This week's 'Game of Thrones' proves Tormund might actually be one of the smartest characters
He's cleverer than he looks
This week’s Game of Thrones was, somehow, really funny.
It was also one of the most stressful hour and nine minutes of my life. But funny. The first half at least.
The Hound realising how badly he’d fucked up when he threw that rock was equal parts hilarious and terrifying, and Thoros had some good lines, but it was Tormund who really stole the show.
His exchange with The Hound about Brienne was properly brilliant.
The Hound: “Brienne of Tarth?”
Tormund: “You know her?”
The Hound: “You’re with Brienne of fucking Tarth?”
Tormund: “Well, not with her yet, but I see the way she looks at me”
The Hound: “How does she look at you? Like she wants to carve you up and eat your liver?”
Tormund: “You do know her!”
However, Tormund isn’t just funny, he’s also surprisingly smart. While we’ve often seen him as being loveable, but a little bit dim, it turns out he actually has some wisdom hidden beneath the brilliant ginger beard – and people should probably listen to him more.
The first instance of this hidden wisdom comes when he’s speaking to Jon about Gendry. Tormund says he doesn’t think Robert Baratheon’s bastard is all that smart, and Jon tells him it’s OK, because he’s a good fighter. “Good,” Tormund replies. “smart people don’t come up here looking for the dead.”
Which, yeah, is true. Even though the plan somehow came off, the idea of sending roughly a dozen of people north to try and capture a wight was unbelievably stupid, and it’s crazy more people didn’t end up dead.
The next instance comes in that same chat with The Hound – Tormund literally sees right through him and sums him up in a few seconds. “I don’t think your truly mean,” the Wildling leader says, “you have sad eyes.”
He’s nailed it there, hasn’t he? That sums up The Hound perfectly. Tough exterior, swears all the time and acts like the constantly angry dude, but actually, deep down, he’s kinda soft, and a lot of his personality is rooted in sadness rather than anger.
And he wasn’t done there. Tormund also spoke to Jon about pride, and Jon’s refusal, at that point, to bend the knee to Daenerys. Tormund suggests that it might be best for everyone if Jon swallows his pride and accepts Dany as his queen. He recalls Mance Rayder, and how both he and many of his men would still be alive had Mance bent the knee to Stannis back in Season 5.
Jon obviously takes his friend’s advice on board, as at the end of the episode, he does just that. Well, he doesn’t literally do it, because he’s lying in bed feeling all kinds of crap, but he calls her his queen. It’s all quite emotional really, and definitely a scene that’ll go down a storm with Jon x Dany shippers – something I am slowly becoming, despite fully hating the idea just a few weeks ago.
So yeah, everyone needs to listen to Tormund more, basically. Hell, let’s put the man on the Iron Throne, I’d 100% bend the knee to that mad ginger twat.
(Images: HBO)
