TV Season Review: Game of Thrones, Season 3

Welcome back!

Ive been teasing for the last few posts about doing a review of the third season of the cultural Phenomenon Game of Thrones. Welp I finally finished up the season, so, I guess it's review time!

It goes without saying this review will have tons of Spoilers. I'm going to be breaking down the individual storylines (all like 60 of them) and pointing out how they progress. I'll be pointing out big plot points, like say, the Red Wedding. I'll definitely Be spoiling lots, so If you haven't watched the season yet, hold off until the end. Or if you don't care and are simply reading this because you're addicted to Internet based reviews, awesome, welcome!

Prepare yourself, review is coming.


TV SEASON REVIEW
Game of Thrones
Season 3

THE STORYLINES

Jon Snow and Ygritte
I really Like Jon Snow as a character, He's an outcast and Bastard. (literally...I'll be using that term again to mean the other thing) For the most part I enjoyed his storyline. It's pretty basic this season. He's separated from the night's watch, ends up with a group of wildlings. Gets a girlfriend (insert obligatory sex scene) then they travel back to the wall. Scale it, which lead to one of the only scenes where I noticed the lack of Budget. then they go to kill a horse breeder and the shit hits the fan.

Snow stops Ygritte from shooting the Horse breeder. (is he a horse Husbander?) they catch up to the breeder and force snow to Kill him. He cant, Ygritte does, hell breaks loose, Snow escapes. then is shot by Ygritte a couple times before ending up back at the night watch.

I like the fact that he's back at the Nightwatch, it's good to see the storyline's starting to meld together and set up for something big next season. I'm curious if we'll ever see Ygritte again in the series since she was just left in the middle of a field. I like her character and her sarcastic stabs at Snow.

Samwell Tarly
This is the Fat guy of the Nightwatch. I need to clarify that because A friend mentioned him and I had no idea who it was.

Samwell is a decent character, the weakest among all the characters in the show. I wasn't all that interested in his arc though. I mean he was left with the best cliffhanger of last season. A white walker army right next to him. Then he begins the season fighting a guy in zombie makeup. It felt like for some reason the writers wanted to not mention the white walker cliffhanger at all.

anyway he groups back up with the rest of the Nightwatch, they go to some Polygamist's house and then Hell breaks loose. (again) Tons of death and killing and death. Samwell takes a girl and her newborn child. (I don't care, I'm calling the baby Judith) then they run. That'd be the most fascinating part of this storyline, but, somehow it isn't.

The only thing this storyline really excels at is the confrontation between Tarly and the White walker near the end of the season. It finally revealed their weakness. Obsidion (a friend had to fill me in on this detail) AKA Dragon Fire Stone) I liked this confrontation just because it showed both the power and weakness of the White walkers. Who better be the villains in season 4.

Then Samwell Tarly, the girl, and Judith get to the nightwatch. So Sam is there to see Jon snow return, but not before meeting Brann and his band of misfits.

Bran, and His Band of Misfits
Bran, for those of you who don't remember, is the kid who peeped on Jaime and Cersei incesting it up. then was pushed off the tower, paralyzing him. He has two protectors, Nymphadora Tonks (ok, It's Natalia Tena, but I can't remember the character name) and a big dude named Hodor, well I assume it's Hodor.

I'll be honest, this storyline was interesting solely because of the Warg storyline. The Warg name was introduced in Jon Snow's storyline, but it's better fleshed out here.

I liked the sibling duo that joined them. I like the Idea of the brother being weak and the sister being the sword. (this Idea of Girl assassins will come up later) they fit well and I enjoyed Brann getting some training.

The real issue I had was with the other boy. Bran's brother, or at least I assume brother. he was non-existent for half the season. then out of nowhere he's there and Tonks has to take him somewhere, writing them both out of the story. It felt like they weren't in the book and they needed an excuse to get to the group that ended up in the book.

I liked that they crossed paths with Samwell, and inadvertently Jon Snow, then kept going. I don't understand why they have to get the 3 eyes Crow, but whatever, I'll let the kids have their adventure.

Theon Greyjoy
Oh god, where to start here. It's almost Torturous to think about this one. It's like Pulling teeth. Wait, they never pulled teeth, Torturers fail!

Maybe I forgot something major but why exactly is this storyline in here? I can't remember why Theon's getting tortured. I know it has something to do with Roose Bolton, and that somehow is connected to either the Lannisters or the Baratheons. but all I get is that the writers HAD a hardon for torturing.

This whole storyline just felt like an unneeded excuse to show torture, and Castration...well, was it castration? He lost a penis...balls too? because It'd be torture to have all that testosterone and no penis, just saying.....

I read up on where this storyline is going and it sounds interesting, the whole Reek character Idea is intriguing but it still feels they could have almost cut out the entire storyline and had Reek appear later in a 'Holy shit, Theon's still alive!' type moment.

Jaime and Brienne
One of my favorite Storylines this season. I enjoyed the bickering between the two of them. I actually understood why Brienne was taking him. They established the character relations well.

Then there was my favorite Cliffhanger of the season, Jaime losing his hand. I honestly didn't see this coming. I'll admit I watched the season up to this point then stopped when it was originally on TV. Though I like watching multiple episodes in a  row, so week to week sucks.

The storyline did have a couple downfalls. Jaime gets sent somewhere, then comes back for Brienne and she's fighting a Bear...really? A bunch of horny guys are going to send the only girl to her death against a bear? alright, pretty gay colony if you ask me. Also, bears aren't scary.

But, alas, everyone lives, Except Jaime's right hand, what was his name? Righty? and Jaime finally makes it back to Cersei

The Lannister Clusterhump
That's what I'm Calling it. Cersei, Tyrion,  Joffrey, Sansa, Tywen, Shae, Margery.

This is one complex Storyline. And I'm sure people will say its multiple storylines, but they're so tied together I'm including them all.

First off Cersei is a fine character, not one of my favorites at all. she's basically a nonevent in this season to be honest, she's slated to marry someone, eventually.

Tyrion is awesome. I love his character and even though his storyline is rather bland, (marry sansa even though he loves her handmaiden.) The true awesomeness in this storyline is his interactions with Tywen and Joffrey. his final episode line "Monster? perhaps you should speak to me a little softer then. Monsters are dangerous. and just now Kings are dying like flies." is one of my favorite lines in the show. Especially with Tywen further attacking Joffrey with "Men that have to say they are the king, are not true kings"

Joffrey is a total Bastard. this time I mean Bastard. I cannot wait to See him dead. yet I love the character. He's sadistic naive as hell, completely clueless. Yet he thinks he's all powerful. a perfect depiction of power going to your head. I love his scenes because it just kind of supplants him as a total moron, with way too much power.

Sansa and Shae are fine, I like Sansa as a character, but this season she's not too adventurous, I'd rather she had left with Littlefinger early in the season.

I really like Margery...maybe not for any other reason than I find Natalie Dormer unbelievable attractive.

Daenerys Targaryen
Ok, I'm fully assuming this is building to something epic that will somehow end up involving other storylines. but god damn this storyline is bland. It has absolutely no effect on any of the other storylines. I like when storylines interconnect, but this one just drags on and on in the desert. sure the idea of a 'liberator' gaining a huge army to come and decimate the other characters is scary, but it's almost like they don't know where to go with it.

It's going to make for a great season 4 if Daenerys actually joins the rest, but, I'll wait to see.

Arya
My favorite character! I cant wait for her to become an assassin. I hope she slides her dagger in joffrey's face. It would make me so happy. This season she's had some tough times. She's taken in with the random bannerless people, complete with the Game of Thrones equivalent of Wolverine. I liked this arc, it worked. but she ran away...then the next episode she was with the Hound.

how did that happen? I mean I like her interactions with him, but how did they end up together? I assume I missed something.

I felt really bad as she showed up just as the red wedding was hitting. her goal was so close. but she finally cold bloodedly murdered someone because of it. Let the hate flow through her. I can't wait to see where she goes.

The Red Wedding
I'm collectively calling all of Robb Stark's business this season as the Red Wedding. Let's face it. His storyline did absolutely nothing else this season except for the Traumatising red wedding.

I had known going into the season that there was a huge event called the Red Wedding in episode 9. I wasn't really sure what it was but I knew 1. People Died and 2. Robb Died. I'll be honest I was a bit Disappointed with the scene. only 3 main characters died. well, and a wolf.

I was expecting a huge Cleaning of characters to take place. But only Robb's wife (who did nothing this season) Catelyn Stark. (Who did nothing this season) and Robb Stark...Who did nothing this season. Every other storyline had weight and momentum, but Robb's didn't get any until the beginning of the episode when they mentioned his army invading someone and needing Walder Frey to help.

Well the moment the music started I was like 'Ok, Red Wedding Time" preparing myself for the worst. and Catelyn stark made that scene traumatizing. her plea to stop the violence was great. and after Robb is killed her despair and loss of will was complete. Then to pack-A-Punch the situation she gets throat slit as she wails. it's a very powerful scene, but it almost felt like the writer was tired of the storyline and killed it off instead of evolving it to a new storyline.


Overall
Done with the individual storylines, finally. I liked the season Overall but it felt like Part 1 of a bigger story. The red wedding was easily the most powerful scene int he season. but it wasn't all that powerful to me because of the nonessential feel of Robb and Catelyn Stark's storyline.

I'm very interested in Arya and Tyrion's Storylines. I also Can't wait for both the White Walkers and the Dragon Armies to join the fray. but I really hope they come to kill off some of the extraneous characters. because there are way too many stories and too little time.

Luckily Samwell and Jon Snow are one storyline now. and Jaime and Brienne are joining the Lannister Clusterhump.

Looking forward season 4 has tons of Potential to be the best yet, but I'm afraid the show's going to pull the punches on having the huge armies clash.

FINAL VERDICT: 75
Good acting and writing but way too many extraneous storylines and characters.



And finally, because You made it this far, a little treat. A friend of mine Made a cover of the Game of Thrones theme with her Viola. Check out her Video below!



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