A Game of Thrones 1.10: "Fire and Blood"

Well it has been a while since the amazing finale of Game of Thrones.  I developed an obsession with "The Hunger Games" trilogy and have been reading them 2x over, and writing about them in my LJ. But back to my fave books, and the series. The next book comes out this week people! wahoo! I will get mine from Amazon by the end of the week, and the first one is about Dany. I am beyond excited.

Anyway, overall I was very pleased with the entire series. I will do another post about that as well. I am also glad that they are keeping it as "Game of Thrones", instead of naming it after each book. It will definitely keep things easier in terms of character development of people like Jaime Lannister and Margery Tyrell (I can't wait! My fave Ann Boleyn is in!) and even Brienne.


So since this is about the last episode:

Arya

Now named Arry, as she has been saved by Yoren, of the Nightswatch. To see her little face as she is picked up, seeing her father's body being dragged away and his head in the air, was horrible. She was blank; notice she never shed a tear, she just looked terrified. But she bucked up quickly, as she looks terrified and speechless as Yoren cuts her hair. Yoren tells her why she must act like a boy and that she could be raped or worse, if anyone found out who she was or that she was a girl. He is going to take her to the Wall, which is excellent, as in the books all she is trying to do is make her way to the Wall, and Jon.

So we see her get picked on for the first time, and our girl, whips out that sword and tell the fatboy to lay off. We love you Arya!  Looks like Syrio Forrel's lessons really were starting to take, and it was awesome. As we know one thing Arya hates, is being told what to do. Then we notice that Gendry has joined the crowd, which I am sure Ned had arranged because he is potential heir to the throne if Renly and Stannis die.  It is hard to miss him as apparently, according to Ned, he looked almost exactly like Robert did when he was that age, so if your head was in the place of the Lannisters, you would want him ten feet under. He comes to Arya's aid, and asks her about the sword, but you can tell he knows something is up, not only by her speech (which is also different because she is literate), but where the sword was made. So we see our Arya has her first ally.

 Also non-readers, take note of the man in the wagon who was completely hooded. The moment was brief but he is very important!

The funny thing about Arya, is that she is a fighter, and now and forever she will fight her way to Jon. She is smart, and she also suffers a great deal, but it is rare that she sheds a tear. She is one of my favorite charachters, and I hope that she gets to Jon, but I have a feeling she has her own destiny to fulfill before their reunion.

Sansa
Since we are talking about the execution of Ned, we need to talk about Sansa; who is now a prisoner and subject to continued beatings by Joffrey.  I still do not find her to be the smartest of the Stark children, but she does as she is told, and that's how she survives. She eventually (later books), develops, into a person who has stockholm syndrome (just my opinion). She never tries to escape; only a weak attempt in the next book, but it does not work out.

Poor Sansa; she is also able to witness up close and personal, the gory death of her father, and passes out. So she shows emotion, processes what has happened and knows she could be killed at Joffrey's whim. She has finally figured out that little King Sociopath Joffrey, is just that, a sociopath. It is interesting to see her with eyes swollen from crying, watching him laugh and have fun deciding to pull out the singer's tongue.  If you are not aware, the Mad King had Ser Ilyn's tongue removed with hot pincers, which is why Joffrey says he would be the best person to do it.  I mean seriously, King Sociopath walks out like he's done nothing, even as the minstrel is screaming, and choking on blood. Even Cersei looks mortified; and I have talk about her later as I just am not pleased with her at all in this series. She knows she is screwed, and has a monster for a son. I also think she knows Daddy will be very displeased.

King Sociopath is followed around by this one Knight who does his beating of Sansa for him.  The Hound, who manages to, in his own way keep Sansa alive by talking sense into her. It's in little bits and pieces, but he does it, as he feels sorry for her.  So King Sociopath takes Sansa out to see her father's head on a spike as well as her Septa's. Joffrey assures her that he will be giving her another gift: Robb's head on a spike.  Sansa says that he said he would be merciful, and he said he gave him a clean death; crazy fool.  Then, shockingly she says maybe Robb will put his head on a spike. (she got a slap for that). Poor Sansa he makes her look at the heads "for as long as I want you too"; it is so sad, and so disgusting.

Sansa refuses to look at the heads, but she is forced to by the Knight who beats her for Joffrey.  So now comes the scene that I did not like, because Sansa never had the guts to do what they imply here. I believed she was going to push Joffrey and go with him; so she would commit suicide and kill her father's murderer.  The Hound saves her from even doing it. but book Sansa would not even have thought to do this as she was so scared and horrified at this moment. However, I did like how she looks up at the heads by herself after Joffrey leaves, and  you finally see some anger in her eyes.

The KIng of the North: Robb Stark


Robb who is becoming more adorable by the day, is obviously devastated by the death of his father. Catelyn, who becomes a strong force in the war, manages to walk through the soldiers an then breakdown in the forest. But she sees Robb tears streaking down his face hitting his sword against a tree. She hugs him as he is saying "I'll kill them all", and Catelyn the rockstar says "No. We'll get your sisters back, and then we'll kill them all.".

Cat is ready to seek vengeance

Now this scene and the next one are almost identical to what happens to Jon at the wall. Both he and Robb have moments of grief, need comfort, and we see how young they really are. This is why I like the scene of him crying at the tree, and then crying on his mother's shoulder. But then suddenly they are men. Here, the Lords cannot decide who to support, Renly or Stannis. No one likes either choice so the Greatjohn, decides they should go back to the old ways, and have their own King.  He declares Robb, "King of the North". Robb is shocked as Theon, and all the bannermen kneel to him.

Wait, I'm King now? 

Oh, and we can't forget Jaime Lannister; tied up to pole, bloody, sexy, and making lewd comments to Lady Catelyn. Well, she smashes his face with a rock, to make herself feel better about Ned, and she learns about Bran. Cat asks why he pushed Bran off the ledge, and he won't answer. Well, that's what Jaime does; protect his lover.

It seems the show will slowly reveal the Jaime of later books. At first I did not fully approve with how they were handling Jaime, but now I really like it. Why? Because I realized although Jaime has done some really, bad things, they are already showing him as a morally conflicted character; also a lonely one. Especially when he looks at Catelyn, and says "you'd better get some rest, it's going to be a long war", in a tired voice, and then looks away.

Now the stakes are higher than ever, and Robb says good bye to his youth, and as I said earlier, we see Robb the King. A good one at that; but he is his father's son, something that might be good, or might be bad. We saw what all those good deeds were punished, and an honorable and good man was murdered for it. But now everyone wants revenge for Ned's death, and that crowning Robb King, was the best way to do it.  So now we have yet another king. So let's see, we have: Stannis, Renly, Joffrey and Robb! Things are going to go to crap and winter really is coming.

The Wall
Well, as we have seen Jon and Robb, are on that tipping point of being young, but are also becoming men. We see them both have reactions that teens would have; ie. Robb telling his mother she can't send him home, crying his eyes out at the death of his father, and hugging his mother. Jon, running without thinking, to help his best friend, his brother, but then realizing it was impulsive: this is how a teenager would react. But then we see Jon, the man, as we see Robb the man as he is crowned King of the North.

So, the adorable Jon has learned about the death of his father, and that his brother is fighting for the North. He decides to run, and reminds Sam, that he knows more than he does about what happens to oathbreakers, and off he goes with Ghost.  As he is very skillfully ducking branches and rides away, his friends chase after him, and Sam falls off of his horse. So Jon goes back, as he did take an oath, and he did not want his friends to become oath breakers.

The next morning, while serving Commander Mormont, the Commander tells him that he knows about his little midnight ride.  He also mentions honor, to which Jon replies that his friends brought him back, not honor; teenager.  This is when, we also see Jon's wounded hand, it is all red from the burning of the wight.  Commander Mormont, gives Jon a real talking too and here we see Jon the teen:

"No." (Poor Jon, he's been a bad boy.) 

I love Jon Snow in the books, and the fact they made him so damn hot, is such a HUGE bonus;  can you tell I love him? His photo is pretty much everywhere.

I digress: So Mormont says to him your father is dead, there is nothing you can do, nor can you help your brother in his war. Then he says "do you think that our war, and the danger we are about to face, is more important than your brothers'/fathers'?" Jon says "no", (shamefully). The Commander basically says what makes him so special, that he thinks that he can help his brother or dead father? (sniff!) Mormont says, "Good, as we are going beyond the wall to find out what is really going on. And you and your wolf need to come with me."  I love this because I have always felt since the moment he got to the wall, it was decided that he would become the next Commander. I don't know why, but I also always felt that Maestor Aemon knew other secrets, especially those about Jon.

I digress: The next scene is Jon, leaving with the Rangers, and men of the wall, to go out and face the wildlings, the Others, find his Uncle, and face whatever dangers are out there. And so we see Jon, the man, w/Longclaw visibly at his side. We also see the hard look on his face, which sadly, will never go away:

Come and get me; I'm ready for a fight. 

The Lannisters
Well, Lord Tywin is having a freak out, or as much as he can freak out, that Jaime, has been captured.  Most of his advisors, including Ser Kevan, realize they are losing the war, and they need to regroup, and go back to Casterly Rock. But Tywin keeps ranting on about Jaime, and we know how he feels about looking weak.


Someone suggests a peace might be brokered with the Young Wolf?  And, Tyrion throws a glass on the ground, saying " There's your peace. Joffrey saw to that when he decided to take off Ned Starks head.".  So naturally a trade is not an option; so Lord Tywin asks all to exit except for Tyrion.   Who he surprisingly tells to go to Kings Landing! Tyrion is like what? Naturally after all the abuse he's taken from his father, this is certainly a change.  His father even says, that he is surprised to see that Tyrion is not the fool he thought all this time. I was wondering where the hell has Tywin been? He really ignored him so much, he never noticed? Lord Tywin is a harsh man, but also a smart one. But we saw how he pushed the wine away from Tyrion's grasp when he first arrived at camp; so maybe he did ignore his existence.

So, notice Tyrion's surprise:

Tyrion is like what me? Kings Landing? 

Lord Tywin tells him to rule as Hand in his stead, and kill any traitors, or do anything he needs to do to keep Joffrey under control, and to watch Cersei as well.  So, when we next see Tyrion, he will be Hand of the King.


Daenerys Stormborn, Khaleesi
First up, what is it about Ser Jorah, and Dany in this series that is so hot? And so creepy in the books?

Sexy Ser Jorah

Anyway, so Dany finds out the witch deceived her, and killed her baby. She also sees what she got from the witch, who says to her, "I told you, you must pay for life with death" to be followed by another lovely comment a bit later. Dany finds Drogo, and he is basically in a coma, lying in the sun, without life. Dany asks when he will be as he was? The witch said "when the sun sets in the east, and rises in the west"; ouch.  Dany does not understand why she did this, and she learns an important lesson.  She learns that the witch, she naively thought she saved, had already been raped three times. They were a peaceful people, and she saw her church burn, and her friends dead. She tells Dany, there will be no more rapes and no stallion who will mount the world. Dany decides that now she will die.  So she takes her love, and spent her last moments with him in their bed. Then, I think bravely, as she weeps, smothers Dhrogo, the love of her young life.

So, now that she knows she has lost everything, Dany knows what she must do. She frees whomever is left behind, and then does something miraculous and awesome. She puts on her wedding dress, and puts her sun and stars on a pyre, with the dragon eggs. She knows she won't burn, but she ties the witch to the pyre and watches her burn.  Ser Jorah, who we already know is in love w/Dany, and looking sexy, says he will not watch her burn. But she kisses him lightly, and walks into the pyre, and so the Targaryen mythology of having the blood of the dragon comes true. Dany does not burn, she rises out of the ashes, unburnt and with 3 baby dragons clinging to her body. Ser Jorah finds her, as do her bloodriders, and swear allegiance to her when they see this:

and so it begins...

See you next year!

*All Quotes and Images owned by HBO's "Game of Thrones"