Sunday, June 12, 2016

Game of Thrones No One



This episode- where to begin? A LOT happens in this one- and yet with the breakneck pace of this season I'm almost surprised MORE didn't happen. But the big news tonight is- Arya. The daughter of Ned Stark had a character defining moment.

Spoilers for books and show.

We start off at the theater. The show, eager to showcase the theatrical troupe that has been such a delight, again shows us Lady Crane and her skill. She takes in Arya and we immediately see that, contrary to speculation, Arya was not playing a game with the Waif. She really was taken by surprise and was dumb enough to flaunt her gold and think she could leave Braavos without the reckoning of the Faceless Men. I have a hard time with that, but whatever. Her plight opens and closes the episode, appropriately enough given the title, and it lives up to the hype. It was a thrilling sequence when she and the Waif inevitably face off again, although I'm sorry jumping from a second story window, running through Braavos and then that second jump! Not buying that, not when you've just been stabbed repeatedly in the stomach a day ago.

I mean it's ridiculous, but for all that it was thrilling to see her extinguish the candle. Okay little Waif, you wanna play? Let's play in the dark- which Arya can do. And this is kinda exciting because a theory I saw earlier this week- that Arya was playing the Waif and drawing her in so she could take advantage of darkness- was partly right. She may not have been luring her, but when it came time, she chose darkness and had the advantage. Nicely done.

A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And I'm going home.

And just like that Arya's time with the Faceless Men is done. And did Jaqen look pleased or what with her decision? He may be No One but you can't tell me he wasn't rooting for Arya, like they mentioned in the aftershow. That may be THE moment of the season, so far.

So let's talk about Cersei. She got some bad news tonight- Tommen threw her under the bus with his outlawing trial by combat. But wait- what "rumor" is Qyburn referring to? He has a habit of providing her an ace for her sleeve does anyone know what this about? I'm thinking maybe we'll get a resolution of Cersei's story by the end of the season? Or maybe not... hard to say. The Mountain's usefulness may be limited if there's no trial by combat- but I'm not sure the books are going this way.

Daenerys is back! Apparently the problems in Meereen, which are such a huge part of A Dance with Dragons, are swept away here and Tyrtion has time to drink with Grey Worm and Missandei. It was a  fun scene- "Anyone not drinking is disrespecting our queen"- but it is short lived as the navy of- someone- shows up. Was that the Volantene fleet or Yunkai's? Anyway the initial shot of their attack was impressive, but then Dany returns. With her back and a fleet close by, does she have the ships she'll need to sail to Westeros? Man are they condensing the book or what? This is called forward plot movement on speed.

Which brings us to Riverrun. A lot of time was spent here and I have mixed feelings. I thought the Edmure/ Jaime exchange was done well, and a highlight was the baby in a catapult ploy used by Jaime- straight out of the books. I always wonder in the books- would Jaime really have done it? Here you almost think he would since show Jaime is not book Jaime.  His reason for being in such a hurry- to get back to Cersei- is maddening though given his book arc. The other thing that bothered me was the portrayal of the Blackfish- instead of escaping like he does in the books, to fight on, here he stubbornly refuses to yield, which means Sansa doesn't get Tully help and will be forced to rely on Littlefinger?

In my opinion they've never handled the Blackfish properly, even though the actor does a fine job. But is he really dead? We never see a body, and it seems weird they would use him and then just kill him off. So... who knows? And by doing it this way they make Edmure willing t give his uncle to the Freys, which I don't buy. It also doesn't ring true that Jaime would (or could) make that deal with Brienne- to let the Tully forces all march north to fight Freys and Boltons. But whatever, it's the show.

Lastly we have Sandor. He's on the rampage here and it's kind of a shame- this feels like a redemption arc for him, but in the book he finds redemption in peace. Not in indiscriminately killing. This is a typical approach from the writers, unfortunately. Now it's possible he'll go back to violence in the book if provoked somehow, but I can guarantee it'll be handled with more sensitivity. Time will tell.

4 comments:

  1. We're of the same mind on so many points here. I loved Arya's declaration at the end, but I was in total disbelief even when she jumped the first time. She was only JUST bleeding out badly! Lady Crane may have done a good job patching Arya up, but really!

    Cersei looks like she's in some mighty trouble thanks to Tommen. I was also like, what rumor? What, what WHAT? Lol. Does Qyburn have something on the High Sparrow?

    At first I thought the ships belonged to the Ironborn. I'm thinking they're going to show up just in time to help Daenerys?

    I liked the scene between Edmure and Jaime, but Jaime bringing up Cersei derailed it. Ughhhh, so frustrated with this. I'm also wondering if the Blackfish is really dead. It seemed lame that there was just an announcement that he had been killed and zero shots of him fighting. I would think that a man like him would go out cutting down as many men as he could. I also have a hard time believing that anyone is well and truly dead on the show if we don't see the body.

    I was surprised to see Beric and Thoros back, which makes me further believe that a certain someone associated with them is going to appear very soon, no matter what the show runners have said in the past.

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    1. I was sorry to see Lady Crane go, I kinda liked her. And when she invited Arya to go to Pentos w/ them, I was like say yes Arya! I figured she could see a little Pentos before going back to westeros, but it all worked out I guess. :)

      I agree about Jaime, but you know how I feel about that lol. I think the Blackfish is dead because I saw an article discussing it, but it's a shame. In the books he's still on the loose, and I love that!

      And what's up with Sandor joining the BWB? THAT should be interesting. :)

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  2. I just caught up on this episode last night, and I really enjoyed it!
    I had the same issue though with the whole, Arya doing spectacular jumps and stuff when she had pretty much nearly died the day before. And the Waif seems like a pretty bad assassin if she stabbed her multiple times and didn't manage to kill her. Surely she would have just gone straight for the heart, or throat or something?
    I liked the scene with Tyrion and Missandei and Greyworm too, but I was hoping when the ships arrived it was going to be the Greyjoys arriving, but I guess that would have been too quick. It certainly looks like they're on their way though!
    I agree as well that the series didn't seem to know what to do with the Blackfish. I was hoping what with him losing Riverrun he would go with Brienne and help out Jon and Sansa, as it seems like a total waste of a good, tough character to have him just die off screen like that. I'm intrigued to see where the whole Hound storyline goes though, as he is a favourite character of mine, so I was glad when it turned out he wasn't dead.

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