*** 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 5!
And then there were three. As far as last episodes go, this one had a lot of work to do as there aren’t very many point of view characters left by the time episode six of Telltale’s Game of Thrones rolled around, but that also means that there’s a long way to go before the Forresters are even remotely out of danger. In each of the three remaining storylines we get a brief glimmer of hope before a resounding anticlimax.
Mira’s story is the most openly pointless one of the three. After five episodes in which she attempts, and largely fails, to navigate the treacherous waters of King’s Landing politics she ends up in a worse position than where she was in the beginning. Margaery kicks her out because she went to a party she wasn’t supposed to go to and didn’t rat out Sera about the stolen wine. Then as newly homeless, she runs into Tom who tells her there are “rumors” going around that she killed a Lannister guard. This is the first red flag in the episode that Telltale has something dastardly in mind for our heroine and has probably been planning it for some time. We were given a choice, way back in episode two, of whether or not to kill ‘the guard’. Clearly we’re about to get in trouble for it whether we did it or not. The idea that there are “rumors” that we murdered someone is practically nonsensical. “Oh yes, did you hear about that handmaiden?” “Yes, I heard she brutally stabbed a guard the other night, perfectly dreadful.” “Oh, are you going to the party later?” Maybe in Westeros people are a little more nonchalant about reporting killers.
At any rate, it also turns out that Morgryn has had it out for us this whole time. So basically, Mira is doomed. She has no one to turn to and even Tom ends up being just as useless as he looks. I guess all those “secret friends” he talked about are imaginary. Mira is hauled off to prison and awaits execution. Morgryn offers to marry her to save her life (nice plan, dude) and you are confronted with one last choice: give up everything you stand for or die. In terms of the game they’re basically the same choice, and since you obviously don’t actually die it’s fairly easy to choose morals over your own life. But either way Mira’s plotline has amounted to nothing. She failed to help her family, advanced no agenda of her own, and died or faded into obscurity meaninglessly.
In the north Gared climbs a tree, looks at some stars and decides he’s found the North Grove. Nice timing, Gared, there’s only one episode left! Cotter is succumbing to his shoulder wound and the trio are chased by a giant bear right into the North Grove and a waiting band of villagers. But wait, the villagers are actually mind-controlled wildlings led by two bastard children of Gregor Forrester. This is really weird. After some squabbling they’re all interrupted by another zombie attack, including a familiar face.
Poor Finn. He was one of the more compelling characters in the series, if only because he felt like a real person: insecure and unsure of what to do with himself. He represented the plight of most of the members of the Night’s Watch. None of them really want to be there so they have to figure out ways to create a meaningful life, and most of them fail.
After being forced to kill Finn, Gared also has to dispatch his other friend. Cotter is about to die and the bastard daughter of Gregor wants to use his still-beating heart to power her “blood magic” to reinforce her control over the wildlings. The alternative is to poison him to give him a peaceful death. I guess it was good we brought them along? They didn’t really help that much and we just got them killed. In the end Gared found the North Grove but they still haven’t explained why it’s so important. There’s ironwood there but so what? Aside from being really cold and creepy there’s no explanation for what we’ve spent the past five episodes trying to do.
That just leaves Rodrik (or, I suppose, Asher — depending on your “choices”). As expected, things aren’t looking up. The Whitehills are coming and they’ve got a big army. A small band sneaks out from Ironrath to either rescue Ryon or kill Ludd, but either way Beskha disappears and Rodrik returns to find the keep overrun. A large battle ensues and only our hero makes it out alive. Everyone else dies and the Whitehills win. After all that!
It’s not exactly a surprise, particularly considering the source material, but it’s not exactly the sort of ending that makes you excited to play more even though they’re already working on “season two”. When you’re the one pulling the strings Game of Thrones is no longer a pseudo-poetic rumination on futility — it’s an actual exercise in futility. All of the checkpoints and button-mashing and careful decision-making have resulted in three or four of the six main characters dead, one mortally wounded, and the last one standing around in a forest for no apparent reason. Maybe there’s a reason we’ve never heard of the Forresters before.
My choices:
- Mira told Margaery the truth and was dismissed
- Mira refused to marry Morgryn
- Gared gave Cotter a merciful death
- Rodrik let Lord Whitehill live in order to rescue Ryon
- Gared stayed to defend the North Grove