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Archive for World of A Song of Ice and Fire

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 45

May10

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

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 45 – May 10, 2015

Title: Kill the Boy

Summary: Awesome episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

First off, this is one of those medium focus episodes, which are my favorites. By medium I mean that it covers a limited number of threads, but not just one (like Blackwater). I like these episodes that have some different threads to cut between, but enough time to lavish on more detail. Those that cover more than 3-4 threads tend to feel rushed.

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 – Because we ended with Dany, we might as well start with her as the episode does. Or to be specific, with Missandei watching over an recovering Gray Worm — he breathes, so as we suspected, he is alive. Not so much luck for Barristan who is lying in state in the pyramid with Dany and Dario looking on. Hizdahr zo Loraq approaches. Dario suggests they retreat to the pyramid and lay waste to the rest of the city. Dany is the retreat type and has her men round up the leaders of all the noble families — including Hizdahr.

Down in the basement (of Diocletian’s Palace), she has the unsullied drive the nobles toward the two dragons that wait in the dark. One is push forward, roasted, torn in half, and makes a nice two course reptilian feast. Dany is in her “calm, cold, and pensive” mode, which I quite like, and she lets the others off easier with a bit of incarceration.

Three days later, Gray Worm wakes up, and Missandei is still there. He learns about Barristan and announces to her that he failed his comrade. Of course, being in love with him, and him being totally outnumbered and having survived, she isn’t in the slightest bit mad at him. He admits that he was ashamed that at the last minute he was afraid — of not seeing her again. She kisses him, thinking fondly of the smooth patch between his legs.

game-of-thrones-sons-of-the-harpy

Curtain call for one of these two

But as this is a good day for Missandei, she next visits with Dany who seeks her advice. Dany is open and receptive, and Miss tactfully points out that Dany sometimes takes her advisor’s council, and sometimes has to do it her own way. Which is quite apropos as Dany has another of her unorthodox solutions in mind. She heads down to Hizdahr’s cell and tells him she will reopen the pits and — this is way more exciting — marry him. Of course, in true GOT fashion she makes a nice joke of it. He, for his part, having assumed he was about to die is only concerned with cleaning up his linen tighty whities.

I might as well discuss here the elephant in the room. In the books, Barristan continues on living, has his own POV chapters in fact. And here the producers have decided to snip him out of the story. His thread was pretty boring in ADWD anyway, and this episode’s Dany section is the best she has been in a long long time, so power to them.

Jon and the Wall – Sam is reading about Dany (apropos) to Aemon, and he is bothered by his last living relative being out there alone in Meereen. Jon comes in to speak to the Maester, announcing he needs advice on something crucial. Aemon, ever wise and ever cheeky (he is a 100 year old Targaryen Maester with cold bones) tells him to do what he thinks best. But more poetically, like “kill the boy and let the man be born.”

100 year old man in the cold

100 year old man in the cold

So Jon has a little chat with Tormund where he asks him to go fetch all the Freefolk and bring them back to be let through the wall to settle. He makes a pretty convincing argument. Hey, who wants to end up as body part art? But even unchained, Tormund wants Jon to go with him to Hardhome. Jon promisses to talk to Stannis about borrowing the fleet.

Now, Jon has the unenviable job of telling his men — who of course think he is crazy. Befriend the enemy? I love how Stannis corrects one mans bad grammar too. The whole “we have to live with them or fight them as part of the army of the dead” makes reasonable sense, but it’s hard for people to give up on their hate. This is personalized in the form of Oly, the kid who killed Ygritte (grrr)  and lost his family to the Thenns. Since Oly is Jon’s steward, he get a glimpse into his hatred.

Gilly and Sam talk about the library and we have more nice bonding between the two of them. Sam points out that the Citadel has the largest library, and we are given a hint of its role training Maesters, which might mean that Sam, Gilly, and Aemon are headed that way after-all. Plus Gilly’s insecurity and Sam’s kind handling of it are quite nice. Stannis comes in and asks about the White Walkers and how Sam killed them, concluding that Sam should keep reading. This nicely shows Stannis’ pragmatic side.

We will miss them at the wall

We will miss them at the wall — oh, and can we say GRAYSCALE?

Then the king goes to talk to Davos to tell him its time they marched and he’s taking the queen and princess, so we cut to the next morning as they saddle up. Sam and Gilly watch and Davos chats with Shireen while the queen frowns (she doesn’t do much of anything else). Stannis and Jon have a few moments of mutual respect and wish each other well, then Red Lady in tow, a nice big column of CGI forces marches out.

Winterfell – Pod and Brienne spy on the castle from a nearby inn. Pod halfheartedly tries to convince her to turn aside, but Brienne is determined to support Sansa. A servant comes in and she questions him about the Starks, taking the risk of asking him to get Sansa a message. This is characteristic of her, like when she mentioned her mission to Hotpie.

Exciting things are afoot

Exciting things are afoot

Next, Ramsay admires his whore Myranda by the window. She’s quite thin, pretty, and very naked. The girl has some guts, as she expected to marry Ramsay before the whole Bolton thing and says as much. Ramsay is interestingly honest when he says “I meant it, but then I was a Snow and now I’m a Bolton.” Plus, she’s the Kennel Master’s daughter. He warns her about her jealousy and she has the good sense not to push it so far she ends up minus a few attractive body parts. He takes her by the window.

Sansa is in her room when a servant enters and passes her what might sort of be Brienne’s message — at least she is supposed to light a candle in the broken tower if she needs help. She wanders out into the yard and checks it out, it’s the tower where Bran fell, just with more  snow. Myranda approaches. She’s clever and has a pair on her (more than Reek anyway) in that she plays nice, apologizes for Cat’s death, and takes Sansa to see a “surprise” in the kennels. At the end. Sansa, against possible better judgement walks past the snarling beasts to find Reek/Theon at the end. She recognizes him and he only says, “you shouldn’t be here.”

Later, Reek is serving Ramsay when he clearly has something to say. It takes a moment and then he is out with the Sansa bit. Ramsay toys with him for a moment and forgives him.

Most awkward dinner EVER!

Most awkward dinner EVER!

This brings us to one of the oddest great scenes in GOT history. The Bolton/Stark dinner theater. Ramsay pours Sansa some wine, and his fat Stepmother’s. There is a comment about how it must be strange for Sansa, and she comments back that the place is home, only the people are strange. Reek comes in to serve and Ramsay plays the whole thing off as punishment for his “murder” of Bran and Rickon, even makes Reek apologize. This is one weird dinner. When it can’t get any weirder, he even suggests Reek give away the bride. Ramsay is a brilliant actor, but the character and the actor playing the character. Bolton however isn’t so amused and pulls the rug out from under his son by noting that his fat wife is pregnant — perhaps with another son.

Most awkward dinner ever!

Father/son bonding, Bolton style

In private, the two Bolton’s spar. Ramsay “wonders” how dad could “find it” on a girl that fat and Bolton is just straight up displeased with him. But he tells a grim Bolton-style story of how he killed the miller and raped the miller’s wife, then she showed up with the baby — only to comment on how he recognized the boy as his son — as he does now. Well, sure is true, Ramsay sure has a lot of the dad in him. Then Bolton, no dummy talks about Stannis and their defense of the north and Ramsay rises to the occasional again to offer his help.

Tyrion, thou are’t so amusing

Tyrion and Jorah – sail along in amusing contrast. “Long sullen silences and the occasional punch in the face: the Mormont Way.” Haha. Ty thinks better of it and apologizes — and asks for wine. But Jorah is more concerned looking ahead, and so Ty turns to see the myst (seems appropriate to spell it that way) and… dum dum… the ruins of Old Valyria, which is clearly the fantasy stand in for the Roman Empire. Apparently Jorah thinks this will make an excellent shortcut. It does look pretty, with giant Vietnamese/Cambodian style ruins, aqueducts, jungle, and mist (I meant myst). This is an awesome scene, gorgeous and moody with Ty reciting a poem telling of the Doom and Jorah finishing it. A nice bonding moment for two men who actually have a bit in common. Then Drogon flaps on by overhead taking it up to the next level. The camera lingers on him, and his appearance means different things for the two men. He’s huge, and perhaps reminds Jorah of all he has lost. And for Ty, well, he maybe didn’t even totally believe in dragons.

Too cool for school

Too cool for school

Then a handful of stonemen hop on into the boat. I knew there was way too much setup about stonemen, grayscale, and them being sent to Old Valyria to be a coincidence. Nice fight really, with the added zombie-style need to avoid touching them. Then Ty goes into the water, bound.

He wakes with Jorah on the beach. They seem to have lost their boat. No matter, too resourceful men like them can surely steal another one. But Jorah secretly checks his wrist and we see he’s sporting a small patch of grayscale. uh oh!

Jon Broods

Kill the boy!

All in all, a fabulous episode. Even without Arya for the second week in a row, all four threads were fabulous. The lackluster Dany storyline got a much needed stab in the gut and the ho hum north a bit of chilly change. But the Winterfell and Tyrion/Jorah threads were as good as it gets for this show — which is pretty darn good. Those whack job family moments in Winterfell, wow, and Old Valyria with Drogon flying overhead. What more could a fantasy junky want?

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]

Official HBO inside the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 38
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 43
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
By: agavin
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Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 45, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kill the Boy, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 5 Episode 5, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 43

Apr26

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

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: Episode 43 – April 26, 2015

Title: The High Sparrow

Summary: New Territory!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I did not love The House of Black and White last week. I mean, it was fine and all — it was Game of Thrones — but that being considered it was a lackluster episode. This week makes me think that they don’t choose the names because of the focus of the show, but more for what the introduce.

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.

Arya – Even though I expected some meat on Arya’s story last week (because of the title), it seems to fall in this episode. We pick up with her inside the House of Black and White, a creepy dark space decorated with every image of the divine. She sweeps. She carries water. In the background Jaqen offers a man a bowl of “water”. Arya is frustrated with the drudgery (which evidently has been days) and confronts Jaqen — only to get a cryptic “all men must learn to serve” (in Valyrian too). She wonders which god and reminded that there is “only one true god” (we’ve heard that before!) and omits the “and his name is death.” Sure enough, the guy who drank the water lies dead on the floor and is carried off by silent acolytes.

A man must...

A man must…

Later Arya is pondering her coin when a blonde female acolyte enters and questions who she is. Arya, having learned her lesson goes with the ever popular “no one” answer, but is beaten for her trouble. They get into a fight and Jaqen materializes to stop it. The other girl was apparently trying to play “the game of faces” (which is presumably where she “becomes” someone else for a while) but Jaqen questions Arya, saying that if she is “no one,” why is “no one” surrounded by Arya Stark’s things? Arya gets the hint and goes out to the lagoon to throw away her famed stinky clothes that have miraculously survived 4 years hard use. She chucks her money and even the coin too, but can’t quite manage to throw away needle, instead burying it under a pile of rocks in the jetty (which looks to be part of the harbor of some Croatian village). After, she is back in the House and Jaqen leads her to the basement where she learns to undress and bath a corpse that has recently drunk from the poisoned water.

This was all good stuff, with a nice creepy feel and some good does of Jaqen. The issue of Arya abandoning her things (and presumably her grudges) brings us to a theme that runs through this episode (and GOT in general). “To Revenge or not to Revenge.”

Jon – Has taken up his position as Lord Commander and made Olly his steward. Stannis with Davos in tow (as usual) come for a visit. The “One True King of Westeros” wants to know if he has decided on the whole becoming Jon Stark business. Jon has desires, revenge (theme), and all that on one side and loyalty and duty (to the Night’s Watch) on the other. Having built up his honor now as a brother, having paid for it at the cost of Ygritte and her love, and his friends, he’s going to side with his oath. Stannis gives him a hard time, but being the inflexible twit that he is, probably admires Jon. I’m not a huge Stannis fan, but these interactions at the wall are far better than him lurking about in Dragonstone. Stannis also mentions that he plans to march on Winterfell and the Boltons and Davos tries to get Jon to pitch in (even thought the watch is technically neutral).

Later, Jon is presiding over the mess. Sam tells us that Maester Aemon is sick (setup) and Jon drums up some humor by appointing a latrine captain, then Thorne (in his side) as chief ranger. When he commands the odious Slynt to take some men and go restore Grayguard, a ruined castle on the wall, Slynt refuses. And refuses again and insults Jon and his authority. Taking a page from the Ned/Robb playbook Jon calls for his sword and has the men drag Slynt outside to the block. Once there Slynt begs for his life and mercy. For a moment it looks like Jon might yield, but off comes the ugly head. Good riddance.

Nope, won't miss him

Nope, won’t miss him

Margaery and Cersei – Another gorgeous aerial shot of Kings Landing shows off the budget. It looks less and less like Dubrovnik by the episode. Liters containing Cersei and Margarey roll through the streets, but the people call Marg’s name (making Cersei scowl). We roll up to the Sept of Baellor (also looking better than ever) and apparently it’s time for Margarey’s third wedding. Let’s home 3 is the charm. This seems to be the only happy wedding in Westeros history too, as the episode slams from the kiss right to the bedroom. Tommen is getting lucky at a seriously young age! How old is he? In the books he’s like 8 or 9, but maybe 15 or so here. Lucky guy as Marg is a dish. He certainly thinks so because she wraps him about her cute little finger. Their pillow talk is very nicely handled. Marg is both artfully manipulative and clearly enjoying herself as well. I’m not sure that even a kid his age would be dense enough to fall for her heavy handed manipulations as she simultaneously flatters Cersei and implies that she over mother’s him — but he eats it up.

So next up Tom not so subtly tries to suggest to his mother that she might be happier in Casterly Rock. Which leads to Cersei storming back to Margaery, but the old queen is playing it close to her vest in a controlled manner. She talks nice to Marg as the younger girl not so subtly reminds her that she is a dowager now. You can feel the anger seething under her skin.

Margaery-and-Tommen-Official-HBO

Gasp, a drama free wedding!

Later the High Septon (which we clearly saw marring Marg and Tom) is at Littlefinger’s whorehouse picking from various naked versions of the seven when the sparrows (including unrecognizable Lancel) storm in and haul him out naked into the street. It’s painful to watch as the fat pale dude is whipped through the streets.

Once dressed again (thank the seven), he loses no time in protesting to the small council. Which generates an amusing line when he tries to address Qyburn who says of his name “doesn’t matter.” But Cersei and the crew (other than the lecherous Pycelle) take him to task for getting into trouble anyway.

Jonathan-Pryce-as-the-High-Sparrow_-photo-Macall-B.-Polay_HBO

Mild but not meek

Cersei, the disgusting Meryn Trant in tow, decides to size up this new faction by visiting the “High Sparrow” in his lair (which is a poor house). The barefoot man, played by veteran character actor, Jonathan Pryce (Keira Knightley’s dad in Pirates!), does a good job of playing the role as ultra humble. Cersei must be up to something in her “plot against Marg” as she plays along.

The doctor's laboratory!

The doctor’s laboratory!

Finally, she visits Qyburn in his lab. The place is delightfully Frankenstein, and the ex-Maester is in the process of doing in a rat. In the background is a big body under a sheet. Presumably the mountain. Cersei has him send a letter to Littlefinger. After she leaves the body gets to twitching. Kitsch, but fun.

The Boltons – Ride into a Winterfell that is under heavy reconstruction. Ravens in cages are been brought in, and Reek can be seen pathetically mucking out the yard. As part of the classic Bolton decoration a set of flayed bodies are hauled up on ropes, including a woman. Ramsay and Roose dine together, with Reek serving. Ramsay reveals that he flayed some Northern lord who wouldn’t pay his taxes and Roose suggests that given the size of the north, and their loss of Tywin’s support (due to his death), they really ought to adopt a somewhat more congenial style. To that effect, he has arranged a marriage for the new heir.

Sansa and Littlefinger – As they look down on yet another big vista, this time Moat Cailin. Seems they are heading north (as I suspected). This is all new territory. Littlefinger says they are going home and Sansa instantly puts two and two together about the marriage proposal and realizes it’s her. She is appalled at the idea of the Boltons (who did, after all, murder Robb and Cat). But Peter is ultra slick this time, saying he won’t force her, but she should consider taking charge of her fate and getting her revenge on her terms (revenge theme again). Sansa thinks for the moment, steels herself and agrees. This is a defining moment for her as a character, really taking charge (somewhat, for she is still a pawn of LF) and is very well handled.

Heading in new directions

Heading in new directions

Brienne and Pod – Look on. Brienne doesn’t need to follow, she knows where they are going and plans to sneak on by. She and Pod share some good bonding by the fire, exchanging more of their backgrounds and origin stories. Pod explains how he was sent to Tyrion and she explains how she met Renly and why she loved him (because he was always kind to her). Pod expresses his admiration and Brienne volunteers to start teaching him combat. Brienne comments that there is “nothing more hateful than failing to proect the one you love” and we know she’s thinking of her revenge on Stannis (the show even transitions over to him) so this counts as more revenge theme!

But in my threaded narrative, back to Sansa and Littlefinger and the Boltons – Sansa arrives in Winterfell. Home at last, but oh how things have changed. The Boltons have spruced things up for their guests. The flayed corpses are gone (but the hooks remain). Roose, Ramsay, and Roose’s fat frey wife are all lined up to welcome them. Sansa plays along as she is introduced to Ramsay. Behind them Ramsay’s mistresses look on. When she’s shown to her room the serving lady lets her know “the north remembers.”

A charming family

A charming family

As she wanders around the castle, Reek keeps a secretive eye on her. We are in entirely new territory here and I can only speculate on how the threads the show is setting up will combine with the action in ADOD in this new alternative version. Clearly Stannis is on the way, as is Brienne. Clearly Theon/Reek will have some role to play in the chaos that will ensue. I suspect he’ll have some kind of partial redemption. Although who knows? GRRM and D&D might kill him (or anyone) off. This all must be tough on Sansa, but she has really come a long way and play along admirably.

Ramsay too is playing a role, because we know what kind of a whackjob he is. He tells Littlefinger he “will never hurt her.” And that’s in his nature? Roose joins them and Peter assures the elder Bolton she is a virgin. The pragmatic Roose couldn’t care less about that. He’s interested in Littlefinger’s plans and why after getting so much support from the Lannisters he’s turning against them now (and he doesn’t know the 90% of it!). As usual, LF’s true motives are fairly inscrutable. I can’t help but think he wants to sow even more chaos in the north and somehow pick up the pieces. But he suggests the Eerie and the North team up again. That message comes from Cersei and Roose has read it — he’s not a terribly trusting soul, as he wants to read it.

Tyrion and Varys – roll their giant wheel house up to Volantis and we are treated to even more giant panning city shots. This season is going nuts with these gorgeous views of Martin’s world. Volantis seems to include a giant bridge like the Ponte Vecchio with shops and buildings piled on top. This was actually a frequent site in early modernity (15-18th centuries). Paris and London both had them. The shot that rolls up over it is amazing. Tyrion, bored out of his gourd in the carriage, and sporting his new hood and beard look, drags a reluctant Varys out in search of a brothel. The presence of slaves is observed, and even Robb Stark’s late wife commented on it back in season 2-3. Here they apparently tattoo slaves with a descriptive mark, like a shovel for ditch diggers. They run into an Asian priestess of the Lord of Light on their way. She babbles about “the night is dark and full of terrors” and the like. She refers to “stone men” and Tyrion comments on this, drawing the connection to gray scale (Shireen’s disease, which was introduced last episode). Yep, they didn’t cut that!

Conleth-Hill-as-Varys-and-Peter-Dinklage-as-Tyrion-Lannister-_-photo-Helen-Sloan_HBO33

Hoodie time!

Ty does manage to find a whore house — of course, this is GOT and there are two in this episode alone! But unknownst to Tyrion and knownst to us, Jorah is lurking around — very drunk. There is even a whore dressed as Dany in blue and with a white wig. Tyrion talks to a lonely lady of the night and does a good job overcoming her initial skepticism of him, but when she goes to take him back to her room he can’t do it. This does incite some funny lines like “no one is more surprised. What am I going to do with all my free time?” So he wanders out to piss out the window (he loves a good vertical piss). Jorah sneaks up behind him with a rope, lassoes him and drags him off “for the queen.” This is an apparent acceleration of events in the books. Given the probable absence of some of the other (Dornish) traveling parties in ADOD it makes some sense. I’m sure they will run into a bit of trouble on their way to Meereen. Plus, this is now Tyrion’s second dwarfnapping!

Margaery-smiles-S5E3-Official-HBO

Never too much Margaery

All in all, a great episode. Compared to last week in particular, a ton of stuff happened in this episode. Just look how long the description above is. We pushed into exciting new territory with the Sansa/Bolton thread. For the first time ever I’m really wondering what is going to happen. And while we didn’t have any Dany or Jamie (Not so sad to skip a week on Dany’s slightly anoying Meereen plot), the remaining threads  felt quite substantial: Arya, Sansa/Bolton, and Cersei/Marg. Even the wall had a bit of a shocker. All great stuff.

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

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 videos for the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 37
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 35
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 33
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: Arya, Episode 43, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 5 Episode 3, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones Season 5 – Trailer 2

Mar09

The HBO part of today’s Apple event was host to yet another awesome looking S5 trailer.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwRdVw82Jd8]

Instead of being more narrative like the last one, this trailer takes a “look at all this cool stuff and action” plus a sort of vague emotional resonance. The later is provided by by the the bits of voice over snippets (consistent in style with previous marketing). “I’m not going to stop the wheel, I’m going to break it” and “I’m a queen, not a butcher.” That kind of thing.

Certainly it looks like narratives that were a bit stuck, vague, or behind in the books will be getting clarified and juiced up. Particularly in the north. The Dance of Dragons Jon Snow chapters kinda sucked.

And there is another teaser (released 3/16/15):

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjQj4BCQSzo]

This one has more of the “Who said anything about him?” arc.

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]

I’m actually in the process of doing a full 4 season rewatch right now to get “prepared” for the new season. The show is even better viewed in rapid succession (without the week and year long breaks)!

game-of-thrones-season-5-spoilers

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
  2. Game of Thrones Season 5 Trailer
  3. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies
  5. Game of Thrones Season 4 Preview
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), George R. R. Martin, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones Season 5 Trailer

Feb01

HBO was showing a nice long juicy Season 5 trailer on the big screen and it’s leaked to the internet.

This one is a good one, and certainly draws together the plot threads from books 4 and 5 in a more coherent and appealing way than the novels pitched, at least in summary. Interesting how, as usual, the show is more explicit about major currents than George R R is himself, for example the clearly implied allegiance of Varys (to Dany and “the realm”) and his sending Tyrion after her (which was so frustratingly CENSORED in book 5).

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-season-5-spoilers

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  2. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
  3. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI
  5. Game of Thrones Season 4 Preview
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones (TV series), HBO, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 38

May30

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 38 – June 1, 2014

Title: The Mountain and the Viper

Summary: Wow, what a finish!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Joff bit it (or drank it) in episode 33, but we’ve been waiting half a season to see how this all falls out for poor Tyrion. Then we even had to wait an extra week without an episode. Now the moment is at hand.

As usual, I’ll break down the threads into their sub plots for discussion.

At the wall – The moles town brothel might be loud, but the girls have nothing on Littlefinger’s places down south. These are some seriously ugly whores. And mean too, as we learn when a drunk one harasses Gilly about her baby. But they aren’t long for the world, Gilly recognizes the wildling warcries. Soon, Giantsbane, the Thenns, and Ygrite are pretty much killing everyone — until Ygrite notices Gilly and her baby and lets her go. Still, they make a point of showing her massacre a good number of men and women alike.

Back at Castle Black, Sam thinks Gilly is dead and the others reassure him she’s tough. Jon knows Mance is close and they contemplate how grim the odds are for the defenders. I.e. setup for next week’s invasion!

themountainandtheviper07

Sure he betrayed her, but that was a long time ago.

Dany – We’re treated first to a bit of book free love story between Grey Worm and Missandei (the translator). The Unsullied are bathing near the female servants (opportunity for nudity!) and he “spies” on her (overtly). Later, she tells Dany about this and they discuss eunuchs (I guess reminding the non-dorks that Unsullied have no parts). Pillar and the stones. Anyway, Grey Worm comes to apologize and they have a little “moment.”

A boy (I wonder if it’s the same one from season 1) brings Ser Barristan a letter. It’s the pardon letter Jorah got for spying on Dany years ago. Barristan goes to Jorah straight and tells him first. Then Jorah approaches Dany on her throne to plead his case. He’s honest with her, but she gives him no chance to explain himself. If there is a theme this week, it’s all about reversals, and so Jorah is banished from the city and the woman he loves. For the second time, stripped of everything he cares for. But us viewers are treated to an awesome shot of Meereen as he rides off.

Being queen can be tough

Being queen can be tough

Ramsay and Reek – Ramsay and his army are parked outside Moat Cailin. We can see it’s a swamp, but only in the distance. He gives Reek/Theon a combined pep talk and scare. Theon rides in under the white flag, past dead and rotting soldiers. Inside, the Iron Born aren’t doing so well. Most are dead, all are sick (sieges suck). Alfie Allen does a great job as Reek playing at being Theon. He offers the chance to surrender and live. The leader mocks him, but another kills him (ironically, just like he himself was taken out back at Winterfell). His exact words were “treat you honorably like he did me” and Ramsay is a man of his word, as the poor guys end up flayed.

Later, Ramsay brings his army back to Roose and gives him the banner from Moat Cailin. Roose shows him the North all around them and officially recognizes him as a Bolton (as opposed to Snow). If he wasn’t such an evil dude it might be an emotional moment.

Arya – is finally approaching the vale with the hound (return to the Bloody Gate or whatever it’s called). They have one of their hilarious conversations. We are reminded of the Hound’s infected wound, and treated to more of Arya’s interesting view point about “proper” killing. “I’d kill Joffrey with a chicken bone if I had too.” And when they find out her aunt is dead, Arya cracks up (which actually gives a glimpse of the old more childish Arya).

I'd kill Joffrey with a chicken bone if I had too

I’d kill Joffrey with a chicken bone if I had too

Sansa – her older sister is being anything but childish. Littlefinger is being interrogated by the grey-clad lords and lady of the Vale about Lysa’s “suicide.” When they bring Sansa in, she tells a carefully constructed story riding the line between fact and fiction. In fact, she clings decidedly close to the truth, revealing her identity and spinning the crucial parts (the nature of her kiss and the murder itself) to Littlefinger’s benefit. Both sisters have grown. Littlefinger is let off. He works the lords pushing them toward war with the Lannisters and getting Robin out of the Eerie to “tour” the Value.

themountainandtheviper02

Someone has finally learned how to play the game

Later, Litlefinger visits Sansa to ask her why she helped him. She looks at him coyly. And as Littlefinger ushers Robin off on his “adventure” she appears in a striking feather shouldered dress. It’s been awhile since I read her parts in the novels, but this all feels decidedly more overt and adult than in the source material. Not that that’s a bad thing — particularly on TV.

Tyrion – And finally, the man of the hour. Jaime vists Tyrion one last time and they have one of those wry conversations, discussing duels, methods of execution, and words for different kinds of killing. Then Tyrion launches into this long story about his moron cousin Orson the Beetlesmasher. It’s a credit to Peter Dinklage that he makes it so spellbinding, and great writing that it turns out the beetle smashing is probably an allegory for human violence. In the end, Jaime wishes him luck.

Taking a moment at Pycell's expense

Taking a moment at Pycell’s expense

And he moves on to the arena. This is a glorious set. Notched somewhere on the water in Dubrovnik the half circle of spectators looks out on the sea, and they’ve matted in a love Red Keep looming above. Oberyn is taking the whole thing lightly. Light armor and getting his buzz on. But the man is fast. He really does the grace and speed of The Viper credit — and the Mountain is huge. It is so George R R Martin that his character ultimate does him in. His need to toy with the Mountain and get the truth about his sister from the man leaves an opening for a huge last minute reversal. Oh it would be great to be a GOT virgin and experience it for the first time again.

Oh, and that is one seriously bad way to check out! Ouch!

They don't call him the Viper for nothing

They don’t call him the Red Viper for nothing

All in all, this was a fabulous episode, probably my favorites of this season so far — mostly due to the Tyrion scenes and the fight, but there is lots of good stuff going on. George R R Martin has a real talent for reversals. His basic mode of operation is to make you fall for the characters, even painting the villains sympathetically, and then jerk their fortunes up and down unpredictably. It’s a damn effective dramatic strategy.

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 31
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 34
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 33
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: Episode 38, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 4, Season 4 Episode 8, Television, The Mountain, Viper, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 37

May18

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 37 – May 18, 2014

Title: Mockingbird

Summary: Fabulous episode

ANY CHARACTER HERE

As I said last week: poor Ty. Quite a pickle he’s got himself into. Anyway, as usual, I’ll break down the threads into their sub plots for discussion.

Tyrion – Of course this is the thread we are most interested in. It takes the form of a test of three champions:

Champ 1: Jaime scolds Tyrion for throwing his life away. The dialog is so sharp — actually it’s so sharp this whole episode, and show for that matter. Lines like “You fell in love with a whore?” and “Careful, I’m the last friend you have.” Great back and forth zingers, plus there is a lot of emotion between the brothers. When Tyrion sideways asks Jaime to be his champion and Jaime turns him down it almost brought a tear to my eye. Whether this registered as a betrayal or a mere recognition of Jaime’s weakness is hard to say, and that very ambiguity is delicious. On mention of the opponent we cut to:

Heart to heart

Heart to heart

The Mountain. This new Mountain 3.0 looks just like 1.0 and is great. I don’t know what they were thinking with the unimpressive 2.0 version in season 2. That one was neither huge, obviously cruel, or so impressive. The show spares no punches with his brutal treatment (and enjoyment) of the prisoners. We are treated to several shots of the bloody entrails. And Cersei’s approval.

Now there's a Mountain that Rides!

Now there’s a Mountain that Rides!

Champ 2: Bronn has been bought out by Cersei. Ty is pretty screwed. There is the usual great delivery and an uncomfortable honesty. Bronn would LIKE to find a reason to help Tyrion, it’s just none of them make sense. With Cersei’s offer he has money and position now, and I think he’s honestly worried about the Mountain. The man is a beast, and the way he talks about it is more tell following on the show. I liked that they parted friends and the painful honesty of “Aye, I’m your friend, and when have you every risked your life for me?”

Champ 3: The unexpected. Oberyn talks of Cersei, and tells chilling tale of the young girl’s cruelty toward Tyrion. This is straight out of the books but the delivery is pitch perfect, retaining all the straight up meanness. This serves to lower Tyrion right to the bottom, then Oberyon spills out a fabulous little line about Justice and revenge, “and I shall begin with Gregor Clegane.” Great stuff. Plus, I really liked Tyrion’s witty insight that “masking manipulation with truth is one of Cersei’s greatest talents.”

Arya and the Hound – continue to “bond.” Sort of. They approach a burnt out farm and a dying man. Arya spins out her particular blend of bleak nihilistic philosophy: “Nothing is just nothing.” The hound kills the man out of mercy and is bitten by Biter and kills him while Arya dispatches Rorge with a clever bit of trick.

Later, he’s sewing up his bite wound and she offers to burn it to stop infection. Nasty looking cut but he refuses. Still, he tells the story again of being burned by his brother the Mountain, which serves both to reinforce how nasty the big guy is and to invoke sympathy. Arya responds by tending his wound (sans fire).

Jon – has a brief bit at Castle Black. Ghost is now huge (and CGI). The first of these is cool. Mance is approaching and he suggests in council that they seal the tunnel but Thorne, always a PITA will have nothing of it.

Sam gets about 1 second this week

Sam gets about 1 second this week

Dany – is lording over her rather cool sets in Meeren. Dario comes to her saying he is only good for two things: women and killing. Surprisingly, she actually takes him up on both (treating lady viewers to Dario backside). A rare bit of simple human comfort for her. In the morning, Dario runs into Jorah, who knows, and is a bit miffed. But he manages to convince the queen to offer mercy (partially) to Yunkai and put Dario in his place (slightly) by reminding him that Jorah still comes first when it comes to council. This is pretty fun stuff, particularly given the serious nature of her storyline.

Now there's a dress!

Now there’s a dress!

Melisandre – takes a bath in front of Selyse giving Stannis’ too women some screen time together. Not my favorite part, but it is amusing the way Mel uses both sexuality and piety. Selyse is all nun type. I really want to know what they see in that fire!

Brienne and Pod – visit that same inn where Lady (Sansa’s wolf) was murdered in episode 2. Hot Pie happens to be there, making for yet another cameo return. By being direct Brienne finds out about Arya was last seen with the hound — even if Pod was worried that such honesty might get them killed. Still Pod shows his value by knowing they might head for the Eerie. One might think they might actually find each other (or at least Sansa), but this is George R. R. Martin we are talking about! Pod and Brienne are fun together, although not as much fun as she was with Jaime — that was a hoot.

Not yet bosom buddies, but working on it

Not yet bosom buddies, but working on it

Sansa – finally we return to the Eerie. One might wonder why at the end of the episode, and why we wouldn’t end with Oberyn offering his services to Tyrion — but for good reason. Sansa has a few magical moments in the snowy Eerie courtyard. The snow takes her back to her childhood and she makes a snowy Winterfell (excellent snow sculpting skills BTW San). Robin joins and for a bit they have a nice moment, then the spastic Joff wanna-be goes nuts and she slaps him. As if this weren’t bad enough Littlefinger approaches. Sansa is becoming more of an active agent and she asks him point blank: “why did you really kill Joffrey?” Littlefinger is, like Cersei, a master of half truths. He appeals to his own love for Sansa’s mother and fingers it as revenge. I call B.S., Littlefinger doesn’t do anything for emotional reasons like that. But he makes a creepy move on Sansa and kisses her. Uh, oh. Lysa is watching.

I'm a dreamer

I’m a dreamer

The Lady of the Vale summons Sansa to the throne room with the Moon Door open. After a little setup about how the bodies burst apart on the ground below, she grabs Sansa. Littlefinger stops her, swearing (on his life) to send the girl away. Then he “comforts” Lysa, only to confess his love for Cat and toss her out the door. Trademark GOT ending and plus, he got a little extra taunt in before doing the deed.

And I build a mean snow castle

And I build a mean snow castle

All in all, this was a first rate episode, one of my favorites of this season. It just had a lot of good stuff, and only a few lesser scenes (like Mel and maybe Jon). Now we have to wait two weeks for “The Viper and the Mountain.” I wonder what that one is about…

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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 35
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 33
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 36
By: agavin
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Tagged as: a game of thrones, Episode 37, Game of Thrones, Game Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Historical fantasy, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 4, Season 4 Episode 7, Tyrion Lannister, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 35

May04

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 35 – May 4, 2014

Title: First of His Name

Summary: Good stuff

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Martin has a talent for coining phrases, and internet joking about XX of YY aside, First of His Name is one such title. Evocative, like so many of his little turns of phrase, it’s simultaneously unique to the books/show and characteristic of medieval phraseology.

Anyway, as usual, I’ll break down the threads into their sub plots for discussion.

Cersei – If Jaime was front and center last week, it’s Cersei standing in for Kings Landing (hey, Tyrion doesn’t even show this episode, which might be a first!). Tommen is crowned and both his women (Cersei and Margery) loom large. But when they talk, instead of the biting hatred that Cersei usually shows her young rival there is a bit of revealing honesty. Knowing C, she’s probably just playing Marg.

Next, she plans his wedding with her father. Apparently it won’t even be that long off (so much for letting Tommen drop a pair). She and Tywin have one of those legacy discussions. Plus it seems the Lanisters are actually out of gold and owe a fortune to the Iron Bank of Bravos. That’s folding in with Davos’ plans, which is some new stuff from the book. As usual, Charles Dance is in fine fine form.

Lastly, Cersei returns to Olena’s suicide-watch garden for a chat with Oberyn. He mentions his 8 daughters (the Sand Snakes) and they discuss Cersei’s daughter (in Dorne). Cersei wants to send a ship as a gift. This is probably setting up some action from A Dance with Dragons. Some great lines too like O: “We will have a trial and we will learn the truth” C: “We’ll have a trail anyway.”

firstofhisname3

He may favor bathrobes, but he is cool!

Dany – gets the news of Joff’s death, and is confronted with a choice. Seems she now has ships but the slavers have reclaimed the cities she spent Season 3 taking. She’ll woman up and set things to right — because we can’t have her getting back to Westeros too soon can we?

Finally got a new dress!

Finally got a new dress!

Arya and the Hound – try to sleep, but she has to recite her names, amusing enough as they include him! In the morning he thinks she’s gone, but finds her practicing her water dance out by the river. Arya does a great job with this, looking every bit the girl really trying to practice her swordwork. The little spar between them is great as always.

Everyone's favorite water dancer!

Everyone’s favorite water dancer!

Brienne and Pod – The big she-knight is pretty ambivalent about having him along as a squire as it is, but Pod’s lousy horsemanship and ineptitude at cooking rabbits has a certain charm. What really hooks her though is his story about protecting Tyrion at the Blackwater.

Sansa – also has a substantial arc in this episode. She approaches the Bloody Gate and the entrance to the Eerie with Littlefinger. She’s in disguise as his niece. Again we skip the cool approach to the fortress, but Robyn and Lysa aren’t any more stable for an extra 2 years atop their perch. Lysa knows Sansa’s secret and seemingly greets her all smiles. Then we’re treated to some icky Littlefinger/Crazy lady make out. And Lysa admits to having poisoned her husband and dragged Cat into this. That Littlefinger, he’s had her, and had her wrapped around his littlefinger for some time.

Sansa and Lysa have some bonding time, but Aunt crazy has some serious jealousy issues with regard to her man — not that she doesn’t have reason to doubt his sincerity. Lysa has in mind some cousin on cousin marriage for Sansa. Really, that wasn’t odd at all in the Middle Ages.

firstofhisname5

Look at me, a disguise!

Jon & Bran – So close again. Locke  spies on the mutineers and finds Bran and crew. Slipping back to Jon he tries  to warn them away from the building. Meanwhile, Bran and Jojen have a shared pseudo vision and confirm their desire to seek out the “one tree” (or whatever the big face tree is).

Carl comes in and has Meera hung up on a hook so he can get down with the R word — but fate (and the Night’s Watch) intervene. While Jon and crew slaughter the scum, Locke sneaks into where Bran is tied up and tries to carry him away. Bran jumps into Hodor’s mind and sends the giant off to nearly rip Locke’s head off — bye bye. He sees Jon, and wants to crawl to him, but Jojen convinces him that he must continue heading toward the tree.

Jon and Karl have a nice duel — double dagger vs. sword. It doesn’t go great for Jon under one of Craster’s wives (setup last week) helps him out, and then Karl gets a seriously gnarly sword through the head. Ghost makes a return visit grabbing Rast (who has escaped and is making a break for it) and returns to Jon — who apparently hadn’t forgotten about him like we all thought he had.

This whole Craster’s Keep raid isn’t in the books, and in the end, it doesn’t change anything, but it does serve to give Jon and Bran’s plot lines some jeopardy and to help tie in Bran a bit. Really, when a character runs off in parallel without seeing anyone for 2-3 whole books, it doesn’t play that great — good changes!

All and all, a solid episode. Perhaps not as good as Oathkeeper, but really some good work on the Cersei, Sansa, and Jon timelines. More Arya. More Arya!

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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:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 34
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 33
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
By: agavin
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Tagged as: Episode 35, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 4, Season 4 Episode 5, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 33

Apr20

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 33 – April 20, 2014

Title: Breaker of Chains

Summary: Good stuff

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week left us on the edge of our seats, either saddened at the loss of our favorite villain, or cackling in glee. Unlike the previous three seasons where the show really takes a while to get going, this time around we almost opened with huge events. Now let’s see how the pieces sort out. This is episode that covers a lot of threads, and none in great depth.

Sansa – Joff leers at us in death, blood seeping from his nose. Cersei screams accusations at Tyrion and Sansa is pulled away from the wedding by Ser Dontos. Last week, it wasn’t even until the second viewing that I noticed this significant little bit. As Tywin orders the city on lockdown, Dontos rushes her away, into the streets, through Dubrovnik (achem, Kings Landing) to the port and a waiting row boat. Then, covered by a convenient and sudden fog, out to a ship and up to… Littlefinger. You kinda had to know that where Kings Landing assassination is concerned, LF is likely to be involved. Poor Dontos earns a crossbow in the heart for his troubles and Sansa a lecture on the reality of her position. Poor girl. She just can’t help but be the pawn.

Even her funeral wear sports clevage

Even her funeral wear sports cleavage

Marg and Olena – chat in their favorite botanical garden. Olena tries to put a good spin on it — well she ought to, as she certainly had some hand in it. I liked the humanness that Marg displays here. Sometimes she comes off as cold and manipulative, but I don’t really think that’s (entirely) her.

Cersei – Attends the body of Joffery in the sept, laid out much as Lord Arryn was with the weird eye stones. Tywin, ever the opportunist, uses the chance to give Tommen (looking a lot older) a rather truth but manipulative lecture on the nature of kingship. As grandfather and the new boy king leave, Jaime enters and comforts his sister. They kiss, she pushes him away (after a bit), and he grows angry and takes her (only partially against her will) right there. Rather unsavory business, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

The family that sleeps together stays together

The family that sleeps together stays together

Arya and the Hound – There seems to be a pissing theme this week, as the hound is watering the plants while she dines on radishes. Apparently, he’s heard of the Second Sons (led by the late Meero). A farmer and his daughter show up and Arya charms them and earns them a meal. It’s quite amusing to see the hound in a domestic situation, as he certainly isn’t big on the blessing before the meal. But the man offers him a job and he takes it — but next up he’s robbing them of their silver and dragging a furious Arya out of there. He may not be deliberately cruel, but apparently his code is “flexible.”

Code Smode

Code Smode

Sam and Gilly – After a quick survey of the sordid men in black, we’re treated to another of those charming Sam and Gilly scenes. Their “courtship” is kinda cute, as they clearly both have a thing for each other, but are unable to really get down to business. Sam decides that leaving her in the castle with a hundred former rapers is a bad idea so smuggles her out to Mole Town to live with some whores in a total sh**thole. I think she knows he means well, but sigh…

Davos and Stannis – have out the only conversation they ever seem to have, where Davos cautions against anything having to do with the Red Lady and Stannis argues he has no choice. Davos then visits Stannis’ daughter (the one with the grayscale face) and while taking in a reading lesson comes upon an idea. Somehow he plans to use the iron bank to try to help Stannis.

Certainly fun to watch this fellow

Certainly fun to watch this fellow

Oberyn – is back in the brothel (lots of them this week) getting it on with Ellaria Sand and several whores of both sexes. He amuses us with a speech on bisexuality. Really, the writing of GOT has a slightly Shakespearean quality, as characters love a good soliloquy. This amusement is interrupted by Tywin, who sure knows how to turn a bad situation to his advantage. He skillfully feels out Oberyn as he recruits him as a judge in Tyrion’s trial and as a small council member.

Tyrion – is visited in prison by his squire Pod. The poor guys is rather likeable and Tyrion, despite his captivity (again) is in fine form as usual. They exchange facts and set the stage for his coming trial. Damned by Cersei, his wife missing, three judges in Tywin’s pocket. It doesn’t look good. He does right by Pod, continuing to make him the most likable of Lannisters.

Ygrite – and the wildlings raid a village up by the wall. The poor villagers don’t have a chance. She shoots a bunch. Giantsbane slices. And the Thenns prepare to roast up a few for supper.

John – When word of the attach reaches Castle Black, John and the other senior Crows aren’t fooled into attacking. They are too few men. But when his friends return from Crasters, revealing that some of the rebel Crows are holed up there and will betray their weakness to Mance and the Wildings, they may have to move to action.

breakerofchains4

Tastes like chicken

Dany – Approaches Meeren by way of the Dalmatian coast. She parks her big CG army in from of the lovely big CG city (nice pyramids and love that harpy gate). And here comes more pissing. The city sends out a champion and we’re treated to the cock-cam view of him pissing at Dany’s army. Dario gets the honor of fighting, and pulls a Bronn by stabbing the horsing and beheading the rider. Dany then gives a surprisingly effective speech to the slaves, made all the more so by being in Valyrian. This technique of using the subtitled foreign tongue is highly effective. It almost brought a tear to my eye. If it’d been in English the speech would have been cheesy. Of and the music helped. Liked the catapults and the barrels smashing against those walls of Dubrovnik.

Pissing contest

He won the pissing contest

Overall, not a big centerpiece episode, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Things are in motion again after last week stirred up the pot.

Note: piss count was 3 tonight.

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

HBO’s official inside the episode:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 32
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 21
By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 32

Apr13

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 32 – April 13, 2014

Title: The Lion and the Rose

Summary: Martin has a thing for Weddings

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Episode 2 of the season takes a moment (or two) to fill in the characters  left out of the premier before moving on to the royal wedding. We’ve been leading up to this “blessed event” for some time, so lets see how it stacks up compared to its predecessor, the infamous “Red Wedding.”

As usual, I’ll break down the episode into threads by character. Although this gets a little tricky in king’s landing.

Theon – The episode opens with Ramsay Snow (aka the Bastard of Bolton) hunting down an attractive girl through the forest. He’s joined by hounds, one of his bedwarmers with bow and arrow, and Theon, looking more than a little worse for wear (like a guy with a bad crack problem). The hunter girl shoots the other (is it the girl she was with in season 3?) and Ramsay sicks the hounds on the victim. As if we didn’t know he was a nut before…

There could be worse looking huntresses

There could be worse looking huntresses

Next, his father, Roose Bolton returns to the Dreadfort. As a nice nod to his story about the fat wife, we see her too. Turns out the guy who chopped off Jaime’s hand is a friend of the bastard — go figure. In conference Ramsay shows off Theon, now christened Reek. It’s gratifying that the show continues to unravel the books bizarre chronology into a more linear fashion. These reveals occur in book five, but are pulled forward to what is essentially the second half of book 3. George R’s expedient (at the time) choice to place character before chronology never really worked for me, so it’s good to see it back in order. But poor Reek.

Ty – dines with Jaime. If we have the dwarf and the cripple, where is the “mother of madness?” Jaime confesses he can’t fight and Ty sets him up with Bronn on a fishing platform near Dubrovnik. In any case, as both Bronn and Jaime are so much fun, they continue the sport together, which makes for a fine scene. This is a notable change from the book, which features the tongueless Paine as Jaime’s silent sparring partner. I’ve heard this has to do as much with that actor being ill 🙁 as with the writing per se. Still, Bronn is played so well, we won’t complain.

sesaon421-681x1024

One of my favorite couples

Ty wanders the gardens with Varys (good to see the spider) and the eunuch tells him Shae has been seen by Cersei’s spies. They are apparently heading toward a wedding gift ceremony and Ty gives Joff a history book, but Joff, ever the twerp, uses his father’s gift, the other Valarian steel sword, to chop up the book: so it begins.

Ty tries to send Shae away. To get her to take him serious he has to play the butthead, even though he doesn’t want to. Shae is definitely much more developed than in the books.

Melisandre – is up to her usual tricks, burning a collection of Stannis’ relatives alive for heresy while his queen gloats on. They segue into discussion about Stannis’ daughter and then lady Mel visits the girl.

Not sure where the Mel/Stannis thing is going -- AND I've read the books 2-3 times!

Not sure where the Mel/Stannis thing is going — AND I’ve read the books 2-3 times!

Bran – gets a very brief snippet, which isn’t too surprising given that he basically takes at least a 1,000 page leave of absence in the books. We are treated to some wolf cam and a bunch of trippy visions that work for me.

The Wedding – forms the bulk of this episode, at least half the screen time. The marriage itself, grand Sept wedding that it is, goes off smoothly enough. Marg somehow has imported a hairdresser from Versailles, as she’s sporting Marie Antoinette hair.

The style worked until the guillotine!

The style worked until the guillotine!

The transition from ceremony to reception includes another cute talk between Tywin and Lady Olena. Good fun as always, but not as amusing as their first.

Then on to the reception itself. As the production stated, this is a BIG scene. Virtually every character in King’s landing is there — and the sets look gorgeous. There are all sorts of nods going on. Loras and Oberyn. Cersei and several others. And no small share of threats. The royal pavilion seems rather Moorish in style, but despite the opulence, Joff is bored.

Nothing like a bored homicidal maniac at a party. Joff interrupts the eating and drinking to bring in a troop of dwarves playing the 5 (mostly) defeated kings. This little number, besides filling the air with tension thick enough to cut, is pretty medieval. Dwarf fools and performances were common enough, as was their bawdy irreverence. Tyrion does a bit to feed the fires of hatred between him and his uncle, but the lion’s share (haha) goes to Joff. The mad boy just won’t let it go. He heaps it on and on and on. Marg tries to diffuse it, at least twice, but I’ve been in this sort of situation myself (not at a royal wedding). It’s hard to stop that train once it gets going.

In the end… well we get to an end, for some. Certainly not all the doves in that pie made it…

All in all a great episode, fairly focused as it goes (at least in the second half), and centered around Tyrion (who is such a delight on screen). Unfortunately for me, I was so busy taking notes I didn’t get to enjoy it — which is why I’ll just have to watch it again.

Another excellent review of this episode here.

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:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 31
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 26
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 29
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 16
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Game of Thrones – Episode 31

Apr06

gameofthronesseasonreleasedate-1396104840n4k8gGame of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 31 – April 6, 2014

Title: Two Swords

Summary: Excellent opening

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Here we are again at Game of Thrones season. The “previously scenes” always give one a clue what’s coming, and this time it  reached all over the place to odds and ends, sometimes from a season or two ago (like Dontos) or the Ice setup for what’s about to come with this episode. Watching with my wife, who HAS read the books (years ago) and seen every episode, but still needed a “reminder” lecture on the background, it was ever more evident to me how gigantic the scope of this world and series is.

The episode is named “Two Swords” and it opens with Ice (which we haven’t seen in more than two years) pulled from its sheath and reforged into two new swords. Definitely symbolic of the “end” of the Stark line, and depressing enough as Tywin gloats over it.

As usual, I’ll break down the episode into threads by character. This gets a little tricky in king’s landing.

Jaime – is back  in King’s Landing, but more out of his element than ever. He’s shaved and cleaned up, impressive again in King’s Guard regalia, but also gaunt and haunted. Tywin offers him a new sword (we don’t se that the other goes to Joff, or maybe that’s later) and they argue about his future. He clings to the idea of the King’s Guard and Tywin wants him back at Casterly Rock. Truth is, Tywin is fairly gracious in yielding to Jaime’s stubborn position — for him. This just begins the assault on Jaime’s naive assumption that he can resume his normal life. Twice people (his father and Joff) comment on the luck of one handed swordsmen.

sesaon427-1024x681

Nothing like a sword in the good hand and a gold hand on the stump

In his next scene he is fitted with an awkward looking gold hand by Qyburn (being setup for his future roles). Cersei is there and they too argue over his future. He moves to resume their incestuous romance, but she rebukes him hard. From her point of view he left her. From his, events were beyond his control. The dialog is top notch as usual. Loras is referred to as a Pillowbiter, an amusing British slang. Next up it’ll be Featherspitter.

And later, when he and Brienne look down on Sansa, the giant female knight (looking even more awkward in her “finery”) takes him to task. Who is he? The old Jaime who didn’t take anything seriously? Or the man that went back for Brienne?

Tyrion – is also on edge. Interestingly we don’t have a scene between the brothers, but he has been tasked with greeting the party from Dorne come for the royal wedding (Joff and Marg). But the prince of Dorne isn’t there, sending instead his younger brother Oberyn (the Red Viper). Of course, this gives opportunity to end up in a brothel, presumably one of Littlefinger’s (who, along with Varys, Stannis, Bran, and the Ironborn, is one of the few characters who does NOT make an appearance in this episode). Oberyn has a great introduction, in typical Thrones Brothel style involving a good deal of nudity and some clear bisexuality (which if it was in the books was pretty subtle). He’s certainly fun as he gives some obnoxious Lannister men a bit of a MadMax quandary. This is mostly introduction, as afterward he and Tyrion talk, mostly to inform the audience of the Dorne position on things. Oh, and Ty as usual has great lines like “I partook, but now I’m married.”

Oberyn’s “friend”, BTW is a veteran of that other great HBO historical epic: Rome.

Oh dear, I’m sorry my family slaughtered yours

We continue to be updated on Tyrion’s precarious position. He tries to sooth Sansa (still reeling from the death of her mother and brother) and at the same time keep Shae happy. It isn’t working, and when Shae comes on to him hard he rebukes her (playing off the later interchange between Jaime and Cersei). This is new material from the books and is helping set up where Shae is going as a character. To good effect, as I never really bought that part of the otherwise amazing 3rd  novel.

His tryst (even if avoided) is  clearly taken in by one of Cersei’s annoying spies.

Dany – gets in a little R&R with her (now) giant CG dragons. Seems they’re getting a little unruly. I guess they weren’t properly cage trained. Jorah marches in and we are reintroduced to her host: Jorah, Dario, Barristan, the translator girl, Grey Worm, etc. This new Eric Bana Lookalike Dario sure is different from last year’s sensual interpretation. The scope on these shots seems big, although Dany’s countryside looks… well Croatian.

Later, marching toward Maureen, Dany and crew (an enormous CG snake of an army) discover a crucified girl pointing at Maureen. Just one of thousands. Really, we don’t get what Dany is exactly up to, as she seems to be heading anywhere but back to Westerous.

Pass the draco-biscuits please

Pass the draco-biscuits please

Sansa – Is probably in one of the toughest positions, most notably because she doesn’t have a lot of options. Oh, and it is worth mentioning that her table table is made of Pietra dura and has a great view of the Adriatic. When Tryion tries to sooth her, he’s as witty as every: “She wanted to have me executed, but I admired her.” and “Prayer can be helpful, I hear.” Later, after being spied on by Jaime and Brienne she flees and runs into Ser Dontos, who she rescued forever again from Joff’s sadism. He volunteers his loyalty.

Ygritte – is back in the no mans land near the Wall and jousting verbally with  Tormund Giantsbane. He gives her a hard time about now killing Jon, then a group of Thenns show up. They’re huge and scarred, with lots of manly attitude and a taste for human flesh. All in all icky.

Sam and Jon are back at Castle Black – but no one seems to take the Wildling threat seriously when Jon tries to warn them. In fact, he ends up being tried for the death of the Halfhand. We are reminded that Jonas Slynt is now up at the wall and that Measter Aeogon rules. Plus great lines like “none of us are free, we are all men of the Night’s Watch.”

I've done plenty wrong

I’ve done plenty wrong

The Tyrells – are plotting talking, and generally being good fun. Plus, behind them is a hilarious statue of Joff “slaying” a boar.

Ayra – the show likes to end with Arya, and that is no accident. She’s a fan favorite for a reason. Now, following the murder of her brother and mother, she’s in a grim place. The Hound intends to sell her to her Aunt for cash. And at least he isn’t interested in selling her back with his former masters. There’s is a bleak spot of the middle of the country (Riverlands?) and there are more than a fair share of corpses. On finding an Inn filled with Lannister soldiers, an amusing combo of their mutual stubborn sides leads them inside. What follows is quite fun. Sandor doesn’t give a shit (pardon my French) and he’s willing to drive straight on through even if it means a dozen bodies. But, amusing enough, it’s not him that we focus on, instead everything comes to life as Arya does. Boy, I have to go watch that scene again (and I knew what was coming).

Oh, and how weird was Poliver’s monologue about torture?

You going to die for some chickens? Someone is!

You going to die for some chickens? Someone is!

Overall, a great start to the season. This is a typical early GOT episode in that it focuses on the big peices and establishing the position of each of the MANY characters. Usually, it’s a few weeks before they really move. Not so much this time if I have my crystal ball ready.

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:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 28
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 27
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
By: agavin
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 4, Season 4 Episode 1, Season 4 Episode 31, Television, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones Honest Trailer

Apr01

In honor of the upcoming launch of Game of Thrones season 4, it seemed apropos to post this much funnier “Honest”  one.

Good stuff ain’t it?

See you next week when the real fun begins.

season4-01

Smile while you can Joff

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  3. Game of Thrones Season 4 Preview
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  5. Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: Game of Thrones, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Season 4, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones Season 4 Preview

Feb11

HBO has released this 15 minute preview/behind-the-scenes for Game of Thrones season 4.

Despite having passed the seminal Red Wedding, I have to say Season 4 looks pretty damn awesome. They look to be making the most of the second half of A Storm of Swords (and perhaps some of A Feast of Crows). Increases in technology and budget (perhaps due to the success) make it look the scope is even grander. Joff’s wedding, some of Dany’s city shots, and the battle for the wall all ought to be epic. From the looks of it, the wedding will come off fabulously. But those big battles have long been a weakness of both the book and show, particularly in that they’ve just “finessed” several to save money (and GOT isn’t the only big show to do that — the mist and sword clanking in ROME comes to mind). Still, I think the battle at the wall because of its smaller number of forces and more confined battlefield has some real potential to work on the small screen.

Truth is, large scale battle barely works on the big screen. Alexander (besides being a generally sucky movie — even if the conqueror is one of my favorite historical figures) was about as good as it gets of full scale infantry battles.

Regardless, less than two months to go!

And this second Season 4 Trailer was released 2/16!

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]

Jack-Gleeson-as-Joffrey-Baratheon_photo-Macall-B.-Polay_HBO

We all love to hate the king!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 CGI
  3. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies
  5. Game of Thrones – Season 2 – First Look
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A foreshadowing, David Benioff, Game of Thrones, HBO, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, Oberyn, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Medieval Land Fun-Time World

Oct21

Absolutely hilarious faux lip sync Game of Thrones trailer. This must have been a lot of work and I can’t tell if the semi-sensical dialog is just goofy writing or a requirement to match the mouth movements in their clips. But cool.

Plus fart jokes. And vaguely reminiscent of Adventureland too.

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]

medieval-land-fun-time-world

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Season 2 – First Look
  2. New Game of Thrones 2 Teaser
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
  4. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer
  5. World of Warcraft 8th Anniversary
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: Amusement park, Bad Lipreading, Game of Throne, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Lip sync, List of A Song of Ice and Fire characters, spoof, World of A Song of Ice and Fire, YouTube

Game of Thrones – Episode 29

Jun02

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 29 – June 2, 2013

Title: The Rains of Castamere

Summary: Darkness descends

ANY CHARACTER HERE

As much as this season is about marriage and The Rains of Castamere centers on the second of three weddings, the episode is more about the breaking of oaths than the keeping of them. The sundering of possibilities than the forming of them. This is a dark dark segment, probably the darkest yet.

Like last week, the writers have narrowed the narrative focus. We have only three major threads here. One is a bit more of Dany in Yunkai, another one of a Storm of Swords more complex segments (the near meeting of Sam, Bran, and Jon) and the last being the Red Wedding. Structurally the writers cut more rapidly back and forth between these segments than usual. This becomes particularly necessary as the threads overlap and cross, something that while rare in the series, gives this segment of the novel tremendous tension.

Dany – Daario’s addition to Dany’s inner circle only makes things even more complex. Jorah, who once had the queen all to himself is pulled in various directions by the men around her. He Daario, and Grey Worm go to open the gates of the city. This segment is by far the weakest. The battle is not only skipped, which we have sadly come to expect, but the little bits we get are unclear at best. The three go in, have a bit of a fight, are ambushed, and then are somehow back at Dany’s camp. I’m just confused. The whole thing felt small and squeezed for time. Dany waiting for Daario felt forced.

Didn't do it for me this week

Didn’t do it for me this week

Sam & Gilly – approach the wall. Their excellent chemistry continues as he info dumps (letting us know there is way under the wall) and she is so impressed she calls him a “wizard,” which is a delightful reference back to season 1. But where is Cold Hands?

Bran – and crew approach the windmill that Jon saw two episodes ago. A storm is coming and they take shelter.

Jon – along with the wildlings, approaches a horse breeder who works for the Night’s Watch. His loyalty is again put to the test. He warns the man and stops Ygritte from shooting him. But when the wildlings catch up with him outside Bran’s windmill he’s assigned to kill the guy — a task for which he’s a notorious failure. Ygritte cuts short the argument by choosing sides and Jon, but as he fights the wildlings she is neutralized by Tormund. Jon gets the drop on Orel and gives the man what he deserves, but not before his consciousness slips into his Eagle and he attacks Jon with this second body. Despite the Warg explanations offered by Jojen below, I wonder how well non-readers will understand this.

We won't miss this fellow

We won’t miss this fellow

But most central to this whole scene, and most thematic to the episode is the play out of loyalties between Jon and Ygritte. Is she siding with him? Where do her loyalties lie? I choose to believe with them as a unit. But Jon doesn’t just chose her, he chooses the Watch too. Her expression as she watches him ride off is sad indeed.

Bran – employs his special Warg powers first to silence Hodor and then to jump into Summer and Shaggy Dog below, helping Jon out with his fight. When he returns to himself he decides to send Rickon away with Osha for his own safety. Here he also saw Jon below, and I can’t remember if that happened exactly in the books. Reading, there was always this intense desire to see the family members reunite, and it is here in ASOS that they come the closest, with heart rending consequences. It should be noted that Jojen isn’t so much a character but a mouth piece to explain what’s going on with Bran (somewhat). Also, after being pretty much entirely lame this season, the moment with Osha as she takes on Rickon is actually fairly touching. Her character this season has bugged me, as she was great last year, and it’s nice to see her slightly redeemed.

Arya – also nearly intertwines here. As she approaches the Twins the back and forth between her and the Hound is great fun. Neither totally has the upper hand. The pig parts (pig knuckles – ick) are an amusing touch as they spar. In many ways they see sides of each other that few do.

Poor Arya, so close, and yet so far

Poor Arya, so close, and yet so far

Robb – reconnects with his mother as they plot their assault on Casterly Rock. Then riding out, wolf in the lead, they approach the Twins for the wedding (a second near convergence). Deviating from the books, he brings his wife to the wedding. This initial meeting, and the wedding in general, is handled excellently. They break bread and salt, which viewers might not totally get, but initiating traditional guest rights. Robb apologizes and old Frey is highly amusing as he introduces his daughters and teases Robb. In a bit of foreshadowing, he uses the phrase “the wine will run red.”

A little shot of the Starks camped outside the Frey castles, along with the establishing shot during Arya’s segment, clue us in that Robb is inside with less than his full force. The wedding itself is touching. Edmure gets a decent looking bride and he does a good job wearing his emotions on his face. I like the repeated and reinforced cloaking ceremony and the vows to the seven.

An ill-starred glare

An ill-starred glare

The celebration is fairly nicely handled, feeling decent in scale considering. It’s full of telling little bits like Bolton refusing to drink and the amusing speech by Frey about “every sword needing a sheath.” The writers take one last opportunity for some genuine warmth between Robb and his bride, which makes what is to come all the more tragic.

Why Cat doesn’t figure it out as soon as The Rains of Castamere begin to play, I don’t know, but things go south very very quickly. The tragic action is split in two parts by Arya’s segment, which I felt diminished the emotional impact. Probably they did this to end where they did, but it might have been better cut a different way.

Do you trust this face?

Do you trust this face?

Arya – approaches the castle, her cautious optimism at seeing the Stark men quickly shattered by violence and then the sad sad slaughter of Grey Wind (I feel worse about the wolves than many of the human loses). For a second time, the Hound grabs her and carries her away.

Robb & Cat – The whole existence of Talisa was a considerable deviation from the books, and it comes to an end here. In season 2, I wasn’t her biggest fan, but some of the recent scenes between her and Robb have built up character not present in the novels and I was deeply saddened to see her go, hoping she, like her doppelgänger Jeyne Westerling, would survive the wedding. Alas, it was not to be, and the manner of her death, and that of her child, felt like a stab to the gut. Sorry, couldn’t resist, but seriously, as a husband and father, her end was pretty awful.

The play out in the end between Robb, Cat, and Frey — and of course Bolton, was well handled. Her desperation is apparent, she will do anything to try to save her son. Michelle puts in some fine acting. But it is not to be.

The writers chose to end with the stabbing and double throat cutting, which has a certain visceral power, but perhaps at the cost of the signature imagery of the “double wolf’s head.” Or perhaps we’ll get that next week.

More than in the book, I'm going to miss them.

More than in the book, I’m going to miss them.

Overall, this was a dark and powerful episode, in which the Jon/Bran and Robb/Cat segments were largely successful  particularly the Red Wedding. Dany’s was just lame, but you can’t win everything and the sacking of Yunkai was hardly the most important moment of her journey. All this leaves me speculating about what might fit into our one remaining episode.

Certainly NOT the siege of Castle Black. Possibly not even our third wedding (Joff’s). It might feel odd to start season 4 with that, but from the trailer it seems that episode 30 will be concerned mostly with the consequences of episode 29. How far will we get on the Jon/Ygritte storyline? Hard to say. I register my prediction that episode 30 ends with Beric Dondarian finding Cat’s body. It seems in keeping. It’s very clear that season 4 will start to deviate hugely from the chronology laid out by Martin — although this can’t help but be a good thing as he botched the flow pretty bad in books 4 and 5.

Absent this week were Jaime, Theon, all of King’s Landing, and Dragonstone.

Another excellent analysis 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]

And below, some inside the episodes from HBO:

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 26
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 28
  3. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Dany, episode 29, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Peter Dinklage, Season 3, season 3 episode 29, Tyrion, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 28

May20

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 28 – May 18, 2013

Title: Second Sons

Summary: Really great character work

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Marriage has been a consistent theme this season and as we close in on the end this episode centers around the first of the three pending weddings. The title, Second Sons, adds to this theme. We have at least four featuring in this episode: the Hound, the mercenary band itself, Tyrion, and Stannis.

In a structural sense, this is a very cohesive episode with only three extended “threads” of narrative (Dragonstone, Dany, and Kings Landing) book-ended by two short (but important) ones (Arya at the beginning and Sam at the end). Really each of these three main threads is about a second son. And metaphorically, in each of these threads is the theme of powerlessness, of being treated (in a medieval sense) like a second son.

Arya – has only a small role this week, but her assumptions about our first Second Son, the Hound — initially murderous — are called into question by his words. She learns that he’s taking her to the Frey’s to be “sold” to her brother.

don't mess with Arya!

don’t mess with Arya!

Melisandre,  Gendry, Stannis, and Davos – arrive back a Dragonstone and he is introduced to Stannis (our second Second Son). The would-be-king looks at him and says unceremoniously, “half Robert, half low born.” This is so Stannis. But he is uncomfortable with Mel’s plan to sacrifice the boy and heads down to the dungeon for a little chat with his conscience (in the form of Davos). In their usual sort of back and forth the come to terms and he lets the Onion Knight out. This is a peculiar relationship. Each man wants the same thing, for Stannis to be the man he wants to be, and are willing to overlook the flaws in both themselves and the other in pursuit of this.

1_image-large

Gendry is so in over his head!

In a new bit not in the books, Mel joins Gendry in is rooms and turns on her peculiar charm, which includes a mixture of guile, honesty, and nudity. Predictably Gendry is helpless before this assault. The show runners have taken her blood magic and turned it into sex/blood magic. It’s not exactly clear why she needs to pump him a little before tying him up and sucking out a little blood into three leeches. Perhaps it’s as she says earlier, that the lamb just never see the knife coming. Perhaps it’s a desire to keep up the sex quotient. Either way it works, and I enjoyed the burning of the bloody leeches and the calling for a curse upon three “usurpers”: Joff, Robb, and Balon Greyjoy. This is an ancient form of magic that goes back to far antiquity. I even use it in my short story, “Harvard Divinity.”

Dany – We continue to get some excellent shots of Yunkai in all its pseudo-Moroccan glory and Dany is cute in her Fremen-style robe. We are introduced to the obstacle-du-jour, a group of mercenaries that defend the city for the “Wise Masters.” This group is known as the “Second Sons” and is led by a trio of warriors including the Titan’s Bastard and Dario.

450x254xgame-of-thrones-promo-second-sons_450x254.jpg.pagespeed.ic.tCvruZY3tO

Dany Sheik

Whom we soon meet as they hold audience with Dany in her tent. They are quite the brash and amusing trio, particularly the Titan’s Bastard who is brazenly forward with Dany. Dario looks like Jared Leto in the disastrous Alexander (sigh, I so wanted to like it). There are some good moments here. When they leave as Dany turns to Barristan and says, “when the fighting comes, kill him first” and the knight replies, “gladly.”

And even more fun are the three mercenaries in there camp arguing about how to proceed. The Bastard, like his creator Martin, is evidently fond of slave girls, and we have one that looks a lot like the handmaiden Dany left in the vault with Xaro. In any case, their plan is to send Dario to assassinate her and avoid a fight at all.

episode-28-04-1920-1024x576 (1)

Naughty dogs!

But when he does barge in, she’s in the middle of her bath (after a fun moment with her translator) the two face off: the brazen mercenary and the naked girl. Her confident use of her physical presence here was very effective. Interestingly, for the first time since the end of season 1 she bares herself. I had begun to wonder of she had negotiated that out of her contract. It was even odd when the show apparently deliberately left a sex scene on the table in skipping her little shipboard tussle with her handmaidens.

Tyiron comes to visit Sansa – This continues to be a very awkward situation for our favorite second son, not in the least part because his lover is the girl’s handmaiden. So again when he comes to talk to her right before their wedding, he has to resort to virtually ordering Pod to haul Shae out of the room. And Peter Dinklage does a magnificent job (as always) with the subtly of emotions, combining attitude, self depreciating humor, awkwardness, and genuine like-ability to really sell Tyrion trying to do his best.

would you mind giving us a moment?

would you mind giving us a moment?

The wedding itself is pretty sumptuous, far grander than the quick affair in the books. The High Sept looks cavernous, like some grand reinterpretation of the Pantheon. Everyone in Kings Landing is there (except Littlefinger who is away). Sadly Varys doesn’t have any lines, but there is good stuff from Marg, Cersei, Joff, and Tywin. Cersei and her younger doppleganger (Marg) duel and the queen shows her claws.

But it’s Joff who steal the show by continuing to be the asshat that he is. When he removes the stool from the altar and forces Tyrion to ask Sansa to kneel it’s pure asshatery. Good stuff. The situation is tense, touching, and a bit comic. All great stuff. At the reception a bitter Cersei, frustrated by her lack of control (including over her son), snubs hapless Loras. Tyrion gets royally drunk and Tywin orders him to consummate his marriage no matter what. Joff tries to start some more trouble by bringing up the “bedding ceremony” which non-reader viewers will not understand. This is where all the women attending strip the groom and carry him naked to the bridal chamber while the men do the same for the bride.

Yes father, I am the god of drink and lust.

Yes father, I am the god of drink and lust.

In his cups, Tyrion lays (verbally) into Joffrey and they nearly come to blows before Tywin puts a stop to it. Remember this, dear viewer.

The “consummation” (or lack thereof) is well done always. Sansa it seems, now finally understands her duty, but Tyrion, despite his flaws, is a character we can love and he isn’t willing to force himself on her. In continued defiance of his father, for love of Shae, and because he isn’t “that sort” he shows her continued kindness. The sentiments are deft and right out of the book, but the show has softened the scene, as in the book both strip down before coming to this moment. There is something about the rawness of the original literary scene, with both  at their most vulnerable, that I really enjoyed. I had suspected, rightly, that they wouldn’t have the stomach for this.

Several other things are extremely well done: Tyrion’s impressive level of drunkenness, his comment about Sansa’s long neck (which we have all noticed), and in the morning, Shae’s little smile at the lack of blood on the sheets.

Sam – Sam and Gilly come across a ruined little hut in the forest next to an “Old God” (one of those red trees with the creepy faces). Ravens, ever purposed as harbingers in Northern myth, seem unusually drawn to the tree. As the duo sets up the fire and discusses the naming of Gilly’s baby their hesitant chemistry continues. It’s really well done with a shy tension and attraction on the part of both.

Eventually (and the episode ends on this), the calling of the Ravens draws Sam outside. They cover the tree, which although a slightly trite image still gave me goosebumps. A white walker approaches, the very same CGI model we met in the last episode of season 2. Sam, belying the coward he feels he is attacks, and is swiftly rebuffed. Walkers it seems have a taste for baby. But Sam draws his Dragonglass (aka obsidian) dagger and to use Buffy parlance, dusts the walker.

It should be noted that while this is the only segment not to include a second son (Sam is technically his father’s heir), his position in Randal Tarly’s eyes (explained in his own words some time ago, and alluded to here), is that of one.

Above the official “inside the episode.”

And above, a great discussion of the marriage thread this season.

Overall, Second Sons is a tremendous episode. It has a lot of “action,” perhaps not so much physical fighting (except at the end), but a lot going on, and with it’s concentration on fewer narratives a great deal of focus on the character’s we’ve come to love.

Absent this week were Bran, Robb, Jon, Jaime/Brienne, and Theon.

Another good analysis 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]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 27
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 26
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 24
By: agavin
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Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Arya, Episode 28, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon, Northern Ireland, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 28, World of A Song of Ice and Fire, Ygritte

Game of Thrones – Episode 27

May12

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 27 – May 12, 2013

Title: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

Summary: Not 1, not 2, but 3 dragons, a bear, and lots of queenly tush!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This week we have the annual George R. Martin episode, written by Georgi son of Gimli himself.

Jon – Evidently getting down the wall is a lot easier than getting up, because Jon, Ygritte and crew start off this episode on the green side. Also, one has to wonder, where did all the extra wildlings come from? Seemed last week like just four got to the top, and the rest of the red shirts tumbled to their doom, but now we have a whole party. Anyway, as they march along toward Castle Black, Jon and Ygritte get some welcome time together. Their chemistry is great — or more properly Ygritte is great as Jon acts a tad lumpish while she steals the show. We get to see her even more of her character: fierce and worldly in her own sphere, and a bit clueless about anything else.

Stollen moments

Stollen moments

Tormund is good fun too. Orel makes my skin crawl, but he’s supposed to.

Bran – Bran’s scenes here, like their literary counterparts, aren’t the most exciting. Osha continues to be anxious and take the anti-magic stance, but her rational for not wanting to go back north of the wall is touching enough. The scenery (Northern Ireland) is similar enough to Jon’s, so we assume they must be near.

Oh and Osha does a nice refrain on the wildling sentiment “he was mine and I was his” that Ygritte expresses in the previous scene.

Robb – and his court stall before heading out to Edmure’s wedding. Not much here but Cat’s wary stance. However, In the next scene we’re treated to some good King and Queen of the North action. His bride isn’t shy, and it’s relatively rare in this show, and even rarer in the books, to see genuine affection. She admits to being pregnant, which as always in royal matters, is of great dynastic significance.

On a technical note, I like the little writing tray she uses in bed. This was actually a typical thing even in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Melisandre and Gendry – sail past King’s Landing and the wreckage of Blackwater Bay. They might not be my favorite characters but this is a gorgeous overhead shot like a medieval Life of Pi. Meanwhile she reveals to him that he’s King Robert’s bastard.

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Arya – We don’t get much Arya this week, but she’s still hanging out in that cave — for now. They show it in the above video clip, but I have to admit to getting goosebumps when she admits her god is “death.” For me (and Martin) this isn’t just a cynical and bleak admission, but the beginnings of a liberalized relationship with Jaqen H’ghar’s faceless god of death. When the men even fail in their mission to take her rapidly to Riverrun she takes off, only to meet someone in the woods she thought long gone.

Theon – We might almost feel sorry for Theon, as it just keeps getting worse for everyone’s favorite Greyjoy. A couple of hottie girls pull him off his cross and start to show him a good time, but before we can wonder why they don’t mind the stink, the crazy bastard (hehe) holding him busts right in and spoils the fun. Although the nasty action is off screen, we’ll have to assume Theon ends up losing his two closest friends. Poor guy — even if he did murder Rodrick.

652x359xthe-bear-and-the-maiden-fair-photo_652x359.png.pagespeed.ic.K8aQTRIbDl

Dany – Pulls up to Junkai (the slaver city next to Astapor). We are treated to a great CGI shot of it in the distance, but her meeting with its emissaries takes place in the barrens outside. Notice how much they resemble A New Hope’s Tatooine! Anyway, the show has a consistent difficulty making these big army shots feel properly grand and gritty. The try, they really do, but it’s just hard to simulate tens of thousands of men on any reasonable budget. We do however, get some really good dragon action shots in the tent, particularly involving feisty Drogon. Dany is growing further and further into her own, taking on not just the cause of reclaiming Westeros but her almost religious mission to free any slave she encounters.

The real thing looked basically like this production mockup, but somehow "smaller"

The real thing looked basically like this production mockup, but somehow “smaller”

Sansa and Marg – Unlike last week, this isn’t a Kings Landing heavy episode, but we do revisit those lovely Gardens below. The dueling attitudes of both girls are a study in opposites. Sansa bemoans her situation and Marg sure knows how to look on the bright side. Despite all the plot’s the lovely Highgarden girl is involved in, you can’t help but like her. Her flexibility seems genuine. And she doesn’t seem bothered by the idea of dwarf love!

Look familiar?

Look familiar? They jazzed it up with some more plantings, and probably CGed out the cross, but these are the Gardens of Trestino.

Tyrion – chats with Bronn about his situation: i.e. what to do about Sansa and Shae. Too bad Bronn’s simple view on such matters isn’t helpful when he really gets down to talking with his working girl love. Show-Shae is far more complex and interesting than book-Shae. She has genuine feelings and motives here — and I can see where they are going. What happens with her at the end of A Storm of Swords always bothered me, but they seem to be laying better groundwork here.

Tywin and Joff – chat in the throne room. I’m not sure how I feel about this scene even though it feels true to both characters. They don’t exactly clash, but their perspectives are so far apart that there is almost no communication. I’m interested to see where this goes, because like Shae, Joff, and Tywin are both far more developed in the show than in the novels (not being POV characters).

Jaime and Brienne – Jaime comes to see Brienne off before heading out from Harrenhall. He’s feeling the shit, but she lets him off easy in her own way. She makes him swear again to uphold his part of her oath in rescuing Sansa and Arya (moot as it might be). This is a touching moment because being the Kingslayer, the oathbreaker, her very willingness to trust in his owner is complement enough, and Nikolaj Coster Waldau is deft in making you believe he means it.

got-game-of-thrones-33805474-500-281

Outside, Bolton bids him off, as does Locke, who’s clearly taken the consolidated place of the nasty Brave Companions and their creepy leader. Qyburn accompanies Jaime and works on his ugly-ass stump. Time is taken to build this sordid character, as he’s got his role to play, but it’s Jaime who does the serious soul searching here, deciding to force the group back to Harrenhall after Brienne.

The anticipated live action Bear and the Maiden Fair looked good, and sounded good (the refrain of the song is great), but felt somehow unrealistic. This was a phenomenal moment in the books and it just didn’t sit exactly right with me tonight. Maybe it wast he relative ease with which Locke gives up. This is a man that chopped off Jaime’s freaking hand to make a point! True, the other guys that have sworn to take Jaime to Kings Landing aren’t going to have any of it, but you don’t exactly feel the lines of power pulling taught.

tumblr_mk8uwnwuY81qcvptno1_500

Bart the Bear!

I’ll have to see how I feel on my second watch, particularly since my note taking on the first viewing always reduces the immediacy.

In any case, despite this, still a great episode. In casting forward the arc for the season this isn’t exactly half of A Storm of Swords, but more like 80%. I’ll register my opinion that the season is likely to end with the two weddings — and unlikely to include the parts that follow until next season. George is a fine scriptwriter, but he needs to get back to his books or HBO will catch up to him!

Absent this week were Stannis, Davos, Cersei, and Olena.

Another good analysis 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]

Drogon kicks ass!

Drogon kicks ass!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 26
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 24
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 27, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jon, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 27, World of A Song of Ice and Fire, Ygritte

Game of Thrones – Episode 26

May05

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 26 – May 5, 2013

Title: The Climb

Summary: More transitional, but tense

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is perhaps less action this week, but plenty of thumb screws being turned (haha). The show writers take the opportunity to mine the novel for thematic refrains within an episode in a way that probably isn’t deliberately reflected in the source text. This week we have several, notably: couples, marriage, and duality.

Sam – We open with Sam sharing a fire with Gilly. He pulls out his obsidian dagger, which even if I didn’t know, is TV code for “this will be relevant soon”. This first couple enjoys a pleasant and hesitant chemistry. Awkward, but in a warm way.

Bran – Bran’s two female protectors, Meera and Osha, squabble and fight. And I must say, the rabbit bit reminded me of that scene from Roger and Me. This is mostly a throwaway scene, designed to remind us that Bran’s still on his way. But it fits into the whole couples/duality thing in that Meera and Osha are birds of a feather. Anyway, Jojen dreams of…

Jon – Since this episode is titled The Climb, a rather big slice (in several parts). At the base of the wall, continuing the couple theme, he and Ygritte have a  moment. The way she sees right through him is telling and I love the “the two of them against the world” angle that she works. It’s quite touching actually, even if it doesn’t get as much screen time as it should — they having had only their token night together. Still I liked it, even if Kitt isn’t as sensitive an actor as the part requires. Tormund is funny too with his “if you fall, don’t scream. You wouldn’t want that to be the last thing she remembers.”

The climb looks tough. I certainly couldn’t do it. Hell, I can hardly climb the rubber rock wall. Jon’s at the butt end of things and collects some spare snowballs. Ygritte watches closely. And so do we because it looks GOOD (even if a bit CGI). Then in the next segment, things go bad on the wall and everyone but Tormund, Orel, Jon and Ygritte, with the latter too dangling from their ropes. The cracks and avalanche looks great. The layout of loyalties that was (fairly obviously) in previous episodes is made crystal clear. Tormund does his best for all, and Orel cuts Jon and Ygritte loose. Fortunately Jon’s a stud, even if he doesn’t act it.

The episode ends with this thread and the four of them atop the wall. And with some more seriously nice CGI views of both sides of the massive and chilly structure.

Tormund_The_Climb

Tormund Icecubebane

Arya – Things begin light enough with the spunkiest Stark. Echoing the first episode, she’s practicing her archery. In the background Thryos is drinking. She notices riders approaching and it’s Melisandre the red lady. This is a total deviation rom the books and a move to keep Mel in play, but it works. She recognizes the Lord of Light’s handiwork in Dondarian and this draws out a rather interesting exchange with Thryos which I totally enjoyed, faith and it’s relationship to magic being close to my heart (see my novel The Darkening Dream). I love how Thyros is the skeptic priest late come to his faith. This two breeds of priest, Mel and Thyros, clearly fit in the duality theme this week.

Scene two is a study in reversals. Gendry is helping the archer guy, but then at Mel’s orders he’s bundled off into her care for (presumably) nefarious purposes. Us readers have a clue as to what these might be even if this is a departure — given that he stays with the brotherhood and later runs into Brienne in the books. But the notable part is the continued stripping of Arya’s connections to other other people. Gendry and what roots she’s putting down with the brotherhood are both torn up. Mel, fey as ever, senses this “darkness” and makes some cryptic comments about pairs of eyes. Does she mean the direwolves? Or the faces of the faceless god?

Summer camp without borders!

Summer camp without borders!

Theon – And speaking of departures from the book, Theon is still suffering from his mysterious assailant (probably the Bastard of Bolton) in his mysterious location (probably the Dreadfort). This continuing new material is, I have to assume, stretching out his transformation into Reek. And it looks pretty painful, for both us and him. The bastard, though, does a pretty damn good job of playing a dude with his screws loose. He keeps us guessing for a while, but I suspect his final statements echo of truth. Also, flaying, ick! Maybe they threw the rabbits in earlier so we’d know what was going on!

Robb – has one scene this week, but it’s a good one. The row of Tully’s (plus Robb, who is of Tully blood) face off across the table from a Frey embassy. The truth is that the terms of this new alliance are pretty easy (too easy?): an apology, Harenhall (which is the Spinal Tap drummer of Westeros castles) and Edmure marrying a Frey. The custom/law that marriage may not be coerced enters the picture. How this exactly jives with Tywin and last week is left to the audience to consider. The way in which Edmund resists, and is then brought around by Robb is very well handled. I particularly liked Robb’s open acknowledgment of the debt this puts him in.

Pass the beef, dear

Pass the beef, dear

Jaime – As funny as the Kingslayer continues to be, Brienne in a dress is even funnier. Another couple of sorts, it’s kind of touching (and certainly amusing) how she helps him with his meat. Bolton is a cold one and boy is he leaving Jaime with a moral quandary. Will we finally see what kind of man he is? Or has become? The fact that Jaime offers to seal Bolton’s offer with a drink and the Flayed Lord refuses should be noted, if for symmetry with the next scene alone.

The pen IS mightier than the sword

The pen IS mightier than the sword

Tywin and Oleana – lay into each other back in Kings Landing. Now this is a couple we’d pay money to see, and they’re discussing marriage, just not theirs. This harken’s back to the theme of marriage and its supposed lack of coercion. Olena’s a piece of work and hilarious to boot, with several great comments, including my personal favorite: “sword swallower.” It should also be noted that he’s pounding back the wine (wonder where Tyrion gets it?) and she refuses, which certain echoes the Bolton bit. It’s quite a fun duel of words.

Sansa and Tyrion – chats with Loras in the garden and it’s certainly clear this is the most unnatural of all the couples. Can you say awkward? Loras’ attempts to act interested are hilarious too. Poor Sansa and…

Tyrion, who isn’t happy about the state of things. He and Cersei come here to share a sort of shared misery as only a couple of Tywin’s children could. This is more personal and clear than in the books. Ty confronts his evil sister once and for all as to her possible plot to kill him and the blame falls to Joff. This also is a clarity not present in the source material and sets us up for later this episode. I also love Ty’s “Loras might come down with a sudden case of sword through bowels” which I think was in the book too.

Next scene, as Shae and  Sansa talk about her supposed wedding to the “sword swallower”, is both funny and touching. Tyrion enters and tries to get Shae to leave, but realizes he’s going to have to tell both his reluctant bride to be and his lover about the situation at the same time. Interestingly, and perhaps effectively, it’s left off screen.

Poor girls

Poor girls

The pair of women retire to the balcony to deal with it in their own ways: Sansa crying and Shae stonefaced. I’d have perhaps set the thing up to surprise Sansa with the event itself (which I think happened in the book). It probably would have been more of a metaphorical rape. Although I do think this action, given what is to come for Shae, continues the work of further thickening her character versus the book and setting up her arc.

130428-ep26-preview-450

Grudge match!

Varys and Littlefinger – Just as we saw both kinds of priests in Mel and Thyros, the two plotters in Kings Landing have come to represent two sides of the same coin. The show is arguably less effective than the books with the POV characters, notably Jon and Cat, and strips some of the minor characters to the bone (like the Mountain). However, it consistently elevates the middling and borderline POV characters like Cersei, Varys, Littlefinger, Shae, Theon, Marg, and Renly, who are given considerable more depth.

Set as usual in the throne room, this scene is classic Varys vs. Littlefinger, but never before have their motives and methods been so exposed. Just as Ygritte argues to Jon that they should put couple before country, Varys speaks for realm first. And, well, everyone knows that Littlefinger is his own greatest love. They’ve really emphasized his villainy in the second and third seasons. He never seemed this clearly evil in the books.

Joff – Finally, as further proof that the secondary characters are better in the show, Joff is just far, far more repulsive. Here he reaches a level I never thought his cowardly nature would allow. Poor Ros. She wasn’t my favorite character, but she deserved better than this.

All in all a tremendous episode. There is less action than in either of the previous two, but we have character aplenty and some really fine thematic work, which resonates nicely.

Absent this week were Stannis, Davos, Dany, and Marg.

Another great analysis 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]

I'm pretty sure the show has used this scenic arch from Dubrovnik a couple of time

I’m pretty sure the show has used this scenic arch from Dubrovnik a couple of time

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 25
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 21
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 26, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Jaime, Jon, Robb, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 26, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 25

Apr28

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 25 – April 28, 2013

Title: Kissed by Fire

Summary: Fire and oaths

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The name betrays the theme of the episode well enough: kissed by fire. Most scenes touch on the primary theme of fire and/or that of oaths and loyalty. This later is big in the books and series in general, as, hey: medieval times!

Arya – This is a great week for our favorite little Stark. As promised last time, the Hound faces off against Dondarian for his life, but not first without a little prayer (by Thyros) to the Lord of Light. As a huge proponent of the relationship between religion and magic, I dug this. Then we have a nice fight, reminiscent in many ways of the season 1 duel between Bronn and that dead knight for Tyrion’s life. Despite the fact that he’s terrified of fire, and Thyros’ sword is burning, the Hound does pretty well. I like the way the spectators have to dive out of the way.

Now this is a big spoiler, but Dondarian doesn’t make it — and he does — as Thyros brings him back just as simple as that. I loved this in the books, but it could have used a little more “magic” here on screen. These are hard moments for the show which doesn’t consistently embrace it’s mystical side. But revived Dondarian is true to his word and lets the Hound go.

MKomarck_Beric_v_HoundLater, Gendry tells Arya he’s staying with the Brotherhood. Her journey is one of isolation, and one by one she loses her companions — bits of her burned away (haha). Gendry’s reasoning feels a little forced, but I like his parting line, even if I’m not sure if it means he “likes” Arya or if he knows he can never overcome their class differences — or both.

Even later (I told you we get a lot of good A), in the wake of Gendry’s  withdrawal, Arya recites her list of cursed names. The show periodically include this motif, even if they can’t hammer it home the way Martin does in the books. Thyros plans to sell her to her brother at Riverrun, which while not totally honorable, isn’t exactly bad. We get a bit more detail on Dondarian, and the fact that he’s died and risen six times! Maybe he has lives three left.

Jaime – Jaime and Brienne are dragged into Harrenhall and dumped in the mud, but Martin loves a good  reversal and as crappy as Jaime’s life has been, he’s due a little better. Bolton remains an enigma, but he does allow them to clean up and ships Jaime off to Qyburn, Bolton’s creepy would-be Maester. This is a nice example of squeezing a minor character into the show even when it doesn’t have room for the details. We can tell he’s one twisted creep — and the shots of picking at Jaime’s stump are pretty awful. Then (offscreen) it’s cleansed with a bit of fire (I know, I’m reaching).

Love at last sight

Love at last sight

Later, Brienne is in the bath bathing, and Jaime — surprisingly recovered from a serious bit of surgery — wanders back in. Their chemistry remains fantastic, although it’s the Kingslayer who dominates this scene. First by strolling in the buck, then with his full tale of the death of the mad king. This pretty much puts the detailed spin on his glib comment some episodes before: “So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another.”

Oh, and let’s not forget this is a story about pyromancers and fire! Burn them all!

Hot or cold?

Hot or cold?

Jon – There is some serious kissing of fire for Jon. After a little foreplay where the wildlings get him to betray details about the Night’s Watch and he thumps his chest with fellow Warg (the eagle guy), Ygritte drags him off into a cave and strips down to her birthday suit — something I and all the fan boys have clearly been waiting for, as Rose is a serious babe. Jon may be (in Ygritte’s words) a “maid”, but evidently Theon gave him some tips, because he handles himself alright. At one level, a girl that’s been marching through the snow in a fur suit without a bath must be ripe, and Jon dives right in — on the other, she’s hot, naked, and kissed by fire! Their pillow talk revives the fun little banter that’s been missing for a couple episodes while Mance and crew took front stage.

And how fitting is it that Jon confronts the mystery in a cave?

go with hot!

go with hot!

Robb – This is also a big week for Robb, but not all is fine and dandy. Karstark, itching for a little “Northern Justice,” breaks in and murders those two young Lannister boys. Now Robb has some hard choices. This is one of his key bannermen, and he just disobeyed his orders. Cat and his wife urge that he throw him in a cell, and that’s what Karstark expects, but Robb is his father’s son. So on the oath front: a traitor is a traitor and off with his head.

and it was such a fuzzy head!

and it was such a fuzzy head!

There is a serious examination here of the nature of severe command. Robb is basically screwed from the outset by Karstark’s actions. On one hand, he needs Karstark and his men, on the other, he can not condone the man’s behavior or be seen as weak or tolerant of such disobedience. Sucks to be the king.

Unfortunately, as predicted, this has drastic consequences, and the Karstark’s leave. Planning with his wife, he does realize that Casterly Rock (the Lannister home) is vulnerable — but also that he needs men from Walder Frey, who he’s already betrayed!

Stannis & Davos – On the thread of boredom, we actually get to see Stannis’ wife up close. She’s a weird one, so obsessed with the Lord of Light that she is all hunky dory with her husband sleeping with the red lady. Not only that, she keeps three stillborn fetuses (her previous efforts at heir generation) in Alien face-hugger style tanks! Creepy!

And it turns out that Stannis actually does have a daughter in this version. Since she was never mentioned season 2, I had assumed not, but he does — and she has grayscale as she should. Cute enough kid otherwise, plus, there is not a word of explanation of what the deal is with grayscale. When she finds out Davos is in the dungeon, she runs down to visit him, bringing him a book on Aegon the conquerer, which brings us to…

poor thing

Dany – After last week’s fest of Dany goodness we don’t get a lot of time. She and her army are marching through Morocco (Papyrus beds choke the winding river). Jorah and Barristan take this time to continue trading war stories and working on their dislike for each other. Dany, meanwhile, is focused on business at hand, meeting the Unsullied officers and their new leader: the rather young Grey Worm.

Cersei – Always working her angle, sets Littlefinger on the task of ferreting out what the Tyrels are up too.

Sansa – is moving quickly into Marg’s camp. As she watches Loras practice, the girl’s chat about their wedding plans. Alas, the show quickly reminds us that Loras likes his buns a little firmer, as he quickly falls for a new (blond) squire.

But he works for Littlefinger — in what amounts to an abrupt bit of storytelling. The whoremonger quickly runs off to chat with Sansa and probe the waters. Babe in the woods, her attempts to put him off over his offer to steal her away are transparent to all. But this throwaway scene, besides showing great scenery, does have one of the show’s startling (for a fantasy) insights into human nature. Littlefinger comments: “it doesn’t matter what we want, when we get it, we always want something more.”

Be a passive tool, get handed the shaft

Be a passive tool, get handed the shaft

Tyrion – meets with lady Olena and finds himself — for pretty much the first time — out maneuvered in matters of the tongue. This scene gives us a few details on the royal finances, and a glimpse of a lovely Dubrovnik courtyard, but seems mostly about getting these two great characters together.

Later, these Kings Landing threads come together in the form of a leonine three way: Papa lion, Ty, and Cersei. Seems the easy solution to this whole “Tyrel plot to steal away Sansa” thing is to just marry her off to Tyrion. To his credit, he protests, but Tywin gets what he wants — and that also includes marrying Cersei off a second time to a guy who couldn’t care less about her: in this case, Loras!

All in all another great episode. We don’t have as many pivots or as much action as last week, but we do have a lot of great scenes. The tlot continues to plinken. Absent this week were Bran, Sam, Theon, Joff, and Varys.

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]

And below is “inside the episode” for this week:

132C2834

Sansa prayed over there last week, and she and Marg wandered down those stairs. They must have magiced away the motorboat!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 24
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kissed by Fire, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 25, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Game of Thrones – Episode 24

Apr21

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 24 – April 21, 2013

Title: And Now His Watch Is Ended

Summary: The end brought tears to my eyes

ANY CHARACTER HERE

A lot is moving in this episode, so let’s leap right into it:

Jaime – We open with the hand — around his neck. This was a particularly gruesome detail from the books I doubted the show might cling too, but it did. Pretty realistic looking hand too. Jaime isn’t doing too well, no surprise, but he has a ways yet to fall… into the mud. When he grabs a sword and makes a hopeless gambit, Brienne, tough as ever, tries to protect him,. I really like how their suffering has brought them begrudgingly together. It’s a very deftly handled relationship and both the writing and fine acting brings to life Martin’s vision here.

Poor Jaime

Poor Jaime

In the second segment, they talk and Jaime reminds us that he considers himself to be his sword hand. His ego is invested fully in his fighting skill — and now it’s gone. Martin just loves this kind of thing: killing characters, and killing them without killing them. As Brienne and Jaime continue, and she embarrasses him back from his pity party, the show hits on another Martin signature: deep thoughts. And not by Jack Handy. Brienne reminds him that he’s getting a taste of the real world, where people have important things taken from them.

Sam – Sam and the Black Watch are still lingering at Craster’s — shoveling pig shit. Somewhat out of nowhere, the sullen Rast has suddenly become a master manipulator, brewing discontent with the brothers. Sam visits Gilly, who reminds him that her baby doesn’t have much time — and she has none for him unless he can help her.

In the second segment, Mormont leads the watch in a funeral, and then back in Craster’s hall, several of the men’s discontent boils over into full on mutiny. One kills Craster, and Rast seizes the moment to stab Mormont. The guy is tough, but Valar Morghulis… In the chaos, Sam runs to Gilly and they do what he does best…

I’ll have to assume that the episode title: And Now His Watch Is Ended speaks mostly for the passing of the old bear.

RIP -- we'll miss you, and the raven you should have had

RIP — we’ll miss you, and the raven you should have had

Bran – has a tiny segment, pretty much just a dream. It’s creepy enough as he climbs a tree after the three-eyed crow and gets into a weird shouting match with the ghostly echo of his mother.

Theon – Theon rides with his rescuer to Deepwood Mott (we think?) and the stranger draws out of him a rather pathetic and deep reflection on his predicament, failings, and choices. In the end, it isn’t his sister that waits, but another betrayal and a return to the cross of torture. This segment has me the most perplexed, particularly because it’s so outside of the books. Who is that guy? Why do they have Theon? Why go to such elaborate means to torture him both physically and psychologically? Including killing a bunch of (his own?) men?

Tyrion – For the second week in a row, Tyrion doesn’t have too much to do. He visits Varys, one of my favorite characters, trying to ferret out the truth of his betrayal during Blackwater. He seeks revenge. What he finds from the spider is a creepy little tale about the eunuch’s final days as a man (boy). Varys councils patience, for revenge can be years in the making as he happily illustrates. The contents of the box seem a tad coincidental considering.

GameOfThronesS3-27

Better with her clothes on

Cersei – Looks on nervously as Marg continues to handle Joff with a surprising deftness. She plays into his blood lust and insecurity with equal aplomb and Joff’s taste for the macabre is reminiscent to that of my aged vampire hunter, Constantine in The Darkening Dream. In the foreground, the queen and Lady Olenna chat about life, politics, sons, and woman’s role in medieval noble houses. Marg’s grandmom is such fun to watch and the location chosen for the high Sept is pretty awesome looking too. When the shot pulls outside it looks much better than in season one. Either they’re spending more money now or the cost has come down in just two years — regardless, it really adds to the epic feel.

Later, Cersei visits her father. Seems being Tywin’s child wasn’t easy for anyone. Cersei speaks boldly, perhaps drawing inspiration from Olenna. The relationships in this family are delightfully complex as no one can really please old Ty.

Nice attention to detail too. As a history buff, I happen to know that medieval ink (and the ink Shakespeare wrote in) was made from ox bile. It smelled foul and dried very slowly. People used various drying agents like the (probable) salt Tywin sprinkles on his letter before sealing it. I must admit I own my own custom made seal and a drawer full of sealing wax imported from Florence.

Sexy little minx

Sexy little minx

Varys – This is a great episode for the spider. Not only to we have his “origin story” but next he has a little chat with Ros. This is my favorite Ros scene yet, and she keeps her clothes on. In a nice bit of long term plotting outside the books, Littlefinger’s coldness is coming back to haunt her, as she clearly took up Varys in his offer to spy. This discuss the odd fact that Pod was supernaturally good in bed, and then Littlefinger’s plans to put his moves on Cat’s sister and the Vale. And this seems to include bringing Sansa with him. Things are ordered and arranged differently here than in the books. Spiritually similar, but not exactly the same. Ser Dontos, briefly introduced in the beginning of season 2, seems to have been whittled out of the Sansa plotline.

What happens when a non-existent bumps against the decrepit?

Grandmother Olenna sits in the garden and launches into a little tirade about her house sigil, the golden rose. This is as revealing about her character as it is the houses of Westeros. So when Varys approaches, and given my fondness for both characters, I was doubly pleased. They wander all around the lovely gardens near Trestino (a town just north of Dubrovnik) plotting the fate of Sansa. So delightful, I love plots and schemes. Or, as Tyrion once remarked, aren’t those the same thing?

Sansa – And the result is another deft manipulation by Marg, who visits Sansa on a lovely cliff side. She even handles Sansa’s Lannister guards expertly, then befriends the poor girl. Even as a viewer, it’s hard not to see her as genuine. Sansa is, as by Tyrion and Olenna have suggested, a beautiful girl with a famous name. So Marg dangles her charming — albeit secretly very gay — brother out as bait.

Full of piss and fire

Arya – rides blindfolded behind Thyros to the cave that serves as home base for the Brotherhood without Banners. The Hound has been dragged along too and it is here that we remeet Beric Dondarian, who Ned Stark sent out to kill the mountain toward the end of season one. If this is the same actor, I couldn’t tell, although he looks a little stockier. The guy is, however, convincingly confident as the leader of the gang and as a scion of the Lord of Light (same god that Stannis’ red lady worships). In a nice Martin moment involving the two sides of things, Arya accuses him of the murder of Micah. You almost feel bad for the hound as in the context of things, he’s actually been pretty decent. Next week he’s in for some trial by combat. Good thing he’s pretty good with a sword.

The art designers must also have gotten a Babylonian vibe from old Astapor

A reconstruction of Ancient Babylon

Dany – They do save the best for last, time and time again. The producers spent some bucks (or pounds) on this sequence, including several wide shots of Astapor. Like me, the set designers must have gotten a Babylonian vibe from Martin’s descriptions of Astapoor, because they clearly based their imagined city on depictions of the ancient city (see right).

In any case, Dany, playing strong as ever, and the audience as well, trades Drogon (delightfully tethered on a leash) for her new slave army. But alas, for the slavers, Dragons choose their own masters. This sequence did literally bring tears to my eyes, and it was well done considering, with several wide angle shots of the army and city, a very commanding performance by Dany, and knowing and impressed looks between Barristan and Jorah — but alas the production cheated a little, for budgetary reasons. The actual slaughter of the slavers is a rather brief affair and doesn’t do the sack of a city justice. We don’t get to see the slave pits or anything. Sigh. They tried their best, but there are limits.

I must also note that the show’s choice to leave foreign languages as foreign languages, like Dothraki and Valyrian, is superb. I felt this with LOTR, and it is equally true here. Dany giving orders in Valyrian was so much more effective subtitled.

We come finally to the last shot, as Dany and her army march from the city and we pull back to take it all in: Astapoor, the vast departing legions, and a trio of scouting Dragons. The new martial music really played into it too, taking my breath away. This is what we fantasy geeks live for!

733763_562720630415299_1818079866_n

A queen at last

All in all a fantastic episode, full of great scenes and big movements in the plot. Absent this week were Robb, Cat, Stannis, and Jon.

Another interesting review of this episode.

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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]

132C2883

Here is my dad standing under the arch the Lady Olenna and Varys strolled through

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 23
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, World of A Song of Ice and Fire
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