Why Season 4 of Game of Thrones is THE BEST

so a few months ago i made why season 1 of game of thrones is so great and ever since then i've wanted to come back and look at other seasons for this video we'll be looking at season 4 of game of thrones and we'll be analyzing why is one of the best seasons in the show so strap in grab some popcorn and take a pill of memory loss for season 8 because i'm about to bring it back to when the show was at its peak so for the first aspect as to why season 4 is the best let's take a look at the subplots within the season for game of thrones in general the majority of the show follows many different subplots the only time this wasn't the case was in season 7 and 8 where most of the subplots converged and became one main plot given that format it was always more interesting to have a season with multiple subplots because of the variety season 4 has about 8 of them and that offers a vast array of different settings within the world it also offers a variety of challenges like political drama in king's landing action-oriented conflict at the night's watch or even a cozy adventure where characters go on a journey together season 4 has this variety in spades and it feels like a well-oiled machine in terms of pacing because of that we don't get bogged down from an overabundance of one element like action dialogue or adventure in comparison to season eight where all the characters are basically crammed into one setting for half of the season and it quickly becomes dull and repetitive sitting around in one place can get stale setting wise especially if the writing is not up to par i told you i don't want it it doesn't matter what you want besides the great variety of subplots in season 4 let's take a look at their general quality most people say that all the stories for each character are essentially at their peak within the show and let's see why that is so first let's look at daenerys in season 4 daenerys starts out coming off of the highs of season 3 and has her unsullied army with that army she then takes over marine where she finally gets to rule which in of itself is a lot of payoff the overall progression of the subplot is perfect because we get that thrill and action in the beginning and then we get the political drama from her ruling marine this season's subplot for daenerys offers something unique for the viewer by the fact that she becomes a legitimate ruler of a city for the first time that being said this season is basically peak interest within her overall subplot for the show the only season that rivals this is season 3 where daenerys gets the unsullied and starts her conquest the reason why season 4 surpasses this is because we get a massive hit of payoff through her winning marine and from that payoff we get even more obstacles from her being a ruler so the conflict stays engaging unlike in later seasons like season 5 where she just sits around running a city the whole time and the conflict just stays the same and because of that it becomes more dull looking at another big subplot we have jon snow most of his story leading up to season 4 is really good the ultimate payoff from those seasons comes in season 4 with the watchers on the wall and the finale where he confronts mance raider i reckon you could do it before any of them could stop you they'll kill you of course they'll kill you slow but you knew that when you came in here both sequences are regarded as jon snow's best moments that and his character is objectively the most interesting in this season he is both struggling with his love of the free folk and rose and he wants to protect his brothers of the night's watch so that creates a massive internal conflict within his character that is a lot that jon snow has to go through and in comparison to other seasons his character in season 4 is much more colorful so again we have another character subplot at their peak looking at another main character whose subplot is at its peak we have arya lady aaron died three days ago [Laughter] ironically i think arya was the most interesting when she was traveling with the hound in season four despite the cool sounding narrative of her becoming an assassin in the later seasons but in those later seasons arya was essentially alone and didn't have that great of a dynamic with any other character in season 4 however she has one of the best in-show dynamics with the hound arya really changes as a character when she is with the hound and learns how dark and grimy the world really is i just understand the way things are how many stars they got to behead before you figure it out this perfectly shapes her character for the later seasons and through the perspective of the hound we can see her improving you're learning there are also a ton of standout moments for these two characters practically everything they do or say becomes a fan favorite moment this subplot adds a lot of memorable humor and the hound is the perfect character to break down arya's innocence to really turn her into a badass that and we always have arya clashing with the hound which riles them up even more and makes for some very hilarious moments overall this is just another perfect subplot that adds a lot of quality to the season there are other subplots that are worth noting like bran's story which is fantastic but i want to turn the attention towards king's landing out of all the subplots in the show this is generally the main one it houses some of the most interesting characters and this just allows them to clash and create iconic scenarios the first four seasons feature a great king's landing narrative but season 4 rises above the previous seasons and blows us away the reason why it blows us away is that the overall season has a major turning point that drives most of the conflict and the difference this time is that it happens early on unlike in season 1 where it happens later in the season season 4 has a massive twist of joffrey's death that sets forth most of the conflict within king's landing this is going into the third reason and that is the turning point by having an already established cast you can throw your turning point in the beginning of the season to really throw a curveball for your audience you don't need a lot of character development in season 4 because your characters are already set up and game of thrones knows this so they jump right into the conflict which is extremely engaging in comparison to season 3 there was a lot of build-up of tension in king's landing but not much happened to really push the plot forward with season 4 however they take that bold step and thrust every character into a situation that creates a gripping conflict cersei's hatred towards tyrion boils to an all-time high tyrion's life is on the line sansa flees jaime has to deal with potentially losing his brother tywin has to figure out how to damage control of the situation and the list goes on all of these characters within season 4 are fundamentally pushed to their limits by the end of season 3 things were a little too calm and it started to get too familiar but season 4 inherently changes that also this turning point leads to the best payoff in the show's history which is the courtroom scene between tyrion and tywin through four seasons of build-up of disdain between these two characters it all explodes within this moment with the best delivery coming from tyrion i did not kill joffrey but i wish that i had watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying [ __ ] this scene is utterly heartbreaking and it even goes higher to create more conflict by tyrion declaring a trial by combat even though this seems like a high point season 4 somehow snowballs this narrative and it keeps getting more riveting we lose hope with tyrion's trial we then regain that hope with oberyn pledging to fight for us after that the hope is squashed in the trial by combat and then our hope is finally resurrected by jaime's rescue each of these sequences perfectly builds on the one prior and this was all because we had a crazy turning point in the beginning of the season by having that turning point in the beginning of the season we can snowball the conflict to greater heights and have an extremely satisfying conclusion other seasons don't really capture this magic as well as season 4 because either that turning point happens at the end of the season for payoff or it's the end of the storyline but season 4 creates that brilliant flow of escalating conflict that makes it the most engrossing season let's take a quick break and look at this video's sponsor loot crate loot crate is number one pop culture subscription based service on the planet they're dedicated to working closely with licensed partners like warner bros disney marvel and more their original loot crate line is filled with pop culture collectibles gear and wearables from comic books film television animation and more their january kapow themed crate features pop culture's fiercest fighters it includes a he-man t-shirt venom display standee fight club soap keychain mortal kombat classic handkerchief and a kapow pin use my discount code supercuts for 15 off your purchase link in the description now back to the video one more aspect about the turning point that makes season 4 better is the amount of mystery and scheming that conflict brings into the story the turning point harkens back to what a lot of people liked about season 1 and that is a mystery surrounding the death of a king in season 1 the story begins with the death of john aaron and ned stark gives himself the objective of finding his killer this created a cool aura of mystery within season 1. this ara of mystery returns within season 4 because it becomes another murder mystery a lot of what people liked in season 1 was all the backstabbing and sabotaging that took place within king's landing for season 4 this returns and the sabotaging is as heartbreaking as in season 1. the prime example of this is shea's testimony in the trial because it utterly breaks tyrion also because we are in season 4 and are later on in the show it makes the mystery more engaging because we have all the information about each character and their relationships we naturally become more active and trying to figure out who killed joffrey in comparison to season one because we know more about the story the show trusts the intellect within the audience and lets them piece together the mystery the filmmakers choose not to reveal what actually happened until season seven with the farewell of lady olenna tell sassy i wanted to know it was me which funny enough is one of the only good dialogue scenes in season seven because it has to do with season four on top of the backstabbing in king's landing we also have it in the veil thanks to littlefinger littlefinger kills lysa aaron and that also creates another big plot of conspiracy this event also heavily tests sansa and puts her into one of her first situations in which she has to make a big choice and this goes back to the point that sansa's journey in the season is the most interesting and is at its peak overall through the death of joffrey baratheon and lysa aaron season 4 is able to capture that same suspense and mystery that was so great in season 1. speaking about the conflict within season 4 let's take a look at another perfect aspect which is the primary villain in any good story you need a great villain that drives a riveting conflict and thrusts your characters into challenging situations for season 4 we have the best villain within the show and it's the badass himself tywin lannister this character alone has become a massive icon within the game of thrones community his character is beloved despite him being a villain and the reason why he's such a beloved villain is that he is not stereotypical tywin on his own is a very compelling character he is a controlling father who just wants to have a successful family and have his kids contribute to the family's future this is a very understandable motive and whenever tywin is clashing with cersei jaime and tyrion it's hard to really hate on tywin because we know that deep down he is kind of right from his point of view this was very apparent within season 3 because he was constantly clashing with characters around him through all of that build up in season 3 it allows season 4 to pay it off in its full glory the two best examples of this is cersei's final confrontation with tywin and tyrion's courtroom challenge against his father these scenes are basically regarded as some of the best scenes from the show and tywin is to thank for that the only other villain that has come close in terms of creating great conflicting scenes is joffrey and in the later seasons they basically disappeared because of how bad the writing is i'm the man who killed jimmy going back to the death of joffrey in season 4 tywin is able to take an even bigger villain role and have more power the ultimate payoff for this is when tywin takes a literal seat on the iron throne tommen is literally casted aside for taiwan to step in and make things more interesting i would say the best fight scene in the show is between tywin and tyrion in the courtroom this is by far the best climax because the dialogue and pure disdain that these two characters show each other is mesmerizing that and charles dance brings the gravitas to tywin and almost all of his scenes show a subtle layer of sinisterism the way tywin just gives you a death glare is the most intimidating thing in the world his eyes cut through your soul like a sharp sword and he can't help but feel like he's about to devour you also i think tywin as a character perfectly fits into the conflict of scheming and backstabbing he is literally the best at it given that he orchestrated the ride wedding the lannisters and there are gods so knowing that and how powerful he is as a character he truly is a force to be reckoned with given those details it just shows how much of a massive obstacle he is to overcome for all the characters that is why in true game of thrones fashion he is destined to have one of the best show deaths which is on a toilet the complete irony so moving away from the villain let's take a look at another great aspect in season 4. for each of the main characters they essentially go through a major turning point that heavily affects their future and personality for tyrion he decides to kill his father in an emotional confrontation this leads into a spell of depression and he mostly becomes more worn down in later seasons because of this for daenerys she makes a tragic decision to lock away her dragons this takes a big toll on her mental health and she starts to lose her footing in season 5. for jon snow he hits his lowest point with the loss of a loved one and decided to sacrifice himself for the night's watch by confronting mance raider thus proving how much of a hero he is for arya she leaves behind the hound who she's been with for more than two seasons and she doesn't give him the satisfaction of death this validates her character as what the hound says in later seasons your cold little [ __ ] aren't you for cersei she blackmails tywin with the information of her having sex with jaime in order to not marry loris tyrell this essentially gives her a lot more confidence given that she stood up to the most powerful person in westeros everything they say is true about jamie and me no your legacy is a lie for jaime he saves tyrion which results in the death of tywin from this jaime thinks he is responsible for the death of his father and carries an enormous amount of guilt in later seasons and bran finally reaches his destination and takes on the challenge of becoming the three-eyed raven along with what i talked about earlier with sansa going along with littlefinger's hostile takeover all these turning points greatly change and affect these characters they aren't just interesting because of their characteristics but also from how much they've progressed in the story and in season 4 the amount of progression for these characters makes them feel more dynamic and interesting to contrast this in later seasons we have jon snow who barely changes past season 6. so in general having your characters evolve makes them much more fun to follow and season 4 is the best at this so for the final reason i need to address some of the points i stated for why season one was so great the three points that still apply for season four are efficiency and storytelling great dialogue and extraordinary pacing i went into more depth about them for the video on season one but i want to expand a bit more on efficiency of storytelling and how it applies to season four so the prime example for this is the character oberyn martell for season four there are a lot of characters and subplots so introducing a new and interesting character is hard to pull off because of the pure saturation but with oberyn the show is very efficient because we simultaneously get character development world building for dorne and the development for a future conflict the one i keep hearing is that gregor cleganed the mountain raped elia and split her in half with his great sword also the future conflict tied to his character perfectly correlates with what happens later in the season which makes his character very relevant to the story because of his want for revenge towards the mountain and tywin this will make him a future ally for tyrion to contrast this as an example in season 8 they bring in a new character for the head of the golden army and david and dan include a whole scene around him only to have it not matter that is an example of inefficient storytelling for oberyn however he is directly related to the conflict for a personal reason and has a direct effect on the outcome of the story also the conflict given to us by oberyn is very concise and relatable the writing here is top notch and he can easily get people on board for a heinous act like raping and killing children [Music] this is a simple trick to give a sympathy for a character who initially came off as an [ __ ] and instead change him into a loving badass who wants revenge another aspect of efficient storytelling in regards to oberyn is that he encompasses the scope of dorne what i mean by this is that the conflict from dorne as a whole is channeled through his character oberyn is basically the champion of dorne and the concerns from that house can be fully realized through his character we are more likely to be interested in the conflict through one interesting character instead of a bunch of angry sand snakes who have no semblance of character traits you want a good girl but you need the bad [ __ ] oberyn is just a perfect example of efficiently building a new character in a saturated story by having him have a direct impact on the overall story it makes him more important and thus more compelling don't leave me alone in this world never and this is just one primary example of efficient storytelling along with the season still having great dialogue and pacing so yeah this mostly brings my points to a close for the video overall since season 4 still harnesses the magic of what makes the earlier season so great on top of the peak quality subplots the outstanding turning point in the beginning the cool aura of mystery the primary villain and each main character's force into a dire situation that changes them and because of all that i think season 4 is unmatched it's hard to beat a large dose of payoff with riveting subplots that make the show extremely entertaining this is why season 4 is the best season of game of thrones you

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Keywords: Game of Thrones, Game of thrones season 4, Why season 4 of GoT is the best season, Best season, season 4, Best of Game of thrones, GoT, Why season 1 of GoT is so great, Game of thrones video essay, Video essay, Supercuts delight, Supercuts delight game of thrones, Loot Crate, Tyrion Trial scene, Rose death scene, Jon Snow, Tywin Lannister, Best of Tywin Lannister, Season 4 the best, daenerys targaryen

Id: 0IQ8TUlJnjs

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021