Game of Thrones ep 3: Lord Snow
Jul. 4th, 2011 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightRunning pretty much on empty, having had two hours' sleep on Saturday night (:yawn:) and was rushed off my feet most of yesterday, but I managed to re-watch another GoT ep today.
Thoughts behind cut, with spoilers.
This episode was all about swords. Well, not all about, but there's a big sword thread running through it - from Jon Snow's easy disarmiing of his fellow recruits at the Wall, to Robert's bad tempered reminiscences about his first kill, to Jorah and Rakharo discussing the relative merits of Jorah's sword versus Rakharo's giant sickle thing-y (foreshadowing of what will happen when the two weapons are pitted against each other in ep 9), to Arya's dancing lesson and the look of delight on Ned's face at having managed to give at least the daughter he understands something she really wants, which slowly changes to a look of foreboding as the clash of Arya and Syrio's wooden practice swords becomes the clash of steel in Ned's imagination.
By the end of the episode, we have plenty more indications of just how out of his depth Ned - and all the Starks, since Catelyn is no better - are in Kingslanding. First, Ned turns down what comes across to me on second viewing as an overture of - well, not friendship, but slightly less hostility - on the part of Jaime Lannister (not that it would have outlasted any revelation about who pushed Bran out of that window), then he manages to amuse the members of the king's small council (except for Renly, perhaps) by making the insane suggestion that the crown should live within its means. Then he makes things even worse with the daughter he doesn't understand by buying her a doll - something she hasn't played with in years - in recompense for the death of Lady the direwolf. In fact, the only person more clueless than Ned in the vipers nest that is Kingslanding is Catelyn, for actually believing Littlefinger would never betray her. Well, actually Viserys Targaryen is as clueless as Ned, but I'll get to him in a minute.
Elsewhere, Cersei gives Joffrey some advice about kingship which veers wildly between reasonably sensible to encouraging Joffrey's more psychopathic tendencies (Joffrey's own idea about the king having a standing army is probably the most sensible thing he says all season). Then there's a Cersei/Jaime scene, in which it was pretty plain to me that Jaime's feelings for Cersei are more passionate than hers for him.
In fact, apart from the Arya's dancing lesson scene, which even so has a gloomy ending, the most positive scenes in the episode focus on Jon Snow and Danaerys (have I spelt that right this time?). Jon is miserable to start with, but by the end of the episode, thanks to Tyrion, he is beginning - slowly - to make something of his time on the Wall - to forge relationships, in fact. Dany, meanwhile, is, as she tells Jorah (and yes I loved their scene, why do you ask?) learning to speak like a khalisee. She says stop and the whole khalasar stops (except for Khal Drogo, who had ridden ahead, and I do wonder if he ever turned around and thought, hmm, where did everyone go?). Dany hasn't thrown off her ingrained deference to Viserys quite yet, though, since her response to his utterly deranged attack on her is to tell Rakharo she doesn't want him harmed. But then he is her brother, so I suppose it's natural. Jorah, however, clearly loses any minimal respect he might have had for Viserys, and Rakharo never had any to start with, and shows it when he tells Viserys he must walk (probably the greatest of all Dothraki insults).
In the previous episode Doreah told Dany that outside their tent Drogo was 'the mighty khal, but inside he belonged to her.' Dany has taken that lesson very much to heart, and her pregnancy and their intimate scene in the tent serve to point out how much their relationship has changed. At this point in the story, it very much looked like Dany's arc could go the 'traditional' route, with her investing everything in her husband, and, if she lost him, in her son. But that didn't happen, in great part due to the way Dothraki society works, which is sort of ironic since ultimately Dany becomes khal in her own right.
Lots more good stuff - every scene with Tyrion in it is wonderful, but his exchange with Yoren is priceless - and lots of delicious foreboding about what exactly is lurking beyond the Wall.
Adore this show to pieces, and even more on rewatching.
Thoughts behind cut, with spoilers.
This episode was all about swords. Well, not all about, but there's a big sword thread running through it - from Jon Snow's easy disarmiing of his fellow recruits at the Wall, to Robert's bad tempered reminiscences about his first kill, to Jorah and Rakharo discussing the relative merits of Jorah's sword versus Rakharo's giant sickle thing-y (foreshadowing of what will happen when the two weapons are pitted against each other in ep 9), to Arya's dancing lesson and the look of delight on Ned's face at having managed to give at least the daughter he understands something she really wants, which slowly changes to a look of foreboding as the clash of Arya and Syrio's wooden practice swords becomes the clash of steel in Ned's imagination.
By the end of the episode, we have plenty more indications of just how out of his depth Ned - and all the Starks, since Catelyn is no better - are in Kingslanding. First, Ned turns down what comes across to me on second viewing as an overture of - well, not friendship, but slightly less hostility - on the part of Jaime Lannister (not that it would have outlasted any revelation about who pushed Bran out of that window), then he manages to amuse the members of the king's small council (except for Renly, perhaps) by making the insane suggestion that the crown should live within its means. Then he makes things even worse with the daughter he doesn't understand by buying her a doll - something she hasn't played with in years - in recompense for the death of Lady the direwolf. In fact, the only person more clueless than Ned in the vipers nest that is Kingslanding is Catelyn, for actually believing Littlefinger would never betray her. Well, actually Viserys Targaryen is as clueless as Ned, but I'll get to him in a minute.
Elsewhere, Cersei gives Joffrey some advice about kingship which veers wildly between reasonably sensible to encouraging Joffrey's more psychopathic tendencies (Joffrey's own idea about the king having a standing army is probably the most sensible thing he says all season). Then there's a Cersei/Jaime scene, in which it was pretty plain to me that Jaime's feelings for Cersei are more passionate than hers for him.
In fact, apart from the Arya's dancing lesson scene, which even so has a gloomy ending, the most positive scenes in the episode focus on Jon Snow and Danaerys (have I spelt that right this time?). Jon is miserable to start with, but by the end of the episode, thanks to Tyrion, he is beginning - slowly - to make something of his time on the Wall - to forge relationships, in fact. Dany, meanwhile, is, as she tells Jorah (and yes I loved their scene, why do you ask?) learning to speak like a khalisee. She says stop and the whole khalasar stops (except for Khal Drogo, who had ridden ahead, and I do wonder if he ever turned around and thought, hmm, where did everyone go?). Dany hasn't thrown off her ingrained deference to Viserys quite yet, though, since her response to his utterly deranged attack on her is to tell Rakharo she doesn't want him harmed. But then he is her brother, so I suppose it's natural. Jorah, however, clearly loses any minimal respect he might have had for Viserys, and Rakharo never had any to start with, and shows it when he tells Viserys he must walk (probably the greatest of all Dothraki insults).
In the previous episode Doreah told Dany that outside their tent Drogo was 'the mighty khal, but inside he belonged to her.' Dany has taken that lesson very much to heart, and her pregnancy and their intimate scene in the tent serve to point out how much their relationship has changed. At this point in the story, it very much looked like Dany's arc could go the 'traditional' route, with her investing everything in her husband, and, if she lost him, in her son. But that didn't happen, in great part due to the way Dothraki society works, which is sort of ironic since ultimately Dany becomes khal in her own right.
Lots more good stuff - every scene with Tyrion in it is wonderful, but his exchange with Yoren is priceless - and lots of delicious foreboding about what exactly is lurking beyond the Wall.
Adore this show to pieces, and even more on rewatching.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 12:11 am (UTC)Adore this show to pieces, and even more on rewatching.
Awww! Yay! I'm SO happy that you love it so much.
Also, I just reread Ned's intro to the Small Council and ... I dunno, the screenwriters really seem to have gone out of their way to make Ned seem rude and uncivil to everyone he encounters in King's Landing, because in the books, he's suspicious but polite. Like, he sort of does know how to play the "Game of Thrones" a LITTLE bit, so it's not totally insane that Robert makes him Hand.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 11:22 am (UTC)I'm completely smitten. Haven't loved anything so much since BtVS/AtS, except for The Wire.
Re: Ned - of course Ned's not alone among Starks in bristling up whenever he sees a Lannister. Uncle Benjen is very rude to Tyrion. I don't really understand it, have to say. Okay, so Jaime Lannister stood and watched as Ned's father and brother were murdered, but then, as Jaime points out, so did 500 other knights. Why the extreme antipathy? Is it because of something we'll learn about down the road a bit?
And I do agree that Ned's cluelessness is so extreme that it's hard to believe even his friend Robert could have thought he would ever make a competent King's Hand. I know the showrunners wanted to create a big contrast between honourable, honest Ned and the backstabbing world of the court, but I do agree they seem to have gone a little too far. Or even a lot too far.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-06 07:41 am (UTC)Oh yes she cares for him but she wants the crown & or at the very least the power behind it even more. The sad thing is that Jamie knows it and that she would throw her him to wolves/dragons or whoever to keep it.
I am glad you have enjoyed the series so much. Your thoughts have been encouraging me to go back & re-read the books before the new one gets here in a couple of of weeks. All I need are a few extra hours in each day or even less sleep than I'm getting now. Oh well.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-06 11:39 am (UTC)Jaime does seem like someone in thrall to his emotions - a very different kettle of fish to his twin sister. It seems almost inevitable that at some point she'll betray him horribly.