Game of Thrones: Season Six, Episode 4 – “Book of the Stranger”

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Aidan Gillen, Alfie Allen, Art Parkinson, Arya Stark, Ben Crompton, Book of the Stranger, Braavos, Carice van Houten, Cersei Lannister, Conleth Hill, Daario Naharis, Daenerys Targaryen, Dean-Charles Chapman, Diana Rigg, Dothraki, Dragons, Emilia Clarke, Finn Jones, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones Season Six, Gemma Whelan, George RR Martin, Grey Worm, Gwendoline Christie, Hardhome, Harry Lloyd, Harry Potter, Iain Glen, Iwan Rheon, Jacob Anderson, Joe Naufahu, Jon Snow, Jonathan Pryce, Jorah Mormont, Khal Moro, King's Landing, Kit Harington, Kristofer Hivju, Lena Headey, Lino Facioli, Littlefinger, Loras Tyrell, Maisie Williams, Margaery Tyrell, Meereen, Melisandre, Michiel Huisman, Missandei, Natalia Tena, Natalie Dormer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Olenna Tyrell, Osha, Peter Dinklage, Ramsay Bolton, Rickon Stark, Robin Arryn, Rupert Vansittart, Sansa Stark, Slaver's Bay, Sons of the Harpy, Sophie Turner, Television, The High Sparrow, The Night's Watch, The Seven Kingdoms, The Temple of the Dosh Khaleen, The Wall, The White Walkers, Theon Greyjoy, Tommen Baratheon, Tormund Giantsbane, TV, Tyrion Lannister, Varys, Viserys Targaryen, Westeros, White Walkers, Winterfell, Yara Greyjoy, Yohn Royce

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“Book of the Stranger” was a strong episode of “Game of Thrones”. Whilst the writers struggled to fill the holes that their minefield of rushed plot points has created, they temporarily covered them with compelling dialogue and a degree of character development. Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) proved that she can hold her own against her enemies without the need for dragons and armies, Sansa (Sophie Turner) demonstrated that she’s ready to take charge of her own destiny, and Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) showed us all that there’s a person for everyone… good luck Brienne (Gwendoline Christie).

“Book of the Stranger” predictably started at The Wall, as once again the showrunners bookended an episode with its two most exciting moments. I enjoyed this scene for a couple of reasons: 1) because seeing Jon (Kit Harington) and Sansa reunite after such a long time injected a bit of hope into the story; and 2) because Edd (Ben Crompton) said exactly what I’ve been thinking about Jon over the past week.

It seems to me that Jon riding south is pretty futile because although he’s tired of fighting, he has nowhere else to go. He has no friends in the outside world, and even if he did he knows that eventually the White Walkers will attack The Night’s Watch. Edd said as much to Jon by questioning his decision and mentioning the battle at Hardhome last season, so this was a very relieving moment from my perspective. It showed that the writers aren’t completely ignorant to issues that their handling of the story presents, and demonstrated that Jon might not be the same heroic figure as he was before he died.

The only issue I had with the opening scene was that we didn’t get to see Sansa and Jon talking to one another about what has happened since they were last together, which means that we are left to assume a lot of things. We know that they both have an idea of what the other has been doing, but it isn’t clear whether or not the specifics have been discussed.

Does Jon know that Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) raped his sister repeatedly? Does he know that Theon (Alfie Allen) helped her escape? Does Sansa know that Jon has died and been resurrected? The answer to all these questions is likely to be ‘yes’ because they talked about the issues that surround the questions, but not knowing for sure what information they have at their disposal is frustrating and leaves their motivations in a slightly confusing place. You’d think that if Jon knew that Sansa had been raped by Ramsay then he would have no problem with going to kill the bastard as soon as humanly possible… wouldn’t you? If not then why are we routing for him at all? This therefore makes his initial reluctance to act more disturbing, and changes how he should be seen as a character.

via observer.com

With a war between Jon’s forces and The Boltons being teased from the start of the episode, (and in the trailers), Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) was promptly reintroduced to the story. He visited his son-in-law, Robin Arryn (Lino Facioli), bringing him a falcon as a gift to represent the fact that the boy is wrapped around his ‘little finger’ – pun very much intended. He then thrust this fact in the face of Yohn Royce (Rupert Vansittart) by accusing him of informing the Boltons of his travel arrangements, which led Robin to show everyone just how much his diplomatic skills have evolved since the series began (moon door politics for the win). Afterwards he persuaded the young lord to help Sansa in defeating her husband and his forces, which leaves Littlefinger in a good place as a loveable antihero.

We’ll have to wait and see what Sansa thinks of Littlefinger when they meet again in the next episode – she probably won’t greet him with a hug – but it seems to me that they’ll be working together for the foreseeable future. This is actually a really interesting point in Littlefinger’s story, because we don’t yet know whether or not he truly understood the extent of Ramsay’s evil, and we also don’t know what diabolical scheme he has up his sleeve should things go array. He likes to improvise when the situation calls for it but he’s always prepared, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a plan B which ends in him betraying Sansa. He wants to install people that he can trust in positions of power, and he does have a level of affection for Sansa which makes her the logical choice to rule Winterfell, but if she seems reluctant to trust him then there’s always the possibility that he could choose another ally.

via fanpop.com

Elsewhere, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) was doing some damage limitation of his own, as he tried to fix Daenerys’ mess in Slaver’s Bay. He explained to Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) that he prefers the diplomatic approach over the military approach, so rather than trying to break the wheel he did the civil thing of talking to the Masters. It’s a breath of fresh air to see Tyrion speaking to these people as though they’re on his level, because Daenerys is so arrogant and talks to everyone as though they’re beneath her. Tyrion is a pragmatist – a politician – he finds a middle ground and then he does his best to make it bear fruit. He knows that slavery is an atrocity, but he also knows that trying to end the practice in the blink of an eye is something that only a blind man would believe is possible.

The most pressing issue on his mind is the possibility of revolution and the rise of the Sons of the Harpy, so like any intelligent man he deals with that issue first by hopefully cutting off their funding and leaving them powerless – this will make ruling Meereen easier, and his offer to the Masters will also buy him time to find a better solution. In this time he and Daenerys can make allies, acquire some ships, and possibly take King’s Landing. He knows that the slaves will suffer over the seven year adjustment period that he is proposing, but if Daenerys can become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms in that time then she will have the means to end the practice for good.

For the most part I liked the scenes in Meereen this week, but I have to say that I was irritated by the fact that the writers used the joke (that wasn’t funny in the first place) about Tyrion not being able to speak Valyrian again.

via collider.com

Whilst Tyrion held down the fort, Daario (Michiel Huisman) and Jorah (Iain Glen) proceeded to bond over talk of having sex with their queen and being attached to weapons. Daario lowers the tone of the show every time he appears on screen, and I have to say that for me the fact that Daenerys is willing to keep him in her company (never mind sleep with him) brings her character down as well. I wish he’d never been introduced to the story, and so far I don’t see any reason why he was.

As for the actual scenes involving the pair in this episode… I hated them. I was frustrated by the fact that the pair were so sure that Daenerys had been brought to the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen, because she could’ve just as easily been raped and killed by a sexually charged Khal and his bloodriders. I know that Jorah has previously spent time with the Dothraki and has an understanding of their traditions, but that doesn’t make them any more predictable – they’re a fierce and violent bunch, so anything could’ve happened.

I also found the fact that Daario carried on travelling with Jorah after seeing his greyscale a little bit ridiculous, because from a practical perspective Jorah is a walking death sentence. I know that Daario is portrayed as a ‘good guy’ on the show – after all, he’s the love interest of a protagonist – but the least he could’ve done was say ‘please, for the love of god, stay away from me’. If Jorah so much as slips and touches Daario with his arm then the latter will become terminally ill and face the prospect of turning into a stone man, so I think that he has pretty good cause to leave the old man behind.

via comingsoon.net

Moving swiftly on, (and ignoring Daenerys’ first scene in the episode because it wasn’t really worth analysing – it basically served to show that she had a plan and that she didn’t need a man to rescue her), we saw Margaery (Natalie Dormer) being held captive in a grotty dungeon. She looked amazing for a woman without any means of grooming herself, which is understandable because make-up costs money and most people won’t really notice, but for me this fact broke any immersion that the episode had created.

The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) spoke to Margaery about his past as a cobbler, although his story quickly escalated into one about a playboy getting tired of orgies and fine wine. It was nice to be given some sort of insight into the life that the devout leader had led before he became a religious fanatic, although it isn’t completely clear whether or not he was telling the truth to Margaery or simply trying to manipulate her. In any case, the acting and delivery in this scene was fantastic, as Pryce and Dormer proved once again that they are two of the best actors on the show.

Once they were done talking, Margaery was allowed to see her brother, Loras (Finn Jones), presumably for the first time since the pair were taken into custody. This wasn’t a great scene, partly because I couldn’t really tell what the writers were going for and partly because it didn’t seem particularly necessary, but it was nice to see Loras again. For a moment I thought that he wanted Margaery to kill him when he said that he wanted it to stop, and I’m still a little confused as to whether or not this moment caused Margaery to give in to The High Sparrow.

In a later scene Cersei (Lena Headey) told Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) that there was a walk of atonement planned for Margaery, which left me puddled as to whether or not this was a lie that The High Sparrow had told Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) to trick Cersei into action, or something that we were supposed to have taken from the previous scene with Margaery having confessed off-screen as a result of meeting Loras. I’m still none-the-wiser after watching the episode three times, so for now I’m going to chalk this confusion down to either poor execution on the part of the writers or intentional misdirection.

via gameofthrones.wikia.com

Once the political battlefield that is King’s Landing was visited, attention turned to Theon and his journey towards redemption. The timeline for this storyline has become very messy, because it doesn’t seem like Theon could have reached Pyke at the same speed as Sansa reached The Wall, and it’s also a little farfetched that he could just get on a boat and walk into Yara’s (Gemma Whelan) chambers. Nevertheless, it was nice that the theme of reunion was present throughout the episode – Sansa reunited with Jon, Daenerys reunited with Daario and Jorah, as well as revisiting her past and the person that she was at the end of season one, and Theon reunited with his sister.

Yara didn’t seem too pleased to see her brother, but I think that this was a reaction to the fact that: 1) she lost good men when she tried to rescue him; and 2) his sudden re-emergence just before the kingsmoot was poorly timed. Let’s not forget that Theon is known for betraying his ‘family’, the Starks, and has been living with Ramsay who is a psychotic murderer intent on ruling the North. For all Yara knows Theon could be an assassin sent to kill her under the orders of Ramsay, or a contender to rule the Iron Islands intended to cement Ramsay’s hold on the North, so she has every right to be suspicious.

Personally, I like the Greyjoy storyline and I’m enjoying seeing more of them on screen, so for me this scene was a positive moment in the episode. The only thing that remains unclear at this point is exactly how Theon thinks that he can be of use to Yara, because the ironborn respect strength above all else. Theon is a lot of things, but right now he definitely isn’t strong physically, mentally, or emotionally.

via viralshack.com

Sticking with the North, and sadly for fans of “Harry Potter”, Ramsay killed Osha (Natalia Tena). This wasn’t a particularly inspired scene, but it was definitely necessary for the plot given that Rickon (Art Parkinson) needs to seem as though he is in a precarious position. The writers don’t want him to have any allies in Winterfell because they want the stakes to be as high as possible, so killing Osha off quickly was probably the right thing to do. There was absolutely no reason for the show to keep her around, and I’m glad that the writers didn’t drag out the process by having her be tortured or brutalised – we’ve seen that before and I think that the majority of the audience have been thoroughly desensitised.

A more shocking moment for Ramsay’s character in this episode occurred when he wasn’t even on screen, as Jon and Sansa read the pink letter aloud in the middle of dinner. The pink letter is sent to Jon in the books before he dies and refers not to Rickon but to “Arya” – not the real Arya (Maisie Williams) for those of you who are wondering how on earth the youngest Stark girl ended up back in Winterfell. It was great to see this moment play out on screen, even if it didn’t feel as epic as I would’ve liked, and the words that were read to the audience were suitably menacing. For those of you with an imagination like mine the content of the letter was also pretty graphic, and it served as a vicious invitation from one bastard to another. The letter sets up the upcoming battle between Jon and Ramsay perfectly, as Jon knows that if he doesn’t win then the wildlings, his sister, and his youngest brother, will die painfully. The stakes are as high as they could possibly be, particularly because if the wildlings die then The Wall will be incredibly vulnerable when the White Walkers attack, so the battle is set to be one of the biggest of the series to date.

via ligadoemserie.com

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for fans of Daenerys, The Mother of Dragons took a leaf out of her children’s books by burning her enemies alive. She called the leaders of the Dothraki ‘small men’, which in turn led to Khal Moro (Joe Naufahu) threatening her in a way which was reminiscent of Viserys’ (Harry Lloyd) threat back in season one. Daenerys then proceeded to rain fire on him and his vulgar friends, showing that she is more than willing to kill anyone who gets in her way. She presented the men with a choice and they chose wrong – as she said in season four ‘they can live in my new world, or die in their old one’.

This was an intriguing scene for a number of reasons, most notably because it marked a significant departure from George R. R. Martin’s book series. Martin has previously stated that in the books Daenerys is not immune to fire, but that when she became The Unburnt there were special, presumably magical, circumstances in play. In the TV show it seems like things have been simplified, as it appears that Daenerys is simply impervious to fire in all its forms. I have to say that I personally prefer the direction that the television series is taking as far as this plot point goes, because to me it just makes more sense – although I’m aware that that sounds crazy.

The only issue that I had with this scene was that Khal Moro and the rest of the men inside the temple didn’t think to run towards Daenerys after she began to set the place on fire. It makes sense that one or two of them would panic – fire burns after all – but it seems pretty unlikely to me that not one of them thought it would be a good idea to kill the woman before she could cause further damage. In a life-or-death situation it’s a matter of fight or flight, and most people will choose flight in that scenario, but these men are Dothraki. They’re brutal killers who constantly engage in altercations which could end in their death, so to think they would suddenly lose their minds at the sight of a few flames is just too ridiculous for me to take seriously.

Still, it’s exciting to think about what this scene will mean for the series as a whole. Daenerys now has at her disposal: 1) three dragons; 2) the Unsullied; 3) a Dothraki horde; 4) a seasoned politician in Tyrion Lannister; and 5) what remains of Varys’ (Conleth Hill) network of spies. She has almost everything that she needs to take King’s Landing; all she’s missing is a fleet of ships.

So, on the whole I thought that “Book of the Stranger” was a great episode. It wasn’t perfect, but even the most critical of fans would have to admit that it contained some of the best moments of the season so far. Moreover, the acting was a lot better than it has been in previous episodes, and the return of Littlefinger was long overdue. The only significant negative was Daario’s inclusion, but at least Daenerys’ reaction to him was akin to the audience’s – i.e. ‘go away, I don’t need you’. I’m a lot more optimistic about where this season is headed after watching this episode, and I’m looking forward to episode five – “The Door” – next Monday.

8/10

Game of Thrones: Season Six Premiere – “The Red Woman”

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Alexander Siddig, Alliser Thorne, Arya Stark, Balon Greyjoy, Beric Dondarrion, Braavos, Brienne of Tarth, Carice van Houten, Castle Black, Catelyn Stark, Cersei Lannister, Conleth Hill, Daario Naharis, Daenerys Targaryen, Davos Seaworth, Dean-Charles Chapman, Dorne, Dothraki, Ed Skrein, Ellaria Sand, Emilia Clarke, Euron Greyjoy, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones Season Six, George RR Martin, GoT, Gwendoline Christie, Iain Glen, Indira Varma, Iwan Rheon, Jaime Lannister, Jessica Henwick, Joe Naufahu, Jon Snow, Jonathan Pryce, Jorah Mormont, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Khal Drogo, Khal Moro, King's Landing, Lena Headey, Liam Cunningham, Maisie Williams, Margaery Tyrell, Meereen, Melisandre, Michael McElhatton, Michelle Fairley, Michiel Huisman, Myrcella Baratheon, Natalie Dormer, Nell Tiger Free, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nymeria Sand, Obara Sand, Owen Teale, Patrick Malahide, Paul Kaye, Peter Dinklage, Pilou Asbaek, Prince Doran, Ramsay Bolton, Reek, Richard Dormer, Roose Bolton, Sansa Stark, Sophie Turner, Stannis Baratheon, Stephen Dillane, Television, The Iron Throne, The Lord of Light, The Night's Watch, The Red Woman, The Sand Snakes, The Sons of the Harpy, The Wall, Theon Greyjoy, Thoros of Myr, Toby Sebastian, Tommen Baratheon, Trystane Martell, TV, Tyrion Lannister, Varys, Winterfell, Xena

This review contains spoilers for everything that has happened on the show so far, including the events of this episode.

“The Red Woman” was one of the most anticipated episodes of television in recent history. People have been talking for months about the future of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), and speculating what’s next for their favourite characters given that “Game of Thrones” has finally caught up to George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series.

The episode itself had to balance a number of characters, meaning that although it lasted for an hour, it felt as though it had been on for all of ten minutes when the credits rolled. It was a strong season opener, but it could’ve done with a bit more focus and more thoughtful writing.

The episode began where season five finished, with Jon Snow’s corpse lying in the snow. Ghost’s cries of anguish at his master’s death were mirrored by fans as they saw that the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch really was dead, and that if he’s coming back it won’t be any time soon. The scene itself was fine, but it left me with one nagging question in my mind – why was the body left there? Was it a ‘we’re in charge’ gesture or a plot hole? We all know that men of the Night’s Watch are wary of the dead being resurrected as wights, so leaving a dead body lying around inside Castle Black seems like an unnecessary risk. Such an oversight felt like a convenience for the writers to allow Jon Snow to come back, rather than an understandable decision by the characters in the “Game of Thrones” universe.

Melisandre (Carice van Houten) made her entrance almost immediately, entering the makeshift tomb of Jon Snow to speak to Davos (Liam Cunningham). She expressed confusion at the sight of the dead man and explained to the group surrounding the body that she had seen him in the flames fighting at Winterfell, with a look of anguish on her face which explained just how much her faith had been tested by the events of the previous season.

Melisandre’s words gave weight to the theory that Jon Snow will come back this season, because many people thought that they could see Jon fighting at Winterfell in the trailer, and we know from that trailer that the Boltons will face a battle at some point this season. Furthermore, it is likely that at some point the White Walkers will get past The Wall, so Jon could fight them at Winterfell to bring Melisandre’s vision to life. Either way, it seems like a strange specification on the part of the writers to have Melisandre say exactly what she saw in the flames if that isn’t then going to come true.

This scene was followed by another at Castle Black, as we saw Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) placating a crowd of outraged Night’s Watch men following Jon’s death. He told them that he had performed the act along with the other officers, and that he did so for the sake of the Watch, not for his own selfish reasons. This wasn’t a particularly hard sell, which was slightly annoying, but the men at The Wall are murderers, rapists, and thieves, so to convince them probably wouldn’t be that difficult (particularly when they know that if they disagree with him he might stab them to death).

It’s hard to argue against his leadership skills or his rationale here, but he clearly misses the bigger picture. Jon Snow was one of the few people who had seen what the Night’s King was capable of, and he was also able to bring the wildlings on side, which is obviously going to be important if The Wall is to stand. I can understand why Thorne doesn’t see this, because he’s been fighting against the wildlings for the majority of his life, but when he says that Jon would’ve been the end of the Night’s Watch he must also realise that trying to take on an army of the dead with only 50-ish men would lead to the same sad outcome.

After the initial scenes at the Wall we travelled to Winterfell, where we saw Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) share a sincere moment with the body of Myranda (Charlotte Hope). He explained his love for her and told her that he would avenge her death, and this scene served to show that whilst Ramsay is the most evil character on the show (move over Night’s King), he does have feelings. Those feelings ended up being used for comedic effect when Ramsay said that the body should be fed to the hounds, but it added another dimension to his character nonetheless.

This scene was then followed by another at Winterfell in which Roose (Michael McElhatton) and Ramsay had a heart-warming father-son conversation… or not. They spoke about Sansa (Sophie Turner) and how they desperately needed to get her back in order to cement their hold on The North, and Roose made a veiled threat to Ramsay that if he didn’t solve the problem then his unborn child would take Ramsay’s place as heir to The North. The scene was mostly a reminder for the audience of what happened last year, but it also explained what the Bolton’s motivations would be for the rest of the season, and suggested that at some point this season Ramsay and Roose may actually come to blows.

After hearing about how important Sansa is to the Bolton cause, we watched on as she ran as far away from Ramsay as she could, accompanied by Theon (Alfie Allen). The scene itself was quite good, with Sophie Turner looking mesmerising in the snow, but some aspects of it didn’t make a lot of sense. Personally, I thought that the Bolton soldiers were quite tame when they found the pair, because although they were given orders to find them and bring them back to Winterfell they could’ve roughed them up a bit. Roose isn’t a nice man and neither is Ramsay, so presumably their soldiers would follow suit and take pleasure in the pain of others.

Nevertheless, I liked how Theon did something heroic for once because I’ve grown very tired of the Reek angle. I actually thought that his moment of bravery would’ve been a great way for him to die on the series, because it would’ve been redemptive given that he would’ve died for the Starks whom he had previously let down. I still think that his transformation has felt forced and happened far too quickly, but it makes sense that the writers would fast-track his storyline as fans of the series are pretty sick of seeing him act like a coward.

Another character who finally did something positive for the Starks was Brienne (Gwendoline Christie), who saved Sansa’s life and went some way to fulfilling the oath she made to Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) back in season two. Many of the reviews that I’ve read have cited this as an emotional moment and their favourite part of the episode, but I have to say that personally I wasn’t affected by it. I liked the music that was playing in the build up to the scene, and I thought that Gwendoline Christie’s performance was great – her intensity in action sequences is always fantastic – but it didn’t really get me. It felt like a scene which will be significant going forward, but it also felt a little bit too convenient for my liking.

In King’s Landing, Cersei (Lena Headey) had to deal with the loss of her daughter, as Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) returned from Dorne with Myrcella’s (Nell Tiger Free) corpse and a soon-to-be-dead Trystane (Toby Sebastian). Lena Headey’s performance in this scene was perfect, as we saw the joy turn to ash in her mouth (Tyrion’s (Peter Dinklage) promise was finally fulfilled as he inadvertently caused his niece’s death by sending her to Dorne in the first place) when she realised that she was going to see her daughter again, but not as a lively young woman, rather, as a lifeless body. She was as excited as I think we’ve ever seen her when she heard that a ship was returning from Dorne, even though she tried to hide it, but she ended up looking more broken than she was at the end of her walk of shame.

The conversation which followed between Cersei and Jaime wasn’t very powerful, at least not in my opinion, but I thought the performances were pretty good. It’s not that I didn’t like the scene, but these days I find it hard to take Jaime seriously when he’s talking about destroying his enemies, given that he’s no longer a great fighter and he’s grown a conscience.

I did think that it was interesting to gain insight into Cersei’s thoughts about the Maggie the Frog prophecy, because last season it played a huge role in her behaviour towards Margaery (Natalie Dormer) and also informed her decision to have Jaime go to get Myrcella back. Having her verbally address this in the episode explained to the audience that the flashback we saw last season was important and played a significant role in Cersei’s poor decision making, in a sense making the prophecy self-fulfilling, and the fact that Cersei was so willing to accept the validity of that prophecy represented a shift in her personality; from a position of control to one of self-pity, vulnerability, and perhaps most importantly – shame.

Skipping over the throwaway scene in which The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and one of his annoying henchman played good-cop-bad-cop with Margaery, the next important scene of the episode took place in Dorne. Last season Dorne didn’t go down very well with fans – it felt disconnected from the rest of the show so nobody could get behind Jaime’s rescue mission, especially because we never really got a feel for Myrcella as a character.

However, this episode has given Dorne a chance, because what we saw was probably the best moment in the setting so far. To see Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) kill Prince Doran (Alexander Siddig) was a real shock to me and I suspect everyone else, because this is something that hasn’t happened yet in the book series and also because Doran was the brother of Ellaria’s former lover Oberyn (Pedro Pascal). I was personally expecting Ellaria to be the one who got killed off in Dorne, as Doran had warned her last year that any further treason would be punished severely, but instead we saw a brutal and memorable death scene involving a not-yet-explored character.

I have to say that on the story side of things the scene was a little bit strange, because Ellaria basically killed Oberyn’s brother in an effort to avenge him, but at least this scene will bring Dorne into the fold and possibly start a war with the Lannisters. I’d be interested to know whether or not these murders were a reaction to Dorne’s reception last year, or if they are a storyline which will happen in the books that the show has shot forward to, but this remains to be seen. It feels like the former to me, because I don’t think that you cast someone like Alexander Siddig if you know that the character he is going to playing will be given barely any screen time… but I could be wrong.

With Prince Doran dead, the episode then showed us all just what the Sand Snakes are capable of, as they brutally disposed of Trystane as though he was a fly that needed swatting. I still don’t know exactly how they made it onto the boat that Trystane was on, because it seems like it would’ve been difficult to hide on such a long journey, so maybe they went on a separate boat… maybe. It’s not particularly clear right now so I hope that they address the issue in order to ensure that this admittedly cool scene makes sense going forward.

I’m also not sure what the timeline is meant to be, because the episode was filmed in such a way that it seemed as though Trystane died after Prince Doran, but surely the Sand Snakes couldn’t have known exactly when to kill him because they were miles away and there was no form of communication to get a message across. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but how could they be sure that Prince Doran would condemn Ellaria’s actions? If the plot was in place from the moment that Ellaria kissed Myrcella with poison on her lips then a situation could’ve occurred where killing Trystane would’ve jeopardised their overall plan. I suppose the point I’m making is that either: 1) the plan wasn’t fool-proof, or 2) the plan hasn’t been properly explained yet on the show.

In any case, this scene has breathed life into an otherwise dying storyline, and I’m excited to see what the Sand Snakes get up to over the course of the season. Hopefully Nymeria (Jessica Henwick) and Obara (Keisha Castle-Hughes) will remain in and around King’s Landing, causing all sorts of mayhem and killing their enemies. Maybe they could kill Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) so that we can have a more exciting king on the throne?

Over in Meereen, Tyrion and Varys (Conleth Hill) are ruling over a city which is in tatters after the attack on the fighting pits by the Sons of the Harpy. The people live in fear and the whole place is on the verge of a revolution, which is made all the more problematic by the fact that we see a red priest preaching to peasants on the streets. We all know from experience that red priests/priestesses can be extremely dangerous, so the Lord of Light could prove to be another unwanted complication for Tyrion as he attempts to keep the peace between the masters and their former slaves.

Watching Peter Dinklage and Conleth Hill play-off each other has been great ever since they started to become friendly back in season two, but in this instance I could’ve done without the comedy that the writers forced into the scene. We’ve heard ‘Varys is a eunuch’ jokes before so having Tyrion make fun of him for not having any genitals wasn’t exactly inspired, particularly because it was a completely pointless bit of dialogue. There was also a weird joke made about Tyrion not being well-spoken in Valyrian which felt all too similar to a joke which was intended to make the same point at the end of season five. Neither of these jokes felt necessary and neither made me laugh – I want to take events in Meereen seriously this year and joking around just doesn’t help.

Nevertheless, the fact that there was a mention of Varys’ little birds and their mission to find out who the leader of the Sons of the Harpy is got me back on board, because when this person is finally revealed it should be a high point of the season. Hopefully it’s someone who we already know.

It will also be interesting to see what’s done about the boats in Meereen after they were all destroyed in this episode, because Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) can’t simply fly to King’s Landing on her own atop Drogo and expect to take the city. She needs her army and they need ships. This could be where Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) comes into the wider story, because he must have some sort of role in the big picture for him to be cast so late in the game, and we all know that The Greyjoys like two things, power and ships – they have one of these, and if they help Daenerys take the Iron Throne then they could very well get the other. Balon (Patrick Malahide) has previously said that he doesn’t want to help someone else take the Iron Thorne because the Greyjoys take what is theirs by force, but he might not be around for very much longer. This is all speculation, but it does make a lot of sense.

Speaking of things that make sense, wouldn’t it be great if all the storylines on the show were well-conceived and thought out? Well, they aren’t. Jorah (Iain Glen) and Daario’s (Michiel Huisman) scene was by far the worst of the episode, as they magically followed Daenerys’ tracks, found a ring in the middle of nowhere, and generally annoyed me to a point where I felt like turning off my TV. The scene, at least in my opinion, didn’t feel like it belonged on “Game of Thrones” – it felt more like something out of “Xena: Warrior Princess” from back in the day.

I have to admit that I haven’t been a fan of Daario ever since Ed Skrein was replaced by Michiel Huisman at the start of season four, but it wasn’t just Huisman’s performance that made the scene painful to watch. For one, I really didn’t like that Jorah took a look at his greyscale again; 1) because Daario didn’t question the fact that he randomly stopped, and 2) because its sole purpose was to remind the audience about the disease. It played no other role in the narrative and will be quite jarring when binge-watching the DVD’s because he does it more than once in the space of a couple of episodes for no apparent reason. The whole scene was awful.

I also wasn’t particularly fond of Daenerys’ battle of wits with the Dothraki leader, Khal Moro (Joe Naufahu), although at least it gave us an insight into what she’ll be up to for the first few episodes of the season. It’s not that any of the performances were particularly terrible in this scene, but for me Daenerys was far too assertive given that her petulance could’ve got her killed and basically ruined the entire show. She might feel more powerful than in previous seasons, but in fact she’s in the same position that she was in when the story began, with no allies, no dragons to be seen, and seemingly no common sense. The audience knew that Daenerys was in no real danger, but the character should’ve acted as though she thought that she was. Plus, we’ve seen Daenerys listen in on a foreign tongue before only to reveal that she in fact speaks it fluently, so there was nothing particularly surprising for us when she started speaking in Dothraki to the new Khal.

A scene which I did enjoy was Arya’s (Maisie Williams). It was a short scene, but as she sat on the streets of Braavos begging for change, trying to come to terms with life as a blind and faceless woman, I was captivated. Maisie Williams was incredibly expressive despite the fact that her eyes were clouded over, and she sold me on the idea that Arya was blind. I just hope that Williams gets enough screen time in future episodes to really push this storyline, because Arya has the potential to once again be one of the best characters on “Game of Thrones”, provided that she’s given the chance.

Finally, the episode took us all back to the Wall to end where the episode had begun, and for some reason Alliser Thorne thought that he could defeat Stannis Baratheon’s (Stephen Dillane) right-hand-man with idle words and false promises. He politely offered a pardon to any man who would put down his sword and leave the room… an offer which nobody in their right mind would accept because Thorne had just stabbed his commanding officer to death in cold blood. Still, Davos replied politely, staying put in the room and mentioning that Melisandre could be of help if he and the men of the Night’s Watch were going to protect Jon’s body whilst staying alive. This season Davos looks like he’s finally going to be a leader on the show, something which he’s shown he has the mind for ever since he was first introduced, so I’m excited to see what he will achieve in the next nine episodes.

After Davos mentioned The Red Woman, we were treated to a scene which will surely quash fantasies the world over. Melisandre looked into the fire with pain etched on her face, before standing in front of a mirror and looking at her reflection with sadness in her eyes. She then proceeded to disrobe and take off her necklace, which made me roll my eyes because I didn’t understand why she needed to be naked… until she was naked. Melisandre, one of the most beautiful characters on the show, became an old crone with wrinkles upon wrinkles, white hair like string modestly covering her head, and posture that makes the Hunchback of Notre Dame look like an Olympic athlete.

She became the opposite of what she has been since the first episode of season two, as the scene showcased her true form, and marked a symbolic transformation for the character. We saw that The Red Woman had been broken by Stannis’ death and that she was losing who she was; we saw that for all her trickery and power she is still as vulnerable as any other character on the show. The Red Woman is The Red Woman – the beautiful and powerful priestess we’ve seen throughout the series – but Melisandre is something more. Her beauty and her strength have been representative of her power from day one, but now we see that both of these aspects of her persona are false.

What this will mean for her in the future is unclear, but it seems like a focus for the season will be the humbling and subsequent rising up of characters (Sansa, Arya etc.), so maybe Melisandre will get a similar arc and perhaps regain her confidence by resurrecting Jon Snow. If you remember back in season three Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye) (the red priest who had resurrected Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) several times) spoke to Melisandre about his crisis of faith, and how when things seemed darkest the Lord of Light showed himself through the resurrection of Beric. Perhaps this scene will take on greater significance now that Melisandre is losing her faith.

This episode was called “The Red Woman” for a reason, as the final scene placed Melisandre at the forefront of the series, changing every scene that she has been involved in so far. Initially she was a wildcard for Stannis – she could do amazing things, but he didn’t even take her to the battle of Blackwater, and by all accounts he valued Davos’ opinion more than hers. With Stannis gone, Melisandre can actually be seen as the main character in their storyline, with every scene involving Stannis playing a part in her development up to this point rather than his.

Overall, “The Red Woman” was a flawed but enjoyable hour of television, which was epitomised by the fact that the final scene was excellent yet marred by a continuity error (which I have intentionally ignored because I feel that it has unfairly become the main talking point of the episode). It had to juggle a lot of characters, which it did admirably, but I think that the short amount of time spent with certain characters like Tyrion and Margaery meant that their scenes lost a lot of their intended impact. I loved the ending, and I thought that the scene in Dorne was great, but there were plenty of moments which could’ve been improved. It was a good start, but I hope that future episodes focus more on one or two characters so that narratives can be properly explored and enjoyed.

7/10

Game of Thrones: Season Six Preview – Part Two

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This preview will contain spoilers for everything that has happened on the series so far, as well as some book plot points that haven’t appeared on the show and two well-documented fan theories.

The Greyjoys

The Greyjoys haven’t really been done justice on the show so far, with Theon’s (Alfie Allen) resentment of his father and jealously of his sister being our main connection to their storyline. This year it seems like this might change, as Euron (played by Pilou Asbæk), the younger brother of Theon’s father Balon (Patrick Malahide), has been introduced. (SPOILER ALERT) In the books Balon dies in a fall, but there’s speculation that in fact his death was an assassination at the hands of Euron, which is all but confirmed by the season six trailer. This, as well as the kingsmoot which will follow, could make the Greyjoys a much more important family on the show than they have been in previous seasons.

King’s Landing

The first thing that comes into everyone’s minds when they think of King’s Landing is the ongoing battle between Cersei (Lena Headey) and The Faith Militant’s conniving leader The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). Last year’s shaming ceremony was clearly a big deal for both characters, and it will likely start a war between them in upcoming episodes – still, that war will probably be fought mainly by Robert Strong, aka Zombie Mountain (Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson), and the Sparrow’s many followers.

What many people forget when they think about what will be happening in King’s Landing this year is that at the end of last season Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) witnessed his daughter/niece die due to a kiss of death from Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma), which will probably be a more immediate issue when this season opens. I don’t think that Cersei is going to be very happy when her lover/brother returns home from Dorne with her daughter’s corpse accompanying him, so revenge will definitely be on the cards.

There’s also the small issue of the Tyrells, with Margaery (Natalie Dormer) and Loras (Finn Jones) both sitting in a cell. From the trailers it looks like Jaime is going to try to help the Tyrell army in forcing their release, but there’s still going to be a lot of resentment between Margaery and Cersei when the pair are both free. (It seems pretty obvious that Margaery is going to be freed at some point this year because Natalie Dormer has talked about filming in Spain, and filming in Spain wouldn’t be very practical if she’s just going to be sitting in a dark room for the majority of the season).

Cersei just isn’t going to have a great time of it this year unless she has a hell of a lot of luck, because whilst she has a man-mountain (pun intended) as a protector, she also has enemies everywhere and an upcoming trial. The main fan theory relating to this trial is usually called the Cleganebowl, and relates to a possible trial by combat between The Mountain, and his possibly dead brother, The Hound (Rory McCann). The idea here is that Cersei would want to avoid a real trial because she knows that she can’t sway The High Sparrow with riches or cripple him with fear, and would therefore request a trial by combat believing that The Mountain was unstoppable. The faith would then need a champion, with The Hound being a perfect choice if he is still alive because 1) he’s a great fighter, and 2) he’ll want to kill his malevolent older brother.

Of course, in the season four finale it was suggested that Sandor Clegane would succumb to his injuries at the hands of Brienne (Gwendoline Christie), but if fans of the series are to be believed then our favourite Clegane brother is very much alive. The theory that I am referring to here is known as the gravedigger theory, and has been given extra weight by the fact that actor Ian McShane (recently cast on the show) has reportedly said that he will resurrect a well-known character this year. The obvious choice would be Jon Snow (Kit Harington), but it’s pretty obvious that he isn’t the character that McShane is talking about, otherwise we’d be talking about a highly publicised law suit.

Tyrion in Meereen

In Meereen things have been getting pretty hectic, so I’m hoping that this year they settle down with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) in charge. I know that the Sons of the Harpy will still be in full swing, trying to oust control back for themselves, but that doesn’t mean that things can’t be a little more political than they were last season.

We don’t know a whole lot about what Tyrion is going to be doing this year, other than trying to rule in Daenerys’ stead (Emilia Clarke), but we do know that he’s going to come face to face with two very angry caged dragons. The trailer also appears to show that there will be a new Red Woman introduced to the story in Meereen, which could be really cool. For me, this is probably the most interesting aspect of the story this season, because it’s something new and I have literally no idea what kind of character she’s going to be. Will she be working with or against Tyrion? Is she going to be tied to other events on the show from the past? I just don’t know, and I can’t wait to find out.

Daenerys vs. The Dothraki

Finally, we have Daenerys, stumbling her way towards the Iron Throne by flying thousands of miles away in the wrong direction. The scene in the fighting pits last year was one of the most exciting and important yet on “Game of Thrones”, as it proved that Daenerys has a hold of her most powerful dragon and that that dragon isn’t yet large enough to conquer a kingdom.

However, it also left the main contender to the Iron Throne stranded, and at the mercy of a Dothraki horde. Still, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because in the books Quaithe (played briefly on the show by Laura Pradelska when Daenerys was in Qarth) cryptically tells Daenerys that ‘to go north… [she] must go south, to reach the west… [she] must go east. To go forward… [she] must go back and to touch the light… [she] must pass beneath the shadow’. This could mean that Daenerys’ backpedalling will be her salvation, and bring her one step closer to the Iron Throne, because she really is right back where she started.

It’s unclear right now exactly how being with the Dothraki again will help Daenerys, but she could make a similar sort of deal to the one that her brother made back in season one, offering herself in marriage to the new Khal in order to gain an army with which to cross the Narrow Sea. This would still be as dangerous to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms as it was when Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) was in charge; especially given that Daenerys now also has three dragons and an army of Unsullied by her side.

It would make a lot of sense if Daenerys did propose marriage to the new Khal, because last year she proved that this is something that she is willing to do to improve her chances at taking the Iron Throne, as she married Hizdahr (Joel Fry) despite the fact that she detested him. This would also explain why Hizdahr was killed off so unceremoniously in episode nine of season five.

Nevertheless, it does appear that at the start of the season the Dothraki will mistreat Daenerys – although their actions on the trailer seem tame given their nature – which will probably enrage Drogon, who we know will be flying around the area. What this will mean is again unclear, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a Dothraki BBQ at some point in season six. If this does happen then it wouldn’t necessarily mean that the Dothraki would turn against Daenerys and refuse to back her claim for the Iron Throne, because we know from experience that the Dothraki respect power above all else, and having your dragon-baby burn your enemies alive is a pretty clear display of strength.

My Thoughts on Season Six and The Possibility of Seasons Seven and Eight Being Shortened to Eight Episodes Each

via buzzfeed.com

With talk of characters and their journeys this season out of the way, I’d like to address a couple of things that perhaps the mainstream “Game of Thrones” audience won’t be aware of right now. The first is that there has been a suggestion that the final two seasons of the show – seasons seven and eight – will be cut down to eight episodes each, sort of in the vein of “Breaking Bad” and its final season. This is a big decision, because it would mean that we as an audience got less “Game of Thrones” than we were expecting, and that storylines would have to be streamlined to allow the main narrative to progress naturally (which I would probably find disappointing from a personal perspective).

However, if this is a creative decision which best serves the story then I’m all for it! The only thing that really matters to me personally is that every character gets the right amount of screen time, and that the series has a significant pay-off at the end, which could still happen in 16 episodes + the 10 that we’ll get this season. Nonetheless, there are a lot of story arcs to wrap up on the show, and I have to admit that I’m a little worried that 26 episodes isn’t enough time to give everyone’s story a respectable conclusion – the last thing that I want is for the rest of the characters to face the same lacklustre end as Stannis (Stephen Dillane) did in season five.

I have to say that I still think that putting the finale on the big screen would be the best way to end the series, and would make everyone involved a tonne of money, but the rational side of me doesn’t believe that this will happen because HBO gets a lot of its money from a subscription model in the US.

As far as my thoughts on this upcoming season are concerned, I think that from a story perspective it has every chance of being the best yet. There are very few plot points that fans can really feel they have a grasp on, due to the fact that the show has caught up with the books, so things should feel even more tense than they already did on a show where (almost) anyone can die.

Nevertheless, there’s still a chance that this season could start a decline if the writers don’t strike the right balance with all the characters and their respective storylines – this was something which I felt was happening last season, so it could become a trend. Emilia Clarke has spoken recently about how she didn’t think that it was possible to fit so much into one season of television as has been slotted into this one, which worries me greatly. I really want things to start meshing together this year rather than become more convoluted, so I hope that when she says that there’s a lot going on she means that there’s lots of excitement within focused narratives, rather than just a lot of content.

In my opinion, “Game of Thrones” is still the best dramatic series on television – it has amazing writers and a committed cast, so I remain confident that my concerns will be quashed by the end of this season.

P.S. I still think that Stannis’ death was really weird last season. I believe that he died, but part of me wonders whether or not we’ll see him again. Melisandre (Carice van Houten) believed that she saw him fighting a great battle when she looked into the fire – what if she saw him fighting for the wrong side? Just a theory, but it’s one that I wanted to have down in writing just in case!

Game of Thrones: Season Five

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via bgr.com

For years now “Game of Thrones” has been my favourite show on television, but this year’s season has been a mixed bag. I didn’t hate what I saw, and there have certainly been some exceptional episodes, but it wasn’t up to the standard that we’ve come to expect. The series spent far too much time building storylines and developing characters like Stannis (Stephen Dillane) and Hizdahr (Joel Fry) only to conclude their arcs in dissatisfying and lazy ways. The standout episode of the series, “Hardhome”, promised an epic conclusion given that it was episode eight, and we often see the best that “Game of Thrones” has to offer in episodes nine and ten, but the series failed to build on the spectacle that occurred as the White Walkers made their grand entrance.

Of all the storylines this season only one managed to have a compelling beginning, middle, and end. Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) arc over the course of this season was pretty great, even if it ended in a disappointing fashion for me. Jon began as a merciful killer, ending Mance Rayder’s (Ciaran Hinds) life so as to save him from the pain of Melisandre’s (Carice van Houten) fire. He then became commander at The Wall due to his popularity with his brothers, and cemented that position by taking the head of Janos Slynt (Dominic Carter). He learnt from Stannis and staved off Melisandre’s sexual advances, as well as surviving the White Walker onslaught at Hardhome, saving hundreds of lives in the process. Throughout the season he tried to do what was best for everyone, and almost all of his scenes were satisfying… except the last one.

(SPOILER ALERT) At the end of the season, Jon’s kindness and sympathy for the Wildlings got him killed, as Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) led a band of his brothers in a mutiny that they claimed was ‘for The Watch’. This should’ve been shocking, but instead felt slightly lacklustre, because the writers have worked so hard to give him a way back. It wasn’t a grand betrayal like The Red Wedding, or even a particularly bloody one, and it was far too obvious. I have to ask everyone who reads this – do you really believe that Jon is gone? Personally, I don’t think they set up Melisandre’s interest in him or the R + L = J theory to have him killed off. How he’ll survive is unclear, perhaps ‘survive’ is the wrong word, but Melisandre’s magic could save him with minimal fuss.

via watchersonthewall.com

Other storylines had their promise, particularly Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) as she had to navigate the treacherous political landscape in Meereen. A lot of good moments came out of Meereen this season, like Tyrion’s (Peter Dinklage) conversations with our favourite Dragon Queen in episode eight, and when Daenerys fed one of the Masters to Rhaegal and Viserion in episode five. However, the content surrounding these moments was far too inconsistent, and in the end the season finale took everything that was great about Daenerys’ arc and spat on it. I hate the fact that Daenerys is now right back where she started. There’s no way that the showrunners can make me believe that she could survive that horde – they’d rape her and kill her, as we saw in season one with every expendable extra that the Dothraki’s came across.

The season also crushed my dreams for Daenerys’ dragons, particularly Drogon, because he struggled to fend off the Sons of the Harpy and was then too tired to help Daenerys, begging the question of how he will ever be able to carry her to King’s Landing. He just seemed so weak, so average, so small. I thought that the dragons were Daenerys’ trump card, her ace in the hole, because she doesn’t offer much in terms of political understanding or physical strength, but right now they seem like a decent asset and nothing more.

Whilst Daenerys’ arc this season was mediocre, Jaime’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Arya’s (Maisie Williams) were plain awful. Arya’s storyline in Braavos did have its moments, as we saw her change her face and kill Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie) in the finale, but none of her scenes lived up to what we’ve seen from her before, and she felt far too disconnected from the rest of the story. She didn’t have The Hound (Rory McCann) or Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) to play off, and with Jaqen H’ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) being a pretty boring character, her scenes lacked the depth that we’ve become accustomed to.

via nerdist.com

Jaime’s scenes this season were all terrible, in fact, everything that came out of Dorne was woeful. Nothing interesting happened until our interest had died out completely – yes, Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free) was killed off, but does anyone really care? I know that I don’t. The whole story felt like Jaime’s final redemption, as he proved his worth as a father by saving his daughter from the perils of a foreign land, but that didn’t feel relevant on a show filled with people who rarely do nice things. We didn’t need to see Jaime become a pseudo-hero, we know that he’s a backstabbing Kingslayer who sleeps with his sister, and we’re fine with that. Of course, I’m being a bit silly because we all like character development, but Jaime’s had his evolution already, so I don’t see why this story was needed. My hope is that he’ll lose it a bit and start a war with Dorne, because he has Trystane (Toby Sebastian) at his mercy, but we shall see.

The Sand Snakes weren’t developed at all, I couldn’t even tell you which one was which, and Ellaria (Indira Varma) is completely one-dimensional. The only character that captured my interest in Dorne was Prince Doran (Alexander Siddig), because he does feel as though he has a plan, but we spent barely any time at all getting to know him.

I touched on Tyrion when I said my piece on Daenerys, and I don’t have much more to add. His arc this season was very much tied to Daenerys, and it did give us their fantastic first interactions, but he spent a little bit too much time getting to Meereen and his journey was full of frustrating conveniences. The writers took away his faith in the world last season, so his story this year was very much focused on rebuilding hope. He believes in the world again now, having seen Daenerys ride Drogon to what he assumes is safety, so the story fit its purpose despite its underwhelming nature.

via theverge.com

My favourite arc of the season was Stannis’ until his disappointing failure in the finale. Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) looks to have killed him, although I have my reservations on that front, and after a season of building up to an epic battle between the Boltons and his army I found his story very anticlimactic. He made his ugly and difficult decision in episode nine, and I wanted to see the pain of that decision etched on his face as he lost his final battle, but instead he was apathetic, accepting his fate as Brienne drew back her blade. I don’t fully understand what the writers were going for here, and I feel like my time was wasted in previous episodes getting to know the character, given that his only role seems to have been to give Melisandre a reason to save Jon Snow.

Sansa’s new found agency was deployed, but it didn’t get her very far, and although I thought her scenes were well-executed throughout the season I can’t really say that I enjoyed them. I don’t agree with those who say that she reverted back to her old ways, being the pawn in an evil ruler’s game, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to praise her scenes either. She did have agency – she chose to go to Winterfell, she chose to marry Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) being fully aware of the repercussions, and even in the finale she chose to escape – but nothing she did was very exciting. I don’t feel like she gained anything by going back to Winterfell, because her marriage was a complete waste of time. The only thing to come out of her story this year was Theon’s (Alfie Allen) act of heroism and the knowledge that Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and Rickon (Art Parkinson) are alive.

Finally, I did like a lot of the scenes in King’s Landing, despite the slightly dull ending. I thought that Jonathan Pryce was great as The High Sparrow and it was interesting to see Cersei (Lena Headey) outplayed at deception. However, her punishment bored me and I couldn’t connect to her plight. I would’ve liked her suffering to have come slightly sooner, because it didn’t feel worthy of the finale, and I think it would’ve been a lot more fun to see her plan her revenge before the start of next season. Furthermore, the fact that Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Margaery (Natalie Dormer) were omitted in the last few episodes felt a bit strange, and I missed having all the major characters on screen, as we were given no indication as to how they were getting on or reacting to Cersei’s torment.

via bustle.com

This season of “Game of Thrones” was the worst of the lot, it pains me to say it, but it’s true. It wasn’t terrible, but many of the heavily set-up character arcs fizzled out in episode ten, and even the more shocking scenes felt insignificant because of plot devices and loopholes that are in place for the start of season six. Characters have been forever changed, but the transitions they’ve gone through haven’t been consistently entertaining, with too much time being spent building storylines that were in actual fact pointless. The series felt disjointed and we never had the opportunity to truly connect to any one storyline. “Game of Thrones” season five promised to be so much more at various junctures, but in the end it failed to live up to my high expectations and took momentum from the sails of the series going forward.

6.5/10

Game of Thrones: Season Five Finale – “Mother’s Mercy”

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Game of Thrones, Series 5, Episode 10, Mother’s Mercy, Sky Atlantic, Drogon.

This review contains spoilers for the episode and the series.

The “Game of Thrones” season five finale was really disappointing. Lots happened, with plenty of cliffhangers to keep fans guessing, but because the showrunners were so intent on leaving things open-ended each storyline felt insignificant. Characters died, but the show can’t surprise us like it used to, and the big name casualties like Stannis (Stephen Dillane) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) don’t really feel gone. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t, but the way that those scenes were handled left their deaths feeling less permanent than say Robb Stark’s (Richard Madden) at the Red Wedding. The episode ended up ruining the story arcs that were enjoyable across the course of the season, and although it did a good job of capturing my interest in Dorne and Braavos, it just didn’t live up to expectations. Too many storylines needed resolving, too much had to happen, and in the end everything felt extremely rushed.

The season began at a meandering pace, as character arcs were set up in an excruciatingly slow fashion. This strategic positioning took up far too much of the season’s time, meaning that the final episode collapsed under its own weight as too many of the character’s storylines required satisfying endings. None of the storylines were afforded enough time to develop over the course of the season or in this episode, so when they concluded they felt hollow. Never before have I felt so disconnected to the fates of Jon Snow, Arya (Maisie Williams), or Sansa (Sophie Turner), characters who I previously loved as though they were a part of my own social circle.

As we flittered around Westeros I couldn’t help but feel frustrated at the fact that we didn’t spend a prolonged period of time with any one character. The longest continuous stretch of time spent with a single character was in King’s Landing, as we watched Cersei’s (Lena Headey) humiliation at the hands of The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). We looked on as Cersei transitioned from a proud Queen to a snivelling peasant, which demonstrated just how quickly the tide can change on “Game of Thrones”.

However, that scene itself wasn’t particularly entertaining. Cersei is an arrogant and hateful antagonist and the source of a lot of pain for fans of the series, so it was impossible to care about her torment in this episode. I wasn’t able to empathise with her because a part of me knows that she deserves everything she gets, but I was also unable to revel in her suffering because her punishment came in such a vile and rotten form. As a result, the scene was dull and took any sense of urgency away from the episode. I enjoyed seeing The Mountain (Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson) back on the show as a zombie-like servant to Cersei, but apart from that I found King’s Landing to be a dull destination in “Mother’s Mercy”.

The storylines that have really impressed me over the course of this season finished in infuriatingly anti-climactic ways. Stannis, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and Jon Snow all found themselves in dire straits, but by the time the credits rolled we had no idea where their stories were going, or if they’d even make it to season six. Stannis is presumed dead but we didn’t see his body, Jon is in a similar predicament but Melisandre is at The Wall, and Daenerys is right back where she started, at the mercy of a Dothraki horde, with a dragon that may as well still be in its egg at her side!

I would expect Stannis to be dead, because Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) did swing her sword directly at his head, but you never know on this show. We’ve seen Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) die and be resurrected as a result of magic, so we could see something similar given what happened to Shireen (Kerry Ingram) last week. I’d like to think that Stannis isn’t gone, because he had a decent arc this year and I thought Stephen Dillane was doing a really good job. It seems a shame that his life should end so abruptly after he finally got interesting, but that does happen a lot on “Game of Thrones”.

Brienne got her revenge on Stannis, which should’ve been enjoyable to watch, but she didn’t take enough satisfaction in the moment to excite me. It was a lacklustre scene that should’ve had a lot more impact. The point of Stannis’ defeat was to show that he isn’t a saviour on the show – he isn’t going to save the world from the White Walkers – but because of how clear they tried to make that (by making his defeat emphatic) the scene shattered the positives of his story over the course of the season.

The fact that Brienne missed Sansa’s candle seems quite significant to me, because she isn’t going to know that Sansa escaped Winterfell in the commotion; as far as she’s concerned the situation hasn’t changed, so her role is going to largely stay the same. I’m still holding out for a Lady Stoneheart appearance, because Brienne is culpable if anything bad happens to Sansa now, and it seems like she’s just going to be wandering around in the North for the foreseeable future.

Moving on to Sansa’s escape… I didn’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that she’s escaped Ramsay’s (Iwan Rheon) torment and that she’ll be doing something different next year, but I thought her scenes were quite poor. Sansa picked a lock (where did she learnt that?), then she was saved by Theon’s (Alfie Allen) bravery, which didn’t make a lot of sense because he’s had ample opportunity to help her in the past from equally tragic circumstances, and finally she jumped a life-threatening distance into a pile of snow. It was all incredibly convenient and frustrated me greatly – it could’ve happened in a much better way.

Where Sansa will go is exciting – she could go to find Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), but she doesn’t really know where he is, or she could go to The Wall because she knows about Jon. Another possibility is that Theon could take her to his family, but I don’t know why she’d agree to that given what she knows about Theon’s family and how he acted the last time he returned home. My money is on The Wall, but I’m open to suggestions.

Game of Thrones, Series 5, Episode 10, Mother’s Mercy, Sky Atlantic, Williams, Maisie; Beattie, Ian as Arya Stark; Meryn Trant.

Events in Dorne and Braavos were more exciting this week than they have been in the past, as Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free) met what is likely to be her end, and Arya lost her sight. I loved Arya’s mutilation of Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie) and I also thought that the effects were great when faces were being changed. However, the fact that Arya’s story this season has been so slow meant that I didn’t actually care about her misfortune in the Hall of Faces. All I want is for Arya to move on and cross names off her list, which for now seems pretty unlikely.

My least favourite moments in the episode revolved around Daenerys and Meereen, as Daenerys’ allies miraculously survived the aftermath of their Queen’s escape and argued about how they should proceed. My advice would’ve been to get the hell outta Dodge, but instead Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson), Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), and Varys (Conleth Hill) will be ruling over Meereen whilst Jorah (Iain Glen) and Daario (Michiel Huisman) go in search of Daenerys. With this set up in place I’m very apprehensive about these arcs moving forward. I don’t care about Meereen and I’m not interested in the Jorah and Daario dynamic – there’ve been better double acts before and I presume that most of their scenes will be a series of fights in which they try to one-up one another to prove their love for Daenerys. Why should I care about that?

There are a couple of theories going around about Varys and his role in Meereen, with some people believing that he could be The Harpy. That would certainly spice things up a bit, but I don’t know why he’d have lied to Tyrion about his motives if that is the case. Tyrion wouldn’t have argued if Varys had told him that he wanted to oust Daenerys, so I don’t think these theories are true.

via polygon.com

Finally, the big moment of season five came and went, as the Night’s Watch lost its commander in an act of mutiny. I thought this scene was alright, and it would’ve been a shock for casual viewers, but for me it was too obvious that it was coming. I’ve been cautious of Olly (Brenock O’Connor) all season and Alliser (Owen Teale) was clearly up to something, so this wasn’t much of a surprise. I liked that Alliser used Benjen (Joseph Mawle) as the ploy by which to get Jon out in the open, but apart from that I thought the scene lacked a bit of impact. I wanted the scene to be a bit more brutal, and Brenock O’Connor’s acting when he dealt the final blow was a bit weak.

I don’t think that Jon is gone, and I’m certainly not alone on that front, but I’m not sure exactly how his resurrection will occur. He’s dead, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that – no one is going to stop him succumbing to his wounds. Still, with Melisandre (Carice van Houten) at The Wall it seems as though there’s a return on the cards. She needs a new champion for The Lord of Light, and if she knows about his parentage he might be the perfect candidate – this is cool, but it makes the entirety of Stannis’ story feel like a device to get exposition across for Jon’s future role.

Another possibility is that he’ll be resurrected by The Night’s King – that would certainly give us an inside look at the White Walkers – but whether or not that would work remains to be seen. The next book is called “The Winds of Winter” though, so clearly the White Walkers will play a big part in the narrative. Having Jon on the side of the Walkers would be incredible, so I wouldn’t mind, and it would also make it a lot easier for the showrunners to have The Wall brought down.

Although I enjoy speculating about the future of the series, and this episode did open the floor up to such a discussion, it didn’t resolve anything and felt anticlimactic. All in all, “Mother’s Mercy” was a bland and frustrating “Game of Thrones” finale, capping off a season that has failed to live up to my high expectations. There were cliffhangers and character deaths galore, but nothing was properly concluded and many of the character’s fates were left up in the air, leaving me with a very sour taste in my mouth.

5.5/10