GOT: Take a Breath
Jun. 10th, 2013 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxI lost the bet I made with myself over what would be the last image of the season. I really thought they'd move Book III's epilogue to the end of Season 3, but they didn't.
Overall, the ep was sort of a break from last episode (which I sort of expected. You can't follow explosive with explosive), and I think that there was some focus on trying to show that despite everything there is some good in this world, focusing on..
* Sam and his innate goodness. He and Gilly make it "home" safe (and bending the rules, Maester Aemon Targaryen allows Gilly to stay). Bran's scary stories (Bran, really, don't scare Hodor like that) led to the fake-out of the monster only being sweet Sam and Gilly, and finally Sam welcoming the wounded Jon "home" as well.
* Davos being taught to read by sweet little Shireen ("Why is there a 'g' in night?" "Don't know but it doesn't do anything.") And then Davos having a nice conversation with Gendry before arriving to set Gendry free.)
I'll even add in the "see, not everyone is awful" category,
* Asha/Yara discovering what's befallen her brother, being disgusted with her father, and vowing to rescue her brother. (I liked Asha/Yara in the books and look forward to more of her*)
* Sansa's idea of being wicked is putting dung in people's bed and thinking it naughty to call it "shift".
* Sandor Clegane carrying Arya the hell out of Dodge. She's of little use to him now, but you could almost see that even he felt horrible for her having to witness what they did to Robb and Grey Wind (I had hoped they'd skip that part because it was one of the most hauntingly horrifying images of the Red Wedding. ::shudder::) Poor Arya, little Maisie Williams was amazing at portraying numb and yet broken. (Arya's vengefully murderous turn didn't come across quite as shocking to me here as it did in the books. In the books it was like the poor girl had totally lost her mind and taking all of her grief and rage out on ... was it the Tickler in the book? Here, what she did kind of made a certain amount of sense. (And, really, Sandor, Arya --in theory at least -- is your hostage, and yet she's already escaped you at The Twins and here she stole your knife and murdered someone who thankfully was not you. I think you may need to review whether Arya is hostage or cohort at this point, y'know?).
* Even Tywin's "I let you live" discussion and Cersei's "He wasn't born a monster" discussion was rounding out in a way, because in the book they both seemed far more unyeilding. So even though both are still horrible, they are marginally more human here (Boy, I hated both of those character is the books. HAAAAAATE. Here, they are at least recognizably human).
* Shae, honey. Sweetie. You really should listen to Varys. Seriously.
Until next year --
Die Boltons! Die Freys! Die Joffrey!
* You know, when people discuss Game of Thrones being 'misogynist' I frequently have the urge to defend it. Yes, the story takes place in a horrifically misogynist 'world', but I give Martin credit for creating a host of multi-dimensional female characters (Arya, Brienne, Asha/Yara, Dany, Catelyn, Ygritte, (Granny) Olenna Tyrell, Sansa, Meera etc.) , each of whom have inner strength and many of whose stories don't consist entirely of supporting male characters. They have agency (even if they have to fight for it) and several of these have their very own story arcs that are also not based on their having or getting a man. There's chick lit that doesn't always manage this many women or this much independence, so I give Martin a little credit (even though there is a shitload of misogyny and some downright creepy stuff the the stories).
Overall, the ep was sort of a break from last episode (which I sort of expected. You can't follow explosive with explosive), and I think that there was some focus on trying to show that despite everything there is some good in this world, focusing on..
* Sam and his innate goodness. He and Gilly make it "home" safe (and bending the rules, Maester Aemon Targaryen allows Gilly to stay). Bran's scary stories (Bran, really, don't scare Hodor like that) led to the fake-out of the monster only being sweet Sam and Gilly, and finally Sam welcoming the wounded Jon "home" as well.
* Davos being taught to read by sweet little Shireen ("Why is there a 'g' in night?" "Don't know but it doesn't do anything.") And then Davos having a nice conversation with Gendry before arriving to set Gendry free.)
I'll even add in the "see, not everyone is awful" category,
* Asha/Yara discovering what's befallen her brother, being disgusted with her father, and vowing to rescue her brother. (I liked Asha/Yara in the books and look forward to more of her*)
* Sansa's idea of being wicked is putting dung in people's bed and thinking it naughty to call it "shift".
* Sandor Clegane carrying Arya the hell out of Dodge. She's of little use to him now, but you could almost see that even he felt horrible for her having to witness what they did to Robb and Grey Wind (I had hoped they'd skip that part because it was one of the most hauntingly horrifying images of the Red Wedding. ::shudder::) Poor Arya, little Maisie Williams was amazing at portraying numb and yet broken. (Arya's vengefully murderous turn didn't come across quite as shocking to me here as it did in the books. In the books it was like the poor girl had totally lost her mind and taking all of her grief and rage out on ... was it the Tickler in the book? Here, what she did kind of made a certain amount of sense. (And, really, Sandor, Arya --in theory at least -- is your hostage, and yet she's already escaped you at The Twins and here she stole your knife and murdered someone who thankfully was not you. I think you may need to review whether Arya is hostage or cohort at this point, y'know?).
* Even Tywin's "I let you live" discussion and Cersei's "He wasn't born a monster" discussion was rounding out in a way, because in the book they both seemed far more unyeilding. So even though both are still horrible, they are marginally more human here (Boy, I hated both of those character is the books. HAAAAAATE. Here, they are at least recognizably human).
* Shae, honey. Sweetie. You really should listen to Varys. Seriously.
Until next year --
Die Boltons! Die Freys! Die Joffrey!
* You know, when people discuss Game of Thrones being 'misogynist' I frequently have the urge to defend it. Yes, the story takes place in a horrifically misogynist 'world', but I give Martin credit for creating a host of multi-dimensional female characters (Arya, Brienne, Asha/Yara, Dany, Catelyn, Ygritte, (Granny) Olenna Tyrell, Sansa, Meera etc.) , each of whom have inner strength and many of whose stories don't consist entirely of supporting male characters. They have agency (even if they have to fight for it) and several of these have their very own story arcs that are also not based on their having or getting a man. There's chick lit that doesn't always manage this many women or this much independence, so I give Martin a little credit (even though there is a shitload of misogyny and some downright creepy stuff the the stories).
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no subject
Date: 2013-06-10 04:22 pm (UTC)Ha, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-10 05:32 pm (UTC)About the misogynism. I'd defend the book in a heartbeat, because like you said, the world is horribly misogynist but the women are all real three dimensional characters. It's very similar to Mad Men in that respect.
Not so much the tv show. Because there you have these animal-like women, that (they do not really merit a who) are just there for undressing. The female roles from the book are still brilliant but the girls that just have to spice up exposition annoy me a lot. These empty grinning happy hookers, that seem barely human? This is not what Martin wrote.
Like the girls heating up Theon before they geld him. In the books they would have been something human. Afraid of Remsey? Smug, because they have reason to hate Theon. Something. Not just, we do what we are told and smile and take no notice of anything, even though we are sent to a dungeon to aid in a mutilation.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-10 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-11 12:26 am (UTC)I think there's many things ASOIAF does well in terms of indicting the misogyny of that fantasy world, but the show doesn't really embrace and build upon that effort. Rather, it rides on the books' coat tails, with bonus sexploitation scenes!
Frex, think about how the show went off-book in developing Ros vs. Podrick Payne. When the show's given latitude, it sinks deep into the misogynistic foundations of popular sensational TV.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-11 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-12 01:54 am (UTC)(And thank you Sam for teaching me how to pronounce Maester - I was also thinking Master). That bit was bugging me.
2. I've seen the actor playing Gendry before somewhere but can't place it...
3. She's of little use to him now, but you could almost see that even he felt horrible for her having to witness what they did to Robb and Grey Wind (I had hoped they'd skip that part because it was one of the most hauntingly horrifying images of the Red Wedding. ::shudder::)
You and me both. I was really hoping they'd skip that. That bit stuck with me. It stuck with me over some other things...now I have a visual image to take with it, although the one I had was admittedly worse.
The books were oddly worse on that bit.
4. Yes, weirdly, Charles Dance and Lena Headley, plus the writing, have managed to make both Tywin Lannister and Cersei more compelling and complex than GRRM did in his books. I despised them as well in the books. And no not because they were evil, so much as they felt a bit one-note and not very complex. There's a couple of characters who have become more interesting in the series than in the books...Jon Snow,
Jorah Mormount, Davos, Stannis, Gendry, Sansa, Shae, Tywin, Cersei..
while other characters are just not salvageable - Theon, Ramsay Snow, the Freys, Balon Greyjoy - although that may be on purpose?