Game of Thrones: Walk of Punishment
This weeks Game of Thrones was full of power. Losing power, gaining about, knowing what power is. Each character. Tyrion Lannister is appointed “Master of Coin” while Lord Baelish is sent off the the Eyrie to be with the late Lord Arryn’s wife. Tyrion points out that he knows a lot about spending money but not much about managing it.
Over in Astapor, Dany buys the slave army for the price of one of her dragons. And the men of the Wall find some artfully slaughtered horses (with their riders nowhere in sight) and returen to Craster’s Kepe;t the creep who marries his daughters and sacrifices his sons to The Others.
Theon Greyjoy has a rough time with the torture, escaping, being chased, hit with a mace, and then almost raped. No sympathy for Theon here, he’s a terrible human.
The Lord of Riverrun dies, Robb is frustrated. One of his men fucks up his plans and Robb wants nothing but Tywin Lannister dead. That is the only thing that will stop the war and get his sitters back and his brothers safe.
Tyrion finds out that the Kingdom is in more trouble than just he war. Littlefinger has been sneaky with the money and been borrowing tons of it, so much that King’s Landing cannot pay back its debts. And apparently Tyrion’s squire, Podrick Payne, is a god in the sack.
Jamie and Brienne are taken hostage by sellswords, and Jamine advises Brienne to put up with whatever abuse the men do to her in order to save her life because she’s “not as important” as Jamie. Jamie gets a lesson in importance and pride and trying to use his name to get away with everything. A lesson that changes his life forever and costs him a hand.
The whole idea of Game of Thrones is a power struggle, but this week we saw a shift in the struggle. Tyrion became the manager of the money for the kingdom and discovered all of the ways money was abused and collected. Tyrion, along with the viewer, realizes the kingdom is in much more trouble than previously thought. Tyrion may know nothing about managing money, but he is smart. Predictions for Tyrion changing everything about the kingdom and Joffrey not being happy about it start now.
Dany also gained an immense amount of power this week. Her army of 8000 slave soilders will do her well in her quest to take back her rightful throne. She has however, lost one of her dragons, her children. Daenerys is strong, and she seems to have a plan up her sleeve. That dragon won’t be gone from her long.
And finally we have the biggest power shift; Jamie Lannister. Jamie has relied on his skill as a swordsman and his name to get him places in life. People cower at his feet. But now Jamie is without a hand. How useful is a swordsman with one hand? (Okay well it can be done but we’re talking heavy broadswords here in GoT). Jamie’s should take an interesting turn from here. New life, less limbs.
The great thing about Game of Thrones is that not every character is in every episode. How is this good? It makes you want to watch more. For example, Sansa. Sansa’s storyline is starting to get interesting. Things were set up in episode 2, but she didn’t appear in episode 3. It makes you want more and you keep coming back.
oh also, The end of the episode featured a song by The Hold Steady called “The Bear & The Maiden” (the sellswords who took Jamie were singing this during the episode also). Have a listen!