Rhapsodies

I confess. This was the episode of Game of Thrones I was absolutely dreading.

Based on the formula of the  first two seasons, the climax of the season would be in the ninth episode and then the final episode would involve the denouement, cleaning up loose ends while putting pieces in place for the next season. So based on this the first season had the execution of Ned Stark and the beginning of the War of Five Kings and the second season involved the Battle of Blackwater Bay.

Now predicting what the climax for Season Three was a bit tricky as the third book, A Storm of Swords, is being split into two seasons and the way story elements were being shuffled around and tweaked it was a bit difficult to predict where they would make the split. But as far as a dramatic climax around the halfway point was concerned the Red Wedding was the most logical choice.

This was a fact I was not looking forward to. Of all the parts of A Song of Ice and Fire the Red Wedding is the bit I like the least. I’m not saying it’s bad. On the contrary it’s a piece of nearly operatic epic tragedy that turns everything in the book upside down and makes things much more interesting… but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. (In fact having been forewarned about it by a spoiler I glossed through it as quickly as possible when reading the book.)

Having said that it was a good episode which did a very good adaptation of that scene in the book.

In other words it was like watching a terrible tragic train wreck.

Can’t wait to see how they close the season.