In one of the better Game of Thrones episodes that has aired since the close of season four, Jon Snow’s (Kit Harrington) “watch has ended.” I must admit I grow rather tired of Jon Snow’s story. His resurrection from the dead by the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) has yielded nothing, until now. Writers/creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have, finally, reunited Jon with his half-sister, the grown and elegant Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). Along with the aid of the Wildlings and resident badass Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), Jon and Sansa plan to take Winterfell back from new, self-proclaimed Warden of the North Ramsay Fucking Creep-ass Bolton (Iwan Rheon). It is beginning to feel like the resurrection of Jon Snow may have some significance after all.
House Lannister remains the most compelling of all of the houses as we watch the brilliant Cersei (Lena Headey) and her former lover/brother Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) attempt to take King’s Landing back from the simple, holy, tyrannical hands of Jonathan Pryce’s Pope Francis knock off, The High Sparrow. Cersei is a great fucking character and has become one of the more watchable ones, as GOT finds itself weakened by its innumerable storylines and characters. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is still compulsively watchable, but his story in Mereen with Varys (Conleth Hill) remains a bit inconsequential. There is SO MUCH MORE that could be done with Tyrion, as we have seen in the past, but this season does not appear, thus far, to be his season. Shame, really.
Petyr “Little Finger” Baelish (Aiden Gillen) has returned to work his wicked cunning over House Arryn. If all of GOT’s characters are killed off, it will surely be Lord Baelish and Lord Varys who stand. They know who to befriend, but make no mistake, these men are the worst of cowards.
The smitten and terminally ill Jorah (Iain Glen) and arrogant Daario (Michael Huisman) pursue their missing queen, Danaerys Stormborn (Emilia Clarke) as she is held captive by her former adopted people, the barbaric Dothraki. Dany proves, once again, that she is indeed the Mother of Dragons and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne (remember that thing?) by confronting the men of the Dothraki in a scene that is surely to go down in GOT history as one of the most epic.
If there is one thing that has been proven the past couple of seasons it is that GOT belongs to the women, and thanks be to the Lord of Light for that! Cersei, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Brienne, Yara, Marjery, and even Melisandre, are the highlights of this show. As a weepy Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) rightly says to his pissed off sister Yara (Gemma Whalen), “You should rule the Iron Islands.” Damn right, she should! As GOT mirrors our own history we can see that it’s true what they say about men. History, much like GOT, is just scene after scene of women following men around with a bucket.
Josiah Richard Armstrong is a hospital chaplain from Western New York. He is also a playwright and amateur cartoonist. Follow him on Twitter @JosiahArmstrong and Medium, where he writes more reviews for film and television.
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