I heard a song from one of my many little birds this morning. They said of how season three is as little as a week away from our screens. While we’ve all been preparing our living rooms for the inevitable, I’ve been looking back on the two trailers HBO were kind enough to send our way as the new season marched ever closer. The first was constructed as a teaser first and foremost; it whet our appetites just so, but gave us enough of a taste of what was to come in the new episodes without giving too much away. The second trailer, however, was a bit less constrained, and was a no-holds-barred look into all the best bits of what are to be the next ten episodes of Game of Thrones.
Tyrion
Where we left off at the end of season two, Tyrion had just won the Battle of the Blackwater more-or-less by himself. He may have nearly been sliced in half by Ser Mandon Moore in the process, but his squire Podrick Payne dealt with that particular fellow rather swiftly. The Imp saved King’s Landing from the terror of Stannis Baratheon’s armies, but did he receive any credit for it? His father Lord Tywin arrived to the battle fashionably late, with a host of Lannister and Tyrell cavalry, and dispensed with the already fleeing Baratheon soldiers. After ending a battle that was already over, and that his son had already won, Tywin headed straight for the Red Keep and his daughter Cersei, informing her of “his” victory moments before she was to mercifully kill her own son Tommen.
Tyrion was removed from his position as acting Hand of the King, being that Tywin, the actual Hand, was now in the city and able to fulfil his duties. Tyrion spent the final episode of season two in his bed in a dingy room in Maegor’s Holdfast with a tattered reputation and a frightful battle scar across his face. Now, in season three, the city has begun to recover from the botched siege, and the Lannisters find themselves in an even high position of authority, being that the head of the family is now responsible for a great deal of the goings-on in the Seven Kingdoms.
Either way, he should consider himself lucky in the grander scheme of things; in the books he hasn’t even got a nose anymore.
Tywin Lannister, on the other hand, is now more powerful than ever. The Lord of Casterly Rock commands one of the most powerful armies in the Kingdoms, is the richest man in Westeros, and is now right-hand man to King Joffrey himself. By-and-large, the Hand is often dealt a great deal of power regardless of who he is; Ned Stark was forced to run the entire Kingdom in Robert Baratheon’s absence, and even Tyrion had a considerable amount of responsibility to carry with him as he went about his duties before and during “Blackwater”. Tywin, on the other hand, should not be given such power in my honest opinion. He may have been Hand once before, to the “Mad King” Aerys Targaryen, but he was serving a man who’s idea of a perfect afternoon was to roast people alive in their own armour.
Now, Tywin serves a mere boy and any real power Joffrey has still lies with his mother and Queen Regent, Cersei, who happens to be Tywin’s daughter. There is a particular moment in the second trailer when Tyrion offers up some political commentary regarding the new Hand, reflecting on the fact that there are “seven kingdoms all united against Tywin Lannister” at that point in the new season. Could it be the mighty Tywin is carried away by his new-found political power and finally attempts to seize the Kingdoms for himself? Only time will tell…
The Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister, is still making his way back to the capital from his former captivity in the camp of Robb Stark’s army, and is forced to share the journey with his bodyguard-of-sorts Brienne. The last we saw of the two of them, they were ambling through the Riverlands after having just alighted from their skiff somewhere near the Trident. All seems well for the time being, and the two of them will continue to bicker their way to King’s Landing for some time. However, I’m not the only one that can sense trouble on the horizon; in the two trailers, we’re given several little snippets of the two of them fighting away on a bridge, which clearly marks a breaking point in their relationship and the end of their journey. That’s expected, as in the books Jaime thinks of nothing other than killing Brienne, breaking his chains, and getting back to his beloved Cersei.
The thing I didn’t see coming was the subsequent bear-fighting. There comes a time in their story, clearly soon after their scrap on the bridge, when the two of them are captured by a hitherto unknown faction. My money is on either the Starks or Tullys of course, but whoever it is, they come up with the idea of sending the two of them into an arena to fight one the biggest bears I’ve ever seen. It is a possibility this incident may result in Brienne’s demise, as she doesn’t seem to be faring too well against the aforementioned mammal, but I expect Jaime to make it through. He may be imprisoned by his new captors, possibly tortured, and lose all hope of making it back to the security of King’s Landing and the rest of his family, but there’s hope for him yet.
Everyone’s a little hard on Cersei, and while that is with good reason, I do feel the need to defend her sometimes. She may have been a complete bitch in season one… and season two, but you do have to remember ever since Robert died she’s been stuck in King’s Landing with no-one but her brother Tyrion for company, and she hates Tyrion. Not only that, but her only daughter Myrcella has been sold to a Dornish prince, likely never to be seen again, and her arrogant son Joffrey is on the Throne and causing all sorts of problems for the good of the kingdom. Naturally, she’s going to vent her frustration on such poor souls as Sansa Stark, who’s in largely the same situation as her. She will, without a doubt, continue to be as undesirable a person as she was in the previous two seasons, but we should hopefully start to see a slightly more human side to Cersei now as more and more of her albeit dysfunctional family arrive in the capital and give her people to confide in.
There’s not a lot I can say as far as predictions on Cersei’s future go; we haven’t been treated to a great deal of her in any of the trailers. She still seems to be spending a lot of her time lounging around the Red Keep in a drunken stupor, and there are still plenty of excellent scenes between Tyrion and her to be had.