Game of Thrones Episode 6 Recap: Daenerys Ex Machina
It took this long but finally, Game of Thrones has had it’s Breaking Bad “Fly” moment. For those of you who don’t know, Fly was a “bottle episode” (an episode set in one location to keep a show under budget) in Season 3 of Breaking Bad that featured two of the main characters, Walter and Jesse, obsessively trying to kill a mosquito. That’s it. Obviously more happened and that’s like describing Moby Dick as “Some guys chasing a whale”, but that’s the long and short of it. The reaction was mixed, with some section of the audience praising it as a genius masterclass in writing and others calling it slow, pretentious and boring. Breaking Bad gained fans and lost others. Both sides made valid points. The truth was somewhere in the middle.
Last night, Game of Thrones had a similar phenomenon, but the opposite. No one would ever say the episode was boring. Far from it, it was a dazzling visual tour de force from start to finish, a cinematic work of art and an action-packed heart stopper. But….the criticisms didn’t stop. Is the timing of Game of Thrones becoming TOO convenient, are the plots becoming TOO stupid, WHY do the characters do what they do, HAS the writing quality gotten worse since we’ve gotten ahead of the books, IS this the same show we fell in love with?
To answer those questions,…no, no, it’s complicated, maybe a little but that’s inevitable and not really but it’s ok. Much like what “Fly” was to Breaking Bad, last night was all the best and worst of what we can expect from Game of Thrones in one. For a show that blended fantasy and realism but skewed heavily in favor of the pragmatic, human elements of George RR Martin’s imaginary world, this season has demanded Thrones fans to suspend more belief than usual, sometimes for the sake of plot (why do the White Walkers have heavy chains to lift the dragon from the lake?) to the dilation of time and space (characters get from Point A to Point B seemingly instantaneously). The structure of last night, and this season in general, simply does not work if we as an audience aren’t willing to accept those things. For some fans, that’s easy to do. For others, not so much.
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Sidenote: (I realized another popular website late last night published an article basically saying the exact same point I’m about to make in this next paragraph, so in the interest of protecting myself from accusations of plagiarism and more importantly, seamlessly plugging my own stuff, here’s a Youtube video of the Postgame of Thrones show with me and Clem where I verbally make this point ((about 24:00 in)) on a livestream immediately after the episode!)
Game of Thrones has also been a fantasy show, but not reallllly. It was more of a show about the complex web of politics and relationships within Westeros. Things like magic and the supernatural were occasionally sprinkled in to spice it up, but there were stretches, sometimes weeks long, where Game of Thrones could have just as easily been set in 1400’s Scotland as it could have been in Westeros if the names were less bizarre and people less attractive.
Now, Game of Thrones is a full-blown fantasy show. Dragons, White Walkers, Bran Stark, concepts like predestination, God, magic, they’re all going to not just be elements in the show. They’re going to be the driving force. The emphasis on the realism/fantasy blend has completely flipped. If you’re someone who grew up loving Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, The Eragon series or any other fantasy novel, this is all going to be very familiar and welcome to you. But for the people who have been justifying their Game of Thrones fandam with “Yeah it’s about ice zombies and dragons but NOT REALLY, it isn’t like all that other nerd shit” you might find yourself not liking the show as much. I don’t know how much of the Game of Thrones audience is going to lose a little bit of interest in the show now that’s fantasy instead of historical fiction about a world which doesn’t exist (there’s a subtle difference). Certainly not enough to make anyone stop watching, especially with only a season left. But the reaction of the American pop culture audience being forced to embrace nerd-wet-dream straight-cut unfiltered fantasy is going to be fascinating.
Those fantasy elements explain (and now we get onto the plot recap for those of you who read this every week just for that part!) why Jon Snow always seems to be saved at the last minute when all hope is lost. Why does Dany comes from the clouds (literally) as a deus ex machina to save him, THEN he surfaces from the water, AND THEN Benjen saves him while sacrificing himself even though it seems like there’s more then enough room for him like Rose not moving six fucking inches on the door so Jack could also get on at the end of Titanic? Same reason he was saved from the pile of bodies in the Battle of the Bastards, he was resurrected after being stabbed, he survived being North of the Wall and he rose from being a bastard to Night’s Watch Commander to King of the North. Because he is God’s chosen savior for humanity, and this is his purpose, and there is an element of predestination to his journey. If you like fantasy, this is very familiar. It’s why you accepted that a mediocre student at a wizarding school who wasn’t old enough to try to hook up with his friend even though she’s Emma Watson could take on the most powerful wizard ever. If you’re not a fantasy fan, it just looks like bad writing.
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Now the White Walkers have a dragon of their own, and the problem of the impending ice zombie apocalypse has gone from bad to much, much worse. God’s protection must be nice for survival but it still doesn’t do much for hatching better plans than “DURR WELL IF NO ONE BELIEVES US DANGGUNIT WE’LL JUST RASSLE UP A WHITE WALKER OURSELVES.” Every member of Westeros North suicide squad who survived did so for a reason: The Hound is headed to Kings Landing (I think) to finally compete in the #CleganeBowl and fight his brother, Beric will sacrifice himself on his last life, JoraH will counsel Dany amidst her growing tensions with Tyrion, Gendry will make weapons and Tormund…well Tormund will continue to be just awesome.
Most interesting to me is the bedroom scene with Dany and Jon. Twice before Daenerys has asked Jon about if he really has taken a knife to his heart, and her eyes lingered on his bare chest long enough to see the literal scar. She will ask him about it again, and the reaction will be explosive one way or the other (will she see him as a heretic or messiah?). Jon bending the knee to Dany was stupid politically but his only option at this point, which makes it the perfect Jon Snow decision. The third way out would be a marriage which would be perfect for all involved if he wasn’t her nephew, but incest hasn’t stopped most of us from enjoying Game of Thrones sex scenes, so then again, why should it stop them?
Tyrion isn’t doing much to endear himself to his Queen. And as her principle negotiator, he is probably going to have to make concessions to their two biggest enemies in order to get everyone to work together, which is bad optics when you have the same last name as them. The seeds of a Tyrion/Daenerys divorice were planted long ago, have already sprouted, and might flower soon enough. She already isn’t listening to him and the relationship is beginning to become openly hostile. If she finds it more convenient for him not to be around…well then it might be good for Tyrion that his heir apparent, Jorah, is someone who he once convinced the Khaleesi to save HIS life. It might be a favor he needs repayment on.
And finally, Arya/Sansa has boiled over from childhood rivalry to political open war. Arya has a card over Sansa, but has to be very careful how she plays it. She already has intimidated her, shifting the internal power dynamic to her favor. Now any other move comes with the risk of self-sabotage to the Starks. Arya has never truly played the Game of Thrones before, only been a fighter. If she isn’t careful in her new role, she can spoil everything. However, the fact that Petyr Baelish seemed to have a use for Brienne in his complicated chess game to put a wedge between the two girls and Sansa just sent Brienne all the way to Kings Landing is a HUGE hint that Winterfell’s favorite redhead is actually three steps ahead of everyone. I’m going to throw this prediction up now (something I couldn’t do the last two blogs because of asshole spoilers and leaks): Baelish dies next episode. Sansa is taking him out.
Well that’s enough reading where your boss has caught onto the fact you aren’t working. Follow me on Twitter @CharlieWisco and DM me questions for the final Sunday mailbag. Below is the link to the Youtube show again, which I humbly but highly recommend, everyone watch. Also below that is me, KFC and Feitelberg’s interview with Nikolaj Coster Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister. I won’t try to be cool about it, getting to talk to him was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life and I’m super proud of the result, please check it out. See you all Sunday, have a great week everyone!