Marina

Oh god it's 1am but I actually managed to get this shit done.



Ah, I do love this Renly. So charming, so smiley. Would you not swear allegiance to this man?

Thing I am less amused by in this scene: Brianne undressing Renly as Catelyn is still randomly sitting in the room O__________o YOU DO REMEMBER YOU STILL HAVE GUESTS, RIGHT, YOUR NUDIST MAJESTY?



Ugh I do love the horror of this scene and I do think it was played to perfection. Brianne's utter helplessness and horror as Renly is killed - essentially the moment where everything she's worked so hard to believe about herself, to convince others to believe of her, has collapsed - as her genuine, bewildered dismay that this man, this man who is the first Person in Power to treat her as she deserves to be treated, to recognize her and value for who she is, this man is dead, and he died in her arms, and she was powerless to stop it, even though she swore to defend him with her life.

This is a bit of why I'm sad we haven't had the character development for Brianne in the show that we've had for Brianne in the book at this point, and why I think showing the true measure of how fucked up her life's been up until now makes things more interesting and powerful. I've mentioned that Brianne is the face of the patriarchy and that I have concerns about making her "too cool". On the one hand my heart wants nothing but to see Brianne be awesome, on the other hand she's meant to be a deconstruction of the "awesome woman warrior" trope and one of Martin's greatest achievements, imo, so. I don't want to let even a fraction of that criticism go.

And on the third hand, of course, not seeing just what kind of despair Brianne comes from, what kind of force of will and honestly, delusion, has led her here, to be this woman knight that she is, makes the moment of Renly's death less powerful in terms of her arc. Because Renly's death is Brianne's world collapsing. Her entire life, all she's wanted was to be taken seriously by a king. To be acknowledged the greatest knight and be awarded the greatest honor - serving in a king's guard. (Basically she wants to be Jaime Lannister, but SHHH NO SPOILERS!)

And here it's happened, and this man will be king and she'll be his greatest aid, and he's the first person she's ever met who wasn't related to her who didn't mock her or deride her or dismiss her. He valued her, he looked past her unconventional looks and choices. Renly ran a court of outcasts and weirdos and he was charismatic enough, intuitive enough, personable enough to make it work. There's a reason Brianne presents herself to him to begin with - because she thinks he's the sort of person who might take her on.

And so later, when Brianne swears her revenge and joins Catelyn, in the books Brianne comes off as someone who truly has NOTHING TO LIVE FOR in that moment but revenge. And then THE ONLY THING SHE HAS IN HER LIFE is her oath to Catelyn. That changes later on as her storyline progresses, but Brianne's... black-and-white, extremist view of the world was sort of integral to her characterization in the books - Brianne simply doesn't compromise, it's the ONLY WAY she could have ended up as she did - and... at some point they'll either have to introduce it in the show or replace it with something and... IDK. I have... so little faith in this show's ability to change the books for the better :/





Anyway, I did LOVE this scene and the quick, merciless way in which Renly dies in Brianne's arms and a second later his guards turn on her and she murders them and like, 30 seconds after Renly's dead Brianne's lost not only everything she held dear but is now also considered a murderer and an oathbreaker (NOT UNLIKE A CERTAIN LANNISTER WE KNOW, AHEM).

Ugh, sometimes this show makes me so happy. Not often! But... very rarely, yes.



SAD LORAS IS SAD. LOL god, this actor really didn't go with the subtlety option on this one did he.



OK let's get the important things out of the way first. WHAT THE FUCK IS MARGERY WEARING. WHAT. Why is there no BADGE OF SHAME I can pin on whoever came up with and approved these wardrobe choices? WHY?

Seriously did she wrap herself in a carpet and cut out arm holes? WHAT?




OK I would give them more credit for the whole "Loras we have to leave because it's the only way for you to kill Stannis" thing if they hadn't JUST WRITTEN A SCENE EXACTLY LIKE THIS for Catelyn and Brianne. If it was meant to emphasize the resemblance between Loras and Brianne I don't see the point (they're actually not at all alike as characters)? And otherwise just... what. The Catelyn scene was from the books, in this one you could have done whatever you wanted, writers, and what you did was copy paste Brianne-Catelyn? Really?




Anyway, I do like this scene a LOT and I love the character moments here (Littlefinger's even acting like Littlefinger!), especially Loras' grief and of course, automatic thirst for revenge and Margery's common sense and forceful appeal to him that they must leave because there's nothing to salvage here.

Obviously Martin has a fondness for this particular type of sibling relationship, so I can't not automatically recall Cersei and Jaime here. Such a similar dynamic, with Loras having no head for politics, no proper understanding of things, just being a guy who's good at being a knight and being in love and has a reasonably OK head on his shoulders, and Margery being... Cersei with a mentor, basically. IDK, it could be argued Margery had more sense/skill at this stuff to begin with, but considering Cersei was basically raised by no one and Margery was raised in a family that KNEW HOW TO FOSTER A DYNASTY it's a moot point.

Anyway, I like their parallel stories. Cersei was supposed to marry a prince who ended up getting murdered before he became king, and Margery's now been married to a "king" who got murdered before he got to be king. Cersei's brother forsook all other women and entered the kingsguard to be with her, Margery's brother forsook all women and entered the kingsguard because he wanted to be with the king, lol.



Oh I do love this little character note for Margery. OH, MARGERY. Perfect, perfect, perfect. So much ambition, so much skill. It'll get you far, girl.

(Women are so rarely allowed to be ambitious, too, without being faulted for it by the narrative. Go, Margery, make those motherfuckers bow.)



Heee, I love EVERY SINGLE SCENE with Cersei and Tyrion, EVERY SINGLE ONE. It's like the actors are foolproof, they'll turn whatever you give them into gold. They are such SIBLINGS in this, from a dysfunctional family, but still. So much love.



LOLOL this scene. Lancel IS good for a laugh. Although Tyrion's line about Lanel's "unnatural urges" in terms of him fucking Cersei - THE TWO OF THEM ARE COUSINS, THIS IS THE MIDDLE AGES. What is MORE NATURAL than the two of them boning? O_o seriously! Siblings? Tabboo. Cousins? A smart match!




Man, I NEVER EXPECTED THE SHOW TO DO THIS, but I love how they elegantly sidestepped the misogyny and standard icky tropes regarding Davos' dislike of Melisandra and instead went for something practical and realistic and far more interesting. He doesn't advise against her because she's a woman, or a witch, or because she has power over Stannis. He advises against her firstly because she's a foreigner. And as a foreigner she's not trusted, not liked by many, as someone preaching a foreign religion she's liked even less. Then the rest of it comes in.

I'd say this show will make me like Davos more than the books but honestly, it's not possible to make me like him LESS since in the books I was like, actively skipping his useless, random chapters. I can't wait until we have a ton of that random shit on screen, you just know they'll wallow in it. DAVOS WALKS ALONG A BEACH. DAVOS EATS A BANANA. Ugh. Whatever, Liam Cunningham, as long as I'm stuck with Davos I'm glad he's you.





Ah, the SCENE OF SHAME. I... really, really need to make a badge of shame for the costuming department. In the capital people are walking around BARE CHESTED, in costumes clearly inspired by Disney's Aladdin, and the fucking nobility are walking around wearing giant woolen sacks? WHAT. THE. FUCK. >_< I CAN'T. Let's leave aside the fact that Tyrion, the hand of the king, is randomly walking the street with no escort, especially given that apparently people in the city don't like him. It's not even like he's some minister everyone knows by name but couldn't recognize. HE IS BASICALLY IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO RECOGNIZE. How many people who look like him and are dressed like nobility are there in that city? SERIOUSLY.



Ah, the scenes of useless penis showing. I seriously can't see anything but Alfie Allen's dick now whenever I look at Theon's face.



Oh look, more rape jokes. Not an episode of GoT without a rape joke!



NOTHING TO SAY HERE, LOVE ARYA, LOVE THIS ENTIRE STORYLINE AND HOW IT'S BEING DONE, NO COMPLAINTS.



Oh god, it's the bore brigade :/ Seriously this is such Lord of the Rings bullshit. WE NOW JOIN THEM AS THEY WALK. AND WALK. AND WALK SOME MORE.

Although OK, OK, I do have something to say. Please can someone kill everyone in the wardrobe department of this show, WHY ARE MOST OF THE RANGERS NOT WEARING HATS. WHAT THE FUCK. I would think the Europeans who made this show would at least know how to deal with extremely cold environments, if they have no idea how deserts work.

There's a scene later where they're on the mountain peak, covered in snow, the wind is blowing really hard and HALF OF THEM DON'T HAVE HATS ON. Jon Snow's hair is ~too amazing~ for hats, apparently >_< I CANT WITH THIS STUPIDITY.



Wow, this is the first time in this entire series where I've seen Dany wear real clothes O_O that make sense. O__________O wow, it's mindblowing how SUDDENLY SHE LOOKS LIKE A REAL CHARACTER. JFC.

Of course her sexy slavegirls are all still dressed like computer game characters.



If you're wondering, this random woman is actually an escapee from the wardrobe department who's decided to make herself a face mask of mirrors and make one last appearances to warn Jorah of the dangers coming (he's been dressed in a mostly OK fashion so far, after all) before disappearing in shame to beyond the Narrow Sea.



Brianne: My mom died giving birth to me!
Catelyn: my mom died giving birth to my younger brother!

THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT TRAGIC DEAD MOTHERS, PEOPLE, OF COURSE ALL YOUR MOTHERS ARE CONVENIENTLY DEAD. EVERYONE'S MOTHERS ARE CONVENIENTLY DEAD.





Here, again, I LOVE, LOVE this scene, I love Catelyn and Brianne's relationship, but. This is... a very different Brianne than the one that was in the books, at least to me. And... I'm not sure how that will play into future storylines. I mean in the books when Brianne says "promise me you won't hold me back from taking my vengeance of Stannis" you think "this woman is totally disconnected from reality, she's living a fucking dream". In the show you... sort of actually think Brianne might one day get to kill Stannis. She seems serious, it seems feasible. I'm... not sure this is a good thing.





UGH POOR, TRAGIC Bran. Singing his own doom by making the worst military decisions but he's seriously like EIGHT YEARS OLD, OK. >_< Poor little Bran, ALL ALONE RUNNING A FUCKING KINGDOM basically, while everyone else is off fighting.

I am SO GRATEFUL that in the show you constantly see Catelyn go "MAN I REALLY HAVE TO GO HOME UGH >_<" instead of just rushing off between duties because they're ~more important~. Because it is just SO IMPROBABLE that a person with a brain, a grown up, can't foresee that leaving two small children alone to defend a castle while all the men are away at war and there are unknown agents all around and ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN because it's A RECIPE FOR DISASTER.

This is especially considering that Bran was still in a coma when Catelyn left. SHE LEFT HER 3 YEAR OLD SON AS LORD OF WINTERFELL BASICALLY, AT A TIME OF WAR.

How, HOW can this possibly end well? In the books it was so frustrating that she supposedly didn't realize this, in the show I'm glad she's actually realistically REALLY CONCERNED.





I love how, even on the one occasion where this show graciously casts a non-white actor for a beefy supporting role they emphasize that the character "was a complete barbarian once", "his parents never owned a pair of shoes" and so on. Just. I really can't cope with the racism of this show. The books were bad enough, WHAT IS THIS FUCKING SHIT.



Two things about this scene.

1. I sort of like that they chose to address the whole point of why Dany deserves to be queen anyway. In the books we were in her POV and part of the point was her absolutely conviction that Westeros was her birthright and the narrative kind of played around with how... Dany's never actually lived there? And doesn't know what it's like and well... it's interesting that she's spending her life trying to conquer a country she considers her own even though no one from Europe Westeros would ever even consider her local.

In the show we don't get that, and I've seen people online start to wonder why we're supposed to like/identify with Dany anyway, like her whole point is to bring more useless destruction and war to the land just because of some bogus claim that because her anscestors conquered something 300 years ago she should get to have it now, after her dad was beaten and ousted fair and square by the rebels.

So, I like that they addressed - why are people even rooting for Dany to achieve this? Jorah's whole argument was COMPLETELY BOGUS of course, because while I agree that the books EVENTUALLY try to make the argument that Dany is a good ruler Jorah has never ACTUALLY SEEN HER do any proper ruling so far. So that whole "gentle heart" business is LOLOL.

Also just because Dany is a good ruler, well, you know, she's like 15 at most at this point? There are lots of people who are good at ruling, OK? Lots of people in Westeros even, who would go around grabbing power in ways that don't include burning shit down to the ground.

2. Oh god I hate how valorized Jorah's character became. I mean it goes hand in hand with the racism and giving Viserys such a randomly giant role. Like, the books attempted to deconstruct the whole premise of evil/barbaric dark skinned brute vs. wise older white dude who's kind and awesome.

Because Dany, and supposedly the reader, from Dany's biased POV, begins by seeing Drogo as a monster and Jorah as the only salvation in a cruel world. But very quickly it turns out that Drogo is actually kind of awesome and Jorah is a giant traitor and a creepy rapist wannabe.

The books are hugely, hugely problematic on race, and even at their finest are still full of racist tropes and are still all about a white blond princess who's gonna ~rescue these heathens~ but AT THE VERY LEAST fucking Jorah is a despicable human being.

Here he's practically a hero, even though we know of his betrayal - of his reporting to Robert about Dany's actions and his role in the attempt on her life - much earlier than we did in the books.

And similarly, in the books Jorah is fucking CREEPY. He's part of what makes Dany's POV so disturbing, because this is a girl who was raised by a brother who was sexually abusing her, so all her metrics for human relationships are really fucked up, and along comes Jorah who Dany keeps seeing as this ~awesome, awesome dude~ but you as the reader see as THIS UTTER, UNBELIEVABLE CREEPSTER who keeps trying to sleep with Dany or touch her or whatever. Dany's just too fucked up (and though she gets better later she remains fucked up in some pretty profound ways, probably for the rest of her life because you, BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED BY YOUR BROTHER AND CARETAKER from a very early age) to notice how utterly inappropriate and obviously lusting after her Jorah is.

But in the show, Viserys throws that shit in Jorah's face and Jorah deflects it, and then here Dany basically throws it in his face and they have this awkward moment, as if, SEARCHING DEEP DOWN IN HIS HEART, Jorah isn't sure if his love for Dany is 100% pure or if maybe there's something inappropriate in there.

Which, you know, fuck that. Jorah is fucking CREEPSTER FROM HELL and I protest this weak ass shit right here.



MMMHMMM DON'T MIND IF I DO.