Game of Thrones S7 Ep 3 - The Queen's Justice
Five Up, Five Down and Five In Between
Five Up – 5 things I LOVED about the episode
Five Down – 5 things I HATED about the episode
Five In Between – 5 things I took note of.
FIVE UP:
1) As always I’ll start with Jon F. Snow. I loved that Jon and Daenerys finally met, I loved how he got to see a dragon and I really loved how he stood his ground against both of them. He fought off Daenerys’ speeches and he even threw some shade at the Dothraki when he said “they’re hard to miss” - which made me chuckle. Next time you die Jon Snow, come back as a comedian.
2) Going with that theme – I loved the back and forth between Tyrion and Jon. “The bastard of winterfell…..”the dwarf of Casterly Rock” – priceless. It was also good that Tyrion was there because without him, Jon would have a) never came or b) likely be dragon food. I don’t think they’ll keep Jon at Dragonstone much longer, but I’m gonna enjoy it while it lasts..
3) From where he was to what he left - Sansa seemed to be settling into ruling Winterfell nicely which was not terribly surprising. The biggest thing for me was that she continues to repel Littlefinger and stay ahead of him….. for now. How this Littlefinger v Sansa storyline ends up will be very very interesting. Either way, keep those Littlefinger burns comin Sansa.
1) I hate that we had to lose Olenna Tyrell, she was probably my favorite female character on the show. She was also the start of the strong-female-power-broker-movement that we’re now going through in the show. While it sucks she died, I love the way she went out. She didn’t’ beg, she didn’t try to make a deal, she just accepted it. She was sorta already dead what with nothing to live for, but it was still nice to see her “Growing Strong” (damn I’m good). She got in a number of jabs at Jaime, admitted that she underestimated Cersei and told him straight-up she would be his undoing. Ah and of course, the coup de grace – admitting to poisoning Joffrey. A few other notes:
a. I’m very interested to see what Jaime tells Cersei – does he tell her exactly what happened and mention that Tyrion is innocent? Tyrion did kill their Father, no taking that away….but I think knowing he didn’t kill Joffrey could alter Cersei’s mindset. Then again, she’s a looney.
b. Have to mention this ultra-zinger Olenna got in, her last one ever: “That’s Joffrey’s sword isn’t it? What did he call it?” – “Widow’s Wail” – “He really was a cunt wasn’t he….” ROFLMAO
1) I hate Cersei more than I’ve ever hated any TV character, but you have got to respect how good of an actress Lena Headey is. Her facial expressions, tone of voice, etc are just nuts and I really buy that she is a complete bitch/psycho (maybe she is in real life). When she was talking to Ellaria Sand and said “why did you take her???” about Myrcella, you could truly feel the motherly sadness. #acting.
FIVE DOWN:
1) This has been beaten to death, but Bran sucked this episode. I realize he has seen a ton of bad shit through his visions and lost his direwolf/literal spirit animal, but he sucked. He was really creepy and like all Starks, failed to use his words and explain himself. I could literally tell his story in 3 minutes and fill Sansa in (ohhh mannn that’s what she said - BOOMMMMMM).
1) Everyone complains about the timing and pacing of the episodes, so let’s take a quick look and see what worked/what didn’t work:
a. Jon made it all the way down to Dragonstone, so let’s say that 3-4 weeks passed. This jived with:
i. Bran making it to Winterfell from the Wall
ii. The Unsullied making it to Casterly Rock (they had all of Ep2 as well)
iii. Ser Jorah healing
iv. The Lannisters abandoning Casterly Rock.
b. So all that makes sense – HOWEVA, things start to go south after that. In that same 3-4 weeks:
i. Euron made it back to King’s Landing, paraded around and then travelled ALL THE WAY AROUND WESTEROS to catch up with and destroy the boats the Unsullied were using. (Remember it took the Unsullied all of Ep 2 PLUS 3-4 weeks to get around Westeros.) There’s no way Euron didn’t stick around the city for a few nights and bask in his glory, making this even less realistic.
ii. It also didn’t give the Lannister army enough time to abandon Casterly rock then travel all the way down to Highgarden with an army large enough to take Highgarden in a single day.
iii. Lastly, Theon was shipwrecked for 3-4 weeks and survived? I don’t think so. Think about it, he was shipwrecked at the end of episode two and then was picked up by the Ironborn AFTER Jon met Daenerys…..
c. Overall there was some things that made sense and some that didn’t. I’ll chalk it up as a parallel storylines and a difficult story.
1) The Tyrion monologue/montage wasn’t my favorite thing ever. I guess it was supposed to be a slight of hand type thing, but it ended up being jarring and I wish it had been done differently. How?
a. I would have had Tyrion do the dialogue and then the Unsullied take Casterly Rock. I’m fine with going from the fake battle with a lot of casualties, to the sewer trick/quick battle. The Tyrell part is what I don’t like, here’s how it should have gone down…
b. Tyrion and Daenerys are then celebrating thinking of how their plan is working. The Unsullied took Casterly Rock and destroyed half the Lannister army. THEN all of a sudden Varys comes in and drops two bombs – one, Casterly Rock was uninhabited and two, the Lannisters/Tarly’s have taken Highgarden and killed Olenna. A double whammy.
2) Daenerys is so dumb and really needs to alter her approach if this is gonna work out. She wants allies, so she……. takes their weapons and boats? Meanwhile, Cersei is getting allies by…… offering lands and titles. Lands and titles……or imprisonment/swearing fealty? Tough call here guys!
1) Overall they packed a lot into this episode and this season is just moving too fast. Unfortunately there is a fundamental problem with season 7 and 8 – they’re trying to wrap up but have fewer episodes to do it. At this point we can pretty much bank that an important character is gonna die every single episode, which takes away from the surprise factor we love about GOT. They really shot themselves in the foot by limiting the episodes in the final seasons.
FIVE IN BETWEEN:
1) It was interesting that Sansa brought up the lineage discussion – she correctly told Bran that he’s the last living son of Ned Stark and ipso facto is the Lord of Winterfell. He quickly threw that by the wayside but it was interesting to bring up.
2) The castles in this show are being taken wayyyyyy too easily. Dragonstone didn’t have anyone on it? The Lannisters were really willing to just give up Casterly Rock at the expense of a small company of soldiers? (That was also kinda fucked up – they’re just sacrificing their own men at this point.) Lastly, Highgarden just goes down in a day? The center of the most prosperous kingdom with the largest army? Hard sell.
o I wonder if all these wars have just destroyed the Westeros population and there just aren’t a lot of people left living there anymore…..maybe that’s why no one lives at these castles?
3) Interesting that Dany is basically back where she started – with dragons and Dothraki. Dan and Dave are the writers of this show, AKA D&D. D&D also stands for Dragons&Dothraki – coincidence?
4) In hindsight, not agreeing to meet with Euron and immediately allying with Yara Grejoy has bitten Daenerys in the dragon-ass. I hate to be the one to say this, but I think feminism had a lot to do with it. Let me explain….Daenerys had two offers on the table from the Greyjoys. One was Yara - the little-known daughter of the former Lord. A former Lord who was not well liked. The other was Euron – the person who defeated Yara in an election and is known/feared across the world. Instead of meeting with Euron and hearing what he had to say, Daenerys blindly accepted Yara’s offer – and don’t tell me it had nothing to do with the fact she was a woman. By quickly deciding who she would ally with based on 1-2 feminist similarities, Dany gave Cersei her strongest ally.
1) Melisandre said “I brought Ice and Fire together”….BOOM
2) Jon and Dany are 100000% gonna hook up. Everyone noticed that little look she gave him as he walked away and who could blame her? Kit Harrington is a fire-fox. Also, she hasn’t hooked up with Daario in a few weeks/months, so she’s probably getting a litttlllleeeee needy these days. Not to mention she’s stressed. Mother of Dragons needs lovin too.
1) We did not see Edmure Tully, Tormund, Thoros, Beric, The Hound, Daario Naharis, Brienne or Pod this episode. We finally got our first Bronn sighting, but he didn’t speak a single word.
