Game of thrones: episode 9

[alexandral]

I loved the episode and am feeling too emotional to write anything coherent.Out of the new characters, I liked Shae (who is long past 18, but otherwise perfect, the trend to make everyone older continues) and I continue to love Bronn. Ros-the-whore seems to have disappeared without a trace, thank you to the old gods of TV. And then there were characters that I hated strong enough for the Russian Amazon in me to rise up and want to kill them all with bare hands (and feed their livers and other parts to the dogs :D).

Wall of HATE:


What has always bothered me is this : why did Joffrey decide to execute Ned? May be there was some explanation in the future books, but I have forgotten it. Unless it is plain and simple "Joffrey is a tyrant and thinks killing people is a good thing to do" which does not seem strong enough. Even Cersei seemed to be surprised, and really, Ned's death was in no way advantageous to her and Joffrey as it meant more war. It meant that Lannister's troops that are positioned against Northerners (who could have gone back to Winterfell if Ned was still alive and contacted them) could have instead travelled to King's Landing to meet the troops of Stannis Baratheon. Plus, killing high lords did not seem to be an everyday thing to do as they usually were imprisoned or sent to the Wall.

One of my personal pet theories is that this was Littlefinger's doing. He said something to Joffrey, hinted at something. Something must have set off Joffrey's madness.

What do you think? What made Joffrey decide to execute Ned?


PS I have taken tomorrow off so that I can make some animated icons. Yes, this is serious!

PS: Possible spoilers in comments

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I am so glad that you are thinking the same, and yes, this is my hate of Littlefinger talking too. I have almost finished GoT-the-book and on the second reading I notice all these things that I didn't notice during the first reading, like what happened to Jayne Poole and such.

And I agree with you on Jaime Lannister too, and I already ranted about this in cyberducks LJ - I think the scene with Jaime fighting his way through should have been there, as well as him taking part in the Hand's tourney, or at least one of the two . It should have been established that he was the best swrodsman and all-around martial arts person.

EDit: and if anything was not right in this episode, it was not enough Jaime. :D

they don't even hint at why Jaime is such a prize for the Starks and why no one will consider trading him for two girls (since Catelyn doesn't know Arya is gone.)

But isn't he so valuable because he is the only "proper" son of Tywin? As in: the girls don't count as much as the favourite son?

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

But Jaime can't be Tywin's heir (at least from the calculations of the Starks) because he's a member of the Kingsguard. There are several points in Clash where people talk about what a good general he is and what a fearsome warrior. This is not coming through on the show at all.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I agree, but still, Tywin cared great deal more for Jaime than he did for Tyrion or Cersei.

But about Jaime being good general and commander : yes, we totally didn't get this, and I wish we did. It seemed this way : "Awesome Robb won an easy victory from Jaime Lannister who was rather useless" (for all we saw of Jaime's capabilty as a commander was his conversation with his father who was quite dismissive of him). They might add a scene where Jaime's worth as a commander will be mentioned, though.

And then again, Robb is coming through as much better at fighting than I can rememember him (they missed all his teeny conversations with Cat). Which actually makes his character less likable for me: if he was such a good commander, always thinking of his troops and such, why didn't he manage to take his promises seriously and keep his "manhood" in his pants?