Game of What: The Prince of Winterfell

[gehayi]

Did anyone notice last night that Joffrey Baratheon's age got an upgrade...and that this has decidedly unfortunate implications for the succession?

Comments

[erastes]

even the dragonglass scene was wrong--the cache was actually found by Ghost!

[gehayi]

Yeah, but we haven't seen Ghost since...forever. I think he's been written out, truthfully.

Dantesspirit over on Dreamwidth pointed out that

It was JON who discovered them. It was JON who handed them out to his friends. And that happened before he went out on patrol with the Halfhand!

Which I didn't remember, because to me, Jon Snow is the most tedious of characters. I did remember that the cache was found shortly after they left Craster's, though, so the timing is wrong.

At this point, I'm just glad when I see something that approximates what's in the books. And that's not a good sign.

I'm beginning to know how scriptwriter George S. Kaufman felt during Marx Brothers rehearsals. The brothers were noted for ad-libbing and rewriting and doing improv ...so much so that Kaufman jumped to his feet in shock during one rehearsal. When asked what was wrong, he said, "I think I just heard one of the original lines."

[ext_975168]

It's true that Joffrey being 17 makes no sense. Then again, neither did Rickard Karstark, a Northman who worships the Old Gods, wishing the Father would give him back his sons

[gehayi]

It's true that Joffrey being 17 makes no sense. Then again, neither did Rickard Karstark, a Northman who worships the Old Gods, wishing the Father would give him back his sons.

They do seem to have forgotten about the Old Gods since Season 1, don't they? Just like the direwolves.

The actors are excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous. And, as I said this week and last week, I'm enjoying some of the scenes that didn't happen in the book.

But the series that I read is not being filmed. And that's a disappointment and a half, after Season 1 was so promising.

[jadis31]

I haven't read the books (I don't read WIP series) but I had some question about time in the show. Since there aren't traditional seasons of each year, I have no idea how time is passing in the show. How long was Ned The Hand? How long was since the dragons were born? I don't know about the books, but the show gives almost no clues about how much time is passing. I liked it when Daenerys was pregnant because it gave us an idea of the passage of time.

And even not knowing that HBO made it up, I was always bothered by the story of Cersei's first son. I can't imagine that the queen was pregnant and carried to term and Catelyn Stark didn't hear about it. That's almost ridiculous. Every lord would have heard about the pregnancy. I have always wondered if it was going to come out that Cersei made that story up to gain Catelyn's trust... now, I'm seeing that it was just something HBO made up and then abandoned for being a bad idea.

[gehayi]

It's definitely confusing. We don't know how many months there are in a year (though the books seem to indicate twelve) OR what the names of the months are OR how many days in each month. We do know that there is one holiday--Maiden's Day--which is important in the Faith of the Seven, but we don't know what month it falls in or on what day or if it's a movable feast. We don't even know how long a day is

[lareinenoire]

I have always wondered if it was going to come out that Cersei made that story up to gain Catelyn's trust... now, I'm seeing that it was just something HBO made up and then abandoned for being a bad idea.

That had always been my assumption for precisely the reasons you state--if the Queen had given birth to a stillborn child, everybody would have known about it, especially if it was her first and therefore a potential heir to the throne. Still, even if we assume that the story of the black-haired baby was false, Joffrey should be sixteen (I assumed it was his sixteenth birthday in the first episode of S2), simply because of the way the math works out.

[gehayi]

That had always been my assumption for precisely the reasons you state--if the Queen had given birth to a stillborn child, everybody would have known about it, especially if it was her first and therefore a potential heir to the throne.

And yet it doesn't even make any sense, because Cersei would know that everyone in Westeros would know if the queen gave birth. It's not a lie that could possibly hope to fool Catelyn...or anyone, actually. So why TELL it?

[lareinenoire]

As I mentioned in a response to someone else's comment, my assumption had been that Cersei made up the story of the stillborn child to manipulate Catelyn. I wish they'd made this clearer, mind, because it's just left there without any explanation, but the main reason I believe this is because nobody else knows about Cersei's stillbirth. If we assume Westeros is a rough analogue to medieval Europe, everybody would have known if the Queen had given birth to a stillborn child. People would have been talking about it and raising doubts about the succession, and since it's something that nobody has at any point mentioned except for Cersei in that one specific instance (she doesn't bring it up to Sansa, for instance, when talking about Joffrey's birth), I just assumed she'd made it up.

That being said, I do agree that Joffrey should be at least a year younger. I'd been under the impression that it was his sixteenth birthday at the beginning of Season 2, so he should still be sixteen.

Someone compared this series to Rome, in the sense that

[gehayi]

As I said above, the lie doesn't make any sense, because in the context of Westeros society, it can't possibly be true. Therefore, it wouldn't fool anyone.

That being said, I do agree that Joffrey should be at least a year younger. I'd been under the impression that it was his sixteenth birthday at the beginning of Season 2, so he should still be sixteen.

I thought that it was his fourteenth birthday, but that's because Jack Gleeson looks insanely young for a nineteen-year-old.

much like Rome, I'm still watching for the good bits and trying not to think about the stuff that makes my head spin...

I'm torn. I'm enjoying the good bits...but there's a lot of "Wait, WHAT?" this season.

[lareinenoire]

Jack Gleeson does look about fourteen, and decidedly younger than the actress playing Sansa, but she's got a particular sort of presence that makes her seem older.

The first season stuck closely enough to the books that I was definitely surprised by the departures made this season. Some of the stuff they've added, I have admittedly liked--I do very much like what they're doing with Shae (her interactions with Sansa in particular), though I worry that they're whitewashing both Tyrion and Cersei too much.