The third season of Game of Thrones is here, and we’re chronicling the TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s world of Westeros—and how it differs from the books—in a series of letters between Wired writers (and Game of Thrones fanatics) Erik Henriksen and Laura Hudson.
WARNING: The following includes spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire Books 3-5 which have been redacted for your convenience with black bars. You can toggle spoilers on at your own risk by clicking the button to the left or highlighting. IF YOU CAN SEE THIS SENTENCE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE SPOILERS.First, a TV versus book recap of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” this season’s episode written by George R. R. Martin:
Jon: The Wildlings are over the wall, and the further they walk into Jon’s homeland, the more the differences between their cultures become apparent, particularly when Ygritte—who is still as adorable as all get out—confuses windmills with palaces, and is completely befuddled by Jon’s fake cultural notions of female frailty (see: swooning). She also has to remind him–again–that the Wildlings are “us,” not “you.” But as much as she’s trying to talk him into her world, he’s trying to talk her into his with jokes about seeing her in silk dresses, and less-jokes about someday taking her to Winterfell. Orell, who finally reveals his motivation for hating Jon (he wants Ygritte) lays it out for both of the lovers: the Wildlings are a free people completely divorced from the hierarchies and rules of Westerosi society. Jon, who deep down is still the Starkiest Stark who ever Starked, is never going to be able to embrace that wildness, no more than Ygritte could put on a dress and act like a lady. (Hell, Arya grew up as a lord’s daughter, and she could barely handle it.) Ygritte likes to tell Jon that he knows nothing, but deep down, he knows the truth: it would never work. In the books: Orell was dead, killed by Jon long earlier, but the interactions between Jon and Ygritte are very similar.
Robb: After a fun sexy time with Robb, Talisa writes a letter to her mother in Volantis to let her know a whole bunch of news, like the fact that she’s now a Queen! Oh, and she’s pregnant. This is a huge revelation to both Robb and us, since it introduces another Stark heir into the mix. Sometimes when I watch this show I like to play a game called “Is literally anyone happy in this episode?” The answer is usually no, and it’s rather astonishing to see two scenes in a row (Jon/Ygritte and Robb/Talisa) where the answer is yes. We don’t get to see many relationships that aren’t based on resentment, coersion, or lies; since the deaths of Ned and Renly, can you think of any others? These two are so lovely and truly in love, the very picture of the fairy-tale about love conquering all and as close to “happily ever after” as we’ve seen the show get. Except: what happens after? In the books: Robb’s wife was not a noblewoman of Volantis but Jeyne Westerling, the daughter of a (now former) Lannister bannerman. After their marriage Catelyn talks repeatedly about the importance of giving Robb an heir, and Jeyne says that they are trying “most every day,” though she never announces a pregnancy. I suspect this plot development could have some potentially huge significance for the books, given that Martin wrote this episode, which I will get to later in this recap!
Sansa: Poor Mrs. Tyrion-to-be reminisces about her romantic childhood fantasies of living in King’s Landing, and how she was a “stupid, stupid little girl with stupid dreams.” Yes, you were, but lots of people are stupid when they’re young, and it doesn’t mean you can’t learn. Margaery wants to help teach her, particularly about how women have to make the best of their circumstances and adjust their dreams accordingly. They’ll be the mothers of the future King and the Lord of Casterly Rock, she says, and able to influence those future leaders a great deal. (Which isn’t the same as having true, personal power but still a comforting thought for someone who feels totally powerless.) She also points out that Tyrion has actually been quite kind to Sansa; he’s the one who stopped Joffrey’s public beating of her, if you’ll remember, and word is he’s pretty good in the sack. There’s more to being a good man than being tall and traditionally handsome like Loras–a point that Joffrey has proved rather unequivocally. In the books: This scene never happens, although Sansa is indeed terrified about the idea of consummating a marriage with Tyrion, who is described many times as very ugly. Rather than Margaery, it is a knight named Ser Garlan who suggests that Tyrion will be a better husband than Loras.
Elsewhere in King’s Landing: Tyrion is still a little squicked out about the idea of impregnating a 14-year-old—and even more worried about what Shae is going to think. And rightly so: Despite giving her a fabulously expensive gold apology chain, she is pissed as hell. Seriously though, he’s the son of one of the richest and most powerful families in the known world. I admire her for daring to ask for more than “her place,” but this is bordering on delusion—and a dangerous one, after Tywin threatened to hang any prostitute Tyrion touches. Speaking of, Joffrey summons Tywin to the empty, creepy throne room for a report on the meetings of his Small Council, and an explanation of why they’ve been moved to the Tower of the Hand. After all, that would theoretically be farther for him to walk, in the theoretical instance that ever showed up to a meeting (which he never does). Tywin, whose patience for Power Play 101 antics is dangerously minimal, slowly walks up to the throne to tower over his grandson and intones: “We can arrange to have you carried.” In the books: We’re told that Joffrey is rude to Tywin at one point, but don’t get the pleasure of this sort of smackdown. And Shae actually knew about Tyrion and Sansa’s betrothal before Sansa did, thanks to castle gossip, but was unfazed by the news. The gold chain that Tyrion gives Shae is so, so ominous, however; on the show, we never saw him forge the chain of gold hands while working as the Hand of the King, so I suspect that this will be its substitute—and ultimately the instrument Tyrion uses to choke Shae to death. Also when Shae says they should leave together, and head across the Narrow Sea to Essos, he says, “What would I do there? Juggle?” It’s a clever shoutout to Tyrion’s actual escape to Essos in books 4 and 5, where he ends up enslaved as a performing dwarf.
Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). But perhaps someday, no one? Photo: HBO
Daenerys: After liberating and burning Astapor, Daenerys and her army march north to Yunkai, another city full of slaves—200,000 of them. Yunkai is super rich, and hopes to ward off her attack by offering her chests of treasure and as many ships as she requires to carry them to Westeros. Jorah counsels her that “conquering this city will not bring you any closer to Westeros or the Iron Throne” — the whole point of her campaign, remember — but there are slaves there, and since Dany has decided that saving the world is her new MO, off they go. Mission creep, Daenerys. I swear to god. In the books: Dany meets with representations of the Stormcrows and the Second Sons, mercenary groups that defend Yunkai, and asks them to join her cause before meeting a representative of Yunkai, who indeed brings a chest of gold. Ships are not offered to her now, though later in Dance of Dragons, Xaro Xhoan Daxos offers her a fleet to leave Essos, though she refuses.
Melisandre: Speaking of slavery, as Melisandre and Gendry sail back to Dragonstone past the wreckage of ships lost in the Battle of the Blackwater, the Essos-born Melisandre reveals that she was born and lived a slave “until the Lord of Light raised me up.” As they pass King’s Landing, she asks Gendry if she misses his father’s house, and when he claims to have no father, she points to the Red Keep and reveals the truth: This was his father’s house. The music swells with Arthurian optimism as Gendry learns about his secret heritage, but since you should always be suspicious of fairy-tale moments in Game of Thrones, remember: Melisandre just kidnapped him for a reason related to “his blood.” In the books: Melisandre never kidnaps Gendry, but rather looks to the Baratheon bastard Edric Storm already at Dragonstone. Gendry is still kicking it with the Brotherhood, and presumably doesn’t know that he’s Robert’s bastard.
Arya: Still pissed as hell that Thoros and Beric very literally sold Gendry out, Arya calls them traitors. They admit that they’ve been jerks, but say that they are merely servants of the one true Red God, even when he demands they do douchey things. Arya says he’s not her one true god, and when they ask who she worships, she replies: “Death.” You’d think it’d be funny coming from a little girl, but it isn’t. And Beric doesn’t laugh, he just stares back with his one eye like he’s seen something dangerous. When the Brotherhood hears there are Lannister troops nearby, they decide to march off and fight them in a different direction from Riverrun, and that’s the last straw for Arya. She takes off into the woods, and seems like she might actually escape—until the Hound claps a hand around her mouth, kidnapping her for what I estimate to be the millionth billionth time in this series. In the books: Mostly the same, though Arya’s comment about her god being death is a clear reference to her future relationship with the Faceless Men, an assassin’s guild that kills as a sacrament to the Many-Faced God, who is also death (note: also the god of the face-changing Jaqen H’ghar); her liturgical recitation of her hit list could already be seen as a form of worship.
Theon: Oh, Theon. Poor, poor Theon. Words you maybe never thought you’d say, but here we are. I’m not going to belabor this, but two prostitutes show up to tease Theon sexually as part of a sick psychological game before Theon’s tormenter shows up and castrates him, taking the “most precious part” of the notorious womanizer. It’s pretty awful. In the books: Again, all of Theon’s torture by Ramsay Bolton takes place as a flashback in Dance of Dragons, where it is implied several times he has been castrated. Though it was never concretely confirmed before, its presence in a GRRM-scripted episode certainly lends more credence to it.
Bran: Jojen continues to explain Bran’s greendreams to him, something that annoys Osha a great deal – as does Jojen’s announcement that they’re not going to Castle Black anymore, since he dreamed (accurately) that Jon is no longer there. Rather, they’re heading to see the Raven Beyond the Wall, who’s been coming to Bran in dreams since his fall from the tower. This doesn’t sit well with Osha, whom we learned fled the North after her man was turned into a wight and tried kill her. That’s when she gave up on the lands beyond the Wall—and on the idea that things are “meant to be”–and isn’t interested in returning to either. She says she’ll take them to Castle Black, but not beyond. In the books: This scene never happened, because Osha was already taking Rickon south, while Jojen, Meera and Bran headed north to the Raven. Jojen does say they can’t go to Castle Black, not because Jon isn’t there but because he fears a member of the Night’s Watch could betray their location to their enemies.
Jaime & Brienne: Brienne stays behind with Locke when Jaime leaves for King’s Landing and Lord Bolton takes off for Edmure’s wedding, which Jaime knows is bad news, especially when Locke makes an ominous promise to take “good care of her.” But Brienne says Jaime can pay his debt to her by releasing the Stark girls when he return home, and he swears he will. While heading south with Qyburn—whom we learn lost his maester’s chain for performing medical experiments on living men—Jaime learns that Locke has refused the ransom of Brienne’s father, and plans to use her for the amusement of his soldiers. So it’s back to Harrenhal they go, where Jaime finds Brienne fighting a giant bear in a pit with nothing but a wooden sword. He jumps into the pit to save her, calculating that Bolton’s men won’t let him die—and this time he’s right. After a tense confrontation between Locke’s soldiers and the Bolton men, the I’m-a-Lannister trump card wins, and they leave again for King’s Landing—this time with Brienne. In the books: There was no goodbye depicted between Jaime and Brienne, who was kept behind not to answer for “treason” but because Bolton didn’t want to deprive Vargo (Locke) of “both of his prizes.” Jaime did not ride back immediately after hearing about the ransom refusal, but rather a day later after he dreamed of Brienne. —Laura
Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) pleads with Shae (Sibel Kekilli) to be a grownup about this, already. Photo: Helen Sloan
Thanks, as ever, for your terrifyingly knowledgeable recap, Laura. This episode’s a bit weird: The two installments that series creator George R.R. Martin has written previously (season one’s “The Pointy End” and season two’s “Blackwater”) were the strongest hours of their seasons. But this one, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” didn’t feel that way. I suspect that’s because the series is starting to get bogged down in the same stuff—a million characters, a whole lot of incremental plot advancements—that can make Martin’s books sometimes feel like a slog. Seeing as how Martin wrote it, it probably shouldn’t have surprised me that this episode was dominated by one of his favorite themes: the deflated sense of human frailty demonstrated by characters doing things even though they should really know better. Chief among them is Sansa, who interrupted what was otherwise a nicely masochistic moment of self-awareness (“Stupid! Stupid little girl with stupid dreams who never learns!”) by immediately reverting back into a stupid little girl with stupid dreams who never learns. Seriously, Sansa—as Margaery points out, Tyrion’s kind of a catch, but you’re still fixated on Loras, who I’m pretty sure even you know is gay? And you do this after you acknowledge you have a problem with the “believing in fairy tales” thing? (I keep expecting Margaery to smack some sense into Sansa; the fact she hasn’t makes me think she must have some sort of nefarious plan, probably involving Sansa’s gullibility.)
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, turns out that Daenerys hearing the word “slaves” automatically switches her into Abraham Lincoln mode, kinda like Marty McFly being called “chicken”. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to fight or not, because regardless, Marty is going to fight them. In Dany’s case, her decision to free every slave who’s ever existed is, it must be noted, 1,000 percent morally admirable. It’s also, as Jorah points out, tactically stupid. For someone who’s declared herself a queen, it seems like she should be smarter with her time and resources–
–am I the only one who heard the Yunkai offer of ships and wanted to shout GO, GO NOW! GO TO WESTEROS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! It’s like looking back at the beginning of the Iraq War. George W. Bush talked a good game about being liberators, too, but if you commit yourself, as a military leader, to ending every injustice everywhere in the world, it’s a battle that will never end, as anyone who suffered through the tedium of Dany’s non-adventures in Books 4 and 5 can attest. There are only so many battles you can fight at once, and if you spread yourself too thin, the ones you need to win at home often go by the wayside as a result.
Yes, yes, Dany is America. Also, she’s never going to get to Westeros if she insists on righting every wrong in Essos. If I’m remembering correctly from the books, Dany’s “siege” of Yunkai involves a whole lot of exhilarating sitting, but given how awesomely intense and terrifying her dragons have become (THEY’RE VELOCIRAPTORS WITH WINGS! YEAH!), I’m hoping the show heads a different direction with it. Oh, and two other people did stuff they should know better than to do: Theon and Shae.
Theon’s weakness has always been the ladies. To the extent that, even after what feels like about six months of being psychologically destroyed and brutally tortured, he’s still more than happy to forget about all the danger he’s in as soon as two naked women show up and start to clearly, obviously, and sexily lead him into a trap. On the upside, the trap begins with a three-way, which is obviously the best kind of trap; on the downside, the trap ends with castration, which is… less than ideal. In fact, this scene ends with the only time I can ever remember Game of Thrones actually fading out of focus so it wouldn’t show something gruesome. Would Theon’s Varys-ification have happened even if he had the common sense not to fall for the old two-girls-you-don’t-know-suddenly-want-to-bone-you-in-a-dungeon trick? Probably. Does the fact that Theon still (dumbly) fell for it mean that he’s still got enough Theon in him that he’ll keep being tortured? Yes.
And finally, c’mon, Shae. You know how the world works! You can’t really be surprised that Tyrion’s getting married off to serve his father’s political aims! You know Tyrion’s telling you the truth when he tells you he still loves you! You know this is still probably the best possible outcome, given the circumstances! Ugh, stop being such a Sansa about this. —Erik
What happens to Theon is horrible, but it also points to how central sex often is to the show and its characters; and despite the show’s tendency to throw random female naked prostitutes at the screen, I can’t deny that its depictions of sexuality keep getting more complex, and at times even progressive. Both Margaery and Tormund Giantsbane–Tormund Giantsbane!–offer up legitimately good sex advice this episode: Tormund on the importance of foreplay, and Margaery on why looking like a hero in a fairy-tale isn’t a pre-requisite for being sexy, sexual, or good in bed. I loved Margaery’s comments in particular, not only because they cast aside the “Tyrion is so ugly” refrain of the books (in deference to the fact that Peter Dinklage is a total hottie), but also because they acknowledge what very little of our entertainment does: that in reality humans desire all kinds of bodies and people, not just the impossibly tall, slender Lorases and Cerseis of the world.
It’s not a message we hear very often, which is damaging to both people who don’t meet that unbelievably narrow standard of beauty (see: 99% of us) but also to our notions of what we’re “allowed” to want. Margaery Tyrell is perhaps the sexiest woman on the show, and she wants Sansa to know: Tyrion Lannister is A++ bangable, and whatever kneejerk cultural prejudice tells us that he can’t be desirable because he isn’t a six-foot knight with flowing golden locks is absolute crap.
Yeah, but as great as Margaery’s scene might’ve been in this episode, let’s not forget that Game of Thrones still relies really heavily on stereotypically pretty people. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely prefer the way the show handles sex to the way Martin handles it. He’s an incredibly skilled writer, but sex scenes are not, shall we say, his greatest skill. Or his second-greatest skill. Or his forty-seventh. The series isn’t even finished yet, and I’ve read way more than I ever wanted to about nipple twisting and vaginas being referred to as “Myrish swamps,” let alone Sam’s… oh, man… “fat pink mast.”
And I also think it’s worth remembering that even with this episode’s Margeaery and Tormund scenes, this is still an episode that happily included a scene featuring two traditionally beautiful women seducing a man—which basically played out like a scene from the Westeros edition of Penthouse Forum. (“I never thought this would happen to me, but there I was, being sadistically tortured, when suddenly two beautiful girls….”) It’s nice to see Margaery pointing out something the rest of us figured out around puberty, but it’s not like the show hasn’t largely stuck to showing only traditionally beautiful people getting naked.
Speaking of which, we’ve talked about objectification parity before in these recaps; in that regard, I imagine you were stoked to see more of Robb than we’ve seen before, from his ass to his abs—abs which were so well defined that I found them kind of terrifying-
-ly hot! More importantly, can we talk for a second about the potentially enormous importance of Talisa’s pregnancy, not just for the show but for the books? You will not be shocked to hear, given the insane complexity of characters and plotlines in A Song of Ice and Fire that there are many fan theories, but here’s one that just got more important: the potential secret pregnancy of Jeyne Westerling.
There are numerous mentions of Jeyne and Robb trying to get pregnant—and both Jeyne’s prettiness and wide child-bearing hips—but when Jaime meets her later, he describes her as not as pretty as expected and with narrow hips, leading to the theory that she was replaced by her younger sister (or another girl) after the Red Wedding and is currently be in hiding and carrying Robb’s child. I personally thought it was a bit of a longshot… at least till GRRM just wrote an episode where Robb’s wife was pregnant! Of course, the real test of its significance is whether or not she dies in the Red Wedding. If she doesn’t, and escapes with Robb’s future heir inside her—let’s just say that theory gets a lot more plausible.
I have no doubt that a great number of Game of Thrones fans have spent a great amount of their time doing their damnedest to somehow make an already exceedingly complicated narrative even more complex. And sure! Okay! Maybe the conspiracy theory is true! (That said, I feel like if we don’t have pretty good evidence for anything in the books by now, then it’s probably not going to come up—with only two books left, Martin should be paring things down, not relying on plot twists that only .023 percent of readers are going to pick up on.)
Then again, what do I know: A while ago, I’d have written off the possibility of Aegon Targaryen still being alive as a similarly obscure and pointless theory, but boom, then he popped up in A Dance with Dragons. So yeah, maybe that’s a possibility? But even though it probably marks me as a man of simple tastes, I have to admit I’m less interested in secret subplots than I am in stuff like Dany finally getting some good use out of her flying velociraptors.
Follow Laura (@laura_hudson) and Erik (@erik_henriksen) on Twitter.
