(This review
contains spoilers both for the episode 1 and for books 4 and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire)
So Game of Thrones
has finally returned and now we're
at an interesting point in its development. With almost all of George
RR Martin's books adapted, the show is now having to diverge from its
source material, which inevitably has raised the ire of many fans.
This is also the first season I've watched having read all the books,
meaning I know some of what's going to happen, but other stuff has
left me and everyone else in the dark.
Personally,
I prefer it like this. The books are amazing, but there are few TV
shows that have gripped me quite as much as Game of Thrones
has, TV being the breeding ground
for predictability it is. As someone who watched the show first and
read the books after, I have no problem continuing in the same vein.
After all, the books are so much more detailed than the show that
there's still a lot more to discover in them, even if you already
know the bare-bones plot.
The
season 5 pilot sees Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) arrive in Pentos, where the
cryptic Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) tries to rope him into his scheme to help Daenerys
Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) take the Iron Throne. Daenerys herself is trying to
suppress counter-revolution in the city of Meereen. Cersei Lannister
(Lena Headey) is reeling from the power vacuum left by Tywin's murder, fearing (not
unreasonably) that their former allies will turn on them to seize the
Throne for themselves. And at the Wall, Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) tries to reach an
agreement between Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) and Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds), leader of the
wildlings.
Since
this is only the season opener, The Wars to Come is
more about putting the pieces in place. It opens with Cersei
remembering an encounter with a witch from childhood, who tells her
that a younger queen will one day usurp her. The most obvious suspect
is of course Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), who we can see does
want Cersei out of the way by marrying her to her brother. One of the
great things about the show is it gives more depth and motivation to
characters who don't have POV status in the books. Margaery is
certainly one of the show's most fascinating characters, because
you're not quite sure what her motivations are, whether you've read
the books or not. We know she's ambitious, but does that make her as
cold-blooded as Cersei? From her dealings with Joffrey, we can see
she'd certainly make a better queen, because she at least knows that
treating your poorer subjects well is a good way to stop them
rebelling against you. Is Margaery as much a monster as her rival or
is she just politically savvy? After all, if there's anything this
series has taught us, it's that you can't afford to be too nice, as
evinced from poor dead Ned's head.
Understandably,
Tyrion isn't in a mood to do anything productive after the ordeal he
was put through last season. We do however get an interesting glimpse
into Varys' character when he talks of the powerful oppressing the
powerless, and how Daenerys could mean the end of that. It's a nice
retort to Littlefinger's “Chaos is a Ladder” speech from season
3, and shows that while the two men use very similar means to get
what they want, their ends could be wildly different. I stress “could
be” because it is Varys after all. Varys is another character who's
fiendishly hard to pin down, meaning he could end up one of the most
controversial characters between the two media. He's so enigmatic,
D&D's interpretation of him could prove wildly different to
Martin's vision.
The
Meereen subplot also focuses on setting up future events – in this
case, introducing the Sons of the Harpy, a sinister cabal bent on
overthrowing the new queen. Tellingly, their gruesome introduction
comes right after the pulling down of the immense Harpy, just when it
seems as if Daenerys's hold on the city is assured. Once again, power
proves to be a treacherous, unpredictable thing in Martin's universe.
As
well as Tyrion's disillusionment, the episode's emotional core is
Jon's, but more importantly Mance's
dilemma. Mance can bend the knee to Stannis and spare himself a
horrific fate, but in doing so he will shatter everything he's
been building towards by making the wildlings lose faith in him.
Ciarán Hinds gives a wonderfully nuanced performance when he hears
what they have planned for him. For once, we see Mance's armour crack
and we're reminded that for all his mythification, he's just
another man, and a Sworn Brother once. In this scene, Jon is an
extension of Mance: he represents his past and the world he once
belonged to. And by the end of the episode, Jon becomes his
saviour as well, by defying a southron god and saving him from
an agonizing death.
Or
does he? This is where, as a book-reader, I was a tad confused.
"Mance's" execution plays out differently here, where
instead of screaming and renouncing all, he struggles not to let the
Red God's servants see his fear – another fine turn from Hinds. So
... was that really Mance that was burned, or was it another wildling
(most likely Tormund) in disguise? Given how Mance's demeanour
differs so much here from the books, I wonder if D&D
are already going off-track by killing Mance before his time?
This
time, not even Martin has all the answers. But with the pieces in
place, Game of Thrones looks set for another amazing season.
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