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"It's becoming clear that nobody is to be trusted in the Game of Thrones universe"

Join our first time watcher Barbaros Inanc, as he goes through the stages of Game of Thrones addiction. Here's his take on season two.

Thursday 24 March 2016 16:22 GMT
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Arya & the conniving Petyr Baelish
Arya & the conniving Petyr Baelish (HBO)

“I’ve always avoided TV fantasy shows, but Game of Thrones is di­fferent and I’m completely gripped by it. I missed all the seasons when they were aired the f­irst time around, so I’m catching up – and trying to avoid the many spoilers, from friends and online.

Barbaros Inanc

From the end of episode one in Season One, I’ve been thoroughly hooked, and Season Two doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it manages to be even more action-packed and suspenseful than the f­irst season. And Cersei Lannister [Lena Headey] seems to be even more malicious than before; she’s a character you love to hate and that’s true of quite a few of the characters here, especially the brutal Hound [Rory McCann], who I secretly quite admire, and even Jaime Lannister [Nikolaj Coster-Waldau].

One thing that strongly comes across in Season Two is that there are far more battle scenes, particularly towards the end with the dust-up at King’s Landing [‘Blackwater’, episode nine]. It’s one of the best bits of action I’ve seen on television and Tyrion Lannister [Peter Dinklage], who is still my favourite character, proves to be a genuine hero.

Because of the massive shocks in the f­irst season, I found myself on the edge of my seat and worrying about my favourite characters much more here, particularly brave Arya Stark [Maisie Williams] who seems to be thrown from one enemy to the next and the dragon lady [Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke], who appears to be building quite an army. She still has terrif­ic hair, too.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear that no one is to be trusted in the Game of Thrones universe, what with Theon [Al­ie Allen] turning evil and all the conniving from the likes of councillor Baelish, played by the brilliant Aidan Gillen, and the wily Varys. I hardly trust anyone in this great series, apart from Arya, Jon Snow (I wish he’d cheer up a bit, though), Robb Stark and the very funny Tyrion, who provides most of the humour. All in all, I’d say I preferred the second series even more than the ­first and you can see the production values and the budget are even higher, especially in the ‘Blackwater’ episode.

There’s no doubt about it, I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan now and I’m gagging to see what happens with those dragons in Season Three. Just don’t kill Arya o­ff, please.”

Every episode of Game of Thrones is available now, exclusively on Sky Box Sets.

Images: ©2016 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.

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