You aren’t wrong. She is a spoiled brat. In the grand scheme of things this isn’t the worst character flaw on the show. She is also hopelessly naive particularly when it comes to courtly life vs. reality, as evidenced by comments like “Ser Loras wouldn’t do something so decitful” or whatever she said at the joust when it was suggested that Loras had taken advantage of The Mountain’s horse. She is a princess, in almost every sense of the word (and if the wedding happens in *every *sense of the word.)
Which was exactly what it was supposed to look like.
And so’s Arya – a mouthy defiant brat. So what?
My point being, both characters have their flaws. One is more relatable to a modern fantasy audience because she’s tough and cool and likes to do fun stuff like play with swords, and the other is less relatable to a fantasy audience because she’s passive and wants to marry a prince more than anything. And that’s really all there is to it.
And she’s not “hopelessly naive,” unless most other non-Arya girls in her social position are equally “hopelessly naive”. Blame her parents for sheltering her, not her for being sheltered.
I see your point that they might have fought this way much longer than we have witnessed onscreen - which makes his exhaustion far more believable. But then I will also assume that he continued to slash around as wildly as he did during our stay, and that’s gross incompetence.
In case you’re interested in the use of the shield in a sword fight, you could take a look at the texts here and images here and some more images from the Codex Wallerstein. Talhoffer’s “Fighting Earnestly” can also be found online in an English translation (warning: big PDF, around 32 MB). Modern Sword Fighting books deal with the shield too, but I don’t know any online source where they are available without paying for them.
I have to agree with this statement. 
No, that is not all there is to it. She throws Arya under the bus after nymeria attacks Joffrey. That’s much more than being naive.
And? All knights are not going to be capable fighters. They’re also not all honorable - take a look at Gregor’s actions for an example.
GF has fought this one in other threads too, IIRC. There is no getting past the fact that ‘we just don’t understand what its like’ to excuse everything. Cersei and other female characters to appear in the future aren’t limp-brained helpless little doves, but all of Sansa’s flaws are because we just don’t get it.
-Joe
She did not throw Arya under the bus, exactly, which is what I thought she was going to do. She didn’t come to her rescue either. She took herself out of the equation.
And now for something completely different, I would like to remove Ned from my favorite character list and add Dany.
It’s a more charitable interpretation than some of the alternatives, and a valid one if there are viewers who dismiss characters of her type instinctively and without much thought. If this doesn’t apply to you, carry on.
I for one don’t believe for one second that the Lannisters are instructing their retainers to wreak havoc throughout the countryside. How could they possibly benefit from provoking a war with the Starks or the Tullys.
From what I can tell, they’ve worked very hard to solidify their connection with the crown and are all but there in putting one of their own on the throne. The reckless Robert Baratheon is going to get himself killed any day now, from drink or whoring or gluttony or just plain dumbfuckery, and just give the Lannisters what they want. The only reason they had to get rid of Jon Arryn was because he found out about the incest/treason/bastardy. Why the hell would they start rocking the boat and risking all-out war?
And, like the assassin’s dagger, again we have an identification of a person who is almost immediately recognizable to the world at large. Something stinks. And it isn’t just fish.
I wonder if we’ll get to see Papa Lannister. It seems like he’s been an invisible presence from the beginning.
Just because she’s a realistic selfish naive twit doesn’t mean I have to like it.
I know, and I love Sansa for it. You don’t have to be the fearless wildling warrior girlchild to be awesome. Sansa’s ambitions will serve her better than Arya’s, if she can be cunning enough to achieve them. Sansa is line to become queen, the most powerful woman in the 7 Kingdoms. There’s no better position. If Arya continues to act like a man and not a woman, she faces a hard life. Women can’t be knights. She’d have to be a mercenary with a low life expectancy with the added pressure of avoiding men who just want to tap that ass.
I’m a total wooby for characters like Viserys. He was raised his whole life to do one thing and not given any of the resources or education he needed to do it. I wish he could have learned his lesson in humility before he lost his life. The scene with the slave girl in the bath did a good job of showing what he could be like if his upbringing was different.
I want Danys to invade just so she can bitchslap Cersei and teach her what badassery really is. Head Bitch in Charge indeed!
I would be very happy if I never saw Jon Snow again! Last two episodes have been awesome.
Not to go off topic, but I’m loving this show every bit as much as I did Rome and Deadwood. Therefore, I’m understandably worried about it’s longevity. Hell, IIRC Rome got cancelled because it was too costly, and this show’s budget looks considerably more expensive.
Anyone care to boost my confidence that this bundle of fun will be around for awhile?
It was renewed after the first episode, ratings have been going up, and I think dvd sales will be very strong. Highest rated show on sky in the UK too, btw.
Good to know. I’ve turned most of my friends and family onto it, and I will happily plink my money over for the DVD’s. I would love to start reading the books, but that will have to wait. I’m enjoying this show too much to spoiler it.
I’m following the episode threads (and the other threads on the show as well) but haven’t watched any but the first episode yet (we don’t have HBO and the first ep was on a Free Preview weekend). Since I’ve read all the books so far, I’m not being spoiled by reading the ep threads. But as soon as this season comes out on DVD, I’m buying them!
I tried to check out A Game of Thrones from the library to start reading them again in prep for the July release of the 5th book, but every copy they have has something like 6 holds on it! Geez…
Honestly I had forgotten who his father was. I mean, I knew he was next in line to be king so that would mean Robert, but I kept seeing the blonde hair and thinking, “OK, Evil Blonde Queen is the mother, who’s the daddy again?” So it wasn’t that big of a surprise to find out that Jaime really is the father.
The criticism that Bronn didn’t fight honorably also probably had something to do with the fact that he ran around for awhile, didn’t just exchange blows toe-to-toe, knocked over a candlestand, and purposefully pushed an onlooker into the knight who was fighting him. Unorthodox by chivalric standards, true, but ultimately successful for him. Better to be a living sellsword than a dead knight, methinks, esp. with a Lannister now indebted to you.
That’s my thoughts on the fight. Just because one is a ‘ser’ doesn’t necessarily make them an excellent swordsman. Vardis was just not a good fighter and he and his peers were arrogant enough to assume that he would walk all over Bronn.