**Spoilers ahead! You have been warned!**
“Game of Thrones” is one of those shows that I didn’t know that I would like or not, but all of the buzz around it told me that I needed to watch it. I’m super glad I did, because I ended up LOVING it from the first episode. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should certainly plan on picking it up before season 2.
If there is one thing we learned right away in the finale, it’s that Ned Stark is dead. Like, really dead. Like, head on a spike dead. With the way we left things at the end of episode 9, it was pretty clear that was the case, but Wonderbot over here was secretly wishing that wasn’t the case. I’m sure you all are feeling the way I do about the Lannisters these days, but that King Joffrey is really the worst little shit there is, and I can’t wait to see his demise. Also, they picked the creepiest kid on the planet to play him, so it makes him all that much more menacing to me. There is something about creepy blonde haired kids with bright blue eyes is totally unsettling to me.
Once we (the audience) realizes that Ned is dead and never coming back, we pick up where we left off with Arya last week, and she is in the crowd of people attending the execution of her father. Yoren recognized her, and would not allow her to watch what happened. The man who rescues Arya takes her away from the crowd, cuts her hair, and tells her to call herself Arry, as to not get caught by the Lannisters. We also watch Arya’s sister Sansa, who is betrothed to the king, faint, because she has just watched her father get murdered at the command of her future husband.
Next we flash to Bran in the North, where he has again seen the three eyed crow in his sleep. He tells Osha that he followed the bird down to the crypt because the bird told him his father was there. Bran and Osha then take a trip down into the family crypt, where we learn that Ned’s sister who was supposed to marry King Robert, had been taken by the Targaryons and King Robert started a war to get her back. Apparently,he got her back, but she ended up dying anyway. We also find out that Bran’s brother, Rickon, had seen his father in the crypt the night before.
Next we watch Robb and Lady Stark break down completely in learning about the death of Lord Stark. That is when Lady Stark vows to get Sansa and Arya back and then kill the Lannisters.
Flash back to Kings Landing where we see King Joffrey have a man’s tongue removed because he sung a song that King Shithead didn’t like. Jeoffry then takes Sansa outside and makes her stare at her father’s head “until it pleases him”. Sansa makes the mistake of getting sassy with Jeoffry and gets herself backhanded. Sansa contemplates pushing Geoffry to his death, until Sandor Clegane stops her. I’m still unsure whether Sandor Clegane is a bad guy or a good guy.
Meanwhile, at the Stark camp we see the men pledge alliance to Robb and the Stark family, and declare Robb “The King of the North”. After Rob is declared King of the North, Lady Stark goes to visit Jamie Lannister, who is tied up out back. This is the point in the show where I start yelling at the TV. While it was wonderful to see Lady Stark smash Jamie in the face with a rock, I was left wanting more. I wanted her to bash his stupid teeth in, and mess up that cocky little smile, especially when Jamie admits to pushing Bran out of the window with the intent of killing him.
Moving over to Tywin Lannisters camp where they are discussing a peace offering to the Starks in return for Jamie. That is where Tyrion pipes up and says that all chances of peace with the Starks went out the window when they killed Ned. Tywin excuses his men, and makes Tyrion the Kings Hand. He is specifically told “not to bring that whore to court”, but if there’s anything we know about Tyrion, it’s that he’s totally bringing that whore to court.
Finally, we go across the sea to find out what happened to Daenerys Targaryen, the Khal and the baby. The baby was lost because as the sorceress says, Daenerys had to trade a life for a life. She traded the baby for the life of the Khal. When Daenerys goes to find the Khal we see that the Khalasar has left because the Dothrakians only follow the strong. When Daenerys finally sees the Khal, she realizes that she has lost not only her son, but her husband as well. The sorceress gave the Khal life, but left him a vegetable.
Daenerys speaks to the sorceress and asks why she would do this. Why, if Daenerys spared her life, would she take the baby and make the Khal a vegetable. The sorceress tells Daenerys that the Khalasar had already raped her three times before the princess “saved” her, and that they burned her temple and killed her family. Daenerys tried to explain that the baby was innocent, and the sorceress said that he wasn’t because they had intended him to become “the steed that mounts the world”, and now she has saved the world from that.
At the wall Jon Snow is trying to make a break for it to meet up with Robb to avenge his father. The other newbies track Jon down and convince him to go back to the wall. When back at the wall the guy Jon works for (I can’t remember his name for the life of me… Sorry!) explains that Jon is of more use to his family at the wall than getting himself killed while trying to find them. There is a war coming, and it’s much bigger than that between the Lannisters and the Starks. The dead are rising and they’re attacking villages.
Across the sea Daenarys smothers the Khal to put him out of his misery.
Blah blah blah, obligatory naked lady scene…. Blah, blah, blah, uninteresting conversation between Petyr Balish and Varys ….
In the final scene we see the Khal’s body laid out on a funeral pyre. Daenarys offers the slaves freedom, or she offers them to stand with her as brothers and sisters and husbands and wives. Daenarys lays the three dragon eggs beside her husband’s body and has the sorceress tied to the pyre as well. Daenarys then lights the pyre and walks into the fire. This is where The Hus-bot (AKA The Editor, if you’re familiar with my regular blog), thought the show ended. My reaction was they will NOT end this episode without showing me some friggen dragons.
And indeed they did. As we flash forward to the next morning Daenarys is sitting in the ruins of the fire, with not only one, but three tiny dragons. Fricking awesome.
This show is great on so many levels. We watched all of the characters develop and become people we either love or hate. The character development of Daenerys is especially fantastic to me because she goes from a meek childlike figure whose brother gives her away, to a hardened queen, who now has control of dragons.
I can’t wait to see where the story takes us, and I’m very interested in reading the books over the Summer, because like “True Blood”, I don’t know if I can make it a year without knowing what might (or might not) happen next. One of the things I so love about HBO is their ability to adapt a book series into a television show, but change it just enough that the loyal readers don’t know what’s going to happen, but don’t get upset about it. I’m thoroughly looking forward to season 2!