While it has its flaws, I’m generally pretty satisfied with this show’s ability to turn the tables on its characters.
While the fans and the marketing tend to really hype up the blacks vs. greens angle, both sides are looking pretty despicable. And each seems to be giving as good as they are getting. From the start of the episode, you would think the greens are seriously losing: with Criston Cole and his dwindled army dying ingloriously when trapped by the Tully army and the Winter Wolves, Corlys littering a forest with the hanging corpses of Triarchy pirates, and Aegon giving up and preparing to flee to Essos. Then by the end, Corlys is captured by the Hightowers, Daemon’s at a loss with the resistance to the queen in King’s Landing, and nothing seems to be going right for Rhaenyra.
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Rhaenyra sucks at ruling. The ruler she models herself after is her father: the guy who let the throne consume him until he was a decrepit husk of his former self. That combined with the tremendous setbacks, betrayals and pressures she faces as queen has made Rhaenyra — normally fickle and self-righteous — into a far more callous and coldblooded person. And like her half-brother, sitting the Iron Throne has definitely increased her narcissism.
Daemon’s falling short too. After the “Feast for Traitors” leaves even more Gold Cloaks dead, men start to resign from the City Watch in droves. Dressing up as a Gold Cloak himself and ensnaring one of the conspirators doesn’t accomplish much for Daemon either. And beating and threatening Ulf in front of the small folk probably doesn’t do much to foster love for Rhaenyra’s rule.
That last bit is also in retaliation for one of Rhaenyra’s latest (clever but failed) schemes. She strips the Baratheon delegation sent to equivocate on behalf of Lord Borros and sends assassins dressed in their clothes to gain an audience with Ormund and kill him and Daeron; she even makes the assassins filthy to throw off the odor-sensitive Ormund, which succeeds. Unfortunately for her, Gwayne is there and he’s able to see the assassination coming, saving his loathsome cousin and beloved nephew.
Gwayne is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. He proves himself a cunning and respectable warrior while also acting as the pure straight man to vicious, self-obsessed jerks like Criston Cole or Ormund.
Ormund’s dangerous and can talk a big game, but clearly doesn’t have what it takes to follow through with his bold plans. He claims to have the clear advantage, but that’s mostly based on his assumption that Rhaenyra’s womanly nature will make her too squeamish to drop the hammer down on him. Still, his plot to undermine Rhaenyra’s rule through proxies in King’s Landing is definitely working; Ormund may lose on the field of battle, but he may have already won the war of hearts and minds.
And the problems don’t end there. At Harrenhal, Aemond One-Eye and Alys Rivers are about to become the realm’s most wicked new couple. Aemond’s chafing to get back to his dragon like it’s a prized security blanket, but Alys is desperate for him to stay. A mix of tainted love and other motivations, I’m sure. She ends up convincing him to stay by revealing a trove of abandoned dragon eggs. The witchy woman stokes Aemond’s ego, promising him a new age of House Targaryen born within the castle of conquerors. Whatever this is leading to, it ain’t peace.
The rest of the episode is pretty good, but this thing between Rhaenyra and Alicent is still so tedious. These women have betrayed each other over and over again, yet still keep putting their faith in each other. Alicent has feared Rhaenyra for years, but still think Rhaenyra will be understanding and merciful after spitting on every olive branch extended to her. Rhaenyra has resented and distrusted Alicent for years, but now she’s relying on her to take out her greatest enemy. It’s getting to be like the thing you see happen in certain novels, where so much of the drama relies on characters willfully blinding themselves to things that should be obvious to most people.
Blacks and Greens:
* Criston Cole’s killer is Alysanne Blackwood aka Black Aly. I found it fitting that he got taken out by a woman with a bow. Though I also liked that Cole got to prove his “realm’s greatest warrior” skills before that, even using his signature weapon, a morningstar.
* There’s some major Tyrion Lannister energy between Tyland (one of Tyrion’s ancestors) and Larys (whose characterization in the show somewhat resembles Tyrion’s book counterpart). I quite enjoy watching these two exhaustively attempt to steer Aegon in the right direction. That is to say, the direction that won’t get them all beheaded.
* Baela hooks up with Alyn. People are complaining about a lack of buildup or chemistry, but it made sense to me. In as far as any relationship in this show makes sense. It’s not a purely romantic encounter; it’s another uncle and niece pairing, for one thing. But these two have their own issues that led them here. Baela’s been under a lot of pressure, essentially ostracized and used as a tool by the queen after her involvement with Jace’s death. She needed to regain a sense of control, as well as relief and comfort. Alyn’s arc this season is about becoming his father’s heir, and embracing ambition; he sits in the Hand’s chair in this episode, next to Rhaenyra and opposite Daemon. So, naturally, the dutiful self-effacing sailor now feels emboldened enough to act on his attraction to Princess Baela, a queen who never was.
* I never noticed that the pillars in the throne room are sculpted at the top to resemble the dead Targaryen kings. Right before Rhaenyra walks out on the petitioners in the throne room (and right after she cuts herself on the throne), she looks up at the statue of the Old King, Jaehaerys. The Conciliator. Nice detail.
* At one point, it looks we’re about to see Mysaria finally earn her keep as mistress of whisperers instead of dealing with low-hanging fruit like Alicent. She appears to snuff out what appears to be a Red Keep maid spying for the Hightowers, but we never see where this goes. She tells a guard to tell her “when it’s done,” so maybe she had this girl quietly captured or executed.
* Ormund, of course, has a bunch of grandiose titles: Beacon of the South, Defender of the Citadel and Voice of Oldtown.
* People love to boss around people who have access to massive dragons that can reduce cities to ash. Jeyne Arryn’s got killer drip, but she’s crazy presumptuous slapping around a dragon rider, especially Rhaena, whose dragon is completely unpredictable.
Quotes:
Criston Cole: “If I strike my banners, will you spare my men their lives?”
Oscar Tully: “I made a promise to the dead, Cole. I told them I’d build a sept out of traitors’ bones. I don’t have near enough bones yet!”
This kid is not to be trifled with.
Hugh: “It will soon be the same again, I imagine.”
Ulf: “But we’re not the same, are we? We weren’t in service back then. At the beck and call of the queen… sleeping on a hill… alone. She stopped me going to the tavern, Hugh. Not one ale with the lads! What’s the point in having a dragon if no one’s around to see it?”
Rhaenyra: “You are a Hightower. To my court, you are the enemy.”
Alicent: “And to you?”
Rhaenyra: “Do not try me.”
Ugh.
Corlys Velaryon: “You take her side, when she yet refuses to grant you legitimacy?”
Alyn of Hull: “And how many years did it take you to do the same?”
Tyland Lannister: “There is… in any one of us, I would venture… much to admire and much to be deplored.”
Aemond: “I need to find my dragon. She would not have willingly left me, and I’ll not be without her.”
I’m just now realizing it, but Aemond’s attraction to older women truly began with Vhagar, a female dragon and the oldest one still living by a long shot.
Ormund Hightower: “The patient hunter gets the kill. Something the craven among us would do well to learn.”
Gwayne Hightower: “I have marched a long road, fought and killed and suffered my comrades to be killed about me.”
Ormund: “Yes, you have endured much. I’m sure you found solace with some of your brothers in arms.”
Daeron Targaryen: “When you were in King’s Landing… did you see my mother?”
Poor boy.
Aemond: “I have been cursed for my sins, Alys. All I put my hand to withers beneath its touch.”
Alys Rivers: “Do you imagine that you alone know what it is to be cursed?”
Alys Rivers: “Let the gods turn their backs on us. We will make our own fortune. I will be the Lady of the Water. And you… the dragonlord by my side.”
Septa: “Your Grace, the motherhouse lately enjoyed the protection of the City Watch. Now, we are in peril. One of our girls only last night was taken.”
Rhaenyra: “You have my condolences, I shall… light a candle for her when next I attend the sept.”
Thoughts and prayers. But even more insulting, saying she’ll “light a candle for her” right after blowing off the last guy begging for more tallow so people can keep their own lights burning.
Ormund: “The common man is, as a rule, of no interest or concern. But you must never trust one who has clawed his way to power. His ambition is oft fueled by some lack. Some shame, or lust, or rage.”
Alicent: “Do you not wish to be free?”
Helaena: “Why am I here? Was there no other lord that offered for my hand? Or was it your own desire to marry me to my brother?” Alicent: “It was my father’s wish. But I did not begrudge it. Better here with me, I thought, than with a man you did not know in a place far away.”
Alicent: “I will return to you as soon as I am able, I give you my word. I will come back and collect you, and we will… we will walk out in the sun.”
Four out of five filthy failed assassins.
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