K is for ...

... Kingslayer.

Game of Thrones!  (Spoiler alerts ahead.)

Do you love it or do you love it?  I don't know many people that don't, but mind you I tend to hang with people that like all the same things I do so perhaps I am skewing my own data.  In any event, Game of Thrones is gearing up for a stellar third season and I can't get enough.  I'm coming at it new, never having read the books, by George R. R Martin, that the series is based on, and I started on it a bit late, tearing through Season One in about a week just before the Season Two premiere.

If I'm being honest, I did need a second take.  I watched the Series Premiere and it confused the hell out of me.  Everyone sort of looked the same.  There were so many of them.  It was always rather dark.  Whose against who?  I paid very close attention.  I listened very carefully.  I almost took notes.  I thought I had it all figured out - who was who and all that, when in the last scene of this episode Jaime kisses Cersei and I'm like "WHAT?!  How did I get them mixed up?!  They are brother and sister! ???".  I was mad I had lost the character set up - after all my concentration work - but in fact, Jaime and Cersei ARE brother and sister.  That's Game of Thrones.  Not since Flowers in the Attic has sibling incest been so mainstream!  I thought I was punishing the show by not watching Season One 'live', but I was really punishing myself because like the show really cares.

Diving in fresh, nothing much changed - it's still super dark, everyone still looks the same (those beards!  those cloaks!), those that don't look the same have similar sounding names (Tyrion, Tywin, what?!).  As soon as I have someone down pat, they go off and get killed (I miss you, Gay King Renly!).  I still don't know most of anyone's name and resort to "you know the guy in the cave married to that woman who had the smoke baby" descriptions.  I'm only about 72% confident that I am following the story properly.  But you know what?  Who cares!  As was proven in Episode One, Season One it's almost a waste of time to really, really know what's going on because BAM, just like that, it could all explode in an instant. 

Any series that kills off its supposed main character in the first season has major balls.  The sequence of Ned's beheading was one of the most brilliantly filmed scenes I've ever seen.  It shocked you in more ways than one and put you on notice that anything could happen.  And anything usually does.  The storylines are accompanied by objects of fantasy - those glorious direwolves, scary smoke monsters, firebreathing dragons - but in the end it's the relationships between the characters and their attempts to find their place in the world that holds your attention.  Tyrion's desire for fatherly acceptance, Jon Snow's desire for any type of acceptance, Robb's attempts to become his own man, Jaime's petulant sarcasm as he tries to break free of his notorious past - and that's just (some of) the boys!  I want Arya to take over everything.  I want Cersei to kill Joffrey (we know she's capable, having almost poisoned her other kid last season!) while Boobs (sorry, what is her name?  Gay King Renly's widow?) watches!  While I'm admittedly a bit tired of Mama Stark, I'm totally obsessed the Khalessi.  So much so I often yell things like "WHERE ARE MY APPLES?" when I'm feeling a little lost but, alas, no one brings me any.

I have no idea what this season has in store for us - but, I hear from those that have read the books that I won't be happy.  Well, okay, I can deal with that.  I can deal with being shaken out of my television complacency by a show that takes chances and doesn't write plot points based on a popularity contest.  I love the notion of throwing characters on screen that are far from perfect and do bad things without remorse - who want power simply for the sake of it and will bring anyone down who attempts to stop them.  Of course it's cruel, cutting and ruthless but it's also brilliant storytelling, especially when we surprisingly find their pathos along the way.  I personally can't wait to see how it all turns out. In a complete about turn of my own personality, I'm being patient with this one. I am NOT going to start ripping through the books! Not because I'm not curious, and not because I like waiting but because those books don't have that incredibly majestic theme song. Which, I'm quite comfortable falling in love with as it is likely the only sacred entity on this magnificent show.




K is for ... Kingslayer.