Game of Thrones Season 3…………. A lot happened in this season so this will most likely be the longest breakdown of the 3 thus far. You may find the fact that my opinions on a few characters has changed amusing…

but first the elevator review.

Elevator Review

Season 3 was action packed. Important characters die, new alliances are formed, there are… weddings. The show has gotten better with each season and according to the IMDB reviews Season 4 may be the best season of them all. I’m looking forward to the next chapter.

*Disclaimer* Most of the following was written stream of consciousness with minimal editing so please excuse (or make me aware of) any typos, inconsistencies, or other mistakes. 

Characters

The Lannister Family

In this season the relationship between Tywin and Tyrion gets a deep dive. In episode 1 Tywin basically disowns Tyrion saying that he didn’t want to accept him as his son. In episode 10 Tyrion snaps at him saying that Tywin has never done anything for the family that didn’t benefit him personally. Tywin then pops back telling Tyrion that after he was born (killing his mother in the birthing process) he wanted to walk out into the sea with him and drown him but he didn’t. “Because you’re a Lannister!” Devastating the imp…

Tyrion also is forced to marry the young Sansa Stark by Tywin. This creates further complications between Tyrion and Shae since Shae has been assigned as Sansa’s handmaiden.

Tywin plans to force Cersei to marry Iron Fi… Loras Tyrell as well which she is equally unhappy about and says won’t happen.

Joffrey has become more and more unhinged and in a scene that upset me since I was a Ros fan… We see that he tied her up and killed her with his crossbow.

Tywin challenges Joffrey a few times this season and it has become more and more clear that Tywin will be getting his eventually if he’s not careful. He is however flexing on his family and making himself look like the most powerful Lannister of them all currently… we’ll see if this lasts.

Bran(don) Stark

First off… they just randomly started calling him Brandon this season. I thought this man’s name was Bran and I had no reason to question it previously. Anyway, his character finally becomes interesting this season. Jojen Reed (who I recognized immediately from Maze Runner) shows up to teach him how to use his gift… his ability to posses the body of animals and control them/see through their eyes. This makes him a “Warg” and Bran, in episode 9 uses this ability to control Hodor… this amazes even Jojen who says no one can do that… thus making Bran somehow more special. After this Sam runs into Bran, realizes he’s Jon’s brother and gives him “Dragon glass” which can be used to kill the White Walkers (zombies) that we were introduced to at the end of season 2 (in Sam’s act of bravery we see the white walker shatter his sword but shatter himself when Sam stabs him with the dragon glass). Bran, Hodor, Jojen and his sister are going North of the wall while Osha and the youngest Stark boy stay South.

Jaime Lannister and Lady Brienne

I left Jaime separate from his family since he doesn’t come back into the fold until the very end of the season.

Jaime was one of my least favorite characters early on but getting to see him interact with Brienne has actually made him grow on me a bit. He seems to respect her and goes out of his way to protect her several times during this season. I realized he’s not really a bad guy… He was just positioned to be one by being a Lannister. Losing his hand also affects him dramatically. He was an incredibly proud swordsman and has his sword hand cut off. Initially it looks like he doesn’t care to live anymore but between the maester who treats his hand and Brienne there to also help boost him up he regains his will to live. He’s sloppy with his sword and struggling to manage to do anything really but I have a feeling he’ll find his way at some point.

Daenerys Targaryen

Alright….. so I FINALLY am on board with Daenerys and her 20 titles. The way she played ol boy at Astapor(?) was epic. I had a feeling she knew what he was saying when he kept referring to her as a whore and making references to her body while speaking in what he expected to be a foreign language for her… so when she agreed to give up a dragon I was like yeaaah I doubt that’s how this is going down. She frees the Unsullied, tells them to kill all of the slave masters, and orders the dragon to kill the leader. She now has a huge, loyal army (led by Greyworm) and the people love her because she freed them.

She goes on to free more slaves in the neighboring city and they refer to her as mother. She also picks up Ed Skrein’s Daario Naharis and the two appear to have a mutual attraction… Wide shots showing how large her “Kingdom” is growing paint a clear picture of what’s to come. She is the last of her name and she has sht to do. By the end of the season her dragons are getting quite large so I’m ready for her to cross paths with the people in Westeros…

Jon Snow

I’m still not 100% on board with Jon Snow but he is the only adult child of Ned Stark left so I guess I do have to rock with him to a degree… Early on in the season he is accepted into the wildling army. During this time he breaks his oath by sleeping with Ygritte (cmon son…) and falling in love with her. Initially I was like “meh” but as I started to see more of their interactions I started to like them together. Eventually the time comes where the wildlings decide to test him by making him kill an old man and he can’t do it… He ends up killing 3 of the wildlings (including their Warg) with the help of Bran (possessing his Direwolf) and rides away… leaving Ygritte behind. She tracks him down and has a chance to kill him but she really does love him… so she puts 3 arrows in him in non-lethal spots.

Jon makes his way back to his buddies at the wall and he and Sam are reunited. I need to see what happens next but right now I’m only slightly liking him because of his importance as a descendant of Ned.

Beric

My man Beric went toe to toe with the Hound in a battle to test his guilt for killing the butcher’s boy in season 1. He lit his sword on fire so I said… Oh snap, he might have a shot since The Hound is afraid of fire. This was not the case. The Hound still slang’s that sword like nobody’s business and damn near chopped Beric in half to win the battle…. then Beric’s mans knelt down to pray over him and the next thing I know Beric is sitting up chilling like he didn’t just get carved up like a cheap Thanksgiving turkey.

The mysticism is incredibly strong in the show now and the Gods appear to be very powerful. This show of power will likely come up again as Beric tells us he’s been brought back 6 times now, showing Arya the scars he has to prove it.

Gendry

Gendry, the last of Robert’s bastards, chooses to stay with Beric and his men so that he can be free for the first time.. but that is short-lived as the red woman shows up and takes him away. She takes him to Stannis and tells him who his father is as he’s been clueless this entire time… Stannis confirms that he is his Robert’s son and it is made known that she wants to use his blood for a ritual… since he has the blood of a King.

She seduces him then covers him with leaches before throwing said leaches into a fire and calling 3 names. Robb Stark, King Joffrey… and I forget the third (looks it up hoping not to catch a spoiler) ok, yes, Balon Greyjoy. Theon’s dad. When the unthinkable happens later she says “see, told you his blood was powerful” and plots to kill Gendry for the rest.

This kid has been strung along for a while now and it’ll be sad if he ends up killed for a ritual… unless the ritual ends the lives of people I hate. I might allow that.

Theon Greyjoy

Poor Theon…. he is tortured, then rescued by a weird guy who we later learn is Ramsay Snow (Lord Bolton’s bastard.) During this trip he is conflicted about the decisions he made to betray Robb and go back to his father just to be disowned and disrespected. Ramsay makes him think that he is free but lures him right back to a dungeon and continues to torture him.

In the final episode it is revealed that Ramsay did remove Theon’s… man piece and Theon begs him to kill him… but he won’t. And I can’t decide if I even care.

Arya Stark and The Hound

My boo Arya spends the bulk of the season with The Hound and they make a fun little tandem. The red woman tells Arya she will kill someone with brown eyes, someone with green eyes, and someone with blue eyes when she takes Gendry and I wish I had paid attention to people’s eyes as Arya did start to get busy already. Arya does tell The Hound that she is going to stab him through his eye one day but he appears to be unfazed by the threat. Sadly, poor Arya gets very close to rejoining her mother and eldest brother before the elephant of all shits hits the fan…

After the… event (covered thoroughly below) Arya sees her brother’s mutilated body with his wolf’s head sewn to it sitting on a horse… The next day she sees a man claiming to have done the sewing bragging to a few other men and stabs him prison kill fashion. The Hound mops up the rest of the guys he’s with and tells her the next time she goes to do something like that to tell him first. They so cute.

Robb and Catelyn Stark

The Red got damn wedding… no, let’s do this chronologically. About halfway through the season it is clear that things are not going great for Robb with his war. Rickard Karstark kills the young Lannister kids to avenge the death of his two sons during the war (one at the hands of Jaime) and Robb decides to kill him because of it despite being told not to. He loses a large portion of his army after carrying out this move.

Later his wife reveals that she is pregnant… The Stark name shall live on! Ayeeeee!

Robb and his family show up to The Twins for the wedding of his uncle(?) to one of Walder Frey’s daughters (Robb was supposed to marry one of Frey’s daughters but fell in love with another, breaking the promise his mother had made.) In an early scene when they first arrive to the Twins, Walder asks Robb’s wife to step forward where he makes several comments about her body and the fact that she couldn’t hide it under that gown and I made a joke in my notes about him being a freak but later realized that he was basically saying he knew she was pregnant which only added to what he was planning to do to her.

Soooo after the wedding ceremony, the Rains of Castamere begins to play and Catelyn knows something is wrong…… but she says nothing at first. Before you know it, Robb’s wife is being stabbed in the stomach, Robb catches a couple of arrows to the body and then Catelyn catches an arrow. It was all a setup. Robb’s men and his wolf are slaughtered, he watches his wife die before Lord Bolton stabs him in the heart… Catelyn slits Walder Frey’s wife’s throat but he doesn’t care and then Catelyn has her own throat slit…. and that was the end of the King of the North.

Now I wasn’t really a fan of Robb… I only liked him because he was Nedd’s oldest son and I appreciated his cause and his bravery but damn. An entire story-line chopped down in a matter of moments. I watched this episode and then had to go to bed which was not a smart idea. Good lord.

Olenna Tyrell

To end this on a high note. I really messes with Olenna Tyrell. The grandmother of Loras and the queen-to-be, she tells it like it is (no Trump) and is clearly trying to play the Lannisters. She falls short on her plot to have Sansa marry Loras but I have a good feeling about her in the coming season.

Overall

It was rough to see the Stark name take such a huge hit. All of the kids are still scattered everywhere and it’s not looking good for any of them right now. Arya is likely in the strongest position and she’s technically in the possession of The Hound as he’s planning to sell her to a family member if he can get to one before they die. I really need the Lannisters to be the next family to go down but I have a feeling that won’t be the case. Daenerys… please come end this craziness. Please. Or wait until Arya handles her business. On to season 4!

Quick s/o to @FrankMicko1 for hooking me up with most of the pictures from this article. I was seeing too many spoilers on my picture searches previously and this saved me from doing it again.

As always thanks for the read!

-Bibs.