NOTE: I have not read a book in A Song of Ice and Fire beyond the first one so please don't be a jerk post any major spoilers.
“The Lion and the Rose” is bookended by a pair of illegitimate sons displaying the power they have acquired (providing a nice thematic loop). At the start we are treated to the sadism Ramsay Snow, perpetrator of season threes worst storyline. To end it we are treated to Joffery Lannister Baratheon’s cruelty, first taking a mock reenactment of the War of Five Kings too far and embarrassing Tyrion for no real reason than he can. Two displays of power both trying to gain different things both driven by madness.
There is an amazing universality to Thrones views that all sons are trapped by their fathers who are in turn trapped by a devotion to culture and greed. Ramsay Snow, the illegitimate son of Roose Bolton, has Theon (now called Reek) shave him in front of his power as a display of absolute power and his ability to rule. No not rule, more like subjugate. Midway through, Ramsey stingingly lets slip the Red Wedding and his father’s role in it. The camera and scene hang in a limbo for a few seconds as the old Theon tries to break through and slit his captor’s throat.
His father is not impressed by this pets trick. A whole Theon Greyjoy would’ve been a useful pawn in his moves to take the North. "We've been flaying our enemies for a thousand years; the flayed man is on our banners!" the bastard counters, he was only doing his family duty. "My banners, not yours. You're not a Bolton, you're a Snow." His father shuts him down completely. As it turns out Ramsay and Theon aren’t all that different after all, both vying for Daddies affection and legitimacy. The latter is a matter of more importance to Ramsay, without it he’s nothing but an errand boy for his father. Thrust into the shadows but brought up on the same torture rhetoric all the same and held to the double standard of his culture.
House Targaryen ruled for something like 300 years on the backs of dragons, taking what they wanted with Fire and Blood. It’s that kind of grip that seems to have held Westeros together, without them it all appears to be going downhill. It only takes one bad apple to ruin the barrel and Joffery is just that. He acts without compassion and with curler sadism than Ramsay Snow. The latter at least understands all the lies agreed upon that hold the Westerosi elite above the low born. Lies they may be, the houses accepted them, making Joffery’s flagrant disregard for decorum a ticking time bomb at best. These kinds of situations fit so perfectly within TV with its normally tighter framing and greater use of reaction shots compared to film. The story is told in the stone face of Sansa Stark and every other Tyrell and Lannister looking down and away as it all goes to hell.
I’ll admit it, there is some glee in seeing such a wretched character finally meet his end. Interpreting it as an action of righteous vengeance or as some kind of sign that “good” was on the comeback seems a bit facile. There is no good and the righteous are just as monsters as those they hunt. What it feels like is Games of Thrones in a nutshell: a sudden explosion of violence that throws all the carefully laid plans in disarray; no one is safe. This nutshell view makes it even more fitting that “The Lion and the Rose” is written by series creator George R. R. Martin.
The wedding party that dominates “The Lion and the Rose” back half becomes a minisode, telling its own story. All the dispirit King’s Landing threads are brought together for the wedding allowing for interactions that may not have normally happened. Oberyn gets to drop his veiled threats to Tywin. Jamie and Ser Loras trade barbs over Cerci, the latter coming out on top with just a sick burn. With all the time spent at the party it feels like “The Lion and the Rose” could have taken entirely in King’s Landing and it’d been worth it.
In between all of this “The Lion and the Rose” dose some checking in with party’s unseen in “Two Swords”.
After sacrificing Stannis’ brother in-law to her Lord of Light, Ser Devos reminds his King all the things that he did for him (men and ships). Stannis rights it off as meaningless in the end since his brother in-law was an infidel, more stress is put on the fact he disobeyed the order to removes his idols though. In a show needing a good guy, Stannis is one of the few but he and Melissandre are no better. Replace R'hllor with Danny and her Dragons or the Lannister-Tyrells and they are all the same.
Melissandre has a nice little chat with Stannis’ daughter, Shireen. The Princess isn’t exactly taken with the execution (read: cleansing) of her Uncle. It does give us the rather quotable line of “There is only one hell, princess—the one we live in now.” The line helps further flesh out Melissandre’s slightly more monotheistic religion R'hllor and the Faith of the Seven which appears more polytheistic with talk of seven heavens and hells. The thing that I find most odd is that the Faith of the Seven while appearing polytheistic is really mono in the instance that the seven are all just aspects of one universal creator. But if there is one thing reality has taught me zealots don’t see the similarities in the things they deem wrong.
Bran is still wandering north of the wall with the Reeds and Hodor. The crippled Lord has taken to warging(sc?) into Summer’s body, killing a elk before it speaks “Hodor” and pulls him back to reality. Bran’s segment isn’t all that interesting really, just reinforcing the fact he is some kind of savior to all. When Jojen warns Bran about warging into Summer he says he is “trapped” in the body. The intricacies of Wargs hasn’t been explained really (and they don’t need to be) but trapped is an interesting adjective. It makes it sound like the Warg doesn’t have full control over the body they inhabit. While traveling they also come across a red leafed tree, a rather odd object amongst all the dead white and that’s without the dire wolf hanging round it all mysterious like. It gives Bran a vision, someone calling him to under a tree. It’s a fevered montage but there is some shared imagery with what Danny saw at the end of Season 2, the Iron Throne room covered in ash and a dragon flying over head. His segment ends with him confidently telling everyone that he now knows where they have to go. Right now this is the kind of slow burn mythology plot that I don’t really care about, unless the Ice Zombies show up than stuff gets real.
Bits At the End
Song of the Episode: While I find "Your Love" by The Outfields to be a more fitting song for Game of Thrones in general. How could I not say it's "Purple Rain" by Prince?
“War is war, but Killing a man at a wedding, horrid. What sort of monster as if men need more reasons to fear marriage.” Word weddings and the events therein appear highly deadly for the Westerosi elite.
I’ll take webisodes of Jamie and Bronn training together HBO. The series actually hasn’t given us much one on one combat and the little we get here is light and fun, in an excellent location. The only annoyance being the constant cutting to a long shot of the rocky coast they practice on. The first time it fit as Jamie was pushed that way, the second time it was only done because it followed the same rhythm of the previous sequence.
With all of the Maleficent trailers Carice van Houten is reminding me of Angelina Jolie
I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZMand at weekntv.com
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