Winter Is Coming

With the STARZ network securing my loyalties with the first two seasons of its Spartacus series, I was fairly optimistic with the arrival of Camelot - a series rivaled only by the less promising HBO series Game of Thrones, a medieval-styled fantasy based on a novel. As it turns out, in comparison, the two shows were light years away from one another, with Game of Thrones ultimately winning my heart over the lackluster Camelot, far too bland for the amount of talent signed on. While I kept waiting for Camelot to get better (eventually giving up on it), Game of Thrones had me hooked from the very first episode. Its mixture of medieval/fantastical zombies, court intrigue, complicated relationships, colorful chracters, juicy subplots, and assorted, contrasting locations made for a unique mixture and an overall outstanding first season. My wife and I, both hooked on the show, were not only disappointed but shocked when the season came to an abrupt close.

We find the characters on the show all divided up into their own lands, including Winterfell (snowy and grey like medieval England), King's Landing(nearly Mediterranean-like), the Dothrak (arrid, hot, and dry), and the Wall (icy and barren, almost like Antartica), where a militaristic troup called the Night's Watch keep their eyes peeled for the emerging walking dead - the White Walkers. All locations are very different in terms of weather and appearance, and the show's producers even go so far as to show us where all the lands are located on a fictional map at the beginning of every episode. This of course is shown to us during the show's main theme, a brilliantly-orchestrated piece featuring cellos and various other stringed instruments - very medieval, almost ancient in feel.

Game of Thrones follows the book that inspired it, written by George R.R. Martin, very closely. The book as well as the show features several families battling it out to preserve their legacies and dynasties, all flying high their own personalized banners and coat of arms. The one of House Stark is probably the most noteworthy, every bit as dismal and fierce as the landscape they call home, featuring a large grey direwolf with fangs poised for the mauling. The man of the House, Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean, Troy, Silent Hill), has been appointed Lord of Winterfell by his old war buddy Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy, Robin Hood, A Knight's Tale), royal crownholder of the seven kingdoms. Ned is a man of principle, integrity, highly likeable to the viewer along with his sons and their pet direwolves, willing to protect them at every dark turn. An outcast in his own castle, Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow, quickly says his goodbyes to the siblings who count him blood before departing for the ominous Wall and its Night's Watch, where black clothing and animal fur cloaks and the occasional coal-burning fire rule the mountainous, dismal landscape. Ned is soon called to the side of Robert, as the king wants his old friend to serve as the King's Hand - his right hand man, the chosen one in charge when Robert is gone or too drunk to wield his royal scepter.

Problems emerge when Robert's wife, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey, 300, The Brothers Grimm), diverts herself from her loveless marriage to fornicate with her twin brother, Jaime - a move which ultimately places Houses Lannister and House Stark at each other's throats. We see one tit for tat move after another in the daylight, and one assassination attempt after another after night has fallen. Bran, the second to youngest of the Stark boys, is directly affected, and Jon Snow, making a name for himself with the Night's Watch, feels an overwhelming sense of familial loyalty to return to his father's side. Jaime has sinse been risen to the left hand of Robert, finding himself a royal guard (sort of like a praetorian guard to the Roman emperors), making him, along with Cersei, more difficult to approach with a retaliatory dagger. And to complicate things even more, Ned's eldest daughter, Sansa, has fallen in puppy love with Robert and Cersei's young son, Joffrey Baratheon, a snooty and sadistic blond boy, heir to the throne of the seven kingdoms. Ned is forced to bide his time, to basically ignore his urge for revenge, as Cersei and Jaime are constantly plotting to see the Stark House crumble to ashes. But Ned is not alone in his conundrum, as his son Robb Stark and his best buddy Theon Greyjoy rally their forces for a slowly-building all-out war.

Meanwhile, across the "Great Sea," the House Targaryen seeks to earn back the throne they lost at the tip of Jaime Lannister's sword, as its patriarch king was stabbed in the back by the plotting Lannister. Viserys Targaryen, ambitious and self-serving and extremely fair-haired, makes a move toward regaining the throne himself, marrying his fair-haired sister, Daenerys, off to  the powerful leader of a barbaric, nomadic horse people who immediately bring to mind a meshing of Mongol, Persian, and Native American cultures. This powerful ruler, the Khal of the Dothraki people, Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa, the new Conan the Barbarian), takes a frightened Daenerys' hand in marriage before taking her to his bed over and over again. Seeking to see her brother risen to the throne of the seven kingdoms, Daenerys is willing to do whatever it takes, asking her hand maidens for advice in pleasing her barbaric, fog-horn voiced husband, who has up to this point simply used Daenarys as a vehicle to feed his insatiable libido. As Daenerys, the new Khaleesi, starts acting the part of a Dothraki, donning the garb and taking on the language of the tribe, she begins to fall in love with her beastly husband - and vice versa. He is also loved and respected by his people, and as his affection for his Khaleesi grows, so does his peoples' reverence and respect for her. She is very quickly transforming herself into a native, much to the dismay of her ultra ambitious brother - especially when the Khal and Khaleesi become pregnant, the unborn child proving a dynastic threat to Viserys and the bleachy-haired Targaryen household he has always known. Khal Drogo ignites his peoples' passions with promises of wars against the Baratheons and the Lannisters, to rule not only the barren Dothraki lands but the seven kingdoms of the land mass across the ocean.



The stage well set for an all-out war between conflicting Houses (Starks and Lannisters) and bridges they have burned on the way to acheiving greatness (Lannisters and Targaryens), the series ended abruptly with promises of a second season that just won't come quite quick enough. Every bit as good as the Spartacus seasons, Game of Thrones has proven to break the mold of the whole "the book is way better than the movie/series" pitfall. After all, the show was written for the screen by David Benioff (25th Hour), who has proven in his literary career that he knows what he's doing when it comes to writing rich characters and taut situations. The cast for the show is brilliant, with Ned Stark, Khal Drogo, and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage, The Station Agent), rounding out my list of favorites. I was also a big fan of Daenarys, as her tranformation from scared little girl to bold, brave "gone-native" Khaleesi was a joy to watch. Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf, or "imp," is less ambitious than his siblings and cruel father, showing flashes of goodwill amidst his witty euphemisms and great leaps toward cowardly self preservation. He and Jon Snow strike up a friendship at one point, as they find common ground in their collective status' as outcasts in their own homes. They know not where they belong, but find themselves  risen to great importance, in the heat of the conflict wherever it rears its ugly head. The overall theme of the show is "Winter is Coming," and its also the Stark House slogan. This of course refers to the rising threat of a years' long wintery darkness, in which the White Walkers emerge from their resting grounds to plague the countryside - from the Wall to Winterfell to the bright and sunny King's Landing, farther south from the ice and billowing snowfall. We only get of taste of the coming Winter and its White Walkers in first season. The medieval, fantasy-land zombies provide an eerie backdrop, a threat to all the Houses competing for supremecy - a threat that could very well see all of them come crashing down in a bloody heap.

Game of Thrones in its first season gave us an outstanding look into the storm brewing within the seven kingdoms. Before the final credits roll, some prominent characters meet their end, while others fulfill their legacies when it comes to aligning themselves with the thought-to-be long extinct dragon population. Some characters never even come to meet each other face to face while their fates are being decided - their Houses making cheeky chess moves toward one another. Zombies and dragons, crows and direwolves play their own prominent roles throughout the story, delivering their own tidings whether friendly or foul or earth-shattering. Game of Thrones simply blew me away, and my wife and I have already made plans to delve into the books, simply because we can't get enough, and we have to take what we can get until next season comes around.