4.01 Two Swords
4.02 The Lion and The Rose
Sorry the thread is a bit late. This is the thread for the discussion of the TV show only.
Gods, what a slithery scumbag Petyr Baelish is.
That ended awfully quick.
I was just going to come here and talk about how meh this episode left me, and how I felt that it was just full of filler, but the silence in this thread is deafening.
They pretty much have to do a “filler” episode after last week. Moving pieces around the gameboard to set up future events…we’ve got wildling raiders running wild, Stannis looking for…and apparently about to find…another army, Kahlessi being all badass in blue, and Tywinn being a manipulative bastard. There are worse ways to spend an hour on Sunday night.
I’d be trilled if every episode included a brief history lesson like tonights. I loved hearing about Baelor, whos statue Arya climbed on while her father was decapitated in front of his cathedral.
Questions:
Did Jamie actually rape Cersei next to their son’s body? Even consensual sex there would have been creepy, but she seemed to keep saying no…
Why does Tywin want the Red freaking Viper as a judge for Tyrion’s trial? If there’s one Lord in King’s Landing that Tywin doesn’t control, Oberyn would be the one.
Comment–I wasn’t pleased with Aiden Gillen’s performance as Littlefinger. Thought he took it way over the top, almost like a villain in an old timey melodrama.
It certainly looked very rapey.
Looked like straight up rape to me.
Littlefinger’s accent has always bothered me. It’s so over the top and forced that it takes me out of the scene every single time.
Score for Jaime, he finally gets to give Cersie the Midas touch.
Per Alan Sepinwall’s interview with the director, Alex Graves, it was intended to be seen as consensual by the end of the interaction. I agree that it looked pretty rapey, but I got the impression that it was at the very least riding the ragged edge of consent by the end of the scene.
And I found Littlefinger’s accent distracting as well. How long has it been since we’ve seen him? Was it Season 2? Did he talk like that back then?
Meanwhile, I’m curious what Tyrion’s play is here. He’s got an Idea, but I have absolutely no idea what it is. Is there some reason he could suspect Littlefinger, and even if he could, would it really matter?
Aside from that, yeah–I wouldn’t call it filler, but we were mostly moving the pieces this episode, setting up for whatever the next big plot point is.
I thought cersei leaned closer to “we shouldn’t be doing this” than “stop doing this”, but it was a very close thing. Icky for so many reasons.
I think everyone except Ned Stark knew/knows Littlefinger is a snake, but proving anything on him is tough, even by the somewhat loose standards of proof in Westeros.
I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention, Littlefinger’s accent didn’t bother me at all and usually those things can get to me. Now we know for sure he was part of the planning - we weren’t positive about that in the last episode were we?
What did make me roll my eyes was Sandor and Arya, dropping half their food down their fronts and the table and floor. Oh, so hungry, can’t possibly eat in a way that actually gets food in my mouth. Same roll-eyes from me when very thirsty people (prisoners especially - Theon at Dreadfort, I’m looking at you) do the same with precious water. Never mind they don’t know when they will get any again, just have to drink it so fast half of it lands on the floor. More dramatic? I guess so from a directing perspective. No matter how hungry or thirsty someone is, it doesn’t seem like something they would want to do when they don’t know when their next meal or water will be. Takes me right out of the story. Tell me how dumb it is to think that, so I can forget about it next time!
I thought this was only a decent episode of GoT (although certainly not BAD). I definitely agree that if the intention was for the Jamie-Cersei scene to NOT be rape, then somewhere in the editing and directing they screwed up, because it sure came off as rape.
Things I liked:
-Sansa escaping… into the clutches of Littlefinger (poor thing has been in King’s Landing since midway through season 1!)
-Everything at Meereen
-Tyrion’s scene with Pod
-Tywin’s scene with Oberyn
-Tywin starting to teach Tommen how to be a good king
Things I didn’t much care for:
-Sam and Gilly
-Cersei and Jamie
The board has been swept clean, now its the setup for who is left.
Declan
I like how Tywin moved Tommen out of Cersei’s hearing when he started talking about a queen.
Loved Granny Tyrell
Declan
I groaned when I finally made it through that dull Sam and Gilly scene only to be rewarded with an even worse Sam and Gilly scene. At least when they were running from White Walkers there was a bit of excitement.
Podrick is almost as one dimensionally good as Joffrey was one dimensionally evil.
The stones with the painted eyes on Joff’s face recalled Jon Arryn in the first episode and were freaky as hell. (Jack Gleeson said he kept falling asleep in his scenes since he couldn’t see or move.)
Other than perhaps Cersei, and that just because she loved him even though she knew he was a monster, and Tyrion because he’s the patsy, is there anybody whose life is remotely worse for Joffrey dying? Tywin definitely sees and seizes the advantages, and House Tyrell is goblet half full as well, but is anybody sorry? Sansa’s life gets a bit uncertain and anxious as she flees, but even she knew it was only a matter of time before Joffrey raped and tortured and killed her in some order so his poisoning was for the better.
Oberyn must send a lot of thank you cards each year.
Sansa’s necklace was probably the biggest takeaway from the episode.
New Daario’s David v. Goliath was a scene that didn’t work for me, or Daeny’s speech (which if I were a Mereen nobleman I’d have ordered horns blown during). Anyone else?
Is anyone else looking forward to the inevitable spin-off series CSI: Westeros? I’m imagining Grand Maester Pycelle typing away at some gigantic medieval version of a keyboard while a squadron of mice drag a pointer around a two-dimensional pulley-based screen and serving girls run around in lab coats.