The Swordsman's Standard
Initial Reaction To Episode Three: Casterly Rock
Another week, another episode with lots of talking and not too much action. Not that that’s a bad thing; it certainly makes my job easier. I am happy to see Bronn back, and I hope he gets off his horse and gives us a good duel or two.
Once more we see a naval raid with no real discernable combat, and we are teased with a shot of Highgarden for the first time but only get to see the aftermath of what must have been a tremendous battle.
Anyway, we might as well focus on what we did see: Grey Worm and the Unsullied storming the gates of Casterly Rock.
There’s not much to say since the entire battle occurred during Tyrion’s monologue — we only got to see the highlights. But along the way, we saw Grey Worm at his most impressive yet. If we get to see more of Grey Worm fight during the rest of the season, it’s possible that he may finally be promoted beyond tier four.
Grey Worm fought well. He still relied on his old, mechanical style: a leader plucked by chance from the uniform ranks of a disciplined regiment. That’s likely to be the thematic style of his combat for the rest of the show since he sticks to it even now as one of Dany’s elites.
More or less, he fights the same as before: rigid, forced stabs that you can tell are the result of countless training sessions rather than a natural sense of the fight. His tempo is as uniform as ever — you can count the rhythm as he stabs, thrusts, blocks, and kicks. But what sets this apart from previous Grey Worm scenes is the fact that he relies on more guerilla tactics than before.
In the brief moments of the siege that we see, Grey Worm leads the charge as always. But we also see him surprise Lannister soldiers by hiding behind walls, throwing more punches than before, and even using the side of his shield as a blunt weapon à la Tyrion in season one.
While this battle will probably be too short (and the Lannister extras too easy to kill) for this to influence Grey Worm’s ranking, it was a nice glimpse into the battles that we hopefully get to see in the coming weeks.
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