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HBO’s Game of Thrones: 206 – “The Old Gods and the New”
Last night HBO gave us another excellent episode of what is arguably the best show they’ve ever produced. And that comes from someone who was a huge fan of both The Sopranos and Deadwood.
We opened on the taking of Winterfell, or rather the ‘just been took’, by the young Prince Theon Greyjoy, who – like several other characters on the show – is quite obviously in over his head. What started as a ploy to win over his father, the taking of the defenseless castle where he was raised, quickly turns into unwanted bloodshed and the botched execution of the very man who trained him – Rodrik Cassel. This ham handed ordeal takes place right in front of everyone, and it’s something the youngest Stark boys aren’t likely to forget anytime soon. This was a real turning point for Theon, who in all likelihood will fail to win the respect of his father before Rob Stark kills him. After this, and under the cover of night, Bran and Rickon leave Winterfell with Hodar and Osha, and accompanied by each of their dire wolves. What more protection can you ask for?
The Stark girls are having an equally terrible time. Arya, still the cup barrier for Tywin Lannister (The evil dude from Last Action Hero), is proving herself smarter than your average slave and reluctantly engages in conversation with the Lannister patriarch. At one point he asks her about her father, and eventually what killed him. Her answer…
Brilliant. How can you not love this girl? But then something potentially terrible happens. Lord Petyr Baelish comes to meet with Tywin and recognizes the missing Stark girl. Baelish, not one to show his hand easily sits on the information and allows Arya to continue her ruse. This however makes Arya jumpy and reckless, and with no idea how long she can stay hidden in plain sight, she decides to do her part and aid the war effort. She steals a letter off of Tywins table, information for Rob, and in her panic she runs right into Ser Amory Lorch, a man who can seal her fate. Lucky for her she has a 2 man balance still owed to her by Jaqen H’ghar and she cashes in one of them before Lorch can report back to Tywin. Narrowly escaping the reveal she so desperately needs to avoid.
As for Sansa, she’s worse off yet this week. What starts as pure joy for the audience…
…quickly becomes a riot with no shortage of limbs being torn off and Joffrey cementing his own fate. The backlash however sees young Lady Stark chased down an alley as several men who I can only assume smell terrible, attempt to steal away her virtue. That is until the hounds arrives…
And where is the good King while his dog rescues his betrothed wife (the only member of the Stark family that actually wanted to come to King’s Landing)? While be scolding by his uncle of course…
Tyrion attempts to explain to his Nephew/King the repercussions of letting Sansa die, and what that would mean for Jamie, who remains Rob Stark’s prisoner. Joffrey remains unconvinced he is not untouchable…despite getting slapped all the time. The kid just don’t learn.
As for Ned Stark’s other 2 sons, the hero and the bastard, things were less terrible than usual this week. Jon Snow is north of the wall, and his refusal to slay a woman has him stranded with her his prisoner. She seems none to upset about it either…
So while Jon Snow is spurning the advancements of a girl who seems far too attractive to be a wildling, brother Rob is getting straight up cock-blocked by Mama Stark.
So while the troubles of the older Stark kids range far and wide from aggressive attempted rape, passive aggressive rape, and cock blocking Mom, the younger siblings are left to handle the consequences of a war they are not even directly involved in, except for use as pawns.
Across the narrow sea however, the Mother of Dragons is having issues of her own. After the 13 have almost all rejected her request for ships, something more sinister happens. She returns to her lodging to find her people slain and her dragons taken.
It would seem as thought the creepy warlock dude from last week is behind these crimes, and will surely have to answer to Daenerys before all is said and done. Right? Ah, who knows. This is Game of Thrones, and worse acts have gone unpunished before.
Overall, the episode was great. Theon taking Winterfell, Osha getting naked, The Hound disemboweling rapists, Joffrey getting hit. Repeatedly. I can’t wait for next week. 4.5/5 Bears.
‘Game of Thrones’ RPG? Yeah, Why Not…
With all the twists and turns that Game of Thrones delivers us on a weekly basis, you would think that ‘Man, this has video game potential written all over it’. Actually, the massive of amounts of money and publicity should be the tip off that this has video game potential all over it. But more on my thoughts later in this article. Atlus is publishing the Game of Thrones RPG that which actually follow the GoT timeline and history. Now, whether the game is good…well, let’s show the trailer first.
Yeah, I don’t know but I am always skeptical of any video game adaptation from movies or games. I cannot even remember the last video game adaptation game I played and actually enjoyed. Goldeneye maybe? Riddick? And even then, those were movies. This is not only a television adaptation, but a book series adaptation. There is a lot riding on this and the right move was to make it an RPG. The way it seems, an extremely linear RPG is the best way of the go. You should not be able to deviate from the path other than different storylines to follow because again, you don’t want to mess with the GoT universe and change history like say, a Skyrim would or a Mass Effect. So we’ll see in June how this all goes down. Although, is it just me or does this look like a iPad game or the next Infinity Blade game. I feel if you were putting some dollars behind this game, it’d look a bit better than something I can download in 3 minutes. Or worse, maybe the budget isn’t there because they want the quick money grab. Something to ponder…
Review: HBO’s Game of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 1 – ‘The North Remembers’
Things have picked up almost right where they left off in Westeros… except now there are a few different kings running around the lands culminating into the conflict that is known as the ‘War of the Five Kings’. If you’re wondering who the fifth is, you’ll find out soon enough as the show moves on. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the next episode to come.
Obviously…SPOILERS
Our first king is Joffrey who is just the same old little shit head throughout this first episode. He is reveling in his newfound rule and doing whatever he wants to despite his mother’s guiding hand. To complicate things for Joffrey and Cersei, Tyrion has arrived in King’s Landing to execute his father Tywin’s command to be Hand of the King in his absence. Although it was good to see Tyrion back in the show, there wasn’t a whole lot of time spent in the royal capital, which is where the majority of the action and intrigue will take place this season. The same could be said of Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch who are making their way beyond the wall to investigate what the Wildlings are up to. Besides Jon getting reprimanded by Commander Mormont not much happens aside from the character of Craster being introduced. He is the same piss pot many of us know and love from the books, having a pretty liberal brain-mouth filter due to knowing that the Night’s Watch needs him. Even though you know it won’t happen you can’t help but wish Jon Snow would just go and punch him in the mouth. 
Robb Stark is still doing a good job of being a bad ass, as he confronts Jaime Lannister in his cell along with his dire wolf Grey Wind. That scene was probably one of the best as Robb set the direwolf loose on Jaime, and I have to commend the crew of Game of Thrones for making the dog look about as big as dire wolf is supposed to be. Robb’s strategy at this point while he is still winning is of course to gain some allies. Theon urges Robb to allow him to go to his father Balon on the Iron Islands, and convince to join with Robb, who sends his mother to the Storm Lands in order to ally with King Renly Baratheon who we don’t get to see in this episode.
The newest portion of the story involves Robert Baratheon’s other brother Stannis, who is portrayed as a very stoic and cold man just as he was in the book. Things with Stannis are black and white and by the book. He doesn’t mess around with words or people as we’ll find out through the season. More interesting is his current advisor in the form of Melisandre, played perfectly by Carice van Houten. Stannis has taken a new god, the Lord of Light, and Melisandre is his priestess. As you’ll see, many of Stannis’s followers aren’t too fond of her, including Maester Cressen who makes the ultimate sacrifice to no avail. Unlike Robb, Stannis doesn’t want or need any allies. His philosophy is “they’ll bend the knee or I’ll destroy them.”, and this includes his little brother Renly. The confrontation between the remaining two Baratheon brothers is something I can’t wait to see play out on screen.
Daenerys (along with Drogon.) had about six minutes of screen time and her remaining Khalasar is not doing too well. They are short on horses and there is barren wasteland aplenty, into which she sends her blood riders into in order to find a safe haven for them. I expect that the following episodes won’t be so broken up into so many pieces. The show may have to focus on two or three storylines at a time as all of the characters are so scattered at the moment. At one point, the author George R.R. Martin had to write two different books that took place concurrently because there were so many different characters in different locations. It will be interesting to see how they handle that on the show in future seasons. Regardless, this season is off to a great start thus far and looks to only get better from the looks of the preview at the end. Hopefully the next episode deals more with Arya who is still on the road with Yoren and Gendry because she had wayyyyyyyyyyy less screen time with Daenerys. I give the episode 4 out of 5 bears. Even though the whole episode was show of putting the pieces into place for us viewers, it was still excellent and the pay off will be even better starting next week.
And not to mention another Joffrey bitch slap!
Stay tuned!
GAME OF THRONES: 6 Clips from the Upcoming Season 2…
This Sunday will mark the much-anticipated return of HBO’s smash hit Game of Thrones. In preparation for the event, they have released 6 short clips from the upcoming sophomore season to further wet our appetites.
This is not one of them…
SEASON 1 SPOILER…
Yeah! Eat a bag of dicks Joffery! Everyone feel better now?
Ok, on to the actual stuff…
CLIP 1: We start with Daenerys Targaryen and her Dragons. What this tells us is, if anyone was expecting to see full grown flying bringers of Fiery Death in Season 2, they’re gonna likely be disappointed. Looks like it’ll be a while before these things are waging war on the Crown.
CLIP 2: Ahh, King Joffery gets once again verbally bitchslapped by his impossibly awesome Uncle. We also see Sansa Stark none to pleased to be holding the seat she once coveted, nex to the Boy King.
Continue reading GAME OF THRONES: 6 Clips from the Upcoming Season 2…
‘Game of Thrones’ Parody on ‘The Simpsons’ Made Our Faces Melt
The Simpsons has a long-standing tradition of great opening sequences, and last night’s did not disappoint. Instead of the normal introduction and clever couch gags, we are taken straight into a spoof of the opening sequence from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Instead of the lands and kingdoms in the HBO series, we are taken on an animated journey through Springfield; from Evergreen Terrace to “Burns Landing.” This is the point where you get so excited from the sheer combination of hilarity and awesomeness that you do an involuntary fist pump, and then your head explodes. Here at Grizzly Bomb, we are pretty unanimously huge fans of both The Simpsons and Game of Thrones. I can’t explain why, but Game of Thrones has one of the best opening sequences of any show out there. I think the music and the 3D map brings out the nerd in us. It’s so iconic and unique, that it made total sense for The Simpsons to do their own spin on it. Plus, I love it when Matt Groening and Co. give us something funny and topical in their parodies. Though they may not stand the test of time (Game of Thrones may not mean much to us in 10 years), it is still one of my favorite opening sequences to date.
Without further ado, here is the video:
It will have to tide us over until April 1 when season 2 premieres. I hope it includes more of Joffrey getting bitch-slapped.
Grizzly Bomb 