BWW Recap: THRONES Brings Death and Destruction in 'The Battle of the Bastards'

We're just one episode away from the final episode of Season 6 of Game of Thrones and the penultimate episode entitled "The Battle of the Bastards" premiered last night. Despite what the promos had us believe, we got not one, but two battles this episode, and it was certainly an episode jam packed with death, gore, and violence. All three things we're quite used to on Thrones! Episode 9 of this show has become known amongst its viewers and creators as the big one. It's usually the episode where everything comes to fruition, the climax of the series that has everyone cheering and applauding the show immediately after for its genius and shock. Last year we had "Hardhome," which was a direct departure from the books and gave us death and destruction, only to have the Night King lift his arms and raise the dead. However, this episode, despite being totally epic in scale and stunning visually, lacked a certain complexity, integrity, and dimensionality that made episodes like "Blackwater" back in Season 2 so rich and exciting. "The Battle of the Bastards" was entertaining and a feat of direction, cinematography, and scale, for sure, but its predictability, cluttered circumstance, and ever so confusing character choices and motivations made the episode suffer as a whole.

We opened up back in Meereen this week and it's quite obvious most of the show's budget as a whole has been saved for this episode. The siege looked great and the dragons definitely looked more concrete and real than they had the last few episodes. We pick up right where this storyline left off in the previous week. Dany, looking out over her city being destroyed and attacked turns back to Tyrion, questioning his rule while she was gone. It's hard to tell what direction they are giving Emilia Clarke who is an incredible and emotive actress, as she just appears to deliver her lines quite deadpanned. She even mentioned in a recent appearance on Seth Meyers that they actively tell her not to smile while she's playing the Targaryen Queen. Why they think less emoting is good, especially in the case of a conqueror that we're meant to root for, is baffling, but it's what they've been having her do for the past few seasons. It's especially confounding as Tyrion questions what her plan is to defeat the forces at their gates, and she tells him that she's going to burn them all and crucify the masters. When someone delivers that line with no emotion, speaking of quite destructive and disturbing violence, one must question if we are meant to root for her. Tyrion too questions this, as he tells her she once said she was not like her father, the 'Mad King' Aerys, but her father liked to burn people too. He also lets slip that Jaime apparently told him the wildfire story where Dany's father was ready to burn all of Kings Landing to the ground, so I guess Brienne isn't that special if he also confessed this to Tyrion. Although it seems its place in the episode was solely to seed in the widlfire information for the finale, reminding the show's audience that there are still caches of the volatile liquid hidden under the city.

This whole situation and dynamic with Tyrion and Dany is one of the biggest missteps in their relationship and also incredibly exemplary of Throne's constant faux-feminism. Sure, Dany gets to ride on dragons and deliver speeches. She gets to be the Queen and Tyrion is in full support of that. However, he also talks down to her. If there was any question as to who stands above in their dynamic, it is Tyrion. He belittles her and he has to be the one to make her see the err of her ways and teach her to not be like her father. Her curbs her Targaryen madness that the show runners think runs in the whole bloodline. It's clear in the "Inside the Episode" that is released online after the show airs that Benioff and Weiss clearly respect and favor Tyrion. They even go so far as to say we should feel for him in this conversation (which really just seems an incredible waste of time considering a siege is happening outside their window) because he did such an excellent job ruling for a while (till he didn't) while she was gone, and she left him in an impossible situation. "The fact that she still has the city is all due to him," says Weiss. Now, I don't think she returned to a city in any better or any different condition than what it was like when she left. They even said that she left a city in siege and came back to one. How Tyrion's few days of peace something to be applauded? She accomplished just the same, if not more, by agreeing to marry Hizdahr. The consistent undermining of Dany's position, power, and accomplishments (or anyone for that matter) in favor of Tyrion, who has done virtually nothing this season other than make uncomfortable jokes in terrible scenes with Missandei and Grey Worm, is so frustrating and demeaning.

They then decide to meet the the masters, despite Dany's original plan, and attempt to treat with them. One of the masters tells her that they will let her go if her dragons are slain and she walks from the city on foot, as the "Beggar Queen," that she is. Of course, as we recall, Viserys was nicknamed the "Beggar King" when he and Dany went door to door in search of support, protection, and shelter. Calling her that is the ultimate insult and comparing her to her brother is even more so. However, show-Daenerys is quite like her brother. She barely heeds council, she consistently shouts her title at people to feel big, she tantrums, she demands what is hers and even what is not, and she chooses violence every time. One must wonder why we're still meant to root for someone who has turned into a character with the same flaws of a person whose death we cheered for, although the show still seems to be framing her in a positive light.

Denying the master's terms, she proclaims "[her] reign has just begun" and jumps on Drogon's back. All hell breaks loose as Viserion and Rhaegal break out of their dragon prison at the opportune moment, the Dothraki, led by Daario, charge on the Sons of the Harpy, and Dany flies around, burning ships and quite a few people. In the wake of all this destruction, Tyrion is left with the masters to finish their negotiating and, quaking in fear in the face of dragons, the masters are a lot less confident. Tyrion declares that Dany's set punishment is that one of the masters must die, so two of them immediately throw one under the bus, insisting that he would be the perfect target as he is an outsider and not truly one of them. The master whom was just fed to the dogs drops down to plead for his life while the two stand pointing fingers, making the decision quite an easy one. Grey Worm in one single swipe slits both of the master's throats as the third master cowers on the ground, still begging. Tyron tells him to tell all of what happened here in Meereen when Daenerys Targaryen flew in on her dragons, which I'm guessing is somehow going to stop Meereen from receding back into the practice of slavery once Daenerys is all the way across the Narrow Sea in Westeros.

Traveling across the Narrow Sea and up North, we find the two bastards of the title of the episode. Jon and his forces are too treating with their enemies, as he, along with Davos, Empowered™ Sansa, Tormund and little Lyanna Mormont (seriously why is she on the battlefield? She's like the last Mormont left in her line. If anything happened to her, it's a wonder who would rule Bear Island.) amongst others. Ramsay is there with his men and we are heavily reminded how little we missed seeing him on our screen these past few episodes as the writers have a love for milking his evilness in every scene he is in for all it's worth. Jon challenges Ramsay to a one-on-one fight which Ramsay denies, and Jon asks what will his men think when they hear he is not willing to fight for them. Why should they do the same? That is a good question Jon, but the Northern lords who clearly do not "remember" are completely and blindly faithful to this madman for no explicable reason. Thus, his offer doesn't seem to pan out. Sansa™ tells Ramsay he will meet his end and rides off in the middle of the meeting, leaving Jon and Ramsay to antagonize each other a while longer and decide on a time and place for the battle. Ramsay quite kindly offers them the night to prepare...maybe he had other plans. This whole fight doesn't seem so impending for Jon to insist they have to "fight with the men [they] have" because they had no time.

Back at base camp, Jon holds a war council with Davos and Tormund where they discuss what their next move should be with numbers clearly not on their side. Empowered ™ Sansa just stands idly by and no one even asks for her input. After Davos and Tormund exit, she questions this very detail, pointing out that unlike everyone else, she actually knows Ramsay, has spent a lot of time with him, has been at the hand of his "mercy", and knows exactly what he is capable of. The conversation soon turns into a shouting match, furthering the SEED of distrust Little Finger planted, and Jon questions what else she would have him do. She instructs him to just not do anything Ramsay would expect him or want him to do, and, as he rightly points out, that's quite the obvious statement. This scene brings up a lot of mixed feelings as Empowered™ Sansa is completely in the right for demanding to be heard in a situation where she has the most vital information and understanding of their opponent, but all of that is undermined by the information she chooses not to give up. This moment between her and Jon literally sets her up and gives her an in to tell him about the Vale forces, something that could and would have saved several lives had Jon known about them, but she decides not to.

Tormund and Davos have a scene together that didn't amount to much but it led to Davos walking the camp some more and finding the remnants of a pyre along with the stag he had carved for Shireen. This thread is laid throughout the episode, as we hope to finally get some resolution for Davos' love and loyalty to Stannis and Shireen and his distrusts and mislike of Melisandre but it never really goes anywhere. He is clearly angered and upset by this, but amidst the upcoming battle, there seems to be no time for this plot to be taken care of. One does have to wonder why they didn't bother to work this in a few episodes ago when it seems like Davos and Melisandre were want for things to do and there was more time to develop it in a less contrived way. Although, that shot of Davos standing atop the snowy cliff with the sun setting in the background, silhouetting his darkening outline was beautiful. The cinematography in this episode is definitely one to be commended.

Jon also has a scene with Melisandre about the notion of brining him back should he go down in the battle. He asks her not to but she tells him she must if the Lord of Light wills it and that's basically the get of this conversation. Why this had to be in there in the first place isn't very clear, but it was nice to see Carice Van Houten acting and speaking lines again after so many episodes of her either standing in the background or not being present!

Then, back in Meereen, we find out that Yara and Theon had made it to their destination and are finally meeting with the "Dragon Queen" they've been pursuing. Tyrion begins to talk down to Theon for all the bad he has done, like murdering innocents and joking about Tyrion's dwarfism while at Winterfell, which seems quite hypocritical for Tyrion to say, a man who murdered his own father and ex-lover and who cannot stop making eunuch jokes around Varys and Grey Worm. Yara, surprisingly after telling her brother to man up or kill himself last time, supports Theon and insists that he paid for his crimes while Tyrion continually belittles and asserts his privilege, undercutting the damage and difficulty of Theon's life at Winterfell. Theon wasn't a good person, but his actions, however inexcusable, are understandable. He was taken from his home by the man whom, when he looked out his window, he saw destroying his place and his people when he was just ten years old. He was then forced to live with this man and his people under the guise of a ward, when in reality, he was a captive and prisoner of war. Despite getting along with Robb and never being mistreated, he was still never family. How hard that must have been growing up, fitting in nowhere. Never fully being a Stark and never really being a Greyjoy. To see that dismissed, as is the case when Yara dismissed his abuse, is frustrating, especially as in both cases, they were moments delivered by people we are meant to side with and cheer for.

Dany questions whether Theon now comes to her wishing for his seat as king of the Iron Islands but he says no, not him, but Yara. Dany likes this and she and Yara begin bonding over their situations as women whom want to rule in a world that would have them not and, of course, their love for murdering men. It's impossible to shake what they've done with Yara in the other episode and while there are not-so-subtle flirtatious lines being thrown back and forth to the internet's excitement, I cannot cheer for this. As someone who is the number one supporter of every and all f/f ship that I can find and is especially hungry for representation, this scenario should be a dream. Two of my favorite book characters coming together, forming an alliance, and even hints that they could be something more in the future (although I am quite convinced this is an instance of queer baiting). It's literally astounding that they made it possible for ME to actively not ship a f/f relationship between these two because of how badly they've assassinated their characters in the screenwriting and direction. How did they turn two of the most interesting/compelling female characters in the books into two people I actively detest (Swashbuckling-rapist-toxicly-masucline Yara and Deadpan-fire crazy-White savior Dany)? I know we are all starved for some positive representation but please do not cheer for this or support it! It is not positive and Yara can never be after what they've done with her. She tells Daenerys "I never demand, but I'm up for anything, really." That is clearly not the case when she definitely raped a sex slave just the other week. Yara's book counterpart Asha is brilliant and an incredible example of feminism, female strength and confidence working within the system, along with sexual agency, but Yara, despite the absolutely brilliant performance given time and time again by Gemma Whelan, is just the opposite. However, alliances are formed and now the Greyjoy siblings have joined forces with the Dragon Queen they went east to seek out.

Back up north in Westeros we return to the Bastard Bowl which we follow to the episode's end. Ramsay and Jon stand across from one another, backed by their forces of great size, as the Bolton sigil is brought to life in burning flayed men on X-shaped crosses all along the battlefield. Jon, despite being backed by giants and a large army, is no match for the sheer amount of forces we see backing Ramsay.

In his first act of madness, Ramsay lets Rickon go across the field, telling him to run to Jon. "The sooner you get to him, the sooner you get to see him again," he laughs while Rickon starts walking. Ramsay, however, pulls out his bow and arrows that he is so fond of and Rickon begins to run. Jon, seeing what is about to occur kicks his horse into gear, sprinting towards his little brother. Ramsay haphazardly shoots several arrows, all missing Rickon, until, just as Rickon clears the hill and is about to reach Jon, one goes right through him. It's a Stark death that should feel impactful, but really doesn't as Rickon has been off our screens for several years, despite never really being on them to begin with, and after all Empowered™ Sansa warned us of this very possibility just minutes before when the writers remembered how the lineage and political structure works in the north despite it being absent from the dialogue the rest of the season.

Jon, in a fit of rage and anger, does exactly what Empowered™ Sansa told him not to do and charges, solo, towards Ramsay and his forces. His little brother just died, so his hard-pressed and distraught emotion is understandable, but this is the same person who just bragged to Empowered™ Sansa in the other scene that he has been in countless of battles. Charging along without your army towards the enemy forces is just so reckless, and the recklessness of the Starks' behavior seems to be a pattern or theme this episode. Ramsay calls on his men to loose arrows on Jon and they do, killing his horse. Jon stands alone on his feet, facing a now-charging calvary and he realizes just how bad of a situation he got himself into. However, his men reach him just in time before he is literally stampeded by Ramsay's forces and the two sides become one big conglomeration of fighting and bloodshed. The cinematography, while beautifully framed and shot, takes a weird turn as a dark vignette starts to make itself present in the corners of the screen, BECOMING a clear distraction from the crisp, beautiful and clean framing.

Jon somehow manages to not die in all of this. His plot armor must truly be made of Valyrian steel, but all the while a lot of other people and unknown faces fall in the shower of arrows and men. Ramsay, however, is staying well away from the fight, which is very unlike him and incredibly uncharacteristic. He, unlike Joffrey, was never afraid to do his own dirty work and it's what makes him a wildcard, but a truly terrible ruler, a liability, and everything that Roose was not. In fact, this new Ramsay persona is so good at general strategy and warfare that he plans an attack incredibly similar to what happened at the Battle of Cannae. His army encircles the Stark forces, pushing in with their shields up and spears out. It's a striking image, but it does seem a stretch in the dark for this type of force and attack to be under the hot-headed and unpredictable leadership of Ramsay. Wun Wun, everyone's favorite vegetarian giant, seems to be the only one who can make a dent in this blockade but it's not enough. It's literal chaos on the battlefield as Jon is pushed to the ground and is getting trampled, seemingly suffocating under the pressure of hundreds of men clamoring over him. He finally gets up, being pushed by he crowd in a scene reminiscent of what it's like to walk in Times Square during rush hour, but as all hope seems lost, a war horn sounds.

Who is it but the Vale forces that Empowered™ Sansa didn't tell anyone about, led by Lady Stark herself and everyone's favorite schemer and child predator Petyr Baelish? The Knights of the Vale break the Bolton forces and the tides begin to turn. Empowerd™ Sansa and Little Finger look on the battle, united as one, disturbing implications about Empowered™ Sansa's choices ensuing.

As the Bolton forces are defeated, Jon coated in blood, sees Ramsay, and he, Davos, and Wun Wun run after him on foot. In the "Inside the Episode" Benioff and Weiss describe the look in Jon's eyes, stating "Even for someone we love like Jon, seeing him covered in blood and soot, there's a wildness to him after everything he's seen." While he has been through an ordeal, partially of his own fault, in this episode, he has certainly seen quite a lot before this. Or is fighting White Walkers and seeing them raise the dead not as bad or affecting as this?

Jon and his forces follow Ramsay to Winterfell, Wun Wun breaking down the door and they charge through the gate. Sadly we have to say goodbye to Wun Wun as he gets pelted by arrows and Ramsay deals the final blow through his eye. Ramsay, now that the odds are no longer in his favor, declares he will go ahead with the one-on-one combat option Jon gave him before, firing arrows. Jon drops his sword, picks up a shield, and runs at Ramsay, blocking his shots. He hits Ramsay over the head with his shield and begins pummeling him over and over again until his face is bloody. He doesn't stop till he look up and sees Empowered ™ Sansa, "who has suffered at the hands of this man and realizes that he isn't his to finish," according to the show runners, setting up a situation that subverted a lot of the positives in this episode and and weakened it as a whole.

Just before we get to it however, we see the flayed man banners of the Boltons replaced with the direwolf banners of the Stark and it's quite touching to see the Stark flags flying once again at Winterfell. That moment of joyous satisfaction is lost as we make our way to the ending moment of the episode. Empowered™ Sansa asks Jon where Ramsay is and goes down to where he is being held captive, beaten up, bloody and tied up in a cell. She delivers her lines in the same deadpan expression Dany had earlier in the episode, proclaiming that no one will remember him and after this moment, he and the Bolton line, will be wiped from this world forever. She lets Ramsay's hounds into his cell, watching from outside the barred door. Ramsay laughs, telling her his hounds would never harm him, but she reminds him of what he said earlier. "You haven't fed them in seven days, you said it yourself." The dogs enter the cell and start tearing at his face. Empowered™ Sansa watches on, expressionless for a few moments, until ultimately walking away with a smile on her face.

This scene which was clearly meant to be Empowering™ and has many others cheering, felt wrong. This is the same girl that was still able to be horrified at the sight of Joffrey's death while still wishing for it! Joffrey who had abused her and had his kingsguard hit her bloody whenever he was displeased, who wished to present her her brother's head, who was responsible for killing her father, yet the humanity in her still can't get the gruesomeness of his death out of her head, as exemplified by her chapter after the Purple Wedding.:

"He had not been dead when she left the throne room. He had been on his knees, though, clawing at his throat, tearing at his own skin as he fought to breathe. The sight of it had been too terrible to watch, and she had turned and fled, sobbing. Lady Tanda had been fleeing as well. "You have a good heart, my lady," she said to Sansa™. "Not every maid would weep so for a man who set her aside and wed her to a dwarf." A good heart. I have a good heart. Hysterical laughter rose up her gullet, but Sansa™ choked it back down."

She couldn't revel in his death. "It was "too terrible to watch", despite the fact that she wanted it. Her hysterics rise up because her emotions are so heightened and seeing someone die right in front of you, in such a gruesome way, despite it being a person who hurt you consistently and took everything you love from you, is upsetting.

"The bells were ringing, slow and mournful. Ringing, ringing, ringing. They had rung for King Robert the same way. Joffrey was dead, he was dead, he was dead, dead, dead. Why was she crying, when she wanted to dance? Were they tears of joy?"

She questions are her tears tears of happiness because she doesn't know. It's exemplary of how well Martin writes aftermath which this show consistently fails to do. Instead of what was basically a rape revenge fantasy portrayed on our screen, we have someone who has been abused and their abuser had just perished right before their eyes...yet she's crying. She's happy he can't hurt her anymore, but it doesn't erase the fact that watching someone's life be sucked out of them, breath by breath as Joffrey had, watching them claw at their throat for air, is terrifying to witness. It further illuminates and supports the theme in George's writing of the futility of violence and war. It doesn't change anything that happened in the past. It doesn't fix it.

In her next chapter, she recalls a dream she had:

"She dreamt of Joffrey dying, but as he clawed at his throat and the blood ran down across his fingers she saw with horror that it was her brother Robb."

The fact that in her dream she parallels Joffrey's death with the death of a brother she loved just goes to show that despite her happiness to get away from him and despite the fact that she is relieved he can never hurt her again, his death is still tragic. He was a child, clawing at his throat, unable to breath, slowly dying in front of her, and it's sad. She feels it is justice that he died, but cannot force herself to take joy in the circumstance and imagery of his death. She's happy to get away, she's happy to not have to be at his mercy every again, but the atrocity of watching a child tearing at their throat for air, turning more purple with every breath haunts her.

The whole thing with Joffrey's death and why it was done so beautifully (and I think the show conveyed this in the episode where it happened) was that it was supposed to be sad watching this child die, despite the fact that you hated him and previously wished for it to happen. However, according to the show...isn't it Empowering™ to have Empowered™ Sansa employ the same methods of torturous and gruesome violence that she and many others suffered at the hands of her abuser?

The show runners literally stated that Empowered™ Sansa walking off and smiling (from watching a person get EATEN ALIVE by dogs) was one of their favorite moments they've ever filmed, which only further highlights their refusal to understand Martin's constant theme of the futility of war and violence, as well as his subversion of the fantasy tropes of revenge and death. The fact that they think her moment of reckoning where "This isn't the little girl who wanted to dress up like a princess anymore," is empowering furthers their unwillingness to recognize the power in different kinds of female strength. Sansa's strength has always been her courtesy and she uses the dreams she used to dream get by and manipulate the situations around her. It becomes the death of the dream of courtesy but the manipulation and use of the idea of it. However, just as is always the case; murder, torture, and violence are the only forms of Empowerment™ they seem to champion as we've seen it time and time and again be it with Dany, Yara, Arya, or now with Sansa.

So while this episode was visually stunning, an incredible feat of scale on epic proportions, the impact of it all seemed lost in the haze that was muddy context and increasingly weak and one dimensional characterization.

Next episode seems to be just as epic but with even more going on, as the preview teases quite a lot. Cersei and Loras are standing trial, Jon and Empowered™ Sansa try to patch up their relationship, Jaime is partying it up with Walder Frey, Little Finger leans in disturbingly close to Sansa as he tells her "I thought you knew what I wanted" (please get this man far far away from her!), Davos outs Melisandre for burning Shireen, and much much more. It feels more like a Thrones episode I'm used to, but we'll have to wait and see!

Check out the preview of next week's episode below and be sure to share your thoughts and reactions to this weeks episode in the comments!

Photo Credit: HBO

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