Game of Thrones is without a doubt my most favorite show of all time. But you might be asking yourself, why is a gaming blog posting about Game of Thrones? Well firstly, it is GAME of Thrones and secondly, this is my blog and I can write whatever the hell I want. With the new episode coming out in a few days, you know that you're boi is gonna capitalize on that hype :D Now let's get down into the analysis of this episode shall we?
** SPOILER WARNING **
The next following paragraphs will contain spoilers for those who have not seen the latest episode. And especially for those who haven't seen the show. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out right now and stop reading this. Proceed at your own risk. You have been fairly warned.
Especially you Ella XD
Now the first thing that you should always take note of while watching Game of Thrones is the intro scene with the amazing violin music and the buildings and locations springing to life like a huge board game. What? You actually need to pay attention to that? Yes. Yes you do. The different locations and areas that spring up during the intro scene actually give you a glimpse into what locations will appear during that episode as the show tackles different characters at different regions around relatively the same time. So the show jumps back and forth among these key moments to give us a grand story telling of a fantastic saga. But what's really interesting about the intro scene for this season, is this.
As you can see, the ocean has frozen over. I'd like to thank my brother Cesar for pointing this out to me. This comes as a scary thought as this means that the White Walkers can just go around the wall. I guess that's why they're called walkers :P they're going to Jesus their way into Westeros. This is further clarified by what Sandor Clegane aka "The Hound" says when he looks through the flames in the first episode of the season. If you forgot, it's okay. That's why I'm here. He says as follows:
Ice. A wall of ice. The wall. It's where the wall meets the sea. There's a castle there. There's a mountain. Looks like an arrowhead. The dead are marching past. Thousands of them.
If this is the case then the Night's watch have little to no time and are defending in the wrong area. Let's just hope that Jon and Daenarys can get there in time. Assuming that they've finished mining the dragon glass and are finally working together.
The episode starts with the Lannister army marching away from Highgarden after taking the castle easily. The Tyrells were never known for their military prowess and were defeated rather swiftly. Thanks to Jaime's military genius, he was able to foresee the attack at Casterly Rock and instead divert all his forces to Highgarden. With this victory, he was able to attain the necessary gold needed to repay their debt to the Iron Bank as well as acquire more food for their army. Bronn jokingly (or not) mentions that he would like to have Castle Highgarden for himself bringing to mind the promise that Jaime made to him of having a castle of his own. I'd like to take a moment away first and mention how far Bronn has come from being a simple nobody in season one. Love him or hate him, he's truly a survivor.
The scene then cuts to Cersei speaking alone with Tycho Nestoris, a representative of the Iron Bank. Cersei informs him that the gold is on it's way thus keeping her promise of repaying their debt. As we all know, Lannisters always pay their debts. She does however mention the golden company of Essos. Who are they? A band of mercenaries who are notorious killers and are known for never breaking a contract. Cersei always seems to have a trick up her sleeve so we might see some mercenary action if that's to happen. Also, I'm curious as to how she could have figured out Tyrion's plan. At least it seems like she does. Is there a traitor among Dany's forces? I'm not sure.
In the next scene, we have Littlefinger giving the dagger that started it all to Bran. Bran as we now know is the Three-Eyed Raven. Which means that he can see all past, present, and future events and even speak to those in the past. Because of this, his demeanor has changed into something very stoic. As further proof of his power, he even mentions to Littlefinger that "Chaos is a ladder" which is actually what he told Varys back in season three when they were alone together speaking in the chamber room. I still remember the scene and the exchange of clever banter back and forth between the two spymasters. One, for good; focusing on the betterment of the realm. The other, evil; focusing on his own selfish gain. Here is a bit of that exchange to refresh your memory:
Lord Varys: I did what I did for the good of the realm.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: The realm. Do you know what the realm is? It's the thousand blades of Aegon's enemies, a story we agree to tell each other over and over, until we forget that it's a lie.
Lord Varys: But what do we have left, once we abandon the lie? Chaos? A gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
I'm sure that would be a big mind fuck for Baelish as the only other person who could have knowledge of them talking was Varys and Bran had been leagues away to the north. What will he do now that he realizes this? Does this affect his plans? Because we all know that Petyr is always scheming so I wouldn't count him out of the picture just yet.
Then we have Meera saying farewell to Bran who acts emotionless in their parting. Naturally Meera takes this awfully as she has sacrificed a lot for him. Could there be love there? Possibly. Bran even mentions that he's not really Bran anymore. Funny how he says it that way instead of not Bran. What I think could be happening is that there is an internal struggle inside himself for his humanity. Cause when he said thank you to Meera, there was a bit of pause and a sort of look in his eyes as if he wanted to say more. Since Bran knows everything, maybe he did this to protect Meera. Hear me out. I think he knew that if he said anything more, Meera would instead stay for him at Winterfell. But what if staying in Winterfell would get her killed? Maybe the white walkers overwhelm Winterfell and he doesn't want her to be there for that. This is of course all speculation on my part but I believe we'll see Meera again because of Howland Reed. That my friends, would be a story for another time.
The next scene shows Arya seeing Winterfell after a long time of being away. The last time she was back home was when they left for Kings Landing back at season one years ago. She has had such a long journey, gone through so much, and to finally see her home within sight must be such a feeling. Combined with the short but sweet violin playing, it was definitely an awesome moment. Then of course she meets two bumbling guards and convinces them to let her in. In an RPG like Skyrim, this would be her Speech skill and she used her "Intimidation" perk very well haha XD She then quickly sneaks away from them while they are distracted and heads for the family crypt.
The guards then reported to Sansa and informed her that she was asking for Maester Luwin and Rodrik (it killed me a little bit that she didn't know they were already dead) which of course made Sansa realize that she was really back home and knew that she would head straight to the crypt where she found her. Their reunion was nice and you can tell that each of them had a newfound respect for the other. I can't wait for Jon to find out X3 Arya also tells Sansa of her kill list and they both laugh it off with Sansa not realizing that she wasn't really joking.
They go meet Bran over at the family godswood where he likes to hang out and chill being mystical and wise and all that. He then mentions to Arya that he saw her at the crossroads heading to Kings Landing cause she wanted to kill Cersei who was part of her list. I'm sure that the two sisters realized then that Bran really can see all. He gives Arya the Valerian blade which is perfect for her quick and graceful fighting style.
Then we have the Stark trio going into the main courtyard and Brienne with Podrick looking at them as they pass. Podrick reminds her that technically, she kept her vow to Caitlyn Stark. That's actually a really nice thought considering what she had to go through to keep that promise. Brienne had also gone through a hard journey to reach where she is now and for Podrick to be her squire is flipping awesome.
What was interesting also was the wooden wheel chair that the current maester of Winterfell built for Bran. It's such a cool concept and thinking back, the late Doran Martell also had a wooden wheel chair. A wheel chair for me seems to be such a modern advancement in technology so I did a little research of it on my own based off human history (History of the real world, not GOT) and there were recorded accounts of wooden wheel chairs going way back to ancient Chinese times. It became more common from the 1500's onward in Europe with wheel chairs being provided to the rich and inventive. You get to learn stuff on this blog XD Also, what was curious was that Petyr kept hanging around the castle aviary. Is he waiting for a special message? Time will tell.
The scene changes back to Daenarys at Dragonstone. We see Missandei and Daenarys share a girly moment when Missandei mentions that she did "many things" with Grey Worm. She's obviously worried though about Grey Worm and in the episode before, Grey Worm seemed to be attacked from the sea by Euron Greyjoy's ships.
Then we have Jon Snow going into the dragon glass mine with Daenarys. The whole cave is filled with it. Dragon glass is actually obsidian. It is formed when lava from a volcano cools rapidly which leads me to believe that Dragonstone used to be a volcano. They discover the symbols left by the children of the forest and they seem to be getting closer with a better understanding of each other. Each is just being cautious of the other though. I have a feeling that Jon Snow and Daenarys will get married in the future. There is evidence of this with them slowly beginning to trust each other along with Daenarys asking for Jon's counsel when she receives the bad news and later on when Ser Davos asks Jon what he thinks of her and caught him staring at her.
Of course, it would be criminal to not mention the awesome sparring scene between Arya and Brienne. Now to go up against Brienne, who I believe is currently the best sword fighter in the seven kingdoms when it comes to single combat, and come out as even match for her is an impressive feat. Let's breakdown the fight. Brienne takes it easy which gives Arya the first win. The second time around, Brienne doesn't go as easy but Arya still manages to get the hit. The next round, you can clearly see Brienne starting to get angry and goes harder but Arya still manages to get a hit to Brienne's leg but Brienne doesn't stop and continues fighting eventually leading her to have to kick Arya to the ground. Arya does a fancy maneuver getting up and the music starts to kick into high gear signifying that things are going to get heated. Both go full out on each other with Brienne managing to knock over Needle. You'd think the fight would be over but oh no. Brienne keeps swinging forcing Arya to pull out her dagger having it end with a tie. It was an awesome scene which has left me thinking that Arya could actually be the best single combat fighter currently.
Last but not definitely not least, we have the amazing battle with the Lannister army and Daenarys' forces with her riding Drogon. It's so good to finally see the full power of a dragon unleashed. This left me in such a weird place because you had Daenarys on one side and Jaime with Bronne on the other. I mainly wanted Daenarys' forces to win of course but I also wanted Jaime and Bronne to survive. Tyrion had to see his old bannermen die in the flames and attack. I still remember him leading the defense of King's Landing back in the day. Those were people he fought with so it must have been such a helpless feeling to just watch them die like that. On the battlefield, Dickon (what a name XD) saves Jaime just in time. He doesn't live up to his name (I had to lol) Then you have Bronne being freaking "Lannister employee of the month" by hitting Drogon with the Scorpion.
And of course Jaime's brave charge against Drogon and Daenarys. A lot of people in the online forums have so many things to say of why he shouldn't have done it but you have to understand who exactly Jaime is and his reasoning behind it. First and foremost, Jaime is a man who puts his love beyond all else. He freaking pushed Bran off the tower in the very first episode. Throughout the show, he has proven that he has always remained loyal to Cersei his love no matter the odds or their taboo relationship. He could have gone with Brienne at one point but still chose Cersei. So this is always his mindset. He is willing to sacrifice everything, even his own life to protect Cersei. Cause he knows that if this dragon can do this kind of damage to an army, what more when Daenarys reaches King's Landing? He had to act and try to kill Daenarys while she was at that vulnerable moment. Others had also wondered why he didn't throw the spear and what I say to that is that he only has one hand people! It's also his weakest hand so even if he did try, there would be a high chance that it wouldn't be accurate. He needed to be sure and charged onward with his heart pounding and racing knowing that he would die even if he was successful. Thank god for Bronne but then they ended the episode with him sinking cause of his armor. What a cliffhanger.
Welp, that's it for my very thorough analysis of the episode. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with some of the stuff I've mentioned? Please feel free to leave a comment of what you think and I'll catch you guys on the next episode peeps!
