History Recap / GameOfThronesS3E6TheClimb

* IncompatibleOrientation: Loras is somewhat awkward while conversing with Sansa, but he does seem to genuinely want to help her escape King's Landing through their marriage and give her a better life in Highgarden.

* AdaptationExpansion:

* AdaptationalHeroism: Tyrion tells Sansa in advance about the ArrangedMarriage, rather than springing it on her moments before she's forced to the altar in tears.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Tywin gets tired of Olenna's firm resistance and trumps her with Royal prerogatives; if she doesn't cave Loras will be made a member of the celibate Kingsguard, meaning the Tyrell name will wither and fade, as Joffrey's sons would inherit instead.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Subverted. The boy finally reveals his identity to Theon. He's the son of Rickard Karstark and has been torturing Theon for betraying Robb Stark, seeing how the war has cost him his brother Torrhen...then he laughs and reveals he's lying.

* TheNothingAfterDeath: According to Dondarrion, he only sees darkness before he comes back to life.

* OhCrap:
** Melisandre, of all people, after taking a look at Arya's soul.
** Jon Snow when he realises Ygritte has guessed he's a FakeDefector.
** Ygritte gets a big one when she realizes she's accidentally triggered an avalanche.

* PartyScattering: [[TrueCompanions Gendry and Arya]], who have been travelling together since Season 1, are separated when Melisandre buys him from the Brotherhood. [[note]] They were [[BreakingTheFellowship going to part ways]] when they reached Riverrun, but now will probably never see each other again. [[/note]]

* RedShirtArmy: The Wildling's expedition to attack Castle Black consists of Tormund, Orell, Jon Snow, Ygritte, and twenty unnamed characters, six of whom fall to their deaths while climbing the wall.
* RefugeInAudacity: The only explanation for Olenna getting away with openly asking Tywin if he ever engaged in any gay behavior (even suggesting he engaged in it with his cousins) before very pointedly talking about how while homosexuality is more tolerated in the Reach, siblings having sex is decidedly not.

* ASharedSuffering: Tyrion and Cersei.

* TeethClinchedTeamwork: Osha and Meera are at each other's throats. Bran demonstrates that his lordship is not merely an honorary title by identifying the liability and quickly putting an end to it.

* WeWillMeetAgain: Melisandre says this to Arya.

* PetTheDog: Cersei of all people acknowledges Tryion's role in saving the city from Stannis.
* PartyScattering: [[{{TrueCompanions}} Gendry and Arya]], who have been travelling together since Season 1, are separated when Melisandre buys him from the Brotherhood. [[note]] They were [[{{BreakingTheFellowship}} going to part ways]] when they reached Riverrun, but now will probably never see each other again. [[/note]]

-->'''Theon''': [[IllDoAnythingPlease I'll tell you everything, please...!]]

-->'''Theon''': [[PleaseIllDoAnything I'll tell you everything, please...!]]

** A painful one when the brotherhood sells Gendry to Melisandre, and he bitterly remarks that he was thought they were brothers and he could be one of them. In the previous episode he told Arya that his last master sold him to the Night's Watch but he can have a family and control of his own life with these men.

** Sansa says that Shae is the only person she trusts "even though she's warned me not to trust her." [[Recap/GameOfThronesS1E7YouWinOrYouDie Remember the last person who used that line on a Stark?]]
** The Queen of Thorns tells Tywin that it's a pleasure to meet a man who lives up to their reputation, having been disappointed previously that Tyrion wasn't the DepravedDwarf and DeadpanSnarker of his reputation.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Subverted. Arya mentions she doesn't like Melisandre but Gendry brushes her off and Anguy indicates she's just jealous. It takes less than a minute for Arya's suspicions to be justified as Melisandre takes Gendry prisoner and he's dragged away from them.
* ColdBloodedTorture: The Boy engages in some with Theon. He gleefully skins Theon's finger and promises that this is far from the end of what he has in store for Theon.

* DescriptionCut: PlayedForDrama, but it's the closest thing that applies. The moment after Littlefinger says "The climb is all there is", we see Jon, Ygritte, and the others finish their climb up the wall.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The climb refers to the ascension of The Wall and also to the chances taken by jumped-up upstarts like Littlefinger to climb the social ladder.
* DoWrongRight: When Tyrion deduces that Joffrey was behind his assassination attempt, he initially takes more offense to the asinineness of the plot.

* GroinAttack: Arya confirms she really was aiming for the straw man's balls. However Anguy isn't impressed, as in combat she won't have time for that kind of precision-guided retribution.

-->"The climb is all there is."

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
-->'''The Boy''': If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
* LoudOfWar: The Boy wakes up Theon with a really loud horn, [[CallBack implicitly revealing]] who the "Horn Blowing Cunt" from the previous season was.

* MythologyGag: Littlefinger saying the Iron Throne isn't made up of even 200 swords. In the books it is much larger.

-->'''Bolton:''' I should send you back to Rob Stark.
-->'''Jaime:''' You should. Instead you're sitting here, watching me fail at dinner. Why might that be?
-->'''Bolton:''' Wars cost money. Many people would pay a great deal for you.
-->'''Jaime:''' We both know who would pay the most.

** Littlefinger is notably less genteel in this episode, showing how furious he is that Varys scuppered his plans to abscond with Sansa and arranging Ros' murder as a result. Varys also lets his SissyVillain persona slip when he threatens Littlefinger back.
** On a lighter note, Tywin actually snarks back at Olenna, and seems to be hiding a smile for some of the conversation, suggesting that he is actually enjoying the game with a WorthyOpponent, until he's slightly thrown off guard by the mention of the twincest, which prompts him to stand up and refill his cup trying to conceal it, before finally relying on his usual stern approach.

* OhCrap: Mellisandre, of all people, after taking a look at Arya's soul.

* PartyScattering: [[{{TrueCompanions}} Gendry and Arya]] who have been travelling together since Season 1 are separated when Melisandre buys him from the Brotherhood. [[note]] They were [[{{BreakingTheFellowship}} going to part ways]] when they reached Riverrun but now will probably never see each other again [[/note]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tywin is clearly disgusted by Loras' homosexuality and Olenna asking if he had any past experiences with it.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Pink doesn't exactly suit Brienne, but she manages to pull off wearing her first dress of the series rather well. [[AdaptationalAttractiveness This is in contrast to the books, where the pink silk actually makes her look uglier]].
* ShownTheirWork: Anguy's archery advice to Arya is actually pretty accurate -- when using a longbow, you really do pull with the back muscles and try to draw and release quickly.

** Tywin actually joins in with Olenna's PolitenessJudo / PassiveAggressiveKombat, making it clear that he respects her, and possibly even enjoys having a WorthyOpponent.
** As usual when they're around each other Varys and Littlefinger engage in some as well, however, it takes a turn for the darker by the end of their conversation.
* StepfordSmiler: Loras sadly tells Sansa, "It's [King's Landing] terrible isn't it? The most terrible place there is," which clearly indicates that Loras is suffering in silence.
* TheStoic: Tywin's reaction to Olenna directly asking if he ever dabbled in homosexuality is very firm, but is not shocked or offended.

* TitleDrop: Littlefinger refers to everyone's struggle to get to the top and reach their happy ending as "The Climb". Some fail and never rise again. However, in the end, there is no happy ending. The Climb is all that exists.

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Littlefinger tells Sansa now that he's got his long-desired ship, he finds that all he wants now is more.

* WomensMysteries: Olenna refers to the "change" Cersei will undergo before long, but says she will spare Tywin the details. Tywin actually snarks back "[[TheLoinsSleepTonight The years punish us as well]], I promise you that."

** Sansa has found some solace in King's Landing at last with the promise of marriage to Ser Loras Tyrell, which would allow her to leave the capitol and live in Highgarden. She even turns down Littlefinger's offer to help her escape by ship. Then the poor dove is informed that the marriage to Loras has been called off and she's to marry Tyrion Lannister instead. She's in tears as she watches Littlefinger's boat sailing away without her.

** Gendry thinks he's finally gained control over his own life and found a family with the Brotherhood Without Banners only for them to sell him to Melisandre.

We start the episode '''Beyond The Wall''' where Samwell fails at making a campfire. Gilly helps him, and he tells her about the Wall and Castle Black. After admitting that he isn't a good singer, he helps sing to Gilly's son. He also shows her a black-glass dagger that he picked up at the Fist of The First Men, but surely that won't be importa-

Then we're off to '''The North''', where Meera and Osha are trying to skin rabbits, and are about to skin each other. They get ''this'' close to starting when Bran orders them to stop. Jojen provides a distraction by having some sort of mid-sleep epileptic fit, which Meera explains is caused by his visions. The fit passes, and Jojen awakens to tell them that he saw Jon Snow, surrounded by enemies.

And speak of the devil, we go back '''Beyond The Wall''' where Jon and the Wildlings are preparing to make the climb. Ygritte trolls him for bit by openly discussing sex, before the conversation takes a serious turn. She knows that he's still loyal to the Watch, but won't snitch because she's his woman. They start to have a heartwarming moment when she tells him that they have no one to depend on except each other, but the effect is somewhat diluted when she tells him what precisely she's going to do if he betrays her. Tormund then shows up to give Jon some useful climbing advice - ''don't scream if you fall, it makes for crappy last words''.

In the '''Riverlands''', Arya is pumping arrows into a target, reciting her "prayer" as she goes. As Thoros of Myr watches amused, Anguy gives her some shooting advice. Melisandre shows up, and she and Thoros chat in High Valyrian for a bit, mostly about how he had failed to convert Robert Baratheon, until he finally takes her to see Beric Dondarrion. Melisandre is somewhere between awed and horrified that Beric's been revived six times. She wonders how Thoros could have such power, but the priest clarifies that the power belongs to the Lord of Light. He gives some backstory about how he had fallen into sin, and lost his faith, but found it again when the Mountain killed Beric. In his desperation, he had prayed to R'hllor to revive him, and the Lord answered. Now both he and Beric are His faithful servants. Melisandre begins to tell them what she needs, which is presumably the "King's Blood" she was talking about a few episodes ago, because in the next scene Gendry is put in chains. Arya protests that Gendry wanted to join the Brotherhood, and Melisandre replies that what he has in him puts him above them. After Red Priestess makes some cryptic comments about Arya's future we go to...

... to '''Somewhere In The North''', where Theon's life sucks. The Boy starts to show off his crazy, on the off chance that there was anyone in the audience who didn't already work out that facet of his character. He proposes a game to his prisoner: Theon wins if he can guess who The Boy is, and The Boy wins if Theon begs him to cut off his little finger. Driving a knife into said little finger with each wrong answer, The Boy relents when Theon guesses Karstark. The Boy pretends that he had guessed right for a couple seconds. Then, dropping the act, his sets to work on the little finger in earnest, until Theon starts screaming for him to cut it off.

At '''Riverrun''', Robb meets with some Frey representatives. The King of the North is doing all that he can to placate them, but there's one thing they want that's not within his power to give - Edmure Tully's hand in marriage. The Lord of Riverrun balks at marrying a Frey girl sight unseen, but eventually caves under the Blackfish's threats, Catelyn's reproaches, and Robb's apologies. It's looks like they're all going to a wedding at The Twins!

In '''King's Landing''', Olenna Tyrell and Tywin Lannister haggle over whether Loras should marry Cersei. Because Olenna's a lovely lady and Tywin's a warm-hearted patriarch, comments implying Loras' homosexuality and Cersei's incest come out. Pointing out that neither of them of them wins if Joffrey isn't Robert's son, Tywin offers to put Loras in the Kingsguard. Olenna concedes, noting that it's so rare for a man to live up to his reputation.

Up North, Jon and the Wildlings are still climbing '''The Wall'''. An ice collapse drops a bunch of Wildlings to their deaths, and leaves Jon and Ygritte hanging. Despite Tormund's protests, Orell decides to cut the rope, declaring that Jon and Ygritte's weight will pull him and Tormund down. Just as the rope is about to be cut, Jon is able to swing them both to safety.

Then we return to '''King's Landing''' where Loras and Sansa are sitting by a fountain, having a sort-of date. Loras is all awkwardness, but Sansa's overjoyed to be finally getting the hell out of King's Landing. Tyrion and Cersei watch them from a window, wondering which one of the four has it worst. The conversation turns to the attempt on Tyrion's life during the Battle of The Blackwater. Although Cersei doesn't outright say it, Tyrion realizes that Joffrey was behind it, partially because it was pretty stupid to openly kill him in front of the army, rather than use poison. Cersei tells him that Joffrey wouldn't try anything with Tywin around, leading Tyrion to muse that all the Seven Kingdoms are united in fear of his father. In Sansa's quarters, she and Shae are discussing wedding dresses until Tyrion shows up to be the bearer of bad news.

Elsewhere, Littlefinger is sitting near the Iron Throne, just admiring it. Varys shows up to begin one of their little snarkfests, mentioning how Petyr must be sad to marry his second choice. Littlefinger then turns around and, like, totally ''wins the argument'' by mentioning how it was him who foiled Varys' scheme with Sansa, and how Ros is doomed. The Spider disgustedly says that he's trying to stop the country from falling into the pit of chaos, but Littlefinger responds that chaos isn't a pit, ''it's a ladder''. He then gets off a nice monologue that you've heard if you watched all the trailers ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTg20x7w2s here!]]).

!!Tropes:

* AbnormalAmmo: Anguy asks Gendry to make bodkin-point arrows for them. "Penetrates plate at 200 yards."

** Also, the cut rope, the archery advice, and Tyrion delivering the bad news to Sansa were all added.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl (InvokedTrope): Ygritte knows Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch, but is hoping his love for her will overcome this. And if it doesn't, [[FieryRedhead she's going to cut his balls off]].
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Tywin gets tired of Olenna's firm resistance and triumphs her with Royal prerogatives; if she doesn't cave in Loras will be made a member of the celibate Kingsguard, meaning the Tyrell name will wither and fade, as Joffrey's sons would inherit instead.
* AnyoneCanDie: Ros.
* ArrangedMarriage: Edmure is given one with a Frey girl whom he has never met. He complains, but everyone forces him to agree to it.

* AsYouKnow: Tywin says to Olenna, "I'm sure you're familiar with the Kingsguard vows," and proceeds to list them, anyway.
* BeneathTheMask: Littlefinger, in his banter with Varys, finally starts to show his true colors as the terrifying sociopath we all knew he was.

** Arya practicing with a bow refers back to her establishing character moment in [[Recap/GameOfThronesS1E1WinterIsComing the first episode]]. She's skilled but in need of schooling, as she doesn't know the first thing about shooting in combat conditions.
*** This itself is called back to at the end of the episode when it is revealed Joffrey has shot Ros full of crossbow bolts in the same locations Arya shot the straw figure. Makes you wonder where he shot first.

* SituationalSexuality: Olenna refers to the "boys surrounded by boys" version of this, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny when she asks if Tywin ever dabbled]].

In '''Kings Landing''', Olenna Tyrell and Tywin Lannister haggle over whether Loras should marry Cersei. Because Olenna's a lovely lady and Tywin's a warm-hearted patriarch, comments implying Loras' homosexuality and Cersei's incest come out. Pointing out that neither of them of them wins if Joffrey isn't Robert's son, Tywin offers to put Loras in the Kingsguard. Olenna concedes, noting that it's so rare for a man to live up to his reputation.

Then we return to '''Kings Landing''' where Loras and Sansa are sitting by a fountain, having a sort-of date. Loras is all awkwardness, but Sansa's overjoyed to be finally getting the hell out of King's Landing. Tyrion and Cersei watch them from a window, wondering which one of the four has it worst. The conversation turns to the attempt on Tyrion's life during the Battle of The Blackwater. Although Cersei doesn't outright say it, Tyrion realizes that Joffrey was behind it, partially because it was pretty stupid to openly kill him in front of the army, rather than use poison. Cersei tells him that Joffrey wouldn't try anything with Tywin around, leading Tyrion to muse that all the Seven Kingdoms are united in fear of his father. In Sansa's quarters, she and Shae are discussing wedding dresses until Tyrion shows up to be the bearer of bad news.

* LastSecondWordSwap: After Jaime insists that Brienne accompany him to Kings Landing, Bolton warns him not to overplay his...position.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Sansa is in tears as she watches Littlefinger's ship sailing away; having already thrown away her chance to escape from Kings Landing, she's now trapped into her ArrangedMarriage to the Imp.

* RedShirtArmy: The Wildling's expedition to attack Castle Black consists of Tormund, Orell, Jon Snow, Ygritte, and twenty unnamed characters, eight of whom fall to their deaths while climbing the wall.

* ClimbingTheCliffsOfInsanity
* ClimbSlipHangClimb

* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Ygritte tells Jon Snow that she is with him until the end... but if he ever betrays her, she will chop off his cock and wear it on a necklace.
%%* CutTheSafetyRope

* BrickJoke: No one likes it when a Lannister pours them a cup of wine.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Subverted. Arya mentions she doesn't like Melisandre but Gendry brushes her off and Anguy indicates she's just jealous. A minute later Arya's suspicions are proved to justified as Melisandre takes Gendry prisoner and Arya's the only one who tries to save him.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Subverted. Arya mentions she doesn't like Melisandre and Gendry brushes her off while Auguy tells her it's because she's a girl - implying Arya is jealous of how attractive Melisandre is. A minute later they realize Arya's suspicion was justified as Melisandre takes Gendry prisoner and he's unable to fight back.

* PartyScattering: [[{{TrueCompanions}} Gendry and Arya]] who have been travelling together since Season 1 are separated when Melisandre buys him from the Brotherhood despite their fury. [[Note]] They were [[{{BreakingTheFellowship}} going to part ways]] when they reached Riverrun anyway, but now will probably never see each other again. [[/note]]

* PartyScattering: [[{{TrueCompanions}} Gendry and Arya]] who had been travelling together since Season 1 were [[{{BreakingTheFellowship}} going to part ways]] when they reached Riverrun but are forcibly separated when Melisandre buys him from the Brotherhood.

* YankTheDogsChain: