The Swordsman's Standard
Siege of Casterly Rock
There’s not much to say about the siege montage of Casterly Rock that I didn’t already mention in my first post, but I do want to draw attention to some things about Grey Worm and the Unsullied.
But before I get into that, one thing really stood out as I rewatched the scene — can you imagine how weird it must have been to stand around in Dragonstone and hear Tyrion’s monologue without being able to see what was going on?
“And so it begins.”
“What?”
“Oh, just imagine if the Unsullied emerged from a hidden tunnel as I said that.”
“Oh yeah, that would be cool.”
Anyway.
I was looking forward to seeing Grey Worm in combat after several episodes of him filling a largely political role among Daenerys’ top advisors. While I’m excited to say he’s definitely improved since we last saw him fight, I’m not sure that a montage of him taking out a few Lannister guards will be enough to bump up his rating.
Before we talk about Grey Worm specifically, I want to know what the hell is going on with the Unsullied as a whole. As soon as they open the front gate, the Unsullied surge forward towards the next line of Lannister defenses. We see one soldier jump into the air and stab a Lannister with his spear, but the rest of them just run straight ahead, spears pointing upwards.
This may be why we see more Unsullied being killed by the Lannisters, who are armed with swords, than the other way around, even though they could have marched ahead with a Bolton-esque spear wall and walked away with much fewer casualties. Again, this comes back to my discussion of Obara and Nymeria Sand utterly failing to use the proper effective distance for their weapons. The Unsullied setting up a line of spears would reliably beat a line of soldiers armed with swords thanks to their extended reach.
Then we have Grey Worm (presumably — I’m just going to assume that the helmeted Unsullied clearing the castle is him) running up the stairs. And let me just say how happy I am that Grey Worm and the rest of the Unsullied finally figured out how to use their spears in a hallway.
We see some of the same old Grey Worm: highly mechanical movements that would be more effective as a unit than a solitary fighter. He’ll occasionally block with his shield and stab with his spear in big, slow, and evenly-paced motions. As always, this sort of forced tempo would leave him vulnerable if he was facing anyone important, but for the purposes of cutting down nameless Lannister soldiers it works fine to establish his character.
But we also get to see a new and improved Grey Worm. He uses his opponents’ momento against them to send them tumbling down the stairs. He uses corners and the close quarters to his advantage to ambush and assassinate various guards and occasionally uses his shield as a weapon.
This version of Grey Worm moves far more fluidly than anything we’ve seen out of him in the past. I’m optimistic about his future and I’m looking forward to seeing him play a more crucial role in the various wars of the final season.
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