This season as a whole has been amazing- the storyline has been much more compact, focusing on only a few plot lines each week; as a result, a lot more happens per episode in terms of characterization as well as plot development than what used to happen in the previous seasons.
While this season has already given us classics like The Lion and the Rose and Oathkeeper, I feel that this episode one just knocked it out of the park. Every single sequence this episode was extremely well thought out, but I'm going to focus on the three most important things in this episode:
Cersei- at first, I was extremely confused by how she was acting, as the things she was saying were extremely considerate of others, not sounding like Cersei at all. I saw a lot of outrage about this on Westeros.org. However, upon rewatch, I quickly realized that she was manipulating the judges to make so as to gain support at the trial. This was amazingly subtle and very well thought out by D&D. Side note: Oberyn Martell is easily turning out to be one of the most memorable characters of the show.
Eyrie- everything that went on at the Eyrie was amazing. Aidan Gillen was actually really good this time around, and Kate Dicke was great as Lysa Arryn (glad to have her back). The imagery is truly spectacular. Of course, the highlight of these scenes was Sophie Turner- Sansa has become an amazing character this season, and Sophie Turner has completely aced every scene she's been in. The crying scene was particularly memorable.
Finally, Craster's Keep- while some might have viewed this as filler, I found this sequence to be amongst the greatest sequences the show has ever done. Every character, from Bran to Jon to Jojen (MVP of this episode, easily) had really good moments. Sure, it wasn't required for plot advancement. But seriously, seeing how much every other scene in every episode does that, I loved the fact that we got a great action sequence instead this time. Plus, Jojen's vision has become my favourite scene from the show's entire run.
So, my ranking of the episodes so far this season:
1. First of His Name 2. The Lion and the Rose 3. Oathkeeper 4. Breaker of Chains 5. Two Swords
While this season has already given us classics like The Lion and the Rose and Oathkeeper, I feel that this episode one just knocked it out of the park. Every single sequence this episode was extremely well thought out, but I'm going to focus on the three most important things in this episode:
Cersei- at first, I was extremely confused by how she was acting, as the things she was saying were extremely considerate of others, not sounding like Cersei at all. I saw a lot of outrage about this on Westeros.org. However, upon rewatch, I quickly realized that she was manipulating the judges to make so as to gain support at the trial. This was amazingly subtle and very well thought out by D&D. Side note: Oberyn Martell is easily turning out to be one of the most memorable characters of the show.
Eyrie- everything that went on at the Eyrie was amazing. Aidan Gillen was actually really good this time around, and Kate Dicke was great as Lysa Arryn (glad to have her back). The imagery is truly spectacular. Of course, the highlight of these scenes was Sophie Turner- Sansa has become an amazing character this season, and Sophie Turner has completely aced every scene she's been in. The crying scene was particularly memorable.
Finally, Craster's Keep- while some might have viewed this as filler, I found this sequence to be amongst the greatest sequences the show has ever done. Every character, from Bran to Jon to Jojen (MVP of this episode, easily) had really good moments. Sure, it wasn't required for plot advancement. But seriously, seeing how much every other scene in every episode does that, I loved the fact that we got a great action sequence instead this time. Plus, Jojen's vision has become my favourite scene from the show's entire run.
So, my ranking of the episodes so far this season:
1. First of His Name 2. The Lion and the Rose 3. Oathkeeper 4. Breaker of Chains 5. Two Swords