GOT

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

GOT Short Review (Update on My Blog)

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Hello there, what a lovely night for SPOILERS!*

Hello again World of WordPress, Kevin here letting you know that I won’t be releasing a full review of Game of Thrones this week. I missed reviewing last week as well because I’m in a bind emotionally lately and don’t have time to focus my energies on writing as much as I uses too. My life is also going through some personal transitions, so I’m probably not going to be able to release blogs on a schedule anymore. I still intend to release reviews when I have the time, including the review for the UK band “Twist Helix”. Special thanks to Twist Helix for their patience in dealing with my lethargic arse.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, I did enjoy the last episode quite a bit, especially with how funny it was when The Hound killed those former members of The Brotherhood With Banners with that ax. I loved seeing Arya reclaim her identity after beating that nameless female assassin. Lastly, I’m glad Danny has returned to Mereen. GOT is becoming dark and bleak again like with how The Black Fish couldn’t help Sansa and Jon and Jamie saying he only cares about his sister. I look forward to next week to see if Ramsay will die in the upcoming battle for Winterfell. I’ve been looking forward to the death of The Bastard Bolton.

-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

Game of Thrones 5.10 Review “Mother’s Mercy”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler Warning: Ah one, a two, a skiddily diddily do….not read beyond this point if you haven’t watched the episode yet. It’s bad enough I still have people yelling at me for spoiling a major character death in The Walking Dead a few years back.*

Just gotta say thank you to my readers for not minding that I always come out late with these reviews, and also thank you all for continuing to read them despite my dry humor and tendency to ramble at the beginning of each review (it’s to cover up spoilers on my personal Facebook page). With all of that said, here are my thoughts on this massive headache of an episode.

Before I delve into the nitty-gritty of this episode, and what I enjoyed and what I hated, I just want to say that I felt like that Stannis was really swept under the rug in this episode. I know Stannis is still alive in the books from what I’ve heard, so I feel like that whole scenario of how quickly he was defeated was complete bullshit (aside from the part with Brienne beheading him, that was pretty awesome that she got closure for Renly). I just stated two things that I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about the episode. Oh well, at least I’m only trolling myself rather than trolling my fans (looking at your GRRM!)

What I enjoyed: It was great seeing Brienne get closure (as mentioned earlier), and it was great seeing Theon regain his sanity to save Sansa from Miranda and then to escape, and I loved seeing that Varys is still alive and ready to help give Tyrion and Dany a helping hand at managing things in Mereen. Speaking of Dany, I’m glad to see she’s still alive, I just hope the Dothraki turn out to be allies rather than enemies (and things are completely up in the air about that one since the show is abandoning the book cannon). I loved seeing Aria get her revenge on the pedophile women beater Meryn Trant (albeit at the cost of her eye sight). I’m happy to see Sam leave with Gilly to become a meister. Lastly, I’m curious to know the Frankenstein angle with The reanimated Mountain will effect things next season.

What I didn’t like: Where do I fucking start with this massive thought bomb of an episode? Star Wars Expanded Universe references aside, I hated seeing The Bolton’s beat Stannis’s army. Stannis could have done some real good for the seven kingdoms and the north (burning his enemies aside). I felt bad seeing Cersei have to endure such a massive trek of shame through the streets of King’s Landing since it seemed like overkill (despite all the pain she’s caused). Of course, I knew that Jon’s death was coming, but I hate that they killed him for trying to save the Free Folk vs how he died in the books (with being stabbed after ordering the Knight’s Watch to attack the Boltons). I haven’t been this pissed by Game of Thrones since I saw the Red Wedding, and at least that resolved plot points rather than opening more unknown plot possibilities.

I have mixed feelings about this finale since it was well written and well made, it just pissed me off so badly that I almost would have written HBO an angry letter (not to GRRM as what happened recently). However, I know to respect another writer’s artistic vision (even if that vision is overly sexual and brutal as all hell). I think in the meanwhile I will go ahead and start reading the book series to pass the time until the next season comes out.

And with that, I will leave my favorite EDM instrumental “Heart Upon My Sleeve” since Game of Thrones is definitely the type of show to bring you around on an emotional roller coaster.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 5.5 “Kill The Boy” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: Abandon hope for happy plot resolutions all who enter here*

So I previously stated that I have yet to read the books, but I will admit that I’ve been cheating and reading plot spoilers on Wikipedia. I won’t spoil anything in the books that I read, vicariously. I will say that some of things I’ve read have been causing me great amounts of distress though. For now, the show is providing me with enough headaches. On the plus side, reading the graphic novels has taught me to love comic books again.

Anyways, this last episode was awesome in how awkward and intense the moments were between Ramsay, Sansa, and Reek. The dining room scene was especially true of how awkward the interaction was between Ramsay and Reek, but I tip my hat to all of the actors. I especially tip my hat to Alfie Allen for his portrayal of someone struggling with their identity. I enjoyed seeing Tyrion and Jorrah interact with one another finally, especially when they were reciting poetry on old Valeryia and how Tyrion loves his wine. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing Stannis talk to Samuel Tarley about how to kill the white walkers.

Speaking of Staniss, I do hope that he’s not making a tactical mistake bringing his wife and daughter along with him onto the battle field. I don’t put anything past the Boltons at this point, even flaying a young child living. I didn’t like knowing that Ser Jorrah has grey scale, that’s going to be an interesting subplot later on though. It’s unsettling to think of what can go wrong next for the remaining protagonists. I know better than to expect happy endings from GOT though.

No music video today since I wrote this review on my phone. I’ll try and post the next review on time tomorrow though.

-KCard