Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9 "The Rains of Castamere" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers. Seriously, don't read it if you haven't watched it yet.

The second this song played (though it was an instrumental rendition) during the episode, you should of known something was about to go down. And wow, did something go down? This week was "The Red Wedding" which goes down as one of the darkest and most dramatic moments in the whole series. In many respects, The Red Wedding is the most shocking singular event since the execution of Eddard Stark back in season one, which also happened in the ninth episode of its respective season. Noticing a bit of a trend here?

The Red Wedding was, and still is, something not at all of people saw happening. Truthfully, if I had not read the books or spoiled it for myself, I would likely still be in a state of shock of what just happened. Though in hindsight, the Starks' doom has been foreshadowed for quite a few episodes as Robb has been crafting his own demise through bad decision after bad decision. That and his own bad luck doesn't really help. The aptly named massacre was a graphic and gruesome affair with truly heartbreaking moments as Robb watched his wife (and unborn child) die, Catelyn watched her son die and Catelyn in a moment of defiance killed Walder Frey's wife before meeting her own end. Some of the violence in the whole scene felt a bit over the top, but for the tragedy it was, the graphic violence worked. What was more stirring and have a greater effect was the absolute silence in the end credits. It just let the whole thing sink in and realize "yeah, that happened."

Worst wedding planners ever.

The build up to the Red Wedding was awkward, but easy going enough to ward off the surprise and make you think that maybe, just maybe, things won't suck for Robb. After all, the family history for the Starks hasn't exactly been particularly good, especially if you go back far enough. Walder Frey played the part of a gracious enough host despite his misogyny and ill temper, seemingly accepting Robb's apologies and putting on a good wedding. Edmure gets a beautiful wife in Rosilin Frey, making for a pleasant surprise and they were a few happy moments that provided some much needed comic relief. But then the scene happened and moment after moment made it harder to bear. The tunes of the "Rains of Castamere" played and the most epic betrayal occurred. The added touch of the song echoed the long standing idea of who has been in power for so long: Tywin Lannister.

Without lifting a finger, he arguably orchestrated the entire wedding, using Walder Frey's desire for revenge and appealing to the pragmatic nature of Roose Bolton, to rid himself of Robb Stark, his family and banner men in one fell swoop. What is more frightening is the lasting ramifications of the Red Wedding. What of Winterfell? What of the Lannisters? What of the war? That is only a few. But it opens up a whole line of thinking. That is the true power of this episode.

The Starks, as a family, were really tested here and on two sides there are near family reunions. Arya got so close to her mother and brother and was barely saved by the Hound from the slaughter. Sadly, she was there to see the saddening death of Grey Wind, which gives her more than enough of an idea of what happened to the rest of her family. That, in it of itself, was tear jerking. Even for me, who saw of all this happening. One has to feel for Arya, as she is being accompanied by the Hound, who is on her "list" and is not pleasantly assumed by Sandor one bit. Nevertheless, I actually like this combination and the series preceding their arrival at the Twins were well written and enjoyable. I immediately move to thinking what is going to happen after this as the Hound carried her off from her family, arguably saving her life in the process when she was that close to having a family reunion.

Loop. But probably the best reaction to this episode. Starring: Arya.

Jon was almost reunited with Bran and Rickon in the North. These series of scenes were absolutely excellent, moving the stories along brilliantly. Jon continues his march with the Wildlings in the North, while Bran prods on with his friends and family seemingly continuing to make no progress whatsoever to the Wall. As a book reader, this is an accurate summary of Bran's story so far, so really the boredom I have with Bran is more with his storyline rather than with the translation. But this week was damn close to salvaging it. After Jon and the Wildlings raid a horse farmer and chase him down, they are conveniently within earshot of Bran and his group. Bran is almost found out by a panicking Hodor (due to a thunderstorm). Using his "warg" powers, Bran is able to control and knock Hodor, revealing that Bran is obtaining some degree of control over his powers. He is able to save Jon, whose loyalties are put to the ultimate test by Orell. Jon appears to fail, engaging the Wildlings in a fight reminding us that he is a pretty good swordsman. Bran helps out Jon with the use of Summer and Shaggydog, and Jon kills Orwell before escaping. The ramifications of this are almost as fun as the ones from the Red Wedding. Bran separates from his brother and Osha, due to a growing need to find his Three-eyed crow. Meanwhile, Jon runs away from the Wildlings, abandoning Ygritte (who took his side in the fight by the way) completely. It raises a lot of questions, particularly with Jon, and I hope to see them addressed shortly.

Sadly, as much as I wanted a pure Stark episode, we did have some Dany this week. Dany's storyline had the perfect opportunity to insert some challenge, some hardship into it, but HBO dropped the ball. They almost did to be fair, however instead of developing her character through some difficulty they instead lowered the difficulty even more. I think she is on "very easy" now. Within a couple of check-in scenes and a brief, but brutal fight scene, Dany has taken the city of Yunkai, without taking many losses. Daario, her newest recruit, almost seemed like he died, but he just arrived late following the off-screen victory. This was much to her approval, lacking any joy for the survival of Jorah or Grey Worm. They got to shine this week, however. Jorah had an interesting dialogue with Barristan concerning their loyalties and ways of serving Dany, and Grey Worm had his second lines of dialogue this entire season. Also, they kicked him ass in the fight scene along with Daario. So while Dany has not developed much as a character in the second half of the season and has the easiest time of any character, her supporting characters pack enough intrigue and development amongst themselves to keep it at least somewhat interesting. It doesn't redeem her quite yet.

"The Rains of Castamere" is the strongest episode this season, running some great parallels between the Starks and slamming us with tragedies left and right invoking some powerful emotions. It is also the strongest episode since Season two's "Blackwater" but benefits from not being a single enclosed episode focusing in on only one story. While it closed the door on Robb in tragic fashion, it reminded us of how great the Starks are as a group of characters developing each story in a wonderful manner. Dany's story was largely uninteresting in comparison and just felt out of place.

The North Remembers.

The Rundown
+ The Red Wedding
+ Stark Parallels
+ Long lasting ramifications
+ Bran's story is finally getting good

- Why was Dany in this week's episode?

Overall: 9.5

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 8 "Second Sons" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

"Second Sons" seems to be an episode after my own heart. It fixes almost all the problems from last week's episode, focusing in on a couple of characters and story-lines without jumping around to check in on everyone. Given this focus, it allowed for its respective stories to really flesh themselves out in a given time period, allowing the next two episodes of this season to wrap everything a bit better and not rush to set up everything for the eventual season 4. We all know that is going to happen. That being said, and in much simpler terms, I loved the exclusion of Robb, Theon and Bran from this episode and was able to make due with the exclusion of Jaime and Jon. Probably because the lack of torture scenes were a relief.

Oh, I spoke too soon. We did get torture, just a different brand of it. One of the stories that got a great deal of attention was Gendry. Last we left Gendry, he was taken from the Brotherhood by the red witch, Melisandre, and learned of his heritage, in other words, his noble blood due to his father in Robert Baratheon. Well, his heritage landed in him a sticky situation in Dragonstone, chosen to be a "sacrifice" by Melisandre and Stannis. While in Dragonstone, we check in on Davos, who is shown passing time trying to read, making great strides while doing it. He is visited by Stannis and tells Davos of Melisandre's intentions with Gendry, much to the disapproval of Davos. In this well scripted scene, we see the friendship and connection between Davos and Stannis reignite, with Davos emerging as Stannis' conscience. Davos reminds Stannis of who he is and why he would come to visit Davos in the first place: if he was doing something he didn't feel was right. It gives both characters a degree of humanity and development that otherwise didn't really exist in the first place, especially with Stannis. Stannis, as a whole, has made great strides as a character this season, revealing a side that wasn't shown last season. It's great stuff.

All of this lead to an awkward exchange between Gendry and Melisandre, where Gendry experienced the best moments of his life: fine clothes, food, room, sex and of course, leeches. Wait...leeches? That doesn't sound right. This week's torture scene involved sexual foreplay and a slimy finish as Melisandre threw down a couple of leeches on Gendry in all the wrong places. While less gruesome than what we are used to, it was still stomach churning. Luckily, Gendry didn't die or anything (though he may a bit emotionally scarred) and Melisandre was able to cast her spell with the leeches, seemingly casting her spells on Balon Greyjoy, Joffrey Baratheon and Robb Stark. Should these spells work, one could assume that Davos will finally believe in her powers, like Stannis hopes he will. The question now becomes, what are her spells going to do? I think it's rather easy myself, but I don't want to suggest anything.

King's Landing was home to the first big wedding of the season (assuming the Frey Wedding is happening next episode like I am predicting) with Sansa and Tyrion finally tying the knot after weeks of hype and anticipation. It was a seemingly functional ceremony aside from Tyrion being a dwarf and too short to complete his end of the bargain in the ceremony and Cersei threatening Margaery shortly before it, following her telling of the tale behind the song "The Rains of Castamere" which told the story of Tywin's slaughter of House Reyne who rebelled against him.

They need to smile.

The after party is where everything fell apart. Joffrey reminded us of why we all hate him by threatening Sansa, Tywin reminded us of why the wedding happened by yelling at Tyrion and Cersei reminded us that she can be a bitch by shrugging off a kind Loras (her future husband). What really made this a party to remember was Tyrion's meltdown, as he got drunker by the second. Proclaiming himself "the god of tits and wine" was just the beginning, as he threatened Joffrey and then shuffled over to his room with Sansa for the "bedding ceremony." Much to Sansa's relief, Tyrion neglected to bed her until she agreed to it stating "and so my watch begins." That line there was a perfect joke for the regular readers and watchers of Game of Thrones, referencing the vows of the Night's Watch. The next morning we see that Shae recognizes the good in Tyrion. Hopefully, Sansa will catch on as well and possibly open up to her husband, who clearly has good intentions for her. Truthfully, all the wedding scenes had their own degree of intensity, whether it was comedic or dramatic. Put together, it was some highly entertaining stuff featuring some of the best acting since Jaime's breakdown.

Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Dany continues to live on "easy mode," much to my disappointment. The titular "Second Sons" arrive to Yunkai as a mercenary group composed of 2,000 seasoned warriors hired to protect Yunkai from Dany. In an attempt to convince them otherwise, she invites them, offering them a similar deal that she has used before, offering life and success in exchange for loyalty. Not a bad deal, really. The "Second Sons" reject it, probably because Dany didn't use her dragons. But never fear! Dany has another trick up her sleeve that we weren't aware of: her beauty. Her beauty seduces one of the leaders in Daario Naharis, who proceeds to kill his peers who conspire to kill Dany in her sleep and switches sides, pledging his undying loyalty. This makes Dany's army that much stronger, the enemy that much weaker and once again, gives her an easy victory. This is the exact opposite of making Dany's story more interesting. If anything, it continues to remind us of how ridiculously powerful she is (without realizing it) and how boring her story is becoming. Luckily, Daario is a rather interesting character and make her story some degree of charm and intrigue that it has lacked for some time. Oh, and I am getting sick of her relying on her dragons for everything (mostly the intimidation during negotiations). At least the Second Sons picked apart the flaws in her army...which she basically ignored.

The episode had bookends in Arya and Sam. Arya and the Hound are a good duo, featuring Arya's rather shock at the Hound's change of heart. He reveals his past in protecting Sansa and intent to bring Arya safe to her family, giving her the best protector since Jaqen H'ghar. Meanwhile, Samwell stepped up his game in protecting Gilly from a White Walker, using the Obsidian knife to practically blow up a White Walker. We had a bit of Alfred Hitchcock in there with all the birds chilling on a tree. It was kind of creepy. 

Overall, this wasn't a bad episode by any means. Its attention to detail for a given number of stories rather than spreading out was welcome, giving a lot of time to character development and drama. It was a breath of fresh air, taking a much needed break from several stories to keep them fresh and interesting and avoiding any degree of stagnant storytelling. It was a well written adventure, with some great dialogue and character interaction, some parallel scenes in the bedroom and some foreshadowing to nibble on till the next episode.

The Rundown
+ No Robb, Theon, or Bran
+ The first of many weddings (and drunk Tyrion)
+ Stannis and Davos reunite
+ Sam get serious
+ Build up for the last episodes

- Who turned the difficulty down on Dany's campaign? 

Overall: 8.5

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 7 "The Bear and Maiden Fair"

Warning: The following review has spoilers. 

They are a couple of traditions that have developed since Game of Thrones has first started. The first of which is at least one episode per season is written by the author of the novels themselves, George R.R Martin. The second is copious amounts of sexual innuendos, and not so innuendos. This week's episode gave us both, bringing forth of a theme of this week in relationships. An appropriate fallout considering the previous theme of arranged marriages.

The first of our many characters to experience some advice by George R. R. Martin is Jon Snow, who is feature in a number of scenes as the Wildlings make their first steps south of the Wall. Jon and Ygritte continue their generally enjoyable banter as there is a developing clash of cultures between the two created by Ygritte's adorable ignorance to the mannerisms of the "south" and Jon's dangerous lack of knowledge of the true North. Jon's situation as an outsider causes him to butt heads with Orwell, who wishes Ygritte would be with "her own people." "Own people" implying himself obviously, which Orwell finally cares to admit it. If this is the reason he hates Jon, I will be sorely disappointed. Regardless, Jon gets a crash course in love making by Tormund, which is completely unnecessary as Jon seems quite fine all by himself. Ygritte probably would agree.

Jon's brother, Robb, has his own adventures in love making as Robb ignores his kingly duties to have fun with his wife, Talisa. Following their "scene" together, Talisa becomes another character to join the ranks of Dany and Thoros as fluent in Valyarian before revealing her pregnancy to Robb. While it was nice to see these two actually act like a couple for the first time since, well, ever, it does little to add to a storyline that has done so little with its cumbersome amount of screen-time. Bran's story has the same problem, doing little with a fair bit of time. Bran apparently has to go beyond the wall to find his "raven" and Osha the Wildling doesn't want to as she fears the White Walkers. Of course, we have to get a story about it, which while dramatic was still rather uninteresting, establishing the White Walkers as the real threat. Hopefully, these stories will either wrap up or take that extra step needed to snatch my attention.

Speaking of steps, Theon's story has taken too many steps. Am I the only one tired of these torture sequences? This week was exceptionally stomach churning because of the implications of what happened after the scene ended. I won't indulge into any more details, because I don't even want to think about it. Arya's story is the only one that mastered story flow out of these, as capping off her emotional roller coaster, following Gendry's departure (who gets to learn that Robert Baratheon was his father this week) with the reveal that she isn't quite going home yet. Arya then runs off and is captured by the Hound. I saw this coming and so happy that it did. She wants to kill him and he spent all of last season saving Sansa. All I see is juicy drama and I'm lovin' it.

Backtracking to the relationship theme, we have to make our way to King's Landing in which most of the scenes are cleaning up after Tyrion revealed the new marriage plans. In parallel scenes, we see that both Sansa and Tyrion are not enjoying the arrangement for the same reason: They are not fond of having to conceive a child. Sansa shares her concerns with Margaery, who does her best to console her, saying something along the lines of "Tyrion is good in bed." One has to wonder if Margaery and the Tyrells are genuinely concerned for Sansa or just want a friend since Sansa is the key to Winterfell. I like to think its a combination of the two, but its open to interpretation. Tyrion, meanwhile, doesn't feel quite right bedding a child. So he opens up to his best friend in Bronn, who just plants bad ideas in his head. It was a great scene, bringing back the magic of season 2 so it was almost nostalgic. The two actors have great natural chemistry and I wish there was more between the two. Tyrion's other problem is Shae, who in a matter of speaking dumps Tyrion because of the arranged marriage. As inevitable as this scene was, I found hard to sympathize with Shae on any level because I was never fond of the character, at least in season 2 aside from her scenes with Sansa. Regardless, Tyrion's life is spiraling downhill and he may reach a breaking point soon. I suspect it won't be long till we see it.

 I wanted more of this guy this season.

Also in King's Landing, we saw a scene that firmly established Tywin as the real King of the Seven Kingdoms...in case that wasn't obviously already. Joffrey, doing his best impression of a King, tried to confront his grandfather over a number of issues, only for Tywin to dismiss his grandson and a number of other issues, including Dany. This revealed a number of things: Joffrey's useless and is nothing more than a figurehead, Tywin deals with what he can see (facts) and Tywin sees himself as the real king. Joffrey, at least, shows some concern over Dany and her dragons. If only he could see what she did.

Which is a perfect transition to Dany who had a pretty big week reaching the city of Yunkai. Yunkai, like Astapor, is another city built on a slave economy. Dany wants to conquer it to acquire the resources necessary for her campaign against Westeros. Seems like a pretty easy task when you have a sizable army, dragons and a fiery attitude. But Dany is respectful and likes to negotiate, and negotiate she does. Dany meets with Yunkai's leader and uses her dragons as her trump card, intimidating Yunkai's leader with ease. He offers ships in exchange for peace. Dany offers his life in exchange for freeing the slaves in his city. You know, the ones that support his city. He soundly rejects her and now Dany has another fight on her hands. Dany, here, is falling for her character's innocent nobility, lead by a desire to do good more than anything else. Sadly, her story arc has been painfully predictable, as Dany will likely succeed in whatever fight comes up her way to close out this season. Personally, a major challenge like the one she had in season 2 would do the character to do, giving her something to build on. She needs it, because otherwise her story will get flat. Nevertheless, I will admit that she is carrying herself more like a Queen as of late making this ascension easier to swallow.

 

I still think they count as cheating.

A story has not fallen flat (yet) has been Jaime's, which may have hit its highest point so far. Jaime is formally released from captivity and slowly makes his way towards King's Landing (Bolton meanwhile heads to the Twins to meet up with Robb). Jaime owns his caretaker in a who saved how many innocents contest (as he prevented King's Landing from burning) and eventually learns that Brienne is to be "tonight's entertainment." Hardly liking the sound of that, Jaime makes his way back to Harrenhall. In a pleasant twist, Jaime finds her fighting a bear rather than what everyone else was thinking. Jaime leaps in and saves the day, somehow, walking out of the cursed castle with the wonderful instrumental of "The Rains of Castamere" playing the background. Combined with Jaime's initial promise to bring the Stark girls back, one has to believe that Jaime has fully turned to the side of good at this point, going out of his way to save Brienne twice now. Any debts he had to her are now soundly paid. Sadly, with this scene, I fear Jaime's story may go downhill from her as I see little else in drama occurring for the next couple episodes.

"The Bear and Maiden Fair" was a fairly good episode overall, being expertly written with plenty of genuine laughs and witty dialogue. Both Dany and Jaime had pivotal scenes that are shaping their characters and we got some scenes with longed for whether we wanted to or not, such as Tywin and Joffrey and Tyrion and Bronn. Sadly, Theon, Robb and Bran's stories are dragging the rest of the episodes down, one way or another. Hopefully, they will go on break so more time can be made for the rest of the cast.

The Rundown
+ Relationship advice by George R. R. Martin
+ Jaime saves the day
+ Queen of Dragons 

- Knocking your wife up doesn't make your story good, Robb.
- Theon. Stop.

Overall: 8.1

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 6 "The Climb" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

Calling "The Climb" a slow episode would not be necessarily incorrect. Perhaps it simply suffered from being that episode that followed two great back to back episodes. Or maybe it simply was uneventful. Regardless, "The Climb" did do some great things, but it truly felt as it was simply prodding along, hyping up future events that we may or may not see later this season.

The funny story about this week's episode was that I had actually missed the first 15 minutes of the episode due to going out and watching Iron Man 3. Despite that, I felt like I had missed absolutely nothing. I watched the episode a second time to be safe and so little had actually happened that my initial impression was true. The episode began with Sam trying to make a fire while talking to Gilly about their journey to the Wall. Couple that filler scene with an even greater filler scene of Bran cooling down a fight over the proper skinning of rabbits, and you have yourself the slowest 15 minutes of Game of Thrones ever filmed. The only good thing is that each scene establishes at least a few facts: the Wall is over 700 feet tall and entirely made of ice and Jojen Reed's animal vision powers cause him to bite down on a strap because of the intense seizures and he saw Jon Snow.

I have no idea how they climbed the wall.

Which is a perfect transition to talk about Jon (and this marks the first time I am writing a review in almost perfect chronological order). Jon and Ygritte had an eventful week on a couple of layers. Ygritte reveals that she knows Jon's true allegiances are still to the Night's Watch, but she doesn't happen to really care. Instead she wants Jon to be loyal to her. It is an interesting development and Ygritte is showing herself to not be as dumb as "those girls in silk dresses." She has a practical kind of intelligence and has a good understanding of people. She is aware that the Night's Watch and Mance don't care about their people, but are more about the end goals. Ygritte is basically putting their relationship on another level, and is using that bond to keep them alive. This newfound loyalty to each other passes its first test as Jon emerges as "Jon the Wall Destroyer" (Eat that Dany!). Ygritte and Jon nearly found themselves becoming human pancakes, but they pull themselves together and make the climb successfully. It was a great shot to end the episode too as the two gazed out to the world from the top of the Wall.

Arya also had a fairly eventful week as she met the Red Witch, Melisandre. Melisandre's return was mostly focused on the magical powers of Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion. We learned a bit about Thoros and his "worship" of the Lord of Light. Apparently Thoros only restored his faith because of the miracle in Beric's revival. Melisandre is also dumbfounded in this, magically forgetting that Thoros quit in his mission to convert King Robert to the Lord of Light. What was most shocking was the selling of Gendry (who last week was a big supporter of the Brotherhood) to Melisandre for two heavy bags of gold. Arya, of course, hated this exchange and confronted Melisandre about it, only for Melisandre to observe darkness in Arya and the eyes of many victims in her spirit or something. This is of course alludes to Arya's exhaustive list of people she wants to kill and may or may not be a dose of epic foreshadowing. Sadly this is a plot line that will not reach its climax until much later, if it even does. The more immediate result of this week will be Gendry's fate with Melisandre. Obviously Gendry will get involved in Stannis' plot line, but in a way we will probably not necessarily enjoy.

Speaking of not enjoying something, let's talk about Theon's misadventures in torture. This week was not very pleasant as Theon played a game and ended up losing…a finger. What is with this season and dismemberment of characters? Theon failed to guess his captor's identity and ended up paying a grave price. Based on the preview for next week, it will only get worse for Theon as the season goes on.

But the biggest theme this week was arranged marriages. Robb had to arrange one for his uncle, Edmure with the Freys in order to acquire more support for his attack on the Lannisters. Edmure was obviously not a fan of the entire situation, but eventually caved in putting the need of his family above his personal desires. This obviously sets up the Frey Wedding event that will occur sooner rather than later. I am still not fond of Robb's stubborn stupidity and less than honorable decision to make his uncle suffer for Robb's choices. Robb is like a less respectful edition of Ned, which is making lose my enjoyment of Robb's character. I am not a huge fan of his story this season and can't wait for it to end. Hopefully we will not have any Robb scenes next week. Robb's situation is not further helped by the very subtle reference from Lord Bolton in his scene with Jaime that the North will lose. Bolton is trying to save his ass in releasing Jaime and keeping him free from Tywin's wrath when the civil war is over. Robb's support is shrinking by the week.

Meanwhile, Olenna and Tywin dueled with their favorite weapon: words. Olenna was not too fond of the marriage arrangement of Cersei to Loras, citing Cersei is too old, a fact that Olenna is very much an authority on. Of course, the conversation broke down into Game of Thrones style social commentary with Tywin looking down on Loras' "nocturnal activities" while Olenna did not enjoy the rumors circulating around Cersei and Jaime. Tywin appears to be in complete denial of this fact, or may be just denying it to save face. Either way, Tywin won this engagement by threatening to make Loras a member of the Kingsguard, forcing Olenna to back down and seemingly accept the deal. The only problem with this subplot is that the issue surrounding Loras and the marriage is that this debate would never take place in the books. In the novels, Loras has two older brothers who, by right, have stronger claims to Highgarden. So as interesting as this subplot is, I can't help but remember they are omitting some interesting characters that play relatively big roles in later plot lines, especially concerning the Martells who have been mentioned several times and play a huge role in the later books.

The arranged marriages have their way on the victims. Tyrion and Cersei are wallowing about their dismal futures with their new significant others. Tyrion confronts Cersei about the attempt on his life back in Season 2, directing the blame towards Joffrey (who reminds us he is still a psycho this week). Cersei and Tyrion seem to be on the same page for the first time in a while, which may be the beginning of rebuilding a relationship between the two. Probably not, but one can dream as that would make Cersei far more bearable. Sansa and Loras, the other side of the spectrum, had an awkward exchange in which the only thing they had in common was the mutual dislike of King's Landing. Tyrion finally broke the news of the arranged marriage to Sansa and Shae at the same time. Awkward.

Stealing scenes left and right.

The closing sequence with Littlefinger and Varys stole the show and almost this episode amazing. Littlefinger had an epic speech about chaos, further revealing the dark ambition of the character that Varys fears. Littlefinger is proving to be among the most dangerous characters in the entire show and the ending montage and speech further solidifies this as we witness the consequences of his actions: Sansa's breakdown, Joffrey's return to being a cruel monster and growing one step closer to his dreams.

Overall, this episode was good, but far from great. The slow first half was helped out by a much stronger second half and the ending scene with Littlefinger was great. Sadly, it was relatively uneventful with plenty of "filler" scenes that did little to stir up excitement. It certainly makes the later episodes more exciting though.

The Rundown
+ Littlefinger's speech
+ Arranged marriage drama
+ The epic climb

- Robb's story
- The first half was really slow.

Overall: 7.7

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 5 "Kissed by Fire" Review

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Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

If this week proved anything, it is that Game of Thrones has depth. Yes, this series is perhaps best known for the sex, violence and drama, but this also a series that has a substantial amount of emotional depth. This week just opened the floodgates and let all pour out, with many characters reaching low points or just letting it all out for us to drown in all the “feels.”

This episode gave a lot of attention to the Starks, which hearkens back to the days of Season 1 where Eddard Stark was clearly the main character (which then became Tyrion and now is pretty much anyone who is played by a halfway decent actor). Speaking of, Robb Stark channels his inner Eddard Stark when he is forced to deal with mutiny in his own ranks when the Karstarks execute the little Lannisters that the Northerners captured a couple weeks back. Instead of taking the advice of his Tully relatives (who clearly speak sense), Robb instead acts with honor, which sometimes translates to stubborn stupidity. Robb executes Richard Karstark (I believe that is his name) himself, which brings back shades of the opening scene of Season 1 where Eddard executes a man for his cowardice. Robb is becoming more like his father, which is admirable in some ways but foolish in others, as he seems to side with honor rather than reason. Robb’s strength is crumbling, losing a great deal of support and advantages over Tywin and the Lannisters. A sitting duck at Riverrun who lost the North, all Tywin has to do is wait now before winning the war. Robb comes up with a seemingly brilliant plan in taking the Lannister homeland of Lannisport. But he needs men. So he will go back to the Freys (who we haven’t seen since Season 1) for support. But didn’t Robb marry someone else between now and then despite locked in a political marriage to a Frey daughter? Yeah, Robb may regret his choices.

Luckily enough, Jon may not regret his choices as his conversion to the side of the Wildings seems to be working out, as he slowly earns the favor of his newfound allies as his loyalties continue to be tested. Jon seems to be fine giving them information about the defenses of the Wall and his loyalties are rewarded when he earns some quiet time in a cave with Ygritte. If Jon knew what was going on with the Night’s Watch, he probably wouldn’t leave that cave. I wouldn’t.

That's cheating!

Sadly, not everything for the Starks can resemble Jon’s luck. Arya gets an emotional episode from the beginning as she witnesses the trial by combat between the Hound and Beric, leader of the Brotherhood. Despite Beric using a flaming sword (which is basically cheating considering the Hound loathes fire), the Hound gets a pretty convincing victory over Beric, cleaving the man in half. However, Beric, through the magic of the Lord of Light and Thoros of Myr, revives him, which we learn has revived Beric a total of 6 times. Arya is, understandably, displeased with the Hound being allowed to leave, and we are reminded of her hatred for the Hound and many others as we witness the return of her night prayers and the “list” of people she wants to die. Arya is also tested when she hears Gendry has no intention of leaving of the Brotherhood because they are closest thing to family he has. Arya says “I can be your family” which no doubt brought smiles and tears to all the supporters of that pairing. Regardless, Arya was tested missing out on her chance to take down one of the many people she hates while learning the Brotherhood is a lot creepier than anticipated, if only due to their worship of the Lord of Light.

Speaking of this Lord of Light, he seems to have that effect on people. We are finally introduced to Stannis’ family, who play relatively minor roles in the books up to this point. Selyse is Stannis’ wife and is more devoted to this new god than everyone not named Melisandre. She seemed to have lost her mind too, considering her inability to give Stannis a living son, keeping her stillborn children in jars as a grim reminder of her failures as Queen. Because of this insanity, it seems Stannis locks her away. That or he hates his wife. Shireen is Stannis’ deformed daughter and it is a mystery (outside of her deformity) as to why Stannis chooses to lock her away too (or at least appear to do so). Shireen is a clever, intelligent, refined princess and one of the kindest and truest characters so far. It feels a bit clunky to introduce them now, instead of fleshing them out as the story goes on, but it does give Stannis and his storyline some degree of depth and intrigue. Especially considering Stannis seems to have nothing to do this season so far. We also get a nice cute exchange between Shireen and Davos, as she visits him and tries to teach him how to read. I almost forgot to mention it but it is worth noting since it means Davos is still alive and Shireen is capable of independent thought.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of this week’s episode was fleshing out Westeros and its history, while possibly foreshadowing future events. The exchange between Jorah and Barristan began this trend as they discussed the nature of honor, loyalty and traded some war stories. It appears while each character can tolerate the other, they do not necessarily agree on the ideals of honor, acting not necessarily as foils for one another but as different interpretations of comparable concepts. It was a nice little scene that illuminated some details of Westerosian (is that a word?) history including Balon’s Rebellion, Jorah’s obscure slaver history and the death of the Mad King, while foreshadowing the potential implosion between Barristan and Jorah (who looks increasingly nervous by the presence of Barristan). Great stuff that fit in perfectly with the other side of the spectrum:

Jaime. Jaime starred in the greatest scenes that the series as produced so far. Jaime’s scene in the bathtub (and the emotional build up that truly tested his character beforehand) was so emotional, revealing and grueling. Jaime’s breakdown was a true testament to how far his character has come, trusting a stranger in Brienne with arguably the darkest truth of his life: the conditions that pushed him to kill Aerys, the Mad King. For an act that is so criticized by everyone, Jaime certainly does an excellent job justifying it. Also the line “Jaime. My name is Jaime,” definitely stirred up some tears. Its as if he has to continue to remind himself of his own identity. 

His breakdown: Best scene on TV so far.

King’s Landing is an excellent place to wrap up this review. Much of the scenes concerned wedding plans, which is a bit of disappointment considering the political power plays from last week. Or is it? You want to make a powerful scene: add Charles Dance’s Tywin and you got it. In an excellent sequence of events using his resources in Littlefinger and his children, Tywin found a way to secure Lannister domination: marry Tyrion to Sansa to snatch Winterfell and the North and marry Cersei to Loras Tyrell to grab the Reach and Highgarden. It was an excellently executed scene because Lena Headey’s ability to capture Cersei’s ability to play smug arrogance dropping to pure dejection so quickly and suddenly. Karma is a bitch, Cersei.

This episode may have lacked the impact and climax of last week, but it made up for it in excellence in writing and execution. It flowed brilliantly from one scene to the next and explored emotional depth that this series desperately needs, after all the death, sex and violence we have grown so used to. Definitely could use some more of it.

The Rundown

+ Emotional depth all around

+ The history of Westeros

+ The opening fight scene

+ Tywin’s plans

- Dany stops her march to complain about names. (Okay so I am nitpicking here)

Overall: 9.2

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 4 "And Now His Watch is Ended" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

This week we were treated to easily the best episode of the entire season. It was eventful with lasting implications that will influence the rest of the season dramatically. Gone with were (most of) the throwaway scenes that I fear will cripple the season. Instead we were treated to a great deal of focus, honing on a few specific characters or story lines that carry a lot of weight on the greater whole of Westeros.

Much to my relief, we open up this week with Jaime, who finds himself at a dreadfully low point of his life. Despite showing that even in a weakened state and missing his "sword" hand that he can hold his own in a fight, Jaime feels as though his identity is gone. Jaime, up until last week, knew who he was: a knight. A skilled one at that, if not the best in the entire world. He competed in tournaments, fought in battles and proved time and time again that he was among the greatest swordsman in the land. Additionally, Jaime was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and for two seasons Jaime's pedigree as a Lannister has kept him alive (barely, but alive enough). His entire life was built around these defining traits, so understandably losing them would be soul crushing. Brienne is shown at least trying to console him, offering her thanks for his carefully constructed lie about her homeland and protecting her from their captors. This is not without quickly reminding him that life in Westeros is a bit harsh (apparently losing a hand is a "first world problem"). Brienne is obviously showing some tough love to Jaime as there seems to be a developing admiration between the two characters. Their "friendship" will likely be tested at one point, so we will see what happens in the coming weeks.

Most of this episode, however, was spent in King's Landing focusing on the adventures of Varys. At first, I was not much of a fan of Varys, but the character has grown on me so it was great to see him featured in so many scenes and his motivations becoming less of a mystery. He is first featured in a scene with Tyrion where he finally reveals the story of how he was "cut" and became an eunuch. Tyrion should feel honored as this probably means that Tyrion is among the few people Varys likes or trusts. The story involves a crazed sorcerer and a "voice from the flame" (which may or may not be referencing the Lord of Light) which explains Varys' hatred for magic and Melisandre, the Red Witch. The scene is capped off by showing that Varys had captured the crazed sorcerer, rewarding his patience when it came to his revenge.

 

Note to self: Do not piss off Varys.

Varys then shifts his attention to Sansa, who is now a popular commodity in King's Landing because of the name and prestige she carries. Varys learns of Littlefinger's intentions of dragging Sansa with him to the Eyrie (so he could eventually marry her and become Lord of Winterfell on top of the Vale? Or something like that.) and then brings this news to Olenna Tyrell, who happens to show a lack of enthusiasm concerning the words of her house. Instead she happens to like "Winter is Coming" and "We Do Not Sow." Personally, I like "Ours is the Fury" but to each his own.

In this engaging scene between the Varys and Olenna Tyrell, we learn a lot about these characters:

1) Varys fears the ambitious Littlefinger who would destroy the country if it meant he could rule it.
2) Varys is more concerned with the safety of the realm than anything else, recognizing who the real threats are.
3) Olenna is quick to act indicated by her subsequent actions.
4) Olenna holds the real power in House Tyrell.

The results of this scene quickly lead to Olenna sending Margaery out to spread her influence and manipulate just about everyone. Margaery is shown acting like an older, loving sister to Sansa in a casual conversation dropping a hint to get her to marry Loras, which would bring Sansa down to Highgarden instead of being swept off to the Vale. Sansa seems more than okay with his idea, having swooned over Loras since Season 1. Additionally, Margaery still shown manipulating Joffrey better than anyone else so far, bringing him out to wave to the people in an awkward little display.

This, of course, bothers Cersei to no end, who is developing a fear of the Tyrells despite seeming to recognize Olenna as an equal. She brings her concerns over the manipulation of Joffrey to her father, Tywin who is still hard at work ruling the Kingdoms as Hand of the King. In a scene that parallels the exchange between Tywin and Tyrion, Tywin shuts down Cersei putting her back in her place telling her that she is basically a failure, having failed to control Joffrey since he has become king. ("You are not as smart as you think you are.") Looks like Cersei has to fight to protect her son without the help of Tywin, who likes the Tyrells as much as the next guy. I do like how everyone who knows Cersei continues to devalue her intelligence. Sadly, their opinions have not been proven wrong.

Moving away from King's Landing, we will head to the north. Not the North where Sam is hanging out with the Night's Watch and Craster, but to the adventures of Theon, Arya and Bran. Bran gets another dream sequence, this time guest starring Catelyn. It was a throwaway scene that brings Bran back to Season 1 mobility and shows us that Bran is beginning to get a handle on his dreams.

It was Theon and Arya that got their plots moving greatly. We'll start with Theon, who is the third character to get the redemption treatment. Seemingly moments away from being rescued, Theon wrestles with his inner demons, expressing the jealousy he's had for the Starks and Yara (his sister), the regret over his actions particularly concerning the siege of Winterfell and the sorrow gained over the years he's had being split between his identity as a Stark and his identity as a Greyjoy. I have always seen Theon as a more sympathetic character, truly divided over who he recognizes as his true family. In Season 2, he seemed to reason that Balon was his true father and wanted to do nothing but please him. Now it seems that it was Ned Stark that was his true father. Now good luck explaining that to your "brother" Robb. Oh wait, you can't. That's because you ended up back in the same torture room you were in before. Ironically, much like Robb, Theon can't catch a break.

Arya gets an important scene that finally reveals a few key facts about the Brotherhood. First off, there are led by Beric Dondarrion, who looks a bit like the Governor from Walking Dead with his eye patch. Beric, for those without better memories or knowledge of the series, was ordered by Ned Stark to take care of the Mountain, Gregor Clegane, due to the war crimes he committed in destroying villages on behalf of Tywin. Well, it seems as if Beric failed or at least abandoned his mission, leading a bunch of "deserters" as identified by Sandor Clegane, the Hound. Also we learn that Thoros, the one that discovered Arya and her friends, follows the Lord of Light. This god seems to get around, doesn't he? The meat of this scene comes from the Hound facing a trial by combat to answer for the crimes he committed, which brings back shades of Season 1's trial by combat over the fate of Tyrion. I don't give Beric much of a chance against the Hound, but we'll see what happens.

We will now turn our attention to north of the Wall. There was no Jon this week, which was a bummer, but we experienced one of the pivotal shifts so far: The breaking down of the Night's Watch. It is implied that the Night's Watch hung around Craster's place for some time, given the sorry state they are in. They are cold, hungry and fed up with the conditions they are living in. In a moment, the tensions between Craster and the Night's Watch explode into an all out brawl leading the death of Commander Mormont and the possible escape of Sam (who proves to be one of the most noble characters left). The Night's Watch now seems to be practically non-existent as Mormont was the glue that kept many of the Rangers together. With him gone, there is a vacuum of leadership. This of course leaves the Wall relatively empty and only a minor problem for Mance to overcome. This will make the Wall that much easier to climb.

 Westeros is pretty much screwed now.

Bring this week's episode to a close was Dany who finally got her army. My regular readers will remember my brief rant on how I hated Dany's willingness to give up a dragon for an army. The events that transpired this week did not surprise me. I knew she was going to do what she did. It was the principle that bothered me. Dany honored her deal, made sure the deal was not bullshit and then preceded to use the Unsullied to destroy Astapor and take back her dragon from the slave master. It was an epic display, firmly establishing Dany as a powerhouse, if not the powerhouse. To me the best part was not actual takeover, but more how she did it. She played stupid for appearances sake before pulling an epic double cross and making the Unsullied her own deadly force. It was cruel, but it shows how much Dany has grown. The best part is that the army is loyal to her now, so as cruel as she was she still earned some good points at the end of the day. Sadly, this whole exchange was rather predictable to me. At the bottom of our hearts, we knew Dany was going to succeed. After all, it is hard to stop a girl with three dragons that can roast people alive. I only hope that Dany's story acquires some of the depth that the other stories have, provided by brilliant dialogue and excellent twists in the story line. Burning cities and being powerful are awesome for a couple weeks, but it can get boring without the thrill of a challenge.

The Rundown (which I forgot to label last week)
+ Everything Varys did.
+ The Tyrells bring their "A" game.
+ Dany's got an army. And her dragons.
+ Theon's redemption? Or prelude to more torture.
+ The implications of the Night's Watch imploding.

- I have to wait for my trial by combat.

Overall: 9.4

Game of Thrones, Season 3 Episode 3 "Walk of Punishment" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

You've got to "hand" it to the writers of this episode. With a single climatic point at the end, they managed to make a rather uneventful episode almost as good as the previous two. To be completely honest, I expected this week to be a bit slow because of how much had occurred already. After two fat episodes, a slower weak was welcome as it gives all of us some time to recover. Well, until the end of course.

"Walk of Punishment" opens with the emotional warrior funeral of Hoster Tully, Catelyn's father. This would of been an emotional scene at least, if the Tullys had be introduced to us in earlier. I already spoke of how ineffective this entire subplot last week, so I will not continue to beat a dead horse. At least David Benioff (the director of this episode) realized this and made Catelyn break down over the apparent deaths of Bran and Rickon back at Winterfall, so they caught their mistake. Aside from this, the plus side we are introduced to Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, Catelyn's uncle and new head of House Tully, and Edmure Tully, Catelyn's brother. These characters have a presence in the first two books and play a relatively big role in Robb's war. The episode does a good job of establishing Brynden's knowledge of war and Edmure's relative incompetence, so it will be interesting to see how these characters mix in with Robb's growing desperation to beat the Lannisters (though Edmure is relatively competent in the book, if I remember correctly). Robb hasn't caught a break since the season started, and I don't think its going to change. Riverrun was also added to the title sequence. Welcome to the club. You are now an important location.

 

About time we meet these guys.

Back at King's Landing, we get a rather big development: Littlefinger is marrying Lisa Arryn and become Lord of the Eyrie and the Vale. The new Warden of the East has to therefore has to abandon his post as the Head of Coin. Tywin wastes no time in naming Tyrion Lannister as Head of Coin. An interesting development, but one you could predict if you recall Tywin saying he was going to grant Tyrion a position more suited to his skills. This begs the question of how Tyrion is going to adapt as Master of Coin, being that Tyrion is good at "spending money" not necessarily "managing" it. He continues to prove to be the among the smartest men in the Seven Kingdoms by looking at Littlefinger's records and realizing that he is not a magician and has been taking out expensive loans from Braavos. Isn't Tywin ridiculously rich? Paying them back shouldn't be a problem. Well, we'll see what happens. The more important question to me is this: Who is going to manage Littlefinger's brothel? At least we got a bit of comic relief in revealing that Podrick is a pimp, satisfying women so well that they don't even accept payment. Tyrion, Bronn and Podrick are an excellent combination of characters, producing some genuine comedy. I suppose we needed that considering the rest of this episode.

After this we got a bunch of little scenes, that provide slow progress for the other plot lines. Mance Rayder is beginning his attack on the south by ordering his men to scale the Wall, Sam is the victim of circumstance being ridiculed about being so fat and then witnessing a childbirth, Stannis shows himself to be desperate to reclaim some lost glory by wanting to produce another son with Melisandre, Hot Pie leaves Arya and Gendry when the "Brotherhood without Banners" leave a small inn, and Theon escapes his torture  and saved by a single man. Many of these are one note scenes and ask more questions than answers. How the Wildlings going to scale the Wall? Where is Melisandre going and why? Where are Arya and Gendry going? Who is Theon's new best friend? Why is everyone making fat jokes? All this does set up more things to happen in the next few episodes. And it shows how the storytelling will be run for this season: short scenes that advance the story at a meager, but bearable pace and no one will be left out significantly (this week we skipped Sansa, the Tyrells and Bran).

Back at Astapor, we see Daenerys (I'm going to call her Dany because her name is annoying to spell at that is how Martin himself writes her name in the books) make the single biggest move of her reign as "Queen" since marrying Khal Drogo. She agrees to buy all 8,000 Unsullied (the slave soldiers) and the translator for one of her dragons. The biggest one, too. Wait, what? Ser Barristan and Ser Jorah advice her on their own respective ways in handling the retaking Westeros. They disagree, engage in a brief power struggle, but they agree on one thing: Dragons are how she will reclaim her throne. SO WHY WOULD YOU TRADE A DRAGON FOR AN ARMY AND A TRANSLATOR? You see I sympathize with Jorah and Barristan for a different reason. After all the drama in season 2 concerning her dragons, her trading her strongest one for an army (and all the boys training to become a solider) not only does not makes sense, but irritates me. You can't have an entire arc dedicated to her obsessing over her baby dragons and then trade one away. At least Dany is taking control. But trading away a dragon, especially to a total jerk will bite her in the ass.

After all of this last season, I can't forgive Dany giving up a dragon for anything.

The most memorable moment of this episode, without an doubt was the events surrounding Jaime. Jaime is slowly turning over a new leaf, redeeming himself more and more in each episode. Here we experienced the breakthrough for Jaime as he protected Brienne and her "honor" from the Northmen. This moment was rather uncharacteristic for Jaime, being that he was just about detestable in Season 1, only to slightly evolve into an arrogant wise cracking jerk (who had his reasons for being so). But now we are seeing that Jaime has a heart, showing a desire to express some kindness. He does not do this without also reminding us that Jaime is intelligent and clever in his own way. But also, he reminds that us that he is reliant on his name (to the point of being naive). The cost for this arrogance was his sword hand. And what a powerful and shocking this scene was. Will Jaime's redemption continue? Or will he take a step back because the cost of such a change has become too great?

+ Jaime's Redemption and the fallout
+ Dany is taking charge
+ The Tullys finally arrive
+ Podrick the Pimp
+ Tyrion was actually funny this week.

- Relatively uneventful.
- Jumping around from tiny scene to scene

Overall: 8.2