Game of Thrones – “Two Swords” and “The Lion and The Rose”

I couldn’t watch the Game of Thrones season premiere last week, thanks to a 3:45AM wake up call the next morning. (One of the few downsides to a business trip that took me to The Bahamas.

The only other downside? Returning with a cold. But hey, at least I had lots of TV to catch up on while I spent the weekend on the couch.)

I’ll write about the first two episodes – which I thought were both very good – after the break to avoid “spoilers”. So, click through if you’ve seen them!

“Two Swords” did a good job on picking up where we’d left off last season, without really missing a beat in the drama. The Lannisters were enjoying their victory – the episode’s title comes from Tywin Lannister created two swords out of Ned Stark’s large Valyrian steel sword. Still, the Lannisters have their struggles – Jaime feels useless without his right hand, while Tyrion has a grieving wife and a jealous lover.

Checking in with Daenerys, we see that both her dragons and her army are bigger and stronger. She seems bolder, too, and I hope we get to see more of this – I’d rather see Daenerys do anything other than wander around with her army again this season.

As always, I’m rooting for Arya. Sure, she’s becoming a dangerous killer. But I want her to get her revenge, I want her to cross those names off her list. I’d be happy to watch her travel around with The Hound, causing mayhem.

The second episode, “The Lion and The Rose”, was mostly set in King’s Landing thanks to the Royal Wedding. Joffrey and Margaery married and things got CRAZY. Someone finally poisoned the little brat – King Joffrey is dead. The build up to that moment was absolutely perfect.

Joffrey took every opportunity leading up to his wedding to act like a monster, whether he was humiliating Tyrion, preying on Sansa’s grief or just generally being evil. The wedding was full of people who would have loved to poison Joffrey. But who did it? He was poisoned with his own wine, and the obvious suspect was Tyrion. I think we’re all meant to know it wasn’t Tyrion, so who? Sansa? Ser Dontos, Joffrey’s fool? That would add more meaning to his scene with Sansa last week, when he gifted her a necklace as a thank-you for her saving his life. She was wearing it at the wedding. Or what about Maergrey herself, or her cunning grandmother?

Ser Dontos helped Sansa escape from the wedding before all hell broke loose. I can only assume that next week Tyrion will be standing trial for murder, and Sansa will be on the run.

There were many other great moments in this episode, that got overshadowed by the major death. I loved the scenes with Cersei, from her confrontation with Brienne to her undermining of Maegery when it came to the distribution of leftover wedding food.

Last season, there was a big influx of new characters. That hasn’t happened yet this season, which has made the plot easier to follow. I really liked these first two episodes – what about you guys?