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

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 2 "Dark Wings, Dark Words" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

Calling this the second half the season premiere would not be far from stretching the truth. I eluded in my previous review that season 3 would likely have to play around a bit with the story telling. Certain story arcs would be skipped over completely with others would be cast into the limelight on occasion. This is a side effect of the sheer size of the cast and how distant the parallel stories are from one another. In this case "Dark Wings, Dark Words" deals with all the characters that were ignored in the first episode of this season, while touching upon a few stories here and there to remind us that they still exist. For the most part, this episode was concerned on building up these other story lines, and while this episode moved at a slower pace, it accomplished a lot more.

"Dark Wings, Dark Words" was not as action packed, lacking the flair of dragons, assassination attempts, and zombie attacks. Also, no nipples were sliced off. But what we did get was captivating dialogue exchanges and a lot of plot points finally being explained that non-book readers may have cocked their head at in confusion.

Much of this was accomplished by the Tyrells , who are quickly becoming the most interesting group of characters in the entire series because they are almost too clever. This is all because of the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell, played by veteran actress Diana Rigg. Olenna may develop into a fan favorite, just because of the fiery demeanor of her character. Never have I fell in love with a character as quickly as I did with Olenna. Her exchange with Sansa and Margaery was probably the most pivotal scene this week, having a great deal of consequence on the rest of the episode and potentially the season. Sansa finally broke down, revealing the truth about Joffrey (who reverts back to his old ways later in the episode) and trusting into the exceedingly calm Tyrells who seemed not too surprised that Joffrey is well…a psychopath. Sansa reveals a mixture of strength and weakness here, finally speaking the truth but once again trusting someone she barely knows. We have to believe that Tyrells will protect Sansa, if only because the former fiancé of Joffrey is hardly a threat to the ambitious House Tyrell. 

She's awesome. Nuff said.

What is more intriguing is how Margaery uses this new information about the King. It was brilliant. I was truly surprised. Instead of cowering in fear like meek little Sansa, Margaery feigns interest in the psychopathic tendencies of Joffrey. Margaery is playing the Game of Thrones with the big dogs now and so far has been nothing short of amazing. Dare I say that she may be as good as Tyrion? I am probably jumping to conclusions, but it is fun to speculate. 

But this episode was not all about the Tyrells, as we were able to witness the triumphant returns of Bran, Arya and Jaime this week. I'm going to start with Bran, because he opened this episode with another one of his dream sequences. Bran's story, at least to me, was always one of the hardest ones to watch, despite always having been told that his dreams were important. Even as a slow book reader, I never felt that it was that important. Enter the Reed siblings, Jojen and Meera. Jojen is a character that actually appears in the second book and reveals some information about the abilities of Bran, but the show does a much better job of making sense of everything. We learn that Bran is a "warg" which seems to be the Westeros version of a druid and that Bran has been entering the mind of Summer (a fact that was eluded to in the previous season) and that the three eyed raven is a new sense of some sort. Or another aspect of Bran himself. It's a interesting concept and the brief scene of Jon Snow reveals the potential of the Wargs as we see a wilding possess a bird. Bran has got some potential here to finally show why he is so damn important. Meanwhile, I will take more scenes of Stark Family reunions in the dream world. 

Speaking of Jon, the stories beyond the wall got mere cameos this week and were rather lackluster. We learned that Mance Rayder basically rules by fear and doesn't really trust Jon and that Sam can't walk very well, needing people to pick him up while he is called piggy by his sworn brothers. Mormont basically saves Sam's ass here too. Hopefully Sam will grow a backbone, or otherwise he will lose a fan. 

Moving back to the returns, Arya's story is finally back in action, much to everyone's enjoyment. I know Arya has her fair share of fans and for good reason. Her spunk and fire is still there as she met the "Brotherhood without Banners" which appear to be a ragtag group of mercenaries with no real loyalties. Arya attempted to prove her strength again, trying to intimidate them so she can move on with her mission to find her family, but ends up getting captured. Well kind of. Can we say coerced into having dinner with them? Yeah, that works. As is the luck of Arya, any time she seems she may be safe, she ends up in greater danger. The Hound returns, tagging her a "Stark," something she has managed to avoid for an entire season. It remains a mystery what will happen to Arya now, but I suspect she will be surprised. Sure, Arya wants to kill the Hound and he is not exactly in any position to defend himself, being captured by this "Brotherhood". But the Hound is no longer on Joffrey's leash and he has spent much of his time protecting Sansa. I wonder if Arya will spare him because of that. 

I know I am jumping around a lot, but I have to touch upon the rush of developments with the Starks (before moving on to other stuff), as finally the whole Winterfall is burning to the ground fact reaches Robb, along with more bad news. Catelyn's father has also died. But then again, why should we care? The Tullys (Catelyn's family) plays a much larger role in the books, making a number of appearances in Book 2 as Robb settles in Riverrun for a time (if I am recollecting correctly). Nevertheless, with all this news being told, Catelyn and Robb have a lot to deal with and no idea how to approach it. It seems they are going to Riverrun for the funeral where we will presumably meet the Tullys finally. 

On the way, we get a great scene that develops Catelyn and does wonders for her character. We are told a story of how she prayed for Jon Snow's death, only to feel guilty and then pray for his swift recovery. Jon, obviously, recovered, but Catelyn could never bring herself to "love a motherless child," making Jon a full fledged Stark. Because of her inability to cleanse herself of this mistake, she now blames herself for the tragedy of the Starks. It was a great, revealing scene that tries its best to deal with explaining Catelyn's disdain for Jon, almost making her sympathetic for the first time. It truly redeems her character. 

The tragedy of the Starks is symbolized by the destruction of Winterfall, which was of course because of Theon, who is the surprise returnee! Part of me expected Theon to drop off the face of the Westeros. Instead we get him experiencing the worst of kind of torture. What Theon is going through gives him the shivers, and begs the question of: Why? How did Theon find himself in this position? Last we saw him, we got knocked out by his own men. I can only assume they tossed him to the invading army lead by the bastard that Robb sent there and now they are trying to pry information out of him. Theon may have a savior though, but I wouldn't hold your breath for Theon. I fear it will get worse. Somehow. 

Jaime is back in action!

Jaime's story is one that I was very much looking forward to. And he did not disappoint. His exchanges with Brienne of Tarth were excellent, showing an interesting dynamic between the witty Jaime and the never smiling Brienne. Jaime's dialogue is so expertly written, blending wit, sarcasm and philosophy into a seamless mix. He knows how to get into people's head so well, while educating them on life ("We don't choose who we love"). Jaime may be the best character in this show, only rivaled by his brother Tyrion (who was regulated to a comedic cameo this week by the way, nothing to write about). Brienne was not a fan of Jaime's wit, but they were able to get out their frustrations with each other in a sword duel. Brienne practically decimated Jaime in this round, using her superior strength and unorthodox skill. Looks like another swordsmen is on his level. They close this episode with a bit of a cliffhanger, when they are surrounded by a group of Northmen. 

Cliffhanger ending aside, this was a fat episode with way too much to discuss. Like my previous review, this is a long read and I apologize for that. Hopefully, I can shorten these a fair amount once they stop introducing so many new characters and concepts. This was an episode that accomplished a lot both in character and story development, without sacrificing too much in the way of action. It may have not have the excitement or mysticism of last week, but I actually enjoyed what the episode did a lot more. Who needs violence when you have intrigue? 

The Rundown

+ The Tyrells play the game so well.

+ Redemption for Cateyln

+ Jaime and Brienne are priceless

+ Hound + Arya= awesomeness

+ Bran's story is slowly making sense

- Sam is getting disappointing 

Overall: 8.8

Game of Thrones: Season 3 Episode 1 "Valar Dohaeris" Review

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.

It's been a long year, but HBO's Game of Thrones is finally back restoring my faith in television one episode at a time. With such anticipation surrounding this season following the success of last year, this premiere provides a solid foundation for the next episodes to build on.

"Valar Dohaeris" has to deal with the fallout from the conclusion of last year's season finale, but it eases this difficult transition by picking up where the last episode left off. Opening up with the stories of Sam and Jon Snow, we get a taste of what is happening beyond the wall. Sam has to deal with the fact that many of the rangers that left Castle Black appeared to have fought (and lost) against White Walkers and that he cannot send out ravens well enough to satisfy Commander Mormont. While we didn't get to see any fighting, we got an equally intense opening scene that reminds us that only fire can kill White Walkers. Mormont shifts his focus to heading back south, preparing to defend against the impending threat of the Wildlings. 

Which brings us back to Jon Snow. We are first introduced to Jon when he walks into the Wilding Camp, bumbling his way through angry kids, shy giants and awkward introductions as he meets Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall. In an intriguing scene, Jon appears to trade his black cloak for some furs as he successfully joins the Wildlings. While he fails to devise a quick lie to cover up less than honest motivations for joining (reminding us that he isn't quite Arya), Jon does well enough to convince Rayder by claiming he "wants to fight for the side that fights for the living." For those who remember the finer details of Season 2, this is a lie with some degree of substance as Jon was not the biggest fan of the Night's Watch. He was frustrated with Mormont over the Craster issue and Ygritte (the redhead for those poor with names) highlighted many of the problems with the Night's Watch and their aggressive nature towards the Wildlings. It will be interesting to see if Jon's conversion will evolve into something more genuine, rather than covering up Jon's true allegiance to the Night's Watch as he attempts to serve as a double agent. 

There is no way she had something to do with Jon joining the Wildlings. No way.

We spend much of the premiere in King's Landing. We witness Tyrion at a low point, losing the power and prestige that came with being the Hand of the King. Despite this, he keeps his charisma and wit, carrying his scenes with the same presence he had in season 2. He successfully chides Cersei (with a nice nod to the book with "They said you'd lost your nose") and continues the lovable relationship developed by the series with Bronn. But he seems to meet his match with Tywin. Tywin outrightly rejects Tyrion's "right" to inherit Casterly Rock, despite Jaime's renouncing all claims to the title by joining the Kingsguard. This scene was one of the many highlights of the episode as despite Tyrion's eloquence and logic, Tywin coldly overlooks one of the few qualities respect in wit and intelligence by reminding us why Tyrion is the least loved of the Lannisters: Tyrion, unintentionally, caused the death of his own mother. Despite Tyrion's achievements, he is still the disappointing child. While Tyrion's arc lacks the importance of defending King's Landing, it is a personal arc and I suspect we will experience a lot character development and drama.

Tyrion's story will likely take a backseat this season as the most pressing of the King's Landing stories lies with Joffrey and Margaery. For the first time possibly ever, we see Joffrey not be a total asshole, showing a new side to his character. Whether this is legitimate character growth, or Joffrey trying to impress Margaery is another debate entirely. Only time will tell. Margaery is making her impact known in King's Landing, earning the admiration of the people with her charity, that angers Cersei but only earns a sneer from Joffrey. Regardless, Margaery shows an innate ability to play the "game of thrones" acquiring popular support, and working her way to possibly manipulating the king. I suspect that this season will become the Tyrells' season, making the focus for much of the early part of the story, much like season 1 developed the Starks and season 2 developed the Lannisters. 

When mentioning the families, we cannot neglect the Baratheons, whose sole representative is Stannis. In an ironic twist, we also see Stannis at a low point, thoroughly defeated by his failures in the Battle of Blackwater. Seemingly broken, Stannis is now being manipulated by Melisandre. We are initially told this by Salladhor Saan, the pirate friend of Davos who comes to Davos' rescue who was shipwrecked in the early goings of the Battle of Blackwater. Davos, guided by his undying loyalty, insists on returning to Dragonstone to pull Stannis out of his little slump. While I am sure Stannis fans were hoping for a quick bro talk to get the Stannis the Mannis to return to his old ass kicking ways from last season, we sadly don't get that. Instead we see Melisandre the witch manipulate the "rightful" King into putting his good friend in a jail cell. I honestly have no idea where this story will go, but this story will likely remain a footnote for the most part, at least for the early goings. 

It is Daenerys' story that was the most intriguing this week. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Daenerys critic, not really enjoying her story so far, but I believe season 3 may change my opinion this character (or at least her arc). We are introduced her now adolescent dragons as she arrives in the city of Astapor. We see her trying to build (or buy) her army in order to make an impact in Westeros for her homecoming. Lo and behold, Westeros comes and finds her with the epic return of Barristan Selmy. Many of forgotten this character, as his last appearance was in the latter half of season 1. He served the previous two kings of Westeros, including Dany's father. He makes an instant impact in my favorite part of the episode, saving Dany from an assassination attempt, swearing his loyalty to her giving Daenerys two of my favorite characters serving her. Not only that, we will see a great deal of maturation in Dany as both men will contribute in her development as a queen. Undoubtedly, they will help advise her in whether or not exploiting the slave armies of Astapor is worth the moral implications. I mean seriously the training these men go through is enough to break the toughest of people. Just hearing about it made me shiver. 

They grow up so fast.

We also saw glimpses of the stories of Sansa and her brother, Robb. Sansa is dreaming of escaping of King's Landing, going as far to trust Littlefinger. Whether or not her faith in the man who arguably killed her father will pay off is another story, but it does give the former fiancé of King Joffrey something to occupy her this season. Well until her conflicts with the Tyrells, which was foreshadowing in the teaser for next season so don't yell at me for providing book spoilers. Robb, on the other hand, is still dealing with his war with the Lannisters, taking the abandoned Harrenhal. Robb continues to display his lack of trust of Catelyn Stark, his mother, while keeping his ear open for his new wife. 

Sadly, what we didn't see were appearances of Jaime, Arya, Bran and Theon, only getting brief mentions if any. This is to be expected due to the ever expanding cast, and will likely remain a criticism of this season as it is impossible to give every character screen time every week without the overall storytelling suffering from stretching out too thin. Hopefully this will not lead to the season itself feeling under-developed as certain arcs will never reach the intended climax. Only time will tell. 

Regardless, "Valar Dohaeris" succeeds in captivating audiences with a solid episode that starts this season on the right foot. Most of the characters seem to be firmly established in their own personal stories and endeavors, with no overarching situation binding the stories together as of yet, which is to be expected in the fallout of the Battle of Blackwater. Despite this, it lays the groundwork that could be an epic season. There is a lot of Game of Thrones to get through. 

The Rundown

+ Barristan's back!

+ Joffrey shows a new side to him. How long will it last?

+ Tyrion is still Tyrion.

+ Jon meets Mance Raydar in an expected, but still fun turn of events. 

+ Winterfell was burning in the title sequence. Nice touch. 

- No Ayra, Bran, Jaime, Theon or Varys. 

- What the hell Stannis?

- Didn't get to see the Whitewalkers fight. 

Overall: 8.4