ATG Reviews: SFF Analysis

Showing posts with label SFF Analysis. Show all posts

Friday, January 15, 2016

Game of Thrones Season Four Episode 410 “The Children”

Oh The Hypocrisy!

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the tenth episode of Game of Thrones Season Four are below).

It’s no surprise when an episode of Game of Thrones titled “The Children” happens to almost exclusively focus on children. Metaphorical children, dead children, adult children, magical children, and good old fashion regular child aged children … it’s all here. While children and the relationship children have with the Game of Thrones world may be the unifying subject, it’s the choices made by the characters that bring everything together.

Start Second Guessing Yourself, And Everyone Will Die

(Spoilers for the ninth episode of Game of Thrones Season Four are below).

The Watchers on the Wall bears a striking resemblance to Season Two’s climactic episode Blackwater. While this episode may be less of a spectacle, it certainly put some interesting issues on the table to think about, especially about the idea of conflict.

The Horrible, Horrible Truth

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the eighth episode of Game of Thrones Season Four are below).

While Mockingbird was an episode that focused on humor, this week had some moments of laughter on its own. However the focus on the truth is what really stood out, and Game of Thrones takes a hard bitter look at the truth even by this show’s bleak standards.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the seventh episode of Game of Thrones Season Four are below).

The comedy returns in this episode of Game of Thrones. Mockingbird has a larger than average number of sarcastic and ironic moments by Game of Thrones’ standards, as humor and comedy are used as motifs to helps this transitional episode set up the climactic events for the season’s conclusion.

Game of Thrones Season Four Episode 406 “The Laws of Gods and Men”

The Show Must Go On

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the 6th episode of Season 4 of Game of Thrones are below).

What’s real and what’s fake?

Tyrion is given a farce of a trial after Cersei accuses him of regicide. This trial was the heart of the episode as well as the thematic content, which focused specifically on pageantry and reality. Certain characters in the show seem to genuinely believe in the pageantry, while others were learning about the reality of pageantry, while a fair few seem to actually have a thorough understanding of reality.

No One Really Wins

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the fifth episode of Season Four of Game of Thrones are below).

Like the previous episode, First of His Name acts as a transitional episode. Specifically we see the major characters making choices about whether or not to continue on their present course, or whether or not to change direction. Either or, most characters are practically forced into making decisions that won’t favor them or wont favor the common man. This episode had me thinking that a more accurate rendition of Cersei’s famous line from the first season might sound like: “when you play the game of thrones you always lose and everyone dies.” … or maybe that’s just Martin’s storytelling philosophy.

I Will Answer Injustice With Justice

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the fourth episode of Game of Thrones, Season Four).

Largely a transitional episode, with an ironic title considering all of the changes from the book, Oathkeeper prepares viewers for the next major series of events. The title of the episode leaves little thought to what this Game of Thrones episode was going to be all about: loyalty. Loyalty, like the other moral issues on Game of Thrones, is a lot more complicated than we initially thought.

Money Buys A Man’s Silence For A Time. A Bolt In The Heart Buys It Forever

Buy on Amazon!

(This article will contain spoilers from Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 3).

Point and counterpoint.

As last week’s episode, The Lion and the Rose, ended with the Purple Wedding and focused on the dangers of having power. This week’s episode, Breaker of Chains, focuses on the aftermath of Joffrey’s death and the dangers of being powerless.

A Look At Internal Power

Buy on Amazon!

(This article will contain spoilers from Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 2)

One of the dominant themes of Game of Thrones returned in The Lion and the Rose – the dangers of power. This theme once again takes over an entire episode of the show before being capped off by one of the series’ longest awaited moments: the death of King Joffrey. The ending is an exclamation point and illustrates how the dangers of power are not always external.

Oaths, Codes, and Symbols

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 1 are below).

A lot has happened to the surviving characters on Game of Thrones in three seasons of television. Naturally the oftentimes life-scarring events have a tremendous impact on a character’s beliefs and subsequently the actions they will take next. The first episode of the fourth season takes a deeper look at how most of the major characters whom have been present since season one have changed. The thematic devices used to describe the character changes though are almost all exclusively in the form of oaths, codes, and symbols.

Families: Institutions of Power or Meaningful Relationships?

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season Three finale are below).

The Game of Thrones season finale was largely there to wrap up loose ends, and to provide comfort to viewers that survived watching the traumatizing Red Wedding. After all hope seemed lost last week, this week, the episode Mhysa ends on a light and positive note.

It’s an episode that focuses on everyone’s reactions to the Red Wedding (or acknowledges their roles in it). This is a recovery episode, it allows people to begin picking up the pieces of the devastating War of Five Kings which has largely concluded itself now that the major threats have been eliminated or greatly weakened.

Through the healing process, Mhysa takes a closer look at the powerful families of Westeros, making it a unifying theme throughout the episode. Game of Thrones explores the family as a beacon of power in this episode, while it also explores the meaningful relationships that are traditionally associated with being in a family, and what the significance of those relationships are.

Blood, Tears, and Betrayal

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for season three episode nine of Game of Thrones are below).

Where to begin?

Betrayal and treachery were the themes of the most recent Game of Thrones episode. Where previous episodes in the season subtly weave themes in, Game of Thrones uses the theme of treachery to stab its viewers through their hearts in this episode.

The Rains of Castamere reminds me of a line stated by Theon’s torturer in “The Climb,” a few episodes back:

“If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven’t been paying attention.”

In fourteen agonizingly long minutes viewers are treated to watching the strongest and most powerful members of the show’s central protagonist family, the Starks, getting destroyed on television. With the deaths of Robb, Catelyn, Talisa, Grey Wind, Robb’s unborn child, and the entire Stark army, the most realistic power that had a chance of defeating Joffrey, was annihilated.

The Starks weren’t annihilated in a blaze of glory, they didn’t lose their power in a large battle like Stannis did. They lost the behind the scenes battle. They lost the game of thrones (again), the political battle for power. The Starks were betrayed by the Bolton’s and Freys to the Lannsiters, in a heinous act of violence. In a single political maneuver, the Lannisters have now become the greatest power in Westeros, and this is perhaps where the greatest betrayal takes place, the betrayal to viewers expectations (I mean betrayal in an aesthetically good way).

The Difference Between a Wink and a Blink

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the eighth episode of Game of Thrones Season Three are below).

Second Sons, the title of this episode refers to the mercenary band Daenerys convinces to turn on Yunkai. However, a lot of the characters featured in this episode are metaphorical second sons, or people in Westeros’s societal hierarchy that will ultimately have less power than first sons. In other words this is an episode that largely focuses on people who are the mercy of other people.

Metaphorical second sons are one of the devices used in this episode to bring forward the thematic idea on how voluntary a person’s choices are. A point emphasized by Daario Naharis this week is that everyone has a choice, yet despite this claim, the episode features juxtapositions of people either getting to make choices or resigning themselves to their fates.

So technically everyone in Game of Thrones has the option of making choices in regards to everything in their lives (except in death), but in reality, many characters are forced to make choices, usually one’s they never wished to make. An overarching question in this episode seems to ask viewers, does anyone really have a choice?

Love and the Pervading Presence of Doom

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers for the seventh episode of Game of Thrones are below).

The previous episode of Game of Thrones concluded with two scenes that were emotional opposites. The first of these scenes, Littlefinger’s montage, discussed the illusions created by love, religion, and various other ideas and institutions. Littlefinger believed that only the climb, or ambition, is all there really is to living in the world. The second scene showed Jon and Ygritte reaching the top of the Wall. It was a scene that gave viewers some hope at the end of the episode, and it contrasted Littlefinger’s cold ambition with the idea that love can prevail.

In this episode, Game of Thrones continues right where it left off, except it now looks to largely contrast the ending of the previous episode. The Bear and the Maiden Fair spends a lot of time examining the various romantic relationships established in the show, or it looks to visit relationships that have a lot of romantic tension. In nearly every one of these scenes is an eerie pervading presence of doom.

Justifying the Struggle for Power

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the sixth episode of Game of Thrones season three).

As Theon Greyjoy was being tortured yet again by his mysterious captor, audiences were finally given a reason to why he was being tortured: because Theon’s captor likes torturing him. As twisted as this scene is, it’s a reminder that most people don’t get what they want in Game of Thrones. As a matter of fact this newly introduced unnamed character that is torturing Theon, and Littlefinger seem to be the only two characters up until this point that have had everything go their way.

Littlefinger once again prevails in this episode as he does a voice over a montage of people’s lives he’s just ended and/or ruined. The purpose of Littlefinger’s actions grant him more power over certain individuals and presumably bring him closer to sitting on the Iron Throne. Littlefinger talks about the idea of the realm being an illusion. His struggle for power and his ceaseless ambition, is what motivates him to do the horrible things he does. Chaos is his weapon.
The Climb is all about the struggle for power, and it’s about how that struggle for power affects everyone from the powerful players to the helpless pawns to the regular everyday soldiers and citizens.

The Honor Spectrum

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the fifth episode of Game of Thrones season three).

Fiery images dominate the fifth episode of the third season of Game of Thrones. Beric Dondarrion fights the Hound with a flaming sword, there are two scenes with people praying to the Red Gods, the history of Aerys Targaryen with wildfire is revealed, and of course the title of the episode refers to a Wildling expression for people with red hair.

Thematically the episode explores the idea of honor. Like a lot of the issues explored on Game of Thrones, honor is explored on a spectrum type of scale. There have been scenes throughout the series where characters acting with honor have led to favorable results for that character, while there have been scenes where characters acting honorably have led to their horrible demise (Ned Stark I’m looking at you).

However, looking at all of the specific honor related issues that show up on the spectrum, its fairly easy to conclude that Game of Thrones does not seem to favor the characters who act honorably. Most characters who choose to act honorably seem to get screwed by their decision one way or another, or they happen to screw a whole lot of other people with their decision. Game of Thrones uses a myriad of powerful scenes in this episode to ask the question is honor, or the honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions worth pursuing?

Revenge: The Bitter, Sweet, and Bittersweet

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the fourth episode of Game of Thrones season three).

Revenge is an occasionally explored idea in Game of Thrones, but in the fourth episode of the third season the idea is explored in multiple plot-lines making it the central idea of what is explored in this episode. Arya, Jaime, Brienne, Daenerys, Tyrion, Varys, Theon, and the men of the Night’s Watch are all involved in some sort of revenge or vengeance related scenario.

The idea of revenge is an emotionally complicated one, and the show looks to make its characters and morals more ambiguous through the wider spectrum of human emotions by using an idea like revenge.

Contrast, Character Changes, and Dark Comedy

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the third episode of Game of Thrones season three).

Walk of Punishment is a fitting title for an episode that features many of the characters facing a lot of punishment for previously made decisions by that character or other characters in the show. Of course this happens in almost every episode of Game of Thrones, so that really isn’t a new idea.

What ends up driving this episode is the use of contrast between suffering and comedy, and the changing personalities of the major characters, which contrasts with how they acted in previous episodes. The contrast of two opposite ideas and states of emotion serve to create a lot emotional ambiguity for certain characters as well as empathy for others.

This episode is a very dark comedy of sorts, and it is the first time the show explores that style in an extended format. Walk of Punishment easily features the most comedic scenes ever put into a single episode of Game of Thrones. However, in this same episode, these comedic scenes are contrasted with scenes of intense brutality, such as the line of slowly dieing crucified slaves, the two attempted gang rapes, the permanent mutilation of a major character, and the dismemberment of a lot of horses.

Dark Wings, Dark Words, and Lots of New Characters

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the second episode of Game of Thrones season three).

Unlike the first episode of the third season of Game of Thrones, Dark Wings, Dark Words doesn’t center itself around a single theme. Instead a lot of time is spent focusing on developing the existing characters, while introducing viewers to a lot of new ones.

Although many previous episodes of the show focus on individual themes interwoven throughout the plots of individual episodes, this episode may begin to signal a change in the show’s structure. A recent interview with the creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had them quoted as saying, “Themes are for eighth grade book reports.” With this quote it may be safe to expect a focus on individual characters now that many of show’s themes have been laid out over the previous two seasons.

With the episode Dark Wings, Dark Words character development takes center stage. Many of the new characters that are introduced bring up old issues that previously had never been expressed by the “already established” characters on this show. The end result is some very powerful scenes and some great new characters to look forward to.

All Men Must Serve

Buy on Amazon!

(Spoilers below for the first episode of Game of Thrones season three).

The first episode of Game of Thrones season three is appropriately titled “Valar Dohaeris.” It’s a title that represents this episode’s function as a bridge to the final episode of the previous season, “Valar Morghulis.” It’s also a title that states the primary thematic concept explored throughout the entire episode, which is what it means to serve.

Pages