Game of Thrones: Everyone is alone, everyone is surrounded in "The Wolf and The Lion"

I always say that titles don't matter, then I go on to demonstrate how they do, so I see no harm in doing so again: the definite articles in the title matter because this episode focuses on what it's like to be "the" Stark (wolf) or "the" Lannister (lion) in the room. And the roles keep reversing. In "Lord Snow," Jon Snow (wolf) stood alone in the middle of a circle, surrounded by people who wished him ill and observed by Tyrion Lannister (lion); in "The Wolf and the Lion," Tyrion stands in the center of a circle, surrounded by people who wish him ill and observed by Lady Stark (wolf):

The shots are not identical in scale, but they are nearly identical in composition: in both cases a significant character is nearly, but not quite, occupying the center the frame:

I don't want to harp on about explicitly literary tropes like "empty centers," so instead I'll just note that the reason the center is empty both in "Lord Snow" and this episode is partly because the top half of the frame occupies fifty percent of the shot and is (ostensibly) empty of people. The features of the landscape are dominating the characters, and with good reason: the Wall in "Lord Snow" and the Eastern Road here represent (or in this case pose) more of a threat to the characters than they do to each other. Even if, as is almost the case above, a character's head sat square in the crosshairs, he or she still wouldn't be a dominant element in the frame. The (very) long shot allows the viewer to understand that whatever threats or pleas these characters enjoin, those hills behind them don't care, nor do the people in them:

Granted, those hill people are running down the road, but I can't show you the hill people in the hills any better than I did (or didn't) above: they're a part of the landscape from which projectiles emanate more than they are people. Because it only appeared in the first frame above that Lady Stark and those beholden (however temporarily) to her surrounded Tyrion: in truth the circles were concentric, with the hill people surrounding Stark surrounding Tyrion, and when this becomes clear to all involved, these lonely wolves and lions call a kind of truce:

Tyrion stands alone, surrounded by hill people, as does:

Lady Stark. Both of the proud members of these noble houses are cowering, because both are surrounded now. Shifting to the medium close-up allows the audience to read the fear on their faces, and the fact that both of those eyeline matches look off-frame and, in fact, are unrequited by the next shot creates an addition sense of chaos. Because if the people in the middle of a scrum can't figure out what its focal point is, how is the audience supposed to? Perhaps if they worked together?

If she unties his hands, maybe the focal point will come into—

Excuse me, "Ser," Lady Stark and Tyrion are trying to have a momen—

No, that's worse, now all we can see is your a—

At least now we can see the important people again. Now as I was writing before my shot was so rudely obstructed, Lady Stark and Tyrion are the important people here, which is why when they come together—when they are no longer alone—the person who's actually the most significant in the person in the sequence dances through the foreground. Whatever momentary truce they come to in the midst of battle matters far less than Bronn playing the interrupting sellsword. The rest of the sequence (12:49 and ff.) substantiates my point, but this post is unwieldy as is and the visual emphasis on Bronn's talents is easily discernible to anyone who's read any of these posts. The previous scene occurs on the Eastern Road to the Vale, which Lady Stark and Tyrion eventually reach only to find themselves surrounded again:

Placing Lady Stark in the center of a circle (described off-frame by the Knights of the Vale) puts her in a position analogous to Jon and Tyrion's earlier, meaning that despite the context of the scene (that is her sister on that throne), because the directors have trained the audience to consider center-circle people imperiled, she doesn't seem altogether safe. Nor is she. The director of this episode, Brian Kirk, points out via his short selection that whatever bond she shared with Tyrion on the road to the Vale has been unforged:

She is as alone here as she was in "Winter Is Coming." The close-up and shallow focus emphasize her isolation, and a similarly scaled shot is used to reflect Tyrion's reactions to her sister's words:

In fact, the only people in this scene who aren't alone—who occupy the same frame at the same time—are her sister and her nephew:

Which strikes me as an unsubtle argument in favor of being alone. But Lady Stark is not the only lonely wolf, nor is Tyrion the only lonely lion. There are five more scenes in the episode I should discuss, but only one more that I must, which is at the end of the episode, and the reason I must is because it deliberately confounds my entire argument about center-circle people:

This shot is nearly identical in scale and composition to the first one I discussed, only this time the lonely Lannister isn't in jeopardy. He stands in the center of the circle threatening the periphery as opposed to being threatened by it. The suggestion from the earlier shot—that this is secretly a concentric circle—still holds simply because of the percentage of the frame occupied by Littlefinger's bordello, but all those spears seem to be pointing at it too. All of which is only to say that this shot interests me because it undermines my argument, i.e. because it surprises me. In an episode dominated by lonely and imperiled wolves and lions, this shot suggests that even though this series is teaching its audience how to watch it, viewers need to keep vigilant because the writers and directors are more than willing to confound the very expectations they created.

Comments

[mxyzptlk]

Okay, first I need to commend you and your Holmes-like observational powers. Picking up on the encircling -- and the encircling of the encircling -- is no easy task in such an action-packed episode.

But something else might be at play here: In your first GoT post, I posted a link to a image-pattern that appears in the first episode north of the wall (the Wilding bodies) and in the last episode in the desert across the sea (Drogo's funeral pyre). http://s12.postimage.org/y77g5q19p/Go_T_death_pattern.jpg

In the first image, there are a few heads on posts that create a larger circle around the circle of body parts that encircle another dismembered body (or two). In the second image, there's a fire circle around Drogo and another circle around that circle.

They're both the same encircling pattern you've recognized with the blocking in these scenes. This may be more than just a twice-repeating symbol, and something more like visual narrative architecture at work here.

[mxyzptlk]

And looking at those Stone Crows running down the hill makes me want to re-cut those running/fighting scenes to Yakety Sax.

I'll get right on that.

[SEK]

I love how you complimented on my attentiveness while pointing out something that I missed.

But I think you and I are onto something here. I'm not sure exactly what though -- I didn't just leave that last paragraph hanging for pedagogical reasons, I really don't know what to make about the creation of this set of expectations and then the confounding of them.

[BoogaBear]

I totally agree with what you are saying about the loneliness of Catelyn and Tyrion. They are always the ones singled out from the rest. I truly feel sorry for Tyrion. Even though he is a Lannister, he too tries to find friendship. But no one wants to be friends with a Lannister. Most of Tyrion's shots are by himself. Poor Tyrion. could no one want to be his friend because he is an imp? Jamie Lannister is way more of an A-whole than Tyrion, but he is never alone in a frame. I just feel that Tyrian is misunderstood because of his brother and sister's actions. These shots you showed us are very supportive in showing this.

[Dirty Dan]

Every circle that is formed seems to be centered around a character of power. Even if they seem to not have any power at all in the moment the conclusion of that scene ends with the empowerment or safety of said encircled character(s) despite the eminent harm that originally imposed. In the first shot Tyrian uses his power of knowledge and quick thinking to team up with who he needs to in order to remain alive, and when the hill people attack his power is shown physically with a weapon intended for defense, I'm guessing to emphasize the fact that Tyrian will not go down as long as he has his brain as a defense. In the second scene Lady Stark is the person in power despite the visual representation of her sister's "higher" power because Catelyn still uses her authority to protect what she believes in despite the weird corrupt power I felt as her sister and nephew threaten Tyrian. And in the third shot you describe I still believe the circle is meant to give power to whom is in its' center, which is the Lannister. Before this scene I always had the assumption that he was weak and of little power, but this scene proves his power but at the same time undermines it by allowing a tie between their battle. Also the fact that Ned is in the brim of the circle should mean he has little power over it's center, but the fact that he is such a bada$$ he doesn't need that limelight to prove his power. The circle which you left out being the one where Ned refuses to agree on an attack on the Dothrakians, empowers Ned by showing that his thoughts are more clear than kings' deeming him more fit to rule but to humble to admit. From that sense of power we can predict that the king will eventually end up needing Ned to overcome a greater power.

[mxyzptlk]

Ha! I hope I didn't come off like a jerk -- that wasn't my intention. I was genuinely impressed with the blocking discovery, and that reminded me of two frozen/burning circles.

Dirty Dan's idea that whoever's in the circle ends up prevailing over their current circumstances brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back those frozen/burning circles again (and by 'us' I mean 'me'): In one, it's the Wildings/people of the north in the circle, and the Starks count themselves among them (they still worship the old gods, etc.). In the other, it's a Dothraki and his Targaryen mail-order bride.

For fear of spoiling anyone's day/experience of the books, I won't get into the implications. Suffice to say there's some later dream symbolism that hits on this frozen/burning imagery as well (I think A Dance With Dragons), and much of it comes down to the real baby mama of Jon Snow.

Granted, if that's all accurate, it would mean that Martin may have dropped some hints to Benioff and Weiss in order to work in some useful information in the first season.

(Still working on the GoT Yakity Sax remix.)