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Archive for A Dance with Dragons

Game of Thrones – Episode 52

May02

20160226073939!GoT_season_6_official_posterShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 52 – May 1, 2016

Title: Home

Summary: Jon Snow is mostly dead

ANY CHARACTER HERE

NOTE: SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING. This review/discussion contains tons of spoilers about the episode and even ones crossing over from the books. It’s really my free-for-all musing given all the information at my disposal.

Plot threads are unraveled and discussed one by one.

Bran – sleeps under the Green Man / 3 eyed raven’s tree, both white eyed. We then flashback / raven dream to the Winterfell courtyard and the much anticipated “young Ned” sequences. Seems Bran and the raven can ghost in on these memory visions. Ned and Brandon and Benjen are sparring, and Lyanna Stark rides in. I always thought of her as a younger sister, but here she is a few years older than Ned. Hard to tell which one Ned is too, I had always assumed Benjen was the youngest, and Brandon was obviously older. Hodor is there too, as a giant boy named Willas who actually talks, and Old Nan isn’t quite so old. Wonder how he got “Hodorized”?

Bran is then yanked out of his vision by the crow, and like a drug addict is kinda pissed. A child of the forest is hanging out but Hodor carries Bran outside to find Meera taking in the icy scenery. She’s clearly bored with this whole vision quest, but Bran tells her war is coming (not winter, that’s already here in Iceland?) and the child of the forest warns her that he will need her when he leaves this place. Clearly from the dialog Bran has been spending beaucoup time holed up in the cave.

But did we mention how much older he looks? Season 4 Bran was already rocking the pubs but now he’s barely recognizable. Plus he got a haircut at the the raven tree salon. Meera looks older too, and so do a number of cast members.

Lyanna Stark!

Lyanna Stark!

Cersei Jaime – Some tavern in King’s Landing where some idiot is talking shit about Cersei. Did this guy just arrive from across the Narrow Sea yesterday? Miss out on what happens to people who mock the Lannisters? Like that tongueless bard! Sure enough, later he’s taking a leak in a deserted alley when Franken-Gregor, alerted by his anti-Cersei evil magic senses, bashes his head in. Almost comic relief in the casual way he uses his physical power.

Cersei is in her room, which seems like her full time job lately, when Franken-Gregor returns, bloody gauntlet and all (nice touch). They head out to Myrcella’s funeral only to be stopped by Tommen’s guards who insist she can’t leave the keep. She backs down but Franken-Gregor is probably upset he didn’t get to mash in their brains too.

Then Jaime and Tommen are in the sept with Myrcella’s body, funny glass eyes and all. Jaime supports Cersei in their discussion, urging Tommen to visit his mother. Tommen is feeling impotent and doesn’t even want to face her. The High Septon strolls in and Tommen in a rare fit of assertion asks to see his wife. He’s refused, but kudos for trying. After he leaves, Jaime and the Sparrow face off. Jaime contemplates just killing him, but a goon squad of sparrows show up, possibly including even his lame cousin. Jaime also looks much older, and while this segment is slightly stilted, he still has a trademark line in “the gods won’t mind, they’ve spilled more blood than all of us combined.”

Next, Cersei is taking in the gorgeous view of Dubrovnik  when Tommen finally shows up. He apologizes and of course she forgives him — he is, after all, her only remaining child and we all know the Queen-mother loves her kids.

All in the family

All in the family

Tyrion – is doing what he does best, drinking and knowing things (and making excellent quips). This is in the company of Misandei, and the 2 men, no balls team of Grey Worm and Varys. There are, of course, eunuch jokes, but for whatever reason Varys has nothing amusing to say this week. We learn offhand that the other Slaver’s Bay cities (taken in season 3) have fallen (again) to the Masters. Boy, GRRM (and D&B) have done their best to stall Dany’s plot line. Tyrion, however, going into new territory is all up on his dragon research and knows that dragons don’t do well chained up in the basement, they aren’t even eating.

So our favorite little person (with an abnormally taciturn Varys in tow), heads down into the cellar of Diocletian’s — I mean Dany’s, Palace. We already saw last year how fond this duo is of roasted human, so it is only the confidence that they didn’t intend to write Tyrion (yet) that we can stomach his tip toe out into the dark. Despite a few snarls, the dragons are remarkable receptive to his jokes. But how he is tall enough to pull off their collars is a bit of a mystery. In any case, the fact that the second dragon leans down to be freed does show that reptilian brains don’t have to be all about the base functions. He kids with Varys about the danger on the way out and I’m not even sure why, as the whole escapade went rather swimmingly considered.

In summary, a short but good segment because Tyrion delivers in classic form. We aren’t really this far with him in the books, but he is far less broody about his “role” in the deaths of Tywin and Shae in the show than in the novels. In fact, so far this season he seems to be enjoying himself.

Don't eat the help!

Don’t eat the help!

Arya – is still begging in the alley when the Waif shows up again to give her a beating. It hardly goes any better than last time but at least she gives it the good Stark try. Speaking of, the Waif keeps asking her the now slightly tiresome question of who she is. Then so does a Jaqen H’ghar when he pops into view (or not if you’re Arya). He tempts her with this same question too, three times in fact, but her answers earn her a trip back to (presumably) the House of Black and White.

This segment, like last week, was too short to gain proper Arya momentum. They are probably fine in the context of watching the episodes back to back in a marathon, or even 2-3 a night, but once a week, serve as more of a tease than anything.

Where is my seeing eye wolf?

Where is my seeing eye wolf?

Ramsay – reports to Roose about the failure of his “best men.” (Where is Locke when you need him? That guy knew how to get some wet work done the “right” way.) Ramsay proposes an all out attack on castle black. Roose is more cautious, and cognizant of the political ramifications. But then we learn that Lady Walder has given birth to a son — uh oh. Ramsay gives his dad a congratulatory hug that has a real point to it — point of his dagger (conveniently tucked across the small of his back). Didn’t see that coming! Although it’s plenty Ramsay and symbolic payback for the very similar stab in the gut that Roose delivered to Robb Stark long ago. Nicely played too as Ramsay doesn’t look him in the eye.

Next up, a messy cleanup to some loose ends. Ramsay brings Lady Walder and her baby to the kennels and lets the dogs out. First off, Lady Walder is pretty spry for having given birth 5 minutes ago, and she displays a well composed mixture of terror and bravery. Shocking as it was, I wasn’t in love with the way Ramsay was written this week. Sure he’s a monster, but the tense relationship with his father has always added a great deal of depth to his monstrosity. His genuine surprise/pride when he is naturalized was really a great scene. Pulling Roose out of the equation just leaves him a loose canon. And he has no regard for Roose’s complex wave of alliances.

Cooche cooche coo!

Cooche cooche coo!

Sansa – is (winter) camping in the woods with Brienne, Pod, and Theon. But this is mostly a talk scene where Brienne tells Sansa what she knows of Arya (from their brief visit on the way to the Eerie) and when Brienne asks her about Winterfell the silence says more than the words. Then she thanks Theon, and he is very emotional about his (many) bad choices and his lackluster character. Seems though, with the protecting duties handed over to Brienne he’s off “home” to Pyke. Speaking of…

Greyjoys – Yarra and Balon are talking in the Kraken room. Yarra is looking A LOT older too. She’s gone cold on the war but Dad is still ready to die. Which is funny given that the Red Lady cursed him to expire way back in season 3 and he’s the only leech left standing. He storms out to the suitably storm rope bridge between buildings. We know that won’t end well. Sure enough, a hooded figure, presumably his brother Euron, meets him there. He’s the younger brother, and seemingly a much younger one at that. Euron makes a bunch of grand proclamations about being the Drowned God and/or the Storm and throws Balon off the bridge. I guess the leech worked after all, we just had to wait awhile on it. Really the whole Greyjoy story is delayed. In the books it’s in parallel to the Dorne story, but they have been sequenced here. So far this one looks better as the Sand Snakes were awful.

At Balon’s funeral, clearly Yarra and others don’t know who did it, although she swears vengeance. The priest is Aeron Damphair, another of her uncles, but clearly his role here is much diminished from the books (where I hated him). We learn that there is a Kingsmoot and that the next king must be elected.

There can be only one!

There can be only one!

Castle Black – Thorne still wants in. The guys inside draw their swords. Thorne’s dude uses a big hammer to smash at the door — then deus ex machina style, the giant Wun Wun smashes the main gate letting in Edd, Tormund, and the whole Wildling crew. They make short work of the surprised traitors (and what about the neutral Night’s Watch guys?). Anyway the giant does a nice smash on one trigger happy fellow, and unfortunately leaves Thorne and the even more despicable Olly alive to be dragged off to the dungeons. After, Edd and Giantsbane visit the corpse of Jon Snow.

Then Davos goes to see the Red Lady, who is still moping about in self pity, but has at least put her glamour back on. Uncharacteristically, Davos pitches Mel on using her magic to bring back Jon. This is a bit out of character, as he’s 1) a magic hater 2) not a Red Lady fan 3) doesn’t have too much obvious reason to be SO extreme for Jon, despite having liked him. Still, he sells it hard and well and makes some good jokes about his change of heart.

Mel gives it a good try, washing the body, cleaning the nasty stabs, the hair. She burns some hair, but seemingly that isn’t as good as leeches. Ghost spends the time chilling below Jon’s table. He is too cute. I want a white wolf. Next Mel lays on hands, tries some Valaryan, and even a simple “please.” None of this seems to work so Tormund, then Edd, then Davos all leave and, surprise…

Ghost notices something strange and Jon Snow opens his eyes.

I have to say I saw that coming. I predicted it would be the Red Lady’s magic too from way back when because it was setup so heavily and the only thing that made sense. And despite all the “protestations” from the cast and crew they just had to bring Jon back for all the work they spent (scriptwise) last season setting up R+L=J to make any sense. They only have so many minutes and they kept shoving in hints. If he was really dead, instead of “mostly dead” it wouldn’t have been worth the time.

blue balls

blue balls

So Overall, a great episode, with some really big turns and good moments: Jon’s return, giant slapping, head bashing, Bolton stabbing, Greyjoy tossing, and dragon baiting. I still want to see what is up with the show’s only current romantic couple, Sam and Gilly.

Again, I can’t believe we have to wait another week!

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

It's alive!

It’s alive!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 44
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 34
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, a game of thrones, Davos, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, Kit Harington, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Television

Game of Thrones – Episode 20

Jun03

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 20 – June 3, 2012

Title: Valar Morghulis

Summary: Fantastic Wrapup

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The season finale has a lot of threads to cover, the extra long “previously on” clip covers no less than eleven major plot lines! Amazingly, the episode manages to do a pretty damn good job with them — even when many only get one scene.

We open with Tyrion — well his eye — suffering at the tender ministrations of the less-senile-than-he-seems Maester Pycelle. Ty learns he’s no longer hand, and we see what he does not, his father receiving the honors that Tyrion had a hand (haha) in earning. Then in a magnificent bit of public theater, Joffery casts down Sansa and takes up with Margaery Tyrell. Could the third marriage be the charm? With Joff? This begins a running thread about oaths that flows through the entire episode. For Joff, despite his lip service, oaths mean nothing. I do also have to give credit to the actor who manages to make every line, every gesture thoroughly loathsome.

I can't wait for his wedding

Sansa, freed of her engagement, is confronted by Littlefinger. He claims to be an ally, being the second man to offer her a way north. But does she dare? Personally, I would have gone with the Hound.

And speaking of Littlefinger, Varys visits Ros in the interest of plotting against his rival. It’s not entirely clear what the point of this scene is other than an update on everyone’s least favorite hooker and a restatement of the Varys/Littlefinger hostility. I prefered their “manhood” discussion in episode 10.

Jaime and Brienne only get one scene, but it’s a doozy. After the usual banter they run into a bunch of Stark men who recognize the Kingslayer. She totally kicks ass in her lumbering way. But her choices flow from her own oath: to Cat Stark. Her interpretation is literal in the extreme.

Robb and Cat discuss this very topic. He is in love with the nurse, she warns him of his oath, even invoking Ned and his own literal interpretation of said matters. Robb walks a different road.

Stannis broods with the Red Lady, nursing his pride. He tries to strangle her, but cannot. She shows him the secrets of the flames. We, of course, see only some flicking in his eyeballs. Is this hypnotism, or more? Certainly one of the weaker threads, but it has been all along. I guess Davos’ fate will be left to season 3.

Theon is surrounded and in his room with Luwin. The old man honors his own oath and gives Theon solid advice: run for the Night’s Watch. “You are not the man you are pretending to be, at least not yet.” This is a great exchange. “It’s too late to pretend to be anything else,” Theon answers. Then he gives a really nice speech to his troops — only to have them betray him. Poor Luwin is stabbed.

What is dead will never die!

Varys visits Tyrion and delivers news of further humiliations. I swear GRRM looks at every character every chapter and says: “on the way up, take ’em down. On the way down, take ’em up.” The Ty/Varys interaction this season has been great as both actors are spectacular. Shae is next. She removes his bandage. The scar is bad, but nothing like in the book where he has no nose! They couldn’t bring themselves to put Peter Dinklage through that much ugly (and he’s a good looking man anyway, unlike the pre-face-cut novel Tyrion). Shae at least is loyal (so far). Dare I say, honoring her oath? She tries to get him to leave the city with her, but stays when he won’t.

Robb gets married. A nice tiny little ceremony. Oaths oaths oaths. But it is still the second worst thread.

Dany walks through a cool garden to an even cooler tower-like “house of the undying.” She finds a magic entrance. I like these lightly handed mystical moments.

Jorah, don't let her out of your sight!

Arya, having escaped, is found by Jaquen. He tries to draw her to Bravos to train as a Faceless Man. She isn’t ready yet, and still seeks her family. He gives her the coin then as I hoped he might, changes his face. “That man is dead.” Awesome scene.

Osha and the boys emerge to a burnt and destroyed Winterfell. If those wolves are CG, they look pretty darn good. They find a dying Luwin and the old man gets a few final words in. Perhaps not realistic, but he’s been very fine in the role and so they’re well deserved. He sends them to Jon. Bran rolls north in a wheelbarrow!

Dany is back in the House of the Undying. She finds a room of doors and wanders through into a sequence of visions that gave me goosebumps. First the Iron Throne, its hall burnt by dragon fire. Then lured by the sound of dragons, through the door in the wall and into the north. There she finds Drogo’s hut and inside the man himself in a surprise reprise of his role. The Dothraki dialog between them brought tears to my eyes. I always liked the way his rumbly voice read the guttural language. But she is not to succumb to the “last temptation of Danerys Stormborn,” instead returning to the house to find her dragons. All three in fact — for the first time in the entire season. The warlock emerges. He uses the plural, but we only see one — before or now. “With the dragons returned our magic.” It’s nice to hear this reiterated. Makes one wonder. Is this true of the Red Lady as well? Not the White Walkers for sure, they showed up in the pilot before the dragons did. Or do they foreshadow coming of the beasts? Anyway, Dany is not one to take captivity lightly, she lights up the warlock like a bonfire. This scene was cool, but felt light on the effects. I would’ve liked to see the three dragons flying around laying waste to the house and it burning down. Sigh. Budgets.

Finally, we return to Jon Snow in the frozen north. Ygritte is marching behind him whacking him on the head with his own sword. That’s got to hurt both the pride and the noggin. The Halfhand grabs a sword and they fight. He forces Jon’s anger and this time, Jon doesn’t hold back and kills him. I’m not sure I bought this important moment 100%. I did, however, like the look Ygritte gives him as she backs him up and then leads him off to see the valley with the Wildling (CGI) camp. This vista looks fantastic as they just painted in the camp in a real Icelandic valley. It felt massive in scale, in contrast with the lightweight troop of a dozen Wildlings in furs marching around in the snow. The Lord of Bones has no presence.

Somehow the captive is the trustworthy one

Xaro is sleeping with Doreah. I guess that explains her absence. Dany and her dragons march in and steal his medallion/vault key. But the vault contains nothing. She locks him and the slave girl away. These are both changes from the novels, but while I will miss the girl on girl on girl action that is supposed to occur later (unless they bring it back with different girls) the relationship with Xaro makes more sense. In the books I never really understood what Xaro was up to or why Dany did what she did with him. Here she loads up with enough gold to buy a ship and move on.

I expected that to be the end, but we have an even better setup. Sam and the brother’s black are gathering frozen turds by the Fist of the First Men when the horn sounds three times. An army of zombies pass, lead by zombie horse riding White Walkers. That was pretty cool. It also helps to explain, at least to me, the difference between the wraiths (zombies) and the White Walkers (something more, and often mounted). This peculiar distinction has eluded me for five books.

Sigh again. The ten month wait begins. But in the meantime I’m heading myself to King’s Landing this summer. Well, Dubrovnik at least. It looked so good in the show that I booked a vacation there!

Overall, a brilliant episode. I was worried that with so many threads each be starved of attention, But the producers saved a good percentage of the budget for these last two episodes. And more importantly the writers managed to draw most of the threads, although not all, to a satisfying conclusion. Still, the biggest flaw this season suffered, and it is a big flaw, is the compression of the large scale novel into only ten hours of programming. While a problem last season, A Game of Thrones is shorter than A Clash of Kings and the compression felt less pronounced. Season 2 did mostly address the problems of visual scope and mystical elements that bothered me in season one, but the new problem is even worse. With twelve episodes they could have mitigated it somewhat, but really the scope of the story needed perhaps sixteen. We can hope that by splitting A Storm of Swords into more than one season this can be overcome.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Boys like a challenge

Related posts:

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By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Blackwater, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 20, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, House, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Robb, Television, Tyrion, Valar Morghulis, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 19

May28

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 18 – May 27, 2012

Title: Blackwater

Summary: Tight and intense

ANY CHARACTER HERE

With Episode 19, Blackwater, the normally highly fractured narrative of the show lasers in and focuses on a single place and night: The attack on King’s Landing by Stannis and its defense. Hallelujah, they finally show us a real battle! And not just a little one, but a multi-staged “Helm’s Deep” style battle. Sure, it’s not like Helm’s deep level visuals, but it’s pretty damn great.

This is certainly the most climatic scene from A Clash of Kings, although with so many threads it is but one of many. By choosing to focus, we are allowed to see the play out of emotions in King’s Landing with considerable more depth than the usual 2-3 scenes per thread allows.

We open at sea with Davos and his navy. I like the puke barrel the soldiers heave into. Then we cut to Tyrion in bed with Shae in a nice intimate pre-battle moment of intimacy. Cersei, in contrast, receives cold comfort in the form of poison from her silly and ancient Maester. Bronn parties with his men and a bevy of the usual whores (we keep seeing the same ones). The Hound enters and the two killers lock antlers only to be interrupted by the bells signaling the invasion.

Varys and Ty banter as usual, much to our pleasure. The master of spiders passes crucial information to Ty, and in a subtle nod to later, Ty admits that he trusts his squire Pod. In the books Pod is an actual character, here in the show, he’s just a role. Still, at least he has one.

The bells on the wall are met by drums from the ships. Ty and Bronn find Joff and the Hound in the throne room. Joff continues his obnoxious streak in saying goodbye to Sansa, and she cleverly appeals to his ego to try and egg him into the most dangerous part of the battle.

Everyone sallies forth to watch from the walls. In a very effective sequence we cut from the battlements to the ships and show the sailor’s surprise at finding only one Lannister ship, unmanned and leaking green fluid at that. Bronn sets the whole thing alight with a single flaming arrow and Stannis’ fleet is obliterated in a cloud of green fire. I do have to say, the green fire looked badass (for TV).

One shot is the charm

But undaunted, Stannis leads his surviving men aboard his medieval PT boats and rows for shore.

Meanwhile, we have been cutting back to inside the keep where Cersei has sequestered herself with all her ladies. This is all the more painful for Sansa when the queen singles her out for more attention. The queen’s dress is very interesting: Mostly medieval ladies gown, it does have a bit of Amazonian breast plate action going.

When Stannis mounts his landing Ty sends the Hound to command a defensive party outside the walls. Men storm toward the walls under fire and do their best with ladders. Lancel takes a flesh wound and heads inside where Cersei orders him to drag the king to safety. Cersei continues to talk Sansa and takes notice of Shae, something doesn’t add up for her.

The Hound goes to town butchering the invaders until the fire grows too close and he starts to freak out. This is certainly understandable considering his fiery encounters with his older brother. Stannis is a leader of the old school, and you can’t say he’s a coward because he storms the walls himself and lays waste to the King’s men.

Does anyone have the armor polish?

When the hold returns inside getting too close to the heat he is ordered back out again. He swears off the King entirely and leaves. The invaders batter at the games with a huge battering ram. Joff runs off with his cousin and Ty finds the courage to lead the men in a rousing speech and drag them out himself.

Lancel returns to Cersei again empty handed, and she runs off. Sansa finds her own strength to rally the women and Shae urges Sansa back to her rooms. But guess who’s there? The Hound, fed up with fighting for Joff the Toff and ready to take her back to Winterfell. But Sansa has been conditioned and she is too nervous to jump ship.

Can you toss me that rope on the dock over there?

Ty leads men through the sewers (setup with Varys and the map), comes out behind the invaders, and lays waste to them. He goes to town with his axe. This time around, the producers don’t shy from battle. Finally. Ty is fighting away only to be betrayed and attacked by one of the King’s Guard. He falls badly injured, although not seemingly as badly injured as in the book. More  troops invade and just as soon as all looks lost, a Lannister army arrives to save the day.

Cersei sits with her younger son Tommen on the throne and is about to take poison but Tywin rides in to save the day. So this is where he rode off too last episode!

Overall, this episode burned a lot of money. While it still feels like TV, it’s epic TV and the mix of wide shots and extra pounding action served well to convey the sense of a fairly large battle. I like the scope and intensity allowed by ignoring all the other threads, but I suspect that the final episode will be one rapid-fire whiplash!

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Things that say boom!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 8
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 7
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a clash of kings, A Dance with Dragons, a game of thrones, Blackwater, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 19, Episode Review, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 18

May20

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 18 – May 20, 2012

Title: The Prince of Winterfell

Summary: A little rushed

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week’s episode ended with Brienne drawing her blade, but this begins at Winterfell with the titular Price of Winterfell, Theon, killing all the ravens to stop word of his treachery. His sister arrives and presses him to return home so as not to die. Somehow this scene felt stilted, her rapid shift from haughty to concerned a bit forced.

Then in the far north, Ygritte and her men deliver Jon to the Lord of Bones (wearing a plastic skull helmet). Qhorin is there too, captive as well, Jon’s fault. Bones wants to gut the bastard, but Ygritte repays her debt by convincing him not.

Robb strolls through pretty Irish countryside while talking to his girlfriend the nurse. I still don’t love their chemistry, even though they talk about Ned. Then Robb learns of the Kingslayer’s escape. New viewers will undoubtedly be confused, because he escaped and was recaptured last week.

Jon Snow or baby seal?

Some minor clarity (for those who haven’t read the books) is offered when Robb returns and confronts Cat. She tries to explain. Karstark is furious, but I wasn’t really feeling his acting. Robb arrests his own mother, which is vaguely Oedipal.

Really, Cat sent Brienne off to haul Jaime back to Cersei and trade for the girls. And we see this now, but the show’s need for brevity has trimmed it to the bone. Still, Jaime is great fun teasing Brienne and it’s fun to watch him muscled around by this enormous girl.

Arya is doing table duty again when she learns that Tywin is about to ride and she is to be left behind with the Mountain (uh oh). She runs off past some grisly hung men and finds Hot Pie and Gendry, but she’s really looking for her pet assassin. Presumably she has finally decided to use her third death to rid the land of Tywin. In the book, this has a real feeling of urgency. The show’s efforts to make Tywin more human have diluted that, but everything has trade offs.

Back to Jon. Qhorin hints that Jon should try to infiltrate the wildlings and starts to taunt him. This is extremely brief, and also likely to be lost on new veiwers, but it’s an important bit of info.

Tyrion and Bronn have an amusing chat and Vary’s shows up again. Oh, how I missed him. They discuss the difficult task of defending the city. All three of these actors are in fine form.

Sly minds think alike

Sam and the Crows, still on the Fist of the First Men, are digging latrines and find an ancient cache of obsidian blades. What could those mean? Something obviously as it got two minutes of precious screen time.

Arya finds Jaquen too late. But, always too clever for her own good, she forces him to help her escape by naming his own name. In order to avoid killing himself, he reluctantly agrees to help her.

Tyrion and Cersei are eating lamprey pie (again a nod to the books). Last week’s moment of fraternal love is long gone, for Cersei announces that she holds Shae and is holding her as ransom against Joff’s security. Ty plays it cool, even when she’s brought in and revealed to be Ros (good riddance). Afterward Ty is not so reserved with Shae. He even extracts from her what is akin (in a hooker kind of way) to vows.

Robb talks to Bolton to put pressure on the Bastard retaking Winterfell. Then Talesia (sic?) comes in. He’s stressed, and as usual doesn’t really play much of the king with her. Contrast him with the insufferable Joff! This time around their chemistry is much better as she tells a story of her brother’s near death. There seems to be a sibling theme going on in this episode because we have this story, Theon’s sister’s about him as a baby, and the rivalry between Ty and Cersei. Robb throws his Frey engagement to the wind and plays some serious doctor with the nurse. Do any of the actresses in this show not have nudity clauses in their contract?

Why, why don't I get any respect?

Arya, Hot Pie, and Gendry sneak through the gate Jaquen has prepared. All the guards have been viciously murdered and propped up. Jaq’s quite the killer.

Stannis and Davos sail toward King’s Landing. They talk of Davos’ rescue of Storm’s End. His whole Onion Knight story is being spooled out in tiny doses. I wonder if the non-readers will get it, but it’s nice to hear.

Joff is playing at being a proper soldier. One just loves to hate him, from his manner to his ridiculous girly man posturing. I can’t wait for… Anyway, Tyrion and Vary’s have another great talk. I do love V. Ty unveils his desire to stay hand (and alive) while V lets slip the threat of Dany and her dragons.

Speaking of, a brief scene where Jorah and Dany discuss what to do. He councils safety, she won’t leave her dragons. Although she has only this one moment in the episode, it’s a good one.

In Winterfell, Maester Luwin sees Asha and tracks her down into the crypt to put our minds at ease. Given the gratuitous hint dropping, I doubt most viewers really thought they were dead. In the books, it was pretty worrisome, as GRRM has killed before!

Overall, this episode had some great scenes but felt rushed and disjointed. So much is going on here that the writers trimmed aggressively to set everything up before next week’s Battle of Blackwater. They’ve done the best they can, but I wonder if noobs (non-readers) will make perfect sense of it.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 16
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 13
By: agavin
Comments (12)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 18, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, The Prince of Winterfell, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 17

May13

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 17 – May 13, 2012

Title: A Man Without Honor

Summary: Just before the storm

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The title of the episode refers to the return of Jaime Lannister, who after a five episode absence, is back with a vengeance. This is the section of the story, in the middle end, where things move very rapidly. There are themes of trust and themes of captivity, but none jumped out at me as totally dominant.

We open with Theon waking to the missing boys. With the killing of Roderick he’s turned down a dark road and becoming increasingly comfortable with the shadows. Case in point, he beats the crap out of one of his men in frustration.

We briefly see Bran, Osha, Hodor and the wolves (yay wolves). They pass a farm and note that they used to play with the farmer boys. This tiny remark sets up something big, but it will probably be lost on the first time audience.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaVcUyzc-dA&feature=youtu.be]

Better to be cruel than weak

Then we cut to John dragging his prisoner Ygritte across the frozen waste. These are my favorite moments of the episode. Broken into three sections, Ygritte gives John a delightful hard time. About his bone and stones. About his people. About freedom. She tempts him with sex. She tempts him with freedom. And it’s all good fun to watch. We even get one iteration of her signature line from the books, “You know nothing, John Snow.”

Then we’re treated to a gorgeous view of Harrenhal and some cruel work at the hands of the Mountain. The place is huge and pretty cool looking. These big vistas do a decent job of making season two look bigger than season one. Tywin shows his mean side in setting the Mountain loose. In the books, he comes off much more evil as he surounds himself with scum of the earth like Hoat, the Mountain, and Lorch. Here, he has more restraint. He and Arya have some more inappropriate conversation. It’s a little weird, but the chemistry between these two fantastic actors makes it totally worthwhile.

Speaking of chemistry, Sansa bumps into the hound. This brief scene serves to reinforce their peculiar relationship too. Nod to the SanSan crowd that it is.

And then Dany and Xaro have a bit of a convo where he tries to get her to trust him. I never understood Xaro’s angle in the  books, and I don’t here either.

All you have to do is die!

Another big view of Robb’s camp. These Robb scenes, being as they don’t exist in the book, are  lacking the intensity of emotion GRRM is so good at. Here we see a junior Lannister returning the message from Cersei. We also learn Robb is off for a couple of days, and determined to take the “hot nurse” with him. Perfunctory really.

Riffing on the prisoner situation, Theon is at the farm looking for Bran and Rickon, and not having a great time of it. When he interrogates the farmer he announces his new motto, “better to be cruel than weak.” So he has chosen, and if one were to put it in classic medieval terms, at the cost of his immortal soul.

Jorah and Danny talk about trust. Xaro’s observation and subsequent revelation to her that he’s in love with her has shifted the dynamics of their relationship. Can she trust him? He’s got such blue eyes!

In the third John and Ygritte installment she really lays on the seduction thick and crude. The actress does a fine job with the character too. She runs again, and John finds himself in a bit of a turn around. These last two episodes have really brought the John arc back into the forefront like they are in the books. His movement was feeling a bit anemic for a while.

Sansa dreams of death and wakes to her first period. Shae tries to help her conceal this, but the hound stops by. So on to have a chat with Queen Cersei. The queen really is much more sympathetic and complex in the show than the books. In the novels, she more than Joff instigates a lot of the negative goings on. Here she’s just lost control of her son. In her own cruel way, she gives Sansa sincere advice, like “love no one but your children.”

Then the return of Ser Jaime. He’s in proper form talking to his cousin (or third cousin or whatever). He even tells a Ser Barriston story, because we know we haven’t seen the last of that fine actor. Alas, it’ll take more than captivity alone to make a nice guy of Jaime. He’s not to be trusted. And don’t get in his way.

Jorah is on the hunt for the dragons and goes to visit the new character: prophetess, metal mask fashionista, and masseuse. Cut to Dany meeting with the council of thirteen. The warlock admits to taking the dragons, Xaro gives a speech, and lots of people die. This is all pretty diferent than in the book and I can’t say that I fully understood what happened. Was Xaro in league with the warlocks? Seemed perhaps so, but I don’t see why.

Enjoying your first hunt, old man?

Jaime is recaptured and Cat is there to stop the troops from killing him. Barely. Karstark is pissed. This is a little different than the books where I think the Karstark boy was killed by Jaime in one of the battles, but essentially similar. Jaime is in fine and classic form with his quips though.

Cersei and Tyrion share an interesting scene. She admits she doesn’t control Joff and he actually offers her some solace. For a moment it looks like they might hug, but not. Again, there is more complexity to their relationship here than in the books. Some things gain, some things lose.

Cat interrogates Jaime in his pen. He’s really amusing as he tries again to draw her anger to a murderous boil. If he’s going to die, he wants to die in control. His comments to Brienne are especially hilarious. “Is that actually a woman?” and “Where did you find that beast?”

Finally, Theon is back at castle black. And things are black indeed. Let’s just say I was reminded of that bit in Star Wars (“A New Hope”) where Luke finds out what happened to his aunt and uncle. Pretty grisly.

All in all, a great episode, if not as quite as good as the one before it. All my favorite characters were represented. I don’t miss Stannis and Davos. Sure we only get one Arya scene and one Tryion scene, but things are really moving. I swear, when plotting these books, GRRM must draw out each thread and say continually to himself: “make them do well, make them suffer, make them do well, make them suffer!”

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Maybe picking his nose with the blade wasn't such a good idea!

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  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 8
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
By: agavin
Comments (6)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a clash of kings, A Dance with Dragons, a game of thrones, A Man Without Honor, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 16

May06

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 16 – May 6, 2012

Title: The Old Gods and the New

Summary: The pace accelerates

ANY CHARACTER HERE

If I had to give this episode a theme, it would be trust (and betrayal). We open as last week with what was foreshadowed before, the arrival of the sea at Winterfell. But the producers did some serious cheaping out. We see none of the assault, none of the battle, instead merely Luwin running to send a raven and Theon telling Bran what he did. Didn’t they here “show don’t tell?” They knew though, it’s just the money, and perhaps the minutes. Still, it’s effective enough, but… cheap. But we do concentrate on the characters, and when Theon gathers everyone, we see the conflict written on every inch of his face. He makes his choice when he decides to man up and execute Rodrick. He is, as the dialog says, “lost forever.”

In the north, John and Qhorin Halfhand continue their excursion through the snowy waste of Iceland. Some got lucky and filmed in Dubrovnik Croatia, some in Iceland. Who had more fun? We see Ghost wandering around again. They must have figured out how to make the wolves economical.

Then Arya continues to serve Lord Tywin Lannister. The acting here  between Arya and Tywin is absolutely first rate. The latter is more complicated, more human, and more likeable in the show than the books. Sure he’s a hardass, but he is reasonable. Then Littlefinger arrives. This is new to the show and deliciously tense. The subtle ways in which Arya tries to maneuver herself to face away, really good stuff.

Back to John in the mountains. They creep up and kill a bunch of wildlings, sparing only one, Ygritte, a pretty redhead. John accepts the responsibility of killing her. Qhorin trusts him to do it. This is a very intimate moment between Snow and the girl. There is something twistedly sexual about the power of life and death, and the lingered moment is exquisite.

Lipstick north of the wall?

The Lannisters see Marcella off to Dorne. Tyrion was right when he insisted that she’d be safer there, because the crowd is angry. Joff isn’t exactly the most endearing of kings, as Ty says, “cruel AND stupid.” The riot is fairly well done. It’s chaotic and dangerous, yet the armored troops have the individual upper hand, as they would. The septon is torn to pieces, literarily. We have various changes. The halfwit daughter of lady whatever isn’t really present. The queen finds herself in less jeopardy, and Sansa gets in some real trouble only to be saved by the Hound. This does a nice job reinforcing the SanSan relationship that the books have more time to develop.

Dany has a brief scene in Qarth with Xaro and the newly arrived “spice king.” He reminds me a bit of a Ferengi.

No love lost here

More Arya and Tywin time. We learn that Jaime is dyslexic, which is a nice bit of character building and exposition— except we haven’t seen Jaime since the first episode, which is a pity. In a way, Ty and Arya’s funny relationship reflects the whole trust thing. Arya snitches a paper about Robb, and then gets herself in a bit of trouble, but good thing she’s got her own pet assassin. The timing of the resolution has a very nice tragio-comic touch.

On the battlefield with Robb, he’s working his relationship with the nurse, Lady Talisa Migia (spelling could be wrong because she’s a new invented character). I’m not really feeling it with these two, but mom arrives to spoil the party and remind him he must marry an ugly Frey girl. I wonder what was wrong with the setup in the novels? Bolton shows with news. How many will noticed the “Flayed Man” on his sigil?

John marches through the waste with a captive Ygritte. Their little chase (which occurred in the previous segment of the thread) was nicely done. Here he has to deal with her and she sets to work on his manly weakness. I liked the two of the them in the books and I like it here.

Robb, Cat, and Bolton discuss Theon’s betrayal. I like how they have given Bolton a little more skin in the game (haha) and how they improve the clarity of him sending his bastard son to relieve Winterfell. This is a tad obtuse in the books. One of GRRMs weaknesses as a writer (and made worse by his complex POV structure) is that certain parts of important events are often a little vague. I forgive him, he has so many strengths.

Osha is fairly convincing when she comes to work Theon. Trust and betrayal. He gets what he sows. She even goes in for the full frontal, which is the only bit of nudity in this sexposition free episode (two in a row!). With Littlefinger out of town and Daisy nursing her bottom, what are whores to do? Theon has fallen for women several times before, it stems from his insecurities, and this time is no different. Contrast him with his  “step” half-brother John who resists Ygritte’s advances (for now).

Very brief status with Sasha being tended by Shae. This is mostly just to let us know she’s okay.

Then back to Theon. Osha sneaks away. She’s always had an interesting feral quality to her, with her head cocked and the like, but naked it’s doubly so. She’s pretty badass with the guard and it’s good to see the Stark boys (and the wolves) make a clean escape. Theon’s in trouble now! You reap what you sow. Wait, I thought Greyjoy’s didn’t sow!

Why does everyone want to marry me?

Then Dany (with Xaro) finds her people raided and slaughtered and her dragons missing. This too is a major change from the book but I don’t blame them, her  Qarth plot in A Clash of Kings was a little anemic. But here, trust or betrayal? And where was Jorah when we needed him?

And so ends another great episode. As usual, as the plot lines twist and knot, with the setup mostly accomplished, things move very rapidly here in the middle of the season. I so wish I didn’t have to wait another week!

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

With only men in the watch, don't forget to look over your shoulder

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Arya, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings, Dany, Game of Thrones, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 15

Apr29

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 15 – April 29, 2012

Title: The Ghost of Harrenhal

Summary: A very even and great episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

If last week’s theme was torture, this week’s is revenge.

We open with the deadly mystic consequence of last week’s final scene. A revenge of sorts? Perhaps, but it certainly begets thoughts of same. Brienne swears vengence and flees with Cat, then Loras and Margarey  Tyrell swear as well. Marg hints at her ambition. But it’s also worth noting here that the production spent on some scope they didn’t necessarily do last season. For example, a CGI shot of Stannis’ ships. It wasn’t totally necessary, but helps give things a bigger look. There is still room to go, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Tyrion and Cersei talk, which is always amusing. My favorite is Ty’s line: “Schemes and plots are the same thing.” News sure travels fast in Westeros, in the books there is a little more sense of the passing of time. Then Ty extracts Joff and Cersei’s secret from Lancell. Is it me, or is his litter dwarf sized?

Davos and Stannis talk about Renly’s death and the future. And while I do think Davos in particular is well played, I just can’t get too excited about their scenes.

Back in King’s Landing, they’re eating eels, which any reader will know, is a homage to the lamprey pies of the books. Ty and Bronn walk and talk through the city giving us some local color. This is more of that spend as that was certainly an expensive way to do the exposition. Camera work is still a little close, but good try, and the costumes are great. Ty offhandedly mentions the poor prostitute he sent to a terrible fate at his nephew’s hands, and all we get is “the king is a lost cause.”

The Theon scenes feel slightly awkward, and this one sure starts off that way. It’s almost Three’s Company embarrassing to watch him with the crew and his gloating sister. Then his mate triggers his ideas. Uh oh. That’s a nice moment. Theon cuts a fine, if slightly awkward figure. His casting reeks of tough choices to come.

Arya is serving the evil Lord Tywin in Harrenhal. But mean as he is, he’s pretty rational. This serves to give us the Lannister perspective and Arya does her usual great job when quizzed. Then what I’ve been waiting for — and the revenge theme — when she has a little conversation with Jaqen H’ghar, the mysterious man in the cage. His way of speaking and his manner is great. Although I’m not sure that TV only viewers will have any sense of his mystical side. I wished they showed him changing faces, and hopefully they will yet, so it’s a little mysterious how he ended up in the Lannister guard. By the way, what happened to the Mountain? Maybe he was sent off to make some more mischief. In any case, I loved the talk of the debt owed the death god. I love creepy divine obligations. But what does Jaqen H’ghar call it the red god? I always viewed this as the same deity as Arya’s “dancing master.” And did he mention being a were? Are the writers trying to merge some of the mystical elements?

John, Morment, and the crow crew are trekking through Iceland… achem, far north of the wall. It looks great. Very frozen and barren. They mention the Halfhand, subtly introing him. “There’s only one Halfhand.” Then when they set up at the Fist of the First Men we see Ghost just loitering about. Nice. As I noted his gratuitous absence last season was annoying. They listened.

Ty is in good form when he visits the Pyromancers. The writer’s do capture a little bit of their creepy nature calling it “the substance” even if the scenes are quick. The cool locked door to the storage room is a nice touch and I like having Bronn around as Ty’s foil. In fact I’m very much liking Bronn as a character.

And finally, to Dany in Qarth. We get our first taste of actual dragon since the season opener. They look good, but the budget is stingy with them. In the same vein, a little CGI would have been nice as Xaro Xhoan Daxos’ house, while pretty, felt cramped and I missed that gorgeous vista we saw last week. The introduction to the Warlocks was cool though. The guy certainly looks creepy and the whole doppelgänger bit interesting. At least they aren’t totally avoiding the magic — although, again I would have liked to have seen the Jaqen switch his face.

Brienne and Cat have a nice moment in the wood, which looks suspiciously like the same woods as behind Winterfell. Their oaths are heartfelt. I’ve always liked oaths, what fantasy guy doesn’t? Certainly the revenge bit enters again here.

Speaking of Winterfell, we finally return to Bran. We even see Rickon for 30 seconds, which given his behavior, is about all we need. Shouldn’t have sent those 200 men away is all I can say. I like the 3-eyed raven bit, and Osha is evasive. Why exactly she doesn’t tell him, I don’t know, but revenge is hovering. I’m pretty much certain now that she’s going to triple duty for the fey twins from the Moat. The producers need cast reduction.

Back in the frozen north with John and we meet the Halfhand for real. He isn’t introduced, so I wonder what new viewers will make of him, but I like the casting. John is finally about to get his adventure. Maybe it will knock a bit of that petulance out of him.

And back to Qarth for some discussion of what everyone wants, which is pretty pointed. Xaro makes Dany an unromantic proposal, but it’s nicely done and he mixes it up with a good dose of truth. This has her looking at Jorah in a new light. Here, also, we have some realistic delay of news. She finds out only now that Robert is dead, nearly a whole season late. But that’s actually very reasonable given her location and the fact that she’s been hanging out in the red waste. Internet service there is terrible.

Finally, back to Arya, the titular Harrenhal, and revenge. We get a quick glimpse of Gendry and his rat free abs. Their lives sure have improved since last episode. I think a little too much. In the books you still felt this looming sense of dread for her. But the death of the Tickler and her realization of her newfound power is well done.

Overall, this is a very solid episode that really moves everything along. In fact, we have most of the threads present, even if only briefly. The only major players left out are Robb and Jaime. Poor Jaime, he really doesn’t get much to do in the first half of A Clash of Kings. And with the credit roll we are halfway through the whole season. I can’t believe it, and I can’t imagine how they are going to cram it all in. Really, we needed at least twelve episodes!

P.S. In what is perhaps a GOT first, there is no sexposition at all.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 14
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 13
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 6
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Arya, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 14

Apr22

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 14 – April 22, 2012

Title: Garden of Bones

Summary: Best episode yet, hands down

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This week is pure tension and creep. Plus, lots of new developments. We see this first in the credits with the appearance of both Harrenhal and Qarth. Then cut to some Lannister guards at a camp, providing comic relief. Then in what is now classic Game of Thrones combat minimalism, about a one second “battle.” On the field of carnage (after skipping all the action) Robb shows he’s his father’s son. But we meet lord Bolton (the flayed man) and know he sure isn’t. This introduces a bit of a torture theme. Robb also meets a girl, a nurse. Could this be some kind of substitute for Jeyne Westerling? Or the girl herself? I’m thinking so, given that she got about three minutes of screen time, which is a lot for a bit player. Achem, Ros I’m looking at you.

Then we cut to Westeros’ biggest villain, blond baddie Joff the Toff. He’s so mad at Robb that he’s willing to threaten and strip Sansa. Or is this his MTV? Torture again? But Tyrion rushes in to the rescue. Bronn suggests Joff may just be suffering from a case of blue balls and Ty sends in the every present Ros and another girl (we saw her before, with the Maester I think). This does not go well. Joff gets his rocks off a different way. Torture definitely. Pretty nasty actually. In an implied way. This development is slightly new from the books. In character, but more in depth. Most of the people in GOT are full of shades of gray. Not so with Joff.

Littlefinger is. And he works every angle. When he makes an offer to Renly is it true? A new game? Or just cover to talk to Catlyn? We may never know. Things don’t go so well with the ladies, first Margaery Tyrell then later with Cat.

Dany is still stuck in the waste (although not for long). Her rider returns and tells of a city just three days away. Is it me or do the bloodriders not look the least bit intimidating?

Then Arya. She approaches Harrenhal and we see it for the first time. It looks awesomely creepy. “What kind of fire melts stone? — dragon fire.” The place is a chamber of horrors, too. We hear rather than see someone being executed medieval style. As a student of such things and a visitor to the Museo de Totoro Volturi (Torture Museum of Volturi) I was guessing the rack. The squalid, chained, barefoot, caged conditions of Arya, Gendry, and Hotpie, however, are not left as much to the imagination. After being setup last episode, Arya is chanting her “revenge list.”

Littlefinger makes his play with Cat only to be justifiably and solidly rebuked. After his little speech to Ros, I feel no sympathy, but I almost joined Cat in tears when Ned’s bones are returned. This is an emotional episode. If I push the theme we can backshadow from the bones to torture.

Back to Ary. It seems the Mountain is picking one person a day to torture and execute. We meet his crew and his methods. They swapped out the Mountain actor and this new one is tall but thin. I liked the truly massive guy they had last year. The guy is supposed to be just huge. He wasn’t nearly big enough here. His torture is serious enough, the writers must also have visited the Museo because they dragged out the “rat torture” (only follow the link if you have the stomach for it — haha). This is half left to the imagination in the show, but it’s really bad. Check out the link if you dare. This link even has a picture (be warned). These Harrenhal scenes are full of creep and torture.

Stannis meets with Renly and Cat. The older brother is a cold fish and the younger is pretty funny. Sigh. Some good lines there: “And to think, I used to love him.”

Dany arrives at Qarth. The gates don’t look like much, but I like the costumes of the thirteen. This scene felt a little weird until Xaro saved it. I instantly liked him, his blood oath, and most importantly, the CGI view of the city through the gates. That was worth the price of admission for the whole episode alone for a fantasist like me. It looked awesome, like a Hanging Gardens of Babylon capriccio (see what I mean to the right).

More Arya. Perhaps shes a major reason this is such a great episode. Uh oh, the Mountain has picked Gendry for a little rodent love, but have no fear, Lord Tywin to the rescue. Like son, like father. Shades of gray. We see the man’s pragmatic nature. Although it is worth noting that this is a change from the books, a bit of cast compression perhaps.

Speaking of the son, Tyrion is in perfect form when his cousin Lancel comes to visit. He dances circles around the lackwit and provides us with the usual slew of brilliant lines: “an anointed knight” or “I would say I hadn’t hurt a hair on his head, but strictly speaking, that would be a lie.”

Davos and Stannis talk on a ship (which looks cool with a bull’s head on the front). Boring, even if we get a hint of the Onion Knight’s backstory. Still, when Davos takes the Red Lady into the cave on shore we get pregnant hottie AND the birth of a demonic shadow creature! What could be a better  ending? Actually, I’m glad to see some of the show’s more supernatural elements getting a bit more of an amplified CGI treatment. I love me a good dark ritual. And torture (when properly used in fiction— leave it out of real life).

p.s. Why don’t we see any reaction from Tyrion to Joff’s “message”? It stood out as odd.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 6
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 8
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Arya, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Davos, Game of Thrones, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Robb, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 13

Apr15

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 13 – April 15, 2012

Title: What is Dead May Never Die

Summary: The wait from week to week is tough

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Intros are over (almost) and things are really starting to rock and roll. What is Dead May Never Die is certainly the best episode yet of the new series. No small part to focusing a little more tightly on a few storylines. Robb, Dany, and Stannis are all missing, but we have lots of Tyrion.

The John Snow thread moves just a tiny bit, with resolving last week’s cliffhanger with John a bit too easily. The writers take a scene to setup Gilly and Sam’s relationship and then move on to Winterfell. Bran explains his peculiar dreams to the Maester. I like that the chains come into it, but I wonder how much new viewers will get of this.

Then we finally come to Renly. Seems he has already married the lovely Margaery Tyrell, played by the Tudor’s Natalie Dormer. She’s well cast, even if a few years too old of the book version of her character. And Briene. Wow, that’s some hulk of a woman. What is she, like seven foot? Perfectly cast too. While short, this tourney looked much less dinky than the season 1 version, mostly due to a single establishing shot. Renly puts on a good show, but literarily and figuratively. But Cat is not so easily fooled.

Then Theon confronts his sister and is schooled by his father. Uh oh, seems he needs to make a choice. Old family or new. Things are never easy!

The middle part of the episode shows Tyrion coming into his own and wrestling with the political forces in the capital.  But first Shae is restless and he’s putty in her hands, but back in the palace he’s tough as nails. Cersei tortures Sansa a bit more and she is starting to wonder who she is. But when Shae shows up as her new maid, she isn’t exactly showing her best side. In this way, the episode appears to be about choices. Each character is faced questions of loyalty and role.

And so Tyrion tempts each of the three capital conspirators with a different story. Maester Pycelle, Varys, and Littlefinger. The parallel structure of the scene is quite amusing.

Speaking of choices, Renly is in his tent, first with Loras, and then with his sister. Boy or girl? Pleasure or duty? In the earlier scene’s Natalie’s Margaery was a little flat, but here not only is she gorgeous (and we see plenty of her), but when she exposes her awareness of the situation that scheming little smile is perfect. Interesting that Renly is so torn, finding it so difficult to deliver on the practical realities of his responsibilities.

Tyrion does continue to try and talk some sense into Cersei, but she isn’t listening. Which too, is a choice. And Theon. He finally makes his, and we find him baptized to the Drowned God.

Tyrion continues to play his hand deftly. His ruse has flushed out the spy in the council. But perhaps he knew all along. He makes good with Littlefinger and Varys (more or less) and deals with Pycelle. The old man is so annoying one can’t  help but enjoy seeing him get a bit of comeuppance. The writers take the time to remind us that Tyrion has a soft spot for whores. Still, the best is Varys’ little speech about power. I love how the show (and the actor) hand this nuanced character. He was great last season and continues the streak.

Finally, we get to Arya, my other favorite. After building up Yoren a bit, the Lannister forces arrive and he too makes his choice, proving to be quite the badass. “I always hated crossbows.” Poor Arya’s guardians don’t have a very good survival rate. The battle that ensues is both well choreographed, graphic, disturbing, and touching. Lorch’s men don’t quite yet have the nasty nasty feel from the book, but they’re getting started. Poor Lommy. A powerful end.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 6
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 7
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, HBO, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Natalie Dormer, Roleplaying, Tyrion, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 12

Apr08

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 12 – April 8, 2012

Title: The Night Lands

Summary: The wait from week to week is tough

ANY CHARACTER HERE

After suffering through the week, Sunday night, Game of Thrones, night arrives. After last week’s tease, we open with Arya (finally). I liked Jaqen H’ghar (the civil man in the cage) but I have to wonder why they didn’t make one of the others noseless. I always liked that nasty detail. Loren is fun with the knife though. Then it’s on to everyone’s favorite, Tyrion, and in combo with Varys, even better. The fishpie jokes are classic. “I don’t think he likes fishpie.” Classic.

Then the small council gets Robb’s terms. Then back to Crastor’s keep with some more fun between the crows. Sam and the whole woman angle is amusing. Then Gilly temps him, and we see Jon taking last week’s lesson from the commander seriously. Dany receives an unpleasant gift in the waste. Her whole part in A Clash of Kings isn’t huge, so I suspect we will only see her briefly in most episodes.

Essentially all of the above scenes are finishers from the previous episode. Last week we only set up the positions of the pieces on the board, and it needed at least an hour and a half to even do that. We still havn’t even seen Renly (and we won’t this episode)!

But with Theon approaching his homeland (Pyke) the plot begins to move a bit. And so does the sexposition. As usual he’s laying into some poor girl. I like that she isn’t even that attractive. The view of Pyke is awesome though, with the castle split into four or five parts. The shores of the Iron Islands (achem, Northern Ireland) look good. Then talking about sexposition, we cut to a mysterious sex on sex bit in one of Littlefinger’s brothels. The momment with the wiping of the mouth and the kiss is perfect though. So gratuitous, but awesome. Then we have Littlefinger venting his frustration with Cersei on Ros. I hate Ros, but they are giving a little more nuance than the books to the personalities of some of the King’s Landing players.

After Jonas Slynt perpetrated his baby stabbing last week, we can’t help but cheer to see Tyrion set him up. The scene gives a nod to his lame squire Podryck, but I doubt new viewers will notice. Bronn gets a big promotion here he didn’t in the books, cutting the lackluster character of Jacelyn Bywater. Arya (along with Tyrion) is one of my favorite characters and I’m glad to see more or her, but we still only get the one first scene and a second here with some nice development between her and Gendry. One does wonder how he is the only one who thinks she is a girl.

Then the delicious irony of Theon’s return home. He shamelessly (SPOILER) fails to recognize his own sister and then feels her up. The whole Greyjoy look of the castle (although they skipped the windy, scary bridges) is great. And even better is Theon’s shock at the culture contrast. I love how he’s become a man of gold instead of iron and his father knows it. They changed his sister’s name for some reason but I like that she’s young.

After this, we return to Davos bringing pirate Salador on at Dragonstone. Salador is funny, and Davos is fine, but I still find this thread a bit dull — just as I did in the books. Not so with Tyrion and Cersei tearing into it. The writers have continued to develop the angle where Cersei has lost control of Joff (he ordered the slaying of the bastards). This isn’t fully stated in the books but adds some complexity to her choices.

And they continue new things when we return to Stannis and Melisandre. Maybe this was implied in the books. Maybe not, but it sure is explicit here. I just have to say that map table sex has to be a literal pain in the ass. And a final bit of extrapolation has Jon Snow follow Craster out into the woods to witness him offer a baby to the white walkers. This act was implied in the books, but I don’t remember any actual trip into the woods, and certainly not the little cliffhanger that ends the episode.

But I’m not a purist. I think most of these changes are for the better, emphasizing and clarifying things that Martin leaves half said. Some of the character count reductions are a loss, but I understand why they need to do it. If they don’t slice fairly harshly by season four we won’t see some threads but once every three weeks. As the show faded to black all I could think was “damn, I have to wait another week!”

or See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 6
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 7
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings, Craster, Davos, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 11

Apr01

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 11 – April 1, 2012

Title: The North Remembers

Summary: Amazing!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

It is with great relish and anticipation that I sat down to devour the first episode of Season 2 of Game of Thrones — and it didn’t disappoint. Like many of the earlier episodes in season 1 this is an establishing episode where we rotate through the players and put into place who is where on the board. But it does suffer a bit from Martin’s widely expanded scope in A Clash of Kings. There are so many characters in so many different places that we see each major thread exactly once, for what is usually two scenes. Arya we barely see at all, only for a tiny shot at the end, and Renly not even that. Only Cersei and Joffrey get multiple segments as they are at the center of things in King’s landing. This left me licking my lips, like after two sips of wine. I can’t help but feel the season would have been better served by twelve hours and a two hour premier.

Still, I have no major complaints. Already I’m getting the feeling that the producers have taken steps to address a couple of my major problems with season 1 (and don’t get me wrong, I adored it). The shots felt bigger. The new King’s Landing feels a little different, and certainly larger, and it’s vaguely obvious they moved from Malta to Dubrovnik. It looks more coastal now, with the sea close at hand. Malta is an Island, but it didn’t feel that way in the show. There are also several notable dire wolf shots in the first episode. All CGI, but who cares, I’m just glad to see the wolves. Although where was Ghost?

Tyrion is awesome as always, I just wish we had more of him. Two young veterans from Skins are in evidence too (Gendry and Craster’s daughter Gilly). Joffery is not only as unloveable as ever, but actually seems to be getting more nuance than in the books and hence Cersei also. I really like the way it’s showing him getting away from her. With what he does to Dontos they take a page from Caligula (I can’t remember if it went that way in the books). The new characters are fine. Stannis comes off as cold an ass as he should. Davos seems likable, although it’s hard to tell in three minutes. The sad enter of his Maester though lacked any real punch as there was no time in the abbreviated version to actually build any sympathy for him or his position. I’m still cold on Melisandre. I’m no big fans of the whole Stannis sub-plot in the books. And one wonders why the hell we have Ros in here  at all, and how a provincial whore from the backwaters of Winterfell is suddenly the high and mighty mistress of a King’s Landing brothel. And that scene starts off the most significant change from the books (SPOILER ALERT) an early purge of Robert’s bastards. Perhaps it’s just the producers trimming down the cast or perhaps it’s just add even more drama and menace.

All in all, I just want to see more. But we have to wait a week, sigh.

Some clips from this episode can be found here

or See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 8
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 4
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, episode 11, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Season 2, season 2 episode 1, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

More Game of Thrones CGI

Aug05

My post showing Game of Throne’s transparent CGI was wildly successful (over 25,000 views on my site alone). Apparently its been popular across the web at large because the SFX company released another video of even more.

Particularly interesting is how many of the weapon strike shots (getting stabbed, speared, shot etc) are all added in with CGI. Traditionally this was just done with quick cuts, trick weapons, and fake blood. Now, evidently, it’s cheaper (and better looking) to just have the actors pantomime the response and fill in the weapon and gore. All those latex horror effects guys must be out of jobs!

This is a very effective means of conveying what they’ve done, and also shows you how weird the rough cut of the show must look without the visual effects. And, also tells you why they need six months after wrapping filming to get the show out!

You can check out the first video here, or

my reviews of each episode of Season 1 of Game of Thrones (the HBO series):

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9, 10]

Read my review of A Dance With Dragons.

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  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Computer-generated imagery, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, SFX, Song of Ice and Fire, Special effect, Television, Television program, Visual effects

Game of Thrones – CGI

Jul29

This is a very interesting little video showing off how the Game of Thrones locations are built up using Computer Graphics, substituting effectively for matte painting in traditional film.

In my extensive reviews of the show one thing I’ve noted is that the “foreground” CGI elements are a little thin. There aren’t much in the way of magical swirls, lightning bolts (LOL) etc. The backgrounds however are incredibly lush — and subtly so, bringing to life the rich and detailed world. This video shows the intricate relationship between the art of the location scout, the set dressers, overall planners, and the CGI team. Pretty impressive!

Also don’t miss this second video with more effects, this includes a lot of action shots (getting stabbed, etc).

Read my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – The Houses
  2. Making Game of Thrones
  3. Inside Game of Thrones
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire, CGI, Computer Graphics, Computer-generated imagery, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Matte painting

A Dance With Dragons

Jul24

Title: A Dance With Dragons

Author: George R. R. Martin

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 959 pages, circa 400,000 words

Read: July 12-23, 2011

Summary: Awesome, but not without issues.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

My charge through book 5 of Martin’s epic fantasy series was a bit drawn out by my need to concentrate on the second draft of my new novel Untimed, but I finally finished. Before I launch in, it should be noted that this review is full of spoilers.

Dance is huge, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pages. This itself is actually a welcome and comforting fact because these books are something to savor. Overall, I would rate this volume as better than A Feast of Crows and slightly worse than the first three. Still, it’s a fantastic book. Prose-wise, Martin is still a master at both people, places, plotting and reversals. It’s just that this book suffers from a few pacing and structural issues.

Most of these stem from his controversial decision to pull out half the characters from the bloated manuscript of Feast and push them into Dance by themselves. So the first two thirds of the new book is everyone who didn’t get a turn in Feast. Now, for the most part, this saved the best for last. Dany, Jon, and Tyrion make up the bulk of the book, particularly this first two thirds, and they are some of my favorite characters. But overall this leaves both Feast and Dance feeling a little more threadbare than the first three books. Personally I think he would have been much better off winding out the story chronologically, trimming out some useless threads (Aeron Damphair, Victarion, and probably the Dornes), and rearranging the plot so as to have some kind of sub-climax at the end of each book.

As it is, Dance reads excellently for the first 2/3, feeling fairly focused on its three mains. But it’s weird to rewind in time and revisit certain happenings from Feast from the other side (for example Sam leaving the Wall). When we get to the cut off point, however, some of the characters from Feast start to weave back in. This mostly has the effect of slowing the narrative and making it more diffuse. At least until the set of cliffhangers and deaths that come in the final chapters.

I also think that Martin is letting his pacing slip a bit. It’s not that each chapter isn’t entertaining and well written — they are — but many threads there have multiple chapters where the happenings could’ve been collapsed without loss. If we hadn’t known a few of those details were there, we would never have missed them. Worse than the pacing issues, however, is a weirdly increasing fondness for skipping some of the big moments. Now Martin has always done that (the Red Wedding, the “death” of Bran & Rickon, etc) but it’s worse than ever. He has a real tendency to build slowly toward a big event, then skip the event itself, showing what happened to the characters obliquely through other eyes at a much later point.

I’m going to go through some of my opinions and analysis thread by thread.

Prologue

I don’t really understand why fantasy authors are obsessed with these. It was kind of interesting, but didn’t advance anything.

Jon

His thread is fine (until the end), but it does feel a bit static. While he’s certainly grown into command, he mostly sits back at the wall and fields interference between factions (Stannis, his queen, the Red Priestess, the Wildlings) etc. Then at the end, he mysteriously decides to rush off to Winterfell. This is a move that makes no sense as he has refused to enter into family entanglements about six times before, and while he is goaded, there is really less at stake for him. Then out of nowhere comes a reaction to this decision that leaves us in a bad cliffhanger. Boo.

Tyrion

The Imp is funny as always and now I can hear Peter Dinklage cracking each and every droll line. Still his thread is also a little dragged out, although it does involve some great sightseeing and is certainly entertaining all along. In the first part of the book it feels like he (and everyone else) is heading toward Dany, but then he gets within inches and turns back. Using him to introduce us to Griff and “Young Griff” is however an excellent device and works much better than an extra POV would have. It is mostly through Tyrion and Dany that we get a sense of the complex and old slave societies of the mainland. Unlike Westeros which feels like late Medieval England, these realms feel more like the ancient east (perhaps an updated Babylon vibe).

Dany

Her chapters are mostly political. She does feel a bit passive. I don’t really understand why she doesn’t try to get a handle on her dragons earlier, this is obviously a key move which could trump all of her political problems. Instead she dicks around (literally and figuratively) with various factions. This is all fairly entertaining, but feels like treading water. Then “a big event occurs” (at least this one is on screen) and she rides off on Drogon. That’s all great, but her narrative disappears until the last chapter. When it returns nothing is resolved at all, but a new out of the blue cliffhanger is introduced. I do really like the world of Meereen and the slave cities, although it feels like we are lingering here a bit long.

Barristan

The hero serves to replace Dany as the POV in Meereen. He’s actually a great POV character with all his lingering thoughts about events during and before Robert’s Rebellion. I really enjoyed his chapters. But they didn’t come to any resolution.

Theon

The hier to the seastone chair returns to us, a few bits worse for the wear. I hated Theon in books 2 & 3, but I enjoyed his chapters immensely here. His transformation into Reek and back again is very deftly handled, with a very proper (and sordid) period quality. It isn’t for no reason that Tarantino used the phrase “medieval on his ass” and that is exactly what the Bastard of Bolton has done to Theon. His pseudo redemption is good. Still, we have classic Martin avoidance of the action with the actual escape from Winterfell. In the cut between Theon jumping from the wall into the snows and his delivery to his sister is a big blank. Not that we needed the travel, but whatever battle happened at Winterfell needed some detailing.

Asha

I could have lived without her POV. It mostly serves to fill in some parts of Stannis’s story when he leaves the wall. The technique is sketchy and I ended up having no idea what really happened during his brutal snowy march and the seige of Winterfell. This I thought was the weakest part of the book structurally, as I’m basically confused.

Quentin and the Dornes

Cut! Dull for the most part, except for some info about the cultures they traveled through. I couldn’t have cared less for these characters. The attempt to steal a dragon was interesting, but was also vaguely described. I’m thinking that Martin, for all his brilliance as a character and world builder, isn’t actually the best at action scenes.

The Dorne chapter back in Dorne: It was okay, but we didn’t really need it.

Jaime

This sucked. I like Jaime’s POVs, but this single chapter had a bunch of crap, followed by one of those annoying Martin reveals that just serve to highlight the gap in information. Brienne returns and they ride off. You don’t find out how she escaped her predicament, what she knows, anything. It just kinda sucked. The effect of her cliffhanger was entirely spoiled.

Cersei

These were pretty good, and I enjoyed seeing her get hers. Martin certainly knows how to throw in the creepy little details so your mind fills in the rest.

Victarion

Cut! I could have lived without these, and they basically just told you he was heading off to Dany with a horn and a Red Priest. Although he’s better than his brother — I’d take any chapter over Aeron Damphair.

Arya

These were great. I have no idea where they’re going, but that’s fine. Arya has always been one of my favorites. Give us more. To be honest it felt like these were the chapters that should have gone in Feast and this the conclusion that book should have had for Arya’s thread. Probably that was Martin’s original plan.

Bran

His chapters were good, but so little, and it all felt dropped as his last chapter is about midway in the book.

Davos

I’ve never been a fan. I think we could have just had these told by raven.

Epilogue

This was actually very good, really being a Kevan in King’s Landing chapter in disguise. I loved the return of Varys at the end — particularly his dialog.

Some observations: There is more magic of sorts in this volume. Martin has a real thing for nubile slave girls — but then again, what self respecting fantasist doesn’t? The scope of this book, with it’s gigantic foreign cities reminiscent of the ancient world is going to make for some hard adapting should the TV series get this far. As I noted in my series reviews the show already has problems with handling large scale people scenes. These slave cities and the like will make that even harder. Likewise with the slave sex and slave violence. I’m all over it (in fiction) but some of it will undoubtedly have to be cut/changed. Sigh. I like that Martin at least highlights some of the sad reality of actually being a nubile slave girl.

Overall, Martin’s books are among my all-time favorite novels. I enjoyed the book immensely, and eagerly await the the next volume (and I’m sure I’ll be waiting for a long time), but I can’t help but think it could have been SO much better if Martin had taken all the material in both Feast and Dragons and reedited them together into two chronological and slightly leaned down volumes.

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Related posts:

  1. Inside Game of Thrones
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  3. Game of Thrones – The Houses
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
By: agavin
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Posted in: Books
Tagged as: A Dance with Dragons, A Feast for Crows, A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm of Swords, Fantasy, Fiction, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, High fantasy, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Novel, Novel Review, novels, Peter Dinklage, Television program
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