Oathkeeper

Another late one, I will not let it happen again, I swear it by the old gods and the new gods.

A serious deviation from the book, for better or for worse, Oathkeeper will have book readers equally as confused as regular viewers.

Good, it was getting too chummy around here.

Week after week Game of Thrones is becoming a more alternative universe to ASoIAF. The plot points are changing and we are surpassing the reading material slowly but surely. I don’t believe this is necessarily a bad thing.

I love that reading the books and watching the TV show provide two very different experiences. We should always, when watching or reading, always be critical and ask questions and have an educated discussion, but just getting pissed off over unexpected plot changes is really a bitter way to view this incredible franchise and it will not allow you to use critical thinking when analysing the story but rather you will be one of those people who have nothing to say but are really good at spotting bad grammar and punctuation.

Now let’s talk about the episode!

*spoiler alert*

Daenarys takes over Meereen effortlessly with her use of Greyworm, the power of positive motivation and blades. I am not going to make too many real life comparisons, but if I have learned anything from revolutionary leaders throughout history, specially when they favour one group of people and punish another group of people, based on their own judgement of “good vs evil”, we get a kind of great leader but one that despite all their efforts end up being the tragic heroes, hated by many and only remembered by their extremism and questionable morality.

Notable cute couple of 2014 however, Messandai and Greyworm. This ship has sailed. Bon voyage!

The Kingslayer brothers, has a nice ring to it I think, it would make a great heavy metal band. All joking and kidding aside Jaime loves Tyrion theres no doubt about that and Jaime also loves Brienne, he wants her to be safe and theres no way she can be safer than out of kings landing, away from his evil twin sister, with a Valerian steel sword and brand new armour. No one can keep her safer than a well equipped version of herself and a smiling squire who is amazing in bed. What more could a woman want?

Oathkeeper is about that sword, and the quest to get the stark girls back to safety, whatever safety even means for them.

At this point Brienne is more likely to meet up with Arya and the Hound than she is finding Sansa as she is sailing to what we believe to be the Eerie.

Notable cute couple number two, although less likely Brienne and Podrick. You saw the ship sail here first. Au revoir!

But thats not the only ship sailing away.

Sansa maybe a fragile bird, but she is wise not to trust Littlefinger and it is a good thing that she is asking so many questions and not giving into his charms and false sense of home. Out of everyone in the ASoIAF universe, Petyr seems to be the one person who knows that the only way to the iron throne is not by playing the hero, or the breaker of chains, or an army, but rather through manipulation, staying a low threat and removing unpredictable players from the game.

His allays are also people who are in a similar frame of mind. The Tyrells, or at least the Tyrell women understand that they can achieve anything by passing undetected under the radar and sneaking into pre-pubescent teen’s bedrooms at night to share secrets. Not to mention, Olenna’s unexpected confession to Margery, remind us that things are not always as they seem.

The transitions from the different scenes in this episode were well thought out and flawlessly connected.

The most memorable part of the episode is of course, the end. It left viewers all over the globe shocked and confused and theorising what is to come next. For the most part the really is no point cross referencing where we are up to in the books, because what a good TV series does to engage their audience is not same as the techniques that a book uses to engage a reader.

Game of thrones has a big task which is not only use those TV show tools, but also engage people who think they know what is going to happen, and they have succeeded at it. Because I was not for the life of me expecting to see the Night’s king. It is just so wonderful that they are using folk stories from this universe and bringing them to light, making the most out of the source material.