Game Of Thrones season 3 episode 3 review: Walk Of Punishment

The only thing frustrating Ron about Game of Thrones' third season is how quickly its episodes go by. Here's this week's review...

This review contains spoilers.
3.3 Walk of Punishment
On a show like Game of Thrones, you never know what's going to happen or who is going to be a stand-out character. For example, in a group with Tyrion, Bronn, and Pod the squire, who would be most likely to be the most interesting character in the scene? Well, it wasn't him, unless you said Pod. Ditto a scene with Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie. It's a surprising gift from the show to take ancillary characters and turn them into people you root for, like, and even feel sorry for depending on who they are and their circumstances. I shouldn't feel anything besides amusement towards Hot Pie, but here I am.
It's interesting to see how the show is changing as the season goes on. The fortunes have been shifting, both north of and south of the wall. The men of the Night's Watch are limping back towards the safety of Westeros, sniping at each other and searching for the comfort of Craster's Keep and a warm fire. Things aren't going well for them; things haven't been going quite so well for Robb Stark, either. He's been winning, but his uncle Edmure (Tobias Menzies) has somehow managed to screw up his plans and thus, Robb is not a happy king or having as much success against the Lannister host as he wants. (He's also an abject failure at carrying out his father's last wishes, leaving it up to the Blackfish - the brilliant Clive Russell - to do the job.) Oh yeah, there also seems to be tension between Dany and her two guardians, Barristan the Bold and Jorah the Andal. It's a bit of a one-upsmanship between the two grizzled knights, with Barristan taking the noble route and Jorah taking the practical route (which seems proper for both characters).
You have to give credit to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The two have been running a very tight ship on the series, adapting one of the hardest series of books imaginable into a brilliant television series. They've written episodes, but never before have they taken the hot seat behind the camera as directors. As far as the IMDb knows, they've never directed anything before now, and for a debut, it's actually pretty good. There are no major flaws with the episode; it jumps around as is Game of Thrones' wont, but the pacing is good. The pair also manage to film a very impressive horse chase, no mean feat for the inexperienced.
The show does jump around between characters and settings quite a bit, but unlike last season with Dany's adventures in the Red Waste, this season seems to be willing not to spend time on characters who don't have a lot of importance. I understand that Dany was a big part of the first season and you can't just kind of abandon her for the second season simply because she's not a huge part of the second book, but that was time in which we could have gotten more Tyrion as Hand of the King. This season, we seem to get just enough check-ins with certain characters, with others getting more episode time depending on their need and storyline. I may only get five minutes of Tyrion Lannister, but one scene of him at the Small Council meeting can still be the highlight of the night.
The only problem with getting small doses is that episodes can occasionally feel incomplete, or lacking a climax - that is not the case this week, but I digress. I would love to just immerse myself in one storyline for an episode (as with Blackwater last year) and not feel compelled to check in. Perhaps that will happen again this season, but so far we've been getting several teases and no real lingering in any place for longer than five minutes or so. If the show keeps this up, some folks may not be satisfied but the only problem I'm currently having with Game of Thrones is that the episode goes by too quickly and there are too many interesting things happening for one single hour of programming.

Source:http://www.denofgeek.com

Game of Thrones: "Dark Wings, Dark Words" Review User_image Matt Fowler

Due to the fact that "Dark Wings, Dark Words," the second episode of Season 3, was still under the obligation to catch us up with main characters we didn't get to see back in the premiere, there was a definite undercurrent of "Premiere Pt. 2" in place. Arya, Bran, Jamie and Brienne all took the stage for the first time this season, while those characters we already saw in "Valar Dohaeris" popped in to slightly continue the threads they began last week. Except for Sansa and Margaery over in King's Landing, who made some big important strides involving Jofferey.
Despite a rather crowd pleasing sword battle at the end, this episode didn't have many big dangerous moments like last week's Wight attack on Sam or Warlock attack on Dany. What it did have however was a bunch of new characters to throw at us; The Reeds, Lady Olenna, and the Brotherhood without Banners all made their debut. That's a friggin' lot for one episode. And by the look of the hunters who showed up right at the end, under the Bolton banner, the Bloody Mummers from the books have been replaced/morphed.
Daenerys was gone, which was a little frustrating since she closed out the episode last week with a big moment that I sort of wanted an immediate follow up to. Jon Snow could have been the one who was left out this week, but his scene was needed to introduce the audience to the concept of a "warg" before it was mentioned in Bran's storyline. So, a lot of shuffling about, but still great stuff.
I'll start things off with Bran who actually, through his dreams, got to cheat and have scenes with other Starks! It must have been cool for actors Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Richard Madden and Kit Harington to play a scene years later after only being together in the pilot. Plus, these wacky Three-Eyed Raven dreams allow Hempstead-Wright to use his legs, which must be a small blessing since he has to be so dormant all the time. It's also worth noting that Bran's still a crap shot with an arrow in his dreamscape. But him missing the bird was a good thing since it prompted a Ned Stark voice-over ripped from the pilot scene Bran was dreaming about.
Enter Jojen and Meera Reed, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually, Ferb!) and Ellie Kendrick. The Reeds, from a swampland castle in the North called Greywater Watch, were led to Bran via Jojen's similar abilities. Not a lot of straight information is given though, save for Jojen informing Bran that he's a warg (and has actually been entering the mind of Summer) and that the raven stands for some kind of extra sensory perception ("The raven is you"). Osha doesn't much care for all this talk of magic, but she's still sticking by Bran's side.

Doofenshmirtz is Coming.

Again, Jon's scene, featuring a glimpse of a Wildling named Orell entering the body of a hawk in order to scout ahead, was there to break the "warg" ice. And Sam's story was pretty much just continuing the trek through the snow that the Night's Watch started last week, except now Sam's being harassed by a co-Crow named Rast - who I don't recall seeing last year. He was in Season 1 though because I remember him being trounced by Jon during sword training.
The actual "Dark Wings, Dark Words" element of the episode came when Catelyn and Robb received the news that her father, Hoster Tully, had died and...oh yeah, WINTERFELL IS BURNED TO THE GROUND AND EVERYONE WHO WAS THERE HAS BEEN EXECUTED. I do question Robb's tactics in delivering news to his mother. Because we enter the scene and Cat's crying her eyes out, and we assume it's about Bran and Rickon. But it's about her father, who we, as an audience, have never met. Then Robb breaks the news about everyone else in the world she loves being dead. Strange structure. But, I suppose there's no easy way to saddle up to two horrific shocks to the system. It's just that we only really care about one of them.
The later scene with Cat though, featuring her story about praying for Jon Snow's death and then praying for his recovery, made up for the earlier wonkiness. It was a very revealing tale, and one that addresses one of the problems that many readers and viewers had with Cat right at the outset of the entire sage: her irrational loathing of Jon. But here she heaps all the blame for her family's misery, and the death of her own kids, onto herself because of the fact that she couldn't "love a motherless child." Very powerful stuff.
All the talk of Winterfell getting obliterated led us directly to...THEON! Who was still alive and receiving a kind of exquisite torture we'd all probably would love to see Joffrey go through. No word on where he is or who the people holding him are. The last we saw of him, his own Ironborn soldiers turned on him and knocked him out cold. There is a light at the end of his horrific foot-screw tunnel though after a young man told him he'd help him escape. Meanwhile, Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie (who we still don't see until halfway through the episode) are bickering about being lost, with Gendry even giving Arya a bit of crap about the names she chose to give to Jaqen seeing as how none of them were even on her nighttime "prayer for death" list. "You could have picked King Joffrey."

The trio are then set upon by Thoros, Anguy and the Brotherhood Without Banners, a sort of ragtag Merry Men-style crew of jovial warriors who we previously heard of only through Tywin's desire to burn villages to the ground in order to find them. They don't seem to like Robb's army either, showing allegiance to only themselves. Through meeting them, Arya got to be typically, and wonderfully snarky, and was almost out of their "care" when she got tagged as a "Stark" by The Hound, who didn't make it all that far after fleeing King's Landing. So at least one name on Arya's list is close by, and is being held captive.

"You came to the wrong neighborhood, motherf***er."

Over at King's Landing, Tyrion had a small scene with Shae, mostly played for laughs, where they squabbled about Ros and Sansa, but the real good stuff involved Margaery and her outspoken grandmother, Olenna (played by Diana Rigg), asking Sansa to tell them all about Joffrey. It was an amazing scene because Sansa played it dead serious, fearing for her life, still traumatized, while Margaery and Olenna were totally calm and pragmatic. Sansa's "He's a monster" was met with a sort of "oh great" eye roll from Margaery! That was fantastic. And Olenna's spunky manner (She'll have her cheese when she wants it!) was coupled with maternal reassurance. Her downplaying of Sansa's fear helped make Sansa, and us, feel safe from the evils of the King.

Then Margaery, with a little bit of soft-shoeing, once again was able to wrap Joffrey around her Highgarden finger, acting the victim to Renly's devilish gay-sex having ways. Which only helped Joffrey feel more masculine, and extra enamored with Margaery since she hadn't been had first by a competitor for the throne. Like last week, this is a tamed Joffrey. It's not without a bit of work, but all Margaery had to do was act like everything he says was fascinating. Instead of pointing his crossbow at her like he did with Sansa, they held it together. She's a true political animal who doesn't resent getting paired up with a monster, or a stranger like Cersei was, in order to become Queen.
Man, I hope all my future reviews won't be as long as this one, but there were just too many new folks to write about. I've also sort of led us through the episode chronologically, which I also don't care to repeat going forward. So we'll end it with Jaime and Brienne, my absolute favorite pairing from the pages of A Storm of Swords. Still on their long-cut way to King's Landing, with Jaimie rubbing it in that he, truthfully, knew Renly better than Brienne ("It's a shame the throne wasn't made out of c***, they'd have never got him off it"). Just constantly pushing her buttons while she remained a stone. Well, it all culminated with an escape attempt and a sword battle that saw Brienne pretty much best Jaime in strength and skill. The ultimate shut down! Schooled him. Very fun.

While still totally satisfying, "Dark Wings, Dark Words" was a beast of an episode. The new characters easily fit into the realm, but we still have a lot of questions about them; particularly the Reed siblings and the Brotherhood. At least the Brotherhood was mentioned several times in Season 2. And as sad as I am to see the Mummers get dropped, it's probably best for TV viewers if there weren't two new gangs of fighters out there roaming the forests.

Source:http://www.ign.com

Game of Thrones: "Valar Dohaeris" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the Game of Thrones: Season 3 premiere follow...
The time has come! HBO's Game of Thrones is back in our lives, and it's brought dragons, giants and menacingly-sized green scorpion creatures with it! When we pick up things in the Season 3 premiere, "Valar Dohaeris" (a Valyrian phrase that's actually a wee bit ahead of the TV series), the "War of the Five Kings," which took up the bulk of Season 2, is on a bit of a break.
Stannis' forces were crushed in the Battle of Blackwater, Theon's whereabouts are unknown (only the smoldering Winterfell graphic in the opening credits remains) and douchebag Joffrey's hind quarters still sit firmly on the Iron Throne. There is another "king" who has plans for Westeros who we meet in the first ten minutes, although he seems way far off from the thick of all the warring down in the Riverlands. Yes, we start off the episode spending some quality time Beyond The Wall, with Jon Snow getting hit with rocks, laughed at by Ygritte, and intimidated by an honest-to-goodness giant. Plus, he mistakes a big red-bearded fellow named Tormund for Mance Rayder, leading to further chuckling at his expense. The real Rayder, played by Ciarán Hinds, wants to know why Jon's turned his cloak on his fellow crows and Jon, thinking quickly, comes up with decent enough reason.

"Not a single Jamba Juice up here...*grumble*"

Actually, the motivation for Jon leaving The Watch wasn't, technically, a lie since he was disgusted with the way Commander Mormont had turned a blind eye to the fact that Craster was sacrificing infants to the White Walkers. I do wish, and this more has to do with last year's finale, that they'd made it a bit more clear that Jon was actually going undercover when he killed Qhorin. I mean, it was there, but I don't think it resonated the way it should have.
Oh, and if we need to open up a Kickstarter to fund a new credit sequence location that can represent something other than Castle Black for Jon and Sam's adventures, let's do that.

Speaking of Sam, he's the first character we see in the premiere, connecting us directly to the last image we saw in Season 2 finale. We hear sounds of swords and screams (*shakes fist at budget*) in place of an actual battle/massacre, and now almost all of the original Night's Watch crew dead and gone. Well, dead and... probably walking out there in the snow as a zombie-ish "Wights." I had a feeling that we might only see the aftermath of the Walker attack on The Fist (not The Wall as a few folks thought last year), but I was still hoping for a bit more. Still, a zombie did try to eat Sam, getting set on fire in the process. A nice ghoulish way to kick things off.

It's become clear that there's no way to really fit in everyone's story into one episode without making it feel overcrowded. Once again, Arya was left out of the season premiere, although her name was mentioned when Littlefinger, having recognized her at Harrenhal, told Sansa that she was still alive. Oh, I suppose she wasn't completely left out of last year's premiere. We got to see her riding on the back of a wagon right at the end, right? My point is that I feel as though these episodes, now in Season 3 with even more new characters to introduce, will benefit more by leaving some folks out.  Doesn't mean we won't miss them (Bran, Jaime and Brienne also were absent here), but it'll make for less clutter.  But I do think that because this was the first episode of the season, I was filled with even more of a need to see where everyone's at though.
In the end, I suppose I just wish these were 12 or 13 episode seasons.

"Wanna hit up one of the dozen Jamba Juices around here?"

In King's Landing, the aforementioned Littlefinger talked to Sansa about his promise to help her escape the city while Tyrion, now charismatically disfigured, found himself at the bottom of the heap and, after hearing that Cersei might have been the one who told Ser Mandon Moore to kill him in battle, fearing for his life. No, Tyrion didn't lose his nose like he did in the book series, but Cersei made a little jape about it (perhaps breaking the book/TV wall for the first time?) by saying "They said you'd lost your nose."

Game of Thrones: Best Changes from the Books

The scenes with Tyrion, unlike last season when he was the "Hand" and was actively trying to figure out a way to save the city, did little to move the story along or give us an idea of what Season 3 holds for us, but - dammit! - they're always a hell of a lot of fun. His scenes with Cersei, Bronn and Tywin were great, and all for different reasons. With Cersei, it's passive-aggressively adversarial, with Ser Bronn, it's "bro"manitcal, and with Tywin it's intense and riveting. And I love the way Tywin bounces back and forth between logical and cruel. His scenes with Arya last year opened up his character and showed us how much he respected wit and intelligence, even from his cup girl. But his belief that Tyrion came into his life as a curse to teach him humility counterbalances that. "I would let myself be consumed by maggots before handing over Casterly Rock."
I feel as though the real story in King's Landing this year is that of Joffrey and Margaery. And Cersei for that matter, who already resents Joffrey's bride-to-be for being, seemingly, an open and loving individual who cares for the poor.  And who beguiles her son with unseasonable cleavage.  We know, having watched Season 2, that there's more to Margaery, and her ability to play the "Game of Thrones," than she lets on, but I was astonished, in this premiere episode, by how much of a non-prick Joffrey was. Sure, he sneered here and there and gave off his ever-present dick-ish vibe, but he actually seems like he wants to impress Margaery. And since she's not his captive bride, he can't act like a monster around her.

In some of the smaller scenes here, Robb and Lord Bolton discover a bunch of dead bodies at Herrenhal, which is now under the North's control. One body stirred though - a wounded Maester named Qyburn. Over at the shores of Blackwater Bay, Davos is discovered to be alive, and after a drink with Salladhor Saan, he learns that Stannis is now more desperate than ever and is fully under control of Melisandre. Ever loyal, he returns to Dragonstone only to get tossed in a dungeon after pulling a knife on her. Anyone else hear mention of Stannis' wife? Many wondered if she'd simply been written out of the show entirely, but apparently she was there back in the Season 2 premiere, sitting at the dinner table. But no reasonable person, book reader or not, would be expected to have caught that.
Now, onto Astapor (also new to the opening credit map), where Dany and Jorah meet up with the first big crossover character between Westeros and Essos in the saga, Barristan Selmy. While we hadn't seen him since Season 1, this is still the first person to enter into Daenerys' life who we first met in Westeros and our first taste of how freakin' awesome it feels when worlds that have remained so separate for so long finally collide. Barristan saves Dany from a little purple-lipped girl and her ball o' scorponok; proof that once you incinerate a warlock you make their hit list for life.
Barristan served as the leader of Robert's Kingsguard, but only because he was pardoned, having served the Targaryens previously. And now, having been humiliated by Joffrey back in Season 1, he's making amends, seeking out the final Targaryen to protect and serve. And now Dany's got two grizzled older men looking after her young, fresh form. Astapor, while still displaying desert city qualities, isn't as lush and regal as Qarth. Dany's in Slavers Country now and has to wrap her head around a society that treats people worse than dirt. Just hearing about the training regimen of The Unsullied alone, and the mortal cost of one dead infant per head, is enough to make anyone cringe. But this is the dilemma she has to wrestle with. She wants the best fighters in the world but it would mean exploiting barbaric conditions where only one boy in four survives.
But, you know, free nipples!

"Valar Dohaeris" was a grand way to start of the season, but it also seems clear that all of the characters are likely moving further and further away from one another, still picking up the pieces from the events in "Blackwater" and settling into new, less-dire stories. No one's on their way to attack King's Landing and kill Joffrey, and Sansa, now free from engagement, isn't being beaten or harassed. Robb's promise to avenge his father's death seems to have hit a wall and the word that Winterfell's now a pile of rubble hasn't even reached his ears. Also, Mance Rayder's plan is still a mystery.
But the world is addictive and we've come to live and breathe these characters. It's fun to watch Tyrion no matter if he's on top or if he's been cast aside, and Daenerys is settling into a storyline that's much more TV-ready than her Season 2 arc which had to be tinkered and tweaked from the source material to make more exciting. She's also seems to have a more determined head on her shoulders. Season 3 is beginning the epic strokes of George R.R. Martin's giant third book, A Storm of Swords, but it's not going to all fit into one season. So many of these stories will unfold over a longer period of time, with payoffs coming much later on.
*To those who haven't read the books, beware the comment boards. We can't zap spoilers as quickly as we'd like. And to those who have read the books, no spoilers regarding anything that might/will show up on TV in the future or you'll get booted.

Source:http://www.ign.com

New trailer released



Source:http://www.youtube.com

Source:Youtube

New GAME OF THRONES Season 3 Set Photos Reveal Riverrun

Recently, a few new photos from (one of the many) Game of Thrones season three sets has come to light, showing a small portion of one of the larger houses of Westeros. Yes, just when you think you’ve gotten a grasp on all of the characters and locations in Game of Thrones, there’s a new season on the horizon full of even more people and places to keep track of.  But for fans of the book series, the revelations in casting and location scouting are exciting in order to see how showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are adapting certain aspects of the A Song of Ice and Fire world.
The pictures are most certainly showing details from Riverrun, home of House Tully.  Catelyn Stark originally hailed from here, in what’s called the Riverlands (the area which the house rules over), before marrying Ned Stark and moving to Winterfell.  For the photos and more notes on Riverrun, hit the jump.
Riverrun is one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, which includes Winterfell, Casterly Rock (Lannister), Storm’s End (Baratheon) and many more.  The house sigil – or insignia – is a leaping trout (shown in the photos), accompanied by blue and red banner colors (also pictured) as well as the motto “Family, Duty, Honor.”
The set looks – like most things in the show – pretty darn cool.  In Season 3 we’ll meet a few new characters related to Rivverrun, including Catelyn’s uncle Brynden (a fan favorite), also known as the Blackfish, as well as her hot-headed brother Edmure.
The third season of Game of Thrones is schedule to air on HBO in late March 2013.
Images via HBO Watch.

 

Source:http://collider.com/game-of-thrones-season-3-riverrun/185631/

Ciaran Hinds joins Game of Thrones Season 3 as Mance Rayder

Game of Thrones Season 3 Adds Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder!

Fans of the HBO hit series Game of Thrones will finally get to meet the King Beyond the Wall in Season 3. Ciarán Hinds has joined the cast as Mance Rayder, a character mentioned by name several times in Season 2.The Wildling leader has brought together the clans who dwell in the Far North for a single mission to attack the Wall, guarded by the Night's Watch. In the Season 2 finale, Night's Watchman Jon Snow (Kit Harington) was being taken to meet Mance Rayder, a meeting which will undoubtedly take place in the Season 3 premiere next year.
Last month, HBO announced 14 new cast members starring in Season 3, with the most notable addition being Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell a.k.a. The Queen of Thorns. You can to watch the featurette that debuted at Comic-Con, introducing these Season 3 stars.
Game of Thrones Season 3 is currently shooting in Belfast, Ireland, which coincidentally is Ciarán Hinds' hometown. HBO has not announced when the upcoming season will debut yet.

Sources:http://www.tvweb.com/news/game-of-thrones-season-3-adds-ciaran-hinds-as-mance-rayder