HBO Game of Thrones Recap: The Laws of Gods and Men

Have you ever been hurt very badly emotionally? I mean really stretched to your breaking point and even broken? I've found that the only people who can do that are almost by definition people with whom you have intimate vital relationships. That is to say siblings, parents and long standing providers of your nookie. Generally speaking nobody else can get close enough to stick the knife into you. Nobody else knows exactly where to strike to do the most damage. Both Yara Greyjoy and Tyrion Lannister discover that the hard way. More on that in a minute. Stannis Baratheon and Davos Seaworth, being short on money and resources decide to take a long shot, actually their only shot and travel to Braavos to request a loan from the legendary Iron Bank. Stannis thinks this should be a slam dunk as he is the rightful king of Westeros. But as another man once told Daenerys in a similar situation there is a bit of a problem in trying to borrow or demand resources from people on the basis that you're ruler of all Westeros when in truth you don't actually rule Westeros. The bankers, especially the lead banker Tycho, force Stannis to admit that he only has a handful of ships and men, lost his last battle and lacks resources to fight a war or pay the bank back. They deny the loan and would prefer Stannis and Davos depart immediately. Business is business. Nothing personal you know.

In a scene which perfectly reflects the relationship between Davos and Stannis, Stannis silently asks Davos for help. Stannis is far too proud to actually verbalize the request. Davos makes an impassioned argument that the war is not over until Stannis dies. Davos tells the Iron Bank that by backing Stannis the bank will have a better chance of getting its money back since the elderly Tywin Lannister can't be long for this world. Davos emphasizes Stannis' rectitude by revealing his own amputated fingers. This speech evidently works. Davos' old buddy Salladhor Saan is relaxing in the hot tub with two women when Davos stops by to pay him and to tell him that they're putting the band back together. The war is back on!

In Meereen Daenerys learns that giving justice is not as simple as conquering is. We see that her dragons attacked a goat herd and made off with some goats. When the herder comes to her she offers him three times the value of the goats. Sounds good but what if everyone starts to claim damages? And shouldn't she have a better way of feeding her dragons? What sort of ruler lets dragons just fly around the countryside doing whatever they want?  But that's small potatoes to the next claimant. Hizdahr Zo Loraq is a member of the noble class. His father was one of those whom Daenerys crucified. In a nod to the Antigone tragedy, Hizdahr claims that all he wants is a proper burial for his father, whom he claims was actually against the crucifixion of slave children. He begs the queen for this. After some back and forth Daenerys allows the burial to proceed. Not letting people be buried is an atrocity. Was Daenerys' decision an act of mercy or one of weakness? Time will tell. Life is not necessarily as black and white as Daenerys thought it was.

Yara has finally reached the Dreadfort and has scaled it with her merry band of killers. We see an impressive speech in montage as she implores her men to remember what was done to her brother Theon was done to them all. They're IRONBORN dammit! Nobody does that to them and lives to talk about it. I'm not sure about the mental capacity of the Northern Lords. Haven't they ever heard of perimeter security? What's the freaking point of having a castle if people can just climb right in anytime they want? Anyway Yara and crew are handling their business Greyjoy style, until they finally reach Theon, kept not in dungeons but in kennels.  As we know already Theon has long since lost his identity. Theon thinks Yara's appearance is a Ramsay trick.  He refuses to answer to his name and has to be dragged out of the cage. This is what enslavement does to people. It's an ugly scene. It's only fantasy of course but was quite reminiscent of events in real life. When Ramsay counterattacks,  Theon runs back into the cage. When Yara makes a last attempt to rescue her brother he actually bites her. The emotional damage is probably more hurtful to Yara than the physical. Fleeing, she tells her waiting men that her brother is dead.

The episode's balance takes place in King's Landing. Again Charles Dance deserves so much credit for his Tywin Lannister but Peter Dinklage matches him as Tyrion Lannister in Sunday's show. At the King's Landing Small Council meeting Tywin discusses his concerns about Daenerys, The Hound's continued existence, and how to deal with the Unsullied. Tywin thinks armies win wars, not dragons. Varys says that Jorah Mormont is no longer giving information on Daenerys. We also see that Tywin absentmindedly treats Mace Tyrell as a secretary. Later in a conversation between Prince Oberyn and Varys we learn that Oberyn spent five years in Essos. This allows him to correctly guess that Varys is from Lys. Varys doesn't want to talk about that but does claim to be asexual and only interested in power.

The trial has opened. It's an obvious railroad job. Tyrion is chained in the defendant's stand while witness after witness comes forward and talks of how they never liked or trusted him. As any liar would tell you, the most convincing lies are those mixed with bits of truth. Ser Meryn, Pycelle, Cersei and even Varys all tell of hostile statements (taken out of context) made by Tyrion. Pycelle even claims that Tyrion stole poisons from him. Dontos' body has been found. Sansa's necklace was with it of course and has poison residue. This of course is considered to be proof of Tyrion's and Sansa's involvement. In anything approaching a fair trial someone would ask Pycelle what was HE doing with poison in the first place and why didn't he report anything stolen but this isn't a fair trial. Other than saying and repeating that he didn't do it Tyrion isn't allowed to speak. And when he is his trademark witticisms/sarcasm have left him. Anger is all he has. Jaime is increasingly discomfited by this and confronts Tywin during a lunch break. Tywin may not know or even care who killed Joffrey but he does know what he wants. And so does Jaime. In exchange for Tywin showing mercy and sending Tyrion to the Wall, Jaime agrees to resign from the Kingsguard and become the heir his father always wanted in order to continue the Lannister name. In a snarky aside that imo shows that yes Tywin really does know about the incest, Tywin orders Jaime to marry a woman and "father children named Lannister!".

OK. 

Feeling a little better, Jaime tells Tyrion to be cool and once found guilty to ask mercy. Tyrion isn't sure about this but we know that the brothers love and trust each other. But as I mentioned before everyone has their breaking point. Tyrion's is reached when Shae is brought in as a witness against him. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Shae lies outrageously about plots between Sansa and Tyrion, claiming that Tyrion agreed to murder Joffrey to consummate his marriage with Sansa. Shae has very obviously been coached. Shae speaks dispassionately about her status as prostitute for Tyrion. This last, finally is simply too much for Tyrion to take. The woman he loved is trying to get him killed or exiled and his family is helping her do it.

In an angry and incredibly intense outburst Tyrion again says he didn't kill Joffrey but wishes that he had. He says he's on trial for being a dwarf and by the way f*** all of y'all! He wishes he could have been the monster that everyone thinks he is. He wishes he had let the city burn. He demands trial by combat.

What I liked

• I thought that this was the best episode of the series, save Joffrey's assassination. 
• Tywin uses the trial as a gambit to force one son to do what Twyin wants while getting rid of another son. That's using the law to your advantage, something Tywin knows all about. He's the ultimate pragmatist. He may think incest is wrong but he's gonna play the hand he's been dealt.
• Varys' dismissal of desire as being dangerous fits in very well with Tyrion's predicament. All Tyrion has ever wanted is romantic love from a woman and familial love and respect. To have him brought so low and finally accept that he can't have either of those things was a milestone for the character. Even in his outburst at his father you could see the love, that hurt and rejected, has turned to hate. If Tyrion hadn't had desire he wouldn't have tried to protect the city or protect Shae.
• Very little that Littlefinger does is by accident. The discovery of Dontos' corpse with the necklace makes Sansa look even more guilty which increases her dependence on Littlefinger. It obviously puts Tyrion in a very bad place. I'm sure Littlefinger, thru appropriate cut outs, told people where to find Dontos. He set Tyrion up very effectively.
• Shae's return. This means that either Bronn sold Tyrion out or Cersei's/Tywin's people were closer than Bronn had thought. It will be interesting to see if we learn what happened. Was Shae tortured? Was she acting from spite? Was she paid off?
• Theon's aka Reek's psychological destruction. Well I don't mean that I liked it per se but it showed that Ramsay Snow is a total monster. He's able to infest people's minds even when he's not around. It's enslavement. It's mental torture/rape. It's evil. And given the amusement with which Ramsay viewed Reek's tortured, naked body was I the only one who thought that Ramsay was about to rape Reek? It didn't seem out of the realm of possibility. The violence against Theon is as painful as anything in the show.
• Jaime's willingness to sacrifice his relationship with Cersei and his Kingsguard position, two things which define him, in order to save his brother's life.

What I didn't like

• Although I liked the exposure of the depths to which Theon has fallen I still thought the scene was a little rushed. Why wouldn't the Ironborn have immediately killed Ramsay's dogs and pulled Theon out, regardless of whether he wanted to go. This was a departure from the books.
• The running time was a little shorter than normal. 
• Pycelle tested the residue on the necklace? CSI: Westeros?

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes.  If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here.  NO SPOILERS. NO BOOK DERIVED HINTS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea..

Movie Reviews: The Sacrament, The Wolverine, 13 Sins

The Sacrament
directed by T.I. West

The Sacrament was directed by one of the actors who was in You're Next and stars three of that movie's leads. I don't remember the first time I really felt the presence of real evil in the world. But certainly one of the earliest moments had to have been the Jonestown Massacre. I was just a child when it happened but all these years later I still remember the pics of the massed corpses, most of them black, huddled together, even the kids, in the ugly and final equality of death. There are plenty of conspiracy theories about Jim Jones, alleged CIA links he had, and whether Jonestown was an MK-ULTRA experiment. Some claim that only a few people killed themselves and that most Jonestown residents were actually killed by mercenaries or even more outrageously US special forces. I don't know about any of that. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is that over 900 people, including many children and young adults went to a foreign country because a swindler and megalomaniac convinced them to do so. They gave up their meager savings, social security checks, passports and family ties because he told them to do so. And they drank the Kool-Aid, were injected with poison, or were shot dead.

We read vampire stories about reanimated corpses who survive on human blood and convert their victims into willing slaves. Well there are real life vampires out there. Jim Jones was one such beast. He victimized people who had already been deeply harmed by racism, capitalism, rape, molestation, family alienation, the criminal justice system or other failed institutions. These people, a great many of them older women, really needed someone to love them and tell them they mattered. Instead Jones turned their desperate hopes into fear. He used the damage they had suffered to turn them into dead trophies to his own insanity or willing accomplices to suicide, murder and mayhem. Like a tick he grew swollen on the adulation of others. When that worship was threatened, no matter how remotely, the parasite destroyed the host rather than set it free. The Sacrament is then a re-interpretation of how the Jonestown Massacre occurred. It skillfully mixes reality (VICE magazine) and fiction in an intoxicating and grim melange that builds suspense even though we think we know what's going to happen.

Sam (A.J Bowen) and Jake (Joe Swanberg) are journalists for VICE magazine. They are proud to handle stories which the corporate media won't touch. When their primary photographer Patrick (Kentucker Audley) suddenly hears from his long lost junkie sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz) he wants to accept her invitation to visit. Sam and Jake ask to tag along with Patrick as Caroline has moved out of the country to a commune named Eden Parrish. There have been rumors about this place. Sam and Jake would love to do a story on it. And the fact that their photographer has a personal link to Eden Parrish makes them even more interested. Upon arrival the three men are a bit nonplussed by the presence of armed guards but feel better upon meeting Caroline who seems to enjoy some authority within the commune. They also meet a diverse group of people, all of whom seem to be happy, despite having left most technology and creature comforts behind in the U.S.

The commune religious leader, known as Father (Gene Jones), agrees to an interview but insists on having it in front of the entire congregation. During that interview Father lets his genial mask slip ever so slightly (though the creepy shaded glasses stay on) and Sam's suspicions are raised. If you've ever read Mario Puzo's The Godfather you know that one of Vito's constant instructions to his sons was to never make an open threat. We see that threat here or think we do. Sam can't be sure. It's ambiguous but given the context, it really isn't. I liked the writing and Jones' acting. Just one additional bit of information can cause a massive shift in your perceptions. I think the filmmakers could have given a little more explanation of how the people who followed Father to Eden Parrish saw him and why so many of them were fanatically loyal. There is a part of love which is almost madness which makes you give yourself over completely to the other person. People need this. Father seems to offer this. 
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The Wolverine
directed by James Mangold

I think part of the reason that Japan looms large in the Western imagination is because it was one of the few modern non-Caucasian nations to not only escape European colonialism and settlement but also for a while even beat the Western nations at their own game of imperialism and conquest. Anyway this movie is similar to The 47th Samurai, The Last Samurai or any number of other stories which have a Japanese and a Westerner entangled in bonds of honor and obligation. So the story is not something which is new but who cares, right. Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is a baaaaaaaaaad man who protects his friends, harms his enemies and obviously spends a lot of time at the gym. This was a fun movie with the proper amount of hijinks, derring do and last minute rescues. Logan is hiding out brooding over his dead love Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and making examples of hunters when he is located by Yukio (Rila Fukushima) the cutest little assassin/action girl you ever did see. Yukio, who can see the future on occasion, is not there to kill Logan. She has a message for him.

Yukio works for the Japanese corporate CEO Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) who is dying. Yashida and Logan are linked together. As a POW in the last days of WW2, Logan saved Yashida's life during the bombing of Nagasaki. Yashida views this as a debt he's never paid and so wants to see Logan before he kicks the bucket.

Being nothing if not understanding of honor and fellow warriors, Logan decides to go to Japan to pay his final respects. There he sees Yashida. But Yashida's idea of paying his debt to Logan isn't just kind words or a samurai sword. No, Yashida somehow knows that Logan is conflicted about his mutant healing abilities, which confer virtual immortality. Outliving all his loves has left Logan lonely, bitter and cynical. Yashida's bio-tech company has been at the cutting edge of some very interesting research. Yashida offers to remove Logan's healing factor and transfer it to himself, thus saving his life and allowing Logan to die naturally at some future point. What a guy. Logan declines the offer. Although at times he hates his abilities, they are his abilities. Yashida dies and a power struggle breaks out for his company, which is supposed to pass to his granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). Logan saves Mariko from an assassination/kidnap attempt but discovers in the aftermath that something is off about his healing factor. The "doctor" Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), literally a femme fatale, probably has something to do with that. All the usual special effects, double crosses, street fights, bada$$ one liners and set piece battles take place. If you like action or like Jackman, this will be an enjoyable flick.
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13 Sins
directed by Daniel Stamm

This is a remake of an Asian horror/black comedy film. Initially it raises some interesting questions about how much we all need money and what we'd be willing to do to get a lot of it. For some of us that might mean working 50 hours per week with people we generally dislike doing things we don't much care about for 40 years. Other people might view that as an intolerable constraint on their happiness. Some people might look for the big score or decide that little things like legalities are for other people. Anyway most of us probably want more money, whatever lies we tell ourselves, our friends or our loved ones. Elliot (Mark Webber) is a salesman. What he sells isn't very important. What is important is that he's not very vested in his work, something which his greedy and sadistic boss has noticed.

Elliot still has a conscience about sales and often holds back from selling stupid people things they don't need. So even though Elliot has just completed the biggest sale he's ever made his boss has decided that Elliot isn't cut out for the job. The boss thinks that Elliot lacks the necessities. The boss thinks himself proven correct in his opinion when Elliot doesn't curse at him, get in his face, punch him out or do anything which might hint that Elliot actually does have a swinging pair. I thought the film should have continued this examination of gender expectations but it put those aside. As Elliot mopes and whines his boss gleefully fires him. This scene resonated with me as there are definitely situations in life where people test you to see just how much testosterone you have/how much crap they can get away with. Elliot fails his test. Elliot does have needs. He has to support his mentally challenged brother (Devon Graye) and his caustic, cranky bigoted father (Tom Bower). Elliot is engaged to marry his sweet supportive relentlessly happy fiancee (Rutina Wesley). Not having money and not having health insurance makes doing all of these things much more difficult if not impossible. Could you look into the eyes of your disabled brother and tell him that yes even though you promised always to take care of him he'll have to go into a public institution?

While he's driving home, Elliot's cell phone rings. A cheery man with a British/Commonwealth accent tells Elliot that he's been chosen to play a game. There are 13 challenges to overcome. Should Elliot complete them all he will get $6,000,000. Each challenge Elliot performs will result in monies deposited into his bank account. Quitting the game, telling anyone about the game or refusing a challenge means he loses all the money he's won so far. Elliot decides to play the game. The first challenge is to swat the fly in his car. Elliot is taken aback by the knowledge that he's apparently under surveillance but decides to go for it. The second challenge is to eat the fly which he does as well. The challenges become more dangerous and crueler. Elliot comes to the attention of Detective Chillicoat (Ron Pearlman doing his trademark worldweary take on things). Pearlman gives this movie some much needed gravitas. There are a few comedic moments as well as nods to conspiracy theories. I wonder if 13 Sins would have been better had Pearlman and Webber switched roles. This was an okay watch if you're into that sort of thing but not something I would remember a year later.  I'm skipping the trailer here because it shares too much. 

Detroit Teacher Fired For Using Broom To Break Up Fighting Students

"She ain't wait. That's who she deserve."

I didn't go to Detroit Public Schools until high school. It was private school/parochial school until then. And the high school I attended was something akin to a charter school. You had to pass an entrance exam. This cut down on the knuckleheads and riff raff. The violence was minimal, almost non-existent. Kids will be kids but I can't even remember fights in school. Sure you had a few smart wannabe hoodlums but once you got to know them they were nice people. I'm told my old school has changed since then. But I still don't think it's anything like Pershing. Pershing has always been a school for dummies and real hoodlums. So that there was a fight in a Pershing classroom didn't surprise me. A fight at Pershing is like shooting at a gun range. It's what you expect. The small female teacher tried to break up the fight by smacking one of the assailants with a broom. This didn't work. The brawl continued until other male students decided to end the fracas. But the teacher, who was not supposed to leave the room and didn't have any way to call for help, was fired for hitting one of the combatants. Her case allegedly could also be referred for child abuse investigation.

Yes, that makes sense. NOT. Her termination surprised me. I respect the heck out of teachers. But I could never be a teacher. They have too many stupid rules. They deal with too many stupid people. And if a classroom fight occurs, God forbid they try to stop it lest they lose their jobs. Years ago a relative told me there was very little learning going on in some Detroit schools. And he was right. A football star who body slams a security guard gets a plea deal and goes back to school in apparent violation of state law while a teacher trying to restore order to a classroom is fired. Gee, that must do wonders for employee morale, huh? Words don't really do justice to this scene so check out the video below. And folks wonder why people are leaving DPS...



Fox 2 News Headlines

Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: The Jason Patric Situation

We've discussed some of the issues around child custody and parental rights before. If you are a man and you impregnate a woman, whether you are married to her or not, there is the strong possibility that the state will force you to, if not act as an actual on site father to your child, to at least pay some of your income to the mother for child support. The amount you pay can depend on a number of factors including how good your lawyers are, what the child has become accustomed to, how rich you are, how much of your income or wealth is legal and easily estimated and identified by child support auditors, how easy you are to locate, which judge you get, how aggressively the mother of your child wishes to pursue child support and how aggressively you wish to pursue joint or sole custody. And if you're married and your wife is playing house with other men, well generally you're also responsible for financially supporting any resulting children even if you don't find out about it until years after the fact. Deal with it. We hear a lot about how too many men refuse to support their kids, to "man up" and marry the mothers of their children or prefer to run around impregnating various women who apparently had the bad luck to slip and fall on the man's you know what. Some people even argue that the rise in single motherhood and/or out of wedlock births is mostly men's fault.

Well maybe. But if there's one thing I know for sure it's that it takes two to tango. The recent story below the fold about the actor Jason Patric and his struggle with one time girlfriend/friend with benefits/paramour/booty call Danielle Schreiber to be included in their son's life was fascinating to me. It reminded me of some of our previous discussions as well as the unacknowledged dangers inherent in alternate family units and new reproductive technologies.

LOS ANGELES — He is a movie star who shot to fame on a motorcycle in “The Lost Boys.” She is a California massage therapist from a prominent East Coast family. Four years ago, with his sperm, her eggs and the wonder of in vitro fertilization, they produced a child. From there, the tale gets very, very messy. For the last two years, Jason Patric and Danielle Schreiber have been waging what has become one of the highest-profile custody fights in the country — one that scrambles a gender stereotype, raises the question of who should be considered a legal parent and challenges state laws that try to bring order to the Wild West of nonanonymous sperm donations. 

Ms. Schreiber, an American civilization graduate of Brown University who runs a Rolfing massage practice in Los Angeles, met Mr. Patric in 2002 when he went to her as a massage client and the two became a couple, dating off and on for a decade.  She had long wanted to be a mother, according to a family member. But pregnancy attempts with Mr. Patric did not go well. “I even had a surgery to increase our chances,” he said in an interview last week. They decided in 2009 (at a time when they were not romantically involved but still friendly) to pursue artificial insemination. Along came Gus, named after Ms. Schreiber’s paternal grandfather.  

The baby eventually helped rekindle a romance between Ms. Schreiber and Mr. Patric, although they never formally moved in together. For the next two years, Mr. Patric said that he played a parental role (“I took him to get circumcised when he was 8 days old”) and that Gus, now 4, referred to him as “Dada” in videos and messages. “Thank you for teaching me to pee in the toilet, watch airplanes, learn Beatles songs. I love you Dada, Gus,” read a card that was written by Ms. Schreiber, given to Mr. Patric and later presented as evidence in court.  Then, in June 2012, the couple broke up for good. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Patric filed a paternity suit for shared custody. According to both sides, there was legal mediation, during which time Gus continued to see Mr. Patric. But then, according to court filings, Ms. Schreiber abruptly started to withhold visits....

LINK 

Now I know of some men who are pretty crappy fathers. I also know of some women who are horrible mothers. It's just part of life. I have friends of both genders who occasionally vent about how much they hate their ex. I can sympathize. However absent some clear proof of threat, violence or unfitness, I don't think either parent should be able to unilaterally exclude the other parent from their child's life. I don't think that the child's relationship with their parent should be hostage to how the other parent feels. Again, obviously this idea of mine doesn't apply to child molesters, drunks, substance abusers, rapists, abusers, other criminals, etc. I can count the women I truly hate in this world on the fingers of one hand and still have most fingers left. Fortunately I do not have children with them. But if I did I would have to find a way, even if only for the child's sake to be (temporarily) civil, and allow the child to have a relationship with his or her mother. It's not my right to interfere with that. In my view it's almost sinful. That goes for either gender. I am suspicious of Schreiber's restraining order, coming as it did in a custody dispute.

So I think it's a little unfair and hypocritical for society to castigate men for shirking fatherly responsibilities and then turn around and try to prevent a man from doing just that. But maybe Patric should never have agreed to donate his sperm. Maybe he should have insisted on marrying this woman and/or doing things the old way. So maybe he's just out of luck. I certainly don't think that we should use this case to tear down anonymity for egg/sperm donors or allow such anonymous donors to show up out of the blue years later and start demanding parental rights. But to focus on the in vitro aspect of this case as Schreiber's partisans would like to do misses the point that this child, however he was conceived, was the product of two people who had an ongoing relationship with one another.

If we say that Patric has no parental rights because he was unmarried and/or used the wrong sort of technology to become a biological father then it seems we'd have to make other changes. Should we also say that no unmarried man has the right to demand fatherly rights AND that no unmarried woman has the right to demand child support? Somehow I think that second part would get more people's attention. Not married to the father? Sorry lady, no child support for your child. Better luck next time. Most people, and certainly not just unmarried mothers, would see that rule as horribly unfair to the child. Well isn't it horribly unfair to a child to prevent him or her from having a relationship with the father?

Thoughts?

HBO Game of Thrones Recap: First of His Name

One of the increasingly interesting and baffling things about both this series and to a lesser extent the books upon which it is based is how great shocking moments can come in both very big obvious build ups and in little asides which the casual reader or viewer may not even notice unless they go back and re-watch, re-read or think about it for a second. This episode was one such event. It tied up what was a completely different storyline from the book and had other things happen in different ways. The creators have obviously found their sea legs so to speak. Sometimes this is good and sometimes this isn't. More on that quiet shocking moment in a second.
In King's Landing Tommen is coronated. We also see a more pensive and calculating Cersei. It could all be an act but it seems that she's made a certain peace with Joffrey being gone, even as she says a mother always has a special spot for her firstborn. She admits that Joffrey shocked her. Cersei seems to reach an understanding with Margaery, claiming that Tommen will need a good wife to advise him. Margaery, as is the Tyrell way, claims not to even have given thought to marrying Tommen. Cersei sees through that, obviously, but is not interested in having a fight with Margaery at that point in time, even smiling as Margaery calls her sister. If you remember Cersei had previously threatened to have Margaery killed if she presumed such familiarity again.

Margaery will have to talk to Mace Tyrell to get permission to marry Tommen. 

Cersei is also mellow when she talks to Oberyn, asking after her daughter Myrcella. She bemoans the inability of the powerful to protect all they love but agrees that they can take revenge. And Cersei is even polite to an atypically worried Tywin, who admits to his daughter that the famed Lannister bank accounts have just about run dry. The crown owes a lot of money to the Iron Bank, who is infamous for not taking no for an answer and getting their money back no matter what. Tywin also sympathizes with his daughter about her upcoming marriage to Loras Tyrell and confides in her that he never liked Robert. Of course, worried or not Tywin still is a shrewd man and refuses to discuss Tyrion with Cersei. Cersei asks her father that what good are the sacrifices they've all made for the Lannister future if Tyrion killed it.

Littlefinger has escorted Sansa to the Eyrie where she is to pretend to be Alayne Stone, an illegitimate relative. This pretense need not be carried out in front of Lysa Arryn or her son Robin. Lysa appears to be happy to see her niece and despite youthful insensitivity to death, so is Robin. Of course Lysa is much more happy to see Littlefinger, whom she intends to marry. They've been doing the do for quite some time. When Littlefinger talks of having a marriage later Lysa one ups him by producing the septon and witnesses and getting married immediately. The wedding consummation keeps everyone up at night just as Lysa bragged it would. O-kay. I could sort of feel for Sansa. I mean who wants to listen to their aunt run through her heptatonic orgasm scale?

And now about those quiet shocks. You may remember in Season One, when the Starks were united, safe, happy and blissfully ignorant of and far from King's Landing, that Catelyn Stark received a coded letter from her sister Lysa. This letter informed Catelyn and Ned that the King's Hand Jon Arryn, Lysa's husband and Ned's godfather, had been murdered by the Lannisters. This set off a chain of events that brought Ned and his daughters to King's Landing, put the Starks and Lannisters at each other's throats and culminated in war and the seeming destruction of House Stark. Well, as Lysa reminded Littlefinger in this episode, it was at his insistence that she put those drops in her husband's wine and wrote the letter to Catelyn blaming the Lannisters. Did you get that? Because there will be a test later. As Vito Corleone might have said, Joffrey was a punk. He never could have outfought Ned. But what we never knew until this day was that it was Littlefinger all along! Lysa did what Littlefinger told her to do. She murdered her husband and set up her sister's family. Now she wants the payoff. Well what might make a woman behave that way? 
Jealousy. Sibling rivalry. Lust.

In a great scene Lysa is sharing family stories and lemoncakes with Sansa but we soon learn that the intense look in Lysa's eyes towards Sansa is not relief at seeing what she thinks is her only remaining niece but suspicion that Sansa is out to steal Littlefinger. Lysa also has IMMENSE resentment towards Catelyn for being older and prettier. She even claims that Catelyn was fat.  Have you ever been backed into a corner by a large dangerous dog snarling at you? Because that's what Lysa does here. It's only when a frightened Sansa says she's a stupid virgin that Lysa relents. The crazy in her eyes subsides a bit. Well only a little bit. If I were Sansa I would not want to be around Lysa if there is anything sharp in the near vicinity.

Brienne and Pod and The Hound and Arya are still on their respective road trips. Brienne intends to go to the Wall to find Sansa. These scenes bookend each other as the older member of each group is skeptical (Brienne) or contemptuous (The Hound) of the younger member's martial skills. Ironically Brienne is impressed that Podrick killed Ser Meryn (a Kingsguard) while The Hound is scornful of the fact that Arya's sword instructor Syrio Forel was apparently killed by Ser Meryn, whom The Hound held in quite low regard. The Hound is still on Arya's list. In Meereen Daenerys has heard of Joffrey's murder. Daario has commandeered some ships. Her advisers think it's time to invade although they lack numerical superiority. Upon hearing that the previous cities she liberated have been re-enslaved or fallen into chaos Daenerys decides that she must fix those problems first. Jorah gets some alone time with Daenerys but STILL doesn't make a move. Jorah, does seize the moment mean anything to you? Jorah obviously needs to learn some Game. Send me 19 gold crowns Jorah and I will teach you the three things you never tell a queen, how to deal with pretty boy rivals and the tricks a knight needs to avoid falling into the friend zone.

The episode's balance was taken up by the Night's Watch's attack on its renegade members at Craster's keep. The "good guys" win after a few hairy moments. Bran wargs into Hodor to kill Locke. A freed Ghost kills Rast. Jon Snow kills Karl with an assist from one of Craster's wives/daughters. Under advice from Jojen, Bran decides not to reveal to his brother that he was there. He continues heading North. This storyline was created for the show. As long as they're changing stuff like that it might have been MORE interesting had Bran returned with Jon to the Wall. Public knowledge of Bran's survival makes Roose Bolton's Wardenship of the North very iffy. Of course the Night's Watch is supposed to be neutral. If Bolton, with the authority of the Iron Throne, had sent a force to the Night's Watch to demand Bran Stark, legally speaking the Night's Watch would have had to give him up. But I doubt Jon Snow would have tolerated that. Anyway they didn't go that route.

What I liked

• The quiet reveal of Littlefinger's and Lysa's responsibility for starting the conflict. It was done a little differently in text but works ok here.
• The fact that Arya tries to kill The Hound, just as she said she would. It doesn't work but girl's got heart.
• The ferocity of Lysa's lust for Littlefinger and disdain for Catelyn. The actress really brought this out. The scene with Sansa and the lemoncakes was something else. The large eyes helped quite a bit.
• The fact that Jon Snow used Commander Mormont's family sword to kill Karl felt very fitting.

What I didn't like

• The attack on Craster's Keep just felt cliched. The bad guy is more skilled at street fighting than the good guy. Jon is just about to be killed when Karl is stabbed from behind. How many times have we seen something like that in movies?
• There has been some controversy about the use of rape as a dramatic device. Although this episode was directed by a woman (Michelle MacLaren) I still thought the threatened and attempted rape of Meera Reed was cheesy. Bran, Hodor and the Reeds getting captured in the first place wasn't believable as the Reeds, particularly Meera, are supposed to be almost unparalleled in woodcraft. It's unlikely that renegade Night's Watch members would have been able to sneak up on them.
• Locke's death before Jon Snow could learn his true purpose there.

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes.  If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here.  NO SPOILERS. NO BOOK DERIVED HINTS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea..

Game of Thrones and Rape Criticism

There are some people, both media critics and other bloggers who have an axe or two to grind over the Jaime/Cersei rape scene in particular and how  A Game of Thrones handles rape or violence against women in general. Some of them claim that the show and/or the books upon which the show is based takes a titillating (pun not intended) or dismissive view towards female sexuality and/or rape.
“The ‘no means yes’ thing is there in the books,” said Sady Doyle, an essayist who often writes about “Game of Thrones.” “The sexualized punishments are there. It’s in the text and it’s vital to the text. It’s something that comes up, over and over again.” But, she added, “At a certain point, you get the feeling that you can’t walk through a chapter without expecting something horrible — almost always to a female character — just to prove that this is indeed a very scary and dark piece of literature.”

“To have sexual violence treated so cavalierly, it’s very difficult to see that,” said Mariah Huehner, a writer and editor of comic books who has contributed repeatedly to the online debate. “It’s too upsetting to see, and I just don’t know that I can keep going with that.”

I thought the show creators poorly handled the Jaime/Cersei scene. They took a consensual book scene and turned into a rape. It did unnecessary violence to Jaime's character and continued the show's baffling trend of making Cersei far more sympathetic than she ever is in the books. But the idea that Martin or the show creators Benioff and Weiss are endorsing rape is pretty silly. The show has gotten a lot of things wrong. Neither Martin nor the HBO creators are beyond criticism. But Book!Jaime did not rape Book!Cersei. I usually don't quote from the books because most people here haven't read them. I definitely don't want bookreaders to start spoiling events yet to occur. And I mean that. There's a lot of stuff that's yet to occur or may not occur. Reading the books is no longer a guarantee that you know what's going to happen. But just this once, especially since the scene already happened, I want to use a relevant quote from the book.

She touched his face. “I was lost without you, Jaime. I was afraid the Starks would send me your head. I could not have borne that.” She kissed him. A light kiss, the merest brush of her lips on his, but he could feel her tremble as he slid his arms around her. “I am not whole without you.” There was no tenderness in the kiss he returned to her, only hunger. Her mouth opened for his tongue. “No,” she said weakly when his lips moved down her neck, “not here. The septons…”

“The Others can take the septons.” He kissed her again, kissed her silent, kissed her until she moaned. Then he knocked the candles aside and lifted her up onto the Mother’s altar, pushing up her skirts and the silken shift beneath. She pounded on his chest with feeble fists, murmuring about the risk, the danger, about their father, about the septons, about the wrath of gods. He never heard her. He undid his breeches and climbed up and pushed her bare white legs apart.

One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes. When he tore them away, he saw that her moon’s blood was on her, but it made no difference.

“Hurry,” she was whispering now, “quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime.” Her hands helped guide him. “Yes,” Cersei said as he thrust, “my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you’re home now, you’re home now, you’re home.” She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair. Jaime lost himself in her flesh. He could feel Cersei’s heart beating in time with his own, and the wetness of blood and seed where they were joined.

Does that sound anything at all like something that is unambiguously non-consensual? No it does not. It sounds at worst like this classic scene.

Even so I have heard some people whose opinions I generally respect claim that the show is too invested in violence against women. Hmm. I try to be fairminded and use evidence. I'm not saying I am but I do try. Maybe I'm missing something and women or girls are indeed singled out for harmful acts. So let's examine what other violent acts have been depicted or referenced in the television series so far:

• The initial protagonist, a good man, is murdered in front of his two daughters.
• A boy who is a companion to one of those daughters is murdered by being stabbed through the throat. Much later, the daughter finds the man who did it and returns the favor.
• The man's son who seeks justice and the rescue of his sisters is murdered along with his friends, wife, unborn child, mother and untold thousands during a wedding.
• A boy is defenestrated and crippled. He's later almost assassinated in his bed.
• Both the male protector and the male counselor/tutor to this boy are murdered.
• Two other boys are burned and have their corpses displayed.
• The man who committed or allowed the above two actions is beaten, flayed, has extremities cut off, psychologically tormented, threatened with homosexual rape, raped by women and finally castrated.
• The man who ordered/did all this also kills his own followers for fun.

• An unpleasant man uses magic to murder his own brother then pretends he doesn't know about it.
• This same man considers killing his own nephew and later burns his brother-in-law alive.
• The continent's leading warlord is best known for exterminating two houses that rebelled against him (including non-combatants and children)
• The above fellow also tells his son that he would have killed him at birth were it not for the pesky rule about kinslaying and the fact that he can't prove that he was cuckolded. He takes special delight in bullying his son every chance he gets.
• Several male peasants are tortured or robbed for fun by partisans of all sides.
• A female knight stabs a rapist through his groin.
• The man who threw the boy from the window murders his own cousin in an escape attempt. He later has a hand amputated because he annoyed a captor.
• A so-called "good guy" murders captive boys to express his discontent with his leader's decision making. He's later killed.
• The Queen Regent threatens a male cabinet member with death because she dislikes his tone.
• A male tyrant in the making is murdered in front of his own parents by a supposedly kindly old woman.

• A bard has his tongue ripped out on orders of that same tyrant.
• A friendly and shy male peasant is beaten and robbed by a series anti-hero.
• This same anti-hero kills a boy on orders of the Queen and reigning Prince.
• The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch is betrayed and murdered by his own men.
• Thousands of men are burned alive by wildfire.
• A self-righteous queen orders slave owners (evidently all male) to be crucified.
• She also has a growing habit of having her dragons sautee those she considers threats or insufficiently respectful.
• A spymaster is possibly gleeful to have the opportunity to torture and kill the man who mutilated him years ago.
• When a Queen thinks her army will lose she decides to kill her trusting middle son.
• A king's son narrowly escapes being tortured by having rats gnaw through his stomach and is later tortured by being cut so that leeches can have his blood.
• Several babies or children of the previous king are murdered.
• Two wolves have been killed unjustly. One was later mutilated and paraded around to jeers, along with his dead human male companion.
• A female wildling routinely coldly kills non-combatant male peasants.
• Another male wilding likes to eat those same non-combatant male peasants.
• A truly demented wilding leaves his incestuous boy babies outside in apparently sub zero temperatures. If they survive the exposure they get kidnapped by ice zombies.

That's what I can remember in five minutes. I know I forgot/overlooked a lot. And there's more to come in future episodes (PLEASE DON'T DISCUSS IF YOU KNOW)

In short, things are tough all over. Evidently the people complaining about violence directed at women or girls missed all of the above instances of violence directed at men or boys. Men and boys are just as likely if not more so to be targets. There's a war going on. In war men and women kill, die and do horrible things to each other. It is in my view utterly ridiculous for the folks wringing their hands about the Jaime/Cersei scene to have apparently missed all of the male on male or female on male violence. It's like looking at pictures of Nagasaki and talking about all the women who died. Obviously (sarcasm on) GRRM is a horrible misandrist. He hates men and just enjoys writing prose where they die.

The first problem is that most of us (with the possible exception of Sean Connery) are initially culturally conditioned to consider violence against women as worse than violence against men. This is regardless of our political or ideological stances or genders. A woman getting punched in the face is a taboo. A man getting punched in the face is pay per view entertainment. So that's why some people can zoom past all of the fictional examples of men being killed and complain of the fictional rape. In real life the atrocities of the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram did not penetrate into some Western minds as long as Boko Haram was killing boys. It's when they started kidnapping large numbers of girls that suddenly everyone became outraged experts on their evil. The second problem is that some people have forgotten that the same Show!Jaime who had the sensitive come to Jesus moment with Brienne also tried to kill Bran Stark and did kill his cousin. He's not a "good" guy though I disagree with the show's choice to remind viewers of that via rape.

The books of A Song of Ice and Fire are longer than the Bible. So it's unsurprising that there will be different interpretations. I do think that the showrunners have taken every opportunity to show bare breasts and total nudity for both genders, even when I thought it unnecessary. If you're okay with fictional depictions of men being chopped up, stabbed, mutilated, castrated, beheaded and burned alive but suddenly have an issue with a fictional depiction of rape I would very much like to understand why.

Movie Reviews: You're Next, Danger Word

You're Next
directed by Adam Winguard

Much like Cabin in the Woods, You're Next is a horror movie which shows that you can still have intelligent premises and writing in horror films without sacrificing scare or gore. This film does have gore and plenty of it, let's be clear about that, but it's very rarely what I would call gratuitous. This movie also features legendary scream queen actress Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator) which is probably why I was willing to give it a look see. Time has been very kind to Crampton though her role here is of course nothing like her spot in the 80s classic Re-Animator. She's now the graceful older woman instead of the bouncy co-ed menaced by the dirty old professor. Speaking of Re-Animator, much like that film, You're Next is that uncommon find of a movie that was cheaply made but doesn't really look all that cheaply made. That's quite a talent. I think this will also be a cult film some day in the very near future.

Although I did not stop and pick through this movie frame by frame I don't recall any obvious errors like messed up sound levels, visible boom mikes, or actors looking at the camera inadvertently. Sometimes those things can plague relatively low budget movies but they're absent here. This is an inexpensive well-crafted film that did not immediately, automatically and unnecessarily insult the viewer's intelligence. Some filmmakers with larger budgets and bigger names would do well to check out this movie. Of course that said I LIKE the horror genre a wee bit more than the average person does. So if you're just not into horror at all then I suppose you will probably skip this film. To each their own and all that. But to my mind anyway you'd be making a mistake. Like many good horror movies this film features a wealthy family gathering at a large estate. I know there are some readers who would probably stop right there but bear with me just a little longer won't you.

It's the parents' anniversary. All of their children are coming to visit, along with their spouses and significant others. The four siblings (three brothers and a sister) and their family dynamics will be familiar to anyone with large or close families. It remains a fact that no one can love you like family or get under your skin like family. Whether it's grown people jockeying for their parents' favor, older siblings making fun of what they see as younger sibling's silly preoccupations, outright bullying, or younger siblings' long hidden resentments bubbling up to arguments these scenes ran true to life for me. Has your sibling or cousin ever gotten romantically involved with someone with whom you have immediate mutual dislike? Do you have a parent or other older relative who has yet to make peace with your career path or political beliefs and thinks you're throwing away your talents? Have you ever got tired of trying to prove to a parent or older sibling that you actually aren't incompetent? These scenes are hastily etched in this movie but I thought they worked.

The parents are very well off. The family patriarch, Paul Davison (Rob Moran) is owner/CEO of a successful defense contracting company. As he moves into retirement age (neither he nor Crampton look quite old enough to have the kids they do) he and his loving wife Aubrey Davison (Crampton) have purchased a large isolated mansion. They intend to refurbish it. They want to make it the future center for family celebrations and a fun place for grandchildren yet to come to remember fondly. They love all their kids though as mentioned , there are some tensions between and among the family members. I won't mention all of the siblings as some of them are not that important but a younger son Crispian Davison (A.J. Bowen), a stereotypical bumbling beta professor, is the first to arrive along with his perky and head over heels in love girlfriend (and former student) Erin (Sharni Vinson), an Australian with a broad accent. Shortly after that irritating and argumentative big brother/alpha male Drake Davison (Joe Swanberg) and his snooty wife Kelly (Margaret Laney) show up. Another brother and his goth girlfriend appear. And finally cute little sis and her wannabe filmmaker beau come to join the fun. But during dinner someone from the outside shoots the filmmaker right in the head with a crossbow bolt. That will ruin your evening.

And that's where I'll stop because just about everything else I could write would full of spoilers. That would be unfair to the film though I think roughly halfway thru the viewer will have figured some things out. The twist is more horrific than the actual violence displayed. This film is violent. More importantly it's scary. Right up until the very end all of the deaths and violence are emotionally involving. You care about what happens to all, well most, of these people. Nobody, (well only a few people, this is a horror movie after all), does remarkably stupid things just to keep the story moving. This is a witty film but its occasional forays into black humor once the bodies pile up don't work. There is some toplessness. Like The Purge, Funny Games, The Strangers and other home invasion films this movie will make you think about the exits and entrances to your home, who you really trust and the number of readily available self-defense implements you have laying around. This is a great movie to watch late at night, just after dark. It both confirms and upends horror movie tropes.
TRAILER






Danger Word
directed by Luchina Fisher
I can't really disinterestedly review this horror short as I contributed to its crowdfunding. It was written by the authors Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due. It is based on one of their young adult novels. I am very happy to finally see it. The novel it's based on, Devil's Wake, has been optioned for adaptation by the filmmaker and producer Tonya Lewis Lee, who among other things happens to be Spike Lee's wife. I've always liked the actor Frankie Faison, in part because he reminds me a bit of my own father. So it was fun to see him here. I wonder why zombies have become so important in the American mindset. Some people think it's about consumerist fears; others might point to immigration or sublimated class conflict but I doubt anyone really knows. Sometimes things just catch people's interest. I'm waiting for werewolves to come back into horror fashion.

Anyway self-financed independent movies like this are a reminder that no matter what you do or who you are it's often more productive to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness. If you don't think that Hollywood or the literary world or even the humble blog-o-sphere has a perspective that you can respect or relate to then by all means get off your rump-o-potamus and start shaking your tailfeathers so that everyone can see what you have to offer. After all you wouldn't have the talent that you have if you weren't meant to share it with someone. Check out the short film (20 minutes) below.