This is what comes after them, trampling their footprints. They play the game of thrones, and this is what is howling down upon them.

Quick takes: I saw Mad Max: Fury Road earlier today, and I think I am just about full up on THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH, so if this seems a little flat, I am experiencing an Overload of Awesome.

WUN WUN. I was so worried we wouldn’t get the full majesty of the giants, and Wun Wun is pretty great in the books, especially when he interacts with the Night’s Watch back at the Wall. And I keep thinking maybe they’re going to kill Ed, but I hope not, because Ed is my love.

Ed is the only Night’s Watch member whose attitude (loosely translated: fuck this shit always) makes sense to me. “We are probably going to die at the hands of wildlings or the cold at any moment, but that doesn’t mean I can’t bitch about how my shoes fit oddly today and this porridge is lumpy.”

Oh, Jorah. Just … like I said last week, I did not give a shit in the books, but that hurt like a rug burn.

This is a story about power, and until this season, it’s been about a particular KIND of power. The kind we understand, because we were raised on King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot. We were raised on bears and maidens fair, on courtiers and kings, and so was everyone we’ve met. They understand the game of thrones, the game of whispers, the game of who’s-on-top. The noble houses of Tyrell and Lannister and Baratheon and Stark. We can keep track of who is up and who is down and who is making the right moves to ensure their future. We can play a game we recognize.

Even when we lose, there is a certain safety: We have lost a game we knew how to play. We still understand everything. We still know the rules. There are even rules for how you lose: You stand to the side for a time, before playing again.

And then the dead walk, and the wind rises. The door of the cell slams shut. The faithful you armed put their knives at your throat and it’s not that you’re losing. It’s not that. Tyrion’s face when Dany told him she doesn’t intend to even acknowledge the goddamn wheel. Cersei, licking water off the floor. Jon at the moment he locked eyes with Night’s King and heard the indrawn breath of a thousand thousand dead things.

You think you know power, and then you feel the heat of dragon’s breath, and realize just how little you understand. It’s not that you’ve lost. It’s that you don’t even know, in this new world, how to lose.

A.