Photo Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO © 2015 Home Box Office
Game of Thrones has returned to HBO with the season premiere episode, The Wars to Come.
Previously, on Game of Thrones:
Castle Black survived the odds and an incredible attack by the Wildlings, Tyrion is framed for murder and escapes judgement but not before killing his father (along with his mistress), Daenerys has locked up her dragons after killing a child, The Hound has been defeated and Arya Stark wanders off, all alone.
Season 5 begins as Lady Cersei remembers getting her fortune told by a witch in the woods when she was younger, the king is dead long live the king, Tyrion survives being shipped in a crate, Brienne of Tarth refuses the aid of her squire, the Sons of the Harpy murders an unsullied, Jon Snow gets flirted with, Stannis hopes to force the Wildlings to fight for him, The King Beyond the Wall has been fired and Daenerys has second thoughts about keeping her pets captive.
Apparently, the first Game of Thrones episode of the season debuted with reportedly eight million viewers watching it, which, if proven accurate, would be the highest-rated season premiere of the series, so far. The bigger news was somebody leaked the first four episodes of the season online before the season premiere even aired. Game of Thrones was already the most-pirated TV series online. Now that practically half of the season’s episodes are already available via peer-to-peer torrenting networks, how much time will pass before HBO takes the offenders to court?
News about the show’s future also broke before the episode aired. Showrunners have admitted this season begins and ends within the extra-long novels by George R. R. Martin and that Season 6 that will branch off, away from the books. They also admitted the show probably has only four seasons left on HBO.
I was totally prepared for watching this episode after catching up on all Season 4 episodes and playing the episodic video game by Telltale Games. Many characters had a little bit of screentime, which will surely be expanded upon within upcoming episodes. For me, the only storylines that matter involve Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. All the rest feel like fillers. Hopefully this isn’t true and they will matter, in the long run. Until then, hopefully those two characters get fully developed scenarios and possibly even meet in the not-too-distant future.
Only time will tell.
Strength: Plenty of action, snippets of time with main characters.
Weakness: So many filler characters and storylines in Season 5.
WTF Moment: The show opens with a flashback, which was used for the very first time in the TV series. Why wait five seasons before using it?
Notable Quotes:
– “Give me a taste.”
– “You’re afraid of looking afraid.”
– “The future is shit, just like the past.”
– “You’re not terrifying. You’re boring.”
– “Westeros needs to be saved from itself.”
– “Everyone wants to know their future, until they know their future.”
Review 3.5/5