Game of Thrones Discussion S6E6: Course Corrections

Call rewrite! Characters reclaimed their own identities — and narratives — by coming to terms with their familial heritage in the most recent Game of Thrones episode, “Blood of My Blood.”

Confounding expectations and subverting the narrative were major themes this past week, as they have been throughout this fast-moving season. 

Join the happy confusion with three fans with different perspectives. Rosalyn Claret, who has read the books yet says she “forgets” how many times; Laura Fletcher, a casual fan of the television and book series; and Cheryl Collins, who does not read. Maester Corrin Bennet-Kill is on hiatus.

Please join the discussion in comments!

Laura
Again, we start in the far north. Okay, Game of Thrones, we get it: the north is important.

Cheryl
Meera is struggling mightily while trying to lug Bran through the thick snow as he wargs to catch up on Seasons 1 through 5.

Among other things, he glimpses Robb’s and Catelyn’s murders by stabbing, Dany’s emergence from the fire with the dragons, Ned’s beheading, and a dragon’s shadow over King’s Landing.

Rosalyn
He also glimpses the Mad King on the Iron Throne: “Burn them all!”

Laura
And he sees Jaime kill him.

Cheryl
That’s key Rosalyn, I think. Lots of shots of that liquid fire, wildfire.

Interesting that last week we recalled his last vision, as there were images of it here.

Bran sees past and future: ice and fire. There were also key shots of the ice baby and the Night’s King, plus Jon fighting the zombies — but no shots of Arya and Sansa (who are not yet dead), interestingly.

Laura
I thought it was timely to remind us of wildfire: another magic-tinged but essentially engineered weapon, besides the White Walkers.

Cheryl
Second later, a hooded rider shows up, with the weapon of fire to use against the zombies.

Rosalyn
Back on a character level, I hope that we still get to see Bran dealing with the aftermath of Hodor’s death and his newfound knowledge and the consequences of his power, but in the meantime in the midst of this action, it was interesting and eerie to see the look of calm on his face as he snapped out of his vision and told Meera, “They’ve found us.” Without fear. Just acceptance. That certainly seemed a bit more Three-Eyed Raven-y, less the boy.

Cheryl
In their interaction together, Meera and Bran begin to act more like a couple as the zombies close in: she strokes his head tenderly, and he clasps her head. These really are two people against the world.

As death seems close, she cries “I’m sorry!”—as every major character must do this season. To the surprise of few, the rider is Benjen.

Laura
Is it without fear, or is it that Bran is just “too important” (eye roll) to worry about the little people in his way? I worry about his conscience, seriously.

Cheryl
As I looked at Benjen’s face, I wondered: is that frostbite?

Rosalyn
Much more interesting than frostbite: he’s a mid-transition White Walker/human hybrid. “Frozen” literally mid-change.

Cheryl
So the dragonglass not only can cause someone to turn into a White Walker but also bring someone back, I took it.

Rosalyn
This episode confirmed that the “Coldhands” character is indeed Benjen. Interestingly, this was confirmed only in the Weiss/Benioff after-episode commentary.

Laura
Very briefly on Coldhands: The character is the same, but never reveals who he is, and he joins Bran et al. way earlier, before they get anywhere near the Raven; plus we don’t know if he’s Benjen yet in the books.

Cheryl
It could be that the showrunners are not even going down the Coldhands road, they are just reintroducing Benjen and telling his story that happened to him without the Coldhands baggage.

Rosalyn
A very interesting property of dragonglass that it is used to facilitate this change between human and Other, somehow.

Laura
Dragonglass is almost a little too magic for my taste, now. It can create and stop a zombie-warrior from being made. I think it only was used to make the four main White Walkers, since the others who rise up just, well, get up.

Rosalyn
Right, the difference between the Others and the wights, I think. Mega-baddies versus your garden-variety undead. Like you do.

Cheryl
Just noting: these are fine details that are not so apparent to TV-only Game of Throne consumers.

Like the Mountain, Benjen’s face is green, he first only shows his eyes through his hood, and also like him, he is resurrected from the dead.

Rosalyn
That’s not a stretch, in that we have these warriors caught somewhere between life and death.

Laura
I think the Mountain is slightly grosser looking, though we don’t see him as much, and I blame the poison for that.

Both Benjen and the Mountain seem a little stronger or something, now.

Cheryl
Well, we know that GoT is all about duality and likes to display pairs for points of comparison. But, important to note I think that 1) he is also resurrected and 2) that right after Bran’s vision with the fire, we see Benjen destroying the zombies with fire.

Rosalyn
That was a pretty cool fire-weapon-mace-thing, I’d like to just say.

Laura
For anyone keeping score, I think resurrected characters now outnumber castrated (main) characters.

Cheryl
In the Red Keep, as Cersei and Jaime were plotting, Cersei told him again that “we are the only two people in the world,” and then it was CUT TO two people who really are the last two people in their world: cold and powerless Meera and Bran, on the far tundra, trying to outrun zombies as she pulls him on a sledge.

Rosalyn
The only two people in the world, and a number of wights who have somehow become manageable rather than overwhelming. But okay. It’s cool!

Cheryl
To me, that’s a reminder of how those with wealth and power can make themselves feel victimized to justify their behavior — a nice reminder of the High Sparrow’s core truth: that we all create false narratives to make ourselves feel good about what we are doing. Jaime and Cersei are a contrast to Bran and Meera, who have no money, armies, wealth, for example.

It’s hilarious that Cersei and Jaime feel victimized, as the 1 percent so often do.

Laura
Again I’m reminded of how eerie Cersei’s distancing of herself from Tommen is now. It’s her last child, but she’s already accepted his death. I mean, she believes it’s fate, but it’s also sad. I think we can take it as a sign that she can’t be redeemed.

Rosalyn
They feel victimized, which is in a way ridiculous, but we’ve been shown again and again how they’ve also been shoehorned into roles dictated for them, or limited by their family name as much as empowered by it. It underlines how and why they cling to each other.

Laura
And Jaime has regressed, from the man willing to stand up against Cersei’s more manic and cruel schemes (see: sending Brienne and Pod to save Sansa) to overreaching, even offering to kill all the Faith Militant at the cost of his own life this episode.

Rosalyn
Cersei, forced into marriage to gain power, and Jaime, who became Kingsguard, effectively going against his father’s wishes and renouncing his name and title.

Cheryl
I think that’s key Laura: Jaime has regressed from where he was after he returned from his travels with Brienne.

Rosalyn
Then again, seeing him ahorse in front of an army was a throwback to a time before he lost his hand. Cersei’s comments reminded me of that, too. Jaime was a powerful, near-legendary, unstoppable swordsman from a young age, and he’s just been sort of loafing about (and going on Dornequest 2016).

It was interesting in this case that it was Cersei who knew it would be futile to take impulsive, bold action against the sparrows and told Jaime he couldn’t. I don’t know if it’s because it’s her son who is king or because she’s being more practical for once, or she’s now fixated on other slights and enemies.

However, as she points out, this is also Jaime for the very first time being free of the Kingsguard. This is complicated.

He joined the Kingsguard to subvert Tywin’s wishes and remain by Cersei’s side in King’s Landing. He is a free man for the first time, in a way, and now it is Cersei sending him off into the world.

And Tywin is dead, and Jaime is on a path to be The Lannister. Kevan is back in the palace being the Hand of the King and somehow in with Tommen and inscrutable.

And Cersei talks about what it means to be a Lannister, and what Lannisters do to their enemies.

Cheryl
Coming back to family as core identity. He pulled his armor off, as though finally free of that shackle. As he spoke with Tommen in the throne, Tommen seemed not quite so sure and a bit wobbly.

And Jamie is on his way to Riverrun, where he is set to intersect with Brienne.

Jaime and Brienne have not seen each other since Season 4, when they both saved one another: he saved her from being raped, and she “saved” him from despair after his hand was chopped off, and she made sure he made it back to King’s Landing.

When he returned to King’s Landing broken, unclean, in a penitent’s sack cloth — after the equivalent of a pilgrimage with Brienne, when he was forced to find the source and truth of his identity minus his hand — he faced Cersei’s sniffing disgust.

As I noted at the time, Jaime and Brienne took a dip in a cleansing pool — the equivalent of a baptismal font — and Jaime could then cleanse his sins and become someone different. It was his own resurrection.

Cersei and Jaime finally find found their mutual passion for one another in this past episode — after foreplay consisting of sexy talk of enemy annihilation — so I am left wondering at least: who will Jaime be in these next episodes? The Lannister who is Cersei’s lover and Tommen’s father or something more?

Rosalyn
Even though I’ve been laughing at Brienne and Tormund, the Brienne-Jaime dynamic was one of the most interesting relationships in the whole story, and we’ve left it far behind for several seasons. They both had to learn something from one another. And now Brienne’s kept her oath with Oathkeeper, the sword Jaime gave her (again, against his father’s wishes). I’m eager for them to meet again.

Rosalyn
Cersei and Jaime’s newfound unity is again in line with taking up the family name and honor.

Laura
I think that Jaime and Brienne will meet at Riverrun and it will be a reminder of who he was, and perhaps a reckoning.

Let’s discuss Riverrun, shall we?

So, it turns out that last episode Littlefinger told Sansa the truth … sort of. Yes, Blackfish, her great uncle, did retake the Tully stronghold, but it’s under siege. It’s not like he can march his army out of there to help with Winterfell.

Rosalyn
And we saw that Edmure is still alive, though worse for the wear, and apparently Walder Frey has plans for him.

Cheryl
Clearly he will be a hostage at Riverrun.

Laura
Brienne and Jaime will again be on opposite sides of a battle. Jaime has no idea what Sansa has faced, and Brienne will remind him that she’s essentially followed his orders to get to where she is (though now she’s pledged fealty to Sansa).

Cheryl
Back in King’s Landing: we wonder what games Margaery and perhaps Tommen are playing.

Rosalyn
Yes! Who is playing whom, here?

Laura
Margaery sits Tommen down in that little dungeon-waiting-room area with a bench, just as the High Sparrow did only a few episodes ago. The parallels between her and High Sparrow are quite clear, there.

Rosalyn
Margaery is cleaned up and groomed and sitting prettily reading. Is this for Tommen’s benefit? Is it because she and the High Sparrow have come to an agreement? Is it because this suits the High Sparrow’s purpose in regard to Tommen?

Cheryl
Note that on the pre-show recap, the first shot is of a disintegrating Loras. You have the sense that Margaery will do whatever she has to do to save Loras and herself.

Rosalyn
Margaery is a master manipulator, and in this case, I believe she’s doing it for Loras’s sake. Does the High Sparrow believe in her desire for atonement and her transformation? Does he need to? Has he recognized the tool he has in her?

Cheryl
The thing with Margaery is you never have a good sense of where exactly she is coming from. She is always ambivalent. Here she seemed to transform into a Stepford Wife. The question is, has she been infected by the cult or did she make a deal with the cult to get closer to power?

Rosalyn
Her speech to Tommen had enough of the seed of truth in it to make one wonder.

Laura
Here’s my confusion with Margaery’s conversion: I’m guessing she’s still “in there,” though her plan is definitely a long con. Loras is still imprisoned, awaiting his confession. Margaery didn’t send any kind of word to her family, who are pissed as shit. Is she just becoming another, stranger Cersei, who’s looking out for herself and trying to help her loved ones on the way, if she can?

Importantly, we book readers don’t have any text to fall back on with her. She’s never been a point-of-view character and is much more minor overall in the books.

Cheryl
Also, in the preview, we are reminded that in the last episode Tommen says about the High Sparrow that “you have to be very careful when dealing such a man”— so could it be that Tommen is more aware than we might give him credit, that he is the equivalent of Rickon at Winterfell; that is, playing his own con?

Rosalyn
In the past, Margaery’s talents have aligned with Olenna’s interests, and that of the Tyrell name. She’s now going rogue. She’s made the decision independently to save Loras, but it puts her back in the same manipulative position with Tommen, playing the same sweet character that is all he knows of her. It also happens to suit the High Sparrow’s purpose, but I don’t think she’s aligned with him explicitly. She’s acting independently of the Tyrells, for the first time, really.

Cheryl
That smile of the High Sparrow’s is creepy as shit.

Rosalyn
And Olenna makes it clear: from her perspective, the High Sparrow has won.

Laura
And I think to Cheryl’s point, she has been a bit infected by the cult. Part of how she could break away from the Tyrells is realizing they aren’t providing her with that much help anymore, anyway.

Rosalyn
And his knowing smiles make that equally clear, I’d say. The thing is, it struck me as a bit of a masterstroke on her part and Tommen’s, honestly.

Laura
Same question of Tommen: does he realize this is a way to get distance from his mother and uncle-dad?

Rosalyn
Yes, the High Sparrow won, and he’s dangerous, and Tommen is easily plied, and Margaery is essentially being blackmailed, and yet: they avoided bloodshed, rioting in the streets, and cemented the love and devotion of the people, in one fell swoop, while avoiding a walk of atonement.

Laura
He’s still much more naive than Margaery, but he’s developing his own leadership style now.

Rosalyn
Tommen acting independently of his family is a big step, too. However, I was made a bit nervous/confused by how he looked to Kevan again and again when removing Jaime of his position. Still, this is a big bold move on his part.

Honestly, as a book reader, I didn’t see it coming. I was sure things were setting up for a big bad battle/showdown on the steps of the Sept with armed knights and common people and Faith Militant.

And yet here we have the new Kingsguard (!) with the new crown/seven-pointed star sigil. This is a total parallel to Stannis’s crowned stag surrounded by a burning heart, when he joined his cause to that of Melisandre and the Lord of Light.

Laura
Good point!

Kevan seems spineless. And remember, his son is in the Faith Militant, so he doesn’t want to stir the pot that may end up getting Lancel killed, nobly or otherwise.

Rosalyn
I’ve not thought of Kevan as spineless at all, but somewhat beaten down. He had always played second fiddle to Tywin and seemed happy to do so. His House and family are in ruin. Not sure what to think of him anymore, but I don’t underestimate him or see him as spineless.

Cheryl
Re: your point Rosalyn on being set up for a showdown: subversion of the narrative is key in this episode, it seems to me. The showrunners — perhaps from sheer boredom? — seem to be trying to break through and scramble our preconceptions.

We’ve had multiple examples this season. In Episode 1: Thorne et al. try to break into the room where Davos, Edd, and Jon’s body reside. We get furious crosscutting on both sides of the door as the dramatic music reaches a crescendo — and then noise at the gates shifts attention to the wildings on their way in. Also, in this episode, we had the dramatic parting of Gilly and Sam, replete with sappy music, until the music abruptly stops at the sound of Sam re-opening the door and announcing that they were all leaving.

Another example: the confrontation between Cersei and the Mountain and the Kingsguard, when is seemed almost certain that all would face off as Cersei tried to push her way past. Tense, quick shots and dramatic music. But nope! She decided not to engage that day.

This episode: after a long build up with the ridiculous Lord Tyrell, in full plumage, the High Sparrow calls off the walk of shame (again this was after the music builds), thus confounding out expectations.

Laura
Lord Tyrell, who can’t even ride a horse properly. He has a man leading it for him, as my husband pointed out.

Cheryl
Check out this pic of Lancel as the High Sparrow says that all of them were willing to die that day for god.

Laura
I guffawed when they showed Lancel making that face. “Say what?”

Cheryl
Black, white, gray.

To me these figures all looked like chess pieces being moved about — the way these people see power move in King’s Landing.

Laura
As my husband pointed out, we should’ve known the walk of atonement wasn’t going to happen because Margaery hadn’t been shaved before coming out, as Cersei was.

Cheryl
Ah ha! It was a set up.

Rosalyn
I still think Margaery did not necessarily expect various knights in armor and helm plumes and Dowager litters to ride to her rescue, and we saw that little awesome Natalie Dormer twisted smile creep out. I think she was still sort of pleased that this action was taken on her behalf, even if she knew it would go nowhere.

I took their hand holding as a physical/visual representation of the joining of Faith and Crown, much as the new sigil joined the two – we had to see Tommen and his Baratheon stag crown standing alongside pious Margaery in her humble robes.

Cheryl
And underneath their upraised arms — the power of Kingsguard.

The Sparrow seems to feel like he reached the summit … hubris, my good man, beware of hubris.

Rosalyn
In a way, Tommen and Margaery could actually be poised to take power as a couple, in their own right, rather than the warring puppets of their families.

Laura
Though I think it’s clear, and fair to guess, that of the three of them (High Sparrow, Margaery, and Tommen), Tommen is neither alpha nor even beta.

Rosalyn
The High Sparrow: firmly established as a key player in the game of thrones, in this episode, and not just a mere fanatic; or possibly the most dangerous kind of fanatic. But not to be dismissed on this chessboard.

Cheryl
I just want to repeat this whole notion of subverted narrative: we were set up to believe a confrontation would take place, and it did not.

Which also happened at the Tarlys. So we should talk Sam and Gilly.

Laura
Wow, that entire story of the visit of Sam and Gilly and Lil’ Sam to Horn Hill was spectacular. Tight, and moving, and great fan fodder.

Rosalyn
I had forgotten that Horn Hill and the Tarlys are a very old and wealthy house. Their castle and retinue seemed unimaginably powerful and luxurious to me, too, not just seen through Gilly’s eyes.

Cheryl
Again, we see her looking through the window of their carriage, happy as a clam.

Laura
Map-wise, they’re all the way down by where the Tyrells live, which is one of (if not the?) wealthiest families due to natural resources more than anything. Sam blathering about trees was nervous talk, but it was actually narratively important: this is rich soil.

Rosalyn
Firmly in the South, and as a small production design note, I thought you could “place” that by their fashions: their hair seemed very like the Tyrell style, but their dress was a bit different, a bit more chaste or covered up.

Laura
This is the kind of family that has a rare Valyrian steel sword.

Cheryl
The colors were warm, not cold, and the mood was relaxed (except that dinner!).

Rosalyn
And we learn that Sam’s sister and mother are absolutely wonderful.

OHAI VALYRIAN STEEL SWORD JUST HAPPENING TO BE THERE DON’T MIND ME NOPE NOT SIGNIFICANT AT ALL.

Cheryl
Oh, as soon as you saw that, you knew that Sam would be walking away with it.

Rosalyn
And his brother: probably merely intolerable. The “bro” of Westeros.

Cheryl
Sam’s brother, with the upper crust accent, is actually named Dickon.

Laura
Well, a bro, and also someone who has a vested interest in keeping Sam away since he’s now the one who will inherit the estate. A bro that’s a bit Renly-like.

Cheryl
But he seemed decent, not trying to humiliate Sam, but obviously limited in experiences. Groomed to be a copy of his dad.

Rosalyn
I thought Gilly did splendidly in the unfamiliar, unimaginable world. Her lack of familiarity with this was a vulnerability but also a strength: it allowed her to speak truth to power, addressing Lord Randyl Tarly directly, when you note that his own daughter and wife pretty much don’t dare to do as much.

Laura
I love how strong Gilly’s spirit is, for lack of a better way to describe it. Sam has clearly lived through years more of this abuse, but we could see his father just ruin him, and Gilly wouldn’t put up with it. This, from a woman literally learning how to use a fork and knife on the fly.

Cheryl
This story Gilly told of Sam killing the White Walker while defending Sam — who just sat there sweating bullets — reminded me of Tyrion and the Battle of Blackwater. They both were brave, their actions were unseen by the larger population, and no one takes them seriously. Both are underestimated.

Gilly seems dull, but she is not, and Sam’s mother sees it clearly.

Sam’s father says that the “whore” can serve in the kitchens and the “bastard” can be raised there; Sam goes to Gilly’s room to say goodbye … he exits, melancholy music plays … and then the music stops as soon as he opens the door and he reenters.

Laura
I even thought he was just running back in for a final kiss, or roll in the hay!

Rosalyn
The interesting thing about Gilly is that she’s a lovely-looking person (as Sam’s mother observes) but part of her character’s place in the world and mental state has always been communicated bodily: her awkwardness walking in the dress; the expressions of vague surprise she’s had on her face since leaving Craster’s Keep — increasingly less so as she becomes more sure of herself. She’s a beautiful actress not relying on beauty to communicate character. It’s very interesting.

Cheryl
The actress playing Gilly often has a “dumb” look on her face, but really she is absorbing, processing. It’s quite fascinating.

Rosalyn
Plus: NOT AT ALL significant Valyrian steel family sword. Oh by the way, there are only a few left in the world. Thanks for that exposition, Lord Tarly.

Cheryl
I, as a pure TV watcher, never thought of Sam as trivial, and I think it’s clear he will be very important in the wars to come. I thought it would be his smarts, but maybe it will be his sword.

Rosalyn
I chalked it up to something Laura’s often observed: the show doesn’t let the fat character be a full person, and thus I can understand impatience with the character.

Remember how frustrated Jon was with Sam when he wouldn’t even try to fight, to stand up to Thorne or the other new Night’s Watch recruits during training?

They were calling Sam “Ser Piggy” and it was basically giving him flashbacks. His father’s constant abuse, shown in brief over dinner, was so intensely demoralizing.

Cheryl
Sam to me always seems quite “full” — he experiences love and lust, wants to be a full father to little Sam, is honorable and decent, scared of his father, etc.

Laura
I think the show has two ways they treat Sam, and it’s reflected in how our culture perceives fatness: pity and humor. When they try to overcome those tropes, they’re unfortunately tied down by using them repeatedly in the past.

Rosalyn
I also think it’s one place where I don’t think that’s a weakness in the books.

Laura
Now that Sam has agency, it’s hard to rewrite all the crap out of how the audience sees him.

Cheryl
Sam was demoralized, clearly, and had lost a lot of confidence by the time he go to Castle Black. That never was an issue with Jon. I never thought that Sam was being targeted by the show because of his size, I thought he was being targeted by some of the characters because of his size.

I guess I think of Sam as a character who the audience can identify with — someone sent to the Wall against his will, not very athletic, and nonviolent. A nerd.

Rosalyn
On to Arya?

Cheryl
Talk about subverted narrative!

Laura
We’ve said so many times that we weren’t sure if we wanted to root for Arya to continue her progression through the ranks of the Faceless Men, and the show was right there with us!

Cheryl
Thank god. She escaped from House Manson Family.

Laura
And one small narrative subversion within the larger one: I think Arya’s chat with her thwarted target made me wonder if the twist would be that Arya joined their company and left town.

Rosalyn
Again, as a book reader, I was flabbergasted.

I know we were set up for this, with all the doubts, impatience, and questions, but still: it was such a decisive moment, kind of fist-pumping and game-changing, after such a long period of relative story stagnation.

Laura
Since Arya almost finished her training, too, she’ll be a formidable opponent for the Waif and/or Jaqen now.

Cheryl
The next chance we have of this puncturing of expectations is as Arya breaks free of the House of Black and White. In the last shots of her, the music again pounds, just pounds to a crescendo. This tells me it’s a feint. If Arya and the Waif face off (no pun intended), will it now just be anti-climactic?

Rosalyn
No, I’m terrified for her! I think the Waif is a real threat and the House of B&W means business!

Laura
And again, like Theon and Yara, we’re excited to see her on the move — but where will she go?

Cheryl
But also interesting to me was the talk with Lady Crane, who complains of her speech by saying “the writing is shit.” Hmm … so, showrunners, what do you really think of GRRM?

Arya replies “then change it”!

Which is just what showrunners are doing to GRRM’s story, by the way.

Rosalyn
The play within a play. “So change it.” Change your story. Take action.

Laura
Yes! And perhaps that was Arya’s turning point, more than anything, that conversation.

Cheryl
As for Arya, this is her way to regain her own story, take back her identity, reclaim her agency. (Boy, I have come to hate that word in discussions of Game of Thrones.)

Laura
Just as Benioff and Weiss are changing the story to their needs, Arya can change her own.

Rosalyn
“Do you like pretending to be other people?” the actress asks her — a too-pointed question, since Arya’s literally been subsuming her identity and taking on the actual faces of others — but does she? NO, she does not like it.

Cheryl
As she stands there in the cockle seller get-up. She replied, “My father is waiting for me.” Yes! Loyalty to Ned and the Starks await.

Laura
Also, Needle is another throwback to early, Season 1, days. Literally a corollary to Sansa’s handwork shown — as that was why Arya chose that name for her sword.

Rosalyn
Let’s also consider that in this conversation with the actress and the play within the play, Arya’s been forced to contemplate Cersei’s feelings about Joffrey’s death.

Arya laughs inappropriately when Joffrey dies, delighted, but is silenced and thoughtful when Lady Crane does her dramatic, tragic monologue.

Laura
In Act 1, she had to confront her father’s death, but in Act 2, she had to put herself in Cersei’s shoes.

Cheryl
Is this the first time since his murder she has mentioned her father? Just by mentioning that the “character” of Cersei would be angry at Joffrey’s death, she is able to recall her own feelings of anger and revenge, which she has apparently sublimated. Seeing the papier mâché head of her father helped her recall those details. Watching the play three times de-programmed her. Arya has regained her critical thinking skills.

Laura
Now Arya has her wits back about her, and a whole new set of ass-kicking skills.

Rosalyn
Cersei’s been on her list since practically Day 1, and this is the first time she’s ever shown any consideration for what it must be like to be Cersei, losing her son. Her eyes go into a far-off place. True, she has specialized knowledge of real-life here (“Cersei would be angry”), but you can see her considering it, going deeper than she has before into that question. It’s more nuance than revenge-motivated Arya has really had in the past, and it’s more nuance than the House of Black and White allows.

Cheryl
Cersei’s grief was a mirror for her own.

Rosalyn
But I’m terrified that her ass-kicking skills are too nascent to be truly ass-kicking! I don’t think she’s really mastered anything! She is a total loose cannon!

Laura
Again, Arya like her siblings is not ready, but the time has come.

Cheryl
The asshole “writer” snorts that there were “no laughs for Ned’s death” and that the “audience was shit” and “these people are animals.” In other words, it’s the audience’s fault. And he says to Lady Crane, who is considering changing her speech after speaking with Arya, “Who are you to judge my work? I know what I am doing! You have no right to an opinion!”

Is this what you think of GRRM, guys?

Laura
That head writer character was again perhaps a nod to the blowback from certain choices made in the show, which makes Lady Crane a reference to angered viewers.

And Arya steps in to say, you’re all worried about the wrong things. Nobody’s right.

Cheryl
But the characters “we” like” — Tyrion, Ned, Sansa — are shown as idiots in that play, and somehow Joffrey and Cersei come off well. Joffrey’s murder is blamed on Tyrion.

“History is written by the victors” the saying goes: but as Arya notes, if you don’t like it, rewrite it.

Is this somehow what will happen in upcoming episodes, history will be rewritten?

Rosalyn
Writing your own story; Arya changing her storyline. Margaery, even, speechifying to Tommen: “It was such a relief to let go of the stories I’d been telling myself about who I was.”

Cheryl
In Bran’s vision, we get some clear shots of Cate, Ned, and Robb. Plus their faces are in the promo materials for the season. So we must assume they will come back in some way. I think somehow this will play into the notion of time being malleable and having the ability to “rewrite the story.”

Laura
Especially now that we’ve seen that Bran can reach through time, at least in limited instances.

All the stories are important, but one, the show is reminding us, is still dangerously ignored by most of the characters.

Rosalyn
Seeing Sam go south offered a great opportunity to remind us how far-off the North seems down there, how easy it is to scoff at those threats as children’s stories.

Cheryl
“The narrative is malleable” seems to be the lesson, but being true to yourself and what you are about — that is, keeping your ego at bay — is the way to stay on top of it. That will be a tall order for one Ms. Dany Stormborn.

Laura
Remember that Stannis was the only claimant to the throne who gave two shits about the Wall.

I was just thinking of Dany, since she seems to be understanding how to merge conquering with ruling, but still hasn’t gotten any ships … or any plan, or knowledge at all, of the threat in the north.

Rosalyn
Yes, we have Daenerys laying out her grand vision, the legend, the story that her newly minted khalasar will help her carry out, the fate she’ll fulfill; and directly referencing Khal Drogo’s warmongering climactic scene from Season 1, the same language.

OH GEE WHO HAS 1,000 SHIPS? Weren’t we just talking about 1,000 ships?

In seriousness, I’m not really sure exactly how the Iron Islands are going to link up with Dany, but it seems clear that’s where we’re going, either through Euron or Theon/Yara or both.

Laura
Though also, Euron only dreams of those ships. They’re years away from being built, right? Dany is hot to trot.

Rosalyn
That seems to be a minor difficulty.

Cheryl
One of our brilliant commenters noted that Dany is all about regime change but with no plan for the day after. She is a conqueror, as Daario notes, but not a ruler.

Rosalyn
Still, she’s going to trot back to Meereen with her khalasar and her dragon and find that Tyrion’s solved the Sons of the Harpy problem, but maybe not to her satisfaction … then what?

Cheryl
Bran’s vision showed the shadow of the dragon over King’s Landing. The dragons make me think of drones: we think they are effective, but really end up making many, many more enemies.

Hubris is a problem for her. Dany is flying high, but without much sense of why the hell she wants the seven kingdoms. I don’t know why she does, except that she thinks she deserves it.

Laura
Yes, Cheryl! I think that even though dragons are shown as being animals, albeit rare and magical ones, these dragons were really created by Dany, on Drogo’s pyre. So, like wildfire and the white walkers, they are engineered. They are dangerous and uncontrollable, at the core.

Rosalyn
And part of the key to those dangerous and uncontrollable forces lies in the knowledge at Oldtown, one suspects. Tyrion, certainly, has benefitted from his book learning. I just can’t forget that there’s some kind of a weapon being forged there in bookish types revisiting ancient knowledge.

Cheryl
Also, in Bran’s vision, we see Ned ask “where’s my sister?” (Young Ned with the Lannister-y hair) just as Jaime — who is sleeping with his own sister — kills the Mad King.

Somehow this is connecting Ned, Lyanna, Jaime, and the Mad King.

Laura
Certainly we all strongly suspect that Ned’s sister Lyanna will be shown to be Jon’s mother, but importantly we haven’t been given that yet.

Rosalyn
My final thought with this episode is that as usual in Game of Thrones, there is the tension between disrupting or subverting the narrative — characters seizing their own fates, changing their stories, creating their own paths — and the overarching sense of fate or destiny that’s still at play.

Cheryl
Excellent point. How much control do any of us have?

Laura
Right. There are parts of the story set in stone, and it’s up to the characters to find out which rules are breakable.

Rosalyn
Dany’s there seizing power and giving a pep talk to her khalasar — really pretty strikingly mirroring Drogo’s Season 1 speech, but now she’s doing it herself, filling that role herself — and yet it’s all still fated, and her speech itself has been given/written before.

Cheryl
I find interesting that the points you are making are somehow being spooled inside some kind a point the showrunners are making about the nature of adaptation and audience expectation, which is weird.

Laura
There’s no way around the fact that GoT is being affected, and effected, by its pop culture zeitgeist.

Rosalyn
Lots of characters toppling existing power structures and gaining agency, but so often in the name of higher destiny, or birthright. On the Iron Islands, in the North, in individual families and Houses, everywhere.

Laura
And perhaps the Lord of Light followers we’ve seen, who all have a different idea of who the chosen one is, are an important way this is being illustrated.

Cheryl
Yes. The stories we tell ourselves, to justify what we do …

Laura
Is it Jon? Is it Dany? Or is it even that six-times-resurrected Beric Dondarrion? Importantly, the Brotherhood Without Banners name was dropped this episode in the Freys scene.

Cheryl
Another name drop: Lord Umber, Sam’s mother said, had trained his daughters to hunt.

The Umbers have huntress daughters! Somehow that will be a point of importance. Maybe a match for Jon … or Pod.

Rosalyn
It’s so great to see everything obviously converging.

Cheryl
I really am enjoying this season and am blown away by those who think it is boring or subpar. There is so much going on in each episode. No fighting yet and little swordplay: so many bros (and bores) just can’t deal with it.

Laura
No deaths this week, just awesome story.

Squawks

Rosalyn
It’s interesting that Margaery is one of the few (adult) characters whose primary motivations do not include romantic love — not even a hint of it.  Apparently it’s not on her radar of her life goals at all, at least that we know about.  (Also in that category: maybe Varys? The Hound? As pragmatic as Dany is now about marriage, her love for Drogo was a formative experience. Even Tywin’s hatred for Tyrion supposedly came partly because his beloved wife died giving birth.)  It’s unusual.  Her motivation has always been pretty bald: she wants to be queen. I don’t even think it’s necessarily to bring her family to power; it seems to be her personal goal as well. I think this is why it seems plausible to me that she’d make this rogue move and ally with the Sparrow, deviating from the plans she’d laid with Olenna.

Cheryl
1) Marx says “History repeats … first as tragedy, then as farce.” Can this be seen as directly related to how “history” is treated in the play about the “history” of the Lannisters and the Starks?

2) We know GoT likes showing us parallels and contrasting pairs, and it seems in these past episodes we have a pair in Sansa and Tommen: two well-meaning newbies who are trying to assert their authority with little-to-no real training, and who are making some big missteps along the way.

3) Another obvious pair is Sam and Tyrion: both are book lovers scorned by their overly demanding and difficult fathers and not gifted with physical prowess, yet highly intelligent and people-smart. Both are underestimated. It was not a coincidence I think that in the stage play, we got a shot of “Tyrion” shooting “Tywin” in the same episode that Sam returns to face his father. And Sam’s father makes sure to tell Sam “your mother is a good woman. You are unworthy of her” — which is quite similar in sentiment to Tywin’s hatred of Tyrion as he blames Tyrion for his mother’s death.

Please excuse the delay in this week’s post! Join the conversation in comments … but no spoilers, please!