NOTE: This is about the episode “A Man Without Honor,” which aired May 13. I’m just behind on my blogging.

I’m happy because Ygritte said her catchphrase.

As for spoilers, yes, there probably will be some.

I took my own advice from last week and put the books as far out of my mind as posible during this week’s episode. As I was watching the episode, I realized that, for the first time since the shpw premiered last year, I felt real dramatic tension. Previously, I felt tension from knowing what was going to happen but not knowing exactly how the producers would show it, or how the actors would convey it. Now, all bets are off, and it is awesome.

In that vein, I’m going to look at last night’s events in light of how they relate to other aspects of the show.

Arya/Tywin –> Arya/Ned

I am fascinated by the quasi father-daughter relationship building between Arya Stark and Tywin Lannister. Tywin is, in his own way, showing her a remarkable amount of warmth and kindness. I suspect he is playing his own game, as he clearly knows she is not who she claims to be. Perhaps he is keeping his enemies closer, but then again he is allowing her access to quite a bit of intel. Arya, of course, has no means to do anything with this intel (that she knows of.) Tywin, I think it is fair to say, values strength above all else. His own children, Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, have their own kinds of strength. Tyrion is by far the most like his father, but neither of them would ever admit that. Arya is very much like Tyrion, a person born with traits that greatly disadvantage them in their world, but that also hide great reserves of strength and cunning. I wonder if Tywin Lannister sees in Arya the traits he does not want to see in Tyrion.

Watching Arya and Tywin’s scenes, I keep thinking of the very few scenes between Arya and Ned Stark. Ned was a loving but rather incompetent father to his daughters. He gave Sansa a new doll, even though she hadn’t played with dolls in years. Even though he set Arya up with her “dancing instructor,” he could never envision a future for her beyond marrying a lord and birthing his children. Arya, in her first moment of true badassery, shut that idea down right away. Tywin Lannister is giving Arya something she may have never received before from her elders: respect, however grudging, for her unique courage and intelligence.

Tywin is right though–she is too smart for her own good.

Sansa/Cersei –> Jon/Aemon –> Jon/Ygritte

Love is an interesting theme in this show, presented as much more of a liability than any sort of asset. I loved the scene between Cersei and Sansa. Cersei tells her that her eventual children are the only people she can afford to love, and then largely because she will have no choice. Cersei’s love for her children, of course, is at least in part the cause of much of the suffering in Westeros. I had always assumed that it was Cersei’s doting that turned Joffrey into such a little monster. Here we see that Cersei knows exactly what Joffrey is, but that she feels powerless to do anything about it. Whether this is because of her love as a mother or Joffrey’s position as king is not entirely clear. She and Tyrion, of course, broach the subject of whether Joffrey suffers from the same incest-borne madness that afflicted so many Targaryens.

Also, that scene where Cersei almost cries and Tyrion almost comforts her? Awkward.

Cersei’s advice to Sansa about love was remarkably similar to what Maester Aemon told Jon Snow last season. Members of the Night’s Watch forsake their family bonds and vow never to marry or father children, because love will interfere with their duty. It’s a very cynical, nihilistic view of the world, but it’s probably the best they can do on the Wall.

Contrast that to the sort of life Ygritte tempts Jon with, a life where he would be free of all the oaths and the stain of bastardry. Even on the Wall, Jon can’t escape being the bastard son of a “traitor,” but north of the Wall no one would give a crap (aside from the fact that he’s a “crow” and they might have a hard time trusting him.)

Daenerys and “trust”

I appreciate that Quaithe (the lady in the mask) reminded us that Jorah Mormont was selling info about Daenerys and Viserys to people in King’s Landing. That will be an important plot point later, but it kind of got glossed over, much like the fact that we saw Varys and Magister Illyrio of Pentos in cahoots last season. Hell, I still don’t quite know where that’s going, roughly 4.2 books into the series.

As for the warlocks killing all of the Thirteen save two, I definitely did not see that coming.