One of the reasons the Song of Ice and Fire books that Game of Thrones adapts are so popular is they’re full of hidden details that reveal larger secrets about the world of Westeros. The HBO series has carried on that fine tradition, stacking each episode full of callbacks to previous moments in the show and unspoken minutiae that often carries serious importance. Take a look at some of the details tucked away into the third episode of season seven, ‘The Queen’s Justice.’
The Hot New ‘Do
As Sansa gushed about back in season one before the world crushed her happiness, King’s Landing is the center of style and fashion. Once she arrived, she quickly changed her hairstyle from the drab types favored in Winterfell to the elaborate braiding worn by everyone in the capital up to the queen. Style matters, and so does currying favor amongst those more powerful than you. With that in mind it’s unsurprising that members of Cersei’s court like her handmaiden would adopt the queen’s new ‘do as the fashionable hip new hairstyle. They’re treating Cersei’s hair like some new fashion statement rather than the result of that *ahem* ‘incident.’
The Rains Of Castamere
Music plays a huge role in setting the tone for Game of Thrones and one of the worst songs you can hear when anyone but House Lannister is onscreen is ‘The Rains of Castamere.’ The song was written after Tywin Lannister obliterated the rebellious House Reyne and wiped Castamere off the map. On the show, ‘The Rains of Castamere’ almost always serves as a prelude to the death of Lannister enemies. Walder Frey had it played at the Red Wedding right before he slaughtered the Starks and the song was playing when Jaime Lannister took Highgarden, marking the end of House Tyrell.
Ten Good Men
“Give me 10 good men and I’ll impregnate the bitch!”: That’s Bronn talking about the Eyrie in season one. But the “good men” trope has come up more than that, to the point where it’s something of a joke amongst the geekier Game of Thrones fans. Theon takes Winterfell with 20 good men, Mance sends 20 good men to climb over the Wall and scout, Daenerys captures Yunkai with three good men, and Ramsay cripples the army of Stannis with 20 good men. It’s abundantly clear at this point that we should fear Ser Twenty and Ser Ten of House Goodmen.
Like Father, Like Son
At the end of season six, we learned via Bran’s time traveling greenseer vision that Jon Snow is actually the child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen (making Daenerys Jon’s aunt). In season seven, it seems like the groundwork is being set up for that fact to be revealed to Dany. Several stories that she’s heard about Rhaegar have been mirrored in Jon Snow. Back in Meereen, Ser Barristan Selmy said men followed Rhaegar because they believed in him, a line repeated almost word for word by Ser Davos when he introduced Jon to Daenerys.
Selmy also corrects Dany when she told him she’d heard Rhaegar was good at killing people. “Rhaegar never liked killing,” he said. In this latest episode, Dany mentions “We all enjoy what we’re good at,” to which Jon replies simply “I don’t.”
The Queen’s Justice
With all the horrible ways Cersei Lannister could have killed the remaining Sand Snakes, we think Tyene got off easy being poisoned in the same way her mother Ellaria poisoned Myrcella. Unlike Joffrey, who got the notoriously horrific ‘strangler’ poison, the much milder poison given to Myrcella just gives her a bit of a nosebleed before causing her to collapse. With the horrors we’ve witnessed from Ser Gregor Clegane, we’d consider this practically mercy, relatively speaking. Kudos to director Mark Mylod for perfectly recreating the kiss of death, too:
