Rambling TV: Game of Thrones episode 3.10

The "Where the fuck is Ghost?" edition

gif via songofwolves

 

(Yes, I'm still trying to find a format I like for these posts)

 

 

Game of Thrones: "Mhysa"


*The Twins - Worst Bannerman ever Roose Bolton watches from above as his men slaughter the Stark men. The Hound has wisely grabbed a Frey banner and is attempting to leave the massacre with a knocked out Arya, only she comes to at possibly the worst moment ever: When the Freys are parading her bother's body with his direwolf's head nailed on top of it with a sword as they shout "Here comes the King in the North!" That little bit almost made me cry, it hurts that Arya actually sees that. A little later as her and The Hound are fleeing, she overhears a small group of Frey men making fun of her mother's last dying scream. Arya walks over to their group and asks to share their fire. She offers her Braavosi coin, which she drops. When the man goes to pick it up, she whips out of knife and stabs him to death while The Hound takes care of the other 3 men. He deadpans "Next time you're going to do something like that, tell me first." I'm glad Arya finally got this moment. In the books, she technically did this to a guard when she was escaping Harranhal. Arya is a damanged little girl, and this is just the start of what's in store for her.

Meanwhile, back at Frey's castle, Roose and Walder have a little chat about their victory, when Walder inquires about what happened to the Ironborn at Winterfell. Roose tells him his bastard Ramsay took care of everything, but he's still torturing Theon because he just has a different way of doing things. I have a small problem with this scene. Though I'm glad they're showing just how evil Roose and Walter are, Roose sounded like he was proud of Ramsay for what he is doing, which in the books he certainly isn't. He thinks Ramsay is too obnoxious and needs to be more discrete about what he does. Roose's proud papa moment didn't set well. Deep down, we all know Roose hates that bastard.

*Dreadfort - We transition to Ramsay (who we can finally stop calling "Boy"!) eating a sasauge in front of Theon, who he castrated last time we saw them. Theon begs for Ramsay to kill him, but he's not having it. He tells Theon he reeks, and decides that will be his new name; Reek. While I'm glad they are having Theon's name being changed to Reek, I hated the way they came up with it. "Reek" was an actual person in the books. He was a horrible smelling man that Roose gave to Ramsay's mother as a slight when she told him she could no longer control Ramsay. They became very close, and committed many crimes together. In A Clash of Kings,  after doing something particularly bad, Ramsey ends up with a bounty on his head, so he kills Reek and switches clothes with him, and he is brought to Winterfell's dungeon as "Reek." This is when he persuades Theon to free him when he takes over Winterfell, then he reveals himself as Ramsay, betrays him, and makes Theon his Reek.

*Pyke - Balon and Yara are reading a note that Ramsay sent him about holding Theon hostage, and he mailed them Theon's dick on top of it. That surprised me. Balon couldn't care less, but Yara is going to save him. They're really going to have to make the Ironborn more interesting in the show because I hated all of their chapters in the 4th and 5th books.

*The Wall - Sam's group and Bran's group meet, can we talk about how awesome Hodar was this episode? With the well, then looking all flattered when Sam says he knows him. I fucking love Hoder.

gif credit hyruleneedsme

Anyways, Sam and Gilly show Bran and co the way beyond the wall, and they seem to have cut a very interesting character that both parties should've met already.

Jon Snow has a very pointless scene with Ygritte, who is apparently alone right now, despite Giantsbane being with her the last time we saw them. He's injured and rides back to Castle Black. Where the fuck is Ghost? Seriously? Then we get a stupid scene with the Maester questioning whether Gilly's baby is Sam's. (which really makes no sense because I don't think he was missing for that long) Anyways, the Maester sends out ravens to let everyone know there is a threat beyond the wall.

*Dragonstone - We got lots of Davos in this episode. Bonding time with Gendry, bonding time with Shireen, sort of bonding time with Stannis and Melisandre. She's still going to sacrifice Gendry, who Davos then sets free. When Stannis sentences Davos to death for what he did, he brings up the letter he received from the Night's Watch, and Stannis and his BFF Melisandre decide that they actually do need Davos after all.

*King's Landing - Tyrion and Sansa have a cute little bonding scene, then Tyrion gets called to small council, where he is informed of what happened at The Red Wedding. Joffrey is about to cream his jeans with the news. I seriously thought he was going to do a fucking backflip or something. I wanted to punch him and Cersei's smug faces so hard. They kept a line from the books I really liked, where Tyrion tells Joffrey "Sansa's not yours to torment anymore." He then makes a backhanded threat at the king. Joffrey is seething, Lannister Lackey Grand Maester Pycelle says Tyrion should apologize, Varys just sits there like this is the most entertaining thing he's seen in ages, and Tywin, like a boss, sends Joffrey to bed and dismisses everyone except Tyrion. They argue about doing things for family, Tywin tells Tyrion he wanted throw him in the sea when he was born, but he kept him and made him a Lannister, which hurts Tyrion very much. Later, Tyrion goes to tell Sansa the bad new, but it seems someone else already has, and we see her crying at the window. Another sad scene. Sophie Turner does sad very well. I'm still very disappointed in Sansa's arc this season. I feel like everything that should've happened already is going to be very rushed in the first few episodes next season.

We get a totally pointless scene with Shae, the funny whore and Varys that I couldn't give a fuck about. We get more smug Cersei and Tyrion, then, we get Jaime and Brienne arriving at Kings Landing. This is the scene that annoyed me the most. In the books, Jaime and Brienne do NOT arrive at Kings Landing this early. In fact, them already being there kind of totally screws up something that I don't want to spoil. I'm baffled that they made this change, they could've easily had Brienne and Jaime dick around on the road for a few more episodes. What the actual fuck?!

*Yunkai - The slaves come out of Yunkai and start chanting "Mhysa," which means mother, at Dani. (Did you see Jorah help her down as she walks towards them? Poor friend zoned Jorah) The final shot was of them lifting her above the crowd, chanting. I saw a few tweets go across my dash where people were calling this scene racist. Because the people holding her up had darker skin. I'm assuming these people have never read the book, otherwise they would know the geography of Essos and the fact that most characters from that particular area are described as having "bronze skin." It's not a race thing. No one should be making it a race thing. Why does everything have to be about race?

I'm surprised they ended the season with Dany again. It's not where I thought they'd end it, but I'm actually a little glad they didn't choose this route. I'm going to give out a major Feast For Crows spoiler, so in between the brackets, the text will be white. You can highlight over it if you've read the books or wish to be spoiled. [I assumed that the final scene of season 3 would be the Brotherhood Without Banners finding Catelyn Stark's body, and resurrecting her. Thus her becoming Lady Stoneheart. I'm actually glad they didn't do this. 1) I think it would take away from the Red Wedding a bit. To have such major characters slaughtered, only to find out one comes back. 2) They aren't supposed to find her right away. She is supposed to be dead for awhile, which is the reason she's not really Catelyn when she comes back at all. 3) It has to be Arya, dreaming through Nymeria that pulls her from the river anyways. We haven't had any of Arya's warg dreams yet. As awesome as a final shot that would've been, I can live with it being left out.]

Personally, I would've had the final scene either being Arya saying "Valor Morghulis" or I would've ended with The Night's Watch. I have a feeling the Watch will open up next season. They have some serious shit that's about to go down.

I enjoyed the finale for the most part, but there were a lot of changes that I'm not happy with. I hope they play out better than I think they are, because right now I can't wrap my head around them. This definitely wasn't one of the season's best episodes. It would actually be bottom three for me. What did you think of it?