‘Second Sons’ is the eighth episode of the third season of HBO’s fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 28th episode of the series.
An obvious mistake of the series was to change some actors, although the actors who originally played a role hadn’t died. In this episode we see the actor who originally played the role of Daario Naharis. Then, in another season, they inexplicably changed him: something that confuses the viewer. And they did the same with other important actors, including the actor who interpreted Gregor Clegane, nicknamed ‘The Mountain’, and even the Three-Eyed Raven himself, originally played by British actor Struan Rodger. The confusion was great with Gregor Clegane and Daario Naharis.
In this episode the witch Melisandre prepares to sacrifice the bastard son of King Robert to ask her god for a favour. As I have written about ritual human sacrifice, it makes me nervous to see fiction where magic is presented as real and where human sacrifices aren’t done in vain. In the real world, of course, magic has no power except the power of suggestion which only affects the credulous.
The last article I published on the subject is a recent newspaper article about human sacrifices carried out in the American continent—3,600 years ago! The Indians who conquered the continent before the arrival of the white man sacrificed their own from time immemorial until the last of the Mesoamerican civilisations, the Aztec civilisation, when the Europeans arrived.
But fiction places us in a fabulous world where, unlike the real world, human sacrifice pays off. In Stannis’ dialogue with Melisandre it’s implied that this is not the first time that she has performed a sacrifice. The witch then seduces Gendry, King Robert’s bastard, who actually looks like a lamb being taken to the slaughterhouse, leading him to the bed that appears below.
As is typical in this series, the woman mounts the man in the sexual act, although what Melisandre wants is to suck a little of his blood with leeches to do witchcraft with royal blood. But there is another scene in this episode where a man literally kneels before a woman. Daario becomes Dany’s third watchdog, swearing loyalty to her. The tough assassin Daario lasts a good few seconds kneeling before the woman with the appropriate music.
Then Tyrion, the day after his wedding night with poor Sansa, continues to let himself be treated badly by Shae instead of, now that he is already married, keep her at bay.