History Recap / GameOfThronesS5E4TheSonsOfTheHarpy

* TheWorfEffect: A political version; the fact that Tommen, ''the king himself'', can't free his own brother-in-law speaks to how powerful the High Sparrow has become.

* HeroStoleMyBike: Jorah knocks out a fisherman and steals his boat, though he has the decency to leave a few coins in compensation.

* MythologyGag: The seven-pointed star that the Faith Militant members carve on their foreheads. In the books, the banner of the Poor Fellows - the humble faction of the Faith Militant, now composed mostly of Sparrows - was a red seven-pointed star. The self-scarification of course refers to the stars that Andal warriors carved on their chests during the Andal Invasion of Westeros.

* KickTheDog:
** Just how far will Cersei go to keep her power. She will humiliate her own son, Tommen, by wrecking his marriage and then daring him to try and be more than a PuppetKing all so he would have no one to rely on but Mummy.
** The Pentoshi captain smuggled and then betrayed Jaime, so the Sand Snakes are [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishing a traitor]], but they go out of their way with the torture, having him buried up to his neck in sand with scorpions crawling over his head.

** The Pentoshi captain smuggled and then betrayed Jaime, so the Sand Snakes are [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves punishing a traitor]], but they got our their way with the torture, having him buried up to his neck in sand with scorpions crawling over his head.

* KickTheDog: Just how far will Cersei go to keep her power. She will humiliate her own son, Tommen, by wrecking his marriage and then daring him to try and be more than a PuppetKing all so he would have no one to rely on but Mummy.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the novels, Cersei is manipulated into rearming the Faith Militant by the High Sparrow, as she is led to believe that she will regain the smallfolk's popularity this way. Here, that reasoning seems absent, and the High Sparrow indeed doesn't try to convince her to do anything. This means that the idea to create a fanatical armed movement is entirely Cersei's (in order to undermine the Tyrells), and it makes it especially her own fault that the situation of Kings Landing ''and'' the Iron Throne degrades rapidly.

It's the dead of night in '''Volantis''' and a lucky fisherman has hauled in a basket full to the brim with a fresh catch as he beaches his little one-mast boat. His luck promptly changes when a huge fist flies out of the dark and knocks him into next summer. Ser Jorah Mormont has done the cold-cocking and he drags the poor sod away from the surf so that he doesn't drown, gives him a couple of coppers as recompense and goes to find his captive, Tyrion. Who is still trussed up and unable to escape, (though not from lack of trying), from where Jorah has embedded his poniard in the sand. Jorah treats the half-man like a sack of flour as he dumps him unceremoniously into the cog, pushes off, jumps onto the stern and sets sail.

On another, larger ship, in the slightly less temperate waters of '''The Narrow Sea''', Ser Jamie Lannister asks the captain of the merchant vessel he and Bronn are travelling to Dorne on, whether that isle they're passing is Estermont, but it is actually Tarth, much to Jamie's subdued but still noticeable melancholy. Bronn is even more tetchy about their venture, about their transport, their odds of survival against the hot-blooded Dornish and what motivation could possibly make the Kingslayer risk such a scheme. Bronn reveals that the 'Baratheon' offspring being Jamie's is pretty much an open secret among, oh, I don't know... ''Everyone.'' And that he knows his employer wishes to fill a hole in his life in the place of the warrior he once was, by being a true father to Myrcella instead; and perhaps to atone for freeing Tyrion, to which Jamie denies, claiming it was Varys acting alones. This laundry-list of denials just seems to amuse Bronn.

* WideEyedIdealist: King Tommen shows that he's a sweet kid, but being idealistic combined with being totally out of his element means that he has no effective power. He believes that the High Sparrow will simply listen to his King, and when confronted by both the Faith Militant and the angry smallfolk, he refuses to resort to violence and simply backs off.
* WildCard: Littlefinger has a clever XanatosGambit in which Sansa will become Wardeness of the North no matter who holds Winterfell, Stannis or the Boltons. However, the "Roose wins" victory condition depends on Ramsay being smitten with Sansa so that she can manipulate him... and Ramsay is most assuredly ''not'' who Baelish thinks he is.
* TheWorfEffect:
** A political version. The fact that Tommen, the king himself, can't free his own brother-in-law speaks to how powerful the High Sparrow has become.

Jorah slowly leaves the tiller, Tyrion looks pleased that he has convinced the exile to loosen his bonds. Instead, Jorah gives him a backhand bitch slap with his ring hand that thwacks the living daylights out of Tyrion, before returning to his seat and enjoying the sea breeze, free from the sound of pointed extrapolations of irritating dwarfs.

Outside, homes are aflame and another three man squad of Unsullied, outnumbered two to one by the Harpies, are killed gruesomely before the fanatics rush to help their brethren inside.

* {Cincinnatus}: Invoked by Cersei to convince the reluctant High Sparrow that someone who wants no power is best suited to have it.

* CallThatAFormation: A single squad of Unsullied gets ambushed by the Sons of the Harpy and noticeably do not hold to their famous unbreakable formation. This may because they are unused to fighting in small units and do not have the numbers to form an effective phalanx.

A dozen advance on Barristan warily, all too aware of Ser Grandfather's reputation it would seem; and leaving four to deal with Grey Worm. A shaft of sunlight catches Barristan's implacable figure and his naked sword, bathed in Harpy blood as he levels it at the approaching mob, feinting a sudden move. Several try to rush past and get behind the elderly knight, but Selmy, (backed by a heroic variant of the Targaryen theme), leaps into combat like a man half his age. Within three precise moves two are already dead, one tries to shiv Barristan from behind only to find his fellow Harpy pulled around and thrown onto his own dagger. Selmy punts the shish-kebabed slaver and his accidental killer into their companions, keeping them from rushing him all at once. Jamie was not lying, the aged swordsman is truly a painter, a painter that only uses red. He lays one open from hip to shoulder, disembowels a second and with only his second expert parry of the entire fight splits a third's spinal cord in half with a lightning riposte before running a fourth clean through.

In the bazaar alley, Grey Worm is pinioned from behind and has a knife driven into his side as his men die around him. He throws off his enemy and impales the Harpy who stabbed him in return, throwing the next man willing to challenge him onto the ''blunted end'' of the stuck spear. He then rips the short blade free from his torso and uses it to destroy his tenth foe that day, (that we've seen). Before [[PrimalStance challenging the others who remain.]]

A dozen advance on Barristan warily, all too aware of Ser Grandfather's reputation it would seem; and leaving four to deal with Grey Worm. A shaft of sunlight catches Barristan's implacable figure and his naked sword, bathed in Harpy blood as he levels it at the approaching mob, feinting a sudden move. Several try to rush past and get behind the elderly knight, but Selmy, (backed by a heroic variant of the Targaryen theme), leaps into combat like a man half his age. Within three precise moves two are already dead, one tries to shiv Barristan from behind only to find his fellow Harpy pulled around and thrown onto his own dagger. Selmy punts the shish-kebabed slaver and his accidental killer into their companions, keeping them from rushing him all at once. Jamie was not lying, the old warrior is a painter, a painter that only uses red. He lays one open from hip to shoulder, disembowels a second and with only his second expert parry of the entire fight splits a third's spinal cord in half with a lightning riposte before running a fourth clean through.

Grey Worm finds [[HeroicSecondWind a new well of strength]] and lays into the four standing over him, [[TrueCompanions unwilling to leave Barristan fighting solo.]] Selmy half decapitates a fallen Harpy, pulling his sword free with a squelch from his shattered collar bone, before one of the thinning ranks of his foes finally decides to grab onto the knight regardless of the cost. Although Barristan employs a half-swording vertical counter that ''bisects his opponent near clean in two from the front'' to free himself, the Harpy has given his allies the chance they need. One kicks the true knight square in the back, pushing him into the midst of his six remaining foes, he fights his way free with a single stroke but it is clear the strike has offset his flow. Another practically lands on Barristan's sword point as he tries to get back into the fray and holds himself there maniacally, Selmy manages to push him off in time to kill his next attacker, but his direction of the skirmish is truly shot and a Harpy manages to [[OhCrap hamstring Barristan with a golok.]]

Incredibly, the truest knight pays the Harpy back in kind, only his return slice is a bit higher, try, along the path of several major organs. Of the three Harpies left, the first, who has no weapon, stomps Barristan down and the other two jump on him with knives. Selmy gores one through the intestines and out the other side with his sword and just as he is about to be stabbed in the back, he shoves his poniard, which he drew from his belt while on the ground with his left hand, up under the Harpy's armpit and into his heart. At the last possible second, Selmy withdraws his sword from the dying Harpy to defend himself - he's won! ''[[BigNo NOOOOOO!]]'' The final Harpy drives a leaf-bladed dirk right between Barristan's ribs, causing the old warrior to unleash a [[SkywardScream heart-rending yell of agony.]] The last Harpy pulls his recently acquired weapon free, unstoppering the knight's life blood in a great rushing flow, grabs his hair from behind as the queen's royal protector kneels, defeated, and prepares to draw the knife across Selmy's throat... And Grey Worm skewers the bastard before his arm can be pulled to the side and around.

Now alone, Grey Worm whirls and spins at the circle of leering masks, killing yet another two, even when surrounded, the Harpies are unwilling to get close to the pride of the Unsullied. Yet even so, they eventually strike him from behind and, just as they are about to deliver the killing blows, they hear one of their comrades screaming for mercy and a beautiful note of [[AudibleSharpness steel on bone]]. They turn to see another Harpy getting his legs hewn out from under him to reveal Ser Barristan the Bold, bitches. Wait? Where's their backup? That's right, Selmy has already crossed ''eight'' of these fools off of his checklist.

* AmazonBrigade[=/=]SiblingTeam: We're introduced to Oberyn's daughters, the Sand Snakes, who are all warriors and working with Ellaria to get revenge for their father's death.

* MythologyGag[=/=]ShoutOut: The seven-pointed star that the Faith Militant members carve on their foreheads. In the books, the banner of the Poor Fellows - the humble faction of the Faith Militant, now composed mostly of Sparrows - was a red seven-pointed star. The self-scarification of course refers to the stars that Andal warriors carved on their chests during the Andal Invasion of Westeros.

* ReassignedToAntarctica[=/=]UriahGambit: Cersei sends Mace Tyrell on a mission to Braavos in order to settle things with the Iron Bank. His escort for the long, dangerous trip? Her trusted brute Ser Meryn. Unless the latter runs into a certain prospectve Faceless Girl in Braavos, Lord Tyrell seems like a goner...

* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: The Faith Militant carries out swift justice in a largely arbitrary fashion: certain "sinners" like Ser Loras are imprisoned, while others have their property destroyed abruptly or are brutalized or killed for engaging in whoring. None of these attacks come without warning or have any pretense of due process.

Jorah slowly leaves the tiller, Tyrion looks pleased that he has convinced the exile to loosen his bonds. Instead, Jorah gives him a backhand bitch slap with his ring hand that thwacks the living daylights out of Tyrion, before returning to his seat and enjoying the sea breeze, free of the sound of pointed extrapolations from the irritating dwarf.

A dozen approach Barristan warily, all too aware of Ser Grandfather's reputation it would seem; and leaving four to deal with Grey Worm. A shaft of sunlight catches Barristan's implacable figure and his naked sword, bathed in Harpy blood as he levels it at the approaching mob, feinting a sudden move. Several try to rush past and get behind the elderly knight, but Selmy, (backed by a heroic variant of the Targaryen theme), leaps into combat like a man half his age. Within three precise moves two are already dead, one tries to shiv Barristan from behind only to find his fellow Harpy pulled around and thrown onto his own dagger. Selmy punts the shish-kebabed slaver and his accidental killer into their companions, keeping them from rushing him all at once. Jamie was not lying, the old warrior is a painter, a painter that only uses red. He lays one open from hip to shoulder, disembowels a second and with only his second expert parry of the entire fight splits a third's spinal cord in half with a lightning riposte before running a fourth clean through.

Walking the streets, Ser Barristan hears alarm bells ringing and the sound of men fighting in the streets. He unsheathes the sword he likely took from a fellow Kingsguard member back when he quit Joffrey's service from his battered old scabbard. Marching towards the district from where the general populace of upper class citizens are fleeing en masse.

These pogroms on all the capital's perceived evils are inter-cut with a fanatic receiving sigil of a red seven pointed star on a white field. Only... The mark is inscribed into their foreheads with a blade, and the one getting the latest star is none other than Lancel Lannister himself. Newly scarred, a mob of the fanatics catch Loras Tyrell during his cool down period between a sparring session and arrest him for crimes against both gods and men. When the Knight of Flowers demands to know who these bozos think they are; Lancel replies that they are [[IAmTheNoun justice]].

Beneath '''Winterfell''', Sansa Stark lights candles for the statues of her ancestors and even finds the feather that King Robert placed in the hand of Lynna's mausoleum effigy. Baelish discovers his niece in the crypts and Sansa remarks on how she would find her father down here, watching vigil over his sister's tomb and that she was beautiful beyond compare.

** Cersei's actions in rearming the Faith Militant may benefit her in the short run - but the repercussions for her personally are already beginning to show, as Tommen is blatantly disrespected and disobeyed, and flat out called a bastard and abomination. Since rumors of her relationship with Jaime are already widespread, how long will it be before the Faith turns on Cersei and her children? Not to mention, she just sent her most loyal bodyguard off to Braavos and the Sparrows already have ome highly [[KissingCousins incriminating witness]] ''in their own ranks''...