Game of Thrones - End of the Fourth Season

The Mountain and the Viper

The Watchers of the Wall

The Children

I will be returning with seasons 5-7 in January

As Giantsbane, Ygritte, the Thenns and wilding accompaniment slice and dice their way through Mole’s Town on their way to Castle Black, it is very dire conversation as Jon, Samwell, and his few allies of the Night’s Watch discuss the impending doom as Mance Rayder has 100,000 while they only have 102 after losing three more who disobeyed their Wall “code” in order to spend some time with tavern wenches. Samwell is morose, sure his Gilly and her babe are dead. We see that Ygritte spares them, so despite how the wildings tore through anyone near the Wall before the mission to exterminate the remaining crows is fulfilled at least two didn’t get the blade to the throat (or torso). Still, awaiting an army as they slay their way through one village after another is quite foreboding! And the frenzied camera just depicting how fast and savage the wildings are emphasizes their speed and no-nonsense methods…they intrude, kill, and leave without an idle breath. This is a good way of provoking the thought of wonder regarding how on earth the Night’s Watch, so low on men, could ever stand a chance against such a daunting uprising drawing near.

While in Meereen, I gave the Daenerys current storyline some thought. It does seem to be a way—her remaining in Slaver’s Bay for the interim—to keep her busy and away from King’s Landing for a bit while other subplots are ongoing. Give her something to do away from the main lands of Westeros. Giving some attention to characters within Daenerys’ inner circle, Missandei is naked and noticed by castrated Unsullied lead soldier, Grey Worm while they bathe in a lake within Meereen. She likes that he looks at her and he admits to liking to see her naked. So a romance, despite Grey Worm “being cut”, is in bloom. But without his “pillar and stones” (as Daenerys uses in description to Missandei), how will this romance work? Although, Meereen activities aren’t the most interesting to me as opposed to what is happening elsewhere, I understand the need to tell other stories and not rush into Daenerys’ pursuit of the Iron Throne until it is necessary. And with so much else continuing to build, keeping her in Slaver’s Bay is an option for the time being. It helps to build up Daenerys as a leader, undergoing further development and recognizing what weaknesses she’ll need to shore up in order to be the leader in Westeros she expects to be.

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What is dead may never die.

In the fourth season, Roose Bolton’s son, Ramsey Snow, his “bastard” has been articulated as a sadistic and manipulative monster, having captured Theon Greyjoy, mutilated him, castrating him, sending the cock to his father. Yara and her Ironborn try to rescue Theon, but he’s no longer her brother. As she says once they must depart due to Ramsey’s threat to release his hounds on them if they don’t leave, her brother is dead. In this episode, that is further explained when Ramsey requests Reek, the name for which he has convinced (through much torture and suffering until Theon was broken psychologically and mentally) Theon he is, take on the “fake” identity of the son of Balon Greyjoy in order to secure Moat Cailin, a property Roose is very interested in, a key location in the North that increase his control as Ward over this section of Westeros. At Moat Cailin, Reek, in the “guise” of Theon, convinces the Ironborn within the castle (except their leader who is sick and “fading”, stabbed in the head from behind by one of his officers) to surrender, promising safe passage home, but it is a ruse as Ramsey adopts his family’s sigil by flaying them. One of the Ironborn skinned alive to his skeleton on a post as Ramsey enthusiastically tells Reek they are going to their “new home” leaves us with an ominous picture of what might be to come…

Littlefinger has taught Sansa well. Oh, she has learned from cutthroats and tormenters at King’s Landing, adopted strategic behaviors, realizing that certain lies and the proper emotional theater can convince others of the Vale that Baelish was her one true ally, saving her from the Lannisters. Going through a checklist of what she went through (Joffrey and Cersei’s mistreatment of her, Tywin’s forcing her to marry “the imp”), Sansa admits her real name to the council of the now deceased Lysa Arryn. The details of Lysa’s demise are manufactured of course, doctored with lies by Sansa in order to rescue Baelish, giving him free reign to manipulate those within the Vale, including a plan to grow Robin up (sucking his mom’s teat for ten years and being spoiled by her has done nothing but leave the boy immature and weak) by teaching him how to handle a sword and leave the confines of the castle in order to develop into a man. This is about Baelish’s pursuit of more power, and now Sansa is available to help him. Bursting into produced tears and weeping on cue, Sansa, now being comforted, looks over at Baelish, acknowledging to him that she’s “on board”. Baelish is clearly quite elated (his face maintains itself but that half-grin can barely be contained.

Although The Mountain and the Viper is built for a trial by combat determining the fate of Tyrion, whether or not he would be executed, a major development in Meereen is just as big of a deal: Ser Jorah Mormont is exiled from the entourage of Daenerys due to being pardoned by Robert Baratheon for information about the Queen during the early stages of her rise to reclaim the Iron Throne. He was supplying information to Varys and that pardon, on parchment, was provided to Barristan Selmy by a slave boy. Jorah has no choice but to leave Meereen or else die. Daenerys telling him to leave her sight, disgusted by his actions, and how devastated he is to be excommunicated is a power moment in the series. Daenerys gave him a real purpose, in a major advising role, by her side, and his actions during the initial stages of rise have now seemingly forever driven a wedge between them…not a scene to ever be easily dismissed. Jorah leaving Meereen, alone, on a horse, left to wander without his Queen…where would he go now?

The tragedy of the combat between Oberyn and The Mountain is that the victory was available for the more unlikely fighter of the two as Tyrion’s life was in jeopardy. Oberyn, with his mad skills at evasion and athletic prowess—not to mention the way the spear could be manipulated and effortlessly used so effectively as a weapon—seemed on the cusp of victory while The Mountain indeed was flat on his back, the spear stabbed into him and slashed across his heel. But Oberyn was obsessed with his confession in the rape and murder of sister and her children. He couldn’t kill The Mountain without listening to the words, and that was his undoing. Tyrion could only sit helplessly and see his champion’s face, his eyes and head, crushed under the weighty, muscled hands and fingers of The Mountain. The Mountain collapses right after but the crushed skull, all that blood and brain matter splattered in a pool on the arena concrete, leaves Oberyn vanquished and Tyrion sentenced to beheading. Cersei is well pleased and Tywin can finally be rid of his dwarf disappointment…or will they? The violence of the scene, Oberyn’s terror and screams, are horrible. What is equally horrible is how the Lannisters appear to once again get their way. Oberyn was clearly someone they weren’t too sad to see perish and Tyrion is now just a sword drop away from being removed from their lives forever.

Before all of this Jaime visits Tyrion one last time in his cell. Tyrion speaks of the cousin, Orson, a simpleton who smashed beetles day in and day out, a victim of a nursemaid’s ineptitude and clumsiness…the head hitting pavement not long after birth. Tyrion talks of wanting to know why he crushed those beetles, obsessing about the reason why the “moron” would kill them all the time. The nightmares of mounds of beetle shells on a beach, the need to know why. And the horse kick that deprived Tyrion of ever truly learning why. There had to be a reason, right? Jaime didn’t know. And neither did Tyrion. 

The combat between Oberyn and The Mountain, for a quick it really was—in truth, it was only a few minutes—was incredibly staged with Oberyn, in particular, marvelous until his final ruination. The Mountain, as humongous as he was, lumbered about in all that armor, with his long sword, unable to match Oberyn’s athleticism. That final seconds of head destruction was horrifying.

Arya laughs when The Hound, once arriving at the Eyrie, learns that her aunt, Lysa, is dead. It just makes sense that fate would arrive at such irony. Arya, no matter where The Hound takes her for a trade, loses relatives. Should he just give up? Why bother anymore? The gods or fate or whatever seems to frown upon him. At this point he should know better.

And with Baelish now in charge—so to speak—of Robin’s maturation, with Sansa along perhaps to help in whatever plot he might have in mind for Lysa’s son, who knows what will come about the Eyrie and the people of the Vale. Sansa has convinced them she’s an ally, the daughter of Ned Stark, once King of Winterfell. Baelish doesn’t need to worry about his well being as long as Sansa “cooperates”.

Since Neil Marshall did so well with the Battle at Blackwater, it would only make sense for his directorial skills at conveying battle at the Wall be utilized. He really knows how to shoot men against men in combat. Before, during, and shortly after, Marshall is the director that can be depended on to deliver. With The Watchers of the Wall, the underlying question has been during the season: how does meager numbers of the Night’s Watch compare to Rayder’s seemingly innumerable supply of wildings? How does Jon Snow and those expected to protect the Wall defend against marauders rampaging through surrounding villages, drawing close, far outnumbering them? This was Jon’s moment during the series to truly prove himself to the men in his company…and, most importantly, to us.

I’ll admit that Jon Snow’s story—the Night’s Watch, Mance and his wildings beyond the Wall, Craster’s Keep—was perhaps the least interesting of all the ongoing arcs divided upon the series. You have your Allisers, Crasters, and Karl Tanners, sure, but up until this point, the dialogue and developments weren’t all that captivating to me. Not that I don’t admire the character and his valor. I do. But the point of view of the wildings—the crows built that wall on their land, deciding they shouldn’t be allowed to roam whatever lands were there they wanted to, and how they were hunted down and killed—through a speech Ygritte makes to Giantsbane and the Thenn cannibals around a fire before their eventual confrontation with the Night’s Watch at the Wall could be reasoned as valid. So they were going to take their land back and kill the crows while they were at it. All of this sets the stage and here we are as the fourth season is nearing its conclusion. 

While I think it is a hell of an episode from the standpoint of staging combat at a grand scale, this series is more known for its characters, their strategy and discussions about what lies ahead, and character development. Marshall might not be your director necessarily for multiple scenes featuring Tyrion talking to Jaime about Orson, his cousin smashing beetles, or Daenerys talking with Messendei about Grey Worm’s “pillars and stones” but when it comes to a camera drawing back or moving across Castle Black sections as men engage in swordplay he’s the director for you. The magnitude of the Wall and different locations under attack, the defense nearly undermined at Castle Black as the Thenn and wildings devastate the dwindling forces of the Night’s Watch is quite expansive, carefully edited, staged with great confidence and sure-footed scope. Blades stab, slice, and eviscerate. Crossbows and bows fire arrows into throats, heads, legs, and torsos. Hammers bash and penetrate bodies. Styr and Jon have a row before the latter finds a hammer and buries it into the fierce former’s skull. Giantsbane and Alliser have a brief but stirring sword fight that the former actually gains advantage despite perhaps never receiving as good a training as the latter. There is even a large scythe set free to pendulum across the Wall, smashing through wildings climbers ascending as fast as they can! Barrels of oil drop as do arrows with tips of flame from the top of the Wall to Mance’s forces below. Giants look to penetrate the gates followed by a wooly mammoth. Jon’s direwolf, Ghost, located at Craster’s Keep, even gets involved, munching on a wilding. Slynt, sent to the Night’s Watch by Tyrion, hides away in a chamber with Gilly…allowed back into Castle Black by Samwell, kept away from the fighting. Samwell even has a moment of discussion with Maester Aemon about love and women. Samwell even discusses what it is like to be with a woman with Jon who can’t poetically describe it with any eloquence. And for dramatic purposes, there just has to be a tragic death, coming when young Olly, still reeling from the loss of his parents, hits Ygritte with an arrow after locating a bow on the ground; her hesitation when having Jon in her sights is ultimately her downfall. Giantsbane is captured after wounds with arrows while Alliser’s wounds leave him injured but not quite dead. So with all the action and graphic violence, Mance’s first strike denied, Jon makes a decision to try and find him in order to remove the leader who corralled all the wildings together to start with. Will he be successful?

With no Ramsey or Cersei, Melisandre or Littlefinger to further despise, this episode was a break from that norm. So it was a relief. Sometimes we just need some visceral carnage where men engage in warfare instead of characters plotting against each other behind closed doors. With Ramsey being granted the last name of his father, now a Bolton, and Stannis perhaps finally getting the men Davos has promised, it was refreshing to spend some time elsewhere.

I was rather exhilarated that I had reached the end of the fourth season, understanding there was no way in hell I’d be able to get through five, six, and seven before the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones, but I do hope that I’ll be finished before the final episode of the series is concluded. That’s my hope at any rate. What a surprise at the open of The Children when Mance’s forces in the forest are chopped down and through by a well orchestrated and impressive charge of armoured officers on horseback with swords just cutting a swath through any men that fight for the wilding cause. Jon went into Mance’s camp to kill him so when he sees the siege just emerge unexpectedly, he assures the wilding leader he isn’t responsible, that the Night’s Watch doesn’t have the men to conduct such a well organized, well coordinated attack. And out of the snowy mist is Stannis Baratheon and Davos Seaworth, stoic and austere, not in any mood to fool around. But Stannis learns of Jon Snow being the son of Ned and considers his recommendation that Mance be spared, despite not kneeling to the “one true King”. And that burning the dead bodies before nightfall also would be ideal because Stannis hadn’t seen what Jon has.

That poison on Oberyn’s spear leaves a nasty wound on The Mountain as Qyburn considers his condition potentially salvageable which is what Cersei desires despite Pycelle’s insistence that Gregor will die. Qyburn was once a maester whose “mad science” got him expelled from The Citadel. He tells Cersei that Gregor might “change somewhat”. That somewhat should perhaps give us a gulp in the throat. Pycelle loses his lab to Qyburn at Cersei’s orders leaving the grand maester disgusted.

Keeping with Cersei, she will not marry Loras. She will not leave King’s Landing. She will not part from her only son left, Tommen. She will not allow Margaery and Tywin to “dig their claws in” and “tear apart” her son. She would be willing to tell anyone about her incestuous relationship with Jaime. Admitting it to Tywin, his having to finally hear it aloud by her, it is a hard, bitter pill to swallow. With all the accumulated power and strategic pursuit for every advantage, Tywin has one situation he cannot best. Cersei has him on this one. And then spiriting away to her brother to briefly discuss Tyrion, for whom she considered a disease not a brother, to be cut out and not allowed to live. Jaime can’t even keep that on his mind as Cersei moves in to seduce and make love to him. Ugh and yuck.

In Meereen Daenerys’ reign as Queen is hitting snags. Like an elderly teacher wanting to return to his master with an annual contract so he can return to the children he has helped to educate and enjoy the company of. And her dragon flying overhead and frying the three year old child of a local. And Jorah’s absence is just so noticeable. It is like a void is there and Barristan, although right about how it is only a matter of time before masters take advantage of those slaves who just aren’t as capable to fend for themselves with the newfound freedom Daenerys offers, can only offer a certain advice to her. Jorah’s advice, helpful and beneficial, not there to capitalize on, could be sorely needed eventually. She’s called the breaker of chains, but when she realizes that her dragons seem to be untamed and too recklessly violent Daenerys might have to resort to imprisoning them in order to stop the needless slaughter that results from their mouth of fire. That entombment and the dragons crying out to her is rather potent and even perhaps devastating.

There is a powerful visual of a fire lifting from the bodies of the Night’s Watch as Jon looks through the flames and sees Melisandre. How will these two clash? Jon offers Giantsbane the chance to “say a few words” but he doesn’t really know how the “free folk” do things when it comes to “funerals”. Jon listens to Giantsbane about giving Ygritte the proper sendoff, taking her body to the proper pyre, in the “real North”, outside the Wall. He held her in his arms as she died, and it was only right that he sees her body burned where it belongs.

Then you have Hodor, Bran, a weakening Jojen, and Meera approaching the weirwood tree, finally locating it, but interfering in their pursuit of it are the skeletal remains of the dead under the snow, rising aboveground, empowered to move only until the entrance of the tree. One of “the children”, before the “first men”, has the ability to hurl balls of flame at these skeletal, knife-carrying attackers, reaching out to grab whoever is in their vicinity, eventually stabbing Jojen who is just too deteriorated to escape, as Meera valiantly held off them as long as she could. Bran tries to help by warging into Hodor’s brain, using his body to thwart some of the attackers but eventually they needed to get to the weirwood tree where an old man within it awaits. He has watched them, letting the upset Meera know that Jojen understood his mission and fate and that it was important for Brandon to make it to him. Sure he would never walk again but he will indeed fly. I couldn’t help but have this thought: it might be the end of a journey to get to this old man but it is just truly the beginning for Brandon Stark.

The incredible combat swordplay (and subsequent use of fisticuffs) between Brienne of Tarth and The Hound Clegane is quite an event. Mainly because it is so unexpected and arises out of nowhere. And Arya’s actions after Brienne magnificently vanquishes The Hound certainly had to left viewers stunned. She had him vulnerable and ripe for the pickings. He was on her kill list. He tried to antagonize her by bringing up the butcher’s boy, her sister, wanting so badly to die after wounds from Brienne’s sword, armored punches to the face, and a bad fall down a rocky cliff. But Arya sits there and listens to him eventually beg. Brienne meets Arya, a girl she vowed to help, Catelyn’s oath almost potentially near fulfilling (at least one of the daughters discovered) when The Hound emerges as a foe to get past. And Brienne is successful, only losing sight of Arya because she was in a life-threatening, exhausting duel with The Hound. This is quite a moment. A moment where two formidable females, surviving in a horrible world where men rape, pillage, and kill, meet for the first time, talking about how fathers didn’t want them to be warriors. And yet here both of them are: warriors. Arya’s mission still lies ahead: The Hound was but a chapter during her long journey.

If Tyrion had just left as intended, how would the series had resulted? Tywin still in control for the most part, Shae, his secret lover still sharing his bed, Cersei denied her chance to see Tyrion beheaded. Shae’s “lion” (as she once called Tyrion during her covert work for Tywin) caught while in the privy on the toilet by a bloodied and sick and tired son, having just strangled the woman he loved and was betrayed by. Right there was Tywin, never more vulnerable and trapped, on the shitter, the lion with Joffrey’s crossbow staring him down. Tyrion, having endured a lifetime of torment, ridicule, and disregard, is the one with all the power. For once he is the one in control. And Shae was the last straw. The father who made it a point to always let him know how unloved he was has no more say in what Tyrion does or will do. Because Tywin is no longer in charge. He’ll no longer be calling shots. Because two arrows, shot from the crossbow of a son who has taken his belly full and will not tolerate his father any longer, will silence the Hand of the King forever. Jaime might have opened the cell, led Tyrion down the right passageways thanks to Varys’ knowledge, and gave a parting hug and kiss to his brother but it all led to the death of his father. Cersei and Jaime no longer have their father to steer the politics within King’s Landing. No longer does Westeros have Tywin to strategically align the stars as he always did in his favor. He was shot twice by Joffrey’s crossbow while taking a shit. Tyrion had enough. They pushed him too far. Varys, looking at the kingdom as Tyrion is placed in a cargo box, placed in a ship, away from the sharp swing of the executioner’s sword, decides it might be the right time to exit as well.

And Arya off the Braavos. It does seem fate was leading her there all the time. Were the gods, old or new, behind it?