Game of Thrones: Season 1 Wrap-up
Jan. 18th, 2022 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI'm rolling together the last 3 episodes of Season 1 of Game of Thrones since the last time I wrote about it was S1E7. Overall I like the way the series is coming together with some plot threads tied off in season 1 and others changed or introduced anew. Gratuitous nudity remains an eye-rolling distraction, though oddly it's not egregious in every episode. I wonder if there are differences based on the writer or director. And the author's willingness to kill major characters chafes— particularly when it's a sympathetic character.
Here's a rundown of what I think of various characters and themes developed in Season 1. Five Things:
1) Ned Stark ☠️. Ned's death is sad not only because he's the main character introduced in the first few episodes of Season 1 but more so because he's one of the few genuinely good people in the story. Of course he was going to wind up the enemy of the power-hungry liars and back-stabbers in the king's court.
2) Catelyn Tully Stark 📈. Lord Stark's wife starts off as simple Mrs. in a parochial culture but comes into her own in the second half of the season. A noblewoman in her own right, she is educated, sophisticated, shrewd, and also one of the few genuinely good characters in the story.
3) Stark kids: mostly 📈. The Starks' many children are a mixed bag. The eldest, Robb, steps out of the woodwork late in the season to take over for his father as Lord of Winterfell and grows quickly into the role at a tough time. Bastard son John Snow struggles with his reputation and the seeming disrespect he encounters repeatedly in the Night's Watch but continues rising above it. Teenage Sansa is a fool played repeatedly by the evil and manipulative Cersei Lannister and her son, Joffrey, the new king. Young Arya is a refreshing drink as a 10yo girl who rebels against parochial gender roles— and with her father's help gets her way. She studies sword fighting under a master swordsman.
4) Lannisters: mostly 📈, sadly. Cersei's machinations see brutal teenage Joffrey take the Iron Throne. Late in the season we meet Tywin, patriarch of House Lannister. He is amoral and plotting but not as snake-like as his daughter, Cersei, or a vain douchebag like his elder son, Jaime. He gains respect for his younger son, Tyrion, recognizing him as the most pragmatic of his children. As House Lannister and House Stark go to war, the Starks capture Jaime Lannister. I hope they just kill him as payback for Ned. Tywin sends Tyrion to capital to temper the behavior of Cersei and Joffrey. I hope he slaps both of them around... though he'll need a stepladder to do it.
5) Daenerys Targaryen 🐉: Her creepy and much-too-grabby with his hands and eyes brother dies from his own greed mid-season; meanwhile she learns the culture she's married into and tries to make it better. Khal Drogo's untimely death from a combat wound leaves her a queen suddenly without an army of 40,000 warriors. But in the last scenes of the last episode she demonstrates the she is the Dragon Reborn (haha, The Wheel of Time streaming show was right that the Dragon could've been aNyBoDy!!) by surviving a funeral pyre. And her three dragon eggs, though to be petrified, hatch live dragon chicks. Now I'm really rooting for her!
Here's a rundown of what I think of various characters and themes developed in Season 1. Five Things:
1) Ned Stark ☠️. Ned's death is sad not only because he's the main character introduced in the first few episodes of Season 1 but more so because he's one of the few genuinely good people in the story. Of course he was going to wind up the enemy of the power-hungry liars and back-stabbers in the king's court.
2) Catelyn Tully Stark 📈. Lord Stark's wife starts off as simple Mrs. in a parochial culture but comes into her own in the second half of the season. A noblewoman in her own right, she is educated, sophisticated, shrewd, and also one of the few genuinely good characters in the story.
3) Stark kids: mostly 📈. The Starks' many children are a mixed bag. The eldest, Robb, steps out of the woodwork late in the season to take over for his father as Lord of Winterfell and grows quickly into the role at a tough time. Bastard son John Snow struggles with his reputation and the seeming disrespect he encounters repeatedly in the Night's Watch but continues rising above it. Teenage Sansa is a fool played repeatedly by the evil and manipulative Cersei Lannister and her son, Joffrey, the new king. Young Arya is a refreshing drink as a 10yo girl who rebels against parochial gender roles— and with her father's help gets her way. She studies sword fighting under a master swordsman.
4) Lannisters: mostly 📈, sadly. Cersei's machinations see brutal teenage Joffrey take the Iron Throne. Late in the season we meet Tywin, patriarch of House Lannister. He is amoral and plotting but not as snake-like as his daughter, Cersei, or a vain douchebag like his elder son, Jaime. He gains respect for his younger son, Tyrion, recognizing him as the most pragmatic of his children. As House Lannister and House Stark go to war, the Starks capture Jaime Lannister. I hope they just kill him as payback for Ned. Tywin sends Tyrion to capital to temper the behavior of Cersei and Joffrey. I hope he slaps both of them around... though he'll need a stepladder to do it.
5) Daenerys Targaryen 🐉: Her creepy and much-too-grabby with his hands and eyes brother dies from his own greed mid-season; meanwhile she learns the culture she's married into and tries to make it better. Khal Drogo's untimely death from a combat wound leaves her a queen suddenly without an army of 40,000 warriors. But in the last scenes of the last episode she demonstrates the she is the Dragon Reborn (haha, The Wheel of Time streaming show was right that the Dragon could've been aNyBoDy!!) by surviving a funeral pyre. And her three dragon eggs, though to be petrified, hatch live dragon chicks. Now I'm really rooting for her!
