Game of Thrones – Top 12 Kills (Season 3)

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Another season of Game of Thrones behind us and a whole plethora of kills for us to make a top 12 list of. Like last season, we couldn’t narrow things down to 10, but this season was by far the bloodiest. Like the Blackwater episode before it, the Red Wedding episode; The Rains of Castamere will definitely being filling multiple spots below. Enough chit chat!

Start the list!

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The Arrowhead…to the head

Before we knew the sick bastard was Ramsay Snow, he played a little game with Theon. He assisted him in escape after being tortured at the Dreadfort, seemingly saving him by killing his pursuers and then returning him to be tortured some more. As he finishes off the last of his men who chased Theon, Ramsay firmly plants a bow shot into the unfortunate man’s head at point blank range. Brutal.

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Karstark’s Treason

Rickard Karstark, or Rickard I’m-Such-a-Negative-Nancy, did some crazy stuff. He began doubting his king as he traveled to his grandfather’s funeral and let his lust for vengeance get the better of him by killing Lannister hostages. He was in direct defiance of his king, Robb Stark, not to mention the Lannister hostages were boys who had even reached their teens. Lord Karstark paid the ultimate price for that one by getting a good old fashioned beheading by his boss, spewing insults until the very end. Good riddance. Although that move didn’t help Robb in the long run.

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Joffrey’s Plaything…

Ros was a character who only showed up in the Game of Thrones TV series, but she was a mainstay throughout the three seasons, having minor interactions with a number of characters. I was just as dismayed as the next person when Littlefinger informed Varys that he found out she was spying on him. Then to add insult to injury we get to see that Ros was used as a plaything for Joffrey and his crossbow.

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Craster’s Comeuppance

Here’s a kill we can all get behind. Sure it wasn’t inventive, but it was surely deserved. For some reason, Craster decided it would be a great idea to invite a large group of seasoned warriors who are half starved and frozen into his home. Then get this, he lords his food and women over them without expecting some sort of backlash.

Unfortunately he doesn’t take kindly to being called a bastard by the more mutinous members of the Night’s Watchmen, and takes a dagger to the throat. I would say I was sorry but this is a guy who had sex with numerous daughters and probably granddaughters and then sacrificed his sons to the White Walkers. Real class act there.

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The Old Bear

Jeor Mormont, or the Old Bear as he’s known in the Night’s Watch, was a casualty immediately following the death of the old bastard Craster. Mormont was a great character who I was sad to see killed off by Rast who I’ve hated since season one. At least Mormont was almost able to choke Rast to death before he finally succumbed to more knife wounds.

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Sam the Slayer

It’s hard to believe that Samwell Tarly had one of the coolest kills in the season. After being chucked a good 25 feet by a White Walker, Sam rebounds to use a dragonglass spearhead on the icy jerk resulting in him shattering into tiny little pieces. Sam the Slayer in the house!

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The Resurrection

When Beric Dondarrion fights the Hound in trial by combat everything seems to be going his way. How can he lose? The Hound hates fire and Beric has a flaming freakin’ sword! But lose he does as the Hound cuts not only through his flaming sword but half of his upper torso resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths of the season. Then Dondarrion is almost immediately resurrected by Thoros of Myr, but he was killed nonetheless. Well done on both accounts.

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Little Ned Stark

Talisa Stark wasn’t queen for very long, and was not able to be a mother at all after the Freys savagely murdered every Northman in attendance at Edmure Tully’s wedding to Roslyn Frey, which would later become known as the Red Wedding. It was truly brutal that they murdered an expectant mother, but what were they expecting naming him after a character played by Sean Bean.

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Long Live the King

Robb Stark was the second major casualty of the Red Wedding, being filled with crossbow bolts before he watched his wife and unborn son die in his arms. You would think it would be enough that his bannerman Roose Bolton killed him with a knife to the heart in front of his mother but even after the events of the wedding the Freys parade his decapitated corpse outside on horseback… with his direwolf’s head sewn onto his body.

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Mother of the North

Catelyn Stark’s death was quite haunting as her eyes went vacant after a scream that could only be that of a mother watching her son die right in front of her. The cutting of her throat seemed miniscule in comparison.

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Valar Morghulis

Arya’s first intentional kill was quite a sight as her and the Hound rode by a small encampment of Frey men bragging about killing her mother and brother at the Red Wedding. In a “your shoe’s untied” moment with a fatal endgame, Arya shows the Hound that she has what it takes to pull the trigger… err swing the sword.

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Dracarys

Master Kraznys of Astapor by far made up my favorite death this season. After a couple episodes of insulting Daenerys in High Valyrian, Kraznys has an “oh shit” moment realizing that it’s actually her native tongue. He frantically orders her killed but only succeeds in getting extra crispy in quite possibly the most bad ass moment in the series.

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Grey Wind

The Direwolf would have seriously owned some Freys had he not been locked away in the stables and riddled with arrows by them. It was truly heartbreaking watching his last moments as he made eye contact with Arya before closing them forever.

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Review: HBO’s Game of Thrones, Episode 4 – ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’

Our episode this week opens up at Winterfell, with Bran having what some readers of the books call a ‘Raven Dream’. There’ll be more on those later in the series. Bran awakens to be brought before his brother Robb, who is now acting Lord of Winterfell while Ned is in King’s Landing. Robb is in fact speaking with Tyrion Lannister, recently returned from the Wall. He notices how cold Robb is acting towards Lannister, but is still very kind to Bran, giving him schematics on how to construct a proper saddle for someone without the use of their legs. The scene at Winterfell was very well done as the actors are now very comfortable in their roles. Peter Dinklage in particular is Tyrion personified for me. It’s like the character jumped off the pages of the book into an HBO show and I’m sure many book fans will agree.

Review: HBO’s Game of Thrones, Episode 3 – ‘Lord Snow’

Another week of waiting paid off once again with another great episode of Game of Thrones. The episode itself wasn’t as exciting as the past two, though there are plenty of interesting characters introduced that new fans and book fans alike will enjoy. Even if there wasn’t much action, many things were set up in this episode that will make future ones some of your favorites.

Thankfully much of the episode focused on Jon Snow (Hence the episode name) and the Night’s Watch. I find Jon to be one of the more interesting characters of the series. He’s a Stark, just not by blood, and he is far separated from all of the politics and backstabbing that the other characters are exposed to whether it be Lannister or Stark. Tyrion is nearly the same as John, he is a Lannister, but being a dwarf sets him apart from the family in many people’s eyes. The two of them are a prime example that a Stark and a Lannister can get along when they aren’t in the middle of the game of thrones that is going on.

“I’m no rapist!”

John had the misconception that he would be serving in a knighthood when he joined the Night’s Watch, not a mixture of honorable men and criminals as Tyrion pointed out to him last episode. When John begins training he is far superior to any of the other recruits because he has already had training and this earns him plenty of animosity from them until Tyrion intervenes. After understanding a little more about the other recruits, it is not long before John is on their good side, helping them improve to be better fighters.

Also on the Wall portions of the episode we get introduced to Lord Jeor Mormont (His son is Jorah Mormont, traveling with the Targaryens.) a Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and Yoren who is definitely portrayed perfectly. Yoren is a recruiter for the Night’s Watch, going to King’s Landing and taking prisoners he sees as fit for the Wall and taking volunteers too. There’s a great scene in the episode with Yoren and Tyrion drinking that reminds you again of why you like Tyrion so much. He’s the noble who would have an ale with anyone, regardless of status.

Tyrion takes his leave of the Wall in this episode, bidding farewell to Jon after fulfilling his promise to “piss” from the highest point in the realm. Benjen Stark also leaves the Wall to patrol beyond it, hearing more and more stories about the white walkers. It would appear that they might be a little more than stories.

Yup. Tyrion is pissing off the Wall

On the more political side of things, the plot indeed thickens. The King and the Starks arrive at King’s Landing, with Ned immediately called to meet with the small council. Here we are introduced to Lord Petyr Baelish (Aka Littlefinger) who is a childhood friend of Catelyn Stark and the master of coin. As master of coin he informs Ned that Robert has the crown in debt pretty badly with the Lannisters. Good thing he married one. Littlefinger is played brilliantly by Aidan Gillen and makes the viewers who’ve never read the books whether or not he is friend or foe. He seems eager enough help in solving the mystery of Bran’s twice attempted murder and helps hide Catelyn as she arrives to tell Ned of everything that has happened since he left Winterfell.

Arya played a nice little part in the episode and Maisie Williams couldn’t play her any better than I could have imagined her from the novels. The scene between her and Ned Stark were incredibly genuine making you believe that they are a true father and daughter. It wasn’t said directly in the episode as it was explained in the book, but Ned arranges for Arya to be trained with the sword by a famous Bravossi swordsman named Syrio Forel. That scene was another favorite of mine as Syrio sparred with Arya as Ned watched on as the sounds of swords clashing grew in his mind. Perfect ending to the episode.

Daenerys was once again not given a whole lot to do in this episode, but don’t worry her time is coming. She is starting to grow into her role of Khaleesee, finding out she is pregnant and being happy about it and even being genuinely loving with Drogo. Probably the best scene with her is the one where Viserys has an outburst and threatens Daenerys with a sword. That doesn’t go over too well as the little punk is forced to walk after being strangled by a whip. Daenerys is starting to overshadow her brother and he is truly frightened by it, hence his hostility.

I give this episode a 4.5 out of 5 grizzlies, not because there wasn’t a whole lot of action. I actually liked all of the character development and expanding plotlines, it made the episode seem like it lasted longer than the hour unlike the last one which was great but flew by. The only reason it lost a half point was because of the scenes that were not in the book. The first being Ned and Jaime’s exchange in the throne room and next Robert’s exchange of war stories with Jaime and Barristan Selmy. I enjoyed the scenes and I understand the purpose they serve: A lot of things are explained in the books through a character’s point of view as they think to themselves. So some things have to be fit in through character interactions or people won’t know the backstory, such as what happened the Aerys Targaryen and Ned’s father. The scenes themselves seemed a little bit stale when they happened, not because of any fault of the actors but because it didn’t flow with the story that has already been laid out. But overall it is better that they added the scenes to get a better feel for certain characters instead of drawing our own conclusions.

Next week’s episode looks to be another great one, with the jousting tourney to honor Ned’s appointment to Hand of the King occurring. Looks like we’ll be getting a glimpse at a couple more fan favorite characters including Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers and Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides. It shall be awesome.

Check out my other Game of Thrones articles below:

Review of Winter is Coming

Review of The Kingsroad

Most Anticipated Scenes of Game of Thrones

Most Anticipated Scenes From A Game Of Thrones – HBO

By A Game of Thrones, I mean the show in its entirety, assuming after the already renewed second season they finish the rest. There are some scenes in the books by Martin that are just downright shocking and made me want to cry, laugh and punch a wall. Sometimes all at once. Most but not all include deaths and events that I just did not see coming. I IMPLORE those of you who haven’t read the books, to go no further in reading this article, unless MAJOR spoilers don’t bother you at all. I really wish I hadn’t read the books because the series would be shocking me left and right. And now for all you faithful readers who can’t wait to see most of these scenes on-screen, let’s take a look at my picks. I didn’t put them in order because I can’t decide which ones are better than the other because they are all soooo good.

*Once again… SPOILERS*