Game of Thrones A-Z (22 page)

Reluctantly, Theon beheads him, much to Bran’s shock.

The wildling Osha, who now looks after Bran like a nanny, hatches a plan for her, Bran, Rickon Stark and Hodor to escape, but first she must seduce Theon. She has sex with him, but, when he is sleeping, she sneaks out – taking Bran, Rickon and Hodor with her.

At the army camp in the Westerlands, Catelyn Stark meets up with her son Robb, and he introduces her to a nurse called Talisa. She senses their attraction, but later reminds Robb of his obligations and that he is already betrothed to Lord Frey’s daughter (see entry entitled ‘Red Wedding’ for further information). They are told by Roose Bolton that Winterfell has been taken by Theon and his men.

Robb reluctantly agrees to not withdraw his huge army of troops to rescue his brothers, and allows a small Northern group to take back Winterfell.

At King’s Landing, Joffrey’s reign is bringing dissent from the people and he is pelted with excrement by rioting peasants when he leaves the castle walls. Joffrey demands they are executed, but a riot breaks out and, among other acts of riotous behaviour, Sansa is nearly raped by the mob, until the Hound saves her.

Daenerys attempts to find resources to buy ships are fruitless, and she returns to her room to finds her dragons missing and members of her entourage killed, including Irri.

TRIVIA

Dothraki Irri, a recurring character in series one and two, does not die in the books, but had to be killed off as the actress Amrita Acharia couldn’t secure her EU work visa.

In the book, she is in a sex scene with Daenerys, which will now obviously never be shown. There was a proper death scene filmed, but it was never aired. She explained, ‘I’m waiting for Daenerys to come back so I’m running up the stairs. “Khaleesi, are you back yet?” And the dragons are gone. Out of nowhere, there’s a noose around my neck. I think it’s hard to be strangled on screen because obviously to an extent, to make it look real, you really have to be a bit strangled. So I had massive bruises on my neck the next day; I was proud. Battle scars. Death scenes are fun.’

POST-ANALYSIS

The reviewers were ecstatic with the episode, with many calling it the best of the series so far, and the ratings were roughly the same as the week before.

Neela Debnath writing for the 
Independent
 wrote, ‘The pace may be slow but when the rewards come they are big and this week was a fantastic episode that was well worth the wait... Once again, this episode has surpassed the one before it.’

A Man Without Honor

Season two, episode seven

Written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss

Directed by David Nutter

After learning that Osha has escaped with the two Starks and Hodor, Theon hunts them down to a farm, but he has been tricked into believing they are there. Bran cleverly uses his wolf ’s scent to trick them. Theon supposedly kills the two children he has found living there, burns them and then passes the charred bodies off as Bran and Rickon Stark.

To her horror, Sansa finds her sheets covered in blood, and she realises she has begun menstruating – and can now have Joffrey’s child. She desperately tries to hide the evidence, but the Hound finds out and all is revealed to Cersei. This leads to a slightly warm – if bizarre, given the circumstance – meeting with Cersei, who recounts her births.

Cersei also shares a moment with Tyrion, with the pair taking a break from needling each other with vicious asides and hurtful acts. She confesses that she believes her son is the product of her and Jaime’s sinful act. Tyrion comforts her, by telling her that her two other children are good people.

Jaime is sharing a cage with his cousin, but he kills him in a bid to escape. However, he is recaptured, and it soon becomes clear to Catelyn that the soldiers are desperate to kill him – robbing her of the chance to use him as an exchange for her daughter.

After Jon is left alone by his scouting group to execute a female wilding, his reluctance allows her to escape. She is recaptured by Jon, but he has lost his group. She taunts him about the way he lives his life – taking orders and swearing an oath that he could never be with a girl. When she escapes again, he blindly follows her – not realising he is being led into an ambush.

TRIVIA

The scene where Jaime Lannister is surrounded by an angry baying mob desperate for his blood was based loosely on the footage of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s death, which had just been broadcast on the news. Director David Nutter wanted to catch the energy of pure bloodthirsty vengeance.

The title comes from a line uttered with contempt by Catelyn to Jaime Lannister.

It’s the first time the phrase ‘War of the Five Kings’ is said on screen. It is said by actor Charles Dance, who plays Tywin Lannister.

The scene where Jaime Lannister kills his cousin in a bid to facilitate his escape was hailed by actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as his best working experience.

POST-ANALYSIS

The 
Telegraph
 gave it five stars, noting, ‘Perhaps what makes so many people susceptible to 
Game of Thrones
: all of the characters, even the incestuous child-killers, are somehow loveable.’

Den of Geek
 reviewed the episode and said, ‘This week, penned by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, was beautifully sharp on the dialogue front... 
Thrones
 and its creative crew have been working very hard not to make any character one-note.’

The Prince of Winterfell

Season two, episode eight

Written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss

Directed by Alan Taylor

Aired on 20 May 2012, the episode was geared towards the Battle of the Blackwater. Stannis is close to his destination King’s Landing (thanks to a big fleet led in part by Davos), and Tyrion tries desperately to ensure his risky plan of using the flammable potion wildfire will work to fend off the invaders.

Jon Snow plans to infiltrate the wildings army by posing as one of them after he is captured by the Lord of Bones, a member of the wildings.

Robb Stark is furious when he learns that his mother has Jaime, sending him along under the watchful eye of Brienne to ensure he is exchanged for her daughters. He orders his mother to be kept under guard, and Robb ends up in the arms of Talisa – defying his betrothal to House Frey.

TRIVIA

An ever-present director on 
Game of Thrones
, Alan Taylor won’t be around for series three as he will be directing 
Thor 2
.

To better portray the land Beyond the Wall, Benioff and Weiss chose Iceland over filming in a studio with a green-screen backdrop. Weiss said, ‘Our general approach with everything is, if there’s something real that we can build on and use effects to turn into our world, that’s always better. It’s always going to be better to start with a real foundation, whether it’s a castle or a canyon encampment, or whatever. In Iceland, there’s not a damn thing you need to do. It looks like no other place on earth.’

Not that it didn’t pose its own problems. ‘There was a shot where Samwell’s talking to Jon and he looks normal,’ said Benioff. ‘You cut to Jon, then you cut back to Samwell and he looks like Father Time – like with the snow and the ice just frozen onto his face in just a matter of seconds. It’s really hard to do continuity. But they [the actors] never complained once.’

Weiss added, ‘I knew it was gonna be pretty rough [on Kit Harington] and there’s no shelter out there for six, eight hours in very cold conditions. And I went up to talk to Kit on his first day of shooting and asked, “How you doing?” He said, “I’ve never ever had a day of shooting that I loved as much as this.”’

A costume designer can only submit one episode for Emmy consideration, and Michele Clapton chose this one.

She had originally wanted to showcase the more flamboyant and glamorous side of the show, but she instead thought, ‘Don’t take that route, be braver,’ and chose this episode to show how the costumes could be different in this kind of genre. Out went the original plan to show royal gowns and in came the Inuit-inspired costumes of the wildings, with animal skins, and leather and animal bones lashed together to serve as battle armour. ‘We bought a lot of bones online from eBay,’ she told the 
Hollywood Reporter
.

‘Then we took moulds of the bones and made armour, all strapped together with what looks like guts but is actually string and latex.’

POST-ANALYSIS

Impressively the show’s ratings refused to drop, with critics mainly enjoying the episode. However, most critics noted that it was essentially a nice lull before the next episode’s major battle.

Tom Chivers, for the 
Telegraph
, wrote, ‘Loyalty and betrayal, oath-breaking and oath-keeping. They’re always themes in 
Game of Thrones
, but this week they came to the fore. Almost every character had a decision to make: who to be loyal to, when it meant betraying someone else.’

Blackwater

Season two, episode nine

Written by George R. R. Martin

Directed by Neil Marshall

With a screenplay by Martin and direction by acclaimed Scottish filmmaker Neil Marshall, there was an impressive pedigree to oversee the iconic Battle of Blackwater.

Unsurprisingly, a large portion of the strategic warfare and epic moments in Martin’s book were either toned down or excised completely. Unbelievably, however, HBO was at one time considering having the battle take place off screen in a bid to rein in the budget.

Benioff and Weiss argued their case persuasively; thankfully, because this was the biggest, and most expensive, moment to hit the series: huge explosions, graphic deaths, sweeping shots and flaming arrows. Yet, those aren’t necessarily the parts that stay with you…

A drunken Cersei spitting out insults while holed up in the room below with the women added some humour to the proceedings, but also showed her contempt at being forced into a room of people she doesn’t want to be with purely because she is a female. Tyrion desperate to find his secret love just so he can see her possibly for the last time, and Bronn and Tyrion saying good luck to each other, also provided a good aside to the battle scenes.

But the most heartbreaking moment is the realisation that it’s all over, and Cersei comforts her youngest son Tommen, reaching for some poison she has acquired to kill him before the invading army arrives. She hears the footsteps, apparently of Stannis, and is inches away from giving him poison, until, at the last minute, she realises it’s her father telling her the battle has been won.

Other major plot developments occur in this episode.

Most noteworthy include Tyrion being left for dead after heroically taking as many men as possible into battle – despite his size – after Joffrey decides to run back into the castle to safety, showing him up to be a coward. Frightened by the wildfire and flames (fire burned his face as a boy), the Hound also deserts the battle, leaving King’s Landing behind him. Nearly all of Stannis Baratheon’s ships are burned away by the wildfire, leaving only a handful of ships still on the sea. Although Davos’ ship goes under during the battle, he survives the fire but is left for dead.

TRIVIA

Director Neil Marshall wasn’t the first choice, but the original director pulled out at the last minute. Benioff said he ‘went pleading to HBO for more money [for the episode]. We made our case why we needed the battle and they obliged.’

Talking about the battle, Benioff explained, ‘It was pretty much a month straight of night shoots, which is just tough for anybody unless you’re a vampire. It’s Belfast nights, which means it’s cold and it’s usually wet. There was an incredible amount of mud. It’s tough for the crew, but then when you see it on screen and see how good it looks, you see the way the weather affects people. You see the wind blowing their hair and the rain coming down. None of that’s faked.’

Sophie Turner said about the episode, ‘She [Sansa] wants to go back to Winterfell and see her family again, but, after being caged up, she’s learned not to trust anyone. She knows her family isn’t going to be like it is in the fairytales, waiting for her return. She hears that her brother is fighting a war, and she knows it’s never going to be the same. It’s not like she has a plan to get out, because she’s only thinking about her survival now, and she’s kind of just going with the flow. But she’s very broken, kind of stunned and traumatised, and it’s hard for her to function without the people who love her. I would love to see Sansa marry for love, but, after what’s happened with Joffrey, I think it’ll be hard for her to trust anyone.’

POST-ANALYSIS

Critics seemed to love the episode, with many calling it the best hour of TV in that year. However, it was one of the lowest figures of the year. But it was shown around the Memorial Day holiday in US, a time that often hurts programme ratings.

IGN
 gave a glowing review; ‘The episode “Blackwater” was nothing short of a stunning triumph. We might have had a few 
Game of Thrones
episodes in the past that felt like they heavily focused on one story as an anchor, but never an episode that truly stayed 
with only one
 scenario the entire time. And what a freakin’ fantastic journey it was.’

Valar Morghulis

Season two, episode ten

Written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss

Directed by Alan Taylor

At the end of the episode ‘Blackwater’, we are led to believe that Tyrion has died, but it transpires that he was saved on the battlefield. Left a wounded man with only half a face, Tyrion still hopes that he will be rewarded for his efforts. However, much to his dismay, rather than being hailed a hero for taking the men into battle, and plotting to release the wildfire to stop Stannis attacking King’s Landing, a wounded Tyrion is a forgotten man, forced out of sight, with his father taking all the credit for winning the battle. The thing that keeps Tyrion’s spirits up is the confirmation that Shae still wants to stay by his side, despite his disfigured face and wounded body.

However, both the positivity and negativity just encourage Tyrion to build up all his strength to begin plotting again.