A Song of Growing Up with “Thrones”

Welcome to The Podcast That Drinks and Knows Things’ Drowned Word! The Drowned Word focuses on topics discussed in the most recent episode of the show. Today I’m talking about S08E06 Is That A Knife In My Heart or Are You Just Happy To See Me.

Well, friends, this is it. Game of Thrones is officially over and now we don’t have to speculate about who will sit the Iron Throne, whether or not we’ll get Cleganebowl, and who will care about Jon’s parentage.

Turns out the answers are Bran, yes, and no one.

The Podcast That Drinks and Knows Things delivered a wonderful episode breaking down the final episode of the season and the series, and I would highly recommend you stop reading this blog and go listen to it. But if you’ve already listened to it, please stick around and read my thoughts on myself.

Though there are certainly Thrones watchers who are newer to the show, a lot of us have been with it from the very beginning.

Season one of Thrones aired in April 2011. At that time, I was nearing the end of my freshman year of college and I worked as a front desk attendant for my dorm. This job involved taking guests’ college IDs and writing their names down in a book so they could hang out in residents’ rooms. The hours were great – I worked 2 AM to 6 AM on Friday nights. People typically stopped signing into the dorm around 3:30 AM, which meant I had another two and a half hours of time during which I had to stay awake and alert. After somehow hearing I needed to watch this show that was based on books I didn’t know, I illegally downloaded the pilot and watched it at the desk (side note: I was only caught illegally downloading videos ONCE in college and had my internet suspended for a week.).

I vividly remember watching seasons one and two (which aired in April 2012) while seated at this desk, pausing the show to sign in guests who would sometimes ask what I was watching and enthusiastically discuss it with me. These were always male guests who were being escorted into the dorm by female “friends” who would wait patiently while we chatted, though once a resident curtly said “I’ll be upstairs” to her friend and left him talking with me.

When season three aired in March 2013, I was a junior. By this time I had met Liz in Adolescent Psychology. Liz and I were both studying to be English teachers, so we ended up in all the same classes right up until graduation. We had a mutual love of Thrones and since I was still living in a dorm at this point, now a resident assistant, I spent season three curled up on Liz’s couch with her and her roommates. Sadly, we’d all gone home to our parents by the time The Rains of Castamere aired, so we had to watch the Red Wedding in our childhood bedrooms.

I graduated college on May 17, 2014, right in the middle of season four. I spent that night celebrating with my friends and when Sunday rolled around, Liz and I decided to stay in our little college town one more night so we could watch episode seven together on her beat-up couch; one last Thrones viewing before we went off to new adventures.

The summer after I graduated college, I worked at a summer camp and met the love of my life. We lived almost four hours apart, which meant that when season five premiered in April 2015, we were a few months into a long-distance relationship. He shared his HBO Now password with me and we video-chatted each week while watching the episodes. Some of my strongest and fondest memories of long-distance are of watching the reactions of a tiny face on a screen.

By April 2016, I had moved to where my boyfriend lived, so we could watch the entire season together, no extra screens required. Every Sunday night, I would go over to his dad’s house and watch the week’s episode with them. As a full-time graduate student, I could afford to stay up late Sunday and sleep in on Monday.

When season seven premiered in July 2017, my boyfriend and I invited friends over to the apartment we now shared. We crowded the 70s-era furniture he and I had inherited and everyone laughed when Ed Sheeran popped up on screen. I had finished grad school two months before and I was anxiously awaiting a call offering me a teaching position for the next school year, but thankfully the show distracted me from that for a bit.

In 2018, my older sister decided she finally wanted in on the Thrones action. Maybe the year-and-a-half hiatus had inspired her to give it a shot. My sister had been living in a different state for a few years at this point, but we decided we’d watch the show together. Between the airing of seasons seven and eight, my sister and I watched every single episode of Thrones – her for the first time and me for the second, third, or fourth, depending on the episode (well, I didn’t tell her this at the time, but one or two episodes I just let play while I did something else. I didn’t need to see some of those Ramsey scenes again.). This became a tradition and now every week my sister and I watch something “together,” a ritual that has brought us closer than ever.  

In April and May of 2019, the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones aired. By this point, both my sister and my dad were invested in the show and every Sunday night we’d text our thoughts on the episode after I’d watched it with my boyfriend: what did you think of Jamie and Brienne? Did you like Pod’s song? Was the battle too dark on your screen? Why did Dany go mad? Who’s going to die THIS week?

And all around the world, millions of other people were discussing the show too. A show that’s been part of some of our lives for close to a decade.

When Game of Thrones started, I was a week away from my 19th birthday. I had just changed my major from Drama to English Education and I was working at the front desk in my dorm. I was three years away from meeting the person who would change my life, six years away from choosing sobriety, seven years away from abandoning teaching and later running a marathon. Eight years away from writing blog posts for a podcast network.

What attracted me to Thrones was, of course, the story. The journey the characters were on and the world in which they lived. I have always loved fantasy, especially high fantasy. I knew I would like this show from the second I started the pilot, but I didn’t know it would become such a huge part of my life. So even though I have my problems with the last season and maybe I’m not 100% sold on King Bran, I can’t help but look back at all my experiences with this show and marvel.

Like Tyrion said, there’s nothing more powerful than a good story. My story isn’t as good as Bran’s (I GUESS), but it’s good enough for me. Thank you, Game of Thrones, for being awesome and bringing me so much joy. For bringing me closer to my family, my friends, and myself. And thank you, Drinks and Knows, for covering this show faithfully over the years. Our watch has truly ended (for now).

Until next time, thanks for reading The Drowned Word. What is read may never die.

Jon Snow is Harry Potter

Welcome to The Podcast That Drinks and Knows Things’ Drowned Word! The Drowned Word focuses on topics discussed in the most recent episode of the show. Today I’m talking about S07E01 Exposition: The Episode.  

First of all, this is a great episode of the podcast. The panel is wonderful and they do a really good job of analyzing the season premiere. So good a job, in fact, that I don’t feel the need to go in depth on anything serious they discussed. Let’s go in depth on something silly then, shall we?  

Luke compared Jon to Harry Potter after Jon’s somewhat misguided speech at Winterfell. Let’s compare some other Game of Thrones characters and Harry Potter characters. I’ve decided to compare the Houses in GoT to the Houses in Harry Potter and choose one member of each house to also compare.

The obvious place to begin is with House Stark and Gryffindor House. Both are full of brave idiots who get themselves killed, which leads to my first comparison.

Robb Stark is James Potter. Both men are brave but make some questionable decisions: James almost killing Snape (siriusly, what the heck, James?) and Robb actually marrying Talisa even though everyone told him that was DUMB. If Harry Potter was more like Game of Thrones, James would have actually killed Severus and lost an alliance with House Snape.

Let’s move on to my house: Ravenclaw. I’ve chosen not a family, but instead what I think is a fairly obvious comparison: the Maesters. There are many things the two groups do not have in common (like celibacy or homogenous gender), but of course, both groups value knowledge and expertise. Let’s compare Maester Pycelle to everyone’s favorite Ravenclaw, Gilderoy Lockhart!  

Pycelle and Lockhart have more in common than you might first think. Both men have personalities that they have created for the public. Pycelle pretends to be a frail, old man when he is actually anything but, and Lockhart pretends to be a brave, competent wizard when he’s really just a liar and great at one spell. Both men are eventually dispatched – Pycelle is murdered by Qyburn [Editor Luke Addition: Varys in book] and Lockhart accidentally Obliviates himself.

Another easy comparison is, of course, Slytherin and House Lannister. If we’d had some Slytherin characters in Harry Potter as complex as the Lannisters, readers might have appreciated the House way more. I’ve decided to go with Tom Riddle and Tywin Lannister.

Besides the obvious similarity (the letter T, duh), both men are clever, persuasive, and powerful. They each have inherited power: Tywin from the Lannister name and Tom from being the heir of Salazar Slytherin. Tom probably could have learned some tricks from Tywin – ultimately, both men lived to almost the same age, but Tywin still looked handsome when he died.

And finally, Hufflepuff House is obviously very similar to House Bolton.

Just kidding!

Thank you to Benji for this perfect comparison – we’re going with Hufflepuff Nymphadora Tonks and Jaqen H’ghar of the Faceless Men. This is a fairly easy one. Tonks is, of course, a Metamorphmagus, meaning she can change her look at will. Jaqen and the other Faceless Men have the ability to take on new appearances as well. Jaqen is a bit more murderous than Tonks, but as an Auror, Tonks does have the ability to take people out if needed. Aurors and assassins, not so different.

Here are a few more comparisons from your favorite podcasters:

• Severus Snape = Joffrey Baratheon (Luke)
• Fat Friar = Robert Baratheon (Luke)
• Ernie MacMillan = Mace Tyrell (Luke)
• Hannah Abbott = Faceless Man (“She’s no one” – Luke)
• Cedric Diggory = Rickon Stark (“Forgotten about and basically a spare” – Luke)
• Dolores Umbridge = Cersei Lannister (Melissa)
• Dolores Umbridge = High Sparrow (Luke)
• Argus Filch = Walder Frey (“Besides the obvious, he cleans up messes other adults are to afraid to” – Benji)
• Sirius Black = Jamie Lannister (Melissa)
• Sybill Trelawney = Bran Stark (Benji)
• Sybill Trelawney = Melisandre (Melissa)
• Firenze = Bran Stark (Melissa)

And finally, shout out to this wonderful line from the podcast: “Everybody needs a Stab Mitzvah.”

Until next time, thanks for reading The Drowned Word. What is read may never die.

Is Sansa Just Playing the Game?

Welcome to The Podcast That Drinks and Knows Things’ Drowned Word! The Drowned Word focuses on topics discussed in a recent episode of the show. Today I’m talking about S05E06 Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.

You might have noticed that I said “a recent episode” instead of “the most recent episode.” Normally I discuss the latest episode of the show, but I had to cover episode six instead for two reasons: 1) my Hogwarts Radio co-host Terrance was on this episode of the podcast, and 2) I just have to weigh in on that Sansa scene, right?

After listening to the episode, I googled “Sansa Stark season 5” and everything that came up was about this episode. To say Sansa and Ramsay’s wedding night is divisive would be a bit of an understatement. Even within the opinions of the podcast hosts, views were split. I’ll start with a disclaimer that I agree with Luke and Terrance: the scene is unnecessary, doesn’t further Sansa’s character development, and serves Theon’s development in a horrible and unforgivable way.    

But I guess we can examine both sides.

Side One: The Rape Scene is Trash and Lazy and Sucks

Did anyone want to see one of our beloved Starks raped on the night of a wedding she didn’t want when her plot this season is already so boring? No. But did we? Yes. So let’s discuss why it’s a problem.

First, let’s talk about The F Word’s article, “Using Rape as a Plot Device,” which was written in 2013 by Caity Goerke. Goerke discusses how rape is often used as a way to move the plot forward, a device which “functions to erase women, as characters, from films and drama.” I would argue that this is the case with Sansa’s plot line in this season. Is it really about her, or is it about Ramsay and the upcoming Battle of the Bastards? Is this scene about Sansa, or is it about Theon? I would also argue that rape is never needed as a plot device and should never be used to create character, and some showrunners are starting to agree that it’s lazy.

Goerke also talks about how rape in popular culture desensitizes the viewer to it, almost normalizing it. I think we can all agree that Game of Thrones doesn’t shy away from violence. We watched a man crush another man’s skull with his bare hands (well, some of us just peeked through our fingers at it). But people in real life aren’t often crushing each other’s skulls. People in real life are being raped. Do we really need another representation of it (especially when the show already gave us a questionable scene between Jaime and Cersei)?

But let’s get to the other side.

Side Two: The Rape Scene was “Reality” and Sansa is Playing the Game

The show’s creatives have had to defend this scene since the episode’s premiere. Writer and producer Bryan Cogman explained that when they decided to combine Sansa’s book plot with another character’s, they had to make some decisions. They decided to “not shy away from what would realistically happen on that wedding night.” He also said that while it would have been nice to have Sansa kill Ramsay right there, it wouldn’t have been practical or realistic: “Most people in that situation, they have to play a longer game.”

Cogman also said that when Sansa realizes how awful Ramsay truly is, “she immediately sets to getting the hell out of there and planning her next move.” So this scene could be viewed as part of Sansa just playing the game to the best of her abilities and tapping into her inner strength to do so.

Cogman addressed the idea that the scene becomes about Theon when they cut to him at the end. He denied that it was meant to make the scene about Theon and instead said:

The main reason we cut away at the end, frankly, is that this was Sophie’s first scene of this nature, and we didn’t want to show the attack. And so we cut to Theon to hear the attack. I understand why many people reacted to that, [thinking] we were making this scene about Theon and not Sansa. I’m sorry it was viewed that way.

I will say, I’m not sure why we needed to hear the attack. They could have just not shown any of it. But I guess that’s just my opinion. Where do you fall in this debate? Do you also skip this scene when you rewatch this episode? Let me know.

Until next time, thanks for reading The Drowned Word. What is read may never die.

Trial By Combat: “Does It Make F***ing Sense?”

Welcome to The Podcast That Drinks and Knows Things’ Drowned Word! The Drowned Word focuses on topics discussed in the most recent episode of the show, which this week was S04E06 The Laws of Gods and Men – The Monster You Think I Am.

The really important part of this episode is the fact that Peter Dinklage can ACT. Did you see that “For Your Consideration” monologue? Did you? He earned that Emmy win.

None of the hosts really asked a question about this part, but I’m going to talk about it anyway because it’s just so good. This moment has been festering since season one. It’s extremely satisfying when Tywin tells Tyrion that he’s not on trial for being a dwarf, and Tyrion says:

Oh, yes I am. I’ve been on trial for that my entire life.

We know Tyrion is constantly affected by his status as a dwarf. To hear him finally get to accuse everyone- especially his father- of putting him on trial for the crime of his birth is extremely powerful.

Tyrion refuses to take the blame for Joffrey’s death. He tells the court:

I wish I was the monster you think I am.

Have we ever had a more beautiful character moment for Tyrion? He’s not always a good man, he’s not always an evil man, but he is always faced with the consequences of what life has handed him. The consequences of something that is not and could not ever be his fault.

And he thinks, “This would all be a lot easier if I actually WAS who they thought I was.” If he was a horrible, hideous monster, maybe he would have killed Joffery. Maybe he’d accept his punishment for that act. Maybe he’d have already killed his whole family and been done with it. But Tyrion is a complicated man. He wants to do what is right. But he also wants to be valued and heard and powerful and important.

So because Tyrion will “get no justice here,” he calls for a trial by combat to “let the gods decide [his] fate.”

This moment prompted Luke to ask, “Trial by combat. Does it make f***ing sense?”

I know I’ve already bored you with my soliloquy about Tyrion, so let’s get into attempting to answer Luke’s question: does trial by combat make any sense?

According to this great article by Priceonomics (which includes spoilers for season 6, be warned), trials by combat, or duellums, are thousands of years old. This method was used in cases where there was no serious proof and a judge or authority couldn’t resolve the issue. But how did they actually work? Were they even fair?

In theory, God helped the honest party win the fight. In practice, the strongest person, or the person with the money to hire the strongest champion, won the case. In yet another example of history failing to live up to our romanticization of it, trials by combat usually ended with one of the fighters surrendering, and judges often had champions use weaker weapons like clubs to keep the trials non-lethal.

It makes sense, then, that Tyrion would request a trial by combat. He is touting his innocence over and over, and he is not being believed. They can’t prove Tyrion’s guilt and he can’t convince them of his innocence, so he calls for the only reliable method left to him: a duellum (great word, add it to your vocabulary).

Personally, I like the idea of a trial by combat. Pick a strong champion and you win! I also love the poetry of it in this moment. Tyrion is so sick of fighting, fighting the same people over the same thing they’ve been fighting about his entire life. He’s ready to let someone else stand up for him and fight. Good thing he’s got strong friends.

Until next time, thanks for reading The Drowned Word, and remember, what is read may never die.