A Year Of Thrones: Game of Thrones Season 2

This year I resolved to read George R. R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire and watch HBO’s Game of Thrones, both series. For all of you who have seen the entire series and/or read all the books, here is your chance to experience it for the first time all over again!

If you haven’t seen the series, there will be spoilers as we go along. If you have seen it, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments, but please, please, please, don’t spoil future seasons or books for me.

Why I Chose it: I had tried watching the series a few times and only ever reached the half-way point of the first season. Then I was in Calgary visiting my friend, and she wanted to watch Game of Thrones. I was curious to see it, and it was fantastic. I had to know everything that happened. But I’m not just satisfied with the TV show. I love to know all the details from the books too. I expect this is going to be a momentous task, and I hope I’m up for the challenge.

Game of Thrones: Season 2

The Episodes

Episode 1: The North Remembers

I have a great appreciation for Sansa’s ability to think in the face of fear, to manipulate Joffrey enough to save a man’s life. The girl is growing some street smarts. She shouldn’t have to. I mean Joffrey is just…beyond me. Tyrion, though. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore him? I particularly love the moment he says to Cersei after finding out she only has Sansa to bargain with, “It must be odd for you, being the disappointing child.” It is such a perfect line for him on so many levels. I’m with Catelyn Stark. Robb shouldn’t trust Theon. I understand why he thinks he can, but there is just something about Theon that just creeps me out.

Photo by: By Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0

Episode 2: The Night Lands

Oh, Oh! I have to say something about the setting for Pyke and the Iron Islands. They used Dunluce Castle near the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland for it (with a lot of CGI to add on the castle). Dunluce Castle and the north coast of Northern Ireland in general is my most favorite place in the world. Makes me a little homesick to see it now. No, I’m not Irish, it is what I call my “soul home.” Long story.

Theon, though. Just…ugh. He’s tarnished my favorite place.

Episode 3: What is Dead May Never Die

Craster is another one of those vile characters. Westeros really is just a predominantly vile world for women. So much incest, this time between father and daughter. Samwell Tarly, though, is such a sweetheart. And I love Brienne of Tarth. She is so loyal, and I bet if Arya saw her, there would be no stopping Arya from becoming a knight. I feel like we’re supposed to feel sorry for Theon because he was sent away and now his father won’t accept him back, and it is terrible that his father won’t accept him, but he’s coming across as whiny and everything is “woe is me, woe is me.” Arya is fantastic, so full of fire and fight, with her list of people she wants to die.

Episode 4: Garden of Bones

My heart is aching for Sansa. Is Tyrion really the only decent Lannister? I was surprised he offered her an out, asking her if she wants her engagement to Joffrey to end. Sansa knows she has to stay if she hopes to live. I’m not going to comment on what Joffrey does to his Name-Day gift from Tyrion, which should be comment enough.

Episode 5: The Ghost of Harrenhal

Baby Dragons!

Jaqen H’ghar is just weird with his “A man says” and “A girl says.” If he was caged up by the Night’s Watch, is he really someone Arya should be talking to? He’s a criminal. Do you really expect me to believe he is going to keep his word and help Arya? He will, because the story needs him to, but I’m not really buying it. I think Sam Tarly and I would be good travel companions. I would be like him, standing in awe of being in the place where the First Men walked, reveling in the history of the place.

Episode 6: The Old Gods and The New

Arya’s priceless, keeping her mouth shut and spying. The Stark girls have an instinct for survival that most of the men will never have. It is a quiet, invisible, manipulative, means of survival. Littlefinger and Varys are sneaky and manipulative, but in an aggressive way. Sansa and Arya don’t have the advantage of being male. They know their lives mean nothing to anyone else. They don’t have power. They use what they have to survive. And once again, Tyrion is the only decent one, looking out for Sansa. Though the Hound is surprisingly gentle with her, even as he says he doesn’t care. I get the feeling he feels sorry for her at least. You could argue that Tyrion isn’t that decent because he sent Myrcella off to Dorne to marry, but it is a marriage of state, much like had happened to Cersei, and to Sansa, and many before them.

Episode 7: A Man Without Honor

Aaaahahahaha Bran escaped Theon! He’s such a eejit, that Theon! Horrible though, and sadistic. He and Joffrey should be put on an isolated island together. In the city of Quarth, who is this masked woman who mysteriously appears, gives Mormont some cryptic message then disappears? Does she have some value later on? Or is she just some tool to help the characters, maybe flesh out the world a little bit more? Well now, that’s interesting, that Catelyn should let Jamie Lannister go in spite of his taunting.

Episode 8: The Prince of Winterfell

I’d like to comment here on Jon Snow and Ygritte, or more specifically, Kit Harrington who plays Jon Snow, and Rose Leslie who plays Ygritte, who are getting married in 2019. Congratulations! They’re awesome together, at least on screen (haven’t seen them together off screen, so I can’t comment on that). Oh that Cersei. She thinks she is so clever. Everything she does is a misstep. I feel sorry for the girl she thinks is Tyrion’s love. I hope Tyrion does save her somehow. I’m glad Cersei didn’t get Shae, but I don’t like that Tyrion is sacrificing this girl to save Shae either.

Episode 9: Blackwater

And here is why Cersei is terrible at being queen. Not only has she spoiled her son, long before he became king, she now sits locked away with the other high-born women and girls and instead of leading them, being strong for them, she gets drunk, feels sorry for herself, and tortures Sansa. Joffrey is just as much a coward. He tortures everyone, orders murder, but cannot lead. The Hound, once again surprises me, by offering to take Sansa out of King’s Landing.

Episode 10: Valar Morghulis

I kind of cheered when Cersei told Joffrey to set aside his engagement to Sansa in favor of Margaery Tyrell. Littlefinger is creepy toward Sansa. He has always been a little too smarmy with her, the way he oozes kindness, always saying how much like her mother she is, and so on. Ick! I haven’t talked yet about Stannis and Melissandre, the Red Priestess. Stannis is a disagreeable character, but he has a point. The throne is rightfully his, and I can see why he would do anything to claim it, even changing gods. The Red Priestess, though, is interesting. I’m not fond of her. She has some kind of magic which she claims is from her god and seems to work, which is more than any of the others can say about the powers of their gods. I suppose that would be a convincing reason to follow her. But she failed. She said she saw Stannis’s victory and he lost so now she has to cover her ass and say she still sees it. Does she really care about Stannis winning the throne? What is in it for her? Great way to end, with the White Walker!

General Thoughts

Tyrion is my favorite. I want more of the dragons. I am curious as to what Daenerys plans to do now, how she will build an army to conquer Westeros. What will Arya and Sansa do? They have no home to return to. Make Theon pay for the ass he is pretending to be. Does Margaery know what she’s getting into with Joffrey? I hope she’s prepared for his particular brand of vile.

Next up, Book 2: A Clash of Kings!