After much waiting, Game of Thrones is back on the air! Things kind of fell apart at the end of Season 4, but that just marks new beginnings for everybody. We’re still a little sour that Hodor and Bran won’t be appearing this season, but there is plenty of new ground to cover, and advancements to be made by some lesser-known characters. If you’d like to catch up on the happenings of all the important characters, check our preview. Keep in mind that I am woefully behind on the books, so if any “no duh’s” come to mind, let us know in the comments!
Pros
Thank God for not indulging us in another brother-sister funeral rape scene. I liked the way Cersei just went through the motions during this scene, the way she responded to people while not really knowing or caring what they said. I wonder if she is more distraught about her father’s death or the crappy position it’s put the Lannister camp in.
I’m not sure who had it worse, the man who had to shit out of the airholes for a month or the man who had to pick up said shit and throw it off the boat. Tyrion and Varys make a damn good team. They could do a traveling comedy show if this Daenerys thing doesn’t work out for them.
The whole situation going on in Meereen is saying a lot without actually saying it. I have no idea if this was part of GRRM’s inspiration, but the whole thing is very American slavery to me. Dany has freed the slaves, but at the cost of enslaving her dragons. She can’t use them to make her look powerful anymore, but doing the right thing is making her vulnerable. The scare tactics that the Sons of the Harpy use are a parallel to the KKK’s methods. They’re a bunch of dicks, basically.
Robert Arryn’s sparring session is just about the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in Game of Thrones the past few seaons. And the “fights like a girl with palsy” comment just about had me busting a gut.
It must really suck to be Ser Loras. The poor guy has to spew some B/S story about how sorry he is that the evil bastard Tywin Lannister is dead… to a woman that he definitely doesn’t WANT to marry. All the while, he has to hide his homosexuality. I can’t help but agree when he says, “What’s the point of trying to keep a secret in a place like this?” There’s no way that plan will go wrong.
Cons
Self-pity really doesn’t do any favors for Tyrion. He’s always been a drinker, but the wallowing that came with it was off-putting. I did especially like the way he went back to college with the ol’ puke and rally, though.
For a while there, I was really concerned that they had Daario’d Greyworm and cast some other guy as him only to murder him minutes later. The poor guy just wanted to cuddle.
Stannis’ plan to have the Wildlings join him is just plain dumb. For a second, I thought Stannis was concerned about the whole frozen zombie thing, but I guess the whole ordeal is just to get enough of a force to take Winterfell from Roose Bolton – which I’m a big fan of, but recruiting the Wildlings seems reckless even if they did agree.
I think Daenerys thinks she is a way better ruler than she thinks she is. She kinda sucks at this…
Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things (Odds and Ends)
Cersei’s flashback didn’t really have a place in the episode. It does reveal that she was always an entitled little shit. Not really relevant, but what kind of little girl lets a stranger lick blood from her hand? It is worth mentioning that she was betrothed to the Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (the one fan theories say ran away with Lyanna Stark instead, fueling the Lannister-Stark bad blood), and that it was predicted a younger, more beautiful women would “cast her down.” Is this a more direct reference to Margaery Tyrell’s encroachment on Tommen?
Jon Snow has some type of leadership role, training the troops. I’m curious how the relationship with Ser Alliser Throrne has been affected by the way Jon handled business in the Battle at Castle Black.
Where is Littlefinger taking Sansa? Of all the storylines in the show right now, this one makes the least sense to me. With that black hair and an alias to go off, nobody has any idea that she is Sansa Stark, so where is Petyr taking her? Judging by some of the Season 5 clips, he may be going to wherever the late Jon Arryn’s camp is.
What is Margaery’s angle? As manipulative as her and her grandmother are, I can’t help but at least hope she’s a good guy. At the end of the day, she knows how to shape a ruler into a good king – even if her last two kings were gay and a psychopath, respectively. I think she’s gonna beat Cersei by just having good game. On the other hand, Cersei is terrifying, and I would bet more vicious than Margaery is cunning. I don’t see it ending well for either of them.
Who won the Game of Thrones this episode?
Jon Snow is his father’s son. He may be bound by the Night’s Watch never to reclaim Winterfell, but he sure as hell would be great at ruling it. Once naive to the Wildlings, judging them based on stories and reputation, Jon defended them several times in this episode, exclaiming that they were simply born on the wrong side of the war. He respects Mance Rayder and finally gets his plight. Finally, there’s the way he mercy-killed Mance before letting the flames do the job. It wasn’t just to give him a non-agonizing death, but to let the Wildling leader keep his pride in front of his men.
Hush Comics gives “The Wars to Come” a B+ for starting things out right! We’re able to comfortably slide back in to each story, and are given plenty of new, shiny things to look forward to for the rest of the season.
All media credited to HBO
Hush Comics 