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Valar Morghulis
Dancing with Dragons
Game of Thrones: S3 | EP3 "Walk of Punishment"
In EP 63 of the Dancing with Dragons Podcast, Minwa and Tony dissect how The power dynamics in Westeros shift dramatically as characters face life-altering moments that challenge their identities and force tough decisions. We travel to Riverrun for a Tully funeral, watch scheming in King's Landing, and witness pivotal moments in the journeys of Jon Snow, Daenerys, and Jaime Lannister.
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Do you have a name? This one's name is Missandei. Your Grace, do you have a family, a mother and a father you'd return to if you had the choice? No, your Grace. No family living. You belong to me now. It is your duty to tell me the truth. Yes, your Grace, lying is a great offence. Many of those on the walk of punishment were taken there for less. I offered water to one of the slaves dying on the walk of punishment. Do you know what he said to me? Let me die. There are no masters in the grave. Your grace, is it true what Master Krasinus told me about the Unsullied, about their obedience? All questions have been taken from them. They obey, that is all. Once they are yours, they are yours. They will fall on their swords if you command it. And what about you? You know that I'm taking you to war. You may go hungry, you may fall sick, you may be killed. Valar Morghulis, yes, all men must die, but we are not men.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Dancing with Dragons, your go-to podcast for everything related to Game of Thrones, house of the Dragon and the rest of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire universe. My name is Minua and I'm here with my co-host, tony, and we're continuing on with our rewatch, recap and analysis of Game of Thrones, season 3. Today, we'll be discussing episode 3, walk of Punishment. The episode first premiered on HBO on April 14, 2013 and it's written by our beloved showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and it's directed by David Benioff. I hope you got my sarcasm there. This is actually the first episode of the series to be directed by the showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, aka D&D, but only Benioff is credited as directing it. Due to the way the director's Guild of America rules work, only one of them can be credited directing it for some reason, so it went to David Benioff.
Speaker 2:In this episode, tyrion is made the new master of coin, king's Landing, jon Snow is sent with a band of wildlings, jon is taken to the fist of the First Men, daenerys makes a deal for the Unsullied and Astapor, and Jaime convinces his captors against the assault of Brienne. There's a lot to get into in this episode, though. It's written and directed by D&D. There's actually some pretty memorable, really great moments in this episode, even though not much happens, um, but still, I can't wait to talk about this episode and all the highlights that it has. What do you think of the episode, tony?
Speaker 3:if the first two episodes felt heavy on setup which kind of did but we enjoyed these characters, so we're good with it. We're now finally sinking our teeth into the heart of season three. The map has expanded to include riverrun Kat's ancestral home, where she's attending her father's funeral, and it's kind of ironic that at the last scene of this episode we hear somebody say you're nothing without your father, and he's not here anymore. Looking at the way Kat is feeling and now how rob is dealing with all the stuff he's dealing with, you can kind of link that phrase to them as well, yeah yeah oh, that's.
Speaker 2:That's so cool because, yeah, as you said, like the, that sentence wasn't said to cat or rob, but it resonates with them still and I I'd make that connection wow you can feel it when, again, again, michelle Furley, she's acting her butt off in this season.
Speaker 3:She has this little scene with her uncle, brendan Tully, who we get to meet We'll give him a proper introduction in a bit and she's telling the that is what she thinks. Bran and rick on must have been feeling the same way. And actually let's just start with the funeral of her dad, lord hustard tully. It's actually a somber moment, but there is a brief moment of levity because her brother yeah well, actually, um, what they do for House Tully.
Speaker 3:In their house, they have a funeral tradition, which is they put the body in a boat and they set it adrift on the Red Fork, and then they set it on fire by flaming arrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a Viking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like a Viking. So his ashes will return to the river which sustains their lands. So then you have edmund telly, who I, I do in the future, we say this, I, we say this so many times that we want to focus on this episode on somebody. And I do want to focus on him because he, he was kind of turned into a nitwit in this series and he's not like that in the novels. It's funny because now when I see this actor, I think of prince philip, because he played prince philip in the crowd.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah uh, anyway.
Speaker 3:So prince philip was in charge of shooting the arrow so he couldn't do it. He took like three. What was it? Three, three shots and it's kind of a. People are not laughing. Obviously it's a funeral. They're kind of like it's very awkward. Here comes Brandon Tully, or aka the Blackfish, just takes it, shoots it and just hands Edmure the freaking bow and just leaves Like he's walking off. He just dropped the mic and just left and boom it hits it perfectly.
Speaker 2:And it's not even that it hits it perfectly, but he turned away before it even reached the boat. You know, he was just. He knew that it would, that he'd make the shot, and just didn't even care and dismisses his nephew in the process. It's so cool.
Speaker 3:It's a cool moment because before he pulls back the arrow, he just looks and he goes. A great shot of him looking at the flag of House, tully or, you know, the banners and like, okay, the wind is pushing this way, okay, it just shoots and he just leaves what I love about it too is that um, like this, this is the first time that we're meeting both of those characters, edmure and um brendan sari, aka the blackfish.
Speaker 2:But it's also like a perfect character introduction as to like what to expect from them in the show. Because you know edmure is like they're, they're embarrassed for him, you know he's, he's this kind of, as you said, like a nitwit or something. Then you have brendan, but the blackfish, who is like very respected and you know even like his composure as he like walks up and like takes that shot, is very like I don't know it's a man that knows that he's respected and has that kind of powerful. It's says a lot about I don't know, I guess the quality of the writing of Game of Thrones at that time, which I miss Back when Game of Thrones had excellent character introductions. You know we saw it with Elena in the last episode and then these two here. I wish this quality remained for the rest of the show. But anyways, we won't get into that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, with this, I'm going to put this little audio clip because it sets up who they are within 15 seconds bearing upon you.
Speaker 4:Shut your mouth about that damn mill. I don't call him nephew, he's your king. Rob knows I meant him. No, you're lucky, I'm not your king. I wouldn't let you wave your blunders around like a victory fly. Blunder sent Tywin's mad dog scurrying back to Casterly Rock with his tail between his legs. I think King Robb understands we're not going to win this war if he's the only one winning any battles.
Speaker 2:There's glory enough to go around.
Speaker 4:It's not about glory. Your instructions were to wait for him to come to you. I seized an opportunity. What value was the mill? The mountain was garrisoned across the river from me. Is he there now? Of course not. We took the fight to him. He could not withstand us. I wanted to draw the mountain into the west, into our country, where we could surround him and kill him. I wanted him to chase us, which he would have done because he is a mad dog without a strategic thought in his head. I could have that head on a spike by now. Instead, I have a mill.
Speaker 3:I'm going to pause it right there really quick. I think this is Rob at his most kingly.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I agree.
Speaker 3:This is his quote, uncle his senior, I guess. But the Blackfish. Just once Rob starts speaking, he goes okay, here you're going to take it from Rob. Now he just walks away to let Edmure take his lumps.
Speaker 2:And it says something, too, that the Blackfish, as this respected member of the family and this respected knight in Westeros as well, he doesn't talk, as you said, over Rob. Someone with that level of authority and power sees Rob as someone that has more than that and makes it clear. Do you know what I mean? It says something about Rob and, I guess, his reputation or how even the powerful guys see him.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we took hostages Willem Lannister, martin Lannister. Willem and Martin Lannister are 14 years old. Martin is 15, I believe Tywin Lannister has my sisters. Have I sued for peace? No. Do you think he'll sue for peace because we have his father's, brother's, great-grandson's? No. How many men did you lose? 208. But for every man we lost the Lannisters lost.
Speaker 4:We need our men more than Tywin needs his. I'm sorry, I didn't know. You would have Right here today at this gathering if you had been patient. We seem to be running short of patience here. You know who isn't.
Speaker 3:Tywin Lannister, I think Brandon, or Brandon Blackfish. I think he's referring to the Karstarks as well, because he says we're running out of patience here as well. I think everybody.
Speaker 2:He's kind of speaking for the rest of the Bannermen as well, not just him, because we remember we talked about Karstark him, him questioning Rob that he won, and that's how he sees it, as it was actually a big mistake Because, when I actually thought about it, basically it disrupts the entire Stark strategy. That's what they say as well. So they wanted to lure the Mountain, trap him. But because Edmure did what he did, the Lannister armies were able to get back to King's Landing in time for the Battle of the Blackwater. If he didn't do that, then the Lannisters couldn't have shown up at the Battle of the Black Water. So if Edmure stuck to the plan, then it's highly likely that Stannis would be sitting on the Iron Throne right now. Like we need to let that sink in just for a second, like a like a minor, a seemingly minor mistake, because Edmure wanted glory and thought he was doing the right thing, led to Stannis losing the Battle of the black water I do want to mention well, I have, we have a little moment before we move on is how brendan tully got his name the blackfish yeah, yeah, we have to mention that
Speaker 3:uh, it's because he had a rocky relationship with his older brother who was caitlin's father, I guess um back mostly back in the day, I guess like 30 years prior, the Blackfish refused to take part in a marriage alliance with House Redwine which Hoster proposed for him. This led Hoster calling him the Black Sheep of the Tully family but pointing out that the Tully symbol is a fish, Brandon decided that this made him the Blackfish of the Tully family and instead of hating that nickname, he took it as a personal badge of honor and made it his personal sigil. And it's normal blue and red of the Tully heraldry, but he replaced the silver fish with the black one. That's so him, when you see his character, Like yeah, he would do that. But interesting fact is that we get they mentioned, the two Lannister hostages and one of them is called Martin Lannister and he is played by Dean Charles Chapman, who would be casted again as Tommen Baratheon.
Speaker 2:Oh, no way, I didn't catch that. I didn't catch, that was him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's the one that's talking to Talissa.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:That's Tommen.
Speaker 2:Future Tommen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, future Tommen. So that's kind of a cool little thing. I didn't. Once he comes out for the first time, I guess we could look up on how that all came about.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of Tommen, let's go over to where he and his family currently are, which is King's Landing. Our first scene in King's Landing actually has one of my favorite scenes in Game of Thrones. I love this scene so so much, so what it is Tywin summoning his small council for the first time. So this is the first time that he assembles the small council since assuming the position of Hand of the King, and it's mentioned that he has the meeting place changed to somewhere near his room or his quarters.
Speaker 3:That moving of the small council meeting will come back to have one of my favorite scenes as well, with Joffrey, who is one of those scenes that Joffrey was being logical and asking the right questions and it's him and Tywin in the throne room and Joffrey does this. You moved it to the tower of the hand, so now I would have to walk all the way up there. But anyway, we'll get to that scene and I think it's next episode or the uh, the fifth episode.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I answered okay, no no, I forgot that scene and so like it's nice, it's good that you remind me, because I completely forgot that.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that this might have been a test done by Tywin until, like this rewatch Usually, of course we see the small council scenes and all the chairs are.
Speaker 2:The way that it's kind of lined up In this meeting is that he's sitting at the head of the table and like have three or four chairs all like lined up on one side, so there's one side of the table that's completely empty. He calls them all in at the same time, I think, except for Cersei, and they look at the seating arrangements, they immediately get that they want to cozy up to Tywin and see it as like I'm going to beat you to it. So Listerfinger sprints to the chair that's closest to Tywin, varys, kind of wishes it was him, but he doesn't really care at the same time and acts all sassy. Doesn't really care at the same time and acts all sassy and he rolls his eyes and, uh, just like passes swiftly, I guess, um, and acts content to be sitting the second closest to to tywin. And then paisel is just like doing his little turtle walk as like the old man, like little stroll it doesn't matter to him as long as he's in the room.
Speaker 3:He doesn't care like he wants to be there but not seen or heard. But I I found this scene so brilliant because we have close to three minutes of non-verbal I love it and all of what we're gonna say now is just completely, it's like in silence, it's so, it's so. It works perfectly yeah, and it's just a demonstration of like the power dynamics of this small yeah. So, like tywin doesn't need to demand obedience, his mere presence, like it forces everybody to like conform, right. So?
Speaker 2:then you have you have bailish.
Speaker 3:Like he's so ambitious he's gonna he boom. He runs to the first chair yeah, like you said varus is like okay, whatever I, I know where I stand, I don't need to kiss Tywin's ass. And then you have Cersei, who's like I'm going to just pick up a chair. Which I just read in the notes is that they made a special chair for her because those other chairs are really heavy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they didn't want her dragging the chair, so they made it so she could just lift it. And so you have Cersei there. She's like I'm going to stand by my father's side, even though he I'm basically like his right hand person, but he's always denies her that official role. Like he's like whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it's like I'm going to make my place here. You know what I mean. Like you're going to conform to what's available. I'm going to cement myself and show you where I am and like where I could go, like make my own path, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:And then Tyrion just openly rejects the idea. He doesn't care about his people's favor and he does the funny. He just drags. He's not going to sit next to Pycelle, he's going to make sure that he sits the furthest away from Tywin. And then looking straight at him and like he's deliberately refusing to play along and then, he goes. Oh, I love what you did with the chair, Like he's so.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it Because he's so sassy and I think the sass is also in like the noise that the chair makes as he slowly like drags the chair to that position because he takes his time. Doing it Like Cersei is just kind of like you know doing it at a normal pace, little finger runs and everything time. Doing it like cersei is just kind of like you know, doing it at the normal pace, little finger runs and everything. But then tyrian just looks at everyone and slowly drags the chair and says it's like right opposite tywin and I like that. It's kind of like opposing tywin, you know, showing like okay, you're all gonna cozy up to him, I'm going against him and that's a bit of foreshadowing there too and it's funny because they actually had a meeting about something.
Speaker 3:They were talking about Jimmy's whereabouts and Littlefinger going to the Vale to marry Liza and them making Tyrion the Master of Coin Because he's like, okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. If he's leaving, this royal wedding is going to be the most expensive of all time. And it's a funny moment because I've only only he's like, I've only I only know how to spend money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so um that's what I'm telling you like. This scene shows that game of thrones can be a comedy, like we've been mentioning this a couple of times already but it has these really funny moments. Um, they want to set him up for failure. You know what I mean. That's why she's so smug about it, like, like you know, with the wedding coming, she's's good. No one can send her or Tywin anything. They're going to spend as much as they want and it's all going to look like Tyrion's fault.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's stay with Tyrion, and he does have a brief scene with Littlefinger, which Littlefinger mentions to Tyrion about Podrick. You owe that squire a lot. Have you rewarded him? And Tyrion, you rewarded him and, uh, it seems like I owe him my life. And it kind of starts the beginning of this funny bit that we get uh with braun and tyrian with a podrick and they can't, they're in little fingers brothel, so you know what that means. They take him into a room. They kind of he introduces all these different women and patrick's like just very nervous and Podrick's one of the sweetest characters, most loyal characters in the show, and they go off. And then you have Tyrion and Bronn speaking about such things, about the Master of Coin. Then we have Podrick returning. You were gone a long time.
Speaker 1:I trust you got your money's worth, or should I say my money's worth? Oh, it was a gift, podrick. This is more than I give you in a year. He's a squire. You don't pay him? Oh then it's much more than I give you in a year.
Speaker 4:I won't take it. Look, maybe they're trying to curry some favor with the new master of coin have you ever known a whore to churn down gold?
Speaker 1:They were happy enough to take it when I gave it to them.
Speaker 2:What did you tell them? I didn't tell them anything. What did you do to them? Lots of things, and they seem to like these things.
Speaker 4:Yes, blue, of course they seem to like it. They're paid to seem to like it, only they weren't paid. What are you saying? These ladies enjoyed him so much they gave him the time for free.
Speaker 1:Is that what you're telling us?
Speaker 2:Sit down Podrick we're going to need details, copious details.
Speaker 3:I love this scene because, if you notice that whole interaction, they never said like a bad word, they never mentioned any acts, sexual acts or anything. It's just all innuendos and just him looking very like I did lots of things. They never explained what actually happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And which makes it even funnier we as audiences is left to imagine what skills or talents project possesses that made these professional ladies refuse any payment, which just keeps the joke alive, Like if he was saying oh, I'm doing this to them and it's not really funny. But the fact that it comes from a guy who plays an awkward humble squire who struggles with most things, that suddenly he's like a legendary lover, adds to the absurdity of the humor. That's what makes this funny. It's because it's Podrick. They never explain anything and it's just perfect comedic timing by Peter Dinklage of saying we need all the details, please.
Speaker 3:Minowaz, being very silent during this scene, uh, discussion, that's okay. Uh, uh, Tyrion says in the ladies room, when they're uh talking to the ladies, uh, that there's a contortionist uh called Kayla. That is one of four women that's known in the world who can do a proper merinese knot. Whatever the heck that is, we don't know what that is right. But apparently this is a subtle, subtle joke for fans of the books, because for a song of ice and fire, the merinese knot is a reference to a complex series of plot problems George had for the fifth novel, Dance with Dragons, which delayed the book for a few years. So they used that Meronese Knot line into the show, which I thought was pretty funny.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, since I don't talk about scenes like that, let's move on to a character that I love to talk about, and that's Arya, a character that I love to talk about.
Speaker 2:And that's Arya, so, kind of going back to the Riverlands area where we started the episode. There's a very sweet scene that she has kind of saying farewell to Hot Pie, who bakes her bread in the shape of a dire wolf because he doesn't want to basically go on with the brotherhood of banners. They stopped at an inn and the innkeeper basically loved his baking so much that I think she asked him to stay, or like he asked to stay, but anyways, he's staying there, regardless of the perfect taste for him. And he's like I'm not coming with you guys, like I'm just gonna stay here and make my bread. And he baked her the bread in the shape of a dire wolf, which is so sweet and and you know, and she, she eats and she's like it's really good. And that's the last thing that she says to him. I love reading into things a bit too much, but he says I'm not a Stark of Winterhall.
Speaker 2:And then she says Winterfell, and I thought it was interesting because it shows that, like a lot of the people that don't really live close to like the Lords, you know what I mean. Like if you don't live right by Winterfell, if you're not, if your house or the, the house that you serve, isn't like one of their like bannermen you know what I mean then you then shows that there's still a bit of a disconnect between like yeah, I mean especially for a lowborn or a commoner like hot pilot, he, he's not gonna know the history of westeros.
Speaker 3:And can you imagine all those kids who live in like uh, flea bottom? They don't know anything about winter hell, or they just hear passing. What makes this uh scene really sweet is that aria wants to say, wants to give hot pie, like a jab gandry like kind of stops her because she she's urging to say something sarcastic.
Speaker 3:And then she goes oh okay, thank you, thank you, like, but she really wanted to say something. I felt there was a heartfelt scene at the farewell, but I love that he says, uh, don't get stabbed. And he goes yeah, don't burn your fingers. Also with the scene, it's kind of a powerful full circle moment. This is the same in where the hound, uh, kills the baker's boy, micah, after joffrey's attack. Uh, this is like a defining moment of aria losing her innocence right after that. But it's kind of a ironic twist that she finds herself in a situation that now the hound is a captive and the hot pie takes micah's place as the new kind of baker.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, true, yeah, I think that's just like I wanted to add as well, and that's why she tells him do you remember the last time you were here and the hound doesn't? I actually just read that chapter in the book and he didn't remember killing Michael, I think he briefly did. He didn't really acknowledge it. So, yeah, so with that, let's move on from Arya to someone that Arya really likes and someone very close to her, and that's Jon.
Speaker 2:So Jon is still with the Free Folk and they've arrived at the Fist of the First Men, which is a landmark in the wilderness beyond the Wall. It's an ancient ring fort that existed before the Targaryens defeated the Andals, before the Andals took Westeros from the First Men, so it's like thousands and thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. It's a very historical place and it's a landmark deep in Wilding territory. Its strategic positioning makes it one of the more defensible positions that the Night's Watch can use north of the Wall. Strategic positioning makes it one of the more defensible positions that the Night's Watch can use north of the wall, and they use it to also orient themselves as a possible fallback position in case they're fighting the Wildlings. So I believe that Mance went there because they heard that the Night's Watch was there, right, yeah, so when they make their way there.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, no, I was going to say that that's where Sam and the crew found the dragonglass first of the first.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, manson, the wildlings find something in this episode as well. In that location they find basically the corpses of the horses of the night's watch arranged in like a spiral pattern, and man's like looks on it and he says, like always the artist referring to the white walkers, because as we know from game of thrones season one, um, that's how the White Walkers kind of arrange these spiral patterns and they're dead and you know that's their calling card yeah, their calling card, and lots of theories stemmed from this but ultimately ended up to mean like not much, just, I guess, just their calling card and nothing else.
Speaker 2:Mance and the Wildings talk about the Night's Watch members that were probably there, and they assume that those men turned into wights or like they're all dead now. So I think that that makes them think that they're more ready or that they can attack the wall as soon as possible. Like that's it. Most of them are gone. They think that your Mormont is dead as well. So they kind of feel more.
Speaker 3:They feel ready now to like, attack the Night's Watch and I think he's, uh, rightly assuming that that mormon, if he was ranging so far north that he would take only his best men out there, and he goes now. They lost all their best fighters.
Speaker 2:Now we can attack so then that's why man sells torment to take like 20 people plus Jon to scale the wall to attack Castle Black and distract the Night's Watch, while Mance's main army would attack from the north, from another location, and Mance's army is like huge. It seems like an easy win when you think of it this way.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I think Tormund says something like oh, they're finally going to war. So it's like a big moment for them. And then I think Tormund says something like oh, they're finally going to war. So it's like a big moment for them. And the reason that they're taking Jon with them is because he knows the layout of Castle Black. It will end up being like a test of his loyalty, to see if he betrays the Night's Watch or not, and if he betrays them, then Tormund can easily just throw him off the wall. That's what they say. So it's actually, though.
Speaker 2:The Wildlings think that the Night's Watch members are dead. They are not. They end up going to Craster's Keep for safety, just for the night or something. Not much really happens, it's just typical Craster. You know Craster-ness, I guess. But the relevant, the more important part of this scene is that we see Gilly giving birth to her baby, and it's a boy.
Speaker 2:That character is obviously going to be appearing in the show. Uh, moving forward, but there was something that I just wanted to pinpoint. Uh, sam sees ghosts. Ghost kind of refuses to enter craster's keep. In the book it's actually a bit different, because I'm reading the book now, um, but the ghost is actually with john while john is with the wild things, and then john sends him back to sam and to the night's watch members as like a warning sign, kind of like that's the most that he could do. So he just hoped that that's what, that they would understand something.
Speaker 2:And moving on from that, we have to talk about a character that I am kind of refusing to watch this season just because the scenes are a bit much. But what? This episode is fine, so I'm going to talk about it, and it's theon. In this episode he kind of escapes the torture that he was in from the previous episode with the help of a young man who gives him a horse and tells him to ride east. And then he's captured and assaulted. Mysterious young man who we still don't know if this is the first time watching it rescues him and kind of calls Theon like oh my lord, and whatever. So that's what that is, even though we know who that mysterious young man is. And re-watching it now just makes the whole thing harder to watch, like I can't.
Speaker 3:I can't I watched this whole thing and all I think I thought it was one word and that's just sadistic of what ramsay is doing to him, like just the mind games and mental torture that he's going to put theon through. It's going to be tough to get through, especially when he removes something from his body. But yeah, that's the only thing I have for this scene here. That was a short little time with Theon and Ramsey, and we have another little short scene with a couple of characters Stannisisandra and uh, for this little quick scene, I found stannis to be sounding so desperate and his come-ons to malisandra were creepy very yeah, he's very creepy because he's basically like telling miss sundry, like don't go, I want you with me.
Speaker 2:It is his desperation, but it's also his fear that, like when she leaves, something will happen to him. Like that's very clear in his eyes because she says that she needs to go where the fires take her. All he's thinking about is like his loss and how he wants another son when he's and that's what he says another son, the first son being the one that killed Renly, that like shadow son. But she kind of like answers by saying that you know, like I can't do that again because it would kill you. And she explains that what she has in store is even going to be more powerful than that shadow sun that they produced. Like she kind of implies that she's going to do like a human sacrifice type of thing.
Speaker 3:Like the Lord of Light, demands sacrifices.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and that she needs the king's blood. That's not Stannis'.
Speaker 3:No, I'll say that she does put out his fire, his lust, because she just gives him the your fire has run low my king Like she can't. That had a triple meaning, I think.
Speaker 2:For you maybe. But yeah, I kind of think that was funny or like interesting how they both mentioned that you know he's the righteous king, like you know. And it just brings me back to that edmure thing, like if, if only edmure wasn't so stupid, then he literally could be sitting on the iron throne right now, like it's literally not even his fault. Okay, let's move on from the boring character of stanley or stannis, and I'm just saying that because I can finally talk about daenerys, my girl.
Speaker 2:Um, she has an amazing scene this episode. We see her walk along the walk of punishment and ask support, kind of like this this walkway along the, the sea where any slave who showed insubordination of any type is then just like strapped to a cross and left to die out in public as a warning to all other slaves who dare disobey. Um, it breaks danny's heart seeing this and how it's like very normalized in astapor and she offers, like a man, someone, like a slave, water but he refuses to drink, saying that he just wants to die because, as masandi said in the clip we included in the beginning of this episode, they just see it as a relief because they won't have any master that's such a powerful line and it's so sad it's like, you know, the grave has no master.
Speaker 3:It's those things you hear about when slaves are being transferred from, you know, west africa to the caribbean, or that they would just throw themselves into the sea.
Speaker 2:They would rather just die than be a slave and like we can see the, the like wheels in her head turning when she sees this and when she hears it, because she's seeing it with her eyes. But beside her she has these two men. One is saying like, is pro the Ansarid and the other one is anti buying the Ansarid. So the pro is Jorah and the person that's anti or against buying the Ansarid is Baristan Salmi. And Jorah says that, you know, because he says that the slave soldiers would be treated better in her service. Innocent people will also be spared in the war, because the Ansarid only do as they're ordered and they have no human or masculine urges in their bodies. That's what that. And they won't kill or assault innocent women and children and people, unlike most male soldiers who would do that in in battle or in war.
Speaker 2:Um, and then you have barison who, like says the the good, I guess, con of buying it, which is that they won't really believe in her, and that's something that means a lot to danny too, and that's why, like you can see that the plan that she's concocting here, like okay, how can I get them? Or like, get an army, but also make them believe in me so that they're actually loyal to me and how can I make a change in Astapor at the same time? So that's why she's thinking, oh okay, so like maybe I can free them and then see if they believe in me. And yeah so.
Speaker 3:I also love this scene because it gives Barristan a chance to mention Rhaegar and how people follow him, because they love him and they believed in him and they died for him, not because they were paid to or they were bought. And she's just like asking questions about her brother and how was he really like? And he's just he's the best best man I ever met. It starts that process of. Was rager really, this evil person that raped and tortured liana?
Speaker 2:and we know that, uh, barrison said he's an honorable man. So if he's been compared to someone like Ned Stark, so if someone that's very honorable and that great of like a person is in support of Rhaegar, it kind of makes it lessens the credibility, I guess, of those other people that of course hate him for many other reasons. You know what I mean Like the Lannisters and everyone else they have. I guess, like Robert has a reason to hate Lyanna, not Lannisters, you know what I mean. So he's going to spread the tale of Rhaegar.
Speaker 3:And so far Barristan seems to be like a what do you say? A foil to Jorah, because everything Jorah says, barristan comes back and be like well, what about?
Speaker 2:this queen. And he's a needed presence, because I illustrated this in my notes no-transcript books and I just see him on screen now and I can't. And he annoyed me when he told her um, if you want to sit on the throne your ancestors built, you must win it. That means blood on your hands before the thing is done, duh, duh. She knows that.
Speaker 3:She knows that she just wants to and she says blood of my enemies, not of the innocent yes, yes so I think, this was written by dnd because, oh yeah, and I think that krasnick. What was his name? Krasnick?
Speaker 3:krasnick monaclose okay he's such a vile, disgusting and I don't know if anybody who hadn't seen the show and not read the material if they knew that. Because daenerys is kind of like looking straight face every single word he says he's insulting her and she's just like does the perfect acting job of of just looking at Missandei and just kind of like smiling, saying, yeah, that's not what he said, by the way, because Missandei's job is to make it clean it up. But it feels like in this episode so far, like Daenerys in this season hasn't done anything and we've seen her two episodes. We're laying the groundwork slowly with her. You have to set up this so-called power move. She has to get soldiers. She can't just wait until her dragons are grown because she doesn't know, we don't know how long it's going to take. It might take years and by the time that happens she can be assassinated. You know it has to.
Speaker 2:She has to move quickly yeah, and she has to seize this opportunity. The ethical, uh like dilemma of it is directly addressed, but of course she thinks of a way to navigate through it that no other person can think of. But just on that note, you said about Missandei. I think that the reason, like that's why Daenerys makes her part of the deal as well, because Missandei is not translating the horrible things being said about Dani. She was a slave at that point. She doesn't want to be servicing Krasnus and if she was loyal to him then she'd be translating word for word. She wouldn't care what he's saying about Dani. We can see it in her eyes that she's sympathetic towards Dani and Dani is sympathetic towards her, so that's, and they both recognize that. So that's why Missandei mistranslates and that's why Dani, um, like basically wants her.
Speaker 2:And I just wanted to make that one point about Jorah and his opinion on the Unsullied um, when he's saying all that he's saying, he never actually says that he's against slavery. Do you know what I mean? Like he, they'll be treated better in your service, like this is a good condition for them, but he never thinks of them serving her as free men. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and and the point that I was trying to make is that this is what concerns danny, most of us, that at the end of the day, they're slaves, and that's what barryson time is trying to say as well, and jorah isn't realizing that that's like, like, just the nature of it is what's uh, is what's wrong. He just he, he just sees it's a better condition, yeah, but they're still they're still slaves.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he forgets about why he was banished by Ned Stark.
Speaker 2:That's the irony. That's the irony. He hasn't learned his lesson because he is, as you said, banished because he was a slaver, and it's just he still doesn't realize that that's what's wrong. Plan was already in her head the second that she met up with Krasnus again and says that she wants to buy all 8,000 soldiers and I love the scene that she has, like directly afterwards, because when she says that and she says, okay, I'll give you my dragon, the biggest one, like done deal and everything.
Speaker 2:Both Barristan and Jor like speak up loudly against her like they, they protest in front of everybody saying Khaleesi, my queen, you cannot do this. And she looks so furious and I love how she scolds them later on and tells them, like don't you dare question me in front of strangers ever again. I love that scene, tony, so much because it's so, dan, she's like I know what I'm going to do. I don't want you to know what I'm going to do. You just have to trust me and this is, in a way, like my test to you, like you have to understand me, you have to to support me and trust that I'm going to do the right thing funny enough when I see her say that it for some reason I think of vita corleone talking to talking to sunny when he tells them when they meet natalia for the first time yes, yes, he goes don't you ever speak, and when we're talking, like in front of the family, you know, she gives him that that talking to.
Speaker 3:But I love the fact when she does tell that to baron and jorah, they just they don't say a word.
Speaker 2:They just kind of like step back and go, oh okay yeah, they acknowledge that they kind of screwed up but the purchase of the unsullied aside, like not the actual purchase, but you know what I mean. Like deal aside, there's actually a very important scene that's happened in this episode and that's in our Brienne and Jamie storyline. So let's go back to the Riverlands where they are picking up, where the last episode or left off or the last time we've seen them. They've officially been captured by Roose Bolton's and there's a nice little Easter egg in the scene because as they're riding along, the men or like one man I think is singing the song the Bear and Maiden Fair, which is a very popular in-universe song in Westeros. It has a number of appearances in Game of Thrones and it's even sung in House of the Dragon. It's the song that's played during the end credits as well, but like a rock and roll version of the song, and the man singing it in the scene is actually played by Gary Lightbody, the frontman of the band Snow Patrol, who makes a cameo appearance here. So that's kind of a nice little Easter egg for you there. I could go on about the song because, as I said, it's like a known, one of the most famous songs that we know that's in universe. But I'll leave that aside for now, as episode seven of season three is actually titled after the song the baron maiden fair. So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it and let's just talk about the scene, because I have something I want to say. As I said, jamie and brian are like tied up on this horse. Um, I think they have like a brief conversation, but what jamie was trying to tell her, or like what he was telling her for the most part, is that he tells her like look, when we camp for the night, if they want to assault you, uh, don't resist and don't fight, because you're just gonna end up dead. Jamie was like I'm the valuable hostage here. They don't want you, you're just some woman to them. Uh. So that was him kind of like advising her.
Speaker 2:In the book we actually get like the because it's a pov chapter, we get to see a strain of thoughts as well. So before he says that he thinks if I were a woman I'd be cersei, and then. But he says out loud if I were a woman I'd make them kill me, but I'm not. So I thought that that was very interesting.
Speaker 2:I think it kind of reveals Jaime's kind of views on like men and women, because he's kind of telling Brienne like you should let let this thing happen to you, let this horrible thing happen to you. He sees himself as like a man that's like probably still stronger than Brienne and could fight and win his way out, or something. He says you know, it's honorable for me if I die during it. It's not honorable for you being a woman. You have to accept that this is a part of your reality. But he wouldn't. I don't know. It's kind of like misogynistic thinking kind of at that point because he doesn't really get it. But I also think that when he says in the book he thinks if I were a woman I'd be Cersei, Then he thinks that if Cersei was in this position she'd make them kill her. So he kind of understands that Cersei would too.
Speaker 3:I think we kind of know what Cersei would do, because she was almost in that position.
Speaker 2:She basically was she was assaulted by Robert too, though.
Speaker 3:And also she thought that Stannis was going to sack the city.
Speaker 2:And you know what?
Speaker 3:Stannis was going to sack the city and you know what Stannis and his men was going to do to her and she was like I'm not going to let that happen, I'm just going to drink this poison and kill myself. I'd rather do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:He was saying all that, but I think he was actually concerned for her Because if he was like evil, he'd be like well, I don't care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:And you can see that he knew. He saw the writing on the wall when they came tonight. And Locke, who was like okay, just take her back there, I'm just going to when I get her all ready, and whatever he says, you boys can do what you have to do, and he kind of just thinks on the fly like hey, by the way, she's the daughter of so-and-so, you know, house of Tarth, and they have all this wealth there and these gems, and so I think that was jamie's kind of way of you know, I don't like you, but I think you're honorable and I don't. I don't think you should be. I have to go through that um oh, definitely.
Speaker 3:This is horrendous accent, because he's probably seen it in war.
Speaker 2:He's been in war, he's probably I don't know, I and I don't, I.
Speaker 3:I don't think Jaime's ever taken a part of that because he's so loyal to Cersei.
Speaker 2:At this point that he doesn't want to see that happen to her. He cares for her and I think, even though I said everything I said, this is Jaime changing. This is Jaime being away from Cersei. We know that Jaime's a great character, so's like a lightness and a darkness within him. So we see like the darkness kind of fade away as he fades away from Cersei, like goes like and stays further away from her. So this is kind of that like that's his better side, coming through and saving Brienne, and it's not about the Sapphire Isle, the reason that he says that like Tarth is called the Sapphire Isle but it's um for how, how blue the the sea is. Uh, the waters are in tarth. So she mentions that to him in the book.
Speaker 2:I don't know if she does in future episode, but like I had a bit of time before we recorded um today, so I was like going through all of these like posts on social media of like that's for years that are years old, about people talking about the scene, and it just makes me want to do that for every episode, because I saw lots of people talking about feminist things that I mentioned about Brienne and Jamie, like when Jamie was saying that, like you know, you should give your life.
Speaker 2:I'm fine, but I forgot which comments mentioned it, so I wish I could give them credit maybe next time. But there were a couple of people actually that mentioned how it's kind of wrong that brienne's assault is used to kind of serve jamie. Do you know what I mean? Like a woman is getting assaulted in the story and it's only purpose. Like I'm not gonna say it has to be for a purpose. Obviously it's like a horrible thing but it's just. It's just there for jamie to be a good person. Do you know what I mean? Like I like that's kind of like a criticism that I kind of agree with that the assault of a woman serves a man's storyline.
Speaker 3:You know what? I mean he just sits back, and that's what happens but like that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:You know, it's a wider criticism of like fantasy overall and like media, where, like, we don't need to see women being assaulted on screen. But I'm just saying, like you know what I mean. It's like there's that part of it that I don't really like. But anyways, all of this is not the important part of the episode. There's something that we're going to get to right now which happens at the very, very end.
Speaker 3:And I think it's one of the more shocking moments for people who don't know what's coming. Yeah, it's kind of like a not, it's not red wedding x, but it just comes out of the blue. Yeah, and I think it's just so perfect that george makes this happen.
Speaker 4:But uh, let's listen in real quick you think you're the smartest man there is? Let everyone alive has to bow and scrape and lick your boots, my father. And if you get in any trouble, all you've got to do is say my father and that's it All. Your troubles are gone. Don't have you got something to say? Careful, you don't want to say the wrong thing. You're nothing without your daddy. Your daddy ain't here. Never forget that. This should help you remember, remember, and this should help you remember.
Speaker 3:So, of course, I've seen many reaction videos for this scene and people are completely like one they're laughing and they're completely shocked, and I think this is I correct me if I'm wrong this is the only time that the end credit song is like a modern rock song.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think so, because it's the bear and the maiden fair, but it's a rock version and that's shocking in itself. Like what is this music? Like with drums and like electric guitars. It's so out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:And it's like I saw the creators, like showrunners, talk about as well and like why they made, made it, why they chose to make it like a rock version, because it like emphasizes the, the shock of the moment, because shocked by jamie, and then you're shocked again by the end credits, so you're still like off balance. You know something, you're like oh what. What if you're watching it or reading it for the first time? There's no way you see it's coming, because it's a sword hand too.
Speaker 3:I mean this jamie's entire identity to this point is being regarded as the greatest swordsman currently in westeros and his skills with the sword define him and he has a reputation as a warrior and he takes pride in that. And I just find it so, george r martin, to take this character and just remove his greatest uh, I guess what he's so known for is his skills as a, as a, as a warrior, as a swordsman, and say you know what? I'm gonna take that away from you. It's, it's. It's a painful, like death of his former self, like I said, but also I think it's gonna be the birth of his more complex self-aware. And we're going to get an amazing scene by Nicola Costo-Waldau and I think in the fifth episode his redemption arc is slowly beginning. But yeah, I love the scene, the shock of it, all the music, everything's perfect. Before I get to the scene of the episode, what would you rate this episode One?
Speaker 2:out of ten. I think that for the most part, almost, almost like a filler episode, because not much happens. Granted, all the things that happen are essential to move the story along. So I'd say maybe like an 8.3.
Speaker 3:So I'm checking the imdb score and imdb which you're checking, they have 87, which I think 8.7 is because of that last scene of the shock. Yeah, yeah, I think that gives it a 0.5 boost, I guess. I think without it you would give it an 8.3, 8.3, or even an 8. It's still a good score, but I think the shock of Jamie's losing his sword hand bumps it up, and so I'm going to do 8.5 just because of the sword and bumps it up, and so I'm going to do 8.5 just because of the sword.
Speaker 3:I mean, I love the Danny scene and I love the introduction of the Blackfish no, sansan, no, lena. No. Who else is not on this episode? No, those two. Yeah, bran and Joffrey. No, beautiful Margaery. What about the scene of the episode?
Speaker 2:Oh, Jamie gets to get his hand cut off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that has to be it, especially just that whole build up. But I do love Rob's scene with Edmure and the Blackfish.
Speaker 1:And I love.
Speaker 3:Michelle Farrelly's little story about her father and Brandon and Rickon. So I think those are the other like the one B. So then one A is Jamie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my second scene would be Danny scolding.
Speaker 3:Joel and embarrassing Selmy.
Speaker 3:That's going to be a wrap for episode 63 of the Dancing with Dragons podcast. For our next episode, we're going to take one episode break from covering season 3 of Game of Thrones, and we're going to take one episode break from covering season three of Game of Thrones and we're going to do a standalone episode. We don't know what the topic is. We're going to put a question prompt on Instagram dancingwith__dragons and give you, the listeners, the option to decide what topic we'll discuss for that episode. So that'll be up soon. Well, once you hear this, uh, that prompt will already been up for a while. I have a a new little outro here meanwhile. I'm gonna say it, but don't laugh, because it's gonna be really cheesy okay, all right.
Speaker 3:so I'm gonna to follow us on social media, like I mentioned, dancing with underscore dragons, but whichever platform you use for your podcast, please do us a favor to rate, like and save the episodes for us. It does help us out. Until next time, keep your sword sharp, your ravens fast and remember, when you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. Thank you.
