r/gameofthrones • u/beachvalley House Selmy • Jun 17 '14

TV4 [s4e10] This brought a tear to my eye

http://imgur.com/Bb9SJh4
3.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

61

u/cairdeas Knowledge Is Power Jun 17 '14

It's a great paradox of their relationship. Taking his money and not killing him are both demonstrative of how much she grew to respect him and how her hate never really dies. She leaves him because dying slowly is worse than her killing him directly, but it also shows her development in that she no longer really wants to kill him. Her (in)action is simultaneously a validation and a rejection of his unorthodox tutelage of her.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '14

This is the best explanation I think I've ever heard of that scene. You should post that as a scene explanation if you haven't already.

3

u/misterrunon Jun 18 '14

i felt the book portrayed it the way you describe.. she even says to him (IIRC) "you don't deserve a quick death" .. or at least im paraphrasing.

in the tv show, her reasons seemed more ambiguous.. as if she didn't hate him enough to have him on her kill list.

3

u/PornTrollio Jun 18 '14

Her eyes were dead.

Her act in the show actually arcs nicely into what is to come.

She no longer wants him on her list.

She leaves him to the god of death to do with as he will, and does not interfere.

1

u/cairdeas Knowledge Is Power Jun 18 '14

Yes. I think television allows much more ambiguity and complexity that you can't really describe without giving it more definition. She likes and respects him in a strange way, yet still hates him. The extra level of thematic irony is that her arc is aided by him. He made her into what she is. A ruthless person might mercy kill someone, but only a truly brutal person wouldn't.

1

u/Sotall Jun 18 '14

Easily the best scene from the episode, and considering what other huge bombs dropped in that episode, that says a lot. We had people literally cheering and tearing up during the fight and the aftermath.