Game of Thrones, Season 3
There are several story arcs in Season 3, and it takes some attention to keeping them all straight. Everyone all may have their favorites, too, but I think the most important is that of Daenarys Targaryen, who continues her march toward Westeros, picking up armies as she goes along. My favorite storyline is when she wants to buy the Unsullied, an army that has no will but to follow their leader. The owner of this army is an arrogant man who speaks ill of Daenarys, thinking she doesn't know his language. He agrees to sell her the army for one of her dragons. But she does know his language, and she takes the army and her dragon burns the guy to a crisp.
Another thread has Jaime Lannister, as a prisoner of the Starks, being released. He is to be escorted back to King's Landing by Brienne, a large female warrior. He loses his hand, but the two gain a lot of respect for each other. Theon Greyjoy is in the hands of a jailer who he doesn't know, and he loses a body part more intimate.
Meanwhile Robb Stark continues to fight his war against the Lannisters, as does Stannis Baratheon. Stark goes back on his word to marry a daughter of Walder Frey, a crepuscular old man. Instead he marries for love. Big mistake, as this leads to the most talked about moment during the season, which became known as the "red wedding." It showed again that fans of the series must be ready for any character to die, as two of major characters lose their lives, throwing a monkey wrench into everything. Baratheon heeds the advice of a sorceress, who also invests the role with a little Lady Macbeth.
Another meanwhile, Jon Snow of the Night Watch has sort of gone undercover among the Wildlings, the people who live north of the wall. He falls in love with Ygritte, and helps the whole bunch scale the wall. Things don't turn out great for him, either, though things are looking up as the season ends.
As for Tyrion Lannister, the best character in the whole series, he is ordered by his father to marry Sansa Stark, just so she can't marry a Tyrell. Tyrion's sister Cersei thinks this is funny, until her father orders her to marry a Tyrell. Margaery Tyrell is set to marry King Joffey, and wants to get close to Cersei, who will become her mother-in-law, and calls her sister. "Call me sister again and I'll have you strangled in your sleep," Cersei tells her.
All of this is done so expertly, in writing, directing, and acting, that one can't help but feel that one is witnessing something very rare. I don't have HBO, so I have to rely on DVDs, and I don't know when I'll catch up with the finale. Spoilers can't help but get through--I knew what was going to happen at the red wedding and I can see how shocking that must have been to those who didn't. This is a brutal world, and it seems unlikely that anyone will survive it. But of course, someone will end up on the Iron Throne.
The actors are a delight, particularly Peter Dinklage as Tyrion and Emilia Clarke as Daenarys, but also kudos to Diana Rigg, who debuts as Olenna Tyrell, the house/s matriarch, who has a sharp tongue and sums up how everyone is related to each other at Tyrion and Sansa's wedding. Also enjoying every bit of his role is David Bradley as Walder Frey (he also played Angus Filch in the Harry Potter films). As someone says of Frey, "I've seen warm shits I like better than Walder Frey." Rose Leslie is a feisty Ygritte, who got her own catch phrase: "You know nothing, Jon Snow," and ended up marrying the actor himself, Kit Harrington.
It has emerged that George R. R. Martin, the writer behind Game of Thrones, had two letters published in Marvel comic books when he was young, and one can see the influence of Stan Lee, as well as Shakespeare. The series is really a reworking of the War of the Roses with dragons (Stark/York, Lannister/Lancaster), with Westeros shaped like Great Britain.
When something like Game of Thrones comes along, a person should just surrender to its majesty, but there are naysayers. Some think there is too much talk, which is the Shakespeare part, and some have criticized the cinematography as too dark, but of course it would be pretty fucking dark in a world without electricity, especially at night. I say put away the daggers and just enjoy the likes of something that is unlikely to happen again.
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