television. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And, just as she did two seasons ago, Arya arrived just in time to find out that one of her parents has been killed, and before she can do anything, a large man has grabbed her and stopped her, probably saving her life. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">They have totally turned her into Batman. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So, tell me how the scene on screen compared to the books. Were you disappointed? Pleased? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I was very pleased—if that’s a word I can use to describe my reaction to such a horrific scene. I think they did an excellent job in dramatizing it. They made a handful of changes, all of them minor and none of which affected the scene adversely. If anything, some of the changes were to greater effect: for one thing, in the novel it’s not Walder Frey’s wife that Catelyn threatens and kills, but his grandson—a simpleton who has been given the role of court jester and renamed Jinglebell. It is utterly unsurprising that Walder Frey is indifferent to his idiot grandson; it’s a whole lot colder when he says of his young wife, “I can get another.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The other significant change is that in the novel Robb is more circumspect and does not bring his wife with him to the Twins. Thus, the fact that they went for Talisa first should not have surprised me as much as it did … but I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> shocked, horrified really, for when the Frey henchman stabbed her repeatedly in the belly, it was one of the most brutal moments I have seen on this show—and that’s saying a lot, I think you’ll agree.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’ve spoken to a handful of people today who have read the books, and the consensus seems to be that knowing what was coming created its own unique tension leading into the last ten minutes. Speaking for myself, as soon as we were past the actual ceremony and into the feast, I could feel my stomach start to clench up in anticipation. I rewatched the episode this afternoon, and tried to see the massacre scene as if I hadn’t read the novels. I found myself deeply impressed with the pacing; the first go around I didn’t notice it as much, as I was just bracing for the midden to hit the windmill, but on returning to the scene I was struck by how well they built the tension. At that point, you didn’t need all of us GRRM fans gleefully saying “just wait!” And you didn’t need the copious foreshadowing that you pointed out … just a few hints, and Catelyn’s wary expression as she senses that something is amiss. And when the song starts playing … I’d forgotten that in the novel the signal to start the killing was “The Rains of Castamere.” It’s even more haunting to hear it on the show, that mournful threatening melody, and Michelle Fairley does a lovely job of registering the slow realization of their danger. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Waaaaaiiiiit a minute ..."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’m with you on the direwolf. The cut from Catelyn’s face as the song starts playing to where they’ve penned up Grey Wind—with the strains of the melody still audible—reminds us of how vulnerable Robb and the others are. We’ve already seen direwolves come to the rescue of one Stark son, but the camera tells us now that that won’t be repeated. Grey Wind’s agitation mirrors Catelyn’s. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In an odd way, the killing of the direwolf gave the scene its finality before Robb and Catelyn died. At this point there isn’t really any hope that they’ll live—the shocking death of Ned Stark in season one taught us there are no miraculous rescues on this show—and the cruel and efficient slaying of the animal who is Robb’s protector and the symbol of the Stark family reminds us of that fact.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It was a hugely powerful ending. Catelyn’s final despairing cry and her vacant expression as she allows her throat to be cut was heartrending. Even knowing how it ended, even having girded myself beforehand, it was devastating. I sat in the silence of the credits digesting it all. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One last thought: in the novel, the death blow is dealt to Robb Stark by a nameless Frey who says “Jaime Lannister sends his regards” as he slides the knife in. On the show, it was Roose Bolton who finishes Robb off, saying, “The Lannisters send their regards.” In the novel, the Boltons aren’t in the thick of the betrayal, but Roose is happy to let it play out and claim the North for himself. Here, he’s the co-architect of the scheme with Walder Frey, and seems to take a perverse pleasure in it—letting Catelyn realize that he is wearing armour under his clothes, and thus revealing his complicity. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Did I say he and Walder were co-architects? Perhaps I should be more specific—they were sub-plotters. The true architect, of course is back in King’s Landing. Remember when I said those letters Tywin was writing would play a major role later?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Any last thoughts, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Just this afternoon I was sealing an envelope (everyone I know has a birthday this week, it seems) and suddenly stopped and thought, “Oh my god, Tywin’s letters. He was orchestrating all of this.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I joked on Twitter that last night’s episode had two camps: the one going, “OMG! OMG! SOB!” and the other saying, “BWOOHAHAHA! WE HAVE WAITED FOR THIS MOMENT.” But like I said above, I certainly believe you when you say that as a reader, the suspense and adrenaline were probably almost unbearable, while we non-readers were watching all the other stories, “Oh look, Hodor’s talking! And oh hey, Rickon’s talking, too!! Ooh, they killed Orell, and did you see—” and the readers are going, “OH BLOODY HELL ENOUGH WITH THIS JUST GET TO THE BLOODY RED WEDDING THIS IS KILLING ME.” So perhaps there’s a bliss to our ignorance. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But no longer. As soon as next week’s episode is over, I’m reading these books. Chris and I have already discussed doing blogs where I read and discuss with him, our own book club of two. I just can’t take it anymore. GRRM is a mastermind, a genius, a sadist, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very evil man</i>, and I want to read his words before I see them transformed for the screen. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I just can’t imagine what the fallout for this will be, but DAMMIT I can’t believe after next week I have to wait a whole year. Argh. Bring on the books, baby. </span><br />
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-8131456817312845482013-05-20T22:28:00.001-02:302013-05-20T22:28:32.959-02:30Game of Thrones 3.08: Second SonsHello everyone, and welcome back for a very special edition of the Chris & Nikki <i>Game of Thrones</i> co-blogging project.<br />
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As may or may not have been explained on this blog previously, I know Nikki from when we did our MAs at the University of Toronto together. Back then, we bonded immediately because we were the only grad students in the program who (a) owned televisions, (b) watched television, (c) were willing to admit both of these facts. We talked at length about <i>The Simpsons</i> one day before our Victorian Fiction and the Politics of Gender class, while our classmates inched away from us in horror.<br />
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And we've been friends ever since -- friends who do not, alas, see much of each other because I now live in Newfoundland. So when I mentioned I'd be in Ontario and would it be cool if I paid a visit, she said "Well ... can you make your visit on a SUNDAY?"<br />
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Why yes. Yes, I could. And since we were able to watch GoT together for the first time, we decided to take advantage of that and do something we otherwise couldn't, and do a video blog.<br />
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So here we are in all our poorly lit glory ...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/voR_RUjq078" width="560"></iframe>Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-58878445015885054412013-05-14T20:58:00.000-02:302013-05-15T12:57:43.919-02:30Game of Thrones 3.07: The Bear and the Maiden Fair<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hounds, dragons, and—wait for it!—BEARS! (well, bear). Oh my!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Welcome once again to the great <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> co-blog project, in which the lovely and talented <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/2013/05/game-of-thrones-307-bear-and-maiden-fair.html">Nikki Stafford</a>—who could <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">totally</i> kick a bear’s ass—and I write about the most recent episode of everyone’s favourite fantasy television series. A fantasy series, I might add, that has sadly proven more realistic than those fantasies harboured by Toronto Maple Leafs fans.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Big sigh. Well, to cheer myself up from last night’s mauling (by bears! “Bruin” means brown bear! Coincidence? I think not. Where was Jaime Lannister when the Leafs needed him, is all I want to know), let’s turn to a tale of violence, torture, and slavery. Yes, much more upbeat. What did you think of this week’s episode, Nikki?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Patience, my pretty. There will be other slavemasters for you to eat."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">We’ll get to that amazing final scene soon, but first, I wanted to open with Daenerys. I don’t think there’s another character on the show whose absence is as notable as hers. When she’s not in the episode, it feels like something is missing. When she’s there, she’s almost all you can think about. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We already saw the incredible scene of her taking down Kraznys, making off with all three of her dragons and an 8,000-strong army of men whose loyalty to her is voluntary and undying. Now we see her moving into a new city, Yunkai. Rather than invade the city (not smart, as her advisors tell her, given their very high walls and excellent army), she simply sends a note along the lines of, “Dude, I have dragons. Surrender. Seriously. I’ll be waiting out in my tent.” And the guy comes running. If being carried in a wheel-less carriage counts as running. (I loved that they cast a guy who sort of looks like Kraznys.) He gives her ships, gold, more gold, and more ships, and tells her to simply leave them alone and move along on her way, knowing that he will support her in her bid for the throne. Any other of the players would have simply taken the money and run, but not Daenerys. Her advisors told her there were slaves in there, and if Dany is anything, it’s merciful and kind. Unless you’re the slaver. Then you’d better <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i></b>-frickin’-<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ware</i></b>. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The scene between Daenerys and the lord who meets her is brilliantly played, as she sits on a dais, staring at him with unmoving eyes, tossing raw meat to her dragons so they’ll give a quick show of strength and strike fear into his heart. She flatly says what needs to be said, shows absolutely no fear, and watches him squirm. He becomes more and more unsettled and upset, while she sits quietly, looking as confident as she did when he first walked in. There’s a moment of vulnerability — when she asks Ser Jorah to find out what cities the lord was referring to who would go up against her — but she doesn’t show that to the lord in front of her. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">She’s only in the episode for one segment and we don’t return to her story again, but she makes an impact that is unforgettable, each time. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This episode was about deepening relationships, for better or worse — Robb and Talisa; Brienne and Jaime; Ygritte and Jon; Tywin and Joffrey — and developing the stories and personalities that were established earlier in the series: Daenerys’s confidence; Gendry finding out his birthright; Tyrion and Shae’s impossible relationship; Theon’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clockwork Orange</i>–type of psychological abuse; Sansa and Margaery’s similar yet vastly different situations; Bran and Jojen’s psychic attachment; Hodor’s boundless vocabulary. It was such a strong episode that really pushed things along at quite a pace. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Though I must add one thing: Jon Snow and Ygritte are starting to remind me of Marcie and Peppermint Patty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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What did you think of the episode, Chris? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Chris: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I was also delighted to have Daenerys back, as usual. As we’ve pointed out before, her storyline was pretty meh all last season, but this season it has been (as you say) almost all you can think about when she makes an appearance. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’ve quite liked Daenerys’ evolution this season—really just a continuation of her evolution from the start—but we’re increasingly getting used to seeing her as an actual <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">queen</i>, rather than just a girl with the best claim to the Iron Throne. In this episode, she seemed that much closer to actually sitting on a throne, even if she was just in a sumptuous tent: flanked by her knights on one side and her dragons on the other and all approaches to her guarded by her Unsullied. Her demeanour is unflappable. When the Yunkai emissary protests shrilly that he was promised safe passage, her response is perfect: “My dragons made no such promise. And they get upset when their mother is threatened.” She’ll take that gold, thank you very much, and all your freed slaves besides. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As much as we miss Dany when she’s not there, I think the writers have made a wise decision to mete out her story parsimoniously. For one thing, if they hew closely to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Storm of Swords</i>, next season we’ll get an awful lot more of her. For another thing, there’s so much happening this season—so much in the plotting and counter-plotting in Westeros as the main players make their elaborate plans—that when we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> return to her storyline it’s a bit of a jolt. We get so wrapped up in the machinations of Varys and Littlefinger, in wondering whether Tywin will defeat Robb, or what kind of queen Margaery will be, or who will finally claim Winterfell, that we forget … <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dragons are coming</i>. And their mama be pissed. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Elsewise in this episode, I think you’re spot-on Nikki to observe that it’s very much about relationships. I’d in fact go further and say it was very much about couples—actual couples like Jon and Ygritte or Robb and Talisa, or odd couples like Jaime and Brienne, or couples bound by circumstance like Sansa and Margaery … or even couples apparently thrown together by a god, as in Gendry and Melisandre.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And I’ll go even further than that and say it’s very much about couples misunderstanding each other—whose vocabularies are incompatible enough that they do not grasp what the other person is trying to tell them. The most obvious example, of course, is Jon Snow and Ygritte. Ygritte shows her ignorance of life south of the Wall, mistaking a mill for a palace, being ignorant of such concepts as swooning and fainting, and finding it utterly absurd that there would be soldiers whose entire duty is carrying a banner or beating a drum. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The moment provides a stark contrast (get it? A “Stark” contrast? Heh) between Jon’s world and Ygritte’s, and leads directly to his terse declaration that the wildlings will not succeed … that they will, in fact, fail bloodily. For, as he acknowledges, the wildlings are brave, and fierce—but they lack discipline. Jon’s words remind us (as does Ygritte’s amazement at the skill that went into building a rudimentary mill) that there is a price to be paid for absolute freedom. The radical egalitarianism of the wildlings means that there are no hierarchies, none of the structures of power and authority that allow for, among other things, the raising of castles or the mustering of armies. Karl Marx attempted to address this problem with his famous formulation, “<span class="st">From </span><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">each</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif";"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">according to his ability</span></i><span class="st">, to each according to his needs” … which translates, more or less, as “Yes, we’re all equal, but somebody has to be in charge if any shit’s gonna get done.” (Or, if you like, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”)</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Ygritte might well laugh, not unjustifiably, at the absurdity of a standard-bearer or a drummer-boy, but what she cannot see is what they represent: namely, the loyalty to an idea of authority (the sigil) and an army professionalized and specialized enough to have soldiers whose sole task is carrying a banner or beating a drum … armies, in other words, unified in their loyalty, disciplined enough to march in the lock-step she mocks, and well trained in specific duties. The wildlings, by contrast, are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> fighters, and they are their own commanders, and are thus utterly undisciplined … and as the Roman legions taught all of Europe, a disciplined force will beat a rabble every time.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Ygritte’s misapprehension is mirrored in Shae’s inability to understand why Tyrion must do his duty as a Lannister (though to be fair, he seems less than convinced himself); in Gendry’s bafflement at Melisandre’s interest in him; and perhaps most comically in Sansa’s magisterial obtuseness in the face of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every bloody thing</i> Margaery tries to tell her. What did you make of Margaery’s attempts to school Sansa, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Let’s just say when Sansa uttered the line, “I’m a stupid little girl with stupid dreams who never learns,” my husband sat up and said, “And THAT is the most accurate thing that woman has ever uttered. Ha! Oh poor Sansa… During season 1 I shook my head at her stupidity. Throughout season 2 I felt sorry for her, having watched her father be executed while being betrothed to the monster who ordered his murder; not knowing where the heck her little sister is; assuming her little brothers to be dead; and hearing about her brother Robb and her mother only through the clenched teeth of the Lannisters (it’s not clear if she even really thinks of Jon or Theon, but considering her prissiness, probably not). While the other Starks can hate the Lannisters from the distance, she’s the only one embroiled in the spider’s web at all times, watching her step — and tongue — and so far, remaining alive somehow. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And then, in season 3, she seems to have reverted back to the silly girl in season 1 again. I don’t hate her, though; considering everything else, I just feel sorry for her. I believe there’s an arrested development there; after all, what girl doesn’t have lavish thoughts of a lavish wedding to a handsome man? Of course she was enamoured of Loras, and was too naïve to understand his true inclinations. Margaery sees Sansa’s vulnerability and it’s clear she is using her (as Tywin pointed out, if Robb is killed and the rest of the family is already gone, for all intents and purposes, then Sansa holds the keys to Winterfell, and marrying her secures that for the groom). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Despite the shock of Tywin’s pronouncement that Tyrion will have to marry Sansa, I’m now quite keen to see what will happen in that coupling. Tyrion is one of the smartest characters on the show: is it possible that under his tutelage, Sansa could mature very quickly and become an actual contender. You can tell during her conversation that she’s not repulsed by Tyrion, but taken aback. “But… he’s a dwarf,” she practically whispers. She doesn’t comment on his scar — it’s Margaery who says that — just his size, and, back to what I was saying earlier, when she was planning her wedding to end all weddings as a little girl, she wasn’t being walked down the aisle by a man half her size. Then again… <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dude</i>, it’s Peter Dinklage. And he is hot. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I have heard that in the books Tyrion lost his nose, so I would assume that would be more frightful in the books for Sansa. But as Margaery says, the scar just makes him look more badass in an Omar Little kind of way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Tyrion, in the parallel conversation with Shae, is having problems of his own. He isn’t upset about having to marry Sansa, he’s upset that he can’t marry Shae. In his head, he’s worked out exactly how he’ll make it all work — set up Shae in a nice little house with servants and guards and she (and their children) will be well taken care of. Shae’s not stupid, though; she knows what Joffrey is capable of, and if he even hears a whisper of her connection to Tyrion he’ll have her and her children massacred in a heartbeat. And yet, that’s not the most unsettling thing of all to her: it’s that she will grow old, and Tyrion will cast her off like an old coat once he tires of her. Tyrion just stands there, defeated, as if he knows there’s a kernel of truth there. All he wants is to have two women who care for him and love him, and he’ll love them in return. But, as Bronn tells him, “You waste time trying to get people to love you, you’ll end up the most popular dead man in town.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The evil at the heart of all of this is Joffrey and Tywin, and they get one of the best scenes of the season so far. What did you think of that showdown, Chris? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I loved their showdown. LOVED it. At this point, I am almost more excited to see Tywin enter a scene than anyone else in the series—not so much because his is the most compelling storyline, but because I know that it almost always involves some of the subtlest acting and some of the best writing. And normally it is Charles Dance delivering on the acting end of the equation, but this time I was deeply impressed with Jack Gleeson’s performance. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now: that young man deserves some serious accolades for what he’s done. When you see him interviewed, it’s night and day—he’s a slightly bashful, slightly goofy, and totally charming guy, and he’s playing the most loathed character on this show … and doing it brilliantly. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This relatively brief scene was totally laden with tension, because (a) we know it is Tywin’s intent to bring his sociopathic grandson to heel, and (b) because we know Joffrey’s totally capable of screaming “OFF WITH HIS HEAD!” at the slightest provocation, like the Red Queen on meth. Does Tywin still carry enough authority with the little shit to cow him? Or is Joffrey just batshit enough to order the head of Tywin Lannister lopped off? (and, perhaps more importantly, would anyone obey that order? What would happen if he gave it?)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For now, the Tywin Intimidation Factor carries the day. Having metaphorically smacked down Cersei and Tyrion, he now proceeds to do so with Joffrey. Joffrey manages to muster some petulance, but not much more—though he does (perhaps inadvertently) stumble on two questions of some significance, the first being Tywin’s removal of the Small Council from their normal space (the room that’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">named</i> for them, by the seven hells) to a chamber in the Tower of the Hand. This shift of location is emblematic of the fact that, for all intents and purposes, Tywin is ruling the Seven Kingdoms. He’s arrogated the main power of the council to himself, and Joffrey is astute enough to realize this (if, again, only inadvertently—he does seem more irked at having to climb all those stairs). Secondly, he asks after Daenerys and receives a contemptuous lecture from his grandfather on precisely why rumours from half a world away aren’t worth his attention … which shows, if nothing else, that however shrewd a leader Tywin is, he has his own blind spots. For one thing, he is quite stiff and unyielding in his authority, which makes it hard not to think about him in the next scene when Daenerys asks rhetorically, “What happens to things that don’t bend?”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Charles Dance gives his usual bravura show of arrogance and authority in this scene, but what made it sing for me was the visible fight on Joffrey’s face between petulance, irritation, and awe. However much he dismisses his own mother, hates his uncle, and has general contempt for almost everyone else in King’s Landing, he is still somewhat in awe of his grandfather. In the end, the awe (and not a little fear) wins out—though I cannot help but feel that Tywin overplayed his hand somewhat in speaking so condescendingly and, finally, advancing up the steps to loom over Joffrey. The latter had its desired effect—the king shrank back in his seat like a frightened child—but it’s a dangerous thing to humiliate a king … especially one with sociopathic tendencies. Tywin obviously thinks he’s won, but as he departs Joffrey reclines on the throne with a thoughtful expression on his face.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s a dangerous thing to inspire that little madman to think about things.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Something Sansa knows too well, but seems to have forgotten somewhat. She has the good grace to be embarrassed when Margaery gently chides her by reminding her that Tyrion is “far from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worst</i> Lannister, wouldn’t you say?”, but still seems utterly deaf to everything else that Margaery’s trying to tell her. She was very nearly trapped in a marriage with Joffrey … by comparison, marriage to Tyrion is the stuff of grand romance. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And it’s a damn sight better than what Theon’s enduring. (How’s THAT for a segue?) What did you make of the erstwhile Lord Greyjoy’s continuing torments, Nikki?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Mostly, they just keep me around to say witty things and occasionally frolic with half-naked women. Best gig I've ever had, really."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: There’s only one person I like to see tortured more than Joffrey, and that’s Theon Greyjoy. As I mentioned in my opening, his torturer is pulling some serious <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clockwork Orange</i> Pavlovian shit. Every time Theon thinks, “Okay, THIS is the time he’s going to be nice and everything will go back to normal,” NOPE, think again, sucker!! The first time, I completely get him falling for it. The second time, sure, he thought he was guessing and even I was convinced the guy was actually a Karstark. But then suddenly he’s being let off the torture wheel while two beautiful women undress and straddle him and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he thinks this is normal?!</i> Right. Not a set-up at all. These two women brought down your torturer with their tits and now they’re going to give you a gift because you probably smell like roses and there’s no one they’d rather be with. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I think Theon and Sansa have degrees from the same School of Stupidity. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But it was amazing, wasn’t it? He begins by protesting, and then finally gives in, but this time the audience isn’t tricked at all and we’re just waiting for the moment when it’ll all come to a head (so to speak, ahem…). And when the horn blasts and the women jump to attention, I couldn’t help but giggle with glee to see what was going to happen next. I can’t figure out if it’s Theon I hate, or just the annoying actor playing him, but I’m thinking it’s a combination of both (is he more likeable in the books?!) And at first I thought this man was training him, in a Burgessian way, to respond to certain things. For the rest of his life, he’ll become aroused and then want to vomit because he will associate torture with sex. Or someone will be nice to him and he’ll vomit because he associates trust with betrayal. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But then his torturer takes it one further, and comes at him with a particularly horrific looking instrument, asking if Theon’s cock is actually the thing he loves the most. My eyes widened and I think I made an “AAAiiiiiyyiiiiii” noise, and when I looked at my husband he had suddenly crossed his legs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very tightly</i>. And then we cut to Ygritte. Thank god for merciful cuts, so we don’t have to watch the merciless ones. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As for Joffrey, I completely agree with you, as I’ve been saying for a couple of seasons now: Jack Gleeson is tremendous in this scene. He doesn’t immediately cower when Tywin comes up the stairs, but instead first the smug look disappears, and then his one arm comes down, and you see him jerkily, hesitantly, pull back in his chair <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just a bit</i>, but not enough that it would be obvious to anyone for certain that he was terrified of his grandfather. He could have gripped the arms of the chair and shrunk back into the chair like a terrified child, but you see, as you say, the look on his face where he’s scared, but doesn’t want to betray that emotion to his grandfather, and then he looks up to him while realizing he’s standing in his way and is an even bigger threat to his throne than Daenerys. It’s such a fantastic scene. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And you’re right that Gleeson is quite charming in interviews. Here’s one he gave where he talked about the relationships between Joffrey and Margaery and Joffrey and Sansa, and you can hear his real Irish accent here, something I’ve never heard him slilp into on the show. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Now, we’ve been terribly lax when it comes to Bran/Osha/Jojen/Jojen’s sister whose name I can’t remember. Part of that is because they get about three minutes per episode, and their scenes rarely move the plot forward. Do they play a relatively small part in the third book? Are they getting any closer to their destination? (They just don’t seem to be getting very far to me, but it’s hard to tell how much headway they’re making when we only ever see them at camp.)</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hodor thinking: "She can't seriously be expecting an answer, right?"</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">They’re getting about precisely as much screen time as their story needs. The whole Bran-becoming-a-warg storyline is much more interesting in the book, mainly because we get all sorts of exposition and description that we don’t get in the series—probably because it’s not an easy thing to depict Bran’s experience of seeing through his direwolf Summer’s eyes and the sensation of possessing (or riding along in) his body. So, yeah … we’re just seeing them for a few minutes an episode as a means of reminding us that they’re there. Still … traveling … north. Though to be fair, they writers do shoehorn in some interesting dialogue here and there—it just doesn’t involve Bran (or the other one, wossname). This episode we are reminded of precisely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i> Osha came south, and why she was willing to give up the freedom of the wildlings to become first a servant and then a guardian to the youngest Starks. It is a useful bit of backstory (which I’m pretty sure isn’t in the novel, but I’m suddenly uncertain about that): Osha’s willingness to subordinate herself to the kneelers and her flat-out refusal to go north of the Wall proceeds from the same fear that allows Mance Rayder to unite the wildlings.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Speaking of brief appearances, we haven’t mentioned Arya’s few minutes of screen time—in which she manages to escape Beric <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">et al</i> in a fit of pique, only to run into the welcoming arms of the Hound. Did you see that coming?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: No, I didn’t, and it was definitely a shock. Arya thought she was with a trusted group of men, but they’re easily distracted and getting her to Riverrun certainly isn’t a priority for them. Again, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I still remember the Hound being a sympathetic character — tortured by the Mountain, trying to save Sansa, always being respectful to the Starks as far as I can remember — and then he’s turned back into the bad guy who killed the butcher’s boy in season 1 when he’s faced with Arya again. So there’s part of me that wonders if she might be better off with him than with the Brotherhood? They started off as a really positive group of men, and have become a little creepier since then, especially with He Who Cannot Be Killed and their allegiance to the Lord of Light. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And now over to the best scene of the episode: Brienne, Jaime and a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">freakin’ bear!!!</i> I hope I wasn’t alone among <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buffy</i> fans when I immediately shouted, “They made a bear! Undo it! Undo it!” WOW. I mean, we had a hint a few weeks ago with the Hold Steady doing “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” song, but I guess I didn’t realize it would extend beyond the drunken singing of it. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And how much do I love that Brienne wasn’t cowering in a corner, but facing that beast head on, knowing she didn’t have a hope in hell but still giving it her all. She is absolutely fantastic. The scene of Jaime first telling the man that they must go back for Brienne (and using his cunning once again, explaining what he’ll tell Tywin if he helps him, and what he’ll tell Tywin if he doesn’t), followed by Jaime leaping into the pit with Brienne to help save her, once and for all solidifies his position as a fully sympathetic character with the audience on his side. He realizes that the only reason Brienne cannot be bought back by her father — because they’re holding out for sapphires — is his fault, and he’s going to fix it. And, we can tell from the goodbye scene between the two of them, he has an immense respect for her. Perhaps, now that she’s wearing an ugly dress, he also can see she’s actually a woman. But I think I’d like to see this relationship grow into one of mutual admiration and respect and not a romance. That said, I trust wherever GRRM is planning on taking this duo. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Didn’t Stephen Colbert do this in a Threatdown? “And the number one threat to freakishly tall female uber-warriors? Bears.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Once again, a scene that is awesome in the book is made even more awesome on the show. In one of the trailers for season three, there is a very, very brief glimpse of a distraught, bloodied Brienne looking terrified, with men arrayed above her looking down. I (and probably everyone who has read the books) thought “Bear pit! Bear pit!” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And you’re right—Brienne is not one to cower in the corner of the pit, wooden sword or no. Gwendoline Christie continues to be amazing in this role, and her performance captures a heartbreaking mixture of terror and defiance as she faces down what is certainly going to be her death. Until Jaime comes to the rescue! For once in his life actually acting like a knight, throwing himself into harm’s way for the sake of doing what is right and just. It’s our first real glimpse of the new Jaime Lannister, who, finding himself symbolically emasculated and indebted to this strange, baffling woman, finds he cannot any longer behave in the cavalier and amoral manner that has marked him since he earned the name “Kingslayer.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Well, dear friends, that is all for this week. Tune in next week for what promises to be, if my calculations are correct, the episode that will break the internet. And what’s even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i> exciting is that, because I am current back in Ontario visiting friends and family, next Sunday Nikki and I will actually watch the episode <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">together</i>! Perhaps we’ll even take a picture or two to commemorate this world-changing event.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">See everyone next week!</span></div>
Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-56234552742086928322013-05-07T19:58:00.000-02:302013-05-07T20:02:14.990-02:30Game of Thrones 3.06: The Climb<div class="MsoNormal">
Welcome once again to the Chris and Nikki <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> co-blog. This week: we talk about trust, betrayal, St. Sebastian, why Lady Olenna continues to be awesome, and what we think Littlefinger’s favourite book is. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Am I doing it right?" "Don't bother, they don't talk about you in this post."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher</b>: Though we ranged all over Westeros in this episode, it felt in the end like the prominent narrative thread was Jon Snow’s. Certainly, the final shot of him and Ygritte kissing atop the Wall conveyed that idea, and while I admit to cringing just a little at the heavy-handed romanticism of the moment—made all the more jarring by how out of place it felt in this series—we know that there’s no such thing as unalloyed happiness in Westeros, and soon Jon Snow’s conflicted loyalties will complicate things rather a lot. Or, as Theon’s torturer puts it, “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”</div>
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What I found interesting about the Jon Snow / Ygritte storyline this episode was the way Ygritte framed the question of loyalty. It reminded me of E.M Forster’s famous line, “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” The tension between personal relationships and devotion to a larger cause was a theme running through much of this episode. It is, really, the tension between the concrete and the abstract, between what one lives on a personal basis and the larger, often byzantine superstructure of ideology and politics, and the oaths and obligations they entail. Jon Snow learned honour at his father’s knee, and Ned Stark was one of the most honourable men in Westeros—to a fault, and to his demise. Jon took the black as a result of a combination of idealism, honour, and neglect, joining the Night’s Watch at least in part because his bastardy meant he would never rise to any prominence otherwise. But as we have seen, he idolized Ned and took all his lessons about leadership, loyalty and honour to heart.</div>
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But not so much that he didn’t attempt to desert when he heard of Ned’s execution in season one, only brought back by his friends. “Honour set you on the Kingsroad,” Commander Mormont said then. “And honour brought you back.” “My friends brought me back.” “I didn’t say it was <i>your</i> honour.” The Night’s Watch was, and remains, his new family.</div>
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But Ygritte is a spoiler, for she represents a form of love Jon has never experienced; and we know from his story about his one abortive experience at a brothel that he is no seducer. Ygritte sees more clearly than her fellow wildlings, in part because she understands Jon Snow, and she knows that one such as he would never turn his cloak. But she also sees in him the power that a personal bond has, and personal love—love that was strong enough to make him desert in season one, and she believes that, though he’ll not betray the Night’s Watch, he’s also incapable of betraying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her</i>. “I’m your woman right now,” she says. “You’re going to be loyal to your woman.” Their commanders and leaders, she points out, care nothing for them—for them, they’re just pieces in the game, just “soldiers in their armies.” They don’t matter to their leaders, but “with you and me, it matters to me and you. Don’t ever betray me.”</div>
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And however uncharacteristically sentimental the last shot of the episode was, its moment of happiness is cruelly undercut by the memory of the Brotherhood’s betrayal of Gendry—something that does not occur in the novels. At no point in the books is there a meeting between Melissandre and Thoros, and Gendry is not sold. Which makes the moment somewhat more significant in the show, for it specifically contrasts Ygritte’s trust in Jon Snow’s personal loyalty. Previously, Gendry avowed that he was done with serving and being loyal to inconstant leaders, preferring instead the familial egalitarianism of the Brotherhood. His betrayal—for purely pragmatic reasons—reminds us rather sharply of two sad realities: that Ygritte’s ethos about personal loyalty is just as uncertain as the caprices of the powerful; and that betrayal by those close to you is infinitely crueler than betrayal by an ideal.</div>
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What did you think of this episode, Nikki?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think my dentist has this print in his waiting room.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: You and I picked up on exactly the same overarching theme of this episode. I felt like it could have been subtitled, “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” But… that would be a rather long and unwieldy subtitle, so… </div>
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I also disliked the overly sentimental ending between Ygritte and Jon (though I like that Gareth has made a serious enemy of both of them), and thought the special effects might have been the worst I’ve seen on the show. For the most part, I think the effects are spectacular, as opposed to the local cable network green-screen look of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Once Upon a Time</i>, but when the camera pulled back you could see the Wall in the foreground just not lining up with the fake scenery in the back, and it looked cheap. That’s a very, very tiny nitpick about an otherwise excellent episode. </div>
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The episode opened with Sam and Gilly. Both have betrayed their groups and set out together, with him remaining loyal to her, and her doing what she has to in order to save her son. (I’m looking forward to the memes involving Gilly telling Sam to use less wood to make her hot. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but someone else will have to make it.) Sam is incredibly charming in this scene, showing both his aptitude as a poet — he tells her that the Wall is 700 feet high, made of ice, and “on a warm day, you can see it weeping” — and with children, when he sings a lullaby to put the baby to sleep. A lullaby that, to be honest, seems to have a harsh irony to it considering what Gilly’s father was actually like (as opposed to the father in this song), but a sweet lullaby nonetheless. </div>
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Theon is also getting a harsh lesson in betrayal and loyalty. In episode 4 he trusted his “saviour” so much that he spilled his guts on what he really thought of his father, how he felt about the Starks, and revealed that Rickon and Bran were both, in fact, still very much alive. Or, at least they were the last time he saw them. But then his new confidante betrayed him in the most horrific turn I think we’ve seen yet on the show, and he’s back where he started. Now, in a room with his now-torturer, he plays the game of “guess who I am” with the boy, with his little finger taking the brunt of the cringe-inducing result of the game. Despite the boy turning on him and proving himself false, Theon is lulled back again into thinking he’s right about something, that he’s guessed where he is, who the boy is, and who his family is. As viewers, we’re stunned that this boy is actually a Karstark, the son of the man that Robb Stark beheaded in the previous episode. And… then it’s not true. The boy played his part to the hilt, just as he’d done before, and then leapt up, pronounced himself a liar, and went to town on Theon’s little finger. If nothing else, he’s going to teach Theon why you should never EVER trust another living soul. </div>
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And in further broken loyalties, members of the House Frey have shown up to confront Robb Stark about betraying the oath and alliance he previous made with them so they could make the Crossing back in season 1. They’re willing to let it be water under the bridge [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obKLdou0LH0">rim shot</a>] as long as Robb’s uncle marries one of the daughters instead. The uncle doesn’t want to marry a daughter at all, and Robb gives him a big lecture about loyalty and oaths and the good of the nation and I just wanted to smack him the entire time. While what he said had some merit, it seems more than a tad hypocritical coming from him, the guy who married a field nurse after the oath had been sworn. In fact, I think Robb’s made a lot of mistakes and seems to be handling leadership rather badly. In season 1, I think most viewers were on side with the Starks, but now, Robb comes off as grossly inefficient and ineffective, and part of me wants to see him fall in battle just so another Stark can step up to the plate as the head of that family. Arya could certainly bring some honour back to them, and considering Sansa had the gall to ask if her family would be invited to the wedding, let’s just quietly snuff her out for sheer stupidity, shall we? </div>
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I know people have said Sansa, at least, is more interesting in the books. How does Robb fare, Chris? Is his portrayal on the show accurate? </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oh, yes. Please, tell me again how low and dishonorable I am. Really, that never gets tired."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>I would say the show has done an excellent job of depicting Robb. He must be a bit trickier for the writers to shape, as he doesn’t get any POV chapters of his own, but to my mind they’ve captured him admirably. I agree with you entirely that he’s had some major cock-ups (not least of which was his impetuous marriage), but we should also remember how young he is … and in the books, he’s even younger. His mistakes are the mistakes of youth, while his successes show a more mature mind at work. But where age and experience would smooth out the hills and valleys of impetuousness and pride, he hasn’t quite gotten there.</div>
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It’s worth noting, so long as we’re talking a lot about honour today, that in the novels his marriage had as much to do with that than with the tempests of passion. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Storm of Swords</i>, he takes a wound in a battle and is nursed back to health by the daughter of a noblewoman whose castle he shelters in. Over his recuperation, she progresses from nursing to playing nurse, as it were; if Robb were more like Robert Baratheon or, really, ninety-nine percent of the men of Westeros, he’d have cheerfully notched his bedpost and moved on. But like Jon Snow, Robb is his father’s son, leaving him nothing else for it but to do the honourable thing and make an honest woman of his inadvertent conquest. We assume that, like Jon, he must have been genuinely in love to transgress his oath … but then, the Freys aren’t likely to forgive such weakness.</div>
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Hence, Robb’s romance with and marriage to Talisa on the show irked me a little last season. I understand why the writers made the change, but it detracts from the strength of Robb’s character somewhat (though it does make his wife something more than the shrinking violet she is in the books). </div>
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To be fair to Robb, he’s completely cognizant of his hypocrisy and acknowledges as much to Edmure, saying “You’re paying for my sins … It’s not fair or right.” I’m actually least sympathetic to Edmure in this scene, if for no other reason than that his main objection doesn’t seem to be the prospect of marrying beneath him but that he doesn’t get to pick one of the hot chicks from Walder Frey’s brood. In the novel he actually goes a step further, speculating darkly that Frey will probably stick him with someone fat and toothless out of spite. </div>
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But at least Edmure has a semblance of choice (the Blackfish’s threats to his teeth notwithstanding), which is a damn sight better than what Tyrion, Loras, Sansa, and Cersei have in King’s Landing. Once again, the Queen of Thorns is magnificent in her showdown with Tywin—proving utterly blasé when Tywin tries to leverage her with a not-so-subtle allusion Loras’ proclivities. Her frank admission is awesome enough, but her curiosity about Tywin’s own experimentation had me cheering: “Did you grow up with boy cousins, Lord Tywin? Sons of your father’s bannerman, squires, stableboys? … I congratulate you upon your restraint. But it’s a natural thing, two boys having a go at each other between the sheets … we don’t tie ourselves in knots over a discrete bit of buggery.” And even more awesome? She turns his game around on him: “But brothers and sisters. Where I come from, that stain would be very difficult to wash out.” As she then points out, the sexual frolics of the highborn matter very little; but a queen’s infidelity, incestuous or not, throws a very large monkey wrench into the question of succession.</div>
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But in the end, the question of lineage and the imperative of having viable heirs proves to be Olenna’s weakness: she might not care about who Loras fucks, but she does require him, eventually, to provide little Tyrells to carry on the family name. Thus Tywin’s threat to name him to the Kingsguard, an order who are forbidden to marry or father (legitimate) children, carries real weight, and the Queen of Thorns capitulates. </div>
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This scene was not, I should note, in the novel—nor for that matter is the plan to marry Cersei to Loras. In the books, Loras has an older brother named Wyllas, a gentle soul who has a club foot because of an injury sustained at a tournament in his youth. It is to Wyllas that Olenna plots to marry Sansa, and after that plan is rumbled by the Lannisters, it is to him that Tywin means to give Cersei. Loras is named to the Kingsguard immediately after the Battle of the Blackwater.</div>
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What did you think of this game of marriages, Nikki?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"How does it feel to be engaged to a man who's prettier than you?" "I don't know. How does it feel to be engaged to a woman who could carry you around in her pocket?"</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: How interesting! Out of curiosity, how old is Robb Stark in the book? I find their ages rather hard to determine on the show. He could be in his late twenties or early thirties for all you can tell on the show, but I gather from what you’re saying he’s a teenager in the books or thereabouts? And I agree with you that the story of his conquest in the book is far more sympathetic than the Talisa story here. </div>
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I should note, however, that I’ve never begrudged him that marriage; only the hypocrisy with which he looks upon Edmure, completely shocked that he won’t do it. He does, as you say, admit as much, but it doesn’t make it any better. And I also agree with you that regardless of Robb’s hypocrisy, Edmure is always the least sympathetic person in the room. Tobias Menzies just has that way about him (he was even on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Who </i>a couple of weeks ago, playing a spineless shit over there, too). </div>
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The Olenna/Tywin scene was absolutely delicious. As I watched it, my husband and I kept going, “Oooooohh… OOOOOHHHH…” as they lobbed one hardball after another at each other. It was like watching two skilled fencers parrying, or two grandmasters playing chess. Olenna clearly has the upper hand for most of the conversation (her comment about the incest was FANTASTIC), but as you say, Tywin comes in for the checkmate. It’s interesting that he doesn’t deny Cersei and Jaime’s relationship, but instead says that if this is true, then Joffrey isn’t the king, and the Tyrells are throwing their best girl to someone who’s not the rightful heir. ALL TRUE, of course, but it simply can’t be, not if she wants to carry on the family name, as you say. Just a brilliant scene. Diana Rigg has equalled Peter Dinklage now: they’re the two people I want in every episode, verbally sparring with another person. And both of them have done so with Tywin… and lost. </div>
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In addition to the dialogue you quoted, I want to add how much I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">loved </i>it that when Tywin first hints at Loras’s proclivities, Olenna waves it all away with a “Yes, yes, he’s a sword swallower through and through.” HAHAHA!!!</div>
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Another scene worth noting, of course, linking to this one, is Tyrion and Cersei together. These two have been locking horns since the first season, but now they find themselves joined together in this horrible betrayal by their father. Tyrion asks who of the four of them is getting the worst deal, and if you look at it that way, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no one</i> wins. Sansa ends up with a Lannister, a family she hates, and the imp at that. Tyrion is deeply in love with Shae, and has to marry Sansa instead. Cersei is once again thrown into a political marriage, but this time it’s not with a boor, it’s with a man who has no attraction to her whatsoever because he’s gay. And Loras has to be tied down to a woman who is older than he is, belongs to a family he despises, and is, well, a woman. Loras embraces the idea of wedding Sansa, because he knows that Sansa is stupid and seems to be the only person in all of King’s Landing who hasn’t figured out he’s gay. He knows he’ll marry her and continue to climb into bed with other men. But will that be as easy with Cersei? And will he enjoy being the stepfather of the most evil little shit in Westeros? Mmm… no. </div>
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Tyrion uses this moment of weakness in Cersei to finally get to the bottom of what happened during the battle. She admits that he saved the city with the wildfire, and he realizes that Joffrey was the one who put the order through to have him killed. Cersei refers to Margaery as Joffrey’s little “doe-eyed whore,” and then the two of them look off into the distance together as they realize they are united in the sense that, as Cersei puts it, “We’re all being shipped off to hell together.” Oh, and the fact that they both believe Jaime is coming back, and they are both fiercely loyal to him. </div>
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This scene leads right into Tyrion having to tell Sansa what the hell has been going on, and the end of the episode moves very, very quickly, as Tyrion breaks the news to Sansa with Shae <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">standing right there</i>, Baelish and Varys talk about the throne and chaos and OH MY GOD JOFFREY HAS SAINT SEBASTIANED ROS RIGHT THERE IN HIS ROOM WTF?! and Sansa stands weeping on the shore as Littlefinger’s boat rides away, without her on it. Yikes. </div>
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So let’s back up a bit, and focus on Baelish and Varys’s final conversation. I know you’re dying to talk about this, Chris, so I’ll give you the floor to get it started. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Your problem, Varys? Every day you wake up castrated in a city that ain't."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>I am in fact dying to talk about it, not least because of Aiden Gillen’s chilling delivery … but mostly because it represents something of a shift from the Littlefinger of the novels. Petyr Baelish is unctuous, slippery, and treacherous in the books, to be certain, but not entirely unsympathetic. GRRM plays his cards close to the vest with Littlefinger, but allows us hints of a wistful humanity hidden under his long-forged armour of cynical cunning. In the novels we come to understand that one of his crucial impetuses for everything he has done is the torch he still carries for Catelyn—and that he sees much of her in Sansa. There are, as in the series, a lot of creepy interchanges between him and Sansa, but we’re led to believe he’s actually working to help her as much as himself. (Of course, this might all prove to be false).</div>
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Conversely, the series seems to have made a definitive choice about Baelish’s character, best summed up in Varys’ bleak pronouncement that “He’d see the realm burn if he could be king of the ashes.” There isn’t much to redeem him at this point, not after we’ve had half a season to get to know Ros with her clothes on and develop an emotional investment in her character. As we all know, GRRM is notorious for killing off his characters, often in shocking and surprising ways; the final montage of this episode demonstrated that the writers have learned that lesson well. The image of Joffrey lovingly fingering his crossbow was creepy enough, but as he rises and the camera pans left I realized an instant before we see Ros (incidentally, in my notes I have written “Holy St. Sebastian!”) which “client” Littlefinger had given her to. </div>
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His interchange with Varys begins as these fencing matches have since the series began—a few jabs and feints, the kind of I-loathe-you-politely banter we’ve come to expect. Initially, their point of discussion is about the stories we tell, and the way certain narratives work to cohere the body politics. Varys believes in the power of symbolism, and in the value of subordinating oneself to an idea. But the moment he acknowledges that he serves “the Realm,” Littlefinger’s snark turns into outright contempt. The “realm,” he sneers, is “a story we agree to tell each other over and over again until we forget that it’s a lie.” </div>
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As I listened to Littlefinger’s words, I wrote in my notes “Bet he has <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlas Shrugged</i> on his bedside table.” Because the speech that follows is pure Ayn Rand: “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. Some are given a chance to climb but they refuse. They cling to the realm. Or the Gods. Or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.” What differentiates the Littlefinger on the show from the Littlefinger of the novels is precisely this Randian radical individualism—the “objectivism” of believing that the only concrete and therefore moral choice in life is pure self-interest. Hence the contempt in his voice when he rebukes Varys’ ostensible altruism. </div>
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Of course, Littlefinger’s speech ends with “The climb is all there is” spoken over the image of Jon Snow’s ice ax summiting the Wall. As Jon and Ygritte drag themselves up, gasping, and gaze down at the <s>thrift shop landscape painting</s> vista to the south, we have reason enough to see the poverty of Littlefinger’s philosophy. Orell cut Jon and Ygritte loose to save himself; but Jon chooses not to do the same, instead risking himself to save his lover. </div>
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Any last thoughts, Nikki?</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: So well put. Littlefinger has pretty much thrown everything to the wind to serve his own needs. He’s the epitome of someone climbing over the heads of others to get to the top, and he’ll stop at nothing, clearly. In season 1, he seemed like a wrench in the plans of the others moving across the chessboard to the Iron Throne. Now, he’s one of the pieces, working his way up as if he believes he has as much right to sit there as anyone else. When the Freys demand Harrenhal early in the episode, I rubbed my hands together and thought, “Oh, this’ll be good,” because we know that that is now Littlefinger’s domain, and he’s fought hard to get it. With so much parrying and movement among the parties, I can’t even begin to comprehend how GRRM is planning to fit all of this into a mere seven books, regardless of how long they are. This game has no end that I can see. </div>
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We’ll see you all next week!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You really are more important than all these others, Gendry. Seriously, they wrote this whole scene just for you."</td></tr>
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-43159998564588300542013-04-30T20:38:00.001-02:302013-04-30T20:42:52.348-02:30Game of Thrones 3.05: Kissed by Fire<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hello once again, and welcome to the great Chris and Nikki <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> co-blog project (version 3.0). Well, we’re at the halfway mark for season three (time flies when you’re immolating slavemasters with dragonfire), and after last week’s barn-burner (castle-burner?) we have an episode with a slightly statelier pace, more invested in building story than great dramatic flourishes … which isn’t to say there wasn’t a LOT going on in this episode. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So without wasting any time … Nikki, your thoughts?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">This episode certainly didn’t have quite the shock and awe of last week’s episode, but it jumped all over the place and covered a hell of a lot of ground in an hour. One theme that linked many of the stories together was betrayal and trust. Robb Stark deals with a traitor, ignoring the suggestions from his advisors around him and letting emotion get in the way of a shrewd political move (which seems to be Robb’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">modus operandi</i>, to be honest). In Jaime’s brilliant story about why “Kingslayer” is a bit of an exaggeration, he talks about how the Mad King went mad because he believed he saw traitors everywhere, and could trust no one. Stannis tells his daughter that Davos is a traitor that she shouldn’t trust. Danaerys has clearly gained the trust of the Unsullied simply by freeing them. Loras beds a man who is betraying his secrets to Baelish. And as Cersei is still giggling over the consequences of having betrayed Sansa’s secret to Tywin, she finds out her daddy isn’t exactly someone she should have trusted with the information when she ends up on the butt end of his reprisals as well. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let’s back up to the Jaime scene. I’ve said this to my husband a couple of times so far, but I think Nikolaj Coster-Waldau does an extraordinary job with Jaime Lannister, especially considering English is not the Danish actor’s first language. He pulls off the British accent impeccably (off the show, he speaks with something close to an American accent), and has somehow completely turned out sympathies to him, rather than against him as they’ve been for two full seasons. And for anyone still on the fence by this episode, his shocking confession to Brienne ought to have pushed you over. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I loved this scene, both for the confession, and for the fact that he bares all while… baring all, while his listener, Brienne, is also naked — vulnerable at first, before taking charge of the situation. (I need to mention once again how I also think Gwendoline Christie is fantastic in this role, and the chemistry between the two of them is marvelous.) The body language alone is worth noticing. She’s immersed in the water up to her neck, scrubbing so hard Jaime tells her she’ll scrape off her skin, and then he walks in, throws off his clothes, and she, horrified, looks away and tells him to go to the other hot tub. He doesn’t, and instead immerses himself in her tub while she cowers in the corner, curled up in a fetal ball while refusing to look at him. Then he continues taunting her the way he’s been taunting her the entire time, seeing her as a male rather than female, mocking the way she’s “protected” him thus far. She, infuriated, suddenly stands up, with her entire body from the thighs up exposed. He stops, stares, and for one moment you realize he’s seeing her as a woman for the very first time. The look of defiance on her face proves that wasn’t what she was going for, she was simply in a warrior position, but he’s humbled, recalling that for a woman, she’s done a hell of a job protecting him. Hell, for a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">man</i> she’d have done a hell of a job protecting him. She sits back down in the water, but this time her face is one of interest and concern, and she no longer folds herself up in shame. She faces him in the water the same way he faces her, as an equal. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In his story, he sets the record straight on what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> happened. Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King, was obsessed with Wildfire. Of course he was, being a “dragon.” He began hiding it with his treasures throughout the city, underneath every part of it, and when Robert Baratheon stormed King’s Landing, Tywin Lannister — who was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">supposed</i> to be on the side of the king — switched sides, knowing that Aerys’s side was the losing one. Jaime betrayed his father by going to the king and begging him to surrender, telling him that he could stop the slaughter by doing so (it was his second attempt, and he says even Varys told Aerys to surrender, but Pycelle told him the Lannisters would never betray him… Pycelle being proven once again to be the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worst advisor ever</i>). Aerys instead told Jaime to bring him his father’s head, and that he’d burn everyone in the city. And so Jaime killed his pyromancer and then stabbed Aerys in the back as he ran away, and then slit his throat for good measure. Betrayal upon betrayal, showing the burden that Jaime has carried with him all these years, being given a name that he believes isn’t his. As he collapses in Brienne’s arms (another moment where both of them are exposed, though there’s nothing sexual about the scene at all except through our collective gaze), she shouts for help: “Help! The Kingslayer!” and before he passes out, he mutters, “Jaime… my name is Jaime.” It’s a mesmerizing scene. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">How did it compare to the one in the book, Chris?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Well, starting with Jaime and Brienne—their conversation in the baths squared up almost perfectly with the novel, and again, much of Jaime’s monologue is word-for-word. I agree with you emphatically: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was chilling in his delivery, in his sad, detached, almost monotone recounting of the series of events that changed his life forever and made him the man he is today. It made me wonder, as it did the first time I read it, how much of Jaime’s persona evolves from that act of regicide; is his amorality and arrogance hard-wired in him, or is a carefully wrought defense mechanism born of the Mad King’s blood? Did Jaime Lannister hear all that was said of him, all those voices hypocritically condemning his act while being silently relieved (voices like that of Ned Stark) and choose to own the title of Kingslayer and all it entailed? If so, his stubborn assertion that “My name is Jaime” as he faints in Brienne’s arms signals a shift in his character. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I also agree with you that this episode is very much about trust and betrayal. Trust is a precious commodity in Westeros, given that betrayal seems as ubiquitous as cruelty. Jaime and Brienne offer a useful little exchange. “Let’s call a truce,” he suggests, weary of their jousting. “You need trust to have a truce,” she retorts. Jaime’s answer, “I trust you,” is really one of the more extraordinary statements made in this episode, not just because it indicates how his conception of Brienne has changed, but for the simple fact that no one else seems inclined to utter such a dangerous sentiment. Indeed, given the multilayered plots on display in this episode, the simple act of trusting appears as the height of naiveté. Especially on the part of someone like Jaime: trust entails a certain submissiveness, the need to subsume oneself to another’s caprices, not something we expect of Jaime Lannister; it is obvious that Brienne does not herself trust Jaime, which makes his avowal doubly significant.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But where Jaime and Brienne are more or less peers, characters like Gendry have grown weary of having their trust betrayed by the people they serve. Responding to Arya’s distress that he plans to join the Brotherhood, he says “I’ve served men my entire life. I served Tobho Mott in King’s Landing and he sold me to the Night’s Watch. I served Lord Tywin at Harrenhal wondering every day if I’d get tortured or killed. I’m done serving.” As he points out, Beric may be the Brotherhood’s leader, but he’s a leader by the sufferance of the people he leads—after a lifetime in servitude, Gendry is understandably attracted to the Brotherhood’s egalitarian structure and mission. As Beric said last week, the Brotherhood fights on behalf of the common people who have been betrayed by their leaders. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And it is not as if their leaders seem to show any genuine interest in their plight: even our beloved Lady Olenna displays her cynical and self-interested streak when discussing finances with Tyrion. Treading water as best he can in his new position as Master of Coin, Tyrion searches for ways to see the realm through to financial stability, and in the short term that means mitigating the obscene costs of the Royal Wedding. Perhaps he hoped that Olenna’s hard-edged pragmatism and impatience with fripperies would win him an ally in trying to reduce the scale of the wedding, but she is having none of it. The wedding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i> be excessive, she states firmly—what otherwise is the point of it being “royal”? When he tries again to steer her toward the matter of expense, she points out that the wedding is about much, much more than just crowning a new king—it’s about giving the people a spectacle. However much the intervention of the Tyrells has salved the hunger in King’s Landing, “The people are hungry for more than just food. They crave distractions.” Bread and circuses: the symbolic value of the wedding far outstrips its monetary cost, for giving the people leisure to contemplate their leaders on an empty stomach is “likely to end with us being torn to pieces. A royal wedding is much cheaper, wouldn’t you agree?” And because she <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> a pragmatist, once she has tortured Tyrion enough, she agrees to cover half the wedding’s costs. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"They never let us do this sort of thing at Downton."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">One of the things that consistently impresses me about this show is the way the writers frequently work in balanced themes and set-pieces. The overarching series of novels might be called “Ice and Fire,” but this episode was very much about fire and water. “Kissed by Fire,” the episode’s title, is a reference to Ygritte’s flaming red hair—children kissed by fire are considered lucky among the wildlings—but can also refer to the consummation of the attraction and affection that has developed between her and Jon Snow. Jon is, indeed, “kissed by fire” as Ygritte basically forces him to prove the truth of his betrayal by betraying his final oath, that of celibacy. Like the bathing scene between Jaime and Brienne, the post-coital bath taken by Jon and Ygritte signifies a cementing of trust—and is, it is worth noting, the first genuinely joyful and tender depiction of lovemaking since Robb and Talisa fell in love last season. It was, indeed, something of a relief after four episodes in which sex has been either violent and violative, or purely mercenary. Not that it isn’t emotionally ambivalent: we know Jon Snow is only pretending to turn his cloak, meaning that Ygritte’s trust is misplaced (and just like when I read this scene in the novel, I found myself wondering if her wistful desire to stay in the cave forever wasn’t her intuiting that on some level); but Jon’s desire for her and his growing love is genuine.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Fire is also depicted as an agent of justice (Beric Dondarrion’s vengeful flaming sword) and as restorative (Thoros bringing Beric back from the dead). But it is also destructive and wild, as in Jaime’s story about the Mad King’s plan to burn the city to the ground. In the same way, water—cleansing and restorative in the bathing scenes—has an ambivalent nature. Robb executes Rickard Karstark in the pouring rain; but even more striking is the creepy song sung by Stannis’ sweet but sadly disfigured daughter Shireen, a kind of trippy-horror version of “Under the Sea.” And when we finally meet Stannis’ erstwhile queen Selyse, we find her in a chamber where she has preserved her stillborn sons in some translucent liquid, like a mad scientist’s early experiments. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What did you think of the scenes on Dragonstone, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: :::shudder::: The scenes on Dragonstone, much like the ones in the North with Mance Rayder, feel like something the readers are getting a lot more out of than the non-readers. (Perhaps one of the goals of season 3 is to make all of us read the books once and for all.) It certainly felt like we were missing out on some major backstory. It took a moment for me to realize the woman in the room was Stannis’s wife. And I couldn’t figure out why she and her daughter were locked up in a dungeon-type room. Can they get out? Are they trapped there? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What I could cull from the conversations is that she’s a follower of Melisandre and clearly an acolyte who puts her faith above her own well-being. She shows no judgement or jealousy about the fact her husband was unfaithful to her, because it was with the Red Lady. And yeah… her dead baby boys suspended in a green jelly-like liquid just adds further credence to the idea that anyone who follows the Lord of Light is batshit insane. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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That said, Beric appears to be one of those followers. We hear him say the prayer that Melisandre often chants (and that Selyse also says when we see her), “The night is dark and full of terrors.” He uses fire when he’s fighting, not only symbolic of the fire god but also, more pragmatically, it’s the one thing that makes the Hound pee himself in fear. I don’t know if he’s always been a follower or is a recent convert to the religion, but he definitely embraces it wholeheartedly. He tells the Hound, “The Lord of Light isn’t done with you yet” when the Hound walks away from the battle. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’m thinking the religion of the show is more fleshed-out and important in the books, but from the show I get a sense that the Lord of Light is a monotheistic religion that stands in contrast to the more pantheistic religions on Westeros. I also get a sense that there aren’t a lot of followers of the Lord of Light in Westeros, but instead in the outlying areas. Would that be correct? Is much made of any major characters in Westeros worshipping any gods? Other than the occasional “by the gods” uttered by certain characters (most notably Catelyn) I don’t seem to sense any particular religious fervor among any other characters. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Stannis’s daughter is adorable, despite the one side of her face that’s been eaten away by disease. Despite her father telling her to stay away from Davos, she immediately goes back over to him, offers to teach him how to read and continues to talk to him the way she was before. Here’s hoping Davos can influence Stannis’s daughter in a way he was unable to influence his own son. I’m very intrigued by the friendship between the two, and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Is there anything more that could be filled in about Dragonstone from the books that would be non-spoilery? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I think what we miss on the show is the bigger picture of Stannis: we get that he’s a hard man, unyielding, wedded first and foremost to his own rigid sense of justice, but the show doesn’t offer some of the nuance and insight into his character the books do. What we probably miss most of all is his simmering sense of resentment: he has always felt he has been denied his due, felt constantly slighted by his brother Robert, and above all else loathes the broader tendency among people to be lax in their morals and selective in the application of law and justice. He is Lord of Dragonstone because that was Robert’s “reward” for him for his service in the rebellion, while he gave Storm’s End (the Baratheon castle) to Renly. He is ill liked among the people, something about which he is painfully aware; and his marriage is cold and loveless. Casting Tara Fitzgerald might have been a misstep in this respect, as she is anything but homely and plain (as Selyse is described in the novels), but then again they did a good job of making her haggard and austere. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One thing we never quite get (at least not so far) is how Melissandre insinuated herself into Stannis’ councils. We know she saw him in her scrying and believes him to be Westeros’ saviour; but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i> someone as hardheaded as Stannis would throw over the religion of his birth in the name of her red god is never explained. One assumes she offered him what no one else ever did: passion, devotion, and recognition of his supposed greatness.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Selyse’s conversion, on the other hand, is easy to understand. Long neglected by her cold and taciturn husband (in the novels there is passing reference to the fact that Stannis does his “husbandly duties” once a year, and grudgingly at that), Melissandre must have offered something akin to a revelation. We get a hint of her near-fanaticism here; in the novels, she is the most vocal prosthelytizer for Melissandre and her god. Those among Stannis’ men who have converted enthusiastically to the worship of R’Hllor are called the “queen’s men,” whereas those who remain skeptical (like Davos, and like Stannis himself) are the king’s.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We don’t get, it is true, a very strong sense of the religions of Westeros and elsewhere in Martin’s world on the show—which isn’t entirely surprising, as there are limited opportunities for that kind of exposition. Basically, the “old gods” of the north represent a pantheistic form of worship, symbolized by the weirwoods; the “seven” of the rest of Westeros seem at first a polytheistic pantheon, but there is a lot of rhetoric here and there in the novels about how they are just seven faces of the one god. In this respect, they are not unlike Jungian archetypes, each representing different facets of human identity and behaviour (Father, Mother, Maiden, Crone, Smith, Warrior, Stranger). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Melissandre’s religion appears monotheistic, but is closer to an ancient religion like Zoroastrianism—a Manichaean faith built on the mythos of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two</i> deities locked in perennial battle. The “red god” R’Hllor is opposed to the Enemy (He Who Shall Not Be Named, if you like), the embodiment of cold, darkness, and death. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There is more I can say, but I don’t want to skirt too close to spoiler territory.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">To return to the question of trust and betrayal—which, again, tends to get bound up in the question of service—the interchanges between Ser Jorah and Barristan were interesting, and nicely done. I like the way the two knights’ relationship is evolving, and the way in which each is coming to embody a certain kind of devotion and loyalty. Jorah, we know, is in love with Daenerys; his devotion to her cause is inextricable from his desire for her (what was lovely about the final scene of last week’s episode, as I mentioned, was that we saw admiration on his face when he suddenly realized just what kind of queen she is). But he also does believe in her … as he says in response to Barristan’s question, he believes in her with all his heart. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But we also know Jorah is a venal man, and that his downfall in Westeros was not so much in falling helplessly in love with a vain woman, but his unthinking willingness to do anything for her … culminating in selling slaves and earning himself exile. Barristan, by contrast, is one of the most famously virtuous knights of the seven kingdoms, and is driven by his sense of honour and duty. That sense of honour sends him to find Daenerys; he has no especial emotional investment, and as we see in his conversation with Jorah, that makes him somewhat more clear-eyed. He tries, tactfully, to suggest that someone with as speckled a past as Jorah might not be the best person to be seen with Daenerys when she returns to Westeros, at least not in the elevated position he now holds. Unsurprisingly, Jorah is having none of it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The most interesting part of their discussion is when they talk about King Robert’s attempts to assassinate Daenerys—which, as we know, Jorah was initially complicit in, at least insofar as he was feeding Robert intelligence. Jorah has a worried moment, wondering if Barristan knows this … but the other knight blithely says that he didn’t bother attending Small Council meetings, meaning he wouldn’t know that. I need to go back to season one to see if Barristan was in fact present when Ned Stark protested Robert’s desire to kill her: I seem to think he was. And if he was, this part of the conversation was a subtle warning to Jorah.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What do you think, Nikki?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: I remember Barristan from season 1, when he was the head of the Kingsguard (do I remember that correctly?) and he was with Robert Baratheon when the king died, apologizing for not having been there for him. There was a scene early in the season where Barristan, Baratheon, and Jaime Lannister are sitting around talking about great battles they’d been in, and Barristan says that the Mad King had killed Ned’s father, and it’s a good thing he hadn’t faced him on the battlefield. And then Joffrey disgraces him by removing him from the Kingsguard and claiming incompetency. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">He was fiercely loyal to Robert Baratheon, and to Ned Stark. And now, after saying he would have killed Daenerys’s father on the battlefield, he pledges his undying loyalty to the Targaryens. Should we be wary of him, or has he seen the way the Lannisters play the game, and since Ned is now gone he believes Daenerys is the true leader? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Speaking of the Lannisters, let’s look at that final scene again. Tywin, Cersei, and Tyrion are all around the table, and Tyrion is boasting of his early accomplishments as Master of Coin, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the royal wedding (I’d like to also mention as an aside that my favourite line of the episode is Olenna saying, “What good is the word ‘extravagant’ if it can’t be used to describe a royal wedding?!” Ha!). Cersei has just revealed to her father the plot to marry Sansa off to Loras, meaning the Tyrells would have the hold on Winterfell once the other Starks (inevitably, in their eyes) fall and make Sansa the sole heir. Tyrion makes a snide remark about Sansa missing certain parts that would make Loris happy, but his chuckles don’t last long before Tywin says he’s putting a kibosh on the plan and Tyrion will marry Sansa. (This suddenly changes the nature of the scene a couple of weeks ago between Tyrion and Shae, where he mentioned that Sansa was a lovely girl and Shae immediately became jealous and thought he meant more than just a passing comment on her beauty.) This news is devastating to Tyrion: First, he’s in love with Shae and not Sansa. Secondly, he actually feels compassion for Sansa, and doesn’t want to enslave her to a life with a mutilated dwarf. And thirdly, for his own sake, he doesn’t want to see the look of horror on her face when she learns her fate. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But Tywin’s punishments are not all reserved for Tyrion, as he wipes the smirk of Cersei’s face by saying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i> will marry Loras, securing their hold over the Tyrells. Cersei is also missing those particular parts that Tyrion had mentioned, and there’s not just a look of shock on Cersei’s face, but a look of utter devastation. He’s already done this to her once, forcing her to marry the fat, drunk, disgusting Robert Baratheon and stand by while he took many lovers, humiliating her along the way while she kept her own lover a secret. Now he’s going to do it to her again, but this time everyone knows that Loras is gay and that she’s being chained to more shame and humiliation, and yet another man who doesn’t love her. It’s one of those rare moments of sympathy for Cersei. </span></div>
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But it’s not the only sympathetic moment in the show. There’s a brief scene with Jaime early on, overshadowed by later scenes of Jaime in the hot tub or getting his stump lanced (and once again, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shudder</i></b>) where he first arrives at Bolton’s place and Bolton slowly describes the battle at King’s Landing, making Jaime think his sister was violated, mutilated, and destroyed. Only, of course, for Bolton to say, “And everyone is okay and lived happily ever after, amen, haha!” at the end of it. Jaime collapses to the ground in relief. After season 1, it’s hard to recall that there was actually a romance between Cersei and Jaime: apart, Jaime becomes more sympathetic with every episode, while Cersei continues to be vile with brief sympathetic moments, but where we see her asking after her beloved all the time, he doesn’t seem to ask about her. Now we see that she’s still in his head, and he still loves her very much. When a sympathetic character is in love with another, we can’t help but begin to see that second character through the eyes of the first. His love for her and his switch to becoming a hero of this show might just alter her in our eyes. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Any last thoughts, Chris? </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Didn't see that one coming, didya?"</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I was dreading—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dreading</i>—that scene where Tywin informs Tyrion he’s to marry Sansa. It was excruciating enough in the novel, and it was just as painful to watch. Poor Sansa … and poor Tyrion. She is really one of the few—perhaps the only—principal character who has absolutely no agency. She’s a lot more sympathetic than she was in season one, but she above all others has no power over her fate. I somehow don’t think I’m offering spoilers when I say she is less than enthused over her betrothal—besides finding Tyrion physically repulsive, she also cannot see him as anything other than a Lannister, and therefore complicit in her father’s murder. Which is unfortunate, as Tyrion displays genuine concern for her … a greedier and more selfish man would have rejoiced in the “gift” Tywin gave him, seeing only a comely wife and a great fortune and title, but Tyrion (besides being in love with Shae) displays the sort of empathy that seems otherwise absent in his family (though Jaime seems to be developing some).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We haven’t said much about Robb Stark’s quandary, and his decision to execute Rickard Karstark for murdering the Lannister boys … which is possibly just as well. I imagine it’s obvious to those who haven’t read the books that this storyline is slowly building to something, so I’ll let it alone for now. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Which, I think, brings us to the conclusion of yet another week. Once again, Nikki, a pleasure—it’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through the season!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXgjR2lwsdElNZS3xfLtx9330dPyNHRrTvbTo1NSuCaLLj8Qf52WgbH81uGoABLpqS6N3n_in4xtKmSexsnQEREgGyE1A5A4uIlYTV3UwYcqwIVtNd8y9Cij9KIDSaKyn3UWdSMA/s1600/Robb-and-Talisa-Stark-Gam-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXgjR2lwsdElNZS3xfLtx9330dPyNHRrTvbTo1NSuCaLLj8Qf52WgbH81uGoABLpqS6N3n_in4xtKmSexsnQEREgGyE1A5A4uIlYTV3UwYcqwIVtNd8y9Cij9KIDSaKyn3UWdSMA/s400/Robb-and-Talisa-Stark-Gam-008.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Robb, this just feels wrong without a crossbow."</td></tr>
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-70547078945064010422013-04-23T20:36:00.000-02:302013-04-23T20:39:53.479-02:30Game of Thrones 3.04: And Now His Watch Is Ended<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hello hello, and welcome again to the Nikki-Chris co-blog of <i>Game of Thrones</i>--now with extra dragon fire!</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">One of the things I love about watching this series as someone who has read the books is that there are so many heart-stopping, shocking, or (as with this week's episode) simply awesome moments in the books, it's almost as much fun watching other people experience them for the first time as it is to see them brought to glorious televisual<b> </b>realization.<b> </b>Daenerys's master-stroke at the end of this episode is just one such moment.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So without further ado ...</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GG6tyhQrCXTuFW1BhVMMIaAtsnHwYXZYihpbHNhDd0E-_82Upwaa95QVizJMwalUhFyTOagDvYf_QEWz4LsdPMFWkM0gZHwzOoPQkcmxkILiF9utTnvorJIAv5kXdwmwVkrk-A/s1600/627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GG6tyhQrCXTuFW1BhVMMIaAtsnHwYXZYihpbHNhDd0E-_82Upwaa95QVizJMwalUhFyTOagDvYf_QEWz4LsdPMFWkM0gZHwzOoPQkcmxkILiF9utTnvorJIAv5kXdwmwVkrk-A/s400/627.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Say 'bitch' again. I dare you."<b><br /></b></td></tr>
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</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher</b>: So …
kind of an uneventful episode, huh?</div>
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I am trying, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">trying</i>
so very hard to write down my impressions in a calm and objective manner … and
it’s taken me three tries to not open my bit here with all caps and multiple
exclamation points. I think I might be in a calmer headspace now, but for the
sake of not losing my shit, I am NOT going to begin with the end (as is my
inclination). I will leave off impressions of Daenerys’ awesomeness for you,
Nikki, as I’m curious to see how someone who hasn’t read the books reacts to
her elegant little solution to her problem. </div>
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Instead, I will begin in the middle: if it weren’t for the
immolation of Astapor in the final ten minutes, the most striking part of this
episode for me was the conversation between Cersei and Tywin. And, really,
that’s saying a lot, as this episode was full to bursting with a whole series
of remarkable two-handed short plays—Jaime and Brienne, Margaery and Sansa …
and Varys and Tyrion, Varys and Olenna, Varys and Ros (it was sort of the Varys
show, really, except again for the napalming of slavemasters at the end). </div>
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But Cersei and Tywin take the win in the understated
dialogue category. We have here articulated, finally, Cersei’s smoldering
resentment at not being taken seriously by her father. I couldn’t help but
think of it almost as a retread of Tyrion’s bitter exchange with their father
in episode one. We see that Tyrion isn’t alone in feeling marginalized by
Lannister senior—Cersei too believes that her particular talents and insights
aren’t being acknowledged, and like Tyrion she is treated to a pretty brutal
put-down. When she voices her (well-founded) fears that Margaery is
manipulating Joffrey, Tywin’s retort almost certainly had all those who hate
that little shit (i.e. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everyone</i>)
nodding emphatically in agreement: “I wish <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
could manipulate him. I don’t distrust you because you’re a woman. I distrust
you because you’re not as smart as you think you are. You’ve allowed that boy
to run roughshod over you and everyone else in this city.”</div>
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Truer words never spoken, and I want to take a moment, yet
again, to praise Charles Dance’s performance. That gravitas thing I keep coming
back to? He owns it. I’ve been wanting to share this very brief clip of him in
the adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Going
Postal</i>, in which he plays the enigmatic and very dangerous city Patrician,
Lord Vetinari:</div>
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He’s one of those actors who can convey more with an eyebrow
than most people can with semaphore flags and a megaphone. But what’s even
better in this scene? Cersei’s little smile as she listens. “Perhaps <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> should trying stopping him doing
whatever he likes,” she suggests, and in that moment I had an unaccustomed pang
of sympathy for her. Anyone who has been following these co-blogs from the
start knows that the casting of Lena Headey has been one of the few about which
I’ve been ambivalent—but every so often she nails it. </div>
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One last thought on the scene: her accusation that he is
doing “nothing” to get Jaime back and his response were pitch-perfect; but it’s
the letters that he is calmly writing as they speak that are the most important
prop in the scene. I’m not offering a spoiler here … just saying that, later in
this season (or possibly early in the next, I don’t know the schedule they’re
on) those letters will take on a massive significance.</div>
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And with that all said, I now cede the stage for Nikki’s
reaction to the fire-bombing of Astapor. Cue squeeing in three, two …</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDltWORCkYX7WQPyQuvWmcwuH11bDmBWXq4qZoEMpKFY9OOgsFYOsApnq1QQL67l9MvZ800T3d3e2kZeqk6oEkWFlY07w5ijvczu-3Cv-2NzWXzbAbRIk8kf1XezCroJmTTHcEVg/s1600/safe_image.php.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDltWORCkYX7WQPyQuvWmcwuH11bDmBWXq4qZoEMpKFY9OOgsFYOsApnq1QQL67l9MvZ800T3d3e2kZeqk6oEkWFlY07w5ijvczu-3Cv-2NzWXzbAbRIk8kf1XezCroJmTTHcEVg/s400/safe_image.php.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Smells like ... victory."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD. </div>
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Where do I start? That Daenerys DID understand everything
that horrible tyrant has said to her this whole time? That she figured out how
to have her army and get her dragon back, too? That she freed the men, and they
still remained with her? That she ended up heeding the advice of BOTH advisors
by not only getting an army that is well trained, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">earned</i> their respect, which is what she’d been told last week was the
most important thing? </div>
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That her dragon fucking <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">immolated</i>
Kraznys???!!! <br />
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Seriously, guys. Targaryens win the Game of Thrones. Game, set, match. We can
all go home now. My loyalties remain with Daenerys and I hope she takes down
every last one of them. What a frickin’ brilliant scene and end to a lead-up of
four episodes. </div>
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Daenerys having this epic triumph at the end of the episode
comes back to the gender issues you and I were talking about last week, and is
an ongoing trope on the show. Back to what you were just talking about, Chris,
Cersei demands to know why exactly she can’t be considered the heir. After all,
she and Jaime were twins, and therefore born at the same time, but he’s given
the title of heir simply because he’s got a Y chromosome. With Craster, there’s
a weird gender reversal where he kills the male babies rather than the female
ones, but only so he can feed the creatures in the forest and continue to
fornicate with his daughters. Not exactly a women’s lib move there. Lady Olenna
talks to Cersei and they discuss how ridiculous it is that men only are the
ones who have the power. Theon marvels at the fact his father gives so much to
his sister and nothing to him (he’s put out by the fact that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i> is a girl and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he </i>is a man, and therefore naturally deserving). And, in an
interesting addendum to the scene between Jaime and Brienne last week when they
were on the horse and she was asking him what he would do if he were a woman,
in this episode, now missing a hand, Jaime is in the depths of depression and
wants to die. Brienne tells him he’s suffered a “misfortune,” and he is
horrified, telling her he’s lost his sword hand, and “I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> that hand.” She looks at him and says with some disgust, “You
sound like a bloody woman.” Again, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i>
doesn’t self-identify as a “bloody woman,” and is put out to see him acting
like one. Almost immediately, he begins eating, showing a will to live. </div>
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In this episode, it’s the ones without penises who show the
intellect and nerve: Olenna, Daenerys, Cersei, Arya, Margaery, Ros, Brienne…
and Varys. Further to what you said above, I wrote in my notes this week, “Who
writes for Varys? His lines are superb.” Conleth Hill delivers the lines with
aplomb, so soft-spoken yet forceful, so simple yet poetic. In the first two
seasons I didn’t trust this man at all, but there’s something about him this
season where I feel he’s on the right side; I just can’t put my finger on it.
“Look little lambs, a spider in the garden,” says Olenna when she sees him
coming, and it’s that sort of thinking that keeps me from truly trusting him. </div>
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But in the only scene with Tyrion this week, Varys finally
reveals exactly how he lost his member, in a truly awful memory of a sorcerer
who bought him and used him as part of some magic to bring about a voice from
the flames. “A voice called, and the sorcerer answered.” He describes being
cut, “root and stem,” and the entire time, he’s curiously prying open a large
wooden crate (which, at one point, we see Tyrion lean over to look at and there
are clearly holes in the one end). I’m sure most people in the audience who,
like me, hadn’t read the books, could still anticipate what we were going to
find in there. But the moral of his story was clear: patience wins. Some look
for immediate revenge, but that kind of revenge is swift and not well
thought-out. It’s the slow, patient revenge, where you keep your eye on the
prize but live a life outside of it, slowly growing your influence so that
revenge will be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spectacular</i>, that is
the most rewarding. At the beginning of the season, I commented that our first
glimpse of Tyrion is him looking into a mirror at his scar. Here, in a very
similar moment, Varys looks into his mirror as he recounts his long wait.
Staring at himself in that mirror, his look announces to the audience that he
knows exactly who he is, and has looked at himself and inside himself to know
what he needs to do. It’s a wonderful scene, and my favourite bit of dialogue
in the episode. “I have no doubt the revenge you want will be yours in time,”
he tells Tyrion as he finally cracks open the crate. “If you have the stomach
for it.”</div>
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That said, Daenerys didn’t wait at all, and her revenge was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SWEET</i>. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You know, Varys ... just because you can order something online doesn't mean you <i>have</i> to."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>To
answer your question about who writes for Varys: a lot of the time it’s George
R. R. Martin. Varys’ best lines in this episode were in telling the story of
how he got cut—and that tale is practically verbatim from the novel. But his
other exchanges were inventions … as was the home delivery of the sorcerer (is
there anything Amazon doesn’t ship?). I laughed when you said that it was
fairly obvious what was going to be revealed when he opened the box, because I
did not see that coming at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i>—which
perhaps is an interesting little blind spot that comes with having read the
novels. If it didn’t happen in the books, I’m not really looking at it.</div>
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Did anyone else who has read the books feel the same?</div>
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I agree with you that Conleth Hill’s portrayal of Varys has
been amazing—not least because in the novels he’s described as being corpulent
and primped and powdered and exaggeratedly effeminate—a sort of sinister
Cameron from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Family</i>, if you
like. And while that is at times shown to be all affected, Varys playing to
people’s expectations of him, it does get a little wearying after a while. I
far prefer this Varys, with his quiet dignity.</div>
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That being said, he does make much of the virtue of being
unobtrusive, and indeed conforming to what people expect as a means of hiding
in plain sight. That was one of the themes running through this episode, as was
evident in the conversation between Lady Olenna and Cersei—the Queen of Thorns
quite obviously has no use for men and their pretensions to power and strength,
and is doubly disgusted that such chuckle-headed louts are the ones ruling the
world. Cersei, tellingly, cannot quite bring herself to agree and offers the
lame and unconvincing argument that things are the way they are because, well,
gods. The difference between Olenna and Cersei is that Cersei wants power but
cannot imagine how she can grasp or wield it outside of a patriarchal
structure—first, she assumes she can rule through her son; when that doesn’t
work, she asks her father oh, please, can I have just a little bit of the
power? She completely misses what Olenna grasps so sublimely—that these self-important
men cannot see her as anything other than a woman—in her youth an ornament, in
her winter years a curmudgeonly old bat. But knowing that she is thus
effectively invisible, she is able to plot all the more subtly.</div>
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And speaking of hiding in plain sight: that was also what
Daenerys effectively did. Those closest to her know her worth, having seen her
emerge from the fire with dragons on her shoulders. Barristan Selmy is the
exception on this front, but he venerates her lineage. In Astapor, as in Qarth,
she is seen as little better than a beggar, a pretty thing who wants to play at
being a queen. </div>
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More fools them. But she even surprises her own people: I
think my favourite part of the Astapor scene (aside from that moment when she
orders her dragon to barbecue the douchebag) is the expression on Jorah’s face
as he realizes what Dany has done, and what she’s about to do. It’s a
wonderfully subtle moment, and Iain Glenn gets it right—just the right amount
of dawning realization mingled with awe and respect. I love the fact that the
slavemaster is oblivious at first when she speaks in Valyrian, so enthralled is
he with his new prize, while everyone else essentially does a double take. And
when he does realize it, her imperious response to his question, that she is of
the House Targaryen and that Valyrian is her native tongue, shows just how far
Daenerys has come since we first met her. </div>
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And then, appropriately, a whole lot of blood and fire. Am I
the only person who watched the pillars of flame leap up behind Daenerys and
thought of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apocalypse Now</i>? </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UL1cH8UCwq9Jya92BufHOK0it9-NMIP04tDskp55SiMcP-Dc4_QXOg5yDMSbuVhpZWUe0j3opwx_HZMBxWgZtwViFGsSDZpRFNALlHnF1zlC8UCQ313ADOpW_W33B1ydg-ynJQ/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-04-22-10h17m15s217.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UL1cH8UCwq9Jya92BufHOK0it9-NMIP04tDskp55SiMcP-Dc4_QXOg5yDMSbuVhpZWUe0j3opwx_HZMBxWgZtwViFGsSDZpRFNALlHnF1zlC8UCQ313ADOpW_W33B1ydg-ynJQ/s400/vlcsnap-2013-04-22-10h17m15s217.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Fighting the Hound with no depth perception ... this is a GOOD idea."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: For those
reading this, when Chris sent me his first pass he titled the email “I love the
smell of dragonfire in the morning…” and I thought the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apocalypse Now</i> allusion was entirely appropriate, and correct. </div>
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Let’s move over to another character, one I tend to ignore
for the most part but whose story was actually shocking this week. Last week,
Chris, you were talking about the various forms of torture on this show and how
graphic they can be, and this week they stepped it up to a different sort of
torture. We’ve seen Theon on the wooden X, with a screw being slowly turned
into his foot. The physical torture there was unbearable, and I commented that
I wondered if the emotional torture of putting a bag over his head and then
whispering that he’ll come back for him later was almost worse, because he’s in
a room, unable to see, not knowing what danger lurks around every corner. </div>
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But this week it’s stepped up to a horrific level. Last week
he was free, on his way to find his sister before being ambushed, before the
boy who freed him (who I believe hasn’t been named; I have yet to hear a name
for him onscreen) shows up and saves his life. This week they continue on to
Yara’s hold, and they come in through the back of the place. Theon finally
confesses to the crime of finding two orphan boys and killing and burning the
bodies to make it look like Rickon and Bran so that he could take King’s
Landing and make his father proud. He begins by spouting his usual venom
against Ned Stark, but by the end of his monologue he admits that Ned was
always his father, and now that Ned is dead (Ned’s dead, baby… Ned’s dead…
sorry, couldn’t resist that one), he’ll never be able to impress his father.
It’s a moment of clear-sightedness that Theon has been lacking so far, and I
wonder if this means his character will become a little more interesting? </div>
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But all of that takes a backseat to what the youth has
waiting for him… for he’s led him through the back gate of the very castle
where he’d been kept captive, and as he strikes a match and holds up a torch,
shouting to the others that he’d caught Theon escaping, Theon realizes with
horror and utter sorrow that he’s right back where he started, in the torture
room with the giant wooden X. His saviour has become his betrayer, and the hope
that had built in him for the past day washes out of him like a flood. It’s a
truly devastating moment. How can he possibly recover from that? Will he ever
trust anyone again? It makes me wonder who these men are, exactly. Are they his
father’s men? Will his confession to the boy be his downfall? (I’m thinking
that’s likely.) Could they belong to someone else? </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fZ_0bIjYuHJzLkEaDLZ0ZGJacnT6_dd0eMw0jKuJQMXMpY6Q0u3MRFeA_7XjyPFiypJvKU4bkPsNZzDGqTp7aTdDHQ2-6K7SookDc-d1OPxoNEbmsKdM7d1l2axMb-L23hWeRw/s1600/varys-ros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fZ_0bIjYuHJzLkEaDLZ0ZGJacnT6_dd0eMw0jKuJQMXMpY6Q0u3MRFeA_7XjyPFiypJvKU4bkPsNZzDGqTp7aTdDHQ2-6K7SookDc-d1OPxoNEbmsKdM7d1l2axMb-L23hWeRw/s400/varys-ros.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'd take this more seriously if it wasn't signed, 'sincerely, Heywood Jablomy'."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>I
think my only choice as regards Theon is to take the fifth—they’ve made significant
changes to his storyline, but not so significant that I can’t see how they’ll
possibly link up again with what’s happening in the novels. I’ve got a very
good idea of whom the men are who’ve captured him and whom his erstwhile
saviour is. But then, I could also be entirely wrong if the writers have
decided to reinvent Theon’s unfortunate side-trip into misery.</div>
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I will however say this much: if they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> doing what I suspect, it’s a pretty ingenious way to keep Theon
relevant to the plot, as well as build toward something resembling sympathy for
the simpering little shit.</div>
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Sorry if that’s frustrating, but I’m erring on the side of
caution. Fellow GRRM fans, y’all know what I mean.</div>
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On reflection, this episode was pretty evenly divided
between shocks and dialogue (note to self: copyright “Shocks and Dialogue” as a
possible band name). Again not counting Daenerys’ gambit in Astapor, the
biggest shock was north of the Wall, when a handful of Night Watchmen turn not
just on Craster, but on their own commander—killing Jeor Mormont as well as
their reluctant host. I of course knew this was coming, but it was a harrowing
moment in the novel. I’m curious to know what viewers thought … it’s not that
we didn’t get hints that the rangers were feeling mutinous, but it is still a
horrifying transgression.</div>
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(It hasn’t really been articulated as such on the show, but
the law of hospitality is as close as we come to something sacrosanct in the
novels—even the most treacherous and desperate person will not turn on his guests
or his host, both for fear of being labelled an oathbreaker and for fear of
divine retribution. So however much of a monster Craster is, once the Night
Watchmen have eaten his food, they are bound by the law of hospitality to obey
his rules and not harm his person. Hence the extremely egregious nature of
their crime). </div>
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In the novel, that mutinous muttering is more pronounced, as
we learn in the prologue that a group of the watchmen have hatched a plot to
kill Mormont, steal food and horses, and flee … only to have their plan
interrupted by the ice-zombie attack. Their treason is only postponed, however,
and becomes absorbed into the general chaos of violence that erupts under
Craster’s roof. Again, no one is safe: Jeor Mormont might not have been everyone’s
favourite character, but he was a solid and gruffly likable figure (much more
so than when he played an IRA-connected priest on season three of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sons of Anarchy</i>). But there he goes,
killed rather suddenly—by his own men, no less.</div>
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All of which sends Sam frantically out to the birthing shack
to collect Gilly and her baby boy and take her off into the frozen
forest—which, as we all know, holds fiends even more dangerous than the ones
sacking Craster’s keep.</div>
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What did you think of that mutiny in the north, Nikki? Did
it come as a shock?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLnKYEgJvvmLRJJPgrhcViJ_4G7C6RHSydkZ5rPxkC_bQA6VMt5pi5pTjrq8VLakJrG-lvU8tMsnQyhtHZBK5gARE9WN1zVBgTBN99x1BGByrEo3vR-CBhaRdTSfQJZ8e-Ot2FVg/s1600/GoTWatch_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLnKYEgJvvmLRJJPgrhcViJ_4G7C6RHSydkZ5rPxkC_bQA6VMt5pi5pTjrq8VLakJrG-lvU8tMsnQyhtHZBK5gARE9WN1zVBgTBN99x1BGByrEo3vR-CBhaRdTSfQJZ8e-Ot2FVg/s400/GoTWatch_thumb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: As you
say, it was definitely an episode that balanced the quite moments of
explanatory dialogue that opened new avenues for the episodes to come, with the
shocking ends of the storylines that have been in the works for a while. (I
think this is easily my favourite episode yet.) And the mutiny was definitely a
shock. For me, it wasn’t surprising that they killed Craster — he’s made out to
be a scumbag of the lowest possible kind, and the only true fate for this guy was
to wind up dead — but when they turned on Mormont, I was very surprised. (I’m
also currently in season 3 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sons of
Anarchy</i>… with all its Oirish accents.) My husband said it came as no
surprise to him; after all, these are mostly thieves and people who were sent
to the Wall because they had no other use in society. Not exactly a group of
tea-sipping gentlemen.</div>
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So now they’re all running wild in the woods North of the
Wall, and that’s a bad thing. The one guy who particularly hates Sam (or
“Piggy,” as he prefers to call him) shouts a threat out to him as Sam retreats
with Gilly, but as you say, the men of the Night’s Watch might be the least of
Sam’s problems. </div>
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As usual, there’s just so much to cover here that we have to
breeze over the last parts. Arya is entrenched in the Brotherhood without
Banners as they put the Hound on trial and find him guilty, mainly because of
Arya calling up something that happened way back at the beginning of season 1,
where Joffrey ordered that the Hound kill the butcher’s boy, Arya’s friend. The
Hound is an interesting character, because while here he stands tall, sneering
at Arya and everyone else and saying he was quite simply following orders, in
season 2 we saw him defying those orders to try to save Sansa. Was he just doing
it for himself — was part of him in love with her — or did he feel some loyalty
to Ned Stark? I thought he rather crossed over to the side of “good guy” last
season, so I’m torn about whose side I’m on here. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cWb-GFLGIoLHSH-AhUNy6OXM7jNjEkYiV7RR6vnrh6mJK01X8dq68rWMt2m-r_yKZ3uLSArF87_fJ-pOVSWsYC-aQW4vFbbxpu0MuP7uHauMiKwmQSf7qcxJV20D7f6wErTo4Q/s1600/joffrey-margaery-sept.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cWb-GFLGIoLHSH-AhUNy6OXM7jNjEkYiV7RR6vnrh6mJK01X8dq68rWMt2m-r_yKZ3uLSArF87_fJ-pOVSWsYC-aQW4vFbbxpu0MuP7uHauMiKwmQSf7qcxJV20D7f6wErTo4Q/s400/joffrey-margaery-sept.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I strongly suspect Margaery Tyrell is no Belieber. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Margaery continues to be amazing, and in this episode she
claps and squeals as Joffrey shows her the remains of the Targaryens, gleefully
dancing upon their remains as he recounts each of their deaths. Cersei looks on
from afar, wondering about the boy, when Margaery comes up with the idea of taking
him out on the balcony to feel the love of his people. Cersei lunges forward,
thinking, “Oh my GOD they hate him and will kill him” but Margaery has
everything under control, laying the foundation for this moment by visiting all
those orphanages and telling everyone how much their king loves them. And she’s
right; they walk out onto the balcony and are basically King’s Landing’s Will
and Kate, waving to all below them. Not only has she convinced Joffrey that
he’s a popular ruler, but by standing at his side she makes sure everyone sees
her and only her as his queen. </div>
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And finally, while Bran’s not in the episode for long, we
see another throwback to the beginning of season 1 (the first episode,
actually), where Bran begins climbing a tree in his dreamscape, only to have
Catelyn find him up there and bellow at him to stop climbing… berating him to
such an extent that he actually falls just like he did after seeing Jaime and
Cersei together. It’s a reminder to all of us that Bran knows what the twins
have been up to, and who Joffrey’s real father is. Ned Stark might be dead, but
Bran Stark has the knowledge in his head, even if he doesn’t quite understand
it yet. </div>
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And ALL of this sets the scene for new storylines and
directions next week. I cannot wait. We shall see you all next week!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34kwF4R9VqpdBSrn9FSXVsAj5p8mF-aOwvXAgPOj43P0hdhG8pKEDGGUKcENYSrSp01NGz4YaFAznp6tResKtD8W0tkK_rFuCS36Pe0xJgBD0Kq0nUJt6pse2HQcQvsDoh475WQ/s1600/enhanced-buzz-1393-1366649047-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34kwF4R9VqpdBSrn9FSXVsAj5p8mF-aOwvXAgPOj43P0hdhG8pKEDGGUKcENYSrSp01NGz4YaFAznp6tResKtD8W0tkK_rFuCS36Pe0xJgBD0Kq0nUJt6pse2HQcQvsDoh475WQ/s400/enhanced-buzz-1393-1366649047-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Targaryens know they're cool.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-46761950276294471192013-04-17T07:27:00.001-02:302013-04-17T07:27:57.355-02:30Game of Thrones 3.03: The Walk of Punishment<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Welcome to the great co-blog of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>, episode three: “Walk of Punishment.” And no, the title has nothing to do with all of the exam grading I’ve been doing for the last few days. </span></div>
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<br />
[crickets]</div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><crickets></crickets></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Well, without further ado, here is my lovely and talented co-blogger Nikki Stafford of the prolific and equally lovely Nik at Nite blog. What did you think of episode three, Nik?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlNYBLCQGBO4KOU8Eyphn41QxcwL2DQXtmVziP82A64JEpiUnYCgJ5vlZZFabH5a3wywOn3vzCI1aHrjySnlqGdb0KrK0t3JDE-QVJmANW7ZJuAkOLuqxXOsil6r_sdekhPtndA/s1600/tobias-menzies-edmure-tully.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlNYBLCQGBO4KOU8Eyphn41QxcwL2DQXtmVziP82A64JEpiUnYCgJ5vlZZFabH5a3wywOn3vzCI1aHrjySnlqGdb0KrK0t3JDE-QVJmANW7ZJuAkOLuqxXOsil6r_sdekhPtndA/s400/tobias-menzies-edmure-tully.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up ..."</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Daenerys offers to sell a dragon (GAH!), Arya eats bread shaped like a direwolf… or something… Catelyn’s father’s funeral is turned into a laughingstock, Theon gets away (dammit!), Pod proves himself a sex god, Tyrion hilariously drags a chair, Craster continues to be a dick, Talisa scares some Lannister kids, Stannis’s sexual advances are shot down, Jon Snow finds horse parts in a spiral pattern in the snow, the end credits feature the freakin’ Hold Steady (!!!)… and Locke turns Jaime into a leftie while talking about his “fah-thah.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Folks, it’s the happy fun-time <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> hour! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I loved this episode. A lot of it felt like it was pushing chess pieces in line for bigger things to come in the next couple of episodes, but it didn’t feel like an exposition episode for me. Tyrion brought the humour, Daenerys the power, and it ended with a massive shocking cliffhanger. So… let’s start with that last bit. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Chris and I both commented on the awesomeness of the Jaime and Brienne comedy hour last week, but this week that comedy turned into something else. While chained to each other on a horse, Brienne expresses her disappointment that the Kingslayer wasn’t the sword baron that she thought he was. He makes excuses — tired, dirty, hungry, has been tied up for the better part of a year, his hands were tied together at the time — but they just come off as pathetic to Brienne. A Kingslayer should be able to overcome any of those things, not be beaten by a woman. It’s interesting that her chiding didn’t actually come off as sarcasm or a victory dance on his face, but genuine disappointment that the man didn’t live up to his legend. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Perhaps Jaime was suitably impressed by Brienne’s show of swordspersonship, or perhaps he just feels like she’s his only ally now, but he’s actually kind of nice to her… in a way. On the horse he tells her that the men will try to rape her, and she needs to let them. She, of course, takes offense, and asks him what he would do. (Reason #814 why I love Brienne; she doesn’t ask what he would do if it happened to his sister or daughter, she asks what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he</i> would do, comparing herself to the man and not the woman.) He says if he were a woman he would make them kill him. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And so, when the men inevitably take Brienne once they’re at the encampment with every intention to gang-rape her, you can see her instincts kick in, and she begins fighting tooth and nail. While her scene takes place entirely off camera — we only hear her screams — one can only imagine the fight she’s putting up. She doesn’t want the men to “besmirch” her, as Jaime puts it, and perhaps, she’s trying to get them to kill her, which would be more welcome than whatever else they have in mind. When they bring her back to the camp after Jaime’s discussion with Locke, notice even her armour is still intact; they didn’t get very far with her. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And as for Jaime, he’s always been a very, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> clever boy. It’s what makes his character so intriguing. Yes, he has an incestuous relationship with his sister and has often been characterized as a scumbag, but when you take the Lannister stuff out of the equation, he’s a hell of a knight. He’s killed a king; he’s a formidable swordsman; he’s handsome and witty and strong; he’s very intelligent; he plans things through. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But</i> he’s not quite as intelligent as Tyrion. He comes up with an obvious plan, one that could easily be seen through by anyone who’s been to the Sapphire Isle and isn’t three years old. We see earlier in the episode that Talisa loves to scare the Lannister boys with tales of Robb eating children during a full moon. Jaime’s tale isn’t much higher on the intelligence scale, especially with a man as well travelled as Locke. Jaime thinks he can cleverly charm his way out of every situation, but the moment Locke unchains him (something he didn’t have to do), offers him partridge, and refers to him in a manner indicating that Locke is his inferior, the audience knows something terrible is afoot. He’s angry that Jaime would try to convince him the Sapphire Isle is actually coated in sapphires (right… and if I want some emeralds I just need to go to Ireland and chip them out of the sidewalks?) and he makes him pay for his insolence by… cutting off his hand. It’s a horrific scene, one that is immediately reminiscent of the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Empire Strikes Back</i>, right down to Locke talking about Tywin Lannister immediately before doing it. “You’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i> without your father” has supplanted Darth Vader’s legendary “No, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m</i> your father” line, and the episode fades to black as Jaime screams in horror and holds up the bloody stump of an arm that’s left. I didn’t see that one coming. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So, Chris, how close was that scene to the book? There’s a moment where Locke is pressing the sword into Jaime’s eye and then he doesn’t go through with it, and for a second I wondered if perhaps, in the book, they actually removed his eyeball, but the writers decided to switch it to a hand to help out the makeup department. Did they make a switch or is this behanding true to the book? </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4XeAMHVyvwgrbbNZrgZZfij4NiRWnKfl42DKl324hFj0jGPiiRREtko8yr_ty7mAbzcENVJDxq_c6pBjYhNYkHc9kMWkdg6wx57kvboQdTMG4Ps9Mlwz6RAVYggYd_GSi2licDQ/s1600/362300.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4XeAMHVyvwgrbbNZrgZZfij4NiRWnKfl42DKl324hFj0jGPiiRREtko8yr_ty7mAbzcENVJDxq_c6pBjYhNYkHc9kMWkdg6wx57kvboQdTMG4Ps9Mlwz6RAVYggYd_GSi2licDQ/s320/362300.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Can you see where we're headed?" "All too well."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>It’s fairly close to the scene in the book, except that Jaime and Brienne are captured here by a different set of people. In the novel, they’re taken by a rather horrifying band of mercenaries called the Bloody Mummers, who had originally worked for Tywin but whose loyalty had been bought by Roose Bolton … so when they capture Jaime and Brienne, they’re technically on the Starks’ side. Obviously the Mummers have been left out of the show for the sake of keeping things simple (or as simple as this sprawling series can be), which is probably a wise decision—but I doubt I’m alone among GRRM fans in lamenting their absence. They are one of Martin’s darker and more horrifying inventions … and that’s a pretty high bar. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Also, in the novel they don’t wait—they cut off Jaime’s hand almost as soon as the capture him, so the protracted verbal fencing between Locke and Jaime is entirely invented. Except, that is, for Jaime’s intervention in Brienne’s imminent rape—that was pretty close to the book. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But in all, the violent amputation of Jaime’s sword hand was very well done, and startling in how quickly it happens. Of course, all those who have read the books knew it was coming; as soon as Locke unchained Jaime, I felt my stomach clench a little. It’s a credit to the show that, even though I knew what was about to happen, it was still a shock to actually watch it. And while Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was pretty awesome all through this episode, he did an especially good job of reacting to his sudden de-handing. A look of shock and bewilderment, followed quickly by a scream of horror and pain as he suddenly realizes what has happened … fade to black! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">George R. R. Martin really likes beating up on his characters, doesn’t he? I like to joke with my students that if they ever discover their life is a Shakespearean tragedy and they’re the title character, they’re pretty much fucked. What might be worse? Being a significant character in a GRRM novel.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3KHw3DeqTuQ7z6Nw50c5UDyjMacDZSwBF-IBk-1jGRPY26WQIBcD5TdmZhh60Q9mj24k0R-lU1yqjR6o5_MK-a9CZaD-dYfLFZGesOtxUxfBw-1BUJuFvujRzF7vt6E-mnUULAg/s1600/430156_534299154116_898974247_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3KHw3DeqTuQ7z6Nw50c5UDyjMacDZSwBF-IBk-1jGRPY26WQIBcD5TdmZhh60Q9mj24k0R-lU1yqjR6o5_MK-a9CZaD-dYfLFZGesOtxUxfBw-1BUJuFvujRzF7vt6E-mnUULAg/s400/430156_534299154116_898974247_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’m offering no spoilers whatsoever when I say that Jaime’s mutilation heralds a significant shift in his character and how we perceive him. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Storm of Swords</i> is notable among other reasons for giving him his own POV chapters, and we’re given an insight into his previously inscrutable character that works against everything we’ve thus far assumed. The loss of his sword hand isn’t a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">literal</i> emasculation, but it’s close—Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, is a man who has been defined by his swordsmanship all his life. I have to imagine that, given the choice between losing his hand or losing his dick, he’d be hard pressed to choose. All of which makes the discussion between him and Brienne about her domination in the bridge fight somewhat more poignant—she questions his “manhood” in what we now see to be an anticipatory way. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Nikki, I think you’re exactly right when you point out Brienne’s response to Jaime’s suggestion, re: her inevitable rape. She identifies Jaime’s myopia, and by extension the broadly male tendency to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of rape and sexual assault. In suggesting she lie back and think of Renly, he betrays his ignorance, seeing the entirely-expected rape as different from consensual sex in degree rather than kind. You’re right in that he would probably make the same recommendation to Cersei; he’d just follow it up with the promise of bloody vengeance on her violators. But Brienne cuts through the bullshit: what would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he</i> do? He’d make them kill him. Because when it’s his own body, he can’t pretend it’s anything but abject humiliation and a brutal, violent exercise of power over his person. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">When Jaime follows up his response to Brienn’s question with “I’m not [a woman], thank the Gods,” it serves to amplify his ignorance. If he were a woman, he’d make them kill him; but he assumes that because he’s not a woman, he is somehow immune to sexual assault, which again implies that rape is connected to unbridled lust. But as it happens, we do see a man nearly raped—when Theon is overtaken in his flight, his captor snarls “I’m gonna fuck you into the dirt” as he fumbles with his belt and his henchmen start to drag Theon’s pants down. Like Brienne, Theon receives a reprieve, but for a few terrifying moments he experiences the horror that Jaime Lannister imagines is merely hypothetical. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One of the most difficult elements of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Ice and Fire</i>, and something a lot of people complain about, is just how baldly and brutally GRRM depicts these sorts of situations. Fantasy? Yes, the novel is certainly fantasy fiction, but grounded in historical realities. Much fantasy, from the Arthurian legends to Tolkien and beyond, glosses the fact that rapine wasn’t just a matter of soldiers being brutal, but was in fact a weapon of war. To “cry havoc” was the order letting soldiers off the leash, giving them free rein in a sacked city to rape, steal, and kill—usually done in retaliation for a castle or town’s refusal to surrender. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Henry V</i>, Shakespeare puts it quite graphically as the king threatens the besieged town of Harfleur:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, you men of Harfleur,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take pity of your town and of your people,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of heady murder, spoil and villainy.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, why, in a moment look to see</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your fathers taken by the silver beards,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroy'd? (3.3: 27-43)</div>
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Or check out Kenny B's version:</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Sorry for the lengthy quotation, but nowhere else do I know of a more eloquently horrifying vision of soldiers run rampant. Crying havoc was a common enough military practice that the governor or mayor of a town could be prosecuted after the fact for not surrendering and sparing his people such brutality—“guilty in defense” was the actual legal term for such a prosecution.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This feels like an inadequate treatment of this sequence, but if I don’t move on this blog post will go on forever ….</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What did you think of our new additions in Riverrun, Nikki? First we have Catelyn’s uncle, Brynden “Blackfish” Tully, and her hapless brother Edmure … played by another <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rome</i> alum, Tobias Menzies, who played Brutus. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7QuQ3xYEEG_vf4t7xQurJ9P_L4M1u6oYP6w2SX1Ekl0dtWPQPwchvmXHZhyecnBVdMbiUzRDnyylKyQG0ps2s5Edjf_MPiqnsupGb1LN-wHQbhKikXegUb3ZmVr1yhFX-HOuTg/s1600/Game_Of_Thrones_-_Walk_Of_Punishment_-_Riverrun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7QuQ3xYEEG_vf4t7xQurJ9P_L4M1u6oYP6w2SX1Ekl0dtWPQPwchvmXHZhyecnBVdMbiUzRDnyylKyQG0ps2s5Edjf_MPiqnsupGb1LN-wHQbhKikXegUb3ZmVr1yhFX-HOuTg/s400/Game_Of_Thrones_-_Walk_Of_Punishment_-_Riverrun.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edmure screws up.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Oh yes, I recognized Brutus and his crooked front teeth right away. If they can get Vorenus and Pullo, my happiness would be complete. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Catelyn’s father is dead, and because of Edmure’s incompetence, what should have been a solemn funeral turns into a farce. Luckily Catelyn’s uncle Brynden pushes Edmure out of the way, checks the wind, and shoots a perfect arrow into the air to set the funeral pyre alight just before it disappears in the distance. (Question: What would they have done if it had gone around the corner?) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I loved the scene of Catelyn and her uncle. Catelyn has made some pretty grave errors and cost people a lot in her mismanagement of things, but in this moment she’s both a grieving daughter and mother, and you can’t help but feel sympathy for her. She just watched her father float away, and now she stares out the window telling her uncle — who never once calls her on the things she’s done wrong — that she’s thinking of how many times Bran and Rickon looked out the window waiting for her to come home, and now they’re gone. Interestingly her uncle says exactly what has happened without knowing it — maybe they’ve escaped and are travelling away right now, just keeping under the radar. I do hope Catelyn sees them once more, or at least finds out that they’re alive and well. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Meanwhile, Robb is pretty pissed that his stupid uncle ruined a battle by going too far and destroying their chances to get a lead in the larger picture. By sacrificing 208 men in an otherwise low-grade fight, he’s hurt their small army enormously. Methinks the battle smarts in the House of Tully seems to have skipped a generation. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But speaking of armies, Daenerys has now gotten herself a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hell</i> of a formidable one. In a very long and wonderfully written scene, she marches resolutely along the Walk of Punishment as men hang dying on crucifixes alongside her. When she stops to offer one of them water, he refuses, showing that even in death, his loyalty to his superiors remains. He was told to die, and he will die, dammit. Taking that water would simply prolong the agony. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Daenerys now has two advisors who disagree on what makes up an army. Ser Jorah argues that the Unsullied are the best army because loyalty has been beaten into them. Ser Barristan argues that the best army is one whose loyalty you have earned, not one that you’ve beaten into submission. The best fighters will be the ones with passion and emotion and sincere loyalty for their leader. Daenerys takes both forms of advice and goes to the horrible, filthy Kraznys to tell him she wants every last one of the Unsullied: the 8,000-strong army, plus the ones still in training. I thought about her decision to take the entire army when I was watching this and realized that despite Jorah and Barristan both looking dismayed, she’s actually taking both of their words of advice to heart. Kraznys thinks nothing of killing the Unsullied’s family, cutting off their nipples, and doing god-knows-what-else torture-wise to them. We all know Daenerys wouldn’t do any of those things to the men: perhaps by the very act of buying them, she could earn their loyalty by taking them away from this scumbag? That way, she has the trained loyalty plus earned loyalty all wrapped up in one. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBWc5gD-1vyy43LZ0yNPoNjYPMx0fx03w6LoIhu9pps_QC0zxx0k7nIJpm3hBG6Fuc92lHeGSIFAk7W-UJuDsOWwjaH5MaR4ocPtSlrCSYw8q7mljqcGoneIS4XhyphenhyphenN_pYQXIFAw/s1600/303Walk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBWc5gD-1vyy43LZ0yNPoNjYPMx0fx03w6LoIhu9pps_QC0zxx0k7nIJpm3hBG6Fuc92lHeGSIFAk7W-UJuDsOWwjaH5MaR4ocPtSlrCSYw8q7mljqcGoneIS4XhyphenhyphenN_pYQXIFAw/s400/303Walk.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I can't say I'm impressed with the way they've done this esplanade."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back to the scene, as Kraznys continues to take potshots at her in another language, he demands to know how in Aerys’s name she plans to pay for such an army. “I have dragons,” she says flatly. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And everyone at home gasps in horror and has the same face as Ser Jorah in that moment. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Give up a dragon?? Isn’t that worth several armies? I don’t care if she still has two. Kraznys realizes the value, says he wants all three, and she’s immovable at one, though she promises the biggest one. And she’ll take his slave girl while she’s at it. I just know Daenerys has something up her, well, okay she doesn’t have sleeves, but up her corset, and I can’t wait to see what it is. Just please, please, please, in the name of GRRM, let her understand everything this cock has been saying to her in every scene. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And if I were a writer, just for the record, here’s how it would play out. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Kraznys’s Diary</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">That little Targaryen bitch left yesterday, taking all of my soldiers, but I have a bloody dragon! Haha… with this dragon I will rule the kingdoms, and force it to do my will, and </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">[dragon eats Kraznys, flies back to Daenerys]</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Ah. That felt better. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutPCzfkz5KB37moeJYYHYP-DDJOvAyzJbPyDOfhYP0_eFFHQhQDteyIjUdvw_k7UhrkIUg8T1K_xtQtaUeIUGvJlSNGuDigqH3y8RwtK642hE3xQQ7ggcQHtsTz0LLR7kSIL7KA/s1600/Dany_jorah_selmy_3x03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutPCzfkz5KB37moeJYYHYP-DDJOvAyzJbPyDOfhYP0_eFFHQhQDteyIjUdvw_k7UhrkIUg8T1K_xtQtaUeIUGvJlSNGuDigqH3y8RwtK642hE3xQQ7ggcQHtsTz0LLR7kSIL7KA/s400/Dany_jorah_selmy_3x03.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<i>Reservoir Dogs</i> theme]</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">I’m saying nothing. Suffice it to say that I am practically bouncing in my chair in impatience for episode four. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">If they were to get Vorenus and Pullo on this show, I think my head would quite literally explode from the critical mass of fanboyism. It’s not like there’s any lack of characters we haven’t yet met that they would be perfect for. Think they could tempt Kevin McKidd away from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grey’s Anatomy</i>? They don’t even let him use his actual accent on that show. Idiots.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Poor Tobias Menzies—you’d think that after that hapless, luckless version of Brutus they had him playing on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rome</i>, HBO might have given him a more competent character to play. But failing that … well, he’s spot-on as Edmure, even if it’s starting to feel like typecasting. That opening sequence was perfectly done, and totally true to the novel. The Blackfish is an amazing character in the books, but Clive Russell has managed to ratchet up his awesomeness by a factor of awesome (sorry—channeling Barney Stinson there. True story). I especially love the fact that he didn’t bother to wait and see if the fire-arrow would ignite the boat, just turned and contemptuously tossed the bow back to Brutus. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">(Also, as an aside to the Television Gods: either Lucius Vorenus or Titus Pullo would make excellent additions to this series, but we’d also like to implore you to consider making the following additions as well: Stringer Bell, Al Swearengen, or Lord John Marbury. Also, he might not be British, but you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> Nathan Fillion would pay his own airfare just for a walk-on. Also, see if you can’t work on that Martin Freeman cameo while we’re at it, OK?)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Something I’ve read a number of times in other comments on this episode is a sense of satisfaction that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">finally</i> see Robb Stark’s command chops. So far (aside from the battle in which Jaime is captured</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">) we’ve only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">heard</i> about his talents as a war leader. Here at last is the King in the North. Remember that aside I had last week about gravitas and the depiction thereof? Robb Stark’s got it. The scene in which he dresses Edmure down is right out of the novel.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But to turn to Dany: James Poniewozik has an amazing <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/15/game-of-thrones-watch-thats-what-the-moneys-for/">blog post</a> this week about this episode and the way it deals with the question of money. As already mentioned, GRRM departs from the custom of much fantasy insofar as he is frequently preoccupied with the often unpleasant historical realities of warfare and monarchical power. One of those realities is money and finance. Or, as Poniewozik puts it: “</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I’ve been re-reading Tolkien with my kids lately, and while there are troves of gold and plunder, there’s not much talk about the economy of the Shire, or how Denethor pays for the defense of Minas Tirith in a declining Gondor.” One of the inconvenient truths (to coin an expression) with which this episode presents us is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cost</i> of doing business in Westeros, something entirely consistent with the novels. Running a kingdom, raising an army—these are extremely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">expensive</i> ventures. Daenerys wants to invade Westeros—but with what? Ser Jorah’s pragmatism doesn’t sit well with the honourable Barristan Selmy, but he doesn’t have much in the way of rebuttal to Jorah’s arguments (also, it is worth noting that Jorah’s case resonates thematically with the rest of this episode—the Unsullied will not behave as normal soldiers, i.e. they will not rape and despoil. The ethical dimension here gets pretty knotty; Daenerys is reluctant to own a slave army, but expresses equal revulsion, as we saw in season one, by the prospect of rapine). </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Though I can only speak for myself on this point, I suspect many readers of the novels will agree that it was a profound moment of shock and dismay when Daenerys essentially turns her dragons—her children, really—into currency. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Back over in King’s Landing, Tyrion has been handed the “honour” of becoming Master of Coin, taking over as Littlefinger prepares to depart and woo crazy Lysa Arryn, she of the creepy breastfeeding. It’s really rather tempting to look at what Tyrion discovers in the royal ledgers—namely, that Littlefinger’s magic with gold simply amounts to borrowing hugely—in light of contemporary concerns over deficits and austerity, but I’d prefer to talk instead about the way Tywin’s bestowing of this office is … well, I want to say it’s a backhanded compliment, but really it’s an out-and-out insult. It’s made explicit in the novels that Tywin Lannister, and all nobles like him, disdain what we’d call “new money,” and disdain the actual task of tallying expenses. Tyrion’s initial reaction is ambivalent. </span><span lang="EN-US">"I'm quite good at spending money," he says, "but a lifetime of outrageous wealth hasn't taught me much about managing it." And everyone who has ever had to deal with entitled rich kids chorused “YES!” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">What do you think of Tyrion’s new post, Nikki? And did you laugh as hard as I did when he took <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forever</i> to drag the chair to the end of the table?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnOEKLBjprf_ijA8C74Qyp9cEQkF9Gppa49sPX4vGW3LJSMJirSdKVhlbQjTjl8apFNNFbEeM3q_nc48G0K2iVuI0q1fokBXWl5fD-PmT1JIgP455wANFD7JDbgi0pjelXFU7l0g/s1600/the-blackfish-game-of-thrones-recap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnOEKLBjprf_ijA8C74Qyp9cEQkF9Gppa49sPX4vGW3LJSMJirSdKVhlbQjTjl8apFNNFbEeM3q_nc48G0K2iVuI0q1fokBXWl5fD-PmT1JIgP455wANFD7JDbgi0pjelXFU7l0g/s400/the-blackfish-game-of-thrones-recap.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"And <i>that</i> is how we do things downtown."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: OMG are we doing fantasy casting now?? David Tennant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> Christopher Eccleston, please. Actually, Tom Baker would make a formidable ageing king or great-uncle of some sort. But in the non–Time Lord side of things, I second (and third, and fourth) Stringer Bell. I’d also love to see Jared Harris, Anthony Stewart Head, David Morrissey (with both eyes intact), and Eddie Izzard. Seriously, Eddie would be FABULOUS. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But speaking of British wit (from an American, no less), yes, the scene with Tyrion dragging that chair had me in stitches. What a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fantastic</i> scene: by simply taking their places at the table, you see the ambitions and cleverness of each one. Baelish — metaphorically speaking — pushes the others into the dirt and leaps over the table to be the first one next to Tywin, looking a little too excitable. Varys bows his head and is content to be second to Baelish. Pycelle, as usual, is just happy to still be sitting at the table, so he takes the third chair. But that’s not good enough for Cersei. She picks up a chair and with dignity and grace, carries it around the table, behind Tywin, to be placed at his right hand, which is symbolic in itself (Baelish is at the unfortunate left). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And Tyrion, the smartest of all of them all (and the most brazen and one who cares least about grace), waits for them to all act like clowns before nonchalantly wandering over, grabbing the chair, slowly and loudly dragging it to the head of the table — the only one with the nerve to make himself an equal of Tywin — and then hops up on the seat, reaching down and pulling it forward with one last little “errr” sound. It was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hilarious</i>. Peter Dinklage is just amazing in the scene, not changing his face once, and smugly staring down the table at his nasty father before complimenting him on his choice of table. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In his new job as Master of Coin, Tyrion gets the only title with actual work attached to it, and he’s none too happy (as you said a couple of weeks ago, Chris, Tywin knows that his son is smart, even if he doesn’t have to like him for it). As you rightfully point out, the management of money is a disgusting task that nobles and royalty would rather not think about, but in the modern age (if we think of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> as being the modern age… for them, at least), it’s a necessity. Think of the premise of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Downton Abbey</i>: during King Henry VIII’s reign he burned all the abbeys, and then bestowed what was left on noble families who built them back up into royal mansions. But by the 20th century, this old money had dwindled, and inflation was forcing these families to pour every cent they had into the upkeep of these mansions, forcing them to look for new ways to make money just to support their houses. So while you tune in to see a family that’s waited on hand and foot, with a bunch of spoiled little daughters who don’t even know how to boil water by the time they’re in their twenties, you quickly realize it’s actually about how the lord of the manor lives every day trying to squeeze one more penny out of the place, wondering how the hell he’s going to pay the bills (while the lady of the manor spends every waking moment actually managing the place). It’s enough to make you think why don’t you just sell the damn place and get a four-bedroom apartment, for goodness’ sake! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So now Tyrion’s been put on this task, and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any fallout over his discovery of what Lord Baelish has done. But for now, let’s look instead at his gift to Pod, and what happened afterwards. A truly wonderful scene for undercutting the audience’s expectations: we expect the boy to come back, all flushed and now “a man,” but instead he plops the money back onto the desk, shrugs his shoulders and humbly suggests that maybe the girls liked whatever it was he did to them. Tyrion just stops, looks over Bronn, purses his lips and then leaps off the chair, insisting that Pod give them every single detail. Tyrion was definitely at the heart of the funniest moments of this episode. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Not so funny, however, is what was happening in the North with Jon Snow and Sam’s different groups. Just when I thought Craster was the worst rat bastard on the show, he’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">even worse</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Christopher: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">So we’re clear, the apparently OCD tendency of the White Walkers to strew body parts in symmetrical patterns (which, admittedly, we haven’t seen since the first episode of season one) is an invention of the show—and like most of their inventions, it’s pretty well done. The crane shot of the horses’ heads had me thinking (and I can’t possibly be the only one) “Holy shit—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Godfather</i> on crystal meth.” (And speaking of dream casting—if the TV gods want to include Walter White, that would also be most excellent. The Walter White Walker? C’mon people, the episode writes itself! “Jon Snow! We have to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cook</i>!”). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I’m falling ever more deeply in love with Ciarán Hinds as Mance Rayder. In the novel, his directive to Jon Snow to accompany the team heading south of the wall has the same sort of bravado—knowing he can’t totally trust the turncoat, but also recognizing his value, all of which comes together in what is for all intents a purposes a rather daring gesture. It would be safer to keep Jon Snow close, but Mance isn’t a cautious man. We haven’t yet heard his backstory, how he came to desert the Night’s Watch and become the King Beyond the Wall, and I won’t tell that story in case it comes up later in the series … suffice to say that the few moments where Mance gives his orders and makes it plain he doesn’t yet trust Jon? Lovely. His declaration that he’s going to “light the biggest fire the north has ever seen!” was a brilliant flourish.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">However nervous Jon Snow is feeling, undercover with the wildlings, he’s in a much better head space than Sam … or the rest of the Night’s Watch survivors, for that matter. They find their doleful way back to Craster’s Keep, and once again we have a rather brutal discussion of utility and value, prompted when one of the black brothers resentfully observes that Craster feeds his pigs better than his guests. To which Craster retorts that his pigs are far more valuable than his guests.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Once again I sigh: poor Sam. He’s already earned the cruel nickname Ser Piggy from some of his “brothers,” and finds himself compared to Craster’s livestock. (I must confess, I laughed at Craster’s suggestion that the brothers carve off bits of Sam to feed themselves as they need it, but only because it reminded me of my father’s oft-told joke about the super-heroic three-legged pig. On being asked why the pig had a peg leg, the farmer matter-of-factly responds, “Hell, a pig that good, you don’t eat him all at once.”) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As Craster torments Sam, they hear the cries of Gilly’s labour. Craster has no patience for her noise (which aligns him with Joffrey’s hatred of the “wailing of women”), but Sam slips away and pokes his head into the birthing hovel. Considering Sam’s previously declared inexperience with all things feminine, one assumes this was rather a shocking experience for him. But of course there is a thematic line here as well: Craster treats his “wives” as he does his livestock, considering them more or less in the same category as his property. That Sam’s view of the birth comes immediately after Craster’s (really rather defensive) declarations that he is a godly man is ominous. Craster’s “gods,” it is made clear, are not quite the same as the “old gods” that northerners worship—and we learned last season what he does with male children. Having read the books, I know the sex of Gilly’s child; but I suspect it doesn’t come as a great galloping shock that he’s a boy … and this prompts Sam to precipitate action. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Any last thoughts, Nikki?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I love what you've done with this space." "Thanks. It's a bitch getting a good feng shui person in King's Landing."</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nikki</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: That’s so funny, because in my notes I wrote, “Baby’s clearly a
boy,” so in my mind, it had been made clear. You’re right; it’s not hard to
guess that’s what it’ll be, because if it had been a girl that would sort of be
the end of this plotline. But we all remember Gilly telling Sam how badly she
wanted a girl because she couldn’t bear to lose her son. Craster is horrible. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let’s see, the ones we haven’t yet talked
about at any length are Theon, Arya, and Stannis. Arya’s story was just a
tidbit this week, as she asked the Hound if he remembered the last time he’d
been at this place, and then Hot Pie leaves the trio to stay behind as a cook
(it made sense, since the “piggy” jokes will be used on Sam and Hot Pie serves
a similar purpose in this grouping). Theon — my least favourite character — is
freed by the boy and told to head in a certain direction to meet his sister.
But so far, he hasn’t made it to the sister and is instead ambushed by the men
who’d imprisoned him, and as you pointed out, Chris, they yank his pants down
and threaten to rape him (an interesting bookend to the Brienne scene… notice
how one man gets more of Theon’s clothes off in one motion than six men do with
Brienne after wrestling with her for a good minute). But the same boy who
helped him escape saves his arse (literally!) shoots all of the men with arrows
(who the hell IS this guy??) and helps him up. Theon promised the boy that he’d
make him a lord of the Iron Islands, and the boy said he’s not from there. I
think he needs to make him more than a lord now. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And finally, good ol’ Stannis Baratheon. As
Melisandre goes off in a boat to god-knows-where, he makes a pass at her,
telling her he wants a son and that he wants her. She looks at him with pity,
pretty much pats him on the head, and says, “Your fires run low, my king.”
#burn #flaccidjoke #stinsonrocks (That’s me channelling MY inner Barney
Stinson. True story.) She promises that he’ll sit on the Iron Throne, but first
there may be sacrifices. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So. One’s got a fire goddess. One has <s>three</s>
two dragons and 8,000 men who will follow her every whim. One’s got a quickly
dwindling army and lost loyalties now that he’s married the wrong woman. And
one’s got a really awesome crossbow. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">My money’s on Daenerys at this point, even
short a dragon. ;) </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Thanks for reading everyone, and we’ll see
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Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-4343940086706720962013-04-09T12:34:00.001-02:302013-04-09T14:08:09.678-02:30Game of Thrones 3.02: Dark Wings, Dark WordsHello everyone, and welcome back for the co-blog of season three, episode two of <i>Game of Thrones</i>, in which my most excellent co-host <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/2013/04/game-of-thrones-32-dark-wings-dark-words.html">Nikki Stafford</a> and I geek out egregiously about the awesomeness that is HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series.<br />
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This episode, as we both comment on below, was incredibly packed--so much happened in it, without it being action-packed precisely. Just a lot of business, and the return of some of our favourite characters left out of episode one. So without further ado, here we go. Seeing as how this week it's my turn to lead us off ...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Wait. Wasn't this a scene in <i>Fellowship of the Ring</i>?"</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher: </b>I want to begin with something I didn’t get to last week, which were the changes in the opening credits. You asked whether the credits would end up being extremely long as the action expanded to new and more locations—and yes, it does seem like the space-station view from the armillary sphere has been speeded up somewhat, no? But I love their attention to detail: I noticed last week that Winterfell is charred and smoking, and continues to be this week, and will likely continue to be so in weeks to come.<br />
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And this week we’re back with the storylines neglected in episode one, at the expense alas of Daenerys. But they managed to get through an awful lot, don’t you think? I found this episode really tightly plotted—it didn’t really linger anywhere. I suppose I should dive in with Bran and Arya and Jaime and Brienne (my new favourite two-handed comedy duo), but really I just want to jump to what I think was one of the most amazing sequences this show has offered.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The look of vague disapproval educators everywhere would give their right arm to possess.</td></tr>
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I’m speaking of course of the introduction of the Queen of Thorns herself, Lady Olenna Tyrell, Margaery’s grandmother and exasperated matriarch of the Tyrell clan. Holy fleurking schnitt, did they so totally nail this character, both with the writing (where once again they more or less quoted the novel verbatim) but more importantly with the casting. Diana Rigg! The only person I could imagine being more awesome in the role is Maggie Smith—which, considering the other two <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Downton Abbey</i> crossover castings (Ser Jorah and Ygritte, for those not keeping score) wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility—but Dame Maggie would lack what Ms. Rigg brings to the table, namely her history as Emma Peel, that greatest of television’s badass women. Watching her suffer no fools makes one imagine what Lady Olenna must have been like as a young woman, and for those of us raised on classic British TV, we don’t have to imagine that hard.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Come at me, Lannisters."</td></tr>
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But seriously—one of the things GRRM does very well is to depict strong women without straining the framework of fantasy’s neo-medieval settings. The luncheon with Margaery, Sansa, and the Queen of Thorns is a tight little drama in which we see how women of intellect and ambition live within the structures of power built by and for men. Lady Olenna knows that, as an old woman and a widow, she has leave to say whatever she pleases—and does to sharp and startling effect. But beneath her theatrical thorniness is both a shrewd political mind and, more importantly, a genuine concern for her family. Will Joffrey be a kind husband to Margaery? Sansa is of course too terrified at first to answer, but under Olenna’s unrelenting (and yet not unkind) questioning, she ultimately gives up the truth. “He’s a monster.” </div>
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It has never occurred to me before, but the character of the Queen of Thorns is entirely reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s witches (extended aside: if you have never read any of Terry Pratchett’s novels, you must drop everything and go do so RIGHT NOW. Love fantasy? Love intelligent, crackling prose? Love humour that evokes Monty Python and Douglas Adams? Then you must read the Discworld novels. There are approaching forty of them now, so you won’t lack for choice, but if you want to see what I mean about the whole witches-as-Olenna question, grab <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wyrd Sisters</i> and go from there. You can thank me later). There is a brilliant commonsensical quality to her, one that cuts through the masculine pufferies of sigils and chest-beating. “Loras is young and very good at knocking men off horses with sticks. It doesn’t make him wise.” </div>
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What did you think of <s>Emma Peel</s> Lady Olenna’s introduction, Nikki?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"For the record, John Steed also fell off a cliff. But he was sipping his tea all the way down. They just don't make men like that anymore."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: Oh, those cheekbones. When I realized Lady Olenna was going to have the silk scarf wrapped around her face, at first I was saddened that we wouldn’t see as much of Rigg’s gorgeous, gorgeous face, but there they are: cheekbones as sharp as her wit, sticking out on either side and making her face look stern, but heart-shaped, as if encapsulating the two sides of her character. Like you, I elicited a fannish squee when I saw Emma Peel and realized she was even more sharp-tongued in her later years than when she was slinking around kicking ass in spandex cat-suits, and a question I have written in my notes (well, more a demand than a question) for you is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Please tell me she is this awesome in the books</i>. Glad to see she is. The scene eating lemon cakes, from her chastising the boy about not bringing her cheese to her pushing Sansa to tell her the truth, is absolutely filled with tension. While watching it, I urged her through my television, “Don’t tell them, Sansa… <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t tell them</i>.” And I must admit, by the end of that scene I still wasn’t sure if Lady Olenna was good or not. I LOVE HER, don’t get me wrong, but would she use that information against Sansa? Or is she genuinely looking out for her daughter? Margaery is conniving and would giving someone a beautiful pearl-handled letter opener that she had handcrafted and shipped from overseas immediately before stabbing the person in the back with it, and it’s gotten to the point that if the person is in King’s Landing, and they are talking to Sansa kindly in any way, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they must be evil</i>. And yet there was something about these two women that was like, “Let us know what we’re up against” but they actually do genuinely care about Sansa. Let’s hope that letter opener is for Joffrey only.<br />
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Speaking of the little shit, this week we see him decide to dump the flowery paisley prints for something more manly (snort) while his Mommy watches him get fitted for it. The scene where Margaery strokes his gun and compliments him on it (double snort) is amazing, because we see how truly magnificent Margaery really is. Sansa did what she believed was the right thing to do: she dropped her head, referred to him as “Your Grace,” kowtowed to his mommy, told him the truth about her father, continued to maintain the fiction that her father was a traitor, and essentially turned into a simpering sycophant. Even for someone as ego-driven as Joffrey, that would become tiring. To him, she was nothing but a mule that he could kick every once in a while, but certainly no partner of any kind. </div>
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Margaery, on the other hand, is truthful without kowtowing (telling Joffrey about her husband’s proclivities) and she shows a reverence without stooping to kiss his feet. Notice as he’s being quite vicious about her departed husband that she first stands before him, as an inferior should, but quickly seats herself right beside him, like an equal, and doesn’t just talk to him, but leans her hand in to stroke his. And she doesn’t actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">touch</i> his hand, but instead strokes the instrument of death that he’s holding, as if she finds it as exciting as he does. Joffrey is entirely unnerved, and at once confused about her place and who she is, and excited by this woman. In a scene that is a perversion of a sexual come-on, Joffrey stands up, shows her his “gun,” and says, “Do you want to hold it?” She, of course, gleefully accepts the offer, and leaps up to wrap her fingers around his powerful gun. “I imagine it must be so exciting to squeeze your finger here and kill something over there,” she purrs (in what could be taken as a subtle comment on gun control). And then to take it even further, she turns the questioning on him, and asks if he’d like to see her kill something. “Yes,” he says, clearly in a Margaery-induced trance. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This</i> will be one of the most exciting pairings of the season, I think.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Burleigh & Stronginthearm Gilded Crossbow: Supplementing all your masculine insecurities since the Fall of Valyria.</td></tr>
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But on to the Starks, we finally see our beloved Arya, a foot taller, and clearly a woman (no tricking people into thinking this one’s a boy any longer!) I’m assuming you were as happy to see her as I was? </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>I think the writers know if they went more than a single episode into the season without Arya appearing on screen, there would be bloodthirsty legions of fans descending on their offices with torches and pitchforks. Which is by way of saying—yes, I was so happy to see her again. It’s hard to choose a favourite character out of the books, but if you forced me to it, I’d have to say it comes down to Tyrion and Arya. The casting of Peter Dinklage was well done but obvious; that they got someone as good as Maisie Williams for Arya is nothing short of miraculous. She is in fine form as she returns, still not taking shit from anyone, even challenging Thoros of Myr … not exactly the wisest of things to do, but we expect nothing less from her.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Follow my lead." "Does your lead involve dropping your sword and running away?" "No." "Okay, there might be a problem, then."</td></tr>
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I should add at this point that they are apparently accelerating the storyline here somewhat. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Storm of Swords,</i> Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie spend somewhat more time wandering the wilderness trying to find their way to Riverrun; the Hound making his reappearance in episode two is also a lot sooner than I would have expected. </div>
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And we finally meet the Brotherhood Without Banners, too—the elusive bandits that Tywin’s men were desperate to smoke out in season two, leading to all that unpleasantness with rats and buckets. There’s rather a Robin Hood and his Merry Men quality to them (as there is in the book), though a lot grimmer and grimier. I quite like Anguy the archer—his trick with the arrow was rather a cool moment. (And as an aside: the exchange about Hot Pie, “Half the country’s starving, and look at this one!” “Maybe he’s the reason they’re starving,” is a joke I liked to make about Hurley starting about halfway through season one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lost</i>). </div>
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The other bit I rather loved in the Arya sequences was Gendry’s eminently practical questioning of Arya’s three choices—not least because I think probably everyone who has read the books had one or two similar hair-pulling moments when Arya did not say “Joffrey” or “Tywin.” It’s as if you went back in time to 1933 Berlin and told your friends “The beer and sauerkraut were awesome.” “WHAT? You mean you DIDN’T kill Hitler?”</div>
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Speaking of Hitler, or his little blond facsimile in King’s Landing—I love the way they’re developing his sociopathy this season, tempering it with a teenage boy’s arrogances and weaknesses. He is, as you observe, obviously awed by Margaery—but only because Margaery is far more formidable than Sansa, and very quickly figures out what his buttons are, where they are, and how to push them. Joffrey had nothing but contempt for Sansa’s simpering submissiveness, but also delighted in tormenting her because of it. He also has a teenage boy’s arrogance, especially where maternal advice is concerned. Say what you will about Cersei, but she has Margaery’s number (and possibly the best line of the episode when she suggests he gives his scrap of flowery fabric to her as a gift, saying “That should be more than enough fabric for her”). But Joffrey dismisses her, in part because he dismisses all women. Margaery in his mind cannot be anything but what men in her life wish her to be; and much to Cersei’s chagrin, she realizes that he sees her in precisely the same way. It made me think back to season one when Joffrey sends his soldiers around the city to kill all of Robert’s bastards; in the book, it was Cersei who gave that order, but it makes sense with the way they’re doing Joffrey on the show for it to have been him. “I cannot abide the wailing of women,” he said in the second episode of season one, a line taken directly from the book, and we see how the writers have built that into something resembling a world-view by season three.</div>
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But it is a dangerously myopic world-view, something Cersei grasps … as does Margaery. The crossbow scene (as I’m now thinking of it) was beautifully done in this respect. It begins with Joffrey looking for weaknesses in his betrothed to exploit and torment—his pointed questions about Renly, which at first seem to echo his mother’s concerns but soon show themselves for what they are, the first prods a cat gives prospective prey. Margaery however, unlike Sansa, is no mouse, and she plays Joffrey like a virtuoso (sorry for the mixed metaphor). She very quickly figures out that he is aroused not by sex but by violence and torment. A less perceptive seductress would have put her hand on his crotch. She goes for the crossbow … and speaks to him in terms that visibly excite him.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oooo .... Your grace, is that a roll of quarters in your pocket, or are you--" "Yes, it's a roll of quarters. Why?"</td></tr>
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Have I mentioned how much I love what they’re doing with Margaery? Of all their departures from the novels, the way they’re redrawing her character is lovely. In the novels she’s little more than a lovely nonentity, even when she’s given something to do. But here, she’s a fully realized, very smart and shrewd woman. </div>
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But enough about her for the moment. Let’s move on to what has become my favourite two-handed comedy act, the Jaime and Brienne traveling road show. We got a hint of this last season, and now we get the full effect of their mismatched personalities. And Jaime finally makes his move: snatches away one of her swords, and proceeds to get his ass handed to him until Roose Bolton’s men show up. What did you think of them, Nikki?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijErpPAD6RZsYTPvwWgt1xCX1MOQGzGAAIOwuHw60oNOZZeaGYtg3h6HH-Myz7Lq_h9vRO17M7jPQdmS6jD2EvFebJ_m71-oWAVjZIobjdsiwER7xCGc9X_Md1sdBRz5CcFlV9_w/s1600/game_of_thrones_54422.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijErpPAD6RZsYTPvwWgt1xCX1MOQGzGAAIOwuHw60oNOZZeaGYtg3h6HH-Myz7Lq_h9vRO17M7jPQdmS6jD2EvFebJ_m71-oWAVjZIobjdsiwER7xCGc9X_Md1sdBRz5CcFlV9_w/s400/game_of_thrones_54422.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Fuck gilded crossbows. I go for the straight up gangsta phallic symbol."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki: </b>And once again you come to the rescue. I didn’t get right away that they were Bolton’s men. All I saw was Noah Taylor and thought, “Hang on, that’s the guy from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shine</i>… no, it’s the manager from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almost Famous</i>… oh! It’s the guy who played Hitler in that John Cusack film… Wait, what? Is he taking Jaime away?” </div>
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My husband says the single most annoying thing about watching any television show with me is that I see someone and get all excited about where I’ve seen them before. (Actually, no, that’s the second most… the single most is when I can’t quite place them and immediately have to IMDb them.) But anyway… </div>
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Yes on everything you said about Joffrey and Arya, and you answered my question about whether the Hound showed up at the beginning of the book or later. I saw a few people pretty upset about how different Arya’s story is starting off, even though it totally worked for me as someone not reading the books. I, too, loved Gendry’s comment about why Arya didn’t ask for the right three people when Jaqen gave her the chance. I’m pretty sure that when he first gave her the offer, I began shouting out on the blog all the people she should name, while you (clearly knowing what was going to happen) just nodded and said, “Yes… yes…” Oh wise one. </div>
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But back to the comedy duo of the show. I know I say this every time, but I LOVE BRIENNE, and I adore the actress playing her. And Jaime is just fantastic. He’s supposed to be loathsome, and we know what he’s been up to with his sister and that the degenerate on the throne is actually his horrible little spawn, and he was so hateful throughout the first season, but he is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just so hilarious</i> here, even when he’s being terrible to Brienne. Mostly because while you can see she’s actually sort of hurt by it, she tries not to show it. He’s a very intelligent man, surprisingly well equipped to play mindgames on the battlefield. He taunts her about her size while they’re walking, which just makes her angrier, but when they both have swords he begins speaking her thoughts aloud. “If you kill me you’ve failed Lady Stark, but if you don’t kill me, I’ll kill you.” </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boy on Bridge! (My Newfoundland readers get the joke). </td></tr>
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And then, as you say, she beats him handily. That final flip of the sword and hip-checking him to the side is sublime, as is the look of “And THAT, Kingslayer, is how it’s fucking DONE!” on her face in that moment. A moment that’s quickly forgotten when the other guys show up. Oops. As with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Walking Dead</i> last week, there is a moment of ethics in this episode where Brienne looks across the woods at a peasant and with Jaime whisper-screaming in her ear to kill him, she refuses, saying he’s an innocent. And she’s wrong. Maybe Jaime needed Carl to walk him back to King’s Landing. </div>
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And here I must insert my favourite Jaime portion of the episode, when he’s chiding Brienne about being in love with Renly: “You weren’t his type, by the way . . . you’re far too much man for him. It’s a shame the throne wasn’t made of cocks; they’d have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i> gotten him off it!”</div>
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And now over to Bran (there are just SO many storylines here it’s hard to handle all of them, yeesh! Our blog posts will be longer than GRRM’s books soon…). We’ve seen his dreams of the three-eyed raven right from the very beginning of season 1. Usually the first time we see him in a season is in his dreams (easily figured out because he’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">walking</i>). But in this episode there are the dreams, the gargantuan direwolves (my excitement over those creatures has never waned… I WANT ONE STILL), and the two new characters, Jojen and Meera Reed. And, as with any new character, I now open the floor to you so you can tell us more about them. All I’ll do is talk about how I saw the kid playing Jojen and immediately recognized him as that kid in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love Actually</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nanny McPhee</i>, and in a David Tennant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Doctor Who</i> episode (which… come to think of it… he was in with the guy who played Viserys!) Over to you…<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Not to downplay your skills or anything, but if my dad were here he'd totally take care of things single-handed. I mean, you've seen <i>Taken</i>, right?"</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christopher: </b>Perhaps we should start a “Carl, stay in the castle!” meme.</div>
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I too had a moment of “Hey, that’s the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love, Actually</i> kid!” when watching this episode. Good to see he’s still getting work.</div>
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They’ve altered the Jojen and Meera story a bit. In the novels, they show up at Winterfell while Bran is still running things, and assist Osha in spiriting Bran and Rickon away after Theon captures the castle. They are the children of Howland Reed, a “cranogman”—i.e. one of the people who live in the marshy lowlands of “The Neck,” the isthmus connecting the north and south parts of Westeros, the effective southern boundary of Stark territory. In the books the cranogmen are described as slighter and shorter than average people, adept at stealth and navigating the shifting landscapes of the Neck’s swamps. Those wishing to deride them call them “frogeaters,” for part of their diet comprises the frogs and other slippery things of the marshes. They are looked down on and mistrusted by some—especially the Frey clan—but Ned Stark always considered them tough, loyal, and honourable people. He was especially devoted to Howland Reed, as Howland saved his life during Robert’s rebellion.</div>
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I don’t know how much of that will make it into the show. Jojen, as became quickly obvious in this episode, is gifted with magical or mystical insight and vision, and sought Bran out because his dreams identified him as a child of destiny. He will offer guidance and help as Bran grows into his own powers and abilities.</div>
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I was quite taken with the actors they’ve cast, and enjoyed the exchange between Osha and Meera. Osha’s skepticism about the division of duties between the brother and sister, with Meera acting as the muscle, was a lovely little bit of inadvertent self-reflection. The relationship between Jojen and Meera almost perfectly mirrors the relationship that has developed between Bran and Osha, but some elemental sense of gender roles blinds her at first to the similarities. To a wildling like Osha, a man who cannot help himself is hardly a man. But as Meera mildly replies, “Some people will always need help.” And with a nod to Bran in his litter, adds, “That doesn’t mean they’re not worth protecting.”</div>
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Wow, this episode was packed. Looking over my notes, I’m realizing we haven’t yet said anything about Robb and Catelyn or Theon’s plight. But before I get to that, I just want to mention my other favourite “Hey, that’s …!” moment. North of the Wall we meet yet another member of Mance’s retinue, a skinchanger named Orell in creepy mid-commune with his eagle. For me, Orell will always be Gareth from the British <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Office</i> … all we need is Martin Freeman to show up and ask him leading questions with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">double entendres</i> (“So if you were to attack the Night’s Watch, would you take them from behind?”) Perhaps we could put Bilbo in a parka and borrow him from Peter Jackson for an episode.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I am SO gonna sic my eagle on Tim."</td></tr>
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But to consider the ongoing saga of the King in the North … we start to see the cracks in Robb’s command, and the repercussions of his impetuous wedding, with his bannerman Rikard Karstark telling him bluntly that that has lost him the war. Meanwhile, his new bride Talisa tries to ingratiate herself with Catelyn, who is in the middle of making one of those prayer wheel / dreamcatcher thingies we saw her make for Bran in season one. Her story about praying for Jon Snow and her unfulfilled promise to make him a proper Stark is entirely new—nowhere to be found in the novels. I loved it. The writers are very good and incorporating GRRM’s dialogue into the series, but they’re no slouches when it comes to what they invent. The story offers an insight into Catelyn that we otherwise don’t get. Speaking personally, her sustained antipathy to Jon Snow in the novels was always for me a sticking-point in her character. That she blames herself for the crises and tragedies transpiring since then is, perhaps, a little self-aggrandizing, but understandable … especially considering so much of the world’s tumult seems to be happening specifically to her family.</div>
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And finally … Theon. Speaking of accelerated storylines. I don’t know how much to say here, as I’m worried about spoilers—but spoilers for those reading the novels, for a change. But then, if you’re not up to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Dance With Dragons</i> and are watching the series, then the series has just given up a big damn spoiler. Theon disappears after the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Clash of Kings</i>, and does not appear for two whole novels. The suggestion is that he was killed when the Bastard of Bolton stormed Winterfell, and there’s nothing (so far as I can remember) to suggest otherwise. So for two novels he is absent, until we see him again in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dance</i>—more or less as we see him in this episode.</div>
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There’s a lot that can be said about the Theon sequence, less in terms of plot and story than in the way GoT depicts torture. We had some experience of this in season two with the Tickler and his rat-and-bucket enthusiasms. The sadism and capriciousness of torture is emphasized even more here as Theon starts babbling, offering to tell them anything, anything they want to know. There’s an interesting paper to be written comparing the depictions of torture in GoT with, say, a show like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">24</i> (or, more problematically, a film like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zero Dark Thirty</i>), but I’ll leave that to others. What were your thoughts, Nikki?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"So, um ... when I told my agent I'd love to play a Christ figure, this really wasn't what I had in mind."</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nikki</b>: As I said in season 2, I kind of hate Theon. Knowing there are two whole novels without him makes me want to read the books even more. And it’s not a hate like the one I have for Joffrey, where watching his foot being crushed would bring me GREAT JOY. It’s more me being bored by him and just wanting to be done with it. But again, this could be the actor not working for me. I find he’s overwrought and annoying. The torture is brutal in this scene, and what they play up in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> that other shows don’t is the emotional or psychological torture. Putting the bag over Theon’s head and leaving him alone in a room is almost as bad as crushing his foot. Scaring someone into thinking the worst is going to happen is as bad as if it happened. It’s beautifully done. </div>
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I should mention that Theon being tortured was the only thing I couldn’t quite remember from season 2. Both my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Who is doing this to him? Wasn’t he at Winterfell?” I forgot his botched St. Crispin’s Day speech to his men — “You will go out there and YOU WILL DIE, but damn if you won’t be a hero!” — and that one of his men clocked him with a stick and dragged him away. So this scene follows from that one. </div>
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Your comment about Gareth and Tim just made me laugh out loud, by the way. I think we need to write <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Office Wildlings</i> now. “And if, during the attack, one of the men was coming at you really hard, would you give him a lethal blow?” </div>
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I agree with you on the Catelyn sequence, and how interesting that scene’s not in the books! I watched it and thought, “Wow, I would bet this is one of those scenes where they’ve taken it word for word from the book because of the insight we get into the character.” I had no idea that was unique to the show. But it’s a beautiful moment. Catelyn is often a character shunted to the side, but we get bursts of poignancy and insight into her character, and this is probably the best of them so far. I watched that scene and tried to imagine myself in her shoes: how could you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> love an infant that’s completely innocent and vulnerable? And yet… how could you not look into that infant’s eyes and see his mother, the mother that was with your husband? It’s a fascinating conundrum. Although, in the preceding scene where Robb is telling her about Winterfell and that Bran and Rickon are missing, I couldn’t help but think, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how are you holding your own mother prisoner, you twat?!</i> Maybe she put her loyalties with the wrong kid. Argh. </div>
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The one we haven’t mentioned yet (the one I usually begin with) is Tyrion, who we see only briefly in this episode with Shae. Shae tells Sansa in a previous scene that if Baelish ever tries anything, to let her know, and that Shae will make him stop. It’s moments like this that Shae is such a powerful character. But then we see her as a jealous idiot when she’s in Tyrion’s chamber. “What? You had sex with Roz? Well, I knew you banged prostitutes on an hourly basis before you met me but HOW DARE YOU have sex with Roz?? What? Your almost-niece is someone you just admitted is attractive? Dost thou want to bang her TOO?” Come on, Shae, give it up, I thought. But on second thought, I like the humanness about her jealousy.</div>
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I agree that what makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i> so fascinating is its depiction of women. The caustic Lady Olenna; the resilient Daenerys; the independent Roz; the warrior Brienne; the connivingly sweet Margaery; the tough-as-nails Arya. And even when the women are being mistreated, there’s still something honourable about them: Sansa has made many mistakes, but she’s the only Stark that’s embedded directly in the spider’s web right now; Catelyn is being held prisoner, but she continues to be a mother and a stern voice of reason; Cersei can be a nasty bitch, but there’s something kind of delightful about her. I love the women on this show. </div>
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And up in the snowy wasteland, poor Sam. Or should I say, “Piggy.” (Did anyone else get a distinct <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord of the Flies</i> vibe from that exchange??) </div>
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As always, thanks for joining me on this, Chris! I feel like I understand the episode so much better now that you’ve given us the literary rundown. Not to mention when you name the new people, I can see how they’re actually spelled, rather than the phonetic weirdness in my head when I first hear their names uttered. </div>
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See you all next week!! </div>
Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-43969339242681196992013-04-03T07:40:00.001-02:302013-04-03T21:18:43.723-02:30Game of Thrones 3.01: Valar Dohaeris<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9I-iSYI59SKUMzVztIs_FByqS-tIZ_uK5W7twqeFj9tO6EoC8XFKm057GkZQ56JzT_GCUMoHjdshH1y8gMIMmPoqTKSecaiIVItv_StPv2nbRU6lA8u1mcZn9UjpW4v_elUhiCQ/s1600/tyrion-and-tywin-600x337-590x331.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Hello everyone, and welcome back to the third season of Chris & Nikki’s <i>Game of Thrones</i> co-blog adventure! Just to recap for those who might be new to this annual project, the “Nikki” here in question is Nikki Stafford of <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/">Nik at Nite</a> fame and author of, oh, about a bazillion books on <i>Buffy, Angel,</i> and <i>Lost</i>, just to name a few. I am your humble host with no books to his name (yet). But I have read George R. R. Martin’s <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> series, having started some sixteen years ago when <i>A Game of Thrones</i> was still in hardcover. It’s been a long, geeky road … Nikki has not as yet read any of the books, but that looks to change soon. <br />
<br />
And we’re back with the first episode of season three of GoT, “Valar Dohaeris” … which for those of you who don’t speak High Valyrian, means “All men must serve,” and is the traditional response to the greeting “Valar Morghulis” (“all men must die”—cheerful lot, the Valyrians). The latter expression, of course, was the title of last season’s finale. If you need to catch up, you can read our recap <a href="http://newnewfie.blogspot.ca/2012/06/hi-everyone-and-welcome-to-final-blog.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I’ll wait.<br />
<br />
All right then. Are you seated comfortably? Then we’ll begin …<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He wears the black for the poor and beaten down, livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town.</td></tr>
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<b>Nikki</b>: I have seen the first four episodes of this season, and I can tell you there are gasps, shocks, triumphs… and Diana Rigg’s FABULOUS cheekbones. <br />
<br />
This week’s episode, which is that episode that has to bridge us from one season to the next (and because of the sheer number of clans covered in this series, they don’t even get around to everyone by the end of the episode!) begins pretty much immediately after “Valar Morghulis,” the season 2 finale, ends (“Valar Morghulis” means “all men must die,” and the title of this episode, “Valar Dohaeris,” means “all men must serve”). Of course, as you’ll see next week, Arya’s a foot taller and Bran’s voice has deepened, but let’s just overlook that (when fans made too much of that on <i>Lost</i>, they just got rid of the kid, and no one wants THAT to happen here!)<br />
<br />
As usual, I will start with Tyrion. The first time we see his face, it’s not actually the imp’s visage, but a mirror image of it. He stares in the mirror for a long time, and it’s clearly significant: Tyrion’s life has completely changed. He’s no longer on top; he’s no longer outwitting anyone (he might be smarter than every other Lannister there is, but sheer might won out on this one, and he knows it); he has to hide his lover from everyone; he’s not the Hand of the King, but more the armpit of the family; Cersei mocks him, and Tywin puts him in his place. Most noticeably, his confidence is gone; where Tyrion used to roll his eyes and lord over King’s Landing with his sarcasm, every word he says is now tinged with fear of recrimination. That giant Omar scar on his face reminds him daily that his big sister fights back. <br />
<br />
Early in the episode Cersei comes to Tyrion’s chambers to laugh at him and gloat. She’s taken his verbal knocks for months while he was Hand of the King, and now she’s taking a moment to give back. He frantically looks at her through the peephole in his door, worried about letting her in. He orders her guards stand back, and when he opens the door, it’s with much trepidation. “I’m not afraid of you, little brother,” she says to him slyly. But you can tell from his body language that he’s certainly afraid of her. Until now he clearly didn’t think she had it in her. But in their conversation we find out her vengeance isn’t necessarily from the barbs he’s doled out over the past few months, but going way back to when they were children, and he tattled on her about having a servant girl beaten. She tells him how she still holds her hatred and anger inside her for him slandering her like that. We discover that she had done something and blamed it on a servant girl, who was beaten and bloodied to within an inch of her life. When Tyrion tells her that it’s not slander if it’s true, Cersei just smiles, knowing that he can’t hurt her now. <br />
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But even with her definitely having the upper hand now, Tyrion still can’t resist lobbing an insult back at her when she dishes one at him: “You’re a clever man,” she says. “But you’re not half as clever as you think.” <br />
<br />
“Still makes me smarter than you,” he says, before slamming the door and locking it behind her. <br />
<br />
When Tyrion makes his way to his father’s room and demands to be treated like the actual heir he is, and to be given Casterly Rock, there seems to be a new air of confidence about him. But it’s all bluster. Tywin puts up with Tyrion’s presence for the first bit, and listens to his son tell him everything he did the night of the battle of Blackwater. But it’s not enough; like Cersei, he’s holding old grudges and not letting them go. He reminds Tyrion that he’s an “ill-made, spiteful little creature” who killed his mother by being born, and that there is no way in hell he’s giving Tyrion Casterly Rock, since he assumes his youngest son will simply turn it into a brothel. But because “they can’t prove you’re not mine,” Tywin will throw him a small bone. But it’s a giant kick in the ass, much like Tyrion’s new quarters and facial scar. He’s been beaten… for now. But we fans know Tyrion doesn’t stay down for long. I just hope he gets back up again soon; he’s far more fun when he’s on top. <br />
<br />
So Chris, what were your thoughts about this week’s return to Westeros? There were some new lands in the opening; are they all consistent with the third book? (Will this third season be in line with the third book, as far as you can tell?) And more importantly, by the time they get to the end, will the theme song be about 10 minutes long?<br />
<br />
And how excited were you to see <a href="http://www.peplums.info/images/39rome/39i02.jpg">Julius Caesar</a> again? ;) <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Et tu, Jon Snow?</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher:</b> So very, very excited. There was a brief period when the buzz was that Dominic West had been offered the role of Mance Rayder, which made my <i>Wire</i> fanboyism go off the charts. But the disappointment that that did not work out was well salved by the casting of Ciarán Hinds. Where McNulty would have highlighted the brash, tricksterish qualities of Mance, Hinds brings the authority and <i>gravitas</i> he displayed as Caesar.<br />
<br />
(Not to digress so early, but the question of how to act <i>gravitas</i> is, to me, a very interesting one, perhaps because I love political dramas—and am frequently disappointed when the figure who is supposed to be someone people will follow to hell and back displays none of the qualities that inspire that devotion. Martin Sheen, for example, nails it in <i>The West Wing</i>; conversely, George Clooney was bafflingly bland in <i>The Ides of March</i>. A question for the hive mind: who, in your opinion, exemplifies <i>gravitas</i> in film or TV? Who completely fails at it?)<br />
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Seeing as how I seem to have started north of the Wall, I might as well stay there for the moment. I like that this episode literally picks up where last season left off, and emphasizes that by starting with a (pardon the pun) cold open. The novel <i>A Storm of Swords</i> opens with the three horn blasts we heard at the end of last season; and we get, a few chapters in, the attack on the Night Watch’s encampment by the white walkers and their ice zombies (er, I mean wights) filtered through Sam’s jagged memory. Poor Sam … in the novel he succeeds in sending off his ravens. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"OK, that was pretty humiliating. On the other hand, this is the warmest I've been in weeks."</td></tr>
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We stay in the north after the credits for our first up-close look at the wildlings’ encampment, where Jon Snow is gobsmacked by his first glimpse of a giant, pelted by angry and mocking stones, and introduced to Mance Rayder’s inner circle. I won’t say much about Tormund Giantsbane for the moment, aside from that the actor they’ve cast (Kristofer Hivju) looks perfect. And of course we meet Mance himself, Julius Caesar resurrected from the bloody floor of the Senate. He looks a little rougher around the edges, but then I suppose life north of the wall does that to you. His exchange with Jon—questioning his motives and his sincerity—is quite well done, though different than in the novel. In the novel, Mance tells about how he was present at Winterfell when the Lannisters were there, having snuck south disguised as a musician and joined the king’s retinue. (Again, I’ll be interested to see how the Ciarán Hinds Mance plays out—in the novel Mance has a somewhat roguish and romantic nature, exemplified by the audacity of hiding in plain sight in his enemy’s feasting hall). When asked why he wants to desert the watch, Jon Snow asks if Mance had seen where his brothers and sisters sat—at the head table with Ned Stark and the King and Queen? And whether he also saw how the bastard sat with the commons, unacknowledged. <br />
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The change they made in the show was not a bad substitution, all things being equal—and it certainly played well, with Mance’s subtle change of expression at the mention of the white walkers. It’s a reminder of who the real enemy is.<br />
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Speaking of actors who convey <i>gravitas</i>, the scene between Tyrion and Tywin was pitch-perfect—and was pretty much verbatim from the book. Peter Dinklage just gets better and better. Tyrion has never been imperturbable, precisely, but he is deft at only showing the world what he wants the world to see. So it is a little heartbreaking to watch the cracks show in the façade—first, when he almost doesn’t let Cersei into his room out of fear, and then only when he has armed himself with an axe. Once she is inside, he returns to his cool, snarky self; but we’ve seen that he is afraid of her, and she isn’t going to miss that detail. That he sends her packing with that brilliant little insult doesn’t quite make up for seeing him that shaken. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9I-iSYI59SKUMzVztIs_FByqS-tIZ_uK5W7twqeFj9tO6EoC8XFKm057GkZQ56JzT_GCUMoHjdshH1y8gMIMmPoqTKSecaiIVItv_StPv2nbRU6lA8u1mcZn9UjpW4v_elUhiCQ/s1600/tyrion-and-tywin-600x337-590x331.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9I-iSYI59SKUMzVztIs_FByqS-tIZ_uK5W7twqeFj9tO6EoC8XFKm057GkZQ56JzT_GCUMoHjdshH1y8gMIMmPoqTKSecaiIVItv_StPv2nbRU6lA8u1mcZn9UjpW4v_elUhiCQ/s400/tyrion-and-tywin-600x337-590x331.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
And then with Tywin … both of them lose their composure, if only slightly, Tyrion to his bottled-up resentment and Tywin to his long-simmering rage over his wife’s death in childbirth. As smooth and shrewd as Tyrion is, and as justified as his claim to Casterly Rock is, it is obvious that he is still in awe of his father, and more than a little intimidated by him. Again, this is heartbreaking: one senses that even the merest of compliments or the smallest word of gratitude from Tywin would be enough, but he isn’t about to give even that much. “Jugglers and singers demand applause,” he says dismissively, and a few moments later goes on to clarify precisely what he thinks of Tyrion. <br />
<br />
The little speech he gives—again, more or less verbatim from the novel—is devastating. We’ve always known intuitively what Tywin thinks of his younger son. To hear it spoken aloud in such bald terms … well, I know I couldn’t have kept Tyrion’s composure. Nor could most. Which, ironically, shows him to be as much of a Lannister as his father.<br />
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And speaking of Lannisters … what did you think of Joffrey’s bits in this episode?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dick in a box!</td></tr>
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<b>Nikki</b>: I’d love to see someone cut off Joffrey’s bits and feed them to the poor. But as for his scenes in this episode, just brilliant, as usual. I’m so caught up in talking about my utter hatred of Joffrey (and that hating him is one of my favourite things about the show, so I hope he makes it until the final moments of the final episode and then dies in a spectacular fashion) but it’s not mentioned enough just how remarkable Jack Gleeson is in the role. He is just SO vile, SO hateful, and as he’s being carried through the Fleabottom slums, looking as put-out and bored as ever, I was just struck by what a fine actor Gleeson is. He plays him so well, yet it never feels over the top. This isn’t Tom Cruise doing Les Grossman in <i>Tropic Thunder</i>; this is a fine actor doing a brilliant job of making me want to see Joffrey drawn and quartered in every episode. <br />
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Lady Margaery has turned out to be the Princess Di that the Lannister family so desperately needs. Just as Queen Elizabeth and her clan were finding their numbers down when the young, perky kindergarten teacher showed up and changed the way we saw the Windsors forever, here is Lady Margaery slumming it with orphans of the Blackwater battle, bringing love and sympathy to the dregs of society and telling them that aid and love is coming their way… care of their passionate and loving King Joffrey. Of course, Cersei is green with envy, as usual, because Joffrey never looks at Margaery with the same sneering hatred that he did Sansa; he doesn’t seem to want to hurt her… he’s still trying to figure her out. She’s the best PR that family’s had since Robert Baratheon died. But it’s clear from the look on Margaery’s face all the time (again, Natalie Dormer does a wonderful job in the role) makes us think there are always other motives. She’s playing a very, very long game, and <i>good god</i> I hope the consequences are vast and painful for the Lannisters. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slumming with the 99%.</td></tr>
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Brilliant summary of the north! I always look to you, to be honest, to help bring more clarity to the new characters, because I do find on the show they’re introduced rather hastily and I didn’t gauge half of what you were just saying by seeing Mance Rayder on screen. Obviously the novels are going to offer so much more depth and understanding, and 10 hours of television can’t possibly do it justice, but I was awed by Ciaran Hinds (as always) and couldn’t wait to see more. <br />
<br />
And now let’s move to Daenerys. I went to see the <i>Game of Thrones</i> exhibit in Toronto a couple of weeks and got my photo taken on the Iron Throne (it’s my cover photo on my Facebook page) and a representative from HBO was there and asked me to pledge allegiance to a clan. Without hesitation, I said, “Targaryen.” Yes, I love Arya Stark and deep down I want to see her conquer absolutely everyone, but Daenerys has <i>DRAGONS</i>. I just don’t see how she can lose. <br />
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And what about those dragons? The CGI on them is truly amazing, and watching one of them dive into the water for a fish, catch it, fly it back up into the air, throw it up into the sky and cook it with its own fiery breath before gulping it down is one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen on the show. <br />
<br />
After her boat ride (now that I’m watching <i>Downton Abbey</i> it was weird seeing Ser Jorah and not seeing him as Carlyle!) she arrives in Astapor, home of the Unsullied army. And the Unsullied aren’t just normal soldiers: these are the most unbelievably badass men you have EVER seen. Trained in such hopeless circumstances that only a quarter of the survive, they will do whatever they are told, and don’t even flinch. (When Kraznys, who might actually be even more vile than Joffrey, cuts off one of the soldier’s nipples, I just… <i>blergh</i>.) And then just as Daenerys is trying to wrap her head around whatever the hell <i>that</i> just was, a creepier little girl lures her away with a ball containing a horrific scorpion. Daenerys, who, despite the abusive upbringing she’s had, has a big, generous heart, shows her vulnerability by following the little girl, grinning and playing the whole time. But never fear, she’s saved by… Obi Wan Kenobi!!! <br />
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Oh wait, no, it’s another guy who had worked as a soldier for her father. I’m sure you can fill us in more on who that man is and his backstory, Chris. But in the meantime, can I just say how much I hope Daenerys can understand even a <i>little</i> of what Kraznys is saying. Pig. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Want to see my impersonation of Ben Kingsley in <i>Sexy Beast</i>? No? How about <i>Gandhi</i>?"</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Christopher:</b> For all those wondering, Obi Wan is Ser Barristan Selmy, formerly lord commander of the Kingsguard. Remember back to season one, when Robert Baratheon had that conversation with Jaime Lannister and an old knight about the first men they’d killed? The old knight was Barristan. He was dismissed ignominiously by Joffrey so that the Hound could be elevated to the Kingsguard (<i>that</i> worked out well for the little shit, didn’t it?), and we saw nothing of him all season two. He appears at the end of <i>A Clash of Kings</i> more or less precisely as he did in this episode, except that they’re still in Qarth when the assassination attempt occurs, and he does not actually reveal who he is. He spends the better part of <i>A Storm of Swords</i> going by the alias Arstan Whitebeard until Jorah finally winkles out his true identity.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtus8lyuznyLQ9Vk_4HsMJ7c4kKZ4O4TkuXwrIMGd8SZJ48KWJrq8B6BqnB1BJZMcPIDPaglxXoAAEMbIkCrH8hNsr8AGQNLH2fCXgiBMMR0IA4pfMnAb8qe4cqpFA7EE5pL8ReQ/s1600/Barristan_Manticore_S3_Ep1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtus8lyuznyLQ9Vk_4HsMJ7c4kKZ4O4TkuXwrIMGd8SZJ48KWJrq8B6BqnB1BJZMcPIDPaglxXoAAEMbIkCrH8hNsr8AGQNLH2fCXgiBMMR0IA4pfMnAb8qe4cqpFA7EE5pL8ReQ/s400/Barristan_Manticore_S3_Ep1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kids, this is why in Astapor you <i>always</i> shake out your shoes before putting them on. </td></tr>
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<br />
So it’s interesting that they’ve made the reveal right away—probably on the shrewd assumption that many people would recognize the actor. I’ll hold off on saying more about Barristan, as I have to imagine he’ll have some exposition in a future episode. <br />
<br />
One bit of trivia I should mention: the creepy scorpion-like thing that comes out of the wooden ball is a manticore, which might come as a surprise for devotees of mythology (or Robertson Davies) who think of manticores as a monstrous beast with the head of a human with shark’s teeth, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion. In GRRM’s world, apparently they’re icky little jewel-like insects.<br />
<br />
Returning to King’s Landing—yes, I think we should probably make a note at least once a post about the awesome job Jack Gleeson has been doing, and continues to do. The last play I directed, many moons ago, was <i>Macbeth</i>, and I turned one of the lesser lords—Menteith—into Macbeth’s go-to hit man. I wanted to cast against type and so gave the role to one of the sweetest people I’ve met, a slight bespectacled fellow who also happened to be a terribly good actor (he played Richmond in the <i>Richard III</i> I did), and he played the character with such slimy, creepy, sociopathic glee that people who had been to see the play had difficulty talking to him afterwards. I sometimes wonder if Jack Gleeson has the same problem. In every interview I’ve seen him do, he seems like a charming, somewhat bashful kid. I’d hate to think he gets hated in the streets for playing such a shit.<br />
<br />
This episode was pretty even-keeled—no great revelations, no great climaxes. If there was a standout for me, it was the way they’re building the character of Margaery Tyrell. As I’ve mentioned before, in the novel she’s depicted as a gentle soul, lovely, innocent, only a year or two older than Joffrey. With Natalie Dormer, they’ve given us a Margaery who is substantially older and obviously more experienced (in every way) than Joffrey, and they’ve made her ambitions as naked as her cleavage. Hence, everything she does seems far more calculated than her literary opposite … and I must say, of all the departures from the novel, this one is among my favourites. It makes her far more interesting, for one thing. It also gives me added respect for the writers that, having cast the lovely and talented Natalie Dormer, they mean to make full use of her talents and not waste her as a wallflower. Her excursion into Flea Bottom, aka the ghettos of King’s Landing, was an inspired bit of drama not to be found in the novel. And her jousting with Cersei at dinner? Let me say that in an episode with some extraordinary face acting (Mance Rayder, Tywin and Tyrion, Daenerys), my favourite moment was the look on Cersei’s face when Margaery, in ostensible innocence, says that the low are no different from the high. It was a brilliant and subtle little insight into Cersei and the prejudices that rule her. I wrote a subtitle in my notes: “Ah. I hadn’t realized she was a retard” (apologies for that offensive term, but we all <i>know</i> Cersei wouldn’t be PC about it). <br />
<br />
<i>Such</i> a lovely moment. I think I can say without fear of spoilers that she does indeed prove to be a thorn in Cersei’s side. <br />
<br />
But back across the narrow sea: The entire translation farce played out pretty much as it did in the novel, and I love how they’ve dramatized it. Daenerys’ reluctance to purchase slaves versus Jorah’s pragmatism is well laid out here—we’ll have an ethical debate on this front for at least another episode or two to come, I’m guessing. This is one of those moments when I envy those who haven’t read the novels … I know what’s coming, and how Daenerys threads that particular needle, and I CANNOT WAIT to see the expression on the faces of those who’ll be experiencing it for the first time. Remind me to say that again when the moment comes: I’m literally bouncing up and down in my chair at the thought of what the hive mind will have to say. Heh.<br />
<br />
Returning to King’s Landing, what did you think of that sedate little scene with Sansa and Shae? It’s almost as if Sansa has reverted to her old tendencies, refusing to see the ships for what they are and instead wishing to invent romantic stories for them. But then Littlefinger arrives and dangles the prospect of escape. What was most interesting for me in this scene was less their interaction than the murmured conversation between Roz and Shae—I had forgotten Varys’ visit to Roz in the aftermath of Joffrey’s scepter-rape (and I really cannot believe I just used <i>that</i> expression) recruiting her to his side. Is this her first attempt to expand the Spider’s network? <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir23pUXM8ms5lW_oVpz4eOxdkDm1oA_ilrCBWheWZ7GC9BAhrUpxBRGgRTW5XGWL8nLBvY0x5jtA-NTykyh57geLVb26LjpNB4KClIk0Gmzjt9xO96UQlrHYJ2e296sZNkbYWLUQ/s1600/GameOfThrones_S3_Enemies_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir23pUXM8ms5lW_oVpz4eOxdkDm1oA_ilrCBWheWZ7GC9BAhrUpxBRGgRTW5XGWL8nLBvY0x5jtA-NTykyh57geLVb26LjpNB4KClIk0Gmzjt9xO96UQlrHYJ2e296sZNkbYWLUQ/s400/GameOfThrones_S3_Enemies_02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Is he looking at us? No, no, don't look!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: I had forgotten Varys’s excursion as well, and was reminded in this episode (and then again when I rewatched “Valar Morghulis” after seeing this one). I think Shae is 100% backing Sansa, and is genuine in her feelings for her and wanting to protect her. But we know Roz is playing a different game now. And Littlefinger? When will anyone learn that he is not to be trusted at all? Aside from Joffrey, he’s probably the most dangerous character on the show. Actually, he might be even MORE dangerous than Joffrey because at least the little shit puts his true heart on his sleeve, whereas Baelish just plays everyone all the time. The moment he went to Sansa and offered an escape plan, I thought, “Wait. What will he get out of this? He has no interest in saving anyone… is it just to piss off Joffrey? Is he planning to enter the game of thrones himself and see if he can battle his way to the top somehow?” Margaery shows her ulterior motives on her face and with tiny nuances in speech; Littlefinger, on the other hand, has his hidden so far beneath his cloak he’s impenetrable. He scares me, that guy. <br />
<br />
And Roz is an interesting character for me: for my husband, who watches the episodes once and hasn’t read the books, he had no idea who she was. Just another woman, as far as he was concerned. But she’s actually quite important to the series, and him not recognizing her surprised me. She’s at Winterfell when the series begins, and Theon was a regular customer (there was also something with Jon Snow, but if I remember correctly, he’s sent there to have sex with her and changes his mind because he’s worried about impregnating her with a bastard like himself). Tyrion is with her when he comes to Winterfell as well, and then she heads to King’s Landing, where she basically becomes Baelish’s head whore, and then is involved in that horrible scene with the two prostitutes in Joffrey’s chambers (Tyrion’s present to his vile nephew) and then is approached by Varys to become his spy. Roz is pretty key, and she’s one to keep our eye on. <br />
<br />
Is she as key a character in the books? More so perhaps? <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTp2t_jZ8vBXSxzoR6UWnW61aVuijcMB-v_30auquWL2FlTkc7IhLmX2it1nAlp9MJ9xg1pCJ8QMUyGLJEPzwzzROhDtCn1BnZmOfhHhcWgJHRUMMmvahEMQXSjPj6VCVEAv7Ng/s1600/GameOfThrones_S3_Trailer02_40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTp2t_jZ8vBXSxzoR6UWnW61aVuijcMB-v_30auquWL2FlTkc7IhLmX2it1nAlp9MJ9xg1pCJ8QMUyGLJEPzwzzROhDtCn1BnZmOfhHhcWgJHRUMMmvahEMQXSjPj6VCVEAv7Ng/s400/GameOfThrones_S3_Trailer02_40.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Who is she?" "I dunno. Must be a queen." "Why do you say that?" "Because she isn't covered in shit."</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Christopher</b>: Not at all. She’s entirely original to the series. My original sense was that she was an ancillary character at first, but that they liked her enough to keep her on and make her more important … but that didn’t take into account the fact that HBO series don’t evolve like normal network series—they write and film and entire season before showing anything. So I guess she was there from the start.<br />
<br />
I like Roz as a character, and I’m glad they’re using her for more than just gratuitous T&A and sexposition. She has come to be a representation of the various exploited and abused women of Westeros, I think—the servant/sex trade underground that otherwise functions as backdrop. Having Varys turn her to his side was an intriguing move, and I’m happy they seem to be following through with that—it doesn’t really bode well for Roz, I fear, as it’s a little too easy to imagine her slipping up and suffering the fate of the powerless when they cross the powerful. I’m hoping we see more of Varys in the next few episodes. He was one of the conspicuously absent characters, along with Bran and Osha, Theon, Jaime and Brienne, and of course Arya. The series is starting to suffer the same problem GRRM did in expanding his numerous narratives—it’s too hard to fit them into a contained space. I guess we’re going to have to get used to having entire episodes go by that elide entirely one storyline or another (not that that hasn’t happened already.<br />
<br />
Any last thoughts, Nikki?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cAtkLhrsUXdA7tC1JUdRrlhQ6bqGIpAcL-ezlmME8NVioonQ1rMDlL-UKEth6Qy3bbYqqXwSRR7Nj8daa2xYXhQEJ9VMgvQ13SXcUzI0hlQbB1vN82rME9Eic6fMffwSl-vs-g/s1600/358312.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cAtkLhrsUXdA7tC1JUdRrlhQ6bqGIpAcL-ezlmME8NVioonQ1rMDlL-UKEth6Qy3bbYqqXwSRR7Nj8daa2xYXhQEJ9VMgvQ13SXcUzI0hlQbB1vN82rME9Eic6fMffwSl-vs-g/s400/358312.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sansa wondering if she can trust the man who tricked Tony Gray into running for mayor so he could split Baltimore's black vote. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: Never fear; all those people will feature in next week’s episode. But I agree; after seeing the first I was surprised to be missing Arya especially, but also Brienne and Jaime, which is one of my favourite duos of last season. There is a <i>lot</i> of ground to cover now, and as each book in the series balloons bigger than the previous, and the number of clans warring for the throne increases, and the theme song gets longer and longer as they have to accommodate more places on the map, one begins to wonder if 10 episodes is really enough to deal with it. Fingers crossed HBO finally increased to 12 come season 4. But for now, I’m just thrilled that once again they’ve delivered a superb show with effects and sets that are unparalleled on television. <br />
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Thanks so much for being here, Chris! It’s fun getting back to Westeros with you. Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-53451826246283699212013-04-01T10:32:00.002-02:302013-04-01T10:32:49.149-02:30Blog 2.0This blog has been silent for a long while, embarrassingly so … whenever I end up ignoring it for a long time, I entertain the thought of retiring it. Perhaps it has served its purpose. After all, it began as a means of keeping family and friends apprised of the happenings in my life when I moved from Ontario to Newfoundland. But I’ve been here now for over seven and a half years, and it has been some time since I last posted anything to do with being an Ontarian in Newfoundland. Instead, this blog has evolved into a sort of catch-as-catch-can for my thoughts, rants, musings, editorializing, and trivia. I think this is what they call “mission creep” in the military.<br />
<br />
Many times in the past few years I have considered starting a new blog, or a web site more generally that would be devoted more specifically to professional concerns. In a lot of ways, that is what this blog has become—considering that the balance of my posts have tended to involve discussions of books and film, television, the academy, or political questions. But there’s always been a slight dissonance with its original purpose.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow (or possibly Wednesday), Nikki Stafford and I launch the first installment of our season three <i>Game of Thrones</i> co-blog. I think that after that is done, I will retire An Ontarian in Newfoundland; I will not take it down, as it is, in many ways, an archive of seven years of my life. But I’ve been feeling for a long time that I need to start fresh. At some point in the next few weeks I will start a new blog, one dedicated to issues of teaching and academia, to discussions of books and media, and hopefully a little more sophisticated than this one has been.<br />
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So stay tuned. Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-24500120606167023282012-10-01T18:04:00.002-02:302012-10-01T18:04:40.682-02:30Joseph Anton and serendipity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This past weekend I bought <i>Joseph Anton</i>, Salman Rushdie’s memoir of the years he spent in hiding under threat of Khomeini’s <i>fatwa</i>. In spite of how busy I am right now, it has proved a difficult book to put down, and I’m almost two hundred pages in (if I wasn’t currently teaching three classes, I have little doubt I’d be finished already). It’s really just that good—enthralling, engaging, and harrowing. I will blog at greater length about it in the future. But for now, I just want to share a snippet I love.<br />
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Besides its narrative of hiding from extremists, there’s an awful lot of inside baseball about the literary scenes on both sides of the Atlantic, with all sorts of familiar names surfacing—Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, Susan Sontag, Nadine Gordimer … the list goes on and on, to the point where a lesser author might be accused of name-dropping. But then, this is a book by one of the biggest names of all, so I suppose we shouldn’t get snarky. One of the lovely aspects of this book is the way Rushdie weaves it all together, and in the process tells the story of how some of the greatest novels of the latter twentieth century (i.e. his) got written. <br />
<br />
And how publishing works. When <i>The Satanic Verses</i> was put up for auction among publishing houses in the U.S. and Britain, he had a hard choice to make when it became clear that he stood to make more money that he’d ever imagined. His longtime editor at Jonathan Cape, Liz Calder, had recently left her company to start up Bloomsbury Publishing, and it was assumed that she would publish Rushdie’s new novel when he was done. Indeed, Calder and Rushdie’s British agent Deborah Rogers had made just such an arrangement. But when it became clear how much money was being offered as an advance in the U.S. for <i>The Satanic Verses</i>, Rushdie’s American agent warned him that the modest advance Bloomsbury could offer would queer the deal. So after much soul-searching, he changed publishers and agencies in Britain, in the process damaging two deep friendships.<br />
<br />
After the <i>fatwa</i>, however, both Liz Calder and Deborah Rogers put aside their hurt and resolutely rallied to Rushdie’s side—staunch friends in a time when it seemed that everyone else in the world was keen to stab him in the back.<br />
<br />
And things worked out beautifully for Liz Calder, as it happened:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Liz came to feel that she had dodged a bullet. If she had published <i>The Satanic Verses</i>, the ensuing crisis, with its bomb threats, death threats, security expenses, building evacuations and fear would very probably have sunk her new publishing venture right away, and Bloomsbury would never have survived to discover an obscure, unpublished children’s author called Jo Rowling.</blockquote>
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I love serendipity. Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-84731408920936143132012-09-28T12:17:00.002-02:302012-09-29T12:47:18.883-02:30That whole Wente thingWhen I’ve fallen out of blogging for a long time, it gets harder and harder to get back into, even as I feel a vague sense of guilt for ignoring this blog for so long. But then something happens, or I read something, which either delights or infuriates me enough that I feel compelled to return to the blogosphere.<br />
<br />
This post falls into the “infuriated” category.<br />
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I’ve posted a few times in the past about my antipathy to Margaret Wente’s column in the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, both for her frequent anti-academic screeds and for her generally inept and misleading argumentation. So when accusations of plagiarism on her part came to light recently, I followed the story with about as much <i>schadenfreude</i> as you might expect, though it was tempered by the tepid response in mainstream Canadian media … a response that was puzzling, considering that these were not vague smears but well-documented instances of Wente basically cutting and pasting from other sources. That she plagiarized was not in question, as much as Sylvia Stead, the Globe’s public editor, tried to <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/community/inside-the-globe/public-editor-we-investigate-all-allegations-against-our-writers/article4559295/">soft-pedal it</a>. The point of contention became whether this was really as big a deal as people were making it out to be.<br />
<br />
Speaking as an academic? It’s a big deal. Say what you will about the U.S. print media—and I could say a lot—but they deal with journalistic malfeasance with extreme prejudice. Jason Blair became a pariah; Jonah Leher has basically had his very existence scrubbed from Amazon’s lists; and now Fareed Zakariah is under the gun. To be fair, this isn’t to suggest that all sins against journalistic ethics go un-punished (still waiting for Judith Miller’s virtual exile), but there’s at least an overriding sense that intellectual dishonesty is a very serious offense. <br />
<br />
Slowly, slowly, mainstream organs have started to respond. <i>MacLean’s</i> published an <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/09/24/margaret-wente-remix-artist/">editorial</a> condemning Wente; the <i>National Post</i> then followed suit, and CBC Radio issued a release stating that she would no longer be a frequent panelist on Jian Ghomeshi’s show <i>Q</i>. But then this morning I came across an <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/09/27/terence-corcoran-on-margaret-wente-why-we-dont-need-public-editors/">editorial </a>in the <i>National Post</i> by Terrence Corcoran, who defended Wente and attacked her detractors as “self-righteous, self-important, self-aggrandizing competitors” and “dreary dictatorial avatars of pretentious rules and political correctness.” <br />
<br />
Political correctness? Really? Pretentious rules? Once upon a time, conservative thinkers were reliable guardians of such “pretentious” rules as intellectual honesty and scholarly rigor, and they lambasted liberal and left-leaning thinkers for such “postmodernist” offenses as pastiche and moral relativism; certainly Wente has sought to establish her editorial bona fides by way of constant pseudo-contrarian attacks on liberal groupthink and academic political correctness. Which I have to imagine is why Mr. Corcoran then attacks Wente’s attackers as foot soldiers of the PC thought police. For the record: her professionalism is not being questioned for critiquing multiculturalism, defending Rob Ford’s incompetence, attacking universities’ academic standards, mocking public transit, vilifying organic food, disdaining the Occupy movement, characterizing Newfoundlanders as lazy welfare addicts, accusing professors of being overpaid and underworked, or any of the dozens of columns she has written for the express purpose of poking us Liberal Elite with a sharp stick. <br />
<br />
No: her professionalism is being questioned here for the very specific reason that <i>using someone else’s words as your own is plagiarism</i>. Full stop. As any undergraduate student knows, there are very specific rules determining this, and rather severe penalties for those who transgress, starting with a zero on the assignment, progression through a zero in the course, and potentially culminating in expulsion. Considering how frequently Ms. Wente has written about the slipping standards at Canadian universities, one might imagine the rigour with which we set such rules would be on her mind. (As a friend of mine suggested, perhaps Wente would consider availing herself of one of the academics she has vilified to educate her on the definitions of plagiarism.)<br />
<br />
I honestly had to read Mr. Corcoran’s editorial twice to be certain of its seriousness, and double-check the URL to make sure I hadn’t been sneakily redirected to <i>The Onion</i>. Basically, the gist of the argument is as follows: Ms. Wente has been victimized by haters and rivals, and the whole issue of “plagiarism” is a trumped-up charge by the PC crowd, something really hardly worth mentioning because all she did was leave out some scare quotes. We all make mistakes, not that this was a mistake, but if it was it was entirely understandable and hardly reprehensible. Oh, and the post of “public editor” is totally an infringement on the rights of journalists to write whatever the hell they want, and probably a contravention of free speech. <br />
<br />
Seriously. Here’s his argument:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Newspapers and journalism in general, once bastions of press freedom, are now under the thumb of throngs of second-rate moralizing “experts” and outsiders who like their press freedom tightly controlled and monitored. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing writers, but there is a problem when outsiders can use artificial structures to suppress and control those writers.</blockquote>
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I’m not entirely certain how you progress from a question of intellectual dishonesty to Big Brother. Considering the fact that the allegations against Wente are <i>three years old</i> and only now gaining national attention, and would not likely have come to light at all were it not for the “anonymous blogger” Professor Carol Wainio and her blog <a href="http://mediaculpapost.blogspot.ca/">Media Culpa</a>, it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that Ms. Wente is the victim of totalitarian thought police. And if you think my characterization there is an egregious overstatement of Mr. Corcoran’s words, here’s his concluding sentence:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ms. Wente, I suspect, now knows something of what it felt like during the Cultural Revolution in China, when ideological enforcers roamed the country to impose their views and expose running-dogs, remove people from their jobs and purge them from the system.</blockquote>
<br />
Yes. Poor Margaret, dragged from her home for her counter-revolutionary sentiments and sent to a brutal reeducation camp, rather than being privately censured and kept on at her job. (Then again, she was barred from <i>Q</i>, which may be punishment or reward).<br />
<br />
But to return to the editorial: Mr. Corcoran’s sneering characterization of “outsiders” who have the temerity to (gasp!) have an informed opinion is shamefully anti-democratic. Given that Mr. Corcoran is a business writer, one would assume that the issue of intellectual property is something of a going concern for him. Or perhaps he is something of a radical on this front? Did he advocate, once upon a time, for such companies as Napster and their right to flout copyright? Does he scoff at anti-piracy commercials preceding movies? If so, this column would have been an ideal place to assert his quasi-Marxist ideals—it would have made his defense of plagiarism more coherent. <br />
<br />
Then again, he does seem to believe plagiarism is a relatively new idea, as he asserts that Ms. Wente’s “major alleged crime against journalism was to fail to put quotation marks around somebody else’s words, something that is now defined in the blogosphere as plagiarism.” <br />
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Let that sink in a moment. Reread that sentence. And read it again. And then go back to his <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/09/27/terence-corcoran-on-margaret-wente-why-we-dont-need-public-editors/">editorial</a> to assure yourself that I got it right. “Now defined in the blogosphere as plagiarism.” Now. As in recently. In the blogosphere. Among the best responses to this editorial I have heard was someone characterizing it as trolling in a major newspaper, because really, the claim that the accusation of plagiarism is somehow a new thing invented by liberal bloggers to smear a respected columnist? … well, I just don’t know where to start. <br />
<br />
So I won’t. I will leave it there, and hope that anyone else with half a brain recognizes the sheer absurdity and idiocy of that statement. <br />
<br />
<br />
In the end, this “scandal” (which at this point really needs to be in scare quotes, because any real censure for Ms. Wente’s theft remains undelivered) is shocking but utterly unsurprising. Unsurprising because it is the logical end-point of Ms. Wente’s particular argumentative strategy. Among the defenses I have heard for her plagiarism is the plaintive “But she writes <i>three columns</i> a week!” Yes, at about one thousand words or so per column, she has quite the prolific output. It is perhaps serendipitous that I’m currently working my way through Christopher Hitchens’ <i>Arguably</i>, his last collection of essays published before his death. Oddly, it makes me even less sympathetic to Ms. Wente’s plight … not that every journalist and pundit should be held to Hitchens’ standard, but somehow reading Hitch’s often infuriating but always brilliant arguments throws Wente’s practice of vilification by way of cherry-picking into stark relief. Her strategy is lazy enough, intellectually speaking—every other column of hers I read is a paraphrase of some book she happens to be reading—that it should come as no surprise that she slipped up and forgot to throw up some quotation marks around a passage or three. <br />
<br />
But does that make it forgivable? No. No, in thunder. The defenses of Ms. Wente’s transgression range from the absurd (see Corcoran, Terrence, above) to the disingenuous … and while it was the former that prompted me to post this, on reflection it is the latter that is most dangerous. Ms. Wente has written endlessly, and stridently, about the loosening of standards, the slipping of intellectual rigor, the “everyone wins” ethos adopted by the education system, and above all the need for those who fail to suffer consequences. <br />
<br />
Time for her to put her principles where her mouth is.<br />
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**********<br />
<br />
UPDATE: Carol Wainio responds to Mr. Corcoran's editorial <a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/full-comment/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com%2F2012%2F09%2F28%2Fcarol-wainio-sorry-wente-and-corcoran-media-ethics-do-matter">here</a>. Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-3321408714017800812012-07-30T13:06:00.000-02:302012-07-30T13:08:54.525-02:30Happy Birthday to Zachary!On the heels of my last post ... FIVE years ago today, I became an uncle twice over, because apparently my brother and sister-in-law are concerned with buying the kids' birthday presents in bulk.<br />
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Yes, five years ago today, my nephew Zachary was born. For the duration of his infancy, he evinced a rather suspicious attitude to the world, as shown in this picture of him taken at my cousin Jen's wedding:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"These people know the Macarena is so ten years ago, right?"</td></tr>
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And he has since then grown into a very serious and focused child, one who will wave off all help on a jigsaw puzzle because <i>he's just going to get it, dammit!</i> And he does. But he shares his sister's mischievous tendencies, and has a grin that would charm Voldemort.<br />
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To wit, a story my brother once told me that kind of sums up Zach: Matt, who runs triathlons, had gone with the little guy to Runner's Room to get ... oh, I don't know, whatever psychotic people who run triathlons buy at high-end sporting goods stores. There was a women's running clinic on, so Matt discreetly made his way around them, but Zach walked right up in front of the audience. For a few seconds he stared at them very solemnly. And as they all melted at his cuteness, <i>he started to dance</i>.<br />
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Be afraid, ladies. Be very afraid.<br />
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Anyway ... Happy birthday, Zachary. Your Uncle Chris is ... crushing your head!*<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously. Imagine this at the age of twenty-five.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not sold on the whole fishing thing yet.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Why, yes ... I do in fact have radioactive blood. Why do you ask?"</td></tr>
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*For those unfamiliar with <i>The Kids in the Hall</i>: this is not a weird psychotic non sequitur.<br />
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<br />Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-52437906420015913822012-07-25T09:49:00.003-02:302012-07-25T09:49:45.650-02:30Happy Birthday to Morgan!Seven years ago today, on the eve of leaving Ontario for my new life in St. John's, I essentially started this blog with a post announcing the joyous fact that I had <a href="http://newnewfie.blogspot.ca/2005/07/new-arrival.html">become an uncle</a>. <br />
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<br />
Seven years, and now that little pink loaf in a maternity ward has grown into a mischievous, feisty, fearless little girl whom I do not see nearly enough of and miss terribly. Morgan Emily Jean Lockett is a blond firecracker of energy who runs her parents and grandparents ragged with her endless inventiveness and the rather particular rules she has for playing (seriously: things are done <i>just so</i> when you play a game with Morgan).<br />
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So happy birthday, Miss Morgan, and know your uncle loves you and misses you.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Dance With Dolphins</td></tr>
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<br />Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-53010764770405581072012-06-29T12:43:00.001-02:302012-06-29T13:25:32.801-02:30The Newsroom: HBO and (non)aspirational drama<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aaron Sorkin</td></tr>
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<br />
I was about halfway through a review of the first episode of Aaron Sorkin’s new series <i>The Newsroom</i>, which premiered on HBO at the beginning of this week, when I realized I was just basically agreeing with the vast number of reviews out there—essentially, that the show (so far) is typical, tightly-written Sorkin fare, but which has gone unfortunately overboard on the sanctimony, has almost entirely started using straw man arguments, and the worst of his sexist tendencies have come to the fore. For the record, I really, really <i>want</i> to like the show—I love the rapid-fire rhythms of Sorkin’s dialogue and his unapologetic privileging of intelligence and book-learnin’, and <i>The West Wing</i> remains one of my favourite and most frequently rewatched shows—but I do have to agree with most of the criticisms I’ve read (here's a handy <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/daily/hype/the-interweb/2012/06/27/sarah-nicole-prickett-versus-aarson-sorkin/?utm_source=further-hype&utm_medium=plugin&utm_campaign=further-hype">round-up</a>) … at this point it feels like he’s repeating himself, and not in a good way. And the now-notorious interview with <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-to-get-under-aaron-sorkins-skin-and-also-how-to-high-five-properly/article4363455/">Sarah Nicole Prickett</a> in last Sunday’s <i>Globe and Mail</i> has focused a lot of anger and snark on Sorkin’s borderline* misogynist arrogance and spawned a Tumblr <a href="http://heyinternetgirl.tumblr.com/">meme</a> in ironic imitation of <a href="http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/">Feminist Ryan Gosling</a>. <br />
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Also, I’ve been cringing a lot lately over Sorkin’s comments in the media. Prickett’s interview was just the worst of the lot … it feels now as if he’s become a legend in his own mind and has forgotten that the other half of “telling truth to stupid” (one of the worse lines from the pilot) is yourself being receptive and open to new ideas and perspectives, and being always willing to change your mind. The beautifully scripted arguments of <i>The West Wing</i> seem more or less absent in <i>The Newsroom</i>, replaced with people just lecturing each other.<br />
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All that being said, I’m still going to watch this season of <i>The Newsroom</i> … I’m keeping my fingers crossed that what I saw is just the early kinks of the series, which will get ironed out as it goes and settles into a better rhythm. There were enough lovely moments—unfortunately overshadowed by the sanctimonious speechifying—to give me hope. <br />
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Plus, I just love watching Sam Waterston. He was always the best part of <i>Law & Order</i>. Eyebrow acting like his is a rare thing.<br />
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So I won’t review the show beyond that … but it did make me revisit a theme that came up several times in my grad class on HBO this past winter, so I’ll talk about that instead. <br />
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But one more observation, which may be neither here nor there. This is Sorkin’s fourth series after <i>Sports Night</i>, <i>The West Wing</i>, and <i>Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip</i>; what the ill-fated <i>Studio 60</i> and <i>The Newsroom</i> have in common is that they <i>begin</i> with a moment of crisis and rebellion, in which a broken system is revitalized by an injection of intelligence, doughty contrarianism, and altruism. Significantly, the similar moment on <i>The West Wing</i> didn’t come until episode nineteen in season one, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ9-3NxTzQ8">Let Bartlet be Bartlet</a>” (unfortunately, this video cannot be embedded). <br />
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By contrast, both <i>Studio 60</i> and <i>The Newsroom</i> start with their Let Bartlet be Bartlet moments, which has the effect of setting up rather steep expectations. And while there’s a similar moment in the pilot of <i>Sports Night</i>, it’s rather low key by comparison, and in both of Sorkin’s first two series, he lets us ease into these incredibly busy and bustling worlds without raising the stakes on day one. I’m not saying that <i>Studio 60</i> failed for that reason specifially, or that <i>The Newsroom</i> is similarly doomed … but it does feel that, having made his televisual reputation creating inspirational and uplifting series, that he cannot think small any more, and feels the need to launch his shows as one would a crusade. <br />
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I’ve been mulling over my reaction to <i>The Newsroom</i> all week, and I keep coming back to a pervasive aspect of HBO’s flagship dramas that sort of makes Aaron Sorkin an odd man out there. Let’s be clear: when it was first announced that Sorkin was creating a show for HBO, I rejoiced, as this was something I had long imagined as a marriage made in heaven. I’m now not so sure.<br />
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One of the most interesting things about HBO’s programming, specifically in regard to its dramatic series (half-hour comedies like <i>Sex and the City</i>, <i>Entourage</i>, or <i>Curb Your Enthusiasm</i> are a different thing altogether), is that they are overtly non-aspirational—which is to say, they (1) depict people, situations, and work/careers distinct from educational systems and apparatuses and the kind of accreditation that all entails; (2) are, further, overtly critical of the tacit idea that those institutions are an unproblematic path to societal happiness, and (3) reject utopian resolution. <br />
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The connection between education and utopia may seem an odd one to make, but I should be clear that “education” here is a cipher, essentially synonymous with upper-middle-class success in accredited professions. When one does a quick rundown of popular television from its inception, working class protagonists and narrative frames are the exception, even if they account for some of the more popular shows (e.g. <i>The Honeymooners</i>, <i>All in the Family</i>, <i>Sanford and Son</i>);* far more common are aspirational workplaces (law firms, television stations, hospitals) or families with professional parents (<i>The Cosby Show</i>, e.g.). <br />
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It should be obvious, I hope, that I’m not using the term “utopia” in the sense of a paradisiacal, perfect state/life/existence, but rather as a vague sense of promise and hope, one that tacitly justifies and vindicates the current societal status quo. It is, admittedly, a somewhat fraught distinction—in part because the designation “aspirational” is somewhat vague. Further to my point above: it is rare to encounter mainstream, network television that does not present the viewer with a vaguely utopian sense of possibility. A common skeptical observation about a series like <i>Friends</i> was the impossibility of living in Manhattan with the degree of comfort displayed by people working as, variously, a line chef, a massage therapist, a struggling actor, or a café waitress; even the more prosperous of the group—Ross a tenured professor and Chandler some sort of business professional—should not have been able to afford the lifestyles they had, rent controlled apartment or not.<br />
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The implausibility of that, however, was entirely beside the point. Part of the pleasure of the show lay in the very depiction of that lifestyle as an unstated utopian promise.***<br />
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By contrast, an even halfhearted viewer of HBO and HBO-like television knows that it reverses this tendency (again, in its dramas—<i>Sex and the City</i> is nothing if not aspirational). Such dramas as <i>The Wire</i> or <i>Deadwood</i> actively resist and frustrate easy narrative closure and the cyclic rhythms of episodic stories. This much has been observed quite frequently and by more astute observers than me. What I find striking however is the way in which this has translated into a shift away from a focus on desirable upper-middle-class careers and professions to predominantly working-class or criminal contexts, in which native intelligence, intuition, and cunning are privileged over accredited training and education. <br />
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In other words: no doctors, no lawyers, no captains of industry or business professionals, no scientists, and above all, no happy families. Which is not to say that these people and professions don’t appear on HBO’s dramas—they’re just not the focus of the various shows. So, doctors Gloria Nathan and Jennifer Melfi can plan key roles on <i>Oz</i> or <i>The Sopranos</i> respectively, but in the end the shows are not about them; there are lawyers and judges aplenty on <i>The Wire</i>, as well as politicians and journalists and teachers, but <i>The Wire</i> is no legal drama any more than it is a show about politics or journalism. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"OK, when you say you 'had him whacked,' I'm just going to assume that 'he' is a <br />
weed in your yard."</td></tr>
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(It could be argued that <i>The Wire</i> complicates my argument, insofar as it does tend to be more of a workplace drama than the other series I’ve cited, and does feature what in other contexts would be aspirational professions. But these professions are overtly depicted as essentially <i>tribal</i>, less a matter of formal training and education than a set of innate qualities that make you, for example, “good po-lice” or not. In David Simon’s Baltimore, the principal conflict is between those of the first category, from police to politicians to teachers to reporters, and those of the second, who tend to be the ones running things). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clockwise from top left: Deadwood, Oz, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking<br />
Bad, The Sopranos.</td></tr>
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This observation doesn’t hold across the board—there are many exceptions—but the trend is marked enough to give pause, especially when one considers the sheer critical mass of legal and medical dramas, and their pervasive popularity.*** By contrast, such series as <i>The Wire</i>, <i>Deadwood</i>, <i>Oz</i>, <i>The Sopranos</i>, <i>Treme</i>, <i>Carnivale</i>, and, yes, <i>Game of Thrones</i>, as well as such non-HBO offerings as <i>Breaking Bad</i>, <i>Sons of Anarchy</i> and <i>Justified</i>**** take as their focus cultures and contexts in which education and accreditation are all but irrelevant. <i>Intelligence</i>, by contrast, is highly valued—especially intelligence that allows one to maneuver a shifting landscape of power and allegiances. In many of the shows cited above, the main players are pervasively working class, largely uneducated beyond high school (if that), but possess a native cunning and acuity. An excellent example of what I mean occurs in season three of <i>The Wire</i> (key sequence from 0:30-2:00):<br />
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But perhaps the most obvious example of what I mean is Tony Soprano: his rise through the ranks of the mafia has won him all the outward trappings of financial and societal success and allows him to live in an exclusive suburban community. The show is frequently at pains however to point out just how out of place he is there. When we encounter his neighbours, they are all accredited professionals in law, business, or medicine—precisely the kind of people we might expect to see in mainstream network aspirational narratives. They are ill at ease with Tony, both because they know his reputation, but also because he remains a working-class Jersey kid. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Psychiatry and cunnilingus brought us to this."*<br /><br />*Note to people who haven't watched <i>The Sopranos</i>: this is a hilarious reference.</td></tr>
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There is a fun little irony at work with shows like <i>The Sopranos</i> and <i>The Wire</i>, insofar as they have come to be the television of the liberal intelligentsia, while in substance and content having no use for the educated and professional classes. In my favourite example of how HBO has come to be embraced by intellectuals, an ad in <i>The New Yorker</i> for season five of <i>The Wire</i> featured playwright Tony Kushner gushing about how much he loves the show, saying that “there’s so much to admire, it’s hard to be concise,” essentially giving permission to those who might otherwise be embarrassed to watch television. <br />
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By contrast, Aaron Sorkin’s shows (and films) are overtly aspirational—and more than that, they function as liberal intellectual fantasias, utopian depictions of how things would be if we genuinely had the best and the brightest running things. <i>The Newsroom</i>—the first episode, at least, though I’d be very surprised if the rest of the season proves different—is like a distillation of the traits and tendencies of his previous work. Intelligence is the brass ring of the Sorkin world (the Sorkinverse?), but intelligence of a very specific nature: one must be articulate and argumentative, with legions of facts and figures at one’s fingertips, and it must also be intelligence in the service of civic or political high-mindedness.<br />
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None of this, I want to hasten to add, is a bad thing in and of itself—certainly, as I’ve said, I <i>love</i> much of Sorkin’s work, and really, I have no issue with liberal utopias on television, certainly not if they’re really well written and acted. Which is one of the reasons why <i>The Newsroom</i>’s first episode was such a disappointment. As mentioned above—and as pointed out in pretty much every review I’ve read so far—<i>The Newsroom</i> doesn’t lack for argument or virtuoso displays of statistical literacy … what it does lack is even the <i>sense</i> of even-handedness that made <i>The West Wing</i> a joy to watch. Which is not to say that <i>The West Wing</i> was fair and balanced (to coin an expression), but it was rarely mean-spirited, and allowed for the principals to be wrong and have their minds changed. <i>Par example</i>:<br />
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By contrast, here’s the opening scene from <i>The Newsroom</i>, in which anchor Will McAvoy has his extremely articulate meltdown (the rant starts at 1:36):<br />
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To be fair, there’s a lot in this rant to admire, and it certainly articulates the frustration of people on both sides of the political spectrum with no patience for mealy-mouthed platitudes and/or patriotism, and who loathe dogmatic talking points of any political stripe (certainly, Will’s comments on the idiotically reductive use of “freedom” as a catch-all are thoughts I’ve frequently had). But after his rant, he descends into the kind of nostalgic “America was once so great” rhetoric that so desperately needs a whole whack of caveats … “We waged a war on poverty, not poor people (provided they were white)” would be, for example, a key amendment there. McAvoy’s nostalgia—and the show’s—for the days of Edward R. Murrow needs to be tempered with a dollop of awareness of the period’s systemic racism and misogyny. <br />
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OK, I’m starting to rehash the show’s early reviews, so I’ll get back to my principal argument. The bottom line, here, is that there is little to differentiate this show (so far) from something Sorkin might have created for network television. About the only difference we note, stylistically, from his previous three series, is the occasional dropping of the f-bomb. Perhaps I’m selective in the series I watch, but I’ve come to expect an awful lot more from HBO. Sorkin at this point seems painfully taken with his own sense of himself as a brilliant writer. <br />
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But he ain’t got nothin’ on David Simon. Just sayin’. <br />
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*On rereading this post before putting it up, I now think “borderline misogyny” is generous, and puts me in mind of a <i>West Wing</i> line:<br />
<br />
BARTLET: “You know that line you’re not supposed to cross with the president?”<br />
CJ: “I’m coming up to it?”<br />
BARTLET: “Look behind you.”<br />
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Big sigh.<br />
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**The <i>very</i> big exception here is cop shows. See the footnote below for more on that.<br />
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***All of this is not, I hope it goes without saying, a hard and fast rule. Exceptions abound, and I’m not even venturing out of the realm of fictional television.<br />
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****Again, police procedurals are a slightly different case, as they privilege innate rather than learned intelligence, and field experience rather than education. But they are arguably the most utopian mainstream genre—aspirational not in the sense of offering an improved lifestyle, but in promising to maintain the societal equilibrium necessary for it.<br />
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*****A few notable exceptions: the Glenn Close legal drama <i>Damages</i>; <i>Mad Men</i>; HBO’s polygamist drama <i>Big Love</i>; but then, each of these “exceptions” are themselves difficult to unproblematically designate as aspirational shows.Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-47572418556304718972012-06-21T12:50:00.000-02:302012-06-21T14:06:32.028-02:30Fantasy, fairy-tales, and diegetic logic (part one)<i>This is the second installment in my series on contemporary fantasy.</i><br />
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When I teach my introductory course on literary theory and criticism, I always find occasion to talk about varieties of realism—the degrees of mimesis and verisimilitude in narrative, and how we distinguish between a “realistic” text versus genres such as fantasy, SF, or magical realism, and for that matter the differences between social and psychological realism, naturalism, and so on. One of the key points I like to start with is that it tends to be intuitive—we know a story is realistic because it <i>feels</i> realistic, and often our evaluation of a story’s quality proceeds from the basic sense we have of how “realistic” it feels—even when the story’s premise is overtly unrealistic, such as with <i>Dracula</i> or <i>The Shining</i> (to choose two examples more or less at random). <br />
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This “feeling” of realism comes down to the unspoken contract between a story and its audience—what we otherwise call the willing suspension of disbelief. When it comes to stories, we’re pretty willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, at least as far as the story’s basic premises go—accepting a whole host of impossibilities from ghosts and vampires, to magic and sorcery, to alien worlds and species. At the same time however, there are certain things we are less inclined to accept; as Aristotle pointed out, probable impossibilities are preferable to improbable possibilities* … and as Oscar Wilde concurred, “Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.” To put it another way: we cheerfully accept the idea of alternative realities, but reject out of hand a character acting contrary to what we’ve come to expect of them—so Aragorn attacking a legion of orcs is consistent with his character, whereas stealing money from the hobbits to support his secret drug addiction, not so much.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The real question, Greedo? Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? Punk?"</td></tr>
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Or to cite a notorious example that exercises SF dorks like myself like nothing else: when George Lucas re-released <i>Star Wars</i>, the tweaked scene between Han Solo and the bounty hunter Greedo incited nothing less than fury in diehard fans. Why? Because in the original, Han shoots Greedo under the table with the casual <i>insouciance</i> of an amoral, roguish gunslinger. In the re-release, Greedo shoots first, and Han only survives to return fire because the bounty hunter is, apparently, an appallingly bad shot. All of which had fans doing everything short of taking to the barricades with torches and pitchforks.**<br />
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So think about this: spaceships, faster-than-light travel, lasers, aliens, and cosmic sorcerers are not the problem here. These are perfectly acceptable impossibilities.*** What is <i>not</i> acceptable are the violations of logic the revised scene perpetrates: the improbability that Greedo would get the drop on Han Solo and that a hard-bitten bounty hunter could miss at that range, but the worst is the violation of our understanding of Han’s character. We’ve only known him about ten minutes at this point, but all of the signs tell us that he is <i>precisely</i> the kind of guy who’d unhesitatingly shoot you under the table to save himself. The film might be SF, but the character is totally Eastwood. <br />
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The cognitive dissonance evinced by haters of the revised Han/Greedo scene (among whom I number myself) is an example of a violation of what I’m calling <i>diegetic logic</i>. “Diegesis” refers to the world or sphere of reality established by a given story, and everything that entails—in particular here, the logic and rules governing that world, that which makes it comprehensible. Fidelity to this logic also goes by the more familiar term believability … we believe Han Solo is a spaceship pilot; we do not believe he’d let Greedo get the drop on him. The former is part of the diegetic frame, the latter a flagrant inconsistency in character.****<br />
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Of course, the contract between story and audience is not exactly ironclad, and the rigor and consistency of diegetic logic depends on the genre in question. And if we were to apply the logic of realism to fairy-tales, for example, we again arrive in the realm of (often amusing) cognitive dissonance. <br />
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When I talk about this in class, the example I always like to give is the song “The Bonny Swans,” by Loreena McKennitt. It’s a ballad, adapted from a recurrent medieval folk tale about a girl murdered by her older sister, who returns as a harp to expose the sister’s crime.<br />
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Yep. A harp. Stay with me here. For those who would rather listen to the song itself:<br />
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The story has a host of variations, but the basics are as follows: the eldest daughter in a particular family is jealous of her younger, fairer, more beloved sibling. She is also in love with the young man to whom her sister is betrothed. So, one day when out walking beside the river, she pushes her sister in and drowns her (as one does when one is the jealous older sister in a folk tale). <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PZ5Qfyd-m6GyRx_j-ZeIhod3_Oant7NXTsJhK4-POpDn1fQL5d_R6MHHvA2u-LOc3JXRCwEYU4_ewyIKpJmbj3sDOQZUKGwkiCAvCYvLt-DWmNCNbQxN7GPEgEkV8P8Y2AuWCA/s1600/the-bonny-swans-resized1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PZ5Qfyd-m6GyRx_j-ZeIhod3_Oant7NXTsJhK4-POpDn1fQL5d_R6MHHvA2u-LOc3JXRCwEYU4_ewyIKpJmbj3sDOQZUKGwkiCAvCYvLt-DWmNCNbQxN7GPEgEkV8P8Y2AuWCA/s400/the-bonny-swans-resized1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Seriously, the water's only two feet deep. Stand up, you idiot."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The drowned girl fetches up on shore far downstream, and her body is discovered by a harpist … who proceeds to turn her into a harp (again, as one does). The McKennitt song is not unusual in its macabre description of the process, outlining how the harpist uses her breast bone for the main bow of the harp, her hair for the strings, and her finger bones for the frets. The harpist then takes his new “harp” to the wedding ceremony of the murdered girl’s sister—as she is, of course, marrying the (presumably gormless) man to whom the harp/girl was betrothed. The harpist places the harp/girl in the middle of the hall, and it starts to sing. And in a moment that comes as a shock to no one, the harp’s song reveals the treacherous crime of the would-be bride.<br />
<br />
That’s where McKennitt’s song ends. And as should be obvious from the way I related that story, the premise is absurd (I tried to tell it straight, and just couldn’t manage it). But then, that’s the fairy-tale standard. And McKennitt’s orchestration is sublime … but whenever I hear this song, I always imagine an epilogue in which the father of the bride dispenses justice to his murderous daughter, but then beckons over the harpist. The conversation goes something like this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“So let me get this straight. You found my daughter’s body, and you turned her into a harp.”<br />
“Yes, my lord. And as you saw, she sang of her sister’s—”<br />
“I heard what she sang of. That’s not the problem.”<br />
“I’m sorry … there’s a problem?”<br />
“Yes. You see … you found my daughter’s body.”<br />
“Yes, my lord.”<br />
“You found my daughter’s body. And you turned her <i>into a harp</i>.”<br />
“Yes, but she sang and revealed that her sister—”<br />
“That doesn’t change the fact that <i>you turned her into a fucking harp!</i>”<br />
[<i>The harpist stares at the father, uncomprehending. The father continues.</i>]<br />
“A fucking <i>harp!</i> What kind of sick fuck comes across the corpse of a beautiful girl and thinks to himself ‘Oh, hey, a drowned girl! You know, I bet she’d make a bitching <i>harp!</i>”<br />
[<i>At this point, the father loses the capacity for speech and has his guards drag the harpist off to the dungeons, where he presumably awaits his guest-starring role on an episode of</i> Law & Order SVU.]</blockquote>
<br />
This scenario amuses me endlessly, but it’s equally amusing to apply the same logic to, say, “Hansel and Gretel,” in which the titular children pause when they come upon a cottage made of gingerbread and candy in the depths of the forest, and think “Waaaaiiiit a moment.” Or Little Red Riding Hood is a little less credulous about Granny’s explanations for her whiskers and fangs. Or <i>someone</i> alerts the authorities, in exchange for a nice bounty, about the little man with the capability of spinning straw into gold (something I assume any government, modern or medieval, would have great interest in). <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5JBWxWBupXjFesGkP_4BFWjlzoyjuieuksQh_KrIySVfeGGDBj50eolCC9ajIHkqh0x0V_H9fH31eHNPtmgXs1yS1Cop36-Ucm9tSGcReqIHN_0Rb-j2F5E5MJN2bzBpGMeXFTw/s1600/rumpel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5JBWxWBupXjFesGkP_4BFWjlzoyjuieuksQh_KrIySVfeGGDBj50eolCC9ajIHkqh0x0V_H9fH31eHNPtmgXs1yS1Cop36-Ucm9tSGcReqIHN_0Rb-j2F5E5MJN2bzBpGMeXFTw/s400/rumpel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"In answer to your question, hate transformed me into a vindictive gremlin when I <br />
realized I was the only Scottish actor not cast in Brave."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But of course that all contravenes the basic contract we make with fairy tales, in which we accept such leaps of physical and behavioural logic without question. Step away from your family cottage into the dark forest, and you have no idea what you’re going to encounter. And whatever you <i>do</i> encounter, however bizarre, you must just accept—that is the understanding we have with the genre. (It’s tempting to suggest that the logic of fairy tales is, in this respect, the logic of children, still open at a young age to all possibilities and bizarre eventualities, but anyone who has attempted to read fairy-tales to a precociously logical child knows that isn’t necessarily the case). <br />
<br />
<br />
Fairy-tales follow a diegetic logic similar to that of romance—not the romance of Harlequin and Fabio, but traditional medieval romances and quest sagas, in which the departure for uncharted territory entails a departure from, variously, civilization, law, order, and most importantly, rationality. What happens in the white spaces of the map is anyone’s guess. Hence the various Arthurian romances, especially the quest narratives, tend to be populated with bizarre people and creatures, magic, and individuals with inscrutable reasons for what they do … such as, I don’t know, a black-clad knight guarding a river crossing. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePvwEffM9GmjH6tx6WPVG3S8BQ3f30bdj-3Q7g_5x8oRDT0oYrcU1PsRRHC3BQez9zW1UZYgRDrwpSBgfr2hku-HdUYyy4l7_TtssD6lE8nhlWLCd4mBPw_jV7dCBVWeFdbuOhw/s1600/monty-python-black-knight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePvwEffM9GmjH6tx6WPVG3S8BQ3f30bdj-3Q7g_5x8oRDT0oYrcU1PsRRHC3BQez9zW1UZYgRDrwpSBgfr2hku-HdUYyy4l7_TtssD6lE8nhlWLCd4mBPw_jV7dCBVWeFdbuOhw/s400/monty-python-black-knight.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Well technically, one way or another all wounds are flesh wounds."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But Chris, you say … such figures and circumstances, whether it’s a black knight or a gingerbread house, are invariably <i>symbolic</i>. Reading them with <i>any</i> degree of literality completely defeats the purpose, and indeed, the people who wrote these stories and sagas didn’t mean for us to read them as realistic.<br />
<br />
Well spotted, hypothetical interlocutor, well spotted. And that is all very true: the modern bias toward verisimilitude often makes it difficult to properly historicize the original intents of such stories. Applying the rules of realism to a fairy-tale is about as misguided as thinking (for example) that the Bible is meant to be taken as literal, historical fact. And really, that’s just silly talk …<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsUvHJYWKAEszKoKlF7qDWLQyo0Yk9YHsFu6V0x5sVwdBVpaOwg2WSNXmupyYFwiFk-6eGpyOABj0yh7oZNjeZbGvEa3JBRWvnD6ts4n298hye_aHVVqHnIfE34MdVKRHcSXgvzw/s1600/LeftBehindPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsUvHJYWKAEszKoKlF7qDWLQyo0Yk9YHsFu6V0x5sVwdBVpaOwg2WSNXmupyYFwiFk-6eGpyOABj0yh7oZNjeZbGvEa3JBRWvnD6ts4n298hye_aHVVqHnIfE34MdVKRHcSXgvzw/s400/LeftBehindPoster.jpg" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are those who tell me I shouldn't mock Christian fundamentalism.<br />
Actually, wait ... no ... nobody has said that.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
OK, I’m ending this post here—I go on from here to talk about the resurgence of fairy-tales in film and television, but given that this is already quite a long post, I will make that the next installment. Until then …<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4qIY5Jgl4C05IcmV-xH_G197TVafOUe29GUZZVI-OnXvQ_BMRDdcDu1Vz0emoVIg7QBbhHHKEICA6KGXrW5pehUL2k8qSoAQP0_SfPW_fHbw_xrbWH2EQ4QUaxNYl8tUR7z-XA/s1600/GOT-Season2-Tyrion-Lannister1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4qIY5Jgl4C05IcmV-xH_G197TVafOUe29GUZZVI-OnXvQ_BMRDdcDu1Vz0emoVIg7QBbhHHKEICA6KGXrW5pehUL2k8qSoAQP0_SfPW_fHbw_xrbWH2EQ4QUaxNYl8tUR7z-XA/s400/GOT-Season2-Tyrion-Lannister1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"My name is Tyrion Lannister, and I approve this message. Now, where's that<br />
wine you promised?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
*For once, YouTube has failed me—otherwise I would gleefully be putting up the clip from <i>The West Wing</i> of Sam Seaborn expounding on this very quotation. <br />
<br />
**Yes, I know I’m mixing metaphors here. It seems appropriate.<br />
<br />
***Perhaps not <i>literally</i> impossible, but so close as to make no difference. Remind me at a later date to do a lengthy post about the difference between speculative and extrapolative SF.<br />
<br />
****Responding to angry fans, George Lucas defended the change as simple clarification—he had <i>always</i> meant for Greedo to shoot first, he claimed, and that the original version made that unclear. To which all I can say is that this is further evidence that Lucas is a hack and had little understanding of the signifiers and tropes he was employing. Unfortunately, he seemed determined to prove this beyond the shadow of a doubt with the three prequels.Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-11947296654691750832012-06-20T14:14:00.001-02:302012-06-20T14:14:44.726-02:30Manipulative advertising ... when it's goodI saw this ad posted on a <a href="http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/">blog </a>I follow:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/auNSrt-QOhw" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
I kind of love it, but here’s what’s wrong with it:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>It tacitly endorses surveillance culture.</li>
<li>It nakedly panders to our sense of ourselves as, variously, quirky, likable, generous, and virtuous.</li>
<li>All of this behavior is explicitly tied to drinking Coke.</li>
<li>I’m reasonably sure the Coca-Cola company cares little about how quirky, likable, generous, or virtuous I am so long as I buy their product. If it became clear tomorrow that pedophiles and serial killers were the most reliable and numerous consumers of soft drinks, Coke would find a way of pandering to them.</li>
</ul>
<br />
That being said, you have to appreciate the ways in which the ad’s makers push our buttons. Advertising, after all, is the art of making us feel at the expense of making us think. You come out of watching the ad slightly more optimistic about the human race, if not genuinely happy. People are amazing! Look, we have footage! And they drink Coke! <br />
<br />
Ads like this always make me very conflicted. On one hand, I love watching all that found footage. Whenever I’m starting to feel really cynical about life, I’ll usually be turned around by some random act of kindness I witness or experience. People are amazing—and here’s the video footage to prove that. <br />
<br />
But I’m also always aware of why and how these images are being deployed when I see them in advertising. Not that it makes a big difference for me: I really only ever drink pop these days as a hangover cure, and then I’m hardly brand loyal (“Coke, please.” “Pepsi OK?” “Whatever. Just give it to me NOW.”) So what do I care? Possibly because I resent having my emotions manipulated in the name of branding … but then, with actual TV ads, at least there’s the understanding of what they’re after. I find ads infinitely less annoying than when characters on a TV show I’m watching start expounding on the virtues of the Ford Focus and its onboard GPS.<br />
<br />
Plus, there’s the fact that some ads are just good at what they do … even when their manipulation of your emotions is so cynical that it’s quite breathtaking. Exhibit A on this front has to be the following Bell ad:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Dd1FNPx_YN4" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
This ad doesn’t make me tear up so much as it makes me <i>sob</i>. Seriously. It doesn’t make me want to switch my phone service back to Bell, mind you, so I suppose that it’s a failure there. But it does absolutely punch a handful of my personal buttons, given that I am (a) a WWII history buff; (b) so very proud of Canada’s military history; and (c) generally anxious about what happens when we lose that living link to such an important part of our past. <br />
<br />
I know everything wrong with the ad, but I love it nevertheless. <br />
<br />
I’m curious to hear other peoples’s thoughts. What advertising functions for you as ambivalent pleasures?Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-32686405861148410972012-06-19T11:23:00.000-02:302012-06-19T11:26:22.875-02:30Thoughts on fantasy: A preamble<i>I have occasionally threatened to use this blog as a testing-ground for my academic writing ... and sometimes I have actually done so, often inadvertently, but I’ve never tried a sustained series of posts dedicated to a specific topic. <br />
<br />
Well, here we go—I’ve been working at my normal glacial pace on a handful of articles on the novels of Terry Pratchett specifically, and fantasy as a genre more generally. For a long time now, they’ve been less a handful of articles in process than snowdrifts of notes dealing with far too many facets of the larger topic, and the process of trying to connect them into cohesive arguments has been not unlike having root canal surgery performed on my frontal lobe. By a bear.<br />
<br />
But for all that, some things are coming into focus—the big thing being that I really need to work harder on bringing things into focus. So over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to post some forays into this research, and I’ll try to do it in a more conversational way than I would if writing for an academic journal. Arguments and challenges to my premises are not just welcomed but encouraged …</i><br />
<br />
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<br />
My name is Christopher Lockett, and I read fantasy. That comes as no great galloping shock to anyone who has read this blog, but I figured I should start with the basics. I read fantasy fiction, and, more than that, it was fantasy that really is to blame for where I am in life now … by which I mean, a professor of English. I read <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> when I was twelve, and it was the first thing I ever read that affected me on a gut level. It took me a few months to get through it—from the end of grade six, over the summer (I remember vividly reading the Battle of Helm’s Deep in the back of the car on the way up to my uncle’s cottage), and into the start of grade seven. I had the full edition of LotR, all three books in the one volume, plus appendices (the appendices are important—I will be returning to Tolkien’s appendices in future posts). Some time in autumn of 1984, I came to the last sentences of the last chapter:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. “Well, I'm back,” he said.</blockquote>
<br />
And then, refusing to allow that this novel that had consumed me for several months was finished, I read through the appendices. Tolkien helpfully included a chronology that starts with the first age, and ends with the death of Aragorn some decades after LotR technically ends:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In this year ... came at last the Passing of King Elessar [<i>that's Aragorn, for the non-dorks in the audience</i>]. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed and end was come in Middle-Earth of the Fellowship of the Ring. </blockquote>
<br />
THAT was the moment that gutted me—Sam coming home after seeing Frodo et al off to the West was bad enough, but THAT was the moment at which something in my mind said “that’s it—these characters whom you have loved so much? You get nothing more.” <br />
<br />
It was devastating. But it was a turning point in my literary and intellectual development, because it was the first time I realized that literature, novels, <i>stories</i>, could have affect. They could, quite literally, change your life. And LotR was the first thing I read that made me want to <i>write</i>. I bought a spiral notebook and pack of papermate pens at the local drugstore (starting my lifelong love affair with stationary) and started writing a story that was a thin knockoff of Tolkien. I also—and this was key—invented my own maps. Maps were important. I loved the maps of Middle-Earth in LotR, and one of my great loves in my readings in fantasy has been the maps imaginary places at the front of the novels—be it Middle-Earth, Pern, Westeros, or Earthsea. (I have always had a cartographic imagination).<br />
<br />
But anyway … fantasy in the form of Tolkien (and to a lesser extent, C.S. Lewis) was my defining literary experience. Since then, it has always been a genre to which I have returned. Leaving high school and entering university, it became what I would call a guilty pleasure; sometime around the middle of my PhD, I stopped being guilty about it. (I actually now loathe that term. I’m sympathetic to the desire to appreciate “art,” but at this stage in my life I have known high school dropouts working as carpenters who have a better grasp of Thomas Pynchon than I do, and accomplished, critically acclaimed poets who take inspiration from <i>America’s Next Top Model</i>. It takes all kinds, and one of the things literary study has taught me is that even the crappiest, most formulaic novel can teach us something, even inadvertently, and that talented writers take their inspiration from a host of sources). <br />
<br />
So, part of this series of posts I’m working on is a return to my roots, as it were … and to ask: what is the appeal of this genre? And what has it done for us lately? The answers to both of those questions are at once no-brainers and endlessly complex … at its most formulaic and simplistic, fantasy is a nostalgic return to a pre-modern sensibility, which unfortunately tends to include somewhat problematic depictions of race and gender. At its most inventive, however, fantasy represents a remarkable fusion of the historical and romantic imagination. <br />
<br />
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<br />
What first prompted my research into this topic, however, was the gradual realization of how much contemporary fantasy has shifted from Tolkien-esque mythopoeia to eminently humanist narratives. It seems slightly counter-intuitive at first blush: why employ a traditionally anti-rationalist, anti-realist genre to this end? But when one reads George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Neil Gaiman’s <i>American Gods</i>,* Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, Philip Pullman’s <i>His Dark Materials</i>, Richard K. Morgan’s ongoing <i>A Land Fit for Heroes</i> series (which currently comprises <i>The Steel Remains</i> and <i>The Cold Commands</i>), or Patrick Rothfuss’ <i>The Kingkiller Chronicle</i> (to name a few), one finds a definite shift away from a preoccupation with magic and the supernatural, and the mythical, to one with, well, people … and to frame it more philosophically, with a Foucauldian conception of power not as a transcendent ordering principle, but the product of human exchange and interaction.<br />
<br />
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<br />
To be clear: this is not to suggest that contemporary fantasy has abandoned the mythopoeic tropes on display in Narnia or <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, or that those novels didn’t have a host of human dramas on display. In the first case, we wouldn’t have a genre we could reliably call “fantasy” in the way we have come to understand it post-Tolkien without some combination magic and sorcery, fantastic creatures, different “kinds” of people (e.g. elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.), all within the context of an identifiably medieval, pre-modern world. <br />
<br />
I realize there’s a lot I’m saying here that is currently ill-defined, and much that devoted readers of fantasy will likely take issue with (as well as devoted readers of critical theory and philosophy—certainly “humanism” is a rather fraught and catholic concept, almost as much as the concept of “fantasy,” and I don’t do myself favors when citing Michel Foucault and humanism in the same breath). To which I just beg patience. As mentioned above, this is all essentially an exercise in forcing myself to clarify my thoughts on the matter(s) at hand and, hopefully, evoking discussion and argument. <br />
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Next up: a consideration of diegetic logic in fantasy and fairy-tales. Sexy!<br />
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*Yes, including <i>American Gods</i> in this list is a little one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others, but I'll be returning to talk about Neil Gaiman quite a lot over these posts ... not because he's a typical practitioner of fantasy fiction, but because his thematic preoccupations help explicate the rest of what I'll be talking about.Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-85550882993233737372012-06-17T14:24:00.000-02:302012-06-17T14:24:04.122-02:30Middle CoveIt occurred to me that it has been a very, very long time since I've had anything to or show about this blog's original <i>raison d'etre</i>, i.e. life in Newfoundland.<br />
<br />
I will attempt to correct that as the summer progresses and we (fingers crossed) have better weather for landscape shots.<br />
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Today has been absolutely beautiful, so we went for a hike along the northern part of the East Coast Trail. The following pictures are from the Silver Mine Head Path, going north from the beautiful Middle Cove:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj92aASv_BKfc6YkllKXqfEHfFWKMSNvbFGCqei3J83aNvN8Nul1b_7kJ55W6MaQk_fxF59hQX_Az_U_dGNYa4-GI65pK7nR83FORiZeiCR2ApgfSr5ZtV3ekKyINWzDNQTgGpFnA/s1600/P6170381.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj92aASv_BKfc6YkllKXqfEHfFWKMSNvbFGCqei3J83aNvN8Nul1b_7kJ55W6MaQk_fxF59hQX_Az_U_dGNYa4-GI65pK7nR83FORiZeiCR2ApgfSr5ZtV3ekKyINWzDNQTgGpFnA/s400/P6170381.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Middle Cove Beach, seen from the trail.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Newfoundland is a hiker's paradise, doubly so because you don't have to travel far at all. Middle Cove is just a fifteen to twenty minute drive from our house. I'll post more pictures when the capelin run.Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-64178592936184993782012-06-10T14:32:00.000-02:302012-06-10T15:27:50.122-02:30Prometheus: a reviewIn the interests of keeping this blog more active, I’m hoping to post more regularly on topics of quasi-academic interest. I have a few posts on contemporary fantasy I’m working up as a sort of <i>Game of Thrones</i> postmortem, as well as some thoughts on the ever-expanding zombie genre.<br />
<br />
But I thought I’d start with a film review. I saw <i>Prometheus</i> last night, which counts as my second-most-anticipated summer film (big shock: <i>The Dark Knight Rises</i> takes first place). And wow, it was a train wreck. <br />
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And yes: spoilers to follow. Lots and lots of spoilers.<br />
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I should know by now not to get my hopes up too high when a new Ridley Scott film comes out. I imagine it must be frustrating for him to have done his best work early on—<i>Alien</i> and <i>Blade Runner</i>, those two mainstays of film classes (I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve taught them) were his second and third feature films, respectively. Since then by my count he has had one unqualified success (<i>Thelma and Louise</i>), two flawed but powerful films (<i>Black Hawk Down</i>, <i>Gladiator</i>), a number of much more deeply flawed but still watchable films (<i>Black Rain</i>, <i>G.I. Jane</i>, <i>American Gangster</i>), and a host of unmitigated disasters (<i>White Squall</i>, <i>Hannibal</i>, <i>Kingdom of Heaven</i>, <i>Matchstick Men</i>, <i>Robin Hood</i>).* He also directed <i>Legend</i>, which falls into that odd category of being something that isn’t probably nearly as good as we remember it, but we all saw it at the age of eleven, so for some it gets a pass.**<br />
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On the whole, not a great track record. But here’s the thing: the great films are so great that they come very close to balancing the sheet, and makes those of us who are devotees of <i>Alien</i> and <i>Blade Runner</i>*** live in hope that his next film will match their aesthetic and narrative brilliance (and, let’s be honest, the sheer <i>coolness</i>). <br />
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We keep hoping. And keep getting disappointed. But this time, there was renewed hope: Scott was returning to the scene of his first major triumph, and creating a prequel to <i>Alien</i>! At first, there was skepticism … but then, as teasers and trailers started appearing, there was cautious but ever-growing hope. It looked AMAZING, for one thing. And for another, the more we learned about the premise, the better it looked. Never mind that we could pretty much figure out the story from the trailer: an exploration team follows ancient clues promising to unlock our origins as a species to a distant planet, where they encounter some sort of contagion or infection that will threaten our existence, and in a climactic scene the crashed spaceship they discover in <i>Alien</i>, well, crashes. <br />
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Whoever did the marketing for <i>Prometheus</i> should quite possibly have written the script—it probably would have been smarter. All of the trailers and ancillary bits of publicity (such as a TED talk done by Guy Pearce’s megalomaniac CEO Peter Weyland, circa 2023) were greater, in the end, than the sum of <i>Prometheus</i>’ parts. There’s a paper to be written somewhere about how skillful viral marketing frequently seems to eclipse the artistry of the film being advertised … but for now, I’ll limit myself to reviewing <i>Prometheus</i>, which I saw last night in IMAX 3D.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tvx1xr88qfM" width="560"></iframe><br />
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OK, so the positive things first: one, it looked every bit as good as the trailers promised. See, this is the ambivalent thing about Ridley Scott’s crappy films: however crappy the story, they always look amazing. So you always see hints of <i>Alien</i> or <i>Blade Runner</i> in his signature style, which makes brilliant use of light and shadow and the contrast between grandiose, totalizing shots and close, claustrophobic terror or anxiety. And you know that, of only the story wasn’t shite, it could be a brilliant film.<br />
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Certainly, this was the case with <i>Prometheus</i>. As I said, I saw it on the IMAX screen, and if you’re going to see this film, <i>go see it in the theatre</i>. <br />
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Second positive element was the cast. It was both a mitigating factor, and a total frustration that almost every one of the actors was (a) a consummate professional, and (b) someone I just loved watching. <s>Lisbeth Salander</s> Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, <strike>Tom Hardy</strike> [correction--the actor I took for Tom Hardy is actually Logan Marshall-Green. Properly contrite am I], <s>Stringer Bell</s> Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce (in a whole lot of prosthetic makeup that qualifies as the film’s worst special effect). The one out of place person was Charlize Theron, who just seemed outclassed by the rest of the cast. She played an ice queen executive in charge of the mission, and was so wooden and toneless that I kept waiting for her to turn out to be an android.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoWJljfZRP680vV4cKDuv1fpYgAuMyzrOo6wOkqMLcDAONeq2jaIymUFXOeTyW0ax963nkn4cVWdOsC0MS-7a0S5gB8ajmrhr-YZx4DVNqe30LLKOmApfO8UslfabD3Cp2i-HFNw/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoWJljfZRP680vV4cKDuv1fpYgAuMyzrOo6wOkqMLcDAONeq2jaIymUFXOeTyW0ax963nkn4cVWdOsC0MS-7a0S5gB8ajmrhr-YZx4DVNqe30LLKOmApfO8UslfabD3Cp2i-HFNw/s1600/images.jpg" /></a>On the other hand, Michael Fassbender played an android, and played it brilliantly. One of the best parts of the film is him alone on board the spacecraft while the rest of the crew slumbers in cryosleep. The subtlety of nascent threat he brings to his emotionless robot is easily on par with Ian Holm’s not-dissimilar character in the original <i>Alien</i>.<br />
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But as lovely as Fassbender’s performance is, it is one of the narrative problems: I’ve seen this story before. As prequel to <i>Alien</i>, it anticipates that story; but coming twenty-three years after the original was released, it feels simply derivative. I’m sure there’s some brilliant psychoanalytic reading to be done (“Recursion and Return: The Iterative Narratives of the <i>Alien</i> Franchise”), but really it just sort of feels <i>done</i>. A few elements:<br />
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<ul>
<li>A cold and self-interested corporation desires to exploit a discovery on a distant planet, and is willing to sacrifice its crew.</li>
<li>An alien species is discovered, all dead through some mysterious plague.</li>
<li>A cold and inscrutable android deliberately puts the crew at risk.</li>
<li>A not-so-dead alien species contaminates the crew.</li>
<li>The cold and inscrutable android gets decapitated.</li>
<li>The ship is destroyed to prevent the malevolent life form from getting to Earth.</li>
</ul>
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Sound familiar? It’s understandable to have a certain amount of repetition when producing new films in an established franchise, but really, this just felt lazy. <br />
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The premise of the film is this: two archaeologists (Noomi Rapace and Tom Hardy), having discovered the same star system diagram in many ancient texts, convince the head of the massive Weyland Corporation to bankroll an exploratory expedition to the star system. The predictable disasters as partly outlined above ensue. But the larger philosophical/theological question deals with our origins on Earth. The film opens in a primordial landscape atop a massive waterfall. A huge, musclebound albino humanoid watches a huge flying saucer (Ridley Scott likes to work large-scale) depart into the clouds. He (?) then eats a mouthful of grotty-looking stuff, and promptly begins to disintegrate in great pain. The perspective shrinks to the cellular, and we see his DNA breaking apart. He falls into the water, and again, at the cellular level, we see DNA recombine into new strands and then turn into life.<br />
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Very obviously, this is the pageantry of new life forming on Earth. Skip ahead millions of years, and our archaeologists make their find. Skip ahead a few more years and the exploratory ship <i>Prometheus</i> arrives at the planet.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"All in the game, baby ... all in the game."</td></tr>
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The premise is intriguing and compelling, but not executed well at all. The questions of god and belief, of evolution vs. design, and of parents and children are all handled in terribly hamfisted ways. Eventually it becomes reduced to simplistic paternal drama. Peter Weyland we assumed was dead. As it turns out, he’s on the ship, his presence known only to the android David and Charlize Theron’s robotic-but-not-a-robot expedition leader Vickers. It was made clear earlier that, as Weyland’s creation, David considered Weyland his father, and Weyland considered David his son. In what is perhaps the most unsurprising revelation of the film, Vickers is Weyland’s actual daughter. Weyland has smuggled himself along in the hopes that, in finding the origins of life or meeting its engineers, he might be granted longer life … which, in a particularly hackneyed moment, Vickers complains is against the natural order of succession.<br />
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The twist, such as it is, is that our “engineers” were using this planet as a weapons lab—and that they were planning to return to earth and wipe us out (for reasons that are never made clear). The substance they discover in the alien bunker and the underground ship is evidently some sort of agent that mutates DNA in malevolent ways—as Stringer Bell (sorry) observes, it is a biological weapon. And once it gets loose in certain crewmember’s systems, it wreaks its havoc and starts producing monstrosities that only identifiably become the H.R. Giger alien of the earlier films in the final sequence. <br />
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It is when the bio-weapon starts making its presence known that the film’s wheels start to come off. Charlize Theron’s wooden acting notwithstanding, the film has a lot of promise early on. Michael Fassbender’s solo sequence in the spaceship in particularly gave me hope … but in hindsight, that was mainly because he didn’t have any lines from the script to speak, and instead was just Michael Fassbender being compelling. The more the script reveals itself, the worse it gets … and Ridley Scott’s reliable standby, his visuals, lose their power once the excesses of the alien/bio-weapon become, well, excessive … <br />
<br />
Don’t get me wrong—I like a good gory alien monster flick as much as the next guy (provided the next guy is a total SF nerd), and the <i>Alien</i> franchise has always delivered on that front. Except … well, think of the first <i>Alien</i>. The gore and the horrifying figure of the alien are shocking, but strategically so. The story of how Ridley Scott didn’t warn his actors that he would be spraying them with real blood in the “birth” scene—and so the shock, horror, and disgust on their faces is not feigned—is one of those great bits of film history lore. In <i>Aliens</i>, the gore takes a backseat to the action, but there is enough of it—and the aliens are sufficiently terrifying and repulsive—that we still cringe at key moments.<br />
<br />
It’s always difficult to locate that fine line between well-managed abjection and excess, and I suppose it’s always going to be somewhat subjective. But I found <i>Prometheus</i> crossed that line once we got to the scene of Noomi Rapace’s self-administered caesarean (never mind that it isn’t exactly believable that she would <i>sprint</i> away from the surgical pod after having her belly stapled), and then the final confrontation between the engineer and the proto-Giger alien. Perhaps it was the engineer being orally raped—which if it wasn’t obvious enough, the alien then shudders orgasmically and collapses, presumably dead … or perhaps just post-coital, at first it isn’t clear. But … blecch. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_pBxwRO12Ste2n7Wd8pu72dtslL24yChn9RffMyUzfhBVRndc85NOkjsV3_2X-OcubV62VdpnBaGUn87L4SqH4xism4RnoHZQshVYROhfVSHoTGh5BiZ619g6ogxuGGbmVVwMBA/s1600/Prometheus-movie-review-Ridley-Scott-1_040612080107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_pBxwRO12Ste2n7Wd8pu72dtslL24yChn9RffMyUzfhBVRndc85NOkjsV3_2X-OcubV62VdpnBaGUn87L4SqH4xism4RnoHZQshVYROhfVSHoTGh5BiZ619g6ogxuGGbmVVwMBA/s400/Prometheus-movie-review-Ridley-Scott-1_040612080107.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Hm. Yes, I do feel like someone is watching me. Why do you ask?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Anyway, I’ll leave off with some nerdy nitpicking. First: the basic premise of the film is that the alien species that created us left clues so we could find them. However, the planet to which they send us isn’t their homeworld—it is, as Stringer Bell (sorry again) realizes, a weapons plant remote from their home because, as he observes, you don’t manufacture incredibly dangerous biological weapons in your own backyard. And the film ends with Noomi Rapace leaving with the segmented David in tow on another of the alien ships to find their actual homeworld.<br />
<br />
So … why would aliens leave behind directions to their weapons stockpile? Wouldn’t that be like bringing immigrants to the U.S. to Area 51 rather than Ellis Island?<br />
<br />
And secondly—and this is the thing I just can’t get past—SO MUCH of this film was obviously designed to cater to diehard <i>Alien</i> fans. Everything about how the film ends sets us up for how <i>Alien</i> begins, except for one utterly baffling discontinuity. In <i>Alien</i>, when the crew of the <i>Nostromo</i>**** enters the alien ship, the first thing they find is the dead alien space jockey strapped into some sort of flight chair. It is long dead, and its abdomen has a hole as if something exploded out of it. After John Hurt’s character has the alien burst out of his belly, we realize in hindsight that the alien space jockey died the same way.<br />
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<br />
In <i>Prometheus</i>, when David wakes the last remaining “engineer,” the big alien proceeds to kill everyone present except Noomi Rapace, who escapes, and David, who is decapitated but can still talk, and then straps himself into the flight seat to complete his mission, presumably, to wipe out Earth’s population. The alien ship takes off, and Stringer Bell (no apologies) rams the <i>Prometheus</i> into it and causes it to crash … in precisely the position the crew of the <i>Nostromo</i> find it twenty-nine years later. <br />
<br />
Now, as I was watching the film—and I’m curious to know if anyone else was thinking the same thing—I kept thinking “OK, so space jockey guy has an alien inside him. When did that happen?” My best guess was that David, for inscrutable reasons, somehow infected him with the bio-weapon … but that seemed far-fetched at best. But then, he leaves his ship to go after Noomi Rapace, and instead ends up tangling with the big-ass mutant alien. At this point I’m thinking, “OK … so he gets impregnated and goes back to his ship to, I don’t know, try to take off again, and THAT’s when the alien comes bursting out.” But no … apparently, he dies when the mutant alien essentially orally rapes him. And then so does the mutant alien. And in the film’s final sequence, the Giger alien (these alien distinctions are getting cumbersome, sorry) bursts out of his gut. FAR AWAY FROM HIS SHIP. <br />
<br />
Argh. I can forgive hamfisted storytelling, but not baffling stupidity. It’s as if Scott and his screenwriters (one of whom was <i>Lost</i>’s Damon Lindelof—any comments, <a href="http://nikkistafford.blogspot.ca/">Nikki</a>?) didn’t actually bother to re-watch <i>Alien</i>, but just went on vague memory. <br />
<br />
At any rate. Bottom line: <i>Prometheus</i> was, to say the least, a massive disappointment … but after so many disappointments from Ridley Scott, I really shouldn’t have expected anything different. That being said, it was a hellishly impressive work of visual art, true at least in that respect to <i>Alien</i>, with many breathtaking moments and subtle grace notes. A shame the story couldn’t live up to that. <br />
<br />
--------------------------------<br />
<br />
*Then there are the films I haven’t seen, which may include a gem I’ve overlooked. But somehow I doubt it. <br />
<br />
**Though perhaps less so now since Tom Cruise detonated his career and retroactively made us see the batshit in all his earlier roles.<br />
<br />
***I leave out <i>Thelma and Louise</i> here, because however great a film it was, it does not have the same cachet as the other two. Speaking for myself, I love it, but it inspires none of the fanboyism that <i>Alien</i> does. <br />
<br />
****Anyone else wonder why they didn’t give <i>Prometheus</i> a similarly Joseph Conrad themed name? The <i>Narcissus</i>? The <i>Patna</i>? <i>Typhoon</i>?Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-10484111946648611192012-06-07T18:00:00.000-02:302012-06-07T21:26:29.574-02:30Game of Thrones 2.10: Valar MorghulisHi everyone, and welcome to the final <sob> blog post of the second season of <i>Game of Thrones</i>, in which Nikki "Carl, get back south of the Wall!" Stafford and I offer our different perspectives on the show. </sob><br />
<br />
I just want to lead in by saying: once again, Nikki, this has been an extraordinary pleasure. I love this show, but it is made that much more enjoyable by these posts. It's hard to believe it will be ten months until we sally forth again. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Why yes ... I do think the a/c is on a bit high. Why do you ask?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: After last week’s unbelievable episode, this week’s was definitely a lot slower, serving the purpose of wrapping up this season’s many plot threads while setting us up for the next season. We covered off every house, every player, and pretty much every character we’ve seen this season. That’s not to say it was a bad episode — I’m starting to think that’s simply not possible on <i>Game of Thrones</i> — but just that it was a bit of a letdown after last week. And there were certainly some highlights. <br />
<br />
What I really enjoyed from last night’s episode is that it almost felt like it was paying homage to <i>every other show</i> I watch on TV! <br />
-<i>Lost</i>: We open on Tyrion’s eyeball, as if the key character for the episode is him. <br />
-<i>Revenge</i>: Arya tells Jaqen that she’s going to spend years training and learning how to fight and get revenge on the people who killed her father. She’s like a little Amanda Clark. <br />
-<i>The Walking Dead</i>: Duh. Was it just me, or was the final scene with the wight walkers set up exactly like the end of the penultimate season of TWD, with the legions of walkers stumbling towards Herschel’s farm, complete with the camera panning back to show how many of them there were? <br />
-<i>The Wire</i>: Tyrion now sports the exact same scar as Omar Little. As if he wasn’t already a bad mofo, he’s probably going to be worse now. <br />
-<i>Buffy</i>: Brienne the Douchebag Slayer!!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8IU0jZxQE0PU-ilNKX-det8CDfRp9z4l-P2eJUZxJet1JaKEAQOK6hrmnbH_8p287HASbWMNt24dA26ixKKdXnCioYOvIpo3IVPht0OQ1sd7VfaeYZRS6u1v-qmW_JimByNsGQ/s1600/Brienne-2-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8IU0jZxQE0PU-ilNKX-det8CDfRp9z4l-P2eJUZxJet1JaKEAQOK6hrmnbH_8p287HASbWMNt24dA26ixKKdXnCioYOvIpo3IVPht0OQ1sd7VfaeYZRS6u1v-qmW_JimByNsGQ/s320/Brienne-2-final.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'll tell you what -- for every one of your dyke jokes I've got a dick<br />
joke. That I'll deliver with my sword. Still think you're funny? Didn't<br />
think so."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Yes, for me, the best part was probably Brienne taking on the three Stark devotees in the forest. She saw the women strung up in the trees and even before the men entered the scene, she tied Jaime to a tree and moved to cut down the women so she could give them a proper burial. Like the previously mentioned Omar Little, Brienne lives by a code of honour, one that she will not sacrifice even when charged with a very important and time-sensitive mission. But before she’s cut the first one down, along come the louts who put them there in the first place. Jaime whisper-screams, “<i>CUT ME LOOSE!!</i>” when he sees them coming, which killed me because I actually shouted at the TV, “Kingslayer, Schmingslayer; she doesn’t need you, Jaime!!” And no. She so did NOT need him. At first she kept her head low and answered quickly, but asked a few questions of her own. Once she’d ascertained that these men did indeed kill these poor tavern women, and that one of them had been killed quickly and the third <i>real slow</i>, her mind was made up. With the flick of both wrists, she kills two of the three men and knocks over the third. Striding up to him with a grimace of pure venom on her face, she draws her sword and snarls, “Two quick deaths,” before making sure his death will be slow and painful. And <i>then</i> she unties Jaime, declaring, “I don’t serve the Starks. I serve Lady Catelyn.” <br />
<br />
What this episode really highlighted was the ambiguity of the entire war. There are no good guys and bad guys, something that the Hound was trying to drive home to Sansa last week. There are only people doing what they feel they have to do. We cheer for Tyrion, even though we don’t want the Lannisters to win. Stannis is a brilliant fighter and probably deserves the crown more than anyone, but we’re not rooting for him, either. Brienne just killed the men that would have followed Ned Stark into battle and stood behind him, but they were bad men, and Ned made terrible choices and trusted the wrong people. Pycelle tosses a coin at Tyrion and sneers, “For your trouble,” in the same way Tyrion had given coins to Pycelle’s whore. We look at that as him being terribly cruel, but Tyrion acted first, and from Pycelle’s point of view, it was lovely vengeance. Jaqen opened the gates to let Arya out, but he killed men who had done him no wrong and probably had wives and children. Daenerys locks her favourite girl in a chamber with Xaro, where they will most likely suffocate to death before he’ll be able to rape her repeatedly and eat her corpse (I’m really hoping they run out of air). <br />
<br />
These are not good people. But, like candidates in any Canadian federal election, they’re all we’ve got, and we have to find a reason to like one more than the others. Unlike a Canadian federal election, it’s much easier to find things I like in the <i>GoT</i> characters. <br />
<br />
Now, my first question of the week that’s kind of driving me batty: I thought Sansa was leaving with the Hound last week. What was she still doing standing in Joffrey’s court? Did I miss something? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv5QMAtx7VOWrazt0MXkU50yWYsAVclzewJiV6xVaQebvXnmGkowJYBwI2L_tfbDSCAyka5HNy7t3IIowk5UHNbGqlkrp51IrA7PbzxsM6QCLbCWSG0nllszWhDit9PRHV2VVRA/s1600/sansa-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv5QMAtx7VOWrazt0MXkU50yWYsAVclzewJiV6xVaQebvXnmGkowJYBwI2L_tfbDSCAyka5HNy7t3IIowk5UHNbGqlkrp51IrA7PbzxsM6QCLbCWSG0nllszWhDit9PRHV2VVRA/s320/sansa-copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I am TOTALLY updating my status to 'single'."</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher</b>: Huh. Interesting. I never assumed she was going with him—it seemed clear to me that she was turning down his offer. But then, that might have been because I’ve read the book and know she doesn’t go with him (that would have been a BIG deviation from the story). Perhaps we should poll our readers and see who thought as you did?<br />
<br />
I didn’t find this episode to be any sort of letdown, though the shift back to the usual form of storytelling was a bit jarring. One way or another, I don’t see how they avoid that in the aftermath of “Blackwater” (aside from not doing “Blackwater” to start with … and, well, that’s just silly-talk). But for all the slower pacing of the episode, there were some pretty spectacular moments: Brienne showing the Kingslayer she can handle a sword, Jon Snow killing Qhorin, the triumphant return of Daenerys as something more than a petulant girl—and running into Drogo on the way!—and burning <s>creepy Abed</s> the warlock to a crisp, Jaqen H’ghar changing his face after offering to train Arya to be a Faceless Man … and of course that chilling (ha!) final shot of the White Walkers and their army of snow zombies.<br />
<br />
Snow zombies. Let me say it one more time: snow zombies. OK, I think I’ve geeked out enough over that now.<br />
<br />
I might as well start with that ending sequence. I’m interested to hear what other avid GRRM readers thought of it—do you think it does your own image of the wights and their masters justice? Our first really good “look” at an Other doesn’t happen until book three, but I certainly am not complaining here. I’m also a little relieved, as the one real glimpse we’ve had previously, in the prologue of the very first episode, made the Walker look like some sort of tribal savage (I seem to remember complaining about that). But here it looked more obviously like something born of winter. Here is how the Other gets described in <i>A Storm of Swords</i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
A horse’s head emerged from the darkness. [He] felt a moment’s relief, until he saw the horse. Hoarfrost covered it like a sheen of frozen sweat, and a nest of stiff black entrails dragged from its open belly. On its back was a rider pale as ice … The Other slid gracefully from the saddle to stand upon the snow. Sword-slim it was, and milky white. Its armor rippled and shifted as it moved, and its feet did not break the crust of the new-fallen snow.</blockquote>
<br />
So we <i>do</i> have a vaguely primitivist conception of the Walkers on the show—the Others we see are milky white, as described in the book (or blue-white, at any rate), but are naked but for breechclouts, and they look something like frozen mummies, with gnarled and dessicated bodies. But they’re pretty terrifying one way or another, especially considering they seem to be shepherding a rather large army of wights.<br />
<br />
I did wonder why that final scene looked familiar, and you put your finger right on it—it is TOTALLY reminiscent of <i>The Walking Dead</i>. I don’t imagine we can accuse Weiss and Benioff of ripping of TWD, given how closely in time both episodes would have been in production. I wonder if W&B watch TWD—if perhaps they saw that penultimate episode and thought, “Ah, crap.”<br />
<br />
Probably not. There was a certain similarity, but then it’s not exactly an original shot, having been done in a variety of ways in a host of zombie films. But GoT does have one thing going for it: snow zombies! <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Braaaaaaiiiiinsssss. Frooooozzzzenn brraaaaiiinss. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: The snow zombies were awesome. And I’m not sure poor Sam can survive that (will all of them walk right by him and leave him alone? Not likely…) The mantra from the first episode onward has been “Winter is coming…” and it appears that the wights actually brought winter with them. The guy on the horse was absolutely terrifying, and you’re right: they DO look like frozen mummies! Well put. Craster’s daughter-wives had better have some more sons, quick. Looks like those wights will need some sacrifices soon. <br />
<br />
Very strange on the Sansa thing! In my write-up last week I talked a lot about how her decision to go with the Hound was an awesome moment, and you didn’t correct me at all (in fact, I believe you said it was an excellent reading of the scene). You are one sneaky guy. <br />
<br />
I was discussing this final episode with the people at work, and none of us read the books and all of us had assumed Sansa had gone with the Hound and were completely confused. Hm… That’s too bad. I really would have loved to see those two roaming the countryside together. <br />
<br />
The OTHER two people who I’d love to see roaming the countryside are Arya and Jaqen. Last week I made a comment that I wish he’d have joined her, Gendry, and the fat kid. So when they looked up and saw him on a hill, I squealed with joy. My dreams had come true! He’s going to travel with Arya! He’ll be her mentor and we get to continue to hear him speak funny and give those strange sidelong glances at her and HOLY CRAP WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO HIS FACE??!! <br />
<br />
The… HELL?? He gives Arya a coin and tells her if she ever runs into a man from Braavos, to say “Valar Morghulis” to him, and she will find Jaqen. “Jaqen” is dead (perhaps because she used his name in vain two episodes ago by naming “Jaqen” as the third person she wanted dead?), and she must now use the name Valar Morghulis. Wasn’t Arya’s “dance instructor” from Braavos? If he and Jaqen are from the same city, <i>I want to go to there</i>. It’s clearly the city of awesome. <br />
<br />
Is it possible that Jaqen and Arya’s dance instructor are the same person with different faces? Her instructor was left behind to defend himself, and we didn’t see him die, if I remember correctly. <br />
<br />
And I’m not sure how much you can reveal at this point, but are we to assume he’s from a particular group of people who can change their faces, OR is that just something he can do, OR is it something that men from Braavos do? <br />
<br />
I will miss the old red-haired/white-haired Jaqen. The new guy looked a little snarly.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1m5z12fddo9tY0R0XALO_h3NlgwtUQ1OD6L1R-ON3c47uQGzsWnmEwT9dTSI3dMogU9Tk2m5E52fs0eaDiMmXHonIAHyjOJyDnQ1u4mJpS3OKHZghaArS_l_8HVRYvLXLOKUyYA/s1600/ayra-stark-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1m5z12fddo9tY0R0XALO_h3NlgwtUQ1OD6L1R-ON3c47uQGzsWnmEwT9dTSI3dMogU9Tk2m5E52fs0eaDiMmXHonIAHyjOJyDnQ1u4mJpS3OKHZghaArS_l_8HVRYvLXLOKUyYA/s320/ayra-stark-copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Under no circumstances should you spend this on candy and chips."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Christopher</b>: Huh. I just reread last week’s post, and I totally didn’t get that you meant Sansa was leaving <i>with</i> the Hound. It’s a good thing I’m not in a profession that values close reading or anything.<br />
<br />
It never occurred to me that Syrio and Jaqen could be the same person—as you pointed out, we don’t see him die (we don’t see him die in the novel, either), and the three men in the cage with Yoren’s group all come from the dungeons of King’s Landing. It’s an intriguing thought … but as much as I like the idea, I don’t think it’s likely. The Faceless Men of Braavos are a secret society of assassins; Syrio was a master swordsman serving the Sealord. From what I know of those two groups of people in Braavos, it seems unlikely that the latter would moonlight as the former, or vice versa. Too bad, really …<br />
<br />
Braavos DOES seem like a wicked cool place though, and I’ll be very interested to see how they render it visually for the series. It won’t happen until at least season four, though … five if they split <i>A Storm of Swords</i> into two. It’s described as being a lot like renaissance Venice.<br />
<br />
(To be clear, I’m not giving anything away about Arya’s future: maybe she goes to Braavos, maybe she doesn’t. There are other characters who go there). <br />
<br />
To shift to another part of the story: what did you think of Varys this week? I love how they’re developing his character. He’s so obviously out of sorts when Littlefinger is honored by the king that one wonders if his overtures to Ros are partly out of revenge. That scene with her was invented, by the way: and though it was a vindication of the principle that the writers can’t have Ros on screen for more than thirty seconds without getting her naked, I thought the entire sequence added a level of depth and nuance to Varys that, frankly, we don’t get in the novels. His reasons for approaching Ros are obviously complex: on one hand, he sees an opportunity to get a spy in Littlefinger’s camp, and exploits her abuse at Joffrey’s hands to that end. But unless he’s feigning concern (not out of the realm of possibility), he seemed genuinely upset at what she suffered. We understand that, however much his polite fencing with Littlefinger looks just like two old hands playing a game, he genuinely despises Baelish … perhaps as someone who has himself suffered grievously at someone else’s hands, he has the kind of empathy unavailable to Littlefinger.<br />
<br />
Of course, I could be totally wrong, and that was all just an act. But my sense is that we’re supposed to see him as genuine in these moments, as we are when he thanks Tyrion and tells him that <i>some</i> people know he’s the city’s true savior.<br />
<br />
Though not, apparently, his father or sister or nephew. He wakes in a slovenly little room, having been ignominiously kicked out of the Hand’s apartments by his father. He has had everything he built up taken away—Bronn relieved of command, the city guard in the pocket of either Tywin or Cersei, his hillsmen sent packing with a handsome recompense that takes them out of Tyrion’s debt and into Tywin’s. And to top it off, his sister’s pet Pycelle has been restored and he smugly throws that fact in Tyrion’s gravely scarred face. <br />
<br />
Last week you said the following, apropos of Tyrion’s possible death: “I don’t think he could be dead. He’s important, he’s KEY, and Tywin just showed up. Tyrion and Tywin could be a serious force to be reckoned with … Tyrion — the ironically nicknamed ‘Half Man’ — has just proven himself to be the only worthy Lannister. Tywin should be pretty impressed, and I doubt they’d kill him off the show just when he’s finally about to prove himself once and for all to his father.” You noted that my response might be spoilery, and you were right … because I was sitting there, sort of flapping my hands, saying “Omigodomigod, you have no idea how bloody <i>ungrateful</i> everyone is going to be!” Tyrion can’t win with his family—his sister loathes him, his nephew is never about to forgive him his slights, and his father will never allow him to forget that he’s (1) a dwarf, and (2) not Jaime. Give him credit for, you know, saving the city? Not likely.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohZOc9oMJ-yKOn9yh3V45HWP1OF5JKzN3zk0Z3pm5uz94E49FwsCNM3vzYSu0OV2EwjNKQZcQ5yvL9Np5Nz1iaYwHNUBmg2Qt96f1awuPPLv0MdSJu6NdnKDGcryGAcYJsyr82Q/s1600/tyrion-face-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohZOc9oMJ-yKOn9yh3V45HWP1OF5JKzN3zk0Z3pm5uz94E49FwsCNM3vzYSu0OV2EwjNKQZcQ5yvL9Np5Nz1iaYwHNUBmg2Qt96f1awuPPLv0MdSJu6NdnKDGcryGAcYJsyr82Q/s320/tyrion-face-copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"On the plus side, I'm reasonably sure this scar makes me look pretty badass."</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: And you have no idea how much I just laughed, picturing you bouncing up and down on your chair and squealing, “You are so wrong!!” That is hilarious. I don’t say this enough, but you deserve major kudos for letting me blather on week after week (and also letting the commenters say things in the comments below when they haven’t read the books, either) and never saying, “Oh, you think so? WAIT TIL YOU SEE!!” Instead you use some enigmatic words and I never glom on to what’s going to happen. (See Stark, Ned: execution) So thank you for that, my friend! <br />
<br />
But yes, I was completely shocked that rather than finally being lauded as the One True Lannister, he’s locked up in an attic. I guess the hint was back in season 1, in the scene where Tyrion faced Tywin in his tent as Tywin was skinning a deer. I don’t remember much of what was said in the scene, since my eyes were fiercely trained on the ghastly nature of Tywin <i>skinning a deer</i>, but it was clear that he respected Tyrion’s mind, but Jaime was the beloved one. <br />
<br />
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<br />
And while I’m watching the battle scene last week and thinking that Tyrion was a true hero, even in the moment where he appears to have vanquished the baddies, the others are yelling, “Half Man!” to cheer him on. Not exactly the chant any Lannister would want their house associated with. Tyrion might have won, but he made a grave error in Tywin’s eyes: he was seen. Tyrion’s mind is important, and Tywin wants him to use it, as long as he stays in the background and works out strategies so heroes like Jaime can execute them. Tyrion is NOT meant to be paraded in front of the world, reminding them all that Tywin’s sperm helped create a dwarf. Tyrion is supposed to be the brains behind the operation, and Jaime is the one to be lauded publicly as the true hero. <br />
<br />
Tyrion is well fond of the phrase, “A Lannister always pays his debts.” And I’m thinking that, in his eyes, Cersei and Tywin have some serious repaying to do. <br />
<br />
I, too, am really enjoying Varys this season. As you suggest, it’s not clear if he’s on the up-and-up – we’ve learned to question everything that man says – but he really does seem sincere when he speaks to Tyrion, and the scene with Ros was very interesting. (That actress doesn’t get enough credit for having to shed her clothing every time she’s on screen.) His vengeance really does seem to spring from his hatred for Baelish. They seemed like two sides of the same coin last season, but as that analogy would suggest, two sides of one coin would never actually see eye to eye, and while they smile at each other, there’s always a seething resentment that each man harbours toward the other. <br />
<br />
It’s understandable that Varys would then align himself with Tyrion, since Baelish has already declared Tyrion his enemy. Baelish clearly seems to relish Tyrion’s comeuppance in this episode, when King <s>Asshat</s> Joffrey grants him Harrenhal. You’ll recall that a few episodes ago, when Tyrion was pulling the old trick of telling three different stories and seeing which spy would run to Cersei, he promised Harrenhal to Baelish. The smirk on Baelish’s face speaks volumes. <br />
<br />
And then Queen Margaery steps up and expresses her desire to wed Joffrey, which Joffrey accepts. There’s so much to say about this I don’t know where to start, but while her move is definitely political, is she cunning enough to know what a sick bastard Joffrey is? Also, isn’t she about a decade his senior? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Will she know how to handle him, or will he shock her? She seemed to see right through Renly and was able to control that situation as best she could, so maybe Joffrey may have met his match. If that’s the case, I can’t WAIT to see what Queen Margaery has up her sleeve for season 3. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Please believe me, Your Grace ... this cleavage would be impressive<br />
on any other network. Seriously. It killed on The Tudors. Literally."</td></tr>
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<br />
Sansa, meanwhile, puts on the stricken face for the courts, but can’t contain her overflowing joy very long as she quickly shuffles out of the king’s court, a huge smile on her face and the relief palpable. At first she even had me tricked, thinking she was truly scared; I mean, if her father was executed for being a traitor, and Joffrey clearly loathes her and now she can’t offer him anything, couldn’t he just kill her and be done with the Starks? But Baelish is the smarter one – see, as far as they know, Jaime’s still a prisoner of Robb Stark, and Sansa must be kept close. That doesn’t mean Joffrey can’t do to her what he already did to Ros, and defile her in nasty, sick ways. What better way to get back at the traitor Ned Stark than to ruin his eldest daughter? She should have gone with the Hound… <br />
<br />
Back over to Winterfell, which, sadly, is no more, here’s my next (possibly dumbass) question for you: Theon was bemoaning the hornblower outside, and was saying he was going to kill that guy and the 500 Stark men that were surrounding Winterfell. But when Bran and Rickon escaped with Hodor and Osha, there are no men. I was discussing this with people at work and this scene came up, and it had left people very confused: where did they all go? Did Theon’s men really beat them all? <br />
<br />
To be honest, when I watched it, I assumed they’d just tricked Theon the whole time, and there were no men. I thought one of them was blowing the horn to drive him insane, since we already know the Stark forces are far away. But other people didn’t read the scene that way, and a friend of mine reminded me that he was often looking out the window, as if he could see the troops. Can you shed some light on what happened, Chris? <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Stupid like a fox, am I!"</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Christopher</b>: Really not, unfortunately. Perhaps they blew their budget on “Blackwater,” and couldn’t afford to depict another siege. I don’t know. And as much as I’d love to share what happened in the novel, I’m afraid of inadvertently giving spoilers—suffice to say, what we saw of Theon’s fate this week is not how it happened in the book, but I have no idea whether they plan on re-merging with the original storyline in season three, or how. So I will remain frustratedly mum (not to be confused with comfortably numb) for the time being. Do you plan to read <i>A Clash of Kings</i> now? If so, we need to talk when you finish it about the way they ended Theon’s story this season, and perhaps offer a spoilery blog post. Of all the things they’ve done on this show, this was one of the most puzzling. I was expecting something very different, and those who have read the books will know what I mean when I say they’ve been preparing the groundwork for Theon’s story to follow the way it happens in the novels.<br />
<br />
But to return to King’s Landing: what did you make of Joffrey’s little pantomime about having sworn an oath to Sansa? That <i>was</i> pretty much exactly as it feel out in the novel, and I was never sure what I thought of it then, either. Was this a ritual series of denials before the king finally accedes to his new betrothal? Or is Joffrey really just being that truculent, reluctant to give up his plaything? As Littlefinger points out, he can pretty much do with Sansa as he pleases, but he might not know that just yet. <br />
<br />
I am VERY curious to see what happens with Margaery and Joffrey now … their betrothal in the novels isn’t that surprising or odd, considering that she is just a year or two older than him there. But casting Natalie Dormer in the role means we have a much older and more worldly-wise Margaery, so I’m guessing we should expect some interaction between her and Joffrey in season three that we do not see in the books. Which, in the aftermath of her rather frank discussion with Renly, is quite promising …<br />
<br />
But we’ve skirted two of the big events of the last episode: Jon Snow joining the wildlings, and Daenerys getting her mojo (i.e. dragons) back. His long side-journey with Ygritte was not in the novel. In the book, he lets her go and rejoins Qhorin; and when it becomes clear at a certain point that they are going to be taken by the wildlings, Qhorin tells Jon that he must join them in order to find out their intentions … and that to convincingly do so, he must kill Qhorin. I’m glad they kept that part—though we don’t see much of him, Qhorin is a great character, and his duel with Jon is a brilliant and heartbreaking moment of sacrifice. <br />
<br />
I guess my final question to you is: what did you think of the Daenerys sequence? I wasn’t impressed at first … and then she walks into the snowy ruins of the throne room at King’s Landing. And then through the gate in the Wall, and into a tent to see … Drogo! Drogo, sitting there with their son! I do confess, I squeed a little …<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"When you can walk, young one, I shall teach you how to tear a man's <br />
tongue out from his neck."<br />
"Make sure you record it, Drogo."<br />
"Of course. I shall post it to the Book of Faces."</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: And I squeed a LOT. As I put it to my work colleagues, after kind of boring me all season long, the Daenerys story went out with a bang this season. Her dream walk through key landmarks on the show was fascinating — she walks through the burned ruins of the king’s court at King’s Landing; the doorway of the Wall; the tent where she and Khal had set up house (complete with baby and Khal!!). First, she’s never seen King’s Landing first-hand, so this is some sort of vision that’s showing her a possible future with her dragons, I’m assuming. (I hope in this scenario Joffrey’s death was even more slow and painful than the one suffered at the end of Brienne’s sword this week.) But the scene with Khal was astounding. I gasped aloud, I was SO HAPPY to see him again, but that scene was very painful to watch. Sitting before her are the two people she longs for more than anyone — her beloved husband, and the baby that never had a chance to be born. But her reaction shows just how determined this woman is: she walks away. We see the saddened look on Khal’s face as he’s left behind, less important to her than her destiny. She recognizes that he’s not real, but that the destroyed King’s Landing very well might be. So she’s going to make that happen. <br />
<br />
I wasn’t surprised when her dreamwalk ended with evil Abed chaining her up, since I knew <i>that</i> wasn’t going to last very long. The SFX on the dragons was amazing. They reminded me of a cross between my daughter’s geckos (their heads and faces) and our cats, in the way they cock their heads and their movements. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I can killz warlockz?"</td></tr>
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<br />
Note to HBO: You want to get fans to pony up and pay a ton of money on merchandising? Make us some dragons. I WANT ONE. <br />
<br />
I was literally cheering when the dragons blew the fire through Daenerys and killed the warlock, and the way she triumphantly walked out of there with all three of them hanging off her. What she did next was shocking (I’ve already covered that above) but it shows that she has gone from an innocent girl to a nasty force to be reckoned with. <br />
<br />
And so, we move to season 3:<br />
-Daenerys is coming, and she’s on the hunt with dragons that now know how to breathe fire.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm not ashamed to admit ... I'm a little turned on right now.</td></tr>
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<br />
-Joffrey is still a little shit, and yet one I don’t want to be killed off right away because I’ve realized just how much I enjoy hating him. <br />
-Theon, on the other hand, I can no longer stand, and wish someone would just off him. And those teeth of his, which look like they belong in <i>The Big Book of British Smiles</i> from <i>The Simpsons</i><br />
-Sansa is no longer betrothed to Joffrey (oh, and to answer your question, I believe that he was being overly dramatic on purpose, pretending that he was being talked out of something, but basically humiliating Sansa in front of the court, which seems to be his only mandate these days). Now she must find a way to escape King’s Landing.<br />
-Arya is on the road, minus Jaqen H’ghar, but she does have a direct line to him should she ever need him. She’s filled with vengeance, and could be the one Stark who finally manages to make the Lannisters pay their debts. <br />
-Tyrion is locked up in a tower with the ever-loyal Shae at his side (oh, how I loved that scene between them!) and the control he’s had over his sister and her son all season has been snatched from him. I’m worried about the comeuppance he’s about to face. <br />
-Tywin is back, and seems to have put his own pride in his virility over common sense. <br />
-Cersei will continue to drink herself stupid and be generally miserable until Jaime returns. <br />
-Jaime’s on his way back, but he’s been a disgrace and I wonder if anything will change when he gets there. Or… is it possible he won’t get there? <br />
-Brienne continues to be <i>totally awesome</i><br />
-Catelyn is under house arrest by her son, Robb, who feels betrayed by her. As he spits at her in this episode when she questions him breaking his betrothal vow: “Father is dead, and the only parent I have left doesn’t have the right to call anyone reckless.” <br />
-Robb has just married Talisa and broken the vow Catelyn was talking about, which will destroy a very powerful alliance.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oh baby ... you had me when you sawed off that man's leg ..."</td></tr>
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<br />
-Baelish has just been given more power, which is always dangerous. <br />
-Margaery is betrothed to Joffrey, which could turn out to be bad for her, or bad for him. But one of them is going to trump the other, and I’m thinking Joffrey doesn’t know what’s coming. <br />
-Rickon and Bran are wandering through the countryside with Hodor and Osha. Winterfell is gone, so they have to find Robb.<br />
-Jon Snow has effectively joined the wildlings. <br />
-Stannis has retreated from the battle despite his amazing fighting skills, and he’s angry with Melisandre for tricking him into thinking he was going to win (he almost chokes her to death). However, when she reminds him that her god is inside him, he steps back, and realizes maybe he’s got to come at things a different way. She tells him he’s the warrior of light, and he will be king. Between him and Daenerys, the Game of Thrones might come down to just who wants it more. <br />
-Oh, and to bring it all back to where we started, <i>TERRIFYING SNOW ZOMBIES ARE ON THE WAY!!!</i><br />
<br />
Wow. And all that in 10 episodes. <i>Game of Thrones</i> is starting to make 22-episode network TV look ridiculously inefficient. <br />
<br />
Thank you, once again, Chris, for being our eye into the book version of this. Last season I said I would definitely read book 1, and then I didn’t because I didn’t want to affect our banter, but now that we’re two seasons in, I might just give in. I don’t think it’ll affect our banter much, it’ll just mean we can both speak on a similar level, but bringing two perspectives to everything. <br />
<br />
And thank you to everyone who has been reading along. We will see you again in season 3!Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14665637.post-17149244603073754482012-05-30T09:40:00.000-02:302012-05-30T09:40:17.043-02:30Game of Thrones 2.09: BlackwaterWelcome back yet again to the Chris & Nikki <i>Game of Thrones</i> co-blog, in which we ... oh, seven hells, you know. I have no time for preamble this week! Blackwater! Wildfire! Things blowed up real good and green!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What an expensive-looking explosion ...</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Christopher</b>: OK, so I am dying to hear what you thought of last night’s episode—mainly because my own mind is in a total whirl about it. I’m not sure where to begin, because it was utterly unlike everything we’ve come to expect from GoT narratively: the episode focused on a single place and sequence of action, ignoring for the moment the stories of Daenerys, Theon, Bran and Rickon, Jon Snow, Robb and Catelyn, and Arya. Often episodes will leave out one narrative thread or another, which usually means we can expect something big to happen next episode. But usually we’re always aware of just how many balls the series has in the air at one time, and are (usually) impressed by how deftly it’s done.<br />
<br />
But this episode? This was different. It makes sense narratively and thematically, as much of this season’s action has been building to the inevitable war. There have been battles along the way, of course, but we usually haven’t seen more than their aftermaths. And last season, we didn’t see the big battle because Tyrion got knocked on the head. The large-scale battle á là <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> or <i>Gladiator</i> still seems something of a bridge too far for television—which is unsurprising, considering the cost involved. When you’re spending one hundred million dollars on a two or three hour feature film, it’s all well and good … not so much when you have an entire season (with more to come) to worry about. So as much as we would love to see a proper Kurosawa-esque clash of massive armies, it’s simply not feasible.<br />
<br />
All of which makes “Blackwater” all the more impressive. It should be noted that George R. R. Martin wrote the episode, which as he had observed is sort of an ironic return for him as a TV writer. In his many interviews, he has talked of how he sat down to start writing A Song of Ice and Fire after almost fifteen years in Hollywood, most notably as a producer and writer on <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> (he and Ron Perlman remain good friends). One of his frustrations with television, he has said many times, was how limited you are by budgets. His inclination was to expansive and epic storylines; many times he had pilots and proposals for new series rejected because he simply wanted to do too much. So he returned to his first love, prose fiction, in which he would never have to worry about someone else’s priorities when it came to depicting, say, a massive and complicated battle. Never once, he says, did he imagine Ice and Fire might be adapted to film or television … he’d simply made it too big and complicated.<br />
<br />
So it was a bit of historical irony that landed him writing the climatic episode about the battle of the Blackwater … and having Benioff and Weiss keep sending back his drafts with notes that essentially said, “Uh, no … smaller, please.” <br />
<br />
But however much they cramped his style, I have to tip my hat to GRRM for doing a very deft job of depicting battle on a massive scale while at the same time making it feel very focused and indeed almost claustrophobic at times. Changing the battle from day to night was a brilliant move in this respect—Stannis’ enormous fleet becomes a bunch of ominous and threatening shadows on the horizon, and we don’t need to see them (or be subjected to the sort crap-ass CGI we saw at the Battle of Philippi in <i>Rome</i>) to know they’re there. At the same time, everything becomes focused down on a small space and small group of soldiers—as I’m sure it must do in a real battle, when everything else disappears for the individuals fighting. And I would also argue it was very suggestive, in the same respect, of the fog of war … <br />
<br />
And on top of all that, SO MUCH was going on in this episode. What do you want to talk about first, Nik?<br />
<br />
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<b>Nikki</b>: Let’s compare the St. Crispin’s Day motivational speeches of the week, shall we? <br />
<br />
Cersei: Do you have any notion of what happens when a city is sacked? No, you wouldn’t. If the city falls, these fine women… shall be in for a bit of a rape. Half of them will have bastards in their bellies come morning; you’ll be glad of your red flower then. <br />
<br />
Joffrey: Waaaaaah… sniffle, snort… soooobbb!! They’re coming ASHORE!!! <br />
<br />
The Hound: Any man dies with a clean sword, I’ll rape his fucking corpse!<br />
<br />
Joffrey: Are they gone yet? Ooh, I can’t look, I can’t look! I WANT MY MUMMY!!!<br />
<br />
The Hound: Fuck the King’s Guard. Fuck the city. Fuck the king. <br />
<br />
Joffrey: Sniffle, whimper… Stay with my uncle, and represent the king on the field of battle. [<i>runs for cover, muppet arms flailing</i>]<br />
<br />
Tyrion: I’ll lead the attack! They said I’m half a man. But what does that make the lot of you? There’s another way out. I’m going to show you. Come up behind them and fuck them in their asses! Don’t fight for your king, and don’t fight for his kingdom. Don’t fight for honour, don’t fight for glory, don’t fight for riches because you won’t get any. This is your city Stannis means to sack, that is your gate he’s ravaging. If he gets in, it will be your houses he burns, your gold he steals, your women he will rape. Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let’s go kill them! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Coooooooooooooooool ..."</td></tr>
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<br />
I know who I’d be following. <br />
<br />
What an episode. As you say, they kept to one particular story, and I even found that when it skipped over to Cersei, I just wanted them to get back to the action. So they definitely knew better than to switch over to Daenerys (whose story has been lagging this season to begin with) or anyone else when the real action is here. <br />
<br />
Tyrion is certainly the star of this piece, with Joffrey the simpering fool, Cersei the drunken lout, and Sansa the true queen. While she was falling back on hymns and prayers, things that in the end can’t actually do anything in this situation, at least she was trying to put these women’s fears to rest, which is more than what Cersei was doing. But while Cersei comes off as one cold bitch, the ones she is absolutely loyal to, and cares about more than herself, is her children. The scene near the end of her trying to feed the lethal nightshade to her son was devastating, and you could tell it was breaking her heart. Let’s just say her daddy has some impeccable timing. <br />
<br />
But back to the battle. It reminded me of the battle of Helm’s Deep on screen in the second LOTR movie (I half expected to see an elf come sliding down the wall shooting arrows as he went) but the highlight of the battle is certainly the wildfire exploding. The way Davos stares at it as the ship slowly sails out to land amidst the enemy ships, and the horror on Davos’s face when he realizes what’s on it. It’s so quiet and ominous, and therefore terrifying. Tyrion makes his signal to Bronn, who makes the perfect shot out to the boat… and then if there were ever the perfect poster moment for the phrase “all hell broke loose,” this would be it. What is wonderful about this scene is the look of horror on Tyrion’s face. He needed to win the battle, but he can hear the screams of agony from these men, he can watch them catch on fire and their skin bubbling and trying to jump into the water just to stop the pain, only to land in more wildfire and be tortured even further. Contrast that with the look of absolute glee on Joffrey’s face. His only regret is that he can’t record this so he can watch it over and over and over again while eating popcorn. <br />
<br />
What were your favourite moments in the episode? <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oh, the year was seventeen seventy-eight ..."</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher</b>: Oh gods, where to start? One great moment of geek love, certainly, was hearing Bronn leading a rousing rendition of “The Rains of Castamere,” a song that appears several times in the novels. It’s sort of the unofficial Lannister national anthem, about an upstart lesser house—the Reynes—who challenge Lannister power and find themselves eradicated root and branch and their lands razed (really, it surprises anyone that <i>this</i> is what the Lannisters sing about to each other?). As I said, we “hear” snatches of it throughout the novels; but for the series it was put to music by the band The National. Theirs was the version playing over the credits, and the way they do it gives it a definitely funereal tone … but I think I liked it as Bronn’s drinking song better.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sn2l2_v6Ur8" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
I also loved Varys in this episode … his little speech about hating bells was lovely, as was his revelation that he loathes sorcery. <br />
<br />
Cersei, too. As I’ve said before, I’ve been tepid on Lena Headey as Cersei, but here she was brilliant—raging against the chromosomal lottery that put Jaime in armour and her in skirts, and getting slowly and magnificently drunk. <br />
<br />
And of course, seeing Joffrey’s bravado from last episode melting into panic while Tyrion holds the wall and rallies the men. (I laughed at your St. Crispin’s Day reference above—in my notes under where Joffrey orders the Kingsguard to “represent the King,” I’ve written “not exactly the St. Crispin’s speech.” Ah, we few, we happy few, we band of buggered). Though I do have to say that the episode’s one false note was when all of the soldiers kind of muttered and shrugged and started to wander off after Joffrey left. “Oh, the king left? Huh. Well, then, I guess I don’t really feel like fighting these people outside the walls WHO WANT TO KILL ME.” Perhaps the fight goes out of them, and perhaps they won’t leave the safety of the walls to face the enemy, but they’re not about to sit on their hands. <br />
<br />
Really, there’s too many great moments to geek out over—the wildfire explosion, Stannis kicking ass on top of the wall, Sansa telling Tyrion “I will pray for your safe return, my lord—just as I pray for the king’s” (ouch!), Davos answering the city’s bells with his drums …<br />
<br />
But my favourite part of this episode? The Hound. He’s always been a disturbing, glowering, enigmatic character. But here we see what Rory McCann can do. The slow build of his panic in the face of fire throughout the battle was lovely, but his final fuck-you to Joffrey and his appearance in Sansa’s room were both beautiful moments. He’s singing the tune he sang before—“the world is built by killers”—but this time that fact has none of the harsh realism he was offering Sansa before and instead sounds elegiac. The world is built by killers and he is a consummate killer, and in this moment he has failed. When he cuts and runs, he becomes a poignant depiction of post-traumatic stress as we realize that the pain and fear he suffered at his brother’s hands has never gone away. And McCann conveys that with brutal elegance.<br />
<br />
How about you, Nikki?<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"What do you mean, I'm overcompensating?"</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: You do realize you just gained major points on this blog by quoting Spike on <i>Buffy</i>, right? Of course you do. ;) <br />
<br />
And you beat me to the National link. A couple of days ago Josh Winstead, who does the <i>Walking Dead</i> posts with me, sent me a link to the Rains of Castamere song. Problem was, I saw it at work, and decided to listen to it at home. And since I have a Leonard Shelby memory (you should see the tattoos on my arms…) I completely forgot. So when I heard it at the end of the episode, I said to my husband, “Is that… the National??” You can’t mistake that voice. Of course, I didn’t realize they were singing the Lannister song. Brilliant version of it. And considering the sadness of the end, the funereal way they sing it seemed perfect where it was placed. <br />
<br />
Let us talk of the end. Now I’ve been trained that no one is too important to be killed off (see Stark, Ned), but at the same time, his death, in retrospect, was necessary to spark the rest of the events thus far. The way Bran and Rickon were displayed by Theon tipped me off that it wasn’t actually the boys; we would have seen him kill them, they still seem like they could play an important role (I mean, if you kill off all the Starks, you lose a lot of tension…), and the fact they were burned beyond recognition made me think Theon was just saving face.<br />
<br />
But Tyrion? I don’t think he could be dead. He’s important, he’s KEY, and Tywin just showed up. Tyrion and Tywin could be a serious force to be reckoned with. Jaime’s been rotting in a cage, Cersei’s been moping about, she was just about to kill her own son rather than face the hordes (and perhaps herself, too), Joffrey runs crying from the battlefield, and Tyrion — the ironically nicknamed “Half Man” — has just proven himself to be the only worthy Lannister. Tywin should be pretty impressed, and I doubt they’d kill him off the show just when he’s finally about to prove himself once and for all to his father. Tyrion has always been the brains; Jaime’s the brawn. In this battle, Tyrion finally proved himself to be both. (I understand the response to my comment may be spoilery, so you can just jump to the next topic if you’d like.) <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I hate having to shop for armour at Gap Kids."</td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Christopher</b>: I’ll avoid being spoilery by asking if it was clear to you who it was cut Tyrion. I know who it was, it being an important plot point in the novel, but wasn’t sure it came across in the scene. Did you catch who his assailant was?<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The awkward moment when you realize your bodyguard<br />
is handing you his letter of resignation. With his sword.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<b>Nikki</b>: You know when you think you see something but then something else happens so quickly afterward that your brain just moves on to the next thing? And then when someone like, oh, I don’t know, YOU mentions something that your brain had tweaked to, it instantly comes flooding back? <br />
<br />
When Tyrion turned around on the field, he sort of smiles at a guy wearing a full facial helmet with three ridges on it. It’s the same helmet of the guy that Joffrey turned to (did he call him Ser Boris? I couldn’t hear the name he was using) and he said, “Stay with my uncle and represent the king.” Now your question had made it clear to me that it must have been the same guy. So… does that mean Joffrey’s demand had a double-meaning? In other words, don’t let my uncle out of my sight, and should the men begin to follow him, represent the king and get rid of him on my behalf as a traitor? <br />
<br />
Oh, Joffrey. I hate you so much more now. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yarp.</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher</b>: Heh. Not to be spoilery, but don’t assume it was Joffrey. And for the record yes: he called him Ser Boris. Ser Boris Blount, to be precise.<br />
<br />
So to return to your original question: yes, one of the things GRRM does is remove all of our confidence in who lives and dies. Bran and Rickon? Alive, yes. Tyrion? Well, obviously I’m not saying. And as sound as your reasoning is for why they couldn’t kill him off, I’ll say: (1) Ned died in the penultimate episode last season; (2) wouldn’t it just be just SO painful if Tyrion died just as he was about to finally be recognized by his father as worthwhile?<br />
<br />
And don’t forget our other beloved MIA: Davos was blown overboard by the wildfire explosion. Alive, or dead?<br />
<br />
If I can bring us back from the ending, I’m curious to know what you thought of the near-fight between the Hound and Bronn. It is a scene, incidentally, that does not occur in the novels … I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure those two never speak to each other. And in any other episode, I’d just chalk it up to the writers being inventive, but this was a GRRM-penned ep … meaning that this was a confrontation that came from his mind. <br />
<br />
I thought it was such an interesting scene. The Hound, again, was singing his favourite tune re: the love of killing, to which Bronn cheerfully copped. (Extended aside: I have quite grown to love Bronn in this series. Some characters have not lived up to the novels; but some have exceeded them, and Bronn is Exhibit A. Jerome Flynn has played him with such dark humour that he’s really quite difficult not to like, a far cry from the hard-bitten version in the novels). The Hound is obviously spoiling for a fight, and Bronn is not one to back down, and has his hand on his knife when the bells toll (in my notes I’ve written “saved by the bell!” heh). <br />
<br />
The point, obviously I think, is to provide a contrast between two incarnations of the Hound’s world-view—two born killers, one dour and dedicated, the other hale and well-met (the naked whore in his lap was somewhat overdone, we got the point), both of whom find themselves in the service of a possibly doomed master. Thoughts?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Wait, are you SURE there isn't some EXTREMELY IMPORTANT<br />
business underneath my bed I have to attend to?"</td></tr>
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<b>Nikki</b>: Yes, I wonder if there are some people watching who were staring at the girl in his lap and afterwards said, “What? There was a discussion between Bronn and the Hound? I… didn’t notice.” <br />
<br />
I liked that scene a lot. The Hound has always been a character I’ve liked. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but last season when Baelish told Sansa the Hound’s backstory, and how his brother had pushed his face into the fire and seared it, the Hound instantly had my sympathies. Especially when Baelish made him out to be a monster, telling Sansa never to reveal this information to him or he’d kill her on the spot. The way the Hound glances in her direction in that moment made me think he could hear Baelish telling her, but it was unclear. <br />
<br />
From that moment there’s been a link between the Hound and Sansa. On the one hand, he calls her the little bird and seems sympathetic to her. He knows how insipid Joffrey is (his distaste of the little shit every time Joffrey calls him “Dog” is written all over his disfigured face), and how awful the Lannisters are, and he sees Sansa as someone who is about to get wrapped up in this family because her father made a bad decision. <br />
<br />
Bronn is an interesting character; I don’t like him as much as you do, because in a fight between him and the Hound I’d be rooting for the latter, but he’s the one person who seems to outwit Tyrion on a regular basis, and their “final” words to one another suggest he’s far more educated than he lets on. I’m very intrigued by him, and I hope we find out more in the upcoming seasons. <br />
<br />
But the Hound is fantastic. The final scene was extraordinary. Sansa enters the room, and goes right for her doll. Until now she’s tried to keep it together, she mutters only to Shae her hatred for Joffrey (Shae’s constantly shushing her), she says exactly what she’s supposed to say, she watches Cersei’s drunken rantings with a wide-eyed fear, people tell her what to do and she rarely talks back, and after her outbursts in season 1 many of us had very little time for her. But you can’t forget she’s still a little girl. The actress playing her is much older than Sansa is supposed to be. She’s just getting her period for the first time, so that puts her at early high school age. She stands there and holds her dolly, reverting back to the little girl she was just a few short months ago, before her red rose was blooming (as Cersei put it), before her future husband was threatening her life on a regular basis, before she <i>had</i> a future husband, before her father was beheaded, before she was separated from her entire family, before she’d had to leave Winterfell. <br />
<br />
And then the Hound speaks, and unnerves her. She does what she’s done all season: stares wide-eyed at him, doesn’t say a word, speaks only when spoken to, and then he tells her that everyone around her is a killer and she’d better get used to it. And watch how her eyes change. That wide-eyed little bird look disappears, she narrows her eyes and stares at him as if she’s trying to suss out the situation. And then she says, “You won’t hurt me.” She doesn’t ask it, she states it, as if knowing it’s true. He assures her he won’t, and heads for the door. She makes her own decision for the first time in her life, drops the doll, and leaves the room… finally a woman. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I have a better idea for what you can do with your sword."</td></tr>
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<b>Christopher</b>: What a great reading of that scene. Poor Sophie Turner … playing Sansa must be a mostly thankless role—for most of last season she was a whiny princess, and for most of this season she’s essentially cowered under the capricious threat of Joffrey’s violence. But then she gets these moments of extraordinary strength and grace, as she did last season when Joffrey makes her look at her father’s head, and pretty much all throughout this episode. She has spent all this time being terrified of the Hound, but in the final estimation she gets his measure. Having her pick up the doll as she comes into her room was incredibly poignant. That she has kept the doll as a keepsake of her father is unsurprising, but still powerful. It reminds us of Ned’s hamfisted attempt to cheer her up last season, only to be told that she wasn’t a little girl any more. Well, now she knows that she was … and as you point out, is no longer. <br />
<br />
If growing up is in part about losing your illusions—putting aside childish things, as it were—Sansa has had to grow up pretty damn fast in King’s Landing. She’s something of a surrogate for that part of us that still wants to believe fairy tales and traditional stories of knights and kings, or for that matter that understanding of the fantasy genre coloured by the moral absolutism of C.S. Lewis or Tolkien. Kings can be venal and buffoonish like Robert, or cruel and sadistic like Joffrey; queens can be power-hungry and conniving like Cersei; knights can be cold killing machines like the Hound or Jaime Lannister; and men with unshakeable honour like her father don’t last long in their company, because they don’t understand how the game of thrones is played.<br />
<br />
But Sansa is learning. All in the game, yo.<br />
<br />
So … we have one more episode to go, which makes me very, very sad … any final thoughts on the penultimate episode?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Varys, you know I'd love to hear how you lost your johnson, but <br />
I've got a city to defend, my whore to hide, my nephew to humilate, <br />
and a fleet to blow up. I'm swamped."</td></tr>
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<b>Nikki</b>: These seasons are far too short. But there was a lot in this episode that hinted at larger things, and created some tension and drama that will continue into season 3:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Varys talks about when he was cut, as if there’s some major meaning behind it. I don’t think anyone chooses to be a eunuch, but in his case, I’m thinking there was a particularly sinister reason for why he is one. </li>
<li>As mentioned earlier, the men showed their loyalty to Tyrion on the field, which may have led to him being sliced. I particularly loved Joffrey threatening Tyrion, and Tyrion’s blasé response: “Then I’ll be the quarter man. Doesn’t have the same ring to it.” </li>
<li>Joffrey arrogantly calls his sword “Hearteater”; I do hope that’s prescient, but that it will be turned on him. Then again, he doesn’t have a heart to remove, so… </li>
<li>Sansa brilliantly goads Joffrey into joining the vanguard on the field by telling him how brave her brother Robb is in battle. He’ll be looking to make her pay for that. </li>
<li>I was shocked when Davos blew off the boat in the wildfire attack. He’s a brilliant character, played wonderfully by Liam Cunningham. I feel like there’s a lot more backstory there to be explored, but how could he have survived that attack? If he does, he’s likely horribly mangled. </li>
<li>Shae. I wasn’t sure what I thought of her at first, but I REALLY like her now. She has an oldness about her, like she’s wise beyond her years, and I loved it when she lifted her skirt to reveal the knife and told Sansa in no uncertain terms that no one will be raping her. </li>
<li>In her drunkenness, Cersei reveals that her father told her there were no gods when she was only four years old and praying to them for her mother. No wonder she became so cold. </li>
<li>Stannis looks like he’s done for, but I’m thinking Melisandre is going to enter the story again to deal with this situation. </li>
<li>Y’all know what I think about shipping, but if I did that sort of thing, I’d be shipping the Hound and Sansa right now. I’m rooting for a beauty and the beast sort of thing to happen there. </li>
</ul>
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Can’t wait for next week!Chris in NFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06064023598020493124noreply@blogger.com3