Game of Thrones Finale Review: “Valar Morghulis”
Wow, that went by fast. It in no way seems like ten weeks ago that Game of Thrones premiered, but I guess time flies when you’re watching the best show on television.
Though it’s hard to deny it that title, now that we’ve reached the end of the season, it’s time to reflect on if it lived up to the first. We’ll explore that and discuss “Valar Morghulis” itself in the coming review.
Game of Thrones has done this for two seasons now running, where they have a large, climactic event in the second-to-last episode, followed by a kind of wrap-up in the finale that’s generally less exciting. Last season it was Ned Stark’s head rolling, while this year last week we saw the siege of King’s Landing, though no one important actually died there.
“I’m just…trying to give you…a haircut!”
In a way, this season has been a strange one. The siege seemed like the best place for a major character death, something expected by George RR Martin at this point. Book fans have been saying that ANYone is fair game, and he’ll kill characters you love left and right, but that didn’t happen at all this season, as I can’t say I shed a tear for Renly Baratheon, Ser Rodrick or the man we lost this week, old advisor of Winterfell guy. I never did catch his name.
I guess it’s not a necessity per se, but I think many of us who haven’t read the books were holding our collective breaths for someone of relevance to die, a character either beloved or hated. But neither came. Arya, Jon, Tyrion, Dany, etc. are all safe and sound while Joffrey, Cersei and Littlefinger continue to vie for the crown of “who can have the most punchable face.”
While I enjoyed this season, as I could watch 100 hours of this show and never tire of the dialogue or scenery, it seems an awful lot like we’re back where we started after a full ten episodes. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.
On the road again…
– The Lannisters are in power at King’s Landing, Tyrion is disrespected by his family and Sansa is in danger as the only Stark still there
– Arya is on the run with her rag tag group of friends trying to reunite with her family
– Robb Stark is fighting the Lannisters making moderate forward progress
– Daeneyrs is wandering around with her small Dothraki band in search of a boat with tiny dragons in tow
The most obvious differences would be Jon Snow’s adventures in wilding wonderland up North, and Theon Greyjoy’s betrayal and capture. But really, among many of the major plotlines, it barely feels like we’ve made significant strides forward. Daeneyrs especially could have skipped the Qarth plotline entirely, and nothing of value would have been lost. And really, you thought chaining baby dragons together in a tiny room with their mother was going to turn out well for you? That situation resolved itself rather stupidly. I did like the lesson about the illusion of Qarth’s wealth though.
“Wait, dragons can breath FIRE? I am a lowly sorcerer and do not know such things.”
Up north, Robb Stark didn’t do anything the entire season except just now marry a hot medic, and Jaime Lannister was tied to a stake for about eight of the ten episodes. It was nice to see Arya’s interaction with Tywin, and her roguish assassin friend was a great character (finally we meet the man “who can change his face like others change their clothes”), but now she’s back to where she started. The Lannisters are in an even better spot than they were when the season started having defeated Stannis and gaining Tyrell support, expect of course Tyrion, who is now scarred in addition to being a dwarf. Is he seriously going to have that slash across his face for the rest of the show? That would be a pretty jarring character transformation.
I was wrong last week, as I thought Stannis was captured by the Lannisters. It would have been eventful to have him executed this week, but no, he lives, and his strange subplot as the “lord of Light” still lingers. What exactly did he see in that fire do you think? Bullshit, I presume.
I’m a little unclear as to why Sansa didn’t run away with the Hound when she had the chance, as I figured that would be a main plotline next season. Now Joffrey has ditched her for Lady Tyrell, and Littlefinger is now the one offering her aide. I thought her Stockholm Syndrome was just an act to get close to and eventually kill Joffrey, but now I think she might actually be insane. It’s getting really hard to tell.
Side note: This was amazing.
Even more confusing than that was what happened at Winterfell. I understood Theon’s men betraying him and handing him over to the Northmen, but what the hell happened after that? How exactly did Winterfell get burned down? Who were the dead people everywhere? Civilians? If the city was surrounded and Greyjoy men were supposed to have clear passage if they turned over Theon, how did they get away with burning down all of freaking Winterfell? That made no sense at all to me, and I’d love an explanation from anyone who can offer it.
Jon Snow was a bit perplexing this week as well. I know the plan was to have his Crow brother turn on him to garner him trust with the Wildlings, but was Snow really prepared to kill him? He couldn’t kill a Wildling girl, but he had no problem running through one of his brothers with his sword? Seems a little out of character for him.
Obviously the big finale was the reveal of the White Walkers and their zombie army approaching…what was that? The wall or just a mountain? I couldn’t tell. Knowing this show, it will take them seven episodes of shambling just to reach the wall. And is Sam actually going to live through this zombie walk-by? I thought he was going to be the “beloved” character death at that moment, but the show was very obvious about showing him NOT dying as the White Walker and his horde ignored him in favor of marching onward, so I think we can assume he’s going to be alright. Why exactly they left him be I have no idea.
There goes the CGI budget for next season…
There were very few indicators of what exactly is going to happen next. With many of the plotlines reset completely, it kind of seems like we’re back where we started as the War of Kings rages on. I hear that they didn’t get all the way through the second book in the series, which is perhaps why the season ended on a bit of an anti-climax. And there were so many moments when it looked like someone important was going to die, and then they just…didn’t.
It’s a great show through and through, and I’ve enjoyed practically every minute of it this season. However I do have a problem with ANY show that fails to really move forward in meaningful ways, especially over the course of a whole season, and I can’t give Game of Thrones a free pass when many of the plotlines seem like they’ve remained static. It just seemed like so much happened in season one with kings changing, wars starting and so on, but there were far eventful moments like those this time around.
Nine months until season three, but if you need me before then, take this coin, give it to any blogger and say ” Valar Unrealhulis” and I’ll appear and make some Game of Thrones posts.
Discuss, and once more for the road: no book spoilers.
One unexpectedly tender moment of “awww” for the road.
Again, minor quibble, but Arya was hanging out with Tywin @ Harrenhall, not Tyrion.
How it burned down (spoilery): Roose Bolton’s bastard son Ramsay put it to the torch. He was the guy that Bolton was talking to Robb about and although they haven’t shown him yet or talked much about him, Ramsay’s the biggest sadistic asshole in Westeros.
Also, the old guy that died in Winterfell is Maester Lewin.
And your expecting that someone major would die is evidence of good writing, both in the source material and for the show. The big buildup, fostering viewer assumptions, then flipping the table over at them (even if that does mean that no one major dies right now) was a nice touch. It all goes to show that until it happens, You Know Nothing.
“How exactly did Winterfell get burned down? Who were the dead people everywhere? Civilians? If the city was surrounded and Greyjoy men were supposed to have clear passage if they turned over Theon, how did they get away with burning down all of freaking Winterfell? That made no sense at all to me, and I’d love an explanation from anyone who can offer it.”
This will become an important plot line… I’ve said enough… don’t want to spoil… but you’re on to something.
We can’t tell you your questions because they’re major spoilers sir
After reading the review, I can say that basically everything you didn’t like or understand differed from the books. Still a terrific show, but those of us that have read the books are a little perplexed at some of the changes the TV writers have made. I’m sure they WILL explain everything to the viewers; we just have to wait until next season.
Can anyone answer something for me – What’s Varys’ intrest with Ros (Roz?) I didn’t understand that part…
Loved the dragons, hated hearing them cry…
There were some huge changes from the books. Tywin and Arya never interacted like that. It was lord Bolton, until the tower changed hands to the Lanisters. Tyrion lost more than a scratch in the book, his nose was lopped off. The ending confused the **** out of me, as that is not how White Walkers act. I’m sure it was to show off the immanent danger, but they could have had a minor character killed to show that rather than Sam sitting there like an idiot. In the book the horn wasn’t sounded until they were being overrun. I don’t see how they could have known what was coming… from a distance one would think Wildlings. Danryes burned down the tower and they tried to assassinate her, which introduces Strong Belwas and someone you may or may not recognize. The whole King of Quarth subplot didn’t exist. And her visions in the tower were much more important than they showed. Lord Bolton’s bastard sacked Winterfell, why they couldn’t show 2 minutes of that CGI from a distance is beyond me. And this hooker from Winterfell plotline… totally HBO so they can pay one actress to get naked. She was barely a footnote in the book. The show has diverged a bit from the book, but stays faithful to the core of the plot. It might seem like not much happened this season, but there were a TON of subtle plot points that have been laid seed which are critical to next season.
Seriously thunderchao? C’mon, that’s a huge spoiler from the books for people watching the show. Delete your post and take a hike.
Enjoyed the reviews, all season. A couple comments: If you’re worried that Tyrion having a scar across his face will be a major transformation (though presumably it will fade a bit as it heals), you’d be really taken aback by what happened in the book… (I assume this isn’t a spoiler since the show didn’t go this route)…he loses his entire nose to the swordstroke.
If it makes you feel any better, if I hadn’t read the books I’d be completely stumped as to how Winterfell ended up burning too. It’s one of the few times I think the show seems to assume you’ve read the novels.
The novels also often feel like little in terms of plot advancement actually take place for large stretches of time. I think it’s because page by page (just like episode by episode) you’re so entertained you just don’t usually notice or care. 🙂
Avoiding spoilers, I’ll just say that I had the opposite impression as far as content goes. You said that you don’t feel like they covered the entirety of the 2nd book this season, when in fact several scenes (Jamie and Brienne, and the White Walker finale and a few others) actually occur in the first few chapters of the 3rd book.
And the whole Snow storyline… way different from the book. Jon is picked by the Halfhand to go, the redhead runs off, Jon and Halfhand are purposely captured by the Wildlings. He told him in advance to kill him (Halfhand to Jon) and infiltrate the Wildlings. They were in a bad spot. This way just makes Jon look like a bitch. He’s a much stronger character in the book.
There are a lot of changes to condense the story, while maintaining the core. Some things have been done differently to convey subtext from the book that can’t show without a narrative voice. Two characters that should have been with Bran already will be introduced next season (I checked, I was worried as they are critical). And a lot of things that aren’t explained are to keep the characters down to a manageable level. The show has less than half of the relevant characters of the books. So expect them in next season with flash-backs to things that didn’t make sense. They have to keep it to about 20-30 relevant characters or you’d loose a TV audience. It’s already bad. Some less significant characters were omitted for sake of brevity (Bron was not the leader of the Gold Cloaks) and others that were ushered out earlier in the season will make a return. Tried to make that as spoiler free as possible. (Which I screwed up in my first post)
As much as I hate Jon Snow and find his chapters to be full of ugh (his story only shapes up until aFfC and thats told from other points of views, although yeah Ygritte was fun to have), I think the show really deviated way too much from the books. I have recently felt that its good when the show does this because that way as a book read you can enjoy both takes on the story, but changing the whole Jon Snow thing pretty much rids Snow’s story of some meaning, they will have to do some heay duty work on next season to direct Snow to where he is supposed to be going.
That aside, wonderful wrap up, totally lost my shit with the Others army, Dany’s drakaris and of course, when Jaqen popped back up, I was on the verge just waiting on him to say it and give Arya’s the coin and totally hell yeahed when he fianlly said Valar Morghulis.
One thing I never got to think through is that Arya should have probably go with Jaqen, but I guess at that point she still had hope, everything is still peachy right now, she can still get hr ass to riverrun and find he rmother and brother, the Wall is a long stretch, Sansa is still in KL, so it was a really difficult choice to not go with Jaqen.
As for Sansa, You have to think that here she is alone as fuck, like all those people she has around were standing right there when her father was killed, and did nothing, no one approached her with true feelings of support, no one really helped her, she was under the power of the iron throne and all those surrounding it. Sansa really grew after her dad’s beheading, she finally got that life is not all songs and knights, life is shit and people are not to be trusted.
Man, next season cannot come good enough, in this world where half of the year is covered with damn Glee and they pull two Jersey Shore seasons each year (or more I forget) we really need more Game of Thrones on telly, its easily the best damn show around.
This is how I replay the conversation between Jaqen and Arya in my head:
Arya: Klaatu Barada Nikto.
Jaqen: Well, repeat them.
Arya: Klaatu Barada Nikto.
Jaqen: Again.
Arya: I got it, I got it! I know your damn words, alright?
Sansa comes out of nowhere to be the most intriguing character on the show. What is her ulterior motive for staying in Kings Landing? First Tyrion, then the Hound and now Littlefinger have all offered her safe passage, especially now that she is not betrothed to Joffrey. A man can only assume she is up to something.
I thought it was obvious that the Halfhand wanted Jon Snow to kill him from the last episode, and here he was going to keep at it until Jon went through with it.
Was I the only one that jumped up and screamed “NOOOOO!” when Shae offered to take Tyrion away?
I felt kind of gypped by how quickly Dany got through the House of the Undying, but damn she is so much more awesome when she’s not screaming for her dragons like Claire from Lost. She goes from annoying to badass in like 60 seconds.
I can’t believe that Tywin is just going to diss Tyrion like that. He appointed him Acting Hand, and Tyrion did a marvelous job. This shall not stand!
Needs. More. Direwolves.
What with all the dragons, and warlocks and Magic Queefs and White Walkers, doesn’t this war with the swords and spears just seem a little, I don’t know, trivial?
I feel like you’re anticipation for someone dying or some other major twist has really stunted the show for you..
I don’t know why you think someone has to die at every turn… the only main character we’ve really seen die is Drogo and Ned.. While those were great characters, by no means is that everyone is at risk at all times…
I think you’ve gotten GoT confused with the Walking Dead.. that show they’ve really talked up how people die in the comics constantly and do not get too attached. But you are the only one who thinks the same thing with GoT…
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I absolutely loved Tyrion saying how much he loved fucking with his family and how he is so good at out talking and out smarting them. I can’t wait to see what he does next season. There are enough men who heard his speech and know what he did to just shrug him off anymore. He will be back..
Also the scar is pretty wicked! I think once it’s fully healed it will be pretty bad ass.
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I did love the short scene where Tywim marched into the throne room with Joffery.. his horse took a big shit right in the doorway.. really shows his holier-than-thou personality.
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Arya is on the run to her family, but she gained a powerful ally.. Makes me think that she might later run off with this faceless man to learn his assassin ways… would be pretty cool.
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The scenes with Daenerys and her tests were pretty impressive. I loved the (foreshadowing?) scene with the burned down Iron Throne room. The scene with Drogo was very touching as well, but she left it all behind for her babies.. and it paid off! Such powerful magic.. no one was expecting that, particularly the warlock… Speaking of that guy, he can’t be the only warlock, can he? She did seem to get out of there a little easy, but good lord, she’s powerful.
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Rob Stark marrying the medic chick was a bit out of no where… I understand you’re in love or whatever, but couldn’t you wait till the war was over.. just makes you look more guilty of breaking oaths.
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The scenes with Brianne and Jamie were great too.. she’s a BEAST… I loved her slow killing….
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Stannis’ own men had to pull him out of there.. I thought that was pretty obvious last week. The scenes with him and the red witch were interesting.. what did he see in her tricksy fire?
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Sansa doesn’t love Joffery.. that HAS to be obvious.. she gets some pretty nice verbal jabs in when she can.. I think she just doesn’t know who to trust.. as she was told not to trust anyone. I was surprised Sansa didn’t go with the Hound too, but I think she is just scared of him.. we’ll see how she does with Littlefinger.
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When you are trapped and out numbered 20 to 500… what can you do? What’s a bigger distraction that burning down the city from the inside? The dead people were civilians who lived inside the city walls, me thinks. (I have not read the UNCALLED FOR SPOILER ABOVE, so not sure exactly what it is) Theon is going to have hell to pay next season. Was kind of excited about him joining the Night’s Watch, but we’ll see what happens.
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I don’t think Jon had a choice in the matter… that guy kept coming at him and would not have stopped and he knew it. That man was determined to have Jon kill him in order for him to gain the trust of their captors, which seemed to work. This will be interesting next season.
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Sam!!! He’s adorable. I still think he’s touched by some sort of magic. He said he always wanted to be a wizard. I think maybe that made him invisible to the zombie horde. It could’ve also been the obsidian weapons he was probably carrying? Who knows.
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While I didn’t think this was all that climactic, all the characters definitely went to the next level or are now in a whole new role. Can’t wait for more.
i’ll try to field a few of those questions in a more sensible manner than above, and only using book material up to what they’ve covered, which is ONLY books 1-2 and the relevant chapters of book 3 (Sam, Jaime/Brienne). (side note: yes, they did finish book 2 in this season. dunno who claimed otherwise)
the reason for torching winterfell is unclear as of the end. they may explain it in the beginning of next season. the character responsible hasn’t actually been cast yet, so hopefully they’ll answer that in an upcoming episode. Maester Luwin’s death was pretty sad for me, but well written.
we probably could have skipped most of Dany’s story in Qarth because, well, the books *DID*. they changed so much of that story to make her story in this season more interesting that it’s hard to even get into. i like most of what they did, but the important payout was pretty much left out. lots of prophecy stuff happened in the House of the Undying, and we didn’t get that last night.
yes, Tyrion is now scarred. be thankful they let him keep his nose. that would have been an awful bit of costuming for Dinklage.
the plan for Jon was to have him kill the Halfhand to gain the wildlings’ trust and to give the Night’s Watch an inside man. although Qhorin mentioned the plan in episode 8, i think they kind of rushed through that a bit in the finale. sad, too, because that was the actor’s favorite Jon scene from the book. mine, too. basically, Qhorin knew the wildlings were going to kill him anyway, so he ordered Jon be the one to do it instead to prove he had turned his cloak, thereby saving Jon’s life.
and as for the undead horde walking right by Sam..? i dunno. the horn blowing 3 times happened in the prologue of book 3, and it didn’t happen quite like that. they’ll resolve that cliffhanger…somehow…next season. the place they’re marching to is the Fist of the First Men, and it’s the place the other brothers have been camping since they sent Jon and Qhorin on a scouting mission.
great reviews, Paul. i think i’m going to miss them almost as much as the episodes themselves!
Sansa thought that Stanis was going to take King’s Landing at the time that she chose not to leave with the hound. Everybody thought Stanis was going to win. Sansa bet that Stanis would let her return home once he won.
i have read all the books, except for dance with dragons. (waiting for it in paperback.)
i am not one of these purists. i do not mind when they tweak things. but there were some real bad tweaks. winterfell was burning when theon was knocked out. the books even give the impression that he was dead as that was his last sight.
rob marrying the medic girl is in there, later. he shows up with her already married. he takes an arrow in a battle and it was she that attends and “comforts” him. hbo did this to explain it a bit more.
yes it was the lord bolton at harrenhal. hbo did this just to make things a bit more easier for those who have not read the books. too many characters and would be too long.
daenyrs had more that the one vision (a man with a wolf for a head) and there were more warlocks/liches that attacked her.
it did happen that way with quorin and jon.
the walkers come just a tiny bit later.
ros and vaeris is added fluff.
still, great show!
oh and those who like spartacus? next season is its last. just announced! 🙁
Honestly, you really just have to wait to see what happens. For those of us that read the books, this is the point where you just feel like “Sh*t is about to get real”. For everyone else, I can see your confusion. Sadly there isn’t enough time in the show to explain everything. What you see as pointless, is actually a very important plot. For example, Dany in the tower. Her visions lay out the ground work for her story and her future actions. I was confused by the white walker scene but hey… I am curious to see where it goes. I am so sad that they didn’t take off his whole nose but I knew they wouldn’t. The make up would be very costly.
According to the character list for season 3, a lot of things should be cleared up or at least talked about.
One final note: Stop waiting for someone to die. lol I understand your desire BUT trust me the wait is worth it. I literally flung my books across the room several times.
..the man we lost this week, old advisor of Winterfell guy. I never did catch his name. – His name is Maester Luwin and he’s portrayed by Donald Sumpter. He was excellent as A B Cust in The ABC Murders.
Comments are getting hard to read again…
Can’t we just discuss the TV SHOW without mentioning, clarifying, comparing or otherwise discussing the books? I don’t understand why every book-reading-commenter is SO compelled to make sure everyone knows they’ve read all the books.
I truly love reading, discussing and theorizing GoT characters and plot twists.. I enjoy your reviews, but also very much enjoy the discussion that follows. Most weeks.
Keep it up, and I’ll try to ignore the spoilers.
As many people stated above, I think that the biggest screw up was with the Jon Snow storyline. I can not for the life of me figure out why they spent all that time with Ygrette (excuse if spelling is off) and Jon instead of Qhorin and Jon.
Also does anyone else think Peter Dinklidge’s …er…sad acting feel a bit off. Just some stupid little thing that bothers me just like Robb’s angry eyebrows and Brienne’s weird legs.
Other than that, I thought that the show was well done this season, and I think HBO mostly made smart decisions on what to cut to get the story where it needs to go. (e.g. How Arya gets from Yoren to Harrenhal)
I also want to say I think that the younger actors are doing a great job for this show. Jeoffry, Bran, Sansa, and Arya are great.
Can’t wait for next season!
For those of us that read the books, it kinda made sense. Alot of the plot lines were twisted in my opinion to keep the cast of actors smaller. Example, it was another kind’s guard that wants to help Sansa get back to her family not littlefinger or the hound. Winterfell was burnt down by Lord Bolton’s bastard who was suppose to retake the place from theon. They never showed that. The books really give you alot of details but the TV show pretty much follows the plots. My only complain is why dont they shoot 12 episodes like most HBO shows.
Paul, Tyrion != Tywin.
Oh, and also, expect != except.
I think Paul’s reaction to this season highlights the TV show’s main issue. The TV viewer sees the characters reset to where they were before, the reader sees an enormous amount of character development and feels satisfied and excited to read more.
This is not a knock on a TV viewer by any means. The show does not do any justice to the character development, it only loosely follows plot points. Because these plot points are so fun to watch, the show is popular. But you really just miss the heart of the story! This is why the book readers are often zealous about the book and frustrated with the show.
Is it me or is Daenerys the most hatable character on the show. Every time she’s on screen I either leave the room or hit the fast foward button, I just cannot stand her “entitled” whininess.
Gotta agree with you Mandy. I really enjoy these reviews, as well as the discussions that follow them, but it has reached the point where there are far too many comments simply stating how similar/different things are from the books. In some cases, the plotlines from the source material have turned out to simply occur in later episodes, and so by listing how things appear to have differed, one runs the risk of actually creating spoilers.
Something that I find more frustrating than the TV shows plot deviations is the amount of spoilers, some of which are admittedly accidental, that I’ve seen come from readers of the books when discussing the show with others.
That being said, I do feel that some arguably important details are not made clear enough in the TV show, which is evident by the confusions outlaid by Paul in the above review. Apologies if these have already been mentioned but:
The confusion at Winterfell is deliberate, I believe. Osha, Hodor and the Stark boys have been hiding in the crypts the whole time and have just as much an idea of what happened at Winterfell as we do.
The formation that the white walkers & their army were heading for in the finale was the Fist of the First Men, a sort of hill that I guess is shaped like a fist. It’s where the rest of the Nights Watchmen that originally went out to stop the King-beyond-the-Wall are currently camped.
Still can’t quite figure out why that White Walker didn’t kill Sam though. That makes absolutely no sense given the prologue of the first season.
Also, I feel it’s worth mentioning how fantastic the acting was in this episode. Good examples include the moment in which we saw a slight look of fear on the face of the previously completely fearless Melisandre I thought added a huge amount of depth to her character alone, but this was topped by Tyrion’s sudden burst of emotion when Shae reminded him of the promise of always being his. Even Sansa was good in this episode!
Anyway, great review Paul. You’ve certainly helped to ease my fears that this season lacked clarification on certain things.
@Jordan M.
I found her to be like that for most of this past season. HOWEVER, I felt she quickly switched to super badass in last night’s episode. I just hope no one takes her dragons again.
I really wished they’d put in the scene in the house of the undying with the dog headed man at the head of the feast of dead. Not a fake spoiler either, i’d just have loved to see it in there, good atmosphere.
The show is moving forward, but it’s just not in the same way as others, characters have developed and interacted, but large events haven’t happened. Because that’s how things are. A good writing point, there are no knights in shining armour taking over the kingdom and making the world better. Half the point of A song of ice and fire is that nobody can make the world a sunshine and happiness planet.
Still didn’t like the ending, the makeup and effects were very good, but Sam just shivering behind a rock and somehow not being killed (so much as we know) doesn’t make me happy. Please tell me they follow the books as things go there.
The showrunners, Weiss and Benioff, have stated that they had to move some characters to next season to avoid clutter. Just scrolling down the Wiki page, I counted around 25 new characters added this season.
So now you want book spoilers Paul?
I like how this review is an honest opinion, pointing out loose ends even if it may irk some of the devoted book readers. My full thoughts on this episode are on my Game of Thrones blog.Overall this was another great season, bring on Season 3!
Major Harris, i can’t wait for the final season of Spartacus too!
I don’t think Stannis’ actor is in the same league as rest of the cast. His performance reminded me of soap operas. Also Joffrey’s actor was a bit lackluster in this episode. Stannis was ok in previous episodes, perhaps because he didn’t have demanding scenes.
Daenerys’ plot was a good reminder how good the rest of the series is. Qarth related scenes were quite pointless. That being said, everything else in the show is captivating.
I was suspecting that Daenerys’ dragons would be fully grown at the end of this episode via house of the undead’s magic. I was wrong. I really don’t know what the show is going to do with them. They can’t make the “10 year later” title and continue since there are so many plots unfinished. Either dragons are just there to enable magic (boo), they use little dragons for the fight (hah) or the dragons just somehow manage to grow fast (yee).
Another minor quibble: it’s “per se”, not “per say”, Paul. 🙂
I also stand perplexed as to the burning of Winterfell. How did 20 men manage to burn down an entire fortress that was surrounded on all sides by 500 Northmen and properly escape???
Theon knew of the escape tunnels but was knocked out cold upon their leave. WTF???
@Kyle
Robb said that “send a message that any surrendering Iron Islander can go home.. except Theon Greyjoy”. So they didn’t escape, they were set free. The burning matter is still unclear to tv-show watchers.
Most of The Others were wights, I can’t actually be certain I saw any White Walkers among the horde as they made their way, not unlike the roamers from the Walking Dead, towards the Fist of the First Men.
To me it didnt seem like those white walkers were heading for the wall. Sam a.d the other two men were collecting stuff to burn. When the guy pulls his sword the other guy says how hes not gonna fight them himself which implied theyre small army was probably still on top of hand of the first one place i think they called it. Where the dragonglass and horn were buried. I think the white walkers are going fir them since they came so far north and next season will begin with that battle. My prediction.
I dont agree with your complaint about the show not making any progress, because even though characters are in similar positions there have been huge growths in character development and relationships which is what the series is basically about.
The House of Undying was so awesome in the book. I understand why they shortened in the TV show, but I don’t have to like it.
And now I will resist answering your questions because they would be spoilery…
Sansa is now a great prize since her brother has been declared a traitor to the throne. So now whoever the crown sets up to marry her will inherit Winterfell.
BAH! So much awesome coming in the next seasons (book 3 – possibly my favourite). Yes they changed a lot, and i found my self wondering at times if for the people who have not read the books were getting what was going on and that only because i knew and could see what they were trying to do was i enjoying it. I’m not trying to be a book reading @rse, feel free to tell me if i am! But i did have to stop and wonder if people who don’t know what is about to happen are enjoying it that much. I’m not exactly sure how i feel about this season yet, it was good, and i’m really looking forward to the next, but the battle of black water was a REAL let down, i expected much more there. And some of the changes i felt were a little uneccessary, although, who knows what they’ve got planned for the plot. All i will say is hopefully the thing i expected to happen at the end will happen next series. I don’t to say any more than that because it is quite a big spoiler and too much could be worked out from it. So i will just say, make what i’m thinking happen!