General/Podcast

Game of Owns: The Wars to Come

Posted on by Game of Owns

Episode 267 – The Wars to Come
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Season 5 is here. A storm of attending audience leads us into this first slice at the new season, and the heavy dramatics of “The Wars to Come”.



Discussion Topics
Celebratory sigils, catching Drogon
The opening scene
Goodbye Lannister
Drinks in Pentos
Trouble in Meereen
Friends in the Vale
A King on the Wall
The Pyre
Owns of the Episode
One final on-season Own




We’re finally here. Write us your Owns, thoughts, and all things Fifth Season — we’ll be sharing your words in the follow-up episode recording midweek!

Goodbye, Mance




,
Game of Owns

27 Comments

  2. Happy to listen to this again, as I didn’t during the off season.

    What happened to the woman who used to do the show with you?

    I forget her name.

  3. Hi sweethearts, hope everyone had a very happy Season Premiere. I have a question: does Melisandre think that the human sacrifices are being cleansed of earthly sins by her Lord and that they will get to some form of paradise? What is the reasoning for burning heretics? I was very amused by Carice’s delivery of “Are you a virgin?” – it was funny, creepy, campy and above all, ambiguous.

  4. Beacon,

    It is mentioned in the books (and maybe s2e01?) that the followers of the lord of light believe that the fire cleanses the soul of a sinner. As for Melisandre’s motivations I suspect something more sinister. Most of the magic in this world seems to involve either Fire or Blood. Burning a man alive falls under both.

  5. Great to hear you guys back for reviewing an episode ( I was with you for the re-reads of course, but something special about the recap episodes) love the enthusiasm you guys had I had that same exact feeling after watching! Keep up the good work!

    And Holly oak Kate left the show a few weeks ago I think because of her job can’t remember for sure

  6. Likes: Mance, Stannis, Jon, Melisandre, Tormund, White Rat, Young Cersei, Margaery, Pod, Selyse, Lancel, the Son of the Harpy, Viserion, Rhaegal, Dany’s hair

    Meh: Sansa, Littlefinger, Cersei, Jaime, Olly, Shireen, Kevan, Varys, Loras, Ollivar, the rest of Dany

    Dislikes: SweetRobin (way too unrealistically wimpy! Not even kinda funny), Brienne’s whiney Pod-hate (beyond old and exaggerated), Daario’s lame backstory, and Maggy the Frog (my unsullied wife thought she was Osha….and why bother with this scene if you are going to skip two thirds of it anyway?)

  7. Off-topic, but did anybody notice in the Grantland review that Andy appears to have gone to make a cup of tea during the opener? He said that the Maggy scene ended with “Everyone wants to know their future until they know it”. He missed the prophecy entirely.

  10. Hear Marko Roar,
    OT:
    I asked about that in another thread, but it was pretty much dead at this point so I ask here again. Do you (or any of the other mods) know if there’ll be a review round-up post for the first season? I’m searching for a couple of the funny ones (in particular for the one written by this unsulied woman, the motto the website she was writting for last year was somthing along the lines of “Don’t judge me” (for watching so much tv) but I can’t find it.

  13. Abyss,

    Hi Abyss,

    Sorry we missed your comment before. Yes, most definitely, the review round-up is coming shortly (thanks to Bex). I’m glad Turri helped you out with the specific one you were looking for. Thanks guys, you make for a great community!

  14. Good to listen again I was tuned into winter is coming waiting for you guys so I just found out you had moved to this site I’ll be looking forward to future episodes with u all

  15. I posted this on the other thread, but whatever, I wanna hear if people agree.

    The Wars To Come is probably the best premiere in my opinion. It has a clear focus on ideals, very much seen in both Jon, Tyrions and Danys stories. Dany is facing an uprising and constantly has to confront her own ideals. Tyrion and Varys has that long discussion about the best possible ruler, which is very much about ideals too.

    And of course the last sequence, which in my opinion is one of the best, most athmospheric and brutally phillosofical scenes in the whole series. Mance Rayder is an idealist, and we see the long discussion, where Jon basically tries to get him to abandon those ideals. And the last bit, where he stands tall at the pire, and slowly breaks and starts showing fear and dread, as the flames creep up around him. He has chosen to dye for his beliefs, but the very human fear still catches up with him and its so heartbreaking to watch. It gets really discusting and brutal just before it ends, and that last look between Mance and Jon, is just a great little bit of mercy in the middle of a discusting scene.

    Can we please get a curtain call for Ciaran Hinds, who wasn’t everyones favorite Mance Rayder, when he got cast, and who wasnt always used the same way as he was in the books, but whose arc ended up being about a true freedom fighter, who payed the ultimate price for his ideals. And did he own that last sequence or what. I’m gonna vote for him, when the wotw awards are to be decided.

    So yeah, a brilliant premiere in my mind 🙂

  16. Damphairintheshowplease!,

    I think Winter is Coming and Two Swords were better premieres. WIC ending on an awesome Cliffhanger and had wonderful world building. Two swords had that great opening and book end combo. The Wars to come feels like any other episode. Not a bad thing, but not my favorite got premiere

  18. wow
    ramin has really stepped it up this season. the growth of the bravos theme is amazing.
    the harpy and fairh militant themes are quite cool.

  20. Turncloak,

    Oh yeah, I can see that. Winter is Coming has a special place place of course. It got mixed reviews, but I gotta admit, I had not read the books at that time, and I chose to watch the pilot one night, and I was so hooked, that I watched the whole season that very night. The bran cliffhanger is difficult to top. But since then, the premieres have been more about showing the status of the story and tying it in with a theme.

    The North Remembers was great too and was about the outbreak of war and focused on the many different leader. Mhysa was more about the aftermath of the blackwater and handled that very well. Two swords as a standalone episode is really great too, and had that incredible last scene and a great lannister focus.

    But I just feel like, thematically The Wars To Come is the strongest, and I really felt like they toppede it off perfectly with that Mance-burning scene. A great metaphor of someone holding on to their ideals, and in my opinion, game of thrones when it’s best!

  23. Damphairintheshowplease!,

    I too felt like there was great thematic in this episode. But my thought was that the theme was hopelessness. Tyrion, Brienne, Loras, Mance and to some extent Cersei all seemed to be in a mood of “everything is shit and there is nothing to do about it”. Also too some degree Dany seemed to feel the hope is lost to controlling her dragons.

    To comment on the podcast episode I liked the comparison made between the stakes in kings landing (are these people still marrying) with the ones by the wall (is this king going to burn this other king alive or not). I bet the wall will be many people favorite story line this season.

  24. Great to have in-season GOO back. I seldom listen in the off-season, but I really enjoy your thoughts during the season. Keep up the good work!

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  26. I’m still laughing about the idea of Desmond walking through the background of the flashback scene!

  27. U guys may want to watch that final scene again if you think Mance’s choice is about his pride or honor…

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