A Game of Thrones 2.06: "The Old Gods and the New"

I have to admit that I have no idea what is going on now with the show and the books, but I think they have gone into "A Storm of Swords". Please remember book spoilers!  This was an OMG night and I had to write about it. They should have kept the Ygritte story in the book, as he sees her again when the wildlings find and trap them. The Half-Hand fights Jon, and tells him to kill him and become one of the wildlings. He is also supposed to kill a wildling, Orel, who is a warg. Since his human form is dead, he warts into his eagle, and will remain there until death. He gives Jon the scar across his eye and cheek.

Winterfell
Well, I had to write immediately because I was so traumatized by Theon's takeover of Winterfell, and murder of Ser Rodrik. Where to begin: seeing Bran watch as his dream unfolds before him. Listening to Bran screaming you said "you wouldn't if I yielded", and you remember how young he is, and Theon took full advantage of it.  Rickon screaming while clinging to Maester Luwin, Osha, and Hodor. I had thought their direwolves would be going insane, but they did not in the book. In fact this scene was much bloodier in the book. Their crying and screaming, I actually turned away, it was horrifying. But don't worry folks Asha does not help him, and he gets his, and more when Lord Roose Bolton's bastarad, another sociopath, sadist, comes to get rid of them.

Theon
The episode started off with Luwin running to get a note to Robb ASAP, about what is happening.  After the beheading Theon tells him to send a raven to his father and tell him that he took Winterfell. Plus he kicks Ser Rodrik's head off, and it rolls onto the ground, horrible.

Since I have read all of the books, I thought this happened much later, and I realized how becoming a ward messed Theon up. He was always insecure, and he was not confident in himself and who he was, so was unable to be loyal to Robb.  The Starks really are his true family. Sadly he doesn't realize this until winter has come.  You could see that he was not planning on killing someone, until his new sidekick told him he had to pay the iron price. He also did not answer Bran, when he asked if he always hated them.

Theon was craven, and becomes known as a traitor to the North. Taking Winterfell gets him nothing as his family is not impressed, and no one comes to support the takeover.  Robb considered him a brother and Theon had a cruel family. A better man would have been like f-you, I'm going to leave and return to the Stark camp.  But he was always twitchy, and a confused man, with a messed up family, and a victim of Balon Greyjoy's first rebellion. But it's like I said: he gets his and more; in a way where death would have been the better option.

Jon and the Half-Hand
So here we are, in what looks like a miserably cold place, with Jon and the Half-Hand, walking together. They are looking for the fire, and the wildlings. Ghost is wandering off a bit away, which was normal, as he would hunt, etc..Qhorin tells him that his beast is wild and will betray him, and Jon knows that is untrue.  Then he gives Jon some lecture about death, and ice, and then goes "I'm totally kidding", and Jon is like WTF? and looks back for Ghost. They really need to make that relationship stronger; it is essential to his character. Ghost is his best friend later on as he grows stronger.

Oh Ghost remember you are supposed to be with Jon all the time!

Now comes my problem with this change.  They changed a situation that did not need to be changed. The Half-Hand chose John for a reason, like Mormont chose him to be his Steward. So, having Jon ask, kind of screwed that up as well. When they jump on the group around the fire, Jon does well! He kills Orel, and is left with Ygritte. I do not remember why the wildlings were there.

Look! Look! It's a girl! I'm confused

Now The Half-Hand left with the other two rangers, and let Jon kill her as a test. Jon lets her go, and this is huge, as it impacts his relationships with the wildlings and of course, Ygritte. Having him chase her and get lost is ridiculous, as it ruins the point of him letting her go.I am sure Jon feels like an ass, and he was going to be in major trouble w/the Half-hand. Now in the book, the Half-Hand said he knew he would let her go. Hopefully they haven't screwed up the last moment of the book.

Most importantly, Jon Snow got to talk to a girl! and lie down next to her! He wrapped her up in some crazy rope, and he looked like he had no idea what to do and laid down with his backpack on. I think Ghost will find them, he will let her go and follow Ghost. But you will see later, Ygritte is always trying stuff to get him to sleep with her.

Robb also learns to talk to a girl, and he almost asks her out! But they have no chemistry at all. It makes me sad as he is very sexy and deserves some good action before he has to marry the Frey girl.
Which leads me into......

King of the North
If there is one man who is behaving like a king, it is Robb Stark. He is the only King, oh well King Sociopath, but he doesn't count, who acts with honor and integrity both on the battlefield, with his men. Then he comes upon Lady Talisa, who is the replacement for Jeyne Westerling. Robb marries Jeyne because he was injured near her castle, and she took care of him. He ended up sleeping with her, and felt he had to marry her because he had slept with her. Big mistake and she used to whine all the time.

But Lady Talisa is kind of sketch, but I am loving Richard Madden. So, in one way I like him having a stronger woman around him, but not this one. Their talk is very stilted, but Catelyn stopped by and cut that down right quick.  She said that he has a debt to pay, he said he knows.  I like how she says "You are your father's son", because Ned had to marry Catelyn after Brandon was murdered. but I don't know what the big deal is, he can marry the Frey girl and sleep with whomever he wants, right?

What's wrong with you Stark boys?  
You're hot, and can't talk to girls.

Roose Bolton stops by to say hey, Winterfell has been taken over, and no one knows where the boys are at this time. Roderick Cassel has also been killed. Robb wants to go back, but Roose says no worries, part of being King is getting people to do stuff for you. So he's like "I'll just send my psychotic bastard over there, get Winterfell back, and they will send Theon back to you".  Poor Robb, he wants to ask Theon "Why", and then cut his head off himself.

Meanwhile, Catelyn, is like "I told you that you can't trust a Greyjoy!" Robb is just like whatever, but she is right. The iron price is killing someone and taking what they have, so they have no loyalty; barely even to their own family.

Harrenhall
Arya's stay at Harrenhall is completely different from the book, but I will take it. I find it fascinating that they have created this rapport between Arya and Tywin Lannister. My last memory of him with his children, was when he was yelling at Jaime, and basically calling him a loser. But Jaime has been with the Starks for months now, because a year has passed.

Anyway, I digress, as I believe their rapport is as it is because Tywin has a kind of respect for Arya. He thinks she is clever for hiding as a boy, as she speaks rather freely with him, and she is literate. Then, Peter Baelish shows up and Arya looked like she was going to throw up. Peter had come to chat his crap with Tywin, and Arya brings wine for both men. She pours his wine with her back turned and spills it. Baelish is looking at her funny, but I do not think he recognized her.  He would have to be thinking about her, and connecting a dirty child with one who has long hair and is not a servant. I think it would be a stretch.

Will he think this girl...

Is this one? NOOO

So, Arya notices a note that was supposed to go somewhere by crow about Robb. She knows that it is not good for Robb, and she engages Tywin in conversation, and we learn, Jaime was dyslexic! He actually tells Arya that he made Jaime sit down four hours a day until he could read. Tywin said that Jaime hated him for it, and pretty much never forgave him. It is kudos to Jaime to be smart enough to figure out on his own how to read as his, father had no clue he saw the letters backwards.

Continuing on...so poor dirty Arya decides to ask Tywin about his father, as he had asked about hers. When he asks how did her father die, she says "loyalty". I never thought of it that way, but she recognized it as true. Our Arya is no fool, as we know she would not have made it this far, if she were. So, while Tywin is telling Arya about his father, and how he ruined their name, and he had to fix it, she grabs the note.  Then he says he is cold, so she leaves to get wood. First she stops to read it, and then runs to find Gendry. She should have burned it immediately.  Then Armory Loch, I believe he is one of the monsters who killed Elia of Dorne's children, finds her with the note, and he is still smarting from the scolding he got from Lord Tywin. Naturally he sees the note, and Arya runs all around the castle and then finds Jaqen.  She tells him the name, and screams nowwww! He's like fine, and next we see Armory Loch drop dead as he opens the door to see Tywin.

Jaqen H'gar: 
Faceless Man and sexy assassin--a man can do it!

Seeing Marcella off to Dorne.
Well, this was filled with excitement and stupidity by King Sociopath and his mother.  Naturally Cersei is po'ed still, and says she will wait until Tyrion loves someone, really loves someone, and she will take her from him. Yeah whatever Cersei, didn't you and Jaime already do that?  And what a dumb thing to say, so Tyrion just looks at her and leaves.

King Sociopath says something about his little brother crying, and Sansa says that he cried, Naturally he's like wtf did you just speak? It looks like she may be starting to snap out of it, slowly, but maybe. King Sociopath says something stupid about she's wrong because her brother is not a prince and leaves with The Hound.

Then things get really bad: Joffrey is walking through the crowds as they say how much they hate him, are starving, and then he gets hit by a cow pie. He starts to go insane, well that's nothing new, but screaming at this weird high pitch "Kill them, kill them all". Tyrion is like shit, and tells the guards to take Tommen and Cersei away. So there is the mob killing and chasing after Joffrey, and Sansa. The Hound is just dragging him away, and then gave him to the kingsguard.  Than Tyrion sees a man get ripped apart and an arm (I think) and gets his bad boy self home.

Then the big moment, he asks King Sociopath where Sansa is, and he replies says "let them kill her and he doesn't care". Then Tyrion has had it! He walks over to that wack job, and slaps him hard and tells him that he told his guards to kill the people, cut off Ned Starks head which started this war...KS is like: " You can't speak to me that way" Tyrion goes "We've had cruel kings we've had stupid kings but never have we had both cruel and stupid  before" King Sociopath tries to speak, and Tyrion says " look! I slapped you and my hand is still on my wrist." We need to find Sansa, and now, but Joff leaves and says let her die and Tyrion reminds him "If she dies, you'll never get your Uncle Jaime back! You owe him quite a bit you know." He He!

The Hound finds Sansa, who is about to be gang raped, and dispatches all of the men in a colorful way. He throws her over his shoulder and they get home. Shockingly Sansa speaks to Shea about how she hates Joffrey, and how she would have given them her bread. Shea says trust noone, because as we know, Sansa is still not the sharpest tool in the shed.

next stop Quarth...
I am very disappointed in Dany at this point, because in the books, I do not find her acting this way until ADWD.  After finishing the series so far, I couldn't stand Dany anymore because she was acting like she is right now. She will also never be Queen of Westeros.

So she is with Xharo awaiting the spice merchant, to see if she can get some ships. He denies them to her, and she starts screaming about she is going to burn his house down with I will take what is mine with fire and blood! blah, blah, snooze..... That line has become so old, it's just boring and she sounds like a brat. Then they get to Xharo's house, and all of her, and maybe his guards are dead. She runs up to her room and sees Irri, dead---I hope she can be with her love in the nightlands now. She's like whatever there are people dead? My dragons are missing! Totally off book, way off book. Who cares so many are dead, she wants her dragons back, and next week she tells Jorah to find them. PS: he was out looking for that one ship to go to Westeros, while she hit up all the houses for ships and got a big fat NO.  I guess Quaithe's warning was closer than we thought!

Why should they help her? She is not as cool and smart as she is in the book at this point. I think Pyat Pree stole the dragons, only because her storyline eventually involves that house. Plus, the creepy way he said "Mother of Dragons" gives credence to that guess.

Finally, Dany will never make it to Westeros Why? Winter will be there very soon, the people are starving, the Others are running around, and most of all, people think all the Targaryens have the taint. The taint meaning, they go mad, so no one wants another one.

Thus ends a great episode, but the Jon/Ygritte & Ghost changes really make me angry. I hope  they fix Dany.  They made the same mistake with Cersei.  She is not the woman who is the devious psycho bitch from the books, she just sounds stupid and annoying. Bummer

Back at Winterfell
Osha has the unfortunate job of having to get Theon to sleep with her, so he will be down for the count. She wraps up with him, he's sleeping, and encounters a guard who was becoming  difficult, so she slits his throat. Then she whistles, and Hodor w/Bran, and Rickon come out with direwolves following. Those direwolves are amazing; they look so real!

This was the second and last posting for Season 2, I just couldn't get into it enough to write about each episode. But that changed in Season 3!


*Images and Quotes courtesy of HBO's "Game of Thrones"