That’s What Ygritte SaidWeekly Game of Thrones Musings by Sam Ryu

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Not to make hyperbolic statements or anything but... last week’s episode (S4E5, the one I’m writing about in this newsletter) might be the most important Game of Thrones episode up to this point—if not from a structural point, then definitely from a story/plot one. I want to emphasize: not the best or even the most shocking episode, but the most important. Why? Because it revealed that Lord Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish was the impetus for and the mastermind of almost all of the events that we’ve witnessed in the past four and half seasons of this show. Or to use Matrix terms, he is The Architect. You could see him almost break the fourth wall and wink at the audience as Lysa Arryn spewed the revealing truth into his ears. In S3E4, Varys said, “Littlefinger is one of the most dangerous men in Westeros [...] But he would see this country burn if he could be king of the ashes.” So if you didn’t take Littlefinger seriously then, you have to now. (Detailed breakdown of his master plan below.) If he keeps playing the game like he is now, he will end up being king of more than just the ashes. The reason this reveal is so great is because no one saw it coming. Before this episode, Lysa Arryn was a fringe character (absent since S1E8) we’d written off as Catelyn’s crazy sister who still breastfeeds her way-too-old-for-breastfeeding son. And Littlefinger, while entertaining and skin-crawling as hell, was an overzealous ladder climber with creepy facial hair from a minor house. Now, they are as powerful and influential as the Tywin Lannisters of Westeros.

——————————————————————————————————————Season 4, Episode 5 — “First of His Name”

I’m mostly going to focus on the ramifications (in hindsight) of Littlefinger as The Architect, but there were some really good moments in this episode—though surprisingly little of the new king, Tommen “Baratheon” for whom the title of the episode is named. We got some A+ horse acting from Podrick’s steed, Arya showing off her moves in Step Up 6: All Men Must Die, Oberyn the poet (or is he scheming something with pen and paper, behind his desk à la Tywin and the Red Wedding?), Sansa eating more lemon cakes, and a Jon Snow/Ghost reunion (d’awww). Also, step aside Daenerys Targaryen—Hodor is the new Breaker of Chains. (Hodor!)

May 11, 2014

Let’s start with a question. Why is Cersei being nice (and generally less cunt-y) in this episode? I don’t doubt that she’s being genuine in her protectiveness over Tommen with Margaery, and her sense of family duty with Tywin, or her sadness over Myrcella (her daughter, currently with the Martells in Sunspear) with Oberyn. But what do those three conversations have in common? She has something to gain. She wants Tyrion dead. The three judges for Tyrion’s trial? Mace Tyrell (Margaery’s father, with whom she will discuss about becoming queen again), Tywin Lannister, and Oberyn Martell. I see you, Cersei.

Quick Hits: Remember how Jon explained that the signal for all the wildlings to attack the Wall was when Mance Rayder lights “the biggest fire the North has ever seen”? What if they mistake Craster’s Keep burning as that “biggest fire”? Another lesson for Arya from Headmaster Hound of the Hard Knock Academy. Arya, meet the backside of the Hound’s left hand.

All this talk of Lannister insolvency has gotten the B.S.-in-business-from-USC inside me hot and bothered. Tywin admits to Cersei that House Lannister is broke and basically has been doing the Westerosi equivalent of printing money for the past three years (roughly since the most recent war began). Even the powerful Tywin Lannister knows not to mess with the Iron Bank of Braavos, to which he is a “tremendous amount” in debt. The Lannisters derive a lot of their power from their perceived wealth (“A Lannister always pays his debts.”), so what happens when the Iron Bank comes to collect? Or if the Iron Bank funds the Lannisters’ persistent enemy, Stannis Baratheon? The Lannisters can’t even ask for sub-prime loans from their closest and richest (current) ally, House Tyrell, because that would show weakness and maybe even cause the Tyrells to reevaluate their alliance-via-marriage of their two heirs Margaery (betrothed to Tommen) and Loras (betrothed to Cersei). But the most underrated tangent to House Lannister’s financial woes might be that Littlefinger, during his stint as Master of Coin, purposely buried the Iron Throne in debt on debt on debt. Looks like Littlefinger has his (little)fingerprints all over this mess.

Fun Trivia: Game of Thrones has shown it is not afraid to recast certain roles. Apparently they don’t have a problem giving castles between-season makeovers either. Check out the new and improved Eyrie (the castle of House Arryn, in the Vale) compared to the old one from Season 1 (left).

May 11, 2014

The Saga of Petyr Baelish and Lysa ArrynNow let’s talk about these crazy kids, Littlefinger and Lysa Arryn. Littlefinger (originally from the Vale) has been in love with Lysa’s sister, Catelyn, since he was a kid. Catelyn went on to marry into the powerful Stark family of the North, while Lysa married into the Arryns of the Vale. This all happened before the timeline of the show started, but apparently Littlefinger and Lysa have since been busy behind the scenes. Let’s do a chronological cause-and-effect breakdown:

Cause: Lysa poisons and kills her husband, Jon Arryn, who was acting as Robert Baratheon’s Hand.Effect: Robert travels north to Winterfell to ask Ned Stark to be his new Hand of the King. This also means that Jaime and Cersei didn’t kill Jon Arryn, despite him knowing about their twincest.

Cause: Lysa Arryn, who fled back to the Vale from King’s Landing after Jon’s death, writes a letter to Catelyn saying that she suspects the Lannisters are responsible for the poisoning.Effect: Ned, who was comfortable in Winterfell and never wanted to be Hand of the King, is driven by his sense of duty to accept the position and try to figure who killed Jon Arryn (who was a father figure to both him and Robert. This sets all the pieces in place for Littlefinger.

Cause: After Bran is pushed off the tower, Littlefinger arms an assassin with his Valyrian steel dagger to kill Bran. When asked by Catelyn whose dagger it was, Littlefinger says it once belonged to him, but he lost it to Tyrion. Blame for the failed murder attempt is now redirected to Tyrion.Effect: Catelyn believes Littlefinger’s lie and takes Tyrion as prisoner. This in turn angers Jaime (he really does love Tyrion), which leads to the massacre of Stark men, a spear through Ned’s knee, and ultimately Ned being taken as a prisoner and losing his head.

Cause: Littlefinger promises Catelyn both Sansa and Arya back if she releases Jaime—despite him not knowing where the hell Arya is.Effect: Catelyn does the motherly thing and agrees. This causes discord in the northern army and eventually leads to a lot of the northern lords withdrawing their support for Robb Stark’s cause.

So basically, blame Littlefinger for everything going wrong (in his favor). What do you do when you come from a minor house with no land, power, or army? Littlefinger pits the two strongest houses (Lannister and Stark) against each other, weakening both sides. He then secretly marries a crazy lady with a lot of power and an impregnable castle (it looks like they got married around the time the show started), and uses her weird obsession for Littlefinger’s little finger to manipulate her to do whatever he wants her to do—including betraying her entire family (minus Robin). This explains why Lysa didn’t send troops to help Robb’s forces and why she didn’t go to her own dad’s funeral. And because that isn’t enough chaos, he masterminds the death of King Joffrey. Well played.

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May 11, 2014