Bran and company meet Jojen and Meera Reed. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie meet the Brotherhood. Jaime travels through the wilderness with Brienne. Sansa confesses her true feelings about Joffery... Read allBran and company meet Jojen and Meera Reed. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie meet the Brotherhood. Jaime travels through the wilderness with Brienne. Sansa confesses her true feelings about Joffery to Margaery.Bran and company meet Jojen and Meera Reed. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie meet the Brotherhood. Jaime travels through the wilderness with Brienne. Sansa confesses her true feelings about Joffery to Margaery.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOn their journey north, Bran and his companions pass Hadrian's Wall, the real-life inspiration for the Wall.
- GoofsWhen Rickon runs off, Bran sends Summer to protect him. As Summer turns, you can see the collar around his neck that wasn't there before.
- Quotes
[Catelyn is making a prayer wheel. Talisa approaches her]
Talisa Maegyr: May I help you, Lady Stark?
Catelyn Stark: No.
Talisa Maegyr: I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...
Catelyn Stark: You can't help because a mother makes one for her children to protect them. Only a mother can make them.
Talisa Maegyr: You've made them before?
Catelyn Stark: Twice.
Talisa Maegyr: Did they work?
Catelyn Stark: After a fashion. I prayed for my son Bran to survive his fall. Many years before that, one of the boys came down with the pox. Maester Luwin said if he made it through the night, he'd live. But it would be a very long night. So I sat with him all through the darkness, listened to his ragged little breaths, his coughing, his whimpering.
Talisa Maegyr: Which boy?
Catelyn Stark: Jon Snow. When my husband brought that baby home from the war, I couldn't bear to look at him, didn't want to see those brown stranger's eyes staring at me. So I prayed to the gods "Take him away, make him die". He got the pox and I knew I was the worst woman who ever lived. A murderer. I'd condemned this poor, innocent child to a horrible death all because I was jealous of his mother, a woman he didn't even know! So I prayed to all Seven Gods "Let the boy live. Let him live and I'll love him. I'll be a mother to him. I'll beg my husband to give him a true name, to call him Stark and be done with it, to make him one of us".
Talisa Maegyr: And he lived?
Catelyn Stark: And he lived. And I couldn't keep my promise. And everything that's happened since then, all this horror that's come to my family... it's all because I couldn't love a motherless child.
"Valar Dohaeris" was a great Season 3 opener. The season's second episode "Dark Wings, Dark Words" is even better. Things feel more settled, more is done with the new characters and their story lines while deftly reiterating those of the older characters and advancing those. It's not the biggest, most epic or boldest of 'Game of Thrones' episodes, and more intimate and character heavy, but all the better for it due to how many characters it introduces. The start of the episode is a bit slow, but overall there is a lot going on and a lot of characters but this is not a case of being over-stuffed or over-crowded.
All the acting is fine across the board, Peter Dinklage is particularly brilliant of the non-new characters, not a surprise as he is always a high point of the show. Diana Rigg is the standout of the new additions.
Visually, "Dark Wings, Dark Words" looks amazing. The scenery is throughout spectacular, the sets are hugely atmospheric and beautiful on the eyes with a real meticulous eye for detail and the costumes suit the characters to a tee. The make-up is beautifully done. The visual effects are some of the best of any television programme and are not overused or abused, the scale, the detail and how they actually have character and soul are better than those in a lot of the big-budget blockbusters. As well the cinematography and editing, which are cinematic quality as well.
One cannot talk about "Dark Wings, Dark Words" without mentioning the thematically, orchestrally and atmospherically multi-layered music scoring and the unforgettable main theme. Again, worthy of a high-budget fantasy/action/drama film.
It is hard not to be bowled over by the quality of the writing, outstanding isn't a strong enough adjective to describe how good the writing is once again. It always has a natural flow, is layered and thought-provoking and demonstrates a wide range of emotions such as suspenseful tension, poignant pathos and witty humour. The story is paced beautifully, structured with such nuance and attention to coherence, a high emotional level and is done with intelligence, passion and sensitivity.
Direction is superb as is, even more so, the acting with not a single weak link.
Overall, great stuff. 9/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jan 7, 2018
Details
- Runtime56 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1