We’ve had sixty-odd epsiodes of Varys claiming to act in the people’s interest; the most likely explanation is that he really cares about the people’s interests.
I do wonder what happened to the guy he had trapped in the box, though.
While I understand why he spoke of his father first, I actually expected Jon to say something to Jorah about Lady Mormont.
What would be far-fetched but possibly swallowable (like Bronn and Jaime escaping from the river) would be that Cerci wanted rid of the baby but couldn’t bring herself to actually kill it.
Fleabottom is full of really poor people, and undoubtedly babies were being born dead or dying in the first few days all the time. I could see her having someone arrange a swap through a midwife. She gets a dead baby to bury so there’s no questions, she gets out of raising a child of the husband she despises, and she doesn’t have to directly face murdering her own child.
The other women, well, she gets a child and maybe a pouch of coins. Probably better than just having a dead baby.
He doesn’t have a sister. Lyanna Mormont is the niece of Jeor and his first cousin, not his sister.
All that ranting about the start, I forgot about the other thing that bothered me:
What was Tyrion doing just wandering around in fancy attire? And he had all the time in the world to hide from the beach guards, or walk another way, and didn’t bother. It’s like he wanted to be caught.
He did. I was under the impression he had torn it up when he decided to keep Danaerys from being assassinated in the first season, but that doesn’t seem to be shown in the episode. I would imagine he would have gotten rid of it as incriminating evidence. The letter Barristan Selmy got in season 4 many have been a forgery by Tywin. It’s unclear whether the pardon would still be in effect given Jorah’s treason against the Seven Kingdoms.
Why would Robert pardon Jorah for doing what he sent him to do? Robert pardoned him for slave trading because he was supposed to assassinate Dany.
Jorah wasn’t supposed to assassinate Dany, he was just supposed to spy on her. When he received the pardon, he realized he wouldn’t be needed as a spy any more because they were going to assassinate Dany, which he decided to stop.
The timing seemed poor on the part of Varys, since it would have made more sense to given Jorah the pardon once his services were no longer needed after Dany was assassinated.
In any case, whether the pardon was in effect or not, Jorah had at one time been under sentence of death in the Seven Kingdoms. He was also sent into exile on pain of death if he returned twice by Dany, which he violated twice.
I think they’ve mentioned how no one knows how to forge valeryion steel anymore enough times that they don’t have Gendry at least give it a shot - he’s the only blacksmith we’ve seen.
Also, it’s a hammer, not an axe.
He was pardoned for spying on Danaerys and Viserys for the Baratheon court. That’s how he was tipped off about Dany’s assassination attempt.
It was only after Jorah spent a lot of time with Dany that he stopped spying on her and started being a true believer. I’m sure he was “in love” with her while she was a mere Khaleesi, but I’m not sure he stopped spying and became a devotee until after he saw her rise from the ashes of Drogo’s funeral pyre with a clutch of baby dragons.
I’m unsure when he actually received his pardon, but it was after he stopped spying. Planetos Express Mail is very slow. Was that when Barristan the Bold found out and narced on him to Dany?
I’m quite interested in a Varys-Jorah scene this season, because I imagine Jorah was basically one of Varys’s “little birds” during that period in his life.
Would Jorah even have met Lyanna? I am unclear when he fled Westeros.
He stopped spying before the assassination attempt with poisoned wine in the first season, long before Drogo died and Dany got her dragons. The assassination attempt took place because he had passed on the information that Dany was pregnant by Drogo.
No, he received his pardon when he was theoretically still spying. As I said, receiving the pardon is what tipped him off to the assassination attempt, and made him definitively go over to Dany’s side.
That was three seasons later. Different event. The copy of the pardon Barristan was given was probably sent by Tywin. However, when confronted Jorah says it isn’t a forgery and admits to having spied on Dany.
There’s no question Jorah was spying for Varys.
Here’s what bothered me: Why didn’t Davos search the guards’ bodies for the gold he’d just paid them??
Some time after the Siege of Pyke, which was nine years before the Series begins, He had spent several years as a mercenary in Essos before the Series begins.
Lyanna was mentioned in being 10 years old in Season 5, and was played by a 12-year-old actress when she appeared in Season 6. So she might have been 5 or 6 when the series begins.
It’s unlikely Jorah would have met her, and she would at most have been a toddler if he did.
It would be in character for Cercei. She said that she wanted children with a pure bloodline, like the Targy’s used to do. Its forgotten now, due to his extended absence, but Gendry had some fairly mysterious things about him in season 1. He was placed as an Armourer’s apprentice when some unknown person gave said Armourer a large sum of money. Was not Robert, we know he cared fuck all for his illegitimate sprogs, we see him give no aid to Baelish’s prostitute’s daughter, Ned actually made a promise to provide for the girl IIRC. Cercei, hated Robert, and she would have not wanted to see his son on the throne; having the child sent away but looked after would be something she would do.
Certainly, its not as far fetched as Jon suddenly being a bastard Targaryen, with zero setup.
As for Jorah, he served during the Ironborn rebellion, its where he was knighted. This was after Robert had taken over. I suspect he would have seen Lyanna, being one of the Stark bannerman.
Well, Davos was the party leader. Maybe he had Auto-Loot turned on?
I actually thought the same thing when I was watching it, and decided that everyone was focused on the matter at hand and just wanted to get off that beach as quickly as possible before another patrol showed up. The “have the one guy that can fight but uses a big slow weapon sneak up behind them” strategy would not work so well if they were spotted whilst looting a couple of smashed-up gold cloaks.
It was the same sort of decision Bronn made in the last episode when he chose to keep moving instead of stopping to collect his dropped gold.
Lyanna Mormont vs. Lyanna Stark ;).
Another issue with the start: at the end of last week, Drogon had giant barbed arrow deep in his shoulder, and was objecting strenuously as Dany struggled to pull it out.
This week in the opening, no arrow. All better.
To late to add:
Y’know, I rather like this confusion of names. TV shows have a tendency to change names to avoid just that sort of viewer confusion - they want every character to be distinct and memorable. But medieval families of course both tended to reuse the same names over and over again to the point of tedium and when the didn’t, did occasionally borrow names from higher strata in the feudal chain. Having Lyanna Mormont named for her liege lord’s daughter is fairly realistic.
I must have missed the episode when someone called Ned “Lady of Winterfell”. 