The Wars to Come

A lot of new character's purpose, story are moving forward and building up to the War to come.

This story starts from where it left, Tyrion coming out of the Wooden box, Cersei and Jamie feeling differently about Tyrion and their father's death. Everything expected happens to Mance Rayder, as John plays a sitting duck in settling the truce. I don't seem to fancy Khaleesi and the charmer Daario Naharis' relationship. It only weaken's the Dragons' Mother's charismatic character. (Probably that's the writers' intent).

'Littlefinger' Baelish and Lord Varys get a little more important in this one.

Overall it's a great episode, the next one should be about Arya Stark.

My Rating - 9/10 -------------------------------

Game of thrones directors have unique way of filming and showing the content. They film episodes in tandem and in parallel, showing say 3 stories in one episode and another 3 stories in next episode. This makes the show riveting and fresh and very new scene is about another character. ------------------

I'm not one to expect a death/shock/twist every episode and can appreciate a slower more narrative approach in an episode, but this felt like neither and was more of a reflection on what has happened so far.

This reflection is felt by many of the characters after the last couple of episodes last season...it's not so much the hurt but rather the unknown and how many of these characters do not know how to move forward.

The most interesting scenes were played out at The Wall - with some great dialogue on pride vs. survival (I may have over simplified it here but it was quite powerful stuff, especially in how that climax played out). Also great was the scenes with Varys and Tyrion - this could have been played out with sympathy or regrets or feeling sorry but was very well shown by the main two leads. One of GOT's biggest strengths is the relationships between characters and this one should be great to see develop over the season.

In summary, a decent start but you do get the feeling that more is to come in the season!

I couldn't care less if the Series is diverging from the Literature: the books are not canonical texts (neither I would bother if they were); I couldn't care less about disputing which one is the chosen one: the source will always be the "best" because it was the first and it's the basis for the inspiration... well, that's subjective, but hey... I couldn't care less!

We readers and viewers have to understand that one thing is a book, another thing is an audiovisual work. Both have merits on their own and both use different languages to speak for themselves. What comes first comes first, but I couldn't care less. After all the author is blessing the series, even directing some episodes, and he is all smiles about its route, so... why whining?

What matters for me is quality, its juice - narrative with excellence. A story with layers and layers of reviving itself from the ashes, the mighty test of enduring when being hammered in flames, the plausibility of a character's metamorphosis (our own in life), the prevailing string of a persona's charisma: Shakespearean political plots vs. Humanism.

That's what you will find in this episode. Forget about hysterical plot turmoils, Hollywood agendas and frantic compasses. You'll only find a solid narrative with delightful clues for the "Wars to Come". When you reaffirm the protocols of seeing good old "Game of Thrones" again and for the 5th time the episode has already finished leaving you with a watery eye. Son of a...!

Cersei comes to the funeral of her father Tywin Lannister and blames her brother Jaime for his death. Tyrion arrives at his destination transported in a wooden box and Lord Varys discloses that Jaime had asked him to save his brother. White Rat is murdered in a brothel and Daenerys asks Grey Warm to find the killer. She visits her dragons in the dungeons but they do not respect her. Jon Snow is training a teenager, but Melisandre brings him to talk to Stannis Baratheon. He assigns Snow to convince Mance Rayder to bend his knees for him and make his people fight with his army. Will Mance accept the deal?

After several months waiting for the return of "Game of Thrones", the beginning of this season is disappointing. There is nothing important in this episode showing a total lack of inspiration of the writers and director. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "The Wars to Come"