Faceless Men
There is in any one of us, I venture, much to admire and much to be deplored.
Ser Tyland Lannister
Major Plot Points: Rhaenyra listens to the common folk and decides not to help them at all. Cole gets shot in the face by an arrow. Aemond falls under the spell of Alys Rivers. Daemon goes deep undercover on a sting. Hugh and Ulf continue to hate their new jobs. Aegon sets his sights on Essos. Alicent embarks on a super secret spy mission.
Observations from a Book Reader
- While Cole did die at “The Butcher’s Ball” (named so for the fake corpses that drew him in), we were robbed of one of the best lines of the series. When Cole challenged the three leaders of the opposing army to fight him, Pate of Longleaf told him “I’ll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There’s tens o’ thousands dead on your account” before having his men rain arrows down on him. He knew Cole wanted to go down like a hero and the arrows robbed him of that.
- Daemon mentions Aegon the Conqueror and his Field of Fire. The Field of Fire was the only time during Aegon’s Conquest where all three Targaryen dragons were used in one battle. Outnumbered five to one, Aegon and his sister wives brutally annihilated the armies of House Lannister and House Gardener, and essentially wiped House Gardener, a longstanding ancient house, off the map. The Targaryen army only suffered 100 casualties compared to the other side which lost five thousand in a matter of moments.
- Alys Rivers shows Aemond a clutch of dragon eggs and it is mentioned they come from Rhaena Targaryen and Dreamfyre. Rhaena Targaryen was the daughter of King Aenys Targaryen, and was married to her brother Aegon, heir to the throne. Aegon never got to take the throne as he was murdered by his Uncle Maegor right outside Harrenhal. Rhaena lived a long life after this with her dragon and it was filled with many tragedies, including being forced to marry her uncle, her third husband killing all of her friends, and the death of her daughter. She eventually spent the last twenty years of her life living as a recluse in Harrenhal, along with Dreamfyre. While it was never stated in the text that Dreamfyre laid eggs while there, it isn’t a stretch. When she eventually died most of the small folk thought of her as a witch. Dreamfyre did not take another rider until Helaena Targaryen.
- I have said it many times, but Alicent was largely irrelevant for the remainder of this story. She absolutely never left on a spy mission to help trap her son for Rhaenyra. Aemond did spend the rest of his time using Harrenhal as his home base with Alys as his “queen”. No dragon eggs were mentioned, but it makes sense that with the eggs Aemond believed he could set up another generation of Targaryens with Harrenhal as his seat, defended by the strongest dragon in Westeros.
- Since Daeron was never pronounced king, we never got to see much of his relationship with Ormund, and Gwayne was long dead by this point. Gwayne mentions that he is “second in line” for House Hightower, but it is unclear if this means he is behind Ormund, or if Ormund has a child in the show universe. In the book, Ormund has a son who would be his heir, and this son actually ends up marrying his step mom, Ormund’s current wife. It was a rather large controversy for the Hightowers and it would be odd if the show removed Ormund’s real son from the narrative for no discernible reason.
- Corlys was never captured by the Greens and Jon Roxton (and how did he get from Tumbleton to find him so fast?). In fact, at this point he and Rhaenyra still maintained a healthy working relationship, as there was never an issue about her giving legitimacy to his two bastard sons. The show made it unclear if he died or not, but I doubt he is dead, as that would be a massive deviation from his book plotline. If he is still alive this will mark the third time the show has done a Corlys death fakeout, and the second time this very season. Seems a bit much.
Other Points to Notice
- The episode title “Faceless Men” is a bit confusing since I do not think any of the famous Faceless Men assassins were present in this episode. The 2 assassination attempts we see were the men impersonating Baratheons, and then the group led by Jon Roxton to attack Corlys. Maybe the title is just a callback to the group, while referencing how many literal faceless men in war carry out death sentences. Not too sure here.
- The Vulture King that the Baratheon’s inform Rhaenyra about is no major player. Basically every 50 years or so since the Conquering, a bandit from the Red Mountains south of Storm’s End (Baratheon Castle) rises up and declares himself the Vulture King, before being killed in battle later without accomplishing anything. A time honored tradition.
- Mysaria clearly did not inform Rhaenyra about Alicent’ s pregnancy. This implies that she took Alicent’s words about Rhaenyra seriously in last weeks episode. So far Mysaria has been one of Rhaenyra’s most loyal friends, so it is interesting that she is now making contingency plans in case she fails. So far though I am not sure how much value Mysaria brings to Rhaenyra but it looks like something is being set up.
- Rhaena is in no position to bargain, or have control, but the idea of Jane Arryn striking a Targaryen, even one in exile, seems far fetched. If Rhaena ever returns to her family’s good graces, that would be enough for Lady Arryn to be burned to death.
- Alyn and Baela kissing seemed like it was lacking any real set up. While they eventually are a couple in the books, you would think the show would have them interact before they started hooking up. In case you forgot, Alyn’s father, is Baela’s grandfather, making him her half-uncle. Pretty mild incest by Targaryen standards.
- If you missed it, the tapestry Helaena drew depicts Aemond (identifiable by his sapphire eye) trapped by Alys Rivers in Harrenhal. This is how Alicent was able to identify his location to Rhaenyra, since she is aware that Helaena has the gift of dragon dreams. It also is an accurate portrayal in the sense that Aemond is completely ensnared by Alys at this point and does not even realize he is trapped.
- It looks like I was too early in condemning the show for not showing Rhaenyra cut herself on the throne. This act will spread unrest through the entire city as they think the throne is rejecting her. To Rhaenyra it is even worse as she remembers the wasting sickness that killed her father seemed to have originated from the cuts he suffered on the throne.
Stray Observations:
- It’s ridiculous that the Targs wont let Ulf go drinking with the lads.
- The Baratheons are utilizing the Tywin Lannister Civil War Strategy. Stay out of the fighting until a winner is obvious.
- Daemon’s vengeance speech this episode just felt sad.
- When Aegon was deciding between the plan of Larys to go to Essos, or the plan of Tyland to go to Lannisport, the director used a classic Game of Thrones shot, where the camera is behind Aegon and both men offering choices are shown on either side of his shoulders. We first saw this in season 1 of Game of Thrones when Ned made the decision to go to King’s Landing and be the Hand of the King.
- Finally we get to see the Moon Door in the Eyrie. Although we only heard a scream.
- Helaena does not seem like she is having a good time in captivity.
- Rhaenyra does a hilariously poor job helping the common folk with their complaints.
- The assassination attempt on Ormund would have worked easily if Gwayne was not there. Rhaenyra was smart to instruct her assassins to cover themselves in shit, after knowing Ormund had a weakness to bad smells from Alicent’s info.
- Poor Ulf, poor Hugh.
RIP: Ser Criston Cole and his men, a few fake Baratheos, one of Ormund’s peasant spies in King’s Landing, and a bunch of Velaryon soldiers.
TV talk with Mr. Lemons 