It’s back! Can you believe it’s been almost a whole year since we last left the Westeros realm? During that time the hype hasn’t died down any and we’ve all been clambering at the bit, excitedly waiting for Game of Thrones to return. Happily our not so patient waiting is finally over as season five has finally landed.
One of the best things about the show is of course the audience participation, we love to talk about Game of Thrones. THN will be here every week post UK transmission to chat about all the inevitable twists, turns and tragic deaths in our Blog of Thrones.
Be warned, only read on if you have seen the first episode of season five as this article contains spoilers.
Writers: David Benioff, D. B Wiess
Directors: Michael Slovis
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gwendoline Christie
Synopsis: Cersei and Jaime adjust to a world without Tywin. Varys reveals a conspiracy to Tyrion. Daenerys faces a new threat to her rule and Jon is caught between two kings.
So it’s only episode one and we’ve already had a death. Last year we had to wait until the second episode for Joffrey to bite (drink) it, but this year they’ve kicked things off even earlier with the death of Mance Rider, everyone’s favourite extra-Northern Wildling leader. If they continue this tradition we’ll be getting a death in the season six trailer. That, or season six will open with one.
Before Mance’s demise we were treated to an opening sequence that was set in the past. The fifth season opened with two young girls walking through the woods to visit a psychic. You didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that we were watching a scene from Cersei’s past; the poor woman, it appears, has had the same hairstyle forever. Her visit with the bloodsucking soothsayer shed some interesting light onto current proceedings as we realised that everything that she was told has come to pass. The almost Snow White magic mirror declaration that a fairer and younger women would steal everything from her fully explains Cersei’s reactions to both Sansa and Margaery. In the present however, she has to contend with the death of her father, and also has the additional torment of knowing that her brother (and lover) Jaime set her other brother Tyrion, who murdered their dad, free.
The Mother of Dragons is currently dragon-less. The biggest of her trio Drogon struck off on its own during season four after killing a child. Realising that she was losing control she made the heart-breaking decision to chain the other two up. If tonight’s show is anything to go by, she’s not been back since and they’re more than a little angry with her. Has she lost them for good?
Cosplay alert! It’s a new season, which can mean only one thing, Daenerys has a new outfit. She’s shed the popular blue number in favour of soothing white and flowing. I fully expect to see some ladies wandering around the hall at this years London Film and Comic Con in the new costume. The end of season four saw Daenerys turn her attention from the Iron Throne in favour of ruling her newly acquired city of Meereen. This new venture however, seems to be suffering from some teething problems, the death of one of her unsullied committed by faction Sons of the Harpy pointing to problems to come. Help could be on the way though as Varys shared his opinion with Tyrion as to who is best to rule the Iron Throne. This has been touted as the season where characters that have been apart finally start to cross, leading to a more central plot which encompasses more than just a couple of factions.
Other characters crossing paths include Jon Snow and Stannis Baratheon. Stannis has a plan and he needs Jon’s help to achieve it. Stannis believes that if he can control the Wildling army, he can take the throne. In exchange for their help he’ll give them all homes and jobs south side of the wall. The problem is, he needs the Wildling leader Mance Raydar onboard and Snow’s the best chance of him being convinced to bend the knee. Sadly despite Jon’s best efforts he couldn’t convince the proud man to join the cause; the Wildling warrior was sentenced to death. A fiery, agonising death, witnessed by both clans including Melisandre who seems disturbingly happy that Jon isn’t a virgin.
Critics have been quite vocal about the amount of female nudity and the lack of male, pointing to a huge inequality between sexes. This issue has been addressed in part during the opening episode which saw a whole lot of naked men and just the one naked lady. Of course this is only episode one and I’m sure they’ll be a whole lot more flesh on display between now and the end.
As with last year’s opening episode The Wars to Come, this one felt a little bit disjointed and fragmented. This is obviously due to the fact that we had a check in with almost all of the main cast, though no sightings of Arya, she must still be on that boat. After a year apart, and the height of last season’s finale, some viewers may be a little disappointed that more wasn’t happening. That being said we should probably be thankful for the quiet episode. Given how much of a roller coaster it’s likely to become, we’ll likely all be wishing for the serenity of episode one soon enough.
[usr=3] Game Of Thrones airs on HBO in north America, and Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland.
