The trial of Jaime Lannister

This week Game of thrones It was not so much a question of conflict as to prepare – and fear – a conflict. But it's Westeros, and there's always a fight to be done.

James Whitbrook: Welcome to Battle of Thrones, io9's weekly failure on an important moment of conflict in the last episode Game of thrones & # 39; last season – be it a war of words or a clash of swords. Last week, I joined Beth as we discussed the division between Daenerys and Sansa, but this week I'm accompanied by io9 editor Cheryl Eddy to talk about the knight of the seven kingdoms. Hello Cheryl!

Cheryl Eddy: Hi! Two down, four to go!

James: My God, it's really weird when you put it like that! The show continues to prepare for the biggest battle of the season – the battle of Winterfell against Night King's armies. This week was therefore an episode that did not really about a lot of conflict. But I wanted to deepen a little the catalyst of the conflict of Jaime Lannister, which is really interesting.

Cheryl: We saw it arrive at the very end of 'Winterfell', so we knew it was going to happen. He (obviously) did not receive the warmest welcome, but it could have been much worse too. You could say that Dany wanted to feed him to the dragons!

James: What I liked the most about this calculation – with Dany dragging him in front of the Starks and Tyrion and the northerners gathered to tell Jaime's story with the Targaryen – is that, in many ways, Dany responds to our expectations about it. long awaited meeting. She's looking for blood right off the bat, and it all looks like this juicy drama. And U.S. too!

Cheryl: I think Jaime was very worried that Bran reveals this huge secret! But we're never going to have a moment like this, it's clear now. Bran does things his way, now.

James: Oh, but he had that awesome jab by repeating Jaime's words from the very first episode. The look on Jaime's face after he said it was just amazing.

Cheryl: "Oh shiiiiiiit! "

James: But I think it also highlights in many ways how the game of this scene is a subversion of our expectations. In the end, like Dany, we were prepared for the drama. We expected Bran to drop the big bomb. But the people in this room, including Jaime, have changed so much since the beginning of the series – since before the start of the series, in his case as Kingslayer – that instead of getting this conflict Anticipated, it is defused almost immediately for everyone. .

Cheryl: There is a lot of tension in this episode, but instead of being between the characters (for once), it is mainly about how everyone feels what will happen in a few hours. Even the shared mistrust of someone like Jaime, who has a lot to answer, even if he is basically a good guy, is second to the conflict.

James: Agreed. There is a version of this scene in which Dany gets what she wants without asking questions, kills Jaime at that moment and then everyone has slit her throat. But everyone (apparently apart from her, even if she has to back down) realizes that Jaime is at the rendezvous, unlike her sister, and that he's there because it's a fight behind the bickering houses for events that happened … god, almost a decade ago in the case of Ned, and even longer with Aerys?

Cheryl: We have not received any King's Landing this week (I wonder if we'll do it next week either?), Which really kept the focus on this bigger fight. Back to Jaime though, this scene where he talks to Bran also did not reveal what I was expecting.

James: There is a lot of acceptance of people and people things in this episode in general, or at least, put aside the conflicts to focus on the looming threat of White Walkers. I loved that Bran looks like "maybe it's for the better, in fact" – not just in practice, they need Jaime alive, but in that sense that he recognizes that moment between them was in the past and that they both changed as people. because of that.

And that the change is … good? Generally good. Good-ish.

Cheryl: Well now, but getting there was hell!

What do you say about Bran's comment on "How do you know there is a post?" Does he drop hints or is he just becoming cryptic?

James: I took it, to a small extent, as an acceptance of Jaime, in the sense that it's almost the closest thing that Bran can come to offer encouragement at this point? Even if it is delivered in a hilarious and disturbing way.

I do not think Bran can see exactly enough how it's going to happen, but his face is tiny just before he says it, it's almost as if it's cute that Jaime just accepts that they come out well. on the other side of the fight if casually. A bit like Han Solo-ian "do not be arrogant, kid", but delivered by a supernatural and terrifying mystic teenager.

Cheryl: That's true. It also makes me understand that we've seen Bran see the past, like when he was "there" for Jon's birth, Hodor's childhood, etc., but has he ever really looked to the future? I guess he knew Jaime was coming, if he's the "old friend" he meant … Bran's powers are really scary, supernatural and mysterious.

James: Oooh, it's interesting to consider. I wanted to go back to the "trial" to ask you a question. We talked about Dany's reaction to Jaime. What did you think of Sansa?

Cheryl: Sansa and Dany both saw their family being destroyed by this man. But Sansa also knows that Brienne would not fight for a cold-blooded murderer.

James: I thought it was fascinating to return to my discussion with Beth last week, as if it was not a conflict between Jaime and Sansa, but a continuation of the division that remained between Sansa and Dany. It's very sharp, it starts as if it actually supports Dany's argument: "Oh yes, it was a con for my family too!" – but then she shows the piece and Daenerys in particular that she can put it aside and accept the defense of Brienne. whose is Jaime now. As this very discreet eye-patch to Daenerys's "look, I can be pragmatic about this, And you?"

Cheryl: It is very true. And – the Targaryen story that happened before Dany is not old enough to remember aside – Sansa's relationship with the Lannisters is even more involved and personal. The two women know Tyrion quite well, but only Sansa saw her father die and live with the twin horrors of Joffrey and Cersei, and so on. Thus, she puts aside her hatred, her fear, her aversion, whatever the form that Jaime takes is almost more magnanimous. .

Plus, there's a good chance everyone in this room is listening to Sansa anyway anyway, because no one in the North is really the Dany team at the moment. Then all Jon: "Of course, yeah, let's fight him" (not the exact quote, ah!), Which seals the contract.

James: That's the thing about all this "conflict" in this episode, I think. This is not much in the grand scheme of the episode, but the most interesting is a conflict in which Jaime is the catalyst for discussion among other characters rather than directly part of the conflict. He is not actively opposed to Dany, Sansa or Bran, it is the central point that everyone around him in this trial scene can bounce back.

Cheryl: Absolutely. Hoping that next Sunday, everyone can work together when it really matters. Even if Game of thrones the characters sometimes have trouble doing it … fighting the king of the night seems to be the thing everyone can hear. Except Cersei, of course.

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