Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week for my Game of Thrones bonus video I wanted
to do something about Mereen and the east just because episode 3 is a big Daenerys episode.
So this is going to be a short history of the city of Slavers Bay and the Ghiscari Empire.
If you’re finding me for the first time.
I do weekly bonus Game of Thrones videos as well as episode reviews and Q&As be sure to
subscribe to get everything.
I even do a weekly giveaway for each episode.
My next one starts as soon as I post my review for episode 3 tonight.
So for this video I’ll say spoiler warning for everything up to season 4 episode 2 and
the corresponding book chapters.
Let’s start with some background on the Ghiscari Empire.
They were the big great civilization that predated the Valyrian Empire.
The pyramid we saw in the trailers is an example of their architecture that’s survived to
current day.
In a generalized way I think of them as like the Egyptians, that were later occupied by
the Greeks and eventually the Romans.
I think of the Valyrians as more like the Roman Empire.
The doom of Valyria just makes me think of the fall of the Roman Empire.
Although those two things happened for very different reasons.
Vaylria was physically obliterated by acts of nature and the Roman Empire just got too
big to maintain effectively.
Again in real life, very different.
But the Ghiscari architecture mirrors a lot of the pyramids and their Harpy statues remind
me a lot of Egyptian sphinxes.
Most of the old Ghiscari cities were destroyed in wars with the Valyrians which is one of
the main reasons most of the visible signs of their civilization are gone except for
the pyramids, statues and in some of the culture of the slaves and unsullied.
I’m really excited for this week’s episode, because we finally get to see the Unsullied
fight based on these clips in the trailers.
From a historical perspective the unsullied kept a lot of the fighting traditions of the
Ghiscari alive.
Most notably the lock-step way in which they fight, like an Infantry.
They also use a phalanx formation when they’re not using siege engines and catapults.
So you can see George RR Martin is mixing and matching bits of history.
Because the unsullied descend from what you could consider Egyptians and the phalanx was
a Greek fighting technique, you probably saw them use it in the movie 300.
Siege Engines originated in ancient Assyria and catapults also came from ancient greece.
The reason Daenerys has had so many slaves to free is because slave trade is the main
source of income for most of the major cities in the east.
The reason that all got started was also because of those wars with the Valyrians.
When the Ghiscari were finally defeated, the Valyrians sowed salt into all the soil so
that they couldn’t grow crops anymore.
So everyone had to turn to something else for income, thus you end up with the slaving
cities.
Which include Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen.
We saw those first two cities in season 3.
Remember how Daenerys flame broiled everything.
So that brings us to right now, outside the gates of Mereen.
The last stop on Daenerys quest to end the slave trade in the east.
The difference between this city and those other two is that it’s much bigger.
Mereen right now is as big as those other two cities combined.
Good thing she has all those Unsullied.
She’s going to need them.
Remember in episode 1 when they were on the road and stopped to look at all those crucified
slaves.
The Meereenese learned what Daenerys had done and used a scorched earth defense against
her.
Since they knew she was coming.
That means they nailed up all those people and destroyed the land surrounding the walls
so Daenerys wouldn’t have any natural defenses.
Let’s save all the talk about the plot and what’s going to happen next until my episode
3 review video later tonight.
I’ll post it after the episode airs.
Mereen itself has some really cool physical landmarks.
There’s the Great Pyramid, which we’ve seen.
The Temple of Graces and The Fighting Pits.
The Temple is a religous building that we might get to see soon but the fighting pits
are exactly what they sound like.
They’re part of a gladiator style combat arena.
Just like in the Greek Coliseum.
I don’t know how fast the story in Meereen is going to advance from episode to episode,
so I’m going to wait till episode reviews to mention all the slaving families and the
different organizations like the Sons of the Harpy.
We’ve seen a little bit from inside the city in the trailers, mostly night scenes,
but imagine Astapor and Yunkai being a walk in the park compared to the problems Daenerys
will face in Meereen.
Not only does she have to defeat the cities official forces, she’ll have to deal with
the guerilla organizations and Urban Combat.
Most of the fighting we’ve seen on the show in Westeros and in the East has been open
field combat.
Like in big open spaces with lots of room to move around with big swords and dragons.
Urban combat is something that’s totally new to most people from Westeros.
Even the Unsullied aren’t really meant for Urban combat.
That’s where Daario comes in.
Think of him as like the special forces leader of Daenerys army.
Even though I’m sure Grey Worm would do just as well in any situation.
But here’s a couple things that I’m really excited to see that you guys should pay special
attention to:
First, The fighting style of the Unsullied.
We’ve really only seen them march.
Daenerys isn’t using the rod of control anymore but she’ll still give her orders
to Grey Worm and he gives those orders to the group leaders and so on all the way down
to the regular foot soldiers.
Chain of command infantry style.
This will look very cool in big wide open scenes.
Second, Daario’s fighting style.
He’s a mercenary and I’m really interested to see him in combat.
We got a look at his blades when he and Grey Worm were having that contest in episode 1.
He unlike Grey Worm is a capable negotiator too, which is why he’s better for important
missions and Grey Worm is better for all out open war.
Third, the architecture.
I didn’t see a lot of the physical sets they filmed all this on, but the CG in the
trailers doesn’t do the city justice.
Think of a larger, grander version of King’s Landing.
With a freaking pyramid in the middle of it.
That scene with Daenerys inside an underground structure is also from the pyramid.
So maybe not in this episode but pretty soon we’ll get a really good tour of the city.
If you’ve ever traveled to any of the older cities in Europe you know what I’m talking
about.
There’s just something about the buildings that is so much cooler than cities in newer
places like America.
I think of Meereen as being like a mixture of ancient Rome and ancient Egypt.
But let me know what you’re most excited to see in the episode.
Remember, Daenerys story is only part of what’s going on, Jon Snow and the Wildlings and Tyrion
and the aftermath of the Purple Wedding are all going on too.
So I expect a lot of what happens in this episode to continue directly into episode
4.
It just seems like there’s too many things happening for it all to start and end in a
single hour.
Like I said, I’m posting my episode 3 review after the episode airs.
Probably about 9:30 PM Pacific Time tonight.
Be sure to subscribe to get it.
And feel free to leave me suggestions for future bonus videos.
Right now click here to catch up on last week’s Purple Wedding and click here for my Q&A video.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight.
High Fives!