Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is back and it's....as oriented towards really being one ten hour movie as opposed to a show that can be broken down into individual episodes. That said, let's break down this individual episode.

The show begins with one more Ned Stark indignity, the melting down of his sword with Tywin saying that the owner had no more use of it. And yet we have immediate metaphoric value, and I love a good metaphor, as the strong sword is split in two this is the first episode in which cracks begin to show in the Lannister party. First, Jamie, freshly returned from losing his hand refuses his father's offer to go back home and says he'll stay in the King's Guard. Now I'll grant you that Tywin will probably spend the rest of the season setting up Jamie's death at his wedding to Cersei in, Red Wedding Part 2, but it's the first time that someone has said no to him since we first met him slowly skinning that deer and talking of family honor.

The indignities for Jamie continue as his sister is no longer into incest just because he left for a bit and got his hand chopped off. And his son, King Geoffrey is hell bent on reminding him what little impact he's made in the world. The transformation of Jamie from complete villain into lovable handless rascal was one of the most satisfying of last season, and it will be interesting to see what portions of his new honorable self are retained in the veritable viper's den of King's Landing. We can already see the tension in his conversation with Breanne about his duty to the Stark children.

And in continuing the theme of celibacy,(outside of the whorehouse) Tyrion denies Shea his glorious body, in part to keep her from being killed, which is obviously going to happen at some point, but also because he's become a more honorable fellow who has a wife now. A sad and not very bright wife, but a wife none the less.

We are also introduced to Daenrys knew grown up dragons (CGI budget warning. Can we just borrow some money from Peter Jackson's 19 part The Hobbit to make these dragons a mainstay?) who are having a nice time relaxing on the beach taking selfies, purring, killing goats, and threatening her. From this we move on to see Dario Naharis engaged in a game with Worm over who loves her more. And we're to our first big surprise of the season, Dario is also one of those shape shifting assassins, and he's changed from a ruggedly handsome and dangerous guy who's raw sexual energy and masculinity were off the charts into a bearded guy with a nice smile. Now, I'm glad that old Dario was around to sack the city and stare brazenly at nude Danerys, but now I'm happy about the new Dario as well. I can't wait until this guy reads Voltaire for the first time and finds out about skinny jeans. Dany is in for a world of discovery when he sits her down for the first time and introduces her to Arcade Fire before they sold out.

 Of course, Dany's path is never easy. She always has some slaves to free and some bodies of dead female slaves to cut down on her way to free them. I've heard from numerous people that her story bogs down for quite a while here, and it will be interesting to see how the show handles it as she's beloved by fans. Her quest to free slaves, though admirable has already been tread, and we'll see if this journey brings anything new. I'm hoping that at least one of the dragons gets killed in the fight, so we can get it down to one, borrow from Jackson's budget and have the final season filled with Sleeth single handedly destroying troops of White Walkers. In the meantime, my prediction for the season is that she frees more slaves, fights a big battle, loses or has a dragon harmed, teaches all the slaves to be back up dancers in her remixing of Man in the Mirror, cleverly changing the lyrics to Woman in the Mirror before heading over to save Westeros. Totally plausible.



If the first three seasons have been about the triumph of the Lannisers, it's clear that the fourth season is about chickens coming home to roost. I'm going to have to eat all the effing chickens. First, we're introduced to Oberon, a whore loving bisexual with a grudge against the Lannisters, who says that they aren't the only one's who repay their debts. It doesn't look good for him, strutting around in a city full of Lannisters, but he seems dead set on getting revenge, and the actor does a wonderful job of shifting from relatively sane to completely maniacal.

And on the other end of the Westeros spectrum is Arya, wandering through the woods with The Hound trying to kill her way through all of the Lannister and Bolton men that she runs across. You named your sword. Lots of people name their swords. Lots of (idiots). Arya winds up reciting the very words to Pavill or Pevin or something that he did to her friend before murdering him as she takes her murdering revenge on him by plunging needle through his throat. And GOT continues its tradition of having one lovable couple traveling the roads of Westeros, Bran and Tyrion in season 1, Jamie and Breanne in Season 3 and now the Hound and Arya in Season 4. I realize that I've left out Season 2, but I'm sure there is an example. And, much like the redemption of Jaime in Season 3, it appears that The Hound will be redeemed in his travels as well. If Arya winds up trying to kill him just because he road down her friend I'll probably be rooting for him to win the sword fight.

The last new character, Styr, is introduced near the end. He's the leader of a clan of men who have elaborate face markings and who walk very slowly. You get the feeling that Legolas would kill 1,000 of these guys, but I think that's a different fantasy world. Anyhow, Styir meets up with Ygritte to help with the assault on Castle Black, where Jon Snow returns to help warn the men and brag of having slept with a woman. Styr and his men then go on a long diatribe about the meatiness of flesh south of the wall before revealing that they are cannibals. And though you want Ygritte to point out that there is a Burger King just up the road, you can see how it adds to the fierceness of these guys to eschew a double cheeseburger in favor of a hand.

All in all the episode serves as a warning shot to the careful plans of the Lannisters. You can see the cracks in the foundation and the characters hell bent on revenge. Here's to hoping to a full season of banter between Arya and the Hound and to an episode wholly devoted to the new Dario's discovery of Sartre.