The Westeros Watch Part Twenty-Nine

After a little time off, Jimmy and Tom are back with more Game of Thrones chat.

This time around, they’ll be covering the season six episodes “The Broken Man” and “No One”.

tomk:  Just to hazard a guess here, but methinks you were pleased with how at least one plot line ended for this pair of episodes.

jimmy:  I’ll take “Waifs without a face” for $1000, Alex.

tomk:  How pleased were you to see the Jimmy Impossible Hate List go down by one person?

jimmy:  I won’t say I cheered. I did, but I won’t say it.

tomk:  Maybe things are looking up for people we like.

jimmy:  That probably won’t last long. At least Arya is heading home.

tomk:  I’ve had enough of Braavos anyway.

jimmy:  First Dorne, now Braavos. I suppose you’ll be sick of Meereen next.

tomk:  What was happening in Braavos aside from meetings at the Iron Bank and Arya getting abused by the Waif?
And you’ve been hoping Dany would leave Meereen for a while now.

jimmy:  So has everyone…though she just got BACK to Meereen. And Drogon is pissed.

tomk:  The other two aren’t much happier. Plus Dany looks pissed.

jimmy:  Yeah. Those slavers are in for a world of hurt.

tomk:  Assuming Tyrion doesn’t get a world of hurt first. Why did his annual observation by his superior have to happen at the exact worst time?

jimmy:  Doesn’t it always?

tomk:  Not when Tywin can take credit for it.

jimmy:  Tywin’s not taking credit for much these days.

tomk:  Neither is the Waif. I’m surprised you didn’t have more to say about her.

jimmy:  I’m just glad she’s gone. She really wasn’t much of a character besides being an antagonist to Arya.

tomk:  She didn’t follow directions. Jaqen told her not to make Arya suffer. Then Waify stabs Arya like six dozen times in the gut while twisting the knife.

But the Waif is dead, we saw the return of two fan favorites, and the introduction of a new one.

jimmy:  Grr, that Waif!

And Huzzah! The Hound! I knew he wasn’t dead!

tomk:  He tried to go the route of nonviolence. But every time he thinks he’s out, they pull him back in!

jimmy:  And he might just be bad luck for whomever he “befriends”.

tomk:  Ian McShane’s general awesomeness couldn’t save him from religious fanatics who picked the worst possible town to massacre.

jimmy:  He was pretty awesome.

tomk:  He always is.

jimmy:  Too bad he won’t be (ahem) hanging around.

tomk:  If the man can run John Wick’s hotel, you’d think building a Continental in Westeros would go better for him. Of course the rules of killing in the Continental seems to be the same.

jimmy:  And The Hound is kinda the John Wick of Westeros.

tomk:  He combines Wick with Wick’s dog.

jimmy:  Exactly!

tomk:  He talks more than Wick.

jimmy:  Yes. And now he’s breaking bread with a man he’s killed before.

tomk:  Well, we hadn’t seen the Brotherhood in a while.

jimmy:  Indeed.

tomk:  Did you miss them?

jimmy:  Umm…yes?

tomk:  I am fairly neutral on that bunch.

jimmy:  Yeah. We’re so over resurrection and flaming swords.

tomk:  Maybe they can give the Hound a flaming sword to get over his fear of fire!

jimmy:  Ha!

He might be joining the wrong crew.

tomk:  Or the right one. I get the impression some bunch might be showing up that might require some flaming swords at some point in the near future.

jimmy:  Jon hasn’t killed those guys yet? I guess he’s been a little busy.

tomk:  Yes, well, he needs to secure Winterfell before Endless Winter…falls.

jimmy:  Well, he’s managed to get a few recruits to the cause…and a kick ass 10 year old girl.

tomk:  Lady Mormont!

Jorah’s niece!

jimmy:  She’d kick Jorah’s ass.

tomk:  Probably kill three White Walkers and the Mountain with just a single hard glare!

jimmy:  She’s a mean mother—

tomk:  Shut yo mouth!

jimmy:  I’m talkin’ bout Lady Mormont!

tomk:  Then I can dig it.

jimmy:  Heh. She was another awesome addition though. From the books?

tomk:  Sort of. She’s referenced as ruling Bear Island after her mother goes off to fight on Robb’s side in the War of the Five Kings.

By the by, in the book’s, the Hound’s fate is implied. He and Brienne never fight but instead he gets a bad infection from a guy biting him and appears to be dying after fighting some random Lannister soldiers that include a couple guys on book Arya’s longer list. In book four, Brienne visits a monastery and sees a large, silent hooded man leading the Hound’s uncontrollable horse in the fields. She never sees his face or gets his name, but it’s implied to be the Hound and that’s the last we see of him.

I get the impression, Jimmy, that you like Lady Mormont and are glad the Hound is back. But we got Bronn back too!

jimmy:  And he was sure happy to see Podrick!

tomk:  Isn’t everybody?

jimmy:  Well, the ladies for sure.

tomk:  You know, Jimmy, you’re on record with which characters you hate. Which ones do you most want to live?

jimmy:  Hmm. Interesting…

Jon and Dany for sure. Tyrion. I like Bronn and Brienne and Pod, but if they die, they die. Maybe Arya.

tomk:  I recently learned that there’s an outline floating around the Internet that may have been an early draft of Martin’s that posits five survivors for sure: Dany, Jon, Tyrion, Bran, and Arya.

jimmy:  If it’s on the Internet it must be true!

tomk:  It also said Joffrey would be wounded on the battlefield, Jaime and Cersei were a combined character, and Jon and Arya would get married.

And it did give away a number of plot points. Martin has neither confirmed nor denied its authenticity.

jimmy:  That sounds like some jive talking.

tomk:  You said it. Lay ‘em down and smack’em yack’em.

jimmy:  So Jaime continues to look like a mostly stand up dude…outside of the children catapult threatening.

tomk:  That whole bit with Edmure and the Blackfish is the last of the various plot lines from the books that got onto the show.

There are two major differences. Brienne isn’t present and Edmure actually helps the Blackfish escape again.

jimmy:  No RIP Blackfish?

tomk:  Well, oddly enough, we never did see the body…

jimmy:  And those guys never come back…

tomk:  There’s actually a cool scene from those chapters where Jaime meets his aunt (Tywin’s sister) and her Frey husband outside during the siege, and her comments that Tyrion was the one who really took after her brother were what inspired Jaime to go that route.

You know, it occurs to me that after the general awesomeness of Arya and the Hound’s respective stories, these are a quiet pair of episodes. The Riverrun stuff seems to be there to finish off the Blackfish storyline while getting Jaime out of King’s Landing. Same with the Queen of Thorns. We have moderate progress on Theon and Yara’s story, and Tommen outlawed Cersei’s obvious route to being acquitted because the High Sparrow is awful.

jimmy:  I was thinking the same. I’m sure the next two will be a bit…louder. But it speaks to the quality of the show that it can have these “quieter” episodes that advance the story with minimal people getting impaled. The outlawing off Trial by Combat made me smile.

tomk:  Oh yeah. Cersei is surely screwed now.

Well, was there anything else that jumped out at you, Jimmy?

jimmy:  I don’t think we talked about Margaery’s “turning”.

tomk:  You mean the moves she made to convince Gramma Tyrell to get out of town?

jimmy:  Well, there’s that. But just the fact that it seems that she is just telling the High Sparrow, etc. what they want to hear to get the hell out of there. I don’t know why this strategy isn’t employed more.

tomk:  Well, does it work?

jimmy:  I guess time will tell. But it probably works better than defying them.

tomk:  You mean having the Mountain just grab a guy and turn him into something with the consistency of toothpaste?

jimmy:  Well…it helps to have a Mountain on your side. But as noted above, he can’t protector her forever…or so they think. No way Cersei stands trail.

tomk:  Well, that trial is coming up soon. We’ll see if she or Margaery ultimately had the best strategy for dealing with the High Sparrow.

jimmy:  I think the rest of what we really never got into was a lot of talking. Jon and Sansa recruiting. Tyrion trying to teach Grey Worm and Missandei to tell jokes. Brienne and Jaime’s…whatever the hell is going on there. And no sign of the Samwell Tarly clan this go round.

tomk:  Aw c’mon. Jon and Sansa got to see Lady Mormont while Sansa frets over troop numbers. Plus, Davos proved his worth on Bear Island.

jimmy:  Oh, all cool stuff…just doesn’t lend to much conversation. :slightly_smiling_face:

tomk:  Not really. You know what does? Big episode nine moments and trials of awful people conducted by other awful people.

jimmy:  Too bad we don’t have either of them coming up soon.

tomk:  We don’t? Let me check the next two episode titles…

“Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter”.

jimmy:  No mention of trials…but that first one seems to have some potential…

tomk:  We should check them out, finish up season six or something.

jimmy:  Sounds like something we should do.

tomk:  Then we shall!

jimmy:  Huzzah!

And so our Watch continues.  Be back soon as Tom and Jimmy finish off season six with the episodes “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter”…as mentioned above.