Callbacks and Easter eggs in “Oathbreaker”
Greetings, all you rabid Game of Thrones fans. I know that after Sunday night’s episode, “Oathbreaker,” you’re dying to know how many Easter eggs the showrunners snuck in there, so you can be the go-to guy or gal for Thrones information at work. Hey, we’ve all been there—it’s how I got my promotion. I’m kidding…maybe.
We start this week’s round of Game of Thrones callbacks with Redditor timothyhiggins, who noticed that a conversation between Melisandre and Beric Dondarrion in Season 3 mirrored one between the Red Woman and Jon in “Oathbreaker.” Just hit “Next” to cycle through the photos and see the comparisons—Imgur has upgraded to newer, fancy ways of doing things.
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And here, we have something from Redditor Acharade: a side-by-side comparison of the sword young Ned Stark used during the Tower of Joy scene in “Oathbreaker,” and the one old Ned Stark wore in Season 1, when he was traveling down the Kingsroad. Apparently, Ned keeps his old stuff. Nice little detail, that: it shows that the Game of Thrones showrunners do in fact care about continuity.
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Redditor ZeroMachine noticed that, during the Tower of Joy scene, the two Kingsguard had removed their white cloaks. Many fans, myself included, were nonplussed about the Kingsguard not being decked out all in white, but this eases the blow a bit.
"[S6E3] A nice little detail from the latest episode"
Here’s a nice callback to when Lord Tywin Lannister had enough of his petulant grandson, Joffrey. “Any man who must say ‘I am the king.’ Is no true king.” Gods, I miss that man. This doesn’t bode well for Tommen, though.
Thanks to slice_of_yeetza for putting this one together.
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This is a neat tidbit from Rain12913 that matches up yet another moment from the Tower of Joy scene with a Season 3 scene featuring Jaime 1.0…you know, before he lost the hand, found his honor, and learned what it meant to love his own children. I’ll admit: when I watched this scene, my inner book nerd screamed with rage that Ser Arthur Dayne never dual-wielded a sword. His sword was Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. The blade was as pale as milkglass, and had all the properties of Valyrian steel.
Oh well, I guess there’s a reason they say that the books are the books and the show is the show.
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As mikedeliv points out, it feels like David Benioff and Dan Weiss are trying to say something with this callback.
"D&D are officialy messing with us"
Does the series of images below give us an answer as to what happened to that the abusive father of that one Little Bird? Sure, one may have nothing to do with the other, but thank for to YouFeelShame for connecting these dots!
"Qyburn and Bruised Little Bird"
Finally, we have what may be a continuity error on the part of the Game of Thrones showrunners. Now, before we jump to conclusions, let’s point out that there’s more stuff at the Tower of Joy to come, since the Three-Eyed Raven so rudely yanked Bran out of the vision before we’d seen it all.
However, in this scene from the Season 4 premiere, Joffrey leafs through through the White Book, or Book of Brothers, which tells of the deeds of all the members of the Kingsguard. As he does this, he lands on the pages about Ser Arthur Dayne (on the right) and Ser Gerold Hightower (on the right). Look at the description of Hightower’s death on the left page, three paragraphs down.
SenselessB on Reddit did the legwork and transcribed the words from the book:
"Died in the Red Mountains of Dorne alongside his sworn brothers Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Oswell Whent after refusing to bend the knee to the new king Robert Baratheon. All were defeated by a small force led by Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell."
The Tower of Joy scene from “Oathbreaker” shows Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Oswell Whent fighting Lord Eddard and his friends Ser Gerold Hightower, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard at the time, doesn’t seem to be there. Or is he waiting in the tower with Lyanna in case Dayne and Whent failed to stop Lord Stark and his men. We’ll have to wait to find out.