Game of Thrones - “A Golden Crown”
We’re now past the midway point of Game of Thrones’s first season, and it’s pretty clear that the show, much like the book, is focusing on the titular game for thematic material. What power means and does is a central concern, as is the political machinations that put people in power. What’s also clear is that within Westeros, if you’re promised anything as a child, don’t count on getting it.
Let’s take Viserys. He mentions to Jorah that from the time he was a child, he was constantly told he would be king. Seeing his sister, who has always been marginalized, cheered by her people is essentially an insult to him. This type of seething resentment is much different from the Viserys in the first two or three episodes, who just seemed like an asshole.
Part of this is how Harry Lloyd began to play the character. I think the change occurred with the bathtub sex scene, as he wasn’t yelling and acting like a child, yet he was still stuck-up and entitled. Since then, he’s been an interesting character, one I would’ve like to stick around. I was thinking during this episode how his evolution was necessary and how he would play off of Dany and the Khal in the weeks to come would be interesting.
But in the back of my mind I was also thinking, they’re giving him a lot of screen time this week, a lot of juicy lines. Are they going to kill him? I didn’t get a chance to read any of the book this week, so I had no idea what was coming.
Viserys stumbles in, presumably drunk, and threatens Dany’s child with a sword, which essentially brings his own death upon him. Even if the Khal didn’t melt his golden belt and pour it on his head, would threatening the child everyone was cheering for earlier help at all? It’s a terrible idea, and Viserys notices it pretty quickly, but the damage has been done. In his lust for power, which has always been promised to him, he made his sister a queen, and he dies never having sat on any throne. Perhaps worst of all, he isn’t the dragon - it appears Dany is, due to her burn-proofness. It’s a sad tale, if not a relatable one, but Viserys was worth the time we spent with him. (I’m surprised there wasn’t any incest between the two of them, although it’s almost implied.)
In a weird parallel to the badass scene last week involving a dead horse, Dany eats a raw horse heart and gains raves due to her iron stomach. Even though I assume Emilia Clarke didn’t eat a horse’s heart, the scene grossed me out, and the bloody spectacle went on just long enough to have some fun with the scene. I love dialogue and nuance, but seeing a girl eat a heart is pretty cool too.
Dany and the entire Dothraki plot was the most interesting we’ve had since the pilot, and I’m beginning to see the assertive Dany the books promised early on with her wedding night. I’ve also noticed we haven’t seen her nude since the second episode, which is symptomatic of two things: Dany becoming stronger and less objectified by the men in her life, and the need for a bunch of nudity in the pilot to draw casual viewers in.
In King’s Landing, we see the contrast between the Stark girls more than ever. Sansa resigns herself to her fate - she knows she’s a woman and will marry and have kids, so why not have the future king’s kids? She saw the tussle between Arya and Joffrey at the riverfront and knows what he did, so she’s trying to fool herself. Her cries at the end to Ned, who’s sending them back to Winterfell, were funny (although we’ve heard them before). She comes across as naive, as she should, but she’s more whiny than she is in the books (the narration helps).
And Arya, who also knows what’s expected of her as a woman, is trying to learn from Syrio, a man, how to become more like him. Of these two, Sansa is much more likely to become the Viserys, but I suspect her family won’t lead her too far down that path.
Tyrion, still trapped in the Eyrie, knows he can never become a great king, so he’s always focused on his wit, and that gets him out of a tough situation. He bribes the guard to give him a chance, and then he takes a huge risk and has his friend from the road Bronn fight for him (and win, against a much more heavily armored foe). Having not read this section yet, I felt it was a little too unbelievable. Tyrion’s relationship with Bronn grew over the hard road to the Eyrie, yes, but the entire situation needed to be more organic. We all know Tyrion’s usually the smartest person in the room, but everyone else seemed exceedingly dumb. (Tyrion’s names for masturbating was exceedingly amusing, our Dinklage scene of the week.) Catelyn’s face is memorable because she knows she’s trapped - she has to let him go (even though she suspects he’s innocent) and her sister is going insane. Her tough journey was mostly wasted.
We heard a conversation last week between Ned and Arya where they talked about what Bran could do now that he’s crippled. Bran takes his first step towards doing something above his expectations by riding the horse with the contraption Tyrion suggested, brought to him by Hodor. (Hodor.) But we see he isn’t quite strong or smart enough to get his way out of the situation when people try and rob him. Robb and Theon bail him out, but it reminds us he has a long way to go, with himself and with the world.
And the least interesting plot of the series continued with Theon’s whore leaving, although he gets a nice parting shot. I’ve heard that Theon is more important later and that he’s essentially treading water but staying in the audience’s mind until they need him, but it’s so weak compared to the other plots it stands out.
In the most thematically juicy storyline tonight, Robert leaves to go on a hunting trip (and Renly stands up to him, essentially protecting his manhood) and gives Ned the Hand back, leaving our hero to sit on the throne. Ned doesn’t want power, as he knows it’s a tough and tiring job. He’d rather be at Winterfell. But we know that he’s honorable and believes in justice, so what could he do? Partially motivated by revenge, he sentences the Mountain to death, summons Tywin Lannister, and essentially sets the main pieces for the back half of the season. Maybe this is all justice. But a good leader knows that the right thing won’t happen every time, that some considerations must be made. Ned, with his northern mentality, doesn’t totally get that. Thus, he essentially starts a war between the Starks and the Lannisters, which Robert says earlier is a death sentence to his throne. But isn’t that what the game is all about?
“A Golden Crown” wasn’t as clean as last week’s installment, but it set the pieces for the last episodes very well. There was a lot of movement and action, but it was clear that crazy stuff’s right around the corner (and presumably we get to see Jon next week). I think that means there’s more horse mutilation to come.
