Books are not television. Television is not reading. For those who first came to Game of Thrones through Martin’s Ice and Fire books, that gets driven home frequently in ways both large and small. On the micro-scale there are changes in character names, appearance, and dialog. At the larger end, there are whole subplots and major characters scrubbed from the video version to preserve both time and series budget (sorry, Lady S., I don’t think you’re ever appearing).
But there are bigger differences, differences that go beyond the gap between these books and this series; ones that affect almost any transition from page to screen. One of those is simply the wealth of information you get when when a scene is … seen. Though there are writers who seek to describe each stitch of clothing and every rise of an eyebrow, no page of text is going to be as descriptive as a picture. After all, a thousand words. Etc. The scenery, the background sounds, the mud the blood—it all has an impact.
That’s not to say that the book is at a disadvantage in this department. After all, it’s a rare production that can match the budge of the special effects department in a reader’s imagination, and a good writer doesn’t have to dress every character. She just tells you enough to let you fill in the blanks with your own special cast and costumes. The two are simple, irreconcilably different.
But there’s another area where books have a significant edge—relaying memories. Whether third person or first person, a book would have no trouble telling you just what Arya was recalling before she uttered one particular line in this episode. On screen that line comes out not just as cryptic, which can be a good thing, but just damn confusing, which is pretty much never a good thing.
Let’s get under the spoiler line where we can take a look …
Arya
I’m putting her up first mostly so we can get to, and past, that line.
On her way to King’s Landing to do in Cersei, Arya gets a Hot Pie reunion. Nice to see that Mr. Pie has survived through all the horrors of the last four seasons, and that he doesn’t seem to have been going hungry. Hot Pie notes for the first time that Arya is actually a girl, and that she’s pretty. That’s okay. We weren’t counting on H.P. to produce a lot of astute observations, just dish up the pastry-wrapped concoctions.
Oh, and he’s apparently been waiting in this spot for several seasons to inform Arya of something you might think she would have picked up along the road—the Boltons are dead and Jon is King in the North. Were none of the Frey’s musing that, despite all the Stark-killing they’d done, wolves just kept popping up? Apparently they were all thirsty.
In any case, this news is enough to make Arya pause in her mission to take out Cersei and turn her horse north along the King’s Road. Then, somewhere in the Riverlands, after an antsy horse and a puff of breath makes us fret for a moment that the Army of the Dead might have slipped around the Wall, Arya encounters a pack of snappy-toothed wolves, led by an enormous direwolf that has to be Arya’s old friend Nymeria, missing since Season 1. After giving the horse-sized wolf a speech in which Arya is more open and emotional than she’s been with any human being over the last four seasons, Nymeria seems to be making the same sort of decision that Arya made after her encounter with Hot Pie — carry on, or go back to Winterfell. Unfortunately for fans of direwolf on wight action, Nymeria at last decides to pad back into the forest, her collection of lesser wolves in tow.
And then Arya says, “That’s not you.” And … what? That’s not Nymeria? Then who? What? Fortunately, the little post-show-show was along shortly to explain that this refers back to a line in the opening season in which Ned Stark is telling a considerably younger Arya about how one day she’ll grow to be a great lady and marry one of these idiot lords. Arya responds “That’s not me.” See, Arya is wild and Nymeria is wild and … this somehow ties together with this line.
Exactly how the audience was supposed to decipher this without the post-game commentary isn’t clear. Maisie Williams may have the most expressive eyebrows in the business, but even she is not able to semaphore a flashback scene while simultaneously making an emotional pitch to a giant wolf.
It’s moments like this that convince me that the producers are still holding onto a sheaf of Martin’s much-marked-up manuscript pages, because this is pretty much the definition of something that would work better on paper.
Daenerys, et. al.
Dany finds that being home on Dragonstone is a lot less fun than anticipated. The island castle is lashed by storms, isolated, and rather severe. It also doesn’t look like there’s any place for several thousand Dothraki, complete with horses. Just where has Team Dany secreted their forces? It’s not clear. In any case, as the Mother of Dragons plots the conquest of Westeros, the divisions are generally between the group that wants her to take over the place without reducing it to dust, which consists of Tyrion and Varys, and everyone else, who are just fine with seeing Cersei’s three kingdoms turned to dragon slag.
Varys gets singled out for his triple backstabbing ways … which do seem to make him a poor candidate for long term employee. However, Varys gives a good enough speech to argue himself out of immediately being made into dragon kibble. The discussion is interrupted by company. Melisandre has come to speak a lot of Valyrian and urge Dany to call for Jon Snow.
If anyone in the room knew that Melisandre had directed Stannis to burn poor Princess Shireen, they might be in a mood to listen a little less enthusiastically, but Tyrion recalls his travels with Jon fondly and urges Dany to send a message. Raven dispatched.
In this segment Missandei also informs us of the very convenient fact that the Valyrian words for prince in “the prince who was promised,” a prophecy that’s been batted about since forever, actually mean “prince or princess.” Which seems like something that might have been corrected well before this point.
Later Daenerys is joined at her map table by Olenna Tyrell, brother and sister Greyjoy, and the full collection of Dornish Sand Snakes. There’s some repeat of the burn it all down vs. try to keep at least a person or two alive argument—during which Ellaria hurls her spite at Tyrion with a full unfurl of her Nefertiti-length neck—but Dany and Tyrion have already worked out a plan. The Greyjoys will ferry the Sand Snakes back to Dorne, and then those two, along with the armies of the Tyrells, will invest King’s Landing. Meanwhile, Dany will send the Unsullied to attack the Lannister’s home at Casterly Rock. And the Dothraki … where in the frack are the Dothraki?
Olenna sticks around to give Dany the advice “You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.” Which is good, but her even better advice is to ignore clever men. If only she could bottle this and ship a pint to Sansa.
Oh, and Missandei and Grey Worm get naked — which is hopefully not a sign that one is soon to be mourning the other.
Cersei and Jaime
Come on. Admit it. Cersei is better at this than you thought she would be. In a pitch to the handful of lords that remain to her, Cersei does a good enough job in painting Daenyrs as a foreign interloper, with her wild horsemen and ranks of humorless infantry, and those three dragons, that it’s not hard to see why some of those on hand would double down on the Lannisters. After all, Cersei’s a monster, but she’s their monster.
The one thing that’s holding back support for Cersei is, again, those dragons.
Fortunately, Not-A-Maester Qyburn' has seen that bad Hobbit movie. Or, like a lot of people in this episode, he’s collected a lot of information that he’s failed to mention until now. In Qyburn’s case, he’s been collecting dragon info, and has prepared a bunch of oversized crossbows with which to decorate the skyline of King’s Landing.
While we’ve visiting with Cersei, could someone speak some Valyrian? I’d like to get a gender ruling on the word “valonqar.” Maybe next week.
Sam and Jorah
Sam’s job at the Citadel seems to be breaking as many rules of the Citadel as quickly as he can so he can be thrown out of the Citadel.This week, he learns that Jorah Mormont is Jorah Mormont. Remembering Mormont’s father from his role as the pre-Jon Snow leader of the Night’s Watch, Sam sets out to save Jorah using the most painful, unsightly, and dangerous cure imaginable.
Be glad your television doesn’t transmit smells.
In any case, Sam is well positioned to be put on the road, and / or infected with greyscale.
Jon and Sansa
Finishing out the Starks for the week, up at Winterfell Jon is in receipt of a pair of raven-borne messages. One is from Tyrion, asking him to stop by Dragonstone in much nicer terms than the ones Dany actually delivered. The other is, by astounding coincidence, from Sam, telling him that Dragonstone is full of the dragonglass needed to fight off the wight army.
Jon decides to make the trip to Dragonstone—though one might think that regular ferry service to an island that had been unoccupied for some time might be hard to find—leaving Sansa in charge of the North. This last pleases Littlefinger considerably.
He’s less pleased when he confesses his Sansa-love to Jon and Jon threatens to kill him. In this Jon commits the same mistake that so many have made to this point: Don’t threaten to kill Littlefinger. Just do it. Threatening Littlefinger then leaving him with Sansa? Bad move, Jon.
Oh, and Lady Mormont is against Jon going. That can’t be a good sign.
Greyjoys and Sand Snakes and Euron, oh my
Sailing through the night with an astounding level of complacency for someone with a crazy uncle out there somewhere, Yara is too busy woo-pitching with Ellaria to note that the fleet is running straight into Crazy Euron’s crazy black-sailed ships. With a combination of boarding parties, flaming catapult bombs, pointy rams, and a sea-serpent-shaped ramp, Euron smashes Yara’s fleet. In the process he deprives Dany of that portion of her fleet not engaged in moving troops to Casterly Rock, kills at least two Sand Snakes, captures Yara, and drives Theon to fresh depths of cowardice as he dives into the wreckage strewn sea,
Compared with epic battles from previous years, this one is rather brief, and the darkness hides a lot of details. But the destruction to Greyjoy fleet #1 by Greyjoy Fleet #2 seems pretty complete.
This would seem to more or less knock Dorne out of the war, if not return it to Cersei’s column. There’s a figure spiked on the burning prow of one ship that looks all too much like Ellaria, though I can’t be sure. Crazy Euron promised Cersei a prize, and I’m thinking that driving Ellaria (and Yara?) through town to that old shame, shame, shame beat might just make Cersei’s week. Also, there’s probably one more Sand Snake alive. So Bronn can ogle her one last time.
In any case, Euron is upgraded from low-rent Jack Sparrow to Poor Man’s Blackbeard. Bonus points for the insane laugh.
What I didn’t like about this episode:
Everyone who suddenly reveals information that could have been available earlier simply because it might have solved something / given us a clue to find out sooner.
Yara is forced to be stupid in order to blunder into Euron’s trap. Yara is not stupid.
Invisible dragons and Dothraki, who were apparently on picnic together.
Things I like:
Look who is sitting around the table of power at Dany’s house. Pretty cool, eh?