Winter Was Coming...And Then It Didn't...I Take a Look Back at Game of Thrones (Part 2)

 The Clash of Kings (SPOLIERS BECAUSE DUH!!!!)

    The War for Westeros is only getting more complicated, as the deceased King Robert Baratheon's two brothers each join his illegitimate son Joffrey in claiming the throne for themselves.  The younger brother, Renly, is able to amass a huge army of followers thanks to marrying the daughter of the extremely wealthy and powerful House Tyrell of the Reach.  Meanwhile, the King's other brother, Stannis, struggles to amass support to his cause as his brother, Joffrey and the Starks are all already entangled in war and seem uninterested in seeing him become King.  Stannis is supported by only a few fiercely loyal men and a mysterious sorceress by the name of Melisandre, who promises her King that she has seen him be the Warrior of Light needed to fight away the darkness, while secretly swaying him over to the foreign religion of R'hllor, otherwise known as The Lord of Light.  

    After sending peace terms to the Lannisters in Court, Robb Stark is approached by his friend and his father's ward/hostage Theon Greyjoy about joining forces with the Greyjoys of the Iron Islands about attacking and taking the Lannister stronghold of Casterly Rock and is sent by Robb as an envoy.  Despite his mother Catelyn's objections, Robb sticks to his decision as well as deciding to send his mother south to the Stormlands to negotiate with Renly Baratheon about joining forces to invade King's Landing and win the war.  After Catelyn's departure, Robb begins making war plans to invade the Lannister domain.  

    Tyrion Lannister arrives in King's Landing with his own retinue of sell swords (mercenaries) and his lover Shae to take control of the kingdom away from Joffrey and Cersei on behalf of Lord Tywin Lannister.  As he does, he immediately imprisons, exiles and blackmails the most disloyal and treacherous of Cersei's henchmen while preparing the city for a siege should either of Robert's brothers or the Starks choose to invade.  While there, Tyrion manages to win the friendship of the Master of Whispers, Lord Varys, as well as the respect of Joffrey's betrothed hostage, Sansa Stark.  Despite knowing that her father sent him, Cersei does her best to undermine and sabotage Tyrion's plans to keep the city and his family safe, her hatred of her little brother intensifying when he sends her daughter Myrcella to the safety of Dorne, a neutral kingdom that has no love for the Lannisters.  Joffrey proves his vicious cruelty to everyone present by torturing Sansa in court because of the constant defeats her brother Robb keeps handing him, causing both Lord Petyr Baelish (AKA Littlefinger) and Joffrey's own personal protector Sandor Clegane (AKA The Hound) to sympathize with her.  

    Struggling through the deserts of Essos, Daenerys Targaryen, her newborn dragons and her followers arrive at the mysterious city of Qarth and are taken in by a merchant named Xaro Xhoan Daxos, who informs her of all the chaos in Westeros and encourages her to join forces with him and sail to Westeros and seize power now, though Ser Jorah preaches patience.  While Dany contemplates her next move, Xaro betrays her by selling her dragons to the warlocks of the House of the Undying, prompting Dany and Jorah to go on a rescue mission.  While there, Daenerys has a vision of her future and sees the Iron Throne in King's Landing as well as briefly reuniting with Drogo and their son.  Daenerys is captured by the warlocks, who plan to use Dany and her dragons to restore their own magical powers, but the dragons burn the warlock Pyat Pree and free Dany from her shackles.  Soon, Dany sacks Xaro's castle of all it's worth and imprisons him in an empty vault to die.  

    Upon arriving at the seat of House Greyjoy, Theon is ridiculed by his father and sister for being bought by the Starks and learns of his father's plans to invade the North and seize Stark lands to rebuild the once great Ironborn Empire.  Despite his loyalty to Robb, Theon betrays the Starks and joins his family in their plan to pillage and raid the North in the hopes of succeeding his father as King of the Iron Islands.  When he learns of his father's relatively menial plans for him, Theon decides to use an attack on a small town as a diversion so he can seize the unprotected Stark fortress of Winterfell and take both Bran and Rickon Stark as hostages.  He accomplishes this and does his best to try and be loved by both sides, but cannot prevent the Stark Boys from fleeing with the aid of the Wildling Osha and losing Theon his most valuable hostages.  Enraged, Theon burns two farm boys and makes it seem as if he has killed both Bran and Rickon, crippling House Stark.  

    Catelyn arrives at Renly's camp and is greeted warmly by the King.  While there, she meets Renly's wife Lady Margaery Tyrell as well as Renly's fiercely loyal protector, Brienne of Tarth.  After spending time as Renly's guest, Catelyn is present when both Baratheon brothers parley with one another in the hopes of ending their rivalry for the throne.  But both believe they are better suited to be King and thus all hope for peace between the two ends.  After sealing an alliance between the Starks and Baratheon/Tyrells on behalf of Robb, Catelyn witnesses a shadowy assassin slay Renly as he prepared for war and flees his camp with a devastated Brienne at her side.  With Renly dead, Stannis manages to win the support of a good portion of his followers, though House Tyrell and the Reach forces Renly commanded refuse to submit to him and begin to flirt with the Lannisters.  With an army and fleet at his back, Stannis sets his sights on King's Landing.  Brienne vows to serve Catelyn, whom she has grown to care for and respect.  Upon returning to Robb's camp, she learns of both Theon's betrayal and that Robb has become smitten with a medic from Essos named Talisa.  Fearful for the safety of Sansa and Arya, Catelyn frees the captive Jaime Lannister and makes him vow to send her daughters home in exchange for his freedom.  After he and Brienne vanish into the night, Robb has his mother confined to her tent and sends men to recapture Jaime as well as allowing his adviser Roose Bolton to write to his bastard son to raise an army to retake Winterfell.  

    Having escaped King's Landing with a brother of the Night's Watch, Arya is forced to disguise herself as a boy to avoid being harassed by other recruits while she is to be taken to Winterfell for safety.  While on the road, she befriends King Robert's bastard son Gendry, who easily sees through her ruse.  But a Lannister army attacks their caravan and kills the Night's Watch brother that was protecting her and captures the two, leading them to the "haunted" castle of Harrenhal.  Tywin Lannister, who is currently in charge of Harrenhal, also sees through Arya's ruse and names her as his cupbearer (though he doesn't know who she actually was).  While a prisoner and servant of the Lannisters, Arya encounters a mysterious warrior called Jaqen H'ghar, who demonstrates the power of people called "The Faceless Men" by helping her by assassinating Lannister thugs who were torturing her friends, though Arya fails to have him kill Tywin when she had the chance as Tywin leaves for war not very long afterwards.  She uses Jaqen to help her, Gendry and another boy named Hot Pie to escape Harrenhal and is given a coin as well as a phrase in Valyrian: Valar Morghulis

    Far beyond The Wall on their Great Ranging, Jon Snow, Samwell Tarly and their fellow brothers of The Night's Watch are investigating the disappearance of countless rangers and the rumors of an amassing army of wildlings that would invade Westeros from the North.  Jon ultimately separates from his fellow brothers and takes part in a ranging with a famous ranger named Qhorin Halfhand and the two manage to subdue and capture a Wildling woman named Ygritte, whom Jon is smitten with.  Unable to kill her, Jon releases her and tells her to run, which backfires when Ygritte returns with several more Wildlings and capture the two.  In order to understand the Wildlings plans, Qhorin convinces Jon to pretend to betray the Night's Watch and serve as a spy among their ranks.  In a staged duel, Jon kills Qhorin and is taken under the protection of Ygritte and brought to the camp of Wildlings, which numbers well over any numbers the Night's Watch could hope to have.  

    Meanwhile, Samwell and the other Night's Watch brothers uncover a burial that contains numerous weapons made of Obsidian (Dragon Glass they call it), that was hidden for some unknown purpose.  But the group is soon scattered when they are beset by the White Walkers and an army of undead under their command, which presses on southward to wreak havoc on the rest of Westeros.  

    With his armies in tact and a fleet at his back, Stannis Baratheon lays siege to King's Landing, outnumbering the army in the city 5:1.  But thanks to some quick thinking by Tyrion Lannister, half of Stannis's attacking forces are obliterated by exploding cannisters of "Wildfyre" set loose in the bay.  In a gruesome and ugly battle, King Joffrey's reign is secured by a surprise attack courtesy of House Tyrell, who has recently allied with the Lannisters and decimated what remained of Stannis's army.  Stannis retreats back to his fortress of Dragonstone.  In honor of their newfound alliance, Joffrey sets aside his betrothal to Sansa and agrees to marry Margaery.  Tyrion, despite his clever strategies being what delayed the invaders in time for his father and the Tyrells to arrive, receives no credit for his role in the battle and is stripped of all power upon his father's return to the capital.  

    Theon continues to lose support among his own men and the captives he keeps at Winterfell and is nearly driven to madness when Roose Bolton's bastard son arrives at the gates of the castle with a small army and constantly blows a warhorn to harass him.  As Theon prepares to ride out in a suicide mission to fight the invaders, his men betray him and take him to the Boltons as a token of surrender.  But the Boltons, having learned of Stannis's defeat, kill the Ironborn and burn Winterfell, framing the Greyjoys in the process.  Though the castle is in ruins, Bran and Rickon did in fact survive and decide to ride for the Night's Watch to be under Jon's protection.  After learning of Winterfell's fall, Robb finds comfort in Talisa and the two ultimately marry in secret, ultimately losing Robb the support of House Frey and effectively leaving him and his army pinned between enemies on all sides.  

Continued in Part 3...

Winter Was Coming...And Then It Didn't...I Take a Look Back at Game of Thrones (Part 1)

 

    Better late than never I suppose...

    Hey, it's been a while since I frequented this page, hasn't it?  I mean, basically ALL of Phase III of the MCU has happened, Kingdom Hearts III has finally happened, the Star Wars sequel trilogy is wrapped up and the world is quite literally on fire.  In between all of this, the most ambitious High Fantasy Television show ended it's run of dominance of HBO and basically all sorts of community forums and gatherings.  Whether you have seen Game of Thrones, or you have not, you cannot deny the impact it has had on popular culture.  How many kids were named for a character from this show, alone?  (I would personally love having a daughter named Arya).  And how many people know so many terms from this show without even seeing it?  (Khaleesi, King in the North, Dracarys, "Winter is Coming", The Red Wedding, King Joffrey, Dragons, Ice Zombies).  

    Of course, this show has become more famous for something else than it's popular terms and catchphrases: it's fall from grace.  Whether it was because of general fatigue, lack of source material to work from (as the infamous George RR Martin has not added to the primary book series this show was based off of since 2011), or that the heads were simply keen on doing something else with their lives, the only thing we know is that NO ONE was happy with how this once highly acclaimed and beloved series came to an end.  It left an empty feeling from the millions who watched it from all over the world and unceremoniously stumbled from it's pedestal instead of gracefully landing.  I suppose I should expect this at this point, though.  The only thing that ended in a truly superior ending in recent memory is the MCU, and that is still going (I was going to say Avatar: The Last Airbender, but Deetzy told me that it ended 12 years ago and I almost died).  

    But does the horrific ending to Game of Thrones ruin the preceding seasons?  Does knowing how it all ends poison what made the show's 7...uh...6...how bout 5?  Yeah, 5!  Does knowing how it all ends poison what made 5 of the show's 8 seasons so good?  Does it take away the memorable performances of superior actors like Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Charles Dance, Michelle Fairley and many others?  Well, don't you guys worry.  I'll be recapping each and every Season of Game of Thrones in an entry on this blog (I know I still have more to work on for my Animation History essays, but I REALLY don't want to sit through things like "Despicable Me", "The Lorax", "The Secret Life of Pets" or Beavis and Butthead (or whatever that platypus show on Disney was).  And in this one, we will be discussing each major plotline as it unfolds, while also talking about what made the particular season so interesting, both in terms of writing, acting and cinematography.  So let's start with the very first Season.  I hear that's a really good place to start...

Winter is Coming...(SPOILERS BECAUSE DUH!)

    Our story takes place within the confines of two fictional continents: Westeros and Essos.  Westeros is divided into Seven separate and geographically diverse kingdoms that were only united into one vast kingdom 300 years ago.  In Westeros, the ruling family is that of King Robert Baratheon, who has been the King since defeating the previous dynasty of the Targaryens.  But the once mighty King is on tenuous ground as politics and treason flows around him.  His realm had previously been held together by his Hand of the King (Grand Vizier), Lord Jon Arryn, but the Hand mysteriously died of an unknown illness and left the realm in the hands of a beleaguered Robert and his less than loyal in-laws of the power hungry House Lannister and disloyal brothers Renly and Stannis.  Seeking his last true friend left in the world, Robert takes his entire family to the far Kingdom of the North that is watched over by his close friend Lord Eddard (Ned) Stark.  Ned and his wife Catelyn have five children (Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon), their ward/captive Theon Greyjoy and Ned's alleged bastard son called Jon Snow.  Robert tries to convince Ned to take the role as Hand and help him rule the Seven Kingdoms between them (as they would have if Ned's sister lived, who was once Robert's betrothed), but Ned is reluctant to do so, until receiving a letter from Lord Arryn's widow claiming that her husband was murdered by the Queen and her family in court.  Ned takes the position and is rewarded by Robert as the King betroths his son and heir, Prince Joffrey to Ned's daughter Sansa, who is enamored with her prince.  While his father and the King were on a hunt, Bran Stark climbs up the walls of his favorite abandoned tower in their ancestral home of Winterfell, when he comes across Queen Cersei making love to her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard.  To buy the boy's silence, Jaime pushes the boy out the window to his supposed demise, but the boy survives and is in a coma.  

    So the Starks separate, with Ned taking his daughters with him to the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, King's Landing, Jon Snow heading to the Northern Border to serve in the famous Night's Watch, and Catelyn remaining behind in Winterfell with her sons and ward Theon Greyjoy.  Some time after the group departed for King's Landing and the Wall, a catspaw assassin attempts to take the life of Bran, but is thwarted by the boy's pet wolf, named Summer.  Catelyn decides to warn her husband and departs south in secret to meet with him.  

    Meanwhile, in Essos, the former King's last two children, Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, are living in exile and longing to reclaim their stolen kingdom.  Viserys sells his sister to a warlord named Khal Drogo to marry her and gain his infamous Dothraki armies to help them reclaim his throne.  Daenerys meets the exiled knight Ser Jorah Mormont and the mysterious Illyrio Mopatis, who gifts the new bride with three fossilized dragon eggs.  Dany at first struggles to adapt to being the wife of a foreign lord who doesn't understand her, but she soon discovers how to woo him and a love blossoms between them.  Jealous of his sister's popularity and Drogo's disinterest in leaving for Westeros, Viserys threatens Dany (who has since become pregnant with her and Drogo's child), which prompts Drogo to melt gold on his head and kill Viserys.  

    Ned struggles to adapt to being a diplomat while also investigating how and why Jon Arryn was murdered.  After he makes contact with Catelyn, Ned is determined to figure out why the Lannisters were acting the way they were.  While he comes across a few bizarre clues, including one of King Robert's bastard children (a young man named Gendry), he cannot put the clues he's gotten together.  His daughters are also finding it difficult to adapt to life in the capital, with Sansa doing her hardest to woo Prince Joffrey and Arya learning how to wield a sword with the help of a master swordsman from Essos.  While practicing a lesson she was taught, Arya overhears men plotting to kill her father and hurries to warn him.  Ned doubts the legitimacy of this, but is quickly diverted when he learns that Catelyn has taken the Queen's youngest brother, Tyrion Lannister (The Imp), as her prisoner.  In response to this, Jaime Lannister attacks Ned in the streets of King's Landing, with the skirmish ending in Ned being injured in his leg and his men being slaughtered.  Jaime flees to his father's domain and threatens Ned with more violence.  While recovering, Ned is ordered by Robert to cease his conflict with the Lannisters before war breaks out.  The King then leaves on a hunting trip, while Ned finally uncovers the truth that Robert and Cersei's children (Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella) are not Robert's children at all, but bastards of her brother Jaime.  Ned confronts the Queen about this and warns her that he would have to tell Robert, but the Queen acts fast and has the King's squire give Robert too much wine, which causes him to get gored by a wild boar.  As Robert lays dying, he asks Ned to protect his children and serve as Protector of the Realm until Joffrey was old enough.  Ned alters his will to say "My Rightful Heir" and prepares to send word to Robert's brother Stannis that he is the next in line to be King, spurning Robert's youngest brother Renly and the Master of Coin, Petyr Baelish (AKA Littlefinger) in the process.  Ned does his best to prevent the Lannisters from taking over, but is betrayed by Littlefinger and the City Watch and is arrested for treason against the new king, Joffrey.  Arya manages to escape the castle, but Sansa is put into protective custody by the Queen.  

    At the Wall, Jon Snow struggles to come to terms with his new life as a celibate guardian of the kingdom's northern border, while also learning to accept that The Night's Watch was not as noble as he had thought it to be, as it was now filled with the dregs of southern society and castaways from all over Westeros, including a plump, cowardly bookworm named Samwell Tarly.  He and his wolf pet, Ghost, do discover that a mysterious group of beings known as White Walkers (pretty much Ice Zombies) are back and preparing to march south on the rest of the world.  After saving the life of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, he is ingratiated into his service and is part of a Great Ranging beyond the Wall to find the White Walkers and find a way to defeat them.  

    After a failed assassination attempt on her life, Daenerys finally manages to convince her husband to prepare for an invasion of Westeros to give the Seven Kingdoms to their son.  Despite her eagerness to return home and become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, she is unable to accept the pillaging her husband's people do for her and does her best to protect them from pillaging.  This does not go over well with her husband's warriors, who challenge Drogo for control.  Drogo easily bests his challenger, but he is soon taken ill due to his wound becoming infected.  Dany trusts a witch she saved to heal Drogo, but she is betrayed as the witch uses a blood spell to not only numb Drogo, but to essentially kill Daenerys's unborn child.  Dany loses the control of her husband's people and is left behind with only a few slaves and stragglers, as well as Ser Jorah.  

    Sansa pleads for mercy for her father to Joffrey, who consents to be merciful if he takes back what he said about his "birthright" and bows before him.  Sansa agrees, unaware that her brother Robb is marching south with an army of Northern Soldiers to free his father and save his sisters.  After losing the youngest Lannister to a "Trial by Combat", Catelyn joins her son and aids in bringing on the powerful but often spurned House Frey by promising to marry Lord Frey's daughter to her son.  Robb then rides for battle against the Lannisters and surprises them by winning two great victories, even capturing Ser Jaime Lannister.  But there isn't much time to celebrate, as Joffrey betrays Sansa's trust (and the plans of every Lannister present) by demanding Ned's head.  After Lord Stark is executed, Sansa is kept in the castle as a prisoner and Arya escapes into the countryside alongside a Night's Watch recruiter and Gendry.  Robb is named King of the North by his people, who no longer wish to serve the Lannisters or Baratheons.  With their plans thrown awry and most of the nation in open rebellion, Lord Tywin Lannister (Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion's father) sends Tyrion to King's Landing to rein in Cersei and Joffrey, blaming them for their terrible situation.  

    Daenerys builds a pyre for Drogo and her dead son, with her followers tying the witch to it as well.  As she set it ablaze, Daenerys stuns everyone by walking into the fire with her fossilized eggs.  When the fire goes out, Dany emerges from the fire unharmed with three newborn dragons circling her.  

Continued in Part 2