Game Of Thrones fans I had such a good time talking about the final ever episode of the show and so I thought that i'd talk to you again. Only this time instead of choosing an episode from the pretty bad final season I thought that i'd go all the way back to the very beginning and take a look at the episode from the very first season of the show and I have to admit I chose a very good episode but honestly I only chose this episode because of one quote which i'll get into later and so here is my review of "You Win Or You Die" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is Ned confronts Queen Cersei about some secrets , while King Robert is gravely injured and Daenerys has a brush with death. I know that that summery is very bare bones but trust me when I say that it's the best that I could do , that being said the stories that are told in this episode I found to be really engaging with all the stories presented being well told as well as being well written.
Starring in this episode is Sean Bean as Eddard Stark , Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon and Jason Momoa as Drogo. Also starring in the episode is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister , Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister , Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen , Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont , Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish , Kit Harington as Jon Snow , Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy and making his debut for the series is the legend that is Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister.
I know that this is going to sound odd but I actually can't believe how much who we think are the main cast of this don't appear in this episode there's no Maisie Williams , no Sohpie Tunrer and no awesomeness that is Peter Dinklage it's honestly weird watching an episode of the show and not seeing them in it. As for what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly really good it's up the show's high standard of acting and that's honestly the best thing that I can say about the acting in this episode.
This episode is in my opinion a good episode to show of how everyone in the red keep is lier and is willing to sell anyone out since we see Little finger lie to Ned and Cersei lie to everyone in the throne room. I honestly love the fact that the Red Keep is full of liars because it means that you have to work out who's telling the truth and how isn't and this episode is a good example of that because both of the characters that I listed are known liars in this world and soy your always wondering if there telling the truth or not.
I will full on admit that there was only one reason why I wanted to review this episode and that's the fact that what I think is the best quite in the entire show is in this episode "When You Play The Game Of Thrones You Win Or You Die There Is No Middle Ground that quote right there just sums up the entire show perfectly for me. Also given who's saying the quote and who she's saying it to it's now really ironic since both characters played the game of thrones and lost.
What also makes this quote stand out to me is the fact that it's the most accurate way to describe the show in my opinion. There's only two ways out for people who play the game of thrones either you claim the throne or you die there's no middle ground and that is true for every one who played the game and the only one who really didn't play the game Bran is the one who ended up winning the throne in the end and no Sansa doesn't count since she did technically win a throne just not the iron throne so she doesn't really count as a player in my opinion.
This is the episode that sees the death of King Robert and I have to say compared to other deaths even in this very episode his death is honestly not as over the top with gore as other deaths are. His death is honestly really well done it serves as setting up basically the rest of the show with all these families fighting for the throne as well as being a scene that is in my humble opinion really well acted as well as well written.
For those that don't know this is the episode that saw the debut of Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister and I have to say even tho he's in one scene he is so terrifying in that one scene. Even tho i've seen this episode a dozen times I was still pretty scared by him so I can only imagine how Nikolaj Coster-Waldau felt being in that scene with him for god knows how many hours and it's honestly a great introduction scene in my opinion.
There are a few issues that I personally had with the episode the first of which being that the finale with the big twist really did come out of nowhere. By that I mean there was no real build up to it happening it just came out of nowhere to me the big reveal would have worked better if there was some sort of build up in the episode but sadly we don't get any but it is still a good reveal in my own humble opinion.
Overall out of the season one episode i'd say that this is one of the best episodes simply because it does a good job of setting up the rest of the show. That being said there are some issues that I personally had with the episode with one of them being the episode felt a lot longer then it actually was which is a shame because the episode was in my opinion really enjoyable as such it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from this Game Of Thrones fan.