Raw Data: The Rains of Castamere - Part Two

Yeah, I'd steer clear of this one unless you have seen the episode or read through Storm of Swords...or even through the episode "Baelor" in the first season for that matter.

The most recent episode of Game of Thrones was.....Seth Rogen says "Shocking"....Amy Poehler says "Horrifying"...Bill Clinton says "Depressingly free of nudity."
- Conan, doing his Celebrity Survey

Many upset at the number of characters who died violently on last night's episode.  Ladies and gentleman all I have to say is wait until you see how this show ends tonight. Bad news for you Andy fans - Conan doing his monologue

This is part two of observations and reactions for Game of Thrones episode 3-09 "The Rains of Castamere".

Game of Thrones often puts even the HBO standard of including violence and nudity to shame.  It's more notable when an episode does not include one or both.  No nudity in "Rains" but plenty of violence.

Whether you were surprised or unsurprised at the turn of events, or sullied or unsullied by the books, the nature of the violence at the wedding was shocking.   This episode used suspense uniquely, everyone walked on eggshells the whole episode, but all for naught.  Often when there's suspense throughout an entire episode, or an entire scene, the payoff is avoiding the obstacle at the end.  Not so here.

Talisa attends the wedding with Robb, rather than stay behind to avoid further risk of insulting the Freys.  Walder calling attention to her makes the payoff even more devastating when you realize he was studying her to see if she was pregnant.

In what feels like a cousin to the cop who 'has just one last case', or who gets shot the day before he retires, Talisa and Robb discuss naming their child Ned and teaching him to ride horses.  Not sure what this trope is called, but another example is in the movie Lincoln where he and Mary Todd discuss what they will do with the war winding down.

The first thing the ambush does is go after Talisa.   But they don't shoot her with a cross bow or slit her throat from behind.  Her attacker runs up to her and stabs her not once but like a billion times in her pregnant stomach.  In a show where it's uncommon to not have limbs or heads hacked off in an episode (and not in the funny Star Wars type way) this is absolutely the worst, most jarring image they've shown.  The wedding as a whole is not over quickly and neither is the attack on Talisa.  The number of deaths shown on Game of Thrones can't be totaled at this point, from all sorts of manner.  But stabbing Talisa is could possible be the image that provokes the most reaction from live watching from sullied and unsullied alike.

There is not much that can surprise in television violence, or movies for that matter.  Television has a tiered system of what they will broadcast, from the networks to cable to pay cable.   It's not so much the graphic-ness (?) of the violence that gets you now, but who it happens to, and why.

This was by far the worst thing I've seen on television in the past year.  The second worst was an episode of Justified involving a character named Constable Bob taking a beating. The wincing born from these two incidents doesn't so much come from the actual act of violence, as lots of people get stabbed or beaten in television, but from our investment with the character on the receiving end and the stakes hanging in the balance.

Constable Bob was a character who had been a bit of a laughingstock throughout this recent season of Justified, those harmless, affable and likeable.  He never became a "real" police officer, instead serving as a constable in the state of Kentucky, where he basically was paid case by case to be a process server.  He even had to buy the lights for his own car.  He was even mocked and beat up by some grown up bullies.  But when the bad guys went after him for the locations of the other good guys he not only didn't give it up but didn't give it up in the most hilarious of fashion.  The beating went out about 5 or 10 minutes longer than it normally would.  There was even a point where I fully expected the scene to cut to another scene, but no, the beating just continued.  Even though there weren't any weapons used, it was absolutely brutal and tough to match on the hard to watch scale.

A couple factors contribute to the brutality of Talisa's stabbing.  It is the first act in the massacre, following the foreboding door closing and chain mail reveal on Bolton. No one (except for Cat), least of all Talisa, realizes what is happening.  All she knows is there is a knife plunged into her pregnant belly over and over again and she's about to be made dead.  Actually, I'm not even sure the last part would have a chance to register.

The fact that Talisa is pregnant speaks for itself.  Cutting her throat would have effectively had the same result in the show, but would not have the same effect on the viewer.

Finally, the stakes and history make it all so hard to swallow.  Since that stag killed the direwolf, the Starks have been crippled, beheaded, made homeless, held prisoner and hostage and are losing a war despite winning every battle.  Much of their misfortune stems from a sense of honor and misplaced trust.  Their war is winding to a close and they need the wedding to go well if they have any chance of taking the battle back to the crown.  But unfortunately when the doors shut on the wedding reception, the doors shut on the rebellion and any chance for the family to live well and be happy. 

Hodor?

Raw Data: The Rains of Castamere - Part One

Yeah, I'd steer clear of this one unless you have seen the episode or read through Storm of Swords...or even through the episode "Baelor" in the first season for that matter.

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

Now...

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!

Raw Data: The Climb

Thoughts and observations for Game of Thrones episode 3-06 "The Climb". Written for television by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and directed by Alik Sakhararov, oft-director of photography for this show and the Sopranos, as well as director of Season Two's "What is Dead May Never Die"

• Title refers both to the obvious climb over The Wall by the Wildlings, and is namechecked in Littlefinger's end-of-episode monologue, perhaps even referencing his own climb from humble beginnings to becoming Lord of Harrenhal, and through his upcoming marriage, gaining control of the Vale.
• "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."  I thought they only broke the fourth wall on the fake documentary sitcoms an House of Cards... 
• Joffrey has graduated to a whole new level of sadism
• If you thought Jon Snow getting a girlfriend would make him less angsty...sucker!  He manages to make climbing up 700 feet of solid ice into a WB show.  Actually, can we just spin off Jon Snow to a whole separate show on WB, and do crossover episodes as needed?
•  For the amount of time they focus on Jon Snow, it's hard to imagine an end game scenario where he doesn't wind up on the Iron Throne that would justify it all.
• This episode was very much concentrated on the North or activities relating to the North.  Even the King's Landing scenes were entirely focused on procuring the North, specifically Winterfell.  
• Multiple scenes of the Wildings/Snow scaling The Wall
• The Starks and Reeds heading toward The Wall
• Sam and Gilly returning to the Wall
• Robb making his way back north to make peace with Lord Frey
• Roose Bolton is hedging bets.  And speaking of Bolton...
• Is Theon not held prisoner by Bolton's men?  Is it supposed to be ambiguous or we being misled?  They were the ones marching to Winterfell at the end of season two.  Roose specifically talked Robb into it.  And their favored method of torture seem to mirror Bolton's sigil which has been prominently displayed throughout the season.
• The Dowager Countess of Highgarden steals the show again.  Not only does she coin the medieval euphemism for gay person (sword swallower), but says tells Tywin "BFD" and says you shouldn't throw stones if your House is full of incest.  While Tywin won the battle at scene's end, perchance the war between these heavyweights is not done.  And though Tywin won, he was sincerely rattled and may well be living in denial about his children.  Also, "buggery." 
• Meera and Osha debate the finer points of the number of methods to remove skin from small mammals.  How many methods are there?  Bran motions for cloture before debate can escalate too far by telling both girls they are pretty.
• Twice this episode characters chose to forgo wine as it was poured to the table (Bolton, Dowager Countess).  Unsure what this means.
• Robb is obviously not in a good position to order Edmure to marry the Frey daughter so they can make peace with the Freys, without sounding like a hypocrite and Edmure is, incredibly, balking.  Good thing Blackfish is there to tell Edmure "You'll do it, and you'll like it.  In fact, you'll marry all one thousand of the ugly Frey girls if Robb wants you to" in an old man strength sort of way.
• Orell cutting people loose on the Wall, only to have them survive and face him at the top was less awkward than the awkwardness that would follow on Mad Men this evening.
• Someone should tell the red priestess it's rude to have a private conversation in a language no one understands. 

Varys' and Littlefinger's conversation about the tales people tell themselves and each other to comfort or rationalize brought to mind Deadwood for the first of two times for Sunday night shows that evening*.  One, two or perhaps all three seasons of Deadwood focus on the idea of "a lie agreed upon" meaning bits we tell ourselves to be true in order for society to function.  For example, gold is as arbitrary a substance as the next mineral but because we all agree it has value and therefore can be exchanged for goods and services, and is also protected and sought after.  If everyone in the camp of Deadwood simultaneously agreed gold had no value (possible, considering they were outside the United States) the society would collapse. 

Season Three started with two episodes reintroducing all the different threads, followed by three episodes loaded with payoffs.  Episode six, with only four more after this week, is moving pieces into place and getting characters on track for (if previous seasons are any indication) what we would expect is the season's big payoff in episode nine followed by rapidly falling action and some set up for next season in episode ten. 

Hodor!

* The other was in Mad Men

Raw Data: Kissed by Fire

These are the unprocessed thoughts and observations for Game of Thrones episode 3-05 "Kissed by Fire". Written for television by  Bryan Cogman who has the credit on two previous episodes "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things" and "What is Dead May Never Die".  Directed by Alex Graves, who also did last week's episode which is not uncommon for this show.  You'll often see the same director for two and three episodes at a time.  We're at halftime of Season Three folks...

• Title refers to Ygritte's hair and that whole demographic which requires more anesthesia than your average bear when they go to the dentist
• Regarding the two seemingly superfluous scenes from previous weeks: both paid off in this episode with Tyrion's betrothal and Karstark's vengeance.  
• Jaime continues to soften his character 
• Selmy: It's going to be great when you leave.  Jorah: WTF?
• Hound: Where's my gold? Anguy: Here's an IOU.  Hound: WTF?
• Cersei's an early frontrunner for Schadenfreude of the Week with the hilarious cycle of wedding meddling.  What goes around...
• Lyssa: "I breast feed my kid even though he's like eight."  Celyse: "I keep three fetuses in formaldehyde jars in my bedroom."   
• Stannis is going to attempt what you call "hu-man" interaction with his daughter
• Speaking of Stannis' daughter, how is Game of Thrones the only show on television with tolerable child actors?

Robb erred by beheading Karstark.  While he's winning battles, to say he's having trouble in his backyard is an understatement.  Robb's unbending sense of honor, obviously derived from Ned, gives him little flexibility in dealing with Karstark.  While Ned and Robert were close a lifetime ago, Ned is more like Stannis than any Baratheon.  Unwilling to give an inch.  Here Robb could have taken a page from Cersei and remembered a tame enemy is more useful than a dead one.

Jamie shed some light on the source of his nickname, explaining how and why he killed King Aerys years ago.  He's been softened the last few weeks and for perhaps the first time gave viewers a reason to be upset with Ned Stark (beyond Ned's own naivete).  The guilt trip played on him by Ned, or at least as it was perceived by Jaime, gives a different point of view** to those early days of Robert's reign.  Would the unbending nature of Ned, and now Robb, have allowed them to make a similar choice?

Meanwhile, Sansa remains a hostage in Kings Landing despite the Tyrells best efforts.  Another parallel with Ned, who had his his own ward/hostage Theon Greyjoy.  While Ned raised him properly, and the Lannisters constantly torture Sansa, they are both effectively hostages who are there for leverage and may be executed at any time.

Which leads to the motif that started this all, beheading.  One of the first scenes in the series is Ned beheading a deserter ** from The Wall.  In Season Two, Theon makes a hack job of a beheading after he betrays everyone who ever cared for him.  In Season Three, Robb takes it upon himself to execute the sentence.  He doesn't appear to do it because he thinks he should but because he feels he has to.  While he has much better beheading skills than Theon, he seems to have damaged himself *** in the process.

Go back to the Vale in Season One...honor weighs heavily, like a suit of armor, and may leave you vulnerable to those playing by different rules.

Hodor!

* Not a better point of view, or even able to redeem Jaime's later actions.  But different.

** By the way, wouldn't everyone have been better served to pay some heed to this guy before separating his head from his body?  But no, there's no flexibility.  And that's why Robb's army is smaller by half and these guys are shorter by about twelve inches.


*** Looked like he hurt his hand while doing the deed.  A portent for his war effort?  Nah, there's no symbolism in this series.  Pay no attention to the wolf killed by the stag.

Raw Data: Dark Wings, Dark Words

These are the unprocessed thoughts and observations for Game of Thrones episode 3-02 "Dark Wings, Dark Words".

• For reference for you book readers, I'm on page 199 of A Storm of Swords
• A rare seemingly superfluous scene involved Tyrion and Shae, which no doubt means it will come into play in a major way down the line
• Of Robb's lieutenant bannermen, if Umber and Karstark are Pacino, then Bolton is Deniro. 
• It is only Tuesday but congrats to Theon Greyjoy for wining "Schadenfreude of the Week"
• How does one spell 'schadenfreude' correctly, while butchering 'lieutentant'?
• Joffrey had a beat when he was talking about Renley and making his "perversion" punishable by death.  The beat made me think there's a possibility he has a Larry Craig thing going.  I can't imagine the little psychopath is able to feel love or attraction beyond basic mating instinct
• Speaking of psychopathy, I wonder if there is a way to play psychologist and apply the Hare Psychopathy Test, the PCL-R, to Joffrey [notes idea for future post]
• My guess is Cersei would test higher as a psychopath.  Joffrey is "merely" anti-social
• It was so nice to introduce us to the Dowager Countess of the Tyrells
• In the same vein, we met the Katniss Everdeen of the Reeds
• Jamie showed a moment of sincerity when he said "we don't choose who we love"
• No heads chopped off?  Not even a limb?  And complete lack of nudity.  This is, without a doubt and with zero hyperbole, the most shocking thing that has happened in the show's entire run to date.

All in all, everyone raised a lot of money for Relay for Life because they spent the whole episode walking (minus Bran!).  To Riverrun. To the Wall.  To the Fist. To an undoubtedly miserable marriage to the king...