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Entertainment July 18, 2017
Sisters are doin' it for themselves!
When the “Game of Thrones” premiere came on, I was at a birthday party.
The second that the first frame came onto the screen, I said “Oh shit.” Because that frame was telling me, “Jasmyne, something badass is going to happen.”
Arya Stark murdered a whole house. She literally killed all of the adult men in House Frey. But she did something else interesting as well.
As a matter of fact, Arya tells the one woman present at her side explicitly not to drink the wine. She says, “I’m not wasting good wine on a woman.” That means Arya took into account the way that the Frey House had treated women over the years.
Walder Frey was notorious for marrying and abusing young girls. And his array of sons were no better. So Arya not only single-handedly slaughtered an entire generation of terrible people, but saved the women of that house from suffering. It was the first example of feminine badassery in the “Game of Thrones” premiere, but it definitely wasn’t the last.
This is it. This is where the magic happens in this episode. The writers might as well have had Jon Snow break fourth wall and say, “We heard the audiences think women are people. That’s cool. We’re gonna go with it.”
A small argument breaks out among the Northmen about allowing women to fight. Everyone’s favorite small bear, Lyanna Mormont, serves some truth on a silver platter. And all the Northmen agree to train their women and girls to fight. Because as woke Jon Snow said, “You can’t fight a war without half the population.”
The moment seemed forced. But I’m gonna give them a pass on it because they’re working toward some weird thing called “equality.” Which may be something that HBO is moving toward as a whole. They just picked Nnedi Okafor’s “Who Fears Death” to develop into a new series, and that features an African woman in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Then we get an additional ladies of the North moment in the “Game of Thrones” premiere, when Sansa challenges Jon in front of the Lord’s of houses. This splits everyone down the middle momentarily.
Jon Snow, who has never been able to use his listening ears, once again does not listen. Writers took that opportunity to further set up the rift that will develop between the cousins. In previews from the next episode, the Northmen are unsettled by the prospect of working with a Targaryen which only reads bad for when they find out they have one in their midst.
Who knows what Sansa Stark’s got up her sleeve, but with Brienne at her side, it’s sure to be interesting.
Sansa and Arya weren’t the only powerful women we saw Sunday night. Cersei did that villain thing where she explains her reasoning to Jaime. We saw Gilly, who I feel is on the verge of discovering some key information in the Citadel. Brienne faced another unwanted advance from the wildling Tormund. And Dany finally made it home.
We did spend some time with guys during the “Game of Thrones” premiere, including an almost abusive amount watching Samwell Tarly clean out chamber pots.
But when Daenerys looked out of her table at the players in the great game, a great deal of them are women. Cersei is our main villain, and if the Northmen turn against Jon, Sansa will be the leader in the North.
Perhaps we could finally see a feminist season of “Game of Thrones.” Wouldn’t that be exciting?
