Game of Thrones Winner: “Valar Marghulis”

This is also a great episode (not quite as good as good as “Blackwater” but still very good.) full of lots of people doing cool bad ass things. That is not to say that there isn’t a clear winner. There very obviously is.

Duh

Danerys wins because, let’s talk about what she does. She makes her way into The House of The Undying, which, by the way, doesn’t have any doors. Once inside she has a few visions. The first is of The Iron Throne, the entire throne room covered in snow. (Winter is Coming and all of that.) The second vision, is of Drogo holding their son.

I love this scene, particularly how she lets them, and the dream of that life go. It’s heartbreaking and perfect.

After the visions, she finds the dragons. (Yay!) Then, just as The Warlocks think they have her trapped, she kills them with dragonfire.

Oh but the one true queen isn’t finished yet. She goes back to Xaro’s and finds him in bed with Doreah (BETRAYAL!) So what does she do? She locks them both in Xaro’s vault, and strips his house of all his riches to buy a ship.

Runner up goes to Brienne, who goes out of her way to give a burial to a bunch of women murdered for supposedly sleeping with Lannisters, kills the men who killed them, reminds Jamie who exactly is in charge around here and reiterates that she’s loyal to Catelyn not to The Starks in total.

She’s the best.

Missandei And Greyworm Watch

You know who would never betray Dany and sleep with the dude who was trying to have her killed?

If you answered Missandei, you would be absolutely correct.

Sansa’s Agency Watch

Hey! Sansa doesn’t have to marry Joffrey because Maergary is falling on that particular sword for the time being. That’s pretty great news for Sansa. But as Little Finger reminds her, she’s not quite out of the woods yet. But it’s still good.

Arya Badass Watch

Arya turns down a big badass chance to go to Braavos and become a faceless man. Bummer that we still have two seasons before that’s a thing.

Who Was Jamie A Dick To?

Jamie was a dick to Brienne! Also those Starks they killed. Obviously.

Robb Is A King And Kind of Bad At It

In this episode Robb marries Talisa.

Dumbass.

Final Note:

I’m going to be taking a break from this rewatch for a little while. Among other things (I’m so behind on my weekly shows and podcasts, NaNoWriMo, desire to just watch The X-Files and nothing else) these weekly watches and write ups are starting to feel like a chore and one of the joys of not being beholden to anyone else in this space is that when something starts to feel like a chore, I can back away from it and come back when it feels fun again. I have every intention to go through and name winners, catalog Sansa’s agency, Arya’s badassness and everything else for season 3, but my guess is that I’ll do it after the Holidays, when I’ve finished with X-Files and have a little more weekend leisure time to get ahead of things. For the next few weeks, I’ve decided to black out on Wednesdays, which gives me one night a week (at least) to just work on NaNoWriMo and not blog.

Game of Thrones Winner: “The Ghost of Harrenhall”

I love this episode so very much. I don’t really know why, nothing terribly huge happens in it, but it’s a completely wonderful episode.

The winner of this episode, is, no surprise, the ghost himself Jaqen H’ghar

I love Jaqen, but this episode, particularly is a great one for him, where he and Arya speak again and he introduces her to the idea of death needing to be repaid. He mentions “The Red God,” which I’m pretty sure he never does again, and also leads me to believe that while giving “The Kindly Man” (as he’s called in the book) Jaqen’s face was a good call visually, it makes it clear that he might not be the same guy.

Anyway, his win comes from beginning his work as “The Ghost of Harrenhall,” the episodes title character!

Good for you Jaqen.

Runner up goes to Catelyn who saves Brienne from being tried for Renly’s death and then earns her as a protector and vassal, this is good for Catelyn. Kind of wish Brienne had stuck with her rather than going on Jamie guard dealing.

Missandei and Grey Worm Watch

Dany send Doreah to have sex with dudes in Qarth to find out about Xaro, because men talk when they’re “happy.” I feel like she would never do this to Missandei, because Missandei is better than Doreah, and she’s also matured by the time. The other hand maiden who’s name I can’t remember is very defensive of Dany losing her Dorthraki identity. You should listen to that Handmaiden Who’s Name I Can’t Remember Dany…

Sansa Agency Watch

No Sansa this week. So, no agency to check up on.

Arya Bad Ass Watch

She teaches Gendry how to fight, or gives him tips at least. Not going to lie, I ship these two a little. Too bad they’ll probably never see each other again and Gendry may or may not be dead? Who knows. Anyway, she also serves Tywin, effectively lies about her identity (although I still bet that Tywin has an inkling about who she is.) and gives Jaqen the first of the names.

An excellent hour of badassery from Arya.

Who Was Jamie A Dick To?

Still no Jamie. I mean, I know the second half and next season are great for him, but wow can’t believe how long it’s been since we saw him. Tyrion was a dick about him to Lancel, so I guess that counts?

Robb Is A King And Kind Of Bad At It

No Robb this week. But in “Theon is a Person and Kind Of Bad At It” news, he comes up with his stupid invade Winterfell plan that ruins a lot of things. And this is a result of Robb being terrible at being King and sending Theon home.