Game of Thrones 4.01 "Two Swords" 4/6/14 [NO SPOILERS - See sticky]

The Hound is the only person so awesome he can walk into a Five Guys and successfully order Chick-fil-A.

:rimshot:

And she got Needle back. Chick is a stone cold killer.

I didn’t quite understand the Lannister men in the brothel. Were they Lannister banner men or just a couple of very loyal guards or did Tywin himself send them? That was an expensive brothel for common soldiers, and I was wondering how they knew that Oberyn was there and to begin singing Rains of Castermere.

I was a little put off by the discordant time jumping. Sansa’s mourning indicates it’s been weeks since last season’s finale, as do the progress of Arya and The Hound, and also the acclimation of Jaime. Everything points to around 3-5 weeks having passed. Except Dany’s dragons, which strongly indicate it’s at least many months, if not a year or two, since last season.

Did we get any details on Jon’s recovery from his arrow wounds? Was he just freshly recovered, not quite 100% but almost there? Considering he just now went to talk to the authority of the Night’s Watch, I’m guessing, what, 3-5 weeks since they dragged him inside?

What happened to the original actor? Held out for more money?

I don’t think they knew he was there, or that they would have deliberately provoked him. The Lannisters don’t really want to openly kill him and piss off what appears to be a decently strong house that already doesn’t like them. The whole point of sending Tyrion to meet him was to avoid that sort of incident.

I imagine they were “lesser nobility” types. Probably had heard of Oberyn’s proclivities and spread a bit of coin in and/or near the classier brothels. Obviously thought they could handle him, albeit 2 on 1.

I liked the actor for Oberyn more than I thought I would from seeing a still photo of him. I find it funny that the rule of “every book character I thought I has long hair has short hair in the TV show, and vice versa” seems to be holding true though.

Daario’s new actor, on the other hand… he’s not bad, but dear lord, he looks NOTHING like the original! At least the two Mountains at least had vaguely the same hairstyle and color (even if one was much skinnier than the other). But Daario goes from being a blonde-haired blue-eyed Fabio to … well, he probably could’ve played a Stark.

He doesn’t act like him, either. That was like a whole new character.

Loved the statue of Joffrey.

Poor Jaime (and I can’t believe I’m saying that). He comes back to find his son a monster and his sister/lover blaming him for all he’s been through.

Arya and the Hound travelling mayhem show. That was awesome.

And the dragons are spreading their wings. Look out mama.

Wasn’t the second sword much shorter? I assumed Tyrion was going to get it because even though he’s the least important Lanister–he’s still a fucking Lannister and deserves a Valarian steel sword more than anyone else.

I don’t usually feel this way (I mean, I’d be happy if the episodes were ten hours long, but I’m typically satisfied) but when this one ended I was like “What?!” I had been thoroughly enjoying myself.

Yeah, gonna agree with the Minster. In fact I don’t think they even realized who he was when he confronted them. Just some Lannister house guards chilling in the Lannister brothel when some Dornish asshole interrupts them. Maybe it’s like the places polar bear talks about visiting, where it’s a brothel but you can also stop in for a drink, which would explain why they were in full uniform rather than in the middle of fucking. As for it being too upscale for common soldiers, maybe Lannister guards get a discount or something.

I thought the implication was that the were random Lannister cousins or bannermen, and were just singing the Lannister song because, hey, Lannisters rule, with no idea at all who Oberyn was or that he was in the next room.

As usual, I pretty much enjoyed every bit of this episode, particularly the introduction of Oberyn (how awesome was pretty much everything about him?) and Arya getting her revenge with The Hound.

Make that THREE mountains. They’re changing the actor again this season.

With that said, the new guy this episode really threw me off. I agree he’s not bad, but the dramatic change is. Very immersion-breaking

He got a lead role in a movie franchise apparently. The Guardian article.

“Stop stabbing yourself”.

I think it’s different if you are replacing a character who never speaks and often wears a helmet or someone like Beric Dondarrion who had one small scene a few seasons ago.

What’s hard to understand? They were a couple of Lannister knights or minor lords having a celebratory drink and maybe eventually sex. They were singing Rains of Castamere because people sing it…all the time.

I didn’t say it wasn’t; I was just clarifying.

Watching the reruns of the last couple episodes from last season, I wonder if picking a very different looking replacement actor might have been intentional. When they were talking about sneaking into Mereen, Daario was very insistent that the guards would know his face and let him in (specifically using the word face) but equally insistent that, gee, he wouldn’t know anything about their world famous bedslaves. Plus when they actually get into the city, he gets them lost. I wonder if maybe the subtext there is that he’s a face-shifter like “three murders” guy from Harrenhall and the jarringly different actor is furthering that.

Nope.

Yes. He was moving like he had totally recovered. He should have told them about the raid while in recovery or the Wildlings should have attacked castle Black by now.

I don’t understand how Jamie, the heir to a great house, could ever be permitted to take a position where he is not allowed children.