The Treasons at Tumbleton (HOTD 3x08)

I can appreciate that basically the storylines in this episode can be summarized and categorized into three main storylines with connected storylines weaved in there.

So basically, we have Harrenhal, King's Landing, and of course, Tumbleton.

So I guess I will start this off with Harrenhal, given that it is the briefest of the storylines that were happening in this episode.

So at Harrenhal, we are mostly focused on what's been going on with Aemond, who has been still trying to sort himself out, which I am not gonna lie, it really is basically copying what they did last season with Daemon, where you have Aemond basically at Harrenhal the entire time since he showed up, and he's been trying to figure out what he wants to do with himself.

And I will say that it's interesting that they gave Alys the backstory they did, which I'm not gonna lie, is a choice.

It's an unexpected choice.

It's a weird choice because they're, in essence, saying that Alys has been alive for over 100 years, if you paid attention to her story that she was telling, which based off of the expressions on her face, it's implied that the story is actually about herself and not just some random woman.

As for what George has to say via his books about Alys Rivers, he doesn't give us a straight answer as to the origins of Alys Rivers.

Some of the origins that he writes indicates that she is likely the bastard daughter of Lyonel Strong, who, if you recall, was at one point Master of Law and then later Hand of the King back in Season 1.

So I would say a lot of book readers assume that is actually her origin, that she is one of his bastard kids that he had at some point in his life, and she was permitted to live at Harrenhal.

There's also an alternative story that says that maybe she was a servant.

Maybe she was also what's described as a woods witch, which is basically some woman who lives in the countryside, and she does a lot of folk medicine and maybe practices some form of magic, depending on what rumors state.

But the idea of her being alive since the Ironborn controlled the Riverlands is something that the TV show writers came up with, which, as I said earlier, is a choice, and I am not here to say that I think it's a bad idea.

I just think it's a strange one, but I don't know.

I guess they just wanna play up the whole spooky witch, maybe, maybe not aspect of the character, and that's why they did that.

It's also interesting that we see that Aegon shows up at Harrenhal to confront his brother, and he's basically telling his brother, "What the hell have you been doing all this time? And you need to snap out of it, because I need you and your dragon to help me get the throne back.

So wake up." Which makes this really interesting a choice because it makes it into a complete role reversal of their relationship, because the last time the two of them saw each other, Aegon was in a weakened position, and he felt dejected and not sure what the hell to do with himself anymore.

Meanwhile, Aemond is full of confidence because he's defeated a powerful dragon in the second season, and he has an opportunity to take over the throne when Aegon is down and out.

And then now we have the complete reversal of that situation, where Aegon is now a man of action who has plans and ambitions that he wants to get done, and his brother is being a total sad sack right now.

It's actually a pretty entertaining dynamic, which I'm not gonna lie, and I think that it will be very interesting to see how that turns out in the fourth season.

It really will.

I'm not gonna lie, I am going to be very curious to see what exactly the writers plan to do with Aegon and Aemond being together, mainly because in the book, the two never really unite again by this point in the story.

Aegon actually went somewhere else instead of looking for his brother, but I already discussed that in the second season of this podcast.

I'm not going to repeat myself here, and also, I don't want to spoil people about where he was originally supposed to end up going to instead of hunting for his brother.

But, again, I will be curious to see what exactly the writing team intend to do with the two brothers being on a slightly different relationship dynamic and also what exactly they intend to do together at this point.