"I'm Not Tired!": A Breakdown of the Best Scene on Game of Thrones

Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist

In this era of “I’m so overwhelmed with all the new shows available to try, therefore, I’m going to watch “The Office” reruns again”, it is easy to re-watch a show you know is good versus trying a show that has a 70% chance of being bad. This is why I go into ‘Game of Thrones’ YouTube rabbit holes every few days.

To be clear, I’m not talking about House of the Dragon, which, while a show I think is quality, hasn’t enraptured my imagination the way Game of Thrones did for years.

While ‘Game of Thrones’ was known for its big battles and spectacular twists, I rarely go into YouTube deep dives into the battle episodes like “Hardhome”, “Battle of the Bastards”, etc. because, these aren’t the moments that really defined Game of Thrones for me.

Remember, the entire first season of Game of Thrones had zero battles, even to the point that a super important battle was executed entirely off screen due to a lack of budget!

No, ‘Game of Thrones’ was a special show because the best moments were its quietest moments: the conversations centering around palace intrigue, slippery alliances, and especially those scenes where the eyes do all of the talking.

When you bring up the best moments of Game of Thrones, ‘The Red Wedding’ is usually one of the first things to come up. While it was an all time twist, the brilliance of Game of Thrones wasn’t just what happened at the Red Wedding, but the aftermath.

That brings me to what I think is the best, most definitive scene of Game of Thrones, which occurred in Season 3, episode 10, “Mhysa”.

Game of Thrones was its most disruptive to the audiences expectations in moments after spectacular twists. Lesser shows let the villains who did the twisting revel in their villainy. Game of Thrones understood that their twists usually had ramifications for the antagonists (such as they are in this show) as well as the protagonists.

The specific scene I am of course referring to is the small council meeting where Tyrion finds out from King Joffrey that Robb and Catelyn Stark have been murdered by the Freys at the Red Wedding.

You expect this to be a scene where the Lannisters gloat about their trickery, but it turns out to be anything but that. It is pitch perfect in tone, writing, and voiceless acting. It is so pitch perfect that I am going to break it down, not quite second by second (we don’t have all day), but into specific mini segments of the scene.

It’s that good, so, let’s break it down from the top. You can watch the entire scene below, but I will have gifs of the key moments in the scene to spotlight, so you can follow along.

0.00-0.08: “Killed a Few Puppies Today?”

This is one of many classic Tyrion lines, and is a top 3 favorite Peter Dinklage line reading. His disdain for Joffrey is naked, and he doesn’t care. He also doesn’t know what’s coming, yet.

0.09-0.24: “Apologies my Lord, I’m old, and..”

We see the first of great acting with their eyes in Julian Glover, playing Grand Maester Pycelle, purposely dropping the scroll to make Tyrion get up and pick it up. Just smart, patient acting by Glover, revealing everything he wants with just the slightest movement of the eyeballs.

0.25-0.46: “Is this bad poetry, or is it supposed to mean something”

Joffrey’s giddy anticipation for his uncle Tyrion to read the Red Wedding scroll is everything the audience was dreading. Joffrey, the one character on the show you’re supposed to loathe, wins, yet again, and Joffrey was never one to be modest in victory. It’s even worse when you see Joffrey breathe in nervous excitement as if a 14 year old is about to tell his parents he made the varsity team as a freshman. (seriously, as we’ll get to later, Jack Gleeson was the best)

0.46-0.50: “Robb Stark is dead, and his bitch mother”

I L-O-V-E the subtlety here of Tyrion glancing at his father Tywin as Joffrey tells him the news. In the moment, without knowing what is coming, it could mean a couple things; either Tyrion wants to know if Tywin already knew, or Tyrion immediately knew Tywin had to be behind it, and he is shocked at Tywin’s audacity. All of that communicated, with a simple look to a character that is not even shown onscreen.

0.51-1.12: “It was a joke, he did not mean it. —Yes I did. I’m going Have it served to sansa at my wedding feast”

Our first look at the rest of the Lannister clan being utterly revolted by Joffrey’s sadistic attitude. Cersei, his own mother, stunned by his cavalier monstrousness, does not attempt to defend it in any capacity, like a lesser show might have. Sure, Joffrey is family, and all of them minus Tyrion will defend him to the death, but the red wedding further emboldened a monster to lick the tears of his defeated, and Cersei immediately understands the horror of that, all with her eyes.

1.13-1.25:”Everyone is mine to torment”

Pay attention to Tywin putting down his letter in this scene. Remember, up to this point, Tywin, the true boss of Westeros, hasn’t said a word, but this tiny little action indicates he’s had enough of Joffrey and is about to put him in his place, as we’ll see coming up.

1.26-1.44:”And Kings are dying like flies right now.”

This is my favorite directed stretch of the scene. While Tyrion makes his “monster speech”, the camera cuts away to every member of the small council for their reactions. Lets run through them:

Lord Varys: smirking, loving that Tyrion is standing up to Joffrey

Joffrey: absolutely aghast, like he’s watching a murder on network TV live.

Cersei: Importantly, NOT horrified at her brother talking to her son like this. she’s instead watching her son’s reaction, knowing that he needs pushback (or afraid of his reaction, maybe both), and waiting to see how he reacts (probably knowing how of course).

Pycelle: Looks from Tyrion to Tywin (not Joffrey), because of course, Tywin’s reaction is what really matters here.

Joffrey, also looking horrified in Tywin’s reaction, waiting for him to scold Tyrion, but Tywin, as we see at the very end, not moving a muscle, not saying a word, and not particularly looking displeased

Pay attention to who looks where in this scene. Pycelle and Joffrey look at Tywin. Cersei is looking at Joffrey. Varys is looking at Tyrion. Those looks are perfectly fitting their characters at this moment.

1.45-1.59: “Lord Tyrion should apologize immediately, unacceptable”

Leave it to Pycelle to attempt to broker a truce when Cersei and Tywin wouldn’t. Even Cersei doesn’t demand Tyrion apologize. When Pycelle, the ultimate Lannister boot licker, speaks up demanding an apology, Cersei makes this face, which is so well acted I’m still trying to 100% figure it out.

It’s so quick, you could blink and miss it, but its clearly part of Cersei’s story in this scene. She doesn’t want Pycelle, who she knows is an unprincipled sycophant, to attempt to back up her son? What does Cersei want? We know she hates Tyrion. Is she that revolted by her son who she knows is a monster but still loves unconditionally that she doesn’t want ANYONE speaking up to defend him? If so, WOW. And again, all with a simple look.

2.00-2.16: “Any man who has to say “I am the King” is no true king…I’ll make sure you understand that when I’ve won your war for you”

Tywin FINALLY speaks up 2 minutes into the scene, and, as is custom for Tywin, he makes it worth the wait with one of the best lines of the series, without really moving a single muscle in his body. Cool, calm, collected, lands a knockout punch, well at least until…

2.16-2.24: “My father won the real war, he killed Prince Rhaegar, he took the crown, while you hid under Casterly Rock!!”

Here comes my single favorite look of the entire scene: Tywin’s initial glare into Joffrey, with the ever so slightest of head cocks more towards Joffrey. No one talks to Tywin Lannister this way, no one except the most loathsome person in Westeros.

2.25-2.37: (Deafening Silence)

Once again, the director takes us around the small council for another round of looks. Joffrey yelled at his own grandfather and gave him the most disrespect any of them ever heard given to the most powerful man of Westeros. Let’s go around the table again (we’ll cover this in one long gif below):

Cersei: (guessing her thoughts) “Oh, you did not just go after your grandfather you rude brat”

Tyrion: “Well well well, lets see how father handles this one…”

Pycelle: Utterly horrified and scared

Varys: Utterly horrified and scared

Joffrey: “Ok I’m scared, but grandfather isn’t saying a word…it’s time to show that I’m a man, and the king, and he has to fear me.”

Again, all of this communicated, without a single word uttered. All of it completely in character. Its brilliant.

2.38-2.50: “The King is tired, see him to his chambers”

Tywin finds a way to flex his power without saying a single unflattering word. Pycelle responds to Tywin, not Joffrey, and Cersei wants nothing more than to diffuse this ticking time bomb. She attempts to shuttle off Joffrey without further incident, but not until Joffrey and Tywin get in their final glares into each other.

Even with a resounding victory thanks to the Red Wedding, no one on the winning side is left happy, because, as with every war, there are always still battles to fight, and still simmering issues to resolve.

2.51-3.10:”I’m Not…TIRED!!”

Joffrey tries to get the final word on Tywin, but fails, as no one is particularly listening or cares. Tywin’s face is brilliant. He’s no longer mad, he’s amused. He won, and he knows what Joffrey is trying to do is pathetic. Tywin demonstrates his power through calmness, Joffrey demonstrates what he think is power through anger. Anger shows weakness. Joffrey is weak. Tywin is not.

(Things you admire after the 100th viewing: I love how Joffrey raises his eyebrows right before the “I’m Not Tired” line)

The scene does continue with just Tywin and Tyrion, including another classic line ”Did you just send the king to his room without supper?”, and overall continues the greatness of the scene. I could dissect the rest of that scene with another 1,000 words, but ultimately, I will finish this like Tywin would, making the point with fewer words than more words.

The Red Wedding wasn’t why Game of Thrones was a great TV show. It was scenes like this that proved its greatness. Scenes that showed off the brilliant casting decisions behind the show, scenes that let the actors cook. Scenes where the directors knew the meaning of the scenes, and were patient enough to let the actors flesh it out without rushing through it like so many lesser shows we have seen.

Although I mostly like what I have seen from ‘House of the Dragon’, the thing that it is missing right now is scenes like the “I’m Not Tired” scene. We know we’re getting epic battle scenes next season, and it will be done epically, and most likely expertly. But, outside of the big three characters, we haven’t see the casting brilliance on display that we did with Game of Thrones; we haven’t seen interesting characters cook on screen.

There’s still time, so I’m not giving up. But even if I did, I would just go back and watch this scene over and over again, and rejoice that we had in our lives the brilliance on display of saying so much while saying so little.