This is a re-post from a review I comments-posted up on Gawker a year or so ago, it seemed like a good time to get the ball rolling again since the new seasons is coming down the pipe!
I'll be reviewing every episode of the upcoming season after it airs, this should be fun :)
Also, since we recent heard that the show WILL outpace the books, it seems stupid to draw any more divisions between "hardcore" and "diehard" GRRM fans, and new fans who have only come to know the Song of Ice and Fire through the HBO / D. B. Weiss and David Benioff production.
We're all in it together now people, after this season there will be no more secrets to lovingly horde, as those of us familiar with the books watch in silent glee at the reactions of first time viewers. We all get to be surprised, together. Let's drive right in :)
Here is my review of Game of Thrones - Season 4: Episode 10 ... written day the after the show aired last June.
As a "been reading since the second book came out back in 2001" GRRM nerd, I loved this episode, and think they managed to strike a magnificent balance with the source material, and the butterfly-effect changes that have slowly altered the series into a wholly new and impressive story in and of itself.
What struck me was how many strands were finally tied together into one episode, in a way I've never seen done so effectively. Honestly it's been the last three episodes of this season, each for their own reasons. Four seasons worth of plots and and betrayals and backstabbing all wound together into a neat, but ridiculously complex web of interwoven characters and plot lines. Like real war, and real history, GoT is not about "heroes" - it's about the survivors. It's about those left over to write the history, after everyone else is dead.
When Jon Snow meets Stannis Baratheon, the one true king of Westeros, he is not intimidated, he is not meek, he is not shy. Any other person would have been, any other person from the seven kingdoms would have bowed in fear and stooped before a "king" - but Jon snows unique experiences and adventures through the north, beyond the reach of kings and royalty, makes him refuse, instinctively, to bow. He stands as an equal to Stannis, and speaks to him honestly about his captivity with the Wildling king, his personal experience at the hands of this man ... and out of sheer respect for his dead father, Stannis takes the young man's advice. And while Jon Snow offers him the respect of using the title "your Grace," he continues to exert his own authority over the situation by telling Stannis, in no uncertain terms, that there are much more serious and terrible things happening than this war, that Stannis has no REAL idea what is happening here, and that if his father had seen what he'd seen "he'd burn the bodies of the dead before nightfall ... all of them." Jon has become the Lone Wolf, just as Sansa has grown into her own she-Wolf persona, so too has Jon now come to epitomize what his own house stands for - both in sigil and in principal. The Long Wolf, a singular spec in the night, howling it's lonely howl at the moon, at everyone, at no one, watching, waiting for the moment when it finally receives an answer to it's call.
This is that singular moment for Stannis as well, and we can see it on his face, that everything changes. Shit just got real. The true threat, the true enemy, is just starting to wake up, and he never would have truly believed it until now... he has entered a world he knows nothing about, unprepared, and uneducated. The worst position for a battle commander, the worst position for any commander. But without that second of clarity, without the reflection needed to take Mance captive instead of killing him, to listen instead of ignoring ... maybe Stannis just kills Mance, never listens to what he has to say, never believes the white walkers are coming... never truly understands what he's up against.
Any other person (besides the Red Lady) Stannis would have written off immediately as someone not worth his time, someone not worth listening to, because he is single minded and not interested in negotiation - however - the fact that Ned Stark died effectively FOR Stannis, as a direct result of supporting Stannis' claim to the throne over Joffrey - gives credence to Jon Snow's statements, lends him respect and authority in the eyes of Stannis that NO ONE ELSE in the seven kingdoms would have received. He ASKS Jon Snow what his father would have done, because Stannis really has no answers - and for the first time, he genuinely listens to what someone else has to say to him besides Melisandre.
If Jon hadn't been taken captive, if he hadn't climbed the wall and come back, if he hadn't fallen in love with Ygritte and forsaken his vows and expanded his view of the world, this moment never happens. If Stannis had succeeded at the Blackwater, if he had sat as king, if he had killed Davos instead of cutting off his fingers, or had him executed instead of listening to his message about the wall, this moment never happens. If Ned Starks hadn't died for the sake of honor and truth, if any one of the tiny moments that lead to his death had not have happened, this moment never happens. The Threat is never identified, the danger never truly assessed. If the Wall is breached, all is lost. The true Threat goes unrecognized, and unopposed. Everything in the series about Stannis, about Jon, or the Wall or the Wildlings, or the North in total, has lead to this very second, and the pay off is worth it.
This is the moment when Jon Snow grows up - he is placed before not one, but TWO KINGS - holds true to himself and his principals - and wins the day. Is recognized as a leader as well, as a battle commander and an equal. It's also the moment when Stannis realizes that the war really is coming, and he is the only one who can save the Seven Kingdoms, because the threat is greater than anyone ever imagined ... and no one, not one single southern lord but him even knows/cares it's happening. Finally, it's the moment when Mance, the King of the North, swallows his own pride, throws down his arms, and surrenders his army to stop more bloodshed - he gives up his own dreams for the sake of his 100,000 followers.
The meeting of the Three Kings. The King beyond the Wall, the King of the South, and the King AT the Wall. The three of them stand, as equals - in stature if not in numbers - their combined strengths the soul hope for saving the entire continent ... and you can see the gravity of the situation on their faces. The last frames we see are of the Red Woman ... and she notices Jon, through the flames, and sees something in him she did not expect. Something has brought them together, and events are in motion that have obviously drawn the most powerful Witch in Westeros, and the most powerful son of the most powerful northern lord, a family rumored to have the blood of Wargs within them, together, on a field of ice, and fire, and smoke.
Next we see the sudden, but inevitable fall out of Tyrion Lannister's guilty verdict. Tywin has slowly begun to exert his control over the newly crowed Tommen, and has consolidated his own power through four seasons of political wrangling, corruption, and murder. He has no morals, he has no compass - he has only the single minded fantasy of preserving a family name that is drenched in blood, and gold, and gore. He has placed himself at the pinnacle of power within Westeros, becoming the defacto king after "saving" the city and executing, in short order, every single one of his enemies. Tywin fancies himself the most powerful man in the Kingdoms, and he is - he is at the zenith of his own political influence and authority - but he fails to see, as most great people do, that being the most powerful person also, and ALWAYS, makes you the most vulnerable as well. And Tywin has left himself vulnerable to a glaring blind spot his entire adult life. His own name.
The earlier Lannister rise to power is not very well covered in the series. We do hear that Tywin was once the Hand of the mad King.. but it is alluded to in the books that many years before the series, during the sack of Kings Landing when Robert Baratheon was having his rebellion, Tywin meant to take the city for himself, and likely place himself in power if he could. The only reason that never happened was becasue of Ned Stark, who literally beat him to the throne room, and prevented anyone but Robert from "claiming" the seat for themselves. It has taken Tywin many, many years to regain the authority he once had, and he has been so blinded by that goal, that he failed to recognized his own family, his own legacy for what they truly were...
His greatest mistake, by far, was to think that he had control over any of his children, at any time. The earliest mentions of the young Lannister children paint a sad and cold picture ... a dead mother, a disabled son, two twins who seemed to want nothing to do with any other children but one another, and a calculatingly icy father who openly viewed his youngest son as a mistake and a monster. The spent time watching their brain damaged cousin who (apparently) just sat in their garden all afternoon every day, until he got kicked in the head by a mule and died. They sneaked around behind their father's back to go cliff diving, to punish servants who they didn't like with elaborate revenge plots, to steal the clothes from maids so they had to come back naked from their baths, or masturbating into turtle stew in hopes that their own siblings would eat it. Tywin raised his kids to be exactly like he was: mechanical, calculating, unbending and ruthless in their pursuit of themselves and their goals. He mistakenly thought he was raising house cats: unruly, but generally harmless... when he was actually raising goddamn lions. And eventually, when times are hard enough and the situation is dire enough, Lions will happily kill and eat each other to survive. You can't control a den of lions, and Tywin's greatest mistake is that he never sees the greatest threats to his power are the ones that he, himself, created.
Enter Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion.
Cersei has been systematically backed into a corner since the Blackwater. Since that moment, when she believed herself to be saved, when she was willing to kill her own son rather than let him be taken - she has never rested, never been comfortable or happy. With every step, her power has been slowly stripped away, her authority questioned and challenged, and the people she loves are ripped from her hands only to be returned maimed and broken or not at all. What happens when you back a lioness into a corner, when you threaten to steal her last remaining cub away from her, when you threaten to take away from her the last remaining things that she holds dear and keep her alive? You will get fucking ripped to pieces, that is what will happen. Every time.
Jaime has been cowed over and over again, and he has been learning, albeit slowly, that the only way to circumvent his father is to go behind his back all together. This started when he was very young, sneaking away to get into trouble, exploring things with his sister that his father never cared enough to even notice, much less have a difficult and corrective conversation about, and eventually joining the King's guard as a way to be close to his sister/lover AND disobey his father at the same time. His final act of disobedience against his father, and his greatest, is to save his own brother from the man they have both come for openly fear. Jaime has no love for his father anymore, no respect, nothing but open contempt. He takes pleasure in helping his brother escape, choosing the love and respect of his brother and sister (gross as it was) over their own father.
Lastly is Tyrion, a man who has been so wronged, so harrowed, so unjustly vilified and tormented that he has literally nothing left to lose. He has been condemned to death, and in the books behaves much more as a man with everything to lose and nothing to gain, who'd wants nothing more than revenge against his father from the start. In the series, they changed this, and I like what they did. They made the moment between Shae and Tyrion a moment of passion, a moment of recognition, mutual rage, and mutual terror at being confronted with a stark and horrifying new reality. And ultimately, Tyrion was left with no other choice, he became the lion he had to, in order to survive. He kills Shae with the very neclace, the "golden chains," that he gave her to symbolize his eternal love for her, his continuing commitment to love her no matter what. They served as both her artificial chains, binding her metaphorically in his service while he was in power, and ultimately strangling her when she betrayed that trust, and tried to forward her own ends over his. Tyrion showed his teeth, bared his claws, and he hated himself for it afterwards. He was broken. His last thread of humanity severed, the final betrayal stripped bare before him - he went to kill the man responsible for it all, the man who has manipulated him and the ones he loved, who payed to have his first wife gang-raped before his eyes, the man who raised him to power, then kicked him to the gutter, pulling one rug after another out from under him until eventually there was nowhere left to fall. Only onto the chopping block.
And Tywin still refused to see. He pretended, again, that he was in charge of this den of angry Lions, of branded Lions, or maimed and tortured Lions. And he died for it ... he died while taking a shit, after having sex with the woman that his son told him he loved, after learning that his legacy, his grandchildren, his power, his ambition, and his lifetime of work are nothing but a lie. He dies alone, surrounded by his own, hungry, merciless children, who are more than happy to devour him whole the very first chance they get.
At the end of the last season we saw Daenerys, floating on a sea of brown people, a great white savior showing the rest of the world how it was done, flaunting her power and flexing her newly found muscles. At the end of this season, we might as well have seen her drowning under that same sea of brown people - a total stranger in a land she does not belong in, has no place in, and has no right to rule other than the right of a bully over another bully in a schoolyard dispute. He great white salvation is a lie, and it has finally been exposed as a lie ... he dragons, once saviors, are killing children in the country side, she hasn't touched them or ridden them or tried to tame them in months, she has grown afraid of the very thing that once gave her power. She has become afraid of herself.
She is a dragon, the LAST dragon ... and dragons do not sit on thrones and listen to the complaints of common people who are unwilling to help themselves most of the time. It begins slowly, with her authority being whittled back by constant request, and her ultimately fatal flaw of wanting - NEEDING - everyone to love her. Then she dismisses her chief retainer, her oldest friend, instead of listening to what he had to say. She refuses him the respect that he has most certainly earned. She does the opposite of what Stannis does in the north ... she listens to her own pride, her own prejudices, instead of opening her mind. She doesn't see that the most vicious of enemies can, often times, become powerful allies. She forgets her own lessons with Darrio, with Ser Barristan, with the Unsullies ... that the greatest of friends can come from unlikely, and often unpleasant origins.
Instead of training her dragons, honing their skills and in turn her own abilities as a battle commander - she chooses to play house, to be safe, to live in luxury and comfort. She choses the easy path, the human path. Worse, she doesn't want to just rule, she wants to be loved AND rule. You don't usually get to have both. You especially don't get to rule AND be loved when you're a magical, fire-breathing, scaled and winged horror who attacks from the skies, pillages what they want, burns the rest, and then flies away again. THAT is a dragon. She denies herself, she denies her house, and who she is, and now she is beginning to suffer the consequences.
Bran has been riding in the sledge a long time, many long and awful nights have brought him to the tree that is the home of the three eyed raven, many visions and nightmares. But none can compare to what is waiting for him when he arrives. He sees, first hand, for the first time, what the rest of the world is up against. He alone has seen the white walkers in daylight, at the full strength, unimpeded by any attempts at camouflage and subtly. This is a full-on Sauron-just-noticed-Frodo-and-the-fucking-ring-at-Mt. Doom moment. Shit has hit the fan for the Enemy. Bradon Stark is more important, and more powerful, than anyone could have imagined ... he is so important, that the white walkers are willing to tip their hand fully, to openly assault him, his companions, with goddamn skeletons, and attempt to break into a stronghold that they have likely been trying to lay siege to to centuries, if not millennia.
He's so crucial to this axis of power that we have yet to fully come to see or even grasp, that they say to hell with it, and try to pull off one final assault when they realize that a hugely important wild card has completely escaped their attention and grasp right up until now. He can enter the mind of any animal, any human ... THINK of the logical conclusion that could mean in this world. What is the largest, most terrifying creature that has yet to arrive on the scene in Westeros yet ...? What animal MIGHT Brandon stark be able to "fly" inside of? What creature could turn the tides of a battle against and unstoppable horde of relentless creatures made of ice, and horror, and despair?
Whatever that might be (think about it ;), the enemy obviously sees the connection, but fails to act in time, and Brandon escapes. He ONLY escapes because of all the moments that lead him here, the wildlings attacking them, his home being destroyed, Theon chasing them through the wilderness, the Reeds helping him, of making the jump from entering the mind of an animal to the mind of his simple, animal-like friend, Hodor. Without that slow build of moments, of threads being woven together, Brandon Stark never arrives. Brandon Stark never realizes his own inner wolf, his own inner power. He approaches the Three Eyed Raven on his own, he crawls under his own power because he no longer wants to be carried... He has to approach his destiny alone. Only he, can fly.
Lastly we see Arya, who has evolved into a wholly different sort of wolf from any of her. She is the starving wolf, the angry wolf, and betrayed and bruised and battled hardened Stray Wolf. She is out for exactly one person, and one person alone ... herself. When she sees the closest thing she has left to a friend, her would-be captor and defacto-protector the Hound maimed, bleeding and seemingly dying ... she has nothing left. She has no good will or compassion left to give, it has been beaten out of her, scarred out of her, bled out of her, tortured out of her. Everyone saw her last act as cruel towards the Hound, as selfish and cold ... I completely disagree. She did the only thing she could do, the ONLY thing she could do, to show him mercy ... she DIDN'T kill him.
That is who she has become, a killer, through and through, she deals in life and death, black and white, yes or no. There is no middle ground, there is no room for politics or compassion. Only life, or death. She takes his name OFF her list, something she has never done, she strikes him from the record, and that is the most merciful, and human thing she still knows how to do. She takes his money because he obviously won't need it, but she refuses to end his life, because somehow, after everything that happened between them, after everything he has done "for" her, and because of her, and while in her company ... he is no longer the enemy. He's no longer worth killing, and therefore, he's no longer a factor. She has no room for friends, she has no room for love, or for salvation at the hands of a knight in shining armor. She only has room in her heart for life, or death. Because you only say one thing to the god of death ... "not today." And in this moment, she saves herself. Arya prevents herself from becoming the cold blooded, heartless killer that the Hound is, she choses to ignore his example, to say "NO" to his teaching that killing a man who has done you no wrong, simply because he is in pain and asks you to, is somehow more honorable than simply walking away. She holds true to herself, to her own sense of justice, and leaves the Hound behind.
I loved this season, I think the show is just hitting it's stride, and im excited for what comes next. I love the books for what they are, and this episode, seeing the directors and writers weave together all the threads to an apex at one time, has made me love the show equally for what it is too. Bravo, you didn't out-do the original, you made something totally unique, and amazing in it's own right.
My final comment is that the music this season is incredible. Ned Stark had a theme music that always played for him, certain instruments, certain melody ... and after he was killed, that melody vanish for the most part from the show. Except for this season, with each of the remaining stark children, the Stark song has slowly begun to be played for them again, culminating in their final moments of self realization and actualization. Then they each get their own unique melody, that same Ned Stark theme song has been slightly altered with slightly different instruments and arrangements to make it unique to each child, but reconnect them to their origins ... same with the Lannister children and Daenerys, their songs have shifted, altered, but remain at least in part connected to their original score. Loved it, every second.
That's all from me, great season, great stories, and I'm happy that the four years of build up were more than worth the pay off :)
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