Game of Thrones Reviews: "Breaker of Chains"

I will never get tired of seeing Joffrey dead. Does that make me weird?

PLOT SUMMARY

After being accused of the murder of King Joffrey, Tyrion is thrown into the dungeon and wonders if anyone will help him prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Tywinn offers Oberyn Martell a deal if he helps judge his son at his trial; Sam takes Gilly to Mole's Town with the hope of keeping her safe; The Hound continues to show Arya the darker side of life; and Daenerys arrives outside the walls of Meeren and gives a proclamation to the city's slaves. 

WHAT DID I THINK

Like the season premiere, "Breaker of Chains" spends most of its time setting up things to come in later episodes and possesses a slower pace because of that. However, I feel like "Breaker of Chains" did a better job balancing the multiple plots and keeping the narrative enjoyable to watch. 

While I liked the episode, there was a certain element that really got under my skin and kept me from enjoying it as much as the previous episode. The scene with Jaime forcing himself onto Cersei while their dead son is laying on the altar next to them really bothered me. If I recall, this scene is much more ambiguous in the books. However, its hard to call this anything but rape and I feel it kind of goes against the character development Jaime received last season and it feels like it was added to try and make Cersei more sympathetic. Deciding the best way to make a character more sympathetic is to rape her instead of simply writing her better is kind of problematic. Now, I know someone is going to cry, "But this is an adaptation!" That's true, but that hasn't stopped them from changing scenes and reworking character dynamics before. If they really wanted to make her more sympathetic, they could have easily done that through the writing. 

Putting that one scene aside, the episode just falls short of the previous episode in the quality department. The directing is solid and the acting great as usual. Oberyn Martell continues to prove why he's such a cool character and I actually didn't mind Daenerys' scenes this time. That one scene just kept me from fully embracing it. 

FINAL VERDICT

While the previous episode was definitely better, "Breaker of Chains" is a solid episode that really only falls short of "The Lion and the Rose" for me due to the scene between Cersei and Jaime. If it wasn't for that one scene, I would like have liked this episode a lot more. I know some people might not agree, but this is about me giving my opinion, so that's what I'm going to do.