Game of Thrones

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 6.4 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

Game of Thrones 6.1 “The Red Woman” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*WARNING! THIS BLOG CONTAINS GAME OF THRONE SPOILERS! AND LOTS OF OTHER ONLINE SACRILEGE THAT REQUIRES CONTENT WARNINGS FOR DISCLOSURE PURPOSES!*

HELLO EVERYONE, I mean, Hello everyone! Oops, I didn’t mean to shout at you all by leaving my caps lock on. Anyways, I’m happy that Game of Thrones has made it’s return back to television in full swing. This episode overall was pretty awesome, even though it debate-ably left things with Jon Snow’s fate up in the air still.

My reaction to this episode can be summed up as this: It’s like they gave us half of what we wanted, and then said “screw you” for the other half. I guess that is what makes Game of Thrones so different from other shows on television right now: It doesn’t give us what we want, but keeps on going on with it’s plot and popularity anyways. There are definitely things I enjoyed, and things that left me feeling angry in this episode.

For starters , I’m so happy Brienne saved Sansa and Theon, and that they are safe (for now). That whole scene was really well made, where we feel the end is near for Sansa and Theon from them being tracked by the Bolton’s hounds, and then by Brienne coming in and killing most of them in the course of three minutes. I’m happy that Danny didn’t get beheaded by the Dothraki, even though it’s annoying that she is currently their prisoner. Danny may yet turn the situation around, so who knows. Lastly, I’m happy Ser Davos is trying to help Jon’s friends at the risk of his own life. I’m willing to bet Davos suggested that it was the Wildlings help Jon’s friends, but we’ll see.

I’m sad about Stannis being confirmed dead, but I’m sure many other people aren’t sad considering that he sacrificed his own daughter last season. I’m sad that Jon was confirmed dead for the moment, but I’m still hopeful for Jon being revived by Melisandre. Speaking of Melisandre, I felt uncomfortable watching the last five minutes of the episode when Melisandre took off her amulet and we saw her true age. I didn’t need to see an old woman naked! But, I suppose it’s only fair that the show give us uncomfortable nudity as opposed to regular HBO fan service nudity to remind us that our bodies aren’t perfect, nor will they ever be.

In the coming episodes, I think it will be interesting to see how things play out in the civil war of the seven kingdoms with the Martells in Dorne, and the Bolton’s in the north. I’m guessing that things are just going to destabilize entirely for the Lannisters at some point in the show. Except Dorne overthrew it’s pacifist leaders by killing them, and the north is barely being held together by fear (plus we still need to see what the Wildlings have to play). I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, even if somethings in this episode left me a bit disappointed.

-KCard

 

Game of Thrones 5.9 Review “The Dance of Dragons”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: They tell’s me not too, but I still drinks it. (Butterda may be a hush a bush a push Leopold). Home Star Runner References aside, this blog contains Game of Thrones spoilers. There, I even spoiled the reference for you.*

So here I am once again making a review that is out a week later than other reviews. The Journalism student in me feels bad, but the blogger in me who’s doing all of this on an un-paid basis feels at ease. On that note, I think I’m going to go on a brief hiatus from blogging after reviewing tonight’s series finale of Game of Thrones. It’s been hard to keep on top of this stuff, and I want to focus more energy into my music with my band than my writing (we are working on making our first album). Anyways, I missed reviewing the series for the last two weeks since I’ve been super busy prepping for a promotion at work, getting a new car, and prepping for a show with my band.

To sum what I’ve missed: It was great to see Cersei gets her just desserts, the battle of the Wildings vs the White walkers was awesome, and holy crap I loved seeing Tyrion meet Dany. I’m just going straight to this week’s episode to save myself time and to catch up for the incoming series finale. Once again, I can’t comment heavily on the Books V Show debate as I’ve yet to read the books. Reading is a hobby I’ve fallen out of love with, I read Game of Thrones vicariously through Wikipedia though.

Since it’s the night of the season premiere, you can look elsewhere for summaries as I’m going to keep this review short and sweet. To start things off, I was really starting to like Stannis as a character; but this show once again twists the good out of anyone and makes them burn their own daughter alive. All thanks to the bastard Bolton’s squad torching the siege and food supplies for Stannis’s army. Stannis and Ramsay are different characters, but they’re both hungry for power and its lead them to do horrible things. To be fair, Stannis at least has some resemblance of a conscious vs Ramsay who literally gets off sexually to the suffering of others. As the episode progresses we can clearly see that Jon Snow is quickly becoming hated by the Night’s watch and that things are looking progressively more bleak for him (book fans know what I’m hinting at here).

Now the thing that I really loved about this episode was seeing Jorrah being a complete badass in the fighting pits and proving to Danearys that he is for forever loyal to her by killing that Son of the Harpy in a spectacular fashion. I also loved seeing Dany fly away to safety on her dragon. What I didn’t like was seeing Shireen Baratheon burned alive and how evil the Sons of The Harpy really are by just butchering random citizens. Beyond that, it was a pretty solid episode and I’m looking forward to seeing the series finale tonight.

Speaking of burning things down, here’s a song by Five Finger Death Punch that reminds me of how Stannis feels about his enemies.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 5.1 and 5.2 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: Rhymes with “soiler warning” but is grammatically correct and leaves much less of an undesirable mess short of internet flame wars.*

Speaking of procrastination on a Sunday (refer to: my latest reblog). Oh well, I’m all caught up on Game of Thrones the show, but I still need to pick up the books to re-discover the love of reading. I did recently pick up volume 1 of the GOT graphic novel though (I’ll review that as well when I finish it).

Seeing as I have to review two weeks worth of episodes of I’m not going to bother with summaries. I’m just going to touch upon what I liked and didn’t like.

What I liked: Tyrion is still the same old lovable smart ass we’ve known from past seasons. “Can I drink myself to death on the road to Mereen?” I’m also happy to see Tyrion and Lord Varies working to restore Daenerys to power in Westeros. Another thing I enjoyed seeing was the chemistry between Stannis and Jon Snow. To me, Stannis is a more interesting character than he was in season two, and is an interesting second father figure to Jon. It’s also good to Brienne of Tarth still kicking ass, as usual. Lastly, the pacing this season ‘s wonderful given how much plot they have fit into the last few episodes.

What I didn’t like: Cersei Lannister is more evil than Joffrey and Ramsay IMO, she’s down right cold blooded and heartless. I can’t believe the level of hatred she feels towards Tyrion, and not caring for innocent dwarfs who died by beheading. At this point I shouldn’t be surprised though, Cersei has been the cause of great suffering for many through out the series. I also disliked how Danaerys had to have that rogue council member executed by beheading for killing that Son of The Harpy. It’s a stereotype of the series when the protagonists stubborn sense of righteousness causes their followers to loose faith in their leadership (refer to: Rob Stark).

What I’m hoping to see: I know a few spoilers from the books, but I have tried to not spoil too much for myself. I’m hoping that the next few episodes help us see where the wars to come are going to be headed, maybe season five is where they start deviating from the books more. I’m hoping for more happy endings than sad ones, but I won’t get my hopes up knowing GRRMs tendency to troll his fans.

If there’s anything else I should cover in my next (hopefully on time) review, just let me know in the comments section.

-KCard

Walking Season 5 Premier “No Sanctuary” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Warning: Spoilers Held Within*

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Better late than never folks, especially since I’ve caught writers-rigor-mortis as of late (try saying that 10 times fast!) Anyways, I can sum up the episode in one word: BADASS!!!

We open up from where season 4 left off with Rick and most of the cast being imprisoned in Terminus with the hippie-cannibals of Terminus killing people by bashing them in the head and slitting their throats one by one. As to why they are doing so in such a manner is beyond me, but it definitely looks like something I’d see in Game of Thrones until we hear some type of a large explosion.

We find out that Carol lead a herd of Walkers to Terminus, and blew up the giant propane tank to destroy Terminus’s fence using an assault rifle and a firework (that Carol stole from a Terminus member she took captive). The remainder of the episode is how Terminus gets overrun and Rick and the crew escapes to reunite with Carol, Tyreese, and Rick’s baby daughter Judith.

Highlights include the explosion, the opening with the throat cutting, the subplot with Tyreese having to confront the Terminus captive to save Judith, when everyone got back together, and the big reveal at the end with Morgan following his way to Terminus (who we last saw in Season 3 in the episode “Clear”).

I have zero complaints about this episode, it was like a giant orgasm for my brain. Granted that the show is still different than the comic books, but the writing’s still very solid and they have referenced the source material enough for my tastes that the show is a respectable separate universe (unlike those God awful Resident Evil movies which suffer from poor writing and flip the bird to the games!!)

Many people don’t get the allure of Zombie media, others find The Walking Dead to be rather boring; I find this episode to be chocked full of excitement. As for the people who don’t “get it”, I’ll write another blog explaining why I love zombie media. I’ll also make sure to make this review a series on my blog.

-Tatteybye