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‘Battle Of The Bastards’ Is The Most Feminist ‘Game Of Thrones’ Episode To Date

By Zakiya Jamal
Published on: 15:10 PST, Jun 20, 2016

Although Sunday night’s episode of Game of Thrones was titled, “Battle of the Bastards,” it was really the ladies that shined in this episode. Rather than dive right into the epic bastard showdown Game of Thrones fans have been waiting for all season, the episode begins by going back to Meereen. After Tyrion desperately tried to explain the current situation in Meereen to Daenerys, she explained that she already had a plan for how she was going to handle it.

“I will crucify the masters,” said Daenerys. “I will set their fleets afire. Kill every last one of their soldiers and return their cities to the dirt. That is my plan.”

Hearing Dany be so ruthless was a little terrifying but it was also awesome. What was even better was when she decided to listen to Tyrion’s advice about not doing anything crazy but she also still burned their ships to the ground. Men have constantly underestimated Dany, looking down on her for being a woman and also a foreigner. One of the masters did this again when he referred to Dany as a “beggar queen” and misunderstood Tyrion when he mentioned discussing terms of surrender. The fact that these men automatically assumed Daenerys would surrender to them was almost funny because that was never her plan, and she was just being courteous by talking to them at all.

After the Great Masters failed to surrender, Daenerys promptly hopped on Drogon and Dany led him into battle, along with her other two dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, burning the Masters’ ships as she said she would. Meanwhile, the Dothraki took out the Sons of the Harpy and Grey Worm slit the throats of two of the Masters to teach them a lesson.

Someone should probably let Yara and Theon’s uncle, Yuron, know that this is how Dany handles men her enemies. Yara and Theon went to Daenerys pleading their case for why she should back Yara’s claim to the Iron Islands instead of their uncle. Daenerys and Yara bonded over the fact that both of their fathers were terrible rulers and even flirted a bit, leading to the rise of a new ship.

Once Yara made it clear that Yuron doesn’t think a woman is fit to rule, Daenerys was fully on team Yara. Women friendships for the win. After agreeing to give the Iron Islands back to the Greyjoys, backing Yara’s claim, and Yara agreeing to stop pillaging towns and raping people, the two women made a deal. It is rare on Game of Thrones to see two women make a political alliance. Often this occurs between two men or typically for Dany, she has to negotiate with men who never see her as an equal. In this case, although Theon was there, it was obviously Yara that was making the deal with Daenerys and now that they’ve teamed up, they’ll take out Yuron, making Yara the first woman ruler of the Iron Islands. Talk about lady power!

Finally, probably the best leading lady of the night was Sansa Stark, now fondly known as the Queen of the North. Jon told Sansa she didn’t have to come when they went to meet Ramsey before the battle, but Sansa wanted to be there. She’s no longer afraid of Ramsey, she just wanted to see him pay. She then proceeded to give us her first mic drop of the night when she told Ramsey to sleep well because he’d be dying tomorrow.

Sansa warned Jon not to trust Ramsey and told him that she knows Ramsey better than anyone Jon was looking to for advice. Keeping the letter she wrote to Littlefinger to herself, she held the Knights of the Vale as a weapon close to her chest, only revealing it at the exact moment that they were needed. With the help of the Knights of the Vale, Jon beats Ramsey.

But that wasn’t the end of Sansa’s extraordinary night. She then had the pleasure of killing Ramsey with the same hounds he used to kill so many other people. Ramsey violated Sansa in so many ways. He raped her, hit her, and killed her brother. The trauma Sansa was put through by being married off to Ramsey was possibly the worst thing to happen to a character on Game of Thrones. Watching Sansa finally get her revenge was not only satisfying, but it also felt empowering. And her little smile as she walked away from Ramsey was the icing on the cake. Game of Thrones fans everywhere couldn’t be more proud.

Sansa, Daenerys, and Yara ruled this episode in every way. They were smart, cunning, ruthless, and most importantly they stood up for themselves and fought for what they wanted. Even the young Lady Lyanna wasn’t playing any games this week when she joined Jon for the meeting with Ramsey.

There are a lot of reasons why the “Battle of the Bastards” is being hailed as the greatest episode of Games of Thrones yet, and one big factor was the epic amount of girl power we all saw. And as Daenerys once said, “All men must die but we are not men.”

[Image via HBO]

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