The iconic scene
of Game of Thrones season 3 was Dany’s triumph in Yunkai when the Yunkish lifted
Dany into the air and proclaimed her ‘mhysa’—‘mother’—after conquering the city
and setting them free. Dany’s march of freedom continues towards Meereen at the
end of “Breaker of Chains.” When she arrives, the Meereenese send out a
champion to fight her champion. The Meereen champion insults the Unsullied,
Daenerys, and soon suffers death at the hands of Daario Naharis. The Meereenese
rulers look shocked. They rise angrily from their chairs while their slaves
peer curiously over the walls and down at the silver-haired beauty promising
the same freedom she bestowed on others living in cities along Slavers’ Bay. The
last action of the episode is of catapults launching wooden barrels at the
city. Inside the barrels are the broken chains of men, women, and children from
Astapor and Yunkai. One Meereenese slave takes the broken collar chain in his
hands, as an owner peers over his shoulder, seconds before the episode cuts to
black.
Dany’s march of
freedom is the only instance of triumph in the episode—of enslaved triumphing
over those who enslave—which is full of scenes in which characters are not
protected and vulnerable in the Seven Kingdoms at The Wall and southward. The
wildlings and the Thenns raid a village—killing and eating men, women, and
children. The nasty Thenn, the voice of the Thenns rather (since all Thenns
look alike), grabs a boy and directs his attention towards his dead mother and
dead father. Seconds before the boy talked about potatoes with his father. The
nasty Thenn promises the child he’ll eat his mother and father, and that he
should run to Castle Black to tell the Night’s Watch about it. Earlier, a
kindly Riverland man and his daughter take Arya and The Hound in for the night.
The kindly man believes in the seven gods, offers shelter, food, and work to
The Hound, believing he fought for the Tullys, who believes life was best when
Hoster Tully ran the lands, which induces a smile from Arya, who barely smiles.
The Hound steals silver from the kindly man, telling Arya afterwards that he
and his daughter won’t make it to the winter. The weak don’t survive in
Westeros. Essos, though…
Tywin instructs
Tommen on what makes a good king as Tommen and his mother stand before
Joffrey’s corpse in the Baelor’s Sept. A ruler of a kingdom should fight for
the weak and the vulnerable like the mother dragons across the narrow sea, but
Tywin’s history lessons reveal a line of insane, myopic kings that valued things
that led to his downfall. King Baelor the Blessed refused to eat food from the
sinful earth and perish. A king was murdered by his own brother. King Robert
believed winning and ruling were one and died while drunkenly hunting boars. Joffrey,
the latest dead king, valued torture above all else. All four named kings
lacked wisdom. Tywin advises his grandson to listen to the counsel before he
comes of age and afterwards. A wise king will thrive. Tywin omits instructing
his grandson about ruling the poor, the weak, the vulnerable. The Lannisters’
King’s Landing cannot feed its poor, owes mountains of money to the Iron Bank
across the sea, began a war because of a young teenager’s spontaneous cruelty,
and Tywin’s solution is to listen to trusted advisers. Tywin’s past
transgressions have incited the rage of Dorne, sending Prince Oberon to
establish a threat. Margeary and her grandmother talk quietly about what’s
next. Margaery doesn’t mourn her late husband, however briefly they were wed,
but she weeps her lost crown (which isn’t so lost, Olenna explains), a loss of
power. The game of thrones serves he who sits on the iron throne and those who
attach themselves to him. The disconnect between King’s Landing from the drama
at the wall and the freedom march across the narrow sea has been shown before,
and “Breaker of Chains” underlines that disconnect once more.
Tyrion’s the
victim of a long play in the game of thrones. The smartest person in King’s
Landing reasons his sister’s the lone innocent person in the kingdom because,
despite her many faults, she loved her children. Pod listens to Tyrion think
out who he’ll call to testify on his behalf, who could’ve used him in an
obviously calculated assassination plan that would seemingly leave little doubt
about his culpability. Cersei remembers Tyrion’s words about joy turning to ash
on a day she and Joffrey least expect. Jaime listens to his sister’s plea for
him to murder their brother, which Jaime does not commit to and instead forces
himself on her below their son’s dead body. Tywin cut off Tyrion’s allies from
him. The lone curious aspect of the approaching trial is the selected jurors,
notably Prince Oberon of Dorne. Tyrion concludes he needs an audience with his
brother, and then he sends Pod away from King’s Landing. Pod, that young, most
loyal squire, chokes a sob down on his way out.
The Sam and
Gilly story shows another part of the complicated that best represents the
struggle of the do-gooders in Westeros. Samwell wants to protect Gilly. Castle
Black represents a danger to Sam. The men in the Night’s Watch think about sex
all day, all night. Gilly’s the lone woman amongst the 100 men in the Night’s
Watch. Sam vows to protect her and wants to send her to Mole’s Town. Once in
Mole’s Town, the viewer learns Gilly’s no safer there than in Castle Black.
Character-wise, the story concerns Sam’s lack of belief in himself and his
ability to protect her, to love her, and to…. The Hound tells Arya what Sam
should’ve heard. The Hound’s not the shit in King’s Landing. Bad men take
advantage of poor people. Arya fumes because The Hound chooses to be shitty
about it. The tragedy is that good intentioned Sam and those like him, like the
kindly man and his daughter, will die off. But will they? Sam’s the slayer.
Other Thoughts:
-Stannis is
pretty much screwed. Davos writes to Braavos in hopes of support. The Stannis
stuff is going to elevate to greatness in a bit.
-David Benioff
and D.B. Weiss wrote the episode for television. Alex Graves directed the
episode.
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