Ripped bodices and slashings - must be the return of Game of Thrones
After a year of maddening anticipation, fans will be pleased to know the swords and sorcery romp, back on Sky Atlantic on April 13, has not mellowed. In the first half hour of the opening episode, bodices were ripped, throats slashes and random body parts exposed.
But all were overshadowed by a creepy flashback in which a young Cersei Lannister (played as an adult by Lena Headey) received a Macbeth-like prophecy from a fetid crone, to the effect that all her children would die young.
Back in the present, there was a starring, albeit tragic, turn from Irish actor Ciaran Hinds, as Wildling chieftain Mance Rayder. He was holed up far to the north in Castle Black, where self-declared regent Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) was looking to ‘borrow’ Rayder’s army of fur-bound savages.
Declining to bend the knee, Hinds’ character met a sticky end — for the benefit of spoiler-adverse readers we shall omit the icky details.
We also reconnected with Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), fleeing across the Narrow Sea concealed in a wine crate having killed dastardly father Twyin. Here, he is set to cross paths with Mother of Dragons Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), forced, for her part, to contend with a bloody uprising in her midst. Dublin actor Aidan Gillen aka Littlefinger, had accompanied princess-on-the-run Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) on her journey from King’s Landing.
But there were several omissions too. There was nothing of puckish Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), who last year had abandoned Westeros and will not appear until episode two.
And we’ll have to wait even longer for her supernaturally gifted brother Bran, whose arc will not feature at all this season.
Things clipped along nicely and fans will be pleased the show’s signature atmosphere of slowly-building dread and ever-present violence has been left intact.
As fans of the George RR Martin’s original books will know, the upcoming series contains lots of twists and sharp reversals. So it was probably best we got off to a gentle start.
From here on, moments of respite will be at a premium.
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