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).
