Definitely a good episode. One of my favorites so far; the 2nd half was really solid. If I recall, the background of the Hound's scars weren't revealed in the books until Book 3/Clash of Kings and he recounted them himself but I have no problem with revealing that now. It setup some good backstory to go with Gregor/The Mountain after skewering the "ser" Hugh of the vale.

Next episode should be awesome. Several critics that got to review the first 6 episodes said that episode 6 was the best episode. That plus the actual content have me very excited.

[Edited on May 8, 2011 at 10:10 PM. Reason : ]

5/8/2011 10:05:21 PM

^ I believe he tells Sansa or Arya in the first book and then threatens them with death if they tell anyone.

5/8/2011 11:23:57 PM

Yeah one of the days of the tournament Joffrey sends the Hound with Sansa to walk her back and he tells her.

5/9/2011 1:34:30 AM

Getting respectable, now

5/9/2011 2:13:30 AM

definitely happy with the momentum this show is building

Maisie Williams is awesome!

5/9/2011 6:50:21 AM

^^^,^^^^

Yea, regardless of the fact that I accidentally typed "3" instead of book "2", you guys are right. My wife corrected me when we were discussing it while getting ready for bed and I didn't feel like getting back on the computer just to edit my post

I was thinking of something else involving the Hound in CoK.

5/9/2011 7:55:06 AM

does Robert's bastard have any major significance in the books (the blacksmith) or is he just killed off

5/9/2011 8:28:14 AM

Not going to answer the 2nd part of that because either way I consider it a spoiler.

I will say (because I think it should be apparent to most people at this point) that his appearance is significant to the series in general, but especially the first season's arc.

5/9/2011 8:31:09 AM

pretty gruesome death scene right there at the end.

getting better quickly.

5/9/2011 9:25:05 AM

HODOR!!

5/9/2011 9:35:22 AM

^Hah, I was pleased to see Hodor.

5/9/2011 1:36:40 PM

i figured out who he was but despite all the info on the internet they still dont say anything about storm

5/9/2011 1:45:13 PM

the scene where they arrest tyrion was pretty badass. exactly the way i pictured it in the book.

5/9/2011 11:09:18 PM

^^are you referring to gendry when you say storm?

the casting of arya is absolutely perfect as is varys. i also really like the actor playing jaime as well.

also, yay hodor!

[Edited on May 10, 2011 at 12:49 AM. Reason : HODOR!]

5/10/2011 12:49:03 AM

Definitely thought this was the weakest episode so far, the first half was largely unnecessary wheel-spinning.

5/10/2011 12:59:24 AM

well they had to introduce Samwell and point out Theon's significance, but the whole scene with Viserys and the whore was long and pointless.

besides that, i thought it was a great ep

5/10/2011 1:01:44 AM

Just finished book 1.

I'm typically good at predicting how books/tv shows will go. Apparently not this one!

5/10/2011 6:43:42 AM

Show keeps getting better...just one little nitpick...I didn't like hearing Ghost growl...he's always been completely silent (hence Ghost)

Also, HODOR!

5/10/2011 7:36:25 AM

I didn't really like the commentary between Cersei and Ned at the end of the episode. It's been established that the Starks and Lannisters don't get along. No need to have more commentary when they could be advancing other parts of the story.

Sam was cast really well. I feel like that kid is possibly one of the best actors on the show.

I'm sure they're going to finish the tournament at the beginning of the next episode. They need to get The Knight of Flowers in there, and they MOTHER FUCKING ABSOLUTELY NEED to have the ending sequence of the tournament in the show. I'm assuming that's why they had the Littlefinger/Sansa conversation, to make that sequence more accessible to non-readers.

5/10/2011 8:40:08 AM

Needs more Rickon imo!

5/10/2011 9:41:18 AM

i'm actually starting to not like Lena Heady as Cersei. she just doesnt seem like enough of a cunt. that, and whenever she speaks with an english accent she reminds me of when she played the spartan queen in 300.

5/10/2011 11:30:08 AM

Quote :

"Onward and upward! For the second straight week, the number of viewers of Game of Thrones' initial airing has increased."

US Numbers (only from the initial viewings, not DVR or repeats):

Ep 1: 2.22
Ep 2: 2.2
Ep 3: 2.44
Ep 4: 2.5

Definitely a good sign for the show. Obviously the numbers themselves aren't extremely high, but they are steady and slowly growing. Obviously HBO cares more about subscriptions than purely the numbers but it's still good to see. My wife and I would normally wait for HBO/Showtime stuff to hit DVD, but we signed up for HBO specifically to support GOT so hopefully other people do the same, especially people who are torrenting it this season or something similar. We'll most likely cancel HBO at the end of this season and re-add it before GOT season 2 as well.

[Edited on May 10, 2011 at 12:06 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2011 11:58:55 AM

Next week should be pretty awesome

and I just reread A Clash of Kings. Goddamn I forgot how awesome that is.

5/10/2011 12:37:39 PM

Yep. I would be surprised if this show doesn't continue to gain popularity over the end of this season through next season. If it actually slightly grew even through exposition and backstory heavy early episodes, the 2nd half of this season and next season should really hook viewers. (Heck, SOS is awesome too with some crazy twists I didn't see coming at the time).

5/10/2011 12:44:03 PM

Yeah this show and the upcoming release of A Dance with Dragons inspired me to do a second read-through of the series.

The last two chapters of AGOT have an incredible chill factor. I'm getting into ACOK again now.

I'm so glad to see the ratings going up. This is going to be really exciting to see how these scenes and characters continue to come to life.

5/10/2011 1:23:47 PM

^ Halfway through my second reading of ACOC now. It's definitely an enjoyable experience to pick up on those little things you missed the first time through.

5/10/2011 2:06:26 PM

HBO Go app finally available for Android (at least I finally noticed it today). Streaming Ep 4 at work to rewatch (mainly re-listen while I finish some stuff); pretty awesome.

[Edited on May 10, 2011 at 2:34 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2011 2:31:07 PM

I haven't read the books, but this is a pretty sweet series.

I wish I had discovered it after season one was done so I could watch all of them back to back. haha

5/10/2011 4:50:13 PM

This show is slooooow so far. If I didn't cheat and read the wikis for spoilers, I would have given up on it by now.

5/10/2011 4:58:16 PM

Unless they screw something up, it should be anything but slow from here on out

5/10/2011 5:10:34 PM

I hope so. Or else my mom will give up on it and won't let me use the space on her DVR to record it anymore.

5/10/2011 5:15:58 PM

I am in love with this show. I didn't get to see the new episode sunday so I am watching it tonight at 11pm.

5/10/2011 7:47:42 PM

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW!






































I Think Jon Snow is actually Benjen Stark's son.

































/end speculation

5/11/2011 3:50:56 AM

nvm...too young.

5/11/2011 4:30:32 AM

jon snow is definitely eddard's. he knocked up a prostitute while he was newly married and off helping robert win the iron throne. he returned to winterfell with baby jon which catelyn is still pissed about.

5/11/2011 9:21:45 AM

^ that's even addressed in the show, IIRC

5/11/2011 9:34:06 AM

I can see where a viewer might think that Jon was Benjen's. They look more alike than Eddard and Jon do. Casting coincidence, nothing more.

5/11/2011 9:50:03 AM

^^that too.

5/11/2011 10:22:36 AM

i've only read through the first three books, though, so maybe there's something in a feast for crows that suggests that jon's father may not be ned? it's also entirely possible that it's mentioned in one of the first three and i've forgotten entirely

5/11/2011 10:32:49 AM

It's an interesting discussion (even if purely speculation), but really can't be debated in the scope of the first season.

5/11/2011 10:36:16 AM

i just finished book 3 and don't remember anything that would point to ned not being jon's father, aside from ned's refusal to talk about jon's mom. (which has been established in the show)

you could argue that maybe benjen knocked up jon's mom and eddard decided to cover for his brother to avoid repercussions between benjen and the night's watch. that could potentially explain why eddard won't talk about jon's mom but idk. that being said, i can't really think of a circumstance that would bring benjen that far south of the wall, especially during robert's rebellion.

if you wanted to get really speculative, you could argue that benjen knocked up a prostitute closer to the wall, panicked, sent a crow south to his brother (who wouldn't be in any one place for a long time) and met eddard somewhere between king's landing and winterfell during eddard's return.

to me, it doesn't seem like it would really impact the story too much as jon's father would be a stark either way.

it seems like its potential impact is diminished even further by jon's membership to the night's watch as members give up any claims to land, titles, etc

Fun to think about though.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 10:51 AM. Reason : ]

5/11/2011 10:43:43 AM

This isn't Lost, folks. No need to speculate when it's clearly laid out.

5/11/2011 10:53:46 AM

There are some very interesting theories about Jon, but I'm not going to get into them because they aren't confirmed and you don't learn about them until books 3 and 4.

They aren't about Benjen though.



[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:05 AM. Reason : If anyone wants to know I'll PM you to avoid spoilers in the thread]

5/11/2011 11:04:14 AM

I have to agree that there are a lot of things in general that get thrown later into this series that are not crystal clear and may not be as they appear as literally written in the text. It may not be lost (thank god...) but there is a lot of subtlety in Martin's writing...

Unfortunately most of these events that create a lot of interesting discussion and debate will be farther down the road in future seasons.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:07 AM. Reason : .]

5/11/2011 11:06:35 AM

****Possible Spoilers












































*****
There are definitely subtleties in the first book that suggest Jon may not be Ned's son. Every time Ned has an internal monologue and Jon is mentioned, he talks about him differently than his other children (obviously this could be because he is a bastard/Ned's honor thing) he even goes so far as to say my blood and not my son when he gets pissed at Cat's questioning of Jon's mother.

I agree that Benjen is not Jon's father, it was mentioned that he was acting as the Lord of Winterfell while Ned was fighting Robert's rebellion therefore it was before he had taken the black. I would have edited my post but I realized that too late.

It is obvious that Jon is a Stark (his hereditary features are mentioned several times) so I can only speculate that he is either Ned's love child from a random woman while at war (even though it is mentioned that Ned is the most honor conscious person in the 1st book, perhaps the entire series) or he is Lyanna and Rhaegar's love Child. It has been hinted at several times in the book that the Rhaegar/Lyanna relationship was not as black and white as Robert thought (Rhaegar raping and murdering Lyanna), couldn't it be possible that Lyanna died during child birth and Ned raised Jon Snow as his own? If Robert or the Lannisters had found out that Jon is Targaryen, Lyanna's child would have been murdered..."Promise me Ned"...

Boom, speculation. I realize that I have only read the first book but I think you should bookmark this page for future amazement.
*****

















































[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:35 AM. Reason : spoilers?]

5/11/2011 11:31:23 AM

edit:

thanks for editing in the spoiler tag.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:36 AM. Reason : .]

5/11/2011 11:33:29 AM

Why should we be amazed? It's the same theory most everyone else has who has read the books.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 11:41 AM. Reason : And I forgot that flashback happened in book 1, been over 3 years since I read them.]

5/11/2011 11:40:39 AM

Yup...lots of clues for that particular theory when you go back and reread. Although that could be because you're looking for them.

But there's a reason most people have that theory as ^ said.

5/11/2011 12:50:52 PM

i broke down and bought the series i will start reading tom

5/11/2011 3:05:58 PM

Ive never read the books or know any background about the show or books. Thought the first three episodes were good, watched them back to back. I was kindof lost most of the 4th episode, not really sure whats going on.

Can someone explain the part where the guy is training with swords and the fat guy who couldnt fight? Who are these guys and what are their relevance?

Also, the blond girl is smoke.

[Edited on May 11, 2011 at 3:13 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2011 3:13:03 PM