GAME OF THRONES: Official #GOTS7 Trailer Released, Immediately Goes Viral

The first official full trailer for the upcoming penultimate season of Game of Thrones has been released and immediately set records for viewership of a tailer for a television show, garnering well over 60 million views in 24 hours.. (Previously a teaser trailer had been released.)

Season 7 of the hit show will premiere on July 16th and there will only be 7 episodes, instead of the usual 10 and Season 8, the final season, will consist of only 6 episodes.

Game Of Thrones (S5E01): "The Wars To Come"

Episode of 1 of Season 5 of HBO's Game Of Thrones aired this week. Episode S5E01 is titled "The Wars To Come" and has the heavy burden of setting the tone for the entire season as well as re-acclimating the audience to the complicated story of the multiple character drama.

Summary
The episode began with the series very first flashback scene, ever. It featured a young Cersei Lannister getting her fortune told by a witch, who rightly tells her "everyone wants to know their future, until they know their future." Cersei is told that she will not marry the Prince she is currently betrothed to but that she will be Queen, but only until a younger prettier woman comes along and that she will have three children who will have "gold as their crowns and gold as their shrouds." The key point to note here is that beginning with Cersei, the showrunners are emphasizing how she is central to many of the events that happen in Season 5, as the death of her father Lord Tywin Lannister (the richest and most powerful man in Westeros) at the end of Season 4 causes a power vacuum, that Cersei despite her flailing attempts, is unable to fill.

The episode begins with a shot of Tywin's body lying in state in the Great Sept of Baelor and then we get a dizzying series of interactions of Cersei at Tywin's funeral (her uncle Kevan Lannister, her distant cousin/boy toy Lancel Lannister, her betrothed Loras Tyrell, and er brother Jaime Lannister).
One thing the episode does very well is catch us up on the story for almost all the many characters we are following. There are appearances by Tyrion and Varys in Pentos, Daenerys and Daario (and her two captive dragons) in Mereen, Brienne and Pod, Sansa and Littlefinger and Jon Snow and Mance Ryder and Stannis and Melissandre at the wall. The only "main" characters we don't see in the first episode are the other Stark children: Arya and Bran (and Rickon, of course).

Highlights
The best parts of the episode were:

• The sheer grandeur of the Great Sept of Baelor and the impressive scale of the Harpy Statue in Mereen were pretty awesome to see.
• They finally named the two smaller dragons, Rhaegar and Viserion, as well as showing that even these two are a handful to deal with.
• The best lines of the show were both about Daenerys: "A dragon queen without dragons is not a queen"(Daario Naharis, to Dany)  and "Who said anything about 'him'?" (Varys to Tyrion)
• Loved the fact that Jon did the right thing by putting Mance out of his misery while he was being burned alive by The Red Lady but did he really need to make it so obvious that he was the one who fired the shot?
• I'm not really complaining per se about the show's willingness to depict same-sex nooky as part of its commitment to sexposition but it would be nice if they rounded out the depiction of Ser Loras as more than just Margaery's gay brother.

Lowlights

The parts of the episode I could have done without:

• Did we really need female frontal nudity in the brothel scene before the anonymous Unsullied guy got his throat cut?
• Did we really need to know the details of how Tyrion's poop was dealt with while he was stuck in a box for the duration of a long ship voyage across the Narrow Sea?

Grade: 8/10.

Overall: A decent start to an intriguing season of my favorite show on television.

Game of Thrones (S4E07) : "Mockingbird"

Episode 7 of Season 4 of Game of Thrones is titled "Mockingbird." The mockingbird is the self-designed sigil of House Baelish, which was created by Lord Petyr Baelish (more commonly known as Littlefinger) when he was granted his lordship by the Lannisters for selling out Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark in Season 1 (the adaptation of the first book, titled The Game of Thrones). We have spent a fair amount of this season learning more about how influential Littlefinger is to the plot of the entire Song of Ice  and Fire and things go to a whole other level in S4E07.

Summary
S4E07 has a couple of really important conversations in it. I think the theme of the episode can be reduced to how we can come to hate the people we are closest to (either family or erstwhile lovers).
We see this theme played out in three significant ways, among the Lannisters, the Cleganes and the Tullys.

For example, we discover the depth of the hatred Cersei had had for her brother Tyrion (by hearing the story through an external observer in Oberyn just makes that much clearer and chilling). She was telling everyone far and wide that the new Lannister child was a hideous monster, and torturing him as a baby! We know the Lannister family is messed up but we also find out about the Clegane family drama when Sandor Clegane (The Hound) reveals exactly why he is so scared of fire and how his face was horribly scarred by his brother Gregor Clegane (The Mountain) and that their father never punished Gregor for his near murderous actions and lied about what happened. The third sibling rivalry that has clearly turned to hate is the rivalry between Lysa Arryn nee Tully and her sister Catelyn Stark nee Tully. We learned in the previous episode (S4E06) just how much Lysa was jealous of her sister but in this episode we learn that Lysa hates her sister so much that she also hates her sister's daughter Sansa and physically threatens her with death after seeing her man kissing her niece.

This last example leads to the key moment in the episode comes when we get a graphic depiction of how love can turn to hate when Littlefinger rescues Sansa from the dangerous clutches of his newlywed wife and dispatches Lysa with an unceremonial shove through the Moon Door, leading to a fatal fall.

Highlights
There were many highlights of this episode, and here is a brief list:

• I Love You, Bro! One of the key highlights of this episode was the demonstration of brotherly love between Tyrion and Jaime, as well as the fraternal respect between Tyrion and Bronn. In both cases, though, Tyrion basically is somewhat untroubled by the fact that he is asking the other person to potentially sacrifice their life by being his champion in the Trial by Combat against the Fearsome Mountain, Ser Gregor Clegane.
• The Queen's Prerogative. Finally, Deanerys let Daario Naharis do "what he does best" and got her groove on with the comely swordsman. The audience got to enjoy both the satisfied and amused look on the Queen's face and a tight booty shot as Daario dropped trou.
• You can be my 'champion' any time. Pedro Pascal is absolutely nailing his performance as Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. According to interviews about the production of season 4 the scene between Peter Dinklage and himself in Tyrion's cell where Oberyn offers to be Tyrion's champion was the first one he shot, which is astonishing. The chemistry between the two actors is absolutely electrifying.
• More Hot Pie, Anyone? Another fun section of the episode for longtime fans of the show was the reappearance of "Hot Pie," the former traveling companion of Arya Stark, at the Inn where Brienne and Podrick happen to stop in on their way to find Sansa Stark (since everyone in civilized society assumes Arya is dead already). Hot Pie is much more interested in being warm and comfortable (and particular in having access to warm food and comfortable lodging) than he is in who sits on the Iron Throne. He demonstrates this with an epic monologue on the importance of gravy in kidney pie, and by the end of the scene reveals that he saw Arya Stark alive after leaving King's Landing.

Lowlights
Nothing is perfect; even this classic episode had some  flaws.  The only one I think worth mentioning is:

• Gore Mountain. The sickening sounds and sight of the Mountain disemboweling some unfortunate prisoners as Cersei sauntered over to admire him and his handiwork was truly nauseating, but revealed just how single-minded and unsqueamish the female Lannister is about achieving her goals, especially the one in which her little brother ends up dead.

Grade: 9/10 (A-).
Overall,  S4E07 was one of the more cerebral episodes of the series, where we in the audience got to hear and see a lot of the motivations of the characters and plot points were set up that will come to fruition in the last three episodes as the Season ends with a bang (as usual).

Game of Thrones (S4E05) : "First Of His Name"

Episode 5 of Season 4 of Game of Thrones is titled "First of His Name," which is presumably about the coronation of King Tommen, but I think is also a reference to Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who features prominently in this episode.

Circumstances prevented me from seeing this week's episode until the middle of the week, but I want to get my thoughts about S4E05 before S4E06, "The Laws of Gods and Men" airs tonight.

Summary
The show opens with the coronation of King Tommen, which is happenig under the watchful eyes of his mother Queen Regent Cersei Lannister Baratheon, his uncle the Hand of the King, Lord Tywin Lannister and apparently most of the important people in Westeros. Notably unseen are Lord Petyr Baelish and Lord Varys. This is followed by a key scene between Cersei and Margaery Tyrell, whom Cersei basically sounds out for her willingness to marry a third(!) King while simultaneously putting indirect pressure on one of three judges who will be deciding the fate of her brother Tyrion Lannister in his trial for murder of her son, the late unlamented King Joffrey Barratheon. During the episode Cersei has conversations which are intended to influence all three judges: Lord Mace Tyrell, Tywin and Ser Oberyn Martell.

There are three main events in this episode, the last of which resolves the suspense from S4E04 about the fate of Bran Stark and his traveling companions north of the Wall captured by the former Night's Watchmen in Craster's Keep. Bran's half-brother Jon Snow attacks the Keep and  the en result is that three people die: the sadistic leader of the mutineers, the traitorous infiltrator that Roose Bolton had sent to find Jon and kill the two remaining Stark brothers who were thought to be trying to reach Jon and the bumbling member of the Night's Watch who discovers it's not a good idea to keep a direwolf hungry and confined. A key point here is that despite being within earshot and view of each other Bran and Jon do not, reunite continuing the extended story line of the dispersal of the Stark family name that has been occurring since the tragic events at the end of S1E09.

The second main event was very subtle but it involved Dany. Somehow, Ser Jorah has the good news of the death of Joffrey in Westeros, which is tempered with the bad news that the slave cities of Astapor and Yunkai where Day freed the slaves are quickly falling into chaos without her presence and attention. She has to decide whether she should try and sail to Westeros now with her three young Dragons and take the Iron Throne now, abandoning what she has done in Essos to try to fulfill her destiny sooner rather than later. Interestigly, Dany chooses to wait. "If I can not control Slaver's Bay, how can I control seven kingdoms?" Thus the storylines from the two continents remains bifurcated for a lot longer....

The third main event of the episode is the arrival of Littlefinger and Sansa Stark (whom he tells the guardsmen is his niece Alayne) at the Bloody Gate on the way to the Aerie and Lysa Arryn. There we meet Sansa's crazy Aunt Lysa, whom we discover is head-over-heels in love with Littlefinger and whom insists Littlefinger and her get married immediately so she can have some private little finger action of her own with her new husband. During this exchange we also discover that Lysa Arryn started the chain of events which led to the War of the Five Kings in the first place by not only murdering her own husband Jon Arryn (the former Hand of the King that her brother of the law Eddard Stark replaced) at the suggestion of Littlefinger, but also writing a letter to her sister Catelyn Stark which led to the capture and near-execution of Tyrion way back in Season 1. This reveals to the audience that most of the THE most important events in the story to date have been as a result of Littlefinger 's machinations! "Wheels within wheels within wheels" as the saying goes.

Highlights
There were many highlights of this episode

• Brandor! Bran using his abilities to take over Hodor in order to kill one of his captors and stave off assassination is one of the key highlights of the episode. It demonstrates that even in a world where being crippled is one step up from a death sentence Bran can use his mind and other abilities to impact the world around him. Bran and Hodor together make a formidable team.
• He's Not Heavy He's My Brother. The actor playing Jojen Reed is stealing a lot of the scenes he is in as he communicates with eery abandon what "second sight" is like and demonstrates for Bran how powerful non-physical forces can be as well as Bran's own significance.
• Jealous, Much? The scene with Lysa Arryn and her niece Sansa where Lysa reveals her jealously of Sansa's mother Catelyn and her unhinged jealously of Sansa is riveting. Kate Dickie plays the scene to the hilt and we're left wondering what in the world Littlefinger could be seeing in Lysa to marry her. Perhaps the right to call an impregnable mountain castle his very own?

Lowlights
Nothing is perfect; even this excellent episode had some flaws.  The only one I think worth mentioning is:

• Did We Really Need To See That? Usually complaints about the explicit nature of the show involve the almost comical levels of nudity on the show. But this time for me it was about the explicit violence. Several of the fighting scenes were excessively gory, particularly the way that Jon dispatched.
• Where in the World is Lord Varys? Ever since the astonishing scene in the Throne Room in "The Climb" (S3E06) we the audience are pretty sure that Littlefinger and Varys are antipodes to one another, so it is curious indeed that as we see more and more of Littlefinger, as well as his more of his schemes are revealed we have seen hide nor hair of Lord Varys. He is one of my favorite characters because as a eunuch with power (he sits on the Small Council that advises the Hand of the King) he is one of the most prominent gender-variant characters on the show. (Brienne of Tarth is the second most prominent, of course.)

Grade: 10/10 (A).
Overall,  S4E05 was one of my favorite episodes of the show to date. Even though it was not full of action, it was full of really important conversations that revealed motives and actions of several of the characters that explained previous events earlier in the story as well as conversations that foreshadow significant events that will occur later in the story.

Game of Thrones (S4E04) : "Oathkeeper"

Episode 4 of Season 4 (S4E04) of Game of Thrones is titled "Oathkeeper." It aired last Sunday and  even though I was able to see it live unfortunately it has taken me almost a full week to find the time to blog my thoughts about it, similar to what happened with the previous episode, S4E03's"Breaker of Chains."

Oathkeeper ostensibly refers to the name of the new sword given to Ser Jaime Lannister by his father, which was created out of part of the Valyrian steel supplied when the Stark family sword "Ice" was melted down by Tywin Lannister at the very beginning of S4E01's "Two Swords."

Summary
S4E04 contains some very important scenes that  are important turning points in the overall story that Game of Thrones is telling. First, it is revealed almost immediately that Petyr Baelish, a.k.a Littlefinger was involved in the assassination of King Joffrey Barratheon. He basically confirms this fact when he is lecherously boasting to Sansa Stark about his new friends that will protect him from Lannister wrath. Cut immediately to the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell speaking with her granddaughter Margaery, tacitly confirming her complicity in regicide by saying how she would not have let Margaery "marry that little beast" and then adjusted the necklaces around Margaery's neck. A clue to those in the know that it was the necklace worn by Sansa to the Royal Wedding procured for her by Littlefinger that carried the poison that killed Joffrey.

But, since this is Game of Thrones, finding out who killed the King is not the most important moment in the episode. That would have tp be the capture of Bran Stark by the odious mutineers now raping and pillaging their brains out at Craster's Keep. The same location where Bran's half-brother Jon Snow is on his way to intercept his former colleagues in the Night's Watch before they can let the secret out about how understaffed and unprepared the Wall is for an attack by Mance Ryder's Wildling army. The fact that Jon and Bran might meet North of the Wall, something that does NOT happen in the books is a very interesting development, indicating the television adaptation is diverging from its source material in surprising (and important) ways.

Highlights
There were many highlights of this episode

• Promise Keepers? One of the little-noticed moments in (S4E02) "The Lion and the Rose" due to other more shocking events was the meeting between Brienne and Cersei that led to Brienne realizing she is in love with Jaime. Jaime is the most famous example of an Oathbreaker in the seven kingdoms, because as a member of the Kingsguard as a teenager, he killed the Mad King in order to prevent the slaughter of King's Landing. After Jaime is reminded of the oath that he made to Catelyn Stark to find and return her daughters in exchange for her saving his life and releasing him from captivity, he gives Brienne the sword his father gave him as well as his brother's squire, Podrick Payne and tasks her with fulfilling his oath to find and save Arya and Sansa. Brienne names the sword "Oathkeeper," which is how she sees Jaime and she would like him to see himself. It's a momentous scene and after all the time they spent together in Season 3, you get the impression these two do not expect to see each other again.
• Slaves Are People Too! The episode began with a scene between Grey Worm and Missandei, two former slaves talking about their pasts, as Daenerys' erstwhile translator tried to teach the head of Daeners' army of former slave soldiers, the Unsullied. Later in the episode we see a conversation between actual slaves of the City of Mereen as they consider whether the "Breaker of Chains" can really be the means to the end of their servitude, or is she just the catalyst for another failed slave revolt. 
• Pussy Galore. The scene where Margaery enters soon-to-be-king Tommen's bedroom and seduces/befriends the pre-pubescent boy with her feminine wiles was spellbinding. And we found out Tommen has a cat named Ser Pounce!
• WTF? The  final scene of the episode was one of the most controversial for people who have read the books like me. We discovered that the White Walkers have the ability to convert the human baby children that have been abandoned in the snow by the evil Craster into more un-dead, glowing-eyed zombies with the touch of a finger! This was quite an astonishing reveal.

Lowlights
The only flaw in this episode I can think of worth mentioning is:

• Enough Already! Did we really need to see that the former Night's Watch guys who mutinied and slit Lord Commander Mormont's throat raping Craster's wives? We know that they are bad bad guys. The gratuitous nudity and sexuality in the show is becoming ludicrous.

Grade: 9/10 (A-).
Overall,  S4E04 was quite an important episode. We are almost half-way through Season 4, and the events told in Books 3, 4 and 5 are starting to show up. In fact, some people are speculating that the final scene was something from Book 6. Only time will tell!