Game of Thrones Season 8, we can finally stop waiting on GURM

[Kara]

Like, they spent the last two episodes clearly demonstrating that all enemies of the queen are to be summarily executed... and then someone KILLS their queen and he's all like "Woah Woah guys take this man to jail. we must observe due process!"

Power dynamics influence the calculus behind morally questionable actions, who knew?

[agrajag]

Seinfeld has a worse ending than this.

Seinfeld didn't even need an "ending." It was an episodic sit com. It could just abruptly stop and still be great.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Like, they spent the last two episodes clearly demonstrating that all enemies of the queen are to be summarily executed... and then someone KILLS their queen and he's all like "Woah Woah guys take this man to jail. we must observe due process!"

Power dynamics influence the calculus behind morally questionable actions, who knew?

Hard to imagine a 180 degree pivot from mass murder to deep respect for the rule of law in the immediate moment of their figure heads death, but ok.

[Tasty]

As a northeasterner/New Englander who's always sympathized with the North and the Starks because of it, I've fully come around to supporting the finale on the basis of the North's independence and Sansa's crowning alone.

[Kara]

Like, they spent the last two episodes clearly demonstrating that all enemies of the queen are to be summarily executed... and then someone KILLS their queen and he's all like "Woah Woah guys take this man to jail. we must observe due process!"

Power dynamics influence the calculus behind morally questionable actions, who knew?

Hard to imagine a 180 degree pivot from mass murder to deep respect for the rule of law in the immediate moment of their figure heads death, but ok.

Hard to imagine that they'd leap at the chance to start a fight with their erstwhile allies while garrisoned amongst them, especially without their combat air support.

[Himu]

My only true disappointment is that fat fuck and his dumb inbred wife weren’t horribly and brutally mutilated on screen.

Who?

[agrajag]

that's not hard to imagine at all

[BisMarckie]

As a northeasterner/New Englander who's always sympathized with the North and the Starks because of it, I've fully come around to supporting the finale on the basis of the North's independence and Sansa's crowning alone.

Nothing says free and wild north quite like New England. 

[Kara]

My only true disappointment is that fat fuck and his dumb inbred wife weren’t horribly and brutally mutilated on screen.

Who?

Sam

[Himu]

that's not hard to imagine at all

Oh, Sam. Yeah.

He’s a maester at the capital while Gilly his kids are at his land right? So he’s given up his title as lord?

[Joe Molotov]

the politics in mah dragon show aren't believable!

[BisMarckie]

the politics in mah dragon show aren't believable!

Just like Star Wars, that‘s what a prequel is for.

An entire episode with the elected king fighting with his prince-electors about the minutiae of an election agreement.

[Tasty]

No lie I wonder if the burning of KL is either at: the end of WoW, the start of ADoS, or the middle of ADoS. Because I don't see GRRM dropping something huge like that and then *not* spending a bunch of chapters cleaning it up.

Which means the pieces will be in the same places (maybe, who knows), but how they get there should make a lot more sense.

If the books ever come out.

[Mr Gilhaney]

sounds like you nerds got rekt, judging from my twitter feed

[Kara]

As a northeasterner/New Englander who's always sympathized with the North and the Starks because of it, I've fully come around to supporting the finale on the basis of the North's independence and Sansa's crowning alone.

Nothing says free and wild north quite like New England. 

[BisMarckie]

The North having the same family on the Iron throne and in Winterfell is actually a ploy by the Starks to reunite the seven kingdoms under their flag.

I have read a book abut the middle ages once, AMA.

[BisMarckie]

As a northeasterner/New Englander who's always sympathized with the North and the Starks because of it, I've fully come around to supporting the finale on the basis of the North's independence and Sansa's crowning alone.

Nothing says free and wild north quite like New England. 

(Image removed from quote.)

That image is inaccurate, everything should be Serbia.

[Kara]

(Image removed from quote.)

That image is inaccurate, everything should be Serbia.

Sunspearja do Crna Tvrđava, al' preko Qarthja.

[thisismyusername]

OK my collected thoughts:

- I got a laugh out of how they basically had Daeny repeat all of the things she'd said over 7 seasons that were clear warnings that she was willing to go scorched earth.   I know the episode was created and edited ages ago but it was almost like a direct response to the last ep backlash lol
- I loved all of the imagery of crazy Daeny.. shit was just creepy as hell, the dragon behind her with the wings and all that.   
- People are whining about Jon being allowed to have a sword when visiting Daeny but him giving it up when he visits Tyrion but ehh... they made a point to show that Drogon was guarding Daeny not the Unsullied, and he let him pass. 
- Drogon melting the iron throne was kind of corny but also made for a cool scene;  I guess he kind of agreed with Jon then?
-  The very end was kind of messy... I agree John not being executed is kind of far fetched, and really so is Tyrion being left alive but whatever..
-  The scene where they pick Bran was corny as hell but I got a bit of a kick out of it.. very Lord of the Rings-y or something.
- I dug the very very end showing the path all of the Starks are taking.

That's about it;  I enjoyed it.. found it slightly boring.. but that probably had something to do with shitbird shosta spoiling the ending for me a few hours before I watched it.

...I thought you were leaving...?

[Tasty]

As a northeasterner/New Englander who's always sympathized with the North and the Starks because of it, I've fully come around to supporting the finale on the basis of the North's independence and Sansa's crowning alone.

Nothing says free and wild north quite like New England. 

(Image removed from quote.)

Serbia (?)

[Kara]

[agrajag]

lol you didn't find all the fascist-y Dany imagery a bit on the nose?

Also, I may hate myself enough to rewatch it, but it felt like Tyrion was recapping all the fan criticisms in his speech about how he believed in Dany. 

[Tasty]

"Whoever has the best story should be on the Iron Throne."

Literally half the characters: "Uhhh"

Arya: "UHHHHH"

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jon Snow: (in the dungeon): "UHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

[close]

[Himu]

"Whoever has the best story should be on the Iron Throne."

Literally half the characters: "Uhhh"

Arya: "UHHHHH"

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jon Snow: (in the dungeon): "UHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

[close]

That was indeed a poor reasoning.

[Himu]

lol you didn't find all the fascist-y Dany imagery a bit on the nose?

Also, I may hate myself enough to rewatch it, but it felt like Tyrion was recapping all the fan criticisms in his speech about how he believed in Dany. 

The dragon shot where it looks like she has wings was perfect though. So don't knock the imagery.

[agrajag]

I'm gonna knock it as much as I want

[agrajag]

it looked cool, but once again I can't help but think of Anakin Skywalker with the sudden dark theme

[Himu]

Sansa had the best arc and the Starks won the game of thrones.

[Kara]

Also, I may hate myself enough to rewatch it, but it felt like Tyrion was recapping all the fan criticisms in his speech about how he believed in Dany. 

Yeah it definitely felt like a forums fight.

[Himu]

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bqqcw9/spoilers_main_jon_snow_is_azor_ahai_and_the/

[agrajag]

I appreciate the amount of lulz season 8 has given us

[Tasty]

I can't get over the "best story" thing right now. I know it was probably an intentional swerve to maybe imply Tyrion was still setting up Jon, but I mean... is *nobody* in that assembly going to mention the guy who came back from the dead and was a secret Targaryen the whole time, whose origins triggered Robert's Rebellion and had to be kept secret for twenty years... Nobody's going to bring any of that up? No?

Cause that's a great novel all on its own. Bran's story on its own would end up in the Young Adult section.

Instead it's Bran (who, to be fair, is one of my favorite characters and has been from the start) who went North of the wall, got memories from a tree dude, and then did literally nothing else the entire season except give updates on the White Walker's location... then come the big battle the most he does it get bitchslapped out of raven-warging by the NK and then sit around some more.

[Tasty]

I read Tyrion's framing of that specific line as they need a ruler whose story is so good it unites the 7 (well 6) kingdoms.

He later brings up the three-eyed raven stuff to back up Bran's ability to rule, but not why people should unite behind him.

[agrajag]

I would like to hear the Era "time travel is like slavery" guy's musings on Bran.

 

[Himu]

The fact they don't even bring up Jon was what was odd. But at that point, there was no way he would be king. Not with the Unsullied or Dothraki. That would spark another war and they're tired of killing. "Your thousands against my thousand. We all know where it ends."

This season needed four more episodes.

- Another episode for the build up to Long Night.
- Another episode for building up Dany's heel turn
- Split the finale in half. The first thirty or so minutes of the finale are perfect. But the devastation of KL isn't long lasting because it cuts to the future. You don't see any of the survivors. You don't see Jon mull over his decision to finally kill Dany. It feels so fast. And then despite being one of the biggest moments in this show so far, the destruction of KL feels utterly glossed over and forgotten by episode end. Have one episode for the aftermath and devastation and another for a proper epilogue.

But nah. Gotta work on Star War. Fuck D&D.

[jorma]

I can't get over the "best story" thing right now. I know it was probably an intentional swerve to maybe imply Tyrion was still setting up Jon, but I mean... is *nobody* in that assembly going to mention the guy who came back from the dead and was a secret Targaryen the whole time, whose origins triggered Robert's Rebellion and had to be kept secret for twenty years... Nobody's going to bring any of that up? No?

Cause that's a great novel all on its own. Bran's story on its own would end up in the Young Adult section.

Instead it's Bran (who, to be fair, is one of my favorite characters and has been from the start) who went North of the wall, got memories from a tree dude, and then did literally nothing else the entire season except give updates on the White Walker's location... then come the big battle the most he does it get bitchslapped out of raven-warging by the NK and then sit around some more.

because naming jon king also means war with the unsullied.
also, he was a queenslayer which we know from jamies storyarc is kind of a big deal in westeros

Since Jon disqualified himself by killing Dany and there were no other strong rulers everyone could abide, they needed a weak one. Makes sense to me.

[agrajag]

Tasty is spot on. The entire time of the White Council, I was waiting for someone to bring up Jon's lineage. At least bring it up. Nope. Nothin'

[Tasty]

I can't get over the "best story" thing right now. I know it was probably an intentional swerve to maybe imply Tyrion was still setting up Jon, but I mean... is *nobody* in that assembly going to mention the guy who came back from the dead and was a secret Targaryen the whole time, whose origins triggered Robert's Rebellion and had to be kept secret for twenty years... Nobody's going to bring any of that up? No?

Cause that's a great novel all on its own. Bran's story on its own would end up in the Young Adult section.

Instead it's Bran (who, to be fair, is one of my favorite characters and has been from the start) who went North of the wall, got memories from a tree dude, and then did literally nothing else the entire season except give updates on the White Walker's location... then come the big battle the most he does it get bitchslapped out of raven-warging by the NK and then sit around some more.

because naming jon king also means war with the unsullied.
also, he was a queenslayer which we know from jamies storyarc is kind of a big deal in westeros

Since Jon disqualified himself by killing Dany and there were no other strong rulers everyone could abide, they needed a weak one. Makes sense to me.

I know why they *couldn't* do it, but it may be poor dialogue writing to have Tyrion explain his reasoning in such a way.

I see some people raking D&D over the coals for the directing this ep, apparently it was one of their directing debuts (almost certainly to "train" for Star Wars), and yeah... there were some great shots, and the KL scenes were so full of dread and tension, but almost all the dialogue parts felt comically stale... Will need to rewatch to give an honest opinion though, and that's not happening for a bit probably.

[Himu]

“I cried,” Clarke says. “And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

    ”I have my own feelings [about the storyline] and it’s peppered with my feelings about myself,” she admits. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read [comments about] the character you [have to remind yourself], ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character.”

    “You go on set and play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality,” she wrote. Clarke has drawn strength from Daenerys and infused Daenerys with her strength.

    “I genuinely did this, and it’s embarrassing and I’m going to admit it to you,” Clarke says. “I called my mom and—“ Clarke shifts into a tearful voice to perform the conversation as she reenacts the call: “I read the scripts and I don’t want to tell you what happens but can you just talk me off this ledge? It really messed me up.’ And then I asked my mom and brother really weird questions. They were like: ‘What are you asking us this for? What do you mean do I think Daenerys is a good person? Why are you asking us that question? Why do you care what people think of Daenerys? Are you okay?’” “And I’m all: ‘I’m fine! … But is there anything Daenerys could do that would make you hate her?’”

    “Your character makes a choice and you need to be right with that. An actor should never be afraid to look ugly. We have uglier sides to ourselves. And after 10 years of working on this show, it’s logical. Where else can she go? I tried to think what the ending will be. It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

    “I thought she was going to die,” she continues. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”

POOR EMILIA

we have to give it up for the actors and actresses who went through all of this

[Himu]

Apparently Emilia didn't know about Daenerys' turn until this season. How is that even remotely possible? How do you not tell her like two seasons ago her characters trajectory so you can plan it all out?

[agrajag]

Apparently Emilia didn't know about Daenerys' turn until this season. How is that even remotely possible? How do you not tell her like two seasons ago her characters trajectory so you can plan it all out?

wow, she hasn't been looking at the clues, she didn't pay attention what a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow

[Himu]

D&D MADE EMILIA CLARK CRY

[brawndolicious]

Tasty is spot on. The entire time of the White Council, I was waiting for someone to bring up Jon's lineage. At least bring it up. Nope. Nothin'

That may be the reason why Jon is still alive, killing him would trigger another conflict and the Dothraki and Unsullied aren't ready to fight again. King's Landing doesn't exactly have walls or supplies left anymore.

I think that everyone on Tyrion's side knew going with another Targaryen would be unpopular after King's Landing got burned down, it tainted the name quite a bit. And everyone else on Grey Worm's side just hated Jon too much.

I agree that this season could have had a few more (boring) think-tank episodes to explain every single thing but I don't feel it was necessary.

[team filler]

The creator and head writer of Game Of Thrones, David Benioff’s father is: Stephen Friedman. According to Wikipedia:

“From December 2002 to December 2004 Friedman was United States Assistant to President George W. Bush for Economic Policy as well as the director of the National Economic Council.[14] On October 27, 2005 Friedman was asked to replace Brent Scowcroft as the Chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.[15]

“Friedman was the Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Board, a body which implements the Wall Street policies of the Federal Reserve, during a period of immense financial market upheaval, from January 2008 until May 7, 2009.[16] When Goldman Sachs was converted to a bank holding company in September 2008 the bank then came under the regulatory authority of the New York Fed, which made Friedman’s position as a member of Goldman Sachs’ board a violation of Federal Reserve policy. At the time of the conversion Friedman requested a waiver from this violation, which was granted about 10 weeks later.[17].”

I was repulsed by the program from the start, and, even before I happened upon the facts above, I would ask fans of the show: How is it possible to fail to notice or ignore the themes of GOTs, as is the case with almost all content manufactured by Hollywood, reek of privilege and is reactionary at its core? Withal, the creators of program’s privilegecratic (self-serving) conceit: The world’s (as they limn it) cold, hard, and unforgiving landscape must be mirrored in the psychical landscapes of the ruling elite — who grasp, humanity is hideous and base, and they, the elites, must protect the lower castes, even by ruthless means and “noble lies?”

In short, the highly insular and privileged world and attendant Weltanschauung of neoliberal/neocon ideology of which David Benioff was born into. Worse, why does it not rankle that Benioff et. al. lack the intellectual curiosity to explore beyond its insular precincts and the creative chops to limn — if not art — at least, compelling entertainment?

[agrajag]

[team filler]

[agrajag]

at least it wasn't milton friedman

[agrajag]

or thomas friedman

[Himu]

i'm more hyped for winds of winter more than ever man. I thought I was free but I will remain forever cursed as an ASOIAF fangirl.

[agrajag]

(Image removed from quote.)

[Tasty]

D&D MADE EMILIA CLARK CRY

The shittiest Sarah Connor ever? I'm not too torn up about that..

[agrajag]

HOW DO THEY HAVE LORD ROBIN, SANSA AND TYRION IN THE SAME ROOM WITHOUT SOME ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE CRAZY SHIT THAT WENT DOWN BETWEEN THOSE THREE

 

[daemon]

“I cried,” Clarke says. “And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

    ”I have my own feelings [about the storyline] and it’s peppered with my feelings about myself,” she admits. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read [comments about] the character you [have to remind yourself], ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character.”

    “You go on set and play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality,” she wrote. Clarke has drawn strength from Daenerys and infused Daenerys with her strength.

    “I genuinely did this, and it’s embarrassing and I’m going to admit it to you,” Clarke says. “I called my mom and—“ Clarke shifts into a tearful voice to perform the conversation as she reenacts the call: “I read the scripts and I don’t want to tell you what happens but can you just talk me off this ledge? It really messed me up.’ And then I asked my mom and brother really weird questions. They were like: ‘What are you asking us this for? What do you mean do I think Daenerys is a good person? Why are you asking us that question? Why do you care what people think of Daenerys? Are you okay?’” “And I’m all: ‘I’m fine! … But is there anything Daenerys could do that would make you hate her?’”

    “Your character makes a choice and you need to be right with that. An actor should never be afraid to look ugly. We have uglier sides to ourselves. And after 10 years of working on this show, it’s logical. Where else can she go? I tried to think what the ending will be. It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

    “I thought she was going to die,” she continues. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”

POOR EMILIA

we have to give it up for the actors and actresses who went through all of this

if this was what she went for:

"there’s the little girl you met in season 1"

She surely managed to do it. The disbelief and sadness when she realizes what Jon did was well portrayed. You could see why she just felt like "why?"

[Kara]

Sansa had the best arc and the Starks won the game of thrones.

In the sense that their house wasn't extinguished, sure, but:

1. Jon is exiled to (to continue the Serbia metaphor) die Militärgrenze and our last image of him is leading the unwanted masses back into the wilderness. #Moshe
2. Arya's PTSD is so bad that she abandons two siblings who could use her skills to solidify their respective (uncertain) bases of power to go Magellan.
3. In a best case scenario Bran will be a Leto Atreides II figure whose concerns increasingly drift into the etheric and ethereal while his court’s ambitions remain mortal and mundane. In a more likely scenario he will oversee a polity that isn't economically viable (the Rock, Stormlands, and Iron Islands are explicitly nonviable at the end of the show and the crown had public finance issues even before it was riven by a series of existential and internecine conflicts) that is constantly beset by intrigue and overly ambitious fief holders.
4. Sansa fulfilled her brother's ambition of an independent north but she did so in the immediate aftermath of a series of existential and internecine conflicts that acutely affected her lands which as it happens aren't exactly The Reach. In a best case scenario her reign will be something akin to the last Tudor monarch (to continue the War of the Roses metaphor this dumb show was built upon) and in a worst case scenario one of her dumb fail relatives will usurp her because despite all their protestations of moral rectitude the denizens of the north are just as perfidious as everyone else. (To say nothing of having a long-term cold war with the Six Kingdoms.)

[Himu]

Rating arcs:

Sansa starts the story obsessed with being potentially queen. She’s naive and smitten by the most impermanent of superficialities such as pretty dresses, princes, and balls. Over time, her father’s head is lopped off, she’s abused emotionally and physically. She ends the story unbroken and the queen she always wanted to be but the road taken to get there was paved with heartache and pain. The Stark that was the least Stark becomes arguably biggest and most influential.

Arya is...what exactly? An adventurer? Since when has she ever posed any interest in sailing west of Westeros? Like, okay. Not as good as Sansa’s.

Bran...I won’t even approach it.

Jon, as a man who gives up his family, his love, his claim, and more for his own freedom. I guess you could say works but within the context of the show is flawed.

Tyrion. Um. I guess you could say he’s responsible for his father, brother, sister, nieces, and mothers deaths. Like Bran says he’ll spend his whole life fixing his mistakes.

There’s a lot of dead weight here in the aftermath. Sansa clearly has the cleanest arc.

[Himu]

Sansa had the best arc and the Starks won the game of thrones.

In the sense that their house wasn't extinguished, sure, but:

1. Jon is exiled to (to continue the Serbia metaphor) die Militärgrenze and our last image of him is leading the unwanted masses back into the wilderness. #Moshe
2. Arya's PTSD is so bad that she abandons two siblings who could use her skills to solidify their respective (uncertain) bases of power to go Magellan.
3. In a best case scenario Bran will be a Leto Atreides II figure whose concerns increasingly drift into the etheric and ethereal while his court’s ambitions remain mortal and mundane. In a more likely scenario he will oversee a polity that isn't economically viable (the Rock, Stormlands, and Iron Islands are explicitly nonviable at the end of the show and the crown had public finance issues even before it was riven by a series of existential and internecine conflicts) that is constantly beset by intrigue and overly ambitious fief holders.
4. Sansa fulfilled her brother's ambition of an independent north but she did so in the immediate aftermath of a series of existential and internecine conflicts that acutely affected her lands which as it happens aren't exactly The Reach. In a best case scenario her reign will be something akin to the last Tudor monarch (to continue the War of the Roses metaphor this dumb show was built upon) and in a worst case scenario one of her dumb fail relatives will usurp her because despite all their protestations of moral rectitude the denizens of the north are just as perfidious as everyone else. (To say nothing of having a long-term cold war with the Six Kingdoms.)

They clearly won the game as far as you could win it. They rule the six kingdoms and rule another kingdom to the north of that. Jon is basically king of the freefolk. Arya will take the Stark sails abroad. Stark’s came out ahead of every single family in the realm. The Lannister’s are down to one lord heir and it’s a dwarf, which is genetic. Riverlands is a ticking time bomb now that the North, which it supported during the war of the five kings, has declared independence. The Vale is ruled by Robin Arryn. Sam is a maester. Bronn is lord of the Reach. Every single family either has downgrades, were nuked, cut down to one heir, or something else.

The Stark’s didn’t come out cleanly but they definitely got out of it far better than anyone else. They won.

[Tasty]

Starks for sure played the long game while everyone else was only looking for immediate vengeance or results.

Leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe.

The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

The North remembers.

[agrajag]

lol Starks didn't do shit. They just kept falling upwards through a series of increasingly unlikely circumstances.

[shosta]

If the nobles get together and elect a king after the old one dies then really the king has been made into a figurehead monarch, while the six noble houses plot and scheme to distribute wealth and power amongst themselves. It makes sense that Bran is king in that capacity. Not sure why Sansa would want to be independent, then - she loses her vote as a noble and the real power she has by having a large standing army relative to the other holds. The Iron Fleet is completely destroyed, right? And House Frey has no heirs, leaving Riverrun unoccupied? So, really, Queen Sansa can extend her sphere of influence all the way from Winterfell to Casterly Rock after she forces Tyrion to give it to her, which she can do because he has no soft or hard power available to him. And if Tyrion wants to defend it then he's going to have to ask Bronn of Highgarden (this still makes me lol), who would just take it for himself or at least a large portion in exchange, so there's no situation here where Tyrion doesn't lose most if not all of his title.

I guess what I'm saying here is that, aside from the nonexistent character development which you can just imagine if you close your eyes, there are huge power vacuums and new dynamics that deserve even just the slightest elaboration.

[Himu]

Speaking of power vacuums, is there a single lord in either realm that is on par with Sansa for her hand in marriage? You could say Bronn or fucking Gendry but it seems to me that Sansa would be marrying beneath her station.