Game of Thrones Season 4

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

While the Lannisters’ hold on the Iron Throne remains intact in Season 4, they face many threats–Stannis Baratheon; the ‘Red Viper of Dorne,’ Daenerys Targaryen–while the Night’s Watch faces Mance Rayder’s wildlings…and the dreaded White Walkers.

This series is a work of love, and it shows in the quality of acting, shot locations, studio sets, and writing. Across the board, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I am always glad to lend my GOT videos to friends (for short periods of time), and then I sit back and wait for their phone calls and love the chance to talk with them about GOT and to hear their reactions to story events. When I get the videos back, I watch them all again.

Watching the GOT videos also enhances reading the books. The books cover so many characters and events that it is difficult to process it all the first few readings. The videos make it easier to keep track of characters in the book, because you have pictures of them in your head. It is also easier to pick up additional information, because it stands out from info viewed in the videos. It is also fun to reread the books to identify story events that differ in the book from the videos.

-aprildoggie

I wasn’t at all sure when I began this series whether I would like it, let alone my wife who is much more reluctant both with fantasy-type stories and stories of war and violence. However once again, we both watched season 4 all the way through with much interest. As anyone looking at this series must know by now, there are two major story lines (along with many minor ones): first a complex struggle between a number of great families over who can assume and retain the “iron throne” which seats a king at least nominally ruling over all 7 kingdoms comprising the great bulk of the civilized world. The other story line involves the onset of winter—which in this world is an ominous event. This world must have some very complex rotation around a multiple-star system, because both the onset and the duration of winter are difficult to predict in advance. Sometimes it seems to last the equivalent of a year or so; other times it might last a decade. And in addition to the cold and darkness and therefore the difficulty growing crops, there are other problems. Wild peoples from the far north, fleeing the intense cold can threaten to overrun large parts of the civilized world. Lastly, in one of the magical twists in this fantasy world, it also brings out “white walkers”, which seem to be risen dead, or at least raisers of the dead, or both. [So far, the TV series has not explained their meaning in detail, though they’ve been seen on occasions, and are often referred to] To defend against these twin threats the seven civilized kingdoms have established a huge wall of ice blocking off the far north, which is manned by an almost-egalitarian society of castouts from all lands, for every conceivable reason, who take vows to defend the wall, and with it the civilized lands, for the rest of their lives.

The fantasy elements of this series, while they no doubt appeal to some viewers, do not by any means overwhelm more realistic struggles between the kingdoms and their noble families, or the nuanced portrayals of individual characters, keeping this interesting even for those uninterested in fantasy. A couple of the other fantasy elements seen in the first 4 seasons are dragons (one character controls the only 3 known to exist now, which seem to be adolescent-sized in this season) and the shaman-like ability of a few people to project their minds into the minds of animals, or even simpletons among people.

One of the mottos in the story, valar morgholis, translates apparently into “all men must die”, and puts into perspective the loss of some characters in each season. It reminds us in real life, that we should be less concerned that we die, or how we die, than what we have made of our lives, and how we will be remembered afterward.

– Karl Weaver

acting was top notch, maybe the best since the show started. At first I didn’t think Game of Thrones would have a chance at this year’s Emmys since they’re competing against last year’s Breaking Bad finale, but then I saw Tyrion’s trial. WOW, the emotion, the betrayal, the hurt, is all palpable. The Mountain vs the Red Viper fight was amazing, and the ending just as shocking as it was in the book. Arya and the Hound absolutely stole the show this season by the way. If they made a separate show just about them wandering the countryside murdering people, I would watch that show. The battle for the Wall was every bit as epic as the Blackwater, and let’s not forget Daenerys and her ever more difficult to control dragons.

-Mark Thomas

DVD Wholesale Main Features :   

Actors: Various
Directors: Various
Format: Multiple Formats, NTSC, Subtitled
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai
Dubbed: French, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number of discs: 5
Studio: HBO Studios
DVD Release Date: February 17, 2015
Run Time: 550 minutes