After each episode in Game of Thrones Season 6, we’ll be considering a crucial question: Who is currently the worst person in Westeros? This week, technology and culture writer Jacob Brogan is joined by Slate staff writer Joshua Keating.
Brogan: Hi, Josh! Thanks for joining me to talk about “Book of the Stranger.” This week featured a number of surprisingly rewarding moments, from Sansa’s reunion with previous worst person in Westeros Jon, to the far less congenial encounter of Theon with his sister Yara. We also spent some time with handsome swashbucklers Daario and Jorah, pals in sword and sorcery, as they wandered through the mountains in search of Daenerys, providing some much-needed adventurous levity.* I’d watch a whole series that was just about them insulting each other while solving and/or causing crimes. Call it CSI: Dothraki Sea.
But “Book of the Stranger” also featured a handful of reversals and heel turns, perhaps most notably Tyrion’s deal with the other rulers of Slaver’s Bay. He promises them seven years—a seemingly arbitrary number, apart from its general numerological significance—to free their slaves and transform their economic system. It’s an offer that clearly breaks the spirits of Missandei and Gray Worm, all the more so when they’re forced to stand with Tyrion against the angry people of Meereen. I never thought I’d be asking this, but is Tyrion this week’s worst person in Westeros?
Keating: It’s been argued before that Daenerys is a bit of a neocon, an ideologue willing to use military force to advance human rights—damn the inevitable blowback and violent quagmire. So it was striking to see Tyrion almost verbatim channeling President Obama’s arguments in favor of last year’s nuclear deal with Iran, to justify his high-risk, long-term agreement with the reactionary terrorism-sponsoring leaders of Slaver’s Bay: “We make peace with our enemies, not our friends.”
But this episode leaned heavily on a prominent Game of Thrones theme: the conflict between amoral realism and militant idealism. I’m willing to cut some slack for the likes of Tyrion and Jon Snow, the ultimate terrorist-coddling realist—who seem to be at least attempting to act for the greater good with mixed success. I have less sympathy for the amoral operators who both are unwilling to look beyond narrow self-interest and show a chronic inability to think more than one move ahead.
I’m thinking of Cersei, who thought wrongly she could control and manipulate the fundamentalism of the High Sparrow and is now desperately trying to cobble together a coalition to defeat him before her own son is recruited into the holy war. And also the reappeared Petyr Baelish, a fan favorite character who left Sansa in the hands of Ramsay Bolton last season for reasons that now seem pretty inexplicable. I think we’re supposed to view him as a master operator but he’s starting to feel more like this show’s version of Downton Abbey’s Thomas, an amoral schemer whose schemes do little to advance his interests for all the misery they cause.
Brogan: When we first met Baelish (how young we were then, and how innocent!) he really did seem like a manipulative powerhouse. He was a relative outsider who had weaseled his way into the centers of power—not unlike the High Sparrow. But what are his great triumphs in this episode? He appeases a dimwitted child—a little lordling who has no interest in all these throney games—with a falcon in a cage and then threatens a nobleman with death. If that’s skillful manipulation, I could probably rule Westeros.
Keating: Now he wants to ride to Sansa’s rescue? This would have been a more useful impulse before marrying her off to a psychopathic rapist. Or before his DOA attempt to restore his standing in King’s Landing. Or before talking her out of accepting an offer of help from Brienne, who actually seems to have her interests in mind. Thankfully, Sansa seems to be past needing his help. Her reunion with Jon—regardless of his shenanigans last week—was a rare moment of relief. We spend so much time in this show watching the Stark kids wandering the map nearly missing each other that an actual meeting felt like a major victory and a much-needed plot boost.
The narrative of Game of Thrones has seemed so scattershot for the last couple of seasons. But in the two most recent episodes, it’s started to feel to me that it’s zeroing in on the fate of the Stark children as the uniting central plot element of this show. (Though we didn’t see any of Arya, Bran, or Rickon in this one.) Was this just a coming-of-age story all along?
Brogan: If the previews for next week’s episode are to believed, Sansa will have an opportunity to confront Baelish—and as you suggest it’s long in the making. The trouble is that even if she doesn’t need his help any more, Jon Snow might. His wildling forces are vastly outnumbered by those under the Bolton banner. Without the help of the Vale’s soldiers, their attempt to liberate Winterfell and finally rid us of OG worst person in Westeros Ramsay may be a bust, despite his badass giants.
In that sense, if this has been a Stark coming-of-age story all along, I’m a little uncomfortable with the lesson they’re learning together. To succeed, they’re going to have to team up with a guy who’s consistently focused on himself, often at their expense. Does Westerosi adulthood mean always compromising? Is Petyr Baelish what a true grown-up looks like?
Keating: I suppose if wielding power requires learning when to cut deals with your mortal enemies, it also requires learning how manage the Baelishes of the world. After this week, I’m interested to see a more confident and assertive Sansa step into a leadership role. She seems to be a happy medium between Jon’s sometimes mushy pragmatism and Arya’s bloodthirsty righteousness. (Don’t ask me about Rickon or whatever it is Bran’s up to in that tree with the guy from the Seventh Seal.)
As far as the overall scope of the show goes, Khaleesi emerging nude from the flames is a striking visual, but it’s not like we haven’t seen that move before. Tyrion maturing as a leader is fun to watch, but he’s kind of spinning his wheels in Meereen. And it’s hard to find anyone to root for in King’s Landing these days.
It’s been a while, but the most compelling action on Game of Thrones is back with the Starks. I’m hoping that whatever they’re cooking up involves Westeros’ resident Little Fingered vulgarian finally getting his comeuppance.
Brogan: I don’t know why you’d say that about him, Josh. Petyr Baelish is a very classy guy. He just wants to make Westeros gr—
Keating: [knocks over brazier, setting room on fire]
*Correction, May 16, 2016: This post originally misspelled the first name of handsome swashbuckler Daario Naharis.
