IN PHOTO: Cast member Sophie Turner arrives for the premiere of the fourth season of HBO series "Game of Thrones"
IN PHOTO: Cast member Sophie Turner arrives for the premiere of the fourth season of HBO series "Game of Thrones" in New York March 18, 2014. Reuters/Lucas Jackson

The premiere episode of “Game of Thrones” Season 5 (GOT 5) shows big changes in the lives of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), her dragons, and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). The series kicked off its new television chapter on Sunday, April 12, on HBO.

Spoiler alert: This update contains "Game of Thrones" Season 5 spoilers. Read on at your own risk. Episode 1 is titled, "The Wars to Come."

Daenerys starts off “Game of Thrones” Season 5 talking about chopping off heads of snakes in Meereen. Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman) tries to convince her to bring back “human cockfighting” pits and use her dragons in her rule. He reminds her she’s “the mother of dragons.” She laments Drogon hasn’t been seen in weeks, and she “can’t control them anymore.”

Without Ser Jorah (Iain Glen) to offer a different perspective, Daenerys finds herself listening to the counsel of her lover Daario in GOT 5x01. She later decides to visit her two other dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, in their dungeon.

The dragons, now even bigger, both breathe raging flamethrowers toward their mother. The expression of horror in Daenerys’s face after this dungeon encounter is one of the most notable highlights of the “Game of Thrones” Season 5 premiere.

In the port city of Pentos, Lord Varys aka the Spider (Conleth Hill), talks to Tyrion about “the war to come,” the future and the Iron Throne. The “drunken dwarf” responds with pessimism, but agrees to sail to Meereen to meet Daenerys Targaryen.

This GOT 5 HBO plot turn – Varys and Tyrion together to Meereen – is expected to steer “Game of Thrones” Season 5 farther away from the events in “A Song of Ice And Fire,” the book series by George R.R. Martin.

“Decide if the world is worth fighting for,” Varys tells Tyrion in an effort to pull him out of his miserable fit of self-pity. Varys tells him they could help someone take “her” rightful place at the Iron Throne: someone “stronger than Tommen but gentler than Stannis.”

Elsewhere in Westeros in the premiere of “Game of Thrones” Season 5, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) is off to a place where even Cersei (Lena Headey) won’t reach her. The carriage she’s riding with Littlefinger passes by Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman) at one point.

At the Capital, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is bracing for attacks and repercussions as soon as Westeros leaders confirm that Tywin Lannister is truly dead. Cersei blames her brother Jamie for somehow killing their father due to a mistake, while Tyrion did the killing him on purpose.

The “Game of Thrones” Season 5 premiere ends at Castle Black, where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) ultimately kills the King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds), to end his suffering in flames.

Episode 1 of “Game of Thrones” Season 5 was written by ASOIAF TV adaptation developers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It was directed by Michael Slovis of “Breaking Bad.” This is Slovis’ first GOT 5 work.

Let us know your thoughts on “Game of Thrones” Season 5. For questions/comments regarding the article, you may email the writer at a.paredes@ibtimes.com.au. Any opinion expressed in this article belongs solely to the writer, and its publication is not an endorsement by IBT media.

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