The Golden Company

ISSUE #54

The way the show has been playing out this final season, The Golden Company won't be anything more than a deus ex army for Cersei, a counter-balance to make sure there's a battle and not a surrender, so the plot lasts one more episode and everyone can finally be done with this. Shame! In the wild case they actually use the in-text history Martin built, however, here's a primer: The Golden Company are an army of sellswords that were founded by the great bastard (my old nickname) of the lecherous King Aegon IV. That bastard was Aegor Rivers, and when his father died, he tried to claim the throne himself. He was thwarted by none other than his half-brother Brynden Rivers, who later became the Three-Eyed Raven. Lots of rich lore to mine here. Too bad the showrunners are only interested in bailing as fast as they can.

Aegor Rivers, or "Bittersteel" (my razor's old nickname), was then forced to sail across the Narrow Sea to avoid execution as a traitor. In his exile he formed The Golden Company, biding his time and vowing to earn enough coin someday to sail home again. The Company became a haven for exiled nobles, and soon established a reputation as the most honorable band of mercenaries in the known world. Which is big because when the going gets tough, mercenaries tend to bail as fast as they can (familiar?).

Fast-forward about a century, and mostly everybody's forgotten about how The Golden Company is actually founded by a bunch of exiled Dragons desperate to get back to their homeland. Everyone except the Three-Eyed Raven, of course. Was Brynden Rivers conspiring to keep them out? Is Bran's purpose to sabotage the whole Company? Will they honor their Targaryen blood and try to bring Daenarys to the throne? Doubtful. Everyone on the show just wants bail as fast as they can.

The showrunners here, to bring it home, have been a bit like mercenaries, pillaging and plumbing a story for gold and then bailing as soon as the tide turns. To be fair, they were trying to adapt a piece, not finish it outright, so that's tough. I once tried to finish an ex-girlfriend's essay when she was stuck at the airport and it was such a headache I just fell asleep. I paid for it then, and we're all paying for it this season.

I, too, would love to sail across the sea for years and not come back until this country is ready to be rebuilt. I find that very relatable. For this, I included a lot of bands from across the pond, and the requisite dragon songs too, so that we don't forget about The Golden Company, the real Golden Company, which at least will still stand in the books, regardless of how things end up two weeks from now in the series finale.