If you put dragon eggs on stage in the first act...

...they better hatch by the third.

And so they, rather awesomely, did. The moment we've all been waiting for (Chekhov included) finally came in the very last moments of the season. Sure, there was a whole hell of a lot of other stuff going on, but at the end of the day, er... episode, I think we all said goodbye to the first season of Game of Thrones with a resounding, "BABY DRAGONS!"

Daenerys has pretty much been removed from the action of the rest of the realm all season, but with the reveal as the true daughter of dragons, one who cannot be burned and was born to rule, that's definitely going to change in season 2. It's depressingly premature to talk of season 2 at this point (what with a new season being nearly a year away), but much of the finale was set-up for the horrors to come. In looking at where the season started and where it ended, it's not only the cast that's looking different, but the entire trajectory of the show.

I have to admit, it took several episodes for this show to really grab me. Having not read the books, the first few episodes felt like a whirlwind of disparate characters that I was supposed to care about, but didn't, and who seemed wholly removed from one another. At about the halfway point, the transitions between the different lands became smoother and the interconnections between characters began to solidify. Early on, cuts to Daenerys or the wall seemed like annoying distractions that took me away from what was going on in other places. I could appreciate that they were necessary and that they would factor in more directly later on, but it still felt like I was watching different shows with varying levels of interest. I'm truly bummed that the season is over because, quite frankly, it feels like we were just getting started. In the last few episodes, I finally grew to know and appreciate many of the characters who had seemed flat to me early on and the effects of one character's actions of the lives and welfare of everyone else had become more concrete and terrifying. In a perfect world, Sunday's finale would have marked the winter break, not the season's end.

This show has a ton going on, so bear with me on organization with my thoughts here... meaning that there likely won't be any...

One of the wonderful aspects of this show is the inter-connectivity of the people and places. A seemingly isolated event in the middle of nowhere eventually affects everywhere else, no matter how far removed they may be. Indeed, a little boy climbing the wall of a castle shouldn't logically lead to all out war a few episodes later, but in the world of Game of Thrones, the domino effect is unstoppable. Had Bran not climbed that wall, he wouldn't have seen Jaime and Cersei and wouldn't have been shoved out the window. He wouldn't have been paralyzed and Catelyn wouldn't have gone on a crusade to find out the truth. She wouldn't have taken Tyrion prisoner, the Lannisters wouldn't have gone of the warpath, Ned wouldn't have been in such a compromising position when Robert died, etc, etc. So what I'm saying is, this is all Bran's fault. After all, Cat did tell him not to climb the effing wall, now didn't she? Joking aside, basically every character on the show has been responsible for some act, some deed, some random comment that led to much larger consequences down the line. Something as innocuous as Sansa saying that she would give Joffrey beautiful blond children led her father down a path that would eventually seal their fates. A little boy climbed a wall. A teenage girl mooned over a boy. War broke out. The lines from one event to another certainly aren't that simple, straight, or short, but in Game of Thrones, the lines are drawn one way or another and they affect everyone.

Of course, not all the pivotal events are are seemingly innocuous as these. Some events were perpetrated by those who simply aren't as good as playing the game. First off, Ned. Oh, Ned. Honorable, noble, delusional Ned. He's a good guy, but he wouldn't be winning any leadership trophies even if he hadn't been beheaded. I have mixed feelings about him as a character. Sean Bean is excellent in everything, so it certainly doesn't come down to the actor's portrayal, but in terms of character fundamentals, it often felt like Ned was living in a different story. There are a number of noble (or at least noble-adjacent) characters on the show, but they all seem to understand the world in which they live. Ned, who seemingly has more experience with the way the world works than most, apparently has less understanding than Arya. Well, perhaps he comprehends better than I'm giving him credit for, but in terms of how he responds to situations, he may understand what's going on, but he seems pathologically incapable of doing what needs to be done or playing the game in which he lives. I get it. It's the reason most politicians are sleazy, manipulative, dishonest cretins. The sociopathic qualities that led to advancement back then are the same ones that apply today and the truly good among us are simply incapable of or unwilling to stoop low enough to succeed. So let it be with Ned Stark. That said, however, and it seems impossible to me that his sense of honor could have 1) withstood the test of time, given the life he's led, and 2) not wavered in response to current conditions. Indeed, when Renly and Littlefinger basically told him exactly what was what and what needed to be done after Robert died, Ned honestly seemed to think that a piece of paper would hold up against the Lannisters. In and of itself, it's a charming notion. To think that people are so honorable that they would uphold the written word of a dead king is a nice thought. But again, I don't know what show Ned has been in for the past few episodes, but if he really thought that was the way things were going to work out, he obviously exists in a different realm than everyone else on the show. It's bad enough that the realities of Westeros completely escaped him for his own sake, but that he put these things into motion without getting his daughters out of there first is just unfathomable to me. It's one thing to believe that people are noble enough for things to end up as they should and it's quite another to take absolutely no precautions just in case it all goes to hell. This is why I honestly wasn't all that broken up over his death. People online lost their shit when he died, swearing to never again watch the show, blah, blah, blah, but for me, it just seemed sort of fitting. Sad and shocking and incredibly stupid on Joffrey's part, but Ned played the game worse than anyone. And as Cersei pointed out, in the game of thrones, you win or you die.

Ned's only real chance at survival was that his family and followers actually do play the game pretty well (at times), and the Lannisters know it. Well, everyone but Joffrey, it seems. Smooth move, Ass Face. Sometimes it's the little things like climbing a wall, sometimes it's the impulsive beheadings. I can see where a sadistic sociopathic dick like Joffrey would think that killing Ned was a good idea, but the fact that cold, calculating Cersei completely freaked out when he made the order should have told him he was being a fool. He played it off as the weakness of women to allow a traitor to live, but I don't think anyone looks at Cersei as a delicate, meek little flower. She knows what she's doing and Joffrey, even as stupid and hot-tempered as he is, should know that. She owns this game. In a way, Joffrey is the anti-Ned, but with similar results. Ned is too noble and Joffrey is too arrogant for either to play the game well. Cersei plays the game better than most and knows that killing Ned is about the worst move that could be made. Her reaction to the death is on a par with Sansa's and Arya's in terms of horror, albeit for different reasons. For as much as I chalk up her terror at Ned's death to her guile and cunning, I think part of it is that she genuinely respects Ned on a certain level. He could have destroyed her with the knowledge the Jaime is the father of her children, but didn't. On the contrary, he gave her a chance to escape. As per usual, it completely backfired on him, but in this instance, for Cersei, the thought actually does count for something. The fact that her grudging respect for Ned coincides with the smartest plan of action they could undertake should have been icing on the cake, but instead, Joffrey's idiotic gambit means that Jaime is as good as dead and all out war is upon them. Let's hope Sansa gets another chance to shove him off a ledge. Real soon.

Speaking of Sansa, Cersei, and all the other women on the show, one of the aspects of the show that was a turn off early on was the characterization of the female characters. For the first few episodes, they largely came across as cliches, afterthoughts, or simply eye candy. For someone such as myself, who's particularly attuned to the portrayals of women on TV, it was a definite disappointment. After an entire season, however, the constraints placed on women by the day and age of the show are still largely in place, but their positions within this world most certainly are not. In spite of Joffrey's impulsiveness, Cersei has very real influence over the crown, Sansa has developed from a whiny, simpering child into woman with steely resolve and vengeance on her mind, Arya has gone from being your stereotypical tomboy to an actual threat with a sword, Catelyn is finally making sound decisions and brokering deals to advance the war, and Daenerys has literally risen from the ashes as a true queen. It took the better part of a season to get there, but the egalitarian inside me can now commend the show for putting complex, interesting female characters front and center. They've all evolved into characters that I truly care about. Even Sansa. I never would have guessed that I'd love hear until these last two episodes, but seeing her countenance change as the gravity of her situation sets in has been gripping to watch. The look on her face as Joffrey repulsively tells her he'll put a son in her once she bleeds was a true turning point. For a moment, I thought perhaps she was going to fling herself off the ledge in order to spare her family from trying to rescue her, but it was all the more satisfying that she was really planning to shove Joffrey off the edge, or at the very least take him with her. The young actress portraying Sansa finally has something substantive to work with and she showed what a fine actress she really is. I had long assumed that she was probably in her early twenties and that it was fairly ridiculous for her to be playing a girl of 13 or 14, but in reality she's only 15 now, which means that at the time of filming, she was very close to the right age. She looks far older than her years and now, her character is acting it as well.

It's really impossible to do this show justice in a post like this because there are simply too many things to discuss. The war we've seen so far seems to be little more than set-up for the real battle to come in the coming seasons. That said, Robb Stark stepped up in a way I hadn't expected. He's still very young (the actor is in his mid-twenties, but as I understand it, in the books, he's just a teenager), but he rises to the occasion. For me, Robb (on whom I have an irrational crush) bridges the gap between honor and success in a way his father never could. Robb is definitely an honorable man, but he still plays the game. And he plays it well. Knowing our dearly departed friend Ned, he would have taken Jaime up on his offer to have this out in a duel and be done with it, because that would be the noble thing to do, sparing their armies from a bloody battle. Ned wouldn't have considered the fact that he might lose and that it would have destroyed everything. Robb, on the other hand, flat out tells Jaime that he's not going to do things that way. He's going to play by the rules that will allow him to win, even if it means not being completely honorable all of the time. In the end, it's worth it to sacrifice the lives of 2000 men in order to gain the upper hand. Ned would never have done such a thing and would have lost everything as a result. In the end, honor is only honorable for so long. As some point, it's only honorable on paper. The ramifications are what matter.

I'll be very interested to see just how far Robb is willing to play the game and what lengths he'll go to, but I have a sneaking suspicion I won't get to find out. I haven't read the books, but I'm predicting that before the battle between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins (Joffrey Malfoy, anyone?) reaches a head, the white walkers are going to make the game of thrones irrelevant. Winter is coming and with it comes a much more insidious foe than rival houses. I'm guessing that it will dawn on both factions that they have way bigger problems than each other and that if they have any hope of surviving, they'll need to put their differences aside and band together. As cheesy as that sounds, that's where I predict we're headed. I'm looking forward to that for a number of reasons, but first among them is Jon Snow, who's been off in no man's land up north for entirely too long. I could always appreciate that the stuff with Jon and the wall would eventually become extremely important, but it was so irksome to have Jon removed from everything that I was thrilled when he decided to go join Robb. Much to my chagrin, his escape was rather less than successful. In the coming season, I think the action will come to him though, and I'm hoping it brings the other characters on the show as well. Even though I've enjoyed his newfound brotherhood (Samise Gamgee? Is that you?), I've missed his interactions with him family.

All in all, it's been a hell of a ride. It took longer to really suck me in than I would have guessed, but the point is is that we got there. Truth be told, it was Littlefinger who truly captivated me early on and stoked my interest. I may be in love with the beautiful Robb Stark, but Littlefinger is probably the best game-player on the show which means that not only is he fascinating to watch, but he's likely to survive longer than his cohorts. Same goes for Tyrion, who, in spite of a shaky accent, is fantastic. Littlefinger wins out thought for me. The gleam in his eye as he held a knife to Ned's throat and said, "I did warn you not to trust me," was truly a highlight of the season. His conversation with the eunuch (was his name Spider or something? I can't find him online) was masterful in every sense. These two expert players, both of whom came from disreputable, underdog beginnings, rose to a level where they have very real influence over the world around them. It was very fitting to see the admiration between these two on a show that celebrates cutthroat politics and underhanded maneuvering. They may not sit on the throne, but they come pretty damn close. They make for worthy adversaries, indeed.

It wasn't a perfect season of a perfect show, but it was head and shoulders above most of what's out there. One of my main quibbles would be the often gratuitous sex. This doesn't come from a place of prudery, I assure you. It was off-putting in that it often felt like the writers/producers didn't think the storyline or dialogue were interesting enough on their own. Even though it took me a few episodes to really get into the show, random sexual acts weren't what kept me coming back for more. Had it come across as more organic to the story or less exploitative, I wouldn't have minded. But trying to focus on Littlefinger giving a stirring monologue while Ros and some other woman are taking whore lessens wasn't sexy, it was annoying. Maybe if I were a straight man I would have found the juxtaposition more tantalizing, but alas, I was just trying to listen to my favorite character, thanks.

Anyway, minor quibbles and whatnot aside, it was a very successful start to what is hopefully a long, captivating series. This is an expensive, audacious show to produce and they pulled it off impressively. The story never seemed to meander (even when we were up at the wall, I knew it would be important down the line) and the writers managed a ridiculous number of characters in a confident manner. While it should have felt increasingly scattered, as the story wore on, it proved to be more and more cohesive.

And, you know, baby dragons (!), so there's really no fault that can be found with any aspect of any episode all season. What little there is to forgive is definitely forgiven. Bring on next year! And winter! (Seriously, if Chekhov had one quibble, it would be that they've been talking about winter coming for an entire season and, unless you count metaphorical winter, it ain't here yet.)