Voltron: Legendary Defender Watch 2.1: "Across the Universe"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

The second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender opens just as the first season closes, making more of science fiction tropes than of the medieval--but there is still something medievalist to be found.

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2.1. "Across the Universe"

Written by May Chan
Directed by Steve In Chang Ahn

Synopsis

Beginning in the moments before the previous episode ends, "Across the Universe" shows Zarkon looking out over the end of the Voltron Paladins' raid on his main facility; they flee, and Haggar interdicts their escape, destabilizing the wormhole the Castle of Lions generated. Shiro, Keith and Pidge are lost; the Castle itself falls into a strange time-loop.

Shiro and Keith emerge onto a brightly lit world, with Shiro clutching a glowing wound as the two fall to ground on different trajectories and crash-land some distance apart. Keith revives to find his Red Lion out of power; he reconnoiters his area and begins to search for Shiro. The latter wakes a bit later, in pain from his wound, and does much the same as Keith. The two are able to make contact via their communications systems, and they confer about their situation--with Shiro noting the intrusion of local fauna.

Both find themselves struggling against their environment, with Shiro having to retreat to cover under attack b the local fauns--mimetic of dragons, interestingly--and Keith beset by geysers that seem to track his path. Keith notes his appreciation for Shiro's lessons as he proceeds and employs them to good effect to reach his senior colleague and, using the Black Lion, to deliver him from immediate peril as Shiro falters in his own defense.

Meanwhile, Pidge crash-lands in a space-borne debris field. After an encounter with local fauna and some evidence of suffering from isolation, she realizes that the debris field contains equipment that can be used to build a transmitter or beacon. She constructs that beacon atop her re-energizing Green Lion and, after an initial failure, successfully transmits her location.

That she does so is fortunate, as Allura and Coran in the Castle of Lions are trapped in a strange time-loop. Allura seems immune to its temporal effects, but the small creatures that accompany her mutate oddly with each pass through the loop, and Coran de-ages (although he retains his moustache, humorously enough). Attempts to break free fail repeatedly, and Coran soon finds himself an infant in Allura's arms, facing non-existence--at which point, the Castle receives Pidge's signal and is able to orient itself such that it can escape the wormhole and recover Pidge, as well as Shiro and Keith.

At the end of the episode, Galra internal politics manifest. The failure to capture Voltron is noted, and the commander who had been tasked with doing so is dragged off to torture and "a fate worse than death." A lieutenant, Thace, is promoted to command and given charge of the investigation into leaks in Galra security as the episode concludes.

Discussion

There is little overtly medievalist about the episode, to be sure, aside from the series commonplaces of paladins and druids, already discussed at length. Some things can be read as medievalist, however; the interleaved narratives are typical of such works as Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and, although far from unique to it, do serve to situate an already-medievally-associated work with its antecedents a bit more fully.

Too, something in the brightly lit world on which Shiro and Keith land calls to mind depictions of Purgatory. The two warriors do experience some trial and privation before being allowed to ascend to the heavens, and they do emerge from their experiences on the world in what seems a stronger position because they emerge more unified, with something like a fraternal or filial relationship budding between the two. And there is something of the Fisher King or of Sir Urry in Shiro's lingering injury; whether a particular paladin or other force can heal his injury remains to be seen.

In the gap between this report and its predecessor, not only has the full second season of the series emerged, but a third has begun, as well, and the comics remain available. Matters have not conduced to much work on this series or on other, similar projects that might be pursued--but that appears to be changing. It is hoped, therefore, that there will be a bit more of this kind of thing to come in the days ahead.

Game of Thrones Watch 7.1: "Dragonstone"

Read the previous entry in the series here. 
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

Voting Is Ended

The recent vote to amend the Society constitution noted earlier has ended.

Fourteen responses are recorded, all members, of whom three are current officers. Per section 7.1 of the Society constitution, a quorum for the vote was therefore achieved.

All fourteen votes were in favor of amendment. The Society constitution is thereby amended.

Thank you for your participation, those who voted. We look forward to seeing you at Kalamazoo, if not before!

Game of Thrones (Re)Watch 6.10: "The Winds of Winter"

Read the previous entry in the series here. 
Read the next entry in the series here.

6.10 “The Winds of Winter”

Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik

Commentary by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Len Headey (Cersei), and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion)

Well, here we are. The end of season 6; the true end of any claim to rewatching. The end of an era, almost, as something like 90% of the characters get murdered in this episode. The rest of it is just wrapping up loose ends and getting ready for season seven.

I don’t know if I talk up the good parts of this series enough. The writing, plotting, and adapting might be terrible, the costuming sometimes questionable, and the acting occasionally slippy, but usually the acting is really good, the cinematography gorgeous, the effects well done.

And the music. You guys, the music. Ramin Djawadi is a master. I’m still not tired of the main theme. “The Children” gives me goosebumps every time. And in this episode, he completely changes technique and instrumentation and gives us “The Light of the Seven,” which is a gorgeously melancholy piece that plays for nearly 10 minutes over the extremely long opening of this episode that leads up to the boom. Near the end, the piano shifts to organ, which, combined with the introduction of the main motif, adds menace, then shifts back to melancholy piano, then back to organ, following the main beats of the scene.

Here, just listen:

This plays over a montage as the various King’s Landing personages get dressed and prepare for Cersei’s trial at the Sept. The militant collect Loras from his cell. Pycelle is stopped on his way to the Sept and redirected elsewhere.

Loras’ trial is held first, and he confesses to sodomy, perjury, depravity, profligacy, and arrogance. He agrees to renounce name and title, to never marry or father children. Instead, he’ll join the Faith Militant. They carve the seven-pointed star on his forehead, much to Mace’s dismay. Margaery is angry; she reminds the Sparrow that he promised not to hurt Loras. The Sparrow says he didn’t, much, and Loras is free to go as soon as Cersei’s trial is over, and where is Cersei, anyway? And Tommen?

Cersei’s still getting dressed. Tommen’s trapped in his room by a looming Ser Gregor Robert the Strong. Pycelle’s been led to Qyburn’s lab, where the little birds stab him to death. Meanwhile, Lancel discovers another kid running away from the Sept and follows him, discovering the racks and racks of wildfire under the Sept.

Margaery takes stock of the Sept and figures out Cersei’s plan. She tries to get everyone to evacuate, but gets pooh-poohed because everyone on this show is an idiot. Just as panic starts to spread and the Sparrow realizes that just maybe someone besides himself can be right about something, the Sept explodes in green fire. From the Red Keep, Cersei and Tommen watch the Sept burn.

Cersei goes downstairs to torment Septa Unella, who she’s got tied to a table, tells her that sinning is fun and feels good, so ha, then leaves her with Gregor Ser Robert, who starts stripping off his armor and frankly I don’t even want to know what’s going on in there. Meanwhile, Tommen gives up on everything and throws himself out his bedroom window. (Benioff and Weiss, of course, blame Cersei for this plot point—if she “had been more focused on her family” instead of torturing Unella, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. I—what? After all of this, you’re telling us Cersei isn’t focused enough on her family?! That’s all she’s been focused on since episode one! Also, don’t even get me started on the issue of Cersei as a bad mother being the reason bad things happen to her.)

So, rather than actually deal with complicated politics, Benioff and Weiss decided to just axe the entire King’s Landing storyline by getting rid of everyone but Cersei and Jaime in one fell swoop. Kind of like they did with Dorne at the beginning of the season (so at least there’s some symmetry!).

Jaime returns to King’s Landing and arrives just in time to see Cersei in her new badass dress of badassdom ascending the throne. Qyburn crowns her queen and everyone looks grim, including Jaime. Is he finally realizing that Cersei is a Bad Person and that, by association, he’s a Bad Person, too? Better late than never! (Martin got him there two books ago.)

It’s not just King’s Landing where death is happening, either. Back at the Twins, Walder’s cackling about how Brynden was killed by common foot soldiers. Jaime (who hasn’t left yet at this point) tells him that he’s a bad leader and if the Lannisters have to keep giving him the Riverlands because he can’t hold them, then they’re not likely to keep backing him. That shuts Walder up for a second. Later, a serving girl brings Walder his dinner, which just so happens to be Lothar and Black Walder very badly baked into a pie. The serving girl, of course, is Arya wearing a face, and she opens Walder’s throat while making her dead-eyed murder-face.

Now, the whole pie thing does happen in the books (not like this, of course). However, I don’t understand why it’s happening here. In the books, it’s set up with Bran’s story about the Rat Cook and how breaking guest-right is an unforgivable sin. Then Wyman Manderly feeds the “envoys” from the Twins—three Freys sent to keep him in line—to the Boltons at the wedding feast for Ramsay and “Arya” in meat pies (after having the bard sing the song about the Rat Cook to make it that much less subtle). In the show, there’s no indication that Arya’s particularly familiar with the story; she’s probably heard it, but Bran’s the one who loves scary stories. There’s no reminder of the Rat Cook and the story’s theme about breaking guest right. It feels more like Benioff and Weiss remembered this particular plot point and thought it would be macabre, so they threw it in without any of its accompanying context (because they’ve never done that before).

Benjen/Coldhands gets Meera and Bran to the Wall, leaving them at the godswood where the Night’s Watch men say their vows. Bran wargs into the tree again and goes back to the Tower of Joy, where he sees Lyanna giving birth. There’s a hard cut from the baby’s face to Jon’s, and this apparently confused a lot of people because it wasn’t made clear enough that the baby was Rhaegar’s (some people thought he was Ned's by Lyanna and got rightly squicked out), so the major R+L=J reveal was completely botched. Thanks, guys.

The rest of the episode is really wrapping things up. Sam and Gilly reach the Citadel, and Sam is introduced to the library, which he totally abandons Gilly for because women and babies aren’t allowed in. Davos finally gets to confront Melisandre about killing Shireen, which gets her expelled from Winterfell. Olenna, Ellaria, and Varys create an alliance to support Daenerys, who’s on her way after she dumps Daario, names Tyrion Hand of the Queen, and gets on her Ironborn fleet with . . . Varys. Who has magically appeared back at Slaver’s Bay The Bay of Dragons. I don’t even attempt to keep up with the timeline/geography of this show anymore. Petyr corners Sansa in the godswood and pervs on her, which she’s finally having none of, thank the gods.

Finally, Jon gets to have the same argument with the northern lords that he had with the Night’s Watch—they need the Wildlings to help them fight the coming winter. Lyanna Mormont declares that Jon should be King in the North despite so many reasons why he shouldn’t, and Sansa doesn’t assert her own rights as the rightful heir of Winterfell.

So that’s season 6, which might be the bloodiest season so far. I’d argue it’s also the worst in terms of everything—characterization, plotting, writing, pacing, internal consistency. As gleeful as Benioff and Weiss were about leaving Martin behind and getting to tell their own story, they sure made a hash of it.

RIP:

Grand Maester Pycelle

Lancel Lannister

The High Sparrow

Loras Tyrell

Margaery Tyrell

Mace Tyrell

Kevan Lannister

Tommen Baratheon

Black Walder Rivers

Lothar Frey

Walder Frey

Next week: Dany comes home. Jon can’t lead. The Wonder Twins plot.

Voting Is Not Over

Remember, members, voting on the proposed amendment continues through tomorrow, 1 August 2017 (in US CDT, to clarify).

If you've voted, thanks!

If you've not, you ought!

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Voting is open through 1 August 2017.

Game of Thrones (Re)Watch 6.9: "Battle of the Bastards"

Read the previous piece in this series here.
Read the next piece in this series here. 
 

6.9 “Battle of the Bastards”

Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik

Commentary by Miguel Sapochinik, Sophie Turner (Sansa), and Kit Harrington (Jon)

Well, it’s a penultimate episode, so in keeping with the traditional pacing of this series, it’s time for a knock-down, drag-out battle! Now with even less tactical sense and more dumb luck!

First, though, we have to wrap up the siege of Meereen. Dany plans to do that by burning everything to ash, but Tyrion stops her initial Targaryen impulse by reminding her that that’s the sort of thing Aerys would have done and suggests maybe using diplomacy instead. So she meets with the masters down on the beach and they give her their (completely unacceptable) terms. This prompts Dany to hop on Drogon’s back and set the entire fleet on fire, because it’s not like she needed those ships or anything. While she’s off playing Aegon the Conqueror, Tyrion, Missandei, and Grey Worm negotiate the surrender of the masters, which ends with two of them dead and one left as a messenger.

Luckily for Dany, the Ironborn fleet magically appears in Slavers Bay. Yara and Dany negotiate their alliance, Yara flirts with Dany, and they agree to terms—Dany gets the fleet, Yara gets her help “murder[ing] an uncle or two who don’t think a woman’s fit to rule” and ultimately the independence of the Iron Islands when Dany’s queen. But first they have to get the non-verbal approval of their men—Tyrion and Theon—before sealing the deal with a forearm-grab.

The entire rest of the episode takes place in the north, near Winterfell, where Jon and Ramsay finally have their face-off. They start with a parley, which Jon tells Sansa she doesn’t have to attend, but she says of course she does. Ramsay thanks Jon for returning Sansa to him and demands that he kneel and swear fealty, which Jon is not doing under any circumstances. Jon suggests single combat, and Ramsay says that’s idiotic because he’s well aware his army can stomp Jon’s into the ground. He reminds them that he has Rickon, and Sansa asks how they know that for sure, at which point Shaggydog’s (incredibly well-preserved) head gets tossed on the ground again. So much for parley.

Back in camp, Jon et al. discuss their plans. They know there’s going to be a battle because Ramsay’s not the type to just wait out a siege. Tormund’s worried about the cavalry ripping through the Wildling forces, but Jon says he’s digging trenches to prevent that. Sansa finally speaks up and reminds them that she’s the only one here who knows Ramsay and nobody’s asking for her opinion. This kind of reminds me of Catelyn’s plight (more in the books than the show, since the show dumped her entire tactical mind) in that nobody will listen to her (even though she’s right) because she’s a woman. She says that they’ll never get Rickon back alive anyway, and they should wait to fight him until they have more men. She doesn’t, however, tell them that more men are coming because she’s got the Vale army on its way. For some reason.

Davos and Tormund have a talk about loyalty, and Davos has apparently written off Stannis just as hard as Melisandre did. So much for undying gratitude for not executing him for smuggling. Davos then wanders away from the camp and miraculously discovers Shireen and Selyse’s graves and discovers the stag he carved for Shireen—scorched. Dun dun dun. This is the point when Ramsay’s army arrives and everything hits the fan.

Ramsay’s set up a bunch of crosses with flayed bodies on them and taunts them with Rickon’s impending freedom only to shoot him just as he reaches Jon. (And Benioff and Weiss continue to clean house.) Jon has to charge forward a bit more to get inside the range of Ramsay’s archers, but his horse still gets shot out from under him. Ramsay’s cavalry is charging, and Jon pulls Longclaw, all ready to go out in a blaze of glory, just as his own cavalry charges past him and it’s actually kind of a funny moment.

Both sides queue up their archers again, but while Davos realizes the folly of firing into the fray, Ramsay doesn’t give a crap and keeps his archers firing. At this point, there’s a big, strategic pile of bodies, and everyone sends in their reserves.

Ramsay has a shield wall, which Jon manages to allow to surround his army, pushing them into that strategically-placed pile of bodies which would in no way have fallen that conveniently. (This is the point in the episode where my husband actually left the room because he couldn’t stand how bad the tactics were on both sides, but especially on Jon’s.) The shield wall keeps pushing the Wildlings back, crushing them into the body-pile, which is covered with Bolton men who are slaughtering everyone back there. Jon gets knocked down and almost trampled but somehow manages to climb up the men around him and break through to get a breath in a moment that’s clearly meant to be symbolic of rebirth but that symbol makes no sense in this context.

Finally, the Vale army arrives with Sansa and Peyr and destroys the shield wall. Ramsay flees, and Jon and Wun Wun go after him. Ramsay thinks he can still wait out a siege in Winterfell, but he forgot about the giant; Wun Wun takes down the gate and then takes an arrow to the eye. Ramsay offers to take Jon up on the one-on-one combat offer, and Jon beats the crap out of him, almost killing him until he notices Sansa and realizes she should be the one to get to kill him.

And then Darth Sansa feeds Ramsay to his dogs. And smiles about it. Because violence is the only answer.

Yes, Sansa getting to be the one to take out Ramsay is dramatically satisfying (once again, though, she’s not really wielding the power; Jon had to subdue Ramsay and get him in a position where Sansa could use the dogs to finish him off). But the north is supposed to be all about codes of conduct, and killing Ramsay like this doesn’t fit it. Also, we again get a woman wielding power through violence. Ramsay totally needed to die—there wasn’t any other way around it. However, rather than beheading him for treason (along with all his other crimes), which is what Ned would have done, they lower themselves to his level and essentially torture him to death. This doesn’t make me super optimistic for Jon’s upcoming rule of the North. It makes it feel like this whole fight was less about returning law, order, and the status quo to the North and more about revenge and power-grabbiness, which makes them not at all better than the Boltons.

RIP:

Belicho Paenymion

Razdal mo Eraz

Rickon Stark

Jon Umber

Wun Wun

Ramsay Bolton

Slews of wildlings and northern fighters and probably some Vale knights

Next week:

Stills from screencapped.net; gifs from Giphy and Tumblr