Tuesday, 23 April 2019

The Game of Thrones Fantasy League – 8.02 – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms


Game of Thrones – 8.02 – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms




There is a disagreement in Thrones fandom about what the show should be, people talking in rooms or ice zombies and dragons. I personally enjoy a healthy dose of both and it’s wonderful that before we’re hit with the inevitable spectacle of next week, we’re served with this elegant and wistful episode that focuses on these characters’ complexities. However, this doesn’t transfer so healthily in terms of fantasy league points as this episode scraped just over half of what the first episode got.

It’s quite nice that this episode is titled “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, referring to Brienne, as that is also the name of GRRM’s chronicles about Ser Duncan the Tall, who has been hinted in the books as an ancestor of Brienne’s. Everyone keeps saying that people will be safe in the crypt: please, if you’re about to face off with someone who can bring people back from the dead, sheltering alongside a bunch of skeletons is definitely not the place to be, no matter how brave Davos’ Shireen substitute is.

Death predictions for next week: I think the only safe person is the Hound as it would be narrative blue balls if he didn’t get to kill his brother. Perhaps he will also learn to overcome his fear of fire as it’s going to save his life against various wights. Other than him, I kinda think everyone else is fair game, it is the final season after all. The show’s arguably been pretty toothless since resurrecting Jon, now’s the time to get ruthless. I’m most worried about Theon, Brienne and Jaime, though. I’m fairly sure the show will want to break our hearts so I can easily picture some of these fallen warriors getting reanimated as wights.

Possible points of contention

Jaime and Tyrion do not get points for encountering each other as they both knew where each other were since they last saw each other. You may be wondering why Sansa, Lyanna and Jon gained these points last week as Jon would have known Sansa and Lyanna to be at Winterfell. Since he last saw them he’d been involved in a battle elsewhere, facing uncertain death, which automatically updates his status to “lost”. As Jaime and Tyrion hadn’t fought any battles and knew where they were, they do not count as lost relatives.

Although Bran is seated away from the map of armies, he can be seen looking at it during the scene.

Jaime’s invocation of some of the Holy Seven while knighting Brienne counts as communicating with a deity.

During Jorah and Lyanna’s argument, neither of them refute what the other is saying, so they do not gain points for disagreeing with each other.

Jorah partially withdraws Heartsbane from its scabbard, which is enough to gain him points for doing so.

Neither “Aegon Targaryen” nor “Jon Snow” count for false name points.

None of the characters so far qualify for encountering the white walkers at the end of the episode as they’re too far away.

Character Scores
Here is a full list of the characters and their awarded points. If one of your characters does not appear in the following lists, this is due to their absence from the episode, for which you shall be deducted five points per character:

Group A
Bran Stark – 20 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15),
Daenerys Targaryen – 135 points: appears (+5), first line (+10), 4xmentions Iron Throne (+15), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), mentions Rhaegar (+25), disagrees with relative (+10), last line (+10)
Jon Snow – 90 points: appears (+5), mentions dragonglass (+10), mentions Valyrian steel (+10), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), mentions Lyanna (+25), mentions Rhaegar (+25)

Group B
Arya Stark – 78 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), drinks wine (+8), has kiss (+15), gets naked (+15), has sex (+20)
Jaime Lannister – 88 points: appears (+5), first on screen (+15), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), drinks wine (+8), disagrees with relative (+10), unsheafs sword (+10), communicates with deity (+15), says episode title (+10)
Sansa Stark – 27 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), eats (+7)
Tyrion Lannister – 73 points: appears (+5), 3xdisagrees with relative (+10), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), drinks wine (+8), last on screen (+15)

Group C
Brienne of Tarth – 38 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), turns down wine (+10), drinks wine (+8)
Samwell Tarly – 30 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), mentions Valyrian steel (+10)
Ser Davos Seaworth – 38 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), turns down wine (+10), drinks wine (+8)
Ser Jorah Mormont – 40 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), unsheafs sword (+10), rides horse (+10)
Theon Greyjoy – 27 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), eats (+7)
Varys – 20 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15)

Group D
Gendry – 55 points: appears (+5), has kiss (+15), gets naked (+15), has sex (+20)
Gilly – 5 points: appears (+5)
Missandei – 20 points: appears (+5), has kiss (+15)
Sandor Clegane – 13 points: appears (+5), drinks wine (+8)
Tormund Giantsbane – 30 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), turns down wine (+10)

Group E
Beric Dondarrion – 28 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), drinks wine (+8)
Dolorus Edd – 5 points: appears (+5)
Grey Worm – 35 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15), has kiss (+15)
Lyanna Mormont – 20 points: appears (+5), grimly surveys map of armies (+15)
Podrick Payne – 31 points: appears (+5), drinks wine (+8), sings (+18)

Group F
Ghost – 5 points: appears (+5)

Group G
Lyanna Stark – 5 points: appears (+5)

The Leaderboard

Congratulations to AP who is this week’s points champion, gaining 1038 points, which pushes him up to first place with a total of 1550! That was his Joker at work, quite a gamble to use it so early on, but chances are any later on in the season, quite a few characters might be already dead.





Check back here next week for the results of the as yet unnamed episode 8.03, which surely must be titled “The Long Night”?

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