Game of Thrones fans excited for season of high stakes
Just about anyone would agree that 301 days is a long time, but fans of the hit series Game of Thrones would tell you 301 days feels more like an eternity as millions of obsessed geeks spent an agonizing 10 months eagerly awaiting more episodes to relieve their symptoms of acute Westeros withdrawal.
Luckily the return of HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire beautifully bridged the painful gap between seasons two and three so well it feels like we never left the massive world to begin with.
Things pick back up right where they left off in the finale of season two as we see Samwell Tarly, the most cowardly member of the Night’s Watch, nearly bite the dust (I mean snow) at the hands of a White Walker. For the uninitiated, the White Walkers are essentially a horde of zombies bent on spreading icy death to everyone and everything with a pulse. Yeah, winter is definitely coming.
After that we stay in the north to see how the recently captured Jon Snow is fairing, as he attempts to convince the leader of the Wildlings that he should let Jon defect to their side, effectively betraying his adopted brothers of the Night’s Watch. Some obvious foreshadowing of the budding relationship between Snow and his captor Ygritte also takes place, teasing viewers of another love affair sure to take place.
We also see Robb Stark and his army as they discover the ruins of Harrenhal and the slaughter of Northerners that took place there. This obviously upsets Robb and his bannermen, adding to the already mounting fury of the North towards the Lannisters.
It becomes even more clear at this point in the program that this episode was meant to tie up any loose ends from the previous season while providing an excellent foundation for the inevitable and epic battles we are about to witness. While this amount of exposition is standard for season openers, viewers were also treated to some powerful scenes, most notably the heated moment between Tirion Lannister and his father Tywin.
Of course HBO wouldn’t be doing their rendition of A Song of Ice and Fire any justice if they left out the Fire, thus we are treated to a beautiful scene featuring Daenerys Targaryen’s now much bigger and adolescent dragons, accurately illustrating the passage of time from when we last saw them.
It needs to be mentioned that CG in television and film often derails our imagination by appearing so obviously fake in contrast with the rest of the scene, but boy are these computer-generated beasts impressive. They’re downright beautiful actually, which gives me high hopes for their future on the show.
It’s safe to say that no matter how good last Sunday’s premiere of Game of Thrones turned out to be, fans were happy just to be back in their fantasy world of choice. Thankfully—and not surprisingly at this point—creators of the fantastic HBO series have produced an amazing introduction to a season that promises to be more thrilling than the last.