‘Game of Thrones’ Recap: ‘The Songs of the Harpy’ — Page 2
LOSER: Sansa Stark
Bye bye daddy dearest? Or something like that?
Sansa’s been protected for quite some time now by Lord Littlefinger, but that’s ending. He’s heading back to King’s Landing (to find his brothels torn apart by the The Faith Militant) because Cersei’s called him, and for now nobody keeps Cersei waiting. On the whole this scene was pretty forgettable, but we did get some fun backstory on Leanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.
But the whole ‘Sansa being alone’ thing is a little troubling, as she’s the Lady of Winterfell for the time being, and Stannis is soon marching that way to overthrow the castle. Littlefinger’s betting on Stannis being able to take Winterfell and Sansa making it through unharmed. Sansa’s reassured that she’ll be named ‘Wardeness of the North’ after Stannis takes the castle. There’s just too many loose ends here to think that anything will go well for Sansa.
LOSERS: Bronn and Jamie
Sure they’ve arrived in Dorne, and sure they’ve managed to not get killed after someone ratted them out for being in Dorne, but the fact remains: someone ratted them out, and soldiers know they are in Dorne. It only took one morning before the Pentoshi captain that dropped Bronn and Jamie Lannister off in Dorne went and sold his secret to the first person willing to buy that information.
The upside here is that we get our first look at the soldiers of Dorne (in Dorne), even though they were shortly killed off. The Game of Thrones TV squad did a pretty effective job at making these soldiers appear deadly even though they all got killed by a man with only one hand, and a sellsword. Somehow they still had the swagger of extremely deadly soldiers, which only reinforces how miserable of a time Jamie will have trying to recover his daughter/niece.
WINNER: Everyone
If you read last week’s recap then you’ll know that I mistakenly said we got our first glimpse at the ‘Sand Snakes’, when all we were seeing was Prince Oberyn’s widow Ellaria Sand. FINALLY though we get a good look at the ‘Sand Snakes’, the deadly daughters of the late Prince Oberyn. Unlike in Westeros, in Dorne women are treated as equals. Women can rule as Queen without a King, there’s no subservient nature attached to gender. I think that’s all pretty apparent immediately on, as these women almost immediately have a sense of foreboding unlike anything we’ve seen from Westerosi women.
These women are to be feared and respected. They’re going to be some of the most badass characters in the coming episodes, assuming we get more scenes like this:
Which it’s almost guaranteed that we will, as the three daughters of Oberyn have just agreed to go to war against the Lannisters, following Allaria Sand’s revolt against Prince Doran, the ruler of Dorne.
LOSER: Daenerys Targaryen
It all started out as such a pleasant scene with Ser Barristan Selmy telling her stories of her brother, and how he was a great singer…then all hell broke loose.
Once again we’ve got this man asking to reopen the fighting pits of Mereen, as they’ve continued to show this same charade over and over, it seems like she’s going to give in sooner than later, and the pits will be reopened (just a guess on my part).
Then we find out where the episode’s name ‘The Sons of the Harpy’ came from, as those Sons spread an unfathomable amount of blood throughout the city of Mereen, and lost in the fights are Ser Barristan Selmy, the head of Daenerys’ Queensguard, as well as Grey Worm, the leader of the Unsullied. These are the two most deadly and loyal men that were surrounding Queen Daenerys at all times, so now she’s fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked unless she comes up with a new plan, and quick.
The thing that absolutely fucking set me off about the scene is this: The Unsullied are a bunch of pansies. These are a group of men who are supposed to be the deadliest army in the world, yet they’re just torn down and picked apart like flies by a group of men in golden masks.
Stop for a second and imagine trying to fight in a golden mask, then imagine trying to fight the world’s supposed ‘deadliest warriors’ in that same mask with a hindered view. Chances are if you’re on the side wearing a mask you’re dying in like two seconds flat. Instead The Unsullied get chopped up like it aint no thang, and I’m sitting here wondering why people call them badasses if they’ve never done anything that’s badass? …and that’s the end of my rant.
This was the last week that I had screeners from HBO that allowed me to prepare these recaps ahead of time, so come next week these recaps will either be up later in the evening or the next morning. Apologies about that, but there’s nothing I can do, I’m thankful HBO sent ‘Game of Thrones’ screeners at all!
As is the same every week, if I made any mistakes I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in the comments down below!