Arya and the Lannister Soldiers

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Hey Guys,
Love the new Game of Thrones podcast, great job. A couple things I wanted to address that you discussed in your instacast. First is the subject of cold opens. While there haven’t been many cold opens there have been more than two. I’ll break down the episode and context of each cold open that’s happened throughout the series. Cold Opens

Season 1 Episode 1: Winter Is Coming

This episode’s cold open features small Night’s Watch ranging party north of the wall. Two members of the ranging party are killed by White Walkers while the last ranger Will is spared.

Season 3 Episode 1: Valar Dohaeris

This cold open shows Sam Fleeing the White Walkers attack on the Fist of the First Men. Sam is saved by Ghost and his brothers of the Night’s Watch, including the late Lord Commander Jeor Mormont.

Season 4 Episode 1: Two Swords

This cold open shows Tywin burning wolf pelts and melting down the ancestral Valyrian steel great sword of House Stark Ice, that is the used to create the swords Oathkeeper and Widow’s Wail.

Season 5 Episode 1: The Wars to Come

This is the cold open that the shows the Maggie the Frog prophecy. Cersei and her friend visit the woods witch Maggie the Frog who tells them what the future has in store for them.

Season 6 Episode 7 The Broken Man

This cold open is the one that reveals that the Hound is still alive, as it shows him working to help construct a sept.

Arya and the Lannister Soldiers

This scene is catching a lot of flak mainly because of the Ed Sheeran cameo. A lot of people feel like HBO forced the scene and the cameo on the audience. At times, it did feel like Ed Sheeran was literally being put right in our faces, especially with the way the scene was shot. Ed Sheeran should have been heard more than he was seen. His voice is great and the song they were singing comes from the books. I could have done without his face taking up my whole screen. I do appreciate what they tried to accomplish with this scene. This was a great attempt to humanize not just the Lannister soldiers, but also Arya. Arya is coming from the Twins where she just murdered presumably all the male’s in the Frey family. She murder’s them at a feast where she is disguised as Lord Walder. This is justice for the Red Wedding because the Freys violated one of the most sacred customs in Westeros and especially in the North, guest right. I won’t get too much into the history of guest right in Westeros but it is one of the most sacred and important customs. In Westeros violating guest right is heinous as kinslaying. When you welcome a guest under your roof as soon as they eat your bread and salt they are immediately under your protection. Arya disguising herself as Lord Walder was a way to administer justice in a way that matches their crimes. It is showing the audience that violating guest right is on par with kinslaying. Now bringing this back home to the meeting with the Lannister soldiers. Arya recognizes them based on their armor as Lannister men. She acknowledges them and is invited over to eat with them. Arya is probably toying with the idea of killing them because they are Lannister soldiers. We know this because when she accepts their invitation she scans the area to locate where the soldier’s weapons are. She is planning her attack. She converses with the troops for a bit discovering that they are not just mindless robots but these are human beings. They have families and lives of their own, and their focus is to go back home safely. The soldiers then hand Arya the food they previously offered. This is a moment that is met with hesitation from Arya. She rejects this offer again, this is important because she knows that by accepting their food she is essentially accepting guest right. She may not be under their roof but by accepting their food she is their guest and she is accepting their protection. Arya by taking a bite of the roasted rabbit is abandoning her plan to kill the soldiers. This scene not only shows the humanity of the Lannister soldiers but also Arya. By respecting guest right and treating the soldiers as individuals she is showing the audience that she is not a soulless killer. It also shows the true damage the Freys have done to the custom of guest right. Arya is skeptical of the Lannister soldiers because of the Freys violation of guest right. Through Arya’s traumatic experience there is no longer the assumption that once you receive food from a host that you will be under their protection. Through getting to sit down and converse with the Lannister soldiers, Arya learns that they are just people like her. They are pawns in the games of the great lords, and at their core they’re men with families that just want to make it home. It was a great moment of character building, something that has been missing over the past couple seasons and a great change of pace for the show. I wanted to address the scenes with the Hound and BwB, but I don’t have time to address it in this e-mail. Looking forward to the next podcast

Best,
Charlie from Boston

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