Sieges are a major part of warfare in Westeros — they ’re the reason for those stout castles , and a huge reason why firedrake were such game - changers . Last Nox ’s episode of Game of Thrones was all about people prepare to be under beleaguering .
And the way they think about siege tactics told us everything we needed to have intercourse about their characters . Spoilers ahead …
Siege war has been a major topic in Game of Thrones from the very beginning . Last year , there was a work argument about what would happen if a Dothraki horde managed to span the Narrow Sea . Some people feel the Dothraki would be no hassle , because the God Almighty could just hide out in their castle , and hold off for them to give up and go home . But King Robert pointed out that the Dothraki could run around pillage and destroying , while the lords slowly starved and lost their legitimacy because they could n’t protect their masses .
So now it ’s look like we might actually get to see a siege , although probably not one that hold up for month and month . And here ’s what ’s in shop :
The siege of Winterfell
Theon Greyjoy is feeling reasonably good about his situation . Growing up as the surety / adopt son in Winterfell , he always pick up Ned Stark say that a hundred men could hold Winterfell indefinitely against a much larger attacking force-out . So what if everybody in the North , let in Robb Stark , want Theon dead ? He ’s got the stout palace .
All he want is for his sis Yara Greyjoy , to come and give him some reinforcements . Unfortunately , when Yara show up , she ’s not there to reinforce him . At all .
Yara calls him a stupid slit ( I think we hear that Word of God last night more than I ’ve ever hear it on television . Eat your meat out , George Carlin ) and tell him that he ’s an idiot for taking a castle that he ca n’t possibly deem onto . Not to observe murdering the only two surety he had , the Amazing Stark Boys .
And Yara take another point , that echoes throughout all the other storyline in the episode : Theon is a long path from home . ( If you conceive of the Iron Islands as his household , that is . ) He ’s hundred of miles from the ocean , which is where the Ironborn get their strength from . It is one thing to be under siege in your own home , but it ’s another thing to scrunch down far away from all your reservoir of support . Home is your strong suit , both spiritually and physically .
Yara mostly bemock Theon ’s foolishness , but when they ’re alone together , she has one brief moment of tenderness , recalling how she did n’t strangle him when he was a baby . She asks him to come home , and not die so far from the sea . Now that he ’s been re - baptized as one of the Iron Islanders , he should snuff it at ocean or nearby .
Theon does n’t mind to his baby , which will probably ferment out to be an fantabulous decisiveness — since we know that Roose Bolton ’s “ bastard ” is on his way to recapture the castle .
Meanwhile , we discover — to nobody ’s particular surprisal — that Theon did not , in fact , kill the Amazing Stark Boys . He killed two farmers ’ sons , and he set about to give the farmer some gold “ for his trouble . ” Only to find out the farmer has already pay the Iron Price . ( One of these day , Theon will see this Ironborn thing out . ) Meanwhile , the Amazing Stark Boys are actually creep in their ascendant ’ crypt , where Bran overhears that two innocuous boys die for him and Rickon .
The siege of King ’s landing place
The other huge siege that ’s brewing is Stannis Baratheon ’s assault on King ’s Landing — which may not be much of a military blockade . As Tyrion taper out , Stannis can just batter down the Mud Gate and get inside in minutes . Tyrion is reading up on the histories of the great beleaguering of Westeros , by an author who ’s both unreadable and unutterable , and it ’s not doing him much good .
Stannis would be a pretty dire world-beater , but he at least understand the fundamentals of beleaguering in a fashion that Good King Joffrey does not .
Stannis remember the military blockade ofStorm ’s End , when he hold the castle for King Robert , even after all the food ran out and they had to eat the horses , the guy , the dog , the rats and likely the mantle . They were saved from famishment when Davos Seaworth pilfer inside with a gravy boat full of onions , Irish potato and a snatch of table salt beef . For that service , Davos is now Ser Davos , the Onion Knight , and he ’s in railway line to become King Stannis ’ Hand when Stannis take the Iron Throne .
Meanwhile , Joffrey call back that a military blockade signify he ’ll just stride out of the walls and stamp out Stannis with his big scary blade , carving Stannis a “ red smile . ” Robert Joffrey is undecipherable on the concept of beleaguering , which is that you stay the piece of tail inside the walls and force your assailant to wear themselves down .
Tyrion think it ’s a good thing that Joffrey wants to be in the thick of the fight , though — it ’ll inspire the little number of adult male to fight much harder , jazz the King is mighty there with them . And he ’ll have the best armour and the Kingsguard surrounding him , so he wo n’t be in any actual danger .
Queen Cersei , however , is also unclear on the fundamentals of the position — namely , that if King Joffrey hang back and does n’t fight , that does n’t mean he ’ll be safe . It just think that he ’ll be killed later , when Stannis takes the metropolis . In fact , if Joffrey stays out of the fighting , this may be the certain mode to ensure a frightful death for him .
Cersei is so outraged that Tyrion require Joffrey to act like a loss leader instead of cowering , she captures Tyrion ’s “ whore ” and tortures her . Too defective Cersei nabs the wrong sex worker — she grab Ros , whom Tyrion had a spill with back in the North , and who was part of Tyrion ’s gift to Joffrey . Poor Ros has now witnessed infanticide , been forced to brutalize her fellow sex - worker , and been abused … all at the hand of Joffrey and Cersei . Here ’s hop that Ros ’ plot line is going somewhere with all this .
Tyrion predict Cersei that she ’ll pay for this , and he ’ll see that her joy turns to ash in her back talk some day . And then he hasten to see his actual paid girlfriend , Shae , who say she can take precaution of herself and predict that she ’s Tyrion ’s . And he ’s hers .
But what ’s Tyrion ’s plan for the beleaguering of King ’s landing place ? We wo n’t get to find out everything until next calendar week . But his right - hand human beings , Bronn , has been rounding up all the known stealer so they wo n’t slip all the food for thought the moment the besieging get down . And Tyrion has come up with some kind of plan for all that Wildfire Cersei was hive up . Plus he seems positively inspire when he observe that they have an tremendous amount of pigshit .
Meanwhile , we get a fantastical scene between Tyrion and Varys , in which Tyrion wish they could discourse as “ two honest , intelligent men . ” “ I wish we could too , ” order Varys . call in that his biggest province , as a vernal man , was the plumbing of Casterly Rock . And now he ’s suddenly playing the Game , and he ’s turned out to be quite good at it . He ’d like to keep play it — if Stannis does n’t pop everybody .
Varys says Stannis will incinerate his captives alive as ritual killing to the Red God . chair Tyrion to observe that the Drowned God wants to drown all its sacrifices . “ Why are all the God such barbarous cunts ? Where are the graven image of mamilla and wine ? ” They should sweep to the Summer Isles , where a local fertility god has 16 nipple . Too regretful they ’re stick in the path of Stannis and his vicious fire god .
The besieging of the paries
A third siege is come , too — the Wildlings are preparing a huge United States Army to attack the Wall . And unlike previous Wildling onrush , this one wo n’t be driven off by throwing a few rocks . They ’re a huge force , they ’re organized , and they ’re go by a former Crow , Mance Rayder . They will keep attacking the Wall until they recover a means through .
That ’s one-half of the reason so many of the Night ’s Watch ventured up North above the Wall to pucker information . ( The other one-half ? To find out about that zombie that got inside Castle Black . Although there has n’t been much citation of frost zombie of late . )
The Night ’s Watch has n’t made much advance on its commission — although Samwell Tarly and friend do labour up a mysterious cache chip at with the sign of the First Men . And inside ? A crowd of unknown weapon , made of obsidian ( “ dragonglass ” ) and wrapped in an extremely sure-enough Night ’s Watch cloak . Could these weapon have special properties that could come in ready to hand down the road ? We ’ll find out , I guess .
As for Jon Snow , he ’s not exactly making a great start of his career as a Ranger . He disobeyed Qhorin Halfhand ’s orders to kill the wrapped raider , Ygritte , and attempt to keep her as his captive . ( Like Theon , Jon failed to see that capturing and keeping are two different matters . ) And because Qhorin and his other men circle back to reckon for Jon Snow , they were lurk by the Wildlings and all killed except for Qhorin . Their destruction are on Jon Snow ’s oral sex .
Jon , too , has been captured , because of his vivid plan of dredge a intent Wildling woman halfway across the snowy waste . And he ’s nearly killed by the Lord of Bones — except that Ygritte argue that he recognize a draw of utilitarian stuff ( even though she tell him that he eff nothing ) and he ’s a Stark bastard . Mance Rayder will want to decide what to do with Jon Snow himself .
Is there any elbow room that Jon Snow can redeem himself and put up to fight the Wall against the coming onset ? Yes , but it ’s not going to be fun . Qhorin suggest that one infiltrator among the Wildling USA could be more valuable than 10,000 defenders on the Wall , when the time come up . But in society to reach Mance Rayder ’s faith , Jon Snow may have to do something terrible . Qhorin hint at what this might be , by starting a fake fight with Jon Snow in which he nearly kills the green Ranger .
military blockade tactics 101 : Fighting just does n’t win siege . have dear supplies is substantive . Having a spy among the attacking forces can grow the tide .
Robb is on the awry side of that bridge circuit
Jon Snow is n’t the only boy of Ned Stark who ’s undone by a pretty side . There ’s also Robb Stark , the King i’the North . As Robb tells his foot - saw girlfriend Talisa , he is engaged to get married one of the daughters of Lord Walder Frey . He does n’t even experience her first name , or what she bet like .
King Robb took on this fight back before his father was executed , when he absolutely need to cross a bridge that Lord Frey control . He still thought he could ride South and rescue Ned Stark , but it turn out to be too late . Now he ’s stuck marrying a cleaning lady he ’s never fulfil , over a nosepiece . He ’d way rather make nookie with Talisa , who ’s get moxie and a moving story about how she left a slave city and the life sentence of a useless peeress .
But here ’s the important fact that Robb Stark forgets : He ’s still on the improper side of that bridge . Fair enough , he does n’t care about that stunned bridge — but he still has to cross it again , if he ever wants to go home . Like Theon , Robb ’s a longsighted way from where he belongs . And this imply his position is inherently weak . ( His supplying parentage ? Also depend on that bridge . Or what he can take from local villages . )
So it ’s all right if Robb desire to kiss Lady Talisa — but when he starts saying he does n’t want to marry the nameless Lady Frey , he ’s potentially weakening his strategic position . Not to mention his all - significant honour . Robb makes a immense speech to Talisa about Ned Stark ’s theory of lord - hood , in which the master thing is caring about your people ’s welfare . You go to bottom with trouble , you arouse up with worry . Being frightened just gives you an opportunity to be brave . But if Robb seek to call off the wedding with Lady Frey , he ’s chicane all the masses who come him .
Robb ’s strategic position is already weakened in any case — because he ’s lost his most crucial hostage . Last hebdomad , Jaime Lannister tried to lam and killed the boy of Arnolf Karstark , who vowed to vote out the Kingslayer in retaliation . Catelyn Stark adjudicate that they could n’t keep Jaime alive in any instance , so they might as well trade him for Catelyn ’s lost daughters . ( Score another item for Tyrion , whose gambit worked . ) Robb is force to link his female parent down . ( So to speak . )
But now poor Brienne of Tarth is in the same posture that Jon Snow was in last week — she ’s got a tricky captive , who ’s bait her and threatening to escape at every turning . And if Jaime escape , she does n’t get to merchandise him for the Stark lady friend — so she has to keep him prisoner until she can hand him over . But Robb ’s get 80 man hunt for Jaime , and he ’s also trying to taunt her into struggle him . ( Too unsound we do n’t get to see the epic Brienne / Jaime smackdown we merit . )
Trapped in Harrenhal
And then there ’s Arya Stark , who is still trapped inside the castle of Harrenhal . The massive castle was built to withstand any attack from outside — but then it was melted by dragonfire . Arya ’s had a reasonably easygoing situation , sour as cup - carrier for Tywin Lannister and listen to all his closed book , while her assassin friend Jaqen has bolt down whoever she need for her . Nice setup !
Unfortunately , Tywin hears that Stannis is about to attack King ’s Landing , and he make up one’s mind to ride all night with most of his flock . Arya will be left behind with the Mountain , who ’s holding Harrenhal for Tywin — and the Mountain is not as kind or pleasant to work for as Tywin . ( Arya ’s situation is a lot more extreme in the book of account , where she ’s potentially going to be stuck with Vargo Hoat , who has a substance abuse of fade off handmaiden ’ feet so they ca n’t run off . )
Arya is determined to scat from Harrenhal before she ’s trap inside for good – -so she go to Jaqen and ask for his service . But he wo n’t help her escape , he ’ll just kill one last individual for her , and then her debt is rejoin . So she ’s impel to trick him , ordering him to defeat himself . And this does the trick : Jaqen distinguish her to take the air through the gates at midnight … at which point he ’s killed all of the guard duty for her . Yay !
Two Against the House of the Undying
The final siege preparation in this instalment is the most fruitless — Daenerys Targaryen purport to set on the House of the Undying with just two people , herself and Ser Jorah . The House of the Undying is protected by monumental sorcery , plus the sorcererPyat Preeis in league with Daenerys ’ former host Xaro Xoan Daxos , who owns the full city of Qarth . So this particular fort is secured with more than just sturdy wall .
Jorah tries to convince Daenerys to get on a ship and get out of there without her flying lizard — because they ’re not really her children . She did n’t in reality carry them in her womb , or feed them with her breasts , or anything . But she piddle another one of her b - burning language about how she did give them living , and she is their mother in all the ways that count — plus she has magic of her own . Still , it remains to be seen whether one vernal Khaleesi without a Khalessar and a disgrace former knight can storm the homes of some of the world ’s most brawny sorcerers .
In the mean time , we ’re go to get to see Stannis , the victor of Storm ’s End , lead the violation on King ’s landing place — and we ’ll see whether all of Tyrion ’s besieging studies pay off .
BooksGame of ThronesGeorge R.R. MartinTelevision
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