A Game of Thrones 1.06: A Golden Crown

Well, if you know the book, you know the clock is ticking, and we also know that Jaime is a still a prick, Cersei is still the Queen of Manipulation, and Ned, dear Ned, is still too honorable for his own good. In my journal I have a quote from Battlestar Galactica which was about Lee Adama, and suits Ned Stark perfectly:

"You are the right one, Lee. You have always been the right one. My only concern about you is that you're so hellbent on doing the *right* thing that you sometimes don't do the *smart* thing. 
"Battlestar Galactica: No Exit (#4.15)" (2009), President Roslin telling Lee Adama that he was always meant to be president.

I think that we would all agree that commanding Lord Tywin to Kings Landing for the crimes of "The Mountain" Gregor Clegane, or be accused of treason, was ballsy. The right thing? Absolutely. The smart thing? NO. But now Ned is so angry, Jory's dead,  plus he's sitting on that damn throne with a sore leg.

I hate this job, and the Lannisters will pay for killing my men

Introduction***
Before I begin, I had wanted to add that Lena Heady was apparently pregnant while filming. I very much like her as Cersei, but I would like to see more of the conviction she had in The Sarah Connor Chronicles when it came to defending John; as Queen in this show. Cersei has that conviction as a character, and we just do not see it, or maybe we just have not seen it yet. 


Well, poor Ned, waking up to look at Cersei, who is spinning some load of crap about Ned being drunk, picking a fight with Jamie, attacking her blood, blah, blah.

That's right Cersei! 
Ned Stark always gets drunk and goes whoring . 

And Jaime? Well if he was such a victim why did he flee the city to Casterly Rock?  And why did he attack Ned with LANNISTER men? Mmm, sometimes I think Cersei thinks she is the only one who has a brain. And you know what? As much as she repeats more than once that she wished she could be the man, her machinations were quite successful being in the background so to speak. She also has one focus: her family; and that does not include Robert.  As for Jaime? Well we heard what he said about killing everyone in the world so they would be the only two people left.  So, he does what it takes to tow the party line, and be near Cersei.

Robert gives her a wack on the face when she starts on with the BS about Ned attacking Jaime, as it sounds ridiculous, because it is such a blatant lie. She did the same with the story about the direwolf; and it is what makes her so dangerous. Naturally she says that she will wear the bruise like a badge of honor.

So there has been much discussion regarding the "slap" and how Robert said it was not "kingly" and "look at what she makes me do".  I do not like Cersei, I never have, as she is a selfish, manipulative, liar.  She gets worse as time goes on, and all I ever wanted was for her to get what she deserved. Yet at the same time, it made fantastic storytelling. Especially when we start getting her POV's as you learn more about her, and how she becomes the woman we see today.  I do not think any man should slap a woman.

But, in those days, in those times and because Robert backed himself into a corner by being a bad King and being in debt to the Lannisters, that was sadly the only way he could hurt a Lannister. He was wrong, and not only does he hate being King, he is a terrible King and he knows it. He even says that he does not even like his family, or his brothers:

"I never loved my brothers. Sad thing for a king to admit, but true. You were the brother I chose." Ned knows this to be true, but Robert is not the man he knew in their youth. 

So poor Ned, lying there, po'ed that he can't get Jaime for killing his men, he's Hand of the King again, and Robert has decided to go kill some boar.  Being in debt to the Lannister's has made it impossible to sanction any action on Ned's behalf for Jaime's crimes.  So it seems that Lord Tywin's master plan of world domination, is coming to fruition.

The Hunt

We have a small scene where the King is hunting with Renly, Ser Barristan, and his squire. The squire, with the hair that makes him look like a girl, is sooo obviously making him drink more than he should be while hunting wild boar. They have man talk, about who has slept with a girl from the Riverlands, which Renly has clearly not, and then he and Robert have some tiff about war, fighting and parties, and Renly stomps off. Then, Robert and Ser Barristan find out that they have both had the "8" which means having had a girl from each of the seven kingdoms and the Riverlands. Lovely; this episode scored very low on the "having any respect for women" scale. 

Daenerys Stormborn
So, we see Dany all bloody, and eating an enormous horse heart. People are chanting and Ser Joras is translating for Viserys. Apparently this is a tradition for the Dothraki, and throwing it up is a bad omen, and shame on the Khal. Dany has guts. She and the Khal are clearly in love now, and she looks at him the whole time she does it, and he even gives her a slight nod of support. She does it, and decides her sons name will be "Rhaego"!, and her husband comes to carry her above the crowd.  Everyone is screaming the name and we know Dany has found her place.

I love Dany, as she fought for her place with the Dothraki, and she and the Khal actually do fall in love. She also finally got out from under the thumb of Viserys, when she realizes what a craven he is, and a psycho. I mean his father heard voices telling him to burn people, so what more is there to say?

Viserys becomes jealous and Ser Jorah finds him stealing the Dragon eggs. He wouldn't let him go with the eggs. It is interesting to see, as Viserys sees that Dany now has the power, he has always wanted.

Then things go bad! He gets drunk, and threatens Dany and her BABY by pulling out his sword for the audience. That's very bad as in Vaes Dothrak there is no bloodshed, and no weapons. He says he wants his crown, and finally Khal Drago says, it will be yours. It was kind of sad, and pathetic, of how he says that is all he wanted, and then the men take him and break his arm. I think that he would have been insane whether he had been on the run or not, and here you see how damaged. he is. Then he gets his golden crown from Khal Drago complements of his gold belt. It was pretty gruesome, but honestly the way it was described in the book, I thought it was going to be much, much worse. Dany just looks at him and says:

"He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon."

Yeah, she looks a little off balance (in the head), but she just ate a horse's heart, and her brother stuck a sword at her throat, and threatened her with the whole behavior associated with "you woke the dragon".  I see this as her big moment as she has turned corner #1, gotten rid of her abuser, and realized her own inner strength.

The writers have done their best to show her growth, with relatively little screen time, as the first book is really about Ned Stark, his family, the past, Kings Landing, and the Stark children who are major players in the thread of the story.  I like how she looks physically stronger, and more muscular, and not this wisp of a girl in the pale purple gown looking scared, and frail. She has an air of command, and now we see a growing obsession with her dragon eggs. Apparently they do not burn her skin; which is HUGE as the Targaryen's were said to have the blood of the dragon.

The Eyrie
Well, things are getting really crazy on top of that big,precarious mountain in the Vale. Tyrion almost rolls out of his prison and down the mountain, until he decides to use his wits, and deal with the clearly, "not all there" Morde. So, Tyrion gets his Lannister self out of the jail, by saying he will confess to his crimes and give Maude the gold that was taken from him. So he gets up there, looking down through the "moon door" and confesses his sins. Naturally little Robert still wants to see him fly, but Tyrion demands trial by combat. At first no one comes to his defense, except.....Bronn.

What the hell, I'll defend the imp. 

And defend him he does; he wins!!!  Some have said that he cheated, and he fought a true knight of the Vale. But he fought smartly, and won the day for Tyrion. How? He tired the knight out as he had a heavy suit of armor and Bronn did not. . So Tyrion has won his freedom to the shock and distress of Catelyn. He bows, and takes his leave with his champion.

Winterfell
Aaah, the bliss of the frosty, damp air of Winterfell.  Bran, looking adorable and happy is riding around on his new saddle, courtesy of Tyrion Lannister as Theon and Robb look on. Theon and Robb are having man talk about next steps regarding the slaying of Jory and the attack on Ned. Robb does not want war, and thinks Theon is being too rash. But Theon, correctly reminds him that he is no longer a boy (okay, they are like 3 years apart, even in the book. Maybe Theon thinks because he is getting laid a lot more than Robb, he's more of a man?) and that what happened was a declaration of war. Robb gets all it's my house blah, blah, and Theon stomps off.

Suddenly, where is Bran? Well he has been cornered by a group of wildlings who are fleeing the north, aka north of the wall. Apparently the tales of the Others, and men of the Knights Watch vanishing from sight, are true. So they cut Bran, who feels nothing, and drag him off of his horse.  Suddenly Robb, amazing big brother comes to the rescue! Unfortunately one of the  wildlings gets Bran and has his knife to his throat. Robb has Osha, the woman wildling, and suddenly the one who has Bran, falls over dead.  Looks like one of the three things Greyjoy's are known for: #1 being excellent at archery, just paid off.

Robb's a little peeved, but gets over it, and they take Osha as a hostage.

Then we have another weird scene of Theon seeing Roz leave on a vegetable cart going south. Why we always see him in scenes with women, I have no idea. Well, it definitely shows that he is disrespectful to women, and I think it shows his need to have validation that he is a Greyjoy, from a great house, and not just a ward of the Starks. She just blows him off saying that clearly things are happening in the south, and she needs to be where she will get the most business. So he throws her a coin for one more look; okay, well moving on.

To wrap up: 
As I mentioned in my preview we enjoyed a small little creepy moment between Joffrey aka Cersei, giving Sansa a gift.  I was never a fan of her character in the book, because she is a fool; and they make her out to be one here.  She has childish ideals of life from fairy tales, with happy ever afters with handsome princes. I blame her Septa, and her mother for never removing these ideas from her head, as Arya, somehow or another sees right through Joffrey. Even though Sansa changes, she never exhibits the gifts her siblings have in one form or another, but she learns to be a survivor.  But now, because she has been promised to Joffrey, no one can say anything bad about him, as it would be treason. We clearly see that everyone knows he is a little monster or a little sociopath.

The scene where Ned wants them to go home, is my favorite for Arya, and least for Sansa. This is why Sansa annoys me: she does not want to go because she loves Joffrey and wants to "....give him sons with beautiful blonde hair." and blah, blah.  Arya, is laughing in her face the whole time, and is just like we need to get ready to leave and stop being a dummy.  On the other hand, Arya did not want to leave because she was starting to actually make some progress with Syrio. Now during this chat, Ned suddenly has a revelation!

"A lighbulb" going off! by Ned Stark

After hearing Sansa, he goes to the big book, and notices that every single Baratheon in history has had black hair, except for Joffrey Baratheon, heir to the throne.

So, the game is now in full swing, so here's to tonight's episode and I'll see you for 1.07!

*Images and Quotes are owned by HBO's "A Game of Thrones"