History Recap / GameOfThronesS1E2TheKingsroad

-->'''Robb:''' My mother?
-->'''Jon:''' [[WickedStepmother She was very kind.]]

* {{Foil}}: The differences between Sansa and Arya are particularly highlighted in this episode: [[{{PrincessClassic}} Sansa]] goes on romantic walks with the Crown Prince while [[{{TomboyPrincess}} Arya]] prefers sparring with the butcher's boy; when Joffrey hurts Mycah, [[{{ProperLady}} Sansa]] tries to negotiate with him while [[{{ActionGirl}} Arya]] attacks; and afterwards [[{{ItsAllAboutMe}} Sansa]] pretends she doesn't remember what happened because she doesn't want to displease the Queen and her betrothed while [[{{NiceToTheWaiter}} Arya]] vehemently insists that Joffrey is guilty of hurting her friend and refuses to back down.

* TheGlomp: Arya to Jon before he departs for the Wall. Jon then gives a [[AffectionateGestureToTheHead forehead kiss]] to an unconscious Bran.

** Robert tries to make Ned feel better about his infidelity.

* PetTheDog: Although she's also checking to see if Bran looks like he might wake up, Cersei takes the time to empathize with Catelyn, [[ASharedSuffering citing a time when she also lost a son]].

* [[RecklessGunUsage Reckless Blade Usage]]: Arya attempts to hug Jon with a sword in her hand. He makes her put it down before letting her get close to him.

* [[ManBitesMan Woman Bites Man]]: Lacking any other weapon, [[MamaBear Catelyn uses her teeth to protect Bran]].

Tyrion joins his siblings and Cersei's other children, Myrcella and Tommen, for breakfast. Myrcella asks if Bran is going to die, and Tyrion says apparently not. All signs suggest Bran will survive "falling" from that tower. Though Bran lingers in a coma, InfantImmortality may be in play after all! (Cersei and Jaime look very uncomfortable about this.) Tyrion then announces he's going north to see the Wall before they go home. Jaime says he'd rather die cleanly than live as a cripple or a grotesque; Tyrion disagrees, naturally, and mentions that he'd be interested to hear what the boy might have to say.

* HarmfulToMinors

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Ned and Sansa get hit hard with this regarding Joffrey and Arya's face off over the Trident incident. Sansa still views Joffrey as a PrinceCharming - even after he's attacked a defenseless butcher's boy - and Cersei as a kindly queen, so doesn't admit that Joffrey is lying about what he did. Meanwhile Ned doesn't realize Cersei and Joffrey were never going to handle the event fairly, gets manipulated into them using his conflicted 13 year old daughter as the "tie breaker" and goes along with executing her pet wolf. (And for bonus points is still going ahead with Sansa's betrothal even after witnessing Joffrey's true colours). It says something that the ''eleven year old'' of the family is the one who realizes how ObviouslyEvil the Queen and Crown Prince are, and serves as {{Foreshadowing}} for how Ned and Sansa will be manipulated at Kings Landing.

* LaserGuidedKarma: When Joffrey and Arya offer two different versions of their fight, Sansa refuses to corroborate Arya's truthful story - that Joffrey attacked Mycah first, and Arya & Nymeria defended him - instead choosing to lie that she doesn't remember what happened. As a result, Robert allows Cersei to have Arya's wolf killed...but because Nymeria is gone, ''Sansa's'' wolf is executed instead. You can see Sansa very quickly wishing she'd just been honest and backed her sister up.

** The assassin tries to convince Catelyn that killing Bran would be a MercyKill, not clear if the assassin convinced ''himself'' of that.
* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe example. Catelyn is a loving wife and mother, but she still feels the pain of Ned's old infidelity deeply and does not like him leaving with Robert again, since the first time Ned left 17 years prior, he had an affair, resulting in the conception of his [[HeroicBastard illegitimate]] child (Jon) and returned with his infant child Jon to Winterfell. Ned himself regrets hurting Catelyn with his infidelity.

* NobleWolf: Bran's wolf, who defends him as well as his mother from an assassin. Arya's wolf, Nymeria, who savages Joffrey when he threatens Arya with a sword. and Sansa's wolf, Lady, who is sweet-natured, patient, and obedient, and dead at the end of the episode because she stayed with her pack.
* NotHelpingYourCase: When Sansa lies about what happened, Arya attacks her in a fury. Cersei gives a [[SmugSmiler smug smile]], as it backs her version of events that Arya was the guilty party.

* QuizzicalTilt: What, you want me to fetch your gloves?

-->'''Ned Stark:''' Is this your command? (King Robert looks coldly at him) [[WithAllDueRespect Your Grace?]] (Robert turns his back on Ned and walks out)

* ForeignFanservice (InUniverse): Dany's appeal to her husband, according to Doreah.

* InfantImmortality: Played straight with Bran, who survived being thrown off a tower (but remains comatose.) Averted, with Mycah, the butcher's boy, who was rode down by the Hound for striking a member of the royal blood.

* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Zigzagged with the assassin sent for the comatose Bran; he's visibly distressed when he realises his distraction failed, and an innocent woman is in the room with his target, but his target is an innocent child.

Back in '''Winterfell''', Catelyn, with her hands bandaged, visits the tower from whence Bran fell. She finds [[AffairHair a single blonde hair]]. She then calls a council in the godswood at Winterfell of ([[TheChick herself]], [[TheBigGuy Ser Rodrik Cassel]], [[TheSmartGuy Maester Luwin]], [[TheHero Robb]] and [[TheLancer Theon]]), and gives voice to her theory: Bran saw something he was not meant to see, warranting not only his DestinationDefenestration but the [[RevealingCoverup clumsy assassination attempt]] as well. Ser Rodrik also points out that the dagger is too fine a weapon for a mere cutthroat: "The blade is [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Valyrian steel]], the hilt [[NighInvulnerable dragonbone]]." Catelyn decides to ride for King's Landing with Rodrik Cassel, leaving Winterfell in the care of Robb and Bran's life in the care of the gods.

Ned and Jon say their goodbyes, as Ned leaves for King's Landing and Jon leaves for the Night's Watch with his [[CoolUncle uncle]], Benjen Stark (First Ranger of the Night's Watch). As they share farewells, Ned tells Jon, "[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The Starks have manned the Wall for thousands of years and you are a Stark. You might not have my name but you have my blood.]]" Ned promises Jon that the next time they see each other, they will talk about Jon's mother. The topic comes up again at lunch, with Ned and King Robert by the side of the road reminiscing about old times. Robert mentions that there's only been one woman who has made Ned Stark forget his honor. In between Robert dredging up names (mostly of women ''he's'' bedded; "Thank the gods for Bessie! ''And'' her tits!"), Ned names her "Wylla," but will not speak of her. Finally, Robert gets down to business: he's received a message updating him on Daenerys Targaryen's marital status. It ignites Robert's legendary hatred of the Targaryens, despite Ned reminding him that there's an ocean between Westeros and this hypothetical avenging Dothraki horde, and that the Dothraki have no fleet.

We open with the same [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome glorious]] [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome credits]]... except that [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything they've changed]]! Now, instead of showing Pentos, they show the '''Dothraki grasslands and Vaes Dothrak'''. We learn in the first scene that this is where Daenerys is now, travelling with her new husband and his tribe. Daenerys is having a bad day; she's tired, she's sick of eating dried horse meat, and she's so saddle sore that she needs the help of three maids just to get off her horse and walk to a tent. Jorah Mormont tells her that it will get easier, but Daenerys doesn't look like she's buying it. Jorah then takes Viserys aside to suggest he return to Pentos and wait in comfort for the Dothraki to return, but Viserys wants to personally ensure Khal Drogo holds up his end of the bargain. He also asks Jorah what happened in Westeros to make him flee across the Narrow Sea; turns out Jorah caught some poachers on his land and sold them to a slaver. [[BlackAndGrayMorality Hang on, isn't he meant to be a good guy?]]

We open with the same [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome glorious]] [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome credits]]... except that [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything they've changed]]! Now, instead of showing Pentos, they show the '''Dothraki grasslands and Vaes Dothrak'''. We learn in the first scene that this is where Daenerys is now, travelling with her new husband and his tribe. Daenerys is having a bad day; she's tired, she's sick of eating dried horse meat, and she's so saddle sore that she needs the help of three maids just to get off her horse and walk to a tent. Jorah Mormont tells her that it will get easier, but Daenerys doesn't look like she's buying it. Jorah then takes Viserys aside to suggest he return to Pentos and wait in comfort for the Dothraki to return, but Viserys wants to personally ensure Khal Drogo holds up his end of the bargain. He also asks Jorah what happened in Westeros to make him flee across the Narrow Sea; turns out Jorah caught some poachers on his land and sold them to a slaver. [[BlackAndGrayMorality Hang on, isn't he meant to be a good guy?]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: Joffrey, of all people. Upon being asked to console the Starks after Bran's accident, he points out that doing so won't make things any better for them, a point that Tyrion concedes.

** The entire conversation between Robert and Ned about a) Jon Snow's mysteriously-unrevealed mother, b) Ned's unwillingness to talk about her, and c) Ned's visible fury and irritation at Robert's bloodthirsty threats against Daenerys (even if she is leagues away) get a proper RewatchBonus, about ''five seasons after'', after what was revealed in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E10TheWindsOfWinter The Winds of Winter]]".

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sansa meets the Hound, and after ordering her direwolf killed, Robert tells Ned to get her a dog instead.
** The entire conversation between Robert and Ned about a) Jon Snow's mysteriously-unrevealed mother, b) Ned's unwillingness to talk about her, and c) Ned's visible fury and irritation at Robert's bloodthirsty threats against Daenerys (even if she is leagues away) get a proper RewatchBonus, about ''five seasons after'', after it was revealed in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E10TheWindsOfWinter The Winds of Winter]]" that [[spoiler:Jon is in fact the love-child of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, and that Ned has been harboring him as his own bastard ''precisely'' because of his fear of Robert's wrath.]]

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Two rapers are added to the Night's Watch 'recruits'. Tyrion mentions they have a SadisticChoice between [[GroinAttack gelding]] and the Wall, and many prefer the knife.

* GagBoobs: "Thank the Gods for Bessie! And her tits!"

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: King Robert fills this role; when his son quarrels with Ned's daughter, he points out that all children fight and that the matter of discipline should really be left up to the parents. Too bad he can't stand up to Cersei.

* BigDamnHeroes: A direwolf saves the life of Bran and his mother.

* {{Fauxshadow}}: After discussing the threat of a Targaryen/Dothraki hybrid poses to the realm Robert ominously tells Ned that a war is coming. Initially it seems obvious that he's referring to an upcoming conflict with the Targaryens and Khal Drogo but [[spoiler:Drogo prematurely dies, his child is stillborn, Viserys is murdered and the war Robert sensed coming turned out to be the War of the Five Kings.]]

* GenreSavvy: Arya - unlike her father and older sister - swiftly realizes out how corrupt the court is and the maliciousness of the royal family, and sends Nymeria away for biting Joffrey, recognizing that she and her direwolf are going to get blamed for the fight.

* BondCreatures: Nymeria fetches clothing in its jaws for Arya when she's packing, but when she tries to order her direwolf around like a pet, it just gives her a quizzical look. Summer and Nymeria also instinctively attack when their master is threatened.