Andrew: Well, here we are again—another season of GoT, another series of chats. I have a lot of thoughts about yesterday’s episode, but my first is: wow that was slow. GoT is by now a well-established enough cultural phenomenon that not every episode has to have a ton of plot developments, but last night’s episode took that to a whole new level and gave us a premiere where basically nothing happened. It had about as much scenes of people just sitting and talking as your average episode of Mad Men. I’m not complaining, exactly. One of the great strengths of GoT is that it’s just as interested in motives as it is in action, examining why people do what they do and why things happen just as often as it shows us things actually happening. Last night, this was true from the first scene, in which Cersei’s motivations were partially traced to an unnerving prophecy given to her by a witch when she was a girl, to the last, when Jon Snow took mercy on Mance Rayder. It was a compelling ending, but it didn’t move the story forward so much as it revealed something about Jon Snow’s character. I’m okay with that, I guess. But I still found my attention wandering a couple times last night.
Chris: I thought it was slow for all the reasons you mention, Andrew, and the horrible streaming experience that came with it. Even without the stutter-stream it felt long and a bit of a dull affair. With all that spinning pinwheel-it was murder. But it’s Game of Thrones, so, murder is not unexpected. On to the show!
I am a bit underwhelmed by the flashback to Cersei’s fortune telling moment in the woods. The witch’s words are meant to provide weight to-if not justification for-some of what we’ve seen Cersei do in the series thus far. She knows her future, and will do what she can to secure it against the threat implied. In this case, Margaery Tyrell. Cersei is one of the show’s best and most complicated figures. It seems a little reductive to have a childhood prophecy as the source of so much of her life. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
I was much more interested in the scene that immediately followed it, however, when Jamie and Cersei Lannister are together once more in the sept of a church where the body of their family member lays on display. We all remember what happened last time such an occurrence took place. This time, it is not their dead son but their dead father, and the interaction between the two could not be more different. Jaime is ready to protect what their father built for them from the hordes that will look to break it apart. But Cersei is not interested in these political concerns. She continues to funnel all her rage at Tyrion-who killed Tywin and escaped with Jaime’s help. I thought this was a wonderful way to begin the season.
Andrew: I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Cersei’s witch in the woods—she promised to answer three questions, but my count she only answered two so far, and the flashback ended with the girl’s still in the witch’s house. Perhaps the really interesting prophecy has yet to be revealed?
The third Lannister, Tyrion, has fled to Pentos, and sadly, the scenes of him there were not Tyrion at his most compelling: depressed, drinking, barfing, drinking some more. What struck me in these scenes was not Tyrion but Varys, who finally revealed his dream for Westeros: that a good king will sit on the Iron Throne, and the powerful will no longer take advantage of the weak. This is refreshing, and surprising. Who knew Varys was such an idealist? In any case, Varys convinces Tyrion that the best ruler for Westeros would be Danerys Targaryen, and so it’s off to Mereen they go. I could not be happier about this development. I gather from some readers of the book that this erases many hundreds of pages of Tyrion moping in Pentos—plus, anything that promises to push Dany out of her rut is something I support. She’s been hanging out in Mereen for far too long. Benioff and Weiss, listen up: unite these two GoT fan favorites and get them back in the action soon, please!
Chris: Here, here! Tyrion has so much to offer as a morally upright debauch, and pairing him in an advisory role to the Breaker of Chains would be a welcome move for literally every single viewer. We’ve been saying for at least a season and a half that Dany needs to get back in the action, and we probably saw a taste of that last night as she attempted to reunite with her (now full-grown) dragons. Those dragons seem non-plussed about being locked in a dungeon. Dead goats are surely afoot.
I’m not quite sold that Varys is on the side of good. What he seems to care about is Westeros itself, not so much the people who inhabit the lands. He’s always purported a neutrality in the political games of the seven kingdoms, and his desire for Dany to sit on the throne might be more than just good intentions.
Vary’s comments about a good king are echoed in the sentiments of Brienne of Tarth, who gets only a minute or two to insult her humble and hilarious squire. Podrick only wishes to serve a knight of the realm and Brienne, whether she knows it or not, is probably the most formidable knight in all of Westeros. Brienne is another character with so much potential, yet the creators on the show have failed to locate a purpose for her since she departed Jaime’s side. Technically, Brienne’s searching for the Starks, but she lost Arya and seems uninterested in Sansa entirely. Brienne has the best line of the premier episode (which had an awful lot more quotable quips than I remember previously-Angy snakes lash out, who said anything about him, etc. It almost felt like every character had some twitter-sized piece of wisdom to share…), summing up the sorry situation of Westeros: “All I ever wanted was to fight for a lord I believed in,” she tells Pod as she sharpens her sword. “But the good lords are dead and the rest are monsters.”
That sounds about right.
Andrew: It sure does. Case in point: Stannis Baratheon. The dude is so boring, but he’s also pretty evil. The man sure does have a penchant for cruel and painful executions. The action at the Wall wasn’t too exciting last night—like most everywhere else, it basically came down to a lot of talking, talking, talking. But at least there was a lot at stake. As you’ve observed before, Chris, what’s going on at the Wall makes everything else happening in Westeros seem small. The White Walkers are an existential threat to the kingdoms, even if few can acknowledge that threat yet. If Stannis manages to recruit the Wildlings to be part of his army, he’d have the best chance of anyone to conquer the rest of the lords of Westeros and unite them against the White Walkers.
But to do that he needs Mance Rayder—and I confess I don’t fully understand what Mance was thinking last night. The prospect of a death by burning would be enough to get me to bend the knee. What is Mance’s motivation here? He and Jon Snow had a long chat about the whole thing, and at the end of it I still had no idea what was going on in his head. Why refuse Stannis? It doesn’t help him, it doesn’t help the Wildlings, and OK, I guess the Wildlings wouldn’t agree to go with Stannis just because he said so, but they’re going to be an intransigent bunch anyway so why agree to a pointless and painful death?
Chris: That’s a great question, Andrew. Mance says something to the effect of: If I have to explain this to you then there’s no point explaining, and I thought, come on writers, throw us a bone because Mance is being STUPID. It’s not about his pride, but it is about not being remembered as a man who bowed to a foreign king? Whatever. I think there’s about zero chance the wildlings will not join up with Stannis. And in my own fantasy, a face-off between Stannis and his Wildling army vs. Danaerys and her Unsullied would make for a bloody good show.
The action at The Wall, and the fate of Jon Snow was my favorite part of the premiere. The gleeful smile of Stannis’ batshit crazy wife as Mance burned was just the kind of horrible stuff you wait for in Game of Thrones. Add to that the strange interaction between Snow and Melisandre in the lift (she takes his gloves off to touch her face to feel the fire of God…), and the mercy Jon Snow shows Mance on the burning pyre (I have full confidence that Stannis will not let that bet
rayal pass), established the gravity for Jon Snow’s arc this year. I’ve long thought that Jon Snow’s warnings of the White Walkers was one of the show’s better plot lines, and am hopeful they’ll figure out how to make more of that meal.
We didn’t even get to Sansa and Little Finger, roaming here to there, dressed head to toe in black. I don’t know what they’re doing but they sure look badass. But we have all season to see what happens up North, and all over Westeros. Now to Episode 2, and the return of the Arya.
