1561

I always felt that Jaime comes off as an arrogant prick. That’s the feeling you get in Books 1 and 2, though to be fair, he’s only shows up in a handful of chapters in Book 1, and he’s virtually missing in Book 2. Jaime is an arrogant bastard, partly because he’s got a chip on his shoulder, but also because he is really, really, really damn good at killing things. He’s one of the most dangerous swordsmen in all of Westeros, and everyone knows it. Just read the chapter where he’s captured in Book 1, or when he shows up in Book 2. Even when he’s captured he’s pretty damn sure of himself.

1562

I think the Cersei baby story really drives home just how manipulative and heartless she can be. She’s really driving so hard for empathy, and then her comment about how hard she’s praying for Bran’s recovery… When you know just how blatant of a lie that is, the entire act is just ice cold.

I agree about the omission of the line. I think they didn’t have time to really drive home the dynamic of the whole Ned-Jon-Cat relationship, and aren’t quite trying to make Catelyn come across as unsympathetic as she would be. My wife already asked me why she’s so mean to Jon, and I think a line like that would take it over the top given the lack of exposition so far.

1563

My wife, who hasn’t read the books, really didn’t care for the first one, but I managed to talk her into watching tonight’s ep with me. She was pretty upset about Bran being thrown out the window. So with tonight’s ending, she was literally in tears. So, she’s done. I’ll be watching the rest of the series solo.

It was obviously a very important scene. I just wished they hadn’t ended with it.

1564

I liked this one better than last week (which I liked), but I am losing my wife in terms of watching the show going forward. She was on the fence when Bran got tossed to end the first episode. And then this one ends with Lady being killed. Both scenes made her cry, which makes her not want to watch any more.

1565

Well it’s not like it gets any more cheerful, heh.

1566

That’s the thing isn’t it. Book 1 is a bunch of bleak events setting up the entire series, with none of the requisite payoff happening until Book 3. It’s going to be tough going through the show where no one gets any proper resolution, (sans Dany) until 3 years later.

1567

Great episode! I’m ok with them leaving out the “It should have been you” line because the horrid looks she’s giving him in that scene pretty much tell the story. No complaints at all about this episode except the whole “sigil doesn’t match the actor” mess in the opening credits. That just doesn’t make any sense and I can’t believe it’s still not fixed. Why bother even having sigils next to their names if they’re all mixed up?

Harsh way to end episode two so I hope the show doesn’t lose any viewers. I’m glad they didn’t show him actually killing Lady though. That might have been the end of my wife co-watching it with me.

We both loved Tyrion waking up with the dogs and the three slap correction of Joffrey. Awesome! Also great was his interaction with the non-evil Lannister kids at breakfast.

1568

Poor Lady. But man. Sansa is fucking tall. I wonder if she was that tall when they cast her or if she just shot up. She’s as tall as the full grown men.

Arya is adorable though.

I missed the “It should have been you.” That took away from Jon’s line when Rob asks him about his mother in the courtyard.

1569

The sigil thing was caught very late in the cycle (the opening credits weren’t added until post production), and there was no quick fix. The producers will have it fixed in the later episodes.

1570

Sansa really is damn tall. Poor Ser Ilyn Payne looked like a wee little man next to her. And even the Hound isn’t that much taller.

I’m definitely missing the presence of the wolves. Without showing how Lady was like Sansa the loss of the wolf means a little less to her than it might otherwise. Though actually seeing Arya throwing the rocks at Nymeria was heartbreaking. We also didn’t see Ghost with Jon at all. I don’t necessarily miss the scene where Tyrion goads Jon enough that Ghost intervenes, but not having the wolf around at all kind of hurts. Loved Summer attacking the assassin! Didn’t love the wolf not being in the room when Catelin went back in to drop off her dreamcatcher and say goodbye.

A lot less nudity this time around. I guess they figured they hooked the dudes looking for boobs with the first episode and they can tone it down a bit now.

I was surprised that it ended with Bran’s eyes opening. I guess I can understand not having the dream, as important as the dream happens to be. They’re trying to ground the show and having Bran fly around while magic birds chat him up won’t help with that. I do wonder how they’re going to express it, though.

Good to see references made to some of the minor characters. We saw Jory and Catelin referred to Poole. Stuff in there for the superfans.

I was glad to see Tommen and Myrcella get some screen time.

1571

Apparently there’s a lot of outrage that Lady was killed off (for example, the two wives earlier this thread).

Throw a 10-year old off a tall building? Cool with it.

Kill a wolf off-screen? I’M DONE WITH THIS SHOW, AMERICA.

1572

That’s a great point - the wolves don’t have much screen time except for the attacks in this episode. I guess part of it is just a general lack of space to show as much as they books did. I thought the Nymeria scene needed a little more rock throwing or desperation from Arya though. She threw one rock and that was it, which didn’t seem as heart-wrenching as the way Arya recalled it in the books.

1573

The pace of this show has been torrid. On the plus side, it keeps the narrative moving at a rapid clip, which helps keep non-readers’ attention. However, I wouldn’t have minded 12 episodes instead of 10, if only to let give of the more emotional scenes more time to breathe.

Season 2 will be worse if it’s only 10 episodes, as it’s a bigger book.

If Season 3 goes, I’m really nervous how they do it. Like I said before, the obvious split point in Book 3 isn’t until 2/3 of the way through the book, and while they can obviously jigger the timeline, it does still mean that having to fill two 10 episode seasons on either side of that split point means that the pace will suddenly crawl in comparison to the first two seasons.

1574

You see Ghost very briefly at the camp in the woods but that’s about it.

Actually I like Cersei’s story, because it fits into the idea of a mercy killing a bit better (if that was the intended part).

The episode however was pitch perfect. I expected Catelyn to say “I wish it was you” but it’s obvious she was hating him anyway…

Sometime’s it’s the little things that I love. Nymeria with the gloves was awesome. Tyrion’s interaction with Tommen is great. Hell everything with Tyrion was great.

They really are building up Jamie to be the baddie, and like I said earlier, the way one particular preview looks to be he fights Ned directly at one point, so the lead up is to that and him being the really bad guy, so his capture is one of those great “good guys win” things I figure. How he, uh, turns is one of the cool things but that won’t happen for a loooong while.

— Alan

Edit: lol yeah the EW recap is filled with awesomeness:

What happens next is the kind of unexpected, yet harshly logical, story moves that sets Thrones apart from other fantasy stories. Twice this hour we’ve seen direwolves save the Starks from danger. So this seemed to be a show where the Stark kids will each have their own pet superwolf, and that they’ll all have adventures together in Westeros fighting the evil Lannisters. But that’s too neat, too cliche, and Martin loves to take fantasy storytelling conventions and kick the crap out of them.

1575

I think the other point with the Cersei story was to bring up more doubt on the children, as she described him as being dark, and looking just like Bran.

1576

Oooh, interesting. Right.

— Alan

1577

She meant that the baby looked just like Robert. She said it right after mentioning Robert’s reaction.

1578

Yeah, that’s what I meant. Doubt on her other children being the spawn of Robert, etc.

1579

I wonder if her story, while at this point perhaps brought up to make her look more sympathetic, is intended to do the exact opposite down the line. I would not put it past Cersei to have killed her own child herself if it was one of Robert’s offspring, so that a Lannister “pureblood” could be the heir to the throne instead. She says a fever carried off her son, but Jon Arryn was killed by a “fever” as well.

I do like that this pretty significant addition is keeping even those who have read the books guessing.

1580

Cool, that was a way better episode. Excited about the series again.