Game of Thrones and the Women of Westeros 4/6
The Laws of Gods and Men
Previously…
I discussed First of His Name here. The previouslies go over the last few episodes, but they also want to remind us of Season Two Tyrion butting heads with Meryn Trant over beating Sansa, and with Pycelle over betraying previous Hands to Cersei. Also that Varys was one of about three people who acknowledged Tyrion’s part in defeating Stannis’ forces. We’re also reminded that Yara (Action Girl Number Four ) wants to avenge her brother, Theon, being made into a Eunuch by The Bastard of Bolton.
The credits take us to Braavos! And it’s so cool!
In a nutshell…
Davos has taken Stannis to The Iron Bank of Braavos to borrow money to finish off this war. Stannis acts out like a pissy toddler and Davos struggles to make him look good, like usual. Davos secures the loan and gives Salladhor Saan some payment up front. Meanwhile, Yara Greyjoy leads her men on a little slaughter and rescue mission only for Theon/Reek to reject rescue and bite her like the dogs he’s been forced to bed down with. She leaves Reek behind and declares her brother dead. Ramsay rewards her dead brother with a bath (Okay?) and tells him he wants him to pretend to be Theon Greyjoy for him (Ooookay?).
Dany’s dragons are barbecuing the goats of Mereen, but she’s compensating the farmers well, so they’re cool with her. The son of a nobleman she crucified is less cool with her. They argue back and forth on whether his father deserved it then or deserves a proper burial now. But she relents and lets the son bury his father.
Back in King’s Landing, there’s a delightful council meeting where Mace Tyrell is a lackey, Varys knows everything, Pycelle mutters ineffectually, Cersei sneers about every topic, and Oberyn lounges around looking unimpressed. I’m not making it sound as cool as it was. We learn they know The Hound is alive, slaughtering Lannister men and badmouthing the king, that Dany is ruling Mereen with her troops and dragons, and we’re reminded that Ser Jorah used to be a spy for the crown but is fully on Team Dany now. Oberyn and Varys have one of those verbal throne room throw-downs we haven’t seen since season two, debating desire. Varys, who we now learn is completely celibate, thinks it’s a useless and dangerous thing that has only ever caused misery and thinks people without it get more shit done. Meanwhile, I’m rethinking most of my twenties.
The rest of the episode is pretty much courtroom DRAMA. Tommen recuses himself and leaves Tyrion to the tender mercies of his father as judge, which is a shame because I can’t help thinking Tommen might have been fair to his favorite uncle (he might even like Tyrion over Uncledaddy Jaime) or at least let Tyrion cross-examine the parade of witnesses against him: Trant, Pycelle, Cersei, even Varys. They all recount things that Tyrion did or said, but leave out context to make Tyrion look as dastardly as possible. As Tyrion’s my Official Show Boyfriend, I was super pissed all throughout.
During recess, Jaime makes a deal with his father, offering to give up the Kingsguard and breed heirs for Casterly Rock if Tywin lets Tyrion live even if he’s found guilty. Tywin agrees in his next breath, rattling off terms so quickly that you get the sense this was what he was going for all along. Tyrion can go join Jon Snow at The Wall as long as he begs for mercy rather than insist he’s innocent. Yeah. We saw how that same deal worked out for Ned Stark. I don’t know if Tyrion would have gone along even before Shae shows up. And she does, manipulating events and words like the others earlier in the trial, but also outright lying in claiming Tyrion and Sansa openly planned to kill Joffrey together. This is the last straw and Tyrion breaks, snarling that he wishes he had killed Joffrey, that he wishes he’d let Stannis sack the city, and that he will get no justice here! He negates Jaime’s deal as he doesn’t plead for mercy. He demands a trial by combat. Hey, it worked out with Bronn!
The Women of Westeros…
Dany is learning that ruling is harder than winning. To go from “we are right and they are dead” to actually trying to keep the populace content is a bigger leap than she thought. While the freed slaves and working class folk are pretty happy with her, what’s left of the upper class isn’t. Hisdahr zo Loraq brings up some points that are hard to ignore in their argument. Her methods of “answering injustice with justice” could use some tweaking. I know she’s in a tough position. If she’d been merciful as Ser Barristan suggested, she’d be seen as soft. But now she’s feared, which I don’t think she wants too much of. But she’s learning. It might have been best if each slave-master had gotten a trial before being sentenced. Then again, if Tyrion’s trial is any indication, it wouldn’t go much better. Whatever the answer is, Dany doesn’t seem to be enjoying royal office hours much.
Missandei is just a translator in this episode, but I’ll take this space to appreciate how natural she makes made-up these made up languages sound. Well done, Nathalie Emmanuel!
Cersei is still in mourning and it adds an air of sincerity to her (nearly fabricated) testimony, all filled with teary eyes and halting breaths. I don’t think she’s enjoying sending Tyrion to his death as much as she would have before Joffrey died. I keep coming back to annoyance with her being so convinced Tyrion did it, but when it comes to it, people often accuse people of things they themselves would do. She can’t seem to fathom that Tyrion isn’t as apt to act on his hatred with violence as she might be.
I just can’t figure Shae out. Is she a woman scorned, coerced, bribed, or threatened? Or maybe she’s all at once. I could see her being bitter at the way Tyrion sent her off with “you’re a whore.” But I really wanted to think Shae was intelligent enough to see what he was actually doing, given some time. Then again, maybe she hated every moment with Tyrion and only put up with him for the security of being his mistress. as her testimony seems to imply. Then again, maybe she wanted a more secure position as his wife and is bitter that her status as a “whore” prevented that and is taking out her anger at society on Tyrion. I guess we’ll find out where her mind is if Shae gets a scene off the stand in the next episode.
Margaery has no lines here, but she does get plenty of reaction shots, most of them looking nearly disinterested, which irritated me as she knows for a fact that Tyrion didn’t do kill Joffrey. I guess we can’t expect her to do anything about it, though. I doubt she wants her dearest Granny hauled in and chained up. But it would have been nice to see some sympathy. Then again, like Tyrion said, he’s on trial for being a dwarf. Maybe Margaery finds him just as repugnant as his father and sister do. Either way, her watching the proceedings with mild boredom does remind us that, as sweet as she acts, she’s not one of the heroes of the piece. She’s not a clear villain, either. She’s just playing the game.
This is the first time we see Yara (Asha for my fellow book-readers) Greyjoy this season. She’s very different from our other Action Girls. She’s dour and uber-focused (probably a lot like her father) and there seems to be no question of her right to eschew a woman’s typical role in Westeros or her authority among the men she leads. I don’t think that’s an Iron Isles thing as we don’t see women in her crew or meet any other women from her part of the world. I think she’s just fought her way to this position. There’s none of Brienne’s noble ideals or Arya’s fancy swordplay or Meera’s… worrying (since that’s all we get to see Meera do this season). She just shoves an ax into various body parts and keeps things moving efficiently. Even when she leaves, there’s no tears. Theon’s broken and useless. Theon is Reek. Theon is dead.
We meet Myranda again as she engages in sexual strangulation with Ramsay Snow. What a fun couple. As far as characters made up for the show, she’s no Ros. I grew to like Ros, even though her first appearances were just T&A, because I thought it was nice to have a character who wasn’t rich and powerful, to see the POV of a woman born on the wrong side of the bed here and there. And I was happy for her when she got out of her profession… only to be pulled back in and murdered by Joffrey. It was an illustration of how unfair this world can be even to those who work to better themselves, still left at the whims of the powerful and how that could, hopefully, change with the right ruler. So I guess I’m wondering what Myranda is here to teach us. Is it that women can be sadistic and cruel? I think we kind of got that with Cersei. To be honest, I think she’s just here to show us boobs and kinky, rough sex because HBO needs to show at least one pair of boobs per episode.
Passing The Bechdel Test…
Just squeaking by with Dany and Missandei’s brief and weary exchange about how many supplicants are left to see. It was a light episode for the ladies, though I suppose that could be said for most characters, with the last half taken up by the trial.
Other Notes…
The Iron Bank doesn’t seem to care who’s on the throne and how legitimate they might be as long as the kingdom runs smoothly and makes payments. I agree with them. However things turn out with that godawful throne, I can’t help thinking of all the farmers killed off, innkeepers harassed, innocent barmaids assaulted. Every once in a while you hear someone mention the Average Jeor or Jayne of Westeros, but every time you see one, they’re about to be savaged. So I had a dark giggle at Mr. Bank Manager mentioning crops and, on a related note, Tywin speaking of them being more valuable than gold in the last episode. Of course Westeros is in debt! They keep torturing the only people in the kingdom that actually work!
Maybe that’s not fair, some of the higher-ups work. Davos constantly scrambles to keep his team on top. He’s a team asset, but he’s not playing for someone that appreciates him. That goes a hundred times over for Tyrion and all he did in season two and three. I’ve made no secret of the fact that Tyrion is my Official Show Boyfriend and it’s not just because I find Peter Dinklage just a little dreamy. He’s smart, loyal to his family, kind to “cripples, bastards, and broken things,” has good morals underneath a veneer of mild selfishness and boozy manwhoring, and, up until this season, almost every favorite line from an episode has been his. He’s just playing for the wrong team. Tyrion happens to be finding that out now. I wonder if Davos ever will.
While Tommen is sweet and I wouldn’t mind him being king, he’s also easily controlled. So I suppose that whether he’s an effective ruler or not depends on who’s pulling his strings. From what we see of him in this episode, it’s Tywin at the moment and he’s as cold and robotic as Tywin would be. I wonder if he’d be more likable with Margaery in charge of him.
Fangasms…
I adored the look of Braavos, both in the lovely credits animation and in the episode. I’m always impressed by the scope of this show and how well the locations work for this fantasy world. Sometimes the CGI used (as in certain shots of Mereen) is a bit obvious, but whatever they did to make Braavos happen, it’s glorious.
Gah! I shudder every time Ramsay Snow smiles. I don’t hate him as much as Joffrey, who was just such a little pissant that I could barely stand him, but it’s at least a weensy bit fun to watch Welsh actor Iwan Rheon chew the scenery to bits, especially after his very understated performance as Simon on E4’s Misfits. He looks like he’s having a good time with this.
I really want Dinklage to nab another Emmy, but I despair of it happening. After the big nods of season one, this show has been almost ignored by the main award events, only getting nominations for costumes, effects, and makeup, as fantasy entertainment always does. It’s a real shame as it’s filled with amazing performers and epic dialogue. It never fails to annoy me that genre shows, no matter the quality, are so snubbed by the major awards.
Tywin says “Lord Tyrell, be a good man. Fetch my quill and paper.” And he totally does it, all puffed up like the teacher’s pet! Hah!
Next up: Mockingbird
Have something to say? Those little plus signs you see when your cursor hovers to the right of any paragraph lets you leave a little note, so please feel free to add your thoughts.
*****
All images from Game of Thrones are property of HBO, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff and used here for criticism and analysis only.
