Game of Thrones isn’t a show with a lot of foreign language but enough that they use subtitles for extended sequences. Emilia Clarke has a particular talent for selling High Valyrian, a language author George R. R. Martin has never given any sort of canonical guide to speaking. There is just enough subtitled moments, that when there aren’t subtitles you really notice it. One of the complaints I get whenever I try and get my family to watch say Chungking Express is their displeasure with reading subtitles, it distracts them. In the case of the scene between Grey Worm and Missandei it really would distract. Jacob Anderson is given a chance to finally emote and his eyes just show a frustration and yearning for Missandei. Their lessons are a moment of actual warmth, a reprieve for a show that reminds us mid scene that this isn’t the home of warm fuzzies and if you want that, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Daenerys crusade to free the slaves has been an honorable but subtly alarming journey. The recently freed appear to simply replace one master with a new one, who just happens to not keep them in bondage. They are in no way educated to make a choice that isn’t follow the new master. “Oathkeeper” goes a long way in giving the slaves across the Narrow Sea some semblance of agency in the form of a simple graffiti message “Kill the Masters”. Armed with blades provided by Grey Worm and his Unsullied, they do just that.
“Oathkeeper” is filled with groups of people acting as a mass and not individuals. The slaves of Mereen rise up enmass and kill their masters. The daughter-wives of Crastor all begin to chant ominously about an offering to the gods. The Unsullied themselves have been dehumanized into killing machines since birth. Grey Worm is only now starting to try and shed that identity of non-human to individual. A slow process as he speaks of himself in the third person but a breath later talks of the individual responsibility to take freedom.
Mercy and forgiveness are hard things to get through emotionally, more so in Westeros where the answer to everything seems to be: kill. Daenerys has not heeded Daario Naharis’ advice that she learn the customs of her conquest. She is upending what must be a generation’s long social structure and punishing the defeated. It’s just another turn on the sick cycle carousel that is this series. We are shaped by our upbringing and in the world of Game of Thrones with its cyclical violence it may be impossible for a ruler to grow up in a way that doesn’t leave them thirsting for vengeance and retribution, two terms often used as synonym for the other. Daenerys continues to show no mercy, mocking the formerly Great Masters of Mereen by nailing them to sign posts. The problem with proclaiming yourself a revolutionary, there’s always someone who wants to go farther and someone who wants you to step back.
The rape scene between Jamie and Cerci was horrid and if we are to believe Alex Graves did not play as intended. The manner in which Game of Thrones is produced makes the likeyhood of an audible reflection by the series itself unlikely. The first scene we see between Jamie and Cerci does a show the now very chilly river that lay between brother and sister. The camera hangs on Cerci appearing broken before her solitude is interrupted by Jamie’s knock. The camera reflects Cerci’s point of view that Jamie is now no one of import as he spends a fair bit of that scene out of focus, thanks to his new coat blending in obscenely well with the earth tone colors of Kings Landing backdrop. The scene from last week has changed things between them and that’s all one could really hope for.
Jamie isn’t the knight in shining gold armor we want him to be. He’s a tortured character who’s now trying to do the “honorable” thing (a situational term at best). Gifting Brienne his Valyrian steel sword, dubbed the titular “Oathkeeper”, and a new set of badass armor to help her on the quest to find and protect Sansa Stark. As with the Grey Worm-Missandei, it is about what goes unspoken as much as it is spoken. The camera follows the common technique of showing each party exchange longing looks at one another. I’ve got a sinking feeling that they won’t be seeing each other again =(.
There’s not much for me to really say about the ending of “Oathkeeper”. Maybe something pithy, about how if you thought Ice Zombies were bad than man Ice Demons must to be worst. The ‘ice’ prefix in RPG’s was always a pain and on the hierarchy of bad things Demons defiantly worst than Zombies, especially ICE DEMONS.
Episode director Michelle MacLaren wrings every bit of tension out of that scene. Constantly cutting back to long shots of the castle(?) and courtyard area, before resting closer but obscuring the White Walker through ice. Each time the camera cut back, it felt like a smash cut to black was seconds away, leaving audiences wondering what’s going to happen next. Ending on the eye of the baby slowly turning to ice was a fantastically erry way to send “Oathkeeper” off.
Bits At the End
Ser Pounce is an excellent name for a cat and I look forward to more night time escapades between Margery, Tommen, and Ser Pounce. Lady Olenna is right, she is better than her.
Ok something big has to happen next episode Michelle MacLaren is directing and that’s a big friggin name in TV.
Now that we’ve gotten one scene between Jamie and Tyrion, I want MORE! They better not kill Tyrion of screw cannon it’s an adaptation and Dinklage is by far their best actor next to Dance and Headey.
Also everyone should go watch Chungking Express that movie is adorable amazing.
I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZMand at weekntv.com
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