Home / Arts & Life / Before ‘Game of Thrones’ Returns, Let’s Revisit Season 3

Before ‘Game of Thrones’ Returns, Let’s Revisit Season 3

You may have heard that “Game of Thrones” is returning to HBO on July 16. To prepare for Season 7, we’re reviewing and reassessing the first six seasons of the show, with the benefit of hindsight. Each article will have spoilers for all six seasons. We previously revisited Seasons 1 and 2. We’ll look at Season 4 next week.

Civil wars often result in uneasy alliances and it’s no different in Westeros. The Lannisters need the Tyrells to keep the war going, however much Cersei might resent their mastery of manipulation. And the Starks need the Karstarks, the Boltons, and the Freys, despite the fact that many of them resent Robb for refusing to kill his mother for what they view as treason, and for sundering a political alliance in order to marry for love.

Game of Thrones’
Where to watch: HBO

Tywin Lannister spends most of his time in King’s Landing writing letters that offer titles and lands to Roose Bolton and Walder Frey, setting the stage for the Red Wedding.

Up north, Jon Snow plays double agent with the wildlings, going undercover among Mance Rayder’s troops to learn what their plans are, while also falling love with Ygritte. The Night’s Watch is recovering from an attack by the White Walkers at Craster’s Keep, but is then rent by mutiny. Sam escapes with Gilly (and baby Sam) and runs into Bran and company on the way back to Castle Black.

In the Riverlands, we meet the Brotherhood Without Banners, who take in Arya, sell the luckless Gendry to Melisandre and yet again resurrect Beric Dondarrion after he falls while fighting the Hound with a flaming sword. This power to raise the dead will come in handy a few seasons down the line.

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And in the East, Daenerys takes a tour of Slaver’s Bay, stopping in Astapor to pick up some soldiers and in Yunkai to go crowd-surfing with some freed slaves.

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Season 3 in Six Scenes

Sam kills a White Walker.HBO

Sam, the Slayer

The self-proclaimed coward Samwell Tarly shatters a White Walker with dragonglass. Handy stuff.

Dany Breaks the Chains

The dragon queen needs an army. Jorah counsels her to buy slave soldiers and Barriston advises her to recruit troops loyal to the cause; in the end, Daenerys finds a way to do both — buying the Unsullied and then freeing them — thus ensuring their loyalty. (She also buys them with a dragon that she knows will remain loyal to her). This is a cinematic moment of high spectacle: the reveal that Dany speaks fluent Valyrian, her orders to slay the masters and strike off the chains of the slaves of Astapor, and her deployment of teenage dragons as a weapon to sack a city for the first time. Imagine what she might do with them when they’re older.

A desperate Stannis turns to leeches for help. HBO

Melisandre Gets a Blood Donation

Melisandre deviously leads Gendry to make the acquaintance of her leeches and then supplies Stannis with the king-bastard’s blood for a ritual. Robb Stark, Balon Greyjoy and Joffrey Baratheon (“the usurpers,” as Stannis calls them) are all eventually taken out, though it takes until Season 6 for Balon to get thrown off a bridge. But is it the blood magic that causes their deaths, or is it just coincidence?

Jaime Loses His Hand (and His Arrogance)

Like all Lannisters, Jaime was used to buying his way out of trouble. But he underestimated the class divide in Westeros, especially during wartime, when deprivation falls most heavily on the poor. So while the promise of sapphires might have convinced Locke’s men to refrain from raping Brienne, the offer of even more gold, land and titles only makes Locke want to knock Jaime down a couple of pegs. How best to do that? Take away that which defined him — his sword hand. Cue the beginning of Jaime’s redemptive arc, as we begin to realize that the Kingslayer has been scorned for all the wrong reasons.

Night, night Hodor. via Giphy

Bran Wargs Hodor

While sheltering in a mill, Bran calms a scared Hodor by turning him off. It seems at this point that this is a first for both of them, but as we learn in Season 6, it’s not: Hodor’s brain was fried as a child when Bran invaded his mind — or “warged” him — from the future, which seems to have enabled the real-time Bran to repeat the feat with the grown-up Hodor. It’s … complicated.

Catelyn always cries at weddings. via Giphy

It’s a Nice Day for a Red Wedding

Tywin Lannister, Roose Bolton, and Walder Frey teamed up to throw the bloodiest bash of the year, giving the series one of its most shocking moments. (Google the reaction videos.) Robb Stark lost his advantage in the War of the Five Kings when he decided to marry for love, breaking a pre-existing oath to marry a Frey for political alliance. Walder Frey pretended to accept his apology (and a substitute groom, Edmure Tully), but then helped set up the Starks for slaughter, using the wedding as a pretext to lure them and their bannermen to their ghastly deaths. In one move, the Lannisters ended the Stark rebellion, the Freys gained Riverrun and Roose acquired vast new powers as the Warden of the North and the new Lord of Winterfell. It also made Sansa “the key to the North” and gave Arya a reason to serve Frey a slice of cold revenge pie in Season 6.

Gone, but Not Forgotten

Richard Madden as Robb Stark.HBO

Robb Stark — Won the battles, lost the war.

Catelyn Stark — With her husband and eldest son dead, her youngest sons presumed dead and her daughters apparently prisoners, the Stark matriarch thought her life was over. Fans of Martin’s books held out hope she’d be resurrected and called for Lady Stoneheart to take her vengeance. No dice.

Jeor Mormont — Jorah Mormont’s dear old dad and Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, stabbed in the back by his own men in a misguided mutiny. His death left a Snow-sized hole in Castle Black’s leadership. His blade, Longclaw, is one of the few known Valyrian-steel swords in Westeros.

Gone and Somewhat Forgotten

Esmé Bianco as Ros on “Game of Thrones.”HBO

Kraznys mo Nakloz — Astapor’s vulgar slave-master. He struck a deal to trade 8,000 Unsullied for one dragon, and got burned.

Craster — This wildling provided shelter (but very little food) to the rangers of the Night’s Watch, some of whom took issue with Craster’s parenting skills (his daughters became his wives, his sons became White Walker sacrifices). The mutineer Karl Tanner killed Craster in his Keep, while Craster’s 100th son, Gilly’s newborn, baby Sam, escaped. In the fourth season, we learned via Craster’s 101st son, who was born after his late father’s death, how the White Walkers “adopted” all these lads.

Ros – The prostitute from Winterfell’s brothel who worked her way up to become a madam in Littlefinger’s employ, but then spied on him for Varys. Her reward? Becoming target practice for Joffrey and his new crossbow.

Gendry – Still rowin’.

Looking Ahead

Melisandre meets the unsinkable Beric Dondarrion. via Giphy

Melisandre Takes Resurrection 101

When Melisandre meets Beric Dondarrion, she intuits that the man has conquered death. “How many times has the Lord brought him back?” she asks. “Six,” Thoros of Myr tells her. “That’s not possible,” she says to herself. Thoros tells her that he had lost his faith, but when Beric was slain by the Mountain, the red priest said the “old words” anyway, and poof! Beric’s eyes opened. This little chat tells Melisandre all she needs to know to resurrect Jon Snow in Season 6.

Visions Are Dangerous

During one of Jojen’s visions on the road, he has a seizure. Meera grabs a strap and puts it in his mouth so he won’t bite his tongue off. “The visions take their toll,” she explains to the others. And indeed, when a traumatic vision of the future is forced on someone who hasn’t been gently guided into vision quests, that person’s brain is likely to be short-circuited. Hodor’s seizure, in the Season 6 flashback, is even worse than Jojen’s. At least Jojen was used to having the Sight — Hodor didn’t stand a chance. Bran is taking a risk every time he goes into the weirwood tree network. During the Three-Eyed Raven’s vision-quest classes, Bran is warned, “It is beautiful beneath the sea, but if you stay too long, you drown.”

Guests Have Rights

Bran tells the following tale: “You ever heard about the Rat Cook? Just a cook in the Night’s Watch. He was angry at the king for something, I don’t remember. When the king was visiting the Nightfort, the cook killed the king’s son and cooked him into a big pie with onions, carrots, mushrooms and bacon. That night, he served the pie to the king. He liked the taste of his son so much, he asked for a second slice.” The story’s kicker presages what happens between Arya and Walder Frey in Season 6. “He killed a guest beneath his roof. That’s something the gods can’t forgive.”

The Iron Bank Will Have Its Due

When Tyrion becomes the master of coin, he starts to look at Littlefinger’s ledgers and quickly realizes that Lord Baelish wasn’t a magician who made money appear out of thin air: It all came from somewhere, and it has to go back, with interest. The crown owes millions to the Lannisters, and worse, it owes tens of millions to the Iron Bank of Braavos. “If we fail to repay these loans, the bank will fund our enemies,” Tyrion points out. “One way or another, they always get their gold.” And indeed, the Bank secretly starts to back Stannis in Season 4, and in Season 5 calls in one-tenth of the crown’s debt. When informed that they can only afford to pay half of that, Cersei, being shortsighted as usual, ignores Mace Tyrell’s offer of a loan to cover the payment due. It’s only a matter of time before the Iron Bank comes to collect.

Looking Ahead, Ineptly

“Curiosities on the far side of the world are no threat to us.” — Tywin Lannister.

“You’ve done it. You’ve married a Lannister. Soon you’ll have a Lannister baby. It’s a dream come true for you, isn’t it?” — Joffrey Baratheon, to Sansa Stark.

“You’re my daughter! You will do as I command and marry Loras Tyrell and put an end to the disgusting rumors about you once and for all.” — Tywin Lannister, to Cersei Lannister.

We’re just getting warmed up, after also looking back at Seasons 1 and 2. Please check back next week for Seasons 4-6.

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