ENTERTAINMENT
Winter is Coming...BY SARAH MORROW ON MARCH 21, 2014
Greed, betrayal and the quest for glory frame one of HBO’s latest television dramas. Based off of the book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R.R. Martin, Games of Thrones has captured audiences. The show received 13 Emmy Award nominations and is rated 9.5 out of 10 on IMDB, higher than any James Cameron movie.
The books and the show are packed with questionable content, including incest but even though it’s filled with many sexual and violent scenes, the storyline is what grabs hold of the viewer. The show has one of the most intricate plots I have ever seen. If I were to fully recap the show's background, it would take six hours and be ten thousand words long, so I’ll stick to the basics. The show is based in a mythical kingdom called Westeros, where the king has died and everyone is fighting for the Iron Throne. There are four main families: the Starks, the Baratheons, the Lannisters, and the Targaryens. The primary point of view is from the Stark family, basically the only sane group of people within the series. The head of the family, Ned Stark, is the lord of Winterfell and a close friend of the King. In the pilot episode, the King’s closest advisor dies and the King visits Winterfell to ask Ned to fill in for him. Ned, having no choice, accepts his offer and leaves for King’s Landing. King Robert Baratheon is a fat, lazy and clueless king, but he’s still better than the alternatives. His wife, Queen Cersei, is a vindictive, conniving woman who will do anything to keep her eldest son in power. They have three children; Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen. Prince Joffrey is one of the best/worst characters viewers love to hate. He’s a 12 year old psychopath. At one point in the show, he hires a prostitute just to shoot at her with a crossbow. After Robert “accidentally” dies, Joffrey becomes king prompting rebellion and challenges to the throne. In addition to the Stark family, Daenerys Targaryen is another lead character. She is the number one reason I am in love with this show. She is only 13 years old, but she kicks butt. She never whines about her misfortunes and she has dragons! Daenerys' father was a past king but was overthrown for being a vicious and merciless ruler. The orphaned princess was exiled from Westeros to the East and when we meet her, she is quiet and very depressed. Her abusive brother, Viserys, is preparing her to be sold into marriage. He sells her to a native warlord, Khal Drogo, who promises Viserys that his men will fight and win him back the Iron Throne. At her wedding ceremony, Daenerys is given a wedding present of three “fossilized” dragon eggs, but after her husband is killed by an evil witch, some fiery business ensues and she emerges with three baby dragons clinging to her. The next two seasons are filled with Daenerys raising her dragons, leading the Dothrakhi people, earning awesome titles, freeing slaves, building her army, kicking butt and taking names. One last plot twist Game of Thrones offers is the ice zombies, the White Walkers. At first, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to watch the rest of the show because the first twenty minutes of the pilot episode was White Walker murder. The White Walkers are white with bright, icey blue eyes and they screech like banshees. Terrifying. The fourth season of Game of Thrones premieres Apr. 6, 2014 on HBO, but you can usually find the episodes online a couple days after they air. I can’t wait to see if/how certain characters will enact their revenge, and I look forward to seeing new love interests and alliances develop between the characters. I predict that when the White Walkers invade the Seven Kingdoms, everyone fighting for the throne will team up and work together to save their kingdom. I also predict that Daenerys will have difficulty controlling her dragons as they age and become more ferocious. See what happens next season for yourself. Game On! HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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