Game of Thrones 4x03 "Breaker of Chains"

While some episodes/arcs seem to race through time, I get the feeling that this season of GoT may move very slowly. Which is understandable, especially when they have an episode that touches on all of the major characters. I get the feeling Daenerys will be in Mereen for a while (seriously, is the last episode of this show gonna be like “Welp! We finally made it to King’s Landing! Dragons, kill everyone”?), and we may actually wait a fortnight for Tyrion’s trial.

Father/Daughter bonding time.

Let’s talk about warm, loving, and appropriate family environments; our subject today will be the Lannisters. When your oldest son is lying dead on a table, here are some things you should do: pray for him and your family, cry with your family, talk about memories involving him, etc. Here are some things you should not do: talk to the dead guy’s little brother about being a better king, raping your sister on/right next to the table where the dead kid is, threaten to kill the only sane member of the family, etc. I thought I liked Jamie at this point; I was willing—well, trying—to look past the fact that he sleeps with his sister and pushed Bran out a window, but he’s still as insane as ever. And he raped his sister. I know Cersei is manipulative and icky, but she didn’t seem to be enjoying herself. Still, Cersei is using Jamie’s devotion to her to target Tyrion and Sansa, and she’s twisting things to make Tyrion seem guilty.

Of course Little Finger was behind (at least some) of the attack on Joffrey. He is so manipulative—I’m actually terrified for Sansa’s safety right now because he had such a sick obsession with Catelyn. I can’t imagine why else he would go to all the trouble of poisoning Joffrey. I suppose we’ll see the rest unfold in the coming weeks.

      Things are bleak at Castle Black (oh man! See what I did there?). The wildlings are actually disgusting creatures taking over everything and there aren’t enough members of the Night’s Watch to take them on, but they’re still gonna take them anyway, because what’s 100 wildings for every crow, you know? And poor Tarly, Gilly, and little Sam. He loves her. He just wants to protect her, but he’s probably just putting her in more danger. Which is really sad; can’t they just go off and live in domestic bliss?

      While I thought Arya and the Hound were getting along with this fun little game they were playing to get free room and board, he had to go be a jerk and steal the nice man’s silver. That was a terrible thing to do, but he made a good point: they live in a corrupt world, playing by the rules won’t get you anything but dead.  But Arya is starting to get to the point where she could protect herself, and I would not want to be on her bad side.
      Finally we spent about 3 minutes with Daenerys. I do enjoy it when episodes end epically with her, but we never see her for more than a few minutes! Maybe if she got more than 15 minutes of screen time a season, it wouldn’t take her 10 years to get to King’s Landing. Anyway, Daario is a dreamy badass. I officially like this recasting. And how cool is it that shackles were in those barrels? Tie those scoundrels up, slaves of Mereen!