It was hard to tell from that scene but later you can see it’s their harpy covered by a Targaryen banner.
I didn’t figure it out until the closing shot of Dani up on the balcony where you could see that the original topper is solid gold but it was covered by a black flag with what might be a dragon on it. The point is something golden was replaced with something black. It wasn’t the best of visual cues.
I may be wrong, but I think they were feeding people parts to the wolf. Beard guy picked up a piece of arm or something.
That was a red three-headed dragon on a black field. The banner of house Targaryen. I finally appreciate HD.
Not necessarily a coincidence. There’s an art to translating verse so that it rhymes. Of course, it means you’re not translating word-for-word and you might be slightly altering the literal meanings but preserving the spirit and intent of the original. Indeed, Gandalf mentions Bilbo’s ability to translate poems or songs from elvish languages to common while making the translated version rhyme. As a linguist, Tolkien would have been very aware if this technique.
Do they speak that language in Meereen? Anyway it was written that way for our benefit; seeing it in English has more impact than seeing the graffito and then reading a subtitle.
Tens of thousands, not millions. Tens of thousands of screaming fanatics. We had this discussion last week. I forget how many people [del]GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR[/del] Mance Rayder has, but if a supposed garrison of 1,000 at Castle Black is enough to give him pause, I do not think it qualifies as a tsunami. More of a gentle breaker lapping up against the shore. I’ll admit that we know nothing about the WW numbers (or much of anything else about them, honestly… have not the Westerosi dealt w/ Walkers before? You’d think there’d be something in the Learned Tomes.).
ETA: My point is not to suggest that these aren’t legitimate reasons for Stannis and Tywin to be concerned about these issues; rather, that we shouldn’t make them more of a threat than they actually are. Also that absolutely no one had armies of one million or more men until the 20th century.
Yes, probably tens of thousands. I think that’s what Jon Snow said to his superiors. I assume Mance figures the Night’s Watch force will be much better disciplined and better equipped than his own.
The idea here is that the White Walkers haven’t been seen in so long that everybody considers them a fairy tale. The Wall and the Night’s Watch did its job until people forgot what they were for.
They’ve said Mance has over 100k. And it is mainly the wall that gives him pause, and the ability of the nightswatch to guard it. Without enough people covering the wall he could eventually get his people across, with enough nightswatch patrolling then there is no way.
Thanks, I in fact had forgotten all about that!
Can someone remind me about Mance Rayder? Is he the leader of a group of wildings?
The biggest problem that Mance has is that there’s no real way to siege Castle Black from his side. The only way to Castle Black is to either climb up the Wall and get picked off by archers, or though a long, easily blocked tunnel. The only way to get through is to have someone attack from the other side. The wildling bunch on the south side has no chance to take on 10,000 men right now, but they could certainly take out 100.
My guess is that’s the Queen (or, who knows, King?) of the White Walkers, due to the crown-like protuberances on its head. Who knows, could even be that this WW was a former *human *monarch before becoming a WW. And we probably just met the newest, no, *oldest *player of the game of thrones…
(All of the above is pure speculation, not based on any foreknowledge whatsoever, since I have none.)
It looked to me like there was a group of them in the blurry distance. The White Walker Elders?
Except, as has been pointed out several times, I was wrong about that. Rorge was last seen at Harrenhal, and never made it to the Wall. My bad.
The thing about Mance Rayder’s army is that it’s not just an army, it’s an entire people on the move. The over 100k figure probably counts non-combatants like children and the elderly. They’re going South to escape from the White Walkers, so it’s both a migration and an invasion.
There was a group in the very blurry distance, but the one we saw up close emerged from the very center of the well-formed line, not unlike on a chess board. I think it’s pretty clear that this ain’t just some wet-nurse.
Regarding the WW’s in general, and to expand on my thoughts of the WW-monarch being a former human monarch…
We just learned how WW’s are made - out of humans. We see that the soldier WW’s ride horses, wear armor and generally look and act a lot like human knights would, but ice-zombier. Seems pretty clear to me that the WW’s were originally part of a kingdom of humans that got transformed into what they are now by some as of yet unknown means, they were largely dormant a while, and now they’re recruiting. Not *that much *different than many of the other contenders for the throne, really.
BTW, I meant to mention that I think it’s now pretty safe to refer to the WW stronghold as Castle White.
Did Jamie give his own sword to Brienne or Jophrey’s? I thought it was Jophrey’s but everyone here seems to think it was Jamie’s. I suppose Joffrey’s sword would be too small for Brienne. I think Jamie’s main motivation for putting Brienne on the road was to get her away from his sister.
I hope we get to see an Arya/Sansa reunion. Bringing them close together but not meeting, like at the red wedding would be a bit much.
The connection between the Arya’s assassin and the other guys in cart was never explained. He paid her for their lives as well as his own. Has it been confirmed that the guy running Caster’s was one of them?
I loved the scene but I have to ask, how did Marge get into Tommen’s room? It’s odd what things don’t pass my suspension of disbelief in a show like this.
Because the Kingsguard really suck at their job. They are zero for three on recently dead monarchs.
Good point.