Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 8 – let’s have a look.
We begin in Braavos, where Lady Crane performs that play again.
She’s taken Arya’s advice and added a bit in her speech about wanting vengeance.
She heads backstage, finds a wounded Arya, and takes her home to heal her up.
Which is a big deal for Arya.
You gotta remember that her life these last few years has been one horror after another
– losing her family, imprisonment at Harrenhal, roaming the riverlands, joining a death cult.
So this situation of comfort and trust and normalcy is a really special moment, a rare
chance to rest and heal.
Though, the books emphasise that Arya may have hurts that won’t heal.
In the books she says she feels a “hole inside her where her heart had been”, that
“The hole will never feel any better”.
After all that she’s been through, Arya is traumatised, deeply damaged, which makes
you wonder how her story could possibly end.
Like, after the fighting’s done, one way or another, she’ll hardly marry some lord
and settle down as the noble lady she never wanted to be in the first place, will she?
So it’s interesting that in this scene she talks about travelling west of Westeros, seeing
the edge of the world.
Maybe that’s how her story could end.
Maybe she could say her farewells, get on a boat, and sail west, into the sunset, like
Frodo in Lord of the Rings, passing on to a place of rest somewhere between heaven and
death…
That could be beautiful.
That said, the Arya revelations this episode are dumb.
It turns out that Arya’s stabbing wasn’t a trick, wasn’t part of a plan, there wasn’t
a twist – Arya seriously decided to go for a haircut and have a nice afternoon stroll,
unarmed, not paying attention, when she knew a deadly assassin was hunting her.
Has she learned nothing from her training these last seasons?
And her stabbing looked like it’d kill her, but all it takes is a band-aid from Crane
and she’s okay?
This makes the stabbing feel like a cheap trick on the audience, a shock to spark the
clickbait.
Game of Thrones is meant to be a show where if you fuck up, there are lasting consequences.
So having Arya get herself stabbed from her own carelessness, then conveniently healed
in the next episode, undermines the brutal realism that separates Thrones from other
fantasy shows.
Every time a character gets stabbed then comes back the same as they were before, we care
less next time a character is stabbed – and that’s happened like three times this season
already?
So that’s lame, but the episode does get better because this time, Arya has a plan.
Somewhere in the riverlands, a bunch of brotherhood dudes are talking shit when the Hound comes
along and murders them all with an axe, to avenge the death of Brother Ray and his community
who were slaughtered last episode.
But were these guys even guilty?
Like, the older two were in the group that threatened Ray’s village, so presumably
they were involved in the massacre.
But the younger guys we’ve never seen before, they seem to be just a couple of naïve young
men – so unless the Hound knows something we don’t, he just murdered innocent people,
didn’t he?
Are we meant to cheer for this?
Maybe this is where the character of the Hound is going, he’s becoming more an antihero
than a hero, more a Punisher than a Superman – someone who’s willing to do terrible
things in the name of justice.
Which could be interesting.
But it’s striking how opposite this is to what happens to the Hound in the books, where
he joins a sort of monastery to atone for his sins, he begins a life of peace.
These chapters in the book are about showing an alternative to violence and conflict, showing
that peace can be possible.
The representative of this in the show is Brother Ray, but he and his whole community
are wiped out in the same episode they’re introduced – which sends the opposite message,
it suggests that peace and pacifism will just get you killed, that the only way to survive
is to perpetuate this endless cycle of violence and vengeance and suffering.
If that’s the version of Westeros the show wants to show, then so be it – but it does
feel wrong to see George Martin’s arguably anti-war story turned into a show that sometimes
celebrates indiscriminate violence.
Varys and Tyrion chat about the status of Meereen, which seems to be improving since
Tyrion’s peace deal.
We see a red priestess preaching about Daenerys being the chosen one of the Lord of Light,
called Azor Ahai or the prince that was promised, which could get awkward when Dany gets to
Westeros, cause there the red priest Melisandre thinks Jon Snow is Azor Ahai.
You can’t have two chosen ones… this could be a problem.
Anyway Varys is going back to Westeros, probably to kill those guys from the end of Book 5,
and he and Tyrion say a sad farewell.
They seem to have a real friendship here, which is sweet.
You can see why they’d feel a connection, they’re gotta lot in common – both very
clever, capable dudes who feel outcast from society – Tyrion for being a dwarf, and
Varys for being a eunuch.
They’ve fond of each other in the books, too, but book-Varys isn’t truly Tyrion’s
friend.
In the books, Varys manipulates Tyrion, manipulates everyone.
He has this huge, complex conspiracy going on with his fat friend Illyrio, with totally
different goals than the Varys of the show, his character is much more extreme and complex,
which is cool, but it’s also kinda nice to see that the show-version Varys being much
more able to have to actual genuine relationships, it's like a more human version of the Spider
we know from the books.
In King’s Landing, the sparrows, led by Lancel, try to seize Cersei.
It’s still crazy to see how different Lancel is from how he started – he used to be this
meek incompetent kid, a fuckbuddy for Cersei, and now, he’s in a religious militia and
she’s an enemy of the Faith.
Shit changed.
But anyway Cersei chooses violence – she sends in the Mountain, who goes full Darth
Vader on a sparrow.
Qyburn looks on like a proud soccer mom, so pleased to see his creation growing strong.
Qyburn’s another really interesting character.
When Cersei first meets him, he’s described as looking “like some little girl’s favorite
grandfather”, a “soft-spoken” man “with warm brown eyes” – he does not look like
a monster.
We do hear rumours that he “does black magic”, that he was kicked out of the Citadel for
performing experiments on living men, but it’s only when Qyburn turns the dying Mountain
into the monster he is now in some mysterious terrible process involving screaming and pain
and the deaths of innocent women that we realise this sweet old man is a some Josef Mengele
motherfucker.
Bad guys don’t always look like bad guys in this story.
Brienne and Pod arrive at Riverrun.
While Brienne chats with Jaime, Bronn chokes Pod, for the banter.
They chat for a while and Bronn teaches Pod to fight dirty, which you could totally see
coming in handy later on – maybe Pod could save Brienne by kicking a Bolton in the nuts
or something.
Meanwhile, Brienne and Jaime talk, and Jaime plays it kinda cold at first, acting dismissive
of Brienne, but he does reaffirm his gift of Oathkeeper, that Valyrian steel sword,
which is an incredibly valuable gift – remember there’s just like a dozen of those swords
known left in the world – but it’s also very symbolic, representing Jaime’s faith
in and respect for Brienne.
That might be the heart of Jaime and Brienne’s relationship, cause they both crave respect,
but don’t get it from the outside world, because Brienne is a woman trying to be a
knight, and Jaime’s the Kingslayer, an oathbreaker – they both feel looked down by everyone.
But through their shared suffering, Jaime and Brienne come to see the goodness, and
the strength, and the honour in each other, even if no one else does – and that’s
why it’s so tragic that they’re stuck on opposite sides – Jaime serves King Tommen
and Lannisters, while Brienne serves Sansa Stark, who’s an enemy of the Crown.
There is a bit of a star-crossed lovers vibe here, but whether Brienne and Jaime love each
other romantically or just as friends might not be the point – they give each other
the respect they both so desperately crave.
So Brienne heads into Riverrun and tries to convince the Blackfish to give up the castle,
and come help Sansa and the Starks take Winterfell, which the book-version of Blackfish probably
would have done, because the main reason he holds Riverrun is to be his loyalty to the
Starks, but show-Blackfish mostly just wants to defend his family home, so he refuses Brienne
and stays inside the castle.
In King’s Landing, Cersei comes to the Great Hall for an announcement, and she wants to
stand by her son Tommen, but she’s rejected – by her son, by her uncle Kevan, and by
the ladies of court – she feels an outcast right now.
Then King Tommen gives his announcement – that trials by combat are now banned, because they’re
barbaric and unfair which is pretty true – it’s silly that having a powerful warrior on your
side can excuse you for crimes, but the real meat here is that now Cersei can’t use the
Mountain to win her trial and her innocence – so this looks to be another clever play
by the High Sparrow – outsmarting Cersei again.
But also this seems to mean that we won’t get Cleganebowl, the big theoretical fight
between Gregor and Sandor that fans have been hyped for for years.
Which in some ways is unsurprising, the theory always was pretty light on evidence and thematic
resonance, but still – why would the show hype this fight if it’s not gonna happen?
“that is one trial by combat I look forward to watching”.
We might not get Cleganebowl in the way it was imagined, but hopefully we’ll still
get something like it.
Anyway so Cersei has her plan ruined, she’s now all out of options, which means she might
be about to do something drastic, something fiery.
Cause at the end of the scene, Qyburn tells Cersei he looked into a rumour and found something
big – and there are lots of hints at what this might be.
Remember the wildfire, that napalmy green stuff, we saw buried beneath King’s Landing,
that King Aerys once tried to use to burn down the city?
Remember all those times Cersei said she’d burn cities to the ground?
Remember that vision in Season 2 of King’s Landing looking like it’d been burned?
There’s lots of evidence in show and books that Cersei will try to use wildfire to burn
down King’s Landing, in an act of mad revenge and fury against everyone who wronged her.
The only thing left that might stop her from doing this is her son Tommen, who she still
loves above all else, so maybe he’ll need to die somehow to spark Cersei’s rage and
grief.
In the books there is the valonquar prophecy which suggests to some that Jaime might kill
Cersei to save the city, and this shot of a dragon over King’s Landing suggests it
might be dragonfire that sets off the wildfire, either way, it looks like the capital will
burn.
In Meereen, we have a second instalment of “Tyrion tries to teach Missandei and Grey
Worm how to have fun”, and it goes a little better than last time did.
Tyrion makes a comment about sharing wine with his close friends, which makes you realise
– Tyrion doesn’t really have close friends.
He’s in this foreign city, far from everyone he knows, his family mostly hates him or was
killed by him, his closest companions back home were people he paid to hang around with
him.
Tyrion Lannister is really lonely.
Their game is interrupted when the slavers roll on in with a big fleet – looks like
Tyrion’s peace deal didn’t work after all.
At Riverrun, Jaime and Edmure have an emotional talk.
We get a taste of Edmure’s suffering in captivity these last years, and Edmure heavily
criticises Jaime, asking him how he lives with himself – giving us an example of how
most people look down on Jaime – while Brienne sees the good in him.
Jaime responds by ruthlessly threatening Edmure, saying he’ll hurl his baby son into Riverrun
with a catapult, which seems to confirm Edmure’s words that Jaime’s an asshole, but at the
same time it succeeds in convincing Edmure to give up Riverrun peacefully, so Jaime gets
to keep his oath to Catelyn not to attack Tullys, which in its own way makes Jaime an
honourable man.
This shot of Jaime could almost represent this duality, with his face half in the shadow,
and half in the light, somewhere between good and evil.
This is Jaime’s internal struggle.
But yeah the Lannisters and Freys take Riverrun, Brienne tries to get the Blackfish to come
with her, but the Blackfish chooses to go get himself killed offscreen instead, which
is a little lame, given that the Blackfish was talked up to be this really amazing dude,
and all he ended up doing was standing around and being grumpy, but Brienne heads off along
the river and Jaime waves her goodbye, until their paths will meet again.
In Meereen, a siege begins, with the slavers bombarding the city – the beginning of the
so-called “Battle of Fire”.
Just when everything’s looking terrible, Daenerys arrives on dragonback to see what
the kids have been up to while she’s been gone and she doesn’t look pleased.
So presumably, Dany will use her three dragons to burn the slavers’ fleet, though the other
thing to consider is that the ironborn are still on their way, with their fleet.
So we’ve got dragons and harpies and squids all coming together in this crazy huge Battle
of Fire.
Back in the riverlands, the Hound comes across the leaders of the brotherhood without banners,
Beric Dondarrion, and Thoros of Myr, who are about to hang Lem and some other brothers
who apparently perpetrated the massacre of Ray’s village.
The Hound haggles with the brotherhood over who gets to do the killing and how, which
is… perverse.
And then then they sit and have a fireside chat.
Beric and Thoros ask the Hound to join them, offering him redemption and a purpose.
They talk about winter, and the north, and it sounds like they wanna go help fight the
white walkers, which is cool – it’s not clear how they know about white walkers, maybe
Thoros saw it in his flames.
Thoros, if you remember, is a red priest, like Melisandre.
He’s got a pretty cool backstory himself, check out the Thoros video if you’re keen.
But yeah looks like the Hound is going north with the brotherhood – Beric and Thoros’
flaming swords would certainly be handy against the wights and walkers.
Maybe they’ll also get involved in the Battle of the Bastards next episode.
Maybe Beric will meet Jon – they’d have plenty to talk about, seeing as both of them
were resurrected with the power of the Red God.
So lots of interesting new material to look forward to here.
In Braavos, Arya wakes to find the waif’s killed Crane – which Arya shoulda seen coming,
right?
The waif gives a Bond villain bad guy speech, because she’s a rubbish assassin, and Ayra
runs away, leading the waif on a chase across the city.
Arya lures the waif to a dark room, where she draws Needle, turns out the light, and
kills the waif using her skills from her time training blind.
Which is a pretty cool plan – Arya adapted to overcome an enemy stronger than herself.
Then Arya takes the waif’s face into the House of `Black and White, and confronts Jaqen
H’ghar, who, strangely, says she is now no one – which is weird, cause being no
one is meant to mean giving up your identity and personality, which Arya clearly hasn’t
done.
Maybe Jaqen’s just trying to talk his way out of being killed here – he has got a
sword to his chest – though even as Arya leaves, he smiles for her, he’s clearly
fond of her, which is like, fine, power of friendship yay, but what’s the point of
being a hardened fanatical death-worshipping cultist who gives up their very humanity if
you’re gonna just be cool with some kid breaking all your rules and killing your other
student, because you’re fond of her.
The Men invested so much training in her, and now they’re just letting her go?
The Faceless Men of the show simply make much sense, which is a real shame, but regardless
we’ve now gotten to the point of the Braavos arc – Arya is now stronger, and she’s
embracing her identity as Arya Stark of Winterfell, she says she’s going home.
But what’s she gonna do there?
Presumably, she’s after the people on her list, and Walder Frey seems the obvious target
– he’s been set up as a bad guy this season, and we’ve seen him celebrating with some
Lannisters in the trailers, so maybe Arya’ll crash the party and kill Walder.
We might also eventually get to see Arya meeting her family again, seeing Sansa and Jon, coming
back to Winterfell.
This is big – Arya Stark is back.
So that was a mixed episode.
The Arya stuff was bad in parts, but there’s cool stuff happening in Meereen, and King’s
Landing, and the riverlands, and next episode is the Battle of the Bastards, and after that,
the season finale – just two episodes left and they both promise to be huge.
So thank you for watching, and thank you to all Patrons supporting this channel on Patreon,
including Eric Louis-Dreyfus, Todd Marcus, Chris Cole, Eric Cascketta, Sean Kethcart,
Sanschlaepfer, Rajiv Kothari, Caitlyn McKinney, Javi Ortiz, v.c.
gillyhoon, Jon, Nick and Bull.
Cheers.