Dorne of the Dead
This weeks' Game of Thrones episode was in serious danger of being the most lacklustre of the bunch so far this season, with a lot of exposition and plot threads being ironed out further without the pay-off of an awe-inspiring or shock-inducing scene to remember it by. That was until the last few minutes of "The Sons of the Harpy", where the titular brand of murderous, power hungry psycho's came up against the white-bearded figure of Barristan Selmy, who adhered to the notion of what happens when you mess with the esteemed elder clan of fighters in fictional universes (Saruman in TH:TBOTFA for example) and swiftly kicked ass, albeit after suffering some serious looking wounds. Oh how I would have moaned to HBO on Twitter if that last Harpy guy had executed him in the now-assigned Son of the Harpy death by neck-slice, but thankfully, good-old Grey Worm was there to prevent such Twitter rant from ever happening. Well done. I begin this week's review with the last scene of this week's episode not only because it is the one still fresh in the memory, but the execution (excuse the pun) of such, where you seemingly felt every sword clash, every dagger insertion as well as deep shock at the thought of losing one of the coolest, down-to-earth people in Westeros; Barristan Selmy himself, who although is one of the many background characters within the Game of Thrones universe, gracefully came into his own this week, showing the audience how being at the wrong end of the age spectrum doesn't prevent you from beating down a bunch of dagger-waving loonies.
In less interesting developments. the Sandsnakes were finally introduced to us in Dorne-wall (Get it, Dorne-wall? As in Cornwall? Sorry) during a scene which although took two episodes to get to, looks like it did take place directly after Ellaria's unsuccessful attempt in persuading the Dornish King to head to war with the Lannister's in King's Landing. Elsewhere in Dorne, Jamie and Bronn made the worst attempt in trying to subtlety invade and take back Myrcella by deciding to hack to death four patrolling Dornish guards, but on the upside, Jamie finally put to use his prosthetic limb in a combat situation, something of which was quite pleasant to witness, much like the continued banter-esque discussions between himself and Bronn which this week focused on the best way to die, like you do. On the subject of banter, Cersie plotted revenge against Margaery Tyrell's digs last week by enlisting the High Sparrow to carve out justice in the capital, particularly to those who had sins of a rather sexual nature, including Ser Loras, who was captured, much to the distaste of Margaery who seemingly lost her cool when addressing the King, temporarily abstaining from her daily acting routine of being everything the King wants in order to get everything that she wants. Top marks for Margaery too for doing what everyone does when they are in a spot of bother; call Mum.
If the last few weeks have highlighted the sheer cold-hearted nature of Stannis at Castle Black, then this weeks' episode presented a much user-friendly side to him, evidenced during his speech to daughter Shireen, who when questioned if she was an embarrassment to her father, was made tear-inducing reassured that she was still a vital part of the Baratheon family, even if her mother seemingly felt ashamed to call her her one and only offspring. Elsewhere at the Wall, Jon was presented with an opportunity to combine the power of both man and woman by Melisandre which he swiftly refused, highlighting the love for Ygritte as the reason for such. Shout out to Melisandre for obviously being a Jon Snow fangirl by uttering the esteemed Kit Harrington welcome words of, "you know nothing, Jon Snow." He must be sick to death of that by now. No Arya this week, but the other Stark sister, now in Winterfell, was made aware of Littlefinger's plan of attack against both Bolton and Lannister strangleholds of power, something of which sounds good on paper, but is going to take some work to come into practice. One can only hope.
So another week, another solid Game of Thrones episode, but solid is starting to become quite repetitive in an abstract kind of way, where although GOT is clearly the best thing on the box at this particular moment in time, the series doesn't seem to have the intrigue of those before it. Of course, I may have to eat my own words in the next coming weeks, and for once, I am kind of hoping I have to. Stay strong Game of Thrones.
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