Hang on everyone. It's a great ride.

I loved this episode. Consider me officially in!

The wolf scenes were awesome. And I'll go ahead and predict that the little blonde prince will wind up being in my top 10 most hated brats/punks on TV.

I have to hand it to the actor/director/casting head on that one....he's had about 5 scenes in 2 episodes and I already hate him.

I thought this was a step up from the pilot (which I enjoyed). Better pacing and a stronger depiction of most of the key relationships.

The Ned/Snow farewell scene was fantastic. Bean and Harrington are doing great work in these roles.

Based on most of the reviews (the press got the first 6 episodes) the first two are considered the weakest and we are fully ramped and mindblown by episode 5. Can't wait.

Isn't there slot of John's wolf being left out? We haven't seen him at all...

steve - he's in a couple of scenes, no close-ups yet though. in the book, he goes off hunting a lot, so that's an easy write-off

i've read that the dogs they picked were chosen more for their wolfishness than their trainability, and in fact they're very tough to train, so their shots have been limited. that's what made me so pleasantly surprised by how good the Bran-protection scene looked

John Snow's wolf is named Ghost and is fitting.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/northerninuitdog.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Inuit_Dog

supposedly this relatively new breed of dog is what they are using in the show. their bred to look as much like a wolf as possible.

I'm guessing the little Prince is the result of a sister/brother conception.

Kids eyes are so far apart when he cried the tears ran down his back.

Also, that fruity wanna be king better watch his back. Once his sister gets in the head of that manbeast she might decide she should be the queen.

Bran is good at closing episodes.

had the same thought myself MaroonStain

It is known.

I just can't get over the casting. Everyone looks almost exactly as I pictured, except for maybe Sansa, and I expected Robb to appear much younger. You can almost see a family resemblance among the Starks and the Lannisters.

I hate Cersei so much.

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I'm guessing the little Prince is the result of a sister/brother conception

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hadnt thought of that til now but he does look alot more like the lannister guy than the king.


I think it was ned during his lunch with the king that mentioned he wasnt worried about the targaryans invading cause they didnt have ships to cross the sea. Maybe a stupid question, but how did the targaryans end up on the other side of the sea in the first place?

I won't spoil with book info, so what we know from the series thus far is this:

Raegar Targaryen was king. He was crazy. He killed Ned's sister.

Jaime Lannister killed Raegar at some point. Robert Baratheon ends up king after nasty civil war following which the last Targaryens run away and/or are exiled

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Maybe a stupid question, but how did the targaryans end up on the other side of the sea in the first place?

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Without having read a single page of any of the books I would venture a guess to say in one boat....where as they would need hundreds of boats to bring an army back over the sea.

Do viewers want background info that is accurate, becaus eyou might not be getting it on this thread...

I think Lena Headey should have been Catelyn.

Her in 300. Whoa!

edit: all right, but it's not like I tell you what's coming up in the HBO show.

[This message has been edited by rhoswen (edited 4/25/2011 2:22p).]

I don't want to hear a single thing about the books.

Jaime and cersei should be younger.
Robb should be younger.
R ickon should be 3 years old.

But their presented ages are needed for the mini series.

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Do viewers want background info that is accurate, becaus eyou might not be getting it on this thread.

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Speaking for myself, I don't mind background information if it's relevant to the show, and we "missed" it when they showed it the first time around in a previous episode. OR...if it's information that seems harmless and won't spoil anything in a future episode (i.e. the information listed in a previous post about the 3 women helping the blonde in last night's episode, who they are and what their roles are). That kind of info is actually helpful because it was obviously too mundane to spend too much time in the episode talking about it, but for those of us who haven't read the books, that was nice info to have.

If it's something like "The Targaryans got across the sea riding on a dragon because the blonde chick can tame dragons" (or something of the sort that will be revealed later) I would prefer it not be said. (I obviously haven't read the stories, so I have no idea how they got over the sea)

Heisenberg, feel free to email me and I'll tell you how Dany & Viserys got over there.

I would say that certain parts of the backstory that is not revealed as yet, WOULD be spoilers. One correction, not a poiler, I would make is that Aerys was the king Jaime Lannister killed, and Rheagar was his oldest son and heir-apparent.

I dont think its a spoiler (ie theyve given viewers as much info as you are going to get already) to just give the the backstory on the Targaryens and say that the old King's wife and son (Viserys) were taken to dragonstone (an island) during the rebellion (Viserys was too young to fight unlike Rheagar), and Daenerys was born there (mother died in childbirth). They fled to the other continent shortly after Robert Baratheon claimed the throne.

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 4/25/2011 2:27p).]

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 4/25/2011 2:32p).]

agree...keep any book info off this thread, the other one is for that. There's already been enough hinting or clarifying...all of which can be discussed on the separate thread.

TIA.

Maybe we need to have three threads: one for tv show only, one for tv show + backstory that those of us who have read can answer questions, and one with spoilers for those of us who know what happened

There is a wiki for Fire and Ice book series if you need backup.

I recommend this link for background info. It doesnt have "spoilers" in the bios that I can see, just general info about each character at the start of the series. The Danerys and Viserys entries give the requested background info, for example.

http://www.westeros.org/GoT/Characters/

It also gives some info about the age differences and differences in appearance of the series characters from the book descritpions.

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 4/25/2011 2:30p).]

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One correction, not a spoiler, I would make is that Aerys was the king Jaime Lannister killed, and Rheagar was his oldest son and heir-apparent.

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I thought Ayers was the "Hand of the King" to King Robert Baratheon, and who Baratheon wants Stark to replace.

I also thought the conversation between Snow and The Dwarf meant that the Lannister's father had been the "Hand of the King" before Robert took the throne, but that Jamie Lannister had killed the king who sat before Robert.

Jon Arryn was hand of the king for Robert Baratheon.

King Aerys II was killed by Jaime Lannister in as yet undescribed circumstances.

Tywin Lannister was Hand of the King for Aerys II in a period prior to Robert's Rebellion.

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 4/25/2011 2:50p).]

Aerys and Arryn are two different people

Amazon has the first 4 books for $20 if anyone cares. I ordered them.

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Aerys and Arryn are two different people

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D'OH!

Have we heard the name "King Aerys II" yet on the show?

See, there you guys go bringing the books into it.

I was posting on the assumption that only series info is acceptable, and after watching the first two episodes my summary is what I took away.

MWA - now that I think about it, I remember hearing "Mad King Aerys", but not his formal title

[This message has been edited by PastrySquirrel (edited 4/25/2011 2:55p).]

I'm pretty sure they've mentioned his name, and i think that someone called him "the Mad King" as well.

King Robert mentioned Rheagar, Ned noted that Robert had killed him, and Robert mentioned that he deserved it for what he did and that he wanted them all (Targaryens) dead.

It was later mentioned that Jaime Lannister killed in the previous king in a conversation between Tyrion the dwarf and Jon Snow.

[This message has been edited by JJxvi (edited 4/25/2011 3:00p).]