Queen of the Ashes

“Megan Garber:”

“The cinematography here reminded me, in a strange (but maybe sort of fitting?) way, of Dunkirk—not just the dead-men-walking ideas at play in the martial elements of the skirmish, but also in the way the action was divided: Air as one battlefield—as one domain—and Land as another. And that division, the one made so clear with land-Bronn and air-Dany, was especially appropriate given the stakes of the battle. This wasn’t, after all, just a clash of militaries; it was a clash of philosophies. It was, very broadly, the Lannisters and their gold versus the Targaryen and her principles. It wasn’t right versus wrong—Game of Thrones is much more complicated than that—but it was definitely, in ways both literal and more figurative, “high” versus “low.””

“And so is the episode itself. “The Spoils of War,” like Game of Thrones overall, pays a lot of attention to vision, and to ideas of perspective more broadly.”

“There are Jon and Davos, descending the massive, stone staircase at Dragonstone—their brief scene shot from behind, at a sweeping distance, conveying both their elevation and their descent. There are Sansa and Littlefinger, gazing down at Arya and Brienne as the two fight. The girl finally bests the woman, and the scene concludes with a shot from Brienne’s point of view: Brienne and, with her, the viewer, is looking down at Arya. Arya is looking back at her, triumphant. She is looking triumphantly, by extension, at us.”

“And that’s more than a matter, I think, of clever camerawork. The emphasis on perspective in “The Spoils of War” also brings to the fore one of the longest-running interests of Game of Thrones: identity.”

“What makes someone who they are. What changes a person into someone else.”

“Arya “A Girl Has No Name” Stark, Theon “Reek” Greyjoy, Jon “But Who Is His Mother Really” Snow, Melisandre “The Red Woman” Magiclady, Tyrion “of House Lannister but Also Totally Not of House Lannister” Lannister. Grey Worm, who chooses the name that had been assigned to him. Oh, and also Daenerys “The First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons” Targaryen.”

“Do names matter? Do titles? To what extent do the world’s expectations of someone shape the person that someone becomes? To what extent can experience—can other people—do that shaping? Is Theon Greyjoy, after everything, still Theon Greyjoy? Is he Reek? Is he anything, anymore? Those types of questions emerged with a renewed sense of urgency in “The Spoils of War.””

“Bran informs Meera that “I’m not Bran—not anymore.” Davos, attempting to correct Missandei’s reference to “Lord Snow,” insists that he isn’t a lord. But: “King Snow?” Davos asks. “Isn’t it?” He pauses. “No, that doesn’t sound right. King Jon?” Arya, the prodigal daughter, raises her eyebrow when a distinctly unimpressed Winterfellian guard informs her that “Arya Stark is dead.” (He adds: “Best fuck off.”) But then! Like you suggested, Lenika, when Arya is reunited, after so long, with Sansa, the show hints that she might be becoming herself again. “Finally, a girl is no one,” Jaqen H’ghar had told her, last season. “A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell,” she had corrected him. As she laughs with Sansa, that finally begins to feel true.”

“But the biggest moment, I thought, in a show that loves nothing better than revealing a character to be something other than what they seem, belonged to Bronn. Bronn starts “The Spoils of War” seeming to be interested in those spoils in the most literal way possible (“We pay our debts,” Jaime insists to him; “Right—just not to me,” Bronn complains). In battle, however, he proves himself to be much more principled—or at least much more self-sacrificing—than he had allowed himself to suggest before. Bronn, the … hero? Bronn, the savior? The scene in which the sellsword sees a fallen bag of gold, glinting amid all the blood and mud and chaos, and then must choose between the money and the valor was a taaaaad on the nose, I thought—a little too Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade—but, still, it made its point: Bronn, given a choice between selfishness and selflessness, ended up choosing … wisely. At least at this moment. At least for now.”

“Spencer Kornhaber:”

“The Dunkirk reference you used, Megan, is weirdly fitting—this battle was defined by asymmetrical firepower and total terror, rather than clichés of bravery.”

“But real-world comparisons only get you so far here. In HBO’s after-the-episode segment, D.B. Weiss pointed out that the dragons factor meant the writers couldn’t quite draw from military history in the way that they normally do when crafting battles. Instead they imagined someone bringing an F16 to the Middle Ages. They didn’t just brainstorm the practical implications of napalming soldiers—they nailed the psychological disorientation that would have met a new and supernatural weapon of war.”

“Much of the rest of the episode centered around characters negotiating—and rejecting—the system of lordly hierarchy that has defined Westeros for ages.”

“Megan, you listed many of the examples of this in your discussion of Thrones’s interest in character change. We also has such dualities as Sansa insisting on being called Lady Stark as Brienne waved away such a title, Bronn playing up his working-class background when razzing the nervous noble Dickon Tarly, and Jon explaining his last name to Missandei, who emphasized that she followed Daenerys not because of heritage but because of merit.”

“Fascinating as it is to see the Starks reuniting, the most pressing questions about family identity regard a Targaryen. Sometimes, Dany presents herself as a ideologically motivated conqueror for justice; other times, she invokes centuries of lineage for her claim. It’s inescapable that heritage really does matter in this world—she, after all, has her dragons because of who she is. But her pitch is in using that advantage for a higher purpose. Dany gives people hope that she can “build a world that’s different from the shit one they’ve always known,” Jon says. But he warns, if she seeks to “burn castles and melt cities, you’re not different. You’re just more of the same.” Of course, to someone like Jaime Lannister, the difference between melting cities and melting soldiers is immaterial. Fire is fire—it needs to be extinguished.”