Game of Thrones: Dance of Dragons
Words just cannot express how much I’ve been looking forward to this week’s episode of the show. If you’ve been watching from the beginning, then you may have noticed that the 9th episode of the season tends to be the most climactic, and after the intensely frightening army of the dead in episode 8 of this season, the bar was set pretty high.
The episode starts with Stannis’ camp catching fire. Melissandre goes out to see what’s going on and then tents just start burning. The next day Davos tells Stannis the next day that it was a group of men that came during the night to do it, and tells him how negatively it will affect them.
Jon Snow gets to the wall with all the wildlings he’s brought, and after a tense moment where it’s unclear whether or not Aliser intends to let them all through, he finally allows them to enter through the gate. Jon doesn’t feel like the mission was a success because of how many people he lost at Hardhome during the battle. Ollie doesn’t seem to have forgiven Jon yet, and many of his men agree that his plan is too risky.
Stannis wants Davos to go back to Castle Black and demand supplies from the Night’s Watch. Davos is reluctant to go, particularly since he’ll be going alone, but he agrees. As he walks through the camps we see how bad conditions really seem to be for that arm. Davos speaks to Cheryne and gives her a stag he carved. He thanks her for teaching him how to read and informs her that he’ll be leaving.
Jaime is brought to Prince Doran to discuss the situation with Marcella. Doran is upset that he snuck into the country to abduct Marcella, Jaime is upset his niece was threatened. Whilst Doran tries to make peace but Illaria isn’t making it easy and is going out of her way to show she doesn’t support it. They come to the agreement that Jaime can take Marcella back, but she will remained engaged to Tristain and he will accompany her to King’s Landing and take Oberyn’s former seat on the small council. Bronn is also released.
We see Arya out with her oyster cart again, observing the man Jaqen told her about. The man beckons her over to try and buy some of her oysters, but she gets distracted from her task when she sees Lord Mace Tyrell getting off a boat accompanied by a King’s Guardman, Ser Meryn Trant. She continues to follow, and is still tracking him when he visits a brothel that night.
As he’s picking the woman he wants to lie with that night, he says that every one of them is too old until eventually he is brought a very young girl, and he approves her. Arya watches as he takes her off to one of the rooms, and informs the owner that he’ll want another girl the next day as well. Arya is kicked out of the building. When she returns to Jaqen she lies about why she didn’t kill the target, saying he wasn’t hungry. He doesn’t call her out on the lie, but rather sends her off to do her chores after she tells him that she’ll kill the man tomorrow.
Doran warns Illaria about how it’s her last chance to obey and make peace. She talks to Jaime afterward, and the speak briefly about love and about Marcella.
Stannis goes to talk to Cheryne about the book she’s reading that tells the history of the Targaryen battles, otherwise known as the dance of dragons. Stannis talks to her about what he must do to become king, and before he tells her what it is, she tells him he wants to help. He asks her forgiveness, and then she is led to the stake where Melissandre gives the orders to have her burned. She is tied to the stake, and though she cries for help, he doesn’t call them off. Strangely enough, the one to break is Queen Selyse. Though she was never fond of her daughter, she tries to help in the end, but is held back and Cheryne dies.
In Meereen, Daenerys is attending the fighting pits to watch the Great Games accompanied by her adviser Tyrion. She still doesn’t like the tradition of the fighting pits, or that she’s being dragged into the ceremony of it. Dario is shamelessly flirting with Daenerys, keeping her distracted as the first death occurs. Jorah is the next to enter the arena, and she allows the fighting to commence, signalling for the battle to begin. He doesn’t get off to the best start, but eventually he makes his first kill. She has a tough time watching as he almost dies over and over again. Tyrion urges her to stop it, but Hizdar Zo Loraq says she can’t.
Jorah wins the round of the battle and throws a spear up into the audience, piercing one of the Sons of the Harpy. Many men put on their golden Harpy masks in the crowd, and orders. A large fight breaks out. Daenerys and her gaurds are surrounded by countless Harpies. She closes her eyes when it looks like she’s about to be killed, and then in a streak of flame, Drogon comes in, breathing fire and saving his mother, killing a number of Harpies along the way. Daenerys approaches him when he gets injured and does her best to help. He stops, not hurting her, and she reaches out a hand to him. While he’s crouching, she gets on his back and tells him to fly, riding off away from the fighting pits on the back of her dragon. The episode ends with Tyrion watching as they fly away.
As someone who is a big fan of dragons, I have to say that this was an incredibly epic way to end the episode, and it exceeded my expectations. It was so nice to see Drogon come back, and even though there are a lot of really terrible things that have been happening this season (and more than likely, terrible things about to happen) there are some really awesome things happening as well. For those of you who, like me, can’t wait for the season finale next week, be sure to check out HBO’s Game of Thrones for exclusive content to tide you over.
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Posted by Cat Voleur
on Sunday, June 7th, 2015. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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Tags: dragons, game of thrones, hbo
