History Recap / GameOfThronesS1E1WinterIsComing

* MoralEventHorizon:
** A [[BlatantLies subtle]] one from Viserys, who tells his sister, "I'd let his whole tribe fuck you, all forty thousand men and their horses too, if that's what it took." From then on, you know he's no good.
** [[spoiler:Jaime Lannister]] tries to murder a small child who saw him [[spoiler:[[{{Twincest}} shagging his twin sister.]]]] So... yeah.

** [[spoiler: "A Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair"]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Daenerys doesn't notice how hot her bath is.

* MoralEventHorizon: A [[BlatantLies subtle]] one from Viserys, who tells his sister, "I'd let his whole tribe fuck you, all forty thousand men and their horses too, if that's what it took." From then on, you know he's no good.

In the Free City of ''"Pentos, across the Narrow Sea,"'' Princess '''Daenerys Targaryen''' awaits in a [[FanService spectacularly flimsy gown]]. Her rather creepy brother, '''Viserys Targaryen''', self-proclaimed Rightful King of Westeros, arrives and announces that, with the help of Magister Illyrio Mopatis, he has successfully brokered an ArrangedMarriage for her: she will wed '''Khal Drogo''', a horselord of the Dothraki (basically, Genghis Khan), whose army Viserys will use to reconquer Westeros. As part of the visit, Viserys strips her naked and fondles her breast, whilst Daenerys stands there and [[TheWoobie woobies through it]]. Viserys tells her that today she must ''"be perfect for him"'' and when his little sister, ''(who is obviously cowed by him,)'' can't answer for fright he warns her not to [[Catchphrase Awaken the dragon]] by displeasing him before stating that this is the day the chroniclers will remember as the day his reign began. [[Nickname Dany]], for her part, wades into a bath which is visibly steaming, despite protestations that she will burn herself. Numb to the world. [[ChekhovsGun This will be important later]].

After a freaking awesome credits sequence, our young ranger Wil is the only one left alive. He's in greener pastures (quite literally), having made his way south of the Wall; officially he's a deserter, a wanted criminal. He is gathered up by guardsmen in the employ of Lord '''Eddard Stark''' of Winterfell, Warden and nominal ruler of the North--if the king is president, Ned Stark is the state governor. Messengers interrupt a happy afternoon at home: Ned's heir '''Robb''' and bastard son '''Jon Snow''' teach his next-youngest son, '''Bran''', how to shoot, whilst daughters '''Sansa''' and '''Arya''' occupy themselves with needlework and Ned presides over it all with his wife '''Catelyn'''. At news of the captured deserter, Ned takes his three sons, as well as his ward '''Theon Greyjoy''', with him to pass judgment. (Technically there is a fourth son, Rickon, but he's something like six and he shows up maybe three times all season. You can safely put him from your mind for the nonce.)

Bran, all of ten years old, watches his father pass sentence over the deserter and execute him. Ned explains to him that the blood of the First Men flows in the veins of the Starks; "Our way is the old way." Ned feels he owes it to the men he executes to look into their eyes and hear their final words. On the way home, however, there is another delightful interlude: a dead direwolf... and its pups, still alive and [[PreciousPuppies quite adorable]]. Though Ned feels it would be kinder to put them out of their misery, Jon Snow points out that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic there are five children, five puppies, the direwolf is their House sigil]], etc. In the book, a big deal is made of how bastard-born Jon has to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer leave himself out]] to make the math line up, but either way it ends up working out: Jon finds the sixth, an albino runt who was driven away from rest of the pack.

There's a short scene at King's Landing, where a blonde man and a blonde woman--Ser '''Jaime Lannister''' of the Kingsguard, and his twin sister Queen '''Cersei Lannister'''--have a cryptic conversation about keeping secrets whilst a funeral goes on. Up at Winterfell, Catelyn brings a letter to Ned, apparently the page of script explaining what the funeral was about: it was for Lord Jon Arryn of the Eyrie, Hand of the King (read: vice president) these past seventeen years until his untimely death by disease. The letter also claims that '''Robert Baratheon''', the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, is coming north to Winterfell to visit his best friend Ned, whom he has not seen in years. Three guesses why

The month of travel this requires is abbreviated, consisting mostly of a [[ShirtlessScene shirtless Robb, Jon and Theon]] getting prettied up. Finally King Robert arrives, which Bran observes from the rooftops ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment he loves to climb]]) and Arya from under a half-helm ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment she's a tomboy]]). The king's family are introduced--his children '''Joffrey''', Myrcella and Tommen (bolded names indicate characters whose actors are listed in the opening credits), his wife Cersei, her twin brother Jaime; but ''their'' younger brother, the dwarf '''Tyrion Lannister''', is nowhere to be found. (Jaime later finds him [[EstablishingCharacterMoment in a brothel, partaking in the goods, drinking and dispensing snark]].) It becomes quickly clear that Robert and Ned are old friends; in fact, Robert was once betrothed to Ned's younger sister Lyanna, before she contracted a serious case of the dead. Whilst visiting her grave in the Stark family crypts below Winterfell, Robert asks Ned to take Jon Arryn's place as Hand of the King. He also offers to betrothe Joffrey to Sansa, joining House Stark and Baratheon. The scene in the crypts also introduces some of the series' BackStory: seventeen years ago, Robert, Ned and Jon Arryn fought a rebellion against the Targaryen dynasty, deposing them and installing Robert on the Iron Throne. But two Targaryens still live...

In the Free City of "Pentos, across the Narrow Sea," Princess '''Daenerys Targaryen''' waits in a [[FanService spectacularly flimsy gown]]. Her rather creepy brother, '''Viserys Targaryen''', self-proclaimed Rightful King of Westeros, arrives and announces that, with the help of Magister Illyrio Mopatis, he has successfully brokered an ArrangedMarriage for her: she will wed '''Khal Drogo''', a horselord of the Dothraki (basically, Genghis Khan), whose army Viserys will use to reconquer Westeros. As part of the visit, Viserys strips her naked and fondles her breast, whilst Daenerys stands there and [[TheWoobie woobies through it]]. Dany, for her part, wades into a bath which is visibly steaming, despite protestations that she will burn herself. [[ChekhovsGun This will be important later]].

Anyway, Khal Drogo arrives. [[TheStoic He is a man of few words]] (a fact lampooned when actor Jason Momoa submitted his work on the series for Emmy consideration), and Viserys is not entirely sure he approves of his new bride and her spectacularly flimsy gown. (Seriously. The poor thing's nipples are pretty obvious.) Daenerys, understandably, wibbles that she'd rather not enter into this dynastic marriage, but Viserys is having none of it: he wants the Seven Kingdoms, and "I would let his whole tribe fuck you, all 40,000 men and their horses too, if that's what it took" to get it. To judge by her ReactionShot, Dany is skeeved out. So is the audience.

* RightThroughHisPants: From NikolajCosterWaldau's DVD commentary: "Jaime Lannister - famous as the Kingslayer and as the inventor of the magical fully clothed sex act."

* BigLittleMan

* PrecisionFStrike: Just to establish what kind of shit Viserys is.

* PrecisionFStrike
-->"I would let his entire army fuck you, all 40,000 and their horses."

** The Unsullied can be seen at Illyrio's house and during the wedding. They are the bare-chested guys with spiked helmets, eunuch slave soldiers who become important in ''A Storm of Swords''.

The month of travel this requires is abbreviated, consisting mostly of a [[ShirtlessScene shirtless Robb, Jon and Theon]] getting prettied up. Finally King Robert arrives, which Bran observes from the rooftops ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment he loves to climb]]) and Arya from under a half-helm ([[EstablishingCharacterMoment she's a tomboy]]). The king's family are introduced--his children '''Joffrey''', Myrcella and Tommen (bolded names indicate characters whose actors are listed in the opening credits), his wife Cersei, her twin brother Jaime; but ''their'' younger brother, the dwarf '''Tyrion Lannister''', is nowhere to be found. (Jaime later finds him [[EstablishingCharacterMoment in a brothel, partaking in the goods, drinking and dispensing snark]].) It becomes quickly clear that Robert and Ned are old friends; in fact, Robert was once betrothed to Ned's younger sister Lyanna, before [[DeadLittleSister she contracted a serious case of the dead]]. Whilst visiting her grave in the Stark family crypts below Winterfell, Robert asks Ned to take Jon Arryn's place as Hand of the King. He also offers to betrothe Joffrey to Sansa, joining House Stark and Baratheon. The scene in the crypts also introduces some of the series' BackStory: seventeen years ago, Robert, Ned and Jon Arryn fought a rebellion against the Targaryen dynasty, deposing them and installing Robert on the Iron Throne. But two Targaryens still live...

* RightThroughHisPants: From Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's DVD commentary: "Jaime Lannister - famous as the Kingslayer and as the inventor of the magical fully clothed sex act."

* AcceptableFeminineGoals: Sansa seems to think so; she desperately wants to marry Joffrey. (The fact that she'd be Queen one day does play in some.)

* CoolBigSis: Inverted; Jaime is Tyrion's cool older brother. He brings him a present and the present is whores.

There's a short scene at King's Landing, where a blonde man and a blonde woman--Ser '''Jaime Lannister''' of the Kingsguard, and his twin sister Queen '''Cersei Lannister'''--have a cryptic conversation about keeping secrets whilst a funeral goes on. Up at Winterfell, Catelyn brings a letter to Ned, apparently the page of script explaining what the funeral was about: it was for Lord Jon Arryn of the Eyrie, Hand of the King these past seventeen years until his untimely death by disease. The letter also claims that '''Robert Baratheon''', the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, is coming north to Winterfell. Three guesses why.

Bran, all of ten years old, watches his father pass sentence over the deserter and execute him. Ned explains to him that the blood of the First Men flows in the veins of the Starks; "Our way is the old way." Ned feels he owes it to the men he executes to look into their eyes and hear their final words. On the way home, however, there is another delightful interlude: a dead direwolf... and its pups, still alive and [[EverythingsPreciousWithPuppies quite adorable]]. Though Ned feels it would be kinder to put them out of their misery, Jon Snow points out that [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic there are five children, five puppies, the direwolf is their House sigil]], etc. In the book, a big deal is made of how bastard-born Jon has to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer leave himself out]] to make the math line up, but either way it ends up working out: Jon finds the sixth, an albino runt who was driven away from rest of the pack.

* FemaleSuccessIsFamily: Sansa seems to think so; she desperately wants to marry Joffrey. (The fact that she'd be Queen one day does play in some.)