Game of Thrones: Sons of the Harpy – Analysis

“The things I do for love.” -Jaime Lannister; Game of Thrones Season 1, Episode 1 “Winter Is Coming”

Love is a many splendored thing, but it’s the desperate things we do to get and keep it that were on display this week in “Sons of the Harpy.” Even if you asked some of our most devious characters what motivated their choices, they’d tell you the same thing: love. Love for his daughter was what drove Jaime Lannister to Dorne, despite having only one hand and the most recognizable face in the Seven Kingdoms, and despite the fact that he must pass his daughter off as his niece to the rest of the world. That love, and that desperation, showed through as he attempted to buy a sea captain off—a sea captain, for what it is worth, who will never live to spend the gold, as his betrayal simply turned him into the Sand Snakes’ plaything, as they wait to avenge the death of the father they loved.

Tyrion became a victim of that sort of wild love this week, after Jorah kidnapped him as part of a plan to inspire Dany to take him back into her service. As Tyrion pointed out, this represented desperation in the extreme, since chances are high that Daenerys will have Jorah killed and take Tyrion into her service instead. Both of these stories, it should be noted, included the characters taking the extra time to do the right thing—Jaime buried the bodies of the men he and Bronn killed upon arriving in Dorne, while Jorah dragged the body of the sailor he knocked unconscious out of the sea so he wouldn’t drown. Jorah even threw money at the sailor to pay for his boat jacking.

Bronn: “I’ve had an exciting life. I want my death to be boring.”

Meanwhile, in a series of moves that were, at first glance, less obviously desperate, Cersei put her plan to take out Margaery into action. Cersei’s doing all of this, of course, to get back her little boy, her Tommen. But as we all know, it doesn’t work like that. Tommen is infatuated with Margaery, and even if Cersei rids herself of one rival, another will come along soon enough. Not that Cersei will hear any of that. Instead, she doubles down on the most cockamamie scheme this side of the plot to kill Joffrey, only that plan was conceived and executed by master game player Olenna Tyrell. This one…is oddly different from the one in the books.

Sending Mace Tywell away to Braavos is fine—the man was useless anyway, and having Loras arrested for buggery isn’t the worst way to get to Margaery. But the choice to have Cersei be the one to come up with the idea of arming the Faith Militant, just to have Loras arrested? I wasn’t a fan of this, although I understand it was done to simplify the narrative. But it takes away from the idea, present in A Feast for Crows, that the High Sparrow is capable of being a sinister manipulator. It would have been just as easy to have the High Sparrow come to Cersei with the idea, and then have Cersei seize on it as the perfect way to get Loras removed. Writing the plot that way would also have made Cersei less culpable for the damage to the city the Sparrows cause. Not that Cersei has ever cared much for the city or what happens to its people, but in the books it’s more of a problem she turns a blind eye to, rather than one she deliberately created.

After last week’s scene between Margaery and Cersei, it was a mark of how emotionally rattled the new queen was that she lost her cool, and handled her appeal to Tommen all wrong. Tommen believes his wife is a gentle and innocent person, therefore she should have been “weak” and “sobbing” and “innocent.” Instead, she came in and basically started ordering the poor clueless kid around, almost giving away the game away. She recovered quickly, claiming that love for her brother drove her to speak and act this way. But that was still…close. Calling back Grandmother is her next best choice, since Tommen may love sex, but he’s still basically useless as a man. I felt bad for the kid. He tried. But the things that make him a better King than Joffrey (who would have killed not only the Faith Militant who blocks his path to the Sept, but also the crowd in front of them for making that abomination comment) also make him totally unequipped to handle his wife’s request. At least Cersei got one thing she wanted—Margaery will withhold sex for this, and she won’t have to hear about being the Queen Grandmother again for a while.

Stannis: “My father used to tell me that boredom indicates a lack of inner resources.”
Shireen: “Were you bored a lot too?”

Turning to scenes that featured a healthy love for one’s children, I would say that this week’s theme produced one of the finest moments Stannis has had in his four seasons on the show. Stannis’ love for his daughter Shireen has been an unspoken point in the family since our introduction to the Baratheons of Dragonstone, especially when contrasted with his creepy nutso wife Seylse, who clearly blames Shireen for being a girl, and a disfigured one to boot. Stannis’ story about being the sucker who bought Shireen the doll that gave her the greyscale, only to turn around and move heaven and earth to cure her because she is his daughter, was the most moving moment of the episode. Melisandre may only want Shireen around for her blood, and Seylse may not want her around at all, but Stannis wants her there because she is the light of his life, and the only person in his world that makes him human. Stannis may remain stubborn, but this momentary glimpse into his soul reminds you that beneath the intractable façade is a man as honorable and good as Ned Stark was.

WARNING: BOOK SPOILERS/SPECULATION FOLLOWS

Speaking of Ned Stark! This week’s trials of love and desperation played out against the Greatest Love Story Never Told in Westeros. For those of us book readers who have wondered where the underlying tale of Jon Snow’s parentage had disappeared to in the last three seasons, tonight’s episode finally gave us the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the moment when someone, somewhere brought up the Year of the False Spring. Having Littlefinger tell the story was an interesting move. I don’t recall him telling the tale in the books, but then again, the moments in the books where it comes up are never central to the plot. The show was smart to have this story finally come out in Winterfell, where Sansa was lighting candles in the crypts in imitation of her father. Evoking the show’s own past kept the moment from feeling like it came out of nowhere.

Littlefinger: How many tens of thousands had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt?
Sansa: Yes he chose her. Then he kidnapped her and raped her.
Littlefinger: ….. Come. Let us speak somewhere the dead can’t hear us.

In fact, all the clues were present tonight in a way they haven’t been since the show’s very first episode. Stannis says it to Seylse when she calls Jon a whore’s son: “That wasn’t Ned Stark’s way.” It was also emphasized as Jon turned down easy sex with Melisandre, despite his penchant for red heads. (After all, Jon Snow, it has been established, works from a  WWNSD standpoint in all things.) Then there was Littlefinger telling the tale, finally, of how Rhaegar rode right past his wife, and in a dramatic public move, showed his love for Lyanna Stark with a crown of blue winter roses. Littlefinger’s silence when Sansa fills in the end of the tale from the victor’s point of view—that Rhaegar was a monster who kidnapped and raped her aunt—spoke volumes.

And finally, to button it, we get a story about Rheagar from Barristan Selmy, who told us how history would see Rheagar if it hadn’t been written by the victor. (Remember, Robert needed to believe that Lyanna was raped and kidnapped, because he couldn’t allow himself to believe anything else.) Rhaegar was not the type to kidnap, or rape, or start wars for sport. He was a gentle man, one who went out into the street and sang for the people in Kings Landing, only to give the money he made away to the poor and the needy. He was a musician—a lover, not a fighter, the exact opposite of the boorish Robert Baratheon.

Barristan’s story came not a moment too soon, as the attack by the titular Sons of the Harpy just happened to coincide with Hizdahr zo Loraq distracting Dany in her throne room. Barristan and Grey Worm fight them, although they are outnumbered. They fight for duty and honor, of course, but most of all, for the love of their Queen.  Even if it cost them their lives.

• Published on 05/04/2015 at 11:15 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT