WARNING: Contains spoilers for the first episode of season five, as well as all previous seasons.

Despite the standard bits of nudity, fire-breathing dragons and violent murders, “Game of Thrones” came out of the gates with a slow start.

While the premiere had some great moments, most of its time was spent either catching up or building up.

With the Hand of the King dead at the hands of his son, the political landscape of Westeros has changed dramatically, and the Lannisters are now left to pick up the pieces.

Tyrion is stuck in an unfamiliar place, and his usual wit has been replaced by a dark sense of guilt and hopelessness.

Everyone’s favorite Lannister has become overly depressing. Though his scenes with Varys provided a much-needed comedic break-up in an otherwise serious episode.

One of the really pleasant surprises for readers of the book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” came with the opening scene. After initially staying away from flashback scenes, we were treated to a childhood memory of Cersei’s. And to nobody’s surprise, it turns out she has always been a stuck-up snob, but the fortune she demands might not be what she’s hoping for.

The tension between Cersei and Margaery Tyrell plays out beautifully on-screen, and the cut from the prophecy scene to Tywin’s wake really helped mirror the darkness of the message.

Continuing with the depressing theme, the Mother of Dragons has lost control of her children and her city.

At this point many fans have started to become frustrated with Daenerys’ story. After spending three seasons talking about sailing to Westeros and conquering the Iron Throne, she has spent the entire last season going the wrong direction.

Her storyline is starting to feel like it has lost its purpose.

And that leaves us with everyone’s favorite bastard, Jon Snow.

With Stannis Baratheon and his army at the Wall, Stark fans got another glimmer of hope from the King.

The relationship between Jon and Stannis is a strange one, and was the most interesting part of the premiere. While Jon absolutely wants to help avenge his family, there is only so much he can do while being bound to the Night’s Watch. Their personalities seem too different to work, and I’m looking forward to watching how it plays out.

Even with the slow pace, Thrones provided fans some much needed hope in what has been a painful series of losses of fan favorites the past two seasons.

As usual, the beginning of the season is building up to bigger and hopefully better things. Until then, we’ll just have to wait patiently until next Sunday.