Deleted my post to take to the book thread, sorry!
Game of Thrones 3.10 - "Mhysa" - Rate and discuss
- Thread starter Out Of My Vulcan Mind
- Start date
Absolutely. I was amazed that the actor was able to stand up in a scene against Dance and Dinklage and not be completely overshadowed. Although I do have to admit to thinking "go to bed Joffrey, I want to listen to the adults with the real power talk".
And yes, Tywin's twisted logic speech about family was nicely offset by the actions of a sister willing to rescue her brother against their father's will. Although I have to admit that this series has me questioning everyone's motivation. Why is she so willing to endanger herself to save him? They were not raised together, and they only met recently, so where does this devotion come from?
^^^ IIRC, she explains this in S2, right after she arrived at Winterfell, when she tried to convince Theon to come home. She recounted their lives as children and how she always had a soft spot for her "baby brother". She clearly has a hard-shelled exterior, but that love for him deep down was always there. I thought it played nicely and made perfect sense within the context of the characters (at least, as they appear in the show).
A solid but underwhelming finale, though that was hard to avoid given what they'd left themselves for narrative material. The Daenerys scene wasn't really enough of an event to make for a powerful final image; it might have helped if the battle for Yunkai had been included in this episode as a main event, rather than being shoehorned in last week as a B-plot alongside the Red Wedding.
Always nice to see Charles Dance being quietly authoritative.
Always nice to see Charles Dance being quietly authoritative.
Lots of good moments in the episode but it felt a bit underwhelming, especially given the last episode.
I couldn't help but think of Jar-Jar in that last scene though
I couldn't help but think of Jar-Jar in that last scene though
Ratings are in: 5.4 million viewers, near but not at or breaking the record set by "The Climb." If all the post-Red Wedding coverage didn't push the show to new highs, I don't know what could; 5.5 million may be the ceiling for initial broadcasts. However, the season's total reach across all platforms currently averages 13.6 million viewers, which outpaces every other season of every other HBO series except season four of The Sopranos.
Loved the Joffrey vs. Tyrion vs. Tywin scene. Pretty much any scene with any of those actors is gold for me, and all three of them together was brilliant.
Even though they seem to have diverged from the books, I'm enjoying it. I got a lot out of the Davos/Gendry conversation, and I actually like the way the TV writers handled that part of the story better than it was handled in the original books.
Even though they seem to have diverged from the books, I'm enjoying it. I got a lot out of the Davos/Gendry conversation, and I actually like the way the TV writers handled that part of the story better than it was handled in the original books.
Good stuff, great lines, the Hound is great. Not much of a finale scene though
Couldn't resist doing this:
Couldn't resist doing this:
^Yes. But
further events will complicate and undermine the white savior moment on which the episode ends.
Arya keeps everything close to her chest.
And I'm curious how the reception would have been if they had ended this season with the Red Wedding.
And I'm curious how the reception would have been if they had ended this season with the Red Wedding.
No, they're not. The Ghiscari are described as having amber skin. We can debate the relevance of using our racial terms in a world with a different history, but if we're going to talk about white and non-white, the people of Yunkai (and Astapor) are the latter.
No. There are Ghiscari slaves as well. When looking back at the books before posting I had misread the passage where Daenerys comments on the racial makeup of her Unsullied to say that they were majority Ghiscari, but that's not the case: the majority are Dothraki and Lhazarene. Which are also non-white peoples. There are a few white slaves from the Free Cities, but the bulk of the slaves are still non-white. Where would the Ghiscari slavers be getting large numbers of white slaves from?
Anyway, the racial implications of the "Mhysa!" scene are certainly less blatant in the books, but the underlying trope of a white character fixing a non-white society is still there. Indeed,
that's the point.
Just about every group of people we've run into in Essos is described as generally european or middle eastern(arguably, more Native American) in appearance, which on average is quite a bit whiter than the brown sea of destitute faces we saw last night. The Qartheen are even called 'milk men' for being so white. Old Ghis itself was taken over by the Valyrians, who looked like Dany, and made part of the freehold and Valyrian-looking people are mentioned as being fairly common amongst the people there.