Game of Thrones Recap: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken

Season: 5 / Episode: 6 / HBO Audre Lorde watches the opening of Game of Thrones… What people fail to realize about Arya is that scrubbing clean the 14th dead man of the day is not an act of service or submission to the house of Black and White, but it is actually an affirmation that she stands on the right side of cruelty, and therefore the right side of what keeps the world moving. She has taken these moments, the water, the sponge, a fear of drowning she no longer possesses, and placed them on the not yet decaying skin of another man she has outlived. If one cannot see the power in scrubbing clean something they fought like hell not to be (in this case, dead), then they will forever be surprised when their black and feudal clothing have been dampened by their own blood and Arya is there to scrub away their last committed sins. ‘Bobcut’ challenges Arya, but she knows the truth, ironically, while trying to teach Arya how to lie. She may be well conditioned or institutionalized or tenderized more than Arya but she knows that Arya is “deliberate and afraid of nothing.” How frightening this must be. How tragic and planet splitting it must be to learn that someone you consider beneath you has figured out the answers to questions you are afraid to ask. The game, is just that, a game. It is a pretty tablecloth over a dead boar. Arya is the one who won’t pretend she can’t smell the rot while the other dine until bursting. It is not till later that Arya learns the real “game”, the…