Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week on Game of Thrones we got some more callbacks
to the Iron Bank of Braavos, Syrio Forel’s unknown status and Sansa in the Vale.
But really I feel like all the energy was at Crasters.
Quick heads up to, if you’re finding me for the first time I do weekly Game of Thrones
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So let’s talk about love triangles and the moon door.
Careful for spoilers from the episode if you haven’t seen it yet.
Here are my top 5 WTF moments, Number 5 - Lysa and Littlefinger
In case you don’t remember from Season 1, she is looney tunes crazy.
Mostly crazy for Littlefinger.
It’s kind of tragic how much he’s taken advantage of her lifelong obsession with him.
But here are the cliff’s notes on their historic love triangle with Catyln Stark.
Littlefinger loved Catlyn as a boy, but she like most teenagers wasn’t always crazy
for him.
Her younger sister Lysa became obsessed with him.
Because Littlefinger couldn’t have Catelyn, he took Lysa as consolation prize.
He basically took her virginity.
Only making her obsession worse.
But she was forced to marry the much much much older John Arryn who ruled The Eyrie.
John Arryn discovered Joffrey was a bastard but Littlefinger who was working a long con
at the time, used Lysa’s obession to get her to poison her husband slowly and send
that letter to Catelyn that made her think the Lannisters were responsible.
Which is part of the reason Catelyn took Tyrion to the Vale to be executed in season 1.
That was only the half of things in the Vale in the episode, we can unpack the freaking
hilarious sex screaming in the comments.
But the big takeaway from Sansa this week is that Lysa looks like she could flip out
and try to do something awful to her.
Keep you eyes peeled on Lysa.
Robin Arryn, her son.
Is like a crazy Joffrey analog.
He’s just crazy at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Who else felt awful for Sansa when he just farted out his mouth about the Red Wedding?
Number 4 - You Can’t Run From The Iron Bank
This may not have seemed like a big deal, but I think this Iron Bank plot will become
a much bigger thing in a few episodes.
But how surprised were you when Tywin Lannister said all their gold mines had been exhausted.
They’re still rich, but there’s no new money coming in.
All those wars that he funded and the money he lent to Robert also took a huge chunk of
their wealth.
So that’s why they need the Tyrells.
They’re the only other super wealthy family in Westeros right now.
Mark Gatiss is playing someone from the Iron Bank, but no word on which episode he’ll
debut in.
It actually seemed like there were a lot of big call outs to Braavos in the episode.
Number 3 - Daenerys Does What Queens Do
I liked the casual way Daario talked about taking Meereen’s fleet of ships.
It’s basically enough to carry the force they have right now to Westeros.
So technically if they wanted to, they could probably take the Iron Throne and enough people
would just flock to her banner to help them subdue the rest of Westeros.
They wanted it to feel like Daenerys could go either way.
But in doing so, all of her good work freeing slaves would be undone.
So she’s sticking around.
But her enemies are starting to come back.
They name dropped Cleon, a former Slave who’s taken over Astapor.
He’s going to be important so remember him.
Back in Yunkai the Wise Masters took power back.
So they’re also going to be a group Daenerys will have to face again.
We didn’t see the dragons, but I expect we’ll see them again soon.
Number 2 - Brienne and Podrick world’s best Odd Couple, next to Brienne and Jaime
Yes, it’s a bummer that Jaime is there with her, but I love the comedy they brought to
the episode.
When the whole world is burning or freezing around you it’s nice to get some relief.
She’s slowly warming up to him but it was really when she learned about how Pod saved
Tyrion from the Kingsgaurd at Blackwater that sealed the deal.
I feel like this also foreshadowed Pod saving Brienne at some point this season.
He’s not super at cooking rabbits but he’s there when you really need him.
I also loved the way they visually connected Pod talking about running his spear through
the back of the kingsguard’s skull and the way Jon Snow killed Karl.
and my number 1 WTF moment, no surprise here - Jon Versus Karl
We’re going to miss you Burn Gorman, you were an amazing villain.
In case you were wondering, he died inside Craster’s Keep and because they lit it on
fire, I think he burned too.
So he won’t come back as a Wight.
The fight scene was pretty amazing too.
There is a lot of swordplay or water dancing in Arya’s case.
But we don’t get really pitched intimate battles like this very often.
I thought David and Dan did a really good job of developing Karl as a villain so that
this final fight felt like such a high point.
That shot of Jon’s sword though.
That will go down as one of the all time best killing blows on the show.
Not quite as big as Ned Stark’s beheading, but definitely Top 5.
Now it’s your turn, let me know what your favorite moment was.
Jon and Karl, Arya and the Hound or Sansa in the Eyrie?
Because there were so many big things going on, here’s some notes on things we also
have to pay attention to:
Arya is water dancing again and she let the hound know he’s on her list of people to
kill.
I was so happy that Needle couldn’t penetrate his armor.
I love the two of them as a pair.
They’re like the anti Pod and Brienne.
Or Pod and Brienne are like the anti Arya and the Hound.
Let’s just call them Team Fuck the King.
The Hound also had a big wink to the fandom about Syrio Forel.
Everyone always wants to know whether he’s dead or not, and the Hound thought that Meryn
Trant couldn’t kill himself with his own blade if he tried.
So if you believe him, that means Syrio is still alive.
In reality, George RR Martin never said what his fate was in the books.
And in every interview I’ve ever seen he refuses to say for certain what happened to
Syrio.
So let me know whether you think he really died or not.
Then let’s follow up with Bran, it looks like he’s back on track to find that giant
weirdwood from their visions.
Poor Hodor too, did you see the look on his face when he realized he killed Locke.
And then there was the major Sand Snakes namedrop.
Oberyn talked about his 8 daughters.
I know a lot of you have been asking me if we’ll see any of them this season.
Based on the pacing of the episodes and given the fact we’re halfway done with the season,
I don’t think the show will bring them on until Season 5 at the earliest.
If there’s anything important that you thought I didn’t mention, just write it in the comments.
Overall the episode was a solid A minus.
They did an amazing job of paying off the Karl plot, which was developed beautifully
even though he wasn’t even in that many scenes.
I think Burn Gorman really nailed evil.
I hope he plays some more villains in the future.
He looked like he had so much fun.
The way they revealed the Vale and the Eryie was also really breathtaking.
You go from the Bloody Gates, this horrible claustrophobic Kill Box to that big panoramic
CG shot of the castle at the top of the mountain.
The idea is that Sansa is supposed to be safe from armies there, but because of crazy pants
Lysa and Robin, she’s probably in just as much danger as she was in King’s Landing.
Emotionally the Bran breakaway at the end didn’t land with me, mostly because I know
the book canon and Bran never went to Caster’s in the books, so the whole subplot was a little
surreal to me.
But Jon’s reunion with Summer was so good.
It probably touched me so much because I’m a dog person, I’ve had big Labrador Retrievers
my whole life.
So I know what it’s like to love a big animal like Summer.
I didn’t expect them to try and top the White Walker scene from last week.
But Karl’s death came pretty close.
I felt like the whole Meera thing was building towards them dying a horrible death, so it
wasn’t a huge surprise that Jon stabbed him in the back of the skull.
Podrick Style.
Let me know if you have any other lasting questions about the plot or what’s coming.
Next week based on the teaser Tyrion’s Trial starts.
So I’m really excited to watch that play out.
My Q&A will post tomorrow.
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One more time, thank you so much you guys for helping me get to 200,000 subscribers.
You’re all awesome.
Right now click here for that Q&A, i’ll add the annotation as soon as i post it.
And click here to learn all about the last war with the White Walkers and the building
of the Wall.
See you guys tomorrow, high fives!
Everybody go hug your dog if you have one.