Tag: Littlefinger

Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Enter Sand Snakes

It feels like each episode of this season of Game of Thrones features an exploration of a different theme from week to week. Unlike past season, when plot machinations were paramount, season five has been able to be a little more artful in how it sets up each episode. Maybe that has something to do with the show finally diverging from the books in significant ways — I wouldn’t know having never read the books. If anything, this episode, “Sons of the Harpy,” was about how a select few radicals can bring down a whole kingdom.

Let’s start in King’s Landing.

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: What’s in a Name?

More than any other series on television, an episode of Game of Thrones can often feel like 48 minutes of watching players set up a chessboard wherein, to paraphrase another classic HBO series, “all the piece matter.” Last night’s episode, “High Sparrow,” was no different. And in the case of the dueling queens — Margaery and Cersei — they were literally moving a pawn around the chessboard in the form of King Tommen. But despite brief detours following the Lannister siblings’ plights in both King’s Landing and Volantis, the episode was mainly about (three of) the surviving Stark children and each one’s struggle to accept, reject, or reclaim their name.

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Arya Gonna Go My Way?

Last week on Game of Thrones, we witnessed various examples of people dealing with their demons, either literally (as with Dany and her dragons) or figuratively (Tyrion dealing with his new role as Dadslayer). This week’s episode, “The House of Black and White,” continues the first episode’s pacing and purpose: we pay visits to the characters we hold dear, but we also get treated to new glimpses of new countries and cultures.

If I had to guess at one overarching theme of this episode, I would say it was the struggle for female empowerment. Arya, Brienne, Cersei, and Daenerys took huge steps this episode into taking a seat at exclusively-male-dominated tables. Ellia Sand seems eager to lead an army to war. Even Gilly is learning how to read! It is becoming very apparent that the future of Westeros, no matter who comes out on top at the end, can very well rest in the hands of a woman.

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Bloody Hell

Oh, my sweet summer children. You had no idea THAT was coming, did you? Even as someone who has read the books twice, last night’s Game of Thrones was difficult to watch; in some ways, I wonder if it was worse for us readers because we knew exactly what would happen and this time, we’d see it fleshed out. Gouged out. Squeezed out. But I am getting ahead of myself. Ahead, yes a… head. A ruined head. A bloody mess of a head. Too soon, oh it’s too soon to contemplate that nightmare. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Don’t Push Me Cuz I’m Close to the Edge

When we last saw Tyrion, he was spitting righteous vitriol at his trial. The seventh episode “Mockingbird” shows a softer, more introspective man: basically, he knows he just signed his own death certificate and merely wants to make amends before his trial by combat. He admits to Jaime that he fell in love with a whore, and he chose not to cooperate with the deal Jaime made with their father out of spite. At his most powerless, Tyrion was still able to take away some happiness from Tywin, who was thisclose to having Jaime back as his heir. Tyrion goes on to tease Jaime about his foibles and penchant for incest, and oh, by the way, Jaime, will you be his champion?

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: From Ice to Fire

Last night’s Game of Thrones whipped through Westeros (and Essos) almost as quickly as Aunt Lysa’s highly unstable mood swings. There’s so much to discuss and analyze — let’s get started, shall we?

The episode commences with a packed throne room, where the High Septon is bestowing blessings on Tommen as he crowns the spare heir of a King. The way Jaime Lannister watches the action makes one think that he wasn’t just participating as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. That was his son up there, the only son he has left. Was he feeling protective? Anxious? Distant, since his main connection to his three products of incest was his relationship with their mother the queen, who is now estranged from him? I know, these are a lot of questions, but I couldn’t stop noticing the way he was looking at Tommen as he was crowned.

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Fantasy, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Game of Thrones: Only the Good Die Young

In “Breaker of Chains,” the third episode of season four of HBO’s Game of Thrones, everything is running amok in Westeros, North beyond the Wall, and Meereen. Things were never sweet, but they sure are sour. The long overdue death of the king has created a power vacuum, and the many players of the Game are scrambling to realign themselves with the next ruler.

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