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 agree that they shifted some "battle prowess" accents, making all Lannisters into fools. But I thought that Tyrion is so awesome already that this didn't matter at all in his case, and that the fact that he was shown to be not good at something added to his character (he was beginning to turn into a wonder-character that can do no wrong).

Take me right, I thought Joff was evil enough to do the deed, but I didn't think he was clever enough to pull this off by himself.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I don't actually think he was being clever, because I think he's too impulsively cruel and self-centered for that. I think he was wiley enough not to tell his mother but not that he'd really thought through any implications. But it also seems perfectly plausible that Littlefinger, knowing how Joff behaves, whispered a word in his ear that cemented Joff in his desire to be the nasty brat he's been from Day 1.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is what I think too. I think Joff was a horrible monster, but I just feel that everything happened as Littlefinger would have wanted it - Ned humiliated AND dead. I think this was always upset me the msot, that ned had to go through the humuliation and got nothing in return.