Television Critique

Walking Dead 7.15 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Hello friends, be sure to watch out for SPIDERS and SPOILERS along the way to the Sanctuary.*

Hello readers new and old, I’m back to write my only review of this second half of the season released in a timely manner. I apologize for being such a ghost to my readers lately, but I’m happy to be back to writing again. It’s been a long angst filled winter chocked full of writers block for me, but it’s over now. As it stands for the show, this was an amazing episode and a great way to close out this dynamite season as I loved how they made everything tie together so nicely.

What I Liked:

First off, it was great to see Abraham again in the form of a continuing flashback with how he interacted with Sasha, from the scene where Sasha begged Abraham not to leave, to where Abraham said that if you’re going to die it had best be with some form of meaning to it. I loved how they built up the fight and what happened with Sasha sacrificing herself for Rick’s group. It was an emotional goodbye to a great character, and her death had a lot of meaning to it since it helped Rick’s group break free from the struggle briefly. I enjoyed seeing how Negan turned the tables on Rick briefly, and how Negan planned to kill Carl, but Rick wasn’t going to bend the knee to Negan again. It was great to see Ezekiel and Maggie come to rescue Alexandria at the last minute to help turn the tables on Negan and Jadis. Lastly, that joke where Jadis talked to Michonne saying “I lay with him later, you mind?” had me in tears and was well played. With that said, there were still somethings that I didn’t enjoy.

What I didn’t Like:

It was a shocking moment to see Jadis’s group betray Rick’s group, and while it was a great plot twist, it’s made me dislike Jadis as a character. I didn’t enjoy how Eugene has basically gone over to the “dark side” of serving Negan, and I dislike that Rick and his group were dumb enough to fall for Dwight’s deception. Not that the scene where Daryl confronted Dwight wasn’t worth seeing, I just think that Daryl should have known better. Lastly, I feel as if the scene where that woman beat Michonne was a bit gratuitous and unnecessary, but I understand what dramatic tension the writers were aiming for with it. There are some things shaping up for next season that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.

What I Expect To Happen Next Season:

For starters, it’s obvious there are going to be some strong forms of tension between Negan, Dwight, and Eugene because Negan is on to Eugene about Sasha, and Negan could easily find out about Dwight’s deception about Sherry escaping. I’m curious if Jadis will keep working with Negan, or if she will work to betray Negan like she did to Rick. I’m thinking Morgan might start down a dark path again, and I think that Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie will need to figure out the best ways to defend their respective communities from Negan’s army.

I felt overall season seven was pretty killer, and despite being slow at certain points, it’s like if season two happened without being horrible. I look forward to this coming October to see where things go, and I lament that October is far away at the same time.

-KCard

 

Walking Dead 7.5 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

Spoiler warning: warnings spoiled.

Hello WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my review on The Walking Dead 7.5 episode, “Go Getters”. I rather like this season of TWD so far as it’s being mostly driven by plot. I know past seasons dwelled on character development and moral humanity, but this season just blends those aspects without as much “filler” content. And by “filler”, I’m referring to a lack of bland subplots as deviations from the source material have always been a part of TWD. Anyways, onto my thoughts on the show. 

What I Liked: 

It was great to see the cooperation between Maggie and Sasha with how Maggie is becoming a stronger character, as opposed to Maggie being distraught by Glenn’s death earlier in the season. I enjoyed the subplot of Enid and Carl’s little romance growing, with a good laugh I got from them using the roller blades. I liked seeing how Greg cowered before Simon and the Saviors. I felt the whole scene was well played out and acted between Simon and Greg. IE, I liked how Simon channeled his inner General Zod and made Greg neal. Lastly, I loved the scene where Jesus knew Kung Fu, and Maggie reminded us all that she grew up on a farm and knows how to use a tractor as a deadly weapon to kill the walkers and crush that car with the loud music.

What I didn’t Like:

I spent all of this episode being reminded how much of a selfish and cowardly prick Greg is, since we haven’t seen him since last season where he was a sexist jerk towards Maggie. I can’t believe Greg was going to sell out Maggie and Sasha to the Saviors, that’s just solidifying my hatred for this character. Other than Gregory being a prick, I had no qualms about this episode. Even if it lacked a lot of action, I still found this episode to be top notch. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how things pan out next week with Jesus and Carl infiltrating the Saviors compound. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get them both killed by Negan and Lucille. 

-KCard

Walking Dead 7.4 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

Warning:

Life’s a treat,

and it feels so sweet,

when you’re living on spoiler street.

Hello again world of WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my brief thoughts on Walking Dead episode 7.4, “Service”. I missed reviewing the last two episodes just because I’ve been busy with work and accepting the outcome of the Presidential Election last week. Here’s to hoping we can get “Negan Lucille” into office someday, candidates who will take care of the deficit by “shutting that shit down, no exceptions!” As for the two previous episodes, I know some people might have found them boring, but I’m rather enjoying how much dialogue and plot driven things are becoming in The Walking Dead again. These eipsodes were a breath of fresh air from the season premiere. It’s like the creators are trying to Make the Plot Great Again. Terrible political jokes aside, I rather enjoyed this episode as a whole.

What I enjoyed:

I rather like the direction they are taking with Rick’s character development since Negan is working to break Rick like a whipped dog. I don’t mean to say that Rick deserves to be treated this way, but I’m curious to see where things will go with how Negan is treating Rick. Such as if Rick ends up breaking completely, or just becomes a worse person than he was in the middle of season five. I enjoyed seeing the tense air between the members of Alexandria and the Saviors with how the actors played everything out. The scene where Carl confronts the Saviors and stands up to Negan was well made. Same goes for the scene where Dwight was creepily taunting Rosita.

Speaking of Dwight, if Negan is the big dog around the yard, Dwight is the simpering little hound dancing in his shadow for Negan’s approval. It seems that the writers are actually trying to make us hate Dwight more than Negan, and it’s working for me. I think Dwight is losing his humanity becuase of Negan’s actions, and Dwight sees parts of his old-self in Daryl that he now hates. IE, the scene where Dwight takes Daryl’s bike and then purposely taunts him over it saying, “You can have it back Daryl, just say the word!” Which I think was a reference to last week where Daryl refused to call himself “Negan”.

As for Negan himself, I am falling in love with how Jeffery Dean Morgan plays this psychopath. I find myself quoting Negan in my head all of the time with how he goes from being funny to dead serious in a heartbeat, he’s the kind of villain that’s “so bad he’s good.” I’m finally starting to catch up on the source material, so I will incorporate how the show version of Negan compares to the comic version of Negan in future reviews. Here’s to hoping the writers don’t screwover Negan like they screwed up the Governor’s story arc. With all of that said, I still had a few bones to pick with this episode.

What I didn’t enjoy:

Am I wrong for thinking that this episode didn’t have to be be 90 minutes long? I feel the episode itself became a lot worse once Negan left Alexandria. Negan was really the person who made this episode pop for me. With that said, I didn’t feel like Negan needed to take every single gun from Alexandria, as it decreases their chances of survival in the now zombie infested world they live. Negan said he didn’t want Rick’s group starving to death, but God forbid another Walker heard needs to stroll through Alexandria again. I know what these plot points stood for though, it was to demonstrate how much control Negan has over Rick now vs who Rick used to be, as Negan even mockingly pointed out to Rick with that scene where Negan was holding Deanna’s camcorder. Lastly, while I thank Father Gabriel for buying Maggie more time, I don’t like the idea of her being found out at the Hilltop colony later this season by Negan. This season will prove to be a bitter sweet symphony of writing if so.

I look forward to see where things will be going this season, while last season gave us a lot of action, I’m thinking this is going the season where Walking Dead comes back to plot over action, like a better and darker version of season two. I pretty much gave away my song for this review, so here’s your moment of zen:

-KCard

Walking Dead 7.1 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

Warning: be prepared for lots and lots of spoilers.

Hello again WordPress readers, Kevin here coming to bring you my thoughts on this highly emotional episode titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”. First, I just want to point out I may not do live broadcasts on Facebook anymore for live reactions as even that seems to cause drama involving spoilers.It’s hard to tell eggshells apart from mindfields these days. Anyways, I will stop derailing and digress onto the show.

What I liked:

This episode was well made in how it made me want to punch the writers in the face like Daryl did to Negan in the first half, and then had me on my knees emotionally in the second half when we found out who Negan’s victims were. The writers wanted us to feel exactly how much pain Rick’s group was in the second half of the episode after they lost Glenn and Abraham to “Lucille”. I think this episode will really set the tone for how insanely goddam brutal this season is going to be. 

I enjoyed Jeffery Dean Morgan’s acting as Negan, and while I’m still behind on the comics for Negan, Morgan’s acting is top notch as my new favorite TV psychopath. Your move, Game of Thrones. 

Speaking of Game of Thrones, could Negan be shaped up to be like Ramsay Snow? For instance, the secene where Negan almost forces Rick to cut off Carl’s arm shows us just how twisted Negan really is. The same goes with how Negan took Daryl to be his captive and threatened to send “bits of Daryl” to Rick’s door, much like Ramsay would do to his enemies.Eitherway, I’m not expecting any happy resolutions in this season with an opening episode like that one. 

What I didn’t like:

What I hated about this episode is what I loved about this episode: It made me wait a little longer for the death reveal, then smashed my heart to pieces like Glenn and Abraham’s skulls. Walking Dead pulled a fast one on all of us thinking only one person was going to die, but they killed off a second character in a huge emotional tirade that caught all of us by surprise (even if comic readers did know about Glenn and Abraham dying). Add the trauma of that scene where Rick almost cut off Carl’s hand, and you have one fine recipe for fan heartbreak, and my massive headache. Seriously, I need some tylenol after watching this episode because of how much it played mind games with me. 

R.I.P. Glenn and Abraham, I would have liked to have seen you both develope as characters in the upcoming story arc. Instead, the writers decided to not deviate from the comics too heavily this time. 

We will see where things go moving forward, which I doubt will involve anything aside from brutal and dark writing.
-KCard

Game of Thrones 6.10 Review: “The Winds of Winter”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Remember kids, when dealing with SPOILERS, it’s important to duck and cover beneath your desk without checking the internet for a few days.*

Hello again blog readers, Kevin here bringing you my (now late) review of the Game of Thrones season six finale. It’s been an amazing season thus far, and I can hardly wait for season seven next year. But before I get into my review, I think it’s time I start reviewing some other shows besides Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. I’ve all but lost my love for reading books since college ended, and I don’t enjoy reviewing pop music anymore, but television still manages to bring me a lot of joy because it’s a genre that somewhat still values creativity for mainstream audiences. If anyone has any recommendations for what I should start reviewing next, then just leave me a comment below! Anyways, let’s get onto the show.

This episode is probably my favorite episode of Game of Thrones for a lot of reasons, the least not being that the writing of old story arcs and opening of new story arcs was done so magnificently in this episode. I think this was also the best season finale since season four because the season five finale was just such a cluster f**k of negative events happening to all of the characters. This season finale covered a lot of events that have been moving the story towards the second round of the battle for the Iron Throne to what potentially could be called “The Battle of the Five Queens”. I’ll spare people any plot summaries and get straight into what I enjoyed, and what I feel like were the negative aspects of this episode.

What I enjoyed:

I love the way Cersei enacted her vengeance on all of her enemies in one foul swoop by destroying the Sept of Baelor with wild fire. That act of destruction is something that Mad King Aerys would have done if he were more calculating (and less insane). I think that entire first twenty minutes of this episode were very well directed and acted out, the tension was so thick before the explosion that you could cut it all with a knife. I enjoyed seeing how Margeary caught onto Cersei laying a trap for the people in the Sept, and how the Faith Militant wouldn’t allow anyone to leave before the Sept was destroyed. I love how the show handled Danny preparing the coming war for the Iron Throne, and her character development in letting Daario out of her love life, and naming Tyrion as her Hand of The Queen.

I loved Tyrion’s speech about how never believed in anything until Tryrion met Danny.  I enjoyed seeing Jon being crowned the new King in the North from help by Lyanna Mormont, even if I think that role will eventually go to Sansa. I enjoyed Little Finger being rejected by Sansa as it shows us that love isn’t something that Little Finger (or anyone else) can scheme their way towards. I loved seeing how Dorne and High Garden have sworn fealty to House Targaryen with help from Lord Varys. It was also fantastic seeing Arya get revenge for her family by killing Walder Frey after feeding Frey his own sons to him, which is vengeance on par with Sweeney Todd in terms of creativity. It was amazing to see the show producers confirm the “Lyanna Stark plus Rhaegar Targaryen equals Jon” theory of who Jon Snow’s parents truly are. And lastly, I loved seeing Danny’s fleet sail towards Westeros with help from the Iron Fleet and the ships she acquired from The Masters. Danny’s ship sailing for Westeros was was probably the most grandiose scene in the whole season, matched only by The Battle of The Bastards last week. There were many positives, but still there were some aspects of the episode that I didn’t enjoy.

What I Didn’t Enjoy:

It makes me sad to see that Tommen committed suicide shortly after the Sept of Baelor was destroyed, but it’s easy to understand his reasons seeing as his wife and most of his close friends were killed in the explosion. It was great seeing Cersei get her revenge against that overzealous Nun Septa Unella, and seeing the Mountain remove his helmet to torture Unella. It’s just that I feel like this scene only served to show us that Cersei is heir to taking Joffrey and Ramsay’s place as the new “evil character” in the seven kingdoms. I know someone had to fill the void, but I feel like we had viewed a more human side of Cersei these past two seasons. Seeing as all of Cersei’s children are dead, I think that it’s safe to say that next season the writers will try and have her outdo both Joffrey and Ramsay in terms of just how evil someone can really be (in a position of power). Lastly, it was great seeing Ser Davos confront Melisandre over the burning of Shireen from last season, but I fear that Melisandre leaving Jon’s side will hurt Jon in the coming of future conflicts in The North.

This was the best episode of Game of Thrones so far in my opinion, and I hate the fact that I need to wait another year to see where things will be progressing. I suppose this could the year I finally pick up the books for GOT and find outwhat I’ve been missing out on all these years, but I’ll cross that bridge when I’m ready to do so.

In the meanwhile, I leave you with today’s song “Frontiers” by Omnium Gatherum because it seems like the perfect theme for the journey of Daenerys Targereyn as she sails for Westeros.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 6.9 Review “Battle of The Bastards”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*And on the seventh day the Lord did rest, and proclaimed SPOILERS through out the internet.*

Hello again readers new and old, Kevin here once again bringing you my thoughts on the latest episode of Game of Thrones. This episode was freaking awesome, and I loved every minute of it. But before I get into what I liked and disliked, I just wanted to say that this has probably been my favorite season of Game of Thrones to date. Could that be because they’ve stopped referencing the books so heavily to appeal to a more broad audience? I’d certainly say so, even though most book readers I know love season six themselves. Now then, onto the things I enjoyed and didn’t care for.

What I Enjoyed:
Before I get to the most obvious part of what made me love this episode, I wanted to say I love how Daenerys rode her Dragons out into the ocean to decimate the Master’s ships. I loved seeing how Tyrion’s plan to strike fear into the Masters worked (how Grey Worm cut the throats of the two masters who volunteered the low born Master to be killed). I also enjoyed seeing the Dothraki ride in to slaughter the (annoying) Sons of The Harpy. The battle for Winterfell shown at the end of this episode was the best full scale battle I’ve seen on this show since The Battle of The Black Water in season two.

I loved how everything was written, performed, and choreographed. This battle put other medieval battles I’ve seen in films to shame. How it starts off with Ramsay playing with Rickon’s life to lure Jon out, to the chase scene with Jon trying to reach Rickon before Ramsay ultimately put an arrow through Rickon’s heart. I liked seeing how much Jon had to struggle in that battle to survive, it really shows a more human side to the horrors of war. The whole idea of trapping the Wildlings in the center of Ramsay’s forces with the spears and shields seems to me like they took a page out of the battles of ancient Greece and Rome. I’m glad Sansa enlisted the help of Little Finger to slaughter Ramsay’s army.

Lastly, I’m happy we saw Jon beat Ramsay to a pulp in their final fight, and how Ramsay was fed to his own hounds (a pay off I’ve been waiting since season three). A fitting end to the most messed up Villian I’ve ever encountered on television thus far. Although, I shudder to think about what AMC will do with Negan next on The Walking Dead. But, I digress as there were still somethings that bothered me about this episode.

What I didn’t like:
I’m annoyed that Ramsay and Jon both let their emotions get the best of them in the battle. Jon became easily lured out by Ramsay’s trap, and when the battle turned Ramsay simply ran with his tale between his legs. I’d have expected Ramsay to have prepared more booby traps in Winterfell, or to not just keep shooting the same part of Jon’s shield before he died. I’m also worried about how Ser Davos is going to confront Melisandre in the future. Oh well, I still give this episode a standing ovation. I look forward to next week’s episode since it looks like Winter has finally come.

Today’s song is Breaking Benjamin’s song “Had Enough”, which perfectly describes my feelings for Ramsay Bolton. He was indeed the greedy little bastard who got what he deserved.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 6.6 “Blood of My Blood” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Warning! Warning! The spoilers are coming! The British, I mean, spoilers are coming!* Content warning: swearing.

Before I get into the review, I just want to take a minute to remember the soldiers who couldn’t make it to celebrate this past Memorial Day. I know not all of my readers are American, but I felt it appropriate since I like to honor those who died fighting for what they believe, even if I am a pacifist. This was a very plot heavy episode, aside from the first five minutes of the episode. A lot went down in this episode, and I’d like to break down the things I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy.

What I enjoyed: 
First off, how nice it was that Ramsay got no screen time in this episode. I like Iwan Rheon as an actor, but I seriously despise his character Ramsay. Next, it was interesting to see Walder Douchebag Frey for the first time in three seasons and to see Edmure Tully return as a prisoner of The Freys. Speaking of the Tullys, I liked seeing Sam take Gilly and his family sword as a big “Fuck you” to his asshole of a father after that very tense dinner scene. I enjoy that Sam stood up to his father after he disrespected Gilly, but I think it was still a rash idea to take the sword. I enjoyed seeing how the High Sparrow out witted the Lannisters by turning Thommen and Margary against them. Lastly, I’m happy that Benjin Stark has confirmed to be (mostly) alive and that he helped to save Bran and Meera from the White Walkers in that awesome fight scene at the start of the episode.

What I didn’t like:
While I think Arya made the right decision to spare Lady Grey from being poisoned (along with that great interaction between Arya and Lady Grey), I’m sad that Arya isn’t going to finish her training with the many faced God and Jaqen H’gar. I look forward to seeing the fight between Arya and the other assassin No Name girl. Otherwise, I have no real complaints about this episode other than the fact that we don’t know what has happened to Loras Tyrell.

It will be interesting to see where things go from here next week, it looks like we’re going to get more focus on the war for the North next week. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens at that time.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 6.5 Discussion

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warnings: Somehow more culturally acceptable than trigger warnings on the internet, considering they both share a similar purpose.*

Hello again readers, Kevin here bringing a rather brief discussion on last night’s episode of Game of Thrones. I’m keeping this entry short because of how late I’m posting this blog entry. I really enjoyed this episode overall, especially how it built to a climax at the end that made our collective heads spin.

I enjoyed seeing Brienne and Sansa interacting with Little Finger, even if I still think Sansa should have put her pride aside and accepted help from Petyr’s army from The Veil. I loved how Dany forgave Jorah and told him to seek a cure for his greyscale after Jorah said he was going into a self imposed exile. I enjoyed how Tyrion was accepting help from the Red Priests, and the discussion between the red priestess and Lord Varys about faith and skepticism. I loved the battle between the Children of The Forest and the White Walkers. And despite how tragic it was, I loved seeing why Hodor lost his ability to speak because of Bran. That whole idea of connecting Hodor’s past to the moments of Hodor’s death while having Hodor “hold the door” to hold back the undead was absolutely brilliant.

I have no real complaints about this episode. Even with Hodor’s death I’m quite sad, but I’m also happy that this character death had real meaning behind it (unlike Osha’s death scene last week).

I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next week, and how this turn of events will affect Bran in the coming episodes.

-KCard♤♧◇

Game of Thrones 6.4 Review “Book of The Stranger”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: A one, a two, a three: this blog contains spoilers on Game of Thrones. This blog does not contain how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsy Pop.*

Hello again readers new and old, I come to you all bearing my thoughts on the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Like any episode, they stuffed a lot of plot into one hour of television. Some moments were heart warming, others were very tragic, and many moments that were very well acted out and written overall.Rather than wasting your time with plot summaries since you’ve most likely watched the episode I’ll just state what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy.

What I enjoyed:

First of all, I literally felt my hear melt when I saw Sansa reunited with Jon Snow in the one of the opening scenes of the episode. The fact that it showed Sansa and Jon catching up on where they left off, saying “I wish we could go back and stop us from leaving that day”. That’s a sentiment I’m sure many fans share to some extent (including myself). In a similar manner, I enjoyed seeing Theon interact with Yara and how they became closer as siblings to each other. I loved seeing Dario and Jorah interact with one another to try and rescue Danny, but how Danny ultimately saved herself and became the new ruler of the Dothraki in the process. That scene at the end where Danny burns the Khal and his men alive was just so epic, I’m still geeking out about it! I enjoyed seeing how Tyrion is trying the diplomatic approach with the Masters of Yunkai by giving them time to adjust to slavery ending. It was great seeing how The Lannisters and the Tyrells are working together to fight the faith militant, and how Margery was trying to help her brother stay strong. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing how Jon is getting ready to start pushing back against Ramsay, who is becoming progressively more evil with each episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ramsay became an evil cartoon of his former self by the end of the season.

What I didn’t enjoy:

I haven’t read the books for GOT, but I have read about some of the plot lines on Wikipedia (*prepares for impending fan rage in comments section*). It’s hard to say since the main storyline for the books is waiting for the next book to be released, but I get the feeling the show is starting to abandon George RR Martin’s original vision a bit. Meaning that we keep getting so many happy outcomes this season and so few negative outcomes it’s starting to not feel like the original storyline. The overall theme of GOT is to say that war just makes everything worse, but here we see Danny getting a huge army, and Jon Snow coming back from the dead to fight the monster Ramsay Bolton to reclaim the north. Speaking of Ramsay, I’m so pissed at he how killed off Osha with that flaying knife. It was by far the most rushed character death I’ve seen on this show since Ned Stark’s beheading. Oh well, GOT isn’t supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows. More like it’s the only cult crowd show on TV that isn’t supposed to give people happy endings (fan service aside). I guess we shall see where things will lead us in the next few episodes.

Today’s song will be Bruce Cockburn’s “If I had a Rocket Launcher” because the lyrics tell of the struggles of war and it’s aftermath. I love that damn guitar solo!

-KCard

Game of Thrones 6.3 Review “Oathbreaker”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*WARNING: You’ve got the spoilers, I’ve got the spoilers! Everyday we’ve got the email, I mean, the spoilers!*

Hello readers new and old, Kevin here again bringing you my review of this week’s episode of Game of Thrones. Let me start off by saying I had to skip reviewing last week’s episode because I didn’t have enough time last Sunday or Monday night, but that’s thankfully not the case this week. I feel sad that I missed expressing my joy over the news on Jon Snow last week, but I’m glad I got to see the episode right as it came on the air. Anyways, this week’s episode wasn’t as shocking/surprising as last week’s episode, but there’s still quite a bit of material to cover this week. Overall, it was a pretty entertaining episode (though there’s no topping last week).

I’ll go straight into what I liked about the episode, and what I didn’t like. The first thing I enjoyed was seeing that Jon Snow has all of his memories, and that he saw nothing while being dead. The scene of Jon Snow being placed in that cloth and having the stab wounds on his chest was a fairly obvious reference to the rising of Christ, Meldisandre even called Jon the “savior” in this past episode. The scenes with Tyrion and Varys were amazing for Tyrion’s dry humor, and Varys ability to extract info from that woman helping the Sons of The Harpy in a merciful manner.The next thing I enjoyed was the conversation between Tommen and the High Sparrow where the high sparrow reminds Tommen that Cersei’s love for him is a gift from the Gods. I’m unsure if the High Sparrow actually believes what he’s preaching, or if he’s simply using his new found power to bring justice towards the Lannisters for their long list of crimes. It will be interesting to see how things get resolved with all of the chaos going on in Westeros right now.

Speaking of chaos, Ramsay is now warden of the north, a man who’s sadism surpasses that of any other villain I’ve ever seen (even more than The Major from Hellsing Ultimate). And Ramsay now has an alliance with house Umber and Rickon Stark as a prisoner. Why am I listing this as a positive? I’m not, I just really liked how Smalljon Umber called Ramsay out on his bullshit about power and tradition. What I do like is the idea that the north is eventually going to erupt into civil war between the Boltons and whichever factions pledge their loyalty to Jon Snow. And speaking of Jon Snow, it seems many fans believe we’re getting quite close to discovering Jon’s true parentage with all of these flashbacks that Bran Stark keeps having. Which brings me to my final “like” of this episode, the fight scene with a young Ned Stark and Ser Arthur Dayne was quite possibly the most badass fight scene we’ve had in this show since Prince Oberyn vs The Mountain in season four. The fight choreography was amazing, it’s like I was watching a medieval expanded universe Star Wars light saber duel! (See it here on Youtube).

I wasn’t so much a fan of Bran and Osha being captured, but the show needs to have an edge of darkness somewhere along the way (as if Ramsay killing his newborn baby brother and his mother with his hounds last week wasn’t enough). My only other complaint is that with Jon leaving castle black then there’s a good chance Sansa won’t be able to see him.

All things considered, I should remember that even though the Game of Thrones television series isn’t following the books as closely now, GOT’s overarching theme of “war just makes everything worse” is still very true. Most of Westeros and the eastern provinces are all in chaos and descending further into war, meanwhile the White Walkers are still preparing for their siege in the second long night of winter. My biggest interest right now is seeing what role Jon Snow will eventually play as the “savior” against the White Walkers.

Speaking of chaos and discord, today’s song will be Metallica’s “King Nothing” which lyrically describes how I’m sure King Tommen currently feels about the state of his reign.

-KCard