That balance has never been so evenly weighted as Game Of Thrones Season 3 opens on three main plot strands, Jon Snow‘s meeting with newcomer Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds), the King Beyond The Wall, Dany’s sea journey to Slaver’s Bay and the raising of her Arabesque mercenary army, and the courtly cat fights between Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), and Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage).ĭany’s subplot wins for visuals and pace, moving briskly from her boatful of hurling Dothraki to the shore as if to apologise for three episodes standing in the desert in Season 2. Though we came for the promised spectacle – that brief glimpse of White Walkers – we stayed for the Borgian intrigue and dynastic squabbles, and it’s the human drama that’s defined the show despite the promise of the inhuman often just out of sight. Imagine getting all of that in between Bran Stark climbing a wall and Ned sharing a tender moment with his missus. Icy zombies lurch out of the snow in pursuit of Samwell Tarly (James Bradley), a giant turns to regard Jon Snow (Kit Harington) with feral disdain, and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke)’s pet dragons, now the size of foxes, their spines darker and more murderous, dive for fish and toast them in mid-air.
It feels less like an impossibly long time since Game Of Thrones first durrr-durrr-DUR-DUR-DUR-DURred onto our screens in a cloud of Yorkshire and incest, but not so much that we perhaps realise just how far we’ve all come, both audience and show.