Review: Game Of Thrones Season 5 Premiere

By Game Of Thrones standards, the premiere for season 5 was rather tame. It’s not the first premiere episode of the series to be so, and there are a lot of story plots to build up in season 5 to prepare us for whats to come.

Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister _photo Helen Sloan_HBO

Cersei’s childhood prophecy starts off this episode as herself and we assume her servant girl go out into the forest to a witch who tastes her blood and provides a prophecy. She will not marry a prince, but she will wed the king and she would be Queen. She warns another younger Queen comes and casts her down. She will not have any children with the King but the King will have 20 children and she will have 3. Golden will be their crowns. Gold their shrouds. The large portion of this has already come true. The 20 children the King had? All the bastard children throughout Kings Landing, most of which are dead now thanks to the Lannisters. Her eldest son is now dead, and the younger Queen is here to take away her youngest.

Tywin’s funeral is about what you would expect. Cersei goes in alone with Jamie standing at his father’s side, and she scorns him for allowing Tryion to be set free. She seems to be more upset over her father’s death then we would expect considering she despised him for forcing her to marry Loris but that is doubtful now that he is dead.

Tyrion finally arrives at his destination. Varys and him talk about his shit through the air holes, which is a rather disgusting conversation that ends with Tyrion upchucking what little wine he just drank. Varys is keen on protecting the realm and feels Tyrion has the temperament to help make that happen with the right person on the throne. Varys and Tyrion take off on the road to Meereen to meet up with Daenerys and her dragons. Somehow I don’t think she and Tryion will get along considering his last name.

Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei and Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm _ photo Helen Sloan_HBO

Sons of the harpy issue start causing issues for Daenerys as they begin to attack and kill her warriors as retribution for the ending of slavery and the toppling of their idol from atop the pyramid. Many around her beg her to show them no mercy, but she is cautious to be too brutal. The politics of ruling are getting in the way of her beliefs. Many want the fighting pits back open in order to ease some of the tension. It is a tradition there and Daario explains that he was sold into slavery and fought in the pits. The only reason he is here now is due to what he learned in those fighting pits.

Jon Snow and the vote for new lord commander draws near and with Stannis near by, things get complicated. Melisandre seems to have some interest in Jon Snow as she brings him to Stannis who asks for his help. While waiting to get to the top of the wall she asks Jon whether he is a virgin. He replies no, to which she said “good”. What is she planning? What has she seen about Jon Snow that she isn’t letting on about. One thing is for sure, she is always planning 10 steps ahead of everyone else.

Littlefinger and Sansa watch as the young Robin tries to train but its clear he is fairly useless. Petyr brought him here to keep him safe and left with Sansa to get away from Cersei’s reach. His motives are suspected as always but its clear that Sansa is starting to get the hang of the game and she is observant of the things going on around her. Clever little dove.

Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane_photo Helen Sloan_HBO

Jon was asked to get Mance to bend the knee to Stannis and pledge his army to the cause and re-take the north. Jon has a very difficult time getting Mance to agree to anything and in the end, Mance stands by his morals and refuses to bend a knee to any man. The result is no surprise as Melisandre has Mance burned alive by the lord of light. Watching their King burn, the free folk are getting ready to riot and fight to the death but Jon in an act of Mercy fires an arrow killing Mance while he burned in front of everyone.

While not much happen overall this episode in terms of massive story shockers, we did get a lot of pre-story and plot build up for things to come. We have established the new character arcs after the many deaths of last season. We also got a little backstory on how some of our characters saw certain things coming. The real question for next week is what consequences will Jon face for killing Mance with the arrow? Can Daenerys keep control and calm in the city of Meereen? In fact, can Daenerys even control her dragons?