Game of Thrones "Fire and Blood" Review

"Fire and Blood" almost entirely sets up the second season. The grief process for the Starks lasts only a handful of scenes before the various stories progress like Arya's boy disguise as she heads North, Snow's departure to North of the Wall, Robb and his banner men's plans for continued war, Sansa and the seeds of who she'll be forced to become if she hopes to have her revenge on Joffrey.

The handful of scenes dealing with Ned's death are the strongest of the episode, especially the scene with Bran and Rickon--the implications and possible foreshadowing excite me as a geek. The youngest children of the Stark family had the same dream of their father residing in the tombs of Winterfell where Lyanna, Brandon and the rest of the Stark family's bodies rest for eternity. Bran's dreams about the three-eyed raven were about the impending death of his father--the raven's the messenger in Westeros. What does it mean that the youngest children dreamed the future? Who knows. Arya, meanwhile, shifts into survival mode. Her hair's cut. She's hidden amongst boys as they head for The Wall. Sansa's the lone Stark in King's Landing and Joffrey treats her terribly. He forces her to look upon her father's severed head on a spike, and has a guard strike her in the face but his cruel treatment of her awakens the dormant Stark nature in her. She wonders aloud how Joffrey would like his head severed by her brother, and he's visibly shaken by the suggestion (as he always is when violence momentarily confronts him). Robb slashes at a tree and swears to kill the entire Lannister family as his mother embraces him. Snow tried to leave the Night's Watch, and would have if Sam and his other friends hadn't persuaded him to return. Jon wanted to stab Joffrey in the throat. He's needed in the Night's Watch, though, because a war North of the Wall looms and Commander Mormont won't be a sitting duck.

Stories need inciting incidents. Any introductory creative writing class teaches that lesson. The first season had several inciting incidents but none involved the Stark children. Robb sat around Winterfell. Arya and Sansa sat around King's Landing (well Arya learned from Syrio how to sword fight). Bran recovered from his fall. Rickon sat around off-screen. Jon sat around The Wall, waiting to take his oaths so he could become a ranger and fight. The death of their father is the inciting incident for the Stark children and their arcs, which seemingly will span for the entirety of A Song of Ice and Fire. No matter how young they are, they're ready because they hail from the North and Starks are built to endure the winter (and remember, it is coming).

Meanwhile, the Lannisters face trouble as a result of Joffrey's impulsive decision to behead Ned Stark. Jaime's men scattered following their defeat at Riverrun, and Jaime's subsequent capture. Stannis and Renly Baratheon have men in arms waging war in the south, ready to challenge Joffrey's throne. With Ned alive, Tywin could've brokered peace. Now, it is madness. The solution is to regroup, which means Tyrion will serve as Hand of the King in Tywin's stead. The war will be long. Tyrion's job is to manage though he might not play by the rules in King's Landing. Cersei learned of her brother's capture as Lanciel awaited to have sex with his cousin (she really gets around in her own family). Jaime admitted his part in Bran's fall to Catelyn, though he opted against explaining why he pushed the seven year old from the window. The Lannisters are in a weak spot; Robb's winning the war but his victory won't be so neat and clean.

Of course, with all of those words written for the Starks and Lannisters, Daenerys owned the episode in her story across the Narrow Sea. The girl lost her baby and her husband because the witch wanted revenge for the harm the Doth Raki inflicted on her people and her temple. Dany had the witch killed, and ended her husband's life because he was brain-dead. Never forget that she's from the blood of Dragons, and the dragon eggs finally hatched after she spent the night in the fire as her husband became ash. I speculated that Dany would become as badass as another blonde on TV and her destiny as a strong woman to be feared by powerful men is forming. The dragons have returned to Westeros. The image of a naked Dany, covered in soot and ash as her dragons kept close to her body is the most spectacular image of the series thus far--an image that represents the transformation Dany experienced from her days in Pentos until she had men swear their loyalties and lives as she stood, naked and strong with three dragons on her body.

Do not fuck with Daenerys Targaryen.

Some other thoughts:

-I thoroughly enjoyed the scene with Pycelle and the scene with Littlefinger and Varys. The scenes were about the roles they play. Pycelle plays the part of a feeble, weak old man when, in fact, he's an old man whose spry. Littlefinger and Varys swear their loyalties to the king but that, too, is part of their roles.

-I began reading "A Game of Thrones" earlier in the week. As expected, I'm enjoying the book even more than the series. I wrote about how characters had one or two scenes or none at all in episodes, and those scenes can be brief. In the books, it's different--scenes don't need to fit within a hour structure. For instance, the tombs were introduced in the season finale whereas the tombs were introduced much earlier in the books and it was more satisfying in the books (but still great in the show). When the second season begins, I'll have read each book but the last one (which won't be out) so the weekly reviews will be much different from the season one reviews but I won't spoil anything for non-readers.

-David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrote "Fire and Blood." I have tremendous respect and admiration for the writing team because adapting the book couldn't have been easy nor writing eight of the ten episodes of the series by themselves (well episode 7 was co-written with Jane Espenson). Alan Taylor directed the episode.

-I loved the entire season. Any one interested in the series should certainly watch the DVDs. I'd recommend reading the books if one doesn't want to wait until the DVDs are released. The story's spectacularly dense. The history's so rich and Westeros is populated with characters as different as human beings in our real life. I haven't had as much fun watching a series since LOST ended. Yes, A Song of Ice and Fire is that damn good.

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