I don’t know how they do it, but Game of Thrones keeps getting better as the seasons move forward.  Even though it wasn’t quite as exciting as last week’s emotion wrenching episode, the finale was a fitting end to what was undeniably the best season yet!

Last week ended with violence and this week began with violence.  The same violence to be exact.  Hearing the Frey’s chant “Here comes the King in the North!” while Robb’s headless body rode out of the castle complete with Grey Wind’s severed head attached to his shoulders was terrifying in a grotesque kind of way.  The moment I saw that my stomach dropped.  I almost wished that I hadn’t witnessed the moment until Arya came across some of Walder Frey’s men as her and the hound made their way through the woods.  It made her revenge that much sweeter and her interaction’s with the hound that immediately proceeded her attack were hilarious.  The idea of the two of them traveling together just makes me that much more excited for next season.  I can’t believe we had to wait an entire season just to hear her say those special words that Jaqen H’ghar taught her.  The same words spoken by Daario Naharis before he took the heads of his fellow commanders of the Second Sons.  I’m hoping that next season we will get to see the connection between those two.  I find both of them very interesting to say the least, but at the same time I am worried that Arya will end up using Jaqen to kill the hound.  She might even have Jaqen teach her to kill the hound herself.  Either way, I definitely do not want to see the hound killed and preferably he and Arya will work together but I just don’t see Arya going along with that.

Watching Bradon and Samwell Tarly meet for the first time was so much more interesting than I ever thought it would be.  I definitely feel a lot better about Brandon, Jojen, his sister, Hodor, and Summer going beyond the wall now that they have the dragon glass weapons but they don’t have that many.  I absolutely loved the cinematography as they walked through the tunnel.  Summer standing in front of all of them with the full moon providing the perfect backdrop, gorgeous. Bran’s warg power certainly seems to have potential for greatness, and I hope he discovers it next season and we don’t just end up watching an entire season of him wondering around north of the wall.  Also watching Jon Snow ride away as Ygritte stuck him with arrows was down right heartbreaking.  I wish Jon could’ve just taken her with him but I guess in a way it’s good that he’s taking his oath’s seriously.  I hope there’s a way Jon and Ygritte will be together again but it seems highly unlikely now.

That brings me to Theon.  I can’t believe we spent an entire season watching Theon Greyjoy get tortured.  I’m far from surprised that Balon had no interest in rescuing his son but at least Yara wants to rescue her brother. The way the camera stayed on that bearded guy as she said “I’m taking my 5o best killers” means we are definitely going to see more of him next season, and I would imagine that Theon’s rescue is going to end up being pretty spectacular.  I still can’t get over the fact that he’s a eunuch now.  I can only imagine how awful that must be for him, and it seems like something that would only be worse once he gets his freedom back.

I’m extremely happy that not only did Gendry escape thanks to Ser Davos, but it appears Ser Davos will face zero consequences for this as well.  I have no idea what will happen with Gendry.  Returning to King’s Landing seems pointless and dangerous for him but that’s where Ser Davos told him to go and he seems to know what he’s doing.  Despite how evil Melisandre is, her power is awfully impressive. It seems as though she was able to see the army of the White Walkers just by burning the scroll Maester Aemon had Samwell send out.  Melisandre also knew right away that the war between kingdoms is pointless compared to this war to save mankind, and it actually appears that Stannis is going to make his move against the undead army.  I can’t believe he would just give up his pursuit of the Iron Throne so quickly but he follows Melisandre without question so I guess we shall see.

I have to say that my favorite moment of this entire episode was when Brandon told the story of the cook who the gods turned into a white rat who could only eat his own children and as soon as the story was through we were shown Walder Frey eating.  Not only was he eating, but doing so in the very room where Robb and Catelyn were murdered.  I can’t help but feel that Brandon’s story was a bit of foreshadowing for Walder Frey’s inevitable fate.  I hope we see Lord Frey and all of his children and grandchildren get what’s coming to them before the fourth season is over, and certainly before Lord Walder dies of old age.  I could be wrong on all of that but I can only hope that I am not.

The Lannisters seem to be back on top, but the relationships within the family appear to bet getting worse.  Tywinn is still in charge, but it would appear that Joffrey is beginning to become fed up with that arrangement, and I would imagine Tywinn is close to his breaking point as well.  The two lions are beginning to clash with one another and at this point in time it is hard to see either one of them giving up their ground.  I wonder if Jaime’s return will have an affect on Joffrey.  Will Jaime stop pretending to be the boy’s uncle, and I really want to see exactly how Cersei plans to get herself out of her arranged marriage to Loras Tyrell.  I’m kind of disappointed that we never got to see how the rest of Jaime and Cersei’s conversation went.  I could see Cersei being very shallow regarding Jaime’s disfiguration, and what will anyone have to say about Brienne?  Finally there is the tragic love triangle that has been created between Tyrion, Sansa and Shea.  Actually, love triangle is pretty awful way to describe it, but the three of them appear to be in a similarly awkward position nonetheless.  I really want to know if Tyrion actually was the one who had Varys attempt to hand Shea all of those diamonds because to me that seemed like something Varys would attempt on his own.  He is always claiming that everything he does is for the good of the realm, and that interaction seemed to fit that description pretty well.  Whether it was Tyrion or not I would think that his relationship with Shea is ruined and his relationship with Sansa is bleak at best.

As I mentioned before, the season three finale did not have anything close to the dramatic impact of last week but that does not mean that it was not a great episode.  The finale did an excellent job letting us know where every important character was at in their own respective story and now the table is set perfectly for season four.  Unlike the previous two seasons, season three is not the complete respective book in the series.  Instead it is only about half of book three, and for the conclusion of book three we will have to wait for season four.  The reason I’m bringing that up is because that fact alone could have been disastrous for this season.  We could have been left waiting to see some kind of conclusion to everything we just watched for almost a year, and that would have been awful.  I know that personally I would have felt cheated, but the bottom line is it simply wasn’t like that.  This season was excellent, and I can easily say that I enjoyed watching it far more than I enjoyed season one or two and that is something I did not think was possible.  This show has consistently set a very high bar for itself  and somehow it manages to never disappoint.  I don’t know how I will manage to wait until next spring to watch season four, but somehow I did it last year, and I know now that it will certainly be worth the wait.