{"id":1175,"date":"2014-04-14T02:11:25","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T02:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2016-11-16T03:26:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T03:26:33","slug":"good-night-sweet-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/good-night-sweet-prince\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Night, Sweet Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

So HBO Go was actually working last night, and for those of you who tuned in to the network\u2019s hottest show since the Sopranos, we\u2019d like to take a moment to celebrate the (frustratingly somber) exit of one of series\u2019 most despised characters.<\/p>\n

A brilliantly-structured episode, Sunday\u2019s \u201cThe Lion and the Rose\u201d goes against the grain of GoT\u2019s increasingly peripatetic narrative trends by planting its feet firmly in one setting for thirty minutes.\u00a0 Set at yet another doomed wedding, the extended final scene has it all: just about every relevant character in Westeros that\u2019s still alive, a play-within-a-play structure that should satisfy Shakespeare nerds, fantasy buffs, and HBO devotees alike, and wonderfully built and sustained suspense that\u2019s so thick it cuts like a pie full of doves (get it?).<\/p>\n

\"game-of-thrones-jamie-lannister\"<\/p>\n

George R.R. himself penned the script, and as has come to be expected of the wildly incisive and unsentimental writer\u2019s material, the episode takes no prisoners in its portrait of the cruelty of Westeros.\u00a0 Martin, in his own words, has always been \u201cpretty outspoken\u201d in his \u201cdesire to write a story where decisions have consequences and no one is safe.\u201d\u00a0 As such, GoT has consistently juxtaposed an unforgiving moral universe (read: our own) with glimpses of the supernatural and reimagined fantasy tropes; last night\u2019s episode was, of course, no different.\u00a0 \u00a0It just turned the shock and awe factor all the way up to ten (not quite up to the Red Wedding\u2019s eleven).<\/p>\n

\"game-of-thrones-westeros-map\"<\/p>\n

What do plot points have to do with branding?\u00a0 Put simply, any innovative product sells itself given a large-enough platform (see: shared HBO Go accounts) and consistency of quality and vision.\u00a0 Since Ned Stark\u2019s departure at the end of season one, GoT has established itself as a relentlessly entertaining epic that has no qualms about killing off major characters at the drop of a hat (or goblet); the writers are well aware of this expectation by now and have done a matchless job navigating and exploiting its pitfalls, placing each jaw-dropper in just-the-right-nook of the narrative arc to satisfy fans of the books and newcomers alike.<\/p>\n

\"game-of-thrones-kings-landing\"<\/p>\n

All this, mind you, from a show that\u2019s taken fantasy \u2013 the (stereo)typical realm of adolescent shut-ins \u2013 to a larger audience (essentially rebranding the genre), albeit by grounding it in lots of gritty politics, sex, and violence.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, we\u2019ve heard from some avid fans of the novel that last night\u2019s exeunt isn\u2019t the most shocking departure of the season (no spoilers, please).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So HBO Go was actually working last night, and for those of you who tuned in to the network\u2019s hottest show since the Sopranos, we\u2019d like to take a moment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1.jpg",620,412,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1.jpg",620,412,false],"large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1.jpg",620,412,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1.jpg",620,412,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Game-of-Thrones-King-Joffrey-Death1.jpg",620,412,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":169,"uagb_excerpt":"So HBO Go was actually working last night, and for those of you who tuned in to the network\u2019s hottest show since the Sopranos, we\u2019d like to take a moment...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}