Season 2 Episodes 7-10

The episodes are moving quickly and we are seeing a lot of action. For this week we finished season 2 of the series. The episodes were built up with action, theory, betrayal, and legacies of characters. We watched episodes 7-10: “A Man without Honor”, “The Prince of Winterfell”, “Blackwater” and “Valar Morghulis”. These episodes were able to answer many of my lingering thoughts, but boy did it raise more thoughts.

When we talk about man last week it referred to Jaqen. We found out that Arya tricked him and named him as her third person. She only unnamed him if he would get Gendry, Hot Pie, and herself out of Harrenhal. He takes more than one guards life, but they are now free. She never actually got anyone killed, but she was able to free the others. Jon Snow tried to do the honorable thing and not kill Ygritte, but this bites him in the arse. She ends up taking Jon hostage. Jon learns that Halfhand and the others were looking for him, but they all were killed except for Halfhand. He has allowed for Jon to infiltrate the wildlings and says that having one person in their ranks will be worth more than 1,000 men. Theon tried to keep Winterfell, but his own troops took him out and burned it down. This allowed them to head home because the “Prince” wanted to show that he was valuable. In all this time Bran and Reckon were able to stay safe with the help of Osha. The boys are safe and heading towards the Wall to be with Jon Snow. The last thing that was answered was that the House of the Undying stole Dany’s dragons. He claimed that his power grew because of their closeness, but he ends up being burnt alive. Dany was reunited with them and Daxos was punished by being locked up in the vault.

Power Levels

This week we saw the flow of power shift. Margaery Tyrell, Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark, and Talisa Stark see their power grow in these episodes. Margaery is now taking the place of Sansa as King Joffrey’s wife. Most people could see this as a bad move, but she is now one step closer to being the queen of Westeros. She is now going to be the second most powerful person in the kingdom and her subjects already like her.

I would consider Daenerys’s situation as completely shifting. She was able to get her dragons back and overthrow the “King of Qarth”. She killed Pyat Pree with the fire of her dragons which set them free. She was than able to find Doxas and imprison him in the vault that he promised would be hers if they married. Jorah seals them in. Daenerys seems to have gained the confidence to rule the lands and take the iron throne.

Arya has gained even more power. With the help of Jaqen and her last name she was able to not only get her freedom, but also Gendry’s and Hot Pie’s as well. This allows her to finally be free and she can try to get to her brother Robb’s army camp.

Finally the foreign healer Talisa has gained considerable power. In the last episode of the season, “Valar Morghulis”, we see her getting married to Robb Stark. This not only allows her to be the healer and close to Robb, but she is now Queen of the North. She is going to be able to play a hand in the next season and impact what Robb does.

 

With all of these characters powering-up, we see others who are powering down. Tyrion Lannister may be the most noticeable character. He was the leader of the counter attack on Stannis Baratheon. He led the men and tried to keep the city from falling. He was able to succeed, but at a terrible price. Tyrion was than slashed across the face and he was close to dying. With Tywin’s at King’s Landing, Tyrion is no longer the Hand of the King and is now in a cramped room with Shae.

Another character that has lost power was Sansa Stark. With the siege on King’s Landing over we have a sense of peace. Unfortunately for Sansa, Ser Loras Tyrell asks that King Joffrey take his sister as his future queen. At first he was insistent that he couldn’t do that because of his vows for Sansa, but the court said that he no longer needed to wed her because of the traitor Ned Stark. She thought that she was going to be free, but boy was she wrong.

Catelyn Stark was imprisoned to her tent. She decided while King Robb was away making a peace treaty that she would free Jamie Lannister to get her girls back. When Robb hear about this, he decided that this was unspeakable and that they needed Jamie back. She tries to give Robb council about his actions, but he is not listening because she betrayed his trust.

Cliff hangers and lingering thoughts

In Episode 10, “Valar Morghulis” the creators of the television series leaves us with many cliff hangers that make me want to come back for the third season. The first one is when Theon’s men hit him and take him away. It makes me think that he is in a world of trouble and all respect he would have had is now gone. Another cliff hanger is with Tyrion, now that he is not the hand of the king what is going to happen to him. Will Shae and he be alright in King’s Landing? How is he going to be able to play the game? Will Varys and he be friends still? We see Arya talk to Jaqen and his face ends up changing. What is in the city of Braavos? What is going to happen to Arya and the gang as they have now left Harrenhal? Will Arya ever use the coin that she was given? Now that Winterfell has fallen, what awaits Bran, Reckon, Hodor, and Osha as they head North to the wall? What is Jon Snow going to do now that he is at the camp of Mance Rayder? What is Daenerys going to do when she gets the ship from the stolen gold? How will her dragons help her out? Finally, with the last and most shocking cliff hanger, what is the Nights Watch going to do with the White Walkers? How will they defend themselves from this hoard? What is going to come of Samwell as he is stuck behind this rock watching the White Walkers? What is going on with Samwell and Jon’s bromance?

Some lingering thoughts that I still have: What is happening between Jon and Ygritte? How is Robbs wedding going to change the course of the fight? Will Jon be reunited with Ghost? Where is Arya’s Dire Wolf? What is going to become of Sansa now that she is no longer going to be wed to Joffrey?