Let’s start where I am happiest – Kings Landing where Margaery
is still praying and being pious and the perfect student and follower of the
High Sparrow. And he’s even targeted Olenna. Olenna? OH IT IS ON!
I am growing steadily more uncomfortable by Margaery’s
compliance until she hands Olenna a hidden note with the Tyrell rose on it. And
Olenna smiles
I assume this is Tyrell code for “grandmother, I’m going
to fuck these people over so epicly it will inspire songs and legends”. Because
there is nothing more terrifying than Olenna smiling
In other women being awesome, we have Jon and Sansa
trying to rally support: which isn’t going perfectly even if the child Lady
Mormont is righteously fierce. They just don’t have enough men, even with Davos
being inspiring, Sansa being passionate and Jon being super earnest and
gathering the wildlings behind him
They march on Winterfell with a far too few troops – so Sansa
steps up and starts writing letters. Who to? The Blackfish in the Riverlands? Or
Littlefinger in the Vale?
Speaking of the Riverlands – Jaime has arrived with Bronn
to take over the inept Fray siege of Riverrun. There’s lots of threatening the
of Edmure their capture. And lots of The Blackfish responding with:
The last member of the Stark family isn’t doing so well –
Arya is confidently ready to buy her way back to Westeros – but gets brutally
stabbed by Nameless Trainer Girl. Arya really should have been prepared for
this. She’s not dead – but she is badly injured
Careful with your “anyone can die” there Game of Thrones, we’re watching you. You
want to play “anyone can die” with Arya? Thiiiiinest of thin ice.
Time to catch up with Yara, Theon and a lot of naked
women. Yara is desperate for her brother to step up, put himself back together.
She clearly cares desperately about her brother – even if she is rough and
ready about it as you’d expect an Iron Islander. She plans to go to Daenerys
and hope Daenerys will just say “yay two people and a boat… how… great?”
But we do learn that Yara is attracted to women! Yes,
Yara is a lesbian or bisexual woman, likes women and is happy to have her merry
way with those naked set dressing. This means we have a living LGBT character where
BEING LGBT is not the main or (in Lora’s case) only part of her characterisation.
This is promising, promising enough I’m even not leaping on we have a heavily
masculine coded LG woman – because we have Brienne is equally coded that way
and she is most certainly straight
Oh shit she is so dead. What’s
the Westerosi equivalent of a stray bullet?
Meanwhile we find Sandor Clegane, the Hound, is still
alive! And he’s found a Septon who is willing to teach him redemption and peace
and another way other than violence
Right… until everyone gets brutally murdered. Because
this is Game of Thrones and twee
redemption storylines do not happen here. Hell no.
