Just finished watching the season 2 finale of the very good and critically acclaimed Game of Thrones and I absolutely loved it! The entire season for me has been a bit better than the first one because it has gone into more depth with all the characters and I loved the story lines of my favorite characters, while there was so many other amazing things to follow! Such a spider-web series compared to basically every other show, the main story lines don’t necessarily even collide but just run in the same universe of the Throne! Best moment of season 2, probably the Blackwater episode entirely but I am pretty sure that the author of the books, George R.R. Martin who actually wrote the episode, had a lot to do with it. Overall, still one of my favorite series and how awesome was this season!?
PS: The following post will be extremely long and full of spoilers, you have been warned!
When I watched the first season in a row, I was a bit confused and a lot of the things were still unclear. I don’t know if it was the fact that I packed the entire season into two days or was the first season really all over the place. Maybe a little of both because season 2 brought the tempo down and I did watch it only on Mondays, episode per episode. The last season had also a lot of revealing the characteristics of many of the characters, we got to know Tyrion a lot more, saw Cersei spill her soul over wine, how strong Arya actually is and saw too many times the cruelty of Joffrey. Not to mention one of my favorite characters Daenerys who’s scene in the finale broke my heart. My final thoughts will be more or less based on these characters, though there are so many things I am thinking at the moment, but this would be a very long post if I wrote down all of them.
Tyrion Lannister who is portrayed by the talented Peter Dinklage is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. We saw him struggle a lot in this season, not only because Joffrey was being a bad king, but because he was very afraid for his “lady friend’s” life. He struck the king in one of the episodes, kind of making him into a fan favorite even more because the hate towards Joffrey is endless. The episode before the finale had me on the edge of my seat, heard that HBO invested extra money, and it showed when the green fire spread and destroyed enemy ships. Tyrion’s plan was brilliant, his war speech was far better than the one Theon Greyjoy gave in the finale, but he got injured. In the books, he lost his nose, but in the series he just got a really bad looking scar across his face – now a dwarf and a monster but still the favorite character of the fan base. (I’ve started with the books and already like his character when he confronts Jon Snow – smart man!)
Cersei Lannister, Tyrione’s sister, is not the most pleasing character, at least that’s what I thought up until the very end of season 2 but then the walls started coming down. When he talks to her brother about Joffrey and when she is drunk, oh my, the things she says – legendary. I like how they made her look in the end of season 2, like a woman who didn’t feel comfortable being just a woman but somebody who wanted to be strong.
In my mind, Cersei is a bit like Arya Stark, a little girl more interested in fighting than knitting and this season showed truly how clever she is. Away from home she manages on her own very well, using her cleverness to get things done and this season had some funny moments as well. Definitely top 3 of my favorite characters as well, and as far as the acting goes, Maisie Williams is doing it right! A bit sad that Gendry, bastard son of king Robert (now dead) who probably is now the only bastard son because the others were ordered to be killed, wasn’t as present in the end of season 2 but surely he will be back for season 3. I like how he and Arya have a lot of common, but he isn’t actually aware of it yet.. Also, her friendship type of relationship with Jaqen was also one of my favorite story lines. Probably because Jaqen is a thrilling character, I mean, how can a “man with many faces” be ever a boring role? In the final, we got the proof of his ability to literally have many faces and his promise to help Arya in the future.
Joffrey is far from my favorite character, I mean he is the pure evil himself with his twisted understanding of power, his love for torture and inability to be a king while being a coward in disguise. But I just wanted to mention that Jack Gleeson, the young actor playing him, is pure genius in what he does. He plays a character who everybody hates so much in a way that we hate him even more! He even looks evil and I say that as a compliment. Together with Sophie Turner, girl who plays Sansa Stark, they have to have really good chemistry to play such disturbing situations.
Turner and Williams have very different roles, as they are the opposite type of sisters, but both are good actresses at such a young age. Season 2 for me really brought out the ability of the actresses because of their young age (Turner is born in 96 and Williams in 97) which is more or less accurate based on the books. While the young Starks are more or less in the right age group of their character in the book, the older Stark brother Rob, who married the woman he slept with once in the finale, and the bastard, forever depressed because of it ?, Jon Snow are far from what they are supposed to be – which is 14. I guess Rob has to be older, since he gets naked and all, but Jon does not do much except walking and looking sad. Though the sword fighting might be the reason why an older actor was cast but still, it is very hard for me to re-program myself for the books because the actors are far from 14 and I can’t help to picture them while reading.
Back to the roles, where the actress Emilia Clarke has a much simpler name than her character Daenerys Targaryen – mother of the dragons. We saw the dragons already in the end of season 1 and in this season they pretty much stayed in the shadows with a lot of things going on around them. Though they did have a major part of getting stolen and that broke my heart. Not as much as the finale though, where Daenerys is looking for her dragons in the House of the Undying and sees Khal Drogo with their child. Such a sad scene because their relationship was one of my favorites in the first season but she was strong and instead of staying with a fantasy, she returned to search for her dragon babies. She is my favorite of all the characters because she, like Arya, is strong and willing to be cruel at times, besides, she is extremely beautiful and I like her snow white hair (which is such a girly thing to do).
These were like my main thoughts, which aren’t saying much to be honest, but I just wanted to write them down so before season 3 starts I can read this and remember everything I felt when season 2 ended. On that note, can we just recall the final minutes of the season finale with all those creepy dead guys/horses!? I mean, we’ve heard of white walkers as they have been mentioned before and for me, they always were like a footnote, but now we got to see an army of them approaching the wall and can I just say – oh no! Game of Thrones has been very intriguing with its ability to have life like situations a bit outside the realm of reality with the dragons, the demon (or a shadow?) and the man with many faces, but nothing has really kicked my mind as much as a big army of supernatural beings! I’m not sure if I like it or love it – not a big fan of the zombies but I don’t know how I feel about the white walkers. Liking the main guy though, he looks like an oak-tree with blue eyes, and the fact that there will be so many of these white walkers next season is just… shivering. Damn, I’m so happy for the dead guys!
PS: I am also glad I picked up the book because it is going to be a super long wait for season 3! Meanwhile, I try to strain myself of reading about Game of Thrones and its characters because I have acquired an interest towards finding out who actually gets the throne. Or is it going to be an endless war and constant change of rulers? Better read the books instead of becoming weak and reading summaries online. That’s right, get it together girl, don’t ruin Christmas by getting a peek at the present!
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