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Archive for Jon Snow

Game of Thrones – Episode 55

May23

20160226073939!GoT_season_6_official_posterShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 55 – May 22, 2016

Title: The Door

Summary: The Hodor thing alone makes this the best episode this season so far

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.

The Wall – These “multiple combined character threads” are often good, and certainly true of the new Jon/Sansa/Brienne/Davos/Red Lady plot line. This week, we open with Sansa sewing, playing direct homage to our first shot of her way way back in Episode 1 (no Jar Jar, not that episode 1). But season 6 Sansa receives a note, signed with Littlefinger’s distinct bird sigil. She asks the locals how far Mole’s Town is, and then goes there to meet him with Brienne as backup. Now, as to how Littlefinger teleported himself  and his army from the Vale all the way north is anyone’s guess. We don’t see the “knights of the vale” anyway, as the production is saving money for the big zombie attack later in the episode.

But back to the Sansa/Littlefinger face off. Not only is she a lifetime older than that “silly girl” sewing at Winterfell, but her year with Ramsay has taught her a lesson or two. Her back and forth with Littlefinger is biting and she sums it up with “If you didn’t know [about Ramsay], you’re an idiot. If you did know, you’re my enemy.” It’s always hard to know much about Littlefinger’s except that he’s always out for himself (and that he’s always well pressed even after galloping breakneck across the country). Still, if I had to guess, he suspected about Ramsay, but decided to throw the dice anyway. He apologizes as usual, not the first time we’ve seen him making hollow apologies. Not even the first time to a Stark lady. Sansa really delivers with her speech, hinting at the horrors Ramsay inflicted on her. Really, given how bad he’s been on screen, we can only guess what nastiness he was up to when the cameras weren’t rolling. Sansa turns down Littlefinger’s offer of help and sends him packing, but he does throw her an informational tidbit by letting her know the Blackfish has formed an army and retaken Riverrun. And for good measure Littlefinger tries to throw sow some discord with Jon Snow.

GOT605_080315_HS_DSC_00971-630x419

Master and Student

Back in castle black, the whole gang sits down for a pow wow. Tormund seems distracted giving Brienne the most amusing leers while the rest of them try to figure out where they can drum up enough troops to take out Ramsay. They discuss the various houses and their loyalties. The Umbers obviously are a poor choice. Manderly might be a likely candidate since it’s mentioned and features in the books (Davos goes there). Sansa mentions the Tully army, but pointedly lies about how she knows about the Blackfish (saying she heard it at Winterfell).

Sansa later orders Brienne to the Riverlands to seek her uncle. I guess we know where Jaime is going next too — that’ll be cool. And Brienne takes Sansa to task for lying about where she found out. Brienne isn’t much of a talker, but she is a keen observer. I like her Jon Snow comment, “a bit brooding perhaps.” Lol.

Later Jon, Sansa, Davos, Mel, Tormund etc. prepare to leave. Sansa has a new Direwolf dress she has sown herself and gives Jon a wolf pelt cloak like Ned once wore. We might be gaining in wolf outfits, but we’re certainly losing on the actual wolf front :-(. Jon and Edd exchange bro hugs and the party rolls through the Caste Black gates. Those bleak portals have seen plenty of comings and goings.

She is just SO his taste

She is just SO his taste

Arya – spars again with the Waif. Is that all she’s going to do this season? Anyway, again the Waif beats her up, even when she fights unarmed against the Arya’s staff. Again the Waif taunts her, in this case “You’ll never be one of us, Lady Stark.” But as usual, Jaqen H’ghar is more generous. He walks her around the giant columned “face room” and gives a vague backstory about the faceless men having founded Bravos then hands Arya another of those vials that spells the someone’s doom. In this case an actress named Lady Crane.

Hate the hair A

Hate the hair A

Cut to Arya with her ugly “tied up” hairdo watching a play that spoofs the basic elements of Season 1, namely the death of Robert and execution of her father. Interesting her different reactions to different elements, particularly the uncomfortably dumb Ned Stark (but his rhymes are funny). The play feels medieval enough with the fake “guts,” the dwarf etc. Except for the nudity. They didn’t even have female players until well into the modern era. And the distorted outside political interpretation is interesting, because you can imagine that easily, a spoof based more on the official “story” and less on all the real details. Political reporting wasn’t exactly accurate in this “period”. But back in the dressing room, where Arya spies on her mark, we are treated to both some male and female nudity — and the funny differences between the actors with and without their wigs.

Back at the House of Black & White Arya presents her killer plan to Jaqen, but her tone implies some hesitation about the justice of such an act. Apparently Faceless men aren’t really supposed to care.

Yara / Theon – Are gathered at the Kingsmoot, where apparently Ironborn elect their new king. He got a haircut and his old Kraken outfit back, so he looks more like Theon than we’ve seen in some time. There is still a haunted look to him and I really have to give Alfie Allen kudos for his subtle excellence in this rather complex role. Also apparently (or hopefully) only nobles attend the Kingsmoot because there don’t seem to be a great many Ironborn, perhaps 40. But on the bright side, they did choose a rather lovely, if austere, stretch of the Irish coast for their summit.

Yara steps up and makes her claim. She doesn’t have the greatest plan: build a great fleet. And then what? And there is some considerable foot dragging on account of her being a woman. Where are her die hard men now? Did they all die trying to rescue Theon? But when the time comes, Theon mans up and supports her — well eunuch ups anyway.

Moot point

Moot point

But then steps in Euron.

He’s not really charismatic on screen, although he does have a much clearer plan: build a big fleet AND then take it to Daenerys, marry her, and bring all her troops across. Much clearer too than in the books. He doesn’t have the Dragon Horn, which is kinda a shame because I love a good magic horn that can burn your lungs out. Still, horn or no, Euron easily wins over the “crowd” then we are treated to a strange intercut between his “coronation” (by drowning in salt water) and Yara/Theon tucking tail toward their boats. Good thing too, because King Euron’s first mission to is to find them and kill them. But looking out over the water they have sailed off with the fleet, which actually seems like about 75 ships. I guess each of those 40 guys is sailing two.

Euron isn’t phased, he orders “everyone” to get building ships. Really, I haven’t seen a lot of trees on the Iron Islands. Or a lot of people.

It’s worth noting that while broadly similar to the books, the written version is more complex with point of views from Aeron (the long haired priest) and an extra brother, Victarion, who is sent with the horn to go retrieve Dany’s dragons. The show plot is at least more obvious and now actually makes clear the whole purpose for the Ironborne, which is to provide Dany a mechanism to get her Unsullied and Dothraki across the narrow sea!

If only we knew what Dorne was for!

Driftwood crown

Joffrey got the pointy throne AND the good crown?

Dany – gazes out over a very attractive CGI view of Vaes Dothrak. Dario and Jorah are there, but this segment is all about her oldest protector. She tells him she has banished him twice, he has returned twice, but yet saved her life. Clearly she still has a soft spot for him (as most of us viewers probably do). He shows her his nasty arm, admits he loves her, then turns to leave. But she will not dismiss him, instead ordering him to “go find a cure” and meet her in Westeros. He and his horse and her and her army both ride off in different directions in front of the giant horse statues — which are really cool but a little big on the construction effort for Dothraki.

Dig my dermatitis?

Dig my dermatitis?

Tyrion – pow wows with Varys and crew and they discuss how violence is at a relative low since Ty’s 7 year plan with the masters. So far so good, but Tyrion has even more plans at diplomacy and lets in a High Priestess of the Lord of Light for an audience. She wears the same chocker as Melisandre. Wonder if she’s also an old crone? Anyway, an interesting dual verbal duel ensues in which Varys criticizes the priestess, she freaks him out with her magical knowledge, and Tyrion tries to make peace between all. Essentially it’s well done, evoking Vary’s creepy story about the sorcerer, his burning balls, and the freaky voice in the flame. One of the few things that we’ve ever seen shut the eunuch up.

New priestess in town

New priestess in town

Bran – has three segments, but the first opens in the tree cave (again!) and then instantly shifts to a location somewhere in the north (i.e. Northern Ireland). There is a giant Weirwood surrounded by standing stones. Children of the Forest cavort about in what initially seems pastural — until we see a human trussed up and a Child shoves an obsidian blade into his heart — then his eyes go blue. So another huge reveal: the Children made the White Walkers (via sacrifice magic) in order to protect their land against mankind! And it looks like they may be immortal because it looks like the exact SAME children as now, 40,000 years later.

Watching the big stab

Watching the big stab

Later, Bran is in the cave with summer, Hodor, and Meera. The 3 eyed raven dude is asleep in his tree, so Bran crawls for a bone-like root and decides to take a trip of his own. Things like that never go well. And in fact, he ends up at the same Weirwood with standing stones, which we can now see is arranged in that eerie spiral pattern the Walkers consider excellent for corpse-art. But the landscape is covered in ice and snow and Bran is witness to a horde of CGI zombies. I’m guessing this is present day, at Walker HQ. Bran wanders through the decaying crowd for some time, showing off the awesome visual effects. But eventually gets to the Night’s King and his White Walker goons on corpse-horseback. Like 20 year-old Ned the other week, they seem aware of him and the King grabs Bran’s arm, waking him up — to find his arm is marked with ice. Uh oh! Told you it wouldn’t go well. The raven is now also awake and informs him it’s time Bran must “become [the raven]” but he isn’t ready. His goof, it seems, has informed the Night’s King as to his whereabouts, summoned the big bad, and will allow him inside the sanctuary of the tree cave. Big uh, oh.

Don't dream of White Walkers

Don’t dream of White Walkers

So the Raven tosses Bran into another vision, again back at Winterfell where Ned is about to pack off for the Vale. Young Hodor is there. Meanwhile, back in the cave, Meera and Hodor are packing, then she has a bad feeling and runs to the door to find the army of the dead approaching. Out stroll the White Walkers and the Night’s King sends a ground shock tremor at them. She rushes back to try and wake Bran, yelling at Hodor to prepare the sled.

Meanwhile the children fireball the rushing army of the dead (using some sort of “forest grenade”). Then they raise a wall of flame which scares the dead, but the White Walkers just sort of wave an arm and walk through, allowing them to enter the cave. In season 4, the dead couldn’t at all, but apparently Bran’s f**kup has brought down the walls. The dead swarm the tree hill in CGI glory and start burrowing into the cave from above.

Forest Grenades for the lose!

Forest Grenades for the lose!

Inside, Hodor and Meera have Bran in the sled, but he’s still stuck in his dream version of 40 year ago Winterfell. Zombies break in. Meera and Summer dispatch the first ones, but in come the White Walkers spelling even further trouble. Meera hurls an obsidian spear at one and kills it, making her the third person (after Sam and Jon to do so), and why she doesn’t just use a bunch of those to kill all of them is anybody’s guess, but the zombies start to pile up and she retreats with Bran. Summer plunges into a big group of the dead and is overwhelmed and seemingly killed (a little unclear). Big bummer, since I love the direwolves and that leaves only Ghost and possibly Nymeria hiding in the Riverlands .Meera has been shouting at Bran and her voice is starting to penetrate into his vision. In order to get really moving down the tunnel she yells at him to Warg (mentally control) Hodor and he does, which results in BOTH real world Hodor and vision world young Hodor going all white eyed. As adult Hodor and Meera pull Bran down a giant root corridor toward the “back door” the dead swarm the tunnel in monster (haha) numbers. The Children of the Forest stand suicidally against them with their grenades and knives.

The Night’s King reaches the Raven (who obviously isn’t going anywhere) and whacks him with his big scimitar causing the Raven to disintegrate from Bran’s vision using a cool effect. Leaf, the only Child with a name, holds off the big rush of zombies by literally “jumping on the [forest] grenade,” allowing Bran and crew to push through the back door. She yells to Hodor to “hold the door.” He does, holding it (fatally) against the assault of hundreds of zombies. But this sentiment literally echoes across the connection between him and Bran and between young and old Hodor sending the young one into a fugue state in which he cries out “hold the door. hold the door. hold door. hold door. hodor. hodor.” And as such, the moment of his own death and sacrifice is looped back over 40 years to become his very nature and his fate as a one world half idiot! Wow!

Hold the door. Hold door. Hodor!

Hold the door. Hold door. Hodor!

This twist was both emotionally wrenching and incredibly clever on GRRM’s part (the producers admit it’s a book detail). Hodor, if you remember, is a season / book one character, and that means that in the early mid nineties GRRM had the idea to create this character who’s very fate (not yet even published 20+ years later) defined his nature. Sure he didn’t need to know WHICH door Hodor would hold, but he had the idea he’d go out holding SOME door. Very cool thread left into to pull much later.

It’s also worth noting that these scenes, like with the fireball scenes at the end of season 4 and the giant Hardholme fight have a bit of a different feel from most of the rest of the series as they ratchet up the fantasy level to a higher level. Not that this is bad, certainly not by my taste, but some less fantasy minded viewers might feel differently.

 

Episode body count: Summer, Hodor, 3 eyed Raven, apparently all the remaining Children of the Forest, one Walker, lots of zombies, and Yara’s bid for the Salt Throne.

So overall, probably the best episode of the season so far. Again this is one of those episode that concentrates on a few overlapping threads, making it feel more coherent and less jumpy than some. The Wall, Bran, and to a lessor extent the Kingsmoot dominate.

The title is pretty obvious and apropos. We won’t forget The Door any faster than the Red Wedding.

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]

game-of-thrones-young-hodor

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 52
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 45
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 27
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

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 50

Jun19

Melisandreseason-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 50 – June 14, 2015

Title: Mother’s Mercy

Summary: Grim but great

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.

Stannis – We start our series of thread wrap ups with Mr. Grim and and Grammar, Stannis. Things are thawing at Camp Snowbound, and Melisandre claims success in her murderous spells, but Stannis isn’t showing her any love. Still, he is a man on a mission and commands they march. But some officer informs him half the men have deserted and taken the horses with them. Another comes and leads him to the forest where they find his wife, the unlikeable Lady Selyse, who has hung herself. Obviously she isn’t as good at compartmentalization. He cuts her down but Melisandre is somehow realizing that she either misread the Lord of Light, or his divine brightness urgently wants her elsewhere, as she hops on a horse and gets out of town fast.

Later, Stannis’ ragtag remainder of an army marches up toward Winterfell. I guess it was right over the ridge as they supposedly had no food or horses. This is intercut rapidly with Brienne and Sansa’s threads, but I’ll leave the Love Luckless Stark’s for a second. But Pod notices the Stannis forces and runs to tell Brienne. They gather weapons.

Brienne-kills-Stannis-Official-HBOStannis orders up a siege, but he gets instead a big cavalry charge from the Boltons (presumably under the command of Ramsay). The horsemen surround and outflank his meager forces in a nice CGI maneuver and we are left with a few quick shots of this horrendous defeat. Oh, and in case we had any doubts that Ramsay was a sadistic scum, we see him torturing a few helpless Baratheon soldiers.

Stannis is fight off a few Bolton troops in the forest. He’s tough, so he kills them, but he takes a bad wound to the leg and slumps against a tree. Out of nowhere Brienne appears. Ready for revenge at last. She accuses him of using blood magic to kill his brother Renly, and Stannis, ever in character, admits it. Really this is just sad sad for Stannis. He’s made the most horrible sacrifice ever for what he wants, and it’s proved to be worse than useless. He’s done. When Brienne sentences him to death he almost welcomes it with another typical droll Stannis one-liner, “Go do you duty.” She swings the sword, but we are left without seeing the death itself. It’s enough to make us wonder.

This is all slightly advanced of the completely unclear bit in ADWD. Consistent though, even though Brienne has no part in the book version of those events. And it’s so grim and dark. Bad choices. And what the hell was the Red Lady’s game? Did she read things wrong? Or is this how she wanted to to play out?

stannisSansa – meanwhile has used the corkscrew (barrel tap or whatever) she snagged during Ramsay’s walk of horrors to pry open her door while Evil Bastard (literally) is away playing hide the sword in the back with Stannis. She sneaks all over the castle, avoiding looking anyone in the eye, takes note of the Broken Tower and climbs. But she runs afoul of Myranda, Reek, and a bad case of bow-pointed-at-face. Myranda is psyched, to get a little revenge in before taking her back to her room, and somehow this pushes Theon over the edge where watching Sansa get wife-raped does not. He knocks Myranda’s bow aside and tosses her down into the courtyard. She isn’t as lucky as Bran and there is a distinctly satisfying smack as she hits the pavement. He hauls Sansa up onto the battlements and they are confronted with a 50 foot drop to some snow below. The pair is desperate enough to leap for it. We can presume that because Theon and Jeyne Poole made it out in the books, so do they.

GOT510_112614_HS__DSC20951Arya – We watch Meryn Trant get ready for another evening of brothel fun. This time he has three young girls and a stick to hit them with. Not only does he hit women. Not only is he a total jerk. Not only does he like little girls, but he wants to hit them too. This is about 3 extra reasons to kill him off. The last girl doesn’t scream when hit, and when we see her face it’s not Arya. Trant punches her in the gut and she changes into Arya Faceless Man style and goes all Hannibal Lector on him. She stabs him in the eyes and jumps all over him. Not only is it pretty crazy but it does make sense as a way for a smallish woman to take down a big warrior like Trant. She torments him for a bit and tells his who she is, calling him no one. This of course isn’t by accident as clearly she isn’t no one herself, but still Arya Stark. Then, unlike with Oberyn and the Mountain, his luck is up and she slits his throat.

Back in the basement of the House of Black & White she slips the girl’s mask back on the rack. Jaqen and the waif are there, however. Uh oh, caught unmasked. Jaqen tells her that she killed the wrong man and that the Faceless God demands a death, threatens her with the poison, then takes it himself and dies. She crouches down and rips off his mask to find a pile of other faces, and finally her own. They the waif changes her face into Jaqen and continues chastising her. Arya’s sight melts away and she is left blind — and more or less where she is at the end of A Feast of Crows. We have reordered slightly but this is all consistent enough with her isolated storyline.

All and all an excellent sequence, and while dark, at least not as bleak as some of the other threads. The magic of the Faceless Men is a little confusing. Did Jaqen put the wait up to playing him for a bit? Is he a spirit that may possess any of them? How did Arya’s face, symbolic as it was, end up on the bottom of the face pile? She after all isn’t dead and didn’t pass through the mask masking process.

GOT510_112014_HS__DSC09811Jaime – is getting ready to depart for Kings Landing with Trystane and Princess Myrcella (way too many M girls: Melisandre, Missandei, Myrcella, Myranda, Margaery!). For some reason the whole gang is there, including Doran, Hotah, Ellaria, and the sand snakes. Ellaria gives the Princess a big smooch on the lips and they get on the boat. Then in a cabin below decks Jaime has a nice bonding scene with his daughter where he awkwardly tries to admit she is his daughter, but she already knows. It really is very well played on both sides and you feel for him finally connecting to his children he’s had to ignore… then it all goes bad and her nose starts to bleed and she slumps into his arms.

the-kissBack on the docks Ellaria, nose also bleeding, is swigging some of Tyrene’s antidote. So the whole bit with Bronn and the poison now makes some sense, as it existed only to explain the whole poison/antidote thing. No wonder it felt strange. And all in all a very sad tragic thread in the middle of a sad tragic episode. Myrcella, although we didn’t know her well, was so sunny that it’s all the more depressing.

Tyrion and crew – hang out in the throne room (boy do they love that set). We have to wonder who mopped up the Harpies too. This scene is a bit of a throw-a-way as Grey Worm comes in and they all haggle about who will go after Dany and who will stay. In the end, it’s decided that Jorah & Dario go, and Ty, Grey Worm, and Missandei will stay and “rule.” There is a great line from Dario though, calling Grey Worm the “toughest man with no balls he’s ever known.”

After, Tyrion surveys the city and Varys teleports in behind him. Obviously he offered sexual favors to the guards. They have a typical fun exchange in which it’s agreed that Varys will lend his little birds to the cause of ruling Meereen. Clearly Ty and Varys are taking over for Barristan’s boring chapters in ADWD (while Dany is away).

Jorah-Daario-and-Tyrion-in-Meereen-Official-HBODany – speaking of the great Queen, she’s hanging out in North Ireland with Drogon who is doing his best to rest up on a bed of bones on top of a cliff. She tries for awhile to roust him and get back in the saddle but he’s having none of it, so she sets off to find some food. Interestingly, the show decided to keep her clothes on (in the books Drogon roasts them off her back). Anyway, somehow she climbs down the steepest cliffs ever and reaches the valley where she meets, one, three, then about a thousand Dothraki. They swirl about her in a CGI horde better looking than the season 1 horde ever was. She drops a ring as a breadcrumb (presumably Jorah/Dario will find it next year) and is surrounded. Second monarch to be surrounded by cavalry this episode alone!

Cersei – kneels before the High Sparrow/Septon to confess her crimes in the big scene we’ve all been waiting all season for. She actually isn’t very contrite or convincing and only confesses to boinking Lancel’s skinny ass — with excuses all the way. She blames the incest “lie” on Stannis, which the Septon seems not to mind (the maybe late king is after all a Lord of Light worshipping infidel). Perhaps the Septon is a fairly political after all. He tells Cersei they’ll sort it out during her “trial” but she can visit with her son back at home after her “penance.” So here comes the real work for Lena, as she is stripped naked (body double) and has her head shaved. Outside, in front of the Sept, she is made to walk naked through the entire city to the Red Keep. Some Sparrows keep the ugly (literally and figuratively) crowd at bay, the annoying nun chants “shame shame” over again. They trudge through Dubrovnik, particularly spending a lot of time in that  stair lined square right inside the uphill gate. It’s a hard walk and the show lingers on it. We have a lot of fake Lena full frontal (and back frontal) and she is pelted with dung and rotten food. Lena nails it. Cersei’s resolve slowly melts and crumbles until she nearly breaks and runs into the keep.

Cersei-begins-her-walk-of-atonement-Official-HBOThere, she meets the hard faces of uncle Kevan, Pycelle, etc. But Qyburn is there on her side. Not only does he have a blanket for her, but he has another gift: Mecha-Greggor or Franken-Greggor, or Ser Robert the Strong: the enormous silent (I like the vow of silence), rotting eyed, Kingsguard version of Greggor. Cersei gets that old nasty gleam back in her eye.

Given that the show has no access to Cersei’s inner monologue, this scene was extremely well done. As good as I could imagine.

cerseis-walkJon – has a final powwow with Sam, giving us a quick recap of the disaster from 2 weeks ago (Hard Home). He makes sure to point out that Longclaw is Valayrian steel, but that this still probably won’t be enough. Sam asks to be sent with Gilly and her baby to Old Town to study and be a Maester, skipping Bravos clearly, but getting him back on track with the books and setting us up for some Tarly action next season. I know that line about Old Town in the middle of the season meant something. And Sam’s reasons for leaving make sense enough (for him). Their chemistry is great as always, probably mostly because of Sam’s likability and acting chops. Jon knows they “did it” and they make some jokes about it. Like the Davos/Shireen convo this is setup as a sad farewell. Next, Sam and Gilly ride out of the gates because GOT loves to show people come and go — really people do it so much they kinda need too.

Much later, Davos shows up to pleads for help for the now probably dead Stannis. And after him the Red Lady shows too, which is all too convenient and Davos asks after the Queen and Princess. The silence he receives isn’t encouraging. We have to continue to wonder, what is her game? Why is she here? Is she on hand to raise someone who might soon be dead?

Speaking of which, Jon is having a hard time concentrating on his letters when Olly enters with news that Benjen Stark might still be alive. Sneaky, and very sneaky of the show to tease Benjen in the “previously on.” Straightforward guy that he is, Jon charges out Ned Stark style and runs into a crowd and Throne’s knife in his gut. They each say “For the Watch” as they stab him, Julius Caesar style. Olly puts the final blade in his heart. Sigh.

No sign of Ghost at all, not since he saved Sam and Gilly, so I think the Warging is off the table.

The Melisandre does the Dondarian on him option is still very much on the table. The producers and actor have gone to great lengths to declare him dead and gone. But the R+L=J breadcrumbs strewn liberally through this season seem really important. It just wouldn’t be like George (and even more so of D&B) to set that up for no purpose. So I have hope.

jon-is-dead

All in all, a awesome TV, but so dark. Hands down the darkest hour of GOT yet, even worse in some ways than the Red Wedding. The bodycount was high: Jon (probably), Stannis (maybe), Selyse (2 inches taller), Myrcella (likely), Myranda, Trant (good riddance), and the Waif. Even worse are the unsettled endings:

  • Jon probably dead, wall has exactly 1 friendly face: Edd
  • Stannis probably dead
  • Margaery, not even mentioned
  • Sansa/Reek in a snow drift
  • Myrcella poisoned, war with Dorne up in the air
  • Dany circled by hostile Dothraki
  • Cersei/Kings Landing balance of power
  • Bran, playing the tree
  • Rickon AWOL
  • Ramsay still alive!

So bleak it left me with that catharsis. But it was so well executed, and it’s rare that TV works this many emotional ups and downs. Sigh, the 9 month wait will be tough.

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]


HBO’s official inside the episode videos:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 49
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 46
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 47
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 45
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 48
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 50, Game of Throne, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, Mother's Mercy, Season 5, Season 5 Episode 10

Game of Thrones – Episode 48

Jun01

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 48 – May 31, 2015

Title: Hardhome

Summary: Zombie attack!

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.

Dany – entertains Ty and Jorah in you guessed it, her favorite, the throne room. And thus begins some first rate work by the ever excellent Mr. Dinklage. Dany is trying to tease out this new opportunity. A chance to string up an enemy? Or, as he offers, a new advisor to fill the roll vacated by Barristan and Jorah (even if he is in the room). Having perked up from his post murder funk, launches into an enthusiastic self sell. Dany puts him in the difficult spot of advising on what to do with Jorah (right in front of him) and Ty, using that perceptivity he (and the writers) are well known for, does what he does best, telling the truth as he sees it. He sings Jorah’s praises at the same time convincing Dany that she out to exile the poor guy again. So for a second time the (newly) old bear is given the boot and stuck back on the original GRRM track. He notes his grayscaled arm, decides he has little to lose, and marches right over to the gladiator boss to sell himself as the new great pit champion. Why he thinks showing off in the arena will win Dany back is anyone’s guess, or maybe he just hopes to die fighting where he can make her feel guilty.

Tyrion-and-Daenerys-in-her-throne-room-Official-HBO

Back in the lego throne room

Meanwhile, Ty and Dany sup in her second favorite set, the bedroom. Ty, long deprived of his favorite beverage pounds back the wine They bond over they’re shared shitty fathers. Tyrion does an amazing job with his little speeches and comes off perceptive as usual. Dany feels a bit more like the innocent girl. He talks about the different houses, weighing this one and that for what advantage it might yield her, and she retorts with her “I’m not going to stop the wheel, I’m going to break it” line that we’ve heard 1000 times on the previews. Interesting how these quotes are almost always in a slightly different context in the show itself. But Ty does his job and she takes him on as advisor, although not without getting a good joke in (about his drinking).

This dining scene was one of those awesome typically GOT banter scenes that rocked, much like Ty and Varys, or Olena and Tywin, etc.

GOT508_100814_HS_DSC_95951

This is the nicest chair Ty has sat on since Joff’s wedding night

Arya – is in the House of Black & White practicing her lies. Jaqen watches, switch in hand, ready to whack her at the slightest crack in her story. She imagines “Lanna” (Cat of the Canals in the books) as an orphan girl selling oysters and the like. The way in which Arya’s story segues into the visual coverage of her new roll though felt a bit odd for GOT. Was the first clip on the streets something that happened — flashbacks being very rare in the show — or her imagination of how it might happen. This POV inconsistency jolted me out of the moment, as much as I enjoyed seeing “Lanna” in her new outfit and hair. Her smile even seemed like a different girls, coming more freely then Arya’s mischievous smirk. Anyway, Jaqen steers her to the fish market and to what appears to be a cold-hearted naval insurance salesman with a taste for oysters. She is told to further investigate and given a Nameless God special brew for the guy. The jealously angle with the blonde initiate comes up again as she complains to Jaqen that Arya isn’t ready.

In not entirely clear on the role of the temple here — other than in setting up this guy’s death, which is obvious. Did one of his wronged customers pay them to knock him off? Is it an assassination business? Or is there a justice component? But regardless, even at 2-3 minutes, this was a fun little bit of Arya time.

There is a girl under there!

There is a girl under there!

Cersei – Is not loving the dungeon time. The obnoxious Septa Unella has a simple but effective torture method of holding out water and demanding she confess. Loving Cersei getting a taste of the bad life. Eventually, Qyburn is admitted as a guest. We haven’t seen him in a while but he remains the only one strongly in the ex-queen’s camp and proceeds to info dump the goings on in King’s Landing so we can save the minutes and the money for the big zombie battle to come. Apparently Tommen is sulking in his room and not eating and Pycelle has summoned Kevan back from Casterly Rock to serve as hand of the king. Qyburn hints that Cersei should consider confessing to buy her freedom. He for one agrees with Karl Marx, faith is the death of reason. Cersei, however, hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.

Then Septa Unella gets back to withholding water again and she slips a few notches down. Her pride holds while the giant woman stays in the room, but she isn’t too proud afterward to lick the water from the filthy floor.

I still am not totally sold on this takeover by the faith of the normal apparatus of power. Yes, this kind of thing has happened historically, but it requires a complex infiltration of the fanatical in said power structure. The normal mode of this is that established rulers would surrender individuals at the second tier of power to the church in order to appease the fanatics and avoid excommunication and other political/social nastiness that the church hierarchy threatened. I can’t think of a scenario where (two) reigning queen(s) were imprisoned against the wishes of the king. But there are limits to showing this kind of religious fear in a the context of a show, particularly one with other focuses.

Not the Ritz

Not the Ritz

Sam and Gilly – continue to bond as works some salve onto his wounds. He asks how she is after their bone in encounter, and while she deflects his question, it’s a sweet evasion. Then Olly interrupts to help remind the viewers as to the purpose of Jon’s mission and the fact that he hates the wildlings because they ate his parents. Sam does a good job with the defense and I can’t tell if Olly has turned the corner or is being set up as a major ringleader in the et tu brute action that is to come.

Sansa – puts the emotional/verbal flaying knife to Theon next time he brings her dinner. She asks him why he did it, and she lays into him. Reek, for his part has sufficient self-loathing, and lays it bare, which lets him slip out the important little fact that the boys he burned weren’t actually Bran and Rickon. Uh, oh, bad Ramsay wouldn’t like Sansa knowing that little factoid.

But the Boltons – are busy downstairs plotting their defenses against Stannis’ invasion. He has cavalry, but they have tall walls. Ramsay isn’t one for sitting around waiting and suggests that if dad gives him 20 good men he might take the fight to the enemy (and leave a Feast for the Crows in an obvious book nod).

Guilt trip!

Guilt trip!

Jon – finally heads to Hardhome. I like that instead of making this a “Hardhome” only episode (like Blackwater or The Watchers on the Wall), the battle is essentially the second half. Anyway, Jon, Tormund, Edd, etc row into Hardhome. In the background is an armada of CGI ships and their destination is a giant glacier-front resort. The show pulls out the big bucks from the get go and really shows off the scope both in terms of extras and the vast CGI host.

One way boat trip?

One way boat trip?

The Wildlings for their part look on grimly as the party disembarks and the Lord of Bones marches up to provide a bit of opposition to the idea of getting together for a friendly chitchat. Tormund reacts to this, and importantly a personal insult, by literally beating the life out of the man. This serves the dual purpose of moving them along to their goal and of putting the Lord of Bones right back where GRRM had him (in the grave). Now some might say this is gratuitous writing, but really it isn’t so off from medieval Danish warrior code (aka Viking).

Speaking of Vikings, the big wooden building the pow wow moves into looks right off the set of that other less fantastical show. Inside are the “elders” including show invention “Karsi”, tough Wildling woman, a big Thenn, the remaining giant, and the like. Jon intros himself and like Tyrion early does a sales pitch. For Jon, he does a pretty good job of it. He and Tormund tag team back and forth selling the move south of the wall as the Wildling’s only chance at survival and the rest of humanities best bet at defeating the dead. Jon hands them over the dragon glass daggers from last week as a gift and confesses to killing Mance. At first this goes over badly, but Tormund leaps in with a save. Eventually, the woman comes over to their side, then the giant, leaving only the Thenn to balk. Well, apparently Karsi “fucking hates Thenns” too.

Kick ass and die

Kick ass and die

So about half the Wildlings load up on the army of CGI boats and start off for the bigger CGI boats in the distance. Karsi has a couple little girls that she packs off too, laying on the emotional baggage (uh oh for her).

Then the dogs start barking. If you’re living in a movie/show/book with monsters, get really worried when the dogs start barking.

A storm, or an avalanche, or who knows what form of white graphics is boiling over the far glaciers and pouring toward them. People start to rush the boats, the big Thenn slams the stockade gates shut, locking out hundreds of Wildlings who scream and cry then suddenly vanish. He peers through into the storm to be shocked by — surprise! — the undead! And so begins TV’s most epic zombie attack. Frantically, zombies hurl themselves at, through, over, and under the walls. Jon, Torund, the Thenn, Karsi, etc all hustle to the fight.

Wights-and-White-Walkers-coming-Official-HBO

Here come the dead!

What ensures is quite the epic battle, if a tad divorced from the political maneuvering that often dominates the show. World War Z combined with Dead Alive! Inside the Viking hut the giant and Edd fight another wave that pours through the ceiling. The shots of the giant pulling the skeletons off himself and stomping them, then bursting through the walls and stomping some more are totally awesome. Karsi slays, slays, then is finally confronted with a wall of the creepiest kid zombies ever, they overwhelm her physically and emotionally.

Super creep!

Super creep!

Up on the ridge line above stand the White Walkers on their dread steeds (my WOW Warlock has one of these!)

The Thenn and Jon go back into the hut after the dragon glass, but a White Walker joins the fray. After a bit of valiant effort, the Thenn crosses weapons with the creature and has his shattered by the cold, then is speared himself. Thus the principal that White Walker weapons can freeze and shatter normal ones is established. Jon looses his own sword, Longclaw, and spends a bunch of time dodging and bending away from the walker. Finally he grabs back his sword and blocks a blow — but it doesn’t freeze! As we know from the “previously on”, Longclaw is Valayrian steel. Apparently good stuff to have when fighting White Walkers because Jon slashes into the monster and HE shatters. So now in the show, two things do that, obsidian and Valayrian steel. I doubt that will be the case in the books, but who knows? (GRRM)

The Night’s King (that Walker with the icicle crowns on his head) glowers down at Jon and calls forth his signature move. A new army of zombies pours over the cliffs like water (or WWZ) to fall still below, then rise again. Very effective both for the Walkers and as a theatrical move. They just swarm the camp and anyone not on a boat heads toward one at full speed or ends up hacked, bitten, or clawed to death. The giant grabs up a huge burning pole and plays zombie cricket. Then covered in the creatures wades into the bay, which is a pretty great shot. Jon, Tormund and Edd manage to get on the last boat (good) thing and row out into the water. Seems zombies and Walkers aren’t much for swimming, but the Night’s King strolls out onto the docks, raises his hands, and in terrifying silence raises all the dead.

The series ultimate villain?

The series ultimate villain?

All in all, a pretty awesome episode. We have Arya, Cersei getting the shaft, Tyrion at his best, and then the ultimate TV zombie fest. Sure, the giant scale of the attack distances it a bit from the more intimate creepy of a scene like the one where Sam killed the Walker. That big action scene operates on a different vibe than the more personal or political scenes. Still, it’s an element that has always been a part of the show, all the way back to the very first scene of episode 1.

One of the most exciting hours this year!

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]

HBO’s official inside the episode videos:

 

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 39
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 45
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 27
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 47
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 46
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 48, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, George RR Martin, Hardhome, HBO, Jon Snow, Season 5, Season 5 Episode 8, TV review

Game of Thrones – Episode 47

May25

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 47 – May 24, 2015

Title: The Gift

Summary: In motion

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.

First off, I wanted to put forth my perspective on the flack that’s been flying around the internet with regard to the demon in the room at the end of last week’s episode: namely, Sansa’s rape. Regardless as to whether it was a necessary plot point or not, the objections to this scene feel to me like a bunch of pseudo-feminist posturing. True: rape is a horrible thing. But when you place this particular event in the context of the show’s characters and narrative it’s also a complex thing — and besides, why can’t shows show horrible things? GOT doesn’t try to paint the act as a righteous one! First of all, Sansa CHOSE to be in this situation. Now, that doesn’t mean she deserves it, but she chose to go North with Littlefinger. She chose again (and the show paused on that choice) to say the words when marrying Ramsay. She knew full well that she was absolutely definitely certainly without a doubt going to have to sleep with the foul creep that night. She didn’t know she’d have an audience, but she chose to take one for team Stark for her own (more sympathetic) purposes. Second, and in the context of the “historical/cultural” period, there is no such thing as rape inside the confines of a marriage bed. This is incredibly important. I’m not defending this, but it was (and still is) a pervasive way of thinking. In the late middle ages (and that includes Westeros) there really wasn’t any other way of thinking to be had. Marriage was an economic transaction and women and their sexual availability were on the balance sheet. Period. Pointing that out, in contrast to our more “enlightened” modern perspective, is interesting and useful. Everyone should know where we have come from and how far we still have to go. Anyway, I don’t think anyone is confused about the fact that Ramsay is a sadistic, evil, bastard in both the literal and figurative sense. That’s why he’s a VILLAIN. We all hope Sansa gets him up on that red cross herself.

The Wall – GOT sure loves a good departure scene. Jon packs up his men and horses, and trots Tormund out. Thorne and Oly give him the stink eye. Jon, plays the adult and even gives Thorne command. His one fan is Sam, who gives him a jiggly hug and some obsidian daggers (could come in handy if things get creepy).

Jon-Snow-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Even when leaving, Jon gets in a good brood

Meanwhile, Maester Aemon is lying on his death. Sam and Gilly attend, and he compares Gilly’s baby to Egg (who grew up to be the mad king Aegon — get it). Gilly knows he is dying but Sam lingers on a long river in Egypt. But he fades anyway. This might be Westeros’ first natural death. Some have been deserves, some sudden, some slow, many violet, but I can’t remember one from old age or natural disease. Anyway, Sam delivers the eulogy, which is well handled, and the crowd lights him up. How come he burns? Are all dragons immune to fire? Or just Dany? Or only when alive? Afterward, Thorne makes sure to remind Sam that he’s a bit short on friends. We book readers all know where this thread is going.

Next, Gilly is doing laundry when a couple (drunk?) black-shirts wander in and start up that lecherous prelude to bad stuff routine. Sam appears with a sword but is easily disarmed and takes a vicious kicking for it. The redouble their efforts to compromise Gilly’s virtual and Sam stands to courageously defend her (with what? he had a sword and that didn’t work for him). But Ghost materializes and chases the scum away. Nice to see Ghost but we have to wonder why he didn’t go with Jon. Also, for that matter, now that Jon is Lord Commander why haven’t we seen more of Ghost? Why doesn’t he have a nice wolf-bed in the Lord Commander’s office?

Sam-and-Gilly-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Sam finally gets lucky

Anyway, Gilly cleans up Sam later in his chambers. Their chemistry is good. They both don’t want the other to come to any harm. Gilly knows he means it and kisses him. Which leads to a highly clothed sex scene as she clambers on top of him for a little ride. I think she might find it a little suffocating the other way around. But truth is, in its way, this is a tender little scene. They really are alone. With Jon, Aemon, and their better friends gone, Sam is left with the thugs — and Gilly. But he’s going to have a hard time protecting her from the scum, so I wonder if they will head out to Old Town.

Stannis – Is taking his sweet time crossing from the Wall to Winterfell, and is now stuck in the snowstorm. Things are cold and grim — horses are dying. Davos councils retreat, but Stannis won’t have it. The Red Lady suggests she can fix the problem and ensure his victory if he just serves up Shireen as a nice BBQ. Stannis is not happy with that choice.

How many times can they argue

How many times can they argue

Dorne – Are somewhat pointless Southern episode continues with Jaime “imprisoned” in a fine room in the Watergardens. Hotah brings in his daughter/niece so she can prove to him that she really doesn’t want a rescue. The girl does a pretty good job of it and it’s a bit of a shock to poor Jaime, who had hoped to do the “right thing” by her. Now she’s all grown up and a petulant teen who he truly “doesn’t know.”

Jaime-and-Myrcella-Official-HBO

Not the reunion he was looking for

Bronn has less appealing accommodations down in the dungeons, but he does have a trio of attractive neighbors in the Sand Snakes, who he delights with his musical talents. One of them (I don’t bother keeping them straight), but the prettiest of the bunch, oddly decides to give him a through the bars lap dance. Why, I really have no idea. When he rises, it’s clear that the little dagger slice we saw last week — and in the previews — meant he was poisoned. And she tells him point blank. And gives him the antidote. All without him having to do anything or say very much. Why? Why poison him then cure him? Is he cured? Hmmm. Like many interactions that are written without much source material from GRRM it feels a bit hollow.

Dany – is getting on her own sexy time with Dario. In fact, this episode has a lot of that, with various levels of gentleness. Their in bed chemistry is fine, but he doesn’t actually do much from a plot perspective, just continue to offer hawkish suggestions like “round up all the masters and slaughter them.” Dany isn’t up for that style of ruling. Dario is also, not in the least surprisingly, jealous of Hizdahr zo Loraq (shades of Myranda, but different). Dany assures him she’ll keep putting out.

Meanwhile, both themes continue on when she accompanies Hizdahr to a trashy looking “lesser pit” to witness some good old gladiator action. More on this in a second, but let’s just say Dany isn’t a fan.

Daenerys-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

What’s with the white this season?

Jorah and Tyrion – are marched in chains to some slave auction in front of a lovely CGI background. Jorah is bid up for a high price, and when it looks to Tyrion like he’ll be left behind, he does what he does best, and talks. He does manage to win himself a (cheaper) buyout and head on with — but learns his place with a bit of a slap. Not sure I totally bought this sequence, but okay.

Next, in the fighting pits, Jorah is arming up and we learn that leading up to the Superbowl, men fight in the playoffs at lesser pits for a spot in the big event — or die. Reminded me of Spartacus. Some other guys are chosen and have a bit of a lame fight in front of Dany (above). Jorah, down in the dugout, hears them calling her name and rushes out with a helmet over his head. He makes short work of the whole lot of them while Tyrion desperately tries to get out of his chains. A mystery guy helps him by chopping them in half. Why? There seems to be a bunch of why in this episode. Anyway, he runs out too just as Jorah is pulling of his helmet to show himself to Dany. That’s quite the surprise (gift) and she isn’t pleased, but he offers up Tyrion, he is all for some gift wrapping (as opposed to chains). He tells her his name…

This is all much faster than in the books, and further along too because Tyrion and Jorah really miss her as she “takes off” at the end of ADWD. That part is good as the miss was very frustrating. But I would have liked to see Tyrion in the dwarf troop! I guess we will have to wait until next week to find out how this plays out.

Dynamic Duo

Dynamic Duo

Winterfell – Theon brings a tray to Sansa’s room, unlocking the door (i.e. she’s locked inside). He finds her crying in her bed. She gets up and she’s tear stained and her arms are all bruised. Apparently, Ramsay has been abusing her by night and locking her up by day. A sad sight actually 🙁 I’m still a little confused why she isn’t trying to get more a handle on Whack-a-doodle’s twisted psyche, but it sure is a raw deal anywhichway. Sansa asks Theon to light a candle for her in the broken tower. She begs him, reminding him of who is was. It seems she reaches him a bit. Next he is out in the courtyard, looking at the tower. He heads that way… to Ramsay. This is one of those classic TV/movie fake outs like with the door to Buffalo Bill’s house in The Silence of the Lambs.

So this brings us to Sansa being brought to Ramsay on the wall of Winterfell. He does his usual pretend nice while the snow pours down on them. She does grab a corkscrew. He blabbers on for her and the audience’s benefit about the storm, about Stannis, about Jon as Lord Commander. Now she starts in a bit on his weaknesses by reminding him about his pregnant mother-in-law — which does bug him, but it isn’t enough because he’s all excited to show him his latest project: the nice old lady who was on her side, all flayed up. This is rather grisly (as it usually is with Ramsay). Sansa now REALLY understands what a pickle she is in with Lord Nut-job. Makes Joff look like a kitten. But while I do understand that Theon spilled the beans, I don’t understand how that lead to the lady. Sansa never mentioned the lady. She either should have, or Ramsay should have said: “I did a little digging around the castle” or whatever. Like many other bits in this episode, a little off in the writing.

This state of affairs is quite grim, and we can only hope that Brienne and/or Stannis busts in and Ramsay gets what he deserves — preferably from Sansa’s hand. She needs to take more agency though.

Not the husband she was looking for

Not the husband she was looking for

Olenna – not one to rest while her grandchildren are in prison, stomps into the Sept looking for the High Sparrow. She finds him quick, swabbing the floors. She pretends she doesn’t recognize him and then offers him gold. This is confusing. She’s no dunce, and while I can readily buy that Cersei doesn’t recognize his fanaticism, she should. He gives her more blah blah about everyone being judged under the Seven. She threatens the food. He threatens her soul. She stomps out and gets a note from someone…

Presumably… Littlefinger, who she next visits in his ruined brothel. She tries to use her leverage on him for Joff’s murder, and he offers information, apparently “another boy” just like he gave Cersei. This is all a little loose but I have to assume that means that he told Olyvar to spin his tale for the High Septon, which explains why he looked so un-tortured. I still don’t buy it totally. It also presumably means that he is telling Olenna about Lancel, which I also have problems with, but more on that in a second.

Olenna-Tyrell-in-The-Gift-Official-HBO

Plots with the best of them

Cersei – is “consoling” her son about his missing wife. This is yet more of what she’s done a lot of this season, playing the calm innocent while plotting up a storm. It’s just more boring than her confrontations of prior seasons with Tyrion, her father, Ned or Robert. Tommen has grown, he’s taller than her. And he’s in quite a frustrated uproar about his lack of power with regard to freeing his wife. Now what happened to the military forces he commands? I’ve read quite my share of military history, and while the church often gave monarchs a lot of trouble they rarely managed to imprison them. It feels a touch light. “Innocent cersei” offers to talk to the Sparrow on Marg’s behalf. Right.

All this playing the innocent is growing old

All this playing the innocent is growing old

So she hikes on down to the Sept and pays a visit to Marg in her dungeon. Not the loveliest conditions, as the girl is chained barefoot in a filthy pit. Worse by far than even Bronn’s cell. No naked ladies either. Cersei continues her acting — which is boring, I liked her

better with venom — but Marg is not fooled, nearly spits at her.

After, Cersei stops by the Septon in some stony chapel. He announces that Loras and Marg will be tried separately by seven septons (including him). He then launches into a long diatribe about his philosophy of simplicity by using the metaphor of the gilded church and the simple chapel. This part I actually liked a lot and I felt consistent with religious reformer. There is a consistent pattern where religion becomes entrenched with the establishment and power structure and new more “minimalist” sects urge reform. Martin Luther was one such. Jesus preaching against the temple establishment another. It’s a prevalent but important duality in religious thinking.

Just because he has no shoes doesn't mean he can't kick your ass

Just because he has no shoes doesn’t mean he can’t kick your ass

 

But then the Septon brings out the real surprise. He trots out Lancel, clearly he knows (presumably as agency of Olenna/Littlefinger) about at least her incest with Lancel himself, maybe the poisoning of the king, and possibly (but less likely) about the whole Jaime/Cersei thing. Uh oh for momma queen. She is grabbed by nuns and dragged off — threats or no — to her own homey little cell. This overall miscalculation I buy. She is so cynical and manipulating that she was unable to see the Septon for what he was all along — true to his word. (clip below)

All in all an episode with a lot going on, but with serious flaws. The Dorne part was a little better, Tyrion good as always, Gilly/Sam pretty good, Winterfell excellent, and Cersei’s stuff half decent. But I had all these “why” problems. There were just a whole bunch of happenings that felt more like D&B needed the characters to do something more than their motivations warranted, or just connective arcs they wanted to draw but didn’t have enough space to make entirely clear.

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

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

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HBO inside the episodes:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 45
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 46
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 38
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 28
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 47, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, Season 5, Season 5 Episode 7, The Gift

Game of Thrones – Episode 44

May01

season-5-the-wars-to-come-copyShow: Game of Thrones

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 44 – May 3, 2015

Title: The Sons of the Harpy

Summary: Solid transitional episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week was a great episode and so this one has big footsteps to follow in.

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.

Tyrion – Jorah steals a boat by clobbering a fisherman and tossing the half man in like a sack of potatoes. Later, they are sailing along, and a gagged Tyrion makes annoying noises until Jorah the rags out of his mouth. Even gagged Tyrion is funny. And amusing as always, ungagged Tyrion complains that he “can’t sleep without wine.” Tyrion is at first under the impression that Jorah is taking her back to Cersei, but realizing they are going the wrong way, clues in that by “queen” she meant Dany. Tyrion then shows off his wit by observing nuances of Jorah’s outfit, figuring out who he is and his motivations to a tee. He’s so delightfully annoying that Jorah knocks him into unconsciousness.

Jorah_captura_a_Tyrion_HBO

Not too tight!

Jaime and Bronn – are also sailing, but on a much larger ship. They pass a green island which a sailor identifies as the Sapphire Isle, a nod to his use of said location in season 3 to help Brienne avoid a rape. Bronn quizzes Jaime on why they are taking a merchant vessel. On his “niece” (Bronn being quite suspicious about the royal parentage). There is some character development as they discuss how they’d like to die, with Bronn opting to die old and rich and surrounded by kids and Jaime in the “arms of the woman he loves.” Well, that isn’t going so well.

As they row ashore Bronn is also concerned that the captain knew who they are, and as it turns out after a slithering breakfast the next morning a foursome of Dornish soldiers show up. They try to talk their way past but they need to do what they do best — or at least Bronn does best, as Jaime barely managed to handle one of the raiders, and that one with a clever move involving his golden hand. It’s a solid fight livened up by some trademark dialog.

One, if he's slow

One, if he’s slow

Sand Snakes – Episode 4 of the season, and finally we meet the infamous “sand snakes” (Oberyn’s daughters). Ellaria Sand is visiting the trio of snake-clad brunettes. I loved her last season, but this is the second time this season she’s all venom (haha). I don’t love the casting for the Sand Snakes. They come off as goofy and trying to hard to be woman warriors (unlike many of the others on the show, like Brienne or Yara). They do have that previously mentioned ship captain buried in the sand up to his neck, head covered in scorpions (ick!). They know all about Jaime’s arrival and have plenty of reason to speculate on why. Ellaria, continuing as the hawk wants to start a war by killing Princess Marcella — and certainly doesn’t want her erstwhile father/uncle interfering. The snakes are up for some violence.

Girly girls playing at being warriors

Girly girls playing at being warriors

Cersei – is meeting with the smaller council. Mace announces that the iron bank has placed a margin call on a tenth of their debt. Cersei wants to send him to Bravos with (uh oh) Ser Meryn Trant. Probably mostly to get him out of the way and weaken Margaery’s power base. Although maybe he’ll have a run in with “nobody” — or they just want to use their cool Iron Bank set again. Pycelle then even jokes about the smaller council.

Next, the dowager queen entertains the High Sparrow, who apparently got mysteriously promoted to High Septon, something which was clear in the books but unclear here. At least the old one seems to have survived — in the black cells. His birdiness doesn’t drink wine. In a crazy bid presumably to control him through favors (although this is very unclear in the show) she offers to revive the Knights Militant, the special Templar-like military order of the church. And she refers to someone living in particularly gross sin…

Next, Sparrows smash beer kegs and break wine bottles. They storm around town busting up all the fun stuff. I’ve never been a big fan of these type “mob” scenes without a main actor on screen. These are intercut with Lancel getting a new “wheel of the seven” sigil carved in his forehead with a knife. I can still hardly recognize him. Then the Sparrows are raiding Littlefinger’s ever popular brothel — which gets pretty boy Olyvar beaten up. Some gay guy is pulled out and killed. Then Lancel storms in on Loras Tyrell (not in the brothel) and arrests him.

Uh, Marg dear, can I at least get a little...

Uh, Marg, can I at least get a little…

Margaery storms into Tommen furious about her brother and demands the king get him free. A confused Tommen goes to Cersei who is all plausible deniability, but she does send him to the High Sparrow. Alas, our wimpy kid king is stymied by the guards on the steps to the Sept. Seems the High Sparrow is praying and he doesn’t want to use violence to bust in. He slinks away. I know he’s just a boy, but he could have offered to join the Sparrow in prayer, or to wait. Instead, momma’s boy that he is, he creeps back to Marg. She scolds him and gives him the cold shoulder, saying she needs to be with her family. Poor boy, he’s going to get blue balls.

Sansa – Our time in the (non wall) north is much reduced this week with just a single scene with Sansa in the Winterfell Crypt. She stands in the very spot used for Episode 1 lighting candles to her late aunt. Littlefinger joins her for some manipulations. He talks of Lyanna and the tourney at Harrenhal where Rhaegar Targareyn chose her over his wife — leading of course to Ned and Robert’s rebellion and the whole (previous) civil war. We are reminded that he kidnapped and raped her after, which leads me to wondering if they are doing longterm setup for Jon Snow’s parentage (NOTE: highly speculative spoiler thought). As much reminding the viewer as Sansa, Littlefinger tells her that he is off to Kingslanding to play Cersei’s lapdog but that Stannis is on his way with an army — and that he will likely name her Wardeness of the North if he gets the chance. Sansa is concerned what she does if that doesn’t happen, and ever pragmatic, warns her she must win over Ramsay. That could be more difficult than either of them realize (woof woof!). This leads me to wondering how much Littlefinger really knows about Ramsay — and I’m inclined to believe this is one of the rare cases where he is under-informed (as he himself said last episode). Dark Sansa herself seems resigned and ready for the task. Oh, and Peter can’t leave without giving her another wee kiss. I do suspect that he actually has some feelings for her — or what passes for feelings where Littlefinger is concerned.

Loving Dark Sansa

Loving Dark Sansa

Jon/Stannis the wall – King and Queen stick-in-the-mud are watching Jon Snow in the fighting yard. The queen continues to bash her own daughter but the Red Lady approaches and praises the girl. Melisandre and Stannis remind us that they’re heading to Wintefell soon — and the Lady asks if she’s going this time (which she is). Lady might be creepy, but she is a good luck charm.

In his office, Jon is signing papers with Sam. Requests for more men to local lords — including Roose Bolton. Jon pauses, but eventually signs it, as he is resigned to his path as a man of the Night’s Watch. Then Sam and the Red Lady swap places and she wastes no time telling him she wants him to come south with her and popping her breasts out of her dress. She’s obviously sniffing out his kingly blood (another hint like above with the Rhaegar stories) and horning in on his powerful seed. This isn’t the first time (remember Stannis and Gendry?). Clearly she’d love to work some mojo. Jon resists heroically, although he does cop a feel. He admits he still loves Ygritte. And even more on the way out she says “you know nothing Jon Snow.” Sigh. Where’s the alternate reality porn episode with Jon and Ygritte stuck in the cave?

Than we have a peculiar little scene where Shireen pops in on her father (people are forever entering the room in this show) and asks if he is ashamed of her. He tells a little story which proves clearly otherwise, which is a rare warm and touchy moment for someone described as having all the personality of a lobster.

Surprisingly, Shireen brings out the best in King Lobster

Surprisingly, Shireen brings out the best in King Lobster

Dany – finishes out the episode. This is at least the second time the title has nothing to do with the internal balance. The queen and Barristan hang out on the balcony of her pyramid. The view is great but he’s grown kinda tedious. He tells her about Rhaegar (second Rhaegar story of the episode, and we have to wonder why). In this story we learn that the late prince liked to sing for change in the streets of king’s landing. Meanwhile, Dario comes to get her, as the Meerenish nobles are downstairs in the throne room. That noble son, Hisgar or whoever is pleading again to let the fighting pits be opened.

Cut to a bunch of masked Sons of the Harpy killing what are probably Second Sons. Then Unsullied trotting through halls (in Split Croatia). These Unsullied sure do a lot of jogging. They are ambushed and one is revealed to be Grey Worm. He fights well but is outnumbered. Barristan, who happened to be on a convenient walk (setup before), runs into the fray at the sound of trouble. In the end, he and Gray Worm take out a huge mass of Harpies, but are badly wounded in the process.

I’m just not feeling it with these Dany scenes this season — but they had the same effect when I was reading ADWD, so not so surprising.

The view was the best part

The view was the best part

All in all, a very solid episode. Not as exciting as last week, and with less threads, but it had some good stuff. Too little Tyrion, but what we got was good. Too many crowd scenes (Sparrows, Harpies, Unsullied) but we did get some great Jaime/Bronn banter and fighting. I was a little disappointed in the Sand Snakes — too cheesy, but Sansa’s “dark territory” story line continues to be highly intriguing.

The show is really upping the visual ante too. Nearly every locale, window, and hill shot gets some giant combined real and CGI view and they look totally gorgeous.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

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

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

HBO’s official inside videos for the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
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  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 37
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  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
By: agavin
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Tagged as: A Feast for Crows, a game of thrones, Game of Throne, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters

Game of Thrones – Episode 39

Jun08

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 39 – June 8, 2014

Title: The Watchers on the Wall

Summary: Awesome fight, awesome ep

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Episode 9 is always a doozy in Game of Thrones. First it was Ned’s head attachment problem, then Blackwater, then the infamous Red Wedding. This week isn’t quite so shocking (even compared to last week), but for only the second time (since Blackwater) we have an episode with only a single main arena of conflict: in this case, Castle Black and the wall.

I have to admit, I had my trepidations. In the books the whole book 2-3 Jon Snow narrative was among my favorites (along with Arya), but in the show it just hasn’t resonated as well. Plus, after last week’s evil fun the idea of two weeks off from Tyrion and crew was a tough pill to swallow.

The episode opens with a big establishing shot of the fortifications atop the wall and the forest beyond. We’ve come a long way from the tight and static constructions of season 1. The camera nimbly points out the giant horn used to alert the castle of approaching invaders. Sam and Jon share a watch and the big guy gets to asking Jon about Ygritte, vows and all that. This is some delightful dialog, particularly as delivered by Sam. His little legal analysis of their vows and the technical omission of other activities is good fun and good character building. A telltale owl is joined to…

thewatchersonthewall2-630x419

Bonding time

A white eyed Thenn back in Tormund’s camp. Again, even after about 5 reminders I wonder if the noobs understand the whole Warg thing. Tormund is telling Ygritte about the “bear he fucked” and she’s not in a good mood. She goes a long way to emphasize her zeal for killing Crows and Big Thenn takes the opportunity to question her loyalty. She gets right in his face and lets everyone know that killing Jon Snow is her privilege alone. On the ridge above, Gilly creeps by.

Sam talks to master Aemon in the library. He’s clearly obsessed with Gilly and the ancient Maester knows it. Both these actors are excellent and Aemon says the same thing to Sam that he did to Jon, “Love is the death of duty.” But he admits he had a tryst when he was young. Sam goes outside and hears Gilly at the gate, forcing Pyp to let her in. He swears to stay by her side and keep her safe — but then they hear the horn.

The Warg owl hears it too and lets the Thenn/Tormund party know it’s time. Mance is coming. Atop the wall, Jon and the brothers watch the whole forest burn. They hastily man the defenses, dragging barrels into place. Thorne admits to Jon that he should have sealed the tunnel. This is typical of GOT, in that Thorne’s little speech shows a good side to an unlikeable character. Throne may be an ass, but he’s a patriot too, loyal to the Watch. Jon is respectful too. He’s grown up.

thewatchersonthewall5-630x354

Jon really comes into his own

Sam hides Gilly in the larder and she tries to stop him from fighting. But Sam too has come a long way from the cowardly fat boy. He has a duty he needs to serve, even if that means leaving her — but he does leave her with a kiss (we knew that had been on his mind). He then joins Pyp in manning the South Gate. They discuss fear. Sam has found his place. He’s a brother now, and that buffers him from his terror.

Outside, Ygritte is watching, and then sneaks back to camp. She knows it’s a thin crew and tells Tormund. They arm up and charge. This is told in an awesome areal shot that establishes the field of battle, rolling past the castle, up and over the wall. This is a complex battle with several main locations: the gate, the courtyard of Castle Black, the top of the wall, the wall and its approach (including the outer gate) and then tunnel to said gate. The direction in the episode does an excellent job setting this up and conveying the dynamics between.

North of the wall Mance’s army emerges from the woods. They hired a lot of extras, and grafted in 2-3 giants and a huge mammoth. Does it feel like a truly enormous army? Well… close but not quite. But for TV, this is as good as it gets. The giants and mammoth (singular) look good.

 

Thorne oversees from above, giving a rousing speech. He’s a dick, but again, you can’t help but admire his commitment and courage. In battle, he’s a solid leader. But the crew makes a few errors (dropping a barrel, etc). He yells them into shape and they fire arrows at the oncoming army.

Below Ygritte and company storm the gate, charging into the light arrow fire, then lay siege to the gate with grappling hooks.

When it’s clear the castle below is bing attacked, Thorne gives another good speech, puts Slynt in charge and heads down the elevator. Below it’s total chaos. Tormund breaches the gate and a big melee ensues. Sam flees the gate tower just before it’s overwhelmed. The castle and the fight look good. They built a serious set and put it to good use. No easy feat  given all the night shooting!

On top and over, as the Mammoth charges, Slynt falls apart and the gang tricks him down below. Jon takes over, marshaling the defense. Arrows are loosed and guys are hung out out to shoot down on climbers below. This all looks pretty defensible until a giant with a monster arrow starts picking off guys at the top.

Thorne does a great job fighting until he runs into Giantsbane. They duel for a while until Thorne is wounded and escapes. Slynt arrives below to find the Thenns (and a sharp shooting Ygritte) laying waste to the defenders. Unlike Thorne, he doesn’t have a likable bone in his body and instantly flees, finding his way into the larder with Gilly… uh oh.

Pyp and Sam  snipe with crossbows from above until Ygritte puts an arrow through Pyp’s neck. This episode takes out a lot of regular characters and Pyp is the first. Soon Jon won’t have any friends left :-(. Sam flees toward the elevator and a Thenn comes after him, at the last minute, he pulls it together and puts a crossbow in the bad guy’s face.

The giants and their mammoth are setting up to pull the outer gate out of its socket. They might look dumb, but they know their business. Jon sends Grenn down to “hold the gate” and proceeds to fire bomb the giants with some success taking out one and the mammoth. But the other is pissed, and starts lifting the gate himself. Plus, a jammed firebomb goes off up top and leads to the death of several defenders.

Sam has come up from below to warn Jon, so he passes command to Edd (his last core friend up top) and heads down.

Grenn’s crew is in the tunnel, but so is the giant. Despite their terror, they hold fast, reciting their oath as the giant charges. As always when the oath is pulled out, it’s an emotional moment.

Jon and Sam arrive below and Jon tears into the invaders. The camera pans about revealing the scope of the melee — and Ygritte nearby. Plus Tormund and Big Thenn going to town. Sam, on orders from Jon, releases Ghost, who starts ripping throats. Giantsbane takes an arrow but barely slows. Big Thenn hones in on Jon and they too get into one of those duels. I might say that’s Hollywood, but actually this kind of thing happened in ancient warfare at least. At the battle of Granicus Alexander the Great was said to have dueled several Persian noblemen in the center of the field.

Jon is man enough now, he can even handle a sub-boss!

Jon is man enough now, he can even handle a sub-boss!

Anyway, Jon is getting his ass handed to him by Big Thenn until he manages to grab a hammer and bash in the ugly scarred skull (exit another minor character). But Ygritte is waiting, bow drawn. When it comes time to shoot, she can’t — or at least doesn’t get the chance, because the elevator boy Olly puts an arrow through her heart. Now this next is all Hollywood, or at least subjective direction, as the battle fades and they have their final emotional moment. She tells him they’ll always have Paris — oops, I mean they should have stayed in the cave. He says they’ll get back there. And here it comes: “You know nothing, Jon Snow” -> blank stare of death. I guess in this case “duty is the death of love.” I’ll step aside for a second to comment that the structure of the show and watching it as it’s released mutes the emotionality of this parting. We haven’t seen them together since last year, and we haven’t seen any soft Ygritte (except maybe saving Gilly) at all this season. It’ll be interesting to see how it feels watching them all back to back of blu-ray or the like. More painful for sure.

But he doesn't get the girl (more than once)

But he doesn’t get the girl (more than once)

Back on the front of the wall the men atop take out the climbers with some well timed avalanches and a giant hook that sweeps through their ranks. This episode has been pulling out a lot of BIG SCALE shots. And the tide is turning.

Below Jon and crew round up a trapped Tormund acting very much like the cornered bear he described at the beginning. Jon, still in charge, throws him in chains. In further mop up, Sam rushes into the larder to check on Gilly to find her find — and a pathetic Slynt cowering in the corner. Jon and Sam take survey and Jon announces a crazy plan to confront/challenge/assassinate (it’s not clear) Mance before he can attack again.

He and Sam enter the tunnel and find everyone dead, including Grenn and the Giant. I had been hoping we would see the Giant fight in more detail, and probably for cost reasons they left out the blow by blow — still the book ends we got were emotionally effective. Sam lets Jon out into the great white beyond.

Wow, all in all, this was a different but massively successful episode. It managed to effectively capture a large scale multi-theatre battle both effectively and emotionally — and make it feel big. Plus it delivered fairly well on character, motivation, and all that good stuff. The team is pretty amazing as this would have been a tough episode to write, even tougher to direct, and probably crazy hard to orchestrate.

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 27
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 26
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 34
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 29
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 39, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, Season 4, Season 4 Episode 9, Ygritte

Game of Thrones – Episode 23

Apr14

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 23 – April 14, 2013

Title: Walk of Punishment

Summary: Hands off to Weiss and Benioff!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is a lot going on in this episode. Several of the threads are very brief, while others are vital, plus there is a substantial chunk of character development. Like last week, I’ll break stuff down by narrative thread instead of by segment.

Robb/Cat – Uncharacteristically, we don’t begin were we left off (exactly), but with the funeral of Lord Tully, Cat’s father. It’s nice to finally see Riverrun, even if only a dead Lord Fish. The bit of conflict/rivalry between Cat’s brother (the new lord) and uncle (the missing Blackfish, finally making an appearance!) will be pretty opaque to non book readers. It did have me thinking that firing a flaming arrow at a far away boat would be pretty damn hard. Afterward, Robb lets out a little steam on his uncle, the Lord, for botching his plans. At times like this he has a nice commanding presence, and than at other times, he can be a tad sniveling.

Segment two has Cat and the Blackfish reminiscing in a moment that is almost entirely characterization. It’s nice that the pacing this season allows for this. Plus, they picked a lovely spot on some Irish river for Riverrun. Even the river bird sound effects are first rate. The thread winds down with an oddball segment were Robb’s queen teases the two captive Lanister boys. I have to assume they have a relevant role in the future to warrant this, but I can’t remember what it is, even after several reads.

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-ser-brynden-tully

Blackfish at last!

Tyrion – Joins his father at the small council and it seems Littlefinger is off to the Vale to “court” Cat’s crazy sister, so Tyrion is awarded with the position of master of coin. Hard to tell if this is an honor or a burden, but there is this little bit at the start with the chairs that’s pretty amusing. In the second segment, Ty visits Littlefinger  to pick up all the books, and this being HBO, no opportunity is spared with regards to whores. The actual dialog is amusing and Littlefinger and Tyrion both trade off their knowledge of each other’s goings on, which is a common game between any and all of Ty, Littlefinger, Cersei, and Varys. Tyrion “pays” Pod back for saving his life in quite an amusing fashion. Contortionists. Excellent. It’s a two part scene, again, more fun room for characterization. We also have a new threat introduced: the crown’s debt to the Iron Bank of Bravos.

GameOfThronesS3

Pod gets lucky — twice over! And I mean over!

Arya – Arya has only a very small segment this week, at the mill where we’ve twice been before (where Sansa’s wolf died in episode 2 and where Tyrion was arrested). Other than showing that Thyros doesn’t like the Hound, and Arya is still with him, the main point is to wish Hotpie goodbye. His little wolf cake is kinda cute though.

EP301

Hot pie wasn’t the most exciting character, but he does bake a cute wolf

Jon – Very small segment for Jon, but with important ramifications. They reach the Fist of the First Men and those crazy white walkers have been at it again, arranging horse parts in a creative fashion. Mance sends Giantsbane and Jon off to climb the wall and attack castle black — uh, oh! I’m stilling waiting for my Ygritte time!

Sam – Sam and the men in black get all the way back to Craster’s pig sty — which is appropriate as the old man compares Sam and women in general to his porcine charges. It also turns out Gilly’s having her baby, and a boy at that (uh, oh again), but why isn’t anyone bothered when Sam pokes his head in on the affair? Although that’s not the only head poking into the tent!

Theon – Theon gets pulled off his cross by the mysterious rescuer and given a horse. In his second segment he’s riding across the Irish moors when his captors appear. This results in a nice little horse chase, which like this whole Theon bit is totally not in the book. It had me wondering if they were just padding out this part of the storyline, when bam, more reversals.

Stannis – The king of boredom (not my favorite character) is wishing off Mel the red lady — albeit not happily. He’s much more into her here than in the book, but she gets a chance to reveal her fondness for a little princely flambé.

Is it me, or does it feel like some elements of the story are moving pretty rapidly through A Storm of Swords? Or maybe I forgot how huge the book is?

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-mellisandre

I’ve long been lukewarm about Mel

Dany – A very good (and relatively lengthy) Dany segment here. She walks along the shore line past the “walk of punishment” and the line of crucified slaves. For me this added to the Babylonian vibe of Astapor as Nebuchadnezzar, ancient king of Babylon, was famous for lining roads with the impaled. And the view of the harpy castle was awesome. Inside, is more of that fun double talk involving the slaver lord and his translator. The writers must have wracked their brains to come up with so many insults. There is great multi directional interplay between the parties here, with Dany, Jorah, and Selmy all on slightly different pages — not to mention the slavers. At the end, Dany makes another hard bargain…

Brienne and Jaime – Last, but not least. In A Storm of Swords Jaime and Brienne was one of the highlights, and it’s the same here. Even tied to a horse (and doesn’t Brienne look a helluva different without her armor?), their banter is hilarious. The way in which Jaime simultaneously tries to work it and also betrays his increasing respect for her is very deft. Plus, I even like Bolton’s men’s authentic-sounding folk song.

EP302

Great chemistry!

In the second segment, last of the show, things get even better. Not only are both principals excellent, but Bolton’s hunter is surprisingly effective for a minor character. Jaime does Brienne a real solid and saves her from some nasty business, but he really really fails to estimate his captor’s personal daddy issues, loyalties, and dislike for the likes of him. The ending of this episode is one of those Martinesque moments — the man knows how to make his characters suffer — and hands off to Weiss and Benioff for pulling it off so well…

Hehe. I couldn’t resist.

Missing this time around is a lot of the Kings Landing action: notably Marg, Sansa, and Joff, plus Bran. Still, this is a meaty episode, moving forward some disparate story lines and really cutting at least one to the bone.

Oh, and the credits are scored with Hold Steady’s modern folk-rock version of “The Bear And The Maiden Fair”… this is a thorough production indeed and this odd credits musical juxtaposition is very HBO.

Another interesting review of this episode.

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]

Below is a video about making this episode:

img_2239

Just stick a CGI castle on that there hill, will ya?

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 21
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 7
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, Jon Snow, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 21

Mar31

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 21 – March 31, 2013

Title: Valar Dohaeris

Summary: Excellent start

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Right off the bat you can feel a difference in pacing. Season 2 suffered from the crunch required to compress a gigantic book into 10 hours, and given that A Clash of Kings is even longer, the decision to split book 3 into two seasons is clearly a smart one. Valar Dohaeris has some leisure to establish (in many cases reestablish) the situations for its gigantic cast. This episode doesn’t even try to handle all of them, leaving Jamie/Brienne, Arya, Bran, and Theon for episode 22.

We begin where we left off, with the decimation of the Black Brothers by the White Walkers (an ironic reversal of color). In somewhat typical budget saving fashion the battle itself is left off screen (sword clanks under black). Sam is our focal point although he doesn’t do much except run through the snow and get rescued by Ghost. This first scene is anticlimactic, turning last season’s big “event” into more of just a reveal (there are lots of White Walkers, uh oh!).

The award winning titles have been updated with a smokey Winterfell and Astapoor (the harpy slave city).

748660_GOT3_HS_1119_EP301_DSC2280-1359138834542-ASticking to the North for the moment, Jon Snow arrives at Mance Rayder’s camp with Ygritte. I do like her, although the way she shuffles on the snow in her heavy boots and parka looks anything but fearsome. Perhaps no one looks fearsome in Eskimo outfits. Perhaps she’s too cute for fearsomeness. In any case, the production takes the time to show off a giant in all its CGI glory, which I’m very happy with. I worried that they might try to play down some of the fantasy elements, particularly as they pick up in intensity in later books, but it seems not. The first meeting with Mance is well handled. I’ve liked Ciaran Hinds since Rome, and the writers hit on the crux of the meeting, with Jon having to convince them why he’s really there. He does.

Our return to Kings Landing fittingly comes down (haha) to Bron in a brothel. GOT loves its whores, and this one is cute, although serving of little purpose. Back in his dungeon of a room, Tyrion contemplates his new scared face. Just as the show didn’t ugly up Peter Dinklage to begin with (he might be height challenged, but he’s a handsome guy), it didn’t dare maim Tyrion like in the book. Just a scar, no missing nose and the like, although when Cersei visits in this scene, she alludes to the missing sniffer. These Tyrion/Cersei scenes are always fun. My favorite line this time is “You’re not half so clever as you think you are” followed by “still, that makes me cleverer than you.” Bron comes to defend Ty, bookending his earlier appearance. Last season they would have cut both bits out of expediency, but this time around they have room for more nuance and secondary characters. The visual scope feels somewhat bigger too, as Bron and Tryion go for a wander on the Dubrovnik (achem, Kings Landing) walls and we get a sense of space. It’s funny too, having been there myself last year, I have a sense of the positioning in the real city.

748660_GOT3_HS_1120_EP301_DSC0286-1359138809787-ITurns out Davos survived his encounter with green fire only to be stuck on a rock (I recognize those too, as they’re just North of Dubrovnik, I believe). He’s rescued by Salladhor Saan. More characterization and setting up what’s going on with Stannis at Dragonstone. First time we’ve seen his missing fingers too in a nice artsy shot.

Robb and Bolton show up at Harrenhal after the Mountain has deserted it. This is pure setup, showing the nasty pile of corpses the big guy left behind, Robb with his new wife, and Cat a virtual prisoner of her son. The slight unrest of his men… well, little in a TV show is an accident.

Tyrion goes to visit his father Tywin, having not himself been visited during his presumably lengthy convalescence. Given that Tywin seemed fairly reasonable last season, and Tyrion really did do a pretty decent job (considering) in his defense of the capital, you’d expect him to get a little love — but no, poor Tyrion, and this is one of the many reasons we love him, just never gets the tall straw (see what I did?). Tywin lays it on pretty thick. Poor little guy.

In another scene that expands the visual grandeur Sansa and Shae hang out together at the little harbor near Dubrovnik’s north gate watching the ships sail. Littlefinger comes to work his little plot involving her, with Ros in tow. Parallel conversations between Sansa/Littlefinger and Shae/Ros allow for compact establishment of character. This is substantial compression from the books, but deftly done. And Ros isn’t a real character anyway, but her exchange isn’t bad.

Tyrion may not have gotten any love, but the dragons do. Drogon in particular has a very fun draconic take on fish BBQ. We learn that Dany is headed to Astapoor to get herself an army. A slave army, which she’s not necessarily a fan of.

At Dragonstone, Davos finally shows up and confronts Stannis and Melisandre. I’m no fan of all three of these characters, but Mel does do a good job being fey and spooky, like an evil shadow mom version of Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel.

GameOfThronesS3-2

Joffrey, the king we all love to hate, doesn’t bother to ride a horse, he takes a fancy litter, clutching a handkerchief to his nose (they should have used an orange stuffed with cloves). Margaery, his new finance, has a mosque shaped litter herself, but she isn’t afraid to get out, step through some shit (literally) and work the people. A talent that not only extends to orphans, but to Joff and Cersei as well as we see next scene when she manipulates them all at dinner. I’m liking Natalie Dormer’s take on this character.

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-daenarys

Dany arrives at Astapoor in all its CGI grandeur, and from a distance it does look damn good. But close up, it’s probably Dubrovnik again, or perhaps a nearby Croatian city. I guess it could be Morocco. I’m not sure yet, but it sure looked like Croatia. This scene is basically an intro to the slave culture of Astapoor and the concept of the Unsullied. The subtitled back and forth between the translator girl slave and the master was particularly hilarious, and the slave soldiers well enough handled. They probably won’t be able to justice to what is to come because it involves citywide happenings, but we’ll see.

As the “previous scenes” reminded us about season 1’s dismissal of Barristan Selmy. His return involves some interesting adaption from the novels. Martin loves to reintroduce characters by new names and only slowly reveal their identity, which is great fun, but it isn’t really realistic in a TV show where the audience will just recognize the actor. So Barristan’s return is stripped of his extended posing, and the fun but unnecessary character of Strong Belwas seems written out. But I did love the warlock girl with the blue mouth and the bug ball!

All in all, a great start, if not exactly action packed. My concerns from season 1 about visual scope have been addressed as best as possible on TV. This is a grand looking show, probably one of the most impressive productions in the history of the medium. And it looks like they’ll have room in the script to do far more justice this season to Martin’s nuanced character portraits.

Another interesting review of this episode.

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]

img_2222

Me at Kings Landing

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 13
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
By: agavin
Comments (11)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Dubrovnik, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon Snow, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Natalie Dormer, Season 3, Season 3 episode 1, Tyrion, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 3

May02

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 3 – May 1, 2011

Status: First Season now airing on HBO

Summary: Amazing!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Episode 3 is titled “Lord Snow,” in reference to Jon Snow‘s nickname at the wall. This episode continues, and I think essentially wraps up, the trio of scene setting episodes. This world is so complex, with so many characters, it needed a three hour pilot. Still, it’s a damn enjoyable setup.

We do find ourselves with a different feel than last week’s “The Kingsroad.” This episode is brighter and faster, better I think, but also lacks any real momentous events or a dramatic conclusion. Episode 2 started off slower, but ended with a bang. Episode 3 just fundamentally introduces the Wall and King’s Landing. But both are fun. Varys and Littlefinger are a delight. There are a lot of very strong scenes in here, mostly in the area of character development and exposition. The scene where Robert, Barristan, and Jaime discuss their first kills is terrific. Others will and have quote it, but I will again. “They don’t tell you that they all shit themselves. They never put that part in the ballads.” Just awesome.

Tyrion and Arya continue to rock, Jon is building momentum. There’s good work with Arya and her sister, even better work with her and her father, and the fan fave delicious introduction of her “dancing instructor,” Syrio. No one who’s read the books doesn’t love Syrio and the waterdance. You can see subtle little nods to the characters, like Arya listing off those she hates, as this will flare into the flame that keeps her warm in the dark cold nights.

There are also curious absences. What happened to Ghost?  (Jon Snow’s albino wolf)  And Commander Mormont’s raven?  And time pressure makes a few of the scenes feel very very fast indeed for those viewers who haven’t read the books (particularly the Dany scenes this time around). If any of readers are in this camp (not having read the books), please comment below and offer your opinions of the show, I’m really curious. I love it, but some of this is propped up by my encyclopedic knowledge of the characters and their relationships.

I do also have to say that I don’t love the weird mixed race look of the Dothraki. The Khal is fine, but I would have just cast the rest as Mongols and made them straight up raw and tough. The blood rider is so young he looks soft, and middle eastern to boot. Who’s with me in thinking that Endo from Lethal Weapon would have made the perfect blood rider? — 25 years ago.

King’s Landing (aka Malta) has a different sunnier feel than I imagined it in the books, but I kinda like it, down to the interesting little detail of the floors always being dirty. And in a number of scenes the CG view out the windows is gorgeous, high up on the towers with the whole city laid out beneath like in Napoli. I also liked Maester Aemon, but he needs those white “blind guy” eyes because that’s how I imagine him.

Exposition or no, I enjoyed every minute of this episode, and we’re poised for some serious stuff in the hours to come ahead. Next week, jousts and dwarves in a pickle.

My reviews of other episodes: [Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4].

Click here for some trailers for and about the series.

Or find out about my own fantasy novel, The Darkening Dream.

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 1
  3. Game of Thrones – The Houses
  4. Making Game of Thrones
  5. Inside Game of Thrones
By: agavin
Comments (12)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: Arts, Arya, Emilia Clarke, episode, Episode Review, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, Jon Snow, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Malta, Mongols, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Programs, review, Television, Television program, Television Review, World of A Song of Ice and Fire
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