Game of Thrones: The Bear Necessities

Game of Thrones is still the best show on tv. Just bear with it. 

If there's anything 'Game of Thrones' has taught us this season, it's the art of being patient. 

Just like when Varys explained it to Tyrion earlier in the season, we too should practice the art of patience because it makes the end result much more gratifying.  

Of course, Varys was describing the sorcerer whom he's keeping in box to torture the rest of his life, but nevertheless a good metaphor. 

This season has also infected many of the characters with the love bug; Jaime and Brienne, Joffrey and his crossbow, Arya and Gendry,  Sansa and every boy she meets,  Dany and her dragons, Rob and his smoking hot wife, Hotpie and food, and The Wall's Sweethearts...Jon Snow and Ygritte.  

One thing's for sure, Jon Snow loves eating some ginger bread.

In addition to Jon Snow's gifted tongue,  the love stories have been rather satisfying to follow all season and last night's episode was a testament to that. These characters, for better or worse, are with the ones they want to be with. Though we didn't see Joffrey hump his crossbow, just about every love story was touched on. 

The real all-star was Jaime, who despite having one hand, saved his captor from a gigantic bear. Maybe he has one of the worst cases of Stockholm syndrome ever, but this moment cemented Jaime as a likeable character. Maybe it's the beard that's softened him up. 

My one complaint about the show's pace, especially in the last episode, is with Bran's story. I can't blame Osha for bitching. I would be bitching too if I was stuck with Bran trying to play prophet, a mentally challenged human wheelchair, the 'other' Stark kid, and two creepy teenagers who are way into magic and dreams. Get this poor woman laid. 

Jon Snow may have also signed his death wish this week. He knows and explains to Ygritte that the wildlings have failed every time they've tried to take Winterfell and will likely fail again. But this doesn't phase Ygritte. Because for her, the greatest things are honor and love. She tells Jon Snow that "I am yours and you are mine" and that they'll die together defending their people. Yeesh. It was nice knowing you, Jon. 

Across the Narrow Sea, Dany, like always, was a complete badass in this episode. What makes her so cool in addition to having dragons and taking over a bunch of cities, is that she uses her inner Abraham Lincoln and makes it one of her priorities is to free all slaves. She walks into Yunkai and demans they free their 200,000 slaves. She is met with a counter offer of a vast sum of gold in return that she leaves peacefully. She denies the offer, keeps the gold, and orders for the slaves to be freed all while her dragons hover around her. Boss. 

Like the rest of the episode, this scene was a big tease for the coming weeks. But damn, if it's anything like her takeover at Astapor earlier in the season it will be well worth the wait. 

To go along with the cheesy and punny title of this article, perhaps one of the bare necessities of the show is to fall in love with the characters and actually care what happens to them. If said character dies, the producers want us to fucking weep. They want us to care. Their greatest strength lies in character development and they know it. 

With that in mind, there's no doubt we are going to have an epic final episodes, and they will feel all the more epic because of these 'slower' episodes. Why? Because now we have more emotionally invested in these characters. 

Just as my friend Adam Zimmerman said to Andy Greenwald, "just because they aren't doing anything, doesn't mean that nothing is going on" 

Bottom line. Deal with it. Dracarys.