Game of Thrones “And Now His Watch has Ended”

DISCLAIMER:

I’m currently reading The Song of Ice and Fire series and at the moment I’m in the middle of the fourth book.  That being said, I don’t want to spoil either the television or the book series for anyone, but, because I love discussing this story, a lot of what I want to talk about will cross into spoiler territory, whether that includes discussing specific scenes in the show, how the book differs from the show, or what I’m excited to see in the future.  SPOILERS WILL MORE THAN LIKELY LIE AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

Okay, I’m glad we got that out of the way because I’m super excited to talk about this episode.

     “And Now His Watch has Ended” might be among my favorite episodes so far.  Many of the moments in the book that I loved were brought to life in this episode, and some moments that I don’t believe were in the book, but are amazing none the less.

     First off is the introduction of Beric Dondarrion.  Dondarrion leads the “Brotherhood Without Banners” which, for me, was one of the most shocking story-lines in the book and I can’t wait to see how people react if they don’t know what’s coming.  In this episode Arya and Sandor Clegane are brought to the cave the the “Brotherhood Without Banners” operate from.  There, Sandor is held to court for his killing of innocents and is offered a trial by battle.  Next week we get to see Sandor face off against Beric for his freedom which leads to one of the more shocking moments in the book.

     In the continuing journey of Brienne and Jaime to King’s Landing a scene occurs that I don’t remember directly from the book, but worked wonderfully.  Last episode Jaime and Brienne were being held captive by The Brave Companions, who are in the service of Roose Bolton.  Jaime, in one of his first steps to becoming a character I actually like, saved Brienne from being raped and paid for it when Vargo Hoat cut off his hand.  In this episode he is further persecuted, having to wear his disembodied hand (his sword hand, by the way.  That is important) around his neck and is tricked into drinking horse piss when he collapses of dehydration.  Jaime tries to fight back, but being in bad health and without his sword hand, he is quickly beaten.  After this ridicule he is ready to give up and die.  When Brienne learns of this she tells Jaime that he has gotten his first taste of the real world where everyone has important things taken from them and he whines, cries, and quits, she tells him to stop being such a bloody woman.  That was just a fantastic scene, well written and well acted by both Gwendoline Christie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and it really put Jaime’s struggles in perspective.  So good.  I want to eat it with a fork.

     A scene that surprised me was the scene between Varys and Tyrion where Varys tells of how he came to be a eunuch.  A sorcerer cut off his testicles and used them to communicate to a phantom voice through a fire (which, ew and ouch and holy freaking shit are words that come to mind).  Varys has built himself up from nothing and gained a seat in the small council of the king to exact revenge on the sorcerer that did this to him.  After this speech, which disturbed me and at first I felt it was a little forced, he reveals that he has the sorcerer in a box and he will get his revenge soon.  I don’t remember this scene from the book.  I vaguely remember hearing a back story for Varys, but I don’t remember anything about sorcerers so that’s strange, but holy freaking shit was that scene cool.

     Speaking of Varys, he actually has a lot of scenes in this episode.  We learn about his back story with Tyrion (still, ouch and ew) then he uncovers a plot being hatched by Petyr Baelish concerning Sansa Stark.  He proceeds to play detective and visits Olenna Tyrell, brilliantly played by Diana Rigg, to hatch a scheme to save Sansa from Baelish.  I really liked spending more time with Varys.  He’s an interesting character who is very good at scheming and playing this “Game of Thrones,” even though I don’t believe he wants the throne for himself.  Watching him manipulate people is always entertaining, and watching him being manipulated by Olenna Tyrell was hilarious.

     Along with all the other great scenes in this episode (this includes so many that I’ve left out of this blog) comes a scene I have been waiting almost a year to see, Daenerys’ slave up-rising in Astapor.  Daenerys shows how much of a badass she is when she buys 8,000 slave soldiers, The Unsullied, from the slaver Kraznys for the price of her biggest dragon.  When they meet to complete the deal Daenerys hands over the dragon to Kraznys and gains the whip that allows the master to control The Unsullied.  Then she reveals that she knows Valyrian, which Kraznys has been degrading her in this language for the last three episodes and I believe in the book one actually had to know Valyrian to control the slaves so he was going to basically cheat her out of a dragon, and commands her dragon to kill Kraznys. Then she tells the slaves to kill all of the slave owners and sack the town, freeing every slave they find.  When this is done, she frees the slaves and offers them a place in her army only if they want it and, because she is such an ultimate badass, every single slave joins her army.  How freaking badass is that?  Have I said badass enough?  I’ll say it again, because that was B.A.D.A.S.S.

     I could go on about this episode for another 1,000 words, but I have things to do.  If anything else jumped out about the episode that you want to discuss, or if you want to talk more about anything Game of Thrones I’m down.  Leave a comment.  Just please, please, PLEASE don’t ruin anything in the book series for me.  Pretty please.  With sugar on top.  Okay, I trust you guys.  Don’t let me down.