Recap / Game of Thrones S1E3: "Lord Snow"

Old Nan: Oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know about fear? Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides for years, and children are born and live and die all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my little lord, when the White Walkers move through the woods... Thousands of years ago, there came a night that lasted a generation. Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts, and women smothered their babies rather than see them starve, and wept, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks. So is this the sort of story that you like?

We have entered that Wretched Hive we call a capitol: King's Landing. After a month of travel, the new King's Hand, Eddard Stark, has arrived. Almost before he can jump down off his horse, he's been summoned to a meeting of the "small council," consisting of King Robert's most trusted ministers: Grand Maester of The Citadel Pycelle; Master of Laws Renly Baratheon, Robert's youngest brother; Master of Coin Petyr Baelish, called "Littlefinger"; and Master of Whisperers Varys the eunuch. Normally present but away on business today are Ser Barristan Selmy, called "the Bold", Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; and Master of Ships, Stannis Baratheon, the middle of the Baratheon brothers. (He will not appear this season, so you can put him from your mind as well.) And of course Robert should be there, but he rarely attends these meetings, so the Hand of the King tends to chair them.

Before then, though, Ned makes a stop at the throne room, where Ser Jaime Lannister is chilling out. He derides Ned's new fortunes with a colloquial saying about his new post: "The King shits, the Hand wipes." They then go on to a furiously-subtext-laden conversation:

Ned: Very handsome armor. Not a scratch on it. ^note  You're all show.
Jaime: I know. People have been swinging at me for years, but they always seem to miss. ^note  Actually, I'm just that good.
Ned: You've chosen your opponents wisely, then. ^note  You're a Dirty Coward and only fight people you know you can beat.
Jaime: I have a knack for it. ^note You, for instance?

Jaime also brings up the deaths of Ned's father Rickard and older brother Brandon, which happened right here in this throne room, at the orders of the Mad King. From the sounds of it, it wasn't pleasant. Jaime tries to suggest that the Mad King's horrific treatment of the elder Starks justified Jaime killing him later, but Ned isn't buying it. He finally leaves Jaime in the throne room with some food for thought and gets to the small-council meeting. He greets Lord Varys politely, and his best friend's younger brother with some warmth; finally we get to Littlefinger, who presents an Info Dump about being an Unlucky Childhood Friend to Catelyn Tully, even fighting a duel against her fiance Brandon Stark for her. He comes across as rather creepy.

Finally we get down to business. Robert has ordered the holding of a tournament in honor of Ned's appointment as Hand of the King, with eighty thousand gold dragons in prize purses. These may be difficult to arrange, as, according to Littlefinger, the crown is six million dragons in debt. (Robert is not the sort of man who cares about red numbers on his bank statements.) Ned decides to put off planning the tourney until he's had a chance to (try to) dissuade Robert from the idea, but the other councilors are clearly not sanguine on his chances.

Cersei tends the wounds Joffrey picked up last episode. Joffrey thinks the scars are ugly; Cersei thinks a king should have scars, to mark him as a warrior. When Joffrey points out that he's not a warrior, Cersei gives him a lesson in editing reality: when Aerys Targaryen was on the throne, Joffrey's father was a scoundrel and a traitor, but when Robert became King, he was a noble rebel. After a meandering conversation on statecraft, they come to one conclusion: "The Starks are our enemies." Cersei agrees, with a brittle smile: "Everyone who isn't us is the enemy."

Arya and Sansa squabble at the dinner table, and Arya is sent to her room for daydreaming about stabbing Prince Joffrey. Ned tries to make amends with Sansa by giving her a doll, but Sansa is still deeply depressed over Lady's death. Besides, "I haven't played with dolls since I was eight." Ned, grumbling ("War was easier than daughters"), goes to see Arya, and finds her playing with Needle. Arya is mad at Sansa for lying, but mostly because that's easier than admitting her own feelings of guilt over Mycah's death. Ned points out that Sansa, as Joffrey's betrothed, must stand by him even when he is wrong, and Arya not unreasonably asks him why Sansa should marry Joffrey at all. Ned doesn't really know how to answer that, so he concentrates on the weapon: "If you're going to own a sword, you'd better know how to use it."

In Winterfell, Bran is awake, but he's paralyzed from the waist down, can't remember the events that led to his injury, and is largely despondent. His nurse tells him a scary story about the White Walkers, who ride on dead horses and hunt with spiders as big as hounds, and about winter, which Bran has never experienced, but it's interrupted when Robb comes in to visit him. Bran confirms that he doesn't remember why he fell, and that he'll never walk again. "I'd rather be dead," he decides, and again when Robb protests: "I'd rather be dead."

Catelyn and Ser Rodrik Cassel have arrived in King's Landing. They sneak in through a back way to avoid detection... but are immediately found by some mounted guards, who "ask" them to follow quietly. They arrive in a brothel, where Littlefinger and Varys are waiting for them. Catelyn is furious about the locale, but Littlefinger points out that this is the last place anyone is likely to search for a Catelyn Stark. Varys knows about the dagger, but cannot identify it. Littlefinger can: it used to be his, until he lost it betting on the Kingslayer to win a joust with the Knight of the Flowers. Its new owner? Tyrion Lannister.

Speaking of the Imp, he's up at the Wall, watching Jon be trained by Castle Black's master-at-arms, Ser Alliser Thorne. It's not very good training, consisting mostly of Thorne telling other recruits to spar with Jon, and Jon wiping the floor with them. Jon wins an ironic nickname, "Lord Snow," while Tyrion trades quips with the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Jeor Mormont, called "the Old Bear," about Ser Alliser's (lack of) efficacy as a trainer. Mormont also mentions that a raven arrived for Jon from Winterfell that morning.

In King's Landing, Ned has received the same message, and Littlefinger, happening by, asks if he'd like to share the news with his wife. When Ned realizes they are heading to a brothel, he manhandles Littlefinger, suspecting a not-too-veiled insult; luckily, Catelyn manages to intervene in time.

At the Wall, Jon finds himself cornered in the armory by several of his fellow recruits — Pyp, Grenn and Rast. They seem quite prepared to beat the snow out of him when Tyrion happens to wander in. He convinces the others to back up with a few not too subtle threats, and then takes Jon down a peg too: "It's a lucky thing none of them were trained by a master-at-arms like your Ser Rodrik. I don't imagine any of them have ever held a real sword before they came here." And, as Jon starts to mull over his "victories," Tyrion drops the finishing stroke: the letter from Winterfell. "Your brother Bran: he's woken up."

Back, in King's Landing Ned, Catelyn and Littlefinger plan their strategy, with Littlefinger offering Ned his assistance in finding proof about Tyrion's assassination plot, whilst Cersei frets to Jaime about Bran's recovery. Jaime is not concerned about Bran—"I think we can outfox a ten-year-old"—or about Robert either: "I'll go to war with him if I have to. They can write a ballad about us! The War for Cersei's Cunt." (Cersei herself is singularly unamused.) Ned and Catelyn share a tender farewell before she returns to the north. And King Robert has a discussion with first Ser Barristan and then Jaime about first times. It sounds like something else until Barristan mentions a lance through the heart, at which point we figure out that they're talking about their first kills. We're also introduced to Lancel Lannister, a squire in Robert's employ and cousin to Jaime and Cersei, whose primary duty seems to be providing Robert with wine and being a general Butt-Monkey. "Who named you, some halfwit with a stutter?" Jaime, who is standing guard outside, is invited into the conversation, and claims his first kill as one of the outlaws of the Kingswood Brotherhood. (This creates an instant bonding session with Ser Barristan, who fought in the same action.) When asked about King Aerys's last words, Jaime relates that they were the same ones he'd been repeating for a while: "Burn them all." The mood kind of dies after that.

Khal Drogo's khalasar travels the Dothraki sea, which is an endless plain of grasses, and Daenerys listens to an Info Dump from Ser Jorah. After she gets bored, she commands the entire khalasar to stop so that she can experience the serenity of the plain undisturbed. But disturbance is what she gets: Viserys comes crashing through the greenery, furious over Dany giving orders to the khalasar—and, by proxy, him. It looks like he's about to do something violent when, out of nowhere, Rakharo and his whip show up and yank him to the ground. Rakharo suggests taking an ear for insolence, but Daenerys, translating through her handmaid Irri, orders that her brother not be harmed. (Rakharo does a Double Take. Irri's expression suggests she doesn't get it either.) Once Viserys can breathe, he screams for Mormont to kill his attackers... but Mormont looks to his khaleesi, not his king, for instructions. As a final humiliation, Rakharo takes Viserys's horse.^note This is an even bigger Humiliation Conga than it sounds: among the Dothraki, a man who cannot ride is no man at all.

Jon Snow takes a lift up the Wall (yes, they have a lift) to meet with his uncle Benjen and look off the top for the first time. Benjen, the First Ranger of the Night's Watch, is to ride out and investigate disturbing reports from the wildlings. Jon, of course, wants to go, but it is the First Ranger he is speaking to, not his uncle, and Jon has not even taken his vows yet. Down at the bottom of the hall, Tyrion is making friends with Yoren, a recruiter who scours the Seven Kingdoms for willing candidates (and not-so-willing criminals); his next trip will be to King's Landing. Benjen wanders in and takes offense at Tyrion's jovial treatment of the Watch. Tyrion explains that, while he believes the wildlings to be as dangerous as the next man, he doesn't think that the White Walkers actually exist. He and Benjen Agree to Disagree, more or less, and Tyrion makes plans to accompany Yoren on his pilgrimage south, finding his company congenial.

At the Dothraki sea, Daenerys finds out that she is pregnant. The Dothraki call it "a blessing from the Great Stallion," and Dany and Drogo seem very happy together canoodling in bed, but when Ser Jorah hears about it, he interrupts a debate with Rakharo (over whether Armor Is Useless, and whether the increased protection is worth the decrease in agility) to ride to Qohor. Hmm, that's not mysterious at all.

In the yard at Castle Black, Jon is sparring with Grenn and Pyp again. But this time, he's teaching them, not just beating their asses into the ground. Tyrion observes Jon with approval and then returns to his conversation with Lord Commander Mormont and Castle Black's maester, an old blind man named Aemon. Aemon reports that the days are getting shorter, and Mormont that wildlings are fleeing south of the Wall, claiming they've seen the White Walkers. Both are concerned for the future: if the Night's Watch is to repel the White Walkers, they're going to need more than a thousand members, and those members will need to be more than young criminals and old exiles. They beg Tyrion to plead their case in court. Finally, Tyrion says his farewell to Jon, who asks him to give Bran his love. Thus freighted with the hopes and dreams of the Night's Watch, Tyrion Lannister departs for Winterfell and King's Landing.

The final scene of the episode concerns Arya, who arrives at the dining hall of the Tower of the Hand to find an eccentric man with a vaguely Italian accent and two wooden swords. He calls himself her "dancing master, Syrio Forel," and begins to tutor her in the ways of "water dancing." "Nine years Syrio Forel was First Sword to the Sealord of Braavos, he knows these things." "This is not the iron dance of the Westeros we are learning, the knight's dance. Hacking and hammering!" He is a Large Ham to end all Large Hams, but nobody holds it against him. "This is the Braavos dance, the water dance. It is swift... and sudden. All men are made of water, do you know this? If you pierce them, the water leaks out and they die.

"Now you will try to strike me." As Arya charges in time and time again, getting nowhere with her Flynning but clearly having the time of her life, Ned steps in to watch. But as the wasters clack again and again, the smile slides from his face, and the thump of wood is overtaken by the sounds of swords, and screams, and war.

---

Tropes featured in this episode include:

• Adaptational Ugliness: Renly Baratheon in the show is a good-looking guy, but the actor playing him is not an Adonis like his book counterpart.
• Adaptational Heroism: Jaime is shown to look up to Barristan Selmy, not unlike how a student would look up to his mentor.
• The Alcoholic: Robert sure does love his wine.
• Alliterative Name
  Robert: Lancel Lannister! Who named you, some halfwit with a stutter?
• All Love Is Unrequited: Ned notes that Littlefinger is still in love with Catelyn. Cat just looks amused and gives Ned a Big Damn Kiss.
• Apathetic Citizens: Jaime mentions some.
  Ned: You just stood there and watched.
  Jaime: Five hundred men just stood there and watched. All the great knights of the Seven Kingdoms, you think anyone said a word, lifted a finger? No, Lord Stark. Five hundred men, and this room was silent as a crypt. Except for the screams, of course.
• Armor Is Useless: Jorah and Rakharo debate the issue, with the Dothraki saying that speed is more important, while Jorah agrees that armor slows you down but that protection is more vital.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Arya asks her father how she can let Sansa marry someone like Joffrey. Ned can't think of an answer.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Robert tries to needle Jaime by asking him what the Mad King's last words were, asking if Aerys begged for mercy or died cursing Jaime as a traitor, Jaime's cold tone and baleful look as he responds quickly shuts Robert up.
  Jaime Lannister: He just said the same thing he'd been saying for hours... Burn them all.
• Audible Sharpness: When Arya draws Needle from its scabbard, then with wooden swords during Arya's first lesson; justified, as Ned is flashing back to the war he fought in and imagining his daughter in combat while he watches.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Daenerys and Drogo are very happy to learn that she's pregnant.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Discussed when Benjen says that nothing in a sentence matters before the word "but".
• Be Careful What You Wish For: On fulfilling his aspiration to join the Night's Watch, Jon finds that the ancient and honorable order of the Night's Watch is now mostly an Army of Thieves and Whores (but nonetheless, it still has good men such as Benjen Stark, Lord Commander Mormont, and Maester Aemon among its ranks).
• Berserk Button: Viserys flies off the handle and attacks his sister for daring to give "him" an order. In context, she ordered the entire column to stop so that she could take a breather, illustrating just how irrationally over-sensitive on the subject he is.
• Big Brother Mentor: Jon Snow eventually starts instructing the other recruits and making friends with them in the process once he realizes (thanks to a gentle lecture by Tyrion) that he had a privileged highborn upbringing, was raised in a castle by his lord father, while the other boys grew up under lesser circumstances and were never taught how to fight properly like Jon was.
• Blind Obedience: Ned points out that Sansa has to take the side of her future husband, lest it cause a rift in their Arranged Marriage.
• Breather Episode: No White Walkers, no child murdering, no doggy-style, no direwolf maulings... It even ends on a relatively positive note, if you ignore Ned's flashback.
• Brick Joke: Tyrion does take that piss off the Wall as he announces in episode 2 to Tommen's great amusement.
• Buy Them Off: Jorah explains to Daenerys that this is the traditional attitude amongst the cities of Essos for dealing with the Dothraki: it's much simpler to buy the Dothraki off with a tribute of gold and slaves than starting a fight with a horde of bloodthirsty warriors who likely outnumber what forces the Free Cities can call upon to defend themselves. Slightly subverted, as Jorah explains that such a policy doesn't always work: sometimes a Khal might be insulted by the quantity or quality of the slaves he's being given...and sometimes a Khal just decides his men haven't had a decent fight in months and could do with the practice to keep them sharp.
• Call-Back: Arya was practicing swordfighting with Mycah, as Jon told her to do when he gave her Needle. Ned gets her a proper instructor.
• Call-Forward: The "War for Cersei's Cunt" scene is taken straight from the third book, A Storm of Swords. The scene appears as a flashback in the third book though, as Jaime's viewpoint didn't appear until that book.
• Captain Obvious
  Lancel: It's empty, your Grace.
  Robert: What do you mean, it's empty?
  Lancel: There's no more wine.
  Robert: Is that what empty means? So get...more!
• Cassandra Truth: The senior officers of the Nights Watch try to warn Tyrion that Vagueness Is Coming. He's skeptical, given that Ned Stark decapitated their only witness.
• Cool Teacher: Syrio Forel. Just so. Arya absolutely adores him and his water dancing lessons.
• Country Matters: Especially notable, as it's the first time people who haven't read the books learn Cersei's name!
• Daddy's Girl: Arya; more obvious in this episode than before, as a quiet word with her father is enough to cool her rage. Ned in turn shows he understands his rebellious daughter by letting her keep her sword and arranging a proper instructor to teach its use.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Jaime. "I'll go to war with him if I have to. They can write a ballad about us! The War for Cersei's Cunt."
  • Also Tyrion. "What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?" "Do Dornish girls count?"
  • Littlefinger doesn't even need anyone to talk to: "Ah, the Starks. Quick tempers... slow minds."
• Dedication: To Margaret John, the actress who played Old Nan, who died before the show began airing (this was the first episode she appeared in).
• Description Cut: Littlefinger saying that Tyrion won his dagger in a tourney, to Tyrion at the Wall.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Ser Alliser Thorne, who makes his contempt for his recruits perfectly clear. Even when Jon shows his skill at arms, his only response is to get several of the others to gang up on him.
• Dynamic Entry: Rakharo emerges from offscreen after strangling Viserys with his whip.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Jaime expresses disgust for The Mad King's cruelty and shows genuine empathy to Ned about the horrific deaths of his brother and father.
• Everyone Has Standards: Arya may not get along with Sansa, but her questioning why Ned would marry Sansa off to someone like Joffrey implies even Arya thinks Sansa doesn't deserve such a fate.
  • Robert isn't evil, per say, but he enjoys mocking Jaime and humiliating him by having him stand guard as Robert cheats on Jaime's sister. However, when Jaime subtlety that the Mad King wanted to kill everyone in King's Landing ("Burn them all"), Robert's smile turns into a look of genuine horror.
• Facial Dialogue: Rakharo asks Dany if she wants him to take off Viserys's ear to teach him respect, Dany says no and that she doesn't want her brother harmed. Irri translates this for Rakharo, and he basically gives her a look that screams "Say what?" She in turn gives him the tiniest shrug that clearly says "Yeah, I know, I don't get it either."
• Fiery Redhead: Cat is not amused at being taken to a cathouse, and vents her temper at Littlefinger — it's one of the few times we see him genuinely flustered.
• Fish out of Water:
  • Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister at the Wall; Tyrion realizes the reality faster than Jon, despite being the one who hasn't pledged his life to it. Jon expected an ancient, respectable organization, but the realities are way harsher than his rather comfortable place as Lord Stark's bastard son.
  • The Starks in King's Landing, the realm's capital. The old House whose members are more comfortable in the countryside with their old ways.
• Fanservice: We're introduced to Littlefinger's brothel.
• Fate Worse than Death: Bran thinks being crippled is this, because it means he can never be a knight.
• Flynning: The fencing lesson is typical Hollywood choreography.
• Foreshadowing: When Jorah hears Dany is pregnant, he suddenly declares he's got to ride off. We find out why in the next episode.
• Funny Foreigner: Syrio Forel, who has an awesome accent and odd syntax at times. He's apparently from Braavos.
• Genre Blindness: Robert doesn't mind that somebody nicknamed 'Kingslayer' is guarding his chambers. True, he got to power thanks to this man's act, but still.
• Ghost Story: Bran is not in the mood for tales of valorous knights now he's crippled, but a scary story is OK.
• Gift for an Outgrown Interest: To smooth over things with Sansa, Ned buys her a doll from a renowned craftsman in King's Landing who's also toymaker for the (far younger) Princess Myrcella. She doesn't take it well:
  Ned: Don't you like it?
  Sansa: I haven't played with dolls since I was eight.
• Glory Days: Robert reminisces about his first kill, but ends remembering that the boy died pointlessly because his House surrendered not long after. Jaime Lannister and Barristan Selmy also talk about the wars of their youth. This contrasts with Ned who is haunted by his memories of war rather than laughing over them.
• God Help Us All
  Maester Aemon: When winter comes, gods help us all.
• Going Native: Dany is dressing in Dothraki riding clothes and learning to how to exert her authority as Khalessi.
• Good News, Bad News: Good news; Bran's awake! Bad news; he's crippled.
• Gut Feeling: Cat 'knows' the Lannisters are behind all this. They are, but the situation is more complicated than what she thinks.
• Happily Married: Catelyn and Ned, more obviously in this episode. Cat secretly visits Ned in the capital, and they share lots of tender moments and both beam happiness, though they are also worried about their increasingly difficult situation.
• Held Gaze:
  • Between Cersei and Jaime, but it is quickly subverted as, instead of them kissing, he grabs her by the waist after they have stared into each other's eyes for several minutes.
  • The trope is played straight when Ned and Catelyn say goodbye to each other; they hold each other's gazes and then kiss before Catelyn leaves.
• Hot-Blooded: Despite being a generally reserved man, Ned loses his temper very quickly when he thinks Littlefinger is trying to trick him. As Littlefinger says, "Ah, the Starks. Quick tempers—slow minds."
• Humiliation Conga: Viserys gets choked by a whip, his sworn sword ignores his commands and his horse gets taken off him.
• Incoming Ham: In the final scene we meet Syrio Forel, Arya's sword fighting, er, dancing instructor. He's glorious.
• Instant Knots: Daenerys' bodyguard, Rakharo, uses his whip to strike at Viserys because he was disrespectful to Khaleesi, and the whip immediately wraps around Viserys' neck, which leaves him strangled and incapacitated.
• In the Back: "Tell me — if I'd stabbed the Mad King in the belly instead of the back, would you admire me more?"
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Syrio Forel pointedly calls Arya a boy several times, making the point that her sword is all that matters of her identity during their lessons.
  • When Mormont tells Daenerys that she's learning to talk like a queen she responds: "Not a Queen. A Khaleesi."
• Intimate Hair Brushing: Irri, Daenerys's handmaiden, is braiding her long, silver-blond hair. While doing so, Irri realizes that she's changed and figures out that Daenerys is pregnant.
• It's All My Fault: Arya feels guilty over Mycah's death. Her father disagrees, saying it's the fault of the Queen and her Hound.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Sadistic little shit Joffrey points out the inefficiency of the feudal levy as opposed to a single professional army under Royal command. King Robert concedes the same point in a later episode.
  • Jaime has a good point about everyone is demonizing him for stabbing King Aerys in the back when no one else would even step forward to try and rescue Ned's father and brother, even when Aerys was quite clearly a monster.
• Kill It with Fire: A favorite method of the Mad King. It's mentioned that his last words were, "Burn them all."
• Long Last Look: Lord Eddard Stark and his wife Lady Catelyn share a tender farewell before she returns from King's Landing back to the north. He keeps watching as she leaves on horseback.
• Made Myself Sad: Robert talks about the first life he took in battle: a young solder of House Tarly at the Battle of Summerhall, who charged him, then begged for mercy after Robert easily fought him off. Considering House Tarly survived the Rebellion intact, Robert realizes partway through his story that boy would most likely still be alive today if he hadn't decided to throw his life away in a doomed attack, and it was all pretty meaningless.
• Meaningful Echo: When Ned asks if she knows anything about sword fighting, Arya repeats her brother Jon's first lesson to her: "stick 'em with the pointy end." Ned finds this Actually Pretty Funny.
• Meaningful Look:
  • Tyrion gives Jon a smile of approval when he starts instructing his fellow recruits instead of beating them in the training yard.
  • From the expression on his face, Ned Stark isn't happy to find the Red Keep full of Lannister guardsmen.
• Metaphorically True: Cersei teaches Joffrey to reframe events to show him in a more favorable light. For example, he didn't get defeated by a girl and her direwolf; he killed the direwolf and spared the girl out of respect for their fathers' friendship.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Thanks to the strategic placement of body and bearskin, Dany's is revealing more than Drogo.
• My Greatest Failure: Ser Jorah feels the shame of having let down his father.
• Nepotism: Averted; Benjen makes it clear that having the First Ranger as his uncle doesn't grant Jon any privileges in the Night's Watch, and he'll have to earn his way.
• No Dead Body Poops: Discussed by King Robert when he says they always leave that bit out of the songs.
• Not So Stoic: Ned slam-chokes Petyr one-handed when he thinks Petyr is insulting him by taking him to a brothel to meet his wife.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Syrio effortlessly blocks or dodges all of Arya's strikes.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Tyrion says the only difference between the wildlings and the rest of Westeros is that the latter happened to be on the right side of the Wall when it was put up. Benjen agrees.
• Odd Friendship: Tyrion and Jon, the dwarf and the bastard, each the odd man out in an ancient and rival House.
• Old Master: Syrio Forel becomes Arya's sword teacher: "Nine years, Syrio Forel was First Sword to the Sealord of Braavos. He knows these things!"
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Ned and Jaime's little chat was basically the verbal equivalent of testing each other's swordsmanship.
• Pet the Dog: Cersei orders her son to do something nice for Sansa, even though the Royal Brat doesn't want to.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Tyrion explains why; those born to privilege have skilled instructors and time set aside every day to practice their skills. They can't help but become better than the smallfolk who make up most of the Night's Watch recruits.
• Replacement Goldfish: It's a custom in Westeros that if you cannot fulfill an Arranged Marriage contract, a family member must stand in your stead. This is how Eddard ended up married to his older brother's fiancee.
• Skewed Priorities: At a time when the Crown is in debt for six million gold dragons, King Robert wants to hold an expensive tourney in honor of Eddard Stark becoming Hand.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Averted; water dancing is based on stabbing rather than "hacking and hammering", yet is equally showy for the audience.
• Smug Snake: A Lannister trait, according to King Robert.
  Robert: Surrounded by Lannisters! Every time I close my eyes I see their blond hair and their smug, satisfied faces.
• The Spymaster: Lord Varys is the Master of Whispers. We quickly see the effectiveness of his network when he knows both Catelyn's presence in Kings Landing (despite her traveling incognito) and the reason she came. Littlefinger however expresses open pleasure on revealing a crucial piece of information that Varys is ignorant of.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Jaime praises the bravery of Ned's father and brother, and seems sincere when he says they deserved a better fate.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Cat is saying that no-one in King's Landing knows who she is when she's approached by two of the city watch who greet her by name. Unfortunately that's nothing to telling Ned that Littlefinger would never betray her trust.
  • Benjen tells his nephew Jon "We'll speak when I return." Chances are they are not going to see each other soon.^note They do ultimately end up meeting each other again more than six seasons later but they also end up having absolutely no time to talk.
• Took a Level in Badass: Episode 3 marks a turning point in Daenerys' personality, since it is the first time we see her openly stand up to Viserys and have him at her mercy for once.
• Unholy Matrimony: Jaime and Cersei are unpleasant people, but very much in love with each other.
• Unusual Euphemism:
  • Water dancing, for sword fighting in the Braavos style, though it makes more sense once it is explained. It refers to the smooth and flowing movements that characterize the Water Dancing style, contrasted with the harder and heavier movements of "the knight's dance" (as Syrio calls it).
    Syrio: All men are made of water, do you know this? If you pierce them, the water leaks out and they die.
  • 'Dancing master' for Ayra's swordfighting instructor, which maintains the fiction that she's being taught arts more appropriate for a noblewoman.
• Villainous Breakdown: Viserys is unhappy over being ordered about by his sister; when her guards put him in his place, he devolves into a foamy-mouthed lunatic very quickly.
• Waif-Fu: Ned Stark arranges for his daughter to learn a swordfighting technique more suited to her thin blade and small frame.
  Syrio: Remember child, this is not the dance of the Westeros we are learning. The knight's dance... Hacking! And hammering! This is the Braavos dance, the water dance. It is swift... and sudden.
• Wham Line: Turns out Littlefinger knows exactly who last owned the dagger used by Bran's would-be assassin.
  Littlefinger: Tyrion Lannister. The Imp.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Tyrion delivers a relatively gentle one to Jon Snow, who's been curb-stomping his fellow recruits, pointing out that none of the boys on the Wall have ever had a master-at-arms like Winterfell's Ser Rodrik to teach them like Jon has, and few of them had ever even held a sword before.
  • Benjen put Tyrion in his place when he starts patronizing the work of the Night's Watch.
• Who Dares?: Viserys physically attacks his sister for daring to order him about like the rest of the khallasar. He's so obsessed with his own royal authority it never even occurs to him that his sister now has royal authority of her own, and more importantly, unlike him the force to back it up.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Arya quickly pulls apart Ned's argument that Joffrey was wrong in Mycah's death but Sansa was right to side with Joffrey because he's her betrothed, by pointing out that if he's such a terrible person how can Sansa be expected to marry and submit to him for the rest of her life? And in contrast to the older Sansa, Arya takes a butcher boy's death seriously enough to realise how evil the Lannisters are.
• With Us or Against Us: As Queen Cercei says to her son Joffrey: "Everyone who isn't us is an enemy."
• Written by the Winners: Cersei's philosophy seems to be that rulers make their own reality.

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