Trumping the Throne

Game of Thrones, “Stormborn,” Season Seven, Episode #2 (72) (air date July 23, 2017)

There of course many ways to study the plays of William Shakespeare, but one way of looking at them that always appealed to me was to put them in the context of Elizabethan times. Queen Elizabeth was reportedly quite the fan, with one of the earliest performances of a new piece usually set up for her enjoyment. What was the bard thinking as he penned lines for the various historical royalty featured in the plays knowing Elizabeth was a fan? Did he ever shade a character or line in a play about Richard the II or King John so as to not offend Elizabeth? When Iago bamboozles Othello, did anyone look around Elizabeth’s entourage for role models? Likewise when Lear succumbs to the flattery of his greedy daughters, did anyone cast a sideways glance at the royal family? Writing must have been quite a balancing act in those days of absolute monarchy.

500 years later in vastly different epoch, I find myself thinking about Bryan Cogman writing the opening scene with Varys and Daenerys in the nascent age of Trump. I’m guessing he was polishing the script late last summer in the run up to the election, but the dialogue about whether a ruler will be responsible for the welfare of the lower classes certainly has resonance with questions like “Have the people who voted for Trump figured out that he’s about to slash their health care down in West Virginia?” When Varys tells Daenerys that while he wants the best leader available, his loyalty will be with the people ruled—how can we not think of James Comey refusing to swear blind allegiance to Donald Trump? Early in the Trump administration there was the naïve hope that Ivanka would be some sort of feminist moderating influence on her boorish father. Likewise, Tyrion seems to babble at Daenerys who clearly has her own agenda already in place.  When Ellaria Sand tells Daenerys “don’t listen to any of those men,” you know in this political culture she’s really saying “just listen to me!” Steve Bannon, anyone? And then with the line “Let Trump be Trump” in our ears, Olenna Tyrell tells Daenerys “You’re a dragon, be a dragon.”

Up at Jon Snow’s shop there’s also quite a bit of political intrigue. Jon is testing the age-old question of whether absolute democracy always produces the best result. Most of his council don’t want him to go south to meet his “cousin,” but he decides to go anyway. He buys off Sansa by telling her she can rule in his absence. We thought at one point Mike Pence would be running the government while his boss was off at Mar El Lago playing golf. I liked the scene where Little Finger tries to call in a favor concerning his rescuing of Jon’s army during the Battle of the Bastards. Jon instead practically chokes him to death and then refuses to listen to any of his prevarications. Now that’s how leaders should deal with lobbyists! Of course there’s always the possibility that this was precisely the reaction that Little Finger wanted to provoke.

Maybe I got into this train of thought because as soon as the episode was over I for some strange reason switched to Fox News and caught the last 15 minutes of Chris Wallace’s interview with the new White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, “The Mooch.” His glibness puts Little Finger to shame. Wallace reviewed the old tweets of Scaramucci criticizing Trump and saying he would never be a candidate. He now dismisses these by saying that he and Trump are fellow New Yorkers and New Yorkers say what they think in a battle, but don’t feel that way for the rest of their lives. Scaramucci would do well in Westeros. I’m thinking Saturday Night Live needs to cast Jon Leguizamo to play him.

So aside from the allegorical political intrigue, what else was interesting about Episode Two, with eleven to go?

Sexuality has returned to Game of Thrones, someone said it was the first consensual sex since 2013 on the show. The phallic order has been overturned. The hottest scene is between the eunuch Grey Worm and the very nude Missandei. Yara and Ellaria initiate a lesbian encounter, while the eunuch Theon is dismissed from the potential threesome. The now portly Hotpie tells Arya she’s pretty as a girl; she says goodbye with a polite tap on the shoulder. Is this all foreplay for Jon’s visit to Daenerys?

The big battle scenes are supposed to be at the end of a Season, but apparently the budget now allows for high tech battles early on—Euron’s destruction of Yara’s fleet was quite a set piece. Hard to keep track of who was getting gored, but apparently we have lost a pair of Sand Snakes and Theon has reverted to Reek. Euron now will have some credibility with Cersei. Jaime better start practicing with his other arm.

Finally, Samwell has become quite the maverick at the Citadel. Like Qyburn, he doesn’t take orders and finds the more esoteric volumes in the library to suggest nonmainstream medical practices. He goes literally from doing shitwork last episode, to shaving off ugly scabs with Jorah.   No one at this juncture seems to be dealing more with the body than Sam. Qyburn is making giant crossbows and Melisandre is learning about the gender construction of High Valeryan, so the field seems wide open. Now where are those dragons and White Walkers?