A roundup of recaps and reviews of last night’s episode:
James Poniewozik – TIME
Alan Sepinwall – HitFix
Maureen Ryan – AOL TV
Myles McNutt – Cultural Learnings
James Hibberd – Entertainment Weekly
Jace Lacob – Televisionary
UPDATE: Larry Williams a.k.a. OtakuAssemble has posted his enthusiastic non-reader video review of the second episode.
And HBO goes Inside the Episode with David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Tim Van Patten to answer some questions from last night’s episode, including whether Cersei was lying or not…
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137 Comments
Some great stuff here. Sepinwall is one of my favorites. Glad he is onboard.
Daenerys SaddleQuote Reply
Really glad to have seen this.
BTW what about the RATNGS FOR EPISODE TWO??? When will we have those?
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
I just go straight to TWoP to see what unspoiled viewers think, and their reviews are making me very happy! Except when some readers jump in and say ‘But ACTUALLY the show should have made you think THIS because the book shows you from a character’s point of view THIS’. Grr.
Favourite comment so far, quoted in full from AthenaLeStrange:
EleanorQuote Reply
again. i am liking the show and i liked this episode. but just like last week i wonder if things couldn’t have been done just a bit better. and if i can think of something better (a la last weeks “things i do for love scene”) why can’t these masters of TV at HBO?
for instance imagine if this episode had ended this way:
ned, close on his face as it was getting ready to execute Lady. as he does we hear her wimper and then cut to a Nymeria in a clearing (looking enough like where Arya chased her away to know it is Nymeria) where Nymeria begins to howl, then a quick cut to the kennels at Winterfell where we hear/see Shaggydog howling, quick cut to the party of Jon and Tyrion where we see Ghost howling and finally a quick cut to Bran’s bedroom with the as yet unnamed “Summer” at his bed howling (the sound could be done like starting with one howl and each joining in when you see them while you can still hear the others even tho they have been cut away from). in the windowsill of brans rooms are a few crows watching him or whatever and at the howling they scatter flying off and the camera focus on one of them, staying ahead of it and the letting the crow fly ever closer, focused on the eyes, until all you see are just the two dark crows eyes … which then seamlessly cuts into Bran’s eyes flashing open … instant cut to black.
now THAT would have been a way to end the episode. at least that is how i would liked to have seen it … showing the connection of all the wolves, metaphor for the connection of all the Starks. the crows and the shot of one zooming in on the eyes and cutting to Bran would have been a nod to his dream.
they should let me write and direct this show … he he :) (only kidding obviously).
a few other small things:
1. they still haven’t fixed the credits and he actors and the wrong symbols. come on HBO get on that shite. it makes you just look stupid. maybe we need an email campaign?
2. MORE WOLVES! we need to know how strongly bonded the characters are with them. how hard is it to throw in a few second shot of Rickon playing with Shaggydog in the Winterfell courtyard while we are panning around there for some reason? and Ghost should be in every shot with Jon in this episode, just walking beside or behind him … same goes for Rob and Greywind and Arya and Nymeria. it would have made the two times the wolves defended the children more believable and it would make the loss of Nymeria and Lady even more impactful. Arya should have been more crying and hysterical at having to chase away Nymeria and it should have taken more than one rock.
3. i love the foreshadowing from Jamie and Tyrion’s conversation about cripples at the breakfast table … whoo that is going to be a doozy.
4. i’d like to see anybody complain about too much nudity and sex in this episode. it was very tame. just one scene of dany being weak before she decides to take things into her own hands and take more charge and a bit of Moma butt and a very tame “teaching” lesson. really only a prude would get upset about that.
5. please stop telegraphing the series finale with all of the obvious and long shots of the stupid looking dragon eggs (for the record the should be much more like polished glass/obsidian and very colorful and jewel like, that is one reason they are so valuable and sought after … they look like damn boring rocks, did they just hire a side team of art direction morons to take care of things in Malta and everything just went haywire? everything to do with the Dothraki and that story lines art direction just looks terrible (not Camelot terrible but terrible compared to the rest of the show) and a big jumbled mess.
6. Maisie/Arya is awesome. Sophie/Sansa is also very good. i would have liked to see Sansa with a bit more frantic reaction after a slow dawning on her that they are talking about killing Lady. i just don’t think that episode was quite right … she sort of just stood there being upset … she should have collapsed or had some sort of frantic motion to match a frantic emotional reaction.
again, please keep this in the context of that i am liking the show and would give it an B+/A- right now knowing that the most interesting parts of the story are yet to come.
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?,
crap. sorry. obviously i meant cut to Shaggydog AND Greywind in the Winterfell kennels.
and there is no edit anymore on here because i think i messed up and probably should have put some spoiler tags in that #5 there … tho it isn’t like D&D aren’t doing basically everything short of hiring a skywritting plane to say HEY THESE “FOSSILIZED” EGGS ARE IMPORTANT AND WILL PROBABLY HATCH!!!
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Obviously we’d all love more direwolves, but I think especially with this season I’m just going to enjoy what we get. I’m not sure if they’re importance will be missed, but remember In the book the connection between Stark/Wolf isn’t entirely believed until CoK if I rmeember right, at least for everyone who isn’t Bran and it isn’t until Jojen comes that we get the idea of WARGING
thotkQuote Reply
Conversation with my wife during the breakfast scene:
Wife – Wait, the knight and the queen are brother and sister?!
Me – Yep.
Wife – Eww.
Me – Twins, actually.
Wife – EWWWWWWW!
davebQuote Reply
Wait, don’t Benioff and Weiss know that Cersei killed the babies everytime she got pregnant by Robert? Or am I misunderstanding what they’re saying? That scene was way more creepy than touching for me, knowing she would never abide carrying Robert’s child.
RistoQuote Reply
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?,
The problem with D-wolfs scenes is as Kit Harington already said in a few interviews that they had to cut a few scenes because they couldn’t get the dogs to “act” or it took to long.
Oi!Quote Reply
Risto,
I don’t remember her every carrying Robert’s child to term in the book — and yes we know that she washed out RObert’s seed after he’d pass out. WHAT THIS SCENE DOES THO IS: It gives us all a big taste of Joffery don’t look anything like Robert cake & further help point out that Robert’s kids SHOULD look like him.
thotkQuote Reply
Risto,
Given that apparently they figured out Jon’s parentage (per GRRM), yes, I imagine that they did catch that in the books. Changes are made. It happens.
EleanorQuote Reply
Risto,
Van Patten said she’s lying. Which is a relief to me. I think it was included in there to throw people off the scent as to who the real father of Cersi’s children is.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
Oi!,
i get that. but not having Rickon at least playing/hugging/rough housing with Shaggydog in the courtyard as extras walk around for like 4 seconds and not have Greywind following Rob around just seems lazy. it can’t be THAT hard to get the dog/actors to do such things. the scene with Arya and Nymeria packing is excellent i just wish we could have seen on screen that the other children are also bonding with their wolves the same way. like when Sansa is confronted with the Hound/Ilyn it wouldn’t have been that hard to get Lady to crouch and growl in a protective way of Sansa.
and as for my ending i just think that sort of thing would have been more “mystical/magical” and reminded the audience that it is a bit of a fantasy show while also being very tone setting and metaphoric and just plain cool all at the same time. it is just like they weren’t trying hard enough to get creative or they aren’t truly inspired by the work in a deeper sense. if i, a nobody, could have thought of that surely some professional director/tv maker/writter could have thought of it.
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
I think showing the eggs so much is a way to compensate for not having Danys inner monologue where she feels very drawn to them. I think that if they ease up on the focus on the eggs in the second part of the series so that people forget about them a little then the finale will work really well.
Ingemar SvenssonQuote Reply
A Question for WIC,
I seem to recall in the previews (probably House Greyjoy) that there was a scene between Tyrion and.Theon in the courtyard of what appeared to be Winterfell.
While I suppose it is possible that the scene occurs when Tyrion briefly returns to Winterfell on the way back from the Wall, it seem s’more likely that the
Tyrion and Theon scene was supposed to happen just prior to the hunt in episode 1 and was cut from episode 1 in the final edit.
Does WIC (or anybody else who has seen episodes 1-6) know if the scene was, in fact, cut?
Steel_WindQuote Reply
Hey Winter, I was thinking, people use spoiler tags pretty indiscriminately main recap. Someone who’s read only the first book might feel a little overly secure in looking through them and might get burned with unwanted spoilers from 2, 3 and 4 that way. It might be prudent to specifically ask people to NOT tag events yet to come in season one, only ones in future books. That way they’ll know what not to look at Lucky for me I’ve read and re-read all of them and it isn’t an issue :D
Sorry for all the double negatives.
wingQuote Reply
Steel_Wind, that scene happens when Tyrion returns to Winterfell.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
IN! In the main recap! GAAAARRPPB!
wingQuote Reply
I’m going to talk about the script for episode 10 next. Consider this a double secret spoiler alert.
I think they’re trying to avoid a deus ex machina moment at the end of the season by providing some expectation. I commented in another post that, by the end of the season, non-readers will be begging for these things to hatch. I depended on how D&D chose to do it. Fortunately we have the script. The hour is ticking down. Dany places the eggs in the fire along with Drogo and Mirri. “Only death can pay for life” is uttered but is ambiguous as to its importance to the eggs. Then they show an “END CREDITS MONTAGE.” They cut to King’s Landing, then to the Riverlands, then to The Wall. Then END CREDITS. BLACKNESS. It’s over, right? The eggs are toast, right? WRONG!! — FADE IN — to the comet, Dany’s pyre is burning out, and BOOM! WE HAVE DRAGONS! FIN. It’s going to work. Boy, is that going to work.
Mike ChairQuote Reply
I think that what she was lying about is open to interpretation at this point, but I do think it very unlikely that Cersei would have told Cat about her ‘black haired boy’, and it be untrue. Such a claim is very easily falsifiable. What I think more likely was that she is greatly exaggerating her current sorrow over that first child’s death. Some things change in adaptation, but her love for her Joffrey over any possible child of Roberts is no doubt unchanged.
I also think that this scene will, in retrospect after learning about all of his dark haired bastards by different mothers, be seen as more evidence for the viewer of Robert’s dominant genes (and lack of a recessive blond allele), and thus is a Miss Marple-style clue that bolsters the main ‘murder mystery’ plot.
EvilPicnicQuote Reply
Mike Chair,
That sounds amazing – I hope that’s how it actually happens on screen.
A Bear_A BearQuote Reply
My own review of episode 2 is here. Good stuff, although a transitional episode for sure.
Andrew GavinQuote Reply
With respect, Jacopo, I don’t think ‘mystical/magical’ would be the right tone for the show at this point at all. Whereas the current Ep2 ending subtly hints at a Bran/Lady-death synchronicity I think your version would be overkill, and overly confusing for a viewer without further knowledge of the story at this point. Nice idea though!
I also think you might possibly be underestimating how hard it is to get these dogs, who by all accounts are not stage-trained, to ‘act’ convincingly.
EvilPicnicQuote Reply
Mo’s early review had me pretty worried because I knew she was a fan and has been carrying the flag for awhile now, but her entire article had an undercurrent of disappointment and negativity. I’m happy to say that I find myself disagreeing with just about all of her main grievances. Which isn’t to say that she is wrong, just that I am really enjoying a lot of what she took issues with. This episode took away most doubts of whether the TV show would “work” or not. Couple things:
- I thought this episode was MUCH, much stronger than the first.
- I loved Tyrion in the books, and I love him on screen. It’s much different than I read him, but I still love the TV Tyrion.
ChrisQuote Reply
Hi folks – love reading the reactions and insight. I recap the show for The Two Cents. If you’ll pardon the shameless self-promotion (yet again!), my review of Episode 2 is here.
I’d love to get your thoughts and feedback!
MegTTCQuote Reply
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?,
I’ll participate in a ‘get Jacopo into the Director’s Chair’ campaign! The wolf scene sounds very good. I felt a Bran/Lady connection was implied in last night’s ep, when it should have been a SUMMER/LADY connection that should have been felt, and maybe Summer howling in empathy would have been the moment for Bran’s eyes to open. I really wish we would have had some Bran dream sequences. I guess he is going to talk about them now that he is awake. They didn’t have to be budget busting scenes. The whole three eyed crow/green dreams thing was what helped take the sting out of Bran losing his legs. You knew there was a setup for something better..
purplejillyQuote Reply
dizzy_34,
he only says that she is lying, not what she is lying about. in that scene, cersei says that she is praying for bran to get better…
feyrbandQuote Reply
Here is the youtube link for Inside Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TqtrbY_lI4
RichardQuote Reply
Agreed. I don’t know what Mo Ryan was thinking. Last night’s episode blew my mind. It exceeded all my expectations.
LexQuote Reply
Andrew Gavin,
HES STILL THERE! ohhh and i thought he got our message
BeneQuote Reply
Mike Chair,
Also when people are being taught to withstand torture, or things of extreme stress, like medical patients getting their burns cleaned, or women in labor, it’s common to teach the patient to focus on a ‘totem’, something you can use to try and focus your mind on, something that you can use to try and shut everything else out, and only focus on the totem, to help you deal with the pain and stress. It seems to me like they are having her use the “DRAGONS’ EGGS, duh-NEER-iss” as her totem. It’s just not clear enough in the show for non-readers of her family’s deep connection to dragons, and so it doesn’t make too much since why these washed out camoflage pineapples laying in a box with candles would mean much to her. Dany’s story has suffered the most from translation so far, I believe. If the TV viewer could be made to understand her dragon heritage, if we could understand her pride at being ‘the blood of the dragon’, if we could hear her reciting to herself “I am the blood of the dragon, I am the blood of the dragon’, as her ‘power phrase’ through her tears as she stares at her dragon’s eggs totem while Drogo is behind her, it would be clearer to the viewer. Instead, it sure does seem like Stockholm Syndrome to me too. What choice does she have but to try and get the upper hand in this situation? She’s trying to make the best of it, before she gets to the next stage, which would be trying to slit his throat while he sleeps. Ygritte knows, she tells Jon Snow all men have to go to sleep sometimes!
PS I forget who it was that made that good phoenetic spelling of Ilyio announcing his gift to Dany but it was so well done it made me laugh and laugh.. LOL
purplejillyQuote Reply
Andrew Gavin,
Excellent Take Andy thanks!
SuperdeluxeQuote Reply
Lex,
Chris,
Another one is joining the party…Though I appreciate Mo Ryan s opinion, I must admit she scared the hell out of me!
I was afraid to watch second episode on the screenings, it was like: “oh, let s see what s wrong with?”
Afterwords, I was just confused, cause I liked it, I was blown away with it!!!
Different people, different opinion…
The RabbitQuote Reply
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?,
Your vision of the end with all the (dire)wolfs is better IMHO than what has been made by professionals in the TV series, well done, I very much like it, it shows the bond between the Stark children and the (dire)wolfs. After Jon talked with Ned before joining the group I missed Ghost following him, the reason could be that it is very difficult to work with dogs near horses and people, but, nevertheless, I missed the presence of Ghost beside Jon at nearly all the time. Ghost´s red eyes have to be a nightmare for the production staff…
IkertzekeQuote Reply
daveb,
That was my fiance’s reaction too. She also feels like everyone is doomed in this story.
Josh KQuote Reply
Can we get the ‘inside the episode’ video as a youtube link? It’s not showing on my comp :(
KieriynQuote Reply
Kieriyn,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TqtrbY_lI4
RichardQuote Reply
This is off-topic to be sure, but over at HBO’s official GoT page they’ve got episode 3 titled as “Lord of Snow”. What’s with preposition, it doesn’t make any sense. Or have they changed the title?
http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html#/game-of-thrones/episodes/1/03-lord-of-snow/index.html
RitariKnightQuote Reply
I think James Poniewozik got the whole dany/drogo dynamic down pat. anyone who is still questioning the “changes” in that relationship might do well to read his recap.
MetalgoddessAMBQuote Reply
MegTTC,
if Andrew Gavin can shameless self promote his useless reviews about eleven billionty times why not you? :)
although YOU didn’t invent Crash Bandicoot sooooo …
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Second review by OAW Commander-In-Chief
the whoa shit of the week… lol
WoodwyndQuote Reply
Risto,
Precisely what I wanted to comment on. In the book Eddard asks Cersei how she avoided getting with child from Robert, and she explains that she did once but had an abortion. So I think that the scene in the show just shows how Cersei can be so manipulative. I don’t think that she actually did care at all that she had it aborted just because it was Robert’s
KelleyQuote Reply
Woodwynd,
i love these reviews cause hes a very excited non-reader, and his reactions are priceless
WoodwyndQuote Reply
Let’s stop being jerks about the Andy Gavin thing, please? The only valid complaint people had was that he linked his first review multiple times. There’s nothing wrong with him linking a review each week, as long as he doesn’t overdo it (i.e. just link it once). I’m glad to read them.
LexQuote Reply
Mike Chair,
You can’t show anything after the final credits have rolled…people will turn the TV off and miss it and boy will they be mad.
And lets be honest..in the books Dany is obsessed with the eggs–the producers aren’t adding anything new here.
greenie88Quote Reply
Heh. My wife hasn’t ventured any guesses yet, but she begged me, at the end of the episode, to tell her what Bran says when he wakes up.
davebQuote Reply
I agree. Cut Andy a break.
HollyoakQuote Reply
Dude, it’s in the script. They’re doing it and you’ve got to trust them.
Mike ChairQuote Reply
Mike Chair, the script breakdowns we post on here are just FaBio’s best guess as to how the show will be written. They are purely speculative and he mentions that in each of his posts.
I tend to agree with greenie88. As cool as it would be to have the final scene after the credits, I don’t think it would be a good idea as too many people might tune out once the final credits roll. I think a better idea would be to fade to black for a few seconds, make people think the credits are about to roll, then fade back in to the final scene.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
How can they leave out the crow? Seriously! major plot just left out. Add in extra scenes that were not part of the series but leave out the most major plot line for Bran. idiots.
Frank BartlettQuote Reply
OT but there is an awesome GOT PS disaster at http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20310286_20483908,00.html
blackearQuote Reply
Frank Bartlett,
Maybe they thought the dream sequence wouldn’t work, and most likely want Bran to maybe have a re-telling of said dream sequence. Why not give the producers a chance before you write them off?
SuperdeluxeQuote Reply
I quite agree this would be much better, except that you missed one crucial point.
Bran awakes and looks straight into golden eyes of his wolf lying half on top of him. Then he names him.
If it was played right (by giving more time to kids bonding and naming their pups at the start) this would induce rivers of happy tears all over the world.
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
What I am doing, to the best of my ability, is to forget about the books while watching. It is an adaptation.
I think we will all get more enjoyment out of it if we can do that.
HollyoakQuote Reply
Hahaha, that doesn’t even make sense! Especially the psychedelic colors. And Ned looks like he’s the Lannisters’ squire or something, hurrying behind them with the horse. I get that maybe EW wants to display an illustration to keep their content unique, but how does this represent the series?
LinaQuote Reply
Winter Is Coming,
Okay. Never mind. I thought they were just “unofficial” viz.:
But, now I see you’ve got this “Filed Under: Speculation” thingy there.
So I guess it’s unofficial speculation. :-)
Anyway, going back to the impetus of this exchange, my point is still D&D must have plan for showing those things as often as they do and in the way they do it. If the series ends in the spirit of the referenced speculation it will work.
What you propose supra is not so inconsistent with the speculative script FaBio posted.
So, I post corrected. Shame on me for not knowing what in the Seven Hells those things were and shame on FaBio for putting the END CREDITS before the end. :-)
Mike ChairQuote Reply
I just wanted to give you guys props, this site continues to kick ass! You guys are really on top of things. I try to dig up all the reviews, ep recaps (like this post), updates, etc. but it’s really not necessary. You guys are always on top of it and have the posts and links up so quickly there’s really no reason to look further. Anyway, just figured I’d toot you guys horn a bit, it’s much appreciated. Great job!
jdp13Quote Reply
It says that there’s a montage under the credits. I’ve seen this done many times, the end of some anime for example, the last episode has stuff still going on while the credits roll and then at the end it cuts to black as the music fades away and comes back to a “bonus scene” sort’a thing before it ends completely. I’ve seen it work amazingly and in fact I think it’s one of the coolest ways of doing it. If done well it could be wonderful.
That being said, I actually thought this episode fell a little flat. I can’t wait to see what they do next episode as I hope we get more from certain characters.
I also want to mention that I had the same feeling reading the book. When I got to the point where I found out Bran was alive I felt cheated. It feels cheap, having someone seemingly killed only to have somehow survived. I’m glad I continued though and found many more meaningful parts (ei. Lady’s death, and more but I won’t spoil here because you all know what I mean).
TayleronQuote Reply
It’s interesting, I am a huge ASOIAF evangelist and bought up all the used copies of the first book I could find in Denver to distribute to my friends ahead of the premiere. I’ve converted several of them but my boyfriend never got around to reading the first book due to his work schedule. He’s been watching the episodes with me but what has captured him since he is primarily a musician isn’t the story as much as the intro score by Ramin Djawadi. He’s been playing with it on his guitar for days, adding and subtracting elements; just generally crawling around inside of it.
Something for everyone apparently…!
heroine addictQuote Reply
Seems like they made Theon Seem more douchey, how he was talking about having Robb’s back.
SuperdeluxeQuote Reply
Tayleron,
I just want to follow up on my last paragraph by saying something about “The Wire”… (Spoiler)
You know what would have made The Wire better? If Greggs died in season 1. I might sound like a dick, but what the hell was that? She gets shot up by gangsters and LIVES? That felt like the cheapest move they could have pulled. Still upset all the years later.
TayleronQuote Reply
It is a huge mistake not to include more scenes with the direwolves. There is no excuse. C’mon Eight Below, Homeward Bound, White Fang, the list goes on and on. . .
NicoleQuote Reply
OT, but I’ve just saw the “My sweet summer child” trailer dubbed into Spanish and it was ATROCIOUS. Unspeakably horrendous. Old Nan’s voice i soothing and low key instead of foreboding and chilling.
And to think that for this we should wait till May 9th… I wonder if Canal + is gonna get even one subscriber for this… and I think not.
CaedesQuote Reply
Glad I wasn’t the only one to notice the layers in Cersei’s speech to Cat. It mae that scene so much more creepy knowing she was totally fabricating er feelings!
Lord Ned’s HeadQuote Reply
Since ecerybody is still commenting about ep. 2 on this thread I wanted to ask if somebody else was bugged by Theon’s hair changing color in every other scene :s Well most of this happened in ep. 1 by the obvious reason of reshooting some pilot scenes. But still… It’s not that I’m really upset about this (trust me I’d even been happy with this series if Theon had been turned into a girl who had a crush on Robb*). I just wondered if it had been discussed already. If so than I humbly apologize, it is known.
* Totally random thought I know ;-)
LiesieQuote Reply
Liesie,
Grmf damn prepositions I always use them wrong: ‘for the obvious reason
LiesieQuote Reply
I’m simply not buying the whole ‘Cersei once loved Robert’ garbage — I didn’t buy it in the books either and there’s a very good reason for this: She’s in love with her twin brother and you know that’s been going on for a VERY long time. So, what? Does anyone honestly think Cersei would have tried to ‘quit’ Jamie after she married Robert? Give me a break. That’s not in her character at all.
I wish they hadn’t changed her in the show the way that have. Cersei ‘may’ have tried to love Robert, but you know that she was still messing around with her brother on the side — and with that being the case, it makes her just as repulsive as ever — if not more.
MarkQuote Reply
Mark,
Amendment: I don’t think her love for Robert was ever deeply implied in the books either, was it?
MarkQuote Reply
Mark,
I’m pretty sure she never liked him, let alone love. Ever. Her marriage was forced like mostly all the marriages in the series.
TayleronQuote Reply
Mark,
Not love as such, maybe. At least not in the way we think of it in our times.
in Westeros almost all marriages are arranged and that is something that most people expect and get accustomed to.
Even Catelyn and Eddard were not married out of love but because Eddards brother who was her real bethrothed died, and they still came to love each other after a fashion.
So it is believable that Cersei and Robert attempted to make it work and “love each other” in that sense, for a time.
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
So was the first-born Cersei mentioned in the episode her and Roberts son rather than her and Jamie’s?
Andy Tabelz TabelingQuote Reply
Andy Tabelz Tabeling,
If he indeed existed, yeah, he would be. She mentioned he had black hair.
TayleronQuote Reply
Liesie,
Yeah, they should change the Greyjoy motto to “We Do Not Sow, But We Do Highlight”
purplejillyQuote Reply
Andy Tabelz Tabeling,
Yes. Which doesnt follow the books exactly but overall i think they did good with this addition and i agree with the producers and the director that this makes it much clearer how humane the characters are.
In a more shallow literature only the good or “neutral” characters are allowed to be seen or exhibit qualities as three dimensional characters – which is not the case with Ser Martin Whitebeard.
And Lena did a masterful job with this scene. It is not simply Cersei remembering and sympathizing either.
Darker currents run underlined, even a taunt about the “little bird without wings” all rolled into one. You can guess she anticipates or wants Bran to actually die, but she still as one mother who lost a child to another wishes he would get better.
It was really good.
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
I dont think so. I have the same color hair and it gets lighter or darker depending on the time of the year, light during the day and most importantly how dirty or greasy it is.
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
Wow, that video is supremely disappointing. I was hoping Cersei was lying about that dead baby, just so we could establish her as an evil lying bitch even more, but…
…they claim she was distraught over losing her child? WHAT? Not only did she abort whenever Robert got her pregnant, her loathing of Robert is deep and ingrained. Remember how Robert says “she guards her cunt as if all the gold of Casterly Rock was hidden there” and how she says she “found other ways to pleasure him”? Remember in AFFC how she “killed those princes”?
Cersei has loathed Robert since day one, and she is proud and haughty. The TV Cersei is a completely different character. And for what reason? Make her more sympathetic somehow? Lame. I thought D&D were big fans of the books, but obviously they didn’t “get” it as much as I thought they did.
I did enjoy the episode overall, but this is the one change I just cannot digest. At all.
MorriganQuote Reply
Looks like the series is inspiring slightly too much passion in some people…
Sir ThursdayQuote Reply
It is unknown whether or not these guys are new viewers or not, but they sure had a strong reaction to the show:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/domestic-abuse/man-battered-kin-over-hbos-game-thrones-780215
SergioCQHQuote Reply
But exactly how long has it being going on for? Because if it had been going on around the time she was supposed to become betrothed to Rhaegar… Do you think she would have “quit” Jaime had she actually married Rhaegar?
BroQuote Reply
there is also an episode recap over at the Escapist,
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/gameofthrones/8822-Game-of-Thrones-Recap-Episode-2-The-Kingsroad.3
it goes on something like this.
Oh you Escapist girls you.
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/domestic-abuse/man-battered-kin-over-hbos-game-thrones-780215
:)
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
The best moment in episode 2 =D Dont know how to make the gif appear in this message but heres the link if the guys on the winter-is-coming site want to use it. I know allot of people have bean asking for this =) The picture is from IGNs site.
http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/116/1160731/tumblr_lk6sayF35K1qauecro1_250_1303738859.gif
NikstQuote Reply
Sir Thursday,
HAHAHA amazing! They must be truely hardcore fans.
TayleronQuote Reply
Bro,
It’s been going on since they were kids, but I don’t think she was ever nearly as in love with Jaime as he is with her. Her strongest feelings were for Rhaegar. But, I believe she hasn’t really ever loved anyone but herself.
pualoQuote Reply
just watched the episode with a few friends and came to the same conclusion, it would have been an awesome ending. How the hell can you not include howling wolves in the last shot. I do hope they give Shaggydog his name in this series, the most awesome wolf of the bunch in spite of that horrible Tim Allen movie…
KnurkQuote Reply
Potential ratings news?
http://politicallyillustrated.com/index.php/news_page/features/2610/
CadQuote Reply
Cad,
mmmm, it doesn’t give us a number.
BTW, more than two millions is the same rating GOT made last week. If it’s true, that’s a good thing because this weekend was easter and not HBO-free.
I think the “official” ratings datas will be out tomorrow
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
New Nicolaj Coster-Waldau interview on Thronecast: http://skyatlantic.sky.com/game-of-thrones/thronecast
My favourite interview with him so far.
ShandyQuote Reply
Cad,
Nice, looks like it retained all the viewers from week one.
Arrogant BastardQuote Reply
Arrogant Bastard,
actually, if the data is correct, it got more viewers. A part of the people who watched GOT last week weren’t HBO suscribers. This time, they all are
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
Elena Amici,
Sounds promising!
TayleronQuote Reply
pualo,
Um, that’s what I thought too. I always got the impression that she was mostly just using Jaime because of his position and notority. It may have started out as love but as the years went on, she realised she’d need to have a man completely loyal to her in order to get anywhere in that world Well that’s what I got from reading her and Jaime’s POVs in AFFC. Now that he’s lost “the best part of him” her opinion has changed
BroQuote Reply
Elena Amici,
I’ll say this for the so manieth time: last week numbers didn’t include the free viewers, Nielsen doesn’t count them. The only way to view this numbers as positive is the easter holidays: probably a lot of people are going to catch this episode later.
KnurkQuote Reply
Yep, bothers me a lot, actually.
DaveBQuote Reply
We still don’t know HOW the child died. If it comes out later that she had what you might call, a forth trimester abortion, that would make her plenty evil, while still developing the ‘the seed is strong’ hints AND fleshing out her character a bit (she may be evil and killed her own child because it was Robert’s but she was still traumatized and heartbroken doing it).
Let’s just see how it all plays out.
Oh, and
Is she in love with her brother? He is definitely in love with her. He swares he’ll never be with another woman. She on the other hand, falls on whatever sword best suites her–so to speak. And when Jaime comes back to King’s Landing, how much she cares he’s alive, seems to be measured in how much he can do for her. What she seems to love is power.
It makes sense then that Rhaegar would inspire something like love in her. And for the same reason, with Robert–before he calls out Lyanna’s name–she’d be conflicted, but perhaps still passionate.
wingQuote Reply
Just keeping the numbers stready from the premiere can definitely be viewed as a positive. It means the show has peaked the viewers interest, and they are tuning back in a week later to get more wrapped in the story. Many shows lose viewers after the pilot because they were disappointed/just not into the new series. With good critical reviews and word of mouth, the numbers should grow even higher over time. We want the ratings to follow the True Blood trajectory, not the Boardwalk Empire.
Ryan EQuote Reply
wing,
Re Cersei and Jaime, I pretty much said what you said in my comment before this one! I agree she’s power hungry and if she must use her brother to gain power, then so be it
BroQuote Reply
She started with Jaime long before he had any position or power. The books said it just felt natural for them to be together. I think part of it was experimentation, part of it was narcissism, part infatuation and maybe part of it was how his love made her feel.
wingQuote Reply
Knurk,
aren’t them? i thought in the “unofficial” data the free viewers weren’t counted, but they were in the official HBO ratings.
BTW, it’s still a good thing. Easter weekend and no ratings-dropping
What’s that? Lord OF snow’
http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html#/game-of-thrones/episodes/1/03-lord-of-snow/index.html
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
wing,
That’s what I said in another comment. It may have started out as love or whatever but later Cersei decided to use Jaime so she could influence him in some of his decisions perhaps.
Someone else pointed this out in another thread but they are twins so basically when Cersei is screwing Jaime, she’s loving herself! Mirror image of each other. That’s sick but it sounds like something the Lannisters would think! I think it’s in AFFC, that at one stage Jaime tries to convince Cersei that if the Targs can wed brother-to-sister, then so can the Lannisters.
BroQuote Reply
Cad,
Yeah i doubt they actually have the real ratings, “more than 2 million”, thats real specific. Plus no one else has ratings up yet… my moneys on it just being a ploy to get page views by ravenous fanboys by giving a ratings number that probably will be about right. I do love their one sentence quote from a “resident of San Francisco who operates an independent comic book store”
KyleQuote Reply
Shandy,
okay. seriously. that Thronecast thing they are doing on Sky Atlantic after each show is totally f**king rad.
Linda and Elio are skyped in on each Thronecast to talk about the difference between the books and show. they are like totally famous. i hope they get WiC to skype in sometime.
it is a tad cheesy, probably too much so for an HBO audience, but for a Sky audience it is very much like the stuff the BBC runs after each Dr Who episode where they talk about the show. definitely worth checking out.
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Here’s another otaku assemble review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGlVBvmC4o
Amanda ShortellQuote Reply
the main part of the Jamie and Cersei thing is VANITY and NARCISSISM. loving each other is the closest thing they can get to being in love with themselves. that is the bulk of it. i am sure some of it, as youths, was misplaced twin connection and probably some of that still remains. the bond of twins is a deep one. but the vanity of the House Lannister, for people raised as Lannisters, sort of removes the “taboo” barriers that would normally keep the “twin” bond on the right side of not icky. as they get older the vanity turns more and more into extreme narcissism and when you have a ready made mirror image of yourself to love in the flesh it is hard not to.
i do think some small part of it on Cersei’s part more than Jaimes has become calculating. i am not sure if that happens before the books or during them when she begins to see him as weaker than her (sans hand/defeated by Rob) and thus inferior to her thus dampening her narcissistic love interest in him?
and remember if the Targs could do it why not the Lannisters?
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
Seriously some people cant see the forest for nitpicking about the amount of leaves on a tree. and the forest btw looks brilliant!
Adam RobertsQuote Reply
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?,
Apart from the guy who hosts it; he’s a complete knob. And pronounces most of the names wrong
NickQuote Reply
Nick,
yeah. okay true that guy is a complete douchenozzle. but the concept is cool for a younger audience and might really help keep people engaged and clear on some details.
Who Is Jacopo Belbo?Quote Reply
I don’t think the wrong sigil in the opening credits is such a big deal. Sean Bean isn’t a Stark and Peter Dinklage isn’t a Lannister. They are only pretending. Plus how many people really know that Isaac Hempstead-Wright plays Bran, Emilia Clarke-Daenerys, etc.
ClambakeQuote Reply
The Smiling Knight,
Now there you go, trying to undercut my rising suspiscion that we can have Theon Greyjoy as the first ‘metrosexual’ of GoT. hehehehe Of course he’s higlighting his hair on the lonely days!
purplejillyQuote Reply
Yeah, that was my biggest disappointment with this episode, that scene should have been heartbreaking, but instead it just had very little impact.
a) We don’t get a fully developed connection between Arya and her wolf (although they did give her the once scene)
b) More than one rock, yes, it was too quick, more like a “shoo” than “goodbye forever, my wolf, I love you but they’ll kill you, you must flee”
c) I’ll have to watch it again, but I think they just showed Maisey’s reaction in kind of a medium/wide shot, from the side, and you couldn’t really get any emotion from it.
Sorry, but they just rushed and botched that scene for me. But overall, another pretty good episode, I’ll give this one 8 out of 10.
Nigel TufnelQuote Reply
Cad,
Jesus. I wrote a comment at that site and then couldn’t post it because I didn’t have flipping Facebook? Way to get traffic, idiots!
(No, I don’t have an e-mail address with hotmail, yahoo or aol either. If they’re doing webmails and they leave out gmail they’re freaking eejits.)
EleanorQuote Reply
wing,
Yes.
Check out AFFC when she’s despairing that nothing but Jaime had ever been any good. And being a woman with limited power means she sometimes has to have sex when she doesn’t want to have sex. Jaime has his strength and his sword and she does not even though she feels they are the same person, a difference that Cersei has bitterly resented since Day 1.
EleanorQuote Reply
Hi,
I think they made cercei very very kind in this show, u konw ,she is not bad at all. why?
tannazQuote Reply
tannaz,
I think it’s a good thing, keeping her becoming a card board cut out.
Petter Kristian VikestadQuote Reply
Check out these BTS videos on spoilertv.com for this episode:
http://www.spoilertv.com/2011/04/game-of-thrones-episode-102-kingsroad-5.html
RayQuote Reply
I’m convinced that Cersei was talking about a baby of hers that she murdered, I’m sure she was upset and grief stricken afterward which makes her story half true but she still did it because it was Robert’s baby. In AFFC doesn’t she feel bad about that friend of hers that she killed and gives herself reasons to why she did it? I think it’s the same here.
Mirri MazQuote Reply
So Dany has been continuously raped and all of a sudden she wants to please Drogo? Did this throw anyone else off?
PhantomQuote Reply
Phantom,
I think it’s more about taking control than pleasing him.
Avalanche3319Quote Reply
Clambake,
The weird thing is even though they were still wrong for episode 2, they were corrected for both episode 1 and 2 in the UK
NickQuote Reply
About Who Is Jacobo Belbo’s scene. First, it’s incredibly cheesy and I’m glad they did it as they did in the show. Second, Ghost doesn’t/can’t howl, for someone who’s crying about Game of Thrones not sticking to the book to the letter he sure don’t know crap.
Indeed. I’m baffled no one understood this. Of course she doesn’t want to please Drogo, but pleasing him might give her some more control over the situation AND will make things more bearable for her.
BolleHenkQuote Reply
Thanks to people above for linking to OtakuAssembles’ awesome Ep. 2 review! This guy has amazing energy and enthusiasm.
Check out the part of the clip where he GOES OFF on Joffrey! I think it captures exactly how we all felt about him when we first read aGoT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGlVBvmC4o#t=13m55s
Great episode overall!
AceQuote Reply
Ryan E,
Elena Amici,
well, keeping the numbers steady at 2.2 (?) million isn’t going to do it for us. A lot of viewers picked up the episode in later viewings (what amounted to the eventual 5.4 million, and those people didn’t turn in for the earliest viewing this week.
People say we don’t want to walk the Boardwalk Empire road, but I do. The total numbers for that show were 10.7 million viewers per episode (!). I think we’ll have to wait to the end of the season to see all the DVR and On Demand numbers added up and hope we can get in the same area as Boardwalk Empire.
But let’s wait for the official numbers first before we start looking at it through my glasses of doom.
KnurkQuote Reply
Dang.
I was waiting for Ginia Bellafante’s review.
Dolorous EddQuote Reply
Awaiting the ratings for ep 2, i checked a certain bay… And ep 2 is the second most downloaded tv-show right now. So that seems rather promising.
sjweningsQuote Reply
Knurk,
Sunday was a holiday though. Keeping steady despite that must mean something…
ZackQuote Reply
Zack,
jup, as I mentioned before that will be the only positive view on the ratings if the official number will be indeed 2 million. But I did see the numbers rise for Desperate Housewives, Celebrity Apprentice and Brothers & Sisters, so maybe the holiday wasn’t that big an influence.
KnurkQuote Reply
Some new viewers over at TWOP have already come up with the R+L=J theory (or in one case Aerys+L=J).
Did anyone work it out this quick from reading the books? I know I didn’t.
Can’t say I enjoyed Ep2 as much as Ep1 but that’s probably down to the fact I kept getting interrupted and it took over three hours to watch it.
Will watch again.
MormegilQuote Reply
Mormegil,
I didn t notice it .
I did not think of it at all, during my first read.
The_Rabbit01Quote Reply
LMFAO Oatku’s “Joffrey” rant @ 14:00 XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFGlVBvmC4o
Franny BeeQuote Reply
Here is another youtube review from a non-reader.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nATAYFwiRg
PetyrQuote Reply
As regards Cersei:
(Spoilers- past events but things you don’t find out until later books)
She liked the idea of marrying Rhaegar but lied to Jaime about it. She didn’t really know Rhaegar- he was simply a good looking prince. Robert was a good looking king, and I’m sure at some point she mentioned that at first she tried to stop seeing Jaime and make it work- not for very long, as once Robert called for Lyanna on their wedding night she hated him. Not love as such, but probably as near to it as anyone going into an arranged marriage might feel :(
I don’t think she loved Jaime as a person- I don’t think she even saw him as an individual with his own mind and personality, just the male reflection of herself. Hence her shock when he does things she doesn’t like.
I’m of the opinion that she killed the child- the change is simply from her having an abortion to poisoning the baby after it was born. Which is even worse. When she mentioned ‘bird without wings’ I couldn’t help but imagine her internal monologue talking about plucking off its feathers. A bird is a piece of meat. And I have no doubt she was distressed- the shock of giving birth to a child that wasn’t Jaime’s and repulsion at having carried Robert’s baby. That and she’s more than capable of putting on a show.
But the tears were real- as long as Bran lives, she might be caught out. Her children would be executed if Robert realised the truth. That would make her cry.
ShinyteapotQuote Reply
Mormegil,
I think I was halfway through the third book when [Robert or Rhaegar] + Lyanna hit me in the face and a short trip online soon after made me realize that Robert made no sense, so Rhaegar it is and a steadfast believer I am.
twincastQuote Reply
And I haven’t seen anyone comment on it yet: I found it mighty jarring that in the premiere they pronounced Maester “My-ster” and in the second episode they changed it to “May-ster”.
twincastQuote Reply
Thanks so much for the Otaku assembles video – his enthusiasm is infectious!
WhiteotterQuote Reply
purplejilly,
I have nothing substantive to contribute to this, other than that this comment made me laugh so hard I snorted coffee…
MegTTCQuote Reply
Petyr,
I seriously hope this guy isn’t as stupid as he seems. Omigod he’s, like, so douchey and like, hella wack.
Steven SwansonQuote Reply
My husband’s quotes from Sunday night (he’s never read the books):
1. “Who is his mother? This is so sad. He’s important. I bet Ned’s sister is his mother.”
2. “That evil shit is definitely the offspring of the bitch queen and her sick-ass brother.”
3. “They killed the dire-buddy? No, no, NO! Not the dire-buddy!”
LadyQuote Reply