Game of Thrones 1.08 The Pointy End

[prodigy]

This was the GRRM-penned episode. It may be confirmation bias played a factor in my judgment, but I think it showed: everyone's dialogue seemed particularly on-point, especially the Tyrion-Bronn sections. Anyway, this is still the part of the book where stuff is heating up, so it was bound to be intense.

That being said, oh my God.

- Syrio is a badass motherfucker and his last scene, along with Arya and "stick them with the pointy end," was played utterly pitch-perfect. "The First Sword of Braavos does not run." ("What do we say to the god of death?" "Not today.") And her sticking the one kid with the pointy end -- yeah, I don't even have words for the feelings this whole sequence causes me. It turns me into one of those "why can't I hold all these feelings" people.
- I love Varys and I would still like to read a celebrity gossip blog co-authored by him and Littlefinger. Nobody trusts the eunuch!
- Tyrion and Bronn Adventures continue to be, well, Tyrion and Bronn Adventures, which are like 50% of the attraction of this book anyway. Tyrion was fucking delightful, and I'm glad Tyrion-wins-friends-and-influences-people is getting on a roll; "he's braver and I'm better-looking?" Tywin was well-played too, including his blaming Tyrion for getting himself captured. Bronn won't admit they're frieeeeee-eee-eeeends. Not that Bronn's wooo-ooo-rried. (Bronn son of no one you've heard of.) SO delightful.
- Meanwhile, back at the Wall -- "meanwhile, back at the Wall" is my least favorite thing about A Song of Ice and Fire -- Jon makes nothing but a series of screencappable, macro-and-LJ-icon-asking emofaces while Ghost is cute and Sam is still the most useful member of the Night's Watch. I feel like if Tyrion took Sam under his wing he could teach him a thing or two about maturing into a full-grown BAMF.
- Robb was really likeable in this episode, and also really gay with Theon. The Robb/Theon is charmingly strong in the Game of Thrones TV series. I approve. All they ever do is shoot each other significant glances, banter, and like each other more than they like other people. Cat-Robb interaction was cute too, and showcased Cat's somewhat endearing inability to a. say anything encouraging or b. stop mommying Robb. I like how the Stark family dynamic is being made out right now.
- Rickon? Was that Rickon?? Could that have been Rickon??? Did the mythical Rickon beast finally show its face????
- Greatjon!! Greatjon is adorable. Your wolf bit off his fingers? Hahaha, you've got spunk, kid!
- Cersei and Joffrey are being played great for exactly how they're supposed to come off in this point in the storyline. I'm getting distracted periodically, however, by how much Cersei looks like a white woman version of my mom. (I do not look like Joff, thank God. I do look kind of like Arya though.)
- Ser Barristan is amazing -- I love how this book series is full of little moving badass moments like Ser Barristan stripping off his armor, throwing down his sword and storming out, things that make you realize that it is not in fact the gritty story of bored amoral people doing amoral things to each other, Crowning Moments of Awesome that belong to genuinely decent people. And yeah, he could've taken the whole Kingsguard. Probably still could've if Jaime was there. Sorry Jaime. Too busy failing at command over in Riverrun.
- Meanwhile, back in Vaes Dothrak, which I like better than the Wall, Drogo is busy doing things and having screentime again, which I appreciate. I realize it's to set him up to cark it, but at least he's got some time to smoulder at his wife, kill unruly riders with his bare hands and sheer force of his contempt, and attempt to manfully shrug off his wound in a manly man man way. Unfortunately, everyone would be better off if he had gotten to shrug off his wound. Mirri Maz Duur does not mean well by him. I like the actor they picked for her, though -- much more suitably dignified than how they did by Osha -- and am now watching this unfold with due dread. The Dany storyline is as full of sketchy Mighty Whiteyness as it ever was, as particularly the way it's being played now makes it look like White Woman Introduces Mongols To The Idea of Not Raping Their Prisoners, but that's straight from the books so I cannot really mark it as a point-against in the adaptation. It is, unfortunately, doing what it's supposed to.

Musing on that point, I think the Gratuitous HBOness isn't actually doing that any favors, though probably unintentionally. Contrary to semi-popular misconception, the A Song of Ice and Fire series did not come quite this HBO already: the adaptation's added a lot of random sex and violence, to say the least. This is all well and good when it's (the still WTF) Petyr Baelish monologuing to a pair of cavorting whores, but it makes the Dothraki portrayal look even more brutal and savage and lurid than it was in the books because we have to watch all their uncivilized-savage-person-violence as Dany does.

I'm not a fan of the HBO-ifying in general; it gives it a mood occasionally too close to HBO'S Rome, where you get dulled to the violence in the company of Antony and Atia eventually because you can't emotionally engage with it. In A Song of Ice and Fire, you're supposed to take all the violence dead seriously: it's a world where bad things happen to people, oftentimes for no reason, but commoners and foreigners and whores are not meant to be redshirts even if some of the POV characters think so. Adding too much more background violence makes it just seem like it's colored with blood and no one cares -- which undermines the context of various characters' classism, callousness, and self-centeredness, and misses the whole point of the intended social complexity in favor of a simplified bloody political sword-and-sorcery epic. It's good TV and good entertainment, but it's not the books.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

it's a world where bad things happen to people, oftentimes for no reason, but commoners and foreigners and whores are not meant to be redshirts even if some of the POV characters think so.

Love this.

Great and inspiring review; thank you.

[prodigy]

Thank you for the kind words! I sometimes feel self-conscious reminding people that A Song of Ice and Fire is, in fact, a serious heartwrenching story where you're supposed to root for some people and hate others and cry when some people die and contend with your mixed feelings when other people do things and make up your mind and change it. Whether or not it succeeds at these things is a different question, but I hear a lot of "LOL ASoIaF is so gritty! Everyone dies!" No, everyone does not die. Some people die, just enough to make you fear. And that's the difference, I think.

[monanotlisa]

No, everyone does not die. Some people die, just enough to make you fear. And that's the difference, I think.

It is.

I talked to Marina in some rather squeeful threads a few days ago, and my personal remark was that finally, finally I'd found a media creation where the people I disliked died, and the ones I liked were exalted, paid close attention to. This is a terrible subjective view, I realise, but we can't help what we feel, and I adore Arya, Cersei, Tyrion, Littlefinger, Dany and Drogo so much more than the rest of them, and ah, they seem to matter, more and more; it's not just all about the emo angst of white guys. (Sure, we have Jon Snow, but there's also Sam, and there is his story's thread involving the White Walkers, which send pleasurable frissons of horror up and down my spine. And we have Jaime, but really, in all the ways that matter to me, Jaime isn't a tortured character at all: he's actually pretty simple in who he is and who he wants to be...with ;).

Ahem. Says this pure-tv-show fan!

[prodigy]

For context, I'm a book fan -- I read them first in 2003 or so and have been a fan ever since. I watch the adaptation with excitement and trepidation and my feelings about characters and such are definitely colored by that. My only comment here, though, is that you will probably be disappointed if you like Jaime for not being tortured, as Jaime tends to be, in fact, exceedingly tortured, just not in the habit of talking about it much. :P

But yeah, I think one big strength of the series is that it doesn't depend on manpain in general -- or, in fact, on you sympathizing with characters because they're Designated Hero or strictly because they have some suffering in the past. The feelings they feel and pain they suffer is here and now, or manifests here and now, and bad things happen and danger comes to them here: it makes it much easier to relate to than The Nebulous Difficulty of Being Harry Potter or The Ongoing Overwrought Burden of Being Batman or whatever. I love it. I do highly recommend the books.

[devilc]

I'm getting distracted periodically, however, by how much Cersei looks like a white woman version of my mom. (I do not look like Joff, thank God. I do look kind of like Arya though.)

Yes, but something tells me your daddy isn't also your uncle. ;)


Robb was really likeable in this episode, and also really gay with Theon. The Robb/Theon is charmingly strong in the Game of Thrones TV series. I approve. All they ever do is shoot each other significant glances, banter, and like each other more than they like other people.

I agree 100% with what you say here, but at the same time -- I want the motherfrakkin' brain bleach now.

-- and am now watching this unfold with due dread. The Dany storyline is as full of sketchy Mighty Whiteyness as it ever was, as particularly the way it's being played now makes it look like White Woman Introduces Mongols To The Idea of Not Raping Their Prisoners, but that's straight from the books so I cannot really mark it as a point-against in the adaptation. It is, unfortunately, doing what it's supposed to.

Yeah. Sigh.

That said, I put on my ranty panties over here about the TV Dothraki.

[prodigy]

Yes, but something tells me your daddy isn't also your uncle. ;)

Good lord, I hope not. Considering my mom and dad come from different continents, that would be a mean feat.

I agree 100% with what you say here, but at the same time -- I want the motherfrakkin' brain bleach now.

Hey, they're red-blooded teen boys who aren't related. are in the same age group, and are friends. That's about as vanilla as you can get. Sums up 60% of pairings in any fandom, really.

As for your rant about the TV Dothraki, I agree that they're entirely underwhelming and disorganized -- it's like they're going for some kind of genericized Conan the Barbarian "native somethingorother" feel for them when they're clearly supposed to be Mongol-inspired. The taking of slaves looks brutish and unselfcontrolled on TV rather than the systematic weapon of war that it should be for the Dothraki. HBO is going for luridity, and luridity equals racist notions of savagery: I firmly think the early handling of Drogo also fed into this, as they went from him being gentle to his new wife to being forceful with her for no reason that I can see (which overall is going to fuck over her character development, too, as when he dies and she's going to be bereaved and angry about it, a lot of viewers will probably be like "what's she so upset about?") It's just so crappily handled for no reason except TV racism. It makes me angry too and I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[devilc]

Hey, they're red-blooded teen boys who aren't related. are in the same age group, and are friends. That's about as vanilla as you can get. Sums up 60% of pairings in any fandom, really.

Even though I think Theon got shat on a few times, even from day one, I wanted bad things to happen to his marshmallow spined ass. Seriously, he's got the moral integrity of a weasle on speed.

[prodigy]

Theon is like, one of the most divisively unpopular characters in the fandom I think. He is not one of my top favorites, but I harbor sympathy for his situation regarding being a Greyjoy-but-not-a-Greyjoy and a Stark-but-not-a-Stark. But the Greyjoy storyline in general is not really my favorite, at least when it takes place in the Iron Islands and they don't travel, and they inevitably don't -- same with Dorne and the Martells. I prefer the stuff that happens in King's Landing, the Riverlands, the Reach, the Stormlands, and so forth. Of course, it helps my favorite characters are Jaime, Brienne, Tyrion, and Sansa.

[themis]

Sam is still the most useful member of the Night's Watch

Dude, Sam has read a book. This IMPRESSED ME. Who else has read a book on this show? (Genealogies don't count as books.)

[prodigy]

Hmm. Tyrion begs to be counted here, I imagine, given he's the only one who's read for pleasure onscreen. I'm sure Petyr reads -- knowledge is power, after all, and why willfully deprive himself of power that's easily within his grasp? Aside from them, I bet if Sansa grew up somewhere more cosmopolitan than the North she would've read: fairytales and romances, sure, but she loves stories and books have stories in them.

Aside from that, reading? That sounds like fun. Starks don't have fun. Theirs is the old way. Winter is coming. Loose lips sink ships. Soylent Green is people.