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shapinglightI say almost clueless because I have in fact read the first book in the series now. I haven't read any further, though, so please don't spoil me.
More behind cut. Spoilers for the ep and for season 1.
So, so good to have this back. It seems like forever. That said, it was a very, very dark episode - brutal at times- and I suspect this is just the beginning.
I thought the episode was very cleverly structured, with the comet as a way of tying everything together. It caught us up with characters we already know and was sparing in its introduction of new ones. I think there were only four all told in this ep (Stannis Baratheon, the mysterious lady in red, Davos (? Did I get that name right? Stannis's henchman) and the very nasty bloke beyond the Wall with the bunch of gormless wives/daughters (why on earth don't they just gang up on him and kill him?) I'm sure there will be lots more new characters, but it's a good idea to space out their introduction.
Of the characters we already know, there were wonderful scenes for Dany and Jorah (sigh!), Cersei and pretty much everyone she had a scene with, Catelyn and Robb, Robb and Jaime, Bran and Maester Luwin (I love Maester Luwin - so hope he won't turn out to be evil), Tyrion and pretty much everyone he had a scene with (must be a Lannister thing), and just for once Ros (who has come up in the world, apparently) managed to keep her clothes on, even if everyone around her had taken theirs off.
The whole episode had an air of Everything Is Going to Hell about it, (which is probably a good time to introduce a couple of religious fanatics, Stannis and the lady in red, if I'm not mistaken), very much assisted by the Joffrey Baratheon method of kingship, which seems to consist of a sort of naive cruelty coupled with a permanent temper tantrum. I say naive, because it's still possible for people to talk Joffrey out of things if they're clever, as Sansa notably was when she saved the life of the shabby drunken knight (this, and Tyrion's commiseration with Sansa for her father's death being the only kind things anyone did all through the episode), because there's still an air of horrid little boy pulling the wings off flies about Joffrey. However, his treatment of his mother - way to go, Joff, blackmailing your own mother- later in the episode showed that he's not prepared to be told what to do or to listen to anyone for long. Sansa, I suspect, already knew this. Now, Cersei knows it too. It remains to be seen if she can outmanoeuvre him the way she did Littlefinger (was rather surprised he showed his hand, to be honest).
So, the warring factions are set up (or most of them, we haven't caught up with Renly or met the Greyjoys yet, but I suspect we're going to), there was a lot of posturing (the Robb/Jaime scene was posturing from beginning to end), we caught up with old acquaintances (can't call some of them friends), met some new people (some of whom we'd probably rather not have met), and there was some very nasty violence. I hope it was Joffrey who ordered the massacre of his supposed father's children, not Cersei, because I felt rather sorry for her in this episode. Probably turn out it was her, though.
Finally, my Dany/Jorah 'shipping heart sank when Dany told Jorah he was her strength, since, sadly, I know it can't end well, and he's obviously going to get the wrong end of the stick and think she means something she doesn't mean. :(
Trivial stuff: the direwolves have grown up a bit, haven't they, though I notice Ghost was missing yet again? Also, Bronn only got one line, but it was a good one, and the argument beyond the Wall about who really is a northerner was hysterical.
More behind cut. Spoilers for the ep and for season 1.
So, so good to have this back. It seems like forever. That said, it was a very, very dark episode - brutal at times- and I suspect this is just the beginning.
I thought the episode was very cleverly structured, with the comet as a way of tying everything together. It caught us up with characters we already know and was sparing in its introduction of new ones. I think there were only four all told in this ep (Stannis Baratheon, the mysterious lady in red, Davos (? Did I get that name right? Stannis's henchman) and the very nasty bloke beyond the Wall with the bunch of gormless wives/daughters (why on earth don't they just gang up on him and kill him?) I'm sure there will be lots more new characters, but it's a good idea to space out their introduction.
Of the characters we already know, there were wonderful scenes for Dany and Jorah (sigh!), Cersei and pretty much everyone she had a scene with, Catelyn and Robb, Robb and Jaime, Bran and Maester Luwin (I love Maester Luwin - so hope he won't turn out to be evil), Tyrion and pretty much everyone he had a scene with (must be a Lannister thing), and just for once Ros (who has come up in the world, apparently) managed to keep her clothes on, even if everyone around her had taken theirs off.
The whole episode had an air of Everything Is Going to Hell about it, (which is probably a good time to introduce a couple of religious fanatics, Stannis and the lady in red, if I'm not mistaken), very much assisted by the Joffrey Baratheon method of kingship, which seems to consist of a sort of naive cruelty coupled with a permanent temper tantrum. I say naive, because it's still possible for people to talk Joffrey out of things if they're clever, as Sansa notably was when she saved the life of the shabby drunken knight (this, and Tyrion's commiseration with Sansa for her father's death being the only kind things anyone did all through the episode), because there's still an air of horrid little boy pulling the wings off flies about Joffrey. However, his treatment of his mother - way to go, Joff, blackmailing your own mother- later in the episode showed that he's not prepared to be told what to do or to listen to anyone for long. Sansa, I suspect, already knew this. Now, Cersei knows it too. It remains to be seen if she can outmanoeuvre him the way she did Littlefinger (was rather surprised he showed his hand, to be honest).
So, the warring factions are set up (or most of them, we haven't caught up with Renly or met the Greyjoys yet, but I suspect we're going to), there was a lot of posturing (the Robb/Jaime scene was posturing from beginning to end), we caught up with old acquaintances (can't call some of them friends), met some new people (some of whom we'd probably rather not have met), and there was some very nasty violence. I hope it was Joffrey who ordered the massacre of his supposed father's children, not Cersei, because I felt rather sorry for her in this episode. Probably turn out it was her, though.
Finally, my Dany/Jorah 'shipping heart sank when Dany told Jorah he was her strength, since, sadly, I know it can't end well, and he's obviously going to get the wrong end of the stick and think she means something she doesn't mean. :(
Trivial stuff: the direwolves have grown up a bit, haven't they, though I notice Ghost was missing yet again? Also, Bronn only got one line, but it was a good one, and the argument beyond the Wall about who really is a northerner was hysterical.