Read the next entry in the series here.
7.1 “Dragonstone”
Written by David
Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Directed by Jeremy
Podeswa
Here we are, so far past the text of the books, even the
sample chapters, that they’re barely making any kind of impression on the show
(not that they’ve been doing that much for the last season, maybe two). While
the episode as a whole actually wasn’t . . . terrible? (I know!), there are some lingering and/or repeated issues from
previous seasons that continue to pull down the quality of the storytelling.
The majority of the episode is a catching-up,
where-are-they-now that does some really weird stuff to the timeline. How long
has it been between seasons? Arya-as-Walder says it’s been two weeks since the
last feast (when she killed Walder), but Dany has managed to sail all the way
from Meereen (a trip that, in the books, takes several months and in the show
so far can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of minutes,
depending), Euron’s built several thousand ships, Sam’s been in training for
what looks like several weeks, and Jon is just now getting started on ruling. So
the only solid piece of timing we have is that two-weeks remark, but the rest
of everything that’s happening looks like it’s anywhere from a day to two
months later (with Euron as an outlier, because frankly that should have taken years). Now, the showrunners have
repeatedly said that they’re not trying for consistency in the timing because
that would mean some people’s scenes would be just traveling for half a season,
but now that everyone’s on the same continent, shouldn’t we maybe settle on
some kind of synchronicity?
The portrayal of the women also continues to be an issue.
Arya murders the entire male Frey population, which, okay, vengeance. I think
the little smile she has when she leaves the hall is meant to echo Sansa’s
little smile after killing Ramsay, and that’s concerning. While Arya sees it as
her duty to avenge family and friends by killing everyone who’s harmed them, I
don’t get the sense from the books that she enjoys killing. She enjoys the
setting-up, she enjoys a plan well-executed, but not necessarily the killing
itself. While I can almost work with the idea that women need to become violent
in order to survive in a violent world, the idea that every woman who does so enjoys doing so is disturbing and
further reinforces the celebration of toxic masculinity we’ve seen in the show
so far.
Similarly, Brienne is “training” Pod, and said training
consists of him swinging at her and missing and her smacking him, knocking him
down, and yelling “no,” while smirking at his ineptitude. We established in season one with Alliser’s training
versus Jon’s training that this is not the
way to teach people to fight. So why is one of our heroes doing it that way
without being called on it? Why is humiliating Pod something Brienne finds so
hilariously enjoyable? Not only that, but when he takes the opportunity to
actually hit her when she’s distracted by Tormund, she gets angry and punches
him. This prompts Tormund to tell Pod he’s a “lucky man” because being punched
is foreplay for Tormund. (We apparently narrowly
escaped Tormund telling Brienne about his sexual escapades with a bear. Darn.)
Over in King’s Landing, we have Cersei, who’s never exactly
been a women’s libber, detailing the armies that surround them: in Dorne,
Ellaria Sand “and her brood of bitches,” in Highgarden, “Olenna, the old cunt,”
in the North, Jon and “that murdering whore Sansa.” Since Cersei’s never met
Daenerys personally, it’s Tyrion who gets her ire on that front. Now, this
perfectly fits Cersei’s character. She’s internalized the misogyny of Westeros
to the point that she doesn’t think women are fit to rule—other women. Not her.
She’s not like other women, you see. So her gendered invectives against the
other “women on top” are perfectly consistent with her character. However, when
every other woman is also buying into the patriarchy and following the rules of
toxic masculinity, it makes her not that much of an outlier, but instead just
another example of how sexist this show really is.
Just in case we needed a reminder that women are useless
unless they’re willing to act like men, we have Lyanna Mormont declaring that she’s not going to “sit by the fire and
knit” if the White Walkers show up. Because remember that “women’s work,”
regardless of its function, is ultimately useless and silly. I mean, it’s not
like knitting could produce socks and sweaters that could keep the fighters
warm in the coming winter. Once again, the writers overlook the fact that work
coded “female” is incredibly important
to the continued functioning of society.
Meanwhile, it’s not like the men are doing a great job,
either. Jon’s turning out to be a terrible leader, you guys. He introduces the
idea that everyone will be trained to fight—boys and girls—which Lord Glover isn’t too keen on but causes Lyanna’s
above outburst. He sends Tormund and the rest of the wildlings to man
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, completely ignoring the fact that he isn’t Lord Commander
of the Night’s Watch anymore and therefore doesn’t have the authority to do any
such thing. He puts Alys Karstark (hey, there she is! Entirely too young and
not marrying a Thenn, but she exists!) and Ned Umber in charge of their
respective family homes—the two castles closest to the Wall on the eastern
front. Two children, from families
that betrayed the Starks and served the Boltons. He puts the two most important
castles, which barely have garrisons left and will need some serious leadership
to prepare for war, in the hands of two kids not more than thirteen and nine
years old. Not only that, but the kids are able to swear on their swords
because for some reason, family members of men who turned traitor are allowed
to bring weapons into the presence of the King in the North. The security here
is a joke. He also manages to get into an argument with Sansa in front of
everyone because she disagrees with returning control of Karhold and Last
Hearth to the families that have proven disloyal.
Later, he tells her she needs to stop undercutting him in
public, but it’s clear that he didn’t discuss this decision with anyone
beforehand, so when was she supposed to disagree with him? And yet she assures
him that he’s doing a great job; he just needs to be smarter than Ned and Robb,
who made mistakes that got them killed (kind of a harsh verdict for Ned;
fair-ish for Robb).
So, let’s look at Jon’s track record as a leader:
- As Commander of the Night’s Watch, he failed to convince them that his ideas were valid and ended up murdered
- Failed to convince Lyanna Mormont to back him against the Boltons; Davos did that
- Failed to convince Lord Glover to back him against the Boltons
- Refused to listen to Sansa regarding Ramsay
- Refused to listen to Sansa regarding needing more men and possibly approaching more of the northern lords and/or waiting for backup
- Nearly lost the battle for Winterfell; Sansa’s Vale army saved him
- Named King in the North because Lyanna says he should be
- Failed to convince the men that they should train their daughters to fight; again, Lyanna does that
- Failed to solicit or accept advice from anyone (let alone Sansa) before meeting with his lords
So, no, Sansa, he’s not a good leader. He gets one or two
loyalists who end up doing the work of leading for him. Not in a delegate-y way, either, but in a “this isn’t
working so I’ll step in and yell about it until y’all agree with what Jon just
said” way. There is absolutely no reason, either by strength of his name or
strength of his leadership skills, that Jon should be King in the North.
Another weakness this episode has is in not explaining how
people have some of the information they have. Arya knows details of the Red
Wedding that it doesn’t quite make sense for her to have, even with two weeks
masquerading as Walder Frey. Cersei knows that Tyrion’s been named Hand of the
Queen despite Varys not reporting to her anymore (and I doubt Qyburn has the
same contacts in Essos that Varys did, even if he has taken over the little
birds). Daenerys somehow knows that Dragonstone has been completely abandoned
and she won’t have to fight for it.
There are other unexplained details, as well. Why did
Stannis, who’s supposed to be a military genius to rival Tywin, leave
Dragonstone completely unmanned? Since he did, why did nobody else take it,
particularly the Lannisters? Jaime points out how strategically important it is
in this episode and yet they’ve let
it sit empty for at least six months without putting a garrison of their own in
there or giving it to a loyal Lannister bannerman. No wonder they have no
allies. Why are books of history locked up in the Citadel’s restricted section?
Who cares if the trainees learn about the history of the Long Night and where
some dragonglass is located (on
Dragonstone, surprise surprise, because Stannis told Sam it was there but for some reason he didn’t remember or
didn’t believe him)? Why does a completely random Lannister soldier apparently
compose “Hands of Gold,” a song written (in the books) by a minstrel aware of
Tyrion’s relationship with Shae and used to blackmail Tyrion (only for said
minstrel to end up murdered and presumably added to the mystery meat in Flea
Bottom’s cookpots)? How does Sandor Clegane manage to see anything in the fire?
Can any random person in the presence of a Red Priest/ess just see fire-visions
now, regardless of their level of belief in R’hllor?
One other question I had throughout was, why is everyone
wearing black? (And, more specifically, what
in the world is Euron
Greyjoy wearing?) Black has very
specific symbolism and connotations, and they’re clearly not being used
consistently in this episode. Is it for mourning? Then Cersei’s black makes
sense, but Dany-and-company’s doesn’t, Euron’s doesn’t, and the entire Northern
contingent’s doesn’t. Is it for evil? Then again, Cersei’s and Euron’s make
sense, but nobody else’s does. Is it just to show how Serious™ everything has
gotten? That’s way too meta of a reason for me to accept; there needs to be an in-show reason for it, and there doesn’t
seem to be. That’s not even getting into the fact that there’s an entire
faction in this show known for wearing black—the Night’s Watch—that would add
another layer of in-universe symbolism to it, and nobody seems to care that
“taking the Black” is a thing. I
could almost see clear to giving the North a pass on this, cause maybe Jon’s
just so comfortable in black that he doesn’t get out of it after leaving the
Night’s Watch and everyone else imitates him, but that again doesn’t explain
everyone else wearing black.
Whoops, did I say this episode wasn’t terrible and then
proceed to point out lots of systemic problems? I must be grading on a curve.
But seriously, there were several scenes that, standing alone, were actually
really good.
Sandor with the Brotherhood in the Riverlands was poignant
and an example of the kind of character development I’d like to see more of. He
recognizes that he was an awful person and made a mistake in his treatment of
the farmer whose homestead they use as a camp. He sees that his actions have
consequences and feels bad about those consequences without the narrative or
other characters laughing at him about it. He even gets a stint as a
gravedigger when he buries their bodies, which is a nice callout to his book
role in A Feast for Crows, which they
completely skipped over in the show. It’s richly ironic that he’s fallen in
with a group that worships fire (and there’s a very very brief passing
acknowledgement of that irony), and I’d love to see that explored in more
detail. He’s finally having some character moments that don’t require him to
hit things (though he does still have a mouth on him). More of this, please.
Despite its flaws (convenient knowledge-having and Cersei’s
outfit), the map scene with Jaime and Cersei is generally well-done. It sets up
the conflicts for the season—everyone vs the Lannisters—establishes where Jaime
and Cersei’s relationship is right now, and gives Cersei a moment to explain
why she’s refusing to really process Tommen’s death (it’s a selfish reason, but
very believably Cersei). Sure, they’re stomping all over a
painstakingly-detailed, still-in-progress painting of Westeros on the floor,
but when has consideration for the labor of others ever been a Lannister trait?
But then. Here
come the Ironborn, and Cersei is aware that Euron’s going to want to marry her.
It’s a given for an alliance of this size. Euron, who is still a pale shadow of
his book antecedent and more laughable than frightening, whines about his niece
and nephew running off with the entire fleet, but he’s managed to build a new
one in mumble mumble amount of time, so whatever. His alliance proposal is
similar to Yara’s with Dany; he wants to rule the Iron Islands independently of
the Seven Kingdoms, and in return he’ll help her take the rest of the Kingdoms.
He wants to marry Cersei, of course, as was established in the last scene, but
Cersei turns him down. Instead of
reacting in any way sensibly, he promises her a gift to woo her and leaves to
go find said gift.
Then there’s the now-notorious Ed Sheeran scene. (For the
record, I hate “Shape of You.” Hate. It.) There have been other
musical-artist cameos on Game of Thrones before.
Not once have they ever zoomed in on
said artist’s face. This whole scene felt very much like it was written for Ed
Sheeran to show up, not for any good plot- or character-development reason. It
doesn’t help that his appearance in the show was hyped all to heck before the
season aired, so there was no chance of treating him like just another
character. This was the Ed Sheeran Cameo™ and there was no disguising it as
anything else. And, again, it makes zero sense for him to be singing a “new”
song called “Hands of Gold.”
Speaking of unnecessary scenes, Sam’s montage of
shit-soup-books was just overly. We get it; training isn’t what he expected.
That scene could have been half as long with zero as many close-ups of human
poop. Heck, that scene could have not existed, because the scene with
Archmaester Ebrose does the work of showing that maestering isn’t all Sam
expected it to be and he’s not doing the duty he feels he owes Jon (finding
ways to fight the White Walkers). Also, why does he need to reshelve books that
are supposed to be chained to the shelves? Also also, you know why they’re
chained to the shelves and/or locked up? To
keep people like Sam from running off with them, that’s why. You had one job, Citadel librarians!
Finally, there’s the Dragonstone scene. On a surface level,
it’s a lovely scene: Dany’s finally home. She’s getting to walk through the
keep her family held for thousands of years, the keep where she was born. She’s
finally in Westeros (marginally) and about to unleash all hell on the
Lannisters. But there’s some emotional stuff here they’re reaching for that I
don’t feel was quite earned, and that’s partially a side-effect of everything
being so external; Dany’s feelings about “home” are conflicted in the books,
and we don’t get much of that in the show. When she tells Viserys she wants to
go home in the first book/season, she means the house with the red door where Ser
Willem Darry took care of them for a chunk of her childhood. She doesn’t
remember Westeros, let alone Dragonstone. She doesn’t have the emotional
connection to the place, just the
sense that she needs to take it back because it’s her birthright. So this very
standard homecoming scene, with the touching the ground and the walking through
the keep, doesn’t quite match the emotional timbre of what’s already been set
up in the show or the books. Show-Dany’s
sense of “home” has always been connected to her family—Viserys, Rhaegar, Aerys—instead
of a place. Not to mention that everyone keeps stopping to let her explore
rooms so there’s this weird stop-start-stop-start that makes sense the first
time (let Dany go first and experience this alone) but after that just gets
distracting.
It’s definitely not the worst season premiere Game of Thrones has ever had, and it
starts us off with a definite sense of building momentum that will hopefully
catapult us through the next two seasons. Also, no nudity!
RIP: House Frey
Next week: Nymeria! Hot Pie! Sand Snake snark! More random
character-culling!
images from winteriscoming.net
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