These are initial observations for Game of Thrones episode 3-09 "The Rains of Castamere" written by Benioff and Weiss and directed by David Nutter, of two previous Game of Thrones episodes, as well as next week's season finale. He's also a veteran of other great shows like ER, The West Wing, The Pacific, Band of Brothers and The Sopranos.
That's it? Thirty people died? You know what they call that on Game of Thrones? A wedding.
- Jon Stewart
This quickly became a very long post, so it will be split into two parts.
The Rains of Castamere was a song sung by the Lannister men (and Bronn) prior to the Battle of Blackwater. Cersei revealed in the previous episode to Margaery that it refers to Tywin's complete and total destruction of a lesser house who rebelled against House Lannister. This was a huge part of step 3 in the 5 step process of building a Game of Thrones season, where the foundation is layed and the pieces are moved into place*.
* But nothing happened in that episode!
Quickly:
- Slowly but surely, no one will be left but Rickon and Tommen and we'll all be like "who were those people back in the beginning?"
- Daenarys needs to run into some opposition and conflict. At this point she's steamrolling the East with the tenacity of Alexander the Great
- Now that I look at it, his empire (or Asia in general for that matter) doesn't look all that different than Essos
- Jorah is jealous of Daario. Surprise! Looking for Daario to usurp him as No. 2.
- Jorah also passive aggressively slighted Barristan by referring to the two "best men" as Grey Worm and Jorah himself
Nary a Lannister to be found in the episode that bears the name of their favorite song. Their absence is so apparent that Peter Dinklage, top billed actor since the start of season two, does not appear in the credits. Unfortunately for Robb, the Starks, the Tullys and anyone standing too close to any of those people, the Lannisters (Tywin) don't need to be present to have presence...a point driven home by Roose Bolton who literally twists the knife into Robb.
The episode and the ones leading to it did a good job setting up a red herring in Robb's next planned attack following the wedding. The opening scene focuses entirely on Robb seeking Cat's advice regarding his planned assault on Casterly Rock. Such a maneuver could set up a great finale and storyline going into next season. But it allows the viewer to focus on both the upcoming wedding and a battle on the horizon. The viewer gets bolo punched.
Ned and Robb
Ned and Robb made two similar tactical errors. Trusting one who should not be trusted and failing to act on the third option, or at least a less severe option of one of the ones presented.
Ned puts his trust in Littlefinger to help secure him at court while Robb trusts Walder Frey to accept his apologies and not murder him. Both are sorely disapointed.
Similarly, Ned and Robb both take the unbending, rule of law-type option with executing justice. Ned wants the throne to succeed, as law would dictate to Stannis, who we meet in Season Two and has similar view of rules and honor to Ned. Renly knows this is impractical for several reasons and offers to help Ned secure the castle and throne, which Ned turns down because it does not follow the rule of law. He fails to use a third option of, for instance, acknowledging Joffrey and biding his time. The result is Ned secures his own downfall, as he doesn't have the relationships and resources at court to implement the only plan he sees fit.
Robb, when dealing with Karstark's revenge murder of young Lannister prisoners, feels he has no choice but to execute Karstark, and to do it himself. Robb is so hung up on executing Karstark himself (because he does his own dirty work) that he fails to see the merits in, well, not executing Karstark. Rather than keep him as a prisoner or hostage, effectively keeping the large part of his army Karstark's men comprise, he kills Karstark and loses the men. The result is Robb secures his own downfall because his only remaining course of action on the battlefield relies entirely on reinforcing his troops (replacing the Karstark men) by the grace of the very man he already gravely insulted.
Reaction
I can only think of a few reactions within the series of tubes as huge as this one. If you read online forums after the Sopranos finale, you had to go through pages and pages of all caps posts revealing helpful insight such as "WTF!" or "THAT WAS HORRIBLE!". Initial reactions, people who feel the need to post at 10:01 after a 9:00 episode, tend to go that way. Eventually the dust settles and you can get down to more sensible reactions and analysis.
The other reaction is from Game of Thrones itself, Season One's "Baelor". Still, the single most shocking thing I've ever seen in a television drama.
While the number of reactions still is incredibly high, the mood is much more subdued than it was for "Baelor". One possible reason is that, like myself, viewers are more likely to have read the book and already know what is coming. When the series started, I had never heard of the books, let alone read them, so everything was fresh, unsullied and surprising. I caught up to the show about episode four this season and could not help but surpass it.
While Ned's course of action in the episodes leading to "Baelor" led to a great Internet meme, there was not as much frustration toward him as there is toward Robb who failed in spectacular fashion in several ways leading to "The Rains of Castamere", all his own doing, made the act carried out by the Freys less shocking only in the sense that it was a direct result of his doings rather than others'. The frustration stems both from seeing poor decisions made, but also because we root so hard for him to make good ones due to our love for the Starks and despising the Lannisters. It's like a parent being disappointed. We expect more and would never have such a frustration from one of the token Lannisters, because we want them to fail.
The whole episode was spent tip toeing around the Late Walder Frey, knowing anything could set him off. It turns out, he was going to be set off no matter how delicately they treated him. "Baelor" featured a last minute change from a loose cannon psychopath making bad decisions, which was never part of the plan.
Part two is coming, and will focus on the jarring nature of the violence in the wedding at the Twins.
Hodor!
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