[Game of Thrones] Season 2

That was a really good and funny review. Thanks

 

Perhaps I am the only one here, but I think the inclusion of the Joffrey+Prostitutes scene serves a useful purpose in the narrative. To me, it serves the purpose of showing just how senselessly evil and twisted Joffrey really is, even by the standards of Westeros, when he is totally unrestrained.

In the scene with Sansa in the throne room, he couldn't kill her (because of the political reality, need for hostage, etc.) and was stopped by Tyrion from stripping her bare as he wanted. Contrast this with the later scene, in his bedchambers, he had no political need to respect any human dignity that two working girls may or may not have and there is no Tyrion to save the day. I really felt a sense of dread as to what kind of unthinkable torture and maiming he would inflict on the women.

It is kind of interesting to compare how each of the main characters treat the prostitutes (Ros is sort of the representative prostitute in most of these scenes for the TV series).

You have Tyrion, who enjoys their services and is known as kind of a pervert for it, but actually treats them as human beings. Theon also enjoys his working ladies, but kind of just wants his pleasures and doesn't care what happens to the women (whether it's Ros or the boat captain's daughter).

There are the more or less prudish Ned and Catelyn, whose opinion probably represents the conventional morality of Westeros. Lord Tywin finds whoring to be a possible political risk

Spoiler

but, as we will learn later, he can be a hypocrite about it.

There is Littlefinger, who basically treats them like assets-- going so far as being willing to sell one of his working girls out to be killed by a client who would pay to do so-- he doesn't personally want to killd them, just want to make money from them by any and all means.

And then, there is Joffrey, who actually enjoys torturing women-- he doesn't even want sex or profit or even has fun with a little lesbian spanking action. He just wants to make Rox inflict (likely permanent?) physical damage on the other lady. It's just a whole different level of mysogyny and evil even for Westeros.

 

I also find the Joffrey/Prostitutes scene to be a subversion of the premium cable t*** and ass scene. Normally, we expect these scenes to be relatively harmless titillation (like the scene in the series opener with Tyrion, Ros, Jamie and the additional prostitutes in Winterfell). This scene, to me, just turns the expectation on its head and had me fear for the life and limb of the working ladies even since the moment that Tyrion and Bronn discussed sending them to Joffrey. It's totally not titillating at all. Just really really dreadful.

 

I'd also recommend Alan Sepinwall. Not saying much, I know, since he's probably the most well-known/successful online TV critic, but his reviews are usually pretty darn good and the discussion sections below them are full of comments and never fail to expand more on things we talk about in this thread.

 

I agree with the idea that the prostitution scene with Joffrey was perfect for showing just how evil Joffrey is. In the books Joffrey is compared to the mad King or worse by multiple characters in the series including some of his own family. I just think the scene was a perfect Joffery scene.

 

Great show but the ending for some reason had a little too much magic or showing too much magic. I'm so disappointed it's only 10 episodes for AKoK so pretty much they are cramping too much and so little time for each characters. They need to up it to 13 or 14 episodes a season.

 

I didn't have a problem with the scene itself. I just have a problem with the fact that it was an addition to something already pretty well established, at the expense of adequately expanding any number of other things (like why the attack on Storm's End, or a little history of Harrenhal, for example). I just picture anyone who hasn't read the books being almost constantly confused about what's going on at this point. Ideally, one shouldn't be required to go look things up after watching to understand the story.

If they had an unlimited amount of screen time to use, sure, I like it. But the story was already going to be compressed enough without adding a bunch of things.

 

Here's my take on that scene: It's important because it shows Joffry as truley evil and, I think, one of the few truly evil people in the show. None of the other Lanisters are really evil. They are selfish, self-centered jerks but ultimately they are just trying to do what's best for their family. I think that's one reason why the show has made the effort to show all the Lannisters in a sympathetic light on occasion (Cersei when she is talking about the son she lost with Catlyn and when she is upset about Marseillaise being sent awayk; Jaime when talking about battles even with people he hates and even Tywin riding in to Harrenhall and saving Gendry out of plain common sense).

This is what makes the stories so well written. The characters are all good or evil depending on what side your on. We just happened to get introduced to Ned and his family (and their honor) first so we identify with them most. Except for Joffrey. He's truly evil. Even his mom is starting to get disturbed by his actions.

 

I am not quite clear what the one prostitute did to the other with the spiky staff thing. Penetration? This is relevant for my boner.

 

Ok, but, we already had...

1. Joff trying to humiliate/kill Arya's peasant sparring partner for no reason, then claiming the boy attacked him, resulting in the boy's death.
2. Joff killing Ned Stark against everyone's wishes, including his supposed future wife's.
3. Joff having a bard's tongue cut out for singing a humorous song about Robert's death.
4. Joff taunting Sansa with the head of her father and promising to bring her Robb's head, just because he can.
5. Joff trying to have Dontos killed just for being drunk at the tourney.
6. Joff having Sansa stripped in front of the court.
...(things he's going to do below)

Spoiler

7. Tells Sansa he's going to essentially rape her even after he gets married to Margaery, just out of spite.
8. Upon hearing about the Red Wedding, requests to have Robb's head served to Sansa at his wedding.
9. Destroys an extraordinary rare and precious book, just because the gift was from Tyrion.

Given all that, I just don't think one more "Joff is a douche" scene was a good use of time.

 

I think you have valid points but as someone who has never read the books, or at least is still on the first, I'm having no problem following the story.

The 5 minutes of extra Joffrey adds to the drama for casual viewers and ultimately isn't much time to fill in much extra story.

 

Wow, I don't think that those spoilers are appropriate for this thread and could ruin a lot of fun for non-book readers.

 

Yeah, anyone who hasn't read all the books, DO NOT click on Drexlerfan's spoiler button. Would kinda ruin some stuff for you.

 

No Reeds!

 

That's why he put it in spoiler tags.

 

Vaguely book spoiler-ish:

Spoiler

I look forward to Theon getting his.

Even after reading the last book, I still don't have any sympathy for him.

 

He needs to spoiler the spoiler for people who haven't read the books. One spoiler is for the people who haven't seen the latest episode, a spoiler within a spoiler for those who haven't read the books. Need to go deeper.