Game of Thrones: The Lion and the Rose

It’s not uncommon, when you’re talking about A Song of Ice and Fire or its small-screen sister Game of Thrones, to hear some variation on “I stopped reading/watching because it was just too awful.” That too many heroes die hopeless and alone, too many villains celebrate victory, that Westeros and the rest of the world are just too full of bleakness and atrocity to get invested for the long haul. Leaving aside the question of whether some of that harshness and violence is shown in a problematic way – a great question for another time – you’re left with an inherently subjective evaluation. Some people find Game of Thrones too cavalier with the lives of its cast, too depressing in its continual subversion of the heroic narrative, too eager to take your lunch money and punch you in the junk. Ain’t nothing wrong with that opinion, even if it’s one I don’t share. (I like terrible things, you see.)

But watching “The Lion And the Rose,” I can get a sense of where people are coming from when they say “I just can’t do GoT anymore.” That’s a hell of a thing to say about an episode that ends on one of the most viscerally satisfying moments in the show’s run, and I think it’s a credit to the team that put together this episode – to say nothing of as-of-now retired actor Jack Gleeson – that we can derive nuance and emotional challenge from a scene where the natural reaction is just a fists-in-the-air, Super-Bowl-touchdown cheer.

Because yes, everyone, the king is dead, dead, dead. From his lowly beginnings as a spoiled little shit getting slapped by Tyrion, to the great heights of a psychopathic spoiled little shit getting verbally slapped by Tyrion, Joffrey Baratheon* has risen to be perhaps the most universally loathed character on television right now. If there’s one thing to make longtime book readers glow in satisfaction, it’s knowing that millions of viewers share our hatred of Joffrey’s smug jerk face. And now they watched his smug jerk face turn purple and bleed out the opinion hole, poisoned at his own wedding, his last act as king presiding over a juvenile farce precisely calculated to alienate literally every single ally his family has. That’ll do, king. That’ll do.

So after three seasons of the Lannisters slowly ascending in power and stampeding all the relatively decent people in their paths, they finally get some comeuppance, and it’s the absolute least pleasant of the lot who gets the axe. Why would this be a cause for anything but celebration? Good question, and to answer it, let’s talk about what’s going on in the rest of the world. “Lion” was a pretty King’s Landing-centric episode, with the biggest assembly of central cast members since the pilot, but I found the other selections interesting given the context of Joffrey’s death.

Pictured: all possible regrets

Take our Bolton/Snow family reunion up north, where Ramsay takes a break from his carefree country lifestyle of hunting, carousing, and bonding with his new bestie to explain things to his dear old dad. Last season’s interminable Theon torture scenes are starting to pay off in Alfie Allen’s tormented “Reek” (underplayed this week, and well so), but it’s the sudden catapulting of House Bolton to Westeros’s #2 villains that takes center stage. Where Joffrey was largely cowed by his grandfather, Ramsay is an older, more self-assured brand of psychopath; where Tywin writes fatal letters and hasn’t lifted a sword in years, Roose Bolton is perfectly willing to wield the knife himself.

Meanwhile, Dragonstone hasn’t gotten any more normal since last we saw it. It says something that Davos Seaworth, everyman voice of reason, barely has any dialogue or camera focus in his scenes on Dragonstone; instead, Melisandre’s enigmatic assurances and Queen Selyse’s barely-coherent fanaticism rule the day. And Stannis? Well, as with last season, the show’s characterization differs from the books in small but significant ways, and I can’t say I’m a fan thus far. Good example: in A Storm of Swords, Stannis condemns Lord Florent (Selyse’s unfortunate uncle) to death for betraying him, writing a letter to the Tyrells offering terms of surrender without consulting Stannis. Melisandre still gets to burn Florent as a heretic, but the key is that he’s a traitor and dead either way. Here, Stannis is simply letting her pick out heretics without any other qualifiers, a pretty significant departure. There’s still time to change course, but in the meanwhile, Westeros’s great hope against Lannister domination is a depressed pedant with a militant tiger by the tail and not much of a grip.

So coming back to the wedding, when Joffrey meets his well-deserved end, how much is actually gained? The sex workers of King’s Landing will be safer (though not entirely, given the possible fate of Shae this episode – more on that later), and Tommen the First will probably be a biddable monarch without his brother’s potential for impulsive, self-destructive acts of violence. But he’s still acting on a Lannister agenda, which means a this point Whatever Tywin Wants, and we’ve all seen that Tywin’s desire for peace and stability leaves out little extras like “regard for human life.” The Tyrells, too, were a wedding night away from the throne, and now they need to recoup their investment in some fashion. For all Margaery’s public kindness, she’s her grandmother’s apprentice, and…well, there’s some hints in this episode about just how far Olenna Tyrell is willing to go on behalf of her house.

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This grim viewpoint isn’t to take away from how well-done the episode was. If I hadn’t known what was coming, I might well have been surprised by Joffrey’s death, with the merriment and pageantry of the wedding contrasted against the cheerless foreshadowing of Edmure Tully’s nuptials last season. And the preliminaries in King’s Landing had some more highlight moments, particularly from Jaime Lannister, verbally fencing with half the court and finding himself just as overmatched as he seems to be physically. Kudos, too, to all involved in Tyrion’s heart-wrenching rejection of Shae, in which he told one final lie to the only woman he trusted himself to be honest with, trying to save her life. I appreciate the show’s willingness to trust its viewers and leave Tyrion’s motives unspoken; it gave the scene more power but also laid bare what a dodgy idea that actually was.

But all of those scenes and more besides were just lead-up to the grand finale and the least satisfying pigeon pie of all time. It’d be a stretch to say that we felt sorry for Joffrey’s smug jerk face, but what “The Lion and the Rose” laid bare is that there will always be more Joffreys. The problem is the monarchical system that indulges and coddles their worst instincts, props them up as figureheads and uses them for whatever can be gained. The show and the books are as one on this – it’s not Joffrey and Ramsay who are so dangerous, but Tywin and Roose and all the other players of the game behind them. Joffrey had it coming, and Westeros is a better place without him. How much better? That remains to be seen.

Random Thoughts

-Remember Tommen? Joffrey’s little brother, the kid laughing at the dwarf joust? He’s the king now, in case you’re not up to speed on the laws of Westerosi succession. Gosh.

-We finally met Mace Tyrell, Loras & Margaery’s dad, and if he never appears again you’ll still know everything you need to know about House Tyrell’s power dynamics.

-Speaking of power dynamics, some late-night cable eye-fucking going on with Loras and Oberyn there. In the books, there’s some long-standing Martell-Tyrell enmity borne of geography and past incidents; the show seems to have transferred that to the Lannisters, leaving the floor open for Oberyn’s extracurricular activities.

-Of course Ramsay Snow and Locke are bros. Of course they are.

-There’s still only one song in Westeros. Whoever murdered Joffrey could’ve at least waited until he issued an official proclamation against “Rains of Castamere,” as he appeared ready to do during his last serenade (by Sigur Ros!)

-Some conversation to be had about what’s going on with Bran Stark & company, but I’ll save that for his next episode and see what is revealed.

-The increased prominence of the Boltons may lead to some on-screen Roose/Walda Frey interactions, which, if the books are any guide, are going to be amazing.

-Dwarf Joust tidbits: Dwarf Stannis was riding Melisandre. Dwarf Renly was riding Loras. Loras was sitting right there. RIP Joffrey, you were the stupidest motherfucker imaginable.

-Non-readers, if you’re wondering who killed Joffrey, it’s laid out (with reasonable subtlety!) in the episode. Re-watch the feast.

Power Rankings:

“And that’s why everyone who isn’t us is just stupid as hell, dear.”

5. Margaery Tyrell, who will no longer have to worry about sleeping with Joffrey. That’s worth a crown.

4. Roose Bolton. The Roose is loose! I just wanted to type that.

3. Bronn, kicking the Kingslayer’s ass and getting paid to do it.

2. Tywin Lannister, whose grandson’s brutal murder has probably made his job easier. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

1. Olenna Tyrell. “Not now, Mace.”