In honor of the faith of the Seven, and to pass the interminable wait for the conclusive episodes of Game Of Thrones, and not at all to scratch a compulsive itch that wouldn't go away once the idea occurred to me, I have decided to list my seven favorite moments from each of the first seven seasons. Videos will be embedded in the headings. Anyway, without further ado...
In a series with a reputation for sadism,
Brienne’s story of how she came to love Renly Baratheon stands out as an example of how
kindness can reverberate as powerfully as cruelty. Characters are still discussing Ned Stark’s
death 5 years later, but just as often, they discuss his example. It’s not just his children, but his former
allies and even enemies that remember his honor and fortitude, as well as his
mistakes.
Less people hold Renly’s memory in such high
esteem, but his death has always struck me as one of the greatest tragedies in
the scheme of things; murdered just as he had brokered a deal that would have
brought the War Of Five Kings to a swift, more-or-less just end. Brienne is not most people, though. She does
not forget Renly’s kindness, nor the dirty tricks Stannis played to kill him. There are many people on the show out for
revenge, but she is fairly unique in how keenly she still values the virtue of
compassion. For as often as the series
demonstrates the opposite, she has seen that power can be wielded with grace,
and for her that is a source of strength.
Stannis is a hard man, and a hard man to
like. He’s been around for four seasons
before we get to see his softer side, and it’s…still rather severe, actually. Because Game
Of Thrones is about, among other things, the power of perspective, and
because Martin created a world with such a deep and detailed history, and
because the cast is impeccably stacked with powerhouse actors, it is often at
its best when it just lets one of them tell a story about their background
(see: the last entry here, Jaime’s hot tub confessions, Robert’s war
stories, Aemon’s reminiscences of his former life, Oberyn’s stories of his
childhood, Tywin’s ruminations on his
family history, Thoros recounting how he lost and rekindled his faith, a dozen
other examples).
Shireen’s story is the most sentimental we
have ever seen Stannis, but it is still a testament to his obstinance as much
as anything. Like most good writing, it
is doing more than it appears. Showing
us Stannis’s softer side (if still remarkably rigid) is setting us up to
make the absolutely brutal sacrifice he will make that much more heartwrenching. And it is also subtly providing exposition
about greyscale and the Stonemen before they become more central in the
following hour. But even in hindsight, with those elements noticeable, Stephen
Dillane’s performance overpowers everything else. And the sacrifice is that much worse because
there is nothing insincere about any of it.
Indeed, Stannis is constitutionally incapable of insincerity, which makes
him a rather bad father overall, but renders his blunt force statement of
devotion even more powerful.
Poor, poor Shireen.
Especially in the sprawling middle section of the series, it could be a fun diversion to imagine what character pairings from the far-flung corners of the show would be most interesting (how would Jorah and Arya get along? What would Melisandre think of Bran’s pagan magic? Could Dany resist Oberyn’s charms?). One pairing I never even thought to ask for was Samwell Tarly and Stannis Baratheon. The meeting between these two men who could not possibly be any different is brief, but where you’d expect Stannis to be disgusted by Sam’s lack of martial prowess, he actually acknowledges the importance of knowledge when it comes to making war. It’s subtly reminding us about Sam’s father and seeding the idea that Dragonstone has obsidian deposits, which will come into play in future seasons, but really I just like the moments where this famously bloody, ruthless series defends intellectualism. In season 3, I very nearly included the bit where Gilly is so impressed with Sam’s ability to know things that happened far away and long ago by looking at marks on paper that she calls him a wizard. I didn’t mainly because I knew this one was coming up, and I prefer the contrast that Stannis’s no-nonsense demeanor provides.
Season 5 was not the strongest for Tyrion,
as he left the chaotic muck of Westeros, where fortunes are
constantly changing and anything can happen, to tour the Land Of Foregone
Conclusions. He and Jorah did not make for as interesting
traveling companions as Jaime and Brienne or Arya and the Hound, but they had
one memorable scene together at least.
After discussing the finer points of the DTs, the men are inspired by
the sights of the ruins of Valyria to have an impromptu poetry jam. It’s a nice, lyrical moment even before
Drogon passes overhead, and Tyrion gets his first, dumbstruck look at a real,
live dragon in flight. Even after 5
years of having them on screen in elaborately-rendered glory, a great actor can show them to us with fresh
eyes.
And then there is the stomach-dropping
capper, when the stone begins to move.
We have waited along time for Dany and
Tyrion to meet, and while that meeting couldn’t suddenly make Meereen seem like
anything more than a speed bump on Dany’s predestined path back to Westeros, it
did make it immediately more interesting than it had been before. Bringing Tyrion and Varys into
the mix was a positive step, but giving her more interesting advisors doesn’t
address that the fundamental weakness in Essos was on the opposing side. The various slavers were never invested with
any of the depth or nuance of the various feuding families in Westeros, and
with her dragons and armies constantly growing, they actually felt like the
underdogs most of the time.
Which all by way of saying that Dany’s scenes
become instantly more interesting when she is discussing Westerosi politics rather
than the problems immediately in front of her.
We also get some of the tangled web of loyalties and sympathies that
makes the main conflicts more interesting, with the reminders that Tyrion’s
brother killed Dany’s father (and his unwillingness to apologize for it). This is potential that unfortunately goes
mostly unfulfilled, as Dany is spirited away in their next scene together and
then the show just sort of acts as though he had been her trusted advisor since
forever, instead of an enemy that spent a day or two currying favor. But for one scene at least, we are promised a
reinvigorated dynamic with new players and a sharper focus on the conflicts
that actually matter, far off though they may still be.
The series' action has gotten increasingly impressive
over the years. And while “Blackwater”
remains my favorite battle episode, “Watchers On The Wall” is more extensive,
and “The Spoils Of War” and “Death Is The Enemy” add more dragons and zombies to the mix
for spectacle, this is my favorite
action sequence of the show. I love the
way it springs on us unawares, an episode before we’ve been trained to expect
the big fireworks. I love how it is as much a horror sequence as an action
setpiece, how all that managed to put me far enough back on my heels to feel a
credible threat to Jon in spite of any more sober analysis telling me he had a
lot more plot lifting to do. I love how
aside from that, there are enough redshirts around (up to and including Ed and
Tormund) that there is no relief from the dread even when it cuts away from
him. I love that it gave us Wun Wun and
put him in action right away. I love the
shot of the Walkers on their horses ringing the cliffs, and of the dead
throwing themselves off them like lemmings, and of the fresh walkers rising
silently at the end. I love how it gave
fresh urgency and punch to the specter of the Walkers, who had been a very
intermittent threat up to that point.
Really, I love that the series had earned its ruthless reputation so thoroughly that I was not just wowed by the giant spectacle (literally), but genuinely had my heart in my throat, not knowing what would happen next but caring desperately what did. That’s the power great storytelling can exert.
Stannis’s end was shocking for just how
straightforward it turned out to be, in a series known for its wild twists and
turns. That, and all the prophecy and
sorcery trappings make what happens – which is exactly what would happen when marching a small contingent of starving, bedraggled infantry into a much
larger force of cavalry holding a fortified position – into the last thing you
expect to happen. It’s not as painful as
the Red Wedding, as Stannis’s actions have definitely branded him as Not A Good
Guy at that point, but it was shocking for some of the same reason. Without
him, the war that’s been the central conflict of the show since the start would
seem to be over, and so for him to be taken out by one of the more minor houses
rather than his “true” enemy, so far from his ultimate goal, seems to violate
the basic rules of dramatic construction.
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