Anyway, let’s start with one of the better sequences. Bran’s “training” with the Three-Eyed Raven is still providing some important insight. The series itself has never really addressed the history of Robert’s Rebellion or the circumstances that led to many of the conflicts we’ve regularly seen over the six seasons, and so its really intriguing to experience these things alongside Bran. In the vision we see a young Ned Stark, and what a great casting -this actor has the looks, accent, and general mannerisms of Sean Bean! He and some knights are at a castle in Dorne fighting a knight who presumably has Ned’s sister Lyanna captive. Once again Bran wants to see more, but the Raven takes him out of it just as Ned charges the castle. Great tease there, Raven. It’s also worth noting that while Bran remembered Ned telling this story one way, it actually unfolded a little differently, again casting doubt on Ned’s legacy as wholly honourable.
Honour has all but begotten most of the people in King’s Landing. We see Anton Lesser back as Qyburn taking over Varys’ ‘little birds’ and sending them out to spy for Cersei. We see the small council populated now by great acting veterans. Julian Glover is still hanging on as the befuddled Pycelle, the only character there to be in the same place he was in season one. Diana Rigg is back and as snappy as ever as Olenna, with Roger Ashton-Griffiths as her son Mace. And it’s also great to see Kevan Lannister again -I’ve only seen Ian Gelder in a couple of shows, this one included, but he always seems to have a significant presence, so I want to see more of him. Cersei and Jamie try to intrude on the council and raise issue concerning the recent revolution in Dorne, but out of distrust and disrespect, they all leave. It’s a nice testament to the shift in power in King’s Landing. Elsewhere, Tommen attempts to be more assertive to the High Sparrow demanding his mother be allowed to see Myrcella’s tomb, but the Sparrow explains some religious mumbo-jumbo to him that backs him down. There’s probably some decent religious commentary in that.
Tyrion is still dealing with uprising in Mereen but at least Varys managed to gather some information. We never really see the means by which Varys extracts information, so for the first time we get an idea of his intimidation tactics. It was especially interesting when he subtly threatened the son of the woman he was interrogating. He may have said he would never torture, but remember that guy he kept locked in a crate? On Tyrion’s front it’s very clear the writers want to put him in every episode but may not have enough material, as he essentially just tries to make small talk for some minutes before Varys comes in and reveals all the slaving cities are apparently financing the Sons of the Harpy. Their Queen is far away from those cities and I’m still disappointed where her story is going. Once upon a time Dany’s story was really exciting to follow but now she’s just been put in a temple with the other Khal widows and with no sign of her power returning in the near future, it’s pretty dull. On the bright side we finally get to see Sam and Gilly (still waiting for Littlefinger and Bronn) travelling by sea to Sam’s home of Horn Hill. He wants to keep her and her baby safe there while he learns to be a maester at the boys-only Citadel. Though she’s insistent she stay by his side at first (which is always adorable), she soon sees his point -in between bouts of Sam vomiting.
Somewhere to the east of Sam is Braavos where the Faceless Men train and...I’m just going to come right out and say it, I hated Arya’s sight restoration! Rather than let the character grow with her shortcoming, use it to her advantage, and perhaps even become a better Faceless person because of it, it was decided to just give Arya her sight back after she answers one question right; a question she’d probably be able to get right had she been asked a season ago. It annoys me because not only is it robbing the show of a blind character who may resonate more with a visually impaired audience, but it seems so pointless. What was the point of blinding Arya last season if this was just going to happen within three episodes? You could have just had Jacqen cast her out for her selfishness and achieved much the same result. Her hardship would have been lessened a bit sure, but by just reneging on such an interesting character development it’s almost as bad as flying Dany all the way back to season one. And it’s even more disappointing because Arya’s one of my favourites and I hate seeing her character used so lazily!
I much preferred the goings-on in Winterfell this week surprisingly enough. Ramsay’s trying to unite the North meeting with the leader of House Umber who can see right through Ramsay’s bullshit and I love it. He knows exactly Ramsay’s intentions and despite Ramsay’s insistence his father was poisoned, Umber knows who murdered him. He’s also very clever, not trusting to bow or swear allegiance to Ramsay considering he saw where that got Robb Stark. I actually look forward to seeing this guy be a good foil to Ramsay. Unfortunately he does bring Ramsay a gift which as soon as I saw was two people, I knew this was bad. Though they’ve seemingly been forgotten for almost three seasons, Osha and Rickon Stark are back, and in the hands of Ramsay! Here’s hoping Natalia Tena and a much more grown Art Parkinson weren’t brought back purely for death or torture.
And what else happened this week? Oh yeah, Jon Snow. Jon awakens remembering being betrayed, and shocked to be alive. After reuniting with Tormund, Edd and his other loyalists he arrests the traitors and hangs them making for a really good scene. Say what you will about Alliser Thorne, but he lived by his principles and told Jon he would do it again knowing it would lead to his death. He actually accepts his fate and by standing by his beliefs it almost makes him noble. The one that breaks Jon’s heart though is Olly who just gives him this look of hate. What’s sad is you can understand where Olly comes from, hell we saw his traumatic experience with Wildlings and the reason for his immense hatred of them. But the poor boy with so much promise had to die, and it may be the reason for Jon’s subsequent decision. He gives the Lord Commanders coat to Edd and leaves, declaring his watch has ended. Which technically it has considering the oath specifies they serve until death and he’s already died. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks somehow he’ll be back. We need him to kill Ramsay after all.
So “Oathbreaker” though mostly still build-up delivers on a few respects. We see the traitors of the Nights’ Watch get what’s coming to them and Rickon now being a captive of Ramsay is certainly gripping. And the exploration of the Stark history that Bran is bearing witness to is great. But I just can’t agree with what they did with Arya; and that with a few other choices, like the pointlessness of Dany’s plot, Tommen, and how slowly the plot in Mereen is progressing, make this probably the least of the season so far. Still generally good though. As ever with Game of Thrones, there may be a point to it all. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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