Episode: The Old Gods and the New The people of King's Landing are an honest mob. When they do not like a ruler, they throw a cow pie at his face. There is one downside to throwing cow pies at psychopaths - he often orders swift and illogical revenge. The setup to the King's Landing Riot is as simple as that, and it escalates astonishingly quickly from there, into a mess of mob mentality, limbs, and entrails. Of all the action sequences in the series, this one is the messiest, placing a handful of royal characters in the midst of a violent (yet mostly unarmed) mob. It is a treat to see characters like Circe and Joffrey shoved into a situation where they have no control and are desperately trying to gain control, while other more confident characters (like The Hound and Tyrion) struggle to keep things from getting out of hand. There is gore galore in this sequence, and it does not feel as choreographed or planned out as the rest of the action scenes in the show - this riot, while dramatically justified, comes as suddenly and terrifyingly as riots can happen in the real world, creating a jarring contrast with the fantasy setting. And it's always a pleasure to give Tyrion more excuses to slap Joffrey.
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
