Tuesday 10 June 2014

Day 9: and so my watch is (very almost) over....

Warning: if you have not seen season 4, episode 9 of Game Of Thrones, you may want to stop reading now. This post may just contain a few spoilers, though having read the books, I promise not to spoil anything not yet seen on screen!

Monday is G.O.T night, but not for much longer. There is only one episode of season 4 left to go, and because of the little deviations we keep getting from the books, even I'm no longer quite sure what we may or may not get to see...

There are many people, fans, who don't like the fact that George.R.R.Martin and his associate directors have reimagined certain scenarios in the sprawling epic that is Game Of Thrones on telly, and A Song Of Ice And Fire in novel form. Personally, I quite like it, though I don't fully understand all the choices they have made. It keeps even me, a loyal fan of G.O.T since long before this series ever got commissioned, guessing and wanting to know what they're going to show us next.

Many people thought they couldn't top last weeks episode, but I, with my advance knowledge, had a good idea what was coming. Namely The Wildlings - both those on our side of The Wall, and those waiting to breach it's defences from the other side. 

The action this week veered away from King's Landing, where last week we saw The Viper meet a very grisly end, and instead moved back to the North, and Mance Ryder's invading hordes. He said he would light the biggest bonfire you'd ever seen, and he did. 

We were promised Giants, and we got them. We also got some closure for the Jon Snow/ Ygritte romance in a heart-wrenching and emotional way that was always going to happen. Absolutely nothing about this episode disappointed, and it was everything I had always hoped it might be.

Jon's friends, dying the way they did, was just one deviation, the other being Ygritte's demise which differed slightly from the book but in a good way. I'm not sure what implications yet the death of Jon's friends will have, but it is certainly an unexpected and quite big departure from the book. I guess, just like the rest of you, I'm just going to have to wait...

It is a testament to G.O.T's amazing performances that it can appeal to such  a wide array of people. Quite literally, I can count no more than a handful of people on one hand that I know don't watch it, and that is pretty impressive. The only concern I have is that with Martin's infamous slowapproach to writing, are we going to catch up with him before he writes the end? And what happens if he dies before he finishes it? Both very real possibilities, I'm afraid!

Let me give you, if you haven't yet watched any of it, an example of just how powerful G.O.T is. 

I knew what was going to happen last week, my Head Chef reminded me because I had actually forgotten, and yet even so, I still recoiled in shock and horror at those final scenes. It was one thing to read them on the page, another to see them visually recreated so perfectly. And all of G.O.T is like that. I can not think of one instance where the show has let me down...

And there is only one episode left...

If things end how I expect them to, you are all in for a doozy! 

And just think, after that you only have up to another eight or nine months to wait for Season 5. 

Yeah, thanks for that...

Sparky

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