*Episode premise spoilers, which includes spoilers from previous episodes*
It’s the penultimate episode of the season, as well as Joel Fry’s final appearance on Game of Thrones. I hadn’t been sure what to expect revisiting these episodes for Joel Fry-days, but I wound up enjoying myself quite a bit. Let’s get into it!
Stannis has faced numerous challenges trying to reach Winterfell amid the coming winter. The Red Woman has told him what price victory demands, and it’s time for Stannis to decide whether he’s willing to pay it. In Dorne, Jaime and Prince Doran discuss arranging Myrcella’s return to King’s Landing. After training to become a Faceless Man, Arya has been given an assignment, but she’s distracted by the arrival of Ser Meryn Trant, one of the names on her list. Daenerys reluctantly attends the Great Games in Meereen with Hizdahr and Tyrion.
- The episode title comes from Shireen, who’s reading a book about the Dance of Dragons at Stannis’s camp. When the episode first aired, the names and details she shares went over my head, as a lot of the Westerosi historical stuff in the franchise does for me. Now, of course, I recognize this history as the events of House of the Dragon. It’s fun to hear her reference names like Rhaenyra and Aegon.
- As soon as Stannis sends Ser Davos back to the Wall with a message, I knew it was that episode and braced myself for it. Although I’d realized it was coming sometime in season 5, this was another instance where I hoped Joel Fry’s episodes didn’t include this particular scene. Still hard to watch.
- Oberyn will always be my favorite Martell, for obvious reasons, but Doran has his moments. I love his response when Ellaria suggests he’s too cowardly to avenge his brother—“You are mother to four of my nieces, girls I love very much. For their sake, I hope you live a long and happy life. Speak to me that way again, and you won’t.”
- Honestly, I’m glad that these episodes skipped so much of Arya’s plot this season. Because despite her great interactions in the early seasons with Sylvio Forel and Jaqen H’ghar, her storyline in Braavos didn’t live up to expectations for me.
- The most affecting part of Arya’s story here was Meryn Trant’s creepiness at the brothel—looking over each woman the madam brings him and saying in a low, gruff voice, “Too old.” :shudder:
- There were different times in the show when I remember liking Ser Jorah Mormont, but these episodes have not been good for him. One thing that really stands out to me is that his efforts to get back in Dany’s favor reflect how little he understands her. Last time, he came to Daenerys “Breaker of Chains” Targaryen with the announcement that he’s brought her the “gift” of a human being in chains. And now in this episode, we see him taking part in the fighting pits for a second time, seemingly not realizing that Dany thinks the fighting pits are cruel and barbaric. My dude, this is not the way to impress her—stop giving her the “I fight and die for your glory, oh glorious queen” puppy eyes. She doesn’t want that!
Before we get into Hizdahr, a quick note: I knew going into this that Joel Fry and Kristian Nairn wouldn’t be sharing any scenes together, given that their storylines were filmed in different countries! So Our Flag Means Death wouldn’t have been any type of reunion for them. But not only do they have no scenes together—they have no episodes together! Nairn happened to not be in either of Fry’s season 4 episodes, and season 5 was the year that we didn’t get anything at all for Bran/Hodor/etc. So despite both having been on Game of Thrones, Fry and Nairn have just about the least possible amount of overlap between them, which I find amusing.
Fry’s last episode is a pretty good one for him. It’s another episode where the Meereen storyline gets the Big Dramatic Ending, but it’s a nice length—we spend about the last fifteen minutes of the episode on the events surrounding the Great Games. And while the fights in the arena provide a lot of the flash, the conversation up on Dany’s viewing platform provides a lot of the meat.
First, let’s set the scene. Daenerys is plainly disgusted to be there. She’s forced, not just to watch, but to be complicit, with Hizdahr reminding her that she needs to clap to signal the start of each fight. Besides Hizdahr, she’s joined by Daario, Missandei, and Tyrion (now her advisor, having been “gifted” to her by Jorah.) Missandei mostly just watches silently, but the other four interact throughout the fights, and the dynamic between all of them is excellent.
Daario is still on his jealousy thing, talking up his own past fighting in the pits and showing off some light-fingered dagger work—like Jorah, he doesn’t seem to grasp the concept that Dany hates the fighting pits and this is not the way to impress her. He physically crowds Hizdahr’s space to talk to Dany and “playfully” jabs his dagger toward Hizdahr as he demonstrates how he used to beat larger opponents. Hizdahr doesn’t really know what to do with this. While his voice and manner stays mostly polite, he’s definitely not the biggest fan of Daario. Early on, when Darrio talks about betting, Hizdahr coolly replies, “Kings and queens never bet on the Games. Perhaps you should go find someone who does.” And when Daario pulls the move with the dagger, Hizdahr shoots Tyrion a slightly nervous look like, What’s the protocol with dealing with this guy?
Technically Tyrion and Hizdahr cross paths at the end of episode 7, but this is the only time where we see them interact. I guess the good thing about Tyrion’s journey across Essos this season is that it means Joel Fry gets to share one lengthy scene with Peter Dinklage. I just love this bit where Hizdahr smiles at the sight of a bloody death, looks over at Tyrion to “enjoy” the moment together, and realizes Tyrion isn’t having any fun. Hizdahr’s love for the grand tradition of the fighting pits is kind of like people who claim that Confederate flags and monuments are about honoring their “proud southern heritage,” and not one of the other people in this scene agrees with him on that. He engages Tyrion in a philosophical discussion about killing and cruelty, but he speaks in the abstract while Tyrion brings it back to something more immediate and real. As Tyrion listens to Hizdahr, he gives Hizdahr his most polite-sounding insult: “My father would have liked you.”
The Dany-Hizdahr conversation is really great too. She challenges his premise that killing and cruelty are necessary for achieving greatness, looking down on the pit and asking, “That is greatness?” In turn, Hizdahr flips the script, comparing it with her power to wield the might of her army and dragons on any city that she decides deserves it.
As usual, any sense that Hizdahr is the voice of reason or moderation here gets uncomfortable, given the overall racial dynamics of the storyline and his position as a former Master. But while he does make valid points about the bloodshed Daenerys can (and has) wrought, the show doesn’t just rubber-stamp his views here. When Hizdahr asks why Dany gets to be the one who decides what constitutes “a good reason” for people to die, Tyrion responds, “You’re an eloquent man. Doesn’t mean you’re wrong. In my experience, eloquent men are right every bit as often as imbeciles.” Fry’s wordless reaction to this is great!
And that’s a wrap on Hizdahr zo Loraq! Final thoughts on Game of Thrones:
Accent Watch
A light RP.
Recommend?
In General – As before, a cautious yes, provided you can handle the strong explicit content. If you don’t want to watch the whole series and are just interested in Joel Fry’s stuff, it might be best to watch his season 4 episodes, then the whole of season 5. Without the in-between episodes that Hizdahr isn’t in, I’m guessing it’d be a mess to try and follow what’s going on in all these storylines.
Joel Fry – I would, yeah. I wouldn’t have expected that going into this rewatch, since Hizdahr didn’t make much of an impression on me the first time around. But this is a really interesting performance, and it’s quite different from anything else I’ve seen from Fry so far.
Warnings
Strong gore/violence (including sexual violence and human sacrifice,) sexual content, strong thematic elements (including incest,) language (including sexist insults,) violence against animals, and drinking.
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