Game of Thrones – The Prince of Winterfell
by deerinthexenonarclights
And so we are given another title that applies wonderfully to many of the shows characters and not at all to the episode in question. The title of Prince could apply to the lost little lost leader Bran who is assumed by the people of Winterfell to now be a burnt corpse ( and in the most stretched out twist revelation ever we are expected to go along with them until the final seconds of this weeks episode, screw SPOILERS that turn was obvious a week ago), it could also stand for Theon, the lost son who has taken the city in question off of one father figure on the behest of another betraying a brother or a few in the process, ensuring that this inter-familial spite stays strong in the blood of the next generation; finally we have Jon Snow who has in the past bestowed the title upon himself in an effort to regain respect and keep his head and has that call echoed this week, but each time that he does so the sounds slip right off him, that surname of his confounding any and all of his efforts to excel, as Arya’s gender do hers. So who then was phone prince?
Who knows? More important than knowing who stands as the titular prince is understanding the connotations of the word; A prince is a child, a prince is secondary, a powerless position gifted as a present through birth, death or marriage and not something earnt like a true throne and so in a way to call someone in Westeros a prince is to insult them. Yet we see again and again the Starks all struggle with their positions, wanting so much to stand strong as second to their dear departed dad in a world where such small dreams are seen as weak; all of them that is, besides Robb who stopped being a son and started being a man the second that he declared himself King of the North; a father and not a son, as his moving monologue this week informed us, subservient to no one. Given how much danger his siblings have gotten into thanks to their small steps towards power one has to wonder whether or not exceeding them is truly a smart thing to do, but then again apparently Robb is a rash but ridiculously talented general, something that I’m yet to see illustrated, so who knows?
The other half of the title is a much less illustrative one, though it still bears some speaking on. Winterfell was the first place we ever saw in the series, it is as much our home as it is the Stark’s, but I don’t feel like I am being too subjective when I say that it is a special place. The people that it bears are of a higher level than those elsewhere – they are stronger, nicer and more noble, community spirits – and the city itself seems to shelter them in a stronger way than anywhere else in Westeros, as we see in the final seconds of Bran huddled in one of its basements. Compare this to King’s Landing’s Lannisters, who have the scope and scale of their city, but also its crudeness and cutthroat sensibility.
These traits are not unchangeable however; Theon -who once called Winterfell home, back when he was a good boy; his change in home city marking a clear change in character – is warned to head back to the warmth of his own bed lest he die in a strange and hostile land – he seems at odds with the place, shocked by the gates and surprised by the fencing; how quickly the place can turn on you when you in turn turn on it…or something. The episode in fact made a point of showing us just how far all of these characters have come and how much this family wishes that they could only go back home again, clicking their heels three times.
Really though, I’m talking about all this vague stuff like setting dictating character because A) because that’s just what I do here but also B) because well, nothing really happened this week, like seriously nothing at all. I’ve been hearing about Blackwater since late last year and have been excited ever since, despite having no idea what in the hell it means; now though I’m starting to get worried, what kind of event can justify all this time spent straggling through tedious plot lines and how are they going to tie everything together in the final two episodes when it’s taken them eight to set the stage for an opening act? The pacing of this season has really seemed like that of a show with episodes to spare, one that was picked up for a full twenty-three week run, none of this ten hour nonesense and so as good as some of the individual moments are the whole is looking less and less like it will come together satisfactorily.
Though on the plus side I am really starting to get into the shows rhythm’s in that i’m developing a spidey like sexposition sense; as soon as I see a female character dressed a certain way or pulling a certain pose – like Robb’s girl was tonight – I know instantly that after five minutes of emotional muttering there will be yet another needless bout of nudity. So there’s that. Mostly though this was a rather weak episode, one that i found to be an entirely unmemorable experience and it came right after an episode that got me excited for the show again. An intelligent imp – though I’m afraid I cannot pronounce his name – once asked, “Why are all the gods such vicious cunts?”. I on the other hand wonder, why are we?
See you at Blackwater.
GAME OF THRONES- THE PRINCE OF WINTERFELL (FILTHSPOSITION)
(Including comparisons to the books, but no spoilers for future episodes)
I was the odd one out on this site in being largely dissatisfied with last’s week’s installment of Game of Thrones. Now I am the odd one out again. While some found this week’s episode weak, I for one thought it was F*CKING FANTASTIC. Sure, nothing big happened, but I felt that this episode was pretty much as good as any episode with nothing big happening should be (I cannot say the same for some of the other similarly-natured episodes this season).
For starters, I felt the economy of screen-time here was fantastic. We touched base with almost every character, but as far as I’m concerned none of the scenes felt rushed or insignificant. Some scenes which seemed insignificant on the surface were actually very much the opposite. An example of this would be Robb’s sex scene, which Deer understandably confused for another scene of pointless nudity, but which should actually directly lead to some of the most awesome moments in Season 3. Every minute was well utilized to more clearly define either the stakes and/or the direction of almost every character’s situations. It’s finally a set-up episode that ACTUALLY sets stuff up (in ways both obvious and subtle). While some could make a strong argument that the season should have done all the set-up (and done it well) by the halfway mark of the season, my response would still have to be ‘better late than never’.
The first season of Game of Thrones had a clear structure of ‘first half= setup, second half= payoff’. On the other hand, Season 2 is adapting a book that was 80% setup followed by a super-massive climax. While I had initially expected them to find a way around that, the show-runners have opted for the risky approach of basically having eight consecutive episodes of set-up (mind you, Episode 6 was pretty big, so that’s the exception). This is done in order to support the payoff of what will essentially be a massive two-part season finale (each one covering half of the cast) and a huge third and fourth season. Season 2 therefore suffers the “middle chapter curse” and DB Weiss and David Benioff must be hoping that Blackwater will do a whole lot to alleviate that in the way that Helm’s Deep did in The Two Towers. While Season 2′s extreme approach to delayed gratification may ultimately be to the benefit of Seasons 3 and 4, it is still a much more risky approach than the clear ‘half and half’ structure of Season 1. Season 2 has had a lot of problems with pacing, structure and the gradual building of dramatic momentum (or the lack thereof). I’m willing to accept it as long as Blackwater is SUPER-awesome, and as long as Seasons 3 and 4 are able to raise the bar because of all the groundwork Season 2 did. I guess we will have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I felt that this actually was an impeccable set-up episode. Episode 6 remains my favourite installment of the season, but this probably comes second for me, and I thought it was the best “quiet episode” since Eps 2 and 3 (both of which I loved). This episode also felt more cinematic to me than last week’s. To me, even dialogue-heavy shows should try to feel cinematic, otherwise they start feeling too much like a play rather than a TV show. That to me is a problem, no matter how strong the acting or dialogue may be. The show felt too much like a play rather than a show for me last week. However here the show worked around this, not by throwing in more explosions, but by having better music, more scope in the scenery, characters walking around sometimes while talking instead of everyone in the hour constantly being seated. Those and other “sight and sound” techniques would come across as minor things for some, but for me they helped a great deal to give a more cinematic, immersive feel to the speeches and the soliloquy’s this week. So we still got the benefits of watching a play (great acting, great dialogue), but at the same time it did indeed feel to me like a handsomely-produced TV show.
This show, like the source material, often relies on characters reciting stories and memories to other characters. While this itself could be called “non-cinematic”, I think the stories the characters told each other this week were very effective at further defining the characters and their personalities (Yara, Talisa and Stannis). In the case of Stannis, I wish he had told his story about Storm’s End in the first 2-3 episodes of the season, because I felt that the scene briskly and efficiently painted the character more convincingly than any of his other appearances this season (which have been far too seldom- the man has felt like an afterthought when he should’ve been a huge focus of the entire season!).
The rest of my review will be dot points more specifically referencing certain scenes:
* I loved the scenes at Winterfell. Yara’s conversation with Theon was fantastic. Both in terms of banter and then emotion (helped by some fantastic music). The “twist” with the Stark children was obvious, but again the music and atmosphere were so effective that the final moment of the episode had me completely in its grip and almost shouting “Bravo!”.
* Tywin leaving Arya at Harrenhal as a servant of The Mountain was silly! If he indeed is fond of her, he should know better than that! Still, I thought the shot of Arya having mixed emotions as she watched Tywin ride off was fantastic. And we got to see Gendry again, which was awesome! Arya’s scene with Jaqen H’Gar was silly, but fun- as their interactions this season have tended to be. I was very annoyed at the changes to Arya’s escape from Harrenhal, which was SOOOO much more dramatic in the book. However the book never had all those awesome Arya/Tywin scenes, so I guess you win some, you lose some.
* Davos/ Stannis scene- Fantastic. As said before, these characters deserved much more screen-time, and the great Storm’s End speech should have been much earlier in the season. Also, the way Stannis was praising Davos, while still trying to seem like a hard man was 100% in keeping with George RR Martin’s depiction of the character.
* Tyrion and Bronn bickering like an old married couple was awesome. Twice in the episode Tyrion said “Stannis will be here in days” and I still think the show has just continually told us that, rather than showing it and/or making us feel the true gravity of the oncoming doom. However, the rest of the episode did help to give the situation more gravity. Everything with Tyrion/ Cersei/ Joffrey was awesome. And we finally got to see Varys again! YAY! Varys was awesome.Some of the shots in King’s Landing conveyed the scope of the place very well.
* Jaime and Brienne together! OMGOMGOMG! The continued adventures of these two is my number one most anticipated subplot for Season 3. Their arc in the novels wasn’t entirely original, but it was massively entertaining (and don’t worry, they never fall in love). These two will make a great partnership.
* Robb’s walk with Talisa at the start of the episode had the sort of scenery that had such beauty and fragility that to me it can almost only convey such a theme as forbidden love, and it did so sufficiently well here. I thought Talisa’s story about her past was very effective at finally making her feel like a genuine character. The Robb/ Talisa romance isn’t the most engaging storyline, but trust me, it pays off BIGTIME in future seasons.
* Ser Jorah is really awesome. Like, one of my favourite characters. He makes the Daenerys scenes a bit more pallatable, which is saying a lot.
Bottom line, it’s been a flawed season, but I’ve still enjoyed it a great deal. This episode featured a LOT of characters, but I felt that it gave them all great dialogue and utilised good misc-en-scene throughout. Nothing big happened, but I loved the flow of the episode so much that it was still one of my favourite installments of the season.
I suspect the upcoming final two episodes could have the potential to significantly elevate or diminish the season as a whole. I’ve been looking forward to next week’s “Blackwater” for at least a year, so next Monday can’t come soon enough!