Be True To Who You Are...: GOT 4.04 Part II: "Oathkeeper"

Just a reminder of this week's dedication:

Lady Margaery Tyrell:
making a play for THE QUEEN

Before we go north, Let's check in with Dany, on the last stop of her "Let's free all of the slaves and start Civil Wars tour"

Dany

We open to a heartwarming scene of Grey Worm and Missandei by the fire. Missandei is teaching Grey Worm, the Common Tongue. They talk about how they became slaves, and Grey Worm remembers nothing before being an Unsullied, and Missandei has a faint, but happy memory of her homeland. As I said in an earlier post, people have to be taught about what it means to be free, how to live a sustainable life, and if it fails, and it will, Dany will have to face the music. But that is for another day...

Continuing on: Dany stops in, and asks for a status on the lessons. Missandei and Grey Worm are startled, as if they were telling secrets. Dany informs Grey Worm, that it is time to strap on some weapons and head into the tunnels.

Meanwhile, the slaves of Meereen, seem to have found time in their schedules to discuss Dany.

The younger slaves: Let's go for it! Dany's been freeing slaves all over Essos.

The older and wiser slaves say: "We've been over this. It's been done, we lose, and then more of us die. Plus, we don't have any weapons. "

The younger slaves: Wait! They're here!

Grey Worm: I have weapons! I am Unsullied, but now I am a free Unsullied, and Dany is our Mhysa. Join us! Kill your Masters and we will conquer the city!

Then we see one Master look up and see the Targaryen flag on the Harpy. Seconds later, he gets crushed by slaves as he is walking down a side street.

I want to know, where did she get that flag? I know it's a small thing, but seriously? Anyway, Dany walks through the crowd to cries of "Mhysa!", with her two boys. Sexy Daario awaits her at the top of the pyramid. Her first act as Queen of Meereen is to kill 163 Masters for each child nailed to a crucifix, to mark her way to Meereen.

Dany: Conqueror and Queen of Meereen

Dany drinking in the power of her conquest,
to the screams of those being crucified

Dany is unable to understand that freeing slaves, and killing the Master's has made her a conqueror, and not a liberator. Why? Well she is looking down upon, her city, with a smile on her face; screams be damned. The ability to listen to that kind of horror and not react, says that she's going down a dangerous path. She's young, and this is a brutal world, but she's also a Targaryen, and the product of incest. See below how she is getting her crazy on:

Ser Barristan, who is not a political man, but has been around enough Kings to know what works and what doesn't, tried to give her some advice:

Ser Barristan: "Sometimes it's best to answer injustice, with mercy, my Queen."**
Dany: "I will serve injustice with justice."**

I don't care about honor or mercy.
They crucified children, and I will crucify them.

I am going to discuss this is greater detail when she has her first "Queen's Council". But when Dany gives Ser Barristan her response to mercy, he doesn't look like the wise old warrior we see above. Frankly, he looks disturbed, as if he fears he is watching a megalomanic blooming before him. It's important to note hat she created her own "Appian Way', like the one we saw in Astapor. Thanks Dany.

Craster's Keep
We'll keep this brief as none of this is in the book, so we'll just go along with it.

Karl Tanner, aka. Owen Harper of "Torchwood" fame, is confused and thinks that he is Hamlet.

Talking to Ser Jeor Mormont's skull &
drinking wine from it

It's all disgusting and gross, and lots of violence and abuse of women taking place around him, so we really know that he is a bad guy. But he's in Craster's keep, so we didn't need to reminder of his mother/sister/daughter horror show.

Karl also thinks that he was King of killing people with 2 knives in Gin Alley. Suddenly a woman walks in; she seems like the head of Craster's women, and she has a newborn boy. She informs Karl, that the child will need to be sacrificed, Karl says cool, I'll just use my shiny knives and take care of it. Well, apparently all of the other women keep saying in a low, creepy kind of way, and in unison "Gift for the Gods" until he sends Rast out to lay the baby in the snow, and to feed, OMG, I can't believe it, GHOST!! WTF?

Where have you been?
Why are you in a cage?

Ghost is the size of a pony, at least Book Ghost is, and he could have killed every single one of those men, so it makes no sense that they caught him and put him in a cage. Rast decides to urniate in front of him and throw some kind of bone at him. Ghost is not pleased, and Rast, well, in the end, he gets his throat ripped out by Ghost.

Let's check on Bran & Co.

Bran & Co.

Everyone is sitting around a fire trying to stay warm. In the book they are starving, and cold, and near death all the time. Jojen's health starts to deteriorate, and he looks sickly. Meera, being the badass sister and protector, who needs more screen time, hears a baby crying at the same time as Bran. Jojen, who literally looks like he is dying, says:

"It's coming"*

Bran wargs into Summer, and almost gets there, when he's caught in a trap and sees Ghost!

The next time we see our group, they are spying on Craster's Keep.

"Bran we need to get out of here. NOW"**

Meera is right, because they turn around, and the mutineers capture them and take them to Karl.
OT: I don't know what they are going to do about Bran, he is huge. They should just age him up, as all of the kids look older anyway. No one would have noticed, right? It would have been a done deal if Sansa had said that she was 15 or 16, not 14.

Continuing on: poor Hodor is chained up, beaten and stabbed in the snow. Our trio,are all being very brave, perhaps a tad badass? Jojen is sweating and gray, Bran refuses to say who he is, and when Karl grabs Meera, well, let's look at this in pictures:

"Don't say anything Bran.."

Bran's not a little kid anymore, is he?

Meera being threatened,
and then Jojen has a seizure

Bran sees his friends being hurt because he won't tell them his name. So he yells "I'm Brandon Stark of Winterfell!", and they get a temporary reprieve. Jon has some big fans amongst the mutineers, so they are pretty excited that they have his brother as a captive.

Jon Snow

Jon is in the yard teaching recruits how to fight the wildlings. He has always been an amazing swordsman, but presently he is teaching them how to use two weapons. But who else is there? The little messenger boy from the village and Locke. Boy, Locke must have run to the Wall, right?
He does some fighting, and gets fired up and knocks some guy down with his fist. Jon, notices that he has some training, and he tells Jon some BS story, as to where he got it from.

Ser Alistair has come down, called Jon a steward, and to go be one. Jon, gets all fired up, but controls himself. We also see Janus Slynt speaking w/Ser Alistair about letting Jon go on his mission. Janus reminds Ser Alliser, that an election is coming, and Jon is just a little too popular to remain amongst the living.

As Jon changes, and grabs LongClaw, Locke stops by and feeds Jon some more lies, about why he is at the Wall. This whole Locke "at the wall" thing, makes no sense. Remember he's the one who chopped off Jaime's hand, and threw Brienne in a pit w/a bear. I would have expected something different from the writers, as he's just making this fake storyline even more annoying. But I love my boy, and he's acting more like himself, so hopefully he'll kill Locke.

Jon & Sam

This whole Locke/Craster's Keep thing is not in the book, and I don't feel like explaining why it's wrong. Yet again they have changed a story, in this case Bran's & Jon's for no reason at all. Book Jon does not know Bran is alive, except he kept seeing what seemed to be Bran's image, in Summer's face, when he helped him escape from the Wildlings.

Jon and Sam are talking, and Sam is still upset about Gilly and Moles Town.

Sam: I feel bad about Gilly, I need to go and find her.

Jon: We can't leave the castle right now, and she will be safer there anyway.

Sam: But you ran away when you heard Robb had raised your father's banner men, right?

Jon: But you brought me back! I understand how it feels to give up someone you love. But I need to find Bran, as it has been all that I have been thinking about since I returned to the Wall.

Sam: I tried to make him stay, and I promised that I would not tell you that he was alive. But I had to tell you truth.

Jon: Let's just try to figure out where he might be.

Jon looking at the map,
& talking to Sam about Bran

Do you think they are at Craster's Keep?
What a coincidence!

Locke shows up, and we see that they have secretly been talking about how to find Bran. Why? He says their names, and they look like they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. And why is Locke, who's not even a member of the NW, told to find Sam & Jon?

Dinner @ the NW

So, it seems that Ser Alistair has decided to allow Jon to go to Craster's Keep and kill the mutineers.

The NW Council of Vipers and Weasels

Cool, I'll put a team together
and we'll go to Craster's place.

"I'm going to Craster's and kill the mutineers.
They know everything about us, and Mance is on his way.
I am putting a team together and I need volunteers.
If you are feeling any hesitation,
just remember that our father, Ser Mormont, was killed by those traitors."

Damn! Jon looked hot, serious and maybe even a little scary. Welcome HBO Jon, you are finally becoming more like Book Jon; at least so far. Grenn was the first one to join the team. Then there were more and more volunteers, including Locke. The NW Council of Vipers and Weasels looked a little worried, why? It seems that getting rid of Jon, is not going to be easy.

The Land of Always Winter

First, everyone knows this is not in the books. I loved it, as it gave a new face to the Others. They are not dead like the wights or the Others that we see from the series. They are a group who are organized, and have a leader. It brings us back to 3.03, when the Others created that spiral of horse heads I know D&D said they wanted to show that they are not just the undead, and/or zombies, but they are intelligent beings. I am not going to theorize too much about who they are, at least not now.

But this is the Night's King, who has a great backstory. I have been reading on and off, about the past of Westeros, and the Targaryen's, but I had not read this story. I loved this twist because it gives the Others an entirely new dynamic. They are organized, and we met the ruling class.

The Night's King and his 12 cohorts seem to be the rulers of this icy world. We know that they need baby boys to create more of them, and if so what are they? Are they like the Night's King? Who are the Lieutenants carrying out their orders? I am pretty sure that they are magical. We don't know why they have been building an army for decades, and preparing for a war against the South.

There is a council of 13: