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!
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.
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.
This month, we take a look at season five of Game of Thrones.
Episode 1 – The Wars to Come
Season 5 starts calmly enough, with Tyrion and Varys arriving in Pentos with the aim of offering their services to Daenerys; Stannis still demanding that everyone bend the knee and pledge their swords if not their fealty; and a lovely burning at the stake of Mance Rayder. I was pleased that Jon Snow showed Mance mercy, though. It seems to me that throughout the series, the consequences to someone’s wrong-doing are over-kill (this is going to come up a few times this season), and Mance’s death was one of them. I wasn’t particularly passionate about Mance’s situation one way or the other, but burning alive seems particularly cruel. Had Melisandre made some mewling noises about needing his blood because it is king’s blood, then perhaps there would be more reasoning behind it. I don’t think she said anything of the sort, and they could have just stabbed him or thrown him off the wall which would have had the same persuasive impact I think.
Episode 2 – The House of Black and White
Ahh, dear, sweet, murderous, Arya Stark, now in Braavos at the House of Black and White beginning her service to the many-faced god. It has been a while, so I’m probably forgetting, but, well, Jaqen H’ghar confuses me. Well, no, he doesn’t. His purpose in the story does. When we first met him, it was on the road to Castle Black and the Night’s Watch. He was in the cart with two others, ruthless killers who needed to be kept separate from the general population of new recruits. I don’t think we ever found out what his crimes were. But, OK, no problem. Arya saves him and the other two from fire, saving their lives. Then he offers to kill three people for her in return and he does so, with stealth and no one is the wiser. When that’s done, he changes his face, and walks away. Which leads me to believe he could have avoided capture in the first place. In which case, his only purpose for being in the story, is to be Arya’s wise old mentor, not unlike Dumbledore or Gandalf, or even Mr. Myagi, who speak in riddles and irritate the hell out of their mentee but somehow teach them great life lessons and how to defend themselves. And that just annoys me. He’s there because the author needs him to be there, not because the story needs him to be there.
Episode 3 – High Sparrow
This was another episode of conveniences, mainly that Cersei sees the High Sparrow’s zealotry as useful to getting rid of the High Septon and Margaery. We saw in the first episode of the season that when Cersei was a girl, she spoke to a Wood Witch and was told that she would be queen until she was replaced by someone younger and prettier, and this fortelling has haunted her ever since. What the witch said would happen, did, that Cersei would marry the King, not the Prince (Raegar), that she would have three children and that the King would have many children, not by her. So now we know that the witch was accurate in her prediction, in theory legitimizing Cersei’s paranoia. If she didn’t want to be replaced so quickly, she shouldn’t have killed Robert. It is the law of the land, that her son becomes King, she doesn’t get to rule any more. It is also the law of the land that the King marry and have heirs. So unless she expected Joffrey and then Tommen to marry her (which, I suppose given the fact that her brother is the father of her children, maybe she expected to keep things in the family), it was bound to happen, either now, or in in the future.
What saved this episode for me, was Sansa and Littlefinger, and his promise to wed Sansa to Ramsay Bolton. My stomach started churning at that. I am horrified for her.
Episode 4 – Sons of the Harpy
I can appreciate that the show is speeding up the timeline, but there are times when it feels forced. Jamie and Bronn sneak into Dorne only to be captured by the Sand Snakes and oh, look, negotiations happen and there are no consequences, no struggle to earn the audience of the Prince of Dorne. Jorah Mormont just happens to be in the same brothel as Tyrion and Varys and kidnaps Tyrion to bring him to Danaerys, where Tyrion was heading anyway.
Now might be the time to talk about Jon Snow’s parentage. I’m not the first one to float this theory. It is pretty rampant on the internet. The moment I cracked open Book 1 A Game of Thrones back in 2006 and read that Jon was Eddard’s bastard, my first thought was, “No, he isn’t. Stark is hiding something. Jon is Leanna Stark’s kid.” Of course, back then, I thought he was Robert Baratheon and Leanna Stark’s kid. As I read on, I was sure that he is Rhaegar and Leanna’s kid. There are so many hints, in the books and in the show, that leads us to think this. Robert never saw Leanna in her last days. She had been reportedly raped by Rhaegar. Ned kept going on about the promise he was keeping for her. She died of a ‘fever’ when it could have been in child-birth. Would the oh-so-honorable Eddard Stark really have had a bastard? And brought that bastard home? In this episode, Melisandre is trying to seduce Jon by talking about the power of his blood. She’s only ever interested in King’s blood. Rhagar had King’s blood. Eddard Stark did not.
And yet George R. R. Martin goes to great lengths to remind us that Willa is Jon’s mother. Eddard says it in Book 1. And we are told that a ship’s captain remembers Ned Stark impregnating some woman and having a bastard. I’m not convinced. I still think he’s Leanna and Rhaegar’s. What do you think?
Episode 5 – Kill the Boy
I think I almost threw up during the dinner with the Bolton’s and Sansa, when Ramsay starts in on Theon. Ramsay is cruel and an ass and no one does anything to stop him. Sansa cannot be subjected to that! But she is! Ugh, just thinking about it makes me ill. Speaking of cruel and unusal punishment: that was a spectacular moment when Daenerys feeds one of the city’s patriarchs to her dragons. Visually spectacular, that is. It is another example of the punishment exceeding the crime. Though I suppose in this case I can hardly blame Daenerys; the Sons of the Harpy have killed a lot of people. But much like I thought Theon was an ass and deserved to be punished, his flaying and torture took it too far. Mance Rayder refused to kneel therefore deserving death, but burning him alive took it too far.
Episode 6 – Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
This episode is all about Sansa’s marriage to Ramsay for me. I don’t think I can say much more than what I already have. I hope Theon shapes up and helps Sansa. I hope she is able to reach out to Brienne. This was a terrible episode to end the day on, so I watched a couple of episodes of The West Wing to clear my palate.
Episode 7 – The Gift
This was what I’ve been waiting for. When I watched a Season 7 episode last summer with my friend, I wondered how Tyrion Lannister came to be Daenery’s Hand. It was the reason I decided to go on this whole quest of A Year of Thrones. Obviously I knew it was coming this season, but I wanted to know exactly how. I enjoyed Tyrion’s awe when he witnessed the dragon for the first time.
Is Cersei really so arrogant and short-sighted to believe that no one would tell a religious fanatic about her sins? She’s had Loras and Margaery Tyrell locked up. She’s offended Lady Oleanna. She’s humiliated the High Septon. Of course they’re going to find a way to get back at her!
Episode 8 – Hardhome
The good part of this episode was when Theon tells Sansa that Bran and Rickon are still alive, or at least that he hadn’t killed them.
The army of Whitewalkers! Holy Shit! When those half-decomposed children fell on that woman and started eating her! Oh my god!
Season 1 of The West Wing is really good…
Episode 9 – The Dance of Dragons
I was glad to see Arya get her revenge on Meryn Trant. Her list is getting much shorter.
Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying Season 1 of The West Wing? Yeah. Not even Rob Lowe and witty banter can save me from Stannis allowing his daughter to be burned at the stake. Melisandre is desperate to maintain her hold on Stannis. She has been wrong about what she’s supposedly seen in the fires. She is heartless in her desperation.
Episode 10 – Mother’s Mercy
Theon finally did a good thing! Two good things! He killed Ramsay’s girlfriend, and he helped Sansa escape! It can’t last. The good things never do. I’m not sorry that Stannis is dead. I mean, I’m sorry he didn’t kill the Boltons first, but after what he did to his daughter, this time the punishment is equal to the crime. Brienne even gets a bit of her revenge at the same time.
Cersei’s walk of atonement has me feeling discomfited. I’m not crazy about the addition of religious zealots into the story and into the world of Westeros. Given the historical nature of the series, and given that it roughly echoes the wars of Medieval Europe, religious fanatics are bound to appear. We kind of already have them in Melisandre. I don’t know. I have to think about that more. See if I can come up with a coherent thought on it.
And now Jon Snow is dead. Except–Spoiler Alert!–I already know he’s not. So it didn’t have quite the impact on me had I not known, because I used to not care about spoilers because I didn’t think I’d ever watch.
General thoughts
I was reminded again this season of how incredible the costuming and the sets are. They are so detailed, elaborate, and distinctive. And the CGI for all the Whitewalkers, including the undead children, just magnificent. This was a disturbing season, though, and I know it is only going to get worse. There are still so many questions for me, so I am eager to see how things progress!
Next up, Book 5: A Dance with Dragons!
These are my observations, what about you? Did I miss something you loved, or hated? Let’s talk Season 5!
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