Learned Fangirls Reflect on Game of Thrones: Jaime Gets His Groove Back

Incremental progress this week through “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” (Season 3, Episode 7). Herein, the ladies speculate on the necessity of a Game of Asses drinking game to get them through this slow, slogging mid-season.

Join us in a shot of mead and enjoy the latest installment in TLF’s weekly recap featuring three fans from very different perspectives: Laura Fletcher, a casual fan of the TV and book series; Corrin Bennett-Kill, a hardcore fan of the book and TV series (she has read all the books four times!); and Cheryl Collins, a TV show fan who has never read the book series. Miss us last week? Catch up and read “Misery Loves Company: The Climb.”

We invite you to join the discussion in comments!

Cheryl Collins
I hate to say it, but this episode bored me — again! The sex talk is boring. The torture is boring. The would-be flirtatious banter between Jon and Ygritte is boring. Bran and Jojen Reed are boring.

Laura Fletcher
I actually liked this episode more than most slow ones, but maybe that’s because of the steamy sex scene. *ahem* (I mean the one with Robb and Talisa, not poor Theon!) This was an episode of duos – both sexual and non-sexual.

I liked three scenes, and in hindsight it’s as much for their pacing as for the characters and purpose: 1) Jaime returning to rescue Brienne from the bear-fight pit, 2) Tywin looming over Joffrey on the Iron Throne, and 3) Arya being kidnapped by Sandor “the Hound” Clegane.

Cheryl
Those were my faves too. What are your thoughts on that long, leisurely scene in Robb’s tent?

After warnings by Catlyn about Walder Frey’s prickliness go unheeded, Robb and Talisa get down to canoodling while his mother exits with a worried glance that says: You are too preoccupied to take care of business.” Then sex. Things are going too well, and I assume Talisa will die soon.

Corrin Bennett-Kill
Yeah, the whole Robb–Talisa relationship is getting a bit — trite. That time would have been better spent developing some tension about the northern army’s tenuous position instead of lingering on naked ass. Le sigh.

Laura
The Robb and Talisa scene, though rather hot (don’t judge, ha!), was repetitive. Did we need Robb to say at least three times that his wife’s naked hotness was distracting? Or just once?

Cheryl
But you do have a sense that doom hangs close. Now, on to Tywin vs. Joffrey.

Corrin
That scene between grandfather and grandson was actually well developed. One of those classic GoT scenes where so much about the dynamic of the relationship is revealed by the physical space and movement of the characters rather than the dialogue. Tywin gives Joffrey his titles and nominal respect, but his slow progress up the steps until he stands, domineering, over Joffrey on the throne tells all about Tywin’s feelings about his grandson. “You are a means to my end,” he seems to say.

Laura
I found it powerful and telling that Tywin, unlike Cersei and Tyrion, could cow Joffrey without resorting to the slap (although I relish those slaps, obviously).

Cheryl
Tywin’s echoing, steady steps as he approaches the throne really helped establish his dominance and build tension. Joffrey seems to finally realize that he is a pawn, just as clueless and stupid as Sansa.

Why did it take Joffrey so long to figure that out that Tywin is an intimidating, powerful presence? Too busy practicing his crossbow skills? And this may be the first time we’ve seen those two in the same scene.

Corrin
It also makes Joffrey more dangerous to those he sees as weaker. It’s like a boy who is abused by his father who in turn abuses animals.

What do we think about the Sansa–Tyrion–Shae triangle?

Cheryl
Sansa’s dreams have been bloated and mottled by fantasies of courtly love, and now she faces the reality of being a high-born woman in that time and place, in that she is considered nothing more than a strategic pawn, who is now being married off to a powerful, important dwarf.

ong>Laura
But Tyrion’s not that powerful, as we’re reminded in his scene with Shae. The dynamics in that triangle go beyond who’s more screwed, as Tyrion and Cersei discussed last week. Sure, Tyrion is a Lannister, but that’s the only advantage he has. He’s being used for his name and his position as much as Sansa is, in some ways – and without his name, as a dwarf he’d be just as lowly as Shae (if not more so).

Corrin
The scene between Shae and Tyrion was especially heartbreaking as we realize that Tyrion truly cares for Shae. The brief moment at the opening of the episode of Bronn and Tyrion discussing his impending marriage to Sansa reminds us that Shae isn’t the first whore with whom he’s fallen in love. The repetition of his own personal tragedy – Tyrion’s father destroying or interfering with his loves – seems to be inevitable.

Cheryl
And we wonder, will he push back? If so, how? As someone who does not know where the story is going, you do sense he is reaching a breaking point.

Corrin
must. not. spoil. (He really, really is, Cheryl.)

Let’s talk Dany. She’s the bees knees this episode. My husband commented that this was the first time she really looked like a queen.

Dany is playing the Yunkai like a goddamned violin. She marches up to their walls with an army of freed slaves and announces, in front of the Yunkish slaves that accompanied the Wise Master, that she intends to free them, by force if necessary. Whatever do you think she’s up to?

Cheryl
Dany is really throwing her weight around, but for the forces of good (freeing slaves), not evil. If she was not doing something worthy, I would not like her at all.

Laura
I enjoyed seeing her commitment waver for just a moment when she saw all that gold – but then the camera showed her looking over at the kneeling Yunkish slaves, and her resolve hardened. Her ideals may not be practical, but they sure are strong.

Cheryl
On to Jaime and Brienne.

Jaime is finally living up to the ideal of what a knight’s courtly behavior should be—but in their mixed-up muddled-up shook-up world, where down is up in the chaos of war.

He saves the lady, but minus his stately armor or flowing white cloak. He looks like a ragged vagrant: handless and in what looks like a sackcloth robe. And the non-classically beautiful, non-feminine lady does wear a fancy dress – but it is muddied and torn as she faces off with a bear, armed with a wooden sword.

Yes, he finally – finally – lives up to the courtly ideal. Back in Season 1 (I think), his father tells him while skinning a stag that he needed Jaime to be the man he could be. Is he doing that now? And has he done his penance?

Corrin
A hand is a helluva price to pay for his sins, but he did, you know, push a nine-year-old out a window. So perhaps not so steep a price after all.

Laura
Melisandre’s great reveal to Gendry that he’s a king’s bastard fell flat for me. I had forgotten that he didn’t know, but we (the audience) all knew, right? Also, WTF is going on there?

Corrin Bennett-Kill
My husband and I had a lo-o-o-ng conversation about this season in general and this episode in particular as it relates to the wider series. This season has been a hard one for non-book readers to stay invested in. So much of what is happening in the story right now is the internal development and evolution of characters. Not a lot of action.

Most of Bran’s storyline plays out in his dreams in the books. How do you translate that to television? Not very easily. So many of these episodes have been about deepening relationships and revelations of character. All leading somewhere certainly, but not to a climax as readily apparent the first two seasons’. We don’t have Stannis marching on King’s Landing to produce tension. Instead, we have subtle maneuverings and plots being laid. Again, interesting, but difficult to make into compelling TV.

Cheryl
I’m sure that’s true, Corrin, so it seems that the writers are resorting to more gratuitous nudity and sex to keep us going. When I saw Robb’s ass in the first ten minutes I thought: oh god, this episode is doomed.

I won’t repeat what I said last week but that there is no obvious tension to keep us invested this season – except that we want Arya to get back, and Bran and Rickon to reconnect with their mother. That’s not enough.

Laura
Cheryl, I see where you’re coming from. I do think that most of my excitement, as Corrin said, comes from knowing what events lie ahead (or at least having a clue, based on the books). That knowledge gives me something to hang my narrative hat on, I suppose, and gives me patience to watch characters develop. Hints are being dropped, but they’re practically inside jokes. In past seasons, we knew what the coming action was going to be. Here, it’s mysterious, tenuous, and potentially frustrating.

Corrin
I feel like I have spent this entire season saying, “But wait! It’s gonna get better! I swear!” Perhaps the writers should create a support group and advertising campaign: “Game of Thrones Season 3: It Gets Better!”

Laura
Corrin, knowing what’s coming, do you think they should’ve sped up some of the coming plot points?

Corrin
I don’t know how they could have sped anything up.

The story arcs are so divergent and varied at this point that it necessitates abbreviating some points in favor of others. I really don’t know why they have included Theon’s story line at this point. Especially without giving it any damned context.

I think the failing of this particular episode is simply the writers were unable to create compelling scenes for a slow part in the story.

Cheryl
I agree, Corrin. The scenes they do include could be better crafted. There was lots of talking that felt aimless and way too long – over and over it felt like the scenes needed to be more tightly edited. The dialogue feels clumsy, obvious.

Laura
Every scene seemed a bit long, even when I liked what was going on.

Cheryl
Laura, let’s talk a bit more about your suggestion that this episode was about duos.

Laura
The episode’s title, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” is about a twosome. If this episode had any teeny string tying it together, it was this idea of opposites attracting: Robb and Talisa (we’re reminded that she’s from another continent); Jon and Ygritte, of course; Jaime and Brienne …

Cheryl
Don’t the bear and the maiden fair end up having sex in that song?

Laura
It seems they do. In the song the maiden is at first disgusted and afraid, but the bear seduces her, or she at least settles for it over her expected prince. (Many, many echoes of Margaery’s discussion with Sansa there!)

Cheryl
So maybe the idea is about learning about the tensions between expectation and reality (as with Sansa, Jon and Ygritte, and Jaime and Brienne).

Also, how to be with and accommodate another, and how much to give up of yourself as you merge identities – and which lines cannot be crossed. That’s the certainly tension with Jon and Ygritte.

Corrin
You could even insert Arya’s kidnapping by the Hound in the duos. She the maiden fair to his bear.

Cheryl
Another odd couple.

Corrin
Plus, much of Arya’s storyline is the crumbling of her worldview, much like her sister.

Arya keeps expecting people to behave with honor, follow the rules her father taught her, and they don’t. The Brotherhood lets the Hound go. They sell Gendry to Melisandre. The good guys do terrible things and the bad guys end up being not so bad.

Laura
Theon and his torturer are another duo, I suppose, but I’m ready for that to come to an end and/or have a larger purpose.

Cheryl
I hated that scene, with the nude girls arousing him for far too long – pure gratuitous titillation. That annoying horn that announces the anonymous torturer I think is meant to be a clue to his identity.

So, if we made a Game of Asses drinking game … what should we drink every time someone’s butt is flashed?

Laura
Mead?

Cheryl
Maybe that will help the viewing experience … and what to do we do when and if we ever see Podrick’s ass?

Laura
Attempt not to break our televisions, and then chug the mead.

Were you thrilled by the latest turns of events? Bored stiff (can’t show that on television)? Let us know in comments!