Wilko Johnson, who played Ilyn Payne, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He's said himself that he's supposed to be dead.  And the survival rates for pancreatic cancer are ridiculously low.

I didn't know until I googled him that playing Ilyn Payne was Wilko Johnson's only acting credit.  He's actually much better known as the guitarist for the pub rock band Dr. Feelgood.

The last time we really saw Tommen before this week's episode was in the Season 2 episode "Blackwater".  Cersei was sitting with Tommen on the Iron Throne, getting ready to poison both herself and Tommen.  At least until Tywin marched into the throne room victorious.  Yeah, Cersei is certifiably batshit crazy.

Bastards definitely hold different places in the different houses.  The custom seems to be that no bastard is due an inheritance even if they're from a noble house.  There can be exceptions though, if the noble Lord or even the King decides to recognize a bastard and can give them their family name.

The Lannisters largely shun any bastards.  To the point where you don't really hear much about any bastards from the Westerlands.  I think in the West they're known by the bastard name Hill.  In the North things seem to be more open.  Jon Snow was a very integral part of the Stark family until he left to join the Night's Watch.  He was really only shunned by Catelyn Stark.  And Ramsey Snow seems to be very much trusted by Roose Bolton as well, but he may not be held in such high esteem.

Robert's bastards were numerous because he didn't take his marriage seriously.  The episode in the second season where Cersei and Joffrey had many of Robert's illegitimate children killed was fairly true to the books.  Gendry escaped and I think he's going to have a bigger part to play down the line.  However I don't know if he would be considered a Storm since he's Robert's bastard, or perhaps a Waters since he lived in the Crownlands near Kings Landing.  The show has made it clear to a point that he didn't know of his status.  At least until season 3 when he was taken by Melisandre to Dragonstone.

Danaerys is indeed the last surviving child of the Mad King.  But that same Mad King was killed by Jaime Lannister during Robert Baratheon's Rebellion.  Interesting thing there is that Robert actually had some Targaryen blood in his family line, and that's part of why his claim to the Iron Throne was recognized following the rebellion.  The fact that he was also fighting for the return of his bride-to-be, Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister, from Prince Rhaegar Targaryen was at the heart of the rebellion.  Robert killed Raehgar, and Ned managed to save a dying Lyanna.  The rest of the surviving Targaryens were driven into exile.  Viserys and Danaerys wound up in Pentos with Illyrio.  But nobody really knows what happened to their mother.

Clearly, the children that are being passed off as Robert's children: the deceased Joffrey, Prince Tommen and Princess Myrcella are actually all the product of incest between Cersei and Jaime Lannister.  But as long as the Lannisters are the power and money behind the Iron Throne, the prospect of removing these Lannisters posing as Baratheons from the throne is going to be problematic.

The person with the most legitimate claim to the Iron Throne, at least according to Westerosi customs, is Stannis Baratheon.  But Stannis had been shunned by Robert following the rebellion, and given the island of Dragonstone as more of a place of exile than anything else.  Stannis is aware of some of Robert's bastard children.  And his brother Renly was a more appealing option.  But well, we saw what happened to Renly in season 2.

I think a lot of people are wondering what's going to happen if/when Danaerys returns to Westeros.  What then?  The series seems to be indicating that Danaerys is building towards that, as are the books.  I think the conflict that will draw in Danaerys is for the survival of Westeros itself.  The Iron Throne seems to be a secondary issue.

George R.R. Martin on the royal wedding

Showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss discuss the "Purple Wedding.

Quote from: Nicklab on April 14, 2014, 10:53 AM

When I read the telling of Joffreys death in the books, I was fine with it.  But in the death scene we saw last night, actor Jack Gleason was finally able to convey the truth behind Joffrey and (most of) his cruelty:  that deep down he was just a scared boy. A scared boy who was given unlimited power and used it to become a bully since he hadn't been adequately parented by his real father, Jaime Lannister, and the father her thought was his own in Robert Baratheon.

Disagree.  He wasn't a 'scared little boy' - he was a complete and utter sociopath.  Rotten and evil to his core, even if he sometimes was unsure of himself, he had no regard for any person on that show - NO ONE.  Talking about cutting Ned Stark's head off with his daughter sitting 5 feet away... tormenting his uncle, killing at will...

I didn't see a single redeeming thing about him, and he was designed that way. 

I'm not disputing that Joffrey was a sociopath.  He absolutely was.  He was a sociopath who was drunk with power, and that lust for power had been instilled in him by Tywin and Cersei.  And he's also the result of a lack of a solid father figure, as both Robert Baratheon and Jaime Lannister failed him.

I credit that slight glimmer of humanity much more to the actor than the character.  And from all of the behind the scenes videos it's been communicated that the actor behind Joffrey is actually an incredibly nice kid.  And he's done an amazing job in portraying a horrible character.  He made a choice in that death scene that said something to me.

Even the most horrific villain has some shred of humanity to them.  Otherwise they're just ridiculous, one dimensional constructs.  One thing that's become very clear in George R.R. Martin's writing is that his characters are by and large complicated.  If you didn't get that?  Fine.  That's your viewing experience.  I had one of my own.  And I just find it interesting that viewing the scene on the HBO series evoked a slightly different response than when I read the same scene in A Storm of Swords.

The one thing that's left hanging from the books that I have to wonder about in the wake of Joffrey's death?  It's something that really should have been explored in the pilot, and seems to have been a missed opportunity in the show.  In the first novel, when the Royal court is visiting Winterfell, Joffrey loses some competition to Robb Stark.  It was the shame of that loss and a remark from Robert Baratheon that seems to have spurred Joffrey to hire the assassin that went to kill Bran in his sick bed in Winterfell.  After that things spiraled out of control, leading to the outbreak of hostilities between the Starks and the Lannisters.  I'm struggling to recall who revealed that information and at what time.  It may have been Varys, but I'm not positive.

Why the **** are you trying to make something out of this?!?!?

For some reason it was really just troubling to watch someone choke to death.  I had no qualms about the scene at the end of last week's season premiere.  The Hound taking on 5 guys in the Inn was an amazing scene.  And I actually thought that when Arya had her revenge on Polliver, who had killed her friend in season 2, that was a moment of justice. 

My *momentary* pang of sympathy was about anybody choking.

I'm thinking about the next 'holy ****' moment non-readers will flip out on.  There's certainly a few more coming this season.


-Cersei and Jaime ******* over Joffery's rotting corpse
-Battle at the Wall and Stannis' arrival
-Red Viper vs the Mountain
-Tyrion killing Shae and then Tywin
-Lady Stoneheart

These are all big moments that I'm looking forward to as well.  This season is going to be big.