OT - Game of Thrones Episode 4 Open Thread
Open Thread on Episode 4 of Season 3.
Please no book spoilers - I'd recommend/request you start a separate thread if you want to discuss the episode in relation to the books. Mucho gracias.
Nice open with Jaimie's hand hanging around his neck.
Things continue to get out of hand...
I expect a popular episode if what was written in the last open thread is true.
Random question about the last episode. Was the music supposed to start before they cut off his hand?
April 21st, 2013 at 10:00 PM ^
I'm pretty sure not. I don't think that a mistake like that would or even could be made.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:58 PM ^
Daenerys Targaryen is the most bad ass woman ever
April 21st, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
of all the Stark children she is the most like Ned.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^
A lot of critics early on liked to point and scream "look at the objectification of women" and "how can anyone celebrate a TV show that demeans women."
I doubt they'll eat crow and admit they're wrong, but in Arya Stark and Daenerys Stormborn Game of Thrones has probably two of the strongest female characters in televion/media right now.
Throw in Margary's super intelligence and I would say the Game of Thrones universe does a pretty awesome job presenting amazing female characters.
Most of the men are idiots. Unless they're dwarves or eunuchs. Ned was your "hero" but he was too dumb to play the game and lost his head for it. Besides, there's a fair amount of penis in there too. The only thing that's silly is the sexposition, and they seem to have gotten away from that.
Edit: I can figure if this was voted on by someone who hates dwarves, eunuchs, and/or penis, or someone who loves men, Ned, or sexposition.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
April 22nd, 2013 at 12:53 AM ^
Jon Snow is the most like Ned. Ironic, isn't it?
but why would that be ironic? I could see if he was the most like Catelyn that would be ironic, but Ned is his father and he was raised by the man his entire life. I guess if he was raised by someone other than Ned and turned out just like him it could be ironic, but in this case I have to be honest...I don't see a lot of irony here. Just because he had a different mother doesn't make him any less Ned's.
April 22nd, 2013 at 11:40 AM ^
based on certain implications from the novels that I will not go in to here to avoid spoilers. George RR Martin has never 100% spelled it out though, but there are some interesting theories floating around about Snow's parentage that I will be happy to discuss on Twitter but not here in a spoiler-free space.
EDIT: If you don't have Twitter or just want to read for your self, click here for what I was referring to. Warning - spoilers from the books ahead, don't click if you don't want spoilers.
Jon Snow's mother is a pretty prevalent plot line in Season One, so we're not totally in book only talk with that.
Though I would suggest nobody clicking that link if you are not a book reader. I made the mistake once of perusing A Song's Wiki just to try to get a little background info on a character (it might have even been as innocent as looking up a name) and I saw that Ned Stark's date of living had an end date. Needless to say, Season One Episode Nine didn't quite pack the punch with me that it could have.
Let me second that. I too tried to research some while reading and found out a couple horrible facts... I also made a mistake and commented out loud about a character who may or may not have died in book 5 and my wife still won't let me live it down.
I recommend the towerofthehand.com because you get to set your level by both TV series and books.
jdon
I've been reading the books right before the seasons start so I have them pretty fresh in memory. I have to be careful on reddit because sometimes I think a thread will be ok and then someone drops a huge spoiler for book 5 even though the thread is about book 3. My wife isn't reading the books, but she spoiled herself about part of the RW by reading about casting changes. She came home one day and said, "OMG, you didn't tell me [insert character] died!" to which I replied, "That's because I didn't know. Thanks." Luckily, that scene was so much more than just that, so it wasn't such a big deal.
+1 for towerofthehand.com. That is an awesome website.
As much as possible since I too learned that Stark loses his head. So what I'm saying here is complete speculation, Re: the show, and what may or may not happen in the books. I in no way need anyone who's read them to confirm/deny/say we don't know whether it's accurate or not. It's solely for TV show speculation-
I always thought it would make sense that Snow's mother was Baratheon's sister who Ned loved. Which would double the reason for his wife to hate him, so it might be a good idea to keep it secret. And it would also thus make Snow an heir to the throne (if you believe Baratheon as a rightful king and not think that, even though he was mad, Targaryen was the king, thus making Daenerys the person who should truly be on the throne. I mean, assuming you think any of them should be and aren't big on democracy.)
The King didn't have any sisters. It was Ned's sister that King Robert loved, so that is unlikely. To clarify Lyanna was a Stark that Robert was betrothed to during his rebellion, however she tragically died before the end of the war leaving Robert to marry Cersei.
April 22nd, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^
It is ironic. Most definitely.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:20 PM ^
She is most like Lyanna, who will probably be described in further detail later this episode by Jojen and Meera.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^
I'll take the mercenaries *and* the dragon, thankyouverymuch.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^
Usually I watch the episode a second time Monday after work, but holy shit I might watch it again right now. Unreal episode all around.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^
This was definitely the best epsiode so far - my favorite scene would have to be when Theon is confiding in his "friend"... He basically summed it all up by saying that he had a choice... but he chose wrong. But frustratingly, he can't see that he does have a chance at redemption. That Ramsay guy is a maniac.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:18 PM ^
Oh trust me, I know
In the books, Theon's mental state starts dehumanized and is slowly peeled back like an onion but here it is extremely visceral how he is progressing towards dehumanization. The line about Robb inherting the north simply because he was born and that Theon was born of the iron islands really makes his actions in the last books even more endearing also. I just feel so much pity for him and while his choice did end up screwing the Starks (and others) over, it was because he felt like he had to be loyal to his own roots. Unfortunately, his people betrayed him. Poor guy.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:26 PM ^
Martin has an amazing talent for shades of gray. There are very few characters who are totally bad or totally good and their complexities are tremendous. It would've been easy for anyone to write, for example, an arrogant twat who's boffing his sister and shoving kids out windows to hide it, but Martin does an amazing job of teasing out the intracacies of people like Jaime Lannister and Theon Greyjoy.
April 21st, 2013 at 11:16 PM ^
and I agree 100%. In both watching and reading the books I find myslef constantly flipflopping as to whether I like certain characters or not. In the first season I absolutely hated Jaime Lannister and now I find myself feeling sorry for him and wanting him to find the strength to weild a sword left-handed and somehow fight his way free of his captors. With Theon I went from indifferent to enjoying him, then hating him and now...feeling sorry for him. I sometimes find myself wishing he could somehow make ammends with the Starks and live happily ever after. It such a roller coaster.
One of the only ones I had a great affinity for from the start was Tyrion Lannister. I don't really know why that is, it just happened. That affinity has only grown as the books and show has progressed to show how truly awful his family (particulaly his father and sister) treats him.
I will say there are 2 character that I has absolutely hated from the introduction of them to the story and they are Joffery and Tywin. Seriously, there has been no roller coaster where the 2 of them have been concerned.
I love this series (even moreso the books) and must say I enjoy discussing it here.
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:11 AM ^
It's easy to explain the affinity for Tyrion. Even if it weren't for the witty quips and obvious disgust he has for Joffrey. He's friendly to the Starks even when they aren't friendly to him because of his last name, and he plots against Cersei as much as anyone else.
Jaime is interesting because now that he's short one hand, I feel like he's been karmically repaid for crippling Bran, so he's much harder to hate anymore. The Hound is another one who ought to be totally despicable and yet I actually like. Even Tywin doesn't come up to the level of Joffrey; if I had to pick someone else to put on the Joffrey end of the like-hate scale it's either Lysa or Gregor.
April 22nd, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^
Littlefinger. That dude has it coming.
He is a funny character. In the beginning you develop some empathy toward him based on the story Little Finger tells Sansa in relation to how his face was burned. This just after you hate the man for killing an innocent young boy who had done nothing wrong.
Then he seems to continuously be helping Sansa in various ways while still outwardly trying to be viewed as a monster who cares nothing for human life. He is a bit of an inigma.
My hatred for Tywin is almost soley based on the manner in which he treats Tyrion. In the books and the show alike there seem to be moments where you (at least I do) think Tywin is about to show, even if only in a small way, his affection for Tyrion only to be hit with yet another horrible portrayal of his distain for his son. I hate that guy. If not for that, he would almost be a likable character in my opinion.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
DRAGON CITY BABY!
April 21st, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
Who do you think wins that Night's watch battle? Seems like half go rogue and hald stayed good soldiers. That guy saying that he's going to hunt the fat one and the girl makes you think that bad guys win but I find it hard to believe the just killed the good ones so quickly. especiall the ones that you see talking all the time.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^
If you remember from Season 2, Craster gives his boys to his "Gods" - the White Walkers who presumably leave him untouched as long as they keep getting boys. They probably have some way of knowing that he's had a child -> Gilly's child is a boy. Those White Walkers aren't going to be happy when they find out a.) Craster's dead and b.) that boy is gone. Whomever is staying at Craster's is going to be meeting those White Walkers again and probably won't live to tell the tale this time.
April 22nd, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
It was my impression that Craster let his sons die of exposure not as any kind of offering, but just to prevent eventual competition for leadership of his harem. The whole gods/sacrifice angle sounded like a transparent excuse for the practice so that the Night's Watch can somewhat ignore the fact that they're staying with an abusive, gluttenous murderer.
April 22nd, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^
You must have missed an episode in season two. Jon Snow actually sees (and so do we, the viewers) a white walker take away a sacrificed son of Craster.
I saw that, but is there any indication that Craster has some kind of implicit deal with the White Walkers? Or is that just one of the things that can happen to kids left outside north of the wall?
Edit: never mind; it appears you're right. I guess I totally missed that aspect of it.
Just to explicitly state this, Jon Snow tells Mormont about it and Mormont knew, which meanst hat Craster knows.
April 21st, 2013 at 11:00 PM ^
Not to that point in the book yet. I suspect that the fighting actually will not last long, with the rogue group staying at Craster's keep and the other group running off and heading back to the wall.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^
In reading the books I'd always considered the Daenerys chapters a sometimes unwelcome diversion from the "main" story. Half the time I liked them but half the time I was all "come on, shit's happening in Westeros, get back there already." Then I got to this chapter and changed my mind.
April 21st, 2013 at 10:14 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:18 PM ^
April 21st, 2013 at 10:21 PM ^