WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE
Game of Thrones Updates and Thoughts:
Game of Thrones: I’m finally caught up. Yes, everyone’s talking about the Red Wedding thing. Personally, I wasn’t really attached to any of the Starks that…well, were in the Red Wedding, so I’m not losing sleep over it. Rob Stark chose to be a tactician and marry a Frey instead of building up his own House. And I feel that, at this point, the people…in the Red Wedding…were just getting in the way of the story of what I think will be a showdown between House Targaryen and House Baratheon. I was shocked more at the very ending of the last episode, but I’m not losing sleep over it. Rob Stark was just too politically weak to be valuable.
On the other end, it looks like Bran is pretty well held up by a siege of people beyond the wall in Castle Black. Seems Hodor might have given them away with all his “Hodoring” (Hodor! Hodor!) I have high hopes that the Stark children at least might survive. The ones that do survive seem to be the ones who surround themselves with protectors, which Rob Stark never did. Bran has protectors. John Snow HAD protectors. Though many might as well have turned on him. A lot of people say this is a kind of amoral show, where if you try to do good, you lose. Although I thought that at first, I’m beginning to disagree.
For example, look at Danaerys. She has an empire basically of freed slaves, and treats them all as equals. Wherever she encounters cruelty, she conquers and sets the rules so that people are given rights and respect. The Dothraki were complete barbarians at first, but by assimilating to the culture, understanding Dothraki, and ultimately making them play by her rules while respecting the host culture, she changed it. That’s an important lesson in intercultural communication: Assimilating to another culture does not mean you have to give up your native values. It does however, mean you need to understand how the rules of the culture work. The Khaleesi has consistently employed intercultural communication to her benefit.
Another example I’d like to point to is Tyrion Lannister. Though he plays at being an amoral hedonist, he has actually revealed himself to be quite noble at times. Even empathetic. He refused to bed Sansa. He opened up to Shae about his personal conflicts and struggle for dignity as a dwarf. He defended King’s Landing! Maybe he’s not so amoral. I was particularly uplifted by his decision not to bed Sansa. This was done for multiple reasons, probably. Number one is that he knows he’s being wed to Sansa for his own humiliation, as she’s 14 and he’s a dwarf. He’s not going to let them have the last laugh. Finally, he loves Shae, so…maybe also he’s not the polyamourous type as we were led to believe either.
Finally, Milsandre has the blood of kings and people think she’s a powerful priestess. Never mind how she gets the blood, which was painful to watch. She sort of uses her position as priestess as a form of religious cultural domination. As such, when people see her victories, she attributes it to her god and her blood, so people fear her. I guess I can’t really say what’s coming for her yet…but she seems to me to be quite the opposite style as the Khaleesi, who assimilates to her conquered cultures…I predict a showdown between the two women. At least Bran and Arya still have protection.
I have no idea what’s going on with the Blackwatch at this point. Samwell’s last scenes felt a bit unnecessary. But, that’s Game of Thrones! Political intrigue, backstabbing, and sometimes magical creatures pop out! Should be exciting to see how long these characters can last. Is it all just secretly a straightforward morality tale? Somehow I doubt that. In Game of Thrones, those who have power make the morals! Stay tuned! And yeah, I know this is going to be out of date as soon as I post it, but I had to put down my observations!
