Game of Thrones: “No One”—Thematic Analysis

This week’s episode, entitled “No One,” was named for the person Arya has been struggling to become for the last two seasons. Giving up Arya Stark of Winterfell, becoming a shape-shifting assassin, leaving behind the pain of being who she was, and attempting to find solace in not being anyone. It was never going to work—Arya is simply too strong a personality to subjugate herself in such a way to anyone, or any cause not her own. But she wasn’t the only one who had to accept that the part she had been playing wasn’t for her.

"Beric: “You’re a fighter. You were born a fighter. You walked away from the fight. Tell me, how did that go?”"

Now that his commune is dead, the Hound this week found himself back where he’s always been—choosing violence, and gratuitous violence at that. The show made sure to emphasize that in the first axe-happy fight we saw. Heads flew, someone took an axe to the genitals, and then, when given a chance to die with something honorable on his lips, the Brotherhood Without Banner members merely took uttered more curse words you can’t say on network TV. If that’s not the stereotype of the show embodied in a single scene, I don’t know what is.

A fighter is what the Hound had been raised to be. He’s spent the last few seasons denying it. It won’t work. When he finally meets up with the real Brotherhood, not the splinter group, they tell him he’s not allowed to kill his victims in a grotesque way; hanging is more civilized! But though they may spare themselves the visual of shredding another human to ribbons, they also recognize the value of having a warrior like this on their side. Beric (who Lady Stoneheart truthers were distressed to see still living and running the Brotherhood) put it well. How did denying who he was work out for him?

"Kevan: “There is to be a royal announcement. In the Throne Room. At this very moment.”"

It hasn’t worked out for any of the Lannister clan. Cersei has been wrapping herself in a cloak of denial over her status in King’s Landing for the whole season. She’s now where Sansa was over the last few seasons—she no say over her own fate, a helpless pawn being moved around the board by others. Tonight was the first time she had to face the reality of that, as Tommen announced to all and sundry that the Westeros Wrestling Federation’s Trial By Combat PPV would not be airing this week, in favor of reruns of Law and Order: King’s Landing. One gets the sense that the Sparrows who came to the Keep earlier, only to see one of their number get his head ripped off by the Mountain That Rots Inside His Metal Suit, were a trial balloon, as it were, to see just how formidable Cersei’s chosen champion was. When the answer was “very,” they decided to cancel the Trial by Combat. Cersei wasn’t even informed of the announcement beforehand. She has been cut out of the loop completely. Finally she must face who she is: a has-been who no longer wields any respect or power.

Over in Meereen, Tyrion keeps trying to make things be like they used to be when he was Hand of the King, with Bronn and Shae by his side. But Grey Worm and Missandei are not Bronn and Shae. These are not bawdy, live-like-there’s-no-tomorrow types. We were subjected to another scene this week of Tyrion trying to force them into roles that don’t fit them. And although Missandei enjoyed the wine and Grey Worm’s deadpan humor might have won the joke contest, this is not who they are, and Tyrion can’t make it so. And once the Masters arrive to start pelting the city with firebombs, he finds himself facing the fact that he still has no idea how to fight this fight. It could have been really ugly. With Varys gone, and the Unsullied ready to leave the rest of the city to fend for itself, the Masters could have set everything back with a slaughter. Instead, in a dragon ex-machina moment, Dany arrives to restore order, and let Drogon burn the Masters offscreen.

"Tyrion: “Anyone not drinking is disrespecting our Queen.”"

Tyrion was lucky: his day of reckoning with the reality that he’s not where he belongs was cut short and given a happy ending. Jaime was also lucky this week. But Jaime knows who he is. He’s the Kingslayer. He’s a ruthless man who will do what he must to both win the day and save as many lives as he can, and damn the optics of it all. That’s who he was that day in King’s Landing as the Mad King screamed for the pyromancers to bring out the stores of wildfire and burn the city to the ground. (By the way, dollars to donuts those stores that Jaime saved from being used all those years ago is the “much more” Qyburn found for Cersei.) And that’s who he still is. He couldn’t get the Blackfish to surrender the castle and let the war end with minimal bloodshed. Brienne couldn’t get the Blackfish to surrender so he could take his men and ride to help Sansa. (Too bad Brienne didn’t know about the paltry 62 men Bear Island had granted the Starks, or she might have been able to argue more convincingly that the 100 or so men at Riverrun really would make a difference.)

So Jaime did what he had to: he had a heart-to-heart with Edmure and dispelled the notion that the two of them are different at bottom. The show hasn’t put a lot of time into developing Edmure, so perhaps this was lost on the show-watcher crowd. But the Blackfish doesn’t respect Edmure because Edmure isn’t a fighter; he’s a pragmatist. He’ll marry a Frey because it’s what’s being asked of him to make peace. And he’ll be the Westerosi version of the Trojan Horse by re-entering the castle, declaring his word is rule, and forcing his own guards to obey his orders to surrender. After all, despite his reputation, Jaime is not Ramsay Bolton; he keeps his word. And, just this once, everybody lives, even Brienne and Pod, who escape out the back river to freedom and head back North to rejoin Jon’s Tiny Army. (I know the Blackfish was reportedly killed offscreen, but not all of those Tully men wanted to surrender the castle, and if I’m having doubts the Blackfish was killed when he was surrounded by an army of silent loyalists, then you know the tinfoil hat crowd have written elaborate fan fiction about how he survived.)

"Bronn: “The way all women look at him is frankly irritating. I preferred working with the little brother on that account.”"

And that brings us to Arya, and her beautiful budding friendship with another woman who likes to stick holes in people, Lady Crane. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as Arya fled to safety backstage, where Lady Crane found her and nursed her back to health. But that nursing was short lived. After all, the House of Black and White LLC had a contract to fulfill, and Arya’s moment of “Mercy” did not change that. The House of Black and White does not like to disappoint its customers. Lady Crane was ordered dead. And now she is, done in by the Waif. And now that the Waif has shown Arya what proper customer service looks like, she’ll do in Arya too.

The chase scene through the street of Braavos was at one their best scene to date, and yet not really the point of the exercise. The point for Arya was to get the Waif to follow her back down into the tunnels (her own wound reopening and leaving a trail of blood was actually helpful in the regard.) Many speculated that Syrio would somehow magically reappear this week, and though he did not appear in the flesh, he was there in spirit.

"Arya: “A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell and I’m going home.”"

For the record, it was interesting to see Jaqen try and play it off that the Waif coming after Arya was some sort of test she had passed. But Arya is no longer fooled by the House of Black and White LLC, and she was never cut out for a customer service sector-type job. She’s been denying who she is for two seasons now, just like the Hound. And look at how that worked out for her. Arya Stark is heading home. Time for Player 2 to rejoin the game.