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" Well, another season of Game of Thrones has come and gone, and we&amp;#039;re able to examine the whole thing. HBO&amp;#039;s hype machine built season four up as the most exciting season so far. Every episode an episode nine, was the claim made in several venues. Did it match the hype? Certainly some storylines made for very exciting television, and the actual ninth episode of the season managed to pack more emotion and thrills than half the action movies produced by Hollywood these days. And yet, to examine the whole, you need to look at the various parts.  The character work that has so long been the core of the series was certainly on point. Again, &amp;quot;The Watchers on the Wall,&amp;quot; the ninth episode of the season, managed to invest us heavily in people within a few minutes after barely featuring them all season long. Grenn and Pyp, recognizable as faces only, managed to cement themselves in the hearts and minds of viewers with the poignancy of their death scenes. Rose Leslie managed to perfectly convey just how tragic the relationship between Jon Snow and Ygritte truly was. The show continued its trend of amazing partnerships by pairing up Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne, and gave us even more Arya and Sandor Clegane. Pedro Pascal&amp;#039;s turn as Oberyn Martell helped make his bloody demise even more shocking, not least because he was fighting in defense of the beloved Tyrion Lannister. Speaking of Tyrion, Peter Dinklage has been raising the bar for performances all season long. We&amp;#039;ve seen him at times joyful, furious, devastated, and murderous. The speech he gave in the sixth episode, &amp;quot;The Laws of Gods and Men,&amp;quot; played like an Emmy reel, and no one will be surprised if he picks up an award for it. But great characters (and great actors to play them) mean nothing if the storylines just aren&amp;#039;t there. And this season certainly had story. Oberyn Martell&amp;#039;s ill-fated quest for revenge, the trial and sentencing of Tyrion Lannister, and the battle for the Wall all filled the last ten weeks with surprises and big moments. They even managed to shock the book purists out there by jumping ahead a little, and showing us a scene with the White Walkers that people are still wondering about. And yet the ups came with downs. Episode three generated a ton of controversy, and the mutineers at Craster&amp;#039;s Keep felt like filler the entire time. And Daenerys Targaryen&amp;#039;s storyline is following the books exactly, which is unfortunate, since it was that storyline that helped contribute to the eleven-year wait between A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons. Now that she&amp;#039;s chained up her dragons, it seems likely that her storyline will consist of petitioners arriving to seek justice for something, and her struggling to deal with them because her only advisors at this point are a teenager and an old fighter. Yawn. So, while &amp;quot;best season yet&amp;quot; may have been pushing it a little, season four was not without its charms. The scene of Grenn and the other Night&amp;#039;s Watchmen reciting their vows as Mag the Mighty bore down on their pitiful gate was one of the most touching moments in the show&amp;#039;s history, and Arya and the Hound&amp;#039;s fatal farewell last night managed to even surpass the book version in terms of emotion produced. But after four seasons, that&amp;#039;s just par for the course. The character that we&amp;#039;ve become so close to got in over his head and died. Just like almost every other dead character on the show so far. The only reason Jojen Reed&amp;#039;s death last night was surprising is because he&amp;#039;s still alive in the books. (Possibly. He certainly wasn&amp;#039;t killed off with the finality of being exploded by a magical fireball.) That, really, is the show&amp;#039;s downfall. For its massive cast of characters, there really aren&amp;#039;t any that stand out. Without the inner monologue of, say, a Tyrion or a Jaime, you just don&amp;#039;t get the conflict and the inner turmoil that gives the book series its punch. Game of Thrones is never going to have a groundbreaking character like a Tony Soprano or a Walter White to push it into the realm of timelessness. When season seven ends, the show will be done, but will it have staying power? Will people marathon-watch it over the course of a three-day weekend? Maybe some will, but I tend to think it will fade from the spotlight once the next big spectacle show gets rolling. And that feels a little disappointing, but then, it may be for the best. And it would kind of ironic for the show that is famous for killing off characters without notice to die unmourned as well. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a29049/game-of-thrones-season-4-finale/>