Game of Thrones 6x06/07 — Breakers and the Broken

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Spoilers for Game of Thrones up to Season 6, Episode 7 and all books.

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Episode Seven, The Broken Man, is a misnomer. The episode features not one but many broken men: The Hound, Septon Ray, Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow, Theon, Cersei, the list goes one. And there are countless more broken characters not featured this episode, including Ramsay Bolton, Samwell Tarly and Jorah Mormont. The show’s title could refer to any one of many broken people in any one of Game of Thrones many episodes. It calls to mind Tyrion’s empathy for “cripples, bastards and broken things,” and George R R Martin shares the sentiment.

The episode’s narrative through-line, however, is the Hound’s aborted attempt to rebuild himself. We first see him carrying wood for the citizens of a pious commune: a place so unlike the normally violent depiction of Westeros that the opening credits serve as a metaphorical wall separating the pre-credits Sept on the Hill (an allusion to Matthew 5:14) as compared to the post-credits world of Game of Thrones proper.

In this community the Hound discovers he is useful for more than just killing. Here, far from the Westerosi Yoke, the people are wholesome, innocent. He reflects on his moral failings as a first step to consider becoming a better man. His redemption is cut short, however, when the Brotherhood Without Banners kill the settlers over some chickens. Their efforts to build a community without violence thwarted by the reality that life is nasty, brutish and short in Westeros. The Hound un-buries the hatchet and sets out to kill those who killed his friends —His chance to rebuild himself scuppered.

The failed redemption of the Hound contrasts with that of Septon Ray, the leader of the slain community. Ray was proof-of-concept that a murderer like the Hound could change. His saving grace was a non-denominational belief in the existence of “something greater than us. And whatever it is, it’s got plans.” For Septon Ray, the existence of suffering was evidence of a divine plan — if there were no divine plan, then that would mean suffering was for nothing. The logic is broken, however. It suggests that Ray himself may still a broken man. While the Hound rejects Ray’s beliefs, he is uncomfortable with the implications. Given time, prayer and some warm ale the Hound may have come around to Ray’s perspective, had the Brotherhood not hung the Septon in his church.

Utopian communes seeking to escape violence are common throughout history, and usually end the same way. In the aftermath of the English Civil War a sect of proto-agrarian socialists called the Diggers isolated themselves in closed communes, farming the soil and lived off of the harvest (hence the name Diggers). In practice, the Diggers were arrested by local militias, evicted for squatting on common land and, in some cases, their villages were burned down by arsonists.

Less radical were the Quakers, who founded the North American colony of Pennsylvania. Like Septon Ray, the Quakers were pacifists. In 1690, Quaker colonists were deeply torn whether to use violence against a gang of pirates attacking colonies along the Delaware River. Unlike the Diggers, Quakers were not driven from their land, as the Native Americans of eastern Pennsylvania were unusually peaceful. None the less, Quakers were out-maneuvered in the aftermath of the Revolution by more ‘militant’ sects like the Puritans. Unable to attract and retain followers, the Quakers tolerated themselves out of existence.

Septon Ray is a cautionary tale of a seemingly healthy, unconflicted man who was in fact broken inside. Although cheerful and charismatic, Ray was overwhelmed by a revulsion of violence, so much so that he rejected even justifiable self-defence. Pacifism is morally laudable but pragmatically dubious. Ray’s retort that “Violence is a disease. You don’t cure a disease by spreading it to more people” is a false syllogism — Historically violence has been cured by the threat of violence by an independent third-party (i.e. Government). The Hound may not have read Leviathan, but he recognises how unrealistic Ray is being. It underscores that an unwillingness to preserve your own life and that of others can be its own form of brokenness. Ray appeared strong but was in fact broken by the powerful.

In King’s Landing, the High Sparrow praises men like Septon Ray, while in practice they are nothing alike. The High Sparrow tells Margaery the honest piety of the common folk can be more insightful than that of those who memorise every word of the Seven Pointed Star. This is on the one hand a subtle dig at Islamic Hafiz, who memorise the entire Quran, but also a smokescreen. For all his talk of serving the people, it’s the thugs with swords and scars on their foreheads that maintain the High Sparrow’s power.

The High Sparrow is a Machiavellian schemer consolidating their power. His pious intonations that Margaery take to Tommen’s bed is pragmatic. For Margaery to birth a royal heir would consolidate the rule of King Tommen and the Sparrows’ architecture of oppression. So far, Queen Cersei has been imprisoned and humiliated in front of the city. Ser Loras is in prison on charges of sodomy, whose only release will be to join a monastery of penetants (because that could never a hot-bed of sodomy). And Lady Oleanna is under threat of physical harm. On all fronts the Sparrows are breaking down the will of their opponents — Septon Ray would be aghast.

The Sparrows’ success depends on breaking Margaery, but underneath the facade of a broken woman she remains strong. Margaery has always been strong. Margaery endured the humiliation of marrying the Renly Baratheon, whose homosexuality was an open-secret. She wed the sadistic Joffrey. She has navigated the challenges of being a noble woman better than most. Her survival always depended on playing innocent whilst thinking ten steps ahead.

There is reason to fear the Sparrows can break Margaery where others have failed. The Sparrows are, after all, strikingly similar to the proto-totalitarian Puritans. The Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that in America they could “give up all freedom and individuality and art, and you can have a perfect society without crime or violence or inequality.”(1) Indeed, when Margaery parrots that were Loras to accept the life of a penetant he would “begin again… as a free man,” it is this notion of freedom she has in mind. Historically, the Puritan colonies had near zero teenage pregnancy, the lowest murder rate in America, and, lest anyone think Puritans were anti-women, Massachusetts communities punished domestic violence severely.(2) If anyone can bring Margaery from her perch among the nobles and down into the ranks of broken things, it would be the crypto-Puritan Sparrows.

The arc of Game of Thrones is for the broken become the breakers. The Hound once exuded violent power, until Arya broke him. Septon Ray was a soldier in a powerful army until the army broke his humanity. The Sparrows were downtrodden until they rose up. If they break Margaery it will be another phase in the cycle.

The story is driven by cripples, bastards and broken things. They have an interest in overthrowing the status quo; they are made strong through hardship; and, they can win because they are under-estimated. As the series’ end game approaches it looks increasingly like the wheel will turn once more. Unless Danaerys makes good on her promise to“break the wheel,” it shall always turn.

Stray Observations

• During shore leave in Essos, Theon’s sword is rested in a particularly phallic angle against the bar table. A sick joke, given that he’s gelded. However, Yara is setting him on his path to getting the Old Theon back, so perhaps it’s prophetic.
• When Lady Oleanna confronts Cersei about how useless she has been this whole time, notice that the Lady of Highgarden is writing while she lambasts Cersei’s idiocy. Cersei pulled the exact same trick of writing a letter during her meeting with Lady Oleanna back in Season Four (Five?). Back then, Lady Oleanna called Cersei out on her amateur theatrics, whereas Cersei, who has learnt nothing, fails to call Lady Oleanna out on the same trick.
• When Davos convinces Lady Mormont to back Jon Stark, notice that the blocking in the room is almost identical the the blocking when Davos persuaded the Iron Bank to lend Stannis money and troops.