As in the antebellum South, slavery wasn’t only the primary economic engine of Meereen, it was also the central organizing factor of its citizens’ daily life.

The Sons of the Harpy gave themselves that name, then, because they see themselves as upholding the ancient traditions of Meereen, which in this case mostly means slavery. It’s like if the Empire State Building had a giant apple on top, if apples were a symbol of everything that was wrong with America. (There’s a lot of them, so that would be one tired harpy.) The harpy is a traditional emblem in Ghiscari culture, and it figures prominently in the architecture of Slaver’s Bay we’ve seen large harpy statues in Astapor, Yunkai, and, until the Unsullied pulled it down in last night’s episode, atop the Great Pyramid of Meereen. Well, the first thing to know is that their title is metaphorical, not literal.

On the other hand, she’s ruling an unfamiliar culture, her dragons keep eating small children, half the city hates her guts - and oh yeah, in last night’s season premiere, we learned that an insurgent group named the Sons of the Harpy is killing all her soldiers just for the heck of it.īut wait: Who exactly are the Sons of the Harpy? As in every HBO show that’s not Entourage, the characters on Game of Thrones are faced with hard decisions, but so far, no character on the show has had a harder decision than Daenery’s Targaryen’s Clash-inspired debate over whether or not to leave Meereen.

Golden company vs unsullied