by Paul Robert Scott
It’s certainly been a time of transition on Game of Thrones as of late. So far this season the key focus seems to be on mixing up all the characters together and letting them see how they all get on. It’s been fun seeing Stannis party on down with Jon Snow while we fear for the safety of Lady Sansa and look forward to Tyrion’s meeting with Daenerys, but we’ve had a few episodes of this now and quite frankly, nothing is really happening.
It’s certainly been a time of transition on Game of Thrones as of late. So far this season the key focus seems to be on mixing up all the characters together and letting them see how they all get on. It’s been fun seeing Stannis party on down with Jon Snow while we fear for the safety of Lady Sansa and look forward to Tyrion’s meeting with Daenerys, but we’ve had a few episodes of this now and quite frankly, nothing is really happening.
To be fair, it has to be admitted that nothing really happens in the books at this stage either, but ultimately we are seeing more separation between the two mediums now, and you’d think half the reason for this would be to keep the pace up for a more action packed televised series. Instead, all we’re really getting is a lot of talking. Not intense, political intrigue though, just a lot of chatting and the occasional smattering of scheming.
What compounds matters in this episode is that the editing seems particularly poor, seemingly going from character to character, letting them get their part of the story out of the way before moving on to the next one. Jon Snow is dealt with in the first twenty minutes then switches to Sansa and so on. Only Dany’s side of things is split and ends up bracketing the episode, presumably because she’s become so magnificently dull that the show runners felt that to have her in one solid block would put the audience to sleep, only for a final segment on the Jorah and Tyrion show to be shoehorned in at the last ten minutes in order to give us something new to look at.
So what’s been going on? Well Jon Snow, as the newly minted Lord Commander has a plan to make peace with the Wildlings, on the basis that winter is coming and in the process of seeking advice pays a visit to Maester Aemon who essentially tells him to do what he likes because he’s the boss. Lord Snow then proceeds to be the boss and after a little complaint from friend and foe (and somewhere in between) it’s generally decided that he’s the boss so they’ll all do what he says.
Meanwhile, in Winterhall, Brienne and Pod manage to get a message to Sansa which doesn’t really do much in the way of brightening the poor girl’s spirits due to it being somewhat cryptic, and before she can really do much to process it is led straight to Theon’s cell by Ramsay’s usual resident whore. This ultimately leads to Ramsay’s obligatory moment of sadism, but seeing as it was only the idea of allowing Theon to walk Sansa down the aisle for their upcoming wedding it seems he’s gone a bit soft… where’s a good flaying when you need it?
What compounds matters in this episode is that the editing seems particularly poor, seemingly going from character to character, letting them get their part of the story out of the way before moving on to the next one. Jon Snow is dealt with in the first twenty minutes then switches to Sansa and so on. Only Dany’s side of things is split and ends up bracketing the episode, presumably because she’s become so magnificently dull that the show runners felt that to have her in one solid block would put the audience to sleep, only for a final segment on the Jorah and Tyrion show to be shoehorned in at the last ten minutes in order to give us something new to look at.
So what’s been going on? Well Jon Snow, as the newly minted Lord Commander has a plan to make peace with the Wildlings, on the basis that winter is coming and in the process of seeking advice pays a visit to Maester Aemon who essentially tells him to do what he likes because he’s the boss. Lord Snow then proceeds to be the boss and after a little complaint from friend and foe (and somewhere in between) it’s generally decided that he’s the boss so they’ll all do what he says.
Meanwhile, in Winterhall, Brienne and Pod manage to get a message to Sansa which doesn’t really do much in the way of brightening the poor girl’s spirits due to it being somewhat cryptic, and before she can really do much to process it is led straight to Theon’s cell by Ramsay’s usual resident whore. This ultimately leads to Ramsay’s obligatory moment of sadism, but seeing as it was only the idea of allowing Theon to walk Sansa down the aisle for their upcoming wedding it seems he’s gone a bit soft… where’s a good flaying when you need it?
Daenerys is of course still reeling from the death of Ser Barristan, and as is traditional, her solution is to kill some folk, yet evidently she seems to be on a three step program of some sort since she manages to fight the craving and make just one execution. This is done in perhaps one of the highlights of this episode, as we get to see the Mother of Dragons at her commandingly badass best.
We do get a few minor points raised along the way. Stannis has a brief chat with Sam in what is actually quite a cool little scene where they talk about Sam’s father and his slaying of the White Walker. This is right before Stannis finally takes his leave of the Wall and heads out to wrestle the North from Bolton’s grasp. At the same time we see Lord Bolton have a heart to heart with Ramsay in a not totally different scene from the one we saw last week with Stannis and his daughter, albeit without the “aww” factor.
To close off the episode we see Jorah and Tyrion pay a visit to Valyria and recite a little poetry. It was nice poetry. It didn’t rhyme much, but it was nice. Tyrion also got his first look at a dragon which he surely would have been ticking off his bucket list if it wasn’t at that point that the hapless pair got attacked by a few crazed stone men (sharing the same, more advanced, affliction that Stannis’ daughter suffers with). It all gets a bit Walking Dead for a moment as Jorah fights them off and Tyrion almost drowns, yet ultimately they bond and a good time was had by all.
To be completely honest with you, it cannot be said that I didn’t enjoy this episode. GoT still knows how to weave all the plots and characters together and make awesome television, but this episode did feel somewhat lesser than most. It’s clear that they are setting up all the players for much bigger things and that does require a fair bit of transition but I just wish they spread it out a little more. There was no sign of Kings Landing or any of the drama going down in Dorne and I think that was what this was ultimately lacking. Just a few wise cracks from Bronn and Jaime or some evil scheming from Cersei would have done much to keep the action going. On the plus side, at least they’re more likely to be featured next week right?
We do get a few minor points raised along the way. Stannis has a brief chat with Sam in what is actually quite a cool little scene where they talk about Sam’s father and his slaying of the White Walker. This is right before Stannis finally takes his leave of the Wall and heads out to wrestle the North from Bolton’s grasp. At the same time we see Lord Bolton have a heart to heart with Ramsay in a not totally different scene from the one we saw last week with Stannis and his daughter, albeit without the “aww” factor.
To close off the episode we see Jorah and Tyrion pay a visit to Valyria and recite a little poetry. It was nice poetry. It didn’t rhyme much, but it was nice. Tyrion also got his first look at a dragon which he surely would have been ticking off his bucket list if it wasn’t at that point that the hapless pair got attacked by a few crazed stone men (sharing the same, more advanced, affliction that Stannis’ daughter suffers with). It all gets a bit Walking Dead for a moment as Jorah fights them off and Tyrion almost drowns, yet ultimately they bond and a good time was had by all.
To be completely honest with you, it cannot be said that I didn’t enjoy this episode. GoT still knows how to weave all the plots and characters together and make awesome television, but this episode did feel somewhat lesser than most. It’s clear that they are setting up all the players for much bigger things and that does require a fair bit of transition but I just wish they spread it out a little more. There was no sign of Kings Landing or any of the drama going down in Dorne and I think that was what this was ultimately lacking. Just a few wise cracks from Bronn and Jaime or some evil scheming from Cersei would have done much to keep the action going. On the plus side, at least they’re more likely to be featured next week right?
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