This is a warning, the following post is going to contain a ridiculous amount of spoilers for season four of ‘Game of Thrones’. If you haven’t watch up to episode one yet, get out! Or, if you are into some kind of weird story driven masochism, by all means, carry on reading. However, this will be the first and last warning, DO NOT READ if you do not want season four, episode one spoiled. Otherwise, enjoy!
So, I’ve just watched the first two episodes of season four back to back. I mean, come on, what loyal fan doesn’t watch the previous episode to the upcoming episode in the few hours before air time? I honestly didn’t think HBO and the directors could get any better. The Red Wedding and the ‘Dracarys’ scene made season three the best television season to ever be aired. To improve upon them would be like trying to recreate the Mona Lisa; impossible.
Oh, how naive I was.
Let’s start from the beginning shall we? I’ll be going over some of the best parts of season four, episode one, giving a little bit of insight and personal opinion on the scenes.
We start off with Tywin being himself; a badass, sword melting, symbol loving conqueror. This scene is something I have looked forward to watching for a very long time. I have spoken about Tywin’s lust for a Valyrian blade, and now he has melted down no-head Ned’s sword, just like he has melted down most of the Stark line, he is able to make not one, but TWO Valyrian swords for his house. This short scene is extremely symbolic, it shows house Lannister’s complete domination over the Starks. The burning of Ned’s sheath, which is the skin of a wolf, shows Tywin’s complete confidence with the outcome of the war. The verdict? Don’t mess with Tywin
The long awaited arrival of the Dornishmen is next on the menu. Also a long awaited favourite of mine, Dorne is, in my opinion, one of the greatest areas of Westeros that we haven’t had the fortune of seeing yet. House Martell and those sworn to them happen to have some amazing stories and intrigues written around them, and I am extremely happy that they are finally being introduced into the series.
Oberyn Martell, the brother of the Prince of Dorne and the resident font of awesome within King’s Landing for season four. A breath of fresh air in a pit of vipers, ironic considering he is called the ‘Red Viper’, Oberyn comes to Kings Landing with one thing on his mind; revenge. His introduction for this series was nothing short of epic. Inspecting the exquisite lords and ladies of the local whorehouse, Oberyn and his Lady Paramour, Ellaria Sand, show us the first glimpse of what kind of characters they’re going to show be. You don’t mess with someone like Oberyn, this much is obvious when he would happily kill Lannister men for simply singing a song, yet he seems to want to provoke all he comes into contact with. The fact he brings a bastard to court with him shows how much contempt he has for the etiquette of high born life. With all these things apparent, his opening scenes give us a great insight into the history of House Lannister and House Martell. Specifically, the history between Oberyn’s deceased sister, Elia, and Tywin’s bannerman, Gregor Clegane. Long story short, Gregor raped and murdered Elia along with her two children under the apparent orders of Tywin.
Oberyn’s encounter with Tyrion can be summed up with one perfect sentence; ‘The Lannister’s aren’t the only ones who pay their debts’. Watch this space guys, Oberyn is going to be a big player in this season.
Next we see Dany and captain obvious, AKA, Jorah. ‘They’re dragons, car-lee-see’. Safe to say, he is right. Dany is starting to realise that she cannot be the mother that the dragons need. After all, it is in their nature to burn and eat stuff, namely people. Cut to number one sleaze, Daario Naharis. Hang on, he has been re-cast! Finally! No more terrible acting and cringe-worthy chat up lines, this new guy actually looks fairly respectable! We see them again, later in the episode, on their way to Meereen. We also see the seeds of Dany’s will to rule, epitomized in the flowers. Finally, we see the first of the slave markers the Meereenese put up to great Dany into their realm. They sure are smart aren’t they?
“Hey, guys, you know Daenerys Targaryen is on her way here, y’know that woman who has three dragons, an army of deadly eunuchs and is massively against slavery. She has been razing all the slave cities around slaver’s bay, what shall we do? Perhaps we should try and appease her? After all, she has won every battle she has fought.”
“Nah, let’s just crucify 163 slaves and put them between her and the city, I’m sure that will scare her off.”
Idiots.
Next we have wedding bliss with Tyrion and Sansa. They’re still in the honeymoon period and are currently in talks with MTV about having their own reality show. But back in Westeros, we have a distraught Sansa being reconciled by a lost Tyrion. We have had almost a year to mourn The King in The North, Sansa has had only one episode. At least things will be looking up for her, right? It’s not as if she is trapped in a city full of enemies and her husband is in love with a whore, is it? Wait…
Speaking of which, that idiot Shae really does not get it. I mean, does she not understand what kind of people are living in The Red Keep? What does she want Tyrion to do? Divorce his lady wife and marry a prostitute? Come on, stop being an idiot Shae. Be realistic, it isn’t going to happen, so stop fucking things up all the time. Honestly, I really dislike the T.V. version of Shae, In the books we all know what she’s into; money. Whereas in the show she is just a whiny idiot who doesn’t understand how royal courts and intrigue works.
Skip to everyone’s favourite incestuous lovers, Jaime and Cersei Lannister. We finally get to see Jaime’s glorious hand, HBO actually released a very good behind the scenes video in the making of that hand, it truly is very nice. Anyway, in these scenes we see the cracks start to show in their siblings relationship. We also see the beginnings of Jaime becoming a better person. His journey with Brienne changed him and his interactions with Cersei are making him see just how different he and his sister are. I’ve said it before, Jaime is my favourite character and I am extremely happy to see his character develop.
We also get to see Jaime and Joffrey together, something that I don’t think has happened before in the show. It’s interesting to see Jaime realise just how much of a shit his son is. That’s your kid. That psychopathic monster is of your loins and here he is, talking shit to you. We also get to see how quickly word is spreading of Jaime’s disfigurement and how people are already starting to question his ability. It will be interesting to see how the show develops this.
The wildings also make an appearance, we get to see how they are fairing south of the wall. This is very nice to see as, in the books, when Jon leaves their company we hear nothing of them. I really liked having the Thenns join them. So far, all we have seen of the wildlings are a bunch of rag-tag peasants with sticks, nothing to be too impressed about. But these guys really show us just how messed up things can get on the wrong side of the wall. Crazy cannibals is what we get, and boy do they look badass. It’s going to be nice to see what escapades these guys get up to on their way to Castle Black.
The episode finishes up with one of the best scenes in Game of Thrones history, the showdown with Polliver. As we all know, Arya has her hit list, those she wants to kill. In the books Polliver is on it, luckilly they bring him into the show for some righteous retribution. This scene gives us some brilliant chemistry between The Hound and Arya and gives us two character portrayals that, I feel, are better than the ones in the books. The chicken conversation is absolutely brilliant. You just know something is going to go down, and The Hound being The Hound does not fail to follow through. I do believe his now infamous chicken quote will go down in history as one of the best threats ever conceived. Blood is spilled and corpses are hewed and Arya is reunited with her needle. This scene is by far one of the best we have seen. However, the pinnacle is the moment of Arya’s revenge. Her story is one of the best, I cannot wait to see it develop more.
Overall, the first episode of season four was pretty amazing. I am writing this whilst completely wired after watching the immensity that was episode two, so expect another episode analysis shortly.
Thanks for reading! What did you think of this episode? Favourite scene? Favourite character? Let me know in the comments! Thanks and stay tuned for the episode two review!