Game of Thrones, Season 3, Episode 4
Apr. 23rd, 2013 12:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessThis episode will probably be on my Hugo nomination ballot next year. So, with that as an introduction, THE CARPING! (Because it's me.)
1. COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT THE SEVERED HAND, HBO. I must say though seeing Jaime pummeled into the mud is all satisfying and almost kinda makes up for the whole throwing a kid off a tower thing.
2. Brienne = COOLEST PERSON ON THE ENTIRE SHOW. Bar none.
On a related note, I couldn't help noticing that the real kickass people in this episode were Arya (loved the bit where the Hound and Beric both agreed that she was the bravest person in the room), Brienne and Dany.
3. "Why would you risk your life for me?" First intelligent question Theon has asked in the entire series, although I'd expand it to "Why would ANYONE risk their lives for me?"
4. Also, ok, I realize that Theon's in gratitude mode, and only book readers would recognize that Theon is making this anguished confession to Ramsey Snow, but, seriously, Theon, ADMITTING at this point that you didn't actually kill Bran and Rickon but just killed two random kids who did nothing to you to save your pride, and admitting this in a "Why don't people LIKE me and APPRECIATE me" sort of way is not doing you any favors.
(I do think the actor is doing an excellent job, and Theon is marginally more sympathetic on the show. Marginally.)
5. And Diana Riggs proves once again why she was the perfect casting. Varys was also excellent tonight; that scene could have continued far longer.
And you know, I almost liked the Ros character and felt she was doing something at last? She's going to die soon now that that miracle has happened, isn't she?
6. You know, I expect we were supposed to feel a bit sorry for old Mormont there, but, honestly, and I say this as someone not overly fond of victim blaming, if anyone on this series has seriously deserved what he got, that would be Craster, followed by Mormont. Ok, sure, Mormont, you can go on and on about Craster feeding and sheltering the scouts of the Wall, but even apart from not feeding the men of the Watch decently and the incest, THE GUY HAS BEEN LEAVING HIS BABIES OUT IN THE COLD FOR ZOMBIES TO EAT, and you continued to work with and tolerate the guy, who frankly makes Theon look like Francis of Assisi in comparison. I mean we've all had to work with people we don't like but surely there are limits. I was totally on the side of the guy who killed Craster. Totally.
7. I AM TOTALLY BACK ON TEAM DANY NOW. Not that I ever really left, mind you. DRAGONS!
Sadly, it will all be downhill from here, at least for awhile, but this episode did demonstrate why: right after that moment, Dany is hands down the best contender for the throne. She has the right of birth (even granting that her ancestors gained Westeros by conquest, Joffrey and Stannis are using the same ancestry for their claim) and she's really the only person of the current five contenders (Joffrey, Stannis, Balon, Robb, Dany) who is actually a) acting like a monarch, b) doing the hero route of rising from begging in the desert to taking over a city, c) doing anything whatsoever to help ordinary people, d) not creating shadow creatures (ok, that's just one of the lot) and so on.
But that isn't the story Martin is writing. That's The Belgariad or The Lord of the Rings, or other such tale, where the exiled king/queen returns to the throne after doing great deeds of grandeur and is joyfully accepted by the common people and the nobility alike. Martin is working against this, writing the story where the exiled king/queen returns and everyone mostly says, yeah, so what? Which only works if the readers (and on HBO, the viewers) are given some reason to dislike Dany or see why she would not be welcomed to the throne – or at least easily conquer it with her dragons. Right at the moment, she's been shown rising from her victimization by her brother (sympathy), the death of her husband and child (sympathy), a harsh trip in the desert (sympathy), a rather annoying "my dragons are gone!" (in the show only, fortunately), and now this. It's a march of triumph, and for the show to work at all, it's going to have to be halted. Grr.
1. COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT THE SEVERED HAND, HBO. I must say though seeing Jaime pummeled into the mud is all satisfying and almost kinda makes up for the whole throwing a kid off a tower thing.
2. Brienne = COOLEST PERSON ON THE ENTIRE SHOW. Bar none.
On a related note, I couldn't help noticing that the real kickass people in this episode were Arya (loved the bit where the Hound and Beric both agreed that she was the bravest person in the room), Brienne and Dany.
3. "Why would you risk your life for me?" First intelligent question Theon has asked in the entire series, although I'd expand it to "Why would ANYONE risk their lives for me?"
4. Also, ok, I realize that Theon's in gratitude mode, and only book readers would recognize that Theon is making this anguished confession to Ramsey Snow, but, seriously, Theon, ADMITTING at this point that you didn't actually kill Bran and Rickon but just killed two random kids who did nothing to you to save your pride, and admitting this in a "Why don't people LIKE me and APPRECIATE me" sort of way is not doing you any favors.
(I do think the actor is doing an excellent job, and Theon is marginally more sympathetic on the show. Marginally.)
5. And Diana Riggs proves once again why she was the perfect casting. Varys was also excellent tonight; that scene could have continued far longer.
And you know, I almost liked the Ros character and felt she was doing something at last? She's going to die soon now that that miracle has happened, isn't she?
6. You know, I expect we were supposed to feel a bit sorry for old Mormont there, but, honestly, and I say this as someone not overly fond of victim blaming, if anyone on this series has seriously deserved what he got, that would be Craster, followed by Mormont. Ok, sure, Mormont, you can go on and on about Craster feeding and sheltering the scouts of the Wall, but even apart from not feeding the men of the Watch decently and the incest, THE GUY HAS BEEN LEAVING HIS BABIES OUT IN THE COLD FOR ZOMBIES TO EAT, and you continued to work with and tolerate the guy, who frankly makes Theon look like Francis of Assisi in comparison. I mean we've all had to work with people we don't like but surely there are limits. I was totally on the side of the guy who killed Craster. Totally.
7. I AM TOTALLY BACK ON TEAM DANY NOW. Not that I ever really left, mind you. DRAGONS!
Sadly, it will all be downhill from here, at least for awhile, but this episode did demonstrate why: right after that moment, Dany is hands down the best contender for the throne. She has the right of birth (even granting that her ancestors gained Westeros by conquest, Joffrey and Stannis are using the same ancestry for their claim) and she's really the only person of the current five contenders (Joffrey, Stannis, Balon, Robb, Dany) who is actually a) acting like a monarch, b) doing the hero route of rising from begging in the desert to taking over a city, c) doing anything whatsoever to help ordinary people, d) not creating shadow creatures (ok, that's just one of the lot) and so on.
But that isn't the story Martin is writing. That's The Belgariad or The Lord of the Rings, or other such tale, where the exiled king/queen returns to the throne after doing great deeds of grandeur and is joyfully accepted by the common people and the nobility alike. Martin is working against this, writing the story where the exiled king/queen returns and everyone mostly says, yeah, so what? Which only works if the readers (and on HBO, the viewers) are given some reason to dislike Dany or see why she would not be welcomed to the throne – or at least easily conquer it with her dragons. Right at the moment, she's been shown rising from her victimization by her brother (sympathy), the death of her husband and child (sympathy), a harsh trip in the desert (sympathy), a rather annoying "my dragons are gone!" (in the show only, fortunately), and now this. It's a march of triumph, and for the show to work at all, it's going to have to be halted. Grr.