Category: Game of Thrones
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House of the Dragon Returns to Form
With a virtually unaltered Game of Thrones opening theme and a lackluster first few episodes, I withheld expectations from House of the Dragon. Ramin Djawadi’s theme for the original series is likely the most recognizable new origins score in the television landscape in at least a decade—and the poor decision to recycle it screams for unearned nostalgia. I…
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Glue that Holds ‘Game of Thrones’ Together: Masculinity and Eddard Stark
Typically, those who least resemble classical patriarchal manhood (however it’s defined) tend to fare better than the more typically patriarchal men.
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“Game of Thrones” Season Seven Might be its Best
“But after we’ve won and there’s no one left to oppose us, when people are living peacefully in the world she built, do you really think they’ll wring their hands over the way she built it?” Yes, responds Game of Thrones.
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The Tonal Change-up of “Game of Thrones” Season Six
Game of Thrones’s sixth season is the show’s bravest tonal departure since director Alan Taylor’s episodes in season two. As NPR’s critic Eric Deggans points out, “satisfaction” could very well be the season’s most coherent theme. Pod’s admirable belief in Brienne summarizes the tonal change-up this season offers: hope, not hopelessness.
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An Eco-critical Approach to “Game of Thrones”
The very opening scene of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” based on the fantasy series by George R.R. Martin, sets the stage for an ecocritical reading. Nameless characters, who appear to be in the North, scurry in fear to no avail. Quickly and brutally they are slain, or consumed, by creatures captured with animalistic camera movement…
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Religion, Catholicism, and More in the Fifth Season of “Game of Thrones”
Religion has played an increasingly important role in each consecutive season of Game of Thrones—and in the show’s fifth season, it’s the glue that holds it all together.
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What makes “Game of Thrones” Work Best: Season 4
“The Lion and the Rose,” the episode where Joffrey dies, was already cracking a spot onto my list for best GOT episodes before the Draco Malfoy-esque teenage king finally joined Ned and Rob Stark in death. His death almost forces self-reflection because of how satisfying it is watching arguably the most maligned and aberrant character,…
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The Cinematic Appeal of “GOT” S3
At the end of episode six of the third season of “Game of Thrones,” an episode titled “The Climb,” Jon Stark (Kit Harrington) and Ygritte (Rose Leslie) kiss from the top of the wall, the Seven Kingdoms’ first and the last defense. The camera floats, like in a Spike Lee film, and breaks the 180°…
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The Consistency of “GOT” S2
In the penultimate episode of Season 1, showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, following their source material, killed off their main character, Ned Stark. The final episode was able to sustain itself without a main character because the drama still revolved around said main character. Robb Stark’s (Richard Madden ) army was on its…
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The Best and Worst of “Game of Thrones” S1
(Nine years late, I finally convinced myself to watch HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” It’s only to my own chagrin that I waited this long; people told me I had to, but I didn’t listen. As I make my way through the series, I’ll briefly (at least, I’ll try to keep them so) blog about the…
The Transcendent Cinema 