“Men decide where power resides, whether they want to or not.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
Dracarys indeed. Lots of it. If Missandei’s final word was an instruction, this week saw it obeyed to the letter, and gave Game of Thrones fans the spectacle they’d always wanted from the final battle for King’s Landing.
Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 5 – The Bells”“I’m here to free the world from tyrants. That is my destiny. And I will serve it no matter the cost.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After all the storming excitement of last week’s episode, I think Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss thought we needed a bit of a breather before moving on to the remaining battles for Westeros. So this week we got The Last of the Starks, a satisfying but curiously schizoid episode which came across as nothing so much as two individual eps glued together.
Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 4 – The Last of the Starks”“If we don’t put aside our enmities we will all die. And then it won’t matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
A talkier episode than last week for Game of Thrones, but a thrilling one nonetheless. There was plenty of plot development going on, but aside from the usual intrigue, the focal point of this ep was on the long-awaited meeting of Daenerys Targaryen with Jon Snow. It didn’t disappoint. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 7, Episode 3 – The Queen’s Justice”
“You wish to know where my true loyalties lie? Not with any King or Queen, but with the people. The people who suffer under despots and prosper under just rule. The people whose hearts you aim to win.”
(SPOILER ALERT!)
Perhaps it’s a result of this year’s shorter than usual season run, but this week’s second episode of Game of Thrones seemed to really ramp up the pace after last week’s relatively sedate scene-setter. The show’s always been unpredictable in giving us eps packed with intrigue, thrills and spectacle fairly early in the run; but never so early, as I recall, as the very second episode. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 7, Episode 2 – Stormborn”
“A raven came from the Citadel. A White raven. Winter is here.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It’s been a tumultuous year in Westeros, as Benioff and Weiss, freed of the constraints of actual books to adapt, have yanked the plot bodily forwards. As if acknowledging their free hand, this season finale was named The Winds of Winter, after the next volume in the series, which, let’s face it, is unlikely to show up until after the TV version is finished. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 10 – The Winds of Winter”
“He raised his hands, and they all stood up at once. Tens of thousands, the biggest army in the world.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
In previous years, the season finale of Game of Thrones has tended to have the feel of an epilogue, a time to take stock after the tumultuous events of the action-packed ep9. With the last couple of eps having well and truly broken that formula, it was no surprise that this years’ season finale was something quite different; a veritable bloodbath of major characters, and a cornucopia of cliffhangers. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 10 – Mother’s Mercy”
“You should hold on to your candles. The nights are so long now.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After last week’s ep of dramatic payoffs to long gestating political plots in Game of Thrones comes… another one. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing; this was every bit as gripping and well—written as last week’s. Tonally though, it was so similar you could have watched the two together and been forgiven for thinking it was one extra long one. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 7 – The Gift”
“I’m Sansa Stark of Winterfell. This is my home. And you can’t frighten me.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After last week’s focus mainly on just two of its multifarious plotlines, this week Game of Thrones was back to business as usual with a lively ep taking in snippets of plenty of them. While there was little in the way of epic action, it was no less dramatic for that as all the patient political scheming of earlier episodes began to pay off in spades. And perhaps more than any ep I’ve seen yet, it was dominated by the show’s women, who were both the drivers and the victims in practically every snapshot this week. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 6 – Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”
“There is but one god. A girl knows his name. And all men know his gift.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After two weeks of political wrangling and intrigue, it was a more mystical episode of Game of Thrones this week. The focus was very much on religion, and how it intersects with the machinations of power we’ve already seen. To this end, while the intrigue was still very much ongoing, we got various musings on the various religions of this fantasy world – the Seven, the Many Faced God, and the Lord of Light, not to mention glancing references to the Old Gods of the weirwood. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 3 – High Sparrow”
“The Mad King gave each of his enemies the justice he thought they deserved. And every time it made him feel powerful and right. Until the very end.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
If, after last week’s rather low-key season opener, you were hoping for a return to Game of Thrones’ usual slam bang action, sex and gore, you may have been a bit disappointed by this week’s offering. Effectively, it was more of the same – a series of brief vignettes that spent more time examining the characters through well-crafted dialogue than actually advancing the plot. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 2 – The House of Black and White”
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 