[CaptainCrunch]

Just finished season 5.


I tend to think that this season was the Empire Strikes back of the series as it was the destruction of every major character.


In other words it was far darker in tone then the other seasons, and I like the darkness


First of all


We saw the end of Stannis Baratheon and his army. The sacrifice of his daughter was actually really uncomfortable to watch, and you get the sense that either God through Melisandra wanted to remove Stannis from the game board, or that Melisandra is a sham and evil, and I'm not sure if I buy that she's completely evil yet.


The whole end of the Wildlings war, followed by Snow trying to save them and seeing the Army of the Dead swell by 10's of thousands with the raising of the hands of the Night King in a well shot and creepy scene with no music and no sound. We really know how big of a threat the White Walkers are.


The execution of Jon Snow, I think I was surprised by that a bit because so much tragedy had already punched us straight to the junk.


The Cersei story line where her actions in trying to use the religious fanatics and their leader (played by the awesome Jonathon Pryce) to her ends but found that she couldn't control that snake. The walk of atonement was hard to watch, and even though Cersei was humiliated and sobbing in the end that this is going to probably create a more manipulative and calculating Queen Mother and that she is going to go to war against the crazies.


What else.


The Dany's storyline. If there was a weak point in the season it was her storyline, compared to all of the other stuff that happened, her's just wasn't interesting. Her attempts to rule as Queen would have to be a failure as she tried to balance off being a Queen and a Savior and wasn't good at either of them and in the end she was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the Dothraki (Sp?). In the end though, you can see little things in her mind snapping as her decisions blow up in her faith. I have to wonder if she has a bit of her daddys insanity in her.



The Mountain is an undead monster now, call me intrigued by that.



I loved Tryrion's journey through this whole thing, from fleeing his family to becoming an advisor to her family's enemy he added a lot of great humorous moments to a show that sometimes can be a little dour.


Oh Jamie Lannister, you had to think that things were starting to go his way as he walks a path to redemption only to have his daughter learn about their lineage and die as she was poisoned by the Sands. Again this season was about destroying everything.


Even Sansa wasn't immune as she was married off to the psychotic Ramsey Bolton who proceeds to rape her nightly, and even though Theon has a lot to pay for it was nice to see him shake off his brain washing to try to rescue her.


Right now with the destruction of Stannis' army the Bolton's should hold a ton of power in the 7 kingdoms.


I'd have to say that the only person that won actually two people that won this year was Sam who finally popped his cherry with Gilly and managed to leave the Wall. Oh and Tormund (sp?) who managed to give the Wildlings a chance to survive the winter.


Like I said, I loved this season just because its the typical middle now everything is going to go to shyte, but just wait the worst is yet to come.


Some thoughts on random stuff.


The battle between with the Wildings when Stannis came in with his horse cavalry and ran a pincher it looked amazing.



The final battle of winterfell where Stannis had no cavalry and the Bolton's ran a very cool encirclement and destroyed the former best Military Commander in the 7 kingdoms.


Seeing Drogan return to save Dany's and seeing what a Dragon can do, and seeing her mount the Dragon, we finally got to see a Targaryen Dragon Rider


This season was really short on Brienne compared to what I was expecting.


The Arya training is kind of cool, and interesting and the use of the faces is neat. I loved her revenge killing of Meryn was brutal and I enjoyed it. But is the price that she paid her sight?


There's just so much happening, but it fight together nicely this year, even the Jorah story and his infection was kind of cool. But at the end of the year, tomorrow I can start season 6, I feel sorry for the people that watched it when it first came out and had to wait a year for the answers.


I really liked this season more then the other seasons.


So far


Season 5 - So fricken dark and gloomy, not a lot of Bran and I'm ok with it. There was a little of Littlefinger, but his presence as a complete snake looms large. The last three episodes were an awesome kick in the teeth



Season 1 - As a kick off was the height of political intrigue and a shock to the system. I miss Ned


Season 3 - Really good but stands out because of the Red Wedding.



Season 4 - Again these rankings are tight because all the seasons are good. This one featured two deaths. Tywin and Joffrey.



Season 2 - Really compared to the other seasons it was still very good, but in terms of stuff that happened it kind dragged behid.