And our adventure in language continues. Last week, the Winter is Coming crew debated the best lines from Game of Thrones Season 5. As it ends up, the characters do an awful lot of talking on this show, so this week we’ll be discussing the best exchanges. What comebacks, conversations, and debates moved us this year, whether it was to tears, laughter, or thoughtful stroking of the chin? Be sure to give your opinion in our poll!
DAN: In its five years on the air, Game of Thrones has become justly famous for quite a few things: its bloodthirsty propensity for killing characters, its layered storytelling, and lately its bar-raising action sequences. Some of its finest moments, however, have come by way of two-person conversations. I’m thinking here of when Robert and Cersei talk plainly about their loveless marriage, Jaime’s bathtub confession to Brienne, and Tyrion’s memorable “beetle monologue,” which he shares with Jaime in his cell.
Clearly, the show’s writers have a gift for conversation, and they brought it to Season 5. For me, the most memorably heartbreaking conversation was the one between Stannis and Shireen right before he has her burned alive.
Like any moment involving Shireen in this episode, the conversation is fraught with tension. Writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss knew how to play to the audience’s uncertainty as to whether Stannis would actually go through with his plan, giving him lines about the need for him to fulfill his destiny “however much he may hate it.” At the same time, Shireen offers him another way out when she describes the Dance of Dragons, the inter-family conflict that tore the realm, not to mention the Targaryens, apart. Throughout their discussion, I kept hoping that Stannis would walk through the door Shireen had opened for him and choose family over ambition, but in the back of my mind I knew he wouldn’t. This is Stannis we’re talking about: when he set his mind on something, he follows through, however much he may hate it.
It’s that internal back-and-forth that made this exchange stand out for me. Mix in Shireen’s earnest desire to help her father in whatever way she can, a service she sweetly offers without knowing what it really means, and you have a textured, tense, and very sad conversation.
RAZOR: This is going to be fun. There were many, many great exchanges in Game of Thrones Season 5, so many that it’s nigh-impossible to pick just one. From the exchange between Cersei and Olenna (“And the famous tart, Queen Cersei.”) to Stannis’ now famous “Fewer” line, the choices are nearly endless.
However, if you put my feet to the fire and force me to choose my favorite exchange of Season 5, it would have to be Karsi’s sharp-tongued retort to Laboda during Episode 8, “Hardhome.”
The Thenn, Laboda, lead with a defiant statement, which I’m sure he thought would garner more support than it did. “My ancestors would spit on me if they saw me break bread with a Crow.” But Karsi was having no part of Laboda’s nonsense. Her response: “So would mine, but fuck ‘em, they’re dead.”
Without a doubt, Karsi stole the show in Episode 8. Her strength and compassion made her instantly relatable, while her pragmatism (the decision to trust Lord Commander Snow) set her apart from the rest of the wildlings at Hardhome. Of course, her best line was probably, “I fucking hate Thenns,” which was a callback to what Tormund said in Season 4. When she said that, Tormund just just nodded.
KATIE: Although virtually everyone on Game of Thrones is blessed with a quick wit and sharp tongue, on the whole Varys and Tyrion may take the cake, which is why my vote is for this exchange from “The Wars to Come”:
TYRION: What is it that you want, exactly?
VARYS: Peace. Prosperity. A land where the powerful do not prey on the powerless.
TYRION: Where the castles are made of gingerbread and the moats are filled with blackberry wine. The powerful have always preyed on the powerless; that’s how they became powerful in the first place.
VARYS: Perhaps. And perhaps we’ve grown so used to horror we assume there’s no other way.
There is nothing I don’t love about this dialogue, and much of that love stems from how relatable this exchange is, because it truly does stretch beyond Westeros and Essos into our own world and resonates in our culture. Varys’ final bit reminds me of something Grace Hopper once said: “The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” In modern terms, that is precisely what Varys is saying. Tyrion can be indifferent all he likes, but the fact of the matter is that nothing will change unless people make it change. “This is the way it’s always been” doesn’t relieve people of their duty to create a better world, to evolve and at least try to right the wrongs that happen—the wrongs we allow to happen, all because we’re comfortable in our stagnation.
Tyrion’s perspective is much like that of other people of privilege, who feel that positive change is unnecessary, naïve, and/or unattainable—people who are content to keep things as they are, because things “aren’t that bad” and we don’t have the power to change them, anyway. But Varys, although in a position of power now, has not forgotten his roots; he has remembered his misfortunes and his tragedies, his former powerlessness, and he knows that change has to be fought for. He has achieved change for himself, so he knows that it is both possible and necessary to achieve such change for the masses as well.
Here we see the two sides of the Westerosi coin—Tyrion, the powerful; and Varys, the (formerly) powerless—and how those perspectives affect their outlook on change. We see this sort of discussion all the time in our own world, whether it be about race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and that’s why this dialogue stayed with me. In Varys and Tyrion’s words, media reflects life, and it makes you think not only about the story as entertainment, but about what this story says about our modern society. Entertainment means little if we can’t relate to it; we connect with stories, situations, and characters based on how relatable they are to us. And here, in a fictional land, Varys makes a point that directly translates to some of our non-fictional culture’s most hot-button issues.
Varys isn’t striving for the unattainable, not for the gingerbread houses or the rivers of wine, and neither are we. No, as much as I hate to reference the High Sparrow, I have to say that we’re striving for the changes that will put the “few” and the “many” on equal ground.
ANI: Sometimes, teasing out the theme in a given episode or a given season is not as easy as it might be. In especially plot-heavy episodes, finding the interconnecting thread can seem like herding cats into a line to eat dinner. And then sometimes, Littlefinger turns around and explains it all for you.
LANCEL: “Step carefully, Lord Baelish. You’ll find there’s little tolerance for flesh peddlers in the new King’s Landing.”
LITTLEFINGER: “We both peddle fantasies, Brother Lancel. Mine just happen to be entertaining.”
Everyone this season has bought into the fantasy they’ve been sold. Sansa buys in to the fantasy that being “The Stark In Winterfell” somehow offers magical protection. Margaery and Cersei both bought into the fantasy that being the Queen meant something more than wearing pretty dresses and drinking wine early in the day. For all three, these fantasies turned out to be dangerous beliefs that helped bring about their downfalls.
But others have bought into fantasies, too. Dany buys into the fantasy that being a ruler does not mean she has to be a butcher. Jon buys into the fantasy that being the Lord Commander gives him the authority to move unilaterally against the White Walkers. Jaime buys into the fantasy that he can have his daughter and her love, and Dorne’s loyalty. Two of those end in tragedy and one in being marooned in the middle of nowhere with a cranky dragon who is overdue for a nap.
Only those who know the fantasy is being peddled do well—Littlefinger, The High Sparrow, Varys, Tyrion. Perhaps that’s why they are the ones who rise, while those who continue to buy in lose their money and their lives.
CAMERON: Tyrion and Dany meeting for the first time is very high on my things I wanted to happen in the series, so I’m glad the show was able to do it. More importantly, the two characters found common ground even despite Daenerys’ innate misgivings about anyone connected to her father’s betrayal and death, and Tyrion’ initial cynicism about whether anyone could really be a good leader for Westeros. This is a testament to how far these characters have come since the beginning of the show. Besides, two main (and fan-favorite) characters who have never until this season shared a continent together finally meeting up? Unequivocally awesome.
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