Game Of Thrones: 7 Things That "The Wars To Come" Did Right (And 3 It Didn't)
Winter is still coming.
Game of Thrones is a phenomenally popular show. Bringing together the unlikely genres of fantasy and historical fiction, the HBO series has managed to create a universe so bizarrely realistic that waits between episodes can be downright painful. Sadly, with only ten episodes per season, rabid fans must sit through interminable hiatuses with nothing more than spoilers and speculation to sustain them.
Fortunately for viewers frothing at the mouth for new material, Game of Thrones returned to the airwaves on Sunday night with its Season 5 premiere, forebodingly entitled “The Wars To Come.”
“The Wars To Come” saw characters scrambling to deal with their individual cliffhangers after Season 4. With King’s Landing reeling after the assassination of Tywin and the escape of Tyrion, Varys fleeing the capital, Dany struggling to keep control in Meereen, Stannis Baratheon joining Jon Snow at the Wall, Arya heading to Braavos, Theon finding new depths to his own rock bottom, and Sansa taking an active role in the game of thrones at Littlefinger’s side, there was a lot of plot for the premiere to handle.
Arya and Theon may not have made appearances, but the episode was pretty great overall in its treatment of the ensemble. Still, there were some aspects of the hour that could have been handled better. So, here is a look at 7 things that “The Wars To Come” did right…and 3 that it didn’t.
Let’s start with the good...
10. Maggy The Frog
Despite a plethora of meaty backstory available for just about every character in the saga, Game of Thrones has never fallen back onto the device of flashbacks. It’s almost a shame in certain cases, but that the narrative had never been bogged down by jaunts to ages past has helped keep a sense of organization to the increasingly complicated story.
The flashbacks in “The Wars To Come,” however, were fantastic. Along with a friend, young Cersei – played by Nell Williams in an uncanny emulation of Lena Headey – sneaks away to visit a fortuneteller and query about her marriage prospects. Maggy herself was suitably terrifying, so much so that even the arrogant Cersei was undoubtedly regretting the trip by the end.
The clearly imbalanced Maggy delivering her dark prophecy to the frightened girls is given troubling weight by the fact that certain aspects of the prediction have already come to pass. With Cersei marrying not Prince Rhaegar but King Robert, none of their children happening to be mutual, and Joffrey already dead, there can be little doubt that Maggy's prophecy that golden shrouds will shortly follow crowns for each of her kids will have Cersei in something of a tizzy in Season 5.