Jon Snow

Game of Thrones Season 4, episode 9 Review: The Watchers on the Wall

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This review is based purely on what I have seen on the TV series. Beware, spoilers ahead!

Ygritte dies a tragic death in this episode of GOT

Ygritte dies a tragic death in Jon Snow’s arms.

Jon Snow and his fellow comrades on the night watch are hell-bent on defending the wall and Castle Black against the attack from Mance and his army. Finally we have an episode based purely on just a few characters, and I don’t know where to begin!

First with a little romance perhaps? Sam wants to know from Jon what it was like to love a woman, to be with someone. Jon tries to describe it, but blusters out that he’s no poet. According to Ygritte, though, he’s a great lover and any episode dedicated to the adorable Jon Snow, is one I’m sure to enjoy!

Gilly and her baby manage to make it to castle black safely, just in time for the attack on the castle. It is the first time I have ever heard Sam Tully swear when he orders the guard to open up the gate for her. He promises that wherever she goes he will go with her, and he manages to stow her away safely in the castle.

Meanwhile, Jon is on top of the wall, but Janos Slynt hides in the castle and inadvertently leaves Jon in charge. While heroic and sweet in his treatment of Gilly, Sam manages to live another day as he is never directly in any of the fighting. He helps another comrade load a crossbow, he runs errands for Jon and lets out Ghost. He does kill one of the cannibals though.

Jon is everywhere at once. He is shouting orders, he is on the top of the wall, then he is at the castle gate, fighting several foes at once. After an exhausting fight with one of the cannibals, Jon finally comes face to face with Ygritte. After shouting to the rest of the Wildings in a previous scene that Jon Snow was hers, she still hesitates when it comes to shoot him.

In a bit of irony, she is then shot with an arrow from the boy whose family was murdered by Wildings. Moments before, the boy was huddled in a corner away from the fight, that was until Sam encouraged him to fight back. Ygritte then dies tragically in Jon’s arms and he is left stunned. “Remember the cave?” she asks him. “We should have stayed there,” she says. Jon tries to sooth her and says that they’ll go back there someday, to which she replies:

“You know nothing, Jon Snow.”

(As I write this my pandora station just started playing “A Drop in the Ocean” by Ron Pope! I’ll let this be my farewell to Jon Snow and Ygritte’s love…aww…lol)

Anyway, how stunning were those giants and wooly mammoths? This is why we love Game of Thrones so much – they don’t skimp on anything and that includes the special effects!

“Light those fuckers up!”

At the top of the wall, the night’s watch throws everything they can at the Wildings trying to scale the wall. Including arrows, exploding barrels and a giant hook that swings and scrapes off all those trying to climb up its side. And we get an amazing line from the top of the wall: “Light those fuckers up!”

Alliser Thorne gets injured during the fight, and we don’t know if he is dead yet. Bummer. Tormund is captured, and at the end of the episode Sam discovers that Janos Slynt has found his hiding place for Gilly.

Still stunned at Ygritte’s death, the episode ends with Jon heading out into the snow to kill Mance. “You’re not a lord commander,” Sam tries to reason with him, but Jon returns with: “Whose left?” And asks Sam if he has a better plan. Jon walks out into the snow and the screen fades to white and the episode ends.

My heart is still pounding at all the excitement in this episode. And I drank a whole glass of wine in about two minutes during the episode, too, I was so nervous about what was going to happen and who was going to die next. I was so certain Sam was going to die, and I hope Alliser Thorne eventually does.

There’s a lot that happened in the finale, after I re-watch the episode, I’ll finally post my thoughts on that one!

What I do know though: I don’t want to wait a whole year to watch the new season! Thoughts below if you got ’em!

 

 

 

Game of Thrones Season 4, episode 8 recap: The Viper Vs. The Mountain

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Some drama happened at my apartment this week, so I was unable to post this till now. If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones season 4, episode 8, beware – spoilers ahead!

mountain-viper

Photo credit: HBO

Well, we’ve been waiting for it for 2 weeks now: Tyrion’s trial by combat! Was it as good as you expected? But first, a bit of an episode recap. Of course, they wait until the very end of the episode to show the trial, geeze.

In Meeren, Ser Jorah recieves a royal pardon from Robert Baratheon. Dany learns of his betrayal; he spied on her when she married Drogo and reported this news to Varys. He begs her forgiveness, but Dany is not in a forgiving mood. She banishes Ser Jorah from the city and says that if he isn’t gone by sun down, she will have his head.

Missandei notices that the commander of the unsullied, Grey Worm, has noticed her. Dany wonders if when Grey Worm was cut, if they took both “the pillar and the stones.” An awkward line I thought for the Khaleesi, but Missandei decides that she is not sorry of his interest, neither is Grey Worm.

In the Eyrie, Lord Baelish is questioned about Lysa’s death. He claims that she has committed suicide. Sansa is asked to testify against him, and finally dear Sansa has learned to play the game. She tells her tale, admitting that she is Sansa Stark and that Lord Baelish has only lied about her identity to keep her safe. She agrees that her aunt Lysa was always a “troubled woman” and that Lysa was extremely jealous of Sansa when she saw Lord Baelish kiss her cheek. JUST a kiss on the cheek, she claims. Distraught, she says that her aunt Lysa then committed suicide by throwing herself through the moon door.

The committee seems to believe her tale, and later Baelish asks her why she didn’t tell the whole truth – why take the chance on him? Sansa answers because she knows what he wants. (She seems to look at him knowingly when she says this.) Baelish says that she was a child when she first arrived at King’s Landing, but it is clear she is a child no longer. It begs the question, does Sansa want Baelish? Also, Baelish decides it is time for Robyn Arryn to leave the nest.

Meanwhile, Ramsay Snow uses Theon Greyjoy or “Reek” to take back parts of the North. He says that it is time for Reek to pretend to be Theon Greyjoy and help him. Greyjoy acts as Ramsay’s ambassador and manages to convince the people of Moat Caitlin to surrender and spare what lives they have. Greyjoy is questioned and called a woman and not a true Greyjoy which almost unravels him. However, the men decide to take the pardon, yet Ramsay slaughters them anyway. The scenes with Ramsay end with his father honoring him with the title of “Ramsay Bolton.” Yaay….NOT.

We then get an amusing scene between Arya and the Hound as they make their way towards the Eyrie. Arya thinks that she should be happier about Joffrey’s death, but she’s not. Maybe it was because she didn’t get to see him suffer or something. The Hound’s bite is hurting him and Arya says that he should have let her burn it. He also says that poisoning is a woman’s weapon. They arrive at the Eyrie only to find that Arya’s aunt Lysa is dead – to which Arya laughs and laughs at the news. It is kind of amusing and ironic for the Hound: every family member that he tries to ransom Arya to does have a strange habit of being dead beforehand.

Farther north, Gilly and her baby are still in the tavern where Sam left her. The town gets raided by the Wildings, but thanks to Ygritte, she manages to survive. Meanwhile at the wall, Jon and the others are wondering how 100 men are going to stand up against 100,000. And Sam is kicking himself for leaving Gilly in the town by herself, he should have known better.

Finally we get to the battle between the Viper and the Mountain, Gregor Clegane. There is a scene between Tyrion and Jaime before this where they talk about their slow cousin and how he used to smash beetles. Tyrion is tortured by the thought of it, the waste of all those beetles. He ask Jaime, “Why? Why did he think their cousin did that?” To which Jaime has no answer.

Prince Oberyn performs well in the battle, he dances quick around the Mountain, taunting him, wanting his opponent to admit to the death and rape of his sister and the death of her children. He manages to get a few hits on him, and stabs him in the chest with his spear, but he won’t let the Mountain die until he admits to the crimes that he’s committed against the Martel family. Did anyone else have a ‘hello my name is Inigo Montoya moment?’

As the prince dances around the dying Mountain taunting him, Clegane uses his last bit of strength and strangles Prince Oberyn in a most gruesome way, gouges out his eyes and literally crushes his head with his hands. And thus, Tyrion’s champion is the one that dies first, meaning that Tyrion gets to die as well. The episode ends with a look of shock from Tyrion, and Cersei’s satisfied smile.

Well, what did you think?

My thoughts:

  • Anything with Arya is always entertaining. I always want to see more scenes with her!
  • Dany’s treatment of Ser Jorah is understandable, but she might also be making a mistake. If she can’t trust him, this man who’s stuck by her side through thick and thin, who can she trust? Just makes me wonder what kind of road are we going to see Dany on in the next seasons or so. Is she going to be led astray? Was her treatment of Ser Jorah too harsh?
  • The scenes in the Eyrie are playing out how I kind of thought they would, however, I am interested to see what Sansa’s game is. Does she truly know what is going on?
  • And Tyrion can’t die! He’s one of my favorite characters! Is Jaime going to try and help him out? I hope so!
  • I wonder if we are finally going to get a reunion between Arya and her sister, Sansa? If so, how are the two going to react after seeing each other? The two were different before, but now look at them!

Only 2 more episodes left in the season! Thoughts below if you got them!

 

 

Game of Thrones Season 4, Episode 7 Recap: Who is the Mockingbird?

/ Ajmorse / 2 Comments

Spoilers ahead!

Photo credit: HBO.  Sansa appreciates the snow in the Eyrie.

Well, what can be said about last night’s episode? What can’t be said?? For an episode that was said to be a ‘filler’ episode by my boyfriend, an awful lot happened.

The episode starts out with Jaime berating Tyrion about turning down the deal with Tywin to take the black. Jaime claims that he has “thrown his life away.” They exchange words about their father, how he wants to see Tyrion dead and Jaime back at his rightful place at Casterly Rock, yada yada…the thought is that Bronn will fight for him.

Bronn is sent for, and comes to explain to Tyrion that he has a chance to marry, and he has gold, (as arranged by Cersei.) He says that he is Tyrion’s friend, but likes his life more. The conversation ends, and they shake hands and the meeting ends on a good note…I think.

Later on in the episode, Prince Oberyn comes to visit Tyrion in his cell. It’s odd…a place so dirty and (presumably) smelly, yet Prince Oberyn seems right at home. He seems the type that can slip into any place and look like he belongs. The man is that comfortable in his own skin. It is refreshing for us, but must be terrifying for the rest of the characters on Game of Thrones, because who’s to know what the man will do next?

Like, decide to be Tyrion’s champion? Prince Oberyn is there at King’s Landing to get revenge, and he wants revenge against Gregor Clegane, or ‘The Mountain,” for raping and killing his sister. Gregor Clegane  is the champion that Cersei has chosen, (A.K.A killing machine and The Hound’s brother.)

Meanwhile, somewhere not so close to King’s Landing, Arya and the Hound pass an old man on the road who is dying from a stomach wound. He goes on and on and says a lot of things that aren’t particularly important. Arya says that “nothing is just nothing,” the Hound puts him out of his misery and teaches Arya where the heart is all in one stroke of his knife.

The next time we see them, the Hound and Arya get attacked by those trying to get the price put on the Hound’s head. Arya remembers one of the attackers as someone who has insulted her but she doesn’t know his name. The Hound asks the guy his name, he gets on Arya’s list, she stabs him in the heart. The scene ends with the Hound saying, “you’re learning.”

It’s an amusing scene, and fitting of Arya’s character, but should I be worried that I find such scenes somewhat amusing?

Later on in the episode, we see that the Hound is hurt by their attackers. He asks Arya about the sword she got from her brother, then he tells Arya the story of what his brother gave him. The scar on his face. Touched by the story, Arya offers to help clean his wound and stitch it up.

On Dragonstone, Melisandre convinces Lady Selyse to bring her daughter Shireen with them on the long journey. I’m guessing to King’s Landing? Melisandre claims it’s because the lord of light will need her. More blood sacrifices, perhaps?

Meanwhile, in Jon Snow’s world, Alliser Thorne is continuing to give him trouble; insisting he lock up Ghost, won’t listen to Jon’s suggestions about fortifying the wall and overall just being a regular pain in the ass. Here’s hoping he gets what’s coming to him soon…something that will probably happen because he doesn’t listen. Personally, I think Thorne is such an ass because Jon has the ability to lead, his friends are also loyal to him and Thorne is threatened by it.

In Meereen, Dany has her own version of trouble. Daario claims that he is only good at two things: women and killing men. She makes good use of one of those things. She tells Daario to strip. Something I thought that was a little out of character for Dany, but as she is growing into her role, I could see why she would make use of what she has…but it seemed odd. This is no longer the frightened little sister of Viserys that we saw in season one of this series.

While it is obvious that Daario desires her, there is no softness in Dany’s expression. She is still Queen. Ser Jorah doesn’t approve, of course. However, Dany does listen to him when he advises her not to kill all the slavers in Yunkai, where she sent Daario and the second sons to reclaim the city. She changes her mind and says that they will have a choice to follow the rules in her world, or die.

We also see a bit of Pod and Brienne in this episode. While not main characters, I love these two as there never seems to be anything bad in them. While stopping at an Inn to catch a decent meal, they meet Hot Pie who tells them that Arya is still alive, and that she was traveling with the Hound. Pod deducts that they would be heading towards the Eyrie, where the girl’s aunt lives. Sansa might be there too.

Meanwhile in the Eyrie, Robin…annoying, spoiled, stupid, whiny Robin, destroys Sansa’s snow Winterfell and throws a tantrum. Sansa slaps him and then immediately regrets it. Lord Baelish sees and says that it’s what his mother should have done a long time ago. (He makes a good point, you know.)

Sansa questions Lord Baelish about why he killed Joffrey and he confesses it is because he loved her mother, and says in a different world she could have been his daughter. Then he kisses Sansa. She pushes him away, but aunt Lysa sees.

Threatened by Sansa and jealous, and a trifle crazy, Lysa holds Sansa over the moon door and threatens her. Lord Baelish manages to calm her down, and then reveals to her: “there is only one woman I love,” he says,”and that was your sister.” He then pushes Lysa through the Moon Door and the episode ends.

-I thought this a great ending, as I was never a great fan of Lysa. What will happen next you think? Thought’s below if you got ’em!

 

 

 

 

Game of Thrones TV Show Review: First of His Name, or Last?

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

I have not read the book series, so my review of this show is based purely on what I have seen in each episode.

Also, Spoilers ahead.

Source: HBO

Season 4, Episode 5: First of His Name Review –

Westeros has a new King. Margaery continues to remain in King Tommen’s good graces, and Cersei admits to knowing that Joffrey was a monster, and makes friends with Prince Oberyn. She asks him to send a gift to her daughter; she misses her, which is understandable.

Arya continues to name names on her ever-growing list of soon to be dead people, and the Hound remains entertaining as always and still manages to challenge the feisty Arya at every turn.

Meanwhile, Sansa arrives at The Eyrie with Lord Baelish, who marries her aunt Lysa. We learn that it wasn’t Cersei and Jaime who murdered John Aryn, but his own wife! As requested by Lord Baelish, so they could be together. While the new Mrs. Baelish is aching to see her new husband to bed, I can’t help but wonder if this is just Lord Baelish’s plan to seize the Eyrie. He’s always wanted a Kingdom to rule on his own.

On another front, Lady Brienne and Podrick travel to find Sansa, and it turns out that Podrick wasn’t trained to do much, except pour wine for Lord Tyrion. Ah, no matter, he’s still loyal and sweet.

Jon Snow and Company finally arrive at Craster’s place, and the traitors are dealt with. Craster’s daughters tell Jon Snow to burn the house and the bodies to the ground, they will find their own way.

And we didn’t get the reunion between Jon Snow and his brother, Bran, as Bran is encouraged by his friends to leave before Jon can talk him out of his quest to head North to the Three-Eyed Raven.

Meanwhile, across the sea, Daenerys decides not to just be a Mother of Dragons and a Targaryen, she will be a Queen.

No attack on Westeros yet by Daenerys, but soon…I hope? And how much did you want to see the reunion between Jon and his brother? I know I did! Urgh.

A solid episode, I thought, but it seems like the more story lines we have for each episode, the longer it takes for the story to progress. It is both entertaining and frustrating as we have to wait for each character’s story in turn. The next episode, however, will be entertaining as we have Tyrion’s trial to look forward too!

I’d like to know what you think…Thoughts below if you got ’em!

 

Game of Thrones TV Show Review: Oathbreaker, The Good vs The Bad

/ Ajmorse / 2 Comments

Being an avid Game of Thrones watcher, I thought I would put my two cents in about the most recent Game of Thrones episode…

Note: This is conjecture based purely on the TV Show, I have not read the book series completely, and so I can only judge the show based on what I have seen.

Also, SPOILERS AHEAD.

Photo credit: HBO

Review of “Oathbreaker” –

It’s great to see the characters grow and change in Season four – Daenerys freeing slaves and grooming her army, Jon Snow training recruits, Jaime Lannister’s more humble attitude, (except for that whole incest rape thing, I mean what the heck?), but it’s difficult sometimes to focus on the good that happens, when being good in the Game of Thrones sometimes means losing your head, sometimes quite literally.

In Oathbreaker, Jon Snow receives permission to take a party to Craster’s Keep and capture or kill the traitors who killed Mormont . Meanwhile, said traitors are rapping and abusing Craster’s daughters and offering a last child sacrifice to the white walkers.

They capture and subdue Bran and company, and tie up and torture, Hodar, and trap the Direwolves, Ghost and Summer. 

Okay, we get it, these traitors are bastards and need to die. But did we need to see it so graphically?

While Daenerys is helping free slaves, Cersei is her bitter alcoholic self bent on seeing her little brother, Tyrion dead, although everyone else seems to think that he is innocent.

At least we got to see a neat scene between Brienne and Jaime, and Brienne vows to find Sansa Stark. It does beg the question: does Jaime love lady Brienne? Could it be the Kingslayer cares for someone more than himself? It is clear that she feels something for him, but perhaps what he feels goes deeper than love…I think he truly respects her.

The change and growth in his character is refreshing, although it is still difficult to move pass the rape scene that everyone can’t seem to stop talking about. Perhaps we can just forget it ever happened.

That seemed to be what the writers wanted in this episode. No mention or thought was given to that scene, except for Cersei’s chilly demeanor, but really, that just means nothing has changed then.

Meanwhile, Margaery is forming a new alliance with the next King in line to the throne, Tommon, and we learn that Little Finger is indeed behind King Joffrey’s death as well as Margaery’s grandmother.

Daenerys’ story is becoming very interesting. She believes in dealing with injustice with justice, and while we root and cheer for her story, the villainous characters bent on slaughter, rape and dead babies always seem to take center stage.

Sometimes it makes for an uncomfortable watch when you don’t always know if your favorite characters are safe or not, if justice is really met, if good actually wins in the end.

It is true Game of Thrones is not for the faint of heart, and it definitely keeps you guessing. I will always root for the good guys, though.

My favorite characters are Daenerys and Arya. I think they have the more interesting stories. Who are your favorites? What did you think of last night’s episode? Think we will see the good guys win in the next episode?

Thoughts below if you got ’em!