Raff finishes her Nan's signature pea soup whilst watching this week's installment of Game of Thrones. Here's her review of First
of His Name.
I have just finished
watching this week’s episode and I have to say I was a bit
disappointed. We are at the half way point now and I thought that a
lot more would happen in First Of His Name.
Having said that, I
feel like the series is speeding ahead when compared to the books.
You are all probably going to be sick of me saying, ‘when compared
to the books’ but I felt a lot more happens before we
get to this point.
I don’t really know
why I feel a bit lackluster about this episode, but I guess it wasn’t
as shocking as the others. That might seem a bit unfair since
we are only on episode 5 and we have already seen a wedding, a death,
a rape and an imprisonment. So it seems like we were due an episode
that is a bit calmer.
Usually I watch Game
of Thrones with my breakfast and a lot of the time something happens
to put me off that breakfast, which, to be honest, I don’t mind
since I am trying to get my bikini body back in time for summer. But this time I was
eating my lunch, which was my Nan’s signature pea soup, and I ate
the lot. Nothing happened to shock me enough to stop eating. So
Nan, if you are reading this, your soup was delicious.
But before I treat myself to another helping of soup, let’s get on with the show.
But before I treat myself to another helping of soup, let’s get on with the show.
The Lannisters
The Lannisters opened
the show this week (sometimes I forget that most of them are
Baratheons, to be honest) with poor Tommen being sworn in as King. I
feel so sorry for him because he didn’t ask for this path in life
and it wasn’t meant for him. Part of me thinks that
he is too innocent to rule Westeros, but I do get a different feeling
from him when compared to the feeling I got with book Tommen. TV show
Tommen seems a lot older in the head, even though he is just as shy.
He was having a nice
moment with Margaery, nodding to tell him is doing a good job, when
evil Cersai had to ruin it. I hate her so much. There is just
something about her that gets under my skin. Although I did like
that she seems to know that Tommen needs Margaery, but she also knows
that Margaery knows that marrying Tommen was what the Tyrells had in
mind all along. The scene was very well acted and seemed innocent
with devious undertones.
In this episode, we
also see that Cersai is trying to get information about Tyrion’s
trial out of her Father, Tywin (who completely sees through her) and
from Oberyn Martell. She is determined to see Tyrion rot. Have I
mentioned lately that I hate her?
Tywin also drops the
bomb that the Lannisters are completely broke. In the books, I don’t
really remember them being completely broke, just a bit on the poor
side and they keep lending money off everyone. I seriously don’t
know how they are going to pay for a trial and two more weddings when
they have no gold.
Petyr Baelish, Lysa
Arryn and Sansa
Sansa and Littlefinger
arrive at the vale and are met by Lysa Arryn and her entirely too old
to be breast-feeding son! Lysa marries Littlefinger and Sansa has
assumed the new identity of Alayne.
It is worth noting that
eagle eyed readers of the novels will already know that this another
departure from the source material. In the books Sansa becomes Alayne, Petyr
Baelish’s bastard daughter, not Alayne, his niece. I think this is
a move that I like better in the TV show, because
it never sat right with me that other people just accepted that he
had a bastard daughter that no-one knew about. There are spies
everywhere in Westeros and someone would have known that.
Lady Arryn gives me the
creeps. Seriously, I would rather meet Freddy Kruger down a dark
alley, than her. She needs to be locked away in a mental institution.
I loved the revelation
in this episode that Littlefinger and psycho Lady Arryn are
responsible for everything. They have manipulated everything from Ned
being made Hand of the King and eventually losing his head, to the
letter to Cat that blamed the Lannisters for everything.
I did have to rewind
this part because I was so grossed out by psycho trying to inhale
Littlefinger, that I missed what was being said and my soup nearly
came back for a visit!
Brienne and Pod
Brienne and Pod
Watching Brienne and
Pod was some light relief. He doesn’t know how to
ride a horse, or cook rabbit, and she resents having him there. The
look on Brienne’s face was a picture when his horse was circling. I did like that they
seemed to come to an understanding when she found out that he had
never been taught much of anything, and yet he had still managed to save
Tyrion’s life and kill a knight.
The Hound, Arya and
Daenerys
These characters seemed
to have the peripheral parts in this episode. We only see Daenarys a
few times, when she is deciding to stay and fight for peace in Mareen
even though she now has enough ships to sail to Kings Landing.
It seems like the fact
that Astapor has been overthrown and is now a slave city again, was
sort of brushed over. In the books I remember her being in a massive
struggle over what to do about Westeros and Astapor. She made the
decision in a few seconds in the show. I know they can’t include
everything, but still, this was an important decision for
her character.
Jon Snow and Bran
This arc made me really
sad. Jon and Bran were so close and yet so far. It was heartbreaking.
The big revelation here
is that Bran can warg into humans. He wargs into Hodor to save the
day, when Locke tries to kidnap him. Someone on another site has
called this ‘Brodor,’ which is a stroke of genius.
I never liked Locke
anyway. Even last week when he stuck up for Jon, I thought he had an
ulterior motive. How cheeky was he?!! Making out he was loyal to Jon
and then trying to do a runner with Bran! I am glad Brodor snapped
his neck!
In this arc, I loved
the shock of Ghost killing Rast and then Jon killing Karl. If I had
had any soup left at these points then it would have gone everywhere
because I jumped out of my skin at both parts. Jon putting his sword
through Karl’s skull was both brutal and deserved.
Conclusion
I know this episode was
setting up everything for what is to come but I just didn’t think
it was as successful as other episodes. It seemed choppy and a bit
too sedate. I am looking forward to next week’s episode though,
which by the looks of the trailer below, will be a lot more exciting.
Rating – 7/10
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