What I Leanred From Rewatching the First 6 Seasons of Game of Thrones

I rewatched season 1 through 6 over a six month period and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The depth of detail, especially in the early seasons was much more than I remembered and I was able to understand more about the show by seeing things again that I had forgotten about. 

A Few Observations

  • The Hound may be the best character on the show: It took me until season 4 the first time through to appreciate the humor and honor of The Hound, but watching it again it was there from the start. The very first thing he does on the show is protect Sansa Stark.  His honesty about why he does what he does is unmatched on the show and his willingness to call out the hypocrisy he sees in other knows no bounds. And he manages to do all this with a humorous indignation which becomes fun to watch. In many ways his trails and tribulations are at the heart of the show. 
  • Ned Stark was not too smart: Once he decides that he's not going to support Joffrey as the next king he goes and tells of all people, Cersei Lannister. My god. Its like wanted to die. That's one of several dumb things that led to his eventual demise.
  • Catelyn Stark was also an idiot: She urged Robb to take the marriage deal with Walder Frey, then, once Robb broke the deal,  made him go to the wedding. She also thought that taking Tyrion prisoner would somehow work out well, her sister Lysa was a great place to take Tyrion, and she let Jaime Lannister go. Ned pulled the pin on the hand grenade that killed many of the Starks, but Catelyn made them all jump on it.
  • Varys has been a Targaryen supporter the whole time: "Westeros needs to be saved from itself…" and he is backing Danerys to fix that. Sneaky bastard! He also claimed the reason he helped Tyrion escape was because refusing a request of Jaime Lannister would be very dangerous.
  • The puzzling departure of Gendry: The disapperance of Gendry (the blacksmith and bastard child of King Robert Baratheon who is heir to the Iron Throne), was strange at the time and seems even stranger now. As Ser Davos Seaworth helps him escape in a small row boat with vague directions on how to get to King's Landing 3 days we find out that Gendry has never been in a boat before and he doesn't know how to swim. They really wanted us to think Gendry wasn't going to make it. So I now fully expect him to be back in season 7!!!! If he does come back, it does not look like anyone but Arya knows he is the rightful heir.
  • Season 6 ended with many major plots points on the move:
    • Confirmation that Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark 
    • Melisandre is banished from the North
    • Sansa is Jon Snow's right hand and has a strange relationship with Little Finger going on. He hinted it may be better for her if Little Finger was the King.
    • Arya is back in Westeros and killed Walder Frey, slayer of her brother and mother at the Red Wedding.
    • The sesason ended with 4 main factions readying for a battle:
      • Jon Snow is King of the North and has united the Northern clans
      • Cersei is Queen of the 7 Kingdoms and controls the Lannister Army and the King's Guard.
      • Danerys is sailing to Westeros with her 3 dragons, Varys, Tyrion (her Hand), some of they Greyjoys, the Unsullied, the Dothraki, and also has an alliance with Dorne and the Tyrells. 
      • Euron Greyjoy has been named the new King of the Iron Islands and is building a fleet of 1,000 ships with plans to ally with Danerys.
  • You don't want to be on Arya's Death List: Here's the current state of list members
    • Walder Fray – STATUS: Dead. Killed by Arya. She slit his throat
      • He plotted the Red Wedding where her brother and mother were killed
    • Myran Trant – STATUS: Dead. Killed by Arya. She slit his throat
      • He's on the list for killing her "dance" teacher Syrio Forel
    • Rorge – STATUS: Dead. Killed by Arya. She killed him in a sword fight
      • He's on the list for threatening to rape Arya while he was locked up with Jagen H'Ghar
    • Polliver – STATUS: Dead. Killed by Arya. She killed him with needle at an Inn
      • He's on the list for killing her friend Lommy and stealing her sword Needle
    • Tywin Lannister – STATUS: Dead. Killed by his own son, Tyrion.
      • He's on the list for plotting the Red Wedding where her brother and mother were killed
    • King Joffrey Lannister – Status: Dead, killed by the Tyrell's and Little Finger
      • He's on the list for being a horrible human and ordering the beheading Ned Stark
    • Llyn Payne – STATUS: Alive
      • He's on the list for executing Ned Stark
    • The Hound – STATUS: Alive, Arya left him for dead
      • He's on the list for killing the butcher's boy, Mycah
    • Cersei Lannister  – STATUS: Alive
      • She's on the list for being evil and her role in the death of Ned Star
    • Melisandre – Status: Alive
      • She's on the list for kidnapping Gendry.
    • Beric Dondarrion – Status: Alive. Brought back from the dead
      • This dead then alive member of The Brotherhood is on the list for selling Gendry Melisandre
    • Thoros of Myr – Status: Alive
      • This  member of The Brotherhood is on the list for selling Gendry Melisandre
    • The Mountain – STATUS: Alive 
      • He's on the list for torturing people at Harenhall

A Few Pieces I Forgot About

  • Many of the Starks treated Jon Snow much worse than I remembered. Espcially Catelyn Stark.
  • Theon Greyjoy thought he was such a "tough guy" before… you know what.
  • Catelyn Stark started looking into it what could have happened to Bran and found a long blonde hair in the room with the window Bran fell from. She deduced the Lannister's pushed Bran out the window and decided to ride to King's Landing to tell Ned. That one blonde hair put in to play the plot of the whole series. 
  • Danerys found out one of her court used to be a prostitute and ask her for pointers on how to make Khal Drago happy. 
  • The Hound is protecting Sansa the first time we see him on screen. A foreshadowing of things to come. 
  • Joffrey was extremely hateable right from his first moments on the screen when he approaches Sansa and the Hound.
  • Jon Snow gave Arya her sword, "Needle"
  • Ned Stark figured out Joffrey was not King Robert's son by looking through a book of ancestry that had all Baratheon men having "black hair"
  • The Valerian steel sword that Jon Snow was given by Lord Mormont was once the property of the Lord's son, Jorah Mormont. 
  • Jaime Lanniseter spilled his guts to Brienne about killing the Mad King while they were in a bath together.
  • Sansa is still technically married to Tyrion: Even thought the marriage was never consumated, it has yet to be annulled. Sansa would have to go through a formal process with a Septon to annul it.

 

A Few of My Favorite Quotes 

  • “You want revenge against the Lannisters? I killed my mother, Joanna Lannister, on the day I was born. I killed my father, Tywin Lannister, with a bolt to the heart. I am the greatest Lannister killer of our time!”
    • Tyrion Lannister to Danerys answering the question of why she should let him live.
  • "When you play the game of thrones, you win, or you die. There is no middle ground."
    • Cersei to Ned Stark upon Ned telling her he knows that Joffrey is not the King's son and she should flee King's Landing. 
  • "You will make kings rise and fall." 
    • Melisandre to Gendry
  • Chaos is not a pit. It is a ladder.”
    • Little Finger
  • “The dwarf lives until we find a cock merchant.”
    • A slave trader declares Tyrion must live so they can prove his cock is from a dwarf when they cut it off to the cock merchant.
  • You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
    • Ygritte to Jon Snow. The first time she said it was after Snow said he “knows how to do it [have sex].”
  • “Winter is here.”
    • Sansa Stark to Jon Snow in the last episode of season 6.

From The Hound (He needed his own section)

When The Hound steals from a man and his daughter who had fed The Hound and Arya:

Arya: "You're the worst shit in the seven kingdoms."

The Hound: "There's plenty worse than me. I just understand and the way things are. How many Starks do they have to behead until you figure it out?"

The Hounds to Brienne after she says she will take Arya to safety:

“There is no safe place for her. If you don’t know that by now you dumb bitch, you are the wrong one to watch over her.”

To the troops as the Battle of Blackweater is about to start:

"Any man dies with a clean sword, I'll rape his f**king corpse!"

 

Rating the Seasons

I pulled some data from IMDB and it pretty much matched up from what I saw. 

Seasons IMDB Rating My Rating My Reasons
1 9.08 A This first season is incredibly detailed and does an excellent job of setting the stage for the rest of the series. It is not plauged by too many slow story lines that become problematic later, and the death of Ned Stark defines the unpredictability of the series going forward. 
2 8.96 B- The series moves into the pattern we become familiar with going forward: Some very intriguing moments balanced out by some very slow plot moments (Theon’s struggles, Arya on the run, and Danerys’ wanderings). The Battle of Blackwater is the high point. 
3 9.03 B+ Lots of movement in this season with Jon Snow travling with the Free Folk, Brienne and Jaime's travels, KIng's Landing politics playing out with Tryion and the Tyrell's at the center, Danery's fress slave states, Sam kills a White Walker, and of course, the Red Wedding.
4 9.29 A+ A fantastic season with an incredible amount of action, especially in the last two episodes, including: Tyrion's trial, Oberyn vs. The Mountain combat, the death of Joffrey, Tryion escapes and kills his fahter, the attack on The Wall, Stannis conquers the Free Folk, the battle of Brienne and The Hound.
5 8.85 B A little bit of a flat season but with some very big moments including the death of Stannis, the rise of the Sons of Harpy and Danerys' escape on her Dragon, and the epic battle at Hardhome.
6 9.08 B+ A really strong finale pushed an OK season into a pretty good one. This really sets up the last 13 episodes for the coming big war(s).

 

The Top 5 Episodes

A run down of the top 5 episodes by IMDB rating, and my listing.

My Top 5 Episodes

  1. S 4, Ep 10: "The Children": Many plot points come to a head with some great scenes: The Hound vs. Brienne, Stannis conquers the Free Folk, Tyrion kills his father and escapes
  2. S 1, Ep 1: "Winter is Coming": A brilliant introduction to the series shows the White Walkers, Winterfell, The Wall, and Bran's fall which is maybe the biggest plot point of the whole series. 
  3. S 5, Ep 8:  "Hardhome":    Jon Snow and the Free Folk are attacked by the White Walker Army of the Dead lead by the Knight King.
  4. S 3, Ep 9: "The Rains of Castamere ": The Red Wedding. Rob and Catyelyn Stark die. This one was a shocker. 
  5. S4, Ep 2: "The Lion and the Rose":  King Joffrey dies in a beautifully choreographed scene from start to finish.

The Top 5 Rated Episodes from IMDB

  1. S 3, Ep 9: "The Rains of Castamere ": The Red Wedding. Rob and Catyelyn Stark die
  2. S 5, Ep 8:  "Hardhome":    Jon Snow and the Free Folk are attacked by the White Walker army.
  3. S6, Ep 10: "The Winds of Winter":  Cersei blows up the Septor, Jon Snow becomes King, Danerys boards boats to Westeros. 
  4. S 6, Ep 9: "Battle of the Bastards": The armies of Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton meet on the battlefield.
  5. S 2, Ep 9: "Blackwater": Tyrion Lannister leads the defense of King's Landing from the army of Stannis Baratheon.

 

Some Pictures From Season 1

A few pictures from early in the series show how some things have changed.

Remember clean cut, light haired Tyrion?

 

Remember when the White Walkers were black?

Remember when Cersei's hair looked like this?

Or this?

 

Remember when The Hound wore a wolf helmet? Was this a foreshadowing of this willingness to watch out for the Stark girls?