Yes, I know I’ve censored Davos’ amazing line- normally I wouldn’t- but just this once I thought I’d give people a massive warning to *look away now* if they haven’t seen this week’s episode/don’t know what happened last week/just find swearing offensive in general. Because Game of Thrones just got fucking crazy.
*So spoiler warning if you didn’t get that loud and clear- cos I’m about to dive right in*
I’m gonna start with talking about how much I loved Davos in this episode. I have to say the straight-talking knight was always too much of a Stannis loyalist for me to be overly fond of him, but last year and this year, I’ve warmed to him considerably. And the opening to this episode really reminded me why I’ve come to love him so much. He is the voice of reason and normalcy in a completely insane world- and I just adored how he grounded the plot of this episode in reality with his no nonsense approach. Once again, the writers proved how Game of Thrones can have a dose of realism in high fantasy.
What I also loved about this episode was how we got to see *some* of the Tower of Joy scenes. Let’s be honest though, when Ned Stark said “and now it ends” I had hoped all our speculation about Jon’s parentage would finally come to an end there and then- but that was obviously not to be- so it was a little less joyous then I hoped. We will have to wait (probably not too long, I’m sure) to see if R + J = L is true.
Here we actually saw something I did not expect- which was Ned actually getting his hands dirty and not being the man of honour we all thought him to be. This was an interesting character development, because it actually shows how his path to his noble nature was not actually as straightforward as we had always assumed it to be.
Dishonour was clearly a theme in the episode- particularly as we saw some of *the most* dishonourable c-words (hey- I’m just quoting the show!) in Ramsay and Umber. Oh my goodness, this scene could not have gutted me more- because when they dumped that direwolf’s head out, I was devastated. Seriously- CAN’T THE STARKS EVER CATCH A BREAK?!?! GAH!!! Seriously- stop playing with my emotions Game of Thrones!
But the really solidifying moment of the episode was seeing the Oathbreakers get their just deserts at the wall- including Olly. I know we were supposed to sympathise with him at the end of the episode, but I couldn’t bring myself to care- especially after seeing what he has done to my poor Jon Snow. Because Jon’s story has just become tragic. It literally broke my heart when he said “and now my watch has ended”. And while I expected Jon to change and there to be scars, I hadn’t expected it to take such a psychological turn. Now it feels like his story is taking a real existential turn- and I think it’s a bold move and reminds me why I got hooked on this show in the first place. Ending the episode with the mournful notes of Rains of Castamere really drilled home that message of Jon’s loss. The people may think he is a god, but he is less than a man.
Overall, this episode really pulled its punches. There were of course some forgettable bits- such as Dany’s plot and King’s Landing (I don’t know how many weeks I can go on saying “nothing new happened”, “kill the Sparrow” or “Tommen’s useless”) And there were moments where characters and plots were reintroduced- I hadn’t actually expected to “sea” Samwell Tarly- but I would have hoped the scene could have been a bit less sickly. But there were also bits that solidified my entertainment- like the Arya scenes, Tyrion’s wit and even watching Varys show off his skills for once. I for one, am loving this new season.
Well- what did you think of this episode? Enjoy it? Do you like the route the show’s taking? Are you, like me, excited for more? Let me know in the comments!
the orang-utan librarian 