*** Editor’s Note *** This is a 6-part recap of Telltale’s Game of Thrones series. It will be followed by an entire series review. Click HERE to see our coverage of Episode 3!
In the last episode several of the characters were presented with a choice between staying true to what they (thought they) believed or changing their mind, potentially at their peril. This time, either by choice, or due to circumstances outside of their control, everyone starts breaking promises they’ve made.
The episode starts with the most obvious promise-breaker: Gared, who all but tossed his oath to the Night’s Watch over the side of the Wall with Britt’s bloody corpse. He’s in chains, and not even Jon Snow’s perpetually heartbroken expression can save him. Finn tries to speak up for us but all it does is cast doubts on his motives too. Pretty soon it’s clear that we have no choice but to escape and make our way north of the wall. Luckily, our best buds Cotter and Finn are right there with us, ready to break their oaths too. Cotter is a Wildling so it’s pretty easy for him to cast off the black cape, but Finn is maybe a little overeager to get into trouble. He says “words don’t mean shit,” but he was pretty hung up on them back when Cotter and Gared were making fun of him.
After escaping, the trio walks serendipitously past the weirwood tree where they took their oaths in the first place. Gared pauses, perhaps to consider what he’s done. Has he really broken his oath? What was he supposed to do, let Britt kill him? Frostfinger even seems like he would have been convinced by Finn’s protest if he weren’t so suspicious of the fact that he’s defending someone he used to quarrel with. Frostfinger seemingly doesn’t believe in friendship, or maybe he’s just so jaded from being on the Wall. Killing a fellow member of the Night’s Watch is unforgivable, even if he was going to kill you instead.
In King’s Landing, Mira finally starts to take matters into her own hands. When Tyrion was hauled off from the scene of Joffrey’s demise, and from the political arena at large, it seemed that all was lost for the otherwise unimportant handmaiden from House Forrester. In this episode it still seems like things could fall apart at any moment, maybe just because Mira, for no apparent reason, keeps having suspicious conversations with Tom the bafflingly-still-everywhere coal boy, but for now there’s a new plan and it seems to be going pretty well. At Joffrey’s wedding a brief conversation with Lord Morgryn implied that Mira might have an ally in her quest to secure her family a contract for the capital’s ironwood needs. It’s still not entirely clear why this is so important for the immediate future of the house when there’s so much other stuff going on but certainly it would be nice. It turns out that Morgryn is a little upset because he has been cut out of the deal he and Lord Andros had with Lord Whitehill. Andros has now teamed up with the seemingly easily manipulated Lyman Lannister.
Through a circuitous and intrigue-laden sequence of conversations, Mira discovers that Andros has betrayed the trust of his new partner. Lymon divulged in confidence that after a traumatic injury he became addicted to milk of the poppy. Now he takes it regularly and it turns out that Andros has been telling people. Naturally Lymon isn’t too keen to discover this and despite Andros’s protest and threats toward Mira it seems like we’re finally starting to make some progress. One assumes it will all come crumbling down in the next episode. At any rate, it’s interesting to see Mira so quick to exploit someone else’s broken promise when it’s hers that has gotten her into the mess she’s in. But Andros seems like a generally nasty guy so I guess it’s no big deal.
Sometimes a character breaks a promise because of a sort of schizophrenia created by indecisive player actions. In the last episode, for example, Mira chooses whether or not to renew her promise to Margaery that she’ll avoid Tyrion, then chooses whether or not to break that promise. Either way the outcome causes trouble, but the player has some control over the route to that outcome. Telltale doesn’t so much provide control over destiny as they provide control over what the characters think about it.
Asher’s story in this episode is exactly the same. Having found himself fallen in with Daenerys’s forces and reunited with his old “friend” Croft, Asher has to decide how important his quest to help his family is. Again, it’s important enough narratively that things are going to turn out the same no matter what, but we control his attitude and his influence on those around him. When it’s revealed that Beskha has some familiarity with Meereen, for example, Daenerys jumps at the chance to use it to her advantage. Beskha objects, and it’s up to Asher to decide whether to voice his support for his friend or to try to warm up to the lady in charge. The ramifications of that decision don’t influence the overall outcome but they do change how each of the two characters feel about Asher.
After agreeing to help in the attack, almost all of the subsequent decision points have to do with sticking to the plan — keeping the overall “promise” that Asher made. Distraction after distraction threatens to interfere with the general strategy of sneaking into Meereen and disabling one of the watchtowers. There are more guards than Croft expected, and suddenly Beskha tears off down an alley to murder a slaveowner who forced her to fight other children in her youth (which was revealed earlier as the reason Beskha knows so much about Meereen). Beskha, like everyone else in the episode, also has a promise to keep. But hers is to herself: to kill this guy that messed her up. This is the sort of thing in stories that characters usually need someone else to tell them “it’s not going to help” or “you’ll feel even worse.” Depending on what sort of person you are, Asher either prevents her from doing it, does it himself, or lets the guy live. As with all the other decisions it has more to do with what other characters think of you. Is Asher the sort of person who values promises? Does he think standing up for another person’s principles is important? Or are his own principles all that matter?
Of course, all the Forresters scattered throughout both continents will have struggled in vain if Rodrik and company can’t defend their home. He and the others, now aided by a squad of elite fighters from House Glenmore, prepare for war and finally kick Gryff out of the great hall and lock him up. Shortly afterward they receive a surprising invitation from Lord Whitehill. He offers peace. Given the experience the Forresters have with the Whitehills, they immediately suspect foul play. There’s just no way that this promise of peace could be genuine. And yet, the codes that govern the great houses do mean something. If a Lord gives his word on something, the general idea is that you’re supposed to trust him. We’re not savages, after all.
But Lord Whitehill really doesn’t have the same definition of “peace” that the Forresters do. For him it means that he’s in charge and everyone else has to do what he says. If he really thinks that the Forresters will go for that, or that anyone would really buy that as “peaceful”, then he’s more insane than he looks. Since Whitehill gave his word, and even set out bread and salt, Rodrik is forced to treat the offer in good faith. But the Forresters have an ace up their sleeve: Gryff is in their custody. So a trade is negotiated, Gryff for Ryon. The Forresters and Whitehills are the sort of old friends who are always about to kill each other and who keep making promises that they won’t. The more they build up deals and oaths and IOUs the closer it all comes to falling apart in spectacular fashion. Without trust, “words don’t mean shit.”
My choices:
● Gared brought Finn along
● Rodrik showed mercy to Gryff
● Mira kept Sera’s secret from Lord Tarwick
● Rodrik ordered the Glenmore soldiers to remain at Ironrath
● Asher stopped Beskha from killing the slave master