Game of Thrones - “Lord Snow”
The first thing I thought watching “Lord Snow” was that this episode has to look better in retrospect.
Like a lot of HBO shows, Game of Thrones seems decided that it’s a slow burn show. This is probably a good idea, as it has a huge world to introduce and plenty of interesting characters to focus on. But this episode had even less narrative momentum than the pilot, and it risks giving up the burn and simply becoming slow.
Part of this is the difficulty in the transition from book to television. In a book, you don’t expect some big plot point every 55 pages. But a lot of viewers will expect a big action setpiece or a big reveal every 55 minutes, and I’m glad the show isn’t trying to force anything that’s not there.
Which is why I hope after the first season, or after the series, we can look back on this episode and get a lot more out of it, after understanding all of the backstory and character motivations. We just go too fast, from location to character to location, without time to really dig in on any one person or place. Focusing on one character or location and giving the others less for that week would help the show a lot. There’s a look Robert gives Jaime at the end of their speech, and I just thought, “I hope I eventually understand what that means.”
I talked last week about how faithfully the narrative was being adapted, but I only realized this week that the backstory isn’t nearly as well-drawn as it is in the books. There have been multiple characters that I’ve seen and known their names and stories, and the show just has a passing line of dialogue with them and then moves on. This creates my feeling above, where I don’t totally get why “burn them all” would perplex Robert so much (wouldn’t he know that, or suspect that already?). I’d imagine when we more fully understand the Mad King’s rule, and Jaime’s role in the usurpation of power (other than his sword), then it will make more sense.
Something else I complained about last week was the lack of firm characterization. Sure, Cersei’s a bitch, and Joffrey is spoiled, but that’s lazy. Their scene this week (not in the book) was much better at helping us understand both of them. Joffrey takes after her, and she believes anyone that’s not a Lannister is an enemy. (I wonder where she’d put Tyrion.) Yet we also see that Joffrey is only a boy himself, and wants to get to do whatever he wants. Cersei tells him that he can do pretty much what he wants, but he has to be careful about it. (Example: if Cersei wanted Jon Arryn dead, she wouldn’t stab him and then walk away. Other channels are available for a person in power.)
Jaime is the most interesting of their clan thus far, and after he verbally jousts with Ned, basically just representing how much Ned badmouths the Lannisters in the early sections of the book, he makes clear to Cersei he only truly cares about her. That scene was weak, because it was such shameless exposition (“A 10 year old boy?!?!?!?!?” Cersei exclaims completely unbelievably), but it’s interesting to see Jaime’s views of class. He really doesn’t care if someone is the King or a peasant, he’d do what he wants. Cersei is much more calculating, and uses alternate routes to get what she wants. This sets up a contrast with Ned, who (from the books) invites different citizens of Winterfell to his table to hear their stories.
Here we get to see more of domesticated Ned, which I wanted more of before his quick departure from Winterfell. (“War was easier than daughters,” he says after the good ol’ buying-your-daughter-a-present-she’s-too-old-for bit.) He has a nice scene with Arya, the best-developed of the Starks thus far. But Ned also has to deal with the economic realities of the time (if I didn’t know the show conformed so strictly to the novel, I’d say this was recession pandering): the crown is in debt six million golden dragons. Robert wants to continue to be extravagant, and Littlefinger is going to have to borrow money from….the Lannisters!!!! I’ll be wondering if this small monetary subplot will return in a big way, like if the Lannisters tighten their grip once they realize Robert has nowhere else to go.
Robert’s only short scene with Jaime and the never-mentioned Barristan the Bold veers a little too much into typical war-stories-but-man-war-sucks to me, but at least it was an attempt at outside character development. But it kinda came back in the final scene, where Arya is practicing “dancing,” when sounds of real war was imposed over the crack of the wooden swords. The words of the Starks come to mind. Arya’s having fun now, but she was born during the endless summer. Sooner or later, Arya will have to use that sword for real, and Ned will probably be off fighting his own battles.
Speaking of, there’s Jon Snow. I read ahead in the books a little this week, and was wondering if Samwell Tarly would make his big appearance, but it looks like that will wait for next week (or maybe even the week after, if Benjen’s storyline thrusts ahead). It would have worked well here (maybe eliminate Dany’s storyline - we’ll get to that later), since he starts to become a leader and less of a show-off in many parts due to Sam. But I suppose he makes his friends first, and then has to show his friends to be compassionate, so it all works out.
The news that Bran is awake isn’t treated very importantly here, so we don’t get to see Jon’s reaction to it. His storyline isn’t all that interesting at this point, to be honest, but as the Benjen storyline gets pumping, it should use the relationships developed with Pyp and the others to good use. Given his conversation with Tyrion in “The Highroad,” we needed to see the implications of what Tyrion said.
I think the next chapter where I am is a Tyrion chapter, so this question may not linger for very long, but I’m not sure why Tyrion wanted to go to Castle Black anyway. Sure, he pissed off the edge of the world, but for someone as smart as he is, I have to think getting away from his family, getting to know Snow better, getting to know the high-ups at The Wall, or something was his real motivation. Through his eyes, the outsider, we get a good sense of how in disrepair the Night’s Watch is, and how they plead with him to plead with the Queen, even though he knows nothing will be done that way. Given what we know about the White Walkers (I refuse to call them the Others - another show has claimed that), we know Snow and the others will be forced into action, and Tyrion’s actions coming up will be crucially important. He knows the Queen won’t listen, but he also knows that the Watch needs new, better men.
Tyrion has been the most fun character so far, but with the dagger information this week, the audience has their first reason to doubt him. I doubt he ordered the hit on Bran, or if he did his intentions were pure, but there needed to be something there. His returning to Winterfell should slam him right into Catelyn, back from her journey to King’s Landing. I’m glad they kept Littlefinger’s brothel lines in the show, as they made me laugh out loud a few times. He’s not quite as witty as he is in the book, which is a shame, because I think those lines would translate great verbally.
But Catelyn’s journey to King’s Landing really was one of the things that frustrates me about this show as a whole. She’s there for what, half the episode? 3 quick scenes? I’d love to have more room, just people sitting around talking. Sure, I was bitching about narrative momentum earlier, but these conversations do help give the show some shading, and would inject a little bit of fun. A 10 episode season, I think, makes this an impossibility. (A 13-episode Season 2, which works because the second book is longer anyway, would be awesome.)
Speaking of King’s Landing and The Wall, I noted to my girlfriend during the opening how much more I was enjoying the locations. Now that we know what each place looks like, the theme makes a lot more sense, and we can get a sense of both geography and visual style. Note how sexual impropriety grows the farther south you go. The world is really growing, and a lot of the visual cues given in the scenes in King’s Landing and at The Wall really work great.
Not much is happening in Winterfell, except poor Bran doesn’t remember what happened. I found it interesting that his dialogue with Robb is reversed; in the book, he claims he never falls, whereas here Robb says that, and Bran says he did fall. He must have. Winterfell will be the comic center of the show next week, with Hodor and Tyrion. Hodor. Hodor.
And then we have Dany, who is still traveling and finally stands up to her brother. Except here, it’s not deserved. In the books, she tells her brother he has to walk, and here the Dothraki dude does it. It’s a subtle change, but an important one. Her entire storyline has had subtle changes, and it’s really negatively impacted it. She seems like too much of a victim on the show, and with her attempts to please her husband, it just seems weird. And now she’s standing up to her brother because of sexual empowerment? Ugh. This is all handled with a lot more grace in the books, I promise. Every time I see Dany’s heavily make-upped face I groan. (Not that way.)
The Dany Subtle Change this time is dealing with her pregnancy. In the books, she knows she’s pregnant, and it really puts her in charge of her body, literally, but it also spiritually places her inside the Dothraki Sea. She just seems too much like an easily-led woman archetype in the show, like if she gets another servant that tells her a cool story she’ll do whatever. Also of note to non-readers - the Dany storyline is parsed out much more heavily in the book. She only appears every 100 pages or so, and at this point, I’m about 50 pages ahead, and I just finished reading her section for this episode. I’m not sure what this tells us about the pacing of upcoming storylines, but it seems like the producers are trying to keep every character in every episode, which is good early so viewers don’t forget the characters or miss their favorite characters, but I don’t think it’s the best choice thematically.
At least she wasn’t naked this episode. (The breasts thrown in with Littlefinger were ridiculously gratuitous.)
Unlike last episode, “Lord Snow” had no real thematic tissue connecting the plots, so it felt a lot more like the pilot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and this was still engrossing to watch for the character moments. And I think we’ll look back on this episode fondly once the season is over. I wonder if Game of Thrones will be like Twin Peaks, where TP would just every once in a while focus on one storyline to make a killer episode that pays off all that hard character work, unlike Lost, which tried to hit a character and plot home run every week. Probably TP. It makes the journey rewarding, since the later episodes will be awesome, but it makes episodes like this seem like work initially.
