S5 eps 5-8: King’s Landing and Meereen
For the sake of completeness....
S5 eps 5-8: Braavos and Winterfell
Mostly Winterfell, for obvious reasons.
S5 eps 5-8: The Wall and Beyond
The weeks kind of got way from me without episode reviews, but there’s been a lot to unpack in the middle of S5, so I thought I’d take a crack t splitting thoughts up by location rather than episode.
Tyrion and Jon in Hardhome
Jon’s approach to the summit with the wildlings and Mother Mole bears a lot of similarities to Tyrion’s meet with the Mother of Dragons, using very similar tactics to take a position of strength rather than defensiveness.
Rather than ignore or try to head off suspicion, they go on the offensive...
DAENERYS: So I should welcome you into my service because you murdered members of your own family?
TYRION: Into your service? Your Grace, we have only just met. It’s too soon to know if you deserve my service.
JON: I’m not asking you to forget your dead. I’ll never forget mine.
Even to the point of insulting their hosts.
TYRION: So here we sit, two terrible children of terrible fathers.
WILDLING: Since when do the crows give two shits if we live?
JON: In normal times we wouldn’t.
They put the worst possible spin on events that can be used against them and then walk it back, which ends up making them look strong rather than apologetic.
DAENERYS: If you are Tyrion Lannister, why shouldn’t I kill you to pay your family back what it did to mine?
TYRION: You want revenge against the Lannisters? I killed my mother Joanna Lannister on the day I was born. I killed my father Tywin Lannister with a bolt to the heart. I am the greatest Lannister killer of our time.
WILDLING: Where is Mance?
JON: He died.
WILDLING: How?
JON: I put an arrow through his heart.
They cite the same specific misdeed, even: an arrow through the heart of a father figure.
They appeal to an idealistic belief in a better world -
DAENERYS: So why did you come to the far side of the world to meet someone terrible?
TYRION: To see if you were the right kind of terrible...The kind that prevents your people from being even more so.
JON: The white walkers don’t care if a man’s free folk or crow. We’re all the same to them, meat for their army. But together we can beat them.
- but also try to garner the credibility given by jaded cynicism.
TYRION: If you chop off my head, well, my final days were interesting.
JON: It may not be enough, but at least we’ll give the fuckers a fight.
They’re open-handed with trial runs.
DAENERYS: So you want to advise me? Very well. What would you have me do with him?
.....
TYRION: A ruler who kills those devoted to her is not a ruler who inspires devotion. And you’re going to need devotion, a lot of it, if you’re ever going to rule across the Narrow Sea. But you cannot have him by your side when you do.
JON: [handing around the bag] It’s not a trick. It’s a gift for those who join us. Dragonglass. A man of the Night’s Watch used one of these daggers to kill a walker.
Good weapons, and good advice. They’re showing their worth, rather than telling.
Ultimately, they pitch their proposed alliances from a place of stark (heh) self-interest, painting a dire but fair picture of their prospective allies’ prospects.
TYRION: House Targaryen is gone. Not a single person who shares your blood is alive to support you. The Starks are gone as well, our two terrible fathers saw to that. The remaining members of House Lannister will not support you, not ever. Stannis Baratheon won’t back you either, his entire claim to the throne rests on the illegitimacy of yours.
JON: The Long Night is coming, and the dead come with it. No clan can stop them. The Free Folk can’t stop them. The Night’s Watch can’t stop them. Only together, all of us.
And where does this approach come from?
TYRION: Let me give you some advice, bastard: never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.
I don’t think either of them could have acted this out back in the early days when their problems were within their own identities, being a bastard, being a dwarf. But they carry a lot of that fuck-off attitude in terms of owning their own parts in the wars that have come.