BLOGGING GAME OF THRONES S5E06: Unbowed, Unbent, Uninteresting

So, Amanda Marcotte has an article at RawStory breaking down the arguments against the Rape Of Sansa Stark in last week's episode. Her case, that to include the rape was honest and necessary storytelling, is predicated upon the idea that Game Of Thrones is in fact telling us all a grand, intelligent, meaningful story. And to that, I say: we'll see.

I like Game Of Thrones, but I don't know for sure if it is smart. I don't know for sure if it is building to something meaningful. I don't know for sure that any of it was particularly planned out in advance other than a vague and potentially long-abandoned idea for an endgame. Both the show and the books have an occasional air of, "Well, let's just try this, then!" that has only intensified as both have continued. (A Dance With Dragons is a bizarre reading experience, as you get to read GRRM both throwing things at walls AND deciding which haven't stuck in the course of just a few hundred pages. Shoutout to Quentyn Martell.)

And all of that is fine! Not every show has to be smarter than its viewers! We had Mad Men for that! But it also means that maybe some decisions are boneheaded and cruel and there's no particular excuse for them. Maybe! We'll see.

This week, Arya keeps working away at the dead body assembly line. They bring the bodies, she cleans them, they take them away. She doesn't know where the bodies go. It's an overactive metaphor for the alienation of labor, and she's sick of it. The working Aryas of the world have nothing to lose but their names.

Tyrion accidentally breaks the news to Jorah Mormont that his father is dead--remember him? The Old Bear, who long ago mentally replaced Jorah with Jon Snow anyway? Well, if you'd forgotten about him, there was a good 30 seconds in the stupid "previously on" making sure you understand the familial relationship. How do Sansa Rape Apologists (SRAs) reconcile the grand intelligence of Game Of Thrones with the groan-inducing previously ons?

After that, Tyrion and Jorah are captured by Slavers, who are played by black actors, which is progressive, right? Or is it bad, because Slavers are the worst possible sub-humans imaginable? It must have been a tough call at the Game Of Thrones PR department (which consists entirely of David Benioff's baseball cap and a burner cellphone elastic-banded together in a shoebox in Croatia). Either way, one of them speaks what is certainly the funniest line so far on the show: "The Dwarf lives until we find a cock merchant."

In King's Landing, the Family Research Council puts Loras Tyrell on trial. It's about as ridiculous and reminiscent of an Alabama courtroom as you'd expect, and by the end of it, Queen Marge is indicted for perjury, too. Cersei smiles, as if this runaway train of terror she set in motion is something she can control in any way. To paraphrase Don Draper--Cersei, you weren't raised with Jesus. You don't know what happens to people when they believe in things. (Damn, that Mad Men finale was so good.)

In Dorne, Bronn and Jaime and the Sand Snakes all simultaneously enact their plans for rescue and revenge, nobody succeeds, and everybody gets captured. The only thing worthwhile about it was the outfits. And then in Winterfell, Ramsay marries Sansa and then rapes her. Ugh. What will happen next? We'll see. Claire McCaskill won't, but she can always read my recaps!