Where is Stannis in the rear commanding the battle from atop a high hill? Where is the clash of navies on Blackwater Bay? Where’s Tyrion’s chain? Where’s…
Uh, never mind. Feast your eyes on the beautiful, beautiful wildfire explosion that shot Game of Thrones into the cultural stratosphere.
Welcome back to Watchers on the Wall’s Memory Lane series where each and every Game of Thrones episode is reviewed prior to the start of Season 6! I’m BryndenBFish, and I’ll be your tour guide for this episode. What was all that book wankery at the start? We’ll touch on all that at the end. For now, we’ll be looking back to 2012 and Game of Thrones’ penultimate episode that saw Stannis Baratheon and Tyrion Lannister meet in epic battle. Directed by Neil Marshall and penned by George R.R. Martin himself, “Blackwater” is Game of Thrones at its absolute finest. Instead of focusing on multiple locations and storylines, “Blackwater” directs our entire attention to one location: King’s Landing.
We open to Davos Seaworth and Stannis Baratheon staring into a dark and uncertain horizon as hundreds of ships follow them towards King’s Landing. Below-deck, Stannis’ men huddle in miserable conditions. This was a particularly nice touch on the part of the showrunners. Watching the common men suffering in putrid conditions as great lords stand atop them in the fresh air emphasized the social stratification of Westeros and the terrible condition of the common people in war.
Davos and his son Matthos have a brief conversation above-deck which displays the contrast between Davos’ realism and Matthos’ true-beliefism. Davos fears sailing against the royal fleet after avoiding it for most of his smuggling career. Matthos emphasizes that this is the royal fleet. High Captain Davos makes the point that there are several royal fleets and King’s Landing’s defenders see them as instruments of destruction. This sense of ambiguity that Davos gives is simply glorious and filters into our perceptions as watchers and fans. This is not Battle of Helm’s Deep with ten thousand ugly Uruk-Hai there to end all human life. We don’t know who to root for in the battle to come. There are heroes and villains on both sides of this battle, and while we all want Joffrey gone, we don’t necessarily want Stannis to win.
We flash next to two vignettes of Tyrion and Shae, and Cersei and Grand Maester Pycelle, awaiting Stannis’ attack and why we as watchers maybe don’t want Stannis to win this battle. Tyrion and Shae’s scene focuses on Tyrion’s fear of being burned for being a Lannister and having “no choice” in the matter of defending the city. Cersei and Pycelle’s scene focuses on the start of Cersei’s drunk as she drinks wine while Pycelle gives a boring lecture on the role of maesters and his personal history as Grand Maester. Cersei cuts his story off to get to the point of why Pycelle is there: to give Cersei nightshade. Ominously, as Pycelle sounds off on what each number of nightshade drops will do, Cersei stops him at “ten” and tells Pycelle that she knows what ten drops of nightshade will do.
Next, we get to Bronn’s preparations for the Battle. Instead of fixating on fear and death, Bronn has a celebratory nonchalance on facing battle. Bronn and his men sing “The Rains of Castamere” as pretty prostitutes service him and his men. This is only broken by the arrival of Sandor Clegane and we get our first truly tense moment of the episode as Bronn and the Hound nearly come to killing blows over their conflicting views of what they love. As it turns out, they both love killing, but their near-duel comes to a ringing stop as the bells sound signaling the arrival of Stannis.
The bells continue to ring as Podrick Payne armors Tyrion for battle. Varys stands ominously at the windowsill and tells Pod and Tyrion that he hates bells as they ring for “horror, a dead king, a city under siege.” Tyrion helpfully adds “a wedding” to Varys’ list of awful events that ringing bells signify. (Hello foreshadowing!) Varys then presents a map of King’s Landing’s tunnels to Tyrion and explains that the Targaryens built fifty miles of tunnels under King’s Landing to survive in the event of a siege. Putting on a brave face, Tyrion states that he’s not escaping and he’ll be going down with the ship of King’s Landing which Varys shrugs off as something a ship captain usually says when the ship is still afloat. Varys then reports that Stannis has a red priestess with him and begins to tell the story of his castration but stops unhelpfully before he starts. He finally emphasizes the point that Tyrion is the only person who can stop someone who uses magic like Stannis from taking the city. All armored up, Tyrion grabs an ax and prepares for battle.
Drums! Matthos believes that King’s Landing is welcoming Stannis to the city, but Davos knows better. Davos calls for his own music and Matthos (infamously) screams “DRUMS!” The drums beat and Stannis’ men rush to the top deck.
In the Red Keep, everyone makes their final goodbyes. Bronn and Tyrion share quips, Sansa tells Tyrion she’ll be praying for him as she prays for the king, Tyrion and Shae share a secret goodbye and good king Joffrey psychopathically makes Sansa kiss his sword. Sansa then hilariously mocks Joffrey for not leading the vanguard as her brother Robb does. It’s a great bit of acting by Sophie Turner. Her subtle smiles and sarcastic eyes at Joffrey’s false-bravado do 90% of the acting, and it’s wonderful to watch.
Scenes of chaos unfold as Joffrey and Tyrion make their way to the walls. In the distance, Stannis’ drums pound. Joffrey displays his tactical ineptitude and questions Tyrion over where the ships are and why they aren’t sailing against Stannis. An amusing scene follows as Tyrion gives his reason for being on the walls as not really in it for Joffrey — Tyrion’s in it to save his own head from being mounted next to Joffrey’s. Foreshadowing events from later in the episode, a passing soldier rushes past Sandor Clegane with a torch in hand, and the Hound flinches at the fire.
In the Maidenvault, Sansa and Shae quietly confer over why Cersei wanted them there. Cersei, well into her cups already, ushers Sansa forward and gets weird. Cersei’s fixation on death from earlier in the episode continues here as she inappropriately asks Sansa if she’s still flowering. When Sansa notices Ilyn Payne in the room and asks why he’s here, Cersei cryptically tells Sansa that he’s there for their “protection.” This is immediately dispelled when thievery is reported and Cersei orders Ilyn to take care of the thieves.
And now we get to the greatest scene that Game of Thrones ever created. Stannis’ fleet makes its final approach to King’s Landing and a single ghost ship emerges from King’s Landing. Leaking wildfire out onto the bay, the ship drifts out to the middle of Stannis’ fleet. Tyrion throws a torch out to Bronn and the sellsword fires a single fire arrow into the waters. Here, the direction is simply fantastic. The music builds and builds until Bronn fires his shot. The sound of the fire arrow sailing through the air silences Ramin Djawadi’s building music. Davos and Tyrion watch the arrow arc towards the oozing wildfire, both wondering what’s about to unfold. What happens next is pure cinematic awesomeness. Wildifre burns through the water and explodes into a giant green fireball that engulfs two thirds of the screen. Matthos is swallowed by green flame while Davos is blown overboard as sheer panic and horror wrap around Stannis’ fleet. Joffrey and Pyromancer Hallyne look down on the scene of destruction with sociopathic joy while Tyrion, to his eternal credit, looks horrified at the thousands of men burning and drowning to death on the Blackwater.
Defeat seems certain for Stannis Baratheon. His men are burning, his fleet is destroy, but Stannis will break before he bends. Casting off his black cape, he walks faces away from the scene of destruction and walks toward the lower deck of his ship. His squire (Imry Florent) informs Stannis that there’s fire, archers and that “hundreds will die.” In this scene, Stephen Dillane best resembles Martin’s book character, as he shrugs, grits his teeth and flatly states, “thousands.” He throws down the net to his smaller landing craft and turns to find his men awaiting orders. Channeling that same character from the books, Stannis awkwardly shouts at his men to “Come with me and take this city!” To probably Stephen Dillane’s surprise, the men cheer his charge and everyone descends onto boats and into the chaotic waters.
Back in the Maidenvault, Cersei’s drunk takes on college-bender levels. She notices Sansa holding hands with other women and asks what she’s doing. When Sansa reports that she’s praying, Lena Headey begins acting up a storm. Retorting, “You’re perfect,” Cersei begins sarcastically needling Sansa for her belief in the gods, their goodness and how her father believes in the gods but doesn’t like them. This needling turns shocking as Cersei tells Sansa that she would seduce any man other than Stannis if they came up to the Red Keep. The shock then morphs into cruel realism as Cersei tells Sansa that if Stannis wins, all the women in the Maidenvault will be up for a spot of rape. Fortunately for Sansa, her red flower will prevent her from conceiving any bastard children. Sansa begins chugging wine.
Leading his men into battle, Stannis Baratheon leans on the prow of his landing craft, sword in hand. Tyrion orders his archers to engage Stannis’ army with more fire arrows and then orders Sandor Clegane to lead a detachment of men to meet Stannis army on the beach. As Sandor descends down the steps, he grabs the master archer and tells him, “If any of these flaming fucking arrows comes near me, I’ll strangle you with your own guts.” It’s all lovely writing. Stannis hits the beach first and begins jogging towards the walls as arrows fall on Stannis’ men. The scene is pure chaos as Stannis and his men literally hit the wall. Here, the prosthetic department begins to shine. A rock is thrown from the walls and smashes the head of one of Stannis’ men, spraying the king with blood.
Sandor’s men sortie forward into the advancing Baratheon troops as the Hound shouts “If any man dies with a clean sword, I’ll rape his fucking corpse!” A scene of chaotic sword fighting ensues and the Lannisters and Baratheons sustain casualties. Lancel Lannister takes an arrow to the arm and lets out a strange yelp of pain and runs away from the battle.
Cersei bemoans her circumstances as a broodmare who was old off to Robert, and we get another near-showdown between Cersei and Shae. Cersei begins to question Shae’s background and asks questions that might lead the queen to find out Shae’s true identity until Lancel bursts in and informs the party that the Lannisters are losing the battle. Cersei demands that Joffrey be brought back to the Red Keep. She then turns back to Sansa and tells her the truth about Ilyn Payne. He’s there not to defend the women in the Maidenvault. He’s there to kill them if Stannis takes the city.
We next return to scenes of horror and chaos as Sandor fights wildly outside of the gates. A burning man rushes towards Sandor and paralyzes the Hound in fear. Sandor beats a retreat back through the gates. Stannis brings ladders forward and personally leads his men up them and kills a slew of Lannister men on the gates. We then get Rory McCann at his Sandor best as he tells Tyrion to “eat shit” after Tyrion yells at him that he’s on the wrong side of the wall. When Joffrey commands Sandor to attack Stannis again, Sandor then famously tells Tyrion and Joffrey, “Fuck the Kingsguard. Fuck the city. Fuck the king.” Stannis’ men then begin ramming the gates as Lancel arrives back at the wall and tells Joffrey that Cersei demands that he return to the Red Keep. Joffrey cowardly rushes away from the battle.
As the battle begins to truly turn against the Lannisters, Tyrion stands in front of the last of his men as doubt plays across their faces and realizes the enormity of his situation. Almost to himself, Tyrion says, “I’ll lead the attack.” After a half moment, he shouts louder to those in earshot, “I’ll lead the attack!” In an echo of Eddard Stark’s “the only time a man can be brave is if he’s afraid,” Tyrion gives the battle speech of a lifetime:
Don’t fight for your king, don’t fight for his kingdoms, don’t fight for honor, don’t fight for glory, don’t fight for riches because you won’t get any. This is your city Stannis means to sack, your gate he’s ramming. If he gets in, it will be your houses he burns, your gold he steals, your women he will rape. Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let’s go kill them!
The men raise their swords and Tyrion leads them to battle through the tunnels that Varys conveniently informed Tyrion about at the start of the episode.
In the Maidenvault, Lancel reports that the battle is lost. He tells Cersei that he wants to take Joffrey back to the battle, and when he persists, Cersei punches him in the place where the arrow pierced him earlier. Cersei marches out of the Maidenvault with Tommen in tow. Shae tells Sansa to get out of the Maidenvault, and she rushes back to her chamber to find a shaken Sandor Clegane waiting for her. The Hound tells Sansa that he’s going to someplace that isn’t burning and tells Sansa that he might head north. He wants to take Sansa with him back to Winterfell, but Sansa refuses.
Tyrion leads his men out from under the tunnel and they take a detachment of Stannis’ army in the rear. Tyrion and his Lannisters rout Stannis army ramming the gate and burn the ram. But as the Lannisters chant “Halfman! Halfman!”, another detachment of Stannis’ infantry rushes at them. More chaotic battle is joined. Above the fray, Stannis continues taking out more Lannisters. Below, Tyrion confronts Ser Mandon Moore. Ser Mandon steps towards Tyrion and slashes him across the face. He’s only saved when Podrick Payne thrusts his spear through Ser Mandon Moore’s face. Tyrion falls the ground, and Pod rushes to grab Tyrion.
All now seems truly lost for the Lannisters as Tyrion lies on the ground and Cersei cradles her son Tommen on top of the Iron Throne and tells him a story of the mother lion and her little cub who lived in the kingswood amidst “evil” stags and wolves. But then the cavalry arrives. The Lannisters and Tyrells led by Ser Loras Tyrell and Lord Tywin Lannister ride into battle cutting their way through the Baratheon men at arms as Stannis screams at his men to “stand and fight!” Just as Cersei finishes her story to Tommen, she produces the vial of nightshade and brings it up to Tommen’s lips.
Tyrion is lowered to the ground by Pod and closes his eyes. In the Red Keep, the doors burst open and Loras and Tywin walk through “triumphantly.”
“The battle is over,” Lord Tywin roars, “We have won.” The Red Keep fades to black as The National performs “The Rains of Castamere.”
And so he spoke, and so he spoke that Lord of Castamere.
The Battle of the Blackwater from A Clash of Kings is a bit different from the show. Stannis doesn’t lead his men from the front, Tyrion’s chain is nowhere to be found, there’s no burning bridge of ships that Stannis’ men-at-arms charge over to engage Tyrion. But the reality is that the showrunners maintained the emotional core and highlights of the battle. If you’re interested in reading some analytical work on the Battle of the Blackwater, there is none better than Steven Attewell’s recently-completed Blackwater. Start here and work your way through Steve’s chapter-by-chapter analyses. Additionally, three years ago, I did some military analysis on Stannis Baratheon at the battle of the Blackwater that you can find here.
“Blackwater” was a triumph of television. Operating on a limited budget, Game of Thrones pulled off a truly epic episode that was able to show the triumphant stirrings of warfare as well as its horrors. While Season 2 of Game of Thrones was somewhat uneven, “Blackwater” more than made up for any shortfalls of the season. Its expert direction, writing, acting, music, VFX/SFX and prosthetics make this episode a truly stirring piece of television.
Deaths: Matthos Seaworth, Imry Florent, a whole lot of Lannisters and Baratheons.
Notable Quotes:
Bronn: Don’t get killed.
Tyrion Lannister: Nor you, my friend.
Bronn: Oh… are we friends now?
Tyrion Lannister: Of course we are. Just because I pay you for your services doesn’t diminish our friendship.
Bronn: Enhances it, really.
Tyrion Lannister: Oh, “enhances”. Fancy word for a sellsword.
Bronn: Been spending time with fancy folks.
Joffrey Baratheon: Hound, tell the Hand that his King has asked him a question.
Sandor Clegane: The King has asked you a question.
Tyrion Lannister: Sir Lancel, tell the Hound to tell the King that the Hand is extremely busy.
Lancel Lannister: The Hand of the King would like me to tell you to tell the King that…
Joffrey Baratheon: If I tell the Hound to cut you in half, he’ll do it without a second thought.
Tyrion Lannister: That would make me the quarter-man. Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Cersei Lannister: Oh, shut up, you little fool. Praying for the gods to have mercy on us all? The gods have no mercy, that’s why they are gods.
Creative Fandom:
“Those are brave men knocking at our door… Let’s go kill them” by Beautiful Death
Tyrion Lannister: The Hero of Blackwater by MattComGo
Stannis Baratheon with Lightbrighter at Blackwater by WillHarrisArt
Art by geraltciri.tumblr.com
BryndenBFish is the creator of the Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire Blog, a blog and podcast dedicated to political and military analysis of A Song of Ice and Fire. He can be found at twitter as @BryndenBFish.
The post Game of Thrones Memory Lane 209: Blackwater appeared first on Watchers on the Wall.
Via http://watchersonthewall.com
No comments:
Post a Comment