Game of Thrones Episode 3.09: “The Rains of Castamere”

[chavalah.livejournal.com]

No way you can’t call this episode a commercial success. Pretty sure social media and pop culture media has never lit up this way for fiction before (Superbowls, maybe. :P) Friends I didn’t even know watched the show posted their reactions. Book readers made a video meme of posting reactions of “Unsullied” friends and family as they watched those final scenes. It’s especially amazing, given that GRRM wrote this book over ten years before this episode aired on tv. The producers obviously wanted to make this a shocker—more than just the for the violence, Robb and Catelyn have been major players for years. I give my kudos for that achievement.

That being said, I found the episode to be a bit of a mixed bag. :P Overall, the Red Wedding, as it is canonically known, was played to huge success and frankly, I give my biggest kudos to Michelle Fairley for Catelyn’s final scenes. It could have encapsulated more of the growing sense of foreboding from the book, but it definitely aced emotional investment in the characters.

But before the big massacre, the show proverbially put the nail in the coffin in my opinion of the Robb and Cat adaptation. The two characters decided to attack Casterly Rock rather than fight for the north and Winterfell, seeking a wild revenge over rebuilding their home and family. I suppose it’s fitting, the final icing swish on the top of the cake of my disappointment in how the showrunners adapted Robb and especially Catelyn for television. Ironically, though I cried at their passing, even knowing that it was coming, I felt a feint sense of hope that maybe I’d enjoy “Game of Thrones” more without them.

As for the rest of the storylines, I was underwhelmed by Daenerys’s sack of Yunkai, overall pleased with the plot progressions in the North, and incredibly emotionally affected by Arya’s journey to the Twins. I’ll discuss in more detail under the cut.

( Episode Summary and Spoilers )