And he was still limping to his execution.

And was in a place that probably had the best "medical" care in the kingdom.

Some milk of the poppy will fix you right up!

One particularly brutal detail from the book that seemed to get lost last night...they used Ned's own sword, "Ice," to behead him. The same sword Ned used to behead the deserter in the first episode.

I dont think he knew Jaimie got captured though.

Was it lost? I recognized the sword

I don't think anyone who isn't familiar with the books would have recognized that it's the same sword. So much has happened since the premier.

I did not recognize Ned's sword -- I probably thought it was a similar sword for executions.

I think they've just sort of undersold the Valyrian steel in the show (sort of like the wolves). Yeah, they mention it every now and then, but they haven't really made it seem special (not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing).

Even if it was the same, it wasn't said to be the same. If it was the same sword, it's more of a wink to the readers who would notice and be looking for that sort of thing.

I thought they did a good job of that in the scene where Jon got Longclaw.

Yeah, that's how it came across to me, too. Which is a little bit of a shame, because that detail made the scene even more heartbreaking. Arya lost her shit when she saw they were using his own sword.

Other than that, I thought they did an amazing job.

What's the point of the headman wearing a hood, when he puts it on in full view of everybody and is even called by name?

Now why did they have to go and kill the one character whose name I can remember?

If Rob didn't keep shooting down those birds, the message that Jaime was a hostage would have reached King's Landing and they wouldn't have gone through with the execution.

The bird shooting was before they captured Jaime.

As you can see, there are two main roads between King's Landing and the Lannister's territory in the west. The southern route passes through territory loyal to Robert's brother, while the northern route goes through Tully land (i.e., Cat's family). The Lannisters need at least one of those roads if they have any hope of surviving, and Tywin figured the north would be easier to take, so he sent one force to besiege Riverrun while his other army moved to the Trident, where the River Road and King's Road meet. Since Robb only needs to control one of those points to cut off the northern route, Tywin figured he'd choose the Trident as the easier battle. Instead, Robb went to Riverrun and ambushed Jaime's army.

Tywin's major mistake was assuming Lord Frey would sit out the war as had the previous one against the Targaryens. Without Walder's support, Robb wouldn't've had the men to take out Jaime's army, and he would've had a harder time crossing the Green Fork.

Because Tyrion's the true hero of the story.

And not necessarily true. Joffrey is a bit of a loose cannon. This was conveyed well when Cersei lost her shit and tried to convince Joffrey not to execute him.

That's why I said "keep shooting down." He continued killing those birds and ended up killing the one bird that would have spared his father's life. It's all his fault!

Not only did they not kill Robb or Jamie, they aren't the same person.

This.

I was really shocked when it happened. All I was thinking was "really, she is going to save, that is going to be lame" and then i was like "wait...that guy is going to stop her...wait...WAIT...SHIT!"

really glad i avoided spoilers, because moments like that make a show for me. Arya is by far my favorite character at this point.
I loved when Ned was watching her during her "dancing lessons" and his face went from amusement to pride to fear in a matter of seconds.

I think Rob also killed the bird that sent you my post, because something has been lost along the way.

I really hope that's not true.

He is not. Roz is.

I wonder how many people spoiled their potential viewing of this series by checking out this episode, since it was free HBO weekend for Dtv?

At the risk of killing the joke by explaining it, I think this is what Pinata meant:

You said they killed the one character whose name you could remember, then named two other characters.