Game of Thrones 6.01 "The Red Woman" 4/24/2016 [Show Discussion]

A great way to start the GOT season, I thought. Bad craziness in Dorne - very surprising to me to have both Prince Doran and Trystane snuff it within minutes of each other. And a spearpoint out of the face - yikes. And the reveal of the Red Priestess in her chambers at the end… whoa, didn’t see that coming!

Agreed on all that, but maybe the two Sand Snakes just stowed away, or were secretly allowed aboard by sympathetic crew? They weren’t there on the dock when Myrcella got her fatal kiss, were they?

I thought it might kinda be a dragon shape, too, but couldn’t be sure.

Loved the oath-swearing scene, too. Theon’s little nod to Sansa to accept Brienne’s offer, Pod’s gentle prompting with the “meat and mead” line, Brienne’s look of satisfaction - great stuff.

I agree about Cersei’s reaction. I guess she’s just kind of shell-shocked and also resigned to the old prophecy playing out; she can’t bring herself to blame Jaime (and also knows she needs him now more than ever).

Yeah, the dogs seemed like an oversight by the production team. We never see them either killed or running away.

Dany’s scene with Khal Moro was fun. I liked the banter between the khal and his men about the best, er, five best things in the world. Good to hear “It is known” again, too.

Not to mention “Ever fucked a woman with white hair before?” “not since your grandmother”, which was one of the best lines on the show.

The men who deserted after that weren’t necessarily followers of the LoL at all, they were the sellswords. Mel thought that burning Shireen would break the thaw, and she was right about that. What she was wrong about all along was seeing eventual victory for Stannis. Although for instance some of her visions were of Bolton banners burning, that may still come to pass.

I’m not sure what distinction you’re making. I think the straightforward viewing is the correct one. They’re children who don’t understand the real cost of war, they want to get revenge, they see Doran’s wisdom as cowardice and weakness.

The scene in the previous episode (last one of the previous season), I assumed the Dothraki recognized her as a queen when they came across her in that field.

And the oath-swearing was interesting, in that Sansa was unfamiliar with the customs, but Podrick, Theon and Brienne are.

Sansa wasn’t unfamiliar, since clearly she knew the rest of it, she was just stressed and freezing. Being that cold fucks you up, it was a nice touch.

Is the old woman Melisandre’s true form or do you think it’s part of some kind of magic she is preparing to do?

I’m guessing it’s her true form.

Edited to add, perhaps the aging is due to her use of magic?

All three Sand Snakes were on the dock with Ellaria after Myrcella’s boat left. I’m assuming they followed soon after in another boat and slipped on board Jaime’s ship while it was at anchor near King’s Landing.

Yeah, the whole point was to start a war, so killing yet another Dorne prince in King’s Landing pretty much guarantees it.

They keep banging on about how much they loved Oberyn and want to avenge his murder. But then they do horrible things to further this goal, things that Oberyn would never stand for. The distinction I’m making is whether they really mean that (i.e. being idiots who are unintentionally spitting on Oberyn’s memory), or whether they just want to go to war and are using Oberyn’s death as pretense to do that (i.e. don’t care that Oberyn would hate what they’re doing, or at least don’t care nearly as much as they do about starting a war).

I think it’s the former, but it’s more unhinged than stupid. Overcome with rage. At least in Ellaria’s case. The turtles might just be stupid and/or prone to the most violent course of action at all times. I think, in their view, they’re definitely doing it for Oberyn, they’re just not stopping to think about what he’d think about that. I don’t think it’s a pretense.

We were cheated out of a scene of the aftermath of Myrcella’s death where Jaime has to figure out how he’s going to approach this whole Dornish ship/dead princess/Trystane thing. It would explain better where Trystane was and how the turtles got to him, it might make it feel like more of a gut punch because Jaime would say to Trystane “I know you’re a good man, and had nothing to do with this, but Cersei will want revenge, I’m going to keep you safe on this boat until we figure this out, I promise” and then have his protection rendered moot. Leaving out a scene like that makes the whole thing feel rushed.

My assumption is whatever happens Davos will take the black. He has nothing else.

Funny, I was referring to The whore dripping wax on him in the bathtub, I forgot about the golden crown and Dany even said something about him being not true dragon at the time.

He would be perfect on the wall with his skill set.

The Sand Snakes often cite the rape/murder of a family member at the hands of the Mountain under the watch of the Lannisters. The death of Oberyn may have been a catalyst but, in their eyes, they’ve been wronged by the Lannisters over and over again. Oberyn hated the Lannisters too. I think that his death has allowed the Sand Snakes to justify drastic measures to insure the Lannisters are wiped out.

Yeah, that entire family has wanted to wipe out the Lannister family for a while now. The gimp prince was the only one who wasn’t eager for war.

Regarding the confusing sand snakes on a boat logistics, late in the episode, after Jaime gets back and before the sand snakes kill the prince, we see a second scene of a boat in the harbor at King’s Landing. That could have meant either the sand snakes were arriving, or the widower prince was sailing back to Dorn.

While first reading this paragraph, the moment I read “only death can pay for life” I immediately thought of Ghost as the sacrifice. Then you finished the paragraph citing a possible example of one of the dire wolves paying for Bran’s life. So don’t rule out Ghost.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Jon wargs into Ghost while his human corpse is still cooling.

Thanks. I didn’t remember that.

Was warging something that Jon was capable of? I thought that was only Bran who could do that.

I didn’t think the sandsnakes that killed the prince on the boat were the same ones on the dock at the end of last season. I assumed they were just part of the entourage but I could very well be wrong.

In show, only Bran is shown as a warg…other than the few wildlings that is.

There’s only three established Sand Snakes on the show. The three on the dock at the end of last season appeared in last night’s episode. The youngest “Bad Pussy” was the one that shanked the elder Prince’s body guard in the back and is still in Dorne. The other two, Whip and Spear, killed the young prince on the boat.
It was just weird that they just appeared on the boat with no actual explanation.

Very tangential to the ongoing discussion but I wanted to answer this. Even dogs that are gentle by breed characteristic can be vicious by training and handling. The very good book called “Pit Bull Placebo” describes how in the USA slave-holding days, escaping slaves were terrified of being caught by bloodhounds because they were often almost torn apart. Because of that, bloodhounds were the first breed in the USA to earn the reputation as being dangerous dogs.

I think this stands in the show. There was the one scene where they hunted a woman (ex girlfriend?) and he (I forgot his name, the sadistic creep who married Sansa) forced Theon to watch the dogs eat her alive.