Yeah, don’t mention the books at all. Even if your comparison is minor, there’s a thread for that. This is a reasonable request for these weekly threads.
I don’t know if the scene with Tyrion undercuts this really. He does seem to have some real affection for his whores. The more I think about it the more I think it works. I don’t think it is a solid 1-1 metaphor, but I think the directors are probably doing something intentional with the sex from behind thing. Maybe it isn’t so much that face to face=intimate as it is from behind=meaningless/purely carnal. Which still says interesting things about Jaime and Cersi particularly if you throw the scene with Tyrion (which I had forgotten) that was shown not too long before into the mix.
I agree. I’d rather keep that as a bright-line rule, rather than get bogged down in debates as to “How much of a spoiler or an allusion to the books is too much?”
Loved loved loved this episode, but I’ve mentioned in the past I don’t like Jon Snow and his coming-of-age thing going on. Would have liked some stuff over the ocean, but it was mentioned enough. 
I’m just loving on the stuff going on with Ned and Cat and Cersei and Robert and Jaime. Too often fantasy focuses on the young hero discovering his place in the world, and here we see what happens to those youths when they grow up and are bearing the weight of their responsibilities. Until this episode, Robert just seemed a drunk fat womanizer who got the throne by chance. But then talking to Cersei about Dany and the 5 armies vs. 1 army shows that he isn’t an idiot. And that whole conversation between the two of them, they’re two people who were shoved together not by choice and they have to find a way to live with it. There’s no knight in shining armor to whisk Cersei away, she has to rendezvous with him secretly. And Robert will at least listen to what she has to say and weigh it, knowing that even though he never would have chosen her she still has some worth.
The best part of that conversation is that it makes Joffrey’s idea of having a royal army rather than each Lord having their own army sound like a really good idea.
Ooooh, speaking of that, which 5 armies was he talking about? I know there’s 7 kingdoms, so it 5 of those who have armies? Or is he talking about the houses? Like Baratheon, Lannister, Stark…
I’m pretty sure he just had five fingers on one hand. I don’t think each finger was supposed to represent any particular force. All the seven kingdoms have their own military forces.
Yeah it was just an example, one united army is a bigger threat than a bunch of armies all looking out for their own best interest.
The “seven kingdoms” are actually nine distinct regions, and there are nine great families. Just to make things complicated.
I don’t think I’m buying the ‘sex position as revealing romance’ thing. Dothraki normally doing it horsey-style is a plot point, which weights the average. Jamie and Cersei were in an stone room with no furniture and in a hurry. That reduces your options considerably, if you want both parties to enjoy themselves.
It also ignores Viseris and the-nice-slavegirl-who’s-name-I-can’t-remember in the tub, (face to face, sitting) which while it started off playful, even friendly, it was hardly genuine intimacy.
From-behind-lacking-intimacy is a pretty common belief, but I don’t think it’s a directorial theme here. I’m not even sure they’re taking advantage of the assumption. It is, as has been mentioned, easier to film positions where both participants are facing the same way, which means they’re not looking at each other. Well, unless there are more that two parties involved, but that complicates things.
Though we are clearly meant to contrast how Tyron and Theon acted with the redhed.
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The North (Stark), the Riverlands (Tully), the Vale (Aryn), The Westerlands (Lannister), the Reach (Tyrell), the Stormlands (Baratheon), the Iron Islands (Greyjoy), Dorne (Martell), and King’s Landing (Formerly Targaryen) We’ve seen at least one representative of each family but the Martells.
Though Tyrion has assured us he’s familiar with the taste of Dorne.
Not really. Not every reference to what was in the book is a spoiler. And some of that stuff is interesting. The slanted cell isn’t much of a spoiler, and I find it interesting. Having to read a thread that is loaded with real spoilers to find this out is an unreasonable demand.
Oh, good point…I’d completely forgotten that scene.
“Pretend the books don’t exist” is pretty clear, while the level of book-details-but-not-quite spoilers is such an impossibly nuanced standard for any forum to adhere to that we shouldn’t mind missing out on the occasional non-spoilery point of interest. Or you could create a third thread where mild spoilers and book details are encouraged.
OK TV pure series reference only.
Out of curiosity for this series only walled garden, in the context of the series so far based on the lay of the land of how successful rulers and administrators in this world should behave, what do you think of Ned Stark and Catelyn Stark’s decision making ability and judgement so far?
I think the main stupid thing they did was not realize the dagger was an obvious plant. Given that Catelyn assumes Tyrion is guilty, I don’t think grabbing him was such an obvious blunder as others seem to think. As far as she knew, Ned was still the second most powerful man in Kings Landing and thus safe from any immediate counter-attack and her sister still had all her marbles, so she had a more or less inassailable place to bring Tyrion.
The Tyrion-napping was an attack of opportunity, one she didn’t really have time to think through. She has to know it will spark a real conflict, possibly a war, but both she and Ned think that’s coming anyway, and she can’t know exactly what the situation is back in the city.
Tactically smart (at the very least, they get a bargaining chip) but strategically questionable at best. Even if Tyrion DID do it, if she can’t prove it, it stands a fair chance of poisoning the king against them. As she doesn’t have any actual evidence yet, (as Littlefinger pointed out, the knife isn’t good enough) that makes the whole thing a terrible gamble.
Especially considering that, with proof, snatching him is unnecessary. If they can convince the king to turn on the Lannisters, the Imp is irrelevant. They will submit (not likely) or it’s war. (Likely)
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Tyrion could have avoided the whole thing by just taking a five foot step . . .
Except that Tyrion can’t even take a five-foot standstill. Three-six at the most…
Speaking of the book, hehe.
Any guesses as to what the dark secret behind that book that Jon Arryn had borrowed off the maester, that Ned is currently reading.
I can’t see it about being about the bastards,since its a family lineage from a century previous.
Declan
Just guessing that there might be some family ties revealed could somehow change the balance of power among the families if they were widely known. I’m thinking maybe someone who would have a claim on the throne.
But as I haven’t read the books, I certainly am not spoiling anything from them.
It is. For the kingdom and for the king. Not so much for the other lords who keep the king in check, though. And where do the troops come from? The lands of the other lords who keep the kind (and each other) in check.
As this is the TV-only thread and all of these haven’t been clearly stated in the TV series these now count as spoilers.
-Joe
I don’t see how this is a spoiler considering the HBO site lists all but the Martels on it’s House guide and Joffrey already spoke about the kingdom having problems with too many great houses with their own armies.