Banana Scoop

A hard man indeed. Expected no less from Balon Greyjoy

As Theon arrives, he hilariously expected a large welcoming as he is the heir to Pyke and the Iron Islands, but people generally ignore him, save a girl who offers to take him to see his Lord father.  Some fondling on the horse ride there is made awkward when the woman who offered him a ride there turned out to be his long lost sister who claims rights to Lord of the Iron Islands, a notion that makes Theon upset.  His lord father calls him nothing more than a messenger boy who has forgotten the ways of the Iron Islands [paying the iron price vs. the gold price was always one of my favorite philosophies: the gold price is an item achieved with the payment of gold while the iron price is the item achieved by looting a slewn enemy.]  I find it important in listening to the way Lord Balon Greyjoy talks because he truly encompasses what the Iron Islands is like with their dissatisfaction for trendy trinkets and skirts, as well as the dissatisfaction of being handed a crown [which was King Robb Starks offer].  Lord Balon Greyjoy intends to pay the iron price for his crown, and leaves us in a cliff hanger when he mentions that he won’t be waging war with the Lannisters.

I didn’t find Roz the Whore and Littlefinger’s conversation to be too relavent, so I’m going to skip to Tyrion’s lush dinner with Janos Slynt.  After some playful banter, Tyrion questions Janos Slynt’s royalty to the last Hand of the King [whom he betrayed], so Tyrion further displays his new-found power by removing one of the men on the small council and sending him to the Wall.  I liked this moment because we see him only verbally threaten Varys before with mere words, but we’re actually shown his true power, much like how Cersei displayed her power by almost killing Littlefinger, that he has attained.  Another toast to Bronn for the Lannister victory.  To his sister’s dismay, this moment is followed up by an interesting look at the relationship between Cersei and Tyrion, a moment of good acting and chemistry.  Tyrion is not afraid to talk back to his sister to tell her the state of the capital and comments on her losing control of Joffrey and her relationship with their brother.  We finally see the true reason Cersei truly hates Tyrion as she comments on how their mother died giving birth to him.

That lopsided smile..

What’s happening on Dragonstone I find needs more explaining, a notion I talked about in the first episode review.  These long conversations are full of dialogue trying to hone the following points: Stannis is Renly’s brother, Stannis is resorting to hiring pirates for his army, Stannis has taken a new God and is currently being advised by Melisandre, the poison drinking red priestess, and Davos Seaworth, the fingerless knight.  We’re able to characterize Davos now as a likable and honorable man who’s loyalty to the king outweighs reason or common sense.  But we all know what happens to honorable men in this show [see Ned Stark’s head on a pike], so we can’t help be hesitant to not get too attached to the man.  What’s more interesting is what conspired after Stannis sends Davos away for private council with Melisandre.  After the Red Priestess offers the King the sons he’s never had, he takes her on a table, a moment never explicitly mentioned in the book, but was heavily assumed from my understanding.

The Jon Snow story arc had it’s ups and downs.  We’re still stuck at Craster’s Keep, a part that I find relatively boring and not well portrayed in the series.  The most interesting moment is still what Craster does with his sons, and we find this plot to be escalating when Sam tries to steal one of Craster’s daughters/wives.  I still find the most interesting part of this section to be the size of Ghost and his relative size to Grey Wing, an error I am thankful they fixed from the first season.  But we get a little more insight with what happens to the sons of Craster as Jon follows him out into the woods.  When he finds the baby, abandoned in the snow, we see a blue eyed figure pick it up.  The blue eyed figure that is only consistent with one thing on this show: White Walkers.

Tune in to HBO next week,  4/15/2012 at 9:00 for the next episode and my review on it 4/16/2012 at 12:00.

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