Poor darling Tyrion is getting it from all sides this episode. He's feeling paranoid, unloved and unappreciated. He gets hit up for a raise by an ungrateful Bronn, then he gets ground under his father's boot heel. It seems like everyone but Shae has turned on him.

I already mentioned that I didn't care for the scene with Cersei. It didn't add anything to the episode for me. It felt like a retread. The scene needed to be much more clever and have more content to be appropriate, as far as I'm concerned.

The scene between Tywin and Tyrion was brilliant. The acting was great. I was thrilled that Tyrion was finally asserting himself. He kept the sarcasm to a minimum. It was as though he was speaking to his father honestly and without fear for the first time in his life. I was so proud!

Tywin's response seemed out of character. I know some book readers have said it's in keeping with the book version of Tywin, but as a non-reader, it felt wrong. This was not the same man trying to guide Jaime in his tough love sort of way in Season 1. And it wasn't the man who named Tyrion as acting hand in Season 2. It's not at all surprising that Tywin wouldn't want Tyrion to rule Casterly Rock. And I certainly wouldn't expect him to welcome Tyrion with open arms. But his reaction seemed over the top. Blaming his wife's death on Tyrion, the comment about doing nothing but wasting time with whores and thieves, the total refusal to acknowledge Tyrion's contributions to the defense of the city. It was too disingenuous for me. Yes, he's cruel and emotionally distant, but his reaction was more than that. The Tywin I have come to know the last two seasons is shrewd, realistic and practical. All of that was missing in his reaction. It was a reaction I would have expected of Cersei, not Tywin. I liked the comment about being consumed by maggots though. And superbly acted, of course. As I said, I loved the scene, but this struck me as wrong.

The only rationale I can think of for Tywin's reaction to Tyrion's demands is that he sees the confidence and lack of fear in Tyrion and he feels the need to utterly destroy Tyrion's sense of self-worth by saying whatever he believes will be most effective. He's using scorched earth tactics on his son to get him back in line. I don't know if that makes sense.

I still have the same nagging question I did after the finale of last Season about Tywin. Why did he take up his position as hand of the king now, in the midst of losing a war against Robb Stark? It doesn't make sense to me that he would still be in King's Landing. He should have turned right around after winning the Battle of Blackwater and headed back to Harrenhall. He's made it clear that his generals are incompetent. His son is still a prisoner of Robb Stark, as far as Tywin knows. Robb Stark's forces have the ability to take Casterly Rock. It just doesn't make sense that he would take over when Tyrion was doing an acceptable job. And he knows perfectly well what Tyrion accomplished as hand...after all, they understood enough about what happened during the battle to knight Bronn. So I'm at a loss to explain it. I had hoped they would explain it this episode... no such luck.

Ser Taryn Mant and Ser Whosit of Who cares .

@Macha, I based my opinion of what was going on with the Starks vs. the Lannisters on Tywin's summary of the situation in Episode 208. Tywin made it sound pretty dire, and he didn't seem pleased to be leaving Harrenhall in the hands of the Mountain. And all of Tywin's talk about his legacy being determined by the outcome of the war reinforced that for me as his priority. Yes, he needed to save the city, but it seems strange that he would rather be dealing with the minutiae of being hand of the king right now when there's a war to be won.

Thanks for the clarification on Dany's position. I'm still not sure how she intends to gather a khalasar, but it's certainly easier if she does it before crossing the narrow sea. Maybe she intends to raze and plunder Qarth with her Unsullied? That would be the show of strength she needs to impress the Dothraki. I'm not clear on how Dany intends to pay for her Unsullied. Jorah stated that the gold they plundered from Doxos' estate would be enough to buy a ship, not an army. In any case, it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the coming episodes for Dany.

@Yvy, why would Bronn be long gone just because he's a knight? Unless being knighted comes with a substantial income, in which case Bronn shouldn't have left the whorehouse. I would think that being removed as commander of the gold cloaks would give him more reason to stick with Tyrion, not less. Bronn doesn't strike me as a guy who's happy sitting around doing nothing. But I didn't realize that Bronn was gone at this point in the books, so I'm glad they've kept him around.

Black as Snow wrote:

---

Yes, he needed to save the city, but it seems strange that he would rather be dealing with the minutiae of being hand of the king right now when there's a war to be won.

---

I don't want to say much here about my impressions on the show because they're inescapably colored by the book. Loving to read Bas's take on it,

I think from Tywin's point of view the winning of the war is just a matter of time now. Stannis is out of the game, so is Renly, he doubled the size of his army by the incorporation of Tyrells et al... So Robb looks increasingly more like a nuisance that needs to be dealt with than a serious thread to his grandson's life/reign that you need to defend against with all your might.

Did the set people not say as much ... about the trees I mean ... they used mammoth tusks and ribs and stuff for the tents and maybe they carry the trunks of wood with them ... from wherever .

Macha wrote:

Two other scenes impressed me, one was Davos' rescue from the little Island and the moment where he had to declare his allegiance - whoah, you could see the torment and the fear on Liam Cunningham's face, and then his determination to remain loyal until the very end. Such powerful acting.

---

 This was really good acting.  I was just so excited to see Davos!  I didn't see how he could be alive.  I did have one problem with the scene (other than Cary's bubble bursting over the shirtlessness).  Davos says he's captain of a ship from the battle, so why do they ask which king?  Only one king had ships in Blackwater Bay during the battle.  So that doesn't make sense, but it was a wonderful opportunity for Davos to double down on his loyalty for Stannis.  And I was sad to see his fingers gone from around his neck.  He must feel naked without them.

Thanks Japie!

One thing I'm really grateful for is that they're introducing new characters gradually this season.  Last year, having all of Stannis' Dragonstone folks as new on top of all the other new characters almost all at once was a bit much.  Of course, it's only the first episode so they might make my head spin yet...  And I'm glad they broke up the characters between the first two episodes instead of trying to show us everyone in the first.  I appreciate the longer scenes in fewer locales.  

-- Edited by Black as Snow on Wednesday 3rd of April 2013 09:51:44 PM