Jory is the nephew of Rodrick actually. And i guess the joust was sort of rigged, Loras used a mare in heat which drove the mountains horse crazy, that’s why he got mad and decapitated it. Littlefinger tells Sansa this on the show, she just choses not to believe him because it doesn’t match her perception of Loras as the stereotypical knight in shining armor.
Weeeeell, that’s just part of being really good. Or my wife was talking during that part.
-Joe
Yeah, it was a blink and you miss it whispered comment by Littlefinger. The horse was acting weird though, but you wouldn’t notice that unless you were looking for it either.
Yeah, I heard her response of “Ser Loras wouldn’t do that!” but I didn’t remember from the books why she said it and like I said, a little bird (not little, not bird) was jabbering at the time so I missed it.
I wonder if watchers will EVER know it’s supposed to be spelled “Ser” instead of “Sir”?
-Joe
One of the most annoying behavior of GoT fans. Sure, it’s rare in modern fantasy, but not exactly unheard of.
Is this important?
Nope.
I must have blinked then. Thanks for the explanations all!
Like John Mace, I didn’t really enjoy this episode while watching it, while lots of people seem to have loved it. But a lot of the scenes they mention as being fantastic (particularly crazy Lysa and Robert, the Varys/Littlefinger conversation and the Robert/Cersei conversation) were really good. I guess enough parts of it didn’t really work for me (what was the point of the scene with Theon and the prostitute? And I felt like the John Arryn investigation was just spinning its wheels. And I was totally underwhelmed by the Ned v Jaime swordfight) to drag the whole thing down.
This series is full of some crazy shock-gore. My husband was getting very annoyed with my yells of surprise and disgust.
And yes, I know all of that is in the original source material, but man, seeing it play out fast and sudden on the screen really brings it home!
I continue to be impressed by the production values in each episode, but I do agree the swordplay looked clunky and fake. As someone who attends ren faires and reenactments every summer, I’ve seen a lot better.
I thought the Theon/hooker scene was basically introducing a new cast member, and a sign to keep and eye on him. If we’ve seen him before, he’s been in the background. I figure Ned’s investigation just hasn’t borne fruit yet. It still might, or might end up being sidetracked by Ned getting, er, un-Handed and stabbed to boot. So it’s looking to me like there’s gonna be a Stark-Lannister war, which is something they’ve been hinting about since the first episode.
I thought the king would have to choose a side, and he may yet, which is how I thought Ned and the king would be split. I was surprised that he’s had an unrelated split with Ned over the assassination thing.
Question for the ladies: Did you think Loras was extremely hot?
Not extremely, no, but he has a sort of Titanic-aged Leonardo Di Caprio look that’s very pretty. If his hair was better combed (why do they let it go all crazy like that? >.<) and his eyes were a little bigger, he’d be a stunner.
Was I the only one shocked by Theon’s dangle?? They seemed to make such an effort to obscure men’s junk in all previous episodes, to have him just pull out and hang there was a surprise!
On the actor side, Alfie Allen isn’t known for being particularly shy. On the HBO side, it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve showed dong.
Great, great episode, I thought. I don’t remember the Renly/Loras private conversation/chest-shaving/BJ from the books, or Robert’s and Cersei’s blunt talk, or Varys and Littlefinger chatting warily before the Iron Throne - yet all were well-done scenes, and gave further depth to those characters.
Why did Jaime’s Lannister retainers walk away and just leave Ned in the street at the end? You’d think someone would’ve grabbed him as a prisoner.
I wonder that too, since I thought they were Jaime said, “Take him alive. Kill his men” ,before the fight started.
You’d think Jaime needs a hostage to get his brother back. Instead he just tells Ned he wants him back and then leaves. Doesn’t even issue a proper threat or an ultimatum.
I think it makes perfect sense that they didn’t capture Ned. Remember, Jaime Lannister has no legal authority to be doing what he’s doing, and the kingdom is not yet in such total chaos, nor is the king so totally distanced from Ned, that he’s not going to object when his wife’s brother, who is also a sworn member of the Kingsguard who is supposed to defend him, kidnaps his best friend and kills his retainers in broad daylight.
Jaime was probably better off not doing anything at all, but he’s impulsive, so he acted without thinking, but it did make some sense for him to leave it as a he-said she-said brawl in the streets that still sent Ned a message rather than actually holding him captive with no exit strategy.
"I just found you on the street, killed three of your men, and could have killed you if I felt like it"has a sort of “or else” at the end of it that doesn’t need more words.
-Joe
I agree, if he actually waited around for the city guard to show up it is more likely that he would be the one getting imprisoned.
Whether or not he had the legal authority to take Ned, that was clearly his intent before the fight started. I just looked at the scene again, and the quote is exactly what I said before, “Take him alive. Kill his men.” Probably one of the two would have ended up dead if the guard hadn’t stepped in and stabbed Ned from behind.
Plus, I think Jaime thought he did have sufficient power. I think he acted because he knew that Ned had quit and was no longer acting as the Hand, which probably confers some kind of immunity.
On a related question – by what legal authority did Cat have Tyrion arrested? Pretty much everyone in that pub seemed to think she had sufficient authority and drew their swords to back her up.
Also,I don’t think the king would see a big difference between killing all of Ned’s men and taking him prisoner, as opposed to killing all his men and stabbing him and leaving him bleeding in the street. But maybe that’s just me. 