![]() Towards the end of the episode, Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne with Tommen ( Dean-Charles Chapman), narrating to him a story about a lion and his cub over the montage of Tywin coming to King’s Landings’ rescue. ![]() Though Sansa declines, it brings out Clegane’s softer side which gets amplified during his interactions with Arya. Towards the end of the war, Sansa is visited by Clegane, now disenchanted by the lies of kings and kingdoms, who offers to take her back to Winterfell. And this scene really establishes Sansa’s natural instinct to rule. The polar opposite to Cersei is Sansa, who makes efforts to calm the noble ladies down, even if it takes lying to do so. Headey is unhinged in her performance and though she’s utterly toxic, she is also extremely magnetic and impossible to take your eyes off of. She goes on to advise Sansa ( Sophie Turner) on how to rule, about the apathy of gods, and where women’s most dangerous weapons are located. But what does that make the lot of you?” Tyrion manages to lead a successful counter-attack and by the end, he becomes a small-time hero with the crowd chanting “half-man!” in admiration and respect.īut it’s sinister Cersei who steals the show with her drunken rants and wisdoms. He gives a brutally honest and a compelling speech to raise the morale of his men, and to those reluctant to fight, he says, “They say I’m half-man. Tyrion finds the courage to lead the battle after Joffrey chickened out. This later leads up to him leaving the Lannisters' side with an absolutely badass quote. But during the war, Bronn saves Clegane who finds himself paralyzed by his pyrophobia. There is a heated moment between Clegane and Bronn, boiling with tension and ready to erupt, which was avoided thanks to tolling bells. There is a brief conversation between Davos and his son Matthos ( Kerr Logan) that showed how shrewd and pragmatic the onion knight was by contrasting him with his young and naive son. Within the context of the war, the episode took its time to lay down some fascinating character beats. Conversations feel sincere, honest, and almost entirely devoid of mind games as the war recalibrates their priorities. Since every scene plays out with the implied knowledge of a looming threat the importance of every interaction feels heightened. Instead, it jumps around to check how the characters are doing and feeling before and during the war. The episode refuses to divert its attention from the pressing matter and largely ignores the characters outside of Kings Landing. "Blackwater" is one of the few episodes where Game of Thrones focuses on a single scenario throughout. ![]() Their men outnumbered the King’s Landing’s army by five to one and ships by 10 to one. On the other hand, Stannis’ was cool as ever and his army confident. ![]() There was genuine panic and fear within King's Landing, and Cersei ( Lena Headey) had even prepared a poison pill for herself and her youngest son. Even though the war was largely shown from King’s Landing’s perspective, the viewer could never really be sure of the battle’s outcome and its survivors because of how the episode was set up. So, unlike the wars from the latter seasons, like 'The Battle of the Bastards' where the viewer just knew it in their guts that Jon Snow ( Kit Harington) would prevail, the fate of the battle remained mostly unpredictable. Exactly 10 episodes prior to "Blackwater" viewers had witnessed the shocking beheading of Ned Stark, and needless to say, they had developed certain trust issues with the series. The battle of Blackwater comes from Game of Thrones’ golden years when the series had established itself to be merciless and unpredictable. The violence is delightfully brutal with chopping limbs and blood splatters, and it’s this tone of violence that would go on to inform the show’s future wars. The previous wide shots are now substituted for claustrophobic cinematography. Still, Stannis decides to continue with the attack, and soon it’s time for close combat. Men trapped in burning boats jump into the sea only to get burned by the water too. Dozens of boats are taken down by the dazzling green explosion. Before Davos ( Liam Cunningham) can figure out what’s happening, a flaming arrow comes in contact with the wildfire-fueled sea. After a while, a solitary boat sails towards them and when it gets close enough, it turns out that the boat is completely empty, and it seems to be pouring a green fluid into the sea. Stannis’ ( Stephen Dillane) massive fleet is sailing towards King’s Landing, but to their surprise, they’re not met with any naval resistance. The Battle of Blackwater was the very first large-scale war offered by the show, and more than a decade later it still remains highly impressive on a rewatch.
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