Game of Thrones - First of His Name

Holy crap - the season is halfway done! I can't even wrap my head around that; I swear time seems to pass faster when Game of Thrones is on, it's amazing and a little bit scary! I need there to be more episodes per season, ten is just not enough...and Lord knows there is plenty of material. Alas, ten is it and we must make do with what we're given. So, looking back at last night's episode...with a couple of my favorite quotes/conversations added in for good measure.

House Lannister - The episode opens with little Tommen being crowned as King; the High Septon intones prayers over him, everyone shouts "LONG MAY HE REIGN" and since no one dies or is even injured, this is considered a win in terms of King's Landing events. Tommen may have just been crowned King but he can't help sneaking glances at what will eventually be his real prize; Margaery, who just smiles right back at him...until the Queen Regent steps in between their exchange of smiles with her usual look - you know, a look that makes your blood run cold.

King Tommen is just as cute as a button - which I'm sure is how every King wants to be described...

She makes her way across the throne room and you expect a typical Cersei-esque verbal smack down to follow because 1) Cersei isn't ever nice, that's just her nature and 2) In the books, Cersei hates Margaery with every fiber of her being and never hesitates to let the girl know...but I guess the anger and despair over losing her first born has finally settled into something like sadness and so the two share a fairly civil conversation where Cersei drops this information to Margaery when Margaery tells her she is still mourning her husband of mere hours, King Joffrey...

“He would have been your nightmare,” Cersei tells the younger woman bluntly. “You never love anything in the world the way you love your first child. It doesn't matter what they do. And what he did, it shocked me. Do you think I’m easily shocked? The things he did shocked me.” Turning to Tommen, she muses “He’s only a boy. A good boy, a decent boy. He always has been. Who was the last decent king, I wonder? He could be the first person to sit that throne in fifty years who actually deserved it…He will need help if he’s going to rule well.”

Cersei lets Margaery know that she will help broker the girl's marriage to Tommen and does just that, going to see her father Tywin later in the episode to talk about their family legacy and how the alliance with the Tyrells will still benefit them. Tywin confides in Cersei that the mines of Casterly Rock have run dry; the Lannisters, who are known to be so rich that they "shit gold" don't have anymore money - they need the Tyrells now more than ever, especially since the crown owes the Iron Bank of Bravoss countless untold amounts of money. Margaery and Tommen will be married in a fortnight (that's two weeks y'all, in case you were wondering) and Cersei will marry Loras a fortnight after that. She wants to discuss Tyrion but since her father is one of the three judges for Tyrion's trial, he tells her he can't discuss it and she leaves her father with this:

“The Lannister legacy is the only thing that matters,” Cersei says. “You started war to protect this family. Turned your back on Jaime for refusing to contribute to its future. What does Tyrion deserve, for lighting that future on fire?” 

Cersei continues her streak of unusual behavior, going to make nice with Prince Oberyn and taking a stroll through the gardens together. She tells him that there is no point in having any power when you can't wield it - and as always, that is Cersei's ultimate problem - she's a woman in a place where women have no real power. She talks with Oberyn about her daughter Myrcella, who was shipped off to Dorne as part of a future marriage contract two seasons ago and Oberyn assures her that the last time he saw Myrcella she was playing in the Water Gardens with two of his daughters. Cersei asks that Oberyn give Myrcella a gift from her; she missed the girl's nameday (that's a birthday in Game of Thrones speak) and since Myrcella loves being on the open water, she's had a small ship made for her daughter. Oberyn agrees and tells Cersei:

“We don’t hurt little girls in Dorne,” Oberyn, who has eight daughters of his own, and badly needs to believe his claim, tells Cersei. Cersei’s gift is to try to dispel him of his illusions. “Everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls,” she replies...

I want to dress like the women on this show - that dress Cersei is wearing looks about a thousand times more comfortable than anything I own & she still looks fierce. Although the sleeves might be problematic...

House Targaryen - We go to Meereen and camp Daenerys for only about five minutes of the episode, but it's a good scene. We get to see who makes up Daenerys' small council; which is of course exactly who you think: Ser Jorah, Ser Barristan, Daario Naharis, Grey Worm (still such an unfortunate name) and Missandei. Daario mentions offhand that he captured Meereen's navy for Dany because "he heard she liked boats" and she muses that with ninety ships, eight thousand Unsullied and two thousand Second Sons she should be able to take King's Landing, right? Which - why does she not also add to that list that she has three very large and getting larger every day dragons?? Hello?!? Ser Jorah tells her that news from Astapor and Yunkai have come in and the people she liberated mere weeks ago turned back to slaving the minute she left the cities; which spurns Daenerys to make a decision - she won't leave Meeren, she will stay and rule because by her logic if she can't even control Slaver's Bay, how can she control the seven kingdoms of Westeros?

Making the decision to stay in Meereen - which that's cool, because have you guys seen the pyramid she's living in?

House Stark - The Starks really kind of owned this episode; all of the Stark children were featured this week and made up most of the storyline; so we'll start with the ladies, specifically Sansa because her storyline just let out SO much information and touched on things that go all the way back to the first episode, four years ago!

Such a great picture of Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) - she's beautiful.

Sansa and Littlefinger (also know as Petyr, if I start randomly typing that name...) make their way to the Eyrie, the home of Sansa's Aunt Lysa - this is the crazy woman we met back in season one who was breast-feeding her eight year old; she's essentially one fry short of a Happy Meal and her son has some real issues too. Granted, Sansa has never met her Aunt Lysa and so when Lysa puts on the loving, happy Aunt display Sansa naturally crumbles and allows herself to be taken in by her Aunt Lysa because the poor girl hasn't had any contact with any of her family in something like almost two years now. Once Lysa and Littlefinger tell Sansa and Robin (Lysa's son) that Sansa must be known to everyone else at the Eyrie as Alayne, Littlefinger's nephew, the children leave the room and things really get crazy...

Lysa practically climbs Littlefinger; she has been eagerly (too eagerly...oh Lord) awaiting his return so they could be married and she just can't stand it anymore - she wants them to get married today, right now even. Littlefinger tries to persuade her that they should wait just a bit longer so they can invite the other Lords of the Vale but Lysa interrupts him, telling him no wife would ever do the things she'd done for him: she put the poison in her late husband Jon Arryn's wine at Littlefinger's behest, she wrote the letter to Catelyn blaming her husband's death on the Lannisters...and it quickly become clear that Littlefinger has been orchestrating chaos all along - The death of Jon Arryn and the Stark's belief that his death came at the hand of the Lannisters are the two things that spurned Ned Stark to go to King's Landing way back in episode one. Those simple acts only heightened the tension between Houses Lannister and Stark, so that when Littlefinger casually suggested that he'd seen the blade used in the attempt on Bran Stark's life in the hands of Tyrion Lannister, Catelyn Stark is then moved to kidnap Tyrion...and lo and behold, all of this business leads to war! And Littlefinger has been pulling the strings and manipulating the burgeoning chaos the whole time!

Not a huge reveal for book readers but still really satisfying to see finally revealed after four years. Littlefinger married Lysa right then and there, if only to get her to shut up about all the things she's done for the love of him.

Calm down Lysa...but thanks for spilling those secrets first...now calm down.

Lysa meets with Sansa and plies her with lemon cakes (yay for lemon cakes - Sansa's favorite!) and it really seems like the two of them are going to get along just fine...but you have to remember that Lysa is one thousand percent nuts...and it doesn't take long for that to show itself. She's convinced that Littlefinger is only interested in Sansa because she's Catelyn's daughter and she's young and beautiful...she wants to know what she's let Littlefinger do to her and even goes so far to ask if Sansa is pregnant...all the while she's gripping Sansa's fingers so hard she's about to break them. Sansa is in tears and assures her Aunt that she's still a virgin...she tells her Littlefinger only thinks of her as a stupid little girl who can't lie well and Lysa finally lets up and tells Sansa she will remain a virgin until the time comes when she can marry her cousin Robin - and Sansa cries even more...because; well, Robin is just as insane as his mother. The poor girl can't win.

Leaving the Eyrie, we head to the Riverlands where we catch up with Arya and The Hound. Arya is muttering her prayer of names before they go to sleep and The Hound is annoyed with her; he wishes she'd just shut up. She tells him she can't sleep without saying the names and after he angrily tells her to hurry up and finish, she says the last one: The Hound. Upon waking up later, The Hound can't find Arya but eventually stumbles on her practicing her water dancing; they type of sword fighting that she was taught by her Bravossi sword master back in season one. The Hound makes fun of her, telling her the greatest killer (according to her) in the seven kingdoms never made a kill and then he gives her permission to test her water dancing on him - and of course, her little Needle can barely pierce his armor. He tells her what we all already know; it doesn't matter if you have elegant training, in the end the man with armor and a bigger sword will always win.

She may be little & she may be fierce...but she still has a lot to learn.

Last but not least, we head to Craster's Keep where both Bran and Jon Snow have converged; this is the closest two Stark children have gotten in ages! Locke serves as a scout for the Night's Watch and tells them there are eleven men at Craster's and some dogs tied in a shed to the far corner of the Keep; he's trying to keep Jon from discovering his brother Bran so he can take him back to Lord Bolton and claim himself a holdfast and lands of his own; he'd become a Lord of the North in his own right if he can only secure Bran.

The noise of the attack (thankfully) distracts Karl and the rest of the men at the Keep from torturing and most likely raping Meera Reed to get information from Bran and Jojen; I especially like that Jojen told Karl he was a Seer and then very slyly tells him that what he saw was that Karl would die that night; his body would be burned and his bones would be covered by snow. Just when you think Locke is about to make off with Bran, Bran wargs into Hodor and the giant of a man breaks Locke's neck and rescues Bran...who wants to see his brother, Jon but Jojen convinces him that if Jon knew he was there, he would never let him continue to go North...and that is where his path lies. Bran concedes, they free Summer and are on their way. And my heart breaks a little bit...because they were SO close...but I understand.

Jon & Locke...before Locke gets his neck broken...

Meanwhile, Jon and his brothers kill all the mutineers at the Keep and Jon decides to take on Karl himself; Karl who was the best hired killer in all of King's Landing. Good choice Jon, good choice. Karl and Jon are fairly evenly matched but Karl is putting a beat down on Jon just the same, when one of Craster's many wives steps up and stabs Karl in the back...and when Karl turns around to deal out some hurt on her, he seems to forget that he's left a trained warrior behind him...and that's when Jon puts his sword through the back of Karl's head and right out his mouth. Which, this show is violent and gory all the time, but that was spectacularly nasty. It also shows that Jon is the first of Ned Stark's children that is beginning to realize that you can be honorable but sometimes you have to fight unfairly if you want to win - is it honorable to stab a man in the back (of the head)? No. But it's better than being killed yourself. The brothers of the Night's Watch save the day..so to speak...and the episode closes with Craster's Keep being burned to the ground.

Elsewhere is Westeros – Brienne and Podrick seem to have become the buddy comedy duo; Arya and The Hound are starting to grate on one another in a bad way, so we need a new duo. Brienne is endlessly frustrated with Podrick because he can’t ride a horse very well (seriously, hilarious…that boy was about to come off that horse) and he can’t cook a rabbit without making flambé because he apparently has no clue you take the fur off first. He confesses he spent most of his time with Tyrion pouring wine but when he confesses he killed a knight of the Kingsguard during the Battle of the Blackwater to save Tyrion, Brienne softens toward him and the on the road comedy continues….

I couldn't find a picture of Brienne & Pod...so we get Jaime "gifting" Pod to Brienne, from last week...

And - that's it. Another episode over. I cannot believe it's already at the halfway point of the season, but there you have it. Tyrion's trial starts next week and that is riveting stuff in the books - I can't wait to see it play out on screen because Peter Dinklage never disappoints. So, until next week....

To end this post - I stumbled onto this video a couple weeks ago and it cracks me up, it really does. Honestly; I love the song Let it Go but it is getting a wee bit old at this point...this refreshes it. :) Plus, it combines two of my favorite things: an awesome Disney song and Game of Thrones.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/u6KLzjXAV3s&source=uds