Review: Game of Thrones - S6E01 - The Red Woman

Spoiler Alert: These reviews contain spoilers for the titled episode. They may also contain spoilers for any previous episodes and published book content. If you are not caught up, this is your warning.

Picking up right where we left off last year, we come in on the be-stabbed corpse of our favorite Snow. Lying in the dead in the cold, unbeknownst to his friends.  We grieve and wonder if this is it for our hero.

As far as Jon goes (and the season opener) I don't know that we could have expected an opening different than this. They know discussion of this has been in the zeitgeist for the past 9 months so showing it first thing was almost a given, but no less impactful for that.  Kit Harrington has easily been one of the most recognized faces from the show and seeing him with the color drained from his face, bleeding and deserted, lying in the frigid cold remains gut wrenching even a year later.  Knowing that he's lying inside the walls of a place where he'd once made his very best friends and discovered who he was as a man makes it all the more galling.

Ghost beats against the door of his cell, creating enough ruckus that Davos and soon the other men not involved with the plot come out and find, to their horror, their Lord Commander treasonously slain.  Bringing him inside, they tensely discuss who they can trust.  Among those grieving for the fallen Snow are also good ol' Dolorous Edd Tollett and the Red Woman herself, Melisandre.  Carise van Houten nails it here, as you can see that her world, just as she'd thought it had fallen apart, still crumbles yet.  Dialog from her wasn't even unnecessary, her face spoke volumes.

Cut to Thorne in the mess hall with the Black Brothers.  He readily speaks of what was done and the involvement of the other ranking officers.  You have to give it to Thorne, at least he's drinking his own Kool-Aid.  He freely acknowledges that he and the brothers involved committed treason by killing their Lord Commander.  Yet he stands behind the decision, truly believing that had he not done it, it would have been the end of the Watch.

Having said all that, you would have thought that the instant he approached The Wall with a massive contingent of Wildlings, he would have just kept the gate closed.  Thorne has always had a bad feeling about Jon, but perhaps his sense of protocol won out over his inner sense of duty, and he reached some kind of internal breaking point that night.  I think it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when he was trying to convince the other officers that this was the needed course of action.

Back to Jon's Corpse and the Holdouts (good band name?), Davos talks with Edd and the others.  They determine that they're in a tight spot and need help.  Edd lights out, saying he'll be back; clearly distraught.  Where he's off to, The Seven only know...

Jump south a ways and we see everyone's most reviled psychopath, Ramsay Bolton.  Iwan Rheon seriously owns this maniac, and that's to his credit as an actor.  Ramsay's presence on screen and the gut-level sensations that are conjured are uncomfortable in the extreme.  I feel like at this point, it's been burned into our subconscious that he is the embodiment of the true evil a human can embody.  The Others (or White Walkers for show-only folks) are evil, yes, but they're almost like a force of nature; dispassionate, unflagging and glacial.  Ramsay is just one man and shouldn't be able to inspire that level of horror, yet he does.

Ramsay grieves for the recently be-splatted Miranda.  Seeing him sad is one of the strangest things I've seen so far.  Then he stands up and says "Feed her to the dogs."  I guess that's the best someone he had affection for could hope for.

He spends time with Roose (who has this weird way of constantly giving backhanded compliments and then following it up with criticism).  It's made clear that because of Ramsay's proclivities, Sansa and Reek took off like bats out of icy hell.  At this point, we see Ramsay actually visibly scared possibly for the first time ever with Roose mentioning Lady Walda being pregnant with what might be a boy.

From here, we jump further south to Sansa and Theon booking it through the woods.  They both look incredibly shabby, haggard and cold... and then they reach the river.  I have to say, when they got in the water, I think I almost felt the cold.  It looked positively frigid and I have to imagine filming that must have been something else, given the conditions in which the show has filmed in the past.

They continue their flight but are eventually caught by the Boltons and our collective hearts drop.  We thought they were finally free; that they'd finally made it and they're cornered by the lackeys of some of the most despicable bastards in Westeros (and that's saying something).

Just when it seems like they're toast, Brienne-of-freakin'-Tarth shows up and goes to work!  I seriously was cheering in my seat, fist pumping and whooping as she took the entire squad apart.  After all the struggle, all the pain, all the crushed hopes, she blasts out of the snow like a beacon of righteous fury to smite the minions of Evil like a genuine Hero and True Knight.  She and Pod had been ever vigilant and tracked their flight from Winterfell.  After wiping the floor with the hapless Bolton crew (Theon even got one!) she once again offers her sword and service to Lady Sansa Stark, who finally accepts.  After all they've all been through, Brienne's quest has been achieved, a new milestone struck.  It brought tears to my eyes.

In King's Landing, Jamie returns with the body of Princess Myrcella Baratheon, draped under the prophesied golden shroud.  Cersei runs to the beach where she saw her bright young daughter off, the giant Ser Robert Strong in tow, only to be greeted with a second child gone.  You can see the heartbreak on her face.  She grieves with Jamie, expressing her now full belief in prophecy.  Jamie declares "She's not suffering, she's gone."  In this moment, Lena Heady has this wonderful moment for Cersei, saying that she felt that if she made Myrcella, someone so pure, beautiful and good, that maybe that meant she wasn't a monster...  It speaks to Cersei's tortured soul and how she may see herself.

We then go to Lady and Queen Margaery Tyrell, wearing burlap, cowering under the withering rhetoric of Septa Unella.  The High Sparrow enters, doing something resembling "Good Cop", relieving her momentarily.  She asks after her brother, but to no avail.  King Tommen has been asking after her, but the High Sparrow needs confession if she's to leave.  She can't bring herself to confess and he leaves her to her cold cell.

Down in Dorne we see Doran Martell walking (!).  Apparently his gout isn't as bad as in the books.  Turns out whether his gout was bad or not, that was the least of his problems.  In summary fashion, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes make short work of Doran, Areo Hotah and the poor messenger who brought Doran news of Myrcella's poisoning.  Following this, we jump to Prince Trystaine who is faced with two of the Sand Snakes.  They offer him a challenge: the one with the whip or the one with the spear.  For some reason, he idiotically thinks that it's a legit deal and he picks the one with the whip.  When that spear came out through his face, it simply felt like he should have seen it coming.

It did seem odd that this felt like the most dramatic Dornish scene thus far.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  It was exciting for a moment and I had no idea that was coming, but all the same, everything Dornish has felt like such an afterthought that the impact was small at best.  Areo Hotah was possibly one of the biggest wastes of this whole show.  Check him out in the books; that's all I'm saying.

Jump across to Meereen.  Tyrion and Varys walk the streets, taking in the situation.  Here we have a wonderful bit of humor.  Tyrion, who we're used to being brilliant constantly, flubs his High Valyrian when talking to a homeless woman.  In an act of kindness, offering her coin to help feed her baby, she recoils in terror.  Varys then helpfully jumps in saying she thought he was offering her coin for her baby so he could eat it.  Hi-larious.

Tyrion and Varys continue on, coming across a Red Priest speaking to a group on onlookers.  He encourages them to carry the flame of the Mother of Dragons and fight for themselves.  Tyrion notes that it's a problem.

They continue their walk through Meereen, discussing that there appear to be assassins of some form everywhere (which seems a reasonable expectation at this point).  Varys mentions that his "Little Birds" are already at work, ferreting out info they need.  Interrupting their musings are screams, alarm bells and running people.  A-la Bruce Wayne in Batman V. Superman, Varys and Tyrion move towards the danger, wading into a billowing cloud of smoke.  We find that they're on the docks and the Mother of Dragon's entire fleet has been set ablaze.  It is this point where Tyrion vocalizes the audiences worst, deep-seated fear... That Dany won't be sailing to Westeros any time soon.

We now cut to Jorah and Dario (incidentally on that hill from Season 1 Episode 1, where we saw Ned behead that wayward brother of the Night's Watch).  They're tracking Dany and find a huge muddy circle worn in the grass from where the Dothraki Horde surrounded Dany at the end of last season.  Jorah (whose Greyscale is progressing in terrifying fashion) finds her ring and realizes that the horse-lords have her.

Sure enough, Dany is being walked along by what appear to be two Bloodriders belonging to Khal Moro (a new Khal we've not met before).  These two come as barbaric, crass, sexist and racist and I find myself just hoping Drogon would, just for convenience, show up, roast and eat them and leave.  Even if he didn't take Dany with, them being dead would be an improvement.  It's like listening to Dothraki versions of our favorite Astapori slaver from Season 3.

The next scene has us meeting Khal Moro, them learning Dany was Drogo's Khaleesi and that tradition demands she be untouched and delivered to the Dosh Khaleen (the coven of crones we saw in Season 1 when Dany ate the stallion heart in Vaes Dothrak).  This scene is also one of the funniest of the series, with Thrones channeling Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch.  What's better than seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time?  Well, turns out those things are:

• Killing another Khal,
• Conquering a city and taking the people as slaves,
• Taking city's idols to Vaes Dothrak, and
• Breaking a wild horse

So, "Amongst the best things in life are such diverse elements such as: killing a Khal, sacking a city, taking slaves, taking their idols, breaking a horse and seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time."  The exasperated look on Moro's face during this exchange was priceless.

We find Arya now blind, on the streets of Braavos, begging for coin.  She's approached by the gleefully sadistic Waif who gives her a staff and starts beating eight shades of hell out of her, all while asking her the typical "No one" questions.  As many have said, Arya needs to have Daredevil give her some lessons.

Finally we return to Castle Black.  Thorne gives Snow's Corpse and the Holdouts (tm) terms.  Davos (being a pretty good diplomat) politely asks for mutton (just in case) and says they'll think about it and get back to him with an answer.  Once Thorne leaves, they discuss their options (or lack thereof).  One fellow has a great line, throwing in "It's a sad statement if Dolorous Edd is our only chance..."

Davos surprisingly mentions one other possible option: The Red Woman.  We find her alone, quiet in her room.  Not radiating her usual confidence, she seems to be in crisis.  Unsure of her path, purpose, skills and faith, she seems to shrink before us.  She then walks to her mirror and begins to disrobe.  At first it seems to be her usual routine sort of undress, but it changes.  We see her remove her massive-ruby-bearing necklace and place it on the table.

The camera pans up and we see a Melisandre that is utterly different from anything we've known of her.  It seems that she has been maintaining an incredibly powerful glamour (like a magical disguise) and she is truly ancient.  This begs many questions, from "How powerful must she be to be able to do all she's done, all while maintaining such a convincing image." to "If she is that old, how long has she been at this?  How did she get here?  Where did she really come from?  What's her end-game?"  An incredible and thought provoking reveal to be sure.

All said, this was a great first episode that had a nice smattering of the things we've come to love about Game of Thrones.  Things progress, characters move, change, feel and are challenged.  The world grows, gets richer and the stakes get higher.  As I'm sure you'd all agree, we can't wait to see what comes next.

Thanks for reading and look for Episode 2 coming very soon!  See below for links to the reviews from the awesome guys over at The Boiled Leather Audio Hour!

 Find Sean T Collin's Review over at Rolling Stone.

Find Stefan Sasse's Review over at The Nerdstream Era.

Incoming: GoT Season 6

Alright everyone, here we go.  Next week, on Sunday, our icey, firey world's are going to change.  For any Ice and Fire series fan, this will invariably impact the way you view the books forever. For show-only viewers, this is the first real time you're going to see the mighty, all-knowing book experts become wide-eyed mortals. Once next Sunday hits, we are all unsullied.

In these next weeks, I'm going to do my level best to do a weekly recap and review.  This is going to be a unique adventure the likes of which we've never really experienced before.  The true unsullied will judge the series on will judge based only on previous seasons watched, but book readers will come at this with their book knowledge.  Will one side really like the episodes and the other not?  How they'll be received will be fascinating to watch.

Through this, I would also like anyone who reads what I write to also check out the work by the gentlemen from the Boiled Leather Audio Hour (Sean T. Collins and Stefan Sasse).  They've inspired me to push for this and their work is always stellar.  You can find Sean's recaps over at Rolling Stone after the episodes air (I'll link them in the posts).  You can find Stefan's over at thenerdstreamera.blogspot.com.

Raise your glass, but keep your eyes out for crossbowmen in the gallery, because Its. About. To. Go. Down.

-Andrew

NOIAF Q&A #2 - What's Arya's End Game?

Arya, without question, has to be one of the most universal fan-favorite characters, next to the likes of Tyrion and Jon.  What a lot of folks wonder is, given where Arya has been and where she's currently at, where is her character headed?  With (most likely) just two books to go, this, of course gives us a limited timeframe in which to make some guesses.

First, lets look at what we've got to play with.  Assuming on the large side, if each book is the size of Storm (Book 3) or Dance (Book 5), and you assume a chapter count for Arya the likes of what she had in Clash, thats roughly 20-25 chapters worth of progress. Thats a decent amount, but also, assuming there won't be a time jump, it also won't take us 10 years into the future either.  I'm guessing we won't see a grown-woman Arya by the end of the books.

Second, we need to look at what the main, overarching plots that affect the world, and if / how she might get involved in them.

You have a few plot threads that are hanging out there that aren't primary but could involve her, such as the fate of Rickon and/or Sansa.  You also have the thought of whether she will run into Nymeria again.  Those being mentioned, the main things would be:

• Her list
• The invasion of Aegon / return of Dany
• The war of Ice in the North against the Others

Her list is interesting because, I'm starting to realize, that those on her list almost tend to be brought *to her* (which raises interesting questions of its own) but also is a tangible goal for her to move towards.  Gather information, travel, murder, rinse, repeat. This could serve as a plausible reason for her to travel almost anywhere, so long as she finds out someone she wants dead is there.

The invasion of Aegon / return of Daenerys proves an interesting one. It could be that she doesn't bother because they're doing her work for her, sort of, but also it occurs to me that, should (or maybe more like when) she leaves the Faceless Men, she could essentially put herself out as a blade for hire and work FOR one of them, and use that as a way to legitimize killing the listies that are left.  This is all assuming she manages to make a clean break from the Faceless Men.  I don't even know what being pursued by their guild would look like. Good luck getting to sleep if you're in that spot!

Finally, the War of Ice. We all want Arya to meet up with Jon again.  Their relationship is one of the strongest examples of tenderness and happiness that sticks in our heads, and the memories of Jon mussing her hair and calling her "little sister" is one of the most dear things to her.  Having the characters meet one another after they've both undergone such large transformations, and having experienced so much would be a heartbreaking, tear-jerker of a moment. It also may be the thing that breaks the massive walls Arya has built up around herself.

Given the visions of Arya in the ice that I believe Bran had in book 1, I imagine she will end up in the north / at The Wall for one reason or another. What I worry about is if she winds up playing a part in killing a key figure on the side of good, either intentionally or unknowingly.  Perhaps it would end up being one of those "short term, good idea; long term, bad idea" situations.

I feel very confident saying she will be the death of some key players, though who is anyone's guess.  She will most likely be the avatar of death to some degree, and it's feeling like The Winds of Winter will be another Storm of Swords; another Empire Strikes Back "dark period" for the story.

I think at the end of everything, Arya will end up either tragically broken, or hugely redeemed or reborn.  I think her story is a huge journey into the depths of her soul and looking at what can happen to even a sweet, rambunctious girl when rage, fear, lonliness and vengeance rule your path.  I hope, for her sake, she finds peace and family again. I hope she finds safety again. I hope she finds real joy and a new purpose.

NOIAF Q&A #1 - The Bolton Birthday Suit

So I recently asked for some questions to do some discussing because, as anyone who's dug into the Ice & Fire fandom has found, it's always more fun together.  A buddy of mine had a handful of questions that sounded like fun to hit; some are classics, some are ones that, to be honest, were new to me.  We'll see.  I'm going to do these questions as single entries, so they're easy to look at without getting insane.  Shall we?

WARNING: As always, this will contain spoilers.  If you haven't read the books, haven't seen the show or just are avoiding spoilers in any way, do not read further because these will contain answers taking into account up to and including even the few chapters that have been released from The Winds of Winter.  You've been warned.

3...

2...

1...

Here we go!

So here's the list:

• Is Roose Bolton an ancient skin walker?
• What's Arya's end game?
• What's Petyr Baelish's master plan?
• How / when / where will Jon Snow's resurrection occur [or will it]?
• Who is Azor Ahai?  Are there 3 people instead of 1?
• What's next for Bran?
• Where is Benjen Stark?

Is Roose Bolton an ancient skin walker?

This one, honestly, made me laugh at first and I thought "Ok, that's ludicrous.  No, absolutely not."  I'll admit, though, that I hadn't heard the phrase "Skin Walker" before and thought it was some goofy other name for vampire (which was the theory I had heard before, not realizing there was actually another theory).

So first things first, the theory's general "gist" is that he's an immortal and has been alive a very long time and has been wearing the skins of victims that he's flayed.  Creepy, dark and totally sounds like something a Bolton would be down with.

I think everyone would agree Roose is a weird looking dude.  The pale skin, the super pale eyes, the body that's rather average, no defining features; it certainly paints a picture.  Per the Wiki of Ice and Fire page on the theory here, the theory points are these:

• The faceless men can change their faces by using the faces of the slain.  This, or something like it, may have been learned by the Boltons at some point.
• Even if the Boltons didn't go to Braavos, they've been skinning folks for ages and at some point someone must have done something like "Hey, that leg skin looks like it could make a pretty nice sock!" and tried wearing the skin.  Joking aside, we do hear about the Boltons, way back, wearing the skins of their enemies as cloaks, but that's hardly a disguise.
• Morality contradiction - Roose says he would have killed Ramsay, but for it being Kinslaying and he didn't want that bad mojo.  This seems uncharacteristically reverent of him considering the other stuff the man is willing to do.
• Seems likely Roose may be planning to use Ramsay's skin later because to avoid suspicion, Roose (who to all outside eyes, is a normal guy) would need to die at some point.
• It is possible that, because Roose killed his son Domeric because his features didn't match Roose.
• Reek thinks he doesn't seem to age, saying that while past forty, his skin seems unwrinkled, hardly any lines and literally says there was "an agelessness about him."
• His pale coldness and eyes are constantly mentioned.
• Old Nan tells Bran a story of a man who had a child with a woman in white (may have been Night's King).  Old Nan's stories do have a good track record, and the idea is that Roose is the kid.

Thoughts:

I honestly don't know about this one.  I'm leaning towards no, but here's why.

1) Faceless Men Face Magic - I think the mechanics of this have to be an obscenely closely guarded secret.  The faceless men are, if nothing else, on top of their game all the time.  Reading Arya's chapters, you see how they are possibly the most skilled observers ever, and incredible at finding information.  The likelihood of some traveler coming in, learning their secret method and taking off with it, thinking that they would make it a hobby without the faceless men finding out and adding them to the face stock seems like a bit much.

2) History of Flaying - This goes back to point 1; I feel as if there's got to be more to it than just putting on the skin.  In the books, there's a very specific way the faceless men do it (Spoiler: The kindly man uses a knife, slices along her scalp so her blood starts flowing down her face, pulls the "hood" face down over hers.  The blood soaks in, bringing the face to life).  I don't know if a bunch of people (or even just Roose) who use cutting and flaying as a means of torture would think to slice up themselves to make the skins "work."  Also, I'm not so sure I think that just because it works on the face means that it can apply to the entire body.  Another thing that occurs to me is that there may be a treatment, procedure or ritual used on the faces that makes it work for the faceless men.

3) Kinslaying is off limits - Roose raped Ramsay's mother and killed his King at the Red Wedding.  The dude is capable of some awful stuff, so why not kill a bastard?  Why, because he needs to allow his new outfit to grow!  This much does raise a question.  He's hard up for heirs but for some reason is keeping Ramsay around, even though it seems like Ramsay does cause him a deal of grief.  Why keep Ramsay around?  Why indeed....

4) "...an agelessness about him..." - This, to me, is just too vague.  There are just some people that age well or maintain a youthful appearance or just don't seem to wrinkle much.

5) Pale skin, pale eyes - It is true that the "cold" and "pale" aspects and him having a markedly unsettling appearance.  This may be a literary clue where it's trying to hammer something home, but it could just as easily be a red herring.  The one thing that does seem odd is that we've seen albinos and they have red eyes, not strange and pale.  We also have not, in all the POV's, in any place in the world, ever run into anyone else who had eyes like this.  You would think that someone would run across someone with eyes like that and, as much as Bolton's are mentioned, you'd think that they would be mentioned.  This does seem unique and very weird.  The fact that it was passed to another person (Ramsay) too, shows that it isn't a Roose-Only thing like an odd deformity or something.

6) The knowledge of Nan - It's also true that Old Nan has a great track record as a sort of Septon Barth kind of character, so Roose being the possible half-Other son of Night's King could be true if in fact such a thing happened.

My personal thoughts:

The more I thought about this, to my dismay, the more I think it could actually hold water.  Roose is a weird looking guy and we have yet to meet someone else with his condition (the pale eyes).  We know that there is magic in the world that allows for the wearing of skin (albeit, we've only so far known of wearing a face) that allows the wearer to assume an identity, so there could be another offshoot of that kind of magic that Roose is using.  It also would be a pretty interesting twist if he is somehow in communication with the Others and is essentially trying to prepare the way for them on this side of the wall.  Stannis did, of course, pose the largest threat and posing a large enough threat to him to get him to come challenge him when Roose has the advantage could be a pretty good way to thin the opposition for the Others if they did want to hit The Wall.

Some concerns I have.  What is the Bolton's history and family tree?  I feel like we know very little about what came before Roose (the manner of his father's, grand-father's and great-grandfather's deaths, for instance).  What did those guys look like?  How far back can the "pale eyes" be traced?

Verdict: Possible, but no defining evidence.  Will make me look at Roose and Ramsay and their motives very differently now!

What do you think?  Crazy?  Crack-pot?  Convinced?  Hit the comments, I'd love to discuss and see what you guys think.  This one was totally left-field for me and I'm a little shocked that I'm finding myself compelled to give it some credence.

Next one coming up:  Arya: The Pointy End

Character choices

So I just finished playing the first episode of "The Walking Dead: Season 2" (the game, for anyone possibly confused) and it got me thinking.  Throughout the game (and the past episodes in season 1), you make choices and rarely if ever are they easy or simply or right or wrong.  Some aren't even choices.  In a striking moment in the first episode Season 1 (of the Walking Dead game), there's a poignant quote that, paraphrased, states that sometimes we don't choose, we just "do."  It made me think about the paths of our heroes (and perhaps those who even aren't heroes) in A Song of Ice and Fire.

We've got a ton to choose from, but before I continue, I'm going to throw this out there, because I love you and it's for your own good:

SPOILER ALERT!  I'm going to be discussing characters and character events through A Dance With Dragons.  There will be major plot points discussed and I do not want to ruin them for anyone so please, do not read further if there is potential for things to be ruined for you.  Thanks! (no spoilers for A Feast for Crows or A Dance With Dragons) 

 The first character I want to look at is Arya.  Now she is a firecracker and there's hardly anyone who reads the books who doesn't like her.  She's a solid fan favorite and, when you look at it, is tailor-made to be so.  She's fun, has teeth, there's "action" to her and she's very likable overall.  But then we look at her character closely and it breaks your heart a bit.

Arya is a child.  I think sometimes we either forget that or ignore it or for whatever reason we just lose it under all the other things.  The age just doesn't make itself present and front-and-center the way other flashier aspects of her character do.  Knowing that, think about where her character is and what she's gone through.

She was present for her father's public beheading.  Whether or not she saw it, that's still incredibly traumatic.  She was on edge in King's Landing to begin with, just having moved to an unfamiliar environment, but once she left, her life has been a chain of struggles.  As her journey progresses, one of the most noticeable aspects to her character becomes her list.  The list of names she repeats over and over and over and over, ad infinitum.  This is, really, a choice, and a rather extreme one.  She chooses vengeance.  Raw, red, bloody vengeance.  She devotes her time and energy to this idea and we can see her heart change.  She goes from this sweet, albeit mischievous, girl, to a jaded, hardened person.

Her identity changes so many times, yet the core aspect to her character that keeps her grounded is her singular firm goal of putting every name on her list in the ground.  It's interesting to think about how her life would be had she not chosen this outlook on her life or those who've impacted it.  What if she simply decided "You know what?  King Joffrey?  Queen Cersei? Ser Gregor? The rest?  What am I really going to do to them?  I can't lay a finger on them.  They're where they are, I'm where I am.  I hate them, but the best I can do for myself is try to scrape up what I can of my life and better myself.  I need to get back to the north.  I need to get home, no matter what, and stay there and try to start life over again."  To a point, that's what she was trying to do and we watch it fade more and more until she takes that iron coin and cashes it in.  She pays for her ticket to a place where they train some of the most lethal, cold individuals there are.  This is a path that she's on because she chose to seek it out and, sadly, it's hard to see a bright outcome at the end of her dark, dark road.

(no spoilers for A Dance With Dragons; vague discussion mainly relating to actions taken in A Storm of Swords)  Another character who interesting to look at in terms of choice is Daenerys.  When it comes to her, she does a lot of decision making, both publicly and internally.  What's interesting too is that she originally began her journey without any real choice or agency at all.  It was a slow buildup and then Drogo died.  She had nothing invested in her own life until she loved Drogo and when he died, it in many ways lit a fire under her.  The birth of the dragons and the inferno in which they were born also forged Dany's identity and set her on a path towards greatness.

As we watch Daenerys travel, she runs into many peoples.  She sees things she likes and more things she doesn't.  One of the main things we see is an overt anti-slavery sentiment and a deep-seated perspective of hers to be pro-freedom.  What we also see is a series of choices she makes that have far reaching consequences.  An example of this is when she visits Astapor to get her Unsullied army.  Here she gets a first-hand look at what slavery and that kind of environment can yield.  A few in power using those beneath them to generate profit.  We hear about how the Unsullied are created and trained and it is truly chilling.  We actually see that their masters have no problem doing what is required to deaden the souls of each Unsullied, to create a mobile statue capable of perfect obedience.  In the face of any danger, they do not move.  In the face of bribery or seduction, they stand dead to any offer.  They follow their master and that is simply all they know.  This and the other things she sees in the region of [aptly named] Slaver's Bay sets Dany on a course she chooses.

She goes to the slave cities and wreaks havoc.  She, in her own heart, decides that the way of life down there is not acceptable and goes about trying to change it (to varying degrees of success).  Here is one of the times where we see what George R. R. Martin wanted us to see in these books; that being in power and being what many would consider a "good" person, many times is not enough and the road to ruin is paved with the best of intentions.  Freedom is a grand and lofty idea.  To those who are privileged, the idea of being bound and restricted is galling to say the least.  But Dany, rather a while after setting her massive wheels in motion, starts to see other things her decisions have done.

She beings hearing about individuals who actually still want to be slaves.  Sure there are free men, but they have to find their own food.  They have to find their own housing.  They have to make their own way in a way that they are not at all accustomed to.  This is something that can be crippling to someone who's only known a life of slavery for decades.  One day, this silver-haired woman rolls into town and goes "ALRIGHT EVERYONE; YOU'RE FREE!  YAY!"  The slavers and slave masters are killed or done away with.  The slaves now are suddenly without work, lodging, food, and the life that they were used to and many were fine with ("ignorance is bliss" situation perhaps) is now upended.

This action, taken en masse, has huge, far-reaching consequences.  The news of what she is doing reaches across the globe and destabilizes a large economy on the world stage.  Without slaves, all of Slaver's Bay doesn't function and there are large amounts of trade that depends on everything that goes with the slave trade.  It's not just the slave trade itself, but also the labor it provides.  None are arguing that slavery is a good thing, but this is an example of an idealist choice and set of actions that can engulf an entire portion on the world in turmoil, and it all goes back to Dany and her quest to be the best queen.  It also leads to moments where we may, perhaps, ask ourselves, if Dany being queen is really as good an idea as we initially thought.

(A Dance With Dragons Spoilers to follow) One final character to look at is the character of Jon Snow.  At the end of A Storm of Swords we see him assume the mantle of Lord Commander of The Night's Watch.  All along we've seen him groomed and trained for this and when he gets the job, it's hard not to do a little fist-pump and a "YESSSSSSSSSSSSS; GO JON!" in our heads.

Then we open A Dance With Dragons, read it, and go "Crap."

This is not even to say that he does a "bad" job.  We see a lot of Ned in the decisions that Jon makes and there are positive and negative things about that.  Ned was an idealist in a lot of ways and as we've been conditioned through the series to understand, that doesn't always work out.

The choice Jon makes is a simple one, and that is to be a hard-ass.  It sounds harsh but really, it is exactly what he does.  This is because of this one last bit of advice given to him by Maester Aemon (this quote is pulled from A Wiki of Ice and Fire):

"Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel. The same counsel I once gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. "Kill the boy within you," I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. "It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born." You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born."

Maester Aemon meant, I believe, that Jon will need to make some hard decisions and to steel himself for those; to let go of things that are boy-like and to be a leader and model for the rest of the men to follow.  Jon takes this to mean that he has to let go of things that make him happy; things he feels are boy-ish.  In choosing this way of thinking, he sacrifices the thing that aided him most in his life on The Wall.  His friends.

As Lord Commander, Jon estranges himself, staying away from his friends and fully assuming the role of (as Bran would surely put it) "Jon the Lord."  He commands and takes no guff from anyone.  He makes decisions and demands those beneath him fall in line.  This leads him to making decisions that may actually be good decisions in themselves, but are done in such a way that they put off those under his command.

The main decision was that to ally themselves with the Wildlings.  So many of the men of the Night's Watch have this view of the Wildlings that is very much akin to racism.  Due to their differences, they should not be trusted, worked with or aided.  Some men view their duty as purely to keep Wildlings north of the wall, not really putting much stock in "Grumpkins and Snarks."  This perspective leads to unrest.  More and more, chaos north of The Wall brews and the pressure is on.  Jon, with added pressure from the presence of Stannis and Melisandre, makes heavy decisions, supplementing the Watch with Wildlings.  This makes many of the men angry, and Bowen Marsh, Lord Steward of the Night's Watch even speaks to him about this on multiple occasions.

In these instances, Jon is very much like Stannis, taking on a "my way or the highway" mentality.  Make no mistake, this was a choice.  Perhaps one that was ill informed; perhaps one that was prompted by misunderstood advice; perhaps one that could have gone differently had he read more books like Sam always went on about; but it didn't.  Jon made the calls.  Jon was as hard a man as the Wall and drove forward into the night, doing his best to save all he was sworn to protect.

In the end, it cost him his life, at the hands of the men under his command.  Now, the circumstances under which the death of Jon Snow occurred are of major discussion and I think that theories about that occurrence are a matter worthy of its own post altogether, but that it happened is huge.  We're talking about an assassination of the Lord Commander by the Nights Watch itself.  A brotherhood, ages old, turning on itself in its darkest hour.  It doesn't bode well for Westeros and it leads one to examine how choices that ring in a very personal way for our heroes can end up having repercussions that can quite literally impact the world at large.

With dragons in the east, the cold rising in the north, rebellion fermenting everywhere you look; there is danger brewing.  Many who we've come to know and love will die; and at the end of it all, there is no choice; Winter is here.

Song of Ice and Fire New User Guide

"Why the heck should I read these books?" One might ask.  "There's this TV show on HBO that has ratings through the roof, the books are long and there aren't pictures.  What's so good about them?"

Well, someone might ask something like that at any rate.  It's a pretty common theme nowadays, at least as far as I've seen, that many people seem like they're not keen on reading.  Some are even proud of it, shocking as it might seem.  I saw a quote today that said:

"Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy

and so self absorbed.  I am not a fan of books.

I would never want a book's autograph.

I am a proud non-reader of books"

                                                                    ~Kanye West

That kind of blew my mind a bit but then I thought about it and thought "Why not make a little guide to talk about what makes these books great?"  The ironic thing is that one would have to read the guide in order to get the info.  ;)

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series packed with all the things that make the best movies and television shows what they are, apart from a visual component.  There's massive action, deep drama, sex, huge set pieces, layered plots, "real" magic and some of the best character development you'll ever see.

Action: You want fights, we've got 'em.  You want explosions, we've got those too.  Battles?  Check.  The perk of having a book is that there is literally zero budget for the scale of mayhem you want to create.  You can, with a pen stroke, put tens of thousands of troops on a field.  You can lay waste to cities with fire.  You can have naval battles with ships splintering and smashing into each other.  A Song of Ice and Fire has action in spades and all of it has weight.  Every time you see it, there's something behind it, so it at no point has a feeling of "fluff" to it.

Drama: The interactions in the story drive everything.  The story is massive and far reaching.  Each plot line has significance and the play between characters has very real gravitas, while at the same time having a startling level of wit and comedy.  There are times where I find myself laughing when reading the books and it's often in the midst of what would otherwise be some very heavy material and that's what makes it great.  The drama draws you in; you get invested and once you do, it grabs you by the lapels and doesn't let go.

Sex: The books are filled with it.  What's interesting, though, is that it is not often, if ever, for the mere point of titillation.  The books, at their very core, are about the pursuit of power, in all of it's forms including what it is, how one gets it, and what one does with it once they have it.  The sex in the novels tends to generally have something tied to it in terms of gain for the characters involved; it is often a way of making a deal or achieving an end.  What is oddly refreshing too is that it is treated with frankness at most instances instead of through a fog of steamy bad-TV romance.  Like everything else in the books, it's got weight.

Huge Set Pieces: This is what puts A Song of Ice and Fire on the map.  This is what made HBO decide to invest close to $100 MILLION on each season of Game of Thrones.  These are the moments that grab you, hit you like a Mack truck, send you reeling, and pull you back in and ask if you're ready for another one.  Sometimes they're literally huge moments like battles, other times they're plot twists and crazy things.  These are the things that get you to make a blog to talk about these amazing books.

Layered Plots: The plot lines in the books are some of the most interesting I've ever seen.  In an interview years back, George R. R. Martin mentioned how he was telling the story and I don't think I've ever read a story that did quite the same thing; and that's this: He's telling two stories at once.  As you read, you're going forward in time.  You're seeing things happen in a chronologically normal way BUT, as you're doing so, you hear characters talk and you hear these small nuggets of story that are relayed by the characters all through the series.  This causes the story to be told in two directions, forward and backward.  This leads to many theories about what things happened to cause current events to take place, questions about how we perceive what we're reading.  Having re-read the first 3 books about 5 times and making my way though a collective re-read of books 4 and 5, I can certainly say that I find new things each time I read.  It shows tremendous planning, thought and imagination on the part of the author and creates a story worthy of constant discussion even 15+ years after the publishing of the first volume in the series.

"Real" Magic: Lets face it.  Magic, in TV shows, movies, heck, even other books can many times be treated laughably.  It can come off as hokey, disingenuous, ridiculous and just not plausible, even within the fiction built by the story surrounding them.  A Song of Ice and Fire is written in such a way where things feel grounded.  The world seems palpable and rich and very real.  This, in turn, makes magic, when it does rear its head, also very real and very serious.  When magic happens or is "on screen," you pay attention and it's the kind of thing that changes the game.  It's magic that gives you those "Oh snap..." moments; and every once in a while, a straight up "OH SNAP!" moment.

Character Development: This is the crown jewel, in my opinion, of the whole series.  The characters are incredible, all.  There is the sense of reality to them where you feel, generally, like they're real people, dealing with real problems and they are relate-able on a very deep, human level.  You also see character change.  I was going to say character "growth" but, as in real life, not all characters get "better" or move towards the light side of the force.  Some go dark.  Some take roads perhaps best left alone.  Each step of the way, you pay attention to these characters and you care about them and what they go through.  There's an incredible sense of attachment you feel and much of the impact the series has stems from this wonderful wonderful thing.

Finally, it comes down to this.  Yes, they are books.  Yes, they require imagination.  Yes, they are long.  They are also masterpieces.  They paint pictures in your mind with a brush that can conjure wonders.  Even if you're not a "reader," it is worth it to make an exception to your rule and enjoy a story that is captivating millions as we speak.  I think even Kanye might like these. :)

Jamie Lannister and Changing Perspectives

SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses plot points dealing with the series across all 5 books and will most likely contain at least a few major spoilers.  If you have not read the books, read 'em and come back.  You've been warned.

Through the books, we come to understand characters.  Through their perspectives we come to know their thoughts, both about the things around them and about other characters, some who have their own POV chapters and some who we only come to know through the perspective of POV character(s).

One wonderful thing about putting us behind the eyes of a character is that there is very little time needed to become acclimated to their feelings and it is almost immediately engaging.  That helps us feel strongly about many things and makes things all the more interesting.  One of the times at which this is most interesting is when it is used to create in us a feeling, expectation or understanding that is later completely changed.  One of the greatest examples of this is the character of Ser Jamie Lannister.

Jamie Lannister begins, in our eyes, as a villain and the most reprehensible kind of person imaginable.  We find, very shortly into the very first book that he is having an incestuous relationship with the Queen herself.  Immediately after we learn this shocking fact (through the eyes of a child, no less) we also learn that he is willing to throw a child from a tower window to his death; with the express intention that it be to his death.  On top of this, comes the memorable quote "The Things I Do For Love."

We see this and the ensuing fallout from this situation through the reactions of everyone around; wondering what happened, hoping Bran will be alright (or hoping he won't), sadness, frustration, sometimes even desire for some form of aggressive retaliation, somehow.  At this point we are being well and truly conditioned to hate Jamie Lannister.

Fast forward through the story and through certain events and through time, this, somehow, changes.  We see him captured at The Battle of the Whispering Wood, where Robb defeats his host in the dead of night and takes the Kingslayer prisoner.  We lose sight of him all throughout A Clash of Kings, where he's held prisoner (Save for the instance when the four men Tyrion planted attempt to smuggle Jamie out, killing several guards, but achieving nothing more than getting Jamie thrown into a worse cell in Riverrun and getting his would-be liberators hung off the walls of Riverrun).  The last we see of him is in a rather frank discussion with Catelyn, Brienne standing by, about his attempted killing of her son and a look into the depths of a man we hate.

Then a funny thing happens.  We start reading A Storm of Swords (book 3).  We read the prologue.  Then, we turn to the beginning of the first POV chapter and it is from Jamie's perspective.  I remember, personally, that this surprised me.  I certainly wasn't expecting it and for the first while that I was reading it, I wasn't really sure how to feel.  I was in his head now.  I was seeing his thoughts.  I was interested and I didn't know how I felt about that.

Through Storm, we learn more about him.  We hear the back story of the Sack of Kings Landing and when he earned the name "Kingslayer."  We hear, for the first time, how the act that he is most vilified for is actually the most honorable, the most human and, arguably, the best thing he's ever done.  Aerys II Targaryen, "The Mad King" was going to burn everything and thanks to Jamie, that doesn't happen.

We travel with Jamie, Brienne and Cleos Frey on their journey back to Kings Landing, hoping to exchange Jamie for Sansa and Arya.  On the way, Jamie develops a relationship with Brienne.  At first it was insulting with the tiniest grudging respect but with time, the insults fell off and the grudging respect became not so grudging (and that was true for her as well).  

Then, the big even happens.  On the road they meet Vargo Hoat and The Brave Companions and Jamie loses his hand.  It is at this moment where we can see a palpable shift in his personality.  He was always incredibly self assured.  He was certain in who he was because of his powerful family, his good looks and his more-or-less unrivaled skill with a sword; that last one being the biggest.  His identity was tied to that hand and it was gone and it lead him to question everything.

From then on, we see him go through struggle after struggle, leading to his changing feelings about Cersei, his choosing to defy his father and establish himself as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and to make decisions to be a different and, arguably, better person.

After all of this we realize that we like Jamie.  We might not agree with all the decisions he's made in his life.  We may not think that he's a paragon of any kind, but we transition from viewing him in the light of an evil, child murdering bastard into a man with a soul; a soul that has been under the weight of many pressures his entire life from family and his king and his position.  We see a man that we learn not to hate and learn to understand and feel for.  We see him change from a brash young man who doesn't think, acts rashly and pridefully into a man who has humility, who acknowledges those above him or better than him and respects them for it.  We see a man who looks at the qualities of his younger brother and finally sees the value in those qualities and visibly incorporates those into himself.  We find that we don't hate him as much as we once did.

This is one of the things that makes A Song of Ice and Fire so good.  This is why GRRM has the following he does.  The ability to do this, believably, allowing us to feel how we will about things and have it come about naturally instead of telling us outright "you like this guy" and "you hate this guy," is remarkable.  I wasn't told to hate Jamie.  I wasn't told to like Jamie.  I just did, as the story progressed.  It shows a mastery over storytelling and a mastery over some of the inner workings of the human heart and that is why this story is the best.

What do you think?  Do you think Jamie is redeemed at this point in the story?  Do you think he ever can be?  Are there any other characters you think went on a journey like this?  Be sure to hit up the comments and share your thoughts!