Tywin could not just lock Jaime up in a tower until an acceptable bride was found. Westeros noblemen often had to marry for dynastic reasons, but were not physically forced to do so.
Legally, Tywin has another heir–although he hates Tyrion. For true dynastic security, Tywin himself should have found a new wife & produced more heirs. But he did not…
Edited title to comply with 2014 GoT spoiler policy.
The kingsguard are chosen by the King, who exactly is going to not allow him to obey the king?
What books? Read the rules again.
Ok, they changed actors for Daario and the Mountain (again) but, apparently they have enough money to bring back actors whom we last saw what 2, 3 years ago?
The bald guy at the table, is he not the one whose honour Tyrion denied?
Well, clearly Tywin doesn’t like it. Remember that Jamie was a member of the king’s guard under the Mad King. Perhaps Tywin wasn’t in a position to prevent it.
The bald guy at the table was the former leader of the gold cloaks that Tyrion banished for being a baby killing dick, yeah. And money is not the reason actors get changed, they usually just get better parts. The original mountain got the role of lead orc in the hobbit if i’m not mistaken, old Daario is going to be handed the transporter franchise. Also am i mistaken or did they replace the Qyburn actor also?
No, it was the same guy.
But yeah, it’s impressive they were able to get back both the guy who played Janos Slynt (the City Guard/Goldcloaks captain Tyrion banished to The Wall,) and Allister Thorne (the crotchety old Nighwatch weapons master from season 1 who now says he’s “de-facto” Lord Commander…but still seems to do whatever Maester Aemon tells him, because Aemon can make anyone his bitch with just some words.)
I loved this episode. Probably the best Season Premiere for GoT so far.
Great season premier, lots of good stuff but my favorite was definitely Arya and The Hound. I got the chills when Arya slowly drove needle into Janos’ head.
As for context on how much time had passed, Jaime does mention he had been home for weeks when speaking with Cersei. And clearly Jon has recovered at least enough to be able to dress himself, etc. As for Daenerys, I did get the impression more time had passed in her storyline as it seem to be implying to some extent they had been settled in at Yunkai for awhile and were finally moving towards Meereen. Nothing specifically I can point too, just the feeling I got from those scenes.
And on the negative side, I continue to be absolutely positively uninterested in Daenerys’ storyline. When they switched the narrative to pick up her story I think I audibly sighed and started playing with my iPad.
Wow, the fanboys haven’t pushed this to more than one page yet? 
Good episode. I wouldn’t have recognized Jamie (except for the missing hand) if I had just seen him with his new look.
That was Polliver, Janos is the former gold cloak commander currently being a dick in the nightwatch.
Jaime tells Cersei thats its been either or month or two months since he got back,(can’t remember which). Jon Snow seemed sore when he was putting his clothes on but ambulatory. It was implied that Ygritte purposefully shot him in places that would not hurt him permanently.
I thought overall it was a weak episode. No Littlefinger, and no Varys, no real plot movement, just alot of set up. The dialogue with the Hound at the end was very good though.
There’s always going to be some characters left out of each episode, because there just isn’t time to check in with everyone. No Stannis/Melisandre/Davos either, no Theon, no Greyjoys at all, no Bran. I’m sure we’ll see all of them next week. And yes, this was mostly just a “remember who we are?” episode. Things will pick up very soon.
Yeah, I’ve always assumed that Daenerys storyline doesn’t match up in time with the rest of the storylines. It doesn’t really need to unless she finally heas over to Westeros. Speaking of which, I’m waiting for Selmy or Jorah to say “Hey, weren’t we supposed to go take your throne back now?”
Nitpick: I 'spect Mereen is a difficult place to get to over land, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Danny is marching 8000+ soldiers on a mountain trail that looks to be barely wide enough to allow a one-horse-cart to pass.
I don’t have a problem with this, story-wise, geography is geography and you have to deal with it. But given that the Mereenians (?) presumably know she’s coming, and know something about her army, wouldn’t this be an ideal place to attack her rather than waiting for her to get to the city? While her army has to be stretched out for several miles along the road, with little maneuverability, you could attack the front and perhaps roll boulders down the hill on the rest of them.
Thermopylae comes to mind (Not the stupid movie, but the actual battle).
I like the new Daario. The former Daario was pretty and he could fight but there was a vapid look to him. I was having a hard time seeing why Dany seemed intriqued by him.
What’s up with Jaime’s new hair? I get that he’d have it cut – probably full of lice – but why the dark color?
I have no problem with the size of the dragons. They’re eating better, so they’re gonna grow more quickly.
I’m going to wait to watch until after my husband goes to bed. He doesn’t follow the show so he asks questions like “Who is that little girl and why is she with that guy with the scars?”
Ah, yes right! Thanks, I got the names of the “evil guys who are dicks” mixed up. Hah!
I’d assume, unless we are told otherwise, that Dany’s army has scouts and outriders out, since both Ser Barristan and Ser Jorah are seasoned knowledgeable warriors.
I see that many people loved the first episode, but personnally, I’m unimpressed. There are so many things I didn’t care for that I can’t detail all of them, but to list some briefly :
-Jaime and the other lannisters : we don’t see him meet Tyrion, his father is hardly moved when Jaime tells him that there won’t be an heir to Casterly Rock, which is completely out of character, Cersei behaviour is hardly understandable.
-The viper : did they really need to add sex scenes and gratuitous violence in here? That’s as much minutes removed from the interesting parts of the show. Maybe they could find a more subtle way of exposing a character than having him stab someone’s wrist? It’s not like stabbing is otherwise lacking in this show. And I can watch boobs whenever I want on the internet. I’d rather have story when I watch a serie, thank you very much.
-I found the scene with Brienne, the queen of thorns and margaery weak, which is a feat, given the characters.
-Tyrion/Shae : their new behaviour would require some explanation. Since when tyrion doesn’t want to fuck? Since when he doesn’t tell her he wants her to stay?
-I could go without cannibals. Again, they’re not obligated to put grisly scenes every other minute. More story, less butchery, please.
-Jon scene seems to make few sense. He’s been back for presumably several weeks and only now he announces the arrival of the wildlings? Sam doesn’t mention Bran? How comes the city watch commander ended up amongst the officers of the night watch?
-Danaerys : well, I’m not fan of her storyline, anyway. I felt nothing. They go to liberate yet another slaver city, finding some new crucified slaves. We’ve already seen all of this. And i’m even more dissapointed by the new Daario than I thouhgt i would. he just doesn’t have the flamboyance of the previous actor. Yet another generic, bearbed Westeros guy.
The three things I liked :
-The forging of swords at the beginning.
-The dragons (although the way Danaerys pets them as if they were household cats is weird).
-The final scene with Arya/ the hound. I won’t be a fan of this character, she clearly went to the dark side. Doesn’t make the scene less good. And here, gore is plenty justified. She seems now soulless, repeating the last words of her former companion and then delivering a quite cruel death. Twice when she was watching the inn from outside and again briefly when she was leaving on horseback, her expression strikingly reminded me of the faceless assassin’s. I’m not sure why, but I came to the conclusion that they probably were both directed to act in the same way.
So, i don’t think they did a good job tying the many knots (new characters, events during the recent weeks we didn’t see, new dynamics between characters, etc…). Fortunately, they won’t have to do that again, so I expect that the next episode (written by Martin, I believe) will be much better.
Questions/Observations per storyline:
Tywin is sympathetic in a way. He just wants to have your typical, run of the mill, megalomaniacal dynastic rule and his kids are being so damn angsty and uncooperative.
Cersei’s aged and really wouldn’t be much of a trophy bride even with her pedigree at this point (and kid baggage to boot). Kingslayer should just take a child bride, hole up in Casterly Rock and call it a life. I don’t understand the appeal of staying.
Sansa has had zero emotional development in 3 seasons. She’s as petulant and as ignorant as ever. I loathe her scenes. It makes sense because in opposite world (Westeros) everyone you want to live dies and everyone you wish death upon lives. If this keeps up, she’ll be the one sitting on the throne at the end and Melissandre is her handmaiden.
Seems a bit foolhardy to invite anyone from the wronged Dorn family. The worst possible representative showed up, but even if the crown prince did show instead of the murderous bisexual, younger one, it still wouldn’t have been pleasant.
Tyrian… just have the affair. People have affairs all the time. What’s the big deal? Everyone knows the marriage is a sham anyway and now there aren’t any Starks around to take righteous indignation.
I’m not interested in any love quadrangles involving Dani, especially after she’s announced that she’s done with nude scenes. In fact, the more mystery involving the Dragons the better. I would be ok with them going the entire season without even showing the dragons and have all the news of the slave army come through Varys in word of mouth. The mystique would build drama and save on FX costs. However, now that they did show the dragons… was that snap from Dragon 1 supposed to foreshadow hubris?
Jon Snow did a fair bit of growing up, didn’t he? Now he’s all regal, defiant, cocksure, and eloquent? Even so, shouldn’t it be at least suspected that there are wildlings in the south with even sporadic reports of pillaging and cannibalism?
Ygritte’s is a dead woman walking right? Of course everybody dies but hers is a foregone conclusion at this point to me.
Arya continues to have the most compelling storylines. Everyone she interacts with. How much of that is the writing and how much is it the actress? I’m leaning towards the writing but the actress is also much more charismatic than others… like say Sansa.