Afternoon Delight
So I just finished the third episode of season 3 for Game of
Thrones. As I watched, I had so many different things I wanted to write about.
This episode seemed more comedic than the previous two episodes of the season.
Also it handled the issue of rape on an interesting level. But while I will get
to all of these topics a little further below, I was completely and utterly
shocked by the ending of this episode. I am still at loss for words. I keep
going back and forth on Jaime Lannister. For all intents and purposes, he seems
to be a ruthless person and a despicable knight. He broke his oath as a member of
the King’s Guard and killed the king he sworn to protect. He has an incestuous relationship
with his sister and almost killed Bran just to keep it a secret. He had a hand
in the downfall of Ned Stark. Not to mention that he killed his own cousin so
he could escape Robb Stark’s captivity. But there is something about him that
makes me still thoroughly enjoy his character. Maybe it is Nikolaj
Coster-Waldau’s enticing accent and Disney Prince Charming looks that makes me
want his character to be redeemed. But I think there is more to his character than
just brooding good looks and deadly actions. His repartee with Brienne is not
only humorous but also enlightening for you see that he almost has a certain
amount of respect for her. Though, it was this episode that really made me see
that Jaime might not be all evil. He warns Brienne that their captors will rape
her tonight, and as a sworn member of Catelyn’s guard, Brienne has vowed a
chaste life and she holds her vows most sacred. When the captors take her away
to have their way with her, Jaime has pain on his face. I do not know if is
because he has come to respect Brienne and maybe has even grown a little fond
of her, or if he cannot not even imagine the situation she is in. In a
conversation with Brienne as their captors are leading them to camp, she asks
Jaime what he would do if he knew he was going to be raped multiple times that
night. He replied that he would rather kill himself, but luckily he is not a
woman. This show over the past few seasons has actually taken the idea of rape
kind of lightly. It was a Dothraki war custom to rape the women in the lands
you conquered. A lot of times in this show, women are reduced to either whores
or innocent victims of war where they are expected to give their bodies to the
powerful men who conquer the world. In viewing the show, the audience accepts
these positions because of the medieval time period in which this show is set
as well the barbaric nature of war and the competing armies. However, this is
the first time that a character ever shows a serious problem with a woman being
taken advantage of. Jamie does his best to persuade their captors that she is
worth more untouched, advising them that she is from a land of great wealth.
His magic way with words save Brienne and her virtue (at least for the time
being) and he seems almost to be making friends with those who hold him
captive. In a surprising turn of events, however, his sweet talking leads him
to a chopping block where his captor severs his hand. This moment left me
speechless. I know in the Game of Thrones universe, no character is safe and
anything can happen but the Kingslayer without his hand definitely changes the
nature of that character. With it only being the third episode of the season
and having this big event happen, I cannot wait to see what the rest of the
season has to offer.
Rape actually played another role in this episode. Theon,
with the help of an accomplice whose identity is not yet known, manages to escape
and ride towards his sister. Before going further I want to say, I do not know
if the show intentionally leaves some things in the dark or they just expect
people to have a basic knowledge of the books but there are some confusing
aspects to the stories especially this season. For example, we still do not
know who kidnapped Theon. Apparently, after his men turn on him at Winterfell,
Theon does not return until the fifth book meaning that the show runners moved
up this storyline. Benioff and Weiss, the producers of the show, commented in
an EW article that because of Alfie Allen’s (Theon’s portrayers) performance
last season, they wanted to keep him in the upcoming season. I am wondering
since they moved up his appearance in the TV show if we do not know who his
captors are yet because they do not make an appearance until the later novels.
Though despite the confusion about who took Theon and where he is being held,
the captors manage to catch up with him. As punishment for running away (and in
much the same fashion as the infamous scene from Deliverance), his captor explains that he will “Fuck him into the
mud.” Luckily Theon like Brienne gets rescued from this fate worse than death
by the same accomplice who helped him escape from his cell. This will be an
interesting story which will hopefully fill in the plot holes as it develops.
This episode, while dealing with issues of rape, was
actually quite humorous at times. First Catelyn and Robb are still at Riverun
because Catelyn’s father, Robb’s grandfather has died. The episode actually
begins with Robb and Catelyn along with the rest of the Tully’s standing on the
pier pushing the funeral pyre out to sea. The best part of this scene is that
it answers the questions we all have whenever we see someone laid on a boat,
floated out to sea, and then lit on fire. This question being: How do they
manage to light the pyre on fire the first time when they are just shooting
arrows at it? For example, in First
Knight when Sean Connery floats out to sea, the lighted arrow flies at his
pyre, hits it on the first shot, and lights it ablaze. I loved the way Game of
Thrones addressed this issue having it take several attempts to hit the pyre with
a lighted arrow. It gave it the added bit of humanness depicting the characters
in this series as flawed and not having special powers but are just ordinary
humans who do not always hit their target.
Another humorous scene involved Bronn, Tyrion and Tyrion’s
squire, Podrick. This is unsurprising since most of the comedic situations come
from Tyrion and Bronn. To repay Podrick for saving his life during the Battle
of Blackwater, Tyrion decides to give him an Afternoon Delight with three of
Littlefinger’s top prostitutes. Podrick returns with a little skip in his step
and to Tyrion’s surprise with the bag of money he left with Podrick to pay for
the services. Bronn’s and Tyrion’s faces are priceless because they cannot
understand why the prostitutes would refuse to accept money. It suddenly dawns
on them that Podrick was that good at pleasing a woman that the prostitutes
refused to collect payment. Bronn and Tyrion huddle around Podrick like little
school boys taking notes on an important lesson and demand that Podrick
describe everything he did. 
Finally Daenerys is still in Astapora and decided to buy an
army of the Unsullied. There is an interesting dynamic building between
Daenerys, Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan. For the longest time, Jorah was Daenerys’
only advisor and she listened intently to everything he said. Now Ser Barristan
has thrown his hat into the ring and often disagrees with Jorah. Hopefully
Jorah will not let his personal feelings for Daenerys to overpower his role as
advisor. Daenerys has decided to buy the entire army which Kraznys mo Nakloz
scuffs at claiming she does not have nearly enough money. On a side note, these
scenes between Kraznys and Daenerys also add humor and realism to the show. So
many times in film and television when enemies meet who do not speak the same
language, their dialogue is translated through an interpreter exactly as it
should be. In this show, Kraznys talks down to Daenerys and calls her insulting
names but she never knows (or at least doesn’t know exactly what he says)
because she doesn’t understand the language. Kraznys’ interpreter has to make
the language more diplomatic to negotiate the deal. I feel when conversing with
someone who is an enemy or who you do not particularly like and who does not
speak your language, you might not use the most cordial of terms and just rely
on the interpreter to clean up the language. Daenerys decides to trade one of
her dragons for the whole army which Kraznys eagerly accepts. At first this
came as shock to me but I think Daenerys has a plan. She is the mother of
dragons, which she kept yelling all of last season, and she would never leave
one of her children behind, especially in the hellish place of Astapora. I am
excited because I think her dragons are big enough to take down a small
community. I am looking forward to her actually doing something with her
dragons this season and not just making threats with them.
Once again another fine episode of Game of Thrones. Also
happy belated birthday to Maise Williams who plays Ayra and turned sixteen on
Monday. She is a phenomenal young actress. I can’t wait to see what next week
has in store for us.
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