The Panda's Running In-Depth Game of Thrones Commentary

[The Panda]

Hello, and as many know the (most likely) last full season of Game of Thrones is over leaving 1 1/2 more seasons to go.  I don't normally do long in-depth reviews or the likes of it, but I figured I'd give something like it a go.

 

I wanted to get a chance to re-watch the whole series from start to finish (with a full perspective of where everything is leading) and have an outlet thread to write my in-depth thoughts on thematic material, my thoughts on intention behind visual imagery, the good and the bad, etc.. 

 

After I watch each episode, I'm going to come here and post a full commentary/review of my thoughts for each episode in perspective.  

 

Also a note to the mods, if this thread would be better suited for the TV forum that's fine, id just like it as its own thread and not apart of the GOT one (mostly so I can go back and find these posts easier than if they got lost in the main show's mega thread).

[The Panda]

Season 1:  Episode 1 - Winter is Coming

 

 

Summary of the Episode

 

The episode begins north of the wall with a pivotal, eerie scene of foreshadowing of the things to come.  You see three men of the nights watch patrolling, and nearly instantly the scene turns into one of horror (one of the many different pieces of the genre mash-up that is Game of Thrones).  As the scene progresses, you see these three men get killed and slaughtered, similar to the way the creepy undead children and walking corpses were chopped into bloody bits.  Afterwards, we get our first introduction to the Starks of Winterfell, and one of the only chances in the show to see the family together and happy (so it's something to take pleasure in).  Shortly into the scene, good ol' Ned Stark is told there was a deserter and so he goes out with with his children for a nice friendly stroll and decapitation of the poor bloke who was just trying to not get his head chopped off by a crazy, blue-eyed ice zombie.  Ned and the Stark boys, taking their time trotting on back to Winterfell, encounter a bloodied Stag and dead Direwolf mom with six orphaned Direwolf pups.  Jon Snow, the bastard boy, talks Ned into not killing the poor puppies and letting each of the Stark children have one as a pet because of fate and omens and stuff like that.  Ned's then like, "Sure, but you get small, ugly one."

 

We then get a brief scene in King's Landing, starting with the corpse of Jon Arryn, the old Hand of the King, wearing ugly eyestone patches which is quite possibly the least fashionable way to have your body presented at a funeral, ever.  In the scene, we're also introduced to Queen Cersei and her brother Jaime, the two talk very vaguely in a way to keep the audience out, but the two of them in, giving a nice bit of intrigue that Game of Thrones does so well.

 

In the next scene, we get a nice little moment between Catelyn Stark, the wife of Ned, and good ol' Ned himself.  Cat tells Ned the news that Jon Arryn died, and now fat, old King Robert Baratheon is going to be paying a visit.  Ned's then like, "Dang it, he's probably going to make me the second most powerful man in the kingdom now."  Cut to the next scene, and Ned's right as Robert and Ned take a walk through the creepy Crypts.  Robert not only wants Ned to be the new hand of the king, but he wants his daughter Sansa to marry his little twat son Joffrey.  Also in the Crypts, we get some crucial backstory about Robert's Rebellion, way back, and how his true love, Ned Stark's sister Lyana Stark, was killed by the Targaryens, who Robert was famously rebelling against in his good ol' rebellion.

 

We then get a nice cut to Pentos, where we meet Daenerys Targaryen and her entitled twit brother, Viserys.  Viserys is still salty that he wants to be king, and obviously had daddy issues or something because the whine in his voice is so strong that there is no other possible conclusion to come to.  We then find out Viserys is marrying Dany off to a Dothraki War Lord in order to get an army to conquer the seven kingdoms.  He also feels up his sister and tells her he'd let 40,000 Dothraki and their horses rape her if it got him the throne, because he's a little ---- that's never going to get anywhere in life.  Also, Dany takes a steaming hot bubble bath.

 

We then get a nice party scene.  In the wild party scene, Sansa just wants to be a little princess to the little twat prince Joffrey.  Cersei also asks Sansa if she's ever had the womanly problems, and Sansa just looks confused, so she obviously hasn't.  Jon Snow sits outside the party, because he's the bastard boy, and he releases his brooding tension by hacking a way at a dummy while Tyrion Lannister, the imp child, offers some great advice, but all Jon hears is, "Bastard, bastard, bastard."  Benjen and Ned then have a little chat about White Walkers, the dude he decapitated, and other obviously not-important things.  Robert gropes up another woman, right in front of his wife Cersei, because he really just doesn't give a fuck.  Arya then gets sent to bed, because she was having a little too much fun at the party, starting food fights and all.

 

We then get a scene with Ned, Catelyn, and Maester Luwin learning that John Arryn didn't just fall over and died, the Lannisters conspired to kill him and are making a big power grab for the throne.  This complicates things, as Ned now feels more duty to go to King's Landing, but also has to fear that he may suffer the same fate as poor old Johnny.

 

We then get another crazy party scene of Dothraki dancing around, as well as taking turns killing and raping each other, you know, typical party affairs.  Viserys continues to whine, because he really doesn't know how to have any fun.  We also meet Jorah Mormont, who gives Dany some books as a present, and because those are really lame gifts, Jorah is instantly put into the friendzone.  Dany then puts aside the small present and says, "I want the big one!", so some dude opens a box and there's three stone dragon eggs that will obviously never hatch dragons because they're stone, duh.  Dany then rides off on her new pony with her new husband and gets raped gruesomely on a cliff.

 

We then get our final scene of the episode, with Ned riding off to King's Landing.  Bran Stark, Ned's second youngest son, decides he's going to climb up a hundred foot wall to see his father off, but ends up seeing Cersei getting the nasty on with her brother Jaime instead.  Jaime then shoves Bran out the window, because nobody likes child actors.

 

The Positives and Negatives of the Episode

 

Winter is Coming is the definition of a set-up episode, mostly because it is literally setting the entire series up.  But despite this, there's a lot to love about this pilot episode.  While, it is a bit stale to go back to this episode after you've seen the rest of the series, you have to take into consideration how much it really did.  This episode introduces a large number of the main characters on the show, and it does it in a rather short amount of time.  Not only that but it gives you a lot of exposition in digestible chunks, and in ways to further develop the characters that it introduces.

 

You automatically gain an attachment to the Starks of Winterfell, and you can just look at Lannisters and already get a distaste for them.  In all honesty, the only bad things about this episode are Peter Dinklage's hairdo, the fact that it is noticeably on a lower budget compared to the rest of the series, and some of the younger actors have yet to grow into their roles like they do later in the series.

 

While the episode is definitely not one of the most exciting on the show, minus the thrilling opening sequence, it brings up a lot of intrigue and fully pulls you into the world, making you want to learn more.  And that is exactly what a pilot episode should do.  If this episode didn't work, than the series wouldn't have worked, and this episode works.  It is packed to the brim with information that carefully foreshadows and lays the foundation for the rest of the series to come.  

 

 

The Stag and the Direwolf

 

One of the big things in the episode that I want to talk about is the great foreshadowing with the Stag and the Direwolf.  While obviously the scene is foreshadowing a dead Ned leaving behind six orphaned children, killed shortly after a dead Robert (who the Stag represents), it isn't so obvious the first time watching.  The scene sets up a careful thematic element of the animal sigils for each house representing them, as a classic fantasy element.  In this case, the six direwolf pups are literally representing the Stark children and their identities as a Stark.  When the direwolf dies, so does the Stark's identity.  For example, when Lady dies in the following episode, it is a symbol for Sansa losing her Stark identity as she goes into the mess of politics of King's Landing.  Nymeria running away, is Arya hiding from her Stark identity, trying to take on the identities of others (until not until much later in the series, she rediscovers herself as Arya Stark).  Shaggydog and Greywind dying are precursors to a literal death of Robb and Rickon.  Summer's death represents Bran losing his identity as a Stark as he becomes the Three Eyed Raven in the Wars to Come.

 

The series itself is very much about death and identity, and this is the first set up for those themes that are heavily layered throughout Game of Thrones.

 

Ned's Decision

 

Another scene in-particular I wanted to talk about, was Ned's decision on whether to stay in Winterfell or go to King's Landing.  The scene is a brilliantly shot sequence over Ned having to choose between Family and Duty/Honor (the two cores to his being).  You have Cat to his left representing family (and she, as a character, is very much about that ideal) and Luwin on the right representing duty and honor.  Ultimately Ned chooses what is honorable for the good of the kingdom, and honorable for his house, and decides to go to King's Landing.  I thought this was an excellent choice on the director of the episode's part to highlight this decision, as it parallels with Ned's other big decision to come at the end of the season.  This decision also highlighted the duality of the show, the ice and the fire.  The show's themes and plot elements are very much dual in nature.  In a way, it's a take on the old fantasy trope of good and evil, or in this case, of the devil and the angel on your shoulder.  Only in Game of Thrones it twists those tropes, neither the ice or the fire are good nor evil.  Both decisions are neither selfish or unselfish in nature.  By blending the nature of duality we get on large shade of grey, and Ned's decision is the first of many grey streaks to come.

 

"Winter is Coming"

 

I, of course, have to talk about the pivotal theme of the episode, and that is that Winter is Coming.  In this case, it's a reference to the motto of house Stark and Ned's infamous line.  Winter is literally coming, as we see in the opening with White Walkers, and there will be no happiness in that.  On a thematic level, it's a foreshadowing that the worst is still to come, and that this is just the beginning, so the audience better prepare.  And further on, it's a commentary about humanity in general.  We can never live a life in the summer, those happy moments of unity the Stark children share together, will come to an end and winter will come.  No matter what good eras may dawn in history, they won't last and the dreaded eras of strife and desperation will come again.  It's another nature of duality, in order for there to be good in a life, one must experience the bad in order to be able to appreciate the good.  When humanity stops remembering and appreciating the good, the bad comes again in a cycle from man failing to remember their mistakes of the past.  Winter is coming, and the dead come with it.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, Winter is Coming is a very iconic episode in the series.  There is so much meat to it, even if that meat doesn't feel as substantial once you come back to revisit it.  The show throws you into a world of chaos and expects you to follow along.

 

Grade: A

 

Edited July 1, 2016 by The Pandaren

[The Panda]

Season 1: Episode 2 - The Kingsroad

 

 

Summary of the Episode

 

The Narrow Sea Stuff

 

The Episode opens with Dany riding off on a road, eating some horse jerkey and then she steps off her horse and is like, "Oy, my butt hurts!"  Then Jorah is all like, "It's all good mate, the raping will get it easier."  It is then revealed that Jorah used to partake in the triangle trade and Viserys, like the little douche he is, says, "When I'm king, you can sell all the dudes you want."  The scene continues with another shot of Drogo raping Dany, this time while she's staring at those stone dragon eggs that are obviously never going to hatch.  Later on in the episode, Dany talks to her handmaidens and looks at one and is like, "You're the hot one, you should teach me how to have sex and stuff."  The handmaiden is all like, "I gotchu."  We then get two back to back sex scenes, one a motivational, lesbian, practice one, and the other where Dany rides the Khal like the Khaleesi she is.

 

Everything Else

 

We start off with getting an incredibly satisfying scene of Tyrion slapping the little twat Prince Joffrey not once, not twice, but three times.  Tyrion proves himself to be the coolest lion of the batch, although the competition isn't that high.  We then continue to see proof that Tyrion is the best Lannister as he enrages Queen Cersei by telling naughty jokes to her children.  We also receive confirmation from Tyrion that Bran is expected to live from his nasty fall, and this makes Jaime and Cersei all queasy because they don't want Bran to leak their sex tape.  

 

Cersei pays Cat a visit, and tells a fake lie about her abortion so Cat will feel sorry for her and the like.  Cersei then continues to lie by saying she'll pray for Bran.  Yeah right Cersei, we all know you don't want that sex tape leaked.

 

We then get a nice scene of Jon giving Arya a little toothpick, and is like, "Careful with that!  You might poke somebody!"  They then give the most satisfying hug on the show you'll see until season 6.  Jon continues his goodbyes by going to give Bran a farewell, but Cat is still a little salty that he's not her kid, so she's like, "Get out you little Bastard!  Nobody likes you!"  Jon then goes off to brood somewhere else.  Ned then goes to say goodbye to Cat, but she's still a little salty that her kid is unconscious, which is slightly understandable.

 

Ned then gets a quick scene with Jon where he gives the biggest troll of all time and says, "I'll talk to you about your mum when I see you again."  Dang it, Ned.

 

We then see a nice little chat with Ned and Robert, where a lot of exposition is given about Lyanna Stark and Rheagar Targaryen, it's almost like these two, dead characters could have some relevance in the future!  Robert also finds out that Daenerys is married to a Dothraki Khal and wants to go murder her, but Ned is like, "Chill dude, like even your wife poses more of a threat to you than her."

 

Cat is then nearly killed off by a creepo assassin, until the Direwolf she had been telling to shut up earlier goes and saves her and Bran by ripping the old dude to shreds.  Good boy, Summer.  I'm sure Bran will give you a nice treat when he wakes up.  Cat then goes to the Pocahontas tree and gathers everyone telling them she thinks the Lannisters are trying to kill Bran, and Theon and Rob are like, "Let's go to war!"  But Luwin talks some sense in to them, and Cat decides she should go on the Kingsroad to tell Ned of her discovery.

 

We then get a nice little scene of Jon and Tyrion having a little chat about being unwanted children and such.  Tyrion seems to be over it, but Jon is still brooding about it.  Jon also learns that maybe the Night's Watch isn't that grand of a plan after all, given that all of the other recruits are rapists and thieves and such.  They also see the wall and make a Donald Trump joke.

 

We then get our final sequence of the episode where Joffrey acts all fake to Sansa, but Sansa is still twelve and is still naive and everything.  Joffrey quickly shows his true colors by terrorizing Arya and the butcher's boy until Nymeria comes in and bites his hand.  Arya then takes his sword, point it at him, and tosses it in the river, because Arya's the cool sibling.  Joffrey then throws a hissy-fit to his mommy and daddy.  Cersei decides to take the opportunity to show Ned that she hates everything, and Robert simply doesn't care so he's like, "Yeah, go gut the wolf."  Ned goes and kills Lady, and Bran wakes up.

 

 

The Good and the Bad

 

This is another episode that I really don't have any problems with.  In fact, I actually preferred this episode on re-watch than Winter is Coming.  The Kingsroad picks up where the pilot left off, and is full of strong material.  This episode is much less exposition, and is a lot more character development and worldbuilding.  While it might seem slow the first time you watch the series, in all actuality there's a lot that happens, and it's amazing how they fit it all in so neatly.  Again, the only real negatives about the episode are Peter Dinklage's season 1 hairdo, and Sophie Turner's acting (which thankfully gets better as the series progresses).  This episode masterfully foreshadows so much of what is to come in the series, and also starts to reveal the tone that the series is going to have.  Not to mention, there are a lot of heart-touching moments in this, especially upon re-watch (such as Jon and Arya's scene).

 

The Trope-Busting Begins

 

This is the first episode of the series to really begin the trope-busting of conventional fantasy and story tropes that makes Game of Thrones so famous.  Some of theme are incredibly subtle, that it's very easy to miss.  For example, typically in the fantasy genre the Lion is something used to convey nobility and honor, while the Wolf is usually conniving and sinister.  This trope is turned on its head, it appears Ned (the Wolf) is the only guy with real honor in the show, while the Lion is the backstabbing beast lurking in the shadows.  

 

Another small trope that is broken in this episode is the idea of prince charming, or the knight in shining armor.  Both Jaime and Joffrey are revealed to be much less than their appearances would typically give off in a conventional fantasy genre.  Joffrey is supposed to be Prince Charming, but he is actually revealed to be a little twat.  Jaime gives off a handsome knight vibe, but he is really the Kingslayer who's only looking out for his self-interest.

 

Ned and the World of Violence

 

We see in the final sequence that Ned is thrust into a violent world, moreso than we did from the pilot episode.  I quite like the ending sequence where you just see the disbelief on Ned's face at how everyone around him dealt with a spat between a few children in such a gruesome and political manner.  In a way, this makes Ned the viewers gateway into the world, we are seeing the world in the way Ned is seeing it.  A child being ran down and murdered, killing a girl's pet for no reason other than a queen wanting others to feel the pain she does, it's just the beginning of the horror show and it's powerful to see that realization in Ned at the same moment a new viewer may be having that realization.

 

The Road

 

The main theme of the Kingsroad is the beginning of the journey that all of the characters are going on.  The most notable is Ned on the Kingsroad, and his realization that the destination isn't going to be as fanciful as one might think of a place called, 'King's Landing'.  Jon Snow begins his road to the Wall, and he is also given a realization that the Wall isn't going to be the noble order that he thought it was.  Sansa begins her metaphorical journey as a character as she is given her first hint that this journey might not lead to happy-ever after princess story she thought it would.  Daenerys begins her journey to learning how to take control where she can, and hatching out of her egg.  Catelyn starts her path on the road to discovering what exactly is going on, and it might lead her to false conclusions.  All in all, everyone takes paths and roads in life expecting a certain destination, or maybe none at all, only to find that what they were expecting isn't quite the reality, yet they take the road anyways, for better or for worse.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The Kingsroad is a riveting second episode with strong world and character building, helping introduce the viewers into what exactly this show is going to be.

 

Grade: A

Edited July 1, 2016 by The Pandaren

[The Panda]

Season 1: Episode 3 - Lord Snow

 

 

Summary of the Episode

 

The Dany Stuff

 

Across the Narrow Sea, Dany tells all of her buff body guards to hold the boat for a second.  Doing so pisses Viserys off a bit, it's to bad he's not the popular kid in school.  Viserys throws a hissy fit saying things like, "Wah, wah wah, I'm the king!"  Like he was such a pussy in this episode he made Prince Twat's (AKA Joffrey) whining seem like the stuff of Hercules.  Later on, another one of Dany's servant girls feels up Dany's boob and is like, "Hey girl, just a little squeeze, and I could tell you were preggo!"  Dany then goes and tells Drogo about it, and he's just like, "That's wassup."

 

Up at the Wall

 

We get our first introduction to Castle Black this episode and it starts off with Johnny messing some fools up.  Thorne isn't really all that impressed though and is just like, "Yeah, so what?"  The new recruits aren't so happy about this though, and they go to bully poor old Jon, it's a good thing Tyrion comes in and saved the day, otherwise Melisandre would have been way late to res up poor old Jon.  Tyrion then points out to Jon that just maybe he could lighten up the brooding attitude and play a little nicer with the boys if he wants to them to stop bullying him.

 

Later on, at Castle Black, Uncle Benjen and Jon Snow have a little chat up at the top of the wall.  Benjen's like, "You can't be entitled, dude."  Jon just looks at him and broods a little.  Benjen then lets him know he's going to go off on a little stroll North of the Wall the next morning, and would totally be back.  Classic, Uncle Benjen, he's hilarious, isn't he?  Before Benjen leaves, he decides to go knock Tyrion on the head a little and tells him only dweebs don't believe in climate change ice spiders, white walkers, giants, and other such things.  Jeor Mormont and Maester Aemon then do a two-face a little later and are like, "Yeah, please go get us some help so we don't all die or something like that."  Tyrion then proceeds to take a piss off the wall for good laughs, Jon then sneaks up on him and tells him he's going to miss him.

 

Winterfell

 

Bran wakes up at Winterfell and Old Nan is telling him creepy stories but she then gets angry when Robb barges in right before the big punch.  Robb's then like, "Silly, old Nan, she's a Giant Earther!"  Bran then finds out he'll never walk again and is super depressed.

 

Tommen's  King's Landing

 

The episode actually opens at King's Landing with Ned and Jaime having a little bit of a verbal face off.  Jaime is still a little salty that Ned thinks he's lying, backstabbing, conniving little Kingslayer with no honor and lets him know about it.  Ned just shrugs it off and goes on to his meeting where he finds out Robert's blowing credit card after credit card on tournaments, feasts, wine, and such.   

 

Cersei then has a little chat with Joffrey and the little twat continues to show that he deserves the title of Prince Twat.  Joffrey goes on to talk nonsense about taxation without representation, enslaving the natives, and other backwards, prejudice stuff.  Cersei then slaps some sense into the little twat, before she then does a two face and is like, "Nah, we'll just go a different route."  

 

Arya is still a little upset at Sansa because it was partly her fault her friend got murdered and the likes, and Sansa just thinks Arya is immature.  Ned tries to calm things down by giving Sansa a toy, but she's still in her pre-teen stage and just doesn't like toys anymore.  Ned then goes and has an emotional chat with Arya, and then is like, "By the way, you keep that little sewing stick of yours."

 

Cat and Roderick then arrive in King's Landing only for Littlefinger to come in and bring her to his brothel for 'safety reasons', Cat gets offended at first but decides it's the least she can do for friendzoning the guy.  Cat then finds out from Varys (who was also hiding in the magic Brothel) and finds out that the dagger belonged to Tyrion Lannister.  Littlefinger then goes to get Ned, and Ned starts choking him for bringing him to his Brothel, until Cat pops her head out the window and is like, "Yo, Neddo, don't kill Lt. Friendzone over there!"  The three of them then make a little pact to get to the bottom of this assassination mess.

 

We then get a little Cersie and Jaime scene, where Jaime is all like, "I'm gonna kill that 10 year old for you if he opens his mouth!"  Later on, Robert is still drunk and wants to tell War Stories with his Kingsguard while he verbally degrades them.  Robert then asks Jaime some embarrassing stuff about kingslaying, Jaime then reveals that the Mad King was quite an arson, and walks right out of there.

 

The episode ends with Arya getting some Karate Kid lessons from Syrio Forell while good ol' Eddard stands to the side and watches.

 

 

Positives and Negatives of the Episode

 

Lord Snow is a very exposition filled episode, and it is cram-packed with important information for the future of the series.  While the episode is definitely a bit slow, and a bit boring compared to later episodes, it's also quite full of subtle character and plot developments important to the future of the series.  Every scene plays out quite nice, if not uneventfully, and you start to get a very clear idea of who these main characters are and what they stand for.  It's also nice to see some interactions between Jon Snow and Tyrion, and interactions between a few of the other characters.

 

There are plenty of seeds planted that are fun to ponder on when you have a full scope of the story, and everything is portrayed in about the most effective manner they could with what story they wanted told this episode.  There isn't much wrong with this episode, it just can kind of feel like a chore you have to sit through in order to get to the good stuff that'll come later on.  It's the vegetables before the dessert.

 

Honor vs. Necessity

 

There's a nice little theme going on in this episode of honor vs. necessity, and it starts off from the beginning.  You see the two staunchly opposing views from Ned and Jaime in the opening scene in their discussion about Jaime's killing of the Mad King.  Ned argues that the killing had no honor, as it was Jaime's duty to protect that king at all costs, as he was a member of the Kingsguard.  Jaime argues that was it not right to sacrifice his honor in order to save the population of the city from a king who could only say, "Burn them all."  It's an interesting theme throughout the show that what is right is not always honorable, and what is honorable is not always the right decision.  We live in a society where people can become so caught up in their honor and integrity that sometimes they refuse to take the most practical and effective solutions in order to deal with a crisis.

 

Family and Unity

 

While this may be a rather simplistic theme, it is one of the major ideas portrayed within this episode.  Both the Stark family and the Lannister family emphasize to each other in different scenes the importance of sticking together.  Despite the mistakes other family members make, in order for their house to stay strong they have to be unified and together.  Throughout the show there are moments where houses divide and splinter, and it's when the disunity happens that others come and pick them apart.  Even in the Stark house, one that seems the most unified throughout the series, characters split apart from each other, go behind one members back, and so forth.  When there is no unity, a group, or a family, loses their strength.

 

Role Reversals

 

The major theme in this episode is that titles, roles, and social status have all turned on our characters at this point in our story.  Across the Narrow Sea, Viserys who had previously made the marriage arrangement to have his own army has now found himself equal to one of the army's slaves.  Daenerys has found herself in a position of power and strength over her brother for likely the first time in her life, and you can tell in the scene she is stricken by the fact that she is now in control.  Jon Snow has found that his heritage as a noble no longer matters, he is no longer Lord Snow, and he has to learn how to adapt as an equal to peasants, rapists, and thieves.  Ned Stark has found himself going from Winterfell, a place the is all about honor, to King's Landing, where honor has no value at all.  Ned is finding himself in a position where he has to learn with people who are backstabbing, seeking their self-interest, and have little responsibility for their actions.  Bran, a character who's feet defined him in the first episode, finds that he now has to learn to live without those feet.  Cersei talks to Joffrey about how to reverse bad situations and make them work for yourself in responsible and intelligent ways.  Overall, the episode is about learning how to adapt to your new situations and environments, and how to survive when life strips what was once familiar away from you.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Lord Snow is an effective episode that introduces you to a large cast of new characters, and feeds you a lot of exposition and character development.  It's a solid episode, but can feel a little lackluster simply because the amount of straight new information it gives you is on the higher side, and it can be a bit much to take in within a single sitting.  There isn't really anything wrong with the episode, as the information is gives plants the seeds for not just the rest of the season but seasons to come, but it isn't as good of a watch as other episodes in the season.

 

Grade: A-

 

[4815162342]

I'll start looking at these over the weekend

[Kalo]

by the time I get done reading these I may have actually watched season 6!

[4815162342]

Panda have you read up about the original filmed pilot (with Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark, Tamzin Merchant as Dany, etc)?

 

Apparently it was pretty damn dire so they did a ton of reshoots, recast Dany, and when Ehle couldn't come back recast Catelyn as well. The original pilot was filmed several months (at least) before the reshot one, which means you can see some of the Stark kids noticeably get older/younger from scene to scene.

[CoolioD1]

directed by tom mccarthy too. guess he was in the cobbler mode that week.

 

btw lol at these reviews so far. tag me when u get to one where you ain't dick riding 

[The Panda]

8 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

directed by tom mccarthy too. guess he was in the cobbler mode that week.

 

btw lol at these reviews so far. tag me when u get to one where you ain't dick riding 

 

So because I enjoy the entire series overall and find it quality, I'm dickriding because I have positive things to say about it?

 

12 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

Panda have you read up about the original filmed pilot (with Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark, Tamzin Merchant as Dany, etc)?

 

Apparently it was pretty damn dire so they did a ton of reshoots, recast Dany, and when Ehle couldn't come back recast Catelyn as well. The original pilot was filmed several months (at least) before the reshot one, which means you can see some of the Stark kids noticeably get older/younger from scene to scene.

 

I've heard bits and pieces about it, and you can notice it partly in the episode if you're looking for it.  I'm glad Cat got recast, because Fairley is great in the role.

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14 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

directed by tom mccarthy too. guess he was in the cobbler mode that week.

 

Guess he now has to shit out all the bad impulses on a current project to make the next film a good one. Bad pilot = the solid Win Win. The Cobbler = Spotlight.