And there’s Stannis Baratheon, related to Robert who considers himself a better leader and a natural fit to the Throne, further motivated by the Red Priestess Melisandre’s sorcery and magic, nevermind his aide Ser Davos Seaworth who tries to warn him. There’s Renly Baratheon who counts himself as the natural successor to his brother, Robert Baratheon on account of lineage. There’s Robb Stark who wants revenge for his father’s death and will settle for nothing less than sitting on the throne. There’s the Greyjos, who I just talked about. Heritage prevails and Theon ends up raiding Winterfell which is unable to defend itself, its most prominent people Robb, Catelyn and Jon having departed for their respective paths.Īs many as five kings are vying for the Iron Throne aside from Joffrey who sniggers on it.
Theon constantly struggles between staying loyal to the Starks who, despite taking him hostage treated him as family and the Greyjoys, whom he’s been away from for a long time since childhood but is essentially his true family. This is all by the way extremely well illustrated in the series’ Blu-Ray extras-set Histories & Lore, along with many other details. We’re also given a glimpse into what happened in the Iron Islands and the Greyjoy Rebellion which ended with the Starks taking Theon as hostage, lest they attempt another invasion. To help us understand Theon’s conflict, we’re introduced to the Greyjoys, his father Balon and strong-headed, fierce leader and sister Yara.
And Theon Greyjoy gets the most exposure for we truly learn a lot about what he’s struggling with, and what ultimately leads him to switch allegiances, resulting in a major betrayal headed the Starks’ way. Much happens in both these storylines and it’s safe to stay not all turn out as expected for the characters involved. As is Daenerys who, in her rather slow-burn but equally important storyline, wanders around the Red Waste with what’s left of her Khalasar and Jorah Mormont by her side until she comes across the city of Qarth where she is taken in. But others like Jon Snow are pushed into the wilderness, in an attempt to find his Uncle Benjen Stark and end up wanting to reach out and learn more about the Wildlings. Sure Joffrey isn’t going to leave King’s Landing, and neither are the Lannisters, except Tywin who’s out there scheming allegiances and war tactics and Jaime who’s held hostage by the Starks. Game of Thrones avoids giving us more of the same and takes the conflict and its characters much further than its debut Season, rather than restraining them in one location. They’re all largely disconnected in terms of their narratives – you could practically edit their individual storylines and watch them together without finding yourself lost too much – but inch closer towards a common, shared outcome: capturing the Iron Throne. The second season retained quite a lot of the main cast from the first one, while introducing plenty of new faces to the fold including some that were mentioned in passing or at least acknowledged as existing in the show’s universe (talking as a non-book reader). If you thought the onslaught of new characters, storylines and locations was too much to keep track of in Season 1, Game of Thrones one-ups itself in its sophomore outing. Season 2 is all about capturing that chaos and trying to make sense of it, by having multiple storylines progress in parallel at their own pace.
But it also had one additional effect: it threw the central narrative out of gear, leaving us with a lot of characters to follow but no one clear person to root for nearly as much as we did for Ned when the show began. His demise though took that away, adding an unprecedented level of unpredictability to the show’s proceedings and truly becoming the germ that kicked off the war for the Iron Throne (together with Robert Baratheon’s death and Joffrey’s forced ascension to King). As I mentioned in the first season’s retrospective, he was projected as the show’s central character, that lead you expected to follow right until the season finale and even see on the Iron Throne.
When Game of Thrones began its historic run on HBO (or even before it began), Sean Bean’s Ned Stark was heavily promoted as the face of the series.