![]() ![]() I have been shamed and betrayed, raped and defiled. So many men have tried to kill me, I don't remember all their names. She grew up on all the family stories, she's nursed all the inherited resentments, she's made all her plans for revenge, and she has come ready to play. She's never had much of a problem speechifying about her accomplishments and agenda on a moment's notice, but we suspect the speech she gives here is one she's been rehearsing for a long time: This is the first Lord of Westeros she's met since she arrived on these shores, the first representative of the great houses she has heard about and dreamed about confronting all her life. ( Dany took a much greater shine to Yara, for example.) It's more that the show plays straight with them, and with us, by acknowledging that they don't even know why this meeting is important. They both have other, seemingly more pressing matters on their minds, and neither of them really cares very much about the other.ĭany is fairly insufferable throughout this scene, but you almost have to feel sorry for her. (Such a connection-if it ever comes-must be earned.) It's not even that they don't much like each other. ![]() (But then, how could it not be?) It's not that they fail to instantly recognize each other as kindred spirits or fall into each other's arms. ![]() There's even a sense in which this long-awaited meeting turns out to be something of an anti-climax. Weiss, and directed by Mark Mylod-plays on our expectations for this encounter in interesting ways. "The Queen's Justice"-written by David Benioff and D.B. And, surely, no meeting in the history of Game of Thrones has been more greatly anticipated than the one between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow. Last week I talked about how much of the pleasure and tension of this season comes from seeing some of our favorite characters interact with each other for the very first time, without knowing all the things we know. Even the radicals and revolutionaries need to let go of their old ideas, and failures of imagination can be fatal. Now, "The Queen's Justice" proves that the need to keep questioning everything you take for granted never goes away. " Stormborn" was largely about new alliances based not on rigid structural roles but on individual qualities of character. Game of Thrones has always been, in part, an exploration of the art of daring to imagine the world differently from how it is and has always been, and this season is seeing the newly imagined world take shape. " Dragonstone" was about the need to move on from the past in order to protect the future. And everyone knew that White Walkers didn't really exist.Īs this season has made very clear, things have changed in the Seven Kingdoms, and many of the previous prejudices and preconceptions have fallen away. The Unsullied weren't supposed to have feelings. Slaves weren't supposed to rise to positions of power. Women weren't supposed to even fight, let alone rule. Wildlings weren't supposed to cross the Wall, let alone guard it. Starks and Lannisters weren't supposed to ally themselves with Targaryens. This sentiment is a theme that recurs throughout the episode, and it's a theme that is at the heart of Game of Thrones. As we've discussed many times before, the Westeros we first encountered back in Season One was a nation of rigid structures based on ancient traditions, a place where every single person knew exactly where they belonged (and didn't), and exactly what they were supposed (and allowed) to do. "Perhaps we should all be examining what we think we know," Daenerys Stormborn says to Jon Snow, towards the end of "The Queen's Justice." ![]()
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