Game of Thrones – Oathkeeper
Well, it’s finally happened. An episode of Game of Thrones to make ASOIAF readers go “Holy shit, what?” the same way their Unsullied* fellows have been doing for the last three seasons and change. Deviations from the books are nothing new, and for much of its run, “Oathkeeper” just seemed to be going a little further afield in its compression and restructuring. GRRM has talked about the “butterfly effect” of the show, where small changes beget larger ones, and we’d all been warned in various pre-season interviews that things were going to start to branch off a little further. But little of it seemed particularly noteworthy beyond “Huh, that’s different, oh well” – until the last fifteen minutes or so, including a closing scene in which shit, indeed, got real.
“No, hold on, let me deduce what’s going on here.”
Before getting to that, it’s worth discussing that “Oathkeeper” was an absolutely beautifully shot episode, best shown by the opening segments. The conversation between Missandei and Grey Worm, shot over flickering firelight, introduced the episode with an impossible stillness that yielded quickly to the chaos of war. The choice to open with two side characters enjoying a moment’s peace and study was interesting, in that it set Daenerys up as an invader, an othered presence breaking into a tranquil scene to remind her general (albeit kindly) that she had a city to conquer. This characterization was followed up on when conquer it they did (in a quick but effective rewrite of the books’ offscreen Meereenese slave revolt), because the Breaker of Chains, our more-or-less heroine, promptly had a hundred and sixty-three people nailed to posts to establish her justice. Deserved? Depends on your interpretation of the cultural context and geopolitical factors; what isn’t open to interpretation is that our dear Dany is growing up something fierce. She’s a conqueror as much as she is a liberator, and “Oathkeeper” did a stellar job reminding us of that fact.
The episode also seemed to rely less on quick jump-cutting between scenes than previous, choosing to linger in each location in fairly solid blocks. King’s Landing’s usual cast of characters (absent Tywin, probably writing murderous letters somewhere) provided banter and wit, with a somewhat uncomfortable scene between Margaery Tyrell and the aged-up King Tommen I salvaged by Natalie Dormer’s excellent acting and, of course, THE LEGEND OF SER POUNCE! Seriously, memes aside, watching Margaery quickly switch gears as she recalculated her fiance’s maturity level was a thing of beauty. Aging Tommen up made it a little weird, but whatever, don’t lie to me and tell you you didn’t still love your childhood cat when you were in high school. Olenna Tyrell will be missed (reports are this is Diana Rigg’s final appearance this season, and who knows if we’ll see her again) but she’s left an apt pupil in her place.
I guess we should touch on Jaime while we’re in King’s Landing, which means discussion of That Scene’s lingering aftereffects. The show seems content to play off as if the sex was consensual, apparently the (horribly misfired) intention of the direction and script. As a book reader, it’s relatively easy to compartmentalize Book Jaime, especially given that all of his behavior this episode was entirely consistent with on-page characterization; in a way, it makes last week’s scene even more baffling and infuriating. I’m going to reserve overall judgement while we wait and see if, I dunno, he drags Shae back to King’s Landing and threatens to murder her if she doesn’t help save Tyrion. But at this point, it seems like accepting the show’s botched intent to mimic the books is the only way to continue enjoying Jaime’s scenes, banterful and gradually redemptive as they are. I will say though, that reading the conversation between him and Cersei with Jaime as a self-justifying abuser and Cersei struggling with PTSD is a fascinating experience – it’s just not one I think I can stomach in the context of this plot.
That’s a dark subject but I think it deserves some KITTY YOU’RE A KITTY
But adjusting to major book-to-screen changes is something we’re all going to have to get used to, and it starts up North. Jon Snow’s material in the back half of Storm of Swords is tremendously strong, to the point where it’s difficult to fathom why the showrunners think it needs rewriting at all. My guess is that it has to do with making the timelines jive, with the fate of the Night’s Watch and the wildling threat dependent on certain other characters and, of course, the dramatic pacing of a ten-episode season. But unless episodes 6-10 are all essentially The Saga of Jon Snow, it’s hard to see how they’re going to fit in all the printed material and this shiny new side trip. Still, there’s some great material in Castle Black, with Locke adding a new wrinkle and Alliser Thorne backing off of last week’s nuance to remind us all that, well, he’s kind of a total dick. The reunification of Jon’s Season 1 band of brothers (plus Dolorous Edd, and thank fuck for that) is a welcome sight, and one hopes that the integration of Locke will have a little more subtlety than the soundtrack suggested. (Swelling strings…swelling strings…unity…friendship…aw no this motherfucker’s got kniiiiiiiiiiives!)
On the other hand, that means establishing the threat that Jon & co. are facing (because, you know, they need more), and that means a somewhat drawn-out and gruesome side trip to Craster’s Keep, now rebranded as Karl the Tanner’s Palace of Degradation. Burn Gorman does an able job as a petty-thug-turned-tyrant, even saddled as he is with a bit of absurdity, but the show only has an hour of storytelling to give and it spent a solid four minutes of it on the villain cred of a guy who, let’s be honest, probably isn’t long for this world. (Also, some gratuitous rape and violence in the background – which Benoiff & Weiss apparently toned down from what the director had planned.) In the books, the Night’s Watch deserters are shuffled quickly into the grave by the undead and the winter, with a few possible conspirators reaching the Wall alive and rejoining their fellows; here, they’re promoted to Noteworthy Threat, and how.
Which brings us to Bran, and the overall thrust of this review – we are now in uncharted territory. I’d like to talk more about the general “butterfly effect” of his capture (an absolute invention of the screen) and how that fits in, but let’s cut to the chase, holy fucking shit, the White Walkers. The presumption that the Others (book name) are turning Craster’s sons into the next generation is all but confirmed by the text, in the mouth of one of Craster’s wives, so it’s not like it’s out of left field. What is shocking is seeing, on-screen, an Other riding into the trackless north and into the “curtain of light at the heart of winter” described in Bran’s early visions; seeing the thirteen black-garbed figures representing the first hint of Other civilization beyond “zombie army,” seeing that peculiarly crowned Other inducting the child into his family…for the first time, it’s a scene that provides information not available to book readers.
And the strange thing is, I sort of like it. I am absolutely not looking forward to the idea of the show’s main plots out-and-out surpassing the books, and desperately hope that George can write like his ass is on fire to avoid that possibility. I don’t want such a divergence that, at the end of both properties’ runs, there’s two different endings. But I do like the idea of being surprised, and surprised by things besides “Ugh they really fucked up X character’s characterization” or “Hey that show-only scene’s actually kind of cool.” Surprised in a real and meaningful way, given information that changes how I look at a series that, previously, has mostly been measured against the images already in my head. It’s absolutely not for everyone and, depending on how the Northern material this season shakes out over the next few weeks, I may demand a return to relative predictability. But my immediate reaction to this scene was a sense that the show has yet to give me, and for, I sort of like that.
“Seriously, just tell me who Jon’s mom is and I’ll let you go.”
Stray Thoughts
–“Unsullied,” of course, coined by Winter Is Coming, the site I definitely don’t have to tell you about.
-There are already a thousand cool book theories about the Others spiraling out of the five-minute scene we got, because ASOIAF fans are nothing if not detail-oriented. My personal favorite is that someone noted that the Walker who initially carried the baby had the same hairstyle as Uncle Benjen. Coincidence? Probably. But man, those clothes did look a lot like weather-beaten Night’s Watch armor…
-Also this, which is the closest thing to a true book-spoiler and, as they say, a game-changer. Could just be an HBO intern randomly taking a name associated with the books, but…makes you think.
-Compare & contrast Bronn and Locke. They’re very similar characters, to be honest, lowborn, violent men with extremely flexible morals and little regard for noble authority who worked their way up in the world by being useful for said authority. But it’s safe to say that one is beloved by the audience, and one largely reviled. Why do you think that is?
-I didn’t even touch on Ghost being stuck with the deserters. Neither, apparently, did Jon. I think a scene of Jon lamenting how he lost his direwolf, and how the gods must be punishing him for breaking his oaths with Ygritte (or alternately, failing to break the rest of his oaths and go save his brother!) would’ve been a much better use of time than Burn Gorman acting like he’s never read Oglaf.
-That link is work-safe, but don’t google “Oglaf” until you get home.
-At this stage in the books, Bran & co. have another member of their party who raises some fascinating questions about the nature of the Others. Readers, do you think that what we learned in this episode sheds any light on that person’s identity?
hey guys whats up lol
-What the fuck happened to Jorah Mormont? Did Iain Glen get his SAG card revoked for “being too handsome for your written role” and now he doesn’t get lines anymore?
-By the way, the Brienne scene was excellent, and I am so fucking excited for her roadtrips with Podrick Payne. As long as we’re going off-script, maybe they’ll meet up with Arya and the Hound for ultimate buddy-cop power.
-Seriously, the news that the Craster’s Keep scenes were toned down makes me a little nervous. The show should be challenging and occasionally horrifying, but I don’t want it to become a testing ground for every TV director’s personal Lars Von Trier homage. A little less gratuitous rape and murder, a little more Ominous Undead Horror.
-Would love to hear from fellow readers on how they feel about the show jumping ahead a little.
Power Rankings:
5. Karl the Tanner, Lord of Degenerate Hill. Enjoy it while you can, you dickfuck.
4. Margaery Tyrell, stealing a march on her mother-in-law.
3. Daenerys Targaryen, who has yet to actually need to resort to a boring regular siege to conquer any cities.
2. The crowned White Walker with the spoilery identity. I think I wiped on that dude a bunch of times in Icecrown Citadel.
1. SER POUNCE, FIRST OF HIS NAME.
