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Winter Is Coming

Game Of Thrones Veteran Recap: The Prince of Winterfell

by Amy Ratcliffe | 2:00 pm, May 21st, 2012


Editor’s Note: Here’s our weekly recap from Game of Thrones aficionado, Amy Ratcliffe. Spoilers from the HBO show and the book series to follow but if you’re looking to steer clear of information from the books, keep an eye out in just a minute for our newbie recap!

Season 2: Episode Eight – The Prince of Winterfell

How is the end of season two of Game of Thrones almost here already? It’s too soon! With episodes like last night’s The Prince of Winterfell, I have every faith that it’s going to end on a wonderfully high note. I was quite pleased with the way this episode visited all the main character’s storylines without making it feel like choppy jumping around. It doesn’t seem like that would be possible with so many sub-plots to focus on, but this episode nailed it.

I had a hunch Catelyn would end up setting Jaime free after last week, but I wasn’t positive. It could have just been conversation, Catelyn could have changed her mind. Robb was not happy and Lord Karstark was less than thrilled (they’re setting up his eventual betrayal perfectly) with Catelyn deciding to try trading Jaime for her daughters. Robb is obviously conflicted about what to do and sets a full time guard on his mother. Brienne has the unenviable task of escorting Jaime back to King’s Landing, and their dynamic is playing out just as I heard it in my head while I read the books. They’re hilarious together; I’m looking forward to seeing more of their scenes.

Robb may be ticked at his mother, but he has someone to take his mind off troubling matters. He spends more time with the Lady Talisa, and their flirting eventually leads to him saying he doesn’t want to marry the Frey girl. Talisa doesn’t want that either. Robb ends up sleeping with her. I could see this going just the way it did in the books with Jeyne. Because Robb is so honorable, he’s not the type to sleep with a girl who’s not a whore without being wed to her. The wedding is bound to happen before the end of the season.

You can bet Robb still has Winterfell on his mind, too. Theon has had all the ravens killed so that no news is traveling in or out. His sister shows up though, and she calls him a fool for murdering the Bran and Rickon. She also has an uncharacteristic soft moment and asks Theon to come home with her. She sees what naïve Theon does not: all of the North hates him and once the news of the death of the Stark children has spread, no one will be able to save him. She doesn’t want him to die so far away from the sea. It was surprisingly sweet, and the actress playing Asha Yara couldn’t have done a better job.

Luckily for Theon, the North can only come after him for taking the castle. Bran and Rickon aren’t dead. As in the books, they faked everyone out with their escape and are actually hiding in the crypts underneath Winterfell. Silly Theon thinks it would be a good idea to offer the farmer who’s children he killed gold, you know, for his trouble. Oh, Theon.

Meanwhile in Harrenhal, Tywin realizes that the capture of Winterfell might be enough of a distraction to cause Robb to be off his game. He decides to leave in haste, and Arya realizes she should have asked Jaqen to kill Tywin. Duh. She tries to fix her error, but it’s too late. Instead, she tricks Jaqen (who said no to killing Tywin but then said he was bound to kill anyone she named, go figure) and names him and says he must kill himself unless he helps her, Gendry, and Hot Pie escape. He holds his word, and they walk out of Harrenhal shortly after Tywin leaves.

Not that I want Arya to have more to carry, but I wish they would have kept the part about her killing a guard to escape. Jaqen didn’t take care of all of them, and it becomes apparent that she has to do it. It’s just one more action that shows how much she has changed and how capable she has become.

King’s Landing is bustling with activity. They know Stannis is approaching, and Tyrion and Bronn are trying to determine the best way to defend the city. Bronn surprises Tyrion and Varys with his knowledge of cities under siege and points out that a lot of people will die not from violence but from starvation. He also gets to deliver several wisecracks and be the Bronn we know and love. We haven’t seen enough of him and Tyrion hanging out this season.

Joffrey isn’t concerned enough about the incoming attack (shocking), but he does at least plan to stand and fight. He thinks he’ll actually get close enough to Stannis to harm him. Cersei doesn’t want him in battle even though she has to know that it will inspire and encourage soldiers to see Joffrey fighting. Tyrion points this out, but Cersei only sees it as a plot to kill her idiot son. At first, part of me thought this was silly since she admitted how horrible he was last week, but I guess whatever he does he’s still her kid. She’s always going to want to protect him.

To make sure Joffrey is kept safe, Cersei warns Tyrion that she has discovered his whore and promises that if her son is injured, the whore will be too. However, she took the wrong one. She has Ros – who still seems to be one of the only whores in all of Westeros. I get she’s a familiar face but change it up once in a while. Anyways, you can imagine how Tyrion felt about this.

In the North, Jon meets the Lord of Bones (loved his costume) and discovers he’s not the only crow they’ve captured. The wildlings also grabbed Qhorin Halfhand; he and the other brothers were searching for Jon when they ran into trouble. Oops. Qhorin tries to turn the situation to his advantage though and tells Jon to become a double agent. The rest of the Night’s Watch is unaware of their capture, and Samwell and Grenn dig up a stash of dragonglass wrapped in a black cloak whilst digging latrines. Hey, someone has to do it.

Stannis and Dany also made appearances in this episode as well. They each got short scenes, but I’m just glad they appeared at all. Stannis and Davos are on the approach to King’s Landing, just a day away, and Stannis reminisces about how he was wronged by his brother, King Robert. He tells Davos that he’ll make him Hand of the King when he takes the Iron Throne. In Qarth, Jorah tells Dany he’s found a ship but she refuses to leave until she has her dragons back. I was surprised that Jorah saw that conversation going down any other way. He thinks she is crazy to willingly go to the House of the Undying.

A lot happened in this episode despite it being a lot of set up, and I feel like it was paced just right. We saw and learned a lot, but it wasn’t a deluge of information. It also didn’t feel crammed or rushed the way that several other episodes this season have. I think this may be the episode that’s stayed truest to the book other than the whole Lady Talisa bit. And even so, the spirit of that is the same or perhaps she’s lying about who she is. Based on the number of extreme changes, it was refreshing to hear some of the dialogue delivered directly from the pages of A Clash of Kings.

Amy Ratcliffe is a freelance writer who wants Needle and needles. And maybe some dragons. She blogs a lot at geek with curves.

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  • http://twitter.com/ethne88 Marcela Vargas

    Even though I enjoyed this episode, I have a huge problem with it: Weasel soup. Unless they are going to cram in one last conversation between Jaqen and Arya, I don’t see how they are planning to have her get the coin and the phrase. And we should see Jaqen’s transformation. Not that any of it matters for the next couple of books ¬¬ (yes, i am being sarcastic). I would have appreciated less Robb+Talisa (thanks for another gratuitous sex scene, HBO) and more Jaqen setting up Arya’s fate in a way.
    And, also, I am no fan of how the writers are managing Jon’s storyline… he seems to be a bit of an idiot and being thrown into situations rather than being a part of their construction. The kid has got some honor, give him some credit, please! 

  • John Wao

    A man hasn’t been a fan of all the changes either but a man is still super excited about next week.

    A man loved the scene between Jaime and Brienne, next season is going to be awesome.

    Also a man loved the scene between Arya and Jaqen. They should have their own spinoff show.

    Looking forward to the Battle of Blackwater and the visit to the House of the Undying.

  • http://shiftercat.livejournal.com/ ShifterCat

    Shouldn’t it be “starvation”, not “salvation”?

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    At this point, they’ve gone so far off the rails in terms of being true to the book, that I’m not sure I want to watch Season 3. I really don’t want to see how badly they butcher book 3.

    Most of last night’s episode, as well as a couple previous, I tuned out. because quite a bit of it was not in the book, so made little sense.

    i have hopes for the Blackwater episode, but only because GRRM himself wrote that episode.

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    Arya getting the coin and the phrase will be the last episode, titled, appropriately Valar Morghulis.

    But we can expect that they’ll screw that one last Arya/Jaqen scene up too.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    Thanks for catching that!

  • http://twitter.com/amy_geek Amy Ratcliffe

    Yes, I pointed out Talisa wasn’t in the book. I know there are a lot of changes, and I’ve covered most of these in previous recaps. But of all the episodes this season, I still believe this one was the most true to the book.

  • David Ouillette

    The problem is that Jon is a bit of an idiot (who obviously knows nothing =) .)   It’s not entirely his fault, he’s never really given time to catch his breath. That said, he should have never placed himself in any of these situations. He should have reigned in his pride and stuck with be a valet. To persist in thinking he can be a ranger is foolish of him. He has honor, just not the same measure of common sense.

    As for Jaqen and Arya, I think they can still salvage that with only a couple of minutes of screen time. (But wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all if they took an entire hour.)

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    As usual, when supposedly “hardcore” fans cry foul at the measures taken in adapting material to other mediums, I roll my eyes and care only enough to be annoyed that the same old song is played every time anything is adapted.

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Hey, so…comments have to be approved now? Is that for only particular articles or particular users? Because if there was mischief or vulgarity done, I missed it…and if it’s user-specific, then I apologize for whatever has lead to the loathsome moderation of my comments…

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    …except that comment went through without complaint. Now I am baffled.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    Odd. No, nothing has changed as far as I know. Email us if you have the problem again.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    In my opinion, changes from the book don’t bother me unless they change the course of the story itself. For instance, it doesn’t really change anything that Cat wasn’t in Riverrun, she still did what she was supposed to do.

    I’m bothered by Talisa but it honestly doesn’t seem like it will change anything in the long run. Looks like her and Rob are still on the same path he and his future wife are meant to be on. But still, it would have been nice if they left her as Jeyne but simply added some of the nice backstory they’ve given Talisa.

    Again, with Ros, they’ve just simplified a lot of basically needless characters and put more story on her shoulders. None of this is changing the core of the stories.

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Okay. I’m thinking now that it was a Disqus-related error and maybe came up as a result of somesuch program loading before or after another…a 1 in 100 kind of glitch.

  • http://twitter.com/willb473 will

    wow, .little negative are we?  yes, they’re making a lot of changes, but they have to fit 969 (paperback) pages into 10 episodes…. a lot of stuff will get condensed/shuffled, but it is staying true to the intent of the book and that’s the important part. 

    The only thing I wish is that they held out on the reveal about Bran and Rickon a little longer.  other than that, I liked where they went with everything, it’s all coming together nicely.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sam.christopher.16 Sam Christopher

    Eh, a few episodes ago I couldn’t have cared less about Talisa because I thought she was a random girl pre-Jeyne. But now that I get that she’s replacing Jeyne, I’m onboard. I think it was a good idea for the writers to show him falling in love, rather than us having to accept it as something that happened off-screen. Considering the repercussions this love affair will have, it’s nice to finally see WHY he loved a girl enough to risk his alliances.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sam.christopher.16 Sam Christopher

    As for your comment about Jaqen not killing Tywin…I thought that it wasn’t that he refused to kill Tywin, just that he couldn’t do it fast enough for what Arya needed? So she manipulated him into Plan B?

  • Len McCain

     I can understand you wanting the series to match with the books, but, as someone who never read the books, saying things don’t make sense because of the changes is untrue.

    1.  The important thing is that Catelyn frees Jaime.  Where she does it doesn’t matter much.

    2.  The important thing is that the dragonglass is found.  Who originally finds it doesn’t matter much.

    3.  Rob falls in love with some nurse lady and marries her, not the political marriage he’s supposed to.  Her name doesn’t matter much.

    4.  The farmer and the wife were killed in the episode as well.  Theon’s lieutenant tells him that when Theon tries to get him to take over the gold.  As for the orphan kids, tarred heads, burned bodies, close enough.

    5.  Cersei nabs the wrong prostitute.  Which wrong prostitute doesn’t matter much.

    Again, for a book reader I can understand wanting everything to match, but what’s appeared on screen so far hasn’t really changed anything important and it’s perfectly easy to follow it.

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    those things that I listed are the most obvious changes. There is quite a lot more that is different from the book. And compared to how true to the book they were in season 1, you would expect the same from season 2, not such a departure from the actual storylines.

    Bran’s storyline, for example, will make absolutely no sense in the next season because they’ve removed Jojen and Meera Reed. So are they not going to send him north of the Wall now? That wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever.

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    If anything, this entire season has skirted the actual book storylines, but has NOT been anything near true to the book.

    And no, this episode was just as untrue as the rest have been.

    I get why they changed certain characters (such as Talisa and Ros) but completely excising other charectors who DID have major supporting rolls in the books, makes no sense and will continue to make no sense in the next season when those characters play even bigger parts.

    Adding needless scenes also makes no sense and serves no purpose except to make something ‘juicier’ than it needed to be.  But that is to be expected from HBO.

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    Right, you go tell that to the people over in the DreamWidth community who are now saying that they don’t plan to watch Season 3 because of all these changes, that they’re crying ‘foul’ at something that, in season 1 was extremely true to the book, and went completely the opposite in season 2.

    Tell that also to the fact that the ratings for season 2 have not climbed, but are staying steady- something you don’t want, you want them to climb. That’s saying something that they aren’t.

  • http://wolfsilveroak.insanejournal.com/ Wolf

    Not negative, just realistic. They’ve screwed up other scenes, why would that one be any different? They’ve chopped up and drasticly changed other storylines, why would that one be any different?

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    They’ll all keep watching. You’ll keep watching. I’ve never heard of a fan that bitched, moaned, and then actually quit watching something they cared so passionately for.

    It’ll be surprising if the show reaches any sort of finale, of course, considering how high the budget must be and how far the story has yet to go…

  • http://twitter.com/SarahARoyce SarahAndrea Royce

     The missing Weasel Soup didn’t concern me so much because of the missing coin and phrase, but because Arya taking Harrenhal for the King in the North without taking credit was the highlight of the second book for me.

    How anyone can say this episode is the truest to the book with this storyline missing is beyond me.

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