REWATCH: GOT Season 5

This season had so many excellent moments, and I would imagine when I wrote about each episode, I probably focused on those moments. But there were also plenty of storylines that kind of sucked. They may have had great moments, but overall they were weak. The best example of this is Jamie and Bronn in Dorne. Great moments throughout their adventure, but the whole mission was dumb. How did they expect to get out of Dorne with Myrcella? Just steal some horses and ride away? Rent a ship? And it was just the two of them. I could see sending Bronn alone to sneak in, he probably has those skills, but Jamie Lannister? He sticks out. It makes no sense. 

This is also the season that started to move past the books, and some of those choices are questionable in hindsight. The Sansa/Ramsay story definitely feels like the writers wanted shock factor. Again, there were great moments during the story, but overall it just lacked that GRRM pizzazz. 

Here are some of the things I thought about during the season…

-When Jon Snow orders Janos Slynt to go to Greyguard, and he refuses, I love how Alliser Thorne steps out of the way to allow the guys to seize Slynt, who gapes at the man he thought was his ally. It made me wonder, would Thorne have accepted the new Lord Commander’s order if he was sent to Greyguard? Thorne was an asshole, but he was loyal to the Night’s Watch. His hatred of Jon Snow came from his hatred of Ned Stark (Alliser Thorne was loyal to House Targaryen during Robert’s Rebellion). I think he would have accepted any post that Jon Snow gave him. He would hate it, but he would do it, and he would have done it well. Greyguard would have probably turned into a fully functioning fort, just to spite Jon Snow. 

-The show made Stannis into a badass. I do not remember any moments in the books where we see him in a sword fight, nor does anyone mention him as a great fighter. I wonder where we would rank him, is he at Ned’s level? I feel like Stannis, Ned, and a few others may be just a smidge below Jamie. 

-I think about Robert’s Rebellion a little too often. There is a theory (yes there are a bunch of conspiracy theories surrounding the books) that the group of great lords became somewhat friendly with each other during the War of the Ninepenny Kings: Jon Arryn, Steffon Baratheon, Hoster Tully, Rickard Stark, and Tywin Lannister. Lady Dustin tells Theon that Lord Rickard had great southron ambitions. It looks like these lords tried to build connections (weddings and wards). If you notice, you never really hear of any houses keeping wards (unless they used as hostages like Theon). Initially Jamie Lannister was to wed Lysa Tully, but then he joined the Kingsguard. Brandon Stark was engaged to Catelyn Tully.

The Mad King summoned Rickard Stark to King’s Landing because he did not trust what was going on with all of these houses. Aerys also did not trust his son, Rhaegar. The theory is that the great lords were going to march on King’s Landing, and demand changes from the Mad King. Rhaegar tells either Jamie or Barristan that he wants to call a Great Council to institute changes. Were these lords going to force the Mad King to relinquish control to Rhaegar?

This explains why Jon Arryn was able to muster his forces so quickly to protect Eddard and Robert. These lords were ready for this, maybe they were not going to overthrow the Targaryens, but they were going to show up in force in order to get their point across.