LAST SEASON on Game of Thrones, Part I: “Blackwater” and Sound Design
Does everyone remember this moment? Explosive, practically living wildfire punctuating the climax of the Clash of Kings. Half of HBO’s budget for season two of Game of Thrones blown in one orgiastic fell swoop.
When I popped the disc for Season 2 in for a replay this month, I realized how much the last two episodes work together as two halves of one finale that complement each other in surprising ways. They couldn’t be two more different episodes from one another.
“Valar Morghulis” leapt all over the world of Game of Thrones to tie up loose ends and unravel fresh ones. “Blackwater”, by contrast, was just a war story, and it knew it. Consciously abandoning the Westeros-spanning perspective that delights some of the show’s viewers while confusing everyone else, this episode feels different from every other the series has given us. The story’s focus is narrow and carefully calibrated, all attention on the imminent battle. We’ve never had time before this event to dwell in one place for so long at once. A viewer can’t escape a hundred miles east in customary Thrones fashion to a different scene. It’s almost suffocating. And it’s effective.
George Martin, the originator of this saga and noted literary death-dealer was responsible for penning this episode. The result is a slightly more raw version of every character, which lines up perfectly with a war story and the shit running down everyone’s legs in anticipation.
Tywin, to Shae, on the eve of the battle, as she tries to turn him away from his worry over the Stannis’ impending arrival: “You can’t fuck your way out of everything.” Her reply: “I have so far.” They promptly fuck.
Shae’s sex drive is cranked to 11, Sansa is more direct and bold with Joffrey and Cersei than ever, and the good Queen is hitting the bottle with some legendary aplomb.
It’s raw, and essential and bloody fun. And that’s before even a single sword is swung.
There’s enough that’s been said about “Blackwater” over the last year and how it broke new ground for television. I want to take a different angle on the show, and draw out something that never gets enough attention in television review: Sound.
Sound design in “Blackwater” is critical, from the first frame to the last.
Bells toll to signal the arrival of the enemy fleet. Varys notes this sound always accompanies trouble; a threat, a battle, a royal death, something tremendous that eclipses the citizenry in King’s Landing. Stannis and Davos answer the bells with drums, heard clear across the water. Sound is a message and a warning in this episode, not content to be jolted alive merely for our benefit on the soundtrack, but as an essential part of strategy and communication during war.
A song helps sound design bind disparate scenes and themes together in “Blackwater”, and it’s a pivotal part of the show’s soundtrack.
The soldiers of King’s Landing rally around drink, women and a rendition of ‘The Rains of Castamere’ led by Bronn on the eve of battle. This song celebrates the victory of Tywin Lannister over an enemy that predates the story of Game of Thrones. Where’s he learned a Lannister song, someone asks. “Drunk Lannisters!” Bronn proclaims. The sellsword isn’t betraying his own code and falling in with the Lions, but he knows how to rile them up and ready them for battle; ale and song. The music binds together characters, motivations, and for our benefit, an understanding of what’s happening on screen.
Small wonder the song reasserts itself in a reprise at the end of the battle. “The battle is over. We have won!” Tywin boasts, as he marches into the throne room at the end of “Blackwater”, to a haunting rendition of “The Rains of Castamere” over the credits. The song’s tone and lyrics are steeped in blood.
And who are you, the proud lord said,
that I must bow so low?
Only a cat of a different coat,
that’s all the truth I know.
In a coat of gold or a coat of red,
a lion still has claws,
And mine are long and sharp, my lord,
as long and sharp as yours.
And so he spoke, and so he spoke,
that lord of Castamere,
But now the rains weep o’er his hall,
with no one there to hear.
Yes now the rains weep o’er his hall,
and not a soul to hear.
We hear this chilling hymn take over the soldiers’ quarters just as Cersei commits to a backup plan of suicide, a flask of Essence of Nightshade in her hands. The song is reprised at the end of the episode just as that same flask escapes her grasp and shatters at the foot of the Iron Throne. “The Rains” bookend this episode in a curious way as a result; the song celebrates Tywin, and his power, both to take life away, and curiously enough, to grant it back through his actions. A mere moment later and he may have marched in to discover the corpses of his daughter and grandson.
Sound guides our expectation and our emotion in “Blackwater”. A prayer and recitation from Sansa’s memory gives her authority over the chamber of scared girls and women. Sound vanishes as Bronn releases his arrow into the bay, and music gives way to raw, auditory chaos as wildfire devours Stannis’ fleet in one stroke.
When you watch the episode again this weekend, perk your ears up and let the soundscape sink in. It’s a fucking miracle and an essential part of the storytelling.
Tomorrow: “Valar Morghulis”, the other half of the end of Season 2, and the stage that’s set for Season 3, this Sunday on HBO.
Humbly begging apologies for disappearing for a year, this is:
Budrickton, First of His Name, Warden of the Actual North (Canada)