For him, at this time, being in service means being free. Whereas most of the men of the Night's Watch are debauchers and criminals forced to be disciplined soldiers, Jon is a disciplined soldier being forced into a life of crime and debauchery. And now, through a strange twist of fate, it is that very obligation that forces him into freedom: to fulfill his service to the Night's Watch, he must join the Wildings, who-as Ygritte told him last season-do not believe in silly rules and vows. As soon as he was old enough he voluntarily surrendered his freedom, joined the strictest order he could find, and swore his life to service. However, rather than enjoy the freedom his ostracism granted him-as, for example, Tyrion did-Jon Snow longed all his life to belong somewhere, and made himself more responsible and disciplined than his father's true-born sons. (As we discussed way back in the fourth episode of Game of Thrones, there is a special liberty that comes with being one of the "cripples, bastards, and broken things," forced out of the rigid social order.)
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He was, in a very real sense, born a free man. All true-born sons of Westeros owe service and allegiance and obedience to their fathers, to their families, and to their liege-lords-but Snow was born a bastard, with a bastard's surname. The person with the most complicated relationship to duty and servitude, however, may be Jon Snow (Kit Harrington). They are supposed to prioritize duty over all other concerns, including their own safety, but it's a lesson Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) forgets this week: he had one duty-to send the ravens, and warn the Kingdom about the White Walkers-and, in his fear for his own life, he didn't do it. The men of the Night's Watch exist only to serve: they are allowed no wives, no children, no property or titles, no ambition except to live and die in the service of the realm. We don't kneel for anyone beyond the Wall." (I say most: many of the major characters-Arya, Theon, Jaime and Brienne, Bran and Rickon and Osha-do not appear this week.) As such, it's not as thematically tight an episode as the show usually delivers, but running throughout most of the scenes this week is this question of what it means to serve. "Valar Dohaeris" is a relatively quiet episode of Game of Thrones, and largely concerned with just getting most of the pieces back on the board. As we've discussed many times before- here, for example-virtually no one in this society is really free: nearly everyone is effectively owned by someone else, and even the most powerful rulers are in service to their gods, their oaths, or their family names. Characters are constantly bending the knee to one another, swearing their fealty, and expounding on the duties their honor and oaths demand of them. It's a common enough philosophy in Game of Thrones, which is concerned to the point of obsession with loyalty, allegiance, and responsibility. We begin this season, appropriately enough, with the traditional Valyrian response, "Valar Dohaeris," which translates to "all men must serve."įair enough: all men must die, and, until they do, all men must serve. We ended last season with an episode entitled " Valar Morghulis," which-though the show has not explained this yet-means "all men must die" in the language of Valyria. However, some minor references to the books are unavoidable, particularly if the show is going to call upon them, as it has done in the last couple of episode titles. This is no fairy tale, and the odds of anyone living happily ever after are getting slimmer by the season.Īs usual, I'll be reviewing each episode of Season Three as an hour of television I try not to constantly compare the show to the novels, and I go out of my way to avoid any spoilers from the books. Yes, the show features kings and queens, princes and princesses, witches and warlocks, dragons and giants and magic-but don't let any of that fool you. Welcome back to Game of Thrones, and brace yourself. We hear screaming, and fighting, and dying, and the high-pitched shriek of something unnatural and unimaginable announcing itself from the darkness. But before that-before the first shot, before the first words, and even before the opening credits-what we hear is the screaming. Winter is no longer coming: winter is here. The first shot of the episode is of a barren landscape with a winter storm rolling in: we hear a howling wind, and we see everything obliterated by white. From the very first moments of "Valar Dohaeris," we can probably guess what kind of season it's going to be.