Game of Thrones Review: “The Wolf and the Lion”
What the hell? There’s ACTION allowed in Game of Thrones?
I kid, I kid.
Despite its relative calm over its first four episodes, I have been a big fan of Game of Thrones and never felt the need to press it on when it was going to get to the action. But with everyone in the damn world carrying a sword, we had to see some actual fighting scenes at some point, and we had a whole host of them to choose from this week in “The Wolf and The Lion.”
It was an interesting episode for an additional reason, as for the first time, they cut out two plotlines that had appeared each week since the show premiered. We saw nothing of Jon Snow’s adventures up north at The Wall, nor anything of the blonde Targaryan duo and their Dothraki clan across the Narrow Sea.
All we need is meat and potatoes with Ned here.
I guess with five episodes in, the show assumes that we know enough about these groups to not have to show them every week, and I felt like their plotlines have sort of been a bit shoehorned into past episodes, like when Snow adopted a fat kid and Daeneyrs learned how to f*** in the cowgirl position.
Rather this episode was pure meat, and not a moment was wasted on trivialities. Even the scene where the king’s gay brother had his chest shaved by his gay lover, the “knight of the flowers” had a purpose to it, as seeds of possible disloyalty were planted.
Also, that’s dude’s armor was absolutely ridiculous. Love it. The whole jousting sequence was excellently done, though I’m surprised the king lets the Mountain get away with such disrespect.
The most *fabulous* knight in the realm.
Ned and the king get into a huge spat over whether or not it’s OK to go assassinate Daeneyrs and her unborn child to prevent a Dothraki invasion. I guess Khal Drago needs a son before he marches off to war, though I have to imagine that someone coming and killing his new wife and baby might set him off as well.
It comes to the point where Ned actually resigns in protest as the entire council and King Robert try to knock him off his moral high horse. I would suggest a compromise of just sending an assassin to go kill Viserys instead, because then voila, no Targaryan heir to the throne, right? Plus, he’s a huge prick anyway. I’m not quite sure I get why this plan didn’t merit further discussion, and that it was something Ned actually had to resign over. But I’m guessing he and Robert will kiss and make up.
Ned continues his search for answers about the previous dead hand’s last days, and discovers that the king has quite a few bastards, and Jon Aaron (is that his name?) was going around finding them for an unknown purpose. Meanwhile, Arya, hiding in a dragon skull in a dungeon (hell yeah!) overhears that people are plotting to kill her father. Were we supposed to know who those guys were?
Dragons!!!
Lady Stark has taken Tyrion into custody for the alleged assault on her kid, but word of her actions has spread throughout the kingdom. Her convoy is attacked by “hill people” (I thought of Kenneth from 30 Rock), but her guard holds off the assault, and Tyrion actually saves her life by bashing a barbarian with the pointy end of his shield. Unsurprisingly, it’s the first kill the dwarf has ever made.
She takes him to the “Veil,” where her sister rules on a throne of crazy. I’m not quite sure what this place is, or why she took him there, but from what I can tell, it’s really damn weird. She shows up to see her sister breastfeeding a kid who is at least eight, and good god I hope that was a fake boob or else this show could get shut down for child abuse. Tyrion is locked up in an open-air prison cell, and Lady Stark must sort out just how bonkers her sister has gotten in the last five years.
Back at home, when Jaime learns of his brother’s kidnapping at the hands of Lady Stark, he attempts to arrest Ned, which results in a swordfight that gets Ned’s best man killed, and when it looks like he’s going to best Jaime, he gets piked through his thigh. Cheater.
“God, you’re such a dick.”
I mean, is it really anyone else besides the Lannister twins who are plotting to kill the king? It has to be, right? I really enjoyed the conversation between King Robert and Cersei about how their marriage is more or less a sham, and where the kingdom can go from here in its current state. I like how the King almost longs for an actual war so he can be done with all the current backstabbing going on in the kingdoms.
I still don’t really understand the looming Dothraki-Tangerian threat, as it doesn’t seem like all that big of a deal since Viserys is a buffoon and their army doesn’t have boats, but I’m sure that will develop further soon. I’m more curious to see what happens with the White Walkers, and when we might get to see dragons with actual flesh on their bones at some point.
Best episode yet? Could be if you ask me.
It’s actually John Arryn.
Also, they can’t just kill Viserys, because if Daenerys does give birth to a boy, that boy could claim rights to the throne.
Another thing they didn’t really show is how crazy the Veil is. The castle is atop a large mountain that has 2 different gates on the way up. After the second gate you have to travel by mule, because the way is icey and the mules are trained to know the path in the dark and never lose footing. It’s nigh impregnable.
hell yeah best episode so far, and im not gonna spoil anything but i just finished the latest books and all ima say is hold on because stuff gets crazy from here on out
Very good episode. I have to wonder about the Lanisters’ motives though. It’s certainly in their best interest not to be invaded since they are already at the center of power. So they can’t be allied with the eunuch spy guy or the merchant guy. But Tyrion, I think it was him, made a good point about how stupid it would be to use such a distinguished dagger for an assassination. The Starks and Lanisters are so perfectly placed for someone else to set them against each other. It wouldn’t take much.
I loved the looks between Kat and Tyrion in the throne room of her sister. “A throne of crazy.” Nicely put. Kat is probably wondering if she has started a war based on the message of a crazy lady.
Robert’s explanation of the strength of armies being like a hand with 5 fingers vs. a unified fist was excellent. Could be used to explain many problems in modern times as well.
I wonder if real knights sometimes played up their personas in the way wrestlers do in order to increase their fame and prestige. This is the handsome one, this is the one as big and strong as a mountain, this is the dark one etc…
First off:
It’s the Vale, not the Veil…
Secondly:
Offering this as an alternative explanation why the suggestion was made in the Council about killing a pregnant woman:
Although that suggestion would make sense to King Robert, the person suggesting it would full well know that Ned Stark would have none of it, due to his strict honour code.
Thus, by insinuating this idea to the King at a moment earlier the council, convincing him of it , a rupture between the King and his Hand could be expected.
This story is about plots within plots..
“Were we supposed to know who those guys were?”
We’ve seen both of these characters in the show already.
The Arryns are Lords of the civilized Vale of Arryn and the wild Mountains of the Moon. Ned and King Robert spent part of their youth at the court of Lord Jon Arryn. I don’t think it was ever written in the books, but I’ve always believed that Jon Snow was named after Jon Arryn.
the Vale is where Lady Stark is from orginally, it is the seat of her family the Tully’s.
That little kid I believe is about 7 and still suckles from his moms teet.
The Lannister may be the only ones plotting to kill the king, but I think there are more families trying to jockey for position, or that they may know whats up and are trying to set themselves up for the future, see Baelish.
Notice the kings word when he mentions the Lannisters father, He wants to control the world! he is the puppet master I believe and is just pulling strings, the imp does put family first and knows about the plans but he is not part of it.
The Dothraki threat is real and they are very scared, they don’t sail or have ships but if they were to cross the narrow sea there is no army alive that could meet them on the open battle field and win, they are that good on the field, notice how the king mentions how they could hide away behind walls and the dothraki screamers wouldnt be able to get by but would ransack every town and village they could. Hence why he wants Danny and the baby dead, also noticed who gave them the information, Mormot, leads me to believe he will do whatever it takes to get back in the graces of king.
Ned is a badass and thats all there is to that, I know Jaime is suppose to be a really good night but i would take Ned anyday over him
Also the Mountain vs the hound was amazing and very well done, im very interested in learning more about them and their relationship.
Sorry i mis spoke the Vale is where Jon Arryn is from
cat is from Riverrun
“Were we supposed to know who those guys were?”
The two men talking in the dungeon were the eunuch Varys and Ilyrio (the guy who arranged daenerys wedding to khal drogo)
Yes you are supposed to know who those guys were, the shadowy conspirators in the dungeons (with dragon skulls!) One of them was Lord Varys, the spymaster, and the other was Illyrio (sp), who was the merchant that Viserys and Danerys were using to broker the deal with the Dothraki. Mormont is the older guy who hangs out with Danerys and was banished by Ned for slavery. This, shockingly, all becomes important later.
Like almost every other scene. !
Levance:
The Tully homeland is not the Vale, but the Riverlands, directly west of the Vale, and south of Winterfell.
Catelyn Tully was in her own (i.e, her father’s) homeland when she met the Imp at the inn, and thus, being their lord’s daughter, she could easily count upon her father’s men to arrest Tyrion.
Lee:
The TV series reveals more than the books at that point.
In the book, it is Arya who overhears this conversation, but she doesn’t know who those two are, so neither are the readers provided with that piece of information.
Oh wow, that was kind of a big reveal I missed then. Thanks for clearing that up, I should have rewound to get a better look at them.
Besides revealing who the two people talking about killing the hand, which is never told in the books but inferred, it never says directly that Renly or the Knight of Flowers are gay in the books. It is pretty easy to guess at but the show put an end to that speculation.
How are things between Tyrion and Jamie?
Was he genuinely pissed that Lady Stark imprisoned him or was it an ‘we care about our own’ act?
I mean… he did practically frame the imp by giving the assassin Tyrion’s dagger.
Am I missing something here or was Jamie stupid enough to give the killer a highly recognizable dagger and hope for the best?
@Pawlit
Maybe it wasnt Jaime who gave the Dagger to the assassin, maybe it was someone else, another Lannister or perhaps someone else from a different Family.
@Arild….I noticed my mistake and corrected in the comment directly after my orginal
Levance:
I saw that correction just after I posted, but don’t know how to delete my comment…
🙂
Nothing like the Mountain nearly decapitating a horse with one chop of his broad sword to say “Song of Ice and Fire.”
I also noticed that Greyjoy released the Kraken. “We Do Not Sow”? Damn, I know why now….
“How are things between Tyrion and Jamie? Was he genuinely pissed that Lady Stark imprisoned him or was it an ‘we care about our own’ act?”
Tyrion has a much stronger relationship with Jaime than the rest of his family. If you go back to the Winterfell scenes in episodes 1 and 2, Tyrion is friendlier with his older brother than with his sister Cersei.
Releasing the Kraken in that way is comes naturally for Iron Islanders like Theon…
@Pawlit
At the very least, Jamie enjoys his brother’s company. I don’t think Jamie has any ill will toward Tyriona dn was actually upset that he had been captured.
What did you think of the tourney confrontation between the Brothers Clegane, Gregor and Sandor? The Mountain is portrayed by Conan Stevens, an Australian actor/stuntman over 7 ft tall. The Hound is portrayed by 6’6″ Rory McCann, who was known to me as the “yarp” guy from Hot Fuzz.
the did you really just do that look on Jamie’s face before he killed random gaurd #2 was hands down the best part
@arild
It isn’t that much of a deviation from the book. While they aren’t identified by name in the book you can infer it is them: Varys is overhead talking about his “birds” (informants) and Illryio is described as having a forked yellow beard.
To Mr. Tassi and other non-book readers, Winter-Is-Coming.net has a great character map / cheat sheet of who’s who (spoiler free) here, http://winter-is-coming.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/GameOfThronesInfogramWithFaces.jpg
Check it out, my girlfriend at least found it immensely helpful especially with some of the character’s names.
You shouldn’t assume Jaime was the one that tried to kill Bran. There is a scene in the TV show where Cersei and Jaime are talking candidly to each other where she yells at him for pushing him out the window, and makes sure it wasn’t Jaime that tried to send a cutthroat after him. Jaime replies by saying something along the lines of, if I wanted to kill him I would do it myself (and kill anyone else in my way).
Who tried to completely silence Bran with the silence is still very much a mystery.
What we know so far:
1. It doesn’t seem to be Jaime or Cersei due to their private conversation.
2. Littlefinger says it was his knife that he lost in a bet to Tyrion.
3. We know Tyrion to be a smart guy and he points out to Catelyn that only an idiot would arm an assassin with his own dagger.
4. Littlefinger was not at Winterfell at the time.
5. The dagger is made of Valyrian Steel, a costly and rare type of metal, which could imply it came from a rich or noble person
I am reading the book at the same pace that is the show. So far we are at the 50th chapter (from 73). Chapter 51 is about Arya though I haven’t read it yet because Arya was not in this episode 🙁 Does that mean we are going to see Arya in the next ep.? You should totally read the books. Sometimes it feels as the show is compliment to the book, sometimes the other way. There are some things in the books that are not on the show but you can tell they that they only enrich to world. The same way with the show, there are things in the show that are not in the book but are perfect compliment to it.
So far the series has been excellent and this show has been a pleasure to watch in HD. You too can enjoy Game of Thrones in wonderful HD free from DISH Network. I’m glad that DISH Network has HBO in HD. I am a customer of DISH and also an employee and right now you can get HBO free for three months and HD free for life by switching to DISH. But don’t just take my word for it, see more info on HD free for life online at DISH Network’s official website. Here’s the link – http://goo.gl/bXW9x